Roots & Raindrops

I sat out on my upper deck all afternoon yesterday to finish threading the beads that I mentioned in the last post. Good thing I did because it’s raining again today and it feels quite dark in comparison. Undaunted I sat in bed this morning with my tea and my cats and my husband’s best reading glasses on top of my regular progressives and knit. With tiny little wires for needles and silk thread not much thicker than sewing thread and rather uncooperative beads flopping this way and that. The necklace is taking on a curve — at least I hope it’s a gentle curve and not a freakish distortion that will never lie flat. I have to watch the tension so that beads don’t pop through the stitches which makes them stick out in all the wrong directions. The beads are supposed to lie between the stitches and the most difficult ones to get right are the “picots” on top and bottom. You bring the bead down just after you’ve turned the work and attempt to keep it from getting away while you knit the first stitch. Knitting on this necklace can only happen in increments because I keep finding my neck and shoulders cramping with tension. Guess that means I need to watch my tension as much as the knitting’s tension, hey? Here’s what I’ve got so far at the almost halfway point:


Also, I’ve been plugging away at the Little Squares Sweater. Now that I have spun yarn to work with again it’s going quite quickly. I still need to spin more for the back. Might work on that for awhile this afternoon. Always nice to spin while the rain is on the roof. Besides I have to get in the spinning mood for my last Beginner Spinning class this evening. My boss went and told them I teach dyeing here in my dye studio, so now they want a dye class. If they all want to come maybe we can schedule a day and just do it. I hate trying to get enough people together for a class.


Last but not least, I have to show you this terminally cute vintage photo of a little girl.


Isn’t she adorable? This was taken circa 1930 and the little cutie just happens to be my mother-in-law. She's just about the age of my granddaughter, her great-granddaughter, here. Despite all the horror stories you’ve heard about mothers-in-law, she’s a wonderful exception and we get along great. I find it interesting how much she still looks like this person! T-Man talked his mom out of some of the family photographs so we can scan them and see if we can repair some of the damage. And also so we can share them with the rest of the family. After I lost 99% of my family photos to my &^%# adopted sister, I’ve been very aware how having only one set of prints can be dangerous. Any of a number of bad things could happen to them! We’ve already digitally photographed a bunch of our old slides to share with our kids. They should have some record that they were once children and we were once young too. And also to remind them of their grandparents and ancestors as far back as we still have pictures to prove they existed. It’s good to know a bit about your roots.

I just love the serious look on mom-in-law’s face. Maybe she wasn’t happy about being photographed? Or about holding her dolly? Was she wary of the photographer? There’s a bit of snow on the ground so it must have been cold. Maybe she just didn’t want to stand still long enough. Check out the cool animal-spotted trim on her hat and coat! Mom was the youngest of 4 girls and she has 2 sisters in their 80’s still around. She also has 3 sons, 7 grandchildren, and 9 (almost 10) great-grandchildren. Those roots have grown branches and leaves, I tell ya!