DK the Nautical Knitter

While I was sitting here eating the crust off my fish sticks for lunch, (ya, that is how I eat ‘em) it occurred to me that it is almost November and is time for NaNoWriMo to begin again. This made me start to think about whether I really wanted to try to enter and win this year, or if my entering again this year would only be an added stress agent and unattainable goal in my life that I would regret not being able to finish.

If you continue to follow me down this road, at a respectable distance, you will see where I eventually ended up. That is right, I found myself asking “Self, how many things do you really want to accomplish and realistically, how many will reach completion status?”.

Here is my answer, and it is quite simple really. I can do it all. No, really, the issue is not whether I can do what I want, the issue is what do I really want to do. This is a freeing concept if you actually look at it realistically. Let me explain. If I have a pattern that I am knitting and it is going slowly, periodically I have to look at that project and ask myself “Self, why are you working on this project? Do you still like the pattern, yarn, etc.? When you do finish it, are you really going to wear it/gift it?” By answering these questions I can figure out if I want to continue working on the project or not.

This sounds easier than it is in practice. Here is why. I think many of us, knitters and others, make things too hard on ourselves by thinking things like “I have already put so much time into this project, I must finish it” or ” I paid $$ for this yarn, and I have to use it”.

As far as the time goes, do you really want to spend more time on a project that is just not floating your boat? If you decide you don’t want to continue the investment of time any further in a project, here is an idea. Chalk the time already spent on said project as good time spent gaining experience in a particular technique, learning about a particular designer’s pattern presentation, or even as just a block of time that you were able to sit and knit. All of those are great ways to spend time. Then hold your breath, and frog it.

Money spent on patterns, yarn, and tools is another thing all together. I consider myself a collector. The patterns I buy, way more than I will ever have time to knit by the way, are sources of inspiration for me. I purchase them with the intent to make the project. However, once I have purchased a pattern, it is mine to do with as I wish. I can just set it on my shelf and never touch it again. I own it. Knowing this ahead of time, I try not to “waste” money on patterns that are just going to “sit there”, but if they do, that is ok. I buy patterns that appeal to me and thus add to my collection of available possibilities. I do not wake up at night hearing a little voice calling “You bought me, you should really make me….” Besides, that would be way too creepy.

I guess the moral of today’s post is YOU CAN DO IT ALL, it just really depends on what you consider “ALL” to be. This knitter will not be pushed around by self-imposed deadlines, over-priced luscious yarn purchases, creepy voices coming from the yarn closet, or patterns that spoke to me long ago. Life is too short and I want to enjoy the ride.

You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.

James Allen

I will be “participating” in NaNoWriMo this year, but I have no desire to win. The program is a very good one and if you like to write or are just curious, check them out. You can write about anything you like and who knows, this might be the project you choose to finish.

Good Luck

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Mr. K and I spent a little quality time together yesterday welcoming in the autumn season by carving a couple of Jack-o-Lanterns. Mr. K collected various knives and scooping devices and set out to do his own thing with his pumpkin. He created a one of a kind, odd looking character. His pumpkin looks like it would like to eat you and would do it while smiling and making you happy to be there all at the same time. But, that is just my opinion. What do you think?

On the other hand, I took the more structured approach by using a template of a ghost that I printed from a pumpkin carving web page. It was smooth sailing for me after I wipped out the proper equipment for the job. Don’t you just love the dremel? It has so many uses. Blazer decided to hone in on my fun though. He appeared to be trying to help, but we all know he was in it for the pumpkin pulp. Yum, Yum. We all had a great time and really enjoyed the ushering in of the fall season.

Speaking of the fall season with all it’s various holidays. I have come across two free knitting patterns just in time for Halloween. You may have already seen these, but I thought they deserved honorable mention here. The first is a pattern for a scarf from the fall 2005 issue of Knitty. The pattern is called Yorick. It is felted, looks like it would be a pretty quick knit and would definitely make a great conversation starter at your next SnB or office party.

The second pattern is a pirate lovers pattern that has possibilities as a Halloween pattern as well. Do you like to do lace knitting? How about inserting a Skull and Crossbones motif into your next shawl, stole, or scarf? This pattern is cute and I think it would look good without being repeated. Think of the amusing looks and interesting questions you would get once someone figured out that your lacy stole contained an buccaneer element in the design. Too funny.

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This past week turned out to be one of those weeks for us. Throughout all the details that follow I was able to somehow keep my sanity and keep my schedule in regards to the Secret of the Stole KAL. A huge THANK YOU and a big CYBER HUG go out to my friend Reba for helping me keep the group on an even keel during our travels. So, here is what happened.

