Unfinished business

So, my 45th year is over. I had a sense of being at a turning point when I started this blog, and while I can say I’ve rounded the corner on this particular turn, I’m not quite back onto the straight road.

The growing independence of DD and DS has been one major cause for this turning point. I’m still learning what it means to parent at this stage of the game. I consider it a major victory that we all still make it a point to spend time together…not just me, them too. It's a funny thing with parenting…just when you think you’ve got it down, they go and change again!

The blog has been a great place to not only document my 45th year challenge, but also to process various things happening in my life. Some things I’ve discovered about myself:

1—I really like to write. When I don’t have time to blog, I feel out of sorts and kinda mentally constipated…like there’s just too much stuff in my brain and some of it needs to get out!

2—I also like to take pictures of the things around me. The act of documenting helps me see things with new eyes.

3—I like being part of an online community. This blog and RocBike have introduced me to people and experiences I wouldn’t have known otherwise.

4—Now that I know I can do this blog thing, I’m ready to move into something new that I think may have an appeal to a broader audience. More on that in the next post…

But first, for the unfinished business…

Here are my last 3 finished objects (finished before my birthday, I swear!), modeled by DD in between homework and watching "So You Think You Can Dance."

A yoga mat bag for T (from the same pattern as this one

Scrap striped scarf. (I am all about using up the stash right now. Don't worry, it will pass.)

Colorful scarf from various yarn scraps, with no particular pattern. I just switched yarn and pattern as the mood struck.

There's also a random hat somewhere which I made to use up some yarn, but I can' find it. That's okay, it would be number 46, anyway!

Up next…the ride report from my 45-miler! Then, on to the next stage of the blog.

Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated this weekend, and above you see one of my gifts.

These olives come from Cut Out + Keep.Here's what they look like up close (with too much flash).

The label is backstitch on some green burlap-y cloth I found at Craft Bits and Pieces.

Hope yours was just as sweet as mine!

Almost there...

At least when it comes to 45 handmade objects! (The retreat is scheduled for next week, and the bike ride for late April. Which is good since my birthday is May 7, and that's my deadline!)

Here's what I've been doing...First, I made some gloves for DS. These are his annual pair, ever since he allowed me to knit for him. (He loses them every year...maybe this year will be different?)

Alas, I have no picture because my camera was on the blink, and I finished them just in time to give them to him before he headed back to college. He has since declared that he loves them and they are "snug and warm." They are basic black, Lamb's Pride Worsted, as he is that kind of guy.

Next, DD declared one day that she wanted to spend it crafting with me. How could I deny that request? Together we designed, and I sewed, this purse for her.

The outside is a thrifted, felted sweater, lined with a fabric from a thrifted shirt (also the source of the external patch), and the cow button has just been waiting for its rightful place!

We also made a cupcake, from thrifted and felted sweaters, from Betz White's book, Warm Fuzzies.

This next one is so simple I almost feel like I shouldn't claim it. But they're so practical that I'm going to...long gloves, loosely following the instructions at Craft Addictions. They're made from those inexpensive stretch gloves, sewn onto a sweater sleeve. They fit perfectly under my dress coat and keep my warm while I'm waiting at the bus stop. Before then, wind would blow right up my arms. Now I too am "snug and warm."

And seen at the top of this post, one of the most popular projects on Ravelry, My So-called Scarf. This one will be available at our (nearly) annual holiday artists' swap (minus the adorable girl, in her hand-crocheted hat from a friend).

And finally, I feel a bit sheepish claiming these as well...

These are my version of the Peekaboo Mittens from Magknits, except that they are actually made from a pair of socks I made, which were too big. I felted them but didn't know what to do with them. DD said, "those look like mittens!" I cut a hole in them, and now I have the perfect winter-shopping-at-the-Rochester Public Market gloves.

That adds six more to my FO list...up to 41. Actually, I have two more, but they'll be part of a future post. And those flying mittens...well, the first one is finished...if only I can muster the fortitude to finish the second one now...

