A completed project!

Yarn:  Flock Sock by Holiday Yarns in Rainbow Unicorn (March MicroBrew Color at JBW)
Pattern: Xeriscape by Cookie A (March 2015 Club pattern)

LOVED the pattern, LOVED the yarn.  I started out on size 2.25mm which is my go-to for socks, but I found the yarn to be knitting too tightly, so I upped to the 2.5mm and was very happy.  The yarn felt a tad more rustic than other sock yarns I've used recently, BUT, I wore these socks today and didn't find them to be a problem at all.

If you like an easy sock pattern and enjoy the ability to use whatever yarn you want--then I recommend keeping your eyes peeled for this one to go public.  It was quick and easy, almost mindless knitting, but since it's Cookie A it's wonderful and turns out beautifully.

Now, I'm off to work on the complex pattern for this month.  Cables and traveling stitches and loveliness all over the place!

(oh, and I colored today.  happy!)

Socks that knit themselves

I don't know if you've found your designer, or your project, or you "go to" thing...but I LOVE knitting socks, and I especially love knitting socks designed by Cookie A.  I am on the 3rd pair in a row (Senna, Peachy Keen, and now Pai Mei), and let me tell you that I could start a 4th and not be in the least bit sad or bored about it.

At any rate, the first of this pair is finished and as soon as I'm done typing this I will start the heel flap on the second, which means that it's about 1/2 done.

I believe that this sock knitted itself.  It practically flew off of the needles and made me so happy in the process.  Cookie A designs are genius.  A bit like solving a puzzle.  I love that I can see into the design and figure it out after a little bit (most of the time).  And the effects are just so amazing.

And I also have to say that Anzula Squishy yarn?  If you have an opportunity to splurge, do so.  Heaven in merino, cashmere and nylon.

And since I can barely stand not working on it, I'm heading back to it!

Happy beginning of your week everyone!  I'll be mid-week tomorrow...

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Work continues to be awesome.  Reno is incredibly beautiful.  And if the spring buds everywhere are any promise...spring is about to blow my mind! :)

Voila!

Or as my mom says "Viola!"

The Peachy Keen socks are finished and I have to tell you I'm quite KEEN on these socks.  They are lovely, so soft and luxurious and warm and so pretty to look at.  Made me happy to wear them to work today! (and no, I don't bother washing and blocking my socks first unless I notice some serious dye bleeding...I haven't regretted it yet!)

And because I know you're curious I started the Pai Mei socks by Cookie A...the second club sock for this month.  I'm using Aqua Anzula Squishy.  I promise pictures tomorrow.

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Tomorrow is knit night.  I'm bringing my hitchhiker shawl because it needs to be brought to the light and finished.

And this marks the beginning of my weekend.  I'm very happy about that!  hugs everyone!

I stayed up late...

...and then came home from work and knitted all night.

I'm even thinking that today, today...my day off...I could just sit and knit.  This whole plan to go to the grocery store and be responsible and buy healthy food and cook it so I can eat it and not undo all my amazing progress from last year.  Yeah...that plan is starting to feel shaky because I have amazing socks on the needles.

See...

 Peachy Keen by Cookie A, February 2015 sock club pattern in the club yarn: Anzula Squishy in Begonia.  It's SO AMAZING.  Soft, squishy (of course) and shimmery beautiful.  The pattern is really very simple.  I'm almost done with the leg...and the gusset decreases happen in the foot patterning at the top rather than along the sides of the ankle.  Totally cool :)

And just to prove that I DID finish Feeling Groovy and casted on Peachy Keen RIGHT AWAY.  That's what I stayed up late for two nights ago.

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Work news is cool.  I'll be shifting responsibilities next week from order fulfillment to "back orders and receiving."  I'm really very excited as this is an area I identified in my 3 month meeting.  And I've discovered over the past 6 months (can you believe it's been that long???) that I love doing inventory stuff.  And organizing the yarn.  It's all wonderful and cool and I can't tell you how terrific I feel that I work in a place that listens and helps the employees find "their place" even if it isn't one that existed when they arrived.

Case in point:  I'm a data geek.  (Y'all knew that right?  PhD in research methods testing out some data analysis on a survey instrument that I created...worked for years doing data analysis for grants...) Anyway, I love data and while I don't miss the academic world, I do miss playing around with data and figuring out patterns.  So, Laura recognized this and has put me on a huge (and I mean huge) data project which I'll be devoting 2 of my days of work to (the other 3 to back orders).  She said yesterday in morning meeting "we'll have to give Leslie a new title and a crown or something because she's going to be our yarn expert...with her sticky brain she'll know it all!"  Ha!  I told her I'd accept a scepter. :)

I love having a sticky brain by the way!

