t’s been a nose-to-the-grindstone summer, so much so that I now look up and am startled to find that it’s near the end, or at least in the way I mark it, and that is of course when the Alien Child returns to college. That’s this weekend. And I haven’t even finished the Freddie Kruger sweater.
We’ll be driving across to the eastern edge of the state, in Pullman, WA, where Washington State University resides. I try to focus on the trip, on the landscape that varies greatly in that almost 300-mile distance. We’ll be going through the lush forests of western Washington and the Cascade mountains, and then down into Ellensburg and the central plains. There’s desert descending into the Columbia Gorge all the way almost to the town of Othello, and then it becomes thousands of acres of rolling wheatfields from there to Colfax, a veritable golden sea into the Palouse hills that surround the town of Pullman. It truly is beautiful, and helps distract me from that pang I still get when the Child leaves home once again.
I half wonder if I haven’t finished the sweater yet because it’s still something to hold onto that says I’m still his Mom, and that it’ll give me something to send him in the mail, a traditional “care package” that parents send their children when they’re away. Or, this line of thought could just be an excuse for not finishing that sweater in time for his departure.
Regardless, I need to make sure it’s the proper length before he goes. It’s done enough (I’ve knitted it top-down with circular needles, though I had to unstitch the top back and knit it back and forth to give more length in the back) so that I can fit it on him to see if the front and back is even. As for the sleeves, since he and his dad have about the same arm length, I can try it on the hubby to see if the sleeves will work.
I feel a little dissatisfied that I didn’t finish it before he left; it was a bit of Penelope-work, for sure. I would knit it, then unravel it, knit it again, then unravel to fix something that wasn’t right, and finally, it seems now to be on the right track, and all it needs is a tweak here and there, and a finishing of the sleeves to be complete.
It seems a signal of the changes that the Alien Child has been undergoing this year. He’ll be a junior this year, and has undergone a great number of changes, developed into something that’s better knit, better shaped, than when he first came home. He had a difficult sophomore year having experienced the death of a friend and the despair that accompanies the shock of a young life cut short; severe illness; and his first serious relationship where I know he’d given his heart, and I suspect is in the process of having it if not broken, then quite bruised.
He’d made some unwise choices while in that despairing sophomore year, but seems to have righted himself, making healthier ones, and becoming very physically fit. He’s dealt with the disappointment of an extremely difficult job search this summer (searched for a summer job since early May, didn’t get a job until late July, and trust me, he walked anywhere between five and ten miles each day from business to business, applying for jobs, from Tukwila, Kent, Auburn, and Federal Way). Good thing he worked out every day; the warehouse job he eventually got demanded moving 50 to 100 lb boxes 8 to 10 hours a day. He was glad to do it. I’ll say one thing for him: he’s not afraid of hard work, and actually sees it as an interesting challenge.
He’s taken another look at his direction—and has figured out a major he thinks he can put his considerable brain into. Looks like he’ll be majoring in political science and perhaps minoring in journalism or literary criticism. He actually mentioned getting a graduate degree some day. Which I think suits him, actually.
And yet, he’s unfinished, though he’s knit up well this summer. I won’t see if he’ll go through more unraveling, or whether he’s far enough along now that he can go on to finishing without much of a hitch. We’ll see, I guess. He’s not one to communicate through e-mail, so I won’t know. I have a feeling, though, that he won’t unravel much, and will knit up just fine.
I worry, because that’s what moms do, but I’ll focus on the sweater, and know that he's knit himself up so far into a fine young man, and all he needs is finishing.
We’ll be driving across to the eastern edge of the state, in Pullman, WA, where Washington State University resides. I try to focus on the trip, on the landscape that varies greatly in that almost 300-mile distance. We’ll be going through the lush forests of western Washington and the Cascade mountains, and then down into Ellensburg and the central plains. There’s desert descending into the Columbia Gorge all the way almost to the town of Othello, and then it becomes thousands of acres of rolling wheatfields from there to Colfax, a veritable golden sea into the Palouse hills that surround the town of Pullman. It truly is beautiful, and helps distract me from that pang I still get when the Child leaves home once again.
I half wonder if I haven’t finished the sweater yet because it’s still something to hold onto that says I’m still his Mom, and that it’ll give me something to send him in the mail, a traditional “care package” that parents send their children when they’re away. Or, this line of thought could just be an excuse for not finishing that sweater in time for his departure.
Regardless, I need to make sure it’s the proper length before he goes. It’s done enough (I’ve knitted it top-down with circular needles, though I had to unstitch the top back and knit it back and forth to give more length in the back) so that I can fit it on him to see if the front and back is even. As for the sleeves, since he and his dad have about the same arm length, I can try it on the hubby to see if the sleeves will work.
I feel a little dissatisfied that I didn’t finish it before he left; it was a bit of Penelope-work, for sure. I would knit it, then unravel it, knit it again, then unravel to fix something that wasn’t right, and finally, it seems now to be on the right track, and all it needs is a tweak here and there, and a finishing of the sleeves to be complete.
It seems a signal of the changes that the Alien Child has been undergoing this year. He’ll be a junior this year, and has undergone a great number of changes, developed into something that’s better knit, better shaped, than when he first came home. He had a difficult sophomore year having experienced the death of a friend and the despair that accompanies the shock of a young life cut short; severe illness; and his first serious relationship where I know he’d given his heart, and I suspect is in the process of having it if not broken, then quite bruised.
He’d made some unwise choices while in that despairing sophomore year, but seems to have righted himself, making healthier ones, and becoming very physically fit. He’s dealt with the disappointment of an extremely difficult job search this summer (searched for a summer job since early May, didn’t get a job until late July, and trust me, he walked anywhere between five and ten miles each day from business to business, applying for jobs, from Tukwila, Kent, Auburn, and Federal Way). Good thing he worked out every day; the warehouse job he eventually got demanded moving 50 to 100 lb boxes 8 to 10 hours a day. He was glad to do it. I’ll say one thing for him: he’s not afraid of hard work, and actually sees it as an interesting challenge.
He’s taken another look at his direction—and has figured out a major he thinks he can put his considerable brain into. Looks like he’ll be majoring in political science and perhaps minoring in journalism or literary criticism. He actually mentioned getting a graduate degree some day. Which I think suits him, actually.
And yet, he’s unfinished, though he’s knit up well this summer. I won’t see if he’ll go through more unraveling, or whether he’s far enough along now that he can go on to finishing without much of a hitch. We’ll see, I guess. He’s not one to communicate through e-mail, so I won’t know. I have a feeling, though, that he won’t unravel much, and will knit up just fine.
I worry, because that’s what moms do, but I’ll focus on the sweater, and know that he's knit himself up so far into a fine young man, and all he needs is finishing.
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