Knitting With Granny LJ

Good morning.

Here it is Thanksgiving already.  Seems like only yesterday it was New Years Day.  It is odd how time changes over one’s lifetime.  When I was a kid, it was never Christmas.  A day at school was at least a week long.  Somewhere along the line, when I got to be an adult, I now get up on Monday morning, have lunch on Wednesday and go to bed Sunday evening.  And it is never  not Christmas time. 

As a kid I thought Thanksgiving was OK because my grandmother made chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for dinner that day and it was only a month more until it was Christmas.

But as I have aged, I have come to prefer Thanksgiving as my end of the year holiday.  A couple of years ago I was pretty blue and I sat down about this time of the year and made a list of the things I have to be thankful for.  I was only going to list 10 and figured I probably would not come up with the entire 10.  To my surprise, by the time I got to 10, I was on a roll and could have done 10 + 10 more and still be writing.  But I stuck to 10.  I posted the list here in my computer room, over the kitchen table and in my  bedroom.  And, I have never gotten into the doldrums that badly since.

Here is my list:

1. My son, Ian, is alive and well and in my life. 
2. My son, Joseph and his family are alive and well and in my life.
3. I have a good friend, Karen, and her dogs living next door to me.
4. I have two brothers, Steve and John, who I am friends with after all these years.
5. I have my knitting to help fill the day and bring in a little extra money.
6. All things considered, my health is reasonable.
7. I am still able to live here at the beach.
8. I am able to get out for walkabouts with Red and Parker and Karen.
9. A couple of years ago, when the roof leaked, my yarn did not get wet. 
10. My brother, Steve, set me up with this BLOG, and I can talk to all of you out there.

So there is my thankful list for this Thanksgiving, 2009. I plan to spend today knitting and being thankful for those listed above. 

Oh yes,  I have lost 2 pounds since I joined Weight Watchers.  It is not record setting, but it is better than the alternative of gaining 2 pounds.

I hope that your Thanksgiving is filled with love and good family and good friends and good food.

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

Several things have happened since I wrote last.  First and foremost is that I am down 2 whole pounds from where I was when I joined Weight Watchers.

The second is that my first mail order yarn got here last week and I have been emptying out the box it came in and looking at the yarns.  The colorways are not as bright as the picture in the catalog, but it is still really nice to have some new yarns.  I got so excited about them that I forgot the empty needle I had was really for a special order that I have and cast on a cap in a soft yellow green.  I am not, normally, a fan of the greens and earth tones, but I like this green and will do it up in something that looks like a winter forest.  I just  have not figured that out yet.

The special order is for a black and pink cap similar to the one that I did a year or so ago.  Karen had a customer who wanted the pink and black cap that is in the shop, but she has long, naturally curly hair and the one in the shop did not fit.  I agreed to make a black and pink one for her that will, hopefully, fit her head.   I got a navy blue guy cap on double pointed needles yesterday and used the newly freed up circular needles to cast on the base of the next black and pink cap.  I have about 1/4 of an inch of base done and will probably go to at least 2 inches before I start the pattern. 

The weather has not been cooperating with me for my walkabouts with the boys (Parker and Red), so I have found an exercise bike in a second hand store that looks to be in good condition.  I plan to buy the bike and use it when the weather does not cooperate with my new and healthier self.

And I think I have figured out how to pedal and knit at the same time, but I will have to experiment and see if it works before talking about it.  At any rate, today — so far — looks like I’ll be able to get the boys out for a walkabout.  We all three need to get out and enjoy the ocean and the fresh air.

Have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

We are having a pretty intense wind storm blow through this morning.  The screen door in Karen’s end of the duplex almost went walkabout, so I put a flower pot of beach rocks against it.  That ploy works on my end of the duplex so It should do just fine at hers.

My client who wanted the black tam has remarkable patience.  He emailed me a week or so ago and the time worked just fine during his performance for about 2 sets.  By then he was sweating rivers and the head band of the tam stretched so it was all but falling off his  head. 

I apologized for the problem and referred him to Kristy.  I assured him that she knew more about knitting and felting that I ever would know and I was sure that if she could not get the tam I made felted for him, she could crochet him one that would equal the one his mother-in-law had made for him.

Shortly after I advised him to check with Kristy, she had the flood in her shop and had to move everything into storage until she can relocate.  I emailed her commiserated with her about the flood.  It seems that the landlord wants to put no money into the place to fix the leak.  So Kristy is looking for another place to set up. 

I told her that I had refered the client and the tam to her.  She said that he had already contacted her.

This man really deserves to have a star in heaven with his name on it.  What should have been a really easy task  has turned into a marathon of  time waiting so that he gets a good tam to wear as he performs.  And he has been so patient with me and when I think I have an almost instant source of tams for him, the place I send him to has flooded and he gets to wait some more. 

It is very frustrating to me as it must be to him, but through it all, he has kept his his cool with events and with me, and now with the winter weather. 

Karen thinks I should get into doing tams and felting them.  I have decided though that I will work on learning how to do lace before I tackle felted tams again.  I know. I know.  Getting back on the horse, and all.  But sometimes you just need to get on a different horse.

