Like so many others I've had a bad case of Winter blues. I wish I could say, I have a bad case of Spring fever but we haven't had any weather that even remotely resembles Spring. There are hints that the gray and cold won't last forever, like the crocus and tulip bulbs that C and I planted last Fall, breaking through the hard dirt around our front porch and days getting longer. Spirit lifters.

Speaking of spirit lifters.
Here's my sister in the sweater I made for her:


This is a classic Cindi picture.
She had been coloring on the floor with her grandson Broody.
The picture was taken Saturday evening when the Clear Clan met at the nursing home where my Dad is, to celebrate my parents 56th wedding anniversary with pizza and an ice cream cake. (My Dad may have forgotten a lot of things but not his love for ice cream!) Dad knew everyone's' names and was able to tolerate the celebration commotion for longer than I thought he would be able to. Next day he didn't remember any of it. He's making us all remember that it's being present in the moment that counts.

Anyway, Sam looked great in her sweater and it made me happy she wore it to the family shindig.

If you read my blog regularly, you may remember that Amber did a three card Knitting Tarot reading for me earlier this year. After finishing the sweater and giving it to Cindi, I asked her to do another reading. (XOXO Amber! Thank You! You are the BEST!) If you're interested you can check it out here. Scroll down to "Ask the Knitting Tarot".

The reading gave me lots to think about, especially this:
Our knitter/querent says, in her own words, "what kind of energy has been created by her (the querent's sister) now 'holding' the other end of the 'thread'?" By tomorrow, or next week, or next month, when a relationship that has been troubled for many years is still not "all better", our knitter/querent may in fact feel what, in the most literal sense, is true: her sister now holds both ends of that thread. And now that the sweater is finished and given over to it's recipient, our querent/knitter may feel like a Stranded Knitter indeed.

Even though I wanted to be all esoteric about me deciding to finish the sweater and give it to my sister and think that the sweater would re-connect us; the truth is that I've been here before, a few other times in the past 8 years - thinking our relationship was on the mend, only to find out via other family members that it wasn't. That I had done (the ellusive) something to hurt her feelings or push her away. (This is where I think the Prince of Spindles comes into play.)

No hiding from the Eight of Gauge - I've done something to change the energy between us...the (yarn) ball is in her court.

The Ten of Skeins says: make the best of your bounty. If, now that the sweater is finished, our knitter/querent wants to splash out on some big new yarn purchases and prepare for a big new project, for herself or someone else, now would be a nice time to do it -- something exciting, distracting, a new page in the book.

I do have a new project on the needles and one in the planning/gathering materials stage.
More about that later this week.


BTW - Amber emailed me after seeing this post and wrote:
i love the photo of your sister -- am a little intrigued by the fact that
she seems to be wearing a shrunken head around her neck. what IS that?

That is one of my sister's doll creations. Sometimes she makes doll heads and puts 'em on a cord to wear as a necklace or hang whereever. This particular one was the head of a little old lady with glasses and wooly gray hair.

So Amber - good eyes! It really is a shrunken head 'round her neck. All I can say is that my mom, my sister, me...we're freaks for odd handmade things.

Finished.
8+ years as a UFO.

C as model:
        

This picture shows the cables really well:


I gave it to Sam (Cindi) Monday.
She cried. My mom cried.
I didn't cry. I just felt really, really happy.

Really. Happy.

Loser.
That's me.
With a capital "L".



The Goddess hits me every now and then with a dose of reality about myself.

It's a good thing really.

In all honesty I don't think it's low self-esteem even though I could be beating up on myself a little.
Mostly it's about learning to accept myself for who I really am.
A little public ridicule is part of the process.

So...what's this all about?

It's about me and the big ideas I get and my lack of follow through.

Latest example: The Knit Bloggers Thread Project.

I posted my intention to host this project on my blog and to the Knit Blog Yahoo Group.
There were 2 responses to my post. No response to my email to the Yahoo Group.
I choose to believe the lack of response was due to the large number of Good Works / Feel Good Projects that Knit Bloggers, Knit Blog Readers and Knitters are involved in.

The lack of response was disappointing yes - but it made me realize that I get excited about stuff and expect other people to get excited too. The realization is that I can only sustain my own enthusiasm for a short time without having it fed by other's enthusiasm. Next thing you know, a month has gone by and I haven't posted anything else about it. It's forgotten.

