Life's a Stitch

That is the question. Here are two yarns that I have held together both in knitting and weaving:

I like the softer look and feel of the knitting.

I like the speed at which a woven project can be completed and the way the colours fall.

Same yarns, different outcomes. Which do I like better? Maybe I’ll make one of each. I’m a fiber politician! Any opinions out there?

It’s spring break and Bryant and I are headed off to Galveston with his friend and his mom for the week. It will be a good way to recover from marathon wedding planning. Added to the stress of the week was a phone call we received yesterday morning letting us know that my daughter’s car had been stolen in Edmonton. Thanks to all of you for your wonderful words of encouragement this week.

I’ll try to post from Texas. Have a good weekend.

My baby is betrothed. Officially. She has a ring on her finger. Never mind the fact that she is eight years younger than the average age of first marriage for women in our province, currently at age 30. It’s interesting, long lost high school classmates have started calling in disbelief. Two have called to commiserate; having parents who aren’t excited about their impending commitment. One because of his fiancee’s nationality, another because she has only dated her intended for eight months. Throw in our concern about future son in law’s student status, the common denominator is the age factor.

A step in the right direction: I found a great book for mothers of the bride called "It’s her wedding I can cry if I want to." A humorous approach to serious issues. The author says that I have to give up my dreams and let her live hers. When, in your eyes your daughter is too young, even if you’re 75 and she’s 40, nobody is going to fit the bill. Ever.

Reality check: what’s the worst that can happen? It’s difficult letting our kids own their own problems. But once you’re there might as well enjoy the ride. So here I am, the MOB (Mother of the bride) with the MOG (Mother of the groom) discovering bejeweled cowgirl hats at a wedding shop south of the border. I imagine that a few dreams were given up and created at a wedding where they wear these.

And here she is, trying on her future dreams. And look at that wee one from another wedding party in the background of the second shot. Watch out, mama, you’ll get your turn. The knitting content? My DD asked me to knit her a wedding cardigan. She knows how to keep Mom happy.

My sister and I had running e-mails going on the candy of our youth.  Admittedly we are children of the 60’s, but there seems to be a resurgence of middle age sweet tooth memories. I’ve seen more than one candy shop catering to the memories of those who fall into our demographic.

The other night I was indulging in one of my German black licorice fish coated in salt and sugar and instantly was taken back to times my dad and I went to the barber together and were given Chuckles. For you young folk, in case they are not still around, Chuckles have the consistency of gum drops, but were rectangular in shape, about 1.5 inches by an inch. Like Lifesavrs, they were packaged in order of flavour. I always got the cherry one, green for Dad, yellow for me, and my dad and I would split the black one. 

How about Charms, Lifesavrs’ competitor. Only they  were individually wrapped in cellophane and had grape as one of the flavours.

Or Luden’s cherry cough drops, an excuse to eat candy in class if you had a note from your  mom saying they were for medicinal purposes?

Or the Catholic child’s experience of playing Communion with Necco Wafers?

Oh, those were the days. Do you have a favourite candy memory?

Here is some yarn that reminds me of pink cotton candy. It’s Ingenue mohair. They also have licorice, cherry and lime… I’m using it, paired with Fonty Jamaique, to weave a scarf.

What are the chances that two people in the same room will share a birthday?  Although it doesn’t seem to make sense mathematically, I read once that in a room of 15 people there was a good chance that two will share the same birthday. Consider my office, there are just over 20 of us. We’ve blown that stat right off the map as four of us were born on the Ides of March.

How about my daughter’s wedding? I’ve been howling now and then that she’s getting married too young. Today I hear from a close friend, and invitee to the wedding, that their daughter, a year younger than ours, is getting married on the same day. I’m sure there is a theory of something that could have predicted these events.

I’m on a search for a picture I saw on a blog. What is the chance the blog belongs to one of you or that you visited and remembered that blog? My middle age mind has a muddled memory. I’m on a hunt for the name of a pattern one of you used for a baby sweater. What made it different was the fact that it was black. It had primary colours as accents, a matching hat, a checkerboard pattern on the sweater and spirals on the hat. Very cute and very practical. Any ideas? Will one of you please come forward and straighten out my brain.

(UPDATE: Thank you, Kathy, for identifying that the pattern was from a particular Paton’s booklet AND for finding it for me on e-bay!)

Continued progress on C’est La Vie #2:

I have a new batch of random Google searches that led people to my blog. Maureen noted that a reference to Mary Poppins increased the number of Google referrals to her knitting blog by 70%! You guessed it – my most recent interesting arrival found me by Googling "I accidentally ate ants." Over the past couple of months people have come to Life’s a Stitch by searching for:

1. Scratch and win lottery hints

2. Li knits Nadia

3. Pregnancy stitch in ribs

4. Fizzy Stomach

5. Sharpei flesh eating disease

6. Plural for piercing

7. How to sneak alcohol into high school dance

8. A very sweet Valentine’s Day request was "How to tell someone you love them." Out of 79,000+ possibilities, Life’s a Stitch was #1 on the list.

9. There was the very polite person who asked Jeeves: I enjoy sewing but am having trouble sewing in the v neck in a scrubs top, I need help, please show written directions.

10. The one that tugged at my heartstrings making me wish there was some way to answer their search: I’m having ACL reconstruction am scared to death.

Another preemie set for the knitting Olympics was finished before the weekend:

And this is installment #2 of my Fleece Artist purchase from the Yarn Coop. The colour is called Pinata. Notice how the colours take to the two yarns differently.

Do you remember that song from Sesame Street? It’s the truth when it comes to purchasing power. I belong to the Yahoo Yarn Co-op Group, and until now, have resisted that buying power. But when they offered Fleece Artist yarn from Canada, so no border/customs mail order problems, I gave in. As I wind it I’ll post my rainbow of Fleece Artist bargains.

This was the burgundy colourway, appearing a little lighter than in reality.The lace weight loopy mohair was $15.00 CDN for what was supposed to be 2200 metres. I’m sure it’s more as there are three more balls that came off my winder. The other, a dk weight, smooth mohair was $22.00 for at least 1000 metres. If you think of it in terms of the typical 100 metre skein, that’s $2.20 per skein, and it’s hand painted luxury! The next co-op for March will be Peace Fleece. I won’t be in that one, having blown the budget on this one, but maybe you’ll be there. Have fun.

Thanks to all for your kind wishes and comments earlier this week. We are more realistic about the situation or least our ability, or lack thereof, to influence it. We had a nice dinner with future son-in-law, where he very sweetly expressed his intentions. He is young, but a decent guy.

Life in my family:

1. DD, 22-yrs-old, having finished her degree last June, has decided to get married in July.

2. Future son-i-l is not through with school, with at least two more years to go, eight months at a Bible college.

3. We would like them to wait.

4. Not possible as the Bible college requires a marriage certificate if cohabiting.

5. We would like them to wait. If it can wait eight months then its meant to be, if it can’t…

6. Said Bible college is outside of Moose Jaw, SK, affectionately known as Moose Breath in our house. There is no shortage of nurses there and requires DD to sell her apartment in order to move.

7. We would like them to wait, but nothing this set of parents says makes any difference.

8. We’re all talking, so that’s good. Some more enthusiastically than others.

9. I know, it could be a lot worse. There’s a chance it will all work out, they may end up the happiest couple on earth. But what’s the rush?

10. Just when life gets a little exciting, something happens to make it more so. Consider my SIL. She’s a knitter, has been a guest blogger here and I’ve written about her yarn acquisitions. Well, on Sunday, she gained an acquisition of another variety. Her 23-yr-old daughter called her from the local hospital, in an excited state. Surprise! Upon arriving, SIL was presented with unanticipated granddaughter #2. Long story, beautiful baby.

11. And 15-yr-old son brought home his report card with a considerable drop in grades from last term.

I’m Olympic knitting, no time for pictures, so how about one of Gracee watching a scene from the Parrots of Telegraph Hill

or the birds at our feeder.

A meme, what an easy way to get out of an original post:

4 Jobs you’ve had in your life:

1. Gift wrapper at Lord and Taylor in NY

2. Counselor in a methadone and STD clinic

3. Counselor for Big Brothers/Big Sisters 

4. Executive Director of a non-profit agency

4 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over

1. Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You

2. Father of the Bride (Steve Martin version)

3. Chicago

4. A League of Their Own

4 Places You Have Lived:

1. Long Island, NY

2. Kalamazoo, MI

3. Omaha, NE

4. Vancouver, BC

4 TV Shows You Love to Watch

Don’t have TV but have watched nearly every episode of:

1. Six Feet Under

2. St. Elsewhere

4 Places You Have Been on Vacation

1. The US – 39 states

2. Europe – 11 countries

3. Mexico

4. Puerto Rico, mostly visiting my grandparents as a kid

4 Websites You Visit Daily

1. Unity Church’s Daily Word

2. Too many knitting blogs (that counts for at least two)

3. My work’s website

4 of Your Favorite Foods:

1. Pizza

2. Grilled veggies

3. Grilled meat

4. Indian food

4 Places You Would Rather Be Right Now

1. On a cruise ship

2. On a beach

3. Out to dinner with my family

4. Anywhere where the songbirds are louder than traffic

I am a bad Olympian. I agreed to do socks as they are a painful challenge for me, but changed to knitting items for the Preemie Project. If I use the same amount of yarn and the same four needle technique, does it count? You can tell I’ve never been an athlete. This is the first set. It’s a bit blurry, but the one with the apple next to the hat for size comparison was worse. I hope I can do more and take a better photo.

A finished object! And what an object it is. Introducing "C’Est La Vie" in Classic Elite Miracle, a mixture of tencel (wood fibre) and alpaca. Post knit review:

1. I love Fiddlesticks patterns.

2. I liked this one so much, I’ve started another one in red, with a black ruffle. Sure, another 1400+ ruffle stitches in black, I can handle it.

3. It’s good to do a project first in black. The oops don’t show up as much.

4. Apologies to Charlotte, I’m not likely to ever knit a triangular shawl again. This "v" shape drapes so beautifully and stays on so well.

5. I calculated the yardage requirement for this project at 16 skeins of Classic Elite Miracle. I used exactly ten skeins. Go figure.

I think I know how to use it.

My husband tells a story about when he was little and he told his mom "I caught a rabbit."

"You did," she said, a bit incredulously.

"I think I caught a rabbit," said little Chuck.

"Um humm," said Mom.

"I hope I caught a rabbit," said he.

Back to the Kromski, we went to a wonderful weaving/knitting shop in downtown Bellingham (Northwest Handspun Yarns) and had a chance to compare two rigid heddle looms. I went with the intention of buying an Ashford and walked out with a Kromski 24" rigid heddle loom and dreaming of an Ashford eight harness table loom for the future.

I'm not giving up on knitting, weaving is pretty limited in its portability. Even the knitter's loom requires an upright seated position braced against a table for stability. I'm OK for now because Lorette gave me permission to go both ways in her comment that said "fidelity is only for marriage." I trust her. She's a doctor. A knitting doctor.

Ashford is known for their high quality products and I have heard some concerns with the Kromski loom. But when I had them both in front of me and tried them, I went for the Kromski. Turns out they had enough "feedback" from unhappy weavers they redesigned the troublesome part. Also, the Ashford rigid heddle looms are sold unfinished and the one in the store needed a fair bit of sanding in order to work smoothly. The Kromski was already finished and I fell for its good looks. It also came with an extremely helpful instructional video. So, it's home and warped (that's a good thing in weaver language) and I'm beating away (also a good thing).

I hope I know how to use it.

UPDATE: Three years later, an update to my rigid heddle loom review. I'm still happy with my purchase and what made me even happier, was that I found out Ashford rigid heddle reeds are useable on my Kromski. I've just purchased the blue Ashford reed for more weaving options.

FUTHER UPDATE: Finding myself far from home for three weeks, due to a family emergency, I broke down and bought an Ashford Knitter's loom for some distraction. My updated rigid heddle loom review is here.