See the holes in the knees? I'm so proud. (They're 12 month size. If I had quit squeezing her into them after they were too short, they wouldn't have worn out, but screw it, we finally have worn out clothing.)
Of course, the reason the knees are worn out is because the little shit still won't walk:
We call it 'knee walking' and obviously it's not worth a whole lot outside the house, so she still gets carried or put in a stroller everywhere. She's got a little rocker in the living room, and the other day I noticed she would sit in the rocker, then STAND UP, balanced perfectly, and do a little booty shake, and then sit down again. Like a game. BUT SHE STILL WON'T WALK. She crawls over to the kitchen counter or the dining room table or my desk, stands up, gets up on her TIP TOES to drag stuff off, but she still won't walk. Argh.
Oh, and an opinion poll. (I keep asking questions and demanding answers... this isn't a deliberate attempt to get comments out of you guys, honest. Though it's not breaking my heart or anything.)
Do the projects you knit wind up kind of intertwined with whatever events were going on in your life, when you knit it? "Oh, that's the sweater I was working on when ---" ? Because I've realized one of the reasons I'm so indifferent to the blue and black Ganser when I should be thrilled is, I started it the last months in Hawaii, worked on it as we were moving around between houses, literally was knitting on it on our last flight out of the islands... It's all tangled up with all that and so I look at it and kind of go "feh". Anybody else have that kind of thing going on?
And if you do get that kind of thing going on, here's the million dollar question: how do I get rid of it? Because I don't want to be indifferent to a sweater I've spent, geez, like a hundred hours knitting.
At any rate, I did about five rounds of the sleeve last night while watching a movie, and today want to finish the moebius bowl and felt it and another pot I knit last week. I'm going to have to cut back on my knitting for a couple days because my hand is bothering me. Damned hand.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Hey, lookit.
The Baby finally wore out an article of clothing!
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17 comments:
I don't knit a heck of a lot (yet) so I haven't experienced the feeling you are having with relation to knitting. But being a Psychology major I may have some insight into how to fix the problem - which won't always be a problem you want to fix. Your experiences with the sweater are mentally linked to the situation you were in. To change this, some would say that you need to condition yourself. You need to associate the sweater with different experiences and memories. I'm refering to a cognitive behavioural therapy sort of thing. Now all my knowledge is limited to theoretical but my suggestion is, and please, other readers let me know if this works, to knit the sweater while watching your favorite TV shows, on picnics, and other enjoyable events. Or you could think about the happy/enjoyable things that went on during the knitting of the sweater already. I find it hard to believe that the move was completely unenjoyable, it could have been though. Think of the happy results of the move. That sort of thing. It is all a thought process. That doesn't make it any easier to get rid of.
I mentioned earlier that you may not always want to get rid of the linkage, sometimes the link is positive. Such as if you knit during a pleasant vacation, that piece of knitting may remind you of the vacation even several years down the road. It may remind you better than pictures. I hope this extensive comment helps at least explain the phenomenon a bit. And remember, you did almost beg for comments...
Nope, no problem at all with a long comment. :)
Interestingly, I had a similar thought, that I should finish the sweater and then wear it some places that would make me happy - family Christmas, vacations, that kind of thing.
And yes, I've had positive links like this to sweaters before, and negative ones too, but usually I give the negative ones away so I don't care so much.
Thanks for the food for thought!
I have a pair of socks (actually a sock and a half) that I was working on last year when my mother passed away. It saved my life to have some mindless knitting to work on at the hospital and throughout the making of arrangements and having to socialize with relatives I hadn't seen in years and didn't really feel like being pleasant towards. Now, however, I can hardly stand to look at them and haven't pulled them out of the knitting basket in months. I was recently thinking what a shame it is that I have this perfectly good almost-pair of socks just sitting there. I think I may dig them out soon, finish them, and give them to my sister. They won't have a negative connotation for her, and it will probably be good for me to finish them and get them out of here. Closure, or whatever.
Anyway, I've been thinking of de-lurking to say hi and let you know that I enjoy reading your blog.
Thanks!
I've got a doily I knit while my mother was dying of cancer, and weirdly, it doesn't have any negative 'vibes'. Maybe because I felt like I really did all I could in that case.
Plus using my hands to knit the doily kept me from wrapping them around my relatives' necks. ;)
Go Baby!!! God I love that little shrug style top she's wearing!
I know it's frustrating but everyone says it's true - they do things when they're ready. My 2.5 year old nephew still talks like a baby - literally, just goo-goo baby talk, no matter how much his parents talk to him like a grown up. He just won't do it.
One day The Baby will just go, hand on, what are these things on the end of my feet for....oh I get it!
As for the poll question: love it.
Over Christmas I finished a smallish item that was intended as a gift. I'd started it in September. By October my life was complete shit for various reasons and I kept plugging away at it but then put it down.
The next two months I couldn't even look at it. I knew exactly what was going on at the time I'd been working on it heavily and felt sick.
So I took it to Queensland with me, knowing it would be a good time to do odd jobs like finish a few things off. In a new location, feeling relaxed and happy, it seemed like a different project and it was finished in a couple of hours.