Flying mittens

Conversation after the half-knit mitten went flying through the air, still attached to the ball of yarn:

T--Don't do that!

Me--(As I reel in the mitten from 10 feet across the room) Why not?

T--It just doesn't seem like a good idea. What's wrong with it anyway?

Me--It has dropped stitches.

T--How do stitches get dropped anyway? (For the record, she is a knitter, but not quite a Knitter)

Me--If I knew that, I wouldn't be throwing it across the room.

Ode to Toronto

You gotta love a city with this public sculpture.

I already published my cycling Ode to Toronto, and, since I love it not only for its cycling resources but also its crafting, I had to write about it here as well!

We visited the Kensington Market neighborhood, home to Lettuce Knit, a beautiful yarn store with a lot packed into a small space.

While in the neighborhood, T. and I both tried to cure our cold with miso soup and hot and sour soup from this really yummy vegan Chinese restaurant.

Then, over to Romni Wools, which is truly the largest yarn store I have EVER been in (and I've been in a LOT of yarn stores). They were having a boxing day sale, and it was great fun to look around, and even fun to wait in line for 20 minutes. It gave us lots of time to admire all the hand-knitted hats, scarves, and gloves worn by the knitters of Toronto.

If you ever go to Toronto, stroll along Queen Street West. Once you get past the chain stores, you'll come upon amazing deals on fabric and beads, and a cool book store, paper store, and more yarn. I always find just walking in and out of the stores to be inspiring.

On the next day, we went down to the harborfront and saw some contemporary art, along with a whole craft center, with a fiber artist in residence who de-constructs old sweaters and re-creates them into beautiful sculptures.

Finally, I highly recommend the Textile Museum. Even for non-fiber artists, its exhibits are interesting and inspiring. Unfortunately, my camera died the day we were there, which is too bad because there were some beautiful pieces. So, you'll just have to go yourself!

Felt you can feel good about

Well, besides being a bad pun, I suppose that title requires a bit of explanation to non-Rochesterians. The predominant grocery store in Rochester is Wegman's. Some people love it...their displays are beautiful, and you can find anything you could possibly want from exotic produce to fine china to Godiva chocolates. Me...not so much...too big, overwhelming, too much food from god knows where.

Anyway, they had an advertising campaign that theirs was "Food You Can Feel Good About."RocBike team member Adam Durand proved that that's not always the case in his investigation of Wegman's egg farms.

But I digress...I've been finishing some very easy felted projects lately. And I can feel good about it because they're all recycled from failed knitting projects or sweaters bought secondhand.

The messenger bag, above, has me so delighted that it will get its own post, including a little tutorial. But I'm so happy about it that I had to post it right away! I made it last night, in about an hour. More on the bag in a future post...

Remember the summer's laptop cover? It's not very sturdy, so I made another one from a felted sweater from Marianne's Consignments. (When this sweater came in, Marianne saved it for me just for the purpose of felting.) I would never wear it as a sweater, but I love the pattern. I just cut out a rectangle a tad bit bigger than my laptop, by laying out the sweater and cutting from the bottom up. The side seam remained, so I just had to sew up the other side seam, and voila! (Yes, that's my dinner, because I was attempting to blog and eat at the same time.)

And a couple of weeks ago, I took a couple of swatches which I had seamed together and felted, added buttons, cut the buttonholes right in the felt, and now I have some fun wallets (which will likely become Christmas gifts for some friends on my list.)

Also in that picture, a hot pad. One side is a swatch that T. made, and the other is cut from a felted sweater from Goodwill, stitched together with running stitch and a loop for hanging it to boot.

And, an unfelted project in the background above, a simple garter stitch scarf with yarn from Rhinebeck 2005,which will likely be my Mom's January birthday gift. (Mom doesn't own a computer, so no chance she'll find out!)

Let's see...how many finished objects is that? Messenger bag, laptop cover, 2 wallets, hot pad, and a scarf...6 more down!

Identity politics?

(Cross-posted at RocBike, because some days I just can't decide between the two!)

