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yarn_harlot_feed Jun. 18th, 2025 05:09 pm)I was in a yarn shop a while ago and I saw a sweater and I loved it. It was short sleeved and summery and knit out of this great yarn (Cottage Fingering, 50% Merino, 20% Linen, 15% Silk, 15% Cotton) and thanks to that plant/silk ingredients, it had fantastic drape and weight. It was oversized but a little elegant, and looked super wearable. For years and years I’ve been smitten with this sort of “post-apocolyptic my clothes are all rags but I still look fabulous like the matrix” vibe, but me being me I’m pretty sure that all I ever manage is the first part of that phrase, but it never stops me from buying stuff that I think might take me over the line. The point is that I was in this shop and this sample was so great, and so I looked at the tag and was absolutely stunned to see that it was a sweater that I’ve looked at a thousand times and had no interest in – Ranunculus. (That first picture alone – the waif in the giant version was enough to put me off.) This version though… before I even knew what happened to me I had the yarn in my bag.
Some months later (like a couple weeks ago) I decided that I would knit the thing. I’ve got a shelf in the stash room where I put things that are “next” and it’s been taunting me from there so I dove in and swatched, wondering if that would take the edge off. It didn’t. It did convince me to go down an needle size and redo a little math so it would be a slightly tighter gauge but still give me the ease I wanted, and that convinced me to cast on provisionally at the beginning of the yoke and come back to the neckband at the end. Off I went.
It’s a fun knit, I give you that – I can see why so many people have made it. Fun little stitch pattern on the yoke, big needles… the yarn is a bit slow, so it could have been faster, but I was at the divide in no time, and cruising cheerfully down the body and almost ready to start the ribbing when the trouble started.
The trouble took the form of the voice of my inner knitter and she said “It’s too short”. Is it? I thought? My inner knitter has a lot experience so I stopped and measured. It was not too short, so I knit a couple more rounds to reassure her, and then started to think about the ribbing again. “It’s still too short” she muttered. I measured it again, this time lying it on top of a sweater that I like the length of, comparing the total length of the sweater. It was not too short, so I did a few more rounds to humour her and got ready to do the ribbing. (Oddly, the sweater didn’t seem to get any longer when I added those five rounds, which should have been a clue that something else was going on.) Debbi and I were together for the retreat at Port Ludlow at the time, so I announced the milestone. Debbi creased her brow and said “Huh. Really? It looks too short.” Now Debbi has a ton of knitting experience as well, so that smartened me up again.
“Really? I said? I’ve measured it twice… It’s totally the right length -remember it’s getting ribbing so it will be longer than it looks now…” Debbi brought out the big guns and raised an eyebrow, and then suggested I try it on. I dutifully got some knitters cord and slipped it on, then popped it over my head. It WAS too short, but by the length of the ribbing so it’s perfect. I knew from my swatch it was going to relax but not really grow, and I told Debbi that. “It’s the right length” I said, admiring it in the mirror again.
“Great” Debbi said, but she didn’t mean great. She meant she thought the sweater was too short. I knit a few more rounds, then measured it again, then held it up to the other sweater again, then tried it on again. It was the perfect length. Debbi and my inner voice shrugged and I started the ribbing. The whole time I was knitting that ribbing, it wouldn’t stop dogging me. Every few rounds I repeated the ritual. Measure, compare, try on. It took forever to knit it because I kept stopping to do all this – and the whole time it wasn’t just Debbi and my inner knitter who thought it was too short – at my birthday party I cast off and was about to start the sleeves and I held it up to show off to Amanda. She made a face and said “I’m surprised you wanted a cropped sweater…” I looked down, trying to reconcile what she’d said with what I was seeing. It isn’t a cropped sweater – it ends at my hip bone. I measured again. I compared again, I tried it on again. It is the right length. I don’t know why it doesn’t look like it is, but it is. Maybe it’s that it doesn’t have have a neck band yet – or that it is very wide. It has tons of ease and maybe the proportions are making all of us think that it should be longer if it is wider?
I’m about done the sleeves now (I think they are too short as well) and have thought constantly about unpicking my bind-off (I’d rather not it’s slubby yarn and a super pain) and adding more length, but I’m committed to staying the course. I’ve been down this road before and I have a too-long sweater upstairs to prove it. I have swatched. I have measured. I have compared, I have tried on. It is the right length. It is not too short. I don’t know what game this sweater is running, but I’m not falling for it.
Right?
yarn_harlot_feed Jun. 14th, 2025 08:21 pm)If you have been around here for any amount of time at all, never mind the full two decades that I have been at this blogging thing to some degree, then by now you should know that I don’t work on my birthday. I used to explain it at job interviews and other than the years that my kids were little and there’s no choice (and one year at the June Retreat in Port Ludlow- but that’s hardly the same kind of work) I don’t do it. That means that technically today should be spent in traditional fashion, which is doing as I darn well please, but I am breaking away from my regularly scheduled festivities to tell you about this year’s Team Knit for the Bike Rally, because there is nothing I would like more for my birthday than a donation to this terrific cause.
