Too Frazelled to Knit!!

Making a mistake in real life is much more difficult to repair than a knitting mistake. No "frogging" in real life!! No ability to simply rewind, and love the moment over, doing the right thing on the second go around.
We (husband, 14-year-old and I) were supposed to leave for Barcelona Spain last Saturday. Friday night we were copying our passports and discovered that our daughter's passport had expired!! Last month!! Take note, all of you international travellers. Children's passports are issued for only FIVE years, not ten years like adult passports. What to do?? Besides feel incredibly, incredibly stupid!! Daughter held up well; no weeping or carrying on. Husband was the one carrying on, anxiety ridden, etc., swearing, wondering whether the trip was doomed, etc. etc.
Unfortunately, nothing could be done until Monday. I did the best thing possible--convinced Husband that he should take the scheduled flight to Barcelona and I would sort things out on the home front.
So, husband took the Sat. a.m. flight . On Sunday I called the passport agency's hotline for making appointments to get emergency passports. I got an appointment for July 3. Not good. Not at all good. But, I kept my cool and my daughter and I went to the zoo!
On Monday morning I called our U.S. senator's office. By 9:00 they had arranged an appointment for me at the passport office in Chicago--a three hour drive away--at 12:30. By 9:15 I had awoken the 14 year old and we were in the car heading for the Windy City. By 4:00 p.m. we had her passport in hand. Also by 2:30 we had new reservations for tomorrow at no extra cost and with no penalty!! We couldn't believe it.
The trip home from Chicago was at a modest and relaxed 65 m.p.h., unlike the mad dash down there.

Normally, in times of crisis I knit. I was too upset to knit much this weekend. I couldn't even concentrate on garter stitch. Nevertheless, I made two more squares for my full body sock blanket--it now has 56 squares!! When finished, it should have 108 squares. I need to find more knitters with left over sock yarn to share!!

I am now running last minute errands, packing yarn for the trip and getting ready to start my new Violets by the River shawl.

I will provide a travelblog here along with Violets by the River progress at various European sites. I figured a sock in the photos would not have enough "class' for Barcelona and Paris. (Sorry, Stephanie!). Rather, a lovely lace shawl would be just the right thing....

Oh, about the cow--The Cow Parade has come to our town. We saw Cows on Parade in Barcelona in spring 2005. Here in Wisconsin, the cows are decorated more on a cow theme--since this is the Dairy State!! The Barcelona cows were very artistic. These cows are, well, cows!

To shape or not to shape, that is the question

I recently read someone's blog (I'm sorry, I don't recall which one) and she was commenting on how her toes are oddly shaped. She wondered whether she should make "anatomically" correct socks to fit her toes. Someone responded that anatomically correct socks wear out faster. Well, I'm adding my two cents to the discussion. I have weird feet, according to the common sock shaping. After making dozens of pairs of socks, I have concluded that my feet prefer shaping that reflect their idiosyncrasies. I dislike socks that pull on my toes, as do all store-bought ones. Plus, I figure that if I take the time to make socks for MY feet, they should fit perfectly.
Therefore, I shape the toes for my right foot,

and for my left foot. And, after four years of doing so, I can attest to the fact that they do not wear out any more quickly than non-correctly-shaped socks. I use wooly nylon under the ball of the foot (running it along with the yarn) and then, once I begin shaping for the asymmetrical toes, I hold the two together for the entire shaping. No problems. And my feet love them. (by the way, these socks were made with Regia ocean color, the cotton/wool/nylon yarn, using the feather and fan pattern from Socks, Socks, Socks.)

Last post I talked about the neighbor who has brain cancer and is undergoing both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Her spirits are high and she even walks to the hospital for treatment!!! Now, that's a dedicated woman. Here's the chemo hat I made for her. It turns out that on the very same day I gave her the hat, another friend gave her a lime green blouse that matches!! Who says knitter's aren't karmic??

PRAISE THE LORD, IT'S SUMMER!!!

Oh, I love the flowers of summer. We have spectacular botanical garden in our city, that has been named one of the best botanical gardens in the U.S. I took my mother there yesterday. The acres and acres of gardens are all handicapped accessible and the center makes battery operated "scooters" available, at no charge, to people who otherwise couldn't visit the gardens. My mom opted to wait for the scooter, rather than be pushed in a wheelchair. My youngest daughter, age 14, looked at all the displays through the lens of her camera. Can you guess what this is??

Does this next photo help?? Yes, it's a photo taken through the kaleidoscope situated over a revolving basket of flowers!! We could spend all day looking at the everchanging views!
This is a splendid little white flower, name unknown. It looks as if some embroiderer found a plain white flower, and added a little embellishment!!
And these bells! Every exhibit takes my breath away. Next week I plan to take my knitting to the garden, to simply sit in the splendor and meditate while knitting.

