but,
if i had
spent yesterday
afternoon with my
knitta’s from the taunton s’n’b
i would have (finally) learned
and gotten about a big toe worth
of a skew sock done.
now you know tiny needles and thin yarns are not my forte
or my preference by any means
(give me bulky on size 11’s
on any day of the week)
so certainly this did
not just happen.
not at all.
ok?
and thanks to fiendishchef for the phone pic.
i have stood,
teetering on the precipice,
with my thoughts running hot and cold
(should i learn double knitting or should i not?)
mentally plucking off imaginary daisy petals one by one for quite some time now.
i have multiple patterns
queued that
all require this skill
and it was this bag pattern
that finally toppled me firmly
into the ‘must learn’ camp.
still, i was stalling
feeling fearful
of what
the
result might be if i
didn’t immediately
master the technique.
(i am, btw, a bit of a perfectionist, which i mention just in case you hadn’t noticed.)
so i formulated
a seemingly foolproof plan.
i would choose two yarns whose
contrast was so minimal that mistakes
(of which i expected there to be quite a few)
wouldn’t be glaringly noticeable. sheer genius, see?
but, after getting through 2 or 3 rounds of the colorwork i noticed,
much to my dismay,
the shades blending so very well
that although i didn’t see the mistakes
i also couldn’t quite see which stitches i had gotten right. sigh.
now it’s time for pulling it all out and getting back to the beginning
which is, i fear, the dreaded provisional cast on.
if at first you don’t succeed, buy more yarn and try, try again.
‘fearfully’ taken from 139:14 of psalms.
:rewind…
it is 7pm on a sunday night.
i am fumbling w/my first ever pattern proposal.
i have knit and blocked the swatch, written a description,
and laid these out neatly in a word document.
i am just not able (try, try again as i may),
to sketch my idea for ‘vashti’ out clearly.
and i call my dad (next door),
say something convincing,
and then hover over
his shoulder as he
draws each line
(and redoes
the ones
i balk at).
…fastforward:
‘vashti’ is now part of
‘more knitting in the sun for kids‘
only because dad bailed me out in the last hours
before the sand, in the hourglass
holding the minutes
until the submissions deadline, ran out.
thanks dad.
be sure to visit laura’s blog thursday,
it’s the next stop on the blog tour.
and thanks for stopping by.
photo of ‘vashti’ by nicole.
‘sand’ taken from 27:3 of proverbs.
the story goes something like this. it is 6am
and despite the fact that i have 4 kids
i am still convinced
that this is way too early in the day
to be expected to be functional.
i can hear the water
running in the shower.
d is up and starting his day.
this is not quite as
impressive as it sounds.
he is a morning person,
after all, as are
both our sons
the oldest of which
is now quietly headed
down the hall to me
making the strongest effort
that a 5 yr old can make
to be gentle
as he leans his face
right up to my ear
and says, ‘mama, i need a stapler. please!’.
this makes no sense to me,
but it’s morning
and i am the friend
you should call
round about midnight
as i am seriously
at the top
of my game
at that time of day
or i was
before i had kids
who woke me for staplers at 6am.
‘what is it that you want,
big boy?’
i ask my son
who diligently repeats,
(this would be the
earnest part)
‘a stapler, mama’.
‘what, praytell,
are you going to do
with a stapler?’, i say
with a great effort at
early morning logic.
he tips his head
thoughtfully and says,
‘i’m not sure yet,
but i know i’ll figure it out once you get me the stapler’.
i want to tell him that it does not work this way.
to explain how you get
the tools you need
for certain tasks,
not the other way around.
but a memory forms,
almost hovers,
before my eyes.
i am at my lys,
(even now
i can almost feel
the sweet fibers)
and i remember thinking
‘buy this and take it home,
only then will you know
what it will become’.
…like mother, like son.
this is what i am thinking, as i diligently
(and this would be the painstaking part)
separate myself from my bed, and hand in hand we go downstairs to get the stapler.
‘diligent’ taken from 10:4 of proverbs.
i love stockinette
stitch,
always have.
there’s something about
the repetition of the stitches
(especially in the round so it’s all knits)
that soothes my muscles and quiets my head.
this week i’ve been bearing down hard on a new stockinette stitch project
and finding myself inexplicably, dare i say it, bored.
this is confusing, particularly since i’ve been
looking forward to getting back
to my partial cardigan
which is absolutely
stockinette stitch.
how’s that work?
go figure.
but, as i daily alter even the smallest of our routines
adjusting to newly being a family of 6 (no longer 5)
i am overjoyed and truly exhausted.
i think that’s the real issue.
my precious stockette
is so soothing that
it’s lulling me
almost to
sleep.
guess i’m not bored after all,
just tired.
whew.
i much prefer tired.
at least it’s something
that i am very,
very familiar
with.
my couch likes double pointed needles.
it’s old, long, and made of dark fake leather.
the 3 cushions seem to sit at just the right angle
so that when i set a dpn there for a single moment,
it rolls merrily down the slope
slipping easily between the slick piping
and the dark crevice up against the armrest,
which has become my own personal bermuda triangle.
i refuse to count any longer
how many minutes i spend per project
recovering dpns from that chasm, it’s too embarrassing.
the last time i set a dpn down
(only long enough to make toast)
my post-snack search came up empty.
i removed all three cushions, groped around
and came up with this sorry lot:
a mismatched pair of m&m’s
(one blue, one green),
a solitary rice chex,
12″ of burly spun
in lotus pink, &
a partial chip;
none of which
got me even one stitch
closer to finishing the brass colored
cabled vest i am so wanting to wear now
that the early march wind is warming things up.
refusing to return my needle is a change in strategy for the couch
which has long been satisfied with quietly smirking at me
as i stick my tentative fingers into the mire
of collected un-miss-able things
that it usually hoards.
it was only when i gave up
with loud exasperated sighing
and collapsed, face first onto the carpet
physically admitting full defeat to my nemesis,
that i came eye to eye with the dpn at last.
it sat perched peacefully atop
a large grey dust bunny
beside the couch.
the physics of how
it could ever have landed there
are beyond my rusty science skills, but
i am sure, despite its innocent appearance,
that the couch was the mastermind behind it all.
i just can’t quite prove it, yet…
‘defeat’ taken from 92:11 in the psalms.
we were
planning to leave
wednesday morning,
but decide
to head out early
attempting
to outrun yet another
incoming snow.
with a fresh 3 inches
on the ground
we face ‘helga’ due south
and hit the gas.
hard.
the following ‘soundtrack of the day’ brought to you by lucy, and good ol’ charlie brown:
[lucy]
and way up there the little stars and planets
make the rain that falls in showers
and when it’s cold and winter is upon us
the snow comes up! just like the flowers!
[cb]
now lucy, i know that’s wrong.
snow does not come up, it comes down.
[lucy]
after it comes up the wind blows it around so
it looks like it’s coming down but actually
it comes up out of the ground like grass!
it comes up charlie brown!
snow comes up!
[cb]
oh good grief!
‘ground’ taken from 3:19 in genesis.
‘little known facts’ from the musical ‘you’re a good man, charlie brown’.
sts on the road: final rnds of the new ‘tamarisk’ in the photo. in test knitting now.
today we have clouds and wind, but no rain.
grey, with no relief in sight. typical new england weather…
but, i have heartening news.
due to the generosity
of ‘spud & chloe‘
i am about
to start
taking
by the horns
to tweak a bit here
and adjust a tad there
until a grown-up version emerges.
this is ‘outer‘
in a deep grey
with blue undertones
in all it’s super bulky lushness.
i can’t wait to get the pattern rewritten
and this actual sweater done
as i plan to wear it
all day, every day
all the white winter long…
‘clouds and wind without rain’ taken from 25:14 of proverbs.
i’m not
very good at
knitting the same thing twice.
i get, well, bored.
but with ‘wild olive‘
i had very little choice.
the best ways
and best places
to do and to put
the crown’s decreases
were determined to elude me
and they fought
the good fight,
those pesky
little things.
so i
calculated
and then knit
and then reknit
and reknit yet again.
in the end
these two good
things happened:
1. the decreases got just right
and last but definitely not least
2. i can show you lots of photos of lots of yarns
that i knit into lots of happy little ‘wild olive’ berets.
‘twice’ taken from 43:10 in genesis
i heard you asking for pics
(i really did, k!)
and today i finally took some.
*
now, you should know
that before patterns
are ‘approved’
at my house
they have to get through
‘quality control’
and i am not
referring to
my own perfectionism here,
although i could be.
*
it has to
pass by the
‘smell check’,
followed by
vigorous
overall
strength testing,
and a rating on the ‘kissable’ scale.
now that this little guy,
(yarn courtesy of taddiebeeknitting),
has scampered through all the ‘required’ hoops,
i am pleased to introduce him,
or is it her,
to you.
so,
which
one of you
is going to name
this tiny creature
(and it’s pattern)?
shall we all have a little contest?
my friend cc thought that might be fun.
anybody wanna give it a try?
i promise a super
prize pack
…
well, i’ll get back
to finishing the knitting.
you put your thinking caps on
and have at it.
i’m sort of giddy
to see what names you
come up with.
please do enter as many times as you like
by typing a ‘name for the mouse’ in a comment below this
or any other blog post tagged ‘mouse’
(the deadline to enter and pics of the prize can be found here.)
‘quality’ taken from3:13 in first corinthians.