Things Have Changed

An update.  I moved to San Francisco in August.  I love it here, so far.  It is nice to be so close to the ocean again.  I can walk to one of the most beautiful beaches in the city, and I might see porpoises while I'm there!  I walk to work, which I love (the walk and the job).  All in all, this is a good time to be me.

There are some negatives, though.  I can't afford to fly to Michigan for the holidays.  It will be more than two years since I've seen some of my family and my oldest friend and her family.  The thought of this breaks my heart. 

Also, while I love my job, it isn't sustainable.  It's not quite at the same professional level that I feel I should be at, and the pay is too low to maintain life in the city.  Thank goodness Brian has a job that barely covers the astronomical rent (ours is low).

I guess those are the negatives.  It's winter now and the low will be 34 tonight.  We are determined to never use our radiator, and I usually have to open a window during the night.  I haven't acclimated to this weather yet, and still think it's pretty nice out (everyone else thinks it is cold out when the temperature dips below 60).  I love the fog, and because we live in the tallest building around (seven stories), we have a great view that is ethereal when the fog rolls in.

One more negative is the lack of yarn stores in San Francisco.  As far as I know, there are two in the city (another has recently closed its doors).  Two?  For 825,000 people?  I know there are amazing stores in Oakland that I haven't been able to visit, and I'm sure there are others in the Bay Area, but come on!  That said, I think Imagiknit has every yarn ever made, so it's not like we are lacking in actual yarn.

I taught a coworker how to knit, and she is a superstar already.  I had a freak out moment when we went to buy yarn, though, and couldn't do math.  So I made her buy more than she probably needs.  We all need to start a stash sometime, right?

I don't have any pictures to post because I've been lazy about taking them.  So I either don't have photographs of recent things or I have bad pictures.  Check my Ravelry page to see what I mean.

Blogging is going to be hit or miss for the next six months while I try to figure out my place in this new world.  Thanks for sticking with me.

Travels and Treats

I'm finally getting around to posting a picture of my second fabulous winnings of the year.  I won a book and yarn from Amy Herzog and Bijou Basin Ranch.  The only sad part of the whole thing is that I can't wear animal fibers, so this particular winning will have to be about learning how to flatter someone else's body.  I'll have to combine what I learn with a pattern using a plant fiber yarn to knit to flatter myself.  It's true that I don't love any sweater I've made for myself except one.  I'm excited to learn how to flatter my body and finally get to wear something I make for me!

Brian and I went to Portland last weekend.  We've decided that if we don't get any other opportunities to move out of Reno soon, then we're going to take the plunge and move to Portland, jobs or not.

I have been very good about using yarn from my stash lately.  I have even made 23 more hexipuffs for my Beekeeper's Quilt.  I would keep up with it, but I don't have any more sock yarn scraps to use.  However, I allow myself to buy yarn when I visit other cities.  So, I purchased a few things in Portland.  I have the most awesome boyfriend who willingly accompanied me to four, count 'em, four yarn stores. Brian did complain a little when I made him get out of one of the comfy chairs to help me make a decision. (The photo below is the yarn in order of purchase.)

My favorite of the four we visited this time was Dublin Bay Knitting Company.  I didn't get the fun Lorna's Laces sock yarn Brian wanted (Unicorn Dreams) because I wanted to buy a locally dyed yarn instead. Dublin Bay has an in-house yarn called Solstice that was very pretty, so I got a nice semi-solid blue for Brian.

I also liked Pearl Fiber Arts because they had a great selection of Oregon yarns and local dyers.  I got a new yarn from a dyer called Thoroughly Thwacked.  The owner there was very nice, but a customer was eating something right near the doorway, and the smell ruined my experience just a bit.

The next day we happened upon some yarn stores.  We hadn't intended to visit two more but they were on the street we were exploring so of course I had to check them out.  Yarn Garden was huge (I missed one room entirely!) but I didn't see anything local.  There were a few special yarns but nothing that grabbed me.  I bought a sock yarn, Footprints, that I'd been debating from a yarn store in Traverse City last summer.  Brian liked a self-striping sample but they didn't have the colorway he liked.  Finally, we visited Happy Knits, which was a lovely store with very nice yarns, but I couldn't find anything local there, either.  I prefer to buy local yarns when I'm visiting a place.  It helps the store and the dyer both.  I also dislike when the store's labels are so big they cover some information on the yarn. 

I've now visited at least six of the yarn stores in Portland.  I won't pick an ultimate favorite until we move there.  Then I'm sure it will be whichever one is close enough to visit on a daily basis.

Blank

There are so many things on my mind these days: work, living in the desert, derby, knitting, relationships, money, and travel. I keep thinking about this blog and the purpose it served when I started it. It's primarily a record of my knitting and travels lately, but it was intended to connect knitting with my thoughts on other subjects. Though I'm incredibly busy lately, and lazy when I'm not busy, I want to bring this blog back to something more thoughtful. So, in the spirit of that, I'm not going to post anything today. I am going to link to a thoughtful and thought-provoking blog post on forgiveness by author and artist Teresa Jordan. I have a lot of rage these days (perhaps my next, thoughtful post will connect my rage and knitting), so the lessons Teresa teaches in her post may become useful to me. I find all of Teresa's posts to be well researched and relevant. They are long and take careful reading, but they are always worth it.

Here is a picture from my latest trip, just for good measure.

Presents and Poetry

So many things were completed since my last real post: 13 FOs, one frogged hat, and one cowboy poetry gathering. Sure, it's been two months, but that many projects is a lot for me these days, especially those days leading up to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

I'm not sure where to start. The Gathering was great. I had been feeling about a month behind in preparations (probably because I'd lost a month's worth of work days to furlough) until two weeks before the event. Then, magically, I was ready. I'm sure a few things got overlooked, but all in all, it was a great Gathering. I heard so many compliments--people don't usually tell me those things, since I'm the invisible hand running the machine--which was really nice. I even got a present! I usually only get amazing hugs, but Doris Daley gave me chocolate straws (and hugs). I finally shared them with the staff, but I pretended they were just for me for about a week.

I didn't see much music or poetry, as is usually the case, but I did get to see my friends Andy Hedges and Andy Wilkinson perform. Andy Hedges's wife, Alissa, sang with them, too. They are all great. Video and audio from some of the shows are available on the Western Folklife Center's website. We also blogged during the event. Find that here.

Now on to knitting. Here are some things that became presents (in Blogger upload order, not chronological).

Windschief, which I will some day send to my brother.

Owl, with a magnet in the bottom, for Brian

Cat toy. It was supposed to be a sock, but I did not like the colors at all. I ripped back to the toe, seamed it up, and voila! a cat toy.

Mittens with flip-top thumbs (my pattern) so Brian can use his iPhone.

Soxies for Brian's Mom.

Men's Cashmere Scarf (not cashmere) that Brian will probably never wear (don't be surprised if you see it in my giveaway pile)

Argyle Felted Hot Pad for my kitchen. I always forget that white yarn doesn't felt at the same rate as colored yarn, so I pulled out the blue argyle pattern.

I also finished Duck for a pregnant friend. I'm not sure whether she reads this, so no pictures until I mail them off.

On impulse, Brian and I went to Portland after Christmas (which was spent with his mom in Mountain Home, ID). I visited a few yarn shops while we were there.

Malabrigo Sock

Rowan Purelife (I made the mittens above out of this)

2 skeins of Shelter. I used one skein on a hat that I ended up frogging. It was knit too tightly and I couldn't get the lace pattern (as usual).

All of the above were from Knit Purl. Very nice store.

Purple Lotus Sweet Grass hand dyed cotton from Gossamer

Cascade Eco + from Close Knit. I'd been to Close Knit the first time I was in Portland. It's a really great store. I'd probably shop there a lot if I lived in Portland.

