Inspiration

"Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you." 

Jim Croce

Sometimes you feel it. You move gracefully. You think creatively. You breathe easy. It all flows - the reading, the knitting, the journal and blog posts. Other times it all gets muddy. You say, "I should work out," but you watch YouTube instead. You knit two rows only to rip back three. You make shopping lists in your personal journal in the morning and stare at a blank blog template in the evening with absolutely nothing interesting to say.

It's at these times that a person needs inspiration. It can come in many forms. One such form is a skein of Prism Custom Dyed Yarn in the colour 'Cabernet'. It's particularly inspiring when it's an unexpected Christmas gift from a friend. Thank you Lorelei!

A nice bit of inspiration comes after finishing a little project in just three days. (Clara Parke's Foxgloves from Brave New Knits). Perhaps it is more correct to say that one gets a feeling of satisfaction. What's inspiring is accidentally getting a cool photo of the freshly fallen snow on the neighbour's shed while trying to shoot the aforementioned little project. 

A Swatch. How many beautiful knitted items items throughout history have resulted from inspiration drawn from the humble swatch? This Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora has been languishing in my stash for years. After knitting up these few rows and seeing the gorgeous definition, I know this is my next cardigan. I've even chosen the pattern. Can't wait to cast on.

T'is the Festive Season.

It's been a bit of slog chez Long Yarn the past couple of weeks. Blog silence has been brought to you by work frustration combined with lack of creative flow.

However, things are looking up, or at least more festive. We've just returned from seeing White Christmas on the big screen courtesy of the Bloor Cinema, and last night we made our holiday gingerbread house. Notice there is a Totoro sitting on the roof which I'm sure will bring us luck throughout the season and beyond. 
Sadly, the green mittens will not be completed in time. Heck, that was a crazy pipe dream anyway! All other Christmas knitting is complete, the food and wine have been bought and the tree is up. Tomorrow evening will bring an apartment full of guests with whom to celebrate. Lovely.

Happy holidays everyone.

Holiday Madness

Apparently, getting a pair of knee socks done by Christmas is not challenging enough. I seem to have decided that knitting Jared Flood's cover mittens, Druid, from Vogue's Fall 2008 edition as a gift for a friend, is a great idea. I've simplified the pattern for the sake of speed, eliminating the small border cables and now have one half of Mitten One completed. It's an addictive pattern and knitting with Hempwol from Hemp for Knitting, is a true joy. The problem? Chasing this impossible, yet delightful, dream is taking away from the knee sock knitting. Today is December 8. Thirteen days until Christmas. I now run the very real risk of finishing no Christmas gift projects at all.
Go team!

Back To Knitting

 Currently on the needles is Karaoke from Knitted Socks East and West. As I've mentioned before on this blog when referring to this book, there are many questionable math and design issues. Why, for example are the yarn overs all next to purl stitches so they pull and look awkward? Why are there two knit stitches in front of the pattern repeats and only one after? Why are the back leg decreases done unattractively right up against the pattern in the last 2 stocking stitches, rather than in the two second to last, which leaves one stitch grace and looks so much nicer? These are all problems I've fixed by the way. 
They are also problems that I now easily forgive because of one element; the stitch the designer, Judy Sumner, calls the PKOK (pronounced peacock). That's pass the third stitch on the left needle over and off, then knit, yarn over, knit the remaining two stitches. A pretty little framed keyhole is created and Sumner has set rows of these off with a section of twisted rib. The effect is striking. I look at it and can't believe that something so easy to knit looks so darn cool.

I've just finished Knee Sock #1 as well as the ribbing on Sock 2. They're Daughter's Christmas present this year (by request) so I'd best pick up the pace if I want to knit any other gifts! And I do! I really do!

Love, Huge and Simple Between Us

...and in the end all that we can do is to sit at the table over which our hands cross, listening to tunes from the wurlitzer, with love huge and simple between us and nothing more to be said.

Elizabeth Smart
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

What I keep seeing is something white and slightly translucent, like a blob of suet the size of a koala bear, that has been plunked down onto this small wobbly table. It's solid and heavy. Hard to move. Everything in the room attends to it. We sitting here ignoring it, pretending it doesn't exist, is the height of ridiculous. Yet we do it. Daily. Constantly.
I suspect it's that way with the joy as well. There are so many smiles. They spill out almost painfully from lips dusty with disuse. All that awkward tripping. Stupid stupidity. Still we persist in pretending. For the sake of the higher ground?  Of being what we're supposed to be? Behaving with decorum and dignity? What one really wants to do is get very very drunk & wail & cry about all the injustice, all the pain of it. Behaviour frowned upon by society, by proper folk. Judged as sloppy and embarrassing. 
You keep asking what I want as if the very asking is the answer. Well, right now, what I want is the indulgence. Even once. To be a bad movie and trust that it's OK to be so just for a while.

The Pond on Saturday

I went for a long, long walk in High Park yesterday. My legs are a bit sore today but it was so worth it.