Knitting Therapy

October 15 is Mother’s Day. Not the sort of Mother’s Day that one celebrates – October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and far too many American and Canadian women will observe it. You likely know someone who belongs to this unfortunate sisterhood. Your mother, sister, grandmother, the woman in the next cubicle; 15 to 25% of pregnancies end in loss. I will be remembering, too. I lost my first child in March.

Miscarriage and infant loss are difficult to discuss. It wasn’t until I lost my daughter at 11 weeks gestation that people came out of the woodwork to share their own stories. My grandmother had multiple miscarriages; an elderly friend lost three children; two other friends shared their losses.

At some point, you will know someone who loses a baby. DON’T refer to the child as “it.” Say “baby,” regardless of gestational age. Miscarriage is a loss of dreams, along with that baby. DO reach out. Let the parents know that you’re sorry and acknowledge that their child existed, is loved, and will be dearly missed.

On October 15, take a moment to think of families missing children who we never held or watched grow up. We might be closer than you think.

Currently, there are lovely smells of homemade chicken soup wafting through the house. I am not a cook, not at all, but my darling other half is quite an exceptional one, if I do say so myself. He decided rather suddenly that on this unseasonably cold October day (well, cold for North Carolina...) that he'd make chicken soup. From scratch. That's right, from whole chicken plus oil and water to soup.

It's pretty neat to watch all of this coming together. It was a great deal LESS neat was watching him dismember the chicken corpse. Can I just say EWWW? It's been a good number of years since I was a vegetarian, but watching the mister whack at a chicken, bits flying as he hit it, was just enough to send me over the edge. Well, that combined with the whole fetus making me vaguely nauseous sometimes bit.

This was a whole lot of work. (... for him.) Plus, dinner is already 2 hours late, probably with time yet to go. It had better be significantly better than a can of chicken noodle soup.

Hello, blogworld! A while ago, I posted about collecting hats for Sloan Kettering, and some of you all emailed me to say you wanted on board! If you did, please try to get the hats to me ASAP! I want to get this pile out the door.

What's up, blog? You smell a little bit musty. Oops. I suppose I haven't been doing a ton of knitting lately, but it's picking back up. I finally, after several months, decided it was time to finish the second of hubby's Duke Blue socks.

I've also got my second try at a February Lady Sweater on the needles, this time in malabrigo worsted (mmmmmmalabrigo) with quite a few changes to the pattern. The regular sweater has a bunch of garter stitch, which I'm replacing with seed stitch. On my first try, the garter was just too loose, and stretched out a ton. I want my sweater to have bit more shape to it, so seed stitch it is.

We'll see how it goes, and of course, there will be pictures!

There's a craft fair in two weeks, here in Durham, called Centerfest. My knitting group entered items last year with some success, so we're doing it again this year. The past few weeks and months have been full of crocheting and spinning and knitting for this event. And, of course, I forgot to take pictures of my stock! I'm hoping a friend will snap a few photos, since I'll be on vacation during the sale.

In other news, my hat pattern appears to be a hit. I'm getting it ready for publication on Ravelry and trying to decide on a price. How much should a pattern for a lace slouch/beret cost? $3? $4? I'm terrible at this. Oh well!

Raclette is a traditional Swiss peasant dish which has recently gained popularity as a party food. Basically, the dish is heated cheese poured over boiled potatoes and mixed with dried meat and/or fruit (pear or pineapple) and/or various veggies (usually pickles, onions, tomatoes). Without the raclette griddle, we made ours in cast iron skillets on the broil function in the oven and poured over potatoes, mixing with gherkins and pineapple, and a few pieces of onion.

Mmmmmmmm. I highly recommend.

Time sure flies!

In just a couple of weeks, I'm off to see my parents and go to the MN state fair. A few weeks after that is the annual beach trip with the inlaws, which is always a ton of fun. I've been spinning away on Magda, working on some pretty sea green Corriedale roving, which will be laceweight. There's a ton of it, so it's taking a long time.

I'm also working on a slew of market bags, which will be for sale at our local craft fair in September. The pattern is simple as pie. I'll be writing it up and posting it here once I've got bag pictures loaded. Crochet goes quickly. I can make a bag in about two days!

I submitted a hat pattern to a book about hats. I won't post a picture here on the off chance I get picked but, once I know one way or another, I'll show it off!

Finally, I'm organizing a charity project for my knitting group. A dear friend of mine has been battling Hodgkin's Lymphoma for years; he is (I am glad to say) two years cancer free this month! He got his much needed transplant at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and I'm collecting chemo hats to send there. I know there's a few knitters and crocheters who read this - if you want to contribute a hat (or 2, or 12), just let me know. I'm planning to send them to Sloan-Kettering in late September or early October. I even have a couple of patterns I'll recommend. Child-sized hats and men's hats are always welcome, as are trendier hats for survivors in their teens/twenties.

It's over! And I've officially spun more in the past few weeks than I have in the 6 months previous!

And, here's my final total...

I've been busy as a bee, playing with my BRAND NEW spinning wheel! She's a Kromski Minstrel purchased from the Woolery, and she spins like a dream. Of course, since she's a Polish wheel, she needs a good Polish name.

Magda, in all her (slightly blurry iphone picture) glory:



And now, gratuitous yarn pictures. They are, unfortunately, slightly yellow thanks to the iphone pictures. At some point I'll get a nice place to snap photos of my yarns.

Hoobody fiber, South American Punta colorway, 2 oz., ~66 yards.



Superwash Merino, Ocean colorway, 2.1 oz., 2 skeins of ~180 yards each, plied with pale blue thread.



Alpaca/Merino/Nylon blend, Green Tweed, 2.3 oz, ~180 yards in light fingering/sport weight.



And finally, on my wheel now... England Alpaca from a local source, 50g of it in a laceweight single, to be plied on itself: