No other place we have lived has a professional football team that is so loved and promoted as Wisconsin. Green Bay Packer fans remind me more of those who follow college football, elsewhere. When we first moved here, I was told by my coworkers in Green Bay that I would go to the Pro Shop at Lambeau Field and purchase Team scrubs to wear the last work day before the Packers had a game. There was no choice given in the matter because I was working at Aurora Health Care System in DePere, asmall town which is part of the Greater Green Bay Area. One of the physicians in that practice is also one of the team's physicians. It did not take long for me to develop a case of what is commonly known as "Packer Fever." My husband has always been a Green Bay Packer fan, so it was natural I should become infected. I will take my love of Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers and my new Aaron Rogers jersey with me, to live in Greensboro.
Moving is our topic, currently. We have had appraisals, a termite inspection and a surveyor from the moving company by the house. We have signed multiple forms in preparation for this sale. I have mailed many boxes of precious (meaning expensive or difficult to replace) yarns and fibers to my mother's home, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Each trip to the Postal Express, I kept telling the proprietors, Chris and Don, that I really do not need an intervention for hoarding! I don't think they believed me.
And this brings me to my dilemma: I am trying to determine how many projects I need to stash into our car for the ride and how many to allow the movers to transport. I have no idea how long it will take us to sell our house; ergo, how long I will not have access to my WIPs (Works in Progress). The good news: I will have easy access to my yarn and fiber that has been mailed to my mother's house. Then there is the exploration of yarn shops in Greensboro.....ok, so I can see that I really don't need to worry so much about that.
Part of this move entailed my resignation from my job as triage RN for an internal medicine and endocrinology practice. I worked in both areas. I am considering this my retirement as I find myself in the most fortunate position of being able to pursue a career change. My new title will be fiber artist. I like that because it is not limiting, but allows me to explore many options within this broad range.
My first exploration is into knit pattern design. My good friend, knitter extraordinaire and fellow medical professional, Vonnie, saw this picture and and asked for a copy of the pattern:
This is my Surfer Dude Lace Cowl. It started with the Fun Onion group on Ravelry. If you are a spinner or just want to be encouraged and challenged to try new and wacky things, this is the group for you! This started as a combination SAL/KAL (Spin Along then Knit Along). For the spinning, the ring leader put 5 braids weighing 2 ounces each in different fibers and colors into a mailer and sent it to the second person on the list. That person took out 2 favorite braids and replaced those with 2 new ones and sent the package along. We had a package surfing the mail around the USA and another package surfing the mail in Europe. We were then tasked to spin the fiber to knit a cowl of our own design. I followed the instructions and posted this on Facebook. That is where Vonnie saw it and made her request.
Now handspun yarn is nice because it will cover a multitude of knitting sins and errors. The idea of writing this down did seem a bit overwhelming at first; but then, the more I thought about it, I thought, why not? So I knit a second cowl; using this one to correct my mistakes and fix a few things I did not like in the first:
This yarn was spun from batts dyed by Wild Onion for the Tour de Fleece 2014. She used a picture of French Pastries in Blue as inspiration. I translated the scribble on the paper in the picture into a pattern for this new and improved version. It is currently with test knitters Vonnie and Ryan. I plan to publish this pattern once all the technical difficulties are worked out.
In the meantime, I continue to spin, too. My new Matchless wheel will travel to North Carolina in the car with us. This is a mixed BFL/Silk from Pigeon Roof Studios in the Rusted Song colorway:
I will post more news on our move to North Carolina, as it becomes available. In the meantime, I continue to knit and spin in order to keep the fantasy alive!
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