G is for...

Guilty Pleasure

A guilty pleasure is something you enjoy in spite of itself. You know it's not good for you, or cool, or high quality, but you keep coming back to it. Be it funnel cake, Lady Gaga, or "Twilight," it does nothing beneficial for you except make you smile.

Conversely, it might be something you really can't afford, but you treat yourself to now and then, but I'm really thinking of the embarrassing little secret loves right now.

Netflix is an enabler. I have two big guilty pleasures on Netflix right now, "Murder She Wrote," and "Reign." The latter in particular is like Pixie Stix for me; no nutritional value whatsoever, but strangely addictive. It's eye candy, it's historically inaccurate, it's engrossing, it's a teen soap opera, it's insane, and I just love it.

Reign likes to pretend that it's about Mary, Queen of Scots.

It's really about WB teen drama . . . In the PAST!!!

I can only knit garter stitch when I am watching it, because I can't tear my eyes from the screen for the majority of any episode. The costumes range from Renaissance adjacent to questionable prom dresses to whaaat???? but they're almost always pretty, and I like pretty.

I appreciate that the language, though not appropriately Shakespearean, is at least formal and not Buffy-speak.

I feel like my taste should be better than this, but that's the guilty part, after all. The most delightful aspect of this show? Evil Anne of Green Gables...

F is for...

Feet

The covering thereof

I have never been a fan of feet (except for on wee bairns), nor socks (I outright refused to touch them as a child when my mother was teaching me how to fold laundry), so the fact that I was compelled when a new knitter to try knitting socks for the sheer experience of it is something of a tribute to their fascination.

Two things in particular - modern knitters complaining that they were difficult, and historical knitters making them all the time. If there's anything I like, it's a challenge and making something authentic from scratch.

Of course, authentic was stretched a bit for my first few pairs, not having any access to sockweight yarn, but the My Basic Sock pattern taught me the rudiments of sock construction, and worsted weight yarn, even with minimal wool content makes a quite warm sock for the days when you have to be out shoveling snow. Most importantly, I learned that making socks isn't hard at all if you have clear directions. I made my second pair in just over a week.

I had a deadline, I wanted to make St. Patrick's Day socks for my brother, being undeterred by his size 12 feet. Thuja is another good, clear pattern for a beginner. I finished the second sock in two days. Second sock syndrome didn't hit until the odyssey of the never ending kilt hose.

Ten years later, still no farther than this.

Then there were mini socks.

 

Swap fodder, mainly. Swaps are also good motivation to finish actual pairs of socks.

Lace socks go quickly.

Slippers are a fun change of pace.

And always, go big or go home:

E is for . . .

Ezra

Where did four months go? 

I have been shockingly negligent about knitting for him, but as he has all of Silas' handmedowns it hasn't been a priority.

Of course, I knitted him a stocking.

And a hat.

But that's as far as I have managed to this point. It's tricky to knit for your own babies, because they are often in need of your undivided attention, and working on projects here and there when you have a spare moment doesn't work well when they grow faster than you can knit. 

Patterns I plan to make for Ezra (if I ever have the time):

Anders

Gansey Booties  (free!)
Pembroke Vest (free!)
Nursing Necklace - crochet (free!)

C is for...

Christ is risen!

(or, Catching up on my missed letter)

Philippians 3:10-12 

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Crocheted Cross Bookmark.

I'm not sure how I feel about this next quote from the inestimable C.S. Lewis; I was raised to believe that the 'merely festal character' of Easter was at least sacrilegious and at worst nearly blasphemous - no Easter bunny darkened our door and it was years before I could regard a jelly bean without feelings of misgiving. Now that I have children of my own, with a husband who had all the trappings of the holiday from sunrise service to Easter basket, I'm torn.

C.S. Lewis

There is a stage in a child’s life at which it cannot separate the religious from the merely festal character of Christmas or Easter. I have been told of a very small and very devout boy who was heard murmuring to himself on Easter morning a poem of his own composition which began ‘Chocolate eggs and Jesus risen.’ 

This seems to me, for his age, both admirable poetry and admirable piety. But of course the time will soon come when such a child can no longer effortlessly and spontaneously enjoy that unity. He will become able to distinguish the spiritual from the ritual and festal aspect of Easter; chocolate eggs will no longer seem sacramental. 

And once he has distinguished he must put one or the other first. If he puts the spiritual first he can still taste something of Easter in the chocolate eggs; if he puts the eggs first they will soon be no more than any other sweetmeat. They will have taken on an independent, and therefore a soon withering, life.” 

I hope to be able to guide my boys to always put the spiritual first, without having to make an anathema of Cadbury Creme Eggs.

D is for...

Dishcloth

(or, Drat, I fell asleep as soon as I got home yesterday (around 6:30) and didn't post a C entry.)

I'm 13 weeks into this 52 Weeks of Free Dishcloths adventure, and so far I've finished
16 dishcloths, one potholder, and a scrubby.

Scrubby

The narrow drawer next to the sink where I keep such things is filling up very pleasantly.

I've come a long way from my spiritual membership in I'd Rather Poke Myself in the Eye with a Dpn than Knit a Dishcloth. I still sympathise with them; they have many valid points. Dishcloths do deteriorate quickly, and spending precious knitting time making something that will be used to scrub the gunk out of the microwave can seem sacrilegious.

 I was firmly of that mindset, until someone sent me a Tribble in a swap, and I used it one day to scrub something firmly burnt onto the stove, and it worked so darn well that I finally saw the light and went on a small dishcloth/scrubby spree. They do take up precious knitting time, though, and they don't look at all impressive on your Ravelry notebook, so I gave it up again in favor of hats and mittens and fingerless gloves and a myriad of other more respectable projects, until I got into a miserable knitting slump where even the sight of a knitting needle made me queasy (being pregnant had a bit to do with it). There's nothing like a little instant gratification to get you out of a dark place like that, and dishcloths are about as instant as you can get without straying into crochet. You can easily make one or more every week...

So my dishcloth drawer is filling up. It's at a perfect height for Silas to get into, so he can mop up his own inevitable spills, which he does with great enthusiasm.

Couldn't find the scrubbing pic, so here he is loading the dishwasher

When he was sick this week, I went to that drawer to find a cloth to sponge his feverish brow, and found a heart-shaped dishcloth to make him smile. There are reasons to knit dishcloths.

The tribble

Patterns I love that start with D:

Double-breasted Bunny Suit

Drop-stitch Cowl - instant gratification of the super-bulky variety (free!)

Dwarven Battle Bonnet

Duck - absurdly cute baby booties (free!)

Doctor Who scarf (free!)

Danish Hearts - crochet (free!)

Doily-style Dishcloth - my first dishcloth (free!)

B is for . . .

. . . My baby, the birthday boy.

Silas is 3 today. He is my little ball of energy, always go, go, go. He's the subject of many blurry photos.

He attracts dirt like a brand new white carpet does.

He loves his baby brother.

He is brave.

That is a real, live, very tall, moving horse that he's sitting on so casually, with only one hand on the saddle horn.

He's got the beat.

Obviously, I'm pretty smitten with my beautiful baby boy, not so much a baby anymore. He really is getting to be a big boy now, but he'll always, always be my baby.

A is for . . .

Angora

Angora is the deliciously soft fiber spun from bunny fur. It is also the breed of goat from whence cometh cashmere, but I am thinking of bunny fluff today. I've only had one experience working with angora thus far, in a blend called Forest Dew by Lotus yarns. I made mittens.

Bunny-sized mittens.

I made this little bookmark for a Peter Rabbit-themed swap; in one of the stories Mrs. Rabbit is mentioned as bringing in a little money by selling rabbit-wool mittens and muffatees, and while she's hardly an Angora rabbit herself, I immediately thought of angora to keep with the theme.

Mrs Rabbit

Angora Rabbit

 Interestingly enough, cashmere comes from Angora goats (originally from the Kashmir).

Slight resemblance, neh?

Apparently angora had quite a heyday back in the day as the fiber of choice for 'sweater girls,'  Despite my husband's interest, I'm not particularly eager to start knitting myself negative-ease sweaters that shed, no matter how soft the fiber.  However, I have more than enough of Forest Dew left over to make a cowl, so I've earmarked it in my queue for the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing.  I like pretty things.

As for the other Angora (cashmere), I haven't had a chance yet to experience it, but I hear it's luscious.  The Knitmore Girls are always talking up cashmere.

Some patterns I love that start with A:

Afternoon Break, a fichu (free!)
All the Shades of Truth, a rectangular shawl
Amigurumi Adipose, for Doctor Who fans (free!)
An Aran for Anne, a sweater for fans of Jane Austen's Persuasion
Arkema, beaded and cabled gloves (free!)