Essential knitting accessory

I keep my current projects in plastic buckets I bought for $3.99 at a local crafts store (Creative Crafts and Frames). I was looking for something that could hold a ball of yarn, my knitting accessories bag, and whatever pattern I was working onl whether it was in a book or magazine or just a sheet of paper. Since I don't always knit in the same location, and I'm never sure what I'll be in the mood to knit at any given time, it needed be portable. These buckets are perfect! Lots of room, stable, wide opening. I started with 1 (orange because I work at Oregon State University and our school colors are orange and black), but within a week I'd picked up 2 more. I now have 5, each a different color (if they'd had more colors, I'd have bought more). And, yes, I do match the color of the bucket with the color of the yarn.

My friend Tammy laughed at them until she started knitting. She bought one for herself, one for her mother, and one for the friend who's teaching her to knit. Hah!

Knit & purl afghan squares

I finished the 8 knit and purl combinations a while ago and think they look pretty good. The basketweave pattern drove me nuts but after several tries, I managed to finish the square. I had an easier time with the lattice because I put the pattern on a spreadsheet so I was able to keep track of where I was. Loved the diagonal ribbing and the twisted-and-crossed ribbing--quick and fun to knit. The garter and rib pattern was fun, too, and
I plan to use the Rose Fabric stitch for a project, probably a purse. It's so much smaller than the other squares, though, that I'm wondering how these are all going to fit together.

I'm starting to get a little tired of the colors--not good since there are 58 more squares to go. But it's my afghan so I can change colors if I want to.

Making an afghan, squares 1 & 2

I've been reading the Knitting Daily posts about fearful and fearless knitters. I'm a fearless wannabe who hasn't yet ventured beyond basic knit and purl combinations. I've tried knitting swatches of interesting stitches but I get sooooooo bored . . . and then I saw The Great American Afghan. A knitted afghan is really just a lot of swatches with a purpose, I figured, so I started looking for a less advanced idea along the same lines and discovered Barbara G. Walker's Learn-to-Knit Afghan* (via The Loose Knitter's blog of her experiences with the squares**). Loved the idea (and the blog), so I bought the book and the yarn and am halfway through square 7 (garters and ribs), the last of the knit-purl combos. Next: mosaic knitting!

I'm using Plymouth Encore Worsted yarn (75% acrylic, 25% wool), my fallback yarn for many projects. It's soft, easy to work with, colorful, and relatively inexpensive. Most of my family, including dogs, are allergic to wool but this blend doesn't seem to bother them. I chose colors similar to those used for the afghan on the cover of Walker's book: dark blue, dark green, lavender, and cream. I haven't decided yet what I'll use for the edging.

Squares 1 & 2 were fast and easy: striped garter and striped stockinette. (Obviously not blocked yet. )

*Originally printed 1974, reprinted 1997 by Schoolhouse Press.

** /(p[eu]rls of wisdom)?!/ has posted photographs of his squares and his completed afghan. It's somewhat daunting.

A librarian's ethical dilemma

I borrow knitting magazines from my public library and thought I had returned 2 issues of Interweave Knits last week. Then I got an overdue notice for one of them and checked my pile of magazines. There it was. I'd returned one of my own magazines by mistake, which is ok since it wasn't one of my favorites. But the library's issue (Summer 2004) has some great patterns -- several bags, a mitered square rug by Katy Ryan, Streaming Leaves Shawl by Cat Bordhi, Cabaret Raghlan by Norah Gaughan, Mosaic Mitts by Sandy Cushman. . . . Apparently I'm not alone in wanting this issue--it's sold out everywhere. I am a librarian, though, so I couldn't just give up. I started trolling the web and found:

• Mitered Square Rug is online at Interweave's free patterns. Success!
• Cabaraet Raglan is included in The Best of Interweave Knits so I may just buy the book.
• Mosaic Mitts is included in Interweave's Holiday Gifts 2006, also sold out but I think I can track this down.

While searching, I found some great websites, blogs and new free patterns, so this was time well spent:

• Cashmere Moebius Shawl and Baby Life-Ring Socks on Cat Bordhi's website.
• Habu Textiles Knit-A-Long blog
• "Is it a sweater yet?" blog archive with lots of pictures and commentary posted by Aven while knitting Cabaret Raglan (Do all knitters have cats? I don't think I've seen a knitting blog that doesn't have as many cat photos as project photos. I don't have a cat.)
• Needle Beetle -- way more advanced than I'm ready for but I've tagged it. (So much to do when I retire. Just 2 years to go)

So, I found only one of the patterns I want. What's an honest librarian to do? I'll return Interweave to the library, after a pricey trip to Kinko's to make color copies. And I just subscribed to Interweave Knits.

