Who knew?

Who knew that one day I would resurrect this blog? Frankly, I've spent very little time knitting over the last 6 years, and all of my creative energy has been funneled into making cards and scrapbooking. I've had a blast too and made many great friends. I'm not sure where I am with that right now. Most hobbies last around 10 years, and stamping has lasted much longer (18). Lately though, I've been escaping from the basement where I spend my days surrounded by stamps and paper working as a medical transcriptionist, the job I finally decided to train for after trying and failing to get an office job outside the home. It's not a job during the performance of which you can knit (or even do anything else) while you are doing it. I spend all day down here on my computer, and lately just have not felt like being here after I finish for the day.

So I found myself thinking about knitting again the other day. I had done a bit on the Celtic Cable sock (yes, still a WIP) a couple months ago when I went to watch my daughter Emily participate in a quiz bowl tournament. It's been a long time since I have had to watch any child of mine participate in anything, another reason that I haven't knit a lot in the past 6 years. Nobody plays on sports teams. No one participates in anything much that requires periods of waiting. I got out of the habit of dragging knitting with me. So I figured since I was going to have to be a captive audience anyway, I might as well have some sanctioned fidgeting to do. I'd love to say that I re-fell in love with knitting at that moment, but I didn't. I enjoyed doing it, but I didn't get a huge yen to bury myself back in balls of yarn and romp through my stash in wild abandon. A stash which I still have, all of it, in spite of my husband's persistent hints to get rid of it. It moved into the laundry room, which means my Rubbermaid totes are all now covered in dryer lint and dust, so getting in the stash is a filthy process. But I digress...

No, what got me back into it was deciding I needed to get rid of some stuff. My office/craft space is stuff with all kinds of stuff I have acquired over the years, and I'm starting to get a wee bit claustrophobic. I decided to start with my boxed-up spinning and weaving magazines, and I listed them on Ravelry and managed to sell all the spinning magazines and a few of the weaving (so far). I also have an Etsy store (FiberMags & More) that I set up to sell off magazines and have managed to divest myself of a few of those. In the process of selling these, I realized that I was kind of, sort of, thinking of knitting something. I have two nieces who are just about to pop (i.e. give birth) and what better to do than to knit them each a Babies & Bears sweater?

God knows I have plenty of Plymouth Encore, so I went through both of my totes and found suitable girl-type yarn since both nieces are carrying girls. I brought them upstairs and figured I'd have to reaarange my knitting bags. I have a small one for socks, a larger one for big projects, a standing floor model to keep things near my chair like my needle caddies, etc, plus another one for larger projects. This led to  a closet cleanout. I went through my clothes closet, the place I would usually stash yarn that was going to be transitioned to the basement stash, and decided I should throw away a bunch of old purses and shoes that were never going to be used/worn again. In the process of looking on Ravelry at my profile, I remembered the Jaywalker sock I was knitting, and couldn't for the life of me find the ziplock bag I know it lived in. I couldn't find the tiny sheep knitting markers I had bought in Utah when I was visiting for the Stampin' Up! convention. And as usual, this bugged the crap out of me until I found the one in the corner of the bedroom under a bunch of other stuff, covered with dust, and the other in a drawer. I can't rest easy not knowing where things are.

So ANYWAY, here's the latest B&B sweater:
This is Plymouth Encore color 7002, a nice heathered variegated lavender.














And here are the tiny sheep knitting markers I found in Utah, at a yarn store called Black Sheep Wool Company, that is not there anymore. After I bought them, I kicked myself because I wasn't really knitting and thought about giving them to my mom, but I knew they were not something she would ever use. So now I am using them.











So, if there is anyone left who actually reads this blog, drop me a comment and let me know!