Thank Ewe for Your Order
I miss going to the grocery store. Not because I miss grocery shopping…I have become quite the fan of grocery delivery, but because I miss looking at all of the things that I don’t need and end up buyig anyway. One of my favorite grocery store impulse buys is magazines. Sometimes it is magazines full of pretty food photos and recipes that catch my attention. If I’m not feeling like adulting, it may be puzzle or coloring books. Sometimes, usually when the produce does not look appealing, I’m pulled toward gardening magazines that promise the most beautiful flowers and bountiful vegetable yield. And on rare occasion, I stumble across a magazine that I have never heard of before and it is exactly what I needed to find on that particular day.
Such was the case a few years ago when I found Taproot magazine.
In their own words,
Established in 2011, Taproot Magazine is an ad-free, independent print publication celebrating food, farm, family, and craft. Our mission is to build and support the vibrant community of people participating in both the practical and fine arts, to craft handmade lives, by producing quality, unique, beautiful, positive, and heartfelt print media and an online marketplace selling a curated selection of prints, craft kits, and handmade goods.
I devoured the issue that I bought that day at the grocery store, which caused me to immediately became a subscriber. There has not been a single issue that has disappointed. One of the many things that I love about Taproot is that every single issue contains knitting patterns, patterns that are practical, beautiful, and do-able.
This brings me to my 60 By Sixty list. I should add as an aside here that the items on my list are in no particular order. I collected my thoughts on random scraps of paper and composed the actual list as I picked up those unorganized pieces of paper. #5 on my neatly written list is to knit myself an everyday cardigan. I knit several smallish things over the last year but, like most knitters, I made nothing for myself. Every six or eight years or so, I’ll be a little selfish with my knitting time and make myself a workhorse cardigan. The last one was the Kaffe Fossett Cross sweater. I loved both making and wearing that sweater. However, between the moths (it was 100% wool) and me wearing it for ten years, it had served its time and needed to move on to sweater heaven. I will admit that I actually considered making another one of these sweaters. Then I came across a pattern in a Issue 41 of Taproot, from Fall 2020, for the Beau Cardigan. I knew immediately that I wanted to make it, that it was to be “the cardigan.” It has some fun color work to keep the knitting interesting and it is a practical sweater suitable for everyday wear.
My original intention was to order the yarn and cast on this sweater on my birthday last week. That didn’t happen. First of all, I couldn’t decide what colors I wanted to use. Then once I decided at the beginning of December, I could not find enough yarn of the needed weight in the colors I thought I wanted. I got frustrated and gave up the yarn search until after Christmas. So instead of starting the sweater on my birthday, I finally found and ordered yarn instead. It came today. I didn’t end up with the exact color palette that I originally wanted, but I think I’ll be happy with what I got. We’ll see.
Today I will cast on the back of this sweater. I have no idea how long it will take me to finish the whole thing. I’m not going to worry about that. I want to enjoy making this. I want to knit in calm and peace with every stitch so that those are the things that I feel when I wear it…if history repeats itself, I’ll wear it for ten years! As with everything on my 60 By Sixty list, the goal is to have it finished by my birthday. Other than that, I have no timeline. I do have a few projects with definite timelines that I have to get made in the next few months so The Beau Cardigan may get made in fits and spurts, that’s OK too. It will come together, or not, as it is meant to.
I will try to remember to post progress updates as my sweater comes to life.
I hope that each of you finds something this year that allows you to wrap yourself in calm in peace. This is something that we all so desperately need during these crazy times!
Spread the word:
