The best compliment that I have ever recieved, from my brother.

Just wanted to post a bit of nonsense from a visit with my brother and his family for the holidays.
My brother and his wife, myself and My Beloved were sitting around after our holiday dinner on New Years day evening just chatting and catching up on the past year. (We generally only see each other once a year, since I moved from Southern California to Central California the summer of 2004.) We were discussing our "favorite" gifts. The subject of gift certificates came up. I like to get them, but I always feel like it is a "cop out" gift when I give them, so I will give one in addition to a gift. My brother said that he adores getting gift certificates. He always has. It's like two gifts in one for him. He gets something and he gets to shop. Then, he looked straight at me and said, "But, if I ever get a gift certificate from you, I will be so pissed." He was wearing the new hat and scarf that I had knitted for him and grinning like a loon. Apparently, according to his lovely wife, he wore the hat that I made him last year to bed. So did his sons. I think that is the best damned compliment that I have ever gotten from my brother. Ever.
Sorry there are no pictures, but I failed to take my camera on the trip.

The New Year and the Old Me.

It's the New Year and I do not make resolutions. I do, however, think up things that I would like to accomplish during the year. I do not "RESOLVE" to do these, I merely would like to. If they do not get done I feel no guilt or angst. If they do get done, I feel pretty darned nifty.
With that said...... One of the things that I would like to accomplish, this year, is to be more frequent in my blog posts. I shall, Dear Readers, endeavor to do so.

I have been a bad blogger, so sue me!

Okay, so I have been a bad blogger and haven't posted since July. I had issues. It is a long story, but the brunt of it is that I enter my knitting in The California Midstate Fair ( http://www.midstatefair.com/) every summer. Not only was my

Magickal Earth Shawl

mishandled by being placed on ASTROTURF, someone, in their infinite wisdom of all things knit, decided to judge it as a CROCHETED TABLECLOTH!!!!! Ordinarily this would not bother me, but it was knit of a very fine lace yarn on 2.5 mm needles. Here are my notes from Ravelry on this project.

"I did this one in an insanely short amount of time. I worked on this 8 to 16 hours a day, nearly 7 days a week for 2 months and 1 day. I lost a week because I frogged 32 rows (32,488 stitches approx.) of the Pine Tree Motif, as I did not like the way the corners looked. I modified the center to be an 8 Spoked Wheel instead of The Moon Pattern that is specified in the pattern. When I got to the center, the Wheel of the Year seemed to make more sense than The Moon. ::::Shrugs::: I like the way it ended up. I rate this “Difficult” not because it really is difficult to do, but the shear insanity of the scope of the thing. It was a total labor of love for a friend."

Bear in mind that I made this shawl for said friend on the condition that it would be entered in the fair. It is a tradition with me to enter a lace shawl. I sort of justify knitting yet another lace shawl this way. But I digress.

One would think that someone chosen to judge the Home Arts division of a county fair would be able to discern the disparities between items that have been knit and crocheted.

The point of this ramble is that I was indignant, insulted, hurt, enraged and nigh on to tears about this. I worried that when I picked up my items that the shawl would be damaged to the point that I would not be able to send it on to the person it was intended for and that all my work was for naught. It was a bit snagged, but I repaired it with no signs of damage. I mailed the labor of love off, yesterday. I have released the shawl and I have released most of the negative feelings associated with the Unfortunate Event. I am still indignant. So are some of my fellow knitters who know the story. We have a right to be.

Crochet tablecolth, indeed.

By the way, it won 3rd place.

You can see more views of this at http://www.flickr.com/photos/27343700@N05/2626674259

Whoops, I Fair Isled Again!
I seem to be a glutton for knitting punishment.I made it halfway through the evening of the 17th and I had to knit again. Yes, my arm still hurt, but not as badly. I figured that I could knit on what I consider large knitting needles without pain. That would be US size 8 which are 5 mm.

I started to thumb through my considerable stash of patterns for something in the right needle size and I found this pattern.

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTtam.html

Knowing that I have an aversion to knitting Fair Isle, I still rummaged through my stash of yarn and grabbed my needles and started. Its not that I don't like the look of Fair Isle, quite the opposite. I think it is really lovely. I just don't like doing it. Well, I didn't used to like doing it. This is the fourth Fair Isle project that I have knitted and I didn't hate doing it . It didn't take me forever to do it. I almost liked doing it.

Just think, in another few years I might even love doing it.

I like the way it came out.

Knitting related injuries.

I hate it when this happens. My arm hurts and I want to knit. Its not that I can't knit when my arm hurts. I can but I know better. So I will have to not knit and just sit here and peruse patterns and Jones after yarn.

One of the reasons that my arm hurts is because I pushed myself to finish these socks.

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer08/PATTspringforward.html

I am fine when I am working on the first sock, but then I get impatient to finish the second one. I guess it is the dreaded "Second Sock Syndrome" with a twist. A combination of boredom with the pattern and anxiousness to have another pair of socks. So I knit longer than I should, shrugging off the twinges of pain. )You would think that I would learn, but no, it happens at least once every few weeks.)

I have a thing about socks. I don't think that there is a thing as too many pairs of hand knit socks. It probably stems from a lifetime of ice cold feet. It doesn't matter if it is 115 degrees, my feet are still cold. I never understood the allure of hand knit socks until I started knitting them. Once you wear a really good pair, made of quality fiber you will dread wearing one size fits all, pre-packaged, store bought socks.

I am sure that there are some really great socks out there, made of silk and Pima cotton and merino. And I am sure that they cost less than what I pay for the yarn to knit a pair. (Yes, I have been known to pay $25 for yarn for one pair of socks, but it was Alpaca and Silk and Merino wool and it was Handpainted and sooooooooo pretty and soft. Sigh. And it wasn't even for myself. But I digress.)

The urge to knit is telling me to go cruise the web for luscious yarns. Ciao for the moment.

Why do I do this to myself?

Here is the deal, I love to knit but I hate to do the finish work. Weaving in the ends, doing seams and all that stuff. So, why do I insist on knitting things that have a kerbillion color stripes with two kerbillion ends to weave in?





It must be self punishment.

I love the look of the items when they are done, but halfway through the item it hits me that I am going to have to spend just about as much time weaving in ends as I spent knitting the thing.

I finished knitting a "Scrap Hat" like ten days ago and it still has a snot load of ends to weave in. I have made two pair of socks and started another hat since I finished the striped hat. There the poor thing sits, on the table, goading me in its unfinished state.

I will eventually finish it, as I won't be able to sell it at the Craft Fair in
December if it isn't done. Looks kind of nifty from the front.