Knithropology

Hello there! I don’t really know how to start this post, seeing as I’ve been gone for so long and there has been so much happening. I suppose we’ll start with the worst of it. Have a look at these four FOs:

After completing the Mumpotis, the Mumhats (I and II) and the My So-Called Wolf, I packed them all up in a box and they were sent to my mum. They never arrived. Truth is, things are fraught between my mother and I, and I thought her lack of response was part of all that. The simple reality? She didn’t get it. Months of knitting, gone. I wanted to knit those things for my mother because she lives very high up in the mountains and needed to be warm when she went to care for her wolves. I knit those things to show her that no matter how awful things got between us, I still care. And they never got to her.

As I write this, I’m waiting to hear the results of the MRI my mother had yesterday. Tests she’s had since a nasty fall a few months ago (which resulted in concussion and possible permanent brain injury) revealed that she has a brain lesion. It is very difficult to stop myself thinking the worst. She told me the other night that since the fall, she has no cold tolerance anymore - she said she could really have used the things I knitted.

And that, as they say, was that. After getting off the phone with her, I cried like I haven’t cried in years. Big gulping, heaving, keening sobs. I had tried to do something right by her, tried to show her that I care, but a cruel trick had lost it all in the post. The package hadn’t been insured or made trackable. And of course, the knitted things weren’t much - no Henry VIII or Icarus shawl - but she needed them.

My mother, seeing that she lives in a very, very small town, knows the folks that work at her local and semi-local post offices and is going to try and hung down the box. I live in a somewhat larger town where attempting that could well be impossible.  We’ll see. I am absolutely devastated.

I live in interesting times.

On the knitting front, things have been busy. I have loads of FOs and a few WIPs to share. Firstly, let’s have a look at the charity scarves I have knit for my uni’s new community knitting programme:

They are, respectively, the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf, the Irish Hiking Scarf, the Yarn Harlot’s One-Row Handspun Scarf (really) and a seed stitch stripey thing. They are knit in…ooh, let’s see if I can remember…Lion Brand Wool-ease, Vanna’s Choice, Plymouth Encore, Lion Brand Homespun, and some other various acrylics. Most of that was the yarn provided, the remaining was from my old acrylic pile. Happily enough, someone will benefit from a grumpiness fit I had whilst knitting these - NO MORE ACRYLIC, said my hands, and I have listened. All of that old acrylic, as well as all of my stash I no longer have the mojo or desire to knit or crochet with, was packed into four carrier bags and is destined for a charity shop. That leaves me a lot more room in my stashing area for happy things like my Malabrigo Worsted, Skye Tweed, Noro Kureyon, Cascade 22o, Crystal Palace Taos and one beautiful skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk in Masala bought for me by the lad. Ahhhhh, that’s better. Yarn I like rather than yarn that I feel pressured to use out of a misplaced sense of duty.

Right. Other FOs. The Beige-fighting Bag (otherwise known as a Booga Bag) was finished and felted:

It probably won’t be going to live in my office, as originally planned, as it is simply too useful of a bag and I love to look at the colours. Noro yarns, when they’re not plagued by the Dreaded Noro Knot, make me unbelievably happy.

Speaking of happy colours, here’s something that might well be frogged, but should be documented: It’s Always Sunny in Knitadelphia, or My So-Called Scarf.

Lovely, lovely, lovely. Malabrigo Worsted in Curacao. Why would I frog such a thing, you ask? Because I think I’ve found a pattern I like better for this yarn. Problem is, I can’t show it to you yet. I’m making a scarf in the same pattern for a friend at the moment and don’t want to let slip the surprise by showing you. Give me a week or two and we’ll talk.

And if you haven’t had enough of lovely colours and tantalising hints, here’s one more: this *has* been frogged. Farewell, Anti-Mountain Colour Fountain (Diagonal Dreams Mix):

It will return as the Anti-Mountain Colour Fountain (Drop-Stitch Remix) in a few weeks.

In the interest of finishing up some old WIPs, I set about sorting out that blanket I’d started all those months ago. It was too small to be a baby blanket, so it became a Bun Blanket:

She seems to like it well enough. I’ve also been working on some new washcloths - wahey seed stitch! Here’s a pic of one of them, though I’ve knit five. But you get the point. Knit, purl, knit purl, knit, purl. Alternate rows and repeat until your hands fall off. Here’s a picture pre-washing, before it shrunk into a square shape:

And finally, the tale of the French press cover that wasn’t. I tried to come up with a cover for my press based on the Lizard Ridge pattern but…I failed. Which is fine, as what was a really crap cover is now a really fab mini-placemat for my desk!

Here is the evolution of the Mini-Placemat, from unfulled to fulled fabulousness:

Beautiful, hey? It took part of a skein of Patons SWS and is big enough to hold my little bowl of oatmeal in the morning as I eat and read the news, and then it tucks away into my desk organiser. I couldn’t ask for a better placemat. Hurrah!

So there it all is, the last couple of months of finished things. I started and frogged a My So-Called scarf for the Lad in Malabrigo Worsted; I found another pattern I liked more. Malabrigo is just too squishy and stiff for that pattern, there’s no drape at all. Ah well. There are Koolhaases on the horizon, drop-stitch scarves, a Montego Bay scarf, and a top-down raglan cardi. There is also a scarf and possibly some chemo caps for a friend of mine who has recently begun breast cancer treatment. Ah, and there’s also a baby on the way for a good friend of mine, so I suspect I’ll be knitting my first Baby Surprise Jacket. There’s no end in sight when it comes to knitting, which is really nice. I’d rather too much than not enough.

I think. Eeek!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 8:30 am and is filed under Down and Out, Finished Objects, On the Needles.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.