Cattywampus

Remembering

I remember when my grandmother was strong and tall and tended gardens and reached things that I couldn't.

I remember her long fingernails tickling my back before bed at night.  (I remember how I was jealous of those fingernails in my teenage years!)

I remember her apple pie always being the best apple pie in the whole world (sorry Mom!), and how she would make it for me when I came to visit because she knew how much I liked it.

I remember how she was always just as excited as the kids to open presents on Christmas morning.

I remember all the stockings she had crocheted with our names on them hanging by the fireplace.

I remember seeing the pictures she had sent my grandfather when he was away in the war and realizing for the first time what a beautiful woman she had been (ooh la-la!), and how much beauty she still had as she aged.

I remember when she gave me my great-grandmother's knitting needles and sparked me to start on this fabulous knitting journey.  Every stitch I knit is thanks to her.

I remember playing hours of endless board games with her.

I remember laughing with her so hard that I cried, and maybe she did too, I don't remember.

I remember how she called Duke 'the smooth one' and Pixie 'the fuzzy one' and giggled when they licked her face.

I remember a wonderful, beautiful soul who brought more into my life than I will probably ever truly understand.

I will miss her always.

Appreciation

Do you remember this hat?

I made it for dh's close friend.  He seemed to like it when I gave it to him and he thanked me, but you never REALLY know if somebody is going to use what you make them.

I got this note in the mail this week:

Thank you for my hat.  I am touched that someone would spend such a large amount of time to make me a gift.  It feels like I get to wear a work of art.  I like that it is a daily part of my life that reminds of your friendship.  Thank you for your generosity.

Now.  I KNOW that we all HOPE that people feel like they are wrapped in wooly love and friendship every time they wear what we make them, and we hope that they wear it often, but how many times does someone actually say it so precisely, so succinctly, so articulately.  

That is, honest to God, the nicest thank you I have ever gotten for a knitted gift, most likely for anything ever, he made me feel like I gave him something much more than just a hat.

And that, dear friends, is entirely the point.

Maybe next year I'll make him a scarf to match.  :-) 

Stress & Rednecks

During our trip up to NY I experienced much stress, so there was much stress knitting.  I did finish Loppem, FO pics to come soon.   

I started Ishbel, by Ysolda and got through the stockinette part, I will start the lace part this weekend.

It's kind of blurry, oops.  But the color is true, it's Perchance to Knit, Harlot's Peacock colorway.  The base yarn feels like Zephyr Wool/Silk.  This stole is meant to be long and narrow so it can function easily as a scarf and that is what I am going for.  I think the mix of colors will go nicely with a lot of things.

We also experienced a lot of rednecks while sitting in the hospital waiting room, unintentionally eavesdropping on the people on the other side of the curtain, and while sitting in the hotel bar in the evenings.  WOW.  I could recount some stories, but that would be a tad bit rude, but I can just say WOW.  The rednecks!  

Okay, rudeness aside, I have to tell ONE story.  We were in the waiting room for about 45 minutes at one stretch and there was a family assembled with 3 infants, one newborn, one 2-3 months old, and one about a year.  I have no idea which children belong to which part of the family, but there was a man who seemed to be in charge of the 2-3 month old little girl and every time he spoke to her he called her 'sexy'.  There is something infinitely distressing.  BEYOND distressing.  To hear a grown man talking to a baby girl saying 'hey sexy, watchya doin' sexy, how's my sexy, sexy little girl...' etc etc etc.  OMG.  The other part of the family was in a bizarre crisis about the newborns' circumcision.  He was bleeding still and after calling the doctor and having the doctor tell them to go to the 24 hour clinic b/c the doctor didn't have any open appoints, they called someone else and concluded he would be fine, 'just put some gauze on it'.  OMG again.  Rednecks.  

Stress & rednecks.

I returned home to find my final SP13 package.

This was a wonderfully bright spot in pretty bad week.

There are chocolate covered pretzels, one of my absolute favs, a cute little notebook that says 'Beauty therapy is a must! What else can do so much for your hands, hair & head at the same time?!', some colored pens, a bag of pretty little beaded stitch markers, two skeins of cascade sassy stripes in fantastic color #713, and one skein of supersock in a blue Holiday colorway.  Very fun!  It was a very nice package to come home to.  Thank you Amy!  

Loppem FO

I finished Loppem and blocked it, here is the initial fit:

 

See how it's all bow-y in the front?  I didn't like that, so I made the buttons non-functional and sewed about 2" below the buttons together.

