The Knitting Pirate

Sometimes it’s not knitting which bothers my arms (even without the Knitting Olympics). Sometimes it’s work, and work has to take precedence until someone wants to match my salary with a knitting job. Well, last week I was busier than normal at work, and as a result, my arms are sore from wrists to elbows. This coming week is looking as if it will be just as busy… so there might not be much knitting to write about in the next few days.

I’ve been taking naproxen and sleeping with wrist braces on… but hopefully I’ll be able to get a few stitches in here and there.

My mom had surgery this week, and I wasn’t able to be there the day of it – so I went to visit her as soon as she got home and was up for visitors. She seems to be doing pretty well, all things considered. We sat and chatted while I worked on the Handspun Sock, and she showed me a gorgeous scarf that her friend knit for her as a long-distance hug. Not just any friend, but her friend from college who taught her to knit in the first place, without whom I wouldn’t be knitting now! It’s made up of a bunch of different yarns from her stash, in a bunch of different colourways, which blend together beautifully to make something which is very much Mom’s style.

I don’t have a picture of the scarf, but I do have this picture of the nieceling wearing the Bunny Sweater that Mom knit for her! The bunny is still missing a pompom tail, but that’s all right. And now that Mom’s done knitting the kid-size sweater, she’s thinking of knitting one for herself. Does anyone have any suggestions for a structured cardigan or coat that might work? Something suitable for office-wear?

Then Mom totally made my day by asking for a pair of socks to wear with blue jeans, although in the past she’s said that she wasn’t interested in them as she tends to wear very thin nylon socks. But the gloves I made her, and the scarf from her friend, are working to change her mind. Not to mention Pirate-Husband, who chimed in to say that he’d been skeptical about handknit socks until he got a pair, and now he is all about the socks. I would be thrilled to make socks for my mom! I just need a few measurements, I told her, and then I will surprise her with when she gets the finished pair. This is going to be fun! Hey Mom, do you want plain socks? Stripey socks? Socks with a fancy stitch pattern?

As much as I think it would be great fun to join the Knitting Olympics and/or the Ravelympics, I’m not letting myself do it. The idea of the Knitting Olympics is to cast on a project during the Opening Ceremonies and finish it before the torch goes out, something that would be a challenge for you to finish in the seventeen days of the Olympics. There is one exception; the Ravelympics has an event for finishing a work in progress that hasn’t been touched in over a month. I briefly thought about joining that one, for Napramach.

But no.

Firstly, I hate knitting to deadlines. I get all stressed about it and the rest of my life suffers while I commit myself to doing nothing but knitting in all of my spare time. Sure, sometimes that happens – like last year, when I finished a baby blanket the night before going to meet the new baby. Given how grumpy I got doing that, I’m not going to sign myself up for doing it on purpose.

And secondly, whenever I knit to deadlines, I have a tendonitis flare-up in my arms and then I have to take a break from everything for a couple of weeks.

I will be cheering you on from the sidelines, you crazy knitters who are going for gold medals. You make it look so easy, and your work is all so beautiful! And of course, I will be watching the Olympic athletes in Vancouver. Figure skating has always been my favourite of the winter events; I wanted to be a figure skater when I was a little kid, and part of me still holds on to that dream. They make it look so easy, especially in pairs skating where he seems to effortlessly lift her above his head, gliding around the rink holding her up with just one hand.

Here’s to all of us – the knitters, the athletes, the participants and the cheerers-on – here’s to the best in all of us, however we may express it.

Last weekend, while my house in Virginia was buried in more than two feet of snow, I went to Canada. Ironically, the weather there was beautiful and clear, if really cold. It was even too cold for me to want to skate on the canal. Instead, my sworn-sister the Ninja and I, along with our friend Amy, took an afternoon to visit yarn stores.

Our first stop was Wool N’ Things in Orleans, where I was thrilled to find some of the discontinued Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, the same yarn that I used to knit my Fleep-Tops. I picked up two skeins in Cedar, a gorgeous dark green with red and yellow flecks. They’ll probably become another pair of Fleeps, as backup for when my first pair inevitably wears out. The green totally doesn’t match my dark blue winter coat, but it’s time for a new coat anyway. Perhaps something in green, or preferably black. Black goes with everything.

Then we headed over to Yarn Forward in Ottawa proper, where I bought two skeins of this super-soft (and superwash!) Lang Merino DK in a gray so dark it’s almost black. My first thought was that it might make a pair of Fleeps for Michael, but he wanted something thicker and tweedier, so I’m going to use it for a pair of classy office armwarmers for myself and pick up some Rowan Felted Tweed in as black as it comes for him. Not that I mind being able to use this pettably soft stuff for myself, not at all! I am thinking about making something like these Cafe au Lait Mitts from SnapperKnits, or perhaps I will come up with my own pattern for them.

I did have a disappointment this year: My old Stellar Toque, now over four years old, may be nearing retirement. It’s gotten stretched out and too large, and lets the wind through to my ears. I am thinking that before next Winterlude, I will knit a colourwork hat with earflaps and line it with fleece. We saw many of them in the Byward Market when we were there for the Stew Cook-Off on Friday, and I was seriously tempted to buy one – but why buy what I can knit? Pirate-Husband suggested that I could salvage the Stellar Toque by knitting earflaps onto it and lining it with fleece, instead of making a whole new hat. I could also felt it a little to shrink it and make it more windproof.