The Line Jumper

So this blog post is about a line jumper - a crochet project that jumped the line - a line of perfectly wonderful knitting projects.  

The things I do for a “pretty face!”

But a bit about the line first.

I recently did a mini reorg of the pending knitting projects.  For the last few years, whenever possible I looked at new patterns that match my current yarn inventory rather than purchasing new yarn.  It just seemed the older I got, the more I worried I would never get to knit with some of my wonderful stash.  I am far from perfect at resisting purchases as yarn fairs are always pitfalls for my wallet.  But they have become small pitfalls as I am pretty successful at keeping limits on yarn purchases overall.

The ‘line up’ in question was created when I buddied up a yarn with a pattern and put them in a project bag. I have many such buddied pairs. And that was the problem.   I forgot what projects I have in those  very cute bags.  Many many forgotten projects because I couldn’t see them in the bag.  So I purchased a box of 2 1/2 gallon clear plastic bags at the grocery store, transferred waiting projects into them, and they are now on a shelf where they are totally visible as I enter the room ... all 20+ of them! (Geez, that is crazy.) When they get picked to start,  they then get assigned to one of my many project bags. The project(s) I am working on gets the attention first because it waited its turn in line.

Along comes a pretty face! A line jumper. A granny square design that I thought I would never see except in a blanket.  Granny squares I planned never to make again after the 1970s.  Seriously, how did that happen?

In November my cousin and sister visited.  My cousin was excited about a new project she wanted to do and wear next summer. At first I thought, “cute.”  Then I noticed, oh cotton!!  I have about 40 skeins of wonderful Pima Cotton in vibrant colors - without a buddy.  Could this pattern be the buddy for some of that yarn?  The pattern is call OMA Goodness Top. 

I looked it up on Ravelry.  A cotton lacy looking top over a white shell in summer.  I checked out the tops made by many others. Before you knew it, I pulled out that box of pima cotton hidden in my closet where all the unassigned yarn lives, and we were happily picking colors, mixing and matching, making decisions, etc. etc. etc. And some of that cotton went home with my cousin.  It was fun. It was also a “win-win.” I reduced the stash some and another yarn got a buddy.

I purchased the pattern, and it would have been fine if I stopped there. The cotton and the pattern would have been dropped in a clear plastic bag and taken its place on the shelf with the other “chosen.”  But no!!  Out came the crochet hooks as well, and I was off and running ... or rather crocheting.

Plans rapidly began to form in my mind as I crocheted.  I would bring the neck in some. (My neck is not my best feature.). I’d make the hem fall below my waist. (At 78 showing a little midriff is just not a good look.)  I will limit my color selections to a few:  2 shades of green and maybe 3 other colors - all on a white background.  Green is the theme that will tie the squares together taming the overall busy look a little bit.  Of the finished projects on Ravelry, the ones I liked best had limited colors or a theme.

Here are some the squares that I have completed.

In the flurry of activity caused by this pattern I ignored the little voices of caution.  Do you now have too many WIPS (works in progress)?  More WIPS than five - and little moves forward to completion for me.  No matter.  I will work out it out later to find out.  Of course, if another pretty face passes my way - I may need to re-think that number.

It's a slippery slope.

( Recently another line jumper - or two *sigh* - is making a push for my attention! Geez.  Six or seven WIPS isn’t too many, is it?)

More on that later.

A pretty face!

Still knitting ... slowly, slowly.

Christmas finally cycled around to the end for us as of yesterday.  We host a yearly holiday party for a group of friends my husband has known for decades and who we see for gaming every month.  Yesterday was that gathering.

Our tree will come down today.  Holiday decorating has been minimized with each passing year so putting the decorations away takes very little time.  But getting the boxes back in the storage closet is what takes the time.  I do a “clean sweep” of that closet as part of storing Christmas away.  It is a pretty large walk in closet that by November is no longer “walk in.”  So a yearly clean out after the holiday seems appropriate.

Over the last year and a half my knitting has been minimized as well.  Surgery, doctor appointments, medical tests, physical therapy, normal household maintenance just kept building into a mountain of tasks ending the year with Christmas prep  ... it really socked a hole in available time and energy.  But now we are in the slow season and medical demands are slowing.  Knitting and blogging should pick up speed - I hope! 

As usual the yarn color is not quite right.  But the bead color is perfect and the beads are exactly
the same shade as the yarn in person.

Looking at the possible works in progress I could pick up - this project seemed like a good place to start.  This is yarn from deep deep stash maybe 20 years ago.  I believe it is Plymouth Yarn - super wash worsted weight wool.  I don’t seem to have the paper sleeve, so I am guessing.  And I may have blogged about the project previously.  

  

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This yarn has a story.  At least 20 years ago I was traveling to Ocean City, Maryland to visit with family. I researched in advance that a yarn store was just north of Ocean City and since I was early arriving at the shore, I had time to swing by the shop.  

The shop was so congested with yarn you could hardly focus on anything.  A bit discouraging.  But this sandy color did catch my eye.  And it was gently variegated in intensity - as the sand at the shore is dark and light in color too.  So I snapped it up and I found perfectly matched beads for it.  I didn’t have a pattern but the yarn just seemed a perfect purchase for this ocean trip.

And a pattern did finally show up a few years ago.  Set Sail Shawl by Erin Johnson.  It is a pretty simple design but its name seemed to fit the theme.  It seemed to say - “Pick me, I am the one for your sandy yarn!”  When I stopped working on it, I had only about 10 inches out of 61 inches in length completed.  When I found it packed away, again it seemed to say “Pick me.  I am the one to help you return to your much loved hobby, because I am simple to do and as you can see my beautiful sandy shading in this pattern.”  Do my yarns talk to me like this?  Not routinely, but it certainly seemed like a knitting command from the knitting gods. 

I have more to tell with another project in the works - and a fun tracking tool I purchased at a fair last November.  This tracking tool seemed also to be just the right thing to keep me focused.

Next Time!

KNEE UPDATE and hopeful a new beginning for 2026

Here I am 4 months out from knee replacement surgery!  I am very very pleased with this out come even if it isn’t a totally symptom free knee at this point.  And I accept the fact that leg exercises - and many other kinds of exercises will be necessary to recover and then maintain for the rest of whatever years are left to me.

Wow - that last statement sounded down.  It isn’t.  Seriously, I am so very grateful to have made it to 78 with all my faculties and now a renewed energy thanks to medical science.  So the statement whatever “years I have left” are just a nod to the reality that I made it to an older age and a desire to make those remaining years as positive and healthy as I possibly can.

Our Christmas was wonderful!!  My family celebrates on Christmas Eve.  That frees up Christmas Day for my daughter-in-law and my son to visit with her family.  And this year my daughter brought a date - a man she has been seeing for almost a year.  It was a full house and it was joyful.  And, of course, there was my grand daughter.  You can’t be too down when it is Christmas and she is around.  I can honestly say that my typical Christmas sadness (due to loosing both parents around the Christmas holiday) never entered my mind the whole evening.  It was wonderful to have such positive memories to replace the old sad ones that previously lingered through this season. 

Now on to 2026!  I am now focused on a few simple desires for this year.

1. I need to return to blogging.  I miss it when I don’t blog.  Blogging reminds me of all the things in my life I am grateful for.  I tend to ignore gratitude when I am not blogging.
2. I need to cluster our medical appointments better.  My husband and I have a lot of those.  I attend all his because he is blind so everything is double for me.  In the past I would limit appointments to one a day.  Doing that ate up our whole month.  Going forward I plan to group appointments into one week of the month.  We will see how that goes, but it is a goal. 
3. I need to focus on my health overall more - not just my legs.  That includes cooking better options and exercising more than just my legs.  Getting into some kind of walking routine will also be a focus.
4. I need to feed my knitting/crochet/weaving part of my life.  And if I make point #3 happen, point #4 will happen too. 

Notice - these are not resolutions or goals.  It is simply what I desire to do. And actually they are what I used to do before my knee became the focus of everything in my life.  Having harnessed the knee pain has made so many other things possible!  A perfect example?  This Christmas I made Christmas cookies!  It has been years since I did that.  Maybe a decade.

And I have so many fiber knitting plans.  That creative spark seemed to die out earlier in 2025 when so much of my life was centered around pain and how to live with it.  I will put together another post on just those plans.  

Other posts are perking in my brain again.  More to come. Promise.

Thanks to those who return time and time again.  I don’t deserve such faithful readers - but I am totally grateful for them