I have been sad about having to say goodbye to a woman I adore and really, love.  We have met with her, my wonderful daughter and I, each week for nearly six years.  We have laughed and cried and grown, Oh my Lord, have we grown together. 

My sweet child was six years old when we met, and now she is, well, not six years old anymore.  Music had something to do with our relationship, something called a Suzuki triangle.  For about an hour a week, it was more like we were in therapy, where mother and daughter had the most wonderful interpreter, impeccable.  I love her. 

She is going home.  In a musical piece, there is often a part that repeats, wrapped around a ‘middle section’.  Our violin teacher spent her ‘middle section’, the part of her life where she moved away to make her own way, here in Colorado.  Now NY is calling her back.  Boo.  No fair. 

This sage green cashmere yarn matches our dear one’s eyes.  I would have knit this for her anyway,even if she weren’t flying away, I mean.  I have knit a couple of items for her over the years….a warm hat (when I learned to knit in the round and do cables) and some hand-painted socks (when I learned to knit socks).  Those items have some mistakes in them, and my violin teacher doesn’t care about that. 

 This shawl does not have any mistakes in it.  I’m a better Knitter, now. 

I’ve never had to say Goodbye before.  I know the world is smaller than it was in the past.  There is email, and flights can be found for cheap.  But when you see someone THIS often and then, no, you don’t see her anymore at all, that really is Goodbye, isn’t it? 

Check out this darker photo.  I like it:

One thing that I would have done differently if she weren’t flying away, is, I might not have taken such care in packaging, presenting this to her. 

 I probably would have taken a cheap shirt box and wrapped it up with unused Christmas paper.  But this is the end of an important chapter, and I HAD to mark it somehow. 

Instead of the cheap shirt box and Christmas paper, I found a butterfly-printed fabric (appropriate) and carefully cut out each butterfly around the edges.   I wrapped the shawl in brown paper, and hand-sewed the edges with leftover cashmere.  I placed the paper parcel in a new bamboo bowl, and covered it all with the butterflies.  I wrote in her card, with the care instructions, Goodbye, Butterfly!

Someone I have known almost all my life, someone I admire very much, was in surgery a couple of weeks ago.  She was ‘under’ for over four hours.  The morning of her surgery, I cast on, using Judy’s magic cast-on, (more on that below) and just started knitting.  I knit for my friend every moment that I could during her surgery and for a couple of days afterward, while she recovered.  There is a certain uncertainty about surgery that made me want to send her my energy while she was unconscious.  Will they find what they expect?  (No, they did not.)  Will it go as planned (No, it did not.)  Will they find answers?  (Yes, they did.)  Will she be OK?  (Yes, she will.)  Medicine is mystical.  I have been somewhat dependent at different times on medicine  that helps me to breathe.  Well, actually, it opens up my airway after it has been completely closed.  I’ve wondered over the years, after countless inhaler puffs, how long I would have lived without an inhaler.  How long would my Amiga have lived if she hadn’t chosen this surgery?  Its a mystery. 

Judy’s Magic Cast On is a trick I learned from Cat Bordhi’s “Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters”, and I later perfected the technique in Cat’s “Engineering New Stitches” class on May 1st.  If you are considering knitting up a pouch or bag of any sort, (or a sock toe-up)  I would recommend this technique.  It is pretty fun!   It is especially usefull if you just want to knit, rather than worry about pattern or product, yet magically produce something useful.  It was perfect for the prayer-type knitting that resulted in this wonderully rich red silk bag. 

Project Linus

This is my version of the Kristin Nicholas ‘Hearts’ blanket.  I made this for Project Linus.

Michael took the blanket today to a woman who meets with colleagues and knits every Wednesday during her lunch hour.  The group’s knitting focus during this time is Project Linus.  I don’t work with these women and I’ve never met them, but I was welcomed to knit a blanket to give.  

I used Cascade 220 superwash, as the requirements are that the blanket must be able to be washed by machine.  I tried my hand at crochet again for the border.  This yarn reminds me of the colors of Play-Doh I once played with during my youth.  I really hope it will brighten the day of a child who has to stay in a hospital.   

