Technology vs. Fibery Goodness

I'm coming to you live(ish), from my new desktop, which I took my good old time setting up this past week. Seriously? It used to be that when I got a new computer, I HAD to set it up RIGHT NOW, and get all of the software loaded onto it RIGHT NOW, and get all of my old files transferred to it RIGHT NOW and it had to do everything I wanted it to do the way I wanted it to do it RIGHT NOW. This time? I just didn't have the energy for it. Technology has beaten me down enough lately that I knew this was going to be a long, tedious process, and that if I tried to hurry it, it was just going to be ugly. So I took my time. I didn't even open the box of the new machine for a day. Then I plugged things in, and set up the basics. I added some extra software the next day. I transferred files a little here and a little there. After a bit of arguing with our wireless router, which had suddenly decided that high speed Internet was optional and would be dispensed according to its whims, we are mostly good to go. I'm still not done transferring files, but at least the computer is functioning and I don't need to do a special dance involving the sacrifice of a small bird or animal in order for the monitor to work.

That concludes the technology oriented section of our blog post. Let's move on to something far more fun, albeit not always less frustrating. First, some spinning...

I finished spinning and plying my mystery fiber. It's so fun and candy colored. I really wish I remembered where I got it, and I wish I knew what it was! (My hunch, based on the feel and how it spun up, is that it is at least partly Shetland.) I ended up with about 300 yards of a worsted weight (seems after all that test knit spinning, I'm having trouble going back down to a lighter gauge...argh...) Not sure what it will become, but I enjoyed the colors while I spun it. It was great therapy, and sometimes that's enough.

Also, I finished the first of my Spring Wind socks in Enchanted Knoll Farm sportweight yarn, Red Dirt Girl colorway...

This is going to be a Christmas gift, so I'm busily working on sock #2.

I also finished up my test knit sweater this week, and while I would love to show you a picture, I haven't taken any yet. Plus, I think I'm going to frog it and knit it over. Gauge and I ended up not being on friendly terms on this project. I think my WPI was off, because I got a different number every time I tried to figure it out. And my stitch count was wonky, thanks to my yarn being less than consistently spun. Anyway, it's way, way too big for me to wear comfortably, but I love the yarn soooo much, that I can't bear to leave it as it is. I mean, look at that yarn...

...I loved it as I was spinning it and knitting it, but then I took it outside into the sunshine, and it was like magic, it just warmed up and got all beautiful on me. It deserves to be knitted better than I knit it. So, we'll check back in with that sweater a little later on.

I've been on a bit of a book buying binge lately. I finally finished reading Brave New Knits, which I bought in Kindle version because I was mainly interested in the designer bios rather than the patterns. It was fun to read about all these designers, many of whom I've followed for a while now. I kind of hope the author does a Volume 2 with some of the many other knit bloggers out there who design who I think are more than worthy to be featured in such a book.

Additionally, I've picked up...

Warm Knits, Cool Gifts by Sally Melville and her daughter Caddy Melville Ledbetter. I haven't had a chance to read through this one completely yet, but on first glance, it's got a lot of great projects.

The Red Collection by ZigZagStitch's Mandy Powers . Ohmygosh! The red/white/black/gray color schemes of the projects in this book just thrill me to no end. Clearly, you could knit them in any colors you wanted, but...why would you WANT to? (OK, maybe that's just me. But still. They're perfect!) The Drifty and Holly Jean hats and mittens? MUST. HAVE. THESE. I love them! I don't even wear hats and I want to make them. I am particularly smitten by Drifty. The design just makes me completely and utterly happy to look at. I bought the digital pattern pack of The Red Collection, which gets you the print book but also the ability to download all of the patterns immediately in digital form as they are stored in your Ravelry library. Awesomeness. You can also just buy the print book, or you can buy single pattern downloads.

New England Knits by Cecily Glowick MacDonald. I've been eyeing this book for a while and finally gave in and bought it. I love New England, and this book has fabulous photography, which will make me buy a book nearly every time, even if the patterns don't excite me. Thankfully, there are a lot of patterns in this book that make me happy, so, bonus!

Gifted: Lovely Little Things to Knit and Crochet by Mags Kandis. I love this kind of book. I've used my copies of Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and Handknit Holidays a ton, for inspiration if not for the actual patterns in them. I think this book will make a nice addition to that little collection.

Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant. I bought the first two One-Skein Wonders books (the first of which I used a LOT). I skipped the Luxury OSWs book, but this one I couldn't pass up. I have more sock yarn than I will EVER use to knit socks, so I'm always looking for new ideas and projects to make use of my stash. I haven't had time to go through this book completely yet, but I have high hopes for its usefulness to me.

Lastly, magazines. While I'm eagerly awaiting the winter issue of Interweave Knits to make it's way to bookstores, I've picked up these two to keep me occupied...

Neither of these magazines are ones I've ever bought before, but these issues are both chock full of color work. Debbie Bliss in particular leaves me speechless with the collection it's featuring of ridiculously fabulous fair isle designs by Anna Wilkinson. I don't know if I'll ever actually knit any of them, but I will continue to stare at them for weeks to come. In fact, the thought occurred to me to frame the pictures and hang them in my yarn room. And that model with the red hair and porcelain skin? Is she not STUNNING? (I admit to Googling to try and figure out who she is because I was curious to see some of her other modeling work. I know she's been in DB before, but I really want to know who she is. LOL Anyone know? I came up with nothing.)

So, yep...that's it. Been a crazy week in a lot of other ways, technology withstanding, but I won't bore you. Oh! I am doing well with NaNoWriMo though! I crossed the halfway mark of 25K words tonight. The story continues to be choppy and probably makes no sense, but I'm having fun writing it.

I love books. :)

Fall cleaning...

This picture is apropos of nothing I've written in this blog entry. I just wanted to share it because it is of my friend Sho-Sho, who WON her first kickboxing fight last weekend! How freakin' cool is that? She's awesome! Loved watching her fight and celebrating the win with her! And thanks to our other friend Hannah for taking the picture because I was a total photo slacker.

Yep, it's that time of year again. The time when I start to feel the urge to clean house, both literally and virtually. Some people do spring cleaning; I do fall cleaning. (With my mom coming to visit in early October, the importance of fall cleaning cannot be overstated. Ahem.)

I wanted to get the big cleaning jobs done over the summer months, namely the basement. Ugh. The basement. But did I? Did I use those three, long summer months for that good purpose? No. No I did not. And now I'm kicking myself. Alas, it will get done. Oh yes it will. It WILL get done.

Last evening as I was waiting for a friend at a coffee shop, I used my time to make a master list and I decided today to try and tackle at least five things on that list every day. Maybe not finish all five, but I would at least make progress on them. Today, pretty good...I got four of the five finished and did a couple more. If I can just keep that momentum going, I'll be golden!

As for my virtual housecleaning, I decided to clean up the blog a bit today. Gone is the Tour de Fleece '09 button. I'm not sure if I ever shared my TdF results here, but I did indeed accomplish my spinning goals in July, spinning up two different yarns to match the albums Team BKG were using for their TdF theme. I never bothered to download whatever button they had for the winners, though. But I know I was a winner, and that's what matters, right? ;)

I'm not sure if getting rid of the TdF button counts as cleaning, though, since I replaced it with the Facebook badge. Not sure if I like that there or not. We'll see.

Then there was my summer reading list, which is also gone. It was an ambitious list. A little too ambitious, as many of my lists are. But I did get some reading done this summer, reading that I enjoyed. The three titles I finished this summer were:

• The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, by Joshilyn Jackson
  
• The Witch of Portobello, by Paulo Coehlo
  
• Dead to Me, by Anton Strout

I loved Joshilyn's book. I love all of her books. She is incredible with the words and the stories. Can't sing her praises nearly enough. I also really enjoyed Anton Strout's book. Very quirky genre, but a lot of fun to read. Loved the humor that is infused throughout. Sadly, though, I was not impressed with the Coehlo book. The Alchemist remains my favorite of all his books I've read. Most others have paled in comparison. Witch just didn't really do much for me. 

I did start to read The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell, but I didn't get far. I find the older I get, the less tolerance I have for books that seem to be one thing but are really just a venue for the author to spew his or her crankiness and cynicism. This is why I've stopped reading Anne Lamott's non-fiction. (Issues, baby...let 'em go!) Admittedly, I didn't get far enough into Shipmates to know for sure that was what was going on, but having read a couple other of Vowell's books, I'm pretty sure it was, and I just wasn't in the mood for it. Life's too short. 

I also started Strout's second book, Deader Still, a sequel to his first. Again, really fun read. I started it on our Chicago trip a few weeks ago and in fact spent all my airport and plane time on the trip home reading it. (I didn't knit a stitch! You know it had to be a good book!) But since getting home, I haven't had time to sit with it, so it remains unfinished. 

Did I say Chicago? Great! How about another picture then!

My great kids on our first day in the Windy (and hot and humid) City after we spent a few hours in the Shedd Aquarium. Chicago was such a cool city! I'll have to share more pictures from the trip soon.

And while the Ravelry work-in-progress widget isn't something I clean up here on the blog, I'll direct you to note that I have finished a few things, hence bringing the number of current projects down to seven. I finished the design project hat I was working on. I'm so anxious to release that, but I wanted to do matching mitts and haven't had time to work those out completely yet. I also finished my crocheted Noro granny square afghan. It's blocking now, so pictures will be forthcoming soon. I really love how it turned out! I'm finishing up my daughter's pillow project now, and then I have to do a special project that I won't even be listing on Ravelry for a while due to its secret nature. But then I'll get back to the WIP list. 

