Not knitting,or NOT KNITTING!

I am a compulsive do-er. I can’t sit unless my hands are busy. I seldom leave the house without a bit of knitting or something read in my bag - just in case. I love knitting because it keeps my hands busy and has helped me focus my way through lengthy meetings, car trips, and movies on more than one occasion. Getting my haircut and my teeth cleaned are absolute black holes of despair (not to be overly dramatic) for me because hairdressers and dental hygienists need you to sit still (at least I can chat with my hair dresser). This is no way a reflection upon those 2 noble and required professions, my hair dresser and dental hygienists are wonderful human beings which is why my hair hasn’t grown to the ground and I still have teeth in my head.


So where am I going with this? A recent brush with the cold virus, turned ear infection resulting in a slight case of vertigo made it impossible for me to leave the house or knit for 6 days, 7 hours, 32 minutes and 27 seconds, but whose counting? Painful (mentally more than physically). For the first few days not only could I not knit, but I couldn’t read, focus on movies or pay attention to audio books. Ball winding was absolutely out of the question - all that spinning and turning and spinning, need I say more? Aside from medicating and sleeping my choices included either staring at the wall or my personal favourite, the ever popular staring at the ceiling.

As my world gradually stopped turning I started to look for things to help while away the hours when I wasn’t sleeping or staring at the ceiling. Stuck in the house I turned to my iPad and my computer and killed time flipping through digital editions of knitting, quilting and crafts magazines. I also picked my way through YouTube in search of knitting and quilting videos. Something I noticed about knitters and quilters online is that quilters don’t mind having their faces in their videos while knitters only want you to see their hands – just another one of the million things that make me go “hmmmm”.

So what did I read and what did I watch? Here’s a list:

Digital Magazines (I primarily looked at the pictures) :

1. Knitter’s Magazine
   
2. Interweave Knits
3. Knitscene
4. Simply Kntting
   
5. The Knitter
   
6. Knit!
   
7. Knitting
   
8. Knitting Life
   
9. Vogue Knitting
   
10. Creative Knitting
    
11. A Needle Pulling Thread
    
12. Piecework
    
13. Spin-off (appropriate title considering the vertigo)
    
14. Making Magazine
    
15. Mollie Makes
    
16. Quilts and More
    
17. Quilter’s World
    
18. Modern Patchwork
    
19. British Patchwork and Quilting
    
20. Australian Quilters Companion
    
21. Australian Homespun
    
22. Cloth, Paper, Scissors
    

Other spots of online interest included:

1. Craftsy.com (lots of great classes but they are not free)(but they are fun).
   
2. YouTube (tutorials and programs a-go-go, that are free but are at times quality challenged).
   
3. Ravelry.com (Nirvana for the knitting and crochet pattern hunter).
   
4. Kaye's Quilting Friends (on YouTube or at kayewood.com) - I found these shows dated and odd - perhaps it was my medication (or theirs) but it didn't stop me from watching numerous episodes.
   

eBooks – I didn’t read much because that involved focus – which I didn’t have (mentally or physically) but I took a stab at the following (to list only a few):

1. “Books can be Deceiving” by Jenn McKinlay – This book falls into the “cosy mystery” genre and is therefore quite light reading. I was intrigued by the beginning because it included a small town library and a knitting group that meets there (in a room with a fireplace while they knit and eat clam chowder for lunch no less). I was annoyed by the stereo-typical cranky female librarian (a minor character but painful nonetheless). I have no idea about the story line as I didn’t get more than a chapter in to the book I’ll finish it someday no doubt but I’m in no rush.
   
2. “The Sisters Brothers” by Patrick deWitt – Now this one I did finish. My son gave me this book for my birthday and declared a family book club. It’s not about knitting or quilting, but it was a fun read about 2 somewhat deranged hired killers in the old west (in a very brief nutshell).
   
3. “Modern Log Cabin Quilting “by Susan Beal
   
4. “Dancing with Thread: Your Guide to Free-Motioin Quilting “by Ann Fahl
   
5. “Foolproof Machine Quilting” by Mary Mashuta
   
6. “Free-Motion Quilting” by Donn Linn
   

So there it is. If you can’t knit, and you have the internet, you have options (after you are past the sleeping and medicating stage of course). Having access to the internet saved my mental bacon and helped kill time while I was killing the virus that ran amuck in my ears.

Back on my feet and ready to knit I am glad to say that the Prince Rupert Library Knitters will be meeting this Thursday May 31 at 7:00 pm. We’ll be meeting in June too - give the library a call and we’ll tell you when (250)627-1345

Don’t miss “A Summer of Colour 2012 Quilt Show" that will cover the library in beautiful quilts created by talented local fabric divas (and a knitter who shall for the moment remain nameless has popped her Irish Chain Afghan into the mix as well), from May 29th to sometime in September.

