The Knitting on Top of the World Knit-a-thon

VK Live, and the KOTOTW Fashion Show and Auction!

I'm back from Chicago, and have been DYING to find the chance to tell you all about it and post some photos!  I brought my nephew Eric back home with me, and have been spending time with him this week. But I finally got my photos downloaded, so here we go!

I got up early on Halloween and drove myself to Chicago (using my phone's GPS to navigate from Starbucks to Starbucks, because you can't have too many iced chocolate mochas when driving long-distance!)  When I got in, Nicky was at a class, but had saved me a key to my room at the front desk.  We had adjoining rooms, and she had a lovely suite.

VK Live was held at the Palmer House, a classic Chicago hotel that is lovingly maintained like a beautiful time capsule.  

Just gorgeous.  

I felt very spoiled to be there, and the staff people were just amazing -- dedicated, had worked there all their lives, had great ghost stories to share...  If I owned that hotel I would pay actors to dress up in period costume and act out scenes all day. 

When I met up with Nicky, she took me to meet a number of other designers at a party in one of the suites.  It was amazing to meet designers whose names I'd either seen in VK's pages for years, or who had come on the scene quite recently (Josh Bennett!  Brandon Mably!  Ysolda Teague! Nancy Marchant!  Catherine Lowe! Melissa Leapman!   Lily Chin!)  It was just crazy.  I also had the chance to meet Trisha Malcolm, the editor of Vogue Knitting; Carla Scott, who edits Knit Simple; and Doreen Connors, VK's advertising director.  

We then went to a cocktail hour, and I met more of Nicky's friends and acquaintances:

 

The woman on the left is Brooke Nico, another well-known designer; next is Taiu Landra, the owner of Koigu (I also met her beautiful daughter who poses in all the Koigu photos.  I asked her why she never smiles  and she explained that she had braces, but now that she has them off she promised to smile!).

Next is Nicky - you will note she has not just one, but TWO foot braces.  Nicky is still recovering from a bad fall in Scotland, where she broke her left ankle and tore three tendons in her right ankle; she had only just gotten to her feet in the last 5 days or so.  I was very worried about her overdoing it, but she is an incredible trooper.  We iced her ankles every night, and she somehow managed to run circles around me.

Next comes me, and I'll have to ask Nicky again the name of the 5th person (the whole thing passed in such a whirlwind I've forgotten!

The next day I helped Nicky set up an exhibit room showing all of her 18" dolls dressed in outfits from her Knits for Dolls and Crochet for Dolls books:

I'm particularly fond of Knits for Dolls, as I was lucky enough to attend a photo shoot last January and watch first-hand how carefully each outfit was photographed, with background, accessories and props especially chosen and arranged to the last minute detail.  But my favorite part came at the end.  A row of 5 dolls was shot for the cover; it took a long time to get them to all stand up just so, and to pose them to look like they were all talking together (one would tip over and they would all go down like dominos).  It was almost 5 PM, and we were all pooped, but they still had to shoot the back cover.  They considered lining up 5 other dolls, or moving them to show the backs... and I suggested simply moving the camera instead!!!

So, here's the back cover!

It still just cracks me up!  The best part, though was was we were done!  (And Nicky and I went back to her neighborhood and ate amazing Chinese food!)

Anyway, Nicky taught a fun class; I had helped to knit some sample pieces ahead of time, and showed people how to do short rows.  Here's the class; the person on the right, Rose, has been a student and fan of Nicky's for years.  It was lovely to meet the group and spend some peaceful hours sitting and knitting!

Nicky gave a lecture about Knitting on Top of the World, and we laid out all of the pieces I had knit from the book for people to see and to try on, the day prior to the fashion show and auction.  There was a great article in the Chicago Examiner about it!  It was very interesting to hear Nicky talk about her design process, and to see all the knitted pieces laid out like that.  I have to admit, I was a bit daunted at the prospect of auctioning them all away; and we were a bit worried, as most of the people trying them on were planning to knit their own versions.  We were not at all sure that an auction of knitted items would work, at an event attended only by knitters, and skilled knitters at that!

The next day was the fashion show and auction.  It was held in a beautiful old ballroom called the Red Lacquer room.  When we got there, all of the pieces I'd brought with me (the entire shebang, although only the garments were in the auction except for the dragons) were all arranged on racks with photos of each model who would wear them on the runway, with dressers standing by to assist:

The excitement was building backstage; Nicky and I had a chance to meet the beautiful models.  When we explained that some of the pieces that they were modelling were being auctioned for Gilda's Club Twin Cities, an organization to provide psychological and social support for people with cancer and their families and friends, they were quite moved (and some even bid during the auction for pieces they liked!)

At the door of the ballroom, a sign welcomed attendees to the fashion show:

Slowly, the room grew more crowed.  I was worried about attendance, as the auction was held at 4:30, when some people were still in class.  But by the time we were ready to start, there were quite a few chairs filled.

The event was introduced by Doreen; she asked me to speak briefly about my knitting journey through Nicky's book, and to tell people about Gilda's Club.

And then, the fashion show began!  VK had intended to auction only 10 of the pieces, as we only had an hour to complete the fashion show; but the crowd was enjoying it so much, and wanted to buy the remaining pieces.  

Honestly, I had intended to keep some of the pieces for myself; (the Simply Smashing Cardigan, the Londonderry Rose Coat the Celtic Hooded Coat, and the cashmere piece from the cover!)  But once the auction started, and people really started bidding, I was really moved.  The models were wearing the piece I had knitted, and carrying the piece from Nicky's book.  And then Nicky offered to auction some of her own pieces as well, and things really started hopping!  

By the end of it, I was teary-eyed, and so grateful.  We had raised over $3,000 for Gilda's Club!  And I still have a few pieces left, which I will auction on eBay (probably in December, once I have some work deadlines and family company for Thanksgiving behind me).

Here are pictures of the fashion show:

The Northern Lights Cardigan...

The Parisian Entrelac Wrap;

The Mongolian Warrior Pullover...

 

The Cowichan Vision Coat.

The Great Bear Zip Tunic; 

And the Snowflake Sweater Cape.

After the auction some people came up to say hello; a woman whose mother had been helped by her local Gilda's Club, and another woman who was a cancer survivor herself, came up to say a special thank you. Some women from Louisville who had bid on and won several of the pieces were really tall just like me; they looked great in them, and were so happy to know that the Twin Cities will soon have a Gilda's Club of its own.

Here is a photo of me and Nicky with one of the auction winners:

Amazing.  That evening, Nicky taught a class on her book, Knitting in Circles; 

And that evening, we met with Leslye Solomon, another designer/teacher, and finally went to bed after midnight.

I lack words to express my gratitude to Nicky, for inviting me to VK Live; to Trisha Malcolm, Carla Scott, Gabrielle Ald, and the owners of Vogue Knitting and Soho Publishing for being willing to put on an incredible live fashion show, while helping me to auction the knitted pieces for Gilda's Club.  I don't think I will ever forget what that felt like, and how proud I was to see my knitting gracing such beautiful models, and then being auctioned for such a good cause.

Those of you who have been reading the blog since I started it way back in 2008, and have followed along as I knitted every single piece in Knitting on Top of the World from cover to cover, know how much knitting each of these pieces meant to me, and what an amazing time I've had, from start to finish.  This simple plan, to knit my way through Nicky's book, has taken me on so many adventures, from trips to New York City to a cruise to Mexico, to a glamorous weekend in Chicago.  Best of all, it has brought me one of the most lovely friendships of my life; Nicky and I were both boo-hooing when I had to leave Chicago Sunday morning, wishing we lived in the same city instead of half a country apart.

Although I still can't believe I sold some of those pieces, I know I can always knit them again someday. But all my joy, all my pleasure in knitting, and all the positive things this blog has brought me, are now multiplied by the fact that I know I've "used my powers for good," and contributed in a meaningful way to a cause that means the world to me.

I'm truly on the top of the world right now.

Thank you so much for sharing this journey with me.

Mary Taylor

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Everything is Slowly Coming Together... and KOTOTW News!

Everything is Slowly Coming Together... and KOTOTW News!

WOW, it has been a long time since I've written.  Needless to say, it has been a bit crazy, with everything that has happened in the last few months.  But today I feel like I'm beginning to get a grip on my new and very different life.

First, for the exciting KOTOTW news!

Nicky and I are giving a presentation at this year's VK Live event in Chicago from Nov. 1-3!  And Vogue Knitting (at least right now, anyway), is planning a real fashion show, with a runway and professional models, to wear both the pieces from the book and the ones I made!  And if we have time, they are also going to help me to auction off some of the pieces! 

