Made by Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster and Me

Although I begin each knitting project with enthusiasm, I soon get quite bored. It goes soooo slowly. There is a certain soothing and therapeutic quality to the process, but it doesn't outweigh the restlessness I feel having to sit still for so long.

I wanted to knit my cousin Charlie a pair of socks, however, as he has been so kind to me in so many ways. A pair of woolen socks seemed like a great gift as he had admired the Fire Dragon mittens I made for Dexter in January.

Finally a technique developed to help the socks along their way. MOVIES! I have found in the early evenings I can get a fair amount of knitting done while watching a 1 1/2 to 2 hour movie if it's a fairly good film. Charlie's socks were knit while watching Nell with Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson and Adaptations with Meryl Streep and Nicholas Cage (playing twins!). I also watched a documentary called Bobby Fisther Against the World on the new HBO documentary film series on Monday night.

I don't think this technique will hold me for long, but it did produce a fine pair of socks! Charlie visited today to bring me my beautifully repaired framed antique photo of Japan during cherry blossom time. He did a magnificent job, though I was told by two frame shops that "it couldn't be done." HE DID IT!

I was glad to have finished the last few rows of his socks as he sat across from me.

compassion

Every time my feelings are hurt, I remember a time when I have hurt someone elses feelings in the same way. Oh, it's not immediate. I wallow around a bit, enjoying the familiarity of being hurt, but suddenly, a memory will pop into my head that isn't a pretty picture of my own behavior.

This time it's about getting thanked. We were probably all taught that when we receive a gift, it's proper to write a thank you note. In this digital age, it's even easier to say thank you with a brief email or even a facebook thank you. But we don't always get those thanks we think we are due.

While I was knitting these caps, thinking they'd be cute Easter bonnets, I rushed to meet a deadline to get them mailed before I left on my trip north to Montreal. I also wanted to get some boxes shipped to the grandkids so they, too, would have them for Easter. I remembered I might not be back in time to get a birthday card and check to my son-in-law. I managed to meet all my gifting goals before I left. Then, in Montreal, I kept checking my Facebook wall, thinking that there would be a posting with the babies in these caps.

As I knit, I reminded myself that the hats might not fit, they might not be liked; heck, they might even be disliked! I warned myself not to get my hopes up. My old heart didn't listen carefully enough to my head and sure enough, I was disappointed not to see the caps on Facebook, though the families posted pictures of Easter. I have heard nothing about their arrival. The boxes to the grandkids, the card and check to the s-i-l, same thing. (addenda- within weeks, two thank you notes received...blush, blush)

Well, the lesson is always the same. Give it up. Remember times when I have not thanked, not been grateful, have not even liked what I've received. Been there, done that. BE HUMAN. BE COMPASSIONATE!

I'll keep at it....

Fiber Frolic Folk

Although it was a very rainy day, I set out with my companion to attend my first ever Fiber Frolic, on the Windsor fairgrounds. Who wouldn't love visiting some llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats and rabbits, all groomed for their big day with constant attention? Sorry there are no photos of the rabbits, especially the angoras. Wowzer.



Bill's sweater (from Hope Spinnery) was the most gorgeous piece of art I saw all day. He designed and knit it all himself and it is absolutely breathtaking. Those cuffs just blow me away, not to mention the contrast of positive and negative pattern on body and sleeves. And those saddle shoulders! Do you think I should make one for T? Luckily there is no pattern available!

Complet! (That's French for Finished!)

It took me most of the day, off and on, to complete it, but it was fun. Best of all, Ms. Mifflette really likes her new hat and says she feels rather French in it.

Bunny-Ear Cap

My favorite mifflette this season is nakedly beautiful. She needs something, though, to enforce her mifflette-ness as all her peers have embellishments of one sort or another. Since I love her all-whiteness, I finally settled on knitting her a white alpaca cap.

After a couple of false starts, I think I finally have it and though it represents a lot of time, it is also a lot of fun. Isn't that always the way? Right now, I am working with eight needles, seven for holding and one for the actual knitting.

I'll post the end result, hopefully later today.

Unraveled and Resurrected Anew

I can't believe I didn't record the unraveling of a sweater which consisted of yarn I adored. I had to give up on the wear-ability of the sweater, but it dawned on me (duh!) that I could unravel the sweater and reuse the yarn.

The sweater was purchased at Garnet Hill and exorbitantly expensive, even at half price. It's claim was hand painted, hand spun yarn. After machine washing, the arm holes became tight and I hadn't worn it in years. So.... I unraveled it, which was quite a chore since it had matted and "grown" together.

