The Thanksgiving That Dare Not Speak Its Name



In order to protect the innocent (pictured at left), I will say only this about my Thanksgiving: There was a meal prepared by the grocery store then warmed in the microwave and everybody but me was in bed by 6:45 p.m. As in, in bed asleep for the night. I cried and called my mother.



On Friday, while still in the East Bay at my handsome prince's aunts' house for Thanksgiving weekend, I visited this fabulous store. It was so nice and good for my soul. My mother-in-law and the hp's two aunts (my MIL's sisters) went with me. They were exceptionally good sports about it, especially since only one of the three of them even knits. They didn't rush me and they let me touch and sniff and babble about the yarn for as long as I wanted. I don't think they even realize how sweet that was of them. (If you are ever in Walnut Creek, you really should stop in to Fash-ion-Knit. They have a great selection and everyone there - including and especially the Knitress pictured on the website - was kind and friendly and helpful and funny.)

On Thursday night, after everyone else was in bed, I read Laurie's Thanksgiving day post about her friend and the children in Afghanistan. So while I was out look at yarn, I picked up this bundle of wooly goodness















(pictured here with some Christmas ornaments I've been painting) and I am knitting a quickie hat to send along with the collection of stuffed animals and gently used toys I have waiting around for just such an occasion. I am knitting oh so very quickly on the new Addi-Turbos I also bought on Friday. I must say, I finally understand their cult-like following. They are dreamy.

Oh, I also bought 6 skeins of Rowan Calmer. Oh how I love the Rowan Calmer. This particular purchase (of the coral) is destined to be a sweater for a baby I know that is due on my birthday (February 1). I have been swatching but as I took this (awful) picture, I remembered that I should be working on my Christmas cards (see them there?). My goal is to get them out before Christmas this year. I know that doesn't sound like much of a goal but trust me, it is.

Button

Ok! What Next?? button

LYS Envy

So green really isn't my best color but today I'm wearing it anyway. I am envious. . . jealous, even. Jealous of all those knitters who speak lovingly of their local yarn stores. Envious of knitters who have a favorite yarn and can just bop across town or down the street to a friendly, quaint little store and buy a skein or two. Jealous of knitters who actually know other knitters who live in close proximity and get together sometimes and knit. Where no one thinks they are rude for delaying a conversational response until the end of a row or a pattern repeat.

Last night, I visited a quilting and cross stitch store here in town that also carries yarn and knitting needles. I just want some cotton, people. Really, is that so hard? They have lovely $18 a skein mohair and some of the beautiful $45 and $50 a skein handpainted wool silk blend, blah blah. All I really want, though, is some Classic Elite Provence, of which I have only ever had 3 skeins and they were a gift. And also, as many skeins of this Clip as I can get my hands on. I want to touch it and smell it and, you know, embrace it a little, maybe, before I pay for it and take it home with me. This store, the one I visited last night, they don't have any cotton. Not one single skein of yarn in the whole place that is either 100% cotton or even greater than 50% cotton. Seriously. And it is one of only two (non-chain) stores within reasonable driving distance of me that carries yarn.

Professional athletes and men in public restrooms, I'm told, have envy issues. Somehow, though, I don't think it really compares to this terrible case of LYS Envy I have recently.

In the spirit of the season, however, I would also like to note that I am thankful for the internet. Late at night, when the house is finally quiet and no one is asking me what I'm doing and no phones are ringing and no one needs anything, I fix myself a cup of coffee or (well, yes sometimes) a glass of wine, and I make my way over to the WWW, my very own LYS.

It is located at the corner of Living Room & Kitchen. It isn't the fanciest establishment or the tidiest and sometimes the service is a little slow, but it is a great place. Pretty much, if there is a knitting magazine or a pattern or a yarn you want, you can find it there. If it isn't in the first place you look, just keep looking. If you can get it, you can get it at the WWW.

And all my knitting friends hang out there. Kay & Ann, who reminded me way back why I fell in love with knitting in the first place. Polly, who with the help of her French Market Bag gave me the desire and the courage to try the dreaded dpns; and Laurie, who loves the wine, too, and makes us all laugh a lot and cry a little sometimes, too . Then there's Laura with the new baby and Rhett with the thank you notes and Stephanie with the patient husband who poses in his partially knit sweaters. Oh, and Meaghan, who I've only just met but who knits beautiful things and has a real jones for felting, apparently. And all sorts of other knitters who I barely know or haven't even met, but they are there, too.

Really, I wouldn't trade it for a bricks and mortar LYS on Main Street.

Yesterday, I said something about a package I had sent to one of my knitting friends. My husband said, "Oh that was nice. Now which one is she?" and he didn't even pause to remind me that we wouldn't know each other if we met on the street somewhere. Such a dear, that one. Of course, ever since I hooked up with the the Stitch & Bitch group at the WWW, he doesn't have to listen to me talk about knitting as much. Really, it is a win-win situation.

