A Towel, somewhat slanted

 I confess, when I wrote my last post, it was a little bit with a mind towards 'talking about it all may take the dynamics out of it and perhaps things will turn to the better'. Rest assured, so far it hasn't. New happenings on the parents' health front, and being in the midst of packing, sorting, clearing out... I wonder how I can cope with it all, and I do wonder, when things will get better!

In any case - to please my battered little soul I gave in to temptation. Anybody who has been reading this blog for a little while may have noticed that I have been struck with a bit of infatuation with Sarah C. Swett and her textile adventures, and am an avid reader and big fan of The Gusset on Substack. 

My Sweater Somewhat Slanted is still in the making.

 

A few weeks ago she posted about her handspun and handwoven towels and showed pictures that were so lightweight and enchanting that I felt very much of the "Oh, I would loooove to have one like that" kind of yearning. Of course, I haven't spun any linen yet, nor milkweed (but I do think hers were made from linen), nor do I have any weaving equipment left in the house. (And being in the middle of a move to a smaller place there is no possibility of acquiring anything in that direction any time soon.) I do have linen to spin, but it didn't make it to the top of my spinning projects list that is currently being worked on with the Tour de Fleece 2024.

But as I was rummaging through my yarn stash I came across a large bag of natural colored cotton which had been a sweater and was taken apart a while ago, and something gave me the immediate feeling that this is the closest I was going to get to a handmade towel anytime soon. Again using the self-delusory trick of telling myself that one slip stitch is not casting on, I started to knit a towel. Planning as I go, embracing mistakes, adjusting the separating number of stitches between the stitch patterns on the go when I have miscounted, I am slowly working on it.

Of course, it is nothing as airy as the woven ones by Sara, in fact, it looks a bit clumsy. It won't be exactly lightweight, first of all because it is cotton, and secondly because knitting does not result in as lightweight a product as weaving. Which may in fact lead to the experiment being reduced in size, although I am determined to make it more sizeable than a wash cloth. Not sure how outside factors may come into this decision making process. But in times when there is basically no free minute to sit down at the sewing machine it is fun to have something 'new' to pick up to keep my hands busy.

8, (7,6,5,4) 3…

 

The countdown is on. When I handed in my resignation at the end of August I knew the remaining four months at the practice would seem longish, but I also thought that two periods of vacation and the overall arrangement of working 3 days a week, usually all in a row following each other, would make it relatively feasible. The feisty brat, too, has held back in her unpleasant behavior. Not talking at all except for an occasional ‘hi’ is much preferrable to her usual bitchy tone of voice. Which even – albeit very briefly  ­ let me wonder whether it would have been possible to stay there if she had been behaving like that all the time. But thinking about that is nuisance, as there are indeed several other issues that contributed to the decision to move on. And the new arrangement just seems so much more pleasant now, with the lake looming as a daily possibility. 

 

The only thing is the fact that I am planning to commute by train, and given the current situation of the German Railway system, that may be a training in resilience. We will see.

Had a creative brainstorm meeting with my good friend Barbara on Wednesday last week, we met in Landshut in a café. Barbara gave me one of her quilts that is going to Abilmente with me in February, and we had a wonderful time talking about options, ideas, textile projects. When I returned home I immediately laid out the dimensions needed for the upcoming challenge for Ste. Marie-aux-Mines, and positioned a couple of pieces I had already made in other contexts but want to include in this piece. For example, my one and only piece for this year’s German Guild’s Sew Along “Meer Gilde” (Ocean Guild) will become a part of this piece. 

My island in the Sun....

 

Then Thursday was day 8 before goodbye from the practice, I had been feeling unwell all day but had gone to work nevertheless. When I came home after the early shift I returned my lunch to the sewer and took myself to bed. Friday a trip to the doctor gave me a 6 day-sick call, which cut down the remaining 7 days of work to three. The doctor suggested a corona test, which was negative, as was the second one a couple of days later, but so far I have been taking a very long time in getting better. I was able to do a little bit of stitching on Sunday, in deed working on the new piece for the Ste. Marie-aux-Mines competition with the challenge topic ‘ocean’. It gives me the opportunity to try to put into fabric an idea I have been hovering for a few months now.

Rather more pictorial than I usually work, but why not try something new?

 

But it’s been a roller coaster since, I haven’t been able to do much at all and am simply hanging out in bed, using a lot of tissues  and coughing. I don’t think I have felt as miserable as this since the corona infection in July 2022, but as the tests say negative, and the cough feels very different from the one back then, I hope that it really is just one of the other viral cough infections and this pandemic unpleasantry will pass me by. The remaining three days of work are up after Christmas, I hope to be able to recuperate until then. After all, solstice is over, starting today the days will be getting longer, that must have an influence on my physical well being!