Houses

I am thinking houses. Yesterday I sold the family home, the house purchased, according to the deed, by "a widow and a singlewoman" who were my grandmother and my aunt. My grandmother, my mother and lastly my aunt (who later married and was widowed) are all gone now and yesterday I sold the house I grew up in. It's been a traumatic four months and my knitting has both saved me and suffered. Now I'm thinking of knitting houses.

Not to worry. I haven't forgotten The Rule of Threes. I am still working my Blueberry Waffles (socks), the flirty lace skirt is at my feet. I have not felt settled enough to pick it up again yet. The third project, Lesson One of Basics, Basics, Basics is at my elbow and I've purchased the office supplies necessary to label and tag and bag each swatch. Presentation might count. But my mind has turned to houses. I want to knit houses. Not yet. I have to finish the skirt or Lesson One first. But a girl can dream, can't she?

So I'm researching house knitting patterns. I woke up with Kaffe Fassett's house pattern in my mind's eye. In his Knits Again there are a shoulder bag and a vest using his house patterns.

There are many other house patterns for knitting and another that comes to mind is . . . actually my mind just went blank. I realized what I was thinking of are all the house quilting patterns I have. That's a hobby for another day. I Googled and I checked Ravelry and found some wild and crazy things, but nothing to further stir my creative juices. Do you know of any house patterns? No knitted houses, tea cozy cottages or gingerbreads, please.

Bona Fide Knitter

Happy Knit Year

and Happy New Year as well.

I've come to grips with my UFOs. I think some are destined to remain unfinished and I've decided to move on. I am back to an adaptation of my knitting guru's Rule of Threes. It works so well for her, but she is very prolific and can finish items lickety split before her fingers itch to start something else as mine often do. Also I am not a fast knitter.

I used to be a slow knitter. Now I am not. I guess I'm sort of medium, whatever that means. Anyway, at my speed, knitting daily, I get a lot done in what seems like not a whole lot of time. My problem of late has been being able to knit daily. Right this minute I have not knit by hand in over a week. The last few rounds knit were on the Blueberry Waffle sock. And then I had to unknit them. My brain was absent and I could not keep even that simple pattern straight in my head. Did I just knit 2 or were they purls? Should they have been knits? Am I on a knit 2, purl 2 round or an all knit round? Even the 2x2 ribbing suffered due to my absent brain syndrome. Normally a perfectionist, I left the blips in the ribbing to remind me of how out of sync I was in December 2007. No one will be able to see them. (If you have pulled up my pants leg and are that close to my lower calf, you need to back . . . . . . . up!) But I'll know they're there. I'm hoping the second sock will be perfect from beginning to end as life gets smoother in 2008.

Okay, I have Blueberry Waffles on the sock needles, the "flirty skirt" is ripped back and ready to go forward once again as my current project, and today I start TKGA's Basics, Basics, Basics. Those are my three current projects, no UFOs to muddy the waters. With Essential yarn in solid colors from KnitPicks coned and ready to knit on the Circular Sock Machine (CSM), I shall begin 2008 in knit harmony--Rule of Threes in place for hand knitting and a sock machine set up for diversion. I can do this!

Bona Fide Knitter

Agility of the Brain

Can I keep this brain agile or is it too late? One of my knitting gurus (You know who you are.)referenced an interesting article in the NY Times earlier this week. It had to do with keeping your brain agile as you advance into your septua- and octogenarian years. The idea is you need brain stimulation: work, travel, play cards and board games, work with computers, write books, do puzzles, knit . . . Whoa! Was that "knit" I saw as I skimmed the list? I'm there!

I cast on the lacy socks that were not comforting to knit and decided to switch to some mind-numbing, plain stockinette socks. Then I read the complete article. It seems for the stimulation to be beneficial it was found that novelty was crucial for the aging brain. Doing the same thing over and over again, without introducing new mental challenges doesn't cut it. So the article warns me if I knit, I must challenge myself with more than simply stitched socks. I should try a complicated pattern or garment. I'm almost tempted to start Koigu's Charlotte's Web Shawl. I said "almost." I'm ready for more stimulation, not a nervous breakdown.

I shopped my stash and found the navy Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock purchased four or five years ago when I first became addicted to knitting socks and collected patterns by the binder and box full.






I'm going to cast on the Blueberry Waffle Socks (fingering weight). In my current level of life's stresses the lacy skirt is challenge enough and I need some comfort knitting. I will make the Blueberry Waffles--simple yet stimulating--at least more stimulating than knit every row and less hair pulling than lacy socks knit with splitting Wildfoote.

My guru puts me on the right path yet again.

