Looking ahead
Sunday October 20th 2013, 11:29 pm
Filed under: Family,Knit

Soft grays, turquoise, I was told when I asked what Paige’s favorite colors were.

I found one single taupe-ish gray ball in my whole stash and it just didn’t seem the thing. But I happened to get an email from Cottage Yarns in South San Francisco: the store was bursting with yarn orders and everything was 20% off to try to help her clear out some space. I talked to Richard about it and then headed on up Saturday.

Kathryn has a lot of Malabrigo yarns and Malabrigo never goes on sale and, much though I don’t think of myself as the brand-conscious type, I adore anything they produce and the people who produce it: if it’s Malabrigo, it’s very soft, and I love that I’ve gotten to know the owners a bit at Stitches every year.

And Kathryn was right–when I pulled out bags of Silkpaca to try to see the colors of the ones stacked up behind them, they were packed in so tight it was hard to get them back in the cubby (and one doesn’t want to make a mess). Bags and bags and bags of woolly goodness everywhere–I tell you, if I ever have to be in a building in a major earthquake again I want it to be that one.

But there you go: I did, I found a soft gray in there, baby alpaca/silk laceweight, Polar Morn colorway, perfect. I didn’t find what I was looking for turquoise-wise, but one thing at a time. I have about 500 yards of a cobweb-fine bright turquoise cashmere/silk that needs to be double-stranded with something similar in color and softness that I was trying to match up; I’ll find it. (Or dye something from stash.) But let me get this soft gray done first.

I got to tell her how much Hayes’s mom had loved the blankie she’d helped come to be. (The green, that’s from her.) That alone was reason enough to make the drive up there; she was thrilled. And I love that she was cheering Hayes on after his rocky start to life.

And so with the silk/lycra project blocked and out of the way, and with me healthy now, I got started for my cousin-in-law.

Three hours nonstop of laceknitting creates so much fabric.

Three hours of nonstop laceknitting makes such a tiny thing.

Three hours nonstop of knitting lace by the second time around actually does begin to make a goodly bit of fabric. (Break out the icepacks.) I just had to remind myself it was one single stitch when I started yesterday.

Tomorrow I again get the privilege of doing something for Paige to cheer her on in her fight: knitting is a gift that gives both ways. I look forward to all the individual moments I will never know of when she will wrap warmth and love and comfort and color around her and know that she is not alone.


8 Comments so far
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Two weeks ago, I got to use a gift certificate which I’ve been sitting on for a year- I won it as a drawing from our charity knitathon, and just hadn’t managed to be able to get to the store until now. And…I wanted some yarn to make a hat/mittens/scarf set for the daughter of a friend who has been having a hard time this year. And I had nothing in the daughter’s favorite color. Now I do. Clearly it was meant to be!

Comment by RobinH 10.21.13 @ 7:27 am

your last lines so eloquently said exactly what I feel when ever I am knitting—I knit for charity giving about 80% of the time and gift knitting the rest, I just loved the way you put it!

Comment by grace yaskovic 10.21.13 @ 7:54 am

Yes, that would be the right store in an earthquake.

I have some notion of what you mean by the joy of creating something for someone. I haven’t lately, but I used to create greeting cards – birthday, anniversary, get well – for many people. I do that rarely now since I use online animated cards.

Comment by Donald Meyer 10.21.13 @ 9:02 am

Mmmmmalabrigo! And yes, a yarn store does seem like a good place to be if the earth is shaking….and most other times, too.

Comment by Ruth 10.21.13 @ 10:45 am

I love the way things come together, just when they need to. 🙂

Comment by Pam 10.21.13 @ 11:33 am

I’m still playing catch-up (just too much travel lately!), but saw the words I wanted to see “…with me healthy now”. Have fun with the knitting now that you can do it without worry of spreading germs!

Comment by twinsetellen 10.21.13 @ 6:42 pm

Oh, it sounds love-ly. What a warm, kind gesture.

Comment by Channon 10.21.13 @ 7:26 pm

If Paige has 8 to 12 months of treatment ahead of her, it sounds as though she’s entering a new-to-her world.

It’s such a great time to have the assurance that one is not alone, especially when it arrives in the form of warmth, softness, and one-of-a-kind handmade-ness.

Comment by RobinM 10.22.13 @ 2:33 pm



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