Samantha in 2007, shortly after she got out of the hospital.

You may remember reading my post last summer about our visit to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY.  (Check out that post for a detailed account of that visit, and for pictures and video of the animals.)  I’ve been a supporter of Farm Sanctuary for a long time, and was thrilled when I was able to become a sponsor for one of their rescued animals a while back.  She’s a sheep named Samantha, and she was rescued as a lamb in 2007, along with 20 other lambs who had been abandoned to die on the side of the road.  I received a little picture of Samantha when I became her sponsor, but had no idea of her specific physical problems until I got to meet her last summer.  The poor little girl has 2 lame and deformed back legs, and has developed the most lumbering, awkward-looking gait to get around the pasture.  But, happily,  I received an update letter from FS recently, telling me that Samantha has received a custom-made leg brace to help bear the weight of her body and take some stress off of her hind end.  I’m trying to get a picture of her using her brace, and if successful I’ll share it here.

I decided that in addition to my personal membership in Farm Sanctuary, I want Knitting Matters to support their rescue efforts too.  So from now on, a portion of my profits from sales of Knitting Matters patterns will be donated to Farm Sanctuary each year. (I hope you’ll feel good knowing that you’re helping too. ) I know there are innumerable worthy causes in the world, and I’m someone who always struggles trying to decide which ones to help.  But I’ve been watching Farm Sanctuary for a long time, and after my visit I was reassured that they really are doing good work.  The animals are living happy, normal lives in an idyllic setting.  In fact, their New York shelter is exactly what a farm should feel and look like!

Sophie the Blue Sheep

Sophie is particularly glad that we’re sponsoring Samantha, and has hinted that she wants us to help more sheep if possible. (Sophie is the feisty Knitting Matters mascot, and for some reason she’s quite adamant that we not sponsor any pigs. Go figure. I thought the pigs at the farm were wonderful….)

Now that's a big yawn!

When I went to Farm Sanctuary’s website as I was writing this post, I discovered some sad news too.  Zoop, the goat I had played with last summer, passed away suddenly recently.  Here’s the short video of her playing with me, despite her amputated leg.    They have posted a tribute page for her as well, if you’d like to read it.  She was a very enthusiastic and playful little goat — one of my favorite animals of all.

Because WordPress keeps statistics on how many people visit my blog, I know you guys are out there reading, but I sure wish some of you would comment once in a while.  It’s really not very satisfying to write all this stuff and not get any feedback.  I’d like to be able to get to know you better and find out what types of things you’d like to read about here.  So please, leave me a comment as often as you like! I love to write, but I need some motivation once in a while….pretty please?

Leaves…

Well, the leaves are almost all on the ground now, leaving our protective shield of trees bare.  For the next 6 or 7 months I’ll be watching traffic from my office window, instead of enjoying a beautiful wall of green that muffles the sounds of cars.  Our house sits back from the road, behind trees and at the end of a curving driveway, so we usually have plenty of privacy.  But when the leaves are down it’s like living in a different place, and I don’t like it nearly as much.  I feel exposed and less safe.  I tend to forget how many cars go past our house every day until the leaves are down…and it seems like the amount of traffic keeps increasing all the time.  And going faster.  Ugh.

…and Berries

Ok, let’s stop thinking about stressful things.  Guess what?  I got a new Blackberry Tour!  I’ve never had a BB before, but my husband has been attached to his for years (yes, almost literally attached to it, I swear).  I’d been working from a cell phone and a Palm handheld, and not having too many problems.  But when my hotsync cable broke recently and I couldn’t sync the Palm to my desktop calendar anymore, I decided it was time for a change.  Plus, I wanted to be able to access my email and Facebook when I’m away from the office.  So now my phone and calendar are in one device…convenient but a little scary (what if I lose it?!).

