Gotta Knit!

Best Part of the Day

At least for me, the best part is always very early in the morning when dawn is just starting to happen and the birds, squirrels and whatever wildlife there is out there is going nuts.   Seriously, I couldn't believe how noisy those critters were at 6:10 a.m.

 

Annie and I wander around the backyard with her smelling and me doing legal watering.   Yep, it's Atlanta and we are still under water restrictions.   Have to say the restrictions really has made me a greener human on earth.   When I started paying attention to the water I was saving instead of just tossing down the drain I was quite surprised.    Now even a cup of water gets tossed on a plant.   Oh, Al Gore would be so proud!

 

In my wandering around I spied two plants blooming. 

 

The Man had given me a Gerber Daisy a few years ago.    I planted it totally on a whim just to see if it would grow.   It did but took two years for it to bloom again.

 

 

 

 

 

  

The other "lets see what happens" planting was an Amaryllis we got one Christmas.  Check it out!   Happened to spy it under the greener of other plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funny thing happened the other day when I was on the phone.   Was talking to my sister and she asked me what all that racket was.   Hum, think the actual question was "do you have birds?"    Don't know why but most folks don't know we have two budgies and they've been around longer than Annie.

Not the best of pictures but can't blame them.   It wasn't even full daylight out yet and I don't think I would like having a camera shoved into my beak with the flash going off.   They were not to happy about the whole process.   Jack (blue) and Nervous Charlie (she's green and crazy like needing Prozac crazy) live in their cage out on the screened in porch for most of Spring, all of Summer and some of Fall.   They come in depending on the acque-check weather system of our arms out the sliding door.   They love it out there and the real wild birds seem to like them.   I've found a few wild ones hanging out near them on the outside of the porch talking with them.

No knitting has been done in a few days.   I got my knitting stuff all in order including my needle kit and it's in my suitcase.  Was afraid I'd forget something if I took it out.  Though I've heard they have yarn stores in Scotland you can't be to careful!   I'm off on the Grand Adventure today with a brief stop over in the great town of Newark to change planes.  Yesterday, I was so focused on getting and staying hydrated for the plane ride I had to have drank a few gallons of water.   Last night I swear I was getting up every 30 minutes to go to the bathroom.

Off to get ready way to early to make The Man drop me off at the airport way to early.  Less of a stress bunny that way.  

Token Annie photo

Packing, Knitting, Thoughts and Things

Oh my stars, I am off to Scotland in 46 hours! 

I know this will sound very strange but honestly it did not hit me till I was riding an escalator in a store today.  I'm riding along and all of a sudden it dawned on me  " I'm going to be in another COUNTRY in two days."   Maybe I was having flashbacks of this way cool full of 7 floors department store in Berlin I had been to way back when the Wall coming down dust was still settling.

Packing has been happening today.   Decided even though I'm going to be gone for something like 10 or 12 days, I'd only pack for 5.   We've got washer & dryer in our cottage so washie, washie, washie.   I'm going to be all black, blue, khaki, gray and blue jeans with gobs of tee shirts.  Raverly tee of course!    Threw in a cool raincoat and some light sweaters.  Started out with 5 pairs of shoes and now down to 3.  Progress right?

Knitting:

Baby Surprise Jacket for the littlest girl carpenter to be is coming along.  Slower than I had thought but it's coming along.   Bernat cottontots in "Pretty in Pink".

               

As for my trip knitting   .     .     .
Think I'm going to work on this in the airplane.

         
            
                   
                   
                        

It's the Airy Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and they nit it in 4 hours so I'm thinking maybe I got a decent shot at 12 hours.   I've got several years old  Malabrigo lace yarn that is a a lovely brown with flecks of red and wee bit of green  colored.

I've still got this much left after making that long Scribble scarf with it. 

               


         

Had gone with several folks suggestions of knitting socks on the airplane.   Even went to Knitch and got the Drop Dead Softness sock yarn ever aka Hand Maiden  Casbah in Rose Garden with colors that make me want to bite into it.  I mean just look at it!    

The yarn is all raspberries, sour cream, pistachios and sweetness thrown in.  I swear looking at this yarn cake I want to make a dessert.   I'm beginning to have my doubts that this will ever wrap around my feet.   Neck probably, feet doubtful.

So books!   Ya'll rock.   Got some wonderful suggestions and off to Borders The Man and I headed.   Except I forgot my list!   Augggghhhhhhh.    I truly did the best I could to remember but it just didn't work out so went with Agatha Christie (can't go wrong there) and  Sue Grafton.    So I will have some great books to check out when I return.   Oh, in case you hadn't noticed I put a cool book on my side bar.   It's "Write It Down, Make It Happen . . ."   Can't tell you how many times I have had to purchase this book.  Every time I loan it out, the book never comes back. 

Sorta in that vein, I had fun on Saturday evening  working on my Treasure Map.   Funny how I am headed to another country and my travel part has tons of photos in it!   I know from personal experience that writing down your goals no matter how outlandish they sound does work.   I had some really cool stuff happen in my 30's that way.  Actually some cool stuff has happened in my 40's too.

Off to finish packing and ponder my other knitting project to bring.  No, Jana, I am NOT bringing the Ombre Blanket with me!   Lord knows it is so big it would need it's own passport.

Throwing a Question or Two Out to You

Hi!   said with a cheerful happy voice with the best smile I got going on.  Knock, knock.   Ok, I really need your attention here.   Yes, I know there is toothpaste yet again on that mirror.   In my defense, it's The Man's sink so it's his mirror.   Not good enough?   Geeze, rough crowd here.   OK people, I have cleaned the said mirror.   I even want so crazy as to clean my mirror too and (hold your breath) the guest bathroom's mirror. 

So as I may have mentioned, I'm going off on a trip next week.  (Ducking things being thrown at me.  Dang,  some of you have good aim).  Do ya'll have any suggestions for a good traveling book or two?   What I'm looking for is a great read that is in paperback.   I would like to read it on the way over and either leave it at the airport or in the hotel for another travelor to pick up and read.   I'll be getting another paperback in Scotland for the ride home.   Nothing to deep but would like a good read.  Pondering getting an Agatha Christie book because her writing is brilliant but am open to any good beach read.

The other question which I know does seem silly but any thoughts as to what knitting projects to bring?   I'd thought about working on those scarves for Christmas for two guy friends of ours  but do I really want to work on someone else's gift when my memories of the trip will be knit into it?   Probably not, so I know I do want something not to complex but not to simple to be boring and it has to be portable. 

       

I'm starting to feel like a deer caught in the headlights of a fast approaching car.  "Oh my God,  wadda I do?  wadda I do?   wadda I do?

Splat.

Proverbially knitting splat that is. 

Big Doings this Weekend

In a previous post, I allude to a family event this weekend.   Figured it would be much better with photos.

A lot of my family and I spent most of the weekend celebrating my aunt's graduation at Emory University.   Auntie R actually graduated from their Nursing School back in 1948 but she was one of the honorees this weekend at graduation.  Emory has a wonderful new (started in 2004) tradition of inviting alumni that graduated 50 or more years ago to be honored and part of the graduation ceremonies.   Isn't that a grand idea!

Sunday,  the family kept it down to a dull roar of only 25 of us being able to show up.   There is much more in the family but school, work and life got in the way of everyone attending.  There was a breakfast, small ceremony and induction into the Corpus Cordis Aureum (Golden Corps of the Heart) where she received her medal.

                            
                              
                                  
                  

check out the medal Emory gave her.

               
                                     
                                     
















                

                               

Today was THE big graduation ceremony this morning where they got to lead all of the graduates in  to bag pipes being played. 

       

Did I mention we got to sit in the VIP seating?   So we were this close to the platform.  I could actually see their faces!

                     

Doesn't she look darling in that hat!   She had this smile on all weekend.

May

It's turned to  May and now it's sudden MAY.   Holy crap, where did the first 7 days fly by?   May has been the month I've been looking forward to.  So much going on and so quickly it is stacking up.   

First of all supposedly my horoscope for this month is the bomb.   I tell ya THE BOMB for this month.   This month so far?   Full of energy and um, a bit on the exhausting side.   Just to give you an idea by 11:15 this morning I was needing wanting a Stoli and Tonic.  Then there was the not one but two job offers within hours of each other.  Holy Toledo my head started spinning.    Have I mentioned I'm not looking for a job?  Nice to be wanted and one of those offers .  .   .   details in writing have to come and it did stop me cold in my tracks to think about.   We shall see but it's a stepping stone with a lot more responsibilities.   Supposed I'd have to act like an adult, right?

I've got big going ons this month of May.   Huge family event this weekend over Sunday and Monday.  I hope for pictures and will post about it.

Then there is the whole I'm turning older next week.   Actually,  I am really thinking that this birthday I will be going in reverse and  turning 38 instead of my real age.   38 has such a nicer ring to it.   Taking the day off with the infamous words of "I do NOT work on my Birthday!" with a haughty look the Queen of England would be proud of.   Have no idea what I shall do but will enjoy a lazy day out and about on my own.  The Man will be doing something with me that evening.

