Fearless Fibers Yarn

The Good and the Not So Good

I'm rather ridiculously excited to tell you my latest shop news. I've added a new section for patterns to my shop! There's not a ton to choose from yet, but over time I hope to build a nice little library of patterns.

Most of the patterns currently listed are by the ever-fabulous Anne Hanson of KnitSpot. There are two of her amazing shawl patterns, a scarf pattern, and two sock patterns (including the must-have "Sock Pattern to End All Sock Patterns").

As promised, I've also listed my own Migration Lace Scarf pattern. A big Thank You to Elisa for her suggestion for the name for the scarf!



That's the good part of the post. The not so good - but rather funny - is a little story I thought I'd share with you. On Monday night, I did my dutiful-wife routine and attended my husband's softball game. As usual, I brought along a sock in progress to knit while I watched the game.

I was sitting in the bleachers, perfectly content, enjoying the lovely evening and my knitting time when I noticed that two children were watching me from a few yards away. They looked to be about 8 or 9 years old and were apparently quite fascinated by my knitting activity. I flashed them a smile and they slowly approached me and sat down on the bleachers next to me. The conversation went something like this:

Little Boy: What are doing? Is that knitting?

Me: Yes, it is. I'm knitting a sock.

Little Girl (wide-eyed, with keen interest): Really?

Me: Yes, see. (I held the work upside down so the sock hung down from the cuff and made it easier to see what it was.)

Little Boy: Wow! You knit really fast.

Little Girl: You must be really smart!

(Hmmmm. I liked the way this conversation was going. Yep, I'm a fast knitter. That's right. I can knit like the wind. I'm pretty smart and clever.)

Me: Well, thank you!

Little Girl: I like your t-shirt.

(This conversation was getting better all the time! I was wearing my new knitting-themed t-shirt that I showed you a couple of posts ago and was quite pleased with the unexpected compliment from such an unlikely source.)

Little Girl: My auntie knits, but not that fast.

Me (with more smiling, of course): Well, I've been doing this for a long time!

Little Girl: How old are you?

Me: How old do you think I am?

(At this point, the two children put their heads together and had a little conference. I heard murmurs of things like, "Jenny's 27 and my mom's ...." etc.)

Little Girl: Eighteen?

(By now, it was pretty clear to me that these children were perfect in every way.)

Me (with a big, stupid, uncontrollable grin on my face): Nope. I'm 42!

(More wide-eyed looks and awe emerged.)

Little Boy: My Nana is 49. And she's not even dead yet.

(Whoa! Hold on a minute! Where's this conversation going now?!)

Little Girl: When you're dead, it's like this. (At this point, she laid down on the bleachers with her eyes closed and arms crossed over her chest.)

Little Boy: It's going to be really boring when you're dead. You won't get to do anything. You'll just lie in a hole in the ground.

The conversation continued another minute or two along these lines, with the two previously-angelic and perfect children describing in some detail to me how much it's going to suck when I die . . . which apparently they assume is not far off given my incredibly advanced age.

I escaped by saying I was cold and was going to get some hot coffee. I then loitered by the concession stand until I saw what was presumably a parent usher away these two messengers of the Grim Reaper.

That'll teach me to knit in public! Those two little harbingers of doom would never have approached me if it weren't for the knitting.

I guess I just have to take the bad with the good and just knit on while I still have the energy in my creaking old bones to do so. Ha!