I had another experience with this shortly after I first started blogging. I started a Knit Blogger's Reading Group. It's was so exciting pulling it together and having other knitters be excited about it. But the energy it took to keep it going - Well, I guess I just don't have the drive or discipline, or maturity or the stick-to-it-ness it takes to see a project through.

So I'm working on accepting that I am not a project maintainer.
I wish I were. But I'm not. Not right now anyway.

I do *SO* admire those of you who are.

So for the sake of closure.
The Knit Blogger's Thread Project is no more
Karen - I'll send your thread back to you soon.

My goal in life is to be as good of a person as my dog already thinks I am. 
~Author Unknown

For some reason, knitting time has been in short supply lately.

I've been doing most of my knitting during my lunch hour at work. Now that I have my own cube, I've been eating lunch at my desk, then spending the rest the time with my feet propped up on a pulled out lower drawer, knitting quietly.

To prove that I've been making progress here's a picture...

.

..of me wearing my sister Sam's-very-close-to-being-done-birthday-gift-Sweater.
The last sleeve is about 1/3 done.

Sam's birthday is  Wednesday.
Even though I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow, I doubt the sleeve will done by Wednesday. Cherise and I will be spending the day assembling a new desk for Cherise and rearranging our home office.

A completed sweater ~aka~ Ready to Give Birthday Gift by Sunday?
That may be a reality.
...though I might have a hard time getting it away from Dot...



...she says merino wool is really nice and soft to lay on - especially when it's on Mommy's lap.

Speaking of Dot.
Friday evening Kristi, Sean and Corynna came to our house - Sean put together a desk for me.

Corynna kept busy by dressing Dot up in styrofoam packaging wrap:



Dot was not amused.


"If I sit pretty maybe the little gurl will leave me alone."



"Mom.
Please!
Quit taking pictures and get this stuff off of me!"




How pitiful is that face?

Poor thing...the indignities she endures.

The L Word's second season began Sunday night on Showtime.

I may get my card taken away for writing this, but I hated the first season. Bad writing, bad acting, bad, bad, bad. But C and I watched each episode 'cause it's a show about lesbians so we had to watch - right?

I'll need to see a couple more episodes but things seem to be looking up for season two. 

Disclaimer
It could be that I was smitten by the first episode only because yarn and needles appeared not once but TWICE during the episode. Seems that Alice had been given a "knitting" assignment for L.A. Magazine.

The first scene was Alice and Shane (Ummm. Shane.) at the Planet (hang-out/coffee shop). Alice is trying to knit. She seemed to be holding the needles correctly and it looked like she was actually making knit stitches; but she had the yarn wrapped so many times around one of her hands that it had to have serioulsly effected the circulation in her hand. 

The next yarn related scene was Alice making a "quiet" phone call to Dana (who is with the woman she is suppose to 'marry' but is having a little thing with Alice) from a Stitch 'n Bitch-ish setting. At the end of the scene there's a cute exchange between Alice and one of the other knitters about Alice's 'project'.

While searching for references Alice's L-Word knitting I was surprised to learn that knitting is an "aucourant lesbian fad" right up there with adopting Chinese babies, placing Craigslist ads, hanging in cafes with your laptop and shopping at Whole Foods.

Anyway...
In honor of Alice's knitting assignment
I scanned this postcard I picked up some time ago:

How 'bout Melissa Etheridge's perfermance with Joss Stone at Sunday night's Grammys?

I watched every entertainment show yesterday so I could get a hit of it again and again.

Brave and Crazy she is...Brave and Crazy.

 



Saturday night before bed I finished the hood, seamed seams and wove in ends. Grady's Cabled Hoodie is all done but for a smidge of blocking and buttons.

It's *so* sweet - makes me happy just to look at it's iddy-biddy goodness.

Grady's Cabled Hoodie
aka Robin Hood Jacket:


Sleeves: Done!

New on the needles this week:


Leg Warmers for Corynna.
Using the pattern from Debbie Bliss' Junior Knits.
The goal is to have the leg warmers done by Valentines Day. If not, then they will just be a fun mid-winter gift. Pink is *the* color for 7 year olds in the know - Thanks to Lizzie McGuire. The yarn is Colori from Elann's Sock It To Me Collection in color #29 Tiffany Roses.

Working with vibrant colors is soothing my winter beaten soul...

Add to the finished back shown last week - completed right and left fronts:



I'm about 1/2 done with the first sleeve.

And finally, a face to put with a project:


Meet Mr. Grady.

Mom brought him to visit work yesterday and C snapped this picture.

Looking at his beautiful little face makes me smile.