Unexpected Talents
I was just speaking with WonderMike – linked here if you have access to Ravelry – trying to help organize the West Coast version of the Men’s Knitting Retreat.
Did you ever recognize that you had a set of skills that was perfectly suited to doing something, but never realized you had those skills until the opportunity presented itself.
Organizing A Knitting Retreat
Michael is going through much of what Ted and I did when we first realized the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat might actually become an event that guys would want to go to.
We needed to set up accommodations with the retreat center, establish some sort of agenda for the weekend, maintain attendee rosters, organize classes and workshop leaders, enroll folks in classes, establish retreat ground rules, publicize the event, create graphics, set up web sites, request swag donations, assist with travel plans…and on and on.
It seemed whenever I needed to accomplish something, the necessary skill came into play, or I begged Ted to take on the duties for which I didn’t feel sufficiently competent.
After all was said and done, I realized I had a rather wide and varied set of skills that assisted me throughout the process.
It’s nice to see someone else realizing their potential in the same way.
If anyone is interested in attending the West Coast Men’s Fall Knitting Retreat, either contact WonderMike on Ravelry, or let me know and I’d be glad to send you the information as it exists today. Eventually, I’ll help Michael set up a web site to which we can refer folks…thank goodness for minimal HTML skills.
Current Knitting
Lace knitting has turned out to be yet another skill I’m cultivating. The weekend was filled with lots of exciting twists and turns in my current lace project.
I’m currently up to round 112 of 142. I stumbled a little on two rows with the same mistake. On one round, the pattern called for me to make 4 stitches into one and I misread it to mean knit 4 stitches together. You can imagine how that might have affected my stitch count. I repeated this mistake on 3 sides of the project before realizing my mistake (I kept fudging that section of the lace to get my stitch count correct) and going back to fix it.
About four rounds later, I found myself making the exact same mistake…fortunately, I only did it on one side before realizing.
Readers’ Comments/Questions
Carol writes, “Also, I am tardy in defending Nico’s honor. He is a handsome cat and might I suggest that the less-than-satisfactory photographs are the fault of the photographer rather than the gorgeous model?”
I’m not sure if it is a bad photographer or the fact that a camera can’t quite capture just how delightful this cat is. You know folks that have a certain inner beauty that just doesn’t get captured in a photograph. Nico may be like that. He’s got a lot of outer beauty too, but something just doesn’t come across in his pictures. Then again…it could be the photographer.
By the way, does everyone know that Carol’s latest knitting book, Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarns
Regarding the smells-like-ass-girl and her cheese, M-H writes, “You can’t take food into either Aus or NZ – both countries have strict quarantine regs to protect agriculture. My first reaction was – ‘Wow, she’ll lose that at customs!'”
Believe it or not, she had already gotten through customs in the states and she actually TOLD them she had French cheese in her bag. We have pretty strict customs rules about this as well (I think), just not very bright folks administering those rules.
Fredda asks, “You know I have lace envy. When you make a (rare) mistake, do you ever feel like quitting?”
Not usually…I don’t always feel like going back and correcting my error immediately…sometimes if just feels daunting…but that feeling goes away pretty quickly these days.
Different agricultural products carry different risks, so there are some that worry the USDA and some that don't. One big concern: sausages from the Dominican Republic, because of the risk of hog cholera. Cheese from France, stinky or otherwise, is likely less of a worry given that the EU has relatively stringent rules. On the other hand, if France had had an outbreak of foot & mouth disease, she likely would have lost her ass-cheese.
There are particular rules about bringing cheese into the US. It has to hard cheese, for example cheddar and not soft cheese, for example brie. I have brought cheese back many times from different countries from Europe, I do claim them on the customs form and I am very specific on what I claim so I can get through customs as quickly as possible.
Looky here, the government has website explaining what you can bring:
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/highlights/travel_news/bring_it_home.xml
But on the other hand, Martha Stewart has claimed that she has brought seeds and other plants into the US, which is definitely illegal and has encouraged her viewers to do the same. So she either didn’t claim them (most likely) or the officials didn’t do their job.
I went through customs in June and there were not only officials at the podiums and in the search areas but there were customs officials at baggage claim informally interviewing people as they were collecting their luggage.
Sorry, the link to that website is here.
You’ve produced some amazing lace even when you make mistakes. My lace efforts have always been aided when I use an appropriate yarn, and I had to learn the hard way that a new lace pattern wasn’t always the best time to work with the lace mohair. Sometimes ripping back to make a fix is much more work than knitting in the first place.
Congratulations on the “skills all coming together” thing. It is a real rush, isn’t it? I had one job that did that for me and I loved it every day. Even the days I was tearing my hair out.
ps. Lace is kind of like that too.
i really LIKE your “mistake” – it looks fluid and organic and just lovely 🙂
Maybe that chick didn’t tell them it was ass-cheese? I’m sure ass cheese must be prohibited.
On Carol’s latest book,(I shyly mention as I shuffle my feet) if you go to the table of contents and look at the bottom pattern in the list, you’ll see my name. Not that I’m thrilled or anything, but I do need to knit new toques for this winter since none I own will now fit on my head.
And coming in late on manly lace yarn…there is that lovely black llama with a smitch of forest green.
I’ll be watching for the updates on the men’s retreat so I can send off some enabling goodies.
Are you going to it? If so, I’ll have to try to find another Canadian mule to pack the Canadian candy.
Well, I’m NOT a “cat” person, but for Nico, I would definitely make an exception! Purrrrr!!!!!
Good: even a rudimentary website for the Fall retreat will aid in getting more attendees. Not everyone is on Ravelry, after all.
Nico’s picture is wonderful. I was taken by his posture–straight, eyes forward, tail very carefully curled around his front feet. And that look on his face! It’s clear that he believes that no photographer can take a picture that will due him justice.
OOps. Well, cats can’t be right all the time.