508: a little making for a lot of love

I almost kept him, which would have been naughty, and the first time I felt compelled to keep one of my own fiber creations. There's a twist along his nose, and it makes me think of my husband, who bumped into too many goal posts or heads while playing soccer when he was younger and never bothered to straighten it out (it would require re-breaking, you see). I opted for no adornments: no tail, no embroidered eyes, no fabric inner ears, no embroidered tree-tattoos (this last was my husband's suggestion). Perhaps the simple reflects more the maker than the receiver, my best friend of so many years. My heart is full of adornments when I think of her. xo, Kelly

Yarn: pink tweed kitchen cotton by Lily's Sugar n Cream
Needles: size 7, Clover bamboo
Pattern: Piggies at Play from Knitted Toy Tales by Laura Long

504

The first trimester was rough, like having a hangover without the rowdy night before. The second trimester was comparatively smooth, with regular morning-sickness bouts, but minus the nausea. (Ryan's convinced my mythic second-trimester ease lasted a week.) Now I am heading into the third trimester, and already my body is shifting into an uncomfortable mode, new stomach upsets, deeper imbalances in sleep (I will be introducing the neti pot into my evening routine), moods swinging in ways they haven't swung in years. I'm trying to keep the internal peace through breathing, meditation, fresh air, making. There are layers of tethers just now, and I'm simply attempting to unfurl (and keep the casualties to a minimum).

Currently:
:: Loving prenatal yoga. I'm going twice next week. My body is sore from last night, but in such a good way. I think I moved better this time--more smoothly, and accommodated when I knew my body couldn't manage. The only position I absolutely was paralyzed on was the bridge, and that's because there is some spot on my very-lower back that leaves me immobile on my back, one of the worst pains radiating as I slowly try to roll over. I will be gentle with myself until I can manage such contortions.
:: Milk remains my strongest pregnancy craving. Strawberry shakes too.
:: Knitting more than reading. I'm still so painfully slowly making my way through Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth and Gretel Ehrilich's This Cold Heaven. I'm savoring, truly.
:: Thrilled, thrilled that Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting has been re-released. I've been lusting after it since 2004, but because it was out-of-print, any copies to own were in the hundreds of dollars. Many others must have been lusting too. Some day I will be accomplished enough to work those cables.
:: Just watched Under the Same Moon. Those last few minutes are so good--the ideal ending, hitting the right emotional note.
:: Looking forward to the weekend. I love my teaching assignment, but I find myself suddenly ready to be finished with this MFA of mine. Part of it, I know, is that my journeys are so strongly overlapping, and my brain is partly wrapped up in the trajectory of impending parenthood. So much of my body is limping along too, which feeds that desire to remain away from weighty stress.

502

One knows the school year has begun when I have a series of grievances, and this year, my last, seems to have piled on a few more than this hormonal pregnant-lady wants to handle.

Instead of dwelling on these little frustrations, I am going to close my eyes and think of absolutely good, good things:

:: Last night was my first session of prenatal yoga. Until now, I'd done very, very sweet and s-l-o-w yoga practice, and while this wasn't hot yoga, of the speed-up-and-fall-over sort, it did move, and I did sweat and at one point, saw little blotches dance in front of my eyes, so I slunk off to the bathroom, cold-washclothed myself, and returned to the dance. In savasana, my own minnow began her own practice, and I imagined, in our peace, our muscles singing, that most of the room felt their own minnows flickering in the dim light. Imagine, a dozen and a half pregnant women, all with tumbling babies, some overdue, some not due for months, all half-moons against the floor.

:: After yoga, homemade soup. Emily's house, sweet pups, help untangling a knotted skein of yarn, and soup. Because soup is one of the best things about autumn and winter and that rainy chill that has begun to settle over our region.

:: After soup, knitting. You see this beautiful progression? I began a second kicking bag. I ordered this beautiful yarn from etsy, in the colorway "oy the koi," which already has whimsy attached to it. I'm loving how subtle the colors are turning out as they knit up. I'm an earth-tones kind of girl, so to venture into such a bright blue, which shows on the etsy listing but not in my photograph above, is a happy risk.


:: I do love autumn. Penelope loves it so much she wants to eat it, apparently. I love the way the trees change, I love to bring out heavy wool sweaters, I love making soup, I love filling the house with the smell of baked bread, I love the sound of crisping leaves in the wind, I love the start of the school year (despite recent misgivings, I love the essence of school).

:: And the pups are sweet-as-ever. Thursdays are our special day together; I am done earlier than most days, and right now, the afternoons belong to us. Once the strong weather begins, perhaps our marches, and my belly, will be kept closer to home.

:: The minnow is doing beautifully. Feeling her move is my favorite part of each day.

