In the vein of time being impossible to track and possibly being meaningless while also looming larger than ever, I finally knit these tigers just as the Year of the Tiger ends. Sure, the new pattern for the Lunar New Year helped prompt me to get going with this, but that wasn't all. My nephew recently had a birthday, and it was a special one. It's hard to believe that he is now twenty-one. He was a precious little baby, a precious little boy, and is now a precious young man. I want to post picture after picture of him, but I'll resist the impulse.
You know how small children often like to share animal facts and their enthusiasm regarding their special favorites? He was no different, and tigers were there at the top of his list. He loved tigers and was especially intrigued with white tigers. Still, in his young mind, to declare a favorite would have been disloyal. So when he was asked about his favorite animal, he would most often respond, "A white tiger, and a regular tiger." I managed to crochet a regular tiger for him when he was little but never got around to making a white one. So, for the occasion of his twenty-first birthday, I added a white tiger and a regular tiger to his birthday presents.
A lot was happening two years ago today. I have many thoughts on what happened that day and in the days since, but I'm not the right one to write about it all. I remember dyeing my hair purple while watching and wondering about what was happening.
As it also happened, it was my sister's birthday (she has one every year on this day) and so I sent her a birthday present. Because it was a milestone birthday, I got her something extra special--a Hue Shift Afghan kit. I got one for myself, too, and we made plans for a knitalong. Back then vaccines were rolling out, and we thought that by the time we had made significant progress on our afghans we would be able to gather together, put on a movie marathon to accompany an end-weaving marathon. We weren't right about so many things. I've made much more progress on my afghan than she has on hers, but that's neither here nor there. I can hope that when she makes it as far on hers as I have at this point, we can weave in ends and watch movies. If it works out, I would even help weave in ends on her blanket for her. Realistically speaking, that only seems likely if her progress stays at its current pace.
We made it! That last bit was a bit rocky, (no need to worry--life is like that sometimes) and for the last couple of weeks of the year, I had a lot of trouble keeping track of what day or time it was. Much of that lingers, but it seems a little less difficult. I don't have a personal 2022 wrap-up, and I'm just fine with that. We're still here, and that is enough.
Anyway, you're here for amazing knitting content, right? My Featherweight Wrap to Knit has all its ends woven in and it even had a nice soak to wash away the years and, well, you know what a difference a dunk makes. I don't feel like a modeled photo shoot, and it laid out on the floor is not all that impressive for a picture. It is a mainly stockinette, three-quarter-ish-length sleeve, black, lightweight, cardigan. You'll just have to trust me on the finished status, mkay? I like it and might even knit another of this pattern one day.
I finished knitting the final quadrant of the Hue Shift Afghan. I really thought I would have sewn the quadrants together or worked in the ends during the ultra-cold weather, but that didn't happen. I didn't even drag out the other pieces of the blanket. I'll get to it someday. I have some shows I want to watch and I think working on this while I do so will be a good match.
Welcome to 2023! I'm glad you're still here.
So, as I wrote about before, we've played more than a little bit of Animal Crossing. I encouraged my mom to get a Switch and the game, but she held off for one reason or another. When she finally started playing, she took to it the way we all thought she would. By that, I mean she played a bit obsessively (no judgment, but it's a pretty accurate description). It was a good way to help her fill some hours and made for good conversation when much of our lives were rather limited. Anyway, the degree to which she enjoyed it gave me an idea.
My mom had not really had a big birthday party of her own ever. She went from parents who did not do such things to marriage and motherhood where her birthday was rolled into the day we decorated the Christmas tree to having her birthday celebrated with a granddaughter's. Sure, there were cakes and meals and small celebrations, but not a full big party with decorations. I noticed, and a few years back I asked her whether she would like one. She said we'd have a big party for her 70th. However, for her, that meant she would take everyone out to a restaurant that had a separate room we could reserve, she would buy our meal for us, and none of us would have to do any work. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen, and not just because I don't think we can ever eat in a restaurant ever again.
Anyway, the vaccines finally came along for everyone in the family, people were still masking, the Omicronian invasion hadn't yet happened, and a big 70th birthday party seemed possible. Mom is Nana to the grandchildren, she loves Animal Crossing, and thus, a Nana-mal Crossing Birthday just felt right. So, I began shopping and crafting. At some points, I had ideas of doing far more than what I was able to accomplish, but I think I did pretty well.
The family came together and we made a party to celebrate her that she enjoyed so much. We were so lucky to have that brief moment when we could all gather, and the memories are all the more precious now that we can't all be together.
First, we celebrate. I have only one more column in the final quadrant of the Hue Shift Afghan! Looking at the remaining yarn, I don't think I will have to play yarn chicken. I picked it up the other day, finished the in-progress mitered square that was on the needles, and then worked the last mitered square on that row. Next up is that final column (of five mitered squares). After that, it's just a simple matter of stitching the quadrants together, working the simple garter stitch log cabin border, and then weaving in (more than 100 but less than 200, I think) all those ends. Sure, those last steps are a lot, but the weather has been cooler, and having a bundle of blanket on my lap will be nice.
I don't have any particular plans for this blanket. I feel about the colors the way I expected I would at this point in the process--don't hate, don't love, and perhaps ready to not have to look at them for a while once I finish. Still, the overall knitting has been quite enjoyable for the most part, and I'm not opposed to knitting this pattern again someday. Don't tell my sister, as I believe she's still on the first or second quadrant, and I have no intention of finishing the knitting of hers for her. I've been gently encouraging her to bring her knitting out and work a bit on it during some "downtime-ish" moments she has currently.
So, onward I knit, and perhaps before year's end, I'll have a new blanket. Or, I'll tell myself I can get the 2022 Mochimochiland Holiday Pattern if I finish this quadrant, and then spend the rest of the year knitting little things. Seems like a win-win situation, right?
Would you look at that? I've returned with another post on this quaran-times topic. Totally going to be a series now, eh? So, today we ask, "If You Haven't Studied Another Language, Have You Even Quarantined?" Well, have you? As for me, I had been trying to brush up on, expand, and improve my Spanish in early 2020 with Duolingo. I had been canvassing, and while my particular assignments were not meant to require additional language skills, the occasional encounter showed me that my Spanish-speaking and comprehension skills were inadequate. Anyway, we weren't very long into quaran-times when I just wasn't up for continuing the task. That little green owl's reminders did not spur me on to further study and practice, and when the passive-aggressive message that it seemed that the encouragement didn't appear to be working and would now end, I was fine with it.
At other times, I considered starting a different language. Japanese seemed a good choice, and one that several of us in the family would like to learn and/or had practical reasons for learning it. I even looked at different programs, workbooks, and flashcards that we could get and share, but it never got beyond the idea phase. It's one of those things where I think we'd like to know how to read, speak, write, and understand Japanese, but none of us are ready to put in the work. Additionally, learning a language together can be great, but it does have some of the dreaded "group project" aspects to it, and perhaps it is just as well that we never really got going with it.
Then about a year or so ago, I became much more interested in learning a different language, ASL. I've always been interested in languages. I bought numerous phrasebooks and dictionaries and even took a couple of "classes" throughout my childhood, and ASL was no different. Of course, that's not how you learn a language. At best, you might be able to learn some vocabulary and phrases, but that's not learning a language. What can I say? I was a kid, and I was exploring my interests with the resources available. Anyway, Bruce being hard of hearing is another reason this language interests me, and I thought we could both learn ASL. Then, at about the same time, other people emphasizing the importance of learning ASL kept coming up, and I knew I needed to give this real attention and effort.
So, I started looking at how I would go about learning ASL. Let's be clear, we're not just talking about learning a few signs and phrases. I mean, I get how just that could be helpful in some ways, but we're talking about learning a language, and that takes work. Anyway, I began looking up books, as that has been my go-to, but I knew that just books would be seriously inadequate. Then I began a search for online courses, and that's where I found Lifeprint. It is an amazing site filled with resources that are taking me far in my language-learning journey. There are lessons filled with so much information. There is an official ASL University playlist of hundreds of videos. The instructor, Dr. Bill Vicars, is great. When I'm doing a video lesson, I like the way it sometimes feels like I am learning along with the students in the videos, seeing them confused at the same parts I am, and improving along with them.
