Knit Night at Gabriella's

I did hit Gabriella's Yarn Shop for Knit Night last Wednesday. Since we are managing with one car these days I had to drop off Kosta at home, change, and then whisk myself off to a couple hours of relaxing, knitting, and chatting with the ladies.

This is Gabriella.

She is the delightful owner. She used to work in banking, or investments or something that had to do with numbers, worked long hours and dressed in suits every day. Now she wears Converse sneakers, gets to knit a lot, and often brings her dog to work. (Lily is a Maltese puppy and one of the cutest things I've ever seen. As soon as I get a pitcure I will post it.)

Here you can see Gabriella slyly engaging in product placement. Her husband has an import business and the energy drink she is sipping is one of Mr. Gabriella's products. What? You can't read it? Hmmm... I'll have to try harder next time.

Here are the rest of the ladies. And I am terrible with names, so please don't ask. But I can tell you something about each woman sitting at this table. The lady on the left with the short curly hair just had her first grandbaby this year. The lady sitting to her left in the peachy-orange shawl is a whiz at all kinds of needlework. She was nalbinding and hand spinning that night - neither of which I had seen done before. Nalbinding is an ancient form of knitting, although you can't really call it knitting per se, because it is done with a large needle (usually bone) and not two sticks like the modern form of knitting.

The lady on the far right in the blue t-shirt is knitting a really cool shawl/scarf made up of a bunch of circular shapes. She and I have the same phone and bonded over that. (I was sitting in the chair next to her that is now pushed back and vacant).And the lady in the white with her back to us is of Ukranian descent and is originally from Rhode Island.

We sat and chatted for a couple of hours. I have to admit that I don't get out often and it was nice to be with people who weren't coworkers or my husband. A strong hermit gene runs in one side of my family and I often have to consciously push myself out into social situations. It's not that I have fear of social situations - not at all... I love to meet people and go places. I just have a bad habit of letting my homebody nature take over and I forget to get out there. I've been two weeks running now and will defnintely go back.

Conversation is light and fun. It runs the gamut to where we are from (Hardly anyone in Florida is actually from Florida, especially in a touristy place like Naples), to family, health, pets, yarn stashes, phone companies, Halloween, kids, grandkids, pretty much anything you could think of. And you get to see what everyone is working on. Lots of fun!

Gabriella has many beautiful things in her shop, and I love to walk around, squeeze and fondle. (The yarn, people, I'm talking about the yarn.) At the moment I have been put on a yarn diet, which I am not happy about, but we have some possibly big expenses coming our way in the next few months and need to tighten the belt. It's not something I can talk about at the moment, but I can tell you that no, I'm not pregnant. It's a little sad, because I don't have nearly the stash size someone should for a proper yarn diet. It's like making a 5'4" girl who weighs 130 pounds go on a diet. Probably won't kill her if it doesn't go on too long, but she really doesn't need it.

Oh well, perhaps our fortunes will change soon. If I could just get that novel edited and sold for a jillion dollars I could buy a whole house and fill it with just sock yarn. How's the editing going, you ask? Ahem... well, it hasn't for the past few weeks. But I plan to get back on that editing horse tomorrow (my one day off this week). I don't know why I've been balking at working on it. I guess things have been a little crazy with work and dealing with some health issues. So I've been feeling tired and a little bummed out lately. But I hope I can kickstart myself again tomorrow.

Sock Yarn Fever

I made a mistake.

I logged into my Etsy account today to leave some feedback on some incredible thick and thin yarn that was delivered to me.

Isn't it gorgeous? The color is called "Shabby Chic" and I bought it from ilashdesigns, and after I left glowing praise in her feedback I did a bad thing.

I went shopping for sock yarn.

I spent all of my break and a little extra just clicking through pictures of sock yarn. Handspun, hand-dyed, superwash, variegated, you name it, it's out there waiting to be purchased. Did you know there is such a thing as a Sock of the Month Club? I could have sock yarn sent to my home once a month for the next year for a mere $325! (Ahem...I believe my husband might stroke out if he watched me plunk down that much money for yarn all at one time.) I tried not to, but I think I drooled on my keyboard a little. And as I found out on the first day of a new job once, liquid in your keyboard is a bad, bad thing. I must be more careful.

But here is the important thing: I did not purchase anything! Even though I could hardly stand it, I believe I showed nerves of steel. So all I did was waste a little time. (Shhh...don't tell my boss.)

Book Reviews
I checked out three knitting books last week that are new to the library. And each one of them I want to own. Is that too much? Probably. Will I buy them all? Eventually. Will I tell you about them? Absolutely.

