Crazy for Ewe

Welcome 2021! Although today is a mere 6 hours away from last night, it already seems very different.  I am delighted to welcome the new year, but I am also grateful for the way 2020 put a fine point on what’s important.  I got a new, first hand appreciation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  Those foundational things like food and air, health and safety – stuff we took for granted—became foremost in my mind.  That next level—social needs—the need to belong, make social connections and be in relationship with others—this was what I missed most.

I talk about it a lot from the perspective of the shop – You are always welcome here.  Sure, it’s a tagline, but it’s part of the brand promise.  We are here to help fulfill our customers’ social 

As knitters, our ability to open the present and live in it is right at hand.  We can give ourselves a few mindful moments in which we focus on nothing but the feel of the yarn, the sound of the needles, and the soothing rhythm of each stitch. 

I have a several simple things on needles that help me focus and be mindful.  First is a little hat that I’m knitting up for a new concept next month.  It’s 

A woman suffering from depression told her therapist that things were bad and she was just barely getting by.  The therapist asked her what specifically she was struggling with.  Describing the piles of dishes in the sink she complained that her dishwasher didn't do a good job so she had to scrub the dishes before she even put them in the dishwasher. The prospect of scrubbing was just overwhelming.

The therapist nodded, as therapists usually do, and said, "Run the dishwasher twice." The woman was like, "What? No, you're not supposed--" But the 

I’m so happy because my boy, Colton, came home from college Monday. I was especially happy when he finally boarded the plane, because, I will tell you, it had been an ordeal. He’s all the way in Oregon, with a 9am flight.  The airport is 100 miles away from campus, and he doesn’t have a car.  His roommate, who does have a car, left for home last week.  I am not at all familiar with the area, and with Covid closures, he hasn’t had much of a chance to explore the downtown. I did manage to book Amtrak to Portland, and he got his first Uber to get to the station. Talk about planes, trains, and automobiles.

Colton’s flown before, but never with so many moving parts he had to 

I love reading Sam Sifton who writes a cooking column for the New York Times . This week he talks about how reading cookbooks, especially those of ethnic cuisine, is a wonderful stand-in for all of the interesting places we don’t have the luxury of visiting at the moment.

Knitting right now is kind of the same.  This time of year I tend to have a lot of 

I went to Joanne’s Saturday in search of fabric for a my Katies’ Halloween costume. She has decided that she wants to be a hotdog. As I filled my cart with pink vinyl, sparkling relish beads, and mustard yellow 3D fabric paint, Halloween filled my mind, but the cheery plaid tins and glittery blue stars reminded me that Hannukah is just 45 days away, and Christmas just 60.  My stomach lurched a little.  We are at the top of the annual holiday roller coaster knitters the world over are planning and casting on projects for gift-knitting.  In the shop I offer a silent prayer that everything goes as it should in the complicated web that links knitter, project, recipient, and time.  Like so many things in life, gift knitting is complicated.  An investment of our most valuable of our assets, personal time and energy – knitting for another is filled with emotion and expectation.  It is, for us, a tangible expression of our deep affection for the recipient.  

A hand-knit gift is wonderful and eminently doable. Choose something

Warren Buffet is famously quoted as saying, If you don’t know jewels, know your jeweler. My mother said similar things regarding all sorts of professionals.  From butchers to car mechanics, if you are not an expert, find someone who is, and put your trust in them.  The true professionals have a great deal of pride in their work and take genuine pleasure in helping you—in educating you, really, in that beautiful intersection of your interest and their expertise.  The charlatans who knowingly dupe you are especially vile, but the amateurs who accidentally mess you up can be just as bad. 

I see this on Ravelry all the time.  As I often say, the wonderful things about Ravelry is that anyone can be a designer, but the really bad thing about Ravelry 

I met my friend, Kathleen in college when she rushed my sorority and ultimately became my little sister.  Pretty much inseparable, we easily snagged the best Big/Little pair title.  Almost forty years later, we are still close.  She is smart and funny, and beautiful, or in my sons’ vernacular, smokin’ hot.  She always looks good and pulled together, and a big part of that is her wardrobe.  It would be easy to imagine that she can just put on anything and look great, but that’s not the case.  She is very much aware of her body and what flatters it – and what doesn’t. 

Kathleen can move through a store either scooping up a dozen things that all look great, or coming away with nothing at all. . It’s fascinating to watch.  All I 

Sometimes my worlds collide in the strangest ways.  At one of their last Sunday breakfasts together, my two boys sat drinking coffee, having laid waste to an enormous pile of pancakes and bacon.  They were both a little pensive.  Colton, about the four years ahead, and Johnny about the four years behind.

Rubbing the stubble of his unshaved chin Johnny said,  “Man, I wish I was in your place, Colton, just going off to college.  I wish I could do it all over again.  I would have done things so differently. 

“I’m not gonna lie,” Colton said, “I’m definitely worried about the work in college.  What if I can’t do it?  What if it’s too hard for me?”

“Just go to class, and do your homework, “ Johnny advised, getting up for another cup.  Yeah, I mean the start of anything is always going to be hard, and there is always going to be a learning curve.  If you recognize that, and change your