State of the Stash: Lighter
- Me: Mr. Trask, I am a yarn addict.
- Mr. Trask: What was your first clue?
- Me: I have yarn stashed in secret locations all over the house. [pause] But then that was because of staging the house. So I’m probably okay.
- Mr. Trask: …you were hiding the yarn so that people from the outside wouldn’t see it, and you think that means you don’t have a problem?
"What's that, Aunt Kathleen? You didn't buy ANY yarn?!?"
I thought I was almost finished with the de-stashing. I was surprised – I was amazed – I was relieved. Then I looked under the guest room bed. What was there? Plastic boxes of winter clothes, and airtight boxes with…yarn. So – the giveaways will continue until the packing outlook improves.
Results of last week’s giveaway: Yana won the Canopy; Robin (a different Robin) won the Mochi Plus; Tall Blond Knitter won the Dream in Color/Artyarns combo; irishshamrocks won the Dazzle. Yana has been doing some great stuff to connect knitters through Google+, so check her out if you’ve made the hop from FB to G+. Meanwhile, Kitten with a Whiplash, a past winner, blogged about getting the package from me, and the miraculous health benefits she saw soon after the yarn’s arrival. [Important Note: No correlation has been established between receiving free yarn and an improvement in any back problems.]
It’s been quite the week here in the Knit Like You Mean It household. We visited our lovely new nephew up in Massachusetts; we were approved for a little terraced house in Oxford; our house here went under contract; we researched US-to-UK shipping companies; and I went to a yarn shop without buying any yarn.
Maze Swatch I. Mr. Trask took this photo, which is why it's from such a great height. I look tired, perhaps from contemplating all the packing we must do.
Yes, you heard me correctly. I didn’t buy any yarn. And it wasn’t one of those crummy yarn shops where they sneer at you and chase you out with a pitchfork if they don’t know you. It was one of my favorite yarn shops, The Creative Stitch in Hingham, Mass. And they had an incredible wall of sock yarn. And some Jamieson & Smith Shetland goodness. And an unbelievable array of Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK. And and and…
Yet I didn’t buy any yarn. It’s not just because I will have to ship everything I own across the Atlantic in six short weeks; it’s also because I feel like I have enough yarn. Or, at least, I feel I have more control over my yarn. I have three projects on the needles, and I’m swatching for a fourth (see? I’m not completely reformed). I have some yarn waiting in the wings for other projects, too. That’s actually abundance. As much as I loved having a stash in which I could “shop” on a moment’s notice, I’m also excited about having less yarn. I’m getting a better sense of what yarn I do have and what project I’ll tackle next. My friend Emily is knitting more now that she has less yarn; I feel I’m doing the same…although that could be because I’m still knitting for the Saffron Walden Knitted Maze.
What of the maze, you ask? Well, I mailed off my first big piece this week, and am knitting another big piece this weekend. Speaking of which, now is the time to mail off your pieces if you have them – Sophie and Co. are starting to piece together the donated knitting (world’s worst-ever finishing project?). Mail them to Sophie Durlacher, 32 South Road, Saffron Walden, CB11 3DN, United Kingdom. Let me know you sent a donation, and choose some yarn from my stash!
The Schieffelin Point Shawl on British Airways: Garter stitch is excellent for watching movies on tiny screens.
Meanwhile, I am knitting the Scheiffelin Point Shawl, a free pattern by Kate Gagnon Osborn of Kelbourne Woolens. It’s been ripped out and re-knit several times – most notably when I discovered, about 6 inches after an increase row, that I had worked said increase row twice. Now, I am about 2 inches from the end of the knitted-on border, and have had to buy a fourth skein of yarn. Here’s the question – do I just finish the border and call it a day? Or, given that the shawl feels a little short, a little like a shawlette, do I rip back the entire border and work another inch or two to give it some length?
Becky said I should re-knit only if I don’t have another project that’s raring to go (I’m still not sure whether I do or not – does that mean the answer is no?). Danielle said I should knit the border, then rip it out and weigh the yarn that made up the border, then knit until the remaining yarn weighs what the border yarn weighed, then re-knit the border. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’d given away my yarn scale. Tell me in the comments: rip, add, and finish, or just finish?
This week's stash giveaway: from left, Noro, Alchemy, Debbie Bliss, and Rowan/Thistledown. Enjoy!
This week’s giveaway:
- Two skeins Rowan Tapestry in color 176 (a variegated yarn) and one skein of Thistledown Yarns Hand Paint 100% Wool (by Mystic, Conn. artist Linda Perry) in a gorgeous purpley semisolid.
- Two skeins Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in color 300607.
- Four skeins Alchemy Wabi Sabi in color Joshua Tree (siblings of the yarn given away in this post).
- Two skeins Noro Kureyon: one in color 116, one in color 115. [Use these to make a the Child’s Rainbow Scarf or the Noro Rainbow Scarf!]
As always, stored in airtight containers in non-smoking, one-cat household. Yarn frozen for 24 hours before mailing. Comment on the blog by Tuesday, August 16 at noon EDT to win; all winners chosen by the Random Number Generator.
Knitting at the Movies: Comic Books Galore
Not interested in comic book movies? There’s a giveaway at the end of this post. Scroll, people, scroll!
Captain America’s Villain, The Red Skull: if only someone had knit him a hat, a lot of trouble might have been avoided. Photo courtesy Marvel Studios.
People, I have knit at a lot of movies in my day. Romantic comedies. Action flicks. Independent documentaries. The horrible nightmare that was Elektra. And, this summer, the triple threat: X-Men: First Class, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. [Let’s not talk about Green Lantern. That was 114 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.]
Though I’m certainly not suggesting that the only good movie is one with a colon in the title, I’d say Thor was the weakest of the bunch. The actors did their best, but the Thor story is weak already. Thor suffers from the same problem Superman does: if you’re near-invincible, what can we really do to you? Much as Superman’s issues were often of the heart, Thor’s issues in this film are largely emotional. He spends the film facing his baggage: a disapproving father, a jealous brother, a move to a strange new town. While all this angst is eminently relate-able to the average American moviegoer, it didn’t make for a great action film.
Thor is looking sad, possibly because he had to knit that whole cape himself.
Now, that doesn’t mean Thor didn’t make for good knitting. What you want in a good knitting movie is:
- A fairly simple plot; in other words, if you look down at your knitting briefly, you won’t miss a key twist.
- Enough special effects that the theater is periodically lit up by an explosion, enabling the intrepid knitter to pick up a dropped stitch.
- The merest hint of on-the-nose dialogue, occasionally even in the form of “Watch out, Ben! He’s got a gun! Oh, no!”
You can see that an action film is just the ticket. So Thor was just fine; I suspect my problem was just that I had high expectations. And, hey, I got a lot of knitting done on a Tea Leaves Cardigan I’m making for a friend.
The X-Men: First Class: James McEvoy sports some nifty hand-knit mitts. Photo courtesy 20th Century Fox.
As always, the X-Men had me waxing philosophical: is this really a story about the differences between American and European reactions to the horrors of World War II, or is it more about racism in America? Or both? More importantly: how do we know that Professor X would eventually win out over Magneto, morally if not actually? Well, check it out: he’s wearing hand-knits, while the man who can bend metal wears an alloy hat. Moving on: I’ve heard this described as the best X-Men film of the bunch, and I can see that. January Jones is pretty flat as Emma Frost, but otherwise – the tone is right, the effects are well-done, and James McEvoy is perfect as the young Xavier.
The Great Big Pile of Knitting: perfect for the movies.
Captain America really could have had more knitting. It’s World War II, people. Everyone should be knitting for soldiers. Am I right? At the very least, least we could have seen some nice retro sweaters on Cap’s love interest, Peggy Carter. Knitting aside, Captain America was my favorite of the bunch. Tommy Lee Jones has an excellent cameo as (what else?) a cranky drill sergeant, and Hugo Weaving was just right as the Red Skull (also? best villain name ever).
Meanwhile – what does one knit at the movies? For a long time, I knit ribbed socks – around and around, k2 p2 k2 p2…that worked well. Right now, I’m lugging this hilarious Pile Of Knitting that I’m making for the Saffron Walden Knitted Maze. I admit that I cheated a little: I grafted three hand-knit scarves together (Mr. Trask wasn’t wearing them) and am now adding more knitting in the edges. It seems to be working pretty well – and it’s a nice warm blanket to have in an air-conditioned movie theater.
So, what about this week? Do you guys think there might be any knitwear in Cowboys vs. Aliens?
Canopy Worsted: Delicious.
Giveaway News! Last week’s winners were Robin (she’s on a roll!), affiknity, and Krystal. As always, the Random Number Generator selected the lucky knitters. Today’s yarn:
- More Canopy Worsted: one skein in Orchid, one in Chiclet Tree, one in Cat’s Claw.
- One skein of Dazzle from The Natural Dye Studio. This yarn is Bluefaced Leicester and carries the prestigious British Yarn label. Color: Spice. Yum.
- One skein Dream in Color Smooshy in color Candy Floss (December Dream Club) and one skein Artyarns Supermerino in Color 114.
- Two skeins of Mochi Plus: one in Feldspar and one in Autumn Rainbow (I think; no label).
Yarn Giveaway #86,014: left to right, Mochi Plus, Dream in Color, Artyarns, Natural Dye Studio.
As always, the yarn has been stored in airtight containers in my non-smoking, one-cat home since being purchased. Before mailing, I freeze the yarn for 24 hours. Comment on the blog by Saturday, August 6 at noon EDT for a chance to win: What movies have you watched this summer? Do you knit at the movies? And do let me know which yarn is most appealing to you – last week, I was able to send everyone the yarn they wanted!
Seen in Oxford: Poster for a Yarny Fund-Raiser at Darn It & Stitch
Well, people, Mr. Trask and I are back from our whirlwind jaunt to Oxford to find a home. We did find a place we liked, and applied for it – so send good vibes toward our rental application. It’s a terraced house in Jericho, just a handful of blocks from Port Meadow Designs and their cache of Manos del Uruguay yarn. Mr. Trask has already mentioned his concern about this more than once.
