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Category: Reflections (page 6 of 8)

Ice, Ice…

February 25, 2007 / / 22 Comments

…Baby…

(Sorry, couldn’t help myself – as soon as I thought of “ice, ice” for this title ‘that song’ from my high school days became an earworm…)

As this week progressed with work I really didn’t know what I would blog about next. I was on the road again and it was a milestone week that meant late nights at the office – I think on average I wasn’t back to the hotel before 8:00 each evening. And by that point in the day/evening I was too tired to even do dishcloth knitting. I got home Friday evening and my hands were ready to knit. I looked through my current projects & picked up “gasp” the sock that has been in progress since last fall – a continued attempt at “Socks Soar…” that started with a class last May and continued with the purchase of Cat’s book and Koigu at Stitches Midwest.

Over Thanksgiving I had knit the leg and was now ready to start the fun parts. On Friday evening I knit the heel flap and then read the instructions for turning the heel and picking up the gusset stitches – the instructions just weren’t clicking with me so I planned to stop into Arcadia Knitting on Saturday for a bit of help.

On Saturday I had a full list of errands planned. The plans quickly got changed when my mechanic told me that in addition to the scheduled oil change I needed another 3-4 hours worth of work done – with all of the long distance driving that I am doing these days it was a “no brainer” to have the additional work done. I had a bag filled with a couple of books, a Sodoku book and some knitting – a few dishcloths and the “on hold sock.” After a while I picked up the sock & book and decided to give the instructions a try – the first attempt at turning the heel didn’t work so I ripped it back out and tried again – this time it worked & so I kept going. By the time my car was ready I had turned the heel, picked up the gusset stitches, finished the gusset and was about 1/3 of the way done with the foot. As I started each new section of the sock I think I was smiling just a bit more. Knitting for several hours in the waiting area of the mechanic’s shop generated several interesting conversations – the woman who learned to knit (scarves only) a couple years ago when trying to quit smoking, the retired gentleman who remembers going to a football game with his mother who knit through the entire game (including a 98 yard kick-off return) and the store manager who remembered his mother finding the time to make sweaters for all 5 kids while he was growing up.

The knitting continued while waiting for a car wash. After all the errands were done I came home and kept going on the sock. The winter storm started here in Chicago (ice #1) and the sound of the ice hitting the window and the color of the sock yarn (ice #2) inspired the title for this entry.

By last night I had almost completed the foot. By the time I finished up The Illusionist today I was ready to graft the toe. Screech! That’s were the instructions in the book were a bit lacking – to the effect of “if you need help with grafting check out one of the reference books in the appendix.” A quick visit to knittinghelp.com provided me with the tutorial that I needed – in no time I had kitchenered the toe & wove in the ends.

Sock Details

Yay – a sock! I quickly ran outside to take pictures of the sock in the ice/snow (and rain).

Icy Socks

I’ll be casting on for the 2nd sock this evening & can’t wait to wear the full pair.

Soaring Sock Progress

The details:
Pattern: Simple Sock in Three Sizes from “Socks Soar…” – I knit the ladies size. Koigu #P905 on Addi Turbos size 2, 24″ long

When I picked up this yarn last summer the colors reminded of tropical waters – in the winter the colors now seem icy, and the blue/white is perfect for Project Spectrum.

Four years ago this month I took my first sock class (on double point needles) where I finished a sock and just barely started (but never finished) the 2nd sock from that project. Last spring I had hoped that socks would be my travel project for all of the time in Chattanooga. As I’ve mentioned, that didn’t happen. With my renewed interest in knitting in the past year I was frustrated that socks just didn’t seem to be in my project list – even though I had lots of pretty sock yarn and wanted to knit socks with it. Since being back from Chattanooga I have been trying new things with my knitting – different stiches with my so called scarf, the afterthought thumb with my Fetching pairs, and short rows with my Calorimetry. The time had come to conquer socks. With as crazy as the work week was for me I’m still in awe of the fact that I was able to wrap my head around the sock this weekend and get this finished!

OK, enough reflecting on knitting – time to wind the remaining skein and cast on for #2! Well, maybe one more bit of knit wit…

Knit Wit!

Friday Night Knitting Club

January 6, 2007 / / 21 Comments

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In October (in the midst of the work craziness) I received an email from Penguin Books inviting me to receive an advance copy of a new book: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. I responded that I was interested & when I got back to Chicago after Christmas the book was waiting for me. I immediately started into the book & was done with it in less than 24 hours. What a fun read – it was a great book to end 2006 with since the year was so knit-filled for me.

As the title implies, this book is set around a group of knitters that gathers weekly in a small knitting shop. The stories of their lives are woven together throughout the book & through their shared passion for knitting. In November, there was advanced buzz about the book because Julia Roberts has signed on to star in and produce the movie adaptation of it. In recent years there have been a lot of books written that are based on the “women coming together in a group over a common interest” – one of the characters in this book even comments on this knitting club being like a new quilting bee.Â

This book isn’t only “for knitters” – in fact, one of the characters comes to the shop with a preconceived disdain for knitting. This is a story about independent women and how they come together to support each other.

In addition to the “standard” chapters in a novel this book also contains several extras: a scarf pattern that is used in the story, a yummy muffin recipe from the store and each section of the book is introduced with a knitting basic – which becomes an analogy for the life unfolding in the book.

As I was reading this book I started thinking about the concept of “women coming together…” and reflecting on my own circles. I’ve actually been thinking about this concept for several months…While I don’t have a “Friday Night Knitting Club” per se, I do have several circles that are important to me.

On the knitting front, I haven’t “joined” in an organized knitting group (maybe this year?); however, since teaching Jen & Kristy to knit we often have our own ‘knitting club’ sessions – while knitting & purling we catch up on life, watch silly movies, order Thai from our favorite place and just have fun.

Since starting to scrapbook in 2003, I have found that to definitely be a “circle” activity. As I’ve mentioned before I host a quarterly crop club where friends gather in my dining room once a quarter to work on albums and catch up on life. When possible, I also go to other crops. Each January I also go to a scrapbook retreat – 3 days of uninterrupted time to work on albums (in fact, next weekend is the retreat!). This is a larger circle but the conversations are the same.

A circle I’ve been a part of since first moving to Chicago is my book club. We are quite a varied group – professionals, teachers, stay at home moms, creatives. Our monthly Thursday evening gatherings are a lot of fun. We normally discuss the book we’ve read – even if just for a bit. Most months the book also seems to be a launching point for all sorts of other conversations. This is a group where even if you’re gone for a couple of months when you come back in it is easy to pick up where you left off with everyone.

Sometimes a circle just comes together – one of the highlights of my December was my Christmas Tea.  It was fun to see how quickly we found commonalities among “strangers until today” and had lots of group conversations instead of just “two-sies” & “three-sies.”

What is your Friday Night Knitting Club?

P.S. As part of this advance copy, I received several copies of a “Special Sneak Peek” of the book. If you are interested in a copy, leave me a comment and I’ll send one your way.

Volume II

January 1, 2007 / / 9 Comments

Happy New Year Everyone!

It has been one year since I started blogging here at Amy Artisan. I “discovered” the world of knit blogging in October 2005 – there was an article in The NY Times that talked about Major Knitter – I visited her blog and started clicking on her links to other knit blogs. I was hooked and decided that I wanted “a blog of my own.” Throughout the fall of 2005 I continued to read blogs and started researching the best way for me to blog. In November I claimed my URL.

Looking through this year in the blog here are some of the highlights:

  • The Knitting Olympics were a fun way to join the knit community in working on a personal challenge within a deadline. In 2007 I plan to knit another Capri shawl – looking at the currrent one I see several holes that I really shouldn’t have let remain in the project. I also enjoyed sharing the story of the Needlepoint Olympics that I grew up with – that entry was how I shared my blog with my parents.
  • Lolly’s Project Spectrum has had me looking at colors in a new way – in my knitting, in nature and all around. I look forward to what Project Spectrum 2.0 will hold in 2007.
  • Knitting for Others…In addition to knitting for family, friends & myself I have really enjoyed the opportunity to knit for others (Comforting Jef, Warming Grace, Papa’s Quilt, Comforting Jenn). In the coming year I look forward to more knitting for others.
  • We all remember our childhood books! The post that had the most comments was D.E.A.R. on Beverly Cleary’s birthday. In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing another childhood read memory & asking you to share yours as well.
  • Even though work had me on the road for a good part of the year I knit quite a bit! I think I knit more items this year than in all my previous knitting years combined. While I still haven’t conquered socks yet (a definite goal for 2007), I knit quite a variety of things: several scarves (5), a hat, 2 shawls, a poncho, lots of dishcloths(15+), wrist warmers, first forays into felting (clutch purse & several bowls), baby bibs (3), a lap blanket, a couple of baby blankets, the iPocket and Travel Pocket (small forays into designing), and a small forest of knit Christmas trees(6). The vast majority of these knits have been gifted to others – very few have remained with me.
  • In 2006 I also participated in the knit community - in person. Meeting Debbie Stoller at Arcadia Knitting, visiting several “new to me” yarn shops, Stitches Midwest (& meeting a swap pal), a yarn swap at Arcadia & meeting a couple of local knit bloggers, Bonnie Marie’s trunk show at Arcadia.

