Gee, what a cliche'! But oh, so true!

I have ended one career, about to embark on a change in employment. Not sure which new direction, just happy to have one chapter ended and be starting on another one in my life.

So, for now, focus is on finishing my rough drafting of knitting instructions for my sock book, and then I'll knit up my samples, take pictures, and piece it all together. Just glad I don't have to sew flat pieces up together!

Yes, I'm a "round earther" and not a "flat earther" as I like to put it. As few little pieces to sew together as possible. Yes, I hate seaming knit pieces. Not sure when it started, my hate-hate flat knitting feelings, but I despise and pity the magazines that insist that all sweaters have to be in flat pieces and sewn up. Seams can be bumpy, and thick, and get in the way of wearing the sweater. I much prefer something done in the round, or in just about as much in one piece as possible.

I don't mind doing duplicate stitch, or the occaisional weaving of stitches together at an end. But why do something flat, that goes on a round body? I mean, c'mon! Our bodys are not flat angular boxes, we all have shape and some sort of curvature to our bodies. Makes sense to do our knitting that way too, doesn't it?

Hmm, no wonder I love to knit socks or gansey sweaters. All in some kind of continuous or almost continuous knitting, with almost no seams. In socks, especially, who wants a seam on their toes, or to have it rubbing their foot in some spot?? I have a niece, age 12 (going on 20) who hates seams on her toes. She's been known to take her socks (store bought) and pull the toe part way down and under her foot. Just so she doesn't feel the seaming. Glad I can knit some for her, that not only are comfy and soft, but have no knots, no seams. Good thing she's not a flat-earther. Good girl!!

We need rain. Really really do. The ground's hard, dry, dusty, and plants are starting to brown/yellow up and look sad.

At least my brain's still pretty happy with new ideas, growing more socks than I can write down at once. But, I'm playing it smart, and sticking with socks that I've already designed, and made for this book. I can always write another one!

Now, where did I hide my notes?

This week is a particular example of the weather patterns. Tropical storm coming up via Florida, and it's a crankly left ankle. Brace is on, Teva sandals all I can wear for the day. No fancy shoes, they won't fit around the brace.

Sneakers and hiking boots were out for the day for 2 reasons: 1. sneakers don't look good with what I'm wearing to work and 2. boots are too warm for work right now.

 So I walk with a slight hitch in my left side stride, and I've been doing such a good job of normalizing my walk that nobody's really noticed that the ankle's bothering me. Until the spy the brace, and think that I've injured myself somehow.

Sorry, nope, old injury. It's the result of falling down the stairwells at high school, twice in the same school year, about 4 months apart, when I was in 10th grade. I was, what? about 15 or 16? Anyhow, I have a very weather-wise ache when it's cranky.

About 99% of the time, I don't need any extra support or bracing on that ankle. It's just another joint that functions fine. But when that 1% kicks in, all I can do is brace it, prop it up, and pop another OTC tylenol or ibuprofen to take the edge off. Or think about knitting.

The knitting book progresses. I now have a shopping bag of sampling yarn, all wound up into balls, anxiously awaiting their turns at being knit into sample socks. I still have the rough draft, have started on my introduction section, and started roughing out how I want to write each section. Interesting process, and I can wait to see the finished book! Now if only work-work would motivate me as much!

I luvs it!

Easy for me to use, takes up space of one book, holds several...and less paper using up trees. Now I get to figure out how to translate some of my knitting instructions to a format that I can upload to it. New experience!

I'm participating in the Tsock Flock 2008 projects this year. So far, 2 tsock kits in process (yes, I need to post pictures! Hey camera! Where you hiding?) and just received the Tsurprise Tsock kit yesterday. I'm running out of tsock tsize needles...oops! Need to back off of the ts-es for a bit! And I can't seem to figure out if I want to join 2009 or not. Hmmmm!

So, I have to figure out which sock-in-progress I can finish fastest to free up another set of size 1 needles. I use 2 circular needles, usually the Addi turbos in size 1 (really, they're more like size 1 1/2) and I have a set of Harmony size 1 (2.50 mm) that are currently entangled with possum sock yarn. I can say that the yarn is luscious to knit! Just wish there was more of it in the world!

I did finish a hat for a very good friend the other day, now all I have to do is finish it off properly and work the yarn ends in, give it a gentle wash, package it up and mail it to Colorado. I'm thinking of writing up the directions and posting them on the G-Woolykins website as a free pdf download, not sure when that will be yet. The hat looks great, works up fast (well, for me at least) and uses the same amount of yarn as a pair of socks, and yes, uses sock yarn. The hat I made used one skein of Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Crystal Dawn (purchased from Simply Socks), and my mother told me that it looks beaded. Of course, it has kitten approval!

I'm currently also roughing out a book outline for a sock books, to be titled G-Woolykins: It's Socks and I am having fun! So far I think I have about a dozen possibilites as sock designs to put in there, when I originally thought I'd only put about 6 in there. Then I started remember the various socks I've designed over the years, and started counting them up as I wrote my list out...hmm, about a dozen!

Next step: find where I put all my older design notes and charts, so that I can re-write them more clearly, add in different sizing options, and make nice pattern instructions for the book. And use my wonderful software to create charts and stitch directions that are actually legible...as compared to my usual scribbled notes in my knitting journal! Not that it's not a nice journal, with a Laurel Burch horses cover.

On this: 

I buy lots and lots of paperback books a year, and read almost all of them. These are "just for reading" books, some fluff, some science fiction, some mystery, some thriller, a very eclectic selection of reading material. And they pile up. Or I hand them off to another person, and hope that she can read them. But I think my mother's a little overwhelmed with paperbacks right now...

And I would never ever think of replacing my knitting library or books on knitting with downloads to an e-book.

Cons: uses electricity/needs periodic recharging, costs $$$ to buy, $ to download books, viewable only in direct lighting (not backlit)

Pros: very few recharges (especially if I turn off the wireless antenna), holds lots of books instead of being a huge stack of books, can travel on the plane with me (smaller and harder to lose than a laptop pc)

I'm still weighing my options, and considering my options.

And also wondering if I'll be the idiot who buys the thing at the current price, only to see a price drop in a month or two and swallow my guilt. Who knows?

For the past few weeks, I've been slightly obsessed with finding a pattern or top that's lacy enough to wear over top of my sundresses and tank tops, but shows the colors/designs through the fabric of the top.

Haven't found anything to my liking, all of the pullover tops or t-shirt style tops are way too solid for my liking, and to my feeble eyes, look like they are all variations of the same lace pattern.

Solution: design my own overtop!

I have my basic design "cartoon" drawn up in my knitting journal, and made notes about what kind of lace patterns to play with. Easy, fast, but nice is my current designing mantra. Overall pattern, with garter stitch...well, I'm still playing with the stitch design in my head, I have to admit!

Well, on Saturday I went with my mother to a yarn store we both love in Pennsylvania, and I found the perfect bamboo fiber yarn to play with, Bambu 7, and Bambu 12. The Bambu 12 is finer than the Bambu 7, so I have to swatch up to see what looks best and which lace pattern I like. Whatever yarn is left over, I can use up in lace shawl design or practice, or just quietly make a surprise lace shawl for a friend as a gift. No yarn goes wasted in my stash!

I toyed with the idea of cotton, maybe soy silk, linen, blends of cotton/linen, cotton/rayon...and then found the bamboo fiber yarn. I was lost in the softness of the yarn, and I like that it comes from a plant. Wool is just a touch too warm for summer overshirts. Shawls, stoles, sweaters in general, fine, but as a summer layering piece, a touch too warm for me. So, bamboo yarn it is!

To be continued, obviously!

I mean, when my grandfather died in 1986, it left a pretty big hole in my world. Especially since he died one week before I graduated from high school. And I realized right away that he'd never be there again, I'd never be able to talk to him again, show him what I was crocheting or knitting, hug him. But even so, I realize that Grandad was happier being with Grandmom again. (Call me crazy, but I believe in heaven. Period.)

Now, Dad's gone. I miss him. I miss being able to stalk him. I'd walk behind him, stomp my feet (so that I wouldn't startle him), and say "stomp, stomp, Stomp, STOMP, POUNCE!" and hug him from behind. Sometimes he'd hear me coming and stop still to make it easier for me to hug him. I miss hugging him. He was just the perfect size and warmth for hugging.

I still have good memories of him, and not just of the last few years with his various health troubles, his increasing difficulties walking or keeping his balance (I had to be careful not to knock him off his balance when I hugged him), or other problems he was having. Good memories such as: him laughing at the television, laughing at jokes I told (and sometimes retold to him), the hugs, sharing my trips to the southwest, his trips to Texas/New Mexico/Arizona area.

We're still finding things in the house from Dad as we clean up and reorganize. One item was a Father's Day card I had given him, that he held onto. Two days after he died, Mom found a letter he wrote to all of us children years ago, but it had no date on it, so I'm guessing about roughly when he wrote it. It made me cry, laugh, and puzzle over why he wrote it like he did, and didn't write another letter to add to it. But oh, so glad he wrote it, as it helps in the grieving and healing process.

Love you, Dad. Miss you. Can't wait to see you again!

My father passed away Sunday, May 18, 2008. He was 72, and went in his sleep. Peaceful. Painless. Best way to go. I'll miss him, and miss him now. My trip departure was delayed for a week, and we had a memorial service on Saturday, May 24, 2008, at my youngest brother's church.

I did go on my planned vacation, just less the river trip component, which I understand from my girlfriends was cold and wet! But as for the rest of the trip, I met with them in Vernal, UT, and we did the rest of our touring and having fun sightseeing.

After I gave them their surprise socks, that is! And were they surprised, each girlfriend getting a pair of socks that I had picked the yarn to go with each personality, which was a perfect match in each case. Sorry, no pictures of those socks, that's one thing this blonde forgot! But I did take pictures of socks-in-progress while traveling, and I can happily report that yes, I did knit a pair of socks during the trip, and finished them too.

Good thing I packed enough yarn for 3 pairs of socks; I finished a pair of socks that I'd started the week before the trip, started a fresh pair on night 2 in Vernal that was finished by Las Vegas. Then I started another pair in the airport, knit most of the first sock on the planes, and then finished the pair last Friday. About another pair in a week, I'd guess on. I still have one ball of sock yarn sitting there, asking when it'll be turned into socks.

Sights seen: Flaming Gorge (day trip, neat geography), McConkie Ranch (day trip, neat petroglyphs), Nine Mile Canyon (loads of petroglyphs!, we drove for about 2 days worth, overnight camping),  Bryce Canyon (overnight camping and great views), and Zion Canyon (overnight stay in a motel and sight seeing the next day), ending in Las Vegas (overnight stay in hotel and then departure from the airport the next morning).

I still have to organize most of my pictures now the memory cards are out of and away from the digital camera. I have to take them away from the camera, or I'll end up adding to the frames on them, or I worry about accidentally deleting views.

Next week, I'm starting almost three weeks of fun travel. My vacation travel for the summer, probably for the whole summer. Just myself and three good friends, on a trip that will take us on a river trip, camping, traveling, sightseeing, and just hanging out together.

Which means I still have to finish downloading all my knitting/wool/sock/previous pictures from my camera memory cards, bad me!

So, here's hoping I've picked out the right yarn for 3 pairs of socks, with accompanying needles to knit on (2 circulars, 16 inch length) and with the little scissors-and-needle for finishing tucked into my suitcase. And with a sock-in-progress in my carryon bag, besides my usual pretzel goldfish crackers to munch on.

My mother's there right now, with my neice K and nephew D, munching on mega-sized muffins, waiting for the rest of the intrepid troop to show up. Which will include a cousin and her mom, my count of 2 cousins that start with A. And 3 good friends, Madame H, her daugher-in-law J (that I went to school with), and her daughter O.

Yep, a home-grown fiber tour, as mom and I laugh about. And I'm missing it. The sheep smells, the noises as the vendors scramble to finish setting up before the official 9am start for sales, but making early sales anyway. The serious wool and yarn customers, looking for the best and earliest buys they can make.

So, last night I handed over my "wish I was there" list to mom last night, and can't wait to see what kinds of surprises she brings home to me.

And what am I doing? Besides wishing I had my hands on yarn/wool/spindles/knitting needles/watching D & K experience their first S&W? Helping finalize and clean up a major system migration at work. The major work is done, now my part comes in, helping make sure things work, so that the end users who get to check the new system next week won't have any major glitches.

During the conference last month, I took pictures of day 1, day 2, and so on of my knitting. Now where did I put that SD memory card... I did finish my boot socks, and knit on another pair, and, well, did a LOT of knitting during sessions. Either I knit and pay attention, or I'll fidget, click my pen too much, and bother the other participants too much in general. Too bad I can't take my socks to work yet!

And I've been knitting on the latest scarf offering from Knitty.com, the Lace Ribbon Scarf. Sorry, no picture(s) available yet, I've been knitting it like crazy, and about 90 percent done right now. The yarn is Schaeffer Anne and the colorway is Louisa May Alcott, and I can tell you I bought it from Simply Socks, and Allison's service and color selection rocks!

My favorite new knitting book is the Cat Bordhi sock book, and I'm afraid that one day the pictures are going to stick together if I drool over it too much! I have to admit, I'm an Amazon.com customer, but purchase it where you may, it's that worthy a book. Haven't started any one pair from the book yet, but may soon, as soon as I free up a set of sock needles from my current projects. I think I have about three 4 pairs in work, including another pair of boot socks that are almost done.

As soon as I find that elusive memory card, pictures to be posted, promise!!

It just irks me when an airplane attendent tells me to put it away during takeoff. Aw, c'mon! There are people using pens and pencils, and I have to put my knitting down? I use 2 circular needles when I knit whilst traveling, not double-points, and it all stays in my lap, and calms me down.

I even knit in conferences; it keeps my hands busy and keeps my fidget-factor down so that I don't distract (too much) the other captive victims sitting around me.

It's amazing the number of times that my knitting has broken the ice and started conversations. I guess the fact that I'm doing something different with my hands and actually knitting in public amazes strangers to the point of actually talking to me without being introduced by someone else.

My usual travelling knit projects? Socks. Of course.

Socks are rather easily identifiable, are small, pack easily into whatever bag I'm carrying, and easy to fit to either myself or whomever will be the lucky recipient of a sock gift. And I don't have to carry printed directions with me. That is, unless I'm playing with the patterned bits or "designing" a pattern for a sock, and then I jot it down in a little notebook that's my latest knitting and travel journal.

If I carry a sweater project, it ends up staying in the car or hotel room, for when I can spread it out and take up more space than just my lap or "personal" space. Ditto with shawls and scarves, they tend to take up a little more space too, especially when I pause to admire the pretty pattern, how wide the shawl is getting from just one skein of yarn, how the lacey patterns flow...

Ah, the joy of traveling with socks! I can sit in a conference, in the midst of the crowd, and quietly add length to a foot or leg, turn a heel, cast on, bind off, in joyful knitting pleasure. I can sit and talk in a lobby, with friends, with co-workers, waiting for a shuttle, for a conference session or meeting to start, for the hotel to start seating and serving, or just to keep my hands occupied and freak them out that I really can multi-task...

At last year's conference, I created and knit up a lacey pattern for a pair of socks for my mother. Her birthday is conveniently around mid-March, usually just a few days after the annual conference. She loved the socks, and keeps them "special" by wearing them for "special" days. Sometimes on days that end in "y" or just because she feels like wearing them. I also carried socks for myself that I knit on.

For this year's conference, I'm not sure what sock yarn I will take with me, or knit up. So much yarn, so little time... I have boot socks I just started for myself, as well as at least 3 pairs of "me" socks sitting half done in my project pile that I could take, with extra yarn for when those needles get bare (there's nothing worse than knowing you have a set of naked needles in the project bag or pile), and I know I'll definitely take my journal with me. Just in case I design another sock top, or puzzled out how to improve a heel turning, or who knows what will happen.

I finished a lace shawl for myself, knit from birthday yarn (Alpaca Fina) using Victorian Lace Today to knit a shawl. Now, all I have to do is block it, work in the ends, take a picture or two, and wear it.

Around the lace knitting, I've been knitting socks: for me, for my nephew, for my younger neice. Daniel, my nephew, received a pair of green socks (knit in Dream in Color Smooshy) for Christmas, and he loves them. Kristina received a scarf knit from a modified Clapotis pattern (knit in Dream in Color Classy).

Pretty soon, both of them will have non-Christmas gift socks. I let them view the Favorite Socks book, and I didn't limit them on what they could pick out, so they both picked out two different pairs each. Daniel's first pair of socks are about 3/4 of the way through sock one, pair one.

Kristina's first pair of socks are finished except for working in the ends, and I started sock one of pair two. I'm almost happy with the colorwork in the second pair, but I'm not too happy with how thick the knitted material feels, a little too heavy, so it's getting reworked soon.

I'm just happy that my knitting doesn't pick up vibes from whatever I'm watching on T.V.; lately it's been the various CSI and "cop and robber/spy" shows, with a little PBS thrown the mix.

Hmm, maybe I'll pull out my Christmas shawl: silk yarn and a pattern (from Yarn Barn of Kansas) I started off two weeks ago, and set aside to do Kristina's socks.

That's my conclusion of having a cramped right hand for the past few days. I do a lot of mouse work with my right hand, and Monday night I noticed it felt really cramped. Then last night, it felt like I'd sprained muscles in it.

After some contemplation at work, and making sure I flex my fingers more often, my conclusion is not enough knitting.

Why? Because I did a lot of knitting the past two and a half weeks, from the start of winter break from work until last weekend. A lot of knitting! Finishing pairs of socks, gifting one pair, wearing a few pair almost as soon as they were off the needles, starting off a knitting kit that was a Christmas gift from my mother...I did a LOT of knitting!

So, unless I can finagle a way of knitting at work without censure or derision, I'll just have to stick with the new plan: flex my fingers a lot between mousing, and knit almost as soon as I get home from work.

Wow, a new excuse to knit more!

My friendship and meeting of her as another soulmate who loved archaeology started in 1996, and continues to this day. So when I finally met you a few years ago, I was happy to meet someone who loved her for who she is. And I was happy to add you as a friend to talk with, travel with, laugh with.

I will never forget the joy of watching you and Vicky on horses in South Dakota three years ago, the glee with which you practiced your calf and cow cutting skills, laughing as we took teepees down.

When I first heard that you were dealing with chemotherapy, I started praying that you'd still have the strength to travel, to live life with Vicky, to still laugh and enjoy the world around you. Yes, you had bad days, but I like to think that they are outnumbered by the amount of love you received from family and friends who wanted to see you kick that cancer.

Now you have embarked on a journey without Vicky, without your family, and I wish you well. It's a journey we all face, and you just happened to start it sooner than we wanted you to.

I'm crazy, that way. I see death of the body as just the start of another journey, one our souls take. We can't take our bodies, and sometimes we part from our loved ones a little sooner than we thought.

Safe journey, my friend. You are missed.

(In Memory of Jim Trick, who embarked on January 7, 2008)