Elliot’s picked up a phrase from one of us, he’ll snuggle up to me and say “Grammy, shall we read a book to pass the time?” or “Poppy, do you want to build a tower… to pass the time?” or “Auntie Banda, do you want to colour to pass the time?”
I love this idea he has of time – that every day we get up and we do things as time passes, and then we’re out of time for the day, but that’s cool because you have a tower, a book, a picture. He must think this way because one of us presented time like that, asked “what shall we do until it is time for the next thing to happen?” This fits too, since Ellie has only a limited concept of time in general – he’s still only four so benchmarks work better for him. He’s more likely to understand that something is happening after lunch than to grasp the concept of two hours. If you ask him what time it is he can tell you the numbers on the clock, but if you ask him what time something will happen he’ll say “3pm.” (We are all unclear on the significance of 3pm, but everything happens then.) If you inquire about how much longer until something happens he either tells you “a few minutes” if it’s soon or “Seventy twenty hundred” if it’s going to be a while. (These are not exact numbers. Sometimes soon is “seven minutes” and once in a while an event will not be going to occur for “nine and fifty years!”)
Last year at this time I decided on a year long project, a big theme to help pass the time. A long range goal, something that would carry me month to month with a sense of continuity and movement, no matter how weird the world around me got. My knitting serves a lot of purposes in my life, and I was comitted to working all the angles. I wanted it to be the perfect project for the year if restrictions lifted and I started travelling for work again (Oh, the innocence) and the perfect project for if – well I didn’t know what the year might bring so it was something that had to be really chipper. I decided it would be sock based, because I’ve always though that no matter what happens to you a knitting a pair of socks seems to work out fine – and since I thought this year would be the year of our rainbow baby (the baby born after pregnancy or infant loss) that a rainbow theme would be perfect.
It turns out that this wasn’t the year for our rainbow – and I almost lost my cool on this big project when that pregnancy was lost but it turns out that I was super clever when I picked it, because this kept feeling right, and hopeful and positive and like… Like things have just got to change eventually. Truly, it is hard to be down about your life and its direction if every project gets you one step closer to a rainbow colour-wheel of socks. Every pair not only passed the time, but felt a little bit like building something, and that felt pretty darn good for this knitter, even on this little scale.
I can’t tell you how satisfying it was to add another pair to the pile as the year wore on, I’d giggle as I laid a pair on the stack and while away some time deciding what colour was missing or what I should knit next.
When I was done, I took it apart and mailed it away in bits for Christmas gifts- and people I love are now wearing parts of my privately constructed rainbow on their feet as they all walk forward into next year and thinking of that makes me smile. I knit a walking rainbow. Take that, pandemic.
Beautiful as always! And now I wish my family believed in woolie socks so I could build my own! (and my woolie sock stash can only get so big XD)
Happy New Year! I hope this is a rainbow year for you and your family!
Beautiful rainbow of socks – I am glad they helped you through this year of Covid and sorrow. Wishing you and your family many happy rainbows in the future!
I love the phrase, knitting a walking rainbow.
Stunning and inspirational, thank you.
I love, love, LOVE the walking rainbow.
This is lovely. Thank you for sharing it with us. The photo of them in a rainbow-y wheel is stunning. I always think of your blog around New Year’s and your desire to start the year as you mean to go on. This doesn’t work for me as I always lose control of our house right after Christmas. I’ll start as I mean to go on later in January. 🙂
Brava on such a beautiful, measurable way to acknowledge this zany year.
On the topic of phrases wee ones adopt: when a boy was small, he often asked for “some”. Couldn’t explain what it was but he wanted it. After much deep thinking I realized that if I was eating something I would ask him if he’d like some (of what I had). It evolved in his head as a concrete thing. Kind of like baking from “scratch”…
Happy New Year to you and yours and thank you for the words, thoughts, ideas, and spirit you’ve shared this year.
Love it!!!!!!
All I could mutter was “oh my” when I say the rainbow of socks. This picture was a day brightener when very few things are right now. I would love to know what yarns you used as well as the patterns – having a rainbow of socks on Christmas 2022 would be validation of time well spent with hopes for a future. Thank you for sharing yourself with us during 2021 and we pray for lots of new beginnings in 2022.
Oops….fat fingers – meant when I saw not say.
Quite of them have been on her blog throughout the year, with yarn and pattern identified. Check back and you will probablyT find them.
I’ve checked back, and not been successful in finding a reference to the yellow socks’ pattern. Any thoughts on that would be much appreciated!
Hi Jenny – in case you haven’t tracked this down by now, the pattern is Girl on Fire, by Cookie A. Happy knitting!
Thanks Linda!
I’m not crying, you are.
Now I want to know who got each pair . . .
I can’t think of a better symbol of hope than a rainbow, and with all these gifts, you’ve spread that hope out across the miles. Just beautiful.
