sock fail in (really terrible) haiku

Such pretty green yarn

Too bad it wasn't enough

To make socks that fit.

The sock is too tight

I'll surely run out of yarn

I'll have to frog them

I like this pattern

But I made lots of mistakes

And just had to quit

So much for green socks

I'll make them for someone else

Plain ones for Daniel

his quilt

Note: this entry is cross-posted on Madtown Mama because I feel it's important enough to say twice.

Yesterday, our family was invited to a birthday party for a friend of Daniel's at a local park. It was a boisterous affair, with 8 or 9 kids - mostly boys and a few girls - plus a few parents, one set of grandparents, snacks, a Star Wars-themed cake and a water fight with foam squirt toys (since the high temperature yesterday hit about 90, that water fight was a good call!) It got pretty rowdy, especially during the water fight, with kids spraying each other and us parents standing in the shade a safe distance away.

At one point, someone commented that birthday parties for girls are typically much quieter and calmer, with invitees lining up politely to hand over gifts, unlike the mayhem we were witnessing before us. Don't I know it, agreed one particularly large and jolly woman, I've been a Cub Scout leader for many years. I know what groups of boys are like. They have all those merit badges, you know. Can you imagine a group of boys sitting down in a room to do arts and crafts? She guffawed loudly, and everyone in the group laughed and shook their heads knowingly, because no, of course they couldn't imagine it.

I said nothing, but the thought of these hypothetical Cub Scouts stayed with me all afternoon. I know that groups of boys tend to be rowdy, but what of it? Does that mean they would all automatically reject the idea of participating in something artistic? It seemed like a rather close-minded assumption, I thought. And by the way, it came as no surprise to me to learn after the party that this woman, this Cub Scout leader, was the mother of the singularly loudest, most obnoxious kid at the birthday party. (Seriously, there were a few times when someone just needed to tell him to shut the hell up.)

How many boys act wild and rowdy just to fit in, I wondered? How many Cub Scouts are out there longing to earn a merit badge for Arts and Crafts or what-have-you but are afraid to because they know they would be made fun of for doing it? How many Picassos and Rembrandts and Bernsteins has the world lost or overlooked because of this mindset that boys will be boys will be boys, which we all know means anything but the Arts and Crafts merit badge in Cub Scouts. 

We often discuss the consequences of our complex expectations for girls, but there's another side to this. We need to make it clear to boys that they need not be all snips and snails and puppy-dog tails, that moments of expression and creativity (both quiet and loud!) are just as acceptable as chasing each other with water squirters and yelling poop-face!, if not even more so.

This is not to say that loud and rambunctious birthday parties aren't a lot of fun. My kids had a great time at the party, eating cake and getting soaked with water on a hot day. (They were also ecstatic that the foam water pumps were party favors to take home, and spent a good part of today playing with them out in the yard.) But afterwards I made a point of talking to each of them, Daniel especially, about how proud I was that they both had fun and behaved themselves, not grabbing at the gifts and yelling inappropriately when we sat down for cake, and playing nicely with the water toys. It occurred to me that Daniel could very easily get the impression from occasions like this that boys are supposed to be wild and aggressive and totally dominant in every way, because there were a couple of boys at this party who were exactly like that and seemed to get all of the attention (and I'm not talking about the birthday kid here, by the way. He was plenty excited, but behaved just fine.)

I wonder what the Cub Scout mother would have thought about a boy making a quilt, a quilt like this one:

You can see how proud he is. Is this something to be ashamed of? Or something to be proud of?

I think you know my answer to that question.

Now, I suppose I shouldn't come down so hard on this person that I barely know. I'm sure her offhand comment was meant to be harmless, a mere observation of the goings-on and a remark on her own experience dealing with groups of boys.I have no idea what her talents are, what she does professionally or in her spare time (other than Cub Scouts, apparently). And for that matter, I have no idea what one has to do to earn a merit badge in Arts and Crafts for the Cub Scouts (though I'm too lazy to google it and I bet someone out there will blast me for this in comments); for all I know it's something totally lame like making a macramé belt that would have been out of style before even I was born...but then again, maybe not. Maybe it's something really cool like, I don't know, designing your very own quilt like my six-year-old son did, or learning how to knit your own wool hat (very handy in Wisconsin) or painting a mural at a community center. I really don't know, so feel free to enlighten me.

All my life I've been sensitive and resistant to expectations placed on me and others, especially based on gender. (Remember my stint as Paul Revere?) Perhaps we've made some progress since I was a kid, but it sure seems like we have a long way to go.

mothers' day knitting

After finishing that last sweater, I was feeling adrift, knitting-wise. I still have Gemini on the needles but I'm still a bit stymied by the question of how much negative ease I actually want it to have. And I started a pair of socks a couple weeks ago...

...but I might run out of yarn. What you see above is the first of a pair of Spring Forward socks (Knitty again! How about that?). With the gusset nearly finished, I've got 21 grams left of a 50 gram ball of yarn, and I'm nervous it won't be enough. The prudent thing would be to rip back and do fewer repeats of the pattern on the cuff, but I'm tempted to throw caution to the wind and keep going just in case it works out. Because I'm such a risk-taker you know.

