Another Family Reunion

My husband's family this time, and a wonderful time it always is!

There were people from Indiana, Kansas, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan, and Florida.  There was a LOT of wonderful food, many hugs and kisses, countless stories told, and much love shared. 

Cousins Rose and David arrived at our home on Thursday and set up camp in our side yard.  We always look forward to their visit!

Some of us gathered at Uncle Ervin and Aunt Bonnie's on Friday night for pizza and to wait for the Kansas branch of the Mullets to arrive. 

The family met, as always when the reunion is held in Indiana, in Goshen on Saturday for lunch, and then we were honored, as we have been for the last three years, with an after-party of sorts at our home for playing, and talking, and eating, and mosquito-slapping and s'mores, and wading in the creek on Saturday evening. 

On Sunday evening we had an abridged repeat of Saturday's fun with another, smaller gathering at our house to clean up some leftovers, wander the marsh behind us, chat and laugh, and singing along with Three Dog Night in the kitchen.  

Only one lawn chair was killed in this year's adventure, and all frogs caught were soon released.  As always, there were far too many pictures to upload and far too many of you are not shown here, but it was so fine to see every one of you. You are all loved! 

Thank you, Marti, for sharing your photos.

There were 1:

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Two:

Three:

Four:

generations represented.

There was frog hunting:

and wading in the stream

and pizza

and a brand-new tattoo

  And Cousin Rita has found her signature pose.  

 

I am so lucky to have married into this family!

Time to Catch Up
August is nearly over, and I am behind.  I have enough blog posts to last a week, so will begin with a weekend with friends.

The Dan Barr Memorial Golf Outing
Ten years ago, our friend, Dan, convinced me that it was safe to ride a motorcycle. We had a couple of short rides with Dan & Peg, and one wonderful ten-day trip to the Outerbanks and back with them.  In July, 2003, Dan was killed on his bike when a driver made a left turn in front of him.
Every year since, in July, his family and friends hold a memorial golf outing, to commemorate a wonderful man and his life.  The proceeds raised provide college scholarships to graduating high school seniors in his town, first to the children of firefighters, policemen, EMTs and so on, and then to any young man or woman who graduates from Hubbard High School.  So far, there have been around SIXTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of scholarships given away. 
Every year but one, when I was ill and my sister was in her final weeks, Rich and I have gone to the outing. He golfs, I help with the chili dog table at the turn. We've watched Peggy & Dan's family and legacy grow with the years, and hope to be able to be there for many more years.
The following, in no particular order and with apologies to all who are not shown here, are some of my favorite faces in the world:

And then, we returned home, and found two more beautiful faces that we love:

And many very beautiful days.

It's Reunion Season!
For as long as I can remember, and in fact since many years before my birth in 1956, the third Sunday in July has been the day for the annual reunion of my father's side of my family.  We meet at around noon at a cottage that was built many years ago by my uncle and his brother-in-law at Marl Lake, near our home town of White Pigeon, Michigan, and sit down to eat at 1:00 pm.  My cousin Don and his family are often the first to arrive, and if you don't get there before Roger, you KNOW you are late! 
Traditionally, Uncle Bob would grill hot dogs, and Aunt Velma made her signature pork and beef BBQs.  Every family brought dishes to share, every woman had her specialties, and we all had our favorites.  Grandma usually baked raspberry pies and made cole slaw and chicken and noodles.  Aunt Evelyn was famous for her baked macaroni and cheese.  There were always a couple of pots of baked beans and two or three plates of deviled eggs, and plenty of wonderful desserts.
When I was a child and my father and his four brothers were all young, nearly everyone would go swimming in the lake at some point.  The lake is not great for swimming, with it's mucky bottom and cloudy grey color, but we never minded and we always had a splendid time.    
There was usually a pinochle or euchre game going, and at some point in the day, my uncle would take any of us who were interested on a pontoon-boat ride around the lake. Grandma would put on her big-brimmed straw hat and sit on a lawn chair on the boat.  I think she looked forward to the pontoon ride as much as we children did!
I believe that I have only missed two Lutz reunions in my entire life.  One was in 1974, when I was a newlywed, living in North Carolina and too poor to make the trip home, and one within the last few years when we were at the Dan Barr Memorial Golf Outing in Hubbard, Ohio on reunion weekend.  
I look forward to the reunion all year, to seeing my cousins and their children and grandchildren.  My grandparents, born in 1888 and 1890, have been gone since 1979 and 1975.  My father, their youngest son and now nearing the age of eighty-five, is the last of his generation. 
Some years we have a large turnout, and some years not so many show up.  Some never miss, and some never attend.  This was an average year, fifty-five of us in all.  The first cousins, my generation, range in age from nearly seventy-three years old down to around fifty. This year, there were at least four generations of my grandparents' descendants represented, with the youngest in attendance, my cousin Roger's newest grandson, only two weeks old.  My grandchildren spent nearly the entire time in the lake, taking just a short break to eat and to swing for a little while in the hammock, while their dinner settled.  They are pink from the sun and tired from their day, and they will sleep very well tonight.
We spent the day with people we know and love, trading stories, eating wonderful things, laughing and just enjoying the company of family.  We are so blessed!  Our next reunion will be the first weekend in August, with my husband's family.  That weekend we will have nieces, nephews, brothers and cousins camping at our house, and it will be splendid, although not so very good for my weight-loss diet.  :)  Happy Reunion Season!

Gallstones...
Yep, I've got 'em.  I'm pretty sturdy when it comes to physical pain, but that was a whole new level of hurt.  I will be seeing a surgeon Monday to see if I have to have my gall bladder removed.  I am oddly nervous about this.  I've only been hospitalized three times in my life: when I was born, when I had my tonsils out at fourteen, and almost thirty-two years ago when my son was born.  I don't care for this surgical prospect at all.

In other news, I have never been one to wish to live my life over and make changes.  That said, I've recently found myself wishing for myself the ability to go back about two years, maybe three, and freeze time at that point.  Rich hadn't yet had the accident on our beautiful yellow bike then, and my sister and two of my best friends were still with me.  There have been lots of things that have happened in my life since the summers of 2008 and 2009, and not nearly enough of them have been happy.  
I often think I should try to change myself in some very major ways.  I should try to be less trusting, less open, less giving.  I should be more skeptical, more reserved.  I wish that I could be stronger, smarter, more sophisticated.  I wish that I could learn to look askance at the things I'm told and not be so ready to simply accept people as they present themselves.  I should be realistic about my possibilities and prospects.  
I should stop writing my own fairy tale.
Fat chance.  

 

We're having a summer thunderstorm this evening, and I sat on the porch to watch it for awhile.  I used to write poetry, nothing good, but mine, and I haven't written any for many years.  As I sat there and enjoyed the little storm, the beginnings of this poem came to me as if poured into my brain:

Summer Poem for Missing Friends

Come, sit with me on this summer porch,
and watch the rain,
hear thunder boom and roll and gutters drip, drip, drip,
the skies awash to whisk away the evening heat.
We could speak of many things,
of spider's webs and dragonflies
and kites and shoes and motorcycles,
sip our sweet, sweat-beaded tea
the bits of ice dissolving into pools atop the glass.

The wooden bench-slats flex beneath our weight,
damp concrete floor cool underfoot. 
We'd loll and laugh and linger there,
our voices soft, our friendship strong,
a gentle breeze to tease my hair
and cool our heated flesh.

The smell of fresh-cut grass is good,
and, too, the scent of rain-soaked air
so clean, and light, and perfect. 
 
And how are you today, dear friend?
I've missed you so.
Will you please come and sit with me a bit?
I've saved a special place for you, right there.

It's been so long since you and I just sat, we two,
and spoke
and shared a glass.
I've missed you so.
I hope you're well, and have you changed?
I feel you, still, beside me here,
as if I could put out my hand
and take yours up within it.

There are such things that I would say
were I to have you here with me
to sit and watch this summer's rain
and hear the drip, drip, drip
of time too short and running fast.
I miss you so.
Come sit with me.

Rebecca Yoder 
Second Day of July, 2011

 

Nothing Says Summer Like

Kids & Watermelon!

 

Summer's Here!
Click on the title to hear James Taylor sing it...
It's been a month or so since I posted. My heart just hasn't been into much of anything lately. I've done some knitting, and I went on a trip to North Carolina on the motorcycle with my husband.  The grandkids are out of school for the summer.  One will be a first-grader in the fall, and another will be in Kindergarten.  Another may perhaps be in pre-school. 
The house is rarely quiet, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  My son and his family have lived with us since the first of March, and will be moving on by the end of this month, if all goes as we hope.  It's a different sort of thing, to have grown children move back home, but lots of folks are going through it these days.  On the one hand, we get lots of time with the grandchildren.  On the other hand, we have LOTS of time with the grandchildren... ; )  And then there are the additional issues connected to having offspring in the house after being empty nesters for awhile.  Those of you who know me well will know how that has gone...the rest of you don't need to be subjected to it. :D
First, the bike ride:

The First Annual Mysterious Swamp and Seafood Tour

 We lived in Swansboro, North Carolina the first two years of our marriage, while my husband served out his enlistment in the Marine Corps.  One of my friends from our motorcycle forum is a Navy captain who lives there now.  He had been asking us to come visit for some time and when he planned a gathering for our motorcycle forum, we decided the time was right to head South.  
The ride there was cold and wet.  We rode all one day in rain with temps hovering around 50 degrees.  Leaving after work on Wednesday, we rode to a point just south of New Castle, Indiana and stopped for the night, wet and tired.  The second day we made it as far as Asheville, North Carolina' before we saw sunshine and we finished our day in Hickory, NC.  The third day was sunny and hot, and we pulled into Swansboro in the late afternoon, showered and changed, and met our group for supper.  Our friend there had insisted that we stay in the apartment over his garage, and he and his wife were the most wonderful hosts!  The picture above shows the view from their back porch.  

 This is Main Street in Swansboro, mostly unchanged since we lived there in 1974-75, but slightly re-organized by various hurricanes and tropical storms.  The town has become somewhat 'touristy' in the interim, but looks much the same.  When we were in Swansboro in 2002, we tried to find the building that used to house Swansboro's tiny public library.  When we lived there, I would walk the three miles from our trailer park and three miles back, just to get books to read every week or two. On this trip we located it, across the street from the fire station.  It was a place that saved my sanity and introduced me to Hemingway and Fitzgerald when I was a young Marine's wife and far from home.

 This is a little slice of heaven called Yana's, and I highly recommend a visit if you ever get to town.  The restaurant is jam-packed with movie memorabilia, featuring Elvis Presly, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean.  They serve a freshly-made fruit fritter that is one of the best things I've ever eaten. I must admit to eating at least two of them while we were in town.... :D

 The "mysterious swamp" part of the tour was a joke between two of our forum friends...Polecat, this picture is for you. I'm so sorry you couldn't be there to see it in person!











While we stayed in Swansboro, we met up with a few other folks from the forum, rode, ate, had a marvelous tour of Camp LeJeune that was arranged and led by our host, rode and ate some more, and had a generally wonderful time.  We were lucky enough to meet up in Swansboro with a young Marine who had just returned from deployment overseas, and his wife, who is the daughter of friends in Hubbard, Ohio.  There were eleven states represented at the gathering, some people we'd met before, and a few we met for the first time.  It was a wonderful time, and we're so grateful to Bob for setting it all up!

The foothills of the Smokey Mountains

 We took leave from our friends on Sunday morning and headed for home in perfect riding weather, stopping for the night in Bristol, Tennessee.
The weather for our ride home was clear and hot.  We had to take cover and wait out some storms in Bristol, TN, and just south of the Ohio River in Kentucky, but otherwise had an uneventful time.  
We rode around 2,500 miles on this trip, and had such fun! 

How the Smokies got their name

A storm rolls in over Bristol

After the storm

Almost home again, in Indiana

Maybe I'll show what I've been knitting in my next post :)

Finished!

 

 

March Mystery Sock from the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry.  Pattern is Cadence by VeryBusyMonkey.  Lovely pattern, delivered in four parts on four consecutive Mondays.  Yarn is Opal and quite nice!

