In the past week, I have spent a fair amount of time in my car traveling to and from the hospital to visit Dad. This has become an opportunity to catch up on some of my Podcasts, including the popular Cast-On by Brenda Dayne. (For the record, I am a girl who LOVES her Ipod. It is one of the greatest inventions EVER.)
In Episode 27, Brenda does an essay about "the church of knitting." She talks about how she finds solace, peace, and insight in the act of knitting creation. Knitting as a spiritual practice. Without getting into a big discussion about the ever volatile subject of religion, this piece really spoke to me. It has been an intensely stressful week. Where I have found peace, where I have found comfort - has been in my knitting. The calm it brings to me is immediate. The quiet click of my needles, the repetitive motion of looping the yarn over, the act of creating have all been very good for my soul this week. As I sit in the hospital, I knit as I keep my dad company. When I'm home worrying about things, knitting helps me relax and focus. If I had not had my knitting at the theatre this week, I am certain that there would have been a lot of actors standing in the dark. So, knitting is my church, my little respite from the world. I like how that sounds.
My hospital project has been my sheep puppet. I so love working on this. I haven't done fair isle in a while and I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. I am holding the yarn in both hands - one color in each hand- knitting continental with my left and throwing with my right. I have yet to find a comfortable way to hold the yarn in my right hand. I'm basically holding a small clump of yarn in my hand and throwing it. Even though it's a little awkward, it's kind of working for me.
Here is my progress so far:
The inside floats...
I am quite pleased with this, but of course there are a few issues. This puppet is a little on the tight side. It just barely fits over my hand. (gauge? What gauge??) So, I am hoping that some serious blocking will loosen it up a bit and make it wearable. (do you 'wear' a puppet?) Depending on how this turns out in the end, I am contemplating entering it in the Howard County Fair. I have to decide whether to enter the sheep puppet or the chicken - you can only enter one toy. So, I guess I'll have to wait and see how the sheep turns out. I also need to figure out if can enter one knit toy and one crocheted toy as they are two different categories. It looks like you can only enter one toy, period. But I'll double check on that. I made a crocheted elephant last year that could possibly go to the fair too.
My other project of the week is this:
Socks for my sister's birthday present.
As much as I really want to work on the sheep, these have to become my top priority knit as my sister's birthday is in a little over a week. Since I really didn't have any sock yarn in my stash to choose from (cough, cough..read intense sarcasm here.) I stopped at StitchDC and bought this yarn. It's called ONline Supersocke 100 in City Color. I had never heard of it before. I can't decide how I feel about the colorway. It's looking a little too camouflage-y to me. But the different shades of blue are pretty and perfect for June Project Spectrum of course. (Not really intentional, but a nice bonus!) Hopefully my sister will like them, despite the fact that they will be a little too warm to wear in June!
I'm not really following any specific pattern yet - just a basic toe-up, two at the same time. I haven't quite decided what I want to do with the leg/cuff. I'll probably do just a simple 2x2 rib all the way up the leg, but I am open to suggestion. I just don't want a busy pattern that will compete with the colors.
Did you all see the exciting news over at MamaE? A KNITTING CRUISE!!! How cool is that??? You can get all the dish over at her site. I am seriously contemplating this - it sounds so awesome. But I may wait till the Fall 2007 trip. We shall see!
Check it out!!!!
And finally, I saw that I have two new subscribers on Bloglines. Welcome!!! I hope all you lurking subscribers will come out and say hello one day!
Have a great weekend everyone.
In Episode 27, Brenda does an essay about "the church of knitting." She talks about how she finds solace, peace, and insight in the act of knitting creation. Knitting as a spiritual practice. Without getting into a big discussion about the ever volatile subject of religion, this piece really spoke to me. It has been an intensely stressful week. Where I have found peace, where I have found comfort - has been in my knitting. The calm it brings to me is immediate. The quiet click of my needles, the repetitive motion of looping the yarn over, the act of creating have all been very good for my soul this week. As I sit in the hospital, I knit as I keep my dad company. When I'm home worrying about things, knitting helps me relax and focus. If I had not had my knitting at the theatre this week, I am certain that there would have been a lot of actors standing in the dark. So, knitting is my church, my little respite from the world. I like how that sounds.
My hospital project has been my sheep puppet. I so love working on this. I haven't done fair isle in a while and I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. I am holding the yarn in both hands - one color in each hand- knitting continental with my left and throwing with my right. I have yet to find a comfortable way to hold the yarn in my right hand. I'm basically holding a small clump of yarn in my hand and throwing it. Even though it's a little awkward, it's kind of working for me.
Here is my progress so far:
The inside floats...
I am quite pleased with this, but of course there are a few issues. This puppet is a little on the tight side. It just barely fits over my hand. (gauge? What gauge??) So, I am hoping that some serious blocking will loosen it up a bit and make it wearable. (do you 'wear' a puppet?) Depending on how this turns out in the end, I am contemplating entering it in the Howard County Fair. I have to decide whether to enter the sheep puppet or the chicken - you can only enter one toy. So, I guess I'll have to wait and see how the sheep turns out. I also need to figure out if can enter one knit toy and one crocheted toy as they are two different categories. It looks like you can only enter one toy, period. But I'll double check on that. I made a crocheted elephant last year that could possibly go to the fair too.
My other project of the week is this:
Socks for my sister's birthday present.
As much as I really want to work on the sheep, these have to become my top priority knit as my sister's birthday is in a little over a week. Since I really didn't have any sock yarn in my stash to choose from (cough, cough..read intense sarcasm here.) I stopped at StitchDC and bought this yarn. It's called ONline Supersocke 100 in City Color. I had never heard of it before. I can't decide how I feel about the colorway. It's looking a little too camouflage-y to me. But the different shades of blue are pretty and perfect for June Project Spectrum of course. (Not really intentional, but a nice bonus!) Hopefully my sister will like them, despite the fact that they will be a little too warm to wear in June!
I'm not really following any specific pattern yet - just a basic toe-up, two at the same time. I haven't quite decided what I want to do with the leg/cuff. I'll probably do just a simple 2x2 rib all the way up the leg, but I am open to suggestion. I just don't want a busy pattern that will compete with the colors.
Did you all see the exciting news over at MamaE? A KNITTING CRUISE!!! How cool is that??? You can get all the dish over at her site. I am seriously contemplating this - it sounds so awesome. But I may wait till the Fall 2007 trip. We shall see!
Check it out!!!!
And finally, I saw that I have two new subscribers on Bloglines. Welcome!!! I hope all you lurking subscribers will come out and say hello one day!
Have a great weekend everyone.
posted by Coleen at 1:28 AM
3 Comments:
Wow, the fair isle is beautiful! Can't wait to see how it turns out!
So true - knitting to me is peace and a way to relax my mind. My inner sanctuary!
I can't wait to see the puppet! I love doing 2 handed fair isle also, but i have a hard time with my left hand! Maybe we should combine and we'll be good to go!
missed you tonight - hope you're hanging in...
screw meditative knitting, why is my word verification seventeen letters long and all easy to confuse ones? Does it realize I'm dyslexic? geez, it's killing me here...
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