Knitting Through It

Knitting Through It, is a lovely book by Lela Nargi. She has gathered together sweet and inspiring stories from knitters here and there who find comfort in this therapeutic art. My friend, Barbara, shared this book experience with me and it has been a comfort indeed.

Diversions

bootie experiment

My knitting habit(s) is becoming more and more bizarre. I think it is because of the election. I'm trying so hard not to get too hopeful but I can't help it. Our country is in bad shape. I've almost run out of ways to explain it all to my teenage sons. I'm now resorting to these lame remarks:

My response to College son when he asks about the economy: "Well, the Great Depression was pretty bad."

My response to High School son when he asks about the whittling away of our civil liberties: "Well, slavery sucked and Jim Crow wasn't fun either."

My response to my Middle School son when he asks about why we are hassled when we travel: "Think about Ann Frank, she couldn't leave her room... "

The dozen or so projects I've got going keeps my mind off such depressing thoughts. I've got a variety of things on the needles: baby stuff, garments, bags, scarves, hats, dishcloths, toys (why?). I've got to get some order to this stuff.

My First Sophie bag

And, to complicate things even more, I OD'd on that bag sale at my LYS. I'm ashamed to say how much of a haul I have but suffice it to say I won't be buying any yarn for a few years, at least!

Play date Diversions
A couple of weeks ago, I got to hang out with two blogger buddies. I met fellow knitter, Nancy, at Expressions Yarns in Englewood. She is a professional singer.

One of Nancy's album covers

She was at Expressions finishing up the most beautiful burgundy mohair coat. That's right I said coat - floor length! Later, that week she called to invite me to see Mos Def at the 92nd Street Y.

It was fun. I really enjoyed his talk and it was a blast to be with such an eclectic audience. Thanks Nancy for getting me out of the house and into the New York City for some non-knitting fun!

And more Diversions still
My button stash was kind of low so I was eager to visit my town's annual antiques fair to replenish my supply.

whimsical buttons from Modern Yarn, Montclair, NJ

Hope is a blogger buddy I met at the same yarn store as Nancy. She recognized me from my blog! She joined me for lunch and a trip to the fair and we both ended up buying tons of vintage buttons!



Diversions as Delusions
Well, life goes on even if something as personal as religion has become a central focus in a country that is supposed to separate church from state -



Well, I guess, at least, we are now talking about the hard stuff.

But no Diversions here
Spring break has just ended for my gone-off-to-college son. He was happy to just come home to eat.

I was too happy to oblige and not have to worry about having to find him hung over on some far flung beach!

Diverting our Attention
So far, with all of the problems in our country, the robins still migrate in spring. They don't care if I've cleaned out my flower beds or not. Mother Nature never waits for me, nor does time, history, or the facts of life - even if I don't have the answers yet...

RUN, DON'T WALK

Here Ye Here Ye
Yarn Sale
Close Knit Yarns
Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ

$40 Bag Sale

Fill up a Close Knit shopping bag with their sale selection yarn. I filled up a bag of Jo Sharp cotton -

nearly 20 skeins!

Marathon Knitting

Last week was my Library's annual author lunch. It is our biggest fund raiser for the year. We host anywhere from 500 - 700 guests!

This year we featured Lisa See and her book Peony in Love. I must say she is a delightful speaker and was one of our best.


Each board member has to drum up gift baskets to auction so that means a bunch of marathon knitting for me. Why I don't spread this out throughout the year, I'll never know. Marce, over on Brown Berry Chronicles, has started a KAL to do just that but I've not compiled my list as yet because of the auction and some Easter knitting I'm doing for my lovely nieces.

I made several little girl baby hats. Our basket maker, Sharon, did a lovely job bundling up all of the goodies.









I also contributed a Yarnaholic's Yarn Tour. A day of touring local yarn stores and learning about different brand names and artisan yarns. I made a small clutch too and included the fantastic book by Clara Parks, The Knitter's Book of Yarn.

Pattern: The Clutch You'll Never Give Up, from the One Skein book

My terrific LYS, Close Knit Yarns, donated a basket too -

I also got a couple of my neighbors to donate baskets. Tim Harper is a local author who recently published, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Constitution (there is one aspiring politician I sure would like to give this to!). Tim donated some books on beer he authored and I included some exotic brews to go along with it.


My garden club did a basket featuring an event we are doing with the extraordinary Simone Pickering, the florist to Prince Charles, Elton John and many others. She is visiting our club from England on Thursday, May 15 from 7-9pm. If you are interested in attending, drop me an email at deedeenet@aol.com.

A neighborhood dad donated a signed football.

Jeff Feagles, kicker, New York Giants, Superbowl champs!

There were tons more baskets and we all had the best time. Now to get ready for my lovely niece's new baby. Marce I need help!

