Happy Monday afternoon Miss K!

I wonder if the people who read this believe that we are the same person with a rather split but similar personality? Maybe we should start using our names...?

Knitting is mostly good. I've lost a bit of my enthusiasm and thus the rabid must knit at all times woman has checked out, but I'm still doing pretty well on the wedding afghan front.




Okay, so maybe not that well considering that Maggie insists on sleeping under an afghan that is not in progress... Which means that I can't work on it when she is in cuddle mode. (Apologies for the sideways photo. I can't seem to make my photo editing software work.)


In other news - and with another sideways photo. Si and I have been on a little diet (mostly a healthy eating plan) and I finally fit into the spiffy J Crew sheepy pjs that my Mom bought me for Christmas. They are perfect for relaxed weekend knitting. And even better with toe socks. (Do not pay attention to the storebought socks. Replace them with handknit in your mind!)

Oooh, and finally, a chance to share my valentine's day pressie from Simon with you all. A FAB Lexie Barnes knitting bag in the Hermosa print. I absolutely <3 style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3413/2285/320/LBarnes%20Interior.jpg" alt="" border="0">The interior is wonderful and spacious. (Seen here minus the usual wallet, cell phone and keys that I carry. They do fit comfortably in the bag, even with a large pair of sunglasses in their case.) There is easily room for two wound skeins of yarn and the sock which is my current travel project along with everything else.


And here is the exterior, posing with the sock which is my current travel project. It's a modified Whitby sock for Simon. He is one of the best recipients of my knitting because he treats it so well. The rather amazing rainbow socks that I made for him (rather amazing because the yarn initially looked like green with flecks of rainbow colors and turned into a true rainbow yet he still wears them) have recieved the royal treatment even if they are ugly as sin. He even gets all excited on hand knit sock days and takes great pains to make sure they are well cared for in between wears.
What a man!

Love,
K

Hey K!

The yarn I used for the socks pictured two entries below was a Fiberspates sock yarn sent to me all the way from England. It was a gift from my wonderful secret pal. My feet love the bright colors (too many pairs of black socks make them a little sad) although they are still getting used to ordinary wool. Too often they are the recipient of Marino socks and so they are still learning the joys of pure wool.

I'm currently procrastinating a sermon that needs to be written by 4:30 today. So, to distract myself I've added two new blogs to the list of things we like to read. I'm a big fan of Lolly and Eunny. Lolly is the mastermind behind project spectrum. A new way to brighten the wardrobe of any knitting goth. Need a punch of color for may? Try knitting green socks or a little spring wrap! Green and black do wonderful things together. I also like Lolly because she reminds me of myself on my intentionally normal days (i.e. most days). She's perky, funny, a snappy dresser and generally a very nice person. As for Eunny, the woman is a knitting genius! Check the fantastic fair isle sweater she is currently designing. If I woke up with that kind of knit-fu talent I'd think I'd died and gone to knitters heaven. Some day when I am done with the Wedding Afghan cycle I'll start on her Deep V vest. It's beautiful!

In the realm of things theological. Check the UCC website (www.ucc.org) and their corresponding website for the new commercial (http://www.ucctakeaction.org/showuccad). They have put together a second installment in their phenomenal TV advertisements for the church using their slogan "God is still speaking". While I'm not UCC I value their inclusivity and openness. Someday I hope that same attitude which I find woven throughout the biblical text will exist in our own denomination. In the mean time consider signing their petition and sending this information to friends.

I hope that you are continuing to recover well.

Much love,
K

yarn pr0n

hey k,
i love the pics of simon and of your very DOOMy boots. i have some new rock boots too and i love them but they hurt my feet! *sad girl* your glowy socks are so fun, too... what yarn is that? i'm so curious. and it's really funny that we're both knitting wedding afghans right now. how bizarre is that?

well, since i have no knitting to show you at the moment, i thought i'd share some yummy yarn: my most recent two orders from knitpicks, the latest of which arrived yesterday. now that i'm feeling better and i've got yarn, i really want to start working on stuff!

the entire haul


this stuff is destined to be a clapotis (for me!)


and this will be a tubey, also for me! (the colors look a little weird on here; they're really black and three coordinating shades of purple.)
"

the other yarn is for some socks (probably elfine's socks for the green stuff and maybe some jaywalkers for the orangey-red stuff) and the rest is for that afghan i posted about a couple of weeks ago. anyway, yay for yarn. i'm really really excited about my tubey, though i probably won't start it for a month or two. *sigh* too many other gifts and whatnot to finish first. sometimes i hate just knitting for other people. usually that's just when i've been really sick or whatever and need to do something nice for myself, as is the case now. maybe my friends will just have to get their afghan a little late...

