lace ribbon scarf (Veronik Avery), in Rowan Felted Tweed

And here’s the beginning of Marian’s scarf; she chose the Tiger Eyes Lace Scarf by Toni M. Maddox, and she chose Curious Creek Fibers Meru from my stash, in a deep purple colorway named Purple Martin. The yarn is laceweight, half silk half merino; since (a) I want to finish the scarf pretty quickly and (b) I like the heft of the scarves made with fingering-weight yarn, I am holding it double. See?

the pattern is called tiger eyes, but it looks like owls to me!

i really like it - and it's great fun to knit!

Really – it doesn’t look like tiger eyes, does it? It’s owl faces all the way. Right?

And my birthday gift, that thing in the long rectangular box wrapped in silver paper?

my birthday present - turtlegirl was right, it was a swift!

Of course I immediately put a skein of yarn on and wound it up – the Wollmeise that Tammy gave me. It took, like, 3 minutes, and I was grinning the whole time. I used to have a swift (which I kept permanently mounted on the castle of my 48″ 8-harness jack loom, ah the good old days) and I’ve really missed it.

I have too much work to get done before I leave for Laos – 2 giant manuscripts (one which needs to be re-ghost-written) and a couple small projects – so I’d better quit farting around here and get to work. Happy Tuesday y’all!

Until one day – can’t remember how, now – I happened upon Dina’s blog, Yarnfest. I think another blogger had mentioned this thing Dina was organizing, and it appealed to me so I followed the links. Dina is organizing the BSD Project, which will give handcrafted items to homeless kids in her area. That has personal resonance for me, so I saw the perfect home for this homeless little hat. Dina, I’ll be dropping this in the mail to you tomorrow or Tuesday.

a hat in search of a home

it's such fun knitting the top of hats!

There are homeless kids everywhere, including your (and my) town. Help the kids where you live, and if you want to donate to Dina’s BSD Project I’m sure she and the kids will welcome your donation.

Two FOs in one day! I’m on a roll!

this is it. a yard and a half.

With each row, I went through this pair of thoughts: “Oh, no problem, I’m definitely going to have enough yarn.” “OH NO, problem, there’s no way it’s going to last.” But it did last, obviously, and now he owns a pair of socks knit with madelinetosh (tosh sport, colorway tweed) and my love.

his tweedie-pie socks

I still can’t quite believe he let me knit something for him. He’s not (like, at all) a guy who wears sweaters or scarves, so maybe this is just the first of many pairs of socks I can sneak into his drawer.

So very quickly, while I’m online:

My Mondo Cable Cardigan – it’s not a great picture, I want to go to the park for a little photoshoot, but I have too much work to get done. This weekend, maybe. Can I just say that I absolutely totally 110% adore this sweater!! It’s so comfortable, and warm, and well, perfect. I’ll be wearing it a lot, I can tell. My idea to use the shawl pin didn’t work, though, so I’ll be doing some button (and giant snap) shopping as soon as I can.

The yarn. Madelinetosh’s tosh merino DK, in colorway Byzantine. The colors are deeper and richer than this photo suggests – I just haven’t had time to try to capture it yet. But you can see that it’s going to be gorgeous in the Eve’s Rib Shrug (which I’m calling Eve Shrugged, in honor of my teenage fandom of Atlas Shrugged, which I thankfully outgrew). This yarn is … well, it leaves me without words.

My handknit sweaters……so far. I’ll be adding to this mini-stack, and I thank the sweater knitters among you who tolerate my silliness over something that is old hat to you. Or maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s like being a labor & delivery nurse; even though you’ve done it many, many times, each time is still magical. Anyway, thanks for indulging my excitement.

I’m in a new round of new authors writing me enthusiastically about their manuscripts; for some reason, it seems to come in waves. When they hear the price, many decide to forego editing, but enough seem to be OK with it so that’s great for me. Off to work – happy last day of summer, y’all.

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Then I noticed that all my remaining skeins were a very harsh blue black – heavy emphasis on the ugly blue. (I love blue, this was just a hideously harsh shade, not to mention that it wasn’t GRAPHITE. It was so grossly different that alternating skeins would just give me a striped sweater.) So I started haunting rav forums, posting desperate ISO notes everywhere. One very sweet raveler got in touch and said she had a sweater’s worth and if I just couldn’t find any anywhere, she’d part with some. Which, of course, meant she couldn’t knit her sweater. So I kept searching. Occasionally someone would write, but their skeins were green black. FINALLY, months later, Jenny (boopersin on rav, friend her!) and her skeins matched mine and the deed was done.

