Eating My Words...or at least my thoughts

During my blogless year, I continued to create many entries in my head. They were well-written, thought-provoking, and witty. In my mind's eye, the accompanying photos were worthy of publication in National Geographic, or at least on msnbc.com's Photo of the Week. One of those posts was going to be a hilarious farewell to Homespun. Here is the Readers Digest/brownie camera version:

I had a box (and more) that I slogged through making Prayer Shawls- they were well intended and knit with love, but the yarn does have a reputation. I vowed to find a gentler, kinder yarn for the next obsession with shawls.

On the last Sunday in Epiphany, I had one. After the Shrove Tuesday Oyster Roast, Ash Wednesday and Lent would be here. Mind, body, and soul needed to be transformed and transfigured (thanks, Jennifer!) I needed to hurry up and decide what I was going to "give up" and "take on" for Lent! Guess what entered my mind, confused my soul, and sent my body to Michael's:

To knit mindfully and prayerfully every day is part of my Lenten discipline.

Darn knit

While uncovering piles of projects that have been covering my floor, I found this: my first holey sock.


It's amazing how we joyfully crank out items that have a limited shelf life! There is something paradoxical about creating something that will not last. I marvel at those builders of sandcastles and crab houses, those sculptures that are guaranteed to disappear when the tide comes in. I marvel at those chefs, who create not only a sumptuous meal but who also present it as a piece of art...only to become a tasteful memory. Sure, things can be created to last a long, long time and can be enjoyed by many, many generations. But we knitters know that precious few knitted items have survived the centuries. (Maybe some of our acrylic/polyester projects of the 70's and 80's will stand the test of time!!)

I have discovered that I am a process rather than a project knitter. I knit because I like to knit. I do not need hand-knit socks. I do not need to give all my friends scarves, fingerless mitts, or dishcloths. Those items are just happy results of my doing something that soothes my soul.

I am not, however, ready to give up on the sock. I also found this:












This china darning egg belonged either to Mom or my grandmother. It is a gentle reminder that sometimes we may think something is no longer good or useful. New sandcastles are made when the tide goes out; new meals are prepared when we get hungry again.

But old socks can be mended...at least a couple of times!

There probably are several other messages in these ramblings that I should take to heart..

Beginning at the End

On this the final day of January, I planned to begin again posting about knitting. In keeping with my "new" ways at looking at life, though, I realized that before I jumped right in with knitting project pictures and commentary, I had some serious organizing to do. Back on January 1, when the idea was to make resolutions for the new year, I decided that by each Monday of the first few months I would complete a cleaning project (that gave me a week to finish.) So far, my closet, bureau, bathroom, and one corner of my bedroom are relatively clear. I believe, however, that the other 2 corners are going to take more than two Mondays!

It's time to reorganize yarn into bins, put copies of free online patterns into sleeves and the appropriate notebook, and gather errant needles. The pile of uncovered UFO's is awesome. Last year, pre-Ravelry, I had created a spreadsheet for all my yarn (including ancient acrylic from the 70's and 80's.)It lists the manufacturer, name, color, yardage, suggested gauge/needle size, and has a column for the finished project. I added up the yardage, divided by 1760, and came up with over 21 miles of yarn...

The other thing I have done is reorganize my pictures on my computer. I now have a file dedicated to photos that eventually will end up in the blog and on Ravelry.

In the meantime, I continue to work on a few projects to keep my sanity.

Finally, since I work every weekend at the library, I do not spend many Saturday afternoons at home. Today, I was treated to this on my wall:

Thanks, God! I needed that!!

A Puzzlement

Fourteen months of Blog Silence...

So just how do I begin again? If the life lesson I learned last week is any indication, it's time to rethink before I redo.

So how did I lean that?

Years and years ago, Mom and Aunt Emmy tried to outdo each other in sending jigsaw puzzles to rattle the brain. Thousands of pieces, holding out a piece, adding a piece, covering the picture on the top...they were relentless! I can picture Mom in her chair with the card table in her lap (she would fold down the front two legs so the table would rest on the arms of her chair.) All the edge pieces would be culled out, then painstakingly put together to form the frame of whatever picture was to emerge. Sometimes a few inner pieces, if colors were consistent, would be put together, then put aside until their place in the Big Picture could be determined. That is how I leaned puzzle doing.

S0, that is how I did puzzles during the winter of 2003 after my Mom died and my husband left. I found dozens of puzzles in a closet at Mom's house, and putting them together soothed those aching places in my heart and soul. I was putting my life back together, too.

So, fast forward to 2009. Life as I had known it had broken apart again, and though I kept trying to put it together, I was getting frustrated. Out of the blue, a friend sent me a zip lock bag full of puzzle pieces.

