Monday, May 4, 2015

A new knit for crunch time

Demo starts Wednesday, and as of now (Monday morning) the house is far from empty, so it's a small miracle that I've found a tiny bit of knitting time to work on another pair of Stoddart comfort socks at home and something a little different on the bus:


I cast on Leah Oakley's Fruit Stripe Gum Socks a couple of years ago and couldn't shift them up to the top of the list, but a moment came during the first wave of serious packing when I finished the pair of bus socks I started last October (!!!) without another pair started.  Boy, was I glad to discover the cast-on cuffs of these babies when I picked up a knitting basket to slip into a box.


The stitch is crazy simple and you just repeat it round after round till the leg is done.  The pattern uses a different heel flap stitch than my go-to version, and the arch has a little ribbing, and I think I will follow the pattern exactly as written just to see how those things feel.  After all, everything else is new right now, why not my knitting?

Or maybe it's not all so new.  It's funny, but when I'm in the condo I feel like I've been transported back to the 1970s.  I'm remembering my childhood in ways I haven't, probably since I was living it.  I don't know why that is.  The condo was finished in 1982, so that might be part of it, but it may also have something to do with the view from the windows.


We are just below grade on the floor with the enclosed terrace (there are two rooftop terraces, as well, and I have to take a bunch of pictures up there for you because Wow.)  We have pine trees outside the living room window...


... and ferns and another grove of fernlike plants alongside the bedrooms, so it feels a lot like living in a low-slung ranch style home with elaborate landscaping.

The landscaping, by the way, is 100% bird territory.  Because we are downtown, I expected to hear traffic, but thanks to our being on the bottom of the several floors that enclose the terrace what we hear is birds with no predators, and church bells from the cathedral half a block away.  Very seldom, we will hear a car alarm or a plane coming in to land at the Island Airport.  Mostly it's idyllic village sorts of sounds, and the sunlight is pretty remarkable as well - it just pours in from about 1pm till evening and stretches all the way to the door into the unit.  The sunlight I remember from childhood was as bright but nothing since has really compared to it until we moved here.

And yes, of course I put a knitting chair under the window.  It is amaaaazing in there.


I bought a pair of small melamine trays the other day, thinking they would be great for holding snacks at a table on the rooftop terrace when the crazy dies down.  I imagine myself packing a basket with a tray or two tucked in the side, and carrying it up there to spend a few hours enjoying the view and the breeze, with my tea in a thermos and a pastry on a paper doily on the plate just like at the Belgian cafe near our house.


I think the sock looks pretty good on both of them, don't you?

The upshot is, there's a fresh start on life to be had here, with room for my old loves, and there will be time to enjoy it all in just a few more days.  With luck, by next Monday I will be back to posting every weekday.  I have really missed doing that, almost as much as I have not super enjoyed all the work involved in moving, which is saying something!

Take care of yourselves and come back next Monday, won't you?



6 comments:

Leslie said...

I'm so going to make these socks next time I pull out some Knitterly Things from my stash...good luck with the move, demo and settling into the new place!

Mary Keenan said...

Oh Leslie, I have been thinking of you so much as I pack up the house - wondering how on earth you pulled that off for your big move last year!!

Barb Fullerton said...

love that stitch. looks difficult, though.

Mary Keenan said...

Love when things look harder than they are, so you look more skilled! Actually it's dead easy, Barb - K2, yo, K2, K2tog... over, and over, and over, and... ;^)

Leslie said...

Survival Mode, Mary...that's my only explanation. As I'm contemplating moving to a "better" apartment the thought of packing up again makes me want to stay where I am (and that wouldn't be terrible...but if I could get something better...) Good luck with everything!

Mary Keenan said...

Leslie, if it were me the new place would have to be a LOT better ;^)