Current Inspiration:

May 2011 Currently uninspired. Been feeling that way a while now…
April 2010 Taxes are finally done, so I can start thinking about knitting again. I’m casting on a lace tablecloth VERY soon! Lace lace lace!!!
March 2010. Recently joined the Celtic Art Lovers group here. Hopefully it will light a fire under my uninspired arse. :)
February 2010… What is inspiration, anyway? It’s overrated.
January 2010 Shawls. Stoles. Wraps of all kinds. Laceweight wool. I love it! I want to knit a shawl for everyone I know and a few I don’t! I started the Panama Shawl Mystery KAL Dec. 24th with Knit Picks Shadow and I have fallen in love. Completely and utterly in love. I want to start putting my own together now, I’m so enamored. And make a few Nieblings out of laceweight. I’m going to use KP Alpaca Cloud next and then hopefully KP Shimmer. Love it!!
December, 2009: I’m kind of floundering right now. No clear inspiration or destination. Have a lot of little stuff I need to finish up. No fun. Will try to keep plogging along on my bigger projects. Not sure what direction my knitting will take next.
November, 2009: Knitting for kids! kids! and more kids! And babies! My own, nephews, cousins’ babies, and all kind of shirt-tail relation!! Gotta love ‘em!!
October, 2009: Kelley Petkun and her You-Tube instructionals- Socks, Socks, and more Socks!!! and color changing yarns- Noro Kureyon Sock is my most recent purchase: want to try a stranded colorwork shawl (like Thistle by Needle Lady) or an entrelac shawl or Swallowtail Shawl with it. Looks fun!
September, 2009: All things Fair Isle! I finally figured out who I want to be when I grow up! Alice Starmore or Meg Swansen!
August, 2009: Babies, Babies, Babies!!! I was really thinking I was knitting all this baby stuff for others. Found out I was pregnant after I already miscarried. :( Happened same day as Hubby’s Grandpa died. Wow, what a crappy day.
Spring, 2009: I found Fresh Knit Doilies by Larisa Scott (Leisure Arts #3893) at my local Five-and-Dime and have been introduced to a whole new world that I didn’t know existed. I searched ‘lace knitting’ on Ebay about 2 months ago and was completely blown away. I had never heard of Herbert Niebling, and all the other great lace designers (that I can’t remember the names of right now because I’m tired). I can’t really believe there is such beauty in the world made by human hands. I knew it existed in fauna and flora, but I didn’t know it could be translated into a flat, meshy mass of tangles and be transformed into something that would just absolutely make you gasp and pee your pants. My current goal in life right now is to try my hand at making my own designs. I’m sure it will result in hilarity and hair pulling, but I think I’m ready. If I could only get my 4 year old to stop talking for a few more minutes a day, I may be able to knit a test swatch once in a while… I really want to design and knit doilies and tablecloths… I am smitten!

Techniques I’ve used as of 6/7/10: (Stole this idea of the list from ishwishdish. Cool idea! The one’s I’ve used are in bold type.)
Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Socks: 2 at a time
Knitting with camel yarn (I have some- now to knit it!)
Mittens: Cuff-up (they were fingerless)
Mittens: Tip-down (they were fingerless)
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Duplicate stitch
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Household items: dishcloths, washcloths, hand towels, tea cosies, placemat, coaster…
knitting socks- or other small tubular items- on two circulars
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Teaching a male how to knit (taught a guy how to crochet in high school)
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug (crocheting one currently)
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

I’m adding:
Knit doily: size 10, size 20, size 30, size 40, size 70 or 80 thread
Knit tablecloth: size 10, size 20, size 30, size 40, size 70 or 80 thread
kitchener stitch
crochet

(ishwishdish’s notes: ‘And a final challenge that I think would be fun: to knit every free pattern on page 1 of “most projects” in the advanced search.’ I’ll have to consider that for a little while longer. :))

Favorite Poem:
What is Black?

