Holiday Aquamarines?

An old roomie of mine used to talk about having the aquamarines. Not as dark as the blues, but a little out of kilter. I used to be a great lover of this Solstice/Christmas celebration. Gift making and giving, crazy pagan customs dressed up as Catholic ritual. People who dress in careful neutrals all year dragging dead trees into their living rooms and going wild with lights and colors. Lately, though, it seems to be more something to be survived. At this time of year I miss my parents, I miss my brother, I miss absent friends. I think the more losses you have in your life, the tougher the holidays can be. And as we age, losses are inevitable.

Or is it because there are no tiny ones making Christmas presents with me? I still make gifts with my godkids, but now that they are in high school and college it is a different sort of fun. My father loved Christmas, although after my mother died it wasn’t quite the same for him. But he still looked forward to embarrassing us with tacky light displays and an overabundance of ‘décor’. One year he called me from a business trip somewhere and said he just couldn’t get into the Christmas spirit. His solution was to go a shopping mall. That would kill any remaining bit of Christmas spirit if you ask me. I’ve successfully avoided that so far this year. Right now I am looking at piles of socks that I have worked on over the past year, putting them away for Christmas.

This is one reason I don’t like to make toe-up socks. I often have no idea of the identity of the recipient of the sock, so I make sock blanks.

When Christmas rolls around, I can add a suitable few rows to adjust the length and away we go. Several friends and family each year when asked about what they want, always respond “Socks.” So they get them. It is a very pleasant feeling to have one’s work appreciated, is it not?

I should be working on gifts I need to finish, but I don’t feel like it. I’d rather play with this beautiful skein of yarn I got from Anne at Wooly Wonka in a swap and make something for me.

Mitts? A headband? It’s a sport weight blend of 90% cormo and 10% angora. The yarn is so springy and lovely and soft. And it is so cold and dark out. Not that I mind the dark and the cold. I look forward to the long, cold evenings of January and February where no one expects much of you, each weekend isn’t crowded with too many activities, there are no outside chores to be done, and you can hang out and knit and read and watch movies and enjoy your down time.

I’ll get over it. I always do. But right now I’m feeling a little Charlie Brownish. I always loved A Charlie Brown Christmas as a kid, but didn’t really understand the part where he revealed his feelings about Christmas, “I think there’s something wrong with me. I just don’t understand Christmas. I like getting presents, sending cards, decorating tress and all that. But I always end up feeling sad.”

Maybe I just need to get out my copy of the Grinch. And A Christmas Story. And the 1951 Christmas Carol. Good thing we still have a VCR…

˜MLE

The Hills Are Alive

I taught my Mini Sock workshop at the Yarnery on Saturday. Six brave knitters came out in the sub zero weather and completed their minisocks in record time. This was definitely the gifted and talented group.

Esther (in the middle) said she hadn’t knitted in 40 years, but her daughter wanted a mom-made item for Christmas, so she was going right for socks. That’s confidence!

I also got a tap on the shoulder during class and was told that Sister Margaretta was in the shop and would like to see me. Whaa?? Thirteen years of Catholic School are not buried that deep. But I wasn’t in trouble. The Sound of Music is playing at the Ordway Theater here in St. Paul and several cast members are knitters and have discovered that the Yarnery is quite close to downtown.

Melissa Hart, who plays Sister Margaretta, is making a Pleated Scarf in Silky Merino. I chatted with her and her friend Paul (who also plays a nun, really, he said so) — she had such kind things to say about the pattern. Her scarf  looked beautiful. If I were on the ball about such things, I would have snapped a photo. A Tony-nominee knitting one of my designs is very exciting!

MLE 

I Seam to Have a Problem

Check out this picture. Look closely.

These sleeves clearly do not match. And the worst part? I took out the sleeve seam that was wrong and re-did it exactly the same way. I would like to blame this on a vicodin-enduced fog that I lived in for a while after dental surgery, but this happened before the surgery. Then I got cellulitis of the face post surgery. Verrrrry attractive. But really, no excuse for my failure to seam.

I am begging all of you who know me. Do NOT let me make another sweater that is worked flat and sewn together. I have wanted to make Moonlight (Rowan) for a long time. I toyed with the idea of using the design concept, which is so cute, and adapting it to a top-down, my preferred method of knitting sweaters. But no, not me. I cast on and went wild. I made adjustments for the armhole depth, as I was using heavy yarn and wanted it to be more jacket like, so no tight, high, armholes. I also checked the sleeve length, and added some length for my long arms. Perfect. No problem. Except that Miss Smart Intelligent forgot that adding to the armhole depth would also add to the sleeve length, and ended up with sleeve several inches too long. So I had to chop them off above the cuff, pick up stitches and make a new cuff.

Then, I had decided to put in a zipper, rather than buttons. More aggravation finding the right size zipper. I finally ordered one online. When it arrived it was not exactly the color I wanted. Too bad. In it went. (I always put zippers in by hand, even in fabric garments, in case you are wondering.) Now I am waiting to sew on a facing over the zipper so I can actually wear the damn thing. Another strange quirk of mine. No nekked zippers in jackets/cardigans. They must be modestly covered with a facing at all times.

I may learn to love this sweater, but all I see when I look at it is a vague irritation. The color Yorkshire Tweed Aran I used is called “Damp” — perhaps that had something to do with it. Since I have been leaving at dark o’clock and returning around the same time, there is not a good photo for you to criticize my crappy set in sleeves, so a bad one will have to do.

The lovely and talented Miss Incaknits has promised to help me with my photography, so at some point there may be better photos. She also put out an APB on me, since I have been missing in action of late. Awww, so nice. I have been in a funk lately, and that made my day.

MLE

Wish I’d bought stock in Google

I was googling my name to find a shop in Atlanta that sells my patterns. (I’ll be teaching some workshops down there next fall). Didn’t find the shop, but I did come across a strange juxtaposition of the different parts of my life: solid waste and knitting patterns.

My office job involves editing in the environmental assistance arena, such as electronics recycling, waste reduction, global warming, living green. Especially now, it’s an amazing place to be working.

My in-the-wee hours job is designing knitting patterns and working with yarn. Really, that’s hardly a job, except at 2 in the morning when I’m trying to do knitting math.

The two halves of my life come together in Google. Seems strangely cosmic. Wish I’d bought stock in Google.
I just finished a smaller version of #130 Modular Felted Tote. Here it is. It’s out of Malabrigo (yummy yarn).

Be sure to check out Susan Rainey’s version.
Theresa