Dear Ann,
I seldom have any downtime on my needles. There is always a project that has got me like whoa (as the kids say). But at the moment, the project that has got me is my Damask Flower/Big Flower Jacket, and I don’t have the French Mustard 363, so for the past week I’ve been filling the empty knitting hours with a combination of Duty Knitting and KonMari knitting.
“Duty Knitting” sounds like something not fun. But in fact, all knitting is fun for me, so I’ve been enjoying knitting a baby blanket in pale gray, for the newborn son of someone who started babysitting for us on Thursday nights 15 years ago (and stopped babysitting for us 10 years ago). Those were some epic Thursday nights. Peter and I ate a lot of good meals and talked a lot of things over, all thanks to Alex. Who now needs his own Thursday night babysitter. The circle of life!
I’m using Loopy Mango’s Merino No. 5, which is truly beautiful stuff. Knits up quickly, and neatly– for such a chunky yarn. I was knitting on this Thursday evening while getting my natural hair color attended to in a totally natural way, and everybody in the beauty parlor was oohing and ahing over it. I need to get back to String Yarns to pick up some more gray, and git ‘r’ done. (For more Loopy Mango Merino No. 5 beauty shots, check out what Karen is up to over at Fringe Association.)
I also made a hat. A friend recently posted a picture on the Internet of her husband wearing a polarfleece hat, bright yellow. I cast on immediately for a 911 emergency hat to address the situation. The yarn is Berocco Ultra Alpaca, which is such a lovely workhorse of a yarn. (72 shades!) The pattern is the Regular Guy Beanie, which is one of the most straightforward, pleasant little knits you will ever meet.
I’ve also been doing a bit of KonMari knitting. KonMari knitting is knitting that you do just to clear up some unfinished knitting that is cluttering up your space.
Such as this denim version of the Mitered Crosses Blanket. I knit nine squares, oh, three years ago? Something like that. The blue is Rowan Denim that I had unraveled from a naff old sweater that I bought on eBay many ages ago, for the sole purpose of harvesting the pre-faded yarn. I’m joining the squares into strips, and the strips into a baby blanket, using the three-needle bindoff. It’s very satisfying. After the light faded, I got two of the three long strips joined. One more long seam, an i-cord edge, and it can stop sitting on the windowsill in a pile, and start sparking joy for a California toddler I know. Rowan Denim is so hardwearing and washable that I imagine this little blankie living in the bottom of Emilio’s stroller, and coming out for plein air picnics and naps.
I don’t think Marie Kondo recommends this as a way of getting abandoned knitting projects and supplies out of your home. But I recommend it. It feels exactly like sitting on the sofa knitting all day, but in fact you are spring cleaning.
Love,
Kay
I need about a month of knitting disguised as spring cleaning!
I’d rather think about other things as I wait…like “Why FRENCH Mustard?” “Why not just ‘Dijon’ or ‘Moutarde’?”
And the when it’s arrives, it will look nothing like the color of mustard of any nation. “Oh, Rowan!”
I’m gonna be a stinker here: Are you sure the color name is not
“French’s Mustard”??
Like the vibrant multi-coloured yarn of Indigo Dragonfly (I hope I got that name right), that is aptly called……Beige.
I clean up by knitting, too. Works for me!
Two wonderful new baby blanket ideas – thank you!
KonMari knitting – at last a term for the type of knitting I’ve been doing over the past couple of months. I’ve also been busy harvesting yarn from old Rowan Denim cardigans that were no lmger wearable due to weight loss.
I’ve also dug out my copy of Glorious Knitting & am pondering about trying to create my favourite ever jacket in modern non-Rowan yarns
Picking out new yarns: such a research project!
Knitting from stash totally counts as spring cleaning.
Might be my new mantra. Because stash knitting is SO much more fun than traditional spring cleaning.
I need more Kaynomi in my spring. Definitely.
I’ve been doing some modified Kon Mari in my knitting corner as well. If the project still “sparks joy”, I’m finishing it; and if not, it gets frogged. So far, a lot of frogging…
OK I just gotta say it warmed my heart to read the term “beauty parlor,” as that’s exactly what my mom called the place back in the day. XXO
We must keep these things alive, Maggi! “Hair salon” is not even half as fun as “beauty parlor.” Bonus points for “beauty parlor” with a Southern accent.