I've learned a lot. I've also made some missteps on my language-learning journey, and I am working to fix those. Bruce has not chosen to join me in learning ASL, and that is fine. He has learned a few words and phrases, and that's helpful. I also see as time goes on, he is becoming a bit more interested. Maybe it will be like Call the Midwife. When I started watching that, he was very uninterested, but over time, he would find himself watching along with me and asking questions about characters and storylines. We've now re-watched all of the episodes and will likely do so again in the future. Maybe one day we will also restart these lessons and learn together.
I also had hoped that others in our family would learn, but there has been even less interest from most of them. I did not expect much. I expect even less having learned that many Deaf people's hearing family do not learn ASL. That is wild to me, but also not unsurprising when I think about it. Still, one young niece has been trying to learn the ASL alphabet and likes to fingerspell everyone's names. Another niece who is old enough to take the learning journey on her own recently asked me to re-send her the links so that she can start again with learning ASL.
I know I'll only get so far with the online lessons, videos, and books, but I'm not going to let perfect be the enemy of good. I've read what the generally agreed upon recommended, top-tier, gold standard, best ways to learn ASL are, and I know that I'm not doing them. Still, I'm studying, practicing, reading, putting in the time and effort, and I am learning. I even unlocked a particular language-learning journey achievement recently--the new language showing up in a dream. It wasn't much ASL, and the dream didn't make much sense, but I understood what was being signed, so there's that.
Many of you reading this have never and probably will never meet me in person. You may have some ideas about my personality, or perhaps you've never really given it much thought at all. I'm an introvert, weird, and sometimes if I receive a quick response on a text/dm/email, I find it extremely difficult, bordering on impossible, to respond that response, but write imaginary ones in my head for hours, days, weeks, months, or years. I alternate between very short texts and emails and tremendously long blocks of writing. That being said, I doubt you'd be surprised to know that I can chatter away with someone for a really long time. Fun fact: I'm a telephone pacer. I wander about, walking back and forth if I'm on the phone for any measurable length of time that doesn't require me to be seated. I'm also a telephone avoider, (although I don't hate the phone) am awkward, and have not yet developed the skills necessary to not rattle on and on until something comes along and necessitates an end of the telephone conversation.
Recently, I've reconnected with someone I met through knitting back when I was an in-person social knitter. We have been having weekly Zoom meetings lately. It is the free version, so we are limited to forty minutes. I don't think we are related, but if we are, we don't need a full-on genealogy survey to find a common ancestor, because if one exists, it's obviously Chatty Cathy. So far, we've been mixing small recaps of recent history mixed with what is currently happening in our lives. It seems like we've barely begun when the ten-minute reminder countdown clock appears.
Sure, these UFOs have literally been here for years, but I've not been working on them, and the mere act of dragging them out may not mean anything. Their longstanding neglected status is not all these projects have in common. They're both in states of waiting for their next steps, and their next steps are the final steps in knitting them. One needs a bit of ye ol' pick up and knit action, and then it's just stockinette (and rev-st-st, and maybe a little more st-st) until bind-off time. The other needs the set-up for the lace edge, and then it's a short chart repeated all the way around, eating up body stitches as I go, a quick graft, and the knitting's done. Right now, they're also both rather unimpressive (and not terribly exciting when it comes to color, either) blobs of plain knitting--one garter, the other stockinette.
They also have quite a bit of knitting left on them. I mean, if I squint, I can make out the finish line in the distance. The lace edge is an eight-row chart of thirteen stitches, but I will be working it over and over again to make it all the way around. Sure, it's likely I'll get the chart somewhat pasted onto my brain after I've done it a number of times, but it's not mindless, and when I reach the corners, I will need to consult the written directions, too. I'm not going to attempt calculate the stitches that remain, but the number is not insignificant. After some quick calculations, I think that the simpler project has over 16,000 stitches to go, but the knitting is pretty mindless once I get it on its way. Still, if I recall correctly, the "requirements" for NaKniSweMo is knitting a sweater of at least 10,000 stitches in a month, but that's a bit hazy to me and I could be mistaken. Then again, that's a totally made up, self-imposed, unimportant event for next month. Ugh. I just realized that next month is November. I'm going to need a moment. OK, I've pushed that reality back into a corner and can get on with other things.