FWIW, when my daughter was little (a toddler, maybe), everything was “eleventeen.” We still use that word even though she’s a tween doing algebra now.
We like to tease our daughter, now with a master’s degree in math, about the time as a 2nd grader, doing her math homework at the kitchen table, bursting into tears and saying: “this is just to HARD for me!”
And now she teaches AP Calculus, AP Stats, tutors engineering students . . .
She may divorce us the next time we ask – is it just too HARD for you?? LOL
This is *chef’s kiss*!
And the pink is explained!
I really like this. I wonder if doing a group project or something innovative we knitters could bring some peace and solace to everyone during these stressful times
This is beautiful in every way possible. Thank you for sharing. I’m planning to something similar for 2022 (actually not similar, exactly this- rainbow socks- one a month)
On the subject of rainbows and children there is a much beloved book in our family that I wanted to recommend “to pass the time” – I think Elliot might be the perfect age. (I often quote it even now when my children are 26 & 24) and it is a lovely way to feel a bit more hopeful in these hard times.
The Rainbow Goblins by Ul De Rico
Gorgeous for so many reasons! Thank you for sharing this so that we, too, can see the rainbow rather than the clouds. Peace and love to you and yours.
It’s beautiful. Things just have to get better.
Here’s hoping you find your pot of gold waiting after that rainbow in the new year!
We are settling in for a last weekend before returning to “real life” – like commuting and regularly working in an office for the first time in nearly 2 years – next week. So I am spending much time thinking about how I mean to go on thru the year, to ensure that it begins right. I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions, but I like the idea of bringing that kind of mindfulness to the start of the year. Thanks for that!
I’m so sorry about your not-this-year rainbow baby…but when the time is right, it will be right. I thought of sharing a story, but I won’t. It’s neither the time nor the place — but it *is* the time to wish you blessings for 2022. May the continued love of your wonderful family and close friends (not to mention your fans, like me!) surround you, and may you be blessed by the hope and comfort you and so many derive from ‘the work of our hands’.
It’s a beautiful rainbow. I hope the next rainbow happens for you soon. Many heartfelt wishes for goodness and joy in the new year.
How wonderfully delightful and clever! Your walking rainbow is lovely. Thanks for adding that brightness to the world.
Beautiful socks, beautiful rainbow, beautiful knitter and beautiful thoughts. You *are* the ray of sunshine! Thanks for sharing!
Oh, this is just lovely. Thanks for continuing to share your beautiful perspective.
This post makes me a little teary. The sweetness of Elliott‘s concept of time. The heart ache of another loss for your family. The hopefulness of rainbow socks to carry through the year.
Thank you for sharing hope. Happy New Year to all the McPhee clan.
Close to tears. Wow. Gloriousness and grief all knitted together, the pairing made beautiful, picturing all those feet warmed by love and wool and work. Making the world whole.
So healing. Thank you.
This is such a wonderful idea. I think I just got an idea for a Christmas present. Even I can do this in a year!
❣️
I saw the photo of those gorgeous socks and heard Kermit singing “Someday we’ll find it….” Here’s hoping we all find that connection in 2022.
I love your rainbow.
When my youngest was three, she had three time periods: now, next day (the future) and last day (the past). After awhile, she added tomorrow, but kept next day as anything in the future beyond tomorrow. It was a remarkably simple concept of time that her dad and I often remarked worked surprisingly well.
I’m hoping for my rainbow baby in 2022! Love the socks. Here’s hoping for a happier 2022.
Wishing you all the good things as you make that journey! I’m so sorry for your loss.
I love this so very much. Happiest of New Year’s to you and the whole clan.
Love the comment about seeing the rainbow instead of the clouds!
Wishing you and your family more rainbows than clouds for 2022!
Beautiful!!!!
It is wonderful.
Hope is what keeps us plodding on through the bleak days, if we just trudge through there is the hope of joy at the end of it. Those socks look like a hopefully project to me, I just wish I had more feet to knit for.
When my then 4 year old (now 22) and I were moving cross country, he asked how long before we were there. I told him we would be there after lunch. He said, “Well, let’s eat lunch now!” Yep, makes sense to me!!!
Tell Elliot he’s really smart, but you knew that. Our daughter’s MathCounts coach taught the team that if you don’t know the answer – then the answer is 3.
Sorry, but the answer is always 42. (Consult “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”)
Thank you for your beautiful knitting, thinking, and writing. You are a blessing.
Love Elliot’s way of passing time. The rainbow of socks are amazing. I love the idea. Thank you for sharing.
Love love love.
Reading about Elliott’s “passing the time” concept made me smile. My daughter has a 5 year foster child and he is really just learning time concepts as well. He knows what tomorrow means and he uses that concept to refer to days in the future. There is tomorrow, then tomorrow, tomorrow and the next day is tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. So logical for his brain!
I understand Elliot’s sense of time. I once asked a granddaughter, at age 6, how old her father (my son) was. “Eleven.” How old is your mother? “Forty.” Oh, almost forgot my other news. That same granddaughter, now grown, just texted me to ask if I am a thrower or a picker. Up until this moment, she had demonstrated absolutely NO interest in knitting.
Thank you for sharing your truths and your holidays. I love the stars as well as the stories. Wishing you many blessings for 2022 and beyond.
Brilliant! What a lovely way to pass the year. See you in 2022.
For my son everything happens at 10 o’clock or in 10 minutes. Also things that happened in the past happened yesterday or if there were quite a long time ago they happened ‘really yesterday’.
Happy New Year to you all!
May the New Year bring you and your family good health, peace, contentment and joy. Continue to savor each moment; good people, nature and the simple things in life bring happiness. (Warm socks, a good book, and a glass of wine help too!)
I love this!
Best Ever.
Walking rainbow.
Up there with Don Freeman’s Rainbow of My Own.
Happy New Year, Stephanie! (Great socks!) As Dr. Theresa Tam said last night in a TV interview, every pandemic in history has ended. This one will, too.
Brilliant!
A walking rainbow…my heart is dancing. What a beautiful way to keep the light sparking…
One December when my oldest son was young, he saw me crossing out the previous day on the calendar.He thought he had it all figured out, when he said, “Ok, so your birthday comes, then Christmas, then Uncle Willie’s birthday, and then there are no more days left and … we die, right?” He was so matter-of-fact about it, ready to accept what he had worked out. I said, “No! We buy a new calendar!” Time is a weird concept.
Great rainbow, there is always hope.
Thank you… I needed this. <3
Brilliant in oh so many ways!
Thank you! Rainbows always make me smile!
This is so wonderful. Thank you! I’ve lost much of my knitting mojo during Covid,but seeing this is making my interest spark.
Thank you.
ROY G BIV alive and well on feet all over. Such a wondrous thing! How marvelous! …
Beautiful, both visually and allegorically.
Love this so much! I just, for the first time, set myself a sock knitting goal for 2022 and spent part of yesterday winding the yarn. It won’t be a pretty rainbow like yours, but each skein I chose has been sitting in the stash for a while and will be for a special person.
Happy New Year to you and yours, Stepanie. Like many, I’m so wishing for a Strung Along! In the meantime, thanks for the blog.
That is so beautiful! Thank you for sharing, and hoping for more rainbows in 2022.
Wishing you all the best in 2022! Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with us. Your posts– whether they’re on the blog, instagram, or Patreon– always brighten my day!
This was my first time hearing about the rainbow baby. I really like what you did to have a tangible project associated with this idea and that the socks are walking around in the world spreading the joy.
I love that analogy!
Stephanie, thank you-sincerely-thank you for your wondrous blog.
I stop by with my coffee cup and my knitting in the morning, knowing I won’t knit because I’m too busy laughing, learning and loving how you bring all of us together with an assortment of 26 letters- (maybe fewer-have you used a Q,X or Z?) and huge heart.
I’ve learned from you all matters of knitting but also how to knit people, friends, family, and the world together-why allies are needed and what it really means to be an ally, when we can’t speak-we can write-our thoughts, spoken or written, can lighten a heart and soothe a soul and that knitters (and all the yarn-afflicted) are amazing people and can do amazing things.
It is a new year. We don’t know what it will bring, but as long as The Blog is there, we can bear it-and celebrate every checkmark on The Spreadsheet, every completed sock and every tiny moment we can find a spark of joy dancing about.
Treasure you.
Knitting a walking rainbow – I just LOVE that idea! Thank you, Steph, for being a hopeful light in the gloom of this weird new year.
Love it. Thank you for the smile when there’s been little to smile about. My husband’s grandmother called it taking lemons and making lemonade.
I want ALL the socks.
Oh, that sock rainbow delights me. I gotta make one too!
Thanks a million for your writing, it always makes my day a bit brighter.
Beautiful rainbow of socks
Alright, this is one of the most profound posts ever. Time as something to be filled with delight, AND rainbow as guiding principle. I love both concepts.
Thank you.
Thank you for helping us pass the time with your beautiful writing. Take care.
Thank you for the Rainbow inspiration! My new year triad is now complete:
12 rainbow socks
4 sweaters for family (already promised!)
2 baby blankets
One new technique with each project – may be a challenge, but then the year ahead looks like a challenge!
I learned this while needing to pass time at work when its quiet, thanks for sharing.
So sorry for your loss. Your rainbow kept your famiky stitches together and I hope this will be the year of your rainbow baby.
What an amazing read. Thanks for sharing it with us and helping us to pass the time with you good content. Really loved the rainbow of socks.
Who got the each pair?? Really loved the post.
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