Knitting Friday

Coming right after Thanksgiving in the U.S., I don’t have much for Knitting Friday.

Not that I haven’t been knitting. Right now, I'm finishing an unscoured, undyed, natural oil-filled garter stitch shawl with a make-as-you-go picot edging (beg. of each row: CO 2, BO 2.)

There’s a story behind this shawl. It started life as a tightly knitted flat pattern stitch shawl until I looked at it and said: “Wait a minute, there are darker spots in the shawl.” That’s when I read the yarn label.

I should have known better. You either dye undyed yarn or you cut out the offending blotches (which I have done; no fun is that.)

That’s when I decided a garter stitch would be more forgiving, and it is. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this shawl since I only have 2 full skeins but the feel of the yarn is so soft that I don’t want to ban it to the frog pond.

I guess the above is all about knitting even coming after Thanksgiving. Why, you may ask does Thanksgiving have anything to do with Knitting Friday? Only because while it’s a good idea for a holiday (appreciating what you have) it exemplifies the sanitized history we have created for it (breaking bread with the Native Americans.)

We committed genocide on the Native Americans. That is the holocaust which should be taught in American schools. But Thanksgiving is our ultimate happy Hollywood ending.

On other knitting note: the leftover yarn shawl pattern from a few Fridays ago (which is still a work in progress) should be done on smaller-sized needles (US 8 to US 10.5.) This minimizes the stretch on the bias end. You can almost eliminate that stretch with a crab stitch border. Also, make sure you read the K1, M1 row this way at width: Kfb, *K1, M1* K2tog,making sure you M1 before the K2tog.

And, on a final knitting note: I was asked by the 10-year old whom I taught to crochet a blanket for her dinosaur yesterday to be sure and mention this in my blog. We were all very proud of her and, at last, the dinosaur will be warm.

The debate is now: to shop or not to shop. There is a camadarie in being with so many people but also an absolute stupidity in buying more stuff. My husband, disciplined man that he is, suggests looking at the stores as museums: you look, you admire, you go home. What willpower!

If you are not at work, enjoy your day. No, wherever you are, enjoy.