Stitching Ourselves Into A Corner

“You shouldn’t be so shy about your knitting,” D. tells me.

Hah. That’s got to be a lot like Mary Cassatt telling her family not to be so shy about those paint-by-number kits.

If you live with someone who can whip out – just within the last year or so – six scarves, eight hats, half a cardigan, two massive shawls, and a gorgeous matched baby cardigan and hat set — all the while holding down a full-time consulting job and/or attending University full-time, it makes one a bit leery of saying anything at all about one’s struggles to remember how to purl instead of just knit, of how to count stitches and one’s embarrassing inability to actually stick to one project at at time. (I’d like to be able to ascribe that to some fluke, but it even affects how I work; I literally write three novels at a time. Attention span issues, anyone?)

Add to that, some women’s tendency to INSIST that of course the female in the group has completed all of the fabulicious knitting projects, not the male, and you kind of begin to understand my reticence to say a word.

The tall boy with the hair? He’s the knitter. Just goin’ on record AGAIN to say: D. knits. I… am learning.

But during the seamless Deep of the Dark (aka “winter”), I have in fact put my hand to a few knitting projects. One was, of course, my joyful leap into my Crayola hat – that – was – going – to – be – a – bag, which was Jen, the Barmy Baker’s color-suffused corriedale, her first Kool Aid dyed yarn, and her first spinning, too. Though the corriedale makes me sneeze and wheeze, which is why I haven’t finished the project yet (not sure if it’s the natural fibers or if Jen has a cat), I LOVE IT and cannot WAIT TO WEAR it (once it’s blocked – it looks a bit as if I’ve knitted a head vise). The irregularities in the yarn just make it that much more unique and charming, and though my bamboo needles are …stained Kool Aid Strawberry pink, I’m pretty sure it’ll all sort out in the wash.

(BTW, beware Jenn’s Moonlight Baker Etsy site, people. It’s habit forming, and the colors of her yarn are EDIBLE. Yum. AND her Zero-Calorie Greetings cards will make you, inexplicably, want blueberry pancakes… )

My second work in progress is a scarf on Louisa Harding sari ribbon, using the 2 skeins (66 yards each, 90% nylon, 10% metallic) of ribbon purchased from the last great yarn sale Jackie@Jiki Knits told us about before we left the U.S. I’ve been saving the yarn until it was closer to Spring (but thought, “Ah, what the hey,” and just started…), and have only done the first few rows of what is going to be a pretty, bright ribbon of juicy orange sparkle, using Jackie’s pattern. Everything about saris and sari ribbon makes me feel floaty, delicate, and girly. (This, of course, pairs well with my combat boots.)

D’s red scarf is coming along; he’s knitting it tightly, to see if he can recreate the effect that he’s getting in his experimental stitch looming project, which is moving forward in zigs and zags. The intermittent work is mainly because it’s harder to lug even a lightweight plastic loom into a classroom, and it’s just a bit less than subtle wrestling with the yarn pick during a lecture, but now he’s motivated to finish the scarf, and soon. Both of us are trying to hurry our stitches just a bit. Reason being, we’ve received a gift of new needles from our friend Sarah… and they’re flat out gorgeous. Rosewood tipped, palm-wood bodies, these satiny-smooth, Vietnamese made, arrow-straight beauties called out to her artistic soul in the store, and are available to use by… (drumroll)

… the first person who completes a project.

Since one of us is sitting mock exams this next week and finishing term papers, I’m thinking that person should be ME.

Fair’s fair, right?

Hmm. Must go. Suddenly a project is calling…

9 Replies to “Stitching Ourselves Into A Corner”

  1. LOVE the sari ribbon! And it will go nicely with the combat boots! D is right! You shouldn’t be shy about your knitting. Your handspun hat is also coming along nicely. I can’t wait to see it finished. And if you have more then one project on the needles, consider yourself in good company. I can’t think of one person that knits that has only one project on the go. And speaking of mulitple projects, Do you have to finish ALL your projects before you can get your hands on those needles?

  2. …um… well, see, the rules weren’t that, er… clear. I think it was, “Finish something, you can’t start something new on those!”

    Already, full-out wrestling matches have commenced over those needles. They’ve been hidden. They’ve been snatched.

    We got them yesterday.

  3. why can’t you work on however many projects you want???? Where is the rule book on that?

    And your juicy orange scarf will be fabulous with your combat boots.

  4. go! go! go! go finish a project! i have heard those needles are lucious! what a delightful gift! and the orange sari ribbon is truly lovely. gives me a case of the shoulda, woulda, coulda’s. and it will go perfectly with combat boots!

  5. What gorgeous colors int he Kool Ade cap and the sari sparkle scarf. If I hadn’t had an unfortunate incident involving a knitting needle and my bum when I was 11 or 12, I might be tempted to find the time to learn again how to knit…but it was too traumatic 🙁
    Those beautiful knitting needles are a sure incentive to finish…hope it is a tie so you can trade them back and forth…or do a ‘you knit three rows and I’ll knit three rows” project or something. Could get creative 🙂

  6. i was just on another ‘lil quilting friend’s site… and she was talking about WIPs (works in progress) … so we wont even get started on my quilting/knitting WIPs. Or that I bought 3 more quilt kits and stuff for little people hats oh maybe 5 hats…

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