The brief and hectic nature of our trip meant that I wasn’t able to go to Knit Nation or to check out Darn It & Stitch, but I will have 3 years in which to do such things. [I keep reminding myself of this, so I don’t pout. It’s so annoying when I pout.] However, I do have some nifty UK knitting content for you: information on the fabulous yarn-bombing being organized by Twist Yarns‘ Sophie Durlacher as part of the Saffron Walden Maze Festival.
Sophie is a dynamo: she founded Twist (“your local yarn shop online”) last year and already she’s established enough to be accepted to the Knitting and Stitching Show 2011 in London in October (will I be there? Oh, yes, I will). Her company is an online yarn shop, but she also does in-home events, much as fibre space did when it first started out as Knit-A-Gogo.
With all this going on, naturally Sophie needed something else to do. So when her town, Saffron Walden, started a maze festival this year, she volunteered to help them include a “knitted maze.” [Saffron Walden has two mazes in their town – a hedge maze and an ancient turf maze – and the maze festival will celebrate the town’s unique history with mazes and maze culture.] First, though, she had to figure out what a knitted maze might be. The planners initially had planned something two-dimensional, but Sophie thought she could reach out to the knitting community in Britain to make the knitted maze really special.
More Yarn Giveaway: Artyarns (first and third from the left) and Fibre Company (2nd and 4th from the left).
“Using the existing mazes, we decided to recreate one of them, either by “bombing” it or creating an identical maze right next to it. The turf maze was the obvious candidate – it’s very near the centre of town on the Common. The Turf Maze is an ancient monument, so we are looking at re-creating it on the Common next to it, or even overlaying it, if the weather permits.” To get enough knitting for her vision, Sophie reached out to knitters in her town and far beyond, using word-of-mouth and a Ravelry group. Before long, the maze project had garnered a mention in beautiful UK magazine The Knitter and was featured in the local press. A knit-along on Worldwide Knit in Public Day attracted knitters throughout the day and got the project past the halfway point.You can see photos of young and old, male and female, new knitter and old hand knitting in the Creating the Knitted Maze Picasa album for the day.
What happens after the festival at the end of August? The maze will have an afterlife, Sophie says. “We will make blankets for the local neo-natal unit, felting anything feltable, reusing what we can, and sewing the maze into useful things for charity.”
Want to help? If so, Sophie says, “Knit, knit, knit.” Strips should be between 9 and 12 inches wide and “as long as sanity permits.” I’m cheating by seaming together a few smaller strips, but you can do as Sophie does: ” I go for big yarn, fat needles, and an absence of style.” More creative folks are knitting with crime scene tape, video cassette tape (recycling!), denim, even washing line. The sky’s the limit!
I’ll be sending my strips off to the UK and would be happy to include yours – just send me an e-mail and let me know. As with the Knit a Tiny Hat challenge, anyone who donates a strip can choose whatever they like from my stash – and, let me tell you, there’s still some great stuff in there, including some Neighborhood Fiber Company Worsted and Malabrigo Merino Worsted, both in sweater quantities. Yum!
Can you believe this yarn? Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, from this year's Rockin' Sock Club.
Speaking of the stash, we’ve got some more winners of past giveaways: affiknity, Robin, Kitten with a Whiplash, Carolyn, Trudy, and Michele. As always, the Random Number Generator picked these lucky folks. This week, we have a cornucopia of yarn to give away:
1. Artyarns Supermerino: two skeins, one in Color 149 and one in Color 140.
2. Fibre Company: one skein of Terra in Mint and one skein of Organik in Fjord.
3. Socks that Rock: one skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in colorway Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (from this year’s Rockin’ Sock Club!)
Comment on the blog by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27 for a chance to win. And, hey, if you have a preference among the three yarny options, let me know what it is. I generally just pick at random, but might be able to find a way to get everyone chosen what they want. We can try, anyway, right?
As always, the yarn has lived in airtight containers in our non-smoking, one-cat house, and will be frozen for 24 hours before mailing. If you want to contribute to the cost of shipping the yarn, go here, but please remember that you aren’t required to do that. Comment away! Have you ever yarnbombed? Do you wish you could?
Regaining Balance: Wodehouse, Knitting, Math
The View from Bed: Several of my Wodehouse books have a little knitting on the back.
Giveaway winners, and a new set of yarn and books, at the end of this post. Feel free to scroll down!
So, people, the thing I haven’t mentioned is that I had surgery a couple of weeks ago. [I’m fine; don’t worry!] The recuperation has been a little longer than I expected – as in, I thought I’d be fine the next day, and instead I’m still building back to normal. I find it depressing not to be able to do everything I was doing before, and as a result I returned for a while to my primary comfort behavior: namely, re-reading books by P.G. Wodehouse. [Hey, you do your thing; I’ll do mine.]
In a few days, I read five Wodehouse books. I realize that this is a bit much, and even as I type this I wonder whether I should admit such excess to the world. But here’s what I realized: one thing I love about Wodehouse is that balance is restored at the end of his books. There are stakes, sure – mostly to do with social humiliation – but I do know that, in the end, girl will get boy, butler will get tip, and Lord Emsworth will have his pig returned to him. It’s funny; it’s safe; it’s serene.
