Amy Artisan

Family | Travel | Craft | Life | Books

Category: Knit (page 17 of 25)

The Changing Leaves

October 24, 2006 / / 8 Comments

One of the things I love about fall is the changing of the leaves. Shades of bright green start to fade, then brillant shades of red, orange, and yellow appear and then the leaves are just a pile on the ground. The memories of the previous spring and summer fade and you await the new growth in the coming spring.

Flying into Chicago on Saturday morning the forest preserves were patchworks of yellow, orange and red. Here at home, many of the trees have lost most of their leaves – this morning the street sweeper came down the street to clear out the big piles of dry leaves.

Down in Chattanooga the leaves aren’t quite as far along in their season change. The first weekend of October when I did a lot of mountain driving the mountains were covered in green with just a few spots of autumnal colors. This week as I drove through the mountains for the last time this year the patchwork quilt was vastly changed – not nearly as much green and a lot more reds and oranges.

As the leaves are changing this season, it is also a season of change for me as well.

So long Scenic City…for Now

Last week was my final week on the project down in Chattanooga. The 8-10 week assignment in May ended up lasting 23 weeks. It had been 4 years since I had a travel assignment for work and it was a bit of a rough start. In August my role in the project changed from wearing one hat to wearing lots of hats. As I’ve mentioned (and the lack of blogging since August indicates) my world became pretty crazy and work was close to all that was happening with me. In September the system went live, I worked an insane number of hours and in the midst of it also marked 10 years in consulting. In addition to learning a new software with this project I also learned a lot about me and how I work. I can honestly say that this was one of my favorite projects.

I look back on the last several months and while the “who practices some trade” side of Artisan was definitely the driving factor in my activities there are also some fun memories. One plus of the travel assignment was that I got to see my family much more than I normally do – at least one weekend a month I was down in the ‘Ville instead of coming back to Chicago. Another plus was forming some new friendships that will continue beyond the duration of the project.

When I first learned that I would be traveling I had grand plans for all the knitting that would happen – well, not nearly everything was accomplished & most of the knits were simple in nature. (Click to see the set) As I mentioned in my previous post, I did make it to a local yarn store once. Now that I’m back home, here are the yarn souvenirs that I picked up. I don’t know what projects these will become – the colors definitely remind me of a lot of the scenery that I saw around the Scenic City.

Hello Home…

Now that the Chattanooga project has wrapped up it is good to be back home. My next project will keep me in Chicago so I’m looking forward to getting back into a routine that doesn’t involve living out of a suitcase. I will be working downtown so I will have “El” commute time – it may involve knitting or maybe catching up on the stack of books that I have been wanting to read.

In the coming weeks and months I think that the “handicraft” side of Artisan will be done more frequently. The “Knit List” seems never ending with all the projects I want to complete – many are on the needles already – a lot of the projects I showed earlier this summer are still “in progress.” Scrapbooking has been pretty nonexistent this year – but I’m already looking ahead to the winter retreat weekend in January & all that I can accomplish then. And cooking…well after eating out 3 meals a day for 23 weeks I’m definitely ready to spend time in the kitchen. In fact, a friend is coming for dinner tomorrow & I’m looking forward to making a big pot of soup.

I’m enjoying a bit of downtime before the next project begins. Stay tuned for more blogging. I’m also looking forward to heading to Dallas this weekend to spend some quality time with Miss Butterfly & Miss Doodlebug!

Never Lost*

October 10, 2006 / / 9 Comments

* That’s the name of the navigation system found in some rental cars. And indeed, it came to the rescue.

As my recent lack of blogging has shown, I’ve been pretty close to “lost in my work” here in Chattanooga since early August. I’ve been away from Chicago for almost a month – supporting the live application here has meant working crazy hours – including weekends. In the midst of all the work I’ve enjoyed a few ‘adventures’ that have helped to keep me from becoming too lost in the work.

Two weekends ago my rental car was equipped with “Never Lost” – when I picked up the car on Friday afternoon my initial reaction was to the effect of “hmm..don’t need that.” Fast forward to Saturday afternoon when I left the office at 3:00 – it was a beautiful day, I had a couple of hours free before meeting up with friends for dinner – what to do? After picking up an Italian soda at a cute little cafe, I got in the car and headed across the river. I remembered that there was a yarn shop “over there” but didn’t know where & didn’t want to go back to the hotel to get online and look for it. Enter “Never Lost.” I pulled into a parking lot, turned the system on & searched for nearby specialty shops. About the 5th shop listed was “Genuine Purl” – so the car talked me to the location. I walked into a charming store overflowing with all sorts of beautiful yarns. Given the near exhausted state that I was in, in a word I was overwhelmed! I circled through the rooms & picked up all sorts of beautiful things. Even though I had projects back in the hotel room I wanted to pick up a simple project to start on that afternoon – after quite a bit of back & forth I picked up a fun variegated yarn for a simple ribbed scarf. As yarn souvenirs I picked up a lovely green Malabrigo yarn and also some Claudia’s Hand Painted Yarns in a colorway that reminds of some Scenic City scenery – the river and the mountains. (No pictures yet)

I left the yarn store with a smile on my face and a bag full of pretty yarn. I still had some time left to my afternoon – so I parked at the river front park, found a park bench, turned on my iPod & cast on for the scarf. An hour of good tunes, being outside, watching the boats on the river & the back & forth of the ribbed scarf were just what I needed.

I still wasn’t ready to head back to the hotel so I got in the car and did some mountain driving – up and down Lookout Mountain. I had been along that route once before and the vintage signs for Rock City really did help ensure I was “Never Lost” while on the curvy mountain roads. The autumn sun through the tree leaves (some of which were just starting to change colors) made for beautiful scenery.

This serendipity Saturday was capped off with dinner with new friends. We went to a new Thai restaurant that is owned by a couple of people that work at my client site. Royal Thai is a great place – if it were closer to downtown I would be there a lot more frequently.

That Sunday my parents were in town while heading back to GA from a weekend getaway. We explored the town, had a great brunch at Lookout Mountain Cafe and did a lot of driving through the mountains – it was another beautiful day & we all enjoyed the sun, the trees, the start of fall leaves.

This past weekend I didn’t have to be in the office so I headed down to the ‘Ville to hang out with the family. No big plans – just lots of little things – sleeping in till 8AM, my kitty snuggling under the covers with me, Mom’s home cooking, a bit of shopping, watching a classic musical (Oklahoma) and all of us humming songs the rest of the weekend. On Sunday evening I had dinner with a college roommate on the northside of Atlanta before coming back up to Chattanooga – it was great to catch up with Kelly & reconnect with a dear friend. The simple pleasures of this weekend were a “homegrown” version of Never Lost that pulled me back from the depths of work overload.

Still very little to report on the knitting front. To my swaps pals, I haven’t been lost – just a bit off the “normal” path.

My time in Chattanooga is probably wrapping up soon – I look forward to being back home, back on the blog and back involved with the parts of my life that have recently been put on hold while being “lost in work.”

Making Stitches…

August 20, 2006 / / 9 Comments

After last weekends’ fun at Stitches Midwest, this weekend has turned into another one filled with yarn fun – this time it was more focused on turning yarn into stitches.

On Friday morning I was on the 6:28 AM flight from Chattanooga back to Chicago. Since I couldn’t bring coffee on board to keep me awake, my iPod & current travel knit project kept me awake on the flight & I continued to make great progress on this secret knit. Recently I’ve seen several knit bloggers asking about any travel restrictions concerning knitting needles – since 9/11 I’ve never had a problem bringing my knitting on board with me. My only tip is to travel with a project/needles where you wouldn’t mind surrendering the needles if you have to – the TSA website says that ultimately it is up to the screener to allow your needles through. My current travel project is on needles that have no sentimental value. The sash belt that I’m working on is on size 3 needles that once belonged to my Grandma – so for the time being it stays in the desk drawer in Chattanooga on the weekends because I wouldn’t want to lose those needles.

The last couple of weeks at work have been rather intense & nonstop – knitting has truly been a sanity saver. My travel projects are small so when I’m home on the weekends I’m focusing on larger projects.

After the felting fun of the pink clutch (which my sister received for her birthday) I immediately started on another felt project – this time a larger tote bag for me. This is 2 shades of chocolate/dark brown, 1 shade of turquoise and the terra cotta that I picked up last weekend. Round & round…this project doubled in size while I was home this weekend.

The Mason-Dixon Knitting mania continues – I have started on the Absorba bathmat for me. This is my first time doing the log cabin style and I’m having a lot of fun with it. So far, my hands aren’t sore from the knitting – but since I’m alternating between several projects I’m hoping to finish the mat without the aching hands that seem to be experienced by a lot of Absorba knitters. This is 3 colors of Sugar’n Cream yarn on size 13 needles.

I’ve also started another project from One Skein – the felted bowls. This is some Lambs Pride Bulky that I originally bought for a felted bag – but I just couldn’t get excited about the colors in a bag. So far, a simple knit. The only “shock” has been the cost of the size 15 double point needles – but I figure that you don’t need multiples sets of this size & now I’ve got my set for the long haul.

Since I picked up Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles I decided to try it again – the Koigu from last week is now working it’s way towards becoming socks.

I put down the needles for a little bit on Saturday afternoon to go to Arcadia Knitting for their first yarn swap. It was a fun time – I emptied my stash of a few leftovers (plus donated a lot of Lions Brand Homespun and Boucle to a charity) and picked up some fun yarns.

While at Arcadia I also met two Chicago Knit Bloggers that I’ve read – hi Dana and Susan! It was great to meet both of you & hopefully I’ll see you at another knit event soon.  

Assorted odds & ends…
– I finished reading The Memory Keeper’s Daughter last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. This book has received a lot of hype about being “THE” summer read – some of the “must reads” in past years I have found to be disappointing but that wasn’t the case this time. I would definitely recommend this one to you. I’m pretty sure it will make the rounds among my reading pals.
– It has been a while since we’ve had an installment of “Sally Says” – the album getting the most play on the iPod these days is KT Tunstall’s Eye to the Telescope.
– Dinner last night was from a new Italian cafe here on the Northside of Chicago…Ventrella’s Caffe (4947 N. Damen). The Caprese Panini tasted garden fresh & the hazelnut gelato was a tasty memory of the time in Italy last summer. I will definitely be back there again!
– I’ve joined a couple of new swaps: KnitFlix, International Scarf Exchange 3, Dishcloth Shuffle – I’m definitely looking forward to these fun exchanges. (Sorry, I think all of these are closed now.)

In Stitches…

August 14, 2006 / / 24 Comments

Indeed…this is another post recounting a Stitches Midwest experience…

When I first got my Stitches brochure earlier this spring I circled several classes that I was interested in taking & thought it would be fun to take a day off from work to knit/learn. I never got around to registering…then I was assigned to this project in Chattanooga…I ended up not being able to fly home to Chicago till Friday evening & would have had to cancel out of any weekday classes. So, I was excited to go to the Market on Saturday – it was a fun way to decompress from the work week. I picked up my fellow knit gals, Jen & Kristy, at 11:30 & we headed out to Rosemont. At about 12:15 we hit the market & our immediate reaction was “Wow!”

First up was a stop by the Black Water Abbey Yarns booth. My Knitting Vacation Swap pal, Judy, was in from Colorado to help at the booth – so I met my first knit blogger. It was fun to finally put a face with a name & blog adventures. (I would have snapped a picture of us, but there were lots of “no photos” signs everywhere.)

 (Larger pictures are linked here…1. yarnlady 2. sitnknit 3. knittingnell 4. buttons 5. sockstuff 6. brooksfarms 7. angoracottage 8. blackabbey)

Over the course of several hours we made our way through all the aisles of the market. We didn’t stop in every booth – but collectively made plenty of “oohs & aahs” about what we saw. At the end of the day, my bag was full with these goodies:

  1. From Yarn Lady in California – A terra cotta color Cascade 220 that will be added to the felted tote bag currently on the needles; 2 balls of super soft Oh My! yarn from Plymouth – when I picked this up (before seeing the yarn name) my reaction was “oh wow” so it is aptly named; as we were standing in line to check out they were apologetic for the wait so we also received their logo travel mug.
  2. Next up was a visit to the Sit & Knit booth – this time I got to meet Kim, the owner of our charming Michigan knit spot. In their booth was Shaun, the owner of Catalina Yarns who was showcasing some new colors and a great new Trinity Jacket pattern. I picked up some of the Baby Alpaca Chunky in the new deep purple color and some Baby Pima in a sage color and also got a free pattern book with the purchase.
  3. Just last week Wendy posted about a cute new children’s book from Julie Jersild Roth – Knitting Nell. In the hotel that evening I went to Julie’s website & was charmed by the storyline and illustrations – I filed it away as a good gift for Miss Butterfly. Julie was at the show autographing copies of the book so Miss Butterfly now has a personalized copy to be gifted at a future time.
  4. Color in Stitches was a beautiful booth of buttons, beads and more. (Their website isn’t live yet.) I picked up 2 beautiful porcelain buttons that will be fun to incorporate into projects. I also got a fun fabric covered button that I think may end up on a cotton tote bag.
  5. At a Wisconsin yarn shop booth (name escapes me) I picked up 2 skeins of Koigu in a lovely turquoise & white colorway – this booth had the best price on Koigu that I saw at the show. I also picked up Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles by Cat Bordhi – I haven’t done much on socks since the quick class in May so I though this would be a good way to get serious about them again.
  6. From Brooks Farm Yarn – 1 orphan skein of Primero in a purples/yellows/white colorway; 1 skein of their limited edition Silk/Superwash in a greens/browns/blues colorway. As I was paying for my selections I commented on the great service I had received from them earlier this year – I wanted to order the “Amy” colorway & they were out of it, when it was back in stock Dena emailed to let me know it was available. It turns out that Dena was the one at the counter and she asked if I was the Amy that had ordered “Amy.” Indeed I was – don’t know what that yarn will become.
  7. From Black Water Abbey Yarns – a skein of their new Seafoam colorway – so pretty!
  8. From Angora Cottage – a beautiful delicate skein of green wool/tencel that was spun with iridescent brown beads by Kristen, the owner. I’m thinking of a “fancier” scarf for my camel wool coat with this one.

At the end of the day we were exhausted from trekking through the market, thrilled with our purchases and excited to get knitting again. In fact Saturday evening we were all knitting while watching DVDs. I’ve started a project with one of these skeins – but it is a secret knit that won’t be revealed for a while.

My Saturday started with a great mail package – my Flip Flop Swap goodies from Jeremy.

 

What a treat! All of the goodies were in the clear turquoise tote (which is now in use as a travel bag for dealing with the planes) – some soft ivory flip flops with a bit of butterfly bling; orange Wheaties flip flops; some flip flop notecards; turquoise & silver stitch markers; a skein of Lana Grossa Meilenweit Color Tweed in a summery colorway of turquoise, blues & greens; and a great read set in Chicago, The Time Traveler’s Wife – where the story flip flops through time. This was a great book club discussion and I have been wanting to reread it since seeing “The Lake House” earlier this summer & I think my loaned out copy may have gotten lost. Thanks Jeremy for spoiling me with all these goodies – it was great to have this treat box waiting after the last 2 weeks of work!

 

Of Bibs & Books

August 7, 2006 / / 11 Comments

One of the things that I have always liked about the “Grandma’s favorite” dishcloth pattern is the simplicity of it. You don’t have to think – your hands can just knit & your brain doesn’t even have to be “on” in order to make progress. Even with the larger baby blanket size of the pattern it still “moves.” A new “simple knit” favorite is the Baby Bib in the Mason Dixon book – a bit of “garter stitch back and forth” and before you know it you’re looking for a cute button to finish off a cute gift.

While at my parents house in GA this weekend I whipped up 2 bibs. On Sunday afternoon Mom & I searched through her button tin as well as my Grandma’s tin – in addition to finding great buttons for these bibs I also pulled out several buttons to use on future bibs. The Faded Denim bib will be gifted by my sister to Baby Jackson. The Cool Breeze bib does not yet have a recipient but is ready to gift at a moment’s notice.

Â

The weekend with the family was lowkey and just the recharge I needed from a stressful week. As a thunderstorm rolled in on Saturday afternoon I finished up my latest summer read – The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw. Another very enjoyable book – the story of a Malaysian man in the 1940s - told through the eyes of the son, the wife and a loyal friend.

I’m now reading “this summer’s book” – The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. So far it is an engaging read. In fact, I had to force my self to turn out the light last night because I knew the alarm would come quickly at 4:30 this morning (and it did).

I’m planning to make it to the Stitches Midwest Market on Saturday afternoon – anyone else going to be there then & want to meet up?

« Older posts Newer posts »

Archives

Meta

Pages

© 2024 Amy Artisan

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