Check It Out

Chocolate and Raspberries has told me that my baby hats will be featured for Worldless Wednesday. Check it out tomorrow.

I am now on Row 59 of the Faux Russian Shawl. That is Row 59 of 96 of the first repeat. The pattern has 5 1/2 repeats. This shawl is going to take a looooong time to finish. It's not all that difficult a pattern, but I only seem to find time of a row here and a row there, and, even with an enlarged chart and total silence, I am having keeping track of where I am. New glasses are in order, I think.

But it is a really gorgeous pattern, and I love the way the edging moves around the corners and up the sides.

Detail of the center (sorry for the blur, this is the best version I had).

Gratitude is Gone

Gratitude is now gone from the page. It took up a lot of room, and it irks me to look at it when I am not in a good or grateful mood. Now to imply that I am not grateful, no, not at all. Maybe it is just a gut reaction to visiting a friend last night. We have known each other for more than 30 years. We were neighbors in Berkeley. Our husbands were close friends, too. Our children were born at the same times. We shared baby clothes, recipes, sewing patterns, knitting yarn. Her son and my oldest daughter have been best friends since birth. She was a gifted textile artist, distance runner, spelunker. Tall, blond goddess-type. She has MS. Progressive. Relentless. It robbed her of her balance, muscles, speech, and much of her good sense (and sense of humor). It left her with seizures. Her extremely dear husband cared for her at home until his death this last May. Because she needs 24-hour nursing, her children moved her to a care facility close to them so that they could see her every day. She is now in the hospital -- urinary tract infection that became septic, increasing and difficult to control seizures, and an antibiotic-resistant infection in the lungs.

Spring

Not much more to say except that the cashmere scarf is finished (will post a photo after it is blocked). My next project is the Faux Russian Shawl from Gathering of Lace. I am using Knitpicks lace-weight Shadow in Sunset. This was my last purchase before going on the stash diet. The construction is interesting -- knit the bottom edging, then pick up all the way across to begin the body and continue on up, doing both side edgings as you go along. There are no seams in this shawl. Unfortunately the row numbering for the edging (16 row repeat) is different from that of the body (95 row repeat), which makes for a little headache, and, even though I am only on row 5, I think that I made a mistake on row 1.

Good Intentions

Every day I have this really good intention. Every day I tell myself that I am going to blog. Every day I look up and find that it is 10PM, and nothing has been done.

Some knitting has been going on. I used up most of the remaining Bernat Denim from my seamless pullover to make another hat in the same style as the orange and blue ones knitted earlier. I can safely say that there is too little leftover yarn to worry about and plan to toss it. Out of sight, out of stash.





Since we are getting some fine spring weather, I finally blocked the Snowdrop shawl from Yarn Harlot. Lovely bit of lace and really not difficult at all. Crappy picture, I know. The only place big enough to spread this out is the carpet, and I am not tall enough to do a decent aerial view.





The edging (optional) is particularly lovely and worth the extra time and effort. It really does make the shawl.



The cashmere lace scarf is almost finished, just one more repeat to go (if the yarn holds out).

I have got to get a ball winder. This winding by hand is for the birds.


In preparation for the near future I have freed from their skeins and wound into balls some laceweight from stash --


-- 900 yards of Knitpicks laceweight is the Autumn colorway

-- close to 3000 yards of Lorna's Laces merino/silk blend in a lovely forest green/black color.

This was bought years ago as millends. It took hours to wind this stuff up (three movies, actually). There is enough to knit a cozy for Mount Shasta.

The Gratitude sidebar has been virtuously sitting there, finished more than a month ago, for all the world to see. Time to move on, enough with the gratitude stuff. I meant to replace it with a list of Things I Cannot Live Without, a meme from Chocolate and Raspberries. So far I have 3. Hmmmmm.......I may have to reconsider this idea. Perhaps the Top 10...books? movies? colors? beverages? To say that I will give this some thought is just a chickenshit way of putting this off for another month.

Bread & Knitting

I have a problem with store-bought bread. Not so much the quality, because you can get some really great breads off the shelves. It's the price that really burns me. $2.99-$3.50 or more for a lousy loaf that costs .50 or less to make. This would not be such a big deal if I bought bread once or twice a week. In my house, however, we go through 1-2 loaves every day and have for years and years.

