Good to be Home Again

Ahhhh. I do love the holidays, but after 5 days at my parents', and almost 3 at Hubby's, with only two days in between, it is so very nice to get back into our little routines at home... even if home is an enormous mess.

Right now, Monkey is having a bath, and Daddy is assisting, (I can hear the giggles from here) so I have a few minutes to catch you up. I finished my holiday knitting just in time, again. Now this year I didn't plan on very many knit gifts because I wanted to avoid the frantic knitting/felting/sewing at midnight from last December. But still, I was down to the wire. I may not have been quite as stressed about it this year, but I was still pushing the deadline. I'm thinking that no matter how few or how many handmade projects I plan on, I will somehow find a way to be done just in time. I should just be glad that I did get them done, because the alternative is a bit embarrassing (and knitting gifts after they've been given is a bit like a chore).

My holiday knitting consisted of dishcloths for 8 (four each), a shawl, and some crazy hats.

Here are some dishcloths:

The finished shawl:

No pictures yet of the crazy hats for my BIL who likes to soak in his outdoor hot-tub in the winter, sorry. He got an acrylic rainbow hat with tail an pom-pom, and a regular hat of terra-cotta in Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, very comfy.

Today is New Year's Eve, and I'm thinking of the direction I'd like my knitting to take in 2008.

• Knit up more of my stash, in order to switch the stash from the jumble of odd skeins it is to (many less skeins) of (nicer) yarn to be bought for a specific purpose.


• Finish a few UFO's, to have less of them at the end of the year than the amount I have now (many more than you are thinking).


• Knit some for charity. There are a lot of cold people out there. I have a ton of yarn. There's a connection there.


• Publish some free patterns. Yeah, I said FREE. One pattern a month, minimum. Here on the blog. Be sure to check back.

For now, I'm working on a charity baby blanket for Warm Woolies. It usually takes me awhile to select a pattern and yarn, but this time I just picked yarn out of the stash and cast on. Yeah me!

Hosting Christmas

Each year, at Christmas, my family (or as many of that can) travel to one house to enjoy the holiday together. Thank goodness I am not hosting Christmas this year. I hosted last year and it was a ton of stress and work! (admittedly, some of the stress could have been from having a one year old child who didn't enjoy napping and my deciding to make most of the presents...)


I had never realized before how much work goes into just cleaning for the holiday! Then there's decorating, and cooking, and shopping, and it's sort of rude to do those things after the guests arrive. Then where to fit everyone (we do not have a large house) and making sure they're comfortable and sort of letting go of whether they're comfortable because there's only so much I can do without adding on a wing to the house and hiring some staff. So, thank goodness I am not hosting Christmas this year. But I feel guilty that my Mom, who is hosting, has all this work to do, so Monkey and I traveled to my Mom's house last week to help out. We blasted the Christmas music, and danced around with our dusters, then set about decorating for the holiday. It was great fun, and Monkey got to spend quality time with Nana and Poppy, so he was happy.


I brought two knitting projects with me, a Baby Surprise Jacket and a shawl for my grandmother, neither of which had been cast on. The shawl hadn't really been planned out, but I brought a copy of "Folk Shawls" by Cheryl Oberle with me, I figured I could pick something out of that. I started the lace shawl for my grandmother about 8 times this week, and FINALLY got something that resembles lace and doesn't make me vomit. (yeah, the tries were that bad) The problem was not Cheryl Oberle's book, it was my interpretation of it.


Apparently, I cannot follow simple directions. First, I ignored Cheryl's beautiful patterns, and tried to adapt her technique and stitch patterns into something entirely new. I tried to fit a lace pattern meant for a rectangular shawl into a triangular shawl (vastly overestimating my ability to adapt lace). Then I knit across the back for awhile instead of purling. When I finally figured that one out, fixed it, and the lace still looked bad, I realized I wasn't following the chart for the exceptions at the beginning and end of some rows. Hmmm... I decided to do something a bit easier, because it was very clear that I was not capable of much here. I cast on for a rectangle, used the number two lace from the sampler shawl in Folk Shawls, and remembered to purl on the wrong side (most times). So far, it's looking pretty good, and about 10 inches long (and it only needs to be about 60. God help me!)

You're probably wondering about the Baby Surprise Jacket I took with me. Never touched it. Seems it's a bit difficult being a single Mom, even just for a week, and with a few relatives around helping. Well, it is for me, anyway.

It's that time again

Sweater time! Wouldn't you know, Monkey has outgrown all his sweaters from last year (yes, it's true. Kids grow. Who woulda thunk it?) My goal last year was to have a handknit sweater that fit him for every day of the week. I didn't care if it was knit by me, or if it was knit for him. So, together with handmedowns from his nephews that were knit by me and by a talented aunt, the sweaters knit for him by the Knit Chicks (thanks again, ladies) and the ones I knit specifically for him, he had (at least) seven sweaters. But now, he has outgrown them all! Yikes! I went directly to the old standby:

The wonderful wallaby. You might be sick of seeing them here, but I never tire of knitting them. It's sorta mindless after you knit the first 10 sweaters... and mindless is exactly what I needed. The brain is still on vacation from my pregnancy (yes the child is almost two. Yes I'm getting worried that the brain will decide not to return.) I think the colors are victorian Christmas, but I'm weird that way.

So the wallaby musta jump-started my knitting mojo, 'cause then I started this:

It's the Dragon Skin Wrap from the holiday issue of Interweave Knits (the holiday issue is not included in the subscription. Yeah, that bugged me too.) I know what you're thinking. This is not a boy's sweater.
Well, maybe the wallaby got my hands warmed up for this project, but not my brain. I ripped. A lot. And then I ripped again (where can the brain BE?) So not so much with the mojo, but much with the "I gotta knit that!" What's that called? Hankerings?

Anyway, it's almost done, here's a pic:

I'm knitting it in Lion Brand Cotton Ease. Next I sew the side/underarm seams, knit the collar, and the i-cord tie, then add a snap inside, and voila! I brought it to Knit Chicks and Lisa asked if it was turning out the size it was supposed to, and I can honestly say I have no idea. I didn't check my gauge (yeah I know) and haven't measured the sweater yet to see if it turned out the way the pattern said it would. I truly believe that the child who fits the sweater (now or eventually) will appear to claim it. No worries.

Centaurs are thoughtful

...and which lesser Harry Potter character are you?

Book Review

I started reading "The Knitting Circle" by Ann Hood on Tuesday and had a hard time putting it down, even though I was crying like mad. The book is about women coming to knitting as a way to get past a tragedy in their lives. The main character, Mary, has lost her 5 year old daughter to bacterial meningitis. It is very hard not to feel how lost and shocked she is. I'm sure part of my connection with her is having a small child myself. Just thinking of losing him is overwhelming. I was surprised at how the author could revisit the characters' pain and I felt it, each time. The characters are very compelling, and it's obvious in the way she writes about knitting that the author is a knitter. (I looked it up, she really is.) I highly recommend this book, although you might want to make sure you have plenty of Kleenex nearby. Double the number of tissues if you already know the story is mostly from the author's own experience.

Aren't you glad I started blogging again? If I hadn't, you woulda missed this wonderful book review, written at least a fourth grade level! You can't get a quality review like this just anywhere... only available at your local elementary school...

Stop the ride, I wanna get off

Well, dear readers (if either of you are still out there), as you may have noticed, I have had a whole lot of nothing to say in the past few weeks (months). I wanted this blog to be a positive place, and have not had a whole lot of positive to give, so I have been silent instead. I also wanted the content to mostly be about knitting. I'm not sure that my goals for the blog were realistic. I mean, there is only so much waxing poetic about knitting and those who knit that one can do without mentioning that there is life that does not pertain to knitting going on. (surely not!) It could be that all the knitting content in my head is waiting for the other stuff to get out of the way, and I'll be stalled forever unless I tell you all about it. Why, it's possible that I might never design again if I only talk about how great knitting is. So, here goes.

There are times in life when something earth-shaking happens to one you love dearly, and you rally your reserves and do everything you can to help them through that time. And then when that time drags out for weeks and weeks (through no one's fault), it gets VERY tiring. You need time for yourself, or you're going to, at best, seem like a real bitch, and at worst, make the kind of mistake that makes said love one wonder what they ever saw in you in the first place. I choose the bitch part.

