Knitting, Breathing

While trying to write an "L" post for the ABC Along it became apparent that Typepad blogs were "degraded" (as the status blog put it) yesterday.  If I had any know how (or energy for it), I'd move this blog, but it sounds like so much work and the learning curve for another platform would be more than I can handle. This blog is not the only area of life I feel like is not within my sphere of control. In fact, several events have lead to the feeling that the my world is spinning out of control. Is the control we think we have only an illusion anyway?  This feeling will likely pass.

This is not a complaint...but the temperatures are in the mid-90s with single digit humidity.  That's right...it took exactly 3 days to go from a cold, wet winter to hot, dry summer.  The a/c was turned on the minute I got home from work yesterday and the boys were very grateful to sit in the basement with me while I cooled off and knit.  This too shall pass.

The only part of my life I can control is what I'm knitting (for the most part).  The red cardigan has been a tried and true friend, calm and serene and true blue.  All the pieces grew steadily, without any problems.  True trouble free knitting is a solace. All the pieces are finished...ready for blocking and sewing together into a very fine, simple, yet elegant garment.  This pleases me to no end.  It is a bright spot in my life.  The resulting photo shoot this weekend should be a bright spot, too.

Speaking of bright spots…the Sunshine from Laura Shawl has brought added joy to the daily going-ons around here. This is not a shawl that grows quickly...the fabric is dense and the rows become longer and longer as the shawl grows.  There may come a time it will take a full evening (or more) to knit one 6 row repeat. But, this isn't a race and knitting with Laura's beautifully spun handspun is pure joy.

Our boy Max has been a bright spot, too.  He is so sweet, so willing to please and a delight to have around.  It's been interesting to watch as he evolves and settles into our lifestyle. He's a very smart boy and can shake, sit and comes on command. We learn more about him as he learns more about us and we're all very happy to be together. (Yes, even Moxie).

Comments

[Dianne]

Early in my blog days I found that if I thought I had control..I was totally wrong.
Either I'd lose an entire post or I couldn't get photos right(I assume some of this to be that my computer literacy is not where it should be)..hence, I don't blog regularly..note, I'm ovedue~ I hope the rest of your world is easier to gain control of..and with Max, Moxie and your gorgeous knitting..it's sure to be perfect soon~

[Pork With Bones]

Well, if you'd be interested in hiring a fellow knitter to help you transfer to a self-hosted Wordpress site, you can drop me a line. Otherwise, I hope Typepad returns to treating you well once again.

Max is a gorgeous boy, and I love the sunshine shining from that shawl. (As well as the alliteration it provokes, obviously.)

[Nora]

I think you found the answer - focus on what you can control. Hopefully, the rest will take care of itself! xo

[CindyCindy]

I completely understand about the blogging problems. I moved to Wordpress and am pretty happy, but it has problems just like every other service. Whatever you do, I'll follow you;-) Your red is stunning and the sweater should be fabulous. And, that control thing? I hear you, dear. I'm working so hard on letting go, but it is very very hard.

[Lynn]

Early on in my long crafty life, I was a quilter. I made a quilt once that was really good (good enough to get into a national juried show and tour the country). When I finished it, I stared at it and thought, what does this tell me about me? I learned that I made quilts to have some small part of my world that I could control, I learned that I was a creative, strong-minded, creative person, and I learned that I needed to get out of my marriage (which I did). That was some quilt.

[Kelly]

I hope the weather cools off for you a bit. We that nasty humid weather last week and it was brutal but it only lasted a few days so hopefully yours will too. You've got beautiful knits going on there. It sounds like Max fits in quite nicely and is very smart. I've had gabby for 4 years now and still can't get her to shake lol!

Have a great day!

[Carole]

It's hard when you feel like you have no control. I hope a peacefulness settles over you soon.

[Anne]

What I honestly don't understand is why we need all this Typepad "upgrade" mumbo-jumbo. I really didn't feel like I needed a better blog built. Ya know?

And WTF is up with this heat?

[Laurie]

I do think that control is an illusion at best. Your solution of controlling what you can is a good one.

[Pat K]

All of us have aspects of life we can't control. In fact, a lot of aspects! Just the nature of the beast, I suppose. Being able to master some little part of it does help, as you know. Good luck with the Typepad thing. I get frustrated with my lack of blog control at times as well.

[Manise]

Wishing you a peaceful week of great knitting and cooler temps. Sounds like Typepad is shooting itself in the foot given all the problems of late. I'll follow wherever you go :-)

[Chris]

Literal and figurative bright spots - how lovely!

[Vicki]

I'm excited for the upgrades/changes from Typepad. Fortunately(?), by not blogging, I missed yesterday's growing pains and was blissfully unaware until I received The Email. Uh-oh. It's always big when it's an email from HQ! Hopefully, that's the worst of it. We'll see. Overall, given four-plus years of frequent and regular blogging, I can't complain. There will be problems no matter who/what/where...

[Jewel]

This is funny that you would talk about having control over your blog. I had just been trying to work on mine and I'm finding that I really don't know how any of this works. My son sat mine up for me and he lives in Memphis and is very busy so its hard to get his help. And the weather can you belive this!

[Tan]

I'm sorry your blog is driving you crazy. I wish I had a suggestion. I'm glad your red cardi is making you happy, tho.

[Stacey aka The Loom Whisperer]

I just want to smoosh his little face and give him kissies. :D It was unseasonably cool here too, albeit in the 80's and not freezing and suddenly someone turned the temperature control to broil. The forecast only goes to 2 July and it's all above 100. /sigh

[marie in florida]

we are not much in control because life is but a dream.

