What I Was Going to Blog About

I meant to blog all last week about my progress towards my goals, and how I'm doing with my Make Nine Challenge, but I can't quite bring myself to care enough to talk about it.

green checks are completed and the orange star is on the needles

TL;DR, it's going very well, thank you for asking.  I seem to suddenly have as much time as ever for knitting, despite my new found love for Animal Crossing.

Today should have been the first day of my Passover PTO.  I try to take the Wed-Fri before our Seder off to get ready, and then the Mon-Tues after to recover.   But what with one thing and another, my plans have changed, and I'm only taking two days off.

I mean, everyone's plans have changed right?

For the first time in over twenty years, I won't be having Seder with my community.  Gathering 30+ people into my living room right now would be beyond irresponsible, so we're doing the smart and sensible thing, and eventually I'm going to have a good cry about it.

I haven't yet, but I can tell it's coming.  A dear friend linked me to a Darcy Lewis (MCU) Passover fic and just reading the summary was enough to get me to tear up.

"This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. All who are hungry should come and eat. All who are in need should come and make Pesach. Now we are here, next year out of quarantine!"

So here I sit at a cross roads.  I can decide to wallow and be angry and sad and to say the hell with it and eat bacon cheeseburgers on Saturday (okay, I lie, just typing that made me twitch a little).  But the point remains - I get to decide how to respond to this.  And yes, it's 100% valid to be upset.  My oldest daughter has her own household now, and we won't be sharing Seder together this year for the first time since our family began this tradition.   Some of the kids (I say "kids" ... they're all adults) that are part of my family-by-choice won't have this celebration to come to this year.  I won't see the wonderful friends and community members that I see so rarely.  And yeah.  All of that is true, and it's okay that I'm sad and angry and a little bit heart-broken.

a naye yor, a naye cast-on

But, Passover is a time of renewal.  It's a time of hope, and new beginnings.  At Passover we celebrate the fact that however hard things are right now, we know that it will not always be this way.  Tomorrow things will be better. 

I get to decide how I want to respond to this.

We will have a tiny family Seder here at the Burrow, with Carl, Morgan, and Rowan.  It will be lovely and intimate, and with only four of us ...  this year we can see what that line about "reclining" is all about.  Think of the bounty of space we'll have! 

And in this moment, let me share my extreme gratitude and love for my sweet husband.  He is driving this tiny family Seder, and making sure that it happens.

We'll have charoset, and home-made horseradish, and if we can't find lamb we have back-up brisket, and I have wine (oh yes, I have wine) and it's going to be lovely.

This year, a tiny Seder.  Next year, at the Burrow!  Now we are here, next year out of isolation!

All the FOs: I Was Made For Social Distancing

There's been quite a surge in finishing related activity here at chez woolly in the past few weeks.  Now that I'm a 100% remote employee, during the day if I'm not actively typing or writing something, odds are good there's knitting or crochet in my hands.   Need time to think?  Knit a round on a sock.  On a conference call?  Whip up another granny square for that blanket.

I finished my Exploration Station by Stephen West last Saturday, but it was several days before the light was right for pictures.  I took the first set of pictures while it was overcast, and it sucked the joy out of the outrageous colors I chose. 

I was glad to have the chance to try again a few days later when the sun finally made an appearance.  It was gloomy and grey here in Middle Tennessee for entirely too long.

This shawl is so far outside of my normal "1970s Kitchen Appliance" color palette that it's almost shocking.  I adore it - it was just the shot of cheer that I've needed this winter.

I used two skeins of Dream in Color Jilly, and two of Suburban Stitcher Single Sock.  The rest of the details (including specifics on colorways and how much I used of each skein) can be found here.

I've also recently finished my Litmus Cowl by Amy Edwards Green (Amyflorence of Stranded Dyeworks and Podcast fame).  

This picture was taken on one of those grey days I was talking about - while this cowl actually is more reserved in color than the Exploration Station, it's not as muted as it looks in this photo.

Look at that cute kid, y'all.

I'd originally been worried that I was going to run out of the contrast color, but it turned out perfectly.  I used every drop of the Canon Hand Dyes mini set, and 90 out of 100g of the White Birch skein I paired it with.  Each color was approximately 11 rounds, so I did 9 rounds of the contrast and that solved it.   My Ravelry project page is here.

