Catching Up

For those who haven't heard, Interweave Knits will have a new Editor in a couple of issues. Eunny Jang will be taking over at the helm of the magazine. As a follower of her blog and an admirer of her designs, this is an exciting announcement. She has a great attention to detail and puts an extraordinary amount of thought into her patterns. Congratulations to Eunny!

The lace shawl I'm currently knitting for my sister's-in-law wedding, is a Eunny Jang design. The shawl is the Print o' the Wave pattern off her website. So far, it has been a very easy knit. I originally used stitch markers to segment each repeat section. I quickly abandoned the stitch markers for a couple of reasons. First, the pattern repeats become easy to read as the knitting grows. Secondly, the repeat sections are flanked by K2tog or SSK and occasionally, they would consume a stitch on each side of the stitch marker making me do this crazy balancing act of slipping off the stitch marker with a couple of fingers and then precariously holding the stitch marker between some free fingers while I try to knit, then placing the stitch marker back on my knitting. After doing this for a couple of rows, I decided to be darning and flung my stitch markers to the side. I felt liberated.

The pattern tells you to start with an invisible cast on. There is actually a cast on called the invisible cast on. This was news to me and I'm glad I took the time to look it up before I started knitting. You will need a piece of waste yarn and you will end up with live stitches. Could you imagine my surprise if I had used the long tail cast on and then gotten to the "pick up stitches part" for the edging? The Victorian Lace Today has wonderful instructions for an invisible cast on. The tutorial in Victorian Lace Today is also better than the instructions in The Knitter's Companion by Vicki Square. Although The Knitter's Companion has pictures, the instructions in Victorian Lace Today were a bit easier for me to understand. I didn't look at anything else in The Knitter's Companion, so the rest of the reference book may be quite handy.

The shawl is definitely growing. I was casually working on it last Thursday at my bi-weekly knit night, and was talking about the pattern with blogless Lynsey. I was happily relaxed thinking I was over halfway done with the center panel and could easily knock it out by the end of the month, when a small comment made me realize that I was only halfway done with one of the two center panels. I started to panic. Since Thursday, I've been knitting furiously on the shawl and the sweat and swearing and tears have paid off. I finished one of the two panels Sunday and have casted on for the second panel. With luck, I can have the shawl finished in a couple of weeks. I am completely loving the pattern. It's an easy lace knit. I think there will be much more lace in my future.


The Picovilo is also growing and is almost a half top.


My spinning is also progressing at a decent rate. My LYS has a very large supply of Ashland Bay fibres. I was lucky enough to score some bamboo:

Enough

I realized the other day while driving Little Clover to a game that loving your child is enough. After my mom died, one of the biggest regrets I had was that I didn't show my love for her enough. There was more I could have done. I could have been nicer to her while I was a teen. I could have said "I love you," to her more. I could have called more. I could have talked to her more. I could have hugged her more. I could have done all those things and it still wouldn't be enough, because after you lose someone, all you think about is what you don't have anymore and there is this gap that stays behind for a while.

Being a mom, though, has brought me the realization that my mom had enough. She loved me with all her heart and that is all she needed. That's why I remember the special smile she had just for me. Italian calls it the "Mommy glow." I know that the love she felt for me is pretty darn similar to the love I feel for Little Clover. I love him enough for the both of us. My love for him is enough especially for me. Do I want him to love me back? Of course I do, but I don't need it. Feeling how much I love him makes me immensely happy. Being able to show him my love makes me happier still. The rest, his hugs and kisses, are an added bonus. I have enough.

I actually wrote the above paragraphs several months ago and was waiting for the right time to post it. Today, my mom's birthday, seemed to be the right time.

When March hits, her birthday enters my mind and I usually begin to miss her and become quite sad. This year, though, whenever I thought about her birthday, I found myself getting excited and looking forward to it. I miss her still, but it has been different. Her birthday is seeming more like a celebration. It is a special time for me to remember her and be thankful for the time we had together. I can still feel her love for me and as I look around, I see small things that remind me of her. I've seen four leaf clovers everywhere, birthday cards in people's cubicles today, and even a bright seven color rainbow. It's as if with every little sign, she's saying hello in her special way and reminding me that she loved me enough. I love her back and I think she knew.

Southland in the Springtime

There are many things I love about being a Southerner. Spring (or nearly Spring) is one of them. Every March, the South begins to transfer from a black and white Ansel Adams to a Technicolor backdrop as the gray trees sprout blooms in luscious whites, bright pinks, golden yellows, and brilliant blues. The tulips pop up out of the ground in reds and the daffodils and crocus open. There is definitely something 'bout the Southland in the Springtime.

3.1415

Yesterday was National Pi Day and we celebrated by having pie, cherry to be specific :)
(I meant to post a picture of the pie, but forgot to upload the pictures. It might show up later)
We are now gearing up for Square Root Day on March 3, 2009 (3/3/09). Anyone else want to join in?

To complete my dorkiness, here is a book review:

Brave New World
I finished the book a couple of weeks ago after having put it down for a few months. My schedule did not allow for much actual reading time, but during a business trip, I picked the book back up again. It was still good and the narrative was very fresh. (I have yet to master the art of knitting while reading, but once I do, watch out bookshelves!)

The book was written in the late 1940s/early 1950s timeframe. It is touted as being "timeless," and it is for the most part. We have made some technological advances that date the book to a certain extent, but in the 1950s, the internet, email, instant messaging, and cell phones were very very experimental at best. The social aspects of the book are still timeless and still provoke thought.

This is my second time to read the book. I first read it in high school and it was inappropriate for me at 15. I could get it, but not on the same level as now. Who knows, when I read it again at the age of 60, it may take on a whole new level of complexity. Overall, the pace was good, the writing was fine. I wanted to finish the book and even hit the sweet spot of reading where the book takes over and calls to you. As a warning, the sweet spot is late in the novel.

The things that struck me were the arguments for and against emotional attachments and the discussions on what is civilized. Huxley can causes you to think and evaluate what a society is and its influence on its members. He also does something beautiful with paragraph structure when Linda is introduced. Up to that point, the paragraphs and writing overall were well structured. They were fairly short, easy to read, cohesive, and formatted correctly. When Linda was introduced, the paragraphs begin to stretch and flow. The sentences jump a little and some paragraphs are question after questions. The lack of social constraints become evident as John and Linda speak, and I enjoyed the visual shift.

Also, I couldn't help but think of Disney World during the descriptions of the Feelies. If you have been to Disney and seen either Mickey's Philharmonic or the Muppet Movie in 4-D, then you will know what I mean when you get to this part of the book. It was actually a bit unnerving.

As for the ending, it is conclusive but also open ending. You could interpret the actions that lead up to the ending in two ways. Both ways could plausibly leave you with the ending Huxley has written. I have to admit, that I like the fact that the ending can be interpreted like this. I think it makes the book a little better.

In my Element

Oh, how I love my car. This past weekend, I got to try out the second of the 64 seating configurations of the Honda Element (the first being the standard seating configuration, which I think counts, but shouldn't really). This seating configuration will be called the "Can you shove the mattress in there, too?" configuration. You see, I got a call from my dad Friday morning letting me know that they would be in the neighborhood and he was wondering how the spare room was coming along. I smiled and said, "Well, I've been meaning to pick up the futon from Costco." We made plans, I assured him that this would be no big deal and that I could whip up the room with very little effort. Of course, I lied.

Although we had picked up the house and tidied for Xavier Guy and SweetPea (who is super sweet), the house was in no state for parental visits. I don't know what it is about having the parents over, but I feel the need to show them that I've grown up and become responsible and neat despite the fact that they saw the state of my bedroom while I was in high school. I called Italian and we settled on the game plan. Costco though, wasn't cooperating. They had sold out of the futons. I called around, checked online, found a futon store in town who did have 7 in stock that I could drive away. I rushed in, bought a futon, mattress (with internal springs, quite comfy), and a cover in under 15 minutes. Then Futon Guy and I had to load it into the Element.

He asked me to raise up the seat and I went, "huh????" Lucky for me, Honda gives you a Quick Start Guide (I kid you not. Being in the software industry, I found this rather humorous). The guide told me how to fold my back seat and attach it to the side wall of the car. We shoved in the futon, both boxes, the mattress, and the mattress pad all in the car. I even had room to pick up Little Clover from school. Yippee! The Parental Clovers confirmed the comfiness of the futon and much fun was had by all.


Yay!

It's even blue to go along with Project Spectrum. Okay, that's a coincidence. I may be a knitting dork, but I'm not that big of a knitting dork. Okay, okay, I am!

