applekale

My autobiography in six words.

2008-03-12T23:37:00.002-04:00

There's this trend going around on Facebook and the blogosphere based on the Smith Magazine book on the NY times bestseller list, titled Not Quite What I Was Planning. The title is a six-word memoir. The book is full of more six-word memoirs, by famous and obscure writers.

So I thought I'd write my own six-word memoir. Ready? Here it is:

Knits Beautifully For Other Mothers' Babies.

Perhaps my six-word memoir is a bit more revealing than my customary style on this here normally obfuscatory blog. But what the heck, it'll be spring soon and I had a glass of wine tonight, I am feeling unusually transparent.

What is your six-word memoir?

Some things you might not know about me.

2008-03-01T15:19:00.002-05:00

Yes, its been a long time. All that Christmas knitting got given away almost as soon as I finished it, no time to take pictures, so its lost to this blog. Too bad. I don't even have a digital camera at the moment so I can't take any pics of what I'm working on now.

As a poor substitute, I thought I'd offer a few tidbits of information, some of which some of you might know, but I can't imagine there's any of you who know all of it!

1. I learned to use the snowblower today, and did most of the driveway with only a little help from Bill (once he learned me how to use it, of course).
2. I had the flu last week, and it was yucky.
3. I am pastoring a church now--a small church south of Albany has hired me part-time to lead worship and do pastoral calling.
4. My favorite knitting needles are now hands-down my knit-picks interchangeable needles, not simply because I always have the size I need but because I like their little pointy points!
5. I am completely obsessed with this season of Project Runway
6. Dean's Beans: Marrakesh Express OR High Peaks Java Espresso Roast? Its a dilemma that starts when I'm standing in front of my co-op shopping cart and keeps me up at night.
7. I have another new job, starting next week: I'll be a chaplain at the local physical rehabilitation hospital a couple nights a week. All the details aren't settled yet, but it looks like its going to happen.
8. One of my favorite ways to procrastinate on writing sermons is to pay attention to other things I've been neglecting or procrastinating on (like this here neglected knitting blog).

I'm sending out my love to any readers who may still occasionally check this blog. Don't give up on me yet.

---

Dec. 23

2007-12-24T00:24:00.000-05:00

It's all. It's all. It's all. Christmas knitting.

I swear, I will have quite a few pictures to share in just a couple more days.

Other than Christmas knitting, I and Bill are fine--busy--fine! Happy Christmas-Eve-Eve!

This is cool:

2007-11-28T21:55:00.000-05:00

My friend Stacey, who is a talented musician, put a recording of one of her songs here. Click to listen. She sounds even more lovely playing live.

What I am knitting.

2007-11-13T19:49:00.001-05:00

Actually, I am knitting a lot. I am completely in the swing of Christmas knitting, already. But because the knitting is all presents for other people, I don't feel free to post pictures of any of it. Which explains the dearth of pics and posting on this blog (at least partially, anyway.)

The photo that exemplifies my Rhinebeck experience.

2007-11-02T13:57:00.001-04:00

Alex with stroller at Rhinebeck, originally uploaded by applekale.

I never blogged about Rhinebeck. Well, it was great. Like everybody says. Completely overwhelming.

Going through my photos the other day, I decided that even a couple weeks later, this photo was still worth blogging. This is what I remember about Rhinebeck: following my little nephew as he wildly pushed the stroller into unsuspecting passers-by. (He considers the stroller to be just a very big car in his collection of many, many wheeled toys.)

However, as we were standing outside of this booth, the Spirit-Trail Yarns booth (and only booth where I actually bought any yarn), my nephew walked away from the stroller and grabbed a skein of the yarn, and stated, "want to knit, now!"

Its only a matter of time...

Almost Finished!

2007-10-31T23:49:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who finds these sorts of pictures, you know, the partially finished socks with the toes hanging out--am I the only one who finds them sort of bizarre, scary, Frankensteinian? Toes surrounded by pointy needles? Doesn't it send a shiver up your back?

Well, I am sending out this scary picture as my Halloween gift to you.

Something we Americans have all over you Canadians!

2007-10-27T18:16:00.001-04:00

And I found it at the Niskayuna post office.

Can you believe it? Knitting themed holiday stamps. They're beautiful. It almost makes me want to send Christmas cards, for the first time, just to buy sheets and sheets of these stamps.

I tried to link to the US postal service so you could click and buy, but alas, Blogger wouldn't let me. But just so you know, you can buy stamps of all kinds over the internet at usps.gov.

Look what I got for my birthday!

2007-10-16T16:03:00.001-04:00

That's right, its a fabulous Jordana Paige knitting bag, from my loving husband, who actually paid attention when I mentioned to my friend Jane that I would like to have the above item, and then went and found it online for me. I love the bag. Its big enough for most big projects, and has plenty of secret, secure spots for little knitting tools.

I got another terrific gift from my mom: the KnitPicks Interchangeable Needles set that I've been wanting for forever. I finished this blanket

with the KnitPicks needles, and let me just say, they really are great to knit with. Almost as good as knitting with Addis.

Here is a picture of the blanket from above, so you can get a better sense of it.

Its not very big, only about 3 feet by 3 feet, but its for a little baby, and sometimes its handy to have a little blanket, you know, to use in the baby carrier or just cover his head when nursing. This is for my friends/cousins Austin and Jenn who are having a baby any day now. I just have to wash it and send it off!

(speaking of things which need to be washed and sent off, I have a pile of several fo's which still need to get into the hands of the intended recipients. I'm sorry Jane, I still have your socks. You'll get them soon.)

I am making good progress on another set of socks, these are the "Go with the Flow Socks", another pattern from Interweave Knits' Favorite Socks. A fun and easy pattern.

I must say, I'm having a hard time finding a job, but finishing up lots of UFO's in the meanwhile.

Happy Birthday to me!

2007-10-10T12:35:00.001-04:00

Yes, today is the big day I turn 33. That's nearly a third of a century!

I want to go to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival to celebrate. See here for the official website. A few of us--my mom, my sis-in-law, maybe a couple more friends--will be going on Saturday, October 20th. If you want to come with us, or want to meet up with us there, just drop me a line or leave a comment. Okay!

Finally feeling like I really belong

2007-10-05T23:28:00.000-04:00

Yes, I've joined Ravelry.

For those of you not familiar with Ravelry, its like Facebook for knitters. I don't know that I have the patience to photograph every skein and ball in my stash like some knitters on Ravelry, but I do look forward to researching future projects and comparing FO's with other knitters.

If you want to find me on Ravelry, my handle remains Applekale.

This is Domi.

2007-10-03T13:22:00.001-04:00

She's wearing a scarf I knitted for a scarf sale at church. Its not a very nice picture of the scarf, but it is a nice one of Dominique, who came to visit last weekend and patiently went to all sorts of church functions with me. She was bored while our band was playing so she put the fringe on the scarf for me.

We had a lovely time knitting and watching back episodes of America's Next Top Model together this weekend. Domi is nearly finished with knitting a pink-and-white scarf that she is obsessed with. I love to infect the younger generations with the knitting addiction.

Apples and knitting (not at the same time)

2007-09-19T16:19:00.000-04:00

So today I and Alex

And Kari and Jack

went apple-picking, which meant going to a farm with a tractor and animals

and trees, and apple cider donuts, all things I've seen many times before, but it is still lovely to do these things with little ones who haven't done them before, and watching them experience these things as interesting and beautiful and boring and exasperating and fascinating for the first time.

In knitting news, I finished a pair of socks for my friend Jane. This is a terrible picture, but at least it functions as proof that they are finished.

Pattern: Undulating Rib socks from Favorite Socks (Interweave Press), Ann Budd, designer.
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, one skein easily made the two socks, with quite a bit left over. Size 1 needles, which is smaller than Ann Budd calls for, but I knit loosely. I've lost the tag or I'd tell you the colorway. It really is a wonderful, squishy yarn. Jane picked out the yarn for herself, since it has the pinks and purples and blues she loves all mixed up. She also picked out the pattern. I do hope she loves the socks!

I really didn't change anything in the pattern, except to shorten the foot a bit because Jane has really tiny feet. Maybe she will put them on and take pictures, so I can post some pics of what the socks really look like. The pattern of the undulating ribs is really so pretty.

In other knitting news, I have started a baby blanket for a friend who is having a baby. Somehow most of my knitting is for babies these days. I knit some of this yarn into most of a Baby Albert jacket (from The Knitting Experience: Book 1: The Knit Stitch by Sally Melville) before I finally took a hard look at my work and realized that this yarn looked terrible as a Baby Albert Jacket. It wanted to be something else.

So I unknit it and spooled it back into balls (thanks again, Mom, for the really handy ball-winder!) And then I decided to try a mitred square blanket and I am very happy with how it is turning out, see my first few squares below:

I'm making up the pattern as I go along, basing it on patterns I've read for mitred squares in on people's blogs lately. Mom, you ought to try this pattern for making dishclothes--its really simple. The yarn I am using is from Berocco, its called "Love it", and its a cotton/acrylic/poly blend. It really is pretty nice--it has some stretch, and it has a soft but substantial hand knit up. I think it will make a lovely little baby blanket.

Who's this baby?

2007-09-08T16:27:00.000-04:00

Why, it's Jack Baby, of course, wearing the sweater I belatedly presented him with.

Its a mite big at the moment. But would you believe its supposed to fit a one-year old? Give Jack a couple of months more and it will fit him just fine. As Dan and Kari reported on their blog, the pediatrician officially labeled him a "tank". He's in the 90th percentile for height and weight for babies of his age (two months).

The pattern is from Debbie Bliss, the Cable and Rib Sweater from The Baby Knits Book. I decided to knit it out of Tahki Cotton Classic instead of the recommended DB yarn. I had several balls each of these different colors of blue, so since I didn't have enough of one color to knit the whole sweater out of it, I made the sweater out of both colors. I also added red stripes around the hood and sleeve edges. I think it came out beautifully.

I enjoyed the pattern, which was fairly simple, though I made some adjustments. The biggest change I made was knitting the sleeves out of plain 2x2 ribs rather than continuing the cable-and-rib pattern in the sleeves as Ms. Bliss recommends. I found that when I used the cables, the sleeves came out too narrow for some reason, even though I got gauge and the rest of the sweater turned out fine. Maybe I should have checked for errata, I dunno. I never do that. Its all part of my growth as a knitter, I suppose.

Above: all the men of the Coy-Norton household.

ps. I uploaded summer pictures, including Alex's third birthday, to my flickr site. Click here to see them.

My upcoming birthday

2007-09-04T21:28:00.000-04:00

I was blessed to be born in October. Somewhere in the first third of October. And there is a festival of knitting, wool, and all things sheepy held in Rhinebeck NY during the last third of October. I figure that's close enough to my birthday for me to say I want to go to the NYS Sheep and Wool festival to celebrate my birthday. If you want more information about the festival go here.

Due to a sad event that happened on my birthday a few years ago, its been a long time since I've celebrated my birthday with anybody other than a few family. I haven't felt like it. So this is a big deal.

If you would like to go with me on Saturday the 20th of October, to feel lots of homespun and handdyed yarn and hunt for glimpses of famous bloggers, let me know.

Happy Birthday Alex!

2007-08-30T08:08:00.001-04:00

If you want to see all the pics my brother and sister have from Alex's birthday party last weekend, go to my brother's site.

The Anti-Spread Campaign

2007-08-18T12:02:00.000-04:00

My friend Stacey (the fabulous pastor, above, singing her heart out), of The Almond Branch, devised a plan she dubs The Anti-Spread Campaign. It began after she spent a week with a bunch of other young women ministers and they were talking about the tendency of ministers to spread...around their middles. Its basically a function of a sendentary lifestyle that comes with the job. Sitting around at meetings and visiting people in hospitals aren't activities that are conducive to staying fit. Rather, I think they contribute to a general unhealthiness--tense muscles, upset stomachs, headaches and other unhappy physical symptoms--which really needs to be dealt with intentionally.

I know all about it. Over the past few years I've struggled to find ways to keep healthy, and I've not discovered any good ones on a long-term basis. I have a hard time feeling motivated to stay active when I am doing it on my own--my only successful periods have been when I have friends with whom I'm studying yoga or going to the gym. Up here in Niskayuna I haven't got anybody to exercise with. So while I am technically unemployed as a young woman minister at the moment, I'm going to join up with the Anti-Spread Campaign, in the hopes that friends on the internet will inspire me.

Stacey has decided to run/walk the distance to Rome, and is hoping to make the distance before the Catholic Church decides to ordain women. I don't think she'll have any difficulty winning the race against the church, even if she dawdles a whole lot. She's wearing a pedometer *most* of the time (except for when its clashing with her stylish outfit) and has the goal of walking or running 10,000 steps a day, which comes to about 5 miles for her. See this post to read more about her plan.

So I plan to acquire a pedometer. But I'm going to diversify the plan to include biking. I've got my bike fixed up and its working great, so I am going to incorporate bike miles into my count (though I don't think they count as much as walking or running--biking certainly doesn't tire me out in the same way). I also want to include yoga practice somehow, but I don't know how to count it. Any ideas? Maybe substitute breaths for steps?

I don't plan on posting every day about my progress--maybe once a week I'll give a tally. I am keeping track on a separate calender as to how far I've gone this week. We'll see how it goes.

Melissa's birthday contest

2007-08-14T15:51:00.000-04:00

Guess what...? I was the runner-up in Mel's contest! So I won one of her awesome totebags! Check it out
here if you want to see all the yarn donations Melissa's contest generated for Interim House.

I ended up sending a HUGE box, because I received some donations from church people and also from my sister-in-law, who contributed many balls of Simply Soft from an abandoned afghan project. Now the yarn will got into Interim House afghans! Hooray!

Some yarn I am sending to Interim House

2007-08-07T20:38:00.001-04:00

CrazyCatLadyMel is having a contest for her birthday; send a package to Interim House and Mel will enter you into her drawing for a prize. Here is a piece of my offering as proof that I am entering the contest!

You too can enter Mel's contest, and if you don't have a blog, just email her to let her know that you are sending yarn to Interim House. If you want more information about Mel's contest, look here.

I am sending this yarn (you can too!) to
Kathy Duffy, Social Worker
Interim House Inc.
333 W. Upsal St.
Philadelphia PA 19119

And I just got an email from a friend that she is giving me three big bags of yarn to send to IH--so I'll be able to send a nice big box. So exciting!

Both socks I am knitting in a basket of rocks

2007-08-04T17:36:00.001-04:00

We've been up at Bill's family place in Michigan. We saw old friends, particularly our friends Bob and Jane, who were with us the entire time. In knitting news, Jane made a fabulous garter-stitch scarf--I wish I'd taken a picture of it, it is so beautiful. I worked on a present for somebody else (I can't post pictures--the recipient occasionally reads this blog) as well as these two socks. The orange and green one socks will be for me; the pink and blue will hopefully be part of a pair to be gifted to Jane. I can post this picture as she was with me as I was knitting--no surprise there. I am actually nearly done with her first sock--it remains to be seen how quickly I will finish the second sock.

I have socks on the brain--I also bought some wild green yarn at a lovely yarn store in Ludington, called Nautical Yarn to knit these socks, the Spiral Boot Socks, from the Summer 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. To be started only after I've finished the previously mentioned 2 pairs of socks.

I was going to buy pink yarn and knit the socks like in the Interweave picture above, but Jane talked me into buying some Kermit green yarn instead. Jane and I went a little bit crazy buying yarn at Nautical Yarn, but it is really such a lovely shop. The socks will remind me forever of Bill's and my trip up to the top of the Little Point Sable lighthouse near his cottage. Bill took this picture of the spiral staircase as we climbed the 130 steps to the top.

Other than a few activities like pinochle, bike riding and sitting on a towel in the sand by Lake Michigan, here is what I did for the entire time:

Want to see the rest of my Michigan pictures? go here, to my Flickr site.

Being hopelessly bourgeois

2007-07-20T11:02:00.000-04:00

I had to look up the spelling of that: bourgeois. If posting pictures of one's family is bourgeois, than so be it--I proclaim my membership in the middle class. I just can't stand not posting this picture (which I just poached from my brother's website) of my nephews:

Babies are such cute little lumps when they are this age, aren't they?

a random mixed up set of pictures and recent history--including FO's!

2007-07-17T00:39:00.000-04:00

I was recently here

And spent a couple days with these folks

And these two crazy canoers

(You will soon be able to see lots of pictures from our trip to Maine, and from other random events, on my flickr site) But because I was in Maine I missed the birth of the aforementioned Jack Xavier, otherwise known as "Ack Baby".

Yes, that's my newest nephew. I've had lots of opportunities this past week to cuddle him. He's pretty great! Next up: a picture of my step-dau Kim and myself--she was here to visit along with Bill's sister and her husband. Kim is pretty great, too.

And finally, some FO's. I had bought this beautiful Mountain Colors yarn in Washington a couple months ago when I was with my mom and her family on Orcas Island. I didn't know what to do with it right off, but then I started to dream up this item, for which I have no name--I've been calling it a "schood"--pronounced "should" but with a little bit more "ooooo" in it. "Schood" for a cross between a scarf and a hood.

This is my lovely friend Christy, who was obliging enough to model the schood for my blog posting pictures.

See, I always end up wrapping my scarves around my head in the wintertime, because I've either misplaced my hat or I don't want to develop hat-head. But the problem with wrapping one's scarf around one's head is that sometimes it slips off, or there are gaps through which wind passes, or it just looks messy. So I dreamed up this schood, which is a scarf but it has a hood built into it.

It can be worn as a scarf only--

or the hood can be pulled up to cover the head if necessary. Here's a picture from the back--Christy's looking over her shoulder--so you can kind of get a better idea of how it was constructed, using short rows. I have to admit, I am pretty proud of my design.

If anybody wants the specks on exactly which Mountain Colors I used, email me and I'll dig out the tags. I liked how much this came out so much I am going to knit another one and keep track of what I'm doing, so as I can write the pattern down and make it available for others.

The schood was knit lengthwise, all in garter stitch so it is warm and stretchy. I used size 7 needles except for on the ruffly part on the one edge, where I used a size 8. I love the ruffles, but some of my friends thought they were a bit too dramatic. What do you think?

Interim House Contest

2007-07-11T13:34:00.000-04:00

Hiya everyone. FYI, CrazyCatLadyMel is having another contest to raise yarn for Interim House. See information about the contest here.

What Melissa is requesting is people to send packages of yarn/knitting and crocheting supplies/patterns/whatever else is useful for knitters and crocheters (y'all know what that is--if you don't, email me or Melissa and we'll tell you what to send!) to Interim House, which is this amazing drug and alcohol addiction treatment center for women in Philadelphia. Nearly all the program participants learn to knit and/or crochet during their time there, and they are constantly in need of supplies. Anybody who sends a box to IH and also informs Melissa prior to the end of the contest wins a prize!

Yay, Jack Xavier!

2007-07-01T20:21:00.000-04:00

I have some knitting news to share and some pics of finished objects to show, but all this news pales in comparison to the big news of the weekend: I am an aunt all over again! Yay, Jack Xavier is born! go
here for more info and exciting developments, whenever my brother Dan and his wife Kari get around to updating their blog.

Knitting notes from Pella, Iowa

2007-06-09T00:19:00.000-04:00

Pella: where there is little yarn to be had, and no 40' size 7 or 8 circular needles.

I am working on a lengthwise scarf-hood combination, and I have about 800 stitches on my 29' needles, and it is getting a bit tight. What should I call this monster? A Harf? A Schood? I would post pictures but right now I can't because I am in Pella to attend a conference for chaplains in my denomination, and I didn't bring my own computer or a card-reader.

However, to have some picture, I will include a pic of the socks I finished recently. I took no picture of the socks myself, but Kathy from Interim House did when I was visiting there, and she posted the picture on her site. I shamelessly poached this picture from her blog:

They're knit from Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, a wonderful yarn to knit with and to wear, and I used size one needles. They are the first toe-up socks I 've ever knit.

They are also a nice distraction from what is occupying most of my thinking tonight: the General Synod meeting of the RCA, which is also happening in Pella IA this week. I know most of you don't care much about this meeting, but I do give a hoot about denominational church politics, and the politics are especially unpretty this year. If you want to hear the perspectives of an insider, click on "Stacey's blog" in the left hand column of my blog--she's got some good insights. Stacey is a voting delegate to Synod this year, God bless her. I am so glad she is standing in the gap.

Gosh, its been so long!

2007-05-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

This post covers several events. I've been away and unable to blog, so here is some catchup posting.

First of all, I went on a pilgrimage retreat with about 25 twenty-somethings from my denomination, which was held at a camp in the Adirondacks,Camp Fowler. I taught about half the participants to knit throughout the week. It was great to see that the craft is still appreciated by the younger generation. If you want to see my pictures from the retreat, go here, to my flickr site. However, I wanted to post this one picture,

if you promise to pay no attention to that girl behind the communion table. She's trying hard to get your attention with her knitting, so you'll have to resist. I took this picture at the last night's worship service, when the group decided to decorate the communion table with their knitting WIPs. The scripture was that one from the psalms, "see, I knit you together in your mother's womb..." and the service was beautiful.

Also, I need to document that the previous week I went to Philadelphia and spent the afternoon with Interim House. I delivered the yarn I collected from my new congregation up here in Schenectady. Here is a picture of me with Kathy, the social worker who runs the amazing and innovative knitting program at IH.

You can't really tell from the picture, but the way-back of our Ford Explorer was nearly full of the yarn donations. And here is a picture of Kathy with the knitter who only needs her first name to be introduced, Zelphia!

It was Zelphia's birthday, and I was so happy to be there for her birthday party! I wish I could post pictures of the participants in the IH knitting program, and pictures of their knitting, it was really a sight to see all their beautiful creations. Alas, I am not allowed to post their pictures. You should still go look at the Interim House blog, to see the pictures of the knitting the ladies produce, even if you can't see pictures of the ladies themselves.

Also when we were in Philly we saw many of our friends, and here are a few pictures.

Oh, and finally, because I haven't posted pictures of my nephew in a while, here is one from this weekend, when my folks visited and the family just hung out for the holidays. Here is Alex with my brother Dan:

Knitting into the abyss

2007-05-16T13:23:00.000-04:00

A nice girl I met at a party sent me this link, which I thought I would share with you knitters. Its a very real public service announcement about the danger of knitting near cliffs. *Thank you, Heather,* for passing on this information vital to the health of our knitting nation.

Click to see it here on U-Tube.

In other news, I've finished my toe up socks and will post a picture as soon as I can get my camera to work.

Who is this man?

2007-05-07T20:31:00.000-04:00

The backstory: The current minister for youth and families at our church is moving to Queens NY, because he's got a call to serve a church there as senior pastor. Naturally, the question arises, what is he going to do with his motorcycle?

Because he certainly can't take it with him to Queens?

Sell it to Bill at a very reasonable price!

Bill's been complaining for a while that our current bike, a Honda Helix scooter which is just super in my opinion, is wussy. He's happy with this upgrade. Its a Honda Shadow. If you want to know more about it, you'll have to ask him. We rode it this past weekend out to see our friend who lives in the countryside, and the bike did great. Though Bill plans to put a windshield on it, in order to make it more comfortable (less windy) to ride.

Now the question is, shall I at long last get my motorcycle license, so I can ride the Helix while Bill rides the Shadow, and we can go on road trips?

**ps. yes, those are the same plastic goggles you wore in woodshop in 7th grade. Only a temporary solution for last week's roadtrip, the glasses were obtained at a Dollar General in Fonda NY in order to keep the bugs out of Bill's eyes.

Really, I do still knit

2007-05-01T00:01:00.000-04:00

I got word from my friend Karen that she received the package I sent her, so at long last I can post pictures of this sweatercoat! I knit it for Karen's little girl, Hazel.

Close-up of the back and all those seed stitches.

Pattern: "Smock Coat" from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby. The pattern was pretty simple. The only adjustment I made was that Ms. Bliss called for ribbon to be sewed on to be tied in the back, and I substituted a knitted belt. I tried every which way of sewing on several different kinds of ribbon, and they all looked sloppy, so finally I just knitted little strips of seed stitch to use instead.

By the end of this project, I was entirely comfortable with the continental method of holding the yarn in my left hand and "picking" both knit and purl stitches. This made for a faster knit than if I'd thrown the yarn with my right hand.

Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft DK, a pretty reasonable (and much cheaper) substitute for Ms. Bliss' Cashmerino. Its lovely, merino with a hefty amount of microfibre and a bit of cashmere. It is machine-washable (supposedly) though I didn't attempt that. It blocked out nicely for me, though.

Needles: Addi Turbo circulars, sizes 3 and 4.

If you check back to this page and scroll down a bit, you can see that Hazel has grown since the last time I posted her picture.

Karen emailed me some pictures of Hazel wearing the sweater and here they are:

Oh, what a face, you have to love it.

I will love Hazel forever for wearing the sweater, even if just for the pictures. I hope she gets a few months out of it before she grows too big to wear it!

WAH!

2007-04-29T14:35:00.000-04:00

To my yoga friends in Philadelphia: Wahe Guru. The whole time I was in Washington, and I thought about the abreviation for the state, WA, I thought of WAH and wahe guru and wanted to sing the songs and chant the chants I knew from yoga class, but I knew none of my family would understand, so I kept my singing and chanting interior.

To my family in WA: hi! This is your big chance to live famously, in perpetuity, on my blog! For those of you who want to see ALL my Washington photos, click here for my flickr site.

For the rest of you, here are a few pics and a summary.

After flying to Seattle, I took the train to Bellingham WA

Waiting for the train to arrive, I wandered around the central part of Seattle, and found this beautiful sight

at the Waterfall Garden Park. The sign states that this park stands on the site of the birthplace of United Parcel Service.

The purpose of this trip was to spend time with my mother's side of the family. Here are a few of them

I saw lots more beautiful sights, including this view from near the top of Mount Constitution on Orcas Island

And about a gazillion tulips. April is when tulip bulbs are grown in NW Washington. They later ship these bulbs all over the world for other people to plant in their back yards.

My Aunt Lynnette's gorgeously huge tulips in her backyard

Of course, tulips were everywhere, decorating tables, making my Aunt Linda look even more beautiful than she already is.

Of course there was a lot of knitting. I like to call the below picture, "Non-still life with Tulips, Washcloth and Sock".

My mother was knitting washclothes for everybody she met

My Aunt Linda was alternately knitting a shawl and a pair of striped brown socks.

Here we are, the knitting Aunties, knitting on the ferry to Orcas Island (we also knit on couches, in cars, in coffee shops, in bed, and pretty much everywhere else inbetween).

We went to two yarn shops, the Wool Station in Bellingham (awesome, big shop, good prices, unusual choices)

And Poppie's Fine Yarns, on Orcas Island, where all the Mountain Colors yarns were on sale and the lady who owned the shop was very nice to let us stay a LOOOONG time.

Here's my loot from those two shops. I do like to buy yarn, my favorite kind of souveneir.

I have only one more thing to say: Don't step on the duck!

Surrounded by whales and children

2007-04-25T00:54:00.000-04:00

My mother and I are visiting with her family in Washington State. We're remembering ancient history and being reminded that time isn't so much of a roadblock--we're here, with family I haven't seen in years, and yet it still feels like a version of home. At the moment we're at my cousin's home on Orcas Island. Ocean, seashells, tall trees. I've got lots of pictures (including many pictures of tulips--it is, after all, tulip season in Washington) but I can't get them uploaded because I don't have the proper equipment. I'll just have to wait a couple more days til I am back in New York.

Meanwhile, I am making great progress with my first toe-up socks, and I've also begun a new baby blanket. Wish I could show ya...

knitting pictures still delayed

2007-04-10T22:06:00.000-04:00

I have been knitting industriously. But I can't post pictures of what's blocking because the recipient of the knitting reads this blog occasionally. However, I will tell you that the thing I am almost finished knitting is a lovely lilac color, similar to the color of these flowers (which as I'm sure you know are not lilacs--they have green centers and the petals of the flowers are these little pipey things--they are so marvelous and I don't know what they are!)

Also I will show you a picture of my nephew, who is playing with my cellphone at the knitting shop in Niskayuna, "Ye Olde Yarn Shoppe", where I bought pretty buttons for the thing which I am almost finished knitting.

My nephew has a thing for bling. He made some of these necklaces out of pasta and string. Others he commandeered from his grandma over the weekend. By the way Grandma, thanks for the Easter baskets! I guess I'm never too old for an Easter basket. Anyway, check out the bling:

I think the bling totally matches the Thomas the Tank Engine sticker, don't you?

Tulips

2007-04-02T15:06:00.000-04:00

The most amazing thing: I brought these tulips home and they looked like regular, picture-book tulips. Then over the course of about an hour several of them opened themselves up madly.

I am so new to flowers that I do not know: do tulips do this ordinarily?

**edited to add: Last night the tulips closed themselves back up again. I didn't know flowers would do that if they weren't still attached to a tree or planted in the ground. Now this morning they are reopening, but more cautiously today--its still only the middle of the morning.

Cuteness cubed

2007-04-01T23:28:00.000-04:00

Warning: I am taking the cuteness to a whole nother level in this post. Stop reading now if you can't stand it. (and forgive me for the use of the word "nother", I just like that expression.) Also, I regret to inform you that there is little knitting content in this post. All I'll say is I spent hours today going through all my boxes of books (which are still not unpacked from the move), trying to find my copy of Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby, so that I can look at the color pictures of a project I am working on, but I simply couldn't find the book. Aaargh. These are the things which make me want to swear like a pirate.

Anyway, back to the cuteness. To start, a gratuitous picture of my nephew. With the love of his life, his blankie.

Adorable! Now lets take it up a notch and add a kitty cat:

Oh, wook adda kitty.

Next, a picture of my friend Stacey. She's cute.

