Pondering Production- Clean Travel

The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary. ~Mary Kurtz

This is most true about what has happened in the last 5 days before my 6 day trip to Fresno. Generally before I leave on a substantial trip I like to clean things u, do a little laundry, so that when I come back I'm relaxed and able
to spend a bit of time recharging before I head back to work or life or whatever.
 
That did not happen at all. I have been trying to finish up some projects to be delivered and contemplating what projects to work on while at a quilting retreat at Huntington Lake.  Toss some last minute packing, familial chaos, leaving at 4:30 AM to get to the airport and our apartment sort of looks like a war zone. (Mostly my fault.) Luke is going on a hunting trip with his dad for a couple days though, so I don't feel TOOOOOO bad.

Now I'm sitting in the airport, my flight having been re scheduled twice. Thinking of all the things I could have done with this extra time. Primarily thinking of sleep.

For now I guess Ill resign to what this unknown person once said: "Stitch your stress away." Don't mind if I do. :)

Pondering Production: Keeping Kids Warm

"Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly." -Ambrose Bierce

Pondering Production- Theatre

There is a superstition in the theater that it is bad luck for someone to knit in the wings during a play. I couldn't find anyone who could tell me why, but I did sort out that it's still OK to knit in the audience.
-Yarn Harlot

You know you knit too much when...
... you have projects identified by where you knit them. "Movie knitting," for example is a simple project (so you can work on it in the dark) done on wooden needles (so they are quiet) that are circular (because if you drop one of your DPNs in the theater it rolls to the front of the room...and that makes it hard to get back.) Makes total sense.
-Yarn Harlot

In the 1930s knitting was fashionable and trendy and even movie stars modeled for patterns. Maureen O'Sullivan, Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davis were all in Hollywood Knitting Book which featured the patterns for sweaters that had been worn in movies. Katharine Hepburn AND Joan Crawford knit. Not only was it the golden age of film, but one of the golden ages of knitting, when hand-knits were high fashion.

I am thankfull that the trendiness of knitting is rapidly coming back! A while back, when Luke and I were watching Eclipse in the theatre I spotted a fantastic hat on the character named Bella. I leaned over and asked: "How much you wanna bet that pattern is already on Ravelry?" 1.) I love that Luke understood the humor of that. 2.) It was/is on Ravelry and my cousin Tanya owned it already!

Thanks to the Internet knitting has become more accessible. Stitches can be learned by YouTube videos, and patterns can be found EVERYWHERE! All it takes is a little search on Ravelry (facebook for knitters) to find a felted yoda hat, World of Warcraft charts, and clothing items seen on characters in Harry Potter, Twilight and more!

However I agree with the Yarn Harlot and would "be willing to place a cash bet that most knitters watch fewer foreign films than the rest of the population. It's not that we are less interested -- it's the subtitles. It's very hard to read subtitles and chars at the same time. Knitters prefer dramas. More listening, less looking.

So then we turn to Audio Books and podcasts. There's a whole Harry Potter Knitting podcast?! Another one that mixes classic books with crafting!  Its win win and I love that it's carrying on an art!

Pondering Production- Nervousness

"What we love to do we find time to do." -John L. Spalding
That my dear friends is why I quit my job. Juuuuuust kidding. (Sort of.)

Because I have quit my job, I have been put on a yarn/fabric/paper diet.

The Yarn Harlot explains it here:
"There exists, in the knitting world, a concept called 'the yarn diet.' It works the same way as a regular diet: You purchase no new yarn and use only what you have until you have 'lost' the predetermined number of yarn pounds from your stash. Sadly , the result of a yarn diet is often much the same as that of a regular diet: A person crazed with deprivation, guiltily packs on the cashmere in a yarn shop while nobody is looking."

This is why I have not yet set foot in a yarn store in Colorado. I went to a Farmers Market with Luke's family near Junction and packed on some hand shorn, hand carded, hand spun, hand dyed, 100% wool yarn. Ooops.

However knitting was once a suggested treatment for "mental disorders" in women as early as the 1800's and was one of the occupations recommended tio help women with "illnesses" like hysteria and nervousness.  (Yarn Harlot)

So MAYBE this is just what I needed after working at such a disfunctional place? Maybe this will help me with my hysteria and nervousness?

Alas, as so many before me have declared "I'm bored" staying at home, something you will never hear a crafter say is : "I'm bored. Can anyone think of something to do?"

