A quick update....

Yes folks it has been a while.

Lots of things have taken up our time. Tori has been through about six guys….
She finally called the one I met and got his number from…. I know what the girl likes….

I did finish the hoody for Sophia. And, I have discovered that you can knit on the back of a motor cycle. Though only little things like socks being done in the round on circular needles.

Peggy is impressed. She rides with Todd from time to time and can’t see it. What can I say “Ellie” has a really comfortable seat and sissy bar.

It is that time of the year that drives me nuts. So close on projects and yet so far. The shrug I started for one girl has been frogged three times. It was going to be sooo lovely a variegated silk ribbon from India and bamboo that matched the turquoise. Looks great just not enough of it make what I want the way I wanted…. I thing this is why I started buying yarn in one pound lots of larger.

The LSU blanket I started in May is still going. I am starting to wonder if I will EVER get it done. It is so big now that I can’t do much but work on it at the house.

One of my roughnecks wife had a baby in October, or maybe early November.

Got make a blankies!

I frogged that twice to get it the thickness and warmth I wanted. It’s going smoothly enough.

I still have to finish that awful edging on Lucas’ blanket. AND I have yet to even start on Alexander’s hoody. I can’t send the baby and big sister something and not send him one too, and if I don’t get a move on the baby will out grow the sweater and hat.

Matthew has been pouting, not bad but just enough, I have to at least cast on his Longhorns afghan so he will know I care and haven’t forgotten.

Meanwhile the boyfriend sweater that the boyfriend actually asked for sits and is barely past the yoke. My own projects and the couch throw for a co-worker sit on needles. I will get to those after the holidays.

Our group did pretty well with the doll blankets this year, but we voted to stop that project and switch to lapghans for the old folks home.

And Don wonders why I’m knitting in the bathroom………

On the purchase of yarns.

I wanted to touch on the subject of yarn. I have heard other knitters go on about it and I know that I am not alone in my simple love of it.
Yarn must feel a certain way, must flow in my fingers, and even smell good.
That is why I am such a source of fun for my colleagues. When a box of yarn arrives in the mail I become a small child under the Christmas tree.
Allow me to back up a bit.
I love Ebay.
It is my largest source of yarn and knitting needles.
I can get Addi’s in from the orient for next to nothing.
I can fill my needle collection with square needles.
I get pounds of yarn for a mere “bit”.
First I have the fun search. “$0.01 to $2.00; free shipping.” I see something I like well enough and bid a couple bucks. Most of the time I am outbid. From time to time I win.
Usually it is a couple of skeins that are planned to be worked into a project. I have some of the best combos for my entralac projects that way.
Then there are the more serious searches.
Cones of yarn.

Simply yarn on a cone. Often machine knitting yarn of a tiny gauge. Wonderful for combining with other yarns to make my own “yarn”. Also these are great for making lace and other micro knitting projects.
“Pound of yarn”
You guessed it. At least a full pound of yarn. You can always find a use for left over bits. Running out of yarn….. NO WAY.
Then there are the yarn lots!
In the past there has been as much as 30 pounds of yarn in one auction. Yes, I said 30.
Where do I put it? When do I use it?
Where is simple. I have small room off my master bath where it is stored. Thanks to the chain called Dollar Tree; I put the yarn into 2, 3 and 5 gallon Ziploc bags. (you get them 3 to a pack @ a dollar a box).
I used to use tubs but those are not see through and can lead to forgetting what you have.

I put a huge bad of Christmas yarns into a bucket and forgot them for nearly ten years.....

This way I can even get a look at different yarns side by side. A couple of my pulled together yarns were created when I noticed two bags side by side.....

I post a picture of today’s arrival.

The two blues are different thread but the color is very close to each other, those I will match with a white to knit a blanket for Matthew. (Dallas Cowboys fan)
The Red is for a sweater for my Danny and the black is a nice weight to use on all the things people say “I want that in black.”
Danny has also mentioned he likes the yellow. There you go all out.

Ohhh that little one in a tan/brown fleck will match some existing micro fibers I have. Another new yarn will be born.

Here I am again.
I am still working on the sweater for Don.
Sort of.
You see Don’s daughter Jenny has need of a compression sleeve and glove.
I’ve been told exactly what the name of her condition is, but at the moment I haven’t a clue what the correct term is. Suffice it to say without divulging too much about the lovely teenager who needs the sleeve and glove in order to reduce the pain and slow the effects.

I, in a fit of pique over the heat in NW Louisiana, attempted to knit standard crochet thread. It worked well enough. I used #1 and #0 needles and in a simple garter stitch I made one of my Pythagorean Afghans.

Yes, I can hear you saying: “ a what what”? It’s a pattern of my own design that I came up with roughly 30 years ago when the first baby out grew the first “blankie” and wanted a bigger one. About this time, I realized just how mind numbing it was to cast on 508 stitches.
If I can round up one that doesn’t show too much signs of battle wear I will take some pictures and print the pattern.

I digress. Point is Dearest Kat has taught me to love micro knitting. When I found out that the sleeve and glove Jenny normally wears is unbelievably expensive and she is in the horrible position of not having SSI and Medicare, or even Medicaid, the immortal words sprang to my head: “I can knit that”!!!!!!!

I came to the conclusion that I am a Zimmerman knitter. I prefer to think of the knitting as a way to make a fabric that fits the wearer. This project will be a test of that. I look at it as a fairly strait forward item. Yet, her arm is not uniform in shape. I can see the use of some short rows and the engineering issue of the proper amount stretch and give to be of real use and not too constricting.
I am going to go with a garter stitch. I think it will offer more stretch. It will be simple and mindless for lunch and waiting knitting. If it works she will have relief.

As always I will keep you posted!

This may be an obsolete entry

Last post I opened sooo many cans of worms.
I think I will start with Don.
He is after several men that I have dated etc. the first one to be interested in knitting. No, he has no desire to knit. But he is fascinated by yarns and technique and my ability to make something that will actually fit him.
Let me preface this by saying that our relationship is a ménage et trio. Me, him and Ellie. Ellie is a 1990 Harley Davidson. I have always loved to ride. I always have. While I shall not go into this here and now allow me to say it is addictive.
Don has pointed out to me that there is a real need for riders to have clothing that will protect them and be comfortable in all sorts of weather. Imagine that, jeans, tee and a leather vest aren’t adequate….

In the manner of Elizabeth Zimmerman I am more the type who looks at knitting as creating a piece of fabric that will fit the person. I measure and adapt to make the garment fit the person I am knitting for. It makes a good fitting sweater easy to accomplish. The biggest key is having the person you are knitting for close around to stop and measure and fit.

Now, accommodating Don; I look at him and see Poseidon. Massive muscular chest the stomach of a mature man who has been lifting great weights for decades great to look at, but a little tough to shop for even at a big man’s shop. He’s something like 6’ 3”. I measured his shoulders for a sweater I started and discovered his neck required 23” and his shoulder for the yoke is a healthy 61”, his chest is 58”. If you have ever reason to look you know… there are very, very, very few patterns for a man this size. In addition to this many of the ones that do exist in any size make a man look in a word … fat.

I found one pattern that began…. “you will need 2000 to 2500 yards of worsted weight yarn.” I could take that the wrong way and get depressed if I were knitting this for myself.

I have, therefore, decided to write “Knitting for the Big Guys”. I plan to take some reasonable patterns and readapt them to men who are not have some mussel on their bodies.

I know that it will be a matter of getting my gauge and sticking to the size and measurements to match.

Keep your fingers crossed and hope for me

Birthday blahs

I find this afternoon that I getting down about the whole birthday thing.
I have never made a big deal about it. I have never had a party.
I would prefer to keep it that way.

I had planned to gut my kitchen and put up the wallpaper I had purchased over three years ago and that the ex had made such a nasty deal about.

I planned to spend my entire weekend alone. I like that.

It has dawned on me:
* that this makes the 40th anniversary of my dear mommy's departure. She walked out the week I turned 8.

* that I will have been knitting for 45 years as of this week.

* that my oldest daughter and child turns 28.

* that my first ex disappeared with my kids 15 years ago this week.

I know that I am going to go home tonight. I will take my deep funk with me. I will most likely be unsociable with the kids. I will go to my room; to my little cocoon I made and I will pick up something. Probably that project I had meant to make for myself and I will knit. By the time I look up it will past bedtime and I will be "whoop-ed" I will have gotten a bit done on a project and I will not have thought about too much except my knitting.

I will feel comforted. I will think about my grandmothers who taught me and I will miss them and if I cry I will do it alone so no one sees me. I will once again pick up knitting and be in control.

