Dear Kay,
Well, I’m home. I spent more time in airports than I did with David, but sometimes a mom has to go inspect her boy.
He seems good. I think. Do we ever really know? The children are so clever around the parents; they know how to say the thing that will make the mom stop asking the thing she’s asking.
We made a stop at CVS to buy a box of trash bags. David expressed some urgency about this errand. Who greets his mom with “We need to get trash bags”? He’s six months into his first year. Could this be the first box of trash bags? Why black trash bags? Why trash bags, son? Why the trash bags?
I didn’t climb the five flights of dorm stairs to investigate further. See? Cleverly arrange a dorm room five flights up, and your mom won’t ever get all up in your business.
He is wearing his parka. If nothing else, the parka has been activated. Get that parka on, and anything’s possible.
Of course, the upside of a plane ride is Golden Knitting Time. For the skein of Manos Alegria, I went with Shadow Shawl, designed by the Fairmount Fibers Design Team. I like the idea of a team designing a pattern. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t not write an awesome knitting pattern. NOW GO IN THERE AND DESIGN STUFF!
It’s one of those triangle neck-napkin deals, and my gauge is so off that it’s going to be more like a neck doily than a shawl. Why all the tight knitting? I’m not usually a tight knitter. Whatever size it ends up, this little scarf makes the most of this shade-shifting sunshine yarn.
Upon my return home, the TSA agent at my house was skeptical.
Love,
Ann
PS Thanks for all the bootie links. I can’t get enough of booties, and I’m not even in the market for them. At the moment. I think.
I skype with my dorm-living son, and last night he was carefully hiding something on his wall. A picture of an actual person he talks to? Who knows.
I will be ABE-BNA-ABE to visit the son the end of March/beginning of April, which just happens to be coinciding with Stitches South. (Not so much a coincidence, actually.) Perhaps I will run in to you there (not literally, of course).
Wow, Cindy! Would love to see you! Let’s figure that out.
My son is only 15 and the vague talk has already begun. It gets more cryptic? Heaven help me! Plus he has been dreaming of college in Munich, Germany. What a plane ride to endure for boy inspection! Of course the Golden Knitting Time would be amazing…and it’s close to Italy. Buongiorno! A mom has to look for the silver lining!
Great pic! I love the juxtaposition of the the stately and auspicious looking Philosophy building with the bicycles parked infront, ready to ride like the wind at any moment, background for the handsome young man with the winning smile, looking all grown up in his sensible parka–except for the way he positions his left foot (tugs at your heartstrings, no?). Ahh!
The bootie knitting will come in due time, so we just keep savoring the present moment. Shadow Shawl.
I wuv your cat.
The bags are no doubt for the laundry. He does it so often the the other laundry bags have worn out from being lugged up and down the stairs.
I made a neck napkin once, with gauge all catywampus. It turned out to be the darn best warmest do-rag for winter. Until I left it at Geno’s Pizza in Chicago.
Yes! The plane ticket is worth the price for uninterrupted knitting! For HAVING to sit still and knit!
I survived 4 sets of “the college years”yes, I have a lot of gray hair now. I always came home feeling there was more to ‘see/know’ than I ‘saw/heard’ or ‘was let’ to see! It’s a careful line to walk. The years have flown by much too quick, we all survived, they are the adult people that we hoped they would become. They’ve added husbands and grandkids, which is wonderful in so many way, not to mention new people to knit for! In a few years those black trash bags will really be for just trash, not for A. dirty laundry that he STILL hasn’t done. B. moving, yes even china will be moved in one ( never goes well, life lesson there). Loved the shawl, beautiful knitting and kitty, hope you didn’t blow away up here, fierce wind here, but no snow!
The black trash bags were probably for pizza boxes. Those “lawn & leaf” bags are usually the only ones those boxes will fit into. The fifth-floor dorm room hides a.) a general mess; b.) a lot of dirty laundry you’ll see soon enough when he brings it home; c.) some pretty young thing with a name like Tiffany, Ashley, or Suzi and/or d.) his snoring roommate, who is clad only in one sock and tighty-whities, both garments equally full of holes.
BTW, love how intently the cat is sizing up your new knitting project. Did the cat suggest you try (US) size 35 needles for it?
Pizza boxes were my first thought too!
