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Mindboggling

So my favorite place to hang out on Ravelry is a little group called LSG, a group filled with some fine ladies and gents with hearts of gold. (And language of profanity, but that’s why it’s fun.) They set a goal to raise $5069 yesterday for Haiti relief, because that’s how many people are willing to admit they’re LSGers.

In 24 hours, they have raised almost $7,000, and donations are still pouring in. It makes my little heart go pitter-pat.

And I’m not the only one who’s pledged time, or money, or pattern sales. Kristen Rengren has complied a list of knitters, yarnies, and designers who are pledging their products, as well as a run-down of aid organizations accepting donations. There’s some great stuff on that list, so you should click through and check it out. Kristen herself is donating 50% of her sales from two of her terrific patterns this month, and I appreciate that she went ahead and made a list so I could just link you all to it.

I said it in the last post, but I say it again. Knitters are an amazing community, and I’m proud to be in it.

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Mending the World

Yesterday I bumped into a mention of the Hebrew phrase tikkun olam, which means “mending the world.” It’s a Jewish belief, with a lot of meanings and history, but the one I am most familiar with is the importance of doing good works to make the world better. I love the translation, and the idea.

And the world could certainly use a lot of mending today. Yesterday’s earthquake in Haiti has left uncountable numbers of dead and injured. Even aid groups who were already in the country are struggling with their own losses, of facilities and personnel. Rene Preval, Haiti’s president, was blunt: “Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.”

I’m typing this on a laptop, sitting on my comfortable bed in a warm house. Downstairs my mom is cooking dinner for her family, and there’s a fire in the wood stove keeping us toasty. We have a roof and food and clean water, and we’re healthy and prosperous.

So here’s what I’m doing.
October Leaves Fingerless Mitts

I am donating 50% of my profits from January sales of the October Leaves Fingerless Mitts. I’m incredibly lucky, because not only am I prosperous and safe tonight, but I have this little pattern out there in the world that people love and are willing to purchase with their own hard-earned money. So I am going to share that luck with people who desperately need it tonight. On January 31 I will tally up my sales for the month and I am going to send that money to Doctors Without Borders. I will let you all know what it works out to, of course, when I make that donation.

If you’ve already bought October Leaves and you want to chip in, this would be a great excuse to try out Rav’s new gift feature, by the bye.
And if you’d like to pitch in, faithful reader, but you’re not on Ravelry, (and why not, Ravelry is amazing) you can follow this link to purchase.

Why do I do this? I’m a knitter. I love being a knitter. Even before the Yarn Harlot birthed the idea of Knitters Without Borders, we’ve been giving our time and our money and our knitting to people who need it. I’m proud to stand up and take my turn in a very small way in this amazing community of givers.

And another reason? I’m a New Yorker. I know the feeling of watching the sky fall down, and the entire world holding out its hands for us to lean on. My turn to hold out my hands. It’s as simple as that. My turn to mend.

And, but this goes without being said, I love you guys. Stay safe.

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All Is Bright

If you are celebrating, I wish you a very Merry Christmas. My knitting is done and wrapped and I am finishing a cup of tea before drifting off so that Santa can go about his work.

Tannenbaum

This is my favorite night of the year, and I hope you’ve all enjoyed it as much as I have. Peace.

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Memorandum

From: Abbie
To: My Faithful Readers
Re: Today’s Shameful Lack of Knitting Content

Due to other obligations, I did not knit a stitch today.

The Great Cookie Caper

However. I did make 20 dozen cookies, give or take the ones we ate already. I hope you can all find it in your hearts to be understanding.

(If you’re wondering: chocolate chip (half semisweet and half “holiday” chips), almond jam thumbprints and raspberry ribbons in the center.)

Since half of these cookies have jam in them, they can count as breakfast, right? Right!

I love the holidays so much it’s ridiculous.

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We Gather Together

I’m thankful for a lot of things this year, like the roof over my head and the food I eat, and for my yarn (so much yarn) and the beautiful things I can make from it, and also this blog, because I have made quite a few new friends from it already, and discovered a talent I didn’t realize I had.

So like every good American…

The most important part

I will express that thanks by partaking of pie.

If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving today, I hope you have lots to be thankful for, and lots of pie. If you’re not… I hope you have pie anyway.

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Expeditions

My friend Melissa came up to the city on Friday and we went on a little adventure to the Cloisters.

We saw very impressive carvings:
The Cloisters

and walked around the gardens, which are all ready for winter:
The Cloisters
The Cloisters
The Cloisters

Then we went downtown to see the Lion Brand Studio, but we forgot to check their hours. They were closed. We did, however, have a good laugh at their window display:
Lion Brand Studio Lion Brand Studio

It’s a little hard to see in the glare of the window, but yes, those are size 300 needles. I’m wondering what yarn goes with those.

Then I came home and did more Christmas knitting.
Christmas Knitting

This is from Knitpicks Tidings of Joy Ornament kit. I’m slowly working my way through the booklet, and I absolutely recommend it if you’re looking for some quick present ideas. (Unless you’re in Scotland, of course.) I could probably figure most of these out on my own, but sometimes it’s nice to have someone else do the lifting and figure out the numbers for you. It’s a terrific little kit with some great ideas — strings of lights! sugarplums! popcorn & cranberry strings! and I’m really enjoying turning out finished objects this quickly. The only problem is that I want to keep them all.

Ok. Enough jabber, more knitting! Dare I ask how everyone else is progressing? Or have you not started yet? I know one person is done. I won’t say who it is for her own safety, but she should know I’m pretty darn impressed.

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Don’t hate me

We’ve reached that time… the Christmas Crunch has started. I think Kate’s post on the subject has been the funniest treatment so far, so I won’t even try to beat that.

Christmas Knitting

I’ll just be smug that I’ve got at least some of it done already. Now. Back to work. Only 43 more knitting days til Christmas!

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Heu heu heu!

Yesterday my mom and I took the train into the city to watch the Steuben Day Parade. (It’s named for Baron von Steuben, a German general who worked with Washington during the Revolutionary War, so they have adopted his name for the celebration of German heritage in the States.) We saw lots of stuff:


Steuben Photomosaic

It was a perfect September day, sunny and cool, and the Traveling Sock was very happy to attend the Oktoberfest in Central Park afterwards.

Traveling Sock Goes To Oktoberfest

There really isn’t much better than a good Oktoberfest, especially when it’s somewhere as lovely as Central Park. Tips for a good party: order your beer by the pitcher so you spend less time on line and more time drinking, and make sure you know all the words to “Ein Prosit.” (It’s very easy to learn.) Find a folk band to sit next to, and bonus points if they’re in lederhosen. Of course, if you’re in your own lederhosen or Tracht, well then you don’t need any advice from me!

It’s definitely fall now, and I couldn’t be more pleased about that.

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Crisis averted

Um. I owe an apology to those of you reading this on RSS readers, because I just spammed you over the last hour. Please ignore the repeat posts? Thanks. I know better than to think I will avoid mocking.

Long story short: I hit a wrong button by mistake. I deleted the archive. I was not thinking clearly and took a few minutes (a lot of minutes) to figure out that there was a button that would fix it. I hit the fix-it button.

All better now. I will stop messing with the technical things, I promise.

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Largesse

My friends have been incredibly generous lately. There was that birthday goodness, including the surprise Wollmeise, and plans are afoot to attend Rhinebeck and 90% set to check out Vermont’s sheep & wool festival too! But I had another delightful surprise yesterday when I went to my knit night:

Sock Swag

Rebecca planned wisely and went to Sock Summit at the beginning of August. (I won’t tell you how much yarn she brought home, but let’s just say it’s enough to make even my jaw drop in envy.) She offered to play personal shopper for those of us who weren’t attending. Rebecca has impeccable taste, so when I asked her if she would bring me back something, I told her to let her imagination run wild.

I couldn’t be more tickled. My entire knit group has picked up on my affection for greens (not surprisingly, the socks I cast on last night? Green) and Rebecca came back with some lovely yellow-green yarn from Holiday Yarns that I think really wants to be something with a leaf motif. (It’s actually called Gecko, but I don’t care. It’s a leafy color.) And that bag is full of FIBER.

IMG_6945

It’s a spinning sampler! from A Verb For Keeping Warm, which is possibly the most charmingly named business ever to engage in knitterly commerce. The bag is labeled simply “exotics.” I have no idea (some guesses, though) of what any of these are, but every one is soft and inviting in a different way. I’m getting better and better with my little drop spindles, enough so that I think it rates a post one of these days, so this is a very welcome addition indeed to my fledgling fiber stash.

I’m still sad that I wasn’t able to go to Sock Summit, but between the news that there’s going to be another one (shh still sekrit apparently) and this delightful Summit Stash, I think I will bear up under the disappointment quite well, thank you. And thanks, Rebecca, for hauling these beauties cross-country for me!

And — it’s September now and the air in the last few days has become crisp and cool and all the yarn that’s languished in the heat of August suddenly looks inviting again. Autumn is my favorite time of year and it’s finally on its way!