"Knit on..."

Oct.1st

Sorry not to have written for a while. I had not realized how affected I had been in awaiting the news of whether our son was going to be sent overseas to a war torn country. We found out on Wednesday that his name was not on the list of those being shipped out and the tremendous release I felt afterwards made me aware of how tightly wound I had been while waiting in anticipation.

The Thursday before at knitting group while I was in the state-of–not-knowing-limbo I had mentioned this and Suzanne commented on how helpful she found knitting in stressful times. I thought about Elizabeth Zimmerman’s famous quote: “Knit on with confidence and hope through all crises.” Previously, I had mostly thought this was the Great Knitting Sage’s advice to knitters trying out some new technique or when you have live stitches threatening to disappear. I now have experienced what a great relief my knitting is when my life stood on the brink, not just my knitting. So in my spare moments when my mind would have too much rope to begin running worse case scenarios through my mind I would take up my knitting and focus on the task at hand.

After my initial cast on with the figure eight and increases in the toe I fell in love with this lace pattern. Upside down or right side up it has a lovely flow to it and it is nice and stretchy. It really hugs the leg.

I have a new favorite heel for toe up socks. I most often use the short row heel when going toe up. But when knitting top down I use a slip stitch heel for its looks and durability. I am not that much of a sock wizard that I was willing to sort out the toe up slip stitch heel knitting instructions, so I am infinitely grateful for the first person who wrestled that one onto the printed page or is that electronic screen? Anyone out there know the first published TUSSH? Again I used the well written and illustrated instructions in Wendy D. Johnson’s book, “Socks from the Toe Up.” (page 41)

There are NO stitches to pick up, just a flow of increases and decreases. I apologize for my lack of photographic skills. This photo is my fifth attempt. Unfortunately my camera has all sorts of settings: little flowers, mountains, faces but no icon for knitting!