Wow, you knit in the presence of hair dye… I mean natural hair color? Wow!
Just this week, I was re-listening to Modern Daily Knitting on my commute, and hearing about the Rowan Denim Sweater that would go round you twice, pregnant….
It had a ruffle! It was amazing. Now it’s yarn.
I moved last month, and I am just beginning to unpack my yarn et al. As I open each box (and there are many!), it feels like Christmas! I had forgotten about so much of my stash, having packed it up many months ago in preparation for the move. As I sort and rediscover yarns, patterns, and tools, it’s a sort of Spring Cleaning. It’s like a renewal of all the excitement I felt when I first planned each project. It’s the most fun I have ever had “spring cleaning”!
You must be feeling very smug with all that you are accomplishing. Good stuff, but I am particularly smitten with the Mitered Cross blanket. Love it!
Who knew that it would all get clean if I just sat and knit?? Who needs ammonia solutions and crumpled newspaper. I’ll stare at the windows and knit!
I’m working on the same spring cleaning plan. It is definitely loads of fun although the house doesn’t seem to be getting much better!
You just can’t beat The Regular Guy Beanie! It’s my go to hat for guys & girls! I might have one on the needles now……
I need to finish a little more spring cleaning by knitting, so I can get to some spring cleaning by quilting. I guess it is all in the market, this ‘spring cleaning’ thing.
Kon Mari knitting is the antidote to startitis … and the reason I’m happy to give in to startitis. Because I can happen upon a neglected project bag and say “oh look, a sweater in half the time!”
I think you should call it KayMari. Not quite KonMari, but your own version of using it up, sparking joy, and moving it along.
II have been “off task” this past week working up a baby blanket for my hair stylist’s baby. I had a a pattern but was feeling especially creative so I turned it on it’s ear and designed my own thing. Almost feel guilty about it but you just got me off the hook. I’m spring cleaning my yarn collection.
Thank you very much.
Kon mari knitting going on here : EZ baby blanket with mitered corners in tartan Loft… made it too big and had to order even MORE yarn.
Love the circle of life story. Lucky baby!
One of the best lines ever: “It feels exactly like sitting on the sofa knitting all day, but in fact you are spring cleaning.” ????
Oh, how I wish for lots and lots of that!!
My mother didn’t go to the beauty parlor (a.k.a. hairdressing salon),
she went to the “hairdressing saloon”.
Nice post, Kay. Vintage MDK.
I Kon Mari’d some knitting this weekend, too. Although I purchased 2 new circulars and some primo sock yarn, it was for a “duty knitting” project, a gift of socks that better be ready by the 1st week in May, and on which I have been procrastinating. I figure the Kong Mari part is that I have been thinking of doing this since before Christmas, and now I started it.
Oh, it feels so good to let go of stuff!
LoveDiane
Is that French mustard coming from MY or from another galaxy?!
MY should be NH, thank you, auto-correct.
Just finished reading KonMari’s follow-up book “Spark Joy”. She would think finishing up projects and turning a finished sweater into yarn are both delightful forms of tidying, with a yin-yang thing going on there, too.
Sweater-into-yarn is a straw-into-gold type of magic that definitely sparks joy. I have a cotton sweater that I’ve considered turning into dishcloths . . .
Thanks for the up close and personal of the Loopy Mango. I’m in a new baby vortex, 5 due in the next 2 months. One deserving a “significant” blankie. Have been trying out Bernat Blanket Yarn I bought on a whim, but life is short, buy good yarn, you know, so the next one will be a little Loopy. Also like the ROWAN DENIM idea as I think baby blankets need to be tuff enough to survive preschool nap mats and the dog having puppies on the it the next life.
I just love that denim blue. At every stage of denim-blueness.
I thought of your Mitred Squares and Cornerstone blankets as soon as I heard about the earth quakes in Japan and Ecuador. I have those patterns, so feel compelled to bring them out and knit some good prayers.
That’s my kind of spring cleaning! In fact, I made a list just the other day of all the projects like that I have that need to go. Some are sewing projects, two of which are now totally finished in as many days. Cheer So!