All Gone, But Not Forgotten

Dropping son #2 at college was actually more difficult than we'd imagined -- especially for my husband. A few miles from campus he asked me how I felt. I replied, "sad," and he didn't say anything, but a few minutes later (I was driving) I looked over and he was raining tears. And we couldn't find any tissues.

We went and spent the night at my sister's house, and went to my parents' house for a barbecue the next day, so didn't get home to our empty house until Sunday night. We watched an episode of Northern Exposure (we're working our way through the quirky series we were avid fans of in the late 80's) and went to bed -- exhausted.

On Wednesday evening, I finally stepped into Nate's room and got the urge to start cleaning. Today, Saturday, I spent most of the morning in there -- throwing several bags of trash away. Both boys' rooms will be cleaned out by the time they come home again, though I doubt we'll get to do the painting and wallpapering that those rooms desperately need before they come home for fall or even winter break. But, I feel a sense of accomplishment, just being able to walk through the rooms without impediment.

I actually really love both the thought of being organized and the act of cleaning out rooms, closets, boxes, etc. For some reason, though, I'm not as good at keeping things organized once I've cleaned them. That is especially true of my knitting stuff. I haven't settled on a happy way to store needles, for example -- especially round needles and the bamboo flexi-needles that are so much gentler on my wrists. And, my yarn stash needs more space than I currently cram it into. My plans for cleaning out our house involve a kind of complex domino set up. Cleaning out the boys' rooms will give me room to overflow into as I clean out and organize other rooms. Besides yarn, I have lots of books to organize.

So, I'm thinking about my boys a lot as I sift through the detritis left behind in the rooms they've occupied nearly their entire lives so far. No surprises yet, just lots of trash and good memories.

ON MY NEEDLES
I started a shrug for my Mom, using the lace shrug pattern from A Gathering of Lace. I made one for my sister some time ago so I'm absolutely sure there are no mistakes in this pattern! I'm using a Knit Picks variegated yarn in blues that they no longer sell. I bought three batches of the yarn when it was on close-out and hope to make, eventually, a third one of these for myself at some point.

Pink socks are coming along. I've decided to ignore the pattern directions and use the heel I like from another pattern. I may have made them too small, but we'll see how they turn out.

Braids Cardigan -- I worked on it on the way to NH. Hopefully I'll have enough yarn to complete it and won't have to rip it out to make it shorter.

Other stuff -- I just downloaded the Knitting Daily pattern for Vivian Hoxbro's potholder and made a square out of some scrap yarn. I figured that the only way I'd understand the pattern would be to actually do it step by step. Fun!

Being back to work and the activity of the beginning of the school year makes for much less knitting time!