Round Up

Well, I finally managed to set a side a little time yesterday to finish some items. Now that my home is finally kid-free and guest-free, I took a small break from the clearing up and sat down to face the Lacy Top that I'd almost forgotten about in my WIP's basket. With summer almost over now, I decided that I really should face the dreaded sewing stage on this cotton item. After all, we are only talking about 2 underarm seams and a few ends to sew in. Not exactly a mammoth task.

I lay the piece out on the table and prepared to bite the bullet. With my High Schoolers sneezing and snorting behind me (they've been off sick and it's only the first week!) I picked up my needle and scissors and got started.

Boy, do I HATE sewing seams. Even when I do the glorious invisible seams that give you a great sense of satisfaction as you draw up the thread and watch the knitted stitches slide together as if they totally belong that way. For some reason, I just hate having to sew after all that knitting. The only needle I want my garments to see is a knitting needle.

Despite the fact that the Lacy Top is a top down construction, the pattern requires you to cast on over the cast off stitches of the arm holes, thus requiring seaming at the end. How I wished that I'd just picked up and avoided the sewing entirely.

I know, it's pathetic!.....Two little underarm seams.......and I'm making so much fuss.

I walked to pick up The Little Guy from school inbetween armholes, hoping that the fresh air would improve my mood. No luck. What can I say? I just don't like sewing. Thankfully, I've finished and am now blocking the top. Hopefully I'll get to wear it as an early autumn piece, layered over the top of a plain T-shirt.

Another project that I made a decision on is the lace curtain. What was I thinking??? Loved the idea.......but the time, my friends, I just don't have enough of it! As much as I hate to admit that "The Husband" was right all along and will delight in my defeat, I JUST CAN'T DO IT ANY MORE!
In an effort to streamline my projects, I decided to abandon my dreams of lightweight English lace floating in the summer breeze and settle for a piece of heavyweight US lace that the previous owner of my house left behind! One small strip is perfect hanging from a cafe curtain rod in the downstairs bathroom and has the added bonus of keeping more of that NW chill out when winter arrives.

Finally, I just popped over to Jared Flood's blog and caught this terrific piece about an original EZ cardigan that he's been lucky enough to be asked to photograph. Following my own recent Elizabeth Zimmermann encounters, I can recommend it as an encouraging read.

Six

I actually managed to knit six rows on the Swallowtail Shawl this Saturday. I know it was only six rows, but as the project is starting to grow more now, those six rows take longer than they did before. I'm still religiously ticking them off on my "Swallowtail Shawl Mileage Sheet" and hoping and praying that I maintain the correct stitch count, but hey, IT WAS SIX WHOLE ROWS!

My main issue is having the energy to knit at the end of the day. I could really do with the calming presence of my knitting, but most of the time I'm too wiped to do more than fall into bed in a state of exhaustion. Consequently six rows really was a major achievement. Six rows meant setting aside an hour on a deck chair in the sun listening to my iPod and cutting everyone else out for that time. Six rows meant ignoring the cries of "Muuumm?" as they tried to find me and six rows meant ignoring P.A waving from the pool as he tried to draw attention to the fact that it was now 80 degrees and he'd actually got into it!!

DD2 is coveting my progress. She hit an issue again so her yarn is back in the corner of the room in a tangled heap. She's trying to pursuade me to redo it for her (she keeps ending up with too many stitches), but so far I have not succumbed to her butt-licking declarations of "You know you love me, Mum" or "I'm your favourite daughter and I love you soooo much!"

Thankfully I've been too busy keeping control of our burgeoning vegetable garden to be sweet-talked into someone elses lace project. The weather has been unbelievably hot this year and so watering has been a big job. The plants on my front deck are beginning to get away from me now. It's just so hot there and we're all getting too lazy to contort ourselves to water the hanging tomatoes and strawberries. The white onions in the container have been wonderful though. Every time I need one to go in the dinner, I just pop outside the front door and pull it fresh out of the soil.

Meanwhile, the zucchini (courgettes to my fellow Brits) are taking over! I've had at least ten already (yes, more than six) and I only have two plants. They are coming on so thick and fast that my stomach can't keep up with the pace of production! This weekend I resorted to chopping, blanching and freezing some to use at a later date in soups, stews and quiches. After all, you can have too much of a good thing and I really don't want to become sick of the sight of them by the end of the summer. I'm also on the lookout for any new zucchini recipes, so if you have a good one you don't mind passing on, I am your grateful recipient.

Now, I wonder if I have time to knit another six rows before everyone else gets up today? The benefit of waking before six every day (yes, there actually is an upside) is that I can sneak in a few uninterrupted stitches during the most peaceful part of the day.

Ahh, bliss.

We Have Growth

Well, the chart is working for me. Slowly but surely I am seeing growth in this project and I'm maintaining my stitches. Sometimes I find that I miscount because one of the YOs has got wrapped around the next stitch, so the best solution I've found is to count my stitches as I purl the even rows. I've also put an extra marker on each end to denote the two knit stitches that make the top edge of the shawl. Just having one on the right side row was not working for me. When I purled back, I'd just forget when I'd got to the edge and P2 instead of K2.(sigh)

The best thing though is that DD2 has been inspired to start again. Seeing my 4 inches of work now, she has been motivated to pick up her needles again and crack on with her green version. She's using a smaller needle though (which doesn't bode well in my opinion) but she's managed to get to the start of the Budding Lace repeats.

What's amazed me though, is that she's decided to 'put in a lifeline' to prevent herself having to rip the whole thing out yet again if she makes a mistake! She googled 'lifelines' and has worked out what to do. Honestly, she's making me feel totally reckless jogging on as I am, without a safety net!

Anyway, time will tell. I'm crossing my fingers that I can get to the end of the 14 repeats (I'm halfway!!) and then may be I'll consider a lifeline too before I start the Lilly Of The Valley pattern. With all those nupps to do, it sounds like a good idea to me.

Seeing Red

It seems that I've fallen into a summer schedule whether I intended to or not. Please check back regularly for updates which I will post 'as and when' (but at least once a week.) Although summer should be a time of R&R (don't worry, I have penciled in some time for that), mine has turned into an onslaught of Driving and DIY.

Well, my wonderful weekend of knitting really was a weekend of knitting but wasn't so wonderful. I enjoyed a couple of hours on Saturday starting off my Swallowtail Shawl. DD2 on the other hand, spent her time ripping back her first attempt. With increasing frustration, she has declared her Knit Picks Shadow a 'no-go' yarn and thrown the whole project into the corner of her room in disgust.

She'd been doing fine, but then realised that she had too many stitches and when she tried to frog back, the rather delicate, fuzzy yarn got so knotted up that it broke....several times. Patience was not in her vocabulary and, eyeing my small piece of work, she warned me that the going might get tough.

It did.

On Sunday, I went back to my two inches of work only to discover that I too had created way too many stitches on my second lot of 6 rows in the Budding Lace Pattern. Determined to be more patient than my offspring, I frogged back to row 6 and attempted to start again. Two rows in and I again had too many stitches.

I went to Ravelry.

Reading the comments listed for the Swallowtail Shawl written by fellow Ravellers, I found Kim at "Musings Of The Fuzzy Kind". Having sat there doing the math trying to work out how many stitches I should have after each pattern row, I discovered that Kim has already done the job. She has made a PDF called "The Swallowtail Mileage Sheet" which lists the number of stitches for each row for the entire 14 repeats of the Budding Lace Pattern. Invaluable!

Despite trying to frog delicately back, I eventually decided that I'd actually done so little that I might as well just rip out the whole thing and start again. So I did. Late last night I reached the second repeat of the Budding Lace Pattern.....and made the same mistakes over again. In complete and utter frustration, I turned to the chart to see if that would shed more light on the issue than the written instructions. And do you know what? It did!

Just before I went to bed, the penny dropped. From studying the chart, I realised that I'd been repeating the entire section between the stars instead of just the 6-stitch repeat! That was how I was ending up with too many stitches.

Duh! Dunderhead!!

There is now a chance that I will get beyond the first repeat of this lace shawl and who knows, maybe once I do, I'll persuade DD2 to take the journey with me again.

Happy 4th of July!

Pattern: Swallowtail Lace Shawl - Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow - Hot Rod


Time for sticks and string.....at last!

Still Into Lace

Hours Remaining........ 25hrs 00mins

It's all go. I haven't wanted to pick up my needles for the past 24hrs. I must be ill. I need to pick up my needles if only for the meditative therapy, but I just can't face it right now. Maybe I need to start a garter stitch scarf or something? An eco wool blanket like The Yarn Harlot's making might do the trick I suppose, although a garter stitch blanket does seem rather a large project to undertake when I'm (hopefully) just in a rut.

Maybe it's too much lace, after all I have just knitted my Lace Ribbed Top (photos to come when I stand still long enough to get someone to take some.) It's turned out great I can tell, because DD2 has already suggested that if it doesn't fit me she'll have it! Honestly, if she can't get her hands on my yarn before it's made, she'll try to afterwards. I'm thinking of having a T-shirt printed with "Hands Off My Hanks!" emblazoned on it.

Anyway, we do have growth in the bathroom curtain department. I am seriously wishing that I'd cast on about half as many stitches when I began, as the window is not very wide and I could have got away with a lot less. I've been tempted to frog, but then I think of my night with Daniel Craig and the will to continue returns. There are just too many memories wrapped up in this now. I also have the most enormous ball of yarn to use so I need to really make a dent in it if only to reduce the need for future storage.

DD2 and I are also planning our first summer Knit-A-Long (KAL). We are hoping to tackle Evelyn Clark's Swallowtail Lace Shawl. Feel free to join us if you want to, but I warn you we're slow! In preparation we have raided our stash and come up with some Knit Picks Shadow which we have wound ready to go. I will be using a deep red colour called "Hot Rod" and SusieLusie (DD2) is going for the "Spring Green". Let's hope we'll both still be into lace when (if) we finish.

Hours remaining........24hrs 30 mins

SAT's, Stress & The Swatch

So, it's time for true confessions. Yes, you were right, I do have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to yarn. Yes, I admit, I struggle to stay within the realms of normality when a newly blocked swatch is staring at me. Ok, I know, I shouldn't have, but it really was sooooo exciting to see how the swatch looked once it was washed and the feel of the finished piece of fabric was so intoxicating that I just had to......................cast on!

After all, I did have the pattern right there in front of me and even if I couldn't get the scanner to work so that I had a working copy to carry around with me, it wasn't too much of a hardship to cart the entire magazine around instead. Yes, I succumbed. I took a few days off from the bathroom curtain and cast on for the Lacy Ribbed Top that I swatched for last week. I know, I'm weak.

Actually, in my defense I'm citing stress.

Saturday DD1 sat the infamous SAT's - yes, those college entrance exams that we have been hearing about ever since we arrived in the US when she was halfway through 7th grade. Having had the test date hanging over our heads since last September, the dreaded day finally arrived.

For the past year I have been inundated with cold calls from companies trying to blackmail me into buying their SAT Prep products. For a mere $300 I could ensure that my love for my daughter would be adequately exhibited by making sure that she had all the 'essential' prep tools she needed.

I bought her two books from Amazon that are the size of our front steps!

My role on the day was to make sure that she arrived at the test centre on time. Thank heaven for Google Maps. I ran a search the night before and using the satellite version, planned and drove my route virtually as if I was preparing for a military operation. It paid off. We cruised into the car park of a High School that we'd never been to before early enough to allow peace and calm to prevail. It was a miracle.

I'd made a conscious effort all the way to remain calm and zen-like in order to counteract the increasingly distressed vibe eminating from my offspring. By the time I got home though, I needed coffee! It's hard work meditating for two not to mention trying to keep your eyes open at 7am on a Saturday morning.

I thought about her all the time. Nothing I did could distract me from it, so I gave up and started knitting. When it was time to head back to the test centre I put my sleeve stitches on holders, drove there, then picked up my top again and set to work. I listened to one of my favourite podcasts, "This American Life" and waited.............and waited. Suddenly teenagers streamed out of the High School along with a huge air of relief (and tiredness.) It was over.

I replaced my point protectors, marked my round and we drove home.

I looked at my daughter that day and saw that a great weight had lifted from her. It seems such a short while ago that we'd never even heard of the SAT's (in fact it's taken us several years to work out exactly what they are.) When she was 12, she was using Norwegian as her first language every day; speaking, reading and writing it at school. Now, just over four years later, she has taken critical reading and writing in English on the SAT's.

I'm immensely proud of her.

I've also forgiven myself for casting on yet another project. I think this will turn out to be a special one because it marks a major milestone in my daughter's life. I hope I'll think of her whenever I wear it. There's just one possible problem.

I may run out of yarn.

The Secret Of The Swatch

A swatch is a great thing.

I know most of us hate knitting swatches, but honestly, they really are quite amazing. They tell you so much about a yarn without you having to find out the hard way! And, I can tell you, over the years I've had my fair share of knitting disasters. For the most part, these happen because we don't swatch (or we don't wash the swatch after we've made it!)

