Dear Erica,

As your husband, it is my duty (one of many) to tell (actually remind) you something of such extreme importance that merely speaking the words will not suffice. Announcing them from the treetops (where Eisley lives) is the only way to tell you. It’s a well-known secret whispered into bullhorns by all your friends and family:

You are loved.

And not only this, but also:

Don’t let the bastards get you down, especially those faceless few who for whatever anonymous, bewildering reason find it necessary to say no to your dreams. But only you—YOU—can defy them. You and the legion of Those Who Stand Behind Erica Out of Love and Admiration in Hopes of Making Obvious How Powerful and Lucky She Is.

You know your two words: Defiance and Optimism, as in Defiance and Optimism in the face of temporary (though annoying) obstacles. Realize you’re one of the fortunate few who will not buckle under the form-letter anonymity of those who reject you: they know not whom they reject.

Got it?

Go forth unafraid. This is the gift you give to yourself, especially that version of you ten, twenty, thirty years down the road who, looking back on these bedrock days, will think “My fearlessness was second only to the feeling of being loved.”

Love
Bryan, et al.

Hello, Universal Knitting Contingent Committee Members, Spinning Wheel Calvary and Cross-Stitchery Salutatorians,

This is Bryan, Erica’s husband, writing a guest post on the fabled Leetle Knits blog. I’m sitting here listening to the Fiery Furnaces while Erica is out in the living room knitting mittens for blessed hands, trying to come up with words from the established vocabulary for otherwordly things like ‘love’ ‘perfect music embodied’ ‘warming sun’ ‘breathable air in a suffocating world’ ‘a woman unlike all the others’ and I just keep going round and round in triangular, quadrilateral circles thinking I can bump into the right word for my wife.

Yesterday was her birthday, and that matters because until she was born–December 7, 1973–I was little more than fleshy blob on cruise control, crawling around lost, looking under blankies, under pillows, peeking into scary closets, babbling to anyone who’d listen about who and what I was looking for. They thought it was cute. They thought I was dabbling in baby talk. But for a year and a half I was on the Earth without my dearest–the entire earth, i.e. no matter where I could possibly have looked, I wouldn’t have found her. It was torture. I didn’t think I would make it. I came pretty close to beating Elvis to the great Vegas Revue in the sky. But then somehow I got word. Somehow the news got to me. I wasn’t yet two, but when I was informed about what had happened a few hundred miles away in Hutchinson, Kansas, I relaxed a bit. My future now seemed tackle-able. It didn’t matter what happened because from then on I wasn’t alone on this planet. The one I had been waiting for finally arrived.

So, sing with me unto the canyons, ye good knitters. The word is the good, the good is the word, the word is the good, the good is the world. Erica’s still around.

[comments (6)]

This was such a great weekend. Saturday, I rode the train up to Chicago, leaving Champaign at the ungodly hour of 6am and arriving in Chicago at 9am. After I arrived in Chicago, I dropped my bag off at the hotel where my parents would be checking in later that day. I then headed to Borders for a 2nd breakfast and looked at the newest issue of Spin Off. Then I boarded the Red Line and took it down to the Harrison stop. I was in search of Loopy Yarns (719 S. State) that I had read about on Knitters Review.
As I was reading the post on KR, I realized that the owner is a friend of mine that I used to hang out with at Stitches.

When I arrived, Vicki recognized me and it was a great reunion. She has a beautiful store with tons of tempting yarns that I could have spent all of my money on. And a huge selection of Lorna’s Laces, which Miss M introduced me to when we were in Chicago about three weeks ago to see the Yarn Harlot. I couldn’t resist, I had to get a few things.

Size 4 Addi Turbo 24″ needles,
The Flower Basket Shawl pattern and two hanks of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Pioneer (16). (click image for better view)

After visiting Loopy Yarns, I rode the L up to meet my sister M for lunch and to visit Nina, another recently new yarn store. M wants to make a scarf for her friend and couldn’t resist the Kidsilk Haze. She’s a fairly new knitter but insisted on getting the KSH. I started her on a very simple eyelet scarf yesterday before I left. As I knew she would, she picked up everything really quickly and said she may have to pay us a visit if she runs into problems. I feel bad saying that I hope she runs into problems just so she’ll come visit. :)

While M and I were at lunch, I commented how I loved the color on her nails, she had just had a manicure on Friday. After lunch, we stopped at a nail salon and she paid for me to get a manicure with the same cool color “Wicked.” I haven’t had a manicure since before my wedding over a year ago. It was so wonderful to get a manicure - it’s the ultimate affordable form of pampering.

