5 Things to Do

1. I would like to bake something, as that used to be something I did of a holiday.
2. I would like to get the oil changed in the car, as driving will be so much safer.
3. I would like to do some laundry, as packing will be so much easier.
4. I would like to get some sewing done, as it makes holiday giving a little homier.
5. I would like to knit. Knit needs no reason.
=======================
I'll be off doing something good while I'm absent here for awhile.
There's bound to be some knitting.
=======================
Have pleasant days.
Be safe.
Find something in which to find a moment of delight.
Take a moment for something which brings you peace.

Small Confessions

I am sick of grading.
I must take breaks to be more fair-minded.
I have a crazy case of startitis lurking in the wings.
I started nibbling dark M&M's, and now I realize that I've nibbled past lunch.
I finished Tuscany yesterday.

============
Back to the grind.

Place holder

I'd taken these progress photos during my brief stint of daily blog posting. At the time, I actually had a statement to make. Some of it still holds.


I need to learn how to do the short row heel more effectively. I'm inconsistent with picking up the double wraps. I also wind up with a hole I end up stitching up.


Today is not the day. Yesterday I took a break from grading and finished this sock. The photos and post will just have to serve as place holders.

Back to the stack.

I might finish the Tuscany

I might finish that shawl within the week. It's getting close enough to the end of the yarn that I'm obsessing. I can see the end.

Had to put it away, though.

Must. Read. Papers. Grade.

I might finish grading. This is, sadly, harder to envision.
Truth is, it's an actual deadline, so I might as well get back to it.

I might already be a loser.

Sigh.

Next week: knitting and baking and holiday activities interspersed with what passes for reasonably-sized amounts of work!

I might actually have content for posting!

I shrug at the shrug

I zipped out a shrug for my niece. Big talk earlier: I did tentative swatching but finally and only started yesterday morning. I'm off to ship it now for the choir concert deadline. Zoiks.

I'm unimpressed with it. I had a hard time getting in and out of it myself. Unforgiving cotton.

I'll have to up the ante with its replacement. She'll have to look at patterns.
This was quick.

No picture. Camera was at home. No time now. Fedex at the airport closes in a few hours, so I'd like to get there and BE home before it closes.

Besides, I'm just not that interested in it. Insert shrug here.

Nothing BUT show - OR - Nothing TO show

Yes, that half month of daily posting was all well and good. Clearly the maxims about needing to do something for 30 days to establish a habit could be inserted here. That string of posting and good intention was clearly loose talk. Nothing but show.

Meanwhile, I've been impossibly busy. Despite that, I've knit a bit. Finished the Fetching. (Progress picture posted earlier, so I won't repeat it.)AND - true to form - I've given them away instead of keeping them for myself. Call it a gift well suited to the recipient. Call it a great impulse. Call it better stash management. Forgot to take a picture, though. Nothing much to show.

Since this afternoon was meant to include two things and one ran over the time allotted, I'll go home now having only attended one of the two events. I'll take myself home then, do some work at my desk and work on some knitting for my niece. I have a shrug to churn out.

More Gift Knitting

From the weekend, progress only:



This triangular shaping is not suited to my "how far have I gone and how much have I left to do" sensibilities. I've decided I'll have to just keep knitting and not think about it.

Personal Knitting - Grey Fetching

Made a pair of these last year and gave them away. Made notes about what I'd do differently for myself. Thought I'd give it a go.

Knitting on the halves.

Gift knitting - Norberta bits

Finished the last of the bits. Now to sew.

Stuff

Doing Creative Stuff
Elizabeth over at SABLE discussed some of the issues she faces in placing a design on a path for publication and knitterly opinion. I appreciate that she's willing to share her thoughts on the process. It helps me as I extrapolate over to the concerns I have about what I do. I do creative work in a school setting, so I rarely post the details (or much about the process) in an effort to preserve the dignity of my students and provide myself some degree of boundary. Somewhere, sometime, I'll be found, (There Be Knitters Here!) so I'd rather not have shared things which I wouldn't care to be found out. (On a similar note, I'll be avoiding the whole f*ceb*k thing forever, if I can, in light of wanting to respect others boundaries.)