*hugs*
k

On the slow train...

Dear K,

I'm on the slow update train. I know, I know. I should be making up for your absense (and we do miss you)! It's clearly a fault of the job. If the students are busy, I am busy. Luckily Si and I finally were able to take a break this weekend and while I did very little knitting I indulged in the second passion of this knitter, clubbing!

We headed to DC to dance, drink a little, stay in a hotel and see the Dada exhibit at the national gallery. I wore the boots of doom to the club. Oh, how I have missed wearing them... Clubbing left no lingering effects and we were up by noon on Sunday for a trip to the National Gallery. It was a GORGEOUS day! The Dada exhibit was incredible. I absolutely love art with a political edge. Unfortunately a week of crazyness has rendered my brain incapable of intellegent commentary at this point so instead I leave you with evidence of the beautiful day!


In other non weekend trip related knitting news, I finished the day glow socks! I have no idea where I will wear these....maybe under the boots of doom. :P



And the wedding afghan in progress. This will eventually be a wedding gift for my baby sister. I'm incredibly pleased with my own ability to make a feather and fan pattern. (Like it's difficult!) In any case, this will be a lap blanket. I just don't have the patience for anything larger.


I hope you feel better soon, friend o' mine!

Much love and better making hugs,
K

Dear K,

I really liked your last post. So much in fact that I will reply in kind. :)

I don't usually knit for other people. I know I should, but I really get more joy out of knitting for myself. Is that selfish? The strange thing is that I really like giving gifts to others, especially knitted gifts, but I like to do the actual knitting for myself. I think that it works to my advantage when I am working on a project that I enjoy and it just happens to result in a gift for someone else. For example, when I modified the Whitby sock pattern for my brother. Voila! A knitting project that I enjoyed and a finished product for someone else. That said I cast on this weekend for an afghan that will be a wedding gift for my sister. (Pictures at some point in the not too distant future, provided that I can remember to take them.)

The post in my personal blog (sorry folks I like to keep my personal private while public can be, well, public) was a fill in the blank about what it would take in life for you to feel successful. Personally, I'm still not sure what will make me feel successful. I think this is mostly because in the next 3 months it is quite likely that I will have achieved all of my life goals - except for starting a family and that one is years and years and years away - which means that clearly they weren't as lofy as I had thought. Or, I suppose the alternate to that is that my life goals were lofty but I can do better. So I am now trying to decide what my new goal(s) might be. How does this tie into knitting? Knitting is the one thing I can do that allows me to achieve perfection. There is nothing else in life that I can undo and fix in the same way. If you make a mistake in anything else there are significant repercussions, but if you make a mistake when knitting, simply frog it and fix it. Knitting allows for the potential of success and perfection no matter how badly things may begin. It is simply perfect. (This truth was imparted to me by my knitting guild who recieved the wisdom from a dear friend of theirs who has since passed away. I remember this person - who was wonderful but who I never had the joy of meeting- by passing it on to you.)

Sincerely,
K

knitting success?

so, i was reading this post on the livejournal knitting community today, as well as a post that K2Knits made a few days ago. it made me think about success in knitting. what does it mean to you to be a successful knitter? there are a lot of different components, the most obvious certainly being the execution of difficult patterns. but for me, it's more than that. let me preface this by saying that i primarily knit for other people. i occasionally make things for myself, but my primary goal is usually to make gifts for others.

when i knit for other people, i take a lot of factors into consideration: their lifestyle, their personality, their favorite colors/textures/clothing items, their age... all of these and more come into play. there is, i think, a certain skill in selecting the right pattern, the right yarn, the right colors for an individual. i particularly enjoy playing with color and texture, though you'll almost never catch me doing intarsia or other blatant colorwork. i prefer things that are subtle and carefully crafted. knitting success, for me, is about combining all of these disparate ideas together into a choesive, beautiful, well-crafted piece that the recipient will USE. i want my piece to be so well thought-out that the recipient will immediately integrate them into their life without any hesitation. i don't want to just make a sweater that someone will think is pretty and might wear once or twice. i want to make their FAVORITE sweater. if i can do that, then i've achieved success.

and just as an aside, here's a pic of my current project. this is the first block. i'm concerned, though, because i think it seems too small. i need to check my gauge and re-read the pattern to make sure i haven't made any mistakes. i started it while on heavy painkillers, so it's entirely likely that i messed up somewhere. anyway, enjoy!