Wynken, Blynken and Nod: A Baby Knit Story Inspired by a Timeless Lullaby
A Knit Collection Inspired by the Lullaby that Whispers Love and Care
For a long time, I wondered why we, as a group of crafters from the Alleghany highlands of the Appalachian Mountains, kept designing baby knits inspired by traditional sweaters from the fishing villages of the North Atlantic. Though we lived far from the ocean, we threw our hearts and hands into them.
Then, out of the blue, the rhythmic lines of it came to me: “Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night, sailed off in a wooden shoe, on to a river of crystal light, into a sea of dew.” Those three children had to be wearing our fisherman sweaters!
The lullaby by Eugene Field, first published as the “Dutch Shoe” in the Chicago Daily News in 1889, is one of those “if you know, you know” icons. Most of my friends under a certain age have never heard of it, while some had to memorize all four stanzas in grade school.
And what lovely stanza they are! The three sail off in their wooden show, catching stars in nets of silver and gold, with the moon laughing and singing them on. Eventually they return to their earthly home and it is revealed their boat is a trundle bed and their adventures are a dream, with Wynken and Blynken two little eyes and Nod a sleepy head.
It is a match made in heaven, with knitting for a baby and rocking a baby to sleep both joyful expression of love and care.
Placing only photos of the sweaters with the poem did not seem to do justice to the union of these happy labors of love. We are so lucky to live in the same community as Jeanne Brenneman, a gifted watercolorist with a joyful spirit, just like the poem. With out hesitation, she agreed to capture in paintings the three little ones sailing off in their wooden shoe, fishing and back home asleep. She even made the stars look like herring fish!
Since we have embraced this classic poem, we’ve also learned more about its author. Eugene Field was born in St. Louis and his attorney father represented Dred Scott in that pivotal 1857 case that ruled that black African Americans were not citizens. Painful to recollect. Eugene, after a lot of starts and stops, became a journalist based in Chicago and became well known for his humorous essays and poetry. It is his children’s poems that now he is most remembered for—they have been adapted to songs, books and even a short film. In Denver Colorado’s Washington Park there is a statue celebrating Wynken, Blynken and Nod!