We went together on a road trip this weekend to see a band I never heard of, but loved in concert, the Decemberists,

And well, they were adorable, what with their dancing and their singing, and their show even included a giant fish puppet.

The next day Bill and I went to see one of the cutest folk singers around, Christine Lavin, together with Bill's daughter Kim who was visiting for the weekend. Ms. Lavin is hilarious. And she ended her show with baton twirling! Anyway, as part of her show she brought some volunteers up to the stage, and ended up picking Bill because he was one of the people in the audience whose birthday falls close to Christmas. That thing in his hand is a windchime which he was supposed to shake as a kind of buzzer, jeopardy-style, when he knew the answers to her trivia questions.

Bill came from behind and won the trivia contest, but it was neck and neck the whole time.

When Kim was visiting she brought her ferret, Zoe, and also her new baby ferret who doesn't have a name yet. This, together with our ferret Bodhi, makes three ferrets in our house this weekend, which resulted in much mayhem and a bit of stinkiness. (I considered titling this post "the three ferrets," in echo of the three tenors, but I figured that since our ferrets do not sing, they only giggle and jump around and nibble on one another's ears, the only resemblance they bore to Placido Domingo et al. was in the number three, and that was not enough of a reason to call up the ghosts of the opera world.)

Here's the cutest photo of all: Kim with the ferrets.

Ferrets play pretty rough with one another, but at the end of the day they always end up sleeping in the same bed. Here they are in the hammock of the ferret cage, just waking up. Ridiculously cute!

Kim and I wanted to do a photoshoot with all three of the ferrets, so first we put them all on our bed but they just wouldn't sit still in the same place long enough to have their pictures taken, so then we put them in the bathtub with the bathmat, so they would have a smaller area to roll around in. First, they just wanted to get out of the tub

But they they played around in the tub for a while

Until they lay down exhausted

You know, I'm not really in favor of cute, generally speaking, but its hard to resist three ferrets at once. I think the only one who resisted was our cat, who refused to let me take her picture and sulked in the next room. She'll have her day another time.

Remedial posting

2007-03-28T21:35:00.000-04:00

I was thinking the other day that there are several finished knitting projects of which I never posted pictures on this blog. I decided that I would post remedial pictures, but because I am lazy I would use my "kitchen computer" camera to take the shots. Yes, I have a "kitchen computer," a little old laptop (in a house like ours, there are old computers lying around because my technologically-savvy husband must periodically get newer, faster, more amazing computers). The kitchen computer is mostly used to play internet radio stations and podcasts while I wash the dishes and cook. Sorry about the computer camera, no flash, no focus, but you'll still get the idea about the knitting, and better some bad pictures than none at all.

Here is what the kitchen computer usually sees.

Today, however, it got to take glamourous shots of my high-fashion knitwear.

getting the angle right takes some doing with this little camera.

This is a hat I knit out of yarn I bought in England over a year ago. I've lost the label, so I can't tell you which yarn it is, but I pulled it out of the bargain bin at a department store, John Lewis--department stores are apparently the only places you can buy yarn in London. I think this was some Debbie Bliss yarn that has now been discontinued.

The genesis of the idea for the pattern was that my friend Sarah had this really cute hat on a while back, and I was admiring it, and she said, "thanks! I bought it at [some boutique in Brooklyn] and it only cost me [what I perceived to be an obscene amount of money]" and I said, "my goodness, I could make one of those," and I devised the pattern for the above hat, after studying her hat. Sometimes I call this my kitty cat hat, and sometimes I call it my Brunnhilde hat. Ohmygoodness, the flak I got from my husband for wearing this hat this winter. He thought it was just too silly. I don't care, I like it because its warm and I can tie it on when its cold outside

like this. Also it doesn't mess up my hair terribly when I don't tie it on.

The other remedial knitting I have to show are the gloves I knit last fall some time. These I knit using the garter-stitch glove pattern out of that ubiquitous book Weekend Knitting, by Melanie Falick. Nice, relatively easy pattern. The yarn is from Mountain Colors, and the colorway is called Crazy Woman, isn't that great? The yarn made wonderful gloves that kept my fingers warm all winter.

Aaaargh, I'm comin' to get you!

I have to say, I am really proud of these gloves. If you had told me a few years ago that I would knit gloves, I would have said "never". Gloves seemed to me to be the pinnacle of knitting amazingness. Now I know that gloves really aren't all that complicated, it's just a whole bunch of circular knitting on double-pointed needles, all it takes is some basic knitting skills and bits of bravery and coordination. But I am still pleased with myself, because the gloves fit and they function well to keep my hands warm. They do the job they were designed to do, they are a successful, happy little item together. This is nice for me to know, as some of the things I knit are not so useful. My long-term knitting goal is to increase the percentage of my overall knitting which is useful and completed. I think that's possible.

A word about boundaries and self-revelation

2007-03-18T23:28:00.000-04:00

Hello, dear ones.
A friend of mine recently decided to make her blog private, meaning, accessible only to people she has specifically invited to read her blog. This has got me revisiting the choices I make in writing here.

Let me be clear: I share very little here. Very little. I show my knitting--that feels safe to me--and I also tell little bits about my life. But I decided early on that I wouldn't share much about my job, because confidentiality is a big issue for chaplains. And I wouldn't talk much about my personal business, because I am on a basic level uncomfortable with the wide-openness that blogs have. Its one version of a larger problem that many church people face--how to be transparent without sharing too much, how to be available without leaving oneself open to attack? How to be honest without scaring people? How to model freedom and self-acceptance without self-absorption and navel-gazing? I've turned out to be a fraidy-cat, too bad. I tend to err on the side of careful.

Now on the other hand, I love to read the blogs of courageous people who do talk about their problems, their relationships, their struggles with their children, their politics, their spiritual experiences, and yes, the joys and frustrations of their knitting etc. The sharing is what makes a blog interesting. My blog in comparison is boring--happy happy--limited--not even all that interesting to myself. Thats the price I pay, because this blog is read by my family and my mother's friends, people from our new church, not to mention strangers. I have a strong sense of self-censorship. I apologize to any of you who are bored by my blog. (I know you're out there, because you tell me you read the blog, but don't leave comments.)

I recently revisited a blog of an old friend, and I was struck again by how much he shares of himself, how much of him is available to me and to the world, just laying there on the internet for anybody to access. I want to thank him and the rest of you who feed my emotional life through your regular writings, you are precious to me.

And I apologize for this pretty boring, infrequently updated blog. Its a good thing my career or my identity don't rest on it, or I'd be in poor shape. If you want to know more, or are looking for more honesty, email me, or better yet, come by for coffee. xoAbby

Our house in Niskayuna

2007-03-17T21:12:00.000-04:00

Finally I am getting around to posting pictures of the house. But first: gratuitous nephew pictures.

Kari and I went to a local Japanese place for lunch last week. We had sushi. Alex had miso soup, and tea. Read: messy fun. Alex also enjoyed looking at the big goldfish in the pond. There were so many of them, lazy, hanging around, scratching their bellies on the rocks, never minding the toddler who was pointing and chirping at them.

Now down to business.

Above is our sunroom. Its a lovely space, with radiant heating in the floors (which the animals LOOOVE). Note the mass of white stuff through the windows.

The room is full of matchy-matchy plastic rattan furniture, which came with the house. Yes, it was listed on the brochure for the house as a selling point. At first I couldn't stand it, and I kept threatening to sell it on ebay, but Bill kind of liked it, and I've come around somewhat. Once I put plants all over the room, I started to like it better.

This room has inspired me to start collecting plants. My old friends will know that is quite a change for me. I never used to keep plants. Now I own FOUR potted plants, including that huge one in the corner, which my folks gave me and Bill as a housewarming gift, and I love it. They also gave me a wierd looking stalk plant that I will post a picture of at another time.

Above is our dining room. We just got one of those counter-height square tables, not because they are all the rage but because the square room holds it nicely and we are tall people who appreciate tall chairs. We stole the idea from Kari and Dan, who got one first.

This is our living room. I especially love the red chair on the left, it is very good for knitting in

And this of course is my pride and joy, the kitchen. My friends with sharp eyes will notice something else: I have flowers in vases in many rooms. This is a new thing for me, I was never one for buying flowers as I considered it an extravagence and also silly--why truck flowers up from some faraway place?

But since we moved to Niskayuna I have been buying them, mostly from the local natural foods co-op, because I have been enjoying the experience of lingering with them, as I cut them and arrange them in vases. And I love taking care of them, culling the wilted ones and changing the water, trimming them every once in a while, so they maintain their beauty longer. I suppose I am continuing to change. I am a person who never cared for plants or flowers, and now these days I am caring for both and also considering how and where to plant a garden.

I am still knitting, by the way. Current projects on the needles:

1. Shawl for church ministry (about 10% finished)
2. Toe-up socks (about 45% finished--I actually bound off the first one, loosely as Wendy from WendyKnits recommends in her generic toe-up sock pattern, which is the pattern I am using, but I still didn't like how inflexible the top of the sock was--just not stretchy enough. So I am going to rip out the cast-off and use a picot edge instead)
3. Secret knitting project--90% done--I know, I know, I need to finish it!
4. Yet another secret knitting project--80% finished--what is it about this projects, when I get so far on them, you would think I could just push through and do the last little bits! Ah well. Maybe I ought to set myself some kind of goal, like finishing 3 and 4 before Easter. I think that's doable.

I will try to post some knitting pics in my next post.

Malta, part III: Stranger in a Strange Land

2007-03-06T16:28:00.000-05:00

Hi, y'all. Any of you who are still out there. I think I'm pretty much back to blogging to myself, except for my mother who still checks this blog. That's okay with me.

I knitted with my next door neighbor today. She is a lovely person, who is putting herself out there to be friendly to me and Bill. And she has a handy 15 year old son who ferret-sat for us when we were on vay-cay and did a nice job. She is making a felted bag which should be very pretty. I continued to work on my sock I started in Malta, and began to turn the short-row heel, which, if its anything like the short-row toe, should be very exciting.

More about Malta: want to see more pictures of the Tarxian temples? (that's plural because there are actually ruins of several of them, all sitting next to each other.) By the way, I could not get over when I was there that "Tarxian temple" sounded sort of Star-Trek-y, and then I finally remembered there was some alien race in one of the newer series called the "Tlaxians," and that must be what I am dredging up from my subconscious. That and the fact that "Tarxian" when spoken rhymes with "Martian". Ah...Star Trek. In our new house we have cable, for the first time in my life, and that's sucking me in sometimes. The frequent availability of Star Trek is problematic, as is the home-redecorating channel. And last night I discovered Six Feet Under for the first time. What a great show! I appreciated the darkness of the drama, and it reminded me of my past, working in hospice and all.

Yeah, I know, ADHD, Malta. Tarxian temples.

I have about a dozen cool shots along the lines of this one. Rocks, piled on one another in interesting ways.

I was also fascinated, as I said in an earlier post, by the juxtaposition of these ancient stones together with the plants and cats growing and living among them.

These round rocks were just sort of lying around the perimeter of the temples. Its believed that they were used as wheels of sorts to move these big rocks around as the people built the temples.

One of the strange things about visiting these temples is that we could actually get close to them--some of the more unusual elements were kind of roped off, but certainly not in any way that would keep us from touching things if we had any interest in doing so.

Like my bad husband, who was fondling this round rock, which it is believed was used for grinding grains in this round-rock-shaped hole.

We met this lovely girl Naoko (above, left) from Japan. She was travelling in Malta for a few days. We took her picture, she took our pictures, we all had our pictures taken by the little guy who minded the entrance of the temples. A brave woman travelling through Europe by herself, she was friendly and talked with us a while. Anyway we ran into her again on the bus the next day, and then again on our flight to Milan. Three times is quite a bit of a coincidence, wouldn't you say? Naoko, if you stop by this blog, it was ever so nice to meet you!

By the way, the other people in the above picture are myself, my husband Bill, my sister-in-law Kari and my brother Dan. We left their toddler at the hotel with my folks and took the car (Bill driving, of course) over to the temples. This was an experience in itself. On the way home I took pictures of buses.

Boy did my family make fun of me for taking pictures of buses. But they were all so neat, all different, clearly old but well-maintained. Below are more bus pictures I took at the central bus area in Valetta:

It was neat visiting a place where you could really take a bus anywhere. They had bus routes to every single place in the entire island. A tiny but beautiful island.

Well, I think I've finished talking about Malta. Next: I'll finally post pictures of our new house.

Just the teensiest bit famous

2007-03-03T11:35:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention in my previous posts--I wrote a note to Brenda Dayne of Cast-on, a very cool podcast for knitters. For those of you not familiar with podcasts, they are like personal radio shows broadcast over the internet, and Brenda Dayne makes one of the most popular podcasts in the very small world of knitting podcasting. I dashed off the note in a heated moment, when I heard her talking in a previous podcast about the possibility of throwing away yarn, in the interests of creating a simpler life. You all know how I feel about throwing away yarn, however--BAD IDEA, give it to Interim House if you don't want it! So I wrote this note to Brenda telling her about IH, and then I forgot all about it and went off to Malta.

Then Brenda read a piece of my note in episode 45 (you can listen on your computer even if you don't have an ipod, by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking where it says "download episode 45"). And all of a sudden Brenda's listeners started writing to Kathy Duffy, the social worker at IH, and sending packages of yarn and knitting supplies from all over the world. Isn't that cool? The generosity of you knitters continues to amaze me.

As promised, Malta part II: the cats of Malta

2007-03-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

There were cats just about everywhere we went in Malta. These are sort of pets, sort of feral cats which are fed and stroked by people regularly. The weather never gets too cold in Malta, my impression was that these cats live pretty free, sleeping whenever and wherever they want and getting fed by people in the neighborhood.

For example, there were a bunch of cats that just sort of lived around our hotel, petted and fed and tolerated by the hotel staff. The cats would laze by the pool and the cafe, coming in and out as they wished. My nephew thought this was really exciting. I wish I had some pictures of his enjoying the cats of the cafe. Maybe my sister-in-law does--I should ask her. The above cat in the plant was one of these hotel kitties.

The below cat I found just hanging out by the sea, at a restaurant where she was eating some cat food someone had left out on a stone wall. Isn't she pretty? Don't you want to take her home?

Then I discovered a whole clan of mysterious cats living at these ancient temples we visited, the Tarxian temples. My brother found nice short little video about the temples here, but for some reason the video doesn't include my favorite statue

Wow--I don't think they had cats on the island back when this lady got carved, but she looks like she could mother a whole brood of them, doesn't she?

It was strange and wonderful to visit these temples, which I will post more pictures of tomorrow. They were so very old (estimates are between 3000 and 5000 years old) and yet they were full of life--the cats, plants growing everywhere--it still felt like a place full of energy to me. Perhaps its the ghosts of all the sacrificed animals still hanging around.

Here's my favorite Tarxian temple cat, sleeping on top of this pillar. It must have been warm and safe up there for her.

After we left the temple we went next door to try to see the local Catholic church. I am not certain but I believe the church was built prior to the finding of the archeological remains of the Tarxian temples (some farmer literally found them while he was digging in his fields). We couldn't get into the sanctuary but we enjoyed exploring the graveyard--funny how this old institution, the church, felt so young to us next to the even more ancient goddess-worshippers' temple next door.

They don't have a lot of extra space on Malta, so they bury whole families in single plots in their graveyards. Witness a random grave

And if you look carefully in that picture you'll see a little orange splotch sitting on the top of the next grave. The splotch is a cat, which you can see more clearly in the picture below

Oh what a pretty boy. This cat goes back and forth between the Tarxian temples and the Catholic graveyard, I'm sure. He doesn't care which religion he's keeping company with, so long as the stones are warm and in a sunny spot.

Malta Part I

2007-03-02T11:07:00.000-05:00

Warning: if you have no interest in Family-Vacation-to-Malta pictures, skip this post. I have stretched Blogger's capacity to upload photos here. But what's the point of taking pictures if not to share them?

My mom and dad are celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary this year and they wanted to celebrate by taking the entire family someplace exotic. My husband suggested Malta, because it's a relatively inexpensive and interesting place to visit, where there are wierd ancient ruins and where people speak English everywhere you go. That's how I ended up on this trip with my folks as well as my brother, his pregnant wife and their 2.5 year old.

First, a picture of our view from our balcony. We stayed at a fairly nice (they call it a five-star, but we weren't quite sure how they got all the way to five) hotel called the Corinthia Marina, and somehow Bill talked them into upgrading our rooms to suites on the top floor. Yeah, the view is pretty sweet.

Here's a fairly typical picture, of a fairly typical activity for the Norton-Leverings on the trip. Elements to notice: toddler (my nephew Alex, who commanded at least half of the attention expended in entirety on this trip) holding a train (he's always holding either a train or a truck, a Thomas-the-tank-engine train is usually preferred) and eating a cookie, while his grandma and aunt, both drinking their pretty good coffees, look on. We did this every day, several times a day, in multiple locations.

We rented a car, but often we took the bus, due to the fact that they drive CRAZY in Malta, on the left hand side of the road, very fast, around the rotaries which are at pretty much every single intersection. And they only have standard transmission cars in Malta. The only person who dared to drive was my husband Bill, and the only car we could get sat only 4 people, so we couldn't all fit in the car and go someplace together. So below is a waiting-for-the-bus picture, with one of my rare knitting pictures. Look, knitters, I am KNITTING while waiting for the bus.

Here Alex is doing what he wanted to do as we waited for the bus, which is pushing his stroller around. The child is fanatical about anything with wheels--trucks, trains, strollers, cars, you name it. People have no wheels, so they are of little interest from Alex at this point in his development. Unless they are holding a toy car, or a cellphone, which is just as interesting because it makes beepy noises and has buttons on it.

We took the bus our first day to Valetta, which is this ancient walled city in the north of Malta. It was the weekend they were celebrating Carnivale, which is sort of like Marti Gras crossed with the Mummers day parade. So lots of people in a walled city makes for loud and crowded and wild, which was a bit difficult for the introverts in our party to tolerate but somehow we made it through the day.

One of the more bizarre elements of the day was our lunch at the Labour party headquarters of Valetta. Yes, they have a restaurant open to the public. The food was pretty good

but we had to eat our entire meal while these guys looked on

Kind of like eating in the shadow of Mount Rushmore, only in some wierd parallel universe where the labour party is in charge. I guess that's how people in England and Malta feel all the time. See that labour party guy sitting behind my mom? I guess that's how he feels. Wierd.

We watched the Carnivale parade (don't Mom and I look cool in our sunglasses?)

Which included float after float painted in horrific neon colors--this is the mother goose float, I believe--

And the above float is meant to portray Aslan, the lion of Narnia. All the floats were accompanied by people in various states of costume, some fairly elaborate and some simple. These people were charged with the task of dancing very lame dance routines for long lengths of time. Witness below.

I think these are grown women in schoolgirl outfits, dressing and dancing provocatively with the "school days" float. I think some of them are grown, anyway. Those women need to knit themselves some midriff covers!

Well, that's about as much blogging as I can stand for the day. I'll probably post a couple more times about Malta. Next up: " The Cats of Malta, An A-mews-ing Tail".

No yarn shops here

2007-02-28T09:54:00.000-05:00

We're back from Malta. That's Malta in the Mediterranean, not Malta in upstate NY. What, you say? You didn't know we were going to Malta? And who is this "we" I was travelling with?

More to come, more to come. I will post pictures. For now, let me tell you to look at my brother Dan's blog to find out about our travelling woes, and also, while you are there, to look at pictures of my adorable nephew.

And I'll also tell you there were no yarn shops in Malta. There are beautiful handknit sweaters to be bought, which are created by little old Maltese women (who also make incredible lace). But they import all the yarn to make these sweaters from off the island. Once, the island had goats and sheep, but not anymore. Perhaps I'll move to Malta when I retire, and raise sheep, and spin my own yarn, and sell it to tourists at outrageous prices. I certainly would have paid dearly for some honest-to-goodness Maltese yarn.

I didn't do much knitting myself on the trip--we were rather busy running around. But I did knit half a toe-up sock when I wasn't sleeping on the airplane flights. toe-up socks are neat! I never made one before.

Our house is a very, very, very fine house

2007-02-03T09:53:00.000-05:00

Nice and tight, warm and cozy. Many sweet corners to sit and knit in. It is starting to feel like a real home. I am still emailing from the kitchen counter as I don't have a table in my office, but I plan to rectify that today. I am knitting on a surprise project for somebody, so I can't be posting pictures of it. That is all I am knitting on right now, as I don't have time to work on any other projects simultaneously.

For any of you who might be checking this blog only because you are wondering how Bill and I are doing up here in Niskayuna, the answer is "fine." We are in a whirlwind of getting to know the new church. In answer to the question of what I am up to, the answer is "nothing," (in terms of finding a new job) and "everything" (in terms of attending church groups and events.) We are having a good time so far. I repeat the invitation: come and visit us! We have a beautiful guest room and its all set up already.

Nis...kayuna! (Sing it to the title track from Oklahoma!)

2007-01-16T22:46:00.000-05:00

We're in the new house--new furniture delivered today--boxes and clothes strewn everywhere--but at least my new kitchen is clean and organized (made that my first priority). No knitting at all this week! I'll post pictures soon, as soon as we have internet set up in the house (probably tomorrow, or the next day). If any of you are in the neighborhood I expect you to visit!

Attention to all you interested in Interim House

2007-01-10T13:24:00.000-05:00

Stacie is having a contest to collect yarn for Interim House. Click on Stacie's name and check it out. If you're sending yarn to IH already (as I know some of you do) then just go through Stacie's extra steps for a chance to win fun knitting paraphernalia.

Sad Day

2007-01-07T18:56:00.000-05:00

Today was Bill's last Sunday preaching at Summit Church. They threw a beautiful party for us following the service, and it was very sad for us. And joyful. Summit has allowed Bill and me to be ourselves. They have loved and accepted pretty much whatever we have to offer. We must be crazy, leaving this place.

Yeah. We're...

2007-01-06T23:25:00.000-05:00

Moving.

We made our house so pretty and presentable so we could show it to potential buyers. Its been lovely living in it, all neat and clean and organized all the time. Look see:

Those were official photos for the realtor's website. Wasn't it a pretty home? Now lookatit:

Definitely moving.

Oh and notice in that last picture in the upper right hand corner the little green splotch--that's our Christmas "tree." That's the symbol of what this Christmas has been like. We couldn't unearth our usual fake tree and our ornaments because they were buried in the back of a storage closet behind dozens of boxes already packed to go to Niskayuna. However, our church generously gifted us with this "tree," which the stepchildren said I couldn't call a tree, its really just a kind of decoration, being that someone made it by sticking pine branches into a styrofoam core. Nevertheless, it was the closest thing to a tree we had, so we decorated it with random things we found around the house and at the dollar store, and with some tiny golden balls given to me by a friend when she found out we had no ornaments.

Velvet Jane doesn't like all the packing and things out of their places and especially the strangers in and out. But here is a rare moment of repose:

And here are the pictures of the finished socks for--and on--Bill. Warning: we're a little punch-drunk at the moment.

Aren't they nice? They're made out of Sockotta, knit on size 1 needles. They came out identical twins, and fit him nicely.

Oh...and about Interim House

2007-01-03T08:52:00.000-05:00

So many wonderful people have sent yarn, needles and other knitting and crocheting tools to Interim House over the past couple of years. Many of them smuggle the supplies to me; I, in turn, enjoy playing Santa Claus all year round, delivering the supplies to the center. (For those of you who don't know about Interim House, a 6-month Drug and Alcohol treatment center for women in Philadelphia, click on the above link. Prepare to be amazed. You can also look at my archived posts here for more info.)

This continues to amaze me, that all I did was tell a story about Interim House on this blog about a year ago, and some folks read it, and then then told some other folks, and put links on their blogs, and then people just started sending yarn. Boxes and bags, tremendous amounts of yarn. Which is GOOD, because the many ladies of Interim House knit and crochet hours a day, and they NEED lots of yarn. There are so many of them. Like, dozens. Knitting and crocheting pretty much all the time, do you get the picture? They need/want/crave any yarn they can get their hands on.

Oh dear, I didn't mean this to be another evangelistic post, but it does always turn out that way, doesn't it, with the things we truly love?

All I wanted to say was a few simple things.

1. Thank you to everybody who has donated supplies. The churches who hosted yarn drives, put together little gifty packages, the people who went through their closets and stashes and sent yarns they no longer wanted or thought they would use...Thank you to all of you. I can assure you that all your yarn was loved, touched, made into useful things.

2. Even though I am moving from Philadelphia, Interim House will continue to need supplies. For those of you who had their primary connection to IH through me...don't give up on them! You can mail things directly--email Kathy, the Social Worker at IH, at mcduf [at] aol [dot] com and she'll tell you how. Leave a message on the Interim House blog. Stay connected somehow. If you're local to Philadelphia, you can drop yarn off at the Center yourself, just email Kathy so you can work out a time to make the drop.

Okay you beautiful knitters, thanks for everything!

Welcome to any new readers...and welcome back to the rest of you.

2006-12-29T21:44:00.000-05:00

Well, hello there. Nice to meet you, or see you once again if we are old friends.

Its been a while since I've updated this journal. When I originally started this blog, I planned for it to have a limited scope--no fancy writing, not a lot of self-revelation, only a chronicle of my knitting projects, both in process and finished. But my life got away from me and I stopped blogging awhile back (as you can see from reading my previous entries, when my job started taking most of my time). I haven't stopped knitting of course, for to stop knitting would be like quitting breathing. Impossible.

But things are changing, once again. I've quit that job. I'm moving from Philadelphia, a wonderful city which has nurtured my knitterly spirit in so many ways...the Tangled Web, Rosie's, Loop, Interim House (I do love you!) InFusion Coffee Shop, the St. Michael's knitters, and most of all the terrific, dedicated, fun-loving knitters of Summit Presbyterian Church. I am moving to Niskayuna, a little town in upstate NY, where I will be close to my brother, nephew, and sister-in-law who knits fabulous sweaters, but where I still haven't the faintest idea how to find the local yarn shops.

We're moving to Niskayuna because my husband Bill has accepted a call to be a pastor at the First Reformed Church of Schenectady. I will be looking for work, most likely as a chaplain, either in hospice or in some other setting. If you're reading this please take a moment to pray for me in this time of transition.

In knitting news, I finally finished the socks I've been knitting for Bill for about 14 months. I finished them on Christmas Eve. Rather fitting since I presented them to him the first time LAST Christmas, when there were still on the needles.

I think he likes them, though I am not sure. I think he likes them in the same way he likes our cat Velvet Jane, which is this way: he protests loudly that he cares nothing for the cat, that he is a DOG and FERRET person only. Then when he thinks I am nowhere around I hear him talking to the cat in a silly affectionate way, and he allows her to sit on his chest. So I think he likes the socks, but only when I am not around.

If I can get him to put on the socks while I am in the room, I will take a picture to post on this blog.

That d**n job

2006-05-14T23:14:00.000-04:00

is keeping me from blogging these days. Give me another couple of days and I'll post progress pictures on my I DO shrug, which I am knitting in green Tahki Cotton classic, by the way. Its coming out impressive looking, even if I'm not sure its exactly beautiful. We'll see how it is when its blocked. I am just remembering something Rabbitch said once, something along the lines of how lace always looks like chickens**t before it's blocked. I'm counting on the truth of her wisdom.

Wow, what's up with the language in this entry? Pretty crappy, I'd say. Guess I'm grumpy for the lack of any kind of blog activity whatsoever for the past month.

Oh, and the wedding is scheduled for memorial day weekend. Coming up pretty quick!

Any guesses

2006-04-16T00:27:00.000-04:00

about what this thing is?

Is it a fossil of an ancient neanderthal piece of knitting?

Nope, its another terrible picture of my own knitting, a swatch for this.

Some of you know I am to be a proud stepmother-of-the-groom next month. I need just the right outfit, right? So I have a pretty dress I want to wear, but it has no sleeves, and I feel the need to have a bit more coverage, so my plan is to knit this lovely shrug to wear with the dress. The dress is very plain, light beige, and I am thinking I will actually knit the shrug in green or maybe yellow for a bit of contrast.

The pattern lists Tahki Cotton Classic as a possible yarn for this pattern. Now I have about 14 skeins of this yarn in my stash. But I don't have enough of any one color, and anyway, the colors in my stash are all cool blues, which doesn't go well with the beige of the dress. So I will have to buy more of whatever color I choose. What a shame.

A pretty thing for Karen

2006-04-09T18:16:00.000-04:00

Coming soon in the mail for Karen: one finished clapotis. It only needs to be washed and blocked.

I am hoping that it stretches out a bit after blocking. I didn't have quite enough yarn so it is a bit on the small side. Which is fine for a summer wrap--it could be pinned in the center of the chest or worn throw over the shoulder like this. Anyway, I hope Karen likes it!

knittblogging with beautiful pictures

2006-04-08T11:09:00.000-04:00

How is that so many knitbloggers take such beautiful pictures? They use flowers in their photographs, and their pets pose perfectly for the camera. They have cheerful smiling children modeling finished products. They are careful to photograph anything they may want to post about. I am not one of those knitbloggers.

I have only one for you today, an almost finished Clapotis.

Really, I take the worst photos. I am so lazy. What kind of knitblogger simply drapes her knitting over her computer to take a picture of it? Its truly inexcusable.

Its a testimony to the beautiful simplicity of the pattern and the loveliness of the Patagonia Nature Cotton yarn that this picture is even worth posting at all.

When I finally finish the Clapotis, I'll get my husband to take a picture of it. He is talented with the picture-taking, I am sure it will come out lovely.

(can you tell I have a blog-inferiority complex?)

Come Away, O Human Child...

2006-04-02T14:17:00.000-04:00

This is Karen.

