In the Image of the Creator

I'm talking shamrocks and rainbows and having the confidence to create over at the Herald today. Won't you please join me? Click here:-)

Yarn Along: Surprised

Has it only been a week? Long, long week it's been. Mike is working crazy long days and traveling even more than usual. Throw in the preceding week of unexpected visitor from out of town and funeral, then merge to a serious complication following Christian's blood donation that has resulted in three different emergency room visits and countless consultations with about a billion doctors and it looks bad. And in many ways it was.

In the spirit of eucharisteo, though, there is some grace and joy to be found here. Last week, I wondered if I'd any chance of finishing a sweater shrug for Sarah in time for Easter. This week, I have but a couple rows on the sleeves, a button and loop, and blocking left to do.

 

And I casted on last night for Katie's matching shrug. (Pattern here)

No one is more surprised than I am.

Some kind ladies have emailed to ask about my needles and yarn. First, can I just share how I giggled when I got my first two emails with knitting questions? Tickled, I tell you.

My needles were a gift from Kelley at Knitpicks. I don't know her at all and they weren't a "bloggy gift." When Kelley learned that Elizabeth's "Make-A-Wish" trip had a whole lot of yarn knit into it, she sent the most amazingly beautiful needles and cord for me and Ann. I'm still astounded by the generosity of craftswomen who donated needles and patterns and yarn and notions for that blessed trip. My first impression of women who knit? They are kindhearted, compassionate, generous souls.

The yarn is mine. And you can't have it;-). Elizabeth spun the yarn for me from cashmere that she dyed. Isn't the fleece absolutely beautiful? The yarn has been pure delight. I'm so, so grateful.

And the knitting? There I sat for hours and hours in the hospital, pink yarn and beautiful needles, lulled into some sort of almost surreal peace by the rhythm of the stitching and the sheer beauty of the wood and fibers. It was as all those devoted knitters promised: it was joy.

I think I'm hooked.

My reading is the same as it has been since Lent's beginning. Much of it has been listening, either out loud at home or with earbuds in public places. Listen, stitch, pray. All good.

At Elizabeth's urging, I purchased No Sheep For You. And just as soon as I make a cover for the cover (my boys are weirded out by it), I'm going to read. I do love this art and I'm more than a little bummed that animal fibers make me itch, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the plant fiber world holds.

In true rabbit trail tradition, we have begun a knitting trail here at home. Joanna Johnson author of Phoebe's Sweater and Freddie's Blanket has written a unit study.  After reading this study, I was pretty sure Joanna Johnson and I could be great friends. I'm using her unit as a springboard and pulling in other books we have on our shelves here at home. I'll try to have a booklist for next week's Yarn Along (but things are unpredictable here, so maybe not).

One more little happy: Every time Sarah Annie sees me knitting her shrug she says, "You knitting a fweater?"

"I sure am."

"For me?"

"Yep, just for you."

"It's pink?"

"Pretty pink."

"Because you love me?"

Because I love her and I do so love that I can do this for her.

{Visit Ginny for more Yarn Alongs~seriously addictive reading.}

A Bit O' Green

 
Kind of a mellow day here today. We're recovering from what was a totally not mellow yesterday.  A couple of days ago, I posted this to my Facebook page:

The sweater I'm knitting says it's "super quick to knit" and "will only take a weekend to knit one up." I'm thinking that the writer knows nothing of my knitting ability or my weekends:-). I'm praying--seriously praying--I can finish in time for Sarah to wear on Easter.

Yesterday morning, I got up, worked out, had an hour solid of time with my Lenten reading and my knitting, and then had time to blog this. 

And then Christian came upstairs. It's a long saga and I hesitate to share it here because I'd never want to discourage someone from donating blood, but he had a very rare complication after a blood donation and we spent a very long day and night in the hospital. He's going to be just fine and whoa---I got a serious amount of knitting finished. Who needs a weekend? Just give me a medical emergency.

In other news, we're dipping and sprinkling Oreos and pretzels, watercoloring shamrocks after talking about Trinity, planning on green stuffed potatoes for dinner, watching a lot of basketball, and oh, we pulled Michael off the couch to start painting the kitchen. Green. Of course. (No worries, honey, it's just  a sample size pot of paint and we're awaiting your approval.).

And we're missing Paddy something fierce. 

Yarn Along

Big, deep sigh.

After several nights of Mike teasing me about my rather large stack of cotton squares, I decided that I could launch myself into a sweater. I started to knit a gauge swatch on Berocco Comfort yarn but it kept becoming impossibly unwisted. Desperate, I told Elizabeth that I certainly must be doing something wrong.

Her solution was to spin me some yarn that couldn't possibly come untwisted. I'm allergic to wool. And alpaca. And I didn't want synthetic. So, she did what any good friend would do and found some cashmere in her stash and dyed it an amazing shade of pink and spun it into an incredible untwistable yarn.

I'm totally serious. If I were ever sure God intended to help me over every obstacle of knitting it was when that yarn arrived in the mail. Cashmere for my first sweater. For a two-year-old? Seriously? Seriously. She had included a gauge swatch in the package with instructions to knit my own swatch before doing anything else. I set off to do just that. Comfortably next to Mike while he worked, I knit away at yet another square. When I was finished, there were no holes; it was nice and tidy. And it looked oddly unlike Elizabeth's.

Mary Beth took it in her hands, held it to the light, squinted at it a bit and then did this little number of sandwiched criticism:

Mom, it's really pretty. I like the way it's got this cool, unique texture. I don't think it's really a regular stockinette, but I love those little diagonals.

I wrote to Elizabeth about the diagonals. She asked I were somehow knitting from the back.

Um. Yep. All the time. I was twisting every single stitch. I'm here to tell you that that was some very difficult knitting.

Elizabeth responded with this video. And so the lady with the pink hair and lovely accent taught me all sorts of things about knitting. And then I knitted another gauge swatch. The proper way.

And it was so much easier!

So while I waited for more yarn, I made another cotton washcloth--the new way. And then another. They were awesome. I actually had rhythm. Even in cotton!

As soon as the new yarn arrived, I looked at the directions on the pattern that Carmen had suggested for me. Carmen's Tess and my Sarah are the same age. See Sarah here? And Tess here? Don't they look so cute in that same sweater? Carmen knitted both. She told me I could do this delicious sweater for Sarah. Elizabeth agreed. Elizabeth even suggested she knit one for Karoline at the same time. A three-way knitting club across three states and two time zones. :-)

I cast on. Then I had absolutely no clue what the pattern was telling me. Carmen broke it down into simpler terms. Elizabeth later broke it into even simpler terms. I was really feeling slow and utterly out of my element. Those pattern directions? They might as well be in Aramaic.

Ladies, I knit the first three rows of this sweater six different times. I'll spare you the details of my mistakes. But around time three it occurred to me that I have children for whom some things are very difficult. Their learning curves are really steep. And they were watching me. Flopped across the bed late at night while l listened to my Lenten "reading," they watched my frustration. They saw me tear up when I recognized that I had messed up so badly I'd have to start again. They watched me shake my hands to get the tense ache out. They watched me slide stitches off needles and take it all out, re-wind that incredibly precious yarn, think myself utterly unworthy of these beautiful needles, this beautiful fiber. And so, I have been very careful not to give up. Not to hesitate to admit I don't know. Not to wait too long to ask for help. Not to fail to be grateful for the people willing to patiently pull me along to do something that comes to them as naturally as breathing.

This is a tiny little cropped sweater in raspberry pink for my very smallest child. All those things are necessary: small enough that I might actually finish it before Easter; pink enough that I still love the yarn despite my frustration.

But I sort of wish it were going to be a sweater for a six foot tall boy who is always cold. Because my prayers for him are being knit into every stitch.

Check in with Ginny to see what everyone else is knitting and reading.

{Update: Christian has a complication related to a blood donation. We're on our way to the hospital. I'm bringing my knitting along. Your prayers are very much appreciated.}

Yarn Along

I'm still stuck in my self-imposed washcloth place. I have to admit, I'm not enjoying it much. I did switch from the utterly unforgiving washcloth yarn to softer Cottontots yarn. It feels nicer, but I'm not sure it's going to make very good washcloths over the long haul. The colors are so pretty and the yarn feels nice; I sort of wish I were knitting a sweater. I just don't quite have the confidence to move on. Also, it would help greatly if I didn't pick up my knitting and find that someone around here has been "helping" me. I'm not accomplished enough to fix my helper's mistakes and they truly frustrate me. It's hard enough for me to accept my own mistakes; these ones that just appear when I'm not looking are bumming me out bigtime.

And, for a change of pace from the really heavy reading I've been doing lately, I have finally started reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. I'm not far enough in yet to comment, but it is a breath of fresh air. 

For more Yarn Along tales, visit Ginny.