Happily, one of the books Mr. Trask brought me included a little knitting in it, which gives me an excuse to talk about Wodehouse here. I wouldn’t say PGW was known for putting knitting in his books, but there are a few delightful moments, including this one (from Cocktail Time):
Old Mr. Howard Saxby was seated at his desk in his room at the Edgar Saxby literary agency when Cosmo arrived there. He was knitting a sock. He knitted a good deal, he would tell you if you asked him, to keep himself from smoking, adding that he also smoked a good deal to keep himself from knitting.
Two of my five (count 'em, 5) sweater swatches. Sigh.
As a former smoker, I can attest that knitting keeps me from smoking – and also from over-eating. And a little knitting in my Wodehouse gave me the pleasant feeling that the universe might just be looking out for me after all. Why, yes, lying in bed does make me a bit philosophical.
From there, it was a short leap to the realization that I feel a kind of balance when I’m working on a top-down sweater pattern. I know, I know, I’m a complete dork, but there’s something about the way the increases lead into the sleeves and the math does its thing that makes me feel like there’s a geometric harmony to the universe. [Again, why am I admitting to the world that I think this way?] Anyway, I feel this way in particular when I’m designing a garment, because it seems magical when the math works out without much trouble (this does not always happen, of course, especially when I’m sizing a pattern).
I’d love to get a renewed sense of that balance, that harmony, and I have these 10 skeins of Spud & Chloe Sweater in my stash. Originally, they were going to be a blanket for a friend, and then I realized that she didn’t need a blanket – she needed a baby sweater – and so there they sat for a while. I think now’s the time for them to come out and play, because I also found last summer’s raglan-sweater-along on the Spud & Chloe blog. I’m not up for doing a whole design on my own right now, so I’ll be following along with what the group did last summer a bit, but making changes as well.
The first change is that I cannot imagine getting 5 stitches to the inch in this yarn. It’s wonderful yarn – wool and cotton, just right for a walk-the-beach sweater – but I have gone all the way down to a size 5 needle and I am at 4.5 stitches per inch. [This is the story of my life: weird gauge.] More importantly, the fabric I got on the 5s is about what I would like the sweater’s fabric to have – the stitches are tight and even, but not too crowded. So my gauge will be 4.5 stitches and 6 rows to the inch, instead of the 5 st/inch the group has. I know that I want to have a wide, boat-ish neck the way Wendy’s sweater has, but without the aggressive ribbing. Let’s face it: I’ll be making this up as I go. Plus, I’ll be doing some stripes.
S&C Sweater: Firefly
S&C Sweater: Ice Cream
S&C Sweater: Moonlight
S&C Sweater: Root Beer
S&C Sweater: Splash
That’s right – I have five different colors of this yarn (2 skeins of each, although a fair piece of my first yellow skein has been taken up by my millions of gauge swatches): Moonlight, Firefly, Ice Cream, Rootbeer, and Splash. I didn’t plan it this way, but those names do suggest a glorious summer night to me…at the beach, with a root beer float, perhaps? Am I taking this too far? At any rate, I turned to the Random Stripe Generator (a cousin to our old friend the Random Number Generator) to give me some ideas for my stripes. This is a great tool: you select the colors you have and tell the tool how many rows you want and how wide the rows can be, and it pops out a little stripe pattern for you. I probably won’t follow their instructions to the letter, but looking at different combinations of the colors gave me a sense of how much of each color I’d like there to be in this sweater.
I used the yellow skein for my swatches on purpose; I knew that I didn’t want too much yellow in my sweater. II’m a little concerned about the Firefly and the Root Beer – I think the brown could be too dark, too muddy, and the yellow too aggressive. One might have to go. What do you all think? Who has opinions?
If anyone would like to join me in this here adventure, please do. Grab some yarn out of your stash and start swatching – a top-down raglan is fun to design and rewarding to knit. Onward and upward!
Left to Right: 2 skeins of Canopy, 1 of Watershed, 2 of Claudia Fingering.
Stash Giveaways for This Week
The winners from last week were Andrea, Robin, Consuela, and Brooke. Check out Andrea’s nifty blog, too! This week, there’s more fun to be had:
1. Two skeins of the Fibre Company Canopy Worsted Weight – one in Kaffir Plum and one in Orchid.
2. Two skeins of Claudia Hand Painted Yarn fingering weight – one in Blue Fields and one in Toast.
3. One skein of Neighborhood Fiber Co. Watershed in a lovely light blue that I suspect is the Randle Circle colorway.
4. One copy of Hannah Fettig‘s wonderful book Closely Knit: Handmade Knits for the Ones You Love.
As always, the yarn has lived in our one-cat, non-smoking home since it was purchased. I’ll be freezing the yarn for 24 hours before mailing it. Comment on this post by noon EST (GMT-4) on Saturday, July 9 for a chance to win one of these dandy giveaways. As always, thanks for giving my stash a home!
Knit A Tiny Hat for Charity
Hats from The Big Knit 2010: So Tiny! So Cute! Photo courtesy Innocent Drinks.
