Patch 1 & 2 - Home Sweet Home

Project:

So after being told by my loving and observant husband that my first sketch was too directional, I went back to the drawing board. After spending this weekend with paper, markers, and his valuable input, we managed to come up with nineteen patterns before finally settled on one we both like.

The nineteen patterns we came up with.

This is the pattern we finally settled on.

I decided to start this project off with Goldfish and I'm using Takumi bamboo premium circular knitting needles, No. 9 gauge. I finished my first patch Wednesday before starting this blog at my house and I finished my second patch Thursday while visiting my parents at their house. I cast on 13 stitches creating the first row, then stitched twenty-one rows before binding off. That's twenty-three rows total to create a square of about three inches in length (see pattern instructions).

My first square, right before I finished.

Reflection:
What makes a house a home is the people that reside there. That isn't to say that someone living by themselves can't make a house a home - and they often do - but I think that it's easier when there's someone else there to share things with. For the longest time, the people that I shared and associated home with the most was my immediate family, especially my parents.I'm their youngest child and I've lived with them almost continuously for twenty-something years. Now that I'm married, my life and sense of home are very different.

I have two homes - my parent's house and my husband's house. When I visit my parent's house, I don't need to ask where anything is because I grew up with their system of organizing. Even if they've moved something from the last time I was there, I can logically go through a short list of possibilities of where it could be and usually I can find it. I still have my room, with most of my things still there. If I ever needed anything I always knew my parents were just down the hall and all I had to do was ask. I know the routine and what to expect. Everything is familiar and comforting.

Then there's my husband's house. Yes, it is my house as well but it's still new to me as a home and I don't feel like it's mine just yet. Just about everywhere I turn, all I see are his things. Sure, there are a few places where my influence is clear - the kitchen, for example, with cleaning and some new items that we chose - but for the most part, I am enveloped in his very antique-military-bachelor-esque style. Don't misunderstand me, I find it comforting especially since he doesn't get to spend much time with me - he works nights, I attend class and work some during the day. We see each other most when we're sleeping but this too shall pass. We'll make his house our home as we continue our life together.

Both houses are my home and they make up different chapters of my life. I am straddling the pages in between those chapters, making a transition in life beyond being my parent's daughter to being a wife and mother. It's hard sometimes to be away from my parent's house but I know that my place is with my husband, and I don't mean that in any sexist way. I genuinely feel that my place is beside and with him because he loves me as I love him. And while the road won't be easy - what road in life worth taking ever is? - it's worth it knowing that I do so with the love and support of my family. My whole family. I'm home.

Patch 1 and Patch 2.