knitorious

Can't get it outta my head!

Today's Saturday Sky comes to you from the comfort and warmth of my computer room -- this is a shot out the window (and up a little) to my right.  There's an actual warming trend going on here this weekend -- temps in the mid- to high-30s, they say -- but I'm still chilled to the bone from last week's cold and wind, plus I'm still wearing my nightgown.

Beth and I have been writing back and forth a little bit about mittens.

***NEWS FLASH***  Oh my goodness, no wonder I like her...  Not only does she have a team in the Crafters Fantasy Football League, but just look at what her favorite Christmas album is -- The Carpenters!  ***/end flash***

So, anyway, back to mittens.  In one of those thirty posts of November for NaBloPoMo, I wrote about how I'm always thinking about the mittens and a bunch of you wrote about how you think about them, too. Beth wrote last week and wondered if I was still thinking of doing stranded mittens in the new year; have I seen Eunny's new pattern; have I seen the new patterns on Knitty?  And I most certainly am; I hadn't, but now I have (also purchased/printed); Corazon are wonderful, and the Latvian-inspired Tiffany made my heart flutter.  I heard from more than a dozen people who might be interested in a friendly, low-pressure KAL and I've been thinking about the ways I can keep it low-pressure, but fun and exciting, too, maybe even with a surprise.  I'm all about keeping it low-key and fun.  Currently, though, I'm stuck on the really fun name and for some reason, "Walk Like A Latvian" popped into my head -- you know, like the Egyptians... only Latvian... even though Latvians walk just like the rest of us.  Maybe walking like Egyptians with Latvian mittens?  I know, it's sick.  I could have drunk-bloggged this last night (well, only slightly inebriated, really) and then perhaps been forgiven, but the truth is it's been in my head for DAYS.  I'm sorry, but perhaps if I disburse the pain even wider it will eventually subside altogether -- because I already scarred Beth with it and it didn't help me one single bit.  Maybe if y'all feel my pain...  It's not even limited to Latvians...

In the meantime, Eunny wrote a great post with tips for 2-color knitting here.

Nanette Blanchard has some wonderful booklets and patterns available, including Stranded Knitting.  Nanette also has links in her sidebar to her free patterns, and also to some of her helpful tips knitting posts (many of them having to do with color knitting, of course!).

There's Latvian Mittens, of course, Latvian Dreams, Folks Mittens, Favorite Mittens...  Schoolhouse Press has a lot of resources, including the Satakieli yarn recommended for Latvian mittens.

More to come... the new year is a few weeks off yet.  ; )

A number of things...

Struggling with a 6-stitch pattern and a 4-row repeat, I'm still not back on track with the Simply Lovely Lace Sock.  Simply.  Lovely.  Hm.  Perhaps I'll be feeling it a little bit later.  Oh, but I did finish the Fibonacci sleeve last night and it will be getting a bath and blocking tonight.  I'm so excited that the majority of the knitting is finished!!

That's the end of today's knitting content, except for a little bit about knitting bones...

Margene, celebrating her 600th post today (and it's a beauty), made me take note of some NUMB3RS this morning... this is my 625th post!  That's just crazy, man, crazy.  I couldn't help but also notice the number of comments.  Margene gets a ton more comments than I do on a regular basis, and I know her number is thousands, if not thousands-upon-thousands, more than mine, and while I love comments, it's not all about the comments, but I am closing in on a rather significant and fairly large number of comments... in the realm of I-might-soon-be-whoring-for-more and a prize!  ; )

I took delivery in yesterday's mail from Christine of one big, blue blanket made up of many, many squares.  I'm pretty much struck dumb when I think about it all -- her brother, my brother, squares, blankets and many, many hearts.  I am looking forward to delivering it to its final, intended recipient and perhaps I'll find some better words to express myself -- or maybe Michael will -- but until then, "Thank you" is the best I can do to Christine and all the knitters of beautiful, blue squares.  Thank you.  I haven't written much about Michael recently.  He's still on an amazing, but painful path of miraculous recovery.  Today, he sees an orthopaedic doctor due to unrelenting pain from the fractured scapula.  I read that the scapula represents less than 1% of all broken bones, and it could take 6 months to a year for complete recovery and return of full range of motion.  I hope they can find a way to make recovery more comfortable.  On Monday, he has the long-awaited appointment with the neurosurgeon and will hopefully get the green flag to start losing the body brace, that the all the broken vertebra are healing as hoped and that no further surgery will be required.  Kellee's Knit Up Some Bone drive for Mr. Etherknitter hits a little home here, too.  ; )  And I hope Mr. E's good news comes soon!

I can't think of a blue-squared blanket without immediately thinking of PINK!  Cynthia has had an incredible response to Warming Grace -- and I'm struck dumb again when I think of the incredible bravery and pluck of a 5-year-old.  You go, Gracie, girl!

Grace leads me to my cousin Ted, then, and his mom and dad.  Ted was tall and lanky and had huge dimples -- darn, it was catchy -- he was always smiling and flashing those dimples!  They lived in Albquerque, so we didn't see them much when we were growing up -- only when they'd come here to visit.  I went to Albuquerque for the first time about eight years ago for Ted's wedding; his mother was dying from a recurrence of breast cancer and it was uncertain whether she'd even be strong enough to attend.  Turned out, the wedding day was the best day she'd had in ages... and she danced the night away.  She died a couple of months later.  My uncle died a couple of years after that, also of cancer; and then Ted.  Ted had a rare form of leukemia for his age -- completely curable if he'd been a child -- and specialists from around the country were in the loop.  He fought hard, too, but lost the battle almost two years ago.

I was recipient yesterday of a group email from another uncle; the subject line was, "Ordeal."  Gulp.  His wife successfully battled breast cancer a few years ago, but she's back on the battleground and underwent 9 hours of surgery yesterday -- with everything that's involved to excise a tumor -- weirdly, she also has a scapula involved.  I'm a bit sketchy on the details because, as is usual for my family, this is the first I've heard of it.  It's left me a little rattled.

What's moo?

Oh my goodness, there's so much that's "moo."

If you have not already, please go read about Christine's trip to deliver the "Comforting Jef" blue afghan, made with donated squares from knitters all over, to her brother Jef.  I am honored to have participated in this project, to have helped Christine make her vision into a real blanket, to have helped her with the comfort of Jef.  As you may know, my brother Michael will soon be the recipient of a second blanket and I suppose I'll be writing my own "No words can describe" post.  (Me: Verklempter all the time.)

In a similar vein -- and, in fact, partly inspired by "Comforting Jef" -- is Cynthia's Warming Grace project.  Initially begun in hopes of collecting enough pink squares to make a blanket for her young niece who is battling leukemia and perhaps enough for a second blanket, the project has grown and will now be ongoing, accepting squares in any color, to make blankets for both boys and girls in the oncology wing at Alberta Children's Hospital.  I lost a favorite, lanky, be-dimpled cousin to leukemia a few years ago -- totally curable if he'd had it as a child rather than an adult -- I'll be knitting some blue squares, to send along with the pink, in his memory.  There are some very generous, donated prizes for participants -- but be aware, if you're interested in entering, that the deadline is looming.

Birdsong is having a 300th Post Contest to celebrate... ummmm... her 300th post.  ; )  I would strongly encourage you to take a moment and read her 299th.

And another contest at Kat's, for which my own entry immediately follows:

Name five places, other than your house or a knitting store, where you have knit:

1.  At the lake.
2.  At the library.
3.  On an airplane.
4.  In the car.
5.  In the waiting area of my local Saturn dealership (knitting and dreaming about the new Sky roadster) where I was once joined by an elderly gentleman crocheting a baby blanket.

The deadline for Kat's contest is Friday, I believe, and while I'm not sure my places are all that original, originality does count.  There are others ahem*Celia*ahem who have knit in far more interesting locations -- I can't beat knitting on The Great Wall!  But go read 'em all, they're fun!

A bunch of packages arrived from the U.K. yesterday -- mostly heavy books that Katie sent home for cheap on the slow boat -- but also this one from British Breed Yarns!  (Thanks for the tip Anna!)  I want so badly to open it, knowing that some of it is mine...

I didn't make much weekend progress on Fib, but here are up-to-the-minute pictures -- snapped on the kitchen table this morning and I'm shocked at how fabulously true the colors are -- the light green stripe is a little brighter in person, but the rest are darn good (morning sun and a chandelier with run-of-the-mill incandescent bulbs).  Anyway, I'm so excited!!  I really, really love it.  ; )  It will get washed and blocked tomorrow, and I'll figure out and get started on the sleeves.

My own contest "moos" tomorrow!

Next up

I didn't photograph even half the stash the other day.  I'd really like to, though, mainly to document my intentions for a particular batch or ball of yarn (if any) because I do tend to forget about stuff, especially if it's not in plain sight.  Some stuff just won't be forgotten, though, no matter what, and that's the case with this Donegal Tweed -- "leftovers" of a sweater kit that my sister made (enough for another sweater!) and I knew its destiny the minute I saw Fibonacci in Magknits (check out the latest issue).  I have never wavered on that, but I have never started...  I think it's time to get crackin'.

I finished the back of Trellis last night, and I think it's going to be too small for the Mackster.  I could be wrong -- maybe it'll bloom and grow in the blocking -- but I'm prepared to tuck it away and save it as a gift for another baby.

I'm also thinking pink for Warming Grace (working title; button forthcoming).  Grace is Cynthia's brave and adorable niece (oh, those EYES!) who just celebrated her 5th birthday.  When Cynthia writes about Gracie being "a very special girl," she's not kidding -- Grace is in the midst of a long treatment program for leukemia... oh my goodness, with personality!  In the spirit of Comforting Jef and Mike, Cynthia has put out the call for 5" pink squares in cotton or soft wool for a blanket for Grace.  Check it out.

The long and winding...

9:45 a.m. -- See update below.

At this point, I have two blue merino squares knit and on the blocking board, plus another ready for blocking and one in progress.  I think I'm just going to keep on knitting and blocking blue squares for Christine's brother Jef and my brother Mike until time's up.  Each one has a cable design because, hmm, well, did you know that I like cables?  I realized, too, (sometimes it takes me a while) that the twisting, turning knitting of a cable also represents the long and winding road on which our brothers now travel.  It seems right.

I knit on the sock when I'm at the hospital and I'm not even half-way through the heel flap yet.  I get distracted...  Some of my SIL's hometown girlfriends visited yesterday -- oh, they're fun girls!  They usually take turns getting together at each other's houses a couple of times a year for merriment.  We told stories yesterday and laughed.  When they learned that Michael grew up as the only boy in a house filled to the brim with girls, they were not surprised.  They said that he just sits right down with them and fits right in; they liked him as soon as they met him.  It was nice.

The feeding tube and "art line" were removed yesterday.  He still has pneumonia, there are still plenty of tubes, and he was getting extra oxygen through that trach, but there's less and less stuff.  His eyes were open yesterday and it seemed like he may have been able to focus momentarily, he may have responded at times to the sound of people's voices.  He's moving much more; I think he's becoming more aware of the pain and discomfort.  He has these special mitts on to keep him from pulling things he shouldn't be pulling, but he keeps working them off.  When I went in to say good night, he had wriggled out of a mitt and was moving for the trach and the cervical collar (it's chafing badly under his chin) -- deliberate movements? involuntary? reactionary? -- I spoke rather loudly, as a big sister can, and told him to stop and what had happened and why he was there; he turned his head in my direction, looked into my eyes for a second.  It's really hard to guess the level of his awareness, whether he turned in my direction because I spoke or just because.  There are improvements, though we're always left wanting more.  Unless there's a reason not to, he'll be moved, "stepped down," to the neurological unit today.  ; )

Michael has always liked everything about The Beatles.  As a six-year-old, he sang Hey Jude to Mom over his walkie-talkie set. There's a picture of him as a teenager, standing in front of our house, proudly displaying a new Wings album and his body language says everything -- he's so excited, he's practically standing on tip-toes!

My dad just called me at work and Michael is WAKING UP!  My uncle, the flight nurse, was checking in this morning and Mike had gone for a CAT Scan to make sure everything was okay before moving him to the floor.  Michael was very, very agitated, so my uncle went over and talked to him and asked him, "Michael, do you know who I am?"  Michael nodded, unmistakably, "Yes."  Prior to his 19 years as a flight nurse, my uncle worked in the neurological unit; he knows how this works.  I can't wait to go visit...  Mom's checking on that...

; )

The view

In light of all the front door views and back yard views around the blogs over the past few weeks (which I've both participated in and enjoyed immensely), I laughed when I saw that Katie had posted, surely through some kind of osmosis, a picture with the caption, "The view from our lodge, Ireland."  Not difficult to see why she'd even think to take a picture -- it's so peaceful!  Do you see the specks on the grass across the water?  It's surely more sheepies!

This one makes me smile, too.  "Aran Islands in the distance through the snow from the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland."  I'm not sure whether I'm seeing islands or what, but I love it.  ; )  She called last night with a question about yarn -- she is on the hunt for something special and memorable for both of us!

I've finished the pink stealth knitting and have started another blue blanket square for Christine's "Comforting Jef" project (which may, with any luck, also extend to "Comforting Mike"!).  There's a good week and a few days of knitting left before I'll have to get these in the mail so she has them by the deadline on the 24th.  I knit a whole square listening to podcasts the other day, but I was so tired last night I had to hit the hay early.  I'm using some navy blue Debbie Bliss Merino Aran that I actually used to knit a sweater once, but it was too small so I frogged the entire thing.  It's great yarn.  Each square has a simple cable design because, well, I like that cable action!

Still prayin'.   ; )

Take note

Remember The View last month?  Well, tomorrow it's a Field Trip -- I absolutely LOVE this idea.  I think it was just last week (or maybe the week before) that I was email-dreaming with Carole, imagining a bus full of knit-bloggers on tour, touring each other's homes (show me the yarn -- and the antiques -- and then let's have cake and cookies), stopping at LYSs and fiber shops along the way, spotting farms with sheep, knitting...  Anyway, I'll be participating in "The Knit-bloggers' Back Yard Field Trip," and I hope you will, too.  (Y'all know who has one of the best "back yards" around, don't you?  And the best pictures of it, too!)

I'd also like to point you in the direction of Christine -- here, here (adorable picture alert!), and here, and finally, here.  She is collecting blue knitted squares to make into a blanket for her brother, Jef; in fact, the project is called "Comforting Jef" (see the snazzy button?).  In that last entry, she wrote that she hoped to have too many squares -- enough to perhaps make a second blanket for my brother; that would be "Comforting Mike."  She didn't tell me about that, though she has been leaving me comments, so I ran across it in my regular blog reading and... Wow, Christine, I am verklempt.  Just when I think I'm verklempt enough, I get verklempter.  Christine and I are fairly new to each other's blogs, I think it's likely a happy (and hopefully lasting) side effect of the Knitting Olympics.  Thank you, Christine, for such a sweet thought.  I'll definitely be knitting blue for your brother.  Comfort.

I'm really torn about the blogging, blogging about my brother, specifically.  His recovery could be very, very, v.e.r.y. long -- he could be in ICU for a long time, with no real change.  Or he could wake up tomorrow.  His wonderful p.m. nurse of the last few days gave us a bit of a reality check yesterday, and I'm glad.  The bottom line is, there is no "timeline," everything is dependent on something else; there is a process to recovering from major head trauma and he has to work his way through it; he hasn't responded to commands the past few days, but it's hard to draw any conclusions about anything right now -- No One Knows.  It is very scary.  And maybe I should just not be blogging about him.  I don't want to be the Bummer Blog, I want you all to come and visit me over here (because, really, I am all about the comments and the visiting), I don't want you all to not know what to say or to feel uncomfortable, I don't want to make you sad, but I know, too, that a lot of you are enjoying my little stories.  Maybe I should put that part in "extended entry" or something, or not do it everyday.  I don't know.

When Michael was on the cusp of adolescense, our then single-mother struggled with how to talk to him about the facts of life.*  Right about then, she came home with the book, "Where Did I Come From?" and sat us all down to read it to us.  I was 16 at the time (yeah), so Mike was 12.  When she got to the part about men having er*ctions, he innocently and enthusiastically blurted out, "Hey, that happens to me!!"  Naturally, we all responded with fits of giggles.  The poor, poor kid... it's a wonder he turned out at all.

*We were really a family of innocents.  Just a few years earlier, the older sister and brother of a friend of mine actually had me believing that every night before bed their mother told them one fact of life, as if there was some master checklist somewhere.

Walk This Way

That would be the Petrified Jaywalkin' way in Socks That Rock!  I happened to be with Cara at Rhinebeck, way back at the very beginning when it was just a small stampede to The Fold she'd started because of this really great yarn.  Then she found Grumperina's sock pattern at Magknits -- a pattern for which Cara and this yarn was, apparently, cosmically, made.  And then, fueled by her unbridled excitement, she began the untethered Jaywalker Knit A Long, which has quickly exploded into a living, knitting legend.  Poor Cara.  I suggested to her yesterday that she might possibly have knit enough Jaywalkers for herself that she could tie them all together, thereby making a little Jaywalker sock rope which she could toss out the window and fittingly use to escape the Jaywalker prison she has created for herself.  I offer safe harbor, with open arms, to the Jaywalking fugitive.  You done good, girl, and we love you.

But what's that other stuff?  I had the most wonderful belated birthday package the other day from The Bookish Girl.  The yarn up top is a 250-yard hank of Woolarina Handpainted Merino Sport Weight -- check out her complete catalog here.  The package also included some of Woolarina's stitch markers, some wacky fabric patches, a grow-your-own sunflower kit (perfect!), and an old wooden bobbin from the Classic Elite factory.  Oh, how I love stuff like that -- stuff like all of that!!  Thank you, Wendy!

There are my new swatches for Williamsro -- my event in the Harlot Olympics (also a living legend -- both the Harlot and her Olympics!) Can you believe there are 2100 participants and counting?  If even half of the competitors medal in their events, that's going to be a lot of FOs come the end of February!  I'm itching to start.  Now that the Jaywalkers are finished, the only active, on-the-needles project is Shirley Shrugs.  I have vowed to cast on nothing new until after the Olympics, so Shirley's getting all my attention for the next two weeks.  Maybe I'll have an FO to start the Olympics!  That might be the equivalent of scoring a touchdown to take the lead just before half-time.  ; )