Author: marianna

Last November after I came home from a 20 day hospital stay after a massive heart attack, quadruple bypass surgery, and a pulmonary embolism I decided to finish all my started knitting projects and knit a sweater for Stephen. I looked through every bin and basket and finished tons of socks. Since socks go missing in the wash I must have thought why knit the one that gets lost anyway, save myself some time. Well, it doesn’t work that way. I also made a sweater for Stephen to replace the ones I made 20 plus years ago with arms that stretched to the floor by now, or arms that never stretched, and other imperfections.

I did good. Though I avoided major unfinished projects. There is a cardigan I made for myself. All it needs is seaming together. That’s my, well, what’s the word here? Let me just say, I might be in a nursing home or dead before this thing will be finished.

Now I do have a friend who offered to do it for me, but I’m stubborn, and also see it as a teaching opportunity for myself. Plus, I’m a control freak. If that means, I’ll never wear this thing, so be it.

But I digressed. I need to acknowledge here that in four months I managed to produce more unfinished objects than I finished. Part of this is Stephen’s fault. He had to get me a gift certificate for my local yarn store. Did he not know what that would lead to? Does he know me so little after almost 33 years? Or does he care so little? Well, in that case….

Last evening, Thursday evenings, when a few of us get together and knit, I finished knitting the man purse. Actually, I ran out of yarn and was too lazy to get up and get some more. It also looked big enough. For now I’m holding out on the felting as there are other projects that need felting and finishing first. Let’s do them all together.

During my recovery I had a friend who checked in on me daily by phone. She even cooked some meals for us. So I decided to knit a pair of socks in gratitude. Turns out, her house is full of cloth moths and she refuses to use anything toxic. Did you know that of the over 15,000 types of moths only two devour animal fibers? Well, she has them and can’t use anything with wool in it. A sock out of cotton? How about acrylic? I’m a sort of yarn snob, but even in the unmentionable fibers I found nothing suitable.

That’s when it happened. Checking out a tiny, packed to the ceiling craft store, I saw a yarn that read wool-free sock yarn. It must have been the psychedelic neon colors that drew my attention. What was I supposed to do? Miss my one chance of paying back my friend who once mentioned she loves colorful socks?

This picture does not do justice to the screaming colors, but you get the idea.

I will only be knitting one and then get her opinion before I continue.

There is some wool yarn that has been stalking me for years after my love affair with it has long gone. 20 plus years later I gave up on ever making the kids little coats. I did not know at the time they would be in their 20s by the time I got around to actually using the yarn, so I had bought way too little.

My go-to item for thicker yarn of which I only have a small quantity is a hat. Now that my repertoire has expanded it might include fingerless mitts. But a few years back a hat it was. There was enough to make many hats but I limited myself to two. Son Toby never wore his and eventually returned it. Husband Stephen was much nicer about it but eventually also complained about the itchiness of the material.

Earlier this year I’ve tried a man shoulder bag that I frogged yesterday and started over. This time it’ll be a felted man bag. But it might have different dimensions from my intentions. I know that felting can change a lot, but this bag is too wide to keep hope alive. I could sew it sideways for a different bag, wider than tall. It is the fashion now, right?

Or I will give up and throw or give the yarn away. Here is a picture of my latest attempt.

Good intentions and all, I just can’t get in the habit of writing this blog. The knitting seems to get in the way. Having finished a sweater for Stephen yesterday I find myself at a loss for a new ‘big’ project. You know, the one I get to buy tons of yarn for, plan, find a pattern, plan, find the right colors, plan, find the yarn, plan….
For now I’ll settle on socks and fingerless gloves etc. little projects. I don’t have enough friends that need fingerless gloves. It has been way too warm in Northern California. If this is a hint of climate change to come, I fear for the knitting industry here.
The pattern of the sweater in the picture has been haunting me for a while. It’s simple, but it was speaking to me, loudly. There is another pattern from a book of Japanese knits I believe that is screaming out loud to be knitted by me. If only I could remember the book…. This is what happens, I’m in the store with Stephen browsing knitting books, finding a pattern or two. I will ask him to write down the name of the books, Stephen is very handy that way, always ready with pen and a tiny piece of paper and tiny handwriting. I would have to search for my glasses first, ask someone for paper and pen, and never find it again in my purse. Stephen has all these little papers in his pockets and ready for me when needed. Except when he releases these papers to me and they are tiny and oh so hard to find again.
Why don’t I buy the books? If there is only one pattern I like it seems sort of an expensive adventure. I look at our library first, then if I find something like it on ravelry. This system works pretty well for me.