Knitting in the Big City

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Seeing if I can post via email.

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Sheepish return

Hi all -

Like so many blog posts I've read in the last year - "I can't believe its been this long since I've blogged", more specifically since Sept 11.

Life gets in the way of blogging. And unlike other bloggers, my blog is not my life, it's a part of my life that gets low priority when I have other "real life" situations that need attention.

Since September, I've developed and expanded my group's responsibilites at work, gotton more diligent about taking care of a chronic health issue, and managed to spend more in-person time with my knitting group.

However the biggest change that's happened is that my long time kitty, Boo, the Persian Diva, past away in January. She was seventeen and a half. Even though she loved being our only cat for the past 18 months, her health started to decline. And my knitting stopped. Why? Well at first I thought I was losing interest in the craft (God Forbid!). But once my kitty past away I realized that every moment at home was spent petting and giving her rubs under her chin. Since I never mastered one handed knitting nor did I grow a third arm and hand I elected to spend time with her and not my knitting.

So now I'm back and this is the first time I'm able to write about my girl without breaking out in tears.

I started knitting again in February. Simple little projects but each one got started and got finished. More about those next time.

Have a good weekend folks!

Close to a normal day

Wow, I never thought I'd get to this point for "a September 11th" - I had close to a normal day. It's been so busy at work (and it's work I enjoy) that I didn't have anytime to dwell on events that occurred on 9-11-2001 or 9-11-2007. My guess is that the bad weather play a large part in that - if it were nice and sunny it would have been more reminicent of the terrible day. If it wasn't raining I probably would have walked up to Ground Zero and observed some of the ceremonies.

But even last month I noticed I didn't feel the voracious need to read or watch anything about that awful day. Perhaps it's the completion of the mourning process for my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law that has done this. Or perhaps it's still the intense emptiness I feel when I remember my two cats who passed away within 4 months of each other last year. It seems that my own personal losses have somehow placed 9-11 into distant place for me.

I'll never forget since we know people who lost sons and husbands but somehow I am able to think of that day with more objectivity and less emotion.

A day in the life

Start the day by finally cashing in bag of change at Commerce bank. 53 dollars and 68 cents. Excellent!! That just about pays for my round trip ticket for Rhinebeck.

Meet knitting group for brunch. Went to a lovely French bistro that serves cafe au lait in a bowl. Yummy.

Beat the sudden heat and humidity by spending the rest of the day with my friends and working on my Butterfly cardigan at the LYS.

Tried to convince the LYS staff to increase the AC, "we're knitting with wool here!". No go. (YS owners please note - warm, uncomfortable knitters don't buy yarn.)

There's a Loopy Ewe package waiting for me when I get home. In addition to my order I've gotten a Loopy Groupies welcome package consisting of a clear shoulder tote for my knitting, 2 skeins of Regia Bamboo sock yarn (and in a spot on colorway too), and some samples of SOAK fiber wash. Sweet!

After dinner I decide to layout all the pieces for Butterfly to see what else needs to be done. Miz Boo Boo Kitty has another idea - she promptly camps out on the cardigan and then proceeds to stretch out and sleep for the next 2 hours.

I know when I'm beaten so I read a few blogs and decide to check out Raverly.
It's true - you can spend hours on it checking out yarns and projects and that's how I spent the rest of my Saturday night.

Just before bedtime I realized that everything I did on Saturday had some connection to knitting. I couldn't have planned it any better.

Hope you get one of those days too!

Loopy Yarns

Of course no road trip is complete without finding a local yarn store and bringing home some more yarn!

We spent a long weekend in Chicago last month and I only had time to visit one yarn store - Loopy Yarns. The store is within walking distance of "the Loop" in downtown Chicago, well that is if you like to walk (which I do). Otherwise the store is a hop, skip, and a jump away from a Red line train stop..

What I really liked is that the store carries a sizeable selection of non-wool fiber (cotton, silk, corn, soy, hemp, etc) and those cubbyholes are clearly marked. As always I try to buy yarns or colorways I can't find at my regular yarn haunts:

Meilenweit Meeting - soft green, grey and bits of cream and navy.

Regia Crazy Color - definitely reminds of fall since all the colors from Indian Corn are here.

AMAIZing (SWTC) - made from 100 per cent corn fiber. Atlantis blue. Maybe a scarf or small shawl?

Soxx Appeal - new for Fall by Knit one Crochet Two. Very soft and very stretchy but not quite like Fixation. Again, Indian summer colors.

Though I love the yarn – however my absolute favorite purchase is this:

the Sock Blockers by Fiber Trends

This is an item I see every now and then online and think " That would be nice but I think I'd rather buy fiber". I don't even know of a NYC yarn store that carries sock blockers so when I saw them at Loopy I scooped them into my basket. Now its like – how did I live without them?!