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Clapotis 2024
Blogtober Day 2
If you were in the knitting sphere back in the early 2000s-2004, to be exact—you probably knit a Clapotis by Kate Gilbert. This pattern went viral before virality was a thing. You couldn’t open a knitting blog without seeing one posted. Keep in mind that this was pre-Ravelry and was brought to us by the amazing Knitty magazine. I’ve knit two over the years and will cast on again this weekend. I am looking forward to it! More than likely, I will be using Miss Babs Yarn in Yowza, one of my favorite yarns for wraps. I have a skein in the stash, but I will probably order a new skein or two from them as they recover from Hurricane Helene and can use all the support they can get.
To honor the 20th anniversary of this pattern, Knitty has introduced ClapotisFest, a celebration of Kate and the pattern. As part of ClapotisFest, you can enter to win yarn from various indiedyers. More details can be found here. Over the years, Knitty Magazine has showcased some of the best pattern designers and spinners, and it’s all free, supported by Patrons and advertising. Some of my favorite patterns have been found in these pages and I look forward to reading it every quarter.
If you are a knitter, have you knit a Clapotis? If so, post a photo in the comments. If you have a blog or Substack, I’d love to follow you!
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Confession…..
I never watched the original Sex and the City. Several reasons, the main one being that when they were originally, on, I didn’t have HBO. Heck, we barely had cable. The second reason was that I was a twenty-six-year-old mom with a four-year-old, in the middle of Central Louisiana, far from the bright lights of New York City. Heck, I couldn’t relate to that life, or even really imagine what that life might be like. I had barely been out of Louisiana, and even at that point, had only been to San Diego. Don’t get me wrong, over the years I could have watched it as it was released on DVD, but just never got around to it. I mean, I was very aware of it, how could you not, it was a cultural phenomenon!
Anyway, somehow I came across the sequal? Reboot? And got sucked in. In one episode, Carrie had hip surgery and as she was recovering, she had this beautiful knit shawl/blanket thing on her lap. Naturally, someone wrote up a pattern and I’m currently knitting it. I did enjoy that season and am looking forward to the new season. I may need to actually watch the orginal while waiting for the next season of And Just Like That.
The original 
The one I’m knitting. I’m about half way through. It knits pretty fast as it’s knit on size 17 needles, but it does get a bit cumbersome. I purchased a kit from Jimmy Beans Wool, but it doesn’t look like they have it available any more.
My progress In completed knitting news,I did finish the Christmas socks from the last post. I just need to get them in the mail to my sister. I also decided to do the Souper Sock Club from Coast to Coast Yarns Company My first shipment arrived today. It’s Split Pea Soup in their sock base. I’ve never knit with their yarn before, so I am excited to wind this up and get started. However, with Valentine’s Day around the corner, I think I might go stash diving and see what Valentine’s Day colorway I have.
Split Pea Soup I’ve also been into some knitting podcasts lately, next post I’ll share some of my faves as well as some of my more recent photo projects. What are you knitting, photographing or up to in general?
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Happy New Year I’ve been knitting!
Happy New Year! I know we say this every year, but I can’t believe that the last year flew by. I had lots of personal changes, all good in 2022, which is definitely an improvement from the previous three years. I’ve also picked up my knitting needles again, and knitted this lovely wrap for my mother-in-law. When she was here in May for my master’s graduation, I offered to knit her a wrap. Over the years, I have knit her several things, and the last wrap that I made her, became moth food. She was so upset! I had her pick out some yarn from my stash, and she chose this lovely Madeline Tosh Vintage yarn. I belive that the colorway is Esoteric. The color is more true in the top right photo, but let me tell you, that yarn is a dream to knit with. It’s wonderfully smooshy. The pattern is Anica and I knit 35 repeats instead of 38 as the pattern calls for. My mother-in-law is tiny and this blocked out to be the perfect size for her. I knit this on size 6 needles. I think if I knit this pattern again, I would go up a needle size or two for a looser knit. This is an easy knit, perfect for evening knitting, and great as a first shawl project.
The second thing I started, is a pair of Christmas-y-themed socks. I had wanted to have these knit before Christmas, but I was trying to finish Anica, so I didn’t start these until after I had finished the wrap. The yarn is from Must Stash Yarn in the Reindeer Corn, Michigan’s Favorite colorway.
I love this yarn. It’s self-striping and delightful. I have several other skeins by her waiting to be knitted up. I thought that I’d have time to knit three pairs of Christmas-themed socks…I think I was delusional! These socks are almost finished and are going to my sister when I’m finished with them. I’m hoping to finish them up before I go back to work on Friday. I’ll cast on another pair once these are finished. I have another skein from Must Stash Yarn and then one from Nomadic Yarns. (the sock bag in the photo is also from Nomadic Yarns) I’ve never knit with their yarn, but I’m excited to get those on the needles. I also have the Carrie blanket on the needles that I started in the spring, but as it has been too hot to knit with bulky yarn sitting on my lap, I put it away until now.
Also coming up are two hats. One for Amanda and one for me. We are headed to London and Paris in early March and based on my research, even though it’s early spring, it can be chilly, at least for these Florida girls. When I was in Alpharetta for Christmas, I stopped in a brand new yarn shop called Unwind Knit Studio and picked up two skeins of worsted-weight yarn. I’ll post those skeins when I can get a good photo in the daylight.
I’ve also been picking up my camera more and I will post those next. If you want to follow me on Instagram, you can follow me by clicking HERE.
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A Snowy Sunday Part II
I had meant to post this earlier in the week, but the time got away from me. Last weekend we were in Atlanta and on Sunday, it ended up snowing! It started around 10:00 and snowed the rest of the day. We started off the day by going to Warm Waves Coffee. They were only open until 11 in anticipation of the snowy weather, so we hurried up and drove over. They were on my list to visit and I’m so glad that we managed to squeeze in a visit. We had planned to hit up more coffee places but managed to get to Valor Coffee and this one. I can’t wait to visit again. We are hoping to get back this summer.
Cozy seating 
Gingerbread Latte 
Vanilla Cronut
Just as we got there, it started sleeting and by the time we were on our way back, it started to snow! Amanda and I were tickled by this.
We had a lovely day watching the snowfall. I managed to pull out some knitting and get a photo of yarn in the snow!
Joel and Saga 
Amanda wanted to throw the snowball at some one 
Uneek yarn by Urth Yarn 
Grandpa pulled out the snow shovel 
Beginnings of a sock
My rear end is cold. Can we go in now? I took Sága for a walk in the snow, but she wasn’t too sure of sitting on the cold rock. The final photo is taken as it was getting dark. I loved how peaceful and pretty everything looked. We had a wonderful time visiting and can’t wait to go back in the summer. I won’t have to worry about classes as I will graduate from USF in May with my Masters and will be able to just relax.
Nana and Grandpa’s backyard. Not a terribly busy week coming up, so hopefully, I can post the last two weeks of my Project 365. If you want to keep up with that on a daily basis, you can follow me on Instagram. Until next time, have a wonderful week!
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Happy New Year!
I hope that your New Year celebrations were fun (if that’s what you are into) and that your 2022 is off to a great start. Today was my first day back at school, it was a Record Day for teachers and tomorrow is our in-service day. Kiddos return on Thursday, which will make this week a very weird one for all involved. I have to say that I am excited about this year. I have some really good things coming up. I graduate from grad school in May for starters! With my master’s in Career and Technical Education, I hope to move mostly out of the classroom, or at least out of the position I am in. I am scheduled to take a new position next school year that would have me teach half-time and oversee a new program the other half. Hopefully, that will happen. I’m excited to pull out my knitting again and to be here on the blog more. I really have missed it and it’s been great to ease my way back into writing on a more consistent basis. I’m also going to sit down and come up with a posting schedule to keep myself consistent.
I’m not really into resolutions, because I think it’s a setup for failure, but I do have a few things that I’d like to accomplish this year on a personal level. I’ve already mentioned knitting and the blog, but I’m looking to start a podcast. I used to work in radio years ago and would love to see if I can pull that knowledge back up. I am also getting into more photography projects. I’ve challenged myself to a Project 365 so let’s see if I can actually ‘intentionally’ take a photo a day. I’m going to try to post them here on a weekly basis, but you can follow along on my Instagram.
I do want to share a couple of photos from a photoshoot I did in December. I’ve been photographing this family for seven years now and Lily wanted to recreate a photo from the first shoot that I did with them. The kids were in 2nd and 3rd grade and now they are in high school. Eli, the youngest, wasn’t born yet. In fact, their mom was pregnant with him in our first shoot. The first photo was shot in 2014 at Emerson Point and the second one was shot last month at Coquina Beach. We are actually going to go back to Emerson Point this year to recreate it exactly with the same point of view. Fun fact about the first photo, I entered it into the Manatee County Fair in 2015 and won the Paul Bartley Award for the photo that best represents Manatee County. Honestly, I had only been shooting a year, and this was such a proud moment for me. The last photo is of all three siblings.
Enjoy the rest of the week, hopefully in the next post, I’ll have a photo of my latest knitting project. It’s just getting started, but at least it’s a start!
Lily and Mason November 2014 
Lily and Mason, December 2021 
Lily, Eli, and Mason -
Good-bye 2021
In 2021, I lost my father, making my siblings and me, orphans. Adults, yes, but orphans, nonetheless. After my mom died in 2019, I knew that sooner, rather than later, we would be also burying my father. In some ways, I was surprised, but in some ways, not. I was very fortunate that I was able to go home the week before he passed and see him. Something, I didn’t have the chance to do with my mom. For that, I am grateful. Losing my dad in February just made the year all that much harder, and it had just gotten started. It colored everything, and I don’t think I realized at the time how much that it has affected me. I felt untethered and adrift for much of the year. I’m just now feeling like I am maybe emerging from that, but it’s still difficult as many of you are all too aware.
I plodded through three semesters of grad school, hating nearly every second of it and just praying to get through the final semester beginning in January. Teaching has been much more difficult this school year than last, so much so that I will either find a way out of the classroom in 2022 or will leave teaching altogether. It’s just been rough. Bacchus, our Italian greyhound, passed away on Halloween at 12 years old, so that hit us pretty hard. I know that many many more people had it much worse than us, but I will be glad to put 2021 in the rear-view mirror.
While it seems like it has been all doom and gloom, it hasn’t. Sága, one of the puppies we raised and that became a guide dog, retired due to some issues with her handler, and we got to adopt her, bringing us to four yellow labs in the house. It’s never a dull moment. Joel and I took a quick vacation to St. Augustine and had a wonderful time! It was nice to get away and we plan on going back soon. All of us have had our vaccines plus a booster, and Amanda had her textbook published in October! In November, I had a life-changing surgery that maybe I’ll share in a future post. I’m determined to have a better 2022.
So, for 2022, my goals are to get back to regular blogging and I’m adding a podcast! More info on that later. I am also planning to do more things to feed my creativity. I’m going to participate in a 52 weeks photo project and I’ve picked up my knitting. I’ve also cleaned out my craft room and purged it. I’ve kept the things that I want to create with, so I’m excited for that. Knitting is back too! I’ve pulled out some yarn from Must Stash Yarn and started on a shawl. I’ll do a blog post on it in the next couple of days once I can get a good photo of the yarn. I may bring back the Hurricane Sock Party from 14 years ago so if anyone wants to participate, leave a comment, and watch my Instagram for more info.
I wish everyone, a safe, happy, and joyous New Year. Let’s make 2022 a good one!
