Knitting News, but Mostly a Reading Post

It was a whirlwind of a weekend. There were three different sets of house guests. The Boyfriend's 17 year old visited from Mpls. for most of the weekend. She's a good kid and I like her. We all saw Pirates Three. Promptly upon her departure my niece arrived with her three wee people in tow. I've missed them since moving away to Austin, and the visit was far too short. And promptly upon their leaving the four legged guests arrived. I had to pick them up actually. I agreed some time ago to do the doggy sitting for a good friend's two dogs while she has her first baby. I of course had no way to know that all would converge almost simultaneously. In the chaos I found no time to knit or write.

Yesterday, after the 4 dogs had run themselves nearly ragged in the yard, I did make it to my Tuesday Afternoon Sit and Knit. I was a half hour late, but I made it. And I needed it. So better late than not at all. I cast on Sizzle and made some legitimate progress. In one short session the back of the sweater now measures a full 4 inches from cast on. Time to start the dart decreases.

Unfortunately there was no other knitting to report. There is a lot on-the-needles. Seems I'm still not motivated enough to finish that pretty brown purse, and not sure just what my problem is. I'm thinking of frogging the orange tank, but can't bring myself to do it just yet, I can't bring myself to work on it either so it seems that frogging is inevitable. I've completely given up on the squares for the afghan, I found a pattern I love, but won't start that until I get some of these other projects safely off the needles.

I have been wanting to get caught up on a reading post. My reading has been bordering on prolific. I finished The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean about a week ago. There is a strange phenomenon with this book, seems every time I mentioned it the other party would reply "oh that's the one Adaptation was based on." But I never saw that movie. I tried to see that movie, but I hated it, and slept instead. I didn't hate the book. In fact I rather enjoyed it. I was struck by the fanaticism of the orchid collectors, and realized how true that fanaticism rings with both book collectors and knitters. Seems there is something lurking in the universe that pushes collectors over the edge to obsessive. And that's what this book is about.

I immediately started, and finished How to Be Good by Nick Hornby. It's a fast, fast read. It is a really light and witty story, but it touches on a pretty big theme - how do we define what it means to "be a good person". Is "good" defined by our professions, or are family status, or our ability to treat others with kindness? I'd highly recommend this one for a quick summer read.

After that dose of 'light reading" I felt compelled to pick up The War by Marguerite Duras. It's slowing me down some, and the title is really all I have to say about it just yet, it's a memoir of Duras' experience as a French survivor of WWII and Nazism. I love Duras, but this one's incredibly dark, and sad, and daunting.

Yesterday I set The Duras aside in favor of something a little less daunting and a lot more fun, Yarn Harlot Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It was among the "Thank You" gifts I received for taking care of my friend's dogs. I read the Harlot's blog everyday, and this book is a genuine treat. I think that like Orlean's book it's about being obsessive. And like Hornby's book it's about being good. But mostly it's about knitting.

Knitting Group and A New Hat

Earlier this week I attended my first "Tuesday Afternoon Knitting Group" at the LYS. I liked it. It's sort of a new group and so it's rather small. In fact there were just four of us there, the group leader, myself, and a mother/daughter team. I liked them, they brought snacks, chocolate covered raisins and toffee macadamia nuts to be exact. There was much talk of upcoming weddings, being completely intimidated by knitting in the round, which decreases slant which way, and growing hair on your elbows.

I'm taking advantage of the group as a regularly scheduled two hour block of knitting time to finally knit myself Sizzle which is available on Knit and Tonic. I'm knitting it with Berroco Cotton Twist, that lovely cotton rayon blend that has just a touch of shimmer. And because the sweater is for me, it's brown.

I only got as far as knitting my gauge swatch, but I have three things to reveal about myself and gauge swatching: I only do it when I'm knitting a garment, I just can't bring myself to do it any other time. Once I've got the gauge I frog the thing, I can't waste the yarn. And I'm a terribly loose knitter, I am consistently two needle sizes smaller than recommended. I always assumed this was because I do felting (fulling really) and so am in the habit of knitting all loosey-goosey. The group leader pointed out that it is in fact probably because I knit continental, and it's always looser. Who knew? I'm learning new things everyday, as they say. I've decided I will from now on start with the smaller needles, and will perhaps have to only knit the one swatch, getting it right the first time, instead of having to knit three.

On another note... I made this hat. I love it! It's knit from a bunch of stash busting cotton yarn and I added a fringe of cotton ribbon.

That's it for today. Have a great holiday weekend, and please drive safe.

Tagged - I'm It

Ok, so I got tagged and I have to admit I'm not really sure how this game works. I mean I understand the basics, they were explained as thus - you get tagged, you post a list of seven random facts about yourself, and then you tag seven other bloggers. I guess that part's pretty simple. The part I don't get is the "why" and the "what for"?

At any rate, I get a little nervous that if I don't play along it'll mean bad luck. I'm sort of superstitious that way. That can be fact number 1 - I'm superstitious, I believe in bad luck, and I also believe in good luck.

Fact 2 - I won't sleep in a tent. Ever! I have of course, slept in a tent, but I don't like it. In fact I don't like anything about camping. I like clean bedsheets, and hot food, and coffee in the morning. The last time I slept in a tent there was a thunderstorm, and the tent blew down, and I crawled out, picked up the whole crumpled wet mass of canvas, put it in the back of my car, and drove away. Done.

Fact 3 - Speaking of coffee, I have two and only two and no less than two cups of coffee each and every morning. And when I'm traveling I accommodate this about myself. I've even been known to walk down to a hotel lobby and get two cups of coffee and carry them both back to the room and then tell my companion, "sorry, they're both for me". That's a huge hit.

Fact 4 - I returned the new bike I bought (see living greener post), and kept my old bike. I had to, I felt nostalgic for the old bike every time I even thought about selling it. It was like I was in love all over again. I even considered keeping both bikes, but that's just silly, so I returned the new bike. The guy at the bike shop seemed to understand, there was nothing wrong with the new bike, it just wasn't my old bike.

Fact 5 - Read fact 3 and 4 and come to the conclusion that is fact 5 - I don't deal well with change. I like things to stay the same, and I like the things I like.

Fact 6 - Viva paper towels are the only paper towels I will buy. Plain white ones. I think silly decorations on paper towels are about the dang dumbest thing. And Vivas are soft. I have a friend in Mpls. who I have a lot of quirky things in common with. We discovered that Viva Whites was one of those things. She too will only buy the Viva whites. Viva La Viva Whites.

Fact 7 - I want to learn to snorkel or scuba because I'm afraid of the ocean.

So, that's it. Now I'll be tagging seven bloggers who I read on a regular basis, and if they don't like it they can stone me.

Cheers!

Two Tiny Mistakes

I've made two tiny mistakes. Okay, I've possibly made more than two mistakes in the course of my whole life, but I've made two tiny mistakes I want to talk about here. For a minute.

Mistake number one: I own a copy of Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch. And I'm not a sock knitter. I admire sock knitters, and I even covet their socks, but I just don't have the patience for those tiny DPNs, and I'm barefoot most all the time. So I'm cleaning off the bookshelf, and I've made this mistake available to you here, at Decidedly Bookish. The book features all the basics for sock knitting, including techniques, anatomy of a sock, sock yarn and where to get it, and sizing charts. It features 10 basic designs plus a bunch of stitch patterns. You can knit oodles of socks. I can't.

Mistake number two: I got suckered by the pretty pictures I saw online from Wenlan Chia's book Twinkle's Big City Knits. This is truly a beautiful book, it's no wonder really that I was enchanted with the photography, it's stunning. Really. And the designs are unique, and chic, and stylish. I looked gentle through the book, an evening's entertainment, and decided I had made a mistake. I'll never knit a single one of these designs, I'm just not enough of a fashionista, and I'm way too thick to look good in chunky yarn. And honestly the itsy-bitsy model drives me to drink. So, if you're looking for a barely-looked-at book of high fashion knits, in chunky yarn, that's got exquisite photography, it's available here also.

Have a grand and yarn filled weekend y'all!

Edited to Add: Both books sold! Thanks.

Living Green(er)

I've lately been making more of an effort than ever before to live a little greener. Maybe it's having recently read Al Gore's book, or maybe it's noticing the changes in weather patterns, or maybe it's just maturity. I'm not sure, but when I hear people complain about how "it's getting hotter every summer", I reply "that's global warming my friend". And when I hear my people back in Minnesota talk about how "it never snows anymore", my reply is again "that's global warming my friend". And the more I say it, the more I am reminded to live a little greener.