I’ve had to start using Google’s calendar now, so it can sync to my BB calendar.  And I like it well enough, other than the worry in the back of my mind about allowing Google Inc. to have access to my calendar.  But the only other desktop calendar options would have required me to buy Outlook or Lotus Notes….don’t want to.   And so far I L.O.V.E. my Blackberry! I was worried about getting used to the small keyboard, but it’s really easy.  (And much easier than typing with a stylus as I had to do on my Palm.) And the menus are pretty intuitive (mostly). I didn’t even know I was going to be able to sync my iTunes library onto my BB either — way cool! This decision was on my mind for several weeks, and I’m glad I finally got it taken care of.  It’s amazing how difficult it was to comparison shop for a new handheld…there are SO many of them out there, with so many different features.  And they come out with new models every other day it seems…crazy.

And something else to EXPOSE today —

The new Roundabout pattern is finally ready to ship (I was very unproductive last month), and I sent the digital file off to WEBS and they’ve already got it loaded up on the site and ready for download.  I hope to get the next pattern for the Kids’ Collection done by the end of this year too — it’s a cardigan.

As soon as I get all my scattered “to do” lists combined on my Blackberry I’m sure I’ll be able to keep a handle on things better.  Who knows, I might be able to get a half dozen more patterns published before TNNA in June….you never know!

Remember a few days ago when I wrote this?  Well I’ve had another steeked project bite the dust now…can you believe that?  It’s not like I don’t know how to do this…I’ve done successful steeked projects before.  But this time I was working on a new baby cardigan and must not have secured the steek well enough with the sewing machine because the stitches started unraveling when I began to add the button bands.  OMG, I’m so frustrated with steeks right now.  I almost tossed the whole thing aside, but after I calmed down I realized that I could just reknit the yoke portion because that’s where the steek stitches didn’t hold.  It’s not a tragedy, but my confidence is shaken.  I think I’ll secure my steeks with crochet stitches instead of using the sewing machine from now on.  Sheesh.

Rug Hooking

You may remember a while back when I talked about my interest in learning rug hooking.  Well I took a beginner’s class at the Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor, Michigan this past weekend and I loved it!  We each got a simple star pattern and kit to begin with, and were able to start practicing how to make the loops for about an hour at the end of the three-hour class.  I’ve only done a little bit so far, and my loops are still very uneven, but I can already tell this is very addictive. (Click the picture if you want to see it bigger.)

I was concerned that it would be expensive to buy all the supplies, but the teacher recommended that we do a couple kits at first so we don’t have to buy strip cutters and wool right away.  Most kits come with the wool strips already cut, so I think that’s a good idea.  I did go ahead and buy the starter frame from her in class, but that wasn’t very expensive.  If I end up wanting to do this more regularly, then I can look at getting a used cutter on eBay or something.  Now if I can just figure out how to avoid getting a blister on my hand when I hook….

The rug hooking class was at 9:00 Sunday morning, and I had to drive an hour and a half to get there, so it was really tough for me to get my night owl self up and moving at 6:00 am on a Sunday to hit the road by 7:00.  But I did it, and was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise, and a huge rainbow arching over the highway on my drive over to Ann Arbor.  I can’t remember the last time I saw a sunrise (sunsets, yes; sunrises, not so much). Almost makes me want to try to become a morning person….almost.

Libby

My oldest kitty Libby, who is 15, has started having “yowling episodes” lately.  She’s had some age-related behavior issues recently (peeing outside the litter box), but other than that she seems very healthy.  We went to the vet today for her bloodwork re-check, and I talked to the dr. about this.  He says that it’s common in older cats, but they (meaning the researchers) haven’t been able to find the real meaning of it.  Sometimes it’s because they’ve got a form of feline dementia and they forget where they are or they’re lonely. But whenever Libby does it and I go to see if she’s ok, she immediately stops the yowling and looks at me as if to say, “What’s up, Mom?”.  She’s her normal lovable self, with her sweet little voice.  So my concern was that maybe she has cancer or something causing her pain.  Dr. vet says that a cat with cancer will generally lose weight, and Libby has gained a pound since her last vet visit only 5 months ago.  Plus, he says that cats generally don’t vocalize when they’re in pain, so that’s a good sign, I guess.  We’ll get the results of her bloodwork tomorrow and see if any problems show up there.  I hope it’s just a weird behavioral thing and not a serious health problem.  She’s just the sweetest cat in the world, and I’m not ready for her to leave yet.  I hope she’ll be with us for years to come.

I was tickled to see that my Kiyo design is featured in this week’s WEBS podcast and on their blog.  They’ve knitted it up in their Valley Yarns Deerfield in a gorgeous brown shade (and I might have to make myself another one now that I’ve seen it in that color!). I’m sure Kathy and Steve won’t mind me showing the picture of their version here, so here it is (click to see it bigger):

You can download Kiyo instantly at WEBS.   (You’ll also see Kiyo in the WEBS holiday catalog arriving in mailboxes shortly.)  Enjoy!

UPDATE: I found the WEBS catalog in my mailbox today, shortly after I wrote this post, and discovered that they also feature my Circle of Life on page 4.  Kiyo is on page 11.

Since I don't have any knitting pics for this post, here's a recent photo I took at a local park (click to see it bigger)

The Tweed Vest is no more. That’s right, it’s gone. You probably want to know what happened, right?  Remember that I was working it in the round with a steek at the front center.  Well, even though I knew I shouldn’t do it, I screwed up by cutting my steek early so I could try it on. After cutting the steek I decided I didn’t like what I had done in the waist area. Since you can’t reuse the yarn after cutting the steek, I’m basically screwed with this project. Sad me. I love this yarn, and especially this color. Might have to buy more and try again, but for now I’m done with it.  I’m back to working on the new kids’ cardigan (it doesn’t have a name yet).  I finished the yoke, cut the steek, and have one button band done.  This project almost got frogged too though, because I wasn’t paying attention when I went to weave in ends where I had joined new yarn — I somehow unknitted more stitches, leaving me with a hole about 3 stitches and 3 rows wide, right on the front of the cardi.  Now, I have no problem weaving in ends normally, but when it’s a dark color yarn and there are multiple rows missing…then I have a problem.  It took me over an hour of intense concentration under my Ott light to get it repaired.  It’s not perfect, but good enough for now.  I ended up duplicate stitching over a couple of stitches anyway to make it look more even.  I hate that I have such difficulty with that stuff!

I don’t know what I did to cause all this bad knitting karma lately.  My Xerox Phaser 8560, the printer that I use to print all my pattern orders, has major problems.  The blue ink jets are all clogged up and it won’t clean itself with the self-cleaning procedure.  So I’m in the unbelievable position of hoping I don’t get any orders for the next week or so…or at least that I only get small orders that I can print on my little HP Deskjet.   Of course I didn’t buy a service contract from Xerox (those things are like umbrellas…if you have one you won’t need it, and if you don’t have one you do need it), so I’m at the mercy of Media Sciences, the manufacturer of the compatible ink I’ve been using.  I’m told they’re very good about paying for repairs if their ink is shown to be the cause of the problem.  They made me mail them a couple pages from the printer so they can analyze it in their lab to make sure it’s their ink before they will consider authorizing a repair (very CSI, don’t you think?).  So allowing 2 days for the mail, then 2 days for the lab tests, we’re looking at the middle of next week before I even hear back from them, and then probably a few days before I can get anyone scheduled to come look at it.  And maybe more time if they have to order a new print head or some other part.  I suppose most shops would be understanding if I couldn’t ship their orders for a week or so, but I usually like to ship within a day or two, so I hope this gets resolved sooner rather than later. 

Meanwhile, I’m going back through my records trying to calculate a better estimate of how much it really costs me to print my patterns on this printer.  It seems that it wastes a LOT of ink, which is disappointing considering how darn expensive the ink is.  And one of the reasons I bought the printer was that I liked the supposedly lower environmental impact from not having to use those plastic ink cartridges.  Ironic, huh?  The environment wins, my wallet loses.  I suppose Al Gore would be proud of me though….and that’s something, isn’t it?