Curing pain

Last week I learned that a mother in the village where I live was in the hospital for brain surgery--a large tumor. She has three children, two boys and one girl; the youngest is in 6th grade. When I started piano lessons at age 50, the six-grader was in first grade and she and I were the oldest and youngest students at the recitals. One of the boys is in my 14 year old's class. the village women have rallied to provide meals, laundry service, carpooling for the kids, etc., for as long as necessary. I have been making a chemo-hat, using a pattern from Rowan's Calmer collection. Calmer is such a soft, soft yarn. I hope Nancy likes it and wears it with healing thoughts in her mind.

Two months ago we learned that a former neighbor's cancer had returned, this time in more locations. He is the father of two little boys, ages 3 and 9 months. I knit a christening gown for his youngest son. Although family members have been helping out, I also try to take care of the boys for the afternoon sometimes to give the mother a rest--or an opportunity to do something without interruption.

How I wish that knitting could cure their tumors and their pain, the way it eases my anxiety and softens my spirit. How fortunate that Neither I nor my family members have cancer. (Although, my husband's oldest child died of AIDS at age 40). We tend to think that we are tough, that we can fix any problem with life just as we fix our knitting mistakes. Cut out and re-graft a knitting error and all is fine. Cut out a tumor and tiny little bits remain, requiring painful and debilitating treatment.

Knitting is a restorer of and cure for the spirit and the soul. But, if only I could also restore and cure bodies as well.

Lost: Violets by the River Shawl

I am beside myself with grief. Two weeks ago I could not find my Violets by the River Shawl. However, because I was over my head in completing assignments for the end of the semester, I did not have time to seriously look for it. Well, this morning I looked. it is no where to be found!! I made the shawl from a Hazel Carter pattern while I was living in Barcelona, Spain. It reminded me of my native Wisconsin, in whose honor she designed the shawl. It has violets--the state wild flower, rivers--the Mississippi and the Wisconsin and others, honeybees--the state insect (contrary to popular belief, the mosquito is NOT Wisconsin's state insect!!). I worked on the shawl mostly while sitting in the magnificent Turo Park, just around the corner from our apartment building. I had so many good feelings when I wore that shawl, from Barcelona and my beloved home state. I am beside myself with grief.

End of the semester!!

It's been a long time, it seems, since my last post. I have been overwhelmed with completing my end of the semester projects and papers. I can now say that I have finished everything!!! Last week, I had completed the work for two of my courses. This week, I completed one 17 page paper and two 2-page papers on Tuesday morning. I handed them in and took off for my parent's home, about a 3 hour drive from my home. My mother has had a very difficult year health-wise and she doesn't have the energy or strength to plant flowers. She has always had nice flowers around her house. This year she said she would not plant anything, because my parents will be going to stay at my sister's home in Colorado for 5 weeks. Mom was afraid that anything she planted would not grow--and besides, she couldn't plant anyway. Therefore, for Mothers' Day, I told her I would plant flowers for her as soon as I finished my papers. So, on Tuesday afternoon, I took off. I planted little pink vincas along the walk and geraniums and a trailing plant in the large pots. Someone will come to water the plants every week. I love doing these things for my mom, but I hate that she can no longer do them herself, if you know what I mean. Meanwhile, progress on the full body sock blanket (i.e. leftover sock yarn balnket) progress has stalled because I'm knitting the socks to get the leftover yarn!! I recently finished jaywalkers and the leftover yarn is the pale green and gold square in the bottom row. I'm currently working on socks in my favorite pattern of all time, the feather and fan socks from Socks, Socks, Socks. Meanwhile, the blanket has 39 squares. I'm planning on having 96 squares. You can see that I need to knit lots and lots of socks. However, I am reconciled to this being a long term project.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to finish my spring cleaning--in knitter's talk that means finishing old projects!. A few weeks ago, I finished the little girl's hooded sweater out of ancient but adorable yarn. Now, I'm trying to finish this sweater for myself, started before Christmas. It is a Dale of Norway pattern, using their discontinued yarn, Sisik. Since I am a woman of significantly more years than this lovely model, I plan to eliminate the little flower do-dad where the fronts join. I also eliminated the pockets because I thought they would make me look too hippy (that is, too big in the hips, not too much like the young flower child I once was). I have completed the back and fronts and am now finishing the sleeves. The sleeve on the needles is on its third iteration!!! Here's the StupidSleeve Knitter's History:
1. Knit sleeve #1. Too narrow. Leave as is.
2. Knit sleeve #2. Amend pattern. Just right.
3. Frog Sleeve #1.
4. Begin re-knitting Sleeve #1. Work about 5 inches.
5. Abandon for another project. (No longer recall which project.)
6. Months later, locate sleeve #1. Unable to locate pattern. Merrily knit away, using memory as guide.
7. Ready for sleeve cap decreasing on sleeve #1. Compare to Sleeve #2. TOO NARROW.
8. Frog Sleeve #1 for second time. My parents watch in horror. How can you rip out all that work????? Because I'm stupid, that's why!
9. Locate pattern and notes. Work on sleeve #1. So far, soo good.
10. Take vow to complete Sleeve #1 this weekend!! DO NOT START ANOTHER PROJECT UNTIL THIS SWEATER IS COMPETE!!!!
I'm in the home stretch, now. I plan to finish the sweater this weekend, if gardening doesn't intervene.

