Easter Weekend

The daughter decided to stay at school and enjoy her friends.  “We never do much for Easter, Mom.”  I bought lamb and brussel sprouts and fizzy water for myself.  An Easter feast.  Contemplated a pie.  Planned for knitting group.  This morning, taking out the trash, I discovered the son’s car.  I yelled out his name a dozen times, so happy to see him.  He came in at 1 a.m. and Lucy didn’t give him away.  Grandparents invited us to lunch tomorrow, so early service then we’ll enjoy while everyone else is in church.  Those who don’t go to church will be watching the NCAA tournament, so lunch should be peaceful. I showed off my new hair at knitting group.  Oddly enough, I feel like I have hair now.  I can run my fingers through it, see it around my face when I look in the mirror.  The overgrown shoulder-length hair stayed in a ponytail.  I’m looking in the mirror more often now.  There’s no straightening, no fake color, just my hair, the way it should be.  “Authentic”, the younger folk would say.  I was so proud I took the photo of myself with my phone, then taught myself how to upload it to the computer.  Whoohoo!  I can do something my kids can’t do! 

Knitting group was good!  There was a nice, cozy core representation, and the fun of meeting Mary Z face to face.  Not to mention sourdough toast.  I’m adding inches to the back of the red mistake-rib cardigan, mulling over the possibility of making an eyelet yoke.  Probably won’t do the yoke thing.  I like the idea of the fronts and back cascading loosely with that mistake rib fanning out.  Now that I can make steady progress on the back, I should have the body ready for some photos in two days at most.   A_ made a great suggestion about the sleeves, kind of a short bell-shape.  I’m putting them together in my head as we speak. 

Yesterday I realized Camp Stitches in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is only two months away.  I went on a scramble to find airline tickets.  Who knew you couldn’t fly into Santa Fe?  I was momentarily panicked.  Whew.  We’ll land in Albuquerque.  Looks like there will be enough southwest stuff (read silver and turquoise) for sale in the airport to keep us busy until the shuttle comes.   Now I’m feeling the pressure.  I desperately want to be healthy for the trip.  Please, little B-cells, stay away.  It will be so close to the end of the supposed duration of this treatment.  I don’t want to be diving into a flare as I embark on this adventure.

It’s 9:28 p.m. EST.  I rented Gone Baby Gone and watched it.  Casey Affleck was phenomenal, but it will take eighty million hours of design tv to erase the dark feeling from that movie.  And some therapeutic knitting.

Peace.

I’m Going to Camp Stitches!!!!

So could you tell that I was just dying to spill the beans this morning?  I wrote my post with my mind totally on getting to Camp Stitches.  Registration opened this morning at 10 a.m. EST and I wanted to be first in line and I was a bad, bad girl because I did not trust anyone with this news except Dayna, who is always my partner in crime.  Camp Stitches is a fabulous knitting conference with world-class teachers and next May it will be in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I’ve never been and am so excited to visit.  The reason I was so hyped about this particular conference is that Debbie New is teaching.  And I’m registered in her class!  She is the author of Unexpected Knitting, a book that features her freeform knitting techniques.  Like every other skill, knitting is informed by your previous training and background as well as by any intuitive ability you might have in that area.  I come to knitting from a B.S. in biomedical engineering and many years of problem solving, and I can see the effect that has on my approach to knitting.  According to her bio in Unexpected Knitting, Debbie New “is a graduate in various fields of universities in Melbourne, Aus., London, Can., and Cambridge, U.K., and has enjoyed a number of interrupted careers:  microbiologist, teacher, symphony violinist, potter and an inventor in biomedical engineering…” who has turned her life to “knitting adventurously.”  I am completely in awe of her. This is not just something to anticipate, but an event for which to prepare.  I’m going to take out Unexpected Knitting and go through it again, this time working on more of the projects and studying more thoroughly. One source for the book is: http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0942018222/ref=cm_cr_pr_redirect Even if you don’t want to knit a single item, the concepts in this book and the beauty of her creations are going to draw you in.   You can see a slide show of her creations here:  http://www.lacismuseum.org/exhibit/debbie_new/  .Wow.