The website with all the VK Live details is here:

and the online program brochure is here:

The text of the program about our presentation reads:

Lecture: Knitting Around the World with Nicky Epstein

Mary Taylor made it her mission to knit every pattern in Nicky Epstein’s seminal book, Knitting on Top of theWorld. Nicky and Mary will show you finished pieces and tell you about the 3-year journey they took “together.”

I'm frankly just so excited to spend a little time with Nicky, the rest is just sprinkles on the cupcake, so to speak.  

Unfortunately, Nicky took a very bad spill on a trip to Scotland and ended up fracturing one ankle in three places and dislocating it, tearing ligaments in the other leg, and falling hard on her hands (!), so I'm sort of wishing we could postpone the whole thing to a later VK Live until she is fully healed.  But I think VK is so deep in the planning, she is feeling like we should just go through with it.  (Luckily, she is approximately 3 feet tall, so if worse comes to worse and she's having trouble walking, I can just give her piggyback rides!  :D)

Other Random Stuff:

Here's a partial update of random things, based on photos I took with my cell phone, thinking I would share them...

Back in July, my firm sponsored its usual golf hole at the annual MNCREW (Minnesota Commercial Real Estate Women) golf event, and I made the usual golf club covers, this time in teal:

I think this is the fourth year I've done this; it was fun to see that prior year winners are actually using their covers!

I had to go to New Jersey again in the end of July, and brought Madeline a new toy to cheer her up (a lambie-pie!)  She really loves it.

I spent the last week and a half of August in New Jersey, finishing up the process of packing my Mom's belongings and getting her house ready to sell.  In packing, I found the original piece of knitting that inspired me to learn how to knit - a rather homely afghan made in striped bans of a feather and fan-like stitch in 1960's shades of tan and orange.  I packed it up and brought it home, just because of the powerful memories it evokes.  My Mom had an Aunt Violet who made afghans for everyone in the extended family.   I remember just being fascinated with it, sticking my little child's fingers in the holes made by the stitches, and trying to guess how on earth it was made.

While in New Jersey, I  took a couple of days off, to visit with an old college friend, David.  We both met as sophomores at Drew University, during a week-long orientation for incoming non-freshmen, and as we were both English majors, we ended up spending lots of time together, and have very fond memories of those college years.  David went on to teach English in his own high school in Dover, New Jersey, and just retired after 26 years of teaching.

We spent a few days in Cape May, New Jersey, a lovely old town of Victorian-era houses on the shore at the very southern end of the state.

The buildings all look like this:

And David (standing in the renovated Congress Hall, a very lovely historical building) looks like this (horrible blurry picture, I know -- he is not nearly as blurry in real life):

We had a great time visiting a local zoo, wandering around the very beautiful neighborhoods and along the shoreline.  The town is famous first for tbeing a key east coast port during the whaling days, when whale oil was used to light our homes, and whale bones to give structure to corsets; and then for the turn of the century when Washington DC decamped there for the summer; and finally for the fabulous Victorians, which were summer homes of the well-off New Yorkers and other east-coast types in the early 1900's.   The old street signs, and the second-story balconies, give much of the town a very New Orleans-y feel:

Cape May is also legendary for its amazing ghost stories; we really enjoyed a ghost tour one night, which was basically a gentle stroll in the moonlight, with a young aspiring actress telling us stories about the inhabitants of the houses as we passed by.  I always like taking the ghost tours, as they give you a sense of the personal history of a place, of the actual lives of people who lived in those amazing old homes.  Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the stories give you a hint of the human drama "behind the scenes," so to speak, and of the stories that truly animated the imagination of the town's inhabitants in the past.

Other random things I wanted to show you:

My friend, Lindsey, was recruited to do the face painting at the firm's annual picnic.  I've never seen anyone with her particular skill at this, and was especially amused to see that she incorporates googly eyes into her work!  (This, of course, is a "minion" from Despicable Me):

And the last major piece of knitting I finished:

The nine-stripe shawl from the book Wearwithall.  The yarn is from Sun Valley Fibers, all colors I picked out at the Lake Elmo Sheep & Wool festival.  This was a present to myself, to celebrate my 50th birthday a year and a half ago.  I'm really thinking it will be a permanent feature in my winter garb this year; I may have it live in my office on my chair, to help cope with the inevitable Minnesota chill.

Other than finishing that shawl, my knitting pace has fallen off quite a bit; I finished all the gifts I made for my dad's nurses before we left New Jersey, and have been finishing up a bunch of baby bear hats and other knitted gifts.  But did I remember to take photos??? No I did not (sigh). 

After we finished packing (my brother Geoff had done most of the work in getting the house ready for sale and packing; Mom and I just finished up the kitchen, the office, and her clothes), my Mom and I took a road trip from New Jersey to Minnesota in my Dad's old minivan, to bring her out here to live in Minnesota with me and Nathan.  Unfortunately, she took a bad spill early in the morning before we left, tripping over a suitcase, and landed hard on her back.  I thought we should maybe delay our journey, but she was determined to get on the road.  Then, the very first dayreaching behind her in the car, she pulled a muscle in her shoulder so her left arm was aching and not working very well, so she was just sore and having a hell of a time the whole trip.  It was almost a blessing when the AC in the minivan broke down in Elhart, Indiana; it gave me a good excuse to stay two nights in the same hotel so Mom could rest, while I found a repair place. 

The last day, we drove almost 600 miles, so determined were we to sleep at my house; here's Mom at one of those over-the-highway oases just outside of Chicago, pooped but so happy to be nearly there:

We arrived home on September 6, and since then it has been a bit of a whirlwind.  The moving truck came a week later, so I spent a couple weekends unpacking.  My niece, Amanda, helped us to organize the kitchen a bit better, and my brother, Geoff, who lives nearby, has been over a ton.  He put together a nice wardrobe and a china chest from IKEA to make room for some of Mom's (and my) stuff, and was there when the movers came to help figure out what furniture went where. 

In the meantime, work has been really busy, and I haven't really dug out all the way from the pile that rose up on my desk when I was out for over 2 weeks... and I'm giving another presentation at this year's Real Estate Institute in November, and materials are due October 10, so I pretty much know what I'm going to be doing this weekend.  (It should be a fun presentation, though; it is about learning from everything that went wrong in residential developments during the downturn, and I'm going to build it around a theme of drive-in horror movies, like, "The Curse of the Phantom Outlot," etc.) 

Poor Mom has been ill; her back is slowly healing up, but I think her immune system is down for the count (which is what you'd expect, really, after the year she's had, losing Dad, and selling her house, and saying goodbye to so many friends, and trying to get used to new surroundings - how many stress factors can one person handle, let alone an 80-year-old person!?!)  Her blood pressure was through the roof, but we have a cuff now to measure it, and got her some antibiotics to deal with a hell of a sinus infection she caught, and I'm hoping she'll feel much better after a good rest and a quiet week.  I love having her with me; she is good company on nights when Nathan is at his Dad's, and is a wonderful cook to boot.  We are catching up on the 3rd season of Downton Abbey, and watching great old movies like Gone With the Wind together.   She's also agreed to watch Breaking Bad from the start with me - it turns out it is one of her favorites (who knew???  Seems a bit violent for my dear old Mom, but she's tougher than she seems on the outside).

Now that life is sort of returning to normal, I plan to write more often and keep you posted, on VK Live plans and more!

Hope you are enjoying the first days of leaves turning and cool evenings!

XOXOXO Mar

 

So Many Changes

Hello, everyone.  Remember me? 

I'm sorry for the long radio silence.  It has been a busy and sad interval of time.  

My dad passed away on July 2, 2013, from complications relating to intestinal surgery.

I flew out to New Jersey just in time to be there with my mom and my sister Jenny, and to help Mom make the difficult decision to take him off life support.  I feel really blessed that I had the chance to spend a quiet week with my mom, who was so brave and loving through it all, and with Jenny (who I hardly ever get to see, as she lives in Germany).  We grew up together in that house, and it felt so strange to be there without my Dad there, and to start the process of sorting and dismantling it all. All four kids (me, Jenny, my brother, Geoff, who lives in Bloomington, MN, and my sister Susan from SF) have been taking turns in New Jersey since Dad fell ill in March; Geoff is now out there dealing with the gargantuan task of clearing out their house and readying it for sale, and Susan will take over with the final pre-sale preparations.

