handstories

Dawdling

    Five years ago, I started knitting these hats and scarves to donate.  It was a way to use up some of my early yarn spinnings and hopefully do a little good in the world.  Well, I didn't get very far, and there was no good done until this week. 

    In an effort to clean up a little (and to avoid doing the things I should've been doing), I came across the bag buried in the corner that they've been living in.  I had got it into my head that ALL of the yarn needed to be knitted up before donating them.  Also, two different friends had made two different suggestions as to where to donate them, meaning I would have to choose between them, or knit more hats, so that there were enough for everybody... Meanwhile, the project went by the wayside, and nobody got wool things.

    But, they were found again, and K. knew of a woman who works at the YWCA, so they were promptly gathered and left on her doorstep.  Sometimes I make myself crazy with trying to do everything, often resulting in doing nothing.  It's good to know they'll finally be useful.  There's still plenty of yarn to knit up, and a new hat has been started.  I wonder how many years it will take to go anywhere?

    There is a growing to-do list.

    There is a lot of procrastinating.  Sometimes it takes the shape of trees.

    Sometimes everything seems doable. 

    Other days, like the one when I got out the sewing machine, are a battle.

    There are gifts to sew.  The first one went along ok.  I even managed to figure out a new fake-serger-ish stitch to use.  The second project, and third...not so good.  Things may have been thrown across the room.  The machine and I are both on a timeout right now.  It glares at me from across the room, I squint my eyes at it and scowl back.

    I keep rearranging the things on my table.  Trying to get a grip on the chaos.  Trying to keep things from toppling over.  Trying to carry on with my procrastinating...

    Moons and stars help.  Especially in Deb's beautiful sky cloth.

    I'm not sure if this is about floating or sinking?!

Crazy busy

    Ok, so maybe it wasn't a good idea to run out of town for a week near the end of the school year.  There is a lot of scrambling in catching up, keeping up, and scurrying, to get through this last week of school.  

    Moon has had band concerts (with one more performance to go), finals, projects, a first real job interview and training.  (Which begins next week, which required half an hour of finagling to reschedule appointments.  Including the orthodontist, which I had so carefully planned to happen NOT at rush hour again...sigh.)

    K. has much going on at work, and out of town trips being planned. (Plus he has my stress and whining to listen to.)

    Blue is enjoying, and tired, from his new summer job, while trying to squeeze friends into every other spare minute.  (We see him occasionally at meals, or as he goes out the door.) 

    My work has been mostly gathering art from the walls all around the school and organizing it to return to students before Friday.  In my efforts to be efficient, I've taken down (and had to rehang) the wrong displays three different times.  There were some nice moments with my first grade friend, who was not wielding scissors this time, and gave today a thumbs up while announcing that it was a "Great day!"  We colored popsicles and discussed our favorite flavors...blackberry, blue-raspberry, lime, and Pepsi (his, not mine!)

    Tonight we sweated (literally and figuratively) through our family singing group concert.  And, NO, I did not practice while I was away.  And, YES, it showed.  During the final run through, the talented woman who stands next to me asked which part I was singing?  "I have no idea.  Clearly not the right one!"  (She quickly traded spots so her voice could have a better angle into my ear.)  Gratefully, all reviews were lovely.  Our leader, she really is a miracle worker!)

    AND, it's Hot.

    All to say...that I've been knitting on, and finally finished, this hat that was started months (years?) ago, out of old handspun, because it took absolutely no brain cells.

fullness

    It's been a moon making mood here for the last two days.  

    Lots of quiet stitching and some lavender knitting.

    Another hat for that donation pile started last year (here), number 14.  Maybe this year they'll actually be given?

    Finished the novel bought at the airport to distract myself, drank the last of the blackberry tea, and will go swimming tonight.  Blue says things are "swell".  The days are full and fine.

knitting memories

    Today this hat was traded in partial payment for Blue's senior photos.  She is a friend through a friend, and so talented (see here).  This is a photo of the photo (complete with glass reflection, sorry, MG) that she took of us all thirteen years ago . . . (I know I don't usually show our faces, but it was so long ago, and none of us really look like this anymore . . . more hair, less hair, gray hair, more pounds, more wrinkles, and many more inches onto the boys)

    It's amazing how many memories a photo can hold.  

    The sweaters we're wearing . . .  

    Knit back in the days when I could concentrate on patterns.  (These were designed by Alice Starmore).  

    Some of Blue's was knitted while nursing Moon.  

    The night before the photo shoot, I realized that Moon didn't have a sweater, so I quickly knit one up, round and round, without a pattern.  There was a button band on the shoulder, to allow for his big baby head.  I didn't have any buttons, so he was sewn into the sweater.

    Mine has a story, too.  It's actually a chapter in this book.  Following the late miscarriage of the first pregnancy, I headed to the yarn store, determined to knit the most complicated involved thing I could, hoping it would distract me.  A friend thought it would be depressing to have a reminder of such a sad time.  I told her I planned on wearing it the next winter, during the next pregnancy . . . and I did.

    "Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crisis."   -Elizabeth Zimmerman (she had SO many good things to say about knitting and life.)

    I hope your new year is full of hope and many wonderful memories.

hat check . . . 10, 11, 12, & 13

    The hat count is slowing down, but still going.  

    There is a rumor of snow for next week.  I don't believe it.

hat check . . . 7, 8 & 9

    There are a rainbow of reasons why I'm loving knitting up these hats.

    These three have me on the lookout for my old kaleidoscope.  The top topper is knit in this pattern from tin can knits.  Although it doesn't show up well in these stripes, it was a fun and fast knit that I will make again.

hat check . . . 4, 5, & 6

    The evening knitting continues.  I'm surprised at the thickness of some of this old yarn.  I wonder if I could spin wool this fat again?  My hands sometimes ache wrapping themselves around it and the big needles, but it knits up so fast.  It seems there are pros and cons to most everything these days.  Maybe that means life is balancing itself out?

    This next one, it's a wild one . . . can't stop thinking it looks like clown barf.

stuffed

    Stuff.  There is so much of it.  After 23 years of not having a cable to our house, the new internet required it.  I cleaned out the end of the room where the box would go.  Moving Stuff to the other to deal with later.  Turns out it had to go in the other end…MY end.  Where my Stuff lives.  One thing led to another, like dominoes, and I started going through some of the STUFF.  It seems to grow and multiply with each basket I go through.

    New goal:  To knit through the baskets of early spinnings.  The thick yarns that I'd forgotten about, or ignored.

    In the evenings, when my hands want to move, but my brain doesn't, and the eyes are tired and unfocussed.

    No patterns, just trying them on my head as I go.

    When there is a pile, they will be donated.  Where they can be useful, keeping people warm and snug, and unstuffing a corner of my life.