Oh lord! Is it Saturday yet?

Mama and family (lots and lots of extended family) are making the pilgrimage to Cooperstown on Saturday. I am surprised that i have packed for the boys, purchased snacks from Trader Joe’s for the journey, and have scheduled the cowboy for a haircut on Friday.

I was in my studio at 4:30 am this morning trying to finish up some things before I go. I was crazy productive. I may do a repeat of that tomorrow. I can sleep in the car on the way up to Fieldstone Farms. I have my Orioles flag for the porch! And the car! We really love Cal in our family.

So, I am desperately trying to get the yarn out before I go. I even thought of bringing my electric skeiner with me… but then thought that my dear husband may loose his freakin’ mind if I did that. We need a vactation away from work….. yarn=work at chez’ mama.

I had a little mini-knitting meltdown on Monday. I had the itch… you know the itch. That feeling that you must.buy.yarn.now. It all started because I saw this.

I saw it on the wonder that is Ravelry. I obsessed about it for …oh… a minute and started calling my LYS for the book. No luck finding Lopi book 25.

I called here and they had it. I drove 30 minutes to get the book. I then drove 45 to get the yarn. I am nuts.

I chose some colors using my color theory knowledge to change the scheme from neutrals to greens with a rust. I hope it turns out as I planned. It is really funny how when you step out of your original thought pattern or change the color scheme of a fair isle you feel like you are going over the edge. Even me. I teach all about that in my color theory in knitting class but still get that racy feeling. I am a damn rebel!

I will say this… knitting big, Icelandic wool on size 10’s makes for a quick knit. Let me tell ya!

I also have 1/2 a FO to report.

Hello sockpalooooza 4 socks. (sorry for the light on the picture to be a little crappy!)
I am doing the mini monkeys. Sweet! Good job on the mods Cara!

Ok… off to the ortho guy to get my mouth winched. Say hey if you see me in Cooperstown. I will be knitting a sock at the induction!!!!

Edited at 7:18pm:

Oh God…let it be Saturday! After a damn day like today… I need a vacation!

Another hot night in the studio…. I got a phone call today that gave me great perspective.

(I am fine, my family is fine… just unexpected news… it really doesn’t even affect me personally…)

Whenever I get unexpected news, I end up pondering life and the reason why I do what I do. I end up counting my blessings… D. The cowboy. My amazingly loving family. My art…. there are many.

I end up thinking that planning is pretty overrated. Every time I make a map of my life I end up finding a detour.(Is is a coincidence that I am listening to “The Long and Winding Road”?)

I have taken the scenic route in my life more than once. I have lived all over this beautiful country. I am settled in a place that I love. I truly love. I have been afforded the luxury of finding a life partner and starting a family. I have one hell of a beautifully, amazing child. I am really blessed.

It has not been an easy road. It has been a very long and winding road. The news I heard today has been of someone I care about has a big detour in her plans. I am hoping it proves to be wonderful for her. Unexpected and scary as all get out… but it is the stuff that paves the way to joy.

Times like these make me miss my dad so much. He always had the right words and enthusiasm to let you know that you were ok. Even when breathing was a chore… he knew how to breathe for you. With you. He just knew. He always knew.

Again with the melodrama on a hot night in my studio. I am headed out of town for the end of next week to Cooperstown. And I will see my friend there. And I will feel my dad there. And we will sit an breathe. ‘Cause sometimes… that is just the best thing to do.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my boy’s musical taste…. he made us all laugh!

I am so excited that my little business is expanding!

I have included some more shops as soon-to-be C*EYE*BER Vendors!

Look for me here:

and more to come!

I am also really excited that I get to travel for yarn work this year! I am ironing out the details for some classes in January and February!

I will also be at this event. You will most likely track me down at the Sweet Sheep booth!! I am so excited to come to the Toronto area! Stay tuned! And… if you are on the Warehouse mailing list… you will be getting a little something from me today!

This morning my cowboy and I stopped at Starbucks for some java and “warm chocolate”.

As I stood in line and ordered, he decided to check out the cd collection.

He turns to me and says (in a loud 4 year old voice):

“Mommy, this is James Brown. He’s the godfather of soul!”

It was James Brown. Man… I love my kid.

Another night at the studio… the heat here in Charm City is killing me. I have my AC running non-stop… and it is hotter than hell up here on the 4th floor.

I am spending a lot of time here in the studio. It is really nice to come here and get work done. I love having a separate place to work. God! I would trash my tiny rowhome so badly if I was still dyeing at home.

