The Connecting Threads

There are many magical things about the South -- the canopies of old oaks draped in Spanish moss, wildflowers carpeting the roadsides in the spring and summer, the sounds of crickets and frogs at night, heat lightning in the summer sky are just a few of my favorites.

While living in Mississippi and Georgia, I was really struck by how most of my natural-born Southern friends were so connected to their family histories and that many of them lived with grandparents and even great-grandparents either sharing their homes or living very close by. First and middle names were passed down from generation to generation and everyone knew the stories of the ancestors who had shared that name. The thread of their family history wove in and through their lives and connected them to a larger extended family of second cousins, third cousins, great aunts, great-great aunts and beyond.

Although I have adopted the South as my home, I don't have the long, connected family history that my Deep South friends cherish. My parents moved away from their families before I was born and I've lived so many places I've lost count. I have cousins I haven't seen in more than 30 years and it's almost impossible to even get my immediate family in one place for Christmas. I've always envied people who were part of that magical family thread.

Last weekend I was shopping in Target for (what else?) more project bins for my Deep South Knitting book projects. The cashier was a young woman in her very early twenties. She asked me what I needed all the bins for and I told her that I was using them to organize some knitting projects. She smiled shyly and told me that she knits a little, too. And then she shared with me that she doesn't really knit projects, she just, well, knits, because her grandma taught her and when she knits, she feels a connection to her grandma. I smiled all the way home.

I didn't learn to knit from a relative; I learned to knit from the lady who owned the yarn shop in my little town. In turn, though, I've taught my son, half a dozen friends, my sister, my niece, my grandniece, and if I ever have grandchildren, I'll teach them, too. The Target cashier gave me a glimpse of some future when my niece teaches her daughter or granddaughter to knit and tells them that she learned from her own (favorite) Aunt Beth. Knitting will quite literally be my thread that connects me to the next generations of my family.

Happy knitting!

Sometimes You Just Have To Go With The Yarn Flow

I have decided to finally stop fighting the urge to cast on something new when inspiration strikes. Yep, I know that means I could have all 12 of my own projects for Deep South Knitting on the needles at the same time. I don't know why I spent so much energy fighting it. After all, I had 20 personal projects on my needles on January 1st this year. Yep, 20!

So if I ignore the fact that more than a dozen of those are still on the needles and completely neglected while I work on the book, then 12 for the book seems like an improvement, right? I'm gonna need more bins now as I'm expecting another 40 skeins of yarn to show up at more door this week. It's only going to get worse. I guess my guest room is about to become my Deep South Knitting project room. I hope you weren't planning on visiting anytime soon!

The book will feature another 20 or so projects from shops and designers in the South. We're still getting applications and have already selected some really stunning pieces for inclusion in the book. All of the projects are inspired by the South and it's been fascinating to see how designers take inspiration from some of the ordinary things that surround them every day. For me, it's hard not to be inspired by the beautiful things that grow in the South where something is always in bloom. In even in the brutal heat of the summer, my own yard is in bloom -- giant white "snowballs" of tiny flowers on my crepe myrtles, bright red geraniums, climbing ruby roses, golden honeysuckle, purple haze, and creamy magnolias are all in bloom.

The research for the travel part of the book has really made me to fall in love with the South all over again. The best part for me is that I will get to visit my favorite places in all 12 states again. The South's mountain ranges -- Blue Ridge, Smokies, Ozarks. And the beautiful Atlantic and Gulf Coast beaches. And let's not forget tasting all the best of yummy Southern cooking. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!

Okay -- back to knitting...maybe I'll cast on my something new.....?

Cavewomen, Computers, Knitting and Chocolate Toffee Pecan Pie

When I was practicing law, I blamed technology for my muti-tasking mania. Technology, I'd tell people, was why I was so darn frazzled all the time. Technology (I kinda snarled the word when I was on the rant) made it socially unacceptable to just do one thing at a time. If you were "just" driving, when you could be driving and returning business calls and dictating your notes, and receiving faxes in your car, meant you were a Class "A" Slacker! I thought I was leaving that behind for a kinder, gentler pace surrounded by yarn and chatting with knitters, rather than going to battle with lawyers and judges.

I'm not really sure I can blame technology anymore. Sure technology makes it possible for me to have pretty much any yarn available delivered to my door overnight. But only if I get on the computer and order it. And technology makes all the cool stuff at Planet Purl possible, but my office set up only lets me have two screens running at once.

So maybe it's genetic, right? At the risk of seeming sexist, I do think there's vast difference in men's and women's relative skill at multi-tasking. My husband can't seem to do even 2 things at once while my idea of relaxation is only having to keep track of 2! And for women, it's thousands of years in the making. After all, our cave-woman ancestors planted, harvested, cooked, kept the cave clean, raised the little ones, made the clothes, kept the man "happy," and did it all with one eye watching for dinosaurs and other scary human-eating creatures. Men just went hunting. So it's not my fault I have 30 things in the works, right?

So when I was in Target this week buying even more bins to hold my Deep South Knitting designs in progress, I started wondering if the whole multi-tasking thing might be self-imposed. This has been a busy month at Planet Purl, what with coming down to the wire on the release of our amazing new pattern search program, our work to get our video live chat running, preparing for the arrival at Planet Purl of the knitting Godess Nicky Epstein who will be doing 3 live chats in August/September, and work on our our new Purl Girls shirts, bags, coffee mugs, etc. Not to mention work on this book.

I keep telling myself to stop casting on projects for the book and just to keep my design notebooks handy for when I get an idea. The problem is, as soon a s I work something out in my head, I want to see if it works in real life. So I cast it on to get it started, work enough to see if I'm going to like it, if the size is what I think it is, if I like the yarn, and then as soon as I feel I'm on the right path, I get another idea and I'm off again. Sometimes the idea is related and the project I thought I was working on for the book becomes a much bigger project. Like the Charleston Gate Pillow which became a Charleston Gate Pillow Trio. Or the Honeysuckle Lace Bridal bag that turned into a set with gloves, garter, and hair ornaments. And this week the Smoky Mountain Afghan turned into two different designs -- a hexagonal lap throw and a paneled version!

Oh, crap..... it is me. It's not my computer's fault, or the cavewoman's, or even my husband's fault -- and it's almost always his fault. But maybe "fault" is the wrong word. Maybe I should call it my "gift." It sounds better, at least. My "gift" is what's creating the huge piles of bins that have taken over my bedroom and are now making their way into my newly remodeled laundry room. And my master closet. And my office. And my family room. And soon my "gift" will make it into Deep South Knitting where I can share my love of knitting, traveling and Chocolate Toffee Pecan Pie with other knitters. I'm feeling better about those stacks of bins already. In fact, I think I need to go pour myself a glass of wine to toast my "gift." And now that this post has me thinking about that pie, I need to run to the grocery store....