Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

For various reasons, I really needed to have a good day yesterday. And as the Henry Moore exhibition and the Scarecrows in the Garden wrap up this weekend, I thought Thursday would be a good day to get myself down to Piedmont Park. So that's what I did. I got down there about 10 AM, late enough to avoid the morning traffic. For those of you not in the Atlanta area, there is major construction in midtown where the 14th street exit used to be and will someday be again. Consequently, driving in midtown is not for the easily flustered. Half of what you knew about navigating no longer applies. And the Cuddly Hubby was away on a business trip, so the Garmin was with him. I read the maps and took the back way in on North Avenue, left turn onto Piedmont and on up to the Atlanta Botanical Garden . The scarecrows never fail to delight. It is always worth the hassle to go into the city to see them. I know that citizens of New York and Los Angeles like to think of themselves as the m...

The first skein on the spinning wheel is completed. I followed Jenna's recommendation and started off with a 4-ounce roving of Blueface Leister from Gale's Art. Gale is a local dyer and member of Atlanta Knitting Guild. Plus, her work is just dang gone fine. You don't have to twist my arm to get me to buy her rovings. The colorway is deep blue sea, which is a nice analogous colorway of blue-greens, blues, cool purple, and a little warm green the color of kelp. The roving is also a chocolate swirl roving, which means that it incorporates both white and black wool. Although the black wool does dull the colors a little, it also adds a richness of tone that makes the final yarn more interesting and worth the effort. I followed advice from both Jenna the Yarn Pimp and Lydia the Spinning Goddess. Lydia reminded me that I should breath every half hour or so, as I was tense at learning the new skill. I also followed this advice by spinning only a little at a time, for just...

On the second of July, two furry critters came to our house to foster. I've been referring to them as "Bruce's cats" because that's who they were. Jenna the Yarn Pimp just smiles at me and reminds me that they aren't Bruce's cats anymore. Patty, Bruce's sister, has not yet made a final decision. But the boys have been here for more than 100 days. For the first month, they hid in the basement. From Brûlée's clever choice of hiding spots, I could tell he was the criminal mastermind. Vincent just looks good on the wanted posters. Brûlée tended to hide on the bottom shelf of the holiday decorations or on a three-quarter-filled shelf of books. He would lurk behind the Star Wars novels, and then come out to have his nose and forehead rubbed if he deemed it safe enough. Vincent would cower in the corner, figuring that with his dark fur, he would just blend in and become invisible. He doesn't so much blend in as resemble a cat-shaped quantu...

At the beginning of October, Cuddly Hubby and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. And the gift I got will count through our anniversary, Yuletide, Valentine's day, and my birthday in the spring. The box still had the paperwork on the outside indicating where it passed through customs. The paperwork identifies the place of origin as Tauranga, New Zealand, and the value is listed in NZ$. The blue label in the upper right indicates it came by air rather than cargo freighter. The big white "ATL" label further indicates the shipment came into the country at LAX and then arrived at ATL on the 4th of August. I can't help wondering about the interesting things customs officials must see on the job. For some reason, I get misty-eyed thinking about the distance this package traveled, crossing from eastern to western hemisphere and southern to northern hemisphere on its way to my home, leaving winter in New Zealand for high summer in Atlanta. And it sat quietly in ...

Last Friday I took an all-day workshop with Candace Eisner Strick . The workshop was sponsored by Atlanta Knitting Guild. One of my favorite things about the guild is the superstars the guild invites once or twice a year to come visit and teach workshops. Candace also teaches at STITCHES. She was here for STITCHES South 2009 and she will be back again for STITCHES South 2010. Alas, she won't be teaching Strickmuster (Austrian traveling stitches) at STITCHES South 2010. She is teaching The Art of Knitting Backwards, Thumbing the Purl, Tradition!, The Ripple Effect, Kumihimo, and 2 by 2. And she did show us a little of Thumbing the Purl. If you knit Continental, seriously consider that class. I already have in my library the three Lisl Fanderl Bäuerliches Stricken books. I think I bought them at Main Street Yarns in Watkinsville sometime during the past five years. Not sure. At any rate, they are apparently now out of print and hard to find so I am all the more fortunate...

Those of you who know me well know that I have passions other than knitting. Pandas is one of those. I love pandas. Our local pair, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, do not look alike to me. I can often tell the difference between them in photographs. I haven't spent enough time around Mei Lan or Xi Lan, but they're good cubs, too. If you live in Atlanta, then you may have heard talk about the zoo's latest fundraising effort . Cuddly Hubby and I already gave, rather generously, back in the summer. I'm almost sorry we did then, because now the zoo is running a charity auction . So I've been over on that site today, looking at all the great panda-fanatic goodies that I'd be bidding on if we hadn't already given. They include: a photo diary of Mei Lan commemorative silk embroidery commemorative banners a behind the scenes tour for four Xi Lan paw prints a tower of chocolaty goodies And there are some things that just warm your heart. Two children -- local? I do...