Tag Archive | hobbies

Knitting as a Calling

I find myself missing writing, or this type of writing anyway. There have been a couple of times over the last month where I caught myself composing posts in my head. So, why not compose them here, I guess? I’ve got the blog, might as well use it when the mood hits, although I stopped paying for the fancier subscription so photos will be few and far between. I did post this on Substack but that doesn’t feel like home yet, not like this does. Fun fact: apparently today is my blogiversary – I registered the blog 11 years ago!

I recently revisited an old journal in a fit of nostalgia and 25 years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, I wrote that I wished I knew how to knit or crochet. I didn’t necessarily want to make something for the baby – I was just restless one night and nothing sounded appealing. I have no idea how or why knitting came to mind because nobody in my world was a knitter or crocheter.

I didn’t take the initiative to learn at that point. I wish I had. I think knitting would have helped my mental state a lot when I was struggling with motherhood, and with balancing motherhood with a job or marriage or just being my own person. I cycled through other hobbies – scrapbooking, jewelry making – but they didn’t stick. And they never had the same restorative, meditative qualities that knitting does. Maybe that’s why they didn’t stick?

When it comes to hobbies – and I even struggle to call it a hobby because it feels more important than that – knitting is The One for me. It completes me, soothes me, supports me, inspires me. I’ve been knitting for 12 years now and never gotten tired of it.

It’s given me a way to play with colors and patterns and textures in a tactile way. I’ve tried drawing and painting and those are not my talents. This, though, the pairing of yarn and pattern, this comes naturally to me, and the whole process brings me so much joy.

It’s given me an amazing community, a place where I feel accepted and encouraged. I love knitters so much. I love how so many of them have leaned into being truly, authentically themselves. Many of us knitters are weird, and I say that as a compliment because I love weird. I love being “weird” because it means accepting how I’m different – not just accepting but embracing. I have to thank the wild, powerful world of knitters for helping me gain that confidence

I love who I am now, and I think knitting has contributed so much to that. I wish young Bonny had had even a tiny bit of that 25 years ago.

Friday Progress

Jul24

Nope, no finished objects for me this week. My monogamous knitting lately has been my Sea Swell Shawl, but it’s annoying me right now. It’s made up of left and right wedges, all done with short rows, and is designed as a fade with either three or five colors. But when you fade in a color on a left wedge (as happens once in the pattern), the new color starts on the wrong side. The other option is to start the new color in the middle of the row, but then when you get back to that part, the working yarn is a few stitches down because of the short row. Argh! This probably makes very little sense, but let me assure you, it bugs me just a little. I got the new color joined and did a few rows and now I’m bored with garter stitch short rows.

805165C5-8FA5-4047-A551-C57EB4F7E3E4_1_201_a So yesterday I said to heck with monogamy and picked up my newest sock project. This is my Show Me Yarn Bootheel yarn in the Stained Glass Menagerie color, and it was so light and airy that I needed a lace pattern to go with it. I ended up picking the Mercury Socks pattern, which is free on Ravelry.

AD0523AB-4389-4DB8-83BE-D499069710F6_1_201_a It’s a simple five-row lace pattern, so while I have to keep the pattern handy, it’s not taxing my brain too much. These will be perfect spring socks!

It’s weird, though, because the last two or three weeks, I’ve been doing things other than knitting. I did puzzles for a while, but got burned out on those I think. I’ve been reading a lot, and recently I’ve loved 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, and Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan. My last read was a stinker so hopefully the next one will get me back on track. I’m thinking Odd One Out by Nic Stone. I’ve also gotten back into LEGOs, which I never would have expected. I loved building the boy’s old Harry Potter LEGO sets a couple of months ago. Something about creating order from all the pieces, and the concentration required, was soothing and satisfying. But the sets he has left are Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, and they don’t call to me. So I ordered the Friends LEGO set, and I did one bag a day, which gave me six days of fun. And it hasn’t abated: I’ve already ordered my next set, a lunar landing module. These are crazy times, friends! Have you taken up any unexpected hobbies lately?

Sock It To Me Monday

Mar23

Thank goodness for knitting, am I right? I mean. Heck. I have no idea what I’d do with myself if I didn’t have knitting. Okay, sure, I’d read, and I did read a whole book yesterday which was great. And I’d work on puzzles — I’ve got a Twilight puzzle going but it’s all shades of black and gray and it’s currently driving me bonkers. So yes, thank goodness for knitting. I’ve been using my sock knitting for work days, for those short breaks during the day, so I don’t have a ton of progress to show. This is the Vestigial sock (which sounds weird. Look up “vestigial“. This is my vestigial sock, haha! Why is this pattern even called Vestigial? I don’t know!).

