Finally Conquered!

Sometime during the year 2016 which was the first year of my knitting odyssey, I started being obsessed at looking for knitting patterns on-line.  So many were free but there was just as many that had a cost.

The Thinking of You Scarf kept popping up in my search results.  It described the pattern as being suitable for an advanced beginner.  By the time I saw this pattern, I had progressed through knitting, purling and cabling.  I might have even tried my hand at yarn overs and K2tog at that point.  So I considered myself an advanced beginner.  My 2 knitting gurus certainly thought I had picked up this knitting thing like a fish takes to water.

But I hemmed and hawed at actually paying for a pattern.  Now I had paid for many patterns in my life.  I have purchased patterns for sewing clothes, magazines for counted cross stitch patterns, and all kinds of craft kits for beaded ornaments over my lifetime.  I couldn't understand why I was having trouble paying for this one.

Seems I was having a hard time giving in to the fact that knitting had become an obsession and considering I really thought I would never had taken up knitting after failing miserably under my grandmother's tutelage nearly 50 years ago.

After weeks, of looking at this beautiful pattern I bit the bullet and purchased The Thinking of You pattern by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer and distributed through www.heartstringsfiberarts.com.  I then looked for the perfect red yarn.  I settled on 2, Ella Rae Cozy Soft and the Silky Wool by Elsebeth Lavold.  I then just read the pattern and I was so confused!  Packed the yarn and the pattern up and decided that Knit Camp with my 2 knitting gurus would be the place to begin this project.

Ah, Knit Camp.  Tucked away in a rural area north of Pittsburgh about 50 women gather for a weekend every year over the President's Day Weekend.  It takes a special invitation to get in and turns out I knew someone, who knew someone and knew I would love the experience.

Imagine, visiting an alpaca farm, shopping at a local knit shop, and knitting, eating and drinking your favorite beverage of choice for 3 days!  Heaven on earth for a knitting addict.  I first went to knit camp in 2017 and I still considered myself a beginner.  Turns out when it was time for show and tell, I was not considered a beginner at all!!  So on the first evening I took out this lovely pattern and decided to use the silky wool.  Under the guidance of 49 other knitters I cast on and began and had help figuring out how to read this pattern. 

Cast on 29 stitches, a 4 row repeating pattern for 36 inches till the fun part of creating the hearts began.  Sounds simple enough.  However, I knitted a row or 2 and I never had 29 stitches!  Ripped out and started again. Same thing happened again!  Somehow 29 stitches would never be the magic number I would count in successive rows.  I just had to put this advanced beginner pattern and project in time-out!

Fast forward to the fall of 2019 and I find myself back at a fall knitting weekend north of Pittsburgh again.  Turns out we could not get enough knitting in during the winter knit weekend, we started a fall knitting weekend in 2018!  Weather was warmer and the colors of the trees were golden.  By now 3 years later I have actually taught some knitting classes and sing the praises of stitch markers!

Also 3 years later my yarn stash is out of control and the list of projects I want to knit is a mile long, and I spent a month cataloging my stash and queuing my patterns on Ravelry and I feel so much peace now.  I also have a determination to knit the projects and use the stash.  Out comes the Thinking of You Scarf again.  Perfect!  I have all the yarn and more than I need too!  I am heading back to knit camp and I am ready to start again.  Finished a sweater which was the first item in my newly organized queue while at camp and I cast on the Thinking of You Scarf again.

I was fairly confident. 29 stitches per row!  This is a piece of cake.  I stopped and counted stitches after a few rows and the magic number of 29 was still eluding me!  A light bulb when off:  USE MARKERS!  So I placed a marker after the 1st stitch, then every 5 stitches till the end of the row where the last 3 stitches were supposed to be.  Now I could move on and catch those tricky YO's and K2tog's in the right place.  Finally, I found my rhythm and used my own advice!!!  2 days later the scarf with its beautiful interlocking hearts was finished!  Blocked for a day of drying and I have a beautiful scarf and enough of the silky wool to make 2 more with confidence.  (I have made a promise not to return yarn to my stash.  Future gifts or knit camp auction items will be the destination for the additional Thinking of You scarves.  It's been a 3 year odyssey  that has brought me much joy as I finally conquered this Advanced Beginner pattern. 

It's Yarn Crawl Eve!

Good morning to all my yarn enthusiasts!  I am so excited today as it is the day before the Long Island Yarn Crawl of 2019 begins.  10 local shops that span 87 miles across Long Island.  This will be the 3rd year that I will attempt to visit 10 shops over 4 days, and still work at church and still put in my hours at Sew What's New and Yarn Too! and attend a Board Meeting for Camp Ma-He-Tu in Westchester and worship on Sunday.  My husband has joined in the fun as he will drive with me out to East Hampton, Mattituck and Port Jefferson tomorrow afternoon, not because I need the company but he is the best husband a yarnie can have.

I even have a plan.  Yes, a list with a magazine to find, a pattern to locate and yarn to fit some patterns I really want to create, even though my knitting project list contains to many to complete in this lifetime.  There is something magical about traveling and meeting up with others who share the same passion - that is to create something out of yarn, How is it that a simple ball of string can be knit into absolutely beautiful objects? The secret: one stitch at a time. So methodical, so soothing, so rhythmical. 

Recently, I had the pleasure to knit for my godson and his wife's baby shower.  Nothing like knitting for a sweet addition to the family.  That simple string turned into a Slip Stitch Henley and an oh so cute Duck Comfy. 

Of course I have had to knit with a 16 year old cat that has to just be right up next to me at all times whenever I knit.  It is even more fun when the younger felines of the house want to take part in the fun.  I am lucky though as they so not seem to get to tangled up in the balls of yarn. One has a tried and true of method of getting me to put down my needles when he crawls through the ring of the circular needles.  Yes, I have lost stitches this way, and the purr monster received his loving facial rub down.

So over the next few days, I have a plan.  3 shops on Thursday afternoon/evening, 2 shops in the morning on Friday, 1 where I work, 1 on the way to the Throgs Neck Bridge, 2 on my way home from the meeting on Saturday, and the 1 remaining on Sunday after worship or any I might not have gotten to in the grand plan that I created.  So that's how I fit it all in, the purchases along the way may require a stop to purchase another bin or two to add to the dozen in the basement.  Yes, I have a plan and I pray that I will find the time to knit all that yarn into masterpieces. 

I am sure I am not alone in that challenge. 

Happy 3rd Anniversary To Me!

Sew What's New & Yarn Too!

3 years ago on this date I made my first purchase of yarn at Sew What's New & Yarn Too! in Islip, NY and with the Long Island Yarn Crawl coming up, I thought it was a good day to celebrate.  After all, it seems that FaceBook, Instagram and all the other social media sites give us something to celebrate each and every day.  So what was the first Local Yarn Shop (LYS) you ever made a purchase in?

On February 25, 2016, I had only been knitting for a 6 months!!  I had been to Michaels, A.C. Moore and JoAnne's for yarn to feed what was a new obsession in my life.  But I had found a project that I wanted to work on that on the surface looked complicated but according to the pattern was SO EASY!  I was also bored with the selection in the local big box craft stores and I went exploring.

I had no idea what I walked in to!  As I entered SEW WHAT'S NEW & YARN TOO!, I was immersed in so many choices of fabric.  Then I spotted the big yarn wrapped letters toward the back of the shop that said AND YARN TOO! Walking through the glass French door was like a kid walking into a candy shop.  I was greeted by a staff member and I was asked if I was looking for something in particular.  Why, yes! I needed bulky yarn!  I was shown a few bins and areas that had bulky or chunky yarn selections.  I purchased 11 balls of a beautiful Noro Silk Garden, a silk wool blend for Dropped and Found Wrap by Jessie Rayot.

I headed home and started knitting my new project with yarn that was silky soft and I knew I would be heading back to Sew What's New & Yarn Too! in the future!

Dropped and Found Wrap in Noro Silk Garden

Here is a view of the completed project, that I eventually gave to a friend of my son, who had been in a wicked car accident and was bruised and battered.  Her mother wanted her wrapped in bubble wrap, but this was the next best thing!

I returned a to Sew What's New & Yarn Too! a few months later to purchase some Ella Rae Seasons to make a second wrap for myself.

Dropped and Found  Wrap in Ella Rae Seasons

I did not know it 3 years ago, but Sew What's New & Yarn Too! became a chapter in my life and we are still writing the story and creating beautiful knitted projects.

All credits to:
sewwhats.new.biz
https://jessieathome.com/dropped-and-found/

Make sure you check out the Long Island Yarn Crawl from April 4th to April 7th.  10 Local Yarn shops across Long Island have joined in the fun!
https://longislandyarncrawl.com/

The Unintentional Knitter - Never Leave Home Without a Project

During the Summer of 2015, I spent time on the road to Virginia to visit my mom.  Unbeknownst to me there was a huge traffic jam on 1-81 around Harrisburg, PA.  I was traveling alone as my sons were off working for the summer at Boy Scout Camps and my husband was saving time up for the Boy Scout Wood Badge training weekends ahead. 

My journeys to my mom's in Virginia usually begin way before dawn as I travel the length of Long Island and into Manhattan to cross into New Jersey and avoid several expensive tolls along the way.  I stopped at the Welcome Center just over the Pennsylvania only to learn that my drive time was about to become very long!

I made a decision to  stop at each rest area, walk a little and lo and behold knit a little!  I was gradually working my way through the Leisure Arts Learn to Knit book and was working on Hand Mitts.  Sitting at or on picnic tables in a shady area was perfect for relaxing and knitting a few stitches as I watched the progress of the traffic flowing on the interstate. 

My normal 7 hr trip took over 10 hours and by the time I reached my mom's in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia I was ready to cast off the first of the pair of hand mitts.  I think my mom was worried about my mental state, but in reality I was really relaxed.  The drive may have been endless but I had accomplished something along the way!

My mother however, could not see the value in a pair of finger-less mittens.  Of course in our texting world, they were invaluable!  By now, only 2 months into my foray into the knitting world I had completed at least 4 projects and had 2 sets of Christmas gifts ready for wrapping.  All thanks to a little booklet from Leisure Arts. 

I also would never leave home without yarn, a pattern and needles again.

The Unintentional Knitter

My First Unassisted Project

Lots has changed since I have written in this blog!  Boys have graduated from high school, the oldest one from college even.  Life at our house is much quieter and it is me, my husband and 4 cats.  Can I say there is less clutter with 2 less humans in the house?  Not really.  Those 2 young ones have left behind bins of special memories and other assorted belongings in a place they still refer to as home.

I am guilty of adding to the stuff.
10 bins of yarn which I never dreamed of ever possessing reside in my basement laundry room.

That's right never intended.

I was 10, maybe 12, and staying for a visit of a few days with my grandma and grandpa-at-the-house. (I had one set of grandparents who owned and lived above a deli, they were grandma and grandpa-at-the-store.)  My grandmother had already enhanced my ability to sew and embroider and she was nit picky on how the reverse side of everything looked.  There were no loose ends and all ends were very neatly woven into the stitching on the backside of every project.

Grandma had first taught me how to crochet, an afghan stitch was the first stitch I learned, I made doll blankets.  I think today's term is Tunisian Crochet.  Fancy word for what looked like embroidered blanket stitches on the front and knitting on the reverse.  None of my friends recognized this as crochet.  So I could do a chain, pick up stitches and make small doll blankets.  A few years later I must have learned more because I did make 2 ripple stitched afghans that took a year each to complete.

But let's get back to that unintentional knitting thing.

It seemed according to grandma, I mastered the art of using 1 needle, so it was time to try using 2 at once and out came the knitting needles and a simple ball of yarn.  Also came the stories of how my grandmother learned to knit in school and how she and her classmates all knitted their own stockings back in a small town in Northern Germany.  My grandmother fed my imagination with her memories and she was so precise in all that she did.  Her darning of socks and worn elbows in my sweater sleeves were basketweave perfection.

Perfection.  Perfection. Perfection.

Now as the loving and dutiful granddaughter, I hung on her every word and I adored her.  I adored all that she did and lovingly created as well.  Putting 2 needles and yarn in my hand, well, that was a different story.  It seemed that to knit, one had to wrap the yarn around the fingers in a special way, one had to hold and wrap the yarn a very specific way and when it came to knitting at the age of 10 or 12 I was all thumbs and the lessons did not end well.  In fact, they ended in tears.  After that particular visit I never held a pair of knitting needles again.  I felt I had failed to learn the lesson and I let my very German Grandmother down.  I was heartbroken.

My future visits with Grandma & Grandpa-at-the-house would be spent making doll clothes, sewing my summer wardrobes and embroidering and making crewel work wall hangings that I treasure today.  I never could master the art of a beautiful reverse side as well as my grandmother.

But I digress.  Fast forward to 2015. By then, my grandparents along with all the memories and love they shared with me must live in my heart and I carry them with me each and every day.

The year 2015, the summer was about to begin and the programming for Women-in-the-Woods at Camp Ma-He-Tu needed to be finalized.  It seemed that several of my camp friends wanted to learn how to knit.  I could not imagine why.  But I think Andrea and Jennifer had much to do with their curiosity.  Andrea and Jennifer brought their knitting projects to camp and knit at meal times, at the waterfront, in the Rec Hall and up in their tents.  Socks, shawls, blanket squares and hats were just some of the items they created while at camp.  Their hands were never idle. They seemed like the perfect pair to teach and introduce our WIWer's to the art of knitting and when asked they agreed.

So on sunny Sunday morning, after chapel and before lunch I scheduled a learn to knit session with Andrea & Jennifer in the Dining Hall.  They brought out colorful balls of cotton, size 7 knitting needles, directions for casting on, knitting, casting off, and a pattern for making dishcloths in neat kits for everyone who wanted to learn.  I sat in my makeshift office catching up on the paperwork I needed to complete to keep the Women-In-The-Woods program going smoothly and loved hearing the laughter and conversation over learning to knit.  I did not join in knowing already that it would be pointless as I was experiencing a PTSD episode with grandma memories and tears.

Andrea would not take no for an answer, when she asked me to come over to the tables.  She placed a package in front of me with hot pink cotton yarn and needles and encouraged me to pick it up and try.  I protested, but she, nor did her sister insist on me holding the needles a certain way or worse wrapping the yarn around my fingers just so. It turns out that even though I am right-handed, I know I do much with my left hand as well in many activities.  It seems I am a continental knitter and I hold the yarn trailing from my left hand.  To me, it seemed more efficient to pick up the yarn than toss and wrap.   I had to let go of my memories of grandma scolding me to keep the yarn just so.

Turns out that casting on was easy, like tying knots, which I love to do.  Making the first stitches was awkward, but  with encouragement got to the end of the first row.  Turns out garter stitch was pretty simple.  35 stitches across, about 25 rows up, by the end of the day I had a square!  Excited and pleased and so surprised!!!!!  Before dinner I learned how to cast off.  One washcloth.  One project and I had yarn left. "Cast on," Andrea said, "and I will teach you to purl!"

Monday, that week I thought I mastered purling.  turns out my improvised knitting maneuvers just caused all the stitches to twist.  Rip! Rip! Rip! PTSD was setting in.  Try again, then they spied my improvised techniques and realized I was just wrapping the yarn the wrong way around the needle.  With a little gentle push in the right direction, my purl stitches flattened.  So knit in one direction, purl going back, and I had a stockinette stitched piece on Day 2.  Jennifer and Andrea declared they had created a monster.  I now carried those needles and balls of cotton yarn everywhere in ziploc bag and knit whenever there was a lull.

I had never imagined.  I unintentionally became a knitter.  I went home from camp that Wednesday and stopped in a craft store a purchased a small pattern book for beginner knitters and in 2 weeks created that blue cowl.  I haven't stopped yet.  The unintentional knitter has found her way into new friendships and new adventures.  I can't wait to share more.

Changes--

Off to Middle School...

Done with Freshman Year...

Wants to go to Camp for extended period...

Good visit at the store...

Blessings...

None of them give me lip....

Except for showing up at Baseball games in the 6th inning when oldest has been the starting pitcher and then he starts walking batters--I get blamed for showing up (but he had almost used up his pitch count and his arm was tired!) --they were up 10-3!
Can you believe he said it loud enough for all to hear--I've come to expect it...it's actually an ongoing joke---I always drift during baseball games and I have missed countless good plays and hits. So when I pay attention nothing happens--

Second game of the series--I was smart--stayed at Williamsport team practice with youngest, sent DH with camera to game--called for update--we were down 7-3 and oldest was back on the mound since the 2nd inning--holding the Yankees. Showed up and he was still pitching until the end of the game which was tied and then lost by 1 run!

Tonight is the final and I can relax--he's not pitching and neither are the 2 best on the other team--could be a great night! Hopefully DH comes home on time and we can be at the game and at youngest' s awards night at school. I'm seriously considering the cloning thing.

Relaxed watching the newest installment of Deadliest Catch--can't believe Sig passed off chest pains! Stubborn Norwegian! Can't believe the buildup of the coast guard calls either--not that I want anything to happen to these men, their crews or their boats. Can't believe I hooked the family into this obsession---

Gotta run--slug needs to get out of bed and to the orthodontist--here comes another lecture!

Call Me Crazy!

Didn't realize I would have certain jobs for life!

Being wife and mom suit me just fine for the life role! 29 years have flown since I met HULK and then married him 8 years later. It's been a fantastic ride and I would do it all over again. We usually have a lot of fun on this day--the kids even asked why the word Anniversary was on the calendar. They had a bet--Matthew won, even in his fevered state!


Fevered state, that's where I have been with him for the last 3 days! Could it be the swine flu? Don't know, but we've got no snorting or grunting like pigs going on here. (One of the English teachers at the HS actually had his class believing that if you coughed or sneezed and it was followed by a grunt--that was the swine flu at work! I though that was so funny.)

Other life jobs seem to include the future of Cub Scouting in Central Islip! The VBS life at church and coordinating the women's communion breakfast in the spring. It's great to be loved!

I think that's why when the house is quiet--I just want to veg and watch a good movie (uninterupted, of course!).

Gotta go finish unloading the dishwasher--never ending cycle of cook, clean, and put away!

Love to all.