Aus Einem April

     We dust the walls.
     And of course we are weeping larks
falling all over the heavens with our shoulders clasped
in someone's armpits, so tightly! and our throats are full.
     Haven't you ever fallen down at Christmas
     and didn't it move everyone who saw you?
     isn't that what the tree means? the pure pleasure
of making weep those whom you cannot move by your flights!
     It's enough to drive one to suicide.
And the rooftops are falling apart like applause

of rough, long-nailed, intimate, roughened-by-kisses, hands.
Fingers more breathless than a tongue laid upon the lips
in the hour of sunlight, early morning, before the mist rolls
in from the sea; and out there everything is turbulent and green.

Frank O'Hara 
Meditations In An Emergency
Grove Press 1957

Meditative Knitting

Well, it's a new year and  I am still picking away at the 2014 Summerworks Socks. With every knit stitch twisted and every row being one of a 20 row repeat, this is slow going. Sock #1 was completed in the car coming back from Rhinebeck. Sock #2 is about half done. Of course there have been other projects - Christmas knitting comes to mind - and yes, I have more things on the needles concurrently (a cardigan, mittens, The Sagano shawl). This sock however has become my meditation knit. The pattern is quite geometric with yarn overs and double knit stitches moving along in one direction and then the other. One needs to count. Rather than being annoyed at the complexity, I've embraced it. I've taken to knitting a row or two first thing in the morning while I wait for my caffeine to hit. Or I pick it up when job hunting becomes too frustrating and I need to calm my brain by patiently counting twelve stitch repeats. At this rate it's going to be a while before I have new socks and this is perfectly fine with me.

Every knitting project has its purpose. That's one of the wonderful things about the craft.

Another New Year

In a little more than 24 hours a new year will arrive. I guess that means it's time to reflect and write the year end blog post. Recently, going over old posts, I see that I have written less and less about my personal life here. Now, I'm a private person at the best of times but I've been positively silent lately. Perhaps there is some sort of odd inverse relationship at play. It seems the more that is going on, the less I am likely to say.

Much happened in 2014. My daughter moved out on her own. I turned fifty. I lost a job under difficult circumstances resulting in great financial hardship and an uncertain future. I met a man I have grown to love and who loves me; the one who is my person. 

Unexpectedly, the event that should have been the most demoralising, is the one that has been the most empowering. Being wrongly dismissed from my job in a humiliating manner, instead of crushing me, rallied my strength in a way I did not know was possible. With the help of a great non-profit organisation, Worker's Action Centre, I've been fighting this wrong and actually winning some small victories. The support of my daughter, my friends and my wonderful boyfriend has buoyed me, made me feel strong.

Another first in 2014? I knit a scarf for a man! The linen stitch, Sherlock inspired, coat scarf was done in time for Christmas. The full 164 cm was achieved and my fella wears it all the time. It turned out pretty well I think!

I am looking forward to 2015 and all the challenges it may bring. My Freewill Astrology horoscope says this is the year I will "learn more than ever before about what it's like for all the different parts of you to be united". How very exciting! Bring it on.

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!

It has been a wonderful holiday season here so far. There are good people in my life and I have been so fortunate to spend time with many of you over the past several days. 

Happy Holidays to all my friends, those close to home and those I know from afar via the internet.

Peace. Joy.

Notice the photo of my beloved cat Wendell in the upper left. He passed 17 years ago but every Christmas we take time to remember him when we decorate the tree.

Counting Down

According to Sherlockology, the Season 1 scarf is 164 cm long. Is that with or without fringe I wonder? 
I have about 50 cm of knitting left to attain this goal. With 6 knitting days left until the gift is due and factoring in the average rate of 7 cm knit per hour, plus fringe and blocking...Ahhh!!!!

Gift Knitting Backlog

It has become painfully obvious that my GAL 2014 participation is likely doomed to failure. Every way I turn, there are bumps in my holiday gift knitting. As I only committed to three items, this is a little depressing.

I always, always, give The Daughter a little knitted something. This year I decided to just re-knit her favourite mittens in a different colour. What could be easier? Yet, somehow, I got the shaping all wrong and much ripping was needed. A loss of precious time was the result.

Then my new beau declared that the gift most likely to warm his holiday heart would be a hand knit scarf from Yours Truly. I tried to explain to him that the ideal scarf he described is really a woven one, but he's a Muggle (a dear one) and didn't really get it. I've decided that a fingering weight linen stitch is most likely to approximate what he wants. Yarn choice and swatching has held me up because I want it to be perfect. The thing is not even cast on yet.

So, the calm days of pub knitting with a pint and a poem are over for now. I shall return to such pursuits in the slower days of january. This little shawl, which seemed like such a good idea, will get finished - just not in time for Christmas.