Ah, boys. The best way to communicate is by text as they will text you without anyone else knowing it is their MOTHER. Having just finished the college stage, we are off to the real world stage where said boy is planning to go live in Germany, thus working his heart out to earn money for the trip. I had not thought about the advantage of knitting on a long plane trip. That makes the future seem exciting for me as well as him!!!
Texting works with girls too. I don’t think mine has ever turned her phone ringer on, but she doesn’t usually ignore texts.
Flying in and out of Boston always fills me with a sense of beauty and terror. Knitting helps with both.
That frosh year was a tough one for us. Going from a small town public school system to a very demanding college was a huge adjustment for my son. He had to basically learn how to study. And he was in the Berkshires, so there was the endless cold and snow to contend with, while many of his pals were still in mild California. He called us a lot and said little. You know those conversations…silence and grunts from him, endless chatter from us. Finally we realized he knew we couldn’t fix it … but he did seem to find solace in just hearing our voices. Oh, and the dorm room? Yeah, probably better you didn’t see it. ????
I think the urge to really know how a son is….thinking, feeling, doing is universal and maybe biological for mothers. But it is rare to have full disclosure and I wonder if the fullness of what we want to know is comprehendabke to our sons. On the other hand if a crisis hits, Mom will get the call. Love that the bonds are practical and strong between mother and sons.
Minus the trash bag thing (cannot guess what’s up with that — trash bag togas?) he seems to be very much in the student groove. You get to pop in, but it’s his universe.
My sons are in their mid-30s and are only now leaking a few anecdotes of their college years that I *never* knew about. None of them involved posting bail, so there’s that!
My son is home for spring break and asked if I wanted to have lunch with him. We both know it’s because I let him pick the place and I pay, but who cares. My son wants to have lunch with me! A weekend of plane knitting and son seeing sounds awesome
Black trash bags + Kon Mari. At least at my house.
You are so funny! I love the TSA search!
When driving to move my son out of the dorm last year i called him to tell him that I was in town and he asked if I had bought trash bags! I hadn’t but a quick stop on the way in took care of that problem. I had brought stuff to clean the sink, etc but not those pesky trash bags.
You know, it’s not what they’re up to on campus that worries me so much, it’s when they decide to go on Spring Break with a bunch of their friends. For some reason these trips involve camping in National Parks (which I’ll admit is better than drinking on the beach). It’s the driving 20 hours each way as well as the cliffs that people can fall off of if they horse around at the wrong time that sends me to the repetitive, no-thinking-required knitting pile (the worry bead knitting).
Your son looks like he’s doing well – so cute in his parka – and your knitting looks pretty, too. Beautiful color.
I’ve been feeling the need to see my son, too. Looks like that’s going to happen when he gets back from the Spring Break trip.
I love your TSA Agent. We are gearing up for out of state college student in the fall.
The yarn is LOVELY.
If that picture at the top had been taken a little closer to the ocean, you’d have been able to see my house!
A) Mom’s coming to visit. Oh, crap, my dorm room is trashed!
B) Need trash bags to clean dorm room. I’ll ask Mom.
C) I can’t let her see the dorm room before I clean it. But at least I have trash bags. For May/June move-out!
Glad you saw your boy. Mine lives downtown in a studio apartment dorm room (he’s a grad student). I’ve never seen this room, only the two previous ones, and only at move-in and move-out. He comes to our house for dinner when invited, or needed to cat-sit.
Love your kitty pic!
When I visited Elder Son during Parent Weekend his freshman year, I asked if he was happy. He replied in amazement, “Well, yes, duh, I’m in NEW YORK CITY!” Getting as far away from rural n.w. WI was high on his list of priorities for college. But after four years of undergrad at NYU and four years of med school at Mt Sinai NYC, he is now happily doing his family medicine residency in Sioux Falls SD. Enough of the crowded East Coast, he said, and returned to his homeland. Re: black trash bags. My brain immediately went all Criminal Minds, but I am pretty sure that is not why he needed them. Just innocuous pizza boxes. Yup.
Is that Emerson Hall behind the handsome boy?
The picture clicked and the pose and the background seems good.
My five favorite yarns: 1) Brown Sheep; 2) Lopi; 3) Zauberball; 4) homemade and 5) Patons Kroy (sock).