I keep all of my spinning fiber in a large wicker laundry basket.  Sorting through it is like turning the pages of a travel scrapbook.  There’s my most recent purchase of merino/bamboo roving, with the delightful colourway name of  ‘velvet underground’,  from Sweet Georgia Yarns in Vancouver.  This studio shop is a fiber artist’s dream-come-true, with floor to ceiling windows overlooking False Creek.  Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Vancouver, Canada, or visit the website for Internet ordering.

I purchased the 2 bags of raspberry coloured, merino/silk roving in Prince Edward Island last summer, at Belfast Mini Mills. From the Pacific Ocean in Vancouver to the Atlantic in PEI, clear across this vast country.

The precious twist of quiviut/ alpaca/ merino blend came from Celeigh Wool, near Millet, Alberta, during one of my countryside knitting shop jaunts.

As I sit at my wheel and spin these fibers into yarn, my mind wanders, daydreaming of these trips. What we saw, who we visited…

I may never get around to organizing my pictures in a photo album but I have all the memories I need right here in my spinning basket.

In 20 years of teaching young children, primarily those with special learning needs, there’s one thing I’ve learned for sure; their brains need a rest in summer.

Don’t enroll them in continuous summer school classes, don’t insist they do hours of homework everyday to keep their ’skills sharp’. Give their brains a rest; a chance to regenerate and energize after 10 months of concentration and effort at school. 

Like any other part of our body, the brain becomes tired with use. It needs down-time,  to compartmentalize what’s been learned. 

Every year, at about the end of May, my students ‘ hit the wall’.  Not only are they anxious to get out in the sunshine, their brains are saturated. I know that I’m not going to be able to cram one more bit of new information in there until they’ve had a rest.

Parents, let your kids play - lots of unorganized activity - this summer.  15-30 minutes of reading per day, plus the valuable lessons learned through play, will ensure they’re rested and ready to hit the books again in the fall.

Knitting Thoughts…

Conversely, summer is my time to teach myself new skills.  Free of report card deadlines and program planning, I’m ready to try something new. So far this summer, it’s been teaching myself to knit socks on 2 circular needles.  I followed the directions in Charlene Schurch’s marvellous book, Sensational Socks, and nailed the technique on my first try ( her directions are clear and concise). Having knit socks on double pointed needles for years, I expected it to be harder than it was to switch to 2 circulars. I love this technique and will be saying good bye to my dpn’s, as far as sock knitting goes at least.

The yarn in the picture is hand dyed by Earthly Hues, which I found on etsy.  The dyes used are all natural and the colours are gorgeous.  This yarn is 70% merino, 30% seacell.  It’s soft and smooth with lots of bounce and elasticity; perfect for socks.

The Cloisters pattern on the sleeves provides just enough interest, while keeping the overall sweater simple.

I made only a couple of small alterations to the pattern.  I found the neckline too wide for my liking so I frogged and reknit it , decreasing a few stitches every 2 rounds for shaping and working twice as many rows as indicated to pull the neckline higher. I also decreased a few stitches on the final rows of the sleeves to snug up the cuffs a bit.

The top down construction of this sweater makes it easy to custom fit to any body as you can try it on as you knit.

The pattern for this sweater is available in the Fall 2008 issue of Spin Off magazine.

This sweater is proof that ripping and re-doing pays off.  Initially, I had knit  I-cord borders down the fronts but wasn’t happy with the zig zag effect this created.  I frogged the borders and went shopping for a sturdy, navy yarn that would pull the stripes together.  Lamb’s Pride Worsted, from  M1 Yarn Studio in Calgary provided just what I needed.

My inspiration for this sweater came from Dyeing To Knit by Elaine Eskesen.  Using my colour wheel while digging through my stash of cottons and wool, I chose colours that fell within one quadrant of the colour wheel only. To create a bit more unity I hand dyed some chenille and handspun yarns and threw in a bit of yellow to brighten it up.

The cardigan is knit in the round with the sleeves knit seperately and sewn in afterward.  Another learning curve was the steeked front.  The body is knit as a tube, to avoid purling, then cut down the middle to create a cardigan. My edges ended up a bit ragged on the underside of the front edges so I finished them with bias tape facings, sewn in by hand.  The bottom border of the sweater uses a pattern from Nicky Epstein’s book, kntting beyond the edge, called ‘tree tops’.

Truly an adventure in colour and design, this sweater is destined to become a comfortable favourite in my wardrobe.

I surrender!  After hundreds of hours of knitting endless rows of fine gauge stocking stitch and many more hours of sewing and altering, sewing and altering, I admit defeat.  I cannot make this sweater fit my son.  Off to the Goodwill Thrift Store it goes!  Hopefully it will keep someone warm next winter (for a fraction of the price I paid for it).

This pullover, intended for my 19 year old son, is knit with Phildar Licorne, 14 balls of it.  It’s a silky smooth, 100% cotton with lots of body and a little bit of sheen.  A very nice yarn.  I knit it at a gauge of about 6 1/2 sts. to the inch, in a large size.

I’ve tried every alteration I can think of to make it fit my son; nothing has worked.  Part of the problem lies in my design and part lies in Erik’s changing body.  He’s been bodybuilding the past couple of months and his upper body has changed in size so drastically that the measurements I was working with last summer no longer apply.

What surprises me is how upset I am NOT.  There was a time when I’d have bemoaned the money I spent on the yarn and all the time spent knitting; wasting precious energy regretting something I can’t change.
Today I see it as a learning experience - I understand a lot more about creating saddle shoulders now - and as an opportunity to ‘let go’ and accept my own imperfections.
A smaller built man than my son will likely buy the sweater for $5.00 at the Thrift Store and, hopefully, it will keep the chill off of him during one of our cold Northern winters.

After 51 years of fierce independence and self sufficiency, life has thrown a roadblock in my path and erected a very effective STOP sign.  As of the last couple of weeks my heart and my thyroid are being controlled medicinally rather than naturally. Excuse the pun, but for this ‘earth mother’ that’s a hard pill to swallow.

 Although I’m not a control freak (others may disagree) I do like to feel that I’m in control of what is happening to me. I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on these health changes lately, due to a shoulder injury I sustained while skating with my class.

Injure anything knitters, but not your arms!

I’ve been unable to knit, comfortably, for the past 2 weeks. The few times I’ve tried have clearly not been worth the pain afterwards.

I’ve been reading, and thinking,  more.  Having this time and space to think has been illuminating.  I’m beginning to see my years of obsessive knitting as more than just a hobby. Could it be that my inability to keep my hands, and brain, still for more than 30 seconds is my way of avoiding the inevitable reckoning with my soul’s deepest longings? Once these longings are acknowledged action is required, and change is sometimes scary.

 I’ll return to my knitting, of course, once my shoulder has healed. It will be a gentle return; less frantic, less obsessive, taking the time to notice each stitch, to really feel the fiber running through my fingers, and to connect my thoughts with the person I’m knitting for.

 As for my health issues, I’m ‘letting go’ and putting my physical health in the capable hands of my good doctors while I attend to my soul.