stitch marker

class five rapids

This is where I sit when I'm writing my new book.

People who've been rafting, do you know that feeling, when you hit the rapids? For me it's a serene expectancy right before, a bit of strangely quiet water, and then I hit the whiteness and my stomach hits my feet and every other thought is blissfully obliterated. Sudden and dangerous, but deliciously good. A focus. (Mental note: I should raft more.)

So, I've suddenly hit the water with this new book. For more than a year I've known I would write this book, but in the past couple of weeks I've suddenly and dramatically started writing it.

Like Knitalong, it's more about people foremost, rather than a straight pattern book. Once again, it's going to involve stories and pictures from every kind of knitter I can get a hold of, all over the place.

I've alluded to the palette for the book. I'm a visual person, and I need to see the book as it develops, as I interview designers and broker patterns and collect stories and a hundred photos. The palette is softer and cooler than Knitalong's, for which my metaphor and mood were a busy farmer's market. This one is a 1960s swimming pool behind a summer house, a porch swing with roses growing up around it, a pile of crisp sheets, a dark green house with white trim, pot roast in the oven. There are crickets chirping while you read this book.

(Even now I'm thinking, Expand Larissa, expand beyond your own experience. I just spoke with a knitting author yesterday, ran into her here at the coffee shop, and her family is from Norway. What are the analogous memories from there, I wonder?)

My seat up  there is a serene place, but sitting there my mind races. I call people. I picture things. I write in my new notebook. I should go out and run more in the cold. Let go of thinking once in a while. Remember to meditate on cold water rushing, rushing, rushing through my head.

a clean spot & full chicken

My room is clean, once again, and this time thanks to my friend Laura who heaved the door open with me and hauled stuff out, making me sort it and keep just about half. She had me put all my projects that I won't finish in the next 6 months - but that are still someday knits - into a bin in the basement. It was quite liberating.

I've got one of those gigantic Ikea bags of random yarn to get rid of. It's waiting to go to Goodwill, but I'm thinking maybe I should give it to someone who can appreciate it. Anyone? Anyone? I could fit a lot of it into one of those flat rate boxes, or if you're local you could just pick it up.

Now I can sit in my room and work again. It's amazing. I can have a cup of tea or coffee and watch Firefly and work on an endless project I'm doing for a magazine. And think about someday picking up all those darn squares again.

During the clean-up I found bits and bobs of it seems like every project I've ever done, including junk yarn from book shoots that I never even knitted with.

My scrap chicken is awfully full.

5:15, after a nap break

I cleaned my room today. It was bad.

At 1:30 it began like this. And this.

Around 2:15 I continued for the millionth time to ponder the gravitational anomaly in my craft room. Every time - really every single time - I reach for yarn up on my shelves, several skeins fall onto the floor. No matter what I touch, it and all items around it fall to the floor. It makes me seethe. And I get so angry I just leave it the f*** down there, and then we get to where we were earlier today.

At 3:00 we began to detect said floor.

At 4:00 I was trying to figure out how to get all the fallen yarn (yes, this is just what had fallen on the floor since last time I cleaned up) back into this 5-foot-square craft room.

The answer is this: There will be some free yarn on my driveway tomorrow morning, around 9. Not everything that fell, but a good box of your garden variety free yarn. Not acrylic either, people. And I'll be sitting in my room happily pondering my seven or so WIPs that I unearthed and what new thing I should start instead.

the nicest people

Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks people are the nicest people. Yesterday I was completely fried. It was one of those days where I woke up already exhausted and there was no coffee in the house. By 10 am I was snapping at the family as I hauled their *sses to various locations before I could be alone and work. Then I got to Abundant Yarn in Sellwood and stuck my feet in the hot foot spa and sipped tea from the cafe. Ahhhhhh.

It made me so relaxed, I nearly fell asleep at my computer (yarn, free wifi that works, cafe with good food and Stumptown coffee, and a free foot spa and handy towels, yes, all in the same store).

After hours of slogging, like 5 or 6, I finally realized I was getting next to nothing written so I gathered up my junk and virtually crawled in a tired daze to my car. Drove all the way home (about 20 minutes). Grabbed my stuff to take in the house. Hmmm, my backpack seems so light... Oh look, my computer isn't in there...Oh, it's on the table at the cafe.

Abundant Yarn people are such that I had not one second of panic. Not at all. I called and said duh etc., and they put my laptop behind the counter. I'm back here today working. They are so kind. And today - while a double ponytail* and sweats kind of day - is a lot better than yesterday workwise.

* Any of you who were pre-teens in the '8os, did you ever wear the vertical double ponytails? One above the other in the back? Was that just New Jersey?

you win!

This post is really a big thank you to every one of you who knitted squares. They came from England, Canada, Portugal, and from across the US, everywhere from Alaska to Brooklyn. We laid them out yesterday (my crack squares team and I) and it's confirmed that we have enough to make at least two blankets. Whew! So one will be saved for book purposes and one more will go to Warm Up America.

And so, to thank everyone properly and really celebrate how fast a bunch of knitters can put together two awesome blankets, the prizes have been drawn. (How fast I can sew those squares together is another question entirely). But anyway, the prizes are as follows:

C, also known as Muscadine Hill, you've won this incredible sock yarn dyed by Adrian at Hello Yarn!

Cindy of Knit for Joy, you have won two skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca, a new yarn that's included in our book, along with a sweetly scented candle donated by Tracy from England.

Rhonda M., you've won two skeins of yarn - KnitPicks Shimmer in Grape Hyacinth and Cascade 220 in a pink shade - donated by Celaine. (It all comes around, right? Aren't you the same as C. above?)

Aurora, I did get your amazing square, and you've won yarn buttons and magnets from Girl on the Rocks.

Katie B. who made the Hawaii-colored square, without a blog(!), you have won a set of gorgeous stitch markers from Knitwit Momma.

JJ, you've won a very cool clay needlecase donated by the artist, Francie O. The prize one is green and salmon pink toned squares. (It'll go nicely with your "detail oriented" baggie system for storing your circs, JJ. Which I really admire)

And of course Froukje has won the two skeins of sock yarn from Funknits! And Froukje, you win it yourself. No giving away prizes until after you receive them (then I can't stop you). :-)

Thank you everyone. More news soon...

11 and rising

That's the square count as of today, what I have in hand. Every day Mom goes to her mailbox to pick them up and it's like Santa coming all over again. I have squares from Oiyi, Siri, Chawne (that's her square above), Katie, and Jessica (we sound like a private school cheerleading team).

I had a date with a neighbor today to block a shawl for our book. Erin has a whole room with a whole bed in it that no one is using, something that sounds strange and wonderful and far off as we are still living four humans and four pets to a tiny house during our construction. And Erin doesn't have as many creatures crawling and sniffing around her house. Anyway, her place is good for the shawl blocking. But. She wasn't home during nap. So I got to "sneak away" from my obligations for a few minutes today and I got to do some knitting. For myself.

I actually finished and bound off the front piece of my klaralund...

...so now all that is left is the back. I felt awfully guilty, but also realized I needed a break from thinking about more complicated patterns, where I am in charge and peoples' future project success is depending on me. Enough of that sort of pressure happens when I open the square envelopes and realize I have a lot of blanket making to do in the next week and a half.

But I'd almost forgotten how very nice it is to get all the notes and little presents that come along with such squares. Siri sent me a thrifted camo shirt that looks oddly like this fabric (which I never did get). Very cool! And she sent six squares, all gorgeous.

(She is seriously contending for the most squares prize, so anyone who has a few done you might want to crank it up, honey).

i was so wrong

The other night some of the women at the knitalong were asking how much ball winders cost, and I said something like "...and they never go on sale."

I take it back.

kids in the kitchen

That's Sarah's picture of Everett helping to bake Truman's birthday cupcakes.

I signed up for a fun swap on swap-bot, about kids & cooking. You send your partner several kid-friendly recipes as well as items a child can use to help cook. I'm picturing a sweet little handwritten cookbook, a handmade apron like those that were made for Tie One On, fun colorful utensils, a few bulk ingredients, and maybe even a few little vintage finds or sewn trinkets for play cooking.

What else?  There's plenty of inspiration on blogs like angry chicken, such small hands, wee wonderfuls, hello my name is heather, all buttoned up, soulemama.... (I hope some of you ladies sign up for the swap).

Do come join! The deadline is July 1.

needlebook, butterfly button

Just a little something to go into my magic yarn ball, for the swap. Mine is halfway wound up, with a few more prezzies to go in, and a drink umbrella and little bird planned for the top.

Robin sent me a gorgeous yarn ball, full of orange, pink, champagne colored wonder, with red accents. I love it! I have yet to take a picture of it, and the shot on her blog is not complete. It's more more more than that. Pictures soon. Molly is sending out some hand-dyed, handspun mohair to her lucky partner. Donni sent some delicious hand-dyed sock yarn with a flower on top. And Craftylily has made a delicious round orange of a yarn treat, with ribbon. Mmmmmm.

The pool of more yarn balls is here. And we've still got 18 days to go! How are yours coming along?

the secret language of packages

There's a certain thing the postman does when we have a package and we're not home. He hides it, and there's a way we can tell. (It's so sad I have to couch this little story in mystery, so that people out in the world won't know the secret language of packages at our house. But we live in a very public spot and I wouldn't want any of my yarn or fabric or gifties stolen.)

Anyway, I was out in the studio yesterday, cleaning up my stash and making bonnets and wishing I'd bought some bias tape. I came in for coffee and the secret thing was done and I knew there was a hidden package! 

It was from Heidi. I bought one of her adorable little handmade bibs from her etsy shop. I picked up the cardboard box and it was way too heavy to be just a bib. I was intrigued and excited. Had she tucked something else in? Oh my god, yes. She sent me so much wonderful stuff along with it. It's all so gorgeous, I just gasped and gasped as I pulled each thing out of the box.

First, lo and behold, the package had bias tape in it. Vintage, pretty red, pink, and yellow bias tape. How odd Iwas just wishing I had some. And Heidi's blood orange marmalade, made on Valentine's Day, is so delicious. Binx had it with yogurt this morning, and again on flax bread for dessert tonight. All three of us are in heaven eating the stuff and it's very close to gone in one day.

Then there was this gorgeous little velvety flower and leaf trio, and a bunch of pretty buttons. The one above was my favorite.

Some of the bias tape came wrapped around this Clara Cow card. You can cut the cow out and attach it to the two ends of a spool to make a little toy.

The madras bib, so tiny and round. I love it.

And this exquisite card of hooks & eyes, along with a handful of red and green floss. These are my favorite of all the stuff in the box. They remind me of a Margaret Atwood poem I always loved.

You fit into me
like a hook into an eye
A fish hook
An open eye

I do love that poem, especially because it's so creepy and raw. I guess some find it funny, but I don't at all. I admire it's compactness. And those hooks & eyes are going right into a collage.

Thank you Heidi! What a great gift.