Just a Quick Project

I’ve spent too many days with cold toes to let it go on any longer.

I bought some Wool-Ease Thick & Quick at the Arts and Crafts store, (although, they charge MSRP on the yarn there, a bit shocking for someone used to shopping sales in a multi-store-competition-based world) double-stranded it, and knit some of the ugliest slippers I have ever seen. You can find the pattern here, but I’m just gonna clue you in now that it’s a rectangle with cables on the sides and decreases in the last row. To be honest, double-stranding the Thick & Quick might have been overkill, but despite their thick and lumpy appearance, the slippers are cushy and warm.

So, yeah – I’m not too enamored of the pattern, but it’s fast and functional. Max saw that I made some slippers and told me that he needed some, too – because he had cold toes. “You make me some, Mama!” You bet, bud. I ended up using about a skein and a half in my gigantic slippers, so there was plenty left to make some little single-stranded ones. (Pictures to come later.) Charlie might want some, too! We’ll see.

And now, for a political aside.

If you’re the kind of person who finds heated or controversial political discussions distasteful, please – come back next time, when I’ll have a quirky toy collection and and an update on the cashmere situation to present.

I’ve been doing a lot of research this week, and having many, many online discussions to try and decide which Presidential candidate will get my vote this fall. (Yes, I’m still deliberating.) I’ve been asking others what it is about their candidate of choice that earned their support. Some people are voting along party lines, some people are voting after careful consideration of issues most important to them, and some people’s vote was swayed by mudslinging. Out of everything, I was most disturbed by a single line I kept seeing over and over.

I could never support someone who was pro-life. Period.

Since when has being pro-life been an indefensible position? Since when has being pro-life been a symptom of radical religious misogyny, not to mention someone incredibly out of touch with the ‘realities’ of modern life? Since when has concern for the life of an unborn child been irrelevant?

Look. I don’t think abortion should be completely illegal. The decision to have an abortion is a huge and very personal one, and there are situations where I would feel that a mother was justified in terminating her pregnancy. I don’t believe laws should be changed to force women to carry a baby they do not want to term. That’s wrong. I’ve had children. Being pregnant was one of the most invasive, exhausting, overwhelming, and frightening experiences of my life – of course it wasn’t only that, but in a situation where I had no desire for the pregnancy or the child, in a situation with no support, it would have been Hell. I also don’t believe that women should have an abortion because they don’t feel like having kids, or getting stretch marks, or ‘I’m in school right now,’ or ‘he broke up with me when he found out,’ or the hundred other reasons that have nothing to do with the life of the mother, the life of the child, rape, incest, or other deeply damaging situations. (These combined account for less than 10% of abortions in the United States.) That is also wrong. Not because I say so, but because the decision to end a human life for any but the deepest and most desperate of reasons is wrong. I suppose that because I don’t want to completely ban abortions, and I don’t want to strictly limit them (I don’t think that’s possible in a way that is ethical) I can’t call myself ‘pro-life.’ I’m definitely not ‘pro-choice.’ It’s just never that simple.

So I’m not out to take away your “right” to abortions. But come on, people. There has to be a better way. I’m all for mass dispersal of contraceptives, if that would reduce abortion rates. Frankly, if you don’t want children I don’t want you reproducing. (Not in a Darwinian sense. But I like babies. Why would I want to force you to have one you don’t want? Not fair to anyone.) If you (as an adult) choose to have sex, you choose to accept an implicit risk of pregnancy resulting – even with contraception. Responsibility for the consequences of your actions is not optional. If even a .01% chance of pregnancy is unacceptable to you, quit having sex.

In the end, I am really, truly saddened by the unspoken attitude I have seen reflected by dozens of women this week, that anyone ‘against’ abortion only wants to cripple and control women, shackling them in their own bodies for the sake of some unwanted non-person (aka fetus) that someone will have to grudgingly provide and care for after it makes it out. It seems like the discussion has focused so much on “her body” that no one dares to mention “her baby” – and that is devastatingly tragic.

You’re welcome to tell me you disagree with me. I don’t mind. I do reserve the right to delete any comments from flamers.

We now return to your regularly scheduled content.

So, Greg asked me the other day…

“…so, do you like knitting now better than you like crocheting?” I took this as my cue to crochet something again. (The answer, by the way, is no, knitting is just still really new to me and I have a LOT to learn, which is a really engaging challenge. Plus, when I crochet, I design. It’s like I can’t help it.)

I pulled the sheepghan out of the closet again and slogged through the charting issues (by ignoring my previously worked-out chart and just putting the colors in the places I wanted them). My reward?

Wow. That’s actually looking pretty great. And sure, great is subjective, but it’s looking a lot like I meant it to, which is great to me. However, as you may or may not be able to tell from the darkish photo, I’m going to have a gazillion ends to weave in. Way, way more than the cotton top. Way, way, way more. I think the next church-baby afghan will be markedly simpler.

Oh, by the way – I figured out why Knit Picks sent me those color cards….they introduced new colors in both of those yarns and were trying to get rid of the old ones! The sneaks. However, I’m not complaining, because the new colors are all heathers and I love a good heather. It’s actually my favorite sort of coloring. I love them. Seriously, if I name my first-born daughter Heather it won’t be because of the flower. (I kid. Maybe if I ever get a cat it’ll be a Heather.) Um. Where was I?

My point is, I like heathered yarns.