Fall into Fall

There has been beautiful wispy fog in the valley these past couple of days. I drive to work in the early morning hours, while the majority of the world is still asleep and the artificial brightness that normally dominates our lives is pleasantly absent. I drive through long stretches of darkness, then in the distance a pool of light shines down from a street lamp. The fog swirls and gathers in ghostly images. My car passes through and the darkness envelopes me while my two beams of light guide me on to work.

The fall makes me smile. I find myself snuggling in under my blankets and dreaming of a fiber existence. Suddenly I feel the need to start a project for everyone I have ever known and of course I want to have it all finished by Christmas. I'm thinking maybe if I quit my job I might be able to finish half of the gifts I would like to. Of course if I quit my job I wouldn't be able to buy the yarn for all these loverly gifts I'd like to make, and honestly, the thought of not being able to buy yarn scares me more then not getting all my Christmas gifts done, so I guess I'll keep the job :P I just wish I could get paid to knit and play with yarn (such is the lament of so many knitters, I know). Someday perhaps my dream will come true (big fairy tale sigh, with eyelashes all a-flutter).

Thank You

The last month has been a bit of a roller coaster for my emotions. It's extremely frustrating because nothing big or scary has happened recently but I can't seem to function like normal. I am seeing someone and we're working through some things so I know I will get through and come out a stronger, better, more in control person. I'm sorry if I scared anyone. The comments I received really made me feel better (that is a weak word for how wonderfully cared about I felt, my creativity isn't flowing yet) though, so thank you all very much for the comments and the good suggestions. I posted some of the advice on my fridge so I think that it was worthwhile to post my "art piece" (my mother would like to think of it that way so we'll indulge her :P ) Thanks again.

Now onto some knitting. I'll admit I haven't been doing much. I currently have 2 pairs of socks (both the second sock of the pair) that I'm slowly slogging through. I have come to the realization that I need to knit my socks two at a time because I have a horrible case of SSS (second sock syndrome for those non-knitters... Dad). Luckily one of the pairs is for Jeff and I know he's not going to let me flake out on the second sock, he thinks it's unfair that he hasn't received any wool love from me yet so I hear about the poor pityful plight of his cold toes often.

I'm also working on a Back to Basics Cardigan from Mountain Colors. The yarn is Cascade Paints (well I thought that's what it is, I don't have my big knitting bag with me and I can't seem to find this yarn online so perhaps I'm wrong ). It's a beautiful yarn with lots of dark black & purple then splotches of autumn red. It knits up beautifully and once I'm done with the miles of stockinette I will love it. (Right now it's hard to love the monotony because in my world falling asleep is far to easy and sometimes I find myself waking up with needles in my lap and unfortunately the knitting fairies aren't coming around while I snooze to finish things for me.)

So in closing (I'm feeling rather formal at the moment) knitting is progressing, I am progressing and Mom, I love you and thank you for thinking of coming to Portland, but seriously, I'll be fine and I'll leave the "art pieces" for my journal.

Picture Post

Ok so I'm a slacker and just got around to putting the pictures from August on my computer. So I'm posting some pics to tied you all over until I get over my lazy b*ss and take pictures of the yarn I dyed this weekend (you can see my hand in the first shot and 2 of the skeins on the table are mine, can you guess which 2?). If the current rate of slackerism holds then maybe you'll see pictures of all 4 skeins I dyed and a post about the class sometime in October. =P

Today's pictures are of the lace part of the garter belt that I knit as the something blue for my best friend's wedding. (Every time I type that I see Julia Roberts in my head) Unfortunately I finished the garter the morning of the wedding and things were a tiny bit crazy that morning (ok so we thought we didn't have a wedding cake at one point and I really wondered if I would have to kill the bride for the good of humanity but other then that it was a carefree morning) so I didn't get a finished object picture (FO for those of you who don't read knitting blogs... um Dad). I'll borrow the garter sometime (probably November or something :P ) and post an FO picture.

This is the Dayflower (or maybe Mayflower? I don't have the book handy) lace panel from Barbara Walker 2nd Treasury. The yarn is some absolutely luscious hand spun, hand dyed light blue merino wool and cashmere blend. I am a horrible blogger and I don't have the name of the spinner/dyer or anything. (If you were at Black Sheep and sold me some gorgeous lace weight in light blue made of merino and cashmere then thank you a billion times and let me know who you are so I can acknowledge you in public!((like anyone would remember one specific sale at black sheep for two skeins of yarn!)))

With pins.



With pins and at a funky angle!



No pins at all =)



Yeah I really need to take some finished pictures. After it was blocked I seamed the two ends and added a stockinette border around the top with eyelets at the edge and threaded some lace through them in order to tie it around her leg. This was a great project for tackling some basic design and it made me realize that the next garter will have to be designed very differently due to fit issues. (I kinda ripped a hole in the eyelet section when I tied it onto her leg. Opps! We still managed to keep it on her for the wedding and reception and I can easily fix it.)

