You know how when you start getting overwhelmed, you convice yourself that you are really coping? You think things like "sure, I can handle planning a trip to Sydney and Melbourne, working on a couple of communication projects, training a new market how to use our database, taking care of one cat with a broken leg and one cat with an ear infection, trying to participate in a secret pal exchange, trying to keep posting to the blog, thinking about whether I should call the landlord about the broken washer/dryer in the basement of our building (because it won't change anything), thinking about whether we should move to an apartment that is better maintained, playing in a piano quartet, and figuring out what to eat for lunch -- I can handle it."

Then you realize you just can't cope, or catch up.

Banana's broken leg has been occupying most of my waking thought until the past few days, when he's really returned to normal (translation: he now manages to jump on all the surfaces he could jump on before without using taking off from his bandaged leg, and he begs for milk from the cereal bowl again. I never thought I'd be so happy to see him try to pull my cereal bowl away from me while I'm still eating from it). For five days, he not only needed to have a splint (which he'll have for another 7-8 weeks), but also a cone to prevent him from licking his paw and causing skin issues:



And at last, I'm finally starting to get my agendas together for the 3 days of training I'll be giving in Sydney and 3.5 days in Melbourne. I've been stressing incredibly about this trip in part because I always stress out about meeting new people in groups and in part because it's literally on the other side of the globe. (Thankfully, Stephen will be joining me for a week of the trip, which is very exciting).

But it's the smaller things that plague me the most (what is it they say about the death by a thousand cuts? Do thoughts count?). I haven't...

Sent my secret pal an email or comment for a while, nor have I responded to the sweetest email that I got from my secret pal, who said she enjoyed the writing on my blog, which just made me want to cry because of how little I've been doing in the past few weeks. I must do those two things -- I commited to doing them.

Updated the blog in over two weeks. This post alone has taken over two hours to write. Here is an insight into the current internal monologue, which may explain why it has taken so long: "I could be spending the time I'm using writing this post to reply to my secret pal's email!" or "I could be commenting on my secret pal's blog" or "I should plan what the next package will be! I have to send it before leaving on the 27th!" and "I need to arrange for cat care for Banana while both Stephen and I are away!" and "do I have any meetings tomorrow? Do I owe anyone an email?" and "oh, yeah, I completely forgot about the tip for the newsletter I was supposed to finish and submit on Friday..."

Read my Bloglines subscriptions for over a week, which means that there will be approximately a thousand of unread posts; clicking "Mark all as read" and realizing that day-to-day life will most likely not change as a result this action is probably the best strategy at this point.

Been able to sit and read a book or magazine (anything, really) for over a week. It's a bad sign when I can't concentrate enough to read. As for knitting? I've probably knit approximately three rows of the silk lace pattern, mostly on the train.

The only thing for it, really, is to do these things. These, and many, many other things.

Before running away to the Berkshires (North Adams) for the long weekend, a few thoughts/notes and thanks:

1. I've finished one baby sock for a friend's newborn using the almost-full skein of yellow and white Art Yarn I had left from my own socks. I don't like the look of the toe, though, so am considering a do-over. (The toe seems very square...but maybe baby socks need to be square?)

2. The Art Yarns silk is so easy to tink. How do I know? Because I spent a two hour train delay tinking almost an entire pattern repeat of the diamond trellis pattern scarf I've been working on. The whole episode felt inevitable -- if the train had to reverse course from New London almost all the way back to Providence to change tracks then it wouldn't seem fair to be knitting forward, right?

3. I discovered a hole in the bottom of the jaywalker sock I've been working up on two needles...I suspect that the I'm going to need a serious investment of time along with a serious glass of pinot noir to sort it out. The possibility exists that I just may not be destined to knit jaywalkers. We'll see.

4. Packing for a car trip is completely different than packing for a plane or train trip. I can count 6 bags of various shapes and sizes sitting on the living room floor waiting to be packed in the car (each of us has a bag of books; there's also a bag of electronic gear [GPS cables and wires, camera and cables...it seems impossible to have an object without a cable or wire...] and a bag of fleece and yarn. I would just like to say that the bag of fleece and yarn is lighter than the electronic gear, and takes up less space).

5. Today's match between Germany and Argentina (I was rooting for Germany) nearly caused me more stress than almost any other sporting event (except for any games played between the Yankees and Red Sox for the pennant in the last 10 years). I am also seriously bummed that I'll be in the car while England's match is going on tomorrow.

6. This arrived for my birthday today from my Secret Pal!



As is probably evident in many photos on the blog, my life is filled with books. I may love books as much as (maybe even more than) yarn. So I was SO HAPPY to receive two books from my Secret Pal for my birthday. One is James Acheson's The Lobster Gangs of Maine -- a book that I've wanted for ages but haven't been able to find; it will complete the reading-every-book-about-lobsters-that-I-can-get-my-hands-on project that started last summer with The Secret Life of Lobsters, The Lobster Coast, and The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island. (The reasons for my desire to read about lobsters remain obscure, even to me. They really are amazing creatures, though...).

The other book, which has nearly inspired me to knit swatches just so I can stitch them together, is The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancie Wiseman. The reason why it is such a cool book is that it provides both the benefits and downsides to various techniques. Along with illustrations and photos of everything from making buttonholes to picking up stitches (a favorite activity of mine, as witnessed by the Ribbed Cardigan 1 and 2...) to seaming (another favorite activity), I now have a comprehensive guide for all the picky things I think about like "how exactly am I really supposed to weave in ends" or "how do I do an M1 increase without leaving a hole" (most of these thoughts are based in the suspicion that I am doing everything wrong somehow. Or that there is a right way to do things that I just haven't found yet. Neither of these things may be true, but at least now I feel like I have something to base decisions on).

Both books were wrapped in a nifty little bag that will be most useful for holding yarn, patterns, and projects.

Thank you so much, Secret Pal!!! :)

Okay -- off for the weekend!

Phew! I've grabbed some time to post some photos from this past weekend's adventures. Here's the trouble I've been causing lately:

The lilac ribbed cardigan is finally finished and wet-blocked and everything!



Since the sweater is going to be a present, I packaged it up in a box with tissue paper and sprinkled some "pixie dust" on it (it's a trick I learned from work in the most wonderful shop in Minneapolis years ago -- almost any package looks more special with just the tiniest, tasteful amount of sparkle...which, alas, you can't see in the photo, but it's there). This version of the sweater seemed softer and springier than the pink version for some reason, though.



One of my other adventures this weekend was taking a drop-spindle basics class with John Brinegar at The Point (I know I've said this before, but if you live in the tri-state area and have a chance to take a class with him at The Point, go -- he's a fantastic teacher). We played with all sorts of fibers, from yak to merino mixed with tencel, to guanaco and cashmere (I didn't feel worthy of either just yet), to bamboo and angora. Along with practicing drafting, we also learned Andean plying.

This is my first plied yarn -- the pink is the merino/tencel, the cream is yak, and the tan is cashmere. I actually preferred working with short-staple, smooth-ish fibers because I had an easier time drafting them. I fought tooth and nail with the merino/tencel and didn't even attempt to work with the bamboo, which was very "crunchy" and unyielding.



It's far from perfect, but it was a great learing experience. My goal is to learn how to control the amount of twist in the yarn so that I can leave bits untwisted and overtwist others on purpose instead of by accident. :)

So after class, I couldn't stop thinking about spinning and fibers. And it just happened that the Renegade Craft Fair was taking place last Saturday and Sunday and Stephen was on the hunt for invasive plant species up at Ramapo and that I ended up finding an amazing booth filled with vintage pattern and notions and needles and yarn and tiny, tempting bags of fiber (New York state-raised llama and Icelandic)...



The company selling the fiber is called Year of the Goat, and they're based out of New Paltz, New York. They have a statement on their site that really resonated with me -- it talked about sustainablity and connection to production -- a connection between our clothes and the materials they come from, and an appreciation for the work that goes into creating objects. One of the women was spinning uncombed angora from her family's goats; she gave me a lock of it and it made me so happy -- the fiber came from an animal that she knows and cares about, and now I can integrate that into a yarn that I spin. Here's what it looks like:



So after making my way from the Renegade Craft Fair, I made my way down to the The Yarn Tree, which was located about 11 blocks south of fair -- how could I not go, since I hardly ever get to Brooklyn anymore?? It was a haven -- there were banker's boxes of roving stacked floor to ceiling. When I walked in, another student who had taken the class with me the day before was standing there holding a new drop-spindle. She said that the first thing she had done when she woke up that morning was start spinning.

I managed to escape with just an ounce or two of black angora and silk for Stephen (who took the drop-spindle class, too, and proved more adept at it than I was :). This fiber is so soft and smooth it's almost scary (and I love the contrast between the black and silver...it's how I want my hair to go gray):



Alas, I made the mistake of leaving my fiber and spindle at home while traveling this week and I miss it. I won't make that mistake again...

Just a very quick post -- between finishing the purple sweater, work, and travel I've been swamped! I managed to snap some photos of roving I picked up last weekend at the Renegade Craft Fair in Williamsburg and at the Yarn Tree as well as some photos of the finished purple sweater which has since been mailed!

I'm at a conference for the next two days and won't have internet access over the weekend (I suspect), but I will post photos as soon as I can after I get back!

It's been pretty much all football (soccer) all the time since Friday here at the ranch; this image sums up my Saturday afternoon:



Remote: check (remote to be used only at half time)
Purple sweater with 2.5 more inches of ribbing to finish: check
Secret Pal Alpaca to wind into a ball: check
Art Yarns Sock Yarn that just happened to fall into my hands somehow while at The Point earlier in the day: check
Silk scarf in progress: check
Barbara Walker v. 1 for inspiration: check

Somehow I managed to accomplish almost 2 inches of 2x2 ribbing while watching Argentina v. Ivory Coast without impaling myself, dropping stitches, or forgetting whether I was supposed to be knitting or purling. Unlike the knitting while watching the Olympics, knitting while watching football is much more intense -- you just know the second you look away from the screen someone will score a goal. And you can see the whole broadcast -- 45 minutes at a stretch without any ad breaks. It's a beautiful thing...but not for knitting lace, at least for me.

So something random I've been thinking about: anyone know of a crochet stitch compendium equivalent to Barbara Walker's 4 volumes?

Once again, on Friday afternoon, I returned home from an absolutely draining week at work to find a mysterious package waiting for me! This time it contained cards and two sets of post-its, all decorated with hearts (I've already started sticking them on things all over the house...they are so much nicer than plain yellow ones!) and the softest, loveliest, hand-dyed skein of alpaca. (The alpaca comes from the Royal Fiber Spinnery, a group of people who raise Alpacas and needed to find an viable way to spin the fibre). The colors of the yarn shift from a heathery pink to purple, blue to green (my favorite) -- I think this skein would either make a gorgeous pair of mittens or a scarf like Branching Out.

But it's the card that takes the cake again, though -- the sweater the dog is wrapped up in is almost exactly the same shade as the one I'm 1/2 an inch of ribbing away from finishing; my Secret Pal wrote that the image reminded her of the photo of Banana sitting on the purple sweater. (Banana is very pleased about this, btw).

Thank you, once again, for these gifts, but most of all for making me smile. :)

It's official: I have been watching too much HGTV. (We just got cable for the first time in our adult lives, um, two weeks ago and are catching up. I still refuse to watch TV first thing in the morning, though, or to watch CNN at all because it reminds me too much of airports. Besides, I feel disloyal to WNYC if I don't listen to the radio in the mornings and when I get home from work). In any case, witness the introduction of a throw pillow into our home:



Next thing you know, I'll be crocheting antimacassars and table cloths (hmmm...not a bad idea, considering that I couldn't find a round table cloth yesterday...and the cats would love to lie on an antimacassar, I'm sure). I love both the celadon color of the fabric as well as the embroidery; I'd like to think that someone embroidered it by hand, but know that it's really factory-made.

In any case, I think the color palatte of the pillow influenced the decision to actualize this luscious, hand-painted, silk Art Yarn:



I am in awe of this yarn. Yesterday, I broke out Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns to find a lace pattern with enough solid sections to bring out the texture of the yarn and show its patterning and came up with the "Trellis-Framed Openwork Diamonds" (p. 214):



I think this yarn and pattern could make a beautiful jacket or cardigan -- something fitted and drapey -- but I'm knitting it up into a summer scarf/throw (can you tell I miss winter??). I've never worked with silk before -- I'm guessing that one needs to soak it in cool water and pin it out just like any other blocked lace? Is there anything special I should take into consideration when blocking it?

On the commuting project front, Jaywalker, Take 3 (or 4...I've lost count how many times I've ripped and restarted this sock) is coming along:



This incarnation is on two circs which really IS faster for me than 4 or 5 dpns. The length of the commute is generally enought time to complete two to two and a half rounds one way, but tonight I managed to eke out three rounds. At this rate, I'll have this pair finished in about October... (Btw, if you haven't seen it already, MagKnits has published another very cool looking sock in a similar vein as Jaywalker: Tropicana. I'd definitely substitute a more subdued colorway, but I like the feather-like patterning).

Way back in March, I agreed to knit up another Debbie Bliss Ribbed Cardigan for a friend to give as a gift to a girl who would be turning a year old at the end of June. Progress on the sweater happened in spurts -- mostly on long train and car trips -- but now it's time to get this project wrapped up.

I finished the body of the sweater last weekend (while Stephen drove us back from a hike in Northern NJ), and then sat down to pick up the 154 stitches that make up the ribbed collar. I'd succeeded at this before, so no problem this time around, right? Wrong. I picked up and ripped the stitches 3 times...by the fourth go-round I finally decided that I no longer cared about picking up exactly 62 sttiches along each side and 30 along the collar, and just picked up as many stitches as needed to start and end with knit stitches. Here's how all those attempts finally turned out:


(There were no tears involved, but it was damn close.)

So 3/4 of an inch of ribbing down, 3 1/4 to go:



Oh, and here's the reason why I will block and wash this sweater to within an inch of its life after it's finished...all I can say is that it's a good thing Banana is cute...



I've got lots to catch up on -- including responding to emails and comments! But first, dinner.

More soon!

I am so excited -- look what was waiting for me when I got home from work this afternoon!!!



I have been coveting a tape measure like this for quite a while. And don't laugh, but I spent perhaps more time that an adult really ought to pulling the measuring tape out and zipping it back in again...I felt a bit like Eyore, who amused himself in one of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories by dropping a red balloon into a flower pot and then taking it out again. It's the small pleasures in life that really are the best. :)

So Lambie has now taken up residence in the basket where I keep my circular needles and notions; he will be assisting me with measuring the front of the lilac ribbed cardigan shortly.



I was particuarly charmed by the card, too, because I think it symbolizes the spirit of Secret Pal 8 perfectly. Thank you so much for this thoughtful gift!!!

Finding clear instructions for kitchner stitch was more of a challenge than I expected, but that's not necessarily a bad thing -- I tend not to find motivation to do something that intimidates me until I absolutely MUST figure it out or else. Seaming was like that, too -- it wasn't until I could no longer bear to look at lumpy seams that I got motivated to sit down and actually figure out how to do mattress stich.

In both cases, I resorted to books with illustrations. Ironically, considering the number of books in my apartment, I tend to prefer to get person-to-person or live instructions; every time I had tried to figure out kitchner from illustrations before, the instructions just washed over me. In those cases, I didn't actually have socks on the needles that I wanted to finish, though, so that probably explains why it didn't make sense at the time.

In any case, this may not be the best kitchner toe the world has seen, but it's done and figured out and now I have these to wear:



In other news, I'm really enjoying SP8 so far -- I mailed off a package Tuesday morning to my pal that should arrive by Friday...I'm already battling thoughts like "it didn't have any actual yarn...is that okay??" and "what if she doesn't like the wrapping paper I used?" but am trying to keep that thinking down to a dull roar (because I know full well that this is about communication, not wrapping paper). I've gotten several emails and comments from my Secret Pal, too, which has been fun! I'm starting to feel less shy about communicating with people I haven't met before -- so it's all been a success so far. :)

Okay -- time for bed. More soon!

I am SO very tired! I usually suffer more from jet lag when traveling east than west, but this particular trip is proving to be the opposite -- I adjusted almost right away to GMT + 1 but cannot pull myself together today in the GMT -5 zone...(or are we GMT -4 right now? See??)

The practical effect of this fatigue is that I'm short of words, so I'll post some pictures instead:


The first photo I took in Scotland -- there were sheep everywhere. And no, I did not attempt to pet one. There was much squealing each time a sheep wandered in the road in front of the car, however.


Jetsom was one of the "greeting committee" of animals at Trigony House in south-western Scotland. (The greeting committee comprised two black labs named Beckett and Bess, Jetsom, and a ginger cat called George). Trigony House was an amazing place to stay -- very friendly staff, wonderful locally produced food, and spectacular location.


This was our adopted reading/knitting nook at Viewfield House on the Isle of Skye, sometimes referred to as the "Isle of Mist." Despite the moniker, though, we had sun almost our entire stay there and I managed to get a fine sunburn.


Tea-time on the Isle of Skye...


Do the words "single track road" or "B road" strike fear in your heart? Shilasdair, an amazing yarn company on Skye where you can look at the sheep in the yard, see the plants used to dye the wool from the sheep, and then buy that very wool is located on the Waternish penninsula, at the end of a narrow and rutted, single-track "B" road. Standing in the store felt a bit like being at the end of the known universe.


Along with the yarn, I was allowed to rummage through a huge bag of fleece and found the softest undyed merino -- it feels like heaven. I've started spinning the pale blue and it's working up beautifully, which is restoring my faith in using the drop-spindle a wee bit.


Remember these? I finished the first sock before boarding the flight to Glasgow and started the second sock; the heel for the second sock (shown above) was turned while Stephen negotiated the anxiety-inducing "A" roads leaving Skye. The second sock is actually finished now; I've got to take both of them in to The Point to have someone show me how to fix the toe grafting, though, because I refuse to have worked so hard on these socks and end up with lame toes.

More stories/photos when I regain some coherence.

This past winter, after reading about the Owens Farm Adopt-A-Sheep program here, I decided to adopt a sheep of my own! Last week, I received the welcome package in the mail -- it contained a binder that mapped out of a year in the life of a sheep and a photo of Bubbles, my adoptee!! (My friends have decided that her lamb should be named "Squeak"). Bubbles is seven this year and is raising twin lambs. I'll get to follow their progress through emailed updates and photos.

I hope to get to New Hampshire in June for a visit -- and now I have further motivation to get my spinning act together, too!