Time has simply flown.....

I see it has been a bit since my last up date.

I have several things I ought to write about. The new group, new folks in my life, new baby in the family, turning 48, knitting styles to accommodate differing body types, knitting at the jail while you’re waiting for visiting time. (I promise I will get back to that one).

It has come to my attention that I seem to knit more when I am borderline depressed. I suspect you have recently arrived from a distant planet, one that I think I would like flight tickets for, if you do not know how much your kids, men, money and your job can push you into that state. I have been told by Tori that I was guilty of phoning it in for the last two years. I hear divorce can do that to you….

When I knit I sit and knit and in my little world I have control. I can tear out and redo if I have a problem. If it gets sticky I put it down and work on another project. I complete projects many that will be given to those who are more in need than us. I feel better. I knit more.

Our knitting group split up into two groups in May. Peggy, who started Chicks-with-sticks, had to switch up her nights and move to Wednesday. I have a son who is using my car and going to Technical College three nights a week. I, therefore like many have “plans” for Wednesday and offered to keep the Thursday night spot. I miss Peggy, but we still have a good group. In May Ilse paid us a visit. She is a wonderful crotchetier and wanted to learn to knit. She at one point said that night, “so tell me about yourself.”
I began, “Well, I’m happily divorced….”
“Ooooo have I got a guy for you.” Needless to say she did.

I got over my depression about the divorce.

Now I find I have to get busy. It’s late August. In a couple of weeks it will be Labor Day. From there on it will be “holidays”. One birthday in early October another later in the month and us a tribe who makes a big deal out of Halloween.

Money has been tight. Again this year we will be shopping the stash and making gifts. To their credit my adult children if they really don’t love my knitted gifts they at least have the good grace to gush and say profuse “thank yous”.

I can recall the days when I had my life more tightly knit. I began to decorate for Halloween on Labor Day and had all the Christmas gifts bought and tucked in the closet my Halloween. We decorated for Christmas beginning on November 2. (November 1 was the wedding anniversary back then). Lights were turned on Thanksgiving Day ….

I was a fireball. I reveled in the times I was told I made Martha Stewart look like an amateur. I only had five kids back then….. No grand babies…..

Now…..
I don’t see our house having 20,000 lights for Halloween and 100K for Christmas. We will most likely only have one tree and although Halloween will be big because Tori is going to wait to have her 18th birthday party that night, I don’t see us giving out candy or trick-or-treating with JB that night.

This year I have all those sweaters and blankets I have been pecking at all summer that will get shipped to the oldest son and his kids. I have GOT to get busy with a couple of those.
Haven’t even started on the oldest grandson’s…. Won’t mention where I am on my son and the daughter-in-law…. Did you know even if you’re knitting socks you can’t knit on the back of motorcycle?

Don came into my life in late May. He has three kids and a mother who live with him. They are really swell kids. I adore Miss Sherry; a great lady. I have been teaching all of them to knit; his two sons as well. My youngest boy won’t touch knitting….

This opens about six different areas of discussion. Teaching boys to knit; knitting for the handicapped; knitting for large men….

All I can say is watch the blog and see …..

"facilitating"

I had been knitting for decades when I moved to Louisiana.
Decades…. Ohhh that’s creepy to think about.
Anyway, here I was in a new town and working with men, again.

I decided that I needed to meet other women. Get out and make friends.
I found a group on Yahoo and made arrangements to attend a meeting. I read up on latest trends. I subscribed to a couple of e-news letters and read them.

I was in for a surprise.

They didn’t talk knitting much.

They talked about a great deal but not knitting in and of itself.

This was great!!!

After 40 plus years of working with men in construction and usually having just about exactly one female friend I was in heaven!!!! I discussed kids, men, society, politics, even religion!

I met Neesie. She was to the oil industry what I had been to construction! She knitted. Just knitted; I got to teach her to Perl! She made gorgeous scarves. They were made of two or three strands of the most wonderful fun furs! I think I developed knitter’s envy. It gave me the guts to attempt it myself. It is fun. I do it a lot now days. Before she had to relocate I got to see here first baby blanket she had knitted for a grandchild. I miss her. I wonder if she’s still knitting on the plane as she goes all over the world or is she knitting on the porch of her home in NO.

