Obsession
step away from the computer, it’s good for you (after you read this, of course) 
visit rightbrainterrain.com to learn about this symbol
I often laugh at myself over the concept of fear — oh, the things I will be afraid of. Heights, I don’t laugh at myself for that one, it has evolutionary origins and is designed to keep me alive, even if I overextend it. But reading Moby Dick? REALLY? I was “afraid” to read Moby Dick, which is just silly. And I was “afraid” of spending a day in my normal life without going online. Of course I’ve spent days in my adult life without going online: there was the day I spent on Machu Picchu; the days I spent floating through the Mekong Delta; the days in Enkhuisen, The Netherlands; a day on a small island off the coast of Croatia. The obvious deal there is that I couldn’t get online, and I was on vacation.
So yesterday was my second normal day spent without going online. My original plans had been to ban the Internet and knitting. I decided to allow knitting, but only after I’d done a bunch of other stuff, only in the evening after dinner.
The goal of this exercise wasn’t to wield a Draconian whip — “Thou must NOT!” — but rather to help me move away from compulsive rut-dwelling and out into the other things I really long to do. So particular exceptions were allowed, to focus on the spirit of the exercise. I needed to share some good news with friends and family, so I opened Outlook, wrote that email, and logged off.
This progress report has two parts: the feelings of it, and what I did. I was worried that I’d feel like a junkie in need of a fix, only able to think about getting online. Consumed by wondering who was saying what on facebook. Consumed with certainty that great stuff was flying through my Google Reader. Curious whether my statcounter would reveal another visit from my assumed stalker. But that’s not what I felt, at all. Those kinds of thoughts would intrude now and then, especially when I was doing something quiet, like reading; it felt like an ADD brain, trying to make me jump from this thing! to that thing! what about the other! But it was easy enough to quiet by returning my attention to what I was doing. One thing the experience helped me see is that my constant multitasking is not my friend. It’s good to be able to do it when you need to, but I do too much of it, and nearly all the time. I’ll knit and watch a movie and read a book on my Kindle and answer emails and texts on my phone, all at the same time. No wonder I feel like I’m drowning in noise. So if nothing else, yesterday’s digital break helped me learn that lesson that I can implement every single day. The bottom line: It wasn’t a horrible feeling, willfully staying offline all day.
The ‘what did I do’ answer is satisfying. I had an unexpected early breakfast with a friend while my husband slept, then a nice conversation on the phone with Marnie (we talk every Saturday, a highlight of my week). My husband got some news that absorbed us for a couple of hours. I read — cover to cover — the current edition of The New York Review of Books. Made a cup of masala chai, pulled back my hair, put on my fleece jacket and wrapped my legs in a handknit blanket (it’s very cold here this weekend), sat at the table with the huge magazine spread out in front of me, and read every word (including a personal ad at the back from a woman who’s looking to date a man 75-80 who is ambulatory. Maybe she should set her sights a little higher?)
I did a writing exercise from my favorite prompt book, The 3am Epiphany. I worked on it for about an hour and a half and am pleased with it; I started making notes for the next chapter of the book I’m writing, trying to work out something I’m not sure about yet.
At this point my husband was making our dinner — chili — and it smelled so good, and made our apartment so warm and cozy, so I felt like watching a movie and knitting. After I recommended The Guard (a wonderful movie, y’all! watch it!), Marnie recommended The Trip, a Steve Coogan movie about two guys on a road trip through beautiful northern England, eating at foodie restaurants (it’s available streaming on Netflix). So I settled in with Steve Coogan and Marnie’s sweater (which — by the way — I had to frog completely, and start all over. Don’t ask, it’s too painful. OK: I had the side seam off on one side, by a lot.), and a cup of green tea. It’s a hilarious movie, and worth watching if only for their competing Michael Caine impressions.
I definitely got more done yesterday — and did a wider variety of things — than I usually do, when I’m plugged into my computer all day. I’m going to keep doing this, taking Saturday internet breaks, and sprinkle in smaller breaks throughout the week. Just like reading Moby Dick, it’s not really as hard as I’d imagined it to be. If you feel similarly scatterbrained and info-overloaded, it’s worth a try! [edit: i just found this BBC article on the ways in which "Internet addiction" rewires your brain....this is a topic I could rant on, the too-easy naming of things as "addiction," but it's an interesting and pertinent read!]
Stay warm y’all -
L
ti-i-i-i-me is on my side [yes it is]
I’ve lately recognized my growing obsession with time — not time on my watch or the alarm, and not time passing in my life. I’m not really smart enough in a physics way to understand time as Einstein talked about it, with curving bulging planes in space (see? that’s probably so wrong). Instead, I’m growing obsessed with the idea of time, with the capitalized Time as a force, as an element, as the thing that makes everything possible. I’m afraid this sounds weird, but my problem is a lack of specific vocabulary rather than an idea of what I mean.
Time creates and defines this moment, and it lets us understand what’s happening in this moment by allowing us to compare it against our understandings of previous moments and our imagining of future moments. Time is happening but our brains fool us and trick us into seeing what’s happening as a continuous single thing; if our brains didn’t do that, every time we blinked we’d experience the discontinuity. I’m not sure about how I’m articulating that — it’s one of the things I understand conceptually but don’t know how to say it. But I am obsessed with trying to figure out how to say it. I’ve had a couple of momentary flash experiences of being able to see time, in some way (not to sound all weird), where I saw the movement streams of people on the street. I’m sure those experiences were informed by Hollywood special effects; it’s so hard to have direct and unique experience in this media-saturated world that aren’t filtered through images we’ve already seen. But those two experiences of mine made me think about the possibility that it’s always visible and there, like the ultraviolet end of the spectrum, we just don’t have the perceptual apparatus to witness it. Or maybe we’d be so overwhelmed, and our brains evolved to save us that overwhelm and instead present clean, simple stories.
I love art that deals directly with time, like Andy Goldsworthy’s gorgeous pieces, captured on film:
His work always makes me cry, and feel so grateful to be in this beautiful world, capable of experiencing time and wonder.
I love dance that deals directly with time, like the Cloud Gate Theater of Taiwan, who performed Songs of the Wanderer. Marnie and I saw a performance of this piece, and the power of that monk, standing downstage left, with a steady stream of rice pouring on his head throughout the 90-minute piece, left us both in tears:
In early February I’m going to see a performance by Cloud Gate 2, and I know it’ll knock my socks off. If you get a chance to see them, take it!
And I love books that deal directly with time. I know I’ve been recommending this site a lot lately, but this post from Brain Pickings organized 7 must-read books on time, and I want the few I haven’t already read. If you’ve read any of the books on that list, I’d love to hear your thoughts about them!
thinking about my upcoming digital sabbatical
As I promised myself, this coming Saturday I’m taking a combination internet/knitting break, and I’m anxious about it. I’m allowing myself to use my computer to write, but not to go online. We’ll see how well I do with this; in the last few days, there have been several great articles (two in the NYTimes, including this lovely piece by Pico Iyer) about people taking digital sabbaticals. There’s something to it. I feel increasingly overloaded by all the information flying in, by my distracted and fractured nonstop word and image consumption — more blogs to read, more long articles to read, more insights to consume, more inspiration to absorb, more fiction to admire, more poetry to read, more thoughts to consider (oh! Must read Fareed Zakaria’s piece on the world.…). I feel wobbly, like I need to stop and make some priorities, and do some quality curating. I need to make time to process, to incorporate. I think this post about going on an information diet might be helpful, but I haven’t yet had time to read it thoughtfully — oh, the irony. Time!! I want more time, need more time. I have too many interests, and simply can’t understand people who say they’re bored.
Last year I grew in a very specific way: I became more self-possessed. That’s a very neat word, especially for someone who has always been other-possessed, past-possessed, history-possessed. Self-possessed means I take my own counsel, I have integrity and take my time, consider myself, pick and choose with the confidence of my true self. But I’m allowing myself to be overwhelmed, and it’s definitely time to stop, to take stock, to turn away from the easy seduction of immediate gratification and instead move thoughtfully and mindfully ahead. Easy to say, hard to do. I hope Saturday’s experiment gives me a start.
On Sunday my husband and I are driving to Atlantic City for a couple of days, to get out of town and keep ourselves busy and distracted while we wait for some news. We’re going ironically, and we’re Atlantic City’s worst nightmare: we don’t drink, we don’t gamble, we intend to lie around the pool or walk on the boardwalk or chill in our room, and we plan to eat.
It’d be much more interesting to go when Nucky was there, and Chalky, but alas. That’s a tv show. We’ll have a good time together making fun of the whole thing, the gamblers, the Snookies, the plastic glam and fake glitz. I’ll be taking my laptop, and since it’ll be after Saturday, I’ll be reporting live. From Atlantic City.
good thing she’s smaller than me, or I might not be able to give away this sweater….
Last night I did some swatching for Marnie’s sweater. The yarn is Valley Yarns Northfield, which is 70% merino, 20% alpaca, and 10% silk, and the fabric is just so beautiful. I’m going to have to buy exactly the same yarn and color to make myself a sweater, assuming I continue to love it as much. Here’s the stockinette pre-blocked swatch, followed by the rope-cable swatch:
so beautiful -- this is what the back of the sweater will look like, since it's the only area that's not cabled in some way
and here's one of the cable swatches; it's very neat, the way the rope emerges.
I’m actually a little bit afraid of knitting this sweater, just as I was afraid to read Moby Dick (which is the craziest idea in the whole world…really? afraid to read a book?). Just as with the book, I’m afraid it’s beyond me, too complicated for my feeble mind to manage. With the sweater, there are multiple patterns and cables going on simultaneously plus shaping. It’s knit in the round, bottom-up, and splits at the arms. So all the busy business happens simultaneously, and since I knit at night, while watching tv with my husband, when I’m kind of tired, well…..I worry. But I want to do it perfectly, so I’m just going to take my time, take each row for itself and make it right, and it’ll all work out. And perhaps I’ll love the FO as much as I love the book. Probably not, but maybe.
Here’s a funny thing about Christmas songs I found on the NPR music page. I especially love #6, though they’re all funny.
so funny!
Tonight’s the Winter Solstice Concert at St John the Divine, and if I love it half as much as I did last year, it’ll be overwhelming. Happy Friday, y’all! I hope you’re able to enjoy the holiday season and not feel too stressed.
p.s. OH — one more. There are a couple of Ryan Gosling tumblrs, and this is my favorite picture so far:
hey girl.
” Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.” — Herman Melville
To say Marnie likes the book Moby Dick is a tremendous understatement. The name of her business is Monkey-Rope Press (here’s her professional site, and here’s her Etsy shop). The banners on both sites feature a quote from the fabulous monkey-rope chapter in Moby Dick: “it is a humorously perilous business for both of us.” If you poke around in her shop, you’ll see prints about oceanic life, including shipwrecks. She’s creating a book that is partly set on a huge ocean-going ship that …. well, I don’t want to give it away. To do research for the book, she built a model ship, and she took sailing lessons. The girl is thorough.
So when I saw this sweater of course I thought immediately of Marnie:
Ambergris, designed by Ann Weaver
Those whale flukes up the center, the beautiful knots and ropes up the sides, it’s Moby Dick in wool. I have been wanting to knit sweaters for someone other than myself, but Katie lives in Texas and I wasn’t sure Marnie would want one; inspired by this sweater, I sent her the picture this morning, hoping she’d like it. A few emails very quickly exchanged later, and the yarn is on its way and I own the pattern. I’ll be using Valley Yarns Northfield, in charcoal:
Valley Yarns Northfield, in charcoal -- the color of the depths!
I’ll be loathe to set Audrey aside, but so very eager to make this sweater, and for Marnie, I won’t mind a bit. It should be loads of fun to make; I’m changing the neck, to give her a slouchy turtleneck instead of the kind of odd neck it currently has. I can’t wait!! If it’s as great as it seems, I may have to make one for myself, too. I loved Moby Dick so much, it nearly ruined me for reading anything else because nothing compares.
Just sharing my intense enthusiasm……knitters, I know you know what this is like.
green is katie’s favorite color, so i think of her with every stitch (like i need a reason to think of her….)
Well, of course I should be working — I’m up against a very hard deadline, and I didn’t work nearly as much as I should’ve when I was in Austin (who would! When you get to be with your beloved daughter so rarely, who’d spend that time working! Not me apparently.). I just finished one project and before I get going on the one with the hard deadline, I thought I’d show you some of the knitting-related stuff that happened last week, on my needles. Katie is making an adorable baby set for a friend — a sleep sack and hat — that look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar; when she posts pictures I’ll share them, it’s just so adorable.
But here’s my stuff. First, my gorgeous green sweater. I decided to add a little flash of color in the turned-under hem. The slipped stitch detail was great fun to knit, and the color makes every stitch a joy to work. I’m going to love wearing this sweater.
my Vodka Gimlet -- dubbed Oz Delight for my rav project page.
This is the yarn I bought for the hem. I used so little, I need to figure out a small project that’ll allow me to use up the rest of the beautiful yarn.
Manos del Uruguay, silk blend
And two skeins of Madelinetosh, tosh merino light:
tosh merino light, in rosewood
tosh merino light, in terra. i LOVE this color!
I’m truly nuts about that orange color. I would’ve bought a lighter neutral like antler if they’d stocked it at Hill Country Weavers. I want to make a Stripe Study Shawl, and I figured these two would be good additions to my small stash of tosh merino light.
I’m knitting the collar on my Oz Delight, and since it’s a narrow collar it shouldn’t take me too long. Then I “just” have to knock out the two sleeves, but I’m highly motivated so maybe it won’t take too long. I didn’t work on my little yellow featherweight at all, just not enough time in the days. What a great problem, too many wonderful things to do!
Now: back to work, Lori! SERIOUSLY.
there’s very little as nice as knitting that’s working out as you hoped.
A bit of housework, a chat on the phone with a daughter, a disastrous pasta-making effort, and some knitting.
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- My “Oops I did it again” featherweight cardigan, cast on and underway.
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- Sleeve #1, one full ball of yarn. Close to the sleeve cap shaping, just another 13 rows.
So two things to say, here:
- MALABRIGO LACE, y’all. Oh boy do I get it now. It’s as soft as everyone says. It’s luscious, creamy, delicious, I want to run away with it. The color is so rich; the color in the photo is true, on my monitor. Deep yellow with a hint of orange. I don’t ever want to knit with anything else, as long as I live. I think I’m going to love this one even more than my red one. Hannah Fettig, you’re a genius with the little cardigan. So simple, nothing really, but wonderful.
- A sleeve in a day, along with the rest! Kind of amazing. I always had sleeves categorized in my head as “ugh, now it’ll be weeks.” Not with this yarn and these needles, man. Speedy Gonzales (speedy ka-dah-dis, if you’re my dear Katie). The angora and silk in the yarn gives it such a luxurious hand, I really like the fabric a lot. Amy Herzog, you fit-to-flatter wizard.
Homemade lasagna for dinner, even if no homemade pasta — smells so good, happy hands, soon-to-be-happy tummy, happy day. Ah! Time for a daily gratitude. I’m so grateful to be a maker, for which I take no credit. It’s just the software I came with, and I’m very very grateful for it. Grateful for the impulse, grateful for the experiences, grateful for the pleasures, grateful for the desire, grateful for the end results, grateful for the making life.
Never EVER underestimate the power of a nice apology. You’ll win friends and admirers.
DANG IT. I just got an email from The Plucky Knitter — providers of the yarn for my forthcoming Vodka Gimlet — letting me know that due to circumstances beyond her control, my yarn won’t be shipping next week, as promised, but instead mid-October.
Now first, you’d think that since I have three other sweaters ready to cast on, plus a scarf underway, plus a blanket mid-way, this could not come as bad news. You’d be wrong. The color of the yarn I chose (Oz) is just this gorgeous emerald green as you’d expect. Oh so beautiful, breathtaking, I can’t wait to see it. So I was all geared up to be bitter. Indignant. Self-righteous. Mad. Peeved. Pissed off. And all the other synonyms. But her email was just so upset and sorry, and genuine, and filled with remorse from someone who doesn’t usually have to write emails like that, that I couldn’t even be mildly bitter. It’s OK, Sarah. It’s OK. I somehow like you even more, after receiving that email.
It doesn’t hurt that she’s going to include a skein of a new yarn she’ll be stocking in November (Plucky Rustic, an aran-weight wool), and that I get to participate in a private shopping event in her online store, just for those of us who were impacted. You know? That’s what I call customer service. Yay for Sarah, leaving me a bigger fan just as she tells me my yarn will be one month late.
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- Berroco Blackstone Tweed in Evergreen, for my Wintry Mix (Amy Herzog)
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- Cascade 220 Heathers in Montmartre, for my Flux (Signe S. Simonsen)
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- Malabrigo Lace in Sauterne, for another Featherweight Cardigan (Hannah Fettig)
Yeah. I’ve got enough to do. Kelly is helping me work my way through figuring out what size Wintry Mix to knit, given my slightly-different gauge. I have a reliable way of understanding gauge backwards; mine was 19, should’ve been 18, so I thought I was knitting bigger and looser. I teach stats to undergrads, but this is beyond me. And then when you add in ease, well…..boggle. I just can’t figure it out.
And on this post, I log off for the day. A few more hours of work, then some dinner and knitting…..something. Whee!!
Oops!…I did it again / I played with your heart, got lost in the game / Oh baby, baby / Oops!…You think I’m in love / That I’m sent from above / I’m not that innocent [of resisting buying MORE yarn.]
My desire — my burning need — to knit has returned with a vengeance. Really. I’m back to resenting every second I have to spend doing anything else. I work on the couch, in the same place I knit, and my knitting bag is right there, right there to my left, piled high with projects on the go. On the table at my elbow, next to the lamp, is a large oval Shaker box with random pretty yarns and small in-progress projects. Right there. Like Odysseus passing the sirens, I must lash myself to the mast (um….my laptop?) and put sealing wax in my ears, to try to focus on work. I resent eating, I resent sleeping, I resent working, I resent it all. (One thing I don’t resent, though, is my strength training program to which I return today, with another kind of vengeance.)
So despite the fact that I have three sweaters up on deck, with patterns and yarns purchased and in hand (Wintry Mix, Flux, and Vodka Gimlet, yarn actually arriving for that one any day now), I slipped. Goofed up. Had a moment of weakness. Fell off the wagon. Had a blackout. Acted impulsively. Was giddy. Was reckless. Was impulsive. I went to my LYS to get a set of needles for my Wintry Mix. I SWEAR. That’s all I went for. I wasn’t going to even look at the yarn. The shop owner is devious, though, and hides all the needles and notions in the far back corner, so you have to walk through the gauntlet of gorgeousness to get there. But I was good. I went straight for the needles, picked out what I needed, and strode to the cash register. Strode, I tell you.
And then, as if it had a mind of its own, my reckless mouth asked, “do you carry malabrigo lace?” “Why yes, of course,” she said, pointing to the wall. “You don’t carry cadmium, do you,” I asked, three-quarters of the way to the wall already. And then I saw it. It wasn’t cadmium, but it has to be close. Sauterne is the color, and it sings to me the siren song of a second featherweight cardigan. I love my first one, my dragon’s blood red one, so let’s go primary: How’s about one in yellow? I asked myself. And I said to myself, I said, “Self? I think you need one.”
malabrigo lace, in sauterne. it's like there's sunlight inside the yarn.
Dang it. And whoopeee! This weekend I’ll be swatching for all four sweaters, and winding all the yarn into cakes. Is it the weekend yet?
i’m dwiving in your caw…you tu’n on the wadio. You puww me cwose, I just say no. I’m on fi-yuw.
That’s the most hilarious thing ever — I’ve been laughing at it for decades. When I realized that my knitting desire was on fire again, that’s how I heard it in my head. And yes oh yes, my knitting desire is rekindled, to put it mildly. With the slight shift in the air to the idea of fall, if not yet the implementation of fall, and with the release of so many great new sweaters, my “buy now” mouse finger is itching and I just want to get after it and do nothing but knit. I’ve queued two new sweaters and I just bought the yarn for them, and (of course) I still have my Vodka Gimlet yarn coming, mid-September.
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- Flux, by Signe S. Simonsen
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- Wintry Mix, by Amy Herzog
For the Wintry Mix sweater, I just bought the recommended yarn, Berroco Blackstone Tweed, in a beautiful dark green — evergreen. And for the Flux sweater, which has a really beautiful series of braided cables on the front and back, I’m just going with good old Cascade 220, in a lovely heathered lavender called montmartre, which is a change of pace from the dark saturated colors I usually use (plus red, my old standby). I’d rather have used my beloved madelinetosh for the Flux, but my budget was blown.
Now I’ve really got to buckle down and finish my little red cardigan. I know what I’ll be doing over the long weekend….how about you?
And they called it puppy love / Oh, I guess they’ll never know / How a young heart really feels / And why I love [them] her so
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- cher
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- fred mcmurray
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- david cassidy
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- perry como
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- dino — dean martin
Welcome to my girlhood crushes. OH how I loved each of these people. David Cassidy — the object of many a girl dream (the most memorable: we were married, and we’d just bought a little house, and we were sitting on the grass in the front yard watching a plane fly overhead. I think I was just about to go get him some iced tea from the kitchen. I had exciting dreams.) and also many a missed dinner. Nothing was more important than watching The Partridge Family (except for maybe The Monkees, mmmm Davy Jones), certainly not dinner.
Cher, I used to fantasize that she was my mother. I imagined that she’d like me and we’d hang out together. I remember wishing that so hard it nearly hurt. Gosh, the idea that she’d like me, my mother, she’d like me. It still kind of takes my breath away. It wasn’t until I was 50 that I realized how much she actually looked like my mother, who was 1/2 Cherokee and who had long straight black hair. Ah, the mysteries of the psyche.
Dean Martin and Perry Como, so suave. (As my dad used to say, swayve and deboner instead of suave and debonair…he knew, he was just joking.) I wanted to live in their worlds, I imagined I’d wear a caftan and billow through the rooms that would have candles everywhere, and big windows, and beautiful views of the ocean.
Fred McMurray I just loved so much; he was kind of my precursor to Mister Rogers, I think, since I first fell for him on My Three Sons. To have a dad like that, too much even to fantasize. But then I grew up a little and discovered Double Indemnity (streaming on Netflix!), with Fred and Barbara Stanwyck, and my crush grew up.
How intense those crushes were, more than any other in life I think. They’re idealized and innocent and not tinged by the understanding of how life and grownup relationships can be/become. It’s amazing how fully the feelings can come back, especially for Cher and David Cassidy, for some reason. When I listen to a Partridge Family song, or see an old photo, my entire body remembers how it felt.
Who were your girlhood crushes….I know you had them.
soft fabric and hard abs — my weekend!
This weekend, my primary making-things plans are focused on sewing a couple summer dresses for myself, both using the Schoolhouse Tunic pattern (unless the first one just looks awful, of course). It’s pretty cute, and can be cut as a shirt or a dress. I’m going for the dress; it’s worn over a little camisole, and I think it’s cute. I’m just not sure whether the cut will be flattering — I looked at the flickr pool for it, and it looks great on all sizes and shapes of women, so we’ll see. Here are the fabrics I got, from fabric.com:
the purple stripe is Kaffe Fassett, and the aqua one just makes me so happy!
It’ll be fun to sew, especially something that’s as simple and quick as this pattern. I’ll have to scrape the dust off my machines, but it’ll be nice to do something that produces such a fast FO.
Marnie is taking me up and up and up in my workout routines, and I’m so happy. I feel accomplished, and active, and great in my body, which is an entirely new feeling for me. I’m telling you, do a plank. You sure don’t have to look like this guy — when I started, I held it for 5 seconds. Just try it once. You’ve only got 5 seconds to lose. Just try it. Just once.
Happy Friday, y’all! I’ll show my FO dress(es) later!
i know i’ve said this before, but this time I REALLY MEAN IT.
Even though, as they say,
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
Screw it. I’m making plans anyway. For once in my life, I’m going to just take my time and do it right. (Mister Rogers has a song about that — I like to take my time, I mean that when I want to do a thing, I like to take my time and do it right. I mean I just might make mistakes if I should have to hurry up, and so I like to take my time. That came entirely out of my memory, by the way.) I’m making plans, I’m taking my time, I’m going to do math (gasp! No! Not math!), I’m going to measure myself (get the smelling salts, gussie, ma’s fainted), and this time, I’m making a perfect sweater.
Geez, what a long-winded way to get here. In the wake of my gorgeous-but-large Dark & Stormy (which I will get into shape this weekend), I want to be thoughtful and slow and careful with the next one. I’ve now made three sweaters — my mondo cable cardi, my Peasy, and my Dark & Stormy. I adore them, they’re all gorgeous, but I did them my usual way, getting a wild hair, willy-nilly ordering some yarn and yes, making a little swatch, but then plowing ahead blindly. It’s a wonder they’re as good as they are.
Next up: Gudrun Johnson’s gorgeous Laar sweater, in dragon’s blood red. Here’s hers:
so beautiful!
One lesson I learned on Dark & Stormy: use needles you enjoy working with, even if it means you have to go buy new ones. I absolutely hated every minute of using the Denise needles, and believe it took me much longer to make that sweater, in part because of the needles. The constant difficult scootching, ugh.
So I’m making a substantial swatch, I’m measuring all the critical areas of my body for fitting this sweater, I’m making adjustments to the pattern so it fits ME (especially since I look absolutely nothing like the gorgeous model), and if I goof, I’m ripping. If it’s ok but meh it’s not quite right, I’m ripping.
I’m making a public vow. Promising myself. Yeah.
but i don’t WANT to clean the bathroom! just another row, just to finish this cable, just this section. aw, mom. you’re no fun at all.
Not the weather – it’s one of the gorgeously sunny and crisp fall days that have characterized this autumn in New York. Really, such a beautiful day once again. Last night I swatched for my new sweater and hit it right on the nose (except for my row gauge, of course) so I cast on for my new birthday sweater – Dark and Stormy, by Thea Colman.
pattern: dark and stormy, by thea colman, gifted by KellyinTX for my 52nd birthday
madelinetosh vintage, in the gorgeous baltic colorway
Isn’t that yarn just gorgeous? The cables are a bit more clearly defined in person; I didn’t take enough time with my camera this morning to capture their definition and shadows well enough, but you get the picture. It’s great fun to knit – pattern rows on the right side only, and something different often enough to keep your attention without being challenging. Top down, cables, gorgeous yarn, just the ticket. I’m still trying to figure out what to take for airplane knitting, but for now I’m just ticking off the rows on my 52nd birthday sweater. I think I’ll make a birthday sweater every year.
Today is set aside for deep cleaning and organizing, since I leave early Thursday morning. It’s so nice to come back to a clean and tidy home, after my fall trips. I’m gone so long, and I generally come back dazed by time and space….definitely true for this trip, with a nearly 24-hour journey. No knitting today, Lori. Put it down, I’m not kidding. You can knit later. Just put it down, walk away, and go get the vacuum cleaner. NOW. I’M NOT KIDDING.
knitting. ravelry. katie. travel. joy.
My morning ritual (like yours, probably) involves drinking my 2 cups of coffee while catching up on email and other web stuff. Of course this includes Ravelry. I scan through my friends activity page and investigate projects that look interesting. Nothing newsy there. But as I was doing that this morning, it hit me that one of the really great things about knitting is that it always meets you where you are. Just learning? Plain old scarves are in your realm of possible while also being just a little bit of a challenge. Getting better? Lace, shawls. Getting better still? Garments. Getting better still? Yeah, there are still more techniques, more complicated patterns, more horizons. That’s one of the many things I love about our shared passion.
The whole purpose of my trip to Austin is to soak up as much of my daughter’s time and attention as possible – plus, I’m going to meet Kelly in person, very cool. My Katie girl and I will chat, play games, run some errands, give candy to trick-or-treaters, bake a LOT, and just hang out together, and I know the time will be too short. Still, I’ll need to have knitting with me so while I’m packing this morning I’m considering which project(s) to bring. Definitely the lace ribbon scarf; I hope to finish that, for sure. The flights from NY to Austin are long and I have a connection both ways – in Charlotte NC going down, and in Houston coming back. Lots of good airplane/airport knitting time, yay!
At the end of today’s journey will be my daughter’s smiling face, and [finally] good Mexican food. See y’all later -
and p.s. I woke up with Neil Diamond in my head singing “Love on the Rocks.” No, my marriage is NOT on the rocks. I can’t get the song out of my head now. This may be a long day.
good in the mouth, good on the needles, good on the eyes, good to wear, not so good on the elbow. ouch.
Since I was out of town last weekend, I didn’t get to stock the freezer with homemade bread and sweets. But I didn’t have time to make bread yesterday, so I dashed off a quick batch of butter pecan shortbread cookies. Here’s the recipe I used (wonderful but lots of butter!), and here’s the result:
slice and bake - so easy - and pecan brown sugar shortbread, so delicious
Next up on the delicious hit list – looming yarns and their associated projects:
next on deck
MAN THIS IS KILLING ME. I want to grab needles and cast on for the five projects that will use these glorious yarns. Let’s go around the circle:
- top left, that pale, pale pink? That’s madelinetosh’s tosh merino light, in the porcelain colorway. I’m going to make the Austin Hoodie, designed by Connie Chang Chinchio – designed especially for this yarn, I believe. I’ll have a lot of new experiences with this one, including set-in sleeves and a hood.
- that red, on top? That’s my new Okay Knits Sena, in the sweetie-pie colorway. I’m going to knit the LaReine Shawl, designed by Angela Tong. No new experiences, but loads of pleasure with the fun design and gorgeous yarn.
- that brown(ish), on the right? That’s madelinetosh’s pashmina, in the silt wash colorway. I think I’m going to make the Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan, designed by Nicole Feller-Johnson, but I’m not sure on this one, like I am on the others.
- the red, on the bottom — of course that’s my new Spirit Trail Fiberworks “clotho” in the dragon’s blood colorway, which I’ll use to knit Gudrun Johnston’s beautiful little Laar sweater. Thanks for your thoughts on that one! Right now this one is the most fun to think about.
- and last but certainly not least enticing, the fawn-colored laceweight wool on the lower left is the Jamieson & Smith Shetland Supreme, which I’ll use to knit either the Madli’s Shawl mentioned in the previous post, or the Tree of Light Shawl. Still pondering that one, and don’t want to give short shrift to the gorgeous yarn.
I’m just going to put all these yarns away, out of my sight (in the hopes that my age-related memory loopiness will help them slip out of mind) until I finish the Eve Shrugged and the Lace Ribbon Scarf. I want to finish the shrug, and I need to finish the scarf, and that’ll only happen if I give them both all my spare time and attention.
Do you continually massage your ravelry queue? Mine is extremely organized, and I regularly go through and reorder the items on the individual tabs (e.g., socks, sweaters, shawls), and then reorder the top items on the queue as a whole, matching them with stash yarns. In a way, this keeps my obsession going (the downside), but in another way, it gives me a way to play with projects without actually casting on too many at once (the upside). The top of my queue is now dominated by sweaters, a fact that tickles me.
A downside issue that warrants my attention…..I’m getting knitter’s elbow in my left elbow. It hurts, a lot, and I know I’d better slow down and do something about it before it gets so bad I can’t knit. THAT WOULD BE AWFUL. Since I spend so much of my day hunkered over the keyboard with long hours of focused attention, and then much of the rest of my time knitting, I hold my elbows in one position for long periods. I’m trying to stop very regularly – predetermined intervals so I don’t forget, like every page, or every couple of rows – and stretch out my arms, flex my hands up to further stretch the muscles and tendons, and breathe while I’m at it. [I forget to breathe.] This part is not so delicious.
she really pisses me off. sure, she’s “interesting” and “fascinating” and beautiful, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD she’s a pain in my ass.
You know the kind I’m talking about – at first you were just crazy about her. She’s so beautiful, interesting (we’ll come back to that one), endlessly fascinating, she adds a lot to your life, you imagine being friends for a long long time.
But then you start to realize that interesting should have quotes around it. She’s “interesting.” She’s beautiful, yeah, and she certainly does add a lot to your life, but the “interesting” and fascinating bits now make you suspect you won’t be friends for a long long time. Consultants call this the PITA factor (pain in the ass), and sometimes add a hidden PITA fee when offering a price quote to a known PITA client. Still, you can’t say this friend is boring. No, you could never say that, that’s for sure. You might say a lot of other things, but boring she’s not. Now and then you throw your hands up and say “that’s it, we’re done. I’ve had it this time.” But you go back…..at least for a while.
That has been the story of my relationship with my Eve Shrugged. At first? Smitten. Totally, totally smitten. Over the moon, endlessly fascinated. And then I hit the wall, not once, not twice, not even thrice (ha, thrice) but many more times than that. Knit frog knit frog knit frog knit frog. Repeat. But finally I got it, thanks to the help of many of you. I made it to the point of adding the sleeve stitches, where you then transition from Eve’s Ribs to Adam’s Ribs, and something went wrong. Knit frog knit frog knit frog knit frog. Repeat. This is why I haven’t been mentioning this project – it’s been in the Bad, Bad Knit Time-Out chair in the corner.
Last night I pulled out my ratty old cursed ball of this yarn and just worked the Adam’s Ribs repeats a few times, and it went fine. No problems at all. I knew the problem must be my haste, so I frogged it all one more time and started anew. Put stitch markers everywhere. Stopped and counted each tiny segment. As the French would say: et voila!
here's the transition point, from Eve's Ribs (on the bottom) to Adam's Ribs
good to go now. for a while.
famous last words.
Anyway. I’m feeling a little more hopeful about the old gal right now, and expect not to have any problems until I hit the next change, which will be (I think) adding the sleeve bells, after the sleeves and body are finished. I think Carol Sunday is a wonderful designer; her patterns are distinctively hers, typically feminine, and quite beautiful. But the way she writes patterns does not connect (like, at all) with the way I think, so they’re very frustrating to me. She’s not a bad designer or pattern writer, and I’m not a bad knitter or pattern reader, we just don’t think the same way so it’s 2 steps forward and 3 steps back for me. Other knitters sail right through.
I haven’t decided whether to take this project or the green tweed ribbon scarf project with me to Rhinebeck (Rhinebeck!!). If you’re going to Rhinebeck, I’ll be wearing my Peasy.
my head hurts, and there’s no way i’m eating a tarantula, even if they ARE deep friend. and no, a grasshopper doesn’t sound better.
New things! A skin for my Kindle, courtesy of Decalgirl. Since I rarely carry it in my purse, seeing as how I’m home all the time, I don’t have to keep it in the heavy leather case. But I don’t want the white surface to get dirty-looking, so voila!
love the little boy in the dunce cap
even the back gets a skin cover
Also: the lace ribbon scarf I’m making for my friend is going much faster than the other two I’d knit in sock-weight yarn. Also, I’m a much more skilled knitter now than I was when I made the other two scarves with this pattern. No mistakes, no need to check the pattern, it’s as easy as falling off a log.
it's going pretty quickly in Rowan Felted Tweed!
