A Sad Story With a Happy Ending

Once upon a time, there was this knitter, and she mostly went about the business of living and working and knitting and being a smartass without much trouble or interference.

But then this knitter got sick and things got pretty shaky, and between the effects of the illness and the cure, her brain shut down. Couldn't read charts or instructions or her live stitches. Couldn't count past three. Couldn't look at math she'd done in the past for pattern alterations and understand her instructions to herself.

She cast on a very easy lace scarf, knit a few rows, fucked it up spectacularly, and ripped it all out. Six. Times.

She tried to understand her snicket socks, already in progress, but no amount of staring could help her find where she was in the charts.

She even tried casting on a simple, plain, dull-as-dust sock. Made it through less than half an inch of cuff before giving up because, no shit, she was too weak to hold up the yarn and needles.

(Yes, this is a scary story. Terrifying. We're talking about a knitter with a couple decades of experience here. Ponder, if you will, what it must be like to suddenly be unable to remember which way to wrap the yarn for a yarnover. Have you ever felt too weak to hold sock yarn? Eek!)

So she put her knitting aside, slept 20 out of 24 hours, and occasionally thought about how much she missed things like breathing and her voice. Went to the doctor a couple more times. Work piled up all around her and her knitting collected dust.

Four different drugs later, she could no longer remember which project was in which knitting bag.

But she felt a lot better, and she was working like a demon to get caught up after all the time away, and this meant no knitting time. Still. Employees went on vacation, employees resigned, cars broke down and were fixed. iPods developed mystery playlists, DSL spasmed, light fixtures failed, and a string of repairmen concluded that, yes, there is something mighty wrong with the house's foundation. Somebody better get a bobcat out here right quick.

Three, four, five days at a stretch, she would go without touching her knitting. When she did risk a half hour for knitting here or there, it was always a row on St. Brigid. Others around her finished their St. Brigids. But she couldn't even complete the back.

Weeping hot tears and raging at the heavens, our knitter concluded that her knit-fu had abandoned her.

But then....

It came back.

The mojo cometh, and the mojo goeth away. It is a fickle bitch. But it's back. And I'm gonna duct tape it to my stash boxes so it doesn't ever get away again.

(Pictured above is the plain sock, actually not dull as dust but quite gorgeous in person. Malabrigo sock weight, color Persia -- imagine jade smoked over with charcoal, and you'll get a feeling for the depth and complexity in this deceptively simple yarn. The camera can't capture the hints of green and teal accurately.)

More Durable, My Ass

I knit this big poncho out of Lion Brand Cheap 'N Chunky (or whatever it's called -- the rope-like version of wool-ease) around four, maybe five years ago. It was one of those soopah bargains in the clearance bin at JoAnn's, so I thought, what the heck. Might as well give it a go on the needles. See whether the reputation for durability and quality is deserved.

Answer: no.

I'm not a big fan of ponchos in general, but this one came in handy at the old house for lounging in the cold basement. And since we moved almost three years ago, it has lived in the back den, also a very cold room, where I cozy up under it while watching tv. Regardless, at the end of the cold weather season, I would wash it (cool water, gentle) and spin dry it. For a yarn that is nearly all acrylic and rumored to be durable, this should be no problem at all.

That means this is its fourth washing. Maybe it's fifth.

And look at it. The heathering fibers are separating from the yarn. You see that fine gray haze over the whole fabric? You see the gray pills forming? Grr....

But that's not the worst of it. It shed all over the few other items I washed with it. Look at my cotton turtleneck.





















Very frustrating.

Take Two Stitches and Call Me in the Morning

Back to the doctor yesterday for the never-ending chest infection. I am now on my fourth different medication. Because nothing we're doing seems to cure this, I decided a little home remedy might be in order.

New knitting. Just what the knitdoctor ordered.

This will be the skater's overtop from the Veronik Avery book. This was my birthday yarn last year. I want to knit it before my birthday this year because I'm convinced this will somehow make me feel less guilty about my stash.

