Around & Around & Around

I’ve run out of the main yarn on my leggings and am now into the yarn I dyed yesterday.

The old yarn ended only 1.5” before the turn for the elastic casing but I think it’s working out fine with the new yarn seeming like just a dark shadow at the top. I was pondering (uh-oh!) the reactions that I’ve been getting from friends and family about just what I’ve been knitting so madly on. It varies from “huh?” through “what? why?” and into “better knit faster, it’s cold outside!” Fascinating. But I think very few really get it, not even fellow knitters. Personally I’m imagining the feel of the equivalent of warm handknit socks from the ankles to the waist. When it’s –9C outside (in the daytime!) it seems like such a good idea. I can hardly wait until they’re done. Of course, by then the current cold snap will be over.

So I’ve always been a bit of a rebel in my wardrobe. I joke that it stems from the 9 years in my childhood where I had to wear a uniform to school. (Hmmm… maybe it’s not really a joke?) Anyhow since school I’ve never lived the kind of life where I needed to dress a certain way so of course when left to my own devices I wear what I like. Usually it’s practical clothes: t-shirts and sweatpants, woolly socks and fleece vests. And I have no real use for anything excessively dress-up. (What? No cocktail parties or nights at the opera? Not so much.) I do appreciate wearing something handmade every single day, even if that’s only socks that nobody can see.

Just reading an issue of Väv, the Swedish weaving magazine (now in English too!) and pondering (yes, some more) how often Europeans talk about expressing their individual cultures. How in this town they historically wore these garments and wove those textiles and did this craft. Coming from and living in a huge mashup of cultures myself, I find it hard to understand the desire for what I view as sameness and conformity but at the same time I’m a little envious of their distinctive roots and pride in their ancestral accomplishments. I’ll never know what that feels like from the inside of the tent.

I remember when my kids were in grade school and had to dress up in the costume of their ethnic heritage. Hah! Where do you start when you are Scots-English-Newfoundlander X French-Bohemian-Alsatian? I suggested that their national costume was a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers! I forget now whether or not they followed my advice. I seem to remember they might have – they share the family’s quirky sense of humour. Today I would also suggest adding a toque and an MEC rain jacket just to make it more west-coast Canadian. Heh.

Speaking of my kids, no there’s still no news on the grandbaby front. She goes back to the doc tomorrow. We’ll see what happens then. Anyway it’s my birth-mom’s birthday today. She would have been 75 had she not passed away just over a year ago now. It might be nice to share your great-grandmother’s birthday, Little One! What do you think? Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!