Black is the night
When there isn’t a star
And you can’t tell by looking
Where you are.
Black is a pail of paving tar.
Black is jet
And things you’d like to forget.
Black is a smokestack
Black is a cat,
A leopard, a raven
A high silk hat.
The sound of black is
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
Echoing in
An empty room.
Black is kind-
It covers up
The run-down street,
The broken cup.
Black is charcoal
And patio grill,
The soot spots on
The window sill.
Black is a feeling
Hard to expain
Like suffering but
Without the pain.
Black is licorice
And patent leather shoes
Black is the print
In the news.
Black is beauty
In its deepest form,
The darkest cloud
In a thunderstorm.
Think of what starlight
And lamplight would lack
Diamonds and fireflies
If they couldn’t lean against
Black….

by Mary O’Neill
published in A New Treasury of Children’s Poetry by Joanna Cole

8/28/09 Copied this survey from the Wildflower KnitWits Group. They have a thread where each responder copied it and filled it out. Seemed like fun info to include here.

How long have you been knitting? since I was about 15 or 16

Who taught you to knit? I learned from books and pamphlets. Better Homes and Gardens or Singer or something like that, probably. Whatever book Mom had around at the time. When I asked Mom to teach me, she said “Figure it out yourself. When I was a young married woman and was trying to learn, I couldn’t figure it out, so your Dad took a look at it, figured it out and taught me. (He was used to braiding leather and rawhide from drawings, so comprehended the drawings faster, according to her.) You have his genes, you should be able to get it. And if you can’t- call your Aunt Caroline. She is a knitting master.” Well, I figured it out and never called my Aunt Caroline. I wish I would have, now. Maybe I wouldn’t have wasted so many years practicing on dishcloths and large gauge scarves.

What was the 1st item you knit? I really have no clue. No memory of that at all.

What was the last item you knit? To completion (washed, blocked and given away)? Lille Rund Serviet Doily. Actually took a stitch in? EZ’s February Baby Sweater last night. I bound it off, but may have to frog a sleeve because of gauge differences.

Do you have any UFO’s? Like about 20 or so. Not exactly sure. They aren’t all on here. They keep floating to the surface, and getting recorded as they are found. Wish finishing them was as easy as recording them. Sometimes they get lost again before they are recorded.

Do you have a favorite yarn? I like ALL yarn, unfortunately.

Do you have a favorite fiber? Anything natural. But that isn’t what I have, maybe that’s why I appreciate it so much. I shop at my local thrift store and have a tendency to buy any yarn they have. Have to stop that. I have been hoarding blues and black and green for the Grandmother’s Flower Garden crocheted afghan, but knitting is just so much more fun- so it may be repurposed into a knit granny afghan.

Favorite kind of needle? I like ALL needles. But I like KP Harmony for doing the center of doilies and the toes of socks. But then I switch to KP Nickel Plate Circs for speed and ease of use.

Do you have a yarn stash? I think it is reproducing among itself. I’m actually glad it’s having that much fun! My bedroom vomited it all over the living rooom a while back, and it’s still there! I have a very tolerant husband. He’s unbelievable. But it is getting a new home in some wire basket type shelving in the spare room soon. Just need to beef up the frame of that before I load it up.

How much time do you spend knitting in a week? Anywhere from zero to 15 hours- it all depends. Mostly on my mood, energy level, and what else is going on.

Oceans apart day after day And I slowly go insane I hear your voice on the line But it doesn’t stop the pain If I see you next to never How can we say forever Wherever you go Whatever you do I will be right here waiting for you Whatever it takes Or how my heart breaks I will be right here waiting for you…

(Flower photos from our own garden - except for the rainbow rose :D … misc from Facebook. :P)

Ran into this poem on Facebook… my Mom would have absolutely adored it. I sure do.
Child and Mother
Eugene Field

O mother-my-love, if you’ll give me your hand,
And go where I ask you to wander,
I will lead you away to a beautiful land,--
The Dreamland that’s waiting out yonder.
We’ll walk in a sweet posie-garden out there,
Where moonlight and starlight are streaming,
And the flowers and the birds are filling the air
With the fragrance and music of dreaming.

There’ll be no little tired-out boy to undress,
No questions or cares to perplex you,
There’ll be no little bruises or bumps to caress,
Nor patching of stockings to vex you;
For I’ll rock you away on a silver-dew stream
And sing you asleep when you’re weary,
And no one shall know of our beautiful dream
But you and your own little dearie.

And when I am tired I’ll nestle my head
In the bosom that’s soothed me so often,
And the wide-awake stars shall sing, in my stead,
A song which our dreaming shall soften.
So, Mother-my-Love, let me take your dear hand,
And away through the starlight we’ll wander,--
Away through the mist to the beautiful land,--
The Dreamland that’s waiting out yonder.