Obsessions, I haz them

I have a few obsessions. They come and go; right now my knitting obsession is in the forefront. It never really goes away completely, but it had been dormant for awhile. I'm not sure what prompted the resurgence this time; it may have been seeing that Vera Bradley bag that would be just perfect for a knitting bag for small projects . . . It works that way sometimes. Something seemingly unrelated will set it off, and I'm back to stashing sock yarn, carrying my knitting with me everywhere, and saving scores of patterns to knit "someday."

I got a "Knitting Daily" email a couple of weeks ago advertising a new book, "5 Favorite Knitting Patterns for Babies and Kids." One of the patterns illustrated was Stephanie Japel's "Whirligig Shrug." I wasn't especially excited about the other patterns, but I definitely wanted that one, so I went on a hunt and found that I could buy a PDF download of that pattern only on Ravelry. So I bought it, downloaded it, went to Joann for cheap yarn, and started knitting it. I love the pattern. It's knit in one piece from the top down; I'm almost finished with the back, just a few more rows of seed stitch, then I will finish the sleeves.

I was showing the pattern to someone at work, and she said, "can you do that?" I said, "Sure." I'm not really afraid of anything as long as there is a pattern. Some things I don't particularly want to do, like lace, but I can. This shrug has raglan increases for shaping, a little cable, and a drapey seed stitch peplum. My plan is to make one for my 5 year old niece Abby, the tiniest size for her doll, and two for the new babies in the family, Avery and Addison. I figure if the one I'm making now is too large for Abby, she can grow into it, and if it's too small, Avery can grow into it, and I'll make another one for Abby. Win-win.

I'm not crazy about the apple green yarn, but it was the best color I could find at Joann in DK weight superwash. I've already ordered yarn for the two others . . . okay, four. Lavender, dusty rose, light teal, and denim blue. Obsessed.

Knitting Tools

This is my knitting bag, the "Holiday Tote" from Vera Bradley in Suzani. I bought it because I was looking for a smallish tote bag. My regular-size tote bags are too large to carry around all the time, and I tend to carry too much stuff when I have too large a bag. I had been using a transparent plastic zippered tote that is just the right size for a sock project, but I grew tired of it. This particular bag was only made in the Suzani pattern, so I didn't have to choose. Sometimes not having to choose is good.

I love Vera Bradley products, and I think part of it goes back to what I previously talked about in my sock knitting post, i.e., I don't wear much, if any, color, but I do like to have color in some of the accessories that I carry. Vera bags are colorful, very well made, they last a long time, and they're light. If they get dirty, they can be washed in the machine (although I never have), and they usually have a bunch of pockets inside and out. This one has two slip pockets inside. I would have liked to have a zipper pocket, too, but it isn't really necessary.

Inside the bag is a Vera Bradley small cosmetic bag in the brand new pattern Tutti Fruitti. This pattern isn't available in the VB stores yet, but it's one of their new baby product patterns coming next week. I absolutely fell in love with it when I saw it, and ordered the bag on Ebay from Singapore. The background is my favorite teal green, and it goes well with the tote bag's print, I think. I try to stay away from matching everything, but I do try to choose patterns in the same general color mix.

Inside the tote bag is my current sock project, my cosmetic/knitting tool bag, a small notepad, a purple pen, a pair of reading glasses, a tube of hand cream and a packet of tissues.



       

Inside the small bag is:

• Extra bamboo sock knitting needles, size US 1
  
• A tape measure
  
• Another pen
  
• Several 3x5 cards in case I want to make a note about something
  
• A small pair of scissors
  
• A needle sizer
  
• Several small steel crochet hooks for picking up dropped stitches
  
• A row counter
  
• A pill box full of tiny rubber bands and handmade (by me) stitch markers
  

Sock Yarn Snob

I was reading a food blog the other day, I think it was Fat Shadow's Diary of a Fat Foodie, where she said something like if you're going to eat something, you should eat the best of that thing that there is (paraphrasing, of course!). I've always felt like that about chocolate--if you're going to eat chocolate, it should be Godiva or something similar, because there really isn't a lot of point in eating something like Brach's. It's just calories at that point.

I feel the same way about yarn. I would probably be considered a "yarn snob" since I don't bother buying Red Heart or Sugar & Cream or any of the kinds of yarns that you will usually find at chain craft stores. I'm not prolific enough, frankly. If I was (and when I did) crocheting afghans, I would definitely buy inexpensive yarn, but I mostly only knit socks. Sock yarn, good sock yarn, is pretty expensive. My favorite is Opal, and depending on where you buy it, it runs around $20-$22 per skein, which for me, will make a pair of adult socks and a pair of children, or baby, socks.

