I Love Yarn Day and #7vignettes Part II

It's no secret on this blog that I love to knit and crochet. (Don't ask me which one I prefer -- they both have their place...) 

I also love yarn.

Yarn is so tactile... so versatile.

It also seems to multiply completely on its own.

I knew the lure of yarn could easily become an obsession. It's one of the main reasons I resisted crocheting and knitting for years whenever I wandered past the skeins in a store.

My hunch was correct. The stash took over within months of picking up my hooks and needles. In 2012, I made a pact that I would use up a sizable quantity of my yarn before I purchased anything new. It worked pretty well, until that trip to Idaho after Thanksgiving (Read all about it in this post). 

This year, I created some new yarn rules. I allowed myself several purchases, but I couldn't buy yarn to simply stash it -- I needed to have an actual pattern and purpose for the yarn.

No matter what 'rules' I make for myself though, I still love yarn whether it's new or in the stash. Apparently there's a whole day to celebrate that love. I Love Yarn Day kicks off tomorrow! If you're a fiber freak, then there's plenty of ways you can celebrate and share your love.

Not having my iPhone for a week meant that I couldn't actually post any photos to Instagram, so I missed out on October's #7vignettes. There's always next month. Besides, September's #7vignettes fit in perfectly for tomorrow's special day. It just goes to show you that I really do love yarn. Even photographing it can be fun. 

Here are the 'stories' behind #7vignettes from September. 

GREEN: yarn salad topped off with a sprinkling of buttons.

FOLDED: Folded hands.

ALCOHOL: Don't string me along... What are you having? Red, white or whiskey?

PILE: one pile simply leads to another pile. 

BORROWED: my mother-in-law's needles, the scratchiest yarn ever, and her steely resolve as I learned to knit without surrendering.   

ROUND: What's round? A yarn hat cake, of course, complete with optional (and detachable) pompom decoration.  

FRAMED: it's time to take the kid gloves off. I'm not just spinning a yarn -you've been framed. 

If you missed Part I of the #7vignettes, you can view that post here.  

Happy I Love Yarn Day to my fellow fiber fanatics! 

Lessons Learned from State of iPhonelessness

My phone has been 'drying out' in a bag of rice and without a mobile device to hold in my hands, I've had a lot of extra time on them instead.

So, I've been pondering life without my phone. And here's what I've learned so far.  

1. It is hard to function in today's society without a phone. 

I had to cancel plans with someone this afternoon, and let me tell you what a palaver it was to get a hold of the person without the use of my phone. For starters, I didn't have her number, because it was stored in my phone. (Who memorizes phone numbers nowadays?!) 
 
2. I am waaaaayyyy too dependent on my iPhone. 

Years ago, the Sailor bought me a Nokia smartphone -- back when that term first popped up. He promptly dubbed the Nokia 'second husband' because I spent so much time with the phone. It wasn't that I was TALKING on the phone so much per say as I was texting, surfing, and playing games (solitaire proved to be my drug of choice on many occasions). 

It really was the beginning of the end. 

After that, the Sailor bought himself an iPod touch and when I started playing too much Fruit Ninja on it, he bought me my own. Apps, music and calendar entries galore ensued. My iPod touch and I were inseparable. And, as my old faithful Nokia started falling apart (literally -- keys cracked and those little rubber stoppers meant to keep dust out of crevices were suddenly missing...) we realized it was time for a new phone. Not just any phone though. I was finally going to get an iPhone.

Once I transferred my data, I gave my mom my iPod touch (part of our 'no need for excess' household policy) and I was thrilled to now have everything on ONE device.   

But that one device soon went everywhere with me. I'd take it to get the mail. Or to the gym, even if I wasn't listening to music. I'd walk to the garden, thinking that I was just going to take photos of growing peppers, but in reality, there was a slight bit of separation anxiety if I was away from it for too long. If I left the phone on the counter, I'd check it as soon as I walked in the door.

It was the first thing I looked at before I even got out of bed, and the last thing I looked at before I switched the lights off at night. 

I am not a Hollywood celebrity. Wall Street does not depend on me getting all of my messages. I don't have a job where lives are at stake if I don't answer my phone. I don't need to be with my phone ALL OF THE TIME.

3. It is good (and necessary) for my creativity to disconnect every once in a while.

I may not have crocheted or created more than usual lately, but I feel like I had a few extra hours in the day to breathe and to think. The other night I sat on the balcony, candles burning. My drink was finished and it was too dark to continue knitting. I was about to go inside -- what would people think if they saw me just sitting there, doing nothing? But I stayed anyway. Sometimes you need to do absolutely nothing. (It's also good for your neck to look up once in a while. Your chiropractor will thank you.) 

Over the past few days, I realized that I sometimes spend more time looking to see what other people are blogging or tweeting about, than I do on any actual creative project. I have a renewed sense that I need to set aside more unplugged time to brood over ideas and projects. Technology for sure has its place (I'm a total closet tech geek, if you couldn't already tell...) But sometimes it gets in the way of plain and simple imagination.

Apparently sometimes I need to simply unplug and watch a candle flicker. Who knows - it may spark the next great idea. Hopefully though, next time I'll do so willingly, and not because of another phone incident.

iPhoneless

Do you hear that? 

That sound? Is that a phone ringing? A text message coming through? An alarm clock chiming? 

You don't hear it? 

Well, neither do I.

There has been radio silence here in the apartment this week while my iPhone tries to recover from its own little mishap.

I neglected to mention earlier, that while I had my foot in the obligatory epsom salt soak on Tuesday (as per the doctor's orders) I had another little accident. And this time, it was even more painful and will probably be somewhat more costly than tripping over that stupid rusty wire. 

