KnitCrit

(C)onsternation

If you have a parent, are a parent, have a spouse or a friend, are employed, or are a basically sane human being, then you have been frustrated.  In the past couple of months my frustration has reached a different, higher level.  I have not had the time to post to my blog.  I haven’t had very much time to ride my bike.  My house is a mess and our little second home on the Northern Neck – that I love – has been neglected.   I have knit some, but not at a pace that makes me happy.  I needed to find a word that describes how I have felt and consternation seems to fit best.  It is a level of frustration that causes anxiety and dismay; often from an unexpected source.

The source of mine is my work.  It’s been tumultuous, as we did not have a CEO for many months, right at a time when the organization has grown exponentially.  I was hired to get things in order and to improve the internal systems, particularly those related to financial activity.  My best intentions have been met with unexpected barriers and while I will not bore you with the details, the bottom line is that I have needed to spend hours and hours on very detailed reconciliation work. 

There is light at the end of the tunnel.  I will be back to blogging more often.  I liked this A to Z concept and I am determined to stick with it.

As I type this, I am at the little house and I have not worked this weekend.  My husband and I got out for two, good bike rides.  I have knit several hours and listened to a few favorite podcast episodes.  Some time has been dedicated to updating my knitting project photos for Flickr and Ravelry.  We have cooked three wonderful meals with local ingredients purchased at the Farmer’s Market in Irvington and the White Stone Market.  It is sunny and beautiful outside and I am beginning to feel the weight of stress peel off of my shoulders.

Silliness has set in, which is a good sign.  I leave you with a sample: a silly photo taken before starting on our lunch prep today, which occurred after a strong bike ride.  The best cold beer ever is one in a frozen glass after completing an exhilarating workout. 

Blogging

So, my last post was Anticipation.  Now it is Blogging. 

See the pattern?  Of course you do. 

Why am I doing this? 

I seem to always do things with a theme, an order, or at least with the establishment of a relationship.  I am an accountant; debits equal credits; end of story.  My brain doesn’t compute anything that isn’t related to something else; a known variable within the formula that leads to a finite solution.  Organization.

My Blog was begun almost three years ago.  At that time, my plan to combine my love of cycling and knitting together fit into what I considered a missing link in the online knitting community – pattern critiques.  The theme provided the incentive and the order to do first one post, then the next, etc.  I re-knit each of the projects through writing about them.  The yarn ball rating at the end was fun, too.

Then along came Ravelry and the perfect online place to post pattern critiques, by thousands of users!  I began looking at every pattern of my favorites and my friends’ projects, and their favorites, too.  Soon, there just wasn’t the need, or the enthusiasm on my part, to continue the Blog for knitting pattern critiques.

However, the Blogging bug had hit and I wanted then and now to write from time to time – about knitting and cycling and a multitude of other topics.  The Knippets are something I like, but damn if Twitter hasn’t taken the place of quick ditties about life; for me, primarily knitting and cycling.  I’ll continue the Knippets because I like them and it is, after all, my Blog. 

The current theme, therefore, while not catchy or punny or even creative, will give me the discipline to ponder the next post.  It will begin with C, of course, but what will it be?

I just decided, too, to include a photo or link or something that relates to the topic.  Here's a really cool site that is kind of like Wikopedia for song lyrics: A-Z Lyrics Universe.

Maybe eventually I'll get around to a graphic revision.  It needs that, too.

Thanks for reading!

    

Anticipation

Carly Simon sang about it.  Merriam-Webster lists a few definitions of it.  The definitions that are most relevant in the context of this post are: (1) a prior action that takes into account or forestalls a later action; (2) the act of looking forward, especially pleasurable expectation; (3) visualization of a future event or state.

"Anticipation" is an accurate description of what my thoughts are consumed with recently.  All of the definitions listed fit nicely into each of the areas of my life where I am anticipating something; these areas touch my work, my family and yes, my knitting.

Later this week, the new President/CEO of the organization where I work will start.  While the most recent months without a CEO have been difficult, they have been somewhat predictable.  Predictability is now replaced with anticipation, as I visualize her tenure with great optimism, as opposed to anxiety.  Those feelings are based upon considering prior experiences where similar circumstances had positive outcomes, and extrapolating them into this one.

My fifteen year-old son is away at boarding school for the first time.  He will be coming home for Spring break, his first trip home in seven months.  I envision days and hours of happiness and enjoyment with him while he is home.  Meanwhile, my thoughts are on how to make the week special.  No doubt; I am looking forward to the week in April, with pleasurable expectation!

