Avoiding the Vacuum

I have been very sporadic in my blogging lately. My mom and dad are coming today from UPSTATE New York and I have been trying to get the house in order. You know how that is with five kids, four cats, and dog, fish, a turtle, a husband and about 20 WIP and the yarn stash. Well I have done it. My knitting shelves look neat, my knitting basket doesn’t – but that is because of the afghan that is stuffed into the big red bag so S#3 doesn’t see it. I have been talking about making him a blanket for a while and when I went to JoAnnes, last Saturday for a zipper, they had Homespun on sale so he is getting his blanket – but I don’t want him to know hence the ugly red bag.

So knitting wise – I finished the short sweater from Knit 1 in time for D to wear on Easter. Finished 1 of 5 dreaded ribbon scarves promised to a friend for teachers gifts. A funky little watery colored scarf for me – but I will probably give it away.

WIP a cotton T from the Shapely pattern at White Lies, This great Phildar sweater out of navy cotton, Lucy Bag – although I seem to be stuck on this. I thought that brown would be a good basic color – but I isn’t rocking my world. Have to start a baby blanket for my boys to give to a friend (grown up friend – don’t worry)

Oh biggest WIP – Yarn store – Name: Tangle, space: lease looks all ok, trying to figure out fixtures and inventory. Went snooping up to Seattle last week, visited Tricoter and So Much Yarn. Both great shops, helped to figure some things out. Got an Anthropology catalog yesterday and have to call my friend Brenda – who makes custom paint colors and ask if we can do the store walls the color of the water on page 54.

So will you help me out here - just for curiosity, and inventory sake will you let me know your three favorite yarns and three favorite knitting books?

Now if you will excuse me I have to go vacuum before mom arrives.

I get by with a little help from my friends

Do you remember the blog where you saw the great Japanese book with beaded wrist warmers? Do you remember any of the blogs talking about a wool wash that made the wool softer and you didn't have to rinse out?

I don't and I would love to find then again. Do you think I don't remember because I am getting old and my memory is going, or because I read too many knitting Blogs? (Don't answer that one.)

Done (with few words for a change)

Rachel from Hot Knits


Schmeebot Bunny

Too Much About Camels

This came from A Stitch in Time, Liz

Here's how it works:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here. They will be different questions than the ones below.
3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Ask and ye shall be interviewed, by me that is.

For Miss Alice from Liz:
1. I noticed your banner and it made me wonder: Are you also an artist? Since I saw the drawing figure I thought you might be.
2. What other craft related hobbies do you have, and have any of your kids taken an interest in your hobbies yet?
3. How did you end up with a Canadian soccer team in your house?
4. How do you choose your knitting projects? For wearability or looks alone?
5. How long have you been knitting and how and/or why did you learn?

1. No I do not draw, paint or in any way try to recreate real things. I do a lot of artistic things. Right now I am making fused glass, which is really fun. I have a kiln in my garage, I got it cause I wanted to do pottery (I have a wheel too) but have not had clay for a long time and wasn’t very good at it.
   


2. Craft hobbies!! My kids can talk for hours of all the things I have done. Pottery, Fused glass. I made Fimo beads for a while, did a little beading with that. Have made a lot of baskets, the basement storage area is filled with reeds. I used to sew tons, took tailoring classes in college and am not sure why I don’t any more. I loved to bake bread, but my ex husband threw out my four year old sour dough starter one day. My kids have played along with a lot of my hobbies. A little basket making, a little pottery, more fused glass, but so far no one has started knitting. My daughter just asked me to teach her so maybe she will like it.


3. My oldest son plays High School Rugby in Oregon. The Canadian team was on an 11-day road trip, and we were the first stop. Our players hosted their player, and of course all these teenage boys wanted to hang out together rather than sleep at individual houses. Having 5 kids of our own, our house is usually pretty crazy, so the kids know we say yes to almost anything. So oldest son asked if a mess of his teammates and their Canadian’s could spend the night.


