Sometimes You Need to Retreat

People have been bugging Kim and me to have a retreat for years. We were always kind of intimidated. In our minds, we needed to have an elaborate setup with many teachers, and many more customers--possibly hundreds of both. We weren't quite sure where to have it--Europe and Montana both seemed kind of far away. We talked to all kinds of people, got all kinds of suggestions, and just spun our wheels. 

Last June, however, we had a breakthrough. We took a class on how to hold a retreat. Everything seemed pretty straightforward, but we were still unsure if it was possible. And then it happened. One thing that the instructor said in passing changed us instantaneously. She said, "Decide what your minimum is--say, 8 or 10 people." 

We looked at each other. That was it? You could do a retreat with just 8 people? 

Suddenly it seemed possible. And during the break in the class, the instructor further convinced us that there just had to be a place near our home, given our lovely location in Central Pennsylvania. 

So we started planning. We indeed found a place--Lake Raystown. It seemed like a perfect spot--just over an hour away--far enough to be away, but close enough not to eat into retreat time and energy. We spent the next 6 months organizing the whole thing. 

And suddenly, this past weekend, it was time to pack and go.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am not exactly an early bird. Frankly, I'm not all that interested in worms. So when I had to leave the house at 6:45 to get there by 8:00 Friday morning to set up, I did not begin as the most cheerful person in the world. 

But I took route 45, which is one of my favorite roads in Pennsylvania. And within minutes, my attitude changed to one of great joy. Once a year or so, when I have to get up early, I am reminded once again that there is a reason other people think morning is beautiful: And that reason is the sun. I stuck my camera out the window (with the strap around my wrist to keep it secure), and shot blind photos of random scenes. Like this.

And this.

And this. 

Cows, baby. I love me some cows.

In no time flat, we were both there. Set up went quickly, and soon Kim and I were sewing before anyone else arrived.

Surrounded by this. 

By 2:00 everyone had arrived, and the room was humming with activity.

Mostly, when you take a shot of people working in a room and post it to your blog, it doesn't look great. People's expressions are weird. We've all seen those dreadful workshop pictures--right? My shots were no exception.

But Photoshop came to the rescue, turning my bad shot into a painting that gives you a real feel for the energy of the room:

 

The entire weekend hummed like that.

As the days went by, I loved looking at all the beautiful colors people were using.... 

And seeing what they were making. Here's a basket in process:

(I nearly stole one I loved them so much.)We had cool but pleasant weather most of the weekend, and spring was in full bloom. I found this pretty little thing on one of my walks:

Okay. I admit it. I took exactly one walk. But it was an extra good one, what with the butterflies!

I did, however, eat every meal. This was my favorite meal, I think--chicken and veggies and fruits in an Asian sauce. We were each allotted 3 kebobs, but since we were a group of women, and we are all scared to eat for fear of Pounds, there were a lot left. So I ate 6.

Kim and I have stopped eating sugar. Normally we're not even attracted to it. But the smell of these cookies nearly sent us over the edge:

But best of all, by Sunday we all had some finished projects--or something darned close! There is just nothing more exciting! These are just a few of them:

And so it was a great weekend, even for Kim and me. She worked on some art quilts. I finished quilting my Jelly Roll Race (photo to come later, or stop by the shop to see it), and I finished a necklace, and I finished a headband, and I made the nametag we're supposed to have for Quilt Guild, which I have not had for NINE YEARS, and I worked on the beginning of a new quilt. And after all of that, I thought I would have time on Sunday to finish putting the buttonband on a sweater that I steeked 2 years ago. No such luck.

So I did it when I got home.

I am certain that without the retreat to motivate me, this sweater would still be languishing in a bag in my closet. Sometimes you just need to get away.

We'll be having another retreat next year. Pay attention to the fall newsletter and sign up right away. I'm already looking forward to it.

Happy New Year!

Did you make Christmas or Hanukkah gifts this past year? Many of you did, I know for a fact.

It seems odd, given my profession, but I never used to make gifts--I bought everything. A few years ago, however, I started making a few. I discovered that I really enjoyed giving something different and special to people. Yes, another stunning revelation comes my way.

This year, however, I didn't make as many gifts as I would have liked. Time can get away from you.

I'm not much for resolutions. They tend not to last. But this year, I think I'm making one. Every month, I am going to make sure that I make at least one gift, and.....

Wait. 

Something in my head is suddenly feeling awry. I suddenly sense that I need to do actual math. [Insert muttering-type counting sounds.] Uhm.... okay. There are 23 people on my gift list.

GPS: "Recalculating."

So this is the plan: Every month, I am going to make sure that I make at least two gifts. By December, I should have at least one handmade gift for everyone on my list. I'm planning to make most of them simple so that this plan is achievable. I have no desire whatsoever to burn out or injure myself.

So that's the goal. We'll see if it works. If it doesn't, I'll probably still have more done than this past year.