Before a knitting project is cast on, a lot of time is spent visualizing the finished project.  It's an integral part of the creative process.  Like all knitters, I see the pattern on someone else in a magazine, book or website, and then consider what it will look like on me or for whomever I am considering the project.   I compare yarns; their color, fiber content, drape and weight.  I look at the pattern schematics or measurements, as well as all the examples that I can find of the project on others.   The anticipation of casting on that project overshadows all reasonable and unreasonable thoughts for hours; sometimes days.  Yet, I never think too hard about how long the project will take to complete.  I don't pay very much (enough) attention to the pattern details at this point, either.  Instead, my mind is on one and only one thing; knitting that project.  Forget reality.  Forget responsibility.  Forget time.  Forget competing priorities.  I am anticipating the finished object.  Period.

Cayamo

In the "never say never" area, I never wanted to go on a cruise.  The Cayamo 7-day Caribbean cruise changed that.  Bruce and I love the "contemporary folk" genre of music.  I guess if you were weaned on Peter, Paul and Mary and the like, like I was, then it's only natural to navigate toward this "modern" form of that music.  At 50+, we are done with the head-banging rock, but still love music; especially that which is very instrumental and acoustic. 

The line up excited us (can you say "Woodstock on the Water?").  Each night, there were special shows by the headliners, each running about 90 minutes - simply phenomenal acts of music!  Each person received one of those shows each night, plus a bonus show one night.

• Lyle Lovett
• Indigo Girls
• John Hiatt
• Brandi Carlile
• Patty Griffin
• Shawn Colvin
• Glen Phillips
• Over the Rhine
• Kathleen Edwards
• Vienna Tang
• Mindy Smith
• Bonepony
• The Greencards
• John Wesley
• Aslyn
• Ed Robertson
• David Ryan Harris
• Drew Copeland
• Joe Ely
• Beth Wood
• Webb Wilder
• Heather Luttrell
• Emerson Hart
• Oakhurst
• Tift Merritt
• Girlyman
• Marc Broussard
• Jim Bianco
• Edie Carey

Within the list are old favorites and several new favorites.  The entire experience was nothing less than overwhelming with music at several venues from afternoon to the wee hours.  We stayed up for three of those wee hour shows - Glen Phillips, Over the Rhine and Mindy Smith.  They were the best since no one was following them (and the musicians, by that time of night, had enjoyed a drink or two). 

The cruise itself.  We stopped in four ports: Samana (Dominican Republic), St. Thomas, Tortola (British Virgin Islands) and Nassau.  Nassau was a replacement for a smaller island that we had to bypass due to strong winds and rough water.  Twelve foot waves and 50MPH gusts were enough to keep us away from an island, but it didn't stop the 2,000+ on board from partying on the upper deck while the ship swayed us from side to side and up and down.

There was knitting, too.  The first day at sea, I passed a table of knitters and joined in.  We shared our stories of music and knitting.  It was a great addition to the entire experience.  I primarily knit on my Raglan Rust.  It's a top down raglan light jacket that will be perfect for chilly spring mornings.  Although I knit every day, and in a variety of locations,  I didn't knit as much as I thought I would due to late nights, dark venues and beer.

We returned home last night, and this morning, I was unpacking while watching CBS Sunday Morning.  On it, there was an interview with Van Morrison, who is known to be a man of few words and even fewer smiles.  At the end, he was asked about how his opinion of "Brown Eyed Girl" improved over time.  He chuckled and replied, "if you can shake your ass, then it must be alright."  Believe me, there was a whole lotta ass shakin' on the Norwegian Dawn last week - it was definitely alright!

Now a collage of pictures to share:

Knippets IV

Jeesh, how in the H*** can it be mid-February?  So far, this year has been spent doing way too much work. There's also been pretty much knitting; an absolute necessity to offset work-related stress.  Now to share some Knippets.  

• At a New Year's Eve party, my BFF's BF teased me about not having any socks knit by Martha.  That has now been remedied - a gift for his birthday. 
  
   
  
  
• I happily joined the Vest-uary group on Ravelry.  Thank you to Sarah - PrairiePoppins - for the great idea.  For a very long time, I have had SUMO in my stash; an ArtFibers yarn that I picked up during a trip to San Francisco a couple of years ago.  The pattern is the Boogie Vest from Knitty-Spring 2004.  After knitting on the vest quite a bit in the last few days, I should be able to finish it by month's end.
  
   

• Speaking of San Francisco, today is a Federal holiday - President's Day - so I am home.  That means I got to watch the Tour of California bike race, live.  The riders started today's stage with a ride over the Golden Gate bridge.  Just typing this gave me chills all over again.
  
