Monthly Archives: October 2007

Six Socks

30 Tuesday Oct 2007

Posted by in Knitting

≈ 4 Comments

True love is like a pair of socks:
you gotta have two and they’ve gotta match.
[Anonymous]

Six Socks

And soon there will be twelve. These six socks (plus the mate to the first one) are the results of my October knitting. The last three are ribbed like crew socks. The last two have shaped arches (Meg Swansen style). So, I figure that I ought to be able to knit the last five mates in November and have them wrapped for Christmas in plenty of time. I figured it up. If I factored in minimum wage for the hours I spent plus the cost of the yarn, each pair would be about $175.00! But who is counting? Knitting these tied my thoughts to the people who will receive them. That is priceless.

Home again

25 Thursday Oct 2007

Posted by in Knitting, Thoughts

≈ 4 Comments

When preparing to travel,
lay out all your clothes and all your money.
Then take half the clothes and twice the money.
[Susan Heller]

lee and me… twice the money, especially if you are going to a yarn shop. My friend Lee (on the left) and I spent time knitting with her friends at Yarntiques in Johnson City, TN.

Here is a suggestion for people who consider paying big bucks for marketing strategy advice. Provide a comfortable knitting area in a room that has the walls lined with yarn floor to ceiling. See the look on my face? The words that go with that expression are, “Looky there. I didn’t see that yarn yet. I may just have to buy a skein and try it out.”

Last night when I got home, I sat here knitting on one of the new skeins I bought and thought about my trip. That is a fringe benefit of buying yarn. It makes my trip last longer because the yarn triggers memories as I knit. I can relive the lovely meals and conversations we shared. Thank you Lee for your friendship and the wonderful visit. And thank you Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee for sharing your autumn beauty.

Autumn Rain

23 Tuesday Oct 2007

Posted by in Thoughts

≈ 1 Comment

Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
[Langston Hughes]

Rain draped a veil between my windshield and the iridescent colors that rushed past my line of sight yesterday. Driving in rain is scary but I was glad to see it after such a long dry spell—it and the mountains east of Knoxville. I’ve come to visit a knitting/writing friend I’ve never met before. We have shared stories in our online writing group for half a decade. Today, we plan to visit her local yarn shop, share meals, and chat a lot.

Luxury

21 Sunday Oct 2007

Posted by in Knitting

≈ 2 Comments

It is impossible to overdo luxury.
[French Proverb]

Alpaca Socks

Okay folks. Now you are going to get a view of my dark side. I’m keeping these socks for myself! The yarn is Classic Elite, Alpaca Sox. I used my children’s inheritance to buy enough for one pair, and I may name it and keep it as a pet—it feels so good that it must surely be sinful.

Since I’m working three of these cable patterns on every round, it took me all day to knit just four inches (72 stitches on size #0 needles). Whew. I keep asking myself if I’m really going to work the cable on the top of the foot to the toe or am I going to stop this when I start the heel shaping. The cable is very flat so it wouldn’t be uncomfortable inside a shoe. The cable moves over only one stitch at a time instead of two over two.

Actually, I’m going to have to put these aside for awhile and finish my Christmas knitting.

Knitting Christmas

20 Saturday Oct 2007

Posted by in Knitting, Thoughts

≈ 1 Comment

It is better to give than receive—especially advice
[Mark Twain]

Okay. I know. It is not even Halloween yet, but if you make gifts, you have to start earlier. For the past few years, last-minute and store-bought would have described my gifts. This year, I’ve been knitting gifts in response to, “I wish you’d knit … for me.” Well, Santa Kate has kept track and is checking her list so, if you are kin to me, you will probably get your wish. I’m not even considering whether you have been good or not.

I’ve been collecting other little goodies too. My spare bed is off limits to visitors because I haven’t wrapped anything yet. Toby dog prefers it when I knit socks instead of sweaters. He is a lap-sitter by nature and likes all of the room he can get. He also knows what everyone is getting but I’ve sworn him to secrecy.

Smoky Mountain Memories

13 Saturday Oct 2007

Posted by in Thoughts

≈ 2 Comments

The best and most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched –
they must be felt with the heart.
[Hellen Keller]

Smoky Mountain
Photo by James E. Miller

Green. Sometimes even the air is green especially when a mist rises from the vegetation after a rain on a hot summer day. Green becomes a canvas for the ruby trillium and the shy orchid that hides beneath the fern. Evergreen stands counterpoint to the bright deciduous colors on an autumn day, and is often the only bright color left behind when snow blankets the mountain side. Green wraps its protective arms around me. It washes my face and soothes away my pain.

Blue. In some light, one mountain range folds into another in varying shades of blue like ocean waves on the incoming tide. Sometimes clouds are blue and fool the eye into thinking they are yet another mountain range. The sky shares its reflected blue with the brook as jays and bachelor buttons borrow a bit of color for themselves.

Yellows, oranges and reds start tiny in the spring as wild flowers then multiply as the warm season passes into the time of ripe corn and changing leaves. They burst full blown at sunrise and sunset. Green and blue play backup to them as they have their moments on the stage.

If I were blind, I’d love it just as much. This place I lived for so short a time felt like home the moment I arrived, cradled me through joy and sorrow, and calls me back when I need to let my soul catch up with my body. I can close my eyes and see the double rainbow arch from one mountain peak to another like a handle that God could use to lift us into heaven.