Feeling Groovy, Sock 1

I finished the first of the socks last night.  I love it...sort of.  The pattern is "ok"...not bad...definitely turned out fun, but I just don't know how I feel about slip stitches on socks.  We'll see how they wear before I give a final verdict.

I'm desperate to finish them, less because I want them done and more because I WANT TO START THE NEXT PAIR.  Cookie A socks...in a gorgeous peach colored Anzula Squishy.  A luxury for my feet, let me tell you!

Not to mention the blast I'll have in the knitting of it.

News:  Biker dude showed back up at knitting group last week.  He continued to be amazed by me, but didn't speak.  I'm kind of terrified of the whole "talking to a guy" thing so not sure what, if anything, I could do at this moment...though I do have to say I'm curious.

I had color themed carts today at work.  Not all one color all day, but each cart was one color.  It's always interesting in JBW world.

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Also I'm writing.  Which is why I'm here less. Some pretty powerful and amazing things have come through my fingers.  It feels good to get it down.  I know it's not "the thing" that will be whatever it is that I'm doing--(i.e. this is prewriting in its most primal form) but boy is it valuable to me.

I'll share one of the bits.  I don't know what to call these things that I'm writing.  It isn't poetry, and I'm not sure it's connected other than it's my thoughts, but it's there and it's been very healing for me and I do want to share some of this with the world:

In the beginning there was calm.

Calmness that let me think and breathe and see.

 Calmness that allowed me to stop and realize my worth

 Calmness that gave me the strength to do the things I needed to do to move forward.

 Calmness that prepared me to be loved.

 Calmness that allowed me to truly love others.

 Calmness that defeated anxiety.

 Calmness that reached out to others.

Calmness that gave others the strength to breathe, see, realize, do, love.

Yarn Clubs

I went a little (ok a lot) crazy with yarn clubs this year.  I really do love the thrill of getting something surprising in the mail...sometimes a challenging pattern, always a beautiful yarn.  I want to review the ones I've joined so you can get a sense of what I like about them, what I think makes a club successful and what I'm planning to do with my club yarns in 2015...which is similar to what I was planning to do in 2014 but all the drama of 2014 got so in the way of yarn clubs!

Oh, and please don't judge about all the money I've spent on these clubs.  It's been a tough year and I can only explain my indulgence as therapy...

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Vesper Sock Yarn Club:  This is a 3 month subscription to Knitterly Things's Vesper Sock yarn.  The colorways are specially dyed for the club and only available to club members.  I hoard these skeins like the special things they are and pull them out from time to time to make a gorgeous pair of self-striping sock love.  I've also woven a scarf with one skein and it has continued to get raves everywhere I go.

Madelinetosh Magnolia Club:  I debated with myself about joining this club.  I LOVE Tosh.  The yarns we sell at JBW are spectacular.  Knitting with Tosh is always amazing.  The dyed colors are wonderful.  So my logic was that with bases we don't carry in the shop and special colors, I would totally love the club.  And the truth is I don't.  I won't "up" again for the next one simply because it's been "eh"...don't get me wrong, the yarns are gorgeous, but while the yardage is generous it isn't generous enough to do something like a sweater, but is too much for a hat--and honestly, what does one do with extra skeins of yarn?  I know...put them in stash and wait for them to "become something amazing"...but I don't need more stash and part of my exploration in the yarn club is to learn about yarn, and to learn about new patterns and techniques...Tosh didn't do it for me. (maybe I'll feel differently when the yarn does speak to me and tell me what it wants to be. I'll update you when that happens).

Cookie A Sock Club:  I will do the Cookie A Sock club until she quits doing it.  I'm just sad that I didn't start knitting early enough to be a part of it from the very very beginning.  Every other month you get a skein of yarn and two Cookie A patterns that are only available to club members for one year (and then she sells them on Ravelry to anyone).  The yarns are typically sourced from small dye companies and are specially dyed for her pattern.  And they have always been gorgeous.  Only once did I decide that the yarn needed to be something other than the socks that Cookie A decided that it should be (I'm making a Pretty Thing from it...and one day I'll get back to it because it truly is ideal for where I am in my life right now...cashmere neckie...).  Back to the club, though.  It's awesome, the Ravelry group is wonderful.  I do love seeing all the works in progress and listening to people discuss the patterns, etc...and the patterns are genius.  I will catch up on my socks from last year as I'm working through all the clubs from this year.