Turning the page

I'm sure many of you have heard that phrase once or twice (and very often during this election season). My experience with it recently came by way of a shawl that I endeavored to create. I just remembered that I own one of the very wonderful Barbara Walker Treasury of Knitting Patterns book -


I decided to try one of the lovely lace stitch patterns for an over sized stole that I plan to wear to my library's annual luncheon. I had just gifted myself nearly 750 yards of some delicious Habu yarn that I bought for a mere $20 bucks from Purlsoho.

After about 3 repeats of a 12 line pattern my lace didn't look anything like the picture.





What could possibly be wrong? I began to wonder about my lace knitting skills, could I be so lame after all of these years and not know it?

Then, in an attempt to find a more mindless lace pattern, I turned the page and Voila! There were 18 more lines to the dang pattern!

Now that's much better

There were other surprises to my weekend. I turned 49 and that feels as bad as I imagined it would. A blizzard blew in out of the blue




and screwed up any attempt at fun canceling a weekend trip to Boston that was to include a basketball tournament (yeah big whoop). I had dreams of lunching on Boston clam chowder and touring yarn stores while my son ran around some basketball bubble. Instead, I got to be tormented by the child because I decided not to risk my way too old life and drive among New England's historically bad drivers in 20 degree weather on 2 feet of snow!

In the end, I managed to divert my attentions by watching the rerun of the Obama/Clinton debate.



National politics is sometimes a lot kinder than the dirty tricks my 13 year threatened me with if we didn't at least try to drive to Boston.

I'm not ashamed to say that I ignored him while I instead yelled at the TV, jabbing points with my needles and otherwise pretending that I could solve the nation's problems if only my son would stop whining about his bad fortune for have a wussy mother who is afraid to drive in a blizzard.

Knitting is my salvation for now, look what I got done in just a couple of hours!

Lamb's pride bulky, 2.5 skeins

If only I could stop pondering what it feels like to be as old as my mother. I guess I'll just turn the page on that one.

It's all Ravelry's fault

So, I'm minding my own business, checking out the pages over on Ravelry when someone posts a picture of some Peaches & Cream dishcloth yarn. It caused me such a dilemma. I had sold off most of my dishcloth yarn some months ago and thought I'd give that fad a rest for a while.

Alas, I couldn't resist those colorways


Those people over at Elmore-Pisgah must have used magic to process my order because I got my package in just a couple of days. And, to make matters worse, I learned that their plant is in North Carolina, the grand state where my son's tuition payments goes! Now, I can't wait for Homecoming weekend!

I did set some rules with this repeat fad. I must churn out a bunch now. So check out what I've done so far. Instant gratification love:

I made several Valentine's themed cloths to give away

Mary Anne over on Miss Wolly Knits shares her lovely Feather and Fan recipe. It is a breeze to knit. I could make these all day.

I've always admired Hakucho's ball band cloths so I thought I'd give it a try myself

Chairpads are now in my future!

And a whole lot of knitting going on

As you all are well aware by now, I'm stuck sitting around a lot. I sit for hours watching my boys play basketball. I sit in lots of school and community meetings. So, I get to knit a lot. This week alone, I totaled over 10 hours of meetings and games. So what did I get done??

My LYS had a few balls of Rowan Ribbon Twist in the 40% sale bin. The trick for me is to USE THE YARN RIGHT AWAY. I made the tam the same afternoon.

My weird and wonky cables

I finished up my second pair of Dashing using this fabulous Zara yarn that I bought the same day I met two blogger buddies for the first time - Ina and Monica. Monica, who works at Stix-n-Stitches and hosts the group over on Ravelry, told me about the first Ravelry meetup at her store in Montclair.

There, as I was leaving, I met Ina -

She called me by my name having recognized me from my blog. As I looked beyond her bicycle helmet, I realized who she might be because Ina often blogs about her bike riding adventures! So cool.

Over at my LYS, Close Knit in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ, Jen, was finishing up her pinwheel sweater. It was soooo nice, I said to myself, "self, you should make one for ourselves." And so I am.

After miles of veritgo inducing, ever expanding stitches for that dang pinwheel sweater, I decided to try something a bit more fun. I had a few skeins of Silk Garden in the ol' stash so me and my ADD self, started this simple tank top from Vogue's Winter '04 edition.

Ribbed U-Neck Vest

And speaking of knitting stores, I saw this great blocking board and table over at the Skein Attraction in Teaneck, NJ that I've been saving my pennies to buy. I hope to pick it up this weekend so I can block the vest and seam it up.

Last but not least is my 3rd pair of Dashing. The yarn, Bernat's Cashmere, inspired by Beate's friend,Erin.

Properly placed cables

This weekend, if all goes well, I'll get some reading done(Free Lunch, David Cay Johnston) and a few Valentines Day dishcloths I'm making for Mom.