You know, that number between 7 and 9...

So my idiot factor was raised about three fold yesterday. As I'm walking out the door for work The Boy yells "It's Thursday, you going to knit night" (he doesn't know about the cool spelling of knit knite). Aw shit, is it really Thursday already, must grab knitting bags, no time to grab knitting bags (at this point I was 1/2 an hour late leaving for work) ((Okay I totally had time to grab a bag that already had my knitting in it but I've been embarrassed by the nonexistent nature of my bee fields shawl. Starting this project has made me nervous and self conscious. Normally I am not one to let complicated patterns or new techniques stop me, but I just kept putting it off. Plus I'm using such bee-utiful yarn that my friend Bob spun and dyed so I know he'll want to see how it's knitting up, then I will have to admit that I am a looser knitter and he probably won't want to talk to me and Cheri will stop liking me and they'll kick me outta knit knite and I'll end up living on the street because I'll loose my job after I spend my days and nights laying in bed with the covers over my head all because I couldn't start on Bee Fields!)

I rush out the door leaving my knitting and proceed to work. Spend half my day convincing myself that the lack of knitting for the knite of knitting is an opportunity to enhance my stash and knit for a good cause. I look for a couple scarf patterns, find one I like and print it out then proceed to the shop.

I enhance my stash with some fun Silky Wool in a beautiful red (dude it was on sale for $3.95, it would have been criminal not to buy it!), then I realize that I left the pattern in the car. I run out to my car to get the pattern..... my eye wanders to the back seat. There, on my back seat, is my cute basket/bag with my bee-utiful yarn and pattern for the illustrious Bee Fields. (How the hell did it get there, I purposefully didn't grab it so no one would see my failure. I still don't know, I think the Knitting Goddess has rigged this as a fun joke.) At this point I have two choices, I can admit that I have not started and that I have let something as silly as a provisional cast-on keep me from knitting or I can ignore it, grab the pattern and pretend I'm not an idiot. Now knit knite has helped me figure out many things over the last year (and they already know that I'm an idiot) so finally the smarter half of myself kicked my own butt and grabbed the bag. I admit my failure to Bob, Cheri and Judy and Bob sweetly teaches me (well he tries anyway) provisional cast on (there was no teasing ribbing or sarcasm, anyone who knows Bob will tell you he is not that way at all). Now the easiest form of provisional cast on is to use a crochet hook. Bob is a master hooker (teehee) and he shows me how (to cast on, not hook =P ). So I clumsily try to cast on. After 15 minutes I have my first 8 stitches cast on. I place my marker and go for the next 5. At some point Bob finally realized how to help me get this crochet thing down better. Things progress much faster after that. An hour later (:P see much faster) Bob looks over "Are you still casting on?" (there are only 27 stitches to cast on but I was distracted and had to stop a couple times to give opinions on stuff, it's totally not that I'm a looser =P ). Luckily I had just finished and was counting to make sure everything was right. I count the eight stitches that are supposed to be before my first marker but then there is this pesky extra stitch. Damn! Well circulars are made so you can slide the project to the other side and slip extras off, right? So I slip off the stitch and continue counting. Double damn! Now the end section has 7. Also an easy fix, slid it back to the correct position and awkwardly cast on one more. There all perfect!! Yey now I can knit!!!!!

2 rows , a trillion mistakes and probably an hour later (remember a row is only 27 stitches =P ) I realize that I only have 7 stitches instead of freakin 8 in this section and I have no idea how to fix it. I officially can not count to 8 and I give up knitting for the night.

Soooo from this wonderful experience I have learned how to provisional cast-on; I've learned that if I'm going to provisional cast-on I need quiet, no black jackets to look at or yarn colors to help someone decide on, and about 10x as long to complete the cast on as it would normally take me; and that knitting complicated lace is not a project you take to knit knite. Hopefully I have learned my lessons well.

(By the way, no one kicked me outta knit knite so it looks like I won't have to start looking for big appliance boxes after all. My stash is relieved, it wasn't looking forward to the draftiness of box living.)

Irony Hits Hard

So guess how many Thursdays there were this month? If you guessed 4 like I did then you would be WRONG. I finally decide to go to the Spinning Guild, I gather up my courage to be amongst people I don't know in a craft that I'm not completely comfortable with yet. I fight traffic for 50 minutes, figure out where the meeting is held and hmmmmmm I don't see any cars. No cars? What!? I counted and this is the 4th Thursday. Did they move it to Aurora like the first meeting I attended? I drive over there assuming that I'll just be a little late..... No cars again! So I finally I call Jeff and ask him to count the calendar. 5!?! How could that be, today at work I totally counted to make sure I wasn't an idiot (I did this in March but I caught it before I left). 5! In the span of a few hours the month grew by a whole week. Guess I'll have to mark my calendar with every 4th Thursday. I really think this was the work of the Knitting Goddess, kicking my butt for betraying my original craft and my family at knit knite. I'm sorry Goddess I will repent by paying a visit to The Naked Sheep this weekend and buying some fibery goodness pre-spun. :P

Confessions

Thursday seems to be the universal day for fiber fun. My beloved knit knite at The Naked Sheep happens every week. This is where I really got into knitting. I've meet really sweet people who have helped me through some tough stuff, both knitting wise and in general life. I've hardly seen them this summer because of that general life stuff but I miss them and the time I spend there.

Thursdays are also the day that The Aurora Handspinners Guild meets on the 4th Thursday of each month. When I first learned to spin I went to their antique spinning wheel showcase and they were very kind and helped me fix a problem with an old wheel my grandmother had. I decided to join in May and have only been to one meeting and though I felt completely inept and akward I had a good time and I just need to get over my shy self and go regularly.

The third Thursday thing is the Tigard Guild Meeting, which meets the 3rd Thursday of the month. I haven't been but it sounds fun and I know a lot of the PDX Bloggers go. Plus I read blogs from people who belong to guilds and it sounds like they get a lot of good info from them.

So here's the tough decision. Do I ditch my friendly, helpful, homey type knit knite 2 times a month, 1 time a month (then decided with one extra activity I would choose, honestly it would probably be the Spinning Guild) or stay loyal to my knit knite and miss none. I feel guilty going to something other then knit knite on Thursday but my mother instilled a good deal of guilt into me anyway so maybe I'm just being silly.

On other confession fronts...

In the struggle against weight loss, weight loss is the looser. I belong to Weight Watchers and was sucessful at first (I lost 52 lbs) but then I never got any lower and in the last year I've gained a bunch back. I need to get my butt in gear (or at least off the couch and away from knitting needles, spinning wheels or books) and exercise more and tell myself "NO" a whole lot more. I wasn't sure I wanted to talk about this on the blog, I didn't want this place to become a whine fest about how fat* I am. So instead of whineyness and obsessing about weight, I won't post about this stuff very often and I will try to include the good that's happening or the positive goals I want to accomplish in regards to weightloss. First positive thing.. I want to be able to have children without ending up with gestational diabetes or complications and once born I would like to be able to run after and play with him/her/it without falling over dead. So kids, that a good positive goal to keep in mind this week!

One last confession then I'll quit my ramblings. I love to spin and want to spin a whole lot more but I don't really know what I'm doing. I read blogs where people are talking about high whorl and ratios and I don't have a freakin clue. I just spin and it does it's thing. Does anyone know of a spinning teacher in the Portland Metro area?

* Tiggywinkle corrected me in a email earlier this week. Fat is not the correct term, fluffy shall now replace all references to the f work (ha ha)

Saturday In The Park....

That song is on repeat in my head. I had such a fun time last night. My friend didn't want to go up close to the stage so I did a little wiggle dance in my seat the whole time instead of rocking out like the people upfront. The music was great and you could hear everyone singing along but that added to the sweet atmosphere. I could tell that most of the songs brought back nastalgic memories for most people in the audience. Actually, I think it was almost more fun to see so many folks letting loose and having fun, especially the 60+ crowd. You can tell the baby boomers are maturing and rock may well take over the Laurence Welk hour. There was one lady who Lindsey and I decided had probably been to a Chicago concert in the early 70's and still had the same dress for the occasion. She didn't care that she was sitting among a sea of non-dancers, she just stood up and did her own thing to the music. The whole night made me have that "happiness is going to burst outta my chest" and "the world is a beautiful happy place after all" kinda feelings going on. It was almost a perfect summer night. (Only way it might have been better was to have the Boy with me so I could sneak a smooch during the romantic ballads).

Now for something completely different. On September 23rd the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is happening in Portland. One of the first cancers that my Grandmother had back in the 60's was breast cancer. I can remember being a small kid and seeing the shoulder pad like things she put in one side of her bra (she had partial mastectomy early on)and wondering what she did with them. Later after I realized what breast cancer was she told me more about her procedures and showed me the little black dots that resulted from early forms of radiation treatment. I decided that this year I was going to walk in her memory. I convinced Jeff to sign up (ok I signed him up and paid his fee actually :P ). So now we are a team of 2. I would love it if anyone else would want to walk. The walk is a 3.1 mile walk, it starts at 9 am and I would be happy to help pitch in for the $25.00 fee to join if that is a problem for anyone. Just let me know if you're interested by leaving a comment or emailing me at knottyknitsATgmailDOTcom. If anyone wants to make a donation to me you can go here for that. Any little bit helps and heck, if any one donates I may have a few prizes to give out....

On the knitting front I think I've decided to knit a couple 10" squares for Miner Blanket Project. They're fast, portable, I can use whatever stitch pattern sounds like fun and will hopefully bring some comfort to families who have lost loved ones. Sounds like a good project to get me outta my knitting funk.

Hope the sunshine holds and everyone enjoys their weekend!

Whew I'm done with weddings, I'm done with funerals, it's still summer and there's sunshine today! My bestest new married friend and I are cruising down to the Spirit Mountain Casino to see Chicago (flash back to 80's, 90's and Today!) and I'm very excited. I really really love the sound of a brass section in a rock band. In college we did a Marching Band feild show to a medly of Chicago so it should bring back a lot of fun memories. Plus I've never been to a Casino so it will be interesting, I may have to spend a few bucks just so I can say I've done it. Of course I have to work at 8 the next morning but I've decided I don't care how tired or unfunctional I am, I am gunna have some fun!

Speaking of fun, I keep reading about all the adventures my PDX Blogger friends are having and I feel like I've really missed out on a good thing! I wish I could go Shop Hoppin this weekend with the group but alas my parents are coming to town so we're going to the coast for the day :( Hope that they have a good time and that I can make the next one!

My knitting has been pretty quiet since the wedding... Oo oo I never posted that I did actually manage to finish the garter. It was beautiful and later I'll find my pics to post. Of course all that work and as I was tying it onto her leg the eyelets ripped apart :( I need to do some emergency repair work and give her a shadow bow so she can put a wedding pic with the garter into it. Ok back to my knitting thought.. I have a horrible case of startitis. I really want to make Phyllo. I bought the pattern for Bee Fields and even some bee-utiful lace weight yarn that my friend Bob spun and dyed but I took a look at the 18 page pattern (yes eighteen 18 5+5+5+3) and felt a little daunted, it doesn't help that I've never made a provisional cast-on and so even starting is a challenge. But I will perserver and finish this shawl, my goal is Christmas so I can give it to my Mom, well see though (I can hear my own maniacle laughing in my head when I think of that deadline.) But Monkeys call (especially with the picot edging I've seen) and so many others. We'll see what I end up working on.

Well my ride is here so I'm jetting. Hope everyone else is enjoying this August Thursday as much as I have been! (waves)

Craaazy....

Patsy Cline is on permanent repeat in my head today. This whole summer has been a bit crazy. Luckily in 2 weeks it will all be over. My best-friends wedding (isn't that a movie?), where I am maid-of-honor, will be over. So with 2 weeks left I've realized exactly how much weight I've gained this summer (too freakin much) and since I tried on and bought the dress in April I'm getting scared. I can't even try on the dress to see if it fits because my bridezilla best friend (actually she's not too bad, just a bit of a control freak but that's normal) took all the dresses to La Grande over the 4th so she would know they were "safe". Well the dresses might be safe but I'm not sure my body is safe to fit inside it any more. So.. two weeks of eating very good, drinking lots of water and exercising 'till I fall over. Please send fat shedding thoughts for me so that my body will morph into a version that fits into the dress while allowing me to breathe simultaneously.

Another craziness... I decided over the weekend to knit the garter band for Lindsey's wedding. I've only been talking about knitting it since they became engaged over a year ago, but no, I wait until last minute as always. Now I could have chosen to do something simple with cute little eyelets and call it good right? After all who is gunna see it besides her, me and the groom to be? But do I choose fast, safe and easy? No! I go for a very lacy pattern (have I mentioned I'm new to lace?) from the 2nd Barbara Walker Treasury. You can see a pic of the pattern here except mine is done in an extremely fine laceweight which measures 19 wraps per 1/2 inch (I got tired of wrapping at 1/2 inch, that says something for my sanity and this project). I'm knitting the lace panel flat then will connect it and pick up the top edge and knit a few rows of stockinette stitch with eyelets every so often so we can run some ribbon or maybe some kind of elastic (or if I'm truly feeling wild maybe elastic with ribbon sewed around it) to keep the thing on her leg. On the bottom I plan to pick up stitches and finish with an Ocean Wave Edging, also from the 2nd Barbara Walker Treasury. I found a sketch of the pattern here so use your imagination. I may be delusional but I really think I can get it done. It's her something blue (a very pale sky blue merino/silk blend, I loves it so much!) so it's of vital importance (at least that's what I told Jeff when he asked me why I was torturing myself). I figure I can find time to squeeze knitting in between working full time, helping thread itty-bitty ribbon through itty-bitty holes in the wedding programs, scanning 3 million photo's for my friend to decide which she will use as a photo slide show (of the 3 million she will probably pick like 100 so much of my scanning time seems to be supercilious), picking up tuxes and the pressed wedding dress and food and cups and anything else that comes up, oh and loose 20 lbs too. Hmmm perhaps my subconscious has good reason to play Patsy Cline to me :P

By the way, it's good to be back and over the next couple days I'll try to squeeze a couple pictures outta my camera so I can show you my garter belt. Even though it's only a few inches long I'm unreasonably proud of it. I made my co-workers look at it this morning. I believe they were just nodding along and making nice so I didn't accost them with knitting needles or anything. :P

Oh yah I have to write a toast too.. Hmmm must start thinking on that!

Delores J Davey

November 18, 1930 - July 4, 2007

I've tried to write this post several times in the last week. It's hard to explain the relationship I had with my Grandma. She was such a huge part of my life and family, it is hard to imagine that someone who only weighed in at 80lbs at the end of her life could take up so much room.

My Grandmother didn't have the happiest childhood. She obviously felt disconnected from her mother and stepfather. I think it's because of this that she worked so incredibly hard and pushed her limits farther than anyone I have met. One huge example, 41 years ago she was diagnosed with cancer. During that 41 year stretch she was lucky enough to have one period where she went 5 years cancer free. Her second bout of cancer, 2 years after her first bout, she was told that she should prepare for death because they didn't expect her to live another 3 months. Well that was unacceptable, she was never going to die! She wouldn't even let her chemo treatments get in the way of everyday life. She used to go early in the morning to have her chemo, by herself of course because god forbid anyone see her in a frail state, then go to work and work a full day. She believed that if you just kept pushing yourself and stayed positive then it would all work out. Up until a few days before her death she was determined that she would get better. She wanted to call her old doctor so she could tell him he needed to "get on the ball and help me get better". She was furious when the hospice nurse told her that trying to get out of bed to exercises was not the best idea. Even after she was mostly gone and she would mumble things that no one but she understood, it was obvious that she was pushing her body to go on. Her body decided it was done at 11:30 am on July 4th. Freedom from her sickly body. In her normal fashion, she waited until we all happened to be out of the room for a split second, she wouldn't want us to see her in a weak moment after all.

During all this cancer fighting she managed to start a career in the early 60's, in fact she was the bread winner of the household. She steadily moved up the chain at US West and became the manager of all government/state contracts for the pacific northwest. She decided to retire in 86 but within a few months she was talking about starting her own business. She and 2 other gentlemen form Shared Communication Services, Inc. During their extremely successful 13 year run my grandmother was awarded Oregon's Business Woman of the Year and the company won Oregon's Fastest Growing Small Business. They sold the company for more money then I can imagine. The biggest reason for their success, my Grandmothers commitment to customer service and her knowledge that your employees need to be happy to give good service. I worked for their company during my summer vacations in high school and everyone I worked with told me how amazing and wonderful she was. It took me many years to realize how right they were.

We're holding services for my Grandmother on Saturday in Salem. I'm a bit nervous and I have a sense that there will be an overwhelming amount of people there. I'm reading The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost and speaking briefly about her. I'm the lucky one, my Grandmother and I had a very special relationship. I think when I was born she realized that she'd spent her daughters childhood at work and was trying to toughen them for the real world. She must have decided that it would be different with me. I would spend almost the entire summer with Grandma and Grandpa. They would take me to the beach, Grandma would take me to flower festivals and as a special treat I would spend the afternoon at her work! (Funny how that was a treat back then and now it's the last place I would voluntarily be :P ) After my Grandpa passed she and I became even closer. I think she shared more with me then she did anyone and I feel privileged to be in that position. I have a feeling I will miss her in ways I can't imagine today. I hope that she is at peace with herself and her life and is dancing somewhere right now.


(BTW as if Saturday wasn't full enough, I am throwing my best friends bachelorette party in the evening. I would love it if ya'll would send some knitterly mojo my way so I have enough fortitude left to throw a part for 15 ladies. I think this may be the most bizarre day in my life :P )

Lost in Yonkers

I may have lost my knitting mojo... I'm not sure but it seems possible. Yesterday was knit night. All day I debated about going or not going. Normally I would never ever think of not going but lately I've been feeling very blah. I know that I always feel better after I go. I know that I love the people there and feel like part of a group. I know they don't care what I look like or if my knitting sucks or any of that stuff and that's a comforting thought but I just felt yucky and mopey. As I left work I really wasn't sure where I was going but my car headed toward knit night. I drove all the way to Killingsworth (this took about 20 min.) still debating with myself then decided I should go to Salem for the evening and help Mom out. So I turn around and drove for 50 minutes, only making it as far as Wilsonville with no end of the stop and go traffic in sight. Since Wilsonville is still like 35 miles from Salem and it had taken me almost an hour to drive maybe 15 miles I decided that it wasn't going to happen. I turned around and made my way home (another 40 minute trek). The only good part about all this driving was that I was sing/screaming along to an old CD that was in the car. It was therapeutic at least.

Once I finally arrived home I did knit. Actually I spent my knitting time seaming together the little cardigan I've been knitting. I did both sides and gave up on the sleeves. Too much effort, not enough fun. I'm tempted to start a new project but I am afraid that if I do I won't go back and finish this one. I seem (seam :P) to have that problem.

So this weekend the plan is to go to Salem and give Mom a little break. Honestly I wish I could just take a vacation from the real world for a couple of days. Then I think about my Mom being there 24-7 and not getting any breaks and I feel guilty. I have time to myself. I still live in my own house. I still have my significant other close by. Most importantly I'm not watching my mother die before my eyes. Looking at it that way 2 days is nothing and it's much more important to give my Mom a little time for herself.

Time Flies...

Wow it's been a long time since I checked in here. I've been thinking about it, normally in the middle of work or as I'm falling asleep at night, not so helpful really.

Things have been a bit chaotic over the last two weeks. Jeff's sister, brother-in-law and their 8 month old came to visit from Georgia. I had never met her husband and obviously not the baby so I was a little nervous. Would my house be clean enough? (no) Would we have enough money for groceries to feed all these new people? (no) Would they think I was a total dork and tell Jeff he should find someone better? (I don't think that happened, in fact I think I made a fairly good impression, hard to know for sure though).

Then in the midst of all this my Grandmother had some medical issues and I had to spend a lot of time with her in the Salem hospital. So then I worried about Grandma AND my house guests. Would my Grandmother make it through the first night? (yes) Would Jeff keep his family entertained? (not so much) What if they release Grandma from the hospital, will I be able to take care of her until my Mom drove over from Minnesota? (they kept her, after major surgery they tend to do that but I was in panic mode - not used to making life or death decisions for someone) Will Jeff feed his family? Will he help clean up or any of that stuff? Will the baby find fun stuff on our floors to pop into her mouth? (no, no, yes - lots o' cat hair for sure) To top it off we were interviewing for a new person to assist me at work and my birthday also happened somewhere in there. So ya, lots of stuff going on.

My company has now gone home. I really enjoyed having them here, although I didn't see them all that much. I loved having a baby around and I fear I may have sniffed her head so much that all the baby smell is gone. I haven't asked yet but her mother hasn't complained so my guess is that it comes back :P So for that part of the chaos, all's well that ends well.

My grandmother on the other hand... not so well. While in the hospital they found bone cancer on her spine. She is in a tremendous amount of pain and the only way the hospital would discharge her was if Hospice got involved. Luckily, even though she didn't think she needed any help, my grandmother finally agreed to have Hospice on board. I am so so glad. My Mom was not sure how she was going to take care of everything on her own but they send someone everyday to check in and she can have a volunteer come for a couple of hours if she needs some time off. They seem like they are really geared toward taking care of all the family, not just the patient. I am so thankful. Apparently she will most likely only live for a few weeks, maybe a few months if we're lucky. I wish I could just take off the time from work and be there, I've even semi-seriously considered quiting. I don't think I will because I feel like it would be abandoning them at a bad time, but I really feel torn about it. I just don't quite know what I'm doing anymore.

On a brighter note I saw the Yarn Harlot! I went with the lovely Kathy from Vast Amounts of Spare Time. It was wonderful to take a step away from my life and chat with someone. I met a ton of wonderful knitters and sat in the front row to hear Stephanie speak. She literally made my week. I bought her book and almost every page I find something that I read aloud to Jeff. For a muggle I have been pleasantly surprised at how much of this he gets and laughs about. I heart that boy!

Knitting has happened as well. I worked to get this cardigan done for the baby but it didn't quite happen. I am now to the seeming point and hope to have pics for you later this week.

Wow, I think that just typing about all of this has helped, maybe I should share more often.

Holiday!!

Wanted to stop in and wish the world a wonderful 3-day weekend. I hope it's a good one. The sunshine this afternoon makes me want to go camping and swimming and bar-b-queing, all that fun summery stuff. Alas I am not doing those summery things but I will be heading out for a road trip with my bestest friend. She's getting married in La Grande in August and as her maid of honor I am going with her this weekend to plan wedding stuff and look at the church she's having the ceramony in. It will nice to see her Mom, when I was't at home I was at her house so I love her Mom like my own. I haven't been back in years so it will be interesting to see everything.

Before I leave I thought I would post up some pictures of my very own handspun yarn. The pictures I have are of my early skeins so they are a bit lumpy and bumpy but I still like them. I just need to figure out what to do with them!




Opps I gotta go! Have fun!

Going outta my skin!

This morning I deviated slightly from my norm - I drank a non-diet energy drink. I've been trying to loose weight for, well forever, but seriously the last few years. I have pretty much cut out all non-diet drinks and have almost gotten to the point where I only drink water. My one weakness is Diet Wired, I don't drink coffee very often and so this gets me going in the morning. Today my local convenience store was out of diet!! (Oh the horrors!) But I was totally draggin-ass so I went for the sugary stuff. It got the job done, I'm now wired and fidgety but I'm starting to drive myself crazy. Honestly my brain feels tired yet my feet want to dance a jig. Very odd. I guess the extra sugar is more then my body is used to and it put me over the top. To add insult to injury I really looked at the calories and junk and realized that I used up 6 of my weight watcher points for the day. 6!! Normally I don't even eat 6 points at breakfast. So, no more non-diet Sobe's for me, ever!

On to more FO's. Here is my first Fair Isle project. It's a snowflake pattern that came from the creativity that is Bob the Spinningman.

I love how the two purples look against each other. The yarn is Cascade 220. I made another one in pink and white alpaca that felt so wonderful to wear but it lives with my grandmother so no pic's of it.
The lovely model is my big Little Sister (she looms over me at 6'3". Thanks Cass!





I guess the next pics aren't really of an FO, I still need to add button bands and buttons (I guess that kinda goes hand in hand, can't really add the buttons before the bands :P )

The pattern is Knitting Pure and Simple Baby's Neck Down Cardigan. I am a slacker and writing this at work so I'm not sure what the yarn is.
This was started almost a year ago and the child I had in mind is getting close to the 12 month size so I had better get my butt'on gear and finish it. Maybe sharing it with the blog will help push me over the finish line.

Hmm as I'm previewing this I'm not loving the big pics and all the white space (the high school newspaper editor is showing a bit). Not sure how to fix it, I'll do some research, but any suggestions would be welcome.

Pictures!

Finally some visual interest to break up the monotony. This first set of pics is my first entrelac project. Cheri of The Naked Sheep Knit Shop wrote the pattern for a class. Mine turned into a scarf/wrap/shawl/thingie but I really love it. The yarn is Cascade's DiVe Teseo and honestly I didn't keep a ball band (shame on me!) so I'm not sure which color. It looks very fall in Vermont to me.

The colors in the pic look a bit too bright and washed out so I decided to take another pic in one of the many unidentifiable bushes in our backyard. The color is decidedly better, but somehow the bottom of the picture is all funk-di-fied. Someday I'll forgo yarn purchases and buy a copy of photoshop to fix pics like these :P (don't hold your breathe on this one, yarn is so much more seductive the software)



The downside to using bushes as your staging area is that nature tends to grab onto things. The little seeds stuck to that like Alberto Gonzales is sticking to Bushes coat tails. I have been picking them off for a couple of days now. Teach me to think before I lay my knits down any ol' place!

I have more to post but I'm supposed to be taking a shower and prettifying myself (HA!) for a work party. Wish me luck, I'm showing the bf off for the first time! He'll probably come across better then I do actually :P Next time, snowflake hats and toddler cardigans!

Holly Wowsers!!

I was reading through my daily digest of blogs and came across this . If you scroll down the page you will see my name and a link to my blog! When I saw the weird spelling of Meghan I think my heart stopped for a second. "Could that be me? No way!!" I know it's very silly to get all twittery because someone with a big blog like Ryan linked to me. Even more so because it is simply a link for people who want to car pool. If she was pointing out some beautiful knitting or a particularly funny story it might make more sense. But no, I get excited just seeing my name in print:P Apparently my newbness shines through at times. =)

As Ryan pointed out, I'm planning on attending the Dulaan-a-Thaan and would love to drive with someone. I don't mind doing the driving, I'm really just looking for someone to chat with and someone who will poke me if I fall asleep (just kidding). Leave me a comment if you're at all interested.

On the knitting front I finally have some pictures taken and soon I will figure out how to upload them. Is there anyone who uses Flickr that can tell me how to upload from there?

Happy Mother's Day to all moms that may read this. Enjoy your weekend and I hope that the sun shines bright for ya all day long.

Back in the USSA

Reluctantly I have returned home. Although I must admit it's wonderful to see my darling BF and all the critters running around the house. The BF even brought a rose to the airport when he picked me up!! I think I'll keep him for a while ;)

I had such an amazing time. Saw beautiful art work and churches, architecture and country side. Every single meal I had there was amazing, and gelato... mmmmmm!!!! I am truly amazed that I only gained 2 lbs while gone. I'm still trying to sort through it all, it seems a bit like a wonderful dream I had. Not quite real but so vivid and colorful. I'll post a few pics soon and hopefully that will help me reign in my thoughts.

I did manage to finish the cardi by the time the plane left for Florence. I've made some modifications to it. Instead of ribbing around the edges I knit 3 rows of garter stitch, 3 rows of seed stitch, and ended with 3 more rows of garter. I really like the subtle effect it gives. Unfortunately, before I had even worn it, I spilled a bag of honey mustard pretzels in my knitting bag and didn't realize it. So I pull it out to wear and I find lovely splotches of yellow dust stuff ground into it in a few spots. Tonight I need to see if I can rescue it. I might cry if it doesn't work!

