04.24.08
The Simple Life
I’m all about simplicity. This past weekend while making a chocolate cake it occurred to me that I AM all about simplicity. I like my chocolate cake simple - no filling, no chocolate curls, no sprinkles, just the uncomplicated taste of a Devils Food cake with a glass of ice cold milk. I like to taste the flavors of what I eat. I don’t want to have to guess what the ingredients are. The same goes for knitting. Sure, I can knit lace shawls. 
I’ve knit a few. I’ve also knit my share of cabled sweaters and difficult patterns to follow. The same with socks. While I can appreciate intricately patterned cabled and lacy socks, I prefer my socks to be straight knit and thereby let the yarn dyed pattern show off.
I spend a lot of time designing the dye patterns for my sock yarn. It takes 
about 2 hours to wind, dye and unwind each skein. All that time investment, I want to see the pattern of the yarn.
Clothing is the same. I’ve often said I am shopping challenged. When I attended public High School - in the 60’s - we had a dress code. Black, white or navy blue skirts with any matching top. Red skirts and white blouses on Fridays (the school colors). As a result of this strict dress code we didn’t have to shop. There was no competition for current styles, no malls to tempt us, no blitz of TV shows because we only had 3 channels. I didn’t attend a prom or dances so I never had to worry about what to wear. In my senior year when the dress code was voted out I was lost in the options. But it was too late for me,I found that plain and simple was what I knew and has served me well for the past 34 years.
Now you can see me in the same colors, jeans and tops. Black, white and navy blue with some red. Some would call me simple, easy, uncomplicated, homely or unsophisticated.
I prefer the positive - classic, clean, natural and sincere.
Simple is a good thing.