And I’ve been reflecting on the year that is nearly done passing. It’s been a rough and hard one at that for a great portion of our country, as well as for my small family. We are marking six months now since there’s been steady work for Spurg. The savings are gone and things are tight. The unemployment rate in our area has hit 12.4% which is nearly double the national average. This should be a sad and depressing holiday season for us, but we are saved simply because George Bailey does exist.

Why George Bailey?, you may ask. Many of you do know that name, the fictional lead character from the old 1940’s movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. A man who always believed in helping his fellow man, someone who always did what was right, not because it would make him rich, but because it was the right thing to do. George Bailey has been popping up all over the news, going by completely different names. He is the man who is unemployed, but took his unemployment check and bought $1,300 in $10 gift cards to pass out to complete strangers (Walmart became our hated villain in this). He is the company known as Lance, Inc., who bought Archway cookies at a bankruptcy sale. Archway in Ohio employed 300 workers who went to work one day and found that not only had they lost their jobs, but all benefits as well. Lance Inc., came in, gave every laid off employee from Archway $1,500 each on prepaid debit cards, re-opened the factory, hired 60 of the former employees at their last pay scale, with the seniority they had acquired under the former company and gave them full health benefits starting on day one. They also plan on hiring back more of the former employees as production increases. He is the Kellogg company who stepped in and bought all the trademarks and recipes for Mother’s Cookies with plans to continue producing the most popular cookies from the mother’s line up. He is the bank who decided to run a contest and forgive a single month of morgage payments for 250 families to the tune of nearly $850,000. He is all of those who go out every year and pass out their own money to the less fortunate in the spirit of the Secret Santa’s. He is the El Dorado Elf on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. He is the Minnesota Angel who gave $1,000,000 to fire victims.. He is one of my dear friends who has started a group last year knitting for those who needed some warm garments to wear during the long cold months on a Sioux Indian Reservation. He is every person who quietly, anonymously and with out fanfare, helps out another in any way that they can.

Sure,  there are still the Mr. Potter’s of the world.. greedy old men who make the Grinch look like a pussy cat. The Mr. Potter’s of the world are enough to destroy the spirit of those who can least afford it, and even the spirit and heart of dear old George Bailey himself. But as long as George Bailey lives, Mr. Potter can never win. So to all the George Bailey’s who believe in doing what is not only right, but also in doing what they can to help their fellow man, woman, and child, even at their own expense. He lives within each of us, he is the best of what mankind can be, if we have a mind to… and even as a fictional character, he serves as an inspiration on how each of us can truly make a difference, whether we know it or not, in some one else’s life.

This Christmas Eve, this long and silent night, I am thankful for all the George Bailey’s out there. For each one puts a dent in the doom and gloom that seems to be enveloping our world each day. Yes, these are hard times for our little planet.. and some places have it worse than others. There are families going with out, scrimping by on what they can.. but there is hope as long as kindness, goodness and decent human beings still exist. Thank you to all the George Bailey’s that walk among us each and every day. You are more special to every day strangers than you can ever hope to know. Have a very Merry Christmas!

I’m coming out of blogging break status because of something that has happened today. I have been paying close attention to our economy for the past year and all the signs were there for those paying attention.

It’s been heartbreaking to watch all of the financial news, the loss of jobs, the loss of companies who became icons within our society. Today, we lost something forever, and I’m sure it was a part of all of our childhood’s.

Mother’s Cookies has ceased to exist. This is a company that started out of a news stand in the early part of the twentieth century. They survived the Great Depression, went through several wars and were the cookies that not only I remember from my childhood, but my parents, their parents and their grandparents remember as well.

When I heard the news at lunch time, I sent Spurg out to find the pink and white animal cookies and the chocolate chip cookies. We both wanted one last taste of a cherished childhood memory. Thankfully the news hadn’t gotten out yet and there were still bags of them on the shelves. While Spurg was waiting for the checkout, he told the cashier very quietly that Mother’s Cookies were gone. Other customers waiting were in shock. Some covered their mouths with their hands, other’s made statements in disbelief. It wasn’t long before a small crowd of customers and employees gathered around because of the news. One little boy who was there with his father told his father that he wanted some of those kind of cookies (the pink and white frosted animal cookies). His father turned to him and said that they would get some because those were the cookies of his childhood and he wanted his son to have some for his childhood as well. They were not the only ones to step out of line to go and pick out a bag of Mother’s.

