Gemini the Second

So with a week of this...

I managed to finish this...

While Little Boy Blue played in the sand and water, with cousins and alone, with additional aunties and grandma to watch him, I knit.  I knit on the beach, on the dock, on the couch, in the wind and in the calm. It was a lovely time away with my family.  The cousins had a fabulous time.   The tears ramped up towards the end of the week.  It seems that you can only sustain that level of play for a few days.

It's Knit Picks Shine Sport yarn that I've had in my stash for over a year.  I knit it up at the 22 stitch/4 inch gauge that Gemini required, and though I had gauge I ended up with 36" instead of the 34" bust I thought I'd have.  It's fine.  I love the feel of the fabric the yarn creates.  It's so soft.  I've worn it for a day and I know it'll be in the rotation until the weather gets too cold this fall.  Love.

Threads

I was fortunate to receive my grandmother's sewing machine and craft supplies.  I still use her machine, a late 60's Viking that sews well.  I use her notions/thread tin for my buttons.  And I am using her thread.  This afternoon as I was working on a craft project, I pulled out a spool of red thread and threaded the machine.  I realized fairly quickly that it was not your typical thread.  It was many small pieces of red thread knotted together into one long thread. It made me stop and ponder and wonder......  What was she planning to do with it? Was she trying to conserve thread?  How did the thread get to be in all of those small pieces anyway?  And it made me miss her a little bit more.

Gemini the First

So I started my first Gemini on a camping trip in June.  Checked gauge for the first four-five inches. I know... I'm "supposed" to knit a swatch and check that, but I haven't found my gauge to run true on swatches.  So I pick a small part that I'll need to knit anyway--in this case, the neckline and yoke-- and just begin with the needle size I think I'll need.  And truly, I had gauge.  22 stitches/4 inches.  But somewhere along the way, I didn't have gauge any longer.  However, I had stopped being worried about it.  It wasn't until I was trying it on to determine if I'd knit it long enough that I realized it wasn't going to have negative four inches of ease.  In fact it felt a little roomy...

Pull out tape measure.  Check gauge.  20 stitches/4 inches.  Measure width of NEARLY FINISHED garment....  38 inches.  Which means I have zero ease.   I finished it anyway.  I wore it for a day.  And then I passed it off to my pregnant sister.  She'll wear it for the fall, and then return it to me.  I simply can't bear to frog it without any wear.

I've become extremely interested in waste in the fashion industry.  I have a minimalist shopping philosophy  (reduce!), and I've always been a mostly thrift store clothes shopper (reuse!).  This feels like I'm moving in the right direction.  And this sweater is made with recycled yarn (recycle!).  It was originally a lovely summer sweater that I knit in the summer of 1997.  I distinctly remember knitting it on the plane to Japan where I was going to start my first "real" job.  My current struggle? Can I continue to buy new yarn it I don't ever put it in the waste stream?  Can I just keep reknitting the same yarn from one project to another?  And what about the things I give to others?  Can I ask for them back if they want to "get rid" of them?  Will folks admit to getting rid of hand knits?  But no one keeps baby sweaters forever, do they?