We Finish What We Start

 

One would think that by the time you become a grandmother you would have learned that your grandchildren are paying attention to what you say and then what you do.  Yet once again the voice of a seven-year-old caught this grandma up short, when I did not follow my own advice.

Those of you that follow the blog will know that on January 1, 2015 I started a year long knitting project entitled ‘Knitting The Temperature’.  I picked a lace knit stitch and started my scarf, however by the end of May 2015 I was not sure I liked the pattern and I realized that the scarf itself was going to be far too long.  Recording the temperature on a daily basis had become a habit and knowing that my maternal grandfather kept journals in which he recorded the temperature and the weather for every day I continued, however I stopped working on the scarf.

The yarns lay neatly rolled into balls in the basket beside my chair the scarf a almost half done folded on top.  Christmas came and went with our granddaughters happily cherishing the handmade gifts they had received.  With all of their gifts made and put away the basket once again was the lone project sitting beside grandma's chair and this is when Ruth noticed it.

“Grandma when are you going to finish the scarf” inquired Ruth one afternoon when she was visiting.

 “I'm not happy with it I don't think I will finish it I'll just put it away” I replied.

 "Grandma do you told me that I had to finish my sewing project that I started that I just couldn't abandon it!  We finish what we start”, she said admonishing me with my own words.

Whoops I knew it what coming next and as she finished her sentence I pulled out my knitting needles and set about finishing the scarf.

It's done now and I'm OK with the pattern.  It still is too long so it has become an infinity scarf, which I will wear wrapped around my neck as is the fashion today.

It is always good practice to finish what you start and an even better practice is to do what you say and say what you do, little ears are always listens!

We finish what we start!

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

Knitting the Temperature 2015

May 2015

May

The wind is tossing the lilacs,

The new laugh in the sun,

And the petals fall on the orchard wall,

But for me the spring is done.

Beneath the apple blossoms

I go a wintry way,

For love that smiled in April

Is false to me in May

~ Sara Teasdate

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Knitting the Temperature

April 2015

Having returned to Southern Ontario in April 2015 you can see the temperatures were much colder than those we had in Myrtle Beach South Carolina, nothing above 19°C/66°F and many days the temperature did not get above 6°C/43°F.   Just a reminder I am knitting the temperature at 2:00 pm each day.

“April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” 

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Knitting the Temperature

March 2015

We need to be totally honest with everyone in March we drove south to Myrtle Beach South Carolina and so the very cold day (dark magenta) followed by a day that was just below freezing (dark blue) and so on.  The weather was great in Myrtle Beach because there was no snow the temperature was secondary really.  

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.  Charles Dickens

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Knitting Temperature

February 2015

February 2015

February 2015 like January has been colder than normal.  There are some benefits to cold weather there is less snow and I am all for that.  It has been over 30 days since we have seen a day that was 0°C or above.  The average temperature in February should be O°C.

To Winter

 William Blake

O winter! bar thine adamantine doors:

The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark

Deep-founded habitation. Shake not thy roofs

Nor bend thy pillars with thine iron car.

He hears me not, but o’er the yawning deep

Rides heavy; his storms are unchain’d, sheathed

In ribbed steel; I dare not lift mine eyes;

For he hath rear’d his sceptre o’er the world.

Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings

To his strong bones, strides o’er the groaning rocks:

He withers all in silence, and in his hand

Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.

He takes his seat upon the cliffs, the mariner

Cries in vain. Poor little wretch! that deal’st

With storms, till heaven smiles, and the monster

Is driven yelling to his caves beneath Mount Hecla.

January 2015

Grandma Snyder

© 2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Knitting Temperatures

January 2015

It has been a cold January with only one day getting above 0 degrees Celsius on the flip side the cold air has meant less snow and lower snow banks.  I will take the cold temperatures!

As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII William Shakespeare 1564-1616 Blow, blow, thou winter wind,  Thou art not so unkind  

As man’s ingratitude;  Thy tooth is not so keen,  

Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: 

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:  

Then, heigh-ho, the holly! This life is most jolly.   

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,  That does not bite so nigh    

 As benefits forgot:  Though thou the waters warp,  Thy sting is not so sharp     

 As friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing . . .

Knitting the temperature is the brain child of  Leafcutter Designs and is a year long conceptual knitting project.   Join me and knit the temperature in your area of the world I would like to compare projects 

Grandma Snyder

 ©2013-2015 twosnydergirls