Progress Notes

....okay, so where'd we leave off? oh right....me with a hundred and ten wrong stitches trying to figure out where the heck i went wrong. okay.

so anyway, i wake up that morning feeling like i've got to do something and that something does not include ripping out anymore stitches.....at least not with my hands. like i said, if i had to rip out this capelet one more time it was going to be black history -- or in the case of this pretty yarn -- pink history for sure. so i figure hey, there's two super good yarn shops within a quarter tank of gas (hell, with today's prices you gotta be thinking straight) and maybe, just maybe some kind, pathetic, fiber addicted soul will take pity on me and help me figure out what the hell i'm doing. i call up A Good Yarn downtown and of course, they're closed on mondays. then, like a mad woman i dial up Clover Hill and sure 'nuff i've got about an hour to get some coffee and puppy-dog at the window before they open at ten. good enough.

so when one of the shop owners pulls up her in honda odyssey (you know we fiberholics need space to haul all of our addictions) i put on my pitiful yellow-lab puppy face and say, "i'm wondering if you might be able to help me.....you see, i'm working on this capelet that the wonderful mary-heather designed....this fiber-holic in l.a., you don't know her, i know .... but anyway, you see this capelet is just so gorgeous and i've just got to make this because if i don't i'll forever be staring at this pink mohair yarn wondering what my life could have been had i just been given the chance ..... and, and, and you see i put the yarn on my charge card when i bought it....my visa...and promised myself i wasn't going to buy another skein of yarn until i made something with the one million, two hundred fifty-eight thousand skeins i already have in my closet, the one that i can only really open the door about a quarter inch .... you know, so i really do have to make good on that promise....to myself, to the community, to the world....ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country right ....??

and so the woman....(god knows she's got a spot reserved for her and her needles in heaven)....the woman.....oh, gaile is her name.....gail looks at me as if i'm a leper and says, let me get the store open and i'll see what i can do.

there is a god in heaven for sure.

gail not only pulls out three rows worth of wrong ssk and yo stitches (over 300 stitches mind you) but handles my beautiful estelle watercolors yarn with such tenderness i could have bent and worshipped the ground she walked on. not only that but she showed me what i did wrong with the ssk (which i'm too ashamed to tell you what i did) AND hands me a copy of
THE KNITTERS COMPANION ..... don't leave home without it.

i leave that store with my project intact, a road map in my hands, and a plan to give my old man a little nookie if he asks for it, hell that's how happy i am. gail even encouraged me to just cast on another set a needles and work the lace pattern for a few rounds just until i feel comfortable. i clung to her every word.

so here i am now with this lovely little capelet. i'm just on round 26. i can hardly believe my hands are making something so pretty:






...and can you believe that i got so happy with the little "practice" that i was doing that i kept going and decided to alter the pattern a little bit. this one for my little girl, who loves handmade goodies. just a regular ol' jo-ann fabrics 100% cotton yarn in aqua.





maybe it was gail.

maybe it was the nookie.

maybe it was both.

i'll keep you posted ....

a.

How About Never?

...well, all i can say is that it was the kind of day that you needed a friend. a friend who knows a little something more than you know, to keep you from ripping out every single stitch.....a friend who knows how to find the mistake AND fix the mistake without you losing your everlasting mind. a friend that is just as addicted to knitting as you are. real live, down the block friend ... not the one in las vegas or el paso or new york ... but earshot distance kinda friend, cause you just know what's about to go down .....

yup, i had to start over with the capelet. umm-hmm. why? because i'm an anxious, over-achieving nincompoop when it comes to knitting and i shouldn't have even had the needles in my hands after the crazy "two-children and a dog" evening that i had that night. i was tired to the bone but wanting to relax and work on my work. half asleep knitting. yeah right. next thing i know i'm doing my SSK without my YO and the whole bloody thing was a mess. i could hardly believe it.

then, to make matters worse, after casting back on and working round after round, i discover the worst ... yup, the damn thing is twisted. i could have screamed from here to madagascar.

i'm not a giver upper but i swear knitting can make you want to go ballistic on the first unknowing person that crosses your path. i told my husband that if this third attempt doesn't work, i'm donating all of my yarn and bamboo needles to charity and taking down my blog. to hell with it, i said. me, pick up needles again? yeah, how about never. i've got better things to do with my life and my time, right? i mean, just go and buy a damn sweater and scarf set like normal people, right?

i wish i could make myself believe that.

i can no more stop knitting than i can stop writing, painting, or even breathing.....

damn....