Creativity, Connection and Cynicism

These things have been swirling around in my head.
creating.
I've done it my entire life. I've always enjoyed crafting and making things. I honestly can't imagine life without this. What do other people DO with their time? It's a release for me to create something that I think is beautiful or useful. I want to leave a mark on this world in someway and goodness knows I'm not going to find a cure for cancer or lead the whole world to peace..but I might be able to leave my family a few items they will love and treasure for years to come.

connection and cynicism

I bill myself as a cynic and am the majority of the time. I hate lovey dovey kinda stuff and sweet just makes me smirk..but every now and again the cynic in me has to shut up. One of the things that does this, is the connection I feel every time I pick up a needle of any sort and create. I feel the connection from my hands running back through my grandmothers' hands and their mothers' hands etc. I feel it. I imagine women sitting with their embroidery hoops in medieval times stitching samplers.
It's there.
The connection.
It's real and I'm thankful for it.

I've been busy stitching and knitting some as well, but my laptop is still sick. :P It went to Compaq, came back and is shipping BACK to them as we speak. What a PITA. I have an older desk top that I can still check mail and read blogs, but I can't work with photos or update my iPod. Seriously. NO iPod updates. Do you have any idea how crappy that is? Erg. I'm hoping it will be back and functional in the next week. I am glad I have a fall back, but DAMN I want my laptop!!!

Thanks for all the sweet thoughts and kind words on my hands! Not having the laptop has been good for my wrists as well as taking a wee break from knitting. I finished up the hat I was working on and have cast on a pair of socks tonight, so we'll see how they feel after a few days. :) Luckily the cross stitching doesn't seem to be effecting them at all. I bought a stand for my hoop and my wrists are pain free. Yay!

I've also been wondering about how other people blog. Do you tell all about your process or just your successes or spectacular failures? When I've finished a great project and am looking around for a new one, it takes me so much longer to find what I want. It drives me crazy! I have a skein of Euroflax that I still can't figure out what to do with. I tried to make the everlasting bagstopper with it. I didn't get far, there are to many K2Togs for my wrists to handle right now. So it went back to marinate in the stash. I then remembered my basic little let's learn crochet book had a crochet version which would be much easier and much faster. I cast on and it seemed to be going well, but then I realized that I should have used a stitch marker and the previous rows were off. So again Frog. Again banished back to the stash. Most of the time I think I should blog about it, but it's come and gone and I forget. :)

Forgive me for rambling!!

Mojo?

I finished the Sherbet Monkeys and can't wait to show them off. As the DH says, 'They are obnoxious.' Just what every girl needs for Jan in Wisconsin!

So what next?

Well the Eunny Enterlac Socks. Got out the Lorna's Laces, swatched IN THE ROUND folks for 3 inches. It came out fine, around 8 st per in and 11 rounds.

Cast on with the Middle Eastern Cast On. A new one for me, and very odd but managed to do it and it looked good. Kept going with the pattern and realized there was no WAY in hell these socks would fit me. They might fit my 7 year old..but to hell if I was going to spend this much time on socks for her! Ugh.

Frog.

Figure, Ok..move on. Dig around for a pattern, surf Ravelry to see what others have done with Lorna's Laces. Just did Monkey, don't want to do anything lacey...and finally settle on a pattern from the Interweave book 25 Favorite Socks, Go with the Flow.

Cast on, knit and hate it. Just not feeling it and think it's too tight as well. It's a cast on of 60 and I normally cast on 64 at least on 1's and Lorna's is finer than STR Lightweight.

Frog. Mutter.

Take a breath and dig through both stash and patterns. Settle on doing a hat out of Socks and Caps Two of the Vogue on the Go Series. Picked a skein of Blue Sky Cotton. Swatch. Gauge good.

Cast On.

Knit and curse when I realize the damn thing would be huge on ME and it's for my 3 year old.

Frog.

Throw needles. Ok I didn't, but I REALLY wanted to.

I can't justify buying any yarn right now. I'm going to Stitches in 2 weeks for goodness sake! That's where I need to spend my money. I will buy 2 skeins of the Koigu to do the Eunny socks which is what she used. Hopefully that will solve that problem.