Now I'm excited about making it into a capelet (yet another one) of my own design. It's to be an all over ribbed pattern, funnel neck, and shoulders that grow out from the center rather than raglan style. In other words, it will mimic, but not duplicate, the Shadow Dance Capelet I made in the brioche pattern some years back. It should be much easier. I'm keeping track of how it's done so I can repeat it. People have asked me to help them make the Shadow Dance capelet and I always have to disappoint them by telling them it is deceptively difficult. Which it WAS! Now I can help them make a simpler style, once I fine tune this one.

Weekend-end

Was it just me, or was the sky unbelievably beautiful Sunday afternoon in Maine?
I finished the Noro Little Girl Capelet and I like it. I hope someone else will too.
The current entrance to MFA is on the Fenway side.

Instead of getting down to it...

I've started a little girl capelet instead of doing all the things that I SHOULD be doing. As I am about to attack a dutiful cleaning task, my eye hits the yarn and needles and it's "Just one more row..."

Another Twizzletop

I made this hat to cover my thin-haired head in Mexico.

Two quotes that are unrelated to these photos:

1. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, "What are you doing for others?"
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

2. There's a difference between beauty and charm. A beautiful woman is one I notice. A charming woman is one who notices me.
-John Erskine, author

Today is my youngest grandchild's first birthday. So long to infancy. Happy Birthday, Dexie!

DONE, at last!

Done! For the baby cousins who are our youngest grandchildren

Dexie in his hat that I couldn't resist getting him, used

He's a full time walker now!

Zach loves controlling the lights on the Christmas tree with his 'mote.

Two Projects Completed

On to Dylan's Christmas stocking....Yay!
I hope blocking the hat helps. There are NO mistakes in this one, albeit it took three times to get it right.

Multi-Tasking

On NPR I heard some talk about multi-tasking. Apparently we THINK we can multi-task, but we are actually trying to trick our brains which aren't that trickable. We can do two or more things at once, but not without a payment. Really the brain likes focusing on one thing at a time.

I had a few minutes to knit Dexter's name into his Christmas stocking (Dylan's will be in the opposite colors) and I wanted to get it right. I did NOT want to do it three times. So I decided against listening to the radio, against calling a friend on my wireless headset while knitting. I sat very quietly and worked out an intarsia problem of knitting in two colors (but only in one section) of the project on circular needles. The issue was NOT carrying the yarn all the way across the row, limiting the second color to just one section, then picking it up on the next row when the yarn was at the end of the lettering rather than at the beginning.

Yippee! I worked it out (I can't bear to explain how) and was successful the first time. I think I'll try more mono-tasking.

Three Restarts

When Knitting Arts in Saratoga, CA closed their doors, I bought up a bunch of luscious yarns, mostly one skein each of mouthwatering colors. I had projects in mind but now I've forgotten what skeins go with which projects. I took three projects with me to Pretty Marsh and have been battling with them ever since.

I think I got this skein of blue sky alpaca silk to make an odessa hat for Syl. But now it seems awfully loud, awfully chartreuse, and not right for her at all. Maybe I got it to make another Hungry Caterpillar?? This is my THIRD attempt at making up the hat. I had almost finished it on the second go round when I blew it and couldn't fix my mistake. I considered giving it to charity, but then thought that wasn't very nice, to give a hat with mistakes to someone I didn't know. It really should be perfect or else given to kittens to shred. So, sigh...., I frogged it and began all over. This time I even checked to make sure I was doing the ssk correctly and NO, I hadn't been. I had been doing a psso instead.

Not having worked on this one for months, I clutched at the pattern end of the wrap. I felt alzheimers creeping up on me. HOW could I have forgotten this pattern which I had done for hundreds of rows? Finally I remembered, gratefully. Truly this is the easy one to work on and can be done in all kinds of social situations. It's soothing to work on and not quite half way done. It takes 60 of those point-edges to make an entire wrap and I have completed 22 of them. Let's not forget that this is the second project with the very same yarn that was frogged from a Rebecca pattern.

Habu makes this yarn and provides one with a pattern for a scarf called Kusha Kusha. It's Japanese yarn and pattern, made from stainless steel wrapped with silk and extra fine merino wool. It's more like thread than yarn. Subsequently it gets tangled easily and falls off the needles easily as well. It requires addi-turbo needles that are super slick. This is the third try on this project as well. First I used the wrong size needles, then I knit 25 rows in garter stitch before I took a look at other projects on ravelry and realized it should have been done in stockinette stitch. Yes, the instructions said so. Yes, again I didn't read closely enough. Yes, I'm willing to restart. Luckily I am persistent if sloppy.

All this frogging reminds me that it is much the same in life. If we give up after first tries, we won't get far. It's not a waste of time to make mistakes. I like to think that time serves me well in meditative ways and if nothing else, humbling ways.

What Happens When You Don't Swatch!

This is what happened because I didn't check my gauge before knitting a hat for a grandchild; it fits T instead! Of course he is delighted. He loves the hat and so it is his. It was supposed to be a child's SMALL!

A great thing though, was the learning of a new technique: attaching an i-cord to the hat rim. I had the darnedest time figuring out from the directions how to accomplish this. The directions merely said, "attach cord to lower edge of hat by knitting last st of I-cord tog with 1st st from hat through back loop." I gave up after several attempts and googled, " i cord attachment knitting" and up came a brilliant YouTube demonstration that put me immediately on the right track. I LOVE GOOGLE! I love the teacher who lives in my house and is always available!

BUGS!

I wish I could take a photo right now of the bugs in the air. There appear to be more bugs than air. I know they wouldn't show up in a photo, but there are millions of them frantically spinning around, probably procreating.

It is an extraordinarily beautiful day here: perfect temperature, bright sun, lovely little breezes, newly formed leaves in all the most verdant shades of green. It's a perfect day to languish outside (0r even weed and cut back the growth between stones on the patio) except for one thing: BUGS!

Not to be foiled by them entirely, I invested this year in a bug-out headnet from LLBean. I do think it is quite clever, but gdi, it is MADE IN CHINA! It goes on over one's baseball cap, but under one's shirt. My bugs bite right through my yoga pants. OUCH!

I stayed indoors awhile, knitting new items that require certain family members to measure circumferences of certain young heads. ahem. ahem.

Surprise Stash

I've never been one to buy yarn without a project in mind, though I've tried. I've hastily bought yarn and returned it when reconsidering my impulsivity. However, on my last night in Los Gatos I learned that my favorite CA lys was going out of business. YIKES! There was a storewide 30% reduction sale and though it went against my nature, I couldn't resist some sumptuous yarns in colors that refused to leave my tight grasp. and YES, there is some Habu in there too for a Kashu Kashu scarf. There are some hats and scarves in this stash calling YOUR names, my friends!

Kerchief Completed

Kerchief Completed
Originally uploaded by gramily

This is how the Noro Silk Garden kerchief looks curling around my neck. I purposely eliminated the view that shows the neck itself with the wrinkles and sagging flesh hanging out. I adore the colors.

Color Against Snowy Landscape

It's snowing again this morning. It's almost APRIL! I have been knitting an ICE BLUE scarf with sleeves since Christmas and have only interspersed that project with natural cotton dishcloths. WHY?? Imagine the choice of ICE BLUE for winter knitting! There is more than one reason Scandinavians choose bright colors for fabric and yarn. Think Marimekko.


Yesterday I treated myself to some Noro (from Japan) yarn in the most delicious colors to make a kerchief for a friend. I am as delighted to see these colors each time I pass them as I would be to see Snow Drops or Daddodils outside my window. Well.....almost.

Another Knitting Failure

IMG_2629
Originally uploaded by gramily

I maintain that my main skills for knitting are patience and persistence. This time, I made many mistakes on this simple project of knitting a dishcloth, and though I was patient, my persistence did not result in a successful outcome. I must admit failure.

I was inspired by Rachel, of www.knitsbyrachel.com. She makes clever dishcloths and creates her own graphics, like bats for Halloween, and my favorite, a vacuum cleaner with the text, "housework sucks." I tried to create a birthday message for a friend on a dishcloth ala Rachel. I have more respect than ever for her.

I graphed it out, not quickly. The illustration above was my at least my third attempt at centering, spacing, decisions on what to place where, wording according to available space.

I made several false starts on the knitting end, by failing to remember that I wasn't knitting in the round as I was when I inserted the names of my grandchildren on their Christmas stockings.

Finally I recreated the graphics from pen and pencil to the knitted object. Many a row was torn out and restarted too.

The result?? TOTALLY ILLEGIBLE! Not only does my poor friend get a dishcloth as a birthday gift, but one with a garbled message.

The balance is between a) sticking with instructions worked out by someone else for less frustration and b) continuing to be patient and persistent in order to keep the hemispheres of the brain lighting up in different areas, and to insert my own ideas. I nearly always select the latter and wish I would choose the former.

Kids Club, Whole Foods

Kids Club, Whole Foods
Originally uploaded by gramily

Did you know that Whole Foods has a Kids Club? Before you do your shopping, your child can have a complementary piece of fruit or a fruit leather or even a COOKIE! Zachy chose one/cookie with icing that absolutely covered his face and sweater. (YES, I knit the sweater and hat)