Warty Bobbles

Blues Cruise Cardigan

Happy May Day!

I am celebrating by working on the emerald green Triangular Summer Shawl – with its Lily of the Valley (nupps!) motif, it is particularly appropriate (May is my birthday month – emeralds my birthstone, Lily of the Valley my birth flower).

Not that it has been lace weather today – brrrr!  Frigid rain with occasional bursts of bright but tepid-at-best sunlight.

 

Yesterday, I finished swatching and arithmetic-ing my Inverted Cardigan – which I am calling the Blues Cruise Cardigan because the blue hues make me think of icebergs, the Mediterranean Sea, the fjords, etc. – all cruise sights.  It would be a good garment to bring on a cruise, too, I think.  Cozy, versatile, fun.

My swatch (with some stitch experimentation – not necessarily the final choice stitches for each yarn).  I should have photographed it outside in natural light (as Sarah has instructed me to do – and for good reason as the colors show truer that way), but it was too dang cold.  I could not face it.  So, I got as close as I could to a window and that will have to do!

 

Also, I seem to be knitting Lucy Neatby’s Mermaid Socks.  Blame the cold.  My feet were freezing yesterday and I had some lovely spring-colored wool sock yarn set aside for the Mermaid Socks (which look intriguingly fun to knit).  Besides, I think (and even Sarah concurs) that it is not unreasonable to have a sock project going – so portable and pick-up-in-spare-moments-able.  Probably Sarah was taking pity on me too – it is 90 degrees in North Carolina!

The Inversion Cardigan

I seem to be knitting a spring/summer wardrobe!  My palette is pale blue, gray, taupe, a deeper ocean blue, and shale (which is the browny-gray color of wet rocks).  I have a couple of wraps going, a short sleeved sweater, a cardigan (which is technically hibernating, but as it peeks at me from its knitting bag in such a come-hither way, I know it will be out and about soon!), a pineapple bag, and now a sort of cocoon/jacket thing: Jared Flood's Inversion Cardigan (on his blogsite, check out the March 29th entry).

I really had not intended to start up another garment, but then I saw the Inversion Cardigan....and I bought the pattern download and printed it out, admired it, recommended it to a friend, and put it in my drawer of "patterns bought online and printed out to be used at a future date."  And still, I was not going to knit it up just now. I just played with it my mind. 

And then I found out that JJill was out of the drape-front linen blend cardigan that I had been planning to order -- it was going to be my go-with-everything layering piece.  Rats.  But, oh!  I have a pattern for an artsy cardigan that would probably do very nicely in its place.  And it would have the added virtue of being handknit, right?  All I would need is some nice solid colored yarn.

But although I was ready to plunk down money for a JJill cardigan, I found myself balking at buying more yarn.  It was not the money, exactly.  It was the fact that I have a number of projects going right now and so buying yarn for yet another project seemed crazy.

So, I went stash-diving.  With the rather superstitious idea that if I found the right yarn, then the Inversion Cardigan was "meant to be."  Really, I had little hope since I seldom (practically never) buy a cardigan amount of yarn unless I have an actual cardigan in mind.  Most of my stash is "ferocity" yarn: several skeins of different yarns chosen to go together in a garment-to-be-designed-later.  So, I have sets of coordinating yarns, not sets of matching yarns.  The chance of locating 1155 yds of worsted weight yarn in a single shade of my spring/summer palette was miniscule.  But a game is a game, so stash-dving I went!

And Shazam!

 

 

The Pineapple Project

I am starting a new project! (see, no rationalizations, no excuses, no “well, it got gray and it looks like it’s going to rain…” just a straightforward: Knitters, rejoice with me for I starting a new project!)  I started it in the sense that I have the pattern in hand – the yarn and needles are in transit because I just ordered them.  But in my mind, I have started.

 

Actually, it all happened so fast – sort of boom, boom, boom like fireworks!

 

Boom! Franklin Habit put up a blog post about his “Big D-mn Pineapple (1840)” pattern.

 

Boom! I read the post and told Sarah (with teeny-bopper excitement) that I had actually seen the actual pineapple bag at Madrona when I took Franklin’s class on antique patterns.

 

Boom!  I jetted (virtually) over to Knitty (a fabulous on-line knitting magazine, by the way) and read his article and looked over the pattern.

 

Boom! I printed the pattern.

 

Boom! I realized it would make an ideal travel project for my spring trips.

 

Boom! I started exploring yarn possibilities and Boom! got inspired to use linen instead of silk and Boom! got inspired to make it in neutral colors instead of the traditional yellow and green.

 

Then, I was ordering Louet Euroflax Sport Weight in champagne (for the body) and sandalwood (for the leaves) and sighing happily.

 

(Good Heavens, I just read over what I wrote and it sounds a lot like…well, never mind)

 

Anyhow, the neutral colors idea came from a pineapple teapot I have had for years. 

 

I ordered the yarn from Paradise Fibers and I get free 3-day shipping (the cost of yarn plus the Addi-Tubo Lace circ put me over the $100 mark…hmm, yeah, go big or go home, right?).  I don’t know how that works with the weekend, but having a few days to work diligently on my current projects is probably a good thing.  And I really plan this for a travel project, like I said – so I should have time to get it underway for my trip to North Carolina at the end of the month.

 

 

Still Finishing The Same Projects

Well, the title says it all.  I am plodding away on four lovely, but not terribly interesting projects.  I am determined to get them finished, but am getting a bit tired of all 4 of them. I really don’t know why “finish” is a verb – I am really just continuing to knit until I get to the finish.  Like a finish line.  Like done.  When does one actually begin to finish something – half-way through?!

 

Anyhow, the projects are:

 

Owen’s Yzma Blanket – which is now 1000+ stitches of border worked in a continuous circle of seed stitch (whose bright idea was that?! mine, of course…)

 

Owen’s Socks – you would think baby socks would get themselves knit up quicker…

 

Sonja’s Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf – 450 stitches each row of linen stitch (a slip stitch pattern – so the stitches scrunch up into almost no height at all – like you are knitting into the negative numbers – I think the scarf is getting smaller with each row…)

 

The Mawata Baby Hat – from my Madrona class – I want to keep working on the technique and figure I might as well complete the project (tho slowly knitting a silk baby cap when there is no imminent baby…)

 

Each one is a fine project, but none is very intellectually stimulating at this point.  They just go on and on.  It is not that I need to start a new project – I would be thrilled to work on one or another of the other half-dozen or so Unfinished Objects I have lurking around in various stages (and knitting bags).  In fact, I think these other projects know I am on a “finish it up” kick because they are all calling for me in the night, hoping (no doubt) to get on the “finish it up” train before it pulls out of the station and disappears over the Ridge of Best Intentions!

 

BUT I am an experienced knitter and I know that the only way to finish a project is to keep knitting on it until it is done.  The simplest truths are the most profound, in knitting as in all things!  And if I start knitting on one of the other projects, I will – according to the laws of physics – not be knitting on any of the 4 projects I am trying to finish.  And then I would be doomed!

 

So, back to the title – still finishing the same projects.

(Note: You might wonder why none of these 4 on-the-needle projects are not featured in the on-the-needles photo spread of my blog -- I suppose it is because I am working under the delusion that these projects are going to be done pretty much any minute and so it is not worth putting their photos up!  You will not be surprised to learn that the featured photos are of several of the, um, other projects....maybe I should re-name that column: Projects In Waiting)

In-The-Zone Knitting

I find most knitting projects fall somewhere on the “Mindless to Absorbing” scale.  Stockinette Wasteland (especially in the round without even the variety of the purl rows!) being “Truly Mindless” and a pleasant 4-row repeat lace being somewhere in the middle at “A Bit Interesting” and something with a complex chart and, perhaps, shaping to go along with it and maybe 3-5 balls of yarn hanging off of it topping the scale as “Absolutely Absorbing.”  Certainly a project like a sweater might have sections that hit different levels (a simple solid body with a color-work yoke, for example).

 

Then, there are projects that I call “In-the-Zone Knitting” because while the stitch pattern is not complex it is such that if you take your mind off it for a minute bad things happen.  Most basket-weave stitch patterns fall into this category because of the alternating nature of the rows – sometimes you are knitting the knit sts and purling the purl sts, sometimes it is the other way around and what you do on the right side for some rows might be turned around completely on other right side rows. 

 

Trellis patterns too – which are characterized by textural diagonals (meaning you keep changing the number of knits between purl sts or the other way around).  I made Max’s
“Yzma Blanket” in a trellis stitch of fingering-weight wool.  Nearly went both blind and crazy! 

 

“In-the-Zone Knitting” requires full focus, but is not really interesting enough to keep my mind engaged.  Tricky, that.  Errors in pattern usually escape my notice when I am working the row – showing up dramatically after another row or 2 have been knitted.  Which is a bad thing.  So, I have to pay attention to the repetition of the row I am on and not let my mind slip into the repetition of the previous row or the next row or some other random gosh-darned row. 

 

The trick, I find, is to set myself up in the right environment.  My current “In-the-Zone Knitting” project is the linen stitch scarf Sonja abandoned (really, I don’t blame her – she has a 12-week-old baby and is getting up every night! this kind of knitting is doom for a sleepy brain).  She still wants the finished piece – which will be gorgeous – so I said I would complete it for her birthday.

 

The Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf (Churchmouse Classics pattern) is worked length-wise.

Over 450 sts to a row!  The yarn is fingering-weight merino (Koigu KPPPM).  Linen Stitch is worked by alternating slipped sts with knit (right side) or purl (wrong side) sts.  When slipping the sts, you hold the yarn at the front of the work on the right side and at the back on the wrong side.  The result is a knitted fabric that looks and behaves like a woven fabric.  Fabulous, really.  Wonderful possbilities. 

 

(note: top is wrong side, bottom is right side)

And kind of a beast to knit – because the rhythm of the right side is just slightly different from the rhythm of the wrong side.  Except it all kind of looks the same –especially as the nature of slip stitches is to scrunch down into the row below so you cannot really see whether you are slipping a knit stitch (good) or a slipped stitch (bad) from the previous row.  It is so easy to get off and knit 2 sts in a row or purl the st you are supposed to slip because you just put the yarn to the front of the work and let your mind wander for a moment!  I have to keep checking my work – and I have to sing to myself so that I keep the “knit, move yarn to front, slip, move yarn to back, knit” separate from “purl, move yarn to back, slip, move yarn to front, purl.” 

