My Knitting Life

A tornado touched down in my neighborhood last Wednesday.  This was what remains of our neighbor's shed.  It is wooded where we live, with very large trees.  Branches broke off and impaled themselves into the ground.

It all happened so quickly.  I was in the car with my daughter when it got very dark and the car was rocked by the wind.  We were frantically trying to get home to meet the boys off the bus, but every road we turned down was blocked by fallen trees and wires.  Luckily, they got into the house safely and we arrived home a few minutes later.

This gives you an idea of the scale of the trees that came down.  That's Maddy in the corner.

Power outages closed schools for two days.  On Thursday, with nothing to do inside, the kids ran around outside all day playing adventurous games and checking out the damage.  Wednesday night, all the neighbors came to our house for Chinese food in candlelight.  Last night, we went to their house and grilled burgers and dogs by the campfire.  When the lights flickered on at 4 a.m., I hopped up and turned everything off and went back to sleep, full of relief that I won't have to endure another day with no power (and no plumbing as we have well water).  What a fun adventure it's been!

Added later...I let the kids take the camera around to shoot some photos and these were taken by them.  It's fun to see their perspective, plus it was nice and quiet at home while they were out talking to our neighbors to get their first hand accounts of the story... 

We arrived home at late last night from our trip to Jamaica for Spring Break.  Not the typical Spring Break, we went with my husband's cousin and his identical family, wife, daughter age 13, and two younger sons, just like my boys.  For a week, the ten of us were transported to the most beautiful natural setting - a large main house for their family and the girls, and a separate guest house with pool where we stayed with our boys.

Our house came with it's own dog, Max, helpful when you are feeling left out.

On Friday, it was Charlie's 11th birthday, so Patrick (a groundskeeper)made something special for him on the beach that night.

Every night we ate a home-cooked meal prepared by Valrie, our cook.  I'm pretty certain that most of the foods were produced locally, as in fruits picked that morning from our own back yard.  Of course we had plenty of locally-produced Red Stripe beer to wash everything down.

Germaine drove us all over the island and gave us a real education about local culture.  He liked it when he asked Charlie which he would rather be, Jamaican or American, and Charlie said "Jamerican."

I read a book - The Known World.  I read it cover to cover and was sad when it ended on the flight home.  I also knitted a lacey scarf, more on that later.

We came home to a flooded basement, which had only been renovated within the last few weeks.  In our absence, our neighbors and our contractor got together and worked to minimize the damage.  They mopped up the water, removed the soaked flooring and moved all the wet items to the garage to minimize mold forming on the new walls and ceiling.  They also made the collective decision to leave out the information about the sinkhole that formed in the driveway when they talked to us via cellphone.  They had roped it off and telling us would have made no difference except to cause more worry.

Yesterday, my neighbor rang the bell and dropped off a crock-pot filled with dinner for that night, which really helped with re-entry.  Ohm....

Boys meditating on the bottom of the pool.

Harlequin BagsCascade 2202 skeins Charcoal as MC made two bags, with 1/2 skein in Pink and Red for Contrast

I'm back from my unintended blog break.  Not sure what happened there.  The end of the winter sports season took over, with swim meets and basketball games requiring me to drive all over the place.  When the storm hit, I got stuck in a hotel with my daughter at a swim meet for two nights unexpectedly.  We made the best of it by watching movies and eating take-out.  The meet went on and she ended her season with a great time in the 200 IM. 

I also took a break because I have been working on a baby blanket and the progress shots are like watching paint dry.

Then I got busy teaching a few workshops on how to make these little bags.  This design is great for a workshop because you can almost finish the top of the bag in a two hour class.  Then, the bottom is the same, just a little deeper, so the students have all the skills they need to finish on their own.  The best part is how many techniques covered in such a small project:  knitting in the round with circulars and doublepoints, colorwork, decreasing, picking up stitches, felting.

I never tire of watching students gain confidence with new skills.  Most of these women lead busy lives with jobs and children so they have little time to devote to knitting.  Some have a learning style that is best met in a classroom format.  They will get stuck on something and wait to come to class to fix it and move on.  Sometimes they even apologize for not knitting between classes.  These busy women always make for lots of interesting discussion during class about what is going on in their lives outside of knitting!

My bags are stuffed with newpaper and still drying.  These bags require "rigorous finishing" as it states in the pattern.  They are lined with plastic needlepoint canvas for stiffness, then lined with fabric, a zipper is sewn in and then they are topped with a ribbon handle.  I put all that out of my mind as I happily whipped up the bags. 

Now it's time to deal with all that sewing.

    

Circular Lattice Bag, pattern by NoniYarn:  Cascade 220, 3 skeins each black and green held doubleNeedle: Size 13 Circular and DPNFebruary 1-5, 2007

A woman came into the shop asking for a private lesson to learn to make this bag.  The pattern intrigued me, or to be more honest, stumped me in the beginning, so I decided to cast on and make one along with her.  It is basically cabling in the round in two colors, along with increasing as you go.  Fair Isle and cabling at the same time.  It's a great way to learn to cable without a cable needle because you have a MC and a CC so it is easy to see what is happening when stitches are held front or back.  My student is still using the cable needle, but at least we got to talk about doing without.

