Knit for Brains

With a little help from my friend!

Well, I will make an admission.  I was about to officially call it quits on the whole personal blog thing because the store is keeping me so wonkingly busy.  But then, I got tagged by Susan, an amazing friend of mine who owns and runs the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm.  So, I am determined to get back in the blogging saddle and get back here regularly and often (or at least more often, which, and let's be honest here, would not be difficult.)  So I am here to say that I am back and will be posting  pictures of some actual knitting!  Lots of projects have been started - lots of projects started, not so many finished, but some habits are really too hard to break.

Thanks for everyone who has been patient with my non-blogging, and welcome to those who are just finding me here.  I am excited to be back!  Tomorrow is David's 20th college reunion so we will be heading across the river to Vassar.  I already have my knitting planned and I am charging the camera so I wont run out of batteries.  Very soon I will inundate my blog with pictures of knitting and my alma mater.  My 20th reunion is next year and the way I think about it is this: I have 52 weeks to get into shape.  I need to figure out if I can safely knit while on the treadmill while listening to audio books.  Really, I can't just do one thing at a time anymore.  It's either multi task or never sleep.  And I like to sleep.

Been Gone Soooo Long

Well, I think that this is the longest I have gone without a post.  I have been busy at the store basically trying to figure out this whole business thing.  I have been getting some knitting done, tho' not as much as I would like.  I just need to get more organized so the paper work takes less time and the knitting can take up more time!

The best part of the store is all the people I've gotten to meet and talk to.  Not to mention I LOVE all the yarn!  I really just can't get enough.  Also, I have finally learned to knit continental!  I still really don't like purling this way, but it is really efficient.

I still have to have a bunch of projects on the go at any one time.  My new rule for myself is that I can't ball up any yarn until I ready to knit.  One of these days I will get everything up on Ravelry and try to organize myself.

Sorry no pictures, but I want to post this now as opposed to keeping it as a draft for who knows how long!  Maybe I'll get them up soon.  Fingers crossed.

I have been taking advantage of the local library and expanding my audio book collection.  I love listening and knitting.  I am actually catching up on my reading list!

2008 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year everyone!  I actually have a day off and I wanted to stop by here and say hello.  I have s few knitting things to talk about so I figured that while I had the chance, and since I couldn't get Doctor Who on the computer for the kids, I would blog.

Knitting Thing 1: More Knitting P*rn
I had gotten the idea for listening to audio books while knitting from another blog which I can't recall right now, and the audio book that was recommended at the time was The Golden Compass.  Well, I got it from iTunes and loved it.  I bought the second and third audio books as well.  I really liked the whole series and was really looking forward to the movie.  I enjoyed the movie, but not as much as the book.  What I loved was the knitting.  The knitted costumes were amazing.  This was Grade A Knitting P*rn.  I want Lyra's knitted red coat and her hat.  There were more knitted costumes that are amazing and i can not wait to buy the DVD so I can knit it all!  Poor David was stuck between Fiona and me, both punching him and saying "We have to make that!

Knitting Thing 2: Stuck Without My Knitting
A few weeks ago the roads in the area were rather icy.  Unfortunately, Icy is not as obvious as Snowy so I didn't think to check about school delays until we were driving.  We had just started down the road and didn't have a phone signal to call the hotline so we kept going.  We got through and found out about a 2 hour delay when we were at the top of a small hill on our road.  I tried to turn around in our neighbor's driveway but it was too icy.  I decided to drive to the end of the road and turn there.  Well, after almost sliding into the main road down another little dip in our road we turned around and headed back up our road.  We got to the spot where I tried to turn around the first time and couldn't get up the hill.  Even in drive with the accelerator down, we were slipping backwards toward the lakes that our road goes over (mind you the road is very thin there and can be very scary driving at times, like when you are going backwards).  The only way I felt like I wouldn't end up plopping into the lake was with the emergency brake and the foot brake both engaged.  I sent Fiona up to the house to get David to see if he could help.  In the end, I got up the kill after using a lot of traction sand and David pushing the car every which way.  The thing that was the most upsetting was that I spent an hour in the car with  NO KNITTING!  I had actually picked up the knitting and put it down thinking that I was taking a 20 minute drive, and doing all the driving.  What would I do with my knitting?  The moral of the story is: Your Knitting - Don't leave home without it.

Knitting Thing 3: Fiona The Knitter
Fiona is officially a knitter.  She just Rocks.  She makes things up as she goes and she is so productive.  How happy am I!

Gotta run.  There is a line for the computer.

Here's to a wonderful 2008 for everyone, filled with yarn and joy (and The Doctor).

Been Gone So Long!

I think this may have been my longest dry spell since starting this blog!  Lots has happened, and it's all good!  The store is open and I am having so much fun.  I've got some great people working for me, and what could be bad about talking to knitters all day and getting to choose all the music?  I have actually been getting some knitting done, mostly outside the shop.  I am still working on the poncho that I started, and frogged, during the Knitting Olympics.  It's Blue Sky Alpaca, so what could be bad?

Fiona was in the store today, and she had her knitting going for a while.  It does a mother's heart good!  I hope the other two take to it as well.  Maybe Emmett will want to learn, too, when I teach David.  We are planning to have him host the Men Only night once a month.  All I have to say is that he better keep his hands off my stash.

Well, it's time to get to bed, but I didn't want to let any more time go by without posting.  I have Blogger Guilt.

Ravelry

I got invited!  The email came yesterday but I didn't see it until today because of my painfully limited computer time.  How exciting!  Now I wish I had my very own computer.  I feel like I am 4 years old again and I just don't want to share.  Of course I clicked on the link to join and am now in a state of panic about my choice of user name.

And speaking of names, I picked a name for the store: Knit and Be Happy.  I am rushing around trying to get all sorts of things done, most of which I never thought about much but now seem like they all have to be done NOW!  Very little knitting is getting done.  I do have several blog posts rattling around in my head and I hope to get them written down eventually.

Well, I have to go find yarn distributors now.  My mantra for this part of the job is "I'm buying for the store, not for my stash."  This is definitely going to be a challenge.  Setting up a web site may be daunting, but not buying all the yarn I would ever want for myself will really be tough.

Big news, little time.

Well, first the little time.  David has acquired a new gig that requires constant use of the computer whenever I am capable of putting a couple of coherent words together.  So that is part of the reason I have not been here as often as I want.  Another reason is that our computer has s-l-o-o-o-o-w-e-d down to the point of utter frustration.  I have just enough patience to check my email and that's about it.

And now the big news.  I am going to open a knitting store!  Yes indeedy, a knitting store here in New Paltz.  I am hoping to sign a lease tomorrow and start calling suppliers.  I am so excited I can't even say.  Buying yarn for a living and being surrounded by knitters and converting newbies!  Every time I mentioned my idea to somebody, it was met with enthusiasm and an "it's about time!"  So I have been a little preoccupied.  I don't even have a name.  I have a business mentor, though, who will supposedly help me with the name.  I hope she is a clever knitter!  But seriously, anyone have any good ideas?  Nothing twee, nothing silly.  I am going to make it a place where people can come and hang out for however long they want and knit.  The place I am hoping to get is right across from a bakery that is busy pretty much every day, all year round, and down the block from Starbucks and about a block and a half from another coffee place, so we're set for caffeine and pastry.  I do plan to bring some munchies in ala Knit Cafe, and have late night Pot Luck book clubs, Hike and Knits, just lots of stuff.  Lots of ideas, just no name.

So, my time with the computer is at an end.  Pictures and knitting news as soon as I can get on the computer when it's moving faster than a snail on crutches.

Welcome!

I would like to say "Welcome!" to Addi-Anna who was born this morning at 10:56am to our dear friends John and Denise.  As we didn't know until she made her appearance whether she was a girl or boy we have been calling her Peanut.  Now Peanut is our dear little Addi-Anna.  I am not sure how they are spelling Addi, but I see no reason, if I am misspelling it, why I shouldn't spell it the knitting way.  Her mom is a knitter, too, so she will forgive the alternate spelling.  It's time to dust off the knitting patterns for babies!

Where to start?

It has been such a long time since I actually posted anything I really don't know where to start.  I have started a few posts but never actually finished them.  For the past few weeks the only time I have had to write is late at night when the brain just wouldn't blog.  Mind you, while changing guinea pig cages, driving kids around town and doing other activities that aren't conducive to writing blog entries.  So tonight I kicked David off the computer before the brain got all gooey and I am writing!  Ha ha!

So, first is Robin Hood.  In a moment of uncharacteristically enthusiastic tidiness I closed up the Netflix envelope and sent the RH disc back to its home.  I hadn't had a chance to take a picture of the hat I liked before I channeled Bree Hodge so I had to put that disc back on our Netflix queue.  It arrived and I spent a few minutes finding just the right frames for photographing the hat.  It is actually even more interesting than I had thought with some cables.  And then there was another hat that I got a glimpse of, and when I say glimpse I am not kidding.  There is a baby in one of the Robin Hood episodes and that baby has a sweet little hat that was so cute.  It is just a hint of a glimpse so when I tried to get just the right split second of a view of the baby hat it was a bit of a chore.  I became quite familiar with the slow motion button on the DVD player remote.  Now, I can get down to the making of.

I finally started, again, the poncho I started for the Knitting Olympics oh so long ago.  It's the Alpaca Hooded Poncho from The Yarn Girls Guide to Beyond the Basics.  I am using two shades of grey Blue Sky Alpaca, Alpaca.  It is so lovely and soft and is knitting up pretty quickly.  I haven't really had long periods in which to knit, just the odd moment now and then so I am really pleased with the progress.  No pictures yet.

Here are some pictures, though, from our trip to Martha's Vineyard.  It was a great trip, despite weather that would keep most people away from the beach, but not us!  We were the intrepid ones on the beach in the rain!  We got great parking which was worth the trip to the beach in itself.

This is one of several pictures of a very interesting occurrence this year on Lucy Vincent Beach.  Due to a whole mess of erosion, there were tons of rocks all over the beaches we went to.  When faced with an abundance supplies and time to be creative, someone decided to do cool things with the rocks.  Instead of sand castles, this year it was cool rock creations.  A very patient person balanced rocks in amazing ways.  There were also towers of rocks balanced along the beach.  Very cool.

We went kayaking for the first time on MV and had a really great time.  There was a boys' boat, above, and a girls' boat:

Maeve was a very good paddler and Fiona was happy for the rest.  We ended up getting stuck on the sand a couple of times and run into by another kayak in which the dad and the kid couldn't decided who should be steering.

And then there was the Alpaca farm!  This and the kayaking were my favorites of the trip, maybe because we had never done before.  The farm was Island Alpacas and the woman who owns it is great.  I gotta tell you, we almost bought an alpaca home with us in the back of our Odyssey.  They really are the cutest animals.  Even if they weren't fiber bearing I'd want one!

And here are the girls, you can just see Emmett's arm in there, petting Malcolm who was described as being a little off.  He loved coming up to people, so long as they remained fairly quiet, to get pet.  Apparently this is very unusual, but we weren't complaining.  Look how cute!

Oh, baby!

Here's Emmett at his birthday dinner proudly sporting his rainbow alpaca hat.  He wore that hat all the time, for days!  That's my boy.  He would not be separated from his alpaca knitted item.

Here are the kids in front of very cute looking candy store, The Good Ship Lollipop.  I'll just say that it didn't live up to its name and we should have just taken the picture and walked away.  Over priced, not a very good selection and cramped.  When in The Vinyahd, skip the Ship and head to Murdick's Fudge.

More knitting and links coming soon.

Robin and Jane

We were just watching the first episode of Robin Hood and for just a split second I saw a hat that I just love!  It was made out of thick brown yarn, a bit rough with a texture pattern.  The kids weren't too keen on me pausing the show to focus on the hat so all I got to do was rewind and see it very briefly again.  I am very excited because I am going to make my first hat not from a design!  I did make a hat that looks like it was made out of Muppet fur, but it became a hat when I realized I had too little yarn for a capelet.  I don't think I ever sewed up the seam, so I don't think I took a photo. But back to the small screen.  I love the RH hat and I guess I will be trying to take a picture off the television so I can try to figure out how to make one.

The new Miss Marples are out.  I've got three on TiVo and I'm having a lot of fun catching up on them.  Truly a wonderful series with great acting, actors from just about every corner of the British acting world, settings and knitting!

Fiona is knitting again!  She found a kit that a friend had given her before we left Brooklyn and has taken up the needles with no needling from her mama.  I'm so proud!  And it's not just garter stitch.  She picked a pattern with knitting through the front and back of a stitch and yarn overs.  She is not deterred.  Go her!

Yeah, I'm still around.

It really has been a long time.  No particular reason, really.  It has been such a busy summer.  Barely any time to knit, no time to write!  A few things have been going on, though.  I drove to Maine.  I expected a 7 hour drive but it turned into 9!  This is the first time that I have ever driven so far by myself and with the kids in the car.  It had just started to drizzle when we were leaving but I ended up driving in torrential rain of biblical proportions.  I could barely see most of the time.  Of the 9 hours, I think it wasn't raining for maybe 40 minutes.  At first I thought that the rain had to stop when we got out of the Hudson Valley, then I thought it would stop sometime after we got out of New York state.  By the time we got to New Hampshire I had really given up hope and simply held onto the thought that maybe it wouldn't be raining for my entire trip to Maine.  Turned out that the weather and the rest of the trip was a lot of fun.  Not a lot of time to knit, but I did get to go to a bead store to get some beads for a quilt that needs a little something.  I am planning to bring the quilt to Martha's Vineyard for the beading so pictures will appear later.

After getting back from Maine I had one day to recover, do laundry and repack to head to Michigan for a unicycle convention.  Basically, the kids and David had a lot of fun and I was really hot.  I have decided that I will learn enough uni riding by next year to actually get myself through a race.  Please note that I said "get through" as am not planning on winning or placing, just getting through, hopefully without disqualifying myself somehow.  I didn't manage much knitting there either.  I did bring some projects along, Fiona's tank top and my Colinette Point 5 cardigan (both from waaaaay back), thinking that I would have some time in the hotel room to lay things out to measure and finish up, but not really.  I did start this scarf, having brought along the Noro Kureyon.  It was one of those things where I sort of remembered the pattern, thought I had the yarn, grabbed it and hoped for the best.  I had a bit of a time finding the pattern at first because I was looking for it on my phone's internet access which was too aggravating.  Once I got to a real computer it was a piece of cake.  I had the lovely luck that I had brought the right yarn.  So, after attempting to get a proper gauge, and failing several times, then figuring that it is just a scarf, not a fitted and highly constructed garment, so if the gauge is a bit off it would really be no big deal, I cast on.  I like the way it's going.  I really have to try to make time to take pictures during the daytime.  All my pictures taken at night are just horrible.  I am using the same yarn I used for my Moebius scarf (pictures will come, I promise, I promise), but I think I like the way the colors are working more in the Edgar scarf than the Moebius.  What is it with me and scarves named after men?  I wonder if this may be becoming a trend.

Well, as it is much later than I had really planned to be up, and I feel like I am just going to begin to ramble, I will end now and finish catching up, with pictures, in the next day or two.  But sure, I say that now.