Quick knits

One of my knitting friends describes herself as a "dreadfully slow" knitter, which also describes me. My tortoise-like knitting speed is one of the reasons that I have thus far avoided large projects, such as garments, and I always appreciate a quick, almost instant gratification project.

I recently completed two such projects. The first is a very pink, very frothy scarf:




I made it out of Katia Triana Lux, which is mesh ruffle yarn. It is not knit like standard yarn but is knit only through an opening at one edge, thereby creating the ruffles. Although a simple garter stitch scarf, the yarn can be quite a pain to knit and woe to you if you drop a stitch - it is almost impossible to find!

I bought the yarn while on vacation in the Adirondacks at a store called Close Knit. There were several of the scarves on display and the friendly ladies in the shop were me how to work with the yarn. I intend to give it to my young friend Kennedy who, like many girls, adores the color pink. It is a cute scarf, but it will be a while before I work with that yarn again.

Yesterday (yes, yesterday - start to finish in one day) I made this fun little ornament:


It was knit with Patons Kroy Socks yarn and some #6 beads. The hardest part of the whole project was getting the beads onto the yarn (great fun when wearing bifocals) and getting the first few rows started. After that, it was a fun, quick project that I completed while watching the Temple-Penn State football game. Better that game than last night's Ohio State-Miami disaster; I would have thrown the entire project at the television in exasperation.

I do not knit socks but I adore the great colors and textures of sock yarn, so I seek out non-sock projects that use it. As soon as my eyes feel up to the challenge, I am going to string more beads (100 to be exact) on a different yarn and knit another ornament.

Something beautiful remains

After Aidan boarded the bus for school this morning, I went on a two mile walk around the village. It was perfect walking weather: sunny and just a bit cool. As always, I had podcasts on my iPod and for most of this morning's walk, I was listening to Cast On, episode 100. I adore Brenda Dayne's podcasts; she is warm and funny, she talks about knitting and she shares sounds and stories from Wales, where she lives.

At one point during the podcast, she was walking through the Welsh village of Laugharne where poet Dylan Thomas lived for many years, and she was narrating what she saw. She stopped in a cemetery (where Dylan Thomas is NOT buried) and read what is written on a tombstone:

The tide recedes but leaves behind bright seashells on the sand.
The sun goes down, but gentle warmth still lingers on the land.
The music stops, and yet it echoes on in sweet refrains...
For every joy that passes, something beautiful remains.

I like it. There are those who will roll their eyes and think it is schmaltzy, but that's okay; the poem made me smile, and made me think of what has remained in my life after joy has passed.


Note: The poem was not written by Dylan Thomas and a quick Google search failed to turn up the poet's name; it is listed as unknown on the various sites where I found the text of the poem.