But by then, I’d lost my passion for the sweater. I was also afraid that when push came to shove, it still wouldn’t be a good match. Anxiety and fear kept me from picking it up again. Maybe that’s happened to you before.

Finally, after the high of finishing my Peasy, I picked it up and hunkered down and did it. I finished the sleeve that was about 3/4 done, started and finished the 2nd sleeve, and completed the collar (which took much longer than it seemed it would, for some reason!). Soaked it and set it to blocking last night, and this morning it’s just a bit damp. When it’s completely dry, I’ll walk it over to the park for a photo shoot. Here is is, just lying about:

such gorgeous yarn!

in the “scarecrow” pose so popular this season

I hope to take an action shot this afternoon! I’m really glad this one is finished, and just in time to start the next one. Come on, mailman, bring mama a present.

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Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone
And another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I’m gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust

I finished my Mondo Cable Cardigan y’all! It’s soaking right now, so it’ll be a little while before I have my F.O. pictures, but I’m telling you, it’s a beautiful sweater. The madelinetosh merino is thick and lofty and will probably pill like mad, but I don’t care. When I had to bind off the collar (1×1 ribbing), I started with a regular old bind-off but it was wavy and hideous so (being the newly mature knitter that I am) I ripped it out and investigated my options.

Tubular bind-off seemed like the best approach, but all the tutorials I found were confusing. I started, got several stitches in, and ripped it out. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Minor despair started to build. Then I found this great little video and *presto changeo* it was easy and obvious. And my bindoff is amazing, if I do say so. You’ll see, I’ll be sure to point it out in the inevitable pictures.

“Video tutorial courtesy of Liat Gat of KNITFreedom.blogspot.com, the site that teaches people how to knit over the Internet using high-resolution video e-books.”

So two sweaters are done, and I’m really ready to get my new yarn this week to start the Eve’s Ribs Shrug project. Byzantine, y’all. Byzantine.

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surgery - knitting needles, stat!

What an accidentally perfect choice I made for my first sweater; the yarn – Rowan Felted Tweed – is very sticky so it hides errors and looks fantastic when it’s blocked, and since it’s so sticky, it’s easy to frog with abandon, without worrying that it’ll all come undone.

It’s always good to take the time to fix what’s wrong. Mister Rogers had a great song called “I Like to Take My Time” (remember, Katie? ), but for this post, I just imagined him singing that he’s proud of me. I’m proud of me too, Mister Rogers.

Peasy in the park

what camera? I'm just standing here, like you do, wearing my sweater. Oh, you like it? I MADE IT.

there must be something interesting going on over there - i keep looking!

All is forgiven, miles of stockinette. All is forgiven, lost mojo. All is forgotten, minor-league grousing. I’ll be wearing this to Rhinebeck. Sure, I see a few things I wish I’d done differently – a little waist shaping, to reduce the boxiness; a little more attention to that right sleeve that’s a bit too long – and sure, I’ve lost several pounds since I started the sweater so now it’s a size too big, but it’s my sweater.

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Peasy is in the last stages of drying; it’s just a little bit damp, but I don’t want to rush it. I took a little trip across town this morning (sidetrack: it’s so easy to go north-south here in Manhattan, which is good since it’s longer than it is wide, but it’s a real pain in the butt to cross town. Getting to the east side of Central Park either requires a cross-town bus, walking across the park, or taking the subway down to Times Square, transferring to another line, and going back uptown. Hassle). ANYWAY, since I had to be across town this morning anyway, for a dentist appointment, I took the chance to walk a few extra blocks to Tender Buttons, the charming little button shop at the edge of the button district, where I bought the buttons for Marnie’s wedding dress.

It’s so hard, picking the right buttons. It can feel like there’s so much pressure: must get the right ones! The wrong buttons would suck! Dizzy! And then I remember….it’s buttons. Geez. Pick some you like. So, after trying a few little wooden ones, and a couple of coconut shell buttons, I ended up with these oval woven leather buttons, handmade in Italy. At $3.50 each I want them to sing Nessun Dorma whenever I wear my sweater:

my little leather buttons....but don't they look like Milk Duds??