So, now it was back to puzzle therapy. But wait. It wasn't working. Try as I might, the edge pieces all looked alike and I was getting nowhere. I was frustrated. I started looking at the other pieces, and was able to put together some purple here, some writing there, some round things beside some weird lines. Then all the sub-sets started to fit together. Then I realized I was doing the puzzle from the inside out! Enlightenment!

So, what have I learned? There's more than one way to think. Of course I know that, but sometimes I just need to be reminded of that in a different way. The Parable of the Puzzle. Our lives are made up of many pieces. All the pieces will fit together eventually. Some look like they fit together but they really don't...but they do fit with another piece. Sometimes pieces go together quickly, sometime we can spend hours looking for the "right" piece that goes next to the other. When we find it, it is usually an "aha"moment- the piece was in front of us the whole time. Sometimes we do not even know what the Finished Puzzle will look like. Sometimes that is even more exciting, as we see the full image come together. There's more than one way to put together a puzzle. There's more than one way to put together a life. I need to be reminded to think outside the proverbial box. I do not know exactly what the picture of my life will look like, but I do know that God does.

So, to begin again, I will begin again. I have no particular plan. I have been knitting during these past 14 months, and I will be posting about old projects as well as new ones. Some of the pieces of my life need to express themselves in the written word. Some of the pieces are knit together. One or two pieces really do like photography, but they are not well-developed (pun intended!) Some pieces might like to share bit about books I am reading.

For the past year or so I have been signing all my correspondence with "peace- " now I realize the delightful irony of "piece!"

A Quickie

Wow. This was a quick project! I had an urge on Saturday to knit, but couldn't get the oomph going to work on a UFO. I have bags and bags of NP's (new projects) in the guest room, and this one was chosen. I had purchased this kit in NYC at School Products back in 2002 or 2003. The pattern is the Butterfly Scarf and Hat published by Karabella, and the materials were 1 ball of Karabella Aurora 8 (color 13) and 3 balls of Karabella Butterfly (color 75.) It was completed by Sunday night. I believe I will donate it to our knitting guild for the fall/winter charity project. It was a little weird to be knitting a frou-frou scarf again, but the Butterfly yarn was so soft and cuddly that I had to stop every now and then and rub it on my face! Held with the Aurora yarn for the wide band of the hat, it makes a soft, warm covering for the ears. I wonder if it will ever be cold enough again here to need it!?!

Where, oh where, has it gone?

No fancy excuses. No lame excuses. No excuses.

I haven't blogged in a long, long time.

I haven't knit in a long, long time.

I am ready to post a new blog and do some knitting, but there is no guarantee when the NEXT new blog will appear and how much I will get completed!! Like many others, I am tempted by all the goodies in Ravelry, but I haven't even visited that website in a long while....

So, what have I been doing? Obviously, not much knitting! I do have projects in all the places I haunt...








The Car (for lunch breaks and unexpected appointments)

The Office (not much progress since June)

My Chair (for TV viewing or just staring)

Well, here it is almost November. I have 2 months left to complete all the projects I had planned for 2007. Will I finish them? Probably not. Am I concerned about my lack of commitment? Definitely not. Am I still a knitter? Definitely yes.

Santa's Surgery

Santa's smile surgery actually took place several weeks ago, but it was not as successful as I had hoped. So what does the perfect smile look like anyway?

The first stage of the surgery involved performing a modified kitchener stitch to join the stitches where the red intarsia-ed stitches had been. Of course, the original beard yarn was no longer in the stash, so the next-next-next best match was used.

The second (and final) stage was using the duplicate stitch to give life to Santa's laugh.

Why is he smiling when it is apparent he has a horrible cold in his big swollen red nose?

Preparation for Knitting Surgery

I'm still contemplating Santa's facial surgery. Unfortunately, the pink yarn for his face and yummy angora yarn for his beard are no longer in my stash. I was watching a program a few nights ago about surgeons realigning a young child's face that was misshapen from birth. It is absolutely astonishing what doctors can do nowadays! This reconstructive surgery was not just for cosmetic purposes- he was able to reenter life as a "normal" boy. He still doesn't look "perfect," whatever that is, but he is happy. I've been so worried that I would not be able to fix Santa's face (yes, I tend toward perfectionism) but the show last night humbled me. Even Harrison Ford has a wonderfully crooked smile!

As I was rambling through my stash, I found some glitzy yarn that I was planning to use for another Christmas project. Aha! I'll just pick up the dropped stitches with it and add a few duplicate stitches on other parts of the beard to tie it all together! Then, I'll embroider some sort of wonderfully crooked smile!

I'm still a bit scared to start the surgery, so I decided to start the other project with a portion of the stash yarn. More later.

One hug completed

The Waterfall prayer shawl for my friend has been completed. Since I had started it when we we all together at her beachhouse in May, I sent a strand of yarn to each of the girls with a request to carry it around with them for a few days, hug it, and pray. When the yarn was returned, I used it as the fringe. Now, we have all had a part in the making of this shawl, so it is full of hugs and prayers and comfort for our friend. She had surgery yesterday. One of the other girls and I will drive down to visit her in a few weeks and enfold her in the shawl. Unfortunately, she is still facing more chemo. The color makes me smile. I hope it will do the same for her! We have known each other since first grade, and not only do we share the same name, we also spell it the same way! (This was very confusing to me as a six year old!)

Oral Surgery

The tree is decorated and ready to slide down the chimney, but ole St Nick still looks a little glum- matter of fact, he is toothless/mouthless at this point. I don't know why I did the eyes, nose, and mouth intarsia-style and just didn't knit them in the background color and do duplicate stitch for the features. Live and learn. I guess I just wanted to prove to myself that I could change colors for just a few stitches and make it look neat. It did look neat, but it was not a happy smile.

I will ponder Santa's reconstructive surgery for the next day or two. Don't worry- he's not in any pain. I haven't decided if his eyes and nose need help- I'll just have to see how this first surgery turns out!!

Christmas in July

Merry Christmas!!! Why do people talk about "Christmas in July" when Christmas is actually 6 months from June 25? Maybe it's because when July rolls around, there is less than 6 months until Christmas. Maybe it's beacause when the heat rolls in and the thunder rolls over we begin to think of the cooler days of December. Maybe it's because there are 2 syllables in "Christmas" and "July" and it rolls of the tongue in a more melodious manner than "Christmas in June." Maybe.....oh well.

In the past 35 or so years, I have knit more Christmas stockings than I could count on all my fingers and toes and then some. Most were made for Church bazaars using old but fun patterns. There were more orders than could possibly be filled back then, when more people were doing crewel work, cross stitch, and needlepoint than knitting. Eventually I made stockings for my four grandsons using patterns picked out by their Moms. In cleaning out a box, I found this almost completed vintage stocking and wondered why I never finished sewing it together.

Now I know. Santa looks sad. The tree looks bare.

Searching through my other treasure stashes, I found all these mini-decorations that were destined to go somewhere. So much for Manifest Destiny! I plan to use these to decorate the tree before Santa stuffs it down the chimney.

I think his smile needs adjusting, too. He looks like he is bearing a heavy load on his shoulders and in his heart. I must cheer up this so-called jolly guy!

Emergency Knitting

Since I finished my June project and there are still 1 1/2 days until I have to chose a July project, I decided to panic and try to work on some emergency prayer shawls. I have just about completed one for a friend who is newly diagnosed with cancer. This is the Waterfall yarn that bowled me over a couple of months ago.
My sister-in-law is being treated for endocarditis and is still not feeling well at all. This next yarn is Homespun Cotton Candy and should fit right in with her love of all things pink. I am adding a special touch (literally) to each of these shawls and will write about that laterBeing a bit paranoid about being stuck somewhere with nothing to knit, I always try to keep a project nearby everyday. The Waterfall shawl is currently at home, the Cotton Candy shawl is in my car (no, I do not knit while driving, but I do knit sometimes after I've been through the drive-thru on a lunch break,) and the Baroque shawl is at the office. This is the non-emergency one that will be donated to the church where the Knitting Guild meets. In reality, the pink one and this one will probably trade places, since I need to finish the one for my SIL asap. As soon as the Waterfall one is complete, I'll work on hers at home, too.

Now there are only 2 more colorways of Homespun left in my stash. Hooray!!! I probably have enough leftovers to make a "Joseph" shawl...

Please accept my excuses for not posting (computer down, I was down,) apologies for photos (camera good, editing not,) and laments for for projects (boring, boring, boring.)

Now that that is out of the way, I am pleased to announce that my June bags are finished! I completed 3 of them, and added those to the 3 I completed last fall.

Since I have already apologized for the photo, I will say only a little more. Believe it or not, there are 3 purple (not 1,) 1 black, 1 brown, and 1 blue (not 3.) Sometimes a picture is worth less than a thousand words...all is not as it appears!!! Suffice it to say that they are all lovely and happy. All were knit with Cascade 220 and bits and pieces of fru-fru.

I left the pattern at home, but it is just a basic bag pattern: garter stitch bottom, pick up stitches in the round, do some increases, add I-cord handles. I doubled the Cascade 220 and used size 11 needles (16 inch.) When I added the fru-fru, I dropped one of the strands of wool. I like the bags to be sturdy, so they stay in the washing machine for a full heavy dirt wash cycle. Also, I add a kettle or two of boiling water.

I found some Lamb's Pride wool in my stash that I may make into a final bag. I am determined to finish projects for which I already have yarn, but I am getting a little bored. I need something new, exciting, and challenging. I think it is time to start a lace shawl...

Weekend wonder

Amazing- I finished the brown purse and started the black one! I do love this pattern, not only for the ease and speed but also for the finished product. I have both before felting and after felting photos: I tend to over-felt my bags on purpose. I know it makes them smaller, but it also makes them sturdier. I haven't decided yet if I will add a magnetic closure to it. I may make the straps a little longer on the black one. I've just about finished the body and should get at least one of the I-cord straps finished tonight.

There is enough non-designated wool for at least one more bag. I already have 2 other finished handbags in the closet, so I should have at least 5 to donate to the Alleluia Sale in the fall.

No June bugs so far...

June's project is making great progress. I have almost finished knitting the brown bag and have found more Cascade 220 in the closet. Working on dark colors is not as bothersome in the spring/summer as it is in the winter. To get joy for my eyes, all I have to do is look outside! So far, I have remembered to water the flowers I planted in the pots on the deck, but the rest of the yard may soon be the color of this pocketbook....

It should be finished, felted, and fabulous by Monday!

Our monthly Sit 'n Knit is tomorrow at Barnes and Noble, so I plan to get started on a black bag. I think there is a little more wool in the closet, so I may be able to finish at least three bags this month. I do have plans for projects that will involve learning new techniques, but my life is so complicated right now that I'm happy just knitting simple projects.

Just Because It's June

Just because it's June and June is a between-the-knuckles short month is no reason to think I can just squeak by and pull a quick project out of the bag to satisfy my monthly goal. June is bustin' out all over, and I'd better get busy!!!!

Speaking of the bag, I think that is what I will do: I will knit as many handbags as I can, using up my stash of Cascade 220 and some fru-fru sparkly yarns. I have made several handbags from a generic pattern and given them to my church for the annual Alleluia Sale. I'm writing this post at the office, and most of my pictures are on the computer at home, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow. I do have a photo of the yarn for the first bag I will start:

I am working a part-time job at the library in the circulation department and will take this project with me to work on during my break times so I won't give in to snacks! The new job is wonderful. At several points in my life I had considered getting an MLS degree, but I never followed through. Now I'm actually working at a library!! I've noticed that many of my knitting friends are also avid readers. I cannot read while I knit (or knit while I read) but when my fingers get achy I read and when my fingers get itchy I knit!!

Now it's time for my fingers to work on a spreadsheet here at job #1, but they're really itchin' to knit......

Eulogy

I think that you will never see

A flower knit by little ole me.

I may try for hours and hours

But only God can make the flowers.

So...

They're out of the stash

Into the trash

And out the door

Forevermore!

May May Be a Maybe

May's project may or may not be completed...ever. It may be one of those rare "it's just not worth the time and effort to finish something that is artsy but relatively useless" objects. Knitting for me is mostly a practical useable or wearable art form. I know there are plenty of patterns out there for knitted "objects d'art" -but I prefer the real thing when it comes to fruit and flowers. I don't know what possessed me to buy the kits. They must have been purchased in the dead of winter!!! Anyway, I felted the second flower yesterday and have gotten this far on the third flower.

I thought this flower was going to be my favorite, but the instructions are not very clear and neither is my brain. I may just leave the flower growing up to God.

Charity Day in the Mountains

What a delightful way to spend a gorgeous Saturday in May! About 16 ladies from our local Knitting Guild gathered inside (when it was cold) then outside on the deck and screened porch (after it warmed up) of a gracious member's home on the side of a mountain in North Carolina. As the second of our 3 charity projects for the year, we concentrated on knitting chemo caps for both women and men. We had a number of patterns available, as well as yarn donated by a local manufacturer. It is restful for the eyes to look up from knitting every now and then, but when this is the view, it is hard to get back to knitting!


After a few hours of chatting, laughing, knitting, and eating pizza, we made a mass exodus down the mountain to the LYS. After all, cap knitting does not take much time, and we needed new projects! This is a photo of some of the caps I have finished recently. Most of the patterns are found here and here and most of the caps were knit in the round with Caron Simply Soft (leftover from the rainbow prayer shawl.)

The end of the rainbow

What was intended to be a giant stash buster ended up needing more additional yarn purchases than I thought! Now, I have to think of projects to use up the new stash. Knitting is the Never-Ending Story....

Project: Rainbow Prayer Shawl

Specs:
Caron Simply Soft: red, mango, lemonade, berry blue, limelight, iris, and violet
Fun Fur: red, mango print, tangerine, mexicana, bright yellow, soft yellow, lime, bright blue, indigo, and violet (plus a few odds and ends)
Needles: Size 13
Cast on 147 stitches
Pattern: K3P3
12-14 rows per color

I hang my head in shame- I did not do a real swatch before I started out on this journey. The shawl is much longer than need be, but in this case, better too long than too short!

Finished dimensions: approx 26 x 80
The wearer will be enfolded totally by a rainbow of love.

I am thrilled with the results. It feels so light and airy and happy. It smiles. I smile.