Rockin' Sock Club:  I really debated whether I wanted to join the RSC this year and am glad that the sign ups were later than the others because I may have skipped it.  I went ahead and joined because the yarn is always spectacular.  Plus this is year 10 and Blue Moon promised amazing things!  You get a skein of yarn every other month along with two patterns--one for a sock and one for an accessory.  I've done the RSC for 3 full years (in other words this is my 4th venture into the club) so I have quite a pile of RSC yarns that will need to be knitted up in my "down time" but since 2015 is the year of the club I suspect that this will happen.  My only complaint about the RSC is that the patterns aren't always to my taste.  This isn't a huge problem as I'll find other patterns to work...but it can be disappointing as I want the full "club" experience.

Dragonfly Yarns Club:  Dragonfly Yarns are truly special.  I love every single skein that I've ever gotten from them.  They're gorgeously dyed and the yarn is high quality.  And in the one instance where I've gotten a bum skein, she was super nice about it.  I kind of debated whether to join again this year because last year I really didn't like the patterns that came along with the yarn...I decided to do so on the simple fact that I have knitted something from every skein (or skeins) that came in last year except for the stuff that came in August and October and that was because I was in "transition" and hardly knew my name.

Among Friends:  This was a total impulse buy...the Outlander Club.  I was so excited by my first shipment that I'm anxiously awaiting my next!  Time does not move fast enough right now!  I'll report more fully when I've had more shipments, patterns, stitch markers and project bags to share, but my first one was amazing.

Finally:  Miss Babs Knitting Tour:  I haven't received my first shipment yet, but I'm really excited. There are 4 shipments, with accessories, yarn and patterns.  Each shipment is themed based on a location...and since I love to travel AND I love to knit...this is wonderful.  I'm totally stoked about getting these shipments and will report to you about them as I go.

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It's a lot, I know.  And I'm really excited about working on my projects as they come in.  I've already completed 2 and started the 3rd (the pedestrian cowl from a month or so ago) and these two socks:

Rockin' Sock Club: Feeling Groovy.  Pattern is 59th Street Bridge

Yarn: Dragonfly's Djinni Sock in "Big Sky" using Cookie A's pattern Senna from last year's club.

Dragonfly January 2015 and Cookie A December 2014

It's a marriage made in heaven. Djinni sock yarn in a gorgeous color called Big Sky and one of the December Cookie A patterns called Senna.

I'm convinced Cookie A is a genius.  I love knitting her patterns.  As I was talking with a girl at work today we commented on how they knit up so quickly BECAUSE you don't want to put them down.  The next row must be knitted because you want to see how it interacts with the one before.

Beautiful.  Genius.  Happy.

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People are buying yarn in the red colorways (pinks, reds, maroons).  One girl at work thinks it's Valentines influencing decisions.  I think it's snow, little sunshine, cold.

Oh, and they're still buying as much yarn as they can.

I breathed...

Well...I managed to get through the terrible awful.

And I have to say I did it through the encouragement and love of good friends and loving family and an inner strength that continues to amaze me.

Everything is now final.  And I have to say that my anxiety levels which I would have put at a 7 or 8 on Saturday and they remained that through the hearing on Monday have dropped to a 2.  I'm so calm and relaxed and just feel at peace.

I do not, for one moment, like HOW things were done, but I do have to say that they were right.

It's still incredibly sad and I still have moments of huge sorrow and grief.  It's all tangled up with the loss of my dad, uncle and husband in such a short period of time.

But, I will instead discover a new me that had been hiding and is so ready to come out and play and love life and live and enjoy what's happening all around her.

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I knitted on this sock yesterday on the flights and at the airport.  The yarn is Allegria by Manos del Uruguay.  Yummy yummy yummy.  I can't wait for them to be finished so I can wear them and everyone will see me coming from a mile away :)

The past few days

Things have been a whirlwind this week.  My uncle passed away on Friday morning so we drove out to Texas for his Celebration of Life service.  It's been hard dealing with this death only 6 weeks after my father's.  I found today on my drive in to work that I'm rather emotional about everything.  It's going to be a difficult couple of months as I process all of this.  I certainly hope that nothing else happens because honestly I think I'm completely wrung out.

