Okay, okay

It’s been a long time since I touched tinkknitz. Not that I haven’t thought about it, you see. My attention span is short and I’ve been focused on a non-knitting issue in my life. Now that I’m free to be all knitting- all the time, I’d like to get back to it. I enjoy the creative aspects of my life and have missed exercising that side (which side?) of my brain (oh, maybe it was THAT side). I just visited my 43 things site. That's one I HAVE kept up with. If keeping track of two diary type thingies proves to be a bit overboard - one of 'em can go. I really like 43 things. Simple goals, simple results. Simple. It organizes my thoughts by following the progress of each goal which is waaaay cool.

Now then. I have been busy. Here's a sampling

• K1P2 Knit-A-Thon K1P2 sponsored a great day at The Lakeside Cafe. As the gods would have it, my Mother was discharged to home just the day before. Bobby insisted I still go. His argument was - my mental health. He stayed home with the caregiver and called me when the visiting nurse was on her way. It did the trick for me and I was ready to tackle all the paperwork, schedule therapy, and order equipment and supplies. Huzzah for knitting for charity.

• Finished Objects (turned in at the Knit-A-Thon) My first chemo cap (pitiful, but made with love). Also the other pink chemo hat I made on vacation - nice and big for prednisone patients. Several Warm Up Americas blocks. And finally . . . drumroll please . . . my damned apple cloth. I got the yarn from Margaret and the pattern from knittingknonsense. It was for a women's shelter that Holly Anne donates to. It was fun, and very cute. However, the last four rows refused to die. Thank you, Margaret, for helping me murder them. I had been working on that thing for, say 3 months now? It was so filthy, I had to bring it home to wash it (No, Bonnie, block it, said Holly Anne). When I did, soo much red dye came out of the yarn, I was glad the recipient wasn't going to think her face was bleeding! The yarn just looks mushed to me now, but I learned a valuable lesson. Don't try to do complicated patterns while trying to care for your mother in a nursing home!

• Christmas presents I made Kevin a great scarf, and have enough yarn to make another short one with the hole at the neck I think. I made a coaster for Mr.Mike at K1P2 and will be finishing another tonight. Made a terrific Pot Holder at Stitches but haven't decided on the recipient.

• STITCHES EAST After all the buzz at K1P2, I signed up for two all day classes at the four day knit-fest that is Stitches East. Whew. I learned soooooo much. The biggest thing was DPNs. Both classes taught dpn and I feel pretty comfortable now. There was also I-cord, increasing left and right, using a stitch holder, using two stitch markers, binding off with three needles and (ta-daa) one project is (get this) felted. Then there are cables and a little bit of Fair Isle but I barely remember them. They were on my first dpn day, and I had to content myself with learning the process, not finishing the project. I did an abbreviated version to be able to try the techniques, but eeek! I was slow. I am working on finishing that little hat now however, and am about to tackle that little matter of the cables . . .

• Project Bags I've been collecting enough knitting supplies to have basic kits in each project bag. I'm doing pretty good. Three are almost done. I wasn't going to put everyTHING in every KIT, but it's been easy to collect. Recent additions: I got some measuring tapes at Savage Mill Saturday that are very amusing. The pig has a curly tail to pull etc... I had a handful of free letter openers with an edge that cuts yarn like a dream. Some empty flat pill bottles (Target) stash stitch markers, tapestry needles, row counter and a knit picker.

• Little Red Book I got this to keep as a literal knitting diary - tracking gauge for patterns and needle size/yarn type. You know, something I can scribble in. It's red cloth with three sections. There are little pockets to tuck in labels from yarn or other terribly important notes. I took it to Stitches an already have a few "purls" in it (ouch, did I use that?). No creative space here, just the facts.

So here I am. Family responsibilities were in the forefront for the last six months or so. I don’t think I was doing much actual knitting in the last two months – mostly talking about knitting. Reading about knitting. Planning my knitting. Browsing for and stroking the yarn I may-or-may-not-be knitting. But as I look up at that list, I haven’t been doing as bad as I thought. I readily acknowledge that I am a slow, methodical, perfectionistic knitter. It is not my destiny to be The Queen of the Knitting Universe. Hmmm. Life just changed gears for me.