Back to why I took note of Elizabeth's thoughts, as I digress. I go through such manouevres with myself as I wrestle with creative work, recognize that there has been progress, celebrate the fact that perhaps someone is learning something, hold everyone to a higher standard, acknowledge that I can't control everything, and occasional encourage myself to let go.

No matter what, someone will be of an opinion that the project was better than sliced bread, and someone else will find a million and ten things wrong with it. And really, neither of those responses are the reasons I do what I do. And so I remind myself. And so I forget. Elizabeth's post wasn't for me, but you know how it goes: what you read can often speak directly to what you need. I can get through my next week. Thanks, Elizabeth.


Shopping Stuff
I didn't go shopping. I have enough to do, and the crush of people makes the day go too long. In the spirit of creating a smaller impact with future shopping, I did, however, finally finish my Everlasting Bagstopper. All that was left to do was to apply straps. I finally found some fabric I liked for the task. Yesterday I whipped up two tubes, pressed them out, and applied them. The pictures I took are lousy. I'll want to redo them.

I also find it difficult to go shopping when I am making such steady if gentle headway on the clearing out of STUFF (aka thrift donations to the Sally Ann). Took two bags last Wednesday when I went to the thrift store to look for some costume items. (PS. I walked out without a purchase.) Dropped off two more bags today.

Making Stuff
Since I mention the shopping issues and the purging of stuff, I give you a hint of the knitting posts to come: I continue to make progress on finishing what's on the needles. And I've decided I am going to do my knitting on the halves. This one's for me, this one's for a gift.

Part of the reason I ever started knitting and sewing (back in the dark ages of my youth) was to outfit myself. I am by golly going to be doing a better job at that. It doesn't look good on me when it's in a tub, and I've been clearing out steadily the stuff that I don't wear and shouldn't wear.

The other thing I intend to do is make some no-fail pressies - just as people gift fruitcake or bottles of wine - useful, enjoyable in some way, practical and FROM STUFF I HAVE. Because I certainly have enough variety if I shop from my stash.

And I'm doing it on the halves. I can't go nuts making gifts and not take care of myself. One for me, another for the gifting - just as the quilters did when they pieced on the halves.

Stay tuned. I have already begun.

NaBloPoHalfMo

I gave the daily writing effort a good go for me, especially since I don't have computer access at home. I was never worried about the competitive aspect. I am a great one for the self-competitive challenge. I may resume. The next week is crazy, so I'll see what I can do.

Last I was heard from, I was zapped by headache and then needed to focus pretty intensely on what I had to do for the rest of that week. One thing carries into the next, and here we are at the day after Thanksgiving. What have I done since? I've finished a few things.

I'd just finished this hat. Knittyboard posts asked for a modeled view, but it's not for me, so it wouldn't be a good fit. This will have to do:

The mailing envelope is now sealed. Post Office, here we come.

My cousin requested a dishcloth like the one I'd made her some years ago.
A bit of crochet cotton, and voila, the dishcloth of iron.


Took a bit of yesterday morning to make myself a hat. This is Knitty's Foliage. I should have pulled it down over the eyes of the hat block, as you can't actually see the leaf motifs in all their bulky, multi-colored glory. So it goes.


I've been a very busy camper, aside from all that. Major projects at work and an approaching end to a term mean PILES of work. It's alarming. I can't begin to list all of the other things I've been doing and yet need to do that have exactly nothing to do with knitting. Around that, I took a little time for "wellness-knitting." Finished the scarf. Finished the knitting on Norberta. Need to snap the one and stitch & stuff the other. Made progress on the soy silk Tuscany for a friend.

I'll take all of that progress as my personal prize for doing as well as I did for a half month of daily blog posting. I'll post when I can, as long as I'm getting other things done.

(that light is too bright)

(migraine)

(finished the noro striped scarf)

(can't play)

(turn off the light, it's too loud)

Today's lunch brought to you by.....

Now I did do some cooking this weekend. I made a crockpot of ratatouille. Used up some leftover kale and mushroom saute in a midsized pasta bake concoction.

Today, though, I dine courtesy of UK marketing and global groceries. The international foodie aisle at my local market had this marked down, I believe for lack of interest. The date was still good. The soup is a fine contrast to the usual, and I find myself inspired to make soup this weekend.



For really good soup recipes from some UK soup mavens, go to the home of glittrgirl and scumkitten and search SOUP.

Just too mean to post

I love a good cliche. From more southern climes than here: "just too mean to live" as a description of a particularly nasty excuse for a human? Love it. How fitting that it should really be directed at me today.

Crabby about nothing in particularly. Annoyed by impossibly unimportant things. Distracted by minutiae. Disgusted by a good many things. Just too mean to live.

And truth be told, I should just yoink up my bootstraps and move along.

All things considered, I have food, shelter, an occupation, some pleasant people with whom to work. My family is reasonably stable and kind. I'm not going in for surgery next week, as is a dear friend who now faces the surgery phase of her battle with breast cancer.

Just too mean to post.

About this NaBloPoMo adventure

Posting regularly has been a mighty fine exercise. I intend to be sticking with it as best I can. Thanksgiving holiday weekend might prove a creative challenge. But still, there's something about the orderliness of one post per day for a whole pile of days that is strangely appealing to me.

My sister sent a picture of my nephew's incredibly orderly precision-folded newspapers.


I like a little orderly repetition.



Perhaps it's genetic.

(Meanwhile, I'm busting out of this joint. I don't have to be here for an evening, so I'd best take some work home with me and get out so it will count!)

C'est Finis!

I started here earlier today.


I finished here. Le Slouch!


Stretchy yarn, mercifully, as that seems a small band!


(How bad is the French? I can take it.)

1 x 1 ribbed scarf

Sometimes you just need to knit and tune out.



These 1 x 1 ribbed scarves in yarns with long color changes have been hitting the internet zones. There's not much fuss, just two row switches of yarn and letting the color switches do their thing.

Am I a bad person if the airline attendant asked me if I was making it for a holiday gift and I just smiled and nodded? It matches my winter jacket, but I didn't feel she needed an actual conversation. She was just acknowledging another knitter. She had her knitting at the back of the plane -- a hat, I believe.

I'm Old

But mostly I'm tired.

This is how old I am:




Last year or the year before someone passed around a link on the knittyboard in which you could discover the cover of Time magazine from the week you were born.

Seems I still have a copy of this.

I'm going home. Flew back, got to catch up with followup from meetings I missed, and stayed for a show. Mercifully, it was only an hour. Have to be back on Saturday morning.

Remote

It's interesting to be in a city that relies so heavily on automobiles. Houston is not a particularly pedestrian zone, or at least I'm not finding the pockets.

This is the first time, for the record, that I've ever been to a city where I find I really haven't had an opportunity to find a piece of it for myself. I went presented something at a conference, spent a bit of time at the conference, took a half hour walk which didn't get me very far.

Did eat a posh dinner. My colleague relished the notion of finding a steakhouse, and so we did, and I enjoyed a particularly lovely glass of wine. It's a good thing I don't recall the name of the wine, because I'd probably not be able to afford a bottle. If I'm clever, though, I'll call later today and ask them. Neither of these are things I do often - my fridge right now has a lentil and fennel salad, red cabbage with apples, and a leftover lentil and brown rice loaf (which was more a nice casserole than anything really loaf-like or burger-shape-able, despite the recipe's claims). I'll be packing the last of those for lunches and dinners into next week, just as I did earlier. Dark and luxurious steakhouses and glasses of wine that cost more than pairs of bottles I purchase are a pretty far stretch.




This knitting isn't here. This comes to you via the remote capablities of the great picturebucket. Alpaca. Too warm for Houston anyway, I'll warrant. Tomorrow I head back to the cold and the alpaca knitting. For one more morning I'll try to be where I am.

Just because I feel like a slouch ......

doesn't mean the knitting is a slouch....


That would be Le Slouch, if you please.

Ms. Wendy B. has it right: put a french article on it and there's no longer a shadow of anything pejorative about the word.

I'm getting ready to head to the airport this afternoon. I'm going to HOUSTON. Turns out it's warm down there. Delightful.

I just hate that I've had bad allergy things this week. I foresee several days of high-altitude sinus-shifting deafness. Fortunately right now that pales in the light of getting to LEAVE TOWN for a couple of days.

Guess I shouldn't take this knitting on the plane. Big metal size nines? I think I'll stick with the knitting that's on bamboo.

Trekking

I can't write much. I have to pack for a trip.
I give you a photo of a sock in progress.
The yarn is Trekking - suitable name for a travel reference.



Yarrow sock from Vintage Socks.

Is there an end?

Not to my projects, at the moment. I seem to be starting several things while giving a nod to the ongoing projects. Plowed straight into a Le Slouch for a friend who's been an absolute gem about helping me with some costume projects from season to season. I'm at least a quarter of the way done, if not a third. The weather just shifted with a big blast of wind, so it's appropriate to be tending to hats and cuddly sweaters and gift giving that may or may not be on the horizon.

So goes the transition of the seasons. I spent all the hot months avoiding knitting the ultra cozy, potentially fuzzy things. Heat and alpaca? Not so much.

I'm knitting a few minutes in the morning, a few minutes in the evening, and on the weekend I sneak in a little more.

Discardian (Metagrrrl's Project Blog from 2006) posted this useful admonition:
"Don't let the blur of movement try to replace one elegantly completed task."

It's lovely. It's posted visibly in my work area. I sometimes mind it. Often I simply lust for the possibility.

I think I shall go home and knit on the hat. I'm leaving the rest of the work here. It'll be here tomorrow. I may not be able to finish one task elegantly tonight, but I can at least indulge in a half an hour of focus and then get some sleep.

There may not be an end today, but I can find some time to pause and to pretend.

Re-use

That old quilt was definitely a history of reuse. I had come back from a summer of camp in Maine and knew for the next summer I wanted an extra quilt, the kind that wouldn't be hurt by camp cots and pine pitch on the back of the shorts. I had the bag of old shirts and dresses I knew could be used for something, if no longer for wearing. And then a housemate who had finished her craft project stint with a vacation bible school session gave me a bunch of vaguely square muslin pieces.

Log cabin was clearly the order of the day.


I don't know if I ever took a picture of the quilt when it was in better shape. You can see where the red flannel plaid strips are just frayed bits along the seam lines. That was the first flannel shirt I made for myself. Wore it through the elbows. Still, you know, there was decent fabric in the shirt tails - isn't that the usual reference made by the quiltmakers of years gone by?

The lighter toned red plaid was a plisse dress I wore in the 80's. It just got to be too thin to be decent, but there was enough poly in the blend, so the fabric still doesn't seem to have given up the ghost.

And just off center in most of the squares, on the lighter halves, is an old plisse fabric, white with little starbursts of red, yellow, and blue. That was one of my dad's shirts. I wore it out. My mother thought that shirt reflected an appalling lack of judgement and taste. It was a designer shirt. Pierre Cardin, no less. Strictly 70's. And it was not much more than pajama weight plisse. Oh, she thought that was an appalling expenditure, and tacky.

Most of the other pieces are scraps from sewing projects. Most of them were mine, but I may have co-opted some of my sister's scraps.

More to come on the extended thrift-life of this quilt.

You know I'm talking myself up to doing some more practical quilts, of course.

Beyond Thrift

Do you think a person can be too thrifty?

This quilt, which now lives within another piece of thrift, has layers of history.
Pictured is a glimpse of the reverse side, in which I borrowed and honored the traditional approaches of the quilters of Gee's Bend. I stitched up the leftovers, whacked them down the middle, and stitched them up again. It was very freeform. (I was pretty impressed with my bravery.)

One of the pieces of thrift within the thrift was this old shirt. Either my sister or I had made the oxford shirt in the first place. I forget whose it was, but we were both pretty thorough about our shirt making back then. This shot features one section with the pocket sewn facing into the quilt.

More another day. I have other pennies to pinch.

Can't decide

There's the weather.
We've had the loveliest stretch of autumn. I remembered to slow down the other morning for a few minutes and enjoy the early morning light hitting the bright orange and red of a tree I usually see in afternoon light.

There's the health.
These allergies are annoying, and I do wish they would give over already. I have choral things this weekend, and I feel about as miserable as I sound.

There's the end of a week, and why am I still here? Ah, you see, because we have guest artists performing in my space.

There's the knitting.
I brought it with me today, but it never made it out of the car. I managed two rows this morning. Not much there.

There isn't much.
Other than this, I have nothing.
Does it count as writing if it's crap?
Not to decide is to decide?
Seems like indecision gives it a pretense at coherence.

Where's the substitute aspirin product?

Good Enough

It's cold enough to wear a good knit sweater. I pulled out the sweater I'd been dreading to wear: I'd wrecked it. At least, I certainly thought so when I gave it a late spring bath in the appropriate wool-friendly soap.

The colors in the Kochoran stripes (tucked in for interest to help me stretch the amount of Peace Fleece I had used) filled the sink. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed. Good enough, I thought. And then it dried, and all the loose color moved along the edges of the damp and settled, some along the sides of the sleeves, some along the sides of the sweater.

See the orange glow to the upper lengths of the sleeve, shown sideways here? It's not all the afternoon throw of the sun. It's a subtle plaid, stripes one way, errant dyes the other.

But damn it, it's cold enough to wear the sweater.
That's going to have to be good enough for me.


(Thanks, Elizabeth for the photo hint. It reminded me I have photos I've taken previously which may be just the thing for some writing prompts.)

Boo! Scary!

Witness a woman tempted beyond her ability to say no.

Witness a woman who needs to have her head examined.

Witness a leap into the experiment of writing daily.

Because you know, I'm just not disciplined enough or busy enough or engaged enough in things one might consider creative.

Or, clearly, bright enough to avoid the distraction of a shiny new pretty thing.


EEK.

Need more day in my day.

Or maybe I need less day in my day.

More time for important things just becomes more time for things and things and things and OH am I behind with my work.

I did knit for 15 minutes, though.

We do what we can, hey?

Knitting, I swear it!

I've cheated on my sweaters in progress and begun a quick and dirty alpaca chunky jacket. Remember that article a million years ago in the back of Interweave Knits - or no, maybe it was threads - and was it someone whose book writing is the stuff of legendary book tours? I think it was. At any rate, this she of whom I speak wrote in tawdry terms about cheating on her knitting. I'm SOOOOO guilty of it. And the back is nearly half done. Did I mention quick?

And on a recent road trip I knit three hasty little bowls that I hastily ran through the washing machine when I returned. They sit in a fuzzy nested spot on the computer, and they've caused all sorts of office chaos since they've arrived. "ooh, look" "how cool" "I have to knit." I was given the yarn as a gift last year, so it's now visibly in use and the gift-giver oohed, too. Suitable for dispensing October sweets or for pulling names out of a container.

One yarrow sock done, one three inches in. Elfine is awaiting my attention, but she'll keep safely. I need ribbon I like better for the bagstopper. I know I should work on the Equinox, but now that I know I have enough yarn in the right dyelot, I wonder if I didn't skimp on length before the armscye shaping. I'll have to spend a little quality time with that, and right now I'm all for the repetitive project with little thinking.

