Serendipity

I love that word, don't you?

Yesterday, I listened to Brenda Dayne's most recent episode of 'Cast On', entitled "Heads Up", and spoke about working hard to make herself finish knitting the Modern Quilt Wrap, designed by Mags Kandis. She described it as a project that she was finding hard to get back into, until she took it with her to complete on train trips to and from Cardiff one day. Then, she says, she got her 'knitting mojo back', and found it just flying off the needles.

She went on from there to discuss planning a journey somewhere not too far away, but somewhere you'd always wanted to go but had never got around to. Take public transport (let someone else do the driving), pack a lunch, and bring a specific project for the journey. Luverly.

Back to today. Not that this journey was specifically planned for my knitting, but I happen to find the coincidence, the parallels between Brenda's story and my day to be quite serendipitous.

I spent today at one of the major hospitals in Sydney, (I'm fine, no need to worry!) keeping Pete company as he had to have a biopsy today (again, no need to panic - quite a routine procedure) and this is an all day event. First, we are up at 4.00AM in order to get to Sydney in time for Pete to have blood tests first thing in the morning, then a spot of breakfast before an ultrasound and biopsy.

Then comes the fun part. The poor bugger then has to lie flat on his back for four hours, with a heavy sandbag weight on the biopsy site to prevent any bleeding. It's not much fun for Pete, and I hope my being there was at most, helpful and at least, not too irritating.

I used this opportunity to make a real go on the Hearts and Stars baby blanket for my good friend Ali. I have to say, I was terribly proud of my progress - eighteen rows done in one day! That might not sound like much, but for me when there's a pattern of knit, purl and moss stitches to keep track of and the rows are reasonably long (for me, anyway!), that feels like a bit of an achievement.

Such was my project for the journey. It shook it up a bit for me, gave me some great progress and inspiration (read: kick up the bum) to really really push to the end. I can't wait to see it blocked.

Plus, it won't be long before I'll be giving it to Ali and a very special little girl.

Baby Ava Rose was born in the early hours of this morning. How's that for serendipity?

Me Time...

Wonderboy and I seem to be getting back into our "Mummy's work week" routine, having spent this morning getting the supermarket shopping done. Usually a child happy to help out with the groceries, he spent the first half an hour of today's shop screaming at the top of his voice for me to give him the shopping list. Often a spare bit of paper from my bag will do it, but not today. Man, you know it's bad when little old ladies come over to the trolley to try to calm him down. Ugh.

It got better, though, when I started handing him items to hold. He gets very proud of himself when helping, and likes to announce this to other shoppers:

"Pasta. Hold it!"
"Hold it, bottle. Daddy bottle hold it!"
"Open? Nooo..."

That last one was Wonderboy reminding himself (and others) that he wasn't going to try opening the bottle of salad dressing. Didn't last long though, and he was soon busily flicking the lid open and shut (thank goodness for tamper-evident seals under the plastic lid)... until he pinched his finger in it.

Oh, and did I mention that this epic adventure through the supermarket took place *after* I went back to work to collect my keys, which I had conveniently left there on a windowsill yesterday afternoon.

Man, it's been an interesting first week back at work. Hence the desperate need for some "Me Time".

Today's "Me Time" has been brought to you by the lovely Brenda Dayne, her warm, genial sense of humour and her lovely soothing voice.

It's taken me a little longer than usual to get to her most recent podcast over at Cast On, but it's always worth it. I grab my latest project, settle in on the lounge, and wait for my favourite opening line:

"It's time to pick up your pointy sticks and Cast On"

And I breathe deeply and start knitting. It's lovely to knit along to her words and music, and she makes some beautifully described and presented points about life and knitting in ways I never would have thought of. In her last podcast, Brenda described in the most delicious way, 'Starting as you mean to go on'. She drew a beautiful parallel between the story behind a farmhouse near her property, life at New Years', and starting on new knitting projects.

"Dream awhile with me", she wrote in her podcast Blog, "...as we pause in the space just before the old year gives way to the new".

That, I find, is similar to what I end up doing when I listen to Cast On. I give myself some "Me Time", where I can pause, and be in the moment with my project, my mind and my chocolate...

...Before Wonderboy wakes from his nap and we start the whole thing over again!

Knitting Scouts - a quick post

Hey, I've earned myself some Knitting Scouts badges! (from Cast On dot com for other Knitting geeks):


* There's The “MacGyver” Badge (Level One) - The recipient must demonstrate clever use of a non-knitting tool in a knitting-related scenario. For instance, recipient has used paper clips as stitch markers, or successfully whittled and then utilized bamboo skewers as dpns.

* The “Knitting Whilst Under the Influence” Badge - This applies to both actual knitting under the influence, as well as achieving moments of stunning intellectual clarity about ones knitting under the influence. Presumes talking about knitting whilst under the influence a given.... didn't knit anything very stunning, however!