I met Kat. She is like a mirror image of me. Warm and wonderful in every way, she is all the calm I wish I were, all the knowledge I wish I had picked up. She, however, is a technician. She tackles lace, she makes bobbles, and she does cables. I have developed the impression that she revels more in the learning of the technique ahead of the completion of the project. Again, at times I get knitter’s envy. I have begun to attempt learn to use patterns instead of looking at the picture and “getting there”. After all these years she is the sister I never had. I would have never have met her if I didn’t knit.

There was another group and another and finally a third and a fourth.

I loaded up Tori and JB and off we go. We have a large circle of friends now. Many I feel are sisters. I adore attending Roxanne’s group at the Church. It feels so good to have friends who a spiritual.

Peggy’s group was a result in a real desire to knit. She is something else. She hasn’t been knitting all that long, but she started the Chicks with Sticks and pulled all the local groups into one effort. We make doll blankets to give to children at Christmas. The inmates at the prison she works at make doll beds. The pictures and thank you notes she posted on her blog made me cry with joy.

Now after four years she needs to move her meeting night. I know I will go. I go to all of them; unless I don’t have a car…..
But there are those who can’t do Wednesday night. I understand. It looked like these wonderful gals would get left behind. Soooo I spoke up. I told Peggy I would “facilitate” the Thursday meetings. I just don't want anyone to miss out.

I wonder how I will feel to have "Melinda’s group". I suspect it will be Tori and Melinda’s group.

I suspect that little will change except that we will miss Peggy and I will get to update folks because I just saw her last night.....

At times like this I begin to see that knitting has been more than a pastime. It has helped me weave my life together.

Two steps forward....

And three steps back.

I heard the other day that when you have to pull out a few stiches thats's tink'in.
(knit spelled backwards)
When you pull out a lot its frogging.... ripit ripit.....

I seem to do as much frogging as I do knitting sometime.
I had in mind to make all these wonderful doll blankets and in the meantime learning all these awsomly cool stitches. I have to date managed to knit six more blankets, on was in this wonderful pattern of arches (think vvvvv ) The doll blanket turned out so well I decided to make one for my grandaughter Sophia.
Nope.

I swear I followed the very simple pattern exactly as the book stated.
It leaned.
No, I mean it literally leaned to the right.

I frogged it.
I tried to look at my work as I went in order to see what went wrong.
No luck.
I have no clues.

I have begun a pattern as demonstrated on Knit and Crochet today!

It seems to be going better.

As you can see I figured out posting pictures!

The hat is a stocking cap I made for the grandbaby that's on the way.

I got the sweater coat to match it done.

I've been working diligently on the various projects. So far nothing is quite complete. I didn't realize how many I had going. I had put aside the entralac king size spread started months ago. It's sooo huge I have trouble handeling it now days. Got to get it finished. Dito for the winter coat I started in entralac. I realized that I had lost the urge to get it finished once the red buds began to bloom. Spring comes soooo early in NW Louisiana. Winters in Chicagoland were much more inspiring for heavy knits.

I poured over Nicki Epstien's Knitting on the Edge to see if I could find a border for the entrlac blanket I made for new baby. Decided to invent one of my own. Tori pronounced it cool.

For so long I couldn't do entrlac. I made a sweater with it as a form of therapy once. I still call it the sainity sweater. I realized about 9 months ago that I was finally able to knit in that style again. Guess I'm finally cured.

Tori got a bee in her bonnet and crochetted a doilie freehand!

The significance of that is that she was rasied with four brothers and is most likely one of the least femine of gals you will ever meet.

Spring restart....

I aspired to blog about my daughter and I knitting Christmas gifts. We had determined to shop our stash and limit gifts to the things we could make.
That went barely better than the blog.
Time, work. Limitations on time, not so on the work load.

Here it is spring and we try again. Though now she crochets. Says it is easier than knitting. There is a new grandbaby on the way. Due 06/19/2010!
I got the sweater and hat knitted.

Booties.... looking for a "manly" pattern.

My new goal is tied to the Shreveport Chicks with Sticks. We make doll blankets to donate to a toy drive. My new goal is to make a 12" x 12" blanket in each of the stitches in my "bible"
Stockinette was simple, dito on garter, now I'm doing a few more that are a little more involved.

So far I have made one with a leaf pattern and an ectralac. If and when I can figure out posting of pictures I'll get them up!

Anyway at least I have started. Better than the last attempt.