And here it is, nearly dry. The next time you see it, I’ll be wearing it. I’m going to take my tripod and remote control over to Riverside Park, so you can see it out in the world.

Peasy, so pretty

atsa lotta stitches my friend

I love it. All the boredom of all that stockinette, forgiven and forgotten. And now I’m super motivated to finish my Mondo Cable Cardigan too. I nearly finished sock #1 while I was waiting at the dentist office this morning. I haven’t had an FO in SO SO LONG, I’d forgotten what a high it is.

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Late afternoon:

me, writing notes for my toast. They put me last because they (rightly) knew that my speech would be the most emotional.

A silent auction of some of Marnie's prints, to benefit the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)'s support of gay marriage

Tom's friend Gwendolyn did Marnie's hair and makeup

FINALLY! It’s 7pm, time to head down to the prairie, where the ceremony will be held.

we all walked through the forest, past the sugar shack, to get to the prairie where we waited for Tom and Marnie to appear.

and here they come! We all broke out into applause when they appeared. Tom's niece Ella had gathered a bunch of prairie wildflowers for Marnie to carry, at the last minute.

This is SO THEM. Even in this moment, there was a lot of laughter.

married! Joe just pronounced them married, after the most beautiful ceremony and vows. And there was much applause, laughter, tears, and joy.

Then we all returned to the Lodge, for a wonderful dinner catered by a local restaurant. They don’t do catering – they just did this for Marnie and Tom. They bought all local ingredients for the menu, purchased the morning of the wedding.

Marnie watches Tom order his food - I love her gaze at him

a moment's pause. I think she looks so beautiful, even in this thoughtful moment.

Night fell as we were eating dinner, and then we had the speeches and toasts. Without exception, everyone talked about how much Marnie and Tom laugh together, how absolutely right they are for each other, and how much they mean to us all. Marnie and Tom had their dance, then Marnie had selected a song to dance with her dad, and then there was our song, one that has enormous meaning for Marnie and me – L.O.V.E., by Nat King Cole. It’s a long story …. but you can bet I cried throughout the whole thing.

the tent, lit up with little bits of starlight and a lot of joy

Marnie's gannetts hanging from the tent rafters

FLYING HOME SUNDAY

Only because I had to, I flew out on Delta. I hate Delta. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever taken an uneventful Delta flight; I’m sure it would be memorable if I ever had a Delta flight that was uneventful because it would be the only such experience. I flew from Madison to Detroit, where I had to change planes (with a 1-hour layover), for the flight home to LaGuardia. Like all my other flights on this roundtrip, I got to the airport to find that the flight to Detroit was delayed by one hour. There were no other flights that would get me home that day, no matter how I arranged it. So I just had to hope for the best.

While we were in the air, someone – one of pilots, we think – came on and said this: “Sorry we got a late start, and we know most of you are worried about making your connections. But look! Look outside, it’s a beautiful day! It’s still a beautiful day to be flying!” And so on. Mr. Mindfulness, trying to reorient us. It made me laugh.

So I got to Detroit, the connecting flight knew there were 19 of us on the now-late plane, so we ran off the plane, raced down the terminal, and raced onto the very VERY hot plane. And then I sat. And I sat. And I sweated in the heat, and I waited. An announcement was made that we’re waiting on the pilot, who was coming in on another flight that had been delayed. Later, an announcement: the pilot has just landed! We should be taking off in about 5-10 minutes!  Later, another announcement: “Hi, I’m your new pilot with the replacement team. We have no idea what happened to the other flight crew. We should be taking off shortly.”

SO DELTA. I did finally land, only to face incredibly bad traffic. I got home considerably later than I dreamed I would. But I got a lot of knitting done; finished my Wowie Zowie socks, and got a great start on Peasy.

fantastic socks, taken against a backdrop of your standard Best Western bedspread.

Peasy! Easy! Fun!

the bit of lace on the front panels

And now, I begin my new life as (a) the mother of 2 married daughters, and (b) a freelancer. I’m finishing up the unpacking/straightening up details, finishing a lot of paperwork, and then I start my new life scrambling for work. Know anyone who needs (1) a manuscript developed, (2) a good writer, (3) a market research consultant, (4) a survey designer and programmer, or (5) a data analyst? If so, send them my way!

Thanks again for all your very lovely best wishes, they meant a lot to me.