4. I like to have something complex going that I can only do when I focus completely on it. I like to have something mindless that I can knit watching TV or in the car. I recently have started to think about the finished product more. What fits into my wardrobe, what looks good on me (as opposed to on the model in the picture.)? So somehow I try to combine the process of knitting with what I want in a finished item. Do I want to knit it cause it would be fun to knit and would I buy the end result if I saw it in a store? I have been a lot happier with what I end up with. The biggest thing now is I let myself change my mind. If I am not liking knitting something, I frog it and start something else.


5. I learned to knit when I was 10, my mother taught me, she rarely used a pattern, she would measure our chests, measure our arms and back length and away she went. It really was a gift to me, cause I know I can do what ever I want, I am never afraid to try anything or change anything. I am kind of a strange blend of analytical and creative so I just do what I want to patterns. (I am finding that most of us knitters are that way.) When I was younger I didn’t knit much, cause mom could do it faster and better and I wasn’t into the knitting, just the clothes aspect. Some point about 20 years ago I fell in love with this aqua variegated silk and started knitting a sweater, I knit for about 5 years, then quit for about 5 years. So about 10 years ago I really started knitting cause I loved the process, not just the results. My knitting disappeared for about 2 –3 while I started Flowerbud.com. That was all encompassing. But then my 1st marriage ended and I turned back to knitting. Now I am rabid and am going to mesh my business sense with my knitting love and open a knitting store.

So how is that for long winded – my dad has a line “that is more about camels than I ever wanted to know.” (Meaning too much useless information) Maybe this is like that.

Weather or Not

I know we have all been talking about the weather, but here in Oregon we had 70 degrees for about two weeks, and just today rain and 48 degrees came in.

Here is this mornings weather conversation between me and DH:

me 'what do you think the weather is going to do?'
DH 'rain today, and tomorrow.'
me 'what about early next week?'
DH 'the air is pretty unstable so it may stay bad.'
me 'good. I am going to finish my sweater this week end and I want to wear it.'
DH 'honey, you can always turn on the air conditioning.'

Isn't he just the perfect knitters husband!

Tomorrow maybe he will take pictures of me in it.

Absolution for a Friend

(pre cursor to Original Post - my friend LeAnne sometimes feels like she has too many WIP, I think that how ever many you have is the right amount. She feels she should try to knit one thing from start to finish - I never had a burning desire to do that - yet recently I did it with Audrey. So we were talking about it and I wanted to make a little joke out of knitting Audrey non-stop, I don't think it was an accomplishment - just what happened - but I can tell from the comment that my post didn't come across that way. - Please read this as friendly banter between friends, and my way of justifying LeAnne and I switching from project to project, not as definitive rules to knit by.)

Original Post

Yesterday LeAnne and I had a discussion about working on a sweater from start to finish without picking up another piece. I did my Audrey that way and LeAnne thinks it is something to strive for, I think it is sick. She asked me why I did it, and I had to stop and think. Knitting a sweater start to finish has never been one of my lifetime goals. In the end I did it because I wasn’t really happy with other things I was knitting, and I really liked how it was turning out.

So in my mind there are very few reasons to knit one item start to finish without picking up another. First, cause you have a last minute gift that you really should have started two weeks earlier and now you are screwed and have to put down all the fun projects to get this one done. Second for purely selfish reasons, you just don’t feel like working on something else and want some new clothes.

So LeAnne, I do not think working on one project is a sign of accomplishment or organization, I think it is poor planning and self-indulgence.

FYI – new Yarnland service – if you need justification for almost anything - come to me I will help! Now let me go back to Rachel, Shapely T, Clapotis, Lucy Bag, Market Square bag, and ………

P.S. The thrill of the day - This is the first day cool enough to wear Audrey since I finished it. And yes I have it on.

No room at the Inn

My house is a very, very fine house, with 13 kids in the place….. Here it is Top to Bottom this morning!!!

