breispace

With studies and teaching my life is basically, well, full. At the same time nothing much seems to be going on. I do take some time out to knit and see friends, at the pub or elsewhere, but I feel that’s a real necessity. I would get really stressed and unhappy if I didn’t and nobody likes an unhappy Danny, least of all me. When I come home after a days’ work I’m usually too tired to use my brain much, so I carefully have to plan for the moments when I’m not. Teaching is like performing in many ways; you have to be fit to perform well, and if you’re not you’ll get bad reviews. I don’t think I could do this fulltime, not for a while yet. So when I’m tired I avoid anything even distantly resembling a chore or obligation, unless it’s a real no-brainer, or one that helps me put off an even bigger chore. Like my taxes: I’ve still to do this years’. They’ll have to wait until the Xmas hols.

 At the same time I can get a great feeling of happiness, or better contentment, from very simple things. Like when I cycle to work and it’s not raining and there’s little wind, even if I’m not looking forward to the work. Or last week, when I was cooking stoofpeertjes (pears poached in mulled wine) and appelmoes (applesauce) from the last windfalls and bruised apples, and the apartment smelled like the Sundays of my childhood. Or finishing a knitting project and having an excuse to start a new one; I now have seven projects in the UFO spacedock and I’m just itching to start this beanie from leftover Noro Kureyon, but I’m not allowing myself until I’ve finished something else (insert chuckles of anticipation here).

Maybe it’s the autumn and Midwinter coming up that makes me feel all hopeful and filled with a sense of promise and anticipation. I don’t know. Loads of people, especially singles, dread the coming season, but I don’t. Not this year anyways. My friends show their appreciation of me, eligible and non-eligible men alike show other kinds of interest, I get by on the money I make, my house feels like a home, my cats are affectionate and healthy. I am happy that I’m able to appreciate what I have instead of hovering over the things I don’t. Who needs Thanksgiving?

I made my first real pattern! Not that I’ve never inventiknit anything before, but this time I had the good sense to take elaborate notes and record every step of the process. The result is a small but cute accessory in honour of the apple harvest: a “fruit cozy” to get my apples to work blemish-free. I made it from red Aran weight wool and green acrylic leftovers from Sheldon.

Here’s the pattern:
Appeltje
Wool: Phildar Sport’laine (Aran weight), col. Passion
Leftover DK or worsted: MC brown or dark green, CC light green.
Sock dpns : 5 x 4.5mm and 3 x 3mm.

Cozy:
CO 4 st, distr on 4 needles. Join in the round, being careful not to twist.
R1 - Kfb all st: 8 st.
R2 – Kfb all st: 16 st.
R3 – k all st.
R4 – k1, m1, k to last st, m1twisted, k1, rep on all 4 needles: 24st.
R5 – *k all st.
R6 – repeat r4*: 32 (4×8) st.
Repeat * * 2x until u have 48 (4×12) st.
Next 2 r: k all st
R13 - k1, m1, k to last st, m1twisted, k1, rep on all 4 needles: 56 (4×14) st.
K next 8 rows
R22 – k1, s1, k1, psso, k to last 3 st, k2tog, k1. Rep on all 4 needles: 8st decr, 48st.
R23 & 24: k all st.
R25 - k1, s1, k1, psso, k to last 3 st, k2tog, k1. Rep on all 4 needles: 8st decr, 40st.
K next 6 rows
R32 – k2, BO2, k2, bo2, k2, rep on all 4 needles: 24st.
R33 – k2, CO2 (backward loop), k2, CO2, k2. Rep on all 4 needles: 40st.
K next 2 rows, BO. Weave in ends.

String & leaves:
CO 4 st on 3mm needles in MC, knit i-cord for 33 cm or to fit around widest circumference of apple cozy.
Change to CC, k 1 row: r1
R2 – k1, m1, k2, m1twisted, k1: 6 st
R3 – k all st, distr onto 2 needles.
R4 – k1, m1, k1, m1, k1. Rep on 2nd needle: 10 st
R5 – k all st.
R6 – k1, m1, k3, m1twisted, k1. Rep on 2nd needle: 14 st
R7-10: k all st.
R11 – k1, k2tog twisted, k1, k2tog, k1. Rep on 2nd needle: 10 st
R12 - k all st.
R13 – k1, slip next 2 st as if to k2tog, slip next st, k3tog twisted (from the right), k1. Rep on 2nd needle: 6 st
R14 - k all st
R15 - slip 1st 2 st as if to k2tog, slip next st, k3tog twisted. Rep on 2nd needle: 2 st
BO, weave in end.
String cord through holes in cozy, then pick up 4 st at the other end and knit another leaf.

Piggy finally wandered in again last night, after having been away for five days. I had begun to worry that she might have ventured outside the block and couldn’t find her way back, or that she’d be locked up by some estranged person who was hoping to win her sympathies. But she looked fine, well-fed, and had only one dirty paw to show for her absence. After feasting on Felix she wanted to curl up on the pillow beside my head and keep me awake by purring loudly (it’s amazing how much sound a 5 1/2 pound cat can generate), but I banished her towards my feet where she belongs. The next morning there was a familiar puddle in the hall; that’s gratitude for you.

Yesterday’s Stitch ‘n Bitch Day was a success. I bought some scrumptious yarns: two skeins of rough silk in autumny green and brown, purple and jeans-blue fingering weight hemp , and 150 grs of Kauni wool in a beautiful superlong blue-grey-purple colourway. I hope the lady who sold it to me has some more, so I can finally knit one of those beautiful patterns from Knitting out of Africa.
The workshop on speedy / more efficient knitting techniques was a bit frustrating: holding my thread in a different way felt really strange and you have to persevere for longer than just an hour before you can reap the benefits, but it got me interested in trying Fair Isle with both colours in the left hand. By the time the workshop was over Debbie Stoller’s new book was sold out, so I didn’t get a chance to take a look at that, alas. She really does speak excellent Dutch by the way.