The Next Generation

Both of my children knit.  I am not entirely responsible for this, my at-home influence is fortified by their school experience - they attend a Waldorf school where handwork is part of the curriculum for every grade.  In fact, I didn't even teach my oldest to knit, that duty fell to my dear friend, Martha, who has infinitely more patience than I.  

My  youngest putting the finishing touches on a crocheted purse for her American Girl doll.

I love to see the girls sizing up projects or just impulsively picking up the needles and knitting.  They appreciate a well-written pattern (with good pictures) and, at ages 6 and 9, can browse in a yarn store with the most hardened yarn addict.

N browsing intently in a yarn store in Bergen, Norway.

I already have summer projects waiting for them.  It may take them until next summer to finish, but they are excited and motivated.  



Am I selfish to feel pride when my children thrill to the same experiences as I do?  Would I feel the same sense of satisfaction if they picked up fishing or pottery?  I choose to think that I would.  However, the truth is that I am thrilled to have a shared interest and hobby so that, every now and then, I can escape from that constant supervisor/manager/disciplinarian role and become a knitting buddy.  A friend.

i heart you

I had the pleasure of test-knitting i heart you for Mandy at Zigzag Stitch. It's a seamless colorwork yoke sweater, and I fell in love with it the instant I saw Mandy's original on flickr.


It is a little big on Rosebud -- I chose to knit it in the fourth size, ensuring extra ease in this close-fitting sweater. I knit much of this sweater during Philadelphia's April heat wave, and I wanted to make for damn sure that she'll be able to wear it next Fall. Also, Nature Spun is not exactly next-to-the-skin soft, so it will definitely require an extra layer underneath it to stave off the itchies.

I've knit some colorwork before, but I think this is the project where I finally got the hang of two-handed colorwork. My gauge is extremely tight in stranded knitting; I had to go up to a US5 needle to get gauge, and I had to learn how to catch floats (thanks, Mandy, for pointing me to this video) on some of the rows. I now feel ready for more colorwork, and coupled with the fact that my stash now overflows with Nature Spun in every shade of blue and purple, I will have plenty of inspiration!

Mandy just released her pattern for sale via her website and Ravelry, so go check it out!

Just in Case ...

I find this tremendously funny.  David R. Castillo, you are brilliant.  Pattern is here.

How To Use Up Yarn

Let me walk you through how to use up partial skeins of yarn.


First, the yarn - Blue Sky Organic Dyed Cotton.  Beautiful.  Springy.  You adore it and must do something with it.  There must be about half a skein left, enough for a little kimono for a dear little 2 month old.

Next, the pattern.  Fuss about which kimono pattern to use.  Decide a sweater would be better.  In fact, a sweater that she can wear in August when she's in Vermont.  Yes, perfect - a 3-6 month size of that very cute Debbie Bliss Garter Stitch Jacket.  How adorable!!  Simple, fast, and classic in an EZ-looking kind of way.  Cast on and start knitting immediately, late at night, while completely engrossed in the final episode of John Adams.  Give absolutely no thought during any of these deliberations to yardage requirements.

The next day, notice how very large the sweater is looking all of a sudden.  The pattern calls for a 22" chest circumference for the 3-6 month size.  Crazy!  Spend most of your available knitting time comparing patterns and 3-6 month old babies.  Decide to just go with it.  She'll wear it when it fits.  Once again, and this is very important, give absolutely no thought to yardage requirements.

Run out of yarn.  Buy another skein.  Grumble about how this was to just work up the partial skein.  Wonder what happened.  

Knit until just one side of the front is left.  Run out of yarn again.  Buy yet another skein.  Grumble.  Wonder.

Finish the sweater and see that you have the exact same amount of yarn leftover.  If not more.  Deep sigh.  Find beautiful, sweet buttons and forget all about feeling grumbly.

Hmm.  Now what can I do to work up that skein ...

The Proper Response to Gray

I spent an inordinate amount of time this winter knitting with charcoal gray Silky Tweed. It's first pass on the needles was a failed original design, a swingy, drapey open cardigan, intended to be the perfect, light layer for our February family trip to Southern California. This project has been visited before, as a FAIL.
I promptly ripped it, and knit the swingy, drapey, already-designed open cardigan, the Minimalist Cardigan instead. I had previously dismissed it because I thought all that moss stitch would be endlessly, soul-crushingly dull. I was completely right, and in fact, managed to make it even more dull by using that charcoal gray Silky Tweed. I spent months knitting boring moss stitch in dark charcoal gray, wondering why I just wasn't all that into knitting lately. Hmmm.

Rav details here

In the end, it is one of the best sweaters I've knit. The fit is perfect; set-in sleeves are my most flattering shape. That charcoal gray makes it endlessly versatile, and the shape is classic and elegant while being currently quite fashionable. I wear it often, and am glad I suffered through those long months with it because the end result is more than worth it.

But after all those months of gray, there was just one appropriate response: color.

Clockwise from top L: Ballband dishtowel, I Heart You Sweater (a test-knit), Ripples of Insanity, Felicity Hat in Karabella Aurora 8

Icarus Finished!

With sore hands and a stiff neck, I bound off the last of the hundreds of stitches just in time.  The auction was Saturday night.  I finished knitting by 8pm Friday night, wove in my ends around 9pm, and left it blocking overnight.  Phew!  

With 1,369 Icarus projects on Ravelry, I'm not going to spend any time discussing this pattern (which is beautiful).  So let's talk about this yarn.  I LOVE this yarn.  This is lace weight cormo from Elsa Wool Company.  It is divine.  I owe many thanks to Melanie and Stewart, the grooviest yarn sellers on the planet, for carrying and recommending this yarn.

This is not a true representation of the color - the other pictures capture the silvery gray.

Cormo sheep are a cross between Corriedales and Saxon Merinos.  The resulting yarn is unbelievably soft and luxurious.  The yarn is undyed and is the natural color of the sheep.

But don't just believe me, here's what Clara Parkes has to say in her review of Elsa Wool Company's Cormo:  "Cormo is one of my favorite fibers.  It has all the tenderness of merino but with a little more character and succulence."



Succulence.  Yes.  It is delicious in the hands and on the needles and it blocks like a dream.  This is a woolen-spun yarn which means that it is spun with a core of air in the center resulting in a warm, light, and lofty yarn.  Perfect for a shawl.

Icarus made his ill-fated wings out of wax.  Make your Icarus lace feathers from heavenly cormo!

Deep in the Madness

No, not March Madness.  That's Liz, not me.  I'm deep into lace madness.  I committed to donating an Icarus shawl to the Waldorf school for their auction on Saturday.  Is it done?  NO.

I added an extra repeat on the main body (back when I was proceeding at a leisurely pace), so now I'm up to 427 stitches and have 40 rows before I hit the edging.  I need to be done by Thursday night because my parents are coming to visit Saturday.  I thought that I might try to clean the house Friday while the shawl was blocking.  So I think I'll be up early and late trying to bang this out.  

Good thing there's basketball to watch on TV.

The Blessingway Blanket

How do you help prepare a friend for a birth?  Advice, baby paraphernalia, a pre-natal massage?  What if your friend is having her third baby?  And is an experienced home birther?  And is a doula?  What then?

Well, this was the conundrum for a group of us women who are friends with Melissa.  Something different was needed at this Blessingway.

Something to thank Melissa for all that she has given.  Something that would represent in a small way her strength, intuition, beauty, and deep love.  Something that might fortify her for labor but also wrap her in the love of her soul sisters during those difficult hours with a newborn.  

So each friend who could knit (and even some who couldn't) picked up needles or crochet hook and made a square ... or several ... and presented them to Melissa at her Blessingway - the squares infused with our thoughts, wishes, prayers, and blessings.  The room just glowed with love and joy.


The squares were arranged and rearranged and then handed off to me.  I seamed, joined, and bordered.



The blanket is now home.  Wrapped around a new little person who was born joyfully at home cradled in the love of her mother and father.



