Warty Bobbles

My Dad's Cable Hat

So, the wool cable hat I am knitting for my Dad is nearly done.  (Huzzah!)  Cables eat up a lot of time – and a lot of yarn (I will have to ravel the swatch to finish it!).  But it has all been worth it – the hat is gorgeous (at least, I think so!).  And nearly done.

 

The interesting thing about this project is the number of “incidents” that have occurred in its making.  Numbers going awry, for example.  Ribbing-to-cable-column issues that sort of sprang up out of nowhere.  Cables twisting the wrong way (and requiring “surgery”).  More little mistakes than I usually ever make.  For most of one evening, Sarah and I both firmly believed that 5+7=13!  Really.  And it was like I would suddenly see something wrong – the number, the ribbing, the cable – like it just sort of happened.

 

I am a better knitter than that!  Pretty careful and double-checking-all-the-time-ish.  And yet these errors would just appear.  Oh, I fixed everything, but it has been maddening.  At one point, I thought “This hat does not want to be finished!”  But now I have a different theory.

 

I think the spirit of my Grandpa is hanging out and playing around. 

 

It sounds like eccentricity gone a bit deep, but it just came to me the other day.  See, the hat is for my Dad who has been recovering from a terribly serious bout of pneumonia that he suffered last spring.  And surely Grandpa has been watching over him.  Now, Grandpa was a clever man who enjoyed a bit of mischief.  Dad is doing well now and maybe Grandpa has been sort of casting around for entertainment.  And here was a nice cabled hat to play with.

 

I have no hard-and-fast philosophies about spirits in our world, but I know Grandpa! 

 

 

One Stitch At A Time

I confess that I am a little stressed out over my knitting.  I can tell because I keep hitting a sort of “knitter’s paralysis.”  I sit down with my four knitting bags surrounding me and there is a perfectly balanced gravitational pull acting upon me from my 7 (or 8 maybe – if you count the Owl Cable Gauntlets that are in an embryonic state – and is there any more potent pull than that of an embryonic project?  I should count it twice!) or maybe 9 active projects – such that I cannot move. 

It is like the Vulcan Death Grip.  I start to reach for the Cabled Hat and am stopped by an invisible force emanating from the bag where the Owl Q’mitl is snuggled up with the embryonic Gauntlets.  The pull from the Baby Kimono is thwarted by the force of the Green Sweater.  And as I lean ever so slightly toward the Bridgeport Fingerless Gloves, I hear Gwen’s Dress crooning like a mermaid (from across town at Sarah’s house!).

Pretty soon my eyes are bugging out and my breath is ragged and my fingers are twitching in empty air. 

So, I go make my Christmas card list or email my friend who has a new grandson or throw a load of laundry in the washer.  And walk calmly back to the knitting bags, look at them sternly, smile at them sweetly, sigh a little (best to keep them guessing) and sit down, close my eyes, and grab.  

 

The Hat That Went To Portland

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my Mother asked me to knit her a hat.  Actually, she was looking at a photo of my grand-daughter Gwen in a hand-knit (by Sarah --- who is still kind of obsessed with baby hats) hat and said “It would be nice to have a warm hat like that.”  And I said “Y’know, I could knit you a hat like that.”  And then I asked about colors and she said “Bright colors, like that one – but with ties.”

Gwen Wearing Her Hat

 

Okay.  Doesn’t take much more than that to get me knitting!

I got some yummy cashmere/silk/merino yarn and a fun accent yarn.  Sarah helped with the design (including the tail – which is the signature detail to this particular hat).  I did a little intuitive knitting to make tabs for the ties – wanting a sturdy join (ties to hat) that would not look like big earflaps.  And I “finger-knit” the ties (it’s one of those things one learns at camp, but I also found directions in Charlene Schurch’s Hats On!).  

My Mother's Hat

The Two Hats

My Mother loved that hat -- and she looked darling in it (I must say!).  Interesting how it came out so Scandinavian -- but my daughters say that is because it is on a "little old Finnish woman."

I hope to get photos of Great-Grandmother and Great-Grand-daughter together in their hats at Thanksgiving!

 

 

The Needles Are Listening

Shhhh.  Don’t tell my knitting needles that Christmas is coming!  In fact, if you could avoid the word “November” while in the vicinity of my knitting bag, that would be great.

A lot of them (the needles) are tucked up like good children in wooly nests of half-finished scarves or hats or sleeves and might not hear you anyway, but just in case….

You see, they are such troopers – they would be up and out in a moment, clicking excitedly about just the perfect (fill in the blank) for (fill in the blank).  And like Dorothy in a twister, I’d be at the yarn store with an armload of alpaca and maybe something sparkly to go with it.  It’s like that.

It is just that (I’m going to have to whisper now) I am not knitting gifts for Christmas this year.

Too many other knitting commitments.  Things in the works and things that have to get into the works pretty soon.  Design projects and a few “shoulda been done by now” pieces.  I think even my family will understand how things are this year.  But my needles, well, that’s a different story.  They love to come out and play – especially around The Holidays.  There is the thrill of knitting in secret -- being plunged into the knitting bag when someone walks into the room – and the added privileges of going everywhere with me (the breakfast table, Bible Study, the theatre) and sleeping in my room every night like a favorite pet.

So, we are just not going to mention “November.”  And I will try to keep them entertained with projects that are already underway.  Keep’em happy, that’s the ticket.  Because a resentful needle is a dangerous needle!

(Note:  I really did find this in our living room -- it was not staged!)

How Do You Eat An Elephant?

The classic answer is, of course: one bite at a time.  It is sensible advice whenever one is feeling overwhelmed (not actually eating an elephant – it’s a metaphor! though if it were a chocolate truffle elephant…). 

 After hanging up my knitted mask on Halloween, I began feeling a bit overwhelmed by the number of projects I have on the needles.  So, I decided to list them out by project parts -- that way I can check things off and feel some sense of accomplishment.  It will also help me work to a milestone (like the end of a cuff) on one project before shifting to another project.  Otherwise, I tend to jump from project to project erratically.  6 rows of a  sweater back,  twice through a lace pattern, 2 rows of a blanket….It’s kind of a low-key panic.

So, I have (take a deep breath) 9 active projects going.  Three are gifts (so there are deadlines).  One is a sweater that I am doing along with our sweater workshop class (so I can’t really slack off on it). In addition, I am test- knitting Sarah’s “Bridgeport Fingerless Gloves,” designing a quechquemitl (like a small poncho)for our beginning knitters, and designing a baby dress for our layette class (January) .  Then, there is the Humble Cardigan and the Zany Zcarf (both for myself – but also design projects). 

These are all things I gotta get done – okay the last 2 are ones I would just like to have done so I can wear them, but that is legitimate, too.

It is kind of bizarre that my method of dealing with fragmentation (i.e.  having 9 projects going at once) is to break things up into about 70 parts!

 

Halloween 2009

When is a knitter not a knitter? 

When she is the Bust-it-out Halloween Costume Stitcher!

Over the past couple of weeks, Sarah and I have spent an inordinate amount of time designing and creating Halloween costumes.  We got all inspired, I guess – and it has been a while since we have done any costume work.  In fact, it kind of felt like we were working on a show (haven’t worked on a show for a while since the magician is in London).  Well, you can take us out of the theatre, but you can’t take the theatre out of us (or yes there was drama…).

 

My grandson Max:  The King of the Wild Things

 

Grand-daughter Gwen:  The Ladybug (note: this is a store-bought costume, but oh so cute!)

 

 

Jeff and Sarah, George and I:  White King and Queen, Black King and Queen (chess pieces)