The Yarn Diva

What's Not to Like?

I love knitters...and knitting. Well, that's why we're here, right? A given. But this morning I'm just really feeling it. (As opposed to "felting it." That's another matter entirely.)

Last week was something of a bear at work. I love my job, but it can be pressurized, and last week was a perfect example. A huge project due in September with high visibility, in the barely-begun stage--got to get it organized and going. Another huge project with corporate visibility--did some good work this week but lots more to do. Another big Six Sigma project due in December--turned into two (yes, two!) projects and the due date(s) moved up to November. Not to mention the usual day-to-day stuff that comes with life in a corporation and three days of training (two in interviewing techniques and one Six Sigma green belt class), and the week was tough. A week and a half's work to be done in two actual working days. Next week, which begins tomorrow by the way, more of the same. (Only one day of training scheduled -- an Intermediate Excel class which should be very helpful, but it's another day of non-work-productivity.)

So by Thursday, I was feeling it. Still in the office at 7 pm (normal for me) and Whit emailed and said "are you coming to Chocolate tonight?" Woo hoo! It's Thursday night and the knitters are gathering. In fact, Thursday seems to be the big night in the Atlanta area to knit--my church knits scarves for sick children on Thursday, the knitting guild meets the first Thursday of the month, and there are a bunch of informal gatherings of knitters on Thursday nights. So, heck yes, I had someplace to go and I was going!

The group at the Chocolate (pronounced Cho-co-la-tay with an accent over the "e") coffee shop ranges from tiny to lots. Thursday, it was just right, 7 or 8 of us, drinking decadent coffee drinks and smoothies and sitting at the back of the room (too hot to sit on the deck). Donna, Julie (whom I just met last Friday at the opening of a new yarn shop in Atlanta), Allison, Lou, Whit, Linda, me, and one woman whose name I never did get. All knitting away, and chatting about things important and things frivolous, and it was wonderful. Early twenties to late sixties but age was a meaningless concept in that environment. All of a sudden it was 9:30 and time to go. Some of us continued to hang out in the parking lot for awhile--it seemed we didn't want to let go of this camaraderie.

Flash to Friday--a friend asked if I wanted to go knit with the group that evening at some other coffee shop. Nah, I think I better get home to the semi-spouse. He's been pretty patient this week, but you know how it is. In fact, we were supposed to go to the opening night of the Peachtree State Depression Glass Club's big annual show, but we skipped it in favor of a quiet dinner at Outback and then a quick trip to Costco.

So, of course, Saturday morning I jumped up and went to a yarn shop. Lou had told me that Why Knot Knit? had the Fiber Trend patterns for the hedgehog and the hen that I've been wanting ever since Debbie Radtke came to talk to the guild. That particular not-so-local YS is a looooonnnng way from my home--in fact, it's like much closer to my work than my home-- but must-have-hedgehog!  And that's where more magic took over...I'm telling you, you can't feel lonely if you knit!

Pulled into the parking lot and met (almost said ran over, but it would have been confusing in the context) Marsha, who's been MIA from the guild lately because of work. Hug, kiss, kiss...promise to get together for dinner or just to hang out and knit. Can't wait!

She walked back into the shop with me (she had just finished teaching a crocheting class and was on her way to teach another at a different shop) and I saw the FT patterns right away. Two left of each. Grabbed one of each greedily. Said goodbye to Marsha and raced off to look at the books. Had a moment of "hmmmmm....wonder if my sister Debbie would like the hedgehog pattern." Pulled out the cellphone. No duh, as we used to say in the sixties! Good long chat with Deb about felting, hedgehogs (yes, she wanted the hen, too--raced back to get the last copies of the hedgehog and the hen), knitting books, family, knitting, knitting, knitting. God, I miss my sisters! Okay, get back on track. We're here for knitting, not talking on the phone.

So, grab my four FT patterns and my two books (And So To Bed and Not Just More Socks).  Schmoozed at the checkout with Lou--love him, so cynical, so talented!  But, while I was checking out, I heard a familiar voice--Whit with two friends. Ahhhh, more friends. Do you think if you just hung out a yarn store all day Saturday you'd run into everyone you know? Maybe!

Well, flash forward again to this morning. Lightning (my oldest pug, not the meteorological phenomenon) got me up at my usual 5 am today, perhaps not realizing it was Sunday. No problem--coffee and my CIC sock knitting and my new books and patterns in bed. Bliss! Turned on CNN, listened to the news for awhile--fighting, war, death, destruction--and all of a sudden, there was a huge cracking noise (like thunder, speaking of weather), and the TV died. I mean, dead. No hope of resuscitation. It's gone. A brief moment of "well, rats!" and then back to my knitting. Moved upstairs to the computer with my CIC sock and read blogs while I knit. Finished the first of a pair of bright red cable socks from my own pattern, cast on the second, and here I still sit. Happy with my knitting and the knitting blogging world.

What more could anyone want? (But I do have to get going at some point--church, back to the glass show, grocery store for creamer.)

Toddler Cable CIC Sock Pattern

I've been working on completing some socks for the most recent CIC sock challenge, and have been playing around with designing one that has some textural interest. Here's what I ended up with:

For those interested in the pattern, here it is:

Toddler Cable Sock

For knitting socks for Children In Common (http://childrenincommon.org) or other charitable uses

Copyright Diana Baber -

July 9, 2006

For free distribution only--no permission granted to sell socks made from this pattern

Materials:

Worsted weight yarn. Use a high-percentage animal fiber yarn, at least 70% if possible  and double pointed needles to make firm fabric of about 4 stitches per inch. Sample shown made with worsted weight yarn and US size 4 DPNs.

Note: For CIC socks, don't worry too much about the size or gauge. Your socks will fit one of the children. The important thing is that the socks be warm and sturdy--they will likely be worn without shoes in unheated buildings.

Abbreviations:

Sl 1 = slip 1 stitch as if to purl

PSSO = pass slipped stitch over previous stitch

K2tog = knit 2 stitches together

P2tog = purl 2 stitches together

LC = left cable: place 2 stitches on cable needle, hold in front, K2, K two stitches from cable needle

RC = right cable: place 2 stitches on cable needle, hold in back, K2, K two stitches from cable needle

Cuff:

Cast on 36 stitches. Divide onto 3 needles (12 stitches each), join, being careful not to twist.

*K1 P1 repeat from *

Repeat this row 4 times (total of 5 rows)

Leg:

Rows 1-5: *P1 K4 P2 K4 P1 repeat from *

Row 6:      *P1 LC P2 RC P1, repeat from *

Repeat these 6 rows 3 times more (total of 4 cable cross rows).

Row 25: P1 K4 P2 K2, then move previous 9 stitches to this needle for heel (18 stitches). Starting point is now center of heel. Rearrange other stitches on two needles for instep (18 stitches). There are now two cables centered on the heel, and two cables centered on the instep. Continue working on heel stitches only.

Heel:

Row 1 (wrong side): P2 K2 P4 K2 P4 K2 P2

Row 2: *Sl 1 K1, repeat from *

Row 3: Sl 1, purl across all stitches

Repeat Rows 2 and 3 8 times (total of 18 rows, 9 slip stitches on each side). End with knit row.

Turn heel:

Row 1: Sl 1, P9, P2tog, P1, turn (5 stitches remain unworked)

Row 2: Sl 1, K3, Sl 1, K1, PSSO, K1, turn (5 stitches remain unworked)

Row 3: Sl 1, purl to 1 stitch before unworked stitches, P2tog, P1, turn (3 stitches remain)

Row 4: Sl 1, knit to 1 stitch before unworked stitches, Sl 1, K1, PSSO, K1 turn (3 stitches remain)

Row 5: Sl 1, purl to 1 stitch before unworked stitches, P2tog, P1, turn (1 stitch remains unworked)

Row 6: Sl 1, knit to 1 stitch before unworked stitches, Sl 1, K1, PSSO, K1 turn (1 stitch remains unworked)

Row 7: Sl 1, purl to 1 stitch before unworked stitch, P2tog, turn

Row 8: Sl 1, knit to 1 stitch before unworked stitch, Sl 1, K1, PSSO  (10 stitches on needle)

Gusset:

With 4^th needle, pick up 10 stitches along side of heel in slip stitches (the extra one will keep you from getting a hole between the needles)

Move all instep stitches onto one needle. Then K2 P2 K4 P2 K4 P2 K2.

Pick up 10 stitches along the other side of the heel, then K5 from heel needle. Move the next 5 stitches from the heel needle to the next needle. The two heel needles now have 15 stitches on each and the instep needle has 18 stitches. The beginning of the round is now in the center of the foot.

Round 1:

Needle 1: knit

Needle 2: continue in pattern, crossing cables every 6^th row (note that the two cables on instep now face in different directions from the cables on the leg needles:  left cross and right cross instead of right cross and left cross)

Needle 3: knit

Round 2:

Needle 1: K to last 3 stitches, K2tog, K1

Needle 2: continue in pattern

Needle 3: K1, Sl 1, K1, PSSO, K to end

Repeat these two rows until original number of stitches remain (9, 18, and 9).

Foot:

Continue knitting in established pattern until there are 8 crossed cables on instep. End with row 6 of leg pattern.

Next round: knit all stitches.

Toe:

This is a rounded toe.

Row 1:

Needle 1: K to last 3 stitches, K2tog, K1

Needle 2: K1, Sl 1, K1, PSSO, K to last 3 stitches, K2tog, K1

Needle 3: K1, Sl 1, K1, PSSO, K to end

Row 2: Knit all stitches

Row 3: Knit all stitches

Repeat these three rows 3 times, decreasing on every third row (24 stitches remain).

Next row: Repeat Row 1 (20 stitches remain)

Move all stitches to two needles and Kitchener graft toe closed. Weave in ends.

Arizona Yarn Crawl

When I moved to Atlanta five years ago, I was told by one knit shop owner (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) that there's not much knitting in the south because it's so hot--who would want to (a) knit and (b) wear something knitted? I quickly learned that's a lie. First off, knitters will knit and that's just the way it goes. We knit with cotton (or soy or bamboo) if we can't wear wool, or we wear wool anyway because it's so pretty and there is that one day in mid-January when it's cold, or we knit for some poor soul who hasn't gotten the message and moved to the south where it's warm. (That would be, uh, my whole family!)

So when I got here, there were about four shops in Atlanta (that I knew about): Cast On Cottage, Needle Nook, Strings and Strands, and Nease's Needleworks. Now there are about twenty. (I'm not taking credit for this upswing, but I don't think it's pure coincidence.)

All of which is a long way of saying: it doesn't surprise me that there are FOUR yarn shops within a short drive of my sister's house in Sedona. (And, with all due respect to Sedona and Arizona, there's NOTHING within a short drive of anything in northern Arizona. And "short drive" is relative--within 100 miles or two hours is a "short drive.") Knitting is everywhere, and the fact that Arizona is hot and dry (although somewhat less so in the northern part, thank goodness) hasn't kept down the knitting population. The last time I was there, about two years ago, I dragged Deirdre with me to Red Rock Knits, within a mile of her house. She had not converted to the cult and politely stood about while I eagerly pawed through the yarns and books and made little mewing sounds of comfort. She looked around when I suggested she might want to take knitting lessons there and said things like "ummm" and "uh huh" and "sure, I'll check on that," but I knew she just didn't get it.

Then, the epiphany. In January, my other sister Debbie taught Deirdre to knit. No, we didn't make her drink the Kool-Aid--she came with us to our favorite yarn shop in Virginia, Uniquities (no website, just google Uniquities in Vienna, VA) and, as we looked on in shock and awe, she began to fondle the yarn. Well, I shouldn't have been surprised. Uniquities is, well, unique, and only a troglodyte could go there and not want to knit. Anyway, Debbie taught her to knit that day and she's been on a Big Mexico hat binge ever since.

Bottom line, when I got to Sedona she was ready, nay eager, to go on a yarn crawl with me, ready to branch out from Big Mexico into bigger and better things--Socks! Unfortunately, I was out there with no money, none, nada, zilch, for reasons that are too complicated and pitiful to discuss. So I was determined to go to four shops and purchase NOTHING. No prob--yeah, right!

Okay, Red Rock Knits. I went there by myself while Deirdre was at work, so maybe it doesn't count, but I'll count it because, well, because I can. Four skeins of Lopi and a circular needle. I wrote this extravagance off to charity, because the Lopi would make two CIC vests.

On Thursday, we had to go to Prescott. After a brief detour to an antique shop in Cottonwood, where a gorgeous little pitcher of West Virginia glass jumped into my purse (yes, I paid for it!), we made it to Jerome. Of course, I had left my Knitter's ShopFinder back in my suitcase. Well, how difficult could it be to find the yarn shop in Jerome, for God's sake? The whole town is about half a mile square, I reasoned. After thirty minutes of driving the spiral staircase that is Jerome, Deirdre and I defeatedly struggled into a restaurant to ask for directions. (When in doubt, eat!) Jerome is an old mining town on a mountain and is completely vertical. The instructions to anything invariably include the words "up the hill" or "down the stairs." As we wolfed down our huge burgers and looked out over the incredible view, we learned that the yarn shop was "just down those stairs." Hmmm....our car was up, waaaayyyy up, that hill. And we had just been where she was pointing, repeatedly, did I say several times? Oh, well.

When we finally found the shop and (more finally) found a parking place, we went up the stairs the waitress had pointed at. Yes, the shop was up some stairs from the street, but down the stairs from the restaurant. I said it was vertical, yes? OMG! Knit 1 Bead 2--what an incredible place! We met the owner, Erica Raspberry, and she was delightful. But the yarn! It's all arranged by color, so when you look at a HUGE display of, say, ocean blue yarn, there's every conceivable texture and weight. Almost overwhelming. I knew Deirdre was truly and forever hooked when she dived toward a shelf and grabbed some Koigu. You just can't go wrong with Koigu. So she bought some Koigu and some DPNs and I bought (yes, I know I said I had no money) some blue Koigu. Only three skeins. I was really good.

Then on to Prescott for D's medical appointment. While I waited in the reception area, I knitted on my Lopi CIC vest and the lovely and helpful receptionist said, "well, while you're here in Prescott you'll be going to The Fiber Shop, won't you?" Would we? Well, yuh! She drew us a map which made me a little queasy after our Jerome experience, but Prescott is flat so we found it in two minutes. She said, "look for the two giant horses in the front yard," but for some reason we were still amazed to see two giant iron horse sculptures on the side of the road and, behind them, The Fiber Shop. Again, no website, but a wonderful selection of yarns, again arranged by color. We met the owner and her mother (I think), both lovely people and very knowledgeable. Deirdre found a gorgeous cabled scarf she wanted to make and bought the yarn--ruby red Angora--and a couple of circular needles, and I bought  her (yes, I know!) a basic knitting book  (The Knitter's Handbook, XRS) to explain things like Kitchenering and cabling since I was leaving in a few days. Then we jumped back into the car and I started drawing the cabled scarf since we didn't have the pattern. I had a pattern written by the time we got out of town.

We (finally!) got home and, after dinner, sat down to knit. It developed that Deirdre still needed some basic training so we worked on that while I cast on a sock out of my new Koigu. And tore it out, and cast it on, and tore it out, etc. You couldn't even call what I was doing tinking--it was just flat not going the way I thought it should. Deirdre was happily practicing her longtail cast-on and swatching. Oh, heaven, oh, bliss, to be sitting on a couch with my baby sister knitting!

Were we done? Not quite. On Saturday, we drove up Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. I had been through Flag before, always on my way to somewhere else, like the Grand Canyon, but I'd never walked through the town. And, joy of joys, there was a yarn shop to check out. Unravel (yes, this time there's a website! What is it with these yarn shops? This is a business--get a website, already!)  Although we didn't meet him, there's a great article in Knitty about the owners, one of whom is (gasp!) a male. If you want to read it, here it is. So, by now I knew I had to make one of those cabled scarves. (Did I mention that we had found it in one of my sister's TWO knitting books, the one I sent her earlier this year, One Skein (Leigh Radford, Interweave Press).) It's the two-cabled  scarf on page 32, and I knew I had to make one. So, two skeins of alpaca, forest green to remind me of the gorgeous trees in northern Arizona. And a Knitter's magazine for Deirdre, so she could get hooked on knitting mags like I am. And a pattern. She bought yarn for the world's cutest baby hat, out of some yarn called Farfalla. And more DPNs. (Can you tell she's hooked?)

Oh, my! And we never even got to Tucson or Mesa or Phoenix. Imagine the trouble we could have gotten into if we'd gone south. Next time. When my yarn gets back to Georgia (more later on that!), I'll post pictures. The Koigu (which did go home with me) has finally decided it's going to be Jaywalker socks. I've got about 3-1/2" knit and they're going to be wonderful, although I think I could have used 0s instead of 1s. But I am NOT taking it out again!

Home Again, Home Again

I can't remember the last time I spent a week doing nothing but knitting, but this past week was very close to that. Ken (the semi-spouse) and I drove from Atlanta to Sedona, Arizona in three days. The only real stop we made, except for eating and sleeping and walking Lucy and Lulu, was in the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest national park in Arizona. That was incredible! Unfortunately, the only camera I had with me was my cellphone and it really never captured the colors as gloriously as we saw them. What an incredible place! I think we've seen most of the national parks in New Mexico and Arizona over the years, but for some reason we had missed that one!

Here's Lulu, sleeping her way across the US, oblivious to all. (She's resting her chin on a cardboard divider that was intended to keep her and Lucy in the back seat. It mostly, but not completely, worked. I think it was more a psychological rather than a physical barrier.)

Anyway, I knitted across the states in a desultory sort of way, completing two CIC vests out of multicolored, mostly wool, Berrocco yarn. My goal was three vests for the CIC challenge that ends tomorrow. I used the Countrywool What's in My Pocket pattern for the first two. Then I did one using Marguerite's Cozy in Cables pattern with two strands of gray wool.

Once I got to Sedona, I checked out all the yarn I had taken to work on and determined that none of it was compelling. Yes, of course, I had taken a big project bag with me, full of:

• Berrocco yarn for vest (pastels) - used for vest
• Berrocco yarn for vest (red, black) - used for vest
• Gray yarn from stash - used for vest
• Regia variegated sock yarn
• Green worsted yarn from stash for CIC socks
• 4 or 5 patterns (shawl, vests, socks)
• DPNs - size 1, 2, 4, and 8
• Circular needles - size 10 and 9
• Latest Knit n Style (not my favorite magazine but the one I hadn't read yet)
• Several back issues of The New Yorker
• Two Sudoku books and numerous mechanical pencils
• Two mystery novels

Surely, that would keep me busy for a week. But once I got to Sedona, I decided I needed to make one more CIC vest and I was out of suitable yarn. So, off to the Red Rock Knit Shop where I bought 4 skeins of Lopi (two red and  two green ), thinking I would get two CIC vests from it, and a new size 11 circular needle. (I'd been using a 10 because I couldn't find my 11.)

Then I sat down to knit and read and do Sudoku, in no particular order. Did I mention I think I have ADHD?

Needles, Part 2

      When we last met, I was bemoaning the fact that I couldn’t find any yarn needles. So, it was off to the local Michael’s where I learned that Michael’s doesn’t sell Chibis. I’m almost certain I bought some there once…but no matter, they aren’t available there now. Fine. I could, of course, order them but that would take too long. There are only about 25 yarn shops in the Atlanta area, but I’m trying not to buy yarn and I have almost no will power about yarn. (With a stash like mine, not buying more would seem so obvious, but I keep adding to it. Have I lost my mind?)

      Anyway, off to Hobby Lobby. No yarn there to tempt me. (Okay, I admit it, I’m a yarn snob!) Bought the Chibis. Only one package of Chibis. What’s the deal? I remember that last year there was a brief period of insanity on eBay where a package of Chibis was selling for the price of a mortgage payment, but I’m not aware of any current Chibi supply and demand crisis. So, okay, bring the one measly package of Chibis home.

      You know what happened next, don’t you? You could see it coming, a mile away. I opened up a drawer that I had searched like a bomb-sniffing dog a week ago and found…Chibis. Then I was looking for a size 10.5 24” circular needle in my needle bag. Didn’t find the needle (only 29”) but by damn, there were two Chibis in a hitherto-unexplored pocket.

      Bottom line, I’m up to my antlers in Chibis. I’m sure they will disappear the next time I need them too—I can be as prone to conspiracy theory as anyone—but for today I have Chibis.

