Oooh, Fun! A Giveaway

No, I'm not giving anything away. Right now, times are tough, and I'm holding onto my stash for dear life.  But enough about me...

Loves 2 Knit is giving away some gorgeous yarn.  If you love to knit, and you love yarn (who doesn't?!), then go enter the contest!  First prize is 10 skeins of cashmere -- that's expensive stuff, not to mention it feels so-o-o-o good! See?

http://loves2knit.com/loves2knit.com/c/username/yessamaa74

Click. Go. Enter.  If I can't win, I hope at least that someone who reads my site will.

Recommended Read for Knitters (or Not)

I just finished reading a book that had me giggling out loud, and often.  Here is the official description: "For every woman who has ever dreamed of starting over, or being a better mother, or just knitting a really nice scarf . . .  Jo Mackenzie needs a fresh start. Newly widowed with two young sons and a perilous bank balance, she leaves the bustle of London to take over her beloved Gran's wool shop in her sleepy seaside hometown. There, she finds unexpected comfort in a "Stitch and Bitch" knitting group that meets every week to trade gossip and, occasionally, a new stitch. When a new man enters Jo's life, the knitting club has even more trouble confining the conversation to knit one, purl two. The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club is an uplifting, winning tale about the healing power of friendship and new beginnings."

That's hardly enough information to make a person want to read this book, so how about this: The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club had me giggling aloud and often.  There isn't a whole lot of plot outside of the main character's learning how to live again and making new friends after becoming a widow and moving to the beachside town where she grew up, but the characters themselves more than make up for that.  Jo is very believable -- she has many of the same doubts that so many women do, and her emotions sometimes take over, but her sense of humor comes through at just the right times.  Her best friend Ellen is a riot, and just the kind of devil-may-care best friend every woman wishes for.  What's more, a mega-star actress moves into town at about the same time Jo does, and they forge an unlikely, but strong, friendship.  The other ladies with whom she surrounds herself have their own little eccentricities, but each seems to provide exactly what Jo needs at the time.  Add in her two young boys, an out-of-control dog, family members that define dysfunctional, and a shabby but comfortable home, and the situations in this novel feel very realistic.  However, it's the British outlook on life and phraseology that kept me wanting more.  I would also say that because the knitting is not the focus of the novel, it is just the thread (ha!) that holds it together, non-knitters would enjoy this fun book too.

I recommend it when you're in the mood for a light-hearted read.

Dragging My Feet

I've hardly been knitting at all this past week, though I definitely need to be doing so.  And therein, I think, lies the problem. Rebecca Danger said it best in her latest post, "I am spending my days dreaming of all the things I would like to be knitting instead of those things I have to be knitting."  Granted, she's knitting pieces for her next book, and I'm only knitting pieces that I want to give as Christmas gifts (only 70 more days!).  Still, the sentiment is the same.

It feels a lot like when I was in school (from grade school all the way through my two years earning my master's degree): I love to read.  In fact, the one thing I got in the most trouble about when I was growing up was being sneaky and reading after everyone had gone to bed... sometimes until two or three o'clock in the morning.  Yet, when a teacher assigned a book which had to be read by a certain date, I procrastinated and whined and complained and then was in a tizzy trying to complete the assignment.  Often, I would end up absolutely loving the assigned book (and in fact, I myself assign many of them to my students now), but the idea of being made to do something caused me to balk.  The same was true in college, especially when I reached the point that I was taking only the English and literature classes which were the focus of my degrees: I was assigned sometimes three books per week to read and to write papers about, and I turned into a petulant brat about my situation.  However, during my breaks from school, I would pick up the latest Anne Rice novel and devour it in a night or two.

And so it is now with my knitting.  I'm dutifully trudging along, making progress on my Christmas knits, but what I really want to do is to work on an afghan pattern I recently fell in love with, or to pick up my Noro Kureyon and find and start a pattern which will show off its gorgeous colors.  *sigh*  That petulant brat is rearing her ugly head again.  Perhaps she needs a time out.

I Missed It

Whether you knit, crochet, craft or just adore fiber, October 14th is the day to affirm your passion for yarn.  Show it off, tag with it, carry it, gather with friends. Declare your LOVE! Get involved.

