Knitting? What's that?

The weather must be changing here. My hands are numbed with sluggishness. They respond like a teenage boy in the first moments after the alarm goes off. Knitting was really slow last night, and after a row on the shawl I put it down. I knit another row very early this morning, and found again that 1 row is enough.

It occurred to me that some of this may be from the really really short circs I'm using. I might put them onto my new straights to finish. Crowded stitches, might be easier than the constant pull from a needle not long enough.

I've also considered that now that I am on the really long rows, shawls suck the life out of you, even when you really really want it. Maybe that is why blocking lace is so wonderful. After that last bit of slogging long rows, all of a sudden beauty sits beside you even when a shawl is simple.

I'm going to start work on another set of socks. I've a pair I'd like to do for my father-in-law, some warm and very washable ones, that it would be nice to have done before the holidays. I've several neutral man colours and I don't know what I'll use, but it will be something simple. I'm kind of looking forward to simple, idiot proof knitting. Knit knit knit and then a purl two knit-however-many-I-need-too ribbing all the way up the calves.

Since this would be an otherwise pictureless post, I'll show you this.

Lo, many many years ago, I was deep into cross stitch. Its not that I didn't crochet, and indeed I even did some very very rare knitting in those days (bad, worse than bad), but its just that we had a cross stitch store in the small town I lived in. I dearly love this form of embroidery. Even though it is all following someone else's design with not a lot of room for creativity, it fed the part of me that liked order. My kids were preschool and grade school at the time, and order was not something I had anywhere else in life. I love it still, I just can't do it for long. About an hour and my eyes can't take it even with a magnifier. The design is a Paula Vaughn, "the Upstairs Sewing Room" , published by Leisure Arts. It was part of a series of antique quilts and dresses designs based on her painting.

And full proof, that there are some crafts where you can get away not finishing them, and still hang them on your walls where it can continue to bug you the REST of your life, that this isn't finished. A second by the same artist, called "Reflections of the Past"

These were always on my to do list, though now the to do list knows better than to dream. I have an quilt top that these lovely designs were supposed to coordinate with and the dream of a wall of lovely feminine delicate cross stitch pieces were to set off.

Cameo of the Past, A Little Girls Fancy, Let's Pretend, Something Old, Something New, Sisters Three, In the Garret, Sunlight and Silhouettes, From this Day Forward, Make Believe. I have all of these designs, and I have the old 'Leisure Arts' magazines and 'For the Love of Cross Stitch' magazines with even more of these lovely things in them. They are all on my to do list. Only I know that it would take a lifetime of dedicated stitching 1 hour at a time, everyday for the rest of my life to fit it all in. I even have the linen for this series of pictures.

I'm not even going to worry about these until the quilt top is finished. And that is going to the 10 year pile this Christmas. (Have I told you about the 10 year rule? No. Ah, Blog fodder for another day!)

Knitting WIP's? Piece of cake.

All handwork WIP's? You. Do. Not.Want. To. Know.