5

These pants fit you perfectly a few short months ago.
I need these reminders of how you have grown.
I still think of you as the baby I held first that night
5 years ago, crying with you and the new moon.

You still cry and rage and rail.
You still need me so much it frustrates you.
You are so loving when soothed.
You are my lion and my lamb.

When you are quiet and still
I stare and think you are beautiful.
When you are dancing, pretending, and singing,
I stare and think I am blessed.


Happy Birthday, Sweetheart

Turning the Corner

Remember my Warm Shawl from the Veronik Avery book Knitting Classic Style ? Yeah, I had forgotten about it too. Until I finally finished the miles of black garter stitch and added the first short border in gray and cream. I left out the lace bits in the border. I knit them in and realized that in the recommended silk, the lace would be lovely, but in my chosen merino, the lacy holes looked like mistakes. I am close to picking up the side stitches. In terms of a finished object, well, we'll talk in another month or more. This is an easy and simple shawl; sure to be warm and snuggly when cool weather arrives. This happens in Alabama exactly at 12:01 am on November 1st. I think I can finish before then.

Dovecote Socks

Yarn: Pigeonroof Studios in dovecote
Needles: US # 1 DPN

I had intended to use the Charade pattern for these, but the colorway obscured the stitches. I think Charade shows best with less variegation. I was traveling in a car when I decided to rip back and continue in stockinette. I am glad I did, these make me very happy. The colors are a bit more muted on one sock, simply a small difference in the dying process. I like this since it reminds me of the beauty in hand made versus machine perfected. My affection for Pigeonroof yarns is well known, and now Krista has a new sock base that she thinks is even better than the original. More squishy? More springy? How could that be? I am shaking my piggy jar as I type.

Gratitude

So, yesterday was my first blogiversary. I was overwhelmed with my offline life and couldn't find time to write to say thank you. I began this blog as a means to keep relatives informed of our goings on. In retrospect, not much time passed before this space became an expression of a facet of my truest self.

The true self can never be hidden fully in an artistic pursuit of any kind. I may think I am in control, choosing to share only the pretty bits, the perfect work, the least amount of identifiable information as possible. This thinking is folly. Everything I write, photograph, create, and share is a mirror image of the most sincere, imperfect, incomplete, humble parts of me. As I relish the trace of a potter's fingerprint in an otherwise perfect bowl or the sound of a guitarist's fingernails on the strings, you take time to read, encourage, and know me. I could go on like this all night and never make full sense of what I am trying to say, but I think Robert Frost comes close to describing my feelings about blogging:

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom... in a clarification of life - not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.

Intricacy

Unwind, untangle, re-wind.

Wind blows birds from the fence.

Rain deafens, knots release,

chaos succumbs with a sigh.

Shock of yellow on gray, the finch returns.

In silence I think of you.

Of Roads & Windows: One Sock's Journey

Beginning: rain, glorious, rain

Middle: destination city

End: finished sock by Huntsville, almost home

Schooner Socks

Schooner Socks
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in schooner
Needles: US # 1 dpn

These are the first finished pair for my participation in the Summer of Socks '08. There are prizes for the most pair knit in each 2 week time period, but I don't want to rush, or end up with 10 pair of socks with 2" legs, so neener neener on prize less me. This is my basic stockinette pattern, that I lovingly call the Don't Yawn- I'm Sturdy sock recipe. In fact, I haven't had to darn any of my knit picks socks. I'll leave the gory pile of holey socks in need of darning for another post.

Have a Happy 4th! I'll be back next week with (hopefully) more progress on my FLS and a long anticipated cast on with pigeonroof studios yarn....heavenly.

Your Mission Should You Choose To Accept It

Sometimes it's hard to remember we are all still out there, making our way, and needing a word or two of encouragement. Today, my mission is to find a few happy things and share them. I'd like it if you joined me in spreading a little love. Here are a few links... get going and say hi, since we are all in this fishbowl together.

KnitXcorE is wondering if anybody is out there and has a video link to my new favorite song.

A Mingled Yarn, our favorite Shakespearean professor, announced she is pregnant with a baby girl. Send her some congrats and well wishes.

Tammy has completed an exquisite shawl and shared a link to this young man's amazing journey.

My Three Sons has a piece of ...art... she'd like to sell ya.

...and as a treat to all of my fabric loving friends... Heather Bailey's new line packaged in the cutest preview ever. You need to pull out your vintage juice glasses with oranges and cherries painted on them , sit back, and tap your toe along with this.