Create an I Love Yarn Day badge

Teach someone to knit or crochet

Do something for charity

Wear a knitted or crocheted item

Give a gift of yarn

Take your yarn to work day

Host a yarn-a-bration party

Knit, crochet and craft in public

I read about it on Facebook the night before and got all excited about doing something to celebrate "I Love Yarn Day," especially since I've not knitted at all this past week.  I made plans to cast on my next Christmas gift, either another monster (this time for a precious one-year-old girl), or a pair of super fuzzy slipper socks for my cousin.  However, I had to stay at school two hours late for my daughter's first basketball practice of the season.  After that, I dropped her off at her grandparents' house to spend the night and stayed longer than I wanted chit-chatting with the in-laws.  Then, my darling hubby took me to eat at our favorite cheap Mexican hole-in-the-wall, and I had a jumbo margarita... which got me tipsy (I don't drink much)... and then I went to bed.  I wasn't able to think about yarn and/or knitting, after all.  I missed "I Love Yarn Day."  Poo.

I'm going to try to make up for it tonight, and I'll be sure to participate next year.  Maybe I'll even knit in public!  Ooooooooh!

75 Days

Today I created a Christmas countdown timer for my computer's desktop background, and it told me that there are only 75 days until Christmas!!!  I have all these wonderful ideas for projects I want to create and give as Christmas gifts this year (thank you, Pinterest), but 75 days doesn't sound like a whole lot of time.  I'm going to have to kick it into high gear.

Thank goodness, I did start and finish another gift last week:

My aunt is crazy about sock monkeys, so this cup/can cozy was made for her.  I found the pattern on Ravelry, and other than having to work some little bitty pieces, it was simple... and I think it turned out to be too cute!

Another Monster Made

It took a little less than a month for me to start and finish knitting my latest monster.  That's pretty good for me, but it's not going to be good enough if I'm going to do all the Christmas knitting I want to do.  I'm going to have to speed up to finish it all in 83 days!  That sounds like a long time now, but I know it will be here before I have time to really think about it.

Still, I'm proud to have my first knitted Christmas gift finished.  I used Rebecca Danger's Bea the Basement Monster pattern from her The Big Book of Knitted Monsters, but I modified it a little bit.  I left the ears off and added flowers (the one on the "chest" area was to hide a pull in the yarn I used, and the one on her head was just for cuteness).  I'm also renaming this monster; from henceforth, she will be called "Clarissa the Classroom Monster," as she is a gift for my cousin, a first-year public school teacher who is getting broken in big time by her students.  I hope this cute monster will help make her smile.

Socktober?

I'm SO glad to see October arrive.  This is the month when the weather in the Deep South finally changes from "instant lip sweat and three showers per day" (and that begins in May, by the way) to weather that resembles what the rest of the United States has during the summer.  In October we have daytime highs in the low 80s with low humidity (a miracle!) and nights that are about 55 degrees; it's my favorite weather, the weather I grew up with in California, so October makes me feel kind of homesick, even though Mississippi has been my home for 23 years now.  I find that I want to "nest" in October.  I want to cook, bake, clean, and most of all, I want to craft.

I knit like a fiend in October; it's the month when I do the most knitting all year long.  I get this crazy notion that I have all the time in the world or that I have endless stores of energy.  But the sad truth is, I still have to work eight hours a day, I still have to help my daughter with homework, I still have to feed my family and take care of various other daily chores, I still must get ready for the next day's work (which often includes hours of grading papers at home), and worst of all I still have to sleep!  That only leaves an hour or two for knitting most nights, but I have several other hobbies as well.  This is when I mess with my husband and tell him, "You know, if I'd married for money instead of love, I wouldn't have to work, and I could knit all day long."  :)

I've decided this year, since our finances are hurting as it seems the rest of America's are, that I'm going to knit several Christmas gifts.  I'm nearly finished with the first one -- a Rebecca Danger monster for a cousin who is a first year teacher and needs a cute friend to make her smile.  After that, I want to make at least 2 more monsters, a sock-monkey cup cozy, and a pair of slippers.  That's very ambitious for me, as I'm a pretty slow knitter (I tend to get sleepy when I knit because it's so relaxing).  Still, I'm considering adding one more project this month... I want to participate in Ravelry's Socktoberfest!

I have yet to finish my first pair of socks, let alone my first single sock, but I'm DYING to join up with this.  However, I know that I'm already pushing myself to get all the Christmas knitting I've set out to do finished.  Not only that, this week I will start the research paper process with my 31 junior English students, and that will take up a great deal of my evening leisure time from now to December.  So, do I join in the festivities?  Do I take on one more project?