Does anyone remember the fashion color “Winter White”?  A warm white.  Another word for off-white.  Vanilla.  Cream.  Natural white.  Eggshell.  Oyster.  Ivory.  Bone.  

It is the color I have been knitting for three days.  In strict stockinette with garter edges and no shaping all — pretty much the most basic and mind-numbing knitting you can do—in solid and unrelenting off-white.  With a very medium smooth wool yarn.  On very medium needles.  (I am not sure it is possible for something to be “very medium” either grammatically or mathematically, but trust me, both the yarn and needles are very medium!).  There is no challenge at all.  None.  Except staying awake.  

Well, okay, there is a bit of a time challenge — which is why I have been knitting this way exclusively for three days (maybe you thought it was some sort of fiber cleanse?!).  

Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat is coming up this week (YAY!!!) and way back in. November, Sarah and I signed up for Franklin Habit’s two classes on embroidering your knitting.  Sounds fabulous!  So, about Thursday it occurred to Sarah that we should check on the supply list and homework (which has, of course, been posted for weeks).  Well, it will not surprise anyone — even the non-knitters among you — that in order to learn how to embroider your knitting you would need to bring knitting on which to embroider.  

And that was not a shocking surprise to us either.  But in a 3-hour class on embroidering, apparently, one will be doing a LOT of embroidering.  Which will require a LOT of knitted fabric on which to embroider.  And we are taking TWO 3-hour embroidery classes.  Each class requires 2 goodly-sized plain stockinette swatches (11” x 9” each).  4 swatches with a total area of almost 400 square inches (about the size of a toddler sweater) — and at a gauge of 35 sts per square inch, a whopping 14,000 sts!  Without even the occasional knit-2-together to spice things up.  And it’s not like I could bribe Sarah to knit my 4th swatch or anything because she is frantically working on her own swatches!

In case you were wondering, I am about 3/4 through my 3rd swatch.  So, I am on track to finish in time to block the swatches so they will be ready for Thursday’s and Friday’s classes. (That is complete bluster, but I am sticking to it!)  Meantime, I am taking deep breaths and opening myself to the zen-like beauty of Winter White.