Nashville Stitch N Bitch

if life was like garter stitch

If life was like garter stitch, the days would go smoothly, and you wouldn't have to give much thought to them. They would be compact and easy to manage. But, well, they would be long and symmetrical and without much variation too. Sure, there would be bumps, but we would make it sound cuter and call them "ridges." That's what life would be like if it were anything like garter stitch.

My 365 Stitches a Year perpetual calendar yesterday announced that it was March 1 with the grand fanfare of garter stitch. Why March 1? Why not January 1? It actually puzzled me all day yesterday. I mean, it only makes sense in a calendar that gives you all kinds of lace and bobbles throughout your year, that they would only start with the foundation of all knitting - the knit stitch - on January 1. Does it seem more like a spring-type stitch? Is January already too heavy a month to burden it with a bore like garter stitch too? I guess we'll never know because I won't ever bring myself to like, well, write anyone to find out or anything. And I don't mind the notion that the question pops into my mind a little more regularly than what you would call "normal". I also don't like the instructions to "Knit every row." The starkness of it kind of gives me the creeps. It feels pushy. I feel cornered and like I need to rebel and maybe purl a row, but then I'd be doing stockinette and that wouldn't be much of a rebellion.

A thing I have almost learned about myself this week is that I'm just not a lace person. I like lace, and I'm not against it at all, or against those who make it or wear it, and I try to do it fairly regularly myself. But I'm a TV knitter - specifically a movie knitter. One of those who has to wait until 9 until the kids go to bed before I can even think about really knitting because invariably someone will tangle themselves in my yarn and keep asking me questions until I can't keep up with where I am anymore. It's best to wait until after kid bedtime around here to touch anything that you actually feel like you might need to concentrate on.

But when the kids are down, out come the Netflix movies and the knitting - my favorite combo. But to pay attention to the movies, I can't be staring at a chart. After working on the same pattern in about 8 different kinds of yarn from wool to silk to soy for close to one year now and having ripped every single one of them out after about 8 inches because I just CANNOT keep track of it and watch Six Feet Under Season 4 disc 5 at the same time, I am thisclose to throwing it in. I still have small hope. I still buy tiny yarn and long for a lacy wrap, but I'm not sure it will be accomplished until we run into a hell of a lot more free time and I can stop hobby-combining.

xo

An added P.S.: Forgot to add, my friend Becky asks this to the worldwide knitting community: "I'm about to line a knit bag with fabric, do you have any experience with this? Should I seam the fabric before attaching it to the knit piece? Do I sew the fabric to the knit part with just thread? I'm making a messenger bag in a pattern that I am making up so it comes without instructions. I hate sewing by hand."

Anyone have any ideas?

Posted by Angela at March 2, 2006 03:36 PM