She and I have been friends a very long time. We found each other when we were 15 years old and my father became the pastor of her church. We used to write notes back and forth during worship. We played music together, and once during a Christmas Eve service, we literally enacted a dream our church organist had, of us walking down the aisle together, singing a duet (all by ourselves!) of "Once in Royal David's City." We spent countless hours in Karen's parents' basement, having sleepovers and parties and talking about a million things that seemed SO IMPORTANT at the time. We went on many long car trips with a flock of girlfriends, these were pilgrimages, really, to the state of Maine for days of sitting on the dock in our flannel night gowns and drinking coffee.

New important things happen--important events like weddings, (Karen married this guy, Ilan)

important people like that new baby whose toes you see sticking out that baby carriage up top. I can't believe Karen and Ilan have a baby!

Well, it started to sink in, after I was able to spend time with the new baby, sweet, funny-faced, intense little Hazel. Let me just say right now, I love her.

I wasn't real organized about taking pictures on this trip, so I have no pictures of Karen or Ilan holding their baby, although it did seem that during the entire time we were there, they never put her down. However, I do have pics of everybody else holding Hazel. Here, for example is Kate, our other friend from HS (who also spent time in Maine on the dock in a nightgown drinking coffee), who lives in the Boston area and joined us for the evening. I'm sorry, its not a very flattering shot of Kate, but I do love the picture!

That Ilan is so silly. And here is my beloved husband, also doing his part. (yes, he is multi-tasking, cuddling a baby while playing scrabble against his palm pilot.) Just minutes before this picture was taken, Hazel was screaming her head off.

Yup, Bill is a miracle worker. And of course, I did my part too.

Just minutes AFTER this picture was taken, Hazel was screaming her head off.

And of course, there was knitting on this trip. Lots of knitting. We took the train from Philadelphia to Boston, a trip that takes 7 hours each way, so 7 +7 equals...a lot of knitting time!

This picture of Clapotis was taken in Boston before we left for home. It is now even longer, and I believe it is safe to say it will be finished before long. That's due to the incredible seductive power of the stitch-dropping in the pattern. The pattern calls me...Come away, O human child, to the needles and the yarn...if you knit only a few more rows, you'll get to drop another ladder!*

*apologies to Yeats.

Sweater no more

2006-03-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

I'm finally doing as every other knitter has already done: I am making a Clapotis. I swear. Everybody else has already knitted one of these. I am the last one, trailing in, the last one in the race. Just as it was in high school gym class when I was a grungy, bespectacled nerdy girl.

This is because I was despairing about how not good the Patagonia Nature Cotton was looking as I knit it into a tiny sweater for a baby belonging to a friend of mine. I just didn't like it. The thick-n-thin yarn made my knitting look sloppy, not trendily hippieish, as I was hoping it would. So after trying it at several different gauges, I pulled it out.

So then I was looking for a pattern that would work with the thick-n-thin nature of the yarn, and I looked for like the 10th time at the pattern for Clapotis. And I decided that it might look interesting.

So here is the beginnings.

I didn't understand the appeal of Clapotis until I started knitting it. It is a brilliant pattern. The thrilling allure of dropping the stitches keeps me wanting to keep knitting. I've only gotten to drop one ladder so far but it was pretty fun.

Plus, the pattern is written in such a clear way, all the instructions are spelled out so patiently that a total dummy could probably figure it out, and yet it feels intuitively simple... pretty soon I think I'll be able to put the pattern away, and just enjoy the knitting with occasional breaks to drop those stitches, and watch them magically make ladders in my knitting, for the first time ever on purpose.

Incidentally, for those of you who like podcasts, there is a lovely interview with Kate Gilbert, the woman who designed Clapotis, on an early episode of Knitcast. Look here.

And while you're at it, take a look at this amazing and funny post about Clapotis, from Dogs Steal Yarn. I loved the poem before I started knitting the Clapotis. Now I REEEALLY love it.

And for those of you who are wondering, I will still present this yarn (knit into a Clapotis) to my friend with the baby. I was thinking that she might prefer the Clapotis to another piece of baby clothing. She can sure wear it a lot longer than the baby can use the sweater!

Eric is back to visit!

2006-03-24T22:47:00.000-05:00

Eric is my guy friend who occasionally knits. Perhaps he will pull his knitting out when he's here visiting. I'll try to take some sneak pictures when he's not looking.

And Eric even helped me to wind yarn. What a saint.

The job was not easy. The yarn was tangled and knotted. Its Patagonia Nature Cotton, which I bought over the summer at a lovely yarn shop/spinnery in Maine,

Halcyon Yarn. I am knitting it up into a little sweater for a friend's baby. Though I'm not sure I like how its coming out, because the yarn is thick-n-thin, and even knitted on size 8 needles the fabric seems a bit loose in places. And the lace pattern I chose for the edges isn't doesn't look too great. I think I will wash and block this piece and then see whether I want to keep going with the project.

This is a terrible picture of the back of the sweater.

I took the pics on this blog with a sad little computer camera. But I figure a post with bad pictures is better than a post with no pictures at all.

Current projects

2006-03-16T23:34:00.000-05:00

Aren't they cute together? Like a daddy sock taking his baby sock out for a walk.

No, this isn't the result of some horrible gauge accident. I'm just working on both pairs at the same time. Both second socks are now in progress. The baby socks will be finished and gifted long before the large socks will be completed.

I've been working on the large socks for my husband since November. You see, they are a Christmas present. As in, Christmas 2005, when I wrapped up what was then a half-knitted sock and then promptly took back as soon as he opened it.

Oh well. I keep plugging along. The problem is that I keep getting pulled away by those sweet little baby socks. They're just so adorable! And they are finished so fast, knitted on size 5 needles, they are so much more fun than those stinky socks I am knitting on size 1s. But these are the things we do for love, I suppose. And I do love Bill.

knitting updates (no pictures, sorry)

2006-03-14T21:56:00.000-05:00

Tonight I was doing my best to ignore the enormous pile of laundry that needs to be processed. Instead I continued working on another tiny sock (similar to the ones pictured below, same yarn, only slightly different colors and in a stripy pattern) while listening to this podcast of a radio program, which includes one of my favorite theologians, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite (I always loved saying her name, which I would usually say aloud when I was reading her books and articles by myself). The discussion on the program doesn't really cover any new ideas, but it was still good to hear a theologian I love, saying good, common-sense things about gay and lesbian issues in the church.

I do love podcasts. I am sure you have all already discovered Cast-On and KnitCast by now, but if you havn't, do take a listen. Fun stuff to knit by.

My cat really loves the sound of podcasts. Has anybody else had that experience? She spends a lot of time rubbing my computer and then rubbing me whenever I have sound of voices playing from the computer speakers. Its as if she finds podcasts...attractive. The same way she finds my speaker-phone conference call attractive (with my job, everybody on the entire hospice team checks in with one another every morning via conference call). She loves the sound of the speaker-phone, no matter who is talking--she always trys to bump the phone off the table with her nose, as if she's trying to find the person speaking, who is undoubtedly hiding underneath the telephone.

In other knitting news, in the last six weeks my church knitting group has produced seven shawls to be distributed to various shut-in members of the congregation. Its been a challenge for our little group, but the results have been very positive--the recipients are enjoying their shawls, and that's enough gratification for us knitters to make us want to keep on knitting. Wish I had pictures of them all--they are beautiful--but I don't have any. You will all just have to imagine.

Breaking the silence with a vengeance

2006-03-09T22:40:00.000-05:00

If there is anybody still out there checking my blog (though I have a suspicion that I am once again talking to myself only, and that's okay,) I just wanted to say that this is so great. PLEASE click on the link. I love that people like this wonderful Melissa, who has never been to Interim House, feels so strongly about the place and its people and its mission that she goes to all kinds of lengths to collect supplies for the knitting ladies there. Melissa, they love you at Interim House. And it goes beyond the stuff you sent. Its the idea that you care about them. So thank you. If you ever want to come by Philadelphia and visit IH, you're more than welcome to stay with me.

Starting small.

2006-03-09T22:13:00.000-05:00

Very small.

After having hit a wall with this blog, I decided that I better set myself some easily attainable goals. I thought, I can't seem to find the oomph to get back into blogging. But if I start small, maybe I'll be able to start over. Hence the tiny socks. Each was knit in about a day.

They really are tiny, adorable, knit for a friend who is currently quite pregnant. I followed a pattern I found here, though I added the little mock cables to keep me interested. I used some yarn I've had in my stash for a long time, this veeeeeeeeerrrrrry stretchy cotton yarn which has like 3% elastic, called Fixation from Cascade. Its lovely. The thing I was worried about when I started the socks was that I wouldn't be able to keep the tension even because of the great stretchiness of the yarn. And there are some parts of the socks which seem a bit looser than others. But the material the yarn makes is so wonderful, soft and stretchy and just perfect for socks. And heck, socks get washed lots and will be stretched out of shape, so what does it matter, really?

Here's another picture, with some common office supplies in the picture for perspective, so you can see just how tiny these socks are:

Writer's block

2006-01-16T21:18:00.000-05:00

I know the excuses. You have grand plans to write a beautiful, interesting post, which includes pictures of London and of all the knitting you did there--on the train, in the rain, on a bus, in a rush. You want to describe in wondrous detail the fun hat of Sarah's that your replicated in pretty perfect detail, wowing all your friends, as you only needed to look at the hat in order to figure out the pattern. You want to write all about how you spent New Years Eve in the only bowling alley in London (which just happened to be located in the basement of your hotel.) You want to describe all the vegetarian restaurants you found in London. You want to write about the Diane Arbus photography exhibit you saw at the Victoria and Albert Museum (and you want to tell everybody about how really, your favoritest part of the V&A was the cafe, which served the wickedest coffee you drank in London and preciously delicious scones). You need to capture your grand memories of the British Museum, and you need to record how you saw the first installation of the Narnia Choronicles when you were actually in England.

But instead you are stymied in your writing ambitions by the swamping amount of work you came back to in the US. Hospice overpowers you. You are a perfectionist, and you can only afford to be perfect about one thing at a time, and you have to choose, your blog or the ungodly amount of notes you have to write to document all the visits you are making to the little old ladies and men who are so glad to see you, glad at least most of the time. So you allow your blog to lie dormant. And pray your friends out there will forgive you, for not only are you not writing, you are not even reading other people's blogs, and this is the worst sin of all. Go! Go do your penance! Read Rabbitch and Stuntmother and Spinningdoula and Stacey! Read Harlot and Blue Blog and Baby Boy Norton and that other nice AbigailVR who writes fun stories about doing crafty things with her son Niels! Don't even take the time to insert the links for all those blogs because it will take you forever! Just go! Go!

London Part II

2005-12-31T12:02:00.000-05:00

Found Yarn! and the 10.5 needle I needed! At a department store. Can you believe it? It would be like walking into Macy's and finding a yarn department. Definitely a little strange...but the yarn was lovely (if small in selection) and as most of London was having a 50% off sale, the yarn department at John Lewis was no exception. Found some nice stuff. Okay, we're in an internet cafe and I need to sign off, because my husband tells me that we can't go over the twenty minute limit or something bad will happen (like we'll have to pay another pound!)

Disappointed in London

2005-12-28T11:12:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in a London Internet cafe cursing because all the buttons are in the wrong places on the keyboard. Specifically, the left hand shift key is in the wrong place so \i keep typing "\" whenever \i want to capitalize a letter (witness where \i type "\i").

Also disappointed because there are no real yarn shops in London. Though its my own fault--if I had done any internet research at all prior to my travelling here, I would have discovered the lack of yarn shops. Everybody on the net knows except for me. There is one small yarn shop called Loop but it is CLOSED during the one week I happen to be in London.Turns out knitters in London buy their yarn over the internet from Scotland or the States. Oh, darn.

I suppose its all right, because after all, I am ostensibly on a yarn fast, meaning, I am not supposed to be buying yarn until the end of Lent in the upcoming year (my self-imposed fast, not at the instigation of any other person, like, say, my husband). Even though I allow myself to buy yarn for the knitting ladies at Interim House, and I also permit yarn buying for the Shawl Ministry at church. And every once in a while a bit of yarn I really, really need for a project to be finished. But other than that I really am on a yarn fast. So I suppose I should be grateful there are no yarn shops to be found. But still...I need a size 10.5 circular needle so I can finish that hat for Sarah, and even though I own several 10.5 circs in Philadelphia I don't have one here...what am I going to do? Trapped in a city with no yarn stores?

Too bad for me. I guess I'm going to have to finish the socks for Bill which I gave him, still on the needles, as a Christmas present. Wish I could post pictures but I haven't figured out how to do that here in this London Internet cafe. I'll try to figure it out and post later.

Christmas Spirit

2005-12-20T20:07:00.000-05:00

Bill just came in from a long day of work looking like this:

Bill brought Bodhi with him to the church today. He had many things to do at church--calling people, doing paperwork, etc.--but the nicest thing he did was attend a Summit Children's Program event, with Bodhi on his shoulder. I was surprised when he told me this (those of you who know the terrifying story about our first motel visit with Bodhi will understand) and I asked whether he had allowed the children to pet her and he said no. With our last ferret, the dearly departed Jill, he could surrender her into the vulnerable hands of children and worry more about her safety than theirs. But Bodhi, who is formerly known as "Rabid Biter," is a different animal altogether. She looks cute. But she's quite unpredicable, and occasionally dangerous. But she's cute anyway. Bill and she were doing their best to spread the Xmas spirit:

I just thought they both looked so dear in their red neckties.

Those Prolific Knitting Ladies

2005-12-19T20:15:00.000-05:00

Since I havn't been knitting much myself, still slaving away on a solitary sad Xmas sock, I will do as the Harlot does and distract you, this time with another website: the brand new blog for the Interim House knitting ladies, which is put up by the Social Worker there, Kathy. Not too many pictures of the knitters themselves, but plenty of pictures of their things. Those of you who sent fun fur will recognize its prominence in the knitted pieces. Enjoy here!

I am the laziest blogger in the world, or, What My Computer Sees, part II

2005-12-14T16:30:00.000-05:00

I have no interesting knitting content. I haven't been knitting much at all--no time, what with the new job. So in order to have something new, I am posting a picture I took with my computer, which is sitting on my lap, of another item that is sitting on my lap:

This photo meets the criteria of the genre of gratuitous pet photos, a classic subterfuge technique for knitbloggers who have little or no knitting content to share. Thats my kitty Velvet. She's not really as grumpy as she looks, though she is curled up pretty tightly. She's only on my lap because, as my husband says, she's a heat-slut, and wants to be on me at all times in order to keep warm. This includes when I am trying to knit, when Velvet obliges me by chewing amiably on my yarn as it goes by.

In other news, Kathy from Interim House is putting together a blog for the knitting ladies there, so they can share pictures of their work and progress. But she says the blog is not suitable for general consumption yet. As soon as she gives me the okay, I will share the link with the rest of you, okay? Thanks again to all of you who sent yarn and needles for Interim House!

What my computer sees

2005-12-08T18:22:00.000-05:00

I just recently acquired one of the smallest laptops ever made--a Sony Vaio. And it has this built in camera. This is what my Vaio is looking at: me, knitting. Its the intersection of old and new technologies.

