Perfection

Not here, but I got your attention didn’t I?

This is one of those posts where I am just rambling about what’s on my mind, so if you’re looking for knitting or cats, you’re out of luck today.

Here’s the thing; I was thinking about my ongoing quest to find the perfect organizational tool this morning. It never actually happens. I find a bag or a gadget or whatever that seems to have all of the right elements and every time I put it into use I find the “exception” that keeps it from being exactly what I want or need. Do you know what I mean? Take my planner for example. When I stumbled across it in the store, I thought, “hey, this one could work” It’s actually a “student” planner, so it runs from Aug 09- Jul 10… “okay, I can work with that” I thought… and I have so far (I’ll worry about what to do after Jul when the time comes). But soon after implementing it, reality set in. It’s largish about 8 1/2” x 5 1/2” which is not a bad size for a desktop planner, but proves a little impractical for carrying around with me unless I carry a really big purse (which sometimes I do, because, um, well, rabid sock knitter). That’s not actually the exception. The exception is an issue with my to do lists, last year I just used a smallish (easy to fit in any size purse) notebook and wrote out everything I could think of on a weekly list and marked things off or added to it as needed. This worked well because I had plenty of space to write and could carry over tasks when needed. I could also use two pages when necessary to list knitting projects on one and other stuff on the other. It gave me a good clear idea of things that I wanted to accomplish at a glance. The downside to that system was that I then needed a separate calendar. Thus, it was not perfect. So this year, I tried to “kill two birds with one stone” with the new planner. But… the little spaces on the weekly pages for each date don’t give me enough space to write everything down and there are no blank pages for the overview and master planning. Can you tell I used to be a Franklin Covey girl when I worked full time?

I actually still have the nice leather cover for my old planner and could buy the refills, but that’s sort of overkill for planning when to vacuum and what to knit, don’t you think? I think the thing weighs around 3 or 4 pounds when it’s got all the pages inside. (It used to lovingly be referred to as my “brain”)

Anyway, I digress. So my quest for a good system of tracking my day to day activities fell short of my needs. I’ve been struggling with how to overcome this issue and mostly losing. I often lose track of things I intended to do only to think of them much later and then I get frustrated with myself for being scatterbrained. I. Need. My. Lists!

I know there are electronic gadgets out there that can do some of that work and possibly in the future, that may be a solution for me, but until that is feasible, I guess I’ll continue the quest.

This isn’t isolated to planners and calendars. The same thing happens with purses, bags and other organization gadgets. I start out very hopeful and the thing seems so full of promise and then I discover the shortcoming. I sometimes wish I had more skills and all the right tools so that I could assemble all the right elements and develop perfectly customized things that would meet my needs and keep me exactly as organized as I want to be.

So maybe that explains in a very convoluted way exactly what happened when we tried to use a switch to connect my hubby's laptop to the internet yesterday.  It didn't work out like we thought it would. 

Anyway, Thanks for letting me ramble.

Happy Knitting!

Nana

Un-Done

I suppose there are plenty of Chicago area bloggers who posted today about the Snow or March’s definite lack of lamb-ness in it’s almost departure. So, I won’t go there today. I’ll just say that I’m feeling a little housebound.

All you knitters out there are probably thinking, ‘sounds like a perfect excuse to knit’ and you are probably right! So why am I sitting here in front of the computer?

Good questions? Could it be that the un-done-ness of all my projects is making me feel a little like procrastinating even more? Probably right again!

Sigh….

There’s nothing I’d love to do more than post a finished FO, except that I don’t have any. I took a quick trip to see my parents this weekend (cut shorter than I had hoped to ensure getting home ahead of the nasty weather). That kept me from working on much for the last two days. I made a little progress on the scarf, the little striped socks and the falling leaf socks, but the Delve sweater front ended up in time-out and probably won’t come out until it’s ready to be frogged. You see, I’m off by one stitch and it’s only been two repeats of the eyelet row; seems like the best course of action is to frog.

Here’s the kitties thoughts on visiting ‘grandma and grandpa’s’ (there was a dog and a three-year old in the house)

"we are not moving from here"

Oh, and it’s baaack…. (okay so I went there anyway)

Evil Snow Mound I certainly hope it won’t take another three months for that thing to melt!

A Bit of Randomness

So a really random thing happened the other day; I got this card in the mail:

(Message Inside)

Now you would think this might have come from one of my knitting pals or someone who knows my love of knitting....

This really cracks me up.

It came from a local merchant.... it was advertising! But the card is so perfectly suited for me....

Oh, and isn't "Toodles" just the cutest?

Is it random or is it something I should really be a little scared by?

Only the shadow knows for sure....

I take that back

Hangs head in shame... I still contend there might be an error in the Bavarian sock pattern.... just not the one that I thought it was.... after studying the picture it appears the knot-like branchy cable is correct and not the smoothly crossed one... not that it matters anyway, I'm knitting it as written ... with mismatched cables. On the bright side, I have two more options to reinterpret the pattern in different yarn! PS.... If you haven't already, get out and vote!

Oh yeah....

I have a blog; where I’m supposed to talk about my knitting and stuff. And that’s part of the problem. My knitting has, shall we say, reached a state of inertia. That’s not to say I’m not doing any knitting. It’s just that, shall we say again, I’m not doing any measurable knitting. I’m not doing any photographable knitting. I’m not doing any brag-about-able knitting. Sob. It just seems to be taking an immense amount of time to finish anything. I get something on the needles and one of the following has been happening: a) The directions have a mistake b) I misread the directions and made a mistake c) I discovered part way through that I actually dislike the pattern d) all of the above e) I get distracted by the computer, a TV show, phone call, work, hubby, you-name-it; and NO knitting gets done. So, I have no photos, no accomplishments to share, and the cats have been sleeping all the time lately, so not even any cute cat photos to substitute for a knitting post.... Sigh, there you have it…so much being done; so little to show. I’ll try to improve on the situation next week.

Top Ten Reasons to Buy More Yarn

1. It won’t go out of style 2. It will never make your butt look big 3. Sock yarn gives you more bang for the buck 4. It doesn’t fit funny in the crotch 5. Even if you don’t have a project for it right away, you can love and pet it while it’s in the stash 6. There’s always a project for it (somewhere) 7. It gives you something to look forward to 8. Zero calories 9. You really do need some in every color 10. So much happiness in such a little bag Gaa, can you tell I’ve been clothes shopping? I’m at that age between doesn’t fit right and just not my style. (if you catch my drift?) What ever happened to basic stylish clothes that fit and flatter at the same time? Yeesh, even my old stand by stores are letting me down this fall. It’s enough to make me think I should spend more time sewing. I’ll try to get caught up on my knitting project progress in the next post. I need to get pictures. The battery died in my camera; so I’m behind on taking pics and today is a bad day for taking them. There’s a new sock class starting tonight, so I have to get cracking on that sample. Stay tuned!

Tuesday Already?

So, what have I been doing to let the whole weekend and one day sneak past me? Working on these…
Skinny Stripes

Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock

I have totally frogged and reknit the leg on the second sock three times because:
A) yes, I’m that fussy and had a hard time finding the right spot in the purple to start the second colorway
B) yes, I am sort of anal
C) I actually like the stripe sequence and decided I really wanted them to match as closely as possible

Also, DH and I celebrated our anniversary (yesterday). This is one of the flowers from the bouquet he bought me…

(purple roses!)

Tommorrow... Stitch-n-Pitch Milwaukee!

Tuesday Tidbits

Yesterday’s mail was bountiful:
A little advance birthday package via Knitpicks

Harmony Sock Needle set and the Riverside Cafe Lace Sampler

And a check (rebate) from my credit card!
Yarn and money; a winning combination I’d say!

The dish cloth pattern is progressing; I had to swatch some more and am hopefully attempting the finished item today. It's really hard to take good pictures of this, but here's a sneak peek:

Leaf v2.0 (done in some spare blue yarn, this is not the final color I'm using)

And finally, I'll leave you with some random stuff I've been thinking...

I was thinking the other day how nice it is to finally be a part of a bigger knitting community. Not so very long ago, I was really just a lone knitter doing my little hobby in my “off hours” when I wasn’t at work or involved in some other activity. Squeezing in knitting projects and knitting with whatever I could get my hands on. (Which was mostly the type of yarn available at ‘big box’ type stores). The only feedback I got was the type you get from non-knitters – you know - mostly “Oh, I could never do anything THAT complicated” “Well, I learned to knit once, but haven’t done it in years” or my personal favorite… “[insert name/relationship here] used to knit [back when] but I thought it had gone out of style” PAH! I suppose those are meant to be encouraging, but mostly I felt like I was some sort of bug on exhibit doing some quaint little thing. So looking back over the past few years, I am happy to say that I have been on a journey of discovery about the joy of being part of a knitting community. From discovering actual yarn shops while living in CA (but still being a little too far away and too busy for regular visits); to having a regular yarn shop to visit, take classes from and join a group of knitters at, in MN; to discovering the world wide knitting network through websites, blogs and now Ravelry; and best of all being able to work in a yarn shop. Still, the most amazing part is having the ability to connect with like-minded people in person or online and in short order get a knitting technique explained or demonstrated; get a valid opinion on the progress of a project. (Should I rip; should I go on knitting?) (Do these instructions even make any sense?) It’s really such a shame that there are still knitters out there who are unaware of the resources and friendships that exist in the bigger knitting community. I count myself very lucky to have become aware and involved with this community. I love the fact that I don’t have to knit with, heaven forbid, a local discount store’s version of a wide range of yarn choices (shiver) anymore. I love the fact that if the pattern calls for brand “X” that I have enough options to be able to track down the specified yarn and use it for my project. I don’t think I could ever go back to knitting the way it used to be for me. So where am I going with this? Oh, yeah! I’m just very thankful that this evolution from lone knitter to enlightened knitter has taken place. Not only has my knitting improved, but I feel empowered to experiment with techniques, patterns and yarns that I might not have tried before and even to forge off on my own with just my basic understandings of the craft, yarn and needles. Now I don’t have to sit alone in the “dark” trying to figure it all out for myself. I feel the same way about being part of this community pretty much as I did all the way back in the ‘80s when I discovered Knitting Without Tears in the Ferguson, MO library and had my very first knitting break-through. “I knit continental; I am not a weirdo!” “Thank goodness for another knitter who understands me!” So today, I say: “Thank goodness for knitting pioneers and thank goodness for the visionaries who have found ways to adapt today’s technology to keep knitting fresh, current and relevant.”