Bona Fide Knitter

In Search Of: Comfort and Joy

I am having a heck of a time. 'Tis the season to be jolly. Oh great ti-i-dings of co-om-fort and joy, comfort and joy. I'm looking for some comfort and joy. I'm in search of it here, there and everywhere. Even in my knitting.

The lacy flirty skirt, as I call it, has been ripped back to the lifeline and the lace begun again. I worked on it last night while watching Wynton Marsalis' Red Hot Holiday Stomp live from the Lincoln Center on PBS. I'm not very much of a jazz fan, but that show brought me much comfort and joy with arrangements of Christmas classics (Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer never sounded so good [cool, hip] before!), other songs and a Maya Angelou poem set to Wynton's music and danced by Jared Grimes. Check your PBS listings and catch the next showing.

The 2007 Beach Socks are finally finished. Fraternal not identical and they're not freaking me out.



Wait'll next year. I fully intend to actually knit the 2008 Beach Socks ON THE BEACH!

I put some new socks on the needles, a pair of nemisis socks that I started once before, before I was a "bona fide knitter." They were too advanced for me. I gave up on them that time. They are lace, knitted on 000 Addi Turbos, a Nancy Bush pattern from Folks Socks. They are no longer too advanced for me and now I have figured out the problem with them. They are not fun to knit! The yarn, Brown Sheep's Wildfoote, splits like crazy when using those 000 needles, especially during SSK and K2tog and there are a lot of those in the pattern. Urrrrgh!

I have so much else going on giving me agita and angst I do not need that from my knitting, especially my zen inducing sock knitting. When I have a few minutes later today, I will cast on another pair of socks, solid color, Lorna's Laces, no pattern more involved than 2" of 1x1 ribbing and some good ole stockinette, knitting every round on a long circular. Just writing it soothes me.

Bona Fide Knitter

HELP! Throw Me a Lifeline!

The linen skirt is back on the front burner. The beach socks ( which were not made on the beach) are just one waiting room visit from completion. Winter has come with snow and icy rain. All is right with the world.



I put a lifeline in the linen skirt and will rip it back to the vicinity of the increase row for the lace to begin. I have a new take on the YOs thanks to my first lesson in Basics Basics Basics. Who said I didn't need to take that course?!!! I think I was doing YOs right, but the first round of YOs might have had a boo-boo or two. The YOs occur on purl rounds. After the pattern is set up in rounds 1 through 6, they go like this:

Rnd 7: *P12, YO, K3, YO: repeat from * to end of round.

All even rows are "knit the knits and purl the purls."

Rnd 9: *P12, YO, K2tog, K1, SSK, YO; repeat from * to end of round.

Rounds 7 and 9 are repeated alternately until ending with row 57. There is a note after the list of rounds to be worked as Rnd 7, "NOTE: your knit sts will increase by 2 with every rnd worked." After the list of rounds to be worked as Rnd 9 there is a note that "your sts between your K2tog and SSKs will have increased by 2 with every round worked."

And finally this little bit of information, 12 purls + 25 knits = 37 sts in each repeat.

From the pattern directions to my needles is all I can say!

I plan to use stitch markers, do what I think I should, be consistent and go for it! But first I think I'll check with the Ravelry members who have made this skirt. Du-uh! Why didn't I think of that three weeks ago?!!! Heck, I might even make a graph as well.

Anyway, that is my December challenge and now it's time to go crank out some socks on my new sock machine, right after a quick look in Ravelry. Is there such a thing as a "quick" look in Ravelry?

Bona Fide Knitter

I'm Still Here

My muse seems to have left me. My linen lace flirty skirt has attacked me. I've been tagged TWICE! and I just can't seem to put pen to paper . . . er, fingers to keyboard. I've probably lost the small following I had. Come back, pleeeeeease!

First of all, after I made my list and checked it twice I remembered a lot of projects that should be incorporated into that list of priorities. I'm going back to my modified version of Guru Laura's Rule of Threes. More on that to come.

Secondly, the first plunge into the lace of the flirty skirt has derailed me. "Knit the knits, purl the purls" has me all a shook up. Are YOs knits or purls when you get back to them on the next round? When you're doing YOs is there such a thing as a purl YO? In my shaken up stage I took another plunge and enrolled in TKGA's Basics Basics Basics which wasn't to arrive for weeks. It arrived in days--so fast it made my head spin! So now I'm shook up and my head is spinning. Not good when at the threshold of the big holiday season, especially when you're trying to clear out and sell two houses and clear out and remodel the one you're living in. But I can do it because I'm a woman--W-O-M-A-N!