What did I do, you may ask, over these few days...well, lots actually.

I finished the basket and gave it to mom.  Pattern is here.

I also decided that it was time to finish Elizabeth's bath mat.

(this design is all my own, yarn is Lily's Sugar and Cream).

Then for the road, I knew I wanted something cheerful so I picked out this rainbow self-striping yarn from Twisted Fiber Arts.  Oh my...it's got cashmere in it and may be the softest sock yarn I've used.  LOVE.  Pattern is my favorite, Hermione's Everyday Socks.

(Don't you love the "rainbow" in front of the storm clouds?  We saw several rainbows on our drive out Monday morning...and not just on my knitting needles!)

And finally...yesterday when I was recuperating from 20 hours in the car in 2 days, I started putting some of my crochet squares together.  It was such fun and I was just cruising along and having a great time of it when I realized that I was really tired and should bathe and go to bed.  Really not fair how this sleep thing gets in the way.  I'm using a book of "99 Granny Squares" and my random mini skeins as well as the "magic ball" I'm making from my sock yarn scraps.  My blocks are all piled up and I'm picking out random squares to put together based on a random number generator.  I started with the horizontal bright yellow one in the bottom(ish) center and putting it together log-cabin style.  I have to add rows and borders and such to get everything to join up at the same size, but it's cool...more fun taking some of those Granny ideas and making them rows instead of rounds...interesting thought experiment.  I'm joining with a reddish brown Malabrigo Sock yarn which is divine.  It's SO fun putting these together and I love how it's turning out.   I gotta get to crocheting more squares...this afghan wants to be a big one, I think.

I'll have more daddy stories next week.  Right this very minute I have to report for academic advising (I'm the advisor, though I really wonder about the logic of that! ha!)

Eye Candy

All the "interesting" work is done on this sock...now it's just plain ribbing until the toe and then the toe and then finish it off.  I love it.  I love the fit, the yarn and the pattern.  I'd love to have a completed pair by the end of this weekend.

Busy day at work today, so I thought I'd just share this really quickly...still crocheting and needlepointing...still totally unfocused, but such is my life right now.

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Daddy's story:  Daddy loved keeping up with the weather.  In fact, he had little tablets that he kept next to his chair and wrote the high and low temps and the sunrise and sunset for each day.  When he was out of town he would have to "catch up."

How he would have loved computers if he hadn't been scared of them.

Genius

As I was about to start typing this post about the genius of Cookie A's sock designs, I got a text from my mom about my uncle who is in ICU ...and then as I was texting David  (who is in NC this week) to let him know I saw on Facebook that Maya Angelou just passed away.

And really, it's all related through the concept of genius.  My uncle is a genius who worked for NASA and could build computers before computers were something people had at home and taught himself to play violin after he retired.  He's young in the grand scheme of things, so I hope they can stabilize him and get him healthy to come home and have a good life.  When I stayed with him and my aunt the week I learned to weave, he stored up a good number of weaving puns to scatter on me each day as I went to my lessons.

Maya Angelou...what can one say about the beauty, complexity, and phenomenon of that woman.  I took my daughters to see her speak when they were only 9 years old despite the fact that they decidedly did NOT want to go and I think we got the last 4 tickets to the show because we were in the very back row and in the middle seats.  "Phenomenal Woman" (which I linked above) and "Still I Rise" were two of the most powerful experiences of my life.  She also had this refrain during her performance of "the walls of Jericho came tumbling down."  It was chill-inducing (though I honestly can't remember what it was connected to other than a breaking down of social barriers, which is important enough in and of itself).  Despite being in the very back middle seats, I was mesmerized (and so were my little girls) and felt like Dr. Angelou was speaking right to me. (In fact, I think Elizabeth said something to that very effect when we left)  I have cherished every piece of writing of hers that I've run my eyes across and will miss the potential of new work to come.  I will also miss the regular updates she posted on Facebook...she had a way of cutting to the core of things and exposing the heart (and sometimes cutting that up a little too) to make us THINK about our actions, thoughts, words and ways of living.  She is indeed an American Treasure, and my little memory of her is but a speck of sand on the seashore to her talent and amazing abilities.  She will be hugely missed.

