America is full of hate, and it breaks my heart

Last night Largo, FL officials voted to begin the process to fire Mr Steve Stanton, city manager of Largo, because he is a transgender individual. Mr Stanton expressed his intention to begin living as Susan as part of his process to become a woman. Hundreds of Largo citizens turned up at the city meeting last night, but ulitmately hate and bigotry prevailed.

I cannot begin to imagine what Mr Stanton and his family are going through. One has to feel enormous internal conflict to want to begin such a difficult journey. I'm sure this is very difficult for both him and his family. And it is made worse by people who hate him simply because he makes them feel uncomfortable or because they think it is weird or wrong.

I see people do things I find as weird or wrong every day. I certainly don't understand Mr Stanton's feelings. However, I am lucky enough to feel comfortable in my skin. I have never doubted my gender. So imagine feeling uncomfortable with something that for the rest of us is at the core of our being. He has obvoiusly had to make a very serious decision and should never be mocked for doing what he feels is necessary for him to feel like a whole person. It doesn't prevent him from doing his job. It doesn't mean he has been a bad city manager. It simply means that he is a human being in need of our understanding and support.

I cried last night because of the hate displayed still in this country. It makes me so sad that people continue to preach hate, when love is so much easier and more wonderful of a path to follow.

Please know Mr Stanton, you have a supporter in me.

Tears!

Wow. A girl scout earned her gold award doing the red scarf project. Story here... http://nownormaknits2.typepad.com/red_scarf_project_2007/

Wow. As a scout for 12 years I am so proud to see things like this. Girl scouting is such an amazing program that really creates strong women with incredible values.

Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.

Joan, I'm sorry

There is no way I am going to make that sock deadline. I started last night and there is just no way I will be able to get my first pair done on time. But, I'm inspired to do some more charity knitting and will get a pair of socks done for The Dulaan Project in March. I'll knit some more in the months to come and ship them all off together. Promise.

Progress pictures!

Got in a good amount of knitting time this weekend, so I've been able to move ahead on both of my major projects. The yarn from elann.com is

nice to work with, especially for the price, and I adore the color. The Patons SWS for Lady E continues to be heavenly, with the exception of these three rectangles of red that have showed up rather unexpectedly. Not a fan. But overall I still adore the Lady E. I'm about 9 tiers in so far. I've also made progress on my first grownup sweater, Wicked. The neckline is below. I have made it just one row past the pattern and I'm about ready to start the increases. Yay! Of course, by the time I finish it will be way too warm to wear in Florida, but my office is cold so maybe I can sneak it in just once.

I also heard that at the shower this weekend the baby sweater was a hit. I do hope she likes it. I've got to get started on more baby gifts soon. If only my friends would slow down with the reproducing!!

Finally! Something wicked this way comes

I have finally cast on for Wicked. I am so excited about the color of the new yarn. It's my favorite color of green - kind of a sagey seafoam. Gorgeous. I will take pictures very soon.

I'm just so excited... my first sweater ever is on the needles!

Never ever trust my lists of projects

I am seriously a huge flake. I have a designated area for my stash and I really want to keep it that way. The basket is already overflowing with yarn that really is being used (Lady Eleanor takes a lot of yarn, people!) Last year when I was a new knitter (it seems so long ago!) I planned to make myself a felted bag. In cream. Oh how boring. I'm sure it will come out nice and that after doing a bunch of complicated stuff I will be happy to make something nice and simple. But for now, I need complicated. I need challenge. And grandma needs a birthday gift. And I need to get rid of 5 skiens of Patons Wool Merino in cream.

Enter Wandering Aran Fields. It's a gorgeous cabled capelet that I think would be great to do but might never get worn. Who would wear it? Grandma who is cold constantly would love it. She has a birthday in April. A wool capelet in a gift in April? Grandma keeps her house at like 90 degrees. Trust me, she'll wear that bad boy all summer.

Yay. Problem solved.

Oh the cuteness!

I totally cheated by making my first sweater a baby sweater, but who cares. Look at that cuteness! I hope little Nora loves it.

Pattern: February Baby Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitters Almanac

Yarn: Elann Highland Silk in Celadon

Needles: Knitpicks options size 6

This yarn was great to work with. It's nice and soft and yet very affordable. It has a great sheen to it and the color is just gorgeous. It's a bit more green than it appears in this picture. EZ, of course, is the goddess of patternmaking. I really feel as if I learned a lot making this one and now I feel ready to tackle almost anything. Seamless hybrid here I come!

And as proof that I have been making progress, here is the lovely Lady E. Photos do not do her justice. The colors are a bit more muted and earthy in real life. I keep praying that it stays cold, at least in NH and SC where I will be visiting, throughout March so I can get this done and wear it.

I hate the color I bought for my first sweater

All excited to at least swatch for Wicked, last night I pulled out the green yarn I bought for Wicked. I hate it. It is way too bright. It is way too green. It's not something I would actually wear.

Oh the trials of buying something over the internet. I think I will give in and buy a shade card and also pick up some of the same color I used for the EZ baby sweater in a heavier weight. I love that color and would wear it.

So, in the name of stash management, I vow to make froggy hats and socks, dragon scarves, etc for all the wonderful kids in my life. Because I will not wear froggy green.

Math Geek, me?

I am not a math geek. I used to be. I used to be the strange child who begged her mother to create logic and word problems for me to solve. Then calculus sucked the life out of me and math became lame. But I have a little bar graph on the side that shows my progress, and I am now working on a project with a known number of rows. The Lady E has 36 tiers, plus fringe. So I am saying it has 37 things to complete. Therefore each row I complete is approximately 2.7%. Now I can update my little graph and feel mathmatically happy.

So I started on the Lady E last night in earnest. I cast on using 10s, and then because interchangable needles are the coolest thing ever, I started knitting using 9s. Ooooh. Interchangeables are cool. I've got enough that I can understand why others experience Lady E fatigue, but I'm still facinated with the fabric that is growing from my needles. I'll finish up this tier (almost 9% done) and then go back to finish up the baby sweater.

I have to tell you about Patons SWS first though. It's so soft. And it was absolutely made for entrelac. I'm using Natural Earth. Sigh. Gorgeous. Progress pictures soon.

Plugging along

Not getting knitting time does not help. But, I have made a lot of progress and the baby sweater actually looks like a sweater! Hopefully getting in just one more session will finish it. I get time for that this weekend.

Don't distract me while knitting

Or I have to frog. Tears streamed down as I frogged back 9 rows of the gull pattern on this baby sweater. But, I managed to make up for it and get down to the sleeves! You can almost tell it is a sleeve in this first picture. It's the part that sticks out a bit. Whoo hoo!

I have discovered that I am not good at watching movies and following patterns at the same time. I am not smart at all, apparently. No multitasking for me. Hopefully I should be able to make a bigger dent on this today.

Here's also a close up of the gull pattern. Gorgeous, no?

Good things come in small packages

Which is great because little packages have been arriving for the past two weeks. Yesterday I received Scarf Style and Wrap Style and the yarn to start on Wicked. The color is not quite what I expected, but I still like it and can't wait to get started. I just have to finish up this little baby sweater first. I ripped it all out because I hated the way my first increase looked, but now it's going strong and I am almost done with the collar.

I also stopped by my LYS Tuesday and picked up some beautiful pink wool/cashmere blend to make Knitty's Fetching for myself. I cannot handle being cold in my office anymore, and these will be a much faster knit then the gorgeous but difficult Endpaper mitts, which are still on my list.

Hopefully I will have enough progress on the EZ baby sweater to have pictures tomorrow.

Apple pie, anyone?

I am so darn proud of myself! I managed to learn stranded colorwork and the magic loop yesterday! Thank you knittinghelp.com! This is the first FO for a gift for my friend Tracy. Shh! Luckily her internet connection sucks, so she probably won't make it on here to see. It's a bit rolly, so it's now safely blocking to help out with that. Here are some pictures before and during blocking.

Pattern: A total Ann Norling knockoff that I feel a bit guilty about plus a leaf from Janelle knits

Yarn: Elann Peruvian wool in Pottery Red and Celery

Inspiration: A beautiful hat Sandra made for her soon to arrive bundle of joy

A special thanks to Sandra for helping a random knitter to find the pattern and make a great gift!

Now I'm just waiting for the sweater pattern to arrive. The yarn that arrived for that is absolutely gorgeous and I will be saving my pennies to be able to get enough of it to make something for me. Also, my Patons SWS arrived yesterday so I will soon be able to start work on Lady E! It is absolutely beautiful and very soft so I can't wait to work with it. The yarn for Wicked should be here soon as well. I am one happy knitter!

New list of projects

This post is mostly just a way to keep myself organized. But, if there are any nosy people out there who want to know what I am planning and whirring in my head, read on.

1. Finish Renae's keyhole cable scarf
2. Cable purse
3. Gift for supah cool friend's baby
4. Wicked sweater
5. Lady E/Danica wrap
6. Endpaper mitts for me because my office is cold
7. Sweater for Mr Purlygirly
8. Start Christmas gifts
9. Eris sweater

I have no desire to knit for other people at the moment. Right now I want to make some shit that requires me to push my skills forward, and then I want to wear it.