Elsiroomom asked when and where I knit, how I maximize my knitting time, what does knitting keep me from doing, do I have any hints for increasing speed, and do my kids knit. (I always love hearing from Elsiroomom. Elsiroomom? The next few paragraphs are for you!)
I knit in my car when I’m waiting for the kids to get out of school, and I knit at the performing arts school where they take piano lessons on Mondays. This means I get about three hours of knitting time in each week. If Tempe and I go out for knitting and coffee, I score an extra 90 minutes or so. (Before we brought puppies into the family, I could sit on the couch and knit in the evenings. The puppies ate part of a cardigan about a year ago, and I’m still not over it.) I *do* occasionally knit while sitting at the computer watching Cary Grant movies on Netflix, but it seems that Netflix now crashes our computer, so that’s no longer an option.
This is what I worked on today in the pick up line. It’s the left front of this.
Knitting DESTROYS my reading time. Kills it dead. Because of knitting, I’ve been reading Gone Girl for a few months now (and I love it! I really love it!), the new John Irving has been sitting on my Nook for months, and I’ve all but turned in my resignation for my church book club. I read at night between 10:00 and approximately 10:04 when I nod off and my Nook whaps me in the face.
I’m a very slow knitter. I’m also a disaster in that I never have less than five projects going at once. When it comes to maximizing knitting time, the only thing I can say is this: I carry knitting with me wherever I go. If you see me in public, I have a knitting project either in my bag or in my car. (You’ve probably gathered that I’m a semi-nervous/awkward person. Knitting gives me something to do with my hands, and when all is said and done, I have a cardigan instead of bald spots.)
The headbands I hinted about yesterday? I’m thinking this will be this year’s “I’ve got a gift for you” thing. It was Meredith’s idea, and Meredith has been known to have some good ideas. (With that said, today Meredith was told that she needs to change the way she walks if she wants to be popular. Let the games begin! And then please make them end!)
Oh! Wait! My kids HAVE knitted, but they don’t regularly knit. Meredith made a pretty amazing dress for her American Girl doll using a knitting loom, but she hasn’t explored many other options. Harper has been known to crochet a chain, but she would much rather draw than deal with yarn.
Today I finished up a freelance project, accepted a new freelance project, edited a few articles for the church newsletter, did some laundry, and made tacos. As I made those tacos, I thought about the importance of popularity for young girls. I then did one of those thought bubbly “If only I knew then what I know now” sort of things. (I was never popular. When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time practicing the piano and writing in journals. My family STILL pokes fun at me for always needing a new notebook and pen before leaving on family adventures.) ((The sad thing? I actually burned most of my journals during my “I think I’ll listen to The Cure and/or Don McLean” college years. That’s right. I threw my journals into a FIRE! I could have told you, Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you. Also, I left that house on fire and I never went back.))
This is what’s going on in our side yard right now.
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I burned all of my journals as well. More out of hoping my children never read my horrible writing when I’m dead.
I have always destroyed every journal I ever kept out of fear that I would die and someone else would find them. (I actually journaled something tonight and worried about how long I could keep it before I have to throw it away!)
Wahoo! Thank you Ms. Pudding-I appreciate the insight!
My husband used to be humiliated/make fun of me for bringing my knitting to Cubs games. Solved that! We never go anymore : ( I don’t know how you find your patterns, but I always want to be your little copycat – I LOVE that sweater. What yarn are you using? btw – I wore the Brooklyn Tweed wrap the other day and compliments abounded! I would have never made that without seeing yours. My husband and daughter are going to see his parents in NC in a couple of weeks and I usually really let my hair down by going to the yarn shop & knitting for hours. I’m a real wild child with my free time. Sometimes I get really nuts and eat Buffalo Wings (off limits for the other 99% of the year).
Oh, the burning of the journals :-( I so wished that the “Mother of Teenagers” me, could have read through those sadly-trashed-before-marriage glimpses into the brain of “Long-Gone Teenager” me. Might have helped a little in the futile attempts to explain the sweet mystery of girls to my sons (sigh)
I thought I was the only one who destroyed all journal evidence! I have looked back before destruction and either 1. never wanted to read about that pain again or 2. never wanted to read about that brattiness (spell check doesn’t approve) again, so never regretted getting rid of journals before anyone else had a chance to read them.
I have 2 knitting projects in the car currently. I forgot that there already was one there and I worried about not having something to do. I live in peril that I might be stuck somewhere with nothing to do or read.
