• 

Northwest Knitters

 

 

 

 

Leaving Seattle, we headed into Oregon for a few days with my daughter, Jennifer, (a knitter) and Andy in Portland, and friends Elise (not a knitter, but promised her mother) and Chuck in Salem.

I love Portland, especially Jennifer’s neighborhood,– the Alberta Arts district, with its many small shops close together on both sides of the street, and just as many food places. I looked forward to walking to the yarn shop for knitting accouterments.

Finally, we turned to the sweater. “It should be called Jim’s Sweater by Tom Sawyer, “ offered Jennifer. We chuckled. While the three Seattle knitters had magnificently knitted the first rows of the sweater back, I had somehow managed to do my first two rows of ribbing backwards. I attempted to undo the two rows, but Jennifer said back knitting is hard and we decided to leave them. After all, imperfections are a sign of handwork.

Jennifer began to switch the sweater onto metal circular needles that we bought in the yarn shop. She then deftly knitted one row. “More,?” I asked. “No,” she replied. Next she tackled the yarn “blanket” I had started the previous year correcting problem spots. An occasional sigh escaped her lips—a peculiar sound that daughters do occasionally and only mothers can hear.

We left Portland to spend two days on the coast with an overnight visit with Alaska expats Elise and Chuck. We met for dinner at the Wild Pear in downtown Salem and then to their house. Chuck is a retired calculus teacher, who now tutors students with plenty of time for his running passion. Elise, a recovering social worker is a fulltime expert bead glass blower including small, beautiful birds and animals. I treasure several pieces of her jewelry, www.koibeads.com

Elise, blessed with an incredible quick wit, is a longtime friend and support through good times and bad. At one point she decided to contact God for a guardian angel replacement as she claimed my angel was not doing her job. It was a short, but rich, warm visit. Alas, there was no time to visit her mother, the knitter.

 

I had one more NW knitter hope. Cheri, expat Alaskan now living in western Washington was a fellow Canadian born on Salt Spring Island off of Vancouver Island. The island is home to many, many artisans. And while I didn’t ask, I just knew Cheri could knit. Alas, Cheri was on a work project in Alaska and wouldn’t return for two days after we were in the area. Tom Sawyer needs to step it up.

We planned a rendezvous with Donna and Chris who had committed to knitting a few rows. Donna is an Anchorage colleague who recently built a home on the Kenai Peninsula not too far from Nikiski. We had been crisscrossing our vagabond paths and hadn’t connected. Now it looked good! We were both headed to Lewiston MT where we planned to meet at Costco’s. Alas, they were delayed and we were early so we will try again in AZ in a couple of months.

Now up to me, I finished the eclectic ribbed rows and moved on to the back. Hmmm I seemed to have picked up an extra 15 stitches and must remedy that. Luckily we are on our way to Sheridan WY where we will stay with expert and fast knitter Deb and former colleague/friend Greg.

 

 

I am not disappointed. Deb loves the yarn and says so over and over again. “This yarn has a good hand,” she said knitting away (: She described the upcoming pieces and the best way to knit them. If all else fails and I run out of expert knitters, she told me to Skype her. Phewwwww.

Not sure of our next move after Jim sees Dr. Marino for his 6 month oncology checkup next week. However, Siohban, an expat Alaskan living in South Dakota has offered a few rows while Joyce and Jim, fellow nomadic wanderers are headed back to AK before we can get Joyce’s rows.

This is a beautiful, but slow project. Perhaps I should send out a roving body part or two. Anyone interested in an arm to knit a bit and send around? Or a pocket?

*********************************************************************

      Ninety year old Jim shuffled into the room with his hands shoved into the pockets of his favorite sweater, a grey cardigan. Deep in thought he was obviously thinking about a design problem with his latest project. He headed for his favorite chair, a big overstuffed red and green lodge chair that looked like it had been rescued from the Salvation Army.

From a distance, most people wondered why he wore the sweater so often and seemed to be happier than normal when wearing it. Sure it was warm and light but it was a little misshapen and seemed to have slightly different patterns. One arm was a little longer than the other, but Jim just rolled it up a bit. There were pulls in the yarn in some places. It looked like a cat had kneaded the sweater before settling onto Jim’s lap. It almost looked like many people knitted the sweater.

Sure it was ratty, but up close it emanated warmth, happiness, kindness and love. How could this be? After all it was just a bunch of yarn…..

***********************************************************************