I got this:

Better, don't you think?  Tho, I'm still not happy with the bowing.  This yarn lacks drape.

The yarn is Valley Yarns Amherst.  I made the body 12" long and I'm glad I did.  Even with making the body 3" longer I still only used 5 skeins and a bit for the smallest size.

Now I just have to wait for it to get warm enough to wear this...it's so cold in office that only long sleeved sweaters are an option right now.

A Sudden Trip

We went on a sudden visit to the great white north this week.

This is the kind of snow I grew up in.  Now I don't even like to visit between November and April, but it is pretty, isn't it?

The visit, as sudden visits always are, was for a Bad Thing.  My grandmother had a cold last week and was being treated for a bronchial infection.  It turned into pneumonia.  On tuesday she was admitted to the hospital.  On Wednesday we drove up and we spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday sitting with her in the hospital. 

I am incredibly glad we went up when we did, as she was sleeping most of the time by the time we left last night.  

I am also incredibly glad for my dear, darling husband, who took 3 days off work to drive me up and sit in the hospital room reading magazines, getting food or beverages when needed and generally just Being Supportive.  

My grandmother was aware enough of her surroundings to tell us all over and over again how much she loves us.  She has always been a wonderful grandmother as well as an amazing and kind woman.  I honestly don't think she has one mean or ornery bone in her body.  

My mother will be with her today and my aunt will be going up tomorrow.  

I don't have words for the sadness.

Something new to me

Do you remember when I bought a set of those square needles in size 0?  I thought they would be fun to try.  The gloves were knit so tightly that I bent them and made little grooves in my fingers from holding the needles, that wasn't the funnest, but I thought I would give them another shot and use them to knit a pair of socks.

Not exciting, you say.  I would say you were right EXCEPT that I have never knit a pair of socks on dpns.  Can you believe it?  I learned on magic loop and was quite happy that way for a few years.  I would probably still be happy that way but I figured it was worth a try and because I do knit on the bus and on the go in other places I thought it might be more portable one sock at a time. 

So here it is:

I started it Wednesday, so I'd say it's going pretty fast.  It's amazing how fast a single sock goes, I'm a bit worried about motivation once I get to the second one, but only time will tell.

The pattern is an altered version of Ampersand.  It's an easily memorized pattern and I like the fun stripes it makes.  Of course the stripes go all wonky when I start the gusset increases, but that is to be expected.

Dpns - it's a brave new world and I like it!  I think the square needles are good for tight knitters b/c there is automatically a space under the needle to go through the loop, since the loop is round and the needle is square, it's a pretty cool idea.  They would also be good to use for lacey and/or cabled socks because the stitches would be easier to maneuver.  The info about these needles says that your gauge will be tighter with them, I have to agree, the last pair of STR lightweight socks I made I got 7-8 st/in and I'm getting 8-9 st/in with these.  And that's fine with me, the tighter the knit the longer they last.  It's all good.

Loppem is coming along, but it came to a screeching halt this week when I got to the underarms and I would've had to actually think to process the next step - the students sucked out my brains this week, thinking is not an option, hence the socks.

We are going out of town overnight today and I will have some car knitting time, so I am starting the Climing Vines Pullover.  I will be knitting it in the round and then doing the sleeves top down because that's the only thing that makes sense to me.  The leaves and vines don't look too complicated, but I guess I'll see.  If nothing else I'll get the bottom ribbing done in the car. 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Secret Pal Package #2

Yesterday I got home from work and found a package from my SP, I was thoroughly confused b/c she had just emailed me to tell me she had mailed my last package.  Then I thought maybe she had just emailed me a few days after she mailed the package?

But no, I opened it to find a holiday theme package!

Sorry for the washed out pic, there just isn't natural daylight when I'm not at work.

There are cute little snowflake stitchmarkers, a candy cane and some other candy (I ate that already), the smallest candle I have ever seen - so cute! - and this lovely, warm chocolate brown Zen Yarn Garden Bling sock yarn that is Merino, Nylon, 20% silk and 2% silver yarn!

It's really pretty, the brown probably isn't a color I would have picked out as I am drawn to bright and horribly impractical colors, but it is truly lovely and will make a gorgeous pair of cable or lace socks that will match OODLES of things.

Thank you Secret Pal! 

Addendum:  This sock yarn is for socks for ME, in no way shape or form is this sock yarn available for gift socks.  Ever.  Just thought I should make that clear.  :-)

Updates

Sometime in December I succumbed to one of Webs sales and bought this Louet Riverstone on sale, I wavered back and forth with my color options, there were a few reds and pinks, but then there was natural, which is good too. 