So I used them (quickly!) to weave in the ends of my four helmet liners. I’ll mail them to Whit today so I can cross that off my list. Here they are.

Doing the Continental

Definitely showing my age here. One of my favorite old, old movies is "The Gay Divorcee" (1934, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers). It's famous for a 17-minute dance sequence called The Continental. Oh, well....that was back in the old days when it was scandalous to be divorced and "gay" meant something quite different. What a hoot!

I've been trying to learn to knit continental style. Last week I spent a couple of stressful hours with a KnittingHelp.com video demonstrating how to "pick" your knitting. (I'm a long-time "thrower.") Then I tried to sit quietly and reproduce what I had just seen. The knitting part was easy--no problem. Well, it didn't look that great, but at least I got the concept. As for the purling...no dice. I'd knit a row, turn my knitting, and -- what the heck! -- my stitches were twisted. Again and again.

So this week, at the monthly meeting of our knitting guild, I confessed that I couldn't get it. One of the things I love about the Atlanta Knitting Guild is that we have some extremely accomplished, experienced knitters who are always willing to share what they know. Jean, who has a teaching background that makes her uniquely qualified to explain things to addled people like myself, showed me how to purl, continental style.  (Thank you, Jean!) So yesterday I purled and purled and purled. And it's better...not perfect, but better.

My gauge, however, is very wonky. I have been fantasizing about doing the TKGA master knitting program and wondering whether my knitting is up to the task. One of the big issues, obviously, is gauge. I can usually get gauge, one way or the other, with my "throwing" style. My "picking" knitting, at this point, is all over the scale. I think, though, it's a matter of practice. (I hope!)

I was taught to knit by my grandmother at the age of about eight or nine. I knit my first sweater (which was also my first project--what was I thinking?) in the fifth grade, from a Red Heart pattern and gray Red Heart yarn. It was a pullover, crewneck style, and well suited to the winters of the DC area. My mother was a pretty good knitter (the same grandmother, her mother-in-law, had taught her, too.), but she was very impatient with me and my inability to do the intarsia and argyles that were easy for her. To this day, I am uneasy with intarsia--still not able to meet my mother's standards.

By the way, one of my memories of that gray sweater is that I didn't have enough money to buy all the yarn at one time. I would babysit a couple of hours (at 50 cents an hour!), go to Woolworth's and buy one skein, go home and knit it, then take more babysitting money back to the store a few days later, and repeat the process. I had never heard of dye lots in those days. I just kept buying gray, and I guess it was okay. I don't remember any blotches or streaks.

But back to the grandmother. She was born in 1871 in a small city in upstate New York, across Lake Champlain from Vermont. Her mother was sickly and her father died young, from injuries he suffered in the Civil War years earlier. She learned to knit, the way girls did in those days, using wool spun from the merino sheep that were one of the economic mainstays of the Shoreham and Orwell, VT area, where her grandparents lived. She knit socks for her brothers and continued to knit for the Red Cross in WW I, in Springfield, MA. But she was left-handed, and pretty elderly by the time I came along, and teaching a young, impatient, right-handed granddaughter to knit was difficult. And she was a thrower. (My cousin, whom she also taught to knit, never got interested, but her daughter is a knitter. Interesting how that works.)

So the bottom line is, I'm a thrower, too. And it works just fine--not perfectly, and probably not as quickly as picking would be, but it works. So why am I torturing myself? Because I can.

ADHD or Renaissance Woman?

No, I don't have a formal diagnosis of ADHD, but I'm self-diagnosing here. Maybe that would explain my seeming inability to finish a task, or to see a project through after that initial flush of excitement. You know that excitement, don't you? That one when you start something new, and you can't put it down. Until one day, it's over and you never want to see it again. (Hmmm...maybe this explains my relationship track record, come to think about it.)

On the other hand, maybe there's no good medical reason for the vast list of incomplete things in my life, like

• umpty hundred unfinished knitting projects, most of which I never want to see again (ever!)
• including a severe case of SSS
• a couple of novels begun and never finished (and one that never got past the outline stage)
• a Access database of my collection of (mostly) West Virginia glass and Belleek porcelain
• diets abandoned after the first day...or hour
• exercise programs (see above)
• a completely incomplete genealogy of my family (or seven or eight branches of it)
• an indexing course that just petered out
• etc, etc., etc., in the words of King Mongkut

Which brings me to this blog. How embarrassing to realize the first entry (of a total of two) is over a year old. What kept me from coming back to the blog? Is it that I have nothing to say--I think most people would say I have WAY too much to say, and can't seem to stop saying it. That's obviously not it.

Well, for one thing, it's not perfectly organized and beautiful (yet) like the others I read compulsively. Hmmmm again--could it be (1) they've all been set up for awhile and maybe they evolved over time from imperfect to beautiful? Or (2) could the explanation be that the blogger took the time to learn the software and figure it out? Or (3) maybe I spend so much time reading other people's blogs I don't have time to write my own? I'm definitely seeing a pattern emerge here.

Or (and this is where the Renaissance Woman thing comes in), maybe I'm just trying to do too many things. Knitting and writing and indexing and working and trying to be a good parent and grandparent and dealing with my house and roomies (a semi-spouse and four pugs) and serving on the board of our local knitting guild. And buying and storing more yarn than any human could ever use.  And those are just the biggies.

Why can't I be one of those people whose lives are pared down to a few, tremendously important things? I read their blogs all the time--they knit (one project at a time, please), go to work, and maybe have a pet, and feel overwhelmed. And they're right--it's overwhelming. But I have this compulsion to fill (and overfill) every single minute of my life. It's like I'm terrified I won't get it all done during my lifetime.

Well, enough self-therapy for today. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Two Steps Forward, One Back

My progress on the Crayon Box Jacket (www.chrisbylsmadesigns.com) continues about as usual. Since I started this project on March 5, I've taken two steps forward, one back. Knit two squares, tink one. Knit four, tink two. It's not that I don't like the look of the yarn choices I've made--it's more that I'm still feeling my way with how yarns knit up.

The jacket is comprised of mitered squares. Okay, got that concept. I've taken three or four classes in mitered squares, and for some reason, this is the first one that I got. Really got. I always lose count and can't figure out where I am in a square and what the next decrease is. This time I got it--fine. I can make the squares.

It's the yarn combinations (and resulting gauge) that I'm struggling with. Well, obviously, it's all up to the knitter to pick the yarns. No pattern that tells you to use a specific combination of yarns, all tested together in a sterile laboratory.

But I'm starting to feel good about the combinations. My jacket is mainly purple, with green and gold accents. Chris Bylsma encourages us to name our jackets--mine is The Jacket Formerly Known as Prince.  Enough said. There's a photo of the sleeves in the photo album--yes, I know I still have to darn in the ends. Yes, I'll get to it. Right now, I'm having too much fun adding on squares.

Pugs and Yarn Don't Mix

Or, more to the point, they do. Everything I knit has a little pug hair built right in--no extra charge! I used to try to pull out the little hairs (black from Lightning and Bluto, fawn-colored from Lucy and Lulu). That was a losing cause and I've given it up. Of all the things currently on the needles (I'll have to do an inventory one of these days!), the two active projects are (1) a Chris Bylsma Crayon Box Jacket (www.chrisbylsmadesigns.com) and (2) a stroller blanket for the newest expected grandchild. My daughter picked out some really beautiful wool that looks like a Monet garden (can't find the ballband but I will). It's gorgeous and totally impractical, but she's looking at it as a keepsake and didn't want a typical, throw-it-in-the-washer blanket. I suspect she'll be sorry, or else will have to put it away after the first attempt to get the baby yak out of it, but we'll see. And, of course, what made me think of this is: this gorgeous mixture of blues, greens, yellows, and, yes, a touch of fuschia, has little fawn hairs sticking out of it. And it's not an eyelash yarn! It's supposed to have texture, but it's probably more texturally interesting than the manufacturer intended. Will my daughter notice? Yes, she will. She's not a dog person. Well, she likes them, she just can't deal with owning one. She and her kids gave me one of the dogs in question (Lucy) on Mother's Day two years ago. But I suspect the little hairs aren't Lucy's--they're more stiff and Lucy's are the softest dog hairs I've ever felt. So I have to hope that either they come out in the pre-gifting wash or the new baby isn't allergic or that someone has a sense of humor.