Ya I could knit a hat for charity or something, but I believe my knitting Mojo has left the building. Good thing I don't have a camera, since I have NOTHING to take photos of (well the FO Monkeys) except a pile of various yarn and needles but no knitting.

Pathetic.

Blog on!

So no camera, but damn it I'll blog anyway! And share the last picts that I have from my camera. *sniff* I really liked it ..I can't believe I lost it. :PP Anyway, enjoy the pictures from the trip scattered through the post!

The start of the Texas Trek at 5 am

And thanks to KnitWit it looks like my picture problem might be resolved soon! Yay Knit bloggers, we are such a rockin community. :)

The infamous over the freeway McD's on the Will Rogers TurnPike in Oklahoma.

As mentioned I've finished the Solstice Slip and am on the foot of my second Sherbet Monkey. I'm not positive what I'm going to knit next. I wanted to make the enterlac socks by Eunny that are in the Spring 07 Knitty.



But I'm in doubt. She made them with Koigu KPM and I have some Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock earmarked for it. The gauges are different. The KPM gets 17 sts and 22 rnds in 2 in St St in the round on 1s (2.25). The Lorna's Laces gets 33 sts and 46 rnds in 4in St St in the rnd on 0s.

Translate to same measurement and you have
KPM is 8.5 st per inch, and 11 rnds on 1s
Lorna's is 8.25 per inch and 11.5 rnds on 0s

So I'll need to do some test swatches when I'm done with my last Monkey. Will let you know how it turns out. I'm not planning on doing knee highs, but they are made from the toe up, so it's easy to stop when you want.

The Arch!

I'm also working on my 'Homework' for my Stitches Midwest Classes. Simple 8 inch swatches and such for my Joy of Finishing class. My Russian Continental class doesn't have homework. Yay! That weekend is going to be so fun. I'm going with 5 other girlfriends. Wohoo! No kids, no SOs but mass amounts of yarn. It's heaven!

Play time, finally!

On other fronts I finished Deathly Hallows this past weekend. NO SPOILERS. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think in some ways I found it anticlimactic... I know I need to read it again to make sure I 'got' it all. It's so strange to read something like that. It's like you are on pins and needles the whole time, just wanting to get through it so you know what happens. Very odd.

Love the Sonic in Elk City, OK

Our Trip to Texas was really good. The girls and I made it down to Lubbock in two days. Two VERY exhausting days. I drove 550 miles on the 1st day and over 700 miles on the second. That was rough.

Back in the car....

The girls had fun with Grandma and going swimming and out to tea and things of that sort. I just enjoyed my mom's company, though it's always hard to be the 'only' parent when you are used to two. My mom raised my brother and me by herself from when I was 4. I can NOT imagine doing it. My hat goes off to single parents big time.

We are finally in Texas! And don't we look thrilled?

We stayed with her for a little over a week and headed home. We stopped on the second day (I was smart and took three days to get home) in St. Louis. I'd heard so much about their Zoo, I wasn't going to let that opportunity pass us by. We stayed an extra day and really enjoyed it. The place is beautiful and huge. Not a single day-er especially when it's 90+ degrees and humid as hell outside. Next time we go, I'm going in Fall or Spring. If you are in the area I highly recommend a stop. It's actually a free entry zoo. How cool is that?

An amazing rest stop near the Texas-Oklahoma border

I would have some good pictures of the zoo..but I'm 90% sure that's where my camera is. I believe I left it in the stroller we rented. I hope it's having a good time.....

And yes, everything really IS bigger in Texas.

Grrr...Computer Rant

Nice new computer should mean no problems, right?

Scratch that idea if the lovely new computer has the piece of crap software that is VISTA on it.

I am so unhappy I could cry or scream or perhaps punch a random MS employee. I'm going to have the husband strip this entirely down and throw all my old software back on the new machine. Can you believe it takes 2 to 3 times as long to get something done? It hangs, just kinda chugs along doing god knows what, in the background.
We called HP, I have a Compaq, and they had us power it down and reboot.

REBOOT? WTF?

There's service for you.

Thank god my DH is an IT guy. So he'll make it work. Nothing like having a private IT dept in your home. :)

Anyway, the long and short of this complaint is I can't edit my photos. My machine can't 'handle' Macromedia Fireworks. PULEAZE. This machine is faster/newer/better than the old one that had no problems with it. It also has problems with Mozilla and Thunderbird. DH and I are convinced that has to be a Software design for VISTA, making you turn to more crappy MS software in hopes that it'll 'work better'. Hah. Fuckers.

I wish with all my heart I could have afforded a Mac. I want a Mac so much it makes my eyes bleed. Anything to get AWAY from MS. Evil evil. But I'm so not a geek enough to work with Linux, one of the DH's favorite toys.

Wow this is a rant worthy of the Samurai Knitter!

I think I'll go off in the corner and mutter some more.

Bad Blogger?

*sigh*
No, not really bad blogger..but bad computer! I'm having hardware issues. My power plug is messed up on my laptop and the replacement isn't working either. So I've no real power!

I'm lurking as much as I can and hope to be back soon!

Thanks for all the previous comments. I'm not ignoring you and will respond when I can!! Meanwhile I'm off to work on the 2nd Jaywalker. :)

Knitting Survey

This is a knitting survey……

Mark with bold the things you have knit, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book - oh wouldn’t that be amazing!
Participate in an exchange
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting with someone else’s hand-spun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch
Knitted flowers
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Free-form knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/arm-warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public - Darn tootin'

What have you learned to do that has marked a definite change in your knitting life?
It's given me a focus in a variety of ways. I actually finish items as opposed to other crafts I've participated in. This is more of a passion than just a hobby.

I came across this Knitting Survey over at Yellow House Treasures .

HOW ABOUT YOU?!!

Place this on your CRAFTY Blog and link to me.. I’d love to see how many different techniques you’ve done or hope to do and what knitting has meant to you!!

Colors

I hate to think of myself as impressionable or easily led. Yet in Spring, I love spring colors, Fall, fall colors..etc. My eye keeps gravitating towards these lovely yarns. I have TOO many skeins of sock yarn to warrant actually purchasing any, but I can dream right?

www.artyarns.com
YARN: ULTRAMERINO 8 127
100% Merino Wool

www.scoutsswag.com
Prepster colorway

Sherbert Colorway
Blue Moon Fiber

HM Cashmere Rose Garden
The Loopy Ewe

So are you seeing a pattern? Yum!

Amazing

Had a few amazing run-ins today.

1.) My 6 year old daughter is knitting a Chevron Scarf. Dude. And it's nice. I'll put up more picts when it's longer. But damn, she can PURL! K2Tog! Knit in Front and Back!

I need to remember this when she throws knitting needles at me when she's a teenager!


2.) My wrists no longer hurt since I've been working on the Chevron. I apparently needed to take a break from sock knitting. Yay for healing wrists. :)

Other than that the Chevron is growing longer and I'm waiting for my Rockin Sock Club shipment! Woohoo! See? I needed to rest my wrists. :)

OH! And the DD is using my kool-aid dyed yarn along with a skein of bare wool. Too cool. Not only is she knitting, but she's decreasing my stash! Wohoo!

Ok, enough exclamation points....

OMG

Ok,
I read this and I honestly nearly hyperventilated.

Yarn Harlot

Read the whole entry..and down at the bottom Steph talks about going to dinner with Annie Modesitt and Lily Chin.

Ok. Can you FREAKING imagine passing that car on the highway?? I'd so run off the road. And thank GOD that they didn't get in an accident. Can you IMAGINE how crowded the hospital would be with knitting visitors???

I'm sorry, for some reason this as obviously really freaked me out and I'm going to lay down now. I also won't use caps for a month now....

'Nice-Pressure' Sales

We all know about high pressure sales. Where you feel like you are being stalked the moment you enter the door..the sales person sizes you up..circles inward..and blurts out
"Hi! Welcome to ..blah.. Can I help you? This would look great on you/is a great gadget/is a popular movie/is an electronic you NEED to have to keep up with the Jones''

This, luckily, never seems to really happen at either of my LYSs. No, there I'm put under 'Nice-Pressure' Sales.

Example. I went into my LYS to order some more of a yarn for a project. I wasn't going to spend a DIME. (You there, quit laughing.)

And so it begins...

"Hi Lynn!"
Because every good LYS employee knows your name, your entire family's sweater sizes, what yarn you covet, what yarn you don't like, your favorite color...etc.

"Hi! I came into order some yarn. Can I look at the book so I can pick colors."

"Of course!" Plunking huge binder full of color cards in my lap.

I blissfully continue, feeling sure I'm going to put in my order and escape.

"I'd like these colors please."

"Hmm. You know we are really trying not to put in a ton of color orders from that distributer because we just got a shipment. What are you making?"

"This project"

"Well I'm sure we can find some substitution yarn for you!"
And off she plunges into the store, hanks and skeins flying over her shoulder as she goes.

"How about this? Or this? Oh, this would be a lovely texture difference."

20 minutes later I walk out with a serious dent in my wallet and my head spinning.

You know the feeling. The nice guilt..

"I'd hate not to buy anything. She's been so nice. So helpful. I'd hate to walk back through the store and plunk these back on the shelf."

Forget high-pressured sales, 'nice-pressure' sales get me everytime. *sigh*


Anyway, I'm in the middle of the heel on the 2nd monsoon sock!

This Sucks

No other way about it. I don't let my kids use that word. It's not nice, you know.
But I honestly can think of no other way to say this.

This SUCKS.

My wrist hurts and hurts bad. So I've put my knitting projects in the closet, because if I see them I pick them up. I've been knitting for almost 3 years and have never ever had my wrist hurt like this. I have to attribute it to knitting mass amounts of SS continental style. Now my left wrist is killing me. Wheee.

I've got a partial Rockin Sock Club sock staring at me and a lovely baby sweater, as well as a bag full of yarn to make a knit Hedwig. And me, not knitting. So what have I been doing? Reading knitting blogs, books and listening to knitting podcasts as well as stalking hand painted yarns across the internet. (YAY EUNNY!!)

Pathetic, I tell you.

No more knitting for an entire week in hopes that this gets better. And from now on I'm a 'throwin mama' unless I'm doing 2 handed fair-isle.

OH! That reminds me, C and I are going to Stitches Midwest! Dude! I'm taking 2 classes, Russian Style Continental (which will hopefully end this wrist problems) and a Finishing Class. It's this August and should be beyond fun. :)

So all of you enjoy your knitting for me!

Snow and no knitting..

Can there be a worse day?
I've had to put down my needles and most likely won't pick them up again for a few days. I'm in pain. About a 3 on 1 -10 scale, but constant, in my left wrist. This sucks. I've knit 5 inches on each sleeve and have 12 more to go. I want this sweater done, but I obviously need to change my knitting style. I never had pain when 'throwing' just now that I 'pick'. But you can't change your style in mid-project. I can just imagine the lovely tension issues, besides the fact your stitches slant differently.
So here I sit, listening to podcasts and getting ready to read some more on Harry Potter. A knitter that can't knit.
What a pathetic thing!

V-Day, Some Knitting and a Decision

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some folks seem to want to tear Valentine's Day down, blaming Hallmark and commercialism for berating singledom or some such.

Sorry but I'm not in that camp. I love Valentine's Day. I feel it's actually more for children than for adults which might be why it doesn't upset me.. Valentine's morning was always fun in my house growing up, and I'm continuing the tradition. There are cards, chocolate and a small gift for everyone. Today my girls both received these adorable pop up/playhouse/paper doll books I'd purchased last month at Borders. They were only $7.99. Both the girls seem to love them, and if they don't, I'll play with them after they go to bed!

This is why I didn't have any knitting photos the other day..
I'm thinking that I should take that flag down now. I feel I just might be tempting fate a bit.
But thank goodness the sun actually came out today!
So here are the obligatory shots.

The completed Chemo Caps that will be mailed off to Kate in the next few days.


The Humane Society Cat Blanket, made from Wool-Ease.

Shifting Sands, growing along.