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Cookie A...Cookie A is a genius of the sock design kind.  I have not met a pattern by her that did not (almost instantly) captivate me and make me want to finish it.  I even like doing stitches that I don't typically like doing if she wrote the pattern...this is something I'm having trouble understanding.  I really find 1x1 ribbing tedious unless I'm working on a Cookie A pattern and then it's amazing.  Go figure.

As I was working on my Drogon sock (pic below) I was fascinated by this very thing.  1x1 ribbing with a twisted knit stitch in a pattern that I was really struggling to understand.  There was this reverse yarn over thing that was NOT turning out right and looked strange on my needles and I couldn't seem to manage the pattern repeat and was having to look at the chart every three or four stitches.

Then...it dawned on me how much of a genius Cookie A is.  As I was working on the difficult part and said, "what's happening here and why am I having trouble with it?" I realized that the reverse yarn over was moving before the stitch it should have been after.  I know it has something to do with the way I knit and I though "this is really inconvenient and I need to just do it 'this way'" and fixed how I was doing the reverse yarn over to a regular yarn over and then twisted it around when I stitched it on the next row.

I should have read the pattern notes because that's exactly what Cookie A suggested we do...if the reverse was causing problems, then just twist it when you get to it.

And you know what happened then?  EVERYTHING fell into place with this pattern.  It was at this point I realized there was an 8 stitch repeat that I could separate with markers on my needles and that the yarnovers moved in a logical pattern that helped me remember how to do the pattern.  Twisting was part of the nature of it and I FLEW!  Simply flew.

It actually reminded me of learning to play Mozart.  Mozart wrote sonatas with rules...there are lots of scales, arpeggios and key changes, but there are rules and expectations to all of those and once you know what they are learning to play and playing them well are just a matter of practice and time.

And that's when I realized that Cookie A is a genius.  I think she spits out sock patterns like Mozart spat out sonatas!  Just think it and there they are!  And the beauty of her work is that while it is difficult, it's accessible and you learn something every single time you work on one of her patterns. (kinda like playing Mozart, huh?).  As I worked through this pattern it became so much easier and so much more fun and so beautiful.  I think this pic is about when I realized how much of a genius Cookie A is...I'm past the heel turn and well into the foot by now.

Yarn is Dragon Sock by Dragonfly Fibers in colorway "Tree of Life" (June Club color).  The pattern is Drogon which is one of the Cookie A April club patterns.

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Daddy's Story:  Daddy could talk like Donald Duck...and he would also make this noise that would make cats jump to the ceiling.  I particularly loved it when he did it around Oliver (or sweet, dumb orange beauty) because he would just keep walking like nothing happened and it was SO funny).

Happenings

Things are happening all the time...sometimes we like it, sometimes we don't.  Sometimes we notice it and sometimes we're completely oblivious.

Sometimes we love it and sometimes we're super-sad.

And sometimes there are things that we have no control over and sitting back and watching things unfold is the only thing we can do.

I'm in the latter position and it's one that I hate.  Being helpless to your fate...it's frustrating and sad and unbelievably stressful.

My response when I get in a situation like this is to want to run and hide...or to play as much as I possibly can.  Unfortunately David is still on his 3 weeks of traveling, so running and hiding has pretty much been my mode...sorry for the absence from the blog.  It if makes you feel any better I also had to take 2 days off of work, and I'm sorry to report that they didn't do much to improve my outlook.

However, they did a TON to improve my knitting production.  Finished projects and new ones started...and an old craft revisited and totally loving it.

Welted Toque Hat in Dragonfly Fibers's Damsel Yarn, colorway Love Your Mother (Earth)

Elm Socks in Lorna Lace's Solemate, colorway Circus

Sampler afghan of my own design using mini skeins and leftover sock yarn

3S Shawl in Vesper Sock Yarn, colorway Woodlands.

A needlepoint canvas revisited with sleeping cat behind.

All I need is a toe!

...and another sock, but the toe is all that's left of this puppy.  Isn't it turning out pretty?

I really love how hand-dyed yarns look so different when knitted in different stitch counts.  If you go back a few days and look at the first attempt at the spring sock KAL, I was making a sock with 72 stitches...the stripes were super-fat.  And on this sock they are so much skinnier.

I love how at the ankle and gusset area where you get all the extra stitches, the pooling creates a swirl.  It's fun, and sweet, and unique.

And each sock is, therefore, different, which I think is really truly fun.