This is a reprise of an earlier post.  My husband thought it was too personal so I pulled it, but I decided that it is just too indicative of my friendship with Tom to take away, so here it is, back again, with a few edits.  Thank you all for your kind comments when it was posted the first time.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011
You cannot change the direction of the wind...only adjust your sails...
A dear friend said this to me some time back.  I am at a point where I cannot decide whether to furl my sails, hang on, and ride out the storm, or to put them all out and run away before the wind.
 
I lost another friend today.  In January of 1978, I got a job at Montgomery Ward in Elkhart, Indiana, where I worked in the paint department. My department manager there was a man named Tom.  We worked together there until July, 1979, when I left to take maternity leave for the birth of my son.  Here is the story of a friendship born amongst the paint cans and brushes.

Tom and I were the very best of friends from our first moments working together.  We had so many good times, it's hard for me to choose just a few to share here.  He visited me in the hospital when my son was born, and brought me an issue of Playgirl as a joke, as if that was anything I wanted to see while recovering from childbirth!  He and my husband became close, too, and our son thought of him as a family member.

We drank gallons and gallons of coffee over the years, smoked many cartons of cigarettes together...as a matter of fact, it was not until Tom moved away that I was able to quit. I could avoid smoking around anyone but him, as it was an integral part of our friendship.
We finished each other's sentences and read each other's thoughts.  I remember one workday conversation with Tom. He asked, "Did you watch Johnny Carson last night?"
"No, I went to bed early. Who was on?"
"Oh...you know... the guy with the mouth?"
"Don Rickles?"
"YEAH!" he replied, "THAT'S the one!"
There was another conversation where I guessed who "That guy who sings" was. = )

We called one another first, whenever there was good or bad news to be shared.  I told Tom that my pregnancy was confirmed before I told my husband.  Many times over the years I would find that he was weighing heavily on my mind or making appearances in my dreams, and would call him to find that he was in the midst of a health or personal crisis, and he did the same with me.

Tom was a hard-working man, and hated to take breaks for lunch...there really was no need, as in those days we could smoke on the sales floor at Ward's, so why bother taking a break? :D  At one point, I began insisting that he take a few minutes and go to lunch with me each day, so that he would not go hungry.  As we were walking to lunch one afternoon, he said, "You know I'm getting FAT, and it's all YOUR fault!"
I replied, "Ok, but if you're going to blame getting fat on me, I'm going to blame my getting fat on YOU!"
I was pregnant.
I told my husband about the conversation and we both laughed.  A few weeks later, we were having dinner with my parents, something was said about the baby, and my husband said, "It doesn't matter, it's Tom's, anyway..."
My mother was somewhat nonplussed, to say the least, and called later to make sure that I was not having another man's baby!

Tom was married for seventeen years to a wonderful woman. They had two sons and adopted a third, and divorced when we'd known him for two or three years..  Then, one evening, he sat down with us and told us that he was gay.  It was a difficult thing for him to do, and a difficult thing for us to hear.  He was a teenager during the 1950s, and that was not the best time to be gay, to say the least.   My heart aches for all the pain he had to endure before finally coming 'out'.
A short time later, he met Kenny, and the two of them have been together ever since, through heart attacks and cancer, hepatitis and jaundice, diabetes and giardia, and of course through many, many good times.  They moved to Florida a few years ago, leaving a terrible void in my life, but Tom always hated snow and cold, and Florida was perfect for him.  They are the very best example I can think of for life-partnership. Kenny will have a terrible time going on alone and I wish he was close enough for me to hug him.
Tom and his ex-wife stayed very close, and my heart goes out to her and their sons and grandchildren, as I know they are devastated today at this news.

