Article about Jo Sharp

An interesting one. Of knitting, Jo Sharp says, "It's a stitch by stitch process which brings you into the present moment." So true.

Check it out: "Knitting is big business - again" (from Australia)

My husband's walking around in one sock....

....that I knitted and a regular black sock, clean, that he always wears. He's wearing only one hand-knitted sock because I'm not done with the match yet. Maybe tonight. I'm close. I've been knitting them in tandem, two pairs of U.S. #2 DPNs; after the toe of the first sock, I knit the toe of the second sock, and so on.

But he loves it enormously, this one sock--my first for him, and my second pair of socks ever. I used to think knitting socks was a feat so incomprehensible, I imagined if I ever finished one sock in my life, that would be something. And it was, finishing the socks for Travis (below; a few posts down) gave me a strange thrill. The thrill of knitting. Knitting thrills. Two words that aren't supposed to go together. But they do.

It's Sunday afternoon.

And it's Father's Day.

Travis and Brian left for the park. They toted a footback, Frisbee, baseball glove and mitt, and maybe a soccer ball that Travis kicked up the street.

Ravel's piano fills the room. An impressionist pianist. Monet was his friend.

Outside, the sun on periwinkle hydrangeas. A tomato now the color of a pale pear from our garden ripens on the railing that spans our teensy porch. Our garden has luck with hot peppers, flowers and some herbs. The vegetables never do well. Soil is too full of clay and sand.

Candles burn in a candleabra to my left. To my right, Brian's second almost-finished sock.

(I'll post pictures later...)

My son will say, "Of course." And then call me a maniac.

Earlier, as I stepped into the elevator at my dentist, Dr. Lisa's, I decided it was no longer such a terrible thing if I got stuck in the it for a while, because I had my knitting with me! Or when I'm on the freeway and have a project in my bag, I think: If there were a sig alert, it wouldn't be so horrible--I could knit.

Knitting was on my mind because Lupe, Dr. Lisa's assistant, along with Dr. Lisa, were raving about my booga bag. There I am, half my mouth still numb from the Novacaine, which means I can talk only with great difficulty, and Lupe's asking about the bag and how I made it, and I tried to explain. I felt like a cartoon character with my puffy mouth and uncertain oral control.

I will tell Travis about this, when he comes home from school, since this will be further proof of how his mother is a knitting maniac.

We've been getting a chuckle together over Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's At Knit's End. She's as obsessed--even more so--than me.

Travis and I loved this one (he read it to me as he sat on the sofa and I was in the kitchen, making dinner or something: "You know you knit too much when ... You discover that the airline you booked your flight with does not allow knitting needles on board and you seriously consider changing carriers, because you don't know whether you can sit for seven hours without knitting."

Yes. Totally.

(Only he thought "carriers" was "careers" and I stopped a minute, trying to figure that one out. He said, "Well, maybe it means that you have to travel a lot with your business and if you can't knit, you want to change careers.")

Where my yarn lives

Originally uploaded by inkmama.

I've had this bird cage for a couple years that I originally bought at a flea market to hang my beaded beauties from. Didn't work out, but I kept the cage. Then, the other day, needing a bigger container for my yarn, I remembered the cage and brought it in from the studio. And there's JoJo, on the sofa, doing what he usually does when he's inside.

Delicious yarn

DSCN0164
Originally uploaded by inkmama.

Here's some of my yarn, mostly rolled into balls by Travis. On the right is recycled sari yarn. So soft, but fuzzy! Don't know yet what I'll make with it.

Clapotis is growing up

Clapotis is growing up
Originally uploaded by inkmama.

Now I know why after you knit one clapotis, you knit another--because the drop stitches are a thrill! You actually are required to drop stitches. In just about every other pattern you'll ever knit (except for maybe lace, and I haven't done that yet), a dropped stitch fills you with a sense of horror so profound, so palpable, chills overcome you and you think maybe you've just contracted a tropical fever for which there is no cure.

What there is no cure for is this knitting obsession.

Travis' socks

Travis' socks
Originally uploaded by inkmama.

My first socks--what a trip! I was intimidated by socks. I was sure I could never knit any--they seemed so very complicated. But I made it through my first pair: Ankle socks for Travis!