Whirlwind

Today photos are loading lickety split. So I give you the beginnings of Kiri shawl. The color is really more fuschia, but the KSH is fabulous.

I took my Noodle-Pie to the big city, Vancouver. We shopped at Lulu Lemon, Chocolate Arts, Duthies, Ming Wo. It was a great Kitsilano experience. Unfortunately it was a bit cold and wet. This is her working on a free-form stuffed animal with kind of horns or ears. I call it a Nargle, but she says I don't know what a Nargle is.

We saw Romeo and Juliet at Bard on the Beach and I was most enchanted. The actors looked so young! They really pulled it off. The costumes were modern clothes in black and white and most convincing. Romeo wore tight jeans and a leather jacket that hinted at the silhouette of tights and a doublet. The backdrop was Vanier Park.
On Saturday we took the ferry to Victoria to see our son, Boo. D. met me at the ferry and I was perfect in my timing. The only thing I have been perfect in for a wee bit.
We met at the Noodle Box in china town and had fun at Silk Road teas and the variety stores. We each bought a bag of White Rabbit candies and ended up with 4 bags!!!
I indulged in a little sac for my sock knitting, like the monkey bag I've been trying to build a pattern for. The satin tissue holder has been on my replacement list for several years as mine is disintegrating. The pin cushion is the smallest of this variety I have seen. I bought my mom a huge one years ago.
It was so good to meet up with friends. The concert was superb. He really learned a lot in 3 weeks.

Then we headed up island for a family reunion where 148 of 163 descendants attended. A bit overwhelming, but good people. D. made a marvelous powerpoint presentation of his branch of the tree which made us all cry. I miss Nana so much at these things. D.'s grandma always helped me fit in with these crowds and was fun and generous and gracious. She died when Noodle was 6 months old.

And now we do laundry and pack for Scotland. I have quite a few duties in my committees to squish into this time. The kids want to take the guitar but our charter air service is being chintzy with luggage. I will take my flute and my theory which is coming along well. Won't my teacher be surprised?

Today I try to get some fresh food in the house. I won't change out of my work out clothes till I get back from the Y. I insist. But there's so much else to do too!

Second Trip

No pics allowed by blogger today.

I'm up and away again, this time taking daughter to Vancouver for shopping and Bard on the Beach. I'm almost 44 (next week) and I don't have to wait any longer for someone to invite me. I'm going to do things that matter to me.
It's hard to find a Shakespeare buddy. Especially in the summer. I'm thinking of trailing behind my opera friends to learn about that. But I was a great Lady MacBeth in highschool (like countless others) and eventhough I dropped out of Theatre after first year, I still love it. I think if I could have done solely Shakespeare in a whole lifetime, I may have stayed in.
I read about him and read his plays and poetry out here in the wilds of the farmland. We, luckily, have a super theatre program in our own college and I'm going to go to that, too. Just watch me.

From Vancouver to Vancouver Island to meet up with piano son and then on to the dreaded D's family reunion. You don't have to tell me it will be more fun than I anticipate. There are many very nice people there who are or can be kind. But I dread these 100 plus parades of who's the most successful or the slimmest. It's a bit hard on a housewife.
On that point, I mailed off more paper work to further my cause to re-enter nursing.

Harry Potter 5 was super. It was pretty close to the spirit of the book and Noodle Pie liked it. I like going to the giant movie theatre in Mission and shopping at Black Bond Books, too.
I have a lot to thank Harry for- our film festival means Kiri is on her way and I even worked on the long lost sock.

Hope you kick back and play summer games this weekend.

Anniversary Anyway

I missed my first bloggiversary.
I started on June 30th last year. Rather by mistake and still quite in secrecy.
This has been a fun exploration.
I am so inspired by the great knitting on-line community and in my own little way I'm a part of it.
I love my little camera and I'm learning more about communicating through comments.
I still read 4 or 5 almost daily. I have had times when I've checked 4 or 5 times a day to see if Li or Stephanie or Cara have updated. In my disappointment I still checked later in the day.
I needed some knitting sisterhood.

In my non-virtual life I am now at home at my LYS and helping them with advertising and coaxing them on ordering the real goodies.

They love the on-line information that I bring to them, but I feel they still think it is not for them. Perhaps this year I'll meet a local blogger and we will wink and nod.

So much fun and party and yarn porn. Some is just escapist, but there are definite feminist and charity focus blogs that can help us be the best we can be.

I didn't knit for charity yet this year. I guess I'll jump into a jag or go back to a monthly plan.
The 5 hour baby sweater is a great gift. I love EZ's baby surprise. Years ago I cut and pasted (with scissors and glue) the Knitter's publication of it. I have made so many copies, but never a sweater from them.

Kiri has begun. This is from alltangledup.com .I wonder if I won't knit 3 of them in a row. Like Januaryone.com. I am susceptible to a knitting jag. Starting with Lucy Neatby's crocheted provisiona cast on was a dream and my hands still remember the pattern from last June. Rowan Kid Silk Haze really is the crack of wool.

So, on this Sunday, I have earned some rest, some time for practicing my music and for listening to Lime and Violet while I grow the Kiri shawl.

In a year so much has changed and so much is the same.

Clapotis Part Deux

She be done and ready for the first wiff of cool air.

None to be had today.

I do love the Koigu and the colours. I'm trying to get my LYS to carry Koigu and STR and maybe even Fleece Artist.

I'll let you in on a little secret. I ran out of yarn. Totally preventably but not redeemable. I don't know how to frog back after the stitches are already dropped. So I just did a creative cast off. Hope you don't mention it when you see it.

I do have a bit of a dream that I'm travelling around with my lovely Clapotis (blue or pink) and someone comes up to me and says, "Is that a Clapotis?" I have a hug ready for that new knit-sibling. I would feel that, eventhough I'm in Ottawa or Stirling or Yarrow, I would not be alone.

Today is the shortbread factory. I'm acutally making 8 batches. It is my speciality.

I usually make it in July for our friend and piper, Frank. He died just after we competed at the Worlds in 2001. I still take it to the annual BBQ in Bellingham because he loved it so much and we want to remember him. I didn't get to go this year.

It's also my son, Mr. Boo's favourite.

My mother-in-law asked me to bring it to their family reunion. I don't really feel like baking on a hot July day. I gave up my trip to the gym this morning (I'm not bitter) to bake in the cool part of the day. It's all cleaned up already.

I will be selfish and keep one batch for my son't piano recital and one for another aunt we'll visit on the following Sunday.

So this is a big week.

On Wednesday I'm taking Emily into Vancouver to introduce her to Kitsilano and maybe Granville Island. We stay at the Wall Centre (pretty posh) and go to Bard on the Beach Thursday night- Romeo and Juliet. I'm really looking forward to it. Though I squished it too close to the trip to Vancouver Island.

I can hardly wait to see Mr. Boo who has been at the University of Victoria since Canada Day at piano camp. It'll be 3 weeks altogether. He's getting along really well with his friends from our piano studio and I thank my best friend for being the dorm mother. Shortbread isn't much to give her but we'll enjoy it.

I will try to cast on Kiri today with purple Rowan Kid Silk Haze. It's a bit too hot for summer knitting, but we're watching all the Harry Potter movies in the cool basement. It is a 70th birthday present for my husband's aunt. She and her husband are very successful and very generous. I owe a lot to her in understanding style and grace. I've known her since I was 15 so I feel as if she's my real aunt too.

