The Return of the Ding

Odd summer. I don’t know where to start, so maybe I just won’t pick a starting point. We’ll jump in right here, right now, and we’ll catch up as we go along.

First things first, I won another contest! This lovely yarn, being modeled appropriately enough by our new friend Stone Turtle, came from Turtlegirl76. I was one of the many winners in her Heart Walk Donors’ Drawing. She did all of the hard work, and I got this gorgeous yarn. Not a bad trade-off. I think it’s going to become the center panel of Tenney Park.


“Wait, what? You mean you still knit? It’s not just a yarn collection out in the garage?”

Yes, as it usually does, knitting production slowed over the summer this year. It wasn’t for lack of trying; I did knit. I worked on Papeline for several weeks, stretching into months. When I finally got the body seamed together and worked the neckline, it was too small. This might have been casually related to me being too big. The jury’s still out on that one. Not debatable, the neckline was much too dinky. I think this was due to my gauge changing drastically between flat and circular knitting. I need to yank out that section and do something else, but I haven’t decided on the course of action yet. Finally, the arms are tight, really tight, because I have muscular arms for my size and…look, maybe it’s time to concede that I knit the wrong size, but I’m not ready to give up on it entirely just yet.


Thinking that knitting a great big tube sounded pretty good after the Papeline disappointment, I cast on for the Summertime Tunic. Back in July. Yeah, this is how far I’ve made it. It turns out that silk sort of tightens around Addi needles and cables in a particularly stubborn way, so it’s not easy to get into a grove and knit round after round. There’s a lot of shoving of stitches. I refuse, however, to stop knitting it, because I’m afraid that my gauge will change if I put it aside until next spring. I’m also a tad worried that I’ve knit the wrong size again, but I’m telling myself that this is not important right now.


Doc and I talked about “need-to” knitting versus “love-to” knitting a couple of weeks ago, as we both have a collection of each type, and the obvious point hit me like a screwdriver to the face. (That story’s coming soon.) I’m only going to get slower on the “need-to” projects, because my “love-to” itch isn’t being scratched. I have to have both, even if it seems like the “love-to” project is going to take time away from the “need-to” project.

Feeling good about this new direction, I went out to the garage and stuck my hand in a basket, drawing out a ball of this camel-blend yarn that I impulse-grabbed at Tuesday Morning last year. I saw a scarf at Forever 21 last weekend that looked lovely, cost about ten bucks. “I could make that scarf, and it’d be even better. Sure, it’ll cost more than ten bucks, and it’ll take me more than an hour to make it, but it’ll be camel instead of acrylic. Plus, it’s guaranteed to not be too small, because it’s a goddamn scarf. Confidence booster. I can’t lose, Doc.” We studied the stitches, which turned out to be simple K3,P1 across on all rows. I don’t know what it’s called, but it makes a neat rib. I’m now alternating between this and the Summertime Tunic, with no guesses about which I’m going to finish first. Probably this one. It feels good, and I’m having a good time knitting it. I sometimes forget that those are two important things.

Adapt

My finger is still in its round-the-clock splint, three weeks having turned into six. Last week, the hand surgeon said that it was healing up well after what was probably a mallet injury, and that the ruptured tendon was getting stronger again and...wait, what? New injury, months after Suzuki-tastrophe 2010? Ruptured tendon!? I might have taken the whole thing more seriously if the word "rupture" had come up sooner. I probably would also have freaked right the f&*k out about it and irritated everyone close to me by waving my hand around and wailing in a play for sympathy and free beer. Mostly the latter. Maybe it's a good thing he didn't bring it up before last week.


When the splint is taken off, for five seconds so that he can put on a fresh one and retape it, my finger does look better. "Look, Dr. Schilling! It straightens out after I bend it. It looks almost as good as the right one."

"No, no-no-no-no. Leave it straight the whole time." He's a mild-mannered guy. That's as close to yelling as he gets.

"O.K., but I'm not bending it now. I'm just fluffing up the knuckle wrinkles so that they'll match the other pinkie..." I do not add "...because I am a weirdo," as I'm certain that he has already realized this. He redoubles his efforts to quickly lash a fresh piece of aluminum to my hand.


I couldn't stand being idle any longer, so I figured out how to knit with the splint covering half my pinkie. All I have do do is double-wrap the yarn around the base of it, and it doesn't seem to migrate up and get caught in the tape. Work resumes on Papeline!

My Best Friend Winston by Molly

Hey, you guys! Hi! It's me, Molly! I wanted to tell you a story about my best friend Winston. It's called "My Best Friend Winston". Here it is!


My best friend Winston likes the sunshine, and so do I. Sometimes, we try to soak up the rays together. Sometimes we end up trying to soak up the EXACT SAME RAYS! And that means I end up sitting on him, and that makes him REALLY HAPPY because I'M happy, and he still gets to be warm because I'm warm. It's a win for EVERYONE! Plus, he's just the right height for sitting on, and if it bugged him he'd get up, right?

He looks sad, but you guys? That's totally how he looks all the time. I always look like a lovable scamp, and he always looks sad, but the difference is that I AM a lovable scamp, and that's just his face.


Anyway, my best friend Winston and I like to lie in the sun together, and sometimes we do it outside and I try to protect his soft, pink belly from getting sunburned, because I am a GOOD FRIEND.


And sometimes we sit on the sofa together and I protect him while he watches television. Nobody's going to throw him into traffic on MY watch.


See, I'm his best friend, too. It's a two-way street. A two-way street where nobody gets thrown out into TRAFFIC, even when they horf on the freshly cleaned carpet. He's such a good friend that he even tries to help me clean up when that happens. We look out for each other. So, he doesn't sit on me because it might hurt me. He sits on Accountant Boy instead.


Most of the time it's not even about sitting on him or kicking him out of his favorite spots. I just like being near him, and he's not very good at that yet. Dr. Nice Lady at the weird place with all the TASTY cookies says that he's a 'different' kind of dog, so he still has to learn to like curling up with other dogs. I'm teaching him to wag his tail and wriggle, so I KNOW he can learn the other stuff. And I'm learning to not sit on him all the time, too! Sometimes I just squeeze in next to him.


I love my best friend Winston. The end.

* * *

One sleeve down on Papeline, halfway through the next. This yarn is so smooth and lovely, and almost all of the rowing evened out when I washed it. The odd thing about it is that there is a very slight tonal variegation to it, which wasn't obvious in the skein. I actually like it even more since it's not completely solid. I cannot wait to finish this one so that I can wear it.

Short Sentences, Simple Things

Sometimes you just want something classic, simple. Sometimes you don't want to have knit something that grows increasingly awkward to handle as you knit it, knitting a round, untwisting the work, knitting another round, for a hundred rounds or more. And then doing the same for the other sleeve. Sometimes seams are fun.

That's what this is going to be. It's a good, old knit-in-pieces pullover. It's Papeline from this year's Winter/Spring Knitscene. I'm almost done with the first sleeve.

I'm currently suffering from what I like to call 'winter brain', so that's about as much as I can write at one time. I'd say more about it, but not being able to write about winter brain is one of the hallmarks of winter brain.