Also because I'm addicted to this yarn and have spent the past ten months fondling it and dreaming of casting on. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so here I am, starting something new even though all my something olds still linger.

Special thanks to everyone who has pledged wool for the Bosnian refugees. I will be sending my friend Kate a big box sometime around March 27, so there is still plenty of time for you to round up your remnants and get them to me. If you can't make it to one of our knitting events, please let me know and I will be happy to come collect your donation. It's for a good cause!

ETA: If you want to see the Bosnian knitters and some of their work, go here. Kate tells me she hasn't updated the page in ages, so don't believe everything you read there. But it will give you some idea of the work they're doing.

A Call to Action

A friend of mine volunteers with the Bosnian refugee community in Massachusetts. These refugee women have survived a kind of hell that most of us have only seen in tv newsreels. They support themselves by weaving rugs and knitting socks and selling them through a cooperative effort. It's pretty cool stuff, grassroots activism, people helping people in the most fundamental kind of way.

My friend tells me they're running low on yarn and on cash, and they have several orders to fill. They're coming up with a short term solution for their most pressing needs, but I promised her to tap my knitters for donations.

Please go through your stashes and cull for any leftovers or other lots of yarn you won't use. The only catch is that they need wool or wool-cotton blends. I'm going to send her my sockotta and all the leftover bits of sock yarn, and probably all the yarn leftover from Lady Eleanor, and anything else I can find for them.

If you bring whatever you can donate to SnB or to Open Knitting on Thursday, I will arrange to get it to Kate so she can distribute it to the refugee women.

Thanks in advance -- I know my knittas will come through on this one.

Half Back

Here are four pattern repeats of the back piece for St. Brigid. I love the way this pattern unfolds, and I especially love how quickly it happens.

Laying this piece out for a photograph helped me reach a decision about something. The original design calls for a fringed hem, and I'm not a big fan of fringe. But something has to be done to even out that hem. I mean, look at it, wobbling and jiggling up and down like that. Ugh. I know others have managed to go fringeless and have a nice, even hem, but it appears I am not one of the fortunate few.

So I'll be attaching a banded border of some kind, probably of the braided rope cable, to give a neater edge there.

The meds are beginning to knock out the chest infection I've been fighting for the last few weeks, but I'm still a bit like that lower hem edge -- raw, weak and wobbly. S'ok. It will pass.

Goal

Knitting Goal For March:

Knit one hour each day.

That's it. You'd think that would be an easy goal to reach for an obsessive knitter like me, but not so. All year I've had to fight for knitting time. Between working two jobs and illness and family obligations and other demands on my time, I've completely lost control of my schedule and my routine.

And you know what I've learned from all this? Sweaters don't knit themselves.

Imagine that.

So I made a good start on my March knitting goal today by knitting 4 rows of St. Brigid, which is just a bit over an hour's worth of knitting, while I was watching a bit of tv. I only watch about 3 hours of tv a week, so that tv knitting time is pretty precious. And lately, I've been sacrificing it to the laptop, dealing with routine email and filing tasks while watching my shows.

But no more. I'm allowed an hour a day for knitting. Allowed? Required.

Why I Am A Bore

Secret Knitting + Crap Virus = Boring Blog

The good news from my corner is that the secret knitting project is off the needles. As you can see in the picture, it is still in sore need of blocking. I don't know when I will get that done -- my house is under construction again, and the dust isn't so good for wet yarn laying around. But there's no rush on blocking it. I have time.

The good news, part two, is that yesterday we finally found a remedy that is helping with this horrible, hideous, body-wrenching virus. I'm not over it, not by a long distance, but it's better today, thank god. I managed to work a half day yesterday and a half day today, with hope that I will log in another couple hours yet. With any luck, I might even get my voice back in another day or two.

Side question: Why is it that doctors are suddenly all about the OTC meds? Dude, if advil and robitussin had been handling this damned thing, I wouldn't have come to you in the first place.