I would like to take a moment and say thank you to Mother’s Cookies for being such a memorable part of so many childhood’s. I, for one, will miss you.

Before I completely seem to fall of the face of the planet again, I thought I would at least let everyone know this time that I will be absent from the blogging world for a little bit. The fantastic job that Spurg found is no more. Seems the new owner neglected to pay the bills and the business completely shut down. Everyone is out of a job there and final paychecks will be issued tomorrow. We kind of had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right for the last week or so.

That put’s us back at square one. Not a fun place to be.. again. I am trying to keep my sense of humor about it all and I need to divert my time and attention to doing everything that I can for my family. (There are some other things going on as well.. but those are being dealt with.) When I can, and if I feel up to it, I will post. I just can’t promise that I will be regular about it. For those of you who are waiting for responses to comments and private emails, please bear with me.. I haven’t forgotten, I’ve just been really sidetracked. Hopefully, I will be back soon…. until then, take care of yourselves!

It was an odd sort of day yesterday. Spurg didn’t have to go into work at all. Now that he is working farther away from home, we have an increased gas expense that is hitting us a bit hard in the pocket book. Earlier in the week, he asked his boss if it would be possible for him to work from home a couple of days a week to help deal with the added expense. His boss completely understood and said yes. So, every Tuesday and Thursday Spurg will be working from home, on his computer, right next to mine.

It just seemed really strange to have him here all day.. he didn’t even bother with getting dressed (those things aren’t so important when your co-workers can’t see you) and didn’t have to wait for lunch to get something to eat since he could raid our refrigerator whenever he needed to. I teased him about being able to work in what he slept in, have a hot meal at his desk and kick back and watch a little documentary during his lunch hour. Yeah, that’s the life. Seriously though, he’s worked hard, even if he didn’t have to leave the house and this whole set up is going to make our lives just a little bit more affordable since he will only be going into the office three whole days a week. If gas prices continue to go down and stay down, I may have to insist that he goes to work the full five days just so I can have some peace and quiet to myself, but for now, I think this whole set up is very workable. It also frees me up a bit to be able to get out of the house without the kids if I need to run a few quick errands, or more likely, go to the coffee shop a couple of blocks up and sit there with my triple shot mocha enjoying a little time where I don’t have anyone around me who can call me mom or babe. 

The funny thing about his new job, even though he has never worked in this type of shop before, one of his bosses and several of the senior designers have confessed that he has more knowledge about graphic design than any of them do. They also seem to ask him on a regular basis if he is okay with the job, and very willing to let him pretty much do as he pleases as long as the job gets done. Both Spurg and I believe that they may have been willing to let him work from home because they are very aware that he has skills that make him employable in just about any graphic design job and probably at a greater pay scale than he’s receiving now. But you know what? When it comes down to it, the paycheck really doesn’t matter that much anymore, (sure, it’s nice to pay the rent and bills, and we can do that just fine now) it’s about happiness. He really seems happy at this job. He’s relaxed and easy going again and the bonus of the flexibility of the job really make a difference.

I’m off for the weekend now. We really don’t have too much planned. Sydney has a birthday on Monday, but we will probably celebrate it either on Saturday or Sunday (we need to discuss what we would like to do so we know which day to go) so that we can do something together as a family. I’m thinking that maybe we could all go to the movies, or something along those lines. Sydney did mention that she might like to go to the park, so we may just do that and then have a nice quiet little family celebration here at home. I hope that every one has a wonderful weekend and I will see you next week!