I do want to mention that Ryan over a Mossy Cottage Knits, along with Kim Myhre are hosting the first ever Dulaan-a-Thaan at Village Yarn & Tea . I so want to go and was wondering if anyone from the Portland Metro area would want to carpool? Leave me a comment if your interested.

Italy!!

I leave for Florence Italy on Monday and I am so excited, giddy, nervous, a tad overwhelmed and a bit vaklempt. I can't wait, this is my first trip outside the US and I am eager to find new culture, people and well.. yarn! My bf laughed because I have printed out maps to 5 yarn shops in Florence. He thinks I'll have other things to spend my small amount of "fun money" on. He obviously isn't in touch with reality.

Everything has been so busy with planning, orgnaizing and of course working frantically to finish a sweater that I want to wear in Italy, that I really haven't had time to post. It's funny that I have 2 posts and only a few readers but at the end of the day I was dissapointed that I didn't post. I think I've had this idea that I should only post if I had time and thoughts enough to put up a long post. I need to stop overthinking :P

I will be returning on May 2nd so I'll put up pictures and talk about some of my fun adventures then. I'll be at knit night on the 3rd. Hope to see Janna and Kathy there!

Self deprecation rears it's head..

Last night was knit night at The Naked Sheep Knit Shop although it looked more like spinning night. We had 5 spinners, 4 wheels with 2 newbies learning to spin. It was a lot of fun and interesting to hear how other more experienced spinners gave advice to the 2 new guys. Yep both were guys! Actually of the 5 spinners there 3 were guys. It's good to see more male spinners and nice to help propagate the species. Back to the advice giving though. I didn't always agree with the advice being given but I felt like I shouldn't say anything because I've only been spinning for 2 months. I know the two more advanced spinners wouldn't have cared if I put in my two cents but for some reason I kept quiet and later, when they had both left, mentioned some of my ideas to the newest spinner. He must have found it helpful because he thanked me a couple of times. Even with this evidence that perhaps I have some helpful advice to give I still played it down. "No no Bob was the helpful one, I'm just new at this". Why do I do this? I do it with my knitting too. "Anyone could knit this shawl, it's only 6 feet of entrelac" (which really isn't hard, just time consuming) I think I need to work on it, if it bothers me it probably bugs other people too. (Ok I know it does, my bf gets irritated when I'm downplaying compliments on my knitting and butts in to tell people how long it took and how amazing I am, it's nice to have someone toot your horn for you). So that will be my new goal. No more "Well it's ok for my second sock, I'm sure I can do better" and onto "Thank you, it took some time and I'm proud of this bit o' yarn!"

Ok after that long-windedness I'll move on to the best part of the night. Janna and Kathy both showed up last night. I even got a hug from Kathy! We met Janna and her DH's girls, Offspring Elder and Younger. Both are such beautiful and polite girls and Offspring Younger wowed us with a very cute baby bootie she was working on. I had a great time getting to know them all better. It was truly a lovely evening and I hope that we'll see each other at the shop more often!

A whole new world!

The title refers to blogging and spinning. I'm new to both so bear with me here. I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while but the the little voice in my head kept holding me back. "Who will read a blog from you? What if you have nothing to say? Will anyone laugh, blogs seem to make people spew coffee onto their computers and I'm not sure you can pull that off my dear." Finally I squashed the voice (actually I drowned it with chocolate, that usually works wonders) so here I am. Any advice to a new blogger?

In my knitting life I'm working on the Neckdown Summer Cardigan from Knitting Pure & Simple. I'm using Cascade Sierra Quatro in a beautiful blue color. (I can't find the ball band at the moment) You can see a picture of this at my friend and LYS owner, Cheri's, new blog in a pink variegated color (as everyone who knows Cheri should expect). The major difference between mine, besides the color, is that I believe Cheri's will probably fit, while apparently I have arm pits that fall to my belly button. I'm on gauge and the bust size is supposed to end up two inches smaller than my actual bust so I have no idea what happened. Right now I'm in that denial stage, I should frog it, I know I won't like it later but somehow I keep knitting, imagining that the size fairy will somehow fix it. (Hopefully she doesn't fix it by making me bigger, I don't need any help on that front :P )

I'm also working on a pair of Evelyn Clark Railroad Rib Socks in Lorna's Laces and Knitting Pure & Simple Lightweight Socks in On Lite Supersocke Cotton, Beach Color. I love this last yarn, it has been so much fun to work with.

Ok my goal by next post - find a camera! I'll be able to show my projects and some of my handspun that way. Much easier then trying to explain about handspun merino in natural colors, that just sounds so boring and bland.