Supporting change through knitting

At the beginning of August, our family took a trip together.  We flew to Montreal and saw some good friends there. They were just returning overseas from a sabbatical (with a two year old) and our flight left Winnipeg at 5AM, so we were all sort of a mess, but had a big meal together and enjoyed seeing each other very much.

Then, we headed to northern Vermont, to a big family& friend celebration.  My best friend from childhood got married quietly last year, but we all gathered for an informal weekend to celebrate their big decision.  It was held at her folks' farm, and we picked many many raspberries and blueberries, played in the apple orchard treehouse, swam in the farm pond, and had fun together.  We stayed at a hotel near a glacial lake...and had a fairly big canoe tip over, too.  (All was fine, only parents fell out and it was still shallow where it happened!)  I'd seen the farm in winter  and in May, and maybe other times, too, but every season is a stunner on a well-maintained farm! (click on the links for more photos)

After that, we drove to upstate NY and visited the Professor's family vacation place, an old dairy farm.  While there, we shot more photos of Fissure.  I now wish I'd waited to release the pattern until I had these photos as I think they are much better than the first ones I featured in the pattern.  However, something more important followed.

My sister-in-law bought me this lovely yak yarn as a present a while ago.  She lives in Manhattan, and lovely high-end yarns are not hard to come by there!  However, in the meanwhile, she has been working very hard.  She is a lawyer, and is about to become a judge in New York City.

I'm enormously proud of her.  It's so important to have women in democratically elected positions of authority in our society.  Women are half of our population, but often never manage to get into positions where they can make such a big difference in the lives of others.

 While we were at the farm, our nephew, age 1, got sick with a virus and she took him home-so I could not feature her in the photos.  We stayed on with our niece (the same age as our twins), brother-in-law, the Professor's father and his wife, and spent a day or two more out and about.  Climbing on hay bales, going to Lake George, and hanging out.  We also caught a few more glimpses of Fissure before it went off to its new big city Manhattan home.

 I finish things very slowly these days...so I have only turned out one of these...but was so pleased to find out that the second completed version of this pattern is going to support Chase the Chill, a charity that donates hand knits scarves to people in Winnipeg who might need them.

I wanted to say in words how important and exciting it was to me that my (younger) relative will take on such an important and powerful position in the near future.  Words failed me, and anyway, there were three 6 and 7 year olds racing around, a toddler crying, and well, too much noise for adult communication.  Instead, I could hand her something I'd made.  So I did.

The pattern for knitting Fissure is now available on both Ravelry and Loveknitting.com.  
Let's make a break (a fissure?!) for good....making change is important.

Fissure

Fissure is live!

Yes, it's been a long while since I've released a pattern.  Here's more info:

Fissure

A knitting pattern by Joanne Seiff

/ˈfɪʃə/

NOUN

1. a long, narrow opening or line of breakage made by cracking or splitting, especially in rock or earth.

synonyms:

opening, crevice, crack, cleft, breach, crevasse, chasm

Ever thought of how life goes along, with all its texture, until something breaks? A fissure can be an illness, a career challenge, a relationship break-up…something that disrupts life’s texture. Fissure is a rectangular wrap to express that kind of disruption…but in knitting form.  This design features Cecila Campochiaro’s Sequence Knitting, a 3 stitch, textured repeat, until a Stockinette stitch, scalene triangle splits it apart.

The sample uses 2 skeins of Reywa Fibers’ Embrace, a DK weight, fair trade Tibetan Yak Down yarn, to create a wrap that drapes without elasticity.

Fissure, like life, is flexible: adjust the yarn type and weight and gauge by choosing a needle two sizes larger than called for and create a design all your own. With approximately 400 yards (366 meters) of DK weight yarn and size 8 (5mm) needles, the shawl measures approximately 60" (155cm) long by 12"(30cm) in width.

If you'd like to learn more, here are three ways to check out the pattern!

Loveknitting has the design for sale here.

Ravelry also has the pattern live here.  (Psst. You can also just favorite it for later!)

Finally, if you know what you want...and you want this PDF download right now?!

buy now 

Happy summer knitting! :)

Undertow: a hat for strong currents

You may have guessed that I went on a little trip with my family.  My kids had a (long) school vacation for Passover, so we went to see relatives in Virginia.  It was a big adventure, complete with lots of time with grandparents, family, and friends, and many wonderful excitements:

-Metro rides (DC subway)
-a couple of trips to Ayers Variety & Hardware, an old-fashioned store where you can buy real toys for $5 and under that make for ecstatic little boys.  (a slinky, a toy goat, a plastic box turtle, a toy train...and stickers)
-a trip to West Virginia, to my parents' vacation place, to see real animals like deer, a box turtle, a huge wild turkey....and lots of bugs
-A trip to the farm where I used to volunteer and work: (to see turkeys, geese, sheep, a cow, pigs...etc.) 
-The Smithsonian Natural History Museum
-a carousel
and more.

All on the positive side of the list, including my twins, who wowed all the grown ups at two Passover seders with their firm grasp on what was going on, how it should be done, and why.  (they were astounding.  They have good preschool teachers, that is for sure!)

You may be wondering why I have all these photos here of me wearing a woolly hat.  On the "not so positive" side of the list...it rained nearly the entire time we were in Virginia.  This was good, in a way, to show two little prairie boys what a good spring soaking rain can do.  It was green, it was lush, and there were loads of flowers.  It was also cold and wet.  We had our rain coats, but I longed for a hat. (not packed, alas)

We also had the opportunity to pass along world's longest and crummiest head cold.  It laid the Professor low for 2-3 days at the start of the trip, and I am still trying to get over it.  We also had one unfortunate incident on an airplane due to preschooler motion sickness that required a full change of clothing, right down to the underwear...but these things happen... I digress. Now that I am back home...it's sunny and dry here in Winnipeg, with a high of 31C (high 80sF and beyond) today.

Most people don't launch a woolly hat knitting pattern in springtime, I know.  What can I say?  I like to beat the rush?!  Actually though, if you live in a cooler climate, early mornings and late nights can still be nippy, particularly if you are by the water, or at a sports event, or, like me, just walking the dogs.  Here is a quick to knit burst of lush Merino sweetness (or not Merino, if you choose something else!) and it is sized to fit everybody from preschoolers to an XL Men's size.  Good for a whole crowd of chilly folk.

Undertow: a hat for strong currents

Or, maybe it is good in the not-so-cold climates too.  Next time I go way South, on two airplanes, with a passel of kids and a Professor?  I might just find space for this hat.