* The “Inordinately Fond of Novelty Yarn” Badge - In which the recipient professes an arguably unhealthy affinity for yarn with slubs, sparkles, spangles, fur, feathery bits, and an unconscionable proportion of man-made fibre. Recipient makes no apology for the preference (This was earned on WonderBoy's behalf, for his love of my very fuzzy novelty scarf that he likes to wear around the house like a feather boa, usually teamed with my shower cap);

* The “Proselytize Knitting” Badge - A requirement for all Knitting Scouts, the recipient must do his or her bit to present knitting in a positive light, whilst at the same time avoiding all references to “hipness”, grandmothers, and yoga.


* The “I’ve Knit Items With No Conceivable Practical Application” Badge - Recipients are those “special” campers who have knit items which somehow missed the mark of their intended application. There are probably more who are deserving of this badge than one would expect. My personal crime was two (yep, two!) right legs for baby leggings. I blame pregnancy for the lapse in any sort of clear thinking.

Tomorrow: I stop pinching wonderful ideas from other people's knitting podcasts (actually, I can't say I pinched. Here's the link to 'Cast On', a wonderful podcast that I spruik on a regular basis) and start ranting about my case of startitis and my boredom with endless rows of baby yarn...

Quit Jivin' me, Turkey!

Some knitting quotes for today. The first one's mine, I just said it to Pete, as I explained how I would need to rip back three rows on the front of the linen print (I got too enthusiastic as my decreases were continually correct, and I totally forgot to change colours!):

"That's why I like doing the backs first; that way most of my cock-ups are behind me... literally"

I have spent this morning looking after my sick and miserable-looking husband, as he sits balled-up and shivering on the lounge in his Holden flannelette pyjamas (he has a temperature - I'm not freezing him in some wacked-out, 'old wives tale' cure!), and doing the grocery shopping with Wonderboy. This is a new thing for us so far, as we've only had the new car a few days. I'm sure the novelty of "I'll take Wonderboy shopping, you stay at home" will wear off pretty soon.

Once Wonderboy went down for his afternoon nap, I crashed out on the lounge, grabbed the computer, and started up the latest "Cast On" podcast. A new thing for me, "Cast On" is the brainchild of Brenda Dayne, a native Oregonian who has been living, writing and knitting in Wales for the past five years. She has such a lovely, soothing voice, and I find her podcasts so interesting to listen to, usually as I knit. I'm having a bit of trouble connecting with other knitters in my local area (though Ravelry in helping with this!), and so I rely on knitters blogs from all over the place, and "Cast On" to really help reinforce my sense of being a part of this community of these lovely and often strange individuals called Knitters.

Interestingly, Brenda's subject for this most recent podcast was "I speak Jive". This is a quote from the movie 'Flying High', where an old lady offered to translate the 'jive' a bloke was speaking to the air hostess.

What has all this to do with knitting, you ask?

Brenda says:

“In linguistics, a ‘language death’ is a process that occurs when there are no longer speakers of a given language. This can happen in a variety of ways… this process happens slowly, when the older generation cease to transmit the language to younger generations, with the result being fewer and fewer people who speak the language…”

She refers to a book called ‘Traditional Country Craftsmen’, about the tools and languages of mostly forgotten crafts. The end of the book discusses textile crafts, and she was amazed to find that the familiar tools and methods of spinners and weavers had ended up the same way as those of ‘thatchers’, ‘cloggers’ and ‘chair bodgers’ - crafts long ago faded into obscurity.

She continues:

“Several years ago, I knit a sweater called ‘the red edge’ from the book ‘Poems of Colour’. I haven’t worn it in a couple of winters, because the button band was knit - a bit funky... I stopped wearing the sweater that for all of the things I have knit over the years, this was the one thing of which I am most proud…

... On Sunday, I decided to fix the red edge… I had an extra skein in the main colour left over from this project, and so I didn’t bother reknitting the yarn, I just tossed it and started fresh… I also knit the bands a little wider, so they’d accommodate a zipper. the sweater looks great… I love it again, and I cannot wait for the zip to arrive so I can finish the project…

... I ordered an 18-inch, cream coloured open-ended zip, because I could not find one locally. This item cost 4.50, with shipping probably closer to 5. Convert that, to US and I have just paid 10 bucks for an 18 inch, cream coloured plastic zipper, because they are items of such rarity in this country that you must pay for them dearly... People used to sew in Britain. And not that long ago. How did this happen? When did people give it up, and why?

…The birth of industrial process may not have killed craft, but it surely hastened its demise. People stopped ‘bodging’, and ‘clogging’, and ‘thatching’, and sewing, and the language of the crafts dies with them. I don’t think this will happen to knitting, at least not in my lifetime, still I feel it’s usually best to hedge one’s bets. And that is why I speak jive.”

I love the way she linked that all together. Debbie Stoller speaks the same way in 'Stitch and Bitch', referring to engaging in crafts like knitting and crochet as not being anti-feminism, but pro-feminism. Preserving these crafts, these traditions, and not letting them fall by the wayside as we become more and more dependent on technology as a society is such a strong thing to be a part of, and really feels to be, I don't know, humanity-affirming to me. It kind of reminds me how I'm a tiny, tiny part of something bigger, and I love that feeling.