Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Snowy Days, Books, and General Rambling

I've added music since the last time I posted. I just love bluegrass, (it's kind of who I am, I think) but it's annoying to some people. Please don't leave if you think it's obnoxious. Just go to the bottom and pause it and come on back.

The snow and cold finally arrived. It's been a nice slow gathering, rather than the usual blow in and blow out type of storm that we usually get. The trees were frosted over this morning and the snow has only just stopped after two days.

Lots of time to knit and knit, and oh, did I say knit? We're nearly done with all of our Christmas orders. The list seems small when I look at it, but the time taken for each item was considerable. Four pairs of gloves, three pairs of felted mohair boots, one lace hat with flowers, three sherpas, four pairs of socks, and one sweater--all since the middle of October. Only one pair of felted boots remain and then I can work on my own Christmas list. Yahoo! And it's only the 11th of December!! I've already got two after-Christmas items to work on, but they will have to wait until my own list is finished.

We blocked lace shawls today. My sister made them and neither was blocked when they arrived and didn't get blocked in time to sell. They're both made of our own alpaca and as I'm taking the pictures, I can see places where the circles aren't true and the points are mushy. I'll have to fix that right away.

While those are drying, I'm weaving in the ends of the last pair of gloves (fingerless) and starting on the the felted boots. I sound like I'm so very efficient as I write this, but the truth is, I spend an awful lot of time dreaming about the next project or the next yarn, rather than actually putting feet to my dreams.

I love books, don't you? I could look at pictures of patterns and colors all day long and never really do anything of substance. I really like a good fiction read as well, especially a mystery, but I'm addicted to eye candy. I found a book on snowflakes in the bookstore the other day and stood fascinated for nearly 30 minutes thumbing through the pictures. I looked the Planet Earth book as well and couldn't bear to put it down until I saw the price tag--eegads! That changed my mind right away about how necessary those pictures were.

Is it any wonder that I return to pattern books and magazines over and over in search of the "perfect" look? I can easily spend an entire day in a bookstore searching through knitting books and doing more daydreaming.

I get awfully tired of pattern books that show the same old cell phone covers, wrist warmers (what are they for anyway---to warm your...wrists?) scarves and and ipod cases. There's a lot of them out there, and good for the authors if they can sell books like that, but I'm always on the hunt for something new and different. (Let's not even talk about the unhealthy looking models with bad hair and nasty looks on their faces. That's another whole rant!) I particularly like Nicky Epstein's books because she challenges me to do something different and "out there", even though I continually fall back to Elizabeth Zimmerman and Mary Thomas for the tried and true.

I've ripped out whole projects because I didn't like the results and I've ripped out half finished projects because it wasn't what I envisioned. The thought of wasting huge amounts of yarn on an ugly item is horrific to me. I'd rather start over and get it right, at least in my own estimation, than finish and hate what I made. I guess I consider the old ways my foundation, but I love a challenge, even if it means frustration and failure.

So, we're fully into the cold months of winter now with no outside work to do until the snow goes away. It's a perfect time to make lists and plan the knitting for the year (and to ramble aimlessly on a blog). I'll never stick to the list--I never do--but it's loads of fun to pretend that I will, and pour over the books and pictures and plans. If I can mix in some spinning time and other productive work, all will be well. Maybe the snow will stick around for a while. March? April?

4 comments:

Blossomcottage said...

What can I say beautiful pictures, and beautiful work, how lovely to be snug indoors with lots of lovely books to stir your inner self.
Time to ponder, time to enjoy your thoughts and you lovely work. Keep it up and hey when its that cold the chances are I wouldn't smell the goats!!!!! ( lots of Vic at that time of the year!!)
Love Blossom

Kathleen said...

I almost snorted my tea out my nose when Sunny's pickin' & grinnin' music came on! I can just here Buck and Roy - "I'm a-pickin'!" "And I'm a-grinnin'!" Yeee Haawww...or is that Hee Haw? HeeHeee HeeHee Haaw Haw...HEEE HAW!

Kathleen said...

I look at Sunny giggling there in that photo, and I look at Celeste with her mad face on, and wonder why she won't show her sense of humor. I posted a few pictures of the mad face on my blog today.

Kathleen said...

I sent you an email with my alternate address. I'm the "fuzzknitter".