Tag Archives: Rasta

A Very Good Day

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Wednesday, August 30, 2023

The picture was really taken on Tuesday but it looked just like this today, too. It’s been a couple of gloomy gray days with some sprinkles of rain. It’s all good. We needed it. The gardens are happy for the water and I’m happy for a couple of days to stay indoors and get some house stuff caught up.

Today has been a lovely day. No meetings until 5pm so I had the day to get stuff done that I choose. I had a shower and washed my hair, caught up on watching a couple of my podcasts, and I finished up a few knitting projects.

I started and finished two pairs of super bulky mittens for sale. These are from some Malabrigo Rasta yarn that I found in my stash. I won’t knit much with super bulky yarns because I prefer lighter weight yarn but these will be warm weather gear for someone and they’re really pretty. I love the colorways that Malabrigo dyes and the yarns, being 100% Merino wool, are so soft. I’ll be posting the mittens on my Facebook and Instagram pages soon. For this moment, they’re on my cutting table drying having been washed and blocked.

I’ve also finished #22 completely and gotten #23 up to the collar ribbing. I have not blocked 22 but I’ll get to that this weekend. Once the collar on #23 is complete (it may happen tonight), I’ll begin #24 – the last, final, finishing, endmost, ending … you get my drift. This has been a long time coming and I am delighted to be wrapping up this years long project. I also look forward to hanging them up this year and will do so after Thanksgiving.

I also wanted to show you the new branch that is coming off one of my orchid plants. These plants are loving living in Maine. They live in the corner of our living room with indirect sun but bright light and they’re flourishing. As you can see at the bottom right corner of the photo above, one of my other plants (the one that we carefully moved from N’s mother’s apartment after she died and then moved from Florida to Maine) is already in bloom and has been blooming for months. We had one HUGE stem that became so heavy that it snapped off. This is a second branch that’s blooming now. And I just cut off the passed bloom from the one that is going to bloom again. I’m floored. I used to think I had a black thumb because I always killed plants. Seems they like me better – or perhaps I’m learning.

Gone knitting.

Get ‘er Done!

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I’m getting a lot of stuff done so why am I still beating myself up and saying that I’m unproductive? Why do I “worry” about being unproductive when I am getting work done? Because it’s not the work that I “need” to be doing? That others expect me to be doing? Because I’m not making “enough” money? I just need enough to pay the bills and can make do with less than most so what’s all the “anxiety” about?

My Boxy Cardigan is two thirds complete. Sleeves are all that is left to do. They should go pretty quickly and I hope that I love the sweater as much as I remember loving the one on display that I saw at the Maine fiber frolic.

The cotton tunic has kind of been set aside so that I can make a few new items to add to my Etsy shop … or new 3 B Street shop (more about this in a later post) … but the back is so close to being done – despite the inches and inches of 1×1 ribbing on US #1 needles!

I have knitted a new pair of fingerless mittens in a very simple 2×1 rib and just have to weave in the ends. I suspect that they will need a button or some embellishment because just by themselves they’re a bit flat – at least in my opinion – despite a variegated yarn.

And then there’s the Rasta Basket that I have knitted in a wonderful colorway called “Archangel” and while the knitting part is finished, the finishing part is a bit sticky for me! I am not really a sewer. (I can hear friends of mine in my head telling me that I am labeling myself and if I want to be a success I need to consider myself an adept sewer!) Yesterday I got out the old Singer and it took me a good part of the afternoon to assemble the lining only to discover that the handles that I chose are about two inches too big for the bag! Back I go to the store today to see if I can find some that are smaller!

I have pulled out the old Michael’s samples that I haven’t seen while I was away this summer. I am ready to make my board for knitting classes (did you see my calendar for classes?) and have to take some signs for the yarn aisle in the store. I also need to make copies of the calendar for the demo desk! I sure hope that the knitting classes will pick up since it’s fall …I hope!

My to-do list keeps growing but I am checking things off, too. Just for today, I am going to be pleased about what I have gotten done and what I will do today. Life is good.

Gone knitting!

 

Re-Entry

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I struggle every year when we have to leave Maine just in time for August in *gasp* Florida. The shock to my body and our culture is, well, shocking! The temperature has climbed from reasonable and comfortable to Oh My God, how can it be so hot that I can’t walk to the mailbox in bare feet? Even the pool in the back yard is not refreshing.

That said, while you’re all assuming that I am outside enjoying the sun down here (that’s what people in Florida do, right?) I’m really in my atelier, blinds closed, A/C and ceiling fans on, knitting and planning.

Today I’ve been working on a “basket” (bag) that I found somewhere on the internet that uses one skein of Malabrigo’s Rasta yarn. I’ve written about this yarn before but I have to reiterate just how much I love knitting with it. It’s super bulky and the color way that I have is rich purples and burgundies interjected with gold, green and orange (amongst others). Simply fabulous! And since it’s super bulky, it knits up in a flash.

The basket is an interesting construction. I couldn’t figure it out at first glance but I have really enjoyed watching the basket come along. It’s knit in the round on four DPNs but it comes out square! Very clever. I got the bottom of the basket done in an hour or so (after the hour or so that I took to realize that I wasn’t reading the directions correctly – and it was really me. Must be the heat!)  The pattern is called “Rasta Basket” by Kate Vanover and you can find it on Ravelry. I’ll add pictures to this post just as soon as it’s done.

Gone knitting!

Challenge

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For Christmas I got some beautiful new yarn from my LYS – Knit in Longwood, Florida. It’s a relatively small shop but it’s warm and welcoming and they have some splendiferous (yes, my word!) fiber!

Anyway, it’s a super bulky yarn by Malabrigo called Rasta in the Archangel colorway. It’s lovely in it’s wide variety of colors from purple to yellow to orange and blue and green. Like all other Malabrigo yarns, though, it’s got a lovely, soft hand and it’s great to knit with! (None of the photos of the yarn look like the yarn that I have!)

Poor color (not accurate) and not a great look!

I have already used one hank to make a seed stitch cowl (it was a free pattern with the yarn). But when it was finished, I didn’t like the way it looked … especially when I put it on. So … I did what any other knitter would do and frogged the sucker! Un-wove (yes, another one of my words!) the ends and ripped it out, ready to start over again.

Tonight, I’m trying a new approach. Something that I thought about when I was braiding the  ties for an earflap hat. Something totally different and an “out of the box” approach to this beautiful yarn.

Once again my knitting relates to my life. I’ve started a new life after having lived a very different one. My marriage needed to be  frogged too (so to speak). It wasn’t working. Not in the fabric of my life. It didn’t make me happy. Today, I’m re-knitting the frogged yarn. Creating a new life that suits me better. Learning the feel of the yarn in my hand as it passes through my fingers with each stitch … just as I’m learning about myself and the fibers that are spun together to make up the person that I am today. It’s a work-in-progress. But it’s fitting better and I’m learning so much and I’m knitting a beautiful fabric that will be my life.

Each time I sign off from an entry on this blog, I say, “gone knitting” or something similar. It’s not said lightly because, for me, knitting is serious business. I’m knitting in the hope that I can make a living and I’m knitting to make a life. And today, life is good.

Gone knitting.