Bad Timing

I'm wondering if I can celebrate one week of yarn moratorium? I didn't even think about purchasing any yarn. But this arrived in the mail:
It's the July yarn -- Blue Sky -- for the Yarntini sock yarn club. I really did (sadly) email Jessica and explain I had to withdraw. But my timing must have coincided with her mailing.

Sigh.

Mystical Experience

If Rebecca was not visiting, I would never have done this:We are kayaking under a full moon, an event at our local boathouse. I'm an early-to-bed kind of girl. But my niece Rebecca wanted to go so badly that I could not say no. And I'm glad I didn't. We went with a group of friends, and it was absolutely mystical. The moon was huge and luminous; three Great Blue Herons were spotted on the far shore, and a light mist hovered over the water's surface. I can't believe I was going to turn down this opportunity!

Here's a picture of some of the group. Pictures, by the way, are courtesy of my talented friend, Lisa.

Knitting note: I was just on the Good Reads site and saw an ad for a new book entitled "Stash," which inspired this comment:

You know you're a knitting nerd when the word "stash" does not bring marijuana to mind!

My 10-year-old niece is visiting from Washington, D.C., and we are having so much fun. One afternoon we played with polymer clay for four hours -- and I didn't have to feel guilty because I was just being a good host, right?

She loves our collection of Barbies and related paraphernalia, which has an added bonus for me. I was afraid that some of my most beloved Barbie clothes were lost. They were knit for me in the 1960s, by my beloved babysitter, Vi. But Rebecca found them! And here they are:



Oh, you want a closer look? No problem:
Aren't they adorable? I especially love the turquoise suit.

Some miscellaneous knitting notes from the blogosphere:

I just noticed that My Fibre Obsessed Life has a kntting tattoo! I usually hate tattoos (which is probably why my son felt compelled to get two large ones) but this one made me smile. You can see it here!

At Knittywhipped you can read a sad but all-too-common tale about that trap we all fall into: seeing a problem in our knitting but hoping that it will fix itself -- which it rarely does!

FO Friday

It's not a terribly exciting FO but I never tire of plain vanilla socks knit in beautiful self-striping yarn, like these:
These are a birthday present but I'm not saying who the recipient is. They are based on Ann Budd's 7 stitches per inch pattern. I cast on 64, knit an inch of k1 p1 ribbing and the rest is standard, including a slip-stitch heel and a wedge toe. I like this color SO much that I've started a second pair for me!

Since there isn't much to say about this project, my mind keeps wandering back to the Damson shawlette, which I blogged about a few days ago here. When Bells told me that she was unable to finish this one, I knew I was in trouble. She has knit a lot of complex lace shawls. Virginia renamed it Damn-son! Heather of Implausible Yarn said that she's beginning to feel like any shawl that claims to be easy is actually not, at least for her -- and I'm feeling the same way!

At this point, I've put it aside. I'm feeling almost afraid to pick it up!

What patterns have stumped you?

P.S. DD took the excellent photo!

I Mean It This Time

No more yarn.

I repeat, no more yarn ... at least until Jan. 1, 2011.

This morning I drove down to Stoughton, a cute little town about 25 miles south of Madison, with my friend Marsha. We knitted in a coffee shop, grabbed lunch, and poked around the stores on Main Street. Of course, one of the stores just happened to be a yarn store. I really was restrained and only bought this:


I could argue that few yarns are as pretty, durable and moderately priced as Trekking XXL -- and I would not be lying -- but the fact is that I have enough pretty, durable yarns in my stash.

There are always more beautiful yarns to be had -- and they are not hard to find. Ads on Ravelry; yarn stores when I travel; LYS's; knitting blogs; Etsy ... the world seems to have an infinite number of luscious yarns. However, I do not have an infinite amount of time for knitting.

There are long discussions about the urge to stash yarn on Ravelry, and an infinite variety of views on the subject. For me, buying yarn is a way of capturing beauty and promising the future pleasure of using a well-made material. Yarns spark my creativity!

But there is also a dark side, and that is the inescapable pull of our consumption-based society. Why do I need to own the yarn? Why isn't it enough for me just to know these beauties exist in the world? However, I also feel the same pull when I take pictures of an ocean's rocky coast -- I want to take this specific beauty home with me. Like most things, the urge to acquire is a coin with two sides.

This issue of consuming goods has interested me for a long time, and I have a short list of books on the topic that I want to read, beginning with Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole by Benjamin Barber.

My friend Marsha wants a yarn moratorium, too, but she's set a tentative end-date of mid-September. It will be nice to have companionship for a while!

How Can This Be So Hard?

As I mentioned earlier, I thought it would be fun to take a shawlette traveling, so I decided to launch into Ysolda Teague's Damson. This was not my most brilliant idea.

Ysolda describes it as a pattern "that’s fun to knit and easy to wear." I hope it is easier to wear than to knit! In a full week, I failed to complete even the garter-stitch portion -- and not for lack of knitting time. I spent plenty of time knitting ... and then frogging ... and then re-knitting. For reasons I cannot explain, I can't seem to keep those lines of yarn overs straight! I sweat the markers are moving around just to confuse me!

I was more successful at taking photos of my neices and nephew. They are all so smart and beautiful and engaging. I am a very lucky aunt!

Alas! No photos!

I had the most wonderful knitting experience, one that is perfect for photos -- but I was having SO much fun that I forgot to whip out my camera!

I'm visiting my brother and his family in Williamsburg, which puts me a short distance from Norfolk, home to Rose of Sand in My Yarn. We clicked easily on line, and no wonder: We both have two college-age kids, survived divorces to find new love and teach 8th grade! Rose was gracious enough to drive up to Williamsburg to knit and chat in the flesh! We met at the wonderful LYS, Knitting Sisters, and were deep into conversation within 30 seconds of meeting!

There was a large group knitting at the store, which was a good thing. I can't spend too much time in KS without convincing myself that I must purchase something! We went across the street to a coffee shop and talked like old friends! And this is the real genius of the Internet and blogging. Every now and then you find a true friend, someone you like and trust from the start.

Thanks for meeting me, Rose. You are awesome!

P.S. My SIL had helped me Mapquest KS and made sure I had her cell number in case my blog friend turned out to be a serial killer! Shows you how much she knows about knitters, huh?