Cascade Pacific

A few weeks ago I made the decision that I was not going to tie myself into knots trying to design warm-weather knits—at least for a while. This has been a year of upheaval in so many ways that I felt it was a kindness to my designing muse not to push her too far or too hard. She seems to have responded positively to that decision; I've got a lot of ideas for next fall and winter literally spilling out of my head. I just need to get them knitted, written, and edited (the knitting is the easy part, in case you were wondering). 

A few weeks ago, Melanie gave me some sample skeins of this to play with:

It's a yarn from Cascade called Pacific. When I picked up the skein I believe I said, "oooohhhh," because it felt so nice. I did hesitate a bit when I looked at the label because the yarn is a blend of 60% acrylic and 40% superwash Merino. I am no big fan of superwash yarns. They are better than they used to be, but I prefer unadulterated wool whenever possible. However, I decided to give the yarn a fair shake and cast on for a nice big swatch. 

I love it. I loved knitting with it, I loved the stitch definition, I loved the feel, I loved everything. I couldn't wait for the yarn to come in to the store. It was there yesterday, so I bought some in a wonderful butter yellow. It will become something shortly—I am not sure what, but something. 

I finished the Abuelita Yarns scarf last night and need to block it this morning. My MIL's flight gets in around 1:30 this afternoon. 

This is also what is affectionately known as "Auction Week" by those of us in the fire department. Our annual (this is the 45th one) fundraising auction takes place on Saturday and Sunday. This is a huge event and requires something like 200+ volunteers to make happen. The husband has been on the fire department for 17 years, and I've helped at the auction for at least 10 of those years (they all blur together after a while). I have worked in food, in PR, and—my current role—as Finance Section Chief. I am the Treasurer of the firefighters' association (the group that sponsors this auction), so it sort of naturally falls to me to handle the money end of the things. It's a job I am good at it. I have a great Deputy Chief, too. Of all the Auction jobs I've had, this is the one I enjoy the most. I like keeping track of the pennies and making sure everything balances. 

Tomorrow we will head to the auction grounds and begin setting up. DD#2 is on spring break, so I think she and my MIL will come over and help, too. This is very much a family event. Our kids began helping when they were about 10 years old, as "runners" for the auctioneers. When they got into 7th grade, they graduated to helping in the "brat booth,"—one of the food stands run by the kids from our Mennonite church. My MIL used to come and watch the kids for us when they were little, but when they got to be old enough to come and work, she started coming to work, too. 

This auction is definitely a slice of real Montana life. And it raises a boatload of money for the fire department. Our chief estimates that in the 44 years that we've been holding the auction, we've raised over one million dollars for our department. I'm thinking it might even be more. 

A Short History of Montana

Knitting is at the end of the post.

Day 1

DD#2 and I were part of a group of 37 kids and 10 adults who left our school at 6:15 Monday morning for the biennial 7th and 8th grade Montana History trip. We took a bus up to the train station, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Amtrak was running on time and that the train was already at the station when we arrived. It appeared that we would make it from Whitefish to Havre on time (it's about a five-hour trip). Wrong. We loaded the kids on the train and then sat there for two full hours because we were waiting for Amtrak to bus some passengers over from Spokane. Arrgggh. It is not good to keep 37 kids cooped up on a train for that long. I was sitting with a group of boys and a couple of them managed to eat their entire four-day supply of snack food in that two-hour period of time.

Eventually the train got underway. My friend April and I were sitting together and both of us noticed a young man wearing a backpack walking back and forth through the train. A short time later, we discovered that said young man had offered drugs to one of our students, and at the next stop he was taken off the train, handcuffed, and loaded into a police car—all while 37 teenagers watched through the windows. Educational?—yes, but it wasn't really part of the curriculum.  

We made it to Havre just a little bit late. Our first stop was Havre Beneath the Streets, a tour of the underground town. Apparently a lot of old Western towns (Kalispell included) have underground towns where shop owners moved their businesses after fires destroyed the wooden buildings. Havre's undergound town is nicely restored with period antiques, and the tour guides are very knowledgable. I thought it was fascinating. We did have to explain "bordello" to some of the kids because they were unfamiliar with the term. 

Our next stop was the Wahkpa Chugn Buffalo Jump. Some 2000 to 1400 years ago, the Indian tribes who lived in this area used to kill buffalo en masse by running them over a cliff, or jump. An archeologist found the area and it has been carefully preserved. This is what it looks like in nice weather.

Now, imagine that same site at about 20 degrees, covered with snow, with a 40 mph howling gale coming at you from the west. Welcome to Montana. We had told the kids to dress warmly, but still a number of them insisted on touring the site in capris, light jackets, and no hats or gloves. Sometimes the only way to learn about something (like frostbite) is by experience. 

The sheer number of buffalo bones in this area really impressed me. In some places they are 20 feet deep.

Because Montana has so few people and everyone knows everyone else, we were treated to a fabulous homemade dinner of sloppy joes at a local Catholic church. One of our chaperones has a sister who lives in Havre and attends that church, so she made all the arrangements for us. It was much better than fast food. Then we took the kids back to the hotel so they could swim. 

Day 2

We got up bright and early and loaded the kids onto the bus for the two-hour ride to Fort Benton. A winter storm had blown in overnight, so the traveling conditions were less than ideal. We had a terrific bus driver, though, named John, and he got us there safely. He also went above and beyond the normal bus driver duties: as we rode into the town, he put on a video about Shep, the faithful sheepherding dog of Fort Benton. John has done these trips a number of times and was able to provide lots of interesting details about Montana as we drove along.

We toured the fort at Fort Benton, as well as the agricultural museum and a restored town from the late 1800s. I like to look at the exhibits, but it bothers me when I see things like blankets and hats knit out of acrylic yarn that wasn't available in that time period. We did see lots and lots of beaded items made by native American Indian women, and I indulged in quite a bit of imagining about those artists—how long did it take them to make a pair of beaded moccasins? What was their inspiration? Did they ever get frustrated with their designs? 

After Fort Benton, we headed down to Great Falls. Our first stop in Great Falls was the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. This is a beautiful museum with all sorts of hands-on experiential stuff for the kids to try. I particularly liked the cradle board that American Indian women used to tote their babies around. I tried it on and attempted to imagine getting all my daily work done with a 15-pound baby hanging off my head. 

[I would just like to stop here and say that one of the things I found a bit distressing about all the museums we went to was that the majority of them were devoted to celebrating all the wonderful things done by MEN. What about all those women who traveled across the country in wagons while eight months pregnant and who raised families and homesteaded under the most abominable of conditions? We never hear about them. That irritates me.]

Our last educational stop of the day was the Charlie Russell museum. The husband and I had been here way back in 1991 when we visited Montana. It's a wonderful museum (even if it is devoted to a MAN), and we were blessed with another great tour guide. The boys—naturally—were quite fascinated by the gun collections. The hands-on room was a big hit. The kids tried on chaps and sat in the tipi and looked at all the animal pelts. 

The day ended with a dinner at Taco Bell (where we forgot to pay our bill and had to come back) and a trip to the roller rink. I would have loved to have skated, but the risk of falling and breaking one of my wrists is too great for me to do anything like that anymore. Bummer. 

Day 3

We loaded the bus and headed for Helena and the state capitol. The kids watched Napoleon Dynamite on the way down and I knitted (more about that in a bit). 

I would have to say that a highlight of this trip was for the kids to spend a half an hour with the Governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer. We were ushered into his reception room, and a short time later he came in with his sheepdog, Jag, who goes to work with him every day. He asked Jag if he would rather live in Idaho or be dead, and Jag dropped to the floor and rolled over. It was pretty funny. Governor Schweitzer entertained questions from the kids and patiently answered them. 

After our visit with the Governor, we took a tour of the Capitol building. I had left my knitting on the bus because I was pretty certain that we would have to go through a metal detector and I was afraid the needles would be confiscated. Amazingly, though, there was no metal detector anywhere, so when we went back to the bus for lunch, I grabbed my knitting and stuffed it into my bag. 

After lunch, we headed to the gallery of the House chamber and waited for the representatives to come in. We sat there for almost an hour and I was so glad I had retrieved my knitting. At 1:00 p.m. the Speaker called the House to order. There was an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance, and then our local representatives introduced our kids. We stayed for a bit and watched the proceedings, and then headed to the (much less formal) Senate chamber. I think it was good for the kids to be able to see how government works first-hand. The Montana legislature only meets for 90 days every two years. 

We took the kids back to the hotel for a few hours of swimming and down-time, then had dinner at Pizza Hut and bowling afterward. I knitted. 

Day 4

Yesterday morning began with a tour of the National Guard Armory in Helena. We got to go inside a Chinook helicopter and see the big bucket that is used for hauling water to fight forest fires. Afterward, we stopped at the Cathedral in Helena for a quick tour; I could have stayed there all day and listened to the organist practicing. Oh. My. Goodness. But we went to lunch and shopping—shopping! the girls were so excited—at Last Chance Gulch. There is a cute little yarn store there called Mountain Spun, so I popped in and bought a skein of Wolf Creek Wools yarn (hand dyed in Helena). I think it's going to become a scarf. I also found a little tea store and bought some wonderful new teas. 

We loaded the bus around 2:00 p.m. and began the three-hour trip home. All in all it was a fun and educational trip. For our 8th graders, it was one of the last times they spend together as a group, and it will probably be my last field trip for a while. 

I think I might have mentioned that I received a couple of skeins of sample yarn from Abuelita Yarns last week. I've been incredibly frustrated over the past couple of weeks because my designing mojo seems to have taken an extended vacation. I was desperate to have something (knitted) to show for all my time on this trip. The night before we left it was rather like the floodgates burst open. I came up with a couple of ideas, one of which was a lace scarf. The picture in the stitch dictionary looked interesting enough, but when I began knitting, I discovered that the stitch pattern biases delightfully, making it just perfect for a scarf. The pattern is only eight rows, easily memorized, and it made a great trip knitting project. I got about 3/4 of the scarf done while we were traveling.

I'm also itching to try the other idea, but it will have to wait. Our big fire department auction is next weekend. The next 10-14 days of my life are going to be devoted to that. My MIL comes on Wednesday. This is a tradition that she started when the girls were little. She would come and watch them while the husband and I worked at the Auction. As they got older, she took care of ferrying them around and also pitched in and helped us set up for the sale. Having her here this year will be a huge help because DD#2 is on spring break next week and DD#1 gets home on the train the Saturday we're having the general auction sale. It's nice to have someone else be in charge of my kids so I don't have to worry about them. 

Today I've got to take DD#2 to the doctor. She came down with some upper respiratory infection on the history trip, and she says her right ear hurts. I think the respiratory thing is viral, but the ear may require some antibiotics.

Supermoon?

This may put me squarely in league with the foil hat people, but I look around at all the stuff that's been happening in the past week—globally and locally—and I have to wonder what else is going to happen. I suspect that we're in for something, but it's not going to be something we expect. It's going to be something that takes us all completely by surprise., like the mountain lion that drops out of the tree onto your head when you are hiking and slices your throat open. Wow. Didn't see that coming. 

On that happy note . . . 

I am so frustrated with my knitting and designing—or, more accurately, the lack of it. The other night I was working on the top-down sweater and I spilled tea on the sleeve. Fortunately, it was some of my favorite "Evening in Missoula" herbal tea and not some double-strength Oolong. I rushed the sweater over to the sink and rinsed it out. Then I had to let it dry, which meant no more work on it that evening. I received some sample yarn from a yarn company this week. Two of the skeins have enough yardage to knit scarves with, and I'm feel like a little lace knitting, so I cracked open a couple of stitch dictionaries. All that did was give me a full-blown case of analysis paralysis. I am so afraid of spending a month or six weeks designing and knitting something, only to discover that someone else has already done it. Browsing the Ravelry pattern database helps somewhat, but takes a lot of time. 

And I am wrestling with whether or not I even want to knit warm-weather items. I almost had to force myself to do it for the newsletter, and they were never what I considered my best work. The problem I am facing is that—in order to have designs ready to go when the weather gets cold again in the fall—I need to be knitting them NOW, and getting the patterns written and edited over the summer. But will the yarn I choose still be available when the design is released? 

And so I wallow in the slough of overanalysis and make no progress. This is very much akin to writer's block. I know that I need to just pick something and knit it and not worry about the rest of it. Of course, it doesn't help that DD#2 and I will be on a field trip all next week (the biennial Montana history trip for 7th and 8th graders), a field trip which includes a lot of knitting time. I don't want to take the sweater with me, but I need something that will keep me occupied for four days. I cast on for a scarf last night. If it pans out, it will likely end up as my trip knitting project. If not, I may just skip the summer season and start working on some Arans for the fall. 

I miss my newsletter deadlines. I work much better under pressure, apparently.

Who Invented Meetings?

I've written about three different blog posts in the past week and none of them seemed particularly interesting to me, so I just didn't post anything. 

On Monday, I typed transcription reports. I was supposed to attend a meeting Monday night (with the husband), but the husband convinced me to phone in my report and stay home. Our big fire department auction is coming up in three weeks. We have every-other-Monday night meetings beginning the last Monday in January. By March, we have meetings every single Monday night. This year it just seems like overkill. We all know what our jobs are, and for me to drive 20 minutes to report that I have nothing to report seems a bit silly to me. I don't like meetings just for the sake of meetings, especially when my daughter says to me, "Did you realize that you are gone every single night this week?"  

On Tuesday, I typed transcription reports. Late Tuesday afternoon I went to Camas Creek because I had three private lessons lined up. Two were outgrowths of my UFO class last Saturday. The first lady was a newbie knitter who needed a little bit of handholding. The second lady was there because of something *I* screwed up in her project: She came to Saturday's class with the pieces of a baby sweater that just needed to be sewn together. I noticed that she had two left fronts, so I had her take one out and re-knit it. Then we sewed the shoulders and she picked up and knit the neckband. Alas, when we sewed the shoulders together, I neglected to realize that the bottoms of the front pieces were also shaped, and that I had put the sweater together backwards. Duh. So she came back and we took the sweater apart and put it back together the correct way. 

I have spatial perception problems. I know this, but usually the only person I manage to inconvenience is myself. She was very gracious about it. To top it off, though, I accidentally scooped her size 3 16" circular into my knitting bag and took it home with me. I have to return it to her today. 

On Wednesday, I typed transcription reports. I finished at 11:00 a.m. and was so happy that I decided to reward myself by cleaning the bathroom (I just haven't had time for some of this stuff). Then the phone rang—it was the school. I had forgotten that I promised to come in for the secretary and watch the office that afternoon, so I hastily threw on some nicer clothes and dashed up to the school. I came home, made dinner, then went to ANOTHER meeting. 

On Thursday, I did not type any transcription reports. Instead, I left the house at 8:00 a.m. and went to town to run errands, including a stop for a much-needed haircut and eyebrow wax. I got home at 4:30, threw together dinner for the husband and me, then went to our regular monthly fire department meeting. Arrggghhh. Fortunately, the husband is the president of the firefighters association. He hates meetings as much as I do, so he keeps them short and to the point. 

Yesterday I typed transcription reports until mid-afternoon, then stopped. I finally sat down in my knitting chair and worked on the top-down sweater project. It had been languishing beside my chair because it had gotten to a point—grafting the undersides of the sleeves together—where I needed to have a block of uninterrupted time to get it done. I watched the earthquake coverage (how terrible) and grafted the sleeves together. Finally!—it's at a point again where I can work on it in the evenings (or at least the evenings when I am not at a meeting). After I finished the grafting, I mixed up a batch of tortilla dough and spent the next hour rolling out and frying 24 tortillas because I wanted to make burritos for dinner.  

The husband and I have been trying—unsuccessfully—to watch a documentary about food on Netflix. We started watching it late Wednesday afternoon, but then my mother called. I talked to her for a while and then I had to leave for my meeting. The husband said he would wait until I got home to watch the rest of it. I came home from my meeting. No sooner had we turned it on than he got a medical call and had to leave. He came home from the first medical call, but just as I turned on the TV, he got a second medical call and had to leave again. I gave up. On Thursday night I was just too tired. Last night we turned it on and got about halfway through when DD#1 called us and wanted to video chat, so we turned it off and visited with her for a while. We turned it back on and then the phone rang. It was someone who wanted to "talk" to the husband about joining the fire department. He was on the phone for 20 minutes (I could tell it was painful for him) and I had no idea how long the guy on the other end was going to want to jabber away, so I gave up and went to bed. Maybe tonight we will get to finish watching it. Or not. 

I didn't want to have to run to town today, but DD#2's saxophone needs to be fixed, and I have to return my student's size 3 needle to her. But when I get home, I will most likely type transcription reports. Oh, and clean the bathroom. 

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I am going to Iowa in May! I am excited about this because Iowa is one of the 10 remaining states in the country I have not been to (the others being Hawaii, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Dakota, Vermont, and Mississippi). I will be teaching for the Des Moines Knitting Guild the weekend of May 21-22. 

And for those of you wondering about the Maryland classes, I am still working on those. I hope to have dates and locations soon. 

It feels good to be teaching knitting again.

Attack of the K1s

Last week was incredibly busy for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that I traded in my truck and got a 2011 Volkswagon Jetta TDI station wagon. More on that in a moment, but first . . .

ERRATA ALERT

I hate mistakes, but alas, I am not perfect. There are two mistakes in the Winter issue of the newsletter, and they both have to do with some excess K1's that got past me:

• In the Fence pullover instructions, row 5 of the chart has extra k1's on either side of the make 1 symbols. Those should be black squares instead of knits. And row 5 of the written pattern should read: K1, p8, [M1R, ctr dbl inc, M1L, p6] twice, M1R, ctr dbl inc, M1L, p8, k1.

• In the Cuculla pattern, there is an extra k1 at the end of rows 6 and 8 in the written instructions. The chart is correct. Rows 6 and 8 should read: *K1, yo, sl2—k1—p2sso, yo, k1, yo, sl2—k1—p2sso, yo; rep from * around.

Mea culpa. 

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Knitting is still happening. I had a very fun class on Saturday at Camas Creek called UFO Sighting. The premise of the class was that students could bring a UFO (unfinished object) that's been languishing for whatever reason, and I would get them back on track. I had three students ( I wouldn't do more than five in a class like that) and we had a good time. Then yesterday I joined about 30 other women at the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell for an afternoon of knitting hats for charity. That was great fun. The Mansion is normally closed during the winter, so it was fun to have the place to ourselves for a few hours. 

For the past 2 months or so, I've been working on a prayer shawl during our Sunday School class at church. Prayer shawls make good knitting for meetings and classes because they don't require a whole lot of mental attention from me. I was using Lion Brand Homespun in the Fiesta colorway. The woman who sits next to me in class would periodically lean over and pet the shawl and say, "What a pretty color this yarn is." About halfway through, I decided that she needed to be the recipient of the shawl. I love it when people admire what I am working on. So I fringed the shawl Saturday night and gave it to her yesterday morning. She was just tickled. 

Our Sunday School class is doing a book study on Living More With Less. This book was originally published in 1980, and has been updated and expanded in a 30th anniversary edition. There is a companion cookbook (the More-With-Less Cookbook) which is a standard reference book in my kitchen—the African Groundnut Stew recipe is one of my favorites, made with chicken and peanut butter. Yes, peanut butter. 

This is a challenging book and a challenging topic. I thought the husband and I were living pretty simply before, but the mere fact that we live in the United States means our standard of living far surpasses that of most of the rest of the world. We really don't know what simple means. My friend Susan's daughter is living in Chad right now, and reading about her life there makes me realize how much we take for granted. Visit her blog today—she has a wonderful post on International Women's Day.

Simple is certainly not a one-ton pickup truck, no matter how much I might like driving it. I decided last Monday that I needed a different vehicle, and by Monday night the husband and I had settled on a Volkswagon JettaTDI wagon from the local dealer (we both really wanted a diesel, and I really wanted a stick shift). Amazingly, there is quite a market for used full-size pickups here in Montana (even the less fuel-efficient ones), and we had no trouble selling the truck to the Dodge dealer for an excellent price. I am waiting on the check to arrive so I can pick the wagon up from the Volkswagon dealer. I used to have a Saturn station wagon. It was a great car and did fine here in Montana. 

Living More With Less is full of all sorts of wonderful information. Alas, one of the dangers of studying a book like this is that it can leave a person paralyzed with guilt. It doesn't take much to push me into the deep end of the guilt pool where I will flounder around for a while until someone pulls me out. The husband teases me about being so conflicted. I have to keep reminding myself that guilt is only bad if it doesn't motivate you to change your behavior, so I am trying to focus on all the positive changes we've made to live more simply (and we've made quite a few). It's a process, and there are no easy answers. For instance, the husband thinks that my homemade tortillas are a thousand times better than the ready-made ones from the grocery store (and they are cheaper). The problem is that the homemade tortillas are a fair bit of work to roll out and fry up. That's an hour of my time that could be spent working on a knitting design. How does one make those choices?

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I seem to have worn out my keyboard, and I've only had it for about six months. I noticed today that it is being flaky—letters won't appear on the screen, or they appear on the screen out of order, and I have to push a lot harder on the keys. I am going to have to shop for a replacement tomorrow (so much for simple). My transcription homework took me twice as long as it should have today. 

I leave you with a quote from the More-With-Less cookbook: Put dismal thoughts aside . . . because this book is not about cutting back. This book is about living joyfully, richly, and creatively.

Creatively. 

Behind the Book Charts Made Simple

This blog post is a few weeks late because both JC and I are insanely busy, but I wanted to give you all a chance to get to know JC Briar a bit better. She's fascinating! And the process of writing and self-publishing a book is fascinating, so here is JC's take on the process:

 Can you give us a bit of your personal background and how you got into  knitting?

Like a surprising number of knitting teachers, I'm mostly self-taught. I learned the very basics of knitting while I was an exchange student in Chile the summer after I graduated from high school, but then for several years I knit by myself—I simply didn't know any other knitters. My sole reference was The Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework. In true Reader's Digest fashion, its chapter on knitting is rather comprehensive, covering everything from how to hold the yarn to how to design for yourself. So, right from the get-go, I designed everything that I knit—remember, I didn't know other knitters, so I didn't know people bought patterns! Most of my early sweaters were terribly oversized and boxy, but gradually I learned from my mistakes and began knitting custom-fit sweaters, socks, gloves, and more.

What was the inspiration for the book Charts Made Simple?

Charts have always fascinated me. So much information in a compact space! Not only does a good chart tell you what to do, but it shows you what the end result ought to look like.

And yet, to my amazement, many knitters dislike or even fear charts. My love of charts is so deep that I feel the need to wipe that fear away with a little gentle instruction. It's worked in the classes I've taught. And now, with the book, it's working across a wider audience.

How long did the book take, start to finish?

It took a while—at least a year—to find the right scope for the book. Initially, the book was to cover writing charts as well as reading them, but then I realized a smaller, more focused book was the right choice: a more manageable project, and a way to answer a very specific need in the knitting community.

Once I finally narrowed the scope, I spent another year writing in odd moments between teaching opportunities and tech-editing jobs. In that year, I completed the rough drafts of only three chapters. At that rate, it didn't seem like the book would ever get done, so I quit tech editing—and promptly finished writing the initial draft in another four months. After about another five months of reviews, edits, and the myriad decisions involved in self-publishing, the book was finally ready to go to the printer.

So, all told... let's call it three years.

What did you like about the process?

I loved going through stitch dictionaries and pattern magazines to find just the right stitch pattern, just the right chart, to illustrate the various points I wanted to make. I loved drawing the charts and diagrams, always aiming for clarity. And I loved laying the book out, putting all the pieces on the pages. In short, I loved playing around visually in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.

What didn't you like about the process?

At times, the actual writing was like pulling teeth. Finding those few succinct paragraphs that would get a point across clearly was tough. I didn't want to gloss over any subtleties, yet I didn't want to get bogged down in rare corner cases either. So sometimes choosing what to say kept my mind spinning in circles. I remember thinking, "I don't want to write a book, I want to have written a book."

How did you keep yourself motivated while working on the book?

By remembering all the people that I had told I was writing a book! Once making the goal public, I felt I had to finish.

What do you say to someone who doesn't like to use charts?

First I ask them why they don't like charts. Then I counter whatever excuse they conjure up. If they say the symbols all look like arbitrary squiggles, I point out that each symbol in some way looks like the stitch it represents--that makes it easier to remember what each symbol means. If they say they lose their place in a chart, I suggest placing a straightedge over the row they're currently working, so they can follow along that row more easily while still being able to compare it to the previous rows. And so on.

Are you working on any other books?

Sure! Now that Charts Made Simple will get the entire knitting community hooked on reading charts, don't you think a book on writing charts is in order too? How to convert written instructions to a chart, and use the chart for flat or in-the-round knitting. How to use charts to figure out exactly what "at the same time," "reverse all shaping," and "shape in pattern" mean. And maybe, if I can figure out how to squeeze it in, how to tweak stitch patterns or even come up with your own stitch patterns. Or maybe that'll be a third book.

What are your favorite kinds of knitting?

For me, textured knitting—be it cables, lace, or something else—trumps colorwork almost every time. But it can be fun to mix color into textured knitting, with multi-colored brioche stitches or with stitch patterns that make the most of hand-painted yarn. I guess you could say that it's all fair game.

What do you do for fun when you aren't knitting?

Ooh, so many choices. Travel. Cooking and baking. Watching movies. Keeping fit through swimming and yoga. And—inspired by the Sock Hop at Sock Summit 2009—hula hooping. If Sock Summit 2011 has a Sock Hop, I'll be prepared this time!

Thanks, JC. I hope someone has a video camera at the Sock Hop this year!

I Can't Drive 55

I love Montana. I love the wide open spaces, I love the scenic beauty, I love that all the gas stations here sell diesel, and I love that—in most places—the speed limit is really only a suggestion. I made it to Billings in exactly 8 hours. I made it home in 7 hours and 10 minutes, because the weather was better on the way back. 

I left Kalispell in the tail end of a blizzard Thursday morning, decked out in my wool long underwear, wool hunting pants, wool sweater, wool socks, and wool coat (thank you, God, for inventing sheep). I had packed food, water, emergency supplies, a sleeping bag, and an extension cord so I could plug my truck in because temperatures were supposed to get down to -20. I looked like I was heading to the Arctic Circle. The wind blew and it snowed all the way from Kalispell to Butte. I positioned myself behind a semi and drafted all the way from Missoula to Butte. Once I got over the mountains, though, the weather improved considerably. The sun was even shining as I headed into Billings. 

Wild Purls is a wonderful store. If you ever find yourself within 100 miles of Billings, you NEED to stop and visit. Julia, the owner, is a delight. I walked in and she told me how great it was that she didn't have to worry about me coming to Billings unprepared for the weather (apparently some teachers don't believe that boots are required footwear in Montana in February—go figure). In fact, she introduced me before class as "a real Montana girl," which is high praise coming from a Montana native. 

I had full classes both days. The students were terrific. They asked great questions, worked hard, and it was lots of fun getting to know them. We did Aran sweater design on Friday, and finishing and cables on Saturday. I ate well. A woman named Connie (who works at the store) took me to breakfast each morning and made a killer corn chowder for us for lunch on Friday. Julia and Linda (who also works at the store) and I went to an Indian restaurant after class on Saturday. Oh. My. Goodness. It was delicious. We had samosas, four different kinds of nan (bread), curried chicken, a lamb dish, and saag paneer (spinach and cheese), with mango sherbet for dessert. Yum.  

Hopefully this will not be the last time I get to visit Wild Purls. 

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DD#2 was wrapping up her science fair project yesterday afternoon when I got home. I am glad, because the petri dishes in my office were getting very stinky. I forgot how bad they start to smell after a few days. It seems to have been a success and now she is working on the display part of it for the science fair. 

I sat in my chair and watched "Life After People" and a couple of westerns on Netflix yesterday evening while I finished two knitting projects. One was a prayer shawl, and the other is a cowl in a mosaic knitting pattern. I really like mosaic knitting. Once you get into it, it's very rhythmic. It was nice to be able to finish a couple of projects. Now I have to decide what else to work on. 

Montana is a Big State

I did a GoogleMaps map today of my upcoming trip. I really only need the directions for about the last 5 miles of the trip, because there just aren't that many roads in Montana. I just have to get to I-90 in Missoula and head east. 


View Larger Map

You may have to zoom out to get a good perspective of just how much of Montana I will be covering. On the east coast, one could drive for 8 hours and go through half a dozen states (or more). 

It's supposed to start snowing here tonight and snow (heavily) for the next 48 hours. The temperature when I leave Thursday morning may not even be above 0 degrees, and it's not going to be much warmer in Billings. Oh well. I will just have to make sure I have all the emergency travel supplies in the truck with me along with my teaching supplies. And I won't be in any remote parts of Montana on this trip (relatively speaking). 

Spring can't get here soon enough. 

I've got to figure out what to take for my trip knitting. The top-down cotton sweater may not be the best choice and may have to be left at home. I am thinking either a) socks or b) a baby blanket of some sort. I need something that will allow me to socialize and interact with knitters over the weekend. 

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A portion of my office has been devoted to DD#2's science fair project:

 

Amazingly enough, neither of my girls inherited my love of all things scientific. They did/do well in their science classes (DD#1 doesn't have to take any more now that she's in college), but they don't enjoy them the way I did. When DD#1 was in 5th through 8th grade, their science projects were built into our school's curriculum. Just before DD#2 got to 5th grade, however, our school began requiring the kids to participate in a more formally-run science fair. I do not think this is an onerous requirement (far from it), but DD#2 has agonized over it every year for the past three years. One year she won our school's fair and had to compete at the county level, and that was particularly difficult for her. 

This year we looked over all the possible projects and I convinced her that she should do a microbiology project. I figured that I would have to direct the proceedings, so it might as well be something with which I have more than a passing familiarity. She chose a project in which she collected local pond and creek water (no small feat in Montana in February), then placed samples under a UV lamp to see if they could be sterilized with sunlight (sunlight is rather difficult to come by in Montana in February, hence the lamp). 

We collected water from a local pond, a creek up the road, and a spring-fed pond at our minister's house which his ducks frequent (I was convinced we would get some fecal coliform bacteria out of that sample). I ordered all the supplies from a scientific supply house, and this weekend we ran the tests. We had three samples: creek, pond, and spring-fed pond. Each of those samples was broken down into three different samples of water: untreated, boiled, or sterilized under the UV lamp. She did all the prep work and I showed her how to innoculate the plates. She has to examine the plates at regular intervals and count the number of bacterial colonies growing on them.

At 24 hours post-innoculation of the plates, there were no visible colonies. I don't have an incubator and our house is a balmy 65 degrees, so I expected it to take some time. This morning when I came down and looked at the plates, I was delighted to see a mess of bacterial colonies on some of the plates with the untreated water samples. Really, I think I am more excited about this science fair project than she is. I haven't done this kind of stuff for 20+ years. 

She's already got all her background information put together, so it's just a matter of collecting and organizing the data. Fun.

Exploding Text

This post does have to do with knitting, as you'll find out in a moment.

I'm at the point in my medical transcriptionist training where I have to transcribe hundreds and hundreds of practice reports. I also joined an MT forum where I've gotten tons of tips on working more productively. One of the best recommendations so far has been to install and start using a text expanding program. This is software that allows you to automate commonly-used words and phrases with simple keystrokes—a common one is to type "tp" and have the words "the patient" appear on the screen. 

I purchased TextExpander for the Mac and installed it Thursday afternoon. In two days I have added hundreds of "snippets" to my library. I can type "pexn" and have the phrase "Physical examination" (a common heading) appear on my screen. The trick is to make the abbreviation something weird that you wouldn't normally type; otherwise, you might be typing along and hit a particular set of keystrokes and get an unintended result. 

I am having great fun with TextExpander in my MT homework, but it also occurred to me how useful it could be in writing knitting patterns. I have a whole library of stock phrases I use in my patterns: 

  • "or size to obtain gauge"
  • "wash and block according to yarn manufacturer's instructions"
  • "or to desired length"
  • "sts evenly across last row of ribbing"

and so on. I can make up abbreviations for all of those and simply type the abbreviation when I want to use a particular phrase. Not only does it save typing time, it helps to make sure that verbiage is consistent within a pattern. I really wish I had started using something like TextExpander when I began publishing the newsletter. It's useful and it's fun.

Obviously, I am easily amused. 

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I'm going to do a post soon about this new sweater project I am working on, because it's really fascinating from a construction standpoint. I want to draw you some pictures, though, and I just haven't had time to sit down and do that. Next Thursday I am driving to Billings (about an 8-hour trip) to teach at Wild Purls. I am hoping the weather cooperates. The last thing I want to do is drive over two mountain passes in a snowstorm. I am looking forward to the drive, though. I love to drive and I love to drive through Montana. And I am teaching three of my favorite classes (Arans, finishing, and bizarre cables), so that makes it even better. 

The husband and I were about 1/4 mile from pulling into our driveway last night on the way home from a fire department event when the car in front of us (thankfully, a ways in front of us) lost control, spun around in the road, bounced off the large snowbank on the side of the road, and came to rest going in the opposite direction. We stopped and the husband got out to check on the driver—it was our next-door-neighbor. She was shaken up a bit and the plastic pieces on the front of her car were all trashed, but otherwise she was okay. I always keep a roll of heavy-duty duct tape in my truck, so the husband taped up her car enough for her to get down the road to her house. I am not sure if she was going too fast or what. The county—which has never done a great job of keeping the roads out here cleaned off—seems to have decided that it's almost spring and time for them to stop plowing. We got two solid days of heavy, wet, slushy snow this week and our road is really crummy. I am ready for spring. This is what it looks like when I open the kitchen door to go out:

 

This winter isn't quite as bad as the winter of 1996-97 (that year, the snow bank outside the kitchen door went all the way to the roof line and blocked us in completely; this year it's only about half that high), but it's still awful and we're all getting tired of it. Alas, the long-range forecasts are calling for it to be cold and wet through May. Our minister has already planted tomato seedlings. He was telling anyone who would listen this week that they've come up already. His wife said to him, "You do realize it's going to be 3-1/2 months yet before you can put them outside, don't you?" The husband is not much better—this week he e-mailed me pictures of greenhouse frames for sale at one of the local nurseries (they were listed on Craigslist, which he likes to troll). I would love to have a greenhouse, but I have to think on that a bit to figure out how to make it work. 

Okay. It's time to play with exploding text for a while and then go knit. I really like Saturdays. 

Number Crunching

It's been interesting to see the quiz results; they are pretty much as I expected. Thanks to all who participated! 

(If you want to see them, please click on the Quibblo logo below and you will be taken the results page. I couldn't figure out how to post the results here easily, and I am too brain dead to type them up for you. Sorry.)

So I forged ahead and began the project with the Sublime Organic Cotton. I really really like it. I like the yarn, I like the stitch pattern, I like the overall design idea. It's an idea that has been percolating since last summer (when I bought the yarn) based on one of the top-down styles in Barbara Walker's Knitting From the Top. It's a style that hasn't been used often as the basis of a design (I could only find one example of this style in the whole Ravelry database), so I am interested to see how my interpretation of it turns out. Stay tuned. 

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Today I tackled a task I could put off no longer—the taxes. It's my business that is the big holdup. I do all of the husband's banking and bill-paying in QuickBooks and it works really well. I reconcile the account at the end of every month, and at the end of the year I press a few buttons and poof—out prints a nicely detailed profit and loss statement. If that were all I had to do, I'd be golden. 

I keep the records for Big Sky Knitting Designs in QuickBooks, too, but my business has a checking account, a savings account, a line of credit, a PayPal account, a merchant account, and a credit card I use when traveling. I send out three times as many invoices in a month as the husband. If I were more disciplined than I am (and that's pretty disciplined), I would reconcile my bank statement at the end of each month, just as I do for his business. Alas (my mother will be horrified), I do not. I usually wait until the end of the year (or well into the following year), then spend an entire day or two entering all the info from my bank statements into QuickBooks.

Yes, I know, it's possible to download all the bank statements directly into QuickBooks. Unfortunately, my bank uses a generic debit and credit account for each transaction. After downloading, I still have to go in and manually change each entry so that it reflects the correct income or expense account. That takes almost as much time as entering them manually. 

I got through the first six months of 2010 today, and I'll do the rest tomorrow. I could have done all of it today, but I had to spend some time this morning on transcription homework. I'd like to get this done and off to the accountant soon. February is already half over. 

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We had a fun family outing yesterday. My FIL is sending a vintage lever-action .22 rifle to DD#2. We're waiting for it to arrive from the east coast. She was excited about learning how to shoot—and yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny, warm day—so we took her down to the gun club. The husband started her off with the single-shot bolt-action .22 that he learned to shoot with. After she got comfortable with it, he moved her over to my Ruger 10/22, which has a scope. They practiced for an hour or so (I went to a different part of the range to practice with a different gun), and when I came back, the husband proposed that we have a competition. He put up a target at 25 yards, and we each took turns putting 10 rounds on a target. This was the result:

So I started with the circle at the top left, then the husband took the one just to the right of it, then DD#2 took the one to the right of that, and so on. I finished up with the one at the bottom right. DD#2 put in a very respectable showing, considering it was her first time shooting anything. The husband and I were simply trying to outdo each other. When I got to that last bullseye, I put about half of the 10 rounds into it and he said, "You do know that you're shooting out the center of the target, don't you?" and I said, "Yes, of course I do." 

I got such a kick out of DD#2's Facebook status after we came home. She wrote, "I accomplished something big today." She certainly did. I told her that next year she could get her own deer instead of waiting for her father to get one. She and her sister have a great fondness for deer jerky and pepper sticks. 

Time for some knitting. 

The Laughing Child Sweater

Here is a shot of the finished kid's sweater, modeled by Melanie's adorable granddaughter:

I'm just tickled with how well this fits her (she'll be 2 next month). Getting the pattern written up is on my to-do list for this weekend. Don't you think that would be a great sweater for an adult, too? And there isn't a single cable on it anywhere. It took two weeks and three days from start to finish. That qualifies it as an instant gratification project for me. 

I am at a design impasse right now. I wanted to do something in a cotton yarn, so I pulled some Sublime Organic Cotton out of the stash. Two days later I found out that yarn is going to be discontinued. ARRGHHH. Should I continue? Or does the Sublime Organic Cotton get relegated to the stash for my retirement years when I can knit for fun? I find keeping up with yarn to be one of the hardest and most frustrating parts of my job. It's like fashion—we're out here in the backwater where I have trouble keeping up. And I wonder how much having a current yarn makes a difference in whether a knitter will knit a design or not.  I don't have a good answer, and that's keeping me from moving forward with a design. 

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It's been a tough two weeks. Eight days of subbing on top of all the other stuff I have to do has made me very tired. As much as I like subbing, I doubt I will do it anymore after this year. DD#2 will be at the high school next year and I won't have any kids at this elementary school. The school doesn't care—they would keep me subbing for the next 20 years if they could. While I was there this week, I dropped some very broad hints about not being available next year. I want them to start looking for a replacement for me. It's hard, because I know how difficult it is to find good subs. But it's time for me to move on, even though I will be sad not to have any kids at that school. It's been a big part of our lives for the past 14 years.

I will not miss the head lice. 

The husband is off to do a small job today, so it will just be me, the dogs, and the chickens here. I haven't been out to the chicken coop in nine days. The chickens probably forgot who I am. I plan to put a big pot of soup on the stove, build a fire in the fireplace, then settle down for a productive day of work. Wish me luck. 

On Toward Spring

I finished the kid's sweater I was working on. I am taking it to Camas Creek today so that Melanie's husband Andy can get a picture of their darling granddaughter modeling it. I like how the sweater turned out, and I think it would be great in an adult version, too. For now, though, I am moving on to some warmer-weather designs. But it may be in the queue for fall.

Has anyone heard how or if the spike in cotton prices is going to affect cotton yarn prices? We may not see the effects until next year, but I have been wondering to myself if I should stockpile some cotton yarns now.

I started a design out of some Sublime Organic Cotton last night and I like it. I like it so much that I had to force myself to put it down and go to bed. That's always a good sign.

It's been a long seven days of subbing. I am looking forward to having my life back again. And maybe I'll have something more interesting to blog about than head lice (the good news is that we seem to have eradicated the infestation, yay).

Sheet Music and Knitting Patterns

I spent an hour or so last night going through my sheet music to find suitable music to play at my friend's husband's funeral tomorrow. I've found that non-musicians don't have a clue when it comes to what they think musicians do. (I don't know why that surprises me, but it does.) I cannot tell you how many people at church are under the impression that I simply come in on Sunday morning, sit down, and begin to play whatever is placed in front of me. I'm sure that there are some extraordinarily talented pianists for whom practicing is an option, not a requirement, but I am not one of them. I like to be prepared ahead of time.

Anyway, as I was going through my vast collection of sheet music, it occurred to me that a piece of sheet music is a lot like a knitting pattern. You may think that's a bizarre comparison, but consider this:

1. Some pieces don't require much in the way of extra effort for me to play them. Obviously, a piece which I can play almost without thinking might be below my skill level, but the real gems are the ones that are easy to play but SOUND complicated. I liken those arrangements to knitting patterns that use some knitting sleight-of-hand which is easy to execute, but results in a finished object that looks like it took hours of work to complete.

2. Pianists have a saying about pieces that "lie well under the fingers." It means that they might be complicated, but they don't require the pianist to tie herself up in knots to play them. Think about those knitting patterns with techniques that require the knitter to twist their needles and yarn this way and that. They don't "lie well under the fingers," do they?

3. I have favorite arrangers, just as a lot of knitters have favorite designers. I'll buy anything arranged by a woman named Cindy Berry, for instance, because anything she arranges is going to be fun to play and won't require weeks of practice to work up, but it won't sound "easy," either.

4. Some weeks I haven't had time to practice, but I've got a few pieces I can pull out and play at a moment's notice. Those are like my favorite Oat Couture Pinwheel Afghan pattern, which is my go-to pattern when I need a quick baby shower gift.

5. I do like a challenge, and when I've got time to practice, I like to pull out an arrangement that is a bit beyond my current skill level. I work at it and work at it until I can play it, and bit by bit my skill level inches up.

I finally settled on some music last night. Funeral music needs to fit certain parameters: I have a couple of pieces that might work really well for a funeral, but they are what I call "theatre production" pieces and are a bit over-the-top for this particular gathering. I need pieces of a certain length, too, as I usually begin playing 15-20 minutes beforehand. And finally, I'm aiming for a certain mood. This particular family wants this service to be a celebration, so the last thing I want to do is play depressing arrangements. It's a balance.

So, there you are. Some quick thoughts about music and knitting. I love both.

Pediculosis

Yesterday was a fun day at school (I am subbing for seven days for the secretary). We have a lice problem, so someone from the county health department came out to help us do head checks of all the students and staff. I was part of the five-person team that checked all the kids. We didn't find any live lice, but we did have a few kids with nits who had to be sent home. 

It happens. Put that many kids in close quarters and there are bound to be a few things passed around. What surprises me is that it isn't worse. 

I've had some incredibly long days this week, with meetings scheduled every night. On Tuesday, I left for school at 7:30 a.m. (after having gotten up at 4:30 a.m. to get some other work done), worked until 4 p.m., then went to town and ran errands for a couple of hours. I stopped at the school on the way back to meet DD#2 (who had stayed to watch the basketball game). She and I had to attend a meeting for kids who are heading to the high school next year. I know most of this stuff because I've already had a kid go through the system, but the meeting was mandatory. We finally got home a little after 8 p.m. I just don't have the stamina for those kinds of days any more. 

I had a meeting scheduled for last night, too (it's a regular weekly meeting), but I called the person in charge and said I wouldn't be there. I've managed to get to a place in my life where I know how much I can give and now I am quite comfortable with saying, "Sorry, I am all tapped out and I need to recharge." I came home, did some transcription homework, made dinner for the husband and me (DD#2 was at a friend's house for the evening), watched TV and knit, then went to bed at 7:30 p.m. 

Truly, I don't know how working mothers do it sometimes. The husband is home this week, so he's picked up the slack around the house, otherwise things would be in a pretty sorry state. And I'm not getting any knitting done. I have a friend who only needs to sleep about four hours a night. I envy her. I need my nine hours a night or I am worthless the next day. But oh, I could get so much more done in those extra five hours. 

Like check myself for lice. 

Confessions of a Workaholic

I had some questions about where JC's book is available. If you go to her website, she lists retail outlets for the book. 

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I was home yesterday (Saturday) for the first time since the beginning of the new year. I woke up feeling kind of crummy—DD#2 had a cold this past week and I am fighting it off—but I looked at my to-do list and didn't see a bullet item labelled "take the day off and do nothing," so I just cowboyed up and got on it. 

The husband and I had an interesting conversation as we stood in the kitchen drinking our respective cups of coffee (he needs caffeine; I most certainly do not):

The husband: What are you doing today?

Me: Well, I need to finish up my transcription work for this week, the house desperately needs to be cleaned, I need to practice the piano for church tomorrow, and when I get all that work done I would like to go sit in my chair and knit."

The husband: Knitting is working, isn't it? (God bless the dear man for understanding that—sometimes better than I do.)

Me: Yes, but it's the fun work that I reward myself with when the not-fun work is done.

I stood there thinking about what had just come out of my mouth, and then I said to the husband, "Do you realize that I don't have any hobbies? I mean 'hobbies' in the sense that they are fun things I do to blow off steam and relax. I don't have any."

I thought about that a lot during the rest of the day. It's not that I think this is deficiency—far from it—but it's just interesting to me how task-oriented I am. The closest I come to having an activity which isn't a means for producing money is gardening, and since I only get to the do that three months out of twelve, I don't think it really counts. Thanks to my mother, I have one game on my computer (Bookworm, although I am sorely tempted by Plants vs. Zombies). I allow myself 20 minutes every morning to play Bookworm. That's it. Then it's on to the to-do list. 

I often wonder at people whose goal in life is to figure out how they can avoid working and spend all their time at the beach, or skiing, or whatever other "recreational" activity they think should make up the majority of their time spent on this planet. Don't get me wrong—I love a week at the beach, but a week is about all I can take before I start twitching, and you'd better believe I have some knitting to "work on" while I am there. 

The husband and I often joke about how neither one of us plans to "retire" in the traditional sense of the word, and I think that's true. I just don't believe we're capable of it. I think we both enjoy being productive too much to not be productive, Maybe that's a character flaw, maybe not. I think we strike a good balance between working and our personal lives, and we're both fortunate enough to be able to make money doing things we love to do. 

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In knitting news (there is some), the kid's sweater is close to being done—I have one sleeve to knit and plan to get that done tonight—and I started another cowl. I seem to be stuck on those things at the moment, but this one is proving to be great fun to knit. I am playing with mosaic knitting. What fun! I'm using two colors, one of which is a very interestingly variegated yarn. If it does what I am hoping it will as the pattern emerges, I think it will be very very cool. 

I discovered that part of the reason I like cable knitting so much is that I am so good at it that I don't need to look at instructions or a chart. Everything is in my head. I found it hard to work on the kid's sweater or the cowl during meetings because I am so tied to charts to know what I need to do next. It's much harder to look engaged in the meeting when one is continually looking at a piece of paper. 

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This second semester of transcription is far more time-consuming than the first, because now I am spending a lot of my time on the actual transcription. One of the things that has really frustrated me about this program is trying to figure out the "rules." Programs which are internally inconsistent drive me freaking nuts, and there are some internal inconsistencies with this one that continue to trip me up. The company administering this program makes a fairly big deal out of noting that there are "acceptable variations" in the way transcribing is done, as long as the core medical information is complete. For example, when the dictator says, "The patient presented three-and-a-half weeks ago with severe coughing," the following are all acceptable ways to transcribe that sentence, depending upon the policies of the client for whom the report is being prepared:

"Patient presented 3.5 weeks ago with severe coughing."

"The patient presented 3-1/2 weeks ago with severe coughing."

"The patient presented three-and-a-half weeks ago with severe coughing."

So it's okay to type "patient" instead of "the patient" and there are acceptable variations in the way that numbers are written. However, I've found that if I type out the numbers (which I've always done for numbers less than 10), I get dinged in the grading. Likewise, if I type "patient" instead of "the patient," I also get dinged. The one that really makes me want to tear my hair out is the use of serial commas. I almost always use serial commas, and I've gotten dinged several times for that when they don't appear in the report key. But I've started keeping a list of conventions for how things appear in the report keys, and I am trying to train myself to transcribe so that I don't get dinged for using the particular "acceptable variation" that doesn't appear in the report key. You would think, though, that they could figure out some way to create a grading algorithm that takes into account those "acceptable variations." 

The good news is that 95% of the point deductions I have to take are all due to those stupid punctuation issues. I am getting all the medical terminology spot-on and really, that's what counts. I don't think a patient's record is going to be damaged by me putting in a couple of extra commas, but if I get hypertension and hypotension mixed up, that's another story altogether. And thanks to years of playing the piano and singing, I have an excellent "listening ear," and can pick up subtleties in the dictation. So even though it's taking a huge amount of time, I am pleased with where I am in the program. I've got to set up a schedule where I do a certain amount of transcribing homework (like 2-3 reports) every day so that I can stay on track to finish. And at this point it looks like I will go on and do the editing portion of the program; editing seems to be where transcription is heading (as goofy as that sounds). 

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It looks like we're going to have another funeral at our church this week. The father of one of DD#2's good friends passed away Friday night after a long battle with thyroid cancer. He was about the same age as me. It's really been a tough situation for the family, as you can imagine. I am just hoping this doesn't turn out to be another year like 2004. We had something like nine funerals for people in our church and community that year. 

And now, I am off to work again. 

 

Look What Came in the Mail!

I was so excited to see a package in the mail yesterday, and inside was something I've been waiting for for 16 years(!):

Okay, so maybe not 16 years, but close. This is JC Briar's new book Charts Made Simple, and as yours truly states on the cover, "You are holding in your hands the only book you will ever need to teach yourself how to knit from a chart." Period. 

The reason I say that I have been waiting for this book for 16 years is because it was about 16 years ago that I first attempted to knit from a chart, and the results were disastrous, to say the least. I finished the sweater, but I think I cried through most of the knitting of it. I really believe that if I had had this book, teaching my brain to work from charts would have been considerably less painful. JC was the tech editor for Twists and Turns for close to eight years, and during that time, she taught me a great deal about charts—the kind of information they present and how to make them understandable to knitters. If you have hesitated to work from a chart because you think it's too hard, please please please run out and buy yourself a copy of this book. And then—because the size and shape and wonderful rounded corners make it perfect for carrying with you—put it in your knitting bag. 

I am doubly excited because JC self-published this book and I always like to cheer on my fellow self-publishing knitting designers. 

Congratulations, JC, and I look forward to more Knitting on Paper books (oh, and check out JC's blog, aptly titled Knitting on Paper). 

The Frustrating Part of Designing

Melanie has just added the Jojoland Tonic yarn to the store. She brought in all sorts of really nice colors, so I brought home enough of a heathered red with which to make a kid's sweater. Alas, this yarn and I have had a hard time becoming friends.

Tonic is an acrylic/wool blend, but that's not really the problem (although I prefer wool, I do not consider myself a yarn snob). It took me six tries to find a stitch pattern that made this yarn happy. Yesterday afternoon—after four solid days of cogitating and swatching—I wrestled this design into submission. I think it will be worth the difficulty, because I love love love the way it's working up thus far, but once again it brought into sharp focus that designing, at least for me, is not all that easy. 

Actually, I do know what part of the problem might be. At the risk of providing too much information, my ability to design waxes and wanes with the month, just like certain other things. There is one week out of the month (guess which week it is this week) where the design part of my brain refuses to function properly. The first few times it happened, I chalked it up to coincidence, but it's happened too consistently to be a fluke. Normally I just work on something that I've already got on the needles and wait for the design part of my brain to begin functioning again. This time, though, I didn't have anything on the needles and I simply had to push through. 

This is not anything I've discussed with any of my designing friends, so I don't know if a) it happens to anyone else or b) anyone else is in tune enough with what's going on in their brains as I am to even notice. 

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I made a lot of headway on my to-do list today, which makes me very happy. We have a funeral at our church Wednesday (the father of one of our friends on the fire department) and I was asked to be part of a quartet, so Wednesday is pretty much full. I've got to make potato salad in the morning (DD#2 informed me yesterday that my mother and I both pronounce "potato" as "potata" when referring to salad—who knew?) and then get over to a quick rehearsal before the service at 2:00 p.m. There will be a meal afterward (hence the potata salad) and then I have a regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. Taking one full day out of my week for an unforeseen event means that I have to work twice as hard on the days I AM here. And last week was so full that last week's laundry, cleaning, and bread-making has spilled over to this week. At least I am not working on Saturday. Yay. 

I'll keep you all posted on the progress of the kid's sweater. The nice thing about garments for kids is that they work up so quickly. 

Retreating

The Third Annual Camas Creek Winter Retreat was great fun. We moved the venue to Kandahar Lodge on Big Mountain (or Whitefish Mountain Resort, if you must), and I think everyone agreed that it was a good change. The Lodge is quite welcoming and warm and I don't think I've ever slept in a more comfortable bed. 

All of my classes went well. I had a great group of students—some old friends, some new ones—and my feeling was that everyone left having learned a lot of new skills to take their knitting to the next level. The Colorwork class was particularly fun for me as a teacher. We talked a lot about putting colors together (a weakness for me), and I was able to see what kinds of color choices other people make. 

It occurred to me at the end of the retreat that this is the first time I've taught at an event like this where I didn't teach a single cabling class. And I still had a great time! It's nice to be able to branch out a bit. 

Last week was an incredibly busy week. I am looking forward to being able to stay home this week and get some work done here in my office. 

Teaching

Well, I am not heading off to Vogue Knitting Live this weekend, but I will be doing a lot of teaching in the coming few days. Today and tomorrow I am subbing for my favorite first-grade class. I've been their sub since the beginning of the school year, which is an enviable position to be in: I know the kids, I know the routine, and the kids know me. Less stress for everyone. They also know that I always bring my knitting to work on when I have down time during the day. Last week a couple of them asked if I had brought knitting for them to work on. I hadn't—it completely slipped my mind. Last night I made sure to add some little knitting needles and balls of yarn to my knitting bag. We may be stuck inside for recess (we were last week) and knitting will be the perfect distraction. 

On Friday afternoon I head to Big Mountain (it's now called Whitefish Mountain Resort but it will always be know as Big Mountain) for the 3rd Annual Camas Creek Winter Retreat. Friday's night's class is "Finishing Before You Start." On Saturday morning I will teach "Conquering Colorwork" and on Saturday afternoon is a class Melanie's husband dubbed "All Janet's Secrets," which is something of a tips and tricks class. The last time I taught that at the store it was a huge hit. 

The Sunday morning class did get cancelled (darn). Oh well. 

And speaking of teaching, it appears that I will likely be in Maryland from June 15 or so until about June 27. That covers two full weekends, and I am looking to fill the time with some teaching gigs. If you know of a store or guild that's looking for a teacher during that time, please let me know and I will contact them. I can do a limited amount of traveling to Pennsylvania or Virginia, so suggestions of stores/guilds in those areas would be welcome, too.