Let's be honest...

Is there anything more cute than a baby in handknits?

The quilt that Twitter built

About  5 years ago, I started this blog as a way to keep my family abreast of my adventures and to track my new-found knitting projects. As time went on, I made a few "friends"- people who found the blog and we'd comment back and forth etc. Jessie and I bravely had a blind-date and I had a new knitter friend!  Then, there was Ravelry. And then, Twitter. I always sort of joke that I "Tweet for Joe". Joe is my brother-in-law and has worked with/for Twitter for a few years now and when I started exploring it, I thought it was neat, but didn't quite "get it". And then, one day a few months later, I realized I was bringing up conversations I had with people on Twitter to the Tall Guy, thinking about what I would tell my friends on there and slowly, but surely started actually meeting some of these people in person. It's sort of amazing how much the knitting/craft community embraced Twitter and I wonder if it's because our hobbies are sort of solitary unless we seek other people out, either via Knit nights or the internet. Anyway...

A lot of my family/friends like to make fun of me for my tweeting and online activities. My Tall Guy refers to me as the Queen of Social Media (which, I'm sorry, but at least 85% of you reading this beat me hands down) and I know it seems like these connections are just people that live inside my computer/iPad/Phone...but. (I'm getting to a point here), it's so much more than that and this photo explains a lot, if not all of it (as well as the other awesome gifts that follow!)

This amazing, gorgeous quilt is the "Quilt that Twitter" built for Silas. (More on him in a moment) I have never met in person 6 of the 12 women that had a hand in creating this quilt for Silas. The ones I know and have met in person? I only met because of the internet. And they are all awesomely talented, supportive and amazing women who while often only living inside my iPad have been such a source of inspiration, support and humor as I went through pregnancy and these early days of having a baby that I'm starting to think that all new moms should be handed an iPad upon discharge from the hospital. As for the creators, in no particular order, thank you to Jessie (Jessspress), Ann (AnnMT), Rachel (Rachellake), Chawne (cauchy09), Elspeth (AgentElspeth), Sarah (onestitchshort), Paula (woolarina), Cathy (Runnergirl713), Carrie (carrieoke), Carolyn (Duff), Autumn (AutumninDC) and Amanda (theotheramanda). I only have so much brain power at the moment, so here's a link to Jessie's flickr photo with each square credited.

In addition to the quilt, other goodies came in the package.  An Aviatrix hat and little bag (which matches the quilt Jessie had made me earlier this year for Silas!) came from RachelLake, this amazing cabel-y sweater is from Monica (mnappe) 

This tag blankie is from Danielle (aswiminknits) and  from Blair (trimblair) an offset wraplan!

And, for my own Finished Object.. (hehe), Silas Arthur.. joined us March 14th at 7pm. So far, we're just trying to keep our head above water. Thank you all for the handmade love, well wishes and baby smooshes. We are so lucky to have you all in our life, whether you're right down the street or across the country. Now, off to change a diaper. 

So many words for a universal occurrence....

Life's about to change a lot!

Yarn Shop Politics

Over on Ravelry this week, our local board blew up over a local yarn shop (lys) starting a new policy. Long story short, the shop has said that it will start charging knitters a $10 fee to come to "Open Stitch" (Knit Night, Stitch and Bitch etc.) if you weren't knitting with yarn you had at some point purchased there. This has cause a flurry of comments to the point where the Mod. decided to shut down the thread. It's an interesting issue- on one hand, it's a business and they need to make income. On the other, I've found that more often than not, with the shop I tend to frequent, while I don't buy something all the time, I do buy a lot from them and it's often when I'm there to sit and knit with friends. I see this with all of my friends as well.
It seems the knitting community is also drawn down the middle on this one. Personally, with the shop in question, I've had 2 occasions when I've been there in the last year and felt a definite chill in the air. In one instance, there was a group knitting at the community table, talking about a particular yarn that none of them were familiar with and I, while browsing nearby casually commented as I had knit with it/had it in my stash. Even though I commented at a totally appropriate time, didn't interrupt anyone and didn't say anything weird, instead of a response, I received frosty stares and no comments. It was so unnerving! Another time was also similar. I guess my point is that was the last time I was there and implementing a fee for me to come back is not going to help foster good will in a community that puts a great deal of stock into a shops "personality", "style" and general vibe.

Anyway, now that I'm done thinking out loud about that, I'll share a recent finished object... This is for a dear friend's new little one.

Pattern: Maile (Free!)  

Yarn: Scout's sock yarn, in June's Semi Solid Sock club colorway-Yellow Submarine 

Buttons from Looped Yarn Works in Downtown DC

Thanks ,Dad

I tell him all the time how great he is, but just in case I don't say it enough...

My Dad is amazing, awesome, compassionate, kind and what my Mom once called a Gentle Soul.

He's always the first person I've turned to when I sought solid, honest advice, a hug and support or simply needed someone to kick me in the pants and tell me to "pull it together".