On the RocBike podcasts, Jason refers to me as the "knitting cyclist." Actually, I should write that as the "Knitting cyclist." Note the capital "K." There are knitters who knit more than me, knit better than me, have knit for longer than me. But that doesn't mean they are a Knitter. Knitting with a capital "K" means you have a Knitting Identity. Inevitably, you have gone through the painful stages of:

--questioning (will my family still accept me as a Knitter?);

--isolation and reaching out to community (where can I meet other Knitters like me?);

--acceptance (okay, I'm a Knitter, now what?);

--coming out and proud (I knit wherever and whenever I please, damn it, and you will just have to deal with it! This phase also often includes the procurement and display of various knitting-related tools, jewelry, and bumper stickers); and

--identity synthesis (yes, I'm a Knitter, but I'm also many other things...don't fence me in).

Today it occurred to me that I may be in the process of becoming a Commuting Cyclist. I needed to run some errands, which could have been done quite easily by bike. But it was a bit rainy, I was tired and pressed for time, and I thought, "Oh, what the heck. I do my part to save the planet. Today I want to drive!"

Wouldn't you know, while in Abundance Co-op, I ran into Jack, still with his helmet on. Oh, the shame!

But it was more than shame that sparked this realization of a newly-forming identity. On the drive home, I really did wish that I had biked. It would have been so easy, it wasn't raining that hard, and the fresh air would have helped me wake up.

I see some more bumper stickers in my future. Do you think they make any that say "Knitting Cyclist"?

Frost warning

Sunday morning I learned that there was a freeze warning for the night. That meant I put aside some of my other plans for the day in order to bring in the harvest (but not without finishing that little pumpkin, from Curly Purly, that I felt compelled to make over the last couple of days.)

Mostly herbs (TONS of parsley, also basil, oregano, mint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, rosemary, nasturtium, tarragon)

Also, some green tomatoes, green beans, tomatillos, kale, and Swiss chard.

And (probably) the last of the flowers...

I brought the herbs that I'll eventually move inside, along with a "bowl" of lettuce, into my garage-sale greenhouse.

And I noticed that even at the end of the season, Rebecca still looks fabulous.

I DID SO go to Rhinebeck!

Girl on the Rocks is having a fake Rhinebeck contest. Wherein those of us who couldn't go pretend that we went and post about all the wonderful yarn we procured (which is actually from our stash).

You see, all these cool knitters and bloggers converge upon the New York Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck, then come back and post about it on their blogs which just makes us feel even sadder that we weren't there (although, of course, being mature, we are really happy FOR THEM)...so this is our way of saying, hey, we're cool, too...we have cool yarn, too...we have cool friends, too...look and see...

So, I saw some beautiful foliage on my way down to the Hudson Valley...

stopped and got my fall pumpkin fix...

Once there, I met up with all my pals from Ravelry, said hello to all my friends in the authors' tent, like Stephanie, Ann and Kay, and even Clara, who saved a book for me!

I brought back some amazing yarn, like this from Kristin Thomas (sadly, she has moved on to other things and is no longer spinning)

I have 3 balls of each color...it wants to be some kind of yummy cardigan, I do believe.

And in my spare time, I resurrected this project, based on the Farmer's Market Bag in Weekend Knitting, and a chart with the word for "peace" in different languages from a long-forgotten website.

I got to stay in luxury accommodations, too...

I can't wait to (not) do it again next year!

Small and sweet pleasures

It really doesn't take a lot to bring me pleasure. No mood-altering chemicals, windfall of money, or adrenaline rush needed...

Here's a non-inclusive list of tidbits from daily living to show you what I mean.

October Dahlia

A walk at Taughannock Falls State Park,

complete with dozens of these miniature cairns in the stream

An impromptu knitting-that-was-supposed-to-be-studying night, after visiting Village Yarn and Fiber Shop with T. I promptly got to work on the Curly Purly pumpkin and RocBike ear warmers.

Making apple pie filling (recipe from Mary Jane--see books sidebar) from apples picked at the aforementioned trip to Hurd Orchards.

