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<\/a><\/p>\nOr therapy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Excuse #1 for spending time with knitting after many years away is that my hands get very sore from typing, and knitting is completely different in the way you use your hands.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Excuse #2 is I wanted something that could be done indoors or out, and taken along when waiting somewhere (traveling, for instance.)\u00a0 Excuse #3 is that I’d been feeling the need to do something with my hands for others.\u00a0 Other than family, I mean.<\/p>\n
Well before I started knitting again, knitting intruded into the book then being written (next year’s book.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I remembered enough of my prior knitting experience…but just writing it made my hands start to wiggle in knitting movements.\u00a0 (That’s when I realized it felt good to hands tight and sore from hours of typing.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I know I mentioned people knitting (background) in the first round of Paksworld books, but I was a lot closer to my knitting past then, and my mother (who knit, crocheted, needle-pointed, embroidered, and sewed beautifully–all of it) was still alive.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Since then I’ve forgotten a lot she taught me.<\/p>\n
So I’m knitting again.\u00a0\u00a0 There’s a group in central Texas called The Linus Connection that distributes hand-made blankets for children in crisis situations.\u00a0 I’m working on a blanket.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Blankets for this group must be machine washable\/dryable, and synthetic yarn if knitted or crocheted.\u00a0\u00a0 So I’m doing research, perforce, because in the old days (!!)\u00a0 I knit only with wool and only on straight needles (knitting round on four double-pointed needles.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And I never used variegated colors.\u00a0 Now I’m working with synthetic yarn, variegated colors, and a circular (cable) needle.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My hands like the movements.\u00a0\u00a0 My brain is fascinated with what I’ve forgotten,\u00a0 figuring out how to fix mistakes, and the new stuff–the yarn, the effect of different colored dyes on the same yarn (the blue stretches have one “feel” and behavior; the green, red, orange, gold have different feels and behaviors.)<\/p>\n
I’ve picked up some knitting magazines, one of which has a couple of fascinating historical articles on knitting and n\u00e4llbinding.\u00a0\u00a0 Some historical details will creep into future books, I’m sure.\u00a0\u00a0 The history of fabric–the different ways different cultures have approached “linear strands” and turned them into “surface”–is fascinating, and one of foundations of economic exchange from way back.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So when I quit writing for half an hour to put another row on the project,\u00a0 it really is research, not just therapy.<\/p>\n