What to knit, oh, what to knit?

January floundering going on.

Now that all the Xmas knitting is complete and has been gifted I've not got any bright ideas of what to start next. Clearly August startitis doesn't carry over to January, where it would make so much more sense.

I could of course dig into the unfinished objects (UFO) pile and will likely get there eventually.  When I couldn't make up my mind this week what sweater I wanted to knit next I threw up my hands and dumped the inspirational knitting books back into a pile and started another pair of socks. Second pair of the year already.

There were so many sparkling ideas in late August and I should have written of them because now I can't remember what I was so excited about. I had to push ideas out of the way to make room for Xmas knitting so now they've completely decamped. Damn.

Before I know it there will be paid work to do and my wee window of knitting time will close to leave only the smallest amount of time to work on fibre projects.  Need those nifty sweater ideas back, pronto.

This calls for some hardcore Ravelry pattern search time. Wish me luck, I could be lost there for days....

A knitting she does go & go & go....

Shawl progress continues. As I get frustrated with one shawl or have to do endless frogging, I put that aside and pick up one of the others. Had to tink back several rows of the cashmere Feather & Fan that I'm working on when I missed a center stitch yarn over and threw the whole row into a muddle. Got that sorted and back on track to the tune of Disc 2 of To the Manor Born.

Next up last evening was the B'water shawl where I am in sight of the middle of the large garter stitch square I'm knitting. Had enough stitches to make a count. That I can knit to episodes of The Closer. The pattern requires I knit 215 garter stitches by increasing one stitch each row; then decreasing back down to one stitch. This requires fortitude and television.

The Traveling Woman shawl is at the lace pattern stage and needs attention this evening I think. And I'd like to put in a couple of hours on the current sweater project, perhaps even finishing the front bands on the otherwise completed sweater.  It is cool enough some mornings and later evenings that a light sweater would be a treat.

Meanwhile I've promised to sew up several wee barista aprons for Ms C while she cuts and pieces a felted bag under my direction. Should be a fun afternoon in the upstairs studio, aka guest room.

Now, if I don't want my name to be mud or worse, I need to get the ice cream freezer bucket into the freezer to make the girl some strawberry gelato this afternoon.

Onward.....

Wandering back...

A year has passed since I last wandered over to this blog and updated my fiber work. A busy year to be sure. And since it is August again I've got another bad case of 'startitis' going. It is actually a late summer ritual I thoroughly enjoy.

In the list this season are the following: three pairs of socks, three new shawls: Bridgewater by Jared Flood, The Elizabeth Zimmerman anniversary Pi called Hearts, and a honking big triangle in a mohair blend. The latter is the furthest along but it is currently too big to work on in August heat. Much easier to work on the center panel in B'water which, while lovely, is endless. Working that shawl in Misti Alpaca lace on 3.75mm needles, definitely endless garter stitch here. What makes this do-able and a pleasure is having a set of Signature needles to work it on. Bliss is possibly the better word here.

I have a strange passion for working circular shawls, but of the several I've done the only one I've kept is the Girasole. I did make an EZ Pi Shawl in handspun but I'm not liking it so much now and will rip that out to re-use the yarn for socks--as soon as I have another Pi to replace it with.

In the sweater department we have Peasy, only needs front bands and to re-do the cuffs where somehow I skipped a row of garter and the cuffs look weird. Current big project is Glenna C's Basic Black which I'm knitting in a dark navy cashmere/merino blend from Colourmart in the UK. Beautiful fiber making a gorgeous fabric--love working on this. Another heavier sweater is in time out until the evenings are a bit cooler and that only needs front bands and pockets to finish it.

Completed earlier this summer: Two versions of Wendy Johnson's Seaside Shawlette for gifts.

The best part of being under-employed in the earning way is I have loads of time to knit, and clearly I'm making damn good use of it. Taking EZ's advice to knit through crisis--actually makes the crisis disappear from the front of my mind at least while I focus on patterns and stitches. Better than therapy in my opinion.

Next task is to take some photos of works in progress and finished to show you what I've been up to.

Plan not to let this blog languish quite so much, easier to do when I don't have to go out to a day job. Have a writing job of course, but today this passes as my warm up exercise.

More anon....

August means--startitis!

Had a serious startitis attack yesterday. Began a sweater and then a pair of socks on 1.5mm needles. Why? Because I finished two large circular shawls in the last few weeks and I'm not finding anything in the WIP pile that gets me excited. I'll get back to all you languishing projects, truly. But I need inspiration.

And how could I not find inspiration in Ann Hanson's Highlander? I have a merino and cashmere yarn to knit it in and found even the set up for the thing vastly entertaining.

The backdrop to the project was the movie My Dinner with Andre. Such a rant, so long, with the occasional interesting idea/notion tossed in to keep me from turning off the thing. Can't say I didn't like it (enjoyed wouldn't be the right word here) but can't say I did like it either. Mostly I'm puzzled about why anyone would bother, doing this as a rant and not a movie, exploring the ideas. Very odd experience listening to this rant, there was nothing to 'watch' which made it good for starting a knitting project.

The other project I started yesterday is a sock in a fine alpaca yarn, probably the needles are too fine, but I wanted to try them, so here we go.

