Saturday, February 26, 2011

Just going around and around

I'm still here, and thank you to all who left comments or other messages to ask if every one was OK. As far as we know, our relatives and friends are safe and have all survived ... but that news comes amidst the sad news that many many are hurt and worse. At the supermarket checkout I'm often behind or in front of a trolley filled with water bottles, and crackers, I don't know if people are stocking up or shipping supplies north. The isle that is usually stocked from one end to the other with bread ... is bare. Every bread rack has a printed paper sign ... that the Christchurch quake has interrupted supplies. There are other little reminders, Bread flour is sold out, and almost every point of sale has a sign that you can add to the sale an amount for a donation to the Quake fund. Many many retailers are matching shoppers donations dollar for dollar, and outside every supermarket and bank there are collectors on street corners with red buckets collecting. It all happened so quickly that there are none of the usual fund raising merchandise, badges and stickers proclaiming you support the cause - but this time it isn't about showing off ones generosity, its about just helping. We are fine, we have enough, enough being that we want for nothing, we always kept a fairly well stocked larder, had a garden and have spares of most dry goods, and have fruit, bread, and other produce in the freezer, so I've been glad to give what I can where I can. The newish TV channels are still providing news updates every hour, all the structural engineers from Bears work have been loaned to the Christchurch office to help determine which buildings are safe, and what to do with those that are not. They apparently work in teams of three, a Structural engineer, a Social worker and a Earthquake commission agent. Bear specialty is civil, not structural .. so we get to have him around. The cubs school has openly offered to include any Christchurch 'refugee children' in its classes for however long they need, and my work has made a similar offer to the match for our school in Christchurch. Many parents have arranged for their children to stay with relatives in other centers while they clean up.


In the meanwhile I'm knitting and there is a finished project and progress. The finished project I really can't share, more than this .. its a surprise, and group project and the time is not right yet. Soon all can be revealed but for now all I can say is that the now finished work returned to my house for blocking. It is now blocked, and flat and very very nice, in fact so nice it would be nearly enough to temp me to ..... so I might get given one myself from this group.
The finished item will be off to the last person in the chain Monday .... and then it is just a question of waiting until the right time, before I can reveal more.

The only other project getting needle time right now is the lace band around the Shetland blanket. Because I have already knit (and frogged) this section I feel obliged to work on this until it is up to the point before I frogged, but obligated in a good way. There are several good things that happen when one re-knits a pattern, the little things that occur to include but for which it is often too late ... get to be incorporated the second time around. This time I'm knitting the lace as garter, not stocking stitch, the green rows help remind me to purl. And I took the time to chart out the corner increases. This gave me space to play and add in a few lace repeats. When I knit this the first time the corner ended up very solid .. adding in lace motifs to match that in the band will just lighten it a little.

Row 16 of 26, 10 more rounds to go, and there will be 174 stitches per side when I'm done ........ this may take a while. I suspect the colourwork Tam will call out to me before too much time has passed.

Take care ...
na Stella

2 comments:

AdrieneJ said...

It is hard for me to imagine how the recovery process is going, but I'm glad to hear that things are moving forward . I hope that it is not too long before there is a sense of normality again.

I heartily admire your charting process. What an amazing group of people you designers are!

Knitting Linguist said...

I'm glad to hear that you are all doing well, although I know that so many people are not! I know how long something like this can take, but it's really good to hear how people are pulling together to offer help in so many different ways.