Her husband is not well. His cancer returned. He's on dreadful experimental chemo. We can't tell if he's getting sicker or just reacting to the treatment. We're worried. She is giving up her month-long trip to Tuscany to keep things gentle. She knits and will appreciate the lovely shawl and wear it with elegance. She will appreciate the shortbread, too, because people (like us) drop in to visit with her and Uncle. It is not much to help, but it is what I can do.

Lessons Learned

I've been watching Lucy Neatby's videos. I borrowed them from our library and there's a lot of information there. Some of it is repetitive or a bit out of order, but it 's fascinating.
I didn't learn knitting from any expert.
I learned by faking my way through mistakes.
Kind of like life.

But when I see Lucy teaching how to do my cast on, or seaming in the way I finally ended up with ( or so far anyway), I am so encouraged. Maybe I'm not such a pretender after all.
Maybe that's why I knit for babies because they don't complain about gauge or finishing.

And gauge. Will I ever make friends with this dragon? My last sweater was a huge failure in sizing. Literally.

Lucy says be kind to your stitches. I have been pushing my right needle too far into the stitch so that the yarn has to stretch to double width. I can knit quickly like this. But she says I'm abusing the poor stitch. Sorry.
I will try to gently and gradually move to knitting with just the tips of the needles. Maybe I'll get better gauge, maybe I'll get happy stitches.
There are so many ways of knitting. And we are never finished learning our lessons.

Like Paddling in Ripples

I love my first tast of Koigu. I find this second Clapotis to be relaxing and enjoyable. I actually had the same feeling as paddling a canoe. A pattern in a few steps to pass the marker over or complete the J stroke.
This makes sense for Canada Day.

We've been to several tests and hospitals from New Westminster to Port Moody and the Clapotis has been an excellent travelling companion to augment a tense D. through cardiology.

The end result is he does need a heart repair, but he is allowed to pipe and we are going to Scotland in August for the World Championships in Glasgow.
This is a lot different from potentially emergency open heart surgery and no piping or flying for 6 months.

Did you see him in the Vancouver Sun on Thursday last week to advertise today's BC Highland Games in Coquitlam?



I also was gifted a huge box of acrylic yarns, some cool old patterns and plenty of needles from my great neighbour when she cleaned out her mom's apartment.
I use this wool and needles to share when I teach someone or to make donated items.

I'm just getting back on the horse. I have committee work that I begged off. I played flute last Sunday but I haven't been to band in weeks. They're performing tomorrow morning but I need to be available to a guest speaker instead. I'm not sure of Thursday either. I thought the season would be over by now. I'm trying to get ready for next season.

I also have some studying to do for volunteer work in September and I'd like to get my piano theory redone. I should have written it when my little Noodle-Pie did in grade 3.

All the report cards are in. Honours for both. Gifts given (replacement ipod and rollerblades). I'm "helping" Boo pack for 3 weeks of piano camp on the Island. Whew.

I also booked hotels for Bellingham and Vancouver for shopping/shows with daughter.

Make the most of this summer in the absence of beach weather. I'm not a beach person much anyway: I don't like sand in my wool.

Overcast

The sun shines weekly

Weakly

Summer reluctant to don

The small bikini

On blanched, exposed limbs.

She procrastinates

Fails to buy tickets,

Pack her beach bag

Nostalgic for days

Of shorter duration

Longer rests

By the fireside.

Big Steps

I am now the happy owner of an up-to-date first aid and CPR-C ticket. I took the course as part of my preparations to return to nursing and had a blast.



My first course was when I was 17 and in the reserve forces medical corps. We watched a film that had to be threaded through a projector and saw a woman choose a pencil and dial a rotary phone, very slowly. 9.........(the dial rotated back)1.........1.......

We practiced with no gloves or masks.

I got the chest crusher award because I was full of adrenaline at my test and almost busted the poor annie doll. I also got an annie hickey.



Yesterday was so different. I have taught first aid to other trades in the army. I went to nursing school. I have had two children and countless first aid events at camp and soccer and the skating rink. We had 4 nurses in the class and went through everything tickety boo. I'm proud of my success non-the-less.



THEN

I had a flute recital in which I played better than every before. I love my Haydn Serenade and my teacher is such a love ( and a knitter too). My kids were there. Though I had to drag them, they were very kind and it was not too much to ask them to sit through 7 flutist in 30 minutes with ice cream at the end. I'll play that piece at church next month.



So I have some tools to measure my life. The 15 miles I cycle at the Y, the steps forward toward nursing and the improvements I've made in my music. I can settle for that.

Big Fat Disappointment

This is the final product. Why am I surprised to have yet another sweater too big?

Hi, my name is Angie and I have trouble with gauge.

So what to do with this monstrosity? Here I am airing my dirty laundry (poorly constructed handicrafts?). But I feel that I'm not all alone and those of you out there who might chance upon this may have had a similar grief in the long past.

I'd even accept it being quite a bit longer than in the picture (or maybe not) but the underarm hole is gigantic. Not a quick fix. It is integral to the sweater.

My best bet right now is to take it to Hanne at my LYS and ask her to sell it. I think even one lady I've met there might like it.

I'm just going to ask the price of the yarn which I got at half price on Boxing Day.

To placate myself, I will start my Koigu clapotis.

I had to rip out that same sock. Poor thing. The sock that never was. I like the short row mitred heel, but I didn't finish decreasing- directly related to putting it down for too long. I like just having a sock on the needles so perhaps that's what I'll have.

The Fleece Artist Soft Wavy Wrap is lovely but too fluffly and hot for right now. I don't need it until October.

Sigh. Will I ever champion the acceptance of body image and knitting. Perhaps I should just knit something out of Big Girl Knits. It's sitting on my shelf, trying to be my friend and accept me for who I am.

IN other news, D. has a follow up tranesophageal echocardiogram on Thursday and possible heart surgery. It's been a big year. We are blessed with his tenatious baby brother ( an esteemed interist) and a great group of friends who are praying for him and us.

I"m Sorry William Shatner

I have been increasingly unwell despite working much harder than usual at my health, so I've taken a drastic step and taken out insoluble fibre from my diet.
I have IBS and bran is one of the noted gastro intestinal irritants. But I love my whole wheat everything and roughage. I was a Weight Watchers leader and the increased fibre can really make you lose weight and gain health.
For now I'm into white bread (from a good bakery) and cooked vegetables. Two cups of peppermint tea a day. I actually already feel less bloated after a few days. Unfortuately sugar and alcohol are also on this list. I can cut out the sugar OK for a while, but I would like a glass of wine on the weekends. Perhaps if I'm feeling well enough.
Mr. Shatner has a silly set of All-Bran commercials that I see when I'm on the bike at the Y. I think many people don't think about nutrition, fibre and whole foods. I 'm not enamoured of packaged anything. And now no granola, seeds or whole wheat and bran.
So the only fibre challenge that I am up to is using my imposed "rest" (non-weight bearing) to knit and plan knitting and wind up my lovely new balls from Mothers' Day.

One Good Turn

I turned the heel of this neglected sock and hardly realized it.

I've heard a lot about Nancy Bush and I was surprised to find I actually had the right yarn for her Ribs and Cable Sock in Interweave Knit's Fall 2005. This is a great pattern.

I'm no sock expert and I thought I would make Jay Walkers (put me alone on the list who have not made them yet) but I couldn't resist trying this simple, classic design. The yarn is from Helen's Needlework in Mt. Vernon Washington where I am lucky enough to shop during the July Highland Games. It's from a few years ago. I also enjoyed Wild Fibres there and would hit that store first. But I don't think I'll be going to any games on this bad foot.

So I managed to pick away at this sock during travels. I hope to make the toe with Lucy Neatby's chimney and cast on quickly for the second. I like having a pair of socks on the needles even if I don't need mindless knitting.

I like the short row heel. We'll see how it fits soon. This Mountain Colors is fuzzier and not as tightly spun as the Socks That Rock. I do love the colours. I like the idea of fancy socks that don't kick you in the teeth with their pattern. I have big feet and cold feet, so these socks should do fine.

I've knit several pairs before (5? 6?) I have three more pairs worth: 2 more mountain colours (one for pedicure socks for my friend for Xmas I hope) and Trekking XXL. That's pretty yummy stash for such a small gathering. I wasn't even tempted to buy more while I hadn't turned the heel on this one.

The great disappointment that is my blue diagonal cardigan now has one short sleeve and one long. I just ripped it from the longest point I could live with and knit up the cuff. I was going to knit it separately and graft it on, but with two rows of garter stitch, it didn't seem to matter. Still I couldn't face ripping up the second one last night while D. and I watched O Brother Where Art Thou (alone!), so I tucked in all the loose ends. It was surprisingly comforting like soaping a saddle or hanging laundry in the sun. Soon I will do the second sleeve and, instead of a pile of yarn in the stash, or an unfinished object on the needles, I will have a sweater. I will even try to love it.

I managed to get to the knitting Friday morning at the Chilliwack Craft and Wool Shop. I like those ladies so much. A fine smattering of old Dutch grannies, ladies my age from field and forest, and the odd (not so odd) hipster. Lots of learning going on in that group. I am their link to knitty and the internet. I can't imagine managing knitting without the internet community. So much sharing going on. And I'm learning to open up and add my two (Canadian) cents.

Well, one good turn deserves another.

7 Habits

Seven habits of a creature of strange habits.
This comes from Li at Life's a Stitch. Note to self: learn how to do hypertext links.

http://lifesastitch.typepad.com Hope that works.

Here's some of my many habits:

1. I always back into a parking space or pull through, "ready to go".

2. I have to earn my morning shower with a workout. Even if I don't get to clean up until 2pm.

3. I like to wear one donimant colour with neutrals. Denim is a neutral. Pink, red or purple are stand-alone accents. This has trickled into my knitting except for fair isle.

4. I do housework at the beginning of the week (Monday) so I can enjoy a clean house while my family is back at work/school.

5. I treat myself to a fun mystery novel after each serious read.

6. I can surf. I have surfed. I did surf. I have pictures to prove it. That was my dream for my fortieth birthday and it tasted great despite the salt and sweat.

7. I have lost some dreams on the sidelines.

Not Finished

This diagonal stitch cardigan from Debbie Bliss is a difficult sweater. I quietly picked away at it, row by row. I liked the interesting construction. I like the raglan sleeves. I like the drape of the fabric.
But it's TOO BIG. Can't win.

At first I thought the sleeves were just too long and I could easily rip them back, knit a new cuff and graft it on. Thanks to my on-line friends for even thinking that is a reasonable, normal venture.

But it's too drapey. It's not the sweater I was hoping to have. I wanted it more like the picture.

What to do? NOT abandon it to a container in the basement. I've had disappointments before and I have had successes. I will fix the sleeves and try to shrink it a bit in the wash. It's mostly cotton and may ignore it's acrylic content for me. It's not a bad sweater. Just not the one I hoped for.
Blogger is being cranky and won't let me post a picture. I'll try soon.
I'm not finished with you yet!

Finishings

I am spending a lot of time on very simple little baby sweaters. The knitting is very basic, the shapes are basic and the yarn is the focus.

Why would I do that when I can knit fair isle and lace, complicated sweaters of my own design and fantasitcal productions in wool?

I am enjoying the simplicity. At the same time I came upon a Lucy Neatby video at the library and I am charmed by her no nonsense and gentle approach to finishing.

Much of what she showed me was what I had been trying to do as the best choice from trial and error (lots of error) but I haven't been consistent because I never was sure.

I really felt that a "real" knitter would scoff at my finishing. I dreaded it and made a botch of it in anticipation of failure.

But now, when I'm rather exhausted from doing to much "out there", my knitting is simple and calming and I am free to gently and correctly match seams with the expertise of a great teacher behind me. What a joy.
In the past I have often charged that which I deplore. I became a crack nurse at gross dressings and the dying patient.

I'll do the nasty chores before settling in to get the nicer part of the job done- the equivalent of my oldest sister's "eat your peas first"

But finishing must be done last. It is so easy to go on to the next project with the promise of finishing later. I know people who pay others to do their finishing.

But now I have joined the ranks of those who accept finishing as part of a sweater project.

Just in time, too because I was brave enough to cast on the shawl collar of my diagonal sweater and I will have long raglan seams to finish as soon as I knit 4 more inches.

The scarf fit in a little plastic box. The kimono is ready for the mom's visit next month and the blue chunky sweater of Patagonian cotton will be ready to give our expecting skating coach this last week at the rink.

The cardigan collar is a fraction of what I thought it would be and I think I may work on my thistle lace shawl (also for myself) before beginning a nephew sweater of a birthday gift shawl. The Fleece Artist is awfully tempting. A siren rather than a muse.

I dipped into my extensive button collection to find buttons for this chunky cardigan. I finished it while watching Pan's Labyrinth. Not a great choice considering it is in Spanish with English subtitiles. But a wonderful fairy story told in a beautifully dark mood. Haunting music. I can still hum the tune.

This spate of finishing was foretold and I am not feeling any sense of loss. Rather relief to be caught up to my (artificially imposed) deadlines and expectation of future buffets of wool.

It is almost the end of the skating season, the school year, piano classes and Sunday School.

Aye Fond Farewell.

May Retreat

I'm just back from camp up at Cultus Lake. I'm so tired from helping the wonderful cook.
We had a blast but it was very heavy work for two to feed 80. Cook was so great about having vegetarian and vegan and milk free and wheat free. I got confused.
Not just camp food, either. Chicken enciladas, brilliant lasagna, they were very lucky.
Thanks wonderful cook for the fun and singing and tips on making things yummy.

My daughter went and had a good time at her second retreat.

I came home in the evenings and crashed infront of the TV. It was our 18th wedding anniversary and D. was on call, so we're going to celebrated with dinner tomorrow night at the restaurant where he proposed, La Mansione.

Right now I have to get my turn at the shower and put in a load of laundry. I have some finishing to show off next time.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Mothers' Day came with a trip to Urban Yarns in Vancouver. My friend has lost both parents and I was grumpy about last year's horrific Mothers' Day, so we took off for a lovely day.

I had ordered some lace weight, but it was sent to the other store. I ended up, after more than an hour of poking about, choosing the Fleece Artist Soft Wavy Wrap. It has the luminous blue and waves look I was going to use in the Print of the Waves shawl. The bonus is the quick knit.

I seem to be up to my armpits in projects.

I am dutifully decreasing on my sleeve. Good knitter.

Also having trouble with the pink tape online solo scarf as I have to use my right hand to throw the yarn.

Also quickly knitting up a black toque with pink wormy projections for daughter's super hero costume for camp this weekend "Anemone Emily".

Also looking at list of babies due. I have found the original patterns for the thicker yarns I had chosen and now have extra light yarns for future babies. Must finish one for May and one for June. The scarf is also for June.

Then...

the new yarn. Fleece Artist shawl for October- my second sister turning 50!

