A Whole New Meaning to the Term "Fun Fur"

Ever since my sister and I saw the Plushies and Furries episode of CSI we've giggled our way through emailing each other articles about this strange little fetish. And today...well, today she's outdone herself by sending me the following gem. So much so that I just have to share. (Sorry.)



WTF? Of course the video is only part of it; I spent way too many minutes I'll never get back reading the (for the most part) horribly unintelligible comments, too. It's like a train wreck, people.

And then...then I'm surfing around knitting sites, and what do I find? This. Which sends me into paroxysms of laughter. 'Coz I'm twisted. And I also enjoy a good circus freak; Lobster Boy being right up there.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Stash Love-In

I love my stash. I really do. It provides a great deal of pleasure: visual, tactile, even olfactory - the lanolin smell of the Harris tweed! the vinegar smell of hand-dyed sock yarn! But, in an attempt to save some money this year, I'm reining myself in on adding to it, and instead will be knitting the majority of 2008 projects from it.

This kinda freaks me out.

So, to help me stay, uh, balanced and on track, I've joined a couple of destash groups. The first I mentioned a while back: Stash Knit Down 2008. It's a Ravelry group, and they're a little intense. They're discussing storage options. They're figuring out the mileage of their stashes in Excel. They're offering challenges for people to join in on: January's is to knit a mile. A mile. For a slow process knitter like me, that's crazy talk. One of the helpful things they have done, though, is offer a thread for you to list your monthly goals. Now this I can do. So, each month I'll be thrilling you with my little list, copied here for motivation/accountability.

I rocked December...

December goals:

1. Finish my holiday knitting.
2. Finish my second Campfire sock.
3. Cast on Cobblestone.
4. Spend any holiday gift certificates with abandon and...
5. ...mentally prepare for cutting back in 2008.

January goals:

1. Buy no yarn.
2. Don't whine about buying no yarn.
3. Cast on Lenore socks.
4. Finish knitting Cobblestone.
5. Stealth crochet project.

...and already January is iffy. Finish Cobblestone? Haha, good one. (If past history is anything to go by, it'll be done in June.) Well, insert a cliche here about hope springing, and let's move on the second group, shall we?

Mission: Possible 2008

This post is running long, so if you're interested in learning more, details are here and here. My goals:

1. Gift spinning wheel, spinning books, and fiber to Patty. DONE
   
2. Felt one pair and Plasti Dip soles of 3 pairs of felted slippers.
3. Finish Gothic Leaf Stole. (4 skeins of Euroflax Sportweight in Eggplant)
4. Finish Cobblestone. (?? balls of Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed)
5. Finish Shedir. (1-2 balls of Rowan Calmer in Coffee Bean)
6. Crochet baby blanket out of Rowan All Seasons Cotton. (11 balls in Citron, Giddy, Lime Leaf and Remote)
7. Crochet stealth project.
8. Knit Unoriginal Hat out of STR Leticia in Ravenscroft.
9. Knit Unoriginal Hat out of STR Leticia in Hard Rock.
10. Knit Lenore socks out of STR Lightweight in Lenore.
11. Knit a pair of fingerless gloves (either ggh Cashmere or Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran).
12. Knit another pair of socks.

One of its caveats - and the most important to fickle, free spirited me - is that you must donate any unfinished listed projects/yarns at the end of the year. This kinda freaks me out. So, I played it conservative. Like I said, I love my stash.

So, what stash knitting are you doing?

In the Shower

...is where I do some of my best thinking. Take today's brilliance:

Dear Sick Germs,
Please get out of my body. Now.
Thank you,
Me

Today I was supposed to be knitting with friends. Instead, I'm home, feeling like warmed over three day-old pizza. Fluctuating between feverish/cranky/pathetic, I think cranky is winning: Tom has banned me from the couch, from which a short while ago I was screaming obscenities at two football teams I know/care nothing about. Honestly, don't you think he should be serving me hot tea and lemon - with cream puffs on the side - and fluffing my pillows? Well, for that I probably need to work the pathos a little harder, eh?

I've been knitting a little this weekend, mostly on Gothic Leaf. My third skein of Euroflax is almost finished, and I need to do Phase 2 of Operation Yarn Sausage pronto so that I'll have a fourth and final skein to finish.

I've also cast on and am turtling (is so a word) along on Shedir. Every once in a while OOPs (my knitting group) does a KAL, and this pattern is our latest. We began on January 1st. I've discovered that the small needles/cables/cotton yarn combo hurts my left hand if I do more than three rounds at a time. So, it's going slowly. I'm on row 21. On the plus side, I'm loving the chocolate brown Calmer I'm using. Soft! Squishy!

And check out the stitch marker. Handmade by Patty, is it not the coolest? Its brothers and sisters are keeping place in another knit, which I will show you soon. Now, it's back to the couch. Tom has left to buy groceries, and the coast is clear. Hope he brings me cream puffs.

Lala and Eggplant Blob

Lala Shawl

Pattern: Lala Scarf by Kat Coyle from Greetings from Knit Cafe
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Velvet Bilberry (1 skein), Velvet Plum (half a skein), and Velvet Leaf (a smidgen)
Needle: US 4 29" Bryspun circs
Mods: See belowFinished dimensions: 50" by 25" (lightly blocked)
Rating: Good enough to eat

Lala simmered on the back burner of my to-do-queue for a year and a half. Kat's original version is a candy floss confection of lace weight mohair/silk, but somehow I never got around to making it with any of the (copious amounts of) Kid Silk Haze in stash. Instead, last fall I did a swap with Anita, who sent me two skeins of Colinette Jitterbug. As soon as the skeins were in my hot little hands, I knew I wanted to use them with this pattern. Use a larger gauge yarn, a smaller needle, and the pattern would turn into a delectable, if rustic, shawl, thought I.

So, I cast on, and knit, knit, knit. Easy pattern, lovely yarn, Byronesque colors...quickly I used up the skein of Velvet Bilberry, added a little bit of Velvet Fern (already in stash) and tackled the Velvet Plum ruffled edge. If I were to knit this pattern again, I'd probably crochet the picots, as the effect is similar, and it's one heck of a lot quicker and easier. But I'd never knit a picot edge before, so I had to give it a go. It was fun, though very time consuming. I also omitted the final row of single crochet called for to finish the pattern, as I think the edge looks just dandy as is.

Once done, I gave it a Eucalan bath and blocked it very lightly. It was my first time using Jitterbug, but it won't be my last. The colors remained steadfast in the bath (kinda surprising, considering how deeply jewel toned the colorways are), and the yarn springy and soft once dry. In the skeins the yarn was over spun and kinky in many places, but the kinks disappeared once knitted/washed, and yielded a lovely feeling fabric. Gifted to my Mom, the colors are oh so her, with a little bit of me (the line of green) thrown in, too.

* * *

Eggplant Blob

Through some fluke, I ended 2007 with most of my projects finished. Casting around for something to knit in mid-December, I dragged out my Gothic Leaf Stole. We got reacquainted, and are now spending lots of time together. I'm consumed with finishing it by the end of January, and have given myself an ultimatum: Knit a minimum of two rows a day on it. Or else. Most days I'm surpassing that minimum, and I'm now nearly 3/4 finished. Love how the linen is knitting up in this simple lace pattern, and I'm looking forward to showing you blocked photos in a few weeks.

Fired Up

Happy New Year! Hope everyone celebrated (or not, depending on your preference) to their satisfaction over the last few weeks. Lots of catching up to do now that life is settling back into its regular routine, but first, some very important knitblog business:

1. Carolyn over at Jolly Ewe is in the running for being January's Knit Girl! Please go vote for her here. She has a bitchin' knitterly tattoo, dyes a mean skein o' yarn, and has an artichoke plant intent on world domination. Or, in other words, totally deserves to win. Voting ends on 1/6.

2. Don't know what they were smokin', but Jen and Laura picked humble l'il ole me as one of the Fresh Blood winners (#12 on the list) in their Fourth Annual JenLa Blog Awards for 2007. Wow, I guess that santeria priest did know what he was doing when I asked him to make me famous. Thanks, grrls, for the shout out. I'll try to live up to the infamy in a style worthy of you both. Smoochies.

Now, onto the catching up. The holiday knits have all been delivered, so I can finally post some FOs.

Pattern: Campfire Socks by Cider Moon
Yarn: Artyarns Ultramerino 8 in color 127 - 2 skeins
Needle: US 4 Bryspun dpns
Mods: None. I knit the top down version.
Rating: Third time's a charm.

As I mentioned here, this is the first pair of socks I've knit entirely on my own. (They're really my third pair of socks.) I know, I'm like the first person ever who knit a pair...yeah, yeah...but I can't help being proud of them. Yarn, gauge, pattern, needles, the planets, everything came together and created a pair of socks that fit. They were gifted to my Mom as part of her Xmas present; her house is cold in the winter, and I wanted to make these as a pair of house/bed socks for her. She reports back that they're comfy and even match her pyjamas. Right on.

The pattern is perfect for the beginning sock knitter. The larger gauge yarn allows for a quick knit, the simple pattern holds your interest while teaching you how to read a patterned (vs. straight stockinette) sock pattern, and the instructions are clear and thorough. I, for one, loved the spoon feeding on working the heel and gusset, and felt pretty darn good when I grafted my toes. This pair certainly isn't perfect: there are those loose gusset stitches on the left hand sides of each sock, and one of the toes looks more like a nipple than a toe, but them's small potatoes compared to the enormity of me knitting socks. Oh, and that matching striping? I totally meant to do that.

Now, for the yarn chosen. The Ultramerino 8 makes lovely bed socks, but is very splitty and probably won't hold up for long; by the time I finished knitting, the cuffs already were blurred (can yarn be blurry? well, you know what I mean) and fuzzy. I knew these things going in, however, and chose the yarn more for the soft feel and the cheery colorway. Plus, it came from Mary, who sweated through my first pair of socks with me. (Thanks again to her and Barbara for all their help.)

Next up? More frakkin' lace. See ya later, taters.

Happy 2008!

Artwork © 2006 by Laura Hackney. All rights reserved.

Were You Naughty or Nice?

So, how are every one's holidays so far? Hope they've been fun filled, and that Santa brought you lots of goodies. Because see this? He obviously had one too many after the presents were delivered, and ended up passed out on a neighbor's front lawn. (I had a boyfriend in college who passed out under a bush in a rainstorm for a night, but that's a story for another day.)

Tom and I spotted Santa yesterday afternoon. Our presents were opened, it was a crisp, bright day, so we jumped in the Mustang and took a drive up into Angeles National Forest.

We stopped and had a light picnic lunch, returned home and plopped on the couch for Lakers basketball and knitting.

We finished the day off with a scrumptious prime rib dinner (Tom's favorite and our Christmas traditional dinner). Lovely.

As for gifties, Santa did bring me with a copy of Boho Baby Knits, which I've been coveting since it came out this fall. It's full of adorable patterns!

He also brought these great colorways from Tempted Yarns: Left to right we have Fishnets, Roxanne, and Bordello.

Under them you can see our Christmas tree skirt. When I learned to crochet eight? nine? years ago, it was the first project I completed after twelve billion dishcloths for practice. Made out of unknown brand ack!rylic, we use it every year. It's a humble connection to women's work through the centuries: the families we form, the food we serve, the homes we warm, the gifts we make and give selflessly to those we care about and love. Every time I take it out and lay it under the tree I rejoice in this connection, and the world shines a little brighter.

Merry, merry to all! And to all a kick ass crafty 2008!

Makin' with the Merry

Bright blessings to you and your families.
Here's hoping your holidays are extra sparkly!

Busy

Hope all my US readers had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was crazy. Tom woke up on Thanksgiving morning with a bad virus, and spent the next five days in bed. Really sick, poor thing. He's back to work, working 12-15 hour days this week, and still isn't better. So, no holiday to speak of, even though I did serve a righteous turkey and fixins. Chalking it up to being that kind of year and moving on....

What else has been going on? Well, I've seen a l'il devil in his brand new hat.

Kille came to knitting group last week with Baby W. Isn't he adorable? The hat is even a tad big, so he'll be able to grow into it over the winter.

I've joined a couple of KALs. My KAL involvement was spotty at best this year, but I'm hopeful my brain and fingers will work better in 2008. One is the Stash Knit Down 2008 Ravelry group, which I've joined with Barbara. Next year I have to go on a strict yarn budget, and I'm hoping this group will keep me upbeat about knitting from stash.

The other is Melanie's Fearless Knitting KAL. I love the idea behind this one, and will either be learning Fair Isle and/or making a top down sweater. (Isn't it crazy I've never made a top down sweater?) So, if you're in the mood to add new techniques to your arsenal o' knitty knowledge, or conquer your fear of eeky steeks, I hope you'll join us on this one.

Also gotta give a shout out to La, who has designed a Firefly inspired blanket named Serenity. Cunning, ain't she?

