In Memoriam

I've been thinking about this post for a couple weeks, since my knitting friend, Jan, died. Her death was unexpected, leaving our group stunned and saddened. Jan was kind and generous, with a quietly sardonic wit. She was devoted to her family, especially her niece. What I didn't know, at least until after she died, is that she was comparatively new to knitting. One of things I'll remember most about her was her willingness to untangle other people's yarn. She spent weeks undoing a pile of yarn barf that anyone else probably would have written off. She will be missed.

The day after we all found out about her passing was our usual Thursday night group get together. Jan's sisters sent over her yarn stash, insisting that Jan's friends have some of her yarn. As we were going through it, many of us noticed that there was a lot of Cascade 220 in there, and so we decided that we would make squares for a blanket to give to the niece that Jan loved so much. For myself, I took a skein of Kentucky Blue Fiber Co. Alpaca 2 ply sport weight. I imagine Jan might have chosen it for its rich color, thinking it would become a really luxurious little accessory.

With that in mind, I searched the Ravelry pattern database for projects that called for 200 yards of sport weight yarn. As soon as I saw the pattern for the Elis cowl, I knew it was just the right thing to make from Jan's yarn. It was a super quick knit: it took me about 2 evenings to finish the knitting and I was able to block it the next day. I love it. It has a soft, elegant drape that makes me wish I had something better than a bunch of printed t-shirts to wear with it.

It still feels strange thinking of Jan in the past tense, like she only missed a couple of knit nights, but she'll be at the next one, knowing that she won't, really. But we all feel that way when someone we care about dies.

Until next time, Friends.

This week on the needles:

It can't be any surprise that I'm working on a pair of socks now that the Christmas knitting is finished. When my mother was here for Thanksgiving, she asked if I would make another pair of socks for her. She couldn't have had any idea how under-the-gun I was feeling about finishing the gifts on time, but how in the world could I say no to my mother? I couldn't, so the two of us went through my sock yarn stash looking for superwash yarns that suited her taste. We eventually narrowed the choices down to two, but that was where she got stuck. She couldn't decide between a skein of Miss Babs Windsor (sadly, discontinued) in Light Clematis and the two skeins of A Verb for Keeping Warm superwash sock in color No. 9. Her solution? Would I make two pairs of socks? One for her and one for her sister?

So I've gotten started on CookieA's Elm sock, from The Knitter's Book of Socks by Clara Parkes. The nice thing about the pattern is that it's a relatively quick knit, with simple increases and decreases creating the interest on the leg and instep. I've been knitting these socks two-at-a-time, and after just two short weeks I've turned the heels and am nearly finished with the gusset decreases. Depending on how much time I have to work on them, I hope to have them finished by this time next week.

Another thing I have on my needles is the Sea Cucumber draftstopper from a blog called Jurisdiction of Nifty. It's a simple cable pattern knit a very tight gauge that I'm making out of some leftover Cascade 220 I've had in my stash for a long while. I expect to be able to finish it fairly quickly, but the tight gauge is a little rough on my hands, so I work on it intermittently and massage my hands right after.

That's all for tonight, I think. Until next time, Friends.