Ok...one more picture before I go, just because blog entries need pictures...

Our tomatoes all died off this year due to the blight, so I was in heaven yesterday when my friend Myrna shared some of her tomato abundance with me. I enjoyed the first of her tomatoes this morning in the form of a tomato and herb omelet. Mmm. And that scone there on the plate? That is one of the best cinnamon chip scones I've ever made! 

No? Yes?

No, I did not get washed away in the great waters of the flooded yard.

Yes, I have been largely inert as of late. It is becoming a troubling habit.

No, I have no notable knitting or spinning updates to share. Sad.

Yes, I have spent way too much time on the computer lately, mostly Twittering and reading stuff on Facebook. But strangely, no blogging.

No, I do not know what that strange smell is around the vicinity of our recliner, but maybe if I spray some Lysol around it, it will go away?

Yes, I will post a real blog entry. Soon. Honest.

No, really. I will.

And lastly, YES! I would highly recommend adding Joshilyn Jackson's The Girl Who Stopped Swimming to your summer reading list. Just finished it tonight and it was excellent. (And if that doesn't convince you, does the fact that it made the NYT Bestseller's List influence you? How cool is that? Yeay, Joshilyn!) All of her books are excellent, each one better than the next. So, if you need more books to read, also pick up her first two, gods in Alabama and Between, Georgia. Just the right mix of captivating, disturbing and entertaining all rolled into one.

Mug moods...

(Before I start, happy December! :) )

Yesterday, Cheryl over at A Simple Yarn blogged about her favorite cups and the moods for which they each fit. I had to laugh when I read it because I thought I was the only one who had mugs for every mood. Inspired by her little photo journey, I offer my own:

I'm partial to pottery mugs (and pottery in general), and this was, for a long while, my favorite...sturdy, earthy colors...a good all-purpose mug that I found at a art fair several years ago...


I still use it a lot (using it right now, in fact), but then I found this mug, and it has been my all-time favorite ever since...


I love the shape, how it fits in my hand, and the little nub at the top of the handle, perfect for my thumb. And the colors? They could not be more perfect. (Blue fading into and overlapping a purplish red...the picture doesn't quite capture them right.) Even better, I know the potter who made it, Jamie Vandermolen (though I do not think she has a blog or website). I love having a personal connection to the artists who have made the things I love!

My next favorite pottery mug is this one, which I bought at a shop in Doolin, County Clare, when we were in Ireland in 2004...


It too is large, and I love the colors...and while it had nothing to do with why I bought it, I think the orange blob on it kind of looks like the White Hand of Saruman from Lord of the Rings, LOL (except that it is orange, not white, and it's upside down...um, yeah...). For whatever reason, I tend to gravitate toward this mug in the evening. It just isn't a morning mug.

Moving away from pottery, I have other favorite mugs. I have an odd assortment of Christmas mug, but of them, one is my favorite for this time of year...


I like the wintry scene, and it's nice because it isn't just Christmas-y, so I can use it all winter. (I do actually have a Christmas mug that I love very much, but I forgot to take a picture of it. Oops!) While I use it for coffee sometimes, I find it is the one I want to use when I'm in a peppermint tea kind of mood.

Speaking of Christmas, I got this mug for Christmas last year from my brother-in-law and his family...


I don't know which one of them picked it out for me, but it is undeniably the very best unsolicited Christmas gift I've ever received. I love it when people think about me and what I love and enjoy and then actually get me a gift that is relevant to that. I think that's what gift-giving should be about, but so often it isn't. Anyway, they know my penchant for sheep and for Ireland, so...perfect gift! (It came with a matching pot holder, too.)

Lastly, this is a recent addition to my favorite mugs collection...


My friend Amy bought it for me a few months ago when she had the opportunity to go to Turn the Page Bookstore Cafe in Boonsboro, MD. Why is this bookstore so special? It is owned by none other than Nora Roberts (who also writes as J. D. Robb), an author both Amy and I greatly enjoy (I'm wildly in love with her Irish Trilogy, one of which you see behind the mug.) This smaller, rounder mug fits perfectly in my hands, and it's the one I go for when I'm in a bookish mood.

*Cheryl's doing a contest that you can enter by sending her a photo of your favorite mug. Check it out! :)

"I didn't even have time to close my eyes."

You've probably seen this one before:

• Grab the closest book (not your favorite book, just whichever one is closest).
  
• Go to page 56.
  
• Find the 5th sentence.
  
• Use it as your blog title or Facebook or MySpace status line.
  
• Copy these directions as a comment so others can play along.
  