During the melee of the weekend, I did get some knitting done. The Picovoli is coming along. I've made the sleeves and they look like sleeves. This is my first top down sweater and it's rather fun.


Secondly, the wedding shawl is slowly coming along.


Oh, Xavier Guy, watch out. I think Little Clover was trying to move in on SweetPea this weekend. We had a great time seeing you guys and can't wait for May!

To the gentleman I passed on the interstate:

Although the local newspaper can be quite interesting at times and can contain enthralling articles, please do not read it while driving. It seems that you only have enough mental capacity to either read or drive and not both. Maybe the cup of coffee you were drinking at the time while driving in the fast lane was too much of a distraction, but you were only driving the speed limit and I really needed to get to work.

Sincerely,
Irish Clover

I had a spare moment this week and settled down on the sofa with a Pottery Barn catalog that had recently arrived in the mail. I think it might have been a late winter issue, but hey, I don't often have a chance to look through a catalog. Plus, since I'm on a shopping hiatus, I can pretend that I'm browsing at the store. This issue was jam packed with knitting!

Knitted blanket on the homepage

Knitted furniture


And knitting on the floor

Who knew you could knit furniture?

Slowing Down and Speeding Up

I spend Saturday mornings knitting and listening to podcasts while Little Clover watches cartoons. I have a few that are my favorites, but in general, I will listen to almost any knitting podcast. There is something about having a conversation about knitting with someone who obviously loves it as much as you do. It is quite pleasing and unifying. This Saturday including listening to David's latest episode of Sticks and Strings. His essay on "The Slow Clothes Movement" drew me in to the point that I slowed down my knitting so I could focus on listening.

He drew attention to the amount of time each knitter invests in a finished object. The yarn can usually be purchased again and often times, a store bought item is cheaper, but the time can never be renewed. Once it is spent, it's gone and knitters choose to spend the time on making lovely things for themselves or for lucky people they love. Our knitting now is a conscientious decision. David talks about how we purposely delay gratification and go against the "I want it now" mentality which is prevalent in our world today. With each stitch, we are taking back our time and slowing it down, making it last for days, weeks, years, or if we are lucky, decades as our knitted items are used and passed along.


This is the beginnings of a shawl for an upcoming wedding.

As a side note, what makes one qualified to become a social chair? Evidently not much because I am the new social chair for my neighborhood association. The closet I have ever gotten to being a social chair before now was working on the posters for my Junior Prom. I had the glitter, so I got to help. I feel oddly unqualified at this position, so much so, that I'm tempted to go buy this:



Help!

Chestnuts Roasting

We had our first fire last night and it was wonderful. We had a gas fireplace in our old house. It was convenient to be able to walk into the living room and have a fire with the turn of a key, but we didn't really use it much. Even though it had the fiberglass stuff at the bottom to mimic burning embers, it still had this tinny out-of-a-box fakeness to it. Now, I know what was missing. What was missing from our fake gas fire was the popping of wood as the water trapped in the fibres exploded, the smell of camping and out-of-doors that waft out of an open fireplace, and the crisp glow of orange that can only come from real carbon materials. It was wonderful and dreamy and perfect. We all spent the evening with no television watching the real embers and flames dance and jump behind the screen. Bliss.

Now, the saga of our fireplace began over two years ago. The massive fireplace in the family room commands attention and was one of the features that drew us to this house. It was beautiful, but it wasn't functional. The chimney cap was damaged and there nothing to arrest sparks, so if we had a fire, we could possible set the roof on fire. Little Clover suggested that we only have a fire when it was raining outside. He's a smart kid. In addition to the missing chimney covers, the dampner was broken as well. This winter, we finally decided to have the entire chimney serviced and fixed. All the work was completed last week, and we had temperatures in the high 60s and even hit 71 one day. We were resigned to waiting until the next winter to have a fire, but we lucked out with a fairly cold night and a lunar eclipse (one really doesn't have anything to do with the other, but they were both highlights [hee, hee] for us). I'll never go back to a gas fireplace again.

I am Woman

Where's the Kitchen?

That was going to be the title of my book. Before I found a job I liked at a company that I really, really liked, I used to dream of being a full time writer. I have notes on several different book ideas that cover a broad range of fiction categories and a few nonfiction concepts. One of the concepts that is my favorite is the concept of the a neo-feminist viewpoint.

The book idea began when I heard some news story or read some article about a feminist thought or ideal or movement. I probably became very frustrated by said thought/ideal/movement because I don't consider myself a traditional feminist activist and could not identify with that movement. I don't consider myself a traditionalist either and find their ideals to be just as distasteful. I was somewhere in-between and felt a bit alone.

I was tired of hearing from people what a woman (womyn for those versed in the NOW campaign from the 80s) should be. The extreme sides had extreme views. Some feminist shunned not only stay at home moms, but motherhood in general. Being a mother myself, I disagreed. The other extreme shunned those who decided not to be mothers (or wives) to focused on their careers, because they believed that women should be at home tending husband and children. Being a working woman, I couldn't agree with this side either. Where were the moderate people, the ones in the middle who believed that it was okay to work and it was okay to be a homemaker? Why couldn't we all just get along???? Surely there were other people out there that shared some of my views. I just had to find them. I rationalized that if I wrote a book and people bought it, then the others who were in the middle wouldn't feel alone. We could all be happily in the middle together.

I had this in mind for my cover art:


It quickly conveys the gist of what neo-feminism means to me. I can have it all, if I want to, but there is nothing wrong with not wanting something either -- the happy medium. Who knows, maybe this little book of mine will come out anyway. (Of course, if the book were as witty as Erma Bombeck but as insightful as Anna Quindelin, then I'd be happier)

Happy Woman's History Month. Let's celebrate all the woman who have come before us, those who were vibrant and progressive, and those who moved history in their own quiet ways.

Happiness is finding a pencil

The blue car in white snow.

I love watching a well played sporting event. A proper sporting event, no matter what sport, has a fluidity and a grace, a finesse to it that can be just as satisfying to watch as a play or ballet, especially when the sport involves little people. Basketball season has officially begun and Little Clover had his first game this Sunday. Despite the loss, his team played quite well. They have one play, but at least they have a play. The play consists of the point guard dribbling across the line, passing the ball to Little Clover, who then passes the ball to a teammate who then passes it to another taller teammate who shoots. The team executed the play with brilliance about three times, then they became little kids and ran all over the court. It was quite cute, especially when they decided they needed to talk to Mom and Dad and would run over to the stands, sometimes while there was still action on the court. Little Clover was the lead scorer of the game, bringin in 7 of the teams 11 points. He was quite proud.

As were Italian and I. Honestly, I can't think of many things more wonderful than watching kids play sports. There is a remarkable excitement at each success and an astounding lack of concern over "failures." Little Clover's team didn't care about the loss. They were excited to play adn were thrilled with their shoots and their steals. They grin with happiness after every shot and stare at the stands looking for approval and a thumbs up from their parents. It's nice to know that my opinion matters to him and it's amazing to see his face beam. Maybe I only love it because Little Clover does. Who knows. His happiness makes me smile.

The blue bath

The blue kettle

In keeping with Project Spectrum, above is a short photo montage of blue (with a little bit of white thrown in for fun). I found out about Project Spectrum late last year, but enjoyed seeing the colors in the blogs I visited. This year, being a part of Project Spectrum has made me more aware of certain colors around me. When I see the sky, it's no longer an expanse of wide sea, now, it's a photo op! Blueberries look edible and photo perfect. I even ventured out of my normal color range and bought (before Lent) an exotic fibre in grey for spinning. More on that later.

Better than Yoga

Have you ever had one of those days? You know, the kind with really high highs and really low lows? I had one of those highs today. I had a day where I felt great about my job. People gave me compliments about my work and told me I was doing a fantastic job. Then, just a few hours later, other people told me that I am doing a horrible job. Normal, I don't really care. Work was just a silly way to earn money to feed my family. It wasn't important. This job, though, matters to me. I like this job, and I like this company. I suddenly found myself attached and caring about the quality of my performance, and the fact that someone was providing unconstrustive criticism was aggrevating. The snippy me came out. I reined her in and only a small snide comment came out in the meeting.

I left work frustrated and angry and wanting to be even snippier. Italian, listened as I vented, handed me my knitting bag, and said, "Have fun at knitting." (There was this sound of a door shutting as he said this.) I did.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it's worth saying again. I have one of the best knitting groups around. With the booming internet, I have the luxury of having knitting friends all over the world. They are always there when I need them. Whether at noon when I need a little pick me up or at 11:00 pm when I finally have a minute to myself, they are there. My local knitting group is there, too, just on a more normal basis. I arrived at knitting and was immediately greeted with warm hellos and a hug. We talked about kids and jobs and patterns and yarns. We laughed as we reviewed patterns and talked about religous traditions and community activity. We complimented each others works, past, present, and future, and we spoke in the knitters' codes of DPNs, worsted, sports, and 4s. I left relaxed and connected and rejuvenated. I'm very lucky to have such a group. Thanks, y'all.

The beginnings of a Picovoli by Grumperina

The Shampoo One

One of the Clovers' St. Valentine's Day tradition is to celebrate the day as a family. Italian and I celebrate the romantic part on our own, usually on the weekend, but on the actual day, we celebrate our family. This does involve chocolate truffles for me and candy for Little Clover. This year, Italian and Little Clover presented me with chocolates from a local candy maker (we try to support local first, then organic). The flavors they picked were Irish Cream (because I'm Irish), cappucino (because I love coffee), coconut (because that's my favorite), and champagne (because it would be fun). Italian easily pointed out the Irish Cream, the cappucino, and the coconut. The champagne one was a little bit harder. Italian explained how every truffle flavor is decorated differently, so the champagne one should be the one that doesn't look like the other. Little Clover looked at the truffles, pointed at one, and said, "I think the shampoo one is this one."

Italian and I smiled and agreed. I wonder how it will taste.

And Now for Something Completely Different
What says "I love you" better than spam?

Alot of Spam! Oh, wait. That's not it. How about:

Italian and I spent this past Valentin's weekend at the theatre watching a lovely showing of Spamalot, watery tart and all. It was spectacular! As a former theatre junky and performer, I loved the acting, the blocking, the dancing, the technicality, and the singing. As a Python fan, I loved the crude humor. All in all, I left the show with an aching side and wanting a catapult and cow. Neither Italian nor I could figure out how they accomplished the Black Knight scene. If you watch it, try not to be distracted by the monk. Go see the show if it stops in a theatre near you.

Happy Mardi Gras

I finished these just in time for Mardi Gras!

Pattern: Widdershins (plain sock, toe-up with heel flap)
Yarn: Socks That Rock in Nodding Violet.

I love these socks. Even though they are just a plain stockinette sock, the stitches are beautiful. The yarn has a depth to it and the stitches are slightly textured. The colors are deep and dimensional as well. Plus, they are in a fantastic greens and purples, perfect for Mardi Gras. My timing couldn't have been better.

Quite a few milestones and holidays are passing me by this year. So far, I've missed my blogiversary, the Chinese New Year, and I forgot about Mardi Gras! I've only just realized it in time for...Lent. Yay. (Injecting a very, very deep sigh). For Lent, I give up spending money on things that I do not need. By only buying necessary items, I adjust my reality and focus it once again on what is a need and what is a want. This helps me keep my perspective and be grateful for what I do have. Of course, this moratorium on extraneous purchases includes yarn.

I do have an exception this year. The year for a special wedding gift has not arrive at my LYS yet. Since I placed the order for it a few weeks ago, I will not feel bad paying for it during Lent. What will be a problem is leaving the store without anything else. Fortunately, I realized today, the day before Lent, wonderful Mardi Gras, that I have one last day to shop and a computer to help me buy yarn! All is good.

A love story

When I began knitting again, about two years ago, I did not expect to fall in love with yarn. Instead, I expected to dabble a little here and there. I knitted a dreadfully curly stockinette scarf and an acrylic purse, sans straps, that is still in pieces in the playroom somewhere. I liked it, but I wasn't in love yet. Then, I went to my first yarn store. All the yarn was arranged in colors and fibers all over the walls. I became excited, but overwhelmed. I quickly bought the Brown Sheep recommended in the pattern for the scarf. I didn't look at the gauge or the yardage in the pattern which called for two colors of yarn, one skein each. Fearing I might run out, I bought two skeins of each. Naturally, I have a ton of Brown Sheep yarn in two shades of green left over.

I began simply with my knitting, following a pattern almost exactly as it is written. I played around a bit with the yarns specified in the pattern, and often ended up with an item that resembled the piece in the picture, but didn't quite seem to fit right. Then I discovered gauge and my knitting got better. My yarn substitutions were more thought out, and I began to fall in love. Something happened when I knitted. I relaxed. I could sit in one spot for hours and not feel guilty. I became a little more patient, and I could feel tension leaving my shoulders. I turned my mind off and knitted and knitted and knitted. I loved following a pattern and had absolutely no desire to write my own pattern. I couldn't understand why someone would want to think about her knitting that much.

Then I found socks. I tackled socks because they scared me, they were risky. They require tiny needles. They require proper gauge. They required that I think while I knitted. I didn't want to be scared of knitting anything, so I tried it, and I fell further in love. They were portable. They were quick. They were useful! They didn't fit. I had to tweak the pattern and I found a pattern that required personalization. I found I liked the idea of making the socks just for me. Then the whole heel thing was intriguing and I wanted to know the whys and hows of it. That lead me down the path of making up a leaf pattern for a hat because I didn't want to hunt for one, and then, the next thing I know... Wham! I'm tackling a sweater without a pattern, just with some measurements. With the time and thought and consciousness required to knit blind, it was evident I was definitely in love.

All this time, everytime I said, "Oh, I can't ever see myself doing/making/trying [insert some knitting related feat]!" Italian has just nodded and smiled, knowing I would try it and accomplish it. Needless to say, I had fallen in love with him long ago, and that was one of the many reasons why. I've fallen madly in love. I have the yarn, and Italian has the sweater (and socks), to prove it.

 

Please excuse the very dorky look on my face. I have no idea what I was doing, but evidently, it was something dorky.

I remember Alaska

With every stitch of this scarf, I remembered Alaska. Finally, after keeping the yarn safe in my stash for several months, I gently took it from its nice warm home and began to knit it into the scarf it was meant to be. The yarn is one of the best breeds of yarn. It is souvenier yarn. It traveled in a suitcase all the way from Alaska to my little stash, where I would go and visit it every now and then. I would visit the yarn when I began to long for the cool wet air of Alaska and it would make me smile.



The yarn though wasn't very happy in my stash. I think it was crowded there. It would nag at me and tell me that it really, really would like to come out and get some air. I finally listened and it rewarded me with this, a soft, warm, airy lace scarf in a blue that, with every stitch, reminds me of Alaska.


This is all that is left of the yarn. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. This is half of all that is left of the yarn. I couldn't find the other piece of string.

Screwed

I've recently finished two audiobooks, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, in which a youn governess encounters odd going-ons in an English mansion, and A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore, in which a young man finds himself screwed.

Both books deal with the supernatural world, but both books are worlds apart from each other. The Turn of the Screw holds true to it's Victorian period. The dark undertone of the book hints at scandals that are too horrific to mention. James does a very good job of scaring you while he's tearing down the setting around the governess. The interesting thing about The Turn of the Screw is the dual way the book can be interpretted. A reader can read the book completely believing the governess and what she is experiencing, or one can read it under the assumption that the governess is losing her mind. Either way, the book has its suspenseful moments. As with a lot of classical books, it can drag in bits due to Victorian era languages and style, but overall, the story draws you in and the book goes by quickly. Plus, the ending is worth the read.

The second book, A Dirty Job, was an absolute riot and one that I will listen to (or read) again. I loved it enough that I immediately went out and bought his latest, You Suck. The book is about a very ordinary man, Charlie Asher, who finds out one day that he has a special job in life and that is to be a sort of a helper to Death. The book follows Charlie as he adjusts to his new job. I laughed out loud in several places and Moore is a fantastic storyteller. He fills the book with wonderful characters and you find yourself becoming attached to almost everyone. The situations are highly amusing and oddly familiar. He also weaves his characters together from one book to another, which makes it more fun to read. A very big warning though, his book is very, very vulgar at times. If you are sensitive to certain language and situations, then this book is not for you. If you don't mind, then read it. You'll have a good laugh.

Anniversaries

Wow, and thank you to everyone who donated! Thank you very much for helping out a fantastic organization. I will be sending out more formal Thank Yous to everyone who donated. Thank you, again.

The trip to Minneapolis was an eye opener. I experienced winter like never before, and it was cold. At one point, we drove over the Mississippi River and it was a solid sheet of ice, covered with snow. The landscape was white as the snow made the most delicious sound as you walked on it. It crunched beneath your feet and clings to your hat as you stand outside to take pictures of it, as proof that snow does exist and will last longer than a few hours. While I was outside taking pictures of this beautiful white stuff, I had a couple of people tell that this was not even a lot of snow. Boy, they should come down South for the winter, I thought.

I was fortunate enough to have Anniversary Sweater Part II with me to keep me nice and toasty under my coat. It was finished in a flurry the Saturday before the Super Bowl. I seamed my Saturday morning away and began the blocking by the afternoon. By the time I packed, it was dry and ready.


