While Miz Kittling Knits: Brother Cadfael

I'm still knitting, but it's going slowly because I've been sidetracked by a needlepoint project I started. It never fails: when I reorganize something in the house, I always look at the results and think "that ________ I knitted/ needlepointed isn't quite the right color/size anymore. I should make something else." That's what happened with the latest project I finished.

While I sit here at my computer, I can look out the window at the hummingbird feeders and the pool. I can also keep an eye on the things on top of my bookcases beneath that window. The more I looked at my hen and chicks, the more that needlepoint mat beneath just didn't look right. I liked the colors, but the pattern and the size didn't cut the mustard. So... I decided to knit a scarf for the top of those bookcases using the last of some of my favorite yarn-- Red Heart's acrylic yarn in a discontinued color combination called Sunshine Print.

Sunshine Print

Bright red, gold, yellow, fuchsia-- the colors may not be to everyone's taste but they make me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. (I know... go figure!) I used a simple four-row repeat pattern that has rows of vertical slip stitches. It's a pattern that I've used in other projects like dish and washcloths, dish towels and hand towels because of its texture and appearance. By this time, I don't have to think much about what I'm doing when I'm using this pattern, and sometimes "mindless" knitting is just what the doctor ordered!

Finished project

Here is the completed scarf in its intended location. Everything on top of the bookcases has some special meaning for me: visits to lighthouses in Washington state, shells I picked up while walking along beaches in Scotland, meeting lizards and roadrunners in all sorts of places, visits to the Petrified Forest, and my grandmother's hen and chicks. (Mine are loving their windowsill.)

Now... what have I been watching while knitting this scarf? Your jaw will probably drop when I tell you that this is the first time I've seen Cadfael. After watching it courtesy of Amazon Prime, I'd like to say that I was hiding under a rock while it was being broadcast on PBS, but when I look at the dates it aired, I was incredibly busy at work, being flown from coast to coast to train people and "put out an occasional fire" or two. I also had two deaths and the declining health of three of my beloved family members to deal with. I'm not going to look, but I think my reading had to have suffered during this period.

But that's all in the past, and I have to say that I loved watching Derek Jacobi as Cadfael. The production gave just the right amount of period detail without going overboard on budget or viewers' sensibilities, and the characters certainly came to life. Jacobi I remembered from I, Claudius, and he's perfect as Cadfael. My favorite episode of all has to be "A Morbid Taste for Bones" in which Cadfael and other monks travel to Wales to dig up the bones of St. Winifred to bring back to Shrewsbury. The townspeople are none too happy about the monks' intentions, and the denouement made me smile each time the saint figured in subsequent episodes.

I don't think the monks would have approved of my color choice for my scarf, but I definitely approved of watching their escapades while knitting it!