Warm feelings

I want to thank all those who commented about my post regarding Bill. I'm very glad that I was able to convey a bit of his essence to you. He was indeed a fine man and he will be missed. A memorial service will be held next week and I shall be attending. Thank you again for all your kind words.

On the knitting front, I've started yet again another project. This time it is the hunter's gloves that I pined about a couple of days ago. I started with the pattern from Knitty Wednesday night in some alpaca that came out of stash (purchase in '99 at a flea market in Manhattan, Green Flea if I remember correctly, pretty dirt cheap too IIRC). YEA Stash Reduction! I plunked myself down on the couch Wednesday night for some yarn therapy and dutifully followed the pattern. I got managed to make it to a few rows short of the end of the thumb gusset. At lunch on Thursday, I put the glove on and it was Shrek sized compared to my wee little hand. I'm a whopping 5'0" with tiny little hands. My ring finger is a size 3, which the jeweler did not believe when I asked to have my engagement ring cut to that size oh so many years ago. As such, standard adult gloves are massive on me. This thing was never going to fit and I pulled the needles out right then and there. While I've seen quite a few hunter's mitten patterns on the 'net, none were small. I figured that I might just be forced to figure them out myself. How hard could they be. I would need a standard glove pattern, just didn't need to knit the fingers all the way to the top and add a couple of rows of ribbing to keep the fingers put. Easy. Peasy. The flip top part is nothing more than a mitten half either sewn to or picked up from the back of the glove and lose in the front. Easy too. I could use a standard mitten top half pattern. Okay. Now to find the patterns. Conveniently Bridget had Ann Budd's book at lunch and she saved me hours of anticipation before I could make it home to my copy! I started working on the modified mitt on the train home. Thanks Bridget! I've now completed the ring finger section on the first one. I can't believe it, but I had the forethought to make notes as I go so I can match the second one to the first. I guess vitamins are a good thing ;) The glove fits, well, like a glove for a change. I have a 7" hand. Budd's book puts that with the Child 8 size. Nice.

The irish hiking scarf has made some progress. No pictures of it yet and its been tossed aside since the 'paca gloves entered the picture. I need the gloves far more than I need another scarf. It did get some attention Wednesday on my way home. I left the office early as I could not concentrate after the bad news was relayed. Unfortunately, the train schedule was not friendly to me and I wound up with a 45 min layover in Secaucus. Ordinary mortals might consider this unfortunate. I, a knitter, always carry something to keep me entertained. I have at least one knitting project and most often a drop spindle with me for those occasions when I have to wait. I hate waiting. I hate it much less when I have something to do. I love waiting when I have knitting. I got a cup of hideously overpriced coffee and parked myself with my knitting for the long wait.
If the scarf hasn't seen much light of day, the koigu socks haven't even come out of their zip-loc baggy. Its a nice clear baggy so I can look at the pretty colors. Someday they'll get done.

I wonder how many of us get through those hard times in life by turning to our hobbies. I know knitting played an integral role in my dealing with Bill's death. I also know that I spent a great deal of time during September 2001 spinning while watching endless tv news reports. I also did an amazing amount of spinning and knitting during those hard times each month during my attempts to conceive. It seems that when things are at their bleakest the feeling or the yarn in my hands and the motion of the needles, or the turn of the wheel while feeling the fiber flow through is greatly comforting. Is it because these are all muscle memory activities and no thought is really required? Is it just the repetitious nature of the two activities? I'm not sure, but whatever it is, it works and works very well for me. I know some of the reasons why I spin/knit, and it is related to what I do for a living. Programming computers, while very rewarding doesn't leave me much to point at when I'm done. There's nothing to hold, to smell, to touch. It's ephemeral. The fiber crafts give me some outlet to the creative urge that allows me to hold something at the end of the task. This was also extremely important to me while I was battling infertility, this need to be able to create something, anything. I'm interested to see what others feel this way too.