I'm knitting. I'm cheating, but I'm knitting.
And I'm here too late after going to a choir performance. What the heck? I should go home. There are papers to grade, and I can knit that repetitive alpaca while I read papers. Okay. Not. But I could grade for 30 minutes, knit for 15, rinse, repeat.

No pictures, but there's been knitting. I swear it.

Representative Thrift

I gave away a GREAT representative bag of thrift stuff:

One was a sweater I made. Hard to give away things we make, isn't it?
I GAVE IT AWAY AND LIVED.

One was a jacket a friend loaned me for a trip abroad. It was perfect and packable. It looked good on me. She made me keep it, in one of HER purges. I INHERITED SOMEONE ELSE'S STUFF AND I GAVE IT AWAY.

One was a denim jumper/dress I purchased in an inappropriately impossible size. I let myself miss the return deadline and then convinced myself I'd remake it. I GAVE UP THE DREAM AND THE WORK AND I GAVE IT AWAY.

Final items were a pair of ice skates. My mother had become the default keeper of them and had recently returned them. I'd not gotten them out of the trunk of the car. I went to a college reunion recently and drove past the park which served as the ice skating rink nearest the campus. That was it. I decided the skates had to stay in that community. Did I mention I'm not that size mumble-something years later? I GAVE AWAY MY FAVORITE OLD SKATES.

Those are the kinds of things that are hard to give away. I left them miles away, out of state. It's rather freeing. I recommend it.

Say goodbye to the sweater!

Elizabeth's good sense was just what I needed to hear.

When I read the posts on the occasional blog or board thread that raise an eyebrow at those of us have acquired a little yarn here and there, I think quietly to myself, ah, but you don't know what FRUGAL thinking is at the core of all this.... Because I really do tend toward the use and reuse. Why do you think I learned to sew and knit in the first place? Time-honored traditions of making do, making things well, etc., run deep in my family. Some time I will tell the layered stories of thrift in this quilt.

So this sweater.



See the spot in the front cable? Okay, I notice the discolorations more in person, it's true.

I had also started to think about making it into a bag, but there would still be an unnecessary amount of time spent on it. I'd thought through using rings at the neckline, zigzagging and steeking the sides of the neckline, as it was knit circularly, opening up the shoulder seams, lining...... all for a bag there's no guarantee I'd really like and use.

Two days ago I moved a bunch of binders from an office space I hadn't finished clearing. Found a publicity picture of me in that sweater. That was a LONG time ago. I don't care how quickly I shape up, I don't think I'll wear that sweater again. Sleeves are too long anyway.

Thrift sounds wise. I wore it plenty. Easily there were 4 years of wear, and I did wear it in all seasons. If I'd bought it at Target, I'd consider it fair game for the thrift donation pile. It's no heirloom. It doesn't need the drawer space.

Elizabeth's right. I have perhaps invested all the time needed in that one cone of yarn. I think I picked up the original for less than five. Good sale.

I'll say goodbye. It'll go to the thrift store when the bag of thrift is full. (When I have something to donate, I start a bag near the front door. As soon as I fill it, I drop it off. I see the bag often enough that filling it quickly is added incentive.) If someone feeling even more frugal needs to rescue it, speak up soon.

Sprucing up

I'm so proud: I figured out how to get the little button things into the sidebar. They are as I had them before.
(I certainly don't have great scads of html finesse.)

I've whitewashed the joint, too. And the font is bigger.
We'll see what I think.

To tell the truth, I'm not overly fond of the crowding of one sentence atop the other. Looks like I don't know how to add any space after a period.

Along the Way

I've been thinking about some long-lived and or long-ago projects.
Mistakes Along the Way. Felt too critical.
Lessons Learned Along the Way. Felt too preachy.
Short and sweet is what I've decided.
Besides, I don't think they're done traveling, yet.

This magazine. 1994.

This pattern. Adrienne Vittadini.

A budget fit for a cone of Kitchen Cotton.

A few fitting problems. Overestimated how much I needed to lengthen the sleeves.

You know, of course, that there was NO drape here. It could stand alone.


