A Day in The Life: Baking Cookies

Today I'm baking some cookies. In my head, they were going to be cut into the shape of graduation** caps, but apparently Graduation Cap Cookie Cutters are not a thing. So I am opting for stars, because all graduates are Rock Stars and should be celebrated as such. There was some talk of using the bizarre Santa/penguin cookie cutter, just because it's so much like a summer cloud in that if you squint, it looks like pretty much anything you imagine (a graduate in cap and gown??), but I like stars, so stars it is.

Today I have been planning some classes for summer, this being the last week of May. The month has gotten away with me some. When you are working so hard at living in denial** as I have, it's easy for days and weeks to slip right by you. I'm thinking of teaching, in addition to another round of Beginning Knit and Super Socks, an I-Cord class, appropriately titled "I Heart I-Cord" since I do indeed heart I-cord. More on that when the classes go on the schedule!

After some laundry (more than usual, thanks to being busy planting flowers in the yard on the Memorial Day holiday yesterday) I did a bit of cleaning. Knowing we will have company this weekend has spurred me on to tidy up more than I normally do. I'm hoping that the overall effect will be one of welcome and hospitality. 

After dinner, I will finally settle down to do some knitting. Yesterday evening I finished my project from Josie's lace class, so today I am working on that new bag pattern I'm writing, using mitered squares and some mathematically pleasing stripes and lots of shades of blue. (I can't wait to show it to you!)

The lace project was actually very fun to knit. This surprises me a little because I've never found complicated lace to be fun. I did, in all honesty, have to hone my tinking skills a bit, but it was easily done and now I have the most elegant spa cloth I've ever seen, much less made.  I would love to make a longer version in something drapey for a scarf. Am currently goading the writer of said pattern to list it on Ravelry so the rest of you can love it as much as I do.

My finished spa cloth, before blocking, "Cygnus Lace" pattern by Josie Goff, in KnitPIcks "Dishie".

Since I put a big batch of vegetable soup in the slow cooker this morning after coming back from my morning walk, I will most likely make biscuits as well. For years I had used a recipe for biscuits that came from a very early episode of Martha Stewart when she had a guest Southerner on the show, making biscuits. It's a good recipe and has served us well, but this recipe I found on Allrecipes.com is now the ONLY biscuit recipe I will use. The biscuits are amazing--flaky and slightly buttery and still fresh the next day if you have leftovers, still moist and delicious, hot or cold.

It's not really the right weather for vegetable soup, being hot as blue blazes outside, but it's always the right weather for vegetables. Also, it is an excellent excuse to make biscuits.

So the house smells amazing (vegetable soup AND cookies? Yum!) and I hope that your day has gone well and you too, manage to get in some knitting before bedtime.

**graduation, denial....yes, my baby graduates this week. I am trying to be brave...

Guest Blogger: Josie on Knitted Lace (and Lace Knitting)

Since Josie will be guest-teaching a lace class (Saturday, May 23, click HERE for more info. Sign up soon!) I talked her in to guest-blogging today. It didn't take much talking...it was more like, Hey do you want to guest-blog? and she said Yes. She's cool like that.

I LOVE CHARTS! Since doing my first chart project a few years ago I've been hooked. I'm reluctant now to even bother with a pattern that doesn't include a chart. I'm a very visual person so I personally work faster with a chart then without. I hope that with this class I will be able to pass on my love of charts and lace to you! You'll need to bring either post it notes, chart tape, or a fancy magnetic board to stay on track.

I've devised a pattern that can be made into a spa cloth or a lovely scarf. I recommend bringing 100% cotton worsted wight yarn and size 7 needles if you wish to make the spa cloth. (Size 8 if you are a VERY tight knitter). A different blend of yarn in a larger quantity would make a nice scarf.  You'll also NEED some stitch markers.

Also here's the low down on the redundant title, it's not. Knitted Lace has pattern rows on every row. Lace Knitting on every other row. Lucky for us, our project for Saturday at the Panera Bread in North Charleston from 9-11 has both kinds. :)

Simple Knitting Tips: Mark your progress

Let's face it--no matter how much you love garter stitch (I love it A LOT), sometimes in the midst of a very long garter stitch project (especially a rectangle or square without any shaping), it can be a challenge. You knit and you knit and it can feel like you're getting nowhere.

To give myself a reference point so I'll know I AM getting somewhere, I put in a marker when I pick up the project for the day. When I put it away at night, I can see, "Oh, hey, look. I knit 400 inches of this today." Sometimes I exaggerate.

That simple step helps me enjoy my garter stitch project much more. This can also be helpful for any other all-over pattern stitch that seems unending: stockinette stitch and seed stitch come to mind. Just put a locking stitch marker on your project, attached to the yarn so it won't get moved up each row, and you'll know at a glance how much you have managed to knit since you started for the day. You can also use a small piece of yarn, in a contrasting color, tied on in the same manner.

See? Progress! Yay!

Try it on your next basic project and see if it doesn't give you more of an ongoing sense of accomplishment!

Knitting...Oasis

You may have noticed something new around here...a new logo! I am so pleased with how it turned out.  In the process of having it made, I told several people the source of the name KnitOasis. What I discovered in the course of these conversations was that no one (other than my family) knew how I had arrived at the moniker.

Much like the origins of knitting, the exact date of the origins of the name "KnitOasis" are shrouded in the mists of time. I remember playing around with different options, and settling on this one for several reasons:

• It's a play on my own name...."Tamara" means palm tree.
• Knitting can be like an oasis of calm in the stresses of life, a fact that I wanted to spread to people through my classes and blog posts.
• One theory of the origins of knitting is that it began in Arabia, in a beautiful desert oasis.
• I liked the short, catchy sound of it: Knit Oasis!

Discussing the birth of a company's name isn't usually a hot topic, I know. Even a marketing nerd like myself can understand that most folks aren't really all that interested.

I share all this with you today because I want you to know that what I do here means a lot to me. I have always wanted to bring worth and value to people's lives, and I believe that teaching them to knit is an important way to do that. Sharing my struggles with keeping knitting a priority, with finding my tribe, with wearing all the other hats I must wear in the course of a busy day, are all shared in hopes that you will find that common ground that somehow keeps us all sane. Here's a recent example of this: the other day I read that article floating around social media excerpted from Rob Lowe's book, about sending his son off to college. Of course I cried while I read it, but I came away with such a sense of reassurance. The feelings I am experiencing as I face my first born going out into the world are OK. They are more than OK, they are so natural that even ROB LOWE experienced them! I can't tell you how much this helped me feel less crazy.

Does that mean my aim in life is to help you feel less crazy? I think it does. Picture yourself comfortably reclining in a hammock stretched between two trees, overlooking the most picturesque pond you can imagine, a cool breeze ruffling your hair, your knitting in your lap and refreshing beverage at your side. Do you feel saner, even if only for a moment? I know I do. If you could see the length of my pattern design to-do list, the piles of papers on my desk, the menus that need planning, the trip preparations that need to be made for the above-mentioned first-born's summer ballet trip, and then look with me at the clock and see that the morning has mysteriously evaporated, you'll know how much I need that oasis, too. That calming breath that slows us down long enough to hear that voice in our head that says, "Hang in there. It'll all get done, even if you take a 15-minute knitting break."

Think of the shiny new logo as a renewal of my commitment to you, to continue to make this a home on the web for knitters looking for instruction, patterns, connections, resources, and hopefully, a lot of fun.  An oasis, in fact.

Big thanks to Amy at absquaredesign.com for the amazing logo! I love it!