Random Thoughts.

Just some random thoughts today…

• Still waiting on my special-order Symphony Lace yarn to start the Lace Jacket from Vogue Knitting Early Fall 2011.
  

  Can't wait to start this, but I'm nervous, too. This'll be the most challenging project I'll have attempted, to date.

  Well… it’s not the yarn I’m waiting for. Turns out I also had to order the needles since I didn’t have the right length circulars.  I finished my interim Norfolk Ramblers project, so… what to knit, what to knit… ?  Oh, I know!  How about… more socks?  This time they’re for my daughter – she asked for knee highs.  And I love this colorway.

  

  A simple sock pattern, knit with Cascade Fixation. I have no idea what my daughter will wear these with, but she's 6, she can get away with a LOT.

• My daughter is involved with a few extracurriculars, all of which are wonderful and challenging for her.  I think I like ballet the best, though.  Once a week, her class meets for a whopping 2½ hours to study ballet, tap, and jazz.  So for a whopping 2½ hours each week, while sitting in the waiting area, I get to knit.  Or attend a knitting group here.  Either way… bliss!
• Like so many of us yarny-types, I take my knitting everywhere with me.  And lately when I’ve been knitting in public, I’ve managed to attract a bit of attention, not from like-minded adults, but from children.  I’m always so impressed when a kid bravely approaches and asks, “What are you making?” or “Is that knitting or crochet?”  And immediately I start teaching.  I show them the work, I explain what it’ll be when it’s finished, I ask them some fun yarny trivia questions… and they absolutely eat it up.  With that in mind, this Spring, I might have the opportunity to try my hand at actually teaching children how to knit, for real, in a sit-down type of environment and everything.  I’m really hoping it’s as fun as my KIP mini-lessons are.
• Yikes, I’m missing #knitchat…

A Little Knitting, A Little Politics.

So, now that the Olympics, and the Knitting Olympics, are over, what has yarnyMarni been up to?

• Still working on the Superior Lace Shawl.  It’s so close… I’d say I’m about 75% finished now.  I reeeeeeeally love it, and <bonus!!!> according to the Spring issue of Vogue Knitting, lace is, like, so in this season.  Sadly, this also means that I’ve been working on this thing so long that it started off being in style, then it went out of style, and now it’s back in style again…
• I’ve officially “donated” a handknit sweater to my daughter’s school’s annual auction event.  I say “donated” because it’s not actually knit yet – it’ll be a custom-made, custom-sized garment for the lucky winner.  I’m very curious to see how much it goes for… let the furious bidding war begin!
• Is it me, or is everyone getting sick these days?  I feel like I’ve spent way too much time working from home, nursing myself back to health after being hit with both stomach flu and regular flu.  It would  be easy to blame this on the 4-year old daughter, but she’s only responsible for the stomach flu part, not the achy, feverish mess of  a coughing, stuffy flu I’m suffering from right now. And the worst part?  I was too sick to prop myself up in bed and knit.  What a waste of a day off.

Now for the politics part.  These days, it seems necessary to get your national news fix from a few different sources, just to balance out any bias that may filter its way in. For me, that means reading 2 newspapers, watching 3 news channels, and listening to 1 news radio station.  But there is one channel, and particularly one show, that I will not tolerate.  The host singled me… me!… out for ridicule and contempt, and that, my friends, is not acceptable.  See for yourself.  And be careful… you may be singled out any day now, too.