Having T. meet me at the University of Rochester library when my class gets out after 9:30 p.m., so that I don't have to bike home by myself.

Walking with T. to Corn Hill Creamery, along the Genesee Riverway Trail, with a great view of the city of Rochester.

Having Marianne, of Marianne's Consignments at 792 South Clinton Avenue, open up even when she was technically closed, because I desperately needed a pair of boots I knew she had in there! (I needed them because my own, which had been in my 12-year-old unlocked car to be taken to have the heels repaired, had been STOLEN! But that is not small, sweet, or a pleasure, so let's move on).

A simultaneously perfect fall sunset to the west

and a full moon to the east

>

Argyle (and other) updates

While I generally try to compose a somewhat coherent post, complete with relevant pictures, I am still feeling rather pathetic, and a list format is about all I can muster.

1. I lost a part of a tooth today. This is not good news. A crown and possible root canal, along with other unsavory-sounding dental procedures, may be required. This is also not good news for our unfinished porch, as the money allocated for the outside of the house may have to go to the inside of my mouth. At least they broke the news gently at the dentist's office...I think they feared, justifiably, a meltdown on my part.

2. In better news, I am working on some argyle-related patterns for Rocbike. First, some ear-warmers. However, as best I can figure out, the decreases would make a knitted-in argyle pattern pretty tough. So my newest idea is to knit them in a solid color (probably dark brown, the dominant color in the Rocbike argyle), then use duplicate stitch to add a diamond, argyle-ish pattern in the widest section. Knitters, what do you think? any other thoughts, suggestions?

3. I'm also working on a design for a felted cover for the deck of Jason's Packet Boat, his super-cool commuting/grocery shopping/kid-carrying bike. It will be argyle of course. I figure if it's felted it will be pretty rain resistant. I'm excited about getting to work on that, as well, and am positive I'll meet Jason's deadline of completing it within the next 50-60 years. Again, knitters, any general argyle-knitting suggestions? I've knit intarsia plenty of times, and I have a good article from Interweave, but I'd still love any tips from you more experienced argyle-knitters (hint, hint, Molly!)

4. According to Blogger help, there is no way for me to automatically reply to your comments individually. So whenever you post a comment, I will first go to your Blogger profile (if you have one) to see if I can get your email. Otherwise, unless you include your email address in your comment, I will respond to you in the comment thread for that post. Make sense?

Okay, I'm gonna go try to make my mouth feel a little better. Next post will be more coherent (and probably interesting!), I promise!

p.s. Oh, and I feel like all the cool kids are going to Rhinebeck this weekend. Wish I could go!

Fall scenes (AKA pretty pictures relieve stress)

I am having quite the stressful week, so all I can muster now are some scenes from a bike ride a couple of weekends ago where I took the Genesee Riverway Trail through Genesee Valley Park, and on to the Genesee Greenway Trail. The pictures are all from miles 0-2 of the Greenway.

And, since I'm photographing and painfully documenting all my UFO's on Ravelry, here are some shots of things long ago begun and never finished.

Well, they're not finished, but they're still kind of pretty. I think I feel a little better now.

Halfway there

So...in case you haven't noticed (and why not??)...I'm half way to two of my three goals.

I have 21 projects (okay, that's not quite half, but close enough!) and many more under progress.

Clapotis.

Calla Coasters.

Signs of fall-inspired socks and cross-stitch.

The projects have slowed down a bit, but I'm working on a couple argyle-licious designs for Rocbike. Stay tuned as more will be revealed!

I'm also preserving a TON of food, but I'm not counting it as a project unless I picked AND preserved it!

The flowers keep coming, especially the dahlias, zinnias, and now, Jerusalem artichokes.

And I've been LOVING fall, and spending it with some of my favorite young people (and their parents, of whom I'm also a big fan!)

And two weekends ago I rode for twenty-two miles up the Genesee Riverway Trail to Lake Ontario. (For a fuller description of this trail, see the first ever RocBike podcast!)

I hope to do the retreat sometime in the winter, so I need to get my meditation mojo (I think that's an oxymoron) working.