The joy of Yarn....

I have a Lola cartoon clipped and on my wall at the office.

It reads:

There’s nothing to do. We’re snowed in. The picture is of a house with snow up to the window.

Scene moves to the kitchen; balls of yarn roll across the floor and out of closet not unlike Fibber McGee’s. (dated myself didn’t I?)
Why don’t you organize your stash?

I will as it becomes necessary.

I have committed a great sin. I have bought more yarn.

I don’t know how or why it happened. I was looking for orange yarn to gift a dearest one and there was this lot of over ten pounds and then the same seller had a bigger one of greens and then they emailed me about a friend of theirs with a store on Ebay that had some unusual cones and now ….

Now I have over thirty pounds of mostly read heart in greens and oranges and pinks and another 30 pounds or more on the way next week.

I get euphoric when the yarn arrives. I love to pull through it and sort it to put together projects!

I know what I will make with it. I just need the time to get it put where I can find it easily and then go knit it.

I figure if I make myself I can get the shelves up in the small bedroom in a little over a week. Not a daunting task. I can do it.

If I win the lottery or PCS and I get started within the next few months…. I can get it all knitted up by the time I turn 100.

Come on lucky numbers!

I begin the research of the book

I found a pattern some time ago in a “one skein wonder” knitting book. It was a top that to this day I have no clue how they thought it could ever be made out of one skein. However, the comment said that is was based on a tunic found in an ancient Grecian grave. I have made this top a dozen or so times. To say the least it takes about four skeins to make this for a woman of medium size. I guess if you made it for Barbie or Twiggy….

It got me to wondering about the history of knitting. I have begun an in-depth research of the subject. I can’t say I have learned too much, but then I am one of those history buffs. I remember about ten years or so on PBS there was one of those programs where the modern day contestants willing gave up the comforts of home and attempted to live as primitives. I remember one particularly grumpy woman who took a ball of wool yarn from the weaver the after working with a couple of sticks announced that she would be knitting socks for the “tribe”. The producers told her that it hadn’t been invented yet. She responded that she just had. She proceeded to begin knitting socks. She calmed down a great deal and with the first pair of socks became the tribal favorite and went from hateful shrew to beloved “mother”.

I tend to think in terms rather like that. No doubt some one realized that there was a need for a fabric that could be shaped to fit. Seams rub and fittings are a pain. Advent knitting.

We find tantalized fragments of knitted good from thousands of years ago. The first items found that bare a resemblance to something we recognize is more around the middle ages. It seems there were a lot of socks knitted. Some gloves and things but on the whole socks won out. I think it comes from the wonderful roundness of knitting.

The first gloves/mittens that seem to have been knitted were simple. The luscious patterns came later. My theory is that as with anything wear wears out things and the simple things used by four stair step toddlers went the way of the carved wooden spoon and bowls. They wore out and were tossed. We get fragments found in ditches sometimes.

Twineing is old, and from the look of things it was some darn sturdy stuff. The fancy patterns came along latter and were reserved for the folks who could afford it and by definition did need it so it didn’t get worn out. It got put away in trunks and later found by decedents a few hundred years later. Museum pieces though wonderful to look at aren’t a really good representative sampling of the real life of the average people. For us normal folks what was worn was functional. A woman with one at the breast and two or three crawling and toddling had no time to waste making finery that she would never wear. A shawl was for warmth and I can see where she might work in a bit of nicety for her daughter or herself or even her mother. But I think it would be more likely that the mother made that little bit of extravagance in the twilight of her life when she had years of experience with the simple and now was more free to be creative. It would be at this time that she would be allowed to sit and knit while watching the grand children.

A young girl learning would have been taught the simple and easy that would be desperately needed by a young couple. The warm socks and mittens and even sweaters and jackets. Socks are simple. They look daunting to some but they are very very simple.

I have noted that there are a great deal of recorded forms of knitting that were done while a woman was walking from point a to point b. Talk about never a moment for yourself. Imagine walking behind the herd of cattle moving them up to the summer pasture, a baby on your back, a toddler by your side, keeping track of the other kids who are supposed to be helping and your knitting socks as you go! Yet that was the way of things. It took hours to prepare each meal. There was not a store to run to for the items needed let alone the inability to buy such things!

Knitting was the art of time management. It is to this day portable. Easier than mending to take with you and requiring little thought if the pattern is simple enough.

I set out to find and copy and perhaps modernize a few patterns. I am still researching. So far I only have the one. I will find more that speak to me. That tell me about the women and girls who created them. Why were they developed and why were they remade over and over again. I think they were knitting the same patterns over and over again just as I do. There is logic in the thought. I will keep looking and keep you posted.

An explanation of knitting

The other day via text messaging I attempted to explain my knitting to a really nice guy.

He was trying hard, but it was clear that he didn’t get it. He has yet to see my stash. I am reluctant to share that. There are those who would call me a hoarder. I am not I am a collector. I know what I have and to what ends I plan to use it. All except that Christmas stuff I bought about ten years ago and I STILL can’t find a pattern I like for it. 17 skeins…. I digress.

He asked me about my knitting groups. I lost him there too. I tried to explain that the Saturday Books-A-Million was actually Kat’s group but that I attended. That it was a meeting of the greats; those of us who are currently writing books or have gained notoriety with our work. I don’t know how I fit in there, but dear sweet Kat assures me that I do.

I told him about the second Thursday Chick with Sticks. He got that one better. But isn’t sure how it works out that we are giving doll blankets to a men’s prison. He thinks the lap blankets for the nursing home are great.

He asked about the projects I have in the works. That gave me pause.

What do I have “on the needles”?

*A king size Entralac afghan in purples and greens for my bed

*An Entralac jacket in shades of orange and red for myself

*The red dress I started for Tori’s wedding, before she insisted that I wear black instead

*A Diatema in black, white, brown and yellow that I was working out the pattern for as a

full dress

* A lap blanket in blue, white and a dark blue with a silver thread in it

* Dark purple shawl in valure for the secretary at my son’s school

* A red and blue (think tech colors) lap blanket in Tunisian crochet.

* An off white afghan for a co-worker

* An afghan in LSU colors

* That other $%@$! Sock that I can’t seem to bring myself to work on

* The tie for my son’s principal in their school colors

Is that really all?

It seems like I should have more. I have got to go through my closet of project bags. I was sure I had more.

Too sick to knit

It never dawned on me that this would ever happen.

I knit on the back of a motorcycle, on my lunch break and even in bed. I will not knit it the tub. Although, I was almost tempted once. Once.

This last week I got too sick.

I sat at Books and flipped through a catalog. I have no desire to knit.

There I was surrounded by my friends and was FINALLY at Books and I didn’t care to knit.

It wasn’t the project. I had two with me. It wasn’t the witty chatter that kept me listening instead. No, I was just too sick.

I felt bad. I hurt and I didn’t want to move.

There is fear here too. I reflect on my dad. He had planned a get away with a lady. Instead of love in the air he had come home with a stomach problem that turned out to be cancer.

I am having difficulty swallowing. Soup seems to be good now. It wasn’t on Saturday.

I can manage to get things down now if I go slowly, if I avoid cold. A piece of cake sent the worst pain across my chest and down my right arm. Since when does swallowing cause pain in my arm?

I had once envisioned the scenario of my having cancer. I would be the cheerful little thing with stylish caps gaily knitting same for others. I would take advantage of my perspective to knit more tits and premi sweaters.

I am afraid. I don’t want to be the morose little soul who sits and stares. I don’t think that this is all that serious. I don’t think. I feel like it’s getting better. I don’t want to be too sick to knit. I want to always have the comfort of the click of my needles. I want to feel the rhythm of the work. I want to see it as it grows, to look at it and gauge how long I have to go how long has it been. I took great care long ago to learn to feel my way along a row of knitting. I was concerned at the time that if I lost my site I would still be able to knit. I went back and relearned it for purling and a couple of other stitches.

I am afraid. I do not ever ever ever want to be too sick to knit.

I will celebrate a mild stone shortly. 45 years of knitting.

It doesn’t seem that long, but I guess it is.

I treated myself to subscriptions to every American published knitting magazine this year with the tax money. At the time it was a lot fun to research and subscribe. Now; a few months later and I am just not so impressed.

I got Knit & Style yesterday. The lead article was about woman who knits yarn from Peru. If I got the idea right, the lady was supporting a third world economy with her work. She had photos of a few pedestrian little sweaters.

I began to reflect.

I don’t purchase my yarn with such noble goals. I buy cheap. A pound or more with no shipping and as close to the five dollar or less mark. I get all sorts of things. A lot of it is really fine. I put it aside and see what comes up. Some time in the last 40 plus years I picked up the knack of assembling my own yarn. I get unique things from the most mundane patterns.

I flip through the rest of the pages. There is a sweater of mitered blocks. I have “knitted around the corner.” It was ok. I stopped short when the little technique I came up with ceased to work so well. I got a cool block or about 24 inches by 18 inches. It made the center of a blanket I made Tori. I don’t like sewing or assembling things too much. A stack of little swatches will not get put together. I will keep it in a bag until the sun burns out.

I flip on. There are several patterns that I look at briefly. They offer some interest. But I end my “read” by putting the magazine in the stack that will go into a bound folder for later reference.

I reflect a bit more. I have been doing this for over 40 years. I should be able to knock out all sorts of exotic little things. I don’t. I knit for comfort, for relief. I knit without a real pattern other than then one I carry in my head most of the time. It has me knitting with tiny tight little stitches.

I knit on the bias. I picked this up a few years ago. It makes a pretty perfect square or triangle and looks cool. I can knit king size blankets and doll blankets alike. Blocking is easy. I don't enjoy blocking.

I knit the Diatema. It is a sweater based on a 3000 year old grave find from Greece. I like this as it allows me to simply stop when I get to the end. I change the length and the neck and it is always the same. It fits. I add sleeves. I knit a k1p1 in the round. I can do it in 0000 or 50#. I shape the body by changing the needles size. Am I lazy?

I knit a hoody pattern that was printed by Red Heart or Lion Brand 30 years ago. It comes in size 3 months to XXXLT. I make the same sweater for every person I know who wants one.

I have a list of ten or more who are still waiting for theirs.

I knit entralac. I picked up this pattern when the kids were missing and I needed to keep my mind busy enough to keep from dieing. I knit king size spreads and doll blankets alike. This is the pattern that looks like I know what I am doing. I don’t. To others it says smart wise wow... to me it says keep up a smile and fake it until you get to the point where you can inhale. It seems to make people happy. I like to make people happy.

I knit the same few patterns over and over again. I am comforted by them. I make rugs and blankets and dresses and sweaters and pillows and even curtains. Every single thing is the same. I give most of it all away. I can knit these by feel in the dark. I do them with speed. I like accomplishing things.

Some times I look longingly at lace. One day I say. I keep knitting the same things. I am comforted by them.

I wonder if I will learn to knit other things in the next 45 years. More importantly will I knit them?

The great stash organization of 2011

Somewhere around a month to six weeks the totally awesome Peggy sent me an email about swapping yarn and cleaning out stashes or at least organizing.

This sparked a huge deal with the group. We have planned a swap of yarn and books.

I have this space off my master bath… you need to see it and of the moment I’m not inclined to add a photo of it…. (messy). The plan has always been to put shelves in it and make it into a bit more closet.

Peggy inspired me to decide to make it the “yarn shop”.

As all engineering projects it looks good on paper.

The space is 5’x12’. It has a window and a light. The ceiling is a lovely 12 feet!

Great! Right?

Put in shelves on the three sides from floor to ceiling!

WRONG!

If I go with 12” shelves I get a real issue in the two corners…. Not too big a deal, however, it makes the use of my Rubbermaid buckets null to use narrow shelves.

Ok, use all those Glad bags I bought. No. Well, yes, but….

Ok I buy from Ebay. I have this search that I do some times at the last moment of the work day. I pull up yarn; pound or more; $2.00 or less, free shipping, ending soonest…..

This works out less well these days than expected. I think some sellers are on to me since I find these not so much anymore, however, I have managed to score several weighty cones of industrial size yarn. The yarn size is fine and gossamer to some nice sport and even bulky weight. Putting the cones in my “baggies” isn’t an issue. It is the quantity that gets me in Dutch.

Leon, the son-in-law to be, started counting. He got to 25 and exclaimed “holy shit!”

Ok now I have a weight problem. I didn’t build all those buildings for nothing. I quickly calculated the bracing needed to support approximately 300 pounds of weight on the bottom shelf all the way around. No biggy.

That calculated, I might be able to fit all of them around the bottom. If it spills into the second shelf, well. Ok you figure some of them aren’t so big and only weigh a pound of less.

Now, for the rest of the yarn.

To make a long silly story short. It ain’t happenin.

With the luxury of the house being so big, the kids making the other end into a one bedroom apartment, and the elimination of all but one child; I am going to convert that small bedroom into the yarn shop instead. It’s 10’x 12’, has a closet and a half bath. Yeah, that ought to do. If not I still have the hall bath.

The relaxation knitting brings.....?

Does anyone else do guilty knitting?

Boy, I do.

It comes in all sorts of forms.

There is the stuff you grab up and work on because you see the unfinished project in the stash/closet and you really intended to have that made for yourself long before now.

If you had finished it you could have worn it last month during the horrible cold, but you had packed it up because it never gets that cold this far south. If you had finished it you would have gotten high praise at the last meeting with all the newbies. But nooo you laid it aside and left it on the shelf and never once thought about touching it until now.

There is the guilty knitting you do when you realize that the baby you started that blanket for is now here and you have only just done about a (fill in the blank) (half, a third, just barely cast it on.

There is the guilty knitting you do when you are racing to finish a project because you have fogged it 92 times and are still not satisfied with the results and you suddenly realize that you HAVE to give them SOMETHING and the results will only matter to you because you are the only one who ever knew that you considered an Irish Cable throw and then couldn’t do a decent cable to save you little round rump and now after six tries the darn thing has be to gift wrapped and on the table at the wedding in less than a week.

There is guilty knitting you do when you own child complains that you’re always making things for other folks. So you snatch up some yarn you had bought for him and after a frantic rush you produce a tried and true hoody that the little schmuck takes one look at and says that’s a baby pattern isn’t it? Why did you knit me a baby sweater?

There is the knitting that you do in the heat of summer and right after the holidays because you want to get a leg up on the community service projects for the group and while you would rather be doing socks for yourself you know that you had better get busy on this so the total for the year won’t look like a giant goose’s egg.

Then there is the true guilt. It’s those projects that you started long ago. You had seriously planned to surprise the recipient with a wonderful item that was exactly what they wanted… had even asked specifically for right down to the weight and color.

Then something happens. They go into a retirement home or the hospital. You change jobs and don’t see them. You or they get a divorce or remarried. Whatever the reason you go for long stretches without seeing them and in back of you mind you think that it would have been nice, but now…. There they are! They are back in your circle/life and you wish to goodness you had just kept the darn project on the burner. You try to recall where you put the thing and did you use the yarn for something else and …..

Yes, knitting is soooo relaxing.

Knitting through the tears

Knitting through the tears.

I don’t think I have done that much.

There have been times when I was chanting while I knitted.

When it doubt, knit!

There have been times when I have knitted to keep from screaming.

Knitting to keep my hands too busy to choke anyone…

And, I have knitted on a few occasions to fight off worry and even physical pain.

But tears? No. Not until today.

They say things come in threes. Bad things and good alike travel in this circle.

I would think that a sane sound minded person would be able to step back and say… “There that’s the third thing,” and with a deep sigh of relief be done.

It rarely works that way. It isn’t working that way today anyway.

It should have been a good week. The cold weather is gone. Nine months with Don….

Leon passed his drug test and was assured by the manager he would start a new job.

On Monday Don appeared at my house to tell me we were through. I took a deep breath, went in the house, placed a phone call, and unraveled his sweater while I waited for my date. I didn’t feel bad, sort of relieved.

That night at mid-night I got pulled over in my own driveway on suspicion of DWI. No, I hadn’t been and yes he was a jerk and yes I got a ticket because my dearest third son had let our policy lapse on the cars. (In December.) I was shaken, but not real moved. I took up a baby blanket that I have been working on since November for a co-worker and after a few inches I went to bed and attempted to sleep.

Today I found out that Tori’s future hubby didn’t get a job we really needed him to get.

I want to cry. I have the dress that I am designing for their wedding and I am knitting on it while I wait for the phone in the office to ring.

I want to cry.

I tell myself that the worst is over. I say that he will get on with my company or someplace close and it will be ok.

I want to cry.

I tell myself that I need to be careful because if I get this chenille wet it may run all over the white top I’m wearing and the last thing I need is to get pink/red stains on it.

I want to cry, but.

I will not cry.

Not now anyway.

I will sit quietly and work on the dress.

Later, I will throw away the plastic cup from the restaurant we ate at almost once a week. I had been keeping it on my desk to use at the office.

Later, I will go through my stash and pack up all that ridiculous wool yarn that I bought because he said he liked it when I was surfing Ebay.

Later, I will go out and clean out my car and put the new insurance card in it and meet up with my dearly beloved son so he can go on Monday and retrieve my %@#$% plates.

Later, I will call the new guy who took me to dinner and who in all honesty is a great deal yummier than Don ever thought about being. And as it turns out (I had the worst crush on ten years ago when we were both married to other people) feels the same way about me. I will feel better.

Later.

Missing my baby girl.....

What shall I blog about today?

I have been looking at various knitting blogs. They are all quite good in so many ways. I feel they have attributes far better than ours. For one thing Tori never writes anything. I encourage her to jot down just anything, but alas…. No smoke.

She is pretty well consumed with her wedding. As I think it should be. And she is pretty discouraged that she feels she shouldn’t attend any of my knit meets for fear of insulting my dearest friend. I don’t see her knit so much or even crochet these days. I’m not worried.

Knitting is a pastime for those who have the capacity to sit; an iron ass in riding terms.

I didn’t have one for a while. I barely knitted more than the scarf for an outfit for years. The odd pair of mittens and finally the odd baby blanket. My life for a good while was full of work and life. That sounds silly. But I was all about working two and three jobs. I taught at Our Clay Cabin as a pottery and ceramics instructor and worked construction running jobs with Pap and then did the office thing for our company. I seem to recall I had a decent social life at the time too. Oh, and I was working my way through my first degree back then as well.

I picked up knitting in the odd winter weekends when weather kept me in. I would knock out scarves to accompany a coat or an outfit. I began a shawl for my Grandmother while I was on my back with broken ribs. I didn’t finish that until many years later. (I only stayed in bed for a few days…. I strapped on my other Granny’s old corset and went back to work…)

It wasn’t until after “the summer of weddings” that I returned to knitting in earnest. I had knitted shawls for my bridesmaids… that didn’t count… But in February after our wedding in November, I found out that I didn’t have food poisoning, but was “with child”. A long bout of morning noon and night sickness left me unable to work my long hours and put me in the office and only taking my last two courses in order to get my degree.. I was suffering from some serious Braxton-hicks contractions too. My OBGYN suggested I take up a hobby. My husband gave a rather derisive snort. At the moment I was indulging in a passion for repelling into sinkholes. Not exactly a highly recommended pre-natal sport.

But I took it into my head to make wonderful creations for my unborn. I just knew it would be a boy. I made all sorts of cute little guy things. The only thing that ever got much use was the pastel variegated blanket. I had a girl….

I miss Tori’s enthusiasm over yarn. I miss the knitting meets with her as my sidekick. I miss the hunt for yarn and even little scrabbles over who would get what when we went through it. I am not too worried. Last week she had me buy a half finished blanket and the yarn from Marita so she would have a head start on the blanket for her and Leon’s bed.

She’ll be back with me soon enough.

Under the influences

In our area the is a quaint little yarn shop called: Knitting Under the Influence.

I have never gotten to know Nancy well enough to ask exactly she is under the influence of. She’s an elderly lady with some odd ideas about knitting and money and the price of yarn. I used to go from time to time to covet her stock…. I can’t afford her yarn and I feel deep regret that I can merely look. I did send my son for a pair of glass needles. Yes, glass. They looked good and he wanted to know what to get me. He also picked up a copy of the Yarn Harlot and I have loved it and him ever since.

But, I digress.

I find lately that I am the one who is knitting under the influence.

When I did the buy it now on the 000 and 0000 knitting needles I was under the influence of Kat and her tiny little crochet hooks and her gossamer weight yarn…. All 6000 yards of it….

When I got the entire set of Tunisian crochet hooks I was under the influence of Pam and her simply breathe taking table runners. I bought the hundred pounds of chenille from Marita because I coveted her patterns she is writing. I couldn’t write a pattern to save my hide; but I sure would love to create half the stuff she has. I got the two sets of 14 pairs of addi circular needles when I realized that the lapghan and the two diateemas I had started were going to bottle neck because I only had one set of #10 circular needles and all three projects call for them. I got the ball winder when I realized that there HAD to be an easier way to shift than to drag around commercial size cones of yarn for half my projects. I started buying commercial size cones of yarn when I discovered that the price for one cone divided by the number of yards of yarn made it dirt cheep. (Channel my Granny Rose and her southern belle ways). I really go into it when I figured out pulling three or four colors together to make my own yarns. (Blame my father and his engineering skills…. Why buy a tool if you can make one you like better for less)

I dream about the day when Don and I retire to the cabin in the deep woods. I envision myself knitting the garments we need and that I want to give the kids and grandkids. My choices will be based on what is practical and will fit form and function best. I will stick to the tried and true. I will use only yarn from the sheep and goats that we raise. I will be just like my beloved grandmother Maude. I will only be influenced by need and durability.

Yeah, right.

Of love and Hate.

The knitting magazine is such a funny little thing. Like a favorite piece of jewelry or a great bit of cinema it can be cherished for decades to come. And just like those things it can make you crazy. As when your favorite bracelet snags the crap out of your favorite shawl or the movie you love every last moment of has the hideously misquoted line. There are times when beloved things make you want to scream.

I know I love them. Knitting magazines. Do not get me wrong. I have referred to them as the healthy replacement for cigars and a suitable distraction from thoughts of sex. Divorced remember? Like sex it can get down right frustrating. If not completely discouraging.

Today’s magazines are written for knitters of all ages. I get that. I know I have been knitting since shortly after Mrs. Noah got off the ark and told himself she needed to shear the sheep if he wanted new unders.

They have machine knitting directions. (Insert cold spinal shiver here along with the appropriate cringe).

The articles about the books are handy some times, although personally I prefer to go to a book store find the book, look through it, hold it my hand and see if it generates enough drool before I actually buy it. At which point I will return to the office next Monday and look for it on Ebay.

I actually get the magazines for the patterns.

The patterns are “free”. Well you pay for them when you get the book. Some of those are well written little bits of lust. I read them several times. Perhaps for a couple of months until I feel I have the whole thing in my head. I look through the stash to see if there is a yarn worthy of the pattern in mind. I select it or them (the whole make your own yarn thing).

Other patterns are silly. If you don’t know how to knit a scarf at my stage of the game: give up and go home!

The photos for some are sooo enticing. They look so great on the models. Look good on me or anyone I knit for? Get real! Well maybe Don’s size 00 daughter or my granddaughter Sophie.

And then.

Then there are the ones that must have been proofed by the editor’s third grader or pet chimp. I dare not hazard a guess as to which one. They make no sense. There are parts that are missing and/or just plain grammatically improper. The resulting shawl will look great as a teapot cozy and the sweater that it is supposed to be will look dandy on the cat.

OR, THERE ARE CHARTS.

I do not do charts. I am not talking about Fair Isle or Intarsia charts. I am referring to the stitch charts. I learned with good old EZ (Elizabeth Zimmerman) when she was still printing fresh work in the newspaper.
You are creating a piece of fabric when you knit. You are merely saving yourself the need to cut it out and sew it together. Yes I am a top down knitter if there ever was one. I even have figured out modifying patterns so as to eliminate piecing.
Somewhere out there between EZ and now some fool started making charts. The knitter is relegated to playing follow the bouncing ball. They are also pretty much left to learning to frog it or throwing out expensive yarn and logging wasted time. I quit one knitter’s page in disgust when the third woman posted crying over the $9 a skein yarn she had thrown away because she had botched the chart.
I must simply rebel at the notion that knitting is becoming a lockstep institution.

Where are you E. Z.?

Where are those practical folks who look at a photo and say I want to knit that?

I once carried a picture of a picture of Elvis on my phone for over a year because I wanted to keep the pattern of the sweater he was wearing in the picture so I could replicate it. My best gal pal has recorded bits of shows we were watching so we could get a better look and the knitwear on the actors.

Are there anymore like us? Is anyone out there still knitting the EZ way?

TAX TIME!!!

Tax time!

What does that have to do with knitting?

Being an accountant I know no later that 12/31 exactly how much taxable income I have for the past year and how much I’m getting back. I have the pseudo luxury of being overworked and underpaid with two kids at home and a mortgage. As a divorced woman who doesn’t have to put up with many of the b/s compromises that other gals do, I get to claim both kids and the earned income credit. (That changes next year).

I bet I have spent my return about a hundred times. My kids are used to the phrase “when I get my taxes back.”

I know I will have to put an extra payment on the house and I know that if I am behind on anything I will pay that and there is the bail bondsman who had to send bounty hunters after my ex. I owe him $600.00 although that is a good bit better than the 3500 it would have been if the ex had gotten clean away. (We were married when I posted the bail.)

No; in all honesty the very first thing I will do after the text message from my Visa card tells me that the funds are loaded will be to go on line and renew all my knitting magazines.

There is the new one: Knit Today. Vogue Knitting, Interweave, Knit Simple, Knit –n- Style, Piecework (that’s the new one to me that Kat loves). Am I forgetting any?
I had it in my head that there were six now. I don’t subscribe to the international ones. Yes, six. If you know of any I have missed PLEASE let me know!

I will experience a brighter mood when I pull one from the mailbox. I will forgive the worst tantrum thrown by a co-worker with a new Vogue Knits in my arms. I will anticipate getting home, running my hot bubble bath and locking the door so that I may enjoy my prize in peace. They are the new cigar for me. They keep me sane when the world is out to make me crazy. They inform me of all the little trends and products. I love those gadget pages. Are you kidding? I would never spend good money on that crazy stuff, but they are fun to look at. They take me on tours of shops from all over the world. These humble little bits of paper provide a multileveled delight for the sciences. They offer the promise of projects to come and treasure to delve through later when the yearning to “gift” strikes.

Yes, when it comes to financial matters.

One MUST keep matters in proper perspective

Thoughts on the process

Staring at the blank page to write the blog is a lot like staring at the stash.
There is so much potential there. One can with the correct ingredients make a masterpiece. Or, you can make a frog.
Sadly I seldom get to do either. My days are spent full of work and Don and the kids. I only get about half of my time at my place. And. When I do there is something else calling for my attention.
Yet, this never seems to slow down the demand for knitted goods from my tribe or to put an end to the 6 to 8 projects I always seem to have going. I wonder why?
Usually I am rummaging through the bags and buckets in a quest for some yarn that I just know that I have and Tori is managing to swear doesn’t exist, or if it did it was in a prior era. I resort to going back to paypal on occasion to find the picture of the yarn.
Proving that I bought it seldom phases Tori. She just swears I gave it away or have knitted it. Not likely, but…. She has on occasion been the guilty party who copped it for one of her projects.
A quick dig usually lands the sought after prize in my lap for closer examination.
Then it is on.
I begin by comparing the pattern I have with the yarn. I do not ever go out and buy yarn from the pattern. #4 yarn is #4 yarn etc. And I tend to translate up or down on the weight and the needles as it is. I do swatches and get my gauge and go from there.
I will most likely have made a copy of the pattern at the office. (Wonderful boss who doesn’t care if I use the copier).
At this point I begin writing on it to “fix it”.
The notes are for the yarn and the needles.
Sometimes as in the case of a dress I am currently working on the pattern turned out to be rough guide for something I liked but had no intention of actually knitting. That was started as a “one skein wonder” from the book by the same. The pattern is called Diatema and is a completely seamless top. I have made it a couple of times and love it. Soooo I decided to turn the boat neck into a square neck. I am still debating on adding sleeves, however, I am sure that I have enough yarn to keep going and make it a dress. I pulled cashmere, silk and wool to make one yarn. And all the browns and blacks and whites will go great with a black jacket or sweater and some pumps.
Yes that is the other idiosyncrasy I have. I combine yarns. Generally they are fine lace and fingerling weights that when pulled together as one yarn becomes a nice worsted weight.
Guess that will have to be a photo post when it’s done, huh?
In the meantime I forwarded a Lola cartoon to my knitting group. Caption was: When it becomes necessary I’ll go through the stash. I would say that’s about right.

The most wonderful time of the year!

This is, I think my favorite time of year for knitting. Maybe it is the cold weather. A time to cuddle up with the blankets that were too hot to even look at back in July, now you can get those puppies finished!

Perhaps it is the post holiday feeling. “At last I can work on something for me.”

A new year and a chance to start fresh?

For whatever the reason, more of my dear friends seem to make it to the knitting meetings, yarn seems to have a whole new pallet to choose from, and even the knitting needles seem to be more inviting. You know, the ones that looked sooo good on the web or in the magazine and then weren’t suitable for anything you wanted to work on? Or am I the only one who buys those things for their beauty?

We have a great new gal at the meetings. She is from Alaska and has decided to relearn knitting. Poor thing has an allergy to metals. I can feel for her since so many foods and other fun things are on my “usedtocould” list. She has to use plastic or other non-metal needles. I guess I am lucky. I do not know what I would do without my Adis’.

I have a new buddy with the Boy Scouts…. Well several actually, but I feel for her in that she can’t knit or crochet anymore since the carpel tunnel has gotten bad. Another new pal may be going to try again since her surgery.

Perhaps that’s it. I am feeling the shear joy of knitting lately. Though my hands lock up and my dear Tori has to massage them I can still move my hands without too much pain. I can use my favorite needles and as long as I switch back and forth between sizes I am good. I don’t have any trouble with any yarns I use. I am free to take up the Entralac sweater I started, the wool purse, the king size Entralac bedspread, or any of about six additional projects that are sitting neatly in their bags waiting my return.

I am free to begin new projects. I can dig in my stash. I have one you know….. Yes ridiculously large, but I shouldn’t have to shop for yarn for years…. HA!

Yes, this is my favorite time of year to knit.

THEN AGAIN..... IT COULD BE MY ANTICIPATION OF KNITTING THAT WILD RED DRESS THAT I STARTED FOR MY SON'S WEDDING AND DIDN'T GET TO WEAR.
TORI IS ENGAGED TO A WONDERFUL GUY AND THE WEDDING IS SET FOR LATE OCTOBER!

Finally done!!!

Ok this one I have been working on for almost a year. Blanket for the grandchildren. IT IS DONE.

Just had to brag a little....

Miss Cathy and Sarah were kind enough to hold it for me. Got to love those Saturday at Books-A-Million Gals!!!