Precious little knitting content, though, mainly because I have sworn to get our bedroom and closet in order and clean for the first time in countless months. I worked until my back hurt and I wanted to sit down, and then made myself a caffeine-free non-fat chocolate-something latte. While the latte brewed I continued to work with the promise to myself that I could sit down once it was ready. Ta-da! Here I am, latte-ed and sitting.
The dream:
Yesterday my husband regaled me with an account of a dream he had just had. In it he and I were walking through the living room of our old house, and a couple of funny-looking things were flying about. Each one looked like a stick about 8” long and ½” in diameter. From two holes on top emerged dragonfly wings that enabled them to zoom, hover, dart, and generally do all the maneuvers associated with dragonflies. Smokey asked my dad about them (my dad was an outdoors guy; he died in 1983), and Dad told him that, if he held them close to the carpet, they would put out their little frog-like, clutchy feet and try to grab the carpet. He did and they did. So far, so good, although a bit strange, as is the wont of dreams. The weird part was when Smokey noticed that one of the frog-legged, flying dragonfly sticks had something else emerging from the top: a clear dome, under which was a perfectly-scaled replica of the flight deck of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek (he didn’t say which ST), complete with tiny figures walking around. In other words, one of the frog-legged, flying dragonfly sticks wasn’t a real frog-legged, flying dragonfly stick – it was a droid version of same. My sweetie is imaginative even in (especially in?) his dreams.
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There are currently two things on the needles here at Chez Kat: a scarf for #2 son and the dog sweater for Lucy, aka the Lucy Cozy.
The Scarf:
The scarf was *designed* by Matthew himself; his current fashion passion is black and white. The really cool thing about the scarf, though, is the second ball of yarn, the one on the right in the photo. It is, get this, glow-in-the-dark yarn! I am double-stranding it with the worsted weight white (say that 3 times fast!) Plymouth Encore on US #8s and knitting one strand of the black Encore on US #9s. If I knit the whole thing on the same size needles the shape of the scarf would go in on the black stripes and bulge on the white. Of course, this makes the white stripes denser than the black, but he has told me he prefers that to the in-and-out shape. His scarf, his call.
I'm keeping the finished portion of the scarf encased in a zip-lock bag to keep the dog and cat hair off it. The ball of black yarn likewise; its bag has one corner snipped off so the working yarn can emerge. Once I turn the finished scarf over to Matthew it is his problem to keep the black lint- and fur-free, not an easy task in this animal-filled household that lacks a dedicated and meticulous housekeeper.
Last winter he and I spent hours on the Internet searching for some kind of glow-in-the-dark yarn to no avail. The best we could do was a filament roughly the size of fishing line that could be knitted along with regular yarn. We were not impressed and gave up the search.
Fast forward to late August, when our family visited BIL and SIL in Manteno, IL, south of Chicago near Kankakee. One day we had to go to one of the northern suburbs for a family obligation. At the time I was busily knitting on the scarf for Ms. R because I needed to finish it by that Saturday in order to send it back to NYC with #1 son. Alas, the cable and needle of the KnitPicks Options circular I was using decided to part company while we were there, so when we traveled to the north side I whined begged pleaded demanded asked that we stop at a nearby knitting shop that carried Inox circulars; I thought I remembered that they were pointier than others, and so would work well for my pattern. The helpful clerk found me the needle I needed, and when I said I also wanted to browse their yarns, she looked me straight in the eye and said, “We have glow-in-the-dark yarn.” Huh? Neither my son nor any other member of the family had made in into the shop yet, so how did she know that this graying, middle-aged woman knitting a lacy scarf of pale green KSH was in the market for g-i-t-d yarn? You tell me.
The Lucy Cozy:
I ran out of yarn so the project had to wait until I could drive the 50+ miles to the nearest Mal-Wart that had the blaze orange Red Heart I was using.
Nothing but the best for our Lucy! I hope to finish it this weekend so she can start wearing it whenever she goes outside. More about that in another post. It’s time to get back to cleaning the bedroom.