I've been a vegetarian for almost 20 years, mostly because I have long been aware of the huge negative impact a meat based diet has on the environment. The livestock industry is a huge offender in terms of water usage, water pollution, and energy consumption. I recently read in the Austin Environmental Directory 2006 that scientist David Pimental calculated that it takes 1/2 as much energy to produced a vegetarian diet as a meat based one, the difference is enough to drive every passenger car in the US for 3,300 miles. Some other interesting facts - the energy to produce one hamburger is enough to run a 100watt light bulb for 18 hours, and the energy for one hamburger each day for a year is enough to power a refrigerator for 18 months.

Lately in addition to making meat-free choices, I've also been making an effort to prioritize some other considerations while at the grocery store. Priority number one - buy local whenever I can, most of our food travels some 1500 miles before we consume it, and that's just too far. Priority number two -buy organic, food that's grown clean means cleaner soil and cleaner water. Priority number three - buy in bulk, and minimize packaging. This includes reusing bags, and containers. After all, all that packaging uses energy to produce and increases the amount of waste we produce.

I'm also biking more. Now that I have moved from Minnesota to Texas I can ride my bike year round. And I'm lucky enough to live in Austin, a city that's very bicycle friendly providing bike lanes, and places to park. I recently got a more practical bike for these purposes, I had a little racing bike, I now have more of a hybrid that I outfitted with a rack and a trunk pack which makes it possible for me to take the bike to yoga, the food co-op, the post office, and more. In fact the only thing I can't figure out how to do is the dog food run, the mutts eat a lot of food. The boyfriend has even started commuting to work via bicycle.

So what does all this have to do with a blog about crafting and knitting? Well, for starters becoming increasingly more aware of the things I can do to be less of a burden on my world makes for some creative decision making: what route can I take to make it to my destination on the bike? What substitutions can I make to a recipe in order to buy local and organic? How can I consume less packaging? You get the idea, and the more you use your creative muscle the stronger it becomes.

I also knit green as much as I can. I use natural fibers pretty much exclusively, and natural fibers are renewable resources. Yep, even the animal based ones. One a my favorite fibers recently is bamboo, a plant that grows especially fast, making it especially environmentally sustainable. There are also organic cottons, and organic wools available on the market. And again, supporting organic agriculture supports a more earth friendly economy.

I also use recycled fibers. A few posts back I talked about 2nd Time Cotton, a yarn made from the recycled waste from the textiles industry. And there's lots of other choices for recycled fibers on the market including, wool, silk, and cotton. On a smaller scale of recycling (but no less important) there's reclaimed yarn from old sweaters, and reclaimed felting from old wool.

And finally there's buying from your LYS, buying locally when it comes to yarn is just as important as buying locally grown food. I admit I don't do it all the time, there are some great deals to be had on the Internet, and some really beautiful hand-spun and hand-dyed yarns I buy from craftspeople via Etsy. But I've resolved to make an effort to visit my LYS more often, and shop the Internet less. It reduces the trips the UPS truck makes, it supports a local independent business woman, which is also a good thing, and it definitely reduces packaging.

It may seem like an insignificant effort, but I don't believe it is. We all know the world of knitters is a powerful force, capable of real change and real impact. Think of the knitting for peace movements, and the Charity knitting movements. Powerful indeed. What if those efforts included being kinder to our planet?

We can all find ways, small simple ways, to reduce our impact on the planet, and craft a little greener, knit a little greener, and live a little greener. Think about it, and post your ideas, I for one would love to hear them.

Peace!

Warning: This Post Isn't About Knitting

This post isn't about knitting. It's about books, or more specifically a book club. As my profile states "I'm a reading maniac", and as my header makes clear this is a blog only mostly about knitting, it is otherwise about reading, shelter mutts, and other some such.

I'm in a book club, which is really much more a "wine and eating" club. Every month or so 6 or 9 of us ladies get together and we all bring great food, and we all drink wine, and we all eat, and we all talk. We seem to only rarely actually talk about books however. Don't get me wrong, we all read - Just apparently not the same books.

We sometimes recommend books to each other, but in the almost a year that I have been a member of this book club we have only, as a group read two books. They were both really good books, but it has only been the two. They were "Bastard Out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison and "The Blind Assassin" by Margaret Atwood.

I, like the other ladies in book club, have of course read many more books in that last year. Myself I've read "Wolf Boy" by Evan Kuhlman, "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean, "Chinatown Death Peril" by Paul Malmont, "How to Be Good" by Nick Hornby, "Blast From the Past" by Kinky Freidman, "Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore, and some others I'm not trying too hard to recall right now. I would recommend all of these reads.

I love books. I also love "wine and eating". And so I love my book club.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

I survived Dog Camp. Barely. I have to say that is just about the most exhausting thing I have ever done, and I've done a triathlon. In fairness, Dog Camp was also about the most fun I've had. From Friday to Sunday it was pretty much non-stop action. We tried our luck at Lure Coursing, this is the sport where the dogs chase a lure, in this case a white plastic bag that's attached to a wire course. The course covers a fairly large field in several directions. There are high speed straight aways and sharp turns. And lots of barking dogs waiting their turn. Both dogs loved this sport, both dogs are VERY fast, I don't love this sport. It's the frenzy I don't love. And so we only did it once.

We tried tracking, and honestly I felt it was a bit boring. Although, The Mike did air scenting, or the precursor to search and rescue, and loved it. I'm not surprised that he excelled at this, Mike has a great nose and uses it all the time. It's an amazing sight to watch a dog "see" with his nose.

We also spent some time on the Agility course, which is the sport we train in regularly. Both dogs have fun at Agility. Mike's enthusiasm makes him technically not very good, but he's awfully fun to watch charging over or through the obstacles usually in some random order he decides for himself. Mike's exuberance would certainly get him disqualified from any real competetion, but we do this for fun, and fun he has. Layla on the other hand approaches Agility the way she approaches everything, with grace and elegance. She floats over jumps, and walks the dog walk, and the teeter, like a supermodel walks a runway. She's not fast, but she's beautiful. Although by Sunday's Fun Match Layla was too pooped, for even this - her favorite activity - and mostly we sat in the shade and watched.

The Mike won an award, "Recall Super Star", and my proudest moment - he swam! Turns out Layla is a natural in the water, which somehow didn't surprise me. The Mike put up a fair amount of resistance, he is a willful dog who fears much of the unknown. However, once in the river with me at his side he proved to himself he could do it, and because he is such a strong dog, he is also a strong swimmer. Luckily I am also, together we swam.

Although I brought my knitting with me, I knit not a single stitch. Progress on the yoga mat bag - nil. Progress on the One Skein Tank - nada. Progress on blanket squares - nilch. This was the Wonder Pups' weekend. Now I'll get back on the needles and will have knitting progress to share soon.

Edited To Add: A post sans photos, no hands for cameras - when your handling leashes, and treats, and water, lots and lots of water.

Knitting from Necessity and a Sale

The last few days I've found myself knitting from necessity. It all started when I had to run to the post office, just quick and it was late, and I was tired, and so I didn't put Layla in her kennel. Layla love, love, loves her kennel. Layla is a strange dog in a lot of ways, and one of those ways is she suffers from what is known as "separation anxiety", in lay terms she freaks out when left alone, unless she's in her kennel. I literally wasn't gone at the post office for more than 15 minutes. When I got home Layla snaked out of the bedroom to meet me at the door with the gnarled remains of my wallet. So after I called the credit card companies and the bank to request new cards (yeah, you should heard the costumer service reps responses when I said "my dog ate it, no seriously") I knit myself a new wallet. Yesterday when I went to the Post Office, I put Layla in her kennel, and the Post Mistress complimented my new wallet.

Meanwhile, the clutch went out on my VW, and so it was in the shop, and I was sans motorized vehicle. No big deal really. I live in a neighborhood where I can walk places and I have nice bike. The trouble didn't arise until I went to Yoga and couldn't quite manage carrying the yoga mat on the bike. So I left the mat at home, rented one for the day, and started working on a pattern for a yoga mat bag that I can fling over my back next time I want to ride the bike to yoga. I've frogged the bag in progress 3 times to make changes. I'm currently closing in on what I think will be the final design. I hope to finish it this weekend at Camp.

Yup, we're taking the wonder pups to Camp. The Lee Mannix Center for Canine Behaviour puts on the camp for dogs and their people every year. We'll take over a resort on the Blanco River. There'll be Agility, Lure Coursing, Tracking, and Swimming Lessons. I've got a bet with the trainer that they won't be able to teach The Mike to swim. I hope I lose, I'd like The Mike to swim.

On a final note, I'm having a sale in my Esty shop. I've marked down a lot of the wintry woolly items by 20% or more. I will continue to clear out the wintry stuff as I add some of the summer knits I've been working on, including the yoga mat bag. So if you feel like it grab yourself a bargain.

Progress report on the blanket - 3 squares finished 60 to go.

TA-DA! Finished

Ok so I finally got my WIP pile whipped into shape, so to speak. All the fulled bags waiting for embellishment were finished and sent on their way. The One Skein Stash Bag is officially a finished object.
I really loved knitting this one, and she truly was a stash buster. I used two colors of Tahki Cotton Classic, Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy, Mission 1828 Cotton, and Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine. Phew!

I also finally did the last bits to the ribbon scarf.
What I love about it: It's brown. That's actually why I bought this skein, the colors. It's a soft light grayish brown, with hints of pink and green. I also love how the drop stitches make it drapey. What I don't love: The yarn content is 50% cotton and 50% nylon. I was truly a sucker for the color on this one.

Objects off the needles... No more work in progress wreck... right? wrong! I couldn't stop myself in the meantime from casting on some new projects. I started the Tank top from One Skein, but quickly got impatient with the row after row of stockinette.

So I started knitting squares for a blanket. It's a good exercise really, I can do a variety of stitches in a variety of odd ball yarns which is a perfect monotony buster. And because I want my blanket to be at least 4 feet wide and just over 5 feet long I need to make 63 squares. In other words this little project will be on the needles for some time.

I also started the Child's Vest in the Knitting for Peace Book. I started the stripe pattern using a three balls of Cascade 220, a heathered blue, a heathered orange, and gray. About half way through, it dawned on my that it looked "red, white, and blue" and the thought of some poor child running around Afghanistan in "red, white and blue" stripes made my stomach hurt a little. So I frogged it, and started again in just the blue and gray. Very Dapper.

So much for finishing. I guess I'm not that a-typical of a knitter after all.

A Space of Your Own

As I've been in the process of moving I've been thinking a lot about home, and setting up the space were we live. As crafters, artists, and folks who work from home I believe these are especially important considerations and that it's key to have a space of your own - a functional and pleasing space designated for and designed to accommodate your specific needs.

It seems like it would be an obvious thing when settling into the place where you live that you would spend some time thinking about how you actually live and create an environment suited specifically for yourself and the people you live with. What are the things you do in your daily life? What restraints do you have? Do you have guests, do you feed them, and do they stay the night? Do you prefer to eat your meals at a table with family, or standing at the kitchen sink gazing out the window? It would seem that the answers to these sorts of questions would determine how we create our homes, although I suspect that too often people don't consider their own lifestyles and instead abide by a set of assumptions like "couch in front of TV, table in kitchen, and clothes in closet".

While knee deep in the physical nature of moving I've focused a lot of my mental attention to just those sorts of questions and considerations. One thing was clear as day - I needed a "craft room". It can go by many names; office, studio, craft room, crap room. And it can take on many arrangements. The point is to have a space, some area of your living environment that is devoted to and fully functional for what you do. While the whole house is reaping the benefits of this meditation, my craft room, I feel has benefited the most.

There are several reasons why you should designate a part of your home specifically for your crafting: The first applies most specifically to the folks, like myself, that work from home - having a space where you do most of your work helps in making that mental transition from taking a break to play with the dogs to getting your work done and that work has value even though you're still in the company of the dogs. Another reason to have an area devoted to your craft is the stuff, the stash. The word "stash" implies a hiding place, a secret stash. And for some of us crafters our space is just exactly that - a place to hide our mess. For me personally I want my stash stashed from the rest of the world but available to me for inspiration. On any given day I fondly a lot of yarn, and glance at lots of books, and it's important to have those books and that yarn handy.

Depending on where you live, and your budget, and how many people you live with, your space can take on any number of arrangements. I'm lucky in that I have an extra bedroom to make my own, and the only thing I have to share this space with is a futon for overnight guests, which we have fairly frequently. My craft room serves and functions in all the ways our lifestyle needs it to. You may have the luxury of an entire studio outside your house. Or you may be limited to a dresser full of yarn and a favorite chair with perfect light. Whatever the limitations and opportunities the point is to make a space that works for you and the way you live.

I've mostly settled into my new home and my craft room. I've got a desk for the computer as I spend a fair amount of time on the Internet blogging and maintaining my ETSY shops. I've got an old kitchen table where I can set up the sewing machine or the swift and ball winder. I've got good light. I've got a dog bed in the corner because the dogs tend to want to be near me, lucky me. I've got the necessary futon for those overnight guests. I've painted the walls a color that soothes me (two colors actually, divided by a chair rail). And most importantly I am filling the space with things that inspire and delight me - my orchids (which are blooming), art I love, books I read, curtains I'll sew (nothing says home like curtains you sew yourself), and of course my stash.

Do yourself a favor spend some time thinking about where you live, and how you live, and apply some creativity to making your space, whatever space you have, a space of your own.