Never Not Knitting

I knit. Everywhere I go, I knit. I thought this was normal. Then I went to dinner with a knitting friend and pulled out my knitting. She gave me a strange look, and I said: What? You're not going to knit? She thought it was quite odd that I was going to knit at a restaurant. I thought it was odd that she wasn't. But that is just how I am. I knit at concerts, baseball games, weddings, meetings, anywhere I go: I knit. People sometimes say they don't think they could have the patience to knit. I don't think I could have the patience to not knit. How else do you get through long lines, waiting at the doctor's office, watching a movie, or waiting for your food to come at a restaurant?

Mawwage

I took part in a pretty special event yesterday, Meet in the Middle for Equality. The main message I took away was that it is important for us to share our stories. The only way we are going to change anyone's mind is if we make it real for them. So I decided to share my story.

My Mother is a lesbian. She came out when I was in high school. At that time I had many friends that were homosexual, and for them my Mother announcing her sexuality was a reprieve. They finally had someone they could talk to and share their feelings with. For this I am grateful, because I saw how difficult it was for my friends to come to terms with their sexuality. Choices shouldn't be a or b. There are many shades of gray out there. And we need to be accepting of that. My Mom is my Mom, and the fact that she is a lesbian doesn't change that one bit. She didn't change the way she parented me and my sister when she came out. She remained my same old Mom. She has been with her partner now for 7 years and I think it is a shame that they can't officiate their relationship. Partner is such an ambiguous term. I had a business partner, and when I referred to her as my partner people were not always sure what I meant. This is so unfortunate.

I feel that when two people want to make a life long commitment to each other, they should have the right to do so. There needs to be one universal term for what that relationship means. When two heterosexuals join in union we have a term for that, marriage. Everyone understands what marriage means. Lets stand up and give everyone that right.

While at MITM4E I was knitting on my sock. Ty-Dy sock yarn in 631 blueberry field. In my Plain Jane sock pattern. Sorry it's a bit blurry, took if with my phone.

Sock it to Me

The next semester starts in a week from tomorrow. I learned last semester that I love to knit socks in my science classes, but can only do the straight knitting in the round while still taking good notes and paying attention. That means when I come to the heel, I have to stop until I have some down time. So here is my plan, because I have microbiology and physiology this semester and this means I have one or the other every day of the week. I am going to cast on as many socks as I can this week. Because, well, I shouldn't cast on or do ribbing in class either. Last semester I was really bummed when I realized I didn't have any knitting and didn't have any time to do anything about it. Thankfully I have a lot of sock yarn. Well, a lot in my world. Probably very little in many other's. This is what I started last night. I want to at least double the amount of ribbing I have right now.


Then it will be onto the next pair. Don't know which ones I will start next. I did a quick scavenger hunt through my house and came up with this:


I know I have more than this, but so far the other skeins are hiding. I am obviously not counting Anzula sock yarn. The yarn in the upper left hand corner is my hand dyed yak & merino. I made a sweater out of this yarn and am curious as to how it will work up as socks. I found 4 sets of needles, again I know I have more but they are also in hiding. Since I can't find many sets I ordered a few this am from Knit Picks, they should get here in 3 days. Hopefully they will actually ship when they are supposed to. I have not been having much luck with them lately.

Merry Christmas!

Today many of us are fortunate enough to share gifts with those that we love. For some reason this makes me very happy and very sad today. I don't know where this sadness comes from, but I feel it is important to share. Families are incredibly complicated and yet incredibly simple. What family really comes down to is a close knit community of the people you love and care about. Hopefully you are sharing today with those people that you love.

Namaste

Bad Blogger

Wow, it has been over a month since I last posted. So sorry. A lot has happened since I last posted, and yet also not much at all. I am still working on all the same projects. Plus I started a new plain jane cardigan on Saturday.
I participated in the Ravelympics and was greatly disappoint. Basically I feel that I was thwarted at every turn. I planned on finishing 4 works in progress plus a sweater that I was also going to design. I was pretty sure I was not going to be able to complete the sweater, but I figured I would be able to complete the WIPs. The first two projects were already practically done. They were two tank tops. Then at the last minute I ran out of yarn, and was not able to get more in time.
I figured no biggie, I could definitely finish sewing up 1/4 of a sweater and 1 and 1/16 of a sock. I was not able to find the sweater right off, but I figured I had plenty of time. I worked away on the sock, and it was going pretty well. I completed the heel, tried it on, and it was too big. Bootie! So I looked for the mate to compare it to and I could not find it. I looked in all of my many "knitting" bags and no luck. I yelled at my hubby for moving my knitting. He said he didn't know what I was talking about. I kept looking, and at the same time looked for my Sad Pullover. It was Saturday. The day before the Ravelympics were over. I finally came to the conclusion that I would not finish a thing. I was sad and disappointed, but sometimes this is the hand that we are dealt.
Then today I begin a spinning project I was commissioned to do. I finished the first leg, and started to look around for my scale to figure out how much I had done. And I could not find it. Since I am still not finished unpacking I started looking in any and all fiber related boxes. This led to a fiber reorganization. I spilled the guts of my fiber closet and started putting everything back. Guess what I found. My Sock. It was in a bag of organic cotton. Don't know why I thought to put it in there. I think I finished it the day I bought the cotton I put it in the bag when my purchase was rung up. Don't know why I didn't pull it out when I got home.
Then as I near the back of the closet I find my Sad Pullover. I actually remember tossing it in for safe keeping. Now. Too little. Too late. I have not finished any of my projects. I have not finished unpacking. I have not finished reorganizing. I hope this was the week of unfinished things, and since it is Sunday and the week is over this means I will get to start finishing things starting Monday. (Sorry that was a horrible sentence, don't know what to do about that.) Who knows, I guess we shall see. Ta ta for now.

Treasure

We had a blast in the East Bay. Our first stop was Article Pract, and I got these.

Vintage buttons for Mr. Greenjeans and

a Lucy Lu Slide box for notions. I think it is a little entertaining that I will be using it to store notions because on the bottom it says "NOT Notions"

I also bought a really beautiful silk hank of Claudia's Hand Painted Lace. It tried to go live with Sue, but thankfully Sue has plenty of her own lace and sent it back home to me. It is in time out for running away, so I can't show you a photo.

We went to my favorite Thai restaurant for lunch, Lucky House on University. The scallops were so buttery good. Mmm, it makes me want to go back right now. Once we were fat and happy and after we got our geek on at the game shop, we went over to Laci's. Oh was the lace beautiful.
There I bought
beautiful cashmere and merino lace.
super soft wool laceand a bone crochet hook. Size O, I have never seen a size O. I can't wait to use it. Liz and Sue educated me about different methods of lace making and we convinced Sue to buy 00000000 knitting needles. That is 8 zeros, they are made out of piano wire. Crazy!

After Laci's we went up to Stash on Solono Ave. They had so much beautiful yarn and a great selection of books. I have to admit I went a little overboard with the books, but what are you going to do. At least I am going to give them a good home. If you want to see what books I got/have you can check out my library on ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/people/anzula/library (sorry I don't know how to make links yet)

Thankfully I saw the books after the yarn. This is what came home with me.
Yes, that is all lace. I think I may have a problem.

Berkeley Here We Come

I am so excited, some of my buddies and I are going on a road trip tomorrow. We are going to cruise up to the bay area to visit Lacy's, Article Pract, and Stash. I wonder if we could stop in Elk Grove on the way home to visit Knitique. Funny thing, my aunt lives in Elk Grove and I am up there fairly often and yet I have never been to Knitique. Crazy!

I wonder which projects I should take with me. I currently have 7 active projects, but I don't want to take too many. I need to have plenty of room for bringing back goodies. Oh, and I hope it is not going to be smokie up there too. I really need some fresh air to breath.

Remember how I said I had a toe. Well...


I have big feet. I was following the pattern for the largest size, and I guess it just was not big enough. Cause you know that toe I showed you?


It was supposed to fit over all of my toes, not just my big toe. Oops. I was then supposed to continue in the round until it was the proper length. Well, that just wasn't going to work. So I measured my gauge, measured my foot and figured out how many stitches I would need to have to fit around my foot. 80, I had 57. That is a big difference. Like a 2 1/5 inches difference. As much as I would like to believe that my feet are smaller than they are, it just was not going to work. And I really wanted to keep these for myself. Unlike the last pair that I crocheted last year that became a Christmas present for my sister in-law.

So, out it came. Thankfully I am really enjoying the short row toe. It is just so neat. Now to cast on 40 stitches.