And last but not least, in this entry are seven random and/or weird things about me you probably don't want to know and couldn't care less about. 'The reason for these seven things?' you ask. My guru Laura, The Scarlet Knitter, tagged me. To make it even more interesting one of the other people she tagged, Necessary Chocolate, also tagged me. Thanks ladies! Now do I get to write 14 random/weird things about myself? I can do it, but I'll limit myself to seven right now:

1. I'm left handed until my right hand thinks it can do the job better and then I become right handed. I write right handed, eat left handed; draw right handed, color left handed; wield a knife left handed, cut with scissors right handed; juggle? I use both hands and still can't do that.

2. I love Cape Cod. It makes me happy. It is my Laughing Place.

3. I'm a hobby junky.

4. I'm a collector, a very bad thing when you are a hobby junky. I have doll, rabbit, dollhouse and coin collections. Also yarn, fabric and needlepoint stashes. I mean COLLECTIONS and STASHES! I won't even list the minor ones.

5. I hate heights. I'm talking about higher than the second floor. Flying requires much psyching up on my part. Forget walking across a bridge. Save me from those glass capsule elevators providing a panoramic view as I rise or fall. (Well, it feels like falling!) And don't even think about getting me over to the observation window in a tall building. Just writing about it makes me weak in the knees. Steps with no risers? There'd better not be very many!

6. I can keep a secret . . . forever.

7. I am a loyal, protective and trustworthy friend. After all, I will carry your secrets to the grave.

Second seven to follow. Right now I'm trying to come up with three others to tag. Problem is many of those I'd like to tag don't have blogs. Kind of defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it?

Bona Fide Knitter

Making a List . . . Checking It Twice

I went to a dollhouse miniatures show on Saturday. Dollhouses were my passion three hobbies ago. There is knitting, sewing, doll collecting, quilting then dollhouses. Before that there is needlepoint with a little cross stitch and crewel thrown in and crochet. What can I say? I'm a hobby junkie. And you will notice that I don't refer to any of them in the past tense. Anyway the biggest most prestigious show in the area, Philadelphia Miniaturia, was held last week in Cherry Hill, NJ.

I hadn't attended the show in years. My mother, Margaret, and I used to attend yearly without fail when we were Mari-Mar Miniatures. We were never vendors there, not good enough, but we knew many there from other shows we were part of and we'd spend the day shopping and getting the inside info from friends in the know. We retired from the miniatures game and my mother became unable to attend the shows. She passed away almost two years ago. When I first got there yesterday it was odd not to be able to reach out, grab her arm and say, "Mar, look at this!"

Oddly enough the show was almost too big. There were sooooo many vendors--two ballrooms and a lobby full! Many were new to me, but there were still some friends left from the old days. We talked about the show's beginnings in Philadelphia, actually Willow Grove, a Philly suburb. It was held in a seedy motel, the George Washington Motor Lodge, and was the show not to miss. All the best miniaturists were vendors there. This year's show was the 39th year and the vendors are even more talented. Miniatures have come a long way since using acorns, bottle caps and "found" items to outfit a dollhouse. I watched some of it evolve in the 80s and 90s, then missed a decade. In the new millenium, miniatures and dollhouses are really something to behold!

I was determined not to buy anything. I have a workroom full--a miniatures and dolllhouses stash to rival any yarn stash! Looking on the vendors tables I was freshly reminded of just how much I do have. However, around my third hour there, I succumbed. It was the needlework that got me. I know I have many needlepoint kits of the fine scrim--40, 54 and even finer--that I gave up on when my eyes aged, but I didn't have any knotted work or punchneedle. I do now! What the heck! My eyes have been rejuvenated with surgery. I can see again. I'm going for it. I also bought another magnifying headgear thingy as insurance. I should be good to go.

Which brings me to the list I'm making and checking twice . . . I'm packing in new projects for my hybernation this winter as if I don't have enough already packed in! However, it is now time to rein myself in and make a plan. I'm currently working on the lacy skirt without regard to time, temperature, meals, obligations or completing the beach socks. The skirt has grown unwieldly and can no longer be my take-along project so I will go back to completing the beach socks while on-the-go. The list continues as follows: finish lacy skirt and start lacy socks, finish Abundance Afghan then start the Vivian Hoxbro sweater. If my timing is right this should occur right after I've had a class in shadow knitting at the Pottstown Knit Out and Crochet Too in January. That's as far as I'll go with the list today. I'll check it later and again tomorrow.

I have another list to make. I've been tagged! More on that in the next entry as I have real life and the real world intruding on my hobby schedule today. I'm outta here.

Bona Fide Knitter