Not an early adopter

Guess what I just discovered?  Instagram!  I know.  It's probably old news for most people.  But hey, I'm getting there.  I've also heard they have these new things called cell phones and you can carry them around in your purse or pocket and make calls from anywhere? 

The great thing about Instagram is that it's, obviously, instant.  I can do it all with my phone, all by myself.  It will be a great way to get some WIP shots and document more of the knitting and sewing process, plus a few other things.  It seems like a quick, easy way to capture moments I want to remember, but will otherwise slip through my sieve of a mind. 
 

So if you're on Instagram, come look me up!  I'm mgrknits.  Eventually I'll figure out how to get a badge over there on the side bar.  Hopefully before we're all driving driverless cars. 

memory keeper

Today, I'm feeling grateful for knitting.  I'm grateful that knitting is a slow process.  I'm grateful that any project takes a long time, and that becoming a Knitter happens over many years, or even a lifetime.

There are a lot of changes happening in my life right now, and some of them are a bit challenging.  But knitting helps me take the long view.

March 2011

I browsed through ravelry today, looking at my previous projects.  I looked at a simple scarf.  No one has favorited it, and it's such a simple project, it's rather forgettable.  Except that at the time I knit it, I was so delighted with so many things, and when I look at those project pictures, I see how happy I am.  I remember winding the ball with my infant daughter in the back seat, and that memory is precious.  I'm so grateful for that little forgettable scarf, because it's helped me remember something very valuable.

October 2010

I looked at pictures of my first wearable sweater.  I'm amazed how long it took me to knit that sweater--months and months!  I know now that I could knock it out in three weeks.  And I would take more care with fit and modifications and yarn selection.  But I was so proud of that garment.  And I see in those pictures that I was still dealing with baby weight 6 months after my daughter was born.  So I should be patient with myself, 3 months after my son is born, and give myself a break for not being down to my pre-pregnancy size.

I like to write, but I've always felt guilty that I don't journal.  I just can't get into a rhythm.  But I knit.  And my knitting is turning out to be a pretty good memory keeper, reminding me of who I was, and the good things and the struggles.  It reminds me of who I want to be, who I've planned to be, how those plans have changed and what things I need to rediscover.

I'm grateful for my queue, and even though it becomes overwhelming occasionally, I'm grateful that it's so long.  I'm glad that there is more out there that I want to do, things to learn, simple projects that just look like fun, things that will trap memories I've yet to make.

I'm grateful for the long view, and I'm grateful that knitting is one thing that keeps me looking up, toward the person I was and to the life greeting me on the horizon. 

day dreaming

Moving is hard!  I'm sorry to say that moving has disrupted my sewing and knitting life more than having a baby did.  What does that say about me?  Or moving?

We've been in the new house for ten days, and I just put my sewing machine back on its desk this evening.  I've unpacked some of my yarn, but not all.  I've had a few internal temper tantrums over all the things I don't have time to be making.

Photo from the olden days before the move.

I have, though, been plodding away on my beautiful Girasole.  I'm about three-quarters of the way through the edging, and I'm worried it's going to be too small.  I'll block the daylights out of it, so I know it will grow, but I'm still a little discouraged.  When you only have time for one project, you want it to be kind of perfect. 

In the meantime, I keep seeing all these amazing garments and projects in the blogosphere!  And have you seen this amazing men's collection from the incomaprable Brooklyn Tweed?

Source

Since my knitting and sewing dreams are already exponentially greater than my knitting and sewing reality, I might as well dream of knitting a sweater that requires 1600 yards of worsted weight wool.  Can you imagine?  But oh, how amazing!  When we retire, honey!

Time to move on, time to get goin'

What lies ahead I have no way of knowin'
Under my feet, baby, the grass is growin'. 
Yeah, it's time to move on, time to get goin'.

Tom Petty pretty much sums it up: things are changing for us!  The first change is that I'm taking a leave of absence from my job for one year.  I have a pretty stressful job, and just the thought of a consuming job and two young children was overwhelming.  So our lifestyle will change a bit, but I think it will be worth it, especially for such a short time.

We made that decision last December, and thought that would be a big change.  But then, pretty much immediately surrounding Baby O's arrival, we learned that my husband was being transferred.  So now we're moving!  We'll be headed about 220 miles north, to Parkersburg, WV.  It's a smallish town on the Ohio River.

We have a small bucket list of things to do before we move.  Over the weekend, we went up to an old country store and saw some cloggers!  Little A was very groggy since she'd fallen asleep in the car, and Baby O is still too small to be interested in anything but ceiling fans and eating, but it was a beautiful day and it was nice to be out in the sun.  It was on top of a mountain and offered some beautiful views.

So we're packing up and looking forward to getting settled in a new place with a new routine.

It's time to move on, time to get going.

Yarn treats

We are going to have a crazy next couple of months.  We're having a baby in a few weeks.  We're moving house in June.  Aaaaand we're not exactly sure where we're moving.  Yesterday we got some news that means our plans to move into another house in town might have fallen through.  We could still end up moving across town, or we could move across the state.  Or even somewhere else.  So it was a completely perfect day to get something wonderful in the mail. 

I've joined the Tanis Fiber Arts Year in Colour Club.  (How much fun is Canadian spelling?)  I've admired TFA's yarns for a long time, but I've never used any of them.  I decided that during such a year of transition and change, maybe I should treat myself.  This is a serious treat!  Every other month, Tanis sends out a one-of-a-kind colorway on one of her bases and a new pattern commissioned just for the club. 

I am so thrilled about both of these yarns that I can't even bring myself to cake them up yet.  I just keep looking at them like they're Tiffany diamonds or something.  The berry colored yarn is her Silver Label, 100% silk, and was actually the January yarn.  After seeing pictures of it on Ravelry, I decided I had to join the club, so I received it with the March yarn.  The March yarn is her Blue Label fingering weight, 80% superwash merino and 20% nylon.  The pattern is for a beautiful pair of socks, and I couldn't be more excited.  

I never thought I'd be in the position of having a newborn and not knowing exactly where we're going to live.  It's not a position I'm really crazy about.  But I have some beautiful yarn and some great knitting to do, so take that, life. 

2012 in Review

This year had a recurring theme: I've never felt so old in my life.  Obviously, I've also never been this old in my life, as is true for all of us.  But what I mean is, for the first time, I've started to feel old, tired and like not everything is open and possible the way it was 10 years ago.  For some reason, being 32 was more of a mental hurdle for me than turning 30 was.  So even though 2012 did bring me some great experiences--good family vacations, time with my beautiful daughter, good time with family--I'm ready for a new year and a new outlook.  I turn 33 in 11 days, and I'm going to work on feeling younger, lighter, happier and more hopeful this year.  It will take work, and I will do it. 

One thing that will make 2013 a great year is my current project: another baby! 

I'm nervous about how this will change my personal time, but I know it will eventually all balance out and our family will find the new normal.  We're expecting around the first of April, and I'm getting more and more excited to see who that new little person is. 

We found out we were expecting at the end of last summer, and that sort of killed my knitting and sewing mojo for a couple months.  I worked on small things like socks and cowls, but not with any kind of plan.  I started to get back into sewing in mid-October when my regular clothes no longer fit, and I discovered that I hated all my maternity clothes from my last pregnancy.  I've made some things I love, but more on that later. 

With all this retrospective on my emotional and mental state during 2012, I thought I'd like to add up my knitting and sewing projects in 2012, and show myself it wasn't a total wash.  Yeah, it wasn't an ideal year, but I did find a lot of space to be creative.  So here goes. 

Knitting:  

Accessories: 25 total

•  5 cowls (4 for me, 1 as a gift)
• 4 shawls, 2 of which were very lacy in laceweight 
• 2 scarves (made of scraps, total stash-buster)
• 10 hats or headbands
• 1 pair mittens
• 3 pair socks (only 1 pair made it to Ravelry)
• 2 home dec placemats (1 for me, 1 set of 3 items as a gift)

Sweaters: 8 total

• 1 pullover
• 1 vest
• 3 long cardigans
• 1 cropped cardigan
• 1 toddler cardigan
• 1 tee

Home dec:

• 1 huge couch blanket (crochet)
• 4 place mats (1 for me, 3 as a gift set; crochet)

Types of knitting:

• 3 very lacy projects in lace weight
• 3 crochet projects
• 6 fair isle/stranded knitting projects
• 4 projects with cables (although 2 of them were the same pattern)

Men left on base (hibernating WIPs): 5

Things I was really not happy with: 5 (3 of which I left unfinished)

Things I loved completely: 14

Sewing:

• Dresses: 3
• tops: 2
• tees: 1
• skirts: 2
• maternity shirts: 4
• maternity dresses: 4

Blogging: 

• Total posts: 27
• Months without posts: 6