Happy International Left-Hander's Day!
Happy International Left-Hander's Day to all my fellow left-handers! Wahoo! I look forward to my "special day" every year. I first discovered International Left-Hander's Day in 1980.....while I was reading the Chicago Sun Times and have celebrated yearly ever since. According to this morning's Washington Post, this special day started 30 years ago....in 1976.
Every year I celebrate by baking a lemon cake with lemon icing to share with all my friends and co-workers. Everyone seems to enjoy it....left-handed and right handed alike. The only caveat is that I ask that the right handers eat the cake with their left hand.
A little factoid: Left-handers are a minority, making up 10-15% of the population. However, left-handers seem to excel is certain fields......the sciences, mathematics, engineering, sports, and acting (just to name a few). Lefties make up about 25% of the people in these fields in spite of the much smaller minority they represent in the general population.
Here's some cool links:
Famous Lefties
UK - Left handed products
US - Left handed products
There are many others as well......I just thought I'd provide a sampling!
Oh...how does this relate to knitting? Well, growing up, no one wanted to tackle the challenge of teaching a "leftie"....so, it took a few years of trial and error for me to finally teach myself - but I finally succeeded. Boy was I determined! I still have the 29 cent Coats and Clark (?) "How to" pamphlet I used as a reference. It was purchased at W.T. Grants, a dime store that no longer exists! (I believe the same pamphlet showed a number of needle arts, including tatting. )
posted by Jinann @ 8:46 AM
7 Comments:
At 3:57 PM,
Lizardknits said…
Congratulations on YOUR special day!
If I promise to eat it left-handed, do we get lemon cake/icing at knitnuts next Sunday? Pretty please?????
At 6:51 PM,
Jinann said…
Geez....the pressure! I baked one for today. (It was yummy!) I'm not 100% sure I can make it next Sunday....if I do, I'll try to bake another cake.
At 4:51 AM,
Alison said…
Happy Left-Hander's Day. For the longest time, I didn't know if my oldest girl was going to be left or right-handed. I never forced her into a choice, but she seems to have settle on the right hand for writing, but she often eats with her left hand and I have occasionally seen her switch to her left when drawing.
I learned how to crochet left-handed so I could teach a friend:)
At 7:06 AM,
Anonymous said…
Must let my hubby read this, he is a left handed musician but plays guitar and bass right handed.
At 10:11 PM,
Nic said…
OK so I was naturally a left handed. But my father was an older guy of another generation where left handers were retards, so he forced me to go right. I never knew this but had little clues like I hold my pen in right hand like a left hander, when I learned to sign, I kept changing my dominate hand, I kept naturally catching with my left. Finally, someone fessed up to me what happened that when I was way young everytime I reached for something with my left, my hand was smacked. I find it funny now, I doubt as a toddler I was too keen on it... I remember asking my mom like geez why didnt you protect me and she was all eh.. you pick and choose the battles. What did I care if you were a lefty or a righty?
At 1:43 PM,
Jinann said…
LOL! I KNOW the feeling. My folks were OK with it, but my grade school teacher wasn't. She'd snatch the pencil out of my left and put it in my right. Mom and dad read her the riot act (after I confessed as to why I suddenly hated school). She then left me alone, but gave me C's in handwriting because of the "smudges".....so..... I changed my slant and how I held the pencil, but I STILL got C's because my slant was to the left instead of the right!! ARGH!!!
At 7:20 AM,
Anonymous said…
Congratulations! I've always wanted to be ambidexterous, like the fencers in The Princess Bride, but alas, it was not meant to be. That's weird that your teacher was so fixated on it, as if it made any difference in how you did your work! Inconceivable!
~SP
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