I didn't love Portland the first time Brian took me (nearly a year ago, for our second date), but my mind was changed this time. The weather was awful, but I miss the moist air of the Midwest so much that I didn't mind. My car minded, fogging up and condensing on the inside every day, all day. We ate some amazing food. Food I dream about. We did some great sightseeing to Sauvie Island and The Grotto. We also explored some neighborhoods, and did a lot of window shopping. My favorite day was spent in Ground Kontrol, dropping quarters into classic video games. That day reminded me of the times when my dad would take me to the arcade after school. All the games were from that era, except most of the pinball, which was newer and reminded me of college when I would spend my laundry money on pinball. I love pinball.

Ever since I started knitting without an intended recipient (for the most part), I have accumulated a pile of homeless knits. I have an idea to give these away to whomever expresses interest in them. I recently gifted the Snapdragon mitts to CarrieK because she liked them. Why not give away the rest of the items to people who will use them? I think this post is too long and picture heavy to do it here, so I'll list the items next week. Stay tuned!

FOs and WIPs

I've been thinking about the content of these posts. I'd like to get back to more thoughtful posts, rather than just lists of things. I think it says a lot about the priorities and the anxieties in my life since I moved to Elko. I'm busier than ever, but I'm also less contemplative. Except during my "crisis of faith" last year, I don't give much thought to my life and my circumstances. I don't take time out of my schedule to think, or to do things that are meaningful and thoughtful.

I've been on a hat kick lately. Hats and mitts. This rest of this post is yet another list of finished objects and works in progress.


I made this hat to go with the fingerless mitts. I also made a pair of very colorful fingerless mitts (with partial fingers, even. I hate fingers) for my sister to give to a friend. I forgot to take a picture before I sent them off.


I also forgot to take a picture of the washcloth I made for Brian's mom. Her birthday was the Monday after Thanksgiving, but we were in San Francisco. We did go up for Thanksgiving, though, which was nice. I finished the parts to Flo there. I haven't had the steam to seam yet, though. I'll probably have to redo one of the bodies, though, since I think I skipped a few rows on the second side.


I knit this on the way to and from San Francisco. I messed up the cables the first time they crossed. I dropped down and fixed them. Or so I thought. One of them is still messed up (on the side not shown in the photo). It was dark, and I was in the car. Oh, well. My fabric is a bit dense. I held two strands of RYC Cashsoft 4 Ply together. It will be a very warm hat.


I picked up a skein of Malabrigo Twist at ImagiKnit so I could finally finish these. I have mixed feelings about that yarn store. They have a great stuff, but it's a bit overwhelming. Especially the plant-fiber and synthetics room. I can't seem to find yarns in that room that I like, and it takes me a few go-rounds to find what I'm looking for in either room.


I bought two skeins of some Noro Chirimen, which only has 16% wool. I get the love for the fun colors, but the yarn just doesn't do it for me like it does for the Noro cult. This hat shows off the striping perfectly. I should have used smaller needles, though. The hat is a bit more slouchy than the pattern. Paired with the yarn, I think it will be a nice springtime hat for someone.

Today I started on Windscheif.


I'd like to start on a sweater. There are about five that I can't decide among. Of course, now that the weather is cold, I don't have the right yarn for any of these sweaters. I focused on increasing my cotton DK-weight stash this fall, but now I'm without a sweater's worth of yarn in any animal fiber. Sigh.

Darn Buttons

There are no buttons to be had in Elko. At least not any that would work for my nearly finished sweaters.

Remember the Holly Jacket?


For all intents and purposes it is finished. You'll notice I haven't taken it out of my current projects list. I finally found some buttons in Boise that look good on the sweater. The problem is the inner buttons. They don't fit in the holes. Part of the problem could be my wonky button band,


and another part could be that I sewed them too tightly against the fabric. I'm not sure that fixing either of those problems would solve the larger problem, so I'm going to sew on some snaps to keep it closed.

My goal this week is to finish the current projects. Along with Holly, I've just about finished Laccaria. I'm working on weaving in the ends (as you can see in the picture). This sweater will probably go the way of Holly, though, and wait months on end for appropriate buttons.


Finally, I'm finishing Playful Stripes. I have buttons for that, which I got in Boise with the buttons for Holly. I need to graft the armholes first. I'm procrastinating on that one. Somehow weaving in a million ends is more attractive than grafting.


I'm itching to make something with cables. I also want to make Goodale, but I don't have the yarn for it. I can't really buy yarn right now, unfortunately. I think I'm going to satisfy the cable craving with either Liffey or Snapdragon Flip-tops. I'm in the mood for mittens more than a hat, but the design of the hat is calling me. Who knows? My craving will probably change before I allow myself to cast on for a new project.

What about my travels, you ask? Brian and I went to Salt Lake City to see She & Him in the park. That was fun. We stayed on to camp and climb with friends--well, I climbed. It hailed on us so we bailed.Brian and I backpacked in to a small lake, which was really nice. We tried camping just outside Salt Lake the next night, but we got to the campgrounds past curfew. It really makes us angry that they lock the gates at 10 pm. They even put those tire spikes on the exit so you can't get in. What about folks like us? What if you already have a site and decided to go out to dinner? Horrible. I'm starting to think that people in Utah like torture, too. We went on a two-mile hike that had a 2,000 foot elevation gain. Ridiculous. It was even difficult coming down! We ate at an incredible restaurant to make up for our pain. We even ordered wine and the most delicious dessert.

Michigan was amazing as usual. The UP is such a special place in the summer, and seeing my friends is worth waiting for all year.

Hot!

It's 100 degrees in Elko right now (8% humidity, which is rather high for around here). Can you believe that all I want to do right now is to knit? Maybe because I'm procrastinating about cleaning for upcoming company. Still, I don't even have the swamp cooler on (yet).

Brian and I tried to escape the heat of the last week of June by heading to Big Sur and Northern California.


Apologies to all my friends in San Francisco. We stopped only long enough to take some pictures.


Yarny was our constant companion, keeping careful watch over Brian as he drove along steep, winding, ocean-side Highway 1. I miss the water. And trees. Oh, how I miss trees.


We saw two, count 'em, two Paul Bunyans and Babe the Blue Ox...I'm not sure how to pluralize this. Grammarians, please forgive me. Please keep me in your graces. Anyway, I adore Babe, so this was the highlight of the trip for me.


Besides Big Sur, we didn't have any goals for this trip, so we ended up in the north part of Lassen Volcanic National Park. This was probably my favorite camping spot (rivaled only by the one in Big Sur). We headed to the southern part of the park our second day there, intending to hike to a fumarole and bubbling mud pit, but we were snowed out. On the Fourth of July.

Overall, lots of fun. I didn't knit until we got home. I've got all the pieces finished on Laccaria, but I've gotten distracted by a market bag. A knitter on Ravelry asked to trade some yarn, which I declined because I didn't want the trade. She inspired me, though, to dig out the yarn and give it a try. I get protective over bags of ten balls, so I hesitated over using just one or two for a market bag. Research on Ravelry showed me that anything I would make with this would only take about six balls, so I took the plunge. I'm moving slowly on the bag--the yarn is a thin cotton, so it's not too different from knitting on Laccaria (except the stitches, of course). I think I might pick up a third cotton project for some variety that will turn out to be more of the same. Ah, well. It's summer.

New Year's Resolution Update

Now that I've been knitting whatever I want, having eliminated deadlines and intentions from my knitting, there has been some positive and negative outcomes to my knitting habits.

The Positives

1. No deadlines. I don't stress about finishing something in time for birthdays, holidays, and arbitrary deadlines.
2. Freedom of pattern choice. I can knit what I want just because I want to.
   
3. No expectations. This is like no deadlines, but it also applies to sizing, yarn choice and intended recipients.

The Negatives

1. No deadlines. Even though I still knit all the time, it seems like everything is taking longer to finish.
2. Freedom of pattern choice. It's hard to narrow down my queue of 286 patterns into something I want to make.
3. No expectations. I miss the feeling of giving something away that I made with someone special in mind.

I like this new approach to knitting. It's working for me, but I need to allow myself some exceptions.

The Exceptions

1. No deadlines. I will not set strict deadlines, but I will allow myself to aim to finish something by a certain date.
2. Freedom of pattern choice. If I need to decide on a size or a yarn because otherwise I won't knit something, I will allow myself to imagine the pattern on someone special.
3. No expectations. If I know someone will love something I want to make, I will allow myself to make it for that specific person.

All that said, I'm working on Laccaria. I'm using the recommended yarn and the 34" size. If it fits me, I might keep it. If not, I'll give it to someone else. I'm only on the back, so I can't comment on the pattern just yet. The yarn is splitty, though. I took it with me to my recent trip to Colorado and North Dakota, but I seem to have lost one of my size six straight needles. All I could work on was the ribbing. It's moving at a clip now, though. I will never take straight needles on a trip again. Circulars only.

I knit Daybreak because I was waiting for the Pure Pima and needed a quick project. I don't normally knit shawls or scarves, but I enjoyed working on this one. I still haven't blocked it because it's in the "someday someone will need this" basket, which is one of the side effects of my resolution.


I did pick up the shorts I had made for Chris Sand, since I went to North Dakota. I was at a cowboy poetry gathering, where I saw some of my friends from the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The best part was hanging out with Chris and Hana for part of a day. But I couldn't remedy the shorts situation easily, so I gave Hana Pasha. She'll look adorable in it. They treated me so nicely, and I got to see the good parts of North Dakota.


Since I flew out of Denver, Brian and I decided to explore some of Colorado early in the week. Here's a photo of me with my new friend Esme. I was also lucky enough to get to spend some time with good friends Matt, Emily and Mike and Emily and Mike's Great Dane. Ivy and I were fast friends. It was a great trip.

Renegotiating

Some days it feels like spring. Some days it's still winter. You know how everyone from any state will say "you don't like the weather here, wait a minute and it will change?" Well, Nevada isn't quite like that, but it is unpredictable from day to day. Last week we had freezing days and warm days. By August it will be sunny, sunny, sunny, but for now we just don't know.

Jacque, Brian (the guy I've been seeing--for those of you who haven't yet heard), and I headed up to City of Rocks, which is across the border in Idaho. We checked the weather before we left and decided to believe the Weather Channel rather than noaa.gov. Wishful thinking. We all slept in Brian's old, giant Suburban, thank goodness. When we woke up in the morning, the truck windows were fogged up, but you could see ice and frost on them. Brian was hoping it was just because it was warm in the truck and cold outside. Nope. An hour later, when we really woke up, there was an inch of snow on the ground. So even though we were supposed to meet a whole group of people for a rock climbing weekend, we didn't want to hang out in the snow all day and so returned home.

We did climb in Lamoille Canyon all weekend, which was nice.


All this iffy weather makes it hard to settle on a project. I ordered yarn for a sweater, but it hasn't come yet. I've been making smaller things in the meanwhile, including the Daybreak I'm working on now.

I've finished two hats: Pasha and a basic hat with flower and a little something special. Pasha was fun, and I didn't have any trouble with the lace. I used Plymouth Yarn Dye For Me Baby Llama Glow that I bought in Portland. The sparkly bits add something to this already great pattern.


I've been wanting to try incorporating some LEDs into my knitting, so I ordered a kit from the Maker Shed. I knit a basic hat from some cotton (so I can wear it, yay!) and then used some of the yarn left over from Pasha to make a flower. The center of the flower is the LED. I wanted the battery to be at the top of the hat, but it was too far for the conductive thread. It's now on the inside of the hat behind the flower. Surprisingly, it doesn't bother my head. I can unsnap the flower, but I can't detach it. The flower is too floppy so I tacked it down. When I snap the flower to the hat, the light comes on. I'm thinking of an emergency-light beanie next. There are so many times when we climb late but have forgotten our headlamps. A beanie with some bright LEDs might be just the trick.

Finished!

Can you believe I've actually finished a project? Side Impact is complete and looks great!


Besides knitting, I've been enjoying my furlough days traveling or staying home, depending on the weekend. Furloughs definitely make going to work more difficult, though. I want vacation all the time!

Zion was great fun.

We hiked, saw my sister, got a tour of Best Friends, and nearly died in a whiteout through Dixie National Forest. What was I thinking, driving through 10,000 ft in April?


I started a pair of fingerless mitts while driving home, most of the knitting in the dark. I wanted to try smocking the 1x3 rib. I like them, but I need to work on my smocking.


Now I'm working on a Pasha, but I'm contemplating my next sweater. I think sweaters are what I feel like knitting these days. They definitely dominate my knitting fantasies. These top the current list: Laccaria, Audrey in Unst, Whisper Cardigan, or maybe a tank or short-sleeved sweater like Celandine, Camp Hoodie, or Love.

Adventures Abound!

Life has taken a good turn lately. I've settled into being in Elko for another year, at least, and that's put my mind and heart at rest. No more soul-searching about where I need to be right now. I'm going to be here. Well, except when I'm traveling, which I seem to be doing much more of these past few weeks.

I went down to Lubbock and Alpine, Texas, at the end of February. It was a declaration of my commitment to Cowboy Poetry. I also got to know Alissa and Andy Hedges, Andy Wilkinson, and most of the members of Cowboy Celtic better. I discovered I really enjoy the way Andy Hedges sings, plus we made friends in each other, and I like that most. Visiting another Gathering was pretty interesting. I was on the fringes of the inside, which was a nice place to be. It was so great, in fact, that I'll be visiting the Dakota Cowboy Poetry Gathering over Memorial Day.

Besides that, I went to Sensory Illumination. I got to wear cyberlox. I want some. We did a little bit of climbing in Boise. Then I took an impulsive road trip to Portland with a new friend.

Trees and water. Oh, how I miss you both.

This weekend we're headed to Zion for some camping and hiking. We climbed last weekend, but there really hasn't been enough climbing.


Ah, but has there been any knitting, you ask? Of course! In fact, I've been knitting a lot. I started Side Impact on February 7 and I'm only just rounding the corner on the second sleeve, but it's lace and stockinette. I never promised to move quickly through the lace panels. In fact, I finally memorized the six-row, seventeen-stitch, lace pattern yesterday.

In between I've knit two cozies. The first wasn't for anything specific, just because someone joked about whether that was what I was knitting.

The second is an iPhone cozy, sort of for the same reason. Lesson learned: do not be flippant about knitting or you might end up with cozies.

Summer Photos

I have a post in mind (what I've learned about knitting from climbing), but I've had such a busy summer that I thought I'd get the photos out of the way.

First, thank you for all the kind comments. I might have put the sweater in the UFO pile if left to my own devices. I'm still enjoying knitting Holly and made great progress on a recent flight. I have two other somewhat pressing projects to finish, but I can't take my hands off Holly.


Jacque and I hiked the Ruby Mountain Crest Trail a few weeks ago. I had never done a multi-day backpacking trip. I also grew up where it's relatively flat. I think I've acclimated pretty well to the altitude, because that wasn't a problem at all. I could breathe even at 11,000 ft. Jacque helped that by keeping our pace slow. I have a tendency to walk fast and then get out of breath. The trip was amazing. It was hard in some places, and simply fun in others. These pictures are chronological.

A gazillion-mile switchback at the end of the night. Just before Overland Lake (below)*

The Crest (we saw this same view after climbing that peak, and then again five more times)

Liberty Lake

The Parking Lot!

Then a group of people drove up to the City of Rocks to celebrate my birthday (and Jason's but he had to stay home on doctor's orders. Boo). I had no idea my friends in Elko were so amazing. I knew they all wanted to climb--that was really the point of the trip--but they also surprised me with an awesome gift, which I opened after cake.

Presents!

Last weekend I visited Jen and family. I just needed to see their faces. It was soul-soothing.

Now it's September and I'll be around for awhile. Maybe I'll actually get some knitting done this month.

*edited to add photo. My apologies for multiple versions of this post.