I’ve been knitting quite a bit lately, along with a bit of weaving. But mostly knitting … and listening to audiobooks … and trying to keep my anxiety levels under control. And knitting helps with that.
But when I’m knitting, I’m not writing … although lately I’ve been trying to make the two work together: *knit a couple of rows, then read and comment on a blog post; repeat from * until my butt is sore from sitting and/or it’s time to feed my furry beasts.
I also wanted to be prepared this year to donate a few of my knitted goods to Knit the Rainbow (KtR), a NYC-based charity for homeless LGBTQ+ youth. During winter, KtR accepts knitted donations and gives them to the young people they serve. Last year I sent off a couple of hats just under the deadline. This year I wanted to be early.
The following photos will show you what I sent. Mind you, some of these items were knitted YEARS ago and have been languishing in my cedar chest since I left salaried employment. All of the items have been washed, of course, and look and feel as good as new.
I apologize in advance for the poor photography. Fashion photography is too much of a challenge for me. I prefer bees and thistles as models.
Flower Power scarf knitted in Noro Silk Garden, designed by Michele Bernstein.Scalloped-Edge Hat knitted in Magical Scream by Ryan Yarn, designed by Sarah B. Keller.I crocheted this scarf with yarn that a former boss bought for me when she was in Alaska. The yarn is a mohair and wool blend. Unfortunately I no longer have a record of the yarn company or the designer.Sadly, I no longer have a record of the yarn or the design of this fun green scarf.Another scarf by an unknown designer knitted in an unknown yarn. Rib Knit Watch Cap knitted in Gist Yarn’s Ode (100% alpaca) designed by Gracy Casey-Gouin.
Here’s a close-up of the cowl from the above photo.
Sliplicious Stripes cowl knitted in Urth 100% SW Extrafine Merino yarn, designed by Yiğitcan.And, of course, a Red Resistance or Melt-the-Ice hat knitted in Germantown DK 100% American Wool, designed by Paul Neary.
And then … the box.
Yeah, there’s another cowl on the top that I did not take a photo of. I threw it in at the last minute.
I plan to knit some more for KtR, hopefully before their donation “season” ends (I think it’s in February).
Now that the midterm elections are (mostly) over, I feel my anxiety leveling off. Perhaps I’ll knit less.
Hah! I currently have three knitting projects in progress so … not knitting is not going to happen.
Raji doesn’t care if I’m knitting as long as I have one hand free.
Some of you might already be aware that I gifted a handknit wrap to my friend and fellow blogger Luanne Castle. You can see her post by clicking HERE.
The design is the Floating Waves Wrap by Amy Christoffers. I love this designer’s work! I can’t best the photo of Luanne modeling the wrap, but here’s a couple of more photos that I had intended to publish.
The full wrap
I should have added something to the above photo to give it scale … like me lying alongside it. The wrap is longer than my height.
Here you can see all the colors involved with some detail.
I enjoy taking close-ups of my knitting. Even while I was knitting, I often stopped to admire the seemingly intricate mosaic design. I say seemingly because, gosh, it was a simple design to knit.
My one and only attempt at a “professional” photo.
The yarn–Rowan Kidsilk Haze–is a mohair and silk blend, incredibly soft and light.
Why Gift?
I love to knit but I can’t/won’t keep everything I knit. I knit for my mental health, my desire to create, my desire to learn. What might attract me to a particular design is not always my desire to wear the design; sometimes I just want a challenge. I want to learn a new technique or try a new yarn. Then what?
It wasn’t a problem when I was employed. I often wore sweaters, shawls and/or scarves to work … sometimes even indoors given how cold our offices often were. But I’m no longer employed. In fact, I’ve been whittling down my wardrobe because my “need” for variety has severely decreased since retiring.
So gifting seems like a good way for me to enjoy knitting without worrying about the item eventually languishing in a chest. This is not a new thing. I’ve been gifting since I was a teenager. Sometimes the recipient knows they are getting a gift; most often they don’t.
How Do I Decide to Gift?
I don’t have a good answer for this. Sometimes I’ll see a design and immediately think of who I’d like to give the completed garment to. That has happened several times, mainly with my sister Shirley for whom I managed to knit four shawls before she died.
Once I knitted a very colorful bolero-style sweater with three-quarter length sleeves. It was supposed to be for me. I had every intention of keeping the sweater for me. But when I finished it and tried it on, I immediately thought of a friend who works as an artist in a cold, damp warehouse. The sweater with its three-quarter length sleeves would serve her well.
With the Floating Waves Wrap, I thought of Luanne after I had started knitting. Something just clicked in my head, and I saw see her wearing the wrap at one of those writing conferences where the rooms are always ice-cold. It wasn’t anything she said or did. Well, as she notes in her post, we have been friends for a long time, on and off the blogosphere, so there’s that.
The decision to send the wrap to her was spontaneous. The knitting took a lot longer … lol.
Do I “Gift” On Demand?
It wouldn’t be a gift then. Let me tell you a story: Once I had a boss who didn’t know how not to be bossy. It was her nature. So when she got pregnant, she decided that I would knit a bear hat for her newborn. Yeah, she didn’t ask if I would do it. Just came in and said what she wanted. She had already found a pattern (thank goodness). I made her buy the yarn because she wanted it to be orange (her favorite color). My “gift” was my labor.
This boss was smart but immature, a loud talker and prone to outbursts. At the same time, she couldn’t handle confrontations. Eventually, I learned if I stood my ground, she’d back down. But I didn’t know that then; otherwise, I might have found the courage to say, “no, I don’t knit on demand.”
The story has a happy ending. I knitted the hat and, yeah, it was cute and she was pleased (but, really, she had to be since it was her idea) and that was the end of that. Eventually she went on maternity leave (yay!) and then quit (yay! yay!).
Will I Gift Again?
Of course! What, when and to whom are to be determined. I have lots of knitting projects waiting to be started. I’ve toyed with the thought of doing giveaways, maybe hats, scarves, and other small items. We’ll see. In the meantime …
Thank you for reading!
Wendy
Here’s Wendy waiting for the automatic feeder to dispense her lunch. Two minutes to go and she’s not taking any chances of missing her meal. She’s also hoping that Raji sleeps through lunch so she can double-dip. And, yup, that’s my spinning wheel in the corner.
Yup, I’m doing this again! If you were following me last year at this time, you might recall that I participated in this fundraiser for the first time.
This year’s fundraiser started a couple of weeks ago, and it has already raised over $87,000, and we still have a few weeks to go.
Last year we raised OVER $500,000, and 100% of the donations will be shared equally among Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels.
The “rules” are very simple: I will knit for about 12 hours on April 11, 2026, buoyed by the support of people like you.
Of course, any cheerleading you can offer will also be greatly appreciated.
I have not yet decided on what I’ll be knitting on April 11, but I’m considering one of Laura Nelkin’s designs. It might well be another one of these:
Me modeling a hooded scarf (designed by Laura Nelkin), knitted during one of Laura’s mystery knit-a-longs.
Or some such variation … Or maybe one or two Red Resistance Hats aka Melt the Ice hats. (The history and pattern for these hats is available here at Needle and Skein.)
A red resistance hat knitted by me.
I’ve knitted three so far, although I made a mistake in the first one so I’m keeping that for myself.
I will pop up now and then as we get closer to April 11, and I will definitely let you all know what I’ll be knitting as soon as I know.
In the meantime, stay safe, find joy where you can, and be a helper if you can.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m participating in a Knit for Food Knit-a-Thon on Saturday, April 5. The fundraiser will divide donations equally among four organizations: Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels. If you’re interested in donating, here’s the link: Knit for Food Knit-a-Thon 2025.
I’m a bit nervous since this will be my first time participating. I’m supposed to knit for 12 hours, generally 10 AM to 10 PM. It’s a honor system but, trust me, knitting for 12 hours is nothing to a lifelong knitter.
BUT.
April 5 is also the day when rallies are planned across the nation. You can learn more about that here. My husband wants to go. Two of our friends want to go. I should go. But I also committed myself to knit for charity.
So I’ve come up with three knitting projects so I can knit according to my environment. (Apologies for the poor quality of the photos. I have a learning curve when it comes other photographing indoors.)
The beginning of a watch cap in light olive.
The simplest project will be a watch cap in an overall knit 2, purl 2 rib. I’m using a design by Sandi Rosner, a knitter who also writes on Substack at A Good Yarn. [If you’re a knitter and a lover of books including audiobooks, I highly recommend Sandi’s newsletter. All her posts are free but I have a paid subscription because she offers detailed yarn reviews.] This is the kind of project I can easily do while distracted … like at a rally. Yes, I can knit standing up and no doubt I’ll probably squeeze in a few stitches while walking.
Multi-colored yarn that will be knit into a pair of socks.
The fabric in the photo above is what knitters call a swatch: usually a 6″x 6″ square knitted in either stockinette or a specific pattern with your preferred yarn and needles. The point of the swatch is to measure the number of stitches and rows per inch, or the gauge, and see if the results match the gauge of the pattern. I am the sort of knitter who tries to get around swatching, but in cases where fit is very important–for example, a sweater or a pair of socks–swatching is necessary. I haven’t measured the gauge of this piece yet, but I suspect it will tell me that I will need to use size 1 needles to knit the socks I have in mind.
The sock pattern is a simple rib stitch pattern, but with #1 needles and multicolored yarn, I need to pay attention to what I’m doing. I can watch TV more or less but I wouldn’t be comfortable taking this project to the rally. I have to be alert to any possible dropped stitches which, for me, are easy to miss when I’m knitting on such small needles.
Just the tip of the iceberg that might become a shawl … or a scarf
My third project is a Pines and Needles Shawl. You can see some versions of the shawl here: Pines and Needles Shawl by Sweaterfreak. Now I didn’t knit a swatch for the shawl, but I did experiment with three different needle sizes before I decided on one that seemed to suit the yarn best. The thing, I’m not using yarn recommended by the designer. The yarn I’m using is finger-weight yarn, or yarn usually used for knitting socks, which is finer than the recommended yarn. So … I’m using a finer yarn and smallish needles (#3) which means I’ll likely wind up with a Pines and Needles scarf. I think I can live with that.
This project requires me to pay close attention. I’ve already had to rip out (or frog in knitters’ parlance) and start that little triangle over several times. Not the kind of project that I’d want to take to a rally.
So, there we are … or here I am. I am excited about knitting all day on April 5 and for a good cause, not just my own selfish pleasure in knitting. Meanwhile, evenings are getting warmer here in north Florida so Raji’s snuggling might soon come to an end, at least for the summer.
Friends, I thought long and hard about this. This morning, I decided that it’s something I simply have to do. I’ve signed up to knit for 12 hours on April 5, 2025, to raise funds for Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels.
Many of you know that knitting is my “happy place.” I can do other things like weave or write, but my deepest intrinsic satisfaction always comes with knitting. And that’s one reason why I haven’t been blogging very much. I’ve been knitting. Recently I completed the Elvan shawl that I wrote about here.
The first photo of the Elvan Shawl is from the designer, Florence Spurling. The others are my own photos showing more detail of the intarsia patterns. Generally, it was fun to knit, and the yarn was wonderful to work with.
After these photos were taken, I sent the shawl to a friend. This particular friend was someone I knew from high school, someone I had lost touch with until a few years ago when I heard that her mother had died from Covid. And then a couple of years later, she was diagnosed with cancer. Thankfully, she’s gone through her treatments and (so far, so good) has been doing well. I thought of her often while I was knitting the shawl, thinking of how sweet the soft wool yarn would feel against her skin.
She wrote to me when she received the shawl. She wrote all the words that makes a knitter’s heart sing.
And so I keep knitting.
For the Knit-a-Thon, I’m planning to knit socks. I have quite a stash of sock yarn, and socks can be done quickly. Plus, who doesn’t need socks?!
Nature We rarely spend time on the east side of our house. Only a chain-linked fence separates us from our neighbors there, and they are on a higher elevation so we have no privacy if we are all out at the same time. Maybe not a problem; just an excuse. Still, we miss the wonder of our Camilla bushes when we neglect that side. One bush in particular gave a wonderful view of the cycle of Life, from one new bud to a spent bloom.
Snow To my utter shock, we had a couple of inches of snow in Tallahassee last week. Far less than other places (like New Orleans and Pensacola), but enough to surprise me. I’ve lived here since June 1990, and I can count on one hand the number of times it has snowed in Tallahassee. Usually we just have flurries and the snow melts as soon as it hits the ground. But this year was exceptional.
A panoramic view of our deck and back yard on early Wednesday morning.A view across our front yard.
As of this writing, we still have a bit of snow, or perhaps I should call it slush.
Writing Oh, I wish I could say I had started working on my novels, but alas, no. Instead I’ve been writing letters.