Argh. It hurts my ears. That is one thing that pains me to hear coming from young people! They always look at me astonished when I start listing off all of the things that I want to be doing right then and there on top of what I'm already keeping busy with! Then I say: "Would you like ME to think of something FOR you?"
Then they scamper off all of a sudden "un-bored."

Pondering Production- Financial Planning

"A hobby is hard work you wouldn't do for a living." -Anonymous

"When a habit begins to cost money, it's called a hobby." -Jewish Proverb

"Making money is a hobby that will complement any other hobbies you have, beautifully." -Scott Alexander

"Up until recently, knitting was work. It was not a pastime, but a necessary chore that provided a family with clothing. If you didn't do it then your family just didn't have the things they needed. Sometimes I think about that and I wonder: Would you feel the same way about knitting if it was mandatory?" -Yarn Harlot

"Anybody who has ever tried knitting for money instead of love has noticed it would be very hard to earn a living that way. Knitting is handwork, and as such you would need to charge a small fortune for each creation. If a knitter were to be paid even minimum wage per hour, a knitted blanket could ring in at hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Weaving, on the other hand is wicked fast. A reasonably competent weaver can make a blanket in a single day. This brings me to the first rule of craft sale safety:Never put the knitters near the weavers. It takes more decency than most knitters have to not resort to violence when they find out." -Yarn Harlot

I think this is why I will always piece blankets and knit the little things.

Pondering Production: One Big Pile

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Here it is. Justification for that stash. If you've imagined it, it's a cathedral. Doesn't that pile of paper, yarn, glass jars, fabric look a lot better now?

Pondering Production: Overlook

Sometimes when working on a project I like to step back and examine my work. I'll notice lots of little things. Often mistakes or thing's I wish I'd done better.

Pope John XXIII said:
See everything, overlook a great deal, correct a little.

Speaks for itself huh?

I've decided with my recent marriage this just might be appropriate in regards to many things.

Pondering Production: Allergies

"You know what's sort of surprising? Mohair comes from Angora goats and angora comes from rabbits. You know what else is surprising? How few non knitters find that interesting."
-Yarn Harlot

This cracks me up. And seriously, non knitters look at me like I'm nuts sitting there cracking up and the joke nobody else thinks is funny.
Oh well.

Anyway, its even funnier because I'm allergic to both. Sad day for me because both add such a delicious element to yarn. Sigh. Now I'm on the hunt for other goodies that I'm not allergic to. I included some cashmere in my wedding shrug. My eyes got itchy by the end of the day of working with them but that might also have been spring allergies.

Baby cotton=fantastic. I'm definitely not allergic to that. Sheep's wool=good to go. Alpaca=doesn't seem to bother me yet.

Pondering Production-Feet First

Heather Ordover, of the podcast Craft Lit talks about learning to knit in one of her first "casts." She reminisces how she jumped in feet first, paying no heed to anyone who told her she couldn't, and as a consequence she found that she could.

Every time I tried a new project in McCall, ID under the supervision of Lynda my instructor extraordinaire, she'd say "pretend it's going to work until it does."

The Yarn Harlot says to "charge straight out and start a knitting project that you think is too hard for you. It's good for the human soul to accept a challenge, and you know what? It's going to be easier than you think. All knitting is only knit and purl, and I bet you know how to do both of those. "

It's true. I never learn very much when I don't challenge myself. I just have to keep remembering, to keep going, feet first, paying no heed to anyone who says I cant, pretending to work until it does, and accepting a good challenge.

Here we go!

Ps. There's a clause to this challenge put out by the Yarn Harlot: If you are a VERY new knitter, still finding your way around, read the descriptions of the patterns you are considering really carefully. If you see the words "intriguing construction," put it back down. If you see the word "heirloom," put it down and then run: It's code for "This pattern is so difficult that you will consider death a relief."

Pondering Production: Holy Knit

The Yarn Harlot once asked a friend of hers who is "very active in her church if she thought it was appropriate to knit while sitting in the pews. She replied, 'I believe that my Maker made me the way He thinks I should be, and I'm a knitter.' To cover her bases, she uses this time to knit for charity."

Mom's cousin Bruce, a minister from Massachusetts, rang in his vote saying that if you making prayer shawls it wouldn't seem so bad.

While I have yet to knit in church, but seriously consider it on a regular basis, (so far I design quilts I'm going to make someday for the MCC sale...my brain works better when my hands are busy...) I'm excited that our Pastor James's sermons particularly those through November on the Sermon on the Mount will be available via Podcast <here.> This makes me especially happy because once we're married we'll be moving to Colorado Springs where Luke will be completing his seven month internship. (And now, no one will know if I'm knitting or not!)

Pondering Production - Going Mental

" There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness.'" -Dave Barry

I think what he meant to say was "There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and your family developing a mental illness."

My dad has learned a lot of patience with me and my hobbies over the years. Way back when, the sight of melting wax for some project in the house made him panic , now he calmly says, "clean it up and get it out."

He's learned that jars go in the dishwasher and then to my room for use in later projects instead of right into the recycle.

Knowing all the adaptations he's made to living with me I try and finish projects quickly. "It's almost done Dad" I tell him. It'll all be gone as soon as I'm done with this project.

The other day he pointed something new out to me. It's never done. Sure I finish one project, and I clean it all up and the big dining room table is cleared off for a day or two. BUT Sure enough, two days later a new and different project is out and on the table. There's always a project. It's never done.

Hes right. I cant deny it. I'm not even sure if I can change it. I guess I can be really glad and thankful that he tolerates it, and HE can be really glad and thankful that I'm getting married in 33 days and the problem will now be Luke's.

Pondering Production- Butler Busts Budgets

First I'm going to share these profound thoughts of the Yarn Harlot from her Never Not Knitting! Page-A-Day Calendar. Then I'm going to show you some pictures and I ask you to apply these thoughts to fabric.



1.) Life's too short to knit bad yarn. buy the best you can afford. -Yarn Harlot



2.)I am surprised all the time when I hear that knitters are saving their good yarn for when they are better knitters, since my experience is that using good yarn makes you a better knitter. It's inspiring, and it gives you something to live up to.



3.) Every once in a while when you are in a yarn shop, something bizarre happens. you're walking along, minding your own business, totally in charge of your purchases, when whammo! -- a yarn stops you dead in your tracks. You screech to a halt, pick up a skein, and whether you know it or not, it's game over. You are going to buy that yarn. you can play the game all you want, checking the yardage, taking it to the window to look at it in the light, multiplying the price by how many skeins you need and thinking about your budget, telling the shop owner that you can't really afford it and that you don't need it...but we all know by the look in your eye that you're done for. That yarn knew your secret knitter name, and when that happens, there's just no point in resisting.



Amy Butler fabric does this to me.
First her Daisy Chain Wildflowers Navy broadsided me. I purchased some. I stared at it.
Then I couldn't resist the others and more that complimented...but I wouldn't buy any that didn't speak to me. Then I had to find a pattern deserving of such glorious fabric. A pattern that screamed I'M THE ONE! (More on why THIS pattern was deserving later.)
Then the quilt begins to come together like painstaking magic. I have to raise my skill to the caliber of the fabric. I cannot dishonor such fabric with poor craftsmanship. I have utilize the best of my abilities.
It is such a work of love. A model for our personal relationships I think. I don't need pre-marriage counseling. I have quilting. (Joke)
Anyway, Amy Butler has done it again. Cindy was just checking Fabric Worm's website and right there, front and center was THE NEW AMY BUTLER FABRIC!!! and it's HEAVENLY! It swept me off my feet, I was done for. (Granted I haven't purchased it-take note of the budget geared title.)
Anyway, how beautiful are these!?

and some of them come in flannel, laminated, and home decor. Melt in my mouth. Sigh. And get this...it doesn't stop there. I send Luke this text:

"Why do I love color, fabric, textiles? I cant resist them. Amy Butler has a new line. I'm in trouble." and he writes back

"You love those things because it is part of your personality. You are naturally happy, those things are naturally happy. I think they are good for you. Just don't spend TOO much. "

Isn't he dreamy?

This just in:

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it." -Oscar Wilde

Now I'm not saying I always agree...but maybe in this case?

Pondering Production- Emergency Knitting

Emergency knitting (n): Knitting done to fill a sudden and unexpected period of time and prevent a knitter from going out of his or her mind with boredom. Example: "There was a huge queue at the bank, but I didn't mind, I had my emergency knitting with me."

Words of the Yarn Harlot from Never Not Knitting! Page-A-Day Calendar.

This semester, I have classes that require less moving a round and group involvement and offer more sit in a seat and listen to lecture time. Ick. Sooo, to keep from putting my face in my hands and or biting my nails I have taken my knitting to class. I sit in the back and knit inconspicuously. I only had one teacher say anything and when I told her that it was to help with the anxiety and I showed her my notes she seemed fine with it. If she's not she hasn't said another word to me about it. Unfortunately, she remembers my name now. Oh well, not like we can have our cake and eat it too right? ;) Going along with this note, a while ago I went to see my eye doctor, Dr. Aaron W., and when he walked in he was shocked to see that I didn't have my knitting out while waiting for him. I assured him that I got plenty of knitting done in the waiting room and that it was waiting patiently in my purse. Am I that predictable?

Pondering Production-Making Connections

Most people are connected to knitting whether they know it or not. If you don't believe me (or if you now someone who thinks knitting isnt a part of their life), get a magnifying glass and have a good look at the T-shirt you're wearing or your commercially made socks. They are all knitted...knitting is everywhere. In fact, a run in a pair of panty hose? It's just a dropped stitch. Yarn Harlot from Never Not Knitting! Page-A-Day Calendar.
I had the most fun explaining this concept to Dan the science whiz at College group dinner one night. He seemed so mystified! It was fun to have the chance to give him the same experience he had given me when he was explaining concepts of atomic warfare. Random conversation I know...but when I left, I felt smarter!

Pondering Production-All That Free Time

Yarn Harlot strikes again with words from Never Not Knitting! Page-A-Day Calendar.

She says:
"I swear, without a word of a lie, that the very next time someone tells me that they "wish they had all that free time to knit" I am going to look them dead in the eye and ask them what they watched on TV last night."

Yes, the Yarn Harlot is a little extreme, but also extremely relatable. It's not uncommon for me to talk to people about my hobbies and they ask "how do you have time to do that?" Well, I don't really, but I make time. I choose to designate my time to knitting, sewing, etc. If I want to watch TV or a movie, I count it as valuable knitting time too! I'm catching up on my pop culture and producing a product as well! What's that old adage? "Idle hands are the devil's work." (Bobby Jones' grandfather says that in my favorite movie of Luke's: Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius any of you with golfers in your life should definitely rent it! He's the Anne of Green Gables of Golfing!)

Pondering Production-Big Plans

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood....Make big plans, aim high in hope and work." -Daniel H. Burnham

Sometimes when working on a big project like a sweater or a quit block with lots of corners to match up, I think I have made plans that are too big, but when I'm finished the results always make me much more proud!

It reminds me of a poster I have seen in several classrooms:
Shoot for the moon. If you miss you'll land among the stars.

What has been your big plan? Your moon to shoot for? Were you glad you did it? Was it a moon that turned into a star?

Pondering Production

Just for kicks and found in Never Not Knitting! Page-A-Day Calendar, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee also known as Yarn Harlot.

"I always find it sort of ironic when people tell me that they wouldn't enjoy knitting because it takes too long to make anything good. I just smile. I especially love it when the person has a "slow" hobby of their own...like child-rearing. That's one where it takes a really long time to make something good."


I kind of agree with Beverly Sills on this one though. She said:
"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

Pondering Production-Quite the Pickle

My mom showed me this comic from the Fresno Bee the other day. I laughed. Let's just say Luke is glad I showed his brothers how to make hats.
The other day a little boy was watching me knit for a little bit at work (the kids were watching a movie because it was raining outside and there are too many of them too all be running around playing. Anyway the notoriously "macho" (for lack of better words) father looked less than thrilled that his son was interested in knitting.
But seriously...
Knitting and crocheting teaches kids lots of thing:
Patience
Fine Motor Skills (You wouldn't want a doctor or mechanic without those would you?)
How to Read Directions
Counting
and much more...just trying to get the point across. :)

Pondering Production

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." -- A.A. Milne
If being disorderly leads to exciting discoveries, and exciting discoveries lead to creativity and inspiration, than me being disorderly is proactive for positive production. Dad, this is why my room has always been, and may always be, a disaster in one form or another. Its production.

Pondering Production

Just for kicks and found in Never Not Knitting! Page-A-Day Calendar, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee also known as Yarn Harlot.

"Some of the confusion in knitting comes from variations in the lingo, which can change from place to place. Take one of the basic knitting fabrics: all purls on one side, all knits on another. To make it when working in the round, you knit all rounds. If you're knitting back and forth, you need to knit one row, turn the piece, and purl the next row. So, what do you call this? Depending on where you are, it might be stockinette, stockinet, or stocking stitch. See? Confusing-- especially to new knitters.
So what do really experienced knitter call this stitch? Boring, usually.