 

The best environment I have found is morning at a coffee place like Starbucks.  Coffee, the mildly interesting people-watching, few interruptions.  Ideal.  Since it takes me about half-an-hour to do a row, I m probably going to have to spend every morning this month at Starbucks to get the scarf done by Sonja’s birthday!  Except that I really cannot, of course.  Could I re-create the Starbucks environment at home?  Hmmm. Fire up the espresso machine and turn off the phones!

 

Seamless Hybrid Sweater Brain Teasers

George’s Seamless Hybrid Sweater (could there be a less romantic name for a sweater design? sounds like some kind of sea anemone or flowering anemone! ah, tho, I love EZ’s practicality!) is progressing – so much so that I felt I should try to puzzle out the saddle shoulders. 

 

Usually, I will just work something through to figure it out – as I cannot always envision it from the printed word. But since 1) I had cables to consider (and what was I going to do with them now that I was about to hit the saddle shoulders?!) and 2) there were actually two methods presented for making the saddle shoulders and I had to choose one, I decided that I should figure out how the whole process worked. 

 

So, the other night I sat up quite late puzzling & puzzling, figuring & calculating, reading & re-reading & re-reading!  EZ’s directions are pithy, blessedy and blastedly concise.  I just could not get it all to work out in my head!

 

I understood (tho there were moments when I panicked and questioned entirely!) that the saddle on the shoulder would be built up from the top of the sleeve between the front and the back – in fact, joining the front and back – to the neck hole.  At that point, one either knit one’s way across the back to the other shoulder and built up the corresponding saddle, then built a saddle between the two saddles from the back to the neck hole – or one continued, on a reduced number of stitches, from the first shoulder saddle across the back of the neck (leaving a neck hole) and then stopped and built up the second shoulder saddle (say “second shoulder saddle” 10 times quickly!) and grafted it to the extended first shoulder saddle.

 

The problem was that I could not get EZ’s number to make sense.  And since my numbers were different (since my gauge and size was different), I had to figure out how many stitches, rows, etc. to knit to make the proportions work out.  It all looked so simple, but the numbers were screwy.  Heaven help me, when they seemed to come out to a solid saddle reaching across the entire shoulder section with no head hole possible I questioned both EZ (may I be forgiven!) and my own sanity!

 

It turns out that when she said (so calmly & concisely):

 

Work back and forth on the 32 stitches for 44 rows. At the end of the knit rows, sl 1, K1, psso (or SSK); at the end of the purl rows, purl 2 together, each time nipping off one stitch from back or front respectively.

 

I imagined that 44 sts were used up on both the front and back – bringing one half-way across the top of the sweater.  Then one was to do the same on the other side – filling up the whole shoulder section with no place for a head hole!  It took me a shamefully long time to realize that one would only use up 22 sts on each side (front & back) – since one alternated taking a stitch form the front on one row, from the back on the next row. Duh!

 

The next brain cramp came when I reckoned this up as about ¼ of the approx. 88 stitches that existed at the tops of the back & front – not 1/3 as it should be.  In fact, having worked off 22 stitches, knitting one’s way “across 43 stitches to the other side” in order to repeat would only get one part way there (65 of the 88 stitch distance)!  Augh!  Now, I would not only have a head hole, but an extra hole at the top of the sleeve before the 2^nd saddle started!  That couldn’t be right!

 

And (after much calculating and gnashing of teeth), I realized my 2^nd major error.  I had forgotten that in decreasing the sleeve stitches with a double decrease I had been decreasing the front & back stitches too!  So, EZ’s 88 stitches would have worked down to 66 – 22 stitches for each shoulder and 22 for the head hole.  Textbook proportions!

 

Sanity restored!  The world was as it should be.  And when I started playing around with my cables (at this point I think George had given up on the probability of our ever getting to bed and was silently immersed in a session of Angry Birds), I found that I could continue the cable lines up into a very attractive cable pattern along the back of the shoulders – and I had the numbers (my numbers – the actual numbers of stitches and rows I would need to complete the shoulders!) to ensure that my cable repeats would come out symmetrically.  Wow! EZ brilliance triumphs again!

Finishing

I am still working in “just finish it!” mode.  And aside from Gwen’s stockings, I have finished the Christmas/Epiphany/Groundhog’s Day gift that I cannot disclose quite yet (it is late – it should at least be a surprise!). 

 

I continue on Owen’s “Yzma Blanket.”  And George’s sweater -- EZ’s Seamless Hybrid Sweater done with some of Elsebeth Lavold’s Viking cables on the sleeves.  It is going well, but I am getting a little nervous about what exactly I am going to do with the cables once I get to the saddle shoulder part.  Well, that keeps it exciting.  I have also resurrected a pair of socks (the Woodland Socks) which are quite close to done.  I threw another sock project (this one barely started) into my knitting bag too, but have not done anything with it yet.

 

In the spirit of “just finish it!” I have taken on the Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf (Churchmouse Classics) that Sonja was knitting.  She wants the scarf, but does not find linen stitch at 450 sts/row! to her liking.  So, I said I would finish it for her birthday (end of February).  Can’t say I find linen stitch at 450! sts/row to be my cup of tea either, but maybe once I get more into the rhythm of it….And I did need a good portable not-too-much-thinking project.

 

The only project I have started is a pair of socks for Owen.  His store-bought socks were falling off – the ones that are too big and the ones that are too small (socks are mystical like that).  So, I commented that he was one-sock-off-ish because he was not wearing hand-knit socks.  “So I guess you better knit him some” was Sonja’s answer (to her credit, I do not think I was actually knitting on her abandoned scarf at that moment).  But I had put my own hand-knit-stockinged foot in my mouth, so to speak – and the next thing I knew I was casting on a tiny sock (he has long skinny feet – kind of like a kangaroo—like his cousin Gwen at his age, come to think of it).

 

So, that is the progress report.  Back to knitting.

Grandbaby Knitting

So, here are the photos of the current grandbaby knitting projects I promised, oh, about a week ago.

The Eskimo Cocoon for Owen (I call mine the Lumberjack Pod!) is done and ready for the baby -- we are ALL ready for the baby!  Could be any day now...

Owen's Yzma Blanket is not yet done (and this photo does not really show the patterning very well, I'm afraid -- the lower section is cable chunks and the upper is sort of square spirals).

Max's jacket is looking pretty spectacular -- first sleeve well on its way to completion.

Gwen's matching jumper -- front & back of skirt are done.  Next comes the Fair Isle patterned suspenders.

I am terribly proud of Gwen's sock!  It is my own design and involved fitting from the knee, down to the ankle, through the foot -- with two lace patterns and the shaping to fit the varying girths of calf, ankle & foot.  And my dear little Gwen refused to let us try it on her while it was in process!

It fits perfectly!!!  I am soooo happy!

Okay, what kind of a grandmother would I be if I didn't slip in the occasional grandchild photo!

November

I do not know why every year I wake up the day after Halloween and am shocked that it is November.  But it happened again this year and so this has been recover-from-Halloween-gear-up-for-the-Holidays week.

Writing my blog always gets a bit tricksy this time of year.  I would love to blather on about my Christmas knitting projects, but since the family reads the blog, this would seriously compromise the surprise element of Christmas giving -- in which I take a childish delight (oh, the excitement of "secret knitting" in my otherwise humdrum life!) and which lends glamour to a simple pair of socks or a prosaic wool scarf.

I CAN, however, write about the baby knitting.  It isn't done yet -- neither the knitting nor, apparently, the baby.  I have hopes for the Yzma Blanket and I really, really should be able to finish the Eskimo Kiss Hooded Cocoon pod-thing (which is knit on gi-normous needles at about 2 stitches per inch).  I have set the garter blanket aside for the time being (and it might be little Owen's Christmas gift -- I figure I can say that since I don't think he has wifi in the womb).

I can also give updates on Max's and Gwen's Holiday outfits -- both coming along (stockinette waistland...). Gwen's lacy socks are nearly done.  And it occurs to me that all this "almost done" talk would be a lot more interesting (and a lot more convincing) if I put in some photos!  So, I will try to do a little photo shoot this weekend.

With so much grand-baby knitting going on, I have not actually jumped fully into my Christmas knitting yet.  But once I do, perhaps I will figure out some sort of code for writing about my projects (ex., "the lacey thing" or "the beastie thing" etc.).  It might even build suspence for the family (those who worry that they might be getting "the beastie thing" and those who are afraid they won't be getting "the beastie thing"!).

 

Mitten, Mitten

Progress on my October Woodland mitten was halted when I ran into a gauge issue (too many stitches per inch).  I had swatched flat and was knitting in the round -- and I know that can affect gauge, but did it anyway figuring I would really just have to see how it worked up.  Well, it worked up a bit tight.  My hands are rather thin and narrow, so I could still get the partially-knit mitten on, but it was kinda stretched. 

 

Sarah and I debated: on the one hand (no pun intended), the mitten did fit onto my hand and “a bit snug” is better than “a bit loose” when it comes to mittens – as loose mittens tend to flop around and slide off the hand.  Go up a needle size?  I had gone up one from the pattern already (not that that really matters, of course).  We decided that changing my technique might loosen things up just enough.

 

You see, I use the 2-handed method of stranded/ Fair Isle knitting and since I despise long floats, I tend to trap the stranded yarns with a vengeance!  All very tidy, but rather, mm, firm.  Sarah said the stitches did not look happy.

 

So, Sarah ripped it back to the cuff for me and started up again with the same needles and a more liberal attitude toward catching the strands.  I have worked back up  to where I was when we had our mitten conference and it seems better – a little looser, perhaps (still smaller than the gauge, but the important thing is that it fit my hand) and with a bit more give.  The stitches look happier.

 

Meanwhile, Sarah whipped up a pair of the Chivalry Mitts from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts in a few days!  They are darling – and fit her beautifully! 

 

Side Note:

My Finnish heritage is blooming in my soul, I guess, because I just bought two books with Nordic designs: 

Nordic Knits by Martin Storey -- which did not impress me when I looked it up online, but which I had to have once I looked through the book itself at the store.

Scandinavian Needlecraft by Claire Youngs -- which is NOT a knitting book! but has stunning embroidery projects with the artful simplicity characteristic of Scandinavian designs.

I also bought Colorwork Creations by Susan Anderson-Freed (more mittens! gloves and hats too) which has fabulous and startlingly realistic stranded designs of birds among the other “woodland inspired” patterns.

 

 

Ghost-y Knits

It is nearly Halloween and I seem to be receiving visits from a ghost – The Ghost of Knitting Past.  First it was Elizabeth Zimmermann’s “Green Sweater.”  Then it was “ye olde time-y” (a pet phrase in our family) Bouncing Baby Set from Homespun Handknit.  Now it is another EZ pattern: The Seamless Hybrid Sweater in Knitting Without Tears.

