Come July

dé·jà vu

There was mail today. Goodies delivered without plastic except for the bits of tape holding the tissue paper in place. Used to be they put the items inside a plastic bag and I’d use it for a project bag. Cloth bags do the job much better but guilt made me try. I am so pleased with Wool & Co. for making the effort. It’s a start. There was bubble wrap though. I never know what to do with it so we stash it for future use, hoping it will be recycled to infinity.

My first ChiaoGoo needles came in a plastic sleeve taped between two pieces of cardboard. Not Wool & Co.’s fault but how to recycle it is beyond my ken. Have you tried them? Do you use them and swear by them? Zing is my brand of choice but I wanted to try ChiaoGoo after reading about them every time I turned around. They are everywhere. I like their heft though and the red (plastic) cable doesn’t twist. Well it hasn’t yet. I say yet because you know I sat right down and tried them out first chance I got.

Pardon my chewed nails but see? It’s not easy to curb one’s excitement when there’s new yarn to try out. I’m even wearing my favorite sweater! It’s old and I like it so much because it has a bunch of cool stitches I never imagined I’d want to stitch some day. I’ll take better pictures tomorrow because you have to see it to appreciate it why I bought it. It’s been gently worn despite its age because true winters are rare here but it’s the perfect sweater for knitting.

I never imagined I’d be creating such stitches. I never thought I’d know how to knit ribbing for a beanie or dare to dream of making a sweater but here I am, huh?

How lovely, yes? Deja vu from yesterday. The colors remind me of the muscadines I grew a few summers ago.

Minuet is allergic to wool. She sneezes constantly and her nose runs like there’s pollen in the room; she insists on hanging out while I knit though. If I banish her she cries until I let her in. Min coughs too. Perhaps she will become immune and I’ll feel less guilty because I’m making her sick. Once upon a time I was allergic too. Four-allergy-shots-twice-a- week kind of allergic. And look at me now.

Figure skating wants my full attention! Bradie Tennell gets my vote . . . Oh! She just fell. Bradie always falls. She started off so well though. Almost every skater fell tonight. Ouch.

A Color Palette

Missing color in your life yet? Although my little space on a map is pretty much evergreen year round I do miss the full color palette of plusher seasons. I love dove gray overcast days as much as blue skies and sunlight because winter is one of my favorite seasons. But my spirit soars when I see color such as this. Hooray for the Christmas cactus.

Yep, sunflowers are bursting out despite strings of rainy-ish days and two full on rain storms. Ah, the yellow! The green! Looks like a tentative spring here. I want a full blown winter.

This is where art imitates life. It’s a man-made antidote to the blahs. Nothing beats back a lovely drab rainy day quite like colorful yarn. Gray skies, rain drops on bare weeping willows—making our days look like they want to weep for sure; dry grass and dull dun leaf carpets cry out for color. I aim to please. So I broke out the bag of new yarn I’d stashed atop my highboy and the whole room bloomed. Not to knit. I just want to lighten my space. This is the lovely Blue Sky cotton yarn from Hill Country Weavers.

I could just stroke it and be happy enough to get through a day. I order the brand most often from Hill Country Weavers and Jimmy Beans. They’re as reliable as Wool & Co, and their prices are just as sane. Blue Sky has a worsted wool yarn too but I have yet to try it. Have you? If yes, how does it rank? This organic cotton is so smooth I can’t tell you just how smooth! The stitches make you look like a seasoned knitter since the yarn is simply darn near perfect.

Goodness gracious. The coronavirus might be here in Texas. At College Station. Brought to our state by a “gentleman” Texas Tech student who visited China. WHO has decided this does not mean the world does not have an outbreak of a pandemic disease. Yet. Not yet. Be safe. Stay home as much as you can. Avoid crowds, wear masks, wash your hands and just knit it out in the comfort and safety of home until we get the all clear to go out and about again. Order your yarn. Take advantage of this windfall of an excuse to stay home and knit because come July it’ll be so hot you’ll wish you could stay inside and chill like Bill.

Be well!

Hello!

Hello and welcome. I stopped blogging after a decade and four months because I believed I’d had my say. Closing down and moving on was the thing to do. I did. I chilled, I did new things, read a small stack of new books, drew a lot, read a slew of blogs, cooked up a storm and worked on being the best me possible. Here I am again in a knitting frame of mind, hoping we can hang out, share our stories, create together and learn from each other. And while we’re at it . . . bring on the yarn if you are so inclined.

Reconsideration

I’ve missed blogging lately. It’s been a while so I never imagined I’d have more to say about life and daily goings on. We change. Hibernation ends. We reconsider. And here I am again, in a new place, with a different mind set, eager to communicate meet and greet and reconnect. My world expanded with a new interest. A life is big. Mine just got bigger. Hello, y’all!

I picked up knitting needles and yarn in September. Four months later I’m still hooked. A crochet hook is a lovely backup tool for the days when repeated mistakes leave me frustrated but the need to create with yarn isn’t assuaged. I taught myself to crochet when I was a college student. My biggest, most fulfilling project was a red, white and blue lap throw I made for my grandmother. She’d been in a wheelchair since I was a girl and she used a bath towel to protect her lap and act as a modesty shield. Grandmother believed her knees should always be covered. I learned to crochet granny squares just for her. That afghan was my first and last large yarn project.

Learning to knit has its perks and rewards. Realizing I’m still able to learn something new makes me feel good, plain and simple. Thank goodness there’s the Internet and YouTube and bloggers who knit and are willing to teach newbies. Free of charge! Women are wonderful. I say women because although I am sure there are men who knit I have not come across any of their blogs. My brother crocheted better than I ever aspired to. He made beautiful afghans and blankets.

A new year inspires us to explore new possibilities. Learning to knit is my resolution for 2020.