Mr. FixIt does odd jobs for friends and family from time to time. Yesterday, one of his friends needed a new medicine cabinet installed in his bathroom. It’s an old house and anyone who has worked on old houses can tell you…there are seldom square corners and measurements are somewhat haphazard. Thus was the case on what has turned into a two day job when the new cabinet wouldn’t fit into the old hole. He’ll go back today with the proper tools and make the hole bigger to accommodate the new cabinet.

Having the house to myself yesterday afternoon was rather lovely. The sun was shining and the temperature didn’t get much over freezing. It was the perfect day to do two things. Try on the new cashmere sweater my sweetheart bought me for Christmas…and sit in my recliner and knit. The sweater is a lovely pink…just the perfect shade that you find inside a conch shell. Slightly peachy…so pretty and oh so soft. It feels warm without being bulky and it’s not at all itchy. And it fit perfectly. The sleeves slightly balloon out above snug cuffs and there is a slight stripe created by a K10P2 pattern. Perfect!

The socks are moving along nicely. I created the cup of the heel last night before I put it away to write this. I love the sock yarns that look variegated until you knit them, then it’s apparent the dye was placed strategically to create stripes and patterns in the stitching. This particular sock is called Vanilla, because there’s nothing fancy about it. There is a twenty row K1P1 rib stitch cuff, then everything from there down is essentially a stockinette stitch. 

I’m really glad there is a YouTube tutorial for every step of this simple sock design because I’m not only learning how to knit in the round on a single 32” circular needle…I’m also learning a new way to turn a heel and join it. I’m pretty much a self taught knitter, so I am not terribly familiar with all the terms and abbreviations that are in a written pattern. I do have the written pattern for this sock, but I need the tutorial…at least the first time.

My friend Marion’s mom was my seventh grade science teacher. She stood at the front of the class knitting sweaters and never once looked down at her work while she gave lectures. It was phenomenal. I watched her knitting intently because I’d never seen it before. No one in my family knitted, although I did find an old warped pair of knitting needles in my grandma’s cedar chest around the same time I was in Mrs. Corbin’s class. I scrounged up some yellow yarn and tried my hand at knitting. My tension was so tight, I could barely force the needle into the stitches and there were holes in my work. I think I got something that looked vaguely like a potholder and called it good. I never tried to knit again until sometime in the ‘90s. I could crochet with the best of them, but knitting eluded me for the longest time.

I didn’t understand about the different kinds of yarn. I spent months knitting a sweater on needles that were too big and used acrylic yarn that pilled terribly. It was a huge waste of time as far as a sweater goes, but it was a learning experience. Somewhere along the line, I learned how to knit dishcloths and that gave me the confidence to try more difficult things. I made scarves and hats. Then, when Daughter #1 told me she was expecting Big, I was determined to knit her a baby dress. 

Being the pragmatist, I found a cute pattern that used brightly colored yarns in nothing but a stockinette stitch. The design was achieved by changing colors. It was fun to see it slowly take shape…the operative word here is “slowly”. I knew I would never get a tiny dress done before the baby came because I was learning as I went. So, I chose a Size 2T and believe it or not…finished the week before Big’s second birthday! Poor Little…she never got the kinds of things Big got because, by that time, I was working sixty hours a week. I’ve tried to make it up to her in other ways.

We have absolutely NOTHING planned this week…no doctor’s appointments. I have no place to be but home. It’s supposed to snow Thursday night. I have a couple of late Christmas presents to get to the Post Office today, then I’m free to knit to my heart’s content. This is the time of year God sets aside for us to recover and rest from the labors of the land and I have every intention of taking advantage of it!

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12 So tend to your knitting. You’ve got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. 13 Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is.

Romans 14:12-13 MSG