Struggling

In the past few weeks, I've realized I can handle an enormous amount of both good and awful things in my life...I guess that's one good aspect.

Latest Updates

Okay...many of you know that Thaddeus and I, after 30 years of being together have gotten legally married.  We've always said that once a marriage would be recognized federally, we'd get married...our 30th year anniversary seemed like a perfect date for it.  Now we just have to wait for our home State of Pennsylvania to recognize our marriage.

About a week before this happened, I bashed in the front of my car by hitting the guy in front of me up in Scotia, New York.  Arranging for repairs up there, a rental car and the simple logistics of transferring everything from my disabled car to a rental was somewhat overwhelming.

Last week, I had to say goodbye (again) to an amazing network of friends I have in Upstate New York as I will no longer be traveling up there each week...I'll be working from home.  Dinner at Aaron and Michael's with all their wonderful dogs was a great way of saying goodbye.

I also had to say goodbye to a group of co-workers who I've grown to love.  Again, just the logistics of packing up my office and jamming it all into a rental car...only to have to transfer it to my newly repaired car was more than I wanted to handle.

During all this, we've been dealing with a sick little kitty.  Nico hasn't been himself for a couple of weeks, and after a number of different tests at the vet, we've found out his stomach is now made up mostly of lymphoma cells and it's not likely he'll make it past the end of the year.

You can imagine how heartbroken Thaddeus and I are.  Suffice it to say, I'm extremely glad that I'm working from home and can lavish him with all the love he's willing to take.

So, if I'm a little less on-line than usual, just know I'm putting my time to good use.

Current Knitting

Nico has grown to love laying on the kid alpaca blanket, so I've been working on it with the completed part of the blanket on my lap, so he can lay on it (and my lap).  Truth be told, it's the only comfort I'm finding in knitting at the moment.

Edging - A First Step in Completion

This post's title might get a few disappointed googlers, but a few extra hits on the old blog never hurts.

If You're Here for Knitting...

...continue on.

I just realized that I've been working on the kid alpaca blanket/coffin cover for almost as long as I've been writing this blog, and as I start to get to the point that I think it may be finished soon, it scares me in a few ways.

Having called it my coffin cover for so many years, I'm hopeful its completion won't mean I have to follow through with that idea.

Since the Work-In-Progress (WIP) is as old as the blog, I'm hopeful I won't have run out of blog topics with the completion of the blanket.

I'll have no "when all else fails, pick up the the kid alpaca blanket project" project to fall back on when all else is boring.

The Edging is Started

Yes, I've come up with an edging that I just love for the blanket (even though I do still have a dozen more inches of the blanket to knit):

It's a simple cable cross-over on a garter stitch background, but the nice part is that it's reversible (the cables show up on both sides.

I had never seen this technique, but it's just using 1x1 rib for the stitches in the cable.  The resulting fabric has a bit more structure and stability than the blanket fabric, and it looks good on both sides.

Openings and Closure

With the beginning of a new year, I've had a lot of things going on in my knitting universe.

When One Door Opens...

It's hard to believe that the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat is going into its eighth year, but it is.  We just opened up registration for the 2015 retreat, and it's already almost full, which is great news.

I think I've gushed enough about how amazing it is to be around a group of guys who all share a similar passion, and in the past two years, we've invited new knitters to help encourage their passion for fiber arts as well.  So far this year, we have 35 guys registered (we start a waiting list at 40).  30 of the guys are returning retreaters and 2 of the 5 new guys are relatively new to knitting. 

If history is any indicator, we're in for an amazing retreat in May.

If you, or someone you know had plans to join us this year, make sure you move quickly.

...Another Door Starts to Close

I just began the process of "finishing" a project that has been in progress for over 10 years.

Yes, the kid alpaca blanket is starting to be finished.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not sure I won't be adding a bit more length to it, but I thought it was time to at least start attaching the edging to the bottom edge of the blanket to make sure I liked it before I knit up yards and yards of it.

Fortunately, I love the edging...I think it finishes off the blanket in a very smart looking way.  Plus, it's nice have this soft and warm blanket covering my legs while I watch television on cold Winter nights.