It all began on Tuesday when we took our dog Aubie to the vet because he wasn’t feeling well. As I said in the last post we were leaving on Friday for a 10 day trip to Colorado and we needed to find out what was wrong with him so we would know whether to board him or not. I won’t go into all the particulars, but, on Wednesday we were informed that his one or more of his organs was failing and the dog that just the day before was following me around the house, would not make it through the day. We rushed to the vet and I was able to hold him while he breathed his last. The dog that gave me over 14 years of happiness and completely unconditional love was gone.

Since neither DH, myself, or our remaining dog, Blazer, wanted to be in the house with the memories of Aubie everywhere, we decided to leave a day early for our trip. The trip to the cabin was quiet and uneventful. I was planning on knitting up a storm and couldn’t manage to do but a few rows. Blazer was given the king’s throne in the car and seemed to enjoy it. After 1500 miles and way too much junk food, we arrived at the cabin in Creede, CO (altitude 11,000 ft) mid-day on Saturday.

On Sunday, we found Blazer lying very still and lethargic on his bed in the motor home. This is highly unusual for him since he has for the past 14 years been extremely vocal and interested in anything that was going on around him. He slowly emerged out of his grogginess and we thought it was just an “altitude” issue. Until later that evening, when we were checking on him and he had a seizure, stiffened up his body, flailed his head back and briefly stopped breathing. When the seizure was over he was once again lethargic and mostly unresponsive, leading us to believe that that was what had happened earlier in the day as well.

The following morning we called our vet and he basically told us that we should get him off the mountain and bring him in asap. We were stunned and saddened that Blazer was now ill and we would be cutting our trip so short. Tuesday, we left Creede and 1500 miles later we arrived back at home. Blazer went to the vet today and, wouldn’t you know it, all his blood work turned out “normal”. He is not diabetic, anemic, suffering from a heart murmur or even heart worms. That was the best news we could have had this week. We will hear about his thyroid test soon and if that comes back clean then the next thing the vet said we could do is a CAT scan to check for a brain tumor. I found this to be a point of amusement since it was an interesting name for a scan of a dog’s brain. A CAT scan is not happening on a 14 year old dog in my house, so we will just have to watch him closely and keep him company from now on since his brother is gone.

On a brighter note, when we arrived at the cabin William, our grandson, and his parents were already there, as were my mom and dad. It was William’s birthday (2 yrs) and we had a great time visiting with him. The festivities and family time took our minds off our loss, if just for a little while.

To the left is a three generation photo of William, Bryan (his father in the background), and Scott (my DH and Bryan’s dad). The photos we took of William and of Blazer while we were there are just priceless and I will post more of them soon on our personal blog Door Number Three for anyone who is interested.

All in all, it was just one of those weeks…

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Our grandson’s birthday is at the end of this month. He and his parents live in Colorado, not Alabama where we are, so in order to be there to celebrate the event we are leaving Alabama this Friday, September 21, 2007. We will be gone from the house for about 10 days, putting us back here around Monday, October 1, 2007. I hope to get a lot of knitting done on the way there and on the way back (we are driving).

One of the problems with having several projects started is figuring out which ones to take with you on a trip. I will be taking (and finishing up) my Secret of the Stole, but I can’t post photos of that yet. So I will likely pack a couple of other projects as well. The Frost Flowers and Leaves Shawl is large enough to keep me warm while I work on it so I will be taking it to work on while at the cabin. Boy we sure are looking forward to the cooler temperatures for the week. We are ready for a break from the Alabama drought and just plain hot days.

I will post photos of the trip and updates, when possible. Perhaps I can find a moose to pose with my knitting. At a minimum I will have lots of mountain photos with my knitting in the foreground. I really hope the aspens have started to change color by the time we get there. Stay tuned.

On the knitting front today, I found this yarn shop through Lime & Violet’s Daily. The yarn colors are delicious.   Although I did not find much in the way of lace weight, there were plenty of choices in the sock yarn category. In the US you can get this yarn through Wool Girl.

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The invite finally arrived yesterday morning for me to join the new knitting community Ravelry.  I wasn’t sure if I would like it or how much I would use it, but it is actually pretty impressive.  The programming that has gone into the databases and interfaces is truly amazing.  If you haven’t received your invite yet, keep watching for it in your inbox and if you haven’t signed on to the waiting list yet, what are you waiting for??

Additionally, I have joined the Christmas Around The World Swap this year.  It looks to be a fun swap and besides what really drew me into it was the really cool button.

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Not the traditional buttons, the ones that hold things together or hold things up. The button I am referring to is the one I created this morning for my blog. This is the type of thing I do when awake at 4:30am and the rest of the house is still sleeping.

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