Knithropology

Last time we started with the bad news, so let’s begin this time with the good. Are you ready?

My mother got her box of knits!

After talking to her postal carrier, leaflets were distributed to her neighbours and soon, a young man grudginly told his parents that he’d nicked the box. Luckily for everyone concerned, he hadn’t opened it - he’d forgotten that he’d hid it in his bedroom - and it was turned over to my mother. I mean, imagine if he had opened it; he would have binned everything inside. I mean, really - knitted things in feminine colours? Please. In the bin, no hesitating. But he didn’t open it, and now my mother has all of her things. When she told me, I sobbed some more. When she rang me up to open the box when I was on the line with her, then we both sobbed. So, happily and weirdly, the Mumpotis, the Mumhats (I and II) and the My So-Called Wolf are safe in their new home. No more sobbing required.

It was so important that she get those things and experience the happiness that came with them, especially with the news she received that same day. She has been diagnosed with a brain tumour that will require surgery within the next month. I don’t want to go into too much detail over these perilous internets, but she should be alright. It’s the best brain tumour one could have, really. The Aston Martin of brain tumours. I hope to tell you that she’s better in a few months; until then, I think this is where we’ll leave her story.

Knitting! I’ve been doing a lot of that. It seems slightly strange to be knitting a legion of scarves in the spring, but that’s where I am. First, there’s the [redacted], which is a gift for [redacted]. I’ll put up pictures when it changes hands. (That makes it sound like a hostage exchange, doesn’t it?) Until then, I have some other photos - admittedly taken in less than optimal light due to a spring snowstorm - to tide everyone over.

Leaving the hostage negotiations behind, there’s the Anti-Mountain Colour Fountain (Dropped Stitch Remix)! It returns! I tell you, this scarf is what this yarn wanted to be. It didn’t want to be a Booga Bag, it didn’t want to be a Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf - it wanted to be a Drop-Stitch Scarf. So here it is in its new incarnation:

Next is another Drop-Stitch Scarf: Dark Side of the Taos. I love this pattern, and could make these for ages…and it seems like I might be, as my mother has asked me to make one for her in the leftover Cascade 220 Superwash her Mumpotis was in. But here’s that Taos drop-stitch scarf:

Now I’m destashing a bit and knitting up a Noro Striped Scarf…in Patons SWS. It looks fantastic despite the yarn’s lack of Mr Noro’s colour sensibilities, and I’m very pleased. The colours are very earthy, and the way things are knitting up, it reminds me a bit of some of the diagrammes we look at in my archaeology lectures, so this scarf is called the Stratigraphic Sequence. Only problem is I’m running short of one colourway, so I bought one more skein…then four more skeins in two colourways to do another scarf. So much for destashing. Here’s the first scarf in progress:

The second one will be in blues and greys, which will be quite nice when I get round to it.

Sadly, the Horace Cardigan (named for the building in which I work and study) is suffering from all this scarfy madness. When you’re surrounded by pretty colours, how can you tear yourself away to knit something in one colour of Cascade 220? But I will - I need that cardi. Perhaps I’ll do some Noro stuff on the sleeves to break up the stockinette tedium. But really, damn all these beautifully varied yarns. Alas, poor Horace:

Sigh. Horace, you may have to wait even longer, as I had a very disturbing sensation in my hands today - warmth. It was too warm in the building to knit wool. Oh dear. Here’s hoping the nights continue to be cool for a few more weeks (and of course this aforementioned spring snowstorm is providing a marvellous opportunity to churn out the stitches).

On the horizon: chemo caps for a friend recently operated on for breast cancer; brain surgery caps for my mother; a Montego Bay Scarf made with a skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk (Masala colourway) bought for me by The Lad; The Lad’s Prismatic Scarf (Malabrigo Worsted in Autumn Forest); my Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks scarf (Malabrigo Worsted in Curacao); a lined Booga Bag (Noro Kureyon, colourway 175) for my mother; and work will resume - possibly after some frogging - on my Razoresque Cami. There’s no end to knitting. Once you’re in, you’re in. And I’m in.

Please excuse me, my yarn is calling.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 8:33 am and is filed under 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.