And I've been doing the usual knitty things: I've obsessed about the new Raven line from Blue Moon, and am anxiously awaiting my order. I've swatched for Tom's Cobblestone and have somehow lost the swatches. (Huh? How do swatches just disappear?) I didn't even measure them before they went poof, so gotta start again. My holiday knitting is almost finished, and I'm anxious to get back to my second Campfire sock. Once it's done, Mary and I will be joining Carolyn in making our Socks That Rock Lenores. Can't wait for that gothic goodness to be on the needles.

Gobble, Gobble

I'm in the midst of Thanksgiving preparation, but wanted to pop in and wish all my US readers a very happy turkey day...and the rest of the world a very happy weekend. Tom and I will be cooking the full-on traditional spread of turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and veggie. (He always grumbles, but I always make sure we get a little green bean or broccoli action.) Tonight I'm baking a coffee cake for breakfast and a pumpkin pie for dessert, so I gotta go get busy with the mixing bowls and spices. Tomorrow we'll be feasting, he'll be watching copious amounts of football, and I'll be knitting between naps. Can't wait.

Happy holidays! See you after the tryptophan wears off.

Flyin' High

This morning I was set to write a little post, and then I saw Anne's Raven shawl in all its blocked glory. Thoughts flew out of my head and scattered like dandelion seeds on the wind. Who knows what I was going to say. I now entreat you to go look at it here.

The heights our craft reaches can be awe inspiring. Humbling. Inspirational. And drop dead gorgeous. Here's hopin' your knitting is allowing your creative wings to soar today.

Epiphany

Behold the first sock made entirely on my own.

I need another one. And, uh, what's an eye of partridge heel? I wanna do that next.

WIPs-y Wednesday

Taking a cue from Mary, here's a recap of what I've been working on lately.

First up are two projects I'm making for my Mom. A few weeks ago she asked for a black version of my Triangle Bag, and all I have left to do on hers is sew it together and felt it.



I'm also knitting her a Reverse Cable Scarf in some luscious Lush in the Blackberry Wine colorway.

Sorry for the blurry closeup; I had a doozie of a time capturing the color (is it just me, or are dark reds hard to photograph?). This would be a quick project, except that I am so over scarves at the moment. I think the Chevron did me in. The progress I have made was in the wee hours one night when I was watching The Proposition on cable. Man, Ray Winstone sold that movie, and Guy Pearce...well, all I could think as I watched him was, Eat a donut, man. He was creepily emaciated. My man Nick wrote the script and the soundtrack, and overall I think he did a good job on the first and a fair job on the second. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes, knitting...

I'm also working s-l-o-w-l-y on my Campfire Socks.

First sock, 3 1/2" in. I started it forever ago, then put it down and now am picking it back up. The cheery colors spiral nicely, don't they?

Mostly what I'm working on, however, are holiday gifts. Normally I don't do much holiday knitting, but this year I stumbled over a gift idea that's functional and fun to make for folks, and I'm a holiday knitting machine. I'm also dreaming of casting on new projects: Kat Coyle's Lala Scarf and the Yarn Harlot's Lenore Socks. I also recently raided WEBS for some of their cut price Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed, and came away with two sweaters' worth; one sweater's worth shall be a Cobblestone for Tom.

We Have a Winner

Actually, two. Since the Halloween mini-contest comments were so clever, I couldn't narrow it down to just those folks who told me their fave scary fairy tales. So I did the following: I put the name of everyone who commented in a bowl. Then anyone who actually told me a FSFT I put their name in again, so they'd have a fair chance of winning. I shook things up, pulled the following names a few minutes ago, and...drum roll please:

The winners are Shannon and Liz! I'll be in touch about your goodies.

Thanks to all who participated.

Our Halloween was fun. For some reason the imps and goblins weren't out in force like past years, and we actually were able to hand out candy, eat dinner, hand out candy, watch a movie, hand out candy, and then gorge ourselves on the left over Butterfingers. It was quite civilized; in past years we'd burn through 400 pieces of candy and would be eating at 9:30 pm. The mellowness was nice. We took turns answering the door, and I was even able to knit a bit. Tom's cyclops pumpkin - his signature carving - was a hit with the trick or treaters, as was the "good" candy we handed out. The Junior Mints were a marked favorite. All in all a good time.

It's been a while since I've flashed my WIPs, so knitting content next post. And lookee here. I've frogged my MS3 stole.

Whew. I feel so much lighter.

Happy Day of the Dead. May you and your families - those living and departed - be blessed through the coming year.

Happy Halloween

Want Some Candy, Little Girl?

My thoughts are turning, as they are wont to do this time of year, to the delightfully scary. And what is scarier than those macabre Grimm's fairy tales? Man, it sucked to be a little match girl back in the day. In celebration of the better times we live in - let's hear it for central heating and Snickers - I'm having a mini-Halloween contest. Tell me your favorite SCARY fairy tale in the comments by the witching hour tomorrow night (Samhain, midnight PST), and you could win a skein of spooky sock yarn. I'll draw a winning name from my trusty cauldron on Thursday for one of the following skeins of yarn, and the winner will be announced then. Oh, and if you have a preference for a particular yarn, let me know that, too.

Lovesticks Superwash Sport in Count Sockula

Lovesticks BFL Fingering in Day of the Dead

Razzy Tazzy Knits Superwash Sock in Witch in a Blender

Two other recent acquisitions aren't included in the drawing (sorry), but are too good to omit in my Halloween yarn roundup. Both are sock club colorways, and both get my motor goin'. The first is Yarn Pirate's Killer Bees. I was hoping for a groovy Halloween colorway from her, and she definitely delivered a clever spin on this holiday's colors.

The second is Socks That Rock's Lenore. Up until now I've been ambivalent about the STR Rockin' Sock Club colorways. Oh, they've been nice, yeah, okay, but not particularly me. Well. Then they sent me Lenore.

Isn't she gorgeous? The goth fangirl in me almost fainted when I ripped open the box and Lenore - along with a gothic sock pattern written by the Yarn Harlot herself (!) and these cute spiders - popped out. As I've told several friends, I think my hand trembled as I opened up the plastic bag and held her for the first time. And yeah, Lenore makes me that much more anxious for next week's unveiling of the rest of the Raven series...how about you? (I just checked the Blue Moon Fiber Arts website, and unfortunately it doesn't have anything about the Raven series listed right now. I think the other colors go live on 11/5.)

That's it for now, as I must dust off the broom and practice my cackle for tomorrow night. Happy haunting, my ghoulies.

Revvin' Up for Halloween

On Saturday Tom and I, along with our friends Laura, Carol and Holly, hit the 8th annual Festival de la Gente in East Los Angeles.

A pre-Dias de los Muertos street fair, it included music, altars...

a classic hot rod show...

...and skulls as far as the eye could see!

It also provided me the chance to give Laura the two scarves I recently knit her to replace the stolen Bruise.

Pattern: Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (AKA Bruiser)
Yarn: La Petite Knitterie Hand Painted Merino in colors 324C and 824 - 1 skein each
Needle: US 5
Mods: None
Rating: 17 billion Chevrons can't be wrong

It was enjoyable being part of the Chevron Scarf phenomena. I probably spent hours perusing Ravelry and the Flickr group checking out all the lovely permutations. The pattern itself? Mind numbingly boring. Initially I was going to use two skeins of each color and make a longer scarf - this version is roughly 45" long - but quickly realized I'd rather chew my left hand off than continue knitting it after I used up the first of the two skeins. So instead, Laura received a throat warmer sized scarf, and I get to keep my left hand...what I call a win-win.

For her second scarf, I wanted to make her something luxurious in her favorite color. I've been hoping for an excuse to try Seasilk, and when I saw this subtle semi-solid blue colorway, I knew now was the time.

Pattern: Montego Bay Scarf from Summer 2007 issue of Interweave Knits
Yarn: Handmaiden Seasilk in Polar Sea - 1 skein (bought from Tidal Brook Yarns on eBay)
Needle: US6
Mods: Omitted the fringe
Rating: Proud to be a Seasilk virgin no longer

The stitches literally dripped off my needles, pooling into a beautiful scarf. I thought the fringe the pattern called for was a waste of good yarn, so I added a few rows of garter stitch to the ends and just kept knitting until my skein was used up. An understated, lovely project in a to die for yarn. Good knittin'!

Meet the OOPs Gang

Debbi: Duke, let's go do some crimes.
Duke: Yeah. Let's go get sushi and not pay.
~Repo Man

My local knitting group is named the OOPs Knitters. We're a private group that grew out of a Stitch n Bitch group in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles, and we've been meeting together for two and a half years. I feel very lucky to be a part of this group, and you'll see why right now as I introduce you to some of them.

Our ringleader, Needles O'Banion

Catwoman DPN

Original Skeinsta

Ami G. Rumi AKA Bunny Killa

Yarn Terrorista (our newest, sadly blogless member)

And me, Missy "Steeks" McTweed

We're all modeling the Balaclava I whipped up as a lark for Single Skein September. (We're also armed and dangerous around cashmere, so be careful if you run into us in a dark alley and have some on your person.)

Pattern: Balaclava from Knit.1 Winter 2006/07 issue
Yarn: Cascade 220 in color 8555 - 1.25 skeins (easily 1 skein if you shorten the neck portion)
Needle: US 8 16" Addi Turbos; US 8 DPNs
Mods: None, though I may single crochet around the face opening to tighten things up a bit.
Rating: Having your friends model a woolly ski mask in 80 degree heat for you? Priceless.

Oh, and the blurry photos are intended to provide gritty verisimilitude. Really.

Watch your stash!

Rock n Roll Hoochie Coo

Thank you, everyone, for your kind comments about my eye situation. It was super hard to 'fess up about it. Now that I have, your caring and acceptance of the possibility of endless miles of stockinette - and maybe garter stitch, too - in the days to come have deeply touched my heart. I'm sending each and every one of you big virtual bear hugs. And air kisses. 'Coz that's how we roll in LA, don'tcha know? Hehe.

Now, time to catch up with what I've been knitting. I have several FOs to show off this week! The first is a knitdevilish combo for a knitting friend's new baby. She's vehemently anti-pastel, and very rock n roll. I hope the color combo tickles her fancy.

Rock n Roll Blankie

Pattern: Fluffiest Baby Blanket from Greetings from Knit Cafe
Yarn: ggh Esprit in color 4 Black - 4 skeins; Patons Cha Cha in Siren - half a skein at the most
Needle: US 10 1/2 and any ole crochet hook
Mods: None
Rating: Business up front, party in the back

Ever have a stash yarn you don't know what to do with? So you log onto Ravelry, and do a search of what patterns other knitters have made with it? Well, this is exactly how this blanket came to be. The Esprit was one of my oldest stash yarns (from 2004); it was destined to be a crocheted scarf (the Fun Fur Scarf from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Crocheted Scarves, to be exact), but I couldn't see the stitches well enough to crochet with it. I'm not sure how it survived culling, but during the latest (as I was prepping for the crafty garage sale Marie hosted a few weeks ago), I unearthed it again. I picked it up. So soft! And then, somehow, I'd sat down at the computer and discovered this blanket pattern. As Catwoman says, Purrrrfect.

Once the blankie was done, I knew it needed a little something extra to go with it. I'd just bought this skein of WOTA at our garage sale, and once again it was Ravelry to the rescue.

Lil' Devil Baby Hat

Pattern: Lil' Devil Baby Hat by K. Schmidt
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Red - 1 skein
Needle: US 7
Mods: Knit the horns separately and whip stitched 'em into place
Rating: Wicked cute! (do check out the Ravelry pics - there are some adorable imps modeling their red hats)

That's it for today. Tune in tomorrow for the perfect accessory for a bankrobber.

Transitions

Oh, how I wish I was talking about the Noro kind. Instead, I'm talking about the life changing kind, the kind that the Fates bonk you over the head with as they cut one strand of existence and substitute another one in the fabric that makes up a person's life.

Yep, it may sound dramatic, but my non-knitting life has been intense lately. The short version is that I have a medical condition that is drastically changing my world. The long version follows, and is the reason why my blogging has suffered. More on that after my explanation, if you care to read my tale of woe, gentle reader.

In spring 2006 my optometrist discovered a problem with my peripheral vision. Months of seeing doctors and medical testing led me to a retina specialist at USC, who informed me in January 2007 that I probably have a variant of a disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). It is a genetically inherited disease, and untreatable. In March I quit driving. In August my doctor declared me legally blind. I still have a small amount of core center vision, but I am uncertain how long it will remain, and am now in the process of preparing as best I may for losing the rest of my sight.

So, yeah, intense. And time consuming. There's a huge learning curve that will be taking up more and more of my time, and so I've regretfully come to the point where I don't know how much longer I will be able to maintain this blog. I'll keep knitting and posting as long as I can, but posting will probably continue to be erratic from here on out. Plus, my knitting has become reductive, with easy stockinette and felting patterns the only things I can wrap my head around, which must be dullsville to read about! Hopefully I'll be able to get back to sweaters and lace and socks soon.

Being part of the knitblog community has been a joy in an otherwise difficult time. I'll continue to read all your blogs, and visit with you on Ravelry, and hopefully still see you here once in a while. Thank you all for your friendship and knitty brilliance. Knitters rule!