The only way you really get to understand how a yarn knits up is by working a swatch. It's really quite incredible. For all the finger walking we do with yarn, caressing it's softness in the store and giving it a tentative touch every so often once we've got it home (just to stay connected, you understand), we really don't know how it will feel until it's worked. This is where the swatch comes into its own. For better or worse, that small square of knitted fabric can feel totally different to the skein we've loved from afar.

A swatch is also a memento, particularly if you give away a lot of projects, not to mention a 'living' reference card. You can work different needle sizes, different patterns and different colours all into one swatch. If a sweater comes unravelled or develops a hole sometime down the road, you also have matching yarn on hand to make a repair with instantly. To be honest, a swatch is a work of art all by itself.

The funny thing is that I've only just realised this myself. Normally I HATE swatching. When I start a new project, I'm always so excited about it that I can't wait to get going. Everything else in my life comes to a grinding halt as I eagerly cast on and get going. Slowing down long enough to knit the perfect swatch always seems just a tad too restrictive for me. Until recently that is.....................................

It all started last weekend when I took DD2 to the LYS to select some yarn in an effort to stop her coveting the Harmony by Jojoland. I sat down at the work table to avoid the temptation all around me, only to be confronted by a wonderful ribbed lace top pattern in July's edition of "Creative Knitting." A top-down construction by Kristin Omdahl, it looked like a simple knit that would be a wonderful summer addition to my wardrobe.

I left the building.

Last week I went back. It was just the pattern after all, not yarn, and being a classic it could just sit in my pattern file until I needed it. "Let's face it, my knitting queue is so long that I'll be a classic by the time I get round to making it," I thought to myself. "One little pattern won't do any harm."

I thought about the pattern for the rest of the week. It hovered there at the back of my mind, drifting to the front whenever I got fed up with my other projects. Two rounds on my forgotten wooly purse project while I waited to pick up the girls from school led to thoughts of cool cotton tencel. Then it hit me!

I HAD PIMA SILK IN MY STASH!!

When I got home, I tore the house apart looking for the delectable cotton/silk combination that I'd bought for half price in the middle of winter. There was probably enough for a cotton classic....... but I didn't need to actually knit the top. I am bound to the lace bathroom curtain right now after all and really don't need a distraction. But...........................................I could just swatch.

Yes, dear readers, guess what I did on Saturday? No, not 25 rows on the lace curtain resulting in a half finished product. I did that other hateful thing, I swatched.....................and I loved every glorious, unadulterated moment of it! You see, the secret to swatching is to do it when it's forbidden; when you're supposed to be working on something else. Suddenly a swatch becomes the best thing since superwash merino. The delicious feeling of doing something ever so slightly 'naughty' makes swatching a breeze. I may just have to swatch a few more projects while I'm knitting that curtain this summer.

Anyone want an afghan?

Dreaming The Impossible Dream

Do you ever cast on for something, in that wonderful dream-like daze where everything seems attainable, only to get that slow creeeping feeling after the first few rows that it's impossible? That's how I feel about the bathroom curtain. Don't get me wrong, it's coming along quite nicely, but it's just taking soooooo looooong!

Every row seems to go on forever. To add insult to injury, just as I seem to be making some progress, the whole thing curls itself up so that even I can't see it's beauty. Add to that the fact that I could probably have cast on half the number of stitches that I did, and you have a recipe for potential failure.

The problem is that I'm not a quitter. When P.A. spotted the enormous ball of Aunt Lydia's last week and remarked upon the size of the gargantuan skein of thread, I was forced to reveal my plans for the bathroom curtain to him. "That'll take a long time," he stated in an extremely dry tone. My heart sank. Even he didn't think my attention span would last long enough to complete it. Mind you, who could blame him. When you have to clamber over at least two different project bags, a couple of skeins of wool and several magazines on a regular basis just to get to your spot on the sofa, then you tend to have a heads up about the gnat-sized attentive abilities of your spouse! The fact that he thinks that this curtain will never actually see the light of day (literally) is like throwing down a gauntlet though. Now I HAVE to complete it!

To add to the fun, every time I go into the downstairs cloakroom I mentally try to measure how far up the window I think my work has come. This in itself is quite disheartening as I think I'm only about two inches above the windowsill so far, just in line with the top of the turquoise candle that I got as a freebie from the makers of Bombay Sapphire Gin! I have considered turning the whole project on its side, after all the pattern is symmetrical and that way I'd have half as much to knit. The trouble with that though is that the whole thing would be too long (sigh).

So I sit like a little old lady knitting away on my curtain not really caring how many yarn overs (YO) I put in or where exactly they go, because by the time I've finished it, the whole thing will be all gathered up on the rod and no one will really notice. This aspect could have been the most defeating of all, but actually it's really quite liberating. I can knit away quite merrily and not worry if I have a few stitches too many or too few at the end of the round.

Memories of what I am doing while I'm making the curtain are also getting knitted into it ofcourse. Last Saturday I knitted several rows of Daniel Craig into the white frilly piece. We spent the evening watching "Quantum of Solice" and now I swear I can see some double "O" 7's in the curtain. Somehow though, I don't expect this memory to last. When I walk into my bathroom and see a frilly white lace curtain hanging at the window, I'm hardly going to think, "Ah, James Bond" now am I.

Or am I? I think not. Male machismo and white lace do not generally go together..........unless ofcourse we're talking Colin Firth in "Pride And Prejudice"................ Oh, dear I can see where this is leading. Think it's time to get back to the job in hand and knit a few more rows. With any luck I won't see or hear from anyone while I do that so the curtain will be safe............... at least for a while.

The Mist Lace Scarf And The Cat

Well, here it is, my lace scarf. I just have to sew in the ends and take some decent photos of it.

It blocked up really well thanks to the Knit Picks wires and pins and as for the blocking mats, well, they are marvellous. It takes a while to get rid of that nasty chemical smell that you get with new foam, but if you can get past that, then the tiles themselves are great. I particularly love the fact that I can put them together according to the shape of my piece. In this case I made my blocking board 2 tiles deep and 5 long. I bought two boxes of them rather than one, just to be sure that I could easily block larger projects (each set contains nine 12" mats.) They slotted together beautifully and the pins slipped effortlessly into the foam.

The blocking took place in my bedroom. Having spent so much time on this scarf, I just had to find a place where the yarn could do its thing without the risk of a cat or child accidently destroying it.

My cat, Oliver, has often been tempted. Unattended yarn is like a red rag to a bull with him. I once caught him sneaking up on a pair of Two-At-A-Time socks. When I sprinted across the room yelling at him to "Get Off!" he panicked (wouldn't you?) and took off, catching the yarn around his neck and dragging my "work-in-progress" with him. Cat and knitter could be seen tearing around the house yarn and swear words flying. I finally cornered him in the front room. He looked innocently up at me with a heel flap dangling from his ear. As he resembles the ginger cat in "Shrek," you can picture the look he gave me. "Hard luck, cat," I thought, "if you had the voice of Antonio Banderas, I might fall for your charm, but not this time. I'm not so easily taken in."

Somehow I managed to retrieve my socks from my manic moggy. Actually, I think he was just as relieved as I was. Getting caught up in a mass of fiber and needles was proving to be less fun than he'd anticipated, I think. He looked at me as if I'd saved him from a terrible fate and then slinked off to lay in the sun for a while. Miraculously not a stitch was loss.

Since then I've had to be far more vigilant when Oliver is anywhere near my knitting (yes, he's named after that cuddly little kitten from the Disney animated movie, but he's about as far from that image now as a cat could possibly get.) Even leaping up to answer the phone can mean that when I return I get halfway through the next row to find the yarn has been gently gnawed through in my absense. Obviously blocking lace requires a room with a closed door and if necessary a full blown barricade.

When I took pictures of my work he 'pretended' to protect it.

When I started to block he positioned himself at the top of the stairs in a nonchalent fashion.......................but watched everything!

Somehow the scarf survived and therefore so did he, but the battle lines have been drawn.

It's Curtains For Me!

Yesterday I finished the Mist Lace Scarf. I feel sad and excited at the same time - sad that it's over because I really got into the pattern; excited because now I get to use the new KnitPicks blocking mat and lace wires that I got for my birthday.

Ofcourse I cast on for something else immediately. The thought of being without a lace project was just too much for me right now, so I sorted through the stash and came across this enormous ball of crocheters cotton which I bought last summer. I had planned to make a net curtain for my downstairs bathroom - you know, one of those floaty, lacy things that hangs there looking prettier than a frosted glass window pane. In the absense of frosted glass windows in rooms that contain toilets here in our corner of the US (maybe it's just a British thing?), a net curtain is something of a necessity when your bathroom is on the ground floor and your neighbourhood is full of little boys! (Need I say more.)