I wore it anyway. It was loose, anyway. I took up less space.
And then I forgot and washed it RIGHT after the local municipality did one of the annual spring hydrant flushes. The stains are mostly gone, but I can't get them all out. Haven't decided what to do with this, but something needs to be done. Did I mention I made this within recent publication of that 1994 magazine? Yep. And did I mention I've moved away from that same municipality oh, several years ago? It has been in a drawer, awaiting some fate or sign of progress.

I thought about frogging, hastily dyeing, and using it for floor-rug fodder. I also came up with another idea this morning. I really shouldn't touch it, though, for awhile.

I just felt like posting its story. I used to knit with abandon. I learned stuff from it. I did a couple sweaters with a lot of cabling. It's not all the measly stuff I seem to be posting most of the time.

I must be hearing the siren call of the cable.
I'll have to stay strong for a little while, anyway.
I have a few other things to do along the way.

Better on Size 4's

I'm enjoying the Tuscany pattern much better on size 4's than it was looking over here, in this previous post.

Cozy

Complete!


Yarn is Fiesta Boomerang. Colorway is Poppies. Purchased 3 skeins. Used 2 and a half, or a little more.Knit on size US 8 .

=============
Meanwhile, I've resolved my issues with the Conjoined Creations Pastimes. Knitting on a size US 4 is working much, much better.

How can you not love a good name?

Elfine


I'm too stubborn to go shopping for short circs.
I'll muddle through with dpns just fine.
For the record.

Labor Day Knitting

Yes, yes, yes. I'm aware we're mid-September. No more from you, you blog-voice of absence-guilt.

I was knitting in early September. I've thought about several posts, but times demanded my attention. Some of the projects are done, even. Here's a taste.


So the blog has holes. So did the knitting. So to speak.

Where I've been when I haven't been home knitting...

I copycat this from Costumechick who posted similarly a couple of weeks ago.

It's a fitting post following a weekend where I enjoyed traveling exactly nowhere. I do mean that. It was nice to nest and to knit.

Bold = Been There
Italics = Lived There

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Some of these were choir tours long, long ago. I may have been in Kansas, but if I only drove through it and can't remember stopping anywhere, I shouldn't include it. Similarly, Delaware. Probably drove through it a bunch of times. Never stopped enough to count.

New York is grey area. Didn't have residence there, but I earned many pathetic and pitiful paychecks there, so I count it lived.

As for updating blog templates... AIYEEE!

Last week I had every intention of tidying up the blog by switching to the updated templates. This widget thing has me perplexed, though. I could set up the lists, sure, but I when it came to the links for rings, the photos for those, and the like, I became stumped. I reverted to the previous template.

I may need a tutor. Maybe in September. It would be nice to access the updated template features for easier strolling through past issues. Not that this blog is a fount of tutorial knowledge or anything.... I just didn't want to be a bad Ring Citizen and update without including the Ring links.

When it was Not Hot

I did regroup on the Monkey Sock. Curiously, or not so curiously to the knitter more savvy than I, a change up in needle brought me to exactly the same color pooling trends in the previous iteration of this sock.

Happily I report that the Monkey, she is done.

Knitting when it was Hot

Typical of knitting when it's hot:


I actually had a birthday gift request for these. Truthfully, the request was for another style, of which I shall post another day. These were for knitting when it was hot, so these were the "to-tide-you-over" gift until the requested style is complete. Happy to report the recipient was pleased.

Hospitality & Kindness

It has been my great good fortune to have been on the receiving end of some notable hospitality & kindness.

I've been traveling a good bit over the past month. I'm finding I've a long list of notes I need to send to a wide range of people. Before I unplug myself today, I thought I'd post a couple words about some hospitality of a knitterly nature.

I've been to a couple yarn stores, as is my wont. I had a nice break in my travels at Fine Points in Cleveland, OH. In addition to my general pleasure at the creative possibilities that seemed to burst from the cubbies, the staff were just really, really nice. And I thank them for their kindness in letting me use their restroom. Not all stores do this, and as a traveler who shops, I was grateful.

