Reviving a blog

What's it been...a year? Yep, almost to the day. And I'm reviving my knitting blog. Some might wonder what the point is. I might wonder, too, if I didn't have a project in mind.

Some time ago, I picked up Inspired to Knit by Michelle Rose Orne, and fell in love with each and every garment in the book. Seriously. Well, okay, I confess that I'm iffy on the fair isle capelet, and the Lily of the Valley shrug, but only because this type of garment isn't particularly flattering. Everything else...wowza!

So I had this idea. I'm gonna knit every single garment in that book. Every one. Initially, I thought I'd challenge myself to do it in a year. I still think that's possible, but it's not terribly likely. I work full-time and am a single mother with a little girl who's dying for her own hand knits, for starters. Also, Christmas is coming and I plan on knitting gifts from my stash to save some money. So I can't commit all my time to knitting from the book when I have so much more knitting I want to get done. So I'm thinking that I'll give myself as long as it takes, but would like to finish in 18 months, which will give me breaks to do some other knitting along the way.

I can do this one of two ways, and I haven't figured out which way to go. I can start now and kick off my 18 months on September 1. That's my preference, because I'm itching to get started. Or I can wait until I finish the projects that are on my needles - there aren't many - and until I do my Christmas knitting. This is more practical, but a lot less fun. So over the next couple days I'm going to think it over. Then I'll post my decision.

I'm looking forward to this project. It will be pricey, no doubt - I have a love of natural fibers and good yarns - but it will be satisfying, as well. Not to mention the fact that, when I'm finished, I'll have loads of gorgeous knitwear! Who could complain about that?

New socks, two socks, whose socks? My socks!!

I have quite a bit of sock yarn in my stash. I love it. It's so pretty and soft. Plus, there are colorways that I wouldn't touch for projects I'll wear next to my face but, for socks, anything goes. I love it all.

Ironically, though, with all this sock yarn in my stash I never knit socks. Oh, I cast on a pair for Emma once and even turned the heel but, after doing such a crappy job at picking up stitches for the gusset I frogged the thing.

Then, Ravelympics came along. For those who don't know, the Ravelympics corresponded with the Summer Olympic games. You join a team (I was on the Give 'Em Hill team), pick an event, and cast on during the opening ceremonies. To win a medal you have to bind off by the time the closing ceremonies, well, close.

I chose the Sock Put as my event. The Ravelympics gave me just the push I needed to knit my socks. I used a great colorway, Give 'Em Hill (blue for the Democratic party and yellow for Hillary Clinton's favorite color) and knit, knit, knit. With three days to spare, I finished my socks! I'll be editing this post later to include a picture; frickin' Firefox keeps crashing every time I try to insert an image into my post. Suffice to say I'm happy with the socks (though my kitchener stitch needs some serious work!) and I've already cast on another pair, this time for Emma. I'm using Lisa Souza's Sock! Merino in Berry Poppins. If you don't know Lisa Souza, by all means go here and check out her beautiful yarns. Drool away. And buy! For $18 you get like 520 yards or something awesome like that. Great deal and great yarn.

Commercial over. And it's time for bed. Pictures of my socks to come...

Christmas in July???

I've had nightmares that it was Christmas and I wasn't ready. Seriously, this is enough to have me waking up in a cold sweat. One year my nightmare came true and I realized I'd forgotten to buy a gift for my aunt and uncle. My ex-husband and I had received a George Foreman grill from his dad that year and, since we already had one, we re-gifted the one we got. Well, we got to my aunt's house and, turns out, they already had one, too. So of course my mother (gotta love mothers!) blurts out the entire story and, because I was so sensitive about having forgotten to buy a gift, I burst out crying. Good times.

Why do I bring this up? Because, on that long-ago Christmas, I vowed to never have that happen again. This year, in an effort to keep that vow, I started knitting my mom's sweater in July. Now, I would have thought that working with fluffy animal fibers in July would have me sweating and miserable...but nope! Instead, it has me realizing just how much I love knitting with animal fibers. I'm using Ultra Alpaca for this sweater and yummy-yum-yum! I love this stuff! If I didn't have to give my mom something (thus avoiding the Christmas of the George Foreman Grill Redux) I'm making this blasted sweater for her. I'll just lust after it from afar.

Ravelympics is right around the corner, cutting into my Christmas-knitting time. But I've been looking forward to this for ages, it seems. I'm going to make my first pair of socks for the challenge and I can't wait. I'll be sure to post pics here when they're done. I'm determined to complete these in two weeks. Wish me luck! Cast-on is this Friday and I really can't wait!

