Shop Hop Weekend, April 2014

We have completed the Annual Shop Hop!  When our Local Yarn Shops started this event 8 years ago, there were only 7 or 8 shops, and Kate and I were able to make it to all the shops in a weekend.  Now it is 17! shops located all over the metro area, and it took us three days, but we made it to every shop.  This has become a great mother-daughter-granddaughter weekend.  Punkin' and LuLu made it out with us on Friday afternoon and Punkin' spent nine hours with us today.  What a trouper!

So, why would anyone travel around for three or four days to visit seventeen different yarn shops?  Good question.  First off, there are free patterns at every shop, with limited edition hand-dyed yarns for each pattern.  Then, there is the fun of seeing how different each shop can be. For the un-initiated, every shop has its own personality, and many sell a wide range of items.  Punkin' loves to go to Darn Knit Anyway in Stillwater and Lila and Claudine's in Mahtomedi.  No other shop has full sized knitted and stuffed humans hiding somewhere on the premises. Trust me, it is worth the trip!  And then there is the camaraderie of hundreds of knitters trekking from shop to shop, comparing yarns and patterns, and all and all having a blast.

For me, the best part is time with my daughter (and granddaughter), sharing our love of knitting.  Punkin' has a great sense of color, and I love turning to her to ask for advice on colors.  Not many can say that they trust a ten year old for fashion advice, but she is special.

So now, I will sit and look at all my new patterns, and then start to wind the yarns for yet another project.  Will I finish everything before next year?  Not a chance!  But every pattern and every skein of yarn will stir a warm feeling every time I pick them up.  Finished projects will be special, because they will evoke memories of a great weekend with Kate.  And that's what it is all about.

The Porch

When I brought my husband home after his knee replacement, I became his full time nurse along with all the stuff I normally do.  So, add to laundry and groceries and cooking and whatever, I also had bandages to change, meds to monitor, ice packs and water bottles to deliver.  And I crashed.  About day three my jaw hurt, my neck hurt, and I had my epiphany.  I hadn't picked up my knitting for three days.

I knit every day, all year long.  I knit socks and stuffed animals and sweaters and shawls and capes and scarves.  Knitting is my zen.  And knitting on my porch is the ultimate.  I ripped our little porch apart about twenty years ago.  Slowly I have added pieces of furniture - too much, if you ask Big Dave - but special pieces that bring comfort to me and our guests.  What I didn't add was insulation.  I wanted a summer porch.  Every October the doors close and my little piece of heaven takes its winter nap.  As winter comes to a close I look longingly through the glass doors, but I don't open them.  Not right away.  The timing has to be just right.  This weekend it was time.

I am sitting on my porch right now.  It has been a beautiful, warm day.  I had a great walk around the lake with an old friend, and then I came home and rearranged the furniture in my porch.  Then I sat down and started to knit, listening to the cardinals in the ash tree, the neighbor boys shooting hoops, friends across the street laughing.

Spring will come, the snow will melt, and I will watch it all as I sit on my porch - and knit.

Knee Surgery - Or - You Can't Keep a Stubborn Man Down

Last week my husband, to be known as Big Dave, had total knee replacement.  Right up to the surgery he was in total denial about how long he would be hospitalized, how much it might hurt, how hard it would be to do really mundane things, such as going up the stairs or getting in and out of the car.  Then reality hit.  He really does not like having less than complete control over his life and his limb.
I, the caregiver, was also in denial about how much fun this was NOT going to be.  During a meeting with colleagues yesterday I stopped in mid-sentence and said, "I am so sleep deprived!"  It is somewhat like having a newborn - when the baby sleeps, you better sleep also!

We had reached a bit of a truce until yesterday.  This was day seven after his surgery.  When the power went out at Big Dave's office, he had to go in to restart the servers.  I begrudgingly drove him over.  This is no small feat.  Help him out the door and down the steps, help him into the car, stow the walker, pull into the parking space and reverse the process.  I helped him into the building, carried his briefcase…  NO elevator, because of the power outage.  Apparently the UPS man had been stuck in it for an hour, and once they got him out they shut it down.  HMMM  The office is on the third floor.  My reaction is, ah, too bad, I guess we go home.  Big Dave heads for the steps, and walks up three flights with the aid of his walker.  I follow - grousing the entire way.