Welcome Pippa!

*Many thanks to Kindness Girl for the first three photos!

FTW!

After my last post of a steaming pile of failed knitting projects, it was time for a little self-reflection. I had never had so many repeated failures and frustrations, and so few satisfactory finished objects. Knitting less meant knitting worse. It meant finishing nothing. And for a product knitter like me, knitting and producing nothing was worse than not knitting at all.

It was time for a new paradigm of knitting for me. Knitting less isn't just forgoing a morning knitting session to hit the gym for me. I've had to release some of the mental energy that I was giving to knitting to give it to other areas of my life. I just don't think about it as much, and my failed projects were indications of lack of thought. I don't have the time or the inclination to think through design challenges. I don't have the energy to frog and re-knit the same project until I get it right again and again. I need the simple, the rewarding. Not instant gratification, necessarily, but the old, reliable standards of knitting.

Thus, I turned to EZ, the quintessential source of all that is classic, reliable, pleasureable knitting. Two of my dearest cousins are both expecting their first babies, and since both have wonderfully unique aesthetics, I was able to perfectly match those classic EZ baby sweaters for each of them.

First up was for Ellie's baby. She's expecting her first girl any minute now. Ellie has a very feminine but quirky, vintage-y, arty personal style, so the February Baby Sweater was the perfect choice.

A two skeins (and a little bit of the third) of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a yummy, grape-y purple, some beautiful silver rose buttons, and a little label embroidered with the initial E, which she, her soon-to-be-born daughter, and I all share. It's yummily soft and absolutely feminine without being overly twee. Classic.


Teri's baby is due in about a month. She and her husband have chosen not to find out the gender of their precious firstborn. In these cases, I usually knit something in a deep red color, since I think all babies look beautiful in red, and am not a fan of the insipid yellow, light green, and white sweaters these "surprise" babies get. However, Teri has a good chance of having a red-haired baby, since her husband and many of his family are vibrant redheads. Thus, their baby is receiving a Baby Surprise Jacket in an amazing green from Dream in Color (Happy Forest). This was my first time using this yarn, and it will not be my last. It was wonderful to work with, and the colors are vibrant and bright.
Teri and I happen to share the same last initial, so this sweater gets a "K." I am sort of obsessed by these cute little tags, so I'll take any excuse to sew and photograph them. I know nothing about embroidery, but these look better than I would ever expect.

You can check the details on my Ravelry page if you want to know more. But in the meantime, expect to see more old reliables, the trieds-and-trues from me in this space for the next little while. I'll be spreading my wings in other spaces in my life right now.

Perfect day for a penguin

Sometimes a silly little sweater can make you smile.

I have to admit, Isabel's new penguin sweater is so darn cute. And, a snowy day for a photo! What could be better!

This was a very easy project. I pulled some Cotton Ease from the stash and a pattern from Knit Simple Magazine (Winter 07/08), and it came together in no time.

Plus, Isabel really wants to wear it. We are both smiling!

FAIL!

Perhaps you think it has been a month since my last post because I haven't been knitting. I have been knitting. Knitting less, like the last post resolved, but I have been knitting. It's just that I've been knitting a steaming pile of FAIL lately. I have never had so many failed projects and UFOs, ever. It seems that in my new, knitting-less-life, I am less inclined to troubleshoot, and more inclined to just abandon a problem-project. It also appears that I am less willing to expend mental energy planning projects, pairing yarns and patterns, or working my way through to an FO.

So in the interest of being an honest knitting blogger, willing to share her failures as well as triumphs (and really, in the interest of being a knitting blogger at all), here I present to you, XRK's homage to the FAIL blog:

Blue Cable FAIL

This is the longest-lingering FAIL, from back in November. This sweater was intended as a holiday sweater for Pepe. I tried a top-down set-in sleeve and picked up too many stitches. This is eminently salvageable, as I can simply pick up fewer stitches around the armhole. However, the holidays have passed, sweater season is quickly coming to an end (she says hopefully) and my boy is likely to be too big for this garment by next winter.

