Stitch by Stitch

I'm a fairly fast knitter: I usually can knit and read at the same time. I tend to go on auto-pilot and work quickly. But I'm working with a yarn, Country, right now that is making me slow down.

Country is a merino/acrylic blend, very soft, very plush, it seduced me at the yarn store, and it splits constantly. I have to watch every stitch and slow down to make sure that it's not splitting and that I'm not leaving a trail of yarn wisps hanging from my work. At first, I was annoyed by this, and then I let myself surrender to the quality of the yarn and to slow down, look at each stitch and take my time.

And I find that I'm enjoying this enforced slow-down. It's the difference between driving on the highway and taking the back roads: I have time to watch where I'm going, to contemplate what I'm doing, and to realize that, since there isn't a deadline, what's the rush?

Buy the Book

Please.

It's a good book. You won't be sorry. You'll make a lot of babies happy (and their moms) with what you make from the patterns.

Pink Rose, DeWitt, & Gladys

Every week for the last year and a half, I've met Allie at the Pink Rose Pastry Shop for breakfast (usually on Tuesday). We have the breakfast special (for $2.50 you get two eggs, homefries made with real potatoes--not frozen shredded blech-- and a biscuit), and the coffee is great. It's wonderful food, a great neighborhood place, and great staff. Usually Sherman is there, cooking our breakfast with love. But sometimes DeWitt is there instead.

A morning with DeWitt is an extra-special treat. Sherman cooks with love, but DeWitt sings and dances to the radio. It seems that he knows every song on every station.

This morning, my absolutely all-time, end-of-the-world, what-I-want-to-hear-when-I'm-dying-song came on: Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight and the Pips.

And DeWitt sang and danced.

This baby has legs

Being on Ravelry has given me a peek into many, many knitters' minds, stashes, and projects. When I joined, I got such a rush to see that my Sachiko Baby Kimono pattern was on Ravelry already, and it's been an adventure to watch the postings grow: as of today, it's listed in 101 projects, 286 queues, and 273 people have marked it as a favorite.

Even more fascinating is seeing the photos of the finished projects: there are so many interpretations and renditions of it---some are not my taste at all and some are so great that I'm jealous (of another knitter's version of my own original pattern!).

This was my first published pattern, and I was so excited to have it "out there" and so grateful to Alison at For the Love of Yarn for accepting it and helping me to earn my professional chops. And now to discover that hundreds of knitters around the world have taken my design to heart and made it for so many babies---it's exciting and also humbling at the same time.

Markers

I've been working on a sweater that calls for placing stitch markers where decreases are going to be made. Often, when I'm working a stitch pattern, I can read the fabric and don't really need the stitch markers: I'm clever, I'm on top of my game, I know what I'm doing. Other times, I like to have the markers because it's one less thing that I have to think about or keep track of: here's the marker, time to decrease (or increase or whatever).

There aren't stitch markers for real life, though, which is a shame. It would be nice to wake up one morning, come down to breakfast and find an orange plastic marker next to the coffee mug, letting you know that: adolescence starts here, make sure you have lots of patience and strength until next marker; aging parent starts failing here...You get the drift.

But of course there are no markers, just learning how to read the fabric.

Happy Anniversary

Sometime during the month of May 1983 was my last day of offical work. Work where I got up every morning, dressed appropriately, and went out into the world to interact with the public, to answer the phone, and to push papers around. I traded that in to stay at home, for a brief while as a pregnant woman, and then as a mom: first to one, then to two.

In those twenty-five years, I've raised two pretty incredible human beings, started a craft business, become computer and internet savvy, outlived my in-laws and my mother, become a mother-in-law, gone through menopause, self-published a book, and managed to negogiate all this without killing anyone (especially teen-aged boys)-- not in that order, but then when is life ordered?

Maybe I'll give myself a party. Have some chocolate. Get a massage. Buy some yarn.