In the past, what has generally happened is that when I'm feeling flush, I'll buy several (or more than several) skeins of expensive sock yarn, then feel guilty about it and sell them on eBay, which is what I did last year. But I've been severely regretting selling off a few skeins of some Fortissima yarn that I ordered online in a particular pattern line (regrets, I've had a few). As a result, I've spent a lot of time searching for it online, to no avail, until last week when I found someone who had a skein of the colorway that I most regretted selling. She's doing the auction in a weird way by posting three skeins of unrelated yarn with a bidding price of $16 which will get you the skein of your choice, or a "buy it now" price of $48, which will get you all three.

I don't want all three, I just want the one, so I placed a bid, and so far no one else has bid against me. The auction is over on Friday, so I'm hopeful that I'll win it, and it's looking like I will (fingers crossed). I've decided this time to collect a reasonable number of skeins of sock yarn, and then stop for awhile until I've knit it up. And I'm not going to sell it off this time.

Why I love sock knitting:

• The self patterning yarn. I have a short attention span, and find it almost impossible to knit something in a solid color. For whatever reason, the variegated yarn makes it more fun to knit, at least for me. I also think it's amazing that yarn can be created that makes a specified pattern when you knit it.
  
• Color. I don't wear a lot of color. Most of my clothes are black, white or gray. In sock knitting I can have all of the color I want, but I don't have to wear it, I just get to carry it around (and wear it if I want, but as a small (sock) amount.
  
• Portability. It's easy to carry around a small bag with a skein/ball of yarn and the tools needed to knit a sock. I keep a small knitting bag with my current sock project in it so I can grab it on the way out the door at any time. Even if I don't plan on stopping somewhere long enough to knit, I usually take it with me in case I get caught waiting somewhere.
  
• Usability. I don't wear my beautiful hand knitted socks every day, or even every day in the winter, but I do wear them. Bob says sock knitting is my apocalypse skill, i.e., when the world ends, or the zombie apocalypse happens, at least our feet will be warm.
  
• Pattern retention/memorization. I can now knit a sock that will fit me without following a pattern. I only knit plain socks, i.e., no cables or lace or anything like that, since the self-striping yarn takes care of the pattern. So I can knit while watching television, or talking, and I don't have to concentrate on a pattern. The heel is the only fiddly part, so I do need to concentrate on that, but for the most part, it's just knitting.
  
• Sanity. Bob says knitting keeps me sane. I'm not sure about that, but I do know that it helps. It's interesting--knitting both gives me time to think, and keeps my mind off things. I'm not sure how that works, but apparently knitting uses enough of my brain power that I have a hard time worrying about things when I do it, but it also seems to smooth things out so that I can think things through while I'm knitting. I think it's something to do with what I'm knitting, i.e., it's simple enough that I don't have to constantly refer to a pattern, but it does take some concentration since I'm knitting with such small needles, and in the round.
  
• Pride. I'm pretty proud of myself for teaching myself to knit socks. I always thought that I could never do it, that I had no interest in knitting with tiny sock needles, but once I saw my first skein of self-patterning yarn, I couldn't resist trying. The heel in my first sock was pretty daunting, but I soldiered through it, and now it's a piece of cake. I'm proud of that.
  

The sock yarn in the picture is, from top left, clockwise:

Regia Sockenmonster 01804 (50g skein)
Opal Sweet and Spicy 6756, Plum (100g skein)
Regia Sockenmonster 01804 (second 50g skein)
 Opal Sweet and Spicy 6750, Ice Cream (100g skein)
Fortissima Mexiko Fairy Tale World 0077, Heinzelmannchen (House Gnome) (100g skein)
Opal Schafpate IV 5847 (100g skein)
Kertzer On Your Toes 3816 (100g skein)

---

There are new reviews on my What I'm Reading page.

Reading

I've been reading Yoga Journal Magazine and a new-to-me one, "Spirituality & Health," and trying to get back into that space where I feel calm, centered, and in charge, because right now I don't feel like I'm in charge at all. I'm struggling, and feel like I'm searching for something that is out of my reach, and I can't quite focus on what it is.

I've been writing down affirmations and goals, and journaling, and things felt better for a couple of weeks, but I'm down again. I probably need to have my meds adjusted. :)

The current issue of Spirituality & Health contains an interview with Anne Lamott, who I adore.

I don't buy a lot of magazines anymore, but I do have several subscriptions (Yoga Journal, Spirituality & Health, Whole Living, and More) through the Zinio iPad app, plus a few single issues of knitting magazines. I also have a subscription to Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine through Amazon. I have stopped all of my paper magazine subscriptions, and I don't think I've bought one actual (paper) book since I started reading on the Kindle (which I have since sold to my sister) or the iPadi/Phone.

