January Reader Who Knits: Liz Barringer-Smith

It's the third Wednesday of the month, so it's time to meet this month's Reader Who Knits.  DestiKNITters, say hello to Liz Barringer-Smith!

Liz, what's on your needles right now?

I’m making a simple lace scarf for a friend’s January birthday.

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment?

That I sell my work in an art gallery in Columbus.

What feels like the worst knitting mistake/foible/wrong choice you’ve ever made?

Trying to do something that is too involved either pattern or time-wise because I am a busy working mom and I also breed labradoodles and teach Tai Chi so I my knitting needs to fit in with all the other stuff.

Straight needles or circular?

Straight

Metal or wood needles?

Bamboo

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?

Milk chocolate

Coffee or tea?

Both, coffee in the morning and tea the rest of the day.

What’s your favorite Allie novel?

Falling for the Fireman

What are you reading now?

Outlander

Give a shout out to your favorite local yarn store:

We don’t have one anymore and my mom buys WAY too much yarn so she gives me most of my yarn (lucky me!).

As a thank you for participating, Liz chose a copy of Mission of Hope for herself as well as ten hanks of Cascade 220 in Eggplant, and a friend receives The Lawman's Oklahoma Sweetheart.  If you'd like to be featured in Readers Who Knit, email me at allie@alliepleiter.com for details.

Uliuli Wai Shawl from Needlecraft Cottage - Day 5

Fun...and not so fun...

It has returned.

The curse of the never-ending top-down shawl rows is back.  I kid you not, these final ten rows are taking me almost an hour each (including the purl row back, granted, but all those purls are killing me!).  I’m seriously doubting I’ll get this thing done, cast off, and blocked in only six episodes.  

As such, I’m coining a new DestiKNITions phrase:  the “sevener.”  It means a project that is too complicated to get done in six posts.

This is most definitely a sevener.

It is, however, one awesome sevener.  The exquisite color, the lovely lace, all of it.  I have to go shopping for an awards ceremony dress this week (I’m delighted to report that my 2014 novel A Heart to Heal won the Best Love Inspired Reviewer's Choice award from RT Book Reviews Magazine), and you can bet I’ll be keeping a special eye out for gowns that would coordinate with this shawl.

Speaking of special, here’s a special shout-out to all of you readers who entered the Love Inspired Knits sweepstakes last week celebrating the release of my newest knitting novel, The Doctor’s Undoing.  I had such fun looking at all the entries!   The lucky winner (tbd, as of press-time) will get to choose from a very nice selection of Cascade 220 yarn.  There aren’t too many things more fun than giving away free books and yarn!

...And more special stuff!  If you read my last post, you know I harbor a bit of an Outlander obsession.  During my book tour gig last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting the author of the Outlander series, Diana Gabaldon herself!  A big thrill for me, and I told her so--along with the fact that I'd written a blog post about the lovely knitwear featured on the show.  

It's nifty when all my worlds--writing, knitting, reading--collide into one fabulous experience.

Uliuli Wai Shawl from Needlecraft Cottage - Day 4

The upside of downtime...

Knitting has one unfortunate side effect:  addict behavior.

Like most obsessions—and yes, I categorize my knitting as an obsession rather than a hobby—knitting pervades most every aspect of my life. I evaluate potential handbags on how when they can hold a knitting project.  As I’m watching Outlander, I’m staring as much as the beautiful knitwear as the hunky Scots in kilts.  An essential part of any vacation planning is whether or not there is a yarn store nearby to explore.  Knitting ranks up there with oxygen for basics of life in my world.

Hence the addict behavior of withdrawal symptoms.  Let me explain.

For me, long drives translate directly into knitting time.  Planes, too.  Actually, any extended sitting environment anywhere, anytime pretty much equals knitting time in my view.  So when my husband asked if we could deliver his sports car 90 minutes one-way to a particular garage, my internal thought process went something like this:  sure I need to drive my car 90 minutes behind his car, but on the return trip he can drive and I’ll get 90 minutes of knitting time plus the time he’ll spend in the garage arranging for the car service.  So it was easy for me to say yes.  I mean I love my husband and his own sports car hobby so I’d have done it anyway but the knitting time made it extra easy to say yes.  Happy marital symbiosis, right?

Until I forgot to bring my knitting.

The sensation of this realization was ridiculously close to dread.  Physical illness, even.  Two hours (actually, the garage part took far longer than anticipated so it was closer to four hours) of downtime without my knitting? I was genuinely, astonishingly panicked.  It was as if I had lost the ability to cope with sitting still without yarn and needles. And folks, that’s pretty much the diagnosis:  I have lost my ability to sit unoccupied thanks to knitting.

I should care.

I don’t.

What did I do?  I did what any sensible woman would do:  dinna fash, DestiKNITters—I fired up StarzPlay on my smartphone and watched Outlander.  Obsessions come in many forms, aye?