Multi-Tasking

Mo, one of the Folly Cove Fiber Freaks, called me Sunday morning and asked if I had to do laundry. Well, I told her, as a matter of fact I do. Why? She had to do laundry too and was having a hard time getting motivated to do it so thought if she called me up and we met to do laundry together it might help. Sounded like a good idea to me. We both showed up at the laundromat with our laundry and, of course, our knitting. While the laundry churned and we gabbed our knitting needles flew.

She commented that she had read my blog about the woman cleaning the bathroom sink while --- well, ahem --- you know. I told her what my sister said about it, "It's called multi-tasking! Busy women understand!" Unfortunately husbands sometimes don't. While we were chatting I told her that Lisa had told me she wore the sweater I made her to school last week and everyone was very complimentary of it. While she was telling me the story I was trying to remember --- what sweater did I make her??? Now that is embarrassing. How do you tell someone who is thanking you for a gift that you don't remember making it and giving it to them?

I remembered making her a beautiful periwinkle blue sweater out of Lamb's Pride but that was years ago and it didn't really fit her right and our sister Anne grabbed it and has been wearing it ever since. So finally I asked. "The one made of blue wool with a thread of pastel ribbon running through it." Oh yeah. I forgot about that one. I'm really happy that everyone liked it!

The thing is when you are a highly productive person and that is combined with a post-menopausal brain --- well, stuff gets lost in the vast caverns of memory. Lisa is herself a highly productive quilter. I cannot believe the things she makes and it seems like there is always something new flying out of that sewing machine of hers. She told me that one day she and a few friends were chatting and someone was talking about the drug Ambien. Apparently people taking the drug have been known to get up in the middle of the night and make a snack or do some other little task and never be aware of it until they see the remains of it the next morning. One of Lisa's friends laughed and said, "Yeah, Lisa took Ambien once and when she woke up the next morning she had made three quilts." When she told me that I laughed out loud --- it sounds like her.

Well, that's the thing. When you have something that you genuinely love to do, you find a way to do it. One of the wonderful things about the current knitting mania that has hit young women is how many women I see now knitting in public --- on the train, waiting for a bus, standing in line at the bank. Knitters are possessed and it has not only created a wonderful and satisfying hobby for many but has created an entire industry for spinners in impoverished areas of third world countries. In my current stash I have yarn from knitting collectives in Peru, Uruguay, Nepal, and Haiti --- probably more. Our obsession with knitting socks lets them feed and clothe their families. everything is connected.

So Mo and I got our laundry done and also a good deal of knitting and yakking. A few people stopped to look at our projects and talk about knitting --- how they loved it, or wanted to get started, or wished they could. Of course you can. I could probably support half a dozen knitters out of my current stash. Years ago I got into the quilting mania but after a dozen or so quilts I lost interest. problem was I had a ton of gorgeous fabric waiting to be used. So one day I packed it up and drove over to Ipswich where there is a retirement home for nuns. I asked if anybody there wanted quilting fabric. Boy, what a dumb question. I'm going to heaven for sure 'cause those nuns are going to pray me in. Meanwhile, I knit.

Thanks for reading.