This camera is pretty nifty. I can turn it around and take stealth pictures. So here is a picture of my favorite place to hang out and knit and drink coffee by myself: InFusion coffee shop in Mt. Airy:

y'all are welcome to join me here anytime.

Thanksgiving part II

2005-12-07T19:07:00.000-05:00

Only because I'm a backwater blogger can I get away with these weeks-old pictures. No big-name bloggers could get away with it. Why am I so late? Because I am so forgetful I never remember my own camera (again, big-name knit bloggers would never be without a camera to document their every little bit of knitting progress), so I am always relying on the kindness of strangers--or other friends and family members--to take pictures and send them to me, or post them on their own websites, as my delightful stepson Ryan does.

Let me just take this opportunity to say that I have the best stepkids in the world. If it were not so, would Kim, Bill's daughter, spend hours knitting with me over Thanksgiving weekend? Look at that. That thing there in her hands is a gauge swatch. *sniff* Its making me tear up just to think about it.

For the past year, whenever Bill gets fed up with my knitting, he says something about taking up whittling so that he has something manly to do while the ladies are engaged with the yarn. But so far he's not done any whittling. I hope Bill was good and ashamed when Ryan started whittling a wooden Santa Claus Christmas Tree ornament.

Ryan was really working hard at that whittling. So hard, in fact, that he developed blisters on his soft computer-programmer's hands. I was impressed by his diligence. And yet...whittling is a craft I just do not understand. He worked for hours to carve this bit at the end of his block of wood to the point where it looked like the foot of a table leg. It will be many more hours before he has his Santa ornament finished. And then he will have...a Santa ornament. Not anything as useful as a scarf or a pair of socks.

But who am I to talk? If somebody were to question the usefulness of my knitting, I'm sure he could make a valid argument for buying $1.99 socks at Kmart instead. Why bother with the dpns and the sock-weight yarn? I could certainly find more socially constructive ways to use my time. I could be volunteering at the food cupboard or teaching music to underprivileged youngsters. Why spend so much time knitting?

Well, I don't intend to write here about how knitting can change the world. I'm not sure it does, really, though many knitters have claimed otherwise. What I do know is that knitting is a fun thing to do with my family and friends. Calming for me, and a slow, meditative creative outlet. Maybe its selfish but I guess we're all selfish in our own particular ways. At least its a fairly benign selfishness.

In other picture news, I just wanted to share another that makes me laugh.

For those of you who don't know him, this is my wild husband Bill with Kim's ferret, whose name is Zoe.

Zoe is the dopiest (is that a word? I mean, she's waaaay dopy), silliest, round tribble of a ferret I ever met. So I love how fierce (to use Tyra Banks' favorite adjective) she looks in this photo. She's like, America's Next Top Ferret Model.

A sign the move is a positive one.

2005-12-01T20:49:00.000-05:00

Today, at my new job as a "Spiritual Care Coordinator" (a funny word for chaplain) for VistaCare Hospice, my supervisor out of the blue told me I could start a knitting group, as part of my methods of providing pastoral care. She added, "you know, like at the nursing homes you visit." And she told me I should also be playing my violin--also as part of pastoral care.

I knew there were going to be positive aspects to the new job!

There are no other knitters, as far as I can tell, among those who work at this office, though there are many people I haven't met yet. They've all been somewhat impressed by the meagre knitting I have demonstrated so far (namely, the red-and-yellow scarf featured in my last post). I'm actually suprised by how few knitters I've encountered at this job. At my last job, I knew a whole bunch of knitters. Of course, that was a much larger facility, and there was much more insanity, and we all know that where there is insanity, there are knitters too.

Its been a bit of a tough transition. I don't think I like working 5 days in a row. And I don't particularly like orientation. From my second day there I started begging, shamelessly, for anybody to take me out of the office. Finally on day 4 they listened to me and sent me out with a nurse to visit some folks. (I think they got tired of listening to me whine.) The nurse did all the driving so I got lots of knitting done that day.

And then today I followed the other chaplain, Diane, for a few hours. She's pretty new, too, having only been with VistaCare for about two months, but she has an impressive command of the really confusing paperwork and a lovely way of relating to everyone she meets. I am looking forward to working with her more often. She plays the piano really well. When we arrived at the nursing home today she sat down at the piano in the day hall and led an impromptu sing-a-long, which endeared her to all the staff there immediately. It made me so happy to sing along with her.

This was much more fun than the other work I've been doing. This is mostly sitting in the conference room, filling out form after form, reading the "Spiritual Care Coordinator Guide to Orientation" handbook, looking for the answers to the multiple-choice exam based on said handbook, and watching training videos, which are mostly a product of the VistaCare propaganda machine and not very educational.

Well, tomorrow I have my first "Interdisciplinary Group" meeting--meaning, a meeting of the whole team, and I am excited to meet the rest of the folks. Wish me luck. I will be bringing donuts to create a good first impression.

Oh and I want to post more pictures of the weekend. I am hoping Ryan will send some from out trip to Kirkwood. So Ryan, if you read this, send pictures, 'k? Please?

Thanksgiving, part I

2005-11-29T22:05:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry, but isn't this the cutest baby ever? I mean, really? In that tiny plaid shirt?

Yes, that's my nephew Alex and his mommy, my sister-in-law Kari. They and my brother Dan decided at the last minute to come down for Thanksgiving. It was so great to see them, and to cuddle the baby, who is soon not even going to be a baby any more. He's 15 months old. Walking about and learning to complain when he doesn't get what he wants and so on.

For good measure, another picture of Alex, this time with my cousin Meegan.

Who can resist the cuteness? Those little fingers and toes?

Saw lots of other people at Thanksgiving too. But I don't have many pictures. There was a fair amount of horsing around:

That's cousin Austin and his wife Jen. Goofballs.

And of course, much food-related action. There's my dad.

I wish I had pictures of everybody to post. It was a typical thanksgiving. Lots of eating, vegetarian and non-vegetarian options galore. And of course, there was lots of knitting. I pretty much finished the scarf, finally, and then fringed it at our next location, Kirkwood camp in the Poconos where we hung out with Bill's kids.

I decided after Bill took this picture to braid the fringes. Get it? A cable braid in the pattern, with braided fringe at the ends. It looks much better now. I could tell that the Malabrigio Merino I used would in the fringe quickly turn to balls of fuzz. But it really is lovely, soft, warm, cozy stuff. Perfect for a scarf. When Libby at Water Street Yarns sold me the yarn, she told me it wanted to be a scarf, and she was right.

another post coming soon

2005-11-27T13:02:00.000-05:00

I know its been a while since I've posted. I have things to write about and somewhere out there in the universe (in Bill's camera, in my stepson's camera) there are lovely photos of the thanksgiving holiday, during which time I spent hours knitting with my beloved family (to see what they look like see photos on my husband's site), a scarf was finished, the hurricane sweater was hurried along, and (most exciting of all) my stepdaughter was induced to buy more yarn so she could knit hats, and she learned to knit ribs, and also learned to knit on a 16" circular needle. Woo hoo! So I do hope to post pictures soon.

Knitting Evangelism

2005-11-18T23:05:00.000-05:00

Almost on a daily basis, I encounter somebody who is curious about my knitting. Like today, I'm sitting in a Doctor's waiting room with my friend, explaining to her how cables work. After a while the girl sitting next to us tells me my scarf is pretty and asks if knitting is hard. I say not really, but that initially it feels clumsy--it takes getting over a hump to get comfortable with the motions. I always think of it as learning to trust your yarn and needles. She asks where she can learn how to knit. I stop myself from offering to teach her (while I'm usually happy to teach random strangers, they usually don't know how exactly to respond to a street knit-evangelist like myself, so I try to restrain myself in public places). Rather than go out to the car and grab some spare yarn and needles, I tell her that several local stores like Rosie's have good teachers. But I also tell her that old ladies who are looking for some youthful companionship are wonderful teachers for beginners, and I urge her to look for one. I hope she does.

Rabbitch had this great post a few days ago about how her brother asked her for yarn and needles. After all these years of watching her knit, he has decided to try it out for himself. And in addition, Rabbitch reports that her daughter wants a spinning wheel and her husband wants a drop spindle. I have so much respect for the way she has brought her family over to the dark side! (In our family, Mom and I have only managed to bring over my brother's wife Kari--who needs to start a knitting blog!--) Rabbitch states that she is pretty much finished corrupting her family and threatens to come after our families next. I'd like to see her try! She'd have a tough time with my husband.

Do any of you ladies out there have a husband who is frustrated with your knitting? Mine teases me so frequently and rolls his eyes so often that I have to wonder whether knitting is good for our marriage. (Did anybody out there read that Psychology Today article about how the amount of eye-rolling people do about their spouses is a very reliable indicator about whether they will stay together in the long-term? Eye-rolling=divorce.) In our house, the occasional knitted gift item does not produce enough goodwill to compensate for the incredible lack of attention I pay to my husband because of all the time I spend knitting (at home, on the couch, out at the coffee shop, with my friends, more time with my friends, over at Interim House, etc...)

What's more, every time I suggest that he would have more fun while I am knitting if he were knitting too he doesn't respond very well. He calls me a knitting evangelist in the same tone he uses to say "you're always trying to get me to do yoga," (horror or horrors!), God forbid I should try to get him to do anything so distasteful. I am a horrible, manipulative, scheming, yoga- and knitting-pushing wife.

I have given up trying to get Bill to do yoga with me. Likewise, I am no longer hoping that Bill will ever take up knitting. I can't take having my hopes crushed yet again.

However, perhaps I could get him to try crochet.

Big life change

2005-11-12T16:33:00.000-05:00

I usually restrict myself to knitting content on this blog. I think I do this because its "safe," (though sometimes knitting can be dangerous, indeed, witness how at my current ministry setting, a state psychiatric hospital, none of the patients are allowed to knit because the staff is frightened that people might stab themselves with the knitting needles--can you imagine? I've tried to explain that the very soothing nature of knitting would prevent such incidents, but they cannot be convinced, just as TSA authorities were for months following 9/11) meaning that I don't share much of my actual life. Which means that most of the time this blog is pretty boring. And I'm okay with that. I mostly blog to keep some kind of record of my knitting for posterity. Here's hoping Blogger's server doesn't go down in a firey blast.

But today I am announcing a big life change: I have a new job. I will no longer be a chaplain at the beforementioned psyche facility (and if I think about leaving too much I will start crying, so lets move on), and I will be moving on to a full-time chaplaincy position with VistaCare hospice. More hours, lots more salary, benefits, paid vacation...its a real job. I am looking forward to the change. Mostly what I want to know though is, will I have enough time to knit with this new job?

Thanks from Interim House

2005-11-11T17:10:00.000-05:00

I was at Interim House again today. Its this local Drug and Alcohol rehab where I've been hanging out on Fridays and knitting with the residents and some of the staff. I brought some yarn that had been bought with money from a friend of my mother's. Mom, which friend was it? The ladies at Interim house would like her address so they can write her a thank you note.

Then I arrived and Kathy told me they had received a package from a lady in Wisconsin. How amazing is that? Somebody in Wisconsin actually took the time to bundle up needles and yarn and send it all the way to Philadelphia. It was so much appreciated. Nearly all the balls were immediately appropriated and new scarves and other items were cast on. It was awesome. And this lady from Wisconsin--I don't even know who she is! If you are the nice lady drop me a line and let me know. You're the best. The needles were especially appreciated--several sets went out immediately to new residents.

I've been sitting next to one of the ladies for the past three weeks. The first time we talked it was because Kathy asked me to help her. She had only just begun knitting and she was not enjoying it much. She was finding it difficult and stressful. It didn't help that she was using some old white acrylic yarn on rough wooden needles. She had the classic beginners problem of adding stitches (mostly at the beginning of the row). I tried to help her out--explaining that it wasn't necessary to pull the stitches so very tight, and that it is important to tug your work at the end of every row and admire it, pulling the yarn down and towards the back so that she wouldn't accidentally yarn over or make that first loose stitch look like two. And even though she was complaining about her knitting the whole time, she got better, and she started making progress.

The next week she had finished that scarf, and was showing remarkable improvement on her second white scarf. By the end of the knitting time she had gotten her first ball of pink, green and purple fun fur, and she had cast on for a wild pink scarf. When I arrived today, she was nearly finished with it, and we bound it off near the end of the group. And it was gorgeous, beautiful! I wish I were allowed to take pictures. It was evident that at some point during the week, something had clicked and she really understood how knitting worked. This scarf was even and beautiful. And she was so proud of it, she kept saying, "nobody is going to believe I made this." I don't think she quite believed she had made something so wild. She said several times that she is really a plain kind of person.

It was funny, at the same time as she was loving her scarf, wearing it and stroking it and feeling proud of herself, she didn't want to appear too proud or excited. At one point I asked her whether she wanted to learn to cast on her next project (another fun fur scarf) and she said, "Naw, cause I'm not going to keep knitting once I get out of here." One of the other residents said "Hey, that's the kind of thing we say amongst ourselves but we not in front of the teachers!" (those of us from the outside who join their group on Fridays are collectively called "the teachers") I said in response that the thing about knitting is that its always a choice. But then we'll see how she feels about it after four more months in the program.

I wish you all could be there with us. The room is packed with women knitting and crocheting. There aren't enough seats--some of us sit on the floor. Some sit in the kitchen. The group was quieter than usual today, and somebody said they liked the energy in the room today. Another one (one of us outside "teachers") said, "it feels like a real knitting group today." Another one of the ladies, a bit annoyed, said "it is a real knitting group." And she was right. I really enjoy my time at Interim House, its two hours which has some of the best knitting energy I encounter all week.

Wednesday--my favorite day to watch TV

2005-11-09T18:38:00.000-05:00

Because of my secret favorite TV show. I'll admit it here: I LOVE "America's Next Top Model." This season isn't quite as good as last season, which had this beautiful, tall, blonde, hippie blind girl--but its still enthralling. This is something I don't understand about myself. Why do I love it so much? I look forward to each new episode. Other people make sure they are home to watch "ER," or they TiVo "The West Wing." I make a special effort to be home Wednesdays for the stick-skinny, back-stabbing, whiny self-absorbed wanna-be models.

I end up watching the show by myself (because my husband cannot stand it), and I knit blissfully through each episode.

Something about the wild clothes and makeup I love. Maybe its my alter-ego coming out--you know, most of the time I go around in black, boring clothes, clomping around it my vegan Doc Martens. The most exciting things I wear are these pretty blazers my parents gave me last Christmas, and my handknit socks. Some part of me is a secret top model, longing to fuss with hairspray and makeup, don midriff- and cleavage-baring tops and tight jeans, and teeter around in very unsensible shoes. But so long as I am a minister-type this secret top model part of myself will go un-fulfilled.

I guess I'm all right with that.

