Busy

Busy times around the sturdygirl household of late. I've been really busy at work, and busy attending to personal stuff too. It's all in an effort to get things squared away before I have surgery and am home from work and resting for four to six weeks.

Yes, you heard me. I'm having surgery on February 8. It's somewhat scary but I think it will be okay. I've never had surgery before, or had a reason to rest long-term for anything other than a broken bone (and that was when I was 6). I think the inactivity and temporary loss of my independence is almost scarier than the surgery.

On the plus side, I should have some quality knitting time to look forward to. When I first found out about this, I was wracking my brains for a special project to start and finish during my recuperation: a lace shawl, a cabled afghan, etc. But then I decided...screw it. It's too much pressure, and I'm not sure I want an item that just reminds me of a scary and painful time. I'm just going to do whatever I feel like and finish old projects, start new ones, swatch, practice crochet, or anything that comes to mind. My brain - and my body - need a break from deadlines and projects.

Oh, knitting? Right. I've been steadily working on my sweater, but realized through trial and error that it did _not_ need waist decreases. In fact, adding in waist decreases created a significant 'pooch' on the sides of the sweater. Not attractive. So after all this work...


(about 14 inches of fabric)
...I'm back to the picture you saw in the last post. Sigh. Oh well, knit and learn! Later, y'all...

Projects

I've been knitting, really! I've just been working on scarves, so I haven't posted any pictures. I've just finished one for the Red Scarf Project, and will send it off as soon as it's sufficiently blocked. I also made two scarves for Food and Friends in Washington, DC. If you have a scarf surplus, or just feel like making a scarf, you might think about making one for their Scarf Drive. They are a great organization. They are really in need of unisex, non-novelty yarn scarves.


I've also started on a sweater. It's going to be a raglan, with a sort of slouchy fit - and it's going to have (gasp!) a third color yet to be determined. I'm excited to see how it turns out. I'm using two colors of Berroco Ultra Alpaca, and after my work so far I can confidently say I am _not_ allergic to alpaca. Yay!

I have a lot of energy for knitting, but not for much else after work today. I realized late on Sunday that my weekend did not have nearly enough time for just lying about. Apparently I normally use the weekend to really relax, physically - and I was paying for it Sunday night and today. Anyhoo, I'll just try and slow things down a bit this week.

Hope you are all doing well!

Art

"You ask how I know of Toledo, Ohio? Well I spent a week there one day. They've got entertainment to dazzle your eyes: go visit the bakery and watch the buns rise."

-John Denver

Some of you may know that I am from Toledo, Ohio. I was there at Christmas this year, for the first time in a long time. It was great to go back to my hometown and see how it's changed (or hasn't). It's not the most exciting city (see above quote), but it does have a world-class art museum. When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time there, taking Saturday classes almost every term. My mom likes to tell the story of how, in order to get me signed up for my first classes (I was 6), she had to wait in line for hours on the first day of registration. She was about seven months pregnant with my brother, and she says she stood for a long time before someone brought her a chair.

I can't say I was the star of any of my art classes, but in high school I began to show a little promise. Unfortunately, my family relocated after my sophomore year, and I wound up going to a school with almost nothing in the way of an art program. After that, I did very little with visual art, although I did get more involved in music. My college degree is in biology. My current work (which, incidentally, does not involve biology in the slightest) requires very little in the way of creativity, especially with regard to the visual arts.

Not sure why I felt like talking about this; I just started writing and it came out. What got me on the topic was that I wanted to share some pictures from my Christmastime visit to the museum. I guess going there reminded me of a time in my life where I felt a world of creative possibilities. I'd like to think that through developing my knitting and (nascent) sewing skills, I'm entering another creative era of my life.

So anyway...here are some pictures from the collection at my hometown museum. I should also say that Toledo is the glass capital of the world, having been home to several of the largest makers of fine glass, the Libbey Company, as well as other industrial glass companies. The museum has a new Glass Pavilion which displays its vast collection of glass from antiquity to today.


Stegosaurus by Calder and the Museum


1st cent B.C. Roman bowl, mosaic ribbon glass technique


Libbey Glass punch bowl


Lalique bowl


Campiello del Remer #2 by Chihuly, inside the Glass Pavilion

An FO

These are my feet.


I made these socks from Sweetgeorgia Yarns Speed Demon yarn (which is approximately sport weight) in the colorway Viola. I got it from here (great service!). I loved working with this yarn - it knits up smoothly and the colors are dappled and don't pool.

My only (small) complaint is that owing to my large (US 10) feet there was not quite enough yarn to finish the toe of the second sock. I had a small remnant from the one other pair of socks I've made, so I just used that.

I asked my husband what he thought. "Well," he said, "it would have been cooler if both toes had that other color." Nice, but no dice. The remnant was insufficient for both toes. And I didn't want to dip into a full skein of something else to have matching toes for this pair, only to cause the same problem down the line. And it goes without saying that ripping both socks and making them shorter was out of the question.

Have you seen those shoes where they are mated but not matched? Look here. And so I have socks from the Camper school of design. Sort of.

Later, y'all!

My other New Year's project

The internet is a wonderful thing for knitting. It lets us share ideas, inspiration, techniques and materials. But the internet has also produced, at least at my house, a profusion of patterns - free and not free, downloaded or cut-and-pasted, and finally printed. They are in binders, or not, in plastic sleeves, or not, in knitting bags....and everywhere else!

So I did something about it.



This is a three-inch binder. There are almost 100 patterns in it. Of course, it only occurred to me to take a 'before' picture once there was no 'before' - only neatly organized patterns. So you can use your imagination (or perhaps your reality!) as to the mess that previously existed.

Now that I can find my patterns, the sky's the limit! Maybe now I will finally knit that Leaf Lace Shawl, Gigi, or Vex. It's a new year...who knows?

Vacation

Vacation Knitting


A New Knitter


Cuteness


New Year's Eve
More words later - time to cook some New Year's Day waffles! Best wishes for a great 2007, everyone!