Now That's Amazing

Let me start by saying it's been quite a while since last I wrote. My apologies but it has been a very hectic year.

Both my children are now out of the house in University so I am trying to get used to being what I guess they call an "Empty Nester". I call it "I LOVE THE CLEAN BUT MISS MY KIDS".

Funny, while they are teens and rolling their eyes and eating you out of house and home you can't wait for them to move out. Of course when they do you wonder why you ever thought that in the first place.

I have been very busy knitting lately and most of the year was dedicated to shawls. The two main were for my DIL and the other to a special niece. I was thrilled that my DIL actually wore hers to the wedding and there were many comments.

I also had the extreme pleasure of attending my nieces wedding and having four people wearing estonian shawls that I had knit for them. That was really a treat.

And of course the picture above shows my "Flying Geese" mittens that were adapted from Robin Hansons fantastic book.

I also figure I am out of my mind as I decided to order "Cobweb" 1 ply yarn from the UK in order to do a shetland lace stole that has lace on every row. And to make it more fun the yarn is in black and I am using 1.5mm addi lace needles. You know sometimes I think I really have very little going on upstairs to try these things.

Of course that too is on hold as I am taking a Shetland Cardigan KIL that involves steeking. I always wanted to learn how to take scissors and cut my work in half so decided this would be a good time to do it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Of course I am the only male in the class of about 18 females. Sometimes I wonder whether me being there changes what the course of conversation would have been. Afterall, I would think there are certain subjects that females must talk about when males are not around.

And that brings me to my title. Last week I was at the hospital waiting for my dad to be discharged. Since I was there for about 8 hours I had brought along a simple hat that I was doing for my son. What was amazing was how many of the nurses came up one after the other to tell me how shocked and stunned they were to see a male knitting. That this was something they had not seen before. It was as if I was sitting in a room naked. And of course all would tell me how in the old days it was the men who knit but Given how young most of them were I figured "How do they know".

Yes, here we are in the year 2012 and it is still amazing for women or men to see us guys knitting. I wonder if I was naked which would be more shocking. The naked or the knitting.

Well, hopefully I will never find out. Hopefully for both of us.