Maybe another entry on the "You Knit What" blog

2005-11-03T18:31:00.000-05:00

I don't know. Perhaps I'll let YOU decide. I've been working on this sweater for a "Hurricane Sweater" knit-a-long. This whole group of ladies who live nearby and knit at my favorite coffee shop InFusion are all knitting versions of this sweater. The pattern is for the sweater on the cover of the Fall issue of Vogue Knitting (I posted a picture of it here).

Of course, none of us are using the expensive yarn suggested for the pattern and none of us are doing the twisted stitches (the pattern calls for knitting alternate stitches with two colors of yarn, and twisting them together on the right side.) I was the only member of the KAL who was fully committed to the twisted stitch pattern. I was going to do it. I even started the sweater and followed the pattern completely, using the alternate yarns I chose, but found that the twisted stitches hardly showed and the pattern looked like a big ol' bullseye. And who wants a bullseye radiating from the center of one's back? Not me, not in a society that still allows just about anybody to own a gun.

So I'm knitting this circular sweater using pretty rusty-brown and mustard yellow cotton yarns, alternating the colors pretty randomly, using more brown than yellow because I have more brown than yellow. And I think its going to look pretty dramatic, but I'm not sure. It might be another awful knit item. Hmmmm...

In this picture it looks a little bit like a big knot in the wooden coffee table. So to give you a different perspective, I took a picture of the sweater in a more foresty kind of setting,

My dining room rug. Eh. I think the circle part is going to get real drapey once the sleeves are on and its worn but I don't know. Maybe it'll be real nifty and original looking. Or maybe it won't.

I keep remembering Claudia's hilarious list of top-ten-tips which states very clearly that "If you even half-suspect for one moment that the thing you’ve just made is hinky, it IS hinky." Is this sweater hinky? Is the fact that I am wondering whether its hinky enough to confirm that it really is hinky? Oh dear. Claudia says that I must then rip it out. But I can't bear to. Perhaps this is why I continue to knit questionable items, instead of the drop-dead gorgeous things Claudia makes.

I am bored with this sweater--the only reason why I keep working on it is because of the KAL. Must. Push. On. I bought a new needle--an Inox 40 in. circular (sz. 8)--to replace the icky plastic needle I was using in the hopes that the needle would inspire me to keep knitting.

The project I yearn to be working on instead is the cabled scarf I am making out of some Malabrigo merino wool I bought at Water Street Yarns in Waterville ME this summer. If you havn't tried this yarn yet you really should. It is perfectly delicious. Sooo soft, so delightful. I probably wouldn't have bought either of these colors on their own, but the lovely Libby who owns Water Street Yarns handed me them both, saying, "these need to be a scarf." And my heart melted, and I longed to adopt them.

I tried to take some pictures but they all came out unfocused. Here is the best:

2x2 ribs down each side, a cherry-colored cable down the center. Oh, and its my first cable ever! People have been telling me for a long time that cables are easy. I never believed them. But its the truth! Cables aren't hard! Now I just have to figure out how to read a chart...but I believe I can do it. I am feeling empowered. When it comes to cables, anyway. Perhaps I should have skipped the Vogue hurricane sweater and done one of the cabled sweaters in the same issue instead?

Big News

2005-11-02T23:06:00.000-05:00

So the big news in the Norton family is that my amazing nephew Alex

(who was practicing his walking skills by pushing this car all over the living room, like some crazy driver, running it into walls and chairs and tables) took his first steps unassisted by human hands or plastic cars or coffee tables. He happened to take these first steps when his physical therapist and occupational therapist happened to be there (such a show-off!), so they and everybody else were very, very pleased.

The cherry on top for me is that he took the steps while he was wearing the romper I knit for him. Yay! I wish I had a picture! (hint-hint-to dear Dan and Kari)

In other news, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everybody who said they would send yarn to Interim House. Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Interim House Part III

2005-11-01T08:09:00.000-05:00

Okay: Any knitting supplies can be sent to

Kathy Duffy, Social Worker
Interim House Inc.
333 W. Upsal St.
Philadelphia PA 19119

For more information about Interim House, read here.

Questions about Interim House

2005-10-30T18:42:00.000-05:00

Well, I heard from my wonderful Mom and from several other folks who would like to send yarn to Interim House (see Friday's post). This is so exciting! If you want to send any, post a comment or email me, and I will send you the address so you can mail yarn directly to the Social Worker there.

In answer to your questions:

1. Partial and single balls are welcome. They will use the yarn for skinny scarves or work it into multi-colored afghans.

2. Needles are also welcome, needles of any size and shape, though there is a greater need for the larger needles (10-13). And crochet hooks and any other knitting tools--they never have enough tape measures or needle gauges or darning needles etc.

3. Any fibers are welcome. Like I said, they love fun fur but they devour acrylic yarns and they also love wool yarn, as felted bags are a popular project.

Much love is coming from me out to any of you who are considering sending yarn to Interim House.

Mad knitting

2005-10-28T18:40:00.000-04:00

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon knitting with a group of about twenty women at a local drug and alcohol treatment center. This is amazing to me: just around the corner of my building is this facility--Interim House--where these women eat, sleep, receive treatment for their addictions, and knit the rest of the time. It is a veritable hive of knitting. I thought I knit a lot. These ladies knit pretty much constantly. They sucked up a bunch of yarn at last week's meeting, and this week they spit out afghans and scarves, hats and even mittens. They are amazing.

The social worker there had this bright idea last year that she would teach the women how to knit so that they would have something to do to keep busy. (People struggling with addictions often need things to do in order to keep their minds off of whatever they are addicted to.) Pretty soon the house rules required all the women to attend the weekly knitting group, whether or not they decided to participate. Some of them resist at first, but eventually all of them take up their needles. And it works. Many of them report that knitting brings them so much pleasure and relaxation, they can't imagine making it through the rehab program without it.

The only problem is that they are so ravenous for yarn, the house can't keep any kind of stash around. These women will knit with anything, even that crappy brown red heart acrylic yarn you never thought you would use--they will find some use for it. They will make something beautiful of it.

What the women really love, however, is any kind of fun fur. Sorry, yarn snobs. I brought a few balls of fun fur today for them, and would you believe it they had to draw numbers out of a hat to determine which of the women would get these precious few balls.

So if any readers out there have some yarn you won't or can't use, please send it to us. If you send it to me, I'll make sure it gets delivered. Or drop me a line--I can tell you how to send it directly to Interim House. The ladies will be so grateful. Really.

WIPs--word of the day

2005-10-24T07:28:00.000-04:00

Hi, mom. WIP means "work in progress." So last night at the Shawl Ministry group I was so inspired by Phoebe, our newest knitter who nevertheless finished our first official shawl (she was fast--she finished in about 3 or 4 weeks), that I started a new shawl, using the same big needles she used. The shawl I was crawling along with, the white one that seems to never grow any longer, was depressing me. So I pulled out some red and orange light n' lofty I had in my stash and started another shawl. The fun of new beginnings.

This means that now I have the below-mentioned green sweater to finish, the white shawl, the orange hurricane shawl, my black Einstein coat (that also feels like it will never be finished), and now the new red and orange shawl. And none of it is interesting knitting! Here is my problem. I feel bored by all my projects, and want something fun, something with lots of increases and decreases and maybe cables or color changes. Can I possibly be justified in starting even another project?

Here is the inspirational Phoebe:

And here is Len, in her finished objects, the scarf in seed stitch that caused so much long-suffering travail, and a ribbed hat:

Ugly things I've knit

2005-10-19T14:55:00.000-04:00

The process has been very difficult, but I was finally forced to admit to myself that the only poncho I ever knit was a complete failure. Ugly, ugly, ugly. The more I knitted on it the more I suspected that the brown-and-green eyelash yarn most closely resembled a dying lawn. And it's useless, to boot. It's not warm and it's so big it slips off my shoulders.

So I've never worn the thing out of the house. I can't bear to frog it though. So its been sitting on my desk in a sad little lump until I finally found a use for it: as my entry into the You Knit What website's contest for the worst thing you ever knit. I figure that it being a poncho made out of eyelash yarn, I at least have some chance at winning. Wanna see the beast?

Well, there it is, in all its ugliness. Oh, but notice the beautiful beast on my shoulder! That's Bodhi the ferret (known affectionately as "Rabid Biter" the first few months of her life; its better to not ask why). You know, she's ordinarily a pretty feisty girl, but she was so terrified of the poncho that she was afraid to move. Maybe I need to wear the poncho every time I handle her.

What Abby needs

2005-10-17T18:40:00.000-04:00

Hi, mom. You know I read lots of other knitting blogs. Many other knitters are doing this thing where they are googling the phrase "[their name] needs" and then listing the top 10 results on their blog.

Here's mine:

10. Abby needs to go on some good walks so she can trim down and look her best.

9. Abby needs to finish her math.

8. Abby needs anything but angst.

7. Abby needs to have a very expensive surgery to help her become a normal girl again.

6. Abby needs to mind her own business and quit trying to help everyone.

5. Abby needs to get back on the horse so she won't be afraid in the future again.

4. Abby needs to find the killer.

3. Abby needs to buy her own motorcycle.

2. Abby needs a hubby to (a) put off fortune hunters and (b) rescue someone from
Apache renegades.

And my favorite...good advice for everybody, not just Abby!

1. Abby needs to "let go her heart, let go her head and feel it now."

Hurricane Sweater

2005-10-14T07:57:00.000-04:00

Well, mom, I'm pleased to know that you only last weekend read your very first Vogue Knitting magazine. I only recently started reading it myself but never attempted to make any garments described therein (prior to about six months ago I used to look at the magazine and say to myself, "I will never be able to knit any of those patterns"). That all changed last month when I joined a knitalong with my friends at the local coffee shop, all of whom decided to knit this circular sweater on the cover of the most recent issue:

By the way, I was able to find a picture on the very funny knittykitty site. Go look, mom. I hope knittykitty wasn't dissing my sweater--I think she posted it rather in honor of hurricane katrina victims. In any case, thats why our knitalong group started calling it the Hurricane Sweater rather than what its called in Vogue (something like the "Twisted-Garter-Stitch Cardigan", something non-creative like that).

So here was my first attempt. You must understand that I, being on a yarn fast until next Easter was limited in my choices of yarn. But I had this big pile of random green yarns

that I was thinking of making a shawl of, so I thought I would use them for the Hurricane Sweater instead. You tell me how you think it was turning out:

Yeah, that orange accent yarn I threw in wasn't working for me either. So I decided to pull it out and try it over again with some yarn I had in my stash, this pile of rusty orange cotton/rayon stuff which has a real nice texture. Classic Elite "Believe".

That's the "Believe" on the left hand side. Of course, I didn't have enough to finish the whole sweater, and I need a contrast color, so I asked permission of my DH (on my birthday) for permission to break my yarn fast in order to buy the other yarns in the picture, some dear Mission Falls 1824 cotton (so dear, and discontinued) and also a couple of balls of Fortissima Sock yarn to run together with the "Believe". The colors are gorgeous together. I will update soon and let you know how it looks.

Looking forward to seeing you this evening, mom!

My DH (yes mom, that means "Dear Husband")

2005-10-13T15:29:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to post these for a while. I finally finished the stole for my DH that I started back at Thanksgiving. Its knit out of Alchemy Yarns bamboo yarn, which is absurdly expensive. When I bought it, I told myself, this stole must be really stunning or my DH won't wear it. So I spent way more than necessary on the yarn. I am not entirely happy with how it came out, but it is bright and colorful and looks nice against his robe. I asked DH to model it for me:

And now some close-ups:

For the ends I chose a simple lace pattern from that book "Knitting on the Edge" (thank you, Zelphia, for the loan of the book!).

Why, Abigail, is that intarsia? Funny you should ask--yes it is! The first intarsia I ever attempted, but did I read any instructions to get any help about how to do it prior to making my attempt? um...no. You can't really see in this picture, but one of the crosses is a bit hinky and the stole may fall apart someday as a result of my attempts to fix my original problems. Oh well. I'll take care of it when that happens.

Happy Birthday to me!

2005-10-11T08:12:00.000-04:00

Yes, yesterday I turned 31. And I'm proud of it.

Got this from Mim who picked itup from Nathania who got it from Norma.

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, liposuction and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans...
---Re-post this if you believe in legalizing gay marriage

I've been thinking about whether I am going to continue to be one of those knitbloggers who talks only about knitting. So far that's how my page has been. But I liked seeing this list so much on somebody else's knitblog that I thought I'd do as I was told and repost it, even if only for the benefit of my mother, the only person who faithfully reads my blog. I love you mom! Hi mom!

Mysteries of the universe

2005-10-06T08:01:00.000-04:00

I wrote a few weeks ago about how odd the phrase "knitting progress" is, because knitting progresses about as slowly as the stars move across the sky. But this past week a few lucky stars must have come together because I finally finished several projects and started a few more. Then a few more lucky stars have made it possible for me to post pictures. These stars are all named after my DH.

First of all, he fixed my Clie, which is what I used to take blog pictures with before it crashed. Now its back. Witness the recent wave of pictures as a result.

Secondly, he decided to clean the house. (Lets not go into why I didn't clean it myself, shall we?) Which means that I have nice clean spaces in which to spread out my knitting for pictures. Want some more? Here you go:

The blanket for Karen, now blocked. I did take the plunge and wash it in the machine, as the label for the yarn suggests. (Blue Sky Cotton. The color is this kind of grayish-purple, really lovely--it looks like a brighter purple in the sunlight. Its a soothing color. My main thoughts in picking it were 1. this is one of Karen's favorite colors, and when I saw the yarn in the store I thought of her and 2. baby spitup wouldn't show too much on this color.) About the machine washing: what is the point of giving someone a handknit baby item if it can't be washed in the machine?

You can see that it is not nearly so kite-shaped now that its blocked, though traces of its kite-nature remain in the way two of the corners want to be more pointy than the other two. Oh well. I'm sure Karen won't care. So long as the blanket is warm and comfy.

Another picture:

This is my lumpy, bumpy left-handed sweater. For the two of you who read this blog, this is the sweater I learned to knit continental-style on, taught this summer by the beautiful Libby at Water Street yarns. The sweater that started out as a bag, but I switched to a sweater after I discovered that the dimensions of the bag exactly matched the dimensions of my waist.

I've reached a stop-and-think-for-a-while place with this sweater. Thought about the possibility of salmon-colored sleeves for more than a few days, even knit a piece of one of those sleeves, though I ultimately rejected that idea. Now I am thinking: short sleeves, with that light green fuzzy stuff around the edges. Anybody have any ideas, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

You can see that even though I am wearing the sweater over my bathrobe as I take the picture of my own self this morning, that it fits, though the shoulders are a bit lumpy. (am hoping these smooth out in the block, though they may not, given that its yarn-nature is thick-n-thin.)

I am going to have to take this sweater outside and take a picture of it on a nice sunny day. You really can't see the colors of the yarn. Which, by the way, is Artful yarns Cartoon. I don't believe its any longer available (I bought the skeins at something like $4 each at a big end-of-season sale at some yarn store in Middletown NJ.) It is primarily a light olive green color but it also has pinks and yellows and purples and oranges mixed it. Lovely, if fuzzy. Exceedingly warm.

