It's a wrap!

This as been a ridiculously busy week so far.

Busy, but for the most part, it was a nice sort of busy, in between Dan being sick (sinus infection), the SuperCat being sick (she's much better now), and coming down with a sinus infection myself (I'm getting there slowly myself).

Last Sunday I joined my knitting group at a local tea shop for tea and knitting. I actually belong to two different groups. Both are full of wonderfully talented, funny, smart women.

After tea and knitting, one of my friends (she's the one who organizes the group) and I went to Jo-Anns to look at yarn.

Quilters, seamstresses and needle workers tend to collect the tools of their crafts - fabric and yarn, mainly. I do all three, and have a ridiculous amount of both.

There is probably enough yarn in my stash to knit for at least a year and never buy a single new skein. I probably have enough fabric to make quilts for all of the beds, too. Still, it's so much fun to go look at yarn and fabric, and chat with a friend.

I brought the fuzzy wrap I've been working on for the last couple of months, knitting and talking, drinking tea. and. It's made with a super bulky yarn in seemingly strange colors, which I found at Hobby Lobby. When I first saw it, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not at first, but I knew who would; silky wisps of riotous orange and turquoise, with shades of green twine around a fat butter yellow core. It was normally almost $10.00 a skein, but was on clearance for a few dollars.

Yarn Bee Soft Illusion Serenade

The wrap didn't have a pattern, really. I cast on 30 stitches with size 15 needles, knit through three skeins of yarn, then bound off using the knit method. And with that, it was done, completed.

Normally, I bind off using the crochet method. Someone at tea asked about binding off, and I said that I use a crochet needle. This is how I've always done it: Knit Tutorial - Crochet Hook Bind Off (^)

Crochet bind off has always seemed easiest to me; it's how I was taught. When I got close to finishing the wrap, I decided to use the knit method, and it was equally simple. I'm not sure which I like better now or why I I was so attached to the way I was taught or why it even matters. Such a small thing, yet interesting - why do we get so attached to the familiar, even the smallest things?

As I mentioned, I finally finished the wrap, and am happy with how it turned out.

The end result is around 18 inches wide and five and a half feet long or so. By the time I was done with it, I had really come to like the colors and textures a lot. So soft and cuddly, the colors vivid and bright. It reminds me of walking home from school as a child in the fall before the grass turns brown, with leaves swirling around. Warm and brisk at the same time. It reminded me of other things, too...

It's going to my oldest daughter. The yarn reminded me of her the first time I saw it & I hope she likes it.

She turned 21 this week; she's an adult now, done with her childhood. I was happy and sad in turns, every time I thought of her this week. In my mind, part of her will always be that darling toddler, wearing black patent shoes, taking her first steps on a sunny late autumn porch in South Carolina, on the sort of day that reminds me of the yarn in her wrap - warm and cool, sunny and crisp.

Part of her will always be that fiercely independent little girl, a blur one moment, soft and calm the next.

And part of her will always be the stunningly beautiful, talented, intelligent, well-reasoned, accomplished adult she is today. I could not be prouder of her. I love her for all that she is, all that she's been, and all that she'll become.

the completed wrap

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart.

Namaste
=^..^=