Ranting Knitter

The time has come for me to move on. 

For some time, I have been  how to go about moving on.  I realize the best way, is to just do it.  The right time is always now.

There are a few other projects that have fallen into my lap.  These projects are going to require more of my attention and patience.  I am eager to pursue them.

Beginning something new is exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Alas, I am ready.

I have had a blast  meeting my fans.  You are awesome.  I will still be floating around on the web.  Don’t forget to friend me on Ravelry!

Stay true.

Do not forget about Earth Hour tonight!

I’m a devout believer (and follower) in human rights.  Human rights - there’s not much for discrimination here.  You get my point.

Here’s some good news pertaining to gay human rights.

Love is love.

Image credit found here

A project I have been working on: a knitted poncho.  This one is for my mom.  I had wanted it to be finished by Christmas.  No go on that.  Therefore, I’ve resorted to finishing it pre-spring so she may use it during the upcoming transitional weather that New England is so fond of.  Case in point: I’m sitting outside typing this, while it is 55 degrees and sunny.  Oh and it is February.  Oh so sunny.  The windows are all open, a light breeze is going into the house to clear out the winter funk that seems to occur this time of year.  So yes, I should be hoping to finish that poncho might quick.

This poncho is great for a multitude of reasons.  It is simple - which translates into there being nothing obscene that I have to wrap my tired brain around, therefore, I am able to knit while not paying attention, or watching a movie, to put it fairly.

The stitch is one of the reasons it is so simple: it’s a garter stitch (knit every row).  There’s no insane pattern to follow.

The increases and decreases are easy enough: Make1 (m1) or Knit 2 Together  (k2tog).  This is done every 6th stitch, thus creating a unique ‘border’ all around the poncho’s edge.  Very unique.

The yarn is Lion Brand Homespun in Quartz (#362).  This yarn is smooth and flowing through my fingers.  Obviously these are all subjective thoughts on the poncho.  Though I like knitting with that fun yarn, it can be a pain in the ass when you are making an attempt to do something serious, as in a poncho for one’s mom.  Not that my mom would go for the fun yarn, she probably would, but I just cannot take it all too serious with fun yarn.  Fun yarn has its own definition with moi and that would be to experiment.  For me, fun means experimenting, in most situations, particularly yarn.  With fun yarn I like to invent new patterns or methods for doing things.  I do tend to follow a pattern, of course the excuse is to knit with that yarn.  An example of fun yarn?  This scarf I am knitting for my sister.  I’ll have to discuss that in another blog, this one would be painfully long if I added it in here.

Tonight, the movie is ‘JAWS.’  No, I have never seen the movie.  I know I will not be scared for I will be knitting, which of course keeps me sane and grounded.  I am hoping to finish this bad boy soon, though.  Spring is fast approaching with weather like today.

After Christmas, I had a new outlook on my knitting, which largely centered on going on a Yarn Diet.

For those of you not aware of what a Yarn Diet is, allow me to explain. A Yarn Diet entails not bothering to purchase any more yarn but rather utilize the existing yarn in one’s stash.  The yarn in my stash has accumulated over a series of years (not decades). A few times I made attempts to go on a Yarn Diet; they were unsuccessful. Given that my circumstances have changed, I have now concluded that a Yarn Diet is inherently necessary. I will not purchase any more yarn.

I have been thinking on the length of this Diet.  How long can one go without purchasing yarn?  Has it ever worked for anyone?  After reassessing the stash, going deep into thought, and knitting over all of it, I have decided not to purchase ANY yarn for one year.  This is a scary thought.  Especially to my knitting comrades.

In general, I realize the severity of my Yarn Diet.  More so, since most of my knitted creations are given as gifts.  But, I am a gal that loves a challenge and therefore, I am determined to find something in my stash to knit for everyone.

Make a note of it, peeps: Saturday, March 28 at 2030 hours (aka 830pm).  It’s all about awareness.

Earth Hour

The bag shown here looks cute and innocent enough.  Sadly, it’s not.  This is what I lovingly refer to as my knitting bag.  A knitting bag holds different meanings for every knitter.  For me, this holds a number of my UFOs.

For those un-knitters, a UFO is Un-Finished Object; mainly geared towards the number of unfinished knitting projects laying throughout the home.  A personal, unspoken secret to many knitters is to one day finish her/his UFOs.

I have decided that enough is enough with the unfinished objects and projects laying about my home.  I either become so ingrained in one project, while overlooking a few others, or I will start another project and then forget about the zillion others gathering dust in the corner of my room.  Not good.  I know that yarn was once (and still very well could be) a living thing and therefore has feelings.  Neglect is not something we ever want to experience.  I feel for the yarn sitting in the corner; it knows it could be paraded about once a finished object for all to admire and praise.  There need to be more finished objects out there.

And so, I am making serious strides to finish the unfinished.  This is hard.

Looking at my Ravelry site, one may notice there are a few UFOs dubbed ‘UGH!’.  This is one too many for me.  No desire there to finish them.  Well, guess what, RK?  They are there, finished but unfinished.  Small, yet important touches are required to make these projects not only complete, but fully-functional.  I will feel a weight lifted off my shoulders should I finish these projects.  Not to mention extra room in my closet.  I’m mainly talking about a few pairs of socks, a sweater for my some random child, a sweater for my sister, and a sweater for me (that has to be frogged and reknitted into washcloths, talk more later on that one).  I didn’t even touch the potential Christmas presents there are.  No less, there are quite a bit of knitting UFOs to tackle.  I’m not sure when or how it will be done, but it will be done.  As well, I am sure the yarn will feel confident and secure to now be dubbed an FO, as opposed to a UFO.  Yarn has feelings, someone needs to stand up to for the yarn.

