Who Needs Sweaters?

They say that fall is the time when people get serious about knitting again. That was the case when I worked at the yarn store -- things really picked up in September and October. But who needs sweaters when it's October 6 and it's 88 degrees?

I doubt if my extra knitting lately has had much to do with the weather. I think it's mostly just due to stress. Higher stress levels require more knitting time.

Last weekend, I finished the latest in a long line of baby blankets. It was definitely a quick project -- less than two weeks isn't too bad for a blanket, if you ask me. And it turned out nice and soft and squishy. The picture didn't turn out the best (there's something a little messed up about the colors), but here it is. I'm sure you get the idea...


I was determined to get the blanket done on Sunday -- because I wanted to bring it in to show the girls on Monday. And I couldn't actually *work* on it on Monday -- because Miss A and I had declared it Dishcloth Day.

When I arrived at the store, Miss S the Little was already there. She was still working away on her sock, though there was one little problem -- she had no idea where she was. So after consulting with her mom, we figured out where she was (and then we fudged the pattern a bit to make the numbers work). She spent the rest of the day working on the gusset -- and fighting with her stitches, which are so ridiculously tight that she's building some serious arm muscles while wrestling with them. She really needs to chill a little -- or I fear that she'll have a stroke before she's 20. I've told her that once she finishes her sock, I'm going to teach her to knit more loosely -- because knitting is not supposed to be that stressful.

Miss A arrived a little bit late -- and, according to her mom, in a cranky mood. But we cheered her up right away with talk of dishcloths and other such craziness. (Emily: I also told her about your brilliant tiny-safety-pin idea for the Knitted Goth, and she *loved* it -- I'm sure she ran right home to dig some safety pins out of her mom's collection.) Miss A and I both picked out stitch patterns from my handy-dandy pattern books, and we got to work. Miss A, Miss S, and I actually had a ton of fun this week. There was much giggling -- mostly, it seems, on my account.

As I packed up and got ready to go, I set a goal for myself. I told the girls that I was determined to start a sweater this week -- one that I would actually finish instead of ripping out again. You see, I've had horrible luck with sweaters recently. The green one was ripped out once -- and it's about to be ripped out again. And I was almost done with the blue and brown one this spring when I decided that I hated it and ripped it out. So on Monday night, I decided to give it another try. After all, I figure that it'll be sweater weather eventually, and I'll want a new sweater. So I cast on with the blue and brown varigated yarn again. I have a completely different pattern in mind this time -- another top-down cardigan, but with an overlapping front. I've already divided for the sleeves, and I still like it -- so that's a start.

Since this week was an extra-busy, extra-stressful one, I ended up picking up my needles a lot. When my computer got cranky and decided to take its dear sweet time in opening documents, I'd pick up the dishcloth that I leave next to my desk chair. When I was brewing up another cup of coffee, I'd work a few more stitches on the sweater. I figure every stitch helps.

Last night, though, I took a little time off from knitting -- because there were more urgent matters at hand. It was opening night of the hockey season, and Paul and I were there -- both to celebrate the new season and to celebrate our anniversary (6 whole years!) -- as has been our tradition since we moved to Columbus.

It seemed a little strange to be heading to a hockey game when it was in the 80s. I actually held off on donning my jersey until I got out of the car at the parking garage. But once I got into the crowd, it didn't matter how hot it was. I was going to wear my jersey, even if it meant slowly roasting to death.

There's just something about opening night. There's so much excitement. So much anticipation. So much...hope. The Blue Jackets (as my nine-year-old nephew is quick to point out) don't have the best of records. In past season, they haven't won a heck of a lot. And they're the only team in the NHL that's never made it to the playoffs. We all know this. And, considering we were playing our first game of the season against the Ducks, the guys whose names are currently being engraved on The Cup, I wasn't expecting a whole heck of a lot. But on opening night, anything is possible. And nothing can compare to the energy in Nationwide Arena on opening night.

This year, though, things were different -- and I'm not just talking about the cannon that the Blue Jackets had introduced, to celebrate each goal. I'm talking about the game. Right from the beginning, it was pretty clear that something had happened to the boys over the summer. They were fast. They were tough. And they weren't messing around. By the end of the first period, we were up 2-0 -- and the crowd jumped up for a standing ovation. I've never heard the crowd at the Arena so frenzied.

After three intense periods of hockey, a few goals had been scored, some blood had been spilled, and my voice was totally gone. And the scoreboard looked like this:


It was a good night at Nationwide Arena.

Ah, hockey season. My favorite time of year.

Blanket Pictures...

As promised...a couple of pictures from my recent (and ongoing) Blanket Phase.

As you may recall, my Blanket Phase started when I knit up my first log cabin blanket. Once I finished it, I realized just how fun it was to knit up log cabin blankets. They're fabulously brainless without getting boring -- because once you get sick of knitting one color, you can just bind off and start another. Brilliant!

I also realized that Chandra was due to give birth to a little boy in a matter of weeks. At first, I considered giving Chandra the first blanket (even though, after I finished it, my mom looked at it and said, "Maybe you should just keep that one for yourself."), but it wasn't Chandra's colors. Chandra was doing browns and blues.

So I ran out to the store to by more yarn and ended up with this:



After I finished the blanket for Chandra's little guy (who's now known as Brooks), we went to Toronto to visit the in-laws. While we were there, we found out that our friends, Dan and Amber, are expecting their second in January (their first, little Hazel, is the cutest little girl I have ever seen). So, on the way home, we stopped at the yarn outlet, where I picked up a whole bunch of something in yellow and blue. Since it was in the Factory Seconds bin (for 35 cents an ounce), I don't really know what it was, but I think it may be Berella. Whatever it is, though, I absolutely LOVE this yarn. It's soft and squishy, and it's great to work with. And it makes a pretty cute blanket, too. This time, I decided to try something other than the log cabin blanket, so I went with a big stripey square:



When I was at the outlet, I wanted to make sure that I had enough yarn to make a blanket. I didn't know what gauge it would work up to or how much of everything I'd need, so I just grabbed five balls of each. I decided to shoot for about a 30" square blanket -- and it took me less than 1 1/2 balls of each color. So I had a ton left. I figured I'd just make two more blankets just like it, but my mom told me that I really need to use the blue to make myself a vest or something. So when I started the new blanket on Monday, I decided to make it all yellow.

No pictures of the new blanket yet -- because there isn't much to look at. It's just a 11x11 yellow square. But it'll be something soon enough...

Problem…Solution

So yesterday was Monday—which meant that, at precisely 4:00, I made my way to the store for another afternoon of knitting with the kids. It was a pretty slow summer, meaning that I was often left kid-less—or perhaps with just poor, faithful Miss A. It’s a good thing Miss A is so much fun—because we spent a heck of a lot of time together this summer.

So anyway, I got there at 4, expecting an army to be waiting for me. Last week, I had six kids, several of whom spent their time wreaking havoc on the store. And they all promised they’d be back next week. But when I got there, the place was empty. So I set down my bags and took to wandering the store, feeling hanks of yarn, as I often do when I’m waiting for kids to show up.

In the back of the store, I ran into Beth. I hadn’t seen Beth in for-freakin’-ever, so I was thrilled to hang out and chat in the back for a while.

“You haven’t been blogging much,” Beth noted.

“I know,” I sighed as I plopped down in a chair. “It’s on my to-do list every single day. I even have some pictures ready. But I’m just so busy…”

Then I explained that there’s another reason: “I just don’t have anything good to show.”

You see, I’d been a bit frustrated when I showed up at the store. The whole thing revolved around this particular top that I’d been working on. I bought the yarn last summer, and the top I had started was a disaster. So I frogged it. This spring, I got an idea for something different—my own design. So I slowly got to work. I was very careful about the design and the shaping. I tried the stupid thing on about every other round (which was why it was getting nowhere fast). Yesterday, I decided to try it on again. And I hated it. I have no idea what happened, but it fit one day, and it looked all weird the next. I was speechless. And totally ticked off. So I took it off again and left the house for knitting.

So what’s the solution, you ask? Simple. I set the top aside (again). And I pulled out some soft, bulky yellow yarn and started another brainless blanket.

Thank goodness for blankets.

This time, I even went up to 10½s instead of 10s, and it’s flying by. Oh, how I love my blanket.

Before I knew it, it was nearly 5:00—but it was so nice to just sit and knit with the girls for a while. It had been one heck of a Monday, and I needed it. But that’s when Sallie went up to the front of the store and called back for me to brace myself. I had kids, who were showing up a whole hour late—and it was the crazy kids. My two boys.

The boys are a ton of fun—especially Mr. A, who is a totally happy little knitter. He was there, working away on a sweater, when my mom came to visit. So Mom always calls Mr. A “My Little Boy.” His little brother, Mr. T (who’s not nearly as big but just as energetic as the original), is a handful.

This week, though, the guys were pretty beat—and midway through sitting around and trying to figure out her new sock pattern, her mom realized that she’d missed lunch (something I can totally relate to)—so they didn’t last very long. Mr. A worked away on a new stuffed animal that he’s making, and Mr. T decided to work on Mr. A’s sweater for a while. That lasted approximately 6 stitches. Then he came over to the couch by me and hung upside-down from it while discussing things that, I’m pretty sure, only make sense in his little world. But I make sure to smile and nod and “uh-huh” and “oh!” at the appropriate times.

Mr. A was intrigued by my blanket, so I explained the whole thing to him. Then he asked who I was making it for.

“I don’t know,” I told him. “I figure one of my friends gets pregnant about every other day, so I’m just kinda working ahead.” When his mother told me that was a really good idea, I told her it was kinda like a pre-emptive strike. I like to be prepared.

When the kids were getting ready to leave (15 minutes or so early), Mr. T seemed very concerned. He looked at me (from his place, upside-down on the couch) and said, “But will you be sad if we leave you here by yourself?” How cute is that? I told him I might—but there’s always next week.

So despite the knitting headache that I had when I arrived at the store, I left feeling cheery and rested. I’d gotten to chat for a while, I started a project that I know will work out (and go really really fast), and the kids didn’t make me want to go home and drink. So it was a good Monday.

I still have some pictures sitting on my hard drive, waiting to be uploaded so I can show you all my fabulous array of blankets. And I swear I’ll do that soon. Really. I’m not kidding. I’ve already gotten to the point of taking them from my camera and putting them on my computer, so that’s a start. I’m working in baby steps here, but I’ll get there eventually.

Cruel, Cruel Summer

Okay, so it hasn’t been all that cruel. Just busy. I apologize for the unexpected hiatus. Things got a little bit crazy around here. Here’s an overview:

- It’s summer, which means that things pick up at work. You know, summer blockbusters to see. Beach reads to peruse. New bands to check out. Things like that. Most of the time, that means that I work from about 7:40, when my husband leaves for work. I do a little reading, listen to a CD I have to review while I’m taking a shower, do more reading or watch a DVD of some TV show while I eat my lunch…and that typically continues until about 9:30 or 10 at night. Except on Fridays. If we’re not traveling somewhere, Friday is Pizza and TV Night. I love Friday.

- Paul got a new job. Yea! Things had been pretty bad at the last place, and after five years, he decided it was time to move on. So after lots of job searching and things, he finally found something new. He started the week before we had our family travels planned, so he worked a week, then took off a week, then came back to try to get into it again. But this summer has been a lot of meeting new people and trying to learn about a new company (him so he can do his job, me so I’ll know what he’s talking about when he gets home). So far, though, it’s a great place full of great people. And I don’t have to worry about him having to pack up and go to Timbuktu every other week.

- We’ve had approximately two weekends with nothing to do. No kidding. We’ve been to the cottage for holidays. We went to Toronto to visit our new niece. We went camping with my brother and his family. We had a garage sale (which I still swear I’m never, ever doing again). We went to Cedar Point and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We went to baseball games and picnics. And once or twice, we saw a friend or two.

Things have been downright crazy. Take this week, for instance. On Monday afternoon, I was sitting here, working away in my office, when a storm blew through. It was really windy, and at one point, it sounded like something had fallen over on our front steps. Since we don’t have anything on our front steps, I was understandably rather curious. So I walked to the living room and discovered that half of our tree had fallen down. No kidding. It was just sitting there, all over our yard and into our neighbor’s driveway. What followed was two days of trying to get someone to take care of it—resulting in a crew showing up yesterday (one of whom had a hook for an arm—I kid you not—and that made me a little nervous). Also on Monday afternoon, my hosting company decided to do some upgrading, resulting in my entire site being inaccessible for almost two full days—and then mostly inaccessible for another day after that. Not pretty. Oh, yes. And my in-laws are coming this weekend. Needless to say, by Tuesday morning, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

So that’s been my summer. As for the knitting, it’s been rather brainless lately. I find that my knitting goes in phases. For a while, there was The Sweater Phase. I made a million sweaters. I couldn’t stop. Now I’m not in that phase, and I have a million sweaters that I want to make (complete with all the yarn), but I just don’t feel like it. Then there was The Lace Phase, when I wanted to do nothing but knit lace. I loved the detailed work and the thought that went into the patterns. Now, I have a lace pattern that I want to do, but I don’t have the mental capacity to put it together. Earlier this year, I was in a serious Baby Phase. With everyone and their brother having babies these days, I spend a lot of time knitting nothing but baby stuff—bibs and sweaters and burp cloths and things. But now, that phase has clearly ended—because I have a couple of baby sweaters that, for the life of me, I cannot finish. Because right now, I’m in The Blanket Phase. I know. It’s insane. It’s summer, and all I can seem to do is knit blankets. But I started knitting blankets, and I realized that I could do cool patterns that would allow me to do very little but brainless knitting, and I’d end up with something very cool. And even though I said I’d never, ever, in a million years, ever again knit a baby blanket, I’ve knit three this summer. Or maybe more. I’ve lost count. Pictures to come.

But why The Blanket Phase? You see, I’m a busy woman. I work and work and work all day, and that work often requires me to use my brain. I have to think about schedules and grammar and all that stuff. And I need to write and be creative. And I’ve been a little burnt out lately. The last thing I want to do when it’s 10:00 and I’ve been trying to write and schedule and edit all day is try to work out that stupid pattern for that stupid top I designed in my head from a top that some girl wore in some movie this spring. I just want to knit. Don’t make me think. Thus, blankets. I’m sure, after summer’s over, and after I finally get a chance to catch up on some sleep (October, maybe?), I’ll be ready to face patterns and things again. But, in the meantime, I’ll continue to crank out blankets.

Oh, and felted coasters, too. That’s the latest.

So anyway, I’ve been doing so much writing for work lately (actually, I’ve already written more this year than I did last year—and it’s only August!), that my blog took a back seat. But yesterday I got an email that Sue had commented on the site—and that pulled me out of my haze. “It’s time to blog again!” I announced to myself. And then, as I was thinking about it this morning, I turned the page on my knitting page-a-day calendar and saw a familiar picture—my very own bath mitt pattern! So that just made it all the more final. I had to get back to my blog. So here I am. More to come soon. I promise.

I missed you guys!