Knitting in the Shadows

A Miracle Happened -- see Knitters'

For the first time in a long time, I'm intrigued and pleased enough by the designs in Knitter's Magazine that I actually want to knit them!

The cover design is actually lovely:

Of course, we know that I would like to change it's shape (since I don't like triangle shawls), but I do like this.  I particularly like the little picots along the top edge. It even looks fun to knit.

And while I have issues with the "standard" version of Butterfly Dreams (which includes a panel of granny squares down the center), I do like the all knit version.

This looks comfortable, and fun to knit.  And like it might not actually make me look larger than I am.  It's yarn is confusing to me though -- it's a DK weight yarn that uses "lace" in the name?

Even stranger to me, is that I find myself attracted to Rick Mondragon's latest design (Gray Scales).  I hope this is a step back toward the Rick I used to know -- I once loved his style, but over the past few years, I've been generally disappointed.   This one, looks fun and yet easy ...

Of course, it could just be that I like the colors (which oddly do not look gray to me).

And  Summer in the Shade (by Therese Chenowyth (I wonder, is she related to Kristen?)

This one might actually be the t-shirt pattern I've been looking for to knit with the Divine Though Blogless Elizabeth (we've only been planning it for a year now).  (Okay, I'd adjust the neckline a tad, because I don't like them quite that high, but otherwise, I like it a lot!).

And last, but not least.... Blue Horizon looks like it'd be a sweater I'd wear over and over again (though the picture on Ravelry doesn't show it well), and while I don't particularly like the sweater, Interwoven provides a nifty stitch pattern I'd like to use in something else...

 

If they pull this off again, I might actually renew my subscription!

Progress and Panic

I'm making progress on Dwarrowdelf -- it's starting to be possible to imagine that this will ever become curtains.

I'm likin' it a lot.  But I'm now encountering a bit of panic.

You see, when I started this project, I bought two cones of yarn.  I was sure that each curtain would take less than a cone (by a lot).  I was sure that I was buying at least a little bit of extra yarn.

Each cone of 3/2 cotton is a full pound.  They look like this:

I've  knit 15 inches (a backing for the rod that's about 2") ... which I'm sure will stretch considerably in blocking and after hanging ... but that leaves another 66 or so inches.  So I've knit about 20%.

But my cone, which started like that one up there... .now looks like this:

 

When I weigh them, I've got about 575g with the cone in the original (one pound cone).... and 330g with the cone in the one in process.  Since one pound is about 450g, that cone is about 125 g.  which means that the remaining cone has only about 205g in it.   I'm seeing myself running out of yarn. 

Of course, one pound of pearl cotton is only 1200 yards. Now, 1200 yards is what Dwarrowdelf calls for, and I suppose I had (wrongly) imagined that one Dwarrowdelf stole is approximately equal to one panel of curtain.  Either that, or I had calculated based on a different weight of cotton. 

The original Dwarrowdelf stole is 22 inches by 72 inches.  My curtains will be 46 inches by about 81 inches.  Thus... I'll need at least twice as much yarn per curtain.  Right?  (I'm counting on the extra stretch for the heaviness and the cotton to mean that I don't need much more than twice as much yarn.)

So... my panic is not paranoia.  I need to order a couple more cones of yarn(Perle cotton 3/2 in dk green (color 26)) -- and pray that the dye lots won't be so very different that I daren't hang the two curtains side by side (which, um, I kind of need to do).  Deep and heavy sigh.  (This means I have to go to a very tempting website and resist ordering anything but cones of cotton.... or figure out a way to go there (MAINE TRIP!!) and buy the yarn in person -- which can't happen for three more months.)

So much for reasonably priced curtains.  (Crazy people interested in underwriting this project are invited to send gift certificates for Halcyon Yarns.  I'm holding out until I figure out whether a trip to Maine this year is feasible -- the $11.25 shipping charges make me wince too much).

 

A Little Knitting Content

It's time to fess up to my knitting progress.  It's not very impressive, but hey, this was final's week.

On April 30, the socks I've taken to calling Climbing Cables looked like this:

Now, they look like this:

See, I've even turned the heel...

I'm still working with a random dpn, that doesn't match the rest of my yummy Darn Pretty Needles.  Alas, my efforts to reach Dyakcraft about them have failed so far.

The Divine though Blogless Elizabeth has taken pity on me.  She gave me these:

While they don't work for the Climbing Cables socks, they're perfect for the yarn I have in the queue to start a sock to replace the Hopeful Socks (which are still MIA).

I had thought briefly that they'd turn into Rivendell Socks, but the yarn is too dark to show the design. Any suggestions for a pattern? (Or am I winging it again).

Meanwhile, I have  been making progress on Dwarrowdelf -  it's gone from:

 

to:

 

Neither picture shows the color very well... but you get the idea.

Cheating on My Needles

When my beloved Darn Pretty needle died, I put the entire project in the time out basket.

I vowed to wait until I got a replacement Darn Pretty dpn to work on those socks.

Then the knitting bag with the Hopeful Socks went AWOL.  That left me without any socks to knit on. 

I can live without socks to knit on.  But my ability to survive with no portable knitting is limited.  Woman to Woman has gotten far to big to be portable.  And hauling a full cone of yarn around is not exactly easy -- so Dwarrodelf isn't portable either.

Today, I caved.

I dug into the dpn case, and found a spare 2.75 mm needle.  It clearly doesn't match (the points are dreadful), but it's good enough for now.... and this

went to a meeting with me, and became this

I feel a little guilty about cheating on the Darn Pretties with another needle... but a girl cannot live with only giant projects.

A wee knitting update

I'm still pining for the Hope Socks, which have gone missing (along with my favorite knitting bag, and a just finished baby hat).

I've been a true slacker on the Woman to Woman afghan (no excuses either).

But I have been working steadily on the Dwarrowdelf Curtains. 

Certain of my knitting buds, who see my slow progress from week to week at Knit Night, have called me nuts to embark on this project.  They doubt my ability to stick to it until I have finished not only one, but two of these panels.

They, in fact, have voiced their suspicions that I'll wind up moving to a new house before I finish these curtains. 

To them I say, "Challenge accepted".

Even if steady knitting does not necessarily mean that you'll see a vast difference between this picture and the last one, I shall knit on.  These rows are pretty long, and even though this is pretty much the only knitting project my hands get to tough, I've yet to complete one vertical repeat of the pattern.  Still, I see progress. And thus, I'm not ready to chuck in the towel.

With luck, my camera battery will have plenty of charge for the next picture.  This week, we make do with the phone's picture (see, it is a good thing to have considered photo quality when choosing a phone).

 

 

Knitting ... Back to Slow Progress

If I'm honest about things, I have four active projects in play.

(For those of you with Ravelry access, you can see all about them here (Woman to Woman), here (Hopeful Socks), here (Climbing Cables), and here (Dwarrowdelf.)  There's another that needs to have it's end woven in (a wee hat for a friend's baby, but it has disappeared.

That disappeared thing is more than annoying. First off, it means that giving the hat to my friend when I see her tomorrow.  But additionally, it disappeared in the knitting bag in which the Hopeful Socks live.  Thus, I can't knit my current best knitting-to-go project.

And I can't knit on the Climbing Cables socks because I still haven't negotiated a replacement for the snapped needle.

That leaves me wtih two large slow-going projects.  Woman to Woman is now large enough to be only marginally portable.  And... it's not the most comfy thing to knit in the lovely warm weather we'd been having. (note, this is by no means a complaint about the lovely weather.)

Dwarrowdelf is delightful -- even if visible progress does take days (what with the rows now being over 275 stitches and all).

But, even though it's still only about 7 inches wide, it's still not terribly portable.  I mean, a cone just doesn't fit in a nice little on-the-go knitting bag the way a ball of yarn does.

I can't decide whether to go on a massive project hunt for the missing knitting bag, or to start a huge hunt in the interwebs for a replacement purple Darn Pretty dpn (they're not currentnly in production).  I'm in that icky place where the hunt would mean a level of house-cleaning I'm not excited about, and the DPN replacement is likely to mean spending money I can't afford right now.

Ah well.  Dwarrowdelf will be at least mostly portable for a while yet.....

The Return of Lace

Once upon a time, I seemed to knit nothing but lace. Lace lace lace.

I loved lace so much, I talked my dear friend into helping me start a Giant Repeating Lace KAL. We called it Seasons of Lace.  And I knit lace and ran the KAL for several years, and it was good.

And there was lots of lace.

  And then there was life. And massage school.

And suddenly, I was buried in way too much to do! It got so bad that lace all but disappeared from my needles.

It's been socks, and the lovely shadow-knitting afghan that I was commissioned to design and knit.

And the current lace project languished, pining for my attention.

As you may recall (well, likely not, since it's been so long .... ) I've gone on a tear, and am adapting Susan Pandorf's Dwarrowdelf Stole pattern for use as curtains. This means I needed to make them a lot WIDER to fit my windows.

So, being the oh-so-professional planner and detail person that I am... I hauled off and knit a top edge, vastly increasing the number of repeats called for by the stole pattern.

And then I looked to see what the ratio of repeats on top edge piece would be to the repeats on the body, and my brain fried a little.

In many ways, it has been simple (ish) math that was getting between me and my lace knitting.

I knew that the repeats on the top edge were 14 rows "wide". I knew that the ends of the top edge included a five row edge. (I spaced for the longest time on the three rows of set up at one end and the four rows of ... well... set down at the other).

I knew that I was getting approximately 7 rows to the inch. I knew that the repeats on the body would be 24 stitches wide. I knew that the ends included a 9 stitch edge on one side and an 18 stitch edge on the other.And... I knew that I was getting approximately 6 stitches to the inch.

Clearly, forgetting those 7 extra rows bollixed me up for a while.

But suddenly, after my brief escape to Oak Park, I made the math work! And here, we see the winding up of the skinny top edge:

It's pushing 44 inches long here. This aftenoon, I knit that five row edge, and bound off.

I'm now in the throes of picking up three hundred and some odd stitches along the edge that runs along the left side in that picture. So much for something to work on where the rows are short and I can feel like real progress happens when I knit for a few minutes.

Woman to Woman

Among the many things I do instead of sleeping is serve on the board of our local rape crisis center.  It's a good thing to do.  Sometimes, it means I know things about our community that I'd rather not know (after all, one likes to believe that the evil things in the world don't happen near one); sometimes it makes me immensely proud of the folks in our community who do the right thing.

Last year, our Executive Director got married.  She  and her partner were part of the first wave of folks who got married when our state legalized marriage between people of the same gender.  The board commissioned me (sort of) to knit something for them.  Eventually, we agreed on an afghan -- which I designed for the purpose.

It's a tricksy afghan (if I do say so).  When you look at it from one angle, it looks like this:

She said blues and black.... and that's what we've got.  But it's not quite that simple.  Because if you shift it just a little, suddenly it looks like this:

I'm calling it Woman to Woman.  I'm guessing I'll work one up for a Man to Man afghan once this is done.

It's taking far longer than I expected it to -- kind of like getting that law passed in the first place.  I'm pretty sure I'll have it done for their anniversary.

Getting Ready (or Duct Tape Bondage)

I'm about half-way through a project that I'm hoping will really help me in my sweater knitting.  It will also help me hem things, the next time I whip out that sewing machine to make myself something.

What can do both?  Why a duct tape "dress manequin" of course!

My dear friends, the Divine though Blogless Elizabeth, Elizabeth's daughter, and Colleen of Cgirlslife, arrived Sunday morning with many rolls of duct tape, several over-sized T-shirts, and a very positive attitude.  Over the course of the next four hours or so, we mastered the fine art of duct taping the human torso:

In doing so, we discovered that there are very few straight lines on the female torso that are more than a few inches long.  I knew that, sort of,if I'd thought about it,  but I hadn't really looked realized it... The curvier the area, the shorter the strips of duct tape we needed. Here's a whole new way to understand where short row shaping can work to make a sweater fit better...

We also discovered that a well taped torso almost looks like it's wearing a fancy cocktail dress.

Of course, once you're all taped up, you have to be released from the armor (and yes, we did feel rather like super-heroes in our shiny duct tape armor, why do you ask?)

The marks let us know where the center line on our bodies really are, and where we bend (revealing the actual waist line. 

Then, we have to carefully close up the back again --

As you might imagine, by the second or third duct tape suit of armor, we started getting pretty silly.  I have no idea what I was orating about here, but by this point, the giggles were all but incessant, so it's likely it wasn't terribly serious:

Our next step will be to seal the things up, and stuff them.  The look sad and slouchy without bodies inside them.

Sadly, however, they still manage to show off just where one most needs to lose weight.  BUT... with these participating in the fitting process, it will  be much harder to delude ourselves about how big (or small) we really are.  I know It will look better stuffed, but it's also clear to me that no matter what shape I am in my head, I'm not the same shape in the outside world.

It's an eye opener -- seeing my body shape in 3-D this way makes me aware of my body's actual shape in a way that mirrors just can't do.  It made me wonder if making these would be useful for people struggling with their body images.  So many of us have inaccurate impressions of our own bodies.  And they're fueled by unreasonable representations in the media.

 

Farewell My Friend

Yesterday, was a busy day, full of joyous interactions with several groups of people.

I had a lovely visit with my Physical Therapist.  Even if I don't actually enjoy some of those exercises, I'm always glad to have been there. 

After working on my body, I joined my classmates at the Senior Resources Center, where we gave chair massages to the folks who work there.  There's nothing quite as delighftul as seeing stressed out people relax.  We gave massages to people who had never gotten a massage before, and saw faces go from tight and drawn to open and relaxed.  Chair massages are more tiring for me than table massages, but they have the advantage of letting me see four or even six different people experience a positive change in their day because of something I did in the same amount of time.

When I bid my fellow massage therapists in training adieu, I headed over to a friend's house to join my fellow "Crafty Ladies" for a late lunch (truly delicious home made soup)and some birthday cake (one of them celebrated her birthday this week, and another of them has mad cake decorating skills).  It was there that my loss occurred.

After amazing food, we took up our various needles and hooks, and I resumed knitting these socks.

Well, to be honest, I was working on the toe of the other sock, but whose counting.  That picture isn't nearly as fun.

Anyway, I was using my much beloved Darn Pretty Needles ... the Purple Passion ones... (swoon).  I picked up this needle:

And then, I knit about half way across one needle (note, at the toe, we're not yet into any exciting stuff, like cables -- I was just working stockinette toes!) and suddenly, there was a snap! and one needle tip went flying.  Now I have this:

I'm sad on several levels.  I fear that Tom might no longer be making these particular needles. 

The socks are in mourning. 

Me too.

I went home, and went to bed.  (Oddly, though I am rarely able to fall asleep during the day, I fell asleep in mere seconds).

My evening ended surrounded by knitting friends. working on an afghan that must wait until daylight to have it's picture taken.

I'll miss my lovely DP DPN (Darn Pretty Double Pointed Needle). I'm hoping its cousin will come stay with us.  Other needles aren't quite the same.

Music, and the Magic of the Body

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending another wonderful concert at our local performing arts center.

We heard the Tchaikovsky  St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra perform music by three composers; two of whom are among my very favorites, and one of whom is on my general favorites list.  The last piece they played is one of my favorite pieces in the world.

They started of with Wagner.  But not the demanding, imposing, Wagner who fires you up with The Ride of the Valkyries.  Nay, the lush, heart-string pulling Wagner who wrote a Prelude to his opera that so beautifully meshes with the final piece from that opera that orchestras now play them together -- as one piece. 

Prelude and Love Death from Tristan & Isolde

(You can listen to it -- it's 15 minutes long, and this version has the tell tale scratchiness underlying it that shows it was recorded from an LP, but it's still lovely).

Oddly, I found that there were places in this piece that foreshadowed the final piece of the night. 

The second piece was Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 (which evidently was written, and even performed, before Piano Concerto No. 1).  The pianist, Alexandre Pirojenko, was amazing. 

 

 

The Washington Post says of him, