I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the choices people make in living out their days.   It’s probably safe to say that there are as many approaches to life as there are people on the planet.   Some of our proclivities are hard-wired into us, but some are truly choice.  Do we choose a positive attitude?  Do we choose to be courteous and respectful?  Do we choose to lift others up? 

This is a broad topic, but the specific aspect I’ve been focused on lately is how we choose to approach the always-present opportunity for learning and growth.   I’ve noticed, and become somewhat sensitive to, a number of people tending to reject learning opportunities because they are “afraid.”  I’ve done it myself – I used to say I was “afraid” of yeast and therefore avoided learning to bake bread.  More recently, I thought I was “afraid” to try new knitting techniques (the cure for that was a shove into the deep end of the pool – lucky for me I have friends who are believers in tough love).

What are we really afraid of?  Certainly not single-cell organisms or sticks and string.   We’re afraid of failing, at worst, or even of just wasting precious time on an unsuccessful venture.

The thing is, what is life if not a string of continuous possibilities?  Do we really want to slog through our days, merely doing what must be done, sitting down in our Barcalounger every night to watch a few hours of crappy TV, only to get up and do it again the next day? 

One of the things I have come to love about the knitting blog world is the pervasive spirit of trying, and trying again.   Knitters start things all the time – and nearly as frequently realize that the yarn isn’t right for the project, the project isn’t right for them, or that there’s just something else more fun to try.  So they frog and move on.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained turns into something ventured, nothing lost.

It’s not just about knitting, though.  The idea of giving things a try translates to all sorts of pursuits.  Cooking, for example.  I find myself in discussion frequently with people who are what I would call “tentative cooks.”  “Oh, that sounds good, but I wouldn’t know how to make it.”   The idea of expanding horizons gets shut down immediately with the competing reaction of “I’m afraid.” 

Well, phooey.   Information is power, so how about letting that power conquer fear by arming ourselves?

To illustrate, I became interested in cooking in my early 20s.   Well, really, I became interested in eating food that didn’t come in a box in the freezer section of the grocery store, or from a can.  So I got myself a copy of the Joy of Cooking and read it, nearly cover to cover.  I took breaks to try out recipes that sounded good.  I mastered a few things and in the process learned that there wasn’t much to fear in trying.   If you goof, well, that’s why God made garbage disposals.  I still have that book, its stains and creases a testament to my efforts.  I move on, obtaining more books, reading and reading some more about various cuisines, techniques, and ingredients, trying out all kinds of crazy recipes along the way.  I screwed stuff up, I had some successes, I fed my friends, and nothing bad happened to me.  So I kept at it.

Today, after all that reading, trial, error, and practice, I have a nice sturdy repertoire of cooking knowledge – and a lot of it is just instinct.  I can tell you if the potatoes are done frying by their aroma.  I know that a certain recipe is going to suck because the ingredients are lacking, or used in the wrong proportion.   I know when the dough is sufficiently kneaded.  I can put salad dressings or marinades together by the seat of my pants.  Beyond all else, I know that when I just don’t feel like it, I can pull a frozen pizza out of the freezer and live to cook another day.

Knitting has been pretty much the same for me.   I was lucky to have that latent muscle memory dating to the Nixon era, when my mom taught me to do a long-tail cast on, and then to knit and purl.   When that little spark ignited a couple of years ago, I did what came naturally:  I started to read everything I could possibly find about knitting.  Blogs, web sites, books, magazines.   It didn’t hurt that my friends pushed me along, simply insisting that I get out of my garter-stitch comfort zone and man up, already.  Even though I said on occasion that I was “afraid,” and in fact botched some things quite impressively, nothing bad happened to me.  I wound up the yarn again and moved on. 

The bottom line?  Life is much more interesting when we decide not to let “I’m afraid” stop us.    I don’t ever want to stop learning.   As 2010 approaches, I’d like to set some learning goals – or maybe even just one. 

What about you?  How do you feel about learning, and what would you like to learn next?

The United Way shawl for Lesli is done:

A fun knit, for a great cause, to be enjoyed by a lovely friend.

Traveling Woman Shawl

Knit in Dream in Color Starry  in the Ruby River colorway on size US 6 circular needles.  Unfortunately the glimmer in the yarn doesn’t show up in the photos, but it’s there.

I knit one extra repeat of Chart A and wound up with a fist-sized ball of yarn leftover – probably not quite enough for an extra repeat. 

Now having knit this more elongated shawlette shape that’s so popular right now, I have to say I’m a fan of the finished product – easier to wear as an accessorizing scarf than the usual triangular shawl.   

Happy Friday, everyone!