My dad was a radio controlled airplane fanatic. his plane room was filled from the floor to the rafters with airplane bits and pieces, books, and paper. I spent most of the week after his death sifting through it all, and I think learned a truly valuable lesson.  It may be (ahem) that I myself have also accumulated more books and yarn than I can conceivably hope to read or knit in a single lifetime.  It is just so overwhelming to go through someone else's stuff, and to figure out what they would have wanted to be done with it all!  Not to mention the papers!  My dad had every tax return since 1967, and he still had monthly sales reports from his years as a marketer in the textiles industry, and correspondence, and calendars... I don't want to ever have my son have to face the bewildering task of sorting out all of my stuff, after I'm gone.  Time to start now.

In the meantime, I'm back in MN, clearing out my house to make room for Mom, who is going to come and live with me and Nathan.  She hates flying, so the plan is for me to fly out there and drive her back in their minivan the first week in September.  I'd rather do it sooner, as Nathan starts his junior year of high school on the 3rd, but Mom has drawn a line in the sand, and I understand.  It is very hard for her to leave that house, which she has loved and cared for almost like a living person all these years.

After the experience of digging through my Dad's mountainous pile of possessions, I came home and decided to attack my home with a vengeance; maybe it is time to stop buying books, when I already have more than I can possibly read, and a Kindle to boot.  Maybe it is also time to stop buying DVDs, now that there are things like Roku boxes, Netflix,and Amazon Prime.  And (dare I say it?) time to stop buying yarn??? OK, now that's crazy talk...  but not really.  Not when you consider the sheer mass of yarn I have binned up in the garage. 

Besides, when I watched that Hoarders show with my mom in May, I realized that I am more than a little hoard-ish myself.  Okay, perhaps I'm not quite as bad as the people on that show; no vermin infestations, no piles of garbage with dead cats underneath them.  But still, I live amid enough clutter that I'm embarrassed to have people come over.  In fact, in all the years I've been having knitting night, I've never hosted it at my home, because I'm too embarrassed for people to see my tottering stacks of books and yarn (and Legos) stuffed everywhere.  And when people come over for the holidays I have a heck of a time clearing off counters and the kitchen island and getting everything just right, when in an ideal world the counters and island would always be clear (wouldn't they?)

Progress to date:  so far, I've taken over 35 shopping bags of books to Half Price Books; over 7 bags of clothes and housewares, and 4 huge boxes of games and jigsaw puzzles to Goodwill.  I'm going through papers and making a pile of stuff to scan and then toss; and I'm re-organizing closets and drawers as I go and tossing junk, to the point that the recycling bin and garbage can are overflowing. 

Nathan is helping; he is moving all of his Legos either downstairs to his room, or to his Dad's house.  We're converting the office to Mom's new bedroom, and Nathan's old bedroom to her sitting room, so I'm hoping to clear out the furniture in those rooms and get them painted. 

And, I have to say, it feels pretty good! 

By the time I am done re-organizing, there will be room for Mom to have her own furniture in her rooms and in the living room, so it will seem more like home.  We'll combine our kitchen stuff and linens and keep only the best, and I'll get a fresh coat of paint on the walls.  Maybe with clean, uncluttered surfaces, our home will feel more serene, more like a place where we'd both like to spend our next chapter.

When Mom gets here in the fall, we'll have a memorial service for my dad; I'll have the photos then, and will tell you the story of his life. 

In the meantime...

When I'm not digging out at work, or madly re-organizing at home, I have been knitting a bit; I've been concentrating on making presents for the many amazing caregivers who made such a difference in my dad's life over the past few months.

Angela and Stephanie, the wound care nurses at Overlook Hospital, truly bonded with my dad, who could be a prickly, difficult character.  They showed him such kindness, and were available to us whenever we were worried, especially as his wound was so very difficult for the less thoroughly trained staff at the rehab hospital to manage.  What can you say about nurses who give you their cell phones and answer your emails and calls, even on the weekends?  Stephanie even answered my call once at 11:00 PM at night, while breast-feeding her baby girl! 

Anyway.  Partly to say thank you, and partly to stay sane, I've been knitting gifts for all of these wonderful caregivers.  I made Angela a Multnomah shawl out of Three Irish Girls cotton and bamboo:

Modelled by my lovely sis, Jenny!

And I made Stephanie's baby girl a Little Alice coat and bonnet; I never tire of that pattern, comes out so sweet.

At Runnells rehabilitation hospital, we met a wonderful nurse, Shirley.  She was able to make my dad laugh, and told stories about her husband who had passed less than a year ago, and her children.  She said she loved gardening, so I tried to find a yarn that looked like a garden when knitted, and made her a cowl (pattern is Cupido, too much fun to knit!):

Although I didn't get the chance to meet her, a young nurse named Sophia spent the last four days of Dad's life giving him constant care and attention.  For her, I made a sort of mitered cowl thingy in lovely pinks (also modelled by my lovely sis, Jenny!):

I made the thingies go sideways instead of up and down; chalk it up to the post-hospital daze. 

 

And for the two nurses on the 7th floor who helped Dad recover from a rare drug reaction, Sonja and Bibi, I am making two Inspira cowls.  So far I've only finished the first one:

Two different colors of Lion Brand Amazing - SO much fun seeing the colors change,row by row:

And for the two ICU nurses who helped us that last morning, Dierdre and Nicole, two Easy Lace Loop & Cowls (with a very addictive stitch pattern called "Acutiflora Lace") -- one down, one to go:

And for Diane, the emergency room nurse, a fibonacci-moebius cowl (my first attempt at moebius knitting - don't know how I would ever remember that goofy cast-on without watching the YouTube video of Cat Bordhi actually doing it herself):

There.  Now I have to finish the two matching cowls, plus 2 bear hats for one nurse's twin toddler boys, plus a scarf for this amazing nurse named Eric... yet another thing for which knitting comes in handy.  It gives me a way to say thank you, and some quiet time to gather my thoughts and figure out how to process Dad's passing, and all the changes this year will bring. 

Sigh -- I feel like I have SO much to catch you up on.  But at least you know what has been going on and why my blog has been kinda quiet of late.

Next week I need to catch you up on what Nathan is up to; he turns 17 on July 29 (!), which just doesn't seem possible.

Time to go eat some dinner, take Madeline on a walk, and have a popsicle!

XOXOXO, Mar

 

 

Why I Love to Knit...

Well, at least one reason I love to knit, is because I get pictures like this.

Here is Adeline, our erstwhile baby blogger now grown into a little girl, modelling her new Bubblegum Baby Set:

According to her equally adorable mom, Kristin (shown here recently with her second kiddo, baby Sullivan):

"Addie insisted on wearing her new sweater and hat all weekend.  You would be amazed by the number of compliments she received.  Strangers kept asking me if I had made them.  I was like, totally… this 5 month old and 2.5 month old just docilely read books while I prolifically knit.  

Anyway, it was especially sweet because when she says “sweater” it sounds like “feather.”

 She also wanted me to make sure I documented all of the funny faces that she could make in her sweater.  Here they are.  (For the record, her shirt and dress were clean when I put them on her.  Then she discovered a plate of strawberries.)"

I think these photos just made my month; I have them on my computer at work and look at them at least 3 times a day and laugh out loud every time!

Other recent baby photos:

Here is Josephine Ella in her daisy set:

And little Addyson rocking her bunny booties while being cuddled on her grandma's lap:

And THAT is more than cute than you can shake a stick at, if you ask me....

Well, I have one more day tomorrow to work and pack up enough of my office to keep me covered for two weeks, and then it is off to New Jersey to assist my Mom and Dad, so I may be in radio silence mode for a bit.  My brother is going to return from 2 1/2 weeks out there, only to have to spend another 2 at my house so he can help with my son, Nathan, and my dachshund, Madeline, when I am away.  I sure hope we can get our parents here soon, so that we won't have to travel so far to help ease their passage through this tough stage of life. 

Thank you all so much for your kind birthday wishes and sweet words about my knitting.  More than ever I am grateful to spend some quiet time knitting, even if it is just 10 minutes before bedtime, to keep me calm and centered. 

I hope your spring-into-summer is as glorious as the one Minnesota is finally experiencing, and that your life is abloom with color, both in flowers and in yarn!

XOXOXO Mar.

 

 

 

So Sweet!

Hiya, all!

Minnesota is experiencing a very strange spring indeed - heavy snowfalls this week caused power outages, within in a week of weather in the 70's.  It is very strange to watch snow coating newly green grass. 

However, we are supposed to have some sunny, warmer days this week, which I'm hoping means that the snow is gone for good, at least for a few months.  Even hardy Minnesotans have their limits! 

