Purling Oaks

Resurfaced

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!  DH and I enjoyed the company of our mothers on Saturday when we cooked and shared lunch with them.  The only thing I think I forgot was to take photos!

For the past several days I've been working madly on my Creative Carryall brown bag project for Monday's knitting guild meeting.  If this wasn't a lesson in time management and facing my fears regarding my own creativity, I don't know what could be.  No pattern, a stranger's choice of yarns, and my own ideas of what I could/should knit with the yarns that could be considered a creative carryall.   I procrastinated for months before beginning the project.  But I've finished it and I feel relatively good about it now.  Now being just before midnight on Sunday night......

Work in progress photos:

And the finished object:

There are a lot of areas where I could wish for improvement, primarily the lack of rigidity for the bag.  I tried a firmer gauge but I couldn't knit firm enough for a more stable fabric.  However, just as tissue saved a few prom dresses from lack of curves, it came to the rescue here.   Not a permanent solution but it works as window dressing..... 

Besides the design and time management issues, I also learned how to do I-cord and remembered how to crochet in a flash for the edging along the opening.

I hope my mystery recipient enjoys the finished object for the project it is.  I enjoyed the yarn choices even though, or because, I would not have made similar choices.  (Brushed suri alpaca blended with bamboo, a wool/cotton blend, and a viscose (the multi-color yarn.)  Yes, I submitted a brown bag with yarn last fall as well.  I included Cascade 220 in my bag.  I wonder what that lucky designer did with my yarn choices?  :D

Monday was good!

Amy Detjen was a great speaker at last night's MKG meeting. She's a wonderful tall person with great stories and even greater sweaters. If you go to her blog you can see the sweater with all the squares....I got to touch that sweater! I didn't go up to say hello during the break because I couldn't think of anything that didn't sound too dorky. Yeah, silly, I know. She teaches some knitting classes at the Sow's Ear in Verona besides working with Meg Swanson. She was very funny last night and made me feel so good about being a knitter. That isn't what she focused on during her talk but she so obviously is immersed in knitting. I was smiling and laughing all during her talk. Life is good.

I'm on the road. No surprise. That is part of what I do to make my living. I am, however, very much looking forward to Thursday night when I'll be home and getting ready for the next week (plus a few days) of family, hunting, eating, and tree-sitting. (Oh, yes, and knitting.) I can be quite sure that there will be some nights in the next week when I'm bone-tired but it will be a good physical tired....not a *mental* tired. Not that I enjoy getting up at three a.m. in the darkness of the night but it is only for a few days. Besides, once I make it up my tree, I can, um, rest until the sun comes up. *g* Don't worry, I won't fall out of my tree. I have a tree house, a virtual Taj Mahal castle of deer blinds. (I didn't realize the Taj Mahal was actually a mausoleum. Lovely architecture but my blind is not a mausoleum. I may be old but I'm not that old.)

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. No tree until Saturday.

Winners and the *e*

Contest results!!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the birthday comment contest! This morning the entrants were formally processed and the random selection pool device was prepared. DH, being an impartial being, removed his glasses and made the random selections of two entrants. His hand looks almost too large for the random selection pool device but he pulled two names out of the hat bowl pool device. Congratulations to Kathy W. and to Angie (not me, the *other* Angie.)! I've sent you both emails and if you will respond with a snail mail address, your yarny prize(s) will be on the way to you soonly.

*e*

I had a number of suggestions regarding *e* or how to include daily exercise and motivation for it. I'll share an quick run-though with you since I think it is interesting and it qualifies as blog material. *g* One suggestion regarding motivation really struck a chord--don't expect exercise to be fun or a joyful experience. Exercise because it is good for you and because doing it will result in a long-term improvement in health. This suggestion makes me think of flossing my teeth. No, not going to do it now, but how I used to feel about flossing. I didn't floss regularly in my early twenties (*gasp*). I didn't understand the need for it, so I wasn't doing it properly or often enough. One dental visit though, I had a great dental hygenist be very direct with me and explained why I should and what would (not could) happen if I didn't. She was thorough and I changed my dental habits for the better after that explanation. (There was no electro-shock therapy or other violence involved. Just good mental persuasion.)

Another suggestion was to not engage in a desired activity, like knitting, until I had completed my daily 30 minutes or whatever of exercise. Another commenter said she ran two miles every couple of days. She didn't like it but rewarded herself with craft activities after her run. One commenter said she included exercise in the things she did in the morning like showering and dressing to make sure exercise got included each day. One commenter included exercise in her day through dance since she enjoyed dancing.

One commenter also made a big impression on me for ways to exercise when she suggested Denise Austin or Kathy Smith pilates dvds. She said she got rid of her four-baby tummy in a year and these exercises were of the low-sweat variety. Another comment was to have an exercise buddy, someone that depended on me to exercise with. That way, the guilt of potentially letting someone down would motivate me to continue to exercise. Guilt in that context is good.

These are all great suggestions and I think they will add to my methods and motivation to include *e* more often in my daily routine. Of course, there is no "switch" to flip and presto I'm fit, but I'll try to blog more about my efforts and maybe you all will be my virtual exercise buddies. How about that?

Guild Meeting

Tonight is the November meeting of the Madison Knitters Guild. Amy Detjen is our guest speaker. This time I'll have my "mindless" knitting with me so I can be one of many people knitting during the meeting. That will be a lot of knitting in one location! Perhaps my knitting will improve by osmosis!? *g*

MKG meeting and first WAL pattern

Monday night I attended my first Madison Knitter's Guild meeting. I really wasn't sure what to expect because I didn't take them on a test-drive, I just leaped in and signed up on the strength of the speakers. I wasn't disappointed. I didn't count the number of people there but certainly more than 100 attended. I saw familiar faces but in most cases I just couldn't place exactly where I had encountered them before. One LYS and one not as local yarn shop were vendors for the evening. There's a lending library, a help desk for knitting, a charity knitting drop-off place, oh and a swift and skein winder for members to use.

There was also a brown bag exchange, which I bravely participated in. I brought in some stash yarn in a bag and I got a bag with another member's selected stash yarn. We have to make a creative carryall with the other's yarn and return the completed item at a later meeting. Good blogging material, at the very least, and a way to stretch my creativity.

The guest speakers for the evening were Ann Swanson and Katie Nagorney, the creative and all other forces behind Two Old Bags. They were very good speakers and told us how they started their designing adventure, part of what goes into each design, and they shared their finished products with us. I have made a Lucy Bag but I didn't know they designed lace. Oh my, do they do lace. Lovely. And the lace is balanced by clever sock monkeys. They also gave out a free pattern (discontinued) to everyone. Wow.

Then there was show and tell. I'm fortunate to have found an incredibly talented group of knitters. I was alternately awed and then moved to tears by the stories the knitters told about their finished objects. I considered pinching myself. Everyone one I interacted with was very nice and welcoming. I will remember to bring a mindless knitting project to the next meeting. I brought Willliamsro---definitely not mindless knitting yet for me.

Today was a day of trying to fit work in around medical appointments, which required a fair amount of driving to various places. No knitting was accomplished today but I finished the first WAL pattern. There is an error or two if you look closely....so don't. This is my second square ever so it looks good, considering. *g* I'll work the pattern again so I'll have a correct sample.