But I'm quite serious about it and have already started a list of ideas for people and am even writing them into my iPhone. For obvious reasons, I can't blog about the results of this plan very well, but, provided that you are unrelated to me and/or not on the list, feel free to ask how things are going and what I am doing. You might even get a few ideas for yourself.

Anyone out there care to join me?

It's Fall!

First, let me do some quick housekeeping and let you know that I now have two blogs. I'm going to talk about my Really Clear patterns only at www.reallyclearinstructions.blogspot.com. If you use Google Reader or some such thing, start feeding that one too. (I also have a Facebook page for Really Clear. Feel free to join in.) I've been wanting to do this for a while, but it's fall, I've put a number of my patterns up on Ravelry, and the time seemed right. When I talk about other people's patterns, or store events, I'll keep it right here.

On to another person's pattern we go.

The best thing about fall (other than insects going away for a while) is that I can wear a sweater that I made and finished last March--right when it was starting to get hot. So it feels like a new sweater!

This is a great little pattern from Knitting at Knoon called Jersey Shore. (We have the pattern at Stitch Your Art Out, of course.) I modified it just slightly by adding a v-neck. I just eyeballed the shaping as I went, so I fear I can't give you the particulars on that. Otherwise, I did the pattern as written. I love the stitch pattern: You do a knit 2, purl 2 pattern for 2 rows, and then you knit a row, purl a row. It kept the knitting mind from getting bored but it was easy to do.

This pattern is great because it comes in both adult and child versions. So it is time for you to make this sweater for your entire family, and then go get a group photo taken!

I used my favorite yarn in the whole, wide world--Harrisville Highland--as the yarn for my own version. This particular color of pink has been discontinued, but never fear, dear knitters: Harrisville still makes a gorgeous pink, and we can certainly get you all the pink Highland your heart desires so that you can make pink sweaters for the entire, extended family! And all your friends!

Because it is fall, and we are all ready to start knitting! With a vengeance!

Charlotte!

Kim and I were leaving the shop together after teaching tonight, and she spotted this spider in her web.

Fortunately I had my camera and was able to get a photo of it.

Almost Amusing

While I don't exactly hate nature, I'm not that big into it. I feel immediately rotten when I'm in the sun and avoid direct sunlight whenever possible. (When we go to the shore, I stay inside all day until just before sunset, then go on a walk on the beach. This is more than enough for me.) I never hike because I hate being surrounded by gnats and getting hot, and the bottom line is, I prefer indoor plumbing.

Really, other than evening walks around the block, I don't get out much. My day is normally this: Get up, go to the car, go to work, work, get in the car and go home, knit or sew or read if it's not too late, sleep, get up and do it all over again.

How I contracted Lyme disease is beyond me. Everyone who knows me even a little is stunned.

The only thing I can figure is that I pet the neighbor's sweet little cats almost every day on my way into the house from work. But who knows. Maybe ticks dropped from the trees that are next to our driveway. I know nothing about the lives of ticks.

This post is not for sympathy. I caught it early and am fine, and don't really care that I have it. It is to alert you to be aware of symptoms, because apparently it is a bad year for ticks, and my whole point is that if I can get Lyme, anyone can get Lyme.

The symptoms are mild, and you might not think anything of them. That to me is the frightening part. Mine started with a headache and swollen glands, and a little more lethargy even than my normal self. I know that when I get sick, I need to sleep, so when my symptoms began, I spent the weekend in bed. It didn't really help. That seemed odd--sleep is normally my magic elixir. Then I decided to see why the heck was going on with a mosquito bite that had itched for 3 days. I looked at it; it was a bite with a big, splotchy patch around it.

I wondered vaguely if it was Lyme, but that made no sense. I hadn't even mowed the lawn in the past few weeks because it was so hot and dry that the grass wasn't growing. In full denial, I googled spider-bite images, thinking that, well, I've seen spiders in our house sometimes. And none of the images even remotely resembled what I had. (I did learn that spider bites are not pretty.)

The next morning I got up and decided that it seemed far-fetched, but I would google Lyme disease. I looked for about 2 seconds at the Google Images of bite areas, then ran immediately to the doctor for antibiotics. She saw my bite area and immediately gave me a 30-day run of them.

And I also went to my acupuncturist, who seems to have cleared it further. I am still a little tired, but the cobwebs seem to be finally gone from my brain. I continue to rest (which comes naturally to me). You needn't worry about me.

It is I who am worried about you.

The whole point of this post is this: Know the symptoms for Lyme and take them seriously--even if you're not the outdoorsy type. (I never even sit on a lawn chair to enjoy nature, which is how one of my friends thinks she contracted Lyme.) If you catch it early, it is no big deal. If you don't--well, we've almost all known someone who didn't. That is why I am feeling so very educatory today.

Learn the symptoms. Go right now and do a search on Lyme Disease, and read several sources to get a sense of them. Then pay attention, and if you have any symptoms, even without the rash, take them seriously.

