STOPPED FOR / BY TRAFFIC

     There are two main railroad lines that run through Olathe. Whenever I am running errands, I can be delayed by a lonnnnngggggg trail on either line. Not to mention intersections where I might be forced to wait for the light to change.

    It never fails. If I take some knitting with me, or something to read, I will breeze through, encountering no obstacles. If I get in the car empty-handed, I will be stopped by trains of 100-plus cars, or the five-mile-an-hour crossover train, or a traffic light that has been set to never-change. Thumb-twiddling produces nothing.

    And, oh, almost finished a pair of grey wristlets -- have only a half-inch to go on the second one. Put aside for a few days until I can get to the yarn store to buy another skein. Started another pair of wristlets of green worsted dug out of my stash. Worsted. If you heard that word and knew nothing about knitting, you'd think it was the worst thing possible.

YOU NEED A RED HAT?

     I've got plenty.

    One of my writing colleagues in this semester's KCWG (Kansas City Writers Group) said he couldn't do something because he didn't have a red (beanie) hat like one of the other writers. To tell the truth, I didn't hear what it was he couldn't do.

    But our co-director, Mary-Lane, knowing that I am also a knitter, asked me to knit a red hat for my colleague.

    That's all I needed. I took off. Not having the pattern for the beanie I knit several red hats which I now have available to offer. (I have never actually met this colleague, so it's going to take some logistics to get together in person.)

    People who know me well know that knitting helps me get my writing done. (They also know that sometimes I get more knitting than writing finished. I'm still working on my essay of Catching Frogs by Flashlight.)

WAITED SIX YEARS

    We knitters waited six years for KITH (Knitting in the Heartland). KITH 2020 was canceled because of the Coronavirus, KITH 2022 was never planned because the Coronavirus became a Pandemic. KITH 2024 was fabulous. We had Stephanie Pearl McPhee as the keynote knitter, plus several other master knitters teaching workshops. And the vendor's market -- it was marvelous. Local and not so local yarn and yarn accessory producers provided dazzling yarns and products. You weren't there, but now you are curious? Well, KITH 2026 is only two years away. It'll be worth the wait.

BASIC STOCKINETTE

    Now that we are past the season of Christmas knitting, I'm back to a personal project: a cardigan sweater with blue and yellow stash. It's being done in basic stockinette stitch, which is one side in knit, and the other side in purl. Purling is a bit more difficult for me, I think for most people, so I am slower with the purl rows than the knit rows. Knit or purl, it is 165 stitches a row. Oddly enough, I have just discovered that errors are more likely to reveal themselves in purl rows. 

NEXT GENERATION OF KNITTERS

    I taught a little girl to knit. Finally. For years I've been carrying around in my knit bag a bit of spare yarn and a pair of knitting needles made of chopsticks. The tips of the chopsticks need to be carefully sharpened in a pencil sharpener -- well, I suppose the tips could be shaped by a knife if a pencil sharpener isn't available. Buff off any rough spots with a nail file. Wooden knitting needles work best for beginners because the friction from the wood keeps the yarn from sliding. My student did very well, finished an entire row. I let her take the project with her, came home and converted another pair of chopsticks to knitting needles. I'm ready, should another eager student wander along.

WHERE CREATIVITY LIVES

        Much as I hate to admit, because I have forgotten a great deal of what I once knew, I taught Spanish. I had some great students, whom I desperately loved, and some not-so-great students whose presence in a classroom was a continuing challenge.

        Morty was one of the worst, did everything he could do to be disruptive. I decided that one day we would take a break and spend classroom time making what Hispanics call "God's Eyes", those colorful symbols made of two crossed sticks and bright yarns. I had painstakingly gathered from my yard sturdy twigs; I had plenty of yarn stash for the projects.

        While two students distributed the materials I explained the project, my eye constantly glimpsing at Morty. What inventive way would he find the disrupt the classroom?

        Amazingly, quiet prevailed. Inspired by the assignment, every student was totally absorbed in creating their God's Eye. Especially Morty. I found it hard to believe the concentration he brought to the task. His eyes, normally scanning the room for what mayhem he could cause, never left the twigs and bright yarns on his desk. And when the class period came to an end, no one was prouder than Morty of what he had created with his own two hands.

UNKNITTING

         Unknitting -- aaarrrrggghhhh. I'll swear I've spent more time unknitting this afternoon. No, not frogging -- that's unraveling back to Skein One. Unknitting is undoing every single stitch one at a time, getting back to the mistake. Takes a  whole lot of time. I'm knitting a hat with stripes and keep failing to change the color with each new stripe. To make a mistake even more likely, both yarns are shades of pink.

        The good news is I've managed to finish a poem about a Friendship Fountain from the U.S. to the Ukraine. The task now is to try to submit it to a publication (which uses a very weird method of submitting). Still have a few days before the deadline.