 

It is a particularly compelling ghost!

 

I finished the Baby Set and the Green Sweater is on the needles.  The Seamless Hybrid Sweater is still only a spirited specter -- but I suspect it is only a matter of time until I succumb.  I had not been looking for a sweater pattern, but came upon it as I was looking up a hat pattern for a friend.  The book sort of fell open to the page spookily and there it was: the ideal sweater for my dear husband George!  (I might mention that I have not knit him a sweater – started a couple, yes, quite a while ago, but never finished one….).

 

I had been talking about a nice Aran knit for him – something very traditional and ornate.  But had not even gotten around to buying yarn for it.  And now here is a sweater that will suit him much better – a fine-gauge sweater that he can wear a lot in our Pacific Northwest climate.  It is a saddle-shoulder sweater (and he does look good in that style!).  And it is EZ’s pattern – which makes it kind of magical and venerable.

 

I looked it up on Ravelry to see how it had worked up for other knitters and it was fabulous over and over again, every time!  I am pretty excited.  Especially when I think about the yarn – it really does call for a gorgeous yarn.  O, the pricking of my thumbs…

 

 

Mittens For The Manic

Apparently when I am stressed, I turn to new knitting projects – probably has to do with some psychological need to be in control of something or maybe it is sheer mental escape!  Anyhow, it has been a stressful week and I seem to be designing and knitting a vest that was not even on the radar a week ago – and I am about to go swatch up the yarn from the KnitPicks Winter Woodland Mittens kits which arrived yesterday.  I also found myself fingering some sock yarn speculatively…but I stuffed it back in a bag!

 

I am endeavoring to harness some of this rather manic enthusiasm and channel it into some current projects that are oh-so-close to done – the Butterfly Q’mitl, for one. And the baby cap and socks from Homespun Handknit  which are nearly complete.  And it only makes sense to get through the Fair Isle knitting portion of Max’s “Hansel” jacket before beginning the Fair Isle mittens. 

 

I have only a few points to go on edging of the Gull Pi Shawl – and finishing that will be an occasion for major celebration!  Worthy of chocolate, a glass of good Cabernet Sauvignon, and casting on a Woodland Mitten!

EZ's Phoney Seam

I find I am working from patterns (rather my own designs) this Fall – it is marvelously expedient (since someone else has worked out all the bugs!) and a good learning experience as I work through another knitter’s process.

 

Most especially Elizabeth Zimmermann’s process – which is the stuff of legends!  I have taken on her “Green Sweater” partially because I fell in love with it when I saw it on the  Brooklyn Tweed Blog and partially for the opportunity to work through her clever and efficient construction techniques.  It kind of goes:  knit, knit, knit…(for, say 6 or 8” of fabric), then do something kind of exciting, then knit, knit, knit….

 

I had gotten through the “knit, knit, knit 8 inches” part of the body a couple of weeks ago and had put the sweater on hold until I had some good quiet “brain” time for the “kind of exciting” part.  Last night, I had some time (and some brain!), so I tackled the set-up for the sleeves.

 

It involved putting 31 stitches (for each sleeve) from the lower body on waste yarn and  casting on 5 steek stitches which will stand in their place while I continue knitting the upper portion of the  body in the round (knit, knit, knit!) – the steek sections will eventually be cut open (yikes!) and, voilá, sleeve holes! 

 

The really interesting part of this procedure was putting in EZ’s Phoney Seam which adds the look and support of side seams to a garment worked in the round.  To do so, one drops the side-center stitch all the way down to the hem and then hooks up the stitches as one would for any dropped stitch – except that one alternates hooking one ladder bar and two ladder bars (at once – kind a vertical ‘knit 2 together”).

 

Here are some (very poor – sorry!) photos to illustrate (yeah, I took the photos at about 10:30 last night while I was in process and I should have tinkered with the lighting, I know – what will Sarah say?!):

All went smoothly – except for the ten minute of bewilderment and slight panic when I thought I had 16 extra stitches (I didn’t, as it turned out – just a counting oversight!).  Now, I (you guessed it!) knit, knit, knit…again.

 

 

Last Day Of Summer

Summer seems to have simply worn herself out and collapsed in a dusty heap.  It is Autumn’s duty to step in, of course, but I think she will merely be aping her older sister’s dreary warmth for a while – I see no hints of Autumn splendor.

 

But the swallows are gone and so I know that Winter is coming.

 

Summer came late this year and lingered – perhaps my knitting reflects that!  I have just blocked the butterflies for my Butterfly Q’mitl (which was to have been a summer garment).  I can sew it up tomorrow if the fat little bodies are dry.  Then, I have to knit on the lace edging.  Which is where I am on my Gull Pi Shawl (another summer piece!).  About 16 more points to go (16 rows per point).

 

Last weekend, it rained and though the weather was warm, I jumped on the momentary inspiration to start Max’s jacket and Gwen’s jumper.  I had bough the yarn at (the much lamented) Lamb’s Ear Farm’s going-out-of-business sale in the spring --  forest green tweed & pistachio tweed (Cascade Yarns) with a vague “Hansel & Gretel” thought in mind.  I am using the boy’s “Hansel” cardigan (tho I think the styling is more Bavarian-jacket-like) form Fairy Tale Knits (Alison Stewart-Guinee) and the girl’s “Heidi” jumper from (the oh-so ancient, but lovely) Kids’ Knits (Lesley Anne Price).  I am mostly following the patterns as written (with a few little adjustments).

 

The baby knitting continues (I am reminded of the psalm that speaks of our being “knit in our mother’s womb”!)  and little Owen is two months from his due date.  I have 2 blankets, a hat, a pair of socks (not actually begun), and a pair of trousers in the works for him.  So, in the evenings I am bouncing between lace shawl points, a Heidi jumper, a blue baby blanket of my own devising….

 

A Baby Cap

I have been diligently working on the 2 blankets I am knitting for Sonja’s baby Owen (due in November) – and the Baby Pod and slip-stitch trousers (that match the Tea Leaf Jacket) are waiting in the wings.  So, I really did not need another baby knitting project.

 

It is way too easy to get inspired (“seduced” might be the better word) by someone else’s baby knitting project – especially when one is expecting a Blessed Event in the family.  But I had been holding back pretty well – even with The Yarn Harlot knitting baby things at an astonishing rate and posting photos daily!  Then, she put up photos of the baby cap from Jean Scorgie’s Bouncing Baby Set in Homespun Handknit (ed. Linda Ligon).  I was intrigued by the clever construction and, since I happen to own the book, decided to look it up. 

 

So I did.  It turns out that the pattern this charming little cap is based is (and I quote) derived “from a Finnish one belonging to a friend”!  A Finnish design!  I am Finnish – 100% Finnish-American – so, of course, little Owen will need a Finnish baby cap!  The set includes adorable garter knee socks “made to stay on” (every infant sock or bootie pattern I have eves seen is credited with this particular characteristic, so we will see what we will see…but they are designed to curl up over the little knees and are so cute I can hardly stand it!).

 

I happened to have bought green variegated Heritage Hand Painted Sock Yarn (Cascade Yarns) several months ago thinking I might knit baby socks and maybe a hat for Owen – and it turns out to be the right weight for these pieces.  Perfect!  So, here I am garter-ing away at the cap.

 

Not as quickly as The Yarn Harlot, of course (she has finished the cap and knit a cardigan too in the time it has taken me to hunt out the book and yarn for my new project).  But baby things knit up quickly even if you are not a super-fast knitter, right?  And if I spend more time knitting and less time reading blogs…at least, I should probably stay away from The Yarn Harlot’s blog until her friend gives birth to that baby and TYH moves on to something less likely to distract me from the knitting at hand.

Labor Day Weekend

Sort of summer, sort of almost autumn.  The weather here is gorgeous and predicted to be so for maybe 10 days or so.  Maybe longer.  So summer continues.  But it is September and feels all back-to-schoolish too! 

Knitting-wise, I am enjoying my summer projects: Glacier (which is lacey and summer-ish – although I can see it as a winter garment layered over a sweater or long-sleeved t-shirt), my Butterfly Q’mitl (the sections are done and blocked – but I have to knit 4 more butterflies! and then sew it up and add the lace edging), and the Gull Pi Shawl (I just keep chugging away at the edging).

And then there is the baby knitting!  Sonja’s baby (womb-name “Cletus” but will probably be named Owen) is due Nov. 19^th – about 2 ½ months from now.  I started working on the garter Rashy Blanket again.  And I had better get back to working on the slip-stitch trousers that match the Tea Leaf Jacket (tho these are not newborn-sized – I’m kind of smart like that!).  I have been working on his “Yzma Blanket” – bright blue Baby Ull wool yarn knit in a textured pattern.  I am called Yzma by my grandbabies and these wool baby blankets are my special gift to them. 

I am trying not to think about autumn projects too much yet…but I am remembering that I had bought yarn to knit Hansel-ish and Gretel-ish garments for Max and Gwen.  And the Turtle Sweater is a good autumn project – I should resurrect that, for sure.  I finished the summer version of the Tam For All Seasons and, reasonably, should be starting on the autumn version – tho I have not picked out yarn for it yet.  I do have yarn for a Fair Isle tam, of course – but that may get pushed to winter….Oh, I should finish my Woodland Socks, too…

I guess I am thinking about autumn knitting after all! 

Fortunately, I find these later summer/early autumn days as energizing as I do inspiring.  Okay, that’s it – I gotta go knit something!

 

And the Winner Is...

My deadlines games and daily progress goals never line up with reality very well, I confess.  I suppose I do not expect them to -- it is mostly wishful thinking!  There was little chance of my completing the rigorous daily schedule I had set for myself.  But it kept me focused on the projects I am trying to get done.  And it gave me some "progress markers."

A few days ago, I gave up on getting th Gull Pi Shawl and Butterfly Q'mitl done before The Beach.  I will take Sarah's advice and finish them there. 

Sarah kindly sewed the sleeves on the Tea Leaf Jacket and then I sewed the buttons on and it was done!  For a few hours. Until Sarah saw it and pointed out that I had not put the buttons in the right place.  She kindly snipped them out for me.  I will sew them on correctly tonight and then it truly will be done!

The "Summer" Tam For All Seasons is coming along.  I am decreasing the top now (so the rounds get shorter!).  Could be done before we leave.  Or it will make good car knitting.  If I finish it before we actually arrive at The Beach, does that count?

