Life's little ironies...

Sometimes they just kill me.

Like right now, for example.

Remember this?



Yep. Making that one for my friend, Marina. It's called "Florentino" by Martin Storey - Rowan Mag #44 (remember that name, FLORENTINO, you will need it later in this post).


I've been formulating a blog post about this sweater since I cast on last week. Some kind of musing on trying the impossible, or stretching oneself past preconceived limits, or maybe just something about how everything about this sweater is difficult.

As life does, it sent me this blog post instead.

So, as I mentioned, I cast on last week. Marina would like the sweater by Christmas. David laughed when he heard that request, so as all good wives do I have decided that Marina will have this sweater by Christmas, if only to prove David wrong.



I'm this far



Actually, I've gotten this far twice! I wasn't satisfied with the first go at it so, hearing the Gambler's advice in my head, I ripped back and started again.

I'm excited by the challenge of the project (the project itself, not just the deadline part). It's a project that I would normally look at in the magazine and say "ohhhh, that's lovely!" and then turn the page because of some mental block about it being sooooo (or maybe tooooo) difficult. When Marina asked for it, it was just the push I needed to dive into the deep end of the pool.

I have been going at this sweater like a mad woman - HOURS everyday sitting while knitting FLORENTINO, knitting FLORENTINO while sitting. I'm please so far with what's happening...



But it isn't easy knitting. Sitting while knitting FLORENTINO. Knitting FLORENTINO while sitting.








The pattern looks like this



Thus, it's very interesting knitting but also a little tense. There's a lot of concentration involved. Knitting FLORENTINO while sitting. TENSE knitting FLORENTINO while sitting.

This morning I was outside in the fresh morning air with the doggies. It was first thing in the morning so they did what dogs (and a lot of people) do first thing in the morning. I live in the country...usually I just leave their morning "work" where they left it. For some reason this morning, I decided it would be a good idea to scoop it and throw it the tall weeds.

I bent over and WHACK! My back just went...gone...finished....just like that...WHACK. I won't go into all the details of how I reacted (David dear, sorry for screaming at you on the phone, thanks for being supportive anyway and many thanks to Natalie, Mette, AnnaMia, and Isolde for stepping up to the plate for me). The end result was the doctor explaining to me that the WHACK was the "colpa della strega" - witch's hit. Apparently she tends to strike when your muscles are tense and then get cold (???).

Well, that must have been one pissed off witch because I can't bend, sit, lie-down, drive, work, clean, or bathe. All of this would be fine by me, most of those things are over-rated anyway, but I'm also afraid that I won't be able to get on a train in two day's time to meet my parents....in Florence.

Life's little ironies.