More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson
STC Craft/A Melanie Falick Book 
(September 1, 2010)


I want that hat on the cover. Screw being a grown-up if I can't have that hat.I want a pointy elf hat to wear when I'm feeling mischievous.  I even just received the perfect thick and thin yarn for it!

Besides the hat on the cover, this book is packed with adorable, cute, and fun gifts to make spanning from the 2-hour to more than 8-hour gifts. Some of the projects include fashionable hot coffee cup sleeves, soft baskets, a big lace scarf done on US 17 needles with chunky yarn, and a gorgeous cabled cowl. Wish I could wear cowls, but I was blessed with having very little neck - turtlenecks, cowls and such make me look like a potato head.

Oh yes, the hat will be mine.

Knitting Mochimochi: 20 Super-Cute Strange Designs for Knitted Amigurumi by Anna Hrachovec
Watson-Guptill (June 29, 2010)

Can you stand the cuteness? Look at the cover! This books is full of patterns to create your very own amigurumi. An amigurumi is a Japanese stuffed toy that is either knitted or crocheted. They can either be animals or inanimate object with anthropomorphic features (Think a couch with eyes.)

I was very impressed with this book. It was right up my alley with colors, shapes, and ideas. The weirdness was just a bonus. Someone (Anna Hrachovec, bless her odd little heart) actually came up with a pattern to knit a pig in a wig, and a squirrel on wheels. Count me in!

The pictures of the finished products are cute as the dickens, but the photos with demonstration techniques are extremely well done as well. My absolute favorite was the confused moose:


Is he not the cutest thing? Look at all those little tiny birds! If I ever wanted to make something so cute I could rot my teeth while knitting I may have found it. I give it five squees on the shriek-o-meter.

I also loved the Feet Eaters slippers that are featured in the middle of the cover. How awesome would those be for a kid? I wish I was the slipper wearing type, but sadly, they make my feet all sweaty. Ever since I was a kid and had Mickey Mouse slippers, I couldn't abide them.


Knits Men Want: The 10 Rules Every Woman Should Know Before Knitting for a Man Plus the Only 10 Patterns She'll Ever Need by Bruce Weinstein.
STC Craft/A Melanie Falick Book (April 1, 2010)

A book on knitting for men by a man! And Bruce Weinstein tells it to you straight in this book full of classic patterns for the man in your life, whether husband, brother, dad, or boyfriend. His rules head each chapter and are basic common sense (I'm a big fan). For instance, the chapter for the basic pullover sweater (featured on the cover) is titled, "Men Resist Change." Others include, "Men Are Babies," "Men are Oblivious," and my personal favorite, "Not All Men Are Worth Cashmere."

I have heard the urban legends. I know that if you knit something for your boyfriend and give it to him the relationship is doomed. I've had friends who have had this happen. It doesn't always happen immediately, but somewhere down the road the other shoe (or knitted slipper) will drop. And women, with all of their good intentions, will often knit something that is what she wants to see him wear, and not actually what he would want to wear. That's why I like this book. It pokes fun at men and their simplistic ways but also delivers the message that when knitting for men, simple and basic are the best bet. Weinstein also points out that simple and basic don't have to be boring either.

I've already knit socks for my husband. I hope we make our two year anniversary!

On the Needles
My Robin's Egg sock is coming along. I have turned the heel and am now knitting the gussets. I love this yarn. The colors are so subtle and lovely. I'm going to Knit Night at Gabriella's this evening and am bringing it with me in the hopes that it will soon be done.

I don't actually have a real camera at the moment, so I am taking all of my pictures on my phone. I have a Droid X and I love it. It takes pretty good pictures too. The above was taken using this app I downloaded called Retro Camera. The pictures get a vintage flair, and there are several "cameras" to choose from.

Birds on Wires, socks, and other sundries

Bird from a Wire

I have a wonderful friend from high school named Jen.

She was always either drawing or had her nose stuck in a book.

<= This is Jen back in high school. I hope she doesn't kill me. (I could kill her... look at those gorgeous natural curls.)

One of my favorite memories of Jen was a Halloween party we threw together. She lived on a hobby farm in Minnesota, and we decided to clean out the granary and have the party there. We blasted the Doors, cleaned up and decorated. The party was great, but mostly I remember sweeping the floor with my friend who understood my need for classic rock.

We had lots of stuff in common. We both read like mad, loved art (although she was the more talented one when it came to the actual practice of drawing, painting, etc.) and shared a very developed talent for procrastination. (Too bad you couldn't letter in it.)

Jen is now a mother to one of the cutest kids in the world, and a mixed media artist with her own successful Etsy shop, a really excellent blog, and she just published her first book!

It goes on sale November 17. I am so proud of Jen. She has really done some amazing things with her art in the past few years.  Let's see:

Successful Etsy shop with over 168 sales? Check.

A really though-provoking blog with a great voice and interesting topics? Check.

A fabulous artistic sensibility? Check.

A published book? Check.

She has been working hard, being persistent, and turning out really beautiful things. I am glad to claim her as a friend and wish her many successes in the future!

Go pre-order her book today! You'll be glad you did.

Socks


I finished KAK's sock last weekend and I was so proud! I made him don them and pose for pictures immediately.

And while he was lovingly wiggling his toes in the toasty comfort a dropped stitch in the toe ran all the way back down the top of his foot. I was mortified. I was crushed.

I was pissed beyond belief.

I undid the Kitchener stitch graft on the toe (which is NOT easy, especially the fumbling one I made), and worked back to ladder up the dropped stitch with a crochet hook. (And now it looks a little rough and bumpy.) I sewed the toe back up and proceeded to yank on it every which way to make sure the stitches were securely fastened before giving them back to him. And all is well in sock land, although I feel my confidence in the Kitchener Stitch to be less that magnificent.

But undaunted, I cast on another sock immediately. This time I am making a pair for myself out of some amazing Madeleine Tosh sock yarn in Robin's Egg. My heart does a skip every time I look at the color. I am just about ready to start the heel flap.

The sock pattern I am using is from an awesome book on knitting socks that I highly recommend. Getting Started Knitting Socks by Ann Budd. I think I bought it at Joann's or Michael's last winter and I love it. Excellent pictures demonstrate steps, and the directions are clear and easy to follow. And after you get the basics she has several pages of stitch patterns to make your socks even more pretty!

I think I might just knit socks for the rest of my life. Another convert has crossed to the dark side. At least everyone's feet are warm.

A Craft Room of One's Own
When we moved into our house three years ago (we're renting, but it's still a house) my husband graciously allowed the extra bedroom to be a craft room for me. (Of which he reminds me. Constantly.) I bought an old unmatched dining room table at a secondhand shop for a workspace, plus I have a couch, and desk where I alternately set my computer or sewing machine.

But this room has not been treated well. Yes, I love having a space for all my craft supplies, but having a full-time job does not let me use the room as I would like. Most often the room becomes a dumping ground for all the "stuff" we don't know what else to do with. Papers, books, the cooler, Christmas cookie tins, odds and ends, and my parents have all been stashed in there at one time or another until it isn't a craft room anymore.

It's a crap room.

When I began this blog it was to really help me focus on one art form for a year to help me stop bouncing from one media to another. I've always needed focus and the crap room was only feeding the fire. I would try to pick up but be distracted by this gizmo or that ball of yarn or that pretty paper or that colorful fabric. My head would swim and I would be wanting to work with them all at once.

In the past few months I've been thinking about what crafts I really like to do, which ones I do well, and perhaps which ones I might want to let go. And it hasn't been too hard to winnow the wheat from the chaff. So last weekend I had a day to myself on Saturday (KAK was at work), so I decided to start overhauling.

Here is what I was starting with:

Here is the wheat I decided to keep:
My knitting supplies (Well, duh...)
My mosaic supplies (Hemmed and hawed over that one, but I do love doing it, just haven't had the time.)
My needlework supplies (Really not that much there, and those dishtowels I wanted to embroider with saucy mottoes is still on my to-do list.)
My fabric (Don't have that much anyway. Just one plastic bin full.
My sewing machine (Because it really comes in handy, and I make one hell of a shower curtain.)

And here is the chaff I decided to get rid of:
My stamps (As much as I admit they were fun, they take up a lot of room and I have barely used them since I moved to Florida. My mom can give them a good home and I can get visitation rights even if she has sole custody.)
My card making supplies (Ditto.)
My scrapbooking supplies (Ditto.)

In all, I have three boxes of things going to my mother (who isn't nearly as thrilled about it as my father is.) and two boxes of miscellaneous items going to the Goodwill.

I realize that some purging was wise, but I don't know if I'm done yet. I guess I'll have to live with it (and actually in it) for a while to know if I need to go further. I hope it will help my focus.

I'll post pictures of the re-organized room when I get a daylight opportunity to take some photos. It doesn't look too much different to the untrained eye, but I know what I'm looking at.

(That didn't sound nearly as convincing as I had planned.)

A hard fall

And I'm not talking about tripping and toppling over. Even though I do that. A lot. Thanks for the klutz genes, Mom.

