A Wonderful Weekend & a Really Cute Baby

Our View

A big thank you needs to go out to Kim of IndigoDragonFly for organizing a much needed knitters retreat this past weekend.  (Thanks to her wonderful partner too for bringing a group of knitters whatever we wanted so we didn't have to leave the cottage.)  A bunch of us city knitters trekked up to her neck of the woods to decompress and knit.  Our view was beautiful.

Yes, this is a cake.  Chocolate

The weekend was spent with good friends, good wine, great conversation, many episodes of FireFly, amazing food and lots and lots of pretty yarn. 


Kim was wonderful and brought the yarn store too us and didn't mind when we dove into the bins and piled stuff everywhere, or when we gave Little J a yarn bath.  (You know you'd do it too if you could!) 

Yeah, we all wanted to be this baby

Projects were started and planned and many yards were knit.  I came home with too much yarn and can say that not only did I fall off the cold sheep wagon this past weekend, I took an axe to it and then burned the peices of the wagon to stay warm.  (I don't regret this for a second.) 

I cant wait to do it again next year!!

A Quick Quote

Vala Malduran: By the looks on your faces, I can see you’re not surprised I had more in common with the village harlot than I did with any of the ladies of the local knitting circle.
- “Stargate SG-1″ (TV) (2006)

To Cute Not to Share

I was going to wait until I had the set finished to post these, but I think that they are too cute to keep under wraps.

Penelope & Peter

These little guys are going to be a b-day gift for my BFF's baby girl, Little J. 

There will be five in total, (and one cat)

More new friends on the way

 The pattern is Marisol the Knitted Mouse Pattern with a party hat added.

A Drum Roll Please

I have finished my first pair of socks for 2011! The are Jaywalkers. I realize that this in itself is not much of an accomplishment. There are probably a ton of knitters that have finished their first pair of socks already and are onto their second or third pair. I am sure that there are even a few knitters who have just finished their first pair of socks ever, (which I believe is a big accomplishment.) But these socks and I have a history that involves ongoing antagonism right up to the point where they were finally on my feet.

My first attempt to make these socks happened on a summer day about two years ago. I had the skein of yarn in my stash and as soon as I saw the pattern, I knew that the skein had to become these socks. Unfortunately, I was jet lagged. I was so badly jet lagged that I literally could not count too eight reliably and it took me nearly two hours to knit about 2 ½ inches. I struggled with the double decreases and the knit front and back until the phone rang. When the person asked me what I was doing and I answered with “I am struggling with a sock pattern, it kind of needs my attention,” and her response was “uh-huh” before keeping me on the phone for 45 minutes, I gave in and tossed the whole damn thing (frogged) into the closet.

For the next six months, the ball sat in the closet undisturbed and taunting me. I would have to move it occasionally to get to other items in my stash and every time I saw it I would think “Jaywalker” and then ignore it again. Last year I tried again. I set it up with the other patterns and skeins that I matched up to make 12 pairs of socks last year. Well, that didn't happen and somehow they just didn't get knit. (I think I managed about 5 pairs of socks last year.)

So finally, right around New Years Day, I took the ball and the pattern out to try again. (I have been told in the past that I can be quite stubborn.) I cast on and they are going well. And then I tried to put them on. They would not go over my heel. I'm not sure how small your feet would have to be get them on, but I'm thinking 10 year old girl. So they were frogged again and had another “time out” . I went up both a needle size and a pattern size and cast on again. This time, I finally seemed to have the magic combo and the first sock flew off the needles. I loved the striping, and even though it was a tiny bit too big, I was still pleased. I was not going to allow second sock syndrome to strike me down, so the second one was cast on and the cuff completed before the end of the day. And then I had a horrid thought.

“Do I have enough yarn?” I bought this skein so long ago, it was in my stash for at least a year before I tried to make the socks for the first time, that I don't know if I can get more, and the label is gone so I'd have to guess anyway. Suddenly I found myself harnessing the spirit of the Yarn Harlot and truly believing if I got to the end of the leg fast enough, I would somehow magically increase the amount of yarn that I had in the ball and be able to finish the sock before finishing the ball. This tension became the driving force behind the socks. I was unable and uninterested in knitting anything else. After turning the heel, I become “cautiously optimistic” about having enough yarn, but believed that if I said “I had enough,” that the yarn elves would hear me and steal away half my remaining skein when I got up for a coffee. The game was defiantly on and I really wasn't sure who was going to win it, me or the sock. Turns out, in the end, it was me with a handful of grams left over. They are finished. I am happy. And I think that after 6 years of knitting, I can finally say that I am a sock knitter!

Do You Think She Knows It's Yarn Bombing?

We went to visist my Husband's grandmother yesterday.  Though she's not able  to knit very much these days, she still produces the occasional item.  It's nice to see that at 80 something, she still has a sense of humour.

