Earlier Deadline for Red Scarf Project

This is just a quick "get the word out post". The wonderful Red Scarf Project has moved the deadline for 2008 back to September-October (instead of February). This is a seriously good reason to go out and buy yarn. Their website has details, (and free patterns).

Go yarn shopping now, go yarn shopping now, Go yarn shopping now.

First off, thanks to everyone who left comments. I love comments and appreciate the feedback/encouragement and the computer hints. I've been making some phone calls. It seems that "for a small fee" we can get someone else to do the file transfers. Hey, I'm willing to pay someone else to do my plumbing, though with enough time an effort I might be able to do it myself. I feel the same way about the computer. So the first part of next week we'll be off to Madison for a new machine. In the meantime, I'm working on deleting old files that I don't want to keep (how did there get to be so many?)

So here's another question. I expect they will try to sell us on Vista as an operating system. Do I resist? Or do I resign myself? Do I even have a choice? Any and all input welcome.

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On the knitting front, I am making a hat with the Classic Elite "Waterlily" I picked up on sale last month. It is lovely, lovely yarn. Soft, a bit springy and I really like the color. The picture shows it pretty accurately, though you will have to click to enlarge if you want the check out the fairly subtle color variation.

"Why," you may ask, "is she knitting that hat flat?" Well, on this one I set out specifically to design a pattern for those knitters who prefer to work this way. This may include beginners, and this is definitely an easy knit. But I have also met experienced knitters who would rather work back and forth than round and round. Before I'm done I'll write up directions for working it circularly, too. It's going to be my "Have it Both Ways" hat.

I really don't know why

all the entries I think about posting don't just magically appear. Which is to say, I apologize for new content being rather sparse lately. It has been a combination of pushing hard to meet a design deadline, and lately some computer problems.

But I have finally finished the design work, and the last item is almost dry. It will all go in the mail tomorrow. I probably shouldn't show much here, but a couple of "sneak peeks" of details are below.

The computer is mostly having an overheating problem, I think, but in the larger scheme of things it indicates that it's finally time to bite the bullet and go for a new one. It isn't the expense that bothers me so much as the prospect of transferring files, bookmarks, email.... not to mention deciding what operating system to go with. It doesn't help that I'm a near complete computer idiot. So I'm hoping the Geek Squad will come to the rescue.

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One of the entries I thought about posting was "You Don't Need a Pattern to Turn a Sock Heel". But Clara at "Knitters Review" has beaten me to the punch, and has done such a fine job of explaining the procedure that I will just refer you to her article, which is actually a complete sock tutorial and a nice one, too.

Under the Stars

Every summer, we treat ourselves to a night at the American Players Theater in Spring Green, and last Thursday was our night.


It's a lovely drive up on back roads, especially the stretch from Dodgeville to Spring Green, over the Wisconsin River, past the entrance to the goofy House on the Rock, and the not as goofy Frank Lloyd Wright visitor center and on to the theater grounds. Dear Daughter and my Mom met us there (they were coming the other direction from Madison), and we all hiked up the hill past the last of the picnicers gathering up their belongings, through the woods and past the prairie meadow and, just in time, into the theater proper.

It was a lovely night, clear and cool and no mosquitoes. The play was Much Ado About Nothing,
and it was a delight.



Mom brought me a little tin of Blue Sky Alpacas "Knitters Little Helper" hand balm. This is nice stuff, has the consistency of really thick whipped cream, a nice herbal scent, and it's very soothing to the cuticles. Mom was at dinner at a friend's apartment and got to talking with another guest and it turned out that the guest's daughter had started with one alpaca and went on to develop a company.... Had I heard of them? Well, yes, I had. The word from Mom is that the Blue Sky organic cotton is very soft and lovely to the touch (she had a chance to feel it for herself). I'm wondering if I should order some. And I'm wondering even more if I should have Mom guest blogging, because for someone who hasn't knit in years she seems to be making connection.

Well, I am indeed going to go to the mini reunion. And there will be a knitting connection. One of my classmates, Gayle, is a knitting designer/artist (you can see her work here and here). She's pretty awesome.

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My KnitPicks book order arrived a few days ago.





I love, love, love knitting books, and there are items on my shelf that I've poured over multiple times, daydreaming, plotting and picking up information. So far, I've just skimmed this lot, but I'm looking forward to more careful and more intense perusal in the near future.

The Wiseman Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques is a nice little primer, spiral bound, which is handy and of a good size for throwing into a knitting bag. After a quick look, I don't expect to find much that is new to me here, but I think it will be a good quick reference and possibly a good teaching resource.

I bought Lace Style partly for eye candy, partly just because I love that cover jacket so much and partly to study how other designers incorporate lace into garments (both from an aesthetic and a technical standpoint). I don't knit a lot of other people's patterns (though I wish I had time to do more), but boy do I study them. I'm not interested in knitting the dress with the handkerchief hem. It's too goofy (or too fashion forward, depending on your point of view) for me to wear. But I am interested in looking at how it was accomplished.

The Selbuvotter book has a little history (I would have liked more, but that's just me), and a lot of mitten charts, including a couple that are intriguingly different from any I've seen elsewhere, so that's satisfying. And I like the way the charts are laid out, with with the left palm and the right palm on either side of the back, which means no mentally flipping the thumb placement for the second mitten. One of those brilliant ideas that never occurred to me, though once I saw it I couldn't figure how I has missed such an obvious approach.

Janet Szabo's Aran Sweater Design is the one I have looked at least so far, because it is the one that looks like it will most repay truly careful study. I want to set myself down with that baby and really pour over it. So not even an interim report yet, but I'll get there.

A voice from the past

The phone rang the other evening. When I picked up, the voice on the other end was an old college friend I hadn't talked to in twenty years. She's planning a get together at her lake house the first weekend in August, would I come? Two other old friends will be there: one I had lost touch with, the other I had only exchanged Christmas cards with for a number of years. Of course, I'm going; and I'm looking forward to it. But it feels, I don't know, wistful.

In my mind's eye, they are all still the young women (girls almost) I once knew; and, maybe more importantly, so am I. So there's the draw of being with a group of women who can still see in their mind's eyes the person I once was (and really still am, really, in some way, if only on the inside). And then there is the big gap between what we were and what we are, all the twists and changes, some good and some not so good, some that might have been predicted others not. Most significantly, there are all those years, in each of our lives, that are gone. Where have they gone? Where have they gone?

Well, these were good young women to know: smart, funny, creative. Odds are in favor of it being a rewarding weekend. I'm grateful to Kathy for calling.