after some thought...

A letter to my daughter:

You and I have had some disagreements over my blog.

I appreciate that you do not want your private life aired without your permission over the web. I understand that you don’t want your picture, or pictures of your friends, on your mother’s blog.

Nevertheless, it is my blog. I have final say over what goes into it. That said, I do actually want to respect your wishes about how you appear in it, so I’ve come up with the following guidelines for myself:

1. I will not call you the Movie Maven. The convention in blogdom seems to be to refer to someone in your position as DD, for “Darling Daughter.” I’ve found that a little snide, but if you prefer it I could use it. Or I could simply refer to you as “my daughter.” Or I could use your name, or a name you choose, or your first initial.

2. I will not post any pictures that show your face.

3. I will not post entries that are specifically about you, stories about you, or pictures of you for the sake of showing pictures of you. I will, however, feel free to illustrate moments from my own life that include you, without showing your face or revealing private information. This means, for example, that the post about the mother-daughter weekend would be permissable if I were to remove pictures of your face. In consideration for your friends, I would also remove their faces.

4. I will not post entries that are critical of you. I will occasionally post entries that are proud of you, but I will try to refrain as often as I can because I know it’s not your favorite thing. But it is my blog, and I am a mother.

I know you’d rather I never mention you in my blog in any way, but that would compromise my authority over my blog more than I am willing. I hope that my guidelines will generate a blog that you can live with. If not, we can talk more.

With love and respect,

Mom

magic!

Which is to say: felting! My first felting. I'm so thrilled. Never have the muggles been so impressed with my yarn-and-sticks passion. Never have I had so many spontaneous exclamations. You made those? You KNIT those?

Yep. I knit those. These:










Penguin Boy's Hausschuhe

Paton's Classic Merino, chocolate and wedgewood colorways
Fibertrends pattern

Poodle not included











Hausschuhe for MOI

same yarn (leaf green), same pattern

Agatha Christie movie and ankles included for scale


Plus they're sooooooft and squooshy with the double soles, and just luscious to wear. They're a remarkably quick knit (which is a good thing, since my sweetie has already put in an order, and since I intend to make a pair for the Movie Maven even though she says she doesn't want any) and the yarn is inexpensive at AC Moore. Delightful.

Meanwhile, I've started a lace scarf (also for MOI) in gorgeous Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn (gold hill is the colorway), using another Fibertrends pattern, the Oak Leaf and Acorn scarf. I started this instead of the pawprint lace scarf I'd intended to make, mainly because I bought the divine yarn and it looked more like leaves than like paws. I've also knit one jaywalker in a VERY BRIGHTLY COLORED lana grossa sock yarn (#632) I must have bought in Berlin last summer, and one sock using the cloverleaf eyelet cable pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks in Lisa Souza's Wild Things sock yarn (neither words nor links can adquately express the beauty of this colorway). Knitting one sock at a time is my way of conquering second sock syndrome: I knit one, move on to something else, and by the time something else is completed I'm all psyched up to get going on the socks again.

I made myself a nice pair of dark-chocolate-colored fetching gloves, per my 2007 knitting resolutions, but before I even took a picture of them I'd lost one somewhere between My Organic Market and Charles Barrett Elementary School. I think I have enough yarn (Debblie Bliss cashmerino) to make another.

Finally, I made this for Penguin Boy's birthday, a Lion brand pattern:

and he is very pleased. His friend's mom asked if I would make one for his birthday in June, which I'm delighted to do. PB also wants me to make another penguin for the same friend's June birthday. I'm so pleased that these labors are loved and appreciated that I really am glad to make more. It tickles me (no fuzzy hedgehog pun intended).

It occurs to me that I made a pair of socks for my sweetie's birthday that I forgot to photograph, so I'll have to get to that in another post.

winter pictures on a spring day

Or, things I didn't get around to posting.

Cold sheep.
January day.
Norwich, Vermont.
5 degrees above zero.
Dirt and straw and steamy breath.

I love this sheep.





And some pics to warm the heart of any knitting mother of a teenaged kid, or any mother of daughters, or any reader of early feminist American literature, from our annual mother-daughter weekend getaway:


Teenaged girl knitting while second teenaged girl reads aloud from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper."

Teenaged girls knitting while listening to "The Yellow Wallpaper."

Teenaged girl perplexed by knitting, or perhaps by "The Yellow Wallpaper." Either way, she figured it out.

Teenaged girl reading aloud from "The Yellow Wallpaper," while teenaged friend knits.

life can be so very sweet