This plant has been fighting for its existence for the thirteen years that it's been under my care. A few times in those years, it's put on buds and even produced flowers, but never more than one at a time and never more than four per year. I've done everything I could to keep this plant going. It endured years without sunlight in an office with a toxic atmosphere (the working environment, not the air) before I brought it home to maybe save its little life. When I bought it, it was just a little sprig in a tiny pot, and it put on perhaps one segment per year. Once it got used to the idea that it would not only have sunlight but a happy atmosphere, it began to grow, but still slowly. When it put on buds, it didn't flower -- they just dropped off. All that changed when we moved here to Smack In The Middle. After moving it around for two years, seeking a perfect place for it, I finally gave it its own west-facing window with a sheer curtain to partially block the sun. Behold! It started growing and even produced new strands! And then a few weeks ago, it began to bud! Nearly every strand has its own bud, and nearly every bud is coming to flower. And it's all just in time for the Emperor and I to leave for two weeks and head for Way Out West and our friends and family. Maybe it will still be flowering when we come back; many of those buds take weeks to go from green nub to full bloom.
Now the big puzzle will be how to keep the soil moist while we're gone. I think I remember a pin on Pinterest showing a way to use a piece of yarn and a bowl of water. I'm just sorry I'll miss the big blossoming. You can't take them with you -- once they put on buds, you can't move them or all the buds will fall off.
Well, I survived the fall semester. All of the grading is finished and the final grades turned in. If I'm smart, I'll do a little work right away fixing some of the things that needed fixing during the semester so I won't have to worry about them when I'm busy. I also want to get an article ready and sent out to a journal for consideration. One little publication like that would go a long way toward my own peace of mind where tenure is concerned.
Last week I made another one of those gigantic cowls, this one to give to my sister. I had the yarn in the stash (a wool/alpaca/acrylic mix) and the mondo needles, so could not see any reason to not make it. This one will keep its shape much better than the one I made for myself. I also bought a piece of pink fleece with little dachshunds all over it, and I'm crocheting an edge around it for Sis. She's the last person on earth that would want a pink fleece blanket with a crocheted edge, but the doxies will win her over. I'm using a tough acrylic yarn so she can just pop it all in the washer without a thought, and use it for Zeus the Dog of War.
On "Small Business Saturday" I went out and made an effort to purchase something from a local shop and went over to the LYS. I came home with a piece of flannel, picked out by the Emperor, for a new winter pillowcase. I don't know if I've talked about this before; when sock monkey fabric was the rage, I went out and got two pieces of it and made flannel pillowcases for us, and we loved them. Six or so years on, the cases aren't so fuzzy any more, so it's time to make a new set. I picked out a fabric with rainbow hedgehogs for me, and the Emperor picked out a wallpaper style in black and white. So I've got those set aside to work on when I dig out the sewing machine later this week.
I also picked up a ball of yarn. My original thought was to make this cowl of different but similar yarns I could find locally, but our LYS had nothing that matched those sumptuous textures. Instead, I found myself drawn to a ball of Stacy Charles Luna in white and silver. When I got home, I got onto Ravelry and looked to see what other knitters had done with single balls of Luna, and found a pattern for an infinity scarf that would do nicely. Inspired, I got out my number nines, cast on 150-ish stitches, did four rows of garter stitch, and now I have a really beautiful little bit of mindless knitting to tote around with me, should I need it. The thing about Luna is that you see the metallic strand quite prominently in the ball, but in the knitted item, the mohair and silk take over and the sparkle becomes very subtle. The plan is to just knit this cowl until I almost run out of yarn, then do some garter stitch and cast off.
I ask myself, what's with all the cowls? Thinking about it, I use some of them as necklaces, rather than as something to keep warm with. Right now, "infinity scarves" are really popular accessories, and a clever person can make them to match practically anything they have in the closet. They dress up t-shirts and simple sweaters. Big bulky cowls are great to wear with coats to keep warm with, and I've got a couple of those. When the current cowl phase wanes, I plan to keep wearing them because I just plain like them. They're very flexible; you can fold them over and put a funky pin on them, or just put one around your neck and let it hang there.
No matter what, there is still the small matter of Finding A Way To Wrap Christmas Things. That's next on my agenda, and I'm off now to seek the solution to this matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment