Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I should be vaccuuming

It's the day before my friend and her boys arrive for their visit and I still have some work to do. I'm not going to try to make the house perfect, that notion disappeared three kids ago, but I want her to feel welcome in our home, not welcome to a disaster area.

But instead, the house is quiet, the kids are finishing a movie they started last night and it got too late to finish, I'm sitting here in my little (very old) chair, checking what I usually check on the internet, sipping coffee and starting baby booties. John affectionately dubbed my little corner "the lair of the knitting lady" a while back. Where do they get that stuff?





I don't have a separate studio (oh how I would love a studio), but rather this corner of our bedroom with my chair, shelves and the computer. There is another duplicate set of shelves in the hallway. That's it. That's where all my knitting things reside. Finished products and what I haul to shows and markets are in big plastic bins (cat proof) inconpsicuously between the wall and bookshelves in the sitting room with the woodstove downstairs. Since knitting is portable, the entire house then becomes my work area. I can even take it outside, so I guess I should be thankful that I'm not confined to just one spot.


The yarn I'm using is that which was designated for my second sundance sweater. Remember that from a month or two ago? I hereby will no longer complain about never knitting anything for myself. I had the yarn, I even started the project, but it stalled just long enough for me to become uninspired. Then the though crept in: oh what beautiful baby hats and booties all that yarn would make! So I started last night:





My first knitting love is the baby hat. So simple yet so pleasing. This one will eventually be embellished, either with a simple applique from my girls old outgrown cotton dresses, or perhaps some soft pink polka dots, I have yet to decide. There will be a boy version as well. I have plenty of yarn.


Now you see why I HAD to start a knitting business. My kids are no longer babies. I love making baby hats and booties. There aren't enough people getting pregnant around me to keep up with the number of hats and booties I want to make. Simple solution: sell them. From this I've learned a important point, that perhaps what I'm really after IS the process, not the product. Whew, that's a relief.


Enough introspection, I need to now show you that I'm not the only crafty one in the house. Recently Kevin has taken up tying flies. It was a shocker to me too, especially since he generally poo-pooed the whole fly fishing genre, that was until he received a really nice fly rod from his dad last year at Christmas. He's slowly warmed to the idea and the fly tying is a natural progression. When he asked me if I had an extra crochet hook he could have I nearly fell over laughing. "You see," he said, "there's alot of similarity between what you do and tying flies. All these old guys who tie flies have wives at home who knit and crochet and they borrow their things." I'm dumbfounded. Those of you who know Kevin are a little bit too.


Showing off his second finished fly:





We will go to the park later. 70 degrees and sunny will not be wasted on us. But for now, I'm off to vaccuum. See ya!

1 comment:

Pamela said...

Good for Kevin and what fun that you can appreciate each other's crafts.

What's the little project on little needles? So unlike you. More of the new sock-loving Amy?

Have a fun, sunny day!