Pulitzer Prize, Or Knitting in Style

Some days I am very lucky, Saturday was one of those very lucky days.  I had the good fortune to spend my day doing what I wanted to do, which was going to a knit in at the Pulitzer Museum.  Saturday was cold, but the sun came out and made me want to spend sometime walking around the Grand Center taking photos before the knit in.  There was an old roofless church still standing despite its lack of amenities. No windows, no floor, no roof, but still standing waiting for parishioners to come along and make it whole again. Around the corner from the church I was surprised to find Sitting Bull staring back at me.

 The cold eventually drove me into the Grand Center, City Diner. I took a seat at the counter and enjoyed a good meal and very cool restaurant. I have been a long time patron of the City Diner so to experience my usual Ruben in a totally different location was a treat. Sitting at the counter had the added bonus of being in the thick of all the activity.

After a brisk walk through the theatre crowd going to the matinee of "Spamalot" I headed to the Pulitzer. I have never been to this museum before and I thought going to a knit in there was the perfect introduction to the place. I was one of the first to arrive and the staff kept asking me if I was a "Knitter," like I was some sort of exotic creature. Of course I brashly said, "Yes, you can tell because I have two bags." After wandering past a very long bank of shelves with hundreds of paper mache hands on its multiple cubbies, I picked a location and began knitting.



I was soon joined by an interesting knitter and spinner named Pam.  She was very smart and was making a hat for her husband out of her own handspun yarn.  Later we were joined by her friend, Sarah who was very vivacious and then some of my own knit night buddies, Eva and Mike.  I was there about two and half hours, knitting, talking, meeting people, checking out other peoples' projects, and just enjoying the hell out the event.  I love knit ins.  Everyone is eager to show off their projects and talk yarn.  I just wish we had more events like this one. 

I felt so invigorate (and it wasn't just the cold) by my day.  I felt lucky.  Lucky to have the day off from work, lucky to know how to knit, and lucky to always meet such amazing knitters.  In other words rresolution still going strong. 

Lucky in Love

So my resolution to be luckier in 2011 is off to a great start.  I got to spend the beginning  of the year with one of my favorite godsons (OK my only godson), Jase, up from Florida.  Jase is such an amazing godson, he is a world traveler full of love and energy.  His passion for life is infectious and I always feel so alive when he is around.  I have watched him grow from an energetic young adult to a compassion man out to make a difference in his life and the lives of those he touches.  I always get excited when I get the opportunity to spend time with him. 

This trip we ate at some of our favorite restaurants.  We shopped, bar-hopped, saw the city, and just enjoyed the comfort of spending time with someone you truly love.  I talked about how difficult 2010 was and about the loss of my father.  I was surprised by how patiently he listened, and how I kept my tears to a minimum.  He talked about his job and his new passion for marathon running.  We shared pieces of ourselves without fear of judgement or disdain.  I needed that and I hope he did too.

Today we left our beautiful boy, now a man, at the airport this evening.  I felt a little twinge, not knowing when we will see each other again.  However, I feel lucky for having been given the gift of these last few days with Jase and Natalie.  Resolutely, I remain lucky.

New Years Resolution

I know I have been a bad blogger this last month.  It has been a tough month.  This first set of holidays without my dad has been so very painful.  I just miss him so much.  My goal has been to survive this holiday season, and so far so good.  With this in mind last night I laid in bed (staring at the ceiling like always) and thought about my new year resolution.  I thought about all the things I wanted to improve about myself, all the things I wanted to do, and where I want to be at this time next year.  I came up with only one possible resolution that fit the bill.  My resolution for 2011 is:  To be luckier in the next year.  I already feel like I am working to achieve my goals, luck is just oozing from my pores.  I promise to update you on all the good luck I am going to have in the next year!!!

Much Sorriness, or Elvis sighted on my Blog

I am so sorry I have not blogged lately.  I find myself having the proverbial blue Christmas.  I am hoping after the new year things will improve.  So I thought why not really go for the seasonal pity party song, sung by the King of pity parties himself.  (This video is actually exceptional in video quality and Elvis croons out the ballad with much heart and soul)..