See you at the library!

 

Holiday Knitting or What's in the Bag? lady.

As some of you know I'm out and about many kilometers from home. The original point of the trip was that my husband was running in the Vancouver Marathon.

Yes, he was happy with his run and so were we (we being, me and these):

Knitter's, well actually, crafters of anything in Prince Rupert have to hit the road or rely on the mail for supplies. Lucky lucky quilters/sewers in town can now purchase beautiful fabric from Jill at the Totem Lodge but the rest of us must scavenge further a field.

As I am further a field this week, I thought I'd share a bit of holiday knitting prep. What do you take with you when you hit the road or the air or the train or the boat as the case may be? Basically how much I take depends on the mode of transport. I always travel with a project but I've found that as the years go by the projects get smaller and easier to pack around. Long gone are the days of knitting an afghan in the front seat of my husbands beloved Land Cruiser during Okanagan summers with no air conditioning while the wind from the windows blew my pattern around the vehicle. The other reason for traveling light when it comes to knitting is that the less yarn you take with you the more room you have in the vehicle to bring new yarn home...but perhaps that goes without saying.

This trip involves planes, trains, automobiles and BC ferries - plenty of knitting time for the knitter on the go.

I had planned to work on a nifty pair of socks this trip. Unfortunately on the drive to Terrace I realized I'd only packed enough yarn for one sock. A reasonable person might decide to take the one sock and finish it. I on the other hand, have never subscribed to the notion of reasonableness when it comes to knitting. I abandoned my sock and it now sits all alone in long term parking. I then moved on to greener pastures and decided to wait and pick up a project to work on while I was in Big Town, BC. A good plan, but it left me without a project for 2 whole days. By last night I was breaking into a sweat as I hadn't had my daily knitting fix for 48 hours. "Hi, my name is Leah, it's been 48 hours since my last stitch..."

Fortunately the lovely people in the above photos are wonderful enablers. My daughter used her Blackberry to scope out knitting shops that we might be able to access this morning before 10:30 am (we had to be at the bus terminal to catch the bus/ferry to Victoria by 11;30 am). My son reserved a car from his car share co-op to drive me out to Point Grey to a lovely shop called Urban Yarns and my husband gracefully accepted the slight deviation from his itinerary.

Last night I scanned my way through the patterns and magazines stored on my iPad until I found a project that would be interesting with out being too challenging. I found the following bag pattern in Spin-off Magazine called the Golden Hour Bag by Kate Larson. Honestly, it is easier than it looks. Here's a pic:

I wandered in to Urban Yarns and my entourage was quite taken with the couch at the front of the store and immediately decided to try it out. I left them to it and asked the staff a few questions and went in search of yarn. My husband said with a bit of concern "How are you going to knit anything without knitting needles?". Sweet question. My reply was simple, "Oh, I have needles honey." To his credit he didn't bat an eye.

So what's in the bag, when it comes to knitting tools?

I always carry a small zipper case of bits and pieces. Here, I'll dump the contents so you can see what I've got.

Hmmmm, let's see, there's stitch markers, needle gauge, Pinnocchio measuring tape ( which I'll use for scale in future pictures), a crochet hook key chain, collapsing scissors ( pointy scissors are a bad idea for many resons that mostly involve bandages) and a stupid number of tapestry needles. I'll have to fix that.

In the knitting needle department, I brought along my interchangeable needle set, a few double points and a pair of straights. Also in the bag is another needle gauge, a crochet hook, dental floss threaders in case of beads, and more flipping tapestry needles.

Meanwhile back at Urban Yarns, I spotted some lovely Noro yarn on sale, but strayed away from it because I needed immediate gratification and I don't travel with my ballwinder. Of course the women at the store were prepared to wind balls for me, but I was working with a deadline - it was 10:20 am, we were in Point Grey and we needed to be at the bus station by 11:30 am - no time for serious ballwinding. Instead I was drawn by a finger weight Rowan Tweed and settled on that because it could be knit immediately out of the store. Lovely colours, here's a pic:

I admit, I just couldn't leave the Noro behind, so I bought some of that too.

Despite bringing my own needles I purchased these. I've never tried Knitter's Pride circulars before and the gal in the shop said they were great. What could I do?

It is now 6:00 pm, I caught my train, bus and ferry and started my project. I've made ridiculous mistakes and smiled my way through the task of picking back stitches (twice).

Working with yarn whether it's knitting or ripping brings peace to my valley.

Basically, the key (for me) to holiday knitting is taking enough yarn to keep your hands busy but not so much that you have no need to stop and buy more.

The Prince Rupert Library Knitters are meeting this Thursday without me at 7:00pm in the library's multipurpose room. My wonderful teen knitters have a break this week, while I look for interesting beads that they can add to their projects when I get back.

Do what it takes to keep yourself in stitches, it will add years to your life...probably.