About 5pm on Saturday, Mom & Dad finally arrived at their hotel, so M & I rode the train downtown to their hotel. Saturday night was the first game of the World Series between the White Sox and the Houston Astros. Mom, M, Dad and I all hung out in their room, ordered room service for dinner and watched the game. It was the perfect way to spend a cold rainy Saturday evening. The Sox won game 1 of the World Series 5-3. I used to be a huge Sox fan, keeping score at the games that I went to. Dad and I used to go to a game at least once a year before I met Bryan. In fact, I had just gone on my second date with Bryan when Dad and I went to our last game together. With the wedding and moving, it just hasn’t possible to go to a game with Dad since then. M has become a bit of a Sox fan recently and even Mom, who isn’t a baseball fan at all, got into the game.
Sunday, Mom and I were complete slugs and it felt wonderful. We sat in bed, Mom read and I knitted. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday morning because it was cold and rainy outside. We even ordered room service for breakfast. Oh, how we love it when Dad’s in town for a conference. :) Then a few hours later, M came downtown and we all went out to lunch.

I caught the train back to Champaign about 4pm. I got home just in time to watch game 2 of the World Series. Bryan sat down with me a few innings into the game and was cheering right along with me when Paul Konerko hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 7th inning. He even celebrated when they won in the bottom of the 9th with a home run from Scott Podsednik. If Dad and I can get M, Mom or Bryan to be Sox fans, we’ll have accomplished something. I got a lot of knitting done this weekend most of it while on the train and while watching the ballgames. I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the Hobo sweater and I am working on the body already. Now for the long haul.

Btw, what do you think of the new banner across the top? Can you all see it? I thought it was time for a somewhat classy looking banner. I’ve put it off for way too long.

I started my new job on Wednesday and have been in training the two days that I’ve worked. I’m really excited about it though. I have my first day at the register next Saturday. :)

It’s been a strange week because it was a short week for us. We returned from our trip to Vegas on Monday, I started my new job on Wednesday and I am going to Chicago to visit my parents and sister. My parents are in Chicago for several days from Kansas. It will be the first time that I’ve seen my dad since Thanksgiving. Seeing the parents is always wonderful. Bryan won’t be accompanying me to Chicago because he has too much school work to do, poor guy. My mom will be here Tuesday night for a visit, so at least he’ll get to see her.

Wednesday evening, Miss M, one of my knitting friends from the knitting group, came over for an informal knitting night. Bryan made one of his homemade pizzas and then Miss M and I knitted for a while. I helped her figure out a shawl/wrap pattern for her sister. She has some beautiful hand-dyed alpaca that will make a very scrumptious shawl.

I’ve been knitting on some great things but I can’t share them because they are gifts. I can say that I finished the Cranberry lace and am now knitting with the Kidsilk Spray that I recently bought. The socks are coming along well - I finished the first sock and am about two inches into the second sock’s cuff. Unfortunately, I can’t show those either because they are a gift too. Oh, the holidays make it difficult to have a blog where you want to show everything!

I have made a little bit of progress on the Hobo sweater. There isn’t a whole lot to see as I’m just reknitting the first sleeve that’s part of the first half of the sweater.

Last night, I spent several hours plying the Lemondrop yarn. I thought I would be brilliant and to make the yarn stronger for socks, I would do a 3-ply cabled yarn. So I plied two singles together for a standard 2-ply yarn. Then I thought I would just ply the two-ply with an extra single for a 3-ply yarn. But I was reading in the Winter 2004 issue Spin-Off about a 3-ply cabled yarn and the author mentioned spinning the third ply counterclockwise (S) instead of clockwise (Z). But I’ve already spun three singles all clockwise (Z). So does anyone have any advice? Should I just leave it 2-ply and use the yarn for something other than socks? I have about 450 yards on the two bobbins and still have a third bobbin that hasn’t been plied yet with about 350 yards right now. I was going to finish spinning the third bobbin to get 450 yards to ply with the other two. I’m so confused and irritated right now. I’m going to post on the Knitters Review forum about this, so if I get any good answers, I’ll let you know. And ahead of time, thank you for your advice and/or support. At this point, I’m ready to scrap the idea of 3-ply yarn and just knit something out of the 2-ply.
Update at 4:30pm - From the quick advice that I received from several KR members, it looks as though I can use 2-ply for socks. And I can’t just take what I have and add a third ply to make it a 3-ply cable yarn. I have enough yarn to make socks so I’m going to ply the rest of the singles that I have an use the yarn for socks. I’ll just have to knit my socks on smaller needles to get a tight gauge.

In the meantime, I think I’m going to take a break from Lemondrop and start spinning some of the Cotton Candy (light pink) merino/tencel fiber that I have. I’m out of bobbins, or should I say, I have stuff on every bobbin I own, and since I’ve already started the Cotton Candy, I have to work on it. Once I get Lemondrop done I’ll have three empty bobbins.

