Happy Thing #2: Celebrations!

Don't you love a good party?

I'm so lucky to knit with such wonderful people, people who've shared their talents, passions, and friendship with me over the past two years. I deeply appreciate you, SLC SnBs!

Although we're all missing David, and talked about him quite a bit, we also had reason to celebrate this Tuesday. We had three Birthdays, Susan, Eileen, and me. And we grrls and I do like to celebrate! There was cake, cookies, pie, and brownies--thanks Val, Gwen, Susan's husband, and Jessamyn.

There were gifts, too, and some of them were for me. I've carefully composed a picture of them atop the piano. Pretty, no? Although the piano is kind of a dark background, the tiers were very useful for getting all this bounty into the frame. I tried to balance the composition so you could see everything. Shall we take it from the top?

Gwen gave me two skeins of Kaffe Fassett designed Regia sock yarn, the stripey version. Isn't it fun to try out the new stuff? I love it! I am thinking some plain socks to really show the color off, but I'm open to suggestions.

Mim gave me two skeins of Reynolds Whiskey which will look great with my black winter coat, and two patterns to consider. One of them is for mitts, wouldn't that be fabulous? The other pattern is for a child's hat, but I will save that for another yarn as I'm knitting the Whiskey for me!

Eileen, whose husband kicked her out of his hospital room so she could come to our party, gave me some beautiful chocolate which I have resisted opening so I could photograph. We call that willpower, ladies! It was great to see you at SnB, Eileen!

Laurie gave me some soap and a hand-crocheted facecloth of the type Mim's sister sells on her Esty shop. The soap is "Sachet", and it smells heavenly. Laurie's got such a gift for mixing scents. I just love her soap.

Cheryl gave me an assortment of tea and the pretty blue Trekking yarn, which I love and will make socks with in the near future. Thanks, Cheryl! I love it and will really enjoy knitting it up! I am thinking something with some texture, maybe garter rib or even another pair of Conwys?

Margene gave me some beautifully soft pink and green hand-dyed sock yarn from Seacoast Handpaint and a very clever IKEA bag which zips at the top and bottom and has a handle on the side. She made a fantastic card as well--I draped it over the bag so you can see it. She stamps a little Margene seal on the back and everything, very cool. I love bags, and I love pinks and greens. I notice that the yarn slid further down inside the bag before I took the picture and you can't really see it well, but trust me, it's gorgeous.

Anne (does she have a blog? I don't think so, but please let me know if I'm wrong) gave me a skein of stripey blue Supersocke 100 cotton-wool-nylon blend sock yarn in the cleverest hand-sewn gift bag. I couldn't get a good picture, but the bag's constructed like a pyramid and has ribbon ties, very clever. I've heard the bag is good match for Anne's new curtains. The yarn will make great summer socks!

Susan spun and dyed me some incredible Blue-Faced Leister; I'm sure you saw it on her blog today. Did it blow you away? It's even more amazing in person. I am not sure what I'm going to knit for myself with it, except that it will be mine and belong to no other, and that I will enjoy every stitch. It's beautifully spun and the color's amazing. She also gave me the very cool straw bag AND a Wool Cabin gift certificate. Thanks, Susan!

Isn't that amazing? I don't know what to say to such generosity, except THANK YOU! I really appreciate the gifts and will think of you all when I'm knitting.

I also feel as if I received two other gifts on Tuesday: Anne and Gwen both brought in things they'd knit from the yarn I gave them on their birthdays. Anne made a gorgeous lace scarf with the green Opal yarn I gave her, using a viney pattern. It's just beautiful and the pattern suits the yarn so well. Anne has a great eye.

On her birthday, I gave Gwen some bright pink and green cotton elastic yarn. Maybe it had some bamboo? I can't remember the exact fiber content, I just thought it looked like a fun colorway for baby things, and Gwen had told me her first grandchild was going to be a girl. Anyway, she made the cutest wee lacey baby socks. Gwen, you should reactivate your blog and post a picture. They're adorable! Also, thanks for showing me the baby pictures. Your granddaughter is quite a cute baby!

100 Happy Things

When I'm troubled, I always find it comforting to look for the positive and try to focus on the good things in the world. I'm fully aware (sometimes hyper-aware) that this world holds full measure of tragedy, cruelty, hopelessness, and despair, but there are also millions of wonderful things for us here on earth. Here begins my series of one hundred of them.

1) Learning new things.

I find learning new things enjoyable. I believe this brands me as a bit of a nerd, but I'm fine with that.

One of the great joys of knitting is learning new techniques and skills.

Right now I'm engaged in learning to knit lace. Here is my latest project, the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. Isn't it beautiful already? For yarn I'm using the hand-dyed Blood Orange sock yarn Teri gave me for my birthday last year. Every once in a while, I'd take the skein out and admire it, then put it back. I didn't feel confident enough in my skills to do the yarn justice until just last week. I've learned a lot this year, and when the time came to practice some more lace, I knew this was the right yarn to use.

What kinds of things do you enjoy learning about?

Doily Dishcloth

Made a washrag using the same pattern Susan did. I'm such a copycat! I wanted to see if I could knit it, and if so, could I knit it quickly enough for Dish Rag Tag, and would it come out big enough to meet the Rag Tag requirements of 9" diameter.

It was really fun to knit, and quite large, about 11". I did have to tink back several rows a couple of times until I got used to paying closer attention, and the kitchener join was more annoying than necessary as I had to count several times to pick up the proper number of stitches. To dumb it down a little, I'm using a provisional cast-on for the next one.

In the natural yarn, doesn't it look like a little like a doily? But it made a nice gift, along with some Napa Valley Olive Oil, for my good friend T, who knows how to appreciate a handmade dishrag.

I find I can't close this entry without mentioning poor David. I will be attending his service this morning.

David

Goodbye, friend and fellow knitter. You were a talented, funny, smart, kind man, and your tragic death is a great loss to our community.

I'm glad I made you try the sweater on. I wish you could have worn it.

Finished!

Here's the Minimalist Spring Things--you may recall I ripped the ENTIRE thing out in a fit of craziness and restarted it. Sorry about the crummy picture. It was harder than I thought to photograph.

The stockingette portion is error free now, and what I did of the lace part ended up OK, except I knit the third chart first instead of the second. How could anyone do this without noticing? Quite the bonehead I am sometimes. It was getting down to the wire for my gifting deadline, so I crossed my fingers, worked the edging, and bound off, hoping for the best.

Blocking ROCKS. Next time I'll use those wires I forgot I had. The shawl stretched way out and the points became pointy instead of curly and, best of all, the shawlette isn't impossibly shrimpy as one would expect of a shawl with half the required border. In the end, I'm fine with it. I won't be embarrassed to give it to my husband's Granny when she turns 90 later this week.

I learned an incredible amount from knitting this. I learned to read the chart, I sort of learned how to read my knitting and see most mistakes, I fixed one really weird thing that happened, and I learned that I am at times crazy enough to rip out weeks of work (next time, Heather, put the knitting down and WALK AWAY). I learned that I can, with compromises and sufficient motivation, finish an object in time for a deadline.

Now all I have to do is keep my big, somewhat insecure mouth shut and not point any mistakes out to anyone in at the birthday party. I don't want to ruin the gift for Granny.

The best part is still the dye job, though.

For the Big Girls

Everyone see this morning's Knitting Daily? I had NO idea Interweave though they were publishing enough plus-sized patterns already!

They are asking for feedback about our real chest measurements. Go measure yourself and fill out the survey!

An ode to my dishwasher:

No self-written poetry will be inflicted on you; I love you all too much for that. Instead, I'm going for more of a photo essay, with before, during, and after pictures.

Shot number one: hands down the best pies I've ever made. Use the dough from this cookbook. Yep, that is an obscene amount of butter and shortening, about twice that of my usual recipe. It is so worth it!

And here's the dirty pie plate. All that stuff is stuck on and you'd think it would need to be soaked for three days or chiseled out with a hammer or something.

Et voila! After one cycle through the miracle appliance that is my Bosch dishwasher, it's clean as a whistle. I didn't even rinse it off first.

How do I love thee, O Bosch Dishwasher? Certainly more that I ever thought I'd love a kitchen appliance.

Did I mention I didn't even have to rinse it off?

I love that thing! LOVE IT!