[Hillary]

Sorry that the blog is giving you problems. I think it's the nature of things that there will be glitches now and then but all things have glitches. Let's hope it passes quickly. Meanwhile you have 2 lovely projects to work on. Thanks for perservering through the rough parts.

[Marcia Cooke]

I don't know what to say about good old Typepad. It's been pretty trouble free for me since I moved to the Mac computer, but lately, not so much. The way the photos are inserting is driving me nuts, and I could swear there was a way to put a frame around pictures just a few weeks ago. Red sweaters are a known cure for blog blues, though! (So why is mine dusty lavender?!)

[Kim]

I agree with what Laurie said...control is usually just an illusion and sometimes it only takes one little thing to blow that illusion. When all else fails, doing what comforts us is a good thing :-)

Typepad should have left things alone...they were fine before they started all of this nonsense. If I had the time and energy I would move too.

Hugs to little Max...he is a dollbaby!

[Ruth]

What I find most frustrating about blog troubles (be it bloglines, or the blog platform itself) is that blogging is an extension of my voice. Few things make me feel more panicky and frustrated than being summarily silenced when I need to speak and connect.

[Anne B.]

What pretty wonderful bright spots! I think in my old age I'm really becoming drawn to orange, cause that shawl is very pretty!

[Teresa C]

Well, I haven't had the Typepad upgrade yet, and I'm hoping they are working out the bugs before I get it. We'll get used to it, just like the last time they changed things up a bit. And in the end I bet we like most of the changes.

Aw, who would give up Max?

[Cheryl S.]

Control? Who's ever in control?

[Sharon]

Control? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha!!!
It would be nice though.
The sunshine shawl is delightful...now that you can control...mostly.

[Wool Winder]

Well, you should have known the weather would do something crazy, because I'm in town. My visits always seem to coincide with some out of the ordinary weather event. I'm enjoying the low humidity though. Just imagine this heat with humidity over 90%--that's Texas in the summer.

The sweater looks very close to being finished. Gotta love trouble-free knitting.

[elizabeth]

I understand - I just learned that over 200 emails I *thought* I'd sent replying to comments, etc., are still sitting in my Outbox! I can't for the life of me figure out how to send them! So, all these people (you included) are thinking I'm rude and it's really that I'm computer-challenged!

[Nancy]

Control in life is something of an illusion. I think once we accept that it's a bit easier. When things are particularly chaotic for me I try to focus on the things I can control. It keeps me from feeling helpless.

[sil]

That sunshine shawl is so freaking gorgeous I'm going to have to find a way to steal it from you once you've finished it. Confessing pre-crime is not such a good thing, huh?

[claudia]

I agree: control is an illusion. Oh well. Let it go.

[Knitnana]

I work on that "letting go" of control all the time...and oh, that's why I love my stockinette sock.
;)
Can't wait to see the red sweater together!

But it does feel a little like the whole world is spinning out of control, doesn't it?
(((Hugs)))

[Teyani]

knitting is such a comfort as the world spins out of control. And it never ceases to amaze me how strange it can be to 'lose control' over something like my blog or my email if the systems are down.
Me thinks maybeeee bloglines and typepad conspired over the past few days to give all of us fits..(?)

[Stephanie]

That Max sure is a cutie :) The weather has been so weird everywhere. A few weeks ago we got hit with 90 degree weather (which is odd for the pacific northwest anyway) and now we've been in the 50's. Weird weather I tell ya.

I love the new shawl you're knitting up. Very sunny and pretty!

[Cookie]

Have you complained to TypePad yet? We pay for their service and if they cannot make us happy, they need to know about it. Yes, I'm going to message them again today. Bastards!

If you want help moving to wordpress, give me a yell. You can use their hosting if you don't feel ready to get your own site up and running. Yes, I know... lazy, but you can't stay at TypePad if they don't make you happy. Life's too short.

Oh and I like being control, but you knew that. ;^) I think the trick is to be picking about what (or who) you control.

xo

[Heather Joins The Round]

I know what you mean.

The red sweater is great!

[Beth S.]

Hooray for climate control that allows you to knit cardigans in brutal weather! :-) I love that shade of red, and envy you a little for getting to work with it. :-)

[kathleen]

moving to wordpress...with ann/purlingswine's assistance was really easy! even I might be able to walk you through it. And it has a neat feature...maybe Typepad does too...where you can blog from Flickr

[Jennifer]

Degraded? Could that be what was up with the feeds? Gah! So irritating.

[Jane]

Not feeling in control seems to be a growing and universal problem, I think. It's hard to feel settled on a personal level when so much chaos is taking hold both locally and internationally. But I hope whatever is spinning you around settles down and you have a lovely summer. Max looks so sweet, and your work is beautiful, as always.

[Birdsong]

I will be thinking about these words all day... control has been something to let go of in my life, though I still insist on getting so much done. I haven't been blogging as much but that has been about the pains of slow dial-up rather than the pains of Typepad. I never have fully mastered its nuances, and was better at Blogger, but it had far less features. At least you can love your knitting and your dear little Max; he is really a prize dog.

[Norma]

Huh. I seem to have missed all the Typepad drama again .... for now. If I received that email, it must have gone over my head and I must have blissfully deleted it without reading it (could easily happen), and my posts were posted for several days ahead this week because of my trip. I just went in and tried to do a test post and all still seems the same as before, though I didn't give it a thorough going-over.

[Alarming Female]

Here's another self-hosted WordPress convert that would be happy to help you set up your own WordPress blog. You could even import all your old TypePad posts.

Just say the word, my friend.