After I finished the shawl, the only thing I had left other than four (?!) blankets was a pair of shorty socks.

That didn't last very long.

It's time to figure out what the next big thing is going to be. Another shawl?  I'm on quite a shawl kick right now. 

I'll think about it while I work on this sock.

Trouble Was His Middle Name, FO: to ride the silver seas

Homer's Odyssey, as I'm sure you know, recounts the story of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and the ten years it took him to make it home after the Trojan War.

Now there was a man who would not stop to ask for directions.

While he was off galivanting with sea nymphs and taunting the odd one-eyed giant, his wife Penelope was at home beating back the advances of 108 young men who all thought they should be the next king of Ithaca, and they'd all like to grace her sheets while they were about it.  While circumstances rather forced her hand when it came to entertaining gentlemen callers, she was adamant that "no other man's boxers will go in my washing machine," and she rebuffed all advances.

Penelope was the true hero of the Odyssey.   Odysseus, who's name actually means "trouble" in Greek, my gods what a trainwreck of a man, is widely considered to be one of the cleverest of the ancient heroes.  And other than the wee-est spot of hubris - which was basically a pre-requisite for the heroing gig back in the day - he's a pretty stand-up guy.

But he's got nothing on his wife.  Friends, she had over one hundred frat boys drinking her ouzo and eating her olives, literally devouring the wealth of a country that she'd been ruling for twenty years, and she plays them.  Plays them one and all for fools and stalls them for three years while she waits for her dumb husband to get home.   

"Let me weave this shroud for Laertes," she said.  (She was a big Hamlet fan, loved Shakespeare.)

Unweaves a night's work.

"Oh, still not done!  Loads to do!" she said the next morning.

"Seems legit," the suitors all agreed, going back to the ouzo.

Suitors.  Am I right?

 Dorothy Parker, a delightful human being, author, and poet wrote this about Penelope:

Penelope

In the pathway of the sun, 
In the footsteps of the breeze, 
Where the world and sky are one, 
He shall ride the silver seas, 
He shall cut the glittering wave. 
I shall sit at home, and rock; 
Rise, to heed a neighbor’s knock; 
Brew my tea, and snip my thread; 
Bleach the linen for my bed. 
They will call him brave.

It calls into question what we define as heroism.  Is it more brave to go out into the world, to "ride the silver seas," or to stay and to wait.  To make a home, to get up day after day and do the things that must be done.  To honor politics, custom, and civility and to "heed a neighbor's knock" when you'd rather do nothing more than stay in bed and mourn the loss of the one you loved more than life?

Is it bitterness, grief, pride, or simply weariness we hear in Penelope's voice when she says, "They will call him brave"?

So anyway, this shawl I knit is called Odyssey, but I knit it for Penelope, mostly, and only a little bit for her dumb husband.

Project Notes

Project Name: to ride the silver seas

Pattern:  Odyssey by Joji Locatelli

Yarn:  DK Still by Deep Dyed Yarns in Whisp (dk grey), One Shot (olive), and Smoke (lt grey)

Total Yardage: 558 yards

Needles:  US 9 (5.5 mm)

Started: January 1, 2020

Completed: January 20, 2020

Ravelry Project Page: here

Fight Me, Rusty (2020 Crafting Goals and Intentions)

I got called out at work the other day because I said that I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but I do have some goals and intentions for 2020.  Resolutions and Goals are totally different, Rusty.  Fight me.

Amongst my other goals and intentions (not resolutions) for the year, I identified a few crafting related goals that I thought I'd share here on the blog.  I'll plan a few check-in posts throughout the year, and we'll see how we go.

My crafting intentions are all about how I want to feel about my hobby, whereas the goals are rather more specific in terms of the details of what I want to do. Ideally the goals should support the desired intentions, otherwise I'm doing it wrong.

Crafting Intentions

• I want to continue to expand my skills, try new techniques, and execute current skills with more precision.
• I want to expand my learning beyond my current comfort zone (so more spinning and weaving, basically).
• I want to play and have fun with what I'm making.
• I want to be clever about what I'm choosing to spend my time on, so that the end result is items that are both beautiful and useful. 
• I want to feel positive and proud about my stash, not embarrassed or defensive.  

This is a lot of text.  Here's a picture of the socks I'm currently working on.