I’m normally don’t do a lot of the memes that make the rounds; however, this one was a fun walk through the past year. Here are the first sentences from each month of 2006:

  • January: Welcome to my latest endeavor…the Amy Artisan Blog!
  • February: Baa, baa, black red, white & pink sheep have you any wool?
  • March: (First I will divert your attention from the fact that I haven’t been able to start on my Project Spectrum Red & Pink items by sharing a picture of a stargazer lily that I took last summer when visiting a tulip farm in Holland, MI.)
  • April: As we move into the celebration of all things Orange & Yellow during Project Spectrum: April I thought I would share a mosaic of some orange & yellow Dale Chihuly glass from the exhibit at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in 2004.
  • May: The weekend road trip to Ohio was a lot of fun.
  • June: …46 hours to be exact – that’s the elapsed time between when the cab dropped me off on Friday evening & when the cab will pick me up on Sunday evening to head back to the airport.
  • July: Wishing you a safe & happy July 4th holiday!
  • August: While browsing through The New York Times yesterday one of the top articles I saw was about a favorite Southern California summertime event – the tableau vivant that is Pageant of the Masters.
  • September: Contrary to popular belief, I haven’t quite fallen off the face of the earth.
  • October: As my recent lack of blogging has shown, I’ve been pretty close to “lost in my work” here in Chattanooga since early August.
  • November: When Miss Butterfly lived in Chicago, we had a fall tradition of going to Didier Farms to get pumpkins and apples.
  • December: This was the knit project I took home to GA with me over Thanksgiving.

Looking ahead to this new year I have lots of Artisan things that I’d like to accomplish & I look forward to sharing them with you via this blog. Thanks for reading my insights into my artistic endeavors and other things this past year!!

Routine Things

November 16, 2006 / / 15 Comments

I find it interesting how quickly we can slip into routines. Initially some “new thing” may seem odd and then before you know it, it is “your” routine and any change to it causes you to pause.

While work travel might seem like a big distruption to routine, in reality a new set of routines emerged for me while on the road…a Sunday evening flight to Chattanooga…Tatum, the shuttle driver, waiting at the airport to take us to the hotel…the barista at Starbuck’s starting to make my drink every morning as soon as I walked into the store…the 2 block walk from the hotel to the office…These routines helped to bring some normalcy to the “un routine” when work was extremely busy.

Now that I’m back home routines are shifting and some old routines are once again new…making coffee each morning with the french press & listening to NPR on the kitchen radio while getting ready…the daily commute on the bus & el (including darting across 4 lanes of traffic on Western Ave. from the bus stop on the way home each evening)…etc…

A routine that is never routine is having a birthday. With the travel of the last couple of months, mine seemed to sneak up on me last week. The first Saturday of this month was a delightful afternoon tea at The Peninsula Chicago with my friend Elaine – her birthday is in late October so every year we try to celebrate our birthdays together with something fun. On my birthday, I met Jen & Kristy at Bin 36 after work and we each enjoyed a wine flight and splitting an appetizer. Jen’s husband, Greg, picked us up and then we all enjoyed a yummy dinner at Francesca’s Bryn Mawr. The day was also filled with emails, e-cards, instant messages, cards, and calls wishing me well. All in all, a lovely celebration!

A long standing routine has been my bookclub, The G.I.R.L.S. When I moved to Chicago in the fall of 1999 this was one of the first things that I joined – my friend Maya invited me to “her group” and the first book I read with them was “A Widow for a Year” by John Irving. Last week I was able to participate in a gathering for the first time since May – it also marked 7 years since my first meeting. We were a smaller group than some months; however, that didn’t diminish the good conversation. Our book was “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell – as is always the case, we talked about the book for a bit and that conversation spurred many other conversation topics.

A newer routine (since 2003) is scrapbooking – I host a quarterly “crop club” for friends to get together and spend a morning working on albums and catching up on life. This past Saturday was the last one for this year and it was great fun to have everyone back at my house for the morning (In Sept. a friend graciously hosted us at her place because of my travel) Since it was a chilly autumn morning it was the perfect weather to make some yummy fall goodies – a pot of spiced cider simmering on the stove, warm applesauce and a pumpkin cranberry coffeecake (using one of my favorite shortcuts, the Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Bread mix).

As I’ve mentioned, knitting is once again (finally) part of my routine. This weekend I finished up several felted bowls from Oneskein. These are a quick knit and it was fun figuring out which bowls to shape them against. I anticipate making a few as gifts and as I get my office/craft room/guest room organized I plan to make a couple for in there. (pictures to come) I continued to work on some of the projects that have been on my needles for a while (including socks!) and tried to start some new ones.

Knitting to comfort others is a routine that I enjoy. In the coming week I’ll be knitting a square for a new comfort blanket. Cathy is pulling together a blanket to comfort her friend Jenn who is in need of some comfort these days.

As I also get back into the routine of blogging, I have a couple of Knitbloglandia items that I’ve been meaning to post – so now seems like a good time to do it!

Soctoberfest

I joined Lolly’s sock celebration for October and then didn’t knit a stitch on a sock – although a sock project traveled with me the entire month. Insert your favorite quotation about good intentions…

So belatedly, here is my sock history. It is a short history.

In February 2003 I took my first sock class at Arcadia Knitting. Over the course of the class I finished the first sock. Pretty soon thereafter I began the second sock. And well, recently I discovered the bag with the sock and yarn – as you can see not much progress has been made on the second sock. In May of this year I took a “Socks on 2 Circular Needles” class at Arcadia. As I blogged about earlier, the first skein of yarn was a bit defective so I didn’t get the sock finished. When I learned that I would be traveling for work this summer I thought that socks would be a great travel project. Yeah, well that didn’t happen. The work travel is done and no socks were knit; however, I have picked up quite the sock yarn stash over this year. At Stitches Midwest in August I picked up Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles and have started on another pair of socks using this method. With all the sock yarn that I now have I am definitely ready to knit socks. I have several projects to finish before the holidays; however, I hope that the coming months will be an extension of Socktoberfest for me.

Swap-o-rama

In August I signed up for several swaps – not “putting it together” that the mailing deadlines were in the middle of the work insanity. I’m thankful that my spoilees have been patient as I’ve been slower getting their packages together.

  • KnitFlix: This concept was a lot of fun – movies & knitting! Earlier this year I even had a post about movie knitting. My swap pal was Amy in MN. She put together a great box of goodies. The movie is Babette’s Feast – I’ve never seen it but had it in my Netflix queue. Lots of popcorn for snacking. And the yarns! A beautiful purple silk from Alchemy yarns. A Dusty Olive Malabrigo with a great button & the pattern for the Gelato felted bag. Thanks Amy!
  • Knitter’s Tea Swap 2: Round 1 in May/June was so much fun so I’m back for more. I was spoiled by Barb in Canada. With the cooler days, these yummy teas will be enjoyed soon – Also some yummy honey sticks to sweeten the teapot. One of my favorites for tea snacking – shortbread! A berry candle the smells of fall. And a pale blue Paton’s Divine yarn. Thanks Barb!
  • Dishcloth Shuffle: As I’ve mentioned in numerous posts, dishcloths are a relaxing “go-to” knit for me – so this exchange seemed like a great one to join. I was spoiled by Alisa in Australia. Alisa knit 5 different dishcloths in beautiful colors and patterns. She also included some bright cottons for my own dishcloth knitting, some fun Australia themed stickers, an iron-on to embroider, a dainty hankerchief (how did she know I have a collection?) and a cute notepad from her recent vacation to Thailand. Thanks Alisa!

My packages have been dispatched to Minnesota, Nebraska, Western Canada & Eastern Canada. whew!

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!

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