1.  I’m not sure if this is a book or just a story.  Don’t know title or author.

2.  It’s about a little girl who is learning to knit. When she finishes her mittens, she shows them to her old world grandmother, who throws them into the fire in the fireplace. The grandmother says that is how other people will treat your product, so get used to it – or some such moral. Harsh lesson, I thought. I have the impression it was a Polish or Russian or Scandinavian author.