Off to a good start, I think hope

Warning: I am long-winded today.

On Sunday evening I did a little New Year's organizing on the desktop. I was cleaning up my KnitAble program, which I use to keep track of everything knitting, from my needle and yarn inventory to all the projects I have completed or that are on needles. I was quite surprised to find that I had just seven unfinished projects!

Yes, of course I started another pair of socks. This one is in that beautiful Fleece Artist color called "Woodland Twilight," but for some reason all I can think of while I 'm knitting are my father's Harris Tweed jackets. He loved wearing them throughout his life, and he wore a few of them to pieces. One of my earliest memories is of the LifeSaver peppermints that would come from those jacket pockets, always with a little fleck of tobacco attached. I can still smell them. But I digress...

This is very nice yarn. I mean delicious. I love the way the colors work together. I fell in love with hand-painted yarns a long time ago, and I feel like I've come to know what kind of yarn I will get from each company -- how patterns will look, if the colors will pool or stripe, etc. I choose accordingly. When I try a new yarn, though, I have to be willing to be surprised. With each row of this sock I find myself saying things like, "Oh, goody! The red gets to sit next to the brown this time!" Or, "Hey, that gold just turned green!" Surprises keep things interesting.

I could have used any old sock pattern, but since the yarn was new to me, I thought it deserved something different. Not fussy, though -- no lace or cables this time. I got out my copy of Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks and started browsing. I haven't spent much time with this book yet (or with my other new sock book, Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, but I'll get to it eventually). Within five minutes I knew I wanted to make a pair of Garter Rib socks. It's a simple stitch pattern, and the look of the little garter bumps next to the smooth knit stitches is just what I was looking for. As long as I was at it, I thought I'd go ahead and use the book's formulas and techniques. Me, follow a pattern exactly? Yes, almost. This is perfect travel knitting, too, because it's practically mindless. So here's what I'm doing:

• Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino, 350 yd skein, Woodland Twilight
• Pattern: Garter Rib (Four-Stitch Pattern) from Sensational Knitted Socks
• Needles: 2.5mm/US 1.5 bamboo dpn's
• Gauge: Something close to 8 spi in both ribbing and stockinette
• Modifications so far: The cuff & leg measures 6" instead of the usual long-legged person's idea of how long a sock should be. I use less yarn. So there.

I'll be leaving for Maryland in a couple of days, and I hope I'll be able to take at least three pairs of socks in progress. There will be lots of knitting time in the airport, on the plane, and in the nursing home where my mom is to do rehab for the next few weeks. My job is always more demanding at this time of year than I expect, so I have just a few days that I can manage to be away.

I'm feeling the pressure, too -- yesterday my dentist told me that I have to stop clenching my jaw and teeth. A night guard is in the works, but what about the other eighteen hours? So, one of my Plans is to take better care of myself, generally, and to address specifically how I react to and handle stress. Up until this past year I handled it pretty well; I even almost conquered my tendency to eat when stressed or upset. My Plan is pretty simple, and it starts with paying attention to my physical and emotional self.

I am doing that today by taking the day off -- even though I was going to go to work because I have to be gone from Friday through Sunday and there's so much to do and most of it has to start with me because I have to pull the returns and my house is a mess and there's sand all over the place because I walked around in the shoes I wore to the beach and don't even look at the litter box and boy, do I want to put that Christmas stuff away. So what have I been doing? It's noon. I slept in till 7 (hey, I'm usually practically out the door by then). I'm still in my pj's. I'm about to get dressed and mosey over to Sag Harbor to get the mail. Then I'll come home, put on a DVD, throw in a load of laundry, and knit. I might vacuum and clean the litter box. No, I will. The alternative is just too disgusting, even for slobby old me.

~:~

I am really enjoying being a part of the 2006 ABC-Along. Folks have already begun posting their first images, and it's fun and inspiring to see what they've come up with. There's a button over on my sidebar with links to the ABC-Along ring. If you have a few minutes, go see what everyone's up to. We have until January 13 to post our A's, and then two weeks for B, and so on.

~:~

There. I think I've run out of wind. If you've made it this far, you're a real trooper, and I thank you.

Welcoming the New Year

"A" is for

Annabelle.

(for Anne's ABC-Along)

~:~

I finished another knitting project in time for the New Year. It's a scarf for my mother, started on Thursday while I was waiting to hear news about the surgery to repair her hip, which she broke in a fall on Wednesday night. It was a tough year for her, and this was a crappy way to see the year out, but we think she'll be okay. I'll be going down to be with her later in the week, and I'll have this little Love Scarf to wrap around her.The yarn: A strand of Cherry Tree Hill Merino (not Supersock) in the Spanish Moss colorway, along with a strand of KidSilk Haze in Dewberry. The needles: US 8. The pattern: My old favorite Mistake Rib, which can be found in most stitch dictionaries, but which is really just a K2P2 rib offset by an extra stitch. The stats: I knit until I ran out of yarn (288 yards of CTH) and the scarf is about 5.5 by 38 inches. It's very stretchy, and the shorter length suits my mom. And the halo created by the KidSilk is just heavenly.

Here's a real test of my Knitting Resolve -- the Fleece Artist yarn I ordered on Monday arrived on Saturday. The colors are (from top to bottom) Woodland Twilight, Autumn Glen, and Paris Dream. I have, um, let's just say several pairs of socks near completion or halfway done or just started. Do I have any business starting another pair? Sure I do!

~:~

It's become a little New Year's Day tradition of mine to go to the ocean and breathe deeply for a few minutes. This morning I encountered a jubilant band of Polar Bear Plungers (otherwise known as lunatics whose tradition it is to swim in the ocean on New Year's Day). Here's a picture for Bess (without the Plungers): And my "Self-Portrait with Here and There Scarf," taken on Shinnecock Bay a few minutes later:The weather is so changeable here that you never know what to expect. In one hour this morning it went from cloudy and calm, to windy and clear, to overcast and damp, which is how it's remained.

A little like Life, eh?

~:~

P.S. Happy Birthday to Cara!

Winding down

I woke on Christmas morning to this strange and beautiful sight:

Christmas Morning comes to my door, 7:00 AM

Which, happily, became this:

Sagg Main Beach, Sagaponack, 11:30 AM

It was raining by sunset, though. I had some help with my last-minute wrapping before heading out the door:

And then I had a lovely Christmas Day with J and her family...

Even the camera was tired by 8:30 PM

...and a quiet, relaxing Boxing Day in my own little home. I am still struggling to recover from the last push at work, so I need some quiet hours at home with Miss Annabelle, Comfort Knitting, and some good music. Thanks to J, I have this new-to-me artist to enjoy.

~:~

This week between Christmas and the New Year is always a reflective time for me, and I can feel myself begin to settle inward, to wrap myself up in my own thoughts. I try to tune out the external chatter, to become quieter and slower on purpose. It's a time for breathing deeply, and doing nothing too demanding.

I cast on a new pair of socks last night, even though I told myself I would wait. They're going to be the definitive Happy Feet socks. I did a little online yarn crawl, too, ordering a few skeins of Socks That Rock and some Fleece Artist Merino. It's Cara's doing; she posted a beautiful picture of some Fleece Artist yarn, and that gave me ideas...

I'm looking forward to a nice long winter of knitting socks and maybe a sweater, of spinning silk and merino and a little bit of cashmere, and of making room for the real Rick Reeves wheel that I decided I get to have after all.

It's time

"Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, Love divine;

Love was born at Christmas,

Star and angels gave the sign."

Christina Rossetti

It's time to put up the little tree, drape the lights, and arrange the ornaments. It's time to smile and remember what these treasures mean -- this little sheep was my mother's when she was a little girl, as was the blown glass ball -- and they represent love and family to me.

It's time to celebrate the Solstice and the return of the sun. It returns ever so slowly, it seems, as winter is just beginning. Winter is for peace and quiet, for knitting and spinning, for looking inward and making plans.

It's time to let the frenzy recede, though only in my own heart, because the next few days at work will be anything but calm and peaceful. I say I am taking the day off today, but that's not true. After I post this I'll be on my way to the store to order books. Silver Spoon Cookbook, if I can get any. Illustrated Elements of Style. Tasha Tudor's version of Night Before Christmas. Anything else? Oh, I'm sure there is a long, long list.

It's time to say Thank You to all of you who read this, who have shared your knitting and your lives through your writing, who have made me laugh out loud, who have opened your arms and hearts to me this year, and who have become my dear friends.

It's time to sing and dance and celebrate with loved ones near or far -- with nog or cider, with too much chocolate or too many cookies (or both). Off we go, then!

~:~

Edited at 5:30 pm to add: The phone rang as I was deep into decorating the tree (I've gotten as far as lights, and antique tiny shiny things, and the handmade stuff is next). It was my so-called "not obsessed about knitting" sister, reporting that she was just in Stitch DC buying some mohair for a scarf, and she found "something called Noro." Need I say more? Oh, and I already sent her a copy of At Knit's End for Christmas.