Now, I know there’s a small chance that a few of you don’t know me very well (hi instagram) and so let me take a minute to explain what the Bike Rally is, and what’s going on anyway – we’re going back to basics. The Bike Rally is a 660km (bike ride, not motorcycle) from Toronto to Montreal, in support of three great ASOs. (AIDS Service Organizations, that’s people that help people with HIV/AIDS. The one here in Toronto is called PWA, and that’s short for People With AIDS.) Every year a couple hundred people get on their bikes and ride that great long way (they’re the riders, like me) and other people move their stuff and mark the route and cook the food and keep them safe (that’s the crew, like Cam this year) and other people donate money to cheer them on, and to show gratitude that they themselves don’t have to ride bikes that far to make a change in the world. (That’s you.)
We’ve been doing this for years and years and years. Ken started it, and the rest of us have been doing it fewer years, but still a really long time. (Every person in my family has done the ride, except Joe, who I think we can all agree is sort of crew.) ALL of Team Knit (with the exception of Fenner this year but she’s practically a baby) hold this cause in such high esteem that we have held some sort of leadership role or in the case of me and Cam and I may have really maxed this out) MANY leadership roles to keep it rolling. That means that not only are we committed to riding when we can – which is a ridiculous amount of time when you think of the training and fundraising and then the week to actually ride… but decided that this needed more of our time when we’re not riding. That’s an endorsement, right?
These ASOs provide practical, meaningful help to people who have HIV or AIDS and were a response to the under-response of the AIDS crisis that began in the 80s, and over the years what they do and who they do it for has shifted. What was originally a tragedy centred on the gay community and the death sentence that was AIDS has become something really different these days, and in fact globally (and here) women make up the majority of people with HIV/AIDS, and the rate of new diagnosis is higher in women, immigrant women, and first nations women, and women of colour. Across the board HIV infection is associated with underprivilege, discrimination, fear, poverty, lack of power, lack of sexual power or decision making ability, and access to prevention/treatment meds.
Nowadays science (with certainty) that U=U, and that means that if treatment for HIV/AIDS has the amount of virus in your blood Undetectable then it is Untransmissible and you can’t give it to anybody. Not everyone knows this though, and grownups and children can face tremendous stigma and shame, not to mention that the medicine that gets you there is expensive and in many parts of the world, difficult to access, or stigmatizing to access. (If you’re not sure about that, just imagine living in Canada or the US, and having to have your whole neighbourhood and community (including the other parents at your local school or the local dating pool) see you turn up at the HIV/AIDS clinic to access meds for you or your child, and know that’s how it is a lot of places if you seek help.)
Anyway, Team Knit thinks that’s trash. Furthermore, I don’t know about you but the world is such a complicated and heartbreaking place lately, that I am relieved to come up against a problem that we’re already equipped to relieve if only we had the money.
This year Team Knit is a group of knitters that are once again going to get on their bikes and try to make things better, and we are:
Fenner (that’s Jen’s kid)
Cameron (Cam’s crewing instead of riding this year, he’s still committed to the cause, still giving up a week of his life to be with us, and though he’s not able to ride this year, you can still donate to him.)
We’re regular knitters, not pro-cyclists or anything, and each of us has so far been on ONE training ride (and they were short) so may the force be with us. (This is the first year that the Rally hasn’t just struck fear in the hearts of one or two of us, but ALL of us. Except Fenner, who has the strength and enthusiasm of youth, which is a whole other kind of amazing thing. You know many teens who would do this?) We ride August 3rd and we would love your support. For years I’ve been writing about the magic of cumulative action, the concept that while one small donation might not mean much, many small donations can make a whole sweater, I mean… an entire cultural shift, but you see how knitters are particularly good at understanding this. Absolutely anything helps, and for years and years we’ve stunned people with what Team Knit (that’s us together with you) can accomplish, especially when we remember that there are many, many ways to help.
It seems like such a good time to come back to basics doesn’t it? People helping people, making change where we can, relieving suffering where we are able. (Sounds like a birthday party to me.)
Let’s go.
(PS I am 57, for those of you who like to donate my age out of sheer moxy.)
yarn_harlot_feed Jun. 13th, 2025 05:38 pm)Sometimes when I talk to people about these blankets they ask me if I ever get tired of thinking them up, if it’s tricky to come up with a different blanket for each baby in this family and Finn, let me tell you this – it is never. You are so unique and special to me that your blanket ideas came as quickly as they ever do- even if your blanket didn’t. (Sorry about that, your birthday bunched up with another baby blanket that needed knitting, then you were early, and your blanket was late and then Canada Post/PostNord Denmark both have some answering to do.) When I thought about you and your parents and family, it was so easy to dream up a blanket as special as you all are.