I could not knit when talking to Tom.  He would get completely lost watching the movements of my hands, and would just trail off in the middle of a sentence, transfixed.  I soon learned to put my knitting away when he was with me, or to hide it beneath the table so that he could speak.
We rate movies by whether Tom could get through them without crying...he always wept unabashedly during movies.
He was fiercely opposed to wearing a seat belt, and I gave him no end of grief about that.  It worried me.
He had a hate-hate relationship with law enforcement officers and people in authority.  He once got stopped for having an unrestrained child riding in his car...the 'child' was his dog, Dougal.
He once was refused a job because of his apparent alcoholism...he wasn't an alcoholic, and rarely consumed any alcohol at all, he just had one of 'those' faces.
He and Kenny once lived in an apartment that was in a very bad neighborhood and they were robbed frequently.  He said he was just going to put a sign out that said, "Come in and take whatever you want, but please stop breaking down my back door!"
Tom once went to the grocery store for dog food, shampoo, and a pack of cigarettes.  He picked up the cigarettes as he entered the store, then picked up the shampoo, and when he came to the dog food, found he had no free hands so put the cigarettes in his shirt pocket.  Unfortunately, he forgot they were there, and left the store without paying for them.  He spent the night in jail for that one.  When the prosecuting attorney came in the next morning and heard what had happened, he was furious,  dismissed all charges, and sent Tom home.
Tom and I both loved MGs. He had an MGB and I had an MG Midget.  He loved our motorcycles, and always enjoyed seeing Rich and me ride.

There are so many stories...

Tom hated shopping, and holidays, and buying gifts, not because of any lack of generosity, but simply because he never thought he'd found the perfect gift, and it bothered him.  In no particular order, he loved art and nature and dogs and cats, technology, his kids, his ex-wife, his grandkids, Kenny, and everything the world had to offer. He loved me, too.  I am immeasurably better for his presence in my life.  I will miss him dreadfully.

June 18, 1939 - May 3, 2011  Rest well, my dear, dear friend.


www.itgetsbetter.org

...and we go forward...
Spring is here, cold, wet, leaden of sky, but here nonetheless.  We go on.

It's been a month of odd-ish socks.  These are pedi-socks, for keeping one's feet warm whilst one's toenails are being painted.  Pattern designed for a Ravelry group to which I belong.  Crystal Palace Panda Wool for the green (I don't usually use non-superwash for socks, but these won't get washed all that often) and Opal for the cream.  I like the lace pattern and will probably knit another pair from this pattern one day, with toes.

 These, and the following pair, were designed as a part of the "Pay-It-Forward" thing I did on Facebook earlier this year.  Opal, in a Uni-color red/brown, and in a speckled/striped yarn that was a test-skein I purchased from Soxie, the former sole importer/distributor of Opal yarns in the USA, a couple of years ago.  Test skeins are produced in limited numbers, and can be quite hard to come by, I've heard.
    

I alternated the two yarns: cast on in one color for each pair and worked the top ribbing, then switched to the other for cuffs, switched again for legs and feet.  I knit both pair at the same time on two circs, and had plenty to finish both pair, even with the longer turn-down cuff.
 The striped/speckled yarn pooled oddly, but I decided to just forge ahead rather than try to change that.  The pooling did change a bit on one of the socks, after a cat chewed off the yarn and I had to splice it back in. Geeze...I have never had cats that bothered my yarn before, and these two that belong to my son and his family are a real trial.

My friend Suzanne, in Texas, will receive the pair with dark feet, and the pair with light feet will be mine... sister socks, if you will, similar but very different. : )  She is going to name the pattern, as it was designed specifically for her.
The socks have a ruffled top, a pretty ribbed lace pattern from one of the Barbara Walker books for the legs and insteps, eye-of-partridge heel flaps and a Dutch heel.

 My tulips bloomed early this year, and with the cooler weather they are lasting a long time.  This is the second year since Robby, then just two years old, helped me plant them.

I have been told, "Every time you see a tulip, someone in The Netherlands is thinking of you."  I cannot imagine who that would be, now that my Dutch friend is gone, but it's a lovely thought all the same.

Serving Notice!

To all my friends: please know that I am expecting you all to live a long time, as I am planning to be very, very old when I die, and I do not want to outlive any more of you. It is just too painful. 

In other news, Rich will head off to the Tennessee Lunch Run this afternoon, for a weekend of good riding, food, and friends.  I wish with all my heart that I could have gone along, but had to miss the trip this year.  You all ride safely, and have a wonderful time!