It has been almost 4 weeks since my DH's Dad was diagnosed with a Pulmonary Embolism (a blood clot in a very, very bad place). Now technically, it should have killed him and we would have found out later what it was. But luckily, the clot stuck fast. Needless to say, DH is distraught. He could have/ might still lose his father.

DHsDad was in the hospital for a week. They know what he has. They don't know. They believe it's what they diagnosed. He needs surgery right away. They have to wait for the surgery. They schedule his surgery for a week later. He goes home for a week, then back to the hospital for the surgery. Almost two weeks ago, he had open heart surgery to remove the (the doctors find) multiple blood clots. The surgery goes great. Then he develops pneumonia. He's making progress, but he'll still be in the hospital for at least a week. Up, down. Up, down. And on, and on. It feels like we've been on some sort of horrible roller coaster ride for a month. Once DHsDad actually gets home from the hospital, he'll be recuperating for at least six weeks.

Now DH has been visiting at least three times a week to either the hospital (one hour away) or to DHsDad's (and Mom's) home (an hour and a half away). Sometimes the Monkey, who is now 16 months old and I go with, sometimes we don't. Now comes the bitchy part. You ready? I am so very tired of not only driving back and forth to the hospital, but also of trying to entertain a 16 month old in a hospital waiting room. When we visit Grandpa, the baby is not allowed to touch anything, and must be held the entire time. Ever seen a toddler who has been trapped in the car for an hour and then held for 15 minutes? They have this kind of meltdown that results in them running down the hall of the hospital, throwing themselves at any legs they find, hugging briefly before running away, giggling like mad. Now these unsuspecting legs usually are a bit surprised to be almost tackled in the hospital hallways, and not too pleased with me, even though they seem to smile and say through clenched teeth that the child is "cute". Put the child in a small waiting room, and he practically bounces off the walls, until everyone else waiting in there wishes he would go and molest the hall people again.

I'm half expecting that we'll get kicked out of the hospital one of these times, and asked not to return. The bitch is excited about that prospect. She is tired of being in the car and changing diapers on the (scary disease ridden) floor in the hospital. She is tired of having her life on hold for the past month, and not looking forward to having it on hold for at least two more.

We can't take two more months of this. I do have sympathy for DHsDad, but we can't wait. I decided that when we are not on our way to/from the hospital, my toddler and I are on vacation. I made some dates. Play dates during the day when DH is working, and a few nights out when DH is staying home from the hospital. We need progress and relaxation that is not connected to DHsDad's recovery. I started projects. I organized the cabinet in the bathroom. I started cleaning out the guest room so we can have some company. I bought a book. I read the book. Book review tomorrow.

Off the Wagon

Why do knitters stash yarn away? Is there a yarn shortage coming?

Do knitters feel as though the yarn will run out? I know that even if I were to knit every day of the rest of my life, I'd be hard pressed to use my entire stash. And yet, more yarn beckons.

I have to admit to being really impressed with knitters who don't stash. They buy yarn for a specific project, start the project upon receiving the yarn, then finish the project before buying yarn for the next. These knitters are few and far between, (or they are just quiet in the face of rabid stashers) and have my deepest respect!

On the other hand, knitters that put yarn away for a rainy day show forethought into the knitter's process. If they find themselves, say at midnight, with the undeniable urge to start a new project, say something to wear to Maryland Sheep and Wool, they are prepared. These stash knitters know how to think ahead. Sale yarn is put by for when money is tight. One of a kind yarn is collected like fine art. Some stashing knitters know where they have bought each skein, who they were with, and what the weather was like. (Happy Birthday Barb!) These knitters think of their stash as a collection. It isn't how many skeins you own, but the type of yarn that is important.

In January, I decided that my stash was plenty big, and my guestroom might benefit from a few months without any additions. I knitted from my stash for two months without even a glimmer of an urge to buy yarn. On the whole, I didn't knit enough during that time to make a noticeable dent in the stash. On my first visit to a LYS after that time, when I was free to buy yarn, I bought no yarn, just tools and patterns. (I'm guessing that I was still in StashAlong mode at the time.) So why is it that in the three weeks following that visit I have bought all this?


(Dale of Norway Baby Ull on the right, lots of sock yarn on the left)

That's just the backlash from two months' restraint! I've decided to sign up for the StashAlong for another 5 or 6 months. Today's investment advice: buy yarn futures.