My Kindle Fire has been unwell for a while, and I've been sad about it. Not only have I enjoyed the device over the years, how I got it is special to me. As it has been getting progressively sadder, I have tried all of the wishful thinking and lucky rituals trying to get it well. I gotta say, the one where you hold down the power button for twenty-eight seconds in the light of the full moon, surrounded by a circle of power formed by all your best charging cables seemed the most promising, but alas, it was not. Finally, I managed to do a factory reset, and now I'm back up and running again. Woo-hoo!
So, yeah, what with the end of the Mochimochi Photo + Video Contest 2022 (no, I was not a winner, nor did I expect to be) and a bunch of other stuff, I've not done quite as much knitting. I mean, I was cranking out the tiny creations all summer, so the slowdown is not unexpected. I don't think I've shown all of the little creations. Anyway, I do have ideas that would get my needles going. I would say I'm excited to show you, but much of what I have is not exciting at all. Of course, now you're excited and feel confident that it will actually be interesting. In thanks for your good and positive thoughts, I present you with a little bit of my knitting with my revived Kindle Fire. It's just a couple of Fumin' Wombs from the 20th Anniversary Knitty.
*Why Should the Fire Die?
Watching the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi has had "Don't Drink the Water" by Dave Matthews Band stuck in my head for days. Now I'm trying to dislodge it by getting another song in there. So...
Ah
No-no-Notorious
Hey, it could be worse, I could have tried to change the lyrics to go along with knitting Tori the Tiny Triceratops. Knit-Knit, Kni-tori-ous, Kni-tori-ous. You like that better? I get it. You're trying to decide whether you find me more clever or more entertaining. Tough competition on those options, so why choose?
Anyway, back to the pattern.* Have you checked it out, yet? It's good, a fun knit, some assembly required, and so satisfying when you get it all together. Yeah, that's why I've done it again. And again. And again.
It's all happened so quickly. We were so grateful that they worked to find a way to isolate and test so we could have a little in-person time with them before they left. That they were willing to do so meant so much, and that they worked out the details to make it happen. We're sad for them to go, but happy for them to have new adventures and opportunities. We hope their new home exceeds every amazing expectation they have. Our loss is The Centennial State's gain. If only I had knit more little things I would have created an awesome entry for the 2022 Mochimochiland Photo + Video Contest by now, right?
I have this little pile of recent knits.
Do you ever stop and try to figure out the paths your mind takes to get to a particular topic, activity, or line of thinking? I do that pretty often. Sometimes when I have a number of concerning things going on in life my brain tries to sort them into patterns, tries to make puzzling things make sense, works to understand things when I might not have enough information, and the next thing you know my mind has stirred up something seemingly out of nowhere. I've got quite a bit of that going what with some family getting ready to move away, others appearing to be engaging in patterns of behavior that have historically meant they were not doing well, swirl that all up with the pandemic, climate crisis, inflation, and all of the *gestures broadly* stuff, and it doesn't take much of a leap to figure out why my brain is going the places it goes.
Other times, the hop-skip-jump is lighthearted and fun. Anna just announced the call for entries for the 2022 Mochimochi Photo + Video Contest and its theme, Sharing is Caring. So, I had recently knit some corn. Maybe sometime I'll fill you in on what got me knitting corn, but that's a story for another day. Anyway, sharing is caring, inflation is terrible, people are in need, corn is food, I should knit more food and turn it all into an awesome stop-motion animation (a skill I do not possess) and let it join what I'm sure is going to an amazing crop (see what I did there) of entries for the contest. So I flipped through patterns and the pearl part of the Joyful Oyster pattern from the book Adventures in Mochimochiland was a great starting point for an apple and a peach. After that I knit a little banana, a tomato, and a lime. At this point I get a bit mentally stuck in my bin of green yarns and unnecessarily lose too much time lamenting not having full-size skeins of Limeade Heather, Alfalfa, Green Tea Heather, and Edamame despite having mini-skeins of them all and only needing small amounts to knit tiny fruit and veg. I can be a bit silly, for sure. I have so much and can relax and enjoy. Anyway, after knitting all of those healthful foods, you know I'm back to Adventures in Mochimochiland and knitting a donut. Then my brain is back in the green bin and after another flip through Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi I've knit a little pear.
So, yeah, I may see if I can put together an entry for the contest, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else does. In the meantime, I think I need to knit a smaller donut and then maybe I'll try to knit up some little veggies (more green!), but maybe now that I've taken a picture and blogged these, I'm done knitting little food for now. Sometimes I'm like that, y'know?
