We love yarn

When I was a girl my mom taught me how to do all kinds of interesting things.  Like how to clean greenware and use a kiln and glaze things (not cinnamon rolls, ceramics) and how to paint on fabric and to crossstitch with pretty colored yarns.  I remember she also taught me how to finger knit once.  I think she mostly wanted to keep me quiet and busy and quiet.  I was always singing.  And I'm pretty sure it's truthful to say that it wasn't like nice little girl singing that is so sweet and just a pleasure to be around.  I'm pretty sure, since my Cricket is the same as I was (so my mother says), that it was the kind of singing that was loud and excited and never-ending.  Do you know that kind? Yeah.  I remember her saying things like, "please stop singing. did you hear me? stop singing." um okay mom. then a little bit of silence, then more singing.  I just would forget.  It's true.  To this day she does not believe me, but I really just would forget and Cricket forgets too.  And I when I ask him to stop singing, (which I try to remember to do only once in awhile...like when I'm nursing a sleepy baby, reading a story to Owl, and checking Badger's math problems all at the same time....)  I feel really connected to my mom (and to myself) and I love my little boy all the more for being his loud, crazy self.

Aah, I wandered a bit just there....

Well, I'm not sure if the finger knitting kept me quiet, but I do remember really liking it. :)  I loved the feel of the yarn.  I loved that something "straight" could make something three dimensional just by the way you twisted and looped it around.  Fun times.

It wasn't until much later that I wanted to learn to knit.  I think I was in my late teens.  I asked my mom to show me.  Afterall, she really does know how to do everything. :)  She showed me and I struggled to get it.  It wasn't easy to learn from seeing someone else do it.  And I admit, that although I firmly believe my mom is the coolest mom on the planet in most respects...it is a little hard to learn how to knit from a lefty.  So I made a few scarves, struggling all the while, and then put it away for awhile.

Then I got pregnant with Badger and I just had to knit some baby socks.  A teacher that I worked with had made some for a friend and showed them to me and I couldn't believe how cute they were. Eek! Get me some yarn! I gotta make me some of those!  And so I figured out how to turn a heel from a book and the rest is history.  Actually, just for the record, learning how to knit from a book was at first so complicated that once I figured it out I felt like I could read anything and know it.  I may just read a book about auto mechanics next.

Here are two knitting projects that we finished lately.  

These are mittens I made for J.  They took me...well... a long time to finish.  But they were fun to make and J said they keep his fingers toasty warm. :)

These are the first project I've made that have two color stranding (or whatever it's called)  See how the inside has the yarn traveling around with the pattern so that it looks almost reversible?

Here is a project that Badger made!  I am so pleased that he is knitting.  Like for real, knitting.  I tried showing him how a year or so ago and he didn't take to it right away.  This time he watched me do a few stitches and then just took off with it.  :)  He made this ipod case for papa for Christmas.  It took him only two weeks, working on it only during quiet time, and when he finished it he said, "I thought I'd never finish it!"  He loved picking out just the right button from the button jar for it and sewing it on himself. :)