The closest book to me was Twilight, as my son is reading it now. (Honest, I did not search it out on purpose...it was just sitting there on the dining room table!) The 5th sentence of page 56 is from a pretty pivotal scene, actually. I like the simplicity of the line by itself. "I didn't even have time to close my eyes." How many things can we say that about in life, eh?

(Providing commentary about your 5th sentence is completely optional, LOL. I just can't seem to help myself...I'm prone to babbling.)

Friends...

Being an introvert by nature, I can sometimes be too content to hole up in my house and be, well, somewhat anti-social with just my kids, my computer and my yarn for company. But when I get out with friends, it's so good.

Today was such a good friend day.

First I had coffee with my friend Will. I met Will ten years ago (really? ten years?? wow.) when he was the pastor at our church. He now lives with his family in Virginia and, while he still preaches, he spends much of his time writing. C. S. Lewis is his speciality, and he's currently on a book tour promoting his newest release, The Professor of Narnia. He's in town for a few days for that purpose, and that's how we had the opportunity to get together today for coffee. I love talking to Will, because no matter what topic or whether or not we agree, it's always insightful conversation. And though we only see each other once or twice a year at best, its always easy to pick up with him. That's good friendship.

Coffee this afternoon wasn't part of the original plan, but dinner tonight was. I joined Will and two other mutual friends, Carole and Peggy, for a long dinner full of laughter and craziness and a bottle of Australian pinot noir (which was a very good wine that I will now add to my limited list of wines that I actually enjoy). Our waitress was a good sport and seemed to enjoy how much we were enjoying ourselves (as opposed to wanting to throw the four crazy people out of the restaurant). It's so much fun to be with friends who you can laugh with over the most irreverent things and no one really gets embarrassed or offended. The meal was good, but the company was far more satisfying.

I forgot my camera, but Will had his...hopefully I'll be able to snatch a picture from him of our dinner hilarity. 

Playing catch up...

My lack of blogging lately has left various pictures languishing. Every picture has a story to tell, right? Far be it from me to keep the stories silent!

First, the story of some luxurious yarn...

I don't seek out luxury yarn too often or, well, ever really. I don't tend to knit really luxurious things, and I also don't have the pocketbook to fund such luxury purchases on a regular basis. However, I stopped in at a new LYS a couple weeks ago, Knit One North, and a bin of these lovelies greeted me right inside the door. Artyarn Ensemble, a double-stranded cashmere/silk yarn. Oh...I could have just stood there and petted this yarn all day. So soft, so lovely. I couldn't leave without buying one. It's not enough for a shawl, but I should be able to get a nice scarf out of it, being close to 275 yards. And I can only imagine how yummy it will feel wrapped around my neck. :)

ETA I see that there is a luxury yarn version of the One-Skein Wonders books coming out next month. What good timing! I love the one-skein books! :)

Second, the story of books. Not story books, really, though each has its own entertainment value in what I can do with them. I seem to be on a Shannon Okey binge...

I've been doing a lot of non-wool knitting lately, so the alt fiber book really intrigues me. I love the diversity of fibers that are out today, and as much as I am looking forward to getting back to some winter-worthy wool knitting, I'm not sure I'll completely abandon my cotton, bamboo and other "alt" fiber knitting completely. How to Knit in the Woods...honestly? I bought this book for the pictures. LOL I love the picture on the front cover. I love the idea of sitting by the camp fire and knitting (though my experience with doing so earlier this summer made me aware of the inherent danger of sitting too close to the fire when doing so...drop a ball of yarn, and it could be disastrous!). The pictures inside are fun, too. And then there are the patterns...an enjoyable collection, to be sure!

Lastly, there is the story of obsession...

Wollmeise. I've read tales of this legendary yarn for a while now. I've read excited message board posts of lucky knitters managing to score a skein or two, while so many others are left out of the fun time after time. Some of it can get kind of nasty sometimes, actually. Crazy! The Loopy Ewe is, as far as I can tell, the primary pusher supplier of this yarn here in the states. It's demand is so great that it is not even included in the sneak-up e-mails Sheri sends out. It just goes up, and if you're lucky enough to find it, then yeay! 

Sheri tried to make things more equitable for people last go-round by dividing the latest Wollmeise load into three different sneak-ups last week. I admit that with all the hoopla over Wollmeise, I wanted to find out what all of the excitement was about. I mean...it's yarn. Pretty yarn, to be sure, and larger than usual skeins for sock yarn, but still...it's yarn. So, I spent more time than I should have stalking TLE and amazingly, I hit two of the three sneak-ups. I only managed to grab one skein the first time, as I found they fly out of your shopping cart without notice as others check out before you can. So, when I hit the third sneak-up, I started randomly throwing skeins in my cart and checked out, managing to get five. 

(Now, refer back to my comment above about the affordability of luxury yarn. Yeah. Same goes for the affordability of multiple skeins of somewhat pricey sock yarn. Oh geez.)

What was funny was that four of the five skeins I grabbed were nearly the same darned color! They were actually different colorways, but they were all in the red family. And yes, they were all pretty. But I opted to share the wealth (and defray the cost of my impulse purchase!), so I sold off three of the six skeins to three other Wollmeise "virgins." So, of the six pictured above, I kept the three on the right, and the other three on their way to other happy homes.

Oh, and about the obsession? I'm still not sure I understand it. Again, yes, beautiful colors they are. And I haven't knitted any of it up yet, but I'm still feeling like it is just yarn. There is other pretty yarn out there, and there will be other pretty yarns to come. What makes one brand suddenly so in demand? It's just kind of crazy.

Sleep is optional...

It is not often I'm awake to hear the early morning bird songs as nature wakes to a new day. I can't recall the last time I actually witnessed the sky lightening or the sun rising. It may well have been last year at this time, after I dropped my son off to get on the bus for camp. Perhaps this will be an annual occurrence?

I am a night owl, not one of those early morning birds eager to catch the worm. I'll happily stay up until 2 a.m. with the knowledge that, most mornings, I can sleep until at least 9:00. Seven hours of sleep does me just fine. Sunday is the one day a week I usually have to set the alarm. Church is at 9:00, so I'm up at 7:30. One short sleep night won't kill me, though I get out bed each sabbath morning promising myself an afternoon nap (though I rarely follow through).

Today it is Sunday. This morning, very early, I took my kids to church to drop them off for the carpool to the camp buses. They'll be home late Friday night. Knowing the rendezvous time was 5 a.m. (otherwise known to me as "ungodly o'clock"), I attempted an early bedtime. Midnight. It's true what they say about attempting to change your bed time...do it slowly, a little earlier each night over a week or so, because to try and change it drastically in one night? Probably will not work.

And work it did not. I laid in bed and tossed and turned. One o'clock passed, then two. Surely by then, I thought, I should be falling asleep. It was my normal bedtime, after all! But no. Whether I was keyed up thinking about the kids' upcoming week (myriad thoughts of my own youth group trips from years ago came flooding unbidden through my sleepless brain) or perhaps it had something to do with the iced mocha I indulged in last evening (though coffee rarely keeps me awake at night, no matter how late I drink it), sleep was elusive. By 3:30, I abandoned pretense and got out of bed, allowing my husband the luxury of a bed sans a restless wife.

Sitting in the silent dark of the living room (not even the birds were stirring yet), I logged on to the computer. I checked Plurk. Only one update. I checked my Ravelry boards. Very few new posts. The rest of the world was sleeping. How dare they, when I could not?

Four-thirty finally came, and the kids got out of bed. With minimal bustle and little conversation, they dressed and gathered the last of their things, stuffing packs of Pop-Tarts into their backpacks to eat later on. I paused during the process long enough to take in the intensely black sky that showed off the beauty of the constellations even more than it had earlier in the night when I'd gone out to gaze at it. Perhaps it was worth being up at 4:30 a.m. just for this?

With the car loaded and me inexplicably wide awake, we headed to the church where we gathered with the families of eight other middle schoolers and their chaperones. Last minute paper work was cared for, luggage was tagged (that became my duty for the second year in a row) and loaded into the two vans making the trip to the bus pick-up point. Forty minutes later, the campers were blessed and in the cars, and we parents were back on our way home.

My trip home included a McDonald's drive thru, as I was ravenous after my unplanned night-long vigil. Not the healthiest way to start the day, but it satisfied.

I'm currently reading Brida by Paulo Coehlo. Early on in the story, Brida comes to spend a night alone in the forest, awake and fearful until she remembers the words her father used to say to her when she was a child, "The night is just a part of the day."

"The night is just a part of the day. Therefore she could feel as safe in the dark as she did in the light...'I learned about the Dark Night,' she said to the now silent forest. 'I learned that the search for God is a Dark Night, that Faith is a Dark Night. And that's hardly a surprise, really, because for us each day is a dark night. None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, and yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.'" Brida, pages 16, 17.

There is magic in the dark night. I do not pretend to understand it, but every time I experience it, it is a gift. I witness the same aspects of God's creation day after day by the light of the sun, and for a few hours here and there by the moon's illumination. But these dark, dark nights? Where the stars are as deep as the sea and the very air around me carries the weight of a different dimension? The darkest minutes before the eastern sky shows a sign that morning indeed will come? They are rare for me.

The silence, the stillness, the uninterrupted time alone. They are a gift, and I am thankful for them this early Sunday morning. I will pay the price later as I begin to drag and my body starts to ache for lack of sleep. But it will be worth it for what I received in exchange. And I can always take a nap this afternoon.

Eight days free...

This morning my husband and kids left for their annual tractor show weekend. Ordinarily they'd camp at the show until Sunday, but this will just be an overnight since the kids need to be up pre-dawn on Sunday to leave for their week of camp in Michigan with the youth group. Still, if you add it up: two mostly family-free days (today and tomorrow) + six kid-free days (Sunday - Friday) = eight free days for me. I haven't had a block of freedom this long in...forever? Definitely not since before I had kids. Almost forever.

And while my friend Molly exhorted me on my Facebook wall to NOT use this coming week for things like cleaning, cooking, laundry and organizing of any kind, these activities are exactly what pop into my mind first. Do the things that are easier to do without kids present either undoing or whining about having to help. However, the other thing that pops quickly to mind is: how much knitting can I get done in eight virtually uninterrupted days?

I have no intention of using my entire eight days on practical activities, though I will (just because I am me) make a lengthy to-do list of things I'd like to get done. If I get one-tenth of them completed, that will be success enough. I will, however, use as much of my eight days as I can justify to do fun things, such as lunch with friends (have at least two lunch dates scheduled already), probably some knit-shop excursions (even if I am seriously trying to limit my own yarn buying at the moment) and, of course, knitting. Lots and lots of knitting. Inside, I'm squeeing with excitement at the thought of it. ;)

In the mean time, here are some current goings-on, with pictures...

I took big-time advantage of KnitPicks' recent 40% off book sale. (If I can't buy yarn, I can buy books, right?) This book, Shear Spirit: Ten Fiber Farms, Twenty Patterns and Miles of Yarn, is one of the best fiber-related books I've read in a long time. The stories of these ten farms (including one less than two hours away from me!) were so much fun to read, and the photos -- oh, the beautiful, beautiful photos! -- would make the book purchase worth it even if I had no interest in fiber or knitting. A couple of things struck me as I read the book...one, every farm profiled is dedicated to environmentally-friendly farming practices, many of them seeking to be sustainable and giving to the communities around them. I love that. Second, many of the people who started these farms did not do so until later in life, when they were in their 40s and 50s. This gives me hope! Not that I have serious aspirations to be a sheep farmer (I think I am far too lazy), but as I approach that mid-life period where the empty next is not far off and the husband and I will need to decide what we want for the rest of our lives together, it gives me hope that it will not be too late to try new things that are not possible, or feasible, for us right now. (BTW, the KnitPicks book sale goes through August 8th. Just call me an enabler.)

On the needles right now are three projects I'm loving...

This is the Lace Ribbon Scarf from Spring 2008's Knitty. I started this five months ago when I joined in with Amy Singer's "Liberate Your Laceweight" campaign. This is actually fingering weight yarn (Ellyn Cooper's Yarn Sonnets, Fine Merino), but it was one of the earliest yarns I'd added to my stash and thus in the spirit of liberation, I chose to dig it out and do something with it. It hadn't worked for the project I originally bought it for nor did it want to cooperate with anything else I'd tried to use it in. However, it has turned out to be perfect for this scarf. The scarf has been a pick-up project when I'm between other things, which is why the progress has been slow, but I've got the lace pattern memorized now and I'm loving knitting it. The colors of this yarn are incredible...

...photos do not do it justice. I work on this scarf a lot in the car when I'm waiting for kids to get done from various activities, and when the sunlight comes through the moon roof and hits the yarn...holy cow, it just makes it sing. I so cannot wait to get this done so I can block it and be enraptured by its full beauty. But, again, it will be a while, because there are other projects that need my attention. Such as...


...Hey, Teach! (Also from Knitty, one of this summer's bonus patterns.) This is the pattern my mom and I finally settled on for me to make for her. She wanted a light weight black cardigan that she could take with her to restaurants and such for when the A/C is too much. I just started it this week and it is moving along quickly, though I have to say I turned into an idiot at the armhole shaping...just could NOT line the lace pattern up right after that and had to rip back twice (lace, such fun to tink...not!). This should not have been hard...bind off six stitches, subtract six stitches from the beginning of the lace work, be at the right place. Yeah. I'm to the point of ignoring the chart altogether now and just winging it. It's working out. (Oh, the yarn I'm using here is Lang Kappa, cotton with 3% polyester...I'm knitting it on larger needles than called for to get gauge in the pattern, and it is draping beautifully! I think it will be perfect for my mom!)

Also, a sock...


I'm back in sock mode! I made the first sock of this pair back in March as well, when I was teaching a friend to knit socks using the Magic Loop. I went on my sock hiatus after that, and then ended up doing the Hooha Socks (which are both finished now) before deciding I wanted to finish this pair. I love LOVE love this yarn. Zitron Trekking XXL. This colorway? I could just eat it up. It is beautiful. It reminds me of the striations of the rocks out west, specifically at Arches National Park in Utah.

(Ok, this photo does not offer the most vivid representation of the rocks' colors, but you get the idea and besides, it's a cool shot...left to right, my friend Myrna, me and my two kids.)

Anyway, I was trying to be all artsy and creative by taking photos of my knitting outside in the flower beds, a la Yarn Harlot, or Anne Hanson, whose blog always has the most lovely photos of both her knitting and her gardens. My alfresco knit photography efforts yielded somewhat dubious results. The scarf on the azalea worked out ok, but the sock? The rhododendron was less than cooperative and repeatedly tried to eat my ball of yarn and then spit it out onto the mulch below. Which means I will now be knitting with a unique blend of superwash wool/mulch yarn that I imagine will likely feel similar to my unhappy experience knitting with Noro Kureyon sock yarn (sigh).

At least the mulch is the same color as the sock yarn...

Cookin' the cardi...and a book

Some knit projects just really get me going. I started a Noro cardigan a little over a week ago, and I'm obsessed with it. My penchant for start-itis mid-project? Not happening with this one. I want to see this sweater done so I can wear it! The pattern is "Scarlett," the cover piece from the new Noro Joy book. It is making me very happy.

This picture is from the beginning of the sweater, but at least you can see the beautiful colors present in this yarn. I'm about 16" up the body now. I just bound off for the armholes and am working the top part of the back now. (I'm totally not following the pattern, as I've been working it all in one piece so far.)

On another knitting note, my friend Cosy has written a book called, Knit One, Embellish Too, which will be out next month. It looks very cool. Cosy's work is very creative, so I can't wait to see what all is in the book. If you're looking for a new knitting book to enjoy, check it out at her blog. (If you're interested in getting it, ordering it directly through Cosy at her blog would be a great help to her...I always try to support crafters and artists directly whenever possible, so it's just a thought! :))

Not in the mood...

...to blog lately. Don't know what's with me. Just not feeling bloggy. I need blog breaks from time to time, so maybe this is a needed time of blog rest for me.

It's sure not been a time of knitting rest. Just finished a pair of socks for the oldest son. Started a new pair for me, but I'm having to pace myself because I'm teaching a friend to knit socks so I'm trying not to get too far ahead of her in order to demonstrate each step as it comes along. And I started a shrug for myself out of the most yummy, luxurious, sublime-feeling yarn, which is appropriately named "Sublime" (cashmere and silk and a hint of God, I believe). I'm not usually a shrug wearer, but I had a yen to try one, had a vision of what I wanted it to look like and how it will hopefully fit me perfectly. I only had about 900 yards of the yarn to work with, so a shrug seemed a most likely project. We'll see how it goes. I'm winging the pattern as I knit it.

I've also been reading a lot lately. Finished "Blue Like Jazz: Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality" by Donald Miller a while back and loved it. Devoured "Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion," by Sara Miles, a wonderful, gritty spiritual memoir, and loved it too. Neither of these were light, fluffy reads, so reading was accompanied by much underlining and ruminating on the messages within. Am now reading "The Path of Celtic Prayer: An Ancient Way to Everyday Joy" by Calvin Miller (not related to the aforementioned Donald that I know of). Going through a discombobulated spiritual time as I've been recently, this book has been one of a few things that has crossed my path at the right time to bring my spiritual life back onto a calmer path. It's been good. More underlining, more ruminating. Have also been reading through the Psalms for the past week or so of Lent, as encouraged by a church I've attended a couple times now. I love the Psalms. I've been out of the habit of reading my Bible with any regularity lately, so this has been a good practice, one of familiarity and security and peace.

So, that's what I've been up to lately...how about you?

Have yourselves a happy vernal equinox tomorrow and hopeful Easter on Sunday, and whatever other holidays you might be celebrating at this time of year, may they be lovely and meaningful too. I'll be back eventually! Maybe even with pictures! Ooooo... ;)

Feast of St. Brigid

Ever since all of my pre-vacation reading I did for my Ireland trip a few years back, I've had a growing fascination with St. Brigid (pronounced bree-git with a hard "g", and meaning "fiery arrow"). February 1 is traditionally the Feast of St. Brigid, which I did not know until today, so clearly my family and I missed out on any big Feast of St. Brigid celebrations we might have undertaken had I been more up on my saint days and thus better able to plan. (There are tons of Brigid bios online, all slightly different in story it seems, but this one is pretty good, if you're interested.)

However, reading the Yarn Harlot today, I saw that she was taking part in the third annual Silent Poetry Reading, which was happening today in honor of St. Brigid. Those in the blogosphere taking part did so by posting a favorite poem on their blogs. So, in the spirit of "better late than never" and with a half hour left in the Feast of St. Brigid Day, I'm going to share a poem I loved from the first time I read it...enjoy!

Heaven on Earth
by Kristin Berkey-Abbot, from Whistling Past the Graveyard, 2004

I saw Jesus at the bowling alley,
slinging nothing but gutter balls.
He said, "You've gotta love a hobby
that allows ugly shoes."
He lit a cigarette and bought me a beer.
So I invited him to dinner.

I knew the Lord couldn't see my house
in its current condition, so I gave it an out
of season spring cleaning. What to serve
for dinner? Fish -- the logical
choice, but after 2000 years, he must grow weary
of everyone's favorite seafood dishes.
I thought of my Granny's ham with Coca Cola
glaze, but you can't serve that to a Jewish
boy. Likewise pizza -- all my favorite
toppings involve pork.

In the end, I made us an all-dessert buffet.
We played Scrabble and Uno and Yahtzee
and listened to Bill Monroe.
Jesus apparently has a healthy appetite for sweets,
I'm happy to report. He told strange
stories which I've puzzled over for days now.

We've got an appointment for golf on Wednesday.
Ordinarily I don't play, and certainly not in this humidity.
But the Lord says he knows a grand miniature
golf course with fiberglass mermaids and working windmills
and the best homemade ice cream you ever tasted.
Sounds like Heaven to me.

Books

I am a self-confessed bibliophile. If my the size of my house allowed it, I would have bookshelves in every room, and they would be filled to the brim. As it is, I have bookshelves in my bed room, dining room and office...and they are filled to the brim. I also have boxes of books stashed away...books I'll probably never read (or read again), but I'm not ready to purge them from my collection just yet.

Along with novels and various topical non-fiction, I always manage to amass huge collections of books aligned with the topics of any hobbies or passionate interests I develop. My scrapbooking obsession? Yeah...dozens and dozens of books on that subject. Photography? A respectable shelf-full. Christianity and religion? Stacks, which include at least a dozen different Bibles.

And so we come to knitting. I only went whole-hog on knitting last January, though I had a couple books around before that. Since then, though? Thirty-six books. Thirty-six. That is an average knitting book purchase of 3.6 books per month. And I can tell you that working at the knitting shop has only furthered this habit because now I see all the new, pretty books as soon as they come in. And I can buy them at a discount. Dan-ger-ous.

I was adding some of my books to my Ravelry "library" today, and it very coolly then also links the books to any patterns you've used from them. I only have about 2/3 of my books listed there because of the way their book system is set up currently, but of those 24-ish books, I was surprised to see that I've only used five of them for a total of seven patterns (two of which I made twice). That hardly seemed right! I've done a ton of knitting this year, and while I've gotten some patterns online and bought others at the shop, I'm always looking at my knitting books, so it seems I've had to have used them more than that!

Then it dawned on me...even though I don't use the book patterns as much as I think I do, they do offer me scads of inspiration. I get ideas from them. I learn techniques from them. I glean from them and then use the information in different ways.

Not to say I don't have a list a mile long of patterns from books that I'd like to make some day. I definitely do. But I think it's cool that isn't the only use for them. And in some instances -- like, The Natural Knitter -- the books have such beautiful pictures in them that I love to just flip through them and gaze lovingly...especially at the sheep. :)

Madeleine...

What a loss the world has suffered this week with the passing of Madeleine L'Engle. She has been my favorite author for many years. Her Crosswicks Journal series is at the top of my list of most-loved work from her. I have some tapes of talks she's given at writers' conferences, and though I've listened to them multiple times, they never cease to inspire me anew every time I hear them.

I had the pleasure of hearing her in person, as well, and at one such event I got to meet her. This is where I tell my funny Madeleine L'Engle story. She was speaking at a local university one day, both morning and in the afternoon. However, I was only able to be at the morning session. Following her morning talk, she was signing autographs, and I stood in line waiting my turn with a friend. Just as I got to the front of the line, her assistant apologized and said that Madeleine was done signing, she needed to eat lunch, but would be back in the afternoon to sign again.

I'm not a pushy person by nature, but I think I offered a fairly pathetic whimper and explained to the assistant that I could not be there later in the day and I loved Madeleine just so, so much and could she pleeeeease just squeeze me in? (I'm not sure I whined like that out loud, but it's what I was thinking inside.) The assistant motioned to me and said, "Follow us." She whisked Madeleine out of the lecture hall and down a corridor as quickly as she could go (this was shortly before she went in for knee surgery, so moving quickly wasn't so easy for her), not to her awaiting lunch but instead to the ladies' room, which was apparently what Madeleine was needing more than food at that moment. Once inside the bathroom, Madeleine very graciously took my copy of "Two-Part Invention," asked my name and autographed the book for me. I thanked her (and her assistant!) profusely and then left her to her business.

This all happened so quickly that I didn't have time to be embarrassed about it all until after I'd left the bathroom. I'd just stalked Madeleine L'Engle to the toilet. At least she was kind about it. :)

I'll miss you, Madeleine.