Now onto the decison. Have you SEEN all the gorgeous cabling going on around the net? Cromarty at Wendy's site is amazing and has me thinking feeling the need to cable. I just need to figure out what I want to make. I've whitled it down to 4 choices, all gorgeous.

Which do you think?

Holiday Haul

I have to say my friends and family are great in helping me support my addiction, I mean habit, no wait HOBBY, yes that's the socially accepted term.

A dear friend gave me a gift cert to the LYS, another gave me a copy of Knit Lit Too (can't wait to delve into that), my SIL gave me Stitch n Bitch Nation, my MIL gave me a pattern and yarn she scored at a Rummage (good yarn and a cute baby jacket pattern) plus Kids' Knits by Lesley Anne Price. It's an adorable book but unfortunately out of print, so I can't share a link. Lots of very cute fair isle items in it. And then the best gift of all from my Mom, cash to fund my Socks that Rock Club! Bought and paid for, can't wait till Feb to get my first package!! Lucky C is doing it along with me, so it should be entertaining at least. :)

I've been moving along on the Bucket Bag. I think I've decided to do random stripes in Fibonacci numbers. Here is it now.


The colors seem to go together really well.

MeMe

A survey lifted from Kitten.

1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now, what does it say?

"Why do so many of us object to purling? Is it because as children we were taught to knit first, and are then presented with purling as the second and more difficult step? Who knows? Who is willing to take an innocent child and teach it to purl first? You must admit it's the trickier of the two." Knitting with out Tears - Elizabeth Zimmermann

2. If you stretch out your left arm - as far as possible, what are you touching?
Wall and window blind.

3. What'’s the last program you watched on tv?

Law and Order :CI as I type

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
11:15, actually 11:11. Not bad.

5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now?

TV I'm watching, the tv in the other room and the hum of my laptop.

6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do?

Went to my local Guild Meeting held at a college. It's a nice stroll on the campus.

7. What are you wearing?

Velour comfy jammy pants and a grey t shirt.

8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about?

damn. I know I did but I can't recall.. this is going to drive me crazy.

9. When was the last time you laughed?

Tonight with my girlfriends at dinner. Lovely dinner talk with SAHMs about things like boobs, poop and diapers. Yay, that kind of stuff.

10. What's on the walls, in the room you'’re in right now? cheap print of victorians in the rain,
a 'Gobble til you Wobble' sign and a rag wreath.


11. Have you seen anything strange lately?
Yes. I have a strange squirrel in my yard. He seems to have had a stroke or something. He tilts and falls over, but otherwise seems ok. I'm keeping away from him as are my kids in case it's rabies. It's a bit odd to watch a squirrel run away from you and get about 2 feet before floppin on his side.


12. What do you think about this meme?

random.

13. What'’s the last film you saw?

Flushed Away. Cute movie, the girls liked it.

14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money?

get debt free, get family members debt free. set my family in a situation where money would not be a problem in the future. Not a billion dollar home, but a 400 k on that's paid off. Travel. Etc.

15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know.

Knitting soothes me. It calms me and helps me feel more grounded and like I'm making a difference both physically and emotially. Cheesey yes, but true.

16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt - what would it be?

stop fast food chains from becoming such a part of people's lives.

19. What do you want your children'’s names to be, girl/boy?

I've named mine. Abigail Jane and Valerie Lynne

17. Do you like dancing?
No. I'm too uncomfortable and uptight. So I guess I drunk dance..but dont' drink much so it's a rarity.

18. George Bush?
disappointment but not surprise


20. Would you ever consider living abroad?

Yes. I lived in Panama for 2 years and would like to go somewhere else. UK or maybe Amsterdam.

21. What do you want God to tell you, when you come to heaven?
It's all ok. No, seriously, it's all going to be ok.

22. Who should do this meme?

Somone without something to fill their time for 15 mins. :)

Progress

On all fronts, we have progress. From this to...

This..very important in the eyes of the girls!
And on the knitting front, we turned a heel. No matter how many times you do it, you still feel clever. :) I went with a traditional heel flap rather than short rows. Flaps always seem to fit me better. Now down the foot and cast on the next one!