As for reading and knitting: AUDIOBOOKS. I’m on book 4 of the Game of Thrones series.
I start journals and then get completely grossed out at my self-absorbed self and get rid of them. I like the idea of keeping a journal, I like reading old ones from people long dead for the historical value, but I can’t take the crap I spew onto the page, and I have a hard time committing to writing the mundane stuff everyday (avoiding the embarrassing inner-life stuff). I have one surviving journal that covers about 20 months in my early 20s, and I’m willing to let that stand as all that is left of me, knowing that no one will read it until I die.
Oh, and perhaps Meredith was walking like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IqhlQfXUk7w
or her critic thought she should?
Was J. Alexander on the playground today coaching girls on how to earn their way through college?
I still remember how cruel the popular girls were to me when I was new to the school (and the country) – they offered me the last twistie in the packet (do you have twisties?) and then told everybody I’d picked it up off the ground and ate it. I still have nightmares about that girl. Tell her popular girls don’t grow up to be President. You can bet nobody wanted Hilary Rodham Clinton to wiggle.
I just re-read that & it sounds like I think HRC is your president. I want you all to know that I know she isn’t. It’s some nice guy everybody wants their Granma to meet, right?
Grandma. Grandma. Grandma. Going away now.
Ms. Pudding, I am just the same. I knit before work, I knit at lunch, I knit between work and when I pick up the girl, I knit after she’s in bed, I knit during nap time. I work 40 hours a week and have a husband who is frequently away for business (leaving me to the single parent gig), but I can testify to the power of FINDING time.
Also, I have coined a term for when you can’t put a project down and you make progress very quickly: knit-complishment.
Your Berries sweater looks beautiful already!
I took mine to the dump and threw them in the paper recycle bin… I kinda hope some bored garbage men have found them and are enjoying my ride through insanity… or they are made into journals where other people write about their ride through insanity
I wish I kept up with my knitting. Those head bands are great.
Were you me in high school? I love The Cure. And threw away all my journals as well. If I thought of burning them I probably would have.
Totally not cool to tell a little girl how to walk just so she could become popular. I wonder where this comes from? I guess I know. But it makes me sad.
And lovely tree colors by the way.
I love Mrs. Elsiroomom for asking you these questions. I have often wondered (or more that I just beat myself up for not doing it.). I do have one follow up question though. How do you follow a pattern picking it up and putting it down the way you do? I am a novice knitter, have been for years. Before kids, I made a cable knit pattern but now I have been working on the same checkerboard pattern K3P3 repeat every 3 or 4 rows for YEARS. I can’t ever remember where I left off. So sad.
Does Meredith walk on her hands? Because in that case, I would agree, she needs to change that if she is ever going to be popular.
As for journals, I have my teenager ones at the bottom of my pajama drawer. I am afraid to open them and have all of the angst and bad words fall out.
So many things to comment on (I’m a busybody). I love your tree! Well, I love fall and your tree is a perfect example of why. Enjoy that pretty tree!
Wow – I burned my journals, too! (And one of them included a small slip of paper that said, “You are pretty” that was mysteriously left in my desk in fourth grade. (I was not, by the way. I was awkward and chubby and awkward some more.)) Maybe that’s a thing?
I read what you said about dear Meredith, who I am sure walks in a perfectly acceptable manner, and was overwhelmed with relief that I have three boys. (The trade-off is that my car and their bedrooms smell like gym socks all the time right now.)
I want the fingerless mittens on the page you linked! Must start learning to knit!
The only people popular in school grew up to be losers as adults. You’ve seen them — they’re the 40-year-olds who were cheerleaders and prom queens and still try to be that persona at the parent-teacher meetings. They never want to do the tedious work of secretary or treasurer, they only want to head the decorating committee, and then they are no-shows when the work is supposed to be done.
When my daughter was in junior high I told her “Thirty years from now, you won’t remember who you danced with, but you will never forget how someone made you feel. Same goes for the boys. So just be sure you don’t do anything to kids at school that will make them remember you as someone who made them feel bad.”
Meredith won’t believe it. My daughter didn’t. But my daughter is 41 now and has found out it’s true. She is fast friends with a whole lot of people from those years.
My girlfriend and I call them macaroni projects. In the 15 minutes it takes a pot of water to come to a boil, a lot can be accomplished. Fabric cut, a whole bunch sewn together etc. (Can you tell I’m a quilter and not a knitter? But, the same principles apply)
Loving the view in your side yard and love the headband. I miss the beautiful colors.