My dad is doing better; he was transferred to a rehab facility just 10 minutes from where he and Mom live.  My sister finished her 2-week stint of helping them out and my brother flew out on Thursday to step in.  It will be my turn from May 18 through June 1, and then we'll see how they are doing and if we each need to take another turn.  Still hoping we can get them to move out here by the end of the summer, so that Geoff and I can both take care of them better, without having to fly out of town to do it.

A pretty shot of the IDS Center, where I work, blending into the sky:

A shot of beautifully cut vegetables at a local Panda Express:

My beloved dachsie Madeline, thrilled to be outside on on of her first walks of the spring:

And Nathan wearing his first tux!  He went to a prom for the Best Buddies program, which provides social opportunities for the physically and mentally disabled kids.  Isn't he dapper, for a 16-year-old?  He had a blast getting a chance to show off his rather notable dancing skills, and even had a chance to twirl the girl of his dreams around on the dance floor!

Now, on to the knitting!

I made matching sweaters and hats for my adorable neighbors, Mya and Eden:

Their pop very kindly helped snow-blow my driveway a few times this winter, and I've been dying to make them something but wanted to finish the big blog project first.  I love their tiny little-girl piping voices; they are always very excited to see me when we both drive up to our houses at night, and like to see Madeline (although the little one, Eden, is just terrified of her and won't come close enough to touch her!)  I made them a little larger so that they would fit into next year.  I told their parents that I'd be more than happy to come over and spend the evening with them soon so that they can have a break and go out to dinner; I would love to watch Beauty and the Beast with two tiny girls!  The pattern is the Strawberry Pink Sideways Cardigan from the Lion Brand website, and the hat is the Daisy Chapeau by Jil Eaton.

Here is little Finley, in another kind of daisy hat (this one, the Upside Down Daisy from Susan B. Anderson, has a daisy plopped down on top with the stem sticking up and the petals pointing downwards):

I also finished a cowl for my cousin Michelle (Pattern is the Pakuna cowl by Victoria Meyers): 

And I finished a sweater set for the former baby Adeline, who is now over 2 years old, for her to wear next fall; the pattern is the Bubblegum Baby Set on the Lion Brand website.  I used 5 different skeins of Vanna's Choice, and made stripes of 2 garter rows each, weaving in the thread ends as I went along according to Sally Melville's recommendations in The Knit Stitch, which worked brilliantly - it was so nice to get to the end and have no weaving in to do!  Maybe this will make me more likely to choose striped projects in future.

 

At knitting night this week, I was lucky enough to see Adeline's little brother, Sullivan, with his mom, Kristin:

... both of whom are adorable, IMHO.  I had the pleasure of holding him and jouncing him about to keep him happy while his mom ate; she hinted that she wouldn't mind at all if I came over to hold him sometime, and when I get back from New Jersey I'm going to take her up on that!

I went to Bella Lana, which was having a 20% off sale for May (yay!) and treated myself to a few choice skeins, and ran into my friend Karen, who was just a bit late for knitting night.  We went to get a cup of tea, and she showed me an adorable sweater she'd just completed:

I love the little running people! 

Now I'm off to see Nathan's Youth Improv Group performance - it is the last class until fall, which is kind of a bummer, as I really look forward to those performances (as well as the bubble tea at the Tea Garden next door!)  Oh well, I'm trying to talk him into taking the sketch writing class this summer.  We'll see how that goes.  My Uncle Jack is coming, as well as my niece Amanda and her husband, Josh, and my nephew Aaron.  We're all going out to Ike's for burgers afterwards - it should be a blast!

Happy May day to you all; I hope your spring is wonderful and you are enjoying walking outdoors without umpteen layers of clothing as much as I am!

XOXOXO always, Mar

What Gives Your Life Meaning?

Maybe it is because I turned 50; or maybe it is because I'm thinking a lot more lately about what you can accomplish in your lifetime, as my dad is in still the hospital (thank you so much for your kind comments.  He's doing pretty well, recovering from surgery, but it is going to be a long time before he is home, mobile, and back to leading a normal life).

But I find myself thinking a lot lately about the meaning of life, or more specifically, the meaning of my life. 

I recently attended a seminar on resilience and lawyers.  It turns out that we aren't a particularly resilient bunch; we tend to be be highly self-critical, very sensitive to criticism when offered by others, and less than optimistic about life, perhaps because we spend so much time imagining what might go wrong, and trying to write contracts to minimize risk.  But it turns out that optimism is an essential component of happiness, and happy people are also more resilient.  How you choose to react to things that happen in your life determines to a surprising extent how they impact you, both in the long and short term.  Resilient people, who take things in stride and move forward without getting bogged down in regret or second-guessing, tend to live an average of 9 years longer! (And I'd like as much of my second half-century as I can get!)

Fortunately, optimism is a learned trait; you can become more optimistic by modifying your behavior, by digging a new mental pathway, shaking your wheels out of their old well-dug negative ruts.  And lawyers are very good at learning things, and are generally disciplined enough to stick with it.  The first step is to work on a gratitude journal; I've done this from time to time, but haven't stuck with it, so I started a new one, to make me more conscious of all the good things in my life. 

Maybe I heard this message just at the right time in my life, but I was inspired to buy all the books the resilience coach discussed; books about resilience, and optimism, and love, and working from your strengths instead of focusing on trying to improve on areas of weakness.  I'm going to start reading and working through them and reporting back what I've learned, just in case I find something really wonderful and worth sharing. 

But today I'll share with you that one of the secrets of happiness is a sense that your life has meaning.  So, I've been thinking a lot about what gives meaning to my life, and how that has changed over time, as I've grown and as my situation has changed.

When I was young, I think I assumed that my life's meaning would come from romantic love; that my life's purpose was to find that special person with whom I was meant to experience the world together.  That didn't work out, exactly; at least not yet. 

In my 30's, when I had my son, and during the years of raising him, the meaning of my life has been centered on parenting; I've never been happier than the past 16 years, watching Nathan learn, and grow, and become a really good person.  All my highest values are reflected in my son; he is smart, funny, thoughtful and kind.  But he is also 16 years old, and gaining in wisdom and independence every single day; soon he won't need the same level of attention and care, and will in fact go out into the world by himself. 

So, what else makes me feel my life has meaning, has value?

Making things with my hands has always been one of the greatest pleasures of my life; I'm never so content, so "in the zone," as I am when knitting, or baking, or writing.  But the meaning of these acts doesn't just exist in a vaccuum; doing things for other people, or giving things to other people, is the way I tend to show my love.

These thoughts have reminded me of a book I read some years ago, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.  Although it is a bit goofy and self-helpy, I think his observations about love ring true, at least for me.  He believes that we tend to show (and perceive) love, in five key ways:  words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, receiving gifts, and acts of service.  They way you like to show love is usually the same way that you perceive being loved, when it is offered to you.  And when people in a relationship don't "speak the same love language," they can end up feeling unappreciated, unloved, misunderstood.  (If you are curious to learn your particular love language, you can take a quiz at www.5lovelanguages.com.)

It turns out that for me, receiving gifts isn't that big a deal (which is lucky, since I haven't really ever had a significant other who showers me with gifts).  Physical touch is important to me; this might explain why I so treasure my dachshund, Madeline.  After all, 16-year-old teenage boys aren't exactly at a cuddly stage.  I also realized that I have friends who hug me, like after knitting night, or even when we meet at a work event, and that I treasure those hugs very much; I take strength from contact, from touch.

Words don't apparently mean much to me, which is ironic because a lawyer's life is one continuous web of words!  But I do value spending quality time with people I love (which is why I hate it when my son is at his dad's for the weekend), and acts of service. 

I think that is why I enjoy knitting things for other people so much; the knitted gift reflects an investment of time, and the act of knitting to create a sweater or toy for a baby is in itself an act of service to the baby, the baby's parent, and a way of sending out kindness, good will, positivity to counteract the negative things in my life, to enhance my resilience and optimism. 

Speaking of baby gifts:  I've been working on "Baby Sophisticate" sweaters.  This pattern is apparently all the rage on Ravelry right now.  The first one, I made out of Lion Brand Tweed Stripes, for a friend's second baby:

I decided the arms are too narrow, though; they need a bit more width at the underarm.  So I redesigned the sweater:

...and tried it again, this time for Melissa's friend's second baby, named Asa, out of Bernat Mosaic:

I think next time, I'll make the body a bit longer; and then I'll finally be happy with the shape.  I liked making this sweater a lot; it is shaped from the top down, and the sleeves are done in the round on 4 needles, so when you are finished the only seams to sew are a little hole at each underarm. 

I also made this cute hoodie (the "Favorite Hoodie" pattern from the Lion Brand website) for Asa's older sister, Liliana:

The yarn is Lion Brand Recycled Cotton, which is sturdy like jeans cotton; it will wear like iron, and soften with each washing.  I'd like one of these in my size!

Finally, I made one of those sweet little horses from The Workshop Book of Knitting by Ursula Von Wartburg, which long-time readers of this blog might recall was the book, and the pattern, which inspired my lifelong love of knitting:

So, maybe that is one of the reasons my knitting for others has gone into hyper-drive; that quest for meaning?

Leaving aside for a moment the issue of where or when or how or if I might find an actual person to love, I have realized that after my son flies the nest, I will need to find some other outlet for my need to spend time and perform acts of service, if not with a loved person, then maybe for the benefit of a cause in which I believe.   

I spent some time Thursday at a kick-off event at the future home of Gilda's Club Twin Cities, Inc.; volunteers and contributors were invited to tour the site and view the plans for the upcoming interior remodelling, which is starting soon.  Maybe my passion for getting Gilda's Club up and rolling is part of this new urgency to find something meaningful; I know part of the reason I want to get the doors open is because the psychological and emotional support services they will provide, would have meant so much to people I have known who have lost their battle with cancer, and their families.

During the tour, I realized that I might be able to help out when the Club is operational, by doing the thing I love best - knitting!  Not only will the members need things like shawls and hats; they might also like to learn how to knit themselves!  Knitting would be such a calming, soothing, meditative skill to develop, to help handle a stressful life experience.  I can imagine setting up a regular knitting event there to teach all comers, as well as creating a group that would use some of their time and talents to create comforting gifts for members and their families.  Would any of you like to help?   

I was speaking with Dick, Eva's husband, who is donating his time to help coordinate the remodelling, and he mentioned that the final interior wall and remaining ceiling was going to be removed on Saturday.  I was envisioning a big group of burly men showing up with sledgehammers, and offered to make a coffee cake and bring coffee.  He warned me that the work was starting at 7 AM, but I figured I could make the cake Friday night, and just get up early on Saturday. 

I worked late on Friday, stopped at the grocery store with my new coffee cake cookbook on the way home to get ingredients (I chose a recipe for strawberry coffee cake with almonds and cream cheese), and cooked while catching up with The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert in the background.  But when I showed up early Saturday AM, the only people there were Dick and one other volunteer, Justin!  So, I put down the coffee cake and coffee (yum -- at the age of 50 I'm finally experiencing the Joy of Java!):

And then I put on some gloves and asked how I could help.  As Dick and Justin removed the drywall panels, I loaded them in the dumpster; and then I gathered up and took the metal bars out as they disconnected the framework from the ceiling which used to hold up acoustical tiles. 

When I got there, a wall separated this end of the building with one doorway through it; when we finished, it looked like this:

The dumpster looked like this, partway through:

It may not seem like a lot of drywall, but those pieces were huge and heavy!  Three hours later, the back of the dumpster was filled completely with metal bits and rolls of carpet. 

I ended up driving away feeling oddly, extremely happy!  (Well, sore, but happy.)  It was tremendously satisfying to see how the various pieces of an office interior fit together, seeing the pipes between the walls which function to provide a conduit for electrical wiring to outlets, figuring out how the venting works, and how those tile ceilings are actually constructed).  and it was REALLY fun to drop stuff in the dumpster with a BOOM!  MUCH louder than what I do for a living, for sure, and far more physically strenuous.  You end up a completely different kind of tired.  I've been taking a great deal of Advil ever since, but I still feel goofily pleased with myself. 

Off to catch up with Game of Thrones, and finish (yet another) baby sweater!

XOXOXO,

Mary

 

Happy Easter!

I've had a strange few weeks.  Work has been really busy (with strange projects taking unexpected turns; I've had to wield unexpected skills in areas of public relations, mathematical analysis, and really hard-core negotiations regarding alleged payment defaults).  On the personal side, things have been a bit fraught as well. One of my uncles passed away recently, so my son, Nathan, attended his first funeral this week.  And my mom called at 5:30 AM on Thursday to tell me my dad was in the hospital; he's still there, going through some diagnostic tests while they figure out what is going on.  Lots of time on the phone with my parents' siblings and my siblings, trying to figure out how to convince my parents that it is time they move to Minnesota where their family can take care of them.  Sigh.  What a drag it is getting older, indeed.

More Baby Knits!

I've been working on lots of baby knits during my commute, catching up on the backlog from when I was busy with KOTOTW.

I finished these two little matinee jackets, from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino 2, using Sublime 4-ply Baby Cashmere Silk (that I bought on sale at The Stitching Bee in Chatham NJ when I was visiting my parents in January):

For the second one, instead of increasing at the underarms so that the sleeves and body are knit as one piece, I knitted the back and fronts straight up and then cast on from the shoulder for the sleeves, working them downwards and tapering the sleeve width a bit.  I just think it will fit a bit better this way.

I also made this sweater for a friend's toddler, from a Nicky Epstein pattern originally published in Knit It! Magazine in 2004:

Isn't that a hoot?  There is also a giraffe and an elephant version.  I'm thinking of making two of these for the little girls next door, with the ducks peeking in from the opposite sides.

I made this little vest, also from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino 2, for a friend's 4th child, a little boy:

There are little buttons in the back, to make it go over the baby's head easier.

Then, I made this little bunny for a friend's baby for Easter (also from Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino 2):

And today I made some mousies for Renay's and Eva's kitties, while watching reruns of season 2 of Game of Thrones, to get ready for the first episode of Season 3 tonight:

They are stuffed with both polyfil and catnip, so it should be mighty entertaining to watch the kitties play with these!

I also recently finished a cowl for my friend, Laurie.  When we went on our girls' weekend to Stillwater this February and stopped in at Darn! Knit Anyway, Laurie and Michelle both picked out yarn they liked for cowls.  I have Laurie's done so far, the Pakuna Cowl pattern from Ravelry, but I cast on about twice as many stitches to lengthen it:

It is in colors of orange, brown and royal blue.  I just called her one day to drop by during work to drop it off, and she just happened to be wearing an orange jacket and a royal blue top!  That's what I call fate-- the cowl was meant to be. 

Now I am working on two "baby sophisticate" jackets for little boy babies, a bubblegum baby sweater for Adeline, the baby blogger who is now a toddler, a tiny horse for a newborn boy baby at work, a hoodie for a baby whose little brother just showed up, and some sideways sweaters and daisy hats for the little girls next door, and then I will work on Michele's cowl (it is now officially going to be too warm soon to wear it, alas, but it will be ready for next year).  And THEN I can get going on some knitalongs with my sister and Renay! 

A Funny Picture of Nathan

Nathan and I were in a used bookstore, and he found a record that disturbed him:

 

Seriously -- the song stylings of Spock?  Who knew...

Well, here's hoping for a week that is full of less unexpected surprises; I could use things to get back to normal around here a bit!  I'll leave you with some more shots of San Francisco architecture:

XOXOXO, Mar

 

Tony Bennett was right...

How can you NOT leave your heart in San Francisco?  Such a feast for the senses; a visually stunning city, with kind and thoughtful people, incredible architecture, great food, perfect weather.  The next few posts will be devoted to photos and descriptions of my trip.  I think that was simply one of the loveliest, happiest weeks of my life.  There is nothing like getting to spend time with the people you love best in the world, in a city so endlessly interesting and lovely.

But first of all, I wanted to thank you all so much for the kind comments on my finishing the last KOTOTW project!  It does feel kinda unbelievable.  I never would have guessed that I could fit that much knitting into a period of just a little over 3 years. 

And in answer to an oft-repeated question, I don't know if or where I'm going to be able to put on a local show exhibition of the finished pieces.  One of my friends used to work at the Textile Center but she doesn't work there anymore, so I don't have a connection there.  I know the MN Knitters Guild either uses or meets at their space, but I've never been a member (they meet Tuesdays, and I have my son that night and we're usually doing homework, etc.)  I think I might join in the future when he is grown and on his own.  But I don't know any of the guild members, either, so I don't know if they'd be interested in seeing the knits or helping me put on a show.

I'm going to ask Steven Berg, who owns the Yarn Garage and Steven Be, if he'd like to help me do a show sometime, and if so I'll make sure to get notice up on the blog well in advance.  And I know that Nicky and I will be showing the pieces at VK Live in Chicago in the beginning of November. 

A friend suggested I might like to rent a space, but that seems kind of ambitious (and expensive); I don't have access to mannequins, or display tables, etc., either.  There is some gallery space in the hallway in Minneapolis between the new and old courthouses; I thought it might be interesting to display the pieces there, but not a lot of people (besides lawyers) know about that hallway, and again, I don't know where I'd get mannequins, etc.  I'm going to focus on catching up on work for a bit, and helping Nathan get through the rest of his school year; I will likely have a bit more time this summer when his homework lets up, to devote some thought and effort to organizing an exhibition, and getting the auction plans together as well.

My Trip to San Francisco - The First Day

I had such an amazing time with my sister Susan and her boyfriend, Paul, during my week-long trip to San Francisco last month.  It was kind of busy (I had two closings going, with one wrapping up literally just before I got on the plane to go home!), but we managed to do a consierable amount of sight-seeing, shopping and walking in and around the conference calls. 

Susan and Paul live in this apartment building on Vallejo Street, just a few blocks from Coit Tower in North Beach:

That is them, looking cute and bashful.  Note the extreme angle of the street.  You'd think San Franciscans would eventually develop physical adaptations, like one leg longer than the other, so often are they standing at an angle!  For a flat-lander Minnesotan like me, my first impression when walking around in the city is that I just fell into a scene from the movie Inception, with the streets and buildings starting to tilt at alarming angles. 

Susan, Paul, and Paul's mom (known affectionately as Noni) bought the building a few years ago and have spent the intervening time earthquake retrofitting and renovating it.  They just recently put on the finishing touches, including the lovely blue-grey exterior paint, and moved in (which was a huge relief; after Susan's son, Eric, went off to college, Susan sold her house in Moraga and moved most of her stuff into storage, and the two of them had been living in a pretty small apartment during the intervening years, making it hard to have company, or cook, or live a normal life; especially hard for Susan, who is an incredibly organized person and likes to have a place for everything and everything in its place.  My disorganized and messy house makes her nearly faint with anxiety!)

Susan and Paul live on the top two floors; Paul's mom is in the process of moving up from Los Angeles to live on the second floor; and the bottom floor is rented out.  There is also a basement level with lots of storage space and a laundry room. 

I flew in on a Friday night, and we went out to dinner and planned our week; I mostly just wanted to spend time with my sis, and cook in her fabulous new kitchen, sip tea while knitting and talking about knitting and planning our long-awaited knitalongs on numerous projects, and do other sisterly things like helping her clean out her closet, and sort through her yarn stash.  So we planned on staying in the city, taking long walks each morning, and seeing only a few special friends from law school days.

On Saturday, we woke up and took a walk down the hill towards the bay, to go shopping at the farmer's market outside the Ferry Building.  Once you walk about another block upwards from their house, this is the view to the bay:

You can see the Bay Bridge out there in the morning haze.

Hard to convey how steep these streets are.  I found out that going down is almost harder than going up; after awhile you really feel it in your thighs!

To the right, above, is the famous Transamerica Pyramid; the smaller building to the left is where I worked right after law school, where Morrison & Foerster used to be located.  We called it "Tweezer Towers" due to the funny little points on top.  I hated that first year of practice, and thought of it as "The Fortress of Doom," actually. 

The Ferry Building is a classic San Francisco landmark; you can see the tower at the base of California Street as you look towards the bay.  When my sister worked at Equity Office, she was part of the renovation project, which was a huge undertaking, but resulted in bringing a beautiful building to life again, rejuvenating an aesthetically beautiful structure and also turning it into a social hub.  The building contains a long aisle of retail spaces which are filled with purveyors of exquisite foods, spices, flowers, teas and coffees, kitchenware and ceramics, baked goods, and useful objects, and there are also a number of wonderful restaurants, like the Slanted Wall.  During the weekend, the outside walkways are transformed into a truly amazing farmer's market (which, considering the Northern California climate, remains bustling and well-supplied year-round), with every kind of edible growing thing you can imagine and many you've never seen before in your life.  

I loved these knitted dollies.  Made me feel like I should just quit lawyering and make toys for a living.  Although I'd have to sell them for a pretty penny, to be sure. 

Oysters on the half-shell...

An entire bakery of gluten-free pastries...

Very fancy mushrooms...

A sample of what a box might be if you join a farm cooperative and get weekly deliveries of local fruits and vegetables (I've ALWAYS wanted to do this, but since there is just me and Nathan in my household to cook for, and he has yet to meet a vegetable he likes, I think I would be a bit overwhelmed.)

As Merle Oberon said (as Cathy in Wuthering Heights, playing opposite Laurence Olivier), "Oh Heathcliff!  Fill my arms with heather!")

I mean, really.  So much beauty everywhere the eye falls.  Words just fail me.

Especially since I come from the winterlands of Minnesota, where color almost completely disappears from the world for half of each year.

This one in particular is just mesmerizing to me.  All of my favorite colors.  Just astonishing.

An ivy-covered snail...

or puppy.

We finished shopping for a very healthy dinner (salads of kale and heirloom tomatoes, fresh-caught tuna), and went for a walk to Paul's office south of Market.

I really like the public art downtown; very whimsical, a sign of a city that doesn't take itself too seriously.  Look at these funny heads - much less forbidding than the "Easter Island" variety!

A "human" tower;

A beautiful building - the photo doesn't capture the lovely dark green of the glass.

The lobby of Paul's new law firm (Utrecht & Lenvin); I really liked these paintings:

The blue, tilting roof of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in the background.

My favorite part of dinner - a coctail of blood orange juice and Lillet:

More, much more San Francisco delights, to follow!

So, Mar... What are you knitting?

Working on catching up on a LOT of overdue baby gifts.

First of all, Kirstin was kind enough to send me some photos of Sullivan modelling his new mouse-bedecked knits.  It is a good thing I knit fast - he is growing so quickly he almost grew out of them before I finished!

Here is an old-fashioned set for my friend Rob's little baby girl (from an old American School of Needlework pamphlet); I love the sunny yellow color!

 

And I'm making a bunch of these for recent babies of co-workers, just in time for Easter (from an old Debbie Bliss book called Nursery Knits; I modified the pattern to be smaller for newborns, and to make the ears shorter and more curly (I made the pink linings shorter, and when I sewed the ear backings on, I sewed together two rows of white for every one row of pink near the top).  I also made the ties thicker by working a row of slip stitches along the row of chain stitches. 

Next time I'll show you some of the knitalongs my sister, Renay and I have planned!

XOXOXO, Mar.

 

Crossing the Finish Line!

Believe it or not... I've completed my Knitting On Top of the World Knitathon Journey, with the completion of the very last project in the book:

The Great Plains Blanket Bag!

This was a fun knit-  two matching pieces of fair isle knitting for the front and back.  I wove in all the thread ends, seamed up the sides and bottom:

Then I put it in the washing machine in a zippered mesh bag in the hot water, in the cycle with the most agitation, let it spin to dry, and set it on top of some cardboard magazine boxes to dry for a couple of days:

Then I stitched on the buckle-style handles, stitched in a calico lining, and voila - it's done!

Nicky mentioned that mine came out a bit shorter than hers; maybe because I used a different yarn?  Or maybe that is just the way my gauge works out in felting.  I used the same exact yarn for the Shibori Blossom Bag, but that came out shorter as well. 

I really like the bag; it was a great hit at knitting night!  It will ouch me to auction this one away, for sure, but I think I will just make it again someday, and maybe knit it a bit longer so that the pattern on the bottom ends up on the front and back:

It is a bit of a shock, to be finished.  And work has been so crazy, I don't know that it has really sunk in.

I am planning on going to VK Live in November 1-3 at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago; I will bring all the pieces along; I think Nicky and I will do a session on the knitathon.  Nicky is going to ask Vogue Knitting if they might be able to assist me in publicizing an auction to sell most of the KOTOTW pieces to benefit Gilda's Club Twin Cities, Inc., the cancer support community center I've been working to help open here. 

One of the pieces (the Copenhagen Royal Shawl) is promised to my friend Sheri; and I think there are at least a few I won't be able to part with.  But I'm hoping to recoup at least the cost of the yarn for the rest of them (averaged about $100 an item), so that I can give the total amount to Gilda's Club. 

Which reminds me - if any of you out there have your heart set on a particular item, please let me know!  You'll be giving to a very good cause, and I'll be happy to have my knitted item end up in the hands of someone who has shared my journey on this blog!

What's Next?

Well, first I have a busy week, preparing to go out of town and visit my sister, Susan, in San Francisco for a week of vacation (YAY!)  As is always the case, the work sort of flies in the door just when you have made other plans, so I'm going to finish typing this, and then get started on a tenancy-in-common agreement and loads of closing documents for a closing that has to happen March 1, the Friday of the week I get back (sigh).

We are having a bit of a blizzard here, so Nathan and I are snowed in today.  It should quieten down by the evening, but I think I will work from home tomorrow and try to take care of my cold; I'd really like to be over the worst of it before I get on that plane Friday.

I have SO many knitting plans, I don't know where to start!  I might help Nicky with an additional piece or two for her new book, time permitting, once I get back from San Francisco; and then there is a looooooooooooong list of projects that I started before the KOTOTW knitathon which have been on hold for three years.  I have several gifts underway, including some cowls to make for my friends Michelle and Laurie (more on that later), and a whole slew of baby knits to make for presents.  I love making baby things; they go so quickly, and are always welcome gifts.

I made my assistant, Melissa, some fingerless gloves (an overdue Xmas gift):

I used the Garter Stitch Mitts by Ysolda Teague, and I embellished them with some i-cord ending in a Nicky leaf to make them a bit more interesting.  Melissa really liked them a lot, and I LOVED the yarn, called Zara Chine.  A really wonderful, 100% merino wool with a great deal of natural stretchiness.  This would be a perfect yarn to make the KOTOTW Cowl Collar Jumper out of, now that Classic Elite Bazic is no longer on the market.

I also finished this adorable set for my friend Kristin's new baby boy, Sullivan:

So cute!  This is the Mouse Nibbles Knitkit from Morehouse Farms; I loved the little mousies on the ties and hat tassel, and then booties to match!  I know Baby S. is growing fast, so I hope he gets to wear it at least once! 

Weekend in Stillwater, MN

I had a lovely weekend in Stillwater with my friends Michelle and Laurie; Michelle is also my cousin.  We have had such fun at our annual summer girlie weekends in Alma, Wisconsin, we decided we needed to add a winter weekend getaway this year.  I suggested Stillwater, because it is less than an hour away from the Twin Cities, a beautiful old town on the St. Croix River, and because it has lots of lovely shops, restaurants, and bed and breakfasts (as well as a great yarn store!)

We got into town on Friday evening, had a wonderful dinner, and repaired to our rooms at the Aurora Staples Inn, a beautiful house built in the 1800's by a father for his daughter, Aurora, who dutifully married the man her father chose for her (unlike another daughter, who received only a modest, tiny house a few blocks away).   It was named after Aurora's husband during her life, but the innkeepers renamed it in her honor. 

It was fascinating to learn of the home's long history.  The current innkeepers have filled it with authentic antiques from the turn of the prior century, but all the rooms are also equipped with their own whirlpool, making it more luxurious than it was back in Aurora's day.  The inn also serves an incredible 3-course breakfast each morning, which was quite a treat!  I will share some photos that give you some idea of the inn's beautiful ambience and style:

 

The other guests were all couples, one set of honeymooners and others just enjoying a romantic weekend getaway. Sigh.  I'm lucky I have girlfriends who will go on weekends like this with me.  Otherwise I wonder if I'd ever stay in a place like this, filled with such beauty and history. 

Michelle and Laurie are determined to get me dating again; Laurie gave us both a makeup lesson, and the two of them intend to do an online dating profile for me.  We even got into a conversation at a local bar/bistro, where we repaired for a late afternoon lunch of wine and cheese, with a couple in our age group, who regaled us with the story of how they met on Match.com.  Of course, he looked like a male model, and she was blonde, so I don't know that they were a representative sample.  But Mr. Handsome said he thought I was both pretty and hilarious (that might have been because I was drinking a gin and tonic rather than sipping wine...).  So maybe I should get going on that.  (Note to self - did I embark upon a knitting marathon to sidestep the dating issue?  Naaaaahhhh, I just really like to knit.  But, since I've now completed my journey, what is my excuse for living like a hermit?  Besides work, and raising my son, and more work, that is...)

We went shopping in downtown Stillwater; the main street runs parallel to the river.  We had to stop in at Darn. Knit. Anyway, their beautiful knitting store (I thought their giant knitted hearts in the side window were lovely.  Michelle and Laurie hadn't ever spent much time in a yarn store; I offered to knit them some cowls, and they picked out yarn and a pattern on Ravelry on the store's computer. 

We went to some boutiques, and they talked me into buying a hooded vest (very cute, knitted with a fur-edged hood.  It was on sale for less than it would have cost to buy the materials to make it!), and a black mesh over-top that they thought would look great over a silk top, leather skirt and boots for my (apparently imminent) dating life.  Oy.

We spent some time in an antique store; I realized that there is just a LOT of stuff in antique stores and that I don't have the patience or fortitude to dig through it to find the things that appeal to me, but I did notice an old knitting book:

Here is a little gazebo and a view of the old lift bridge; a new one is being constructed to help with traffic, which gets really bad in the summer months and ties up the main street.

Here's a beatiful old shopfront, with the original "saloon" windows.

Quilt By Renay!

Renay has this beautiful quilt entitled "Minnehaha Falls" in the current Textile Center show; it is made of fabric selvedges, the bound edges on either side of quilting fabric.  True to her pioneering Minnesota forebears, and waste-not, want-not nature, she has created something elegant from something others would have discarded:

Not sure if I showed you this yet; this is a recent picture of Anastasia, my Russian college student friend:

She is over the moon,as she was just accepted into a study-abroad program in China next fall!  China is one of the subjects she is studying, and I think the program also involves an internship in an American corporation, so she will get a chance to show her capabilities.  I'm so proud of her, as she is working so hard at her studies, and slowly building her future, block by block, all by herself.  You GO, girl!

We did have a knitting night this week but I somehow forgot my camera (as usual); Renay sent some pictures, so I'll follow up with those next time, which will probably be the weekend of Feb. 23 when I get back from San Francisco!

Stay warm out there!

XOXOXO,

Mary T.

 

 

 

SUCH Fun in NYC!

Hello.  I'm back from my whirlwind tour to New York to visit Nicky, to New Jersey to visit my parents, and to Massachusetts to visit my nephew.  Taking 11 days off of work in a row took its toll on my workload, however, so here it is, a full week later, but I am just now getting the chance to tell you about my travels!  I should get caught up at work by Valentine's day, just in time to get on a plane to visit my sister Susan in San Francisco.

I flew in to NYC around dinnertime on Saturday, January 12, and took a cab to meet Nicky at an Italian restaurant in Little Italy, arriving just in time for dessert (tiramisu - yum!).

Nicky's best friend, Jo, was visiting from Pennsylvania.  They have been friends since girlhood, and Jo is Nicky's right hand in so many waysm from assisting with her books (Jo both crochets and knits and has made many samples), helping with her website, etc.  Jo told us a story at dinner about her daughter's pet turtle, which her husband has sort of ended up adopting as his own.  Louise is an African sand turtle who started life out much smaller than her present weight of about 45 pounds (!)  As it turns out "Louise" is in fact a boy turtle, so now she/he is formally known as "Mister Louise."  Jo had us in stitches with stories about Mister Louise's adventures; once he got out of the house, found his way to the highway, and was "kidnapped" by some people who ran a booth at the state fair.  Joe ended up getting him back, but had to pay ransom money!  Here is a picture for you - amazing!  Mister Louise evidently has a vibrant personality, likes to be petted (it makes him wiggle his behind!), and spends his lazy days sunning on the sun porch and eating catcus from which the prickers have been removed:

That night, while Jo was finished crocheting a sweater for a "Knit Red" compilation book, I worked on finishing a baby surprise jacet for one of the dozens (literally) of new babies at work.  However, Nicky's niece just had a little girl, so I gave the sweater to her to give to her tiny new relative.  Have you ever made one of these?  This pattern, a classic from Elizabeth Zimmerman, is the darndest thing - when you are working on it, it doesn't appear to be taking the shape of anything like a jacket:

But then you fold it in a certain way, sew two seams along the top of the sleeves and shoulders, and voila!  It turns into a really lovely baby sweater:

And since it was for Nicky, I had to go grab her Knitted Embellishments book off the shelf and make a flower for it :D!

The next few days at Nicky's were really busy!  We had a lovely brunch on Sunday morning with Nicky's wonderful husband, Howie, and their handsome son, Scott, who was recently married, at one of their favorite local restaurants in Greenwich Village called Walter's.  I felt very spoiled!  Then we were dropped off at the Lion Brand Studio, where we scoped out yarns for Nicky's new book.  I always enjoy visiting that shop.  The store's window was incredible, as always, filled with knitted and crocheted wonders:

Here are some shots from the interior, and some other NYC window shots:

A great stairway wall decoration at Anthropologie (blue and white, my favorite!):

Extreeeemme high heels...

If you work or live in NYC and walk by windows like this every day, wouldn't your mind be swimming with patterns and ideas?

Staying with Nicky makes it abundantly clear that she works really, really hard at what she does, with multiple books and projects always under way, and future ones percolating in her mind.  I had such fun helping her pick out the yarn for an upcoming book.  Since I brought my iPad along, it was really easy to just go to various yarn company websites and look at colors and types of yarn.  I helped her order some yarns to sample for her new books, and am going to help her with some of the knitting, too (Yikes!  Everything has to be done by the end of March!)  Can you imagine, just calling up yarn companies and having them send you anything your heart desires?  The benefit of having one of your yarns featured in a sweater knit by a prominent designer is well worth it, I'm sure.  But for me, it was SO much fun to have Nicky ask, "What yarn do you really like using?" and then go pick out the right weight and color and just order it!  Nicky had some of the yarn mailed directly to my home so it would be there when I got back, and the yarn companies sent more than she asked for, I guess to make sure we wouldn't run out of the right dye lot. 

So far the first project with which I'm assisting is nearly finished (of course it is all really secret, so I can 't show you any pictures, but the yarn is pure silk with tiny paillettes which catch the light, and the piece has a sort of roaring-twenties,"Great Gatsby" feel to it... whee!). 

Since I arrive home, I have almost finished the first piece, knitted a swatch for the second piece, and mailed it to Nicky to make sure the fabric and gauge will be just right.  It was really a treat to watch Nicky's creative process, and to see how she plans out both individual patterns, even using the walls to post up planning sheets for each project to make sure that the whole book will "hang together" with colors that complement each other, without repeating a particular color or texture too much, etc.  FASCINATING!  We would get so into it, while watching old movies and laughing, sipping tea and knitting swatches and samples, that I don't think we got to bed once before 1 AM. 

Another big treat in staying at Nicky's house, is getting to see a little of New York. 

Here's a view from Nicky's balcony of the new Freedom Tower being built in the location of the former Twin Towers.

And the same view at night. 

A wonderful residential tower with walls that almost appear like they are billowing in the wind, like sails.

 

It was very balmy in New York, over 50 degrees!  Which felt heavenly.  It has been really, really cold since I returned, with some below-zero days, so I was extremely lucky to experience just a touch of springtime.

Nicky lives on the tip of Manhattan near Chinatown.  I miss Chinese food dreadfully in Minnesota; it was plentiful in San Francisco, but there isn't much in MN.  After I looked in the windows of the myriad Chinese restaurants with such yearning on our way home from little Italy that first night, Nicky spoiled me with Chinese food for the rest of my trip!  We had dim sum, roasted pork, dumplings, pork buns, noodles, rice dishes, you name it!  Even my favorite, garlic eggplant (which my sister and her son, Eric, used to call "Slimy Eggplant!")

Ahhhh bliss!  There is this little bakery down the street from her apartment that has these honey-glazed pork buns that will live on for centuries in legend and song --I am sure of it... YUM!!!

On Tuesday, Nicky let me come along to a photo shoot for a knitting book!  (It will come out in 2014, and it is a book of clothes for dolls, but that is all I can say...)  For each doll or set of dolls, the art director and her assistant literally created a little set, with different fabrics or wallpapers being used for the floor and backdrop, and props galore.  All the photography is digital, so the photographer would adjust the big white-umbrella thingies surrounding the lights just so, click a button, and the picture would appear on this big computer screen.  An assistant who uses Photoshop and other programs to adjust the pictures was on call all day, and would examine each shot to determine what she could and couldn't change or fix in editing.  Once the photographer confirmed that the empty "set" was just right, the art director and her assistant would add one of the dolls, whose clothing and accessories and hair had to be styled prior to the shot.  The dolls were wearing Nicky's designs (many of which I would give my eyeteeth to have in my own size) and also had accessories including leggings or tights, socks, shoes, hi-top sneakers, boots, jewelry, hats, hair toys, purses... unbelievable level of detail and care taken with each outfit.  The poor dollies had T-pins stuck in their heads which were connected to fishing line, and were tied up to poles to keep them in place for each shot.  The photographer's assistant would use either mirrors, white panels or black panels held by the side of each shot to reflect the light, sort of "sculpting" the shadows just right, while the photographer snapped away to judge the effect of each minute adjustment.  Needless to say, in an entire work day I think we only got seven or eight shots accomplished.   I honestly had NO IDEA the level of attention to detail and sheer hard work that is  involved to create each image in a knitting book.  You not only have to have an interesting picture; the stitches have to be visible, as someone is going to be looking at those pictures very closely for guidance in how to make the finished piece!  The art director said that human models were actually a bit easier because they can take direction and pose themselves; real-life models rarely fall over and knock down all the other delicately posed models (one shot with 5 dolls in it was insanely difficult!) 

I can't wait until the book comes out; I mostly just sat there all day keeping out of the way, knitting and helping when asked to iron a ribbon, or organize the breakfast order, or untangle a necklace, etc.  But I had an idea for the book's back cover that ended up getting shot!  I thought the resulting photograph was really funny and charming, and I'm so hoping that the editors decide to use it! 

There was a tile shop near the photographer's studio, with these two mannequins whose clothes were made entirely of tiles - amazing!  I could window-shop in New York for months. 

The three or so days at Nicky's just flew by in a flash; and then I took a car to the airport to pick up my rental car, to go visit my parents in New Jersey, and take them to Massachusetts.  My parents still live in the same house where I did most of my growing up; it is such a funny feeling to be back there.  I went on a little walk and took some pictures of the house:

And my best friend Amy Livermore's house (which used to seem so very far away, although it took me less than 10 minutes to walk there now):

And the elementary school:

And the playground and bikeracks (at least they finally replaced the playground equipment, but the bike racks, rusty and old, are the very same ones.  And I am 50 years old now.  Really, I think they ought to consider replacing them, too):

And the little path through the woods leading to the street where my parents still live:

Sigh.  So little changed after all this time. 

My parents are 80 now, and I'm concerned that they live so far away.  They are really connected to friends in their neighborhood, though, especially their next-door neighbors.  Mom has baby-sitted Ethan and Kelsie since they were tiny kids, and she taught Kelsie how to speak English before kindergarten:

I felt a little better after talking to their parents, Julio and Paiyee, who are also very attached to my Mom and Dad.  Mom has taught Paiyee how to cook some of her American favorites (chili and banana bread, and all kinds of cookies!), and they have become very close.  I now have their email and phone numbers so can reach them when I can't get a hold of Mom or Dad, and I'm going to try to do my best to honor their wish to stay in their own home for as long as possible.  But it is hard; I worry, I don't get a lot of time off from my job to travel, and I wish I could spend more time with them or help them out more.  

I was able to take them on a road trip to Massachusetts to see their grandson and my nephew, Eric, at Holy Cross in Worcester.  We had hoped to catch one of his last basketball games (he is a senior), but unfortunately he was recovering from a bad fall and didn't get to play.  (Although I really did want to go to VK Live in New York, it conflicted with the game, and I really didn't want to pass up the chance to have my parents see Eric play at least once.  I'm still hoping my Dad will catch one of his upcoming games in Pennsylvania, which wouldnt' be such a long drive for him.

We all had a lovely dinner together.  Since Mom and Dad were pretty pooped after the trip, so  they went off to bed, and Eric and I went to see a movie (Silver Linings Playbook - we loved it!).  He is a bit stressed about what comes next after undergrad; I'm hoping he can take a year to travel or at least live somewhere else and experience something unexpected.  He's thinking of grad school in journalism or education, and is seriously considering Minnesota (YAY!), which he has always really liked.  Maybe he can come to school for awhile out here and I can cook him lots of yummy borscht (his favorite!)  Maybe he will hit it off with Anastasia and they can both stay here forever!  Maybe I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself there...

Here's a cute picture of my parents with Eric:

I love how tiny he makes my mom look.  My dad is no shrimp; he was 6'4" in his prime, but Eric even makes him look short!

I just got back from a really fun girls' weekend in Stillwater, MN with my cousin, Michelle and my friend Laurie.  Next week I'll share some photos of the beautiful turn-of-the-century bed and breakfast where we stayed, and tell you a bit more about what's going on knit-wise!

(And no, I still have not finished project 50! And considering I've got some really crunching deadlines at work this week isn't looking good, either.  But I am hoping to get it finished before I head off to San Francisco on Feb. 15 - we'll see!)

XOXOXO, Mar