As a child escaping hot, humid New England summer afternoons, I retreated to the cool linoleum of the basement to flip through TV stations. One day, I happened upon Tom Baker’s amazingly long Dr. Who scarf. I sat transfixed. There began my quest for a super long scarf. After years of fruitless searching, I failed to find anything more than the pathetically puny commercial scarves. Nothing measured up to the perfect scarf image I’d conjured in my mind.

After hearing me tell my tale, a friend gifted me with a beginner knitting lesson. I was very excited. I would be able to make my very own scarf – and make it as long as I wanted in whatever color I desired. It would be bliss! There was one thing standing in my path: actually being able to knit.

The woman teaching the class was an accomplished knitter who had been wielding her needles for several decades. While she was an amazingly talented woman, there were two challenges I had to learning from her. The first was that her years of mastery had left her less capable of explaining the rudiments of the craft. The second element, which I didn’t discover until many frustrating attempts later, is that I knit left-handed and she taught right-handed knitting. Who knew?

Once the carrot was dangled before me, I couldn’t give up, regardless how frustrated I felt. I had set the goal of a super long scarf and I was going to figure out how to knit it. I went to knitting shops, looked online, read every book in the library, and I even asked a lady I saw knitting in a café for pointers. After time, and a concerted effort, I learned the basics and progressed.

It has been almost five years since that first uncomfortable lesson. I’ve since taught many people beginner knitting. I especially enjoy teaching those who have spent many frustrating hours trying to learn from others. They’ve all walked away from my lesson happy and on the way to completing their first scarf. I still consider myself a novice, though I thoroughly enjoy the craft. I usually have a project with me to keep my hands engaged and I’ve even achieved meditative states while clicking away on my needles. It’s been wonderful.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.GreenTeaLady.com
http://miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

I’ve finally finished my new cap. I have a deep and abiding love for the two Big Apple caps I bought almost a million years ago back in New England. Both of them are velvety and lush… and they are hard to find. A Big Apple is the mutated exceptional child of a newsboy cap married to the inflation of the Great Depression. The way I understand it, the kids hawking papers on New York City street corners decided to up the ante in a progressive arms – or skull, as the case may be – race to see who’s head could be swallowed more completely by their cap. Picture the wee waifs with no heads and huge caps bellowing about the price of apples and you have the image. I decided I ought to knit myself one that was a wee lighter than lined velvet so I could wear it on warmer days. Here is my result.

This was sort of a quest for me. There really wasn’t a recipe for the kind of hat I wanted to make, so I needed to splice together a couple of different hats. I started by knitting a cable beret… twice. I can’t even count the number of pots of green tea were required to regain my sense of tranquility and inner peace while frogging the whole hat into a ball of yarn.  The first time, it turned out to be more of a ski cap than a beret, so I added some stitches and some rows when I increased to up the volume. I like my caps poufy. I then found a recipe for a Newsboy cap and appropriated the visor bit. I had a dark blue plastic binder separator that I cut to give the visor stiffness and I stitched it into the fold. Then I stitched the visor onto the beret and folded ½ inch thick black elastic into the brim of the beret. Ta-da! A Big Apple Beret Cap with Cables! Because I made the visor interior of plastic, I was able to wash it and block it without worrying for the stability of the unit. Perfect for rainy days and sunny days.

Do you wear hats?  If so, what’s your favorite hat?

Breathe deeply, 

  Laugh with abandon, 

    Love wholly, 

      Eat well.

MiLady Carol

<a href=”http://www.GreenTeaLady.com”>www.GreenTeaLady.com</a>

www.miladycarol.com

<a href=”http://www.miladycarol.com”>Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!</a>

I’ve been very busy with all my projects. One of the all-encompassing projects has been knitting socks. I had it in my mind to knit Mom a nice pair of socks for Mother’s Day. The only problem: I hate using double pointed needles*. Really hate. It’s not that I’m inept with them, it’s more that I have a very different reason for knitting that tends to interfere with using double pointed needles. The whole reason for my knitting is to give my hands something productive to do while my brain is busy listening. I have always listened better while doodling or making sculptures from kneaded erasers during history class – yes, kneaded erasers can be shaped into schnauzers wearing berets. It took most of the Hundred Years War, yet it can be done.

I digress.

I took up knitting because it’s portable (I can mush a ball of yarn, a set of needles and my project into a plastic bag, shove it into my purse and not worry about wrinkling the yarn), lightweight and easy to stop and resume so I can take notes or participate in the matters at hand. Therein lies the crux of my hatred for double pointed needles: once I transfer my project to them, I must commit to finishing it in one sitting. If I try to place it on the table and walk away, there’s nothing preventing those stitches I’ve worked so hard to put in place from slipping off one end or another. It’s bad enough using them to finish a hat, but socks require them almost exclusively, thus socks have always been avoided with a studious intent.

The thought of socks ran through my mind as a possibility when I heard about a book that teaches how to knit socks using two circular needles. I found it in the library and I taught myself the technique. Then, when I went to the local shop to buy some really red yarn to knit Mom’s socks, they told me how I could do the same thing using just one really long circular needle. Well. It was like a genie decided to grant me a wish when I didn’t even know there was a lamp there to rub. Magnificent.

The only hitch in my grand plan was that Mother’s Day was a mere few days away and I my previous socks were all learning experiences (read: practice socks and a couple of false starts regarding sizing – Mom is not in need of socks that could fit over clown shoes). I hunkered down and finished one sock and had only the leg and cuff to knit on the second.

Oh! I forgot to mention, this book also taught me how to knit from the toe up so I could be sure the sizing was right before I was 1/3 into the knitting. Brilliant! Plus, the cuffs and legs are the easy part. I’m all about doing the hard stuff first. It’s like they know me!

Back to Mom.

So, on Mother’s Day, I presented her with a handmade card and a little bag of goodies. In the bag of goodies, there was the one finished sock. This caused a great deal of joking about how it was so beautiful she’d be happy to just hop around on one foot to wear it, etc. I took out the second sock and promised it would be finished before she left, and it was. I sent her home with a pair of socks in bright crimson red and she has already worn them. Success!

I’ll see if I can convince her to wear them here so I can grab a picture of them. Or, perhaps I’ll just knit myself a pair. I don’t think I’ve ever owned a pair of bright crimson red socks. Maybe it’s time.

* For the uninitiated, double pointed needles have nothing stopping those precious little loops of yarn from falling off the ends while working on a different needle. Usually, 4-5 of these little menaces are used in knitting in the round on an area too small for a circular needle. They are necessary for finishing hats and socks.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!