Then (drum roll please)   I am OFF TO SCOTLAND, BABY! with two knitting cousins,  blogless even after a high level of harassment from me, Megan of yesterday's post and another local knitting buddy of bad influence.   You've probably guessed but it's a knitting trip and it was arranged by my cousin's LYS, Dyed in the Wool in Pittsburgh.   More on that later but it is now 12 1/2 days and counting.   Very tempting to start counting the hours left.

Here is hoping I run into a certain fellow in a kilt!

         
             
                
            


















                         
      

Now if I could only pop by Texas, Rhode Island, Tennessee (more doable) and parts of Australia to visit my other knitting buddies.

It's Been One Of Those Weeks

Not bad mind you but not very productive in the knitting department.   Been busying doing stuff around the house like mowing.   Check out our backyard of white clover! 

I swear one night it looked like it had snowed to me so the next day I was out for almost two hours pushing our lawnmower.   Great workout!          

                                  

Think all I knitted was two measle rows of that blanket last Monday night when I was out with some knitty friends of mine.   The whole Chips & Salsa, Margarita, Tacos thing was getting in the way of knitting.            

Good grief I ate a ton of food that night.   You ever have one of those days were you become a complete bottomless pit?   Used to happen all the time when I was a teenager but now I'm a quite grown adult it is much rarer.   Had an appetizer, then order a full dinner plate which in itself was much more than what had filled me up the week before.   Finished all that and was still friggin hungry!   Order two more starchy side dishes and that finally did it.   Was starting to get nervous I might start gnawing on the table.   So not much knitting accomplished in the whole food to mouth bonanza event that evening.

You know the rest of the week I haven't felt like knitting.  Well, not entirely true, I've gone as far as pulling out my knitting because I thought I wanted to knit, only to look at it and put it back.  Every night for 5 evenings I've gone through this routine. 

Course all of that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking up a storm about knitting in my head.   (Help my knitting is trapped in my head and can't get out into my fingers!)   Was down at Border's book store getting my latest book club book and you know how it is, you just have to wander by the knitting section to see just how bad it is.   They had some classics (Sally Melville's book series,  Stitch n Bitch, etc) but they also had some really awful basic knitting books.   You know the type.   How do these books get published?   Flipped through a few and lordy are the patterns atrocious.               

   

         

               
         

But I did find a great stitch book that I had to have.   Probably because the swatches are all in color.   Been spending hours of delight with this book over the past week.   Suddenly I have Christmas running through my head.   IN MAY!   how frightening is that?   

Back to knitting,  so there are two guys that I want to make scarfs for for Christmas this year.   Why not start now? One is so easy!   It's gotta be that Noro Striped scarf pattern that Jared made.   He is all depths of black and grey so Noro will be perfect!   He is an Interior Designer so will love the depths of color and the changes that Noro yarn will bring.

The other guy is more reserved so I'm thinking maybe deep blue to go with his eyes or rich browns in a woven type of stitch pattern from this book.   Have earmarked several stitches that I like, want to knit and think they look masculine.   Will have to have The Man look at them for the masculine part of the equation.

Who knows, maybe today will be the day I start knitting again.

Knitterly Things

Bare with me here for I am a wee bit loopy from lack of sleep and then there is the whole healing of humanity thing I do for a living.   Not only does The Man have a cold that had the nerve to relocated to his chest, it also requires multiple coughing trips during the night to the bathroom.  Then there is the whole business of POLLEN season in Atlanta.  He's got inhalers scattered throughout the house sorta like my knitting.   

Came home to find the new Interweave Knits sitting in our mailbox.  Promptly poured myself a glass of wine and started to flip through it only to find myself reading through it.  Whatever you think about Eunny Jang being the Editor, I like her at helm.   It's refreshing to have a younger, fresh breathe of life into knitting.   Reading her letter to us was just like sitting down to chat with her.   Course her level of knitting is World Series level where as I'm in the tee ball league and just happy when my bat actually hits the dang ball.    I did notice when I started turning the pages that the article layouts seem different and much more user friendly.   Actually found myself pausing and reading more that just the 1st paragraphs like I usually do.      

The review of Brooklyn General on page 9 makes me want to show up tomorrow (Fri) for breakfast and a mad knit fest.   Will have to add it to the yarn stores to drag The Man to when we are in NYC.            

Then much to my surprise because I know he does photography and cartoons, Franklin wrote a wonderful article on Elizabeth Zimmerman.  Delores must have been to busy thank goodness.    Check out the photo of E.Z. and her husband way back in the 1930's.  They look like movie stars.   Franklin did a wonderful write up and how it all started and progressed.  Then right after that is her pattern for the Maltese Fisherman's hat.   It's a funny little adult hat that I just love.

            

All of that goodness is followed by a wicked article on color mixing that I know I'll be rereading.   Usually when I need color blending, I rush down to Knitch and beg Nell or Kim to help me.    That Ombre blanket I've been knitting since the Dawn of Time?   Kim helped me pick colors that would work perfectly with our Den's couch.   Nell has helped me numerous times with blending of the same colors.   You wouldn't think picking three colors of blue would take so much work but it did and they loved the scarf when it was gifted.

That color article was where I stopped.   Just to much goodness for one sitting.   The next article sounds fascinating, "From a Studio to a Store Near You" about a professional knit designer and what her world is like.     Page 28

             

As for the patterns, it's the usual for me.   Some I like, some I don't.   Most that I do like I want to noodle with.  Either make the color work going up the sweater smaller, cut out the 2nd pattern of color work and just keep the 1st, etc.   There is that Gossamer Stars scarf that I'm eying to use some yarn I was trying to knit up  Cozy with.   The 8th row was a bear with having to move stitch markets so it stopped there.

My LYS, Knitch, is getting more and more famous as I knit.

             

Yay, Kim!   You totally rock girlfriend!

See, I'm not the only one that loves Knitch.

KNITTING UP COMFORT: A ball of yarn, and time to unwind
    Knitch in Virginia-Highland an unlikely hot spot to get away from a high-strung life.
   
By Jill Vejnoska
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/24/08

Danielle Carlson had lost the roof over her head.

Fortunately, her toes were about to be in much better shape.

"I've really been looking forward to this," Carlson, 25, beamed over the top of the scarf she was knitting at the big farmhouse table at Knitch in Virginia-Highland recently. "I'm so happy to be here in a place that feels like home. Especially since I don't really have a home right now."

Two weeks after a tornado had forced her from her Cabbagetown home, Carlson now was breaking bread (actually, cheese and crackers) with some two dozen fellow knitters and waiting her turn for a pedicure at "Polish and Purls." It was just another Tuesday night at Knitch, the afghan-cozy, cashmere-classy knitting shop that's become an unlikely hot spot since it opened less than two years ago.

Its tucked-away location in an alley off St. Charles Avenue makes it easy to overlook amid the bigger, brighter storefronts in one of Atlanta's prime shopping and dining districts.

Meanwhile, its raison d'etre —- to be a great source of yarn, as well as a welcoming niche for overworked, in-need-of-some-civilized-society handiworkers —- shatters the stereotype of knitters as solitary creatures who can't get out of their rocking chairs.

"Our customers are busy people who might feel guilty for slowing down and actually taking some time for themselves, so this is their haven," owner Kim Nickels said during a pause from refilling wine glasses. "Guys have their sports bars, and now women have Knitch."

Something for everyone

But it's not just women who flock to the two-story shop, where the free coffee is always on and patrons are encouraged to knit and talk about everything from purling to Pearl Jam for as long as they like.

There's a "Men's Knit In" every Sunday afternoon; come June, there'll be a kids' Fiber Camp. Veteran knitters can take classes on making socks, dyeing yarns or incorporating flowers into their work at a three-day retreat at the "Knitch Cabin" in North Georgia. Rookies who wouldn't know a cable stitch from a castoff technique can take beginner classes similar to one that had taken place the previous night.

Many of the dozen students in the class —- which included some experienced public relations professionals —- arrived with the wary look of white-knuckle fliers suddenly having to land jumbo jets. But they began working with the pairs of fat knitting needles that Knitch staff had already cast on with colorful yarn, and gradually relaxed.

As their chatter morphed from technical issues ("So we're moving back-and-forth from one needle to the other?") into more personal areas (someone's pregnancy, relationships with their own mothers) the staff circulated to offer advice, encouragement . . . and unravel the occasional error.

"Thousands and thousands of people have learned to knit, many far less coordinated than you," Nickels had begun by reassuring them. "There's nothing you can do tonight that can't be undone."

'You want to be part of it'

Fostering that "All for Knit One, Purl Two" environment was critical to Nickels, a retailing executive who'd worked at J. Crew and Martha Stewart Living before deciding three years ago that she'd had enough of the corporate rat race.