The Otter Rock Sweater just needs to be sewn up.  The sleeves and neckline lace and band are done.  I started sewing the first sleeve on yesterday and had to rip back, sew up, rip back....had to pick it up again today and still was struggling with it.  Confound it, I do know how to sew on a sleeve!  But the sleeve and body would not line up right.  I got out a knitting reference book and started up again.  Still not coming out right!  Then, I stared at it good and hard and realized that I had been trying to put it in wrong the whole time!  It is a drop sleeve and I was sewing it in like a set in sleeve -- no wonder the blasted thing would not fit!!  Have ripped it out again and will sew it up tonight.  If I block it tonight, it should be good to go before we leave.

I still have hopes of finishing the baby pants that go with the Tea Leaf Jacket before the baby shower (10 days from now).  And I am bringing a lace vest project too.  These -- with the Butterfly Q'mitl, the Gull Pi Shawl, and the 2 baby blankets (the garter Rashy Blanket and the patterned Yzma Blanket) will give me a good supply of knitting projects for The Beach.  I may throw in one or two other projects too -- for variety's sake!

 

Posting My Progress

So, I have actually been charting my progress on the To-Be-Done-Before-The-Beach projects over the past 3 days and here are the results (presented in brutally scientific actual-really-and-truly numbers in chart form!).

Tam (10 rounds per day/30 for 3 days) 

Day 1              Day 2              Day 3              Total

5                      2*                    6                      13

*(plus tinking back and re-knitting a round because I had dropped a stitch)

Butterfly Q’mitl Lace Panel (2” per day/ 6” for 3 days)

Day 1              Day 2              Day 3              Total

2”                    0                      0                      2”

Gull Pi Shawl (3 pattern repeats per day/ 9 for 3 days)

Day 1              Day 2              Day 3              Total

1 ½                  0                      ¼                     1 ¾

Otter Rock Sweater (4” per day/12” for 3 days)

Day 1              Day 2              Day 3              Total

3”                    0                      5 ½”                8 ½”

Butterfly Q’mitl Butterflies (1 butterfly per day/3 for 3 days) 

Day 1              Day 2              Day 3              Total

0*                    ½                     ¼                     ¾

*(actually finished up one that was almost done from before I started this chart)

 

Statistically speaking, I am running at about 30% over all.  The Gull Pi Shawl is looking a bit woeful, but the Otter Rack Sweater is pretty promising. 

A wise voice (which sounds suspiciously like Sarah) has suggested that I knock a few projects off this list and focus on getting the others done. 

But all sensibile-ness aside, I find myself experiencing a tremendous attack of Impending Grandmother-dom!  As in, wanting to have something especially lovely for Sonja’s baby shower in two weeks!  The Tea Leaf Jacket is done (except for te sleeves being sewn on and I have to find some buttons) – but it really needs a pair of knitted pants and socks and a hat….well, okay, maybe socks or a hat.

Hmmm. Well, I will keep charting and see what develops.

Deadline: The Beach

I love deadlines.  They energize me and fill me with purpose.  They render me so productive that I will pile as many languishing projects as I can get my hands on onto an upcoming deadline – and then knit my little heart out until the deadline comes (some of the pile may sort of slip by the wayside, I confess, but many things do actually get done!).  It is not a perfect system, but it can get me focused.

 

So, with our annual family trip to the Beach coming up in August, I have cheerfully pawed through my knitting bags to see what I could possibly get done before we go.

 

1)      The Otter Rock Sweater (naturally, since it was intended for this trip all along and I am eager to wear it at the site of its namesake) – though it is on temporary hold while I wait for another skein of yarn to ship…I need it to complete the second sleeve.  Not going to be the same dyelot, I’m afraid, but it will have to do…

2)      The Summer Version of the Tam For All Seasons (swatched and cast on yesterday).  It has been raining a lot this week and so I am reminded of how useful a summery tam would be – plus if I don’t get it going soon, I will probably have to move on to the Autumn Version.

3)      The Tea Leaf Jacket for Sonja’s baby – all it needs is the sleeves sewn on and some buttons.  And it would be nice to give it to her at the baby shower that is to take place at the Beach.

4)      The Gull Pi Shawl – resurrected!  I had planned to get it done for last year’s trip to the Beach.  I am on the lace edging. 

5)      Butterfly Q’mitl – have been chugging away at this all summer!  I just have to finish the lace panel and 7 butterflies for the edging (have nearly finished the 2^nd).

 

Not unreasonable with nearly 3 weeks to knit.  Although, I will still be working on a couple of other projects.  And I am trying to not think about the baby leggings that are supposed to go with the Tea Leaf Jacket – and a few other things that are “in the wings but not on the needles.”  After all, I will need some knitting to bring to the Beach too!

EZ's Green Sweater

I have my yarn and am knitting away on the EZ Green Sweater (mine is not green, but variegated blue, but what's in a name...?).

"Codex"  (color: Spiel im Morgengrauen) from The Sanguine Gryphon

52% silk/48% Blue-faced Leicester wool

The yarn is GORGEOUS!  Silky, but with body.  And the colors are fabulous -- like the sky with a storm coming on, maybe.

I am excited about the pattern (in a totally "knitting nerd" way).  It is full of characteristic EZ techniques and I am bound and determined to execute every one of them.  Sort of an homage.  And, of course, because they are so practical.

I already did the Provisional Cast-On -- something I seldom do (which is probably why I screwed it up and had to rip it out and re-do it -- with a resource book on my knee this time).  And I am chugging away at the stockinette hem, using individual thumb-loop cast-ons for the increases -- instead of the "make one" which uses the running thread of the row below (which is my usual increase of choice).

And there are going to be STEEKS!  But I am trying not to think about that too much now.

I did have to adjust the numbers because my measurements are really between two of the listed sizes (sort of..in a pretty pear sort of way..).  But I think I have the first part all figured out now and I will adjust the numbers of the latter parts as I get to them.

Summer Knitting Re-visited

Yesterday we spent hours cleaning up the front and back yards – this was a family event, a gift to George for his birthday (next year, we are all pitching in on a gift card!).  Needless to say, I was physically exhausted and a bit the worse for wear by the time I settled down to my knitting.  And was not at all surprised to find my hands breaking out into tremors every now and then as I knit!

 

This morning I woke feeling as if I had been beaten with sticks.  And I am still pretty tired.  Fortunately, I could “lie low” today – the only real activities being church and watching the Mariners game on TV.  Sadly, the M’s lost today – though they took the series with two fabulous wins Friday and Saturday!

 

But I digress from knitting.  Which is pretty much how it has been going lately with our Sasha & Geoff home from college for a few weeks and family events dominating our days and evenings.

 

But what I really wanted to do here was to confess that I have been discouraged by our winter-ish spring and cannot really face my true summer knitting – the Mermaid Shell, for example.  Even lace seems dangerously insubstantial in our cold wet weather. 

 

(Note: today we finally broke down and took the flannel sheets off the bed! Not because they seemed to warm, but because it was time to change the beds and I refused to put flannel back on – it being Memorial Weekend, for heaven’s sake!) (I digress again)

 

So, I have cast on the Otter Rock Sweater – a cozy beachy sort of pull-over with is much better suited to our gray days.  I succumbed to the current weather.  And I succumbed to the delicious Blue Sky Alpaca yarn I bought at Renaissance Yarns! 

 

So, blow, blow thou spring winds!  And summer winds, too!  I have the right knitting at hand.

Eggplant!!

So, I Iay in bed this morning thinking, hmm, what should I knit today?

I decided to focus on some of my active projects that have been languishing a bit -- those that have sat untouched in my knitting bags for a week or so.  I know, I really have too many projects going at the moment -- but the only way to take care of that is to finish something!  So, I have been working on a select few projects -- with the aim of finishing something -- and letting the others sort of languish. 

The problem with languishing projects is that they need a lot of thought and fluffing and fussing to get going again if I let them languish too long.  So, I thought, why not spend a little time with each of the languishers and keep them fresh in my mind.  So, I planned an afternoon of knitting lace on the deck in the sun.

And then I thought, EGGLPLANT!!

I had totally forgotten that I was supposed to be knitting an eggplant for my grandson Max's class. Good gracious!

So, I guess I will be knitting an eggplant on the deck in the sun.  Makes me feel kind of like a plant myself.

A Summer Q'mitl

It is dreary and rainy and cold today.  And I quite truly and genuinely wish I could wave a magic wand (or an enchanted knitting needle, perhaps?) over the pile of fabulous blue-ish and purple-y yarns on my desk and transform them into a spring/summer q’mitl.  I would even forgo the pleasure of knitting them up into the q’mitl in order to have the spring/summer q’mitl now!

 

I love my Owl Q’mitl – it is cozy and drape-y and I wear it a lot.  It is my favorite “sweatshirt.”  But it is sooo autumnal.  I try to think of it as forest-y, but it is really more suited (visually) to October than to April. 

And I have these gorgeous yarns that would make a gorgeous q’mitl.

Wolf Creek Wools Deschutes (60% merino/40% silk) in a stunning azure blue.  Malabrigo’s Twist (merino) in purple-y fading to blue-jeans blue brightening to so very a nearly spring-like pale green.  Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs “Gilded Gothling” (63% merino/15% nylon/2% silver) which looks like a summer twilight sky with the first stars peeping out.

 

They really want to be a q’mitl.  I would call it the Butterfly Q’mitl. 

 

The truth is that I am topped out on current projects at the moment – really and truly.  I have no business even considering starting something new – however desperate I am to wear it.  I am chanting my Litany of Current Projects even as I write: baby sweater, baby blanket, baby blanket, lace stole, lace stole, crochet turtle, turtle sweater, mermaid shell, vegetables, socks.

 

Yep, better keep that yarn cocooned for the present.  Yep.

 I wish I could wear yarn!

 

 

The Turtle Sweater Is Back In Business

Getting a project that is “resting” back to hibernating is a real effort for me.  It does not take long for a complex piece to go “cold” – not that I lose interest, but I kind of lose a sense of what is happening with it.  That is what happened with the Turtle Sweater.

Not really my fault. I had to stop working on it while Sarah was on her family road trip to California.  I needed her to help me try it on and determine the next step.  So, while she was gone, I put it on a lifeline (and took out the circ needle) so I could try it on when she got back.  It is a top-down raglan sweater and I had to figure out when to separate out the sleeves. 