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Blogtober, Crafting, Daily Life, Florida, Knitting, photography, ravelry, socks, Southeastern Guide Dogs, yarn
Weekending
Vintage Bass Drum Southeast High School Last week was Homecoming Week at work,which was a sad state of affairs given all the measures that we have had to use this year in order to be able to even be in school. One thing that has remained constant are the War Drums that are played from 7:30 am until kickoff at 7:30 pm on Friday. With Covid-19 protocols in place, Homecoming Week was a sad state of affairs. With only a third of the students on campus due to e-learning, Hybrid pans and five day a week plans, there just wasn’t the same spark. No face painting, no pep rally, no dance, it was nearly disheartening. We lost, mind you, so that didn’t help. I wanted the game from home via our school’s TV broadcast. It was a fairly relaxing evening with the dogs.
Cricket peeks around my shoulder. 
Finally! Saturday morning, Amanda had to be back at school to film something for the Florida Wrestling Hall of Fame and after that, we went to our local county’s Democratic HQ and managed to get our yard sign! Amanda has been volunteering for the Biden Harris campaign by texting voters and is working with Vote Forward to write letters to undecided voters. I’m so proud of her!
In pursuit of some relaxation, I pulled out yarn for the first time in forever and found a pattern for a pair of ankle socks. I now remember why I used to love knitting. I instantly relaxed. I have made it a point to try and knit a bit every evening in an effort to try and do a little relaxing. The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock that Rock in Halloween Town–Mediumweight. and the pattern is Rose City Rollers,
BMFA STR Halloween Town And finally to cap of Sunday, I was out at Southeastern Guide Dogs and after the early morning showers, I saw this:
Have a great week everyone and I’ll post something soon!
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Weekending
We finally had a beautiful day here on the west coast of Florida yesterday. Amanda and I took advantage and went to the local Dia de los Muertos Festival in the Village of the Arts. Their huge shrine this year was dedicated to the the 2000 tons of sea life that has died along our coast due to red tide this year. We also took a little tour of the galleries and in one area got mother/daughter henna, picked up some local honey from Myakka Gold Apiary (ooh, and sampled and purchased some creamed honey…so good!).
I have been itching to get to my ‘local’ yarn store, A Good Yarn, and by local, meaning a nearly 40 minutes drive in Sunday traffic.I did buy some pretty yarn for a scarf for my mother in law, but I’m not showing the yarn or the color, even though she knows I’m knitting her one, some yarn that reminded me of fall. NO clue when or if I will get to knit it, but I liked it, so it came home with me.I then spent some time browsing Barnes and Noble, but shocker, didn’t buy a single thing! I did get some new ideas for magazines that I’d like to try. I should have purchased them while I was there, but maybe that is the excuse I need to go back. My nearest bookstore is a Books a Million and it just doesn’t have the same feel as a Barnes and Noble. Is that weird? Does anyone else feel that way? Of course, my preferred bookstore would be an independent one, but those are few and far between here, which is just shocking to me. I could go to Tampa, but that is just as far as driving into Sarasota! While on my way home, I took a detour to St. Armands Circle and picked up hubby some macarons. He loves them and it’s been months since I’ve picked him up any as I don’t get to our local mall to get any. I’ve noticed that if I can’t get it delivered or I can just pick it up, I don’t get out much. There are some benefits to that, but I think that I would risk missing out on some lovely local shops if I continue to do that
Oh! I’m knitting on the Weigh it Yowza 4 by Susan B. Anderson. I’ve been knitting on this for over a year…well, actually, NOT knitting, but I’ve picked it back up and am determined to finish it up so I can wear it next month when we do get some cooler weather and I can wear it. Tomorrow is back to work, but I also have a board meeting to attend in Orlando on Friday and puppy raiser day to photograph on Saturday. Good thing we have the following Monday off in honor of Veteran’s Day.
How was your weekend?