Take care of yourselves and others, lean into love and allow yourself to experience the joy that is available to you.
Well, I stumbled a bit with the confidence, remembered that hope is a discipline, and lately, we've all had plenty of crises. It's been quite a month, hasn't it? Not for the first, nor probably for the last, in difficult times, I turn to knitting. Here you see my poorly photographed Pride 2022 knitting. Not only did I knit on with hope, but I knit on with love, and I knit on for love.
By the time I had the third Palette sampler box, I had amassed a great list of reasons for having all three. Not the least amongst them would be that I would know exactly what each color looked like and when ordering new balls of Palette, I would order the correct one. No more frustrations caused by the difference between the photo and its display on my screen not matching real life. That makes sense, eh?
Fast-forward (or rewind, depending on your perspective) to a Knit Picks gift certificate I received for my birthday. When I finally got around to using it, I filled in the order with a few balls of Palette. I knew I needed a ball of a plain orange. Well, orange is not as simple a color as you might think. I ordered Orange, but I should have ordered Cayenne.
The Palette sampler as color card tool only works if you consult it. Who knew?
That being said, when I do get out the mini skeins of the samplers, I have fun. Just looking at all the colors is a joy. There are so many colors that I don't have (outside of this collection) but that I could see buying full skeins of in the future, perhaps. While I do have quite a few colors, it amazes me all the ones I don't have.
Speaking of the colors I do and do not have, amazing isn't the right word to describe a recent experience. I was playing with colors, trying to find the right ones, (pinks and oranges, if you were wondering--pinks and oranges if you weren't wondering) knitting from a bag filled with little balls of yarn I have wound off from the full skeins of Palette to knit little things. Anyway, one of those pinks worked well, and when I had used it up, I went to the craft room for more of it, and could not find more. Then I compared the scrap to the pinks in the sampler to figure out which it is. It's Cosmopolitan, and that solved one mystery, and another mystery started.
There was no main skein of Cosmopolitan in the stash. I cannot recall ever knitting up a full skein of it, nor do I have any finished items composed of it. Still, I must have had it, otherwise I couldn't have that small ball of it in the knitting bag. I spent way too much time searching, but I don't have it. The bin where it should be seems pretty full, but maybe there is a missing bag of pinks and purples that I failed to put away properly. If so, I have a happy reunion in my future, eh? In the end, it prompted me to wind off a couple yards from the sampler mini-skein to use now. I mean, the mini-skeins aren't just for admiring, and once I did that, it freed me to do the same with a few other colors I wanted to try, and try I have. I will try to remember that feeling, and not continually set things aside for the "right" "special" "perfect" time.
Truly, I'm just as surprised as you to find myself returning to a recurring blog topic, but here we are. We'll head straight to the question, "If you haven't played a ton of Animal Crossing, have you even Quarantined?" I answer with a resounding, "Yes!" I have played so much Animal Crossing.
I even tried to come up to lyrics to the K.K. Slider hit, "Steep Hill," but worry not, I had no success. It is my favorite song of his. What? Like I'm the only one to attempt to pen lyrics to a song by a video game cartoon dog? Next you're going to find something wrong with me for admitting to having teared up a bit on a Saturday night as he sang it.
Animal Crossing New Horizons is a great game for Quarantimes. It is gentle, it follows along with the hours of the day and seasons of the year. It is not a game of winning or losing. You can play for hours on end, fishing, swimming netting bugs, designing, decorating, building, shopping, and interacting with a range of animal characters. Your island is a wonderful home you can transform in countless ways.
You can connect with others near and far. Many people in the family played, some of us much more than others (ahem, me, Mom). We occasionally traveled to each others' islands. We sent in-game gifts and notes. It gave us something to talk about when nothing else was happening.
Besides playing with family, I played with strangers (and one time talked on the phone with a niece and brought her along on a memorable journey to randos' islands). I traveled via Dodocode to see the amazing way people designed, to experience the seasons on the opposite hemisphere, and to buy and sell turnips.
While I'm playing far less than I used to, I don't know that I'll ever stop, and it will probably forever hold a special place in my heart and memories.
How about you? Have you played Animal Crossing for fun and for coping with a global pandemic? What's your favorite K.K. Slider song?
