The Night After a Day's Walk

That's the title of the first chapter of book two: The Fall, Les Miserables.

I'm not sure if after a day's walk, the night is a relief or a perpetuation of the struggles of man. After the toil and struggle of a hard worked, cruel life there is the cover of darkness in death. For Jean Valjean, maybe, it is a relief. To be cloaked in the folds of night; to be nameless and sheltered.

Have you ever knitted with black yarn? If you should step into any random knit shop you will notice an absence of dark to black colors. Maybe knitters prefer bold, bright hues to wrap their necks in? Well, it's really damn hard to knit with dark colors. I'm working on a scarf knit with Malabrigo, with one of their variegated yarns, and there are patches of black colors that pool sometimes and it's easy to see how hard it would be to knit with if one were to have to pay attention to their stitches. Luckily, my scarf is knit in a striped texture - garter stitch and seed stitch. Pretty simple. Now that I've uploaded this picture here, the darks don't look so dark. Dang flash! I swear, they're darker than they look!

Knitting and I'll never be your grandmother

My family loves to laugh when I tell them I've been knitting. They sort of snort and then inevitably ask, "Are you seventy?" The nice ones don't say anything at all, just change the subject to "so, how's Jefferson doing?"

Frankly, I'm not surprised by this reaction. For gods sake, these people CHOOSE to live in Georgia. What can you expect from the nation's most uneducated, underenthused state?

I digress.

I've been amazed at what is out there in the knitting world and all the really cool, innovative things people are doing with the fiber-arts. Afghans made out of various scenes in Super Mario World, shawls made to look like stained glass, knitted biology experiments, toys, socks, and of course, couture-worthy sweaters that are truly one-of-a-kind.

I'm in the rudimentary stages of getting acquainted with knitting. I've been knitting for two years and have created about as many projects as can fit on one hand. My ignorance of knitting techniques (which I'm actively remedying) coupled with a very worrisome inability to focus on one task combine to give me a very low efficiency rating. I'm working on it!

Presently, I'm knitting a scarf for my Auntie-in-law Simone. We will be visiting Simone and her husband Charlie in Victoria, BC this summer. I thought it would be a nice thank-you -for-putting-us-up gift. I'm ultra-excited about the trip actually. We'll be taking Amtrak to Seattle (a 3.5 hour voyage) spending two nights in a B&B there and then catching a ferry to Victoria. Three hours on the Puget Sound in July sounds just about heavenly! Then two days in Victoria.

Now, the question is, is there something I can knit and take with me?