Happy New Year!
The SP9 moderators have very tactfully reminded me that I have failed to post now for a month, and that I might like to get back on the air. Has it really been that long? Sorry, LSP!
Early December disappeared in a haze of illness and its consequences, of which the low point was a late night trip to the ER department of the local children’s hospital. (We’re all doing well now.)
At around the same time, we had a pretty distressing parent-teacher interview at G.’s preschool, at which they suggested we get a developmental assessment done because he was failing playdough. Obviously, this isn’t a fair representation of the conversation; I’m just sounding off. I have a good deal of respect both for his teachers, and for the philosophy of the school, which aspires to something considerably higher than a holding pen for the kids of working parents. I realize they have his best interests at heart, and wanted to make sure he got help, if it was needed, at a point when it could still be useful to him.
I also realize that he doesn’t map neatly onto the developmental milestones of early childhood. He has been somewhat slow (although always within the range of normal, for whatever that’s worth) in acquiring gross motor skills, and adamantly refuses to use a ride-on toy. He is unmotivated, to put it mildly, to demonstrate the kind of self-help skills the textbooks think a three year old should have, even though he actually possesses the capacity to do them. He is not very interested in crafts, and dislikes getting his hands dirty. He’s also not very interested in his preschool peers, although he’s engaged, sociable and affectionate with a range of older kids and adults from family members to our elderly Italian neighbour. He can also count to 1000, and to 12 in five other languages, and, at 3 years and some small change, has taught himself to read at a grade 2-3 level.
I suspect his teachers are afraid that this offbeat mix of qualities might fit somewhere on the autistic spectrum, and if I saw him only at preschool, and if he were less sociable, expressive and spontaneously affectionate — and not so very much the kind of child B. and I once were, albeit brighter – I suppose I might be too. We were lucky enough, however, to get the chance for a lengthy consultation with a pediatrician over the Christmas break, who gently but firmly rejected the idea that he might have a developmental disorder, so we can take him back to preschool next week feeling reassured on that score. I think I still need some reassuring from the preschool that his teachers will not see him, and (consciously or unconsciously) treat him, as a problem child, though.
To returning to things fibrous: I was all set at the start of December to blog some WIP shots, including some new Lizard Ridge blocks, and some pictures of projects in contemplation, but they’re still on the computer at home, awaiting some quiet time to upload them to Flickr. I’m halfway through some toe-up, two-at-a-time socks, which are going well, if laboriously. And I’ve bought the Kureyon I need to finish Lizard Ridge.
And still more Lizard Ridge…
…with camera wobble at no extra charge!
I wanted to show you how the candy colours of the two #95 squares really make the deeper colourways glow, and only natural light would do. Plus, it shows the satisfying 3D bumpiness of the squares in their unblocked state. 19 squares done now! although I’m pondering returning one of my earliest efforts to Mr Noro with a letter of complaint. The offending ball was not so much thick and thin as thin and thin (fingering weight in places), and the finished square weighs about twenty per cent less than the others, so it looks and feels flimsy.
You’re the top…
… you’re the smile/ on the Mona Lisa…Look at this hoard of loveliness, courtesy of my wonderful LSP. That’s a 2 pound bag of gourmet beans in the middle there, people, just in time for a week in sole charge of a three year old. (The beans are for me, not him. They’re medicine.) Nestling cozily around the beans are a skein of beautiful sock yarn hand-dyed by Lisa Souza, colourway Wild Thing, and three skeins of Kureyon (2 x 95, 1 x 147), immediately destined for Lizard Ridge. And around the outside, some delicious teas, a sampling from a great page-a-day knitting calendar, some yoga mints and lip gloss, a lovely ruler with pressed flowers on it, five beautiful glass bead stitch markers, a floral calendar, Zen and the Art of Knitting, a bonsai potato kit (subtitle: Zen without the wait!) and my very own “I’d rather be knitting” bumper sticker. Plus the Mona Lisa, with sticks and string. Wow!
LSP, you’ve outdone yourself. I completely see why you were nominated for Best Secret Pal. You’re also eerily perceptive, since you managed to include colours of Kureyon I’d been eyeing up for Lizard Ridge, my husband’s very favourite tea (Moroccan mint green) and mine (English breakfast), and a card with one of my favourite old roses (Centifolia), all without any blog-hinting from me. Thank you so much!
Half a Lizard
Some visual evidence of knitting progress for you at last: the first 12 squares of Lizard Ridge.
The photo’s a little dark, but you can see a rough pattern emerging: half blueish squares and half reddish (although I have only 5 blue to 7 red at the moment). I’m through all but one of the balls I bought for this project, and have begun knitting squares from the yarn left over from the squares in the photo. The remnant squares are very satisfying, if unpredictable, to knit: I never know where the colour sequences are going to take me. I’ve frogged a couple of attempts which really weren’t working, but I’ve also just finished one I like as much as any of the squares in the photo.
Once I’ve finished the remnants, I’ll have a much better sense of how much more Kureyon, and in what colours, I’ll need to finish the project. My current best guess is that 2 balls makes approx. 2 1/2 squares, but I won’t be able to use all the scraps from every ball — or at least not without having some eyeball-scorchingly unmatched squares! I think I’ll be trying to introduce a little more variety into the colour range with the remaining balls I buy — some more greens and earth tones, probably.
Finally, a big thankyou to my lovely Secret Pal for the e-giftie and your sympathetic comments on my last post. They both brightened my day, and I’m very grateful. I haven’t decided what to put the giveanything.com gift card towards, but I’m thinking that one of the Vogue Knitting on the Go books might be in my future…
Steal this meme
Jess left me another comment, with the very sensible suggestion that I apply my overwhelming stash to making gifts. In return, I’m going to steal her meme. That’s gratitude for you.
1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now. What does it say? The book closest to me is volume 3 of a translation of Proust, and page 18 is one very, very long paragraph. In fact, I think that paragraph goes on for several more pages. This is my husband’s book, and no, I haven’t read it.
2. If you stretch out your left arm as far as possible, what are you touching? A fish tank. And my cat, with his nose pressed to said fish tank.
3. What’s the last program you watched on tv? The BBC dramatization of Mrs Gaskell’s North and South.
4. Without looking, guess what time it is. Naptime for my son. (And guess what? I was right!)
5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now? A babbling tank filter, and a babbling three year old (currently counting to 12 in Italian. We are not Italian. He has picked this up from our next-door neighbour.)
6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do? Twenty minutes ago, with my son, coming home from Ikea. We collected a couple of pretty autumn leaves. Then we spent ten minutes on the steps, while I tried to coax him into the house with promises of bananas.
7. What are you wearing? A gloriously cosy oversized soft blue possum-merino sweater from NZ, jeans, wool socks and sheepskin slippers.
8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about? I had an extremely strange dream in which I accidentally caused the death of Britney Spears on a boat, and was charged with her murder. During the same dream someone also offered to foretell my future, and told me I wouldn’t have any more children.
9. When was the last time you laughed? Ten minutes ago, on the front steps of the house.
10. What’s on the walls, in the room you’re in right now? Two block-mounted exhibition posters from the museum where I work.
11. Have you seen anything strange lately? Not that I can think of, unless you count the more surreal moments of parenting.
13. What’s the last film you saw? Nicholas Nickelby.
14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money? The usual, I think: pay off mortgages (mine and those close to me), save some, give a wad to good causes. Pay for no. 15.
15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know. I’m considering going back to school — to med school, to be precise. I’m currently doing premed courses.
16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt – what would it be? I’d have my mother back again.
17. Do you like dancing? Yes.
18. George Bush? Only for town dogcatcher.
19. What do you want your children’s names to be, girl/boy? No comment.
20. Would you ever consider living abroad? I am living abroad! I have lived abroad (in Britain and Canada) for the last ten years.
21. What do you want God to tell you, when you come to heaven? That I can see the people I’ve loved who have died.
22. Who should do this meme? Everybody should do this meme. I tag you all.
Knitting progress: More squares for Lizard Ridge (11 and counting).
Rosedale stalled at collar, since I’m considering frogging back to the start of the yoke and leaving out the contrast rectangle in the middle of the back.
Located Charlotte shawl for aunt, which I had mislaid some time ago.
Spun some nice Kool-Aid dyed merino superwash roving bought from a local spinner (in defiance of stash diet). Planning to incorporate it into a scarf, but more on that in another post.
Much playing with stash, and planning projects.
Rosedale progress
Here’s Rosedale, looking much more finished than she feels! I’m delighted with the colours, which will make it the perfect Saturday jeans sweater.
More Lizard Ridge…
… this time in a colourway (#134) of Kureyon with shorter sections of each colour, which makes for a more interesting effect.
Progress
An email arrived this morning from the nice folks at Secret Pal 9, to confirm my entry for the exchange. I’m kinda giddy about it, to tell you the truth, and really looking forward to it starting next month. I don’t know whether I’m more excited to be a secret pal, or to have one. I have all kinds of gifting plans; I just hope my taste runs along the same lines as my recipient’s.
Rosedale now has two sleeves, and I’m about to cast on for the waistband. I’ve given away the corrugated rib in the original pattern in favour of K3, p2 rib, which seems to suit the subdued (by Noro standards, anyway) colourway better.
If you read the previous entry, you’ll know that I’ve also been at work on Lizard Ridge. Despite my self-imposed yarn moratorium, I went ahead and ordered some sale Kureyon to make some more squares. Because — well, it was on sale, and sales don’t last forever, and really it was saving me money since I was going to be buying the Kureyon anyway at some point… and so on.
And B. left for work this morning, it being dress-down Friday, in the Rowan sweater, looking wonderful. A good knitting week.
Lizard Ridge begun
Originally uploaded by The Ravelled Sleeve.
The first of 24 (yikes!) squares for Knitty’s afghan du jour, Lizard Ridge, in some orphan balls of Kureyon I’d been wondering what to do with. That’s 159 on the left, and 124 on the right, both of them appearing quite a bit darker than they really are.
Despite appearances to the contrary (especially to those of us with limited short row experience), the pattern is simple, quickly memorized and just as quickly knitted, and does make great use of Kureyon’s space-dyeing. I still can’t love the scratchy roughness of this wool, though, which makes it a bit harder to imagine curling up under the finished product — although it will certainly be plenty warm.
Rosedale underway
Not in fact a man’s version of Rosedale, as I’d said, but a Rosedale for me, since B. blenched at the sight of that little purple stripe down by the cuff. Stripes are fine, colour is fine, but keep that purple away from me, thank you very much.
As usual, the colour balance hasn’t been exactly what I expected from looking at the ball, but I think I like it nonetheless. The colours in the photo are a little more muted than the real thing: that teal stripe on the left is actually almost electric in intensity, and the orange stripe to its left should really be a pale peach. It has an early-fall-in-the-woods feeling to it: mossy greens, stone buffs and greys, rust and orange and charcoal sections. And that purple, too, of course…