Okay. That is enough lecturing for now. Next time: More knitting and quilting. I've been busy this summer with crafts!

Not hiking!

My Own Long Project: Finito

I'm inclined toward the massive knitting project on small needles. I'm not sure where this comes from.


Many of you have seen me toiling for the past few years on the miniwrap--it is a sock-yarn version of the Knitting at Knoon pattern, Wrap Me Up. I loved knitting it. It takes a little longer than the original wrap, but that's because you need to adjust it to make it longer when you go to the small needles. Doing that was no big deal. I added a few random squares that we had been doing in our Zimmermania class--killing two birds and all that.

This weekend, I went so far as to line the wrap with cotton fabric, attaching the lining by hand around the edge. Then I used a sewing machine to sew the fabric down around the blocks, in the ditch, as if it was a quilt top. (A walking foot is crucial for this job.) That kept the whole thing straight. Knitting gets crooked easily, especially when you are making patches of different stitch patterns.
 
And then, this evening just before dinner, after I had spent the entire weekend with all this sewing of the wrap, along with almost 2 years of actual knitting, the whole thing was suddenly finished. I sat in disbelief for over 5 seconds, and then Kevin said he was hungry and wanted to get going. Since it is summer and we are a little safer from college students and their pedestrian-and-driving ways, we went downtown to eat dinner and take pictures of the wrap. Here are a few of those pictures. I have lived in State College all my life, so let's add in a little town history while we're at it.

The first picture was taken in at the side of the Tavern where they're doing some remodeling.





When I was a kid and went with my family, I always got the lasagna. I think that their recipe has not changed in 40 years. It is still terrific.

Next is the scarf on the famous State College Pig statue. You see, apparently 100 years ago in State College, pigs were allowed to roam free in the streets. (Now it is just college students who roam free in the streets.)

Then 100 years later, in 1996, we in State College decided to remember the free-range pigs and build a statue in homage. The mother pig was named "Centennia" by a committee of townspeople, who thought that the name was appropriate for the "centennial" of the town. The piglets were named "Ed" for the education that completely surrounds us here in State College, and "Hope," for the hope that we all have that we are going to finish the rest of our projects soon, so that we can start new ones.

That dear little Hope seems to be hiding under the scarf does not bode well.

Or is that Ed?

In any case, we will all start new projects.

Finally, those of you who live in State College will instantly recognize the mural. It is on a side street that has been beautified with Famous State College Important People that are Not You. Or at least they're not me.

Until today. Heh.

You may not know the back story of this particular section of the mural. It looks a little puzzling, I admit--but I can help you out because I am a native of State College, and therefore I know what's going on because of those important circles I'm always running around in.

Here is what is going on:

The couple on the left is kissing because they are so overjoyed that I am finished with the mini-wrap.

Then below to the right, the man has put a dog on his head so that the dog can see the wrap better. But the the wrap is at the wrong angle for the dog to see, so the dog is feeling rather distracted and looking the other way. That is the way dogs are, you know.
 

My Mother's Progress

 

My mother looks pretty normal, but I have a sneaking suspicion from all my years of knowing her that on the inside, she is just a teeny-tiny bit loco. For those of you who do not know, she is knitting a bed cover in strips using size 10 crochet cotton on size 2 needles.

She began the project about 3 years ago. With only a helmet liner in between, she has worked on this project steadily, taking only a few short breaks. When she was at full tilt, she knit on it 3 hours a day: an hour in the morning, an hour after lunch, and an hour in the evening. 

She has calculated how many stitches it is--almost 1.4 million. 

I have been asked many times how it is going. As of this month, the knitting part is finished.The cover is made of 15 strips, each with 20 diamonds. That was 300 diamonds to make.

 And the 15 strips are sewn together. Do you see the seam in between the cables?

 

After the bed cover was assembled, she washed it in the washing machine. (She told me that she never left the washer's side.) It was dried on a bed, not the dryer. Do not even think that it went in the dryer.

And now the only thing left is the fringe. The fringe is quite an undertaking. (If you don't believe me yet that she's crazy, you will soon.)

Mom worked on several versions of the fringe before choosing exactly how many strands it needed, how it was to be knotted, and how long it would be. The final contenders are below, and the winner is the longer one on the left.

She chose a book specifically for the size she wanted to wrap the fringe. (Or maybe for how you are supposed to feel about her bed cover.)

 

 

And she is making hundreds of pieces, each exactly the same length with exactly the same number of strands. She puts them in a box, tied loosely, so that she can just pluck them out to attach them. This is my Dad, plucking one of them to show you:

(I have a strong suspicion that he is particularly impressed with this undertaking.)

A fringe pile:

She bought a comb that had teeth with the proper spacing she needed to comb out the fringe as she made the loops:

And that is where she is. Cutting and combing.

Mom has promised me that when the bed cover is done, we can have a big party for her in the store. I suspect it will be in the fall. Look for the day and time in our newsletter. You are invited. But be warned that this will be one party with no food or beverages.