I settled on something called Strawberry after looking at some Ravelry stashes of it and I was satisfied it was a reasonably good red.

Well.

Hmmm, the color in this picture is off, it's more intense than this.  But at any rate, it's not so much strawberry.  If I ever saw a strawberry this color, I would be afraid to eat it.  It is more like a really intense melon color, maybe a bright coral, but not strawberry.

I'm not sure what to do about that.  I got it on sale, half price, it was a superb deal, and theoretically I could overdye it, just knit a lovely sweater and dye it black, but I hate to have to do that.  It's a dilemma.

The other yarn I got was for Loppem that is in progress right now.  It's a similar color to the one in the book, but cheaper.  Cheaper is always good. 

It's Valley Yarns Amherst.  So far, so good.  It's a nice yarn to work with, it's showing off the cables nicely.

This top is supposed to be 9" from hem to underarm, which is approx 3 cable repeats.  If you look at the picture of the model in the top it appears to go down to her hipbone. 

On me, 9" will hit one inch below my natural waistline, it goes 4 or 5 inches below her natural waist.  I am going to do another cable repeat and hope that it's not too long AND that I have enough yarn.  She must be one short waisted woman.

Anyway, here is what I have done so far.  It's moving along at a decent speed.

I am still making progress on my Bee Stole, though at just a few lace repeats a week it's going to be  a month or two until it's done, however, it will actually BE DONE at some point.  As long as I am making forward progress I am happy! 

Today.

Today I had a crazy day, an insane day, the kind of day where you never finish your coffee.  The kind of day where you have to ask a work study student to go to the coke machine for you because there just isn't enough time.

I took the subway home, late - for a friday - the subway was fairly empty, not at all the sardine crush it is at 5 o'clock sharp.

At my subway stop I walk underground for a block before climbing to the surface.  It smells distinctly like urine.  It would not be a good place to be in the summer.

Today there was a man playing violin.  I'd heard him once before.  In the  underground corridor it is haunting, beautiful, extraordinary.  He is obviously very talented, not the usual subway stop musician.  He looks bedraggled, but he has CDs displayed showing him in a tux with his violin on a black velvetish background on the cover.  He is somebody.

I walked by him and thought how much it must suck to be so talented and to spend your time in a place that smells distinctly like urine.  And I thought how he had put this 5 minute piece of immediate calm contemplation in my day of insanity.  But I was late for a dinner reservation, so I kept walking.  I got half way down the corridor and I stopped and turned back and fished for my wallet to see what I had.  I only had a dollar.  It wasn't much, but I walked back and gave it to him.  

He put a moment of beauty in my day that would not have been there.  I consider that an amazing gift.  How many people do that for you on a daily basis? 

It wasn't much that I did for him today.  I don't know his circumstances, I don't know how dire they are, it wasn't much, but it was something.  I think he did more for me.

This is the end, my friends.

The end of vacation!  It's so sad.  So very sad.

I could easily stay home for another week.  I think I'd begin to feel a bit stir crazy then, but I'm not there yet.

What I accomplished:

I finished four knitting projects - 2 pairs of socks, a sweater, and a fair isle hat.

I went through my piled up magazines and got the stack down to two - and those came this week so I feel like they don't count.

I made significant progress on my bee stole, enough so that I am now feeling motivated to finish it.  I finished the first pattern and have moved on to the second pattern section.

I made the quilt sandwich of my godson's quilt and got it ready to be quilted (alas alack, no actual quilting).

I sorted through all my recipes and updated my database so everything is in there now, I also backed it up so I can't lose them. 

I did manage to rearrange the kitchen to get the pans in a more suitable arrangement.

I watched an awful lot of hulu.

I listened to almost half of Pillars of the Earth - loving that book!

And....that's about it.  That's not all I DID, of course, but all I would consider actually accomplished.

The two things on my list I didn't touch:

Make a bag for my secret pal & go through box left over for moving...welll...yeah.  I felt guilty working on the SP bag before I had finished the quilt, so I just...didn't, and the box - I'm sure everybody understands that one!

Who wants to do that??

Next on my knitting agenda - I am going to take my cabled socks into work to be my bus socks until I finish those.  Then I am going to make the Kusha Kusha scarf my bus project.

I have already cast on for Loppem, it seems like it will be a quick yet interesting knit, and I am pushing onward with the bee stole.