Top left is the bag pre-felted, a watch next to it for scale.  The pattern and website have lots of useful information to assist in the felting process.  With the two colors, it's like two layers of knitting so you really have to man-handle the bag into shape during the felting. 

Now for the fun part, pick out a cool lining fabric and handles and have the nice lady at the quilt shop line it for me.

We're off for winter break.  Have a great weekend!

As you may have noticed, I'm a big fan of Lisa Lloyd and her designs.  Her site was quiet for such a long time because she was working on her new book, but she has recently updated it.  She is retiring some patterns so now is the time to get them if you want to add to your collection.  Here are a few of her designs, knit by me (there are more, but that's for another time!):

Zigzag Lace, Heirloom Baby SetFlyingdales, Halcyon AranHave a happy weekend!

Here's what happened....

Doors fling open and in hop three damp teenagers with their backpacks and mesh bags full of flippers, the smell of chlorine fills the car. As we pull out of the loading zone, there is the sound of rustling snack papers.

I turn around and with a smile say, "hey, would you guys mind not eating back there, I had a big mess to clean up after last night's ride.  Now, what is everyone swimming in the meet this weekend?"

The boy answers quickly, no problem to not eating, and then rattles off some swimming events. 

And then it was silent the rest of the ride home.  Ouch.  Longest ride home! 

I interpreted this silence as quiet introspection, proof that they are all good kids and they were thinking about their actions and feeling kind of bad about it. Which is fine.  What you hope for after a behavioral intervention (I think).

As for the whispering, I have decided not to go there because of some things my daughter has told me, mostly that she thinks the girl acts very silly around this boy - she knows the behavior is more for his benefit than to exclude her.  It's more annoying than hurtful in her book. 'Nuf said.

I really valued each and every one of your comments.  Some of you out there have lots of real life experience with teens.  It is always sticky when you are friends with their parents.  Who knew carpools could be so stressful!

What we have here is Chad's Pullover, Peace Fleece, Ancient Fern.  Double seed stitch, 23", going for at least 26", maybe longer. Have a great weekend!

What would you do?

You are in a carpool for your 8th grade child's year-round sport.  It means that you only have to make the 40 minute trip 3 times/week vs. twice daily 6 days/week.  You are friends with the mothers of the two other children, one a boy and one a girl.  You tend to do rides home, because that works best for everyone - usually you pick  the kids up around 8:30 and run them home.  Typically, your child hops in the front seat and the other two are in the back.

In recent weeks, the boy and girl have been getting very silly/flirtatious in the back.  There is whispering, giggling, rustling of jackets.  Total disregard for the taxi driver, let alone the third child in the front.  I mean deliberate whispering with the hand over the mouth.  Last night, the girl brought "a snack" for the boy, and there was all this guffawing about opening the snack, crunching paper, eating the snack.

This morning I found said snack all over the back seat of the car, and squished into the carpet on the floor.

What would you do?

Brown.  It's the new black.

My two current projects.  On the left, a scarf in Jade Sapphire Mongolian cashmere, color #40, cashoflouge.  Right, Chad's pullover in Peace Fleece, Ancient Fern.   Knitting Nirvana.

But, this bliss didn't just fall into my lap.  There were many other failed attempts with scarf patterns, and hours upon hours looking for a new sweater pattern for my husband.  Sometimes it just seems like it will never come together.

It all started recently when I cleaned out my stash. That meant ripping out failed projects, including a couple sweaters near completion, rewinding the yarn, packing it all in clear zipper bags for another day. I also collected a large bag of yarn to donate to the church knitting group, and lined up all my small projects so I can "go shopping" in my stash when I want to pick up something quick and fun.  I was a little perturbed by the pile of empty needle cases which didn't match up with the pile of circular needles but oh well. 

All this organizing clears my head and helps me start fresh with some new projects.  I'm knitting quickly.  I've got lots of plans for all that yarn I already have.

Ornament for this year's ornament exchange.  I searched high and low for a new idea this year.  I experimented with felt balls and needle felting, spending money on fiber and making a huge mess in the meantime.  I considered branching out to fabric, paper, felt, and other materials. 

I ended up casting on at 4:30 yesterday afternoon, and, although I didn't have time to comb my hair or change my sweater, I made it on time to the exchange at 7:30 - two mini mittens attached with a braided cord, wrapped inconspicuously in some brown paper.  There were gorgeous ornaments - blown glass, mother and child figures, and glittery balls, but guess what became the hot item - stolen time and again around the circle?  Go figure!  I guess it pays to stick to what you know...

T'is the season...

I wasted some serious time this morning checking out all the handmade ornaments at Ornament Exchange which was mentioned at Whip Up , photos, here.

This year's ornament exchange is on December 11.  In past years, I've knitted mini sweaters and socks and they have always been a hit, but this year I'm feeling the need to venture out in the fibery arts.  I have been practicing some needle felting with mixed results.  Maddy made this one...

...it's sweet and I love her color choices, but neither of us have made anything near as nice as Missy's, my friend at the shop.  We just can't seem to get the design to be as crisp and clear and the fiber as tightly adhered to the ball as Missy's.  I might spend a little more time at it, or just try something completely different.   Or I might find myself at 10 p.m. the night before knitting away on another mini sweater on teeny needles...