Knitting

Progress is interesting isn't it.  Every Wednesday lots of bloggers come together and write about what they have been making with yarn.  Usually the pictures show more rows of crochet or knitting than previous weeks, a work in progress is a project that is getting nearer the end, or is it?  What about the project that grows very slowly, or grows a bit shrinks a bit, grows a bit, stalls a bit, is that progress too?

For the last few weeks I have been sharing one project, my Shalom, which is doing just that.  I knit a bit, frog a bit, knit a bit more, frog a bit more.......and yet I am making progress.  Frogging, the art of ripping out stitches, is often seen a negative part of a project, a sign of a mistake but if we were to turn this on its head and view it positively what is it now?  Learning, improving skills, progress.  So my shalom as pictured here is not to stay, I have knitted a lot of rows this week but it needs frogging again I am just debating by how much.  I had spent all my time ensuring that the front of the cardigan looked right, the front as the pattern is written is not meant to meet, I wanted to be able to button the cardigan all the way down.  What I had neglected was the back, when I tried it on a couple of days ago I realised that the back was flapping about like a flag in the wind.  I was also a little perturbed  at the amount of yarn I had left, this project seemed to be eating up yarn at an incredible rate there was not going to be any left for the sleeves.  Not surprising really as I was knitting up a garment for two and as I am not proposing on mutating any time soon there is little call for that round here.  So now I am pondering my next move, progress it is, if a little different!

I have been busy, in the meantime, knitting up a bowl.  The pattern can be found here.  It is fulled or felted depending on your take on such things.

It would of course be rather odd to read a book by flitting about between the chapters, depending on the book, it may make no sense.  So my progress in reading has been forward through a book, an excellent one in fact.  I am nearing the end of Kith by Jay Griffiths, but I am sure I will return to it again and again.  Her take on childhood and all its many facets is inspiring, thoughtful and, for me, reassuring.  She laments the loss of so many aspects and offers her own explanations of why this may have happened.  What she doesn't do is preach or suggest what we should be doing.  This is her essay, her opinions and she leaves you to decide for yourself whether you agree or not.

As it's Wednesday I am joining in with Tami and Ginny head on over to see some progress!

Knitting

My hands have been very busy this week, mostly engaged in DIY with a little knitting on the side.  I have been sanding and painting architraves, door ones.  To look at my knitting you would think that there has been no progress on last week and physically there hasn't really.  I am good with that.  I finished the twisted rib and started on several rows of stocking stitch before deciding it looked odd, the twisted rib needed a garter stitch edge to complete it before starting on the stocking stitch.  So I ripped out the six or seven rows I had knitted and added in a garter rib.  I am liking this process, it is slow and steady but I feels good a stepping stone to designing my own patterns.....one day.......maybe!

I have been reading the wonderful Kith this week.  When you choose to parent differently from others it is sometimes hard to stay on that path, the draw to not have to 'justify' your decision making because it is different can be strong.  When you read a book like this, that confirms your decisions are good ones, it makes me happy to be forging the path that we do.

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The monochromatic picture this week is at odds with my world at the moment.  Outside my window the sun is shining, the sky is blue and life is good.  The grey world of winter has gone.....

It is Wednesday so joining in with Tami and Ginny for sharing of yarny projects.

Knitting

I have not been knitting much these past few weeks, after the mad rush to get my Christmas presents and then my mums birthday present knitted up I am having a wee rest.  Only picking up my knitting every now again knitting the odd row, progress is slow but I happy with that for now.   I have two projects on the needles and no urge to cast on any more for now.  My shalom is nearly to the point where I have finished the twisted rib and then I need to do so more measuring to work out how many more rows, if any, I need to do before dividing for the sleeves.  I am liking this type of knitting, not just following the pattern but working with the pattern to divise my own version of it, making it mine.

What I have been doing a lot of this week is reading.  I have finished one book, read two from cover to cover and started a fourth.  I ordered my own copy of Mathematics Minus Fear and finished up reading it early this week, I have loved this book from start to finish, there were lots of maths problems to solve on each page which were great for reminding me how to do things!  I have read a lot about Life after Life by Kate Atkinson and really wanted to read it for myself.  I have loved all the books of hers that I have read, which is most of them, bar one Human Croquet.  Life after Life was a wonderful read, it did take me a while to get into it, but once I had I could not put it down.  It seems like a strange concept for a novel, the life of one person, Ursula Todd, which she lives over and over again from her birth to retirement, but it works.  Dearest Rose by Rowan Coleman was a completely different book, tackling the difficult subject of domestic abuse.  I have really struggled to read books of this nature, particularly when children are included, since becoming a mother.  A friend of mine has recently walked away from an abusive marriage, I had no idea that it was.  This has helped me to understand why I didn't know and a bit more on why she may have chosen to stay as long as she did, I have never judged her for this I just needed to understand for myself.  I cried at the end of this book, it has left me with so many thoughts which I am now trying to process.  I am now reading another book, Kith by Jay Griffiths, which I have read lots about, this has been sat in my waiting to be read pile since Christmas and I can't think why I waited so long.  I am a few chapters in and it is a wonderful read.

So what about you what have you been doing this week?  Any knitting or reading?  Joining in with Tami for sharing of yarn works in progress head on over to see what others are making….