My “babies” are all dressed up and waiting for Halloween … trick or treaters, anyway! And I’m not knitting. A pumpkin-colored adult beverage in my hand … not conducive to counting stitches.

Another Halloween in Florida … having fall activities in the heat (air conditioning is on) is a bit unnatural for this New England native! Maybe a swim after the trick or treating is over.

From Boq the Bee, Lola the Lady and me, the Queen Bee …
Happy Halloween! Hope you find treats galore!

Last night I decided to design a little cowl or neck scarf. Short, buttoned, relatively straight forward and with some left-over bulky yarn from a previous project. I found several balls in my stash. All about the same size, all the same weight. Good use of left-over yarn.

So, while my sweetie was watching an odd (another odd) movie, I cast on my stitches and knit away. A couple of KT stitches and a 6-stitch cable down the middle. I was liking where it was going until the button hole row … and there was not enough yarn left to finish the couple of inches to the end of the scarf. I brought the other balls to the table and looked at them as a way to extend the scarf the two inches more that I needed to have a finished garment. Yeah, no. Yuck. Could I add a couple of inches in another color to both ends? No. Yuck. So, this morning, after sleeping on it, I frogged the scarf and will put the yarn away in my stash or donate it to a local elementary school for art projects.

Meanwhile, I’ve blogged about the Christmas gift that I’ve been working on. Today I “turned the heel” and have been working my way along the foot. It’s a great looking project but check this out …

Here is a picture of the first cable pattern “A” (there are two “A”s and two “B”s to the project). Notice that there is an “O”, “X”, “O”, “X” and I’m ready to knit another “O”. Right?

Here is a picture of the other side. The second cable pattern “A”. Notice that it is NOT the same. There is an “O”, “X”, “O” and I’m ready to knit an “X”. Now, I have to tell you. I love the Aran cables and I am an avid cable knitter. I have been counting every row throughout the two repeats of pattern “B” (which has 38 rows) and also (at the same time, mind you) counting every row of pattern “A” (16 rows). Good grief, as if that’s not enough?!!?

Now, check this out … do you see how little yarn I have left? OMG! I have about 16 rows left and then the toe (I hope I’m not giving away too much information about what I’m making) and I have this stinking sinking feeling that I’m going to run out of CLEAN yarn. (Remember this is the project that wore coffee in it’s first iteration and then I noticed the mistake that I had made and consequently frogged it and started over with new clean yarn?!?!

Guess who will NOT be frogging again?

Now I know why I always buy too much yarn for every project! Knitting is not supposed to be stressful!

Knit on!

Every knitter knows that you’re not a real knitter unless you have some WIPs (Works in Process) … otherwise known as UFOs (Un-Finished Objects). One is a rather positive spin on doing a lot at one time. The other is a more negative spin and suggests we should be finishing all that we start.

I had to find googly eyes today for my Santa mittens. Nobody in town had them but when I got home, surprise, they were at my fingertips all the while … on Ebay. (Makes me feel like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz … “click your heels together and say..” Well, you know what I mean!)

So, my inventory is as follows:

Santa Mittens – one small-size finished but eyeless for a few more days. Since I’m using a basic mitten pattern and adapting the color changes to make it look like the Santa mittens at the Yardgoods Center (my favorite LYS when in Maine) I want to make one in each size and get the colors/striping “right”. The photo to the left is the pair from the Yardgoods Center. Cute, right? They were made by a woman who is in her 90’s if my memory serves. To the right is my first small-size Santa mitten without eyes. (Yes, there is a thumb, it’s under the mitten. Smarty pants!)

Christmas Gift – I’ve alluded to this before and it’s getting there but I’m still not telling you what I’m knitting or who it’s for! Every single row is different (38 rows to complete the pattern; two repeats to the heel.) So, I’m two thirds of the way done. If I have so much as a drop of wine, forget about knitting this one!

Libet’s Fingerless gloves – what can I say. These are a WIP from a looooong time ago. I got one finished and didn’t know how to reverse the instructions to make the second one. Now I’ve frogged the first one and will re-make it (them?) sometime soon.

Bear’s Brown socks – started the first sock, turned the heel, completed the gusset and am working my way down to the toe. A very, very long trip!

My Red Cotton Sweater – Ha! This one’s not going anywhere anytime soon. I think there are a few inches from the bottom knitted … and I’ve only had the yarn in my stash for (hmmmm) five or six years!

I did finish a baby gift for my French “daughter” … well, it’s for her baby … and got it in the mail today so that is one UFO/WIP that I don’t have on the list. Good for me!

Taking inventory of my knitting projects as yet unfinished is kind of like taking inventory of my life. Reflection is a frequent pass-time for me these days. There have been some significant bumps along my path. It’s not all been easy or happy but it’s all made me who I am today. And while I’m not always ready to be happy about my today, the bigger picture looks pretty sunny.

Can’t wait to see what comes next!

Last night my friend Kelly came over to knit. I had all of my projects lined up … the baby sweater that I need to finish seaming, the Christmas stocking that’s now about 1/3 done, the socks for my son … and we didn’t knit a stitch. But oh, we did bitch!

I really love knitting and I’d like to be able to spend hours knitting every day. But sometimes my clarity around my life gets muddy and the creativity seems to stop flowing. I’ve been allowing myself to be dragged into a lot of drama with my sweetie’s ex and children and I find that the outside drama and darkness causes quicksand-like sluggishness in me. The question for the day is, how do I stay focused on my creativity, goals and life and disconnect from their dramas?

I have several projects on the needles and more that I really want and need to begin. With the holidays fast approaching, I have several hand-made, home-made gifts planned (of course!) and have started only one. Baby gifts (one done, one to go, one that needs to be done but may be ok to do after the holidays – did you see the Viking Baby Hat on chileconyarne? OMG! It is so cute! I know it will be the gift that I have to make for baby Anderson. She also has a cute cupcake hat (free patterns are on her site) which will be perfect for baby Maley. My French grandbaby’s getting an adorable sweater and I only have to add the sleeves, seam and add buttons and it’s done and off to Paris with a UC (University of Cincinnati) sweatshirt to remind his mom of all the fun summers we shared when my babies were (almost) that little!

Got news last night that my younger brother is getting married over Christmas in California. So, by the December 20th departure date, my samples for my pup sweater line have to be complete. Pricing decided and order forms at the ready. I hope to be able to extend my visit and go knock on some doors out there to see who would like to buy my line. (I hear “Who Will Buy” from Oliver Twist playing in my head … “who will buy my sweet red roses?)

See … there I go again … baby gifts to weddings to Oliver Twist (and I must confess from there to watching an adorable 4 year old singer on a YouTube clip from America’s Got Talent) … unfocused. I’m hoping that as I knit this afternoon I can ponder what it is that will make me more clear about what it is that I need to do to regain my focus and my creative spark. It’s such a meditative process that I have faith the answers will come.

“Faith and doubt go hand in hand, they are complementaries. One who never doubts will never truly believe.” –Hermann Hesse

Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly. ~Ambrose Bierce


In a knitting way, this quote from Ambrose Bierce is how I am choosing to remember my mother today. She passed away two years ago after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. She worried about getting Alzheimer’s for years.

My mother wasn’t perfect. She was, like all of us, flawed. She was a great tennis player, she loved playing with her grandchildren, she loved her pets and in her own way, she also loved her children. Mom was also a great secret-keeper. While I don’t remember he teaching me to cook, I do remember her cooking – somewhat resentfully, she always had a dinner on the table when my father came home from the office. I remember a story that was told about them leaving the house to go to a movie one night and leaving their brand new baby daughter (me) at home alone … apparently not for long, but forgotten none the less. Mom loved to have friends over and we did lots of picnics at the swim and tennis club in the summer. In the winter we played paddle tennis and then went home for dinner. Mom sent me to sewing lessons (I dated the teacher’s son) and piano lessons (we fought about practicing) and figure skating lessons (which I loved but wasn’t terribly good at) and guitar lessons. She tried to get me to play tennis but sports were never my “thing”. All three of us did swim team … early summer mornings diving into the frigid pool at the Field Club and wearing Speedo swim suits. It was a good life.


We had several dogs growing up: Sam was the first dog my parents had. He was a miniature poodle. The only time I ever saw my father cry was the day Sam died. We had Sheppy (can you tell we kids named him?) a German Shepherd who was hit by a car when we left him with the breeder while we went to the Connecticut shore for a vacation week. We had the loveliest collie named Kelly who was so well-mannered, she always did her “business” in the woods, not on the lawn, and she never left the yard. She was most often spotted sitting in a bed of ground-cover under the big tree in the front yard. Mom helped me convince Dad that we needed to get a cat. Prince Sihanouk (aka “Nookie”) a phenomenal friend came to live with us. He was “my” cat, a sealpoint siamese who lived to be 20-something. At one point, he had to go to the vet for daily subcutaneous feedings and we fed him white meat tuna. He was one lucky cat!


I mentioned that mom was a good secret-keeper. Shortly after she died, her cousin told us that my parents had a child in 1956 who was lovingly put up for adoption. The baby boy was born on my mothers 24th birthday. I didn’t know it but the big brother that I had moaned and complained about wanting all those years was my mother’s reality. What pain it must have caused her. She had to have wondered about him every Christmas and birthday and when school started in the fall … maybe every morning before her feet hit the floor. I know I would have been.


So, Mom, here’s to you! Thanks for bringing me into this world, for Nookie and Kelly and all three of my brothers! (I’ll tell the story of finding him another day!) Thank you for making me practice and for knitting sweaters with me. I’ve missed you.

I moved to Florida in June of 2007 with high hopes of a new life. My disposition was upbeat and sunny. After several trip-ups and a really pathetic Florida economy, my disposition isn’t nearly what it used to be. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, I’m not sure which is more appropriate) I won’t let the “bastards” get me down, I’ll pull myself up by my bootstraps, get a stiff upper lip, and all that jazz.

Knitting has been reflective of that attitude of “stick-to-it-iveness” (thanks Dad!) that I have had all my life. I have not been one to give up easily and without a sincere effort. My marriage was like that – with three kids and a home and a life that was built over 27 years, it wasn’t an easy decision to leave. That being said, one day the little light bulb turned on over my head  and I knew that there was no way to make it work any longer. Clarity can be a wonderful thing.

A couple of weeks ago I was working on a Christmas gift for “S” (ha! ha! you thought I’d give away one of my best-kept – at least until Christmas – secrets! I’m too smart for that!) and when my sweetie leaned in for a kiss, he mistakenly knocked over my coffee cup. I caught the cup before it broke but the splash was on my lovely “Aran” ivory yarn. Since I wasn’t too happy about leaving Maine anyway, and my mood was somewhat dark (picture Pigpen from the Snoopy comics … but my dust cloud was hanging over my head!) I blew a gasket. Threw my knitting into an alternate chair and stormed away. A few days later, not only did I return to said coffee-covered mess but I decided I would have an honest look at where I was and decide if I wanted to forge ahead or frog it. When I noticed a glaring mistake several rows back, I decided to frog and re-start the project (ha! and I still haven’t let the cat out of the bag about what I’m making for whom!).

Sometimes we get to choose a do-over whether in our knitting or in our lives. Do you have a do-over story? Do you need to choose a do-over in your life right now?

Sorry, I have knitted barely a stitch since arriving in Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon. This is an opportunity to spend time with my son – who has ordered a couple more pairs of socks. He wants a black and a brown pair. When I was in Maine, YardGoods Center had just received a new shipment of one-color sock yarn and one of them was in brown. So, of course, I bought it. My son wants his socks to be only about 4 inches in length from the ankle (heel?).

Bear’s Who Dey! Socks (2009)

The first pair of socks that I made for him were with a fun self-striping yarn that was in the colors (or nearly) of the Cincinnati Bengals. He said “don’t bother” to make him socks because he probably wouldn’t wear them. Well, I decided to make them anyway and gave them to him for Christmas last year. A few days later … well, maybe a week later … he texted me and said that he was “obsessed” with the socks and wondered if he could “order” more. Go figure! Obsessed? Ha! I’m just glad he liked them and it tickles me to make him more. He’s such a good kid … ever heard that once you have children your heart lives outside your body? Well, it’s true. I love them all more than life. Lucky me!

Years ago I attempted a provisional cast on for a knitting Olympics where you are challenged to try something you’ve not tried before, you cast on during the opening ceremony and finish, presumably, on closing night. I was planning to use this beautiful silvery gray yarn to make a lace shawl or scarf (I don’t remember exactly what it was but I still have the yarn and the pattern, of course!) Anyway, it was a particularly difficult period in my life (and it lasted for nearly ten years) and I couldn’t even get the cast on right. I gave up, needless to say, and claimed to have had an injury; I had fallen on my needles.

I’ve never attempted another knitting Olympics nor the provisional stitch until today. My middle daughter in Chicago seldom asks me for anything but she wants one of the “infinity scarves” or “infinity cowls” that are all the rage in Chi-town. Mom answers prayers in the simplest ways and gave her the log-in information for my Ravelry account where she found the cowl that she loves.

Last night I was at my knitting group/class at Yardgoods Center (in Waterville, ME ($6 for a knitting class and members of classes enjoy a 10% discount when at class!) I bought the most lovely shade of dark green yarn for a Frosting Scarf. So with my trusty pattern in one hand and a recent issue of Interweave Knits (one of my favorite knitting mags) in the other (no, really they were both sitting on the dining room table where I had the most room) I made my first stab at a provisional cast on using the crochet method.

First challenge is how to do a single crochet but that’s also in Interweave knits (there is always a section at the back to help the knitting challenged with a “sitchy”! I quickly put my crochet hook aside and used my fingers to make a single crochet chain with an old bit of left-over yarn and then with my beautiful new green Peruvia, picked up 38 stitches in the bumps on the back of the chain. Voila! I’m off and knitting!

Photos soon!