Danger! Danger!

Alarm bells go off in my head on row 18 and that Electric Six song “Danger! High Voltage” cranks up in the background.  I am trying to make my yarn bend to my will, but it’s not working.  No matter how I try, Blueberry Wine just does not want to become Emily Shmemily.

No! Don't make me into Emily Shmemily!

It’s funny how that works.  You would expect that any yarn in the given gauge would work for any particular pattern.  Why wouldn’t it?  But sometimes it’s just a disaster in incubation, waiting to burst free and stomp with big ol’ combat boots on your hopes and dreams.  The color isn’t right, the pattern doesn’t work, the needles size is just all wrong.  I can sense it, I really can.  I cast on with all the best intentions.  I knit a few rounds, and suddenly I find myself stretching out my half inch of knitting progress with a critical eye and second guessing all my decisions.  Do I keep knitting and push that creeping suspicion down, or do I frog before I have too much invested and search again for that perfect marriage of pattern, color and fiber?  Me, I keep searching for that harmony.  All good fiber deserves the perfect match.

I gave myself permission to start a flood of new projects now that my Cherry Fizz, Jaywalkers & BSJ are all finished.  But I feel jinxed.  Emily Shmemily was a bust and so was the scarf I started with some Frog Tree Alpaca sport I have in my stash.  That one, I’m still trying to decide if I like or not, so it’s waiting to be worked on or alternatively frogged.  Then I started Little Momo for Knittymunchkin and had to restart it about 6 times due to gauge issues, and a few small errors I seem to have found in the pattern.  With Momo, I managed to have found the perfect yarn, but technical issues (rather than design ones) were the things holding me up.  So I feel kinda all over with my knits right now.  I’m longing for that sense of calm and purpose I find when I am in the natural rhythm of a project and I can just pick it up and work here and there, knowing that the mixture of yarn and pattern are comfortably settled.  When I know right where I stand with my knit and we understand each other.  It’s at that moment that I feel the peace knitting brings me, the peace I crave so much.  But I think I finally found it with my newest pattern choice for Blueberry Wine: Multnomah.

Life has been super crazy here.  Knittymunchkin is walking (WALKING!!) and I am busier than ever.  But I did manage to meet my friend Troy on February 12th for a book signing at our LYS.  We got to meet the super sweet, fabulously talented Rebecca Danger and have her sign our books.  I love her patterns and she just published The Big Book Of Knitted Monsters in January.  Of course, I had to buy a copy.  What’s even super cooler is, she’s local!   I don’t know why, but knowing someone that talented lives in my community makes me kinda happy :)  I can’t wait to make a bunch of these for Knittymunchkin when he’s big enough not to chew their arms off!

The lovely & talented Ms. Danger

R. Darling is being a true sweetheart and skipping his run this weekend to give me a chance to take a wee bit of a break.  So, I believe I am now off to have a cup of tea and a little bit of work on Multnomah!  Hope your weekend is fantasterrific !

 

Tweet?

Could someone please tell me what the big freakin’ deal is with Twitter and Facebook anyway?  It bugs me that something I’m not even interested in could make me feel so left out and behind the times just for not joining in.  I mean, do you really want to know that I just found a dog harble the size of Mexico underneath my desk?  I should think not.  But I’m curious, I really am.  Please enlighten me on what you love best about Twitter &/or Facebook.  I’m dying to know!

Oh and I’ve had my finger poised over the “Join this group” button at the Hodge Podge Scarf Swap over on Ravelry for about 3 days now.  Please please please, would someone talk me out of this?  I don’t have time for a swap obligation but it just sounds like so much dang fun I can’t hardly stand it.  Or maybe we should just join it together……  Enabler?  Anyone?

 

Sad News

Image courtesy of Zen Yarn Garden

 

Maybe this is old news to some of you, but it’s new news to me.  This morning I received word from Zen Yarn Garden that Momma Monkey (Gigi Silva) had recently lost her battle with Lupus.  I didn’t know Gigi, or know much about her, but I did know of her lovely sock patterns and had stopped by her blog on occasion.  In fact, my Ravelry Faves are full of her sock patterns!  To hear that she had passed away shocked and saddened me even though I didn’t know her well.  Now that I can count myself amongst the members of the knitosphere, I instantly feel a bond with others who knit, no matter how different or distant we may seem to one another.  Losing someone with that kind of artisitic fire, who is so willing to share her creations (many of her patterns were offered for free) is truly a tragedy and she will surely be missed by the knitting community.  I never got the chance to knit any of her patterns, and they are currently unavailable until further notice, but I do hope to be able to honor her one day by doing so.  Until then, if you stop by Zen Yarn Garden, she has a colorway (pictured above) named for Gigi and for every skein purchased, $5 will go to Lupus research in memory of Gigi.  Best wishes and heartfelt condolences to Gigi’s family and friends.  I know she will be missed deeply. 

 

Walkin’ In A WIP Wonderland

“OMG. What is that girl across the street doing now?”

“Holy crap, she looks like a deranged carny in that getup!”

“What the hell is she doing with the lawn chair?”

 

This is what I imagine goes on in the heads of my neighbors as I’m contorting myself in the front yard in search of that perfect photo. Because, believe me, I’ve noticed some of them.

There’s “Gaijin McGee” a few doors down. He likes to crank the music in his garage and jam out in there with the door wide open and the lights blazing. I think we’ve seen his wife a grand total of 2 times since they moved in a few years ago and we are a bit suspicious she might have been “hand picked” if you get my drift. Then there’s “The Hammers” next door. An elderly couple who are entirely too busy hammering things for their own good. When I’m old you can bet I wouldn’t be caught dead actually building things. I’m just gonna hang out in my pj’s all day long. And of course “Naked Baby Lady”; she’s unforgettable. Hey, it’s cool with me if your kid wants to run around in your yard naked, but when he’s shaking his thing at me over by the mailbox, you’re a nickname waiting to happen.

So keeping in mind my penchant for noticing my more “distinctive” neighbors, I’m sure I was probably the source of some inspired dialogue last Saturday. In search of that perfect photo, I was standing on a trashy green plastic lawn chair in the front yard carefully positioning hanks of handspun in a maple tree. At least I had the decency to change out of my blinding pink pj bottoms first. I like my crazy subtle. You might not see it at first, but it’s there.

But no artsy photos today. It’s business time (speaking of Business Time, this is my new favorite video obsession)! Casa de Knittymuggins has become a Christmas sweatshop. It’s a wee bit stressful here, but that’s why they make alcohol and coffee!

 

 

Another pair of finished Fetching mitts in Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere for my SIL. These are wrapped and ready to go!

 

 

The IK Clutch in Black Tilli Tomas Disco Lights – This one needs the seams sewn, a lining and a zipper and it’s done. It won’t be delivered until after Christmas so I’ve got a little extra time.

 

 

Sheldon for my niece – He’s a bit further along now with eyes and a fully stuffed body. I don’t know when I’ll see my niece so I’m not too worried about finishing this one by Christmas.

 

 

Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere for one last pair of Christmas Fetching mitts. I’ve started the first of the pair and have to finish them by Christmas. Shouldn’t be too much trouble though…..

 

 

A hat with earflaps for my MIL. This one isn’t a “must finish” for Christmas, but I’d like to finish it if I can.

 

 

O.k. This one’s totally not a Christmas knit, but it’s a WIP I haven’t mentioned yet. This is Juliet that I started for the recent SKC KAL but put down in order to finish my Christmas knits on time. I figure I have about 4 more lace repeats left and I’ll be finished.

 

Hmmmm. Now where’d I put that drink?

 

Trouble With A Capital “T”

 

 

And I’m in it.

Yesterday Mom and Dad came and dragged my grinchtastic ass out of the house to try to instill some “Christmas spririt” in me after my bah-humbug episode last weekend.  I wasn’t entirely up to it after a tiring week, but I don’t spend enough time with the fam and R. Darling was working anyway, so I knew it would make them happy. 

We went to the Allied Arts Holiday Festival of the Arts to see what the local artisans have been crafting up and then over to the Pacific Arts Holiday Market which we didn’t even know existed, but is apparently in its 11th year here.  There’s always a lot of interesting things to see because we live in a very crunchy (read: granola, read: nouveau hippie, read: tree hugging free spirits – not that there’s anything wrong with that) sort of burg filled with lots of green sorts of folks and artists that make interesting variations of traditional arts as well as some whimsical and occasionally frightening items that you would never see anywhere else.  There are definite uniqueities here (new word, hee).