From time to time, I will be mentioning these finished objects of mine.  They are but works of joy and struggle.  As knitters, we need to praise ourselves for the tremendous sweat/blood/sacrifices/missed dates/family avoided/movies watched/cleaning ignored/work/effort we put towards knitting an object.  We should be thrilled when the object is completed and eager to share.  We should, so why are we not?  Let us unite as knitters and change this mentality.  Let’s finish some objects!

And besides, who doesn’t want more excuses to just sit and stare at her/his amazing stash?  The gaping of one’s stash stirs up all sorts of butterflies of new projects to start and yarn to hold and caress.  Though, just to gaze at one’s stash is a wonderful thing in and of itself; a stash allows one to think in colors.  Beautiful.

Woah.  Okay.  No posts for a solid few months.  Do I ignore my web absence and go about the blogs as though nothing has happened?  Or do I explain the absence however long and unintended it was?

I would have such a guilty conscience to ignore my lengthy absence.  Where to begin?

I’m getting my life in an awesome order.  I’m feeling the good vibes all the way.  Working The Secret into my every day life and it’s working!  Who would have thought?

I’ve been reading a variety of books.  I don’t critique them too much.  I read everything: the goods and bads.  I need to exercise all parts of my mind and imagination.  And what better way to do so than with a story spurred by someone else’s imagination?  I love it.  Beats watching soaps all day.

More importantly to me, I’ve been traveling.  I am having an absolute blast.  I have been to a few places and done a few things.  My traveling companions deserve a great deal of credit for the amount of fun that I have where ever I go.  And I get so excited waiting for my next big excursion!

And photography.  I have been snapping quite often.  Though, I haven’t been good about uploading all my pics to flickr, I’ll get there.

I have had a nice break away from a hectic world.  I re-energized my spirit.  And now, it’s time to get down to what matters.  I’ll get back to you on that last bit…

How am I doing?  Well, much better, considering my mind is gaining clarity.

Half-way through this year I realized that my biggest gripe is not time, but doing what I want to: my wants and desires.

Life has taken another round about with me, thus allowing me to focus more on what I want and have wanted out of my Life.

I finished reading Getting Things Done by David Allen.  Great book and worth mentioning again and again as a suggestive read.  I have developed some better organizational skills.  Though I find that the hardest part is to maintain the organizing.  Life so easily slips by us, that we let other matters fall by the wayside; not a good thing. 

I recently purchased OmniFocus as a means of organizing all my thoughts and projects.  So far, I am quite impressed with this program.  After watching the online video how-to, I went to town on in-putting everything bogging my mind down.  What a release!  And what a great program!  So far, I have no complaints.  In-putting and retrieving  information is done so in a relatively easy and simple manner, why bother to complain?

As for the site - uuummm…..right.  Well, I’ve made some serious attempts at writing and posting.  It has worked here and there.  I have not posted regularly, which is another goal to do.  I’ll get there.  I’m feeling better about writing more and more; it’s not the enemy, but the truth.

I have discovered a new passion for photography.  Though I feel most of my best work is done in black and white film, I am experimenting more with digital.  I intend to use all original photos on this site, as I have always done.  Perhaps one day, they will become well-known.

For the next six months, I intend to do more: reading, knitting, photographing, and posting.  Hold me to it!  ; )

Miguel de Cervantes once commented, “facts are the enemy of truth.”

The fact - what actually occurred - is the ultimate; the sole proprietor of the incident.  Whereas, the truth is also what actually occurred, though much more relative to the individual.  Each of us is but living her/his own dream.  We see colors, interpret signs, and share ideas all in our own, unique way.  This also known as individualism.

Individualism is not a concept.  Individualism is who we are, how we are, what we do, and how we do it.  Our actions are based on the form of our Self.  We exist as both what we know and what we do not know.  We possess Love and Fear, both simultaneously and interchangeably.  Some of us know this while a great majority of us do not.  Most of us struggle to find this; discover that one point in our lives when we can put our finger on precisely what we are.  This coincides with the process/journey/craziness of Life.  Lessons are forever learned and thus our Individual Self is consistently and constantly changing and forming.

Goals fit into this ideal.  Setting goals for yourself is a positive thing; there are matters to conquer.  Having goals, however vast or unique, are individualistic.  A goal for one person will not have the same passion as being a goal for another person.  My concern lays when one person steals another person’s goal.  Here is a better layout:

1) Person A has a goal.

2) Person A shares this goal with Person B.

3) Person A sets out to achieve the goal.

4) Person B completes the goal of Person A, making it known to Person A of the accomplishment.  Person B never shared the desire to complete Person A’s goal; just up and did it.

Sound insane?  Yeah, it is.  But it happens. Though it does sound like animosity, that never originally existed between the two people.

Yeah, yeah, there are a zillion excuses to use for why Person B never shared the goal.  But then there lays the actual fact: if Person B is a weak person (which is true), having personal goals is not a well, thought-out concept.  New ideas are considered foreign, thus leading to Fear.  Where there is Fear, there is no passion.

I find goal stealing rude.  I also see it as a blessing, as this action allows the reality of the person’s essence to come forward.  For then, the supposed passion to reach the goal is fueled by Fear and quite possibly Jealousy; so not a good thing.  Person B Types are needy, clingy, and incapable of having an independent thought.  Not even that, these sort of people have no aspirations; they cling to others for a sign of the future.  These are people to stay far the hell away from.  These types do nothing but drag you down.  Where is the loyalty to one’s Self?  Where is the ultimate sense of achievement?

People should be respectful and follow some sort of goal etiquette.