I know it doesn’t look like much, but this is what I’ve spent most of my knitting time on this weekend.

Right now, it’s true, it’s basically just a tube . . . but it’s going to grow into a sweater. Or a vest. Something, for sure, with short or no sleeves, because I don’t have enough yarn for long sleeves, which is fine, because I didn’t want them anyway.

I tossed in a skein of yarn so you can get an idea of the scale . . . another couple inches and I’ll be ready to break for the armscrye.

Really, except for some sock knitting at Starbucks yesterday, all my knitting time this weekend has gone to this. I think part of the fun is deciding where to put the stripes. I was going to do regular, measured stripes, but Mom and I both thought that random would be more fun. Not truly random, of course, because I have a disproportionate number of skeins, but still . . . you get the idea.

It’s coming out so pretty . . . it’s a shame I can”t quite get the colors to photograph accurately. But the fabric? With the Karabella Aurora 8 plus the springiness of the 5×2 rib . . . it’s just . . . great.

One of these nights I’ll pull out my thesaurus and remind myself of some other, better, lesser-used superlatives like “striking,” “keen,” “awesome,” “meritorious” or “smashing.” You know, something a little snazzier than “It’s so pretty!”. It’s not that I don’t have the vocabulary, or that I think you folks wouldn’t recognize a word such as “prodigious” or whatever, because clearly you are all wise and wonderful people, just . . . I don’t know, really. Is it a cultural thing where you just don’t show off, even something as simple as vocabularly and correct grammatical structure? Is it wanting to fit in, talk like everyone else who’s not an English professor? Or just that these simple words like “good,” and “pretty” are just that? Simple. Straight-forward. Solid, Anglo-Saxon, strong words . . . not fancy like the Latin-based ones?

Although the case could be argued that “pretty” and “nice” have been so overused that any strength they originally had has been diluted, leaving them insipid, weak shadows of their former selves . . . but really? Isn’t that a sad thing to think about any word? Can’t you just picture them, sitting in their recliners, their canes and walkers nearby, reminiscing about the days when they WERE the words to use? The strong, active, cut-to-the-chase words that everyone wanted to voice? “I wasn’t always just ‘Nice,’ you know, I used to mean all sorts of things! Wanton. Coy. Punctilious. Well-bred. Now I’m just a worn-out old catch-phrase.” When, no doubt, the word “Gay” says, “You think you’ve got problems? I used to mean happy and merry, and now I’m a political land-mine. Woo hoo. Hurray for me. I remember when I was just a nice word . . . oh, sorry, buddy,” as the word “Nice” winces, “I didn’t mean you.” All while “Like” is sitting in the corner, twitching . . .

Well, anyway (two other words that probably have some issues to work out), it’s been a pretty quiet weekend. Lots of reading. Lots of knitting. We got out for walks each day (Chappy was thrilled). I baked a banana cake this morning and still can’t find a vanilla frosting recipe that tastes like anything other than pure sugar. I made pot roast for dinner, did some really light cleaning (okay, almost none). Sat out on the deck where I got two new mosquito bites to go with the three from last week (which have finally stopped itching, so clearly it’s time for some new ones). (Don’t get me started on mosquitoes. I hate them.) Trimmed some fur on the bottom of Chappy’s feet so he’ll hopefully stop sliding so much on the floors. Did NOT get around to setting up the new wireless router. Did NOT get a chance to take apart my Woolee Winder and clean it (hence, it’s still sitting, unused). But all in all, a good weekend.

Really, it was quite nice.

Tags: Baking, General, Knitting/Spinning // 11 Comments »