December's Illusion

Today’s Page a Day Calendar Stephanie Pearl-McPhee wrote a little blurb that had me laughing, but at the same time thinking almost with a stunned clarity at the fact that while I am a relatively new knitter with only 4 years under my belt, I make some of the same mistakes that experienced, seasoned knitters make, and that make me feel sort of good about myself.

Ever knit (lace) and have a huge problem with a row and have to do it over and over and over again? The first time you’ve got stitches left over. The next time you run out of stitches before you run out of pattern. The time after that you have too many yarn overs, and the time after that you have all the decreases all wrong and the whole thing is a mess. Then, finally, after ever so carefully working your way across the row with meticulous attention, diligently reciting the pattern to yourself as you go, “Knit four, knit two together, yarn over, knit two together, yarn over. Knit four…,” You get to the end and it’s perfect. And you sit there, just freakin’ thrilled with yourself and feeling like a genius, and then it hits you: You are proud of yourself for counting to four successfully.

Yep, and someday I may learn to count to five successfully.

From my Page A Day Calendar by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee:

“In her wonderful book Folk Socks, Nancy Bush writes of knitters living in Aberdeen, Scotland, who specialized in knitting stockings. By the late 1700’s, these knitters were turning out an incredible number of stockings for export, and Nancy writes that a knitter could make two pairs of stockings a week. (Keep in mind that stockings are longer than socks.) She also writes that when these knitters’ needles were not in use, they were stored in a barrel of oatmeal to prevent rust. That’s what I find stunning. At two pairs of stockings a week, how was there ever a time when the needles were not in use?”

I’m lucky if I get two pair done a month. As it sits right now, I have one finished sock from one yarn stash, a partial sock knitted from another totally different yarn stash and a third sock started from that yummy yarn I purchased a week or so ago…how in the world did those women create two pair of stockings a week?

Their fingers must have been flying across those rows.

This pattern is called “Shadow Box”. Once again I don’t have the yarn on hand that they said to use, but it does have a specific pattern for bulky & worsted weight yarns so I am using some of my stash yarn and it is Patons SWS Natural Blue yarn and I absolutely love the way the colors and striping is coming out.

This pair of socks are for my oldest daughter – I hope I can stress enough with her that she cannot put these in the dryer as they are 70% wool and 30% soy. They will shrink up to fit her baby if she does.

Shadow Box Socks

Here is one of the 3rd pairs of socks I’ve made. I made my granddaughter Lexi a pair out of the variegated yarn I had left from my socks. They turned out cute too – but I forgot to take pictures of them, so this is the 3rd pair – or one of them.

The pattern was for a full sock with a different size yarn, so I did some reworking of the pattern and used a worsted weight (because that’s all I have on hand) and am making “shortie” socks for Stephanie. She doesn’t like full size socks, so I figured she would like these. I hope.

I am having way too much fun knitting these darn socks because they sure knit up fast and I can knit one in a couple of days depending upon how wore out I am from packing and watching kids all day. It’s a good way to relax in front of the TV at night though.

My first pair of socks…The colors are a bit wacky, but hey, they do the job and fit my feet perfectly.

Wild, Wacky but definately socks!

“All knitterly creation stems from one simple element: yarn. It is the baker’s flour, the jeweler’s gold, the gardener’s soil. Yarn is the creation, consolation, and chaos all sun together into one perfect ball.” – Clara Parkes

I’ve finally gotten a photo of the sweater I finished before Thanksgiving, while I would have preferred to show you a shot of me in it, getting someone to take a picture of me, seems to be about like twisting arms in knots. Besides that, I hate having my picture taken, so you’ll just have to imagine this looks better on then it does laid out on my bed.

Tweed Sweater

After I finished the sweater, I decided to start on a throw for my youngest daughter, Stephanie. This is what I have done so far…which isn’t much.

Green Earth Throw

a close up of stitches:

Throw

But I found myself becoming quite bored with knitting with these thick heavy yarns and decided to start on a project I purchased 5 years ago when I first began to knit. I was going to do this all those years ago, and would up tearing it all out because my tension was all wrong and I found working with this size of yarn was difficult for me – I am amazed at how much I have gotten better over the years because my stitches are very even. This is a tank that I am knitting for myself.

knitting in the round

Again, a close up of the stitches…

Basic Shell

And this is what its supposed to look like when I am done, only in a Gold Dust color.