Reflections on a Stash

I had a crummy week. Work was hell in that way that makes you come home and collapse in a heap on the sofa. I was so mentally exhausted that I couldn't even contemplate going for a single run. I almost didn't even bother knitting, but ultimately decided that if I was going to take up permanent residency on the sofa, I might as well have something in my hands. (I did manage to get all the buttons sewn onto Presto Chango, and I located my three balls of Dream in Colour Classy that I had lost somewhere in my mess. It wasn't all bad.)

By Wednesday morning, I was a wreck.  I was bitchy and cranky and really just wanted to crawl into bed and wake up Friday night when the stupidity would be over. That morning I had to venture into the closet that holds my stash for something non-knitting related and realized, as I stood there, that my stash was a prefect reflection of my life as I was perceiving it at that moment. It was overwhelming, unbalanced, and out of control. It was a direct reflection of my guilt about everything I have yet to  accomplish in my life and anything that I have messed up along the way. My stash and my life were a both a gaint mess.  (Like I said, I was a cranky girl Wednesday morning.)

Now that my rational brain has returned, I think that it's an interesting question; What is a stash, really? And what does it say about the knitter? Is it a sneak peek into the deepest darkest parts of their personality or a direct reflection of their daily lives?

On the surface, my stash is the exact opposite of my daily life. Both my boss and my husband tell me that I have a “Type A” personality. I claim that I am organized, not “Type A.” (My husband has pointed out that my denial is very typical of “Type A's.) I like things organized, when they can be. I like having a plan and am willing to alter the plan if necessary, but I firmly believe life is easier with a plan. I don’t colour co-ordinate my underwear, but I do like to know what time I'm meeting my BFF for brunch more then 2 hours in advance. My stash, in it's current state has none of these qualities. It is not organized and it is lacking a clear plan. So I asked myself is how did this happen?

First is the gifted yarn. It's a gift and even if it's not something that I super love, it goes into the stash. I feel like I have to knit with it, even more so if a story accompanies the yarn. Someone I know took time out of their lives to give me something that they are really excited about. That means a lot and makes it all that more precious. So that's sentimental, (which is odd 'cause there are very few things I'm like that about.) Then there's the destashing yarn from my BFF. Even though I know that my BFF is a very environmentally conscious person, and that anything that others didn't want would be donated to the Yardage Sale to support our local textile museum, I felt the need to “rescue” some of it. If it's with me, then I know that it will go to good use. (Okay, that might be a little Type A coming through there.) Next is the stress release yarn. The yarn you buy when you are feeling emotional or vulnerable.There's more then a few of these in my stash.  This type of yarn is what has prompted my “cold sheep” pledge. It is way to dangerous for both my closet space and my credit card. There is of course project yarn that is bought with a specific goal in mind, but that very rarely becomes stash. And then there's the yarn you have to buy because it's so damn pretty and who doesn't love pretty things. So really, my personality is reflected in that mess. It's just buried in there with all the yarn.

Happily, now that my week is over, and I am a little more balanced, I have a new outlook on my current stash situation. Now, it's not so much a mess. It's a really big challenge. And that is defiantly part of my personality. There is nothing that gets me motivated more then a good challenge.

Back to the Grind

While I believe that missing a day of work because I am “this close” to producing my first FO's of 2011 is valid, I know that my boss wouldn't agree with that. (What can I say, she's not a knitter.) So it was back to work for me after two weeks off over the Christmas holidays. It's back to sneaking in a few rows here and there in with my morning coffee and knitting, sometimes with friends, over lunch breaks in our local coffee shop or park. (when the park's not buried in snow.) I knit in the evenings after a trip to the gym and dinner. I dream of one day finding a way to make this my paying job. (But then again, don't we all.) So far, I've managed to create a couple of regular “energy exchanges” where I devote a little of my time to knitting related work and come away with books and yarn for my efforts. I really can't complain. When I think about it, the week before Christmas was really busy too and there wasn't a whole lot of knitting time that week either.

F**K You around a cup of Mulled Wine.  

However, even though I was back to the real world, it did manage to cast on a lot of stuff and finish my first two FO's for 2011.

The first, are my pair of F**K You gloves. I have decided that these will be my “computer gloves.” Anyone who lives in a climate where they get a good heaping of winter every year will understand why it is sometimes necessary to have gloves on while typing on the computer.

The second is Presto Chango for my bff's baby girl. It's made with yarn that she gifted to me while trying to make space for the little bundle of crying, pooping, joy. (Actually, she's an adorable baby who I am completely smitten with.) I love the idea of giving my bff back some of her yarn in finished product form. I was going to save it for Little J's first birthday, but the kid is growing, both upwards and outwards, so freakin' fast that I am a little worried it may not fit. It may the only time in the 30 odd years of my life that someone gets an Easter present from me. Photo coming soon.

And, A very belated HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!