Every variety show needs at least one kind of freaky sideshow, right? One thing that’s an acquired taste, not for everyone? Well, this fits the bill in a lot of ways. This appears to be one of the most common street foods in Cambodia. NOT FOR THIS GAL.
deep-friend tarantulas. but hey, the hairs burn off!
tarantulas not your thing? then how about.....GRASSHOPPERS! no? (me neither!)
I might lose weight on our vacation, but there are lots of things to eat besides bugs. I’m counting on it.
Today was one of those lost days, thanks to the terrible low pressure system hanging over our heads. Ugh, the headache, the too-many sudafed, the pressure on my forehead. I’m knitting and watching a yoga video on Netflix. Somehow, it’s helping.
if i’d just stick with it and quit stopping every little whipstitch, i could get somewhere.
New York City is too slow for me. I never understand when people complain about how speedy everything is in Manhattan; it doesn’t feel that way to me. People poke-ass along the sidewalks (come on, pick up the speed y’all!), stop right in the middle to have a little chat, piddle up and down the subway stairs. Geez! Get going! This is supposed to be a speedy city, didn’t you get the memo?!
I eat way too fast. I don’t think I used to do that, but during the baby/toddler years, when moms grab bites whenever they can because someone somewhere is about to wake up, or start screaming, or need something, I got in the speedy eating habit and have never gone back. At each meal, I begin with a little lecture to myself, and I put my fork down between bites, and it starts so well….but then the pace quickens and suddenly I’m finished.
I read very quickly, and grasp a page of material with a glance. I write quickly. A friend of mine once said that I have a certain thrashing quality. My internal pace is fast fast fast go go quick.
But I don’t knit very quickly, and it’s not just because I knit English style. Actually, last night I tried knitting Continental and it was just as easy, for some reason. I haven’t wrapped my head around purling Continental, but anyway, none of that is my point. My point is that I am not a fast knitter, and it has nothing to do with which hand holds the yarn. No, the reason I’m so slow is that I knit a stitch or two and then stop to admire the work. REALLY? After all this time, the fact of yarn looping through itself holds my fascination to this degree?
endlessly fascinating
YES, yes it does. Sure, there’s the part where I think, “wow, I did that?” but mainly it’s just wonder at such a humble process, something people have done for centuries, a process born out of hard need, a process now driven by pleasure.
Wow. I did that. My fingers, a handful of sticks, some yarn, a bit of time. And, for the concrete thinkers, a probable dopaminergic addiction cycle.
i’m in love with a beautiful thing called Eve…you would be too, but this one’s MINE.
WOWIE WOW WOW WOW (as The Continental would say). If ever there were the perfect storm of knitting perfection, this would be it:
- Eve’s Ribs Shrug, by Carol Sunday
- Tosh Merino DK, by madelinetosh (in the most beautiful color ever, Byzantine)
- KnitPicks Harmony circular needles
The pattern is brilliant so far – fun to knit, with an intuitive stitch pattern. The yarn is a continual jaw-dropping pleasure, between the touch of it and the subtle shifts in color, and my fingers and eyes are always greedy for more. And while I wouldn’t normally list the needles as such a great part of the package, in this case the needles really do add something – the soft clicking of the tips, I can barely feel the vibrations in the wood when they touch and the sound is just wonderful.
It’s all I want to do. I’d rather work on this than eat. I’d definitely rather work on this than do my paying work. I’d rather work on this than sleep. I know this crowd knows what I mean. If this is in your queue and you haven’t started yet, heads up: you’re really in for it.
To my real chagrin, though, I have to set it aside and do some work. Dang. Eve, you’ll be on my mind and in my heart the whole time, I guaran-damn-tee ya..
stupid workmen – today i hates them.
Early this morning, it appears that the workmen in our building somehow disconnected the telephone and internet cable. So all day long, I have been without the internet and y’all? I HAVE A LOT TO DO!!! It couldn’t have come on a worse day.
grrr.
The sweater is taking its own sweet time to dry, but while I’m watching it dry, I’m playing around with fasteners. The pattern has you sew large buttons on – 3 of them – and put large snaps underneath; the buttons are just for decoration. Well, I’m not sure how I feel about that, but of course there aren’t buttonholes. So I got an idea to use a large silver shawl pin, like this – what do you think, really?
Of course, I haven’t had a chance to try it on so I don’t know if the pin will work.
Anyway. So there I was with no sweater to work on, waiting for my new yarn to arrive, when I thought “hmm, well? Maybe I’ll just cast on the Austin Hoodie with my tosh merino light (in porcelain, the palest pink). If you’ve used TML, you probably know that the skeins are the biggest tangliest mess ever. After handwinding the ball for 70 minutes, my doorbell rang and the mailman delivered MY BYZANTINE!!! The color is even more amazing than I thought. Unfortunately, I have to leave for a meeting tonight but tomorrow, you’ll see.
Kelli, I cast-on and am on row 3. It’s really fun! I swatched and hit it on the money, first rattle out of the box, so Eve’s Rib Shrug, I’m a-coming.
i don’t know what to do. really. please help me solve my knitting problem. AND DON’T LAUGH.
Colossus of Rhodes
I guess I fall on the process side of the process/product divide (here’s an aside for any reader who isn’t a knitter: we are process knitters if it’s really the process we enjoy [and some of us are even pre-process knitters], otherwise we’re just after the end result). Of course I also adore the products, and love having my handmade work as part of my daily life. I guess I’m like the Colossus of Rhodes, straddling the harbor – one foot firmly planted in the process, the other firmly adoring the product.
ANYWAY. Geez, I get off track so easily. When I started composing the post in my head, I thought I’d open with the first lines of The Odyssey, about asking the muse to sing. I must be in some Classics/Ancient Greek head today.
ANYWAY. Good grief. OK, to my point. I am languishing in stockinette wasteland. (oh yeah – this is why I brought up process knitting. I do love the process, but I’m going really bored with stockinette! sorry for rambling…) I’m nearly finished with Peasy‘s 2nd sleeve, and have been randomly working body rows when the round-and-round-and-round of the sleeve starts to be too hypnotic. Yay! An alternating purl row! Variety! (sidebar note: I once had a knitting blog called I Hate the Purl Row but decided that was a little too harsh.)
ANYWAY. So if I’m tired of Peasy, I can work on …… my Mondo Cable cardigan. Also at the sleeves, and also all stockinette. OK, so that’s wearing a little thin and boring? How about my subway knitting……oh yeah. Stockinette hat, knit in the round.
So one project is sock yarn, and not all that soft and lovely a sock yarn either. One project is madelinetosh merino, o so soft and lovely. And the other is Rowan Felted Tweed – scratchy and rustic. I can focus on the yarns to experience some variety, but I think I’m coming down with a case of startitis. I suspect I’ve been infected by
don't you want to rub them against your cheek? 70% baby alpaca, 30% merino
Cascade Eco Duo. Two skeins – hazelnut and vanilla. Only 197 yards each, aran weight. Oh y’all….they’re so soft it’s like lying down in a field of puppies. Or bunnies. And having fairies kiss your cheeks, while dusting your nose with marshmallows.
SEE?! See how they’ve hypnotized me! The problem is that I need to make something with them, and now….but do I use them both, in some stripey scheme? Or make something precious with one of them – there’s the 198 Yards of Heaven shawl (dang, I have 197 ). But I don’t want to just pick something, anything, just because it’ll work with the yarn.
aaaaaargh!!!!!!!! The paralysis of a perfect yarn. All advice and recommendations welcomed.
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yikes i love this project
Kelly and my other sweater-knitting friends: I’m in. I’m totally in. I get it. It’s addictive. Knitting sweaters = f.u.n. Want to see where I am with Peasy?
look at that! I'm knitting a sweater!!
this photo has the most accurate color - green pea soup
the lacy front panels
Yeah. I’ll be doing this a lot more. And if you haven’t tried knitting with it yet, Rowan Felted Tweed is AMAZING. I’m just sayin.
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getting control of my excesses
I don’t know if you’re like this, but I have a very itchy mouse-finger. When I see yarn or tools or patterns I like, click! click! click! Right into the electronic shopping cart. Or the Ravelry queue. More, more, MORE! About a year ago, I realized that I could stem the spending tide by putting things in electronic shopping carts and clicking “save” instead of “check out.” That seemed to do the trick, somehow; it satisfied that momentary craving, and after a while, I didn’t really need whatever it was I’d put in the shopping cart. My Amazon account is like that too.
Now, though, now that I’m in the period between having a stable income and figuring out how to have at least enough of an income, it has a new urgency. Frugal is my new watchword, at least in this interim period.
So last night I went “shopping” in my ravelry account. I looked at the excesses in my queue (though I’m not as bad as some! one raveler has 6,182 projects queued and 20,141 things faved. I’m going to have to unfriend her because when I look at my friends activity page, it’s always flooded by her and we don’t have the same taste). Anyway – long diversion there, sorry – I looked at my 183-item queue and put some real order in it. After I finish the projects on the needles, what do I really want to knit? Really?
I have 10 projects ready to go, matched with yarn that’s already in my stash:
- Austin Hoodie, knit with my porcelain tosh merino light
- Sockhead hat, knit with some cool sock yarn my youngest daughter gave me for mother’s day
- A Noro striped scarf, using some really beautiful and soft Noro I stashed
- Inaugural Sweater, with yarn I bought specifically for it
- and A Very Braidy Cowl, with yarn I got from Kelly when she was destashing
1. madelinetosh, tosh merino light (colorway: porcelain), 2. Regia Galaxy – Jupiter, 3. Noro Silk Garden, colorway 267, 4. Noro Silk Garden, colorway 275, 5. Valley Sheffield, 6. crystal palace merino5 color 9454
And 5 more ready to go after those. There’s something that feels so good about imposing constraints, limits, order.
See? No more wedding talk.
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the perils of lace and the misery of frogging. again.
Knitters:
Casting on for the 4th time. GRRRR. The wedding shawl is knit from both ends, and then grafted together. I’ve finished the bulk of it – probably 90% – and now I just have to cast on and knit the smallish border on the other end (it’s a 95 st cast-on, and the pattern repeat is only 33 rows). So I sat down last night at the beginning of a movie, cast on (which is a little bit of a pain because you have to double the yarn for the cast on and then drop one strand when you start knitting). So I was casting on, long tail, and hadn’t left enough yarn. I made it to 86 sts. No biggie.
at least this section I'm knitting (frogging) doesn't have nupps!
Start over, get the whole thing cast on, great. Knit knit knit, made it 8 rows in when I realized I was knitting the wrong part of the pattern. Frog frog frog. Cast on. Knit knit knit, something had gone so terribly wrong somewhere and there was nothing to do but cast on again. By the time the movie was over, I’d cast on again and I was 9 rows into the pattern. Go to sleep and start fresh in the morning.
This morning I was knitting the 10th row…hallelujah, finally getting somewhere!…when I realized the row was only 91 sts. I’d gotten to the end of the row, every pattern repeat absolutely perfect, but I didn’t have those 4 sts I should’ve had before the garter border in the last 5 sts. Somehow, I had missed that when I’d knit the previous rows.
So I just frogged it again. I think I’m going to put it aside and make some blueberry bars, and then pick it up again. I’m using KnitPicks harmony circulars from the interchangeable set, and the metal end of the tips, where it joins the cable, is starting to change and make things difficult. It’s not shiny like it was, it’s kind of dull and the stitches don’t slide, which makes the knitting hard.
Knitting is fun! I love knitting! Knitting is my passion! I love knitting! Knitting is fun! (does that sound like I’m trying to convince myself? )
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2nd lesson in 2 days about knitting – i feel like such a grownup!
Well, aren’t I glad I did this – I dutifully completed my (first) swatch for my beautiful new Peasy sweater. Last night I wet blocked the swatch, and I just unpinned it, got out my measuring tape, and checked my gauge. Using a 3.5mm needle, my gauge should have been 22 st and 30 rows = 4 inches. But I got 23.5 and 31 rows = 4 inches. Here are my lessons learned:
1) because I now know from my Wowie Zowie sock lesson that what seems like a small difference can actually be a very large difference,
2) I need to go down a needle size, and
3) the fabric is going to be absolutely gorgeous, with the most lovely hand and drape ever.
Madelinetosh is not in danger of being toppled from the top of my favorite- yarn- ever list — especially not with tosh merino light in this world — but Rowan Tweed has scootched immediately to a close second. I think I’ll knit a Manu with Rowan Tweed after I finish my beautiful Peasy and an Austin Hoodie with TML. I also have enough yarn for an Inaugural sweater.
Oh dear. I think I’ve just become a sweater knitter.* Good thing I live in a place with a long cold winter.
With a nice long weekend coming up, I have knitting plans that include finishing Marnie’s wedding shawl and getting it blocked, doing some work (you know, instead of saying work I’d rather say ‘fun’) doing some fun on my Wowie Zowie socks, and maybe I’m just sayin maybe getting going on my Peasy. Last night was the first major festivity associated with leaving my job; 20 people I work with came to a little party for me, and it was quite amazing. Much toasting and fete-ing and love; hugs and kisses from each one at the end. Tonight is a drinks farewell with my boss’s boss and my best work friend, Thursday night is my writing group. Not much will happen until the weekend but it’s all going to be fun. When it’s good, life can be really, really good, you know?
*disclaimer and acknowledgment: knitting a swatch does not guarantee becoming a sweater knitter…there is still the ability to be in it for the long haul, the perseverance to finish all the fiddly bits, and (for some sweaters) the ability to assemble pieces. The jury is still out on me with these parts!
coming back to a much-loved pattern, the wowie-zowie sock!
If I haven’t said this lately: Ravelry is awesome. Right? Not only are most of the people wonderful, the resource itself is amazing. I find a pattern I like, then I look at the photos and project notes of everyone who made it – look for people my size and shape, how does it look on them? See how it looks made with a variety of different yarns – and with the yarn I’m considering. I learn about the modifications people made to it, the problems they ran into and how they got out of them. Just amazing. How did we ever knit before Ravelry? I guess we were just all alone and knitting in the dark. Much less fun.
So, one of my ravelry friends (hi Margaret!) gave me some sock knitting tips for my Wowie Zowie sock since she’s knitting them too (and using the same yarn, but a different colorway, so very lucky for me), and tonight I’m going to cast on again with the same yarn. I was making new-knitter mistakes, misunderstanding just how much yarn 8 extra stitches per row can consume, and underestimating how much yarn my few rows of ribbing were taking up. It’s a close fit, anyway; the pattern uses 460 yards per sock, and the balls contain 480 yards. Not a lot of room for adding to the pattern. In addition to my newbie errors, I’d somehow missed the close fit which would’ve made me much more cautious with my modifications. I’ll also try to lighten up a bit and not knit so tightly, for heaven’s sake.
I’m thrilled! I particularly loved that yarn with that pattern, and was entirely smitten with the interaction between pattern and color changes. In fact, I was thinking about how much I’d like to wear them with a skirt so they’d be visible to everyone. Show them off a little. Feel happy when people say “hey, where did you get those amazing socks!” because I expect people would actually ask me. That kind of thing happens to me.
come back to me, lover sock....
Isn’t it great when you’re in love with the things you’re knitting?
loving this pair of socks!
Since I finished Marnie’s Minkeys, I need another small project on the needles. Right? Right? You always need a small project on the needles, can I get a yeah sistah? At the top of my Ravelry queue – small project edition – was Anne Campbell’s Circle Socks (public rav link here), which I’d decided to knit with my colorful balls of Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett. (I have no idea how to say any of those words except design and line, and maybe Regia.)
Last night I cast on and it was such fun knitting, I just kept saying “Just let me finish this needle” “After this row I’ll be ready for bed” “Let me finish this pattern repeat.” YOU know how that goes.
circle socks - incredibly fun to knit, and fast!
I added a short section of ribbing at the top, just because I always like ribbing on my socks. Want to see that cool section up close?
whoa. that is REALLY cool.
I’ve decided to name this pair of socks Wowie Zowie, for the most obvious of reasons.
I hope to get something done today besides knitting. Wait. Do I really?! Or is that just what we say because we know we’re supposed to do something besides knitting. I think that’s it – I would actually love nothing more than to sit in my cozy little spot, with endless cups of mint tea, good movies on Netflix, and to knit the whole day, until it’s time for sleep again. Too bad I need sleep.
please click through on this one!
Have you ever read something that just haunts you? Everyone has, probably, in one form or another. But this story truly haunts me, it hovers around the edges, it has even shown up in a dream. The Seventh Man, by Haruki Murakami, was read by John Shea at Symphony Space. I’ve attended the Selected Shorts readings at Symphony Space, and they’re almost always wonderful. I haven’t read this story, and even if I did, I heard it read first, and that reading may partially account for the haunting nature of it — but I suspect it’s deeply embedded in the story itself. John Shea’s reading of it is just magnificent – dramatic, loud, whispering, terrified, exhausted. It’s a relatively long listen – 40 minutes (I think….time just stops when I listen to it, which I’ve done 10 or 11 times).
I’ve typed and erased several attempts to introduce you to the story, to make you want to listen, but whatever I write just misses the boat enough to make me afraid you won’t. It’s really an incredible story. At Symphony Space, it was part of a program called “Deepening Insight” so it’s about the main character’s insight into the most terrible and affecting thing that ever happened to him. If you like to think about metaphor and meaning and transformation and life, please please please give it a try.
I won’t continue to tease; if you want to listen, here you go, and if you want to read it, click here. [note: don't be put off when you start listening - the program featured 2 stories, and this clip begins with a snippet of the 2nd story, followed by the introduction of John Shea, who will then start reading. Be patient, the story starts around a minute and a half.] If you want to keep listening, the 2nd story is included in the audio, too, after the Murakami.
I’d like to know about stories that have had this kind of effect on you. My reading time is pretty severely limited, and I prefer to read things that at least have the potential to knock me back like this. I love literary fiction – Cormac McCarthy, Salman Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry, Murakami – so I’m always interested in a recommendation of a powerful story. Got one to share with me?
in which organizing gets me out of cleaning
So here was the deal. My mission for the day was to completely redo my bedroom, which is a MESS. It’s cluttered, I have zero storage, no closet, too-large pieces of furniture, stuff stacked on every flat surface, wedged into every little space, and since I live in Manhattan (on the street level), there’s a general coating of grime that creeps in no matter what I do. There’s one large armoire, one large chest, two desks, a queen-sized bed, a built-in bookcase. And a little bit of floorspace. My desk has a bookcase above it, and there’s stuff stacked on the desk, on top of the bookcase. It’s awful.
On my desk were my newest yarn purchases, and I paused to fondle them for a bit — like you do, you know. I looked around at the leftover balls of yarn stuffed in between books, and got my brilliant idea: I know! I can’t really start working on our bedroom until I do something with all. this. yarn. Right?
So I pulled it all out, photographed many of the surprises I found, updated 
my stash page on ravelry, organized, weighed the partial skeins, numbered the plastic bins where I store all the yarn, and noted the specific bin on each ravelry stash page. OH DON’T I FEEL ALL RIGHTEOUS! If you’re a raveler, you can see my stash page here. You know how wonderful it feels to get everything all organized. Especially when it allows you to avoid doing something you really don’t want to do. On that note, I think I’d better go clean the kitchen, you know, it’s a mess and I’ll be able to focus on our bedroom once that kitchen is cleaned.
Sushi tonight with DD#3. Tulips delivered at work from DD#1. Nice phone chat with DD#2 this afternoon, with a promise of another chat tomorrow – and a phone chat with DD#1, too. It’s a lovely Mother’s Day weekend.
the fevered workings of my itchy mind
I know what you’re thinking – this post is going to talk about how itchy wool is. Well you’re wrong! Sorry, didn’t really mean to set you up like that. Instead, it’s about how my fingers and mind are itchy to knit with that pink Felici yarn. Or that new soft Noro. Itching, itching, itching. My mind, too, itching. Can’t stop thinking about it. Just want to cast on, see the stripes unfold, feel the softness.
Don’t do it, Lori. Don’t start something new. Satisfy yourself with touching the yarn, looking at it. Keep it on the table next to you so you can …. NO! Put it away! Go put it in the stash bins so you’re not so sorely tempted all the time! Do it now! Just get up, step away from the laptop, and store the yarns out of sight!
But it’s so pretty, that pink, and I don’t even like pink. The caramel colors of that one skein of Noro, so seductive. And the madelinetosh pashmina, bali hai come to me.
NO – finish at least one thing first. You know you have a lot of work to do, finishing the wedding dress, and don’t forget the shawl – not even halfway done with that and time’s a-ticking. The baktus, the blanket, the cardigan. You’ve got your train knitting project, you don’t need another one. Focus Lori, focus.
But just a little bit, just a swatchNO! NO!
help me……
i’m smitten by madelinetosh
OH MY, is this an easy one. If you look through my stash, or my completed projects, or even just this blog, you’ll see that I’m in a passionate love affair with madelinetosh. It’s not perfect, I’m not blind to the less-good parts, but I’m so smitten by the colors, the fiber, the sheer pleasure of working with the yarns, I’m willing to overlook the other bits. You know, like you do with anyone you love. Sure, they can be snippy before they’ve had their coffee, but they’re so good to you when you’re in trouble, so a bit of snippiness? Small potatoes.
Over time I’m sure our relationship will deepen, my love will continue to grow. She’ll grow and change, I’ll grow and change, but when love is this real, you just know that somehow you’ll grow and change together. Here we are at our current stage of love and adoration:
I’m on my 2nd journey with the yarn club, and that’s such a great experience. A package shows up and I have no idea what will be inside, except I know it will be amazing. Here’s what I got with the last shipment:
tosh merino light, colorway: filigree
Amy, the incredible color artist behind this brand, has such a way with color; each skein is flavored with delicate hues surrounding its primary color. The yellows have bits of gold, and sunshine, and daffodil. The pine greens have bits of near-black, and teal, and pine. And don’t get me started on the reds. She also has a great flair for naming her yarns, and for working in abstraction; I can’t think of any specifics right now, but she’ll name something like Emily Dickinson, something like that. Now what color(s) would that be? I can tell you it’s different from Proust. I enjoy that.
For true love, you have to be able and willing to acknowledge that all is not perfect, even if it’s perfect enough. It can be hard to find the yarn you want, and it’s in such demand you have to act fast or it’s gone. There is a great deal of variability in each colorway because she dyes it in small batches; while this is wonderful and not a problem if you’re knitting something small, it can make it very difficult to knit larger projects, like sweaters. {Note of warning to any new readers of my blog: look at all the skeins together, in good light, before beginning a sweater. I got down to the sleeves on a cardigan only to find that my 2 remaining skeins were a kind of harsh blue black, while all the others were soft shades of charcoal, dark to lighter gray. SCREWED. Luckily, I found a couple of ravelers who were willing to share their stashes with me, and luckier still, their skeins matched my charcoal skeins.} Also, madelinetosh offers a nice range of bases, but protect your heart and don’t fall too hard in love with any of them because you might get hurt. Madelinetosh pastoral, a gorgeous silk and merino blend, just disappeared, much to the anguish of ravelers in the madelinetosh lovers forum. A couple of my favorite projects were knit with pastoral, and I wanted to knit more more more. Alas.
But then again, perhaps this is a good reminder of the transitory nature of life. Don’t cling, don’t hold tight, that is the way of suffering. Let go – let it pass through you, acknowledge, appreciate, and let it go. See? Madelinetosh even helps put life into perspective.
Click here for other bloggers’ stories about their favorite yarns: knitcroblo7
Ysolda’s Ishbel is nearly perfect in every way!
The point of this post was to blog about a pattern or project to which I aspire – maybe because it requires skills I don’t yet have, or maybe because it takes a lot of time. Instead, I’m going to write about a pattern that inspires me for a different reason: Ishbel, created by Ysolda Teague. I’ve knit this twice, with a third one on the needles:
purple and small, with Sunday Knits Eden
greenish and pretty big, with madelinetosh wren
big and in the works, with madelinetosh lace
Why does this pattern inspire me? First, it’s great fun to knit – and lots of people seem to agree, since Ravelry lists 6400 projects and it’s in 3268 queues. (At £3.00 GBP, Ysolda has done very well with this little project! Good for her!). The main reason this pattern inspires me so much is that it’s very cleverly written while still being a LOT of fun to knit. Scientific theories that explain a phenomenon with an economy of variables are called elegant, and that describes Ysolda’s patterns. Ishbel hits all the marks, which is kind of great: it’s fun, it’s changeable (you can make the stockinette section larger or smaller, knit more or fewer repeats of each of the lace sections, etc), the end result is not just beautiful but also very practical, and it has clearly generated a very good amount of money for the designer while being inexpensive for knitters.
I’ve knit (or should I say, tried to knit) other patterns that were beautiful and ‘clever,’ but they were just fussy and kind of ridiculous in their cleverness. There’s no need to name names, because maybe I was just not a skilled enough knitter and others could easily manage the pattern, but there was one scarf that just made me so angry and you know? Who needs that in knitting! But Ysolda’s patterns are clever in the very best way, and I think Ishbel is a great example of her design philosophy. I would love to be able to do what she does; instead, I’ll just benefit from her talent. Me and thousands of other happy knitters.
Read the other posts on this topic: knitcroblo2
not-doing is so much harder than doing, but doing is pretty hard, too.
Stopping all at once – from following 435 blogs to not reading any blogs at all – that is tough. Since Google Reader doesn’t provide a suspend option, I just eliminated the gadget from my iGoogle home page. The choices are either to quit following, or see all the posts. I wish they’d provide a vacation option or something, but they don’t. So I know they’re all there, accumulating, showing up in the Reader that’s there but just not on my home page. They taunt me, the posts. I know there is beautiful knitting, gorgeous quilting, interesting thoughts, amazing design, fun and happy and curious and melancholy, all there just behind my screen.
But I am not reading. It’s hard. I wonder what you’re up to. Not reading hasn’t yet transformed my mornings, although I have done more knitting. I’ve also done a bit more writing. I think I have to overcome the thing underneath, the thing that made sitting and reading all the blogs so appealing, such a good alternative to doing. Inertia, laziness, general procrastination, fear. And that last one is such a funny thing – fear. I’m afraid to try toe-up socks. WHAT? Afraid to try toe-up socks? What is there to be afraid of? Afraid I’ll sit at my table and start writing and … what? It won’t be good? Does it all have to be good, and perfect, and finished, with my first effort?
Of course the answer is no, and of course the answer is yes.
i’ve got WAY too many projects underway! why do i do this?!
You hear it a lot on television these days, where it seems like every show has at least one scene in an AA meeting: you have to take a fearless moral inventory. Although I think it’s a good idea for everyone to take a fearless moral inventory — AA or not – today I was thinking about taking a fearless knitting bag inventory. It’s a version of WOTN Mondays, but on Tuesday.
So what’s on the needles? There’s one I can’t reveal here, the wedding shawl, but here we go:
2nd Kai-Mei, ready to work the heel
My Kai-Mei socks – I’ve been sneaking little wearings of the finished sock because it’s so dang wonderful. Madelinetosh sock, in crow – feels kind of hard when you’re knitting it, but as the fabric flows from the needles, it’s softer than you think it’ll be. And when you soak it and block it? Really so nice. The pattern is clever and fun to knit, but when I was knitting the first sock I was just going on faith (Cookie A faith) because I couldn’t see how it was going to work. I highly recommend the pattern and the yarn.
OK, next?
oh, my dearly beloved Ishbel, languishing....
I do love this Ishbel, knit with madelinetosh lace, in lettuce. It’ll be my 3rd (why do I think “she’ll be my third”?), and the pattern is fun and the color is great and I love the whole deal but it’s been set aside for so long that I struggle to pick it up again. Once I finish the wedding shawl I’ll return to this because it’s going to be fantastic.
Next?
what is wrong with me?!
Stop it, me! Stop! Why did I start this one?! I had plenty to work on, the last thing I needed to do was to start another project, but I did. This is Baktus, and I got about 1/3 of the way through it with Noro Silk Garden Sock (pictured above, the yarn cake) when I decided that I’d rather alternate the Noro with a black yarn. So even though I had no business starting this one in the first place, I frogged it and started over, alternating it with a KnitPicks Essential Kettle Dyed, in soot. [Lori, do not start another project!!]
such a 3-D blankie!
Totally Autumn, which I’m knitting with Cascade 220 Heather in chocolate, so it’ll be more like a blanket. The photo represents the length I get from one skein; since we want it to be ~6 feet in length, I’ll need 7 skeins and of course I’d bought 6. Luckily the sale is still on at Webs, so I bought additional skeins.
Next?
hanging my mondo head in shame and denial
This project, the Mondo Cardigan in madelinetosh merino (graphite) has been so painful. I had enough yarn to complete the sweater, but I foolishly didn’t look at all the skeins before I started. One of the lovely things about madelinetosh yarns is the variability in color, but this time it bit me in the butt. When I got to this point on the first sleeve, I noticed that my last two skeins were quite obviously blue. That would not work. I couldn’t find any graphite in any of the online stores, so (to use Yarn Harlot’s phrase) I threw up the Bat Signal in the rav forums, pleading and begging. Very kind raveler Glennae offered to sell me two of her skeins, which looked like a match to mine, but that would leave her with an insufficient amount of yarn to knit a sweater – the reason she bought it. I didn’t want to leave her in that spot, so I basically just went into denial and ignored the problem. Then, last weekend, I “randomly” decided to look through ravelers’ stashes to see if anyone had any of this yarn, and found Jenny – boopersin on ravelry. Jenny, O Jenny, my new BFF and savior. I wrote her asking if she’d sell, told her my sob story, and she quickly agreed. Isn’t she wonderful? Friend her immediately if you’re on rav, she’s a keeper (and Glennae too, if you don’t know her yet). So Jenny’s two skeins are winging (or brown trucking) their way to me, which means I’ll be able to finish my Mondo Cardigan. Whew.
Next?
froth and beads
Is this technically “on the needles,” given the fact that I’ve obviously pulled out the needles? Apparently not. It’s gorgeous. It’s Liquid Silver, by Rosemary Hill, with Elann Silken Kydd, a luscious and halo-ey mohair and silk blend, with glass beads. I started knitting it when I first returned to knitting a couple of years ago, and honestly, it was beyond my beginner’s skills. I struggled with the very thin yarn on the very slippery needles, with nothing on hand to thread the beads onto the yarn. So I got this far and then put it away. Apparently at some point I pulled the needles out – to use them for another project, probably? – but I don’t remember doing that. The pattern would be very easy for me now, so I hope to frog this and just start over with the same pattern. After all, I have the beads.
I know this is supposed to be a fearless inventory, but I’m not being fully honest here. There’s a sweater in progress, halfway up the back but I don’t like it so I’ll frog it and reuse the yarn, and a Christmas stocking for one of my girls, just begun and set aside.
There. Now I’ve been really fearless, I’ve confessed my excess. I feel much better. And I just noticed how many of my projects are made with madelinetosh yarn. I love her.
is it aaaaart? or craft?
Back in the years when I was sewing all the time, making my and my kids’ clothes and sewing quilts, that’s what I said. I sew. Yeah, I sew. Now, apparently, I’d refer to myself as a sewist. The first time I read that online, it hit my ear so badly I couldn’t read further. I thought, “sewist? that’s dumb.” But what’s the alternative? Sewer? oops. You’d have to put a hyphen in there so people didn’t think you were describing yourself as a receptacle for human waste. Sew-er. But that just looks dumb.
It’s not dumb, finding a way to transfer something to an identity statement. For physical health, it represents an important psychologist shift to move from “I have diabetes” to “I am a diabetic.” The American Psychological Association requires researchers to name the participants in their experiments as “people with X” so as not to reduce them to a condition. So it’s not dumb! I get it!
But sewist?
And then this morning I read a post on whipup.net that described specific people as makers. “On the front cover appears the work of three makers…” Some of those featured are called stitchers, and of course there are quilters and knitters and artists. The word crafters has something of a shoddy reputation (maybe that’s just me, part of my generation, speaking to glue guns and large plastic canvas stitched with gaudy acrylic yarn fashioned into kleenex box holders hello my dear former mother-in-law).
Which then, inexorably, leads to the debate between art and craft. And by craft, I mean very fine craft, not the plastic canvas craft. Craft as in American Craft. Craft that overlaps quite heavily with art. One of my pet phrases seems to be “overlapping Venn diagrams” — I’ve noticed I say it at least a few times a week, for one reason or another. There is clearly a category of handwork that stays on the crafty side of craft, whose practitioners like to shop at Hobby Lobby or Michael’s, and who undoubtedly get so much pleasure from their handwork….and that’s the point! And there is another clear category of work that stays on the art side of art – work that’s about expressing an idea, presenting a project. Work that can’t exist without highly skilled specific talents, but that is much more about expressing an idea. I adore that category. (And have you seen Art:21 on PBS? YOU SHOULD! Right! Away! You can watch it online, too, for free. I just stumbled upon it last night on streaming Netflix, already in its 5th season.)
And then there’s the larger category of the muddy middle. I adore that category too. The category of breathtaking skill and care. The category that encompasses very fine handwork in quilts, woodworking, needlework, glass, metalwork, printmaking. The category that would include Kellie Wulfsohn‘s quilts:
amazing - double-click to see the detail
The category that would include handmade chairs and tables made with the most incredible attention to detail – I’m blanking on the name of a man who recently died, one of the very best there was. Dang it. Getting old is the pits. The category also includes this: a toilet made of horse dung:
created by Virginia Gardiner
It’s not accidental that she uses poop to make a toilet – it’s part of her project. Is it art? No, but it sure isn’t craft(y) either.
Anyway. Names matter, even if they represent very slippery and porous categories. I have a daughter who is an artist – I’m not an artist. I aspire to Craft. BUT p.s., I am not a sewist. I sew.
To close on a different and hilarious note, this ad from the 1950s:
double-click to see it full size
Here’s what it says in the copy:
Does any man really understand you?
Who knows you as you really are? Does he?
Who knows the secret hopes that warm your heart?
Who knows the dreams you dream, the words you’ve left unspoken?
Who knows the black-lace thoughts you think while shopping in a gingham frock?
Who knows you sometimes long to sleep in pure-silk sheets?
Who knows you’d love to meet a man who’d hold your hand and listen … while you say nothing at all?
Who knows there was a morning when your orange juice sparkled like champagne? [what?]
Who knows the secret, siren side of you that’s female as a silken cat?
WOWIE.
knitting in NYC
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