So, I have cast on for KnitPicks Lace Curtain. The cotton is very fine and a bit slippery on my Addi Turbo needles, but as long as I can manage to make some version of light lace fabric without stressing out my arms and hands in the process, then all will be well. After three rows though, I am already missing using a chart. I've discovered that although having the written pattern to follow is just fine, I really rather like the simplicity of a chart. Now, I know that not all lace charts are simple. Some of those huge projects, like the shawl that Rudee is making at the moment, require planning of military proportions to execute, but compared with the written version, they are a whole lot easier to follow once you get going.

My window is a lot smaller than the one in the pattern, but I'm hoping that the finer cotton will produce a narrower result and it'll fit beautifully. Now all I have to do is maintain the patience to see this project through to the end and that, as they say over here, "is a whole different ball game!"

Lace Yarn & Musk Ox

I'm obsessed! One small piece of knitted lace and I'm completely and utterly hooked. Honestly, I must be easily led. Last night, while everyone else was watching tv, babysitting or hanging out in their workshop, I was surfing Ravelry and drooling over lace. I think I just doubled my favourites in one go!

Then ofcourse that leads on to drooling over lace yarn. I've looked at everything from fine cobweb to handspun with beads. It's a whole subcategory of yarnology. ("yarnology", is that a word? Well, it is now.)

If you're a knitter, you've got to know your yarnology. It's an extensive field and with the advent of the internet, an ever increasing one too. Yarn knowledge seems to be hugely complicated and the more I read about different yarns, the more I just can't wait to try them out. Honestly, a little bit of knowledge takes yarn petting to a whole new dimension.

I've discovered that the Alaskan yarn Quiviut (Pronounced: KIV-EE-UT) is the most coveted fiber out there. It comes from wild musk ox which reside up in the arctic circle. Musk ox are relics of the ice age some 20,000 years ago. They lived at a time when saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths roamed the treeless high Arctic. As you can imagine, they have very thick fur that keeps them warm during the arctic winter. Their outside hair is called guard hair, the very long hair on the back, but leading up to winter they start growing underwool which is called quiviut. It is very light and soft and is perhaps one of the finest fibers there is. Consequently, the price of quiviut is more than $40 per ounce, yet demand by us knitters far outstrips supply.

This will be one fiber to watch as the world faces the challenges of climate change though. As the arctic gets warmer and the ice melts, what will happen to the musk ox? Will it die out or will it adapt to the new climate and if so, will this mean no more quiviut?

Something to think about, isn't it.

When The Going Gets Tough........

...................the tough cast on lace. I know, only a mad woman would consider casting on for a lace project when all around her seems to be falling apart, but........what can I say? When I need comfort, I run to my knitting and hiding in a project which challenges me with YO's, SSK's and K2tog's has been just the therapy I need. I was even brave enough to take it to my knitting group yesterday. Obviously, I wasn't full of conversation, after all I had a lace chart on my lap, but listening to everyone else's jolly banter perked me up no end.

I've been wanting to tackle some lace for a while and so I have CO with some KnitPicks Palette from my stash. The colour is totally 'me' ofcourse and it seems to be knitting up a treat. I'm enjoying hiding in my 'Mist' Lace Scarf project and avoiding the knot in my stomach created by the fact that my husband is about to lose the job that we moved halfway round the world to take up just over 4yrs ago.

Perhaps lace is the perfect project for a situation like this. Maybe gauge is not such an issue as it is with stockinette or garter stitch? Controlling the tension of your needles as you run the full gamut of emotions that possible unemployment throws at you (with loss of medical insurance and everything that that entails) is perhaps easier with lacework? Who knows? All I know is, it's working for me! Every time I feel that lump leaping up to grab my throat, or that anger threatening to harden my heart, I reach for my lace scarf and knit.

Right now, I'm very glad I'm a knitter.

The Galina Interview

I just finished listening to last week's podcast from the Knitmore Girls (I'm a bit behind as usual) and I really can't recommend it enough. If you're interested in lace knitting or are just intrigued by knitting stories from other nations, then you have to listen to their interview with Gallina Alexandrovna Khmeleva of Skaska Designs. It provides a fascinating insight into Russian life in the '60's,'70's and '80's and Gallina's business acumen and stoic resolve immediately reminded me of the Russian women I befriended while living in Norway. One was a gifted ceramic artist and the other a dance teacher, but for both art and culture were important aspects of their lives in Russia.

You can listen to the interview "Galina Knits Behind The Iron Curtain" here at the Knitmore Girls site or on iTunes.