No, the fall I am referring to would be the season. Autumn. Where you get crisp fresh air, brilliant blue skies and thrumming reds, oranges and yellows on the trees. Growing up in Minnesota fall meant scarecrows, pumpkins, indian corn, apple harvests, and Sunday drives to see the leaves change. It meant long sleeves and sweaters dug out of bottom drawers, corduroy and wool. When the rains came they would hover all day gently splattering the sidewalks while the chains on the tether ball poles clanked in the stiff wind while I stared out classroom windows. Grandma would shine in her culinary glory turning out savory meatloaf, pot roast, and mashed potatoes. The smell of cinnamon and pumpkins and cloves filled her kitchen. My mother to this day makes the best apple pies I ever hope to inhale. I live for the day after Thanksgiving when the two of us start our Christmas shopping (yes, we are those people), but mostly because I get to have pie for breakfast.

This will be my fifth autumn living in southern Florida, where we live in our own little weather bubble that is completely separate from the rest of the country. As a sub-tropical climate we are now moving into our pleasant weather season. The heat usually comes at the end of April and stays with us until mid-October when we start to see drier, cooler air take the place of the stinking hot inferno that plagues us during the summer months.

I first moved to Florida right after Christmas of 2004 to begin my new job in January 2005. I was coming from New Hampshire and arrived to palm trees, warm breezes and sunny skies. My internal calendar was seriously thrown out of whack. For the first few months I would catch myself wondering where the heck Easter had gone, since the weather was just like a fine June day in Minnesota. It would take a moment to hit me that I hadn't lived through Easter yet - it was still just February. The first summer was unbearably hot... walking from apartment to car or from car to store/work/church was like walking through an oven and I did it as little as possible.

Five years down the road and I can tolerate summers much better. Air conditioning in my place of work is set to frigid so I often wear sweaters to work in June July and August. Going out to the car in a sweater doesn't even make me blink now. That first year if it had been socially acceptable to strip naked to go outside, well, I still wouldn't do it, but it would have been close.

However, in exchange for delightfully warm winters I have traded seasons. Leaves don't noticeably turn, flowers bloom year-round, and the best time for shelling on the beaches is the middle of January and February. I miss all of the wonderful things that make autumn special. And that's what makes a hard fall for me.

Instead of this:

I get this all year:

I know, paradise, right? Most people think so. And it is beautiful, I would never deny it. But most people come here for 2 weeks and sigh over its beauty and then go home. Nature is beautiful no matter where on earth you are, and saying this is better than autumn leaves may be an opinion, but it isn't everyone's. It's all about what you don't have, isn't it? I want cooler weather and leaves changing colors, while folks up north are digging in for winter and longing to escape to a tropical paradise for a few weeks in February.

It's like Eddie Izzard said about squirrels: They sit around eating nuts all day when what they really long for is a grapefruit.

You're probably wondering to yourself why I am prattling on about the weather in a blog about knitting. Though it doesn't take a great leap to understand why it might be hard to get in the knitting mood in Florida. When it is still in the 90's in December and you are sweating like a pig while Christmas shopping it is pretty hard to drum up holiday cheer. Why knit sweaters or mittens, scarves or hats when you never get to wear them? Or if you do, it is maybe one or two days a year at the most? That's not so hard to get, is it?

So why not move? Follow my wool-swaddled heart back north? Ah, there lies the crux of the problem. I am now married to a wonderful man who grew up in Miami. We've talked about relocating to this place or that, but it always comes back to how he loves the weather here so much that it would be hard for him to live anywhere else. I can sympathize, and since I don't miss winter too much I am mostly content to stay here for the time being.

But it does seem that my longing for seasonal changes grows sharper every year. And my instincts to nest always kick in around the end of September, no matter what the thermometer says outside.

As far as knitting goes, I find ways to adapt. I knit with cotton. I knit dishcloths and bags that don't require wearing. Cotton socks can be comfortable year round. And when I get an urge to make something like a scarf or a hat, I still have lots of friends in cold climes who hopefully appreciate my handmade gifts.

The second sock is moving along. I am probably 5-6 inches through the ankle/cuff part. Editied Chapter 12 of my book last night. Life keeps moving forward.

Reunited and it feels so good

Dang. Now I'm going to have that song in my head all day. I have realized over the years that there are people who are predisposed to having songs perpetually stuck in their heads, and those who don't. I fall in the former category and some days long to be in the latter. How does one manage with all that quiet empty space to rattle around in? I would find it luxurious. As it stands, things are packed in pretty tight in my brain. The song I sing in my head twines around grocery lists, things to do at work, appointments, book plots, and all sorts of flotsam and jetsam that are better left...erm, unaccounted for.

