Just a Quick One (You Know You're A Knitter When...)

Leonard finished his first sock in fingering weight yarn. He had a lot of challenges to get up to "real" sock knitting.  His view not mine. His first pair of socks were actually felted slippers. He made the Fuzzy Feet from Knitty.com. His second pair got stalled out after the first sock was completed. It was a worsted weight pair but the yarn was not a good choice and he wasn't using a pattern and cast on too many stitches so the sock was so big it ended up fitting over a cast. We frogged it.
The reason Len was knitting such big yarn was because he had really bad cataracts and couldn't see. Then he had surgery and suddenly my stash of sock yarn was in immediate danger of being poached. Shelley and I got him some lovely blue/green sock yarn of his own as a present. And now Leonard has a fabulous sock, that fits, and is technically his forth sock. He's still counting them individually... silly man.
The punch line of the joke is, he's over on the couch casting on his second sock and is grumbling and swearing because he's having trouble with the join and I go over to help. As I lean over in my very skimpy nighty to see what's wrong he sits there and counts stitches and examines his joining technique and not once does he do the descent thing and look down my cleavage. He has now graduate to full knitter status!

You know your a knitter when you have a chance at a cheap feel and would rather finish your knitting.

Knitting Rules For Chronic Screaming Depression

1. Never knit dark grey socks. This goes for navy blue and white too. Life is just to short to knit boring socks you can buy at Target $6.00 for a package of twelve.

2. Never knit anything grey in the winter. Seasonal Affective Disorder is not just for neurotic middle age women. Why stack the deck? If you live in a cold, rainy, northerly place the absolute last thing you want is a giant pile of more darkness in your lap waiting to become a sweater.

3. Knit bright colors. You don't have to make everything in royal blue or shocking pink but do consider adding a pop of color to your knitting. After knitting a beige cardigan make a few cherry red wash clothes, or lime green cats toys, you'll feel better.

4. Knit something small. Working on a small project can give you a sense of accomplishment when nothing else you're working on seems to be going anywhere. I like interspersing my big projects with baby bibs, booties, dish rags and cat toys, really anything you can pick up and finish in a couple hours is fabulous.

5. Listen to music while you knit. Sing out loud. Some people like background noise, some people don't, I like a bit but not an actual conversation that I have to pay attention to when I'm feeling blue. But I find it impossible to sing and be depressed at the same time. I can listen to Machines of Loving Grace all damn day and still be in a rotten mood but singing off key to the radio perks me right up, and the cats never complain about my lack of singing skill. The extra bonus is you can sing and look at your knitting at the same time.

6. Don't drink and knit. Alcohol is a depressant. This is bad. And when you sober up and see all the mistakes you made on that nice lace scarf you'll feel even worse.

7. Find other knitters. Even if you don't knit in company, even if you have trouble leaving the house, other knitters are a godsend. They will laugh with you, cry with you, and above all understand you when you get teary over a cashmere blend yarn that your dog got ahold of and buried in the yard.

8. Knit for others. Some days it's hard to get motivated to make something for yourself, so make something for someone else. I don't actually use knitted wash clothes, or bibs, and I have plenty of hats. I do have a growing pool of folks to foist off my quick pick-me-up projects.

Pixel under the Icelandic Lace Shawl

9. Knit something gorgeous just for you. Sometimes I don't like my body very much. Some days I don't feel like I'm worthy of having a really nice thing made with really luscious yarn. I'll spend money getting that perfect yarn for the kid's christmas presents but not me. Do it anyway! Knit yourself an alpaca lace shawl or a silk/merino cardigan. If you're a petite then knit a whole bathrobe. If you're on the plushy side then accept who you are and go buy more yarn. Just working with the super soft yarn will make you happier.

10. Life is to short to knit with yarn you hate. Don't do it. If you hate the color, the texture, or if it's just hard to work with, then don't do it. Sometimes you have to fight your knitting, don't fight your yarn too. I don't care if it was a gift, if your five year old picked it out specially because it's their absolute favorite color and they will die with out it, or the wool fumes at your local yarn shop got to you and you bought it on sale, take your crap yarn and give it to Goodwill. Some one there will love it and it will take up less space in your house.

Bobbie thinks his Mom is nuts for putting knitting on him to take pictures.

 Seriously though, depression sucks, and I joke and make light of it because that's how I deal with uncomfortable subjects. And this isn't just about knitting, and this isn't just about dealing with depression. Humor is a weapon I use every day to fight depression. I also knit. Making things makes me feel better. So go out there and knit, and feel better. Maybe life will surprise you with cashmere.

