My xanga is miraculously healed! Or Chris decided I had been punished enough for making snide comments about him (or perhaps her) and fixed it. Either way, I am appreciative. The time that it was down had, however, the nice side benefit of my having learned what html is.
I have remarked in the past that old novels (and movies, too) often include a good bit of knitting, just because there are women in them. This new novel is not like that. It is a “jump on the bandwagon” sort of knitting book, without much knitting in it. The protagonist is learning to knit, and working on a 2 stitches to the inch garter stitch scarf. She is also making another garter stitch scarf on #8 needles, and thinking about making a trendy washcloth. Every time she walks into the knitting shop, she starts a new project. So here she is, hasn’t even learned to purl yet, and she’s got three WIPs. The other knitters in the group (there is a group, to whom the protagonist is busy revealing all the dead woman’s secrets) just have sweaters in their laps. There is more actual knitting detail in the average Miss Silver or Miss Marple mystery than in this one.
There is, however, a lot of yarn-fondling.
Here is the beginning of a BAWK. You can click on the picture if you want to check out the first couple of inches of the snazzy and unusual cable. This means that I now have four WIPs, something that is not at all like me. But I could not resist. #2 daughter and I went to the LYS (she bought Brown Sheep and Reynold’s Frisky) and they had a copy of the new Rebecca home magazine.
I don’t normally buy knitting magazines. Nowadays, they cost as much as an actual knitting book, without the benefit of a good binding. I am especially not inclined to buy a magazine which has mostly cushion covers and other rectangular things, because I am perfectly capable of figuring out for myself how to make a rectangle. However, I had admired the BAWK pattern in this magazine online already. And there were three things in it I intended to make. And I had fondled an awful lot of yarn I had no intentions of buying.
So what with one thing and another, I bought the magazine. Then I came home and made barbecued chicken and possum pie and whatnot, and after a bit I sat down with my novel and the prayer shawl. But you know, I kept thinking about the excellent new cable design in the BAWK pattern in my new knitting magazine.
So I picked it up and read through it while I worked on the cotton/linen bath ensemble for a while… And then I thought I would just swatch for it. You knitters all know what happened next.
So here I am now with four WIPs. I think I probably ought to try to finish one of them today. But there is church, and then lunch with my parents. We’ll see. I have to brag on #1 son, by the way. He drove us to the LYS, and hung out with us for 45 minutes while we fondled yarn and discussed felting habits and so forth, with no eye-rolling, whining, or nagging. He didn’t fondle any yarn himself, but he was a great shopping companion.
I want a sweatered wottle bater!
Ha ha ha ha! I am so fahnny!
😀
And brave – to have actually gone into a yarn shop with his female relatives. You don’t really put a possum in a pie do you? We (generic rich knitters ‘we’ , not including myself) mix possum fur with angora and lambs wool over here and knit with it.
you should purchase several oopma loompas and then when you get to a boring point in one of your four projects, you can pass it off to them. That way, you would be able to begin an almost infinite number of knitting projects but would not have to be bogged down by the whole not being able to knit more than one thing at a time problem.
Possum pie sounds interesting – don’t think we have an equivalent.
No, our possums are different from yours. They are about the size of a large cat, have a very thick, soft coat, and a long furry tail. They make a weird clacking noise and they are also nocturnal. They are usually a type of variable grey/brown. Kids over here used to make pets of the baby possums – they become very tame when handreared but they will sometimes attack cats and dogs as adults. They also have really sharp claws even when babies so you get a good head massage if you wander around with your pet possum on your head. They are also considered pests as they destroy all our native trees so about half the human population of NZ have no problem with killing them with traps, poison, guns, dogs, or cars. There are quite a few of them living in the trees near my house – as long as they leave my animals alone they can live there as long as they wish – the trees are macrocarpas and a few possums can’t kill them. Angora/possum/lamb mix wools are very expensive as are garments made of them. My favourite jersey/pullover is made of the mix – it’s very soft, light and warm.