     

• This past weekend was spent in the Atlanta area.  While there, I was able to go to Knitch.  What an amazing yarn store!  The space is so open and the selection is simply overwhelming.  It was my second visit to the shop and I hope to return when I am back in the area in May.  I so wish we had a LYS in the DC area that had such the perfect combination of space and selection.  While there, I picked up the perfect button to a cardi project that I am working on.  Isn't it exhilerating to find the perfect button?
  
  
  

• I joined Twitter as mrhulse. Those who I am following are no surprise - a combination of cyclists and knitters, with a family member thrown in, here and there.  I'm enjoying following everyone, but I must admit to wondering why so many people care what others are doing 24/7.

• In just 12 days, we leave on our Cayamo cruise.  It is called "A Journey Through Song" and many of the musicians/singer-songwriters are favorites of my husband and me.  I was drawn to the concept by the many positive blog posts I have read about knitting cruises.  On our cruise, I hope to get a lot of knitting done, too; as I sit on the balcony and look over the lovely Caribbean waters.  Can't wait!

The Wedding Afghan

It has been several weeks since it was completed.
  I have not blog-posted about it before now because I have been in a ridiculous quandary – do I post it as a “pattern critique?”  My decision not to has much to do with my decision to cease the knitting pattern critiques, but that’s for another post.

When David, my son, and his girlfriend-of-many-years got engaged in March of 2008, I initially had many ideas of what to knit for Katie.  That thought was overruled when I chose to knit an afghan for both of them; one that would create lifelong memories.  I selected the Fir Cone Shawl from my most favorite knitting book, Cheryl Oberle’s Folk Shawls.  After all, I had knit my best friend’s 50th birthday present, the North Sea Shawl, from that book so it already had a special place in my heart.

Soon came the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  There, I was on a mission to find the perfect yarn.  I vividly remember the moment I found it – Brooks Farm Willow, a blend of wool and bamboo.  In the off-white color, the bamboo provided an amazing sheen – subtle but obvious. 

They did not have enough of the yarn there, so I ordered more to be delivered.  However, it arrived when I was out of town and sat outside in the pouring rain for 2-3 days.  The red and blue of the USPS package bled onto the yarn.  Amidst tears, I washed the yarn carefully that evening.  The next morning, my fears turned out to be unfounded as I ran to the basement only to find the yarn, hanging in its beautiful white luster on the clothes line.  I swear by SOAK.

The next day, I cast on the afghan.

Fast forward several months.  Katie asked me to knit a shawl for her to wear to the rehearsal dinner. Her first choice was one using the Fir Cone pattern, using Lisa Souza’s Baby Alpaca Silk in the Black Purple colorway.   I totally lied to her.  I didn’t want to knit a shawl for her using the same lace pattern as the secret afghan.  As a beginner knitter, she “fell” for my story that I wasn’t getting gauge in the Fir Cone pattern and would need to select a different pattern.  I cast on Evelyn Clark’s Flower Basket Shawl and never looked back.

Meanwhile, I knit happily away on the afghan.  The December 27 wedding date was weeks away but I realized that I wasn’t going to have enough yarn.  Phew!  Brooks Farm had more of the Willow in the natural white.  It was delivered while I, again, was out of town.  And again, it sat out in the rain in a USPS package.  This time I knew what to do.

The greatest challenge to this project was the edging.  I had never knit a lace shawl with the border added on with the SSK method of attaching it.  Thank GOD for Ravelry!!! In the Folk Shawls Forum, there was a thread on the subject of the edging and none other than Cheryl Oberle had added her comments. 

The week before the wedding, my life revolved around finishing the afghan.  Forget Christmas.  Forget food.  Forget sleep. 

Ta-da, the night before we had to leave town, I finished the afghan, put it in the bathtub with SOAK, and laid it out to block on our guest bed.  
I turned on all the fans and went to sleep, hoping that it could travel the next day.

Ah, the ends still needed to be woven in and the edges steamed, since they did not fit on the bed for blocking.  All this could be done on the day of the rehearsal dinner, where I was going to present the afghan to David and Katie.  I packed my good iron; the Rowena with a great steam feature. The morning of the dinner, I wove in the ends.  Then, I realized that I didn’t have anything to wrap it in!  We ran out to a store in Philly to get a gift bag. 

A couple of hours to go and the only thing left was to steam out the edges.  I ran out of time and asked my husband to steam the edges while I got ready for the dinner.  At 4:55 PM on December 26, 2008 the wedding afghan was officially finished.  At 6:55 PM, I gave it to the bride and groom.