Anniversary Sweater Part II
Pattern: My own design
Gauge: 19 stitches over 4 inches (pre-blocking)
Needles: US size 9 Denise interchangeable set
Yarn: Cashmere Breeze by Tahki Stacy
Duration: Off and on since November 9, 2006

The yarn is a very lush, soft cashmere that halos just a tad when washed. The sweater expanded just a touch after blocking, but it was hardly noticeable. The sweater was a luxury to knit and is a luxury to wear. It is soft against your skin and is like wearing a warm hug. It is an amazing reminder of our anniversary and I'm very fortunate to have a guy who gives me gifts of yarn.

The pattern has a simple braided bottom and cuff. The body is stockinette with slight shaping. For the collar, I knitted a few rows of garter stitch so the focus would remain on the braided ribbing at the bottom.


As for anniversaries, I completely missed my Blogiversary! Life was busy and the event just past me by. The last year in the blogiverse has been grand! I've met some wonderful people and found new blogs and have an outlet for writing. I hope to continue blogging for a while and if anyone has suggestions on topics, please let me know.

Now, to look forward! I'm geared up for Project Spectrum 2.0! February and March are devoted to blue, white, and grey. I've pulled out an old UFO:

the blue quiviut yarn from Alaska,

and a new project:

a Green Gables in it's raw form.

My needles are jumping to get started.

Did you say -20?

I just got back from Minnesota a few hours ago and I have new posting fodder. I'm tired though, so I'll share a couple of very quick things.

First:
Snow!

This is a lot of snow to a Southerner. To those in Minnesota, this was nothing.

Secondly, it was -20 F, yes -20 F in Minnesota when we left the dear South for the long trip up north. Fortunately, it had warmed up to around -10 F by the time we landed. This was still a shock to someone (me) who was leaving behind temperatures of 41 F (notice no little negative sign in front of that number).

Finally, I'll have a new FO to post and the results of the prize drawing.

Talk to you guys soon!

Prizes

For Eye Candy Friday, here is a little bit of proof that winter has arrived:

Our annual snow finally came last night while we were sleeping. To the merriment of my northern coworkers, the schools were closed due to the two inches of snow. For Southerners, 2 inches of snow is quite a lot.

I went hunting for prizes for the Hometeam Huddle Habitat for Humanity fundraising drive. It's not too late to click on the button on sidebar and make a donation. I'll be drawing from all the donors on Monday. Without further ado, the prizes:


Tahki Stacy Merino Yarn, Baby.


Trekking XXL Sock yarn

A copy of Sensational Knitted Socks

For those of you who are non-knitters, there will be a yummy Gift Certificate headed your way.

Thank you for your support in helping out a worthy cause.

Good Night Moon

Bedtime, with a little person, is one of my favorite times of the day. That is time when Little Clover and I have our best talks. It is our time to connect and it is the time of day when we have each other's full attention. Our conversations can be very trivial, but sometimes, they can revolve around some serious topics. The other night, we had one of our soul searching conversations. We talked about bugs.

It began with Little Clover and I discussing the state of the housekeeping and how he decided that the next night, we would clean the house. I had no idea that he was this involved in the state of the kitchen floors. He told me that he and Italian would take care of his bathroom counter where his microscope was cirrently residing. Evidently, he thought that the dead spider he and Italian had been examining was too much for me to bear. I told him I didn't mind dead spiders, it was the live ones that bothered me. Then he asked me what my favorite bugs were. We talked for 15 minutes on which bugs we liked and which ones we didn't and I really began to hope that when he is sixteen and going through his teenage stuff, he will still talk to me at bedtime about whatever is on his mind.

I mentioned that I liked butterflies and moths. Then he looked at me with a very serious expression. He said, "You only like moths when they are outside. Inside, they might eat your yarn."

I smiled.

I have actually been getting quite a bit of knitting and spinning done. I'm headed out of town to Minneapolis for work and I am pushing myself to finish Anniversary Sweater Part II before I leave. This will be my first time to be someplace cold during the winter since the age of 5. I'm concerned I may have become too Southernized (if that is possible). I think there is even this white stuff called snow on the ground up there.

Tonight, I will go out, hunting for the perfect thank you gifts for the Hometeam Huddle fundraising drive for Habitat. Be on the watch for pictures tomorrow!