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Saturday Sky—Flashback edition
Thanks to Vicki over at Knitorious, I was reminded of years ago when the knitting blogging community was huge and we had several ‘things’ that we all did. One was Ten on Tuesday and one was Saturday Sky. I participated fairly often, and today was a nice reminder of what ‘used to be’. I miss that community sometimes. I’m sure it’s still fairly active, I’ve just been away for a long time. Anyway, I present my Saturday Sky, which actually, isn’t a Saturday and wasn’t today . It was a Friday, a couple of weeks ago, but I liked it, so I wanted to share it with you.
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People (and things) I miss. Blogtober Day 21
Way back in 2004, this blog started out as a knitting blog and as a way to keep my family back in Louisiana and Georgia updated. I started out on Blogger, then moved to Typepad, and then finally to a hosted website. I’ve got versions of this blog saved on my server, but some content was lost in the migration from Typepad years ago. Actually, I should see if my Typepad account is still active..or even if they still exist. Anyway, it was through Hurricane Knitters (do they still exist?) on the internet that I met up with who would turn out to be my first friends in Florida, Linda and Kathleen. (the blog came later). Funny story, that was just so Linda, The first time we met up (for the life of me, I can’t remember where that was, but maybe a Starbucks, but for some reason, Troyer’s Dutch Kitchen is sticking in my head, but that can’t be right) Linda took one look at this hat I was knitting for my then toddler niece and declared that I was knitting wrong. She was absolutely right, I WAS! I had taught myself to knit from the internet and books and I was knitting through the back loop! Everything was twisted! Linda was very direct…she was a native of New Jersey after all, but she was such a great resource and willing to share her vast knowledge with us. She had a stash ROOM in her house that would make a yarn store envious and when she traveled to South America, she brought me back some beautiful green yarn that I can’t bear to knit or part with. You see, Linda died of lung cancer in 2011 and no matter how many times I clean out my bins of yarn, that yarn goes back in the bin. One day I’ll make something from it and think of Linda every time I do. I also have some yarn that was dyed in her honor by Three Irish Girls for A Good Yarn in Sarasota, and one day, I’ll knit some socks, because Linda was the one that talked me into taking the plunge into sock knitting.
I miss my friend Kathleen, who up and moved to Colorado where she can actually wear what she knits! I am so envious of all of her photos of real fall and snow in the winter. (And her chickens!) I don’t know how I would fare with the snow, but I’d like to at least knit more than socks and the occasional wrap that I can use maybe two months out of the year. She was and still is a great source of inspiration to me and one of my greatest cheerleaders when I decided to go crazy and host a swap called the Hurricane Sock Party Anyone who reads this remember that? I believe that had to be 2005 or 2006 and that got written up in Southern Living. (PS, she’s from New Jersey too!) . Linda, Kathleen and I used to have the best time together and I hope to get out an visit her some day.
I mention Linda and Kathleen specifically because they were my my first knitter friends, and who were the first ones who encouraged my knitting and taught me really how to knit. I made some awesome friends through knitting and through the internet. Some I’m still friends with to this day, and some we are no longer in touch, which makes me sad for many reasons.
I think what I’m missing most is the knitting community as it used to be on the internet. Maybe it’s still there, I don’t know. I know the days of blogs have seemed to have waned, but I think it might be making a comeback. Maybe I’ve been away too long, and it’s still there, I’m just not as into as I was before I had a full time job. I know Ravelry was a game changer for the knitting community. I don’t know what I’m looking for or why I’m out of sorts. Maybe I’m looking to simplify things, maybe I want to go back to life when I blogged, knit, and read books. I don’t know, maybe I have way too much on my plate right now and I just want things to be like they used to. Maybe I just need to reassess my life, and figure out what it is important. (Don’t we all?! lol) Anyway, enough with me thinking out loud, if you have any knitting blogs that are worth following, leave a comment. I’d love to be inspired again.
