Now that it’s no longer required that I pretend to care about or respect some of the people I work with, I’m left with enjoying those people who trigger my creativity or nurture my soul.

Two Examples of Prioritizing Relationships

Recently, I’ve been privileged to hang out with two guys who have reminded me of the importance of connecting with others.

The first one is a friend who I know through the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat, and the other is a relatively new knitter I’ve met on Ravelry forums (and who I’ve only chatted with on-line).

Dave Sledesky used to live and work at Easton Mountain, where we host the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat each year.  He’s one of only three men who have been to all nine of the MSKRs, and I spent a few hours having dinner and coffee with him in Saratoga Springs last week.

I didn’t take any photos of our get-together, so I’ll post one of Dave showing off one of his fantastic woven pieces at the last Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat.  I think this item was made during a sheep-to-shawl contest.  The man has a certain centeredness and joy of life and self-assurance that I find incredibly joyous to be around.  Spending time with him made me a better person.

Andrew is the new knitter I met on Ravelry, and he inspired me in a very different way.

We were chatting about our various projects, and he was complimenting me on my designs, specifically a sweater design from my distant past.

A little over 13 years ago, I finished a new pullover design that I called the Passing Lane Pullover.  Does anyone remember that sweater?  Or why I called it Passing Lane?

Here’s what the sweater looks like.

The sweater was always oversized on me, and now that I’ve lost a bit of weight, even more so.  The interesting part of this design was the two-layer collar treatment.

I’ve always wanted that double-collar to be more pronounced and I would also like to give the sweater a bit more shape, so I’ve decided to re-design this garment and make it anew.  Thanks to Adam’s nudging.

Search out the people in your life who are satisfying to be with…it’s my latest recommendation on a great life.

Current Knitting

I finished the Westward Hat by Stephen West and it came out great.

This is a great hat design, so I started a second one in more contrasting colors that I’ll show photos of in my next blog entry.

I have almost finished the latest biased scarf as well, with only a few more inches to go.

Soft and warm, I will never get tired of how beautiful this design is when knit up with high quality alpaca.