Psychic Knitter

As 2009 was beginning to fizzle, my knitting was beginning to sizzle due in part to the holiday gifts I had to finish at the last minute. Once the gifts were finished (which were all scarves) I was anxious to start a new project and take on a new knitting challenge. I pulled out my two books on tea cozies and began the search for my next project. I think tea cozies came to mind because I've been drinking a lot more tea now that winter has fully arrived here in Colorado. To me, tea seems ever so much cozier than a cup of a coffee on a cold snowy day. I dug my way through my enormous stash of yarn and chose a very inexpensive retro looking pink yarn. And so it began, my first tea cozy. I am now on my second cozy and am using Red Heart yarn this time. What a lot of knitters don't like about Red Heart is the stiffness of it. This otherwise annoying quality actually works well with a tea cozy because it will almost stand by itself which is a good quality for a tea cozy. It is my hope to finish three of them and post them for sale on my tarot website sashastearoom.com I am hoping that when I add the additional tag to my site it will help me to drum up more business for my site. Since just before the holidays I have been PLURKING my hobby woes. It's somehow comforting to be able to sound off a bit while working on the seemingly endless knitting project. If you plurk come join me and we can share our woes and maybe a martini.Cheers!

Friday was one of those perfect summer days. I decided to take advantage of it and so I grabbed my knitting bag and headed out to the back yard. Once I spread my beach towels out I let the four fur devils out to romp around. For sanity purposes I chose to knit some squares I am making for a retro colored afghan I have in mind. The simplicity of the pattern on the squares makes it perfect for the many times I had to get up and chase after one of the cats who were getting too close to jumping the fence. Luna likes to run across the yard to me and climb all over me and let me know how much fun she is having while I am trying to make sure she gets untangled from my yarn. At one point Sasha was being groomed by her new little brother Merlin and as I watched I knew that there was no more perfect time than that moment. If the weather cooperates, I hope I can venture out again today with my shawl project and maybe a pitcher of martinis!

I'm just now getting over the post holiday shock. It's not that my life during the holidays is so hectic, but rather it was all of the last minute knitted holiday gifts I felt I just had to make that has caused my left eye to have a permanent twitch. As luck would have it I failed to take pictures of the items I lovingly knit for people. I say lovingly because after a few martinis everything seems wonderful as you knit. My most memorable piece was the knitted coin purse I made for one of my closest friends. I was knitting the thing until 2:30 in the morning the night before we were going to exchange gifts. Honoring the true spirit of the season, I made her promise before opening my gift, that her gift was equally worthy since I had put a lot of sweat equity into making it. Yep, we're still friends. After 15 years she's quite used to my quirky sense of humor.

Since the end of the holidays I have made my first ever hat using the dreaded double pointed needles. It was a helmet liner project for the troops. Mine was turquoise. Interesting color choice I know, but details were never my forte. I also made myself a mini coin type purse, finished a pink scarf that has been on the needles forever and am continually knitting squares for afghans. The newest project sponsored by The Recycles Lamb(now on Ravelry!) is for Family Tree which is a non profit organization helping women and children escaping domestic violence. The plan is to have 10 afghans completed by Easter. Ackkk!

On a more technical note, I have finally broken down and joined Facebook. I needed one more distraction in my day I suppose. Happily a lot of my knitting friends are on it and now I actually know their first and last names! I am also trying to wean myself off of AOL and save myself a bit of money each month. I don't really need it as a web browser.

My new kitten Merlin is a frustrated knitter. The little guy will grab the entire ball of yarn (needles and all) and make a run for it. So much for leaving stash around the house.

Speaking of stash, mine has been slowing increasing. It's mostly the Red Heart yarn that I have been using to make my squares and cat blankets for the shelters. Because of the price and variety of color, Red Heart is a great choice for charity knitting. This week I got a retro looking skein of theirs called "Cherry Chip". It's reds and browns. Really fun.

If you notice that I don't post a lot on this blog you are correct. I do most of my postings on myspace under sashastearoom. This too may change in the near year as I am becoming quite the wild and crazy computer girl.

Wow, is it time for a martini yet?

I had a busy week back East as was expected. And yes, there were many Martinis and since there was no shaker at my mom's house I had to improvise using a plastic bowl with cover. Sigh. The unexpected part was how much knitting I actually got done while I was there! Most of my evenings were spent watching the old movies on TCM while knitting. I managed to make my mother a coat scarf out of three skeins of somewhat fluffy yarn that was a variegated cream to brown concoction with random splashes of gold painted on it. It was quite pretty even though I would end up with gold particles on my clothes every time I picked it up. I knit 13 stitches on size 13's. I got the idea from a book I'm reading on knitting called "Knitting for Good!: A Guide to Creating Personal, Social, and Political Change Stitch by Stitch". It's by Betsy Greer. It's a fantastic book! I also managed to finish a little coin purse I had started back in April and a square for the latest charity knitting project I am working on. I also worked on a scarf that has been designated as the "travel knitting project" which means that I only take this project on trips. It's a small scarf being worked on small needles so quite portable and easy to knit when on a plane. Between my scarf project and my podcasts, the trip out to Philadelphia was fast! I wish I had some knitting with me the day I took the train to New York City since I managed to get to the train station much too early. Oh what I could have done in an hour plus while I was waiting!

Since I've been home I have done a lot of squares for the afghan project because I have been home with a cold. I haven't had a cold in two years. That's what the East Coast will do to a person. LOL

I am heading out of town for a week to visit family in Philadelphia. With laundry to be done and the suitcase to be dusted off I am doing the most practical thing right now and bloggging. I own the word procrastination. As families go mine is pretty interesting which has me planning just how much underwear I really need to pack because I am thinking I really need to fit a bottle of gin in my suitcase. The thought of not being able to get to the State Store for several days is positively scary! Pennsylvania has control over the liquor, so there are these charming State Stores where you can buy only liquor and wine at non competitive prices with limited choices. If you want beer, god help you. That is a separate trip to a beer distributor with even more limited hours than a state store. The last time I was home I was drinking martinis out of juice glasses and throwing the olives somewhere in the bottom of the glass before finally going out to buy myself a martini glass. Ahh family.

On the knitting front the news is just as grim. I am nearly finished with my second lace knitting class. This time it's a scarf. Seems simple enough but there are three panels and working the lace pattern on every row. I am taking a class with a bunch of professional knitters. Translation: everyone else has natural talent and then there is me. Sigh. I personally feel lace knitting is equivalent to the fifth layer of hell but yet I am drawn to it like a moth to a flame. It is a great exercise in concentration but remains a challenge to a non detail, fly by the seat of your pants kind of person I am.

I managed to finish knitting a scarf for a friend and am working on squares for another community project. I plan to take a few projects with me on the plane. These are the official "airplane projects". I only take them when I travel so the chances of them being finished in my lifetime are questionable until I take a 20 hour plus plane trip someday. It's a thought!

Cheerio!

It's hard to believe that it's October! It's sounds incredibly trite to say but time really is flying by.

Exciting things have been afoot in my knitting world since I last posted. My talents are growing in leaps and bounds! Well, not really but I am trying. I completed a class where I learned how to knit lace. The project is a lace shawl with a beaded border. I am just over halfway done with it. It has been quite a challenge! Reading the pattern is not difficult, it just requires a great deal of concentration so I have been locking myself up in my office where there is silence and my high intensity lamp. LOL As frustrating as this process has been, I guess I must like something about it because I signed up to take a lace scarf class which starts in the middle of this month. OMG! The teacher is wonderful which is the main reason I'm jumping into yet another challenging project. Rick's specialty in knitting is lace, and he has done some beautiful pieces. For you Ravelers, he is Rick Martin and is in my friend's list if you want to check out some of his work.

I am THRILLED to report on two FINISHED PROJECTS! The first is that my tarot cloth is finally finished! I cast it off yesterday in the presence of my two knitting buddies. It was quite a moment of relief. This cloth was my first non scarf project which I started 3 years ago. It's just a simple rectangle and I really can't explain why it has gotten lost in the shuffle for so long other than to say that the yarn, is slippery and bumpy and when I was first knitting I found it to be quite a challenge just keeping it on the needles. It has some mistakes in it of course. My favorite is that i managed to knit my stitch marker into it. It's a beautiful marker too. A dark pink polka dot bead wrapped in black that is now a "charm" on the piece. In those days I didn't know how to unknit for one thing, and for another, I didn't realize it wouldn't come off I guess. LOL

The other finished project is a group charity project I've been working on all summer.It has been hosted by a local yarn shop called THE RECYCLED LAMB. A group of us have been working on the WARM UP AMERICA project and will be donating 13 afghans to the Denver Rescue Mission's Family Division. There were many squares donated from various people making this a real community project. We all enjoyed it so much! Rick likens it to a quilting bee, with all of us gathered around each week knitting the squares and then piecing the blankets together giving us an opportunity to get to know each other a bit better. My ability to knit and drink with my knitting group wows the other gals. Until they see the quality of my knitting. LOL We are excited that there is a new project starting this week! The group we will be knitting afghans for is a local group called Family Tree. They provide shelter and temporary homes for women and their children who are victims of domestic violence. We have set a goal of 8 afghans and I believe they are to be delivered around the holidays.

This last Saturday night I hosted the Downtown Denver Stitch n Bitch's monthly Sit n Spin. Two of the gals in our group are expert spinners and have graciously offered to teach the rest of us how to spin. A few of the gals have wheels and others have spindles. I was surprised at how different and beautiful the wheels all were and portable too! WOW I have a spindle and it's not only very portable, it takes to the air well. OK, so I didn't actually throw it but I was tempted! There were a dozen of us spread out in my family room spinning, talking and eating(too much good food from everyone) and drinking (calms the nerves while spinning LOL)

For this month's knitting for myself, I am already working on a SWAMP WITCH shawl. It is a pattern from ANTI CRAFT. It's simple and fun. It uses four different yarns, so it's a good project for those extra balls of yarn in your stash. The pattern is available free on Ravelry.

The best part of this time of year for me is knitting outside on the porch or backyard and taking in the already changing colors of the leaves while I keep an eye on the fur babies. YAY!

A lot has gone on in my little world of knitting since the last time I posted here. I actually finished the shawl for Afghanistan and got it shipped out in time! YAY! It was such a relief to be done with it! The day after I mailed it out I started making a ribbon purse that I had bought the material for way back in April. It is a Louis Harding purse from her "Gathering Roses" collection of accessories. It was fast and easy! I got it done in just a few days. It was so much fun working on the big 17 needles again!

As far as my charity knitting projects go, I have been involved with a "Warm up America" group at a local yarn shop called Recycled Lamb. We've been working on the afghan project since June and have nine afghans thus far thanks to many generous contributions of squares. The afghans will be donated to the Denver Rescue Mission's Family Division. It's fun to be helping a local cause. This past week I switched from knitting squares to joining strips! Rick our fearless and self proclaimed OCD victim has everything color coordinated so the afghans look beautiful. The man has vision! He has a picture of one of the afghans on his Ravelry if oyu are interested in seeing what they look like. His Ravelry name is RickMartin. His other finished pieces are worthwhile to look at as well. He does some incredible work! I am going to take a lace shawl class from him in September. He promises that I CAN be taught. We'll see LOL.

While working on the squares, my friend Lois found out about a project to Knit For the Troops in Afghanistan so I am working on a scarf for that as well. The deadline for that project is September 15Th and I am more than halfway done. YAY! I have a vision of the soldier who is wearing my scarf, somehow rescuing the woman who is wearing my pink shawl and they fall in love and get married. IMAGINE!

For myself, I have started a shawl! It's a beautiful somewhat muted multi colored hand dyed wool I bought from a friend who was unloading some excess from her stash. Since I wear a lot of black (Ya think?) I thought a splash of color would be fun. I am doing it in a simple design I came up with that is a modification of a pattern I saw. I am doing the shawl in stockinette with a garter stitch border to keep it flat. The SS really shows off the colors well.

I would love to make a nice warm scarf for the upcoming cold weather but that is on the back burner for now. Too many things on the needles!!

I plan on knitting squares for the afghans while sitting on the beach in California. I am also bringing a Koigu scarf with me on the trip that I've been working on since the winter. It's a pretty multi pink purple mix of colors. It's a good plane project because it's small.

My wild and crazy knitting group has been all around downtown Denver and North Denver this summer. There has been much drinking (not by me of course) a lot of bitching and a bit of stitching. Linsey, our head honcho or HBIC (as she likes to be called) comes up with the most interesting bars to go to and this past week was no exception! The Horseshoe Lounge is a no nonsense bar service only kind of place specializing in Rockabilly music. LOL I will say that the olives in my martinis were some of the best I've ever had! The pizza was excellent as well and they have a Spiderman pinball machine! One of the gals in the group reads the runes and I read Tarot cards. Together we gave one of the gals a double reading! She laid runes down on top of my cards to see how they correlated and the result was amazing. I can't remember if I got a lot of knitting done that night. I lost track after my third martini but I do vaguely remember Linsey "fixing" my scarf for the troops, TWICE. WOW LOL

We have started doing spinning classes at people's house once a month on Saturday nights. I am looking forward to going and finally learning how to use my spindle! Tam and Shellie are our experts who are willing to teach the rest of us. Why I am not sure. These gals are too nice for their own good! I can guarantee that I will put their patience to the test! I'd better bring some good food or booze to the party when I finally show up. LOL

September brings the return of Angelique who has been gone all summer doing production work for a rock group. YAY! I love the energy of this wild group of knitters. They know how to party and they know how to bitch. Knit? Oh yea, that too. See you in September!!!!