I am hoping to get a little knitting time in soon. Babies are hatching, sock pals are waiting, birthdays are coming. Damn!

I am headed to Cooperstown at the end of the month to see our IRON MAN be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

I am not a native daughter of Charm City… but I love him just the same. There is this hometown pride when you mention Cal.

Cooperstown is my dad’s place. I feel so close to him when I am there. I am so glad that I can share it with the cowboy and D. D loved my dad as if he were his own dad.. so I know he will be happy to go too. I am looking forward to a few days with my family… my mom, brother, sister, cousins, and aunts (and adopted family) will all be there. I am so looking forward to being totally available to my husband and child without the thought of things that need doing.

I am ONLY BRINGING my sockpaloooza pal’s socks with me. No joke. They are the only thing to knit while I am there.  I am also going to try to resist the temptation to bring the family on the “Tour de Yarn”.

I did look up a teeny, weeny shop in Cooperstown though…. 

Things are moving and shaking creatively for me now. I feel like I am at the top of my creative madness.. I am bursting at the seams with ideas and things that I want to do. Not all of it includes the business… but a fair amount does.

The methods are what I am attending to mostly at the moment. Extremely time consuming, but I know that it will be worth it. I am moving an office into the studio, having storage and permanent drying racks put in. I am feeling that the more functional system in place… the better. (I am also thinking about trying to find an intern of sorts… oh madness!)

This creativity has lead me to a place that seems so far away. Those teenage years when all I did was focus on drawing and painting. I had a tremendous amount if creativity (and more angst to go with it). I had no bills, some real worries, and nothing but time. Sometimes it felt as if time was never ending and I was stuck in “family purgatory”… so I spent any time I had holed up like hermit in my room drawing.

I don’t know if this is common experience, but I have found myself sharing time and space with some amazingly talented humans. The friendships were real but not lasting. We would all shift and move into the growing humans that we were becoming. The pain and angst shifted from being torturing into a fuzzy recollection of some issue, somewhere, that fades into distant memory.

As I get more creative with my work and really tap into the “how can I accomplish this?” mode instead of the “I can’t do it because….” mode, I find myself catching clearer glimpses of folks from days gone by. The ones who you can google (c’mon… you know we all do it!) and see where they are and what they are doing.

Some are working and fairly well known artists. Some are designers, musicians, film makers.

There is one group that I am pretty inspired by.

Ok, an aside…

I was an interesting teenager. A little messed up, a little artsy, and fairly lost to the normalized high school experience. A little like this….. or at least in my mind I see it that way.

I moved through phases… but art and music were constant. I have always had an eclectic taste in music. (That is a direct link that I share most strongly and most influenced by my dad and my brother. ) Anyhow… I would go to shows constantly at a place called “City Gardens” in Trenton, NJ. (Yes… you know it too if you were into that scene as a teen!)

I saw amazing music from folks when they were still carrying their own equipment and handing out stickers. It was what you did on Friday and Saturday (when you told your parents you were sleeping out at a friend’s house and they said the same).

There was a band from a neighboring town… I think I was at their first gig and Battle of the Bands. I was one of the annoying teens that hung out with the folks that hung out with them…. but still. I saw the beginning of their journey…
They are called the Bouncing Souls. They are amazing… and they have been together for over 15 years. Making music. Talk about the ultimate in living your creativity.

“For All The Unheard”

A guitar collects dust like his heart,
Soundless and still
A girl collapses on her bed
Writing words never read,
Troubled youth spills over into
Troubled life, and at times
We walk alone with our troubled minds

A guitar strikes a chord hits a misery so hard so bold
Sounding through this world where it’s so hard to feel that gold

It’s running through us all
A beauty
Buried deep under a river of grief
Where the Muddy Waters flow and the stones don’t roll

[Chorus:]
This is for all the unheard,
All the music left behind
All the songs
Left on the floors in the closets of our minds
Where’s the passion gone in our hearts?
Lost somewhere in the grind
It’s time to bring it back
It’s time to unwind
Find what we lost
It’s time
It’s time to bring it back

A lost song lingers on
Bouncing off stars on and on
A moment gone or is it looking for you
To sing its tune

Troubled youth spills over into
Troubled life, and at times
We walk alone with our troubled minds

[Chorus]

It’s time to bring it back [x4]

This is really inspiring me to set an anthem to my creative madness. I am thinking this fits the bill.