Aaaah............

And so it is that we come to the end of yet another crazy busy week in a long line of equally crazy busy weeks, all parading along at an alarmingly swift pace, leaving huge piles of stress in their wakes; more doctor appointments and evaluations for daycare baby, hoping to find a reason for the ongoing issues; family members experiencing medical issues of varying severity; committee cohorts expecting more in the way of time/talent/availability than I'm remotely in a position to provide; and a to-do list that seems to erupt exponentially if I so much as blink in that general direction........and life is crazy, hectic, almost unbearably overwhelming.

But - hooray! - it is finally Friday evening! Daycare baby has gone home to her own family, the diaper pail is emptied, baby bottles rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher, miscellaneous items of infant paraphernalia stashed away for the weekend, dinner prepared and enjoyed, and finally I sit quietly, wrapped in a warm knitted shawl, relaxed in my favorite chair, alone, knitting, knitting, knitting......

Tonight I'm making a tuck scarf, where one end will tuck into the other to secure the scarf in place. It's a very simple project, chosen as a way to help reduce my excessive yarn stash, requiring little in the way of counting or attention to detail. As I knit I am struck by the incredible gorgeous beauty of the yarn colors I'm working with: a melange of pink, rose, orchid, purple, mauve, coral, gold, all blended into the beautiful shades of a misty spring sunrise. It's not often that I have the opportunity to watch the stitches flow onto the needle and the colors flowing softly into one another forming the most beautiful scarf. I knit on, mesmerized at the glorious loveliness of these colors together, and gradually allow the peace and contentment and promise of a fresh start to saturate and rejuvenate my entire being.

And finally the scarf is finished - knitting completed, yarn ends woven in. I tuck one end of the scarf into the other, hold it up and admire the colors once again. And I smile, calm and content.

 

Sigh.......

I simply cannot believe that it's already 2013! Honestly, didn't we just have Easter a few weeks ago?? I guess that's yet another indication that I'm just not keeping up with everything. This will by necessity be a short post, as I've been away long enough that I'm also having to relearn the Blogger interface which has changed quite a bit since I last posted.

Of course I'm still knitting - but for some reason I haven't been nearly as efficient at taking and posting photos lately. I did three custom order stockings before Christmas and didn't manage to get a single photo of any of them! I'm not horribly disappointed, though, because they were for repeat customers and I do have photos of the previous stockings in my files. I was so happy to be finished with stockings early this year - and then, less than two hours after the last ones had been picked up (on December 20), someone came knocking on the door asking whether I was the lady who made Christmas stockings. I had made one for her grandson nine years ago and she wanted one for her new granddaughter. I told her that I was happy to make another one but there was no way I would have time to finish it for THIS Christmas.

In other news, my dear darling husband finished the custom-built cabinet for my sock-knitting machine the week after Thanksgiving, just in time to move the machine to make way for the Christmas tree. I haven't managed to crank any socks yet but I have definitely been stocking up on sock yarn. My goal is to have at least a few pairs ready to go for the first craft fair of 2013, the TRIAD Spring Craft Fair on Saturday and Sunday, March 2 & 3. 

If you're on Facebook, don't forget to check out my Facebook page. I'm able to keep it updated more frequently because I'm on Facebook pretty much every day. That's also a good way to contact me if you want to place a custom order, make a purchase, or just find out what I might happen to have in stock at a particular time.

And now I'm back to the knitting needles. I have a couple of projects that I hope to be able to post soon, if I can have a sunnier day to get some decent photos. Happy New Year, everyone!

Lots of knitting, not so much blogging

I have been very busy over the past few months doing quite a bit of knitting, but unfortunately haven't managed to blog any of it yet. Here's a quick (and very photo-happy) rundown on the major projects of the past several months. It's worth noting that I also produced a lot of dishcloths, kids' hats, and other miscellany which I didn't necessarily consider blog-worthy.

Christmas was very hectic as I worked to finish several Christmas stocking orders during December. One was a repeat order from a customer who ordered stockings a couple of years ago. The first stockings were for herself and her husband, and she wanted matching ones for her new twin daughters.

Original stockings on the left; new ones on the right

The second batch was for a friend from church who had seen this post last year and was thrilled because her own stocking from her childhood was made using that exact pattern. I ended up making five for her; one for her husband, each of her two children, and her son- and daughter-in-law.

The new year got off to a roaring (but not especially happy) start with the news that my daycare baby's mommy was suddenly unexpectedly unemployed and a week later was diagnosed with breast cancer. I found this pattern and was happy to make it for her.

Almost at the exact same time, a little girl in my grandson's first grade class was diagnosed with cancer, and the nine year old daughter of my cousin's nursing school classmate was diagnosed with bone cancer. I made these two fuzzy hats for the two girls.

Then my grandson's school held Crazy Hat Day, where each child could pay $1 to wear a hat at school. The proceeds were donated to the family of his classmate with cancer, and nearly $1500 was raised to assist with their expenses. Naturally Kindon decided that he needed his own fuzzy hat for the occasion.

At the beginning of March I participated in a new craft fair where I hadn't set up before. Although I was somewhat disappointed in the sales for the weekend, I was assured by folks who had been there before that this was an unusually slow weekend. I'm hoping that I'll do better when I go back in the fall.

Note the astonishing lack of shoppers crowding my booth!

Now I'm finishing up an order for 23 pairs of knitted slippers. Having to put pompons on each of the slippers has given a whole new dimension to the term "tie one on". I'll be so happy to have those done and out of the house!

Then I have a prayer shawl to finish up before Saturday, and an entire stack of projects awaiting my attention. I'm also hoping to get some time in on the sock machine now that I supposedly have a lot of "free time". Never a dull moment in the knitlady's household!

theknitlady on Facebook

Well, after much deliberation, foot-dragging, and hesitation, I finally bit the bullet and put up a Facebook page. Although I've been on Facebook for a couple of years, and have really enjoyed keeping in touch with family and friends that way, the thought of doing a knitlady page was just downright intimidating. I've been contemplating it for over a year now, since talking with a fellow vendor at the 2010 Benld Fall Festival. She assured me that it wasn't at all difficult to set up a page and encouraged me to try it out.

And so, without further ado, I give you my brand new theknitlady Facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/theknitlady. I've posted a few items in the photo albums but still have more work to do there. Also I'll be posting my craft fair schedule, other events, and anything else that seems appropriate. Check it out and see what you think. At this point it is still very much a work in progress, and I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Something to do in my "spare" time

The other day a Facebook friend who knows that I knit posted a link to a fundraising project by Heart for Africa.org. Apparently her sister is heavily involved with this charity and brought this to her attention. They are asking knitters to make small "DUDUZA" dolls to be donated to children in Swaziland.

DUDUZA (comfort) dolls

Here is the link to the project page. It's a perfect fit for me, because I have quite a lot of "scrap" yarn, small bits and pieces that aren't necessarily big enough for a large project but too big to just throw out. Of course it could be a bit of a challenge to fit these in with all the other knitting I'm doing (STILL trying to get a show sample of the Double Hearts blanket made, have 9 Christmas stockings to finish before Thanksgiving, not to mention three more craft fairs in November AND a wedding gift and some Christmas gifts) but I'm sure I'll welcome the change occasionally. My goal is to make at least six before December 1 (the shipping deadline for Christmas distribution). If anyone else in the area wants to participate, let me know and we can split the shipping.

Oops! Time to get off the computer and get knitting!

A Long Hiatus and a New Toy

Unfortunately it has been a really long time since I've posted - atrociously long, in fact. I've actually written many blog posts in my head in the interim, but therein lies the difficulty - I have not yet discovered an efficient method for transcribing the mentally-written posts to my computer keyboard.

That said, it has been a crazy busy year, with lots of knitting, an incredible amount of snow (earlier), an outlandishly miserable heat wave (hopefully mostly over now), a broken ankle, and many other distractions keeping me from actually posting. However, I have now set up a reminder in my cell phone calendar which will actually remind me if I haven't posted to the blog for too long.

Meanwhile, I have purchased a new toy - an antique Legare 400 hand-cranked circular sock-knitting machine. I haven't had nearly enough time available to work with it as I would like, but I've successfully cranked out several pairs of socks and am really getting the hang of using the machine. I'm thinking that this may be the year when handmade socks are in everyone's Christmas stocking, although I'm not making any promises at this point.

In May I attended my very first crank-in, a gathering of "crankers" and their sock machines, in Warrenton, Missouri. It was a fabulous weekend which I enjoyed immensely. It was very educational to walk around a room full of people with their variety of antique machines (and a display model of a new machine that is now being manufactured), and awesome to meet an entire new group of people that shared this interest.

Other recent knitting includes the completion of my sixth Double Hearts blanket for sale, and a plethora of dishcloths and kitchen towels. I'm also working on a special order for FIVE Christmas stockings for this coming year, although that project is firmly relegated to "work at home" status since it's just not practical to cart a project around with that many different colors and strands of yarn. Still waiting to be started: yet another attempt at producing a show sample of the Double Hearts blanket (so far I haven't succeeded in completing one before it has sold), two new original baby blanket patterns, two more blankets that I've done before but in different colors this time, and lots of smaller stuff in preparation for the fall craft fairs. Now if I could only figure out how to blog and knit simultaneously I'd have it made!

Without Further Ado......

This will by necessity be a short post, but I didn't want to wait any longer before posting it. So, without further ado, here are the custom ordered Christmas stockings that I finished for this year.

The first one I completed was the mate to the stocking in this post from last year:

Then I worked on a pair of stockings for two children, which were patterned after the stockings that were done for the parents by the mom's aunt many years ago:

In retrospect I wish I'd taken a photo of the two new stockings alongside the original ones that they were patterned after.

And I'm not done. I had someone ask me on Thanksgiving weekend (!) if I'd knit two more stockings like the ones I'd made for her a couple of years ago. I told her that I'd be more than happy to do the stockings but there was no possible way that I'd have them finished in time for Christmas. So, more than likely they'll be popping up on these pages sometime around Valentine's Day.

Happy (not so) New Year!

I can't believe it's already the 18th of January. Of course time has flown during the last six months of absolute craziness. I keep hoping that things will calm down at least to a dull roar, but so far that hasn't happened. I spent a good deal of the fall keeping very busy with craft fair preparations and some custom knitting orders.

Of course it goes without saying that the Christmas season was very busy, and just when I thought things might slow down I had to prepare to teach four knitting classes at Lincoln Land's Needle in a Haystack event on Saturday. Although there were huge concerns even as late as a week before that event that it wouldn't happen, people signed up like crazy during the final week and some even registered for classes on the day of the event. Overall it turned out to be a wonderful day, with a total of 19 classes offered as well as an awesome luncheon speaker.

In addition, with the coming of the new year I am back in the child care business in a small way. I was contacted in December by the family of a child who used to attend my daycare (she is six years old now!) and asked whether I would consider taking their new baby. After two weeks I am definitely enjoying having a baby around again, but missing a couple of things like daily yoga classes that just aren't possible with a two month old in tow.

Through it all I am naturally continuing to knit. I'm currently working on a baby blanket for a repeat customer which I'll deliver on Friday. I have a list of 23 potential knitting projects (some of which are multi-item projects) in my new iPhone, most of which can be made without the purchase of additional yarn (in other words I'm trying to reduce my stash bigtime). In my next post I'll add photos of the custom Christmas stockings that I knitted last year, and possibly the first of my FO's for 2011. Meanwhile I guess I need to get off the computer and get some of the aforementioned knitting finished.

Remote Control Pizza

In September, my youngest son moved to Bullhead City, Arizona to be with his girlfriend who had gone out there to accept an exciting new job. Although he is a marvelously skilled mechanic he has yet to find a job out there, so he has been doing a lot of the cooking and (hopefully!) other household chores.

Yesterday he called me to ask about the necessary ingredients for my homemade pizza crust recipe. We chatted for a while, and then I emailed him the actual recipe after I got home from my craft fair.

A couple of hours later, he called me again with a question about measuring cups. I answered that question to his satisfaction (and he added a set of dry ingredient measuring cups to his next shopping list) and then as I heard rummaging noises over the phone, he commented, "Oh, wow, I don't think we have a rolling pin either."

I thought about it for a moment, then asked, "Do you have an empty beer bottle you could scrub and use instead?"

"Well, no, but I could have one in about two minutes," he replied, laughing. "You know, Mom, it's scary but I was actually thinking about that exact same thing when you mentioned it."

I agreed, and we chatted a while longer, discussing his plans for the pizza. Instead of our regular recipe using tomato sauce, onions, peppers, mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni, and cheese (and sometimes black and/or green olives) he was planning to use chicken and an Alfredo type sauce with mostly Parmesan cheese. He also was going to try making a stuffed crust. Then he commented that he should probably quit talking and start cooking and hung up.

Later I got an email saying that the pizza turned out well and they both liked it. It doesn't get much better than that!

It Isn't All About Knitting!

In addition to having 40+ years of knitting experience, I have also become a nationally certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, learning a great deal about child passenger safety, crash dynamics, and many other child transportation issues. After I became certified I had an opportunity to enroll in the supplemental Special Needs Transportation training, which I also found extremely valuable. My (grown) kids will tell you that when the topic of car seats arises for whatever reason I can and do tell anyone more than they ever wanted to know about car seats. When I'm not knitting, as likely as not I'm doing something car seat related (and when I AM knitting, I may very well be knitting in front of the computer reading car seat safety forums).

When my grandson, the light of my life, was born, I helped his parents to make sure that he was the safest he could possibly be riding in all of our various vehicles. I coerced strongly encouraged them to keep him rear-facing to the limits of his convertible seat, since rear-facing is so much safer. When he outgrew the convertible seats, I bought him higher weight harnessing seats for each of their vehicles because he was much too young to move into a booster seat at that time.

More recently, I was blessed to win a deluxe higher-weight harnessed seat in a Facebook drawing, and I agreed to submit a review of the seat. This week that review was published in Carseat Blog.

Now the review has generated more questions, and it looks like I'll be submitting another Carseat Blog post soon.

Meanwhile, the knitting continues, even if I'm not keeping up with the postings.............