that slippery granny slope

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I know. You just glanced at the photo and thought "whoa, whose blog am I on, anyway?"

It all started in April, I was with the Empress of Granny Square, Ellen Bloom,  in LA. You can't hang with Ellen without  a hook somehow finding its way into your hands, and a granny square springing forth.  At least I couldn't.

Last weekend, my friend Julie asked for a lesson. Since my granny square before the three in April was, like, in my teens, I thought I'd practice a little.

And one thing led to another. I'm thinking granny square scarf. These are 5 inches across.

Truth: I was also thinking afghan. But I realized 15 squares = a pretty decent scarf, 99= a decent afghan.....yeah. Scarf it is.

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Thanks for entering the caption contest, that was great, you need to go read the captions in comments on the last post- so clever and funny. And punny, too. (winners have been notified).

later in the week

I spent the last two nights in an oh-so-chic boutique hotel where NOTHING WORKED including the internet. It'd connect for spurts of 3 minutes once every ten hours, not very conducive to blog posting or sanity of any kind. I'm back in my not-so-chic home where at least I can get on the information highway, I bring you some knitting.

Sweater 5 in the dodecathalon , is moving along fuzzily in Sublime Kid Mohair (well named!). The color is Mouse (also well named). It's the Airy Cardigan. I know, you are looking at the fuzzy/fussy pink pattern and thinking, "really? why ??" . Don't judge! I saw a woman at a local yarn store wearing one she knit in a putty kind of non-color, with mismatched antique buttons. It was so wonderful and not femmy-fussy at all. I am planning sea glass buttons, and I am not doing the texture in the body of it, just plain stockinette.

A set of five single drilled seaglass pieces didn't sell in New Hampshire. I took all your advices and put them on the corners of the Gaia neck warmer, so when I wrap them around they hang in front on either side of the point. They're attached on short crocheted chains, I was going to trim the extra yarn ends from sewing them on but am leaving them as added tassels, hanging with the seaglass . Keep in mind this is all of 1 inch long, nothing too wild. It was just the right touch. Very happy these didn't sell!

In more Noro silver lining news, my 18 yo son, back home for a few months, had a ranting meltdown while I was driving him around looking for a job a couple of weeks ago, poor guy. Really, what are your parents for anyway? In a sign of hope for eventual maturity for all teenage sons, he apologized twice later that night and then, get this, actually went into a yarn store of his own volition the next day , and bought me this skein of Noro Silk Garden Chunky to let me know how truly contrite he was. I am thinking of using the Gaia pattern stitch, which is naturally corrugated and has a row of eyelets whenever you think the colors are changing, to knit a cowl with this. PS. after much searching he found what should be a good job for the duration, and even though he is almost always out, it is nice having him around again.
Wait there's more!

Before I left for 3 days, Meg McG did a drive by shooting (for real) with the Afghan for Afghans she sewed together. Is it not beautiful? Is it not odd that all the squares she received went together so well? In a world of random squares, there is my friend Mary Lou's square of Minnesota malabrigo, in my front yard.

And this one, I just love, is by Laura. Embroidery on Silk Garden. Another for the to-do list.

square, one

I put aside the sweater obsession knitting for a square, when the amazing MegMcG let me know she was organizing an Afghan for Afghans , in Noro Silk Garden. 10x10".

Because it was the only thing I could do for a friend in sad times this week, I went log cabin.
When I started practicing yoga, I was taken by the teacher saying to do asanas with the intention of [insert the full correct position: grabbing your toe, wrapping your arm fully around your back, whatever].

Love that, the idea that you can be successfully doing something, not because you have the perfect outcome, but because you are doing it with the outcome in mind, to the best of your ability and with full meaning. So useful an idea in this life. (Also useful in parenting teenagers. But that is another post.)

So I knit my square with intention. I didn't think it was any great shakes. Looked OK, love using my Noro yarn scraps, awfully glad for the final row of pickups and that last garter, (neither my favorite maneuvers). Off I swung by the Thursday nite shoreline SnB at a local coffeeshop.

Well. That's when I got it. We flopped down my pleasant-enough square with beautiful squares by three others . Right there, the power of a group knit, and its intent, just hit me. It's not about efficiency, or about collaborating for the sake of team effort. It's the handwork together, all that intention, embodied in different stitches in 10x10" squares.

Meg said she'd call me to shoot the whole thing together, she is somehow magically finding time to sew it up (she really is amazing- she has little teeny kids, a fulltime job, keeps up with the blogs & knits like nobody's bizness . And is always nice, too. ).

Wait'll you see it.