I have several projects on the needles: three pair of socks nearing completion, one about half done, and one just begun as a test of a friend's new pattern.  After that, I have promised a pair to my oldest granddaughter.  Idle hands ARE the Devil's playthings, after all! ; )  (edited 4-26...geeze)

Day seven: 3rd April. Your knitting and crochet time.
Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

I knit anywhere, anytime.  I always have several projects on the needles, and carry two or three with me wherever I go.  I knit while watching tv, while waiting for my slow dialup Internet connection, while walking, while talking with friends, during slow times at work (but not often!), while riding down the road on the back of our motorcycle.  I knit while reading, if the pattern is a simple one.
I don't have any special items surrounding me while I knit, just whatever happens to be in the vicinity.  If there's food, that's ok, but I don't have to have it, and in fact find that I eat less while knitting.  
My favorite knitting bag has an adjustable strap that I can fasten around my waist or hang over my shoulder.  It is a Knit Knack Sack from Nancy's Knit Knacks, and I've had it for years. The bottom is becoming a bit frayed, but it's still sturdy.  It's almost always with me, usually within arm's length.  I've carried it with me on many car and motorcycle trips, and on airplanes to Atlanta, Georgia and to London, England.  I would have liked to carry it with me to The Netherlands one day, but since I got word last evening that my friend there has passed away, that is unlikely to happen now.
So here we are at Day seven, and the last day of Knit & Crochet Blog Week.  Thanks for the opportunity to share...it's been a busy and trying week, so I haven't had much chance to check out others' posts, but hope to do that as soon as things get a bit easier here.
 

Day six: 2nd April. Something to aspire to.
Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make but can admire the result of those that have.

 I would like to master the art of knitting toe-up socks with a traditional heel turn and heel flap, rather than the short-row heel.  I've tried short rows a couple of times, and never had much success with it.  In addition, I have farm-girl feet, with 'sturdy' ankles and very high insteps, and a short-row heel will almost always cause my socks to slip down into my shoes and bunch up at the ankles.

I am skipping the Day 5 subject. 

I missed my post yesterday.  A slow Internet connection in the morning, then an evening spent in a chat room with the daughter of a very ill friend kept me from it. Right now, my heart is very heavy because of the ill friend, but I'll try to catch up today.
  
Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now?
Whatever happened to your __________?
Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

I've knit a lot of things, mostly socks, for a lot of people who live in a lot of different places. 
Socks for the following:

• Meesh in NY state
• Woody in Wisconsin, who is on his second pair now, since he wore out the first ones

• A gi-normous pair that I sent to Rickey in Arkansas when it became obvious that they would be wayyyyyy too big for anyone else! 
• John in Louisiana, whose socks are known as "The Show Socks" because his wife won't let him wear them and they languish in a drawer (they're 'too nice to wear'), only brought out to show to visitors = )
• Jerry in Detroit
• Ralph in South Carolina
• Larry in Arizona, as a thank-you for the beautiful cutting boards he built as a housewarming gift for us
• Ms. Nina in Alabama
• Michelle, currently deployed with the U.S. Navy Reserves in Germany
• Ross and Joyce in Indiana
• Steve (Polecat) in Ohio
• Baby socks for our grandson in Michigan and friends' grandkids in Indiana and Texas
• Derek in New Jersey
• Dave in Indiana 
• Socks for the whole family of my friend Peggy, in Ohio...yes, I know there are lots more of you now, and you all need socks! = ) 
• Jeannie in South Haven, Michigan
• Lots and lots of socks for me, here in Michigan

Miscellaneous things:

• A hat for Rick in OK
• A hat for John in Louisiana (of 'Show Socks' fame) who was prevented from collecting it when his trip to visit us was sidelined by a Mardi Gras Parade Incident Resulting in An Injury... ;)
• Hats and mittens for our granddaughters and grandsons (socks, too!)
• Fingerless mitts for Linda in Ohio, my brother and his friend in Canada, and Michelle, with the Navy in Germany
• A hat, for Jeffrey in Indiana

The most difficult for me now is these: 

They were designed and knit for the ill friend who is mentioned above.  He is a very good man who has done so many wonderful things for this world.  I once called him a superhero, and he said I should knit him some Flashing Red Superhero Socks.  I even figured out how to make them flash!
Then he found out that he was ill, and I didn't think that I would be able to finish them for him in time, so I changed the design.  The lightning bolts that were intended to run down the legs were moved to the soles of the feet, and the name of the pattern name changed to 'Mourning Becomes Electric'.  I think that I will wear them myself, in his honor and, eventually, in his memory. 