A Patchwork of O

In this case, "O" refers to my dad, Oscar.  My dad was a character.  He smiled a lot, had an amazing sense of humor and made friends wherever he went.  This was a man who always and I mean always had a joke to tell.  Sometimes they were funny and sometimes they were horrible; yet the recipients always laughed, because he did.  That's simply what people did around my father.

And then there were his clothes.  I don't know where he found most of them.  The frightening fact is that he paid big bucks for these.  They served to further define his sense of humor; his sense of optimism; his sense of life.

This past Christmas, my 15 y.o. son received a very special gift:

This is a quilt that was sewn together using remnants of my father's wardrobe of "casual clothes."  Look closely and you will see strips of his yellow and blue seersucker shirts, as well as his multi-vivid-colored calico print ones.  There are the anchor embroidered summer pants, the dog stitched corduroy winter slacks and the lobster embroidered shorts; just to point out a few. What brings back the greatest memories are the Scotch plaid shirts that were always worn throughout the Christmas holidays.    

Can you imagine being a teenager and having him as YOUR Dad?  Just think of the total and utter humiliation when friends came over; especially boys.  And OMG, when I ran into people I knew, and those I didn't, and here he was, my dad, dressed like THAT???  What's funny is that, thinking back, I don't think anyone really saw them as weird; not on him.

He used to say he liked to be "gay," long before and then even when that adjective took on a different meaning. 

There is not a single strip of fabric that doesn't remind me of him.  What a lovely gift to my son...and to me. 

I leave you with a collage of the wild, wacky, colorful, "Oscar-like" clothing bits...

2008 Thankfulness

If you were to completely rely on the news headlines, not only would you be totally misinformed but also a candidate for deep depression.  That is particularly true of their take on 2008.  I have heard "worst" and "disastrous" and other such words that spell out nothing but doom and gloom.  But, I tend to be on the "glass half full" side of things, and would like to thank some wonderful knitter friends who made my own 2008 a better year.

• To Amy, thank you for such a warm and loving acknowledgment in your most recent book, Knits for Bears to Wear.  I miss you so much and hope that 2009 may include a visit to Alaska to visit you and the family.  
• Barbara, what fun this year has been; you, my traveling knitting friend.  Most memorable were the annual trek to the Virginia Fall Fiber Festival and the Countryside Artisans Tour.  Thank you, too, for understanding that every good road trip begins with a stop at Starbucks.
• Our newest family members, Mia and Sophie, came to us in 2008 as a result of Carol's blogging love of her kitties.  Then, at the end of the year she posted a sweet tribute to me on her blog.  Thank you.
• Rebecca, how do you do it?  You have this incredible combination of energy, enthusiasm and a sense of humor.  You are an inspiration.
• Here's to Hannah, Abe and David for another year of deep conversation and great friendship.  I can't wait to see where we venture, literally and figuratively, in 2009!
• Just about every time I post to my blog, Cici takes the time to enter a comment.  I only wish we had the chance to get together more often for knitting.
• In 2009, I hope to get to know my neighbor - 2cvite on Ravelry - better.  Thank you for "friending" me on Ravelry; letting me know that there's a fellow knitter just down the street!
• And speaking of neighbors, 2008 was a year for learning of the extraordinary yarn spinners and dyers who reside nearby: Kate, Dalis, Erin, MB, Annie and Gryphon.  I can't wait to see you all at the 2009 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.
• Lisa Souza, you remain at the top of my favorites and in 2008 it was your yarn that I chose to knit the very special rehearsal dinner shawl for Katie.  There's more of your yarn in my stash that is planned for 2009 projects.
• Lastly, podcasts continue to be my favored form of entertainment while I knit.  My list of favorites in 2008, many that are repeats from prior years are: Stash and Burn, The Knitmore Girls, Lime and Violet, Stitch It, Ready Set Knit and Y Knit.  Thanks to you all, who spend your own precious time researching and coordinating the best of information in the fiber world so that we can all be kept in the know, while being entertained, too.  Others come and go in my "refresh" list on iTunes, but yours are the ones that I listen to as soon as possible after downloading them.

There are so many other new friends and old friends that made 2008 an amazing knitting and spinning year for me.  As I become more and more absorbed in this amazing community that we have of fiber creators, I am humbled at its beauty and the friendships that it brings. 

Happy New Year!

Why I Have Not Blogged Lately

The Wedding of My Son

My gift to them was Cheryl Oberle's Fir Cone Square Shawl, which I knit as an afghan in worsted weight.  The yarn, Brooks Farm Willow, a scrumptious bamboo/wool blend, was the perfect pick.  Pictures will be posted soon.

C-C-Cold Country Tour