10 Things To Do With Booties When The Baby Goes And Gets To Big

I love making baby booties. It's usually pretty easy, pretty fast and fairly inexpensive. You can try out new yarns, and new color combinations. It's alot more interesting than making a swatch if you need to see what gauge your getting on the new silk/cashmere/merino blend you just paid a small fortune for. Baby booties are also small, so, like socks, you can take them anywhere to knit while waiting for a beer in your local pub. Sometimes your waiter will even ask to see a picture of the cute little darling you're knitting them for.

But babies themselves have a near fatal flaw when it comes to knitting booties. The little suckers go and grow up before you're done knitting for them. I can maybe forgive this for a sweater, you can always give it to some other baby. You could even donate it to a daycare if you don't have another baby handy, but booties are so small and precious, it's almost an insult to have them grow out of them in the week it takes me to make a pair. OK, so it only takes a couple days but it may be two weeks before I see the intended baby. So to ease my troubled heart I've come up with some things you can do with baby booties once the baby gets to big.

1. Christmas Ornaments - I've had a pair of fluffy white booties my Great Grandmother made for me when I was a wee lass on the tree every year for the last 37 years. If you want to seperate them you can even keep one for your tre and send one off with the kid once they move out of the house.

2. Egg Cozy - A 6-9 month size bootie is just about the right size to cuddle a hard boiled egg. Ask me how I know? Those eggs are really hot when they've just come off the boil.

3. Doll Clothes - If the afore mentioned child does not have a suitable sized doll you can get them a teddy bear. If you're desperate you can even knit them a doll just to go with the booties.

4. Swatch Substitute - As mentioned, it's a slightly more entertaining way to get gauge and it's small enough to keep with the yarn for future reference.

5. Cat Toys - Stuff them with a bit of fiberfill and some catnip and your cats will love you forever.

6. Dog Toys - Felt them, if you can, stuff them and then sew them on to a long stuffed tube to make a many footed caterpillar to play tug-o-war with your dog. My dog Bobbie loves tug-o-war and if he does have a special toy for it you can kiss your good socks good bye.

7. Paw Protectors - This isn't as silly an idea as you might think. Dogs feet can get really cold and in some parts of the county in winter can actually freeze to the sidewalk. Booties with drawstings are really your best bet for this, and felted booties don't work as well either because dogs need their toenails to stick out for traction.

8. Shot Glass Cozy - Ok, now that is silly but they make cozies for every other cup known to man so why not?

9. Satchets - I like mine stuffed with lavender for the linens and cinnamon sticks for my clothes. Draw string booties work best for this one too.

10. Charity - Probably the most important thing you can do is give back to your community. Childrens' Hospitals, homeless shelters, womens shelters, church rummage sales, even pet shelters are great places to give a little gift. What homeless cat wouldn't love a catnip stuffed cashmere/merino bootie?

I want to be Stephanie Pearl-McPhee when I grow up.

She's my hero. She's funny and fiber addicted and can manage to blog almost every day. I want to be able to dedicate my life to knitterly pursuits like that. I just love her and she makes me laugh.

I, like many of you knitters out there, have taken to having poor helpless people hold my knitting to have their picture taken. We can mostly all blame this idea on Stephanie. But the cake must be taken by this fabulous knitter, Tracy, who got Barack Obama to hold her sock in progress for pictures. She has way more balls than I do.

Yarn Balls! I meant yarn balls. Really. :)

As for me, I'm back to teaching knitting at Michael's. As if I needed more to do with my Saturdays, but I figure teaching knitting is a public service. If everyone knew how to knit just imagine how much better the world would be. Everyone would be a lot warmer for one thing.

If every one in the world knew how to knit...
... no one would freeze to death because they did not have hats, scarves, sweaters, gloves, mittens or blankets.
... you could get yarn at your local stockists and there would be more yarn shops than 7-11's.
... no one would question your need for alpaca.
... no one would ever walk up to you and ask if that's knitting or crochet.
... no one would just assume that you could whip them out a sweater in a couple hours and that it was reasonable to offer you $20.00 for it.
... no one would be offended if you said 'could you wait until I finish this row' or 'just a second I'm counting stitches'.
... there would be knitting contests and knitting awards and more knitting shows on TV.
... you could get more yarn in more fibers in more colors.
... kids would pay attention to math in school and stop asking the teacher 'am I ever going to need to know this?'
... it would solve world hunger, improve the world economy, end illiteracy and promote world trade.
... there would be peace on earth and good will towards men because everybody would be to busy knitting to go out and kill each other. It would damage your needles and mess up your yarn, not to mention seriously cutting in to your knitting time.

So some day the world will be a better place because more people know how to knit. And I'm helping.

Knitting With Cats

Or perhaps it would be more acurate to say knitting around cats, because cats do interfere with your knitting. So here are some simple rules I have found that help me cope with catly interference.

1. Your cat loves you, and he will express this love by laying on you while you are knitting. Especially if he can manage to lay on the yarn ball and or a strategic corner of your project making it neccessary to move him before finishing or starting a new row. There is really no way around this one. Your cat has the upper hand here. You love him, and would never lob him across the room for snagging your very delicate and complicated lace shawl. He will also feel free to sleep on any pattern, book, or charted design you're working from. Making it neccessary to shuffle the cat from your knitting, off your lap, off your pattern, off your working yarn ball and hopefully off your couch. He may or may not get the hint at this point. Sometimes I resort to locking him out of the house or briding him with catnip.

2. Your cat loves your yarn, especially if it is expensive or impossible to replace. If you bought a silk/mohair yarn on a special trip to Portland for half price, because they don't make that size skein in that colorway anymore, that is the yarn your cat will want to make his very own stuffy. Fortunately this problem has a simple solution. Bag it, box it, or stick it in a cupboard. If you have an open work basket, shove it under an endtable or lock it in a closet. Never under estimate the yarn thieving abilities of your average cat, or you will wake up with yarn balls strung a round your dining room table, into the living room and down the hall to the laundry machines. Ask me how I know.

3. Completed or semi completed knitting projects make perfect cat beds. If your project is complete and just needs to go in the wash this isn't as much of a problem. If your project is still on the needles and becomes you cats favoritest place to sleep, there by knocking stitches loose, and making you swear a blue streak as your try to pick them all up again, it's more of a problem. But then you really can't blame the cat for sleeping on afgans you made for sleeping on in the first place.

4. As far as your cat is concerned yarn is a toy. You love yarn. You love the way it feels, how it flows through your hands and on to the needles, the texture, the color, and even the smell. So does your cat. Only he likes to bat it around your whole house and pack it around like a dead rat. If you're very unlucky he also likes to eat it, or at least chew on it. How do I know this?

I have yarn loving cats, all four of the little beggers. Pixel, Crystal, and Bugaboo all love wool. I cannot even count the number of times I have had to start a new ball of yarn because they've gnoshed through it, usually in mid-row, usually while the little darling was laying on my lap. Sentry, on the other hand, likes cotton. Only he likes to eat it. Now actually digesting yarn is bad for cats. It won't go through and you have to have the vet surgically remove what ever won't pass. This scares me a bit to think that my yarn could kill my cat, so when I see him snacking and he has a big ol' strand of yarn hanging out of his mouth I pull it out. I once pulled 2 1/2 yarns of dishrag cotton, dripping kitty spit and all slimy, out of him mouth. Yuck. I do not have pictures of this and I don't ever want to do it again. I keep my cotton locked up now.

5. If you blog about knitting your cat will become obsessed with walking on your keyboard. The picture says it all. It once took me five minutes to figure out that the reason a page wasn't loading was because he was laying on the esc key.

6. Who ate my double points? Cats have a hard time resisting wooden needles. Who can blame them, so do I. I however, do not chew on the ends. I now have two sets of double points that used to have five needles a piece and now only have four. Darned cat. Again the solution is to hide them from your cats. I have special bags for my needles and after they're bagged I put them in the cupboard. So far this has worked, because I'm a needle snob and I'll be damned if I'm going to use aluminum needles because of the cats.

I hope you've found these rules helpful. Or at least entertaining. I'm sure there will be more catly interference with my knitting and I'll need to come up with more rules. But my cats and I have reached an understanding and if they claw up my shawl while I'm blocking it I refuse to be responsible for my actions.

Pictures!

Ok, the camera is toast. Whatever the kids dropped it in killed it. But the card, she is beautifique. My computer at home choked on it but my computer at work had no such worries. Yeah!

As you can see my cats love my knitting. Now I can blog in color.

More images and stories will be forthcoming. I've got a whole bunch of pictures of my Yarn Crawl through Portland and dying and cats interfering with knitting and more....

Begin at the beginning.....

..and when you reach the end, stop.

So this is my first post on my first ever blog. It only get's better from here. I'm still trying to find my way around the site so any feedback is greatly apreciated. Once I get through the shakedown post this site is going to be about yarn. And knitting, and all of the fabulous things you can do with yarn and knitting. And yarn, did I mention the yarn?

But not crochet because that's just vile.