Fiber Fool

I know I’ve showed you this photo several times. I have a really good reason for pulling it out today. One better than “it is flipping hot out and I need to remember the cold of a Minnesota winter.”

You see, today, back at the farm, they are holding a dairy liquidation auction. For a while there will still be heifers on the farm, but all milking cows and those due to calf in the next 90 days are going up on the auction block. All the fancy milking equipment that went into a new barn that was built while I was away at college is is going too.

I can only imagine what emotions my sister is going through. She was always more active with the dairy than I was. She took pictures of the very first milking in the new barn and today is taking pictures of the last. She milked in it herself many years. I never did much more than occasionally feed calves for ten cents a piece.

But I have to say, today is a lot harder than I imagined it would be — and I’m not even there to witness it! Perhaps that is making it worse. I can’t say for sure.

Regardless, today is a rough day for all of my family I am certain. If you have a spare moment and some positive energy to send our way, I’m pretty sure we could all use it.

I should have known better than to think I’d blog two days in a row right now :-/ To say it is crazy around here is an understatement. I’ve made fantastic forward progress, but am afraid I won’t quite make the deadline. At least not with all three things. Even with many a night working to the wee hours of the morning. But, I’m happy to report that with the aid of ibuprofen and the new exercise and diet regimen that I’m making it through with much fewer ill effects than in the past. Yay!

It did occur to me this past week that I never did officially share with you the project that I showed off little peeks at in February. It hit the newstands just as I was getting ready for my Minnesota trip. I had planned to auto post about it while I was away, but time slipped away and I never got the post pulled together.

The fiber I was working with was BFL from Lisa Souza Dyeworks in the colorway Earth Birth and natural BFL from Louet. Both were spun into sport weight yarns and then knit together to make up my latest sock pattern, Annukka. That pattern can be found in Interweave Press Knit & Spin, 2011 special edition magazine.

I was inspired by the bold designs of a Finnish graphic designer who resides in the UK, Sanna Annukka. You may have already seen her work before as she did the album art for one of Keane’s releases and she recently redid the packaging for a famous Finnish candy called Marianne. It is this artist that I named these socks after.

These are a somewhat challenging sock to knit. If you look closely at the cuff and heel flap of the inside out sock above you’ll notice that there is a combination of flat colorwork married with intarsia in those areas. It is a limited area so does not require a multitude of patience, but some will be needed when embarking on this project. But the results - totally worth the extra effort, right? I can’t get enough of that cable cuff. It has so much impact!

I took a queue from Masala and carried the colorwork through to the very end of the toe on these. I love the modified wedge toe and the graphic impact you can have with a vertical fair isle pattern like this.

My copy of the magazine arrived just days before I left for Minnesota. I brought it with me for plane reading (and to show it off to my grandmother). Imagine my surprise though when I saw that all the photographs except the modeled shot were my own!?!? My photography has been printed in the past, but never in this kind of quantity so this article was especially exciting.

I admitted defeat tonight without quite reaching my goal for the day. I’m probably only about a hour behind on it. But the body and the brain are demanding rest so I should sign off for now rather than babbling on here. I won’t make any predictions on when I’ll pop back in this time since I never seem to get it right, LOL!

Keep sending me your wonderful mojo for fast, efficient and error free knitting (as well as writing and drawing schematics)! It is working wonders so far! And so I can live vicariously through you, what did you do to enjoy your weekend?

I returned home from my two weeks in Minnesota at the family farm. It was a rainy and gray two weeks which I didn’t mind too much except when it was raining when I needed to walk between my sister’s place and mom & dad’s. It made it easier to keep my eye on my deadlines which are fast approaching. There were no distractions to have a photography field trip with my sister. Though we did take a Sunday afternoon to grab portraits of each other which I’ll likely share snippets of now again.

It was a good trip and nice to be largely away from the distractions that are so easily found online. My days were mostly dedicated to knitting, eating well and exercising. I even attended a yoga class with *both* my mom and dad. It wasn’t nearly as awkward as I expected it to be. It probably helped that it was my fourth class of the trip before we added dad to the mix. I totally fell in love with The Yoga Loft in Willmar and with its owner, Mary Beth. If you are in the Willmar, Spicer or New London area I highly recommend them. I took a Hip Opener class and a Yin Yoga class each week, both of which I found very beneficial to both my body and my mind. I also attended a Zumba class with my sister and another yoga class at the Y with my mom.

I’m now lusting after more yoga props. Mom did get me two long straps that we used in both classes as a birthday gift, but I’d like a bolster and a few book and DVD titles are speaking to me. I’m testing some meditation timers for my iPhone too. I could use some music for when I do not use a DVD. If you have yoga favorites (props, music, books, DVDs etc.) or are local and have some insight on the various studios and teachers around town I’d love your input!

Overall the trip was much like my own personal artist’s retreat, only with the comfort and familiarity of my old bedroom, LOL! It was also an ego booster. While my mom has lost 175 pounds and my sister crossed the 60 pound mark, I’m taking up the rear in terms of weight loss. I did discovered I was 25 pounds lighter than my last trip home, which is something to celebrate. Several people noted my improved complexion now that I’m making my own products and even got a “wow, you are looking so good for your age.” I discovered I can shop in a lot more stores now (which I wouldn’t have guessed if I hadn’t been encouraged to try stuff on). Before I left I tried on every summer weight bottom in the house and discovered only a few fit well. Only one fits ideally now. The rest are bigger! Fortunately I got to shop in both my mom and sister’s closets and sent two rather heavy boxes home. Some of the stuff doesn’t quite fit yet, but I got my butt and hips into several sizes I hadn’t even let myself dream of and realized they are not that far from fitting. My favorite jeans right now were passed down to my sister from a co-worker! That makes me their third owner! It is kind of nice to not only have some new to me clothes to wear, but nice to know that they are not yet destined for the landfill.

Though I am back, my work is not yet done. I’ve been averaging over 6300 stitches knit each day since my return and will need to continue this pace as long as I possibly can. I’m working hard to not fall into a trap of poor self-care, despite the ever closer deadlines. That is a huge struggle for me. I always want to push on at unrealistic speeds until my mind and body collapse. I’m working out a few times a week at the gym (did I mention I’m actually doing some interval training that has me running for short spurts?) and continuing with yoga at home. I’ll be trying out a class at one of the many studios in town today geared specifically to the neck & shoulders. I’m hopeful it will help me maintain the knitting and computing pace I need right now.

I will likely continue to be fairly absent around blogland and the various social media locales you often find me in less stressful times. I do check in once and while as a break, but am rarely taking time to comment. I’ll likely try to keep up with 10 on Tuesdays if I can and that will be the only pressure I put on myself in terms of blogging for the moment.

And one last thing… Thank you to everyone who sent positive energy and well wishes to my grandpa and our family last Tuesday as he underwent his second knee replacement of 2011. We are all thankful! The procedure went smoothly and he was released on Friday afternoon. He has his first PT appointment today and I’m sure he’ll do a bang up job as he is highly motivated to get back out on the golf course as soon as he can.