While on the plane to Amsterdam and back I knitted wool sock for the kid. She or he will be a fall baby and if the kid is anything like me she or he will have cold feet all the time. But I hope the kid wont have really big calves because the leg part is not very stretchy because of the colour knit. The pattern for the leg was inspired by these socks by Piipadoo.
By the way if there is one thing I like about Finnish language it is that we do not have separate word for he/she. We just have one word "hän" for both sexes. Really annoying to write anything in English if you don't know or don't want to specify if someone is a man or a woman.
I LOVE these socks - so so so cute!
ReplyDeleteThank you Lisa!
DeleteGorgeous colour and the zig zags are cute, this baby is going to be beautifully dressed, and warm leena x
ReplyDeleteOh thank you Max. The zigzag was a nice pattern, no long thread runs on the back.
DeleteVery sweet.
ReplyDeletePeople tend to use the plural pronoun "they" when they want to say "he or she" or "theirs" when they want to say "his or hers." AS in "I knit socks for the kid. If they are anything like me, they will have cold feet. I hope their calves won't be very big." It is terribly, horribly absolutely gramatically incorrect--and usually only shows up when people are speaking. (Never, never write it on your blog!) But I thought you'd like to know.
The pronoun "one" is gender neutral but very formal. Almost no one ever uses it. And it really doesn't substitute well for "he or she." At one point I did see some academics write s/he as a short form for "he or she" but it never really caught on. But you could try that.
The first option sounds like we are having twins :) So I wont write that, ever!
DeleteI have used "one" occasionally, but mainly as a substitute for someone or you. Like if I would give tips about something, I could write "one could also do this and that". I like that form because I do not want to say that you, who are reading this now, could do this, but that my tip is a option for someone.
I'm not a huge fan of the s/he compared to the Finnish version, but that is the best option. And who wouldn't want to appear academic :D
Thank you Alana about the language lesson, it's marvelous how much my English has enhanced while writing the blog. Not only grammar, but my vocabulary has expanded remarkably.
If you think English is annoying, you should try Spanish! ;-)
ReplyDeleteCute socks.
:D Thanks
DeleteI actually don't know any other languge than Finish where there is only one word for both sexes. It would be fun to know if there is any other.
Actually wikipedia now told me that there are some languages like that
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutrality_in_genderless_languages