KKQ2013

No, that is not a secret code or a license plate number or a password: it is the key to a little piece of heaven! The Kanuga Knitting and Quilting Conference for 2013 was held a little over a week ago, and I have yet to come down from the mountain. There is just something (here and here)about that place...

With my daughter as Chaplain (and wonderful homilies based on the 23rd Psalm,) an energetic coordinator, talented teachers, and old and new friends, about 80 of us spent some kairos time in the mountains, doing things we love: knitting, quilting, laughing, eating dry toast, learning, worshiping, hiking, watching Downton Abby (on one of the few TVs), and mostly just being.

Mother Nature offered us the stark linear lines of winter, which were contrasted by the panoply of dancing colors in the knitting and quilting projects.

By our final worship service, we had the beginning of the Great Wall of Textiles (more were added after this photo was taken.) Our projects and time together were blessed.

We even had some multi-talented participants who came together with a variety of musical instruments, weaving them into beautiful harmonies.

There's no place like home.
Like going to Narnia...

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Last spring (2012), while contemplating the many project and blog posts I would be creating for the rest of the year, my brain burst forth with a garden full of new ideas. Suffice it to say, it is now winter, 2013, and few seeds even made it to the garden, little fertilizer was sprinkled, and almost no water was provided.

One small bed of projects I did sow and reap was  the Summer of the Sock, or Sock it to Me, which stretched into Socktember and then Socktober. The drawer of stash sock yarn was going to be empty. Lots of feet were going to be happy, warm, and beautiful. Alas, it has become the Saga of the Six Socks.

Here is what happened:

Sock #1 was begun in April, and accompanied me on a long flight to Montana to say goodbye to a dear friend who had moved there in 2011 to be near her family. As the 3 visiting friends gathered around her bed, she gave each of us a gift. Mine was a needle case she had made as a young woman, complete with her mothers little scissors. Can you believe how perfectly it matched the socks!

The pattern is Baby Cable Ribs from Sensational Knittted Socks.

Sock #2 was started on the trip home. The stitch pattern is the "Waffle Rib" from Sensational Knitted Socks.

Sock #3 is another variation/combination  of the Waffle Stitch and/or Garter Rib. Oops- I forgot to write it down!

Sock #4 is from Custom Knits Assessories- Lace Pattern Socks.

Sock #5 is back to Sensational Knitted Socks- this time, the Openwork Rib pattern.

Sock #6 was begun and finished hastily last month: "six socks" is more alliterative than "five socks." And as I was kntting and thinking about the yarn, I remembered that the friend in Montana was the one who gave it to me several years ago. Beginnings and endings, endings and beginnings. How appropriate! The stitch on the leg and top of the foot is a simple K3P3 rib as a small sacrament to her memory.

And here they all are, in a different order, hung by the chimney with care.

# 3 went to my daughter for her birthday, and #2 went to my daughter-in-law for Christmas. The rest are for me!!

And my drawer of stash sock yarn still is more full than my drawer of completed socks. Guess I'd better get busy!

Plarn it!!!

I said I would love to help. I meant it with all my heart. A dear friend is the librarian at an elementary school, and one of the teachers at the school has a science/ecology club. Last fall, they decided to recycle plastic bags by collecting them, cutting them into strips, joining the strips, rolling them into balls, and crocheting 3' x 6' mats for the homeless. I told her I would help. I've been knitting lots of prayer shawls, and thought this would be another wonderful charity project.

Great idea! But the kids could not cut, join, and roll them into balls fast enough, much less crochet them.

                                          So, I collected,

                                          cut,

                                          rolled,

                                                   had helpers,

and, using a size N hook and working across 75 chains, I crocheted 

ad finitum.

I did not finish by Christmas. The mat goes on and on. 

Finally, I did get it completed yesterday.

 

The end result will keep someone warm and dry, and it was crocheted with love and prayers, but I cannot do another. I love the process, but the project just took too long. My friends will have to recycle their plastic bags elsewhere. Am I happy I did it? YES!

And as a finale, the day I finished my mat, there was an article in the local paper highlighting a different school that is working on this mat project for the homeless!