MaggieB Knits

Knitting games

2008-10-04T00:52:00.002-04:00

I discovered this yesterday.

Love it. Perfect for the (nearly) interminable soccer games I attend in the fall, and it can hold both my water and my coffee. I still await a chair designer forward-thinking enough to include an integrated knitting bag...

Luckily my normal bag hangs off the arm (not the side with the coffee cup).

Don't be horrified but there has been very little knitting.

I was going great guns for a bit but teaching has swamped me this past week. Just trying to keep my head above the water. I did knit my daughter one and a half headbands today (the half is not yet finished) as she seems to have lost all the rest of them. I'll take a picture tomorrow, at least, that's the plan.

Later.

Roskilde and on to Copenhagen

2008-09-24T15:57:00.004-04:00

This is Roskilde Cathedral, which is built where Harold Bluetooth originally built a church. His church was wood and is long since gone, of course-- and the cathedral was built in its place. The cathedral is quite impressive. It has served as the burial location for the Danish royal family, for centuries.
Many separate crypts and sections have been added on through the years, for various family elements.
In fact, this is Harold Bluetooth's pillar tomb. Obviously he was moved here when the cathedral was built, since it is Gothic in style and Harold died in 985AD, or thereabouts.

In case I forgot to mention this, I found Roskilde to be utterly charming and delightful.

Okay-- on to Copenhagen, a short train ride to the northeast of Roskilde.

In keeping with the royal family theme, here is a photo of the palace in Copenhagen. Yes, that car that is approaching was gunning for me-- in fact there is a sign suggesting that photo takers not stand in the road as it is, indeed, a road.

However, I saw the sign too late-- and would probably have disregarded it anyway since I had a photo in my mental sights and was in my Intense Photographer Mode-- but that was before I discovered that cars roar around that corner to the left and towards where I was standing at a quite phenomenal speed.

When I tell you that my camera was on about a 30mm setting, which makes things appear farther than they are, you will know I was rather close to being flattened.
My husband did manage to get a photo of me in front of the palace, though, without either of us being squashed.

Tomorrow, back to my regularly scheduled knitting.

(ps you did notice, I hope, that this was 2 posts in one day? Pretty astonishing. When it rains it pours, I guess.)

Knitting mail

2008-09-24T14:49:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a good day for knitting mail.

First, my September issue of Woolgathering arrived. The design on the cover is an old, previously unpublished design concept (well, the yoke chart was the discovery) that Meg found in EZ's notes. She also has an old photo of her sister Lloie wearing a variant.

What I find intriguing about this photo, and the design, is that when I look at the dark brown sweater I see downward pointing pairs of leaves, separated by narrow vertical lines.

On the purple one I see upward pointing leaves on either side of that vertical line. Same chart to knit both.

Is it my crazy eyes?
And yes, I am tempted by the cardigan, though in my stashed dark browns (etc) of unspun Icelandic yarn. Resisting starting anything but keeping it in my mental queue. (Yes, OK, I'll get to listing it on Ravelry eventually. I have to say that my Ravelry interaction is pretty minimal. There are tons of WIPs I should enter, and queue items and so on... but I don't)

This is my response to the next knitting mail--a notice from Janet Szabo that my Twists and Turns subscription is about to end. So off goes my renewal.

Janet makes these newsletters available in either hard copy or PDF form (no trees die till you print something out). I prefer the PDF for storage and accessibility reasons. Twists and Turns is a delightful read, and invariably there are items I either want to knit (no, I often don't get to them, but imagiknitting is fun, too) or that are very inspirational in some way. And I just like to hear what Janet has to say about the cable knitting world!

Finally, some yarn (didn't I need more?) arrived to be knit into a sweater for my oldest son.

I don't start sweaters for him lightly-- he really wears them, loves and appreciates them greatly, and his body (almost 14 now and growing like a weed) is large enough there is a lot more knitting involved than there used to be when he was only 6. This is from Elann, their Highland Wool-- I am making him a light grey pullover, raglan or drop shoulder (haven't decided yet) that uses one or more of those lovely little Faroese color patterns. Contrast will be (hold onto your hats) charcoal and white.

Yup, he is a boy. No garish reds for him ;)

This is a brief State-Of-My-Knitting report. Above is on the backside of the body of my Hanne Falkenberg Plisse (please someone tell me how to make this dratted blogger let me use an acute mark over my e??).
This is the public side of the back.

Just to clarify a bit, the back is worked first, from centerback out to the side, stopping at the neckline. Front is worked the same, on one side, then the two pieces join to be worked from bottom of front, up over shoulder and down the back, until the shoulder/underarm are reached.

Side-to-side knitting but starting in the center and working out.

I am currently working the left front-over-shoulder-down-back section.

Very enjoyable knitting. Annoyingly, I know I should put it aside to make my son's sweater (he needs it a bit more, for one, having outgrown his old one.) yes, but...

...so I knit on, on my Plisse jacket.

Knitting Progress!

2008-09-22T19:34:00.003-04:00

I did some work on the Hanne Flakenberg Plisse jacket on Sunday:

This is the back, or part of it. The texture stitch and the intriguing method of construction keep this project interesting.
All for now. But at least I got a bit of knitting done...

Fall Sports do a number on blogging

2008-09-20T17:17:00.003-04:00

Truly, they do.
I know it gets old to hear a bazillion excuses for why I don't write for a while.
Well, it also gets annoying living thru all those things that keep me from writing!

I rather left you hanging in Denmark, without intending to do so, in the least. I'm sorry. However, since this is supposedly a knitting blog, and I think I have posted almost Kno Knitting in several weeks, I ought to get cracking.
This bag lives by the door or in my car. It goes everywhere with me.
If only it were possible to knit lace while navigating thru traffic to various games, meets and practices, I would have that shawl done. And if it were possible to watch a truly thrilling game (the third in a given day, perhaps) and knit my lace, I would be farther along.

It's not.

However, please admire the bag-- it's from Meg Swansen's knitting camp (I go to one of the retreats) and it is nice for this particular project. (I carry my oversized chart on one of those magnetic boards and the bag is tall and crisp)

Photos of the lace shawl are a bit less than thrilling at this point in time.

There are, well, I have no idea how many thousand stitches on the circular needle. There is no way I can stretch it out enough to show you just how nice the lace is.

See?

Not exactly illuminating.

However, I am working on it (hoorah)... It amuses me that I am able to work on it during a game (except when the action becomes too enthralling, or- like last Sunday- when the temperature is so obscenely high that I am one large ball of sweat). The reason it amuses me is that I remember when I first started working on lace, how utterly undisturbed I needed to be in order to progress, and avoid errors.

In fact, I remember the first project I did, I needed to highlight each symbol on the chart a different color, to help me keep track of what they were and to visually distinguish them from one another.

Looking back, I am flabbergasted by that. Couldn't I see the right leaning decrease in a slash mark: / or the ssk in a \ ?? I need to remember my early chart experiences when I am teaching others, clearly. There was a time when I did not see the lace in the chart, at all, and I know this is true for many beginning lace knitters.

Thank goodness, no more.
So if you are overwhelmed and a beginning lace knitter, or just chart challenged, let me encourage you to keep trying.

Here is a project I started today. Why? Certainly not because I had nothing else to do.

It is Plisse, a Hanne Falkenberg design which I purchased from Sommerfuglen, in Copenhagen.
It is red, though on my laptop the pictures look more fuchsia. Not sure about on yours.
I tried on the shop model at Sommerfuglen, and fell utterly in love with it.
I had a Danish friend with me (thanks, Bettina!!) who was not only helping me with communication (not actually an issue in most of Denmark-- a huge percentage of the population speaks quite excellent English) but gave me terrific feedback and generally helped me find what I wanted. The shop assistant was also wonderful. A great shop.

And while I did not do any shopping in Paris for clothing, I did gey some great shoes in Copenhagen.

They are so comfy and feel like elvish leather or something hobbit-like somehow-- I love them!

(PS they are actually French, humorously enough.)

PPS I would have shopped in Paris except the entire city was on vacation.

Roskilde

2008-09-08T16:45:00.004-04:00

I just posted about a shawl in the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum, and it suddenly occurred to me that I never posted about the museum in the first place. In fact, I left you all hanging somewhere in Arhus. I am so sorry.

Let me say that I am a huge fan (in some ways) of the Vikings. For a goodly number of years they had an impact on a huge area of the world, and affected the history of many nations and people groups. They were in many ways fearless, energetic, incredibly clever-- and incredible warriors.

Some of their beliefs and behaviors I look at with modern eyes and turn pale. But setting that aside, overall I admire them. England owes much to the Danes who eventually occupied and ruled over a huge amount of England (though one might want to read Kipling's poem, "Danegeld")... they went through Russia (the Volga was a great trade connection to, eventually, Persia) to interact with the Russians and Arabs (how's that for PC speech, interact with? Yes, some trading and some, ahem. ) -- those Viking boats really got around. Some forget, too, that William the Conqueror was a Norman--Vikings who settled in the area of France now called Normandy. One of my favorite books as a girl was The Little Duke, about Richard (Sans Peur, or, the Fearless), William the Conqueror's great grand-daddy. Richard was a firm friend and ally of Harald Bluetooth, he was the grandson of Rollo the Walker (the Viking who forced the French to accept the presence of the Norsemen in France), and Richard's life makes fascinating reading. OK OK, so I am a romantic. (Not that life as a slave of the Vikings would have been romantic.)

Given all that, I would have to visit the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.
The original museum (it opened in 1969) was built to display five Viking ships found in Skuldelev. They had been scuttled, is the thinking, to serve as a barrier to invading ships, in the 11th century AD. (Roskilde was an important market town)
The ships were dug up, re-assembled as much as possible, and put on display. Since then the museum and its operation have greatly expanded their scope, and many other ships have been found in the area. (Not surprising)
Interestingly, they have opened a huge reproduction boatyard operation, building reproductions of myriads of ships and boats, and employing Viking tools and methods as much as possible. Truly very impressive.
That top picture is a reproduction of a warship, a Viking longboat, of the sort that might have sashayed over to Ireland. In fact, it went on a sea trial voyage just recently, to Norway, Dublin and back (possibly other places, the book is across the room and I am not getting up to check).
The photos of its trip are stunning. (Obviously the radar on the bow would not have been used by the Vikings)

The museum has a loom in the children's area, where they describe their experiments with wool sails.

This is the children's room, where two partial models of Viking boats are supplied with appropriate items. One is a merchant vessel, the other a longboat. There are costumes for children (and adults) to put on as they explore being a Viking. When I first walked into the room some adult visitors (I actually think they were Swedish but my ear is not good enough to be sure) were wearing the costumes and I did a double take, they looked so realistic. Given one of the men had hair and beard that matched his costume and weapons...

I highly recommend visiting Roskilde if you have the opportunity... especially if you are into boats and the sea.

Oh, and they have a boat you can take a trip on, up the Fjord. I had forgotten to wear my rainjacket (knucklehead, I knew better than to believe that bright sunny sky) so I didn't risk it, but I did watch some people feebly trying to row their way out of the harbor in the boat... and it was totally amusing (they got nowhere)... so I think I am just as glad I had to give it a pass.

off the wagon again?

2008-09-08T15:58:00.002-04:00

No, I am really not off the wagon. I just had a few rough spots on the road; a wheel fell off; the hay started flying out of the wagon and I had to run around to get it all. That's all. (smirk)

I do have a long list of ideas about which I want to blog. This post is photo-less, as I did not take a pic of this in Denmark. Let me preface this post with the fact that things in Denmark are rather expensive. They are even more expensive if you happen to have a currency that is down a bit relative to others... but even without that fact, it can cost quite a lot. OK. Just keep that in the back of your mind. (Here's a for-instance: $25 for an ordinary glass of wine. $15 for a Coke. The shoes I got-- let's not even go there. T-shirts, with some decoration (machine done) for DKK 250, which is about $50. I am sure you get the idea. It made Paris look inexpensive.)
OK.
At the Viking ship museum, in Roskilde, there was a gift shop (and yes I bought a thing or two). There was quite an array of items, clothing to jewelry, toys to tea-towels. I noticed a few knitted shawls and exclaimed in enthusiasm. I figured they would be extraordinarily pricey, given the general cost of things in Denmark. They were handknit so I assumed stratospheric prices.
Not so.
Not even close.
Hand knit Icelandic yarn (I believe the same yarn that Schoolhouse Press carries, a spun Icelandic laceweight. I have used it, and like it a lot. In fact, I brought more of it home from my Camp Retreat this past July but set that aside for now...) Anyway. The shawls were rectangular, long stoles. Very nice, not simplistic. One had Barbara Walker's Ogee pattern on it (First Treasury, page 223. Just so you know, I did not have that page number memorized... thoguh I did know it was in that book) along with others. Well made, nicely designed.

Anyway, the stoles were lovely, interesting and handknit. Honestly. $56?? Compare that to ordinary t shirts, machine made, that cost more. I stood there with my mouth open, comparing that lovely handknit work, and ordinary machine made shirts and the like, and could not believe how under-valued the handknit was.

Believe it or not, I didn't buy one, and have been kicking myself ever since. Not because cheap (as in, a bargain I should have snatched up) but because someone put a lot of work into it, and I like to show appreciation of such work. At the time I was just annoyed at the shop for not valuing the handwork higher, and didn't want to encourage them by buying it.

I did discuss it with a friend in Denmark, who commented that the work was probably done somewhere where labor was far more inexpensive, using the Icelandic wool. Still.

My husband, who was barely hanging onto his sanity at the cost of our visit, probably would have been astonished at my rueing a low price... but then, he is not a knitter.

Knitting in Denmark-- addendum

2008-08-27T12:06:00.004-04:00

Yes, unprecedented. Shocking. Two posts in one day.

This is the yarn I purchased from Isager, in Arhus. OK, so it's really a bag. The yarn is _in_ the bag.
Here's the yarn, and the book opened to the page of the sweater I decided to knit.

I need to say, here, that the young woman who was trying to help me at Isager was remarkably patient with a goofball who couldn't decide what she wanted to knit, she wanted to knit 48 different things at once, and who insisted she didn't need an English translation for one of the patterns that is in one of Marianne's other books (only in Danish).

Because I am so clever, of course. Har de har har.

I was informed, however, that they are translating and publishing, in English, several of her other books. (I saw the Danish versions, and yes, I am going to buy them. Pronto)

Actually, the real problem is that I love many many of her designs, but I do not necessarily want to knit them all. And some of the yarn was hollering lace at me, and I know far too well how _little_ need there is for lace yarn in my life. (Some of her yarns, that did not follow me home, are still hollering "lace!" at me but so be it). I milled about in that shop for quite a while. Long enough for the weather to change its nature at least 7 times. (Which, let me point out, is not necessarily all that long, and yes it really did change that much)

In fact, 30 seconds before I had to go out and around the corner (for a cash reload, if you must know) it began the deluge thing again.

Anyway, I now have some lovely Isager yarn. I also discovered this after I got home.

Perhaps those yarns hollering lace at me will find a way to reach me, after all.

Off to Denmark

2008-08-27T10:15:00.002-04:00

Somehow I don't think you want to hear about the utter fiasco involved in our train trip from Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport, for our flight to Denmark. You really don't. Luckily, the boulangerie where we'd intended to eat breakfast was not open on time, so we got off to an earlier start than we'd planned. Believe me, we needed the time.
Suffice it to say, our plans were fine. It was what the RER did to its passengers that morning that was a bit challenging ;)

We flew into Copenhagen, then into Arhus. I apologize, the A in Arhus should have a little circle over it but I can't seem to achieve that here.
This is a fresco of St Clement, the patron saint of Arhus, as it is a seagoing city. I am not sure how old this fresco is, as I speak zero Danish, and my English translation of the cathedral info was not helping me. But the cathedral in Arhus was fascinating (and a wonderful escape from the deluge that came out of nowhere, and I mean nowhere, on a lovely sunny clear day). It pre-dates the Reformation and is an interesting mix of Catholic and Protestant, Gothic and Nordic elements. I loved it.
This boat hangs in the left transept. I love the white walls matched with the soaring Gothic arches, decorated with frescoes and other painting.

The altar piece predates the Reformation, and is truly stunning. Handcarved wood, the painting of the faces makes them look like porcelain.
As I implied above, the weather while I was in Arhus was a trifle unpredictable. Annoyingly, I went back to my room to return my rainjacket after breakfast, since the weather was so fine. While I was admiring the cathedral, with about 9,000,000 other people (busloads), I noticed a truly weird noise. It was the enormous raindrops, in enormous numbers, hitting the walls and windows.

Luckily it let up enough, eventually, for me to walk to Marianne Isager's shop a few blocks away. For those of you who do not know of her, she is a very talented Danish knitting designer. She has a complete line of yarns (mostly she likes to work with fairly fine gauges) and many books. One has been translated to English, thanks to Meg Swansen falling in love with it, and harassing Interweave into publishing a translation. Knitting out of Africa.
I purchased some yarn from her for one of the sweaters, which I will have to post tomorrow, or later. I am really a Blogger rookie and sometimes the addition of photos later just slays me.

I do want to say, along the lines of Denmark's weather (and before I go on, let me say that I really loved Denmark)-- their weather is highly changeable and unpredictable!

Here are a couple of photos from the place I investigated the third day in Denmark. Can you guess?

Back Home Part 3

2008-08-19T21:32:00.003-04:00

I have a million and one ideas for my blog.
What I don't have is the time I'd like, to post.
Today I am just showing you a few more pictures from Paris and tomorrow moving on to a new country...
Me in front of Sacre Coeur. I post this only to show I really did wear my shawls around Paris!Avenue des Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe, taken from the Place de la Concorde.
Jardin des Tuileries and my sweetie. Oh and the Louvre in the background.

One of the things I love about Paris-- the architectural details on the buildings. View from one of the bridges over the Seine. More architectural thrills.
All for now. Tomorrow, or maybe even later today, though I doubt it-- the next place we went. Where there was actually some knitting store activity, and shopping.

Back Home Part 2

2008-08-19T20:56:00.003-04:00

Here is a view of the Ile de la Cite, from the east, as the invading Norsemen would have seen it way back when. Sort of. I don't think the architecture was quite the same then...

In all honesty, I found the Seine seductively alluring, a wonderful river.

Obviously, when in Paris a trip to the Louvre is in order. Here, a shot of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of the things I really wanted to see on this visit.

Apparently, so did all of Paris, that day-- at least, the ones that were not mobbing Mona Lisa seemed to all be jammed into this area of the Louvre.

A young friend of ours, upon seeing this sculpture and its many missing parts, commented that it looked more like a winged defeat but I was glad to see it and get a halfway decent photo. It was virtually impossible to get a photo from in front of it, any closer (I was up a staircase and across the way for this photo.) Truly, there were incredible numbers of people in the Louvre.

Admittedly, it was a rainy morning, not the best for wandering the streets of Paris. (Luckily, our hotel had a parapluie for us to borrow.)

When we left the Louvre, we had been there for 4 1/2 hours, and my poor husband was buggy-eyed with hunger and people/museum overdose. After a lovely cafe meal, we found ourselves walking towards the line for Ste Chappelle. We had previously bypassed this, not really sure we wanted to deal with the line for it.

With full tummies we were more up to it. And am I glad we saw it. When you enter (not the way Louis XI would have gone in, of course-- he used the balcony entrance.) you arrive on the ground floor, which was built for Louis XI's household's worship needs. It is quite lovely; now there is a gift shop there. However, in the rear corners are two circular staircases, one up, one down. At the top of the "Up" stairs one emerges into the Chapel that Louis XI had built for himself and family (actually, also to hold various relics, too). Truly, one can only gasp in awe.

I could not get it all, I did not have my fisheye lens, nor my old Canon A-1. The stained glass you see extends all the way along both sides of the chapel, to the back. The effect is beyond description. I loved this place. The windows tell various elements from the Bible, though I will be honest here, I found them difficult to follow. The fact my head was tilted way WAY back to see the top half did not help.

Interestingly, it is rather obscured from the roadside viewer by the Palais de Justice:

which I found somewhat odd.

Off to Notre Dame (yes, we did more than visit churches; I just took gazillions of photos of the churches, and in some other places the camera was discouraged). I personally prefer the exterior views of Notre Dame, though I am not sure why. When the line let us in, they were having Vespers so we got to hear some crashing and echoing organ music which was nice.

Notre Dame from the south.

Our dinner was again on Ile de St. Louis, though we had not intended to eat there.

However, my feet, despite being encased in my Birkenstocks (in which I have walked Miles and Miles) were again in major denial. Never have I gotten a blister from a Birkenstock but on this day I did. Grf. So we restrained our inclinations for a wondrous meal, despite it being our anniversary, and had a nevertheless delicious meal at a little restaurant on Ile St. Louis.

Don't worry, we celebrated the next night.

Oh, and, no knitting stores. All knitting was done, in Paris, on my bed with my feet straight in the air. Rather tough on chart reading. ;)

Back Home part 1

2008-08-17T15:44:00.006-04:00

I have been travelling. This was our first trip alone together (me and dh) since our oldest child was born. (He will be 14 in a couple of months)
Not sure why we waited so long, it was so wonderful!
Here's a challenging clue to the first place we went. This is a place we went to on our first day in this city. OK, I know, that isn't the easiest clue, unless one has been to that particular place and definitely to that city. Here's a much easier one:
Got it yet? Dead give away ahead:
Yup.
Paris.
It was totally wonderful, the only bad being that we only had 4 days there and on the first we were madly jetlagged.
That first picture was from the first place we went (after some pleasurable wandering on the Ile de la Cite and environs, and a delicious lunch at a cafe) (including some very necessary and stunningly yummy cafe noir, AKA espresso.). I got side tracked again, do you find me as confusing as I find me?

As I was saying, that first photo is from Marmottan, a museum largely devoted to Claude Monet. It is not all that well known, but is a great place for devotees. Actually, I didn't go to the Musee d'Orsay at all (mostly because my dh was approaching museum overload on the third day) which also has a ton of Monet. The Musee Marmottan Monet has a lot of Monet's later works, many of which I had never seen, and which are stunningly dramatic. One of them lives hauntingly in my memory and I hope to find a print of it one of these days. My husband, surprisingly, thought that toting a huge print around Europe for a week was a bad idea.

The second image is of the Seine.

The third, well, I hope most of us recognize the Tour d'Eiffel. Here is a view of Montmartre from the second level of the tower.

I am going to confess that we stood in an appallingly long line, walked up the stairs to the second level (OK, so we half ran, once we got ahead of some of the people in front of us) and just couldn't face any more lines to wait for the elevator to the top.

Actually, the top closed prematurely anyway, so we couldn't have gone up after all. Not surprisingly, there was no info as to why it closed (no it was not windy or raining; it was sunny, clear and a bit hot. People were swimming in the fountains of Trocadero). There was also no info as to when the top might reopen. So we blew it off. The views from the second level were wonderful anyway. (For those unfamiliar, the only way from Level 2 to teh top is by elevator. You can also go by elevator from the bottom to level 2, but we thought that choice unsporting).

When I tell you that we got off the airplane, stumbled around getting ourselves onto the RER train, checked into our hotel and headed out the door to sightsee... and that we hit the Eiffel Tower at about 2pm, perhaps you'll understand our lack of enthusiasm for the incredible crowds (and truly, this being a Saturday, and Paris swamped with tourists, it was a mob scene). So, instead, back to the Metro, which I find very well run and useful in Paris, and back to the Ile de la Cite-- the larger island in the Seine, where Notre Dame, and other things, are located.

For the first time in years, I actually had blisters. From some of my most comfortable walking shoes. And what I want to know is, how do those amazing Parisian women walk around all day in the gorgeous stiletto heels and squishy-pointy-fronted shoes?

Maybe they don't do the miles my feet did that first day, between the US airport, swelling and so on during the flight, and walking miles in Paris. Whatever. My feet were unhappy with me, and when we got to Notre Dame, and saw the crowds waiting to go in, I just couldn't stand it. There was a music concert that night as well, that I wanted to hear, as the acoustics in that cathedral are out of this world. But I just couldn't go on standing in lines.

My brilliant husband recognized an underlying problem: hunger.

So we walked (oh the agony of that word) behind Notre Dame (personally I prefer the rear and side facades to the front one) and over to the Ile de St. Louis (smaller island to the east of Cite) to a restaurant recommended by friends. (Here is Notre Dame from the rear.)

First off, we love that little Ile de St. Louis, totally charming and much quieter. Second of all, my attitude climbed back into the stratosphere after that meal.

The French take their food very seriously, and I have to say that I see eye to eye with them on that. We had a lovely meal; not fancy-- just lovely. Food presented in a way that showed they took pride in their food, and in their ability to give the patrons pleasure for a few hours. And oh boy did those scallops, bavette, salads and various desserts (I can't even think of it all without drooling) and that lovely wine give us pleasure!

I was a new woman. Who stumbled back to the room (I did still have a doozy of a blister and no bandaid with me; note to self: remember next time to tote bandaids in your purse, right by your passport)... and crashed with her feet up in the air.

Now, this is a knitting blog and I want to point out this is the first paragraph that includes the word knit. Right. Because when you are sashaying all over Paris (wearing, by the way, when not in the sun, a light lace shawl finished the year before) you really don't need to be knitting.

Yes, I knit on the airplane, but mostly I tried to sleep (I know, wimp that I am). The big comment I have on this trip, and knitting, is that one needs to think very carefully about a knitting project to bring on a trip. I brought my Shetland shawl. Now, it's rather demanding of focus at the moment and I'll tell you, I made a mistake. Brain dead knitting I could and would have picked up while my feet recovered (straight up in the air). But there was no way I was going to concentrate on my shawl.

Why did I bring it? Because I have Finish-that-blasted-thing-itis, that's why.

More tomorrow if I can fit it into my Get-Back-To-Normal-Fast day.

Shetland Lace and Roman roads

2008-08-07T16:10:00.005-04:00

Janin made a comment on my last post, which got me remembering old discussions and I wanted to address it at some length. Stand by for few pictures and lots of words... If you hate that, feel free to exercise your right to navigate elsewhere! :)

At Camp last year, I had a long conversation with various lace knitting gurus, including Meg Swansen and Bridget Rorem, about Shetland lace, and square shawls.

At the time I was concerned (I forget just why at this point) that the shawl I was thinking about knitting be "authentic." What does that really mean, authentic Shetland lace? To me it means, knit by Shetlanders of Shetland wool in Shetland, truly. More to the point, then, is not "What is authentic?" but, "what do I want to produce in my own 'honor-those-brilliant-Shetland-knitters' rendition of a square shawl?"

The Shetland knitters were (are) realists and brilliant make-it-happen knitters. They had a few basic tools and their wonderful minds and skills, and made truly gorgeous lace. Examining the stunning shawls that were produced in the Shetland lace heydays, one can see that all of it is produced from a few foundational building blocks of stitch constructions. (My appreciation of this is due in part to Hazel Carter's delightful book, Shetland Lace Knitting From Charts. If you are interested in Shetland lace, understanding and working with its building blocks, I highly recommend this book. Sharon Miller's book on lace knitting is a massive and wonderful tome, and I love it, but something about Hazel Carter's book helped me really dig into and appreciate the minds of those Shetlanders and their lace.)

Sorry, long red herring there.

Shetlanders used long double pointed needles and, often, a special belt to hold one end and speed their work. This knitter happens to have access to circular needles; can't I use them? to be authentic do I have to use the same tools they did? Do I have to follow the method they did, working the edging first and then one border and then the center and then another border and so on, ultimately grafting the edging together and possibly the various borders? And only garter lace because, working lace sts on every row, it is way way WAY easier to avoid purl rows? After all, knitting is much faster for some of us than purl; knit decreases are easier than their purl-rendition version (well OK, P 2 tog is way easy. P 2 tog tbl or whatever one calls it (I call it a purled ssk) is slow and annoying) (Uh oh, I just caught myself thinking about ways to make that maneuver easier...) Oops, another bit of wandering off down the garden path.

I think I do not have to do all of that.

