Ups and Down

Life has so many peaks and valleys. Monday was a very deep valley. Three women who are all like sisters to me each lost members of their families. A Mother An Aunt and A Cousin. Every four hours I was receiving news of their loss. It was a very hard day and evening. My best friend was losing her third Aunt this year - devastating.

Most of us crafters make things for different reasons, many of us find great comfort in the sound of knitting needles clicking, the fluid motion of chains sliding off and on a hook, the satisfaction of centering wordart just right on a page, finally finishing the top of a quilt. None of the ladies I spoke of above are crafters or have the types of hobbies or pasttimes that offer comfort. So me, my Mom and my Sister are here to listen to hug and to bring food and prayers.

On the up side, it was Sister's and Girlfriends day and I sent the usual chain-email and got lots of them back. The snail mail I have received this week has been outstanding and mostly International. I received copies of Tudor Roses and Scandinavian Knitwear. My Wollmeise Sock Club Spring package came. My first Virtual Yarns order came, the yarns for the Leo scarf are gorgeous. The book, The Collector's Item is comparable to Tudor Roses. The photography and patterns are stunning. Apparently the rumors are true, several colorways of the 2 ply yarns offered by Virtual Yarns and the kits that contain them are being discontinued in the very near future. Some colors have already been depleted. Whew, no buyers/knitters remorse this time. I ordered what I really loved before it was gone forever.

Life is too short. . .

I bought a Kindle 2 solely because it can read the book to me when I need to stop reading the text myself. I can try new authors without having their books sitting on my shelf if I end up not liking them. And, lets face it I am out of space for books, DVDS and yarn - go figure. SO being able to have 20,000 books on a single little handheld works for me.

I have had to stop reading some, actually most of the forums on Ravelry. There is so much drama going on in some of them I think folks have completely forgotten it's a KNITTING and CROCHETING community. I miss the days when it first started and all we ever talked about was YARN and patterns, and knitting and crocheting. Now it's just too much off topic chatter and personal information. Many have forsaken their blogs and put all their business on Ravelry. So since I go there to obsess with others about needlecrafting ONLY, I have just removed all but four of the forums from my list. This is my forum for the personal stuff, with lots of the needlecrafting obsession thrown in.