Hope you have a great day knitting.  This storm means that I will be hanging out here knitting my fingers to the bone.   Have a great day.  Granny LJ

Good morning,

I took a new step forward yesterday.  I joined Weight Watchers here in Waldport.  I saw my doctor on Tuesday and joined on Thursday. 

With a sedentary love/hobby like knitting, it is almost a given that one in my age group would have a bit of a weight problem. I have seen pictures of little waistline bags that hold a knitting project and the theory is that when one is walking and doing other things that they can also knit.  I have tried that.  Believe me, it does not work — at least not for me, that is.  In fact, it was trying to do that ended up making me such an expert at tinking (you know, knitting backward). 

At any rate, I gave that technique up a lot of years ago.  When I did, I switched to a big tote that had a Manet painting on the outside.  It was great.  I could carry everything I needed  to knit with, including my knitting.  After a while, though, I got to adding things I wanted along, bottles of water, a bit of a lunch, the few things I got at the store.  I am sure you all know the drill.  Pretty soon, my tote was so heavy that my left shoulder was beginning to slope toward the ground. 

A couple of summers ago, Karen I were doing the market in Lincoln City at the old DeLake school and I found a small tote the was just the right size for exactly one project and a few small tools.  So the big Manet tote was relegated to a corner and I started carrying the small shoulder tote.  However, though my left shoulder started to recover and thank me, it seemed like almost every where I went with the tote I was too busy to work on the project in it. 

I do most of my knitting at home, now.  I have a big comfortable leather chair.  There is a table on the right side of the chair with all my tools.  There is a table on the left side with all the projects in progress.  So on a day like today, I can stretch out in my chair, after having tucked a great movie into the player, and knit to my heart’s content.  And I do. 

Which brings us all back to point 1.  I have really gained weight in the last few years, even walking with the boys when the weather permits.  My doctor was nudging me toward more pills, and I countered  and said, “Weight Watchers. ”   I agreed to join the local group on Thursday (yesterday) and send her monthly reports on weight loss. 

Also, I have been thinking about getting a stationary bike.  At least I can knit while I pedal.  But, realistically, the result would probably be the same as carrying a little tote on my belt — that is, a lot of tinking.  

Well, I need to read all the material I got yesterday and start figuring out how to get more exercise and not do less knitting  and to do more knitting and less eating.  If anybody out there has some suggestions I would be glad to have them. 

Good knitting,   Granny LJ

Good morning.

The November show was last weekend.  We had a huge storm come through over the weekend.  Lightening struck the bridge over the Alsea River.  In Lincoln City a water spout hit the land and took out at least one house.  Neither Karen nor I were expecting a very good turn out for the show because of the weather.  But we were sure wrong. 

Karen did very well, and the first day of the show, practically in the first hour she sold an original portrait of a Jack Russell terrier. 

I did pretty well in sales, too.  Not as great as last May, but enough so that I have 3 caps-worth of handspun yarn I got from my spinning friend, Arlene.  I am working on one right now that is a very soft white and it whispers through my fingers as I work with it. 

One of the really neat things that happened was that a woman came past our space wearing a mohair and Manos cap that I had made.  For a moment I did not recognize it.  Then I remembered.  I asked her to make sure and she said yes that she had gotten it from me.  Then her friend looked at the Manos cap in variegated browns with the mohair cap that I had in stock.  The first lady’s cap was mostly mohair with the variegated Manos for accent.  The later version was an every other row of the brown Manos and the mohair.  The friend with her bought cap #2 and off the two ladies went wearing cousin caps. 

The woman with cap #1 was very complimentary about her cap and that also gave me a good feeling.  In fact, I am sure that she sold cap #2. 

Later that day, a vendor who was sitting by an outside door came by my space and looked at caps.  The wind was blowing right across her space and she was pretty cold.  I had a Manos cap done in variegated purples and a Manos lavender accent.  She got it and wore it all weekend.  Am hoping that the show organizers will put her in a warmer place for the next show.  But it was neat to walk around the show and see her there wearing her cap.

Despite the weather, we had a good turn out of customers. So I got to talk to lots of people and talk knitting with knitters.  One woman had on a sweater that was out of Alice Starmore’s book The Celtic Collection.  When I got the book, I studied the pattern and drooled on it a bit, but I did not think my skills up to doing the work on it.  So the book went onto the bookshelf.  Seeing the woman’s sweater was exciting.  She turned out to be a longtime knitter and was rather ho-hum about what I thought was tremendously good knitting. 

The high point of the show was that my brother showed up.  My younger brother, Steve, was at the show first.  Then my brother, John, and his wife, Flo, came  to my space.  For all the years I have been talking about doing the caps and the shows, this is the first time any of my immediate family have come to see what I have been doing with my nonworking days.  I think they were somewhat impressed.  Steve took a lot of pictures, and I was a good kid and did not hide under the table or behind the cap tree.

It was a great weekend.  Now I have to get to knitting and get ready for the May show.  Which will be here sooner than I expect, no doubt. 

Happy knitting.   Granny LJ