Autumn Knitting Goal

How about that! I finished a pair of gloves for myself before Autumn turned certainly and completely around the corner into Winter.

Basting: Not Only For Turkeys

One quilt basted: turns out this is a great purpose for very old thread no longer suited for actual sewing!

Traveling Socks

Nancy Bush certainly captured a good name for a sock pattern book. These socks have been all over the map. Wish I'd been knitting faster, but happily they are done!

Pattern: Conwy
Yarn: Lang Wool's Jawoll Color Superwash
Needle size: 2

Off they go to Montreal, these quirky fraternal socks. The marl ply was definitely more mixed in true first part of that first skein.

Knitting is still fascinating, as slow as it goes from time to time on the journey.

Suddenly Last Summer

That's far too dramatic a film, Mr. Williams, but the phrase is appealing.

I finished the knitting of this scarf (shawl?) at camp this summer of 2015. Blocked it on Sunday and left it two days to dry.

It has been toooooo long a knit. I am very happy to be done. Traveling Vines is the pattern. Yarn is from Schoolhouse Yarns in NYC, a hand dyed blend of silk, cashmere, a little nylon, and probably something else listed in Ravelry.

A Reasonable Finish

Hat is done!  And it's spring!

The pattern is the Antler Hat from Tin Can Knits.  Yarn was birthday souvenir yarn from This is Knit in Dublin.  It's Soft Donegal, from Studio Donegal.

That it is a hat already is pretty good.  (Whom do I kid?  For me that's pretty remarkable.)

It's not a fashion plate hat, but it's a Good Warm Winter Hat.  First time in ages I will have a new knit ready for the first cold spell in late fall!

Now I can finish up some long lingering socks.

Lots of stories to tell

The simple stories can be just as satisfying as the complex ones.

Hope my near and long distance knitting friends are well!

The knitting here is still on, even when it's simple.

Too Soon?

Holiday gift done for 2015.

It has been late for several holiday seasons, but these are done today.

I started the holiday gift list for 2015. The first item is checked off. The second item is half done. I am okay with this. There was no list this last year.

Don't hold your breath. It's another set, another family gift, started at the same time as these.

Set of six done: set of 8 to baste, quilt, and bind.

My goal will be May. I don't think that's too soon, either.

Knitting in Trains

I confess.  I sometimes don't tell all my stories because I don't want to brag.

I taught a class overseas in January.  I now have a sabbatical - doing some studying and other projects for a semester.  That said, I stayed overseas.  Having reduced my debt prior to this, and having the skills to be a pretty frugal traveler, I am managing not to go into debt on this adventure.

I don't do all the fancy tours, and my pleasures are pretty simple;  Apfel strudel in a cafe for breakfast today, bread roll and a clementine from the store for my lunch on the train.

Getting in some quality book reading and knitting time is also a good thing.

Day Off

For a change, I am not scrambling for holidays, though I do want to get these in the mail. I am having a Day Off.

I am finishing projects and making progress on a hat.

I am eating food that's in the fridge, doing a little laundry. Trying not to go to the grocery store or to do my every other year whack of over-the-top baking. I may have to figure out a recipient for produce I don't want to spoil when I head out of town. Anyone want some squash?

I am swatching for a test knit. That's pretty exciting to be able to work on a creative project that is led by someone else.

I am making travel plans. Suitcases are out, lists are being made, completed and compiled. big adventures ahead!

Yesterday I put in a nice volunteer day at church, decorating, steaming textiles. Today I am home in my pajamas. Orange peels and cloves are simmering in a pot in the stove. I am exactly where I need to be for a Very Good Day Off.

My New Multitask Tool

So much happier making these pompons than I was using the Inox tool.

Kitchen utensils are swell.

Some Little Things

There are only a few days until Thanksgiving weekend. 

I finished a pair of baby booties.

i have more to knit.  Two family babies born this fall.  Several community babies due in winter, and a few more babies due in spring.

I will come to peace with Pom Pom making.

A  squirrel broke in to my upper floor apartment on Friday.

He left a chocolate in my bed.

That's not a euphemism, as he emptied a candy jar, stowing them as many places as he could.

Fortunately, he was not interested in the textiles.

It's the little things.

Frog Pond

I like the Baktus. I like the yarn - CTH Eat your Veggies....and some leftover greens....and the play on words.

I dislike the curling. It's too small a scarf to carry it off.

I also dislike the foul wee beastie who took a chomp out of it.

I don't often re-knit. I will here.

Frog pond, ahoy.

And Done!

Projects in Pairs

Basting. Twin nieces off to college.

Done.

August Focus

So glad it is not a sweltering summer where I live.  Getting stuff DONE as a result.  Witness:  two quick baby sweaters for a double family baby shower.  

I finished them the day before the shower.  This hardly ever happens.

Must dash, though.  Two graduation / off to college quilts to finish.  Eep!

Summer Patchwork

Quiet, yes, but not absent industry.

Lost or Found

I used to lose a lot of things when I was a little girl.  I left stuff in buses, lost track of things, etc.  We knew the way to the local CTA lost and found.  

So I have tried as an adult to be pretty calm about losing stuff. I am not always successful.  Because I lose things amidst "stuff," I try to be better organized.  I try different strategies for routine.  I still lose stuff and I still fret.  Fretting has use - I do work on finding some of these lost things.  

Losing knitting?  I've lost three scarves in the past dozen years.  I've wished them well and have moved on.  I lost three knit socks in the laundry this winter. This is rough, particularly since the singletons don't make up a good fraternal pair amongst them.

I also seem to have lost time for knitting.  

Okay, that's false.  That's cousins to "Wow, you knit?  I wish I had time for that.". Better to say I lost my focus.  Or knitting mojo, as the cool kids put it.

But good news.  I've been working at getting rid of stuff.  I have used some of that knitting time for a nearly regular Sunday sewing routine this late winter. The knitting mojo is creeping back in, just as spring arrives.

This is ye olde honey cowl - using some 8 year old stash.  It will be a gift, so it will move out of here and open up one teeny tiny bit of space - a couple successes in one.

Working on things found.  Working too on letting go.

Beware Yesterday

Ides of March.  

Snow Again.

New Hat.

What Matters

Weeks can be a perplexing jumble.  This was one.  (Uh oh.  This didn't post correctly last week.  Retry)

Colleagues at work, waiting for tenure promotion news learned answers that prompted congratulations here and sympathetic condolence there.  Those are their stories, not mine, but it's reflective of the emotional highs and lows that seem to be sweeping that community.  

I'm really focusing on the immediate work, because of that larger swirl of energy in my work community.  Loving student engagement now, in all sort of ways.  Only occasionally playing Dorothy Parker (if you can't say anything nice....) in the larger workplace, but needing to avoid really plunging into the work or the angst of the larger politics and structural thing.

And then I spent an excellent day observing in a high school.  And I spent a fortune on car repairs (combo of cyclical maintenance, needed headlight, and an under the car whack from wintry pothole/ice/something that left a sound like whirling screws in a blender.

And then.  Call from mother, slipped on ice, broken wrist.  She was one of over a hundred such ice-provoked falls/breaks in the emergency room that day.

And then.  Had finally gotten to mail room to pick up package of generous gifting from the Stash and Burn podcast folks and their year long knit along of a Use it or Lose it variety.

Beautiful Peacock colored hand dyed yarn from Baah!  - 400 yards of it.  May be too lovely for socks.  I spy neckwear.

And Nicole made a project bag to go with it.  And there's a cute podcast logo button.  And an excellent looking circular needle, size three, super lightweight.  And a sample of Eucalan Wrapture.

So.  (I break all the grammar rules.). It has been a week, what?  

What matters is being thankful.  

My mom will have surgery but didn't break hip or head.  Her spirits are good.  (ETA- later prognosis, no surgery!! Yay!)

Jobs are good, and enjoying the core of the work makes it better.  Most grateful.  (Being able to pay for the car repair also fortunate.)

Extra direct thanks to the Stash and Burn podcast hosts and to their splendid vendors. ( I will come back to this to fix links to things when I can. ) ( triple thanks apologies.  This should have been posted over week ago.  Oh technology!)