Kiri in purple Rowan Kid Silk Haze for September for Auntie turning 70! I'll probably work on this during out August Scotland trip.

Another Kiri for October- good friend turning 50! She'll get her pedicure socks for Xmas.

Another baby in October- our best babysitter we had for 6 years. She will be getting a baby denim jean jacket.

That's already more knitting than the calendar allows.

Whew.

And my carpal tunnel is acting up. Of course. I will try to moderate my rowing machine, but I love the way it strengthens my shoulders and improves my posture (all the better to knit my dear).

The list strangely calms me.

Don't expect me to stick to it too closely. Right now I'm a bit of a magpie.

Too many things on the needles. Perhaps in the coming weeks it will all come cascading to finishings. This is May, right?

My kids did do a lovely job of making me feel appreciated when I returned from my great escape. I'm lucky. At 16 and 14, they are poised to escape on their own adventures.

A Prayer

A new friend of mine is having a breast cancer lump removed on Friday. I feel helpless.

I start talking 'Nurse" about making sure she has what she needs and sticks up for herself. Listens to her own gut and rests and looks after herself.

I ask about pre and post-op care. But I am not her nurse and I am only a new friend.

So I made her a prayer shawl.

The stitches are in groups of three.

This one is knit on size 5mm and size 17mm needles. It is Caron shadows from Michaels. It was quick and fun. I knit it in one day and thought of her and prayed for her all day. I don't know how I'm going to get it to her. I've made myself a new problem, but I needed to reach out and I hope she can wrap herself in some love as she enters the world of the Cancer patient. I was a pediatric oncology nurse and I have trouble not immersing myself in all the care giving measures that suited me so. I cried so hard the day my son was born for all the invasive procedures I had done on other people's children. I know I helped them to live, but I didn't know how horrible it was until I held my own baby in my arms.

My friend was someone's baby and she is someone's mother and wife. She is also a good friend.

Who Are the People In Your Neighbourhood?

Because of my stinking foot, I'm avoiding the mall. You can't get anything without walking miles.

Yesterday I went down town. Our sad and neglected little town. I usually shop the used book store, the shoe shop and the cool home furnishings: Objekts.

But I popped in on a friend from the choir and listened about her trip to Holland. I'm not in the choir anymore and miss our casual visits. She works in a "quaint" shop of new and used lace and teacups. A bit twee for me. So good to see her.
Around the corner is a hobby shop that may have the little figurine I'm looking for. I need a horse. I'll tell you about it in another post.

I walk in and the lady shouts, "I know you!!!"
Oh no. Is this another Weight Watchers client I have forgotten? Someone I nursed years ago? A skating mom? Someone from the other side of the soccer field?
No she recognized me from the wool shop and she remembered my felted bag (constant companion from Knitters' Stash) I had bumped into her at the wool shop months ago. She's going to have a nice hobby shop. She invited me to the Tuesday night gathering. I invited her to my as yet to be formed Sardis knit group.
She was so interested in one of my projects I told her I wanted to write it up and maybe have it published and she offered to be a test knitter.

How rich it is to step out of the virtual world and visit with real knitters. She brought up knitty and we both agreed we love "folly". I think it was before its time. Maybe we'll knit it together.

Pass It On

I was honoured to be asked to teach a child how to knit.

It's been a while since I've started someone from scratch. UBC was a good time for that and Nursing School.

This is a little girl who comes to the rink with her babysitter and she has actually pestered me and didn't believe I would do it.

She's about 8, but funny and funky.

I grabbed some needles from my extensive stash. I've inherited needles from my family, D's family and the past aunties of many friends. These are for sharing.

I cast on 15 stitches and showed her the rhyme again. She already had memorized it a few weeks before. I got it from Melanie Falick's Kids Knitting.

Under the gate

Catch the sheep

Back we come

Off we leap

She sat close to me and we worked the needles together. I knew I had her when there was no break between taking a stitch off and starting the next. Good girl.

She was very philosophical about mistakes and accepted the ideas that we share in this virtual network: everyone makes mistakes. Some of them are to be fixed and some of them are to stay. Learning how to fix your own mistakes is the goal- not not making mistakes.

I hope she comes back next Wednesday. She will be the only one in her family who is so gifted that she can knit.

Time After Time

Unfortunately I just found a wonderful teaching method that so totally agrees with everything I'm trying to do with my Sunday School, that I want to drop everything and immerse myself. I'm years behind and there's all sorts of resources on line. I borrowed the book in September and never even opened it because it's a big commitment in time and understanding and the dreaded self-discovery. What if I'm not really in there?

I don't know how to juggle another ball.

Yesterday I went to the Y and had a great workout but ended up the day with terrible foot pain. What caused it? I hated being in the anorexic gym after the welcome and belonging of the teaching workshop.

Today I gave up the gym for the rose bed. Only one. I have about five and each is at least 2 hours of work. This is the first day I've had the weather and the where with all. But two wheel barrows is definitely beyond my limit.

How will I knit if my hand is crippled with pain? See the cycle?

I finished up the morning by cleaning the downstairs fridge. Ugh. I need to do the one upstairs as well as assorted spring cleaning that was cut short by my crappy health.

We need to have a family meeting and discuss what we will do to prepare for the potential flood. We are in the flood plain, but in the second zone. Does that make a difference?

I'm still waiting for paperwork to start my registration back to Nursing. These mundane time-takers will have to be evaluated and some will have to go.

One sleeve done!! I told myself I could work on my coooky scarf gift if I finished the sleeve. Well, I got the scarf done and I found myself very sensibly casting on the second sleeve. Good for me. Do I want a sweater? Yes. How will I get to enjoy it? Oh, yes, knit and finish. Some day I will be so smart... when I find the time.

Virtual Comfort

I'm back at the Y but not in the pool. It's great fun to read on the recumbant cycle.
But it hasn't been a great week.

D. has lost MY keys, locked himself out of his (my) van far away on a farm, bought a new practice van and made us late for cello, lost his phone/palm pilot and finally lost his wallet.
Make him sit down so none of us get hurt or lost.

On Tuesday I made a lovely roast beef dinner which I couldn't sit down to because Noodle pie coaches at the rink. When we came home, I sat alone with a book and a glass of wine to enjoy my dinner while the others played violent video games. Well, I choked - on a pea- and I went into an asthma attack. A real one. The first I've had in about 20 years. Now I'm on a hair trigger and have had to fight off other smaller attacks all week. More of my very own limitations.

The good thing is that, after I rescued myself from the pea and scared my family, I rested in bed with my sleeve and listened to Lime and Violet. What a fun podcast. They really comforted me. I was able to laugh and listen along.

I also found out, thanks to them, that I do have a kimono pattern for the organic cotton I bought for a baby sweater. It's in the Mason Dixon book. Of Course! Well at least I was able to be comforted and get good knitting vibes.

I'm OK now but shopping for a medic alert bracelet. I'll look on line.

We Interrupt This Sweater

I was inspired by a new North Van friend's mitten mission. Stolen dreams.

I have knit many mittens. Most of them kept their partners and many of them kept my children's and their little friends' hands warm with us on the playground.

Now mittens are superfluous. You can't drive with mittens, you can't walk the dog or carry groceries. At least I require gloves.

But at the rink, my daughter's teeny coach wears mittens and I was compelled to use this malabrigo for her. Figure skating is a difficult sport and there is a great need for support and understanding. This coach allows my noodle-pie to grow at her own rate. She's very special and I would love to shower her with innocent mittens.

