This One is About Knitting!

My Carla showed me her first completed knitting project yesterday. It was a striped hat for her son, Lucas. I had coached her through the Mattress Stitch on Tuesday, and she brought it over to show me the fabulous end result. (I know this post is useless without pictures, but I seem to have misplaced my camera. And rechargeable batteries. And USB cord. And I'm quite sure they are all three in different locations.)

When I first learned that my Carla was moving back, I immediately began devising ways to lure her to the darkside, AKA create in her an obsession with knitting to match my own. Having just given birth to her first child, the timing was ideal. I started buying books of baby patterns.

Now the obvious plan would be to start by knitting an impressive baby gift for the little guy, but I am Attention Deficit Knitter. I don't do gift knitting. Gift knitting unavoidably imposes a deadline. You do, at some point, have to finish the thing. Babies outgrow things faster than I can stay focused on a single project, and baby blankets are not so appreciated by the average school aged child.

I wanted to be a gift knitter. I had high hopes last Christmas. I was a relatively new knitter then and I did not understand my limitations. My dad is still waiting for the back and sleeves to the sweater I knit him. My mom would just like for me to bind off her shawl so she doesn't have to wear it with circular needles still attached. Although they could make an interesting fastener, if she looped them through the lace just right. Hmmm.....I bet I could live without that set of circs. It's not like I've used them since last December.

But I digress (don't I always?) Back to my Carla. I resisted begging her to let me teach her to knit, for fear of frightening her away. She actually expressed an interest first after I gushed about what I had been doing. I was still working when she arrived here last Thanksgiving, and between that and the run up to The Break, I neglected her along with everything else important to me. I was able to carve out some time to teach her the basics of knitting sometime in May. In July and August we had more productive instruction time as she provided me with the therapy I so desperately needed, but it has been hit and miss until this week.

In addition to hat admiring, she and I spent the bulk of the day together yesterday, grocery shopping, knitting, talking, entertaining the boy child. My Carla has an issue that is weighing on her right now, and I am so grateful that I am well enough to be the friend to her that she has always been to me. While talking through her worries yesterday, she said to me, "I just want to go buy yarn." I must say, she is my favorite of all knitting projects.