I know, people. I’m always asking you to do weird knitting things for charity. But then you probably do weird knitting things anyway, so why not do some for charity? Here’s the latest: knit a tiny hat for Innocent Drinks’ The Big Knit.
Started in 2003, The Big Knit raises money for Age UK, an organization that cares for the elderly in the United Kingdom. The fun thing about The Big Knit is that you’re knitting a tiny hat for a bottle of Innocent Drinks juice. Innocent is kind of like the UK version of Naked, except that their bottles are smaller. So what you do is, you knit a little hat that will fit on the top of a juice bottle, and then Innocent sells the bottles with the hats on to raise money (they donate 25p to Age UK’s Spread the Warmth for each hat that’s knit), and then people vote on which hats are the cutest. Last year, knitters around the world made 625,000 hats, raising £177,000 for the charity. You can see a gallery of past hats on the Age UK website.
So, why do this? Here’s what I’m thinking. If you watched the Royal Wedding; if you made fun of the Royal Wedding; if you congratulated yourself on studiously ignoring the Royal Wedding, you’ve already gotten some entertainment from the UK this year. If you saw The Young Victoria in 2009 or Sherlock or Downton Abbey or The King’s Speech in 2010, or if you read books by Ian Fleming, Terry Pratchett, P.G. Wodehouse, or Martin Amis, you got something from the UK. [I’m going to put in a special plug to John le Carré fans here, because he’s an Oxford grad, and I stayed in the John le Carré room at Lincoln College the past two summers]. We’re inextricably linked to the British, and we might as well show them how classy we are by knitting them some tiny little hats.
Plus, if you knit a tiny hat, and send me a photo of it, I’ll give you a sneak preview of the stash giveaways for the entire summer, and let you choose whatever you want from the pile. Who’s with me? Patterns and other encouragement available on the Innocent Drinks website as well as the Age UK page for the 2010 Big Knit (including, hey, a pineapple pattern!). Let’s get cracking, people; Britain Needs More and Better Hats.
More Yarn to Give Away, And Some Books
Gertrude disapproves of all this packing nonsense.
Well, folks, it’s been quite a month. School (my day job) ended and the big push to pack for England started. The house got turned topsy-turvy with people repairing things, people moving things, people making the lawn look like a lawn, people making the porch look like a porch. Chaos. Inside, as Mr. Trask said, it looks like a strip mall exploded, with books, DVDs, kitchen appliances, and divers other belongings all over the place, being packed to store, ship, or give away.
All of which is to say I’ve had trouble telling which end is up, which is why this blog got away from me. Not a good excuse; just an explanation. I did manage to get the last two giveaways mailed out, to Dovile, Sarah, Fran, Ivanna, and Deb. Congratulations to everyone who won, and everyone else keep trying. There’s lots more yarn yet to be won! I’ll be doing the Dream in Color Starry packages tomorrow, those of you who won the pretty sparkly pink yarns.
In lieu of a well-thought-out blog post (it’s coming, soon; I promise!), here are some nifty knitting moments from around the Internet:
1. This lady knit a surprisingly cat-like cat. I wish she’d give us the pattern, although I suspect the wire frame requires more artistry than I possess.
2. Franklin Habit wrote a lovely post about his grandmother, with photos of a shawl he designed to honor her. If only I were impressively shawl-y, I could make this. Instead, I sent the post to my shawl-y friend Michele.
3. The Sweatshop of Love is selling these amazing nautical knot bracelets in an array of colors. They remind me of the fisherman’s bracelets sold in New England when I was a pre-teen. You’d buy one and wear it all summer; as you bathed in the ocean, showered, etc., it would shrink to your wrist. These are like grown-up versions of that first sign of summer.
Meanwhile, the show must go on from underneath these piles of belongings – which means, of course, more yarn to give away. A new and exciting addition: books. Some books are coming with us to England, and I’m selling some to powells.com, and some I’m giving away to good homes. Here’s what we’ve got this week:
1. Two skeins of Canopy Fingering: one in Plum and one in Cat’s Paw.
2. One skein of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in Mallard (SUCH a pretty color).
3. One copy of Anne L. MacDonald’s No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting.
4. One copy of Lisa R. Myers’ The Joy of Knitting Companion, a nifty book that includes patterns, tips, design information, and even knitters’ graph paper so you can sketch your own stranded knitting motifs. I have used one page of the graph paper, but no more!
As always, the yarn has been stored in air-tight containers in our no-smoking, one-cat household. Before I mail each of the packages, I freeze the yarn for 24 hours – just in case of any pests. (I’ve never had a moth problem, but if I were receiving yarn from a stranger I might want them to freeze it first.)
Comment on the blog for a chance to win; I’ll select the four winners at noon on Sunday, June 26, and post the results soon after. Good luck!
Tuesday was Jane Lawton’s birthday; she would have been 67. So…you’re stuck with a little more musing on my mother. Take heart: May is almost over! Scroll down for the yarn giveaway…
Last month, I went to the Congressional Art Competition Awards ceremony at VisArts at Rockville. After my mother passed away, one of the Congressional Art awards for her area was named after her:
The Jane E. Lawton Memorial Award. Isn't that nice?