I used to have a bread machine, which I used daily for years and years. It made pretty decent bread at a pretty decent price. When it finally died last October I found that I was delighted with the freed-up space on my counter (small kitchen, not much space to begin with), so I decided to go back to making bread by hand again. About that time there was an article in the NY Times about easy bread with really great crust, and the ancient Dutch oven that had belonged to a long-deceased aunt got a new lease on life.

Voila, yesterday's breads:

Oatmeal

French

On the knitting front, I am slowly working away on the cashmere lace scarf. This yarn is such a pleasure to handle, I am in no hurry at all to finish the project.

The pattern comes from that lucious bit of eye candy, Victorian Lace Today, with some slight modifications from me.

In the meantime, I was looking at Brooklyntweed's blog and was fascinated by the baby hats he made. So I made a couple of my own. The pattern is free on-line at Hello Yarn. Really cute and each takes less than a day to make. I used two different balls of Mexican Wave from stash.

Luxury Monkey on my Back

I figured out a really great way to deal with my headache-inducing Douceur et Soie. I was at knitting group on Wednesday evening, struggling, swearing, sweating out dropped stitches and funny pattern results. Chocolate and Raspberries arrived and sat down beside me. My first thought was that the color of my yarn would look fabulous with her blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Jerking the knitted piece off my needles, scattering markers all over the table, and frogging it in record time, I handed the ball of yarn to her, along with its virgin mate, and told her that it was a gift. From me to her.

That felt sooo good. It was a monkey on my back. An albatross around my neck. Cement booties on my feet. It was expensive and beautiful. It was not worth the pain and suffering.

I am now free.....free to knit with the 2 balls of Bollicina (65% cashmere, 35% silk) that have been in stash for several years, untouched until now because I was not worthy until I found a solution to the dreaded D&S problem. Out of sight, out of mind.

Growing Older and the 50 + Lessons Life Taught Me

Yes, aren't we all...growing older, that is. Another step towards 60 is looming on my horizon. A dear friend just sent the following to me by email. I do not know who wrote the piece, but, in light of my earlier comments about gratitude and not feeling much lately, I was lovingly but firmly put in my place.

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is a special occasion.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don't ask, you don't get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

"A REAL FRIEND IS ONE WHO WALKS IN WHEN THE REST OF THE WORLD WALKS OUT"

Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful. - Jacqueline Bisset

New Favorite

I finished the pullover in Bernat Denim from stash. The pattern is called "The Magic Raglan", originally published in Threads Magazine (back when they still had a knitting section in every issue), later reprinted in Handknitting Techniques from Threads. I must have done this pattern at least 10 times over the years for various members of the family. It is the world's easiest thing to make fit, it almost knits itself, and is the best of mindless knitting. I have worn it constantly since weaving in the last loose end. Sooo comfortable, fits perfectly.

Now on the needles is a lace scarf in the "Liesel" pattern from somewhere on the web (don't ask me where, I printed it out a long time ago). Easy enough, but the yarn is frustrating to knit with. Douceur et Soie (from stash) is lovely, soft, very luxurious, but a real bugger. I have to work very slowly. Here is progress so far. I know I have made and could not correct at least two major mistakes, which is maddening since I have knit this thing before, and the pattern is not exactly the most difficult thing on earth. I am determined to finish and get these two balls of yarn out of my stash. Then I will feel that I have earned -- no, DESERVE -- the chance to use the two balls of cashmere that I have been dreaming about.








I have to post some more gratitude, if I can think of anything. I have been feeling most ungrateful for the past few days.

Oh yeah, I ordered two books yesterday from Amazon:

And

They will be shipped in the middle of February (the Merton book will not be in print until then), so I will have something to look forward to. Catholic spirituality and monasticism are a special fascination for me, a little odd as

1. I am a married woman with children
2. I (still) really like sex
3. I was raised to be a hard-assed, evangelical, gospel-music-loving, southern Baptist
4. I am still very much a highly-opinionated free thinker

God does, indeed, move in mysterious ways.

Perhaps these are not the issues that I need to confront.

