KnitCrit

Knippets for (K)November

November has been a month of finish-itis for the KnitCrit, but I suppose I am not alone as we knitters (and other crafters) prepare for the holiday season.  Other knitting and non-knitting related thoughts and experiences have occurred that I will share here, also.

• A couple of years ago, my tea swap partner Melissa sent a skein of Painted Skeins superwash sock yarn.  Today, the yarn is knit up in some simple socks to be given to my BFF for Christmas.
  
  
  
• At the Virginia Fiber Festival at Montpelier this year, I was introduced to the new colourways from Dalis at Dancing Leaf Farm's yarns.  The fingering weight Sock Hop is the perfect yarn for cowls. Cowls are my new favorite quick, lovely gift knits.  I finished one in the Wavy Feathers Wimple pattern           
  and cast on another using the Good Luck Cowl pattern. 

• Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I hope to also finish Katie's shawl.  It is Evelyn Clark's very popular Flower Basket Shawl. This is for my son's bride to wear at the rehearsal dinner on December 26th.
  
    

• Recently, I attended a memorial service for a former next-door neighbor who had been very instrumental in the development of a project called the Grandmother Project. Their mission is to utilize the strengths of a grandmother's leadership role in the family and therefore, the grandmother's ability to increase the health and well being of their grandchildren's generation.  I was touched by this project; particularly the extent to which it relates to the core of so many knitters' stories of how they learned to knit and what it means to them. Oh how much I wish I'd known about Don's involvement in this, but I intend to find out more about the organization and how I can volunteer.

• When the time changes and I can no longer run or ride my bike before or after work during the week, I turn to our basement.  There, we have an elliptical trainer, a home gym, a weight bench and a cycling fluid trainer.  I'm such an outdoor person that even with all of this equipment, I get bored quickly.  As I worked out on the cycling trainer this week, I realized that since I used my iPod Touch to listen to music, I could also login to Ravelry!  What a discovery!  Since then, twice again I have worked out on the trainer while perusing Ravelry.  It's a knitter's workout heaven!

• I leave you with a photo of the beautiful red/orange sunset on this lovely Thanksgiving evening on the Northern Neck of Virginia.
  
  

                            Happy Thanksgiving!

Empty

It has been a long time since I last posted on my blog. In recent weeks, there has been a lot of travel.  Three trips to the Asheville, NC area and one trip to Dana Point, CA.

First, Dana Point.  The organization that I work for has four fund raising balls each year that my husband and I attend; the last one in this beautiful coastal area of California.  The balls are formal Marine Corps extravaganzas since our mission is to provide scholarships to children of Marines.  My liberal politics aside, these are tear-jerk events. At this ball, there were additional tears shed because my boss, the CEO, was recently diagnosed with brain cancer.  The ball would be the last time that the senior staff and Chris would be together at such an event; a fact we did not know at the time since he had a major seizure three days after we returned.  Just prior to the trip, I had knit him a scarf and hat in "Marine gold," thinking that this winter it was extra important for him to stay warm.

Now, I'm not sure he will ever wear them...                 

Three trips to Asheville, NC.  What a beautiful area.  Near Asheville is where my teenage son entered a wilderness program about eight weeks ago.  The decision to send him was a long time coming and the matter is one that I have second thoughts about sharing here.  But, if my wonderful experience can somehow make a difference to another family who is trying to also make that very tough decision, then it is worth it.  (If that might be you or someone you know, please have them contact me.)  My guy's issues are from a diagnosis of ADHD with ODD.  It's the ODD - Oppositional Defiance Disorder - that made life around our home very hard. 

Last Monday, we met him at the edge of the woods as he exited his seven-week-long experience; during which time we only spoke to him once.  Despite having dirt from his head to toe and an overwhelming smell of smoke, I hugged him for a long time and told him over and over how much I love him.  From there, we spent the day in the mountains of NC - his environment - while he showed us the extraordinary skills he had learned.  These included: striking a fire without matches, in a couple of ways; building a trap for small catches (they did not actually catch small animals); cooking food with a minimal of supplies; setting up a group tarp; and doing a bear hang for our trash and food.  Yes, he set a group tarp, under which the three of us slept on Monday night, prior to the "graduation ceremony" on Tuesday.  Here are before and after pictures taken of him:
                                                                                                                                   
  

From there, we enrolled him in a small boarding school for boys. With him away at school, we are now "empty nesters," at least for the next year. 

Does that mean I will have more time to knit, podcast, ride my bike, read, work harder and do a variety of things that I have put off for a long time?  We'll see...