The Family Trunk Project Blog

End with the beginning

When we come home from an excursion and let Mr. Bingley out of his crate, he rockets around our legs, twirling and cavorting, rushing back and forth between us and wiggling so exuberantly that his little body seems insufficient to contain the concentration of his excitement. That's kind of how I feel about getting started on this sweater.

There is still quite a bit to be done on the Warren Johnson jacket - David and I are going to make a little video tutorial on the "strandtarsia" technique, for anyone who wants to take a walk on the knitting wild side with me. After that I can finish the second sleeve, felt it, seam it, and add all those little finishing touches. Not to mention the sizing, final photo shoot (which ought to be fun - we'll be coordinating a trip out to Cascade Locks with my dad), essay composition, and so on.

BUT. All the while, I am absolutely chomping at the bit to get going on this next sweater, which will be a tribute to Warren's wife, my paternal grandmother, Betty McNeil.

Betty and Warnie (or Grandma and Papa, as I knew them) lived about a mile from my parents and I while I was growing up, and they both played big parts in my childhood. I'm glad to be doing "their" projects consecutively. Honestly, there isn't a day that goes by when I don't think about my Grandma Betty. She's the person who taught me to wave-jump in icy Pacific waters, to feel the allure of foreign places, to love the crisp, cold autumn. She told me that the only things she regretted were the ones she didn't do. She let my friend Sara and I cut up her old sheets for ghost costumes and ruin her lipsticks and walls playing "murdered waifs" on her stairs. She sat with me for hours in her cramped upstairs attic room under the slanted roof, listening with interest while I invented epic tales about my dinosaur figurines, or recited my picture-books by heart. I know she had bitterness in her heart at being disappointed by and for people she loved, but even in her most caustic moments she was still so good at loving us all.

It's odd to me to think of her as a high-school girl, but once upon a time she was. And the sweater I'm planning is inspired by Betty's high-school persona: crisp and tailored, yet feminine. I am so excited to cast on!