Well, she got back, but life has been crazy busy in our family and we did not get around to trying on the sweater until a couple of days ago.  By then, the sweater was about a month “cold” – meaning I had not worked on it for that long.  And since it is a complicated piece, I had to decipher my notes, determine exactly where I was in the patterning, confirm what all the color-coded markers meant, etc.  Really, it is easier (and less stressful) to start a brand new project than to bring a cold project (esp. a complex one that is in the middle of being designed!) back to active life.

But I did it!  Today, Sonja (who is in the early stage of pregnancy and feeling tired and yerky) spent the afternoon lying on my couch watching Independence Day and I sat there and puzzled out my Turtle Sweater.  Now, the trick is to keep working on it!

Blessed Garter Stitch

Sometimes Garter Stitch is just the thing.  It is a fine stitch design-wise, of course,  but I am talking about it as a process.  When my life is especially full – with events, logistics, people, decisions, conversations, transitions, travel, meetings, etc. – as it has been for the past couple of months, well, God be praised for Garter Stitch!

 

At present, I am garter-ing away on a crib blanket for grandbaby #3 due in November – Sonja and Jordan’s first child.  We will find out whether he/she is a he or a she this summer, so until then we are knitting gender-neutral items and the Moderne Baby Blanket in Kay Gardiner’s and Ann Shayne’s  Mason-Dixon Knitting seemed ideal – especially as Sonja approved of the sophisticated asymmetrical design.

 

We made a quick yarn store dash last weekend and I picked 4 wool yarns. Since I had to go back again to get more yarn (there was no time for yardage calculation during the quick dash!), I ended up with 2 more yarn colors (since there were no more balls of the Taos I had bought and since I decided the border should be in a solidish contrasting color that was not in the main blanket).

 

This project is proving to be balm for the harried spirit! Partially because of the lovely wool yarn, of course, but mostly because of simple Garter Stitch.  Meditative, straightforward, soothing.  It requires no counting, keeping track, switching about.  It just moves along at a comfortable trot, getting itself done.

 

Working this project has made me realize how much design work I have been doing in the past year-plus!  It is fabulous to just sit down and read the directions and follow them and have something turn out the way it is supposed to!  The numbers are there and everything!  Wow.

 

I always think that lace knitting suits Spring – and it does, like an intricate May Dance with precise steps and turns, all delicately and joyfully performed.  But now I also know that Garter Stitch suits Spring as well – it is like the sowing of seeds in the ground, repetitive and hopeful, intuitive and ancient.

 

 

Beginning The Lace Stole

The Lace Stole is begun!  I have worked 6 pattern rows – each stitch the size of a fly’s leg draped over the needle – and the knitted fabric stretches out to nearly half-an-inch (it is usually wrapped around the needle like a piggy’s tail!).  A couple of hours of knitting have gone into this fly’s leg/piggy’s tail thing.  Not counting all the preparation and swatching before I began and then the additional notes and color-coding I did on the chart after I had done a few rows.

 

But I am on my way!  And surely I will hit my stride and make more rapid progress.  Not that I have grand illusions about finishing it any time soon.  Nope, a lace shawl is to be savored in the making – because it is going to take nearly forever to do and one had best start enjoying it now! 

 

It is a humbling and a hopeful process.  I don my bifocals and take a deep breath and focus and eek out careful row by careful row.  Humbling, in a good way, as it makes me appreciate the tremendous craftsmanship and perseverance of other lace knitters.  Humbling, in a good way, as it reminds me that, for all my knowledge and skill, I can only make this stole one precious wee loop at a time.  Hopeful because I believe that all these precious wee loops, carefully arranged, can become a thing of beauty fluttering, delicate and grand in the summer sunshine (maybe not this summer’s sunshine…).

 

Yes, well, knitting lace shawls does this to me.  Makes me all rhapsodic.  It is one of the reasons I love them, I think.  And, of course, because I find them irresistible!

 

Which reminds me:  I need a name for this stole.  Maybe something about spiders – from the stitch pattern names?   I find spiders irresistible, too.  Hmmm.  The Spider Stole of Irresistibleness, perhaps?

 

 

Gray Knitting

We are having gray, wet days -- and I have spent a lot of time on the road in the rain.   Blech.  Our Spring weather is so often gray, wet and cold.  Did I mention the gray?

And today at home: Grayand more gray.

 

So, when I look in my knitting bag and see gray:

And gray:

And (pretty darn close to) gray:

 

I can hardly be blamed for seeking solace withSharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting (gorgeous Shetland Islands lace patterns!) -- especially since I found this in my stash:

Oh,I think the sun is coming out!

Icicle Knitting!

And they said it couldn't be done!

Nature's Needles!

Bella Bella Capelet

I finally got around to taking some photos of the Bella Bella Capelet.  It is progressing nicely now – just have the tip of one lace gusset and the collar to knit (the collar involves casting on 423 stitches in mohair, so…yeah…). 

 

I started it a couple of summers ago.  I have some vague recollection of seeing autumn clothes in pink and getting kind of excited about the idea.  I love traditional autumn colors – but clothing made in golds, oranges, etc. are so distinctly autumnal that I find I cannot wear them in winter and spring, so an autumn garment in a more year-round color seemed practical.  And I got kind of a charge out of seeing pink paired with traditional autumnal tones.

 

So, I bought a lot of fabulous yarn in different weights and fibers in a range of pinks, plums, grays – with dashes of blues, reds…And I started researching bell-inspired stitch patterns (get it? Bell-a  Bell-a?).  We like to work with stitch patterns that have similar lines when we are putting them into a piece that uses a variety of yarns.  It ties things together visually.

 

So, here are some views of Bella Bella in process. 

This shows the main section -- you can see the bells!  The cental ribbon section is knit in weave-like linen stitch with columns of faggotting.  The hot pink line is mohair.  And, yes, there are bobbles in the Noro.

Here is the rest of the body -- the cable-ish stitch is bell-shaped with an eyelet at the base of the bell.  The border at the hem is made of vertical tubes.  The triangular open spaces (where the yellow clips are) will have lace gussets in deep purple bamboo yarn.

This is the larger gusset (the smaller one is similar -- and is done!)

This is the swatch for the collar.  Little hot pink mohair bells!  And the body of the collar in reverse stockinette. 

I plan to block the capelet in sections, so I can shape the bells -- and I will block the collar and gussets before I attach them.  The capelet will be held closed near the neckline with hooks and eyes -- and I will probably knit some sort of triangualr placket to lie across the center front.  Still thinking about that -- but I will wait until it is complete othewise to make those design decisions. 

I hope to finish Bella Bella this week!

Maybe This Is The Year

Maybe this is the year I finish those un-finished projects.  The ones that I set aside for one reason or another over the past few years.  The infamous UFOs (unfinished objects) taking up cabinet space or lurking in knitting baskets and holding lovely Lantern Moon needles hostage.  The sweaters in cryogenic sleep.  The embryonic lace shawls. 

 

It sounds like a sci-fi movie.

 

Most of these are pieces I would honestly love to wear (or actually give to their intended recipients!).  I have, I think, 4 lace shawls on the needles and none in my wardrobe.  Now, it is getting to be like True Confessions!

 

Anyhow, I seem to have started already – having resuscitated the cashmere scarf I “gave” George for Christmas in 2010 and resurrected the Bella Bella Capelet (because I figured I could actually get it done to wear at Stitches West next month).  And it feels okay – not really exciting or even deliciously virtuous, but okay.  I figured out where I was on each one (grateful that I keep meticulous notes!)  and I am making steady progress.

 

The Bella Bella Capelet has some design challenges (hmmm, I wonder if that had anything to do with the reason it got stuffed in a basket…my beautiful Longaberger tote basket, by the way, which (obviously!) I have been unable to use for anything else for a couple of years…).  And it had me a little stressed out for a few days, but I think we have it figured out now.  The cashmere scarf is simply simple.  But the yarns in both are gorgeous and satisfying to knit.  And they should both be lovely pieces when they are done.

 

I cannot say what is leading me to do this, to take up these unfinished projects and continue on.  Guilt?  Well, I have felt those twinges for a long time, but they haven’t motivated me like this!  And I really don’t feel so much guilty about them as sort of wistful.  Maybe it is the sense of waste – not wanting so much exquisite yarn, such interesting design ideas, so many hours of work to go to waste.

 

 Like many families these days, we are having to “make do or do without” more than we used to – so things we took for granted are rather more precious, special, appreciated.  It is not that I don’t have yarn for new projects – I do!  I have compiled a very respectable stash (and things being the way they are, I do not regret a single yarn purchase from days when I was flush!). 

 

But I feel like, hey, here’s this almost-capelet (scarf, sweater, stole…) and it really is pretty cool and I love the yarn, so why not wake it up?

 

Silly Little Things

Still chugging away at the alpaca blankets!   I think I will finish Geoff’s this week.  It is huge and heavy – like having an alpaca on my lap while I knit.  And turning the work at the end of the row is like wrestling an alpaca.  But it is gorgeous and that makes up for a lot!

 

Perhaps it is the constant blanket wrangling, though, that has me kind of obsessing over knitting little things.  Silly little things – like vegetables for Sasha.  And leaves and flowers from Nicky Epstein’s books Knitted Flowers and Knitted Embellishments.  The vegetables are just fun little gifties for Sasha to get in the mail.  The leaves and flowers, however, have either a more serious or a more silly purpose – depending on your point of view.

 

Stitches West is coming up next month – Sarah and I are already excited, thinking about the classes and the yarn market and all the knitters!  And we are busy getting our knitted “trousseau” in order – ya gotta wear your best knitted stuff at Stitches!  So, I have resurrected the Bella Bella Capelet and have grand intentions regarding The Batwing Thing…and I am knitting little leaves and flowers.  For barrettes.  Hair adornments.  For me to wear (this is where you get to vote for serious or silly…).  Since my hair is long enough for me to where clips now, I thought this would be a fine opportunity to knit little leaves and such to wear on my head.

 

Granted, it sounds a bit silly when I write it out like that.  But hopefully they will be such charming hair adornments that they will be seriously chic.  I am doing the knitting and then Sarah will help me arrange them artistically on hair clips.  That’s the plan.

 

Meanwhile, I have photos of the Christmas Candy Tam to show – and so you can see I am already practicing wearing something seriously silly on my head!

 

Knitting Vegetables

Yes, I do still have alpaca blankets to finish.  And, yes, I am knitting vegetables.  It’s a knitter thing.  I enjoy knitting the blankets, but they are getting cumbersome.  Large and heavy.  Not portable.  At all.  In fact, it is kind of a commitment to sit and work on them because it takes a while to get situated and if you get up for, say, one of those last left-over Christmas cookies, well, you have to settle back in and get all situated again (it is actually a terrific dieting aid..). 

