Sometimes when you’re just paddling along, and everything is seemingly in rhythm with you, busy yes but manageable, some bored omnipotent way above says its time to have some fun, and whoop, suddenly there’s a wave big enough to swamp your little boat! One day your kid is fine, the next, not so much, and you are left dripping, wondering what the hell just happened, and why didn’t I see that Tsunami coming? I’m supposed to be a pro by now, ever vigilant, eyes in the back of my head, supposed to be able to see ruffled waters from a distance and head for the shoreline before irreparable damage is done. I am not a first time mom you know! I’ve been here before, and passed the dunk test, got the tee-shirt. It’s not pretty to watch me work, but whatever! I can get the job done. Usually….. But complacency will get you though, every time. I can’t detail the specifics here – I don’t have the liberty, but can say it is totally un-related and not remotely like the other kids incident who lifted our cell phone this week, thankfully - but it will suffice to say that the precariously balanced boat we have created holding child and parents was tilted and teetered wildly and the boat was dangerously full of water for a few minutes this week. But as usual we are bailing madly, lifejackets tied on tight, praying to be back on an even keel, and headed for the rocky shoreline as quick as possible.
Of course this metaphorical swamping of the boat has effected my peripheral judgement and attention to detail, and careless errors have appeared in my creative efforts. This time the second sleeve of the Innu sweater had to be ripped back as I had lost count of the decreases and not correctly copied the changes I made to the first sleeve. One more night and I sincerely hope it will be finally finished – groannnn……this was a weekend project, my arse!
And then I really committed a cardinal sin. No thinking going on at the time for certain! As previously mentioned, I have inherited some quilts and quilt tops from my mum. One quilt is completely finished, but when I inspected it last night I discovered some staining and potential surface mold that I knew I needed to treat carefully before adding the quilt to my linen cupboard. But this quilt, my mum told me, had been washed before on the gentle cycle in the machine as it was not so old and not done by hand. Without taking a good look at the construction I focused on the staining and treated the areas and placed it in the machine on gentle in cold water. AND WASHED IT.
Bad, bad move. It would seem this quilt was barely machine quilted, in only a few key places, barely enough to hold the cotton batting from shifting, really more of a comforter, which, had I taken the time to really examine the “quilting”, I would have realized the bathtub for soaking was the only place this baby was going. I’m certain now it has never been washed before. The washer promptly bunched up the cotton batting inside and when I took it out it was a lumpy bumpy stringy mess. The machine pieced top was ok, one small seam gave way, but repairable, and the backing faired equally well, but the batting was totally “FUBAR-ed”. Really – that’s the only accurate description for it! Now it is strung out on a line to try and dry out. The only plus note, most of the staining came out. Now I will have to take it apart and replace the entire batting and re-quilt it too. Double groannnn…… like I don’t have enough projects to do already!
In an effort to find a port in the storm, I cast on a little sock. No I don’t need another project on the go, but maybe the knitting gods will have some pity for my wretched wrung out state and ignore me for a bit and I will go knit on my simple mind-numbing sock in the corner, with my lifejacket on..…
Knit on…..
kate
No comments:
Post a Comment