My 60th Birthday

I turned 60 two weeks ago and celebrated by getting a tattoo and having a big party. My partner, Charlie, and my friend, Tammy, planned the party--I didn't have to do a thing. Charlie even repainted the bathroom! My friends Sandy and Kevin bought the delicious cake, my brother-in-law, John, helped Charlie and Tammy decorate and prepare the food while my sister Donna and I went to Sacred Art for my tattoo. When we got back, the house was full, food was cooking, martinis were waiting and everyone made a big fuss over me, as they should. Both my sisters (Donna and Margaret) came down from Portland, as did friends Sarah, Kim, Robert and Anne. I had a great time and stayed up well past my bedtime. (I made up for it by sleeping for 12 hours and then taking a 2 hour nap the next afternoon. It was the excitement, not the martinis.)

The tattoo, a morning glory vine on my right ankle, is my second. I got my first one, a small nasturtium on my right arm, on my 50th birthday. I'm not sure if I'll continue this habit but they're pretty and I like them. I love flowers and planted morning glories for the first time last spring. I always try to have nasturtiums in my garden for my mother. We lived on McChord Air Force Base in the 1960s and Mother planted nasturtiums in a bed between the house and sidewalk. They were gorgeous--a splash of color you could see from a block away, until Mother was told to pull them because they didn't conform to the code or whatever. Mother never conformed. And she liked my tattoo. I think she would have liked the morning glory, too.

Dad and Stoneybrook

My father is 88 years old and has vascular dementia. In August 2006, we moved him from Neskowin, OR, a small coastal resort town, to Stoneybrook Assisted Living in Corvallis, about 10 minutes away from me and Charlie. I felt as if we had kidnapped him, but he couldn't live on his own any longer. He's settled into Stoneybrook now and, while I can't say he's happy, he feels safe and doesn't like to be away from his place for very long. (A number of years ago he told my sister Margaret he'd never been happy and used a word I can't remember to describe himself. Isn't that sad?) Sometimes he thinks he's in hotel, sometimes he thinks he owns his apartment, and sometimes he tells us the Air Force placed him there on sick leave.

He has good weeks and bad weeks--the last one was a bad one. He was confused, not eating, sleeping all day and, we suspect, staying up all night. Today, when I brought him over for lunch, he seemed much better. He was sitting in a chair at the top of the steps waiting for me, in his old sweater and twead hat, looking very Robert Youngish. Dad is still a very good looking man--his girlfriend drives over from the coast once a month to visit. Dad thinks she comes to cut his hair. (Charlie wonders if that's a euphemism but I don't want to go there.) Sometimes he thinks she's my mother. (They'd been divorced for nearly 30 years but Dad has forgotten that and began calling her the year before she died and after he'd moved to Stoneybrook.) Yesterday I met Faye, a new resident at Stoneybrook who said she'd chosen Dad (and Kemp) as her tablemates. I'm not sure how long Faye will last at the table. Like Dad, Kemp's not fully engaged with reality and, though both are pleasant neither of them is much of a talker. Dad and Kemp have been having meals together for over a year and the staff tell me they never talk. They kid each other when they pass in the halls, though, and Dad calls him his friend. Charlie says Kemp comes by to watch him and Dad play pool and will cheer Dad on, but he won't join in. Still, it's a relationship of sorts and they may not be ready for Faye, who is something of a southern belle. But then Dad always liked the ladies (and they liked him).

My favorite tote bag

I love making tote bags and this is the most recent of the 4 I made last year (one was for my sister). I use a pattern from Cabin Fever, Sheepstrings Big Bag #708. It's fast and fun--two strands held together and knit in the round. I had a hell of time with the first one--I could not figure out how to pick up stitches in the round and started over 3 times before realizing I could knit the rectangular bottom on straight needles and then pick up the stitches with a circular needle. The first 2 bags were striped (periwinkle and charcoal gray for me, chocolate and mint green for my sister. They look good but the unaligned stripes from knitting in the round bugged me.) I can't recall what yarn I used for this bag but it's very soft, unlike the Cascades I used for the other 3. The bag's really sturdy and I carry it to work each day. I took this picture before I left for work the other day, so the bag's stuffed with a book, the work I took home but didn't do, 2 boxes of tea and my lunch in a plastic container.

This bag thing is a little scary. My mother was a bag lady and the older she got, the bigger (and more numerous) the bags. Uh oh.