I had the great pleasure of a knitterly outing on Friday afternoon, with my friend Lesli and her visiting sister, Lori.  

Unfortunately, I FORGOT my CAMERA and can therefore provide no photographic evidence of the event.

Sigh.  Anyway, we met at Fiberwood Studio, where Lesli and Lori had been hard at it for at least 30 minutes before I arrived.  They were in deep discussion about a sock pattern.   Lori wound up with a sweater’s worth of yarn to make Nuss, which makes me swoon.   She assured us she’d have no trouble toting it back to Virginia – as a seasoned knitter, she understands the importance of Yarn Room in one’s luggage.  (She also picked up some needles so she could swatch during our post-purchase cocktail hour.  Good woman!)

I did not buy any yarn, but I had a good time enabling my friends, who each *somehow* wound up with a $40 skein of bejeweled Artyarns mohair.   I spent some quality time sighing over colors and textures and fantasizing about the gazillion projects yet to be. 

We retired to a nearby pub after our venture to drink fermented malt beverages of the Belgian variety and cackle over purchases and works in progress.  Lori brought her Clapotis (I still haven’t knit one, but every time I see one I think I should – hers is gorgeous!) and Lesli had her yoga sock (no heel, no toe).  I displayed progress on the Traveling Woman (which, BTW, I finished over the weekend).   We discussed the fact that both of my friends learned to knit in Austria during student time abroad – so they both knit incredibly quick and efficient Continental style.

It was a great afternoon.  And since I have no knitterly photos for you, I’ll leave you with this autumnal shot.

Happy Monday!

Mondays aren’t so bad when the weekend is filled with sunshine and pleasurable activity.   I did some cooking and baking, a decent amount of knitting and tea drinking, a bit of reading and napping, and managed to run a total of about 10 miles between the two days. 

Not bad.

How was your weekend?

This is my maple tree, up close and personal-like. 

I love this tree.

We’ve got lots of pretty fall color here, but the weather has been rather relentlessly gloomy (except when I don’t have my camera). 

Made the first pot of chili over the weekend.  You know summer’s over when the chili and jambalaya go into the menu rotation.

Somehow I horsed up the first pattern row of the Traveling Woman shawl and wound up with an extra stitch.  Counting, re-counting and copious headscratching (with maybe a little soft swearing) didn’t take care of that extra stitch, so I’ll be taking that row out later, when I have time, light, and a steady hand.  Sigh.

What’s random with you?

Look what showed up in the mail last week.   

After the last book, I had mixed feelings about my continuing obsession with Claire and Jamie.   Not that the obsession had waned one tiny bit.   It’s just that Diana is so ruthless in her treatment of her characters, and after two incredibly harrowing incidents involving Claire in A Breath of Snow and Ashes, I wasn’t sure if I could take any more.  

But here I am, and I’ve read enough spoilers in various reader forums to know that this ride won’t be any smoother.

 I’ve decided to take my time and savor this book, since I read the last one over a crazed, eyeball-searing weekend and then mourned for two years that I had to wait so long to find out what happened next.   Anyone else reading it, read it, or plan to read it?

• Please read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.   It reads like Brit Chick Lit, but with an undercurrent of the abject horrors of war.  Does that sound appealing?  Probably not, but really, it’s the best read I’ve had in a long time. 
• Who saw the Jim/Pam wedding episode of The Office?   Who did not hurt themselves laughing?  I can’t decide if I liked Dwight’s wedding gift or Andy’s injury best.  The show made me want to be a TV writer – they obviously get to have all the fun.
• It appears that the 15K I am registered for on Halloween might not be completely out of reach.  The RF and I managed six miles on Sunday without much trouble.  I also ran a 2.8 mile 5K on Saturday.  o.O  No, I didn’t drop out – they had to change the route due to construction.  The good news is that I had a PR on my first mile split - not bad for an old broad.
•  I finished the back and started the left front of my vest.  I’d really like to finish it asap, but I also have to move along on the Auction Knit.  It’s a bit farther along than shown in the photo.  The Starry yarn is quite nice – the stitch definition is very crisp, and the glint is incredibly subtle. 

•  It hasn’t snowed here yet (some parts of the state have been hit) but we did have a hard frost over the weekend that wiped out the annuals and the last of the vegetable garden.  Sigh.  Didn’t I just finish complaining about winter?
• Cold weather isn’t all bad.  It’s good for cooking.  Here’s a little taste of the tomatillo sauce I made the other day for a chicken stew.

That is all.  What’s new with you?

