I thought about calling this one, “A Woman’s Work is Never Done”, but that seemed too cliché. Over the Christmas vacation I cleaned out my studio of a bunch of  stored up yarn and knitting needles. My mother called before we headed up to ask about a sweater pattern book that she knew I had and asked if she could have it if I was no longer using it. As it turns out I haven’t been doing any major knitting in ages.

The only knitting or crocheting I do now is for art.

This piece is built up from knitted fuzzy yarn dipped in wax:

“Coral”; Encaustic, Knitted Yarn, Muslin, Pigment Stick, and Oil; 16″ x 10″ x 10″

This piece is made from six crocheted squares dipped in wax and then crocheted together:

“Hollow”; Cotton yarn, encaustic; 12″ x 12″ x 12″

So when my mother called about the book I gathered it up along with a bunch of yarn I knew I’d never use (I only use cotton yarn in my artwork) and 2 in process sweaters that I can’t even remember when I started and stopped working on, and brought the whole lot up with me at Christmastime. My mother is going to attempt to finish off the sweaters if she can. And hopefully she can put the yarn to good use.   It certainly is nice having a little less clutter in my studio.

This all got me thinking of one of my favorite afghans. It’s on my sofa and I cover up under it most evenings.

White afghan

My grandmother Halice was working on it when she passed. My mother finished it up. When I first got it you could see the spot where my mother took over, her stitches were of a different tension then Halice’s (read into this what you will – Halice was her mother-in-law, not her mother). Oddly when I spread it out to photograph it today I could no longer find that spot, the years of use and the many washing had blended the two and I could no longer find the row where one left off and the other took up the knitting.