Dear Knitting....

Dear Knitting,

Many people who see me ask what is on my needles.  Most of the year I can answer this question without blinking.  It is at this time...the last quarter of the year that I give my standard answer "a birdcage cover."  When I give this answer this is what most people think of.....

OK people, this is not what I mean.  Since I knit most of my Christmas gifts right in front of the people they are meant for, and since I have quite brilliant children who know this, I had to come up with a code.  So for everyone who is frustrated with my answer it is a birdcage cover, know that it is code for this.....

and you just might be the person I am knitting for.  

Happily Knitting,

Dear Knitting

I love to knit the mystery knits.  It is fun to see the faces people knit when they ask what you are making and you look at them and say "I don't know."  Most of all I love that I make things I probably would not make, but are fun to add on to or give as gifts.  My mystery knitting group did one for the end of the year.  A new clue was given every 12 hours over the course of the last 2 days of 2012.  As I was looking at the products that were being knitted, I noticed that the moderators (the ones who knew what we were knitting) were all making this project in multiplicity, and since I had time (being sick) I made 4 as well.  This is what it looked like after 3 clues.

It was all rather fun as we were using pieces leftover from projects gone by...every yarn coming from the ball bin.  All the yarn was supposed to be acrylic, and so it was.

Then the last clue came and after following it, here is what it turned out to be.  

It is called "Fishy Tawashi" which my sister tells me is Japanese for "scrub brush" or in other words a fish shaped scrubby.  It is only 1 sided and works rather like a sponge on the dishes.  A bit of fun!!

I am now currently involved with a couple of other mystery projects.  Any guesses?? I won't know until the last clue is given in the last week of the month.  

The first one is a new technique for me called "enterlac" and is rather scary.   I look at each of the clues and get into overwhelm, so now I cover up the clue except for 1 line at a time.  The tail is interesting.....wonder what it will be.  The other one is just standard knitting, going back and forth.  It is a nice cuddly homespun though.  I love a good mystery!

Dear Knitting

Yesterday the thought hit me that I had better knit some dishcloths.  For the past 29 years, my mother-in-law Ethel has knitted all the dishcloths anybody could want.  She was constantly knitting them in all rainbow colors, wherever she went.  Sometimes she sold them, however most often she gave them as gifts. 

When she passed away, I took all of the remaining dishcloths and divided them among my boys.  She had given the girls some special ones just a couple of years ago, so I felt the boys should have some of her work as well. That left me with zero dishcloths on hand, and well the blessed things wear out.  I don't know what I was thinking, like perhaps a cloud would settle over my house and drop finished dishcloths fresh from heaven?? 

I had better get knitting before anymore wear out.....I do miss knitting with her.  I don't have anybody really to knit with anymore.  I am greatful for all the things she blessed my family with over the years.  My home is filled with quilted and knitted things that gave warmth and joy to our family.  But now I knit alone......

Dear Knitting,

I joined a new online knitting group this week on http://www.ravelry.com/. It is a mystery knitting group. 

They gave me the type of yarn, needle size, gage and yardage and now I need to do a gage swatch to make sure it is the right size.  This is very important as I do not have any idea what I am making, only that it will take 220 yards of sport weight yarn. All of the projects for this group take 220 yards or less of yarn, so this fits in nicely with my portable knitting needs and will fit nicely in my purse.  Each week we are given clues to tell us what to knit--then we knit to that point and wait for the next clue.   I am using this as a stash buster solution to help work down some of my stash yarn.  I have to tell you, this is all very exciting to me, like living a mystery novel--I can't wait for the next clue!   Fun!!!!!

Dear Knitting,

Tonight for the first time ever, I went to a football game with the intent of actually watching football.  Weird right??  As usual I took you, my precious knitting expecting that soon I would begin to be bored and you and I would begin our traditional football regime of knit and purl.  However that part never came tonight.  I watched the game, yelled and cheered for the players and was excited when we won!  However don't dispare, knitting, I was watching a special person play tonight, one of my former cub scouts, and so had a vested interest in the game.  I am positive that we will get tons of knitting done tomorrow while waiting for the band to play at half time.