This is the first time in YEARS that I have not dressed up,
or bought candy, or ANYTHING.
sigh.
I did do a teensy bit of decorating:
in honor of WREN
who flew in from FLorida
to join the party and lift my spirits
tremendously.
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Re entry...
It has been painful to come back home and not have Carson's fuzzy face
greeting me at the door....
Peewee is VERY sad and wants to be held
all the time....which suits me FINE at the moment.
I had a marvellous, healing time at SAFF,
meeting lots of wonderful people and hugging old friends and
falling in love with lots of new Fiber.
Perhaps tomorrow I'll have pictures of all of that,
but for now I just want to say
THANK YOU
and give everybody a big hug.
You cannot imagine what your wonderful emails have done to
soothe my soul.
Carson had a wonderful *retirement* here in the village,
and brought so much to my life,
I'm mindful, and grateful for the BLESSINGS.
Speaking of Blessings,
I finally got to meet JANE after a few years of emailing
and several phone conversations...
what a JOY she is!
I am SO impressed.....
This book came home with me today
and I am AMAZED.
I own a LOT of knitting books
and it hard to impress me.
Clara, if you are out there?
I've been a big fan of Knitter's Review from the beginning,
and I've been looking forward to this book,
but you have far surpassed my expectations.
CONGRATULATION on a wonderful book.
Five Stars.
HIGHLY recommended.
Sleeve Island
I'm slogging away on the sleeve of the Tomten....
miles to go before I sleep!
There is something so soothing, almost hypnotic about the rhythm of
garter stitch.....
ESPECIALLY in soft shetland wool.
My heart is breaking for the residents of San Diego county....
my alma mater.
I remember the smell of the smoke and the
Santa Ana winds as the ash fell from the sky....
I pray now that no more lives will be lost and that
somehow we as a knitting community
can help piece things back together when the fires
are finally out.
Peace be with you.
Down the Road
I went to visit the Daughter bird and took her the Apartment Application.
She is SO literal....
where it says Any Pets?
she answered:
"YES, their names are Carson and Peewee. They are small dogs and they will live
at my Mother's house. NOT in my apartment".
tee.hee.
The FIT is an absolute JOY to drive.
and the scenery around here is getting rather Fallish!
A good Fit...
After too many hassles with the MiniCooper
(not the car itself, but the fact that the dealer is more than 2 hours away....)
every single thing has to be special ordered, and only the dealer can have the special tools,
and it takes a flat bed truck and TWO full days to get an Oil Change....
now that it is out of warranty, BMW service prices kick in,
and it needed new, EXPENSIVE tires....
I decided to trade it in.
I did my research (but of COURSE!)
and decided I wanted (sorry about the ad at the beginning,
but this video does a GREAT job, describing)
a Honda Fit, Sport edition.
I cleaned and polished the Mini, drove it on a curvy road to
wish it farewell,
got to my Honda dealer (I *heart* my Honda dealer!)
and lo and behold...
ONE left.
Color, black.
While I was buying it, no less than FIVE customers
offered to pay MORE than the list price to get one today....
(and one guy even stepped into the sales cubicle with a hundred
dollar bill....)
It's Mine, and I adore it.
The process took a little over two hours
(most of which was cleaning it up to New Condition,
which had to be done by HAND as we are under MANDATORY
water restrictions, NO car washes or hoses ALLOWED....)
It has all of the Honda features I've come to expect,
including (blessedly)
the ergonomic seats from the Accord
and the blue dash lighting which is ever so much easier on my eyes....
and 41 cubic feet of Yarn Storage.
A port for the ipod, an awesome stereo and
it changes lanes faster (in TESTS of course, ahem,) than a Corvette!
Yep.
A Good Fit, indeed!
Saturdays is supposed to be about posting the Skating
synopsis, but I'm still on
restriction with my FOOT,
so no news there.
sigh.
I'll get heaps better gas mileage to and from the rink
when I CAN start training again, though!
Wheeeeeeee!
I just LOVE that new Honda smell!
Friday Fiber fabulousness!
I'm LOVING the garter stitch, and the Tomten project in general.
I've had several conversations with people who are inspired (as was I, naturally)
by brooklyntweed's version, but then they think it is SO gorgeous that it must be
Too.Difficult.
I have to say (IMHO) that I want to knit everything he takes a picture of.
His latest hat? I drooled like crazy when I saw it on his blog, but when I went
back to the magazine it was featured in? meh.
Not.So.Much.
He's an AMAZING photographer and stylist and knitter,
his writing just adds to the magic...It is
All of it. He's the complete package,
and I think that is intimidating to most folks.
So here's MY story....
The first Tomten I knit was a way to return to knitting
garments. I never really stopped KNITTING, mind you, but it had mostly
been small fiddly projects (oh how I wish I had some of those little animals and
gnomes and such to show you...with the current craze over softies....anyway.)
and I had a baby I wanted to knit for.
I was exhausted, and newly pregnant with the second baby,
sick all of the time,
without much time at ALL to myself.
That sweater, in a simple red worsted WOOL
(do believe what EZ has to say about wool and babies!)
saved my sanity. In between things like projectile vomiting and endless
loads of laundry and my OWN morning sickness, I managed a row here and
there, and it was just SO calming to read EZ's words as I was rocking a *not
sleepy* baby.....
I knit several more Tomtens after that, and loved the process (and the PRODUCT)
of every single one of them.
It is a GREAT project for a new knitter,
and there is LOTS of support out there if you want to attempt
the mods of Jared's version.
You should LOVE the wool. That is the first step. You are going to spend miles
and miles and MILES of garter stitch with this wool, so it must elicit at least a
sigh of admiration whenever you see it. You want a *pettable* skein....a fabric that
you could SLEEP with. Seriously.
This is not a quickie, thin thighs in thirty days kind of exercise.
This is a PROCESS that will yield a garment you can be proud to
wear and photograph and know that you have become a KNITTER....
It is like YOGA (and yes I know, we're all sick of the knitting is the new yoga
slogan, but this is the OLD school yoga that used to be on TV in black and white.
Anybody remember Lilias, yoga and you? Jack LaLanne? yep. Old School, baby.)
Pick needles that make the knitting effortless.
Use a row counter.
Take NOTES.
Spend time in the moment with this project
and it will change the way you think about knitting.
At least I hope it will.
I'll post updates here for those who are interested....
but DO search out others who have caught the Zimmermania bug!
ALSO, I put a deposit on an apartment for the Daughter bird today.
Going down to the college this weekend for her to fill out the application
and start the process....
I'll need lots more garter stitch and plenty of prayers to help us both through this NEXT transition!
Happy Weekend, all!
friends.....
I'm so excited to be in Ravelry-land.
It feels to me *just like* when I first started blogging
and everybody was so nice and helpful,
and I met all kinds of amazing people,
many of whom I now consider my
closest friends.
One of those people is someone who
picked me up in a train station
and let the Daughter bird and I stay in her home,
even though she was in the middle of MOVING
and didn't know me from addam,
except through my blog.
It has been a couple of years now, and I'm SO
grateful for her friendship and kind words, AND,
She sent me THIS:
(crappy picture on purpose, as this is a limited edition print and I haven't connected with the
ARTIST yet!) Called "Knitting is LOVE",
it was part of a surprize package of goodies
that has had me sighing for days now.
The world really is filled with goodness and LIGHT
and random acts of kindness and it is indeed possible
to have a whole POSSE of New Best Friends
at the ripe old age of FIFTY!
Which is a good thing, because my life needs some balancing in that
direction. Things have been rough in a number of other areas, and just
when I think it is all too much, and I should just cry myself to sleep,
I get to have dinner with the Boybird and think about how
BLESSED I really am.
He's doing better, as well as can be expected really,
considering what he has been through.
He's a trouper, that Boybird of mine!
So here's to you, FRIENDS!
May your Blessings be many,
your stumbling blocks few.
mwah!