I went with a colleague to a yarn shop in New Orleans, Garden District Needlework & Yarns, as a break from the rigors of the events I was attending there. The shop was delightful and spacious and had LOADS of inspirational yarn to consider.

AND. Through the course of some conversation, I was invited to a local church. Can you imagine the degree of hospitality? I was floored. My hosts took me on a tour of parts of the New Orleans. It was important to get out into the city, beyond the zone of major hotels. There is still so much, much rebuilding to be done post-Katrina.

Finally, a change in my schedule meant I was able to try to catch trillian42 from knittyboard to see if she were free for a fairly spontaneous yarn shop visit in DC. She introduced me to Stitches DC and the very gracious proprietor. Found some lovely local yarn and shared good hearted conversation and laughter and baby-ogling. Pam led the way to Banana Cafe for a fine heat-wave beverage and bit of lunch. Pam told me of the great kindness she's seen in the contributions to Hats for Alex. She's collecting the second wave of hats. It seemed fitting to end our conversation remarking on the kindnesses of so many people.

I need to go home to send some notes of thanks to friends and family whose hospitality and kindness don't appear in this post. And I have some projects to do, to keep the kindness moving along!

Behold, the Fulled Bags

We had some fun grade school science, we did, in the process of shrinking up the knit messenger bags.



I took "before shots," but I need to crop out little faces. Don't feel I have permission to place other people's children's photos on the internet without parental sayso.

Took MORE time to get the striped bag down close to scale, even though both were nearly the same prior to washing. Different wool. I understand the striped bag took an extra trip to the laundromat the day after the photo was taken.

A Belated Addendum to CASP 3

Having posted my thanks promptly to Kathy for her fun wintry CASP 3 packages, I promptly FORGOT to take photos.

Having finally taken photos, well, you guessed it. I offer a belated addendum to my hearty thanks.



The patterns are in the notebook, the lollys hit the candy jar and went the way of all things sweet, and the office supplies are being put to good use. I think the winter body butter was already in the drawer at work for dry hand emergencies, as it escaped the photo call.

Oh, and the dishcloth she made with her very own genteel and generous hands is in the drawer of dishcloths and towels, ready for real use. This gift also prompted me to give up my standard garterstitch dish cloth for an alternate summer dishcloth. (Witness the previous post...)

Thanks again, Kathy!

Useful knitting

Some of the staples of useful stash knitting:
The ubiquitous dishcloth. My cousin actually ASKED for some for her birthday. I'm on the second, as I try to get ready to get out of town.


And of course, a cat bed, knit - when? must have been nearly a year ago - from Mme. Wendy's pattern.


Glad Mr. Jones is using this. He's going to have a lonesome week, barring visits from the cat sitter.

It's not all false starts around here

Some things are finished.

This quilt has been nearly done for ages. Had someone volunteer to help me get the binding on. I made sure she was paid. I am perfectly capable of binding, but I'll tell you the poor quilt sat in a bag inside of a box for a few years as I "meant to finish it."

The poor thing suffered from "out of sight out of mind" neglect.
Fortunately, that was all that it suffered. It should land shortly. It has been shipped to the recipient.

The battery was dying, so these photos which should have been adjusted for fluorescence are what they are. Most of the fabrics are batiks or kindred. The quilt was a mystery quilt project in which I bent most of the rules in the steps.


That'll be it until August. I'm going out of town for a bit.

Different yarn and different pattern?

Other people work up to such things. I swatched enough of the basic Tuscany Shawl pattern that I thought I'd be okay. I didn't count on what the edging is looking like. I think it would be a happier edge in a yarn with some spring - at least a bit of bounceback.

Rats. I wanted to have this decided for traveling knitting. I don't have enough time in the next couple of days to try other options. May stick to socks.

Meanwhile, what would be a better pattern for this yarn: Conjoined Creations Pastimes?