So, a few things. Besides committing -- make that overcommitting -- myself to making an "All Things Cozy" basket for the upcoming annual school auction, I am feeling needy. Needy for my own time, and my own projects. As in, projects-for-me needy.
As often happens to us crafty types at Christmas, we leave ourselves out of the making-for and become one-woman (or man) production machines, making for all the beloved ones in our lives. It is great fun and there is nothing like a properly excited reaction to a homemade gift. (Let's admit it: a less-than-properly-excited reaction results in no more making for that receiver. Stricken from the handmade list!! Am I right? You know I am....)
Post-Christmas time, for me, brings another feeling, though. I wonder if you share this feeling with me. It's as though I have had my head down, my thoughts elsewhere, for so long that I forgot about looking up and around. I only and always focus on "finishing Christmas." Then, when the Christmas flurry ends, and there is quiet, I finally lift my head. It's like coming out of a fog, isn't it? Except what you see isn't trees or daylight. What slowly and steadily comes into focus are all those projects, either just-started or just-dreamed-of-starting, that you put down back in October or before. Those seemingly long-forgotten things you thought you'd like to make for yourself one day.
Then the rampant daydreaming starts.
All those lovely items -- you could make them all! Couldn't you? One day ... or maybe start them now. One at a time. Just one at a time.
This year, since I am executing to-do items from my 50th birthday year list, I thought it would be nice to enjoy my knitting for a change. Let my imagination flow, from one project to the next. Things I've always wanted to make, but never did. No pressure, just let creativity go where it will. Resist the urge to set a goal, like make 20 pairs of socks and 5 sweaters by the end of the year.
Who knows if I even can? And anyway, isn't that right back to "production knitting?" I think I don't want that.
A friend of mine told me once that your 50's are the years where, as she put it, "You forgive yourself." I think that sounds lovely. I forgive myself. For not having all 20 pairs of socks and 5 sweaters done lately.
But I do love making those things. So let's begin.
I think I'll start with a couple of UFO's. Years ago, I made a single sock: Chrissy Gardiner's "Spring in Oregon" socks from her very lovely, very educational, I highly recommend it: Toe-Up! Patterns and Worksheets to Whip Your Sock Knitting Into Shape.
{Sidebar: I have a theory about titles for knitting books. There are so many of them anymore that the book titles have become meaningless. There is no way to tell how good a book is (or isn't) by the name, no matter how detailed it is. Well, as a lover of sock knitting and a still-dazzled student of the wonder in knitting, I am here to tell you (I should mention also as a Chrissy Gardiner fan who is a fellow Oregonian) that this book is IT. You know, THE S***! Do you want to knit toe-up socks? Chrissy can guide you. Her math is sound, her worksheets are functional and practical and her designs turn out as they should, provided we do our part and get the gauge right, of course.}
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| I did make myself one little treat at Xmas: I made my girlfriends these Japanese Knot Bags, and I wanted one, too! The muslin inside is my grandmother's and it still smells like her 25 years after her passing! |
Back on Track: Anyway, I made one sock -- many of us know the pain of the one sock syndrome -- and the one sock was gorgeous. It is bright green merino and silk from Araucania Itata and oh how lovely is the sock pattern in that yarn! The textures just jump out!! And back when I made it, I was just learning toe-up! Chrissy's instructions were so good --and I such a blind follower -- that it actually turned out! I admire the one sock from time to time, from where it sits in a basket atop my desk, enclosed for safety in a ziplock baggie, lest the bugs get it.
Today, it came out to play. I touched it. I smelled it. I got out my Chrissy Gardiner book, copied my charts and put the first one onto the new magnet board from Knit Picks that my husband got me for Christmas. Then I started knitting another toe. Sigh. And while listening to Sir Ian McKellen read me The Odyssey on Audible (The link I provide here is free on Youtube!). What a treat! Two hours of bliss.
I think I'll do it again tomorrow afternoon.
In other news, Amy's Professor Meow is in the suds. Yup. Put the cat in the bath. Overnight.
{Sidebar: That Knit Picks chart holder is a godsend!! I don't know why I never had one before. Or why I never used to copy my charts of my books, instead dragging lovely knitting books around in my various bags to various places, beating them up more each minute, curling their pages, and staining them with Americanos, applesauce and Capri Suns and other things... }