Possible Solution: Frog and re-knit in the fall as a top-down raglan.

Purple Baby Dress FAIL

This Little Sister Dress was intended for a baby girl born recently to a good friend. I intended it to be about a one-year-ish size, for something for Baby Sammi to grow into and wear next winter. Due to never even attempting to get gauge, it fits my daughter, who turns 8 next week.

Possible Solution: Rosebud gets a vest. Baby Sammi gets something from Baby Gap.

Baby Surprise FAIL

It's really discouraging to have two baby projects that fail, since baby knitting is supposed to be such instant gratification. But, here's another, for an as-yet to be born baby. The parents do not yet know the gender of the baby. In this case, I usually knit something red, but these parents have a high probability of having a redheaded child, so I went with an easy-care green cotton (Araucania Pomaire). I ran out of yarn. I knew I was running out of yarn, so I began striping in another yarn, and promptly ran out of that yarn too. Then my mother kindly pointed out that the nice green colorway looks like a lot like baby poo.

Only Possible Solution: Frog. Start over with new yarn that does not look like baby poo, like Dream in Color Happy Forest.

Swingy Cardi FAIL

I have this swingy, open slouchy cardi. It's from Michael Stars, so its more of a cotton t-shirt knit than a sweater, but I LOVE THIS THING. I wear it all the time. (I also didn't pay what the website says, so stop hyperventilating that I spent $70 on a t-shirt. In this economy, if you pay retail in Bloomingdales, you are just not trying.) So I thought I'd knit one. I used the Slouchy Cardigan from Greetings from the Knit Cafe as an inspiration, and made a top-down raglan from a lovely charcoal Silky Tweed. Now that it is mostly done, I just don't like it. First, the sleeves are way too wide. They'll have to be reknit. But also, I'm not getting the neckline right, despite a couple of attempts. It feels less like a swingy, drapey cardi, and more like a cropped Jedi Master Robe.

Possible solutions: Try another neckline treatment again. Reknit sleeves. Or frog and knit a Minimalist Cardigan. Or something else.

It hasn't been all FAIL, though. I did knit one successful project, one which I'll share as soon as I block it and sew on the buttons. And I learned something really important from this project. I learned that I need a new paradigm for my new knit-less life. I need to scale back my ambitions to reflect my mental energy, and stick more to tried and true patterns rather than try to design something, even something as simple as a top-down raglan. I need to consider project monogamy vs. multiple WIPs. I need to focus a bit more in the planning stages. I probably need to stash less yarn, and purchase yarn project by project more often. This might result in more success and less FAIL.

Almost Caught Up ...

El Hatto Negro by Julia at Mind of Winter

One of the projects I've finally posted on Ravelry (Crossroads Ann)

As I rush to tie up loose ends (literally), tend to a sick child, and pack for a trip to Vermont, I came across this Panopticon post relating to the process of knitting. Franklin captures my experience perfectly.

I'll be posting again after our trip to the North!

The Economy of Knitting

Stash Yarn: Socks for N on the left and for R on the right

I regularly count my blessings these days. Every week I hear of another neighbor, friend, or relative who has been furloughed or laid off. My husband's employment seems secure so far (can you hear me knocking on wood?) but we're not taking any chances. Meals are simple and at home, movies are Netflix, and trips are more local and to see family. I don't feel deprived because I'm not. I live a solidly upper middle-class life, send my children to a private school, and have the luxury to be a stay-at-home mom.

However, my habits have changed. I have been knitting primarily from the stash for almost a year now and with the exception of a few special projects, this will remain my modus operandi.

My plan for 2009 was to be more mindful of my projects in an attempt to find balance; now I see that this mindfulness, intention, and restraint has the additional reward of being financially responsible. Don't get me wrong, I still knit boutique yarns - the experience is so pleasurable and I do want to support small-scale producers - but I no longer have room for impulse purchases.

Today I have a few projects in the works: some socks for my eldest daughter and finishing a border on a "Blessingway Blanket" (more details on this soon!). Both are projects that are inexpensive and are quite fun.