"I'd lost my sense of community," said Nickels, who spent a lot of time commuting to New York. "I was not being a good friend, sister or daughter. I needed to tap back into life."

Knitch's roots lie in the Meetup group of knitters Nickels recruited online and first convened at a coffee shop.

It's a neighborhood place: both Java Vino, which supplies the coffee, and 10/Ten Nail Bar, which staffed "Polish and Purls," are blocks away on North Highland Avenue.

Figuratively, too; it's a community of folks who come from different places and walks of life. Anne Mather, an employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had driven 2 1/2 hours from her Young Harris home, while Decatur High School teacher Cris Hellerstein had come from the Fernbank area —- to share a particular sensibility. Yes, it's a business; but so are lots of places.

"Other stores have classes, but they don't have that feeling of making you want to spend two hours there," said Hellerstein, looking more relaxed than a working mother of three children under the age of 5 had any right to.

All around her, women had kicked off their shoes to dry their freshly polished toes and some sipped wine. The air was a blur of knitting needles at work and lively conversation between old and newfound friends.

"You come across a little niche of a place that welcomes the idea of making time for yourself and you want to be a part of it," Hellerstein continued. "Plus, you're surrounded by warm, fuzzy yarn. That's pretty hard to resist."

Why I am Tired.

Going to bed earlier and still waking up tired.   Was pondering this quandary all the while taking my vitamins, eating healthy, trying to walk more, etc.

Then on Saturday it dawned on me.   When I go to bed at night,  I have a normal bed beckoning me.   You know the one where you have to pull the covers down to get into the bed.

This is what I found when I got out of bed on Saturday morning.   Um, supposed I should mention I sleep on the right of the bed.

The right side you will notice is the only side with any semblance of normality.

See my side is to normal!

or what is left of normal since I distinctly remember waking up cold three times and trying to find covers to pull up over me.   Good grief what does The Man do in his sleep to tear up a bed like that?

             

Then there is the nightly 2:30 a.m. "thank you" wake up from Annie regarding her middle of the night feeding.   Seriously,  she either nudges or licks my arm awake right around 2:30 most nights to thank me for her food.   Then there is always the feeling of large paws carrying 56 lbs wanting to get between me and The Man to sleep.  Annie almost always wins that war.

New Things Added

Hi Ya'll

You better sit down for this one.  Just been poking around the Internet finding some cool new blogs.    Some even aren't knitting blogs.   I know, I was shocked too but there are some darn good blogs out there so I find my "blogs to read" list growing.

All of these have links to left side over there so check them out.

3191 a year of evenings:   this entire blog is two photos a day from two different women that are friends.  Sounds simply right?   However, their photos are stunning and I love looking at them each day.   When I first found them in late 2007 the theme was in the morning.  It is now a year of evenings.   Do check them out.   I know you will love the photos as much as I do.

Simply Me:   just found this one this morning under Typepad's featured blogs.   Crafty blog that I really think I'm going to love looking at.

Diary of a mad, mad housewife:   this lady is a scream to read.   I do not have kids but even I can totally relate to her posts about life.

Meg Fowler:   Found Meg and her blog when the Yarn Harlot's blog was up against her and few others for a Canadian Most Humorist Blog award.  Don't know who won that one but I've been reading this blog ever since.   Another funny lady who posts about her life and thoughts.   

         

               

                     

             

               

               

             

               

          

As for me, yes I've been knitting on what I fear may become the football sized Ombre Blanket.   I'm three skeins into the caramel color and knit on it for all it was worth last Thursday night at knit night at Knitch.   I was desperately determined to start and finish two whole skeins, knit together of course, in one evening.   Got darn close!

The really cool thing about living in a big city and having a wonderful yarn shop like Knitch is that you never know who is going to show up.   We had a visitor to our group Thursday evening of a Internationally known knitting designer of many knitting books.  No, I am not outing her, she was just a knitter in town visiting folks and knew about Knitch and heard about the knitting group so wanted to come knit with her people.  Very nice lady and it is always great to have new folks show up to knit with.   She was quite gracious in that she truly was interested in our projects.   Which I know my simple pattern for the Ombre  was no where near her level of knitting but it is always nice to have someone compliment your knitting. 

The funny thing, at least for me I thought it was quite funny, and not sure how long she'd been there, maybe an hour or two but while I was talking to her about what not, out of the corner of my eye I just happened to spot her name in big print on one of her books that was in the yarn storage behind her. 

Now wondering if Julie Roberts is ever going to drop by when she is in town visiting her mom.