It is so difficult to convince my husband that knitting is much more important than yard work.......

First jaywalkers

Well, typically I don't jump on many bandwagons. But, I decided to try Jaywalker socks, because everyone seemed to be making them and I am always looking for a sock that stays up on my legs. So, here are my very first Jaywalkers, made out of a cotton/wool sock yarn, I think by Opal. I lost the label for the yarn! So sorry. I try to knit cotton/wool blend socks for the transition from winter to spring and fall to winter.
I find that the cotton/wool blend yarns knit more loosely and are not as elastic as wool/nylon blends. Therefore, my first attempt with this yarn was to use the full number of stitches. The cuff ended up "toooo loose", so I ripped it out, cast on fewer stitches and did the zig-zag design with six rather than seven stitches between increases and decreases. Well, this was "tooooo tight. So I ripped again and started with a reduced number of stitches for the cuff, then increased to the correct number for the zig-zag and this was "juuuuuusssst right."

Although the pattern is fine, I find that my favorite pattern is still the feather and fan stitch pattern, from Socks, socks, socks.



Nevertheless, my feet are very happy in the jaywalkers and I will try the pattern again this fall with wool only.

Here in Wisconsin the weather has been rain, cold, wind, rain, cold, wind. Not as much rain as in the northeast. My heart goes out to the flooded knitters in the Northeast of the U.S. May your yarn stay dry!

Dear, dear friends

Dear, dear friends,
The time is coming when we must part. I just want you to know that I have loved you deeply and that you will always remain close to my (feet), err, heart. Your midnight sky/aurora borealis color has always brought joy to my eyes. I know that your start in life was a bit troubled. I am positive that in 2001 I had two skeins of your mother-form in my yarn suitcase in Norway. But, somehow, on the Hurtigruten ferry, north of the arctic circle, one somehow was lost! Maybe it was found by a Norwegian knitter who loved your partner as much as I love you!

Oh, I have so many fond memories of knitting you at midnight, in full light, on the deck of the "Midnat Sol", watching the tundra slip slowly by, gazing at fjords, looking for the next small town on the horizon and proundly showing your increasing size to fellow passengers. I know you learned a lot of Norwegian on that trip.

And then, the traumatic frogging, when I realized that your partner skein could not be found. You sobbed in agony as I gently pulled you apart, to the instep, where I added an interloper plain-skein. I know, initially she wasn't as beautiful as your mottled electric colorway, but you graciously came to accept her as part of you. You understood the necessity of having two matching socks for my two feet.

Your life has been full back in the cold of Wisconsin. You proudly showed yourselves to several years of young kids who were learning how to knit at the local elementary school. And you blushed when a visiting Norwegian commented on your beauty. I know you wanted to travel back to your birthplace in Norway with her, but you consented to stay here in Wisconsin where your warmth was needed in the winter. You happily accepted many new friends in the sock drawer, but none were as lovely as you.

I realize that you endured traumatic surgery (duplicate stitch mending) with plain-skein blue to cover the places where you had worn thin. You even endured mending of the mending. Your scars never completely healed. And I know that pilling and fading is just a sign of many years of loving wear. And I recognize that you are the first pair of my socks to be lovingly retired. This makes you very, very special.

I promise that I will not put you in a trash receptacle with leftover food and other smelly grossness. I promise that I will cherish you, wearing you only in bed on cold Wisconsin nights. You will not need to go out in public again, since I know that it embarrases you to be seen by others, you are a shadow of your former brilliant beauty and shape.

Rest assured that I will make another pair in your honor from Socks, Socks, Socks, that accompanied me to Norway. I can't find another yarn to match your unique colorway, but I will use the same pattern, Gull Wings.

I will never forget you, dear, dear friends.

Love,

Gail