The Jane E. Lawton Memorial Award
This award honors the late Delegate Lawton for her exceptional service, undeniable exuberance, and devotion to the arts. This award is for singular vision or unique use of materials, reflecting Delegate Lawton’s individuality and vitality.
My mom had the nicest friends; they were instrumental in having this award named for her. Several of them were there on the night, including one who reminisced about traveling to New Hampshire with my mother and some other women during a presidential campaign. Evidently, while everyone else’s pajamas were pretty bland, Mom’s were leopard-print. There’s that “individuality and vitality” for you.
This year's award winner, "War and Play" by Jack Chen
The winner of Mom’s award this year was Jack Chen of North Potomac High School; he created an amazing oil painting of a child playing with a toy rocket launcher in the foreground while tanks roll toward him in the background. The photo I took does not do this piece justice; it glows. It will be hanging in Congressman Van Hollen’s office for a year, so if you happen to be there do take a look!
I always enjoy this event, in part because it’s neat to see the artistic high school students milling around and getting to know one another. They’re all from different schools, but they share a passion for visual art – they’re among their own people. How often does that get to happen in high school? [I commented on the power of a meeting of like-minded teenagers on the way home, and Mr. Trask told me that his debate coach always ended pep talks at debate tournaments by saying, “Above all, the most important goal of this tournament is for you to meet your future wife.”]
"Procrastination at its Finest," by Mary Beth Nalls, includes knitting needles in its survey of one student's distractions.
So, anyway. You all know I was on the lookout for knitting at this event, because I am always on the lookout for knitting. Shockingly, it seems that at least one art student finds knitting a distraction from homework.
That’s right: along with nail polish, an iPhone, and the book “Tuesdays with Morrie,” Mary Beth Nalls uses knitting to procrastinate from doing her homework. At any rate, that’s what I took from the drawing. [That keychain in the upper left corner looked like a ball of yarn to me at first, but then I remembered that I have a one-track mine. I suspect it’s a volleyball.]
I love that this student was comfortable enough with her knitter-ness to put the needles into her work. When I was in high school, I learned to knit, and enjoyed it – and, in fact, a couple of the most interesting and fun people I knew in high school were knitters. But I didn’t start admitting my knitting obsession until I was in college – and, even then, I was pretty quiet about it, just making over-sized mittens and scarves for my boyfriend during summer breaks (I hadn’t yet learned about gauge). Mary Beth’s drawing was a runner-up for an award; it will be displayed in Congressman Van Hollen’s office. Knitting on Capitol Hill!
Fiber Arts Studio at VisArts at Rockville - I couldn't resist. Sigh.
Buzzing from this first knitting find, I was over the moon when I found some actual yarn at VisArts, in the Fiber Arts section of their studios. Mr. Trask let me alone for a moment, and I’m afraid I may have…purchased some yarn. [You guys can tell the yarn giveaway isn’t going to be over any time soon.]
Just one skein of handpainted yarn; is that so wrong? My plan is to make some hand mitts this summer, to stay warm when I’m in Oxford next winter. If I know what I’m going to make with it, it’s not really bad to buy it, right? [Please – don’t answer that.]
Where have you seen knitting in art? Let the rest of us know in the comments…either because you want to, or because you want the lovely skein of Dream in Color Starry pictured below. The colorway is Honeymoon, from this year’s Dream in Color Club (February). 450 yards of fingering-weight superwash merino wool with silver filaments woven in. You can make yourself some amazing socks with this, so comment before noon on Tuesday, May 31 for a chance to win. Yum!
Dream In Color Starry in bright pink (Honeymoon) - what's not to love? Comment on the blog before noon on Tuesday, May 31 for a chance to win.
Beautiful Things, Mothers (and yarn)
Mom in her early 20s. Did she actually ride in this plane?
You regulars knew this was coming: in the aftermath of Mother’s Day, a musing on my mother, Jane Lawton, who passed away in November 2007. Newbies (and those who don’t need to hear about Jane), feel free to scroll down to the bottom and read about the yarn giveaway, since there isn’t much knitting content here. Those who might be curious, you can read about Mom trying to knit and Mom convincing me to go to England if you like.
I found this book of poems, 1000 Beautiful Things, in my mother’s house this past fall. Mom used to read me poetry out of it when I was young – probably 6 or 7. [I find it funny that one Goodreads reviewer calls the book “nationalistic claptrap,” and I’m looking forward to seeing whether I agree. But I digress.]
I particularly remember one day that we were sitting by the fire in our family room, taking turns finding poems we thought were funny or too serious, when I came across a poem about grief:
I cannot say, and I will not say
That he is dead–. He is just away!
