Note Taking

Note taking is critical if you're going to work without a pattern. Unfortunately I am always over-confident about what I'll remember and lazy when it comes to writing what I'm doing down. This really becomes a problem when you are trying to make two identical objects (like mittens) the first of which you didn't think through thoroughly and had to redo, thereby confusing the first and second knittings of it in your head.

Thankfully when you are working with ridiculously big yarn you can easily see your increases and decreases. Big yarn is my savior. I can count my stitches and figure out exactly what I did. This helps, but does not ensure an exact replica of my first mitten. Luckily, close enough is good enough for me.

Mittens!

I made some sweet mittens today...well, a mitten, but it's an awesome mitten, and I'm going to make the other one. I made it with the same big yarn I made the razzledazzleberry hat with and it turned out great...um...the second time around. I almost gave up and started something else but I forced myself to continue and work out my problems, and I did, my feeling of satisfaction is immense. Like the billboard says: Failed Failed Failed and then...Persistence.

Confessions About Knitting for Babies

All of my friends are having babies right now...ok maybe not all but a lot, and my problem is that I'm having a hard time getting up the courage and fortitude to knit baby things (the pressure of Christmas doesn't help either). I want to do good things for these struggling new parents but I have qualms about making precious woolly goods for the crinkly infants. The infants aren't really going to appreciate the goodness that they have and the parents might worry that the wool will disturb the soft skin of their sweet munchkins, or worse, cause an allergic reaction. Plus, they'll grow out of it in about two weeks and all my hard work will be for nothing.

Am I selfish? Probably. Maybe I just have a healthy sense of the worth of my time; I don't want to waste it on those who don't know what they've got. Sometimes I feel like I'm being ungenerous by not making cutesy baby things for my favorite moms and pops to wiggle onto their adorable progeny but then I think about the pile of unwashed laundry and my sweet husband who keeps asking me for a simple hat to keep his noggin warm in the cold weather and I say too bad. Another crafty auntie or gramma will easily take my place and those gifts will mean even more because they're from family.

Maybe after Christmas I'll make some awesome babywear, because after all it is really fast and easy and there are some really cute patterns out there. Hmmm...

Giving Thanks

It's Thanksgiving! I like Thanksgiving a lot. It's the one holiday dedicated to just being grateful for what we've got and I think that being grateful is very important.

It's easy for us to forget how lucky we are, most of us are warm and well fed with socks and shoes for our feet and warm coats for when we go out. But there are people out there who don't have those things, little kids who want socks for Christmas because they don't have any, and parents asking for blankets so their children will stay warm at night. It makes my problems look small. I'm really very lucky but sometimes, when I'm in the midst of my day, problems seem so large and so unsolvable. But they're not. To have a day to just look around and appreciate family and friends and say thanks warms my insides more than any cup of hot cocoa ever will.

I wish I could do more for the needy of the world and maybe someday I will but for now I'll do the little bit that I can and be thankful for the rich life that I lead. A life that's rich because of the people in it.

Razzledazzleberry

Once again I am attempting to make all of my holiday gifts, and I am actually going to do it this time. For sure. Really. In the hopes of completing this laborious task I made a hat with really big yarn and needles that only took me about 3 hours to make. Yay for fast! Plus I put a pom pom on it and I've never done that before. Adventure, excitement and dazzlement! I can't show you a picture yet though, because I might give it to you and then you wouldn't be surprised and Christmas would be ruined. I don't want to ruin Christmas.

After Christmas update: Here's the hat

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.