I was supposed to be blocking Kiri yesterday, but like the best of plans, life had other ideas in mind for me. Nick stayed home, something about his stomach being upset (more like stress that he didn’t know how to handle, but one mental health day and he’s back to school). I do my blocking when Nick is in school. Mostly because our house is tiny and it’s his bedroom floor that I use as my giant blocking board. When he’s home, I run the risk of foot prints all over my hand knits which kind of defeats the whole wash, soak and block on a clean floor on top of towels technique.

Instead I spent my day wandering around the internet, checking the incoming links to the blog and seeing who was saying what about whatever brought them to my little corner of the internet. I noticed some links from the knitting forums and began checking them out. Most of the incoming links these days are regarding Maelstrom and honestly as the designer, it’s exciting to see what complete strangers think of something that I created.

Some of the forums I am a silent and lurking member of, others I joined today to help clarify any difficulties that knitters might have with the pattern. I pop up, say hello and give whatever information is needed. One of those forums just happened to be at The Knitter’s Review. I did my little posting there and went on my merry way for a bit. Shortly thereafter, a post directed to me came through and I just about fell out of my chair. It was something I never expected, nor did I ever dare to hope for. I stared at the monitor, for exactly how long, I really couldn’t tell you. I wandered around the house. Then I sent an email to Melanie. The whole day I kept muttering to myself (yes, I do that. Don’t you?) and kept checking the posting to see if I had really seen what I thought I saw or if I was in some sort of warped dream.

Melanie called. I told her that she would never guess what happened. I told her that THE Clara Parkes liked my shawl pattern and gave me a very nice compliment on it. Melanie said the name sounded familiar and asked me why it sounded so familiar… All I had to tell her was the name of Clara’s book. (There may have been some squealing at that point on my part, the details are a bit fuzzy.)

Later that night, when Spurg came home, I still had the page open on my monitor. I told him that something had happened and told him to read it for himself. He did, then he saw her signature line and realized that she was the publisher of The Knitter’s Review. There was a look on his face that spoke volumes and clearly he was very impressed. Of course I didn’t pass on the opportunity to tell him that this means that I have just opened the door on designing, but I’m going to need to buy more yarn to make a real go of this…

And no, he didn’t say another word.

Now that Spurg is back to work, I’ve a few more things to juggle. But if you’ve been reading, you know that I keep a full plate and somehow always manage to add more to my never ending list of things to do.

At Spurg’s old job, he worked a whole four blocks from our home. It was easy then for him to swing by Sydney’s school and pick her up on his way home for lunch so that I could be home for when Nick’s bus when it would arrive to drop him off after school. An adult needs to be home or the bus company won’t release Nick from the bus and that’s a whole other headache. Spurg now works a little over fourteen miles away and with the price of gas, it’s up to me to get both the kids home at the end of the school day. Thankfully Nick’s school and Sydney’s school are nearby each other, however they get out at different times. Nick gets out a full forty-five minutes before Sydney unless Sydney has a minimum day. Then just to make it even a bit more of a confusing mess, they don’t always go to school on the same days.

On the average day, when both of them are in school, I leave the house in time to pick up Nick. It’s a little over a mile of walking each way. I make sure to bring several bottles of frozen water on the hot days (you wouldn’t believe how fast they do melt) and some snacks as I know that Nick will need something to nibble on. Then I make sure I have my trusty Knitting bag filled with whatever project I am knitting, notions, pattern, and any other little bits that might be needed. Nick and I walk to Sydney’s school, and by this time we still have about a half hour before she is let out for the day. Just outside of her class, there are a couple of picnic tables where Nick and I will make ourselves comfortable while we wait. Nick listens to his ipod, and I get busy with the clicking of needles.

Last Thursday, I was working on the final chart of Kiri (she’s already off the needles, and I will be blocking her and showing a finished photo in the days to come) and Sydney’s teacher notices my knitting while she is getting the kids in from recess. Shortly thereafter, the school day ends and I walk up to the classroom door. Sydney’s teacher begins asking me all sorts of questions about my knitting. Yes, you guessed it. The woman is a knitter.