I love this yarn so much. It’s almost self-striping but with such gentle color transitions, and the colors are all springy and happy. I finished the heel while on a Skype Saturday Night knit night with Sarah at Mildly Granola and I made at least one mistake but it looks like a perfectly good heel so who the hell cares? Not me.

Here are the non-knitting things I’m grateful for night now: Dogs that want all the cuddles and snuggles I can give them. A husband who has the time and inclination to cook dinner almost every night, and who is brave enough to do the grocery shopping because the germ thing freaks me out a little. Working for a company that is supportive of working from home, and having a job that is easy to shift to working from home. A son who has stayed in good spirits and is fun to talk to, and who is old enough to entertain himself so that I don’t have to do it while also trying to work.

Those are the big ones. I hope you all are doing all right. I go back and forth with some stretches that are more anxious than others, but overall, I know I can manage being at home for another few weeks. Oh yeah, one more thing: I’m grateful we can still go outside!

Happy Monday, friends.

Reading or Knitting?

Feb28

Back in January, I decided my focus word this year would be “Balance”. I wanted to find balance between buying yarn and fixing my house, maintain a good work/home life balance, maybe try to find a balance between being healthy and eating food I like (that one’s been a slow starter). But now I’m struggling from a lack of balance between my favorite hobbies, knitting and reading. I love both but knitting has been taking precedence for the last few years, and it seems to be getting worse. I kind of miss books.

Thankfully, I have reached a point where I am able to read while knitting, but there are caveats: it has to be an ebook, and the knitting has to be very simple. So I’ve been reading and knitting over my lunch breaks for a while, and that’s good. But it’s not the same. I miss physical books. I tried doing both yesterday.

It didn’t work. I struggled to keep the pages open and flat, and it took longer to turn the pages, disrupting the flow of my knitting. Trying to combine the two meant neither of them were satisfying. What did I do? I finished the sock, of course.

After that, I worked a little bit on a cowl, and only then did I feel like I’d gotten enough knitting to be able to take a break for some reading. It’s not even that I feel obligated to knit; I WANT to knit. If I don’t get some knitting in my day, I’m sad. But I need to work on this balance, because I’ve got three library books that I’m eager to read!

How do you balance your time when you’ve got two things you really want to do?

Is it safe yet?

Sep17

Once again, I debated whether to post this. But like I do most of the time, I decided, why not? I’ve always been honest in this blog. Maybe too honest, I don’t know. But I know there are others of you who have felt this way. I know there are probably some who are currently feeling like this. So here goes. You know how when you start a new job, or maybe a new school, you kind of hold back a little? Maybe you don’t reveal all the crazy until you think it’s safe? I’ve been in the new job for almost three months, and I’m finally starting to feel safe. It helps that one of my bosses is a little wacky, so once I saw that, I knew she and I would get along great. I mean, she brought in a blow-up Ninja punching bag for my birthday! Perfect, right? The others aren’t wacky in the same way, but they seem to enjoy our wacky. I have to tease and joke and laugh at work; it’s nonnegotiable.

But the lab wasn’t all. I’ve mentioned before that there’s a knitting group there, and I’ve been going to the twice-weekly meetings pretty faithfully. It was nice to be around other knitters, even if most of them aren’t *quite* as ~~crazy~~ obsessed about knitting as I am. They’re fun ladies, and we chatted and laughed a lot. Slowly, I’ve been figuring out which of them are kindred spirits, and there are some I feel a stronger connection with than others. And then I found another knitter who IS crazy about knitting the same way I am, and we had a delightful lunch, and I hope for more. Then the other day, the knitting group had a gathering that was more…raucous than usual, more bawdy, more earthy. We laughed and laughed, and it was wonderful. And that meeting really helped me feel more at home here, made me see that there are people here who like similar things, who have a similar sense of humor, who have similar political leanings (that’s more inferred–I try to avoid talking about religion and politics with…almost everyone, really). I think I’ve found people who will accept and appreciate me the way I am, and I needed that. As much as I like my coworkers, sometimes I can’t help but feel separate from them at times–my knowledge base, skill sets, experiences, vocabulary are all so different from theirs. I’ve had to remind myself that just because I don’t always understand their language, it doesn’t mean I’m not equally smart in my own right. I mean, YEAH, of course I KNOW that, but it’s hard to remember when I’m in an environment that uses and values a different kind of intelligence. I’ve felt really dumb many times over the last couple of months. I’ve felt dumb and incompetent and like I’m failing everyone who’s counting on me.

BUT. I had my people. I had my knitting friends. I had the book group, which has been amazing too. I haven’t been in one before, so I haven’t sat and talked about a book for an hour since college, and that was many moons ago. And most of the knitting group is in the book group too (because knitters and readers are AWESOME) so I’ve seen them quite a bit. And I always left my time with them feeling energized and relieved; they’ve provided some of the happiest times there. They’ve cheered me on when I let myself vent a bit; they’ve helped me with no sign of irritation or annoyance. They’re just mostly NICE people. They’re GOOD people.

So those good times have pulled me through the bad ones, and now I’m finally starting to feel a tiny bit more comfortable in my role. There’s still a lot I don’t know, but I’m picking things up, and I’m getting to use my “real” skills of proofreading/editing more often. That’s the best part of the job.

This has been a hard transition for me, going from doing what I truly love every day (knitting, writing, blogging, editing) to an office job. And I don’t mean that to disparage the job at all. The company is amazing, the job is good, and it’s getting better. But it’s different. It’s a different life than I was leading, and I’ve had to readjust. There are things I miss about staying home. But there are things I like about working. So, it’s a tradeoff. I’m finding ways to balance work and home, home and knitting, all that stuff. Sigh. Life. It’s just hard sometimes, you know?

Thanks for listening, if you’ve made it this far. As a reward, here’s my latest FO, completed last night after the kids performed in the band at the Friday night football game.

It’s called Kilter and it was so easy and fun to knit. I used Berroco Vintage in Envy.

Until next time, happy knitting or working or whatever it is you do every day!

Yarn Pics

Jul17

Remember how my LYS is closing this summer? Well, it’s happening at the end of this month, and yesterday I realized I needed to get up there before all the really good stuff was gone. I’m glad I did because I got a few awesome treasures for an awesome price.

Alegria by Manos del Uruguay. This is the yarn I used for my Peek-a-Boo Bay shawl (different colorway obviously) and I loved knitting with it. I’m tempted to make another one in just this yarn, skipping the stripes. This wasn’t a huge steal, just 25% off, so it was my biggest splurge.

Araucania Huasco (fingering weight Merino) in Wine. This was 50% OFF!! I grabbed the last two skeins in Wine…

and the last skein in green…

and the last skein in this fun summery blue-green colorway. I’ve already decided this one will be my next cast-on. It’s going to be the Reyna shawl.

Finally, remember my Color Block Chalet Wrap? Well, it’s one of my favorite pieces, and the yarn was 35% off. They didn’t have enough that I could replicate it, but I think I’m going to do a half-size version, just cast on half as many stitches, and have a yummy color block scarf. That’ll take one skein of each color. Not sure what I’ll do with the rest, but I love this yarn so much I couldn’t leave it there.

With my arms full of yarn, I passed by the needle section and realized they were on sale too. I’ve needed a size 4 16″ circ and it was 50% off so, plus I’ve heard so many good things about the Addi Turbos that I wanted to try them. They were only 35% off, so I only picked one size. It’ll be enough to get me hooked, I’m sure!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go finish my Secret Beach scarf so I can cast on all the new projects!

A wee bit of purple

Jul16

Where did my knitting time go?? I think my body is still adjusting to this new schedule, because by the time I’m home from work and done with dinner, I’m exhausted. I knit a few rows and my eyes are drooping, and I’m usually in bed with lights out by 10. I got so spoiled the last few years that my body is struggling with this new “wake up at 5:30 in the morning” thing. As a result, I have very little knitting to show off this week. I’ve been working on the Secret Beach Scarf and I made it through the second contrasting color and onto the third. And it’s my favorite: the purple!

I’m on the homestretch now, just need to get the purple section to 18″ and then it’ll be DONE and I can cast on something new with no guilt.

I did get to meet the knitting group at work and they seem to be a lovely group of people, very welcoming and funny and irreverent, as the best people are. They meet twice a week over lunch break so I should start getting a little more knitting time. Yesterday I took lunch out onto the patio and had some solo knitting time. It was lovely to have that little respite in the middle of the day.

The other thing I’ve been doing is reading. Lots of my favorite authors have new books out, and I’ve finished Elin Hilderbrand’s Here’s to Us and Emily Giffin’s First Comes Love and I’m almost done with Allison Winn Scotch’s In Twenty Years. Coming up I have Sarah Pekkanen’s new book, but first I want to re-read Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell before the first book club meeting. (Haha, I’ve never been in a book club before, so this will be interesting!)

The puppies are not a fan of my new schedule, and are so so excited to see me when I get home. My first job is always to sit down and cuddle with them for a while, otherwise they just follow me around and jump on me.

That’s it, that’s my week. Hopefully next week I’ll have more knitting to include!

