Rain, Rain, Come and Stay (Awhile)

My mood has always been heavily influenced by the weather. When it is cold, I like to lay by the fire or soak in a hot bath, reading. When it is warm, but not too warm, and sunny, I like to work in the garden. When it is dark and rainy I like to bake something delicious and fragrant like cookies or bread. When it is very hot, I make iced tea and complain about my headaches.

I like most weather for a time, except for the very hot, but too many cloudy days can really get me in a funk. I guess it is good that I live in California so that the sunny days outnumber the cloudy ones by an outrageous margin. But we have been so parched for rain here, that for now, I will take as many cloudy and rainy days as we can get. And today is one of them.

It is lovely and peaceful, sitting bundled in my cool, darkish living room. I pulled down my knitting basket, which I haven't done in years. While I can knit, I have rarely had the patience to finish a long, complicated project. So therefore, I have many, many skeins of yarn sitting unused, or half used in my basket. My favorite way to knit is on huge needles with fat yarn. Simple patterned projects are also good, because then my mind can wander with my thoughts or I can listen in to my favorite radio show. But today I think I will just play and practice with some yarns, review my stitches after these years of neglect.

My daughter has been begging for me to teach her how to knit. So when the children came home from school, we lit a fire, and I taught them how to finger knit (which I had no idea how to do until I watched this You Tube post about it). I do know that it is a great way for children to get started on their own knitting projects and that it is taught in many Waldorf schools. My kids took to it unbelievably well, and we spent the afternoon by the fire, chatting and knitting. I bought each child a skein of fat yarn so their knitting would be full and go quickly. They each made several scarves for their ugly dolls and themselves and felt quite a sense of accomplishment. What a lovely way to spend the afternoon!