listen / do you want to know a secret / do you promise not to tell ~ The Beatles (and me, but I’m not telling)
There’s a lot of stuff going on chez Thrums that I don’t write about — of course. I feel relatively free to write about myself, somewhat free to write about my kids, and not at all free to write about other people I know. There are some people I never write about because their privacy is important to preserve for one reason or another, and others I mention in a glancing way because unlike me, they didn’t sign up for this public airing of thoughts business. Still, there is a lot of stuff going on in my life that isn’t getting discussed here, and it leaves me feeling strange about what I do write about, because without the unspoken stuff, what I present here seems like a sham in some way. [this reminds me of that terrible joke: So, Mrs. Kennedy, except for that one day in Dallas, how was your trip to Texas? terrible joke] So I’m finding it a little harder to make regular posts about my life, since the big middle of it is private.
Remember how I had to frog Marnie’s Moby sweater? I frogged it completely and just started over, and I’m finally back at the point I was in the first edition (I’ve decided to refer to them as editions, like books). So here I am:
Ambergris, by Ann Weaver (2nd edition)
I do note with satisfaction that the cable ropes are all done correctly in this edition; there was one error in the first version that would’ve bugged me forever, so you know, you take what comfort you can from a situation like this. I’ve already divided at the sleeves, so now I’m doing the front up to the neck, and then I’ll do the back. Then two sleeves, each with cable ropes up the center, assembly, and a turtleneck. I hope I can finish this while Marnie still has time to wear it this winter; since she lives in Chicago, the odds are pretty good.
Tonight I’m having a date with Will, which I’m really looking forward to. We’re going to a cool little independent bookstore on Prince St. (McNally Jackson) and then over to an Indian food restaurant he loves, for dosas. It’s been such a warm and dry winter, it doesn’t feel like January at all — but I’m not complaining, especially for this evening, as we tramp around that great little neighborhood. One truly wonderful thing about all three of my kids is that we share a love of words and books. It manifests itself differently in the three of them, but I do share something special with each one of them around books, and that makes me happier than you can imagine. I like to think it’s my gift to them.
* * *
Here’s the next writing prompt — a 600-word story (a narrative describing a shared experience) told from the “we” perspective. No first person pronouns allowed! My first thought was to put the couple in therapy and have them telling competing narratives about something, but I got this idea and ran with it instead. It’s a piece of fiction, again, but again it uses bits of real experience for texture. My husband and I did go to Luang Prabang, which means the details of place are true, but the rest is entirely made up:
We woke up very early that morning because we wanted to witness the monks’ morning alms ritual; since we were staying at a hotel on the other side of the Mekong River, we had to get up early enough to walk across that long scary bridge – remember, honey? – and it made us nervous because of the traffic, especially in the dark. We felt so exhausted when the alarm went off, but we both knew how much you wanted to see it so off we went.
Right – it really wasn’t the kind of thing you like to do sugar plum, you’d rather visit the markets and the food stalls, but you were such a good sport about it. We just had no idea how it was going to turn out, did we? We thought we’d go to the main street, kneel at the curb, and watch the Lao women putting little clumps of rice in each of the monks’ baskets, and then get some breakfast on the way back to our hotel – remember how much we loved the breakfast at that one place? But it didn’t turn out like that at all. And you’re usually such a quiet guy, avoiding trouble. Sure, you’ll speak up if you feel you’re getting ripped off, but you never get involved in violence. You just never do that.
So there we were, walking across that bridge, in the dark. Remember how there weren’t any lights of any kind? Not even headlights, since cars weren’t allowed on the bridge? And remember how tiny the walkway was for pedestrians, with broken boards and loose nails? And how quiet the morning was – we heard the river, the cyclists passing on the bridge, the early morning fishermen, and the birds? You were commenting on the birds just as we left the bridge and crossed onto the sidewalk. We had to stop because your long skirt got caught in the clasp of your sandal, and you were kneeling down to untangle it. We were both a little bit on edge – do you remember why, now? It’s hard to imagine why we felt so unsettled, in Luang Prabang. We’d had such a great time, and felt safer there than anywhere else we’d been in Southeast Asia. Maybe it was just the very early hour, combined with the darkness that we’re not used to, since we’re from Manhattan where it’s never dark. Maybe we were just kind of punchy from exhaustion.
Well sugar, you say “we” were punchy, but “we” weren’t really punchy – you were. Remember?
You’re right – you were singing and laughing and commenting on how beautiful the river was in the dark, and how many stars you saw. OK, “we” weren’t punchy, point taken. But we were both a little anxious in the utter darkness, that’s definitely true. And neither of us expected someone to grab you – you have to agree with that!
No, we certainly never expected something like that to happen, that’s true. Did you see him coming?
No, remember how we were both bending over – you were squatting – trying to get your skirt free? The guy just came out of nowhere, it seemed, and leaned over you, saying something we couldn’t understand.
You did overreact just a little bit honey, you have to admit. If it hadn’t been so dark we might’ve noticed that he was wearing orange robes, and had shaved his head. You didn’t have to punch the poor guy, he was just offering to help us! Granted, it was dark and you were trying to protect me, but come on. You punched a monk.
“I’ve a grand memory for forgetting.” ~Robert Louis Stevenson
“I’m really good at forgetting.” ~my daughter Marnie, age 5
Curses — foiled again by my age-related failing memory. I just received four skeins of The Plucky Knitter Primo MCN (fingering) in a gorgeous red shade she calls Barn Door, and I can’t remember what sweater I was going to make with it.
1540 yards of fingering weight -- for the perfect sweater if only I could remember
I know it wasn’t a pattern I’d made before, and I think it was a cardigan. I think I actually wrote it down on a little notepad file but didn’t save it. Curses! Foiled again! Dadgummit! If you have a favorite cardigan knit with fingering, please let me know!
It’s c.o.l.d here this morning; it’s risen to 14 degrees and heading up to 29. Perhaps its because of my flu, but I just cannot get warm. I’m wearing a long-sleeved thin undershirt, a turtleneck, a cardigan, and a fleece jacket on top of it all, and I have a scarf around my neck and thick socks on my feet. I’m covered with a hand-knit blanket, and another blanket, and I’m still cold. I had a big bowl of very hot oatmeal and cups of steaming tea, and I’m still cold. I think the flu must be ramping up the chill.
On that shivery note, back under the covers for me. Don’t forget to suggest sweater patterns if you have a fave! Stay well y’all.
A WiP post…
Well y’all, I’m sick. Small potatoes — a touch of flu or something, just the kind of thing that feels gross and icky and whiney, but nothing more. I’m wound up in blankets and flannel pajamas, with my fleece jacket and a heater blowing on me, and going in and out of naps. It’s bitter cold here; today’s high is only 26, so it feels like winter, especially as I watch the wind whistling down my street, blowing the bare trees around.
This weekend I did a lot of knitting, as I mentioned, and just shared the pictures with Marnie so I thought I’d put them here, too. This is the Ambergris sweater designed by Ann Weaver, which she [obviously] based on Moby Dick:
here's the front -- see how the design elements extend down into the ribbing?
close-up view of the flukes and ropes -- i really love both those elements
the side seam, a kind of whalebone inset
It’s great fun to knit, but it requires attention because there’s a lot going on at once — several charts, shaping, and the addition of a side chart in one small section (not shown here). I made a large Excel spreadsheet — oh how I love Excel spreadsheets — plotting out each row on the whole body. It makes it much simpler and so far I haven’t needed to frog anything….good, because the yarn is sticky and has long alpaca fibers here and there, which would make frogging a slow process. I’m really enjoying working on it, and love to imagine Marnie wearing it. The pleasures of knitting something special for someone you love, when they’ve had a part in the project so you know they’ll enjoy it.
*cough* *shiver* Back under the covers for me. Happy knitting, y’all.
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.
another one bites the dust! Two Amy Herzog sweaters in about 6 weeks’ time. Pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty good.
And….here it is! My new sweater, dubbed Laurayana, because Laura gave me the Ayana pattern for my birthday. It took me less than 3 weeks to make the sweater, from swatch to block. I really love it, though I may undo the hem facings and redo them in simple bind-off or something. I’m not sure I like the bulk there. But it’s flattering, and very comfortable, and it was a fun knit:
such great texture in that front panel
red in the sweater's hem, and in the sleeve hems, too! surprise!
really such a comfortable sweater to wear.
This is my first sweater knit in pieces, and the first time I’ve used Cascade 220 for a sweater. I’ll do both again, for sure.
Here’s my project page on ravelry, where I note a lot of details. And this leads me to a mini-rant, now that I think about it. I wish people would indicate the size they knit, and how much yarn they used! It’s also nice if they list mods, or problems they encountered, and I love to read notes about how the yarn wears with time. But at a minimum, I wish everyone would list the size they knit and how much yarn they used. This isn’t about comparing (ooh, she’s a 42!!), it’s about knowing how it’ll look in your size, and how much yarn you really need for that size. Good grief.
And with this, I suspect my long run of knitting posts will slow down. Though I’m nearly done with the deep ribbing on Audrey……
Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!
lots of making in my household lately. and making = happy.
Really, I’m like you (if you’re a knitter): I get the urge to cast on all the time, I like to have multiple projects going for the inevitable boring slogs that hit each project, I have queue overload and new project lust. See? Just like you. But for some weird reason, I’ve recently been unwilling to work on more than one project at a time. I want to finish my Laurayana sweater before I cast on Audrey in Silt, thinking I’d rather finish one and wear it than have two going and not get to wear either one for much longer. Weird. Of course, I did pause for a bit to knock out the little hat, but that was because I needed a hat.
But I’m spotting a trend here, hatched with my Ozma’s Delight sweater: the contrasting hem.
that's my berry red hat with the blue/purple hem facing, and my blue/purple sweater with the cherry red hem facing!
I didn’t set out to do this! It just kind of happened. It’s too warm to wear the hat yet, but I’m ready when the chill comes. And as for my Laurayana sweater, the front and back are finished, one sleeve is finished, and the 2nd sleeve is half done. Then I just have to sew the shoulders together, pick up and knit a very few rows to finish the neck (stockinette, so they do a little tight curl), and then sew in the sleeves and sew up the sides. Sewing pieces together is always a bit of magic, and I really kind of like doing it. It’s careful work, close handwork, just my kind of thing.
So the soup-making spree is a memory now, and we have quarts and quarts (and gallons and gallons) of amazing soup in the freezer, ready for the winter. In addition to all that, my husband also made a beautiful batch of gravlax, which we’ve been enjoying.
that's 18 quarts of homemade cabbage soup. I KNOW! 18 QUARTS! and we also have french onion, probably 8 quarts.
here's the cabbage soup, for a close-up. it's thick with yummy cabbage, and shreds of brisket, and chunks of tomato. and the broth is a lovely sweet-sour flavor, deepened (of course) by the complexity of his homemade beef stock.
it's hard to really appreciate this, since it just looks like a piece of salmon; he scraped/rinsed off the salt/sugar/fresh dill blanket that it cured in for a couple days. sliced paper-thin, and either eaten plain (my way) or on pumpernickel bread (his way), it's so fresh and delicious. tastes like the sea, kind of. the delicious salmon sea.
So yeah, it’s been a knitty-foodie several days around here, punctuated by long walks in the park, marathon Breaking Bad watching, and naps and cups of tea and writing. Doesn’t that sound heavenly……..
i don’t usually do WiP Wednesdays, but I’m in a rush and this was easy!
Happy Thanksgiving Eve! It’s gridlock alert day here in Manhattan, and we’re all encouraged to use public transport. Since I’ll be using it a lot today, I dread the crowds, but what to do. If you’re busy making pies and all that jazz, I wish I were hanging out with you.
Thanks to my old-lady-can’t-sleep deal, I’ve been up since 4am. Whee! I spent some of that time making progress on my Laurayana sweater, which is coming along beautifully. The back is finished, and I’m just a few inches from finishing the front. The sleeves will go quickly, so I should have another new sweater in a week or two!
the back (on the right) has been blocked and the change in the fabric is WONDERFUL; it doesn't really have that underarm lump as it appears, on the right side of the back. The pattern up the center of the front is fun to work, waving ribs.
I was a little worried about the hem facing; first of all, it’s odd to face a ribbed hem, but also, I was worried that the bright red would show. I wanted that to be my private treat. When I blocked the back, turning up the hem gave me a bit of relief. Even when it’s not stitched down, it’s thoroughly hidden.
As for Audrey in Silt, I haven’t cast on yet; it has a very deep ribbed section of twisted rib, and I’m trying to think about how committed I am to that twist. I’m thinking the answer is not so much.
Lots of work to get done today, and a meeting with a client this morning followed by back-to-back meetings in the afternoon. Good thing I woke up at 4am.
such a thrill to be able to knit and read at the same time!
I’m paid to read and write all day long (yay! [but sometimes ugh]), and now and then I can read and knit for pay. I know, so lucky. When I’m actually working in the manuscript, editing someone’s words, my hands are on the keyboard and that’s that. But when I’m just reading someone’s manuscript and giving them my feedback on it, I can knit at the same time. Not only are manuscript evaluations my favorite thing to do because I’m good at it, they’re also my favorite because of the knitting time. Yesterday I read a manuscript and made some headway on my Laurayana sweater. I’m about an inch away from beginning the armhole shaping on the back:
the back, with shaping darts -- of course I had to do extra shaping for my waist, as always
that hem facing is madelinetosh DK, in tart. so tarty, so pretty! It won't be visible at all, since this is a pullover, but I know it's there.
Unfortunately for me and my knitting time, the next run of work is editing, not evaluation, and I have so much it’s stressing me out, waking me up at 1am. In fact, I got up at 1 this morning to get some work done. So this rate of progress will come to a halt for now, but it sure was fun!
the guy could handle the whole deal by himself. he didn’t need no stinking dinner partner.
Will had dinner with me tonight, to finish my birthday celebration. It was great — we ate at a diner in my neighborhood that has my favorite salad ever, of all times. He was still zinging around from his crazy busy day at work, so I chattered for a while to give him a chance to settle in and unwind. But sitting next to us was this very strange old man who was talking and gesturing — a lot, and loudly — to a dinner companion who just wasn’t there. He was lit, let’s just say it that way.
It was like getting a glimpse into the guy’s mind, because whatever he thought came out of his mouth, and it was influenced by the slightest things going on in his proximity. So when I took this picture of Will:
my crazy son who cannot take a picture seriously
the drunk dude at the next table started talking about cameras. He stopped the waiter and asked him about cameras, told him stories about an SLR he used to have that could only take great pictures. The waiter humored him for a second and then slipped away. Then the guy started talking about something else, and then he abruptly said MAMMY! while lifting his hand.
It alternated between being extremely annoying, kind of funny in a trainwreck kind of way, kind of sad, and back to extremely annoying. It hit annoying two times out of every four rounds through the emotions. Mainly he was annoying. Yeah.
Today I tried to take a new picture of my Wintry Mix sweater so you could really see it, since the photograph I took in the Catskills made it look like the shoulder was weird and rumply in a way it isn’t, really. It’s a very dark green and I was indoors, and it’s just hard to get a good shot of it. This is the best I could do; see the great cowl, and the beautiful shape? It’s a wonderful sweater if you’re in the mood for a bottom-up pullover.
Wintry Mix, by Amy Herzog (yarn: berroco blackstone tweed, in evergreen)
It’s a great sweater; obviously, I wear a very thin long-sleeved t-shirt underneath it for extra warmth and because it feels a little better. The blackstone tweed is 65% wool, 25% mohair, and 10% angora, and it’s just the tiniest bit uncomfortable for some reason. That’s not really right — it’s just a tiny bit more comfortable with a very thin shirt underneath. I really love the sweater, and can’t recommend the pattern enough. I changed it up so the collar is more a cowl than a big flat Peter Pan-type collar, and I love it that way. And Will approves — he’s been my fashion approver for a very long time. 
“The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body” — Publius Syrus
When I was young, I got migraine headaches associated with my cycle. Then, at age 28, I had a complete hysterectomy and — surprise!! — I got them whenever I was exposed to volatile organic compounds. Anything with a strong smell, like perfume, PineSol, most cleaners, bleach, and even natural smelly things like mildew. That has not been fun to live with all these years; now, when I smell a hint of perfume, it’s associated with fear and terror of the pain to come. I have plenty of sumatriptan on hand, and (usually) one hit will knock out the migraine before it develops, but often it takes two. Of course, that just changes one problem for another, because the after effects of that large a dose of sumatriptan are pretty miserable, themselves. That’s what happened to me yesterday.
So I had huge plans for the day, cleaning plans, organizing plans, getting-ready-for-the-trip plans, and they were all scuttled. I lay on the couch, against a heating pad for the brittle-tight muscles, and moaned all day. Barely moved all day. Except for my hands. Since my Wintry Mix sweater is so simple to knit, and worsted on Addi Turbos, I didn’t even have to look at what I was doing: perfect for my situation! One sleeve is completely finished, and yesterday I got the body done, divided at the sleeves, and I’m working up the back:
the fastest sweater I've *ever* knit
Since this is a busy and short week, and we’ll pull out of town late Thursday afternoon, I probably won’t finish the sweater before we go. DANG. It’d be fun to hunker down and finish it in such a short time. I definitely won’t take it with me; it’s quite hot and steamy where we’re going.
And here’s the best thing about having a situation that is excruciatingly painful: when it’s over, Joy! Rapture! Bliss! Clouds parting! Sun shining! All is right with the world, I can do anything! And on that note, I’m off to do chores! Whee! [edited: nope. No can do. Rebound. Stupid migraines.]
the downside of weight loss
Since I finished my beloved Dark & Stormy cardigan, I’ve lost 15 pounds. It was slightly too big when I finished it, and now it swallows me. Seriously. I look like I’m wearing my dad’s cardigan.
excuse everything about this photo please! the sweater was not yet blocked, that's not really a muffin top at my waist, and i'd just been awake for ~30 minutes. the eagerness of the final bind-off, you know. so this is how it fit 15 pounds ago.
So, OK. Huge on me. What would you do? Would you try to shrink it? And if so, how? Since I live in NYC, I don’t have my own washer and dryer. I have to go down to the basement and use the industrial machines, so doing fiddly stuff is a bit of a pain but I’d do it if it meant I could salvage my sweater. I’d do anything except put the 15 pounds on again. Seriously.
What would you do?
we clearly need to overthrow the Weather Czar. this is crazy.
Good grief — we’re in the midst of days and days, after days and days, looking ahead to days and days, of rain. Gray skies, cool temperatures (60 yesterday), drenching downpours, what happened! It was just very very hot, what happened here? And, of course, my beloved central Texas is going up in flames. My beloved oldest daughter is packed and ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice, and nearly had to do so. A place I’ve loved a lot, Bastrop, is mostly just gone, burned up (that fire, which is still burning, is visible from space). They haven’t had rain in months and months (and before that, just a whisper of rain), and they broke all the heat records this summer, and well, that’s just a recipe for the disaster that’s unfolding there.
yeah. terrifying.
If only I could be involved in the redistribution channels — it’s obvious, redirect all of our rain and cold weather down to the scorched, killing, devastation and destruction going on. I don’t believe this, but there’s a way it feels like the Biblical end times these days. Earthquakes and hurricanes, raging out of control fires and deadly drought, and don’t get me started on things of a politically-induced nature.
Sunday I finished my adorable little red number, my featherweight cardigan. I keep thinking I can surely get a photo tomorrow, surely tomorrow it won’t be so gray and gloomy and shadowy, but tomorrow hasn’t come yet. It’s fabulous, I couldn’t be happier with it. The color is great, cheery, powerful, the fit is wonderful, and the fact that I love wearing a cropped sweater that ends at my waist is priceless.
While I wait for the yarn to arrive for my three new sweaters (me! knitting three new sweaters!), I’m spending my knitting time powering through the blanket I’m making. It’s Anne Hanson’s Totally Autumn pattern, in a rich chocolate brown Cascade 220 Heathers. This is the project that went through the trauma in Turkey of my having to pull out the needles at the Istanbul airport, so I’ve kind of recovered from that disaster and now see the end in sight. The work will come to a standstill when my sweater yarns arrive, but maybe I’ll just try to put in X number of rows per day on the blanket so it’ll eventually get done, instead of languishing.
Busy busy busy times for me — appointments this afternoon, seeing a play tonight, breakfast tomorrow with my oldest friend from Alabama, writing group tomorrow night, fly off to Chicago early Friday morning to visit Marnie, home on Monday, poetry group Tuesday night. AND I’m trying to finish the details for my trip back to Vietnam and over to Borneo, during the first two weeks of October. Which is just three weeks away. Yikes. Busy busy busy.
Reunited and it feels so good / Reunited ‘cuz we understood / There’s one perfect fit and sugar this one is it / We both are so excited ‘cuz we’re reunited, hey-hey
I used to be a rabid checker of my Ravelry friends tab, to see what everyone was knitting, favoriting, queueing. It was part of my online fanaticism: check my facebook feed, google reader, NYTimes front page, ravelry friends. After my vacation to Laos last fall, I quit checking my friends tab. Why? I kept checking the others! I think I just felt some kind of overwhelm, like I couldn’t go back and see everything I’d missed so I didn’t check. That doesn’t make much sense, because I could just start from the day I returned.
Another factor, though, was a kind of satiation. How many more sock patterns, shawl patterns, sweater patterns, could I look at? How many more can I queue that are really all that different from the 172 currently in my queue? I’d look at them and kind of yawn, or feel tired: ah, but that one’s just miles of stockinette. Ah, but that one’s just another triangle shawl and too similar to my Ishbels. Yeah, but I know how that one would look on me (or its corollary: I am not sure how that one would look on me). And since I’m on a yarn-buying severely restricted diet, I had to go cold-turkey on my feverish following of every new madelinetosh colorway.
Anyway. I noticed this morning that I’ve returned to checking my friends tab, and feeling excited about the things I see. I spent last weekend knitting — all day Saturday and all day Sunday — and have returned to knitting while I watch tv. Finishing my byzantine traveling woman probably helped; Janna taught me that the cure for a knitting slump is an FO, and it worked again. I’m on sleeve #1 of my little red featherweight cardigan and I’m enjoying working on my KtyKozue, though the yarn is kind of hard and hurts my stranding finger. When I hit the long middle of pure stockinette I may bog down, but it’s an enjoyable scarf to knit:
I know, it looks like a grinning face or something. Zen Garden Sea Lace yarn, Kozue scarf, combo suggested by dear Kty
The most visible sign, to me, that my love of knitting is returning is that I have already bought the pattern and materials for this year’s birthday sweater. Last year, Kelly gave me the Dark & Stormy pattern (Thea Colman) which I knitted with madelinetosh vintage, in Baltic. I enjoyed the pattern so much that when I saw the newest one – Vodka Gimlet – I knew it was the one.
Vodka Gimlet, photo from Rav
And for the first time ever, I’m even using the recommended yarn (The Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted), in this gorgeous emerald color called Oz. I thought about making it in dove gray, or even charcoal, but decided that the brilliant green would be spirit-lifting in dreary winter. The sweater’s cute, with some waist shaping (I may make mine a bit more shaped, since my waist is relatively small and my best body feature), and a cropped length which I never thought I could wear until I began my strength training and coincidentally lost some weight.
I’ve also been so tempted to make a stripe study shawl — I think I’m the only knitter in the world who hasn’t made one yet. I keep looking at my stash page, trying to come up with striking combos. I haven’t felt it yet.
How about you? Got any exciting fall knitting plans?
how is it already mid-June?! Who knows where the time goes?
What have I been doing! Working, working [out], being social, going through the hell of transferring my professional site to a new domain (don’t get me started), eating good summer food, and just doing everything except documenting it all. Oh, and a bit of knitting on my gorgeous red featherweight cardigan, want to see?
that color is amazing
Of course the little cardigan is as light as a whisper, a breeze, a feather, perhaps. I can’t wait to finish it so I can wear it. Even though it’s laceweight yarn, the large needles make it go pretty quickly so I’m not being bogged down by all the stockinette. I’m going to do some waist shaping since my waist does have shape.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to walk over to St John the Divine for the 4:30am Summer Solstice Concert. The Winter Solstice concert was so amazing, and I imagine the summer solstice concert will be, too; sitting in the very dark gothic cathedral, listening to live music as the sun slowly comes up and pours through the stained glass windows….even worth getting up that early, I imagine. We’ll see. Should be a great weekend.
And the same to you, my friends. A great weekend.
general goings-on about knitting, blah blah blah
So I’ve kind of been on the outs with knitting. Me and her, not getting along. You know, when you first meet her she’s dazzling — multifaceted, challenging, gorgeous, fun, you just can’t get enough of her. But then one day you get kind of tired of all her stuff, the way she just won’t get along with you at times, the way she gets to be a bore. And then someone else comes along! Someone who’s fun in an entirely different way, someone who changes your life, and there’s just not enough interest for the old one.
OK, I’m bailing on my little story. Basically, I’ve been so getting into the new physical changes I’m undergoing, the reorienting of my 52-year old head toward actually having a physically active life, that I’m kind of antsy. Do I want to sit there on the couch? Not really. I’d much rather be doing something. Or (shh, I feel kind of bad about this) trying on different outfits and thinking I look cute. It’s a gorgeous day. I want to be outside in it!
And then there’s the way all the WIPs are just a pain in the ass for one reason or another. There’s my blanket, which underwent the traumatic pulling-out-the-needles debacle in Turkey. I haven’t had the heart to face that one. There’s my lettuce green Rock Island Shawl; 71 repeats of the motif? Really? Getting kind of sick of it. There’s my giant and very heavy byzantine Traveling Woman Shawl — gosh, it’s hot and the rows are so long.
But you know, those 71 repeats aren’t going to do themselves, and that green is such a great color, so I picked it up this morning and got going, only to make some kind of mistake, and then in tinking back I made a GIANT mistake, and I just put it away. Bah. I really wanted to knit, but everything sucks.
And my darling girlfriends, you know the remedy for that. A NEW WIP! I’m making myself a red little number — the Featherweight Cardigan, which will look so adorable and great with my other adorable outfits. I’m using the stunning yarn I bought at Rhinebeck, Spirit Trail Fiberworks Clotho, colorway dragon’s blood!
COLOR LOVE
And in my new version of myself, the one who takes care and does what’s best for myself, I’m starting off with a generous swatch. Taking measurements. Even doing math (not math!) if necessary, which always cracks me up that that’s some kind of daunting thing. I teach statistics to undergrads, for heaven’s sake.
One great thing about swatching is that I also get to see if the combination of needle and yarn feels good in my hands, too. I hate using some of my old aluminum-ey needles with laceweight, but I’ve done it when it was the only pair I had on hand. Never again. And then there was the Denise needles disaster with my Dark & Stormy, where every stitch and row was just too hard.
So I’ll do a bit of swatching, but then I’m heading outdoors. Central Park is calling my name and I cannot resist her charms today. Happy Saturday!
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.
why? why? why? was it hubris? that’s the usual suspect with greek gods…
I have made an executive decision. The goddess of knitting is Ariadne. She’s the one who gave Theseus a ball of yarn so he could find his way out of the minotaur’s labyrinth. Remember her? That girl?
I figured any woman who is clever enough to come up with a use for a skein of yarn AND who is handy and familiar with labyrinthine things must be our patron woman. And I have clearly pissed her off somehow. I’m trying to find a corner clear enough to do a burnt offering, though I have no livestock to give (pa rum-pa-pum-pum). Maybe I’ll put some yarn scraps in a bowl and set fire to them.
Or maybe I’ll just use my Dark & Stormy Cardigan. Yeah, that one. That gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous sweater. That somehow grew — like the Grinch’s heart — 3 sizes. After careful blocking, it became the cardigan for a giant. And I’m no giant, even though I’m pretty dang tall. (ok, it’s not 3 sizes too big, but it’s at least one size too big.)
The yarn I used, madelinetosh vintage, is superwash. I don’t know how much success I’ll have tossing it in the dryer, but I’m ready to give that a try. My hair is already thinning with age, so I don’t want to pull it out. With my family history, I’d better not take up drinking to soothe my spirits. So all I can think of are (1) burnt offerings, and (2) a hot dryer. Which means going to the coin-operated dryer in the basement, paying for a whole hour (the minimum), and hoping no one comes in to do laundry while I’m trying to shrink my sweater.
p.s. and yes, for those who might ask, I knitted a swatch, I washed it, I blocked it, I let it dry, I kind of whipped it around in the air a little to try to stretch it out, and it didn’t grow.
Well! This was really the year of sweater knitting; I finished five sweaters this year. Last year I made two, so this was a dramatic increase. It was nice to start the year off with a sweater, even if 90% of it was completed last year. My first FO of 2011 was the Dark & Stormy cardigan, designed by Thea Colman, knit in Madelinetosh vintage (colorway baltic). The pattern was a birthday gift from my friend Kelly, and I absolutely adore the sweater. This’ll stand in until I get a nice shot of me wearing it:
Continue Reading–248 words totally
Well! This was really the year of sweater knitting; I finished five sweaters this year. Last year I made two, so this was a dramatic increase. It was nice to start the year off with a sweater, even if 90% of it was completed last year. My first FO of 2011 was the Dark & Stormy cardigan, designed by Thea Colman, knit in Madelinetosh vintage (colorway baltic). The pattern was a birthday gift from my friend Kelly, and I absolutely adore the sweater. This’ll stand in until I get a nice shot of me wearing it:
just gorgeous, in every way
It seems to be a blue year, this year; while I was waiting for some yarn to arrive, I knocked out a quick braidy cowl, which I named Oh, Marcia. So corny. It’s the Very Braidy Cowl, in Sweet Georgia worsted (colorway summer skin):
Marcia, Marcia Marcia - a very braidy cowl
In exactly the same colorway, but sock weight (which had been my intention when I mistakenly bought the worsted, above), here’s a pair of socks I made for my youngest daughter Anna’s 20th birthday. She really loves handknit socks, much to my real surprise, which makes it such fun to make them for her. This pattern is Komet:
the komet pattern (free on rav), in Sweetgeorgia tough sock, colorway summer skin
SO MUCH BLUE. Something very different was called for……red. Here’s my “I need something red shawl” (aka LaReine Shawl, by Angela Tong, in OkayKnits Sena, colorway sweetie-pie). I absolutely adore this piece, and wear it all the time:
it's such a vibrant color, and a very nice length!
I had this absolutely gorgeous colorway of madelinetosh’s Tosh Merino Light called filigree, so I used one skein of it to make a Saroyan. I loved the pattern, and loved the yarn, but for some reason it won’t photograph correctly, no matter what I do, what kind of light, etc. So trust me, it’s a gorgeous olive green, not so brown:
IT'S NOT BROWN!!! grrrrrr!!
If this wasn’t the quickest and simplest hat pattern in the world, I don’t know what is, but the yellow and white combo really lifts it into “Wow! Where’d you get that hat!” status. Made for Marnie, the pattern is “My Striped & Slouchy Hat“, knit in Cascade 220.
adorable, right?!
These socks — Angee, by Cookie A, knit in KnitPicks Felici (colorway: green vegetables) — are for my oldest daughter Katie, who (a) loves green and (b) picked the pattern. I love knitting for my kids. Knitting the hat above and the socks below was a great antidote to winter.
angee, in knitpicks felici
It took forever, but I made a second Traveling Woman shawl in tosh DK, colorway byzantine. It’s gorgeous, drapy, squishy, and warm:
Traveling Woman Shawl, by Liz Abinante, in tosh DK
A very very quick little knit, I cranked out the Fetching mitts in a couple hours. The yarn is so soft, Cascade Eco Duo (70% alpaca, 30% merino), in the vanilla colorway. It’s a fun knit, and I know the mitts will be luscious to wear but I don’t know how they’ll hold up, given how soft they are (and the yarn is loosely-spun singles). Still, look:
you wouldn't believe how soft these are!
I love this hot little number: Hannah Fettig’s featherweight cardigan, in Spirit Trail Fiberworks’ “clotho,” colorway deliciously called dragon’s blood. This is a wonderful little sweater, I see why everyone has made it.
the color is dragon's blood
This was without a doubt the fastest sweater I’ve ever knit; it really just took 13 days, even though there was a 15-day break in the middle while I was gone to Vietnam and didn’t work on it at all. This is my Wintry Mix sweater, designed by Amy Herzog, knit in the recommended yarn (Berroco Blackstone Tweed).
Wintry Mix, by Amy Herzog (yarn: berroco blackstone tweed, in evergreen)
A second Thea Colman design, this one the Vodka Gimlet — but since my colorway was Oz (Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted), I named my sweater Ozma’s Delight. I can’t express how much I adore this sweater, I’ll probably wear it every day:
sweater LOVE
When the weather started smelling cold, I realized I don’t have a warm hat, so I knocked out A Hat for Eudora, designed by Alexandra Tinsley. The pattern was a birthday gift from Kelly, and the yarn is Cascade 220. I call it my Berry Welty hat.
the hem facing is blue and purple, but only I get to know that!
Here’s my Laurayana sweater — Ayana by Amy Herzog, pattern gifted by my friend Laura. This was knit in Cascade 220 Heathers (color, montmartre, which is much more dusty lavender than it looks here).
really such a comfortable sweater to wear.
For my youngest daughter Anna, a pair of handknit socks — the only kind of socks she wears, which cracks me up given who she is, otherwise. Not a handknit anything kind of person!
Kai-Mei (pattern by Cookie A), in KnitPicks Stroll Tonal (golden glow)
Her foot is at least a couple sizes smaller than mine, so that sock is stretched pretty far to fit over my foot!
it’s about time! i’m pleased to introduce you to……
excuse everything about this photo please!
There’s nothing good to say about this picture — my hair is its morning mess, there’s nothing styled here, the sweater is just off the needles and so not yet blocked, and it’s pinned together with yellow-headed pins — but LOOK! My Dark & Stormy sweater [rav link] is a fait accompli! (and p.s., that’s not really a muffin top around my waist, it’s the unblocked sweater pooching out. i swear. )
And do I love it? With the heat of a thousand burning suns. With the calories of a thousand triple-decker chocolate cakes. With the winds of a thousand level 5 tornadoes. With the spit of a thousand tobacco-chewing cowboys. With the seeds of a thousand watermelons. I’d say I do.
Janna, I think you were on to something. I needed to finish something. I haven’t had an FO in months, and finishing this has re-lit the fire in mah belly. Now I just want to grab Eve’s Rib and finish her off. I’m in a tough spot since I came to be crazy about sweater knitting; knitting small things doesn’t thrill me like it used to, but it takes me a long time to finish a sweater so the FOs are fewer and farther between. I’ll have to figure this out.
Au revoir, ennui! Hasta luego, malaise! Hello, new sweater!
i’m tantalized, are you tantalized? we’re so tantalized! what a weird word.
ooh! that looks suspiciously like a finished sleeve!
mmm hmm. yep. that’s right. i did it. uh huh. me go girl. all riiiiiiight.
dunh dunh dunh! the return of knitting content!
I promised that knitting content would return, since this is after all (ostensibly) a knitting blog. The truth is that I haven’t felt much like knitting lately, and I haven’t had much time, either. But I have been making steady progress on my birthday sweater, pattern courtesy of my friend Kelly (dark and stormy cardigan, by thea colman, yarn is madelinetosh vintage, in baltic). Knitting the 3″ wide front band takes a long time, since it goes continuously up one side, around the collar (with a big section of short rows to make the wide cardigan collar) and back down the other side, in 1×1 ribbing. Maybe it’s just me, but 1×1 ribbing is the slowest thing to do. ANYWAY. Last night I finished the collar and bands, so I just have the sleeves to do.
cables and twists, so beautiful! and the way the cables drift into the ribbing at the bottom, really great.
look at that great collar - loose bindoff is critical here
the front of my beautiful birthday sweater -- unblocked, obviously!
So that’s been fun. I know I always get bored with sleeves, which seem interminable, but I hope they feel relatively fast, after the long slog of the collar and bands. Stockinette will be welcomed again.
And here are a few obligatory shots out my window, since we’re in Blizzardgeddon, as they call it. Silly.
snow out the back window
view from my front window. in the windowsill: two brass horney toads, a tibetan singing bowl, and a porcelain star-shaped box full of pins. my stuff.
see that van? its alarm went off most of the evening. i really hope their battery died.
The wind is gusting like mad, and I’m watching pedestrians being blown around, or trying to walk forward but being blown backwards. And once again, I’m glad to be working at home.
wanna see what I got in Laos and Cambodia? Do ya? Huh? No? Then can I interest you in a WIP?
This’ll be a me-heavy post, so apologies for the seeming-narcissistic episode of me! Me wearing this! Me wearing that! Hi, it’s me! Enough about me, here’s a shot of my earrings…..on me! Anyway…..
I picked up a couple of small souvenirs on our recent vacation; I always buy a pair of earrings, and every time I wear them I get a rush of the place. The cool black ones I bought in Diocletian’s Palace, in Split (Croatia); the onyx and mother-of-pearl ones I bought in a little shop in Cusco; the heavy ones I bought in Udaipur, in India…such wonderful memories. This time, though, I bought two souvenirs, one from Laos and one from Cambodia.
my Khmer kroma, and Lao earrings
The scarf is called a Kroma, and you see them everywhere in Cambodia. They’re always checked, like this, and they’re quite often red. They’re always wrapped around people’s heads, to keep them cool, but they’re multipurpose items. They can be rolled into a pad and placed on your shoulder to cushion a yoke, or on your head to cushion a heavy basket; they can be used to carry babies and fruit; they can be worn around your neck, like a regular old scarf. It was the most distinctively Cambodian thing I could think of, that I could incorporate into my everyday life. I bought this at the big Central Market in Phnom Penh, and I have already worn the hell out of it.
lao earrings
These are heavy, and I’m having to train my earlobes to wear them. I’m definitely not a Buddhist (or art) scholar, so I’m absolutely guessing here, but I do wonder if there is some kind of Buddhist symbology in the design. Maybe not, but the wheel makes me wonder. I bought these in Luang Prabang, from a woman who sold her handwork on the sidewalk.
And now for the &c. Here’s where I am on my wonderful sweater (excuse my wet just-out-of-the-shower hair):
hi! look at my sweater!
(oh! see my earrings there?!) I’m at the waist now, so I’m hauling. I spent yesterday knitting, so I got a lot done. Here’s the back:
look at the pretty cables!
I’ve got another post percolating in my mind, but I probably won’t write it today. Yesterday, I watched a bunch of movies while I worked on my sweater: M, by Fritz Lang, Elf (for a complete whiplash-inducing change of pace), and three about Joseph Cambell. One of the Joseph Campbell movies was called Sukhavati, which means the place of bliss. So I’ve been thinking about a lot of the things he talked about and have something to say, but will do that later.
some of this, some of that, not a lot of snappy gray matter activity.
I can live with the drug and porn spam comments that my lovely spam catcher silences for my dear old blog. I do get tired of reading about drugs and penises, but they’re so routine and boring. Really, spammers? Really? What are you thinking.
But a lot of spam comments are just mean – like, “you can’t do better than this?” or “Real stupid post, you should just quit.” GOOD GRIEF. Every one of them sounds like the mean voice that occasionally squeaks around in the dark corners of my mind, and you know, that squeaky voice doesn’t need any help.
My new camera battery came today so I show you where I am with my really lovely sweater-in-progress:
moving down the body now - sleeves are divided
And the blanket I took with us on vacation, I got a lot done on it, though I’m only about 1/3 finished at this point:
you can't tell, but i got a LOT done!
When I left, I had finished only 2 repeats I think. Anyway. Feeling kind of dazed and stunned right now, so this is a half-assed post. I’m still hit hard by the reverse jet-lag, and the lack of sleep is accumulating; on top of that, I have a lot of work to do – good, of course – and I’ve spent the day buried in it. Now I have to head downtown for my monthly writing group, and I can’t imagine that I’ll write very much that’s coherent.
Oy. Boring myself here.
i fell down AGAIN but this time my computer also took a spill. dammit.
….ARGH. I was typing this post and got up to put my coffee cup in the dishwasher and somehow my feet got all tangled up in something, wires, footstool, pile o’ shoes, and I fell down hard. And this disaster caused my laptop to go flying, and land on an angle, on one of its corners, and as I hit the floor (hard) I was thinking “oh no! not my computer!! not now!!”
I now smell like coffee, my hands are shaking, my knees are all bruised, and my laptop is a bit out of whack. The top closes, and it seems to be working, but it’s kind of wonky. We always take it when we travel, because we upload the day’s photos and tell the day’s stories on our travel blog, so the timing of this little accident sucks. So far so good, though, so I hope the indestructibility of my ThinkPad continues.
Anyway, I’d written some of the post already, but now I’m kind of shaky so instead of reconstructing it, I’ll just leave this photo of where I am on my new birthday cardigan – the “52 is not dark and stormy” Dark and Stormy sweater by Thea Colman:
1 skein of yarn
Except for the rows where the cables do their biggest crossing, I cable without a cable needle now. The little twists, the easier crossing rows, it’s just me sliding stitches off the needle and rearranging them. Cool. Quick and easy, and no longer scary. I love the yarn (tosh vintage), the color shadings are fun (baltic) and make me happy. The design is simple and great fun to knit, and not boring — we’ll see what I’m saying when I hit the sleeves, of course.
So I’ll leave it here, at this point, and pick it up when we return. Off to put fresh sheets on our bed, put away the laundry, run the dishwasher, and pack. We’ll leave at 5 in the morning! WHEE!
lots to get done, getting lots done. pumpkin pie and cranberry bars, tandoori chicken and packing for laos, and lotsa deciding. i’m the decider.
Just a quick update note here – lots to do, lots getting done. SUCH AS
sturm und drang - i prefer storm and shadows
Progress on my 52nd birthday sweater! It’s looking so good; I put it on my footstool to go take the cranberry bars out of the oven, and when I came back the shadows were so dramatic I thought I’d snap the photo. I got nearly this far yesterday, only to realize I’d done the small twisted-stitch cables all wrong so I frogged the whole damn thing. I’m beyond where I was, so alles gute (where is all this german coming from!! i don’t speak german. though i am descended from a bunch of germans, all of whom were named Frank Peters, who arrived in Texas from Hanover in the early 1800s). ANYWAY. I love my sweater. It’s darker than it looks in that photo; the sunshiney parts are so blown out, but the other parts are so dark that the combo just freaked out my camera.
tandoori chicken with grilled onions and zucchini
Look at the yummy dinner I had last night – garlicky tandoori chicken, making my mouth water just remembering it. I’m not kidding; my salivary glands in my jaws are having painful spasms.
And here’s the “stuff” part of the post title. I decided to take the afghan I’m knitting for my vacation knitting.
the pattern is Totally Autumn (Anne Hanson) and the yarn is Cascade 200 Heathers
It’s a simple pattern, no extra gadgets are needed (cable needles, materials to hold sleeves, markers, nothing). Plus, I really want to get it done, and when I’m at home I seem to be more likely to work on sweaters now that I’m a dedicated sweater fiend. This way, I’ll get it done, it’ll be more special since I completed it in Laos and Cambodia on our vacation, and when I get home I can dive headlong into my sweaters. For my “just in case” knitting, I’ll take the purple owl eyes scarf. I can’t imagine that I’ll finish this afghan, but you never know.
Hope you’re having a great Sunday, a lovely weekend, and doing some happy knitting.
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.
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..
love has no pride. but i do.
My internet connection has gone on and off all morning – idiotic elevator men started sawing and making a horrendous racket at 6:45am. OK, I was already up, but for the love of PETE!! I guess they’re turning our cable on and off. I really hates them.
So very quickly, while I’m online:
My Mondo Cable Cardigan – it’s not a great picture, I want to go to the park for a little photoshoot, but I have too much work to get done. This weekend, maybe. Can I just say that I absolutely totally 110% adore this sweater!! It’s so comfortable, and warm, and well, perfect. I’ll be wearing it a lot, I can tell. My idea to use the shawl pin didn’t work, though, so I’ll be doing some button (and giant snap) shopping as soon as I can.
The yarn. Madelinetosh’s tosh merino DK, in colorway Byzantine. The colors are deeper and richer than this photo suggests – I just haven’t had time to try to capture it yet. But you can see that it’s going to be gorgeous in the Eve’s Rib Shrug (which I’m calling Eve Shrugged, in honor of my teenage fandom of Atlas Shrugged, which I thankfully outgrew). This yarn is … well, it leaves me without words.
My handknit sweaters……so far. I’ll be adding to this mini-stack, and I thank the sweater knitters among you who tolerate my silliness over something that is old hat to you. Or maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s like being a labor & delivery nurse; even though you’ve done it many, many times, each time is still magical. Anyway, thanks for indulging my excitement.
I’m in a new round of new authors writing me enthusiastically about their manuscripts; for some reason, it seems to come in waves. When they hear the price, many decide to forego editing, but enough seem to be OK with it so that’s great for me. Off to work – happy last day of summer, y’all.
.
this one was nearly heartbreaking.
So it’s been quite a journey with my Mondo Cable Cardi. (digression: is anyone else sick to death of hearing people talk about their “journeys”? I sure am….) I had a sweater’s worth of beautiful madelinetosh’s tosh merino in this soft collection of colors called graphite. It’s really just gorgeous, perfectly complimentary to the loftiness of the yarn. I love it. So I cast on the day after Christmas last year and very quickly made it up to the armholes. Kept going, jolly old sweater, going quickly, tra la la.
Then I noticed that all my remaining skeins were a very harsh blue black – heavy emphasis on the ugly blue. (I love blue, this was just a hideously harsh shade, not to mention that it wasn’t GRAPHITE. It was so grossly different that alternating skeins would just give me a striped sweater.) So I started haunting rav forums, posting desperate ISO notes everywhere. One very sweet raveler got in touch and said she had a sweater’s worth and if I just couldn’t find any anywhere, she’d part with some. Which, of course, meant she couldn’t knit her sweater. So I kept searching. Occasionally someone would write, but their skeins were green black. FINALLY, months later, Jenny (boopersin on rav, friend her!) and her skeins matched mine and the deed was done.
But by then, I’d lost my passion for the sweater. I was also afraid that when push came to shove, it still wouldn’t be a good match. Anxiety and fear kept me from picking it up again. Maybe that’s happened to you before.
Finally, after the high of finishing my Peasy, I picked it up and hunkered down and did it. I finished the sleeve that was about 3/4 done, started and finished the 2nd sleeve, and completed the collar (which took much longer than it seemed it would, for some reason!). Soaked it and set it to blocking last night, and this morning it’s just a bit damp. When it’s completely dry, I’ll walk it over to the park for a photo shoot. Here is is, just lying about:
such gorgeous yarn!
in the “scarecrow” pose so popular this season
I hope to take an action shot this afternoon! I’m really glad this one is finished, and just in time to start the next one. Come on, mailman, bring mama a present.
.
sweater #2 finished!!! Fait accompli!!! 
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone
And another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I’m gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
I finished my Mondo Cable Cardigan y’all! It’s soaking right now, so it’ll be a little while before I have my F.O. pictures, but I’m telling you, it’s a beautiful sweater. The madelinetosh merino is thick and lofty and will probably pill like mad, but I don’t care. When I had to bind off the collar (1×1 ribbing), I started with a regular old bind-off but it was wavy and hideous so (being the newly mature knitter that I am) I ripped it out and investigated my options.
Tubular bind-off seemed like the best approach, but all the tutorials I found were confusing. I started, got several stitches in, and ripped it out. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Minor despair started to build. Then I found this great little video and *presto changeo* it was easy and obvious. And my bindoff is amazing, if I do say so. You’ll see, I’ll be sure to point it out in the inevitable pictures.
“Video tutorial courtesy of Liat Gat of KNITFreedom.blogspot.com, the site that teaches people how to knit over the Internet using high-resolution video e-books.”
So two sweaters are done, and I’m really ready to get my new yarn this week to start the Eve’s Ribs Shrug project. Byzantine, y’all. Byzantine.
.
i made you, and i can take you OUT!
So it’s cool, overcast, and breezy today – 67 degrees right now, and our curtains are blowing with the constant breeze – and I needed to walk over to the library to pick a book. Peasy! I’ll wear Peasy, awesome. So I put on my handknit Kai-Mei socks under my black high-tops, and Peasy over a black tank top (with jeans in between of course) and headed out.
And as I’m walking down the sidewalk, I’m being very bothered by the fact that the right sleeve is considerably too long. Much longer than the left, but beyond that, it’s just too too long. It hits the middle of my palm (how did THAT happen?!). And I’m thinking ‘eh, I’ll just live with it.’
Then I thought I don’t have to live with it! I AM A KNITTER! And the maker of this sweater! After all the time and pleasure of making it, I want a lot of time and pleasure in wearing it. Mission #1 tonight: frog all those extraneous rows, reknit and bind off. Oh so easy. Peasy, even.
EDIT!!!!! ADDENDUM!!!!!! I just got the shipping notice from madelinetosh, telling me that my tosh merino DK (byzantine y’all!!) shipped. That means I’ll get it next week and can finally start the gorgeous Eve’s Ribs Shrug pattern (here’s the link to my post that shows the yarn and the pattern). This weekend I’m clearing the decks. Finishing my Mondo Cable Cardigan. Getting things done so I can cast on the moment that luscious yarn arrives. OH how hard it is to wait….
.
my buttons look like Milk Duds. Is that because I’m dieting??
….and so I face the final button.
Peasy is in the last stages of drying; it’s just a little bit damp, but I don’t want to rush it. I took a little trip across town this morning (sidetrack: it’s so easy to go north-south here in Manhattan, which is good since it’s longer than it is wide, but it’s a real pain in the butt to cross town. Getting to the east side of Central Park either requires a cross-town bus, walking across the park, or taking the subway down to Times Square, transferring to another line, and going back uptown. Hassle). ANYWAY, since I had to be across town this morning anyway, for a dentist appointment, I took the chance to walk a few extra blocks to Tender Buttons, the charming little button shop at the edge of the button district, where I bought the buttons for Marnie’s wedding dress.
It’s so hard, picking the right buttons. It can feel like there’s so much pressure: must get the right ones! The wrong buttons would suck! Dizzy! And then I remember….it’s buttons. Geez. Pick some you like. So, after trying a few little wooden ones, and a couple of coconut shell buttons, I ended up with these oval woven leather buttons, handmade in Italy. At $3.50 each I want them to sing Nessun Dorma whenever I wear my sweater:
my little leather buttons....but don't they look like Milk Duds??
And here it is, nearly dry. The next time you see it, I’ll be wearing it. I’m going to take my tripod and remote control over to Riverside Park, so you can see it out in the world.
Peasy, so pretty
atsa lotta stitches my friend
I love it. All the boredom of all that stockinette, forgiven and forgotten. And now I’m super motivated to finish my Mondo Cable Cardigan too. I nearly finished sock #1 while I was waiting at the dentist office this morning. I haven’t had an FO in SO SO LONG, I’d forgotten what a high it is.
.
OH MY!!! HALLELUJAH!!!! YIPPEE-EYE-OH!!
Peasy is mostly done.
Ends are woven in.
Continue Reading–1 words totally
OH MY!!! HALLELUJAH!!!! YIPPEE-EYE-OH!!
Peasy is mostly done.
Ends are woven in.
All that’s left: neck and front edge trim. Finding buttons.
I can put it on. And it looks good.
It appears I’ve knit myself a sweater.
I seem to recall something about hating all the stockinette – was that me? I don’t remember it being so bad now.
.
so many WIPs, so little time. i know, you hear that ALL the time.
I thought that working from home would give me more time to knit. HA! Silly, silly me. I’m knitting less than before, for many reasons. I don’t have my subway commute time, which was a guarantee of ~45 minutes to an hour each day. I knocked out little projects during that commute. (NOT complaining about not having the commute, don’t get me wrong!) Also, another problem I’m not complaining about….I have a lot of work. Thanks to my Google Ad for my little business endeavor, I have more work than I can do, quite often. Just yesterday, I was contacted by 3 people wanting to hire me to edit their 100,000+ word novels. One is amazing, one has the potential to be amazing, and the 3rd is stupid. They can’t all be amazing, and at least the stupid one is not about Dracula and prairie schooners.
This work is of the type that causes (and requires) complete immersion. If I were just doing proofreading, I could pick it up and put it down. But I have to hold the whole novel in my mind, see redundancies, sections that would better fit elsewhere in the novel, gaps, inconsistencies, etc. Plus, I get in a kind of flow with it; I’ll open the file and start editing, and the next thing I know it’s 8 hours later and I haven’t stopped to pee or eat or anything. Poof! Eight hours have passed.
I’m also teaching stats, and let’s be honest. None of the students love stats the way I do. They’re required to take it, some are very smart but some are incredibly stupid. That’s right, I said it. Some are mushy-minded people who seem to have been failed by the educational system. But anyway – also teaching stats. And also needing to do 6 research projects for the publishing house I worked for.
So when’s a girl to knit? I also worry about all the hours doing very finely-focused computer work (on a laptop with a cramped keyboard) and getting carpal tunnel. That would be just horrible. At the end of these very long days, I still need to eat dinner and straighten up, and the day is done. Last week I didn’t sleep one minute Tuesday night (thank you stupid waitress who clearly gave me full-caf instead of decaf, even though I emphasized and asked again twice before drinking it), and Thursday night I slept 2 hours.
So here is the current state of my WIPs:
there it is.
First up, the one that’s been sitting in my bag the longest: Mondo Cable Cardigan, with madelinetosh merino, in Graphite.
near the end of sleeve 1, body finished.
look at the beauty of the yarn
I realized some of my skeins were a drastically different color – blue black instead of charcoal gray – and it put a hitch in my gitalong. Thanks to ravelers, I was able to score a couple of skeins that matched better, but I’ve never recovered my mojo on this one. But it really is beautiful, and softer than a baby angel fairy’s bottom.
coming along - but not too quickly. FUN pattern to knit!
This is blanket-sized: It’s the Totally Autumn pattern by Anne Hanson, and it’s such fun to knit! The pattern is cool, and it remains so engaging as I work on it. The Cascade 220 is hard, though, and my index fingers starts to feel raw after a while, as the yarn runs over it. It’s never as hard as I remember it, so whenever I do pick it up to work on it, I’m always surprised. Still, I’ve got a long way to go on that one.
Peasy - after I finish the current ball, I'll be ready to do the collar and button band!! WOO-HOO!!
Peasy, of course, though I couldn’t photograph the color accurately today, for some reason. You’ve seen it so many times on my blog, so you know the color is a rich avocado. I’m getting there, and cannot wait to wear it at Rhinebeck. One good thing that’s come about as a result of this sweater: I don’t hate the purl row as much as I used to. The collar and button band are simple, and not very wide, so I really am getting near the end with this one. Just one more ball of Rowan Felted Tweed.
this one is suffering from no commute time
The Sockhead Hat, in a Regia yarn that I’m not all that crazy about but it was a gift so I love it for that reason. This one stays in my project bag in my purse, and whenever I’m in the subway I feverishly work as much as I can, but I’m only in the subway once a week now.
I don't know; I'm not feeling it. The yarn is just so special - may just frog this.
This snowflake hat pattern is fun to work, and of course the yarn nearly makes me cry, it’s so soft and lofty and such gorgeous colors too. I suspect I really want something different for the yarn, something I might wear against my skin – a little shawl or something, to wrap near my neck. I do suspect I’ll frog this.
close to the toe on sock #1
And my socks, out of Tosh Sport (colorway tweed – this photograph does capture the color pretty well, which I think should be called bronze. But they didn’t ask me.)
the beginnings of bag #1
And a new project I cast on yesterday – the Monteagle bag, using the Louet Euroflax yarn string yarn I recently got from Paradise Fibers. I’ll be making two of these, if I can tolerate it. The linen is kind of hard to work with, especially with these tricky stitches (the next one of which I cannot begin to figure out: “*Knit into the back of the second stitch with a double wrap, but do not transfer to the right needle; knit the first and second stitches together through the back loops with a double wrap and transfer both stitches to the right needle; repeat from * around on each following pair of stitches.”) WHA??? And the linen wants to be straight and hard and pop off the needle mid-stitch.
For now, though, many other less-pleasant tasks are calling my name. Shut up you less-pleasant tasks! I’d rather be knitting.
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.
.
why can’t i do this math?!
I just feel the need to say this – this subject must be threatening to my identity or something – but I’m very good at statistics. I can do a discriminant function analysis, structural equation modeling, whatever. But knitting math just makes my head hurt. Since I’ve written about this before, and you left such generous comments, I do know that I’m not alone; for some of us, the whole enterprise is just counterintuitive. I knit a swatch and have too many stitches per inch….do I use a smaller needle or a larger one? Even though I have already been through this, I still don’t know.
So after redoing my Peasy swatch in the wrong direction, I redid it last night in the right direction. The pattern gauge is 22 st and 30 rows = 4 inches. Going up a needle size, I get 21.5 st and 30 rows = 4 inches. Pretty dang good!
My problem is that I can’t figure out what that 1/2 a stitch difference is going to mean. In the gracious spirit of Amy Herzog’s Fit to Flatter series, last night I decided to just suck it up and take my real measurements, disregarding what the actual numbers were and just looking carefully at the relationships between them. Then I compared them to the Peasy pattern to see what size I really need to knit. Well, I’m exactly on the large. Exactly.
So does this 1/2 stitch difference mean the sweater will be ever-so-slightly larger or ever-so-slightly smaller? If it’s larger, that’s wonderful! I sit here and try to puzzle my through it and just get a headache.
note to self: you can do structural equation modeling! you are not stupid!
.
in which I enhance my stash, one more time
Gosh – where to start. Maybe the color — they called it Avocado, I call it lush and gorgeous. The softness? OH yeah, it’s soft. The depth, those little flecks of yellow and red and navy? Oh so beautiful. [click the photos to biggify]
-
- lotsa balls
-
- s-o-f-t
-
- oh so tweedy
-
- in a Peruvian reed boat
I bought it to make a Peasy sweater [rav link here] – the very first time I ever bought the specified yarn for a project. Usually I don’t think that far in advance; I just get an itching to make something, I pick a pattern and check what weight yarn is specified, then see what I have in that weight. But I saw Saffron‘s Peasy, on her fabulous blog Mooncalfmakes, and she uses a lot of Rowan, so I was hooked.
I couldn't leave that Rowan Felted Tweed alone....
Not that I’ll be starting the sweater any time soon, unfortunately. For now I’ll have to comfort myself by petting the yarn a lot. You know what that’s like, I’m sure.
Popular posts: