Just sharing a friend’s pick-me-up that was also a pick-me-up for me :) The scarf in the photo was one that I had sent to Belinda a couple of weeks ago and yesterday I was on pins and needles (pun intended) as to whether it had arrived (taking a slow plane from Florida to Canada, of course). Soon after I asked her about the scarf, it arrived (such are my mental powers). But not only the scarf which I knitted for her, hoping it would bring a bit of Spring to her long Winter. Belinda also received a bundle of other gifts and she put together this wonderful photo, using her scarf as a frame. Belinda gave me a perfect and happy end to a long, frustrating day. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Belinda!
Tag: knitting
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I’ve been a little busy lately. First, responsibilities and obligations at my day job have increased since my bureau chief retired, and another coworker has been working less than half-time due to medical problems, and we still have a vacant position. As my supervisor noted, she and I are “doing the work of five people.” It’s temporary; we hope to fill the vacant position soon, but for now … I’m busy.
This is a cleaned-up version of my work space, the long month of January finally over. But it hasn’t been all work and no play. It’s just that the playing of late hasn’t included writing (at least, not much). What do I do when I’m not working, writing, or practicing yoga? Yup, I’m knitting. And since there are babies waiting to be born, I’m knitting small.
Baby sweater for coworker. You may say that this sweater is cute, even lovely. It was definitely fun to knit. I love knitting cables.
Detail of sweater showing cable and raglan sleeve, But my coworker might hate me because the yarn is a blend of mink and wool and, thus, must be handwashed :) But it is small and it’s an outer sweater and it’s a camel color so if the baby spits up now and then, the spit might just blend in :) But what do I know? I’ve never had kids and aside from having to babysit my nephews many, many years ago, I’ve managed to avoid baby spit, baby puke, and dirty diapers.
And so I’m busy, but I write in my head as much as I can. Sometimes I get inspired and push out a bit of a story, surprising myself, but also reminding myself that the words are there. It’s just that I’m busy right now.
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This short story was inspired by a post on Jill Weatherholt‘s blog: http://jillweatherholt.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/is-that-really-true/. If you haven’t visited Jill’s blog yet, you should do so. Like me, Jill is a writer who has to juggle a full-time job with her passion for writing. Her posts are always entertaining, thoughtful, and generate a lot of comments. And, apparently, they can also be the inspiration for a short story.
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English: A small plate with a serving of mashed potatoes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Another off-white, brown speckled clump fell beside Emily. She had been dozing. Well, really she had been sleeping. Sleeping for six days as she did every week. The soft thud of the odd clump was enough to rouse her, and she stirred in her rocking chair, her hands folded in her lap. She stretched, raising her arms straight up and then out like wings. Her back crackled as each vertebrate popped into life. She gazed down at the unsightly lump beside her chair and smiled. It was Sunday. Sunday dinner to be exact, and she could knit. (more…)
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Following is an excerpt from my NaNoWriMo novel-in-progress. Maggie Reynolds, one of the three cousins in The Widows’ Club Book Four (I know, fancy title) is a knitter, like moi. I’m having her take credit for my knitting so I can take credit for the word count in this post.
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Maggie draped the knitted shawl over the dressmaker form. She wanted to take a few pictures of the shawl for her photo album. She was trying to keep a log of her knitting, a portfolio of sorts although she had no intention of marketing her skill. It just seemed like a smart thing to do since she was the proprietor of a knitting shop. Edna Ridgeway, who had left the shop to Maggie in her will, had spent 30 years growing her business from a tight corner in the local hardware store to its current location in the middle of main street, its storefront nestled between a coffeehouse and a bookstore. Somehow, Maggie thought, she needed to always be able to prove that she was worthy of Yarns2Dye4.
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As many of you know, I am a knitter. I’ve knitting for roughly the same number of years as I’ve been writing, and my writing marathons often alternate with knitting marathons. My first memory of knitting was when I was 9 when I was given a kit for a pink knitted minidress. The kit came with acrylic pink yarn, huge wooden needles (comparable to a US size 17) and instructions. What I managed to knit was not a minidress, but some kind of tangled mess.
And yet, I was hooked (so to speak) from that day forward.
Over the next ten years, I knitted with whatever I could find (we were a family of few means), even some spools of synthetic yarn that a high school friend discovered in her basement. If people gave me yarn, I would knit them something. While that sounds awfully generous of me, keep in mind that I was still learning to knit (I am self-taught) and so I’m not sure that my “gifts” were always appreciated or desired.
I’ve have several peaks and valleys with my knitting (just like with my writing) over the past 40-odd years. One Christmas, when I was still a teenager, I went crazy and knitted, crocheted, or needlepointed a Christmas gift for every one in my immediate family. Ahhh, the good old days when I was a mere college student and had time enough to knit, read, and write.
During a brief sojourn at a private college, I took a spinning and weaving class. So then I had to add spinning and weaving to my hobbies. The best education I got out of that particular college was learning to spin and weave. Rather than return for another quarter, I left college and bought a 36-inch floor loom with what would have been my tuition money. But these were mere detours along my knitting path. I enjoyed weaving immensely but in spite of even bringing the loom with me all the way from upstate NY to Oakland, CA, I could never embrace it as I did my knitting. With knitting, all you really need is yarn and a needle (I say a needle because I work almost exclusively with circular needles). Weaving requires much more preparation before you even start weaving. By contrast, spinning is also “simpler” if you buy your wool already carded and you’re happy to sit and spin with a small spindle. Eventually the loom and the spinning wheel were sold to a friend, while I continued to buy every possible length and size of knitting needle.
Fast forward to where I live now. Still knitting by choice, but my knitting has changed quite a bit. I don’t like sewing up the pieces of a sweater: easing the top of the sleeve into the armhole; trying to sew the sides together; and then finding holes in the seams. I’ve knitted cardigans, the bane of my existence because not only do they require piecing together but they also have (shudder) buttonholes to contend with. It’s not that I can’t knit well enough; I just find finishing to be annoying. When I’m done knitting, I want my knitting to be done and immediately wearable. So now I knit socks, shawls, scarves. Occasionally I’ll see a pattern that looks intriguing enough that I’ll give piecing another go. As with this shrug:
The pattern (Kimono Shrug) was quite easy, but the yarn (Noro Silk Garden) was actually a bit difficult to work with. It’s a blend of wool and silk and silk isn’t elastic like wool; that is, it doesn’t yield as nicely to being pulled and looped. Sometimes I felt like I was trying to knit with rope. But the effect of the yarn, the colors and the pattern, are worth the effort.
I’m sending this shrug to a friend who lives in California. She’s an artist (mixed-media). I’ve knitted for her before. In the distant past, we even bartered a few times, my knitting in exchange for her illustrating some patterns that I wrote and tried to sell. In all honesty, I didn’t set out to make this shrug for her, but, once it was completed, I just kept thinking of how much Jennifer might like it. How it might keep her warm when she’s working in her warehouse studio. How it might flatter her (and me) if she wore it to one of her openings. So I wore it twice to confirm that, yes, it does drape nicely and is warm without being too warm. But it’s off to Jennifer, and I hope she likes it.
So what hobbies do you have? What else do you look forward to doing, besides reading and writing? Do you like to restore antique cars? Brew your own beer? Cross-stitch? Sew? Let me know in the comment section ;)
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I want to share a very special birthday gift from a very special person. We work together at my day job and we both love to knit and sew. She’s given me many of her “prototypes” as gifts, sometimes spur-of-the-moment gifts, sometimes for an occasion like my birthday. This is what she gave me this year: a bag that she made out of a pair of her husband’s old jeans. This bag is a perfect size for carrying around a sock-knitting project, and she lined it in PINK with pockets to hold my knitting tools! I LOVE this bag! I used to make stuff like this when I was in high school, so it brings back fun memories of how much more creative I used to be (because I had no $$ and always had to make do). This is one of those gifts that I’ll get to enjoy over and over and over :)
outside of bag 
Inside of bag -
On the trail at Chimney Rock, Point Reyes National Seashore Park, California
July 2012It’s been a week since I submitted my final word count to Camp NaNoWriMo and my brain still feels as empty as this great expanse of sky. I’ve written little since: mostly comments, an attempt at poetry during a downturn in my mood, and the ubiquitous note-keeping I do at my day job. I had thought of planning to edit one or both of the novels I’ve written in the past 6 months. Remember, they are both first drafts so editing will open the opportunity (and challenge) of rewriting. But … always there is a but … my physical environment is suffering from neglect and my other projects are demanding their due.
For one, I’m engaged in The Knitting Guild Association’s (TKGA’s) Master Hand Knitting Program, Level 1. For those of you interested in such endeavors, here’s a link: http://www.tkga.com/?page=AboutTKGAMasters
I actually had completed Level 1 almost 20 years ago, started Level 2 and then just quit. I am an avid knitter and have been knitting for over 40 years. I can also sew and crochet, but knitting has always defined me. I’ve made everything from baby blankets to cardigans to socks to shawls to scarves to pullovers. As the years go by, my knitting has become simpler, except for the socks and a venture into Entralec.
In recent years, I’ve resisted patterns like cardigans that require lots of finishing. Even with socks, I prefer to knit toe-up two-at-a-time because that method requires the least amount of planning and finishing. So why am I enrolled in the Level 1 Master program again? (Beside the fact that after 20 years, the association has updated its standards and requirements.) In truth, because I thought if I ever attempt to sell my knitting, it might be helpful if I could be “certified” as a Master Knitter and for that, you need to complete all three levels of the Master program. But knitting is labor-intensive and selling would only work if I was willing to do it for free. And, once knitting becomes a job, the joy goes out of it for me.My writing is much like my knitting: I love the process (the knitting, the writing). I love the end product (the sweater, the novel), but I don’t like everything I have to do to get there (the sewing of seams, the editing). And, as with knitting, once the “fun” goes out of writing, so goes the writing.
After all these years of writing and knitting, I feel like I’m still discovering myself as a writer and a knitter. And I’m starting to let go of that urgency to “Be” something or someone, to define myself by someone else’s precepts. I’m a contrary student: I love to learn but I hate instructions. I love to find out something new, but I hate being told what to do.
Yet I intend to finish Level 1 of the Master program, even if I have to write a two-page, single-spaced report on blocking (really, is there that much to be said on blocking?). Level 2 will depend on how much of Level 1 I might be asked to re-do. And with my writing, it will be easier to simply create anew rather than rework what I already have. We’ll see. For now, I have some knitting to finish.
Marie at 1 Write Way 