No, it’s not your eyes or your monitor – it’s my inability to hold the camera still while photographing brownish/greenish yarn in the waning light of a gloomy October day.  Feh!   It’s the back of the Heather Hoodie vest, zipping along nicely.

In other news, remember my silent auction donation?  Happily, it was snapped up by a fellow knitter in my department.  Because she’s a knitter, and a friend, and doesn’t like to knit lace, I offered to knit her the Traveling Woman shawl, which I’ve been eyeing.  She jumped at it, so we went on a lunchtime field trip to choose the yarn.  Lucky me, she zoomed right in on the Dream in Color Starry (sorry can’t link right now) in Ruby River – so lovely!!  It’s a win/win, in my opinion – I get to knit a fun pattern in a wonderful yarn, she gets a lace shawl, and the United Way gets a generous donation.

Hope all is well with you.  What are you knitting??

The Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater was a hit with the expectant mom.  It was gloomy all week here, but I managed to get a photo before the baby shower.

This is the 3-6 month size.   Yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, needles US 5 circs and DPNs.  Fun, cute, and simple.  It’s fastened with a snap at the top, with a button sewn over.

Since I had plenty o’ yarn, I decided to add a hat to make it an ensemble.

The Earth Baby Infant Hat, a little lace number on US5 DPNs.  Looks a little wonky in the photo, probably because I was hurrying to beat the rain.

A hilarious time was had by all at the shower – shower games (which I normally hate) are just made for 12-year-old girls, and this was a mom/daughter affair – unusual, but the expectant mom has three older girls - all old enough that she thought she was done having babies, and all the gear is long gone.  So the shower was an attempt by an entire soccer team worth of moms and daughters to help her “re-load.”  What fun we had awwwing over all the little clothes!!   Anyway, the shower games included a diaper-changing relay, identification of various baby foods, and the “messy diaper” test (involving diapers containing microwaved candy bars, each of which is to be identified by brand).   The runaway hit, though, was a huge posterboard covered with numbered  baby pictures of all the attendees – we had to try to figure out who was who.  A riot for a shower where the guests all know each other reasonably well.

We also presented the “junior” guest of honor (the big sister) with a bound booklet of advice for caring for the new baby provided by the girls (Don’t drop the baby, especially not on its head…  blow bubbles with the baby…  when the baby spits up, be the first one there with a spray bottle and paper towel…  if the baby’s face turns red, run, do not walk, into the next room… read to the baby – Goodnight Moon is a good book…)

We laughed, and ate, and generally had a great time, and the guest of honor went home with plenty of stuff to get her through the first year with her new little girl.

1.  I was asked to donate something for the silent auction component of a charity fundraiser at work.  I offered up three pounds of local coffee, a mug, and a handknit item – I specified a hat, mittens, or cowl in a high-quality natural fiber, details (pattern, color, fiber) to be worked out with the successful bidder.  This will all be touted as a “keep warm this winter” package.  It all seemed very simple, until I was asked what a reasonable opening bid was, and also, what an appropriate “buy it now!” price would be. 

Stymied.  I came to understand that this is why selling hand knits is likely a losing proposition.    You can value the materials, and perhaps obtain them at less than retail price, but how do you value your time?   And, given some of the comments made by the people organizing the silent auction, I could tell that they were skeptical and perhaps even somewhat scorning of the idea of paying anything more than a pittance for a hand knit item.  I suppose they were picturing some horrid item knit of Red Heart by a fluffy elderly lady with cataracts.   I tried to explain, to no avail, but then I thought to send them photos of some of my work.  That shut them up, but I was left with kind of a bad taste in my mouth.

I’m hopeful that someone who has admired my knitting will actually bid on the package.   It will be a pleasure to knit for such a person.

2.  Remember when you were a kid and you got sooo excited about little things like a new pair of shoes?  Usually that doesn’t happen to me any more, because usually I’m desperately trying to find yet another pair of comfortable yet dressy black shoes to replace one of my go-to pairs of work shoes - I wear them out fairly rapidly, and even though I do get them repaired when I can, it’s still a neverending battle.   It’s the non-work shoes that are the fun shoes, but I’m so focused on those stupid black pumps that I don’t buy the fun stuff all that often.   So yesterday, when a package arrived in the mail bearing these, I was like a little kid.  They are Dansko Merrie clogs, found on sale, and so cute!!  And won’t they be perfect with hand-knit socks? 

3.  Speaking of cute, I just cast on for the Heather Hoodie Vest from the Fall 2009 Knitscene.  A couple of in-person friends have agreed to knit it with me.   Anyone else feel like joining in??  I’ll show you what I’ve got so far soon, but no time now…  TTYL!!

Happy (random) Wednesday!