Today the skating club picks up litter for Earth Day. I hope there is a good turn out because this teeny coach will be there to encourage them.

On other fronts, we've been having a film festival. M. Night Shayamalan. I have so much trouble with his name. But I so appreciate his careful craft. My kids decided last night that his movies are more like short stories. Isn't that insight? I was chuffed. They have grown up with my snobbish ideas about encouraging the intelligence of the audience and I think they get it.

Still non weight bearing and coughing. I feel like a hedgehog and just want to roll up into a ball. D. is finally reaching out with some hugs. He doesn't like it when I'm sick because it cramps his very busy life. So sad.

Back and fronts almost done on the diagonal sweater so I will be wading into the sleeves today. I'm a bit worried about the investment of the collar. It may be as big as another sleeve. But when I'm done this sweater, I can make another few baby sweeties and a nephew sweater.

My niece moved so her sweater came back. Ouch. Exactly the reason I must reach out to my family. Mommy lost another brother this week. Many, many aunts and uncles I never knew. Still the loss is real. We must do for family as we are able.

Symptom Management

I've found another cold. I wondered if I was (tragically) allergic to the Y pool as I was struck down last Thursday night with Strep-like symptoms. But it has (thankfully?) settled into a full blown cold. In defence this time I started on antibiotics. I can't afford to lose another month to coughing and fevers.

But what did I do with my time?
I foolishly went litter picking with my Community Band for Earth Day. Not recommended for non-weight bearing activity. But it was fun and certainly worthwhile.
We took the kids to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum in Vancouver. This entailed more walking and late night but what a rich and inviting concert. Stephen Hough is extraordinary. He played a lovely Brahms and our piano students were enraptured. Bramwell Tovey makes the evening so intimate. Thank-you.

Sunday was too busy with a skit at church, a meeting and our first birthday party for my 13 year old nephew. My family DOES birthdays. A little present at breakfast, your favourite supper and family for cake and coffee. My kids would have all day affairs like I did if they were smart enough to be born in the summer.
This nephew pleaded to have a cake and coffee party with family. I just about brought up a cake, but his mom caught on and he sparkled as the center of attention. He also loved the dragon we bought him.

But where is the knitting?
I finally caught up last night. I had prepared the diagonal cardigan to just pick up and begin the front. Note to self: do the first few rows before putting it down. Leave the project to begin at an easy place. Otherwise the fever-addled brain will imagine the sweater is too smart for itself and choose to read instead. Or write. I'm actually writing.

The Geometry of Love by Margaret Visser is a beautiful book of history and symbolism surrounding an early church. Almost finished that puppy.

Last night the kids and I watched M. Knight Shyamalan's The Village. We love his films and relish the first watching for it's twists. Mucho knitting. I also knit at the rink and a middle school band concert. Front done, back well under way.

I could clean house all day, attend meetings, look after children, make a wonderful supper, but I measure my day by the knitting accomplishment.

You Just Wait

There is so much waiting in the wings right now.

My beautiful dogwood expresses it for me. In a few weeks, if the sun co-operates, he will have stunning white flowers. It is a Willie's White Wonder dogwood, developed in our own Agassiz research centre and perfectly suited to our climate.

I planted it September a year ago and spoke to a friend about missing an important duty because I was planting. Oops. He died before Christmas, so I think of this as Ian's tree.

This morning I started a very big ball rolling. Re-entry to nursing. They make it sound like I'll need a space capsule and an anti-gravity suit. This may be true.

I've checked into it before, but never when I've had such independence training to my family. D. even says he'll be taking a year off piping. It doesn't mean we'll see him more, but he won't be off piping.

So I'm serious. The librarian thing didn't work. I'm going to look at returning to nursing as a long-term care giver. That way I can have long-term relationships and give care- not just drugs. I won't go back to the hospital and you can't make me.

My Haiku is finished and sent to Stratford for a very lucky baby to be born to good friends.

Look at the buttons!! It's a good thing I take pleasure in the little things of life because the big things sure take their time finding me.

I'll just have to wait.

Rainbow Country

The powers that be have dubbed our city "Rainbow Country"

As magical as that sounds, it's a bit like celebrating "Pain Relief Wednesday"

We get a lot of rain. Usually it feeds my soul and makes our forests and gardens green. But it has been so cold again that I worry for my neglected garden. I have only been out two days. The weeding and pushing of the wheelbarrow exacerbate my painful hands so that I cannot knit.

Until last year, D. never helped in the garden. I did all the mowing until I complained about the vibrations from the blasted mower causing more hand pain. I have had a few injuries from riding and motherhood and have battled tendonitis, tenosinovitis, repetitive stress injury and burgeoning arthritis all along. My sisters are the same. We call it "turkey hand" because one sister removed her enormous home-grown turkey from the oven and couldn't release the grip. We all knew the pain.

My heel is improving. I am doing my stretches. I'm loving Aquafit and the reading time I get on the recumbant cycle. Plus the friendliness and encouragement I crave.

It doesn't matter if it's raining when I'm in the pool.

We have only one more meeting with my committee (plus and extra one I can't attend) and then a break before I join the next set in the process. We've almost completed our report.

The Haiku sweater is completed and buttons have been bought. Too cute. I need to mail it SOON.

I sent the cotton Mariah to my niece. I made it a while ago, but I wanted to give the nephews (and her) their sweaters in order of age. I hope she likes it. Noodle-pie tried to like it, but I knit too loosely and of cotton, so even though I knitted a medium to achieve a large, I ended up with an XL too big for me. That's what family is for. It's a more intricate knit than I may have attempted for my amazing niece, but I can see her wearing it as she goes to her masters in archeology classes. I hope she can feel the love for we rarely see her. I'm trying to find pictures of the cream cotton aran hoodie, but I think I finished it before I had my own camera. I'll ask D. to email it to me.

Off to the Y for some important sweating.

Vitriolic Poetry

Does it help to spew in verse. I guess so. I write it in my head even if I don't pick up a pen or, lately, a mechanical pencil. I like the less permant feel of pencil and how it links me to my first stories in Grade 1.

But I am focussing on what I CAN do.

Losing my walks meant that I had to find an alternative. I decided to go to my local Y where I was welcomed like an old friend (I am an old friend). I loved the recumant cycle - 40 minutes of reading! I missed the rowing machine and this time I didn't pull my back. So I went back after 2 days and even increased my workload. I try to go slowly, but I was such a strong youth, it 's hard for me to be an old woman.

But not so hard that I couldn't do Aquafit. Way more fun than swimming laps. I love swimming laps but I get frustrated with the old Mr. Slappy, the lane hog and Granny Dangly. It doesn't help me breathe and get into the zone to be writing petitions against seniors in the lanes.
But this aquafit is too much fun and still a challenge. I didn't know we'd get floaty belts. I was really worried about the aerobic stamina required to do deep water aerobics and my foot won't let me play in the shallow end. No worries. Get out there and play!

I ripped up the overgrown heather in the drive way this morning. Three wheelbarrows full. It was a bit too much. I bought new babies the same because they're the colour of the ones we saw on all the hillsides in Scotland. Tomorrow I"ll put them in and finish the edging (300ft) in preparation for the load of barkmulch we bid on at the Silent Auction of the skating club banquet.
Noodle Pie won a big award for field moves which means putting her skate over her head as she rushes past in different positions. Well done. Last year she won a jumping award.

Today I played flute with the Community Band. It was a challenge just to stay mentally focussed during the program for supporting out troops. Many of the older guys in our band played with the CFB Chilliwack band, back in the day (before the Liberal Government shut down our only mainland BC base). Our music flapped around and the tempos are still too fast for me. But I really feel I'm improving and they haven't kicked me out yet. I enjoy the big band music and the marches. It's so great to be playing ensemble.

We watched the Titans DVD tonight and loved it. It helped me get quite a lot more done on my diagonal sweater. I'm trying to marvel at and enjoy the construction to get me through this straight stretch. But it's hard to knit when I'm reading Anne Lamott and I never want to put it down.
Riches. Blessings. More to life than my constitutional. Lots that I can do.

I Say It Doesn't Bother Me

Well, it does. We've had major husband setbacks with back surgery, stroke and another (!!) car accident. I'm feeling overwhelmed by his inability to express feelings or listen to mine. If you push it all in it will just go away. No.
Add to that a very teenage daughter. At least this extra ice time and assistant coach opportunity seem to be helping with mood swings.
My best friend is in England. Boo hoo. Not that she should listen to me because she's not free from troubles, but I know she's there when she's there.

So I comfort myself. I take my vitamins and get fresh air.
Today I went to the Y for the first time in ages. I managed OK with the recumbant cycle and the rowing machine. I took it easy and I listened to my ipod. I'm hoping this setback will be the catalyst to me regaining my health and fitness (and lower weight). Tomorrow I'm going to Aquafit 1 and hope I'm fit enough for Aquafit 2. Who knows?
We used to live at the Y when the kids took swimming lessons and noodle pie was in synchronized swimming. What a beautiful sport! Too bad we had to take her out of the pool because of allergies.

Retreating to the needles, I have stocked up on book tapes and am pleased to be keeping company with a long list of baby sweaters.
When my hunky-boo was born, I had sweaters coming in from all over the country and overseas. Friends from university whom I had taught how to knit or spent time knitting with. I never realized the impact it made on them. I certainly took up knitting baby sweaters as a major task to bring love back into their lives and into the lives of family and friends. For many it's the only hand-knitting they've ever seen. (This increases my cleverness quotient greatly).
I have a sweater for myself, too, and if I'm honest, I can say that I'm selfish enough to spend some major time on something for myself. If I have to be off my feet, I may as well have something to show for it.
Then maybe it won't bother me so much.

A Bit Battered

My beautiful magnolia was late blooming because of the frost. I was too gobsmacked to take a picture last week with snow. Blew me away. Now she's out in full bloom and the rain and the wind are jealous and trying to strip her of her beauty. Hold fast.

Me, I'm holding fast despite a now diagnosed plantar fasciaitis. Painful heel and instep. I'm not allowed to walk until I have had pain relief for 2 weeks. If it's not better in 2 months, I'm to go back in. Phooey. I'm glad it's not something worse, but this is a long-term and very painful problem.

I'll check out aquafit, maybe, and go back to the circuit. My poor dog. Walking is my therapy. For my mental health, my aging girth and my joints and asthma. Phooey.

So I should be able to get some writing and knitting in, eh?

Right now all my energy is going to a committee to hire someone. And the people who were supposed to hand in their part last night didn't even show up. I am concerned. Is baseball more important? I thought we were almost done! There's a second committee to hire after this one figures out the needs. Beaurocracy is alive and well and living in Sardis.

I've made some mistakes on my Haiku sweater and ripped back a few times. But I am comforted by it's basic pattern. I'll get on to the little sleeves now. Pictures to come. Embrace your mistakes for they are what give you growing pains.

Barbara Walker

I have been so pleased to see many references to Barbara Walker in the knit-internet. Her Treasury of knit patterns, mosaic knitting and top down patterns are revolutionary and rivalled only by Elizabeth Zimmerman.
But Barbara G. Walker has published extensively about female symbolism and mythology and the origins of our present culture based on matriarchal roots. I was lucky to find a copy of Crone at the Bookman, our local brilliant used book store and loved how it gathered up all the myths and stories and ideas into a cohesive account. Her Women's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects has been out of my price range, but I've seen it a few times in book stores in the states.
My dilemma is that I'm not interested in tarot. My grandmother would have said that it is evil and satanic, but she lived under the heavy yoke of a paternalistic home.
Barbara tries to explain to me that female intuition and creativity, and anything that is a threat to the male culture has been successfully maligned.
Lately I've had trouble with some people who can't have a relationship with me because they are male. They are threatened by powerful women. I 'm not powerful, I'm a housewife, but I share my skills for the good of the group.
If someone can only think within their gender, they are cancelling out more than half the population and may as well join the taliban and put me in a burkha. If I can't speak out and act with equality, why do people pretend I can?
I grew up in a house of all women- my mom and three older sisters. We were people in our home and I thought we were normal. Now I'm over forty, I just want to fight back at those who would put my daughter in a cheerleader outfit and make her lose 20 pounds.
Has no one read Reviving Ophelia?
There was a great interview in Interweave Knits a few years ago that let Barbara G. Walker discuss what she thinks is a very simple life. We are so lucky to have such a strong and brilliant woman sharing her gifts with the knitting community.
If you read "And She Knits Too!", "January One" and "Math4Knitters" you'll see, today, how these brilliant women embelish their knitting with the impartation of real knowledge.

Really Cheating

I have fallen off the wagon. We received a lovely letter thanking me the handknits and alerting us that they are only 8 weeks from delivering their long awaited #2 baby.

I have been trying to make gold out of wheat, but I just don't have the right or enough wool for baby sweaters. So I dumped a bundle at myLYC and there, I've come clean (It is lent, afterall).

This is a very soft acrylic (washable), I'd actually stretch to call it microfibre to keep away the snob in me and others. I'm making Haiku again.

I don't have enough yardage of the ones I have so I have substituted a very similar "looking" cotton blend for the stunning organic cotton that goes back in the stash. I'll make an EZ baby surprise or another Haiku. I topped up another skein of lovely slubby blue for a June baby boy in the skating club. I also bought another skein of the green malabrigo so my daughter could make her coach mittens. I'll probably end up doing quite a bit of that, too.

Then there was the denim yarn on sale. It really loves to tease me. I have trouble with the dye and the texture and the physical effort of working it, but I so badly want to make a baby jean jacket for October. That gives me lots of time.

So I'm happy with the new company I'm keeping and letting my dreams run freely through my fingers.

The narcissus aren't real, and neither is my stash diet. No calories there...yet.

The Stork Flew Over

We just received a charming card from friends in Stratford. They were part of our practice before they moved back home and we miss them. I had sewn a handbag for her and knit "childhood" for their amazing almost 2 year old daughter.
The card thanks me again for the knitting and lets us know they are only 8 weeks from delivering number 2. I'm sure I didn't know about this, but flattery will get you everywhere.

Yes, I take requests.

So I have to go to the wool shop today and find enough charm for another Haiku. I love this sweater. But I don't have any worsted in my stash except for the natural wool from aran sweaters that is earmarked for an afghan (another year). I have lots of baby weight, but it just won't suit. Perhaps I'll knit it in sport weight and get a smaller size for a smaller baby.
This puts a spark into my knitting.

The cardigan is coming along, I'm on the straight and not so narrow now, but I'm not so happy with the edge. I can live with it, but knitting with a fever doesn't lead to the extraordinary. And I've always had trouble knitting for myself.
How old do I have to be before I either accept this or overcome it?

I have a new Internet friend, Kieth, who knits mittens. Now I'm being haunted by red and white Latvian mittens. Two of my friends have stunning white parkas that are crying out for such a treat.
Mittens are romantic. I knit so many for my babies and tied them with string as they went off to school.

But so many people are too sophisticated for them and prefer mini gloves in the strain of tube socks. My daughter's skating coach will get a pair simply because she wears them at the rink.
I can't drive with mittens. I have trouble holding the dog's leash. But I remember Laura's mittens in Little House in the Big Woods ( the first book I ever bought myself) and I wish for the pleasure as if it were expensive jewellery. Who would understand?

Perhaps it's hearkening back to the days before I wore a watch or had the troubles of other responsibilities. I tend to make lists for myself with my knitting and reading and writing that are too close to the duty rosters of the army and nursing.

Why not knit for pleasure, for romance, for dreams and for babies?

Nothing to Sneeze At

You may not have figured out that I'm a bit of a snob. I cook from scratch, I knit with real wool and I wear real cotton. I read really good books.

But I have allergies.

The kind that keep me going to the doctor for prescription things to put up my nose and appease my asthma. The specialist said I was allergic to birch. No problem. I'll just remove all the birch trees from the Fraser Valley.

These are false (not fake) apple blossoms. The apple blossom is my favourite flower. I have two old apple trees and several dog roses or wild roses that have the same delicate, unstructured beauty. I love these so much!! They love me too and look smashing on any table. I got them at half price as well. Yay! More money for yarn.

But not right now. I am still on my yarn diet and the Philosopher's Wool sweater kit doesn't count because ( I say so) it was money that had already been set aside and some had been for knitting for others. I did ask for a wool gift certificate, but she couldn't wait so there.

I am feeling better. I have a big volunteer commitment for the next month or two that leads into another committee, but after that I'm going to shake myself off and get me out of this house and back to work. Probably not nursing right away, but maybe in the schools so I can still mollycoddle my ungrateful spawn.

The sun has made all the difference and I was out again walking the dog after dinner. At this rate I may even get back into the great shape I was in before my surgery 2 years ago.

When the clouds are lifted, the horizon stretches out before me.

On Another Note

As part of my rest therapy, I took out the sewing machine and created a birthday gift for one of my best friends, my son's piano teacher. This bag is silk and linen blend, cotton and linen. I like to make funky patchwork for the main body. The

If I could only figure out how to rotate this picture or delete it.

I just found link on the bottom called Post Options that allows me to accept comments. How could I ever not want comments? And there it has always been marked to shut you out. I don't understand.

Perhaps now I will have some connection with those who have knitting dreams themselves.

I had a late meeting last night and have forgotten how to relax by going to bed and reading. I really must retrieve this skill. But I watched a Miss Marple and managed to pick up all the stitches on the fronts of my Debbie Bliss diagonal front jacket. Now I knit up to the separation for the arm holes. I hope I'm doing it right. The architecture is the draw and I'm not convinced that there is any knitting straight.

Just breathe. It's only knitting. It's the wild world of running toward mistakes to learn and grow.

Surprise In Store

I feel as if I'm fighting back now. I'm still coughing, but I've done two flute performances, I've entertained the scrogs (teenagers) on their spring break and I sneaked in a trip to the Sewing and Needlework show at the Tradex in Abbotsford.

It was a bright and overfilled room of ideas and idea makers. But it was a bit of a disappointment for the knitter. Only a local yarn shop and one other. But it was the other, a New Westminster shop that brought me there in the first place. Shan's Needlework sells Philosopher's Wool kits. I've knit one before, but it didn't fit me after I had my babies. I don't know if my sister ever wore it- even to the barn. But it was years of knitting for the time.

I tried to get up to Inverhuron when we were in Ontario this summer, but it was just too far out of the family plan.

I rolled my coins and took all my serendipity fund with me and found just what I wanted. Or, to be more honest, more than I knew I wanted. This Windows sweater is even more beautiful than the famous Kilim that I went hunting for. Thank-you Shan for the trade-show price and the lovely selection that made it worth while.

I took the kids and their friends to the Silver City movie complex in Mission through rains that obliterated the Trans Canada Highway. We had a good time, watched the lovely "Last Mimsy" (not the boys) and had snacks and holiday careless fun.

Today I will take the dog for a very wet walk and then warm up with a shower and tea. We're in for a lot more rain yet. Perhaps I will get better or at least not feel a lot worse.

There is hope in buying and starting a new sweater.

I won't start it until I get all the stitches of my Debbie Bliss cardigan into the working pattern. I don't know why. I just have to make these rules for myself. I like to leave a project at a point where I'm not afraid to pick it up, but happy to continue.

Shall I dive into the Windows? I'd sure like to.

Right now I'm pleased with just rolling in it.

If a Tree Falls In the Forest

Are there comments that I'm just not reaching because I don't get along with blogger?
Sometimes I wonder if I should carry on with my secret shiny blog that I take out and polish.
But I so appreciate what many of my favourite bloggers share and pass along to me. I do comment and that's how this blog happened (it really was a mistake).
But I was ready to be a virtual knitter with virtual friends who are so encouraging.
Because I am contributing in my own little way, I feel more confident about my public knitting and my friends are attracted to the reward I make for myself. More are knitting and starting to knit with me.
I'd really like to meet up with a blogger some day. I'd like to give the magic answer to a tough question and make her day. But these things will come in their own time. I did please myself by surprise when I googled a sweater and my own little site came up yesterday.
As a mom and a busy volunteer worker, this is my secret shiny blog that I can cherish.
I'm connecting in other ways and I'm actually writing out a pattern to submit to knitty or magknits. Maybe I'll bring my little gem into the sun one day.

Switch Swatch

Delving into the stash can turn up unexpected gems.

I was dutifully swatching for nephew #2's sweater because I'm too sick to knit anything real. I bought the cotton, wool blend in December for this project.

But the swatch was too soft and drapey. There was nothing masculine about it.

Wait. What was the gauge of that Debbie Bliss sweater I've been dreaming of. Wow. A sweater for me. I have enough yarn, I have good row and stitch gauge. It is the diagonal front jacket from her "home" book. It has the interesting yet clean lines that may flatter my ample curves. The light denim is just what I've been looking for.

So what about the nephew? I have a tub of grey marl wool that I saved up for years ago to knit myself a sweater. I can slide it over to his shelf. Instead of Leo- a beautiful sweater in another yarn, I may swatch for knitty's Annitversary sweater. I could also do it in Cascade 220.

I have only added to my list as I finished and blocked the shawl. I can't seem to move forward.

I would love to start the Forest Path Stole, but I have to finish another lace shawl: Thistle lace. I need certain thoughtful space for that. And I'm using that time to write. Not bad. Not forward on the projects.

I'm very excited about the Stitiching show in Abbotsford tomorrow. I am so going. My coughing is down. I don't know if I've convinced anyone to come yet, but I'll get to see Philosophers again and Knitopia from White Rock. I have a bit of money saved. My serendipity fund. And the money from knitting the angel blanket which I consider a gift certificate and not a breech of the stash diet.

I was unable to use prime knitting time during the Band festival because I'm just too foggy. The Haiku sweater I started with Blue Sky Organic Cotton doesn't have enough yardage. I may try to squeeze a Baby Surprise (EZ) out of it. Learn that I need 400m for a baby sweater. Three balls of worsted. It seems too much.

So today I must embroider anyway and finish a cloth for the church. I won't finish it today, but I'll use my resting time in the good light for the white work and dream of my own cardigan in light denim when I travel to Scotland.

TB or not TB

What a horrible cough and cold has spread through our house. Daughter was home most of the week with fever and cough. D. became increasingly grumpy and sleepless with sore throats. Son wanted a ride home from school, but felt the irresistible urge to join in a sweaty game of hacky sack.
Finally on Friday it caught up with me and put me in bed on Saturday and Sunday while another rain storm pounded the outside.
I'm quite a bit better today. Sometimes total rest doesn't even help. But I feel I did the right thing. Family is grumpy about losing their maid and cook. So sad.
Good side: finished meadow flowers shawl. And I think the bedrest helped heal my sore instep.

Metaphorically Speaking

I really am enjoying this shawl now that I can do the border. Is that simple of me? Just a little distraction and I am rehabilitated.
The mohair is so complex in colour and texture. I'm not sure I have chose the right pattern, but I did dream about it for over a year, and I'm using up stash (gifted generously from my spinning, knitting sister) so I'm satisfied.
It was just an incidental project while I was wrestling the angels. If I didn't appreciate the blanket, my dear friend was brought to tears. I didn't know I delivered it on her daughter's birthday. Said daughter is due in May and living in Calgary, nursing where I trained. A circle.

Now that I'm working the border, the shawl is completely new and exciting for me. But to my husband I'm still knitting. It's funny to think that I sit in my chair or at the rink or in the car and do the same thing every day.
From my side of the needles it is new and challenging and self-directed risk-taking. Something to dream about, ponder and be distracted when D. goes on about his work (vaccinating calves anyone). Because I have my nursing training, my faked interest is more convincing and I can even squeeze out semi-intelligent questions which, alas, only encourage him. I'm actually interested in epidemiology. Our poor children.
Can you imagine him asking, don't you think wooden needles would be more efficient? Or how do decide between set-in or raglan sleeves? Or don't you hate the finishing? That just makes me laugh. I'm lucky if I get a "hmmm".
But I do have friends whom I'm trying to get together with more often who knit. I've reinfected one who was always a better knitter than I. We've spent the last few weeks setting up her travel knitting for a trip to England. Her mother is the die-hard Granny knitter, but with today's grace and style.
Knitting flows through the events of my days and keeps me together.

The Rink's Not So Bad

Now I do not enjoy sitting in the rink. I knit. I visit with the other moms. But I have spent so many hours freezing and listening to Skate Canada dance tapes that even the knitting does not save my mood.
But with sugar pie skating daughter home with the cough and cold, we cancelled. Guess what happens in my house on Wednesday afternoon when I'm not there. Guess.
Bag pipe lessons. Yes multiple lessons of multiple pipes. My husband in the kitchen/dining room and my nephew in the basement. One had to close the door because he was disturbing the other.
My nephew thought he was in the secret hiding room. Apparently he hasn't figured out the Very Loud Noise rule in hiding.
I'm hiding in my bedroom with my laptop. It's a wasted hour and a half, so I may as well enjoy Stephanie's reno and drool over the new knitty. I do have to go back out there to fix dinner.
I may even drag out my IK magazines to dream about what to knit for myself.

That'll Hurt

I am always astounded when I meet my post-February self.
During the dark winter, I continue to walk out of doors with the dog, but I feel increasingly dreary and tired.
Today I wrote my allotted pages, vacuumed,did the crossword, grocery shopped and returned to the Circuit Fitness gym. My healthy lunch was without carbos. Amazing.
The early light or the warmth make me respond like an amphibian.

The hardest part was taking it easy at the gym because I haven't been for almost a year. I don't want to discourage myself with sore muscels.
Actually I enjoyed a 3 month membership and then didn't use the next 3 month membership.
My friend bought the gym and has invited me to use my 3 months now. What a sweetie. I really need the encouragement. I may not tell D. because he will tease me and let me know he doesn't think I can keep it up.
What did I do wrong last time? It may be that when the kids got out of school I just slept in with them. I need a plan and a goal. I had lost a bit of weight last spring and it's back. I always return to this weight. Yuck. So what if I imagine getting up at the normal time and going to the gym before the kids are up? Imagine how good it will feel even in the hot weather. Imagine how travelling will be more satisfying if I don't have to buy bigger clothes and squish in to airline seats.
Last night was a few rows of mohair knitting. I'd better get that off the needles because it is annoyingly slippery and fluffy and I don't think I can look forward to wearing it this season.

5 hour Miracle

I am delighted with this baby sweater. I didn't clock myself, but it seriously took just a few evenings.

I knit it out of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (stash). Worsted weight on 6mm needles. I felt confident throwing it in the washer and dryer so the new mom won't have to worry. It's still big enough for the bug buttons.

It took less than a skein, so I may play around with dying the other two skeins I have. There are always more babies.
For a quick knit it was a great pleasure. But I've rewritten the woolworks pattern for my own language and to highlight changes.

I have a bit of freedom to finish my Saltspring Island mohair meadow flowers shawl and do some special stitching.

Then:
I dream of what's next. Another nephew sweater. My thistle shawl.

I was given some wool money and I may knit a wool cardigan for myself to wear to Scotland this summer.

Workshop Glow

Yesterday was a wonderful day. I was in a writing workshop all day!
It wasn't that indepth or challenging, but I was surrounded by writers and people who earnestly wanted to encourage one another.
Where do I go from here?
Write every day. Get the darn thing on the page. Make mistakes and get messy.
I feel reinvigorated to actually do the work.

Also piano festival is over. The disruption is complete and we may be able to finally find the rhythm of time table that other families get after New Years.
Despite the snow and the flu, I'm feeling like I have a good reason to be here and lots to contribute.

And a Dose of Humility

I can't believe I messed up that song!

Today is the World Day of Prayer and I was asked to sing a very pretty Kyrie in Guarani from Paraguay. I had that baby nailed, memorized. I even learned a new chord on the guitar.

But when I arrived, there was a harp where I usually sing. Then a group of old ladies went up on stage with a tent where I had decided to place my mic.

It's my turn. I have to trek across country for my guitar. I had to put the mic wherever. I brought my music, but I couldn't read it. I just crapped out. I ended up singing it in normal Latin. Humility in a good dose.

I will learn to let the sound man set up the mic. I will not accept to sing when my son is competing in the Bach class at the Music Festival and I'm supposed to be chaperoning my daughter's middle school band on the island. My dear friend has just fallen and broken her elbow and is in excrutiating pain. And my husband is still doing tests for his stroke but won't slow down or rest.

I'm firing on all cylinders, but there's an interruption. I've also been nauseated for over a week. The metalic taste of fear.

Let me sleep it off and find new light in the celebration this evening of more piano performances to just listen to and enjoy.

The angel blanket is done and blocking on the bed. Phew.

White All Around

It snowed again last night. We celbrated my Paw's birthday and the I sat and finished the Gift of Angels blanket.

In keeping with the bad feelings I have harboured for these blameless angels, I had to rip out one of the side borders to get enough yarn to finish the last side. I also snipped all the longer ends and had to knit them in. Not my dream project, but done!!

Today I will weave in all those ends and extra ends, do a quick blocking and get it out of my house!!

So remind me: no kits. I'm too proud for angels. There was no room for adjustments because my friend who asked me to knit it wanted it just as shown.

I already started the 5 hour baby sweater during my son's first piano festival piece. I have left over Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and some wonderful ceramic bug buttons. This is the first grandchild one of my friends. Not a close friend, but I taught the new mom Sunday School when she was 7. It was the same class that this other angel blanket mom was in. It makes me wonder about the little ones I teach now.

Let it thaw.