Live Your Light

Went to the Santana concert last night.

Honestly, we were in a gigantic living room (Rexall Place) and there were these absolute geniuses jamming to beat hell, and we were all jumping... in pure bliss.

His genius with a guitar is a religious experience in itself, but his message of Light and Kindness speaks loudly to me: You are the Light. We are connected by the Light. There is only Fear and Love in this world, and the Fear is expensive. Just ask President Bush...

On the back of the tour program he states:

"One day there will be no borders, no boundaries, no flags and no countries, and the only passport will be ones heart."

I am the Light. And so are you...

Goings On

Yesterday I finished a quick crochet project.

It's meant to be a dishcloth, but it's altogether too lovely to mar it with dirty dishes, so it's been elevated to hot plate status. I needed a quick success. I'm in the middle of most of my other projects and the end of them seems to lie in the very distant future.

My Hibiscus for Hope socks are looking beautiful but I keep having to frog the heel. Honestly, I've ripped it out six times. It'll be worn out long before I ever get it on my foot. Ah well, that's why I bought lots of the yarn. In the meantime I do love the feel of the corn fibre in my hands.

The Victorian scarf is over 3/4's done. I hope to finish it in the next week or so. I went on a yarn crawl this week and bought some lovelies:

This is the Misti Alpaca colourway that the Yarn Harlot is using. Saw it on her blog and HAD to have it.

Araucania Sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% nylon. Should hold up a good long time.

This is Manos Wool Clasica that I'll make into mittens. Should be warm and cozy.

This is a Mrs. Beeton's Wrist W armer kit that I bought last week. The two bottom skeins are the original kit. While I was at River City Yarns last week I picked up a copy of Curvy Knits, and fell in love with the Miracle Lace Insert Pullover. I chose the deep purple colourway of Miracle which is 50% alpaca and 50% tencel. They didn't have enough skeins in the store so I just bought one to play with while they order me more of it. Since the dye lots aren't the same, I thought I'd add the skein to my kit and buy more kid silk for a second wrist warmer set.

And finally, I bought four skeins of Drops Alpaca to make a Swallowtail Shawl, someday...when I've grown a few more arms, and all my current projects are complete, and the planets are aligned just so with the stars...

Ya-Ya

Today I had a weekly gathering of phenomenal women at my house. I can't say enough how these women support and lift me. They are three intelligent, warm, caring, hilarious, creative creatures that I am so thankful crossed paths with me some months ago. Thank you Ravelry!!! There are a couple others that don't get to join us every week, but they fit in the phenomenal category too.

We don't waste our time trashing others. We agree on most things, but when we don't, it's ok. We can have healthy, intelligent debate, and it's always served on a plate of "what can we learn from this," garnished with "oh, the pretty!," and served up with a side of hilarity, and a heaping bowl of "well, allright then" for dessert.

We agree that we are not a group, nor do we have meetings. I think we need a new word, or perhaps an old word used in a new and provocative way to define what we are. "Support" can be called "advocate," "favor," "back," or "champion." We applaud, approve, endorse, pull for, adopt, embrace, defend, and sustain each other.

Being sister-less all my life, I've always envied women who had sisters. I've had many friends that made up for it, but I've never been involved in a group like this that meshed so quickly.

Since we're all beautiful, intelligent women, could we be called a bevy? How about a covey, a company, a kindle, an intrigue, a charm, a pride, or a wisdom? I like "a wisdom." It says what we bring to and what we gain from getting together. I also like "an intrigue." It makes us sound so brilliant and clever and deep.

"Sisterhood" works too. God knows we have all the "Ya-Ya" anyone could possibly have.

Whatever it is, and whatever we call it, I love it and I can't wait for next week!

New Word for the Day: Jacquarded/Knitters for Knockers

I had to be in the city yesterday for a meeting, so I took the opportunity to visit River City Yarns downtown. My friend Penny had shown me some Misti Alpaca sock yarn that had me bewitched, and I wanted to go check out the other colours available. Her skein seemed to have every colour in the rainbow painted on it, and she chose it to match with other sock yarn remnants that she uses to make her Frankensocks. I LOVE her Frankensocks; they're multi-coloured, and the striping never matches which agrees with my non-conformist side. This yarn was similar to the Fabel I had used to make my turquoise socks, and I loved how that yarn jacquarded. (That's my new word for today...jacquarded: 1 (verb) past tense; created a jacquard pattern that looks like you mastered some highly intricate knitterly dance with several vivid strands of yarn, but really just plain knit with one strand.)

Anyway, the other colours of the yarn I speak of didn't thrill me so much when I saw them. There were soooo many other rich-coloured yarns that were grabbing my attention by the throat. So I had me a good long session of yarn-fondling. Somehow, during my fondling stroll, a skein of Trekking XXL (great jacquardability!) and a Mrs. Beeton's Wrist Warmer kit found their way into my hands, so they came home with me, along with the Fall issue of Interweave Knits magazine. My new purchases are sitting by my computer right now where I can gaze lovingly at their beauty off and on through my day.

I'm still working the heel of the Hibiscus. I had to frog the half-finished heel in order to sort myself out on short row stocking stitch heel construction. Now I'm back to half-way through the heel and I hope to get past the heel and back to working up the leg today. Isn't the pattern gorgeous! If you haven't already done so, please go to MezzoDiva's blog and donate to her worthy cause, Knitters for Knockers. I was honoured to guest author her blog last week while she prepares for her 60K walk in September to raise money for breast cancer research, so scroll down and check it out.

Mary's scarf has progressed also; I'm almost half-way through the middle part.

The shawl is still on the back burner for now. I've started adding the border. And I've done a few more rows on the back piece of the Juliaca sweater, just past the armhole bind offs. But that one is a loooooong term project. Miles and miles and miles of really boring road--I mean 2x2 ribbing!

Dog Days and Knitters for Knockers

Well, I've had a perfectly lovely summer day. I got to go to my son's girlfriend's house to pick saskatoons and
raspberries. They have a saskatoon grove and about 1/2 an acre of raspberry patch. For those who aren't familiar with saskatoons, they're similar to blueberries, but they grow on trees rather than on low bushes, and they're more purple than blue. They have similar health benefits of blueberries. There is some kind of Zen to berry picking...especially on a warm summer day, with a light breeze and the bees buzzing lazily nearby.

Then I got to sit at the river and knit on the Victorian lace scarf I'm making for Mary, our daughter who lives in Inuvik.

I wore my river shoes so I was able to wade in to above my knees to cool off when the sun got too hot. Heaven! The water is clear and warm. I was dying to dive in but I didn't have my bathing-suit on and I didn't want to drive home in wet clothes. Tomorrow, I swim. We in the Great White North need to enjoy the hell 'outta these nice summer days.

With that in mind, I stopped for an ice-cream cone on the way home from the river and it was divine. All-in-all, it was a glorious day. I have work coming soon, so I have to enjoy the days off that I have now; I may not get many after the middle of August.

Sunday, I finished the Turquoise Fabel socks. YaaaY!!!

Now I can start on the Hibiscus for Hope socks. This is the pattern that Knitters for Knockers is promoting this year. If you make a donation to Ramona Carmelly's Weekend to End Breast Cancer walk, you get this gorgeous sock pattern that is based on the notes and charts of a pattern developed by my friend ThatLoganChick. It's a great cause and Ramona's a great champion for her heroic efforts. You can also find a link in Ravelry on Ramona's (MezzoDiva) page.

I also blocked a sample of my snowdrop shawl to see how well it would hold a block and to see what a garter stitch/faggot edge looked like for the actual shawl. I think it looks great, and I'm ready to bind off the top edge of the shawl. Then I'll pickup and knit the border on the two sides. I cannot wait to finish this one. The really great patterns seem to take sooooo long, don't they?

Meet Smudge

Last Sunday I went off the deep end...in love with a kitten, who I couldn't leave behind at the alpaca farm. Could you have?

Here's another pic...



And another...

My dog is not cooperating. She wants to eat Smudge. We may not be able to make this work. If not Smudge will go back to living at the farm where we'll visit her every week. And we'll be very sad. But I can't have my dog in an atmosphere that impacts her mental health. She's crazy enough already. Think positive thoughts.

In the meantime, I'm making good progress on the Snowdrop Shawl; I'm 2/3's of the way done, and I can't WAIT to finish. I'm so in love with it I'm going to wear it every day. It's the colour. I'm really loving the colours I'm working with lately: the deep sensuous red of the Snowdrop, the intense teal of the baby llama for the Juliaca, and the vivid forest green of the corriedale I'm spinning.

I also continue to add measurable distance on my Fabel sock. And on the Juliaca sweater. And my spinning is coming along too. It seems like the green corriedale is never-ending (sigh), but I am making some headway there. I seem to be keeping up with the spin, although my single is not perfectly consistent yet, but I'm sure that'll come. I'm having a problem with string breakage, dang it all. Not sure what'll cure that, except more practice. I want to get through the corriedale before I attempt the Harley fleece, and the Harley fleece is calling me. Not sure how much longer I can ignore it. And I should be receiving Harley's cria fleece (his first shearing) soon. No pressure. Really.

Ghosties in the Needles and Cosmos Shifts

I've been working on the Snowdrop Shawl and it's coming along nicely. I'm managing to overpower the mohair most of the time. Right now I've got about five snowdrops on each side of the center column. In this last pattern set of rows, something odd's been occurring...I do the pattern row which increases the stitch count by 2 stitches. Then I count the stitches to be sure I have an odd number of stitches. When I'm satisfied the count is correct, I work the mostly purl row where there are no increases or decreases. But when I count again...I've got an EVEN number of stitches!!! [cue Psycho shower scene music] This happened about 4 times in a row yesterday. What the... How do you go from an odd number to an even number without increasing?!?!? Of course, all this uncertainty leads to OCD stitch counting....just to make sure I haven't counted wrong...the last 40 times I counted this row...



I'm pleased to say though, that each time, I took a deep breath and investigated the cause of the off-numbered rows. And each time, I was able to correct it without too much stitch OR hair pulling. After those 4 errant rows, things have gone better. Not sure if the ghosties are in the needles, the wool, my fingers, or my head, but I seem to have run 'em off.

I completed the first of the Fabel socks. Now I'm just starting the second. Socks are my travel knitting, so these puppies haven't seen a lot of action lately.



My family was recently hit by a nasty flu and we're all just rolling out of our death beds, shocked and glad to still be on this side of the daisies, pinching ourselves to be sure. Yesterday, in our infirmity, my daughter and I watched an Alfred Hitchcock marathon. It was great to relax and enjoy time with her again. She's 15 and Mom really doesn't rate most of the time. And...there must have been a shift in the Cosmos somewhere...a mighty shift...she wanted to knit too. What a gift.