Summer

Good heavens! Time is flying by! My life got away from me for a while but I hope that I am catching up to it. This spring was a difficult one for me, full of worry, doubt and sadness, but summer is here now and things are growing and blooming. I plan to climb all of the mountains ahead of me and drink in the fresh air from the top.

Which brings me to my knitting. I have finished two whole projects! And they turned out beautifully! Well...the mittens are a little small, but hey, I'll give them away and the lucky recipient will think that I am just naturally very generous...ummm...and the sweater has too many buttons, but I feel it's a fashion statement, kind of like the way those scooters in England had too many mirrors in the '60s. So, not perfect but good enough.

I have been taking piano lessons this spring and I love it. It is very challenging but I find that I am learning much more than piano; I am learning truths about life that were always there but I never understood them, like the truth about practice: It takes practice to get good at something. I realized I am just starting out knitting and I must be kind to myself, and whatever amount of talent a person has will never add up to a lifetime of practice. I could probably count all of the projects I have completed on my fingers and so I don't have much practice finishing. I read a quote from Martha Graham once that said "Practice is a way of inviting the perfection desired," and I like to think of all of the time spent ripping and swearing as my invitation to perfection. Yes Perfection, come and visit me.

Knitting Weekend

Knitting weekends are my favorite. On kitting weekends my Mom and I and my aunties all get together to spend a weekend hanging out and knitting. Usually we all get there on Friday night (the location changes) and spend the evening gossiping, eating, and catching up. Then we go to bed late, overstuffed and tired.

Saturdays we shop. We get up in the morning and eat our breakfast (When we go to my Aunt Sue's it's homemade Danish, YUM!) and then leave for shopping. Some of us have projects in mind and some of us just go to see what is there. After a while we stop for lunch and then inevitably decide that we are done for the day and need to go home and watch movies and knit. So that's what we do.

We watch a lot of movies and solve the world's problems. We'll also help each other figure out how we got extra stitches and decreases that look funny, or we'll tell each other that the new thing the person is trying is way easy and they'll love it, no matter how intimidating it looks. Stories of all the different lives are tossed in like salt and pepper. Lots of laughter over silly things done in the past or stories of the crazy doings of current loved ones. Lots of love and support.

Then we go our separate ways on Sunday. Hopefully to return with gorgeous finished products to make the others jealous next time. Or, most of the time, jokes about what went wrong.

Chunky Fever

This morning I have fallen in love with chunky knits. I made a beautiful little warm hat in the time it took me to watch a cheesy romantic comedy. Speed is a beautiful thing. The pattern is from Twinkle's Big City Knits by Wenlan Chia.

Being the procrastinator that I am I decided to put off making decisions about my sweater. But, just because I don't want to make decisions doesn't mean that I don't want to knit. I wanted a fast and satisfying project (and a hat) so I decided to go forward with knitting up this pattern, which I had gotten the materials for many moons ago. I didn't have the right sized needles (a ridiculously large #19)so I had to make some minor adjustments but I think it worked out. Pretty rewarding for a couple of hours work.

Decisions

My sweater has progressed nicely, and I have reached the point where some decisions must be made. Here is my dilemma: This sweater is originally designed as a flat knit sweater, meaning the pieces are knit back and forth and sewn together when they are done. I however, decided that it would be much better and easier to knit it in the round, meaning I knit the front and back all at once going round and round to make a sweater tube. Knitting in the round is great because when you are done you don't have to do any nonsensical sewing together, you don't have any bulky seams, and you don't have to make more pieces. Unfortunately I have to figure out how to adapt the pattern to this round configuration. I would be o.k. with it except there is a fancy neck that I have never done before. I have to admit I am a little afraid.

You reach a certain point on a sweater (when the sleeves are attached) that the idea of having to rip out rows and rows to fix stupid mistakes in necks becomes much less appealing. I have reached that point and now have to figure out how to not screw up the neck. This pattern is, in true '70s style, written out completely with no charts. Charts would make this task much easier. Trying to dissect all of the abbreviations in the pattern and imagine what shapes they are trying to make has pretty much given me a headache. I will conquer it...but it might be a while.

Wrong Sweater

Wow! I saw the most incredible commercial on TV. The ad featured a tall blond man with a Scandinavian accent. It was very clear that they were trying to portray this man as Scandinavian, but he was wearing an Aran sweater! Can you believe it? I was appalled. I don't even remember what the ad was for because I was too busy being distracted by this Scandinavian man's Irish sweater. Who does that? If you are going to go to the trouble to play off of a stereotype, you should at least get the stereotype right. There are so many different sweaters they could have used instead to be believable. Well now we know: that product is no good. If the manufacturers are not going to take the trouble to get the knitting correct, who knows what other corners they have cut.

Nessie: The New Symbol of Christmas

Since I gave up on knitting Christmas presents, because there was no more time before Christmas, I tried to figure out another way to efficiently and cheaply create gifts for friends and family. Talking my problem through with some thoughtful foodie friends I came to the conclusion that baking was the answer. Generally I am a good baker and enjoy it very much, so I thought what better solution could there be? It's fun for me and tasty for them!

I decided that I would make spritz cookies because they're easy and delicious, and you get a ton of cookies. In the past I have used the recipe that came with my press, but this year I decided to use the recipe in my cookie cookbook. It's Betty Crocker, she knows good recipes, right? Um...well...

I did all of the right things, I even double checked the ingredients and the measurements. No luck. First the cookies wouldn't come off of the press, they were too greasy. So I decided to make snakes, they're easy, that's why little children make them out of play dough. Scowling and swearing at the stupid dough that stuck i rolled it into snakes and baked them for the allotted time. The allotted time apparently wasn't enough because the dough was all mushy after it was supposed to be done. More swearing. Finally when they were fully baked and cool enough I decided to taste my delicious work. To my astonishment and dismay they were nasty! Not sweet enough and too greasy. Ugh! How depressing. Oh well. I'll try again later.

Gifts

Christmas is coming and soon. This year once again I decided to make all of my Christmas presents, that was in September. I know from experience that you have to decide to do such things early or you will never get them all done in time. Well, I also should have kept in mind another item I have learned from experience; that I am a procrastinator. Right now one week before Christmas I have two facecloths made, and I think I made them back in September. I don't even know who they are for. So once again my grand ambitions are out the window and off to the store I go.

Maybe next year is my year. If I start right now I will, for sure, be done in time...