The Stories We Tell...about Knitting

My grandmother has been a knitter ever since I can remember. We lived 2 hours away from my grandparents so I didn't see them often but when I did spend time with them it was always like being in an exotic land. They lived in Toronto and I lived up north, first near Barrie then outside of Gravenhurst. Both very rural places. When I came to Toronto I came with wide eyes, seeing all the people and cars and buildings. I remember she had a cupboard full of cereal (we got one choice at my house) and she always had Special K. There isn't much exciting about Special K but at her house it tasted like something special.
My mom would drop my brother and I off in the morning and go to the mall BY HERSELF for a few hours. I didn't understand why on earth she'd want to go to the mall anyway and certainly not BY HERSELF.
Now that I have kids I understand.
My grandmother would drive us to meet her at the mall for lunch at Simpsons (maybe Sears? but either way, it was a restaurant with tablecloths) and I remember jello cut in cubes and served with whipped cream. This is the epitome of gourmet when you are 7. Mom usually bought us a new book to share and that felt pretty decadent. We didn't get new things unless it was Christmas or our birthdays.
So, I remember my grandmother was always a knitter. She rotated every Christmas making all us cousins those nordic sweaters everyone had in the 80's with a yoke collar and different coloured patterns circling the yoke. I loved them because I knew somehow it had taken her hours of work to make this sweater and she had made it JUST FOR ME.
I saved a few of the sweaters and my kids wear them now. The Em-ster lives in hers.

A few years ago my grandma gave up knitting. The arthritis in her fingers was getting too bad and she couldn't make the needles do what she wanted them to. I visited her one winter looking for some advice on how to knit socks. I remember her trying to show me how to join the stitches in a round and how hard it was for her.
She gave me a lot of her supplies-old patterns from the 50's, aluminum needles, her stash of wool and a knitting bag. I use these things now and am grateful to have them. I can't afford to spend much money on knitting supplies but somehow what I need always seems to land in my lap.
I feel grateful that I am able to knit and purl and my fingers can work the wool quickly because I know one day maybe I won't be able to anymore. This is the way of things I think. Everything has a season and right now it is my season to knit and my grandmother's season to receive the knitting after so many years of giving it.

Yarnning along-what I'm knitting and ...not reading?

Joining Ginny today at Small Things-what I'm knitting and reading:

On the weekend I started an afghan. Surprising for me as I'm not great with long-term projects. I usually want to see progress NOW and be able to use whatever I'm knitting sometime in the next month or so. This thing is going to take me months. But I felt like I needed a long term relationship with a knitting project if you will, and so began the afghan. I'm using some Berella "4" acrylic, worsted weight yarn my grandmother gave me when she was no longer able to knit. The colour is...beige. Not very artistic or dreamy is it? But a girl needs a good, sturdy beige afghan to curl up under on whatever couch is in her life I think.
What I'm reading is The Artist's Way still. I'm on week 4 and the first task is reading deprivation. I gasped with horror when I saw that. Not read?! Anything?? For a whole week? No blog posts, novels, newspapers, knitting instructions?? You have got to be kidding me, Julia Cameron.
Maybe she knows what she's talking about. I have discovered a few things after 3 days of this semi-hell. I read a lot at work to take my mind off my work. I read a lot of magazine covers in the grocery store and miss how interesting people are. I read when I should be paying attention to my children. It's made me more of aware of what is going on around me and it's a bit overwhelming all this activity. Once this week is over I have a whole of catching up to do and I can't wait.

Dorothy was right-there's no place like home

This has not been a fantastic evening. It's His Lordship's night off and I have spent it looking for a science folder which morphed into cleaning up The Em-ster's room. I have washed dishes and loaded the dishwasher which is now stuck in the rinse cycle grinding and complaining away until I get up to restart it. I have supervised homework, home-reading and lunch-making. I managed to sit down for 5 mins to knit a row on a moss-stitch afghan I've started. I have listened to both my children's school-related woes which have been the cause of both kids acting up tonight. I can't help but feel happy that this school year will soon be over. I wonder if there is something in this homeschooling business but worry that I wouldn't have the patience or the creativity to get both kids to work on their lessons.

But despite all the craziness of this evening, I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be. After a long, boring day at work being a small cog in the retail machine I come home to two smart, interesting kids. Their curiosity and activity keeps us both on our toes. 

Here I can sit down and knit whenever I need a moment to centre myself and figure out what to do next. I can wander down to my corner of the basement and create some neat word art around a quote that's been floating around my head all day. 

Dorothy was right-there's no place like home ;)

Purging!

I spent this afternoon purging out my little corner of this house to accommodate some new interests. It was incredibly satisfying and I was amazed at what I was able to let go of. I have recently come to the conclusion that I am a hoarder of fabric. I have a big Rubbermaid bin full of scraps that I told myself I was saving for the kids to make things out of or that I would one day use for a quilt. Yesterday and today I filled 2 garbage bags with scraps no bigger than 2" square and most of them useless strips of cloth. What did I think I was going to do with that!!?? I really hate adding to the garbage dump situation in our area but at a certain point a girl has to admit defeat.
I love sewing but I haven't had the time or the money to invest in it in a couple of years. Once I had that big bin empty I filled it with all the fabric that means something to me or is in big enough pieces to actually do something with. That emptied all kinds of drawers and bins that can now house my growing yarn collection and odds and sods of card-making supplies.
The original impetus of this whole purge was to make a vision into reality. I have always wanted a comfy chair and reading light in a quiet corner of our house and I want to see my craft books on a shelf. That was it. Nothing momentous or expensive.

It's no Martha Stewart but it's mine.

(My apologies for the crummy photos. The Rubbermaid bin on the right now houses the good fabric)
So when I got home from church this afternoon I went nuts (as my kids would say).
You should see the pile of detritus! Half of it I'm hoping I can sell locally and continue to keep out of our landfill and the other half...sigh...is going to the curb this week.
I found that all this stuff I was saving was making me feel guilty for not having the time or money or both to do something with it and I don't need reasons to feel guilty. It was also holding me back from working on new projects that have been piquing my interest lately.

My improved work area. Still room and accessibility for sewing.
The good part about this change was it didn't cost any money.
Here's some homework for you-take a look at one corner of your house and see how much you can purge. Only one corner, not the whole house. Keep it manageable or you'll never do it.
You'll feel so much better for it.

Yarning along...

Joining Ginny today at Small Things, what I'm knitting and reading...

Knitting:
My beautiful Holden Shawlette. All that's left is the picot cast-off. I love love love this thing! I love the colour variations and the thread of gold running throughout. I was surprised at how easy the lace was to knit once I sat down, uninterrupted, to figure it out.
I'm hoping to finish and block it this weekend. And then the great unveiling!

Reading:
The Artist's Way- I'm on week 3 and so much is becoming clear to me. An amazing book. Have you read it? I highly recommend it if not. I would never consider myself an artist or writer but I've been stuck for awhile trying to figure out what I should be doing with my life and I sort of thought that maybe I'd like to begin writing. I haven't written much apart from what gets done here but I've begun playing with word art and it is so satisfying. Who knew it was there waiting to burst forth at the right moment.
I'm also reading Judy Collins' Morning, Noon and Night as sort of a companion reader. It's about her method of being creative and it's a joy to read. Not deep but calming and written in a sort of stream-of-conscience way that is delightful. Many of the same ideas carry through it as from The Artist's Way.
How about you? What are you knitting and reading?