Also, this week I taught some girls in one of our struggling city schools to knit. It is such an honor to see the joy of a child making something. Something real. Tangible. It's just magic. And for the cost of some needles and leftover yarn, I can spread a feeling of empowerment and pride. Sharing my resources. Supporting my community. A veritable redistribution of wealth ...

Warm woolly goodness

Here's another finished product that was started more than a year ago. My goal was to wrap this up this last weekend, but a reality check right before seaming the shoulders made me realize I needed to rip the front out completely. One of the consequences of taking a long break is being punished by your gauge. I almost talked myself into living with a front that was almost two inches wider than the back, but an early morning session with the winder felt really good. My lazy knitter didn't win this time.

I have a feeling this sweater will be a favorite along the lines of my Central Park Hoodie. It doesn't try to be clever or trendy, just a simple classic design, fairly good fit and the warmest yarn ever.

Pattern: Carrie from Ella Rae
Yarn: Noro Big Kureyon, Color No. 20
Needles: 10 and 10.5

Next up, a sweet penguin sweater for Isabel. I dove into my large Cotton Ease stash for this special request project. I'm already done with the back and one sleeve. Hopefully, her penguin obsession will last long enough for me to finish the sweater!

Simple but Soulful

When we simplify life, we must prioritize.


Instead of reading dozens of blogs, paring down to a few cherished gems. Those that bring me wonderful patterns, knit-friends, or deep soulful inspiration.


My knitting lately has become less of a production and more of a meditation.


Watching the loops on the sticks stack one on top of another until they take shape and form.

Projects are chosen more mindfully. Less multi-tasking, more monogamy. Slower. Less. More soul. Less obligation. More joy.


Time is spent deepening enjoyment in each activity. The knitting can stop and wait for food, family, and friendship.


So I will choose carefully. I will try to re-engage with my Ravelry, update my page with my recent small, wonderful projects. And I will knit as if I had 100 years left to live as well as if I had only one day.

Tomorrow we head up to Washington, DC, to celebrate. To bask in the collective, joyful energy of millions of our neighbors and friends. Please take some time to spread some kindness, serve your community, slow your life down, or deepen your experience on this earth.

Resolved.

I've really been enjoying the 2008 retrospectives around blogland lately:  the flickr mosaics, the wrap-up posts, the resolution posts.  Since knitblogging has become mostly an endless parade of FO posts (she says, squarely pointing the finger at herself), it was refreshing to see some reflection, some thoughts about the process of knitting and the reasons why we knit.  

I, however, am not doing a 2008 retrospective, mainly because I realized that those wonderful flickr mosaics can include only 36 pictures, and I KNIT 48 THINGS in 2008.  48.  And there are a few things that just never got photographed because although the simple hat or socks are a pleasure to knit, they're certainly not worth a blog post, and hardly worth the energy to take a decent photograph.  So I think I actually knitted about 50 things this year, which averages to about one FO a week.  That is a lot of knitting.  

This number really disturbed me, which is strange, considering that in 2007, I knit about the same, and at the time I was really psyched.  I like knitting a lot, and relished having the time to make lots of wonderful things.  I really take pleasure from knitting, and pursuing pleasure is a good way to spend your life.  Knitting challenges me, and allows me to be creative.  All that knitting also helped to rationalize the size of my stash, because if you are going to knit a lot of things, then, well, you need a lot a yarn, right?  The yarn gets knit, the patterns get made, and I was all set to just knit knit knit my life away.  

But this year, the number hit me right between the eyes.   I'm in a very reflective place right now.  My life is changing.  My kids are in school and they require less of me on a daily basis.  As a result, I've been experiencing classic Bored Suburban Housewife Wasting Her Life angst.  This is combined with my ongoing crisis of dissatisfaction with other elements of my life since moving from Virginia to Pennsylvania.  Despite the move having been very beneficial to my husband and his career situation, and despite the fact that I now live in a culturally rich, wonderful place and in very close proximity to my wonderfully supportive and fun family, I have yet to find MY niche.  I have yet to feel at home here.  

