This week sucked. I am still cycling through a range of emotions – disbelief, rage, anguish, fear. They don’t proceed in any particular order and can be revisited any number of times.
BUT.
Babies are still being born, and they need to be enveloped in love and warmth. On election night, I blocked this sweater for a baby expected by a colleague. It is a deep blue that is hard to photograph – I know the picture looks more like black but trust me.
A few notes about it:
- Even though it is one of the recommended yarns (Spud and Chloe Sweater), it was impossible to get gauge without creating a bulletproof vest. Even though I knit the 0-6 month size, I think it will be quite big on a newborn. We shall see – babies are definitely not all the same size. Even if it’s too big this winter and too small by next fall, I’ll just knit the kid another sweater.
- I knit the elbow patches but ultimately decided to leave them off. Every Ravelry photo of a baby wearing the sweater with patches looked weird – the patch made the whole sleeve stiff and it didn’t bend naturally. The pockets, though, are ADORABLE. Boy 2 said that the baby could put his nooky in the pockets.
- I did not work the buttonholes as specified, because Margaret Fisher’s one-row horizontal buttonhole is simply superior to any other buttonhole I have ever seen. It’s my go-to and it’s from Seven Things that can "Make or Break" a Sweater.
Then I cast on a new pair of socks for Boy 1. He loves bright stripes and we all need a rainbow right now:
And finally, spending the day with knitter friends on Saturday was a balm. Four of us trekked over to York, PA, to knit at a friend’s house there. On the way, we went out to lunch and visited a York yarn store (Uncommon Threads). We also passed a demonstration against hate downtown and whooped and hollered in support. That all happened too quickly to get a photo… but here is a shot of a beautiful table on autumnally inspired knits:
When we reached Heidi’s welcoming home, we were delighted to find that she was the first one to complete our On the Spice Market KAL project! Here is her version:
I very much regret that I didn’t get her face in the shot – but you can tell she’s happy. She used up a lot of balls of this and that in this shawl. It’s a great stashbuster.
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Your baby sweater and rainbow socks have me near tears; there is something so hopeful about both of them. I've made my donations to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, and am looking into ESL tutoring at our local library to try and take some positive action. Hooray for all the wonderful knitting and the majority of people who voted against hate.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bonny. We've all got a lot of work ahead of us!
ReplyDeleteIt has indeed been a rough week. I've been on an emotion roller coaster for days, but didn't break down until I was knitting and listening to an episode of Radiolab about the one vote that ratified the 19th Amendment. Then I lost it. I can't describe how knitting helps with all this craziness. But it does.
ReplyDeleteWe need all the rainbows we can get.