Crafting Goals

1. Make good use of my #makenine2020 list for inspiration.  As I said in my last post, I don't have a hard and fast "must knit all of these things" kind of plan for makenine, but these are all things I'd like to make, or yarn I'd like to use.
2. Craft 15,000 yards or more.  This will basically maintain my current level of crafting, and I have a stretch goal of 20K.  I'll be happy with 15, though.
3. Do more weaving.  "More" doesn't really have a numerical value attached to it (so not a "SMART" goal as such, but whatever, I do what I want.)  Some things I'd like to work on include: hand towels, napkins, simple herringbone, more faux plaid scarves/infinity cowls out of self striping yarn.  I have plenty of stash on hand to do any or all of these.
4. Knit 20 pairs of socks in 2020.  I hit this in 2019, and would like to do it again.  For purposes of this goal, ankle socks totally count.
5. Knit 6 pair of festive socks (to be counted among the aforementioned 20, I'm not looking to sustain a pair of socks every other week all year long.  I make questionable knitting-related decisions, but that's a bridge too far even for me.)
6. Finish at least one of those ding-danged blankets.
7. I don't have a spinning specific goal, but I probably should.
8. Continue to use old growth stash, in addition to the canopy stash.

I do also have some HPKCHC specific goals, but I suspect they'd take more explaining than they are actually worth.  It all definitely rolls under my "have fun" intention though, so there's that.

2020 Goals, First Draft

I plan to do quarterly reviews of these goals to see if I need to course correct, or to celebrate what I've accomplished.  I'll do the review regardless, but time will tell if I make it back here to blog about it.

Make Nine Challenge 2020

Are you familiar with the Make Nine Challenge?  The idea is to identify nine things you'd like to make during a calendar year.  Simple, yet brilliant.  Nine is not so many as to be overwhelming, nor too few as to be uninspiring.  Like the littlest bear's porridge, it is Just Right.

The challenge is the brain child of Rochelle of Home Row Fiber Co.  You can read more if you're interested at her blog here.

I put together a Make Nine grid in 2018, but I gave it a miss last year.  When I did it before, I finished 5 of the projects I'd earmarked (plus a whole raft of other things).  The four that didn't make it were a series of socks named for the Pevensies.  I have yarns and patterns, so I may yet make them, but for some reason even though I thought I wanted to knit them, when the time came I chose something else. 

shrug 

Arbitrary goal setting tools and games are only fun and useful so long as they are fun and useful.  (Tautologist speaks in tautologies).

All that said, I decided to play along again this year.  I have chosen a healthy mix of specific patterns and skeins of yarn for socks (pattern to be determined, but likely vanilla with a fish lips kiss heel).  One of my criteria for selecting projects for this list was that it had to be things I already have the yarn in stash for, so everything is ready to go.

Starting at the top, and proceeding left to right, my Make Nine projects are:

1. Exploration Station, by Stephen West, knit from  Dream in Color Jilly and Suburban Stitcher Single Sock
2. "Tinuviel" Valkyrie Fibers Matte Sock
3. Pierre, by Stephen West, knit from Miss Babs Yowza Minis
4. "McGonagall" Nomadic Yarns Twisty Sock
5. Litmus Cowl, by Amy Florence, knit from Canon Hand Dyes Charles Merino Fingering "Autumn Rainbow" minis
6. "Freedom to Be" See Jayne Knit Superwash Merino Nylon Sock (Ravelry tribute colorway)
7. Odyssey Shawl, by Joji Locatelli, knit from Deep Dyed Yarns Still DK
8. "Summer Camp" Knit Picks Stroll Gradient Duo - these will be some kind of Hanukkah socks, pattern TBD
9. Renewal Shawl, by Judy Marples, knit in Emma's Yarn Super Silky

I have numbers 1, 2, and 7 already cast on, so I'm off to a strong start. 

I feel good about this list, but I'm also not too bothered if they don't all get knit this year.  I'm using this as a reminder and a point of inspiration as I'm choosing what patterns to knit next, rather than as a hard-and-fast "rule" about my knitting.   I've been doing this long enough that I have a fair sense of what's going to work in the self-motivation department, and I can tell you with some sense of surety that deciding I "have" to knit something six months from now is an excellent way to ensure that I don't.