Saturday, June 02, 2007

Untangling Knots, Part II (Updated*********)


While I was composing Untangling Knots, Part I, I took a break and visited a few of my favorite blogs, and thanks the to The Ice Floe I learned that yesterday was lgbt (that's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) family day, and bloggers who wanted to commemorate the occasion were invited to do so and notify mombian to add their posts to the collection. I sent mombian an email regretting that I'd missed the deadline and learned that I can still contribute! So this post takes on a new meaning.

Nine years ago my daughter elswhere and her partner had a commitment ceremony, which I've already blogged about. Almost seven years ago they had a daughter, my first grandchild, Mermaid Girl. (Elswhere blogs about Mermaid Girl's doings over at Travels in Booland). Four years ago they got married legally, in Vancouver, with Mermaid Girl as flower girl. During those years I've had plenty of time to get used to being a grandma in an lgbt family...and not just used to, but proud of. Most of the time my concerns are not that my granddaughter has two mommies, but that one of her grandmothers (me) lives so far away that she can only see her at great expense. I do what I can to compensate for the distance: Skype calls, notes, gift packages, blog, and most of all, knitting. I knit for her and for her dolls.

Since Mermaid Girl has great fashion sense, and is very interested in how she dresses, I have taken to bringing my knitting design book with me on my annual visit and letting her choose how she wants her sweater to look. This year's choice is quite complicated: ladybugs, twelve in all, around the bottom border, a dog and a teddy bear in the front, and a robin redbreast and a butterfly in the back. That means a lot of colors. Which means a lot of tangles. It will get worse before it gets better!

But don't worry, I'll post photos of the finished product.

*********Update: Done!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

One hint that might help is that if you are only having small areas of color, rather than make butterflies with more yarn than you'll use, keep about a yard's worth of live yarn and just pull it through when you need to work on that color. I've done this with my Rowan "Kill'em" Cushion cover and it works just fine.

SavtaDotty said...

Jennifer, I'll need to question you more about this technique during our lunch date.

Anonymous said...

Oh, what a great post. And I can easily see that you're an expert knitter! (which I'm not, but I enjoy it)
Those sweaters are going to be sensational. And what a lucky granddaughter you have.
The beginning of those ladybugs looks amazing. I've never seen that done before.