Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Oh.  My.  Gosh.

I was going to post tonight, since I wasn't going to make it to the Tuesday night knit-in (soccer mom duties called) and wanted to partake in SOME kind of knitting-in-community.

But uberimma said a package was arriving for me today at Woven Art, and that I shouldn't eat too much dinner, and maybe someone at Woven Art could take it to the guild meeting that night.  Ooh, I thought.  Latkes?

At five minutes before closing today, Nancy at Woven Art told me via the telephone that the UPS guy hadn't arrived yet, but she strongly suggested that I try to make it to the guild meeting tonight.  I skipped dinner, hoping for latkes.

At 8:20 p.m., as I was nearing the church where the Guild meeting had been in progress since 7:00 (did you hear that, Erika?  Now I'm hypersensitive about that!), Nancy called me on my cell phone to make sure I was on my way.  Perhaps the latkes were getting cold?

It's a sad reflection of the state of my brain that none of these events seemed suspicious to me, and that all I could think of was food.

When I arrived, Nancy, sitting in the back with a big cardboard box on her lap, waved me over and then promptly ignored me, so I sat quietly and waited.

A few minutes later, the Guild president asked Nancy if she would like to say something.  Nancy stood up, handed me the box, and said it was from uberimma in uberimma-land, and "from us".

What?

I knew about the uberimma part, but "from us", too?  What the heck?  Did they help make the latkes?  Did they want me to share the latkes with them?  But they said "from us", not "for us".  Hmm.

I opened the box. 

On top?  A package of baked latke crisps. 

Ha!  I was right!  Not homemade, though . . .

Underneath?

Oh.  My.  Gosh.

Oh, wait -- I already said that. 

Just look here:

(sorry -- late night flash photography, although the colors are actually fairly true)

You know those blankets, where you knit a square and send it off to be put together and then it gets presented to someone?  I've knit for a few of those myself.

Well, tonight?  I was that someone.

Why me, I asked?  Well, as Diane so aptly put it, "Your Dad died, and you've been having a pretty shitty year."  Oh, yeah -- that.  Okay then.

I hugged everyone I could get my arms (and blanket) around, but I know a lot of you weren't there tonight.  I owe you all a big hug, and I hope you know how much this means to me.  I'm actually not exactly sure what to think of all this yet -- I'm still feeling quite a bit overwhelmed.  I'll be matching names and squares for a while -- I'm seeing some now I overlooked the first time through . . .

I'm DEFINITELY feeling the love.  Thank you!

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go curl up in my new blankie.  And eat the pizza I picked up on the way home from the Guild meeting . . .

Sarah

Tuesday, April 3, 2007   

It's Spring Break!  I'm on vacation!  We're not going anywhere!  But I've been knitting!

I finished my Broadripple Socks:

If I had it to do again, I'd make them an inch shorter in the leg, but otherwise I really like them!  These are actually from a different, finer gauge, version of the Broadripple Socks than the one published in the Summer 2003 issue of Knitty.com.  I think it was on the ThreadBear website at one point, or maybe on Rob's blog, but I can't find it now.  Rob?  Help?

The Ballybrae V-Neck is nearing completion:

Isn't that the most gorgeous sweater you've ever seen in your whole life?  No?  Well, it fits perfectly and it will be very useful.  And it's from stash, so that's a good thing.  It's also quite scratchy, so I'm hoping a good dunk in some wool wash will soften it up a bit (quite a bit, actually!).  I bought some Soak to try -- I usually use Eucalan, but I ran out.

The sleeves on my Fair Isle Cardigan are almost done:

The left one needs one more pattern stripe and one more of those feathery stripes, and the right one needs two of each.  I'll set it aside for just a little bit longer when I run out of the lighter natural color.  There's no deadline on this, and I want to pick my Mom's afghan back up (now that I received the rest of the yarn for THAT project in the mail) so I can finish it in time for Mother's Day in May.  I've also got a custom knitting job arriving soon, which will have a four week deadline, so THAT will obviously get bumped to the top of the list as soon as it arrives.  And two more Christmas stockings by the end of the year . . .

March's entry for the UFO Resurrection involved some more negative knitting:

The yarn in these two bags used to be a vest that was fun to make, but that I never wore.  On the left is some hand dyed, hand spun yarn from my friend Jacquie, which will be added to some more of her yarn that I have been collecting over the years.  On the right is some mohair I got from Bendigo Woolen Mills in Australia quite a few years ago.  I don't know what that's going to become, but it's a lovely yarn, so it was worth saving.

I'm not sure what April's UFO Resurrection project will be.  If I get the Fair Isle Cardigan done, I'd like to put Celtic Dreams back into rotation.  There are plenty of other choices waiting, though.  I'll keep you posted.

I went to a quilt show on Sunday, put on by one of the big local quilt guilds.  Very inspirational!  I finally found a pattern I want to use for my very own quilt for my very own bed.  I need to finish the quilts I'm making for my sons first, though, so hopefully I'll go back to "the studio" (aka, the basement) during this vacation week and get those going again.

I walked two miles yesterday.  I made the kids get up off their butts, and the three of us walked to "downtown" Haslett for supper.  Husband Number One, who has been under the weather lately, drove down to meet us, and then gave us a ride back.  Our walk took us past the elementary school playground, the church where Son Number Two takes piano lessons, the library, the post office, a bunch of places to eat, and almost to the video store, grocery store, and quilt store.  All good places to walk to in the near future, although I may have to do it alone.  The kids weren't exactly thrilled, although they didn't complain.  Probably because they were busy listening to whatever it is they were listening to on those headphones . . . our conversation was a little one-sided (mine!).

Sarah

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