Pattern:  Elm by Cookie A in Knitters Book of Socks
Yarn:  Solemate by Lorna's Laces in colorway Circus (I believe...hard to read the band).

Preview:  Yarn clubs are in the mail or will be soon.  I so excited to go home each day and have been disappointed when I'm not seeing any new bags on the porch!  Today maybe...

The difference a stitch makes

A couple of posts ago (on Saturday) I decided to leave off one sock project for another.  I was making a gorgeous "Celebrate Spring" sock that had a pretty chevron lace type pattern that required a double decrease.  I have a tetchy relationship with lace...it's gorgeous, I love it, I want it, but I don't always like knitting it.

I find that when knitting lace I have to concentrate, which isn't always a bad thing, but lately concentration isn't easy to come by.  With the Celebrate Spring socks, concentration wasn't the issue.  I was easily able to get into a rhythm with the pattern...or the stitches that I needed to do...the executing of the stitches was something else.

And it's funny because I was doing the exact same double decrease on a shawl at the same time I was doing the double decrease on the sock, but the sock just didn't feel right.

So, I put the sock down, as I mentioned at the end of last week, thought on it over night, and then ripped it out Saturday morning to cast on for a new pattern.  I'm now doing Elm by Cookie A and my what a difference a pattern makes.

And it's funny because:

• I really dislike purling through the back loop
• I have to concentrate on the pattern every other round, just like I would with a lace pattern
• I absolutely adore knitting this sock.

I wish I could make sense of what it is I like about this sock, even though there are some stitches that I don't like, and what I disliked about the Celebrate Spring sock because I would like to be able to better choose patterns that are going to get along with me.  I want to know before I get started that I'm going to be able to finish a pattern...not that I'm going to be avoiding it because I'm frustrated with one little bit of it or another.

Maybe I just need to get over the concept that not finishing a project and deciding to rip it out is part of the process of knitting...that it's ok because the yarn is still usable and pretty and the finished result is going to be wonderful and nice.  But it's so hard when I feel like I've wasted time on a project that didn't get finished...I need to learn to redefine that "wasting"...

Today's picture is of the kitties sun bathing a couple of days ago.  We had a brief day of sunshine--it's rainy and cloudy again today--but on Saturday it was glorious!

Friday Night and Saturday

I laid low this weekend to get better. So I knitted to mybheart's content, got to bed early, slept late...and I do feel better this Sunday morning. Progress on the shawl was phenomenal...the socks got ripped out and a new pair started. After finishing the shawl I knew I needed to do something else with the yarn that was left other than putting it into a scrap blanket, so I started a hat. Happy days!

I'm hoping for a modeled shot with the shawl since David will be home today!

Adrift

Sometimes, after finishing a good book or an awesome knitting project, I feel adrift.  Unfocused.  Unable to settle into something.

That's how I felt last night.

I went to the dentist yesterday afternoon for my cleaning (no cavities! yea me!) and then came home, prepped dinner and lunch, and then sat down to work on something.  Only I didn't really want to work on anything.  I had a hard time concentrating and really couldn't figure out what to do.

So, I got up and cleaned the kitchen since it needed to be done and then settled back down for my new book (Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith) and some knitting.

I did manage to get some knitting done, but not a lot.  I encouraged myself with a small goal--one pattern repeat on the sock, get through the eyelet rows on the shawl--so that's what I did.

Then I went to bed where I slept like the dead until 6am this morning.  Maybe I was tired last night?

Reading...and knitting

I've always been an avid reader.  I read all the time as a child.  I'd have a book in my book bag and one at home and wouldn't mix them.  I loved having multiple stories and characters going through my head all the time.  When I was in 3rd grade I read all the books in the school library section for "3rd grade and under" so they moved me up to the "older" books.  This is when I fell in love with Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I even majored in English in college because I could read and get "credit" for it.  Then I read probably 5 books at a time, finishing 3 or so per week.  It was intense, especially in grad school, but mostly I loved it.

Then one day when I was trying to get myself motivated to work on my English dissertation (which is different from the one I actually finished) I realized that I didn't have to read any book that I wasn't interested in.  This made me feel free, liberated somehow and I ended up combing through my library and ridding myself of any book that I didn't love.  My to-be-read shelf was combed through carefully and books I wasn't terrifically excited about reading got donated to the library.

After deciding that I didn't want the PhD in English and instead starting over (yes, I started over) on a doctorate in higher education leadership, I promised myself that I would never waste time on books again.  If I didn't like it...off it went.  Even if I was just starting, or over half-way through.  I would not ever read a book again if I wasn't having fun reading it.

Then when I was writing my dissertation, I didn't want to read anything "hard" or that made me think.  I told myself that all I'd read while writing was romance novels, so I did.  And I loved it.

Then something weird happened.  I turned in my last revision on my dissertation, looked at my to-be-read shelf and didn't want to read a single book in there.  I got a few books by my favorite authors on my Kindle and I didn't want to read those.  I tried and tried to find something that would interest me, but I was just simply not interested in reading.

And it's very very weird.  What I am interested in instead is knitting, and I'm not skilled enough to do both at the same time.

But, something else happened to me a little over a year ago.  I decided that I was not going to be able to handle, for one more day, the commute to work.  I was terrifically bored on the drive in (about an hour) and going home was torture.  People kept recommending audio books, but I have a hard time paying attention to people talking and thought it wouldn't work for me.  Desperation brought about desperate measures, though, and I bought Outlander.  A book I knew I loved and since the new installment was going to be released "soon" I thought it would be a good experience to start from book 1 and read through.  I had time (these books are super-long).  So, I invited Claire and Jaime to come on my commute and a world of opportunities opened up for me.

I didn't mind my drive in...in fact, I sort of looked forward to it, especially when the books were getting good.  I've re-listened to books I've read before and had different experiences listening to them.  The narrators really do bring a lot to the books and it makes the experiences different--sometimes better sometimes not.

I still like my romances.  I listen to a lot of them.  But I also am starting to enjoy my books that are "harder" reads.  The ones that will challenge me, make me think, and provide me with opportunities to TALK ABOUT books with people again.

How wonderful.

But, you know what else is awesome?  I can listen to books while I knit...it's amazing.  And so much better than watching TV because I don't have to look up or miss anything because I'm not looking up.

I'm so glad that Audible has a wonderful subscription program because if it didn't, I'd probably break the bank in how quickly I'm consuming books this year...but that's ok.  I'm reading again and it's awesome.

The book I finished last night was one that I want to go back and read again.   The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton.  Go get your copy, read it, be amazed at how the story plays out...the writing, the imagery, the beauty of that book.  And do it quickly because I need to talk with people about this book while it's still on my mind!

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Knitting progress:  I finished the Chicken Socks!  I got to the next eyelet row on the shawl (but only worked on it for a quick stint because I needed to finish the socks).  And I started the next pair of socks.  They are "spring" socks that I'm doing a knit-a-long with the Seasonal Sock Syndrome folks.  The yarn for those is Lorna's Laces SoleMate, which I'm not sure I'm sold on.  It has a tenseness to it that I'm not sure I like for socks, but we shall see how it ends up knitting up.  The colors are gorgeous, as are all LL colors.  This one is called Circus, I believe.  I had a hard time reading the label, but David picked it out of all the yarns that I threw on the floor as the one that sang "spring" to him.  The pattern on the new socks is Celebrate Spring by Anne Budd.

How do I work?

I promised to talk about how I work today, and I promised that you'll probably think I'm weird after this post...but if so, oh well.  I am what I am and can hardly change that, now can I?

I want to preface this post by saying, also, that my kids are grown, that I get off of work at 4pm, that my husband is the cook in the family, and that finally, I'm no longer taking classes so my evenings are my evenings and I revel in them because for so long, my evenings belonged to any and everyone else and it just feels nice to sit and do what I want for several hours straight.

(also, and this is a bit sad, but I hurt my foot somehow and haven't been able to exercise in a few weeks.  I'm hoping that it gets better soon, but until it does, I've got that extra 30 minutes at night).

OK...so here goes.

I get home around 5pm.  At this point we usually eat supper--or very near it.  We're done by 5:30 and I clean up the kitchen after that.  Sometimes, if it's been a long day, I may knit for a bit first, but most of the time I prefer just to get the cleaning up done.

After cleaning up, I'll check Facebook, Ravelry, play some Candy Crush and check my e-mail...and then I'll knit for 30 minutes or until the "top of the hour."  Last night, because I had the whole evening in front of me alone, I listened to my audiobook and set it to turn off after 30 minutes.  This allowed me 30 minutes of knitting time, and then I took a break to do some chore around the house.

I'll pack my lunch, fold/wash clothes, have a shower, or do something else around the house during my break.  This is good to get my other muscles moving and give my hands a break.

