I think many of us have fantasies about being somebody we aren’t, or certainly we did as children*. Whether ballerina, astronaut, or dinosaur, we all had make-pretend. My brother justified his toddler-biting-people phase with the explanation that he was a crocodile. Or maybe it was an alligator. My sister was a barnacle (an excuse to grab peoples’ legs) which I feel is a pretty unique and inventive identity for a child. I was more boring. I wanted to be a cat. At least, this was my dream for a long time until I realized they can’t see as many colors as people do. I suppose that says something about what’s important to me. Surprise! I like color! Also, this taught me that reading too much can have repercussions. Like destroying your dreams with the reality of science.
From there I moved on to more realistic goals. And by realistic, I mean that I at least imagined myself as human, or mostly anyways. Sorceress seemed a cool career goal, or warrior. They both seemed far more interesting than the “dictionary editor” a high school personality & career predictor survey suggested for me**. AwesomeE and I went as Valkyries for Halloween one year, with black velveteen capes, shield of black and silver (foamboard and paint), and swords (pretty sure these were bamboo…). I always knew these were fantasies though. I’m just not that cool. And nothing sufficiently strange to suggest hidden magical powers ever occurred.
I can’t entirely resist the desire to pretend just a little still though. And thus, I like to pretend that wearing my knitting belt around the house is cool, and makes me look like a badass. First of all, it’s leather and holds a tool. I’m fairly certain that leather tool belts bring about a certain level of cool. And rather like a sword belt and sheath, it holds a long sharp object. Sixteen inches of sharp, er, aluminum. Note to self: stick to “metal” in future descriptions. But my metal object is pointed at both ends. How many swords can claim that? And even better… I use it to MAKE things, rather than unmake them. It’s far harder to create than destroy. So that has to count for something as well.
See? Total badass… or not. Who am I kidding? I’m a dork 🙂
But I’m a dork who has been making good progress on her new top! This is the first garment I’m making that’s not a front and back seamed together. It quickly became clear that I would need more than one needle (even at 16″) to hold all the stitches, but I’m still knitting back and forth rather than in the round. I found that I had to do something about the needles not in use flopping around in my lap, or worse, dragging down on my left hand when standing. I looked at a few youtube videos, and it seemed clear that when knitting in the round, the needles are all connected end-to-end and help stabilize each other. So I’m “sewing” the two open edges together with a simple basting stitch using the cast on tail. As you can see, this creates a closed triangle shape, or a (less rigid) square with the forth needle being used to make stitches.
Now I can go along at a decent pace. It helps me keep a consistent angle with my left needle (this is the one moving to create the stitch) and thus go more smoothly. I have several inches completed already, and am about half way down the top section in the pink. It’s going to be a badass top when it’s done. A badass top from colorways inspired by murder rabbits and zombie pets…
*I suspect most adults do too, we just don’t all admit it. At least, this is what I tell myself.
**As my spelling was atrocious during most of grade school, this seemed a particularly cruel joke of a recommendation as well as oddly specific