Lightning Soles

The sun should hide its face with grief when he passes.

Day Three: 30th March. Tidy mind, tidy stitches.
How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins.

A few years ago, our lives changed rather drastically, and we bought a new-to-us house.  The renovation of, and addition to, that tiny old house are subjects for another blog entirely, but one of my favorite things about the new house is the Stash Closet my husband built for me.  It has adjustable pull-out shelves that go from floor to ceiling, and should surely have been enough room for the ever-growing stash.

...au contraire.  
The collection of fibery goodness had already outgrown the Wonderful Closet before I even began to organize and store it away.  Then my sister died, and I inherited her stash, too. 
<----here is a small part of that.



 

THEN my son, his wife, and their four small children moved in with us, and everything got hurriedly removed from the downstairs bedroom as part of the effort to make space for them...and stowed in what will one day become our dining room/my library.  

<-----  It looks like this now. : (  I can't even get to a fairly large heap of yarn that got shoved behind this mess...


In addition, I have baskets and bags of yarn and needles and WIPs and prospective WIPs everywhere in the house.  I usually have a project or two in the car, too, just in case.




So I guess that I am partially organized...although it's more like marginally-contained chaos.  = )

Chat-back from recent posts:
On my Time-Traveler's Wife thread:
"Sue said...I loved this book wept buckets at the end."
It is an especially poignant book for me. I have a dear friend who traveled a great deal for his work, and would pop into and out of our lives, much as Henry deTamble did, never naked, of course : ) but often tired, or ill, or cold, or discouraged at the nature of his job.  He would often be away for weeks at a time, sometimes with no contact with us.  I think of him often when I read this book.

PandaBearofDoom said...I haven't tried socks yet, but I can't wait to  
Love your user name! :)  Socks aren't hard at all. If you can knit and purl and do a couple of basic decreases, you can knit socks, and they're nearly-instant gratification.  I'd be glad to help you learn. 


josiekitten said...Well done you for writing your own sock patterns. That's something I'd like to have a go at too. You're right, knitting is great therapy. I always turn to my knitting at times of stress.
Writing patterns is not too difficult, either.  You just need to know basic sock construction and a few measurements, and you can do it! I can work with you to show you, if you like.  I get bored easily, and I have rarely knit the same pattern more than once.  I knit all my socks two-at-a-time on two circular needles to help prevent Second Sock Syndrome.  I have a whole pile of singletons around here somewhere that were knit as samples for my published patterns...I don't know if they'll ever meet their mates!
Working with yarn is the very best stress-reducer for me.  Even sorting through my stash, untangling snarls of yarn and winding balls will relax and center me.

 
AC said...I need to learn how to use up odds and ends! 
AC, a good friend taught me a wonderful way to make this work.  Sort your small balls of yarn by colors.  Since I knit 2 socks/2 circs, if the yarn is self-striping, I usually will try to divide it into two balls, making the stripes repeat the same way in both, if it's solid colored, I just work from both ends of the same ball. 
Use a simple, pretty lace pattern for your socks, and change balls of yarn every two to four pattern repeats.  You'll be amazed at how well they'll turn out.  This is how I knit socks for my granddaughters last December, using up small bits of yarn from my late sister's sock yarn stash.  Scroll down for that entry "Girly-girl socks" to see them.

katiemckinna said...Looks like you've done alot this year. Your blog tripped me out, because it looks almost identical to mine. It was confusing for a moment! :-)
Katie, I just looked at yours, and we've used the same Blogger template!  Love your 'Anatomy of a Sock', by the way. = )