Friday, April 05, 2013

Exclusivity

Back when the Princess was spending her junior year abroad, she was befriended.  As I wrote at the time, this so eased my heart that I knit a blanket for the family that enfolded her. It took forever to get the right match of pattern and yarn, but once I had it, the blanket flew off my needles.  I always thought it would be my go-to blanket pattern.  The one I would knit when, in some excess offering of comfort or devotion, I needed to give something major to someone.

So when my most favorite neighbor moved, it made perfect sense to me to make one for her.  Once again, getting two yarns to work together involved a lot of trial and error.  And I mean a lot.  I still have vast quantities of yarn that proved to be dreadful mistakes from this foray.  Except I never finished it.  She's been gone for years and the yarn, pattern and knitting languish in the bottom of one of the knitting baskets.

Undeterred, I heard from/of a dear person who was going through such a nightmare series of loss and dismay that I determined she needed a blanket.  My previous failure blithely ignored, I once again started on that toilsome journey of swatching and experimentation to find the perfect yarn combination.  It took three yarns to achieve the effect I wanted this time, and some innovative knitting to get the colors where I wanted them, but I did it.

Guess what project is now unearthed here only for the photo opportunity, destined to sit neglected in the bottom of another knitting basket, referred to in the previous post as the blanket that will probably be frogged?

 It seems the blanket I sent over the Atlantic is and always will be one of a kind.

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Irrational

When you decide it's a good idea to take advantage of half the family being out of the country to drive 3 hours to central Michigan to possibly meet a cat owner and pick up a three-year old adult cat because you're not sure you want to raise another kitten.  When you call up Google Maps to plot a route and try to determine if you can make it there and back before the Pirate gets home from his sheltered workshop.  When you try to convince yourself that the temporarily non-present members of the family will not object to finding a full-grown cat installed when they get home.  All of this before you've contacted the cat owner and have no idea of the exact address of the place you're planning to drive to or even if the cat is still available, perhaps it would be the better part of valor to distract yourself with knitting, or at least with writing about knitting.   The planned activity being, perhaps, not the most rational response to the silence.

Quite a lot of knitting has been happening here, finishing knitting, in point of fact, since -- when did I last post?  January? February?  The list includes a blanket (Christmas present yarn), three cowls (intended for Christmas market fundraiser, but I was strangely reluctant to part with them to strangers), a shawlette, and two scarves.  

Still, perhaps it would be wiser to look at the objects in progress, since one of the most frustrating things about not blogging is that when I finally return to a project, I often have pulled the needles or lost the pattern. With no blog, there's no record of what I was thinking. And yes, I know I could just throw the pictures up on Ravelry, but the Blog came first and I am loyal to my first love.

There may actually be more works in progress than there are finished objects anyway.  Right here and now, just off the top of my head, I can think of two sweaters, another blanket, two - no - three shawls (maybe four?), a third blanket (but it's probably going to be frogged so maybe it doesn't count).   Make that four blankets counting the potential frogee ("I'll come in again. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!").

Today, let me log in the almost forgotten blanket.



Pattern - Briar Rose Fibers, the Rosebud Blanket (and why has no one on Ravelry knit this already, hmm?).
Yarn - Dream in Color Classy in Chinatown Apple from Eat.Sleep.Knit.  Purchased so long ago I almost feel guilty for disturbing what I'm sure the yarn had hoped would be a permanent sinecure.
Needles - Addi Turbo's, US 10/6mm.

This is actually an adaptation, since I wanted a bigger blanket but got gauge to match the one recommended for the smaller version.  This meant math.  Which meant miscalculation, as was brought home to me most painfully when I K1P1'ed my way across the lower seed-stitch border trying to make it match the width of what would be the side borders.  I consider it a testament to my dedication to perfection that I knit that border for a solid four inches and did not strangle myself with my circulars.

*** Insert segue here, something about noticing the number of projects listed above and the almost total neglect of the Blog over lo these many months. ***

I notice I only posted seventeen times 2012.  Here's a wild and crazy idea.  Can I post more times in April than I posted all last year? 

Kind of makes one wonder which plan is the more irrational.


Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Tuesday, 3 AM


"How could this small body hold
So immense a thing as Death? "
                        -Sara Henderson Hay


Lizzie
March 7, 1998 - April 2, 2013