Psychic Knitter

It has been such a long time since I have posted on this blog! I spend way too much time posting on my other sites I guess! Recently I have been consumed with knitting this pink shawl. It have developed a nice little pattern for it. It's a combination of a checkerboard pattern that I found in Interweave press' book "Knit & Purl" and just straight up knitting. I have had to start over several times and have had a few nasty mistakes that needed correcting but I am still enjoying knitting this shawl. I have knit two other shawls but they were on size 17 needles making them quick projects! I had hoped to make myself a really cool colorful bag for the summer but I doubt that's going to happen as this shawl drags on. I had bought the yarn and ribbon for the bag back in March. I should have started it then LOL It's all Louisa Harding materials including the pattern. I love her accessories! To add yet more madness into my life I am going to join a few of my friends at a local yarn shop to knit for Warm Up America. It starts in June and runs through August. It's only once a week for an hour or two and it sounded like fun to us. It seems that all of my knitting right now is for charity. I really have fun knitting these simple projects. I love working with all of the fun different color yarns that I normally would not wear. What I need to do is to find more time for knitting so that I can do it all! On a technical note, blogger is driving me crazy or should I say crazier? A few of my links to my friends have disappeared and don't even get me started on the RSS feed thing from Ravelry! Perhaps my page is haunted LOL LOL

I just got my set of interchangeable Harmony needles this week and I love them! The colors on the needles are so pretty and the needles are easy glide and nicely pointed. As soon as I got them I transferred my kitty blanket onto the new cable and I must say it's so much easier to work with circulars with no memory cord. I'm loving the flexible purple cable. The set goes up to only size 11 needles so I had to get the additional larger sizes along with a couple more longer cords but now I am set as far as circular needles go. I highly recommend these needles. I got them from knickpicks.com which was a recommendation from a lady working at a knitting shop.

I incresed my yarn stash substantially last week when I wandered into a yarn store that was having a major sale. I got some Louisa Harding ribbon and yarns along with her book on accessories. I am now armed with enough of her yarn to make two handbags, and two scarves. For now I am happily working on my knitting for charity projects. The knitting is simple which allows me to do it while working or listening to books on tape. Of course I still have lots of projects that are a little more challenging still on the needles so there is not a shortage of things to knit!

I am thoroughly enjoying the book "Yarn Harlot" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It is laugh out loud funny. I managed to read half the book in one sitting which is a record for me of late. I particularly identified with her chapter called "Cracking The Whip" where she describes going around the house and rounding up all of the partially finished projects. I have recently discovered that I am a bit out of control in this aspect of my knitting as I now have more than six unfinished projects on the needles. I always have a good excuse for starting yet another project though. For instance, I am working on a knitted coin purse I started yesterday because my thinking was that I would be going that evening to the yarn store that I bought the yarn from and I wanted to start the project in order to see if I wanted to purchase more yarn there to make more of the purses. Make sense? Of course it doesn't. LOL Also yesterday I purchased a set of 11 inch circulars because I HAD to start my new snuggles cat blanket to get a feel for how it would look. I have yet to get the coils out of the cable. I'm told hot water will do it. I could go on about all of the unfinished projects I have and the whys of it but really it all boils down to knitting ADD. It's just good to know that I am not alone in my madness.

Tucked way up on 17th street in Denver is this wonderful coffee shop called St. Mark's Coffee House. This was the meeting place of the other Downtown Denver knitting group this week. It's a great area although the parking is really tight which means I had to park way down a side street which when you don't know the neighborhood can be a bit disconcerting. It's a good thing I had my walking shoes on as opposed to the three inch stilettos I usually wear (ROFL) There were quite a few more people there this time around. We took up two areas. New to me was the airline pilot, the travel editor, the young feisty political gal and the Republican from Texas who is voting for Hillary. LOL An eclectic group to be sure. In the four plus hours we were there we ran through many topics, none of which had anything to do with knitting, of course. Much to my delight the later it got the busier it got in the coffee shop. The funniest part of if all was that I recognized the guy who worked in the music department of the old store I used to knit in! He stopped and chatted with us for a while. Pretty surreal to run into someone like that in a relatively large town but in many ways Denver has the feel of a friendly small town where such a thing can and does happen. There is a bar right next door called of all things "Thin Man" after my favorite movie series starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. I was really tempted to duck in for a martini. It would have been too cool. Next door to the bar is an up and coming Italian restaurant called Il Posto which I would love to try. I can't complain though I had an awesome pot of black pearl dragon tea that was fragrant and tasty.
Thanks to one of my online knitting friends, I found out about an organization I recently joined. It's a group called Hugs for Homeless Pets. They have a donation program called "The Snuggles Project" where you can knit blankets for shelter animals and donate them to participating animal shelters in your area. I thought it would be a fun project to work on in memory of my 2 shelter cats. I was excited to start my blanket and I cast on a bunch of stitches before getting out my tape measure to see if I was close to the 14 inches needed to make the blanket. The gal next to me said "Ummm Valerie, your needles are only 8 inches long." You don't have to be a knitter to know I was not going to fit an extra six inches on those needles although it did take me a minute before it sank in. LOL Did I mention I am NOT good at details????? Anyway if you or someone you know would like to know more about this wonderful volunteer group, go to www.snugglesproject.org to get the scoop. Meow!
My only thoughts on the drive home was why the radio was showing the Beatles "Get Back" when what was playing was a song with the lyrics that said "oh oh oh (or was that ho ho ho? LOL) it's magic never believe it's not so" Well it was a magical quirky night...........

Last night I ventured out to meet up with a new group of knitters in Denver. The quaint little crafty shop is located on a street called Broadway. It is about a block away from an old indie movie theater, in a neighborhood that is a little on the edgy side. I had to park down a side street and hike it back up to the main street. Interesting. The store has a craft room in it's basement and it was full of knitters! There had to be 20 people there. The crowd, much to my delight, was what I expected. There was an artist, a gallery owner, another yarn shop owner, a couple from Boulder (who was expecting their baby that day! ) a writer and ummm a tarot reader (ME!) There was a huge double size banquet table down the middle of the room and old chairs and a sofa all very retro. There was music playing and the heater was humming. Fantastic! There was talk of the recent caucus, along with various knitting stories and admiring the awesome knitted pieces being created around me. Several people were making sweaters, some were making socks, there were 2 gals just learning to knit, and of course a few of us working on scarves. I was in knitting heaven. The group was just what I expected. They were mostly in their 20's and 30's with a couple of slightly older people (who me? LOL) I look forward to getting to know them better and hearing their stories. In the meantime I am planning on joining up with the rowdy knitting group next Wednesday night who meets at a bar up on Colfax. Drinking and knitting. I will have to bring a simple project LOL

I took a class tonight at one of the local knitting shops making a scarf using two balls of verigated yarn to create a wonderful fusion color striped look. The pattern is knit/ purl which makes it slow going for me but the look is really beautiful and once you get used to the technique you can do some really creative things with it. I feel I would have done much better had I not had a spltting headache. LOL We had a high wind whip up here tonight which was a frosty delight. NOT! At this point in time I have 3 scarves on the needles, one afghan, one baby bib and the always lingering tarot cloth. Hmmm I guess I SHOULD finish at least one of them before I take on yet another project. LOL In all fairness though, I do like to have a baby bib going all the time because it is an easy project to work on that I can lay down quickly should a call come in during work. OK so one excuse down five to go......

"A piece of wearable art that has never existed before." A quote from the book "Zen and the Art of Knitting" by Bernadette Murphy. When i read that quote I found myself in an "aha" moment. How many of us knitters have considered that we are creating art and not just "another scarf"? I bet if you asked, many people would say oh I just knit, never considering what they do beyond anything other than the generic term "craft".
This is an enjoyable book about knitting, spirituality and life. The author takes the reader on a journey that is full of reflections on the spiritual process. Feeding the Soul, Wise Heart, Creative spirit are some of the chapters included in the book. She also manages to include a few patterns and suggestions for knitting projects. An interesting combination of philosophy and the craft of knitting, this is a great read for anyone involved in artistic expression of their being. I love when philosophy can be applied in such a practical way thereby making philosophical theory so tangible for us all.