Lessons (Second Part)

It’s been about a year and a half since I joined the knitting community of Ravelry. And in that year and a half, I have learned me some good stuff!

And I am going to share some of it.

I had decent computer skills before, but Ravelry took my mad internet skilz to a new level. I learned about a Flickr account, and putting/pulling photos in and from there. The world of blogs, all different kinds, just not knitterly type, really opened up for me, and I got the idea maybe I could do something like that. (Sorry that has been inflicted upon all of you!)

While I have been knitting off and on for many, many years, with Ravelry, my access to resources for patterns, techniques, yarns, and ideas is limited only by my time. My mother taught knitting in my small hometown, in the back room of the ‘five and dime’. I am pretty sure (but am confident that the sisters will correct me if I am mistaken) that the only yarn sold there was of the acrylic variety. I definitely remember her talking about the wonders of Wintuk. (Oooh, Wintuk...washable! Dryable! Pillable...) In the early 60’s, my mother was pretty much the local knitting sage. Now she was pretty good, and she knew a lot, but out there in western Kansas, with her as The Resource, the resources were limited.

Not so for me!

Fearlessly, I have taken on numerous new techniques, including lace, socks, magic loop, and spinning. Learning! I love it!! Techniques? Some more than others…

And knitting/spinning down my stash… yep, there’s that aspect, too.

Ravelry is full of real people, learning new stuff all the time, just like me. We post photos of the stuff we make, real pix of real FO’s, not photoshopped photos knit by professionals on gorgeous, skinny models. My photoediting skills were barely adequate before, but now! Somewhat more than barely adequate! I have found I can have fun with them, though, and have a hunger for a new, shiny SLR camera. (Yoo Hoo, Wonderful Guy…are you reading….)

I have learned that the internet is a wild and wide open place, and when one puts an opinion or idea out there, one better be prepared for whatever comes back from it. The printed word comes without gestures or intonations, and it can, and it will be, read and responded to in diverse ways. Argh! There be program work there. Putting myself out there, being comfortable in my own skin, speaking my own truth…no matter what. Yikes!

Progress, not perfection, is more likely to be achieved. I can write a post in Word, spell check, preview, copy, proof, preview, spell check, and post. Then come back the next day, and find errors. Or knit a dress for a grandbebe girl, with a too small neck opening…or post a photo from Dearest Sister’s Blog, without even thinking about asking.

I have made connections to people through Ravelry and through the my little bloggery effort I would have made in no other way. And it totally mystifies, strangely intrigues, and even bewilders my family. Actually it may freak them out just a little. I like it! At least for now…I haven’t had weird stalker type commenters or hateful spammer stuff yet!

So here’s to broadening horizons.

Cheers. And thanks for reading.

Lessons (First Part)

Dearest Sister goes on about how she followed me in a ‘baggy pants kind of way’.

This weekend I asked her to tutor me about podcasts. After her lesson, I had to find my own way, though, not using an iPod, or iTunes. I had a bad experience with iTunes flaking out my Vista registry on my previous, and now dead, computer, so I use a different player on the new nifty neato laptop. The Windows/Mac folk probably have it fixed now, but Windows player works just fine and dandy, and twice burned is learned for me...at least in this case. Dearest Sister has a sweet iPod her Mister gifted her that she uses.

Anyway.

The world of podcasts is now opened up to me. I can hear the voices, finally, of the words I read. I am excited!
Any suggestions for some must-hears?

In other news. I have nearly two dozen eggs knitted, and will be almost out of tail ends of dishclothe cotton yarn when the last two eggs are complete. I am a bit concerned, though. Grandbebe Girl came by today, and walked right by my proud display with nary a glance.


Hmmmm.

P.S. Kathleen? They are filled with fiber loft, not m&m's!

Also, a photo of the bow-tie neck knot thingie (by Katherine Burgess) I completed a bit ago. Not a bit deal, except for the fact that I chose to knit it out of yesterday's mentioned handspun. As I was knitting, I was seeing how it would look great as the edging for the MLCB...possibly.

See. That's the thing with me. I see dyed roving, and have absolutely no idea what sort of yarn it will turn out to look like, or how yarn will look knitted up. It's just so hit and miss. I swear. If I buy some yarn, with a pattern in mind, and it comes together, it's a miracle.

...a reason, a season, or a lifetime...

I have had the opportunity recently to be in touch with several old friends that I have not had much contact with lately, for one reason or another. I have lived in several states through my adult years and have kept up with friends met along the way, and with childhood and college friends, too. When I married Wonderful Guy, he stared at my Christmas card list and asked 'who are these people?' An old Sunday school teacher, folks from Kentucky, good friends from college, people I knew from Missouri, a childhood friend from Kansas...The dee-vorce gave a chance to grow very close with a few more.

Some I have only kept up with by Christmas cards/letters some years, but opportunities have presented themselves to stay in closer touch sometimes. Some have just drifted away, and that is the way of some friendships. A very few were riven completely by the dee-vorce. I have heard that people enter our lives 'for a reason, for a season, or for a lifetime.' I like that view. It provides me the choice of a lesson from these relationships.

Sometimes events provide the impetus to renew friendships. One Saturday, when Wonderful Guy and I stopped to get a donut before hiking, my oldest friend in the world (besides Dearest Sister) parked next to us! Sometimes it takes effort. This year I googled the name of a college friend, and had to email a couple times before I made it through her university's spam filters. Sometimes it means breaking through my personal fears of making of phone call and wondering if they want to reconnect. Sometimes I have to let them go.

Reconnecting has let me make amends where needed. There is a good chance this month that I will get to talk to a college friend that lives too close by for us to not have been in closer contact. I was such a shallow and vacuous boy-chaser, with a great deal of potential, but with no earthly direction except where the males were back then. I just shake my head at my younger self...anyway...I hope to be able to share with her on a healthy level now, and perhaps apologize for some of my bumbles of the past.

Some old friends leave me in awe, like my oldest friend in the world who holds me in such high regard that she considers me like a sister. Do I deserve it? I am not sure, but I am highly complimented. I had the chance to say hello to her elderly mother not long ago, probably 30 years since I last saw her. She recognized me right off, and my friend and I had to assured her that we weren't going to ask to spend the night!

Some aren't around anymore. I lost one two years ago last Christmas to alcoholism. I knew she was struggling, and felt moved to call her one night about 6-8 weeks before she went. I am so glad I listened to my intuition on that one.

I value those I have had the privelege to know through my life, and I appreciate the lessons I have to learn from each person. I am going to try follow through on those nudges my intuition gives me to get in contact, to look people up this year. And when it isn't right, to let it go.