I dropped my iPhone in that same water. 

GASP. 

(Just take a moment to let that sink in.)

Thankfully, in this day of great technology, I still have a computer that works, along with an Internet connection. (I also have a great iPhone case that bore the brunt of the soaking...) The Sailor is still maneuvering around the waters an ocean away, and yet I could still tell him via instant message what happened. I sent my mom an email to tell her I wouldn't be able to FaceTime with her this week. I called my in-laws from Skype and told them I was alive. I put out an alert on Facebook (as embarrassing as it was...) to say that my phone wasn't working. 

I don't think any of us realize how dependent we are on something until it's gone. I didn't realize that I have no other alarm clock in the apartment until my iPhone died. I found myself holding my car keys in my hands, wondering if it was safe drive somewhere without a phone. It felt so 1992. (Wow, the chances we took. What if something happened? Flat tire? What if we got lost?)

Except in 1992 we looked at a paper map and we just stopped to use a pay phone if something happened. (What's that? There's no pay phones nowadays? Of course there are. Every person you see is a walking pay phone. I figured that if something bad TRULY happened, I'd be around enough other people who had phones I could simply borrow. The Sailor did it once in an airport when his phone stopped working. Strangers are nicer than you think, on occasion.) 

Sometimes silence is good. I think I was getting a little too distracted by my phone. Plus my foot was throbbing. So I sat down and I started knitting this again. 

And then when I went to keep track of my rows, I realized that my knit counter is an app ON my iPhone. I think the bird is actually laughing at me.

<SIGH>

What's the worst thing you've ever done to your phone? And did it recover? More importantly, did YOU recover?

Gardening (Guts and) Glory

The Sailor and I were a little late to the garden scene. By the time we moved and settled in and actually discovered that our complex had a community garden, we were already well into July. 

July is probably not the best time to start anything. Added to that, our raised bed is one of the smallest plots of land I've ever seen in my life. I've had welcome mats that were bigger. 

Nevertheless, I was determined to plant something. My mom used to have a spectacular garden when I was a child, and the Sailor's dad has a grand one growing year-round in the Southern Hemisphere. We figured if anything, this year's garden could be our little experiment to see if green thumbs were genetic.  

So, the Sailor and I forked out a ridiculous amount of money for gardening supplies, dirt and some seedlings. We planted cherry tomatoes, green beans, red peppers, carrots and garlic. Last week I put an onion in and I now have a giant kale plant on my porch waiting to be transplanted (once there's room of course!) 

Amazingly, and despite scorching August sunshine and hard clay ground, our stuff is growing. I've already frozen a bunch of beans, and I'm eating tomatoes like crazy. 

This week, after months of anticipation, I picked my first pepper. 

 And last night, I ate a delightful kale, tomato, bean and pepper stir-fry. (I really didn't care how strange that combo was... I simply wanted to eat something that I grew and picked.) 

The garden has brought me an immense amount of joy... I love going out there in the evening and seeing what bounty is available. 

Until last night. 

I went out to water the garden and tripped on the rustiest, nastiest, thickest piece of wire you ever did see. (And then I promptly checked my immunization record to see when I last had a tetanus shot...) I will spare you photos of my foot, and the wire. But I will put your mind at ease to let you know that while my foot is a shade lighter than the color of that pepper, I have no fear of lock-jaw in my future. 

I skipped the garden tonight and decided to tend to my porch plants instead. So far they seem a little less hazardous.

(Whatever you're planting this month, watch where you step...)

Last Year

This past week, my mom came for a visit.

She hasn't flown in about 15 years -- not since she crossed an ocean to visit me in England while I lived in a house with no heat. 

Thankfully, the temperatures here were warm enough for shorts most of the week -- and when they do finally drop (hopefully not soon) my apartment is well-equipped with heat. 

As I mentioned in my last post though, there has been a morning and evening chill in the air. It was the kind of chill that warranted wearing slippers while we sat on the porch drinking our beverage of choice, depending on the time of day. 

I loved that my mom managed to only take hand luggage on the plane with her and she still found room to bring her slippers. Apparently she's picked up a thing or two from me while watching me pack for trips throughout the years. (Always bring your own slippers. Always.) 

I made her those maroon slippers 'last year' right before Christmas. During my years working in Ukraine, my colleagues and I had a running joke about 'last year'. Every time an event didn't go as planned, or we experienced unexpected glitches, we'd say something like 'Well, LAST year we did this instead...' or 'LAST year so and so did it that way...'  

We were so goofy with our comparisons, but over the years, a lot DID change in the country. One thing was pretty consistent though -- we still wore slippers whenever we visited a Ukrainian home. 

I found myself thinking a lot about last year while my mom was here, because really, so much HAS changed. Last year the Sailor and I knew we'd be moving, but we didn't know where. Last year I became serious about writing a book. Last year, my brother was still alive. 

Last year seems like a lifetime ago and yet last year feels like yesterday. 

I felt a little funny dropping my mom off at the airport. So often, it has been my mom driving me to and from an airport and waving me off as I stumble through security. This time, I watched as she expertly made her way through security, as if she's flown more than me. 

Last year changed a lot. 

I am super proud of my mom for getting on a plane to come and see me only three months after we've moved. I'm also proud of her for keeping up with my whirlwind tourist tendencies this week (We did a lot. I mean A LOT. We may need another holiday to recover from our 'vacation'.) And I'm incredibly proud of how she has pushed through what was undeniably one of the hardest years of her life. Mother's Day looked a lot different for her this past year. 

One thing remains the same, though. She's the most amazing mom I know. Slippers and all.