Now, here is something you haven't seen from me in a long while.  An fo that isn't a pair of socks!  (actually, I just remembered that my last fo was the small shawl but you get my drift).

One of my coworkers that I don't know all that well but have had some interesting conversations with, is having a baby in August.  I don't know whether it's a boy or a girl but I wanted to try something different for her.  (my go-to baby gift for coworkers is small socks/hats)

I found a plain baby sweater pattern that used one skein of fingering weight yarn (which I always have on hand) and decided she was worth the effort.  It took me about a week and a half of working on this on and off.  I found the star buttons at a local Joann's and couldn't have matched the colors better if I dyed them myself.  I just washed it and patted it into place with a few pins to straighten out the placket.  It's still damp this morning but I am pleased with it.  The yarn is an artwalks yarn from February from a painting called Fernando II (Susterman).  

I am one skein closer to a finished sweater.  I finished a bobbin and plied this yesterday.  I discovered that if you take roving and put it in a cloth bag and hang it in the closet for a year, it'll compress.  No matter how well it was prepped, it'll compress a bit.  This needs to be gently carded or flick carded to open it up.  It's become compressed and tight and very hard to spin.  It's not soft and slippery like merino but feels more like hair and gets tangled.  A bit of flicking (sounds naughty, doesn't it?) and it's open and ready to spin.

I am nearing the finishing line with El's March socks and April's are 3/4 of the way done.  I think May's will be a pair of monkey socks.  I haven't done them in a while and it's a fast pattern. 

I have also discovered that you can lure a crocheter into the knitting world if you just have the right pattern.  Knitty has a new pattern called Bigger on the Inside.  Yep, it's a Tardis design.(photo from knitty.com)  My coworker, Lisa, is a crocheter.  She makes beautiful crocheted things but is also a Dr Who fan.  When I showed her this, she just had to try it.  So, we are ordering some yarn in an appropriate color and will knit this together.  I'm thinking some yarn with some sparkle in it might be fun.  Kate and Emily are going to join us so we'll have a mini kal.  Lisa knows basic knit and pearl stitches but has never really knit anything before.  I warned her this would be a challenge but she's game. 

Pk and Elanor have spent the past two weeks getting the yard/garden cleaned up.  We have sadly neglected the backyard for a long time.  Probably since we stopped using the pool (and eventually took it down).  Now we have new neighbors who have cleaned up their yard and cut back so much green that was overgrowing into our yard that it's inspired us to clean things us and maybe actually use the back this summer.  I like to sit out there but the mosquitos have been horrendous the past few years (I think the old neighbors had so much junk in their yard that it was a breeding ground).  Pk spends most of his time outside in the front where his tools are so usually when I'm sitting outside, I sit out there with him.  We used to eat in the backyard.  Pk built a large picnic table out there and it's under a huge pine that we've always called The Party Tree since it got decorated with lights for outdoor parties. 

El planted some green beans, basil, marjoram, tomatos and peppers.  There are marigolds to put around the tomatos and some wildflowers to put in the empty spaces.  She put petunias and cosmos in the front.  She likes playing in the dirt (always did) and did a good job.  I hate playing in the dirt (always did) and am glad not to have to do it.

And one last poem for Poetry Month.  Robert Frost is another favorite of mine.  His poems are simple and yet speak to the heart.  This one goes along with my "notice the good things around you" philosophy.

Carpe Diem

Age saw two quiet children
Go loving by at twilight,
He knew not whether homeward,
Or outward from the village,
Or (chimes were ringing) churchward,
He waited, (they were strangers)
Till they were out of hearing
To bid them both be happy.
'Be happy, happy, happy,
And seize the day of pleasure.'
The age-long theme is Age's.
'Twas Age imposed on poems
Their gather-roses burden
To warn against the danger
That overtaken lovers
From being overflooded
With happiness should have it.
And yet not know they have it.
But bid life seize the present?
It lives less in the present
Than in the future always,
And less in both together
Than in the past. The present
Is too much for the senses,
Too crowding, too confusing-
Too present to imagine.

Robert Frost

I have most of a Sunday left to enjoy.  I'm off to fix us some breakfast and then work on the next skein for my sweater.  If it were just a tad warmer, I'd take the wheel outside but it's chilly here.  There's a chicken waiting to be roasted for dinner and 2 pounds of wool waiting to be spun.  And possibly a nap.  There's always time for a nap.


if up’s the word;and a world grows greener


minute by second and most by more—

if death is the loser and life is the winner

(and beggars are rich but misers are poor)

—let’s touch the sky:

with a to and a fro

(and a here there where)and away we go



in even the laziest creature among us

a wisdom no knowledge can kill is astir—

now dull eyes are keen and now keen eyes are keener

(for young is the year,for young is the year)

—let’s touch the sky:

with a great(and a gay

and a steep)deep rush through amazing day



it’s brains without hearts have set saint against sinner;

put gain over gladness and joy under care—

let’s do as an earth which can never do wrong does

(minute by second and most by more)

—let’s touch the sky:

with a strange(and a true)

and a climbing fall into far near blue



if beggars are rich(and a robin will sing his

robin a song)but misers are poor—

let’s love until noone could quite be(and young is

the year,dear)as living as i’m and as you’re

—let’s touch the sky:

with a you and a me

and an every(who’s any who’s some)one who’s we
 
ee cummings  (of course)
 
 
This is my selection for Poem in My Pocket Day.  I won't pretend to understand this piece.  I only know it makes me smile and feels hopeful. 
 

I believe that things happen for a reason and there's a purpose to most things in the universe.  The latest example (for me) is my sweater.  I bought the roving last year at Maryland Sheep and Wool.  I had no idea of what it would become (other than I wanted a sweater for me) but I spun a few ounces to see what it felt like.  I made a soft, two ply yarn and left it alone.  For a year.

Along comes the Oatmeal sweater.  I weigh my fiber.  The directions say it'll take about 1 1/2 pounds of bfl.  I have just under 2 pounds of what I think is bfl.  The wpi should be 13.  I did a quick check and the skein I have already made is 13wpi.  Omens were looking good.

Meanwhile, Pk and I put our toxic waste into the car to take it to Toxic Waste Collection Day.  We had to wait in line for about half an hour (there must be a LOT of toxic waste in our county!) and I used the time to knit up a swatch of my handspun fiber.

Here's my yarn in a cake and here's my swatch.  I did a bit of ribbing at the bottom and them a plain stockinette swatch.  The color is really off.  When I got home and measured it, it's spot on.  This was meant to be.

Now all I have to do is spin a consistent yarn so it will all work out.  I started yesterday and have most of a bobbin full of singles but today, the tendonitis in my right hand is acting up so maybe I'll just put it on hold for a bit.  The fabric is soft and sturdy.  It's dense and if the gauge wasn't right on the money, I might have moved up a needle size (the recommended size is a 4mm).

We spent the rest of yesterday purchasing food and some bedding plants.  Elanor is taking charge of the garden and she and Pk bought some flowers for out front and some vegetables and herbs for out back.

I took El for her first pedicure today.  I knew I wanted to go and thought she might like it as a pick me up (the job market around here is sucky and she has only had one or two nibbles that fell through).  We went and let them scrub our feet and make them gorgeous and then massage our hands and make them gorgeous as well.  El has blue toenails and pale mother-of-pearl fingers.  I have deep red toes and pale pink fingers.  The young man who gave me my manicure did such a perfect job that even my short nails (three broke and I cut them all even) look all feminine and pretty.  I have to keep admiring them.



Friday morning sunshine (through fog!)

I'm going to spend the afternoon watching Warehouse 13 episodes (I just discovered it and think it's a hoot!) and doing laundry and working on a baby sweater for a woman at work as long as my hand doesn't hurt.  It's raining and chilly and I can't think of anything better.

Here's a couple of photos that have no connection to anything else, I just thought I'd share.




Friday sunset

What a difference a day makes!  I hope you all are having whatever kind of weekend that makes you happy.  They fly by so quickly that it's a shame to spend them only doing chores!

And since it's still Poetry Month, here's another favorite of mine (I was originally thinking of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself but then I remembered that it has over 50 stanzas and can be a trial to read)

I wandered lonely as a cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed---and gazed---but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth

 Three years ago, I was reading SpinOff magazine and came across this sweater.  (not my photo; borrowed from ravelry).  It's the Oatmeal Sweater by Amy King. (SpinOff Winter 2009)

I loved this sweater but put away the pattern because it was designed to use handspun yarn and I was no where near ready for something like that. 

The other day I was reading something online (and I can't remember what or where) and someone mentioned this sweater.  I recognized it immediately and went looking for my copy of the magazine.  I not only found it but I also brought out the bumps of fiber I bought last year at MDSW to make into a sweater for myself.

I'm not sure what the wool is, although I have a recollection of it being BFL.  I had already spun a small skein of 2 ply and this weekend I'm going to knit up a swatch to see if it'll give me gauge. I think I'm ready to spin and knit myself a sweater. 

My fiber is a rosy brown color with hints of gold in it.  Not dyed but natural colors which I really like.  I bought it from a youth farm collective.  The bumps are ready to spin, no carding or prep needed. 

When I commented recently on a beautiful  sweater that Bells made, she gave me a verbal kick in the ass and said "you always say that you should make yourself a sweater.  Just do it!".  I realized she was right.  I admire the work other people put into their larger projects and have made sweaters for other people but have never put forth the effort just for myself. 

I've been looking for something that felt like ME, that I would be comfortable wearing and feel good in.  The Oatmeal Sweater is the one.  I like the detail and I like the looseness of the fit.  I need an all purpose cardigan and one that I've spun myself is kind of cool.

So, Bells, here I go.  I will finally pick up the needles and make something besides socks for myself.  I have enough clear bobbins and I'm putting all other fibers away to concentrate on this yarn.  So, watch this space!  One day I'll model a sweater I've made myself for you.

(and now that I've put it out there, I feel honor bound to do it!)



blocking

  I'm at work on a quiet Tuesday morning.  They just informed us that The Joint Commission on Healthcare Accreditation is across the street at our hospital and will likely make their way over here sometime in the next few days.  This is actually good news since we've been waiting and the stress level is pretty high. (the joint commision's review can make the difference on whether we are allowed to get paid by Medicare/Medicaid and other insurances-so it's a BIG deal)

Now we can get it over with.  I decided to deal with my stress by seeing if I could get my iphone camera and my work computer to play nice together.  For some reason (and I will not question why) today they are communicating.

So, I present a photo of my Violets shawl knit with Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Silk Singles in Water Lilies.

This is one of the most beautiful yarns I have ever played with.  It's a blend of merino/cashmere/silk and dyed to pick up the colors in one of Monet's water lily paintings.



lounging on the desk



When the yarn came in the mail, I wanted a pattern with some visual interest that would also allow the yarn to shine.  I am satisfied with this one.  The pattern is subtle and the colors are so springlike and gorgeous.  It's a small shoulder piece.  I'm intending to send it to my sister in law as a surprise.  She's battling cancer (again) and I know chemo makes you both hot and cold.  A bit of soft something against your neck can make a difference.

We are being blessed with some gorgeous weather this week.  It's sunny and warm.  My hands (and other jointed areas of my body) love the heat.  We stood on the platform at the train this morning just absorbing the Vitamin D and photosynthisizing.  It was a calm and energizing way to start a day.

Every day I wear one of my favorite poems.  I know I drag it out every April but it IS one of my favorites.  I have my bracelet with the ee cummings poem

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart


i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)


Pk bought me the bracelet and everytime I look at it I smile.

I carry his heart and he carries mine. 

Here it is a week later.  A busy week filled with busy things.  But don't ask me what they were, I have no idea what kept me so busy.  I have photos to go with all of this but they are locked inside the camera and the computer here won't accept any kind of download (it IS a work computer after all so I can't get too upset).  I'll have to share the photos later.  Pk has been using my computer to help fix his.  He has been having some problems with his OS and needed to rebuild. 

Last Friday, Pk and I had a lovely lunch in Philadelphia with two coworkers.  The weather was gorgeous and the food was delicious.  I love quiche and this place made one that was buttery and satisfying.  My coworkers went back to work and Pk and I walked the Italian Market for a bit. 

We wandered into a tea/spice shop and bought some dried beans and some orange tea that smelled like you could just eat handfuls of it.  It makes a flavorful beverage as well.  We went into a kitchen/cooking supply store.  It was filled with all manner of gadgets that I didn't know existed and now know I need.  I could get a mold and make my own butter lambs for Easter.  Of course, I have to find a place to store the mold for the other 364 days of the year.  The one thing we were looking for was a "pear case".  I don't know if these things exist but I need something to carry pears to work in my lunch so that they don't get all mushy.  THIS they didn't have.

We chose not to go to the grocery store but to go home and enjoy the rest of the beautiful day.  I spun and Pk did woodcrafting things.  A lovely day.

Saturday, we got up early to travel to Delaware to buy some blades for the bandsaw.  I didn't need to go but I wanted to keep Pk company.  It's about an hour away.  We got there 45 mins before the store opened.  Thank goodness for portable knitting.  I was able to make a good bit of progress on Em's birthday socks.

Sunday, we went to Emily's house for an Easter/Birthday dinner.  She made ham and potato salad and baked beans.  I made her a chocolate cake with coconut frosting which she requested.  The food was good.  Em has learned to cook rather well.  Kate and Pk and I got together and half of Em's gift was handmade.  We got her a large enameled pot (and measuring things) to dye yarn/fiber in.  Kate made an apron with robots on it, Pk made some long handled wooden paddles for stirring the dye pot.  I also managed to finish the burgundy Fox Faces socks in time.

She liked the gifts, although she said "Why do you all bother to ask me what I want and then give me what you want me to have?"   We have no answer for that except that what she asked for seemed boring to us and we had already kind of decided what we wanted to give her.  We should probably just not ask.

I learned something on Sunday.  I am most definitely NOT a whiskey drinker.  For his birthday, Pk's sister and brother in law gave him a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue.  It's the bottle they give the Super Bowl champs.  There was an extra bottle and Harp (brother in law who works for a liquor distributor) got hold of it and they gave it to Pk.  He opened it on Easter to share it with the family.  I only took a sip and there is no way I could become a whiskey drinker.  It tasted like smoke and felt like fire.  Not my thing.

We tried a new grocery store on Monday morning.  A really good time to check out a new place since it wasn't crowded and we weren't in a hurry.  It wasn't perfect but it'll have to do.  Having Monday off has kind of thrown my sense of what day it is off a bit but in a good way. 

Here we are at Thursday and today is knitting group.  Btw, last week?  The room was full.  One new-ish knitter wanted to learn how to make a horseshoe cable. After finding directions online, we figured out how to add it to her piece.  It's ambitious but I like her ability to just strike out and make what she wants.  There were two new crocheters and a few folks from before.  It was cool but it meant that my own knitting sat in the bag, largely ignored.  I bring one pair of plain socks and one slightly more complicated piece with me so in case there's no one, I can knit something fun as opposed to something I can pick up and put down and not lose my place.  I like it when it's crowded and we have a group but I also like it when it's just our regular four people and I can just knit and chat.

Tomorrow is Friday and then we have one of those weekends with no plans whatsoever.  I should probably wash the windows and curtains soon (although it feels like I just did that) but I'll probably just do minimal chores and then putter around with the sewing machine.  I bought some heavyweight denim to make a shop apron for Pk and want to quilt it to make it thicker.  I don't know if my machine can handle it and I need to play with it for a bit.

So, how about y'all?  Is life treating you well?  I'll end with an Emily Dickinson poem I like.

I'm Nobody.  Who Are You?  (Emily Dickinson)

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one's name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!


When I was a kid, I thought it would be a marvelous thing to be Somebody.  Now, as an older adult, I love my anonymous little life.  I wouldn't want to be famous and have people know who I was.  I am special only to a few people and that's really ok with me.  So being nobody?  Not so bad.

So, I was reading various poems on the internet, always interested in seeing what moves people and what they like.  I was thinking of music as poetry.  One of my all time favorite singer/songwriters is Harry Chapin.  You may remember him as the man who wrote/sung Taxi or the Cats in the Cradle songs. 

Lots of Harry's music never appeared on the radio because his music ran too long and the themes weren't popular.  For instance, I Don't Want to Be President, which tells the story of "a young man on the move" who gets elected and realizes he really doesn't want it. 

Not the stuff of popular music.  Pk and I saw Harry in concert a few times and enjoyed every one.  One of our favorite pieces by him is

Dreams Go By


There you stand in your dungarees
Looking all grown up and so very pleased
When you write your poems they have so much to say
When you speak your dreams it takes my breath away
You know I want to be a ball player
A regular slugging fool
But both our dreams must wait awhile
Until we finish school

And so you and I
We'll watch our years go by
We'll watch our sweet dreams fly
Far away, but maybe someday
I don't know when
But we will dream again
And we'll be happy then
Till our time just drifts away

There you stand in your wedding dress
You're so beautiful that I must confess
I'm so proud you have chosen me
When a doctor is what you want to be
You know I want to be a painter, girl
A real artistic snob
But I guess we'll have our children first
You'll make a home, I'll get a job

Listen to the seasons passing
Listen to the wind blow
Listen to the children laughing
Where do broken dreams go?

There you stand in your tailored suit
So many years gone by, but your're still so cute
We take the car to go and meet the bus
When our grandchildren come to visit us
You say you should have been a ballerina, babe
There are songs I should have sung
But I guess our dreams have come and gone
You gotta dream when you are young

And so you and I
We'll watch our years go by
We'll watch our sweet dreams fly
Far away, but maybe someday
I don't know when
But we will dream again
And we'll be happy then
Till our time just drifts away


To me, it's about making a life with what you have but not losing sight of the dreams.  I didn't grow up wanting to be a social worker and I KNOW Pk didn't dream of being a Business Analyst.  But, we put the dreams on the shelf for the reality that is our life.  And we pursue the dreams in other ways.  He wanted to go to art school (he's quite talented) and now he turns his artistic eye to wood grains.  I wanted to be a psychiatrist/counselor/lawyer and I'm doing kind of what I dreamed.  I am helping people and letting my creative urges be expressed in fabrics and yarns.

And our children.  What a wonderful life they have given and continue to give us.  Would we have given any of the last 30 years up for the dreams of our youth?  I can't speak for Pk, but I wouldn't.

Remember what I said about the knitting group attendance?  About how if all the folks who said "oh, I want to come" actually came, we'd need a bigger room?  Well, yesterday besides our regular 4, we had 5 others.  A party!  It was great.  We sat around and one woman wanted to learn how to do a horseshoe cable (had to look that one up).  We figured out what she needed to do and she was off and knitting.  Others are learning to make something other than large crocheted squares.  So, all in all, a success!

Today, Pk and I took a half day and are meeting at a local place for lunch.  It's in the middle of the Italian Market   so after lunch we can wander the stalls and look at the fresh food.  It's a fascinating place.  Clothes, hauches of meat (some of which is unidentifiable), cheeses, fruits and vegetables and the smells! 

We'll grocery shop at a different store this week and then see how it goes.  We're off to Em's house for dinner on Easter and then we're off from work on Monday.  And it's sunshine all the way!

Have a happy Friday.

And Now We Are Six

When I was one, I was just begun
When I was two, I was really new
When I was three ,I was barely me
When I was four, I was not much more
When I was five, I was almost alive
But now we are Six and clever as clever
I think we'll stay Six forever and ever.

~A A Milne



The Firefly

The firefly's flame
Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a
person's posteerier.

Ogden Nash


Poems don't have to be long and full of profound thoughts to be true.  These are two of my enduring favorite authors.  Mr Milne because he created Winnie Pooh with whom I identify sometimes (bear of very little brain) and all the other characters in the 100 Acre Wood.

And Mr Nash.  Just because he uses the language so cleverly.  When I hear people say that they don't like poetry or don't "get" poetry, I steer them in his direction.  How can you not like someone who uses the word posteerier in a poem?

My hands have been hurting this last few weeks (nothing a little ibuprofen won't help) but it has slowed the sock knitting down considerably.  El did not get her March socks and I'm not sure I'll be able to finish Em's birthday socks.  I'm working on them when I can but the tiny needles and tight stitches put a strain on my hands I didn't even realize until they started to hurt.

I can work on some other, looser stitches and have been enjoying making the Violets shawl out of the beautiful water lillies yarn.  I brought it in today for Knit Group.  On a good day, there are 4 or 5 of us as the core group.  All week, various coworkers tell me "I have someone who's interested in your group".  If half of these folks ever showed up, we'd need a bigger room.  We all have a good chuckle.  They have no idea what they're missing.

i like my body

i like my body when it is with your

body. It is so quite new a thing.

Muscles better and nerves more.

i like your body. i like what it does,

i like its hows. i like to feel the spine

of your body and its bones, and the trembling

-firm-smooth ness and which i will

again and again and again

kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,

i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz

of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes

over parting flesh… And eyes big love-crumbs,



and possibly i like the thrill



of under me you so quite new
 
~ee cummings
 
There's something about this poem that always draws me in.  I like the sensuality of it. 
 
Kate and I went out on Sunday to find things for Em's birthday (which was Monday but we'll celebrate it on Easter when we're all together) and were discussing things we were forced to read in high school and how tearing them apart didn't deepen our understanding of the poem/play/story but made us detest it.  Sometimes you have to just READ it.  Aloud.  Just enjoy the feeling of the words and the emotions evoked.  I don't care what the symbolism is (never have).  I just like the sounds of the words and how they make me feel.  More people would read and enjoy poetry if we allowed them to come to the sounds and then tried to find the meanings beneath the words.
 
Do we have to understand everything?  Can't we sometimes just enjoy it? 

Amy reminded me that April is National Poetry Month.  I know that I've often said ee cummings is my favorite poet (and he is) but I also admire Billy Colllins who was once the Poet Laureate of the US.  His poems are spare and evocative and listening to him read them is the very best part of the experience.

So, to start off Poetry Month, I present


Embrace


You know the parlor trick.

wrap your arms around your own body

and from the back it looks like

someone is embracing you

her hands grasping your shirt

her fingernails teasing your neck

from the front it is another story

you never looked so alone

your crossed elbows and screwy grin

you could be waiting for a tailor

to fit you with a straight jacket

one that would hold you really tight.

Billy Collins


Otherwise, spring is moving along here.  I am spinning quite a bit because I am so enjoying the cupcakes I bought from Joan (cupcake fiber co.).  They are so well prepared that there is no need for predrafting at all and the singles almost spin themselves.  I am on bobbin number 3 and as soon as Pk finishes making me a lazy kate that holds 3 bobbins, I'll ply it.  I'm hoping for a nice fingering.

I spent most of the last week nursing myself and then Peter Kevin through spring colds.  This involved many boxes of tissues, bags of cough drops, cold medications and cups of hot tea.  Happily, we are through the worst of it and are definitely feeling better.

Work calls so I'm off.  Happy Monday to you all.