Crochet Flip Flop Slippers

May31

Guys, this one really challenged me. I didn’t think it would. A friend requested a pair of crochet slippers made from flip flops (see the pattern here) then two more friends saw that request and requested some, and before I knew it, I’d agreed to make five pairs. Crazy, I know. But I read the pattern and it seemed simple. The supplies were cheap: I found flip flops at the dollar store, and Michaels had a great sale on Lily Sugar N Cream cotton over the weekend: 5 for $5!! At the time, I thought I might make a pair for myself, plus I want to make a few new dishcloths and washcloths. Gotta buy the yarn when it’s cheap, right?

The husband had a nifty tool to mark the holes exactly 1/4″ apart as specified, then I used an ice pick to make the holes. It was a little tedious but not difficult. Then it was time to use the small hook (B, 2.25mm) to make the first round, and that was pretty hard to get used to. The holes weren’t quite big enough for the yarn, working around the rubber sole was awkward, and I did split the foam twice. But finally I got to switch to the bigger hook (G, 4.0mm) and away I went. I followed the pattern exactly. I kept going even when it looked suspiciously large, when meant that when I was done, I had this huge clog-type monstrosity. I frogged that without any photos. Second attempt included a decrease row and created this lovely…thing. It’s not a great photo, I know, but I think you can tell it’s still rather tall. Also, it was supposed to be a size 7, and I could get it on my size 9 1/2 foot without stretching the cotton too much. Frogged again. This time I went back and read some comments, and someone else’s slipper came out super-size, and the author mentioned that maybe her holes were farther apart and the yarn was stretching more. So that’s a big thing right there: my holes were exactly 1/4″ apart and that was too close together. Let that be a lesson to you.

Okay, moving on. For the third attempt, I decreased the heck out of the body and only did six rows instead of nine. I made the tapered back one row shorter and left off one row of the decorative top. I *think* it came out okay. Grace approved.

After that, the second one went quickly and smoothly, and I’ve decided these might be okay after all. This was the first time I ever seriously considered saying no to a request. Now, I’m not going to be making a ton of these for craft shows or anything, but I can definitely finish the other four pairs.I can actually admit they’re kind of cute.

If you’re interested, my Ravelry notes are here.

Yarn De-Stash

Apr29

After my recent yarn purchases, I spent a bit of time sorting through my stash. It was getting rather over-crowded again and I needed to make some room. I pulled out a few yarns I decided I’d probably never use, and figured I’d post them here in case any of them called to my knit/crochet readers. I’ll attach a contact form at the end of this post, or you can email me at bonny(at)bonnyknits(dot)com. If you’re willing to pay the shipping, I’ll ship anywhere you want me to! Payment through PayPal.

Araucania Ruca Solid color 109. 100% sugar cane. 4 unused skeins. DK weight, 263 yards per skein. $25 for the lot, plus s&h. (Retails at $14/skein)

Classic Elite Yarns Imagine 53/47 cotton/rayon blend. DK weight, 93 yards each. There’s a lovely shimmer that was really hard to catch in the photos. $6 plus s&h.

KnitPicks Brava Worsted, color Caution. Was just too bright for what I wanted. 3 skeins, all unused. $5 plus s&h.

KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Superwash color Camel Heather. No idea why I bought this, since it’s not really my color. $2 plus s&h.

KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Bulky Superwash. Wound but unused. One dark, one light purple. Love the colors, they just weren’t as soft as I like. $5 plus s&h.

Wool Pak Yarns NZ 100% New Zealand wool. Label not marked with ply or shade. Label states 250 grams per skein, these three weigh in at 245 grams. I bought it like this, no idea why it was split into three. $5 plus s&h.

I also have a ton of cheaper acrylic to re-home, too much to list individually. If you like Red Heart Super Saver, Caron One Pound, Homespun, or things like that, give me a holler and I can give you an idea of what I’ve got!

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Oh Yeah, Knitting

Feb10

I’ve been distracted from my knitting the last few days, but I came back to it yesterday. While in a waiting room, I knit up some Yoda ears and completed another Yoda hat. It looks a little long, doesn’t it? Hmm. I used a different hat pattern this time. I might modify it a bit next time. I’ve got another Yoda waiting for one more ear, and then it’ll go into the For Sale pile too. I also finished the pink and gray hat last night. Now I need to make one in the reverse colors, but I don’t know if it’ll happen before Saturday. You may remember, I have a small craft show on Saturday, and I’m focusing on hats for this one. I’m trying to get a good variety of price points, and acrylic kid hats seem to be popular. Anyway, once I finished this one, it was time to get everything tagged and priced. I turned up Adele and got to work. I added 17 hats and 4 cowls to my inventory! With any luck, I’ll come home from the show with a lot fewer. Now, let’s see how many more hats I can knit before Saturday…