I was reading on my iPad in bed last night, and Bob came in and asked me, "what mystery are you reading?" I guess he thinks I always read mysteries, and that probably is my genre of choice, although lately it's more urban fantasy than anything else. I said it was about vampires, and he said, "oh, that's a great thing to be reading about when you're getting ready to go to sleep." I said, no, it wasn't that kind of vampires.

I'm reading Bad to the Bone, the second in Jeri Smith-Ready's "WVMP" series. It's about a radio station (Bob: "Vampire DJ's?" Me: "Yes.") where the vampires work; this this world vampires are basically stuck in the decade where they lived/died, i.e., there is one from th3 40's, one from the 50's, etc., up to an indie/grunge DJ who died in the 90's and plays a lot of Kurt Cobain.

I was thinking this morning that although I read all the time, Bob and I don't really talk about it. I remember a few days ago, something came up about time travel. I don't remember what we were talking about, but I brought up the Company books by Kage Baker, where you can go back in time, but not forward. So the time travelers are cyborgs that are sent back in time, sometimes as far back as caveman days, and then "live forward."

Other time travel books I like are by Connie Willis, one of my favorite authors. She writes about a group of university historians in England who travel back to study various historical events such as the Black Plague (Doomsday Book) or the Second World War (Black Out and All Clear). I don't read much (any) historical fiction, but I like hers. Right now I'm listening to the audio book version of Shadow of Night, the second in the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness (the first one was A Discovery of Witches. Frankly, I'm struggling through it a little bit, and the only reason I'm listening to it, really, is that I listened to the first one and hated to just give up on it. Each of the books' audio is 24 hours long, and it seemed to take months to listen to the first one. I think I'm about a third of the way through the second one, and have paused for a little while.

I'm currently listening to Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch, also the second in a series ("Peter Grant"), this one about a London constable who discovers that he has some latent talents and is recruited to join a secret arm of Scotland Yard that deals with magical crimes. These books aren't exactly "light," but I love the narrator (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) and already read the ebook versions. I like listening to the audio of books that I have read because I pick up a lot of details that I missed when I read them. I don't like to listen too soon after I've read them, but a few months gives me enough space that I'm still a little bit surprised.

Back to my roots

Collection of charms:
4-way Catholic religious medal (Sacred Heart, Saint Joseph, Mary, Saint Christopher)
St. Christopher medal
Chinese kanji "Happiness"
Walt Disney World 20th Anniversary medal
Namasté
"Love" circlet
Small silver heart
Sea Turtle
Epcot charm
Mickey Mouse Epcot charm
Clamshell


I don't remember where they all came from, but most of them are from Florida. I tried to buy a new charm every time we went there. The Epcot, Mickey Mouse and Disney World charms came from Disney World (of course). The seashell and (I think) the sea turtle are from a silver shop in Sarasota, Florida, which didn't exist anymore the last time we were there. I think the Chinese "Happiness" charm was from the China pavilion at Disney World. Today I added a fairly large rutilated quartz crystal (clear quartz with needle-like rutile, a reddish titanium dioxide, embedded in it). The rest of them are just things that I found either at jewelry supply stores or ordered online. But things (words and thoughts) that are meaningful to me.

This year I am making a conscious effort to try to keep the things I love around me, to do those things that bring me happiness and contentment. I'm reading more about feng shui and world religions, writing affirmations, working on my vision boards, and writing in a journal. I'm bookmarking blogs that I want to keep up with, and saving quotations that are meaningful to me. One of the things that I used to do, but haven't done lately, is wear my crystals and charms. I got them all out last weekend and put together a collection that I've been wearing the last few days.

Other things I love that I want to do more of, have more of, be more conscious of:

• Writing by hand in journals
  
• Trying different kinds of teas
  
• Spending contemplative time knitting
  
• Writing affirmations
  
• Looking for iPad and iPhone apps that contribute to my renewed focus
  
• Look for and visit shops that stock the kinds of things I love
  
• Work more with the tarot
  
• Spend some time every day reading
  
• Try out a iPhone alarm clock app that wakes me up with windchimes or singing bowls instead of a distressing alarm
  
• Re-start a yoga practice (I bought a Groupon for yoga classes near my home, but haven't signed up yet)
  
• Re-subscribe to Yoga Journal (I did this)
  
• Work in the yard this spring and summer, and plant herbs and flowers
  

It feels kind of like going back to my "roots," concentrating on things that are more my core interests, and trying to sustain that focus. I guess I'm trying to define my life's purpose. Kind of late, but it feels important to me.