So I've taken a bit of a hiatus. To be fair, in the months I've been not writing here I did write a novel. Yup. I got the thunderbolt of inspiration at approximately 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 31, 2010. I wrote the first draft in 12 weeks. I am currently working on my third and hope to be finito by then end of the year and be ready to start looking for agents. Because of that, all my creative energy was sapped by said novel. It wasn't until the last month or so that I began to pick up the needles again.

It all started when I realized Christmas might be a bit lean this year. We are going to Oregon for a wedding in December, and the expense might put a crimp in our usual budget. (Not that I really mind, one of my husband's best friends is getting married, and I can't think of two people for whom I would be more inclined to travel cross country in December.)

So Christmas. Lean on funds. Not a problem! Mom loooooves the dishcloths I've knitted her out of cotton and those would be a nice bulky stocking stuffer, right? Problem was, I only had slubs left of my balls of cotton. We were leaving for a long weekend in Orlando, so I grabbed a pair of needles and made KAK stop at my LYS to pick up a skein or two of cotton yarn. And I ended up knitting my Mom a beautiful lacy turquoise scarf to which I crystal beaded the ends. (Pictures to follow.)

I was back, baby.

The next thing I did was look through my stash and pick something I thought was pretty and decided to make a felted bag. I used leftover turquoise I used for my Kable needle case earlier this year and 2 skeins of Noro Kureyon I bought sometime this summer. Forget the colorway at the moment, but it was lovely dark blues and purples with a little green thrown in. Here is the finished product:

I am pleased with this one. I felted it in the washing machine by putting it in a pillowcase slipcover. Worked like a dream. The only thing I could find to block it was our old Revere soup kettle. That too, worked perfectly.

And now onto bigger and better things. Earlier this year when I began this blog, I mentioned wanting to make more complicated things than just endless scarves. I finally decided it was time. The stars were aligned, my horoscope was good, my biorhythms were optimal... it was time to knit socks.

I've been wanting to knit socks ever since I started reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Yarn Harlot blog. Wherever she goes on her book tours, she brings a sock she is knitting. It gets its picture taken countless times with many people. Hundreds of people have brought their first socks to show her and she posts pictures of every one of them. When I was a misguided teen with terrible fashion sense, I felt it was super-cool to match my socks with my shirt. I had socks of every color, socks with fabric paint squiggles, tie-dyed socks, I even had a pair of pink socks with zippers on them. (It was the 80's. Sue me.) But when I started reading Stephanie's blog and I saw the gorgeous sock in drool-worthy colors, I knew this was something I wanted to do.

But socks seem daunting. Just uttering the phrase "turning the heel," made me break out in nervous sweat. Earlier this year I had bought a basic book on knitting socks, and last weekend I sat down to start. I decided to make my first sock on dpns (double-pointed needles) because it is the classic way to do things. I am nothing if not classicist first.

So just over a week ago I cast on. I had been intimidated by casting on dpns in the past. I'd tried it a couple of times using different suggestions, but always ended up with a knot of yarn in my hands and a knot of frustration in my head. This time I decided to do it a way that made sense to me. I cast on all 68 stitches onto one single dpn, and then knit them off with each needle in turn. Ha! Conquered you, dpns!

I've always been one who reads directions. From assembling furniture to baking, I've always been adept at deciphering schematics and could successfully put the cam locks in board E so I could bolt it to board C. So I shouldn't have been shocked when I was able to easily navigate the steps for knitting a sock. Even when sick in bed with a sinus infection and bronchitis I did it. The heel flap didn't get me. Picking up stitches was a breeze. And even though I think I mucked up the kitchener stitch on the toe a bit, I did it!

Behold, my first sock:

I used Patons Kroy Sock yarn. The colorway was a number I forget, but it has muddy greens, browns, and tans. And that is not my hairy leg, by the way. That belongs to my husband. Please disregard the rest of the mess, I was sick for a week and our house it not fit for other eyes.

It isn't a perfect sock. The ribs are a little uneven, and I decreased too fast in the gusset, but it is a whole sock, and pretty good for a first try. I hope its not too forward to say I want to show my sock to the Yarn Harlot. Hope she writes another book and goes on tour soon so I can do just that.

Second sock was cast on yesterday. It will probably be prettier than the first. I worry the first sock my be jealous of its better constructed twin, but it can take heart in knowing it was the first, and therefore, just a little more special to me than any subsequent more beautiful socks that may follow.