Image from Pattern

I think this is the first time in 5 years of knitting that I have ever had two projects going at the same time. I have some sock yarn too in my stash of yarn that I just might start working on too. Between the three of them, I might even get something completed by spring!

I was given a little calendar by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for Christmas from a fellow knitter and I have to tell you I can SO relate to each day’s bit of wisdom.

The 7th of January’s bit so relates to this post that I feel compelled to quote it for you here:

Purls of Wisdom

You don’t have to feel bad if you are the sort of knitter who doesn’t finish a lot of stuff. Many of us are in it for the process rather than the product, and this has only to do with personality differences, rather than moral superiority. Sure, its hard to remember that when other knitters sit smirking in their new sweaters and you are starting your 57th first sock of a pair, but keep in mind; It’s called “Knitting”, not “sweater-making.”

Now how relevant is that?

Maybe I am a luddite.

I sit in an overstuffed chair in the living room – the chair faces the TV and is also positioned where I can see outside as well. Snow is softly falling, covering any bare patches that might have resulted from the previous day’s warm front that blew through for a couple of days.

All four of the children I am watching are blissfully napping. A silence fills the house that I haven’t heard since the early morning hours…I almost melt with a sense of peacefulness.

I could be up cleaning, but today I need to just take a break and refuel. There is a program on TV that makes me want to go in and grab all four of these children and pull them close to me in a protective hug. Cold Case files presents a story of a caretaker who killed one of her children that she cared for. The child was two years old, and she refused to admit that she hit him with something and cracked his skull open. She got 15 years for this horrific crime – the child and parents were cheated of a life.

I do not care how much the children in my care try my patience, I don’t care how much they get on my last nerve – nothing they could ever do would make me pick up something and hit a child with it, nothing would ever make me raise my hand in anger to them. My kids know what “Time-out” means and when they have pushed my limits, this is where they go.

It is during these moments, when they are asleep, when I can sit back and breathe normally for a few moments that I can reflect on the morning, and let my thoughts run while I stare out the window at the snow that silently falls – with each moment that ticks by on the clock, with each flake that falls, so too does my stress level, giving me a much needed refueling so that when those little eyes open, and those little arms reach out to me to hold them, to love them, to play with them & to protect them, I have the same huge smile on my face and the same amount, if not more, love in my heart to give them.

This year my big Christmas undertaking was making mittens for the majority of the female members in my family (including a couple of cherished friends). Here are a just a few of the mittens that I made…

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I have more that I made, but these are the ones that are my favorites. I’ve been working on some other presents too, but none I can post yet and I have still yet to get that darn sweater posted, and also a working image of the throw I am currently knitting.

I don’t think pictures are going to be possible today though…who’d have thought that two little girls could be so much work. The two boys have yet to arrive – opps, I spoke too soon, the first boy just pulled in the drive! I think I’ll be lucky to have my sanity by 6:00 tonight. I’ll be saying…where’s the tequila, or, more likely, where’s my bed.

This summer I only managed to complete a baby blanket for the new grandbaby Emily, and continue to work on a sweater for myself.

I bought the yarn to make this sweater for myself 3 years ago and never got around to working it until last fall – and then when Melissa informed me at Christmas time that she was pregnant, knowing how slow I knit (its not that I knit slow, its that I often put it down for weeks at a time and then knit awhile before I put it down again) I figured that I had best put the sweater away and start on a baby blanket. I’ve made a blanket for each of my granddaughters and this one was going to be no exception.

With the blanket completed just in the knick of time, I’ve became determined to complete this sweater before winter and I actually think I am going to make it. The pattern is just a simple pattern of straight knitting, all in one piece (I like these easy patterns), but the body of the sweater got to be so mundane knitting round and round that I decided to give it a different look by adding a few stripes of complimenting color to the body of it. I rummaged around in my yarn stash and found just the perfect color to go with the shades of tweed in the sweater, the only problem is, I hope I have enough left to place a stripe in each sleeve as well, otherwise its going to look a bit off.

For better or worse this is how the sweater looks now.

Tweed Sweater

I just finished binding off the bottom of the sweater and all that is left is to complete the two sleeves and do the faux turtleneck and it will be done! I’ll post that image when it is complete.