Now off to the doc's to get blood work checked out and see if my blood pressure is behaving itself.
Likely not, I'm on my second cup of decaf this morning and that can't be good.

Where I've been

It has been a bit of time, months! since I've posted here. That's because I've started two new blogs on Wordpress: Memoir Creator and Elder Life Design. I've also been working on my website, which is due to launch in the next few weeks: Memoir Creator

The Memoir Creator link has a coming soon page for the moment, check back in mid-August for the real thing.

Lots of fun and a great deal of work as I build an on-line presence as a preliminary to an on-line coaching business.

Join me on the journey if that interests you.

Knitter credentials

I read many, perhaps too many, knitting blogs. There's one thing I'm now certain of. To be a real knitter (RK) you need at least one cat. While I love the feline as an idea, my asthma and a friend's deadly allergy, prevent me from enjoying the live in company of my own cat. I need a virtual cat, and have yet to find one that I find satisfactory.

What to do about my lack of official credentials as an RK? I've knit enough I do believe that I should qualify, even without a resident moggie. Do the cats in my yard count? I have several regular visitors who are very enamored of the space beneath my garage, which I suspect is overflowing with good moggie prey. Said moggies are less amusing when the spray my woodpile however. Just saying.

So what I wonder might be an acceptable alternative to having my own cat?

Suggestions?

I'm concerned, I do want to be considered a RK, especially as I spend many hours each and every evening, knitting my wee fingers to nubbins. Another lace shawl Girasole nearly finished, which will bring me to five shawls so far this year. The Girasole is knit in a fine mohair and is truly luscious as well as great fun to knit. Just finishing up the knitted border, probably at least two more evenings of this until I'm done.

The weather (summer?) has been lovely and cool (I know that I'm weird in this!) so knitting a mohair shawl has been a perfect enterprise these last couple of months. As the weather is apparently changing to warmer, I'll move on to something a little less cozy once this piece is finished.

There are, after all, another five or six shawls in the queue....

Back from Gatorland

Well I did it, managed to get myself organized, packed, out of here and home again without any major crisis, financial or otherwise.  I'm so very pleased because I had serious doubts I could manage this without a melt down. It's been a decade since I've travelled anywhere by plane and I've never been to the US except once for 20 minutes to visit a health food store just across the border back in the era where you were just waved through and back. And then the wave and smile were even reasonably friendly.

Now Gatorland, aka Florida where I did see a gator though it wasn't as easy a quest as one might think, is not my personal go to place for anything except my family: G, E and baby C. Yes it was warm, how could that much concrete not be warm? That is, miles of roads, malls and suburbs. I wouldn't want to be poor in that sort of environment or without a car. Can't actually see what all the fuss is about, when people go all gooshy about Florida, except of course in the middle of a nasty Canadian winter.  But did I enjoy myself? Oh yes, it was a very interesting experience of another culture and made me more aware of just what the difference between Canadian and American culture is.  

What made the whole thing amazing though was the time spent with my grandson,
son and daughter-in-law. How very very fortunate I am in my family and the love we share. I miss them all more than I can say and I wish we lived much much closer to each other. Maybe that will happen and maybe it won't, but I won't let another ten years pass without finding a way to spend time with them again, because hey, now I have a passport!

Hurray, it's March!

March seems a lot more hopeful than January or February, if for no other reason than it is the down side of winter and today, there were definite indicators that spring will get here eventually. It was 10C in Nova Scotia today, sunny and breezy too. That's enough to get me outdoors, ever hopeful that a walk is possible but since I dressed for the weather and not for March, I found my attempt at a beach walk was rather short, because the wind off the water, go figure, is cold. It was grand to be there though, however short the exercise portion of the expedition. Nice 'rollers' and good brisk sea-ish air completed the pleasures of the jaunt.

Working on my Pippa sweater and really enjoying the knitting of it even as I twitch about whether it will in fact fit me when it is done. Made a decision in my twitchiness to go up a needle size, so maybe I can settle down and just knit the thing. I'm knitting it in one piece until the armholes, though the pattern is written for separate pieces. Rather than doing all the shaping and fudging to get it to go together as it ought from three pieces, left, right and back, if I do it in one piece everything works out so much better and there's very little sewing at the end.

Only have the collar of the Rhinebeck sweater and the darning in of ends to finish. I'm really pleased with it. Will make it again with hand spun some time but there are so many other sweaters in Lisa Lloyd's book, A Fine Fleece that I want to try, it might be a while.

Have a cahjillion things I need to do before I go visit my son and his baby son and I'm about dizzy with the thought of it all. I have lists of lists. The real fun of course is juggling money and covering all the stuff that needs covering without enough money to do that and no income during the weeks I'm away from home. How nice is that? Trying hard not to think of that, but it isn't working and I'm wearing out my calculator trying to make things add up differently. We're at that definition of insanity where you try the same thing over and over and still expect a different outcome. Is that insane or faint hope? Or am I priming the pump until some creative fix arrives or I simply recognize that no, I can't pay that damn bill until some time in the future when income arrives. Reality sucks.

But hey, I can knit and spin for months yet and not be through all my projects or stash, which, you'll be happy to hear, means I won't actually go round the bend. Or not so much that anybody will notice or take alarm.