In the office, he went to work and I sat down to work a Sudoku puzzle - why didn't I bring my knitting?    The saving grace was when I looked up to watch him hustle from computer desk to server and back, pushing that walker across the carpet, mumbling…  For those of you old enough to remember, he looked like Arte Johnson on Laugh In.  Thank goodness for comic relief.

We reversed the routine, down the steps, out the door, walker, steps, car…  Only twenty minutes late to greet our dear friends, Pam and Terry, who had brought us dinner.  Thank goodness they knew where to find the wine and glasses, and had made themselves at home.  As Katie said, "at least you are a good hostess. :)"

He paid the price later when he had to double up on pain meds.  I thought maybe he had learned his lesson, but I just overheard him on the phone with his office manager.  Big Dave was offering to go over to the office again to fix yet another computer problem.  It is going to be a very long four weeks with him unable to drive.  You can bet that from now on the knitting bag is going to be ready to go along for the ride.

Therapeutic Knitting

Knitting is therapeutic.  We knit for fun, for gifts, for ourselves, and to occupy our hands, minds and hearts while something else is going on.  I have found that when a friend or family member is going thru something that I have no control over, I knit.  I have knitted prayer shawls, chemo hats, scarves & cowls for many.  Today, we sat and knit while my dad had knee replacement surgery.  I had two projects going and my mom had two as well.  Socks for my dad, we were both knitting mobius scarves (one orange and one in what we are calling mint chocolate) and and a cowl.  Oh, and my mom did the finishing on my last project (I'm not as good at the Kitchener stitch as she is).  The nice thing about knitting versus reading a book is that you can still have a great conversation with someone while you are knitting.  We talked to each other, we visited with others waiting, and had a nice visit from the minister at my parents church.  The orange scarf is done, the mint chocolate will be done soon (maybe during Karate), and the others will be worked on over the next few days for sure.  The great thing about today, is that when you are knitting you aren't worried about your loved one, time passes quickly and you have a little something to show for it in the end.  My dad will probably not be wearing the mint chocolate mobius that I'm knitting, but it was my therapy while he was "sleeping".

On Socks

SO, I really like to knit socks.  Katie tried socks once and said never again.  The first time I successfully turned a heel I was over the moon.  Last weekend we met up with our son's family in Chicago and I was knitting socks.  My two year old grandson was in love with the colorful yarn and kept unwinding it and remarking on how beautiful it was.  Now, when my kids were little, if they had begged for a pair of hand knit socks, the reply would have been something like, "Are you kidding?  Do you see how busy I am?"  But now I'm a grandma, and who can resist the big blue eyes of a grandson?  His question for me was "did I have any yarn with blue and green and yellow and orange?"  Since I sport a rather large (!) stash, I had no trouble finding the perfect yarn.  Those socks went off in the mail yesterday.

Knit Escape

We took a road trip to Stillwater today.  Word was that Darn Knit Anyway had some new Rasta.  Since this is one of our favorite yarns to knit with, we were off and running, or driving as the case may be.  Thanks to a quick mattress stitch finish on my new cowl (thanks mom), I was nice and warm on yet another bitterly cold day in MN.  Darn Knit did not disappoint, almost too many choices in Rasta, as well as a gorgeous turquoise in a new favorite bulky by Madelinetosh.

My mom and I spent the last two days talking of what we had been knitting over the past two weeks, and what we had to go thru to get yarn when we were in need.  Note to self, when traveling always have extra projects on hand as well as access to local yarn shops.  Note to husbands, you always want us to have yarn on hand. "Happy wife, happy life."

We are hoping that our new blog will be a place to tell stories, share our adventures, share our creations in knitting (and more), as well as connect with all those obsessive knitters out there.  We hope you enjoy our adventures.

Kate (daughter) & Jeanne (mom)