Oh, and also, they don't mind the drinking of the wine while I shop.

Hoover Blanket (Dishcloth)

I have fallen in love with a baby blanket pattern. The Hoover blanket is beautiful and such a wonderful story. This is the blanket I want to knit for my own first baby while I am pregnant. I am not, however, expecting. And I have plenty of other knitting scheduled before that time is allowed to come. So, to feed my need for this pattern and to try my hand at this double knitting business, I decided to use this pattern (slightly modified, of course) and make a dishcloth for my mother-in-law for Christmas.



There are several reasons this is a good idea.

1. I had several skeins of Sugar 'nCream dishcloth cotton languishing in my stash and so this gives them a purpose - a reason for living, if you will.
2. My MIL is a knitter and so, therefore, will appreciate the effort.
3. I am an obsessive person. Once I get hooked on a pattern, I have to knit it. I must. It is like addiction. Knitting is crack to me. Now, if only it would cause some unexplained weight loss, our love affair would be complete.

These pictures aren't very good. The colors are not at all true. The garter stitch border is a deep, Christmas tree/grass green. The center is green (the same as the border) and navy and pale blue and purple variegated. It is very pretty.



It is very pretty and double-knitting is like knitting magic. I am fascinated by it. The pattern is also slow going. Part of my problem is that I am trying to do too many things at once right now (imagine that) and this pattern doesn't really lend itself to a lot of starts and stops.

Short weeks are great. The only down side is that even though I only have to be in the office for three days, there is still five days worth of work to do. Wednesday evening we are heading to my aunt-in-law's house for Thanksgiving. Sunday night I baked cheese cookies with my mother to take and then Thursday I am making sweet potato puffs. That will be my contribution.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Sunday is our one year anniversary. Hurray for us!! It has been quite a year. For everyone who told us that the first year of marriage is hard, no matter how long you'd been together before, harder than you could guess, you were right. And for everyone who told us that marriage is better that you think and more rewarding than you could guess, you were right, too.

By nature, I am a list maker and so, here is a partial list of things I've learned this year:

1. My handsome prince is a kinder person than I realized.
2. I am a harsher woman than I realized. And tougher than I ever wanted to be.
3. I can also be more sympathetic and more understanding than I thought.
4. I am a terrible housekeeper. If someone else will do it, then I will let them.
5. My friendship with my husband is better now than ever.
6. Our friendship is the best thing we've got because it makes everything else we've got better.
7. My HP is not very good at pretending he cares about knitting. Sometimes, though, he stops at the yarn stores when we are running errands and he doesn't ask how long I will be or how much I will spend. This is enough.
8. Until we got married, I was ambivalent about having kids. Not so much anymore.
9. Even though people warned me in advance that marriage is hard, I didn't believe them. Now I do.
10. There have been days that I wanted to drive away and not look back. There have been a lot fewer of those days this year than in years past.
11. I'm glad I married him. I'm glad he married me.

Here we are, November 20, 2004.

Really, I think "progress" would be too generous a term.


Do you see that? That is the 5th - yes f-i-f-t-h - attempt at casting on for a "super quick" "super simple" "little nothing" of a project. I am trying to make a tampon cozy (and no, I am not ashamed) for my friend's stepdaughter for a stocking stuffer. I have already made three of these in the last month or so. There is nothing to it. Seriously. Maybe an hour, hour & fifteen minutes of knitting. Maybe. And that is me, the world's slowest knitter. But for some reason I keep screwing this up. I am inept. So I cast on again, took a picture of the 20 little cast on darlings and decided to wait until tomorrow. I'm sick of fighting with it.

Yesterday, with a little guidance from Kay, I discovered Rowan. I am hooked. What beautiful, striking patterns and pictures and people. Perfection! How have I missed this until now? I have been knitting for several years. I'm not a salty veteran knitter nor a wet behind the ears newcomer. I have seen Rowan mentioned in passing. I have even frittered past a few pictures. Until yesterday, I had never taken the time to stop. To look. To consider. I love color and contrast and classic combinations as well as unexpected combinations. Looking through the magazine samples, it was like coming home for my wandering knitterly soul. (Ugh) Really, though. I am thrilled to have made this discovery. And now I know what to ask for for Christmas.

I have been trying to find a picture of me to add to this blog. When I read other people's blogs, I always search around to find a picture of them and I am always disappointed if there isn't one. Maybe I think I might bump into someone I know or perhaps I just like for my imaginary friends to have faces. Whichever, I feel like a hypocrite for not having my own picture. Thing is, I really really hate having my picture made so there aren't very many snapshots of me running around. I do have a pictures from my wedding . . . what do you think? Will one of those do or is that a bad idea?

For now, here is a funny picture of my twin sister, Katy, from our trip last month to Cambria. This is at the beach in Morro Bay. I told her to pretend like she had fallen in a pit. This is what I got. She is so funny.