:: And my husband. My husband, my husband, makes me feel so lucky all of the time. He's so kind and considerate and never perfect, but always good. He watches out for me so well, making sure we're well-stocked with apples and milk, making sure to listen when I need to vent, reading the Bradley birth books I've been stacking in his lap, holding me close, tolerating my increasing snores, celebrating the good things, the better things. Taking care, letting me take care in return. A good partner can make just about anything tolerable, I think. And to always be filled with this love, this thing that grows every day, after eleven years. No one really talks about that as much--the way a love can grow older, the way it can work.

424: knit, knit, knit

Last night, I *finally* made it to Wednesday night knitting club, where I got to see Julia for the second time (our first was nearly a year ago, making cheese with the homesteading girls), and I got to officially meet Martha (whose work I've looooong admired, especially those fantastic gauze scarves!), and Sarah and Anna and Jess... These ladies are incredibly talented, which is good, because it will nudge me out of my comfort zone and into some wonderful projects I've been ogling for much too long.

For now, my first attempt at something new:


I made my first baby booties, though this moniker is a bit deceptive. Instead, I wound up with something more like toddler slippers, which is what I've rechristened these quick garter stitch slip-ons I mailed to my godson Christian. Together, the slippers took less than two hours to make.

Yarn: off-white kitchen cotton
Needles: size 8, bamboo
Pattern: Glamour-Baby's First Booties (free, Lion Brand website)

Of course, I have been informed, that Cookie Monster had to first wear the booties before Christian could and five minutes after donning the slippers, he slid on his little tuckus on the slick kitchen linoleum. Whoops.

415

I'm feeling a bit inside myself these days. My body has been uncooperative these days in repair, and I've wanted nothing more than to crawl inside and hibernate.

It's full thick and snowy February, and yesterday, my husband and I were snowed in. It takes a few country roads to get to my small town, and the district shut down their schools for the day. I made a go at getting to my own class at the university yesterday morning, but the combination of snow-slick roads, cars tipped into ditches, and my own stress level already being high that kept me home, reading student drafts, cleaning the sink's basin, knitting little objects.

I'm reading books less for immersion in my craft and more for escape: novels I can send my grandmother when I'm done, books that make me settle into home a bit more. I'm thinking about family and baking, about long walks and tabletops free of clutter.

Tonight I travel up to the Cities to take some photographs for the English program's website, and then head over to a cafe to meet a few new friends for a knitting group.

Tomorrow is a long day on campus and after, we head to Green Bay to celebrate Ryan's mother's birthday. It will be good for me to get out of town, to take a break from the same shape of things. I feel that winter blue inside of me, not the bright blue of clear skies, but that heavy fog, that swing low kind of sorrow that follows.

359: my first felting project

I glanced at a few coin-purse patterns on the internet and adapted to make one of my own. This isn't meant to be a guide for others felting, but rather, a chronicle of my own journey--my first felting project, which turned out as any first project usually does--a charming failure.

However, if you want a guide, Knitty has a really excellent one!

With a worsted-weight wool, I cast on thirty stitches and worked in stockinette stitch for about six and a half inches. I used size six needles (bamboo are my favorite), which was likely too small for felting, but still, a part of the process and learning experience.

(PS: That clean floor? I would say it was a birthday present, but really, it's because one of our dogs [ah-hem, one guess--why, yes, it was Z] got into something and was sick all. over. the kitchen floor, and I suppose Ryan not making me clean it on my birthday was a kind of gift.)


When I got to where I roughly wanted to stop, I began to decrease using k2tog and p2tog, one on each end to create the flap. I love the way st st rolls--it reminds me of a little gnome hat in this stage.

In retrospect, if I try this particular project again, I'd slow the flap down; when you see the final project, you'll note that the flap is incredibly mealy looking, and I doubt any coins would stay inside this little thing. Perhaps one could consider it a film case (rolls would fit nicely in there) or chapstick / lotion holder.


I matched up the two sides up and sewed. I opted to put purl-side in because other patterns I've seen with mixed wool and acrylic will show the knit side, but this is also the side the lip curls out with, which adds to the lumpen final appearance.


The button is one of those extras you get tied to a new dress shirt, and though I love my button collection, I don't think I'm yet ready to deal with functional buttons on felted objects. But because of the end-product, it wouldn't be difficult to slip something into the project without even opening the meager flap.


Above, with a few washes to go.

I think, with this one, I'll use it as a kind of wrapping for a real gift. I hesitate to throw it out (what a waste!) but it's not worth keeping, so this is my compromise.

I've already cast on to make another attempt, another variation, and the person who receives this lumpen wrapping paper can know that tossing it is OK, and that this person will be the receiver of actually nice felted objects in the not-too-distant future. But this one is still given with love. As wrapping.