Finally pictures of FO's

2005-10-04T22:41:00.000-04:00

The socks are finished. Knit from Plymouth yarns Sockotta. One ball really is enough to make a pair of socks. I had plenty left over. Though I did adapt the pattern and make the ankle shorter--these are really more like tall anklets than fullblown socks.

2005-10-04T22:38:00.000-04:00

Here they are on my feet. I am so psyched that they fit! Wore them all day today and they were very comfy. The pattern was very easy--the Yankee knitter pattern--the most impressive part of the project is that I used size 1 needles. And despite that managed to finish them both.

2005-10-04T22:22:00.000-04:00

Here is a rather dark dingy picture of the blanket for Karen. You will notice that it is kite-shaped. That is an unfortunate result of my decision to knit this blanket in stockinette stitch rather than in the recommended garter stitch. Oh well. I am posting this dismal picture so as to shock you all completely when I block the blanket and it comes out SQUARE. (at least I hope it does!) It is blocking right now, as I write.

FOs!

2005-09-30T11:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a landmark day: I finished knitting my blankie for Karen's baby AND also the pink/purple/orange socks! Pictures coming up this evening!
Well, I almost finished. I still have to weave in ends and block them and so on...but all the stitches are knitted, and that's the most important part. I need to plan a blocking party, wash the blanket (the label says the yarn is machine washable...dare I believe it?) and dunk my green sweater, which has just been sitting and waiting for me to get back to it.

Boring, boring

2005-09-24T14:34:00.000-04:00

How do those other blogging knitters ever find new things to post about every single day? I sure can't. Most of the time the only thing I have to say is "worked a few more rows on [fill in the blank] project."

Right now I am powering through this baby blanket--gift for Karen, or rather, gift for her NEW BABY (I am definitely excited!). Nearly there. Its one of these corner-to-corner blankets, and I am about 3/4 done, which means that I am working my way towards the last corner, and the rows keep coming faster and faster. Its sure gratifying. I should be finished with it by the end of the weekend, and then I hope to post pictures.

I don't think Karen reads this blog. Karen, if you do read this, you better comment and let me know, so I don't post pics until AFTER the shower!

Those pink/orange/purple socks are also nearly done, thanks to the long dry conference I attended yesterday. The conference was focused on new treatments and outlooks on schizophrenia. Though I was mostly focused on that baby blanket for Karen and then the socks.

I hadn't intended to knit on the socks (which are my back-up purse project). I wanted to get as much done on the blanket as possible, but it was so damned cold at the conference, my friends were all freezing. I was cozy with the baby blanket on my lap. But in the afternoon I took mercy on my friend Joe Morgan, who had no blazer on like I had, and I gave him my 3/4 finished blanket and he draped it around his shoulders to keep warm. He and it looked very nice together. I wish I had a camera so I could show the rest of you how he looked with the knitting needles around his neck! But alas, I still don't have my camera in working order. You will just have to imagine it.

So while Joe was wearing my one knitting project, I pulled the other (the socks) out of my purse and worked steadily through the afternoon. The result is that I have only the toe left to knit on the second sock. So those too should be finished by the end of the weekend.

The moral of the story is, always have a secondary knitting project in case one of your friends is cold and needs to wear your primary WIP.

knitting progress

2005-09-15T22:40:00.000-04:00

Its a funny idea, knitting progress. Since knitting is so slow, the word progress doesn't really describe it. Knitting progresses kind of the same way the planets move across the sky. You know they're moving but you don't really see it happen.

In any case, I think I'm going to get my camera back in action tomorrow, so I'll post pictures of this wild sweater in "progress". I'm not sure about this sweater--it may be beautiful, or it may be spectacularly ugly. I guess we'll see. It will be striking.

twidding my needles

2005-09-14T19:46:00.000-04:00

I need to figure out a more reliable way to get pictures onto the computer. My main excuse for not blogging is not having ready pictures of my WIPs. I actually do have some progress to report. My green sweater that I am knitting continental style is coming along--the front and back are both done and I am working on salmon-colored sleeves for it. It will be wild when its finished.

I really struggled with the neckline of the sweater: the wool yarn I am using for the body is so stretchy, but the soft fuzzy stuff I am using around the neck is actually pretty inflexible. So it took some creativity (adding lots of extra stitches around the edge during the bind-off process, as per my friend Zelphia's suggestion) to make the neckline lie flat.

I went back and forth about whether the sweater needed sleeves at all--since there is a whole set of sweater-vests in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting, I flirted for a while with the idea of leaving this green sweater a vest. But once I saw it put together I decided that the shoulders were too heavy looking to be left like they were. The sweater needed sleeves.

In other desperately interesting Abby's-knitting-news, the socks I am knitting out of the pink, purple and orange Sockotta are coming along magically. Done with one, working steadily on the foot of the second. I can't wait to wear them--since I am, for the first time, keeping these socks for myself.

And Karen's baby blanket is about half done. I need to finish it soon, though--the baby shower is coming up soon!

The romper, finished at last

2005-08-29T20:10:00.000-04:00

As if the romper was the most important thing that happened this weekend.

As you can see, even more important was the party we had for Alex, for his first birthday! It is pretty amazing, look at him, he is so big and healthy. And he has such a great smile.

The party was wonderful. So many people who've been watching Alex's growth and supporting his parents were in attendence. (for an exhaustive description of Alex's birth and illnesses and surguries, etc., see www.thenortonzoo.com and then click on "weblog for baby boy Norton".) The food was awesome. The cake was great. And the babies were cuddly. What else could I want at a party?

So. Back to the romper. I started it back in May with some random yarn I had in my stash--Classic Elite Provence, 100% Mercerized Cotton. Don't ask me how it washes up--I skipped that crucial part of the process. I am ashamed to say I didn't wash my gauge swatch. The pattern was a free one off the "Lion Brand" website, and my gauge was a bit small--I think I got 6 stitches to the inch when the pattern called for 5.5--but I didn't like the drape of the fabric on the larger needles, too holey, so I knit the largest size on the pattern, but in measuring the length I went with the medium-sized measurements. I think that guesstimation worked out all right this time. I also adjusted the pattern a bit, because after I spent some time with the baby I realized that he really needed snaps in the crotch, with the diaper-changing and feeding through the g-tube and changing clothes and all. So rather than sew up the seams the way the pattern said to do, I picked up lots of stitches in the crotch and essentially added two button bands there. Oh, and another adaptation I made was to put snaps on the button bands rather than put in buttons and buttonholes. But I'm a bit worried the snaps won't stay sewed on.

I've got lots of other worries about this romper. For example, I was afraid that by the time I finished it, he would be too big to wear it. But you can see by the picture that its taller than he is. So even though we didn't put it on him, it seems pretty safe to say that he should be able to wear it, at least for a few months. That's if his parents can bring themselves to put it on him. It may be too wild to wear. A couple of people have suggested that I knit a clown hat to match the suit, so that at the very least Alex can wear it as a Halloween costume.

Other worries: I don't know how its going to wash up. (I didn't have time to wash and block it myself--I was literally finishing it at the birthday party.) I don't know, it might fall apart, or all those lovely colors might run together. I guess we'll see. Kari probably won't ever tell me if something disastrous happens--she can guess how much time went into the knitting. So I'll never know, one way or the other, what happens. But it doesn't really matter, does it? Its the process of knitting, the love for Alex I poured into the romper, that is what really matters. The thing itself is secondary. Though I do hope Dan and Kari get some use out of it.

Alex seemed to like the romper. I handed it to him and he started playing peek-a-boo with it. That's my boy! Its always good to play with your clothes.

Practicing safe socks

2005-08-17T15:31:00.000-04:00

Took this picture of Terrill a few weeks later, when we were all in Michigan together at Bill's ancestral cabin on Lake Michigan. For those of you who have never met Terrill, she is Bill's son Ryan's fiancee. Got that? Ryan (Bill's son) and Terrill are going to get married to each other next year.

I made the pink and orange socks Terrill is wearing of Lana Grossa Cool Wool Merino 2000. Really a nice yarn for socks, though its not technically a "sock yarn", so very very soft. It would be lovely for baby sweaters, its so warm and soft and luxurious. The needles I used were size 3, which feel monstrously big in my hands now that the socks I am presently working on are size 1. Terrill's socks came out beautifully, though a bit small for a big-footed person like myself. (I didn't do a gauge swatch. See how important it is to do a gauge swatch?) So I gave the socks to small-footed Terrill. And I think she liked them, and it makes me happy to know that they are going to a good home.

I taught Terrill how to knit in Michigan, and she picked it up quickly. She's one of those types who understands immediately how knitting works, a scientific knitter-type. My sister-in-law, Kari, is another one who picked up the concepts of knitting right away. In both their cases, they were immediately knitting beautiful, smooth, even, mistake-free rows. They took to it effortlessly, and seemed almost disappointed by how easy it was for them. They don't understand how the rest of us struggled.

Ryan is apparently learning to knit but I have never seen him do it. He is one of those SECRETIVE knitters. He certainly wasn't going to bring his project along where his father could watch him and tease him. But someday I hope to post a picture of all of us knitting away happily together.

What I did on my summer vacation

2005-08-17T15:29:00.000-04:00

Well, this picture pretty much says it all.

I'm sitting on the futon couch in our cabin in Maine, eating pie, drinking coffee, reading a Harper's Magazine and knitting on Alex's romper, which is almost finished. Aren't those colors great? Next to me is a shopping bag from the new yarn store that opened up in Readfield, only about two miles from our cabin. Can you believe the luck? Of all the places a yarn store could have landed, it had to land in the middle of nowhere, Readfield ME, within walking distance of two of the most fanatical knitters I know: my mother and myself.

Maranacook yarns--that's the name of the yarn store--keeps funny hours. Only Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 3-7 PM. And yet somehow I figured out how to sneak over there three times during my short vacation, and I bought something each time.

Add to that the nearness of Water Street Yarns in Hallowell, ME. Which has an amazing selection of yarns and the delightful owner and teacher-in-residence, the beforementioned Libby. I went there three times and bought piles and piles of yarn, I am ashamed to admit.

And...when we were in Michigan, I found another great yarn store, Nautical Yarn, in Ludington. Can you believe it? Because it felt to me like a dream come true. There is not much else in Ludington. But there is a top-notch yarn store, large and well-stocked with anything you could possibly need. I bought some sock yarn there, some lovely Merino wool and the Sockotta mentioned below. The Yarn Harlot calls sock yarn Methadone for knitters. Its really true. Buying sock yarn means that one can go into a store and buy only one or two balls of yarn. And yet somehow I found myself buying SIX balls of sock yarn at Nautical Yarns...Methadone is still a drug, people!

Because of all this purchasing this summer, I now announce that I am going on a yarn-buying fast, which I am not going to break until after Easter of 2006. Really, I am not depriving myself. I have enough yarn to carry me through 2008. I just need to keep reminding myself of this sorry fact, whenever I feel weak and start lurking around on Ebay, looking for good deals.

Back in Maine

2005-08-11T10:44:00.000-04:00

It feels like I've been all over the world on this endless vacation I took from my job. Now, if I were a good blogger, I would have blogged from every corner, notating every little knitting enterprise, for all the hundreds of people who look daily at my blog. Or at least I would have blogged how sorry and disappointed in myself I am for not blogged (this seems to be the most common feeling people express on their blogs). But I haven't even done that.

I have been knitting. Lots and lots. I keep plugging away at my numerous projects. I would like to post pictures but I don't have a handy camera. Someday soon (when I get home) I will have to post a flood of pictures.

I'm nearly done with the romper for Alex. Only a bit of one sleeve left to finish, then a few more snaps on the front, and then tacking down the collar with a bit of thread to keep it from flying up. I've been spending the past couple days with the baby who will receive the romper, and I hope he will like it. Red seems to be his favorite color, and there is quite a lot of red and other primary colors which I hope will delight him (for the two days he's able to wear it before he grows out of it--sigh--).

The mysterious bag has now--all of a sudden--become a mysterious sweater. Here's how it all started: I bought this pile of Artful Yarns Cartoon at a yarn shop in Middletown NJ that was having a clearance sale. It was so cheap--something like $4 a skein--that I couldn't resist it. I was thinking I would make a bag out of it, and then full it (it wouldn't completely felt because it has some rayon content) to make it stronger. This was the project I soon decided to use for my left-hand knitting practice.

When I was in Maine a few weeks ago I went over to Water Street Yarns in Hallowell and made instant friends with the owner there--the lovely lady Libby--and asked her to teach me to knit Continental-style. I managed to pick it up pretty quick, but I still find that I can only do it if I am using a stretchy wool yarn (cotton isn't forgiving enough). I practiced the new technique on my Cartoon bag.

But while I was thinking fulled bag, fulled bag, as I knit, this other thought kept running through my heart...the bag would so nicely fit around my waist, what if I were to make it into a sweater instead? So after thinking about this for a long while, I finally decided to make the change. The mystery bag has now become a mystery sweater. I would so like to show you how it is looking--coming together really very well--but again, no pictures. You'll just have to wait and see.

Finished the pink and orange socks, and gave them to Terrill, Ryan's fiance, who (with her petite feet) looks much nicer in them than I would have. Those were knit out of Lana Grossa cool wool (Merino--delicious, so soft). Some day I'll post a picture of Terrill in the socks.

Nearly finished with Bill's stole, which needs only fringe.

And working on another pair of socks out of Sockotta, a wool and cotton blend--using, God help me, size 1 needles (the SMALLEST needles I've ever used), a sort of pink and orange and purple yarn which self-stripes. I'll finish them maybe by 2009.

And also working on a beautiful cotton baby blanket using Blue Sky cotton in this purply gray color to give to my friend Karen, who is, surprise surprise, have a baby. I can't wait to knit her about six more baby things.

2005-06-24T16:27:00.000-04:00

Well, I traveled to upstate New York last week. I went to a chaplains' conference for all the chaplains in my denomination, the Reformed Church in America. I won't go into all that happened at the conference, only to say that I knitted much of a pink and orange sock, and also part of a mysterious bag that I can't describe here because of reasons I can't share in this space. (more about this bag later.) I also spent time with my baby nephew Alex and determined that yes indeed, the romper I am knitting for him should fit, at least for a while. That's a secret relief for me.
I wish I could post pictures of these projects in process but at the moment my camera is stuck in New York, with my knitting. That was the tragedy of the week. I left all my knitting behind at my friends' house! Terrible! I felt so lost! I had to start yet another new project, so I wouldn't feel so bereft...so I think that makes six project in process at the moment...a shawl, a stole for Bill, a baby blanket, those before-mentioned pink and orange socks, the mysterious bag, and the famous romper which I hope to finish before long. I can't wait to post pictures of the romper!!!

2005-06-24T16:24:00.000-04:00

The most important knitter in my life: my mother Gloria. The woman who taught me to knit (though she doesn't remember, I do!) My mom is making a beautiful red and white shawl. She is a champion shawl knitter, constantly producing shawls for her church, which has a thriving shawl ministry.