I may well be pissing in the wind, but given our current state of affairs, I have to do something … even if it’s just pissing in the wind. I am not limiting myself to only “my” Congressional Senators and Representative who are loyal to you-know-who. My attitude is that each Senator and Representative in Congress who is voting on bills that affect ALL Americans should listen to all Americans. I am being mindful to give praise when it’s due (hence the letters in the photo are to thank certain Florida Representatives for certain votes). But, yeah, when I see that a Democratic Senator voted for Kristi Noem, they’re going to hear from me.
So … letters and postcards for now. No novels.
Knitting Since I can knit or stitch while watching TV, I am doing that. No photos as yet. The shawl is finished but not yet blocked (i.e., washed). I signed up for a month-long knit-a-long which will start January 31. We are to knit a cardigan! One of my least favorite projects … lol. I’m hoping I can use up some of the stash that is threatening to break through my cedar chest. And maybe having a couple of Zoom sessions with a knitting expert will make the process less daunting.
Cats Thanks to the colder-than-normal temperatures the last few weeks, Raji has officially become a SnuggleBunny!
Raji getting close and personal with Greg while he watches TV.
I doubt that he will continue with this behavior as temperatures warm but we’re enjoying this closeness while we can. Wendy often sleeps with me, but she doesn’t cuddle. No, she just curls up in the middle of the bed and expects me to work around her.
Thank you for reading! Tell me truly: Am I pissing in the wind?
Although it’s not my first Christmas without my mom and sisters, I felt their absence more keenly this year. Especially the absence of my sister Shirley since Christmas was her favorite holiday. I still remember the utter shock on her face when, years ago, I said that my husband and I had stopped exchanging gifts. I barely managed to stifle a laugh at her reaction.
I do give gifts to my family, but I expect and ask for nothing in return. The gift is in the giving, as they say. But this year, I received a very special gift.
Front cover of the photo book.
Inside this book are copies of my sister’s recipes for cookies and cakes.
I can’t express how it felt to see her handwriting, the old recipe cards with smudges and stains from frequent use. I can only say that it was a lovely gift to receive at the close of this year and one that I will always cherish.
Writing
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I don’t make goals anymore. I often have tasks related to housekeeping, doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, but they are not the sum of my days.
Still. I do want to renew my focus on writing. I have four unfinished novels. Three of the novels are a kind of trilogy as they share the same characters. One is a standalone. All were first drafted during a National Novel Writing Month. I want to finish them. Get them done. I don’t want to write anything “new” until they are out into the world. I haven’t set a way for publishing them yet (all of them need considerable editing first) but I’m not in this for the money. As I did with my short story Love Me Tender, I might produce the novels using Bookfunnel and Lulu.
Nature
I’m continually surprised by what I sometimes literally unearth on our property. While weeding around the tendrils of our strawberry plant, I found this little critter.
Wooly bully
At first I thought it was a wooly seed of some kind. Further investigation through my iSeek app revealed that it was a caterpillar curled up in defensive mode. If all goes well, it will eventually morph into a Giant Leopard Moth.
While I contemplate renewing my focus on writing–that is, finishing my novels–I’ve been knitting. In early November I started knitting an intarsia shawl. Kind of like painting but with yarn. The shawl is still in progress but I wanted to share a couple of photos.
While intarsia isn’t difficult, the changing shapes and colors can be a challenge.
Here’s what the finished shawl should look like when completed.
I don’t work on this shawl every day. What I like least about knitting is the finishing process (well, I guess that’s true with almost everything I do) so, as with writing, I procrastinate. One afternoon I procrastinated by taking a virtual workshop on knitting little cats.
This is supposed to be a cat in a box but with the edges curled under, I think the box looks more like a bed. And I like it like that.
Which leads me to my fifth thing at the end of 2024.
Cats
Wendy isn’t so much reaching out to touch Raji as she is letting him know that he better not get any closer to her.
Thank you for reading. I hope you all have (or had) a Happy New Year. Here in the U.S., some of us feel dread as we begin 2025. I hope it’s many of us feeling that dread because we’ll need a lot of us to show up in 2026 and vote out the authoritarians and broligarchs and vote in Democracy. We won’t be alone. We’ll have lawyers: Democracy2025.
As one of my favorite lawyers, Joyce White Vance, would say, “We’re in this together.”