Not sure how you can apply that to the ganser though.
Would it be enough to just do it for the readers who WANT to see it????
god I should edit.
I meant 'end of legs', not 'end of feet'
LOL!
"Do the projects you knit wind up kind of intertwined with whatever events were going on in your life, when you knit it?"
Sure, and it's not just knitting: I have a couple of tatted bookmarks or medallions that I can look at and think, "I tatted this in the airport on the way to Amsterdam," or "... in the Amtrak train on the way to Chicago." And I can look at weaving I did 30 years ago and remember the people who took the workshop with me, the weather, doing the tie-up under the loom, & so on.
(I completely "get" those South American things that are encoded into knots!)
Fortunately, I don't usually have "feh" memories knitted or tatted into things.
I did Goodwill away a shirt I was wearing when we found our little dog dead. It's been years and that was still the first thing I thought of when I looked at that shirt.
I've actually thrown away items that I knit during unhappy times. I never wore them due to the association. On the other hand, I have a couple of "adversity knitting" pieces that I love because they remind me how far I have come.
Maybe you can auction the sweater off and give the proceeds to a charity that you support. I've seen people doing that lately and they've brought in a good amount to give to some pretty worth causes.
About the baby, don't worry she will walk.
About the knitted memories. Yes, I was going to suggest that you knit the sleeve somewhere else/thinking of other things but Catie got there first and said it much more thoroughly than I could!
What timing for a question to ask your audience.
My hubby and I just got in one of those emotionally charged, all frustrations out fights and Im drained and depressed. I know doing something would help me get out my funk but damn it! I DO NOT want to work on my knitting or sewing cause I know I will work my emotions into the work and that will be the end of any desire to work or look at it again.
So I sit here frustrated and stewing
Thank goodness for blogs like yours and A dress a day.
Any other blogs you recommend to take my mind off things?
PS the weather is too bad to take a walk.
Things I do when I wanna kill the husbeast:
-read a really engrossing book that really rivets me
-go for a drive, bad weather is good for that, it's distracting
-uh, fume in my office playing computer games
As for blogs, you could try the Yarn Harlot (there's a reason the whole world reads her - she's hilarious) or MasonDixon Knitting, both should pop right up on google searches. Their archives are fun reading.
I keep meaning to put a list of blogs I read in the sidebar... maybe I should get on that little project.
I currently read yarn harlot (the first that I ever read), mason dixon (boy are they funny), wendy knits and this one. I'm gravitating more and more to this one because it is smaller. Even if I read the other blogs right away, there are 30+ posts (minimum) already. I like the close knit feel of this blog. It feels like what I imagine a knitting circle would feel like. I definately comment the most on this blog
When I was in graduate school, I would take notes on notecards and then take long walks while studying the cards. When taking the exams, I could not only remember what was on the cards, but where I was at in my walk when I studied that card. I asked a learning specialist about that, and her response was that whenever we are physically doing something (walking), we are able to better learn/observe things. (Or something like that, I was in grad school about 5 years ago or so). I would imagine that knitting or any other handwork would apply as well.
I have enjoyed reading you blog, Julie. Yours is the first I discovered (can't remember how), and have fully enjoyed the Baby growing up. I remember those days well.
Aven
Not walking, no problem it's when they skip crawling that you have to worry. As far as the knitting/emotions thing, you have to make an effort to dispel the bad knit vibes by knitting in some good. I find this works best if I pull out the knit in question while with a good friend and talk through the why this knit makes me feel bad. Friends fix everything. Why not post a picture of the sweater and asks your readers to help you face the baggage. The writing about it works as well or better.
I don't mind answering questions (it makes me feel less bad about commenting on EVERYTHING!) so poll away... and about knitting...
So far, the knitting (or crocheting) is the ultimate goal for me...no matter how things get, what I'm working on is my joy, so I only have joy when I see it...
However, (and this is NOT a plug for my books, I swear to heaven it's not!) I actually wrote about this with my main character...(I guess I was thinking about it...wondering if my own angst about going back to work would somehow sully the things I was making for the baby)anyway, my character threatens to rip out something she'd been working on because she's afraid her anxiety has 'infected' the work...the people who love her most tell her that even if this thing we make carries our 'touch magic', whatever it takes from the times we're upset or stressed is still a part of what makes us human.
I don't know if that helps or not...(it was probably hellifically confusing!!!!!!!) but maybe if you can finish up the sweater, you won't have all those loose ends from that time nagging at you in wool.
oh yes. Heaven forbid this blog's community ever gets too big. I almost never comment on the well populated blogs, but I do trawl them for other blogs to read. I've developed quite a reading list that way.
I don't even remember how I found your blog though, Julie. It seems like an eternity ago now. I think it was in my very earliest weeks of reading knitting blogs though and it was one I bookmarked right away.
Do you feel loved, all these nice people loving your words and pictures?
Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. :)
I'm making a legitimate post on the topic of community, but thanks to everyone for the kind words and the food for thought.
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