The new kids’ cardi has been temporarily set aside because I started this: 

Kim's Tweed Vest

It’s going to be a vest for ME, and I’m not planning to write up the pattern for the Knitting Matters line. I feel like I’m breaking some sort of unwritten rule by knitting something and not publishing it — isn’t that awful? (Awful that I feel that way, I mean. Perils of turning your hobby into your business I guess.)  But I just wanted to do it this once, so I’ll have a unique garment for myself. It won’t have to be sent out in trunk shows, and I can wear it whenever I want. Assuming, that is, that it turns out as planned. I’m using Kathmandu Aran Tweed, one of my all-time favorite yarns. I’ve made 2 other cardigans in this yarn over the years, and have enough stashed away for a couple more after this vest. It’s a blend of wool (85%), silk (10%) and cashmere (5%), so it’s warm and soft. And I especially love the little flecks of pink and orange in this mostly brown yarn (color #154). (Click the picture to see it bigger.)  The column of stockinette stitches you see in the picture is the front center steek, where it will be cut open after it’s all knitted.  It’s going to have a single button at the waist, resulting in what I hope will be a figure-flattering fit.  (Sigh, it seems like lately there just isn’t a figure-flattering fit for me.  BTW, I worked out today, so I hope to change that!)

The hardest decision I had to make about this was choosing the stitch pattern, because the tweediness of the yarn tends to hide all but the boldest of stitch patterns. The first 2 sweaters I made with it (see below) were done in stockinette, but I wanted some more texture and body to it this time.  Cables would probably look great, but I’m using a variation of moss stitch (using K1, P1 instead of K2, P2). Whenever I work patterns with alternating knit and purl stitches I tend to use the continental method because it’s easier on my arms. And that’s what I’ve been doing, but after working on this the past 3 evenings, my right shoulder is still getting sore. I’m trying to take it easy, but I’m getting anxious to get this done so I’m probably working on it too much without taking breaks. Oh well, I guess I’ll be spending lots of time with my heating pad until this is done.

My first cardi in Kathmandu Aran

My second cardi in Kathmandu Aran

Charity for the Holidays

I think I’ve found the perfect Adopt-A-Family program for us this year. If you read my previous post, you know that we’ve decided to forgo gift-giving in our family and give gifts to a needy family instead.  The Volunteers of America Michigan runs an annual program where you can adopt a specific family, get a list of what they need and want, and buy them gifts.  You can even deliver them directly to the family yourself if you want to.  Of course, if you don’t want direct contact with the family you can just donate money to the program instead, but I think we’d like to deliver the gifts ourselves.  If you’re interested but don’t live in Michigan, check with your local VOA or search for a charity at Charity Navigator.  There’s bound to be a charity that speaks to your particular interests or concerns…why not take a few minutes to check it out?  This year more than ever before (at least in my lifetime), we need to reach out to help our fellow citizens.  I’m very much looking forward to shopping for our adopted family this year, knowing that what we buy them will be appreciated.

Oh, BTW, how do you like the new blog header?  I figured out how to crop pictures into a circle instead of a rectangle, so decided to play with it a bit.  I like it!

I finally had the opportunity to play with  Greenland, a wonderful 100% merino superwash yarn from Cascade Yarns.  It’s a perfect candidate for baby and kids’ designs, and I’ve already got one pencilled in on my design calendar.  It’s rather tightly spun, which is great for showing off stitch patterns.  I began with the size 9 needle recommended on the label but found that I didn’t like the looseness of the fabric.  Changing to a size 8 gave me the look I wanted for this particular stitch pattern (a modified linen stitch), so I’m ready to begin the charting and sizing stages of writing the pattern.  (And I think I could even use a size 7 needle with this yarn without it being too tight.)

Random swatching of Fair Isle motifs

I made reference to this swatch on my last message on the Knitting Matters facebook fan page – it’s one of several swatches I made as I planned my current kids’ cardigan design. And I’m happy to say that some of the stitch patterns on this swatch actually made it into the final design, which I’m knitting right now.

Christmas Lights in October

As I drove back through Rochester on my way home from shoe shopping (more on that below), I saw that the city is already busy hanging the Christmas lights on all the storefronts on Main St. They always do it in October, and I understand why, but it never fails to shock me into a panic about the holiday preparations. And it just so happens that there was something on the news today that prompted me to make a decision about the holidays that will probably not thrill my nieces and nephews.

It was this story about 50,000 residents of Detroit who lined up for a housing aid program meant to help people who were in danger of losing their homes. 50,000 people. Lining up for hours in the cold. Because they’re worried about becoming homeless. The video shown on TV was shocking. So what was my decision?  I plan to tell everyone in my family about this story and let them know that this Christmas we’ll be giving gifts to needy people in Detroit instead of to our own family.  It’s just unacceptable that so many of our neighbors (we’re in a suburb of Detroit) are in such dire financial situations.  And I believe it’s wrong for those of us who are doing better to go about our lives “trying not to think about” people who are on the edge.  I generally make more financial contributions to animal-related charities, but it’s very painful for me to see stories like this about people too, and I just have to do something. 

I hope the nieces and nephews will understand — they range in age from 11 to 22, so I think even the youngest is old enough to start thinking about people outside his own life experience, don’t you?  (And besides, the youngest one just happens to have a birthday at Christmas time too, so maybe we can still give him a birthday gift if he gets upset about the idea.)

Oh yeah, the rest of my shoe shopping story: I rarely go shopping, but today I went to DSW to get some new shoes, which I badly needed, and ended up finding some good sale prices on a couple pairs of shoes and some socks.  Also found a great new purse, which I also needed.  After leaving the store I went to Taco Bell near the shopping center and sat in my car listening to the radio while I ate.  I hadn’t paid attention to the amount I spent in DSW (blush), so I pulled out my receipt to take a look.  The amount seemed far too low, so I read over it to see if I had gotten more things on sale than I thought.  No.  But I found that the purse hadn’t been rung up at all — yikes!  So I immediately went back to the store and found the person who had rung up my purchases, and told her of the mistake so she could charge me for it.  No biggie, right?  But she seemed shocked that I had come back in, and kept saying “God will be with you ALWAYS”, “you’re such an honest person”, and stuff like that.  It was embarrassing, but I also felt good about it.  Because, truth be told, I could easily have just gone about my life and never told anyone about this.  But I’m glad that I quickly shut out that little voice when it popped in my head, and ended up doing the right thing.  It feels good.

Today we had 2 Wood Thrushes bathing in our bird bath, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen them.  I couldn’t get the camera quick enough to take a picture, but I can show you a quickie pic from one of our bird books:

The book says they usually stay in the deep woods or underbrush, so I guess this sighting is a benefit of living on a wooded lot.  Half of our property is heavy woods (we can barely even walk through them), and I often wonder how many species of birds and other animals are living here with us.  Pretty neat.

Here’s another bird I found in our yard today…I’ll bet you’ve never had this one in YOUR yard.

Bluebird Origamius (Origami Bluebird of Happiness)

And even more exciting were these flowers that I found nearby:

Origami Lilies

I’m told they require no water and no light at all…pretty exotic for a Michigan backyard, don’t you think?

Yesterday when I was getting my winter clothes from the attic, I found my Origami books and papers from when I lived in Japan.  I used to have such fun making Origami things, so I decided to spend a bit of time with this fascinating craft again.  I was a bit rusty after 19 years, and my eyesight isn’t what it used to be (sigh), but I still managed to make these flowers and bird rather quickly.  I could have improved these by taking more time to make careful folds, but they’re still pretty. I hope I get to spend some more time doing Origami this winter.

This is what happens when you have to take a photo at night....

After spending an evening with all the rug hooking books I could get my hands on, I still couldn’t decide if I wanted to do rug hooking with yarn or with fabric strips — there are pros and cons of each method.  Here’s my thought process as I try to decide:

Wool fabric strips: I love the look of these traditional rugs, but it costs more to do it this way because you have to buy a strip cutter (over $150 easily), and you almost have to dye your own fabrics.  This seems like so much work before you even get to start hooking the rug.  But then again, they’re so beautiful….