I was too young to understand grief, and I think I found it funny that someone would be confused about the status of a loved one – dead? alive? who knows! – so I started reading it. There are some lovely moments in the poem, which it turns out reminded Mom of her father:
Mild and gentle, as he was brave–,
When the sweetest love of his life he gave
To simple things–: Where the violets grew
Blue as the eyes they were likened to…
1000 Beautiful Things - including Dream in Color Starry yarn. Comment on this post for a chance to win the skein!
When I finished reading the poem, I looked up to see that Mom’s eyes were full of tears. She explained that she was thinking of her father, who had died a long time ago. As it turns out, Clarence England died suddenly at age 63 of a heart attack – very like Mom’s death at the same age. Of course, she didn’t know then how similar their deaths would be, but I’ve thought about the moment with the poem quite a bit since she died. “He would have loved you,” she told me that day, “not just because you were my daughter, but because he loved children.” These days, I imagine telling my own children (or nieces or nephews) about Mom. [Before you people ask – no, there is no next generation in the works, at least not so far. I just think about it anyway.]
She, too, loved children, and was both gentle and brave. She didn’t have blue eyes, but late in life was known to announce delightedly that her eyes, which she’d always thought were brown, were actually hazel. Quite the character, my mom. She liked to laugh, and she wrote poetry, and she cried at cheesy movies. She loved to dance, and she liked to tell people she was an Okie from Muskogee, because she was born in Muskogee, Okla. She always had candy in the candy dishes in her house. And she used to host this insane, huge holiday party. She would wrap up all the swag she’d gotten at conventions in the past year as gifts, so everyone would unwrap, you know, a stress ball, or a Comedy Central t-shirt, or whatever. Also, her holiday decorations included an Animated Singing Christmas Tree. I kid you not.
All these are some of the 1000 (even more) beautiful things about mom. It may be mom-centric claptrap, but it’s true nonetheless. Were those things beautiful when she was alive? Not all of them, especially not that danged Christmas Tree. But now that she is gone they all seem divine.
These days, I understand the feeling that someone who has died seems just around the corner, and the comfort in the idea that they could have just gone away somewhere. In our minds, the person who has gone is still so alive. Especially with sudden deaths, it’s bizarre to think one cannot access the other person at all. When Mr. Trask’s father died (also suddenly), several people said to him, “But we just saw him,” as if we might just have misplaced him somewhere. I understand that feeling completely. Oddest of all is not being able to talk to the person about your experience of their death; so many different aspects of their lives seem different after their life is over. I believe that is what made my mother cry that day, in part – the fact that life keeps going on after those we love have died, and the fact that we can’t share with them the new insights we gain as life continues and they stay behind.
So, in this month of both Mother’s Day and my Mom’s birthday, I’m thinking of all the beautiful things I’ll tell the next generation about her, and all she is still teaching me, even from wherever she is now.
The Royal Wedding: But Of Course We’ll Knit
The book "Knit Your Own Royal Wedding" includes instructions to knit the happy couple, their wedding party, and their families - even the corgis.
People, I am torn about the Royal Wedding.
I remember my mother waking me up to watch Charles and Diana get married; I remember lying at the foot of my parents’ bed to watch, and being surprised by the long, long train of her dress. It was a moment in time for me, maybe the first shared cultural moment I can remember. [The next one might be Hands Across America. Oh dear – the 80s.] And, because it’s a memory of my mother, it’s an especially precious memory lately.
Folks have been asking me about this. I’ve spent the past two summers in England, and Mr. Trask and I are getting ready to move there in the fall. Like any good Anglophile, I am not uninterested in the monarchy (To critics, I say three words: The King’s Speech).
On the other hand, I can’t get myself to care too much about William and Catherine. They seem like nice people (though some commentators have pointed out that ne’er-do-well Harry makes for better headlines). As speculation about their wedding grew over the past few years, I was interested in that. All signs point to me being one of those people who are camping out in front of Westminster Abbey right now. So – why not?
Wills and Kate have certainly inspired better knitting patterns than Charles and Diana did.
My problem, I think is Charles and Diana. Over the past few decades, we’ve seen the clips of Diana and Charles’ wedding at bad moments for the monarchy – the couple’s separation and divorce, Diana’s death, Charles’ controversial re-marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles. Then, they were ironic images, underscoring the difference between the outside picture and what was really going on. When I’m shown a picture of C&D kissing on the balcony, I can practically hear a commentator intoning in my ear: “O, had they put known then what we know now.” [My inner commentator is a bit of a drama queen. Isn’t yours?]
Now, we’re seeing the clips again, but they’re meant to represent what they originally did – the fairy-tale of princes and princesses, of the trappings of a fancy wedding. I’m having trouble making the leap. Seriously, I want to. I’m just having trouble. I’m sure part of it, too, is that I’ve had my own wedding. I know how the day flashes by, and how the outside trappings aren’t nearly as important as the person with whom you’re going to spend the years that follow that day. Every day, I am grateful for Mr. Trask and our entire history. I do not feel the same about my wedding dress, pretty though it was.
Like I always say, knitting can fix almost anything. The impressive “Knit Your Own Royal Wedding” gives knitters instructions to knit the key figures in the wedding (including my favorites, the corgis). This British knitting group has knit the entire thing, and they’re having a party to celebrate (also to watch the wedding). There’s a knitter in the UK who knit a wedding cake for Wills and Kate – though this article complains “it’s not even edible” (what, most knit creations are?).