Anyway, I found myself less than enthusiastic about my current projects, and feeling a little like just casting on another sweater for myself would be both a tad selfish (since I've made so many of late) and impractical (summer is nigh). Then three days ago my next-door neighbor told me she is on medical leave from her job as a teacher because she has breast cancer. That's the sort of news that hits you in the gut and sucks the air out of you and reminds you yet again that life is short and precious and that the most petty thing in the world you could possibly complain about is how your kids don't like vegetables and you might run out of yarn for the sock you're knitting. I wouldn't say we are close, but she is a friend, a wonderful neighbor and a kind person. So is her partner. She is also young, probably my age (I'm 33) or not much older.

Immediately, I knew what I had to knit next. I'm making her a blanket.

I'm using yarn I normally wouldn't go near (Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick 'n Quick, which is 80% acrylic and 20% wool), but I could afford enough for a whole lap blanket and it's washable (I'm not sure where she stands on the whole hand-wash-only issue) and the cream color seems right for her. The yarn's nicer than I expected it would be, to be honest. Not nasty and squeaky like many acrylics, and soft enough.

I think sometimes knitters make stuff for people when we don't know what else to do.  How do you one show support without interfering in someone's private life? How do you make yourself available to help without getting in the way? My SIL was successfully treated for Hodgkin's Lymphoma three years ago, so I have an inkling (just an inkling, mind you) of how much this sucks. I made her a blanket, too; the one I'm knitting now is based on the same improvised pattern, only the gauge is slightly different. I hope she likes it. I hope it brings her comfort. And I hope she takes me up on the offer to bring some food over once in a while, and help weed her garden.

Sometimes it's easier just being an anonymous knitter for the greater good. Afghans for Afghans has launched a new campaign for just hats, mittens and socks due sometime in July 2012. I've already made a hat and plan to knit some more things, probably socks, to contribute. Some days it just seems there's just too much suffering and not enough comfort to go around.

duck...duck...duck...goose!

Looks like I had nothing to worry about after all.

On Friday, I finished the collar on my Goose sweater (from whence the name of the pattern, I wonder??).

On Saturday, I soaked and blocked it.

Today, between rain storms I tried it on and had my husband take a few pictures.

(The new blogger format keeps going back and forth between centered and left aligned text. I don't know how to change it and it's kind of making me nuts.)

I love this sweater.

I was afraid it would bunch up and fit all weird like a potato sack or something, but it doesn't. It fits extraordinarily well.

Did I mention I love this sweater?

It's soft as all get-out, too. The yarn is RYC Wool Tweed, which I bought just a few months ago at an LYS. I had a gift card from my knitting friend and the yarn was half-price, so I just couldn't resist. Now that my sweater is done, I don't regret it for an instant. It's as comfy as a sweatshirt, and slightly more attractive!

Now, if it weren't all warm and muggy all of a sudden, I could get some wear out of it yet this spring!

My friend who used to be a fashion designer (before she became a music teacher) always compliments my hand-knits (and she is therefore a recipient of some of them!). The other day she was teasing me that I have all these nice sweaters, but I always just wear them with old jeans and plain shirts. I laughed because it's true. Sometimes I think I do have a decent fashion sense deep down, but I just don't care to put in the effort to show it to the world.

Besides, I like jeans. Fortunately, this sweater is the perfect thing to wear with jeans. Casual without being totally frumpy. I love it.

Pattern: Goose by Heidi Kirrmaier (pipibird on Ravelry)
Yarn: RYC Wool Tweed (aran weight), about 8.5 skeins. The color is dark maroon with lots of brightly colored tweed flecks (yellow, red, blue)
Mods: none intentional, but I think my gauge might have been slightly tighter than called for, so it's not as baggy as it would have been otherwise
Comments: Oh, what a fun pattern. The construction is intriguing, for starters. You work from the middle out with exposed seams down the front and back. Sleeve shaping takes place on top from the shoulders down instead of underneath, which is more usual. The neckline, as a I mentioned before, is pretty wide before you knit the collar, but once I had it all done, it worked out wonderfully. I'm looking forward to my next sweater by this designer for sure.

little knitter

This morning, my little daughter asked me to teach her to knit. Now, this isn't the first time. We've probably had about a half dozen mini knitting lessons in the last year or so. But I'll be gol-danged if she didn't start to figure it out this time. I cast on a few stitches for her, then taught her the knit stitch: "Go in the front door, put on your scarf, come back out the door, and step off the porch." No, it doesn't rhyme, but it seems to work. She can do it! She knit several stitches all by herself (with a few reminders about where to stick the needle, but c'mon, she's only 4).

She is so proud. And so am I.

duck...duck...duck...goose?

Here is a truly terrible snapshot of my nearly-finished Goose. Notice how it's all sleek-yet-comfy in the pictures from the pattern page? Mine is...not so much, though I think it's still hard to tell without the collar. For one thing, mine doesn't fit quite as loosely, especially in the sleeves. Also, there is no waist shaping in the design, so I'm afraid it's going to be all bunchy around the  middle, which I HATE.

I have a feeling the whole sweater will be different once the collar is done, though I'm not sure if it will improve things or not. See how wide that neckline is on me? It practically falls off the shoulders. The pattern calls for a  deep 1x1 ribbed collar, which should help pull it in. It might also make the sleeves ride up my arms, though, and I HATE it when sleeves ride up my arms.

I don't know about this one, folks. It might be a sweater for the loser pile. It would be a real shame, because I like the yarn (some kind of tweedy wool by RYC and it's nice and soft) and the construction is intriguing.

Maybe if I keep my expectations low, like this will probably look like a sack of old, sprouting potatoes, but at least it will be comfortable, then I won't be too disappointed when it comes out looking like crap.