The Mc and I have been bouncing up to NC nearly every weekend, and the hour and a half or so in the car provides much needed time to knit and quiet my mind. Current project (along with half a dozen started but not finished projects in various spots around the house awaiting a fit of knitting spontaneity [see also: motivation]) is a scarf for Karen. Just in time for summer.

The recipe I’m making up goes something like this:
*Knit approx what – 5 or 6 rows (? eyeball it)
Next row double wrap the needle on each stitch
When knitting the next row drop the extra stitch
Knit a row, repeat double wrap row
Knit 5 or 6 normal rows
When knitting the next row triple wrap the needle
Next row, drop the extra two stitches
Knit 5 or 6 rows…lather, rinse, repeat from *

https://www.ravelry.com

Still in beta and I’m on the dang wait list, but I’m super stoked to get out there and play and share pictures of my stash and my projects and steal ideas from brainiac knitters like Missy Gia. Thanks to my knitting teacher for telling me about it months ago, and the always lovely Megan for reminding me.

I lurvez me some knittin’. I also love sleep. Mmmmm. Sleeep.

In tandem with brining my body back to life since I’m such a mad multi-tasker/over do it-er/and make yourself crazy in the process-er, I’m trying to bring my mind back to life as well. Last night, I started a new knitting class at Knitch and *yeay for me* the other two students no showed. Instant “A” and all the attention I could possibly want and desperately need to ensure I actually absorb the information.

Over the next three weeks I’ll be:
~ Making a hat (which requires measuring and math, thank you) with flecking (aka stranding) for my wee noggin
~ Creating cables
~ Making lace

The best part? I didn’t even cry during the lesson.

In a box somewhere there’s a picture of me in a dark blue overall dress with white piping and a white tee under it. I’m wearing white tights and no shoes and I haven’t any hair because I’m only a baby.

In this picture I’m sitting on a blanket my Auntie Ellie (aka Sister Eleanor) made for me before our relocation to Alaska when I was six months old. That blanket, my hospital bracelet and a pacifier with a lamb head on it that’s corroded (no doubt from being dipped in Jim Beam) are the few items I have that lend any clues to my early years. For the rest I rely on my older sister and my mothers’ sister Moie.

When your folks pass away before you’re old enough to care about your heritage or ask about your history, homework becomes a part of your lifestyle.

My friend Joanne had a baby a few weeks ago and I’m making wee Nico a blanket all the while admiring my own baby blanket that’s still on hand though well worn with yarn nearly fused together after 34 years. I love that I can see where Ellie changed skeins because the ends have come untucked. I love that I can now appreciate the effort she put into that cotton square of my youth by looking at the various stitches and the yarn color changes.

And I have to wonder about nature versus nurture and why I picked up knitting and love it so much. Is it in my DNA? Is cabling for a fisherman’s sweater right there next to the tag that tells my eyes to be green/grey/blue depending on my mood/clothes/the weather? Does the same nature v nature explain why I have an inexplicable contentedness when lifting heavy objects and doing manual labor despite the fact that I’m an office jockey? Or is it possible that just doing something that varies from the norm tricks me in to thinking it feels right and that my old boss Jack was right in saying I’m a restless soul?

I might not have answers, but I have my blanket.

Yesterday I taught myself how to knit in the round, which yielded this…cuff?

Point being: I am a supreme badass now armed with the skills needed to make socks and beanies or jam you in the eye with a needle. Either way.

Hoppy Easta’, mah babies.

Monday night marked the final evening of my “learn to knit” class at Knitch, which means that everyone is getting really heinous handmade gifts for the holidays this year. Yeay!

Remarkably, three women gave up on knitting prior to the third class and one actually dropped out during the third class, letting her needles fall out of her hands and heavily onto the table and saying “I just don’t get it.”

Nine women enter, five women leave.

So what I have to show for it is this little picture of some poopy pink yarn made into a coaster with eyelets which on a larger scale could also supposedly be a washcloth or a baby blanket or a tarp for a house being exterminated. What I also have to show for it is a hobby I adore which could garner me honorary grandma status if I ever pick up crochet and macramé to round out my repertoire.

So to summarize, I’ve finally made it beyond the basic garter pattern scarf and have mastered: CO, K, P, YO, PO, K2TOG and BO which probably means jack squat to you but to me and a set of circular needles it could mean a hat or socks or a nice warm afghan.

I dream of felting.

~ Stop by Knitch on the way home for a few fresh balls of super chunky cashmarino in Ice Blue and Colonial Blue
~ Arrive home, immediately and turn BlackBerry off, leave it in the kitchen
~ Change into jammies and spa socks
~ Climb in bed with yarn, needles, and craptop
~ Order lunch from Bab’s and dessert from Chocolate Pink Cafe via Zifty
~ Receive lunch with lovely note and special gift from Jen (owner of Zifty, wife of Tyler and complete sweetheart)

~ Eat naughty, greasy appetizer in bed

~ Eat naughty, yummy lunch in bed

~ Attempt to eat naughty, illegal desert in bed (some assembly required), stop two bites in and save for later (so. damn. rich.)

~ Nap