You, sweet wee Finn, are the baby in this family I am the farthest from, have ever been the farthest from. I am here in Canada and you are in Denmark, and the stitch pattern I chose for the centre of your blanket is my attempt to reconcile that. Some people see a flower, others a bee, and I bet a few years from now you’ll have your own ideas – but I see (and knit) Polaris, the great North Star, a symbol of what the places we live in have in common. I was just going to type “did you know Finn…” and then I remembered you are new here and certainly do not know, so I’ll just tell you.
The North Star sits over the celestial North Pole (and Santa’s house, we’ll get to that later this year) and because of this, the way it sits at the top of the world, it appears mostly stationary in the sky – all other stars appear to rotate around it and it makes it easy to navigate by if you live in the Northern Hemisphere. Find that star, and straight down from it is true north.
This made me think of you because that’s the way it goes in families, for a time now while you are little, you are the star around which we all rotate, and then for the rest of their lives, you will be the most important point your parents navigate by. From the day you were born everything changed for your mum and dad, and from that moment forward they need only look at you to know the way. Further to that my sweet guy, though you are far away you are a child of the North like the rest of us and somehow that makes you feel closer.
Around that is the ring stitch – and this little Finn, is the only stitch that has appeared on every blanket that I have ever knit. It is a circle of tiny perfect rings that goes around the whole blanket, meant to be a symbol of your family and their love around you. If you need help any day of your whole life, look no farther than your amazing grandparents, great aunties and great uncles, your aunties and uncles and your cousins and everyone else in this family by birth, or because they belong and we chose them. They are a team that is always here for you. (Btw I’m great at unusual solutions to problems, and your great uncle Joe is absolutely who you want to call if you’re in jail. Don’t worry about the Denmark thing, he’ll figure it out.)
Around those little rings is a border you share with your cousin Maeve – the last baby in this family who felt far, far away to me. (By the time Sasha came along, I was a bit more used to them being all the way across Canada.) It’s suns and moons, a little nod to the idea that no matter how great the distance is between you and the rest of us, it’s still the same moon we look up at, still the same sun we play under. That you share a border with Maeve also turns out to be a bit of kismet, since it looks as though she may love you more than almost anybody, something I hope is a hint of a fabulous bond down the line.
Past that (your blanket is as big as any of them ever have been, despite my attempts to restrain myself) a border that means something to me, though I have as much trouble articulating it now as I did when I sketched it. There are large motifs with nupp centres and larger circles, giving way with each generation to something less complex, until the last round has just an encircling of little nupps. My idea here was to stretch and try to represent the unique moment your larger families are in… so many generations. Your maternal Great-grandmother counted her progeny for me one day before I knit this, noting that you would be the 28th person in her family because she and Old Joe got married and I tried to visualize all those people, and I know that your dads family brings so much more complexity to this – all these people who you come after because of dates and dreams and accidents and effort. You are the icing on an almost 60 year old cake, and you and your cousins are that newest cute little generation of nupps at the last. It’s a snapshot of who your family is right now and how remarkable that is.
After that (I told you it was big, we’re almost done.) A little chain of daisies – because like your dad Adam you are Danish, and that’s Denmark’s national flower. Also partly for the synergy between your mum and your aunt Savannah and all their Canadian summers trying to make daisy chains. One way or another the two of them will have you in a field with these flowers in your hair sooner or later, and when they do you and your dad can beam with nationalistic pride.
Finally darling Finn, the last border. Like so many of these blankets… it is a wave. First for the wave of love that welcomes you, for the waves of strength that encircle you, for the wave of luck that brought your parents together, but mostly for the wave of strength in your mum, my niece Kamilah, and the wave of water she brought you forth on, sweet and strong and rather obviously no longer the little girl that skips in my heart when I think of her. Your border is knit in garter stitch, and not to geek out in the knitting department too much, but the symbolism in that is safety, strength, comfort, resilience, endurance and shelter. You’ll find a lot of garter stitch in your blanket if you look for it Finn – and it’s there for a reason. I hope the magic of knitting acres of it brings all those charms to your life and more.
Although we haven’t met, my little darling… I hope that every time you are wrapped in your blanket or it is laid over you on a cool day, every time it is spread beneath you so you can watch the leaves flutter or see the birds swoop by – I hope you can feel so much love in all the stitches.
Welcome wee Finn. You are a most wanted, hoped for and dreamed of child. You are perfect.
Love always,
Great-Auntie Stephie
(PS. Please thank your talented grandmother Kelly for taking the beautiful pictures of you enjoying your blanket. You lucked out in the grammy department.)
![[desperately] Maybe this is from some country where they use commas as decimal points, and also as digit separators after the decimal, and also use random other characters for decoration???](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/reading_a_big_number.png "[desperately] Maybe this is from some country where they use commas as decimal points, and also as digit separators after the decimal, and also use random other characters for decoration???")