Buying locally...it's easy!!

After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I became extremely aware of where my food comes from. While it's awesome being able to buy fresh fruits and vegetables in the dead of winter, the problem is that "fresh" is relative here. As a consequence, I shop more frequently at farmers' markets and am growing some of my own veggies this year. It's a small change and I have far to go (I still can't break the banana habit), but I feel better with every locavore-like choice I make.

With fibers it's a bit more difficult. I love natural fibers and don't often think of where they come from. I do try to support small fiber producers by attending fiber festivals (and, as a bonus, this helps me stay on my yarn diet for most of the year) but, generally, while the local food movement is fairly well-known, local fiber movements are less on my radar.

A change is in the air, however. A recent Cast-On podcast addressed just this very topic; I don't remember the exact episode but it was in series 6 and, besides, I don't have a problem with telling you to go and listen until you find it...Brenda Dayne is that good! She's at www.cast-on.com.

Also making it easier to buy American-grown fibers is a brand-new store: Amia Yarn Company. Take a look at their "Why Buy American?" tab to find out why American-grown fibers are an excellent choice for lovers of natural fibers. If you shop their store, you can read the provenance of each fiber, which is awesome; I love knowing where the animals who donate their hair for my family's warmth can be found. Right now they have alpaca and llama fibers in their store. Fine by me; I love alpaca and, while I have never knit with llama, I feel good about trying llama from Amia Yarn Company.

Commercial over. But seriously, what Amia offers us is an easy way to get the fiber we love while supporting local farmers. And we can easily say "thank you" to the animals who share their warmth with us, maybe even in person. How awesome is that?

Happy Independence Day, USA

I love the 4th of July. The fireworks, the cookouts, the sparklers and glitter and patriotic songs...it's such a cliche, but I feel the pride welling up inside whenever the inevitable moment comes when someone sings "America, The Beautiful" during the fireworks show. It never fails to make me cry...

The thing is, we celebrate Independence Day every year by memorializing the Declaration of Independence and the white men who wrote and signed it. Now, I have no interest in disparaging those brilliant men; what they did was extraordinarily brave and I'm proud to live in the nation they helped to build. But that's a handful of men and there are so many more people, mostly unknown, that fought for liberty that should be remembered. Here I go:

• Joshua Barton, Joel Preston, Peter Young, Valentine Leonard (Sr. and Jr.): these are my direct ancestors who fought for independence, either by participating in the fighting or paying taxes to finance our new government. Joshua Barton also signed the Watauga Petition which resulted in the first government of Tennessee in 1772;
• Nancy Jane Agnew Young, who lost two sons in a far-away state on the same day and found a way to live through unspeakable pain;
• Joseph Young, who fought in the Civil War. Though he fought for the Confederacy, he fought to preserve a life he knew and loved and fought because he felt is was his duty to do so. Despite my seriously disagreeing with the cause for which he fought, I can't help but be proud of him;
• Ivy Peters Cuddy Pearcy Easter, who fought for woman suffrage and, as a result, helped enable me to vote one day;
• Lucinda Short Young Thomas, wife of Joseph Young, who lived to be 94 years old, experienced a life of great loss, and still carried on. She helped to raise my grandmother, her great-grandchild, giving her stability and love for the first 16 years of her life;
• Leonard Jack Beeker, who answered the call to fight in World War II, built airplanes for McDonnell-Douglas, and taught me that men do cry;
• Elizabeth Pearcy Beeker, who grew up to be strong and capable and smart, who taught me a love of history and of family, who introduced me to genealogy through her fabulous stories and who inspired me to become a librarian;
• Sandy Marino, who raised three children by herself (including me) and, every day of her life, modeled strength and courage (and still does!).

This is my family. They were here for those events that made this country the wonderful place it is. They participated in every event, large and small. They offered me freedom simply by living every moment of their lives and gifted me with this amazing nation in which I can live my own moments. I am so grateful and, today, I celebrate them.

Happy Independence Day!!!

Oh, and enjoy this picture of Emma in her Uncle Sam hat. If that child doesn't express joy of freedom and hope for the future, I don't know what does!!

Busy busy busy!!

First, I have to say, holy smokes! Two months since my last blog post! Well, I've been pretty busy, both with my knitting and with other stuff.

First, the knitting. I finished a sleeveless vest made out of a cotton/linen blend. I have yet to put it up on Ravelry, but it's a nice olive color and is comfortable. It has a hood but I knit it too narrow and haven't picked up to add on yet, so I wear the vest without the hood. Maybe one day I'll do the hood but, frankly, the top isn't super-flattering (it's kind of boxy) so I'll wear it for the summer and then...we'll see. It's my first attempt at converting a pattern to being knit in the round and I'm fairly happy with the results of that particular experiment.

I have three projects on the needles: a scarf from Ocean Wonders called Fish Net in a pretty lavender/mind/white colorway and in mercerized cotton. It's not a rectangle but, rather, is a parallelogram. It's an attempt to use up some of my stash and, so far, I'm happy with the results.

The second project is Wisp from Knitty (I don't remember which issue). I got the yarn, Watercolours DK, from a swap (which I posted about earlier) and I luuuuurve it. I'm looking forward to wearing it.

I'm also working on a shrug and am unsure as to what it's going to end up like. Here's why: I cast on with CottonLicious and quickly realized that I didn't have enough. So I went out and picked up Lion Cotton in an identical color; I'm not kidding, they match perfectly! The texture, though, is different, and I joined the cotton at a spot where I change from a 2x2 rib to a slip-stitch false rib so the color looks different. It's an easy knit, however, and I think it will be wearable once it's done. I'll put a picture here and in Ravelry soon.

By the way, I also managed to get my entire stash into Ravelry...gulp! I know it's not as much as some people have but still! I really don't want to think of how much money is tied up in those boxes. The good news is that, now that I know what I have, I can start planning how to use it. The fun fur will be a bit of a problem, but in all the stash isn't too terribly unmanageable.

I've been doing loads of gardening lately and that's what's really gotten me away from the blog. I've planted two gardens this year: the Family Garden and Emma's Garden. Emma's Garden has a bamboo teepee with sugar snap peas and sweet peas growing up it, and also has 13 corn plants; I originally had 21 but moved 8 of them to the Family Garden. Emma's Garden also has a pink dianthus and some beans that she planted while playing for which I'm going to have to add another teepee or something soon.

The Family Garden has dill, oregano, cilantro, and three kinds of basil. It has carrots, beets, garlic, three kinds of tomatoes (including two volunteers from last year), pole beans, scarlet runner beans, black beans, peas, zucchini, watermelon, and Jack Be Little pumpkins. I also planted a birdhouse gourd in another bed where we have trellised blackberries, and I figure the gourd can share space on the trellis. I'm planning on doing some canning this year as well as preserving foods by freezing and drying. I've never had this big of a garden and I'm absolutely loving it! I plan on putting in some cucumbers and tomatillos and planting more beets and carrots later in the season. Oh, and I'll put in lettuce, too; I had one crop already that I had to harvest when it got hot and am loving the lettuce I grew, though I've found that it's hard to get clean; I keep biting into grit...blech!

Food costs being what they are, I'm really hoping that my gardening efforts will make a difference in the grocery bill. I wish I could do more and, one day, I'm sure I will. Right now, space is limited, but every vegetable I grow is one we don't have to buy and, with home-grown veggies being so much better than what's in the store, the work is totally worth it, not to mention being fun!

I'd put in some pictures of the garden but I tried a minute ago and Firefox crashed. I'll try again later, because I'm really proud of it!

Just add yarn

Thngs have been crazy lately. I want to go into great detail but feel like it's in my best interest to hold a bit back. Briefly, I'll say that I've been trying to deal with my daughter's father's attempts to reduce his child support and the methods by which he's trying to force me to agree. I won't badmouth him here, since that would be inappropriate in a public forum. I will say that I doubt his efforts will pay off the way he hopes but, once this is all finished, I plan on trying to accomodate his wishes as best I can. First, though, I have to fight the battle he's started. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, there really is some peace found in knitting. It's the sameness of the stitches that both relaxes and invigorates me. I see how each stitch builds a row, and each row builds a garment, and I'm excited to continue. I imagine what the finished garment will be like, and how I'll feel when I wear it or when I present it to my loved one, and there's joy in the imagining.

The name of my blog is Paknit Button: In Case of Emergency, Just Add Yarn. I was trying to be clever with my naming (something I'm notoriously bad at), but I think, particularly now, it's a perfect name. I feel fear and worry, I pick up my yarn and needles, and I'm soothed. I finish my project, and I'm proud, and I forget my worries for a moment as I bask in the satisfaction a finished garment brings. There's no panic in that moment, only pleasure. Just add yarn.

As I worry over the current challenge with my daughter's father, I know that I can pick up my needles and yarn and there will be only that same knit and purl, made in the same way. No thrown curveballs, just thrown yarn, over and over. Thank goodness. Right now, that's about all I can take.