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)