She confesses to me that she has only knit a couple of sweaters as she touches Kiri. She notices the yarn overs and the decreases and asks questions on how to do those.. do you see where this is going? Yeah, but you’re only half right. Eventually the conversation turns to asking me to teach her how to knit a shawl like that (she wants to make one for her mother), where to buy decent yarn because all the shops where we live sell crap yarn. I promise to send her some links to some good online shops and some tutorials and of course I will help her learn how to knit lace.

Then it happens. Nick proudly tells Sydney’s teacher that his mom has her own Spinning Wheel. Her eyes light up and I promise that the following day I will bring her some samples of things that I have knit from my own hand spun. The following day, I do. I show her the Billie Holiday Silk Scarf that I had just completed a few days before. She asks me where I got the yarn and looks genuinely shocked when I explain that I spun the yarn. I show her the North Star Tam and Scarf and she comments on how tiny the stitches are and again is truly surprised when I mention that too, is my own hand spun yarn. Then I pull out Maelstrom. I tell her that I bought the yarn, but I designed the shawl. I can’t even describe the look on her face at that point, except to say that I know once upon a time, I had the same look on my face when I saw what other knitters were designing and I was sure I would never be able to do something like that. 

Sydney goes to school year round and last Friday was the day she tracked off for a month. I mentioned to her teacher that maybe, if she were interested and I could arrange transportation for my wheel and supplies, that maybe when class was back in session that I could maybe give a little demo for a classroom full of first graders.. and at this point I just had to dig my hole a little bit deeper….

I also mentioned to her that I got the note about them needing to raise money so that the kids could take the field trips that they were hoping to take this year. Seven field trips in all. With the budget cutbacks and the expensive price of gas, it seems that the field trips may not even happen. The kids are doing a fundraiser with pledges and a spelling bee when they return to school in the hopes that they may be able to raise enough to pay for the field trips. Then I did it. I offered to knit something and donate it for a fundraiser, auction or raffle. Something lace. Something like a shawl. She jumped on it like a starving cat preying on the unsuspecting mouse nibbling away at a few little crumbs on the floor. Sometime in the spring the school will have a Carnival to raise money for all the little extras they need for the kids. Truth be told, I am only too glad to do something like this. I cannot tell you how many times this school district helped me in a million little ways when it was just Nick and I. But now I am beginning to think that I really need to start looking at available patterns or possibly design something special just for the occasion.

Yep. When I get myself into something, I get into it REALLY good.

It doesn’t matter how careful I try to be. It doesn’t matter how hard I comb through a pattern to try and make sure that there isn’t a single mistake. Even the best knitters and designers make them. Yes, there is an error in the Maelstrom pattern and I am certainly NOT perfect!

Suna, (who was very excited to be the first knitter other than myself to start the Maelstrom shawl on Ravelry) found a small error. On chart B, the very first stitch of row 43 should be a yarn over and not a knit stitch. I have corrected the error on the chart, uploaded a new version of the pattern, and added an errata pdf to the files explaining the error and including a corrected chart for those of you who have already downloaded and printed the pattern. Thank you so much Suna, not for just being my test knitter, but for being so watchful and letting me know of where you found the difficultly so that I could make the necessary correction for all the knitters that will come after you! (Also thank you for posting the project to your blog and letting me know that your LYS has gone crazy over the pattern.) For those of you who would like to see Suna’s version of Maelstrom in progress, go check out her blog! She’s a very talented knitter!

If you look at the top of my blog, you will notice that I have changed the “Pattern” page to “Pattern’s & Errata”. For now on, whenever I publish a pattern, if there are errors found, you will find the corrections under Errata, as well as a corrected full version of the pattern under patterns and a posting to the blog regarding any errors found. Unfortunately, mistakes do sometimes happen and I appreciate all the knitters who alert me to them. This is one of the reasons why I not only chart the patterns, but provide a written out version as well. On section B the written version is correct, and now on the chart it is correct as well.

I truly apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused any one. I know how frustrating it can be to knit a project and not realize until later that there is an error with the pattern.

Errata for Maelstrom – For pdf versions downloaded before September 3, 2008