Spinning a Yarn...

I am a knit-aholic. And crochet-aholic. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. In work trucks, in front of the television, at the doctor's office. I knit to clear my head in tough times. I steal time to knit to make myself feel treated to something special. It's a meditative practice, it's a balm, it's productive, it's creative. It's an art, a science, and an alchemy. And I'm just getting started :).

I have become a collector of free patterns. I surf the web like one posessed, running through page after page of patterns of potential interest, amassing .pdf files and online bookmarks for things I'd love to make or that I want to learn to make. I always, always bite off more than I can chew. Just as I revel in reading too many books at once (my current count is five--and that's just what's in the hotel room with me tonight!), I delight in working on three or five knitted projects at once. Keeps me interested and entertained. Keeps me sane. Mostly.

A few things happened to make me feel ready to knit a sellable project (see my shop for current items). Back around Christmas, I was working on a prayer shawl and my poor husband brought it to me in tatters--my little girl had gotten into it and, while the overall fabric was largely intact, a twenty-stitch block in the middle had pulled off the needles and unraveled at least fifteen rows back. With a few deep breaths, a bright light, and a little time, I was able to fix it so that the finished product is as smooth and even as if it had never happened. Not a stitch missed. I was rather pleased with myself.

I have found myself knitting things that friends have hankered after--handwarmers, scarves, hats that my friends and co-workers have wanted to own, to wear. That's a big step in the right direction. As with most warm-blooded human beings, a little encouragement goes a long way for me.

Over Easter I finished two very satisfying projects: a sweater for my daughter to wear over her Easter dress, and an amigurumi bunny to go with her Easter basket.

The sweater:



The doll:



These were two firsts: my first fitted piece of clothing and my first crocheted toy. I was so proud! The sweater was actually fairly complicated. I won't be winning any competitions for the amigurumi doll, but I felt so very successful. I've finally reached a point where I can really diversify--I understand stitches, I can see how a fabric or a pattern is put together, and I can carry a basic pattern in my head. That means I can create a finished, professional-quality product and multitask... two very important qualities when stocking a shop for sale.

But the final step was a big one. I looked and looked online for a particular pattern that would fit the specifications I needed. I wanted to make the perfect vegetable bag/market bag. None of the patterns I could find online satisfied me. I needed something simple, effective, sturdy, and classic. After a couple unfinished attempts, I decided to design my own pattern. And it worked! With a knitted net body and a crocheted rim and straps, my design is just what I was looking for. I've finished the "pilot project"--a slightly wonky version with too-long straps and a too-short body--and made some simple adjustments. Tomorrow I'll place the crocheted finishing touches on my first sale-quality bag and unveil them as a staple on my Etsy site. I'm very excited about the whole prospect.

My desire to "peddle my wares" online is very much tied to my family's desires to homestead and live sustainable lives. Making something with my own hands has an undeniable beauty to it. Living off the products of my own hands has an unmatchable appeal. There's a sense of self-sufficiency and capability to the idea that draws me in. Whether it's raising a truck patch for sale at the local farmer's market or turning out market bags for sale online, supplementing our "Day Job" incomes with the work of our own hands lends a stability, appeal, and sense of meaning to our lives.

We are just beginning. It's an exciting time to be out on the Farm. There is *plenty* to keep us busy on the land and *plenty* to keep my fingers flying over the keyboard. In the works: two or four new chickens this summer, guineas to be raised from keets (babies) scheduled to arrive in June, and a Tennessee Black Hog boar coming in the next week or two. The Black Hog will need a buddy... probably a cheap feeder pig to become "dinner" sometime this fall. The boar himself is going to become half of a breeding pair within the next three years. There are very few operations left in the US that raise Black Hogs, and registered babies can sell for $350 a piece. As one of my five books this week is "Raising Pigs" by Kelly Klober, expect an in-depth hog blog post in the next week or two.

Home Sweet Homestead

I've been away from home a lot lately. Twenty out of the last twenty-four days, to be exact. But the four days I got to spend at the house with my husband and my little girl were heaven. I had nothing to do but focus on the family and the farm. In the midst of a hectic schedule, it was a mini-vacation. T. left EV in the safety of the in-laws' warm house and came to pick me up in the four-wheel-drive farm truck, in the middle of one of the many snowfalls to blanket the country this topsy-turvy winter. It was an adventurous drive home on un-plowed back roads... and it was breathtakingly beautiful.

I spent a great deal of my time at home—as much as I could, in fact—soaking up T. and EV... T. and I actually went out on a date night for the first time since we moved to Oak Hill! And playing with EV never gets old. She is seventeen months old today (Happy sort-of Birthday, baby!) and is a little fireball. She's incredibly communicative even with her very (very, very) limited vocabulary, and understands just about everything you say to her. She got to experience her first post-infancy snow while I was home. We replaced the Little Red Wagon with the sled and pulled her around the farm every chance we got. We bundled her up and, as usual, took her chicken checkin' with us every morning and down to the in-laws for hot chocolate and Wii entertainment. (Yes, even the back-to-the-land, homestead-crazy eco-farmers have a weakness for the Wii. T. and J. are both wicked at bowling. I'm passable at golf.)

Our night out involved a Japanese steak house and (finally) a chance to see the movie Avatar, followed by desert at Chili's (not our first choice, but it was the only place open at 10:00. We are nothing if not middle-path ecotists. To date, my favorite descriptions of the movie are “Ferngully on Acid” and “Dances With Wolves meets Smurfs”. There are some anthropological issues with the film, to be sure. But overall, in my personal opinion, it's a masterpiece. Avatar fuses some very forward-thinking pop-cultural ideals with the pinnacle of cutting-edge entertainment technology. In the midst of an era of war movies and comic-book-to-screen crazes, there's a revolutionary undercurrent to the film. The Green movement is fighting back. With a Grade-A budget.