Aprons Among Us

I have been ripping orange yarn and cheering Latvia today.

The Sunrise Circle Jacket proved to be very large when I started seaming. I had my boyfriend try it on, wanting to know just how huge it was -- and it fit better than I expected, even knowing it slumped all over my shoulders. I was close enough to stitch count, but apparently the row gauge was off, off, and more off. Strangely, I'm not ready to step off a cliff -- I am quite calm. It feels good to have knitted a whole sweater (I know I'm capable of finishing a large stockinette project without bailing or breaking out into cables now) and the practice in first-time seaming was surprisingly fun (great using a slightly darker yarn if you have to rip it out). So, this sadder-but-wiser girl unraveled the whole sweater while winding it around a big cake carrier, hung it off hangers and doorknobs, and weighted it down with mugs, glass jars, and trigger bottles of cleaner. My apartment is liberally festooned. The Rowan Pure Wool Aran stinks when wet. Yuck.

Despite that, I am swatching the hexagon texture pattern from Knitting Nature, to maybe make a cardi. Not Norah's asymmetrical one, but something simple enough. I'm going to use this yarn for something! But I also vindictively bought the Reynolds Odyssey to make a fractal cardigan from the same book. The colors are too pretty and I'm terrified they won't be around if I decide to buy them in the future. Binge after purging the other project?

I saw a production of the Synge play The Playboy of the Western World this week. I read the play for no good reason a few years ago and preferred it; it was wonderful to see it performed at last, and so ably. The PICT cast did a great job, I loved the leads, but the best moment was the apron. The female barkeep takes off her apron at the end of the night: does she put it on a hook to hang? No! There are two nails at the high corners of the window, she raises the apron, twirls the ties around the nails, and Presto! Curtain! It felt so right, I think it has to be historically accurate. And of course, I don't have curtains but I do have aprons. The solution has come to me from the 19th century through historical drama. Who needs the Home channel?

Requiem: