The joy of knitting with others

Literally for years, I have longed to get together with knitters to knit. It is a shared joy to be in the company of your fellow knitter, to commiserate over the things that go wrong, to delight in the things that go right, to cheer one another on when enthusiasm for a project wanes and to know that someone else in the world understands your need to knit.

Knitting is a "hobby", but it soon becomes part of you. And unlike many hobbies, not only does the person doing the knitting benefit, but so do all the knitters family, friends and sometimes random acquaintances. Knitting brings peace and comfort to all, even the non-knitter watching someone knit. Non-knitters may challenge me on that statement, but I dare you, non-knitters of the world, spend five or ten minutes watching someone knit, honestly judging your mood, heart rate, stress level and any other noticeable markers before and after, then tell me I'm wrong.

Regardless though of the benefit to the non-knitter, being in the company of fellow knitters/crafters is a special kind of joy. All the knitting groups I had found out about over the years have met at times or locations inconvenient to me and so I never was able to make it to any of them. Then several months back, I realized through the appreciation of my friends who "wished they knew how to do that" and others who had decided to pick up needles on their own who asked for assistance, that I no longer needed to find a knitting group. I could make my own knitting group!

We have been meeting now to enjoy our love of the fiber arts and coffee for a couple months now and it has been such a blessing. I love my knitting group and I wish I had thought of this years ago!

Mindful knitting

The thing I often love the most about knitting is finding those knitting projects that I can work on while watching TV/movies or talking to others. The projects are generally referred to in the knitting world as mindless knitting, mostly because the pattern isn't mentally stimulating, the project is pretty big and the knitter just wants it to be over so they can ooh and ahh over the wonderful job that they did or they're working desperately on a deadline because someone's birthday or other special event is coming up shortly and they need to be finished asap.

But where the biggest rewards in knitting lay is in the mindful process of knitting for someone with your best intentions in mind. Love twisted into the yarn of every stitch as you think fondly of the person and all the wonderful memories you have of that person or in the case of knitting that has no intended home yet, the love and prayers for health, happiness and peace that you would wish upon those dearest to you. That is what you find in prayer shawls/blankets. Honestly any knitting project can have prayer tossed onto the front of its name, if that is what you did while making it.

My first prayer shawl was a project intentionally chosen after the passing away of a family friend, I very much wanted to give some comfort to his widow, but from over a thousand miles away just a card seemed impersonal. I found yarn that reminded me of his sparkling blue eyes that always had a hint of merriment and mischief to them and I found a shawl pattern using the trinity stitch and I knit and prayed and remembered all the times spent with them and I cried and I squished every bit of love I could into that shawl. I sent it to my mom to deliver, again because it seemed to impersonal to just mail it. And she explained as best she could, but when I was up visiting my parents next, Mom suggested that I go over to visit so that maybe I could explain it better. And I'm so glad that I did. We laughed, we cried, and she told me how thankful she was that I made that for her, because she felt less alone with it around her and it helped keep her warm that first winter without him. I thought when I knit that I was giving her a gift from my heart, but it was a gift to both of us.

My next prayer shawl I started simply because I wanted to have one available if the need should arise for one to be gifted to someone I knew. It sat around on a shelf for a while, until someone asked for a prayer request for a woman who has suddenly lost her husband. She was a mom and my heart went out to her, as well as my shawl, which I heard later she was so grateful for and used while rocking her child to sleep. I did not know this woman and will never meet her, but through that shawl we have both made a lasting impact upon each other.

I made another not long after that which found a home unexpectedly with a woman dear to me who lost her unborn child. It was the hug I wanted to give her but could not because of the distance and even now, it is a hug whenever she needs one. I smile every time I see it in her living room.

The next one was a blanket for the only man who was any kind of a father to his son's best friend. This man fought a valiant battle with cancer but in the end, the cancer won and the blanket went to his son and serves as a continuing comfort to him and his family. A reminder not only of a great man, but the thoughtfulness of a friend of a friend.

The most difficult thing to find in times of hardship and sorrow is finding the right words to help make things better. I have found in those times while words often fail me, my knitting speaks eloquently. Not only are those I knit for comforted by focusing my thoughts and prayers for them into my knitting, but I am deeply and profoundly blessed as well.

These stories continue to warm my heart, reduce me to tears, and keep me knitting with health, love, and peace in my thoughts and hands. If I'm knitting something for someone else, you can bet that no matter what I'm knitting, there are wishes of the very best of all things in the world in each and every stitch.

Some things were never meant to be

Or at least not the way we meant them to be. Events, even objects have a life of their own it seems and trying to make them into something they aren't or trying to mold them to our expectations isn't a recipe for success. They are like people that way.

Take them as they come, look at them honestly for what they are and then see how they will or won't work in your life. And no matter how much you think something ought to be just how you want it to be, trust your instincts. If they are screaming at you don't go there, don't do it... listen, really truly listen. It may save you a lot of grief down the road.

And I'm not just talking about that slinky dress I wanted to knit myself which called for a bulky yarn, which in all honestly isn't that bulky, because if it truly was, using sport weight yarn wouldn't have made it feel like it weighed a ton. We'll shelve that till I either can spring the big bucks for the right yarn or find an incredible sale.

But it is really useful advice in knitting, too. As evidenced by the toddler sweater that was mostly finished, but due to all the special modifications I made, didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. Those modifications just weren't meant to exist in the same article of clothing, at least not without starting from scratch with a pattern of its own rather that patching together pieces of different patterns. I knew in my heart of hearts that I should really put together a brand new pattern, I was just in too much of a hurry to get started and get done to do what my gut told me I should. At least now I can take that sweater and evaluate where it went wrong and give me a good idea of where to do things differently.

All of this has not discouraged me on my quest for the right matching (or complimentary, if I have to resort to it) yarn to finish the prayer shawl for a friend, however. Sometimes I think making prayer shawls do more good for me than the people I make them for, until I give the next one away. Then I remember just how much simple prayer and loving thought and action can do for others, which leads me to starting the next prayer shawl.

Slacking at its best...

Wow, I'd say it, but its fairly obvious. So, what have I been doing? That's a good question. Mostly avoiding finishing my Christmas knitting. What I DID finish though was two Jayne hats, another "I do" shrug, and nearly finished with a toddler sweater that I'm sure is sadly a size or two too small now as well as a shrug for myself from Mal (purple mystery) that I bought about 2 yrs ago. So happy to finally find a project that spoke the name of this yarn!

Life has taken all sorts of interesting twists and turns which have led us to the much anticipated move back to our house on Merritt Island come the end of Oct/beginning of Nov later this year, unless we win the lottery, which we don't play, or find, adopt and benefit from the passing of an extrememly wealthy and unhealthy relative or "relative".

I've found myself spending more and more time outside in the evenings enjoying the beauty, silence, and darkness that will be much harder to come by once we move back, so that's a good thing. Always nice to take time to appreciate the little things that bring so much joy and happiness to our lives.

Spice Girls moment

In the interest of getting all my HLBOES points for my blog this week I was briefly thinking of doing a Spice Girls thing and just saying, "HLBOES, blah, blah, blah, Go Ravenclaw! Blah, blah, blah, wizard power!" But that would just be silly!


So, instead I thought I'd mention that inspired by the assignment to finish a project, I've been working on finishing other projects. I finally finished the socks for the wee ones. I do have to confess I did it much faster than I thought I would due to the fact that somehow the skein of yarn I was using was missing the last 4 colors of the repeat so I couldn't do the other sock of the 3rd pair. Lucky me, I guess.

Also, I decided to give dh a pair of socks for his birthday (maybe a couple pairs depending on how long they take). Mostly I did that so that I HAD to finally a) learn magic loop b) learn two at a time socks c) learn how to do toe-up socks and finally d) do something with the 3 pairs worth of black sock yarn that I've had for at least 6 months now.

I restarted a certain hat due to gauge issues. I think it may have something to do with the kinda slippery properties of the yarn, but who knows for sure. I'm nearing the halfway point on it though so I suppose I ought to try to finish putting everything else together for a certain ::coughcoughHLBOEcoughcough:: swap box. I do have a few things already just trying to figure out where to stop myself, I've got so many ideas.

3 days!!!

Three days to Twilight and I'm trying to sorta keep myself busy knitting. The only problem with keeping busy knitting is that unless I have something else to engage my head, I'm sitting there knitting and dwelling on the fact that there are 3 whole days and a few hours until I get to sink into a semi-comfy theater seat and immerse myself in Twilight. 3 whole days!!!

Speaking of movies, here's a funny story. As a brief intro, we sometimes refer to Robby as Bob. One day last week, Sammy is demanding that Robby do something for him, but Robby is distracted with reading a book and doesn't respond in a timely fashion (according to Sammy). After a little while Sammy tires of trying to get Robby to cooperate and says, "I'm not happy, Bob! Not happy!" If you need help with that reference you need to watch/rewatch The Incredibles and pay close attention to the scene where Bob gets fired.


Oh, and here's a pic of my most recent FO, which I'm very proud of! This particular one is not mine to keep, but I fully intend to make myself one soon! Just not sure if I want to go with the black or purple Simply Soft Eco. Ok, my first choice was the dark red (autumn red, I think), but there wasn't any left. FIRST I've got to get some more Christmas presents taken care of though, right?!?

So excited!

I mailed my package out to my Starbucks & Yarn swap spoilee on Friday and happily her being not too far away, it got there today! I've eagerly been checking Ravelry on and off all day waiting for the word. There were moments that I very nearly broke down and started chewing on my nails. Ok, it wasn't quite so dramatic as all that. We were out most of today, spending time with Papa who was down on a business trip and had some time before he headed back to spend with us. The boys ofcourse enjoyed his visit and Kaylee was sorta ok with him most of the time, which is cool considering she's never spent much time with him at all in her almost a year of her life.

But anyway, back to the Starbucks and the yarn... I made stitch markers for her. Never done it before, but I dove into it. First buying some adorable little race car charms (and got some flags tossed in for good measure) from a gal up in Daytona on Etsy. Realized that I had some flexible wire for making bracelets and necklaces laying around that I never used for whatever it was I was going to use it for, got my needle-nosed pliers out and went to work. They turned out pretty cool all things considered. I'll put up a pic as soon as I get them downloaded off my phone, but here's the pic of the bag I made for her.



But my waiting paid off. I got a fabulous PM on Ravelry from my spoilee and she loved it all. I was so excited, still so excited! I'm glad my stalking paid off and its just so awesome to get to surprise someone like that. And coincidentally, my spoilee also shares my birthday and my sentiments about wanting our birthday back from Elvis! How funny is that? I thought it was just me!

Its official

I'm hooked. It took me all of approximately 14 hrs to finish Twilight and I can hardly wait to get my hands on the next one! The movie is a MUST see (for me, anyway). I have to see if I can find that Flair on Facebook again (and get it this time!) that says, "Voldemort killed Cedric Digory so that he could become Edward Cullen". When I first saw it I was amused, but not really having any appreciation for the story I let that Flair get away.

Besides my newfound obsession, I'm trying to get some Christmas knitting done while I'm recovering from this nasty sore throat/aching all over illness that has gone around the house this past week.

I really (and by that I actually mean REALLY, REALLY, REALLY) need to figure out exactly what I want to get done for Christmas so that I can cut out the extraneous impulse knitting projects I keep finding to do, especially because I have found the inspiration for a new story and I'm hoping that I can develop it into a book (and not just one that I print out or email copies to friends/family). We'll see how that goes what with the knitting, the homeschooling, and that other stuff (cleaning, cooking, laundry for example).

Realistic deadlines

Ok, so I have one pair of my Warm Woolies socks finished. I finished the cupcake, which was a piece of cake. ;) And I'm nearly finished with Gir. Should have him done tomorrow for mailing. A little late, but not nearly as late as I thought it would be. I've taken a step back in the knitting for the twins. I'm still going to make them sleep sacks maybe as Christmas presents, but for right now I'm going to just make them some hats since their birth day has been moved up nearly a week.

So after I've finished those projects, I'll have plenty of time to work on socks for the kids and figure out what to make for my Guilty Pleasures/Good Karma Swap partner. I'm so excited about this swap. Its my second one and my first(Starbucks and Yarn Swap) was very cool. At least the putting together my package to send my partner was. Haven't had the pleasure of getting my package yet, but I'm on pins and needles about it!

Deadlines... Why do we do these things to ourselves?

As I sit here to type this, I have 4 projects nearing their deadlines (ie. birth or birthdays). Not to mention some projects for one of my yarn swaps, thankfully though that deadline is far off relatively speaking. And have I started any of these? Not a chance! I do have yarn for them, but what is occupying my time and needles? Socks. Socks for the boys who hardly A)need them or B)wear them, but they love them and think they are the coolest thing! Sure I could cast on any of my other projects but they will take time and making socks for the kids is almost instant gratification.

In the end these projects will be done, eventually, but I have to wonder why do I do this to myself? Do I secretly hate myself, feel the need to punish myself or maybe this is just my way of living life on the edge as I try desperately to stay one step ahead of my self-imposed deadlines. So, just to keep myself accountable. I have the following to A)start and B)finish within the next two weeks if humanly possible:

• 2 sleep sacks - 1 boy, 1 girl for the (as DH has dubbed them) Denise and Denephew
  
• gir and his cupcake for my friend's b-day present
  

And... my charity knitting for the Good Karma swap:

• 2 pairs of socks
  

Wish me luck or pester me till I update on my progress, whichever floats your boat.