356: honeybees, and other good things

Tomorrow I turn the big three-oh, which I think is supposed to leave me panicked or flummoxed, or both, but instead, I feel fairly indifferent. To the number, anyway. I'm definitely looking forward to the day. Some good things:

- I'll be eating my birthday dinner at Cafe Brenda, which is a gourmet vegetarian restaurant in the Twin Cities. Fourteen of my close friends and family will be keeping me company.

- A slide show featuring White House Honey. I love that the Obamas now have a kitchen garden and unprocessed honey on their south lawn, and I love the way this slide show is executed--like listening to NPR but with stunning accompanying photographs, making me wish I could keep bees too.

- This weekend, I decided to teach myself to felt. I think I'm already going about it wrong, using too tight a stitch, but I've also decided this: it's about the process. That's what brings me the most pleasure. I haven't yet kept anything I've knit or quilted or crocheted, and I think this is why. Its time with me is in the making.

- Though my new medicine is twisting my stomach into even worse knots, I'm looking at it as a part of the journey, and that's a good thing. I'm on my way to wellness, making good choices, and feeling good about those choices.

- Speaking of choices, I'm joining my dear friend Angie in No Impact Week, which is just a week away. We'll see how I do.

- More signs point toward me returning to my vegetarian roots, just as soon as the meat is used up in the soups and freezer (that my husband won't eat). Read this article in The New Yorker about Jonathan Safran Foer's newest book, Eating Animals.

Have a lovely weekend. And to those I will see tomorrow: I look forward. xo

310: thinking about making

I've found some projects I much admire recently, and instead of leaving them open as tabs to daydream about, I'm collecting the links here, to share:

- I've been doing my own projects using Brittany needles; thinking about stocking up
- A Friend to Knit With's fingerless mitten collection
- these Knitty pattern for fingerless mittens: Dashing and Fetching
- Needles Edge: love the baby kimono and booties
- on Ravelry: little hearts
- thinking of ways to turn these little leaves into ornaments or mobiles, a forest nursery (when we have children, I'm thinking the bedroom theme I'd love the most is the woods--so important to me growing up, those walks in the woods with my dad, so important to where we live now and how Ryan and I spend our weekends)
- mmmm, knit strawberries
- possibly attempting this Cape Cod pullover for Ryan for Christmas
- the ever-loved Saartje booties
- wanting to copy this Cirque du Soleil hat
- admiring the knit patterns in this etsy shop
- wanting to attempt to sew my own free-form creatures after seeing this rabbit rattle
- lusting over the yarns at the backwards loop
- I have some Kidsilk Haze I'd love to use on this shawl (on Ravelry)
- admiring this Medusa Cowl (on Ravelry)
- I know someone I want to make this honey cowl for...
- maybe I can use Cranberry Quiltworks to finish off that quilt I started eons ago...
- this felt bunny looks adorable
- and these little chicks are so sweet too
- and these hanging birds
- and this sweet stuffed rabbit

279: making

Making: clearing out the refuse of autumn in the landscaped areas of the yard. Finding more tent caterpillars, finding out husband burned the last branch, thinking it was only eggs, glad the caterpillars had slipped out. This time, I take the branch the dozen blocks to the cemetery, thinking of how it's all dead there anyway, but how lush the trees are, a few snacks for these unburnt creatures.


Making: lettuce from last year, returning. Bitter to the taste. Asparagus sadly did not make it this year, harvest year. We will try again.


Making: black under my fingernails. This weekend, it was from the lead blocks, and on Monday, it was from the garden.


Making: I love the process of callouses. The one most reliable is that on my ring finger of my right hand and my thumb, from holding a pen. This callous developed when I was about seven or eight (I kept a diary, I wrote letters, I wrote stories) and hasn't diminished since. Hard bumps. I'm returning to the one on the forefinger of my left hand, from pushing the bamboo knitting needle through.



Making: hands covered in sticky bread dough, waiting to rise, the crunch of knife through crust. Jam, hoping to learn jam-making, summer.



Making: that swift turn of wrist that comes from knowing something, from repetition and the pleasure of regularity. The way making becomes an art, becomes a process, a series of movements that bring comfort.

186: Knitted Cloths

In the recent years, it was scarves. Endless garter stitch scarves.

This year, it's washcloths, dishcloths, whatever you wish to call them. Here are some shots of the ones I made for the holidays and the links to the patterns, should you feel so inclined to make one of your very own:

For Grandma: Obama and Hummingbird.


For Chelsea: Don't Mess With Texas.


For Dad: Armadillo


For Mom: Eiffel Tower


For my Parents-in-law: Paw Print (we don't need to discuss my whoops on this one)


Kelly's son, Christian: Skully and Big Rig

(All the red comes from a cone my mother in law passed along to me--and I still have a lot left!)