The Shawl is DONE!

Karen's Water Turtles Shawl
Started: December,2007
Finished: August, 2008
Blocked: August, 2009

What took me so long? I think I know. This was the last thing I knitted when I saw my father before he died. I spent 5 days in Florida last year at my parents' house. Just me. No kids. No husband. It was great. Dad and I hung out in the den watching The Deadliest Catch and other TV shows. I sat on the couch knitting away on the shawl. It was a great time spent with him. I finished it at the end of August and my Dad passed away on September 24, 2008. The shawl was stuffed into a basket on my dresser and I didn't have any interest in blocking it. Too much stuff happened this past year and it was the last thing I wanted to do - until this month. I was skimming Annie Modesitt's book "Confessions of a Knitting Heretic" and came to the part on blocking. I decided that I was going to block that sucker that day. I used tons of pins to make sure there wouldn't be any spaces left unblocked. After soaking it for a few minutes, I laid towels down on the bed and began the task of figuring out how I was going to start. About 20 minutes later, this giant pink circle appeared. I put the fan on high and left the room. The shawl was dry by the evening and I carefully unpinned it. It looked beautiful. I'm going to wear it tomorrow to my father's unveiling to "show" him I finished it completely. I know he would have been happy for me and probably would have made fun of my knitting like he use to do. All I can say is, "Yeah!"

Note to Alison: Thanks for the pattern. You are a great designer!

The Countdown Begins...

In ten days, my darling boys will be coming home from seven weeks of fun at camp. I missed them dearly this summer but I'm not ready for them to come home. I need more time. More time for what you may ask? I don't know. This has been my summer of being a complete vegetable. Hey, I had a very hard year from September to May. I was waiting patiently for the nervous breakdown to happen but it never did. I'll take it as a good sign that I am a stronger person than I thought I was. I will also attribute this to my friends and family who were there for me when I cried, complained or just whined and bitched. My knitting became my security blanket. It went with me wherever I went. Most of the time I just liked seeing the bag in the car on the passenger seat next to me. If I needed some calming down, all I had to do was take out my knitting.

I'm sorry to see the July and August pass by. I'm don't want to get into the "back-to-school" routine which I'll have to do the minute those boys step off the bus. Buying supplies, clothes, getting them haircuts, that damn TDap vaccine for Elijah, his orientation, dental appointments, etc. I got very lackadaisical about my overall well-being. I ate what was around and didn't really make the best choices all the time. All that seemed important to me was waking up in time to listen to the "10 at 10" on the radio (a great show on 107.1, The Peak) and then hanging out with the dog while he napped on my lap. I also felt compelled to knit everyday and before you knew it, it was evening. I didn't venture from the house. I was afraid that I would spend money that I didn't need to spend. We ate from our freezer because we didn't have to worry about the kids complaining about the "leftover" factor. Then at night, I would watch some TV and knit some more. It seems that knitting is the "thread" (no pun intended) that's holding me together. I was finally able to go to the Monday morning knit-out for those who don't work as well as our famous Thursday night knit-out. I started counting down how many Monday mornings I have (4 or 5 if I include Labor Day). My mother is coming up and it seemed like ages ago we talked about the dates. The countdown is in motion.

It's time for me to clean Ben's room and then knit on my February Lady Sweater sleeve. For that, I'm counting down the 13.25" I have to knit to get to the end. Roger, Houston. That's a go.