Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Knit 1, Purl 2
This time tomorrow evening I'll be 1200 miles north, in my own little bed. More has transpired in the past nine days than I could ever cover, definitely more than any of you could stand to hear a blow by blow of, but trust me that it ran the whole range of emotions. There's been laughter, tears, frustration, some vegging out, heavy discussions of church doctrine, politics, really good food, really lousy pizza, too much fast food which I'm happy to say included my first Chick Filet shake. We've had days that we stayed in pjs the entire day and looked a mess, we've cleaned up a bit and gone out, I've driven all over the DFW metroplex, never really having any idea where I was most of the time. It's been crazy, it's been tiring, it's been good. I not only got to help Sarah and her family, I got to love on them, and my son and daughter-in-law. But it's time to go home. I suspected that and my husband confirmed it tonight on the phone. "Come home. Don't even tell me you're staying longer. Come home." So I am.A bonus for being here the last nine days, Sarah decided she would teach me to knit, and I could give her some hands-on sewing lessons. I'm happy to say she finished a lovely flannel nightgown for Addison last night. It was a bit of a whipping but she did a great job, and learned all sorts of sewing skills in the process. She said it wasn't much fun, but then today she was back at it, starting another one. That girl has sticktoitiveness!
Knitting has not been a blast to learn. It's been aggravating. It's hard. After nine days I have two rows of knitting to show for my efforts. It really doesn't look like much, you can't see any evidence of the six books on knitting I've ordered or purchased, the knitting set I bought, and the extra tools. I've ripped out and ripped out and then ripped out some more. A week ago I really thought I could not learn it. I've gone from clueless to lousy. I make a lot of mistakes, but I have the stitches down. Sarah patiently taught me to knit, purl, yarn over, increase, decrease, bind off, and how to read a pattern. If you don't talk to me and the entire room is perfectly quiet I can knit something pretty simple. I'm determined to be good at eventually. Sarah and I got to visit a yarn shop today for the first time. Because we're gracious, well-raised ladies we didn't stay long, in light of the fact that we had three kids with us, and two of them had to be contained at precise spots in the aisles so as to prevent pulling yarn off the shelves, and the other one had to be warned not to scare the little Yorkie that abides there, but girls, I could have stayed for hours! I cannot wait to visit the one back home. I'm pretty sure I'll be asking Santa for a gift certificate to it.
I'll post a photo of the scarf that so far has about $100 invested in it, if and when it's finished. Yes, I know I could have bought a scarf at Walmart for $5.99. Sarah could have bought Addison a nightgown there for about the same. Girls, this is about acquiring skills, learning an art. And making memories.
That we did. I'm headed back to Yankee country tomorrow morning, with a bag of knitting supplies and a heartful of memories of my sweet family deep in the heart of Texas.
Labels: Creative License
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