But I'm in my late 30s.  I am a grown-up and in charge of my life.  I get this.  If I don't like things about my life, it is absolutely within my power to change many of them.  My days at home with young children are ending, so it is up to me to write the next act of my life.  If I don't like things about where I live, dammit, I can move.  If I fear I have become boring, then it is up to me to enrich my life.  It is up to me to nurture the social connections and friends I do have.  I need to be open to life and to make the one life I have the one that I desire.  I can do better.  

And honestly, I realized that knitting all those FOs is an obstacle to that, for me.  That number, which before seemed so desirable, made me understand that knitting for me has been a crutch.  It has been a way for me to rationalize being lazy about my own life.  There are things in life I want to do besides knitting, but knitting was dominating it all, replacing it all.  I wasn't reading as much.  I wasn't moving as much.   I wasn't tackling home projects or working on things that I wanted to, because I just couldn't wait to get in that knitting chair and pick up those needles.  I'm generally an undisciplined, lazy sort of person, and knitting is the perfect way to avoid writing that novel, visiting that museum, cleaning ones closests or calling a contractor to renovate your master bathroom or anything else productive.

I certainly think that knitting is a worthy way of spending ones time.  I acknowledge that for so many knitters, all that time to knit unencumbered by work or other responsibilities would be like a gift from the gods, and I am grateful that I have a life that gives me time to do it.  But all that knitting, while I really, truly enjoyed it, every minute of it, wasn't helping me figure out what was going to make me happy.  It was keeping me on the couch, in the house, in front of the TV.  Zoned out.  Tuned out.  And with one hell of a messy master bath desperately in need of renovation.

I see other knitters who have made knitting Their Next Act, knitters who write books or start businesses or teach classes, and perhaps knitting will show me the way.  Or maybe something else will.  Maybe a job or a calling or a new neighborhood or a new community will open itself to me, and I can give of myself in a new way.  I plan on writing more, but wasting less time on the internets this year.  I plan on moving more, and seeking out a more dynamic life for me and my family.  I plan on taking more advantage of my Philadelphia home.  I plan on learning and reading and taking chances here and there.  I plan on saying yes to more things I enjoy and saying no to the things that bring me down.  

So yes, I enjoy knitting and take great pleasure in yarn and making things with it, but this year, while I will still knit and create and write and blog,  I've resolved to knit less. 

Dinah is done!

Aren't we lucky that our knitting always takes us back? Just like a good friend -- so forgiving and welcoming. I guess that's one reason I'll probably always knit, even if I take long, unexplained breaks.

Yes, Dinah is done! This was a "quickie" project that started in November 2007. I planned to wear it to my office holiday party, but when I missed the date it lingered (well, more than lingered). Last week, I dug it out and found that I only had 3 cm left on one sleeve! I finished it up, and I'm fairly happy with the results. This sweater is so light weight you don't know that it is on, but it keeps you amazingly warm.

Pattern: Dinah from Rowan # 42

Yarn: Rowan Silk Wool and Kidsilk Haze

Mods: Shortened the KSH part of the sleeves; plus, knit the silk wool part first and then knit the KSH into the wool instead knitting them separately and joining.

Next up, another lingering WIP-- Carrie from Ella Rae in Noro Kureyon. Just one sleeve to knit and I'll have another long forgotten project completed. I must complete this one while it is still cold, or it may never see the light of day.

Plus, Isabel has made a special request that I just can't refuse. I'll wait to tell you about it next time.

Happy New Year, and Happy Knitting!

My Sister Kate Rules

I'm just going to ignore the fact that its been almost a month since I've last blogged.  I'm just going to ignore the backlog, and point you to my flickr or ravelry pages if you really care to see the socks and assorted little gifties I've knit recently.  Nothing interesting, really, which is why I didn't and won't be blogging about them.

My sister, Kate, has appeared many times on this blog, and has even guest blogged a few times.  Besides being on my list of Most Favorite People in the World, she also holds the title of All-Time Favorite Recipient and Most Perfectly Gracious Appreciator of the Hand-Knits.  

