Thoughts to Keep Me Warm

It's just over a year now that my faithful friend Tania and her family made their trek back home (389 days ago to be exact). The Northwest was never home to them, although they worked hard to make it fit for a handful of years. Looking back I'm surprised they made it that long. Torn away from their families, the places they've known all their lives to be banished out into the rustic setting of the Olympic Peninsula. Tania and I only had each other while our husbands circled the US on tours for weeks and weeks at a time. We managed a sort of co-parenting for our 3 young children, trying to keep life as normal as possible without their dad's. It was under no uncertain terms: Survival of the Fittest. We were each other's support system, and E has always viewed these friends as blood. Tania's news totally knocked me off my feet, and I can say honestly that recovering has been a slow and painful process. I'm not convinced that the ache will ever subside. She walked with me through the peaks and valleys and that's important, the immediate absence of kindred friendship like that leaves you wounded.

Tania knit me a scarf one year for my birthday, or was it Christmas? She knew my favorite color, and chose a very soft and cozy strand for one of her very first projects. As is custom in mastering the art of knitting the stitches are uneven and awkwardly sag in places. I recall her mentioning that she had to wrestle it away from her oldest son (2 or 3-years-old at the time), leaving a fringe of uneven loops at one end. Character. I've often worn it proudly, and this afternoon just seemed like another great occasion. She's been on my mind. The thought did once cross my mind to re-knit it to even things up, but to do so would have snuffed the soul right out of it and I'm glad I've left it just the way it is.


I picture her unconventional grip on the needles, her concentration, her love. How she touched each part of this scarf that wraps round and round my neck and can't help but feel the warmth. After all these days and miles apart we've managed to stay connected, I feel like I'm still part of her life, part of her family. I think we both sense the invisible strand that stretches, stretches from her to me; both of us holding ends not willing to let go.

Blue

I offered to make my mom a hat for her upcoming birthday. She picked the yarn and pattern. I adapted it a smidgen, and really like how it turned out!
Here's the pattern (my addition and comments are in PURPLE, original pattern only has 19 rows:

Aran Hat in Twinkle Soft Chunky
(shown in"Riviera")

Gauge 1.75 Stitches = 1 on #19 needles

Knit in the Round on either double pointed needles or two circular #19 needles

C6R = Slip to cable hook, hold in back of work, K3, K3 from hook (makes a cable)

MB = In same St (K1, P1) 3 times K1, pass 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th over 1st ST (refer to here if you need help with this, search under 'make bobble' for video)

Cast on 28 stitches

Work K2, P2 Rib for 2 Rows

Row 1: K6, P22

Repeat this row 3 times

Row 5: C6R, P to end of round

Row 6: repeat Row 1

Row 7: K4, MB, K1, P22

Row 8-12: Repeat Row 1

Row 13: Repeat Row 5

{Decrease keeping stitches as set (knit the knits and purl the purls)}

Row 14: *K5 K2tog* repeat to end of round

Row 15: work even

Row 16: *K4 K2tog* repeat to end of round

Row 17: work even

Row 18: *K3 K2tog* repeat to end of round

Row 19: work even

Row 20: K2tog around, cut yarn leaving 12" tail, thread through loops left on needle and secure

Twinkle

A new favorite knitting book/yarn!

Stocking

I've wanted to make E a stocking for the last few Christmas's but only got around to it this year. No mind, as I'm beginning to feel that this is the first year she really knows what's going on anyhow.

Hat

Those that have knit with me know that I started a pale pink hat a l-o-n-g time ago. It was a tricky pattern, and it exhausted my knitting energy for nearly 1 year now. I would pick it up in-between other projects but with no real recipient in mind I didn't really have enough momentum to finish it. Well, after my friend gave birth recently, I knew it was meant for her new little girl. I finished it this last week and will present it to her this evening.