On The Road Again

We are heading out tomorrow morning to visit family and friends in the East. First to Florida, then on to Virginia and Maryland. With the price of diesel fuel at this time, we are probably crazy to be driving, but we like having our own car to get around in and flying around Easter is not inexpensive either, especially with several different destinations on our itinerary. My husband rarely gives up control of the steering wheel to me except in cases of extreme fatigue, so for the long drive, I am taking along some WIPs that have been crying to be finished and hope that I will be able to pass the time happily knitting.

This pillow cover has been languishing for over a year. I started it before we moved out here to the Southwest. It is intended for my daughter so if I can finish it on the trip I can give it to her in person.

This, my first pair of socks, is actually much further along than the above picture. I have finished the first one and I have high hopes of finishing the second one so that I can give them to my son in person, as well. They will still need to be felted, but since he has a top load washer, unlike me, I can make quick work of that.

This project will not be finished on the trip. It is the "Learn-to- Knit Afghan" by Barbara Walker and still has 59 more squares to go. However, my daughter is making the same afghan and we plan to get in some quality time catching up with each other and knitting more squares.

Number Sixty-One

I woke up this morning, old in years, but young at heart;

And what's most important, anyway;

Mind over matter, or the other way around?

I guess I should stay in today and act my age,

But I don't want to. . .

I'm going out and have some fun!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Spinning Out of Control

Several weeks ago, I solemnly promised myself that I would under no circumstances purchase any more yarn until I had made a huge reduction of my embarrassingly large stash. Yesterday, I found out just how weak my resolve is, however. I bought a top-whorl drop spindle and some merino wool prepared for spinning. I had seen them at my LYS after a knitting group meeting last week and had been obsessing about them. I found several instructional sites online and read voraciously and dreamed. Finally the pressure was too great and I broke down. I rationalized that it isn't really yarn yet, right?

Scrumbling

I love the sound of that word--scrumbling. It is playful, whimsical, a bit quirky. And that's the way scrumbling makes me feel. Yesterday I played with my yarn and made two pink scrumbles for The Pink Project that Prudence Mapstone is sponsoring on Ravelry to support breast cancer research. I like the way they turned out, but am afraid they may be a bit large. Also, I am not feeling really good about the yarn I've used. Since the only yarns I had in pink were acrylics for making baby blankets and some novelty yarns, I don't think they have quite the drape I would like in a freeform project. I will try gently washing them in Eucalan to see if they improve. I still want to make some more before I mail them to Prudence.


This scrumble is one I made following a pattern by Margaret Hubert that I found in a publication from Annie's Attic called Fun with Free-Form Crochet. The pattern is called Large Paisley Scrumble No. 1. Now, it may sound counter intuitive to follow a pattern for freeforming, but as a "newbie" I felt I needed some guidance.

For this scrumble I started out following a pattern from the same publication by Margaret Hubert and when I got confused I just decided to improvise and make it my own.

The scrumbles I posted the other day were mailed to Jenny Dowde today. She is sponsoring a similar project on Ravelry called the Think Pink Challenge. Her deadline for receiving fragments is mid-April so I wanted to get them off as soon as possible. As I was returning from the post office, I was amazed to see a family of javelinas running across the front yard of along the road. The creatures and plant life here in the Southwest are so different from what I am used to and I've been trying to spot them as I drive along. I have seen coyotes, road runners, lizards, hawks, and all manner of cactus, but had never yet seen a javelina. They are much larger than I had thought--definitely not something to mess with.

Aaargh!

Actually, I guess I should be saying "rip it, rip it, rip it," since I've spent the last hour frogging The Firestarter sock by Yarnissima I started February 23. I had no business starting this sock before I finished the first pair of socks I've ever knitted. However, the informal sock knitting group I belong to had agreed to make that sock in February and I wanted to see if I could do it. Several of the members, more experienced than I, had already finished theirs and offered to help me if I needed assistance. Do I need assistance? HA! I had to rip back 4 rows because I had developed a hole, not a ladder, a HOLE, in the join between one needle and the other. Everything seems okay now and I will pay closer attention when changing from one needle to the other. This is not a beginner's sock, but I am determined to do a good job of it. And when I do, it will be due, in large part, to the talented, supportive members of my sock knitting group.

The pattern for this little beauty can be found at The Loopy Ewe in their free patterns section. It has some very interesting features and is meant to be knitted toe-up on a circular needle. I used a Turkish cast-on and am knitting it with the magic loop method. I wanted a challenge and this is definitely it.

I Heart My Sock Knitting Group

I really love my knitting group! We had one of our twice weekly meetings today and I came away with such a good feeling that I had to sit down and write about it. It helps me to prolong that warm glow I always experience after our get-togethers.

Knitting, crocheting, in fact, all the fiber arts, are not just about the production of a finished object, or even the process of creating something. They are also about community. Community as found in the old-fashioned quilting bee or in the very modern online communities, such as Ravelry. I am a member of Ravelry and spend quite a bit of time discussing knitting and crochet related topics in forums, and connecting with fellow knitters and crocheters through shared projects in individual groups I belong to. Most of these people, however, I will never meet in person. So when I need that face to face connection with people who share my passion I rely on my knitting group.

The members of our group are of diverse ages (15-60+), backgrounds, and levels of experience. We give each other encouragement, support, and instruction. We share patterns, books, magazines, and yarn. We even go on yarn buying expeditions to the "big city" together. My life is richer because of my involvement with this group. Moving to a new home in an area of the country far removed from what I was familiar with has been invigorating, but I have also experienced a certain amount of displacement. Since joining this group, I feel I've found my place here in the Southwest. It's like in the theme song from the old TV series "Cheers": it's a place "where everybody knows your name." And that's a good feeling.

Spring Has Sprung!

There is no doubt about it--spring has arrived in southeast Arizona. And it has brought me another surprise. I didn't realize that bulbs planted in the fall would actually bloom here. Well, as you can see from these photos, they do indeed:

Daffodils are "my" flower, since I was a March baby, and my favorite color is yellow. I couldn't be happier or more energized.

And what have I been doing with all that energy and happiness? Taking my yarn for a walk by making scrumbles, of course! What's a scrumble, you ask? As defined by Sylvia Cosh and James Walters here: "'Basic' scrumbling means making freeform random patchwork pieces to be joined into a continuous, textured fabric."

On a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico this past autumn, I wandered into a boutique downtown and was completely blown away by the coats, vests, and scarves they had displayed. I didn't know how they were made, but I loved them. Since that time and after a lot of research I've found out that they were constructed using scrumbles from freeform knitting and crochet. Check out the International Free Form Crochet Guild site for freeform examples and links.

I'm currently involved in making scrumbles to donate to two groups on Ravelry that will use them to make items for fundraising to support breast cancer research. I'm a real beginner and at first was very anxious about my scrumbles. Were they good enough to donate? What would others think of them? I checked out the work of others on their project pages to see how mine compared and then decided the whole idea was to do "my" thing. Last night I even got brave and made one without following the guidelines I had been using contained in Jenny Dowde's wonderful book, " FreeForm Knitting and Crochet." I'm happy with what I've done so far, but you can judge for yourself. . .

When I'm working on scrumbles I feel like my whole body is humming with energy. It is very liberating to work without a pattern.

The Winds of March

I was born and raised on the east coast--Virginia and Maryland. My favorite season was always autumn, but next in preference was spring. After a long, cold winter the sight of green buds on trees, daffodils pushing up in the garden, and blue skies always got me excited about new beginnings. Moving to the high desert of the southwest, I was not sure what to expect of the seasons. So far, it's been a real revelation.

We moved here in July, 2007, and were prepared for a hot summer. We had visited in this region off and on for over 10 years, but never stayed for any length of time. Well, our first summer here was delightful. Only a few days over 100 degrees and it was a dry heat (yeah, I know it's a cliche, but so true.) And a lovely monsoon (rainy) season. The landscape was greener than we'd ever seen it and the wonderful smell of the desert after rain was intoxicating.

Then came autumn and I thought I would really miss the trees changing color. Another surprise! The colors may not be as riotous, but the golds and burnt oranges we saw in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona and on a trip through Sedona and to the Grand Canyon were very satisfying.

In the White Mountains

Winter was a bit colder than we expected--some lows around 19 degrees--and we had snow twice. A wild blizzard as it fell and enough to make everything white. Then it disappeared in about three hours. No snowmen, but also no shoveling.

Now, it's March and I can definitely detect signs of the approach of spring. Trees that lost their foliage in the fall are budding up and showing green. Cholla are showing yellow buds, the skies are an intense blue, and the winds are here. It is often very windy here, no matter what time of year, but to me, the winds of March have always been a precursor to spring.

Cholla beginning to bloom

As for new beginnings, I am trying new things with my knitting and crocheting. I have finally finished my first sock and cast-on for the second one. Soon I may actually have a pair. These are for my son, Jon, who works outdoors and gets very cold and sometimes wet. I know they look large, but he does wear a size 11-12 shoe. However, I intend to felt them to give him even more insulation from the elements.

Spiral Stripes Socks

Many other projects are either in the works or planned, but they will be the subject of future blogs. I have spring fever and need to get outdoors right now.