scifiknitter

A new sweater came off of my needles and onto my back, and I’m happy to report that I was able to finish this one in early December, in time to actually be used this winter. I started this sweater last summer when my vision was deteriorating day by day due to rapid onset cataracts. One day I could no longer knit socks because the stitches were too small for me to see well, and I needed a project using larger yarn on larger needles. I kept trying the sweater on as I knit it and it seemed awfully snug, but denial was on full display as I kept telling myself everything would be OK - “It will block out to size.” Ha! Those famous words have doomed many a knitting project to failure. After I had knit approximately half of the sleeves, denial no longer worked. They were so snug, I could see my skin through the stitches. So I ripped back half of a sweater to the beginning, and cast on again, this time two sizes larger to accommodate both a gauge discrepancy and my need for (...

A new knitting goal for me is to envision the next person who will use any knit that I make for myself. I am still busily knitting for myself, because I love wearing clothing that I made for myself, and knitting is my preferred craft - and because it is harder than you would think to knit something for anyone else. I’ve gone wrong more often than I care to admit, giving a hand knit that I was proud of, only to see a lukewarm smile on the recipient’s face. This particular project, the Endless Circle Vest designed by Julie Farmer, is especially personal, because I spun all the yarn for it. That process took a lot longer than I expected, and I ended up with a bulkier yarn than was my goal when I started the project. The yarn was consistent, though, and very knitable, so I searched for a project that would work with the amount of yarn I had and that would be forgiving of a yarn that wasn’t mill perfect. The vest is kind of funky, but so is the yarn, and so, for that matter, am I. ...

I continue to knit nearly every day. These days I think of my knitting as my legacy in stitches. Legacies. What will persist beyond our lives? This is something that surely other people think about when they realize that the end of their lives may be nearing. When I think of my life and my work, I realize that my knitting is the work that might endure the longest. My accounting work? The general ledgers of each year I closed will live on as PDF files on a server in Ithaca, but with a document retention schedule of 6 years for nearly everything else, almost every piece of paper I carefully filed away during 13 years of work will be shredded within five years time. I did leave the organization in a healthy financial position so it is more likely endure for many years, and there is a plaque on the wall of a kitchen memorializing my name and my work. I cannot take credit either for the work that the agency continues to do or for its continued operation. My knitting will surviv...

Several years ago I set about writing a condensed biography to use on my blog and on other social media sites. As I’ve changed the bio over the years, I have kept one phrase: “I’m very content to be one of the little people, whose names aren’t recorded in history books and who are remembered only by family and friends after they die.” Perhaps memories of my voice and my face may fade, but it seems that my name will be around for a while. I had a kitchen dedicated to me on September 9, 2016. Planning for the kitchen was well underway at the time I retired. Since then, my former boss and Executive Director of the agency, Patrick Ames, put together the funding for the project. What made the project possible was a change in funding rules that allowed USDA Rural Development to partner with the agency. The dedication ceremony was as good an experience as I could have imagined. There were speeches by State elected officials, a County executive, Patrick, the Board President, and me. Th...