He's been a Mom when I've needed one and every day, I am grateful to have such a great Father. I'm so excited that he and my Step-Mom are coming to visit in a few weeks, even though we did just see them last weekend!

Happy Father's Day, Dad...even if your card is still sitting in my purse, you're still my faves!

MDSW Meet up?!?!

Hello all!
We've been tossing a Maryland Sheep and Wool Meet Up around on Twitter for the last week or so and I'm finally just going to put it out there and say "Let's meet!"
Details:
Day: Saturday
Time: 1pm
Place: The grassy area outside of the Main Exhibition Hall (to the right of the stage/left of the restrooms-ish)
Link to a handy map.

In case you haven't met me (or Jessie) yet, here's a picture I snagged from Lolly's Flickr stream. Thanks Lolly!

We're both short, so you may have to look around a little to find us :-)

l. Jessie, r. Me

At this point (over a week away) I don't have a rain plan. It probably will just involve an umbrella..we'll see and I'll update if that's the case!

Any questions?

Hello Spring

We're waiting with bated breath for spring to arrive. It's really been touch and go around here with freezing temps, hail and the like this week. Today, however there is hope.

This seemed liked a good time to take a finished object photo. This sweater caught my eye when Stephanie Perl-McPhee blogged about it and I have to say, I agree with most of what she had to say.
I finished it right around Christmas and from the time it was damp from it's first wash, I have reached for it every time I wanted a quick, going out the door sweater. I did get lazy and didn't knit the belt part and really, I'm okay with that.

Details

Yarn- Madelinetosh dk, 4 skeins (900yds, I knit to about two yards left in the 4th skein), colorway Toast

Smallest size and still had a bit of positive ease.

Pattern is a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern, #263

And for those paying attention, yes my hair is a drastically different color... I've decided to return to my roots (hehe) and go a bit more natural. We'll see how that works out.

Helping a friend of a friend

Recently, my friend Ann told me about her bestest friend's sister and the struggle she was going through.

To put it succinctly Emily is:

1. In a fight against liver cancer and when that fight is won, she'll need a liver transplant
2. Has health insurance which does not cover prescription medication, thus running her approximately $1,000 a month
3. Is a public school teacher (i.e. she's not raking in loads of cash, people)
4. And, and the state she lives in doesn't recognize same-sex marriage, so she can't be on her spouse's health insurance which is better than her own because...her spouse is also a woman.

In the 10 minutes it took Ann to tell me the story, I was in tears myself and wanted to do whatever I could to help with Emily's mounting health care bills. The fight against cancer is close to my heart and the government's (unfair) right to decide the gender of a person one must fall in love with in order to be considered a legitimate relationship is a close second. I lost my mom to breast cancer 15 years ago and a saving grace over those tough years was that my parents had great health insurance covered by my dad's job, not my Mom's (who was generally self employed).

Being the awesome person that she is, Ann decided to hold a raffle. Ann is much more eloquent in the story then I am and all the details can be found here. Not only is this a good cause, but whoo boy if you are even casually interested in all things fiber related (or if you aren't, but you know/love a person that is...) it's more than enough incentive to donate.

Rockstar knitter Elspeth will knit a custom sweater for a winner, there's tons of awesome yarn prizes including some impossible to get your hands on skeins, sweet project bags, and more.

I know there is A LOT going on in the world right now so this isn't meant to be pressure to not donate elsewhere, but I think it's nice to know that anything you give will be going straight to a person who I think really needs some help right now.

So, please go read Ann's post and think about even a small donation.
Thanks!

A quilt in the making!

YIP 75, originally uploaded by sparklypia.

I mentioned a few posts back that I was in a New Bee this year. Well, November was my month and I got all my blocks back. Aren't they awesome? Now, I'm still trying to decide what to sash it with...blue? Light mocha? Thoughts?

Bi-craftual

Over the last few years, I've dabbled with crochet. One good friend taught me enough to chain stitch around a neckline (as detailed here and here). Basically, I knew just enough to be dangerous. Over the past few weeks over on Twitter, I was tempted by the upcoming crochet potholder swap and suddenly I was being convinced that I could learn to crochet and join the swap as well! I'm tellin' ya, these ladies are nothing if not the biggest bunch of enablers around!

While I'm not sure I'll be able to pull this off, Lolly, Wrypunster, Emily and I had a great afternoon yesterday hanging out at Looped, learning to crochet, visiting and laughing a lot. Now, while I have plenty of knitting in progress lying around the house, all I can think about are fun, crazy color combos and making afghans and granny squares. Chances are, I won't actually go too far with this, but it was so much fun to learn a new skill! I couldn't help but giggle when I was sitting with yarn in one hand, a crochet hook in the other and zero clue what I was doing.

Thanks ladies for a great afternoon, now I'm off to work on my NewBee squares!