For the Apple of Your Eye

Baby hat as a gift for an expecting friend. So easy, so cute.



It was mostly knit from stash, but I did not have enought red, so I had to buy some more (this is permissable under the rules!).

Update on the denim pullover: I am knitting the bottom ribbing, which should be finished today. Then on to the sleeves.

Getting A Little Ahead

Tomorrow is dialysis, and I don't know when I will be at the computer (funny how something that takes just a few hours tends to expand to fill the whole day), so I thought I would get a head start on my weekend gratitude.

Challenges

Every day brings a new one, mostly from the offspring.

DD#2 starts college next week. She is 20 years old. When she started high school, she had a really terrible time, unable to fit in, impatient with classes, unsure if she had enough brains to compete with her peers. She switched to an alternative, home-study program, did very well, and was even able to ace the biology class she had to take at the local community college to get her high school diploma at age 17. Since she did not know what she wanted to do with her life, she saw no need to rush into college, which shows a rare bit of wisdom. She worked. Lots of different jobs.

Our local community college is very, very good, and I am confident that she will do well. It won't be easy, as she will also be working full-time, but she can do it.

I was really lucky to have gone through the California public school system when I did (before "relevance" education came into vogue). I got a challenging, first-rate education and loved it. I also loved my college years, even though I worked 2 jobs, married, and was expecting my third child when I discovered that Superwoman had found her limits. I quit school, had more children, worked.

I have no regrets.

I consider my education the greatest gift and look back on those years with affection and not a little nostalgia. I have no patience with people who consider education an entitlement or a burden or a joke or something to be pissed away. I also have no patience with a system that allows -- no, encourages -- young men and women to borrow so much money that they finish college with a debt that could have bought a house. There is something seriously wrong here.

End of soapbox.

Gratitude

Ceallach Knits had an excellent idea yesterday. GRATITUDE STARTS NOW.

For the next 30 days I will post one thing per day that I am grateful for.

It is so easy to get caught up in the negativity of day-to-day news, misery, mistakes, and general drech that it is necessary to consciously lift oneself out of what can become a very, very deep hole.

Here is #1: I am grateful that DH's health continues to improve.

This might also prompt me to post something every day? That is a great responsibility. Let's see if I am up to it (although I can always play catch-up).

Knitting and Tagging

I am hard at work on the Bernat Denim pullover. Finally got down to the armhole and have started the boring part, the body.

What should I do next? I have lots of yarns (stash), lots of needles, countless patterns, and no desire to plan ahead.

Unlike many of my fellow knitters, my stash and patterns have no organization whatsoever. I know that I have 2 balls of olive cashmere and a killer scarf pattern but have no idea where they are.

For me it is the thrill of the hunt.

Reading Coloursknits most recent post, I got to the bottom and understood that I was tagged.

OK, here are Six Weird Things About Me

1. I retch when drinking sweetened coffee (but it has to have cream or milk in it) but cannot drink hot tea without milk AND sugar (and it has to be black tea, very strong; herbal teas are like drinking grass clippings).
   
2. IMHO, there is no excuse for speaking or writing ungrammatical English. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. It takes all my strict Southern-hospitality upbringing to keep me from screaming corrections at people. My current bete-noire is "I'm good!" as the answer to "How are you?" No, sweetheart, I am asking about your health and/or sense of well-being, not your behavoir.
   
3. My knee-jerk good manners almost totally disappear when I drive behind some idiot who should have never been allowed to even try for a drivers license. I do not tailgate, lean on my horn, indulge in obscene gestures, or bellow insults out the car window, but, trust me, you'd better turn down your hearing aid because I have a large and active vocabulary of obscenities in 10 languages, living and dead, and I know how to use it.
   
4. I am a really poor passenger, always stomping on that imaginary brake pedal. This may not be a surprise, given #3, above.
   
5. I do not like music as background for conversation, meals, knitting, or reading. When I listen to music, I listen to music, all the voices, all the parts, all the timing, all the instruments. I do, however, find it acceptable background for walking, housecleaning, and other forms of exercise.
   
6. I do not like house slippers that enclose the whole foot, like a shoe (my feet sweat), BUT I generally wear socks with slippers. And I do not like to walk in bare feet.