 

And (o, knitter, know thyself!) these blankets are a lot (a lot a lot a lot!) of mindless knitting:  a row a Knit 1, Slip 1 followed by a row of knitting.  I do not exactly thrive on mindless knitting – though I have been enjoying it more than I expected.  It is meditative and calming.  But I want to think about knitting, too! 

 

Soooo, I am knitting vegetables (from Hansi Singh’s Amigurumi Knits).  They are a gift for my vegan daughter, Sasha.  She actually requested I knit her some – to make up for not having her blanket done by Christmas Day.

 

Perhaps you see a flaw in the logic here!  Won’t my knitting vegetables (oh, I made the most adorable peapod yesterday….!) slow down progress on her blanket?  Shouldn’t she know better than to get me distracted by dangling fascinating little veggie patterns in front of my garter-weary eyes?  Yes.  But, hey, I’m not going to argue the point.  Besides, as her mother, I have no one to blame but myself.  Nope. 

 

 

January Knitting

As usual, my January knitting looks very much like my Christmas knitting!  Sarah and I realized (a couple of days ago) that we were not going to finish Geoff’s and Sasha’s blankets before they drive back to Eastern Washington on Thursday.  Not unless we drove ourselves like maniacs – and while I might be able to work up that kind of mania in December, it is not going to happen in January.

 

And we decided it would be better to spend the time with them – family time playing games and going to movies, going on walks, etc. – than to root ourselves to chairs and knit constantly.  Sometimes, we get reasonable about these things!

 

We are still working on them diligently, of course (we have Sonja’s and Jordan’s to finish too!), but I have taken some time to work of some other projects a teeny bit too – for variety’s sake.  I started the little knit fleur-de-lis pincushion from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts.  I plan to fill it with barley so I use it for tapestry needles.

 

I picked up my mohair tam (the Christmas Candy one) again, too.  Had a crisis last night when I found I was off in the count (it is a lace pattern) and started tinking back (once I finally found where the error was! soooo hard to see with mohair all bunched up on double-pointed needles!) – only to find the stitches were leaping off the points of the needles like lemmings!  Grabbed up five or so in one spot with a steel crochet hook and another 5 or so with a tapestry needle immediately.  For about 15 seconds, I actually thought of giving up on the whole thing.  It looked that bad.  But I just sat there hunched up (trying not to move too much!)  and dealt with one stitch at a time until I rescued them all, tinked back and fixed the ssk error, knit my way back through the round again.  So, it seems to be all right now.

 

And then I went back to the nice sturdy alpaca blanket!

Rectangles For Christmas

Yesterday, I realized that -- aside from the llama -- my Christmas knitting is rectangular.  I noticed that whenever I picked up something to knit, there was a rectangle hanging from my needles (well, okay, one piece is triangular at the moment, but it is rapidly expanding into larger triangle that will then decrease down until it is a square-ish diamond whereupon it will live out its days as a rectangle). 

 

Well, rectangles make good Christmas gifts. Useful things like scarves, stoles, coasters, placemats, table-runners, afghans, blankets, throw pillows.  Rectangles are “one-size-fits all.”  Pretty much.  And they don’t require difficult-to-acquire-subtly information like head measurements and bust size. 

 

I live under the illusion that rectangles are faster to knit than anything with shaping.  At least, rectangle progress is easily calculable:  one counts inches.  A rectangle does not mess with your mind.  It is straightforward.  And you can stretch it during blocking if you have to.

 

All this might make my rectangles sound cold and impersonal.  As if my Christmas knitting was merely a hyper-efficient grind-out-the-inches affair. 

 

No, no, no!  For me Christmas knitting is highly personal – even if (nearly) everyone is getting a rectangle. 

 

A rectangle is like a sonnet.  Within the bounds of four right angles, the possibilities are myriad!  Trust me on this – I have bags full of wildly delightful rectangle-makings.  I propose that (for knitters, at least) a rectangle, rather than a heart, is the shape of love.

Llama

Since my grandson Max (who will be 4 yrs. old in January) does not read my blog, I am free to write about my Christmas gift for him.  I am knitting him a llama.

He loves the books by Anna Dewdney that feature Llama Llama – a child llama who experiences many of the same emotional episodes common to the human pre-school crowd (such as being fed up at the “shop-o-rama” and missing his mama on the first day of school).  Llama Llama carries a lovey – a cuddly little llama – and it is this lovey-llama that I am attempting to replicate with needles and yarn.

I have had the idea and even the yarn for about a year-and-a-half, I confess.  I also realize that little boys do not stay little llama forever!  And if I wait too long …well, unless Ms Dewdney comes up with some pre-adolescent experiences for Llama Llama, my knitted lovey-llama will have sort of missed its mark.

 

So, this Christmas, I will present Max with a hand-knit llama.

I am using taupe Baby Ull yarn – and a variety of knitting techniques gleaned from Hansi Singh’s fabulous Amigurumi Knits combined with my sock-knitting experience – to create the llama.  Sort of making it up as I go along. 

The llama-lovey in the book resembles a real llama about as much as a teddy bear resembles a real grizzly bear.  But the point is to make it look like the book llama, not a real live llama.  So, I carefully study the book illustrations, then knit a little.  Then, study the proportion of neck (kinda long) to body (kinda chubby).  And then I knit a little.  Oh, and there was a great deal of increase/decrease technique (inner) debate, a deep consideration about short rows, and I have yet to decide if the lovey-llama’s legs and feet look enough like socks to justify my making them up as little socks….

I had begun knitting the neck as a tube – and then as I was progressing down the body, I realized that the neck in the book illustration has a seam down the side!  Crap, I thought.  Perhaps I could stitch on one afterward (although I had intentionally made the increases down the front of the belly “seam-like” to mimic the seam in the illustration that I had noted – it was a little more obvious than the neck seam).

 

It was at this point that I was blessed with a little bit of wise insight: 

I am knitting this llama for a small boy who is unlikely to care about painstakingly detailed replication of a look illustration.  As long as it looks fairly like the lovey-llama in the book – and if we say “hey, look, it is a lovey-llama just like Llama Llama’s lovey-llama!” – it will probably be fine.

And anyhow I am pretty sure I can get the ears just right.  Ears are important on a llama.

 

 

A Time To Let An Error Stand

A couple of days ago, I found an error in the “cable” section of my Cape Christmas project.  The mistake was about 20 rows down and consisted of a traveling (crossed) stitch done on the wrong row. It looked like a hiccup in the diagonal line.  It was a subtle, but unmistakable mistake.  And I immediately resolved to fix it by “dropping down” and uncrossing the wrongly crossed stitches and crossing the two that were supposed to cross.  But I did not have the time to do surgery (as I call it) that evening, so I set it aside.

Two days later -- on a sunny afternoon with plenty of time to work -- I sat down with crochet hook and those little plastic safety-pin-type markers that I love and Cape Christmas.  I started dropping the stitches in the two columns involved in the error.  About 8 rows down, I stopped dumb-struck.  I had been approaching the problem as if it were a cable, but it was, of course, not a true cable, but a pattern of traveling stitches:  1^st stitch crossed with 2^nd stitch on row 1, 2^nd st. crossed with 3^rd st. on row 3, etc. over 5 sts.  So, all 5 columns of stitches were connected to each other. 

I would have to drop the stitches of all 5 columns for some 20 rows to get to the stitches that needed to be fixed!

I am gutsy.  But I am not that gutsy.  If I had only had 2 stitch columns to deal with, I could have used the other 3 columns to orient myself and make sure I was staying in pattern.  With all five columns gone, I would surely make mistakes not unlike the one I was hoping to correct.  And it would be a big, loose stringy mess.  5 columns of stitches for 20+ rows?  Over a hundred stitches to be re-done (with all those crossed stitches!).  Even if, after several (probably many!) attempts and pullings-out and re-doings, I got it all correct, I suspect the yarn (merino and silk)would have suffered and probably the stitches would be wonky and uneven. 

So, I am going to do that which I seldom do.  I am going to knowingly let the error stand –even though it is, theoretically, correctable.  I have assured myself that I am not being cowardly or lazy.  That a little humility is a good thing.  That I am not perfect, that my knitting is not perfect, that Cape Christmas is not going to be perfect – and am I pretty nearly okay with all of that non-perfection. 

And what is the Life Lesson I can take from this situation?  What we always tell our students:  to look at the work carefully and frequently!  If I had noticed the mistake after only a few rows, I could have fixed it by dropping a manageable number of stitches.  Now, it is just too late (since I am unwilling to pull back thousands of stitches, hours and hours of work to correct this small error). 

So, lesson (re)learned.  Time to move on.  Cape Christmas looks to be a gorgeous piece.

Too Many Unfinished Projects

It has happened again.  Knitting-wise, I have bitten off more than I can chew (without choking and gagging – I did a little of both today as I stood staring at my mountain of knitting bags trying to decide which of 9 projects to work on!).

I am not going to try to explain myself, justify myself or even scold myself.  It just happens sometimes.  But freaking out over my knitting is ridiculous and I decided I needed to get a handle on it.  Some kind of reasonable process to get things finished.  A plan of some sort. 

So, I listed out each project.  And under each project, I wrote down what parts or steps need to be done – i.e. the foot of the 2^nd Bronze Sock, then its toe shaping, then its kitchner/finishing.  Three steps.  Most of the other projects have more than 3 steps.  In fact, my total number of steps is 50.

Now, that may make it all look daunting – but each step has a little “check off” circle next to it and I happen to find inordinate satisfaction in checking off a little circle.  So much so, that I will chug through that last inch of stockinette foot at 11:00 pm just so I can mark it off. 

And if I take a step-by-step approach to a piece, I will be able to note my progress and that will make me feel better too.   A little focus, a little sense of accomplishment, a little bit of control.  And, hopefully, I will get my “work load” down to a manageable 5 projects.

12 Reasons To Sew My “ One-Needle Q’mitl “Together

1)      I finished knitting it and blocking it, like, 2 weeks ago

2)      I have had “Sew qu’mitl” on my to do list everyday for, well, 2 weeks

3)      I told Sarah I would sew it together, um, 2 weeks ago

4)      It is only 22” of sewing, for heaven’s sake

5)      If I sew it together I get to start knitting the lace edging  (I love knitting lace edging)

6)      If I sew it together and knit the edging, I will get to wear it (and I could use a new qu’mitl in my closet)

7)      If I sew it together and knit the lace edging, I can finish writing up the pattern directions for it (it is a design project)

8)      If I sew it together, knit the edging, wear it, and have the pattern written up, then when a knitter says “oooh! I would love to make that!” I would sell a pattern (this is a business as well as a passion)

9)      If I sit and stare at it while sewing it together, I might come up with a better name for it than “The One-Needle Q’mitl” (sounds like something the Cat in the Hat dragged in!)

10)   It is only 22” of sewing, for heaven’s sake

11)   It is only 22” of sewing, for heaven’s sake

12)   It is only 22” of sewing, for heaven’s sake

 

The Mistake

One thing about being an experienced knitter is that you know what kind of mistakes you are likely to make.  I am no stranger to arithmetic errors, forgetting how to Kitchner the toe of a sock – and I certainly get “off” on patterns now and then (usually finding myself shifted over a stitch).  But I usually get back on track quickly and move on.

But last night, I blew my mind by methodically making the same silly pattern error over and over again on the same row!  I was working on Cape Christmas (over 300 sts per row) which has a branch motif repeated 18 times.  By now, I am fairly familiar with the motif – which involves twisted stitches and little cables in stockinette on a background of reverse stockinette (classic) – and once I get a row’s particular motif dance (in this case:  cable, p,p, twisted st, twisted st, twisted st, p,p,cable, p) in my head, it is just a matter of repeating it 18 times across the row.  So, when I caught my first “p,p,p, twisted st, p,p,p” (i.e., only one instead of 3 twisted sts), I was a little annoyed at myself, but simply tinked back and fixed it and continued on. 

Then, after a few motifs, I checked back and realized I had done the same thing again.  Gritted my teeth, worked back and fixed it again.  Continued on.  After a few more motifs, guess what?  Found I had made The Mistake -- twice!  Augh!  And it kept happening!  You would think that after tinking back 2 or 3 times (undoing cables and each time and dealing with twisted sts), I would start being more careful.  It was like a bad dream – I would swear I was doing it all correctly, but then I would catch myself running over The Spot with a p,p,p, twisted st, p,p,p.  And then I would glance back over the motifs just worked and find The Mistake two motifs back!   Out of the 18 motifs, I probably did 6 or 8 wrong – which meant tinking back and re-doing not only those that were wrong, but the ones I had done (correctly) after each botched one.  The row became endless!

Finally, I broke down and put a marker on The Spot before I got to it.  Then, after I had carefully knit those twisted sts, I would move the marker to the next motif.  And so I did, at last, finish the row with all those stinking motifs done correctly!

An Autumn Project

I love autumn!  It is my favorite time of year and I get energized and inspired as the days mellow.  I am already thinking fondly of boots (and, dear me, I should finish my Bronze Socks to wear with my boots!) and sweaters (okay, the Humble Cardigan is slowly growing…) and tams (fortunately, I have two nice serviceable tams and do not need to think of knitting any others…certainly a blue tam and a rust-and-gold tam should cover all fashion needs…and one would not need one in a different color…say, forest green or, better yet, cream with forest green Fair Isle patterning…no, no, one would not need that…).

Since George and I were road-tripping to Eastern Washington last weekend (to deliver Geoff to Gonzaga Univ. and visit Sasha who has juts started grad. school at Wash. State Univ.), I decided to start a fall project:  Cape Christmas.  Wine “Gloss” yarn from KnitPicks (merino/silk) done up in 3 cable-ish  patterns – the main one being a branch design featured on a sweater in Vogue Knitting’s Early Fall edition.  I chose 2 other patterns to complement the angular branch design – one runs along the hem of the cape and the other borders the front edges.  The bottom of the cape measures 78” (hopefully! I mean, at least according to my calculations it should) and I cast on 314 stitches.  There will be a brioche collar in Blackberry “Gloss,” Cream “Gloss,” and Sherry “Suri Dream” (Suri alpaca/wool/nylon).

I cast on as we drove out of Tacoma Saturday morning – and pretty much worked on this project exclusively the entire drive. This is what 700 miles of knitting looks like:

As you might guess from the piece’s name, I hope to be wearing Cape Christmas during the Holidays.  This year.  We may have to go back to Eastern Washington a few times!

 

 

 

Nupps Oops!

So, I was getting pretty comfortable with the nupps on my Lily-of-the-Valley shawl.  And although some of the first ones a little flat, over all they are pretty consistently nupp-like.  Then, as I was knitting along I hit a nupp that was not nupp-like in the least.  It was actually almost an anti-nupp!  Instead of being a fat, smooth puff, it looked like a dead spider!

 

I was working a right side row and the anti-nupp had been completed on the previous wrong side row (nupps are made in 2 steps:  a knit-one-yarn-over increase worked several time in a single stitch on a rs row, then the 7 new stitches are purled together with a single blow on the next ws row).   After a bit of study (and gnashing of teeth), I decided that I had not caught up all the stitches correctly in the “purl 7 together” move.  The anti-nupp was securely fastened up in “desiccated spider” form.  No pulling or tucking or messing about with it was going to transform it into a proper nupp.

 

I had 3 choices:  live with it (augh!  are you kidding?!);   tink back and re-do it (okay, not unreasonable, but it would not be fun);  drop down, release the 7 stitches, and catch them up properly.  So, crochet hook in hand, I carefully (so carefully! like bomb-disarming carefully!) dropped the stitches.  There were the loose “knit-one-yarn-overs” – all 7 little loops sort of catty-whompus – ready to explode into a single length of lace-weight yarn with one unfortunate tug.  It was a matter of wiggling into the loops properly and catching the yarn to tighten and secure them.  Without raveling the whole thing!

 

Steady hands and steady nerves prevailed!  I pulled the yarn through and the anti-nupp was sculpted into a proper nupp!  I quick, but heartfelt, prayer of gratitude and I was on my way again – figuring that “getting back up on the horse” immediately was the best course.  I did not lose confidence – although I will check each “purl 7 together” a bit more carefully now!  On the contrary.  Mistakes happen and there is no point in aiming for flawless execution.  The trick is learning how to fix the error.  Now, I know how to deal with a “dead spider.”  Onward!

 

 

Summer Solstice 2010

It is the First Day of Summer and I am writing this post out on our deck – which is something of a miracle considering the dreary drippy weather we have been having!

And what better way to ring in the summer than to start up a lace shawl!  Yesterday, I felt inspired to begin the Lily-of-the Valley lace shawl I had promised myself for my birthday.  That is, I had told myself I could start it on my birthday – but when my birthday actually came around in mid-May, I felt too swamped with other projects to take joy in casting on something new.   So, I just petted the yarn (KnitPicks “Canopy” which is a celebration of greens!) every now and then, waiting for the spirit to move me.

And, sure enough, move me it did!  Yesterday, I gravitated toward Nancy Bush’s Knitted Lace of Estonia (the pattern is “Triangular Summer Shawl” – appropriate!) and by evening I was winding yarn and then swatching.  I found I had to order the needles – as I wanted Addi Turbo Lace points (32” circular – in size 7 instead of the size 4 suggested in the book – just shows how important it is to swatch for gauge!).  So, today, I ordered the needles – and I can play around with the lily-of-the-valley pattern in the meantime.  I have notes from Merike Saarniit’s class “Bobbles, Berries, and Buds” where we learned different ways of making the nupps  (bud-like bobbles).  So, I can fuss about with those for a couple of days.  It is always a good idea to swatch an unfamiliar pattern – rather than test drive it on 251 stitches!  And, yes, I will be using a lifeline.

Perhaps before the needles arrive, I can finish a couple of small projects that are oh-so-nearly-done.  My Turkish Bed Socks and a baby kimono.   Seems reasonable.  But regardless, when the needles come I am casting on the new lace shawl!  It is my (belated) birthday gift to myself!

Batty? Maybe!

I have been working on The Batwing Thing – a sweater with sleeves that widen from the cuff (at the elbow) to the entire waist-shoulder width.  Like triangles.  It has been a rather intuitive design project.  I started with a basic idea and yarn and body measurements and have been rather making it up as I go along.

 

To our knitting students, we frequently say (regarding knitting – tho it may have other applications) “There is no right or wrong, only predictable results.”  I do not know what to say of the results of a project in which there are few predictions!  I mean, is it coming along all right?  And how would I know?

 

I have two nearly-completed sleeves with some color work going on (intarsia) and am about to start a Batwing Lace motif section (the lace being an afterthought – since I realized we were using this particular pattern in our lace-knitting class and it seemed to fit the theme of the sweater!). 

 

I had to order more yarn and there is a slight difference in the  two multi-colored Many Glaciers skeins – so I am now working one skein in stockinette and the other in a stockinette punctuated with garter “dashes” 5 stitches long to sort of camouflage the difference. 

 

I had not predicted having 5 balls of yarn and a sleeve and (from the sleeve) a 6^th ball of yarn hanging from the sleeve I am knitting (the 2 sleeves are connected by the first skein/ball of Many Glaciers since I have worked them both it -- one from the inside end and one from the outside end).

 

But Sarah says I am never happier than when I have 3 or 4 balls of yarn hanging off my knitting, so I guess that is all right.

 

Then, when I had everything laid out (so I could untangle the yarns), I realized that the whole piece has a definite Arts and Crafts Movement feel to it!  The colors, even the intarsia patterns.  I love Arts and Crafts stuff!  And yet I swear I did not have it in mind when I started out.  Predictable?  Unpredictable?  I often feel that God is at work in my knitting when things “just work out.”  Kind of an affirmation of my creativity.  A sort of Divine Delight.  Sometimes when I need it most (perhaps when there are 6 balls of yarn and 2 sleeves strangling each other in a project that seems a little crazy?  or when I am feeling that perhaps plunging my passion in a craft might be a little crazy, in and of itself!).

Not Finishing Anything

So, I seem not to be getting anywhere near to finishing anything. 

I am faithfully chugging away at Gwen’s Yzma Blanket, working round after round of the Gull Pi Shawl, stockinetting doggedly on the Batwing Thing (at first, I accidently typed “Thong” instead of “Thing”  -- now there’s a picture!), and blindly following directions for the Bronze socks heel.  But progress on everything is infinitesimal.

You would think all this not-finishing would get me to buck up and sew up the saque and booties that have been languishing in my knitting bag!  I keep making the “I need daylight” excuse and the “when I can sit at the dining room table with a little peace and quiet” excuse and the “okay, I’ll do it tomorrow” promise.  But, like everything else, they have not managed to get themselves finished!

Lace Knitting Projects

Sarah and I begin teaching a lace knitting workshop on Wednesday, so I thought I would get out my Gull Pi Shawl project.  Certainly, it would be good to have a lace knitting piece of my own to be working during the weeks of the workshop.  And perhaps if I get going on it now, I will be able to wear it this summer.

 

So, I dug out the Gull Pi Shawl – and started thinking about the other lace projects which I had set aside at one time or another for one reason or another.  Perhaps I should be working on one of those instead?  So, I got out my bin of lace-projects-to-be-completed-at-a-later-date (okay, yes, I know….) and found:

 

1)      An Ostrich Plumes pattern stole in peacock-ish purple and green lace weight wool – half-done and quite promising (almost switched it for the Gull Pi Shawl, but held firm)

2)      The bare beginnings of a traditional Shetland shawl (buttery gold fading to a blush pink) – and I remembered that the stitch pattern I had chosen for the center section had proved awkward to increase (1 stitch every row) and that I had set it down in frustration. 

3)      About an inch of a lacy mitt worked at some infinitesimal gauge in robin’s egg blue wool and bordered with aqua Kid Seta.

4)      The start of a Faroese shawl (about 500 stitches wide and 3 inches tall) worked in Jade Sapphire cashmere/silk (seaweed shades!) much too loosely on large needles.  A gorgeous yarn being laboriously stitched into a sloppy mess!

5)      A lace stole which had been coming along very nicely (in variegated lace weight wool of taupe, grays, greens) until it had been shoved aside for something more pressing like Christmas, I suspect. 

6)      My ball of qiviuk (spruce green-blue)

 

Well, a little time away from a project certainly gives perspective!  I ripped back the Shetland shawl, the lacy mitt (what was I thinking?!), and the Faroese shawl.  I petted the qivuk and whispered promises to the two stoles.  I tucked the projects and the yarns back into the bin – and raced to the computer to brag about how sensible I had been about the whole thing!

 

Now, back to re-acquainting myself with the Gull Pi Shawl.  And continuing with Gwen’s Yzma blanket and the Batwing Thing and my Bronze socks …. And there are some layette pieces to sew up…..

March Knitting

This is an odd time of year for knitting.  Today the sky is blue and I am airing the house in spite of the chill.  Still technically in winter, we are surrounded by the pink tree blossoms and a presence of green among the shrubs and grasses that herald our long slow spring. Today is dry, but the rain will be back soon and with it the damp cold winds that penetrate everything.  I am still glad of my flannel sheets and bundle in a sweater and shawl in the evenings!

 

So, what do I knit?  Woolies or lacies?  The knitting magazines are filled with the latter – they look ahead, of course, as any sensible knitter will be doing.  My knitting bags are filled with the former, of course!  Wool gauntlets – not quite done.  George’s cashmere sweater (Christmas 2009).  Even my neglected Humble Cardigan (which I would love to be wearing this minute!).  Some baby garments (okay, babies are not seasonal). The Winter Olympic Bronze Medal socks.  And a wool Batwing Thing (a sweater I seem to have – oops! – cast on when I was supposed to be working on said baby garments).

 

In my own defense, the Batwing Thing came on me from all sides:  the Butternut Woolens Homegrown wool yarn I bought at Madrona (one skein of watercolor shades, one of apple green, one of mint green), a photo of a sweater in Vogue (the fashion not the knitting magazine), a nagging curiosity about whether or not there was enough of the Butternut yarn to make this sort of sweater (which led to swatching which led to knitting), and the seasonal jadedness one has about all one’s winter sweaters and wraps about now. 

 

On the lacy side of things, my shawls are calling me.  And Sarah made me dig out the summer sweater (the Seaforest Shell) I laid aside last fall.  And I have vague plans regarding some aqua merino-silk (also Butternut Woolens – a yarnery for all seasons, apparently!) and a Handmaiden silk-seacell that looks like the surface of the ocean just as the clouds are clearing on a summer morning – the vague plan involves the Knit-One-Below technique we learned from Elise Duvekot at Madrona.

 

So, what is a knitter to do?  (okay, it is pretty much the best kind of dilemma one can have, but still….)

 

The socks and the Batwing Thing are the most compelling.  The baby garments must be done soon.   The Humble Cardigan is standing modestly aside – but only until I get the baby garments done!  The lacies?  It is such a pretty almost-spring day that I think I can wait a while yet to dream of summer.

Week Two

The second week of the Olympics begins and it is time for me to start my second sock.  And, in fact, I did start the second sock last night.  Not that I have finished the first sock.  But I decided that it would be a good idea to jump in and get the second one started so I could work them up (nearly) together – especially since the heel technique is new to me.   This way, I can do the figure out the first heel and then do the second one while it is still fresh.  Since I am working the socks with three sizes of needles, I can keep the smallest set in the first sock while I am doing the top of the second sock (with the larger, then the middle sized needles).  And now that I am comfortable with the leafy lace pattern, I can chug along fairly quickly on it – so I can wait until I have a good quiet daytime hour (or so!) to focus on the heel without having to bring progress to a halt altogether because I can keep doing the lace knitting in the evenings.

And, truthfully, the best reason for starting the second sock while I am still fresh and enthusiastic and have delusions of completing the project in time to win the Gold is that I always get hung up on the second sock.  It languishes.  So, the further along I can be on it before the inevitable happens, the better my chance of getting the pair finished.  Knitter, know thyself!

The Olympic Games coverage continues to be both inspirational and distracting!  Last night, I got caught up in Apolo Ohno’s race and started knitting back around the wrong way on my sock.  Tonight, I am emotionally rocky over Sweden’s trouncing Finland in men’s hockey.  I do my best knitting during curling.

 

The 12 (Knitting) Days Of Christmas

Soooo, the Christmas knitting is progressing.  I am working on the 9^th point of Gwen’s dodecahedron star toy (Norah Gaughan’s “Celestine).  And the cashmere scarf I am knitting for George (which I did not actually mention in any post prior to Christmas because he is a dear man and reads my blog regularly!) is half-way done. 

 

I have been enjoying the Yarn Harlot’s page-a-day calendar this year.  And I completely agreed with her December 24th entry which declared that on Christmas Eve it is too late to begin knitting a Christmas gift.  That is, I agreed when I read it about 3:00 that afternoon.  Twelve hours later, I had a different opinion.

 

We had attended Midnight Mass and welcomed in Christmas, had sat about with snacks and perhaps a glass of wine, had toddled off to bed at about 3:00 am.  And yet something about the Christmas stockings was troubling me.

 

Sasha’s stocking was lacking something.

 

And then (at 3:00 am Christmas morning) I realized what was missing.  There should have been a hand-knit eggplant nestled in the top of her stocking.  I could see it in my mind.  Clear and true and jolly as the Ghost of Christmas Present (which would have been the appropriate spirit under the circumstances).  

 

So, I crept out of bed and fetched Hansi Singh’s Amigurumi Knits.  There on the cover was the eggplant of my somewhat tardy Christmas vision.  Not being entirely devoid of common sense (even on Christmas Eve), I set the book on my dresser and crept back to bed – smiling because I knew that there was a way.

 

You see, we were having a somewhat extended Christmas celebration this year.  Sonja and her husband Jordan were spending the holiday with his family in Oregon.  And our Geoff was not returning from London until December 28^th.  So, we were holding off on some gifts – including stockings – until December 29^th.  I had days to knit the eggplant!

 

Christmas Day:  I dug around in my stash and found aubergine cotton yarn – as deeply purple and shiny as an eggplant can be.  I played around with green yarns until a mix of two held together seemed just right.  And for the next few days, I surreptitiously knit the eggplant.

 

On the morning of December 29^th, a charming hand-knit eggplant sat cozily in the top of Sasha’s stocking – much to my satisfaction and Sasha’s delight!  The Spirit of Christmas Present triumphs!

My Dad's Cable Hat

So, the wool cable hat I am knitting for my Dad is nearly done.  (Huzzah!)  Cables eat up a lot of time – and a lot of yarn (I will have to ravel the swatch to finish it!).  But it has all been worth it – the hat is gorgeous (at least, I think so!).  And nearly done.

 

The interesting thing about this project is the number of “incidents” that have occurred in its making.  Numbers going awry, for example.  Ribbing-to-cable-column issues that sort of sprang up out of nowhere.  Cables twisting the wrong way (and requiring “surgery”).  More little mistakes than I usually ever make.  For most of one evening, Sarah and I both firmly believed that 5+7=13!  Really.  And it was like I would suddenly see something wrong – the number, the ribbing, the cable – like it just sort of happened.

 

I am a better knitter than that!  Pretty careful and double-checking-all-the-time-ish.  And yet these errors would just appear.  Oh, I fixed everything, but it has been maddening.  At one point, I thought “This hat does not want to be finished!”  But now I have a different theory.

 

I think the spirit of my Grandpa is hanging out and playing around. 

 

It sounds like eccentricity gone a bit deep, but it just came to me the other day.  See, the hat is for my Dad who has been recovering from a terribly serious bout of pneumonia that he suffered last spring.  And surely Grandpa has been watching over him.  Now, Grandpa was a clever man who enjoyed a bit of mischief.  Dad is doing well now and maybe Grandpa has been sort of casting around for entertainment.  And here was a nice cabled hat to play with.

 

I have no hard-and-fast philosophies about spirits in our world, but I know Grandpa! 

 

 

One Stitch At A Time

I confess that I am a little stressed out over my knitting.  I can tell because I keep hitting a sort of “knitter’s paralysis.”  I sit down with my four knitting bags surrounding me and there is a perfectly balanced gravitational pull acting upon me from my 7 (or 8 maybe – if you count the Owl Cable Gauntlets that are in an embryonic state – and is there any more potent pull than that of an embryonic project?  I should count it twice!) or maybe 9 active projects – such that I cannot move. 

It is like the Vulcan Death Grip.  I start to reach for the Cabled Hat and am stopped by an invisible force emanating from the bag where the Owl Q’mitl is snuggled up with the embryonic Gauntlets.  The pull from the Baby Kimono is thwarted by the force of the Green Sweater.  And as I lean ever so slightly toward the Bridgeport Fingerless Gloves, I hear Gwen’s Dress crooning like a mermaid (from across town at Sarah’s house!).

Pretty soon my eyes are bugging out and my breath is ragged and my fingers are twitching in empty air. 

So, I go make my Christmas card list or email my friend who has a new grandson or throw a load of laundry in the washer.  And walk calmly back to the knitting bags, look at them sternly, smile at them sweetly, sigh a little (best to keep them guessing) and sit down, close my eyes, and grab.