Warty Bobbles

About Summer

I have delusions about summer -- much like my delusions about the Christmas Season.  Every year, I approach “the lazy days of summer” with visions of myself knitting for hours – on the deck in the afternoon (what the heck, even in the forenoon) and while watching movies or Mariners’ games in the evening.  I imagine I will wake up in the morning bright with creative energy and that the simpler summer days will leave my mind free and clear for designing and writing.  Quiet days – with fewer commitments.  Long warm days with nothing to do but knit or read….

How I justify these delusions year after year, I have no idea.  Never has any summer in my adult life been anything like that.  Maybe a slow afternoon now and then, but never the stretch of beautiful empty days that I imagine. 

Our summers are another kind of beautiful – the active, slightly sun-burned kind with killer games of badminton and parades through the zoo.  Weddings and trips to fetch kids from college and a nice long stretch at the beach come August.  Barbeques and board games --- and endless loads of laundry, loads of groceries, loads of dishes. 

The college kids are home – and 2 of Sasha’s friends are visiting for a couple of weeks (add sightseeing to the list).  It is street fair and farmers’ market season (add Geoff’s street performances to the list).  George and I have 5 trips planned over June and July (add packing and driving and unpacking to the list).  Sarah and I had a knitting class session fall into our laps (add teaching on Thursday nights to the list).  And on top of all this are the exquisite baby grand-daughter and the delightful 2-year-old grandson (add snuggling, diaper-changing, stroller pushing, book reading and re-reading…to the list).

And while I optimistically haul my knitting bags with me wherever I go, I only manage to knit a few rows here, a few rows there.  I am feeling a bit grumbly about it, I confess –especially as I feel obliged to work on the pieces that have some sort of deadline rather than on the pieces I am doing “for fun” (like the Gull Pi Shawl and Hansi Singh’s amigurumi owl).  Isn’t summer supposed to be fun?  Isn’t some sort of vacation in order?

A sensible person would…okay, I am so far off the “sensible” page that there is no point in finishing that sentence.  A wise person (sensible or not) would embrace the blessing of summer --- and try to sneak in some fun knitting.  I think I will try to be wise (and a little bit sneaky).

WWKIP Day

WWKIP Day -- i.e. World-Wide Knit In Public Day

Where did I knit?  At Santa Clara University -- our Sasha's graduation!

I managed to complete 6 rows of Gwen's blanket (the Baby Ull one) -- 288 stitches per row.  About 1400 graduates' names read out -- 1728 stitches knit.  Yep, that's about right.

Puddles of Pink

Yesterday, Sarah laughed and said, "Mom, you have piles of pink all over the house!"  And, indeed, I did.
Although I prefer to think of them as "puddles of pink."

Fronts and back of Gwen's Kimono:

Gwen's Dress Bodice (left) and Gwen's Toque (right):

Gwen's Cradle Blanket (in front) and the Swatch for Gwen's Sacque (in back(:

Gwen's Booties (just have to sew up the second one!):

And the Best Puddle of Pink!

Knitter's Archeology

The Joyful Ferocity is our major design project.  Even with our pink distractions, we have been plugging away faithfully at the sleeves (Sarah) and the jacket skirt (me). 

On Monday, we had both come to “okay, what’s the next step?”  (Explanation:  even though we plan out the piece in detail at the beginning of the design process, we have to work out the techniques, make adjustments, swatch for stitch numbers, etc. as we go along)  So we reached into the appropriate knitting bags and dug out notes, swatches, photocopies of stitch patterns, needles, balls of yarn –and began the archeological process.

Hmmmm.  A partially-knit sleeve gusset.  A ball of gold silk/wool.  Size 5 needles – double-pointed, 2 sets of circulars.  A diagram with numbers (and a lot of arithmetic on the back).  Several pristine copies of lace patterns – all pretty similar.  It gets a little dicey if vital clues (needle size or a page number reference without a book title) are missing.  Or if there is some unexplained artifact in the bag – a tube of beads or a ball of yarn that is not on the design chart.

It takes a while, but we can usually re-construct our intentions.  And then we might shift things around anyhow – add a color, switch to a different stitch pattern. 

It is always sort of aggravating to go through the archeological stage – and I make all sorts of resolutions to complete projects (or, at least, stages of major projects) in a timely fashion.  But I confess that I get a little triumphant when I resurrect a project and am able to move on as if the lapse had never happened.

Baby Fits

I am taking a break from my provisional crochet cast-on (125 stitches of ribbing in a bamboo/cotton yarn that splits when you look at it – and I probably should have done the crochet chain more loosely…anyway, my eyes were starting to cross).  

I have had an uninterrupted afternoon of knitting – unless you consider laundry, “here, Mom, hold the baby for a minute” (ha! who on earth can hold a 3-week old baby for a mere minute?), the call from the college kid who has lost her cell phone or running out to get a car lubed (husband who was supposed to do so was on the phone dealing with lost cell phone situation) to be interruptions. 

Anyhow, I have had some time to work on Gwen’s layette pieces and so I have been pulling my hair out over the usual “how big to make it” issue.  One would think that sizing knits for a baby would be easy.  After all, knits stretch to fit and babies can be counted upon to grow – and the sensible thing is to make the layette pieces a bit largish and figure the baby will grow into them at some point.

Oh, that it were that simple! 

In my experience, babies come in a dizzying variation of proportions.  Long arms, short legs, big head or short arms, long torso, chunky feet or skinny legs, big head, short torso….And it is all well and good to have a lovely sweater that fits well – except for the arms.  Or a hat that fits around the head, but slides down over the eyes.  Or booties that are the right length in the foot, but too loose around the ankles. 

Then, throw in the temptation (which I cannot resist) to make matching sets: sweater, booties, bonnet.  I have this insane optimism that they will all fit the baby at the same time!  I could blame the publishers of hundreds of patterns which show a baby wearing the set of matching pieces (probably the sweater hangs open winsomely because it won’t close around the chubby belly while the hat has been stuffed with polyfil and the booties are duct-taped on).  But I should know better myself by now.

Even doing my own designs with the baby nearby to measure whenever I need to do so, I run into the same issue – because of the fluid variables of baby growth and knitting time.  Maybe her foot is 3 ½ inches long today (she has sweet kangaroo feet!), but will it sprout a half inch overnight?  The night I manage to get the second bootie done? 

 

Good heavens, I find myself stressing out over the cradle blanket I am knitting – biting my lip and wondering how long she will be sleeping in a cradle?  4 months?  Okay, it seems like I can get the cradle blanket done before it becomes obsolete – so maybe I had better go work on that second bootie – immediately!

The Nature Of Things

Finding myself both over-extended on my knitting (i.e. too many active projects) and behind on my knitting (i.e. not making satisfactory progress on said projects), I realize that – once again --I have been overlooking The Nature of Things.

It is the Nature of knitting that it happens one stitch at a time – no faster, regardless of the size of the needles, thickness of the yarn or simplicity of the pattern.

It is the Nature of designing that it doesn’t necessarily come right the first (or second or third) time.

It is the Nature of families to require meals, clean laundry, birthday parties, and a mother’s full attention when demonstrating the most recently mastered juggling trick (which may not come right the first, second or third time either).

It is the Nature of kitchens to require cleaning, of necessary papers to require finding (not necessarily in the first, second or third place one might look), of cats to require tummy-rubbing.

It is the Nature of friendships to require thank you notes and potluck lunches.

It is the Nature of one’s own body to require coffee, sleep, yoga class, and showers.

Nature…organizations…meetings and emails.

Nature…new grandbabies…holding, diaper changing, kissing.

Nature…old grandbabies... ball throwing, juice pouring, snuggling.

Well, it goes on like that.  The Nature of Life, I guess – and it is a life that I cherish.  Sooo….I suppose I have to take it one stitch at a time.