knitting

All these years while my Zig Zag ruana was stuffed in a zippered vinyl project bag, I thought I only had a few squares left to knit….maybe 15.  I remember thinking I was so close to the end.  And that’s why I always thought I’d pick it up again right after whatever current project was on my needles.  I could be wearing it in just a matter of days…

Yesterday I counted how many squares I have left to knit…. 86!  How could that be? Even on the chart it looks like I’m approaching the end!  So I decided to count how many squares I’d already finished.  I couldn’t believe I’d knitted 231 squares back in the fall and winter of 2002/2003.  That’s a LOT of little mitred squares!

I remember one of my knitting friends warning me that this project involved a LOT of knitting.  Naturally, I took no heed and can barely remember the warning much less who warned me.  I was happily knitting.  Now that I’m back to it, I am slowly remembering lots of other things too.

This was the fall that my older son went away to college.  I missed him terribly, but there was a wonderful silver lining that I had not anticipated.  My younger son and I suddenly had some uninterrupted time together.  It was the year that he toured colleges, took his SATs, wrote his applications.  We went on college visits together, and I brought along my knitting….this very project.  It had not grown to the dimensions it is now which make it somewhat cumbersome for traveling.  We visited schools in Pennsylvania, New York, and New England.  We had that unexpected time to become closer.

It was the last few months before he got his driver’s license so I was still his main companion in the car, and I was the one who accompanied him when he drove places with his learner’s permit, such as the physical therapist I mentioned earlier.

It seems to me that everyone takes notice of the wonderful time you have with your firstborn, before there are siblings who require you to divide your attentions. Surely it’s a mother’s point of view to romanticize this special time with a firstborn that no other child gets.  But I think the time I had alone with my younger 16 year old was equally precious….because he was aware of it too.  We both enjoyed getting to know each other more deeply, and he had my complete attention while he navigated the rite of passage out into the world and determined who he wanted to become.  It was a significant time of life for both of us, and I was moved to have time with Chris during this stage.

And all through that period I was knitting the ‘Zig Zag.’  Chris graduated from high school over 10 years ago.  He finished his undergraduate work in math and physics and is now in his 5^th year of a doctoral program in physics.  He has become the person he planned to be.  He is almost finished writing his dissertation and will probably be out of academia in a few more weeks.  There is a lot of life that has happened while this ruana lay in its project bag, buried in my studio in New Jersey, and then my new studio in Connecticut.

Such is the life of a knitting project….everything completes itself in its own time.

Once again, it’s the sailor’s life for me…..sailing down the Chesapeake, watching the season gently change to fall down here, getting back to knitting.

We spent a week getting to Hampton and Norfolk, Virginia, where we’ve been stalled for almost a week.  There is a lot to do here.  In Norfolk we visited the Nauticus Museum which includes the battleship Wisconsin which served in the Pacific in WWII as well as in the Korean War, Viet Nam and Desert Storm.  Long history.  Across the harbor from Norfolk is Portsmouth, and one night we went to see the movie “Captain Phillips” at a lovely restored theatre there.  I doubt there are many places more perfect for seeing this movie, with the harbor full of the same commercial and military ships that participated in those terrifying events.

I have found it rather depressing to see so much real estate and equipment devoted to war, but the alternative is equally depressing….  There is also a memorial to General MacArthur in Norfolk which we visited.

We have had a quick trip home to Connecticut to say goodbye to our favorite Uncle Dick, who has passed away after a long illness.  He spent much of the past two years in a hospital, which is tragic for anyone, but especially so for someone who was so full of spunk and life.  His funeral was probably the most upbeat funeral I will ever attend.  We celebrated his quirky sense of humor and remembered all the practical jokes he participated in during his 60-year marriage and the rearing of their five children. It was great to see all the cousins and their expanding families.  That is certainly the upside of losing someone….pulling in the long tethers of family and friends who are dispersed for so much of the time.

I spend some of each day knitting.  My sister and I are knitting sweaters for her two daughters.  They are matching sweaters, but each in its own colorway of Adriafil Knitcol yarn, so they look quite different!  It’s wonderful to be knitting with my sister again, even though it’s somewhat vicarious, through texts and phone calls, since we are not physically with each other.  The sweaters are Polly Macc’s Brother/Sister design, and they are turning out really cute! The short sequence, space dyed yarns are so much cuter than what was used for the cover of the pattern booklet!

 We each have enough yarn left over to make matching hats, and I’m thinking hard about a design that will have ear flaps and long ties, maybe pom poms on the ends of the ties….maybe with I-cord as a border… on the days when I have internet access I am enjoying searching for idea inspiration on Ravelry.

It’s raining this morning, so we are just sitting here having coffee, enjoying the internet.  Probably this afternoon we will venture back past Norfolk to enter the IntraCoastal Waterway for the final leg of the journey to Beaufort.  We should be there in about a week.  Then I’ll head home….