Wool yarn: I already have tons of yarn, and it’s much easier to come by in a wide range of colors.  But I’ve read that when hooking with yarn, it’s pretty easy to accidentally pull out the previous loop when you hook the next, which sounds pretty annoying.  And the look of a rug hooked with yarn is, in my opinion, much different than one hooked with wool strips.  The lines are less crisp.  But it’s tempting.  But would I always feel that they’re too much like the ugly latch hook “shaggy” rugs we made as kids?

Any experienced rug hookers out there want to weigh in on this choice?  What do you think?

I found a beginner sampler kit (using yarn) for not much money at Halcyon Yarn, but just got an email saying that it’s back-ordered.  Hmmm.  That puts a damper on my excitement.

But a friend in my knitting group told me she knows a great rug hooking teacher locally (thanks Trish!), and I was going to contact that teacher to try to set up a class.  But then I found out that this teacher and another semi-local one are teaching a couple of rug hooking classes at the Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor — and the best part — it’s only 3 weeks from now!  One class was already full, but I was able to register for the other one and I am so psyched I can hardly stand it.

I have a feeling that once I’ve taken a class using wool strips, I’ll be “hooked” (ha!) and won’t want to use yarn.  But we’ll see.

I’m so glad I’m going forward with this because it appears to be helping me climb out of the deep dark funk I’ve been in lately.  I remember how bad I felt most of last winter (maybe S.A.D., not sure), culminating in a desperate escape to Savannah in April.  I may plan to go to Savannah earlier this year…maybe as soon as we get our second big snowfall.  (The first snowfall is nice and pretty, but after that I’m done.)

Edited to add: I just went back and looked at my Savannah posts — I wanna go back NOW!

I finished knitting this new design over a week ago and have dragged my feet getting the pattern off to my editor (it’s been a very unproductive week here). 

It’s called Roundabout and is the second design in the Kids’ Collection.  This model is done in “Perfection”, a great kid-friendly acrylic and wool blend from Kraemer Yarns (made in Pennsylvania).  It started out as a raglan design, but I changed it to a round yoke partway through the knitting, when I realized that my original design would be rather cumbersome (for me and anyone who knitted it). 

I love the way it turned out, with the purl ridges in alternating colors around the yoke, complemented by the wider ridges on the sleeves.  I’m seriously thinking of making one of these for myself, except maybe as a cardigan.  (Just need more time….)

Look for the pattern shortly – hopefully within 2 weeks.  (I’ll let you know by posting again here and on the Knitting Matters facebook page.)

So, you’re wondering about the “wannabe hooker” part of  the title, right?  It’s not as exciting as it sounds; at least not in the way it sounds.  I’m talking about rug hooking here, you pervs.  Specifically, primitive rug hooking.  A couple years ago at the Michigan Fiber Festival I saw a demonstration of this folk art technique and was fascinated.  It’s been in the back of my mind ever since, and I’ve just decided that I want to give it a try.  I’m feeling the need to broaden my interests lately, as I’ve let knitting virtually take over my life, to the exclusion of almost everything else.   So I bought a copy of Rug Hooking magazine, then found a rug hooking group on Ravelry where I could ask some questions, and will buy my basic supplies shortly and become a rug hooker.

The technique I’m interested in is where you use skinny strips of wool fabric and pull them up from below a linen or burlap base fabric to form loops on the surface.  There are other ways to do it, but I love the look of that technique, so will probably try that first.  But some people apparently also use their wool yarn to make rugs, and this is intriguing too, as a way to help use up my yarn stash.  But I’m not sure I’ll like the look of the rugs as much if I use yarn, so am trying to find a close-up picture of a rug hooked with yarn to help me decide.  (Boy, if you think it’s hard to find a local yarn shop, try finding a rug hooking shop — needle in a haystack! Plenty of online sources, but not many brick & mortar stores.)  Now when I talk about hooking with yarn, I’m not talking about those latch hook rugs we all made when we were kids — you know, the ones made with short pieces of yarn and that look like shag carpeting when done — ugly, IMO.

Now do you want to hear about my late night embroidery adventures?  I know you do, but I’ll save that for another post.