These two are visiting from a Canadian Rugby Team – Guess which one broke his collar bone yesterday

Well have to run make breakfast

Family Participation

Well, Audrey is blocked and the weather is 75 degrees, not quite the day for a sweater made in bulky yarn. Just wait and I am sure it will cool down again. I had it all pinned out on my bedroom floor yesterday morning and was amazed at the family comments. 13 yr S walked by and said 'thats really nice, wow I like that.' DH said 'oh you're blocking that, did you measure it?' I looked at him in wonder - how does he know to measure when you are blocking? 'I read it in the book in the bathroom.' So Janet Szabo's I Hate to Finish Sweaters is sitting in the bathroom, are you as amazed as me that he would open it and read about blocking? if I can quote Michelle 'thanks for stepping into my world for a second and talking about yarn!'

Now I am working a scarf with Rowan cotton tape, (had a little help taking this picture as you can see.) and the huge needles, I hate knitting with needles that big - it just doesn't flow - but so far I like how the scarf is turning out, and yes I am going to put some of those pom pom things on it, in a aqua color, am dreaming about how I want to knit them.

Missions

I think I am in a mode of missions. I finished Audrey - in 10 days and can't believe that I knitted the thing from beginning to end with out touching another needle. Have you ever done that? I don't think I have. It is sitting next to me in need of blocking and it is bulky and our weather is 72 degrees today and somehow I am not really inspired to wear it.

But I found the new Magknits T shirt today and that is more like our weather, so I will have to explore my stash. Doesn't it get your imagination going - I am going to join the KAL


But my next mission is searching for this yarn. Is this the coolest thing - what is the green yarn? Found the scarf at Wendy Freeman, and I really like the pom pom thing going on. So help me out here, have you seen this green yarn? I went to four of my LYS today and the closest I came was the Rowan tape - but it wasn't nearly tubular enough.

When does multi tasking become aimless?

My morning:

• Got up thinking of finishing the neckband on Audrey,
• First had to find another size 8 needle,
• Started running AntiVir on D computer
• Looked on line to see about latest virus she has picked up,
• Put away all the needles that were sitting on my coffee table,
• Started to clean the kitchen
• Ran across camera,
• Took picture of yesterdays LYS purchases for blog,
• Went to check on D computer,
• Did a little more clean up in kitchen
• Took some recycling out
• Started coffee
• Brought vacuum down didn’t vacuum cause it would wake the house
• Started laundry (rewash a load that has been in machine 2 days)
• Folded sheets from the dryer (so this time I can put wet clothes right in)
• Took out some old newspapers and brought in todays
• Finished cleaning kitchen
• Found size 8 needle on an old project
• Poured coffee in one of my favorite mugs
• Measured where button holes need to be
• Knit button hole row
• Heard DH wake took him coffee and talked
• Now here I am blogging

But I am bound and determined to finish this sweater NOW with no more interruptions, oh just after I check on how the AntiVir is running on DH machine, and the floors are really dirty and this would be a good time to vacuum, and, and, and……

Tangled Up in Yarn

So guess what I did today. Bought buttons so I can finish Audrey - only the sleeve caps and the front band left to do. And guess what else I did!!!!!

What do you think of the new me?

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

The Bad - yesterday opened phone bill (just changed carriers) and found D had gone $300 over regular charges. DH and I got in huge fight caused by it. (we talked it out and made up later)

The Ugly - got both Audrey fronts up to the armholes 78 rows on the bulky yarn (6552 stitches) and I looked at them an realized that I floated the cable the wrong way. Held it up, knew it would drive me nuts and that it wouldn't look good, so I pulled the needle out and started to frog left side down to row 24 where the cable starts to move. 16yr S was kind enough to ask if he could help. Put the needle back in row 24 and started to set up the floating section, when I realized I had done it right the first time.

Some days are just like that. And in the middle of the day as I was sobbing, DH put his arms around me and said "sometimes adversity is what we need, even if we don't know why." And I do always look at those situations and ask myself "What am I suppose to learn from this."

The Good - today is beautiful, well ok its not sunny- but I have a few minutes this morning and I am about to finish the fronts to Audrey, and start the sleeves. I usually don't knit both together - but I knit the fronts together and it wasn't so bad. I didn't get too tangled up in yarn. Did my tax return yesterday and will have enough to cover the phone bill and maybe a little yarn, so life is good and there a lot of people that love me.