She is also, it turns out, an Adventurous Bad-Ass of Immense Proportions.  She is leaving the day after Christmas to go to Antarctica.  Camping.  In Antarctica.  She'll be lugging gear across glaciers and seeing penguins.  She'll be able to eat all the Snickers she wants and still lose weight, because she'll be burning 6000 calories a day.  She'll be participating in a Survivor-esque leadership course with a bunch of type-A business school people.  She'll be Very Cold.

When she shared her plan with me, my first thought was a jumble of "that's awesome! Oh, wait, WTF it's sortofcrazy ohmygod this soundssoscary and cantheyevavcuateyou and itsOKtobackout!"  Of course, my second thought was, "I should definitely knit her something."

But then I thought some more about it.  I have all the faith in the world in woolies, really I do, but for temperatures this low, you need serious petroleum-based performance wear.  Woolens and Burberry may have been good enough for Shackleton, but I could not live with the responsibility of keeping my sister's feet warm(ish) by knitting her socks.   She needed to properly outfit herself in the correct adventure gear, and the knitwear should be just an addition.  Some comfort, some color, some Antarctic Flair, if you will.  After considering all the possibilities:  hat liners, arm or leg warmers to go over her performance longies, glove liners, etc, I went with the simple:  The Cowl.  

This cowl won't have primary responsibility for keeping her neck warm.  It's really just a piece of comfort, something soft and colorful and just for her, among her array of rented gear and wicking-layer-thingies and her immense Day-Glo Green parka, designed to keep her visible in the case of a white-out.  

I made her two, and she can decide which she takes.  I originally made the Chickadee Cowl, with Misti Alpaca Bulky, because I figured alpaca is an extremely warm and soft fiber.  But as I knit it, I felt that the Foxtail colorway, however lovely it is, was not going to work with the electric green parka.  

Putting aside the absurdity of wanting to match a rented fluorescent green coat she'll wear for 10 days in her life, I decided to consult the colorwheel and make a dip into the stash.  I went with the leftovers of one of my very favorite yarns, Black Bunny Fibers Merino Silk, and whipped up a Darkside Cowl too.

I'll admit to being more than a little nervous about this trip.  My sister is My Beloved.  She is doing something that is really out of my personal comfort zone, something with inherent risks.  But I trust her judgment so implicitly, and know that she'll prevail.  She's trained and studied.  She's going with experienced people, and she'll be seeing a landscape majestic and awesome, in the truest sense of the world.  

 I'm just glad she can take a little bit of my love with her.  

Moving the Chi

Are you still having a hard time getting your knitting mojo on? Never fear my comrades in yarn! I have another tip that will get your needles clickity clacking again in no time.

If you've read anything at all about feng shui, you know that clutter and piles slow down your chi and suck the energy out of you. The dynamic between UFOs and knitting energy is no different. (I also know that toilet seats must be down in order to avoid having all the chi just plain sucked out of your home. It's about the chi not about being a picky female. Put the seat down. Could billions of toilet seats left up have contributed to our sinking economy? It's worth a dissertation ...)

So for tip number 5, finish off one, preferrably two, UFOs. We all have them. Some of us only have a few. Others contribute a UFO to the chi stopping pile every week or so. Pick the easiest one to finish up and do it! Need to add buttons? A little seaming? Need to sew in your ends? Do it now!!

Here's what I did ...


These ornaments just needed the H stitched on them. Easy schmeasy. (See Charmed Knits for pattern. This picture was actually from last year, but the three that I knit this year look exactly the same!) The chi took a baby step forward.



This baby sweater (see The Knitter's Book of Yarn) just needed buttons. That's it! One trip to TYL and bam! The UFO becomes an FO and the knitting chi is fluttering around the room.


This scarf has been lingering ever since I knit this syncopated cap. I would knit a row now and then when I felt like it but I never attended to it properly. This was my next target and I finished in two days.


The knitting chi is zooming I tell you, zooming.