Then I'm back to knitting for 30 minutes or until the top of the hour.  On an evening like last night I can get 4 or 5 knitting sessions in.  Last night I got 4, 2 on each project.

Also, I like to have 2 projects going at once.  This keeps my hands from getting over tired using the same size needle or working on the same "tension"...and that's also a good thing.

Update on progress.  The sock is over half way finished with the foot, and the first row of the eyelet pattern has been done on the shawl.  It was at this point in the pattern that I've ever lost count of my stitches or realized that there's an error in stitch count, but something's not quite right with the number of stitches I "should" have the number that I do have...I'm not overly worried as this is a shawl and it won't matter too much until I get to the lace portion at the end of the shawl...the rows are long and take a good while, so in 30 (or so) minutes I may get 4 rows done.

Club Dragonfly and A Week in the Life of Knitting

Two things today!

1.  Club Dragonfly arrived on Saturday.  I don't think it was supposed to get to us before today but we got it on Saturday and it may have been the most beautiful yarn I've ever seen.  I love it.  Plain and simple.  The pattern that came with the yarn is leg warmers, and while it's been cool this winter, I'm not a leg-warmer girl.  Never have been and just don't think I will be unless I move to Canada and then I'll probably wear anything to be warm.  SO...knowing this I decided to seek out something else I could make with 670 yards of gorgeous sport-weight yarn.

At first I thought I would make a camisole or shell sweater, but realized that I'll probably need something like 750 yards of sport-weight yarn to complete one in a size Medium...and to be honest, I don't want to "add" anything to this yarn to spoil its beauty, so off I went in search of a shawl.  I immediately thought of one I downloaded on Ravelry a while back and decided this was the pattern.  I cast on for it before the end of the day on Saturday and there you go.  A shawl in the most gorgeous yarn ever was begun.


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2.  This week I'm going to detail my progress each day.  I'll take a picture of my knitting before I go to bed.  I think this will be interesting to show-case how much knitting I can get done of an evening and what captivates and interests me about the projects I'm working on.  What I have below are pics of the two projects I worked on on Saturday and Sunday.  The first is the Chicken Socks.  I cast the purple cuff on Thursday night, knitted down the leg on Friday and then Saturday finished it.

Since the "most beautiful" yarn arrived on Saturday late afternoon, I had to search around for its pattern, which I finally found, and wound the skeins into cakes and ended up with this amount of progress on Saturday evening.

Sunday dawned bright and early for me and I immediately started my rotation of working on the two main projects...the sock and the shawl.  I got this far by bedtime on Sunday.

That's a lot of work on the shawl, btw, and I'm about to be at the interesting part where the eyelet rows start.

Patterns:

• Socks--basic 56 stitch sock with different colored heels, cuffs and toes.
• Shawl--Sugared Violets

Yarn:

• Socks--Blue Moon Fiber Arts Club Yarn--Doodle Doo (the patterns had chickens on them, so I'm doing my own pattern for this one as chickens aren't really my thing).
• Shawl--Dragonfly Fibers Damsel in March 2014 club color: "Love Your Mother (Earth)"

More on how I work tomorrow...You'll probably think me weird, but alas...it's me! :)

Perfection

Every great now and then something turns out perfectly.  Not too often to make it something to "expect"...so when it happens the little glow of happiness is genuine and real.

I almost couldn't go to sleep last night for the excitement I felt at finishing my Hermione's Everyday Socks.  I mean, really...look at these socks.

They fit perfectly, they were perfectly knitted, (I think! ha!), they look perfect in their stripy pooling...everything about the sock is perfect.

And that's satisfying and happy and all things good.

The pattern is free on Ravelry and I highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about making socks or who loves making socks already.  It's very simple, but there's elegance in the simplicity of the stitches.  Just about any yarn would look beautiful in this sock pattern because the patterning won't compete with highly variegated yarn (like the Hermione from Gnome Acres, as seen here), and solid yarns would show off the little purl bumps and accentuate the way they interact with each other.  I think that self-striping yarn would also show off well in this pattern because the purl bumps will add texture and occasional blending of colors without being overwhelming.  I plan to make a pair soon.

Hermione's Everyday Socks pattern is definitely going in my "favorites" binder.

(note:  While the pattern is written for one size only, it would be super-easy to simply add or subtract stitches in multiples of 4 to accommodate your size.)