Charity Begins at Home

To quote the old Bartles & Jaymes commercials, “Thank you, for your support.” The messages from you guys when I got home just THREE days after my brain surgery meant so much to me. My knitting community and desire to return to it was, for some reason, something to focus on in the midst of so much fear surrounding this thing in my head.

I‘m home. The surgery went better than expected and I’m physically capable of more than when I went into the hospital six days ago. I was knitting in ICU the day after brain surgery expected to give me more paralysis of my right arm than I started with. My whole rhythm has changed and I can knit faster. Smoother.

Life is good.

So.

I’ve been remiss about posting my F.O. because life got busy. This I can fix as easily. I’ve had several charity items finished and now it’s time for the Second Annual Knit-A-Thon at the Lakeside Café in Columbia, Maryland this Saturday. Since I’ll be saying goodbye to them, I finally got my camera out today and went out on the deck for a photo shoot.

Up there is the Jimmie Johnson preemie hat I made at the NASCAR race in September. It is a lot stiffer than I thought, but I had a lot of fun with it. Even if a baby gets a picture and it hits the floor, it was fun. I’ll do more in soft sweet colors and cushy yarns, I promise. The little model is the Taco Bell Chihuahua. It was from the Godzilla promo commercial and says “Heeeeeeer leezard, leezard, leezard!” In the commercial he sees Godzilla and followed that with “I think I need a bigger box”. That used to crack me UP.

Next is the oldest Warm Up America block in the history of the charity. I wonder if I could get some kind of award. It’s been in the car forever. It’s been ripped out, re-knitted, put on the back burner, lost, forgotten, and pattern-changed. And I’m rid of it. Bwwwaaaaa haaa haaa haaaaaaaaaa!

After that is the Nemo II preemie hat. I actually started this little guy on the way to Richmond and finished him during the Busch race of the event. I decided to make a tail on the top and improvised some short rows to give it a scaled effect. It isn’t perfect, but again, a lot of fun. I like the creative outlet. Could be worth a pattern thing if I put my mind to it, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. I still haven’t written Rainbow up yet.

It’s gonna look like a fish swallowing a baby’s head, eh?

When straightening out my knitting basket last week, I came across some leftover cotton. Knowing the Knit-A-Thon was coming fast, I used it for a face cloth for a knitting buddy’s pet charity in Pittsburgh. The name escapes me, but they give hand knitted cloths to battered women in shelters so they have something feminine and personal of their own. I used the same simple blanket pattern I’ve been using for a pet blanket I hope to have finish for the same event.

The simple rhythm of this cloth gave me someone other than myself to focus on for a while.

So yes. I’ve been busy. I’m gonna BE busy. But it’s so good to look at the little collection up there with pride.

Or simply choose a WIP and pick up where I left off.

The Feminine Touch

I finished my Lace Edged Women's Hat for the Claudia Mayer Center ohhhhh last week some time. I just got around to taking pictures yesterday though. I swear. I am going to get some coaching on the lace thing. I know I'm using a non-breathing yarn (acrylic) because that's what the center wants, but I can see that my painstakingly following the directions didn't get the lace quite right. I know this for sure because I can compare my work to no less than 6 other knitters with pictures of their projects on ravelry.


I hate to sound like a broken record, but seeing how 6 different women knit up the same pattern with 6 different yarns is the biggest reason to sign up for a ravelry account RIGHT THIS MINUTE.

<------- click the shiny blinky ravelry button over there <-------

I'm currently working on the preemie hat. Arrragh. Well, it thinks it is a preemie hat. Once again, my gauge is right, but this thing looks rather large for any preemie I ever took care of in Labor and Delivery or The Nursery. Hrumph! I did wimp out on continuing the lace up the body of the hat. Instead I did a color change. It's very soft and suitably cute. I found a project for booties on ravelry too from Saartje, one of the designers who has her patterns available for download directly from the site. You can see them on the right side of her blog here. She has a newborn and should know a thing or two about what stays on a baby's feet. Besides, I've alway's wanted to use some of the ton of antique buttons from my Mother and Grandmother's button can. I plan to cast these on as soon as the hat is done - they are calling my needles so loudly.

Oh I hear ya. If I ever stop playing with ravelry and this computer long enough to knit anything again, right? Well in 30 minutes I'm off to Sit-n-Knit with K1P2 down at the Lakeside and have dinner with my husband at the concert afterwards while I finish this hat.

Watch me!

Slubby

It's called slubby yarn. Last night at K1P2 I couldn't remember that. I'll paraphrase: "You know that ...uhhhh.... big stuff, fatter and thin (pinching my fingers in the air), hand woven. And there's a string of ...you know, colored thread ummm... polyester or something with it twisted around. Real pretty!"



Yeah right.




Click her to view true beauty.




I should have said, "It's rainbow slubby with a cord of rayon twisted with it." Now then. Doesn't that sound pretty?

Oh yeah, my blog

I forget how it came up tonight, but I was reminded I have a knitting blog. I shouldn't neglect you so. My humble apologies. Have a cookie. I was also reminded (again) why I bring only straight knitting to K1P2. There I was doing a Warm Up America block. A simple block. Well, a garter stitch block with a tiny bit of seed stitch border to give it character. Just four tiny stitches on each end right? Piece o' cake.

Wrong.

Let me preface this by saying the mistake was already there when I arrived today. At the hairdressers I noticed an oops where a purl stuck it's nose in the middle of a row of knits. Bad purl, no blankie. I only carry one project at a time so I tucked my cheek between my teeth and set out to fish it back through the five rows. It was my first major attempt in garter stitch repair. Eventually my feeble brain wrapped around who goes in the back door and who goes in the front - it took about 45 minutes. Huzzah for me! Merrily I clacked along.

Until I was faced with four alien stitches at the end of a row.

No. ::blink blink:: Nono. Nonononono.

I should be looking at k,p,k,p right now. Perky little stitches just panting for my p,k,p,k. But no. They mocked me with their kkkk-ness. I'm doing just ducky fixing screw-ups in the middle, but the turn still befuddles me. I believe the added stress of seed stitch put me over the edge.

Ribbit.

Topping!

So. We're watching the Ravens game and I'm discovering what women all over the country should know. Knitting was made for football. Don't get me wrong, I love the Ravens (and the Orioles) but I found myself reading the mail, playing on the computer etc... until knitting. Knitting keeps me there by my husband's side, enjoying the game, commenting on the plays... you get it. But today I started a new project for Mr Mike, the owner of the shop where I knit on Thursdays. I have to turn the piece around and "knit backwards" so to speak every few stitches. It was intense for about 30 minutes 'till I got the hang of it. Suddenly Bobby starts yelling "TOPPING!", TOPPING!", "TOPPING!". I turned to look at him with eyes full of love, ready to care for him at the booby hatch. "What are you talking about?" sez I. "Touchdown!" he says gleefully, pointing at the screen. ::blink blink:: I was still clueless and clutched my knitting for comfort. "Pepperoni!" was next, and the light bulb began to flicker. There on the screen, the Ravens were celebrating a touchdown.

And so it went. A free topping on our pizza from Papa John's for every touchdown on Monday. Double if we win. We live in that in-between land between Baltimore and Washington. Thus, Papa John's offers their deal to both the Ravens and Redskins fans in our area. Ahhhhhh... life is good. And Monday? Pepperoni, Sausage, Mushroom and Olives.

Thanks Ravens.

::Back to our regularly scheduled blog::

I realized Thursday that I needed four coasters for our host on Thursdays. I had already felted one for him, and made another, but when I saw someone else's perfectly matched set . . . I needed to get busy. I may still decide to give him the mismatched assortment. After all, there will be lots (I hope) of different styles and colors from K1P2. I wanted to be unique. This pattern was on Dishcloth Boutique and I bookmarked it way back when we first decided on coasters for our gift. I was intimidated, but still hopeful. Since my recent triumphs in dpn, felting, Fair Isle and Cables (to name a few) I felt emboldened. I got out the cotton that my husband brought home to me one day when I was feeling low. I cast on 8 stitches.


I gotta admit, the pattern really frightened me when halfway across a row it said

turn (leaving 4 unworked stitches on left needle)

But I blindly followed the superior knowledge of Ms.Tejada and paying no heed to the roars and grunts on the screen, I had my first of 16 teardrop spokes. After sufficient praise from the husband (and the Pepperoni incident) I struggled to duplicate this feat. Something about starting on the wrong side threw me. But I am(Ahem!)a methodical knitter.




I tinked it back to the first teardrop and began the second again. Every time I finished a new spoke it . . .it . . . it looked just like the picture! I had to get the camera before I went any further.

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.