Weeks

The past week I've been obsessing, for lack of a better word, over the snowdrop shawl pattern on Yarn Harlot.

I bought several fluffly little balls of mohair in which to make the shawl. I've downloaded the instructions, made an excel spreadsheet of the entire pattern and now have handwritten out the pattern on little sheets of paper that I can carry around with me (say, on an airplane). I've cast on and frogged back the example I'm making in leftover baby blanket yarn.

When I finally get to the mohair, I want this pattern to just flow.

I have even bought some yarn on eBay, in case I decide mohair is beyond me at this point in time.

The knitting relaxes me. This has been a somewhat stressful week, beginning as it did with the sudden need to fly to Hawaii to clear out our sainted mother's apartment. She is moving in with my sister after a bout of ill health. My contribution is to deal with the debris of a life lived in one single apartment since the mid-60s. I leave after Memorial Day and will be there for about three weeks.

And so, I knit. My hands are kept busy, my mind must focus on the task at hand and that way I don't have to continue thinking about the way the gods mock those who feel they have turned a corner in their lives.