This week I unearthed a tea-cozy that I had knit a few years ago.  I put it away because I wasn’t happy with it.  I didn’t like the colours I think.

I’ve pulled it out of hiding and looked at it again.  It wasn’t as bad as I remembered.  In fact, it did exactly what I wanted it to do which was evoke a feeling of another time and place.  In this the case, the kitchen of my teenage years, a bright orange, yellow and green kitchen that was my mother’s pride.  This was the 1970’s and those colours reigned.  I couldn’t, wouldn’t do the orange, but the brown worked very well!  I don’t have many pictures from that time.  We were all too busy to remember to take pictures.  You needed film, flash and a camera at hand, then you needed to remember to take the pictures!!

The further we go back in time the less pictures we have.  Until the only pictures that can be found are the posed pictures of our ancestors, taken very formally, everyone at attention and looking somber.  No candids then!

Now we have little digital camera’s that we can pop in a bag or pocket, with a memory card to hold hundreds of photos.  Or phones that can take video or photos instantly.  Nothing is posed and nothing missed – just ask the rioters after the Canucks game!  But what if….

I was reading a very interesting article about digital photographs and how the images are stored.  The author was worried about this generation of pictures.  Most are stored in digital frames or on the internet.  What would happen to all of those photographs and memories with no hard copy to keep the images safe from digital corruption or loss.  Do you make hard copies of your photographs?  I make a few, but not many.  I may have to rethink that, I have many memories that I would like to keep for myself, my children and possible grandchildren.

I like pictures of family.  I have many on my walls and shelves.  Some of my great-grandparents, very posed and formal, and of myself and my family as we grew.  Pictures of my husbands family, and many pictures of our children and friends.  Pictures of special events in our lives and candids of times that we want to remember and share.

So maybe the old way of keeping pictures in albums should be new again.  We learn from our past and create family memories when old pictures are unearthed and shared.

It was a busy week.  I taught the first part of the painting class on Thursday and had to work on the pattern to make sure that the numbers and instructions were right for the class.  It doesn’t seem to matter how many times one checks, something is always missed – thank heavens for patient students – who just Love to help me find mistakes!

I’ve started another Leaf and Point Scarf for painting at the class in August – this time in Classic Elite’s Fresco, a gorgeous blend of Wool, Alpaca and Angora.  I am knitting it to paint and check out the pattern – no mistakes so far, but this is the easy version.  I am also going to reknit the Stole version – if I have the time!

The Painted Butterfly shawl is coming along quite well.  The rows are much longer now and take more time, but I only have about 15 rows left before the edging is started.  I will need to break the yarn and add more beads.  I am about 550 beads short.  One of the hazards of designing on the needles, your ideas change as you knit!  But even so I should have the body knit by the end of this week.  Then the edging both the straight edge along the top and the curved bottom edge need to be finished.  The edging for the curved edge is already decided, but I still need to figure out how I want to finish the straight edge – beaded I-cord is first in the running, but not for sure yet!

Happy Knitting

Lynette