Marie Grace Designs

Bitter sweet...

We always get to a point in our school year that feels a bit like mud. We slowly trudge through the last few weeks just looking forward to being “officially done” for the year. The sun shining brightly outside just makes it even worse as we’d much rather be somewhere else doing something else.

Right now we’re finishing out some books and working in a few more projects we never got around to doing. Co-op will soon be done til the fall and the classes the kids are taking will be over in a few weeks.

Lazy summer afternoons are certainly on the horizon... and on our minds.

Its nice to set the kids free after that official marker has been reached though it seems a little fake to me. We never actually stop schooling and they never stop learning and asking questions but if the state of Pa insists on putting a date on a calendar and number on school days I’ll play along.

I’ll spend a good bit of my off time planning for fall... school-wise and other-wise.

Other-wise there’s the knitting...oh the possibilities.

There most definitely are plans for fall... submissions to get in on time and wispy visions to solidify. Colors to blend and shapes to clarify. New designs for Llamajama in adult sizes as well as some great kid stuff for the crisp fall weather that will return eventually. I hear there will also be some new colors added to the line.

In the meantime there’s lots to do like the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival on May 5 &6. Mac Daddy and I are taking a short stack (2 of the 4 kids) and making it a day trip on the 5th. Tater can’t wait to see the fluffy sheep!

Mac Daddy insists he’s not coming just to supervise but to share in all the yarn glory. I’m really looking forward to finding out how he’ll do surrounded by all of us and our fiber oooh-ing and ahh-ing. See, he’s not really what you call a Muggle but he’s not a knitter either. He’s sort of an innocent bystander which means he could be fine or he could get run over just because he doesn’t speak the native language. Of course, he has been known to get all oogley over a certain fiber or color himself so he may be the Great Enabler of the day.

Currently...

That lovely blue and white design I showed a peek of a little while ago is still an ongoing project. Seems I can’t follow my own charts and had to frog a bit. I’ll have more pictures and details soon.

There are other things in progress but nothing I’m ready to totally commit to. I’ll weed out the good, the bad, and the flat out ugly as soon as our classes finish out and our evals are done.

I do still have a stash of Frog Tree Pima cotton (left over from Tater’s Cotton Cardi) that would make some fabulous little summer tops for me and the girls. The whole summer knitting bug hasn’t really bitten me but I do love the Frog Tree so there’s hope yet.

Over the weekend...

We all got a little restless over the weekend. Mac Daddy has been working long hours and the kids’ classes and my classes have us all running in different directions so much of the time that we had an over powering urge to just go somewhere together and play.

We went to the Pa State Museum with one particular destination in mind... Mars.

We had a quick trip back in time...

And gained a little respect for William Penn.

After the museum we went to the airport... ordered lunch in the lobby and sat on the observation deck to watch the airplanes. I was actually a bit surprised that they let us just hang around the airport eating our lunch and watching the planes. As nervous as everybody is about airplanes now-a-days I just wasn't sure if we'd get searched or kicked out (or both). It actually turned out to be a nice visit and kid#3 (who has decided at the tender age of 8 that he wants to be a pilot) was thrilled.

Quick post...

Yea, this is one of those “I’m too busy to be witty so I’ll just leave you with a note” blog posts but right now its the best I can do.

To say things are busy would be a colossal understatement.

I do have one bit of exciting news...

Llamajama yarns and some of my patterns are now available at Kpixie!

Go check it out!

If I had known then...

Many of us started knitting long before internet knitting groups and message boards. There were no groups chatting about the latest knitting books to hit the shelves and answering questions about tubular cast-ons. There were no Flickr groups full of lovely FO pics and comments. There were no internet knit-a-longs and no online yarn purchases. There were no blogs on which to post stories, pictures and tutorials.

It also meant there were no horror stories about gauge swatches (or the lack thereof). There were no discussions about how many times Jane Knitter frogged that dang sweater because it was just all wrong. There was no-one to tell me color stranding could permanently cross my eyes, cabling would cramp my fingers and steeks were something to be worshipped from afar but never actually executed by anyone other than those crazy Norwegian people.

Of course Zimmerman and Starmore and others like them had already cleared the way but at the time I didn’t know who they were or that I needed them so badly. As a new knitter and a young, new mom I was pretty much isolated socially and geographically, at least as far as knitting was concerned.

