Madtown Mama's Mama Knits, too!
Do you like the new template? I know it's just like my other blog, only green, but I prefer this template's archives and the the pictures are framed. I think some of the previous posts might look a little wonky, but I'm not going to go back and edit them.
Anyway.
So, my family was here last week for Thanksgiving and we had a grand old time eating and drinking and making merry. My mom always has a project with her wherever she goes. She quilts more than anything else. My little boy Daniel is the recipient of at least three beautiful quilts from his Oma, the latest featuring a sock monkey. I'd share pictures but the weather is craptastic today and the light's no good, so you'll have to wait.
My mom also knits; in fact, she taught me how to knit when I was about 8 or 9 years old. That's right. I've been knitting since way before it was cool. Because being cool was never as important to me as being able to make stuff. I'm happy that knitting is so popular now because it means there are many things available now that didn't used to be--things like patterns that don't look like something the cat dragged in from 1972, and yarn shops everywhere, even on the internets. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, though, there weren't nearly as many options out there, so I wasn't inspired to make very many things. Aside from the fashion disasters required of us in the first two years of 4-H knitting (oh my god, I was such a dork--at least I knew better than to wear that stuff), I made myself a red sweater vest that I never wore, and a dark red bulky sweater that wasn't in bad taste, but was way too warm to wear anywhere in Kentucky. I kept that sweater for a long time, but now I'm not sure what happened to it.
But this is about my mom's knitting, after all. She's made some spectacular sweaters, including that one from Vogue Knitting that's a map of the globe, a nightmare for anyone who doesn't do intarsia. Oddly enough, she likes intarsia, which brings me to her latest Work In Progress:
She's holding up the back of a sweater from Vogue Knitting Fall '05. Isn't it cool? She's using a different yarn than the pattern called for, so she had to adjust for gauge, but I think it's lovely.
That's me on the left, wrapped up in a big warm shawl she knit for me last Christmas. Well, 95% of it. The shawl-wrap thing wasn't quite finished when she gave it to me. That ruffled border? Very time-consuming, so after they left, it was my task to finish it. Not that I minded, not one bit! I was heavily pregnant and miserable with itchy skin (it felt like poison ivy with no rash) and unspeakably bad insomnia. At 2:00 in the morning, scratching my feet raw and unable to sleep, I would haul my whale-like self onto the futon and knit on that border. I finished it right before Daniel was born, and it was the perfect thing to wrap up in and snuggle a new baby in the dead of Wisconsin winter. Still is.
Anyway.
So, my family was here last week for Thanksgiving and we had a grand old time eating and drinking and making merry. My mom always has a project with her wherever she goes. She quilts more than anything else. My little boy Daniel is the recipient of at least three beautiful quilts from his Oma, the latest featuring a sock monkey. I'd share pictures but the weather is craptastic today and the light's no good, so you'll have to wait.
My mom also knits; in fact, she taught me how to knit when I was about 8 or 9 years old. That's right. I've been knitting since way before it was cool. Because being cool was never as important to me as being able to make stuff. I'm happy that knitting is so popular now because it means there are many things available now that didn't used to be--things like patterns that don't look like something the cat dragged in from 1972, and yarn shops everywhere, even on the internets. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, though, there weren't nearly as many options out there, so I wasn't inspired to make very many things. Aside from the fashion disasters required of us in the first two years of 4-H knitting (oh my god, I was such a dork--at least I knew better than to wear that stuff), I made myself a red sweater vest that I never wore, and a dark red bulky sweater that wasn't in bad taste, but was way too warm to wear anywhere in Kentucky. I kept that sweater for a long time, but now I'm not sure what happened to it.
But this is about my mom's knitting, after all. She's made some spectacular sweaters, including that one from Vogue Knitting that's a map of the globe, a nightmare for anyone who doesn't do intarsia. Oddly enough, she likes intarsia, which brings me to her latest Work In Progress:
She's holding up the back of a sweater from Vogue Knitting Fall '05. Isn't it cool? She's using a different yarn than the pattern called for, so she had to adjust for gauge, but I think it's lovely.
That's me on the left, wrapped up in a big warm shawl she knit for me last Christmas. Well, 95% of it. The shawl-wrap thing wasn't quite finished when she gave it to me. That ruffled border? Very time-consuming, so after they left, it was my task to finish it. Not that I minded, not one bit! I was heavily pregnant and miserable with itchy skin (it felt like poison ivy with no rash) and unspeakably bad insomnia. At 2:00 in the morning, scratching my feet raw and unable to sleep, I would haul my whale-like self onto the futon and knit on that border. I finished it right before Daniel was born, and it was the perfect thing to wrap up in and snuggle a new baby in the dead of Wisconsin winter. Still is.
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