Knitting update

A quick update on my sock. Well the one that I am attempting to knit. It has been busy so the progress has not been as fast as I wanted to. To my surprise the double pointed needles have not created any trouble. I have finished the cuff in kn1, P1 ribbing, and am now working on the leg in simple stockinette.
After that I will have to start on the truely scary part, which is the true shaping of the foot, turning the heel, etc. But I think that will be a week or more away from now. I wish we still lived in a society where it was acceptable to bring your knitting to meetings. which I avoid whenever possible. Most of the time when I go to a meeting, I feel like I am wasting time while others are discussing something, and I miss my knitting. Unfortunately I am convinced people would see it as a lack of attention if I hauled out my sock. But I am perfectly able to keep my attention on both, especially in this simple part of the sock. Ah well, we do what we can here at home.

Knitting

I am learning to knit. Well, I am beyond the first stages of learning and into the fact that I am actually knitting things. Simple things. I have knitted three scarves, one shawl, and two pairs of baby bootees. The first pair was my very first knitting project. I am proud to say that it actually looked like baby bootees. A bit less proud of the fact that they would be rather big for any baby of the human variety, but maybe Sasquatch has a newborn that is in need of a pair. Especially if he has two different shoe sizes.
My second project was a lacy shawl. I could of course not start with a scarf or a hat like a normal human being. But the shawl worked out and after that came the scarves. And then I found courage enough for the second pair of baby bootees, which actually look very nice.

I turned to knitting after my son was born. Since I was about ten, I have done embroidery: napkins, handkerchiefs, display projects, pincushions I have love it. It takes a bit of time though to set up nicely, to have all the threads at the ready, the scisors need to be close by, to find the next stitch you want to add. It's a lovely passtime for long, leisurely hours of silence and contemplation, with beauty growing beneath your hands. But long, leisurely hours were a thing of the past with a newborn, and still are with a todler.

Embroidery didn't fit in this season. I tried, I wrestled, I promised myself to find time, but as you read in my previous post on this, I just could not do it. After a lot of frustration, and inspired by the book: "no idle hands, a social history of American Knitting" I decided to learn how to knit. After all, if pioneer women on their wagons, between cooking, child care, and birthing found time to knit,
I should be able to find the oportunity too, right?
To my surprise I actually did. While knitting always has been a problem, this time, learning from a cheap booklet, it actually 'took'. The rhythm sooths me and allows me to focus on other things. For a few weeks I managed to get up at 6.30 am and put half an hour of knitting and contemplative prayer in.

During the day I find that simple knitting is easy to carry along. I can even carry it with me while I walk behind my little boy playing in the garden. So many things have been 'knit in' these scarves. Laughter, worries, warm rays of october sun and the occasional autumn leaf that had to be plucked out... I think it makes them more precious.

I have found that knitting has a wonderful calming effect on me, which in turn has a postive effect on everything around me, even my household, though at the moment the house doesn't reflect that as we are still trying to get organised after three weeks of sickness and two weeks of traveling. I have found that it is easily tucked in little pockets of time, while relaxing and sometimes even while busy. I have found that it allows me to be actively engaged with my son and my husband while I am just knitting or purling along. Of course this might also be because I barely have a pattern to follow and am just knitting straight on. I am learning quickly to knit blindly to make it even easier to knit without too much attention.

No wonder that knitting has been a symbol of domesticity for so long, when it combines both convenience, practicality and creativity, in one simple craft.

Such a perfect day...

It's rare to realise in the moment how perfect and precious these moments are. Yesterday in the afternoon though, I could not help to notice what a perfect day I was having.
The sky was this magnificent deep blue without a cloud in sight. It was november. And I was sitting in a chair in the garden, in a thin cotton sweater looking at my son running around and enjoying himself to the hilt. He poked into leaves, crouched down thousands of times to pick up the most interesting things like acorns, leaves, little branches. He ran around like a little wild man and he enjoyed every single moment of it. Despite my urge to be at his side the whole time to keep him safe, I kept sitting in my chair, knitting and just keeping my eye on him to stop him from putting unsafe things in his mouth or falling into the pool.

I could hear the birds singing, I could see them playing a few feet away from me. I could hear acorns falling, I strongly believe tossed down by either birds or squirrels. The air was filled with the scent of fall and flowers at the same time. And I realised: this is one of those perfect moments. I wish I could have just halted time, but blogging about it is the next best thing.

The day itsself had been a wonderful one. My second night of uninterrupted sleep in two weeks, getting up early to have time to pray and time to work. Being able to greet my little man with a smile on my face instead of my grumpy morning mood. Two loads of laundery done and dried and the kitchen tidied. I felt like I had accomplished something. And now there was this wonderful interlude of blue skye, knitting and a wonderfully healthy, happy little boy running around as if someone had just handed him the keys to a new and enchanted kingdom.
Who would have thought that the weather would be beautiful enough mid november for just such a day.

When we came back in, Joseph was dirty, he had a red welt over his face from a branch and a thorn in his arm from the roses, but he hadn't even noticed, nor had I until I started cleaning him up. Most of all... he was exhilerated at all the freedom. My baby is becoming such a big boy.
And me... I had been running around all day in a long skirt, with my apron over it most of the time (our foremothers knew what they were doing in wearing one all day, I'm telling you!!) and I had enjoyed every moment of my housewifery!