Hmmm. Not so much weird as booooooring.

The Old & The New

As a rule, when one of my children asks what I want for Christmas (or birthday), I make modest noises of the "whatever you think I'll like" or "surprise me" ilk.


Not this year. This year I wanted eye candy and so I asked for and received this






Lovely, lovely, lovely. I might even make something from it!


My ESP must have been spot on target because my oldest daughter gave me this:




If you are a woman of a certain level of maturity (i.e. NOT an old lady but a foxy chick who has already been around the block a few times), YOU WILL LOVE THIS BOOK!


Here is my list of knitting projects from 2006:

1. Beret in alpaca from stash


2. Clapotis in Woolease from stash


3. Ponchedtte in Gedifra Flamme from stash


4. Clapotis in lace-weight from stash


5. 2 ball-band washcloths


6. Fair Isle vest for DH


7. Alpaca lace scarf from stash


8. Highland Shawl in Blackwater Abbey yarn from stash


9. Oregon vest in Wendy Aran from stash


10. Two hats in Red Heart Soft (orange/rust for me, blue tweed for DH)


11. Yarn Harlot's Snowdrop Shawl in Jaeger Zephyrfrom stash


12. One sock (the other is half-finished) in Regia from stash


13. Three dish cloths

Projects begun in 2007

1. Top-down raglan in Bernat Denim from stash
   
   

Although the stash-busting list looks impressive, it is a mere drop in the bucket. Over Christmas, however, my oldest daughter and I cleaned out one of my storage cupboards, and I sent her off with a huge garbage bag full of yarn. She crochets. Scarves. That's it. She does, however, want to branch out into other garments (but not other crafts; she does know how to knit but does not enjoy it). So I am looking for books/magazines that might be interesting to a bohemian-minded, intellectual 24-year-old. I am not much of a crochet person (except for doilies and table cloths). Suggestions are welcomed.

Knit From your Stash 2007

This is just up my alley.


Since I have been doing this through most of 2006, why not make it official?




Here are the guidelines:


1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.


2. We will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

• 2.a. Sock yarn does not count. What? You think we are made of stone?
• 2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may buy yarn to knit that gift.
• 2.c. If we are knitting something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.
• 2.d. We each get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn.


4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt.


This works for me.


Wanna join up? To get your guidelines and choice of logo, link on over to the Wendy Knits page.

R.I.P. 2006

This is a copy of my parent's wedding picture. Fun, very fun people. They were wildly in love for more than 62 years. My mother passed in 1999.

On November 18, just before Thanksgiving, my father died. He was 95 years and two days old. His last years were spent in a nursing home. He suffered from dementia (officially, although I think it was a broken heart after losing my mother) and was wheelchair bound because of a broken hip. Sad last years for such an active and wonderful man. Now, however, he is finally with Mom, having a happy and glorious time.

The Gang of Three

I may have already mentioned that I live in a testosterone-rich household. Three male humans, three male dogs, myself, and one daughter (who is seldom at home except to sleep, shower, and change clothes).

The male humans are not much of a problem. However, the dogs are really a handful. We refer to them as "The Boys". Here they are in one of their quieter poses.






Their names are Micky (the big boy), Franklin (in the foreground), and Brando (little guy in the back). Micky is a big (very big, like over 90 lbs) bundle of family-only love (you do not, however, want to get him pissed off at you). Franklin is has the sweetest temper of the three, always happy, always wagging his tail, loves a good cuddle, a weird-looking little guy of such uncertain parentage that we sometimes refer to him as Franken-Dog. He and Micky are best friends, and love to play together.

Brando, in contrast, is apart and aloof, more than a bit snotty, and very self-assured that he is the best looking dog of the three (which he is). He is a bossy, snarly, snappy little SOB. He can be unexpectedly endearing, like this morning when I found him asleep in a basket of laundry.





Back on the knitting front, in the never-ending quest to use up stash, I finished the Oregon Vest from Oat Couture (in Wendy Aran, which I bought years and years ago). I admit to being gauge-impaired, but, really, I did measure and measure and swatched and swatched, and the damn thing is too big. I WILL NOT RIP IT OUT. I plan to experiment with a swatch or two to see if I can felt it down slightly (it is a blend and might not felt at all). If not, I will find someone who fits it.