Did I mention I like scarves?

I have been working on a pattern, yes I am designing a pattern.  I got a little bogged down in the process and had to put it down to clear my mind.  I cast around and with a little stash diving and a wonderful new knitting book I found just the thing.  If you remember I went to the Midwest Fiberfest last summer ( http://tempestinapot.blogspot.com/2010/07/midwest-fiber-folk-art-fair.html ).  I bought some crazy thick and thin merino yarn from some sweet ladies hailing from Minnesota. It was in fact taking a lot of space up in my pie safe o' yarn.  I knew from fairly early on I wanted to make a scarf out of the yarn.

Flash forward to my new book. Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant.  The book is brilliant, packed with patterns for gloves, bags, scarves, shawls, lamp shades, and of course socks.  There is a Noro scarf that I am so going to knit.  Anyway, the "19th-Century Honeycomb Stitch Scarf" caused my little felted heart to go pitter-pat.  It was exactly the pattern I wanted for my thick and thin yarn.

My first cast on was on 9 straight needles and it was just to tight.  I frogged my first attempt and pulled out the big guns, a set of 11s.  I also decreased the cast on by 7 stitches.  In four short nights I had a new, wildly garish scarf.  I am in love with the silly thing.  Trust me you can't miss me flying my new green scarf, I love scarves.

Smitten by Fingerless Mitts

One mitt from each of Bob and Greg's pair

I learned to knit because I wanted to make myself a pair of fingerless mitts.  I bought the yarn and the pattern for the mitts, but I have yet to actually use that yarn to make those mitts.  However, I have knitted lots of fingerless mitts over the last three years. 

My beautiful wife modeling Barb's pair

This year our household has been the fingerless mitts knitting factory.  Using a pattern from a ballband of Artful Yarns I have made five pairs that I have given away.  My wife however is dropping pairs off her needles, like leaves from a tree.

Mom's Pair

She has tweaked the pattern and worked it into her own.  She actually gave me pointers on how to attach the gusset to the rest of the mitt.  Yesterday I nearly tripped over a big bag of mitts in her living room.  Sometimes it is good to share a home with another knitter.

Kim's Pair

The Letter

Dear Friends,

My fortune cookie tonight read, "You have a charming way with words.  Write a letter this week."  The advice of a cookie seemed like a reason to write a small missive to you.  I feel cookies don't lie.  I say that to you and then I remember that I did have a cookie lie to me once.

A sad tale of losing cookie confidence that has marked me as a person who will in fact spit out a cookie in front of a room full of people.  So let me begin with once upon a knit night I showed up at my usual tardy, last half hour.  Now the women and men I knit with are some awesome bakers.  If I see a plastic container on a table with napkins, I know goodness is to be had.  On the table was just such a container and some of the most perfect looking snicker doodles I have ever seen.  My inner cookie monster was about to put her face into the container and eat some cookies.  I waited, was polite, and took only one.  Cookie conversation swirled around me as a generous bite settled on my tongue.

Okay, there is something you should know, I really don't like most tropical fruits.  The most heinous of the bunch is bananas followed closely by pineapples.  I don't even like the smell of either of those fruits.  It may be a character flaw, but I will not deny my abhorrence of these things.  This truth revealed, I sat there with a mouth full of pineapple flavored cookie growing in my mouth.  Talking around the cookie, I asked the room, "Whaa kinda cooookie is this?"

"Pineapple cake batter," the proud baker said.

The group must have registered the complete look of disgust on my face, because a chorus of, "Just spit it out." went around the room. 

I felt bad,  but I just could not bring myself to swallow.  With a mumbled "Esqoose me," I spit the cookie into the napkin and ran from the room to get a drink of something to wash the horrid taste of pineapple out of my mouth.

The moral of this story is always ask before biting into any cookie, pineapple cake batter could be hidden in even the most delicious looking morsel.  The moral could also be forget the fortune, this letter is not charming. Or maybe the moral is skip the fortune and stick with the lottery numbers on the back (2 7 22 33 46 47).

Sincerely,

Tempesttea