Imagine my surprise, after rounding a corner of white trashy bead work and potholders, to find a booth with the most gorgeous handspun staring right back at me.  Spincycle whispering softly: Here I am.  You know you want to stop.  Astonished, I stopped in my tracks and mumbled to Mom and Dad that they’d better move on without me.  “Oh, does that mean you want to spend some time here?” Dad says.  “Um yeah”, I mumble, already mesmerized and drooling uncontrollably.  How could I not know they were here?  How did I miss such magic in my own town?  Even Glampyre knows they exist, and Interweave too.

OMG.  I am in Trouble with a capital T.  In a daze I dropped a fat load of cash on 3 skeins of this and the pattern for this.  My mouth is going dry right now thinking about it.  And I want more.  NOW.  Oh why did I have to discover handspun?  Because now I need to find about 4 more jobs, one of them possibly in a seedy dark bar where they “tip” really well, forget about my mocha habit, and eating for that matter, to find the money to feed this new habit.  I’m a handspun junkie now.  Life will never be the same.

 

But could you resist this either?

 

 

The Marathoner and The Celebrity’s Son

 Or:
What I did on my summer vacation

My husband came home one night in June with this bright idea to train for a half-marathon with some co-workers.  Not being one to do something half-assed, that half-marathon turned into a marathon quicker than you can say “welcome-knee-injury-with-foot-pain-come-on-in, never mind the fact that he hadn’t run in over 3 years and was having trouble running a couple laps at the track those first few nights.   Don’t get me wrong.  He wasn’t out of shape.  He just wasn’t in running shape. 

At first his training schedule was barely a ripple in our domestic life.  A few extra minutes in the evenings he’d be off doing his thing and I’d putter around the house.  Didn’t take long for that to change.  Soon, it was an hour each night and then a long run each week working up from 4 miles to a final grueling training run of 20.5 miles.  Sometime in July we bought Bluebell.  Since I wanted to keep R. Darling company as his runs got longer and longer, but I can’t run anymore (thanks a lot craptastic knees!) and the robot knee is still cranky, a bicycle seemed like the best option. Pretty soon I was logging in almost as many miles as he was. 

Here’s me on Bluebell wishing I could multi-task

Some days I didn’t want to go.  Others, maybe I kept him going with the promise of a Robek’s smoothie on that day’s finish line.  In the end, don’t let anyone ever tell you that “being there” for someone isn’t that big of a deal.  It takes time and sacrifice and a whole lot of cheerleading.  But when your spouse has a dream and you help them achieve it, that’s a little bit of relationship magic right there.   

By the end of 13 weeks worth of training, and plagued with injuries, my husband completed his first marathon.  On a cold miserable day the first weekend in October, he crossed the finish line looking none the worse for wear after 26.2 miles in soaring winds and threatening rain.  Congratulations honey!  I’m so proud of you!

Marathon Day – Just as bad as it looks…..

26.2 miles and feelin’ no pain (yet)!

And lest you think there’s nothing about knitting in here, I’ll leave you with something interesting.  I’ve discovered that knitters and “knitter-friendlies” surface in the darndest places.  During all this running business, my husband found a store in town that sells shoes to runners by examining their old shoes, diagnosing their body mechanics based on the wear of those shoes, and helping them find the right ones to keep their alignment as it should be.  When I needed new workout shoes, we headed there for some expertise and ended up chatting with a very nice fellow who helped fit me for my shoes.  In the process of idle chit-chat, he revealed that working at the running store was only his part-time job but that he loved running and talking to other runners which made it really fun for him. 

Out loud, I likened his situation to how I would feel if I could work part-time at a knitting shop (oh joy!).  He asked me if I was a knitter and after responding wholeheartedly “yes!”, he told me to check out the site y2knit.net  Apparently, his mom is the brains behind the site and she puts together all kinds of retreats and events for knitters and is a bit of a knitting celebrity (though I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know much about her, but I have heard of her book YNotKnit).  Her sister is also apparently a well known knitwear designer in San Francisco.  It kind of made my day to run into someone whose mom probably has knitterazzi following her every move, and the fact that her son works in a running store, in my town, just made me smile with wonder.  Knitters and knitter-friendlies in the darndest places!  Who knows who I’ll run into next……

P.S. 

That crazy marathoner guy I married is already planning his next marathon.  Oy!