August 23, 2011
Camp
I’ve been listening to a lot of knitting podcasts this year since I’ve become obsessed with knitting. There are 14 that I listen to right now, and I’ve started at the very beginning for about eight of them. Out of those eight, about three or four of them have over 100 episodes, some of them over 150. It’s taking me a long time to work my way through them all, and for a while, I was just listening to the old episodes in order to catch up. Then I realized that I was missing out on what was going on now, so I started listening to the new episodes as they come out and the old episodes to catch up.
Once I started listening to the new episodes, I realized that I could actually go to things like Stitches or retreats. So many of the podcasters that I listen to went to Camp KIP this year, and it sounded like so much fun. I was sad to have missed it, and it made me sad that I wasn’t a knitter for so many years. I half-assed my knitting for a long time, and now it all seems like wasted time. Anyway, after listening to everyone go to Stitches, OFFF, Madrona, and a million others, I decided that this year, I’m signing up for Camp KIP. So I did!
I’m in the 2nd camp session. It’s pretty exciting since I’ll get to meet a lot of the people I listen to on podcasts and read on Ravelry, but it’s also a little nerve-wracking that I’ll be at camp with people who all know each other and who are like celebrities for me. I added a comment on Ravelry for camp, and I was SO excited when Jackie replied to my comment. It was a total fangirl moment! Hopefully, I’ll be able to rein it in once I get to camp!
Because I’m so excited, I’ve already had my first dream about camp. Ha! Camp isn’t until April, so there’s still a long time to wait. I hope I don’t have camp dreams every night until then; I don’t think I would make it all the way until camp in that case. I’ve also decided to go on a yarn diet until camp, so I’m not going to buy anything knitting-related until camp (starting September 1, so I placed my last Knit Picks order last week). Of course, I’m making an exception for our trip to China; I can buy whatever I want within my China-shopping budget. I’ll also have to try to talk all my family into buying me knitting things fro Christmas to tide me over until April, but I think it will all be worth the wait!
August 16, 2011
Charity
Since I’ve been knitting so much, I thought that I ought to knit some things for charity. I have so much yarn in my stash that I won’t wind up using the yarn that I don’t really love. I figured that I could put some of that Red Heart to good use knitting some things for charity.
On Ravelry, I came across the Stitches for Sisters (SfS) group and thought their project sounded like a great opportunity to use up a ton of yarn and support a good cause. (Although I do think the name is a bit odd.) They were making blankets for women in Ethiopia who suffered from fistulas, which are basically holes in the vaginal canal caused by prolonged labor. Hamlin is an Australian organization that provides surgery to repair the fistulas, and then gives the women a blanket after the surgery for comfort. SfS collected 4″ squares from anyone willing to knit them and is sewing them together into quilts. It was a great thing to be a part of, and I can’t wait to see photos of the finished blankets.
I knit 88 squares in total. I also had some other knitting projects on-going at the same time, but I managed to spend most of my time on the squares. Each square took me about 45 minutes or an hour to knit, so I was able to do a lot of squares in the less than two months I worked on them. I only managed to knit nine wool squares. I used my dyed Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool, and it seemed like the fibers would become airborne. Whenever I knit with it, I had a hard time breathing afterward, so I shied away from knitting with it very often. The wool squares came out nicely, even if there are very few of them.
The only problem was that shipping the squares to Australia cost $19! After they sew the squares together, they’re going to have to ship the blankets to Ethiopia. I imagine that if everyone just donated the money spent on shipping to Hamlin, they could do a lot more good for a lot more women.
Listen, Maudy 