*Sigh....*

Today I am feeling overwhelmed by everything.

The reality of our pending move and its ramifications is setting in and while I am very good at looking at decisions with a clear head, sometimes my emotional reactions will sneak up on me. I think one of the hardest things about this is the reality that our large family will be strewn across the globe. Intellectually I am okay with that. We have a lot of children who are not really children anymore and who are ready to explore on their own and "try on" adulthood. However, as a mother, and as someone who has had that as a primary identity for the last 20 years, I am having to admit to myself that this is not an easy thing for me. I am used to my oldest daughter being away at college, but I am also used to the idea that she is only one long days drive away should she need me (or I need her.) I am okay with another daughter being in Germany for a year- however her situation there is not going so well and she has to find a new position now- and being here, we can do nothing about this or help in any way. My son, with my blessing, has made the choice to stay here and live with his dad and our lovely Hannah. I am okay with this, and yet the realization that he is going to be leaving this house soon has got me spontaneously breaking down in tears. Not so easy for me. I have other daughters who still need to figure out their paths and fortunately, at least one daughter will be coming with us to India so that I can still be a mother for a little time yet.

While I am dealing with these emotions I am also looking around at this house and all of the material souvenirs of our shared lives over the last 10-20 years and realizing that I am the one that is going to have to sort through this piece by piece. I am going to have to decide, should this stay or should it go? Should it stay with us and go to India, or should it stay here in storage while we are India, or should it not stay with us in any way and go from our lives.

Yes, I am feeling overwhelmed.

In the meantime, here is a little video on Bengaluru/Bangalore for your viewing pleasure. A little preview of what we will be experiencing. Hmmmm... Okay it did make me laugh!

...lemon squeezy

I remember when I was a kid in the 70's (yes I am that old!) that it was quite popular to have motivational slogans on posters. The start of the new schoolyear always brought excitement about just who your teacher was going to be. I remember walking to the school every morning to look to see if the class list has been posted on the office window yet, such excitement! But back to the posters- These would line the walls of our classrooms at the start of every new year and there is one that somehow stuck in my brain and meant something to me. Maybe it was because I did not have what would be described as an idyllic childhood, or perhaps because it had a certain poetic justice type quality to it. Regardless, this slogan and it's bright yellow poster have been part of my internal life since grade school.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.


Well, I have a bunch of "lemons".

My husband has a job offer somewhere far, far away.
So far it is on the other side of the world far.
So far that you can either head west OR east to get there.
Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India far.
We should be leaving at the beginning of January.

Now, I won't even launch into the issues that relate to knitting things like sweaters and socks in a tropical climate. I won't mention that I have not been able to find a yarn store thus far in the city we are moving to. It doesn't matter. We are going. It will be challenging, stressful, exciting, alien, interesting, colorful, hot, lonely, and hopefully a little fun.

Luckily I like Lemonade. :)

Rejected - but not dejected!

Well, it's official. I am a Knitty reject.

I submitted a pattern for a scarf I designed to be considered for the Fall issue, BUT- no go.
Oh well. At least that means I can blog about it now!

So here is....

The Best Friend Scarf!

I designed this scarf after I realized that the scarf I usually wore is made out of alpaca -which I have developed an allergy to. So, a new scarf was needed. I chose a yarn made out of wool and silk because it was soft and light like alpaca, I also like the shine that comes from the silk. The light colored version was made with RYC Silk Wool DK in the Limewash color, the red version was made with RYC Cashsoft DK in the Opulence color (no silk in this one though).

I am going to try to figure out how to have it available here somewhere, but in the meantime, If you would like a copy of the pattern just let me know and I will send it to you.


UPDATE: I am a Knit-geek! I now have a link that will allow you to download the pattern. It is just above my profile. If you knit this up I would love to hear how you like it!

And The Winner Is...

I have been surprised before by knitters and their competitive streaks.

We have had the Knitting Olympics.
There was Sock Madness.
I have even witnessed competitive spinning... (you have to scroll down a little for this one)

And then there was, well wait. I am getting ahead of myself.

So, this was quite the weekend. You all know Hannah, right? She has been mentioned before on this blog and since she is somewhat unforgettable I will assume that you all know of whom I speak. Hannah. Sheep Costume. Need I say more?

Lisa and Hannah

Now there is also Lisa, whom I have not known for as long, but who also makes me laugh like nobody's business. 'Cause you don't want to know what we're laughing about. Really. Trust me.

Well somehow I realized this weekend that both Lisa and Hannah were working on finishing their first ever pair of socks. I know Lisa started hers around Easter time (Little Bunny Foo Foo colorway) and Hannah, well I know that it was close to about the same time. Well, they had each finished one sock and were about on the heel of their second socks. I suggested that I would buy a Margarita for who ever finished their pair first. Oh my. Now, we will, for the time being, forget that Hannah has a size 5 1/2 foot and Lisa is about a size 10, they decided that the race was on.

Freecia, Hannah, Margit and Lisa

You wanna hear trash talk? They brought it. Asking for help in a sweet way, cause Hannah is so good at that, was summarily banned by Lisa. I did make an executive type decision that Lisa could use a different yarn once she realized that she was running out, but really Hannah and Lisa fought hard and dirty.

Hannah is working on her heel...

And the winner is...? Well, I will let you go see for yourself.

California Dreamin...

The Summer days are so glorious at the moment. The backyard is beautiful this time of year and it is lovely to take a cup of coffee or a glass of wine outside to enjoy it. Yes, I take my knitting too. This is my view from my favorite place...

I have been knitting away on the Mystery Stole and am almost done with clue 4, but I am realizing (and was convinced this morning by Hannah) that I need to lengthen the stole, so I have a bit more knitting to do before I can get to clue 5, aka "the wing". Interesting design idea really. I look forward to seeing how it turns out. I am ALL about lace these days.

I haven't done so much on the Print o' the Wave lately, but I have been working away on Thelonious, which is a really fun pattern and looks great with the Tofutsies, don't you think?

There are lots of exciting things happening here at Casa de Teenagers, we are getting ready for a new school year, Giselle is off to Germany for a year to be an au pair and there are many other things brewing which I hope to tell you about in the weeks to come. In the meantime, I am going to go stroll out to the backyard and enjoy that lovely bit of paradise that is California Summer. Wish you were here!

Will Return Shortly...

...reading Harry Potter.

TOO MUCH peer PRESSURE

You'd think I would know better. Knitters are, after all, a greedy bunch. They always want more and are easily distracted by visions of fiber related beauty. But before we get to all of that...
These are finally done. The easy but a little too boring socks. I do like the yarn much more than I thought I would though. Tofutsies. Pink. Nuff said. Nice and cool for summer!

Now, back to the topic at hand, peer pressure. You know, I have no shortage of projects that I would like to do. As I am slowly adding my stash and projects to Ravelry, I am noticing that I have gone, perhaps, just a titch overboard. I hate to admit it, but it seems to be true. So, there is absolutely no reason for me to add more projects. Because all of my stash- well most of my stash has an intended project and when I look at the piles and piles of yarn I can see that I have a lot of knitting to do. So yes, I signed up for Summer of Socks. Fine. Just for fun. Use up some of my sock yarn. (of course I have bought a little more, well maybe a little more than a little, since I signed up!) See, now I want to use this...

Nice, no?
Can't decide on a pattern though. Thelonius? Embossed Leaves? I was supposed to cast on Midsummer Day. I am late.

Then, more pressure. I had seen a while ago that lots of people were signing up for the Mystery Stole 3. I had actually signed up several weeks ago thinking that It looked like fun, but then felt completely inundated by the quantity of e-mails that were landing in my inbox. Ack! Too Much! No, no, no. But then, last night, Jeni mentioned that I could sign up to just receive the special announcements. and that I should do it. And others are doing it too. Oh, who thinks of these things! Brilliant! I can do it.

So.
Now I have yet another project to cast on.

Oh yeah. Forgot to mention that I signed up for this also. Awesome idea. I have the yarn and the pattern. Just need to cast on. It shall be big. Due September 1st.

I'd better be off, gotta go cast on.

Never Can Say Goodbye

Well, here we go. Kristi is leaving us. She and her husband, Dr. Andy are moving to Boulder, Colorado. I cannot even begin to tell you how much she will be missed. We had a going away party for her on Saturday at Mary's house and you can read all about it here, and here, and here, and... Well, it was a big party. We are a very SOCIAL knitting group!

We ate.

Bobaknitters Jill and Linda peruse the knitterly food!

We talked.

No Blog Rachel, Kristi and my husband! (yes he is actually in the country! Woot!!!)

We smashed a pinata.

Hannah stripped. (we don't call her "Hoochie Hannah" for nothing!)


We cried.

Kristi opens one of her gifts, plane tickets to come back and visit us!!

We knit.

On other news, I have been knitting. I am almost finished with my Tofutsies socks. I am glad they are almost done... it was nice to have an easy, no brainer pattern while I was away for the weekend (I started them on a weekend away with hubby) but now- they are boring. Time to move on. I guess that is true in a lot of ways huh? Shit. I don't want to talk about it.

Hangin' Around

So, ONE of the projects I am currently working on is the Print o' The Wave Stole by Eunny Jang. See, Jeni was loverly and brought me back some nice lace weight merino from Rhinebeck last fall. She also brought me a nice pattern but somehow I couldn't put the pattern and the yarn together in my mind. I like the pattern AND the yarn, but somehow they needed to be separate projects. So, I finally realized that I had enough of the yarn to do the Print o' The Wave. Splendid! I cast on and, well, let's just say I kept screwing up. I think the first few rows were UN-knit more than they were knit. I know that there is someone at Bobaknit who can vouch for this. Anyway, seems what I really needed was just a little one on one time with this project and this weekend I finally got the hang of it! Yay. :)


I have now completed almost 6 of the pattern repeats and can now say (was not the case before!) that I like this project. Actually, I seem to be developing a thing for lace. I find it relaxing and incredibly fulfilling. Somehow as I get to know the pattern I become aware of the movement of the stitches and end up watching a dance of yarn rather than follow a pattern. It's pretty cool. It almost seems like a musical piece to me. It has a rhythm and a form and a structural logic that brings beauty. Pretty amazing really.

So, now I need some advice though. I am thinking of tweaking the pattern a bit. The original calls for two pieces to be knit and then grafted together in the center- so that the pattern mirrors and flows from the center to either side (flows/waves...oooh! A motif!). BUT, I am considering just sticking with this pattern until I reach the TOTAL number of repeats and then putting the border on. The border is the same all the way around, in other words it does not "mirror" and flow down each side. So, it seems to me that this makes a little more sense as a whole. Comments? Questions? Does this make sense, or do I just sound like a rambling fool?

It is going to be a lovely shawl/stole (but what am I going to do with all of these lace things!!!!?)

Ack! Have I been missed?!

Sorry, sorry... I know.
I have started and abandoned several posts over the last couple of weeks. I have had too many things going on and haven't had a chance to finish much. End of the school year activities, birthdays, tooth extractions (my tooth, today, wisdom tooth now gone.)

How do you like my attempt at a "MySpace" photo?!

I have been sucked into Ravelry and am very S-L-O-W-L-Y adding content there. If you haven't checked it out, do so. This shall be a time sucker. Although more time on the computer = less time knitting (I am not one of those talented people who can knit and use the computer at the same time!!!!!) And as I slowly take stock of the yarn that I have acquired over the last few years I am not so sure that is a good idea!

I also have been busy working on a somewhat secret project, but this should be wrapped up soon...

But I am getting back to my regular knitting. An update might be necessary sometime soon. I haven't even had time to read all of your blogs lately!!! I'll be back, I promise!

But milestones have been met...


Isha is now 20!

Ari is 18 (today!)