I’m most excited about Franklin Habit’s “roommate,” Harry Bollasockyarn, who Franklin reports was invited to the wedding. Harry and, er, fiesty sheep Dolores Van Hoofen (who stowed away under someone else’s seat) are tweeting from London about the wedding, even now. Franklin Habit makes everything fun.
Royal Wedding Yarn: NOT being given away, I'm afraid. Sorry!
Here’s what really put me over the edge, though. Glorious Fyberspates – an awfully nice British yarn company – has put out a Royal Wedding Yarn to commemorate the great event. It’s the deep blue I love best. It has little silver sparkles in it. It’s made of merino, silk, and royal (ha!) alpaca. I heard about it on the day I heard we were moving to England. This day was just a few days before my birthday. I had just watched Franklin’s video about what non-knitters give knitters as gifts. It was a perfect storm, I’m afraid.
The yarn arrived a few days ago, and I’m winding it tonight. Tomorrow morning, the yarn and I will get up early, and I’ll start swatching for Hannah Fettig’s Featherweight Cardigan (rav lnk). What the heck, right?
Plus, if I sleep in, there’s always TiVo.
Knitting Onstage: With What Results?
Here's another batch of yarn to be given away: Mirasol Sulka. I'll probably divide it into three packages for three winners. Comment on this post for a chance to win!
Friday night’s production of Art at Signature Theatre was wonderful. I saw the play in London back in (I think) 2000, and I must say it was at least as good as that production. Some of that, though, may be that I’m 11 years older. As Mr. Trask said last night, “It’s not a young person’s play.” (Why, yes, play-going does make Mr. Trask and me a little pretentious. How did you guess?)
The one thing the play lacked (that previous Signature productions have not) was any trace of on-stage knitting. At first, I was disappointed at this, but then I realized something:
- Knitting, as a stress-reducer, is the enemy of drama.
I refer to drama not just in the theatrical sense but also in the everyday one. It’s difficult to work up to any kind of indignation while you’re turning the heel of a sock. “Art” is about three men arguing about a painting and, in the process, evaluating their 15-year friendship. It’s funny and sad and a little claustrophobic. And, much as I hate to admit that there’s a place where knitting shouldn’t occur, it would have ruined the play. Had Serge, Marc, and Yvan been provided with sticks and string, things would have taken a different turn.
Marc: You paid 200,000 francs for that sh*t?
Serge: Sure, but remember when we bought that quivet yarn?
(a pause)
Marc: You’ve got a point there.
Like the obsessive I am, I started thinking about how other plays might have turned out with a little knitting thrown in:
The Glass Menagerie
Amanda: What are we going to do, what is going to become of us, what is the future?
Laura: What was that, Mother? I was reading this pattern. The yarn guild is knitting the royal wedding, and I have to finish Prince William by Thursday.
Here, the yarn performs an impressive balancing act. This yarn has lived in an airtight container in our one-cat, smoke-free home since I purchased it at fibre space.
Waiting for Godot
There’s no ennui – they’re knitting!
Vladimir: We are waiting for Godot to come—
Estragon: Who cares? Check out these mittens I’ve made.
Pozzo: Help!
Vladimir: Or for night to fall. (Pause.) Mittens, you say?
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
The hapless pair entertain themselves with both the gold coin and knitting, with mixed results.
Rosencrantz is flips a coin over and over, while Guildenstern knits.
Rosencrantz: Heads…
Guildenstern: …Knit…
Rosencrantz: Heads…
Guildenstern: …Knit…
Rosencrantz: Heads…
Guildenstern: It can’t always be heads!
Rosencrantz: Why not?
Guildenstern: This is supposed to be ribbing!
King Lear
Lear is thrown out of Regan and Goneril’s house because his stash is unruly.
Goneril
Hear me, my lord;
What need you five and twenty skeins, or five,
To knit with in a house where twice so many
Already wait to be knit?
Regan
What need one?
Lear, his fool, and the yarn are thrown out into the storm. Happily, though, they are able to knit themselves socks and mittens to stay warm. Lear presents Cordelia with a nice lace shawl, and they all live happily together in France.
The Importance of Being Earnest
Jack and Algy find solace in knitting while Cecily and Gwendolyn are angry at them.
Jack: Good heavens, I suppose a man may knit with his own yarn in his own garden.
Algy: But you have just said it was perfectly heartless to knit socks!
Jack: I said it was perfectly heartless of you under the circumstances. That is a very different thing.
Algy: That may be, but the yarn is the same!
Here, the yarn tries to hitchhike away from our house. Comment on this post before it gets away!
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
What if George were knitting while he argued with Martha?
George: You can sit around with the gin running out of your mouth; you can humiliate me; you can tear me to pieces all night, that’s perfectly okay, that’s all right.
Martha: You can stand it!
George: I cannot stand it! [Stabs Martha with knitting needle.]
Sadly, not even knitting can save everyone.
So – does this work for your favorite play? Let us know in the comments below (and earn a chance to win the Mirasol Sulka (rav lnk) pictured in this post).
[Want to know more about Sulka? Read about my obsession with this yarn.]
Knit Like You Mean It. 