Old Friends

"Make new friends,
But keep the old.
One is silver
And the other's gold."

-Girl Scout Song

It's inventory week at the Sunflower Farm, so today we will revisit some of the projects begun last winter and shelved as the temperature rose.

No need to take notes. There will be no pop quizzes...

1) A. Nonny Moose
This one will make a great autumn scarf. Done up in a rustic worsted cotton blend and an easy pattern, in progressive colors to "fall" for, it goes to the top of the retro list. the yarn is Dusk by Filatura Di Crosa.

Anybody have a good name suggestion?

2) Durum
This one has actually been through test knit already. And it will make a terrific accent piece. I love the Malabrigo Silky Merino. I just need them to make more colors, so I can amass more goodies. None of this yarn in the stash sale!

Oh no - I just went to the website and they have new colors. Check out the Atardecer!
I'm doomed...

3) Sugar Snap
Ordinarily, I might hold this one till later. The color just screams "Spring!"

You can hear it too, right? Or am I the only yarn-whisperer here?

But I know lots of you are waiting on it. So up the queue she goes. The yarn is Fibre Co. Canopy: a luscious light blend of wool and bamboo that knits up like a dream. No tugging on your stitches. This yarn is really good for manipulation like cables and lace.

4) Diamond Girl
This one will probably move up the list by virtue of the fact that she is a beaded design that I can give to Ellen at Earthfaire, Connie at Pick Up Sticks, and the good people at Colorsong. So many of my beaded designs are exclusive to Knitty Noddy. Others are always in the hunt for more patterns. This little beauty is knit in Handmaiden's Silk Twist in Stardust.

5) Rouen
This first entry in the Cathedral Collection will definitely hit the market this winter. This series is a long term project. I am aiming for one release a year. All of these will be knit in the silky merino, which is tucked in all nice and dry in my seriously diminished stash cabinets.

If you want to read all about the series, go here.

These next two are cabled designs in Rowan organic wool, which evidently didn't do too well. I don't see it in this year's offerings. Too bad! This fibre is naturally dyed in such soft shades and the stitch definition is superb. Snap some up while you still can...

6) Horsetail

7) Anybody? Bueller? Bueller? Anybody?

hmm...maybe I SHOULD call it Bueller...

The last three designs are probably late winter/early spring projects. The colors are icy pastels to liven up all your charcoal grays when you feel like winter will never end...

8) Ziggle
done up in Blue Sky Alpaca Silk

9) Evening Violets
Another silky merino pattern.

And last but not least...

10) Eddies
A quiet lace pattern of watery ripples, done up in Canopy in the most intriguing shade of purplish, pinkish gray called river Dolphin.

I am exhibiting great self control here, people. This is one of my absolute favorite designs. Would love to knit all day and night and wear it next week...

Old friends...golden indeed...getting itchy fingers...time to knit...

Tomorrow: Recent Acquaintances.

Abundance

"Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance."
- John Petit-Senn

Sometimes, it only takes a sentence to improve our outlook on life. I think the one I quoted above is a doozy.

It is an interesting holiday season this year.

REVELATION BY TYPO ALERT: I accidentally typed holidazy. Actually, I think that is a pretty fair description. I just might have to keep using that...

Anyway, as I was saying...

This year:

As the no-longer-looming-but-already-painfully-here recession deepens and the sobering news is interspersed with cheerful advertising...

As my email box fills up with desperate emails entreating me to spend, spend, spend...

As my mail carrier groans with the added weight of all the glossy catalogs ordered by retailers in happier times...

As my desire to indulge my family wars with my fear of impending lay-offs...

I find myself, even more than usual, contemplating what it takes to make us happy.

I will confess to having barely started my Christmas shopping. I have looked, but not yet bought, as I watch my bank balance creep up into enough to fund a modest shopping trip.

Hey, you try earning your keep in increments of $8 or less! It takes a lot of pattern sales to buy a sweater...

So I electronically shuttle from PayPal to Online Banking to Old Navy to Fisher Price (now there's a company I haven't patronized for a l-o-o-o-o-n-g time!) to Gap to Williams Sonoma.

At least I don't have to find a parking place. And I can play MY music while I shop.

With a cat in my lap.

And a mug of hot coffee.

But, no matter how serene the surroundings, there is still a creative tension between want, need, the willingness to go into debt, and the ability to pay.

I think to myself, "There just isn't enough!"

And then I read a sentence like the one that leads off this post.

And I humbly beg forgiveness for my foolishness.

I am a knitter. I am a designer. I am a writer. I am a mother. I am a grandmother. I am a wife.

I am a seeker of truth, a child of God.

And I enjoy each and every one of these things. Together they add up to a magnificent abundance.

Sometimes, all it takes is a sentence...

*****

Here are some pictures of my knitting abundance, but first a word (Well, several actually; why use one when a dozen would suffice?) about those eight charts I spoke of yesterday.

I did eight charts, so you won't have to.

I was tired of knitting and ripping out rows. I was unhappy with the balance of the patterns in Rouen. So I charted the whole thing out, including repeats, reduced the size of the graphs and lined them up on the page so I could get an overall picture.

And it worked.


I have added the next element to the foundation of the border I shared with you yesterday:

A secondary border, with vertical ribbing and architectural details.


The color is very pretty; rather an opalescent gray, with bits of pink and blue. Appropriate, I think to a piece that was inspired by the incomparable Monet and his paintings of Rouen.

And now, I am ready to move onward and upward to the soaring heights my creative soul can reach. I have an abundance of enjoyable challenge waiting for my hand. God will provide.

It's a good thing.

Failure Is NOT an Option!

Rouen Cathedral

"The pursuit of peace resembles the building of a great cathedral. It is the work of a generation. In concept it requires a master-architect; in execution, the labors of many."
- Hubert Humphrey

I don't know about peace, but I have a whole new respect for those who built the great cathedrals.






Eight whopping charts









And one border later...












Have I bit off more than I can chew?



Naaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!





To quote Winston Churchill...

“We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire, Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.”

But I DO think I'll call it a design day and do some easy, relatively mindless knitting on Protopopov!

Now THAT is what I call an option...