And I am feeling older... but also much more appreciative of my life, my family and my home. I hope that you can feel the same!

Catching up...

I know, I know... I never finished telling you about the rest of the Bobaknit retreat, let's just say it was a lot of fun. See...?





Then I had an expensive plumbing problem. (%&*@#$! *&%^$)

Then I had to clean the house. (%&*@#$! *&%^$)

Then I went to see Bjork (and we knit and she sang about a ball of yarn!)

Then I went to the Maker Faire!!!! Lots of fun.
Mad Max meets Martha Stewart.
Awesome.

An Art Car

A Human powered (see hamster wheel) Nose picking sculpture

"You're going to blog this, aren't you?"

I want one!

My rocket boy and friend (note: "rocket boy" is over 6 feet tall...)

And finally, Survival Research Labs. Kinetic remote control walking machines that...
destroy things and set them on fire...

fun is over for the machines...

Now, I am going back to my knitting. I have something to block so that I can show it to you and I have something else I want to finish up as well! See you soon!

Bobaknit Retreat - Day Two!

Saturday: Calistoga is nice because although it is in Napa Valley it is at the Northern end and has a bit of a funky character. This was evident as we were walking back from our morning coffee and we spotted this labyrinth in an empty lot. It was surrounded by words like LOVE, TRUST, FORGIVE, FAITH, although my favorite was probably OY!

I would much rather stay some place that has a little "character" and Calistoga did not disappoint in this area. Although the Napa Valley influence was certainly present in the local grocery store as well. There was an incredible selection of wines, cheeses and even an olive bar.

But really it is just beautiful. the weather was lovely for most of our visit, not too hot or too cold and the ability to walk into town from our Inn was greatly appreciated!

But we are also here for the wine... right? Well, we went to Mumm. I really like good Champagne and Mumm has some nice ones, yes- I know we can't really call it "Champagne" because it isn't made in the champagne region of France, but I can never remember how to spell that other term so we're just going to go with it. Right now that that is settled- champagne, Mumm, good. I bought some.

We went to Rombauer and saw many photos and autographs of famous people. I wold take that to imply that the wine is good, and it was. I only bought a bottle of Chardonnay, although I was really tempted to get a bottle of the 2001 PS Cabernet, but at $80 a bottle I took a pass. But check this out... they had an old Cushman bike on the porch! These are so cool!!!! You have to understand that I used to ride what would now be called a vintage Vespa ('74 Rally 200 for those who are interested) and I have an appreciation for old motor bikes. These things are pretty rare.
We headed next to Clos Pegase. Jeni and Becky are members there and are quite enthusiastic about their wines. They also have quite a lot of art on display at the winery as well. It was pretty impressive really. I would do that if I ever owned a winery (hey- we can all dream... wine making and knitting would be a nice combination I think!)



There was a lot of sculpture outside and we were told in advance about "The Thumb". Have to take a picture with it Jeni said. And as we walked up towards the tasting room, there it was! A very enthusiastic man volunteered to take our picture and so we obliged...

But inside we were even more impressed. Real Art co-mingling with Real Wine and a real good time. How awesome is that?!

This is Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon, people! Just hanging there on the wall of the tasting room. I couldn't believe it. Wow.
I had the "premium tasting" which meant that I tasted three Cabernet's that were absolutely divine. If I had purchased all three of them it would have been about $250-$300. The $15 tasting was a deal... Pretty though, isn't it?

Jeni, Jill and Becky enjoying a taste...

And here are our lovely and appreciated designated drivers, Kristi and Cookie, enjoying some knitting time in a beautiful setting!

Then it was time to head back to our Inn and enjoy some fiber arts!
Competitive spinning...
Relaxing knitting...

Inspiration...

(This is a shawl knit by Gene Beugler I can easily say that this is one of the most beautiful knit pieces that I have ever seen. This is a lousy photo of it that in no way does it justice but let's just say that I am now committed to becoming a better technical knitter.)



Enjoyment...

"Wish you were here!"