Baby Blanket complete!

Pattern: 4 x 4 basketweave
Yarn: Cottontots by Bernat
Needles: Size 7 addis
Knit: March 2-9 , 2006

Here it is. Another FO for the year. I have to say I'm pretty glad this one is over. While the yarn isn't all that stiff, it was a bit difficult to work with. The first two days I knit one ball a day. By the third day, I got about halfway through the third skein and just couldn't knit any more because I had a lot of pain in my right thumb. Perhaps I should have gone up a needle size to make a looser stitch, but I really like the fabric that this turned out at this gauge. Best of all, it is machine washable/dryable yarn and is very soft. I think it will make a good blanket for the impending bambino.

Speaking of the impending bambino, while I was working on this blanket on the train one night it suddenly hit me that this blanket will be wrapped around my college roommate's child. I'll say it again, my College Rommmate's CHILD. Perhaps I just have Peter Pan syndrome, or perhaps it's because I don't have a maternal bone in my body (except when it comes to furry children), but that really sat heavily with me. My dear friend, who I lived with for a year (and still ranks as the best roommate I've ever had), who suffered through all the same crappy Music Ed. classes that I did and had to do the same stupid papers and portfolios, and who even played the same instrument as me and dealt with lessons with Jacky G. (as we affectionately referred to our teacher when he was not present), the roommate who put up with my ex being around all the time and even managed to get along with him enough when I was around that we made meals together and washed dishes together (all three of us), the only college roommate I still keep in touch with, she has another human being growing inside of her right this very min. and will give birth in just over a month or so. Give birth. Those two words totally freek me out. Someone I know and love, who is only slightly older than me, will be giving birth soon. Mind you I've made baby blankets for other people, but this is my College Roommate. She will put my blanket over her first born. It boggles the mind.

I think that this is all hitting me so much now because of two things. A) my birthday just passed and B) I've been thinking a lot about what I want my life to be lately. When I first landed my job, I thought, "Yes! Now I can finally start living "The Rest of My Life" (whatever the heck that means". I had arrived. No more teachers, no more books (at least not to study like I used to. I may be a music cataloger, but I still have to do books!), no more living the life of the starving grad student. No more saying, "I'll do that after I get a job" because I have one! I'll be able to afford stuff! I'll be able to live the life I want.

Only one problem. I need to figure out what the heck that is.

Things at this point are trucking along and are by no means miserable (although the paycheck is not exactly what I had hoped for), but the job has brought with it some serious quality of life issues. I believe many of them directly relate to the 5 hours a day I spend getting to and from work. And I'm in the process of working to change that (the treo is just the first step). But I've really been struck by the fact that I need to start planning and dreaming for the future.

I just finished Knit Lit 1 and there was one story (whose author I, of course, cannot remember now) that really resonated with me. It compared life and relationships to a tangled ball of yarn. Getting out the tangles teaches us patience, how to see a problem from more than one angle, etc. etc. I guess my ball of yarn is just a bit tangle right now. I suppose that with time I will straighten it out. But for now it might be just time to sit back and think about what it all means.

If someone had told me how hard growing up was going to be I think I would have stayed in Neverland...