Well, we found out Vegas is not our kind of town. I don’t want to insult anyone who lives there or loves Vegas but it just felt a bit too much like an illusion to us. We were there for our friends’ Brandi & Toby’s wedding. It’s funny because Brandi & Toby don’t like Vegas either, but it was a great place for them to get their families together for a wedding. Saturday, Brandi’s sisters and stepmother threw her a surprise shower. She was definitely surprised and couldn’t believe that I was in on the surprise. I knitted some dishcloths for her, which she loved.

Before the wedding, I helped Brandi get dressed and was there to just talk to her while we were waiting for the ceremony to start. Brandi looked so beautiful, she said her make-up looked like the Vegas version of herself. :)

The wedding ceremony was Sunday at the chapel at Mandalay Bay, which was lovely.

Bryan and I in front of the chapel. (Notice that I wore my shawl. Brandi loved the shawl and was telling everyone to make sure they got of photo of me in the shawl. Brandi, here is your photo.)

They had a brunch after the ceremony at the Border Grill, which has fabulous food.

And they had Toby’s favorite cake, cheesecake, for the wedding cake. It was a melt-in-your-mouth cheesecake and was absolutely wonderful.

I’m so glad that we were able to be at Brandi & Toby’s wedding. I wouldn’t have missed it.
Congratulations and Best Wishes, Brandi & Toby. You’re two very wonderful people and I know you’ll be happy.

Bryan and I are exhausted, it was a long trip home. We got in late last night (Sunday) into Chicago and stayed with my sister before heading home early this morning.

In knitting news, I’m still working on my socks, I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first one. (I got a lot of knitting done in the car on the way to the airport and on the plane.) They are a gift, so I can’t post anything. Sorry but I’ll post them after the holidays. I hope to start another pair of socks for myself soon so that I can get a mention for Lolly’s Socktober.

And for those of you making socks for someone other than yourself, I have a great link for you. It’s a sock size chart.

Because I just couldn’t resist:

Wow! You would have been a pair of socks as long
as it’s possible for socks to be before they’re
tights - and all multi-coloured with pretty
patterns and detail all over the place - then
you could stand and admire your sock-self all
day!

What type of sock are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I got this in an email today. I almost never win anything.

Congratulations! You are a winner!
Your name was randomly selected in the Interweave Press and Chicago White Sox Stitch �N Pitch giveaway as a winning entry! Your gift, Interweave Crochet 2005 magazine, will be shipped to you shortly.
Thanks for your entry. Enjoy your prize!

Interweave Press
Publisher of books and magazines for Fiber Enthusiasts

And to add to the good news today, I’m going to see the Yarn Harlot! I’m going with one of my new knitting friends from the knitting group.

Yesterday, when Bryan arrived home there was a surprise waiting for him on the coffee table. He was so impressed, the last time he saw them the foot was only half knit. He began cuddling them and then just had to try them on. He wanted to wear them all evening and then wear them all day today. I told him that I wanted him to wait until today so that he could wear them all day and show them off at the library. He’s wearing them today proudly and keeps saying, “They are perfect” and “They don’t fall down.” So my modification of the retro rib from Interweave Knits worked.

Also yesterday, a Pinwheel blanket probably arrived at Bess’ house. Her parents Rachael and Bryan are friends of ours and Bess was born a day after Bryan’s birthday. We’ve never met Bess but we’ve seen her in photos and she’s adorable. I’m sure she’ll love the blanket. I used Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. I didn’t work on this blanket for nearly a month as the green was backordered all over the country for over a month and a half.
update 28 Sept - (The pattern is free online, just click the Pinwheel link above.)

Now I’m working on the Barbara shawl and the Cranberry lace. I also have two sweaters that I should be working on - Hobo and the Crazy Green sweater. And attaching the two pieces of Bryan’s ultra warm hat. The hat is two separately knit hats, one in straight stockinette and the other in the Double-Knit Fabric stitch from Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I was going to just pick up stitches along the edge of the stockinette hat to work the Double-Knit hat but there are a different number of stitches in each hat and I wasn’t sure how that would work. Now I’m putting off putting them together. I told Bryan that it will be finished before it gets too cold outside and he needs it.

One of my goals is to not start anything new until I get a job. I have some socks from the “Go With the Flow Socks” in mind from Interweave Knits, Summer 2005. It’s quite an incentive, but a necessary one. I’m looking a lot, so something will come through I just know it will.

And finally, I know I have a lot of readers but hardly any commenters. Please leave me a comment, I want to know who you are. :) (Erin, you are excused from this because you always comment. :))

Updated 8:30pm: I heard on All Things Considered tonight on NPR, this story about two properties that are available for rent in Fair Isle, Scotland. A very interesting little story.