A pleasure to report is the hat from the Fall Knitters. It came out lovely, very comfortable, very flattering. I used Red Heart Soft, which I got on sale at Michaels.

Next up on the needles is the Pacific Northwest Shawl in Jaeger Zephyr, in a lovely soft medium grey shade. I made this once before and gave it away as a gift. Beautiful pattern (with no errors!), great fun to make, spectacular garment.

Political Leaning

Thanks to Chocolate and Raspberries, I linked on over and took the short political quiz.

I was rated as Libertarian:

LIBERTARIANS support maximum liberty in both personal and
economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one
that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence.
Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose
government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate
diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.

Yeah, I guess that's pretty close. Not quite left enough, actually, and, at times, not quite right enough.

Most of the time -- especially during election campaigning, which drives me totally mad, I prefer to think of myself as an anarchist: there's no government like no government.

I used to really enjoy politics, discussion, give-and-take.

Not any more. Any time discussion gets interesting, someone throws out the Patriot Card, and discussion dies a sad and pathetic death.

Seasonality and Tagged

Birthday Season starts in July at my house. I really get slammed with birthday season, and it stretches on FOR MONTHS and months.

July brings 4 birthdays: nephew, brother, sister-in-law, youngest son
August has 3: grandchild, daughter-in-law, and husband (same date)
September has 2: both of my daughters (2 days apart)
October has 1: oldest son
November has 1: father

That makes 11 major events in the space of 5 months, and these are only within the immediate living family. There used to be a lot more on this list, but they have already passed. Yesterday was my oldest son's birthday, so I have only one more to go before the Christmas season starts. The Exchequer really takes a beating this time of year.

I got tagged (for the first time), so here are my Famous Four Lists. Don't expect me to tag back, I am not that sophisticated.

4 Jobs I have had:
1. Car hop at an A&W in the ghetto (and oh, what really interesting clients we got at night!)
2. Semi-official researcher and proof-reader for a theology professor
3. Cook in a cafe
4. Manager of an adventure travel company

4 movies I can watch over and over
1. Some Like It Hot
2. The Best Years of Our Lives
3. Casablanca
4. Lord of the Rings

4 places I have lived (I have only lived in California)
1. Richmond
2. Los Gatos (before it became chi-chi, it was a nice little working-class town)
3. Berkeley
4. Pleasant Hill

4 TV shows I like to watch
1. Dancing with the Stars (I love watching ballroom dancing)
2. TV5 Le Journal (in French)
3. What Not to Wear
4. Food Network cooking challenges

4 places I have vacationed
1. Fort Bragg, CA
2. Bisbee, Arizona
3. Germany
4. Central America

4 things I love to eat
1. Pasta with white clam sauce
2. Fried Okra
3. Middle Eastern anything
4. Cornbread

4 websites I visit every day
1. Yarn Harlot
2. London Times
3. CNN
4. Time Magazine

4 places I'd rather be than here
1. Germany
2. South of France
3. Ireland
4. The Deep South

A Knitting Break

I am (sort of) roaring along with projects.

Here is the finished and blocked Highland Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls. Lovely pattern, but when it came to the edging, I wimped out before finishing all of the repeats. It is a good thing that I did, or I would have run out of yarn before starting the final edging pattern. Still it is a lovely lacy pattern and quite roomy as is. I used Black Water Abbey yarn from my stash.

Anoth favorite quicky project is the dishcloth. I made the "Worshcloth" using the pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting but edged it in attached i-cord.

I am currently using up stash on the Oregon Vest, as I was crazy enough to buy some Wendy Aran when I was in Ireland a few years ago (it was on super mark-down in Galway) which has been sitting patiently in a bag at the the back of the closet since then.

Also in the works is the Tweedy Topper from the latest Knitters, which finally hit the local bookstore this week. Clever pattern, lots of fun. I love to wear hats, but not that many hat styles look good on me (gumdrop head, round face). I am making it in acrylic camouflage (Red Heart) first to see how it will look. Good for rainy days around here, since I do not own an umbrella. If it flies, then I will do something a little more sophisticated.