By the way, I cast on the day I had a minor surgery myself.  I suppose Project Linus was on my mind while I was relegated to a bed myself, and what better way to cheer myself up than to have all of these colors of yarn spread all over my bed?

Muy Zen

I designed this scarf for my friend’s birthday present.  It has 39 stitches across the body.

The aqua color is a beaded silk and the darker blue is cashmere.

I hadn’t planned to use these two yarns together, and I still can’t decide if I love the color combination.

I do love the crocheted lace, though.  This scarf seemed to want to be a beautiful Japanese fish, so I went with it.  Can you see that the crocheted piece looks like the head of a fish?

I also love the Lotus Pattern, taken from Barbara Walker’s Treasury.  There are 39 “fringes”.

The models are special young ladies with generous spirits.(I bribed them with Mediterranean food.)

Sarah and Barbara and Karen and me (and Lilac Cashmere)

This is a scarf I am making for my friend Karen, from Sarah’s Yarns-100% Mongolian Cashmere 4-Ply in Rich Lilac.  2 Skeins.  The stitch pattern is from Barbara Walker’s 2nd Treasury and is called Ribbon Rib.  I can not rave about this stitch pattern enough.  It isn’t leaves.  or flames.  It is only 1 row, but every 10 rows, the phase changes by 90 degrees.  That is a geeky way to say that every 10 rows, you begin the row with what had been at the center of the row below it.  Anyway, it looks like wood grain and has lovely stacked eyelets, which highlight the beauty of a simple cashemerian stockinette row, the length of the scarf.  Yes, I am having fun knitting this.  Especially on the bus.

 

mei mei

This is a young boy and his new little sister, or, “mei mei”.  My children are Japanese, but have an aunt, adopted from China, who has named her pet dog “Mei Mei”, the Chinese word for ‘little sister’.   This is all a bit confusing to this boy.

I took this photo this morning.  I like the grainy look it has.  It could  be two children from another time entirely, I think.

jyri

I took my  mom out for breakfast today.  Here in Boulder,   the ‘Original’ House of Pancakes is across the street from, well, really good yarn at Purl knit cafe.   One thing lead to another, and now I own  two hanks of Boticelli Red Malibrigo Kettle Dyed Sock yarn.
Jyri does not call for sock yarn.  I have ten ‘stuck’ projects, as I mentioned yesterday, mainly because I am bad at substituting yarn.
However, I have cast on 365 sts instead of the hundred or so fewer which Ms. Gaughan has specified.   I’m ever optimistic that this scarf will be beautiful.

New Baby

Marisela was born 6 weeks ago.  She’s amazing.  Well, just look at her!  That blanket is the thing that I have made which is unfinished.  She is the baby that is awesome.

Also, I’m going to teach a friend how to knit today.  I’m starting her with the Drops Baby scarf.  The link button is not available to me right now, so here is the URL:  http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=b14&d_id=16&lang=en

Plain old garter, with some shaping.  I’m going to have my friend do SSK instead of what the pattern calls for because….

(the following is a rant about the Drops Baby scarf)

I don’t get it.

It literally says “Now dec each side by knitting tog the last 2 but one sts on every other row until there are 4 sts left. ”

If I am only decreasing every other row and only on the last few sts, never decreasing the first few sts, then don’t I come back to the same side each time for the decreases?  I could see if this had said “every other ridge”, the way EZ counts garter ridges, but that would be too cumbersome to have to track, I mean, this is a garter stitch baby scarf, not an all-out Norah Gaughan sweater!  (I just bought NG’s volume 1 which is the thing I have been wanting for a long long time…)  and my friend has to learn SSK at some point anyway, right?

Yet…there are hundreds of these things pictured in ravelry and not one single person has found the same issue.  It has to be me.  I’m going to do this instead:  K1, SSK, knit until 3 sts remain, K2tog, K1.  then just plain knit the alternating rows.  I tried it, it works, that is all.