So, when kid #3 was wee little and I decided to knit my first stranded color-work sweater (see above) I had no fear, no hang-ups and no idea what I was doing.

I used a Debbie Bliss pattern and Sirdar yarn. The pattern is a knit-flat-in-pieces-then-sew-it-together pattern. It was a total stranded knitmare nightmare. I only finished it because...

A) I didn’t know you could knit color-work (or anything else for that matter) in the round so I figured all this tangling and turning and swearing was a normal part of color-work.

B) I refused to let yarn kick my a**.

I took forever to knit that thing. My goal was to complete a few rows each and every day until it was done. I managed to get it finished and sewn together and put the buttons on and believe it or not it still fit the victim kid it was intended for.

I also swore that no matter how pretty that colory stuff was I would never ever think about doing it again.

Now, at that time my only contact with the outside knitting world was a crappy knitting magazine (that shall remain nameless). At some point there was an article or advertisement or something with the book Fair Isle Simplified in it.

I had been saved. The book promised colorwork in a circle (huh?!?) and no seams. Now, certainly this was not the very first book about this topic but it was the very first one I had ever seen.

I sent a check (remember those) and waited 4-6 weeks (boy...that was a long time ago) and my book came in the snail mail.

Again...there was nobody to explain knitting in the round and nobody to tell me I should fear cutting my knitting so I launched right in and did it. I sat with that book open in my lap for evening after evening until I got the whole 2 handed color stranding technique down pat. I made colored tubes of knitting with no intention of doing anything other than cutting them to pieces. Which I did. Repeatedly.

So began my friendship with color stranding in the round and my scissors. Viola!

Today we are blessed and cursed at the same time having all this internet access to each other. There are people who will tell you that cutting knitting is just wrong or bad or not necessary. I am truly glad that I taught myself (with the help of that book) how to cut my knitting while I was alone and nobody was watching or commenting. (If only solitary delusions always turned out this good.) To this day I would rather have red-hot Addis jammed under my fingernails that knit any kind of color-work flat.

Knitting in the round and steeks opened up so many new possibilities for me as a knitter (see below). I truly believe that without them and other techniques I’ve learned I would have gotten bored with knitting long ago and tossed it all aside. I have since learned several ways to do steeks and various other way-cool techniques but the point is that I tried and succeeded.

So if hearing all the fearful stuff on the internet is the curse then surely the blessing is the plethora of vivid pictures and tutorials that are available to us now that never were before. My intention here is not to show you how to do something, steek-wise or otherwise. There are people who have already done a much better job at the tutorial thing than I would ever do. My intention or desire or whatever you want to call it is to convince you to not be afraid of yarn. Really.

I recently started teaching and helping to teach several different knitting classes (yea me). I am forever shocked and stupefied by the number of people who are terrified or yarn.

Let me tell you a little secret....yarn is just yarn...it doesn’t tell on you...it doesn’t bleed and it doesn’t scream...its just yarn. You can cut it...tie it in a knot...throw it away...and buy some more. Its just yarn. Do not fear the yarn.

I have found that the biggest hurdle in teaching knitting, whether its the beginning knitters at co-op or the more experienced knitters at the yarn shop, is getting the students to relax. So many are so nervous that they grip the needles like motorcycle handle bars. I swear that sometimes if I would as much as say Boo several of them would just pass out.

I’m telling you this because your fear is a learned fear. Whatever its is...steeking, knitting in the round...cabling...sock knitting...bugs...snakes...whatever....you are only afraid of it because somebody else you saw or read about was afraid. Norwegians have always used steeks and to them they are perfectly normal and they have never been afraid of them because they are taught steeks right along with the knit stitch and general sweater construction. I highly doubt, though I have never been to Norway, that there are thousands of knitters walking around in sweaters that are falling apart as we speak.

I'm really not suggesting that you must run right out and learn to use steeks (though I wish you would). Rather, I am suggesting that you not let your knitting fear rule your knitting path. Tinker quietly at home where there is nobody to see what you are doing or ask someone to sit with you. Take a class. If you mess it up...try it again. And again. There is no reason for a person who is intelligent enough to dress and feed themselves to be afraid of string.

If knitting, Latin, oragami or algebra seem difficult or impossible it is only because you have yet to learn what you need to know to do them successfully. Take away the mystery and there's nothing left to fear.

Raising children is scary. Driving down I83 is really scary. Watching the late news...scarier still.

Yarn? Not so scary.