All I really want to do...

...is start something new. I have a short trip coming up this week, involving airports and airplanes and other sitting around, so I need to be sure I take enough knitting, right? It's best if the projects are small, and not too pattern-intensive, right? And having choices makes a person a happier traveler, right? I have enough socks to work on, so I need something else, right? Okay, then. That's settled.

So this ball of peacock-colored merino is about to become a simple mistake rib scarf for Mister C., the most wonderful book buyer/general manager/co-worker in the entire book business. I'm thinking Christmas, but his birthday is in early December. Either way, the scarf will be done in a week or two, and I will be a happier traveler.

~:~

I'm still reminiscing about Italy. Here's a picture of Villa Vignamaggio in Tuscany. The sky on this afternoon was a bit overcast, so the colors are sort of washed out, but Oh, what a place. This was where we stayed for a few days before returning to Florence. [My sister's and my room was in another, much smaller building, up steep stone steps and through an arched doorway. We felt like we'd stepped back in time, except that the bathroom had a whirlpool tub.]

This is where I got to make a few paintings, but I have to say that the landscape and the history were a little bit overwhelming at first. Me, painting in the Mona Lisa's front yard? A Tuscan landscape, no less? Oh, pinch me. Hey, the whole trip was an unimaginable dream, so who am I kidding? I was actually there. I'd love to go again, but I'll still need to be convinced that it's real.

~:~

I made a (for me) large stash acquisition yesterday. Our local department store, which actually has a fabric and yarn department, had a big bin full of yarn marked 60% off. I came home with eight balls of Patons Canadiana and four balls of Patons Pure Wool. I thought I'd use it for Dulaan projects, but I forgot how much I dislike knitting garments with all-acrylic yarn, even when it's very nice all-acrylic yarn. The wool will get to be hats and scarves, but the Canadiana will have to wait until the right project comes along. I'm thinking baby blanket. One of these days some niece or nephew will expand the family, and I'll be ready.

Oh, Italy

One year ago today my sister and I arrived in Florence to begin our Italian adventure. Our little group had walked from the hotel to the Piazza Della Repubblica. When I turned around, this is what I saw:

I was near tears, in love and awe and with a heart about to burst with the magnitude of what I felt and saw.

Then we walked on to the Piazza Del Duomo. I looked up, and...

It's safe to say that I changed forever, right then.

And I hadn't even painted a single watercolor, or seen Botticelli's "Birth of Venus," or had any of the experiences that the next week would bring. Little did I know what was in store for us!

~:~:~

It's Autumn at last -- official sweater-knitting season! I'd better get back to the Fabulous Manos Wildflower Pullover, then. Today, though, I made a third hat for Dulaan. I started it at the knitting circle, where I relaxed and became more comfortable and actually enjoyed myself (it was easy, now that I have revised my expectations). I finished it this evening. I'm going back to my Italy-dreaming now...

Sock progress and some sweet memories

The Rib and Cables sock has overtaken the Go with the Flow, after an unfortunate frogging incident involving a heel flap miscalculation.

According to the Rules of Frogging, the knitter is permitted to throw the frogged item into a corner for ever a few days, or until the unfortunate frogging incident is no longer quite so painful.

[You'd think that since I went to all the trouble to recalculate the original pattern to fit my foot better, and since I actually wrote the calculations down, that I'd remember to use them on the second sock, wouldn't you? Naaah, that would make too much sense.]

I posed the Here and There scarf, too, all finished and blocked. It will be warm and cozy come winter.

:~:~:

I've been pondering Knitting Circle dynamics, with interesting input from Amie and Martha. I'll just let it be what it is, and not expect more than an afternoon of knitting. I'll either get to know the group, or I won't.

You see, I seem to have expectations. Long, long ago (in 1981) I began to attend a journal class with my friend V. We'd been invited to join the Wednesday night class by Bunny, the teacher, who was a fabric artist we'd met at a small show we'd all three been in. She began each of the three fifteen-minute segments by reading quotes and ideas -- things she had gathered from her reading, or what someone in the class had written the week before -- and then we'd write. "Think with your pen on the page," Bunny would say.

We took turns reading to the group, and Bunny and anyone who wanted to could comment. Well, that very first night we sat there, shy and nervous, as a woman we'd just met read the horrible, painful, powerful story of her rape. She just read it, unwavering. The faces around the room were full of love and shared pain.

I have never felt so trusted, so intimate, so tribal, as I did that night. I spent the next ten years going to journal class on Wednesday nights. We shared our souls, wrote poetry and drivel, laughed and cried, struggled to survive the death of one of our dearest friends, and ultimately, the death of our teacher. We wrote in many living rooms, in summer and winter, with and without our beloved Bunny. And always, we shared ourselves easily, palms up, hearts wide open.

That's way too much to ask of a Thursday afternoon knitting circle.

Sunday and a sock tale

I ordered a little bit of Fortissima Colori sock yarn from Elann this week: two balls each of "Irish Mists," "Harvest Apple" (Wowza! That's a bright one!), and "Tropica." I like the colors, and of course, the price doesn't hurt. Sock yarn hardly counts as stash anyway. I brought it home and set it aside for later, after I finish the second Go With the Flow sock. I'm on the heel flap, about to turn the heel, and it's good knitting. I'm plugging away on Dulaan hats, too, and I want to finish the knitting part of my Amazing Twining Lace scarf so that I can begin the necessary mental preparation for The Grafting. All in all, this is a good week for knitting.

But then, almost before I knew it, I had knit this:

It's the cuff of Nancy Bush's Rib and Cable socks from the Fall issue of IK. No matter how hard I try, I can't control myself. I have no will power. I am weak. Pathetic. Seduced and helpless.

The Go With the Flow sock, however, has other ideas:This is a rapidly developing story, so stay tuned.

~:~:~

My local knitting circle reconvened on Thursday, and it was, shall we say, interesting. I took my place at the table with much enthusiasm, thinking that this would be like a real live KR, and everybody would share and gab and become fast friends in that special Knitterly way. There was a strange vibe -- was it Shyess? Defensiveness? I don't know you so I'll just knit this sock-ness? I sat back and tried to be quiet (I had begun to feel like a Party Girl, which I am most definitely not). I think I'm hungry for some Real Woman Bonding, and I need to lower my expectations here. This is a diverse group of women who have come together because they knit, and they're probably looking for the same things I am, but whatever it is will have to develop over time. Isn't that how it happens in knitting circles in the rest of the world?

I had to stop listening to Sound and the Fury. It's not a listening book, it's a reading book. It's very powerful and strange (in a good way) and I'll get back to it soon. In the meantime I'm listening to Room With a View, which I adore because it is set in Florence, and I miss Florence. I've also joined the Knit One Read Too book group, and the October book is Yellow Jack by Josh Russell. I ordered a copy from my favorite local bookstore: me!

So it's Sunday. The Here and There scarf is drying (if Miss Annabelle can keep her not-small rear end off of it, it will be dry today). The laundry du jour is in mid-cycle, the weather is absolutely gorgeous, and I am going to a birthday party for J's mother, who is turning 91 years old. I've known her for 33 years, too!

I hope your Sunday, like mine, is just the way you like it.