There is an old story, and honestly I have no idea whether it is true because my brother told me and, to be funny, he'll say nearly anything. (He does work for a railroad) The story is essentially this: the gauge of railroad is made the gauge it is (size, essentially) because it matches the wheel ruts from the Roman war chariots, which for a time raged all about Europe and, for the story, especially England. Thus the gauge specifications (width between rails, for those who are thinking gauge means stitches per inch) are based on the separation of the wheels of a Roman war chariot, which is the size it is to fit two horses in the traces. Because, of course, early transportation was horse based (and heavy or speedy horse drawn carriages tended to have the horses in pairs)... which produced the wheel axle lengths for early chariots and thus rail road carriages, and so on. Here's Snopes' scoop on it. It does make intriguing reading, humorous as well. But there is a similarity of thought process. The choices of construction and size, method and organization of work, are based on some fundamental items... like tools available, sizes of users, limitations of equipment, etc.

Given that I have circular needles, the ability to chart and keep straight in my head the miters growing on my borders, and that I knit for my own delight: these will affect my choices.

So, since it is my knitting, what do I care about? I do care that it is a lovely pattern. I care that the lace sts I choose live in a symbiotic relationship, that the various parts flow and go together in a pleasing way. I care that it drape and be lovely and warm, that I use only "traditional" Shetland sts (more on this in a minute) and that it be a knit that goes together logistically in a manner pleasing to me. For instance, to choose to do all purl, still producing garter stitch, would be a crazy variation, with no benefit to me as knitter, nor the project. (I do know that some folks would love to work it that way: some people find purl sts faster and easier) To me that would be a nonsensical variation.

But to knit the center first, with a provisional cast on and then do the borders, that makes sense to me with form and function agreeing.

Anyway, that brought me to the borders question: the mitered sections that frame the center. Traditionally, a Shetlander did those in garter-st based lace, knitting 4 trapezoids. But then, they only had those long double pointed needles. The Romans built their roads to match their war chariots; should we continue to build our roads to match their war chariots just because the roads were so strong and wonderful and the wheel axles made massive ruts? Of course not. And so it is with my knitting.

Having a long circular needle that lets me do all the borders simultaneously, with no joining necessary, I find that an easy decision (it is my knitting after all). And I am going to make a choice to work it in a way that makes it functionally logical and approachable, and pleasing to me.

Which forces the garter vs Stockinette question on me. Knit endlessly in a circle (yes, I know, a square, really) or actually purl every other row to produce garter stitch?

Since my shawl (and many if not most Shetland shawls) has lace worked on every row, and I don't want to do every other row with purl decreases, I reject the purl-every-other-row choice. I'm sorry, but if there is one thing that makes me feel like I am building my modern road to fit a Roman chariot, it is to intentionally choose to do purl decreases instead of knit ones. Also, and I am being honest here, I enjoy lace far more when I knit it all.

What I realized is-- I want to do the borders all in once piece. I want to knit every round. I like both st st and garter based lace. I know I am producing a shawl with one right and one wrong (not really wrong, of course) side. I know the lace will look slightly different in St St. I am fine with that. I can block it flat and the gauge difference on 6 inch wide borders is not terribly significant. This is a lace shawl, after all where gauge (not of railroad track nor Roman roads, but of sts per inch) is dramatically less crucial.

On the other hand, I am getting the lovely mitered corners I want, that require no grafting or picking up of sts, at the miters, nor knitting two together to attach the corner sts at each end of the trapezoids nor any of that. I am getting the joyful pleasure of knitting that flows round and round in a pleasurable way in my hands.

Hence my choices!

I said I'd say more on Shetland stitches, but I am way out of time and space here so that will have to wait. Sorry!

Catch up

2008-08-07T01:14:00.004-04:00

We've been out of town, in a rather Luddite-like scenario, so I have been unable to post. My poor husband has been in desperate need of a vacation, so the break was nice...even though he ended up working some percentage of 3 of the days. Looking mighty relaxed, eh? Great news for me was finishing the center square and moving on to the borders on my Shetland Shawl. I did get a bunch of knitting time! Here is my planning-the-borders mess:

... Which I worked on during our vacation. I have found more of the yarn, thru another knitter on Ravelry, so I should be able to finish this thing soon! Here's the idea.
I knit the center square:

This is unblocked so it's not as open as it will be once blocked, but it shows some of the center square. Here's a bit more detail:
With the large center square done, I picked up stitches all the way around the square (stitches ready and waiting on two sides: the edge where I finished the last row, and the start with its provisional caston). I am now knitting around and around the outside of the square, increasing 2 stitches at each corner on every other round. Thus every other round I have 8 more stitches to incorporate in the border's pattern. That's one reason for all the graph paper in the picture of my planning...

I am afraid the knitting itself is a crumpled mass on my circular needle and hard to appreciate right now, so no pictures of that today. I do want to say that technically most Shetland shawls have been done in garter stitch based lace. Obviously, going around in a circle (OK, square) knitting is going to produce stockinette. A purist might leave a seam to sew and purl back. I guess I'm not a purist! I wanted to go around the outside edge to make each of the four sections of border identical and to avoid seams. Am curious to see how the St. Stitch looks but have to wait till it's less crumpled. More tomorrow, I hope.

More Camp continued

2008-07-23T11:26:00.003-04:00

Bridget Rorem's gorgeous shawl, modeled by Mary. I have always wondered about using an oval doily or tablecloth pattern to make a shawl and here is a lovely one: Poppy and her skirt:
Shelley had a yarn shortage, she thought, and incorporated a bunch of other yarns into her sweater design, to stretch the shortage.
Humorously, afterwards she still had two large skeins of the yarn she'd worried about running out of!
Janine's Leo vest, using Armenian Knitting.

Knitting camp continued

2008-07-23T10:03:00.003-04:00

I would like to show you a few pictures over the next couple of days. Bear in mind that often I was so kersmackled by what people showed at Camp, that I failed to leap to my feet and take a decent photo. So I don't even come close to having everything. If I blow it and mis-label something, fellow campers, please let me know?

This is Greg, who is modeling a hat that used a technique he found intriguing.
Clearly not all ideas tried result in things one wants to try again... Lest anyone be confused, Greg is a wonderful knitter and spinner, and funny as all get-out.
Sheryl and her incredible sweater from Knitting out of Africa, by Marianne Isager.
I will be visiting Denmark for a few days in August, and hope to see some of Marianne Isager's creations in person.

More to come!

Post Camp

2008-07-20T14:41:00.006-04:00

Camp is over (OK, it's a Retreat, technically) but my mind is jam-packed with ideas, concepts and project plans.
Needless to say, a few items came home with me, which I'll tell about but first--
When I got home I found something waiting for me: A bag full of small reels of all of the Jamieson Spindrift colors.
Some friends bought all the colors, and divided them up for a bunch of us to share, and this morning I finally sat down to look through them.
Ostensibly, I was verifying they were all there. Really I was playing with them, and delighting in the colors colors colors! I put them all on a piece of parachute cord, in order, but that will not last long.

Aren't they glorious?
My roommate this year was a wonderfully talented Fair Isle designer, teacher and (of course) knitter. She stands in front of a collection of colors and sees things: pulls out this and that and suddenly has the beginnings of something tremendous.

I find her inspirational, naturally, as my gifts seem to lie in other directions. (That is a nice way of describing my overwhelmed condition when faced with a wall of colors)

So the timely arrival of these colors is greatly appreciated.

I also returned with some lace-weight yarn (shocking I know). This is alpaca, hand-dyed by the talented and delightful Cheryl Oberle. She usually brings some of her yarn with her, to Camp, to sell on Market Day. I don't believe she ever has any left over...

I wish this photo could convey more accurately the flow of color (slightly variegated from pinks to reds)... and that you could feel the silky hand of the alpaca.

I wanted to be sure that a very lacey pattern would still "show" thru the mild variegation, and it does indeed. I don't generally care for variegation in lace knitting, as the color variation can obscure the details of the lace. But sometimes it works well (my ribcooler last year at camp was knit in a variegated Possum Lace yarn from Cherry Tree Hill) and mild variegation, in similar shades, can add richness, as with a heathered yarn.

The color and the hand of this yarn thrill me. It's good "petting yarn."

More to come!

Camp Prep

2008-07-07T22:22:00.002-04:00

Every year before Knitting Camp I start pulling out all the knitting I've done in the past year, to decide what to bring for Show and Tell.
This having been the year of the Great Knitting Slump, pickings are a bit slim. There are WIPs a-plenty but not much in the way of completed projects.
Below are the most likely, two shawls completed before the GKS.
One thing I love about Camp is being among other knitting enthusiasts (those of you who read this, you know who you are!!) and listening to the flow of their ideas and what they have been doing in their knitting/designing... the flip side of this is being listened to by people who understand my personal knitting obsessions (largely involving lace).
What I don't like about this year, is how few of my simmering lace ideas I have actually followed through to some sort of activation. Some I had even forgotten about, until I happened on my notes.

Above are a few things in varying states of work, which I might bring to work on while at Camp. (I freely admit that I really delight in choosing some new and Totally Different thing to start while there and finish madly in the weeks after I get home)

And name tags-- I should make a new one but probably won't. The name tags are on top of Pride and Prejudice, one of my all time favorite books. This is an annotated version full of wonderful insight into the English culture during the time Jane Austen wrote, humorous insight into the characters, and a myriad of other commentary on the book.

I have been delighting in this, which was recommended to me by a fellow knitter (thanks, Janine!) If interested, it is annotated by David Shapard. I highly recommend it for anyone, but especially a Jane Austen fanatic.

This is just a silly swatch. No, I am not thinking of making a Faroese-inspired sweater, whatever do you mean? It is just a random swatch.
Maybe it will grow up to be something different, you never know.

Best Laid Plans

2008-06-23T10:40:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I missed out on my usual Sunday knitting spell (during a soccer game) and instead worked on my Shetland shawl when we got home.
My husband commented that my shawl was looking really good. Naturally I had to hold it up, stretch it out some, for him to more accurately admire it.
Pride truly goeth before destruction... because the circular needle holding my stitches dropped the last 8 inches of knitting off both ends.
No biggie, I can pick it up.
True, and I did, and some of it was easy to fix. Most had not run madly in all directions.

Except for one really bad section which overwhelmed me so much I threw the shawl in the corner to work on today.
The fact the row just completed had a fair number of yarnovers and decreases, and it was true lace (every row has action: preceding rows also yarnovers and decreases) and for some crazy reason quite a bit of it just melted away thru several rows worth of work.

This was one of the worst of the messed-up-motifs
This is what it is supposed to look like: This is how it looked after I tried to pick up all loose loops.
Rather nasty.So let's get some black behind it, my glasses on, lots of extra skinny needles to hold the various stitches, and drop off the mess.Many groans later, once lying flat on my back (this is a disaster, I cannot do this!) I had that section fixed. I am sorry, I should have taken more pictures and shown the rows as they went but it was just too fiddly to put down and grab my camera. It will block out and ultimately look fine.
I did have some bits that are not technically garter stitch lace anymore but I am fine with the end result.
(Galloping Horse Rule)

Thankfully, the other messed up areas were all easier than the first one (which needed to be taken down 5 rows to fix properly).
Knitted another row and here's the repaired section:

Not too bad!

Needless to say, my legs and neck were cramped and sore after being bent over this thing for an hour.
And the run I intended to take first thing this AM has not happened yet.

But it feels good to have conquered that baby.

Soccer Days

2008-06-02T23:08:00.003-04:00

I am afraid I have no photos to share today, only an anecdote.
Yesterday my husband had one son on one side of the state; I had the younger (son # 3 who recently got his brown sweater) on the other side of the state, both for soccer games. Oldest son was in the middle of the state, running in a track meet. There being only 2 parents in our household, Son #1 was alone. :(
(If you are wondering if this is our usual Sunday, let me reassure you that it is often and usually worse)

I am sitting in the hot sun, happily knitting away on my Shetland shawl and cheering for my son's team (let me reiterate: this shawl is great fun!) The mother of one of the other boys on the soccer team comes to examine my knitting. Long and short is, she has seen me knitting all sorts of things over the course of the last 10 months, but this one she really really loves.

Wants to buy it.

Now, the thing is, my knitting has my life and my childrens' lives knitted into it. It accompanies me to games (exciting and dull) and hears my cheers and groans, my conversations with other parents, gets in the middle when I hug my daughter or grab my goal-scoring son. Watches the track meets and cross country meets and gets unceremoniously dropped on the ground when my son approaches the finish line. You get the idea. Selling it would be so weird to me, like selling part of my family.

But at the same time, I recognized something in this young mom. She saw something lovely and thrilled to it. Totally appreciated it. How can I deny her appreciation of something I, too, love?

Her offer was very different from the one I fielded several years ago. Which I think I will just leave un-discussed except to say that $20,000 would not have induced me to let her have my shawl.

Anyway, I find myself contemplating all sorts of surprising things. We'll see what comes out of my cogitations. She is not the only person who has admired my lace, and there is a long line of loved ones to share it with, but for some reason she touched something in me and I want to somehow share with her the loveliness of knitted lace. Hm.

Actual progress

2008-05-30T15:19:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I had a 3 hour sojourn at a track meet. As it was run in a rather plodding manner (not the runners, the organizers), and my running child only in a few events, there was a whole lotta knitting time.

And fun knitting time it was, too. I worked exclusively on this:

It's my Shetland shawl, whose design I worked out last summer (truly. Last summer) and which languished unattended until now. No need to rehash my slump nor my constrained time the last several months. What was joyful was to pick it up and re-discover how much I love to work on it.

Last evening I found myself occasionally stretching it out to be sure I like it as much as I think.

This is something I do a lot with lace. It is so totally transformed by blocking, it feels like a completely different sort of thing altogether while one is knitting it.

So here it is:

This is the center (or part of it anyway, it would fall off the needle if I stretched the whole thing out). After the center square is finished, I will pick up stitches all the way around and knit wide (gorgeous, but I'm biased) borders outwards. Then knit an edging on, all the way around, attaching it as I go. No seams. The cast-on edge (on a string in above photo, at the bottom) is provisionally done so no cast on either.

Shetlanders traditionally did things slightly differently. When one knits on a collection of double pointed needles (even the long ones traditionally used in the Shetlands) rather than on a circular needle, it is a lot easier to do things their way than the way I have chosen.

However, stretching it out revealed that it is going to be enormous. (Yes I did a swatch, quite a few in fact. Yes I measured, counted and planned it. Yes it is the size I planned. But still I have been hit with: it is going to be massive)

What was I thinking.

Naturally, this generates a new anxiety: running out of yarn.

There's always something.

Finally, a very little bit of progress on the Earth Stripe Wrap:

This is something a group of friends lured me into. (Not my fault, of course) The colors are subtle yet gorgeous, since Kaffe Fassett is truly the King of Color. The yarn is Kid Silk Haze. I have mentioned this project in the past but, my word, such a long-ago past that I think I need to re-intro it.

You can probably tell I am still embarrassed at all my recent radio silence.

It's good to be back.

sorry excuse for a knitter

2008-05-28T10:38:00.003-04:00

Yes, I have been not only a sorry excuse for a knitter, but a really sorry excuse for a blogger! I try to avoid discussing personal issues on this blog, though I must say I made an exception last fall for the Septic Installation Insanity from Hades.

However, I think I cannot begin to explain the last 3 months so I won't try.
I am not even sure, now, that I am totally "back," but am hoping so.

Perhaps you remember this project:
...which was gumming up the Knitting Works.
Well, not really, I was the one gumming things up, but whatever-- finishing this project became an act of teeth gritting.
Crazy, really, because the Malabrigo has such a glorious hand, and I was making it for a precious son-- who was longing for it. You would think it a delightful knit, right?

But between the dull color (which I gotta tell you looks fabulous on my son) and the annoying way the yarn behaved on the little bit of front cabling, I was perennially irked with it. The yarn is a single, only very lightly twisted, and it was hostile to staying together when manipulated for cables, especially when tightly knit.

Also, (true confessions) he wanted it just like his big brother's recently finished sweater and, yes, I admit that it is dull to knit the same thing twice in a row when there are 298 shawls and lacey ideas percolating in one's head.

But I did finally force my way through it, and here they are:

And the happy new sweater owner
So now I can (in my nonexistent knitting time, yes that was a whine) get back to other things.

Which I will save for tomorrow, hoping for a smidge of time to knit later so it looks like I really am still a knitter.

Anti-slump

2008-02-29T12:02:00.005-05:00

I freely admit that I have been in a massive knitting slump.
It is not something that has happened to me often. In fact, I can only think of one other time that I was without knitting for an extended time.

I was living in the Philippines, for 3 years-- and if you have dwelt that close to the equator then you have a pretty good idea why there was no wool moving thru my fingers.

Actually, since this was before the days of the Internet, email, cell phones, etc, and communication itself was challenging. No, I am not talking clipper ships (I'm a bit younger than that) but obtaining wool by mail order would have been challenging and, honestly, wearing it was inconceivable. I used to phone home twice a year (sometimes only once, at Christmas). I would have called more often but between the international operator challenges (formidable) and the cost ($100, and not exactly a long call) well, let me just say that $100 then was a whole lot of money. A stamp and a letter, while way slower, were a better way to keep in touch.

And lest someone talk to me about cotton, let me just say: no. I really don't care for it still but at the time knitting for me was wool sweaters. Wool mittens, Wool hats, wool-- well, I am sure you get the idea.

I still dislike knitting with cotton (high quality crochet cotton for doilies is another story but at the time I had not yet discovered knitted lace)-- you are welcome to enjoy it and I will cheer you on. I just don't care for it personally.

Anyway, continuing the theme of my previous slump (which was less a slump than a condition of Overwhelmed By Environment)-- when I finally came home from the PI, I travelled thru New Zealand and Australia. (I know very well that NZ is *not* in a direct line between the Philippines and the USA. However, it was a wonderful vacation while travelling home and boy howdy did I fall hard for that wonderful place)

Anyway, two big things I did in NZ, besides admiring sheep, climbing mountains and driving about were: tea drinking (I am an addict) and buying wool. My travel mate was astonished (she thought she knew me... she'd never met the fanatical knitter squashed by the environment of the PI). Why do you want all this wool? she would say. heh.
Ahem. The stash began on that very trip.

Anyway, this Genuine Slump I have been in-- I have discovered the perfect antidote.
The son for whom I am knitting the Slump-Inducer sweater? His birthday is in one week. I have made this my goal to get that dratted thing off my plate and am working on it far more aggressively. I am ignoring (with gritted teeth) the splitting of the wool and trying to focus on how gorgeously soft the knitted product feels (and it does feel luxurious. I slid the first sleeve onto my son's arm, to test the length and his face just glowed: Mommy, it feels GREAT.)

I need to start the other sleeve, then raglan-ize the parts all together. Cannot wait for it to be done. Because... I have a top secret anti-slump weapon.
Kid Silk Haze. The King of Color (Kaffe Fassett) Earth Stripe Wrap. (Rowan 42)
It has been years, truly, since I knit a Rowan design essentially as published. This one is seductive in feel and the colors are mesmerisingly gorgeous. Pictures cannot do it justice.

Martin Luther King Jr Day

2008-01-21T11:53:00.000-05:00

There has not been a ton of knitting around here, but do have a couple of photos to show you, and I also want to publicly remember a great man on his day.

Most people are familiar with MLKjr's "I have a Dream" speech, in DC, and if you have never heard his delivery of this speech, I highly recommend this, to see for yourself... but there was so much more to this wonderful man.

Last evening my husband brought down an enormous book called The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our children looked at it and said, that is just his "essential" writings?? How much was there all together? Well, a lot. His death was a great loss to our entire nation. I am glad we have a day to remember and honor him.

Thank you, Dr. King.

On another note, here is the sorry state of son #3 sweater:

Today I might get some knitting done on it, believe it or not. It is seriously crushing my knitting output. Unless I am in a slump.

Say it isn't so.

Here is the crumpled status of my shetland shawl design:

Let me fix that background, and stretch some of it out a bit for you:

Better? To be honest, I love this, and really enjoy working on it-- but it has been forced to rest at the bottom of the priority list for quite a while (since July). Hoping that today it will get at least a few rows, if not a whole pattern... (dreaming here) This is the center of a square shawl, and I am planning to do some really fun blendings of Shetland concepts in the border. The center is pretty straighforward, in the grand scheme of Shetland shawls.

If you have never explored Shetland's wonderful shawl knitting, here are some links:

Shetland Museum

Some Fine Lace photos at the Shetland Museum

Heirloom Knitting

Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer

The museum has a photo archive, which is loaded with fabulous pictures of many aspects of the Shetlands. Here's the link. If you go to the "Show All" link you will be swamped. I went to the subjects search, then chose the expand whosit (plus sign) for subjects. Then expand textiles, then knitwear, then finally there will be Haps (specific type of shawls), fine lace, etc. Enjoy. The fine lace photos link I gave you above went to the fine lace section.

keep on trying

2008-01-14T15:16:00.000-05:00

If there is even a faithful reader remaining, you are certainly wondering what in the world I am doing.

Not knitting, anyway. At least, not much.

I have made some progress on the Brown sweater for son #3. The thing is, it's just so Brown. Flat dull brown, and the yarn feels less luscious than the last Malabrigo and... right.

Actually, yes, there is something else I'd rather be working on, but son #3 is dying for his sweater and if he even saw me working on something else... well, he'd realize the sweater is moving into the "when are you going to work on my quilt mommy?" zone. (Notice: not "when are you going to finish it?" but "When are you going to work on it?" Sad, very sad. And I feel a beast. Yes I need to just work on it, but can't I unpack my knitting books first? :)

Merry Christmas

2007-12-26T23:07:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, all.

Hoping yours was as wonderful as mine. We are now in our new home, it is wonderful and feels like home right from the git-go, and I simply cannot think of anything to be unhappy about. (not like I'm trying to be unhappy or anything.)

Room for my stash, my books, my knitted objects, my lace-blocking... oh yeah, and room for my family too! ;)

I would like to suggest that moving into a home on December 22 can be a trifle stressful. However, when the home is as yummy as ours, even the stress is nice.

I have promised to teach a lace knitting class after we get settled in, and am thinking about first-time lace knitting concepts. Looking for opinions for the following:

Good yarn for first project
Good concept for first project
Remind me to tone down my expectations and class plans, since lace knitting comfort rarely arrives overnight

I am thinking of a rectangular shawl (possibly a scarf for the nervous-of-too-big-a-project, quite possibly a very wise position come to think of it) so the yarn's texture (against-the-skin feel) will matter.

I am thinking there shouldn't be too much halo to the yarn, as it's harder to rip out (so Kid Silk Haze is out)

Not too fine a yarn, either, as learning to manipulate a very fine yarn takes some time, for some of us, and might unduly tax a new lace knitter. I want them to concentrate on techiniques and reading their knitting, rather than frustration with tensioning a super-fine yarn.

Any opinions eagerly solicited.

Merry Christmas

Nowhere near the wagon

2007-12-14T10:22:00.001-05:00

I just got this last night (it got snowed on, but luckily those USPS priority mail envelopes seem to have some Water Repulsion Capability). Yes, it's a Bohus Stickning kit. I purchased it from a friend, who did not want to/have time to knit it. It is my favorite, I think (though it's a tough league-- they are all stunning).
Forest Darkness.
This picture (of course) does not do the colors justice. Nor, of course, the texture. Half angora. Half Merino. Really, what is not to like in that?

I am going to start it in January. My only nagging anxiety is the fineness of the gauge, in combination with the miles, and miles, of black stocking stitch. Not sure how I will deal with that...unless because this yarn is Luxury Personified and who can resist working with it, black or otherwise.

Now, I am sure some of you can appreciate my falling off the wagon for a Bohus kit. At least, I would hope so.

But what about the other 24 (or thereabouts, what's 5 or 6 more between friends) skeins of various things (including Malabrigo, my new fave) that are trolling this way thru the mail?

What can I say. That wagon I fell off of is just rolling away from me, high speed, while I roll around (reveling) in yarn.

The reality is that when I have Zero Time to knit, I have to make up for it somehow. That is when my resistance to yarn is at its all time low. Anyone else have that problem?

Not knitting on, but yarning on ;)

Not a yarn order

2007-12-07T17:12:00.000-05:00

Howdy.

You'll be glad to know that somehow, despite my yarn fast, and determined reassurance that I have Not Purchased any yarn, something came today. I don't know how these will appear on your screen, but none of them are quite right on mine.
Regardless, son #3 says it's the most beautiful yarn in the house, and when are you going to start it, Mommy?
I feel like a criminal when I look at the stack of costume sewing I have remaining but, humorously, (he well knows me) he pointed out that there are lots of places we go that the sewing machine can't go, so I can bring his sweater and work on it then... What a cutie.

The other funny thing about this yarn is that, to me, it's Ordered Clothing, not really Yarn-- perhaps as a knitter you understand. So when my DH told me "here's the receipt for your yarn order, sweetie," I gacked. "Yarn order? What yarn order? I haven't bought any yarn!"

He just looked at me, a bit astonished, and handed me a printout of my Malabrigo order. Eyebrows up, skeptical, the whole works.

I still maintain my position, I haven't bought any yarn-- but the funniest part to me, is that I truly had forgotten the Malabrigo, and even when reminded of it persist in claiming I had not bought any yarn. Funny.

By the way, for Terry-- send me an address, and I'll mail you the last of one of my green skeins of Malabrigo. You have to feel it to believe it. I have no idea how to mail something to a boat on the Pacific or wherever you guys are! mrsrhb3 At yahoo dot com.

Knitting? What's that?

2007-12-05T11:20:00.000-05:00

Knitting done in last 4 days?

A big fat Zero.

No, not a slump, a time crunch. I have promised (and yes I freely acknowledge that my promise was foolhardy) to make the costumes for a Christmas drama that our church is putting on. Deranged, that's me. One of the actors is not a small man.

I have two large bags of fabric staring at me (reproachfully: why have I not yet been cut out?) and a household that is moving into our new house in 16 days, and clearly I am out of my mind.

In case you did not already know.

No longer knitting on, but looking crabbily at fabric...

Back to normal?

2007-11-30T14:39:00.000-05:00

Here is my second son, on the back deck modelling what he terms the best sweater in the house. That's nice to hear! It is not yet blocked. Here is a (sideways) closeup of the cable up the center front.
It is one that seems to have become my favorite (it has been somewhere on my last 5 cabled items, if that gives you a clue!)

It is called "Four Rib Braid" and is, I believe, in Barbara Walker's Second Treasury.

This shows the roll neck and front a bit better.

On the topic of cables, I did get my latest issue of Twists and Turns (Janet Szabo's quarterly newsletter on cable knitting). Janet is beginning the option of receiving the newsletter in PDF form, and enclosed was a mail-in form to request the hard copy versus the electronic. Except that the name and address on the form was for someone else :) I think something went awry on the envelope stuffing side of things.

Anyway, if you don't receive this newsletter, and you like cables and texture knitting, I highly recommend it. Janet is very talented and quite generous with her knowledge.

Finally, I have gotten very little real knitting done in the past 24 hours (well, ok, very little knitting, period). I did order some more Malabrigo yarn, however.

Way back when I mentioned a yarn diet/fast...
Well, this was a Special Exception since son #3 wants his sweater to be, big surprise, just like his big brother's. The yarn he had previously requested was from Shelridge farms (which I had purchased in the distant misty past). Nice yarn, but once he felt the Malabrigo he had no doubts what he wanted. :)

Since I rarely repeat anything in duplicate, I will probably do the next one top-down, a la Barbara Walker. (which I love to do, almost as much as I love to do set-in sleeves in the round)

So I get to wait for the Malabrigo and work on something else for a couple of days. Hm, surely there are a couple of unfinished projects around here.... ;)

Finally!

2007-11-29T00:05:00.001-05:00

Lest you think I am still be-bopping around Yosemite and San Francisco, on vacation Just enjoying the mountains and never knitting, just check this out:
Yup, on the Angel Island Ferry, knitting away like a madwoman on my #2 son's sweater (a sleeve, in case you wonder).

Here, body and sleeves are attached:

This is in Santa Rosa, the night before our flight home.And here is the happy boy, finished sweater on, warm and happy, airborne back to the east coast.
I always struggle with the necklines for this son. He has a slender neck and a large head. (Physically, not personality-wise) If it fits nicely around his neck, it won't go over his head without a battle. If it fits over his head without a battle, it flops all over the place at his neck. This time I conquered the problem with a k2p2 ribbing, topped with a roll neck. Perfect.

Yes, that is The Return of the King that he is reading.

Not only am I home, but our whole internet setup is finally fixed, network setup, and everything.

Whew.

I have been a Bad Blogger but I will try to do better now. Of course, now there is the excuse that Christmas is coming and we are finally buying our new house, and moving in sometime around Christmas and... and... and :)

But meanwhile I am knitting on, and will blog a bit more often.

I promise!

Photos

2007-11-17T14:45:00.001-05:00

Here is the back of my son #2's Malabrigo sweater. Not exciting, and the color is totally wrong (it is a rich lovely green) Here is the front. One panel of Four Rib Braid up the center front.
Finished Estonian Shoulder Hugger

details of teh Hugger!

Knitting on!

third time's a charm?

2007-11-16T18:18:00.001-05:00

Here is a really exciting package I received last month: It's from Mongolia, and not surprisingly contains Mongolian cashmere. Lace weight. The red is incredible, but I have no idea if that will come thru on this picture. Fingers crossed...
As you see there is also some salmon-ish (again lace weight) cashmere. The pale one, which is really more of a cross between beige and gold, is (I think though my memory may be faulty) part silk. The sheen on these yarns is astounding, and the hand gloriously soft. It is from Yubina and Fleegle introduced it to me.

I cannot praise this stuff too highly-- but--caveat-- though I have done some serious fondling of it, I have not yet knit with it. I know that is shocking. Believe me, massive self-control.

(My children get most of my fall knitting time in order to replace their outgrown sweaters. I am so delighted that they love my knitting that I am happy to do this. Currently on the needles is a greenish pullover for number 2 son, in Malabrigo. Believe me, this is pretty yummy and no, I'm not sure he will realize how special the yarn is-- but it doesn't matter. He will have a yummy sweater and I had the fun of knitting it.)

Cannot get anymore photos in, this is Really Whacky, so I'll sign off.
Knitting on

Shawl detail

2007-11-16T18:13:00.000-05:00

I think it's my computer that is keeping me from doing more than one photo, but whatever, here's a detail shot of the Kid Seta Estonian shawl. I neglected to point out in my previous post that this is unblocked in these pictures. I thought I'd taken some blocked but I guess I was wrong. I need one of it being worn, as it is really a delight. (I think, anyway.) Warm, drapey, flattering. OK end of this one, trying again. (really, what is the deal here?!)

Brief update

2007-11-16T18:04:00.001-05:00

OK, here's the finished shawl. Knit from Madil's Kid Seta (I think it is the same essential yarn as Kid Silk Haze, but I could be wrong). The color is a rich red, the mohair fluff is wonderful and warm, and the silk sheen is eye-catching.

It was knit during multiple soccer games and practices this fall, and finished a month ago. You are probably wondering "what has she been doing since and why didn't we hear about it right away?" Answer is: because. I refuse to fill this blog with a probably rant so you'll just have to trust me on this one: posting has not been possible. (I am sorry, however!)

Since Blogger has gone berserk, or perhaps it's my (brandnew!) laptop, I can only load one picture so the great ideas I had for LOTS of pictures have gone the way of all flesh.

I'll just have to do multiple posts, eh?

Back soon I promise!

2007-10-19T16:31:00.000-04:00

I am so sorry.

We have just finished a fairly stressful move, I am still surrounded by boxes, and we have been attacked by a Vengeful Verizon (or so I suppose) and are struggling along on dial-up, with no certain end in sight.

Now, we had dial-up for a long time, but I have decided that blogging about knitting is dullsville without photos and, well, have you ever tried to upload a decent photo on dialup?

Right.

That said, I decided to try. Guess what?

Camera has gone berserk, can't even do that. Truly berserk. Won't do anything, acts possessed. Maybe it doesn't like knitting? (Ban it!!)

Talk about aurgh!

Anyway, I have to tell you about my knitting without photos, which is rather dull, but I'll try anyway.

Red shawl, kid seta. Various Estonian patterns and some self-generated Nupp-filled patterns: Almost done (5 rows from cast-off).
And being inspired by Estonian shawls, it has a genuine cast off, which they do with doubled yarn. It adds some heft to the edge, as well as some visual substance, and helps prevent rolling if the shawl is stockinette-based.

My shawl is garter based, as I think st st vs garter distinction is hard to see in a hairy yarn like Madil's Kid Seta, and not really worth the effort of those return purl rows. (Yes, it's true, I dislike long endless rows of purl. Love texture patterns, just generally hate having to do an entire blank purl row. ) Nevertheless I am going to go with tradition and do the typical bindoff. Besides, I like it.

(For an example of a lovely shawl using Estonian motifs and techniques, see Evelyn Clark's Estonian Garden Stole. I knit it, also, and there are photos way back in, maybe, my June or July blogposts, but I can't find them on this SLOW machine, I am so sorry.)

On a different note, I really wanted to post photos of the yarn I just received. Stunning is all I can say. The phone conversation went like this:

DH Honey, were you expecting a package from China?
Me Um...
DH It wouldn't have anything to do with knitting, would it?
Me Um... well
DH ...Because there was a package from China at the post office today.
Me Did it have nifty Chinese stamps?
DH Stamps? Um, I suppose it did, let me look (rustling noises)-- yep, it does have some neat stamps.
Me Great! Thanks honey.
DH (Brief silence) ...so, were you expecting this?
Me Of course! It's from Mongolia. Thanks a lot.
DH (still in the dark, shaking his head)

It is yarn from Mongolia: 300 grams of pure cashmere, lace weight.

Red, pale peach, and a sort of natural beigy/gold color.

The red is to die for. Truly gorgeous.

The good news is that I cannot achieve a realistic photo of red yet, even with a functional camera, and you'd just hear "well, this isn't quite right but oh well"- - so you're saved from that. :)

I am so sad I cannot show you! (plus those nifty stamps) I got it from Yubina, and while the pics of the colors are a bit, ah. frustrating to choose through (teeny leetle pics), I understand through Fleegle that they will send you a sample card or samples of colors you want to see, if you ask. I just was too fired up in my order to pause and ask. If you love laceweight, and you love cashemere-- go for it. Of course, they have other yarns.

I can neither confirm nor deny that any others are winging their way to me right now. :)

aurgh

2007-09-23T20:26:00.000-04:00

I know that is a crazy name for a post but it's the most descriptive thing I can think of. How did I get thru nearly a week with only one post?

You just don't want to know. Truly!
Here is my kid seta shawl.

I have to say that, true to form, the more I invent and knit, the more complex it becomes. This is no longer an easy-knit-for-beginning-lace-knitter. I'm really really sorry. It just happens to me all the time, I get all excited and pretty soon, well, it gets interesting. To me.

So I have decided on a perfect first lace project. It is based on a shawl I knit for my daughter almost 5 years ago (really. She is almost 7 now, and regularly clamors for shawls just like Mommy's) (She calls them "Shawlies" but you probably didn't need to know that.)

I will show you a photo tomorrow (she is in bed) and I promise to knit it next, and out of the red Kid Seta. Just a general description-- a roughly Faroese shape, but top-down, and all garter stitch, with a gorgeous knitted-on lace edging which is where the fun really is.

It has a provisional cast on, but not a big bad hard one; an edging knitted on sideways, and it is eminently wearable. Promise.

Tomorrow.

(I hope)

Loose ends

2007-09-20T14:23:00.000-04:00

Lest I leave you thinking my property is still a parking lot for huge power equipment, let me show you the new high point in the state of NJ: Mount Septic. The ski lifts go in next week.

That's one loose end. Here's another, but it's not tied off yet:

I have made some progress, thanks only to soccer games and practices. Progress has been hindered by the design method I am using on this shawl: chart and knit. Contemplate an even better idea; chart madly; knit madly; stop and contemplate, chart, imagine... and knit madly again. Because I want it to hug my shoulders, I have worked in extra increases, which wreaked havoc on my charts (wait, I forgot to leave room for these extra sts) and I invented all sorts of odd ways to show them. Surprisingly, it has been an easy knit. I apologize for the photo, I enlisted a son to hold some parts as the (short) needle is overwhelmed by the sts which keep trying to escape.

This is another loose end: a sweater I finished in the early part of the summer. Knit top down, raglan shaping, following the method Barbara Walker discusses in her Knitting From the Top Down, it was incredibly fun to knit. I did not allow myself to check any of my numbers with any of my usual methods (Sweater Wizard or Elizabeth Zimmermann concepts) but forced myself to knit it with measurements and computations as Barbara Walker suggests. The result is, I could not begin to write down the pattern (for Jane, if you see this, I can give you a big picture concept and charts... will that do?)

On the other hand, the result is perfect and fits like a dream.

Photos for this blog are kicking my fanny-- I cannot get color and contrast to come out on the blog, even if it's right on my computer. Urk.

Anyway, the cable (Four Rib Braid, either Treasury 1 or 2 from Barbara Walker) runs down the center front; a different one down the sleeves. The sleeve cable is just a classic 2x2 rope braid, but every 3 crosses (I think) I made it open up into a loop.

Sadly, none of these photos show you how it fits, which is the real thrill. They also don't show you that I had only 2 yards of yarn left at the end (I think. Maybe 4. I forget, now).

That is one advantage to checking myself on Sweater Wizard-- Carole Wulster's program gives excellent "yarn required" estimates.

I think Linda has some better photos on her blog from just after Camp. Try here. Though now that I look at it, she only shows one sleeve. Oh well. I do have a photo that came yesterday, on my CD of Camp photos (thanks Al!!!) but I need to check with him before using it.

Finally, I got around to blocking my Cuff to Cuff sweater. Just in time, too, as the weather here turned beautifully cool (downright chilly in the AM) and I needed the warmth of the wool/alpaca yarn.

I wish I could show you the hand of this sweater's fabric: it drapes beautifully, and is smooth and almost creamy at the same time. Warm and soft. I envision lots of future sweaters knit from it, both color-work and solid/textured. (Berroco's Ultra Alpaca in worsted weight. You may remember I got the yarn at Knitting Camp in July...)

I love the way the sleeve and body flow (thanks, Meg, for a great design) (Wool Gathering 72, Schoolhouse Press). (Actually I think she's out of the original WG, and you need to get the Spun Out.)

Here's the underside of the sleeve, which fits into a slightly inset but otherwise square armhole.

I decreased on the underside.

From wearing it all week...? This is now my all time favorite sweater. Hands down. Even including that fab pink cabled thing above. This one feels like a hug from a friend. Maybe I need to knit one for a friend...

Serendipity

2007-09-15T17:43:00.000-04:00

While one son was cheerfully practicing with his team, this morning, I thought I would swing by the lys in my small town. Oh, and get a cup of coffee across the street.

Just swing by, no real plan in mind.

Ha.

Actually I did truly need to purchase some more of the Kid Seta since I haven't enough to finish the shawl I am making. Not that I'm running out, exactly.

In fact, here I am (I cannot stretch out more of it or it will all come off the needles):

Not awe inspiring progress, I know, but I have been messing with graph paper and madly charting and trying things and that can be time consuming. Especially when you're outside in the wind, which has its own ideas about what my charts should look like.

Anyway, I did get my yarn, and had a great conversation with one of the owners-- which is where the serendipity comes in. Turns out there's a knitter in town who wants to use Kid Seta to make a special shawl and would like some help with pattern and just lace knitting in general. (I think I have that right. If you are that local knitter, jump on in here and say hi)

And here's yours truly designing a fairly simple but charming shawl (I hope) that might make a good shop model to show what Kid Seta can do... oh and maybe make a good first project for a lace knitter.

I know, Kid Seta is a bear to rip out when you make a mistake, and early lace knitting is a question of not "if" but "when" you will make an error.

But-- this is top secret-- all lace knitting is a question of when you will make an error and "when" you will notice it. As you do more lace, you just-- usually-- notice sooner. Usually.

Anyway, if you're that local knitter, please feel free to contact me in the comments and I'll see if there's some way I can help.

Oh- and this...? This came home with me, too.

I love it.

Knitting

2007-09-13T14:41:00.001-04:00

I promised knitting...!

A few days ago I mentioned some yarn my husband brought me, from Collective Yarns.

He was innocently delivering one of the owners' sons to her, after soccer practice, and he said something about lace weight yarn (he has been well trained, but he's also a real hero since he truly believes I need no more yarn. Can you imagine? He must not have noticed the stuff under the bed.... ;) Anyway, Megan of Collective Yarns handed it to him and said, "here, see how she likes this." (So she's a hero, too)
I like it.

The best part is, both of the owners of the shop are lovely local women. My husband works with the husband of one... and coaches both of their sons in soccer. It's a net, drawing him into More and More Yarn Purchases!

Anyway, I am delighted that they opened a lys in our town, and I do promise to go buy lots of yarn from them.
Even if it means the personal sacrifice of breaking my own Yarn Fast.
Rats.
;)

More knitting:
Here we have my shetland-ish shawl. It has no name yet, and doesn't look too exciting lying there, does it? This is 3/4 of the first repeat of the center of the shawl. There are 7 repeats.

It will look a whole lot better and bigger once it's blocked; see here:

Now that's more like it.

When I knit lace, I have to stretch it all out every now and then-- that feedback ("wow, this is really nice!") is important encouragement sometimes. I knit lace because I love it, but also because it is just beautiful stuff. And right now, with a backyard like a lunar landscape I really really need that beauty!

I was going to wait to show it until I had more progress but, after the construction I doused you with yesterday, I just had to show you something nice.

Knitting on, and not looking out the window....

Construction notes

2007-09-12T21:27:00.001-04:00

Here is my 13 foot deep hole, in which we are burying a Mercedes, I mean, a septic.

This is one of the 40, yes, I did say 40, massive dumptrucks that brought the Special Australian Sand which is so important to the success of a septic in NJ. (I'm kidding. It's not really Australian sand; it is priced as if it were, though)

This scene? That used to be my backyard. They built a road so the trucks wouldn't sink into my nice yard when they brought their multi-ton loads. (Too bad they couldn't do the same thing for my driveway) Here he goes. (The guy running things was looking suspicious so I hid behind my window on this one, which is why the white stuff is there. Rookie, here.)

Dumps away.You thought this was a knitting blog, didn't you?

I just wanted to share the joys of installing a maniacs-run-totally-amok DEP septic in the state of NJ.

Those logs? Two enormous ash trees-that-were.

The bulldozer? That would be parked on my present septic system (despite my requests to not do so. Sometimes it's hard to be a woman.)

The fun just never stops around here.

Yes, that's one of my boys-- no longer building massive Lego warships, he's building something far more formidable... a dump truck.

(That would be the back hoe to end all backhoes out the window)
Looks pretty cheerful doesn't he?

Some nice knitting, you think?

Maybe tomorrow.

Boring Blogger

2007-09-09T23:02:00.000-04:00

Very little knitting makes Boring Blogger.

And after that kerfluffle of completed objects, I have had very little knit time.

You really don't want to know why, do you?

I didn't think so.

But soccer season has begun, so there will be some periods of enforced inactivity when I will be able to knit. (When I can be spared from cheering)

A very interesting thing is that my DH works with the DH of a woman in my town who has opened a knitting shop. I have been struggling with the need to go in and buy from her (like it's a sacrifice?! :) and the need to adhere to my "No Buying Yarn/Knit from Stash" policy.

However, I think that exceptions sometimes are mandatory. To encourage me in this thinking, something interesting happened yesterday.

My Dear Husband sashayed into her shop and came home with this:

First of all, it is a glorious deep and rich wine red not this whacky orange color in my photo. But it's Madil's Kid Seta (a Kid Silk Haze lookalike) and it is lovely yarn. It happens to be my utterly favorite color.

Do I have a great husband or what?

I am going to swatch some beloved ideas in this:

... for a shaped, top-down small shoulder shawl.

Fun. I love swatching!

Icelandic Shawl Halfskak

2007-08-31T14:17:00.000-04:00

Here she is.

Her body is composed of Spider stitch, which is very useful for shawls that drape nicely. A triangle results from 4 increases every 2 rows. Spider stitch lets you increase 4 sts in two rows, and 8 in the next two rows.

The extra increases spread the shawl out more rapidly, essentially, which produces more of a crescent shape at the front edge.

Here the shawl is blocking on my rug, and you can easily see the more-than-triangle shape.

A close up of the spider stitch, as well as the border.

The border increases quite rapidly. In twenty rows it almost doubles, twice, going from 300 stitches to nearly 1000.

This produces a bit of a ruffle-- which produces a blocking challenge! Normally, each loop of crochet chain gets stretched straight out at the bottom of the shawl.

You can't do that on this one-- there is not enough room laterally, due to the sheer number of stitches, and the scallop.

Here's a picture I took while I was pinning it out. Each of those little points is bigger than the space available for stretching, because of the flare effect both in and around the scallops.

I wound up overlapping parts of each scallop and pinning them together, so as to stretch the border nicely.It looks like the bottom edge is even, but it's not: it is very scalloped. It just looks that way because of the way I pinned it.

Here's the front:

... and the back.

Sigridur Halldorsdottir says to just let the border flare out (unless that was Marilyn's addendum in her translation).

The original design has the border shade from the white body of the shawl through to a natural black at the very edge. Obviously I did not do this.

Specifics:

3.25mm ebony Holz and Stein circular needle

Lace weight Icelandic wool/mohair mix in a natural beige, from Tongue River Farm. (They have a very limited supply left from last year.) It is a very crisp yarn, which blocks out beautifully. Unblocked it looked (like much lace) like an unorganized lump. 8 ounces are 1700 yards; I have to guess how much I used, as my scale is packed up. About 550 yards, I'd say.

I have to say that while I was working on it I was very worried I would hate the hand of the resulting lace.

I was wrong. It is very lustrous and heavy-feeling, a bit like alpaca, yet holds its shape beautifully.

Pattern in Three Cornered and Long Shawls, by Sigridur Halldorsdottir. It's available in Icelandic with a translation of the instructions (only) to English, done by Marilyn Van Keppel. Available from Schoolhouse Press.

To celebrate, guess what I did this morning?

Crochet is not my thing

2007-08-30T15:44:00.001-04:00

Current condition of the Icelandic Shawl (which I started just before Camp).

It has finally emerged from the Real-Estate-Induced Knitting Interruptus and made progress to the almost-end.

It is not an enormous shawl, it is more of a shoulder shawl, but it became dull as dirt and Way Low Priority a month ago. (Real Estate Woes were the major issue.)

Notice those flared-looking edges? They are more of a ruffle than an classic edging.

I am currently engaged in a crochet process where the stitches are bound off into loops of crochet chains.

For the unfamiliar, this is not complex crochet, but it can be fiddly.

Essentially, the bottom edge of the shawl is bound off in a series of

work several stitches together into one stitch
work a crochet chain out of that one stitch, which keeps the bottom of the shawl from binding
attach that chain to the next group of stitches to be worked together.

Here we go.

Insert hook into stitches on needle (I do this knit-wise so as not to twist the resultant chain attachment. It can be annoyingly dittsy with 7 sts together; this, luckily, is only three together.)

Catch the yarn and pull it back through those three stitches.Pull the three stitches off the knitting needle. Notice there is another stitch already on the hook, which is the last stitch of a chain. The chain and the 3 stitches you just worked need to be worked together, so--

Catch the yarn again and pull it back through both of the loops on the hook.This attaches the chain and the group of three stitches.

You have one stitch on your hook, and all the remaining knit stitches still on your knitting needle.

Before you do anything with the remaining knit stitches, you need to work the crochet chain.
Catch the yarn again, and pull it through the loop on your hook (still one loop on your hook).

Do this several times (in this case, I am doing it 8 times, which produces a chain of 8 stitches). In this shot you can see the chain.By the way, this knitting-picture-taking is fraught with challenges. How do you hold two implements, the yarn and a camera, all at the same time?

I had to enlist the assistance of one of my precious lambs (who then wanted to do a self portrait.Let me just say that he is a whole lot cuter than his self-portrait would imply...)

Anyway.

Once the chain is complete, it is back to the beginning-- hook thru the next group of stitches, pull the yarn through themand so on.

Until you are done with the last group.

Pull the yarn thru both the last group loop, and the preceding chain, and weave it into your knitting (back thru the chain sometimes works, and sometimes not).

Another Ta Da:

Which will get blocked tomorrow.

Happy knitter!

Ta-da!

2007-08-28T23:44:00.001-04:00

Finished.

We declared a moratorium on moving/buying house woes/selling house woes discussion, moving work or worrying on Sunday.

Guess what I did?!

Here's the cuff

And the back of the neck.

I wanted more red at the neck than would come from just I-cord, but I also wanted a hint of a reminder of the corrugated rib at the cuffs. (I just noticed something on the back of this sweater, in the photo, that I had not noticed before. I think there is some Swiss darning in my future. Rats.)

And, lest you think that the Crazy Sellers of Real Estate have ruined my knitting life utterly, here is my weird (but it's growing on me- no pun intended) Icelandic shawl.

Doesn't look like much unblocked. This is stretched out a bit for you.

I don't really enjoy crocheting off sts at the bottom of the stall, but it's OK, I have been smelling the barn ever since Sunday's knitting frenzy. Helps me keep at it.

And there's the promise of starting new knitting when I finish. Hoo-rah!

Knitting Books

2007-08-24T13:07:00.000-04:00

I am not going to show you the feeble amount of knitting I did yesterday. I have a total of 10 minutes daily for knitting, if that, and, well, it's just too dull.

Since Nancy and I see eye to eye on knitting books (thanks Nancy, and I remember you quite well!)-- I am packing up my Stay With Me" knitting books box.

It is almost full, and there are some Meg books not in yet.

(I need to have a conversation with Meg about sizing her books to properly fit into my book carton.)

And what do I do about my already-down-to-the-absolute-necessities lace books?

To say nothing of the precious and challenging-to-replace AS books?

(Notice I do not have Aran Knitting. I cannot bring myself to pay the prices demanded, and when it came out I was a newly married support-wonderful-DH -thru-Law School kind of gal and $39 or whatever it was was a lot of money to me. Hm. So is 300, for that matter. Anyway, my library still has it, and no I won't tell you which one since all the other libraries have had theirs mysteriously lost)

Progress:There is room for Knitting Ganseys and Homespun Handknit on top and my eagle eye for packing figured out that I can still jam in Lisl Fanderl's books if I turn Mary Thomas on end.
Alice Starmore is still out in the cold, though.

Drastic measures are called for (a second box).

Soliciting opinions!

2007-08-22T23:55:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a real cool spell over the weekend, I got some work done on my Cuff to Cuff sweater.

However, no knitting has been done since I got back from that long weekend. Truly. (For those that know me, that should tell you something about the awfulness of this real estate situation.)

Ah well, this, too, shall pass.

Here's the sleeve I completed over the weekend.

I got the steek tacked down, and started the other sleeve (I'm holding it down slightly; I'm only a couple of inches into it).

Anyway, I like the first sleeve; the hand of the fabric is quite luxurious. And warm!

If you are thinking of knitting this, just a heads up-- take the top edge of the chart with a grain of salt, especially if you change the neckline (I did this: shoulder shaping via short rows). Meg's shading gets a bit erratic just at the top edge. If you have been knitting along and paying attention, you'll probably notice. You have been warned. :)

Here's a shot of the sleeve on my arm.

I did my sleeve decreases under the sleeve, not on top-- I find that top-of-sleeve details tend to emphasize the rather broad shoulders I possess.

Here is my shoulder-into-sleeve zone. There is still a bit of a trough where the sleeve and shoulder meet, but blocking will fix that wagon.

No other knitting reportage.

However-- I do have a question for you-- I will have to store some of my knitting books (OK, I'll be honest: most of them) We are going to have to move into a rental (a small rental) for several months while the situation with the house we're trying to buy gets settled.

I am faced with the decision of-- which books are indispensable, which can I handle storing. (And not seeing for an unknown length of time.) (That's part of the Crazy Seller issue)

Here's my primary knitting book storage site:

What you might want to know is that the shelves are usually packed tight, with multiple books laid horizontally across the top (and there are usually knitting books in a whole 'nother shelf).

I have already packed two book boxes of knitting books. (That ought to scare me but it doesn't)

Anyway, I am down to the wire: which to bring (only one box) which to store (all the rest).

What would you consider indispensable, from your book collection? Soliciting all opinions!

(Trying to knit on, thru this crisis... but it's an uphill battle)

Long weekend

2007-08-16T15:53:00.000-04:00

One- I do not even want to talk or think about the incredibly difficult woman involved from the sale end of the house we are (supposedly) buying. I don't think the wildest roller coaster in the world can compare with the ride we've had in the course of this purchase (which, let me point out, is not yet complete. So there could be more. Just hold on, folks...!)

Two- my sock is clearly not in the hands of Wendy or the Yarn Harlot, as it is another Molasses in January item (for explanation, see item one above). But this is yesterday:

It is not exciting, but I like the heel so much better than my last toe-up. I am definitely not a fan of the short row heel, at least on any of the high-instep feet I have around me.

I did a flap (note for next time: increases in the flap are good for those high insteps) in the traditional heel stitch, and loved the result. There's more padding under the heel, which is nice (especially since it's a key wear-out spot in my sock wearers). Also, look at the nice result from those slip stitches:

My beef with variegated sock yarns is the utterly random placement of colors, except when they pool, which I really don't care for.

Used in a stranded stitch they can be really lovely, of course.

But I am fond of the orderliness that the slipped stitches bring to the sock.

Of course, they make the fabric both thicker and less stretchy, so I don't think I'd want it everywhere. But some judiciously applied slip stitches can make a world of difference.

New subject-

I am finally away for that vacation where I am off the ether. It was supposed to be almost 2 weeks; it will in reality only be a long weekend but-- hey-- we're finally going!

So sayonara till Monday or Tuesday.

Gravity

2007-08-15T18:04:00.000-04:00

Lace designing is something I really love and enjoy. I like to mess with shaping of shawls and other garments, and to imagine floral images and geometric shapes, and convert them to a lace stitch. And of course to envision garments and make them a reality. So I thought I'd amuse someone with my very first attempt to design my own shawl. This was, let's see. Well, the yarn was an anniversary gift so it was August, and the year--? Uh. Maybe 2001?

Looks kinda nice, huh? Yup, I have it laid out on my bed; it looks like it will look lovely over a bare-shouldered dress, drape nicely, etc, right?

Here's another shot. Maybe you can see something happening, maybe not.

How about now?

This is over a shirt, which has some frictional element -- and that keeps the stole's true colors from showing as clearly.

But let me tell you, this stole obeys one thing, and one thing only, when you wear it.

Gravity.

This is what it does when I pick it up and hold it vertically, then gently lay it on the ground:

Yup. It turns into a scarf 12 feet long.

Fun fur crazy scarves have nothing on this baby.

I can block it and stretch it like so:

But as soon as you pick it up to actually wear it?

Scarf.

Now, since I did intend it to be a shawl-type garment, not a bed decoration, I call it an utter failure. (Although I have worn it)

On the other hand, if you knew what I learned from this baby...! Over the course of swatching, charting, knitting and repeating the whole process multiple times, I became a totally different sort of knitter. More experenced, yes. More respect for the incredible potential in yarn/stitch combos. More love for genuine lace yarn rather than fingering weight yarn in a lacey object.

And I have learned many things to never ever do again.

And-- I'm a lace addict!

Well worth it.

Knitting Needles

2007-08-14T10:41:00.000-04:00

Not having any knitting progress to share (sorry. I did knit my sock flap but that's about all)... I wanted to get on my needle soapbox for a bit.

As you can see, I own a fair number of needle gauges. I love them. They let me keep my needles logical, despite all of the manufacturers' apparent efforts to befuddle me.

I trained as a scientist, which generally pursues accuracy.

Thus, two needles that claim to be the same size but are in reality .25 or even .5 mm off-- well.

How can a manufacturer claim to have an accurate tool, that can vary so widely? (Example: US size 6 can be 4mm or 4.25mm) Can you see a scientist accepting a .25mm variation in his calipers?

I know that for manufacturers to be super accurate they'd need to really hike their prices into the ozone. But couldn't they at least agree on which mm size to aim for?

Better yet, can the whacko size systems, and just use millimeter sizes exclusively. They are utterly logical.

Don't get me wrong, I never want to give up my Old English System of feet, inches, yards, miles, etc for daily life (and yes, I am serious)(and don't tell me the metric system is logical; I know that already: remember the scientist part. I just like the old English system for daily life. Makes me feel a link with my ancient past: Beowulf, and others. I know. You think I'm kooky. I'm OK with that.)

So I pay no attention to manufacturer sizes, and store my needles by their mm size, according to my gauges. And measure each one before I start to use it.

I highly recommend it.

....Just watch out for the fact that different gauges are slightly different from one another.

(You knew there had to be a catch.)

Trauma

2007-08-12T14:42:00.000-04:00

I have been knitting, really I have! See?

It's a bit like watching grass grow (in a drought) but any progress at all feels like a major victory with all else going on around here.

That sleeve is one diamond from its ribbed cuff.

Here's my Mommes Lysedug, which is a real lifesaver for a lace knitter in a heat wave. (Especially one who is buggy-eyed with house buying woes and desperately needs to knit)

The Tencel thread is cool and light in my fingers; the loveliness of the doily makes me imagine it gracing my dining room table in a new home; progress is visible and the knitting speedy.

On the other hand, it does take some attention. So I have to be honest, it hasn't gotten as much work as I'd like to give it.

This little thing (my Icelandic shawl, begun before Camp)is *not* cool and comfortable to knit in a heat wave:

The Icelandic/mohair mix lace yarn-- well, let's just say it will be lovely in December.

I am finally down to the last 4 rows where the sts have been increasing to an incredible degree. (six rows doubled the st count at the base of that leaf-like edge; the last 6 rows do it again.) 1200 sts is 1200 sts, and is sure better than, say, 5000 sts. But still.

Here's the poor feeble sock that has been moaning at me. It gets ignored as, honestly, it is just plain dull. The yarn is pretty, yes, and my sister will love it.

I have been struggling with different toe-up heel concepts, and had worked out an idea I thought would fit her well-- so last evening I grabbed it to bring to a minor league baseball game. Perfect knitting for a game where everything from cows to cars, crazy mascots and oversized dice might wander onto the field of play. (To say nothing of the players.)

Except that I left those heel instructions home.

Once I got to the spot to start a flap, I was stuck. There I was, at a baseball game, with a perfect knitting project, stuffed in its little sack and then-- I couldn't believe this-- I had to just sit there and watch! No knitting!

Trauma indeed.

Holding Pattern

2007-08-08T11:48:00.000-04:00

One son's suitcase:My daughter's suitcase: My suitcase:

On the floor in our house.

No, I am not on vacation.

No, I am not exactly happy about it.

There is a silver lining to that cloud, however:

Vacation spot has no A/C, and is very humid almost always.

We're in the middle of a nasty heatwave.

My house has A/C.

This makes me a bit happier.

First off, put me down for a no on the entire house sale/purchase process, to say nothing of having to move 6 people (and their stuff) in 25 days. Especially when you have no idea where you are moving those 6 people.

Suffice it to say that the 3 houses, any of which would be great, one of which I loved-- they are gone. Two sold not an hour before we tried to buy them. The other we were within an inch of a contract when the wife decided she just couldn't handle selling her house (gotta say I'm starting to be in more sympathy with that position). The fact her husband has to commute 4 hours (one way) to work is, I guess, not so important but who am I.

Not bitter, no, but madly exasperated. I promise knitting (some), I just wanted to explain why I have accomplished so little knitting -- and even why I had no heart for knitting, nor indeed for much of anything, for a few days. Looking at endless houses, all of which are not great (hence we didn't want them before), most of which are overpriced for this market, and stewing endlessly on what we do next (rent) is, um, annoying....

I did get to look at the world's most horrible rental house. In this neighborhood it was quite shocking. I took no pictures, I ran out in tears.

Here-- some nice knitting:

My sleeve is actually coming along. I love this Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn. Gorgeous hand, easy to work with.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled activity:

Not So Fast

2007-08-03T15:05:00.000-04:00

Well, that was the shortest vacation ever, hands down. At least, for this family: 20 hours. (that's minus the car time)

The good news is, we have a good buyer for our house, after 4 months on the market.

The bad news is we had to race home in order to figure out what we would buy instead, due to a very tight time constraint.

One wonders why it had to be at the start and not the end of vacation but so be it.

So guess what! Not only did I not finish those sleeves, I ripped what I had done, and started over. Here's why:

Without really thinking about it, I had automatically picked up sts for the sleeve (which gets knit down from the shoulder to the cuff) the way I always do: in a stitch. Problem is, here you want the continuity from the yoke to the sleeve to appear unbroken, and that half stitch of red showed. I know, it's hard to see in this photo, but believe me, it was bad. Maybe this shows it better>>

See what I mean?

That bad baby got ripped out and it has now been worked again to almost the same point, but so much better. This time I picked up between stitches, so the new stitch grows out of the previous one, as it would if it were really knit cuff to cuff. What was I thinking on my first attempt? I have no idea! Here's where I am now:

It is not a great picture as the crease between the two parts (which will block out nicely) obscures the nearly seamless flow of the pattern. (I didn't have enough hands to hold it flat and take a picture) But it is much nicer now. Good pattern continuity.

You know, I think ripping can be beautiful. Once you embrace it, you can go back and knit that thing (whatever it may be) so much better after the first experience. I sometimes get little bits and pieces of annoyances in my knitting, and sometimes they are "not bad enough" to merit ripping. But honestly, I am always so glad when I do.

Oh, the plan, by the way, is to go back out to eastern Long Island early tomorrow morning-- if we have a contract to buy by then. Looking pretty good but you never know.

As for finishing the sleeves before we return-- Linda called it-- too much time out of air conditioning, where we are going! I will give it my best shot, however.

Steek action

2007-07-30T14:34:00.000-04:00

Apologies all round, but I leave for almost two weeks' vacation shortly, with no laptop or internet access, and posts will be not rare, but non-existent. So sorry, but my techno status is not there yet.

Here, to tide you over:

The Cuff to Cuff sweater body done.

Above is the back.

Below-- shoulders shaped (this is the front neck, striped steek in the middle):

Another view of the shoulder shaping, this time from the back:

Here is the front after the neck steek is secured and cut:

And this is the armhole steek, just after sewing it in on my ancient machine.

I did not crochet the steek, though I prefer it, as Meg mentioned that Joyce Williams' crocheted steek in this yarn (Berrocco Ultra Alpaca) did not hold. The yarn has some slickness due to the alpaca content. (At least, that's my theory)

Armhole cut open:

Stiches at the shoulder placed on a DP needle for the three needle bind off:

Shoulders done, ready for the sleeves.

Odds are that I will finish the sleeves *(wait, you've heard that before, haven't you? OK so maybe I won't) while I am gone. Anyone want to guess?

Sitrep

2007-07-26T11:17:00.000-04:00

Sitrep is a term from an old career of mine, an acronym for "situation report."

It seemed appropriate today.

This is where I am on the Camp Sweater (also known as Cuff to Cuff, see Spun out 47 from Meg Swansen). (Originally Wool Gathering 72)

As you can see, I am almost done with the second repeat of the front diamond, which means only 3 or 4 more rounds until the neckline decreases/bindoffs/neck steek.

I am going to shape my shoulders, which was not done on the original, using Janine's wonderful "Shaped Shoulders in the Round." She describes it wonderfully on her blog.

If you are a Fair Isle loving knitter, you probably already are acquainted with Janine.

This is the Mommes Lysedug doily that languished, utterly forgotten, for an unknown period of time. (I remember why-- fall arrived and children and husband needed sweaters mittens hats etc. )

I have been doing a few rounds here and there (it sits next to my bed).

This next photo is of the Merino Silk yarn from Grignasco. I had ordered it from Woodland Woolworks in early July. They had it backordered so it never got swatched before Camp, for my Shetland Shawl design. It is, however, the one I really wanted to use-- merino and silk (obviously, by the name-- but some names don't exactly match the yarn content) and quite fine.

It is lovely yarn. For comparison, here is a photo of the Merino Silk next to a strand of Zephyr:

The Zephyr is on top.

Photo is not totally easy to see, but this Grignasco yarn is finer by a fair amount.

For comparison, Zephyr (2/18) is 5040 yards per pound; this (2/28, I think) is 7099. Not gossamer, but perfect for a delicate shawl.

I am itching to knit it up.

I did recently purchase some shawl patterns from Maeve deHetre, who won the finest-thread-spun contest a few years back. She has designed 4 shawls for purchase, and after I tracked her down (took some doing, she has lots of interests these days, especially in music) I bought three of them.

I may or may not ever knit all three (and highly unlikely to be knit identical to her pattern: that's because of me, not the pattern loveliness: I just like to fiddle). They are lovely however. To see a description of some talented lace knitters working through her "Silk Shawl," see Jackie E.-S. site or this. I believe the Fiber Gypsy site fixed its link to Maeve/Terri de Hetre, if you are interested in her shawl patterns. If not, just google for her. Don't be surprised to get to a bagpipes or fiddling page. Her email is in there somewhere and she is a delight to deal with.

Anyway, back to the Grignasco yarn-- apparently, it is challenging (at best) to find their yarns. (At least, according to my lys. They are not serious lace knitters, though)

Hoorah for Woodland Woolworks for pulling through for me. Thanks!

My last topic today is socks. I am a lace-obsessed knitter, not a sock-obsessed one; so the yarns and knitting that I find irresistible are lace. But this little "book" might help to convert me, at least a little bit.

Katherine Misegades' CD of ... And a Time to Knit Stockings.

I got this at Camp, and am so glad I did!

This little "book" is delightful. You cannot sit down with it in an easy chair, except on a laptop. But it is full of some lovely knitting information, musings, patterns and techniques. I have fallen for it, hard. (Also for Katherine's style)

It is a CD release, with more content, of the original book Katherine published back in (I think) 1997. There are, however, more sock patterns in this.

You can print out whatever pattern you want to try, along with excellent and detailed instructions of all of her techniques. One of the sock patterns has totally charmed me (I am not going to tell you which one, but if you are Katherine I will).

Back to work.

Knitting on!

Progress is Slow!

2007-07-23T11:34:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the slack reporting on this end.

When you have a knitting blog, and you have very little time for knitting, it's a bit hard to post.

Or, perhaps I should say, it's a bit embarrassing to have to say, well, another day, no discernible progress!

Actually, there is some progress, but it's pretty hard to see. This is my Icelandic shawl, which has its edging about one third done. I know, I know. Molasses in January around here.

Here is my Camp sweater:

Again, not much discernible progress. I am now a bit more than halfway up the two color yoke section, to the shoulder. I did pick up and knit a hem, even sewing it down-- so I managed to do some knitting over the weekend.

However, the Crrrrrazy Weeds had taken over part of our yard and it called for drastic action on Saturday--so that (sadly) came first. Especially since I am the Official Poison Ivy Remover (being the least allergic in my family) and lots of that pernicious weed had insinuated itself into various places.

[For Jane-- if you see this-- I hope you are still knitting away on your sweater (I know knitting time has been sharply curtailed by life-after-camp). Your sweater will be stunning , and I look forward to seeing it. You have also inspired me to go ahead and Do a Dale so it's been added to my list. (Which, needless to say, is lengthy...)]

What is really exciting to this knitter is the book that arrived while I was away last week: Isn't that cover doily lovely? This is a gorgeous book, well done and inspirational. I ordered it from Lacis some time back and it has been living on my bedside table since I returned from Camp. I am longing to knit quite a few of the lace items inside, and my self-imposed restrictions on starting new things are pretty annoying at the moment! However, anticipation won't ruin my ultimate pleasure in eventually knitting them so I am currently hanging in there.

Plus, there is a small difficulty. The Tencel I immediately thought of using for one of them, is currently being used on an, ahem, unfinished doily I downloaded from Nurhanne's site. If you love lace, you will love the translations she did of some old doilies. This is the one occupying my Tencel. And here it is:Obviously, I have some knitting to do on that baby!

I had totally forgotten it. But now it's (literally) out of the closet, and back in work. Since it's a cool rainy day here, perfect tea-and-knitting weather, I might get a bunch done. Well, after I make lunch for some (apparently) starving children!

After Camp Withdrawal

2007-07-19T15:15:00.000-04:00

After 4 1/2 days of non-stop (or almost non-stop) knitting, it is quite odd to have gotten so little knitting done in the past couple of days. However, let me share where I am on a few things.

First, this is the Icelandic/mohair mix yarn, being knit into a shawl. A week ago I indicated I was going to finish it before camp.
Um, right. It's not finished. Yet.
But one advantage this project has is that the lace involved is largely quite easy to do while doing something else. Like watching baseball games (which I am doing a lot lately) or flying on airplanes when my body wants to be asleep.
I am actually down to the bottom edging, and although I now have 300 plus stitches (and growing), it is officially in the Smell The Barn state.

(And no, that does not mean that I live in a barn, nor that I am secretly a horse.)

While at Camp I started something new. (And bought yarn for it.) Lest I am accused of ignoring my own rules on knitting from stash, no new projects etc etc, let me share the special Camp Rules.
Camp Rules say: start one new project and knit like crazy on it while at Camp, in a (usually vain) attempt to finish it before I return home.
Sometimes this produces a finished object (one year: a Bavarian twisted stitch hat) and sometimes not.
This is my new project:

And here is how far I got by the time I returned home.

The armholes are steeked, and I am about a fourth of the way up the armhole.

It is knit in a 50/50 alpaca wool yarn which Schoolhouse Press sells. It is going to be unbelievably warm and it feels wonderful.

Finally, I did finish planning the center portion of my Shetland Shawl design, and am only waiting to cast it no until I finish both of the above projects. (Another reason for Smell the Barn: can't wait to get going on my Shetland shawl)

I will share more about that another day--

Gone to Camp and Home Again

2007-07-17T14:15:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long hiatus, but I did not post at all while I was at Camp 2.75. I intended to post a lot of photos, but in retrospect I think I'll just show you a few.

This is Meg, with Amy and Marilyn, during our party to celebrate the release of Meg's new Lace Knitting DVD. Of course I got one, since I am truly Addicted to Lace, and love to listen to Meg talk about knitting-- so Meg talking about lace is even better! She is utterly and amazingly humble about her knitting knowledge and skill, which is quite disarming.

I will post here an embarrassing photo of me with Meg-- I'm the one who looks star struck and like a deer in the high beams. Just in case you weren't sure.The last day was a contest, "The Devil Wears Zimmermann." My contribution was the Ribcooler.

For those unfamiliar-with-Elizabeth-Zimmermann (though if such is the case I really don't know what to say-- other than "go and read her books!!") this is a lacey play on the Ribwarmer she designed.

RIBCOOLER

Here is the back:And here is the front.

It was so much fun to make I may make another, though with different lace stitches. I think it looks best on a body, but I have not mastered self-photos yet so this hanger shot will have to do.

Quite a few people at Camp asked me for my pattern.

Well, it's not my pattern, it's Elizabeth Zimmermann's, all I did was add some lace.

If you have the Ribwarmer pattern, you can knit a Ribcooler, too, just like it-- or different, or way better, if you want! This was a wonderfully fun knit: so do give it a try. (And if you have never knit a Ribwarmer, or done short rows, or done any lace at all, you might want to try that first. Or not. :)

The front, bottom and top edging is Wave Lace Edging from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury, page 367. (Scroll down) I highly recommend charting it out. I added several selvedge stitches.

The armhole edging is a small 5 st edging from Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace. (Sadly, I believe this great lace resource is out of print.) Barbara Abbey has an unusual way of describing the stitches, but once you try a few patterns, her shorthand becomes quite easy to use. The armholes are edged with the very first edging pattern in her book, on page 43. "Very Narrow Edging." Chart it out and you'll see it is very easy to knit.

Finally, the body is worked in Snowdrop Lace. This is nicely charted in Martha Waterman's Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls. If you have never knit lace, or a shawl, her book is a good introduction to the subject.

I did increase sts at the front, in order to generate a bit of a V-shaped neckline with fold-back lapels of the Wave Lace. The increase rate was roughly one stitch every 2 or 4 rows: enough to generate one more repeat of the Snowdrop Lace. I made the top collar wider than the back neck so as to neatly fold down and flare out at the back of the neck. (My attach rate may have been 3 to 1, believe it or not: three collar Ridges per top-of-back sts)

Yarn was Cherry Tree Hill's Possum Lace in the River Run colorway (I believe this is no longer available; I had to do some serious shenanigans to find a second skein when the first one ran out halfway up the back) Yarn used was probably 600 yards, possibly a bit more.

Oh- and the Ribwarmer is all in garter stitch, so even though two of the lace stitches I chose were stockinette based, I knit it totally in garter lace. And, since lace in garter stitch doesn't completely obey the ratio rule of rows per ridge that ordinary garter stitch does, fudging is necessary. On the part of the body where the rows are vertical and abandoned stitches are gradually reclaimed, I occasionally brought 2 sts back into play, rather than one.

I think that about covers it!

Almost there

2007-07-11T00:26:00.001-04:00

33 hours until departure for Wisconsin and Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp!

Yee-hah!

Lace R Us

2007-07-07T12:30:00.000-04:00

As promised, here is a shot of the icelandic/mohair mix swatch. It opened nicely, but still has an odd, stiff hand. Since I am looking for sheen and drape, I decided against it for this particular shawl concept. Also, this photo doesn't do justice to the swatch, and I don't know why-- in person, the pattern edges are way more smudgy, and the distinction between lace motif and solid ground is harder to discern.

But what is this?!?

It looks remarkably like the icelandic mix, being knit up into *something*!

This, perhaps is a small clue--

Uh oh.

Here's my plan, and no laughing please. I am going to finish this small shawl (it's from the Icelandic book I showed you yesterday) *before* I go to Camp. Yes, really.

What's that? When do I leave? Oh, this Thursday morning. Why do you ask?

Hey, I said no laughing!! I can do this! I finished my contest entry (no you can't see it yet) and I have a sort of a packing list and just endless hours of knitting time. Endless. Really.

Lace designing

2007-07-06T10:01:00.000-04:00

I am narrowing in on a shawl design. First, I think I am anatomically incapable of knitting someone else's design without at least tinkering with it. Sharon Miller (Heirloom Knitting) says that is a good way to break into designing: changing this or that on someone else's design. I sometimes do this. I used to do it more, so perhaps she is right.

Now, however, I am more likely to envisage what I want, loosely or precisely defined in my mind and on paper, and go after it step by step. Sometimes I take bits and pieces from somewhere else, and sometimes not. For instance, I'll briefly show you the process of design I followed on a shawl I knit this spring.
I took a shape I like (Faroese); I tinkered with an edging I liked to make it suit the picture in my mind, and knit a bunch of repeats for the bottom edge of the shawl. If you have the book Victorian Lace Today, by Jane Sowerby, you might recognize part of this edging. I chopped off the top, which did not fit my plan nor behave the way I wanted, and just simplified it to a pretty, picot-covered little frilly thing. (I'd show you the swatches but I think they are up the hill with all the rest of my knitting-things-not-needed-till-this-house-sells stuff).

Then I picked up stitches all along the edge to knit up on the body.

The whole time I was working the 800 repeats of the edging (OK so maybe it was only 90 repeats, but with all the little picot points it sure felt like 800)-- that whole time, ideas for the body were percolating. Flowers, gardens, shrubs, roses-- these were most of my thoughts; also I wanted to include traditional Shetland lace elements. I realize that the result thereof can be neither Faroese, nor Shetland, nor any other tradition, exclusively; but it is mine--which was my aim.

So roses, trees, ferns and the like became part of the body lace patterns: ...and I kept on going with basic Faroese-inspired shaping until I finished.

Here it is, back...

and front:
A simple little shoulder shawl, perfect for the summer.

The yarn is called "Shine" from Joslyn's Fiber Farm. Needles were old Susan Bates Nylon needles in, I believe, a 3mm needle on the small side of 3mm.

OK.

Now, however, I have more of a traditional Shetland shawl in mind. Square, delicate (but probably not knit with cobweb weight yarn, nor Wedding Ring shawl-like... though I am not yet ruling anything out). I started out thinking I'd knit one of Sharon Miller's designs exactly as she designed it. (see here)

Well, I am not going to do that. I love part of her center plan, however, and have started some swatches. First, Jaggerspun Zephyr in Vanilla, blocked:

Sorry about the flash, the swatch was on my bureau which is more reflective than I realized. (Ah, and whoops, I just noticed I loaded it upside down. Oh well. Sorry...)

Pretty nice, hm? Perhaps the solid portions are too airy? Perhaps a smaller needle? I will do that, but first I tried a different yarn.

Tongue River Farm laceweight, half Icelandic lambswool, half kid mohair. (It is here) An odd yarn, it is crisp and hairy un-washed. I almost stopped knitting it halfway thru the swatch, see how it looks un-stretched:I wasn't sure what it would do. Since it is still on the needle I just pinned it out to show you how it opens up.

Pretty amazing transformation, huh? That is one of the things that thrills my soul with lace: metamorphosis from crumpled fabric to a thing of great delicacy and beauty.

Final blocking after a good bath often reveals something very different about a yarn, so even though I am not currently thinking that the Icelandic mix is the yarn for this project, I may change my mind.

(Oh and of course it will become *something*. I am a huge Icelandic yarn enthusiast-- how can you not love a fiber from a sheep that has remained essentially unchanged for more than a thousand years, and is in all probability much the same as the wool Leif Eriksson wore?? And there are a lot of shawls in this that I have yet to try.) (See Schoolhouse Press)

More next time, hoping to include some other yarns (Grignasco's Merino Silk, eg) and show my Icelandic swatch fresh from its bath.

Happy Friday.

Happy Independence Day!

2007-07-04T09:32:00.000-04:00

July Fourth there is a parade in our town, to which all but I want to go-- usually. Today I intended to go, but there was this project I finished last night and it needed to be blocked and, well... here I am.

At least I'm wearing red, white and blue.

In honnor of the Fourth, I give you "America"

My country,' tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
land of the noble free, thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
thy woods and templed hills;
my heart with rapture thrills, like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song;
let mortal tongues awake;
let all that breathe partake;
let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to thee,
author of liberty, to thee we sing;
long may our land be bright
with freedom's holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

Thank you to the many voices for freedom-- from William Tyndale to James Madison, Ben Franklin to William Wilberforce, George Washington to Abraham Lincoln and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. -- so many of whom fought and died for us to be free. Thank you.

Since this is a knitting blog, I feel honor bound to give you some knitting; this is what I worked on yesterday, during part of my 8 year old son's baseball practice:

That is Jaggerspun Zephyr in Vanilla, and is a swatch for this shawl. Addi Lace needle, 3 mm. I love these needles-- love 'em. Hoorah Addi.

I am also thinking of knitting this, but I have to wait for the pattern to arrive. Also, apparently everyone in the world has been buying Zephyr in Vanilla (??!) and Jaggerspun is flat out of it. For a while, then, all I have is a small ball for swatching.

You're perhaps wondering why I am purchasing yarn with my yarn fast in full effect? Good question. Very good question. I plead the Fifth Amendment. :)

imagi-knit

2007-07-01T16:30:00.001-04:00

Overall not much knitting accomplished during yesterday's baseball games. It was too hot, and too stressful. (I prefer to relax and watch my sons wow everyone with their prowess; that was not happening yesterday ;)

Today I am imagiknitting a shawl, but since it is really in infantile stages and I don't have graph paper big enough to hold all my details, it remains vaguely in my head, or mostly so. I would like to to incorporate mostly traditional Shetland Shawl elements (using Hazel Carter's book Shetland Lace Knitting from Charts as a springboard). But not traditional shaping. We'll see if I can produce anything before school starts up again.

But look- I was trying to figure out how to photograph my large pink circular shawl, and hit on stuffing. Stuffing it with a big black thing (in this case a cotton skirt). I think it shows up better:

Well OK it doesn't look better, it just looks goofy.

But the lace patterning shows up better! (humor me on this one)

So my wonderful husband has taken everyone off for some baseball practicing, down the road at the field, and what am I doing at the computer when I could be planning my knitting... or knitting my knitting?!

Off to more baseball games

2007-06-30T10:48:00.000-04:00

... so I'm bringing my knitting. How much I get done is totally a function of how exciting the game is. Or, occasionally, how much it rains. This is my present baseball knitting:

Socks that Rock in Titania, medium weight. Addi circs 2 mm.

Also this:

A circular shawl based on a German pattern in the purple Kunst-Stricken by Marie Niedner and Gussi von Reden-- republished by Lacis, and edited by them. Rather tough going, as the German used is a bit archaic in places, but very rewarding when you figure it out. (No I am not much of a German speaker) This shot does not really show it too well, but it's the best I could do as I ran out the door. Here's some detail of the center, not stretched out, just lying flat:

The yarn is Cashmere and silk laceweight, from Nandia Cashmere, from my stash (of course!)

In which I begin

2007-06-29T12:50:00.000-04:00

Having far more in-work projects than I care to admit, and a healthy yarn collection, I think I'd better lay out my current operating rules.

1. Knit from Stash only

2. Strict Yarn Diet (almost a Yarn Fast-- but not quite-- in case of crises unspecified) (yes, I did mean crises, as in plural of crisis)

3. No new projects without finishing others.

There is a difficulty I should point out.

Our house is on the market, and I had it on good authority that my healthy stash of yarn would detract from a buyer's ability to see the house. Since I would like to keep the yarn, and sell the house, well.

(Bear in mind that my husband has described our house as the one with all the yarn coming out the windows.)

The yarn's temporary home is up the hill at a friend's house.

Anybody see a difficulty with adhering to Rule 1, in view of Stash Departure? Right.

Look here:This is Cherry Tree Hill's Possum Lace yarn. Now, in my defence let me say that I was legitimately trying to finish a project. (a secret one, at least for the moment) I needed another skein and, in view of the fact CTH had cancelled its Possum Lace, and my yarn had been bought in 2001, it looked pretty desperate.

After some communication with Cherry Tree Hill's Cheryl Potter, I discovered they had recently gotten in some more, dyed it, and it had been scarfed up by various US yarn stores. Obviously I needed to make some calls, send some emails, make some effort in order to finish (see rule 3) this project. Obviously, in view of the wonderfulness of the yarn and the general scarcity thereof, a skein or two more makes sense, right? Right. In reality, this photo doesn't even show the skein I was (ostensibly) seeking: that, with (urk) two others is still enroute.

All of this was preceded by some genuine, self-controlled finishing of things. In fact, I was downright proud of my self control. Really! Look:

Estonian Garden Shawl, by Evelyn Clark ( available from Fiber Trends). Just under 3 skeins of Madil's Kid Seta (which to me is indistinguishable from Rowan's Kid Silk Haze) in a sort of pale mushroomy color. This baby was started right after the pattern came out (I forget. Anyone remember?) and then sat ignored for some time because of other projects (see below). Also, I have to say, I got totally bored with the middle section. Not enough going on -but- that made it perfect to finish while watching soccer and baseball. Once I figured that out, I enforced the finish-it program by taking no other knitting with me for several days. Magic. Amazing how working on a project results in finishing it, no?

Also, these:

The one on the left is from the Faroese shawl book (the one written in Faroese: Foroysk Bindingarmynstur) which is available from Meg Swansen's Schoolhouse Press
...along with an English translation done by Marilyn van Keppel. (Who, let me tell you, is a delightful and talented knitter). It's called Ata, and is supposed to be fringed, but I dislike fringe on my shawls so I fabricated an appropriate edging instead.

The one on the right, called Hyrna Herborgar, is an Icelandic shawl, from the Icelandic Shawl book titled, roughly Thrihyrnur og Langsjol. (more Norse characters poorly represented by my keyboard, sorry) In English we say, Three-cornered and Long Shawls. This book is also available from Meg's Schoolhouse Press, again with a translation to English done by, yes, Marilyn van Keppel.

That shawl is discussed by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer extensively on her site, which is where I first saw it, in the fall of 2000. At the time I was pregnant with my baby girl (not so baby-like these days) who was born that December, so it probably doesn't surprise you that I laid it aside half done.

When you know me better, you won't need the "baby girl just born excuse" to understand why it got laid aside half done. :) I got, um, bored with the middle section... it just went on and on and on...

I finished it just this past weekend, after working on it for 4 days.

Folks, I was FOUR days from finishing that baby when I stuffed it in a bag; what was I thinking?! And no, not four days non-stop (such knitting time I meet but rarely). I have four children ages 6 thru 12. I love playing with them. We homeschool them. 'nuff said.

I do want to say that in 2001 it would not have taken 4 days. I was not the experienced lace knitter that I am now. Also, there wasn't a translation published yet, so I was stumbling thru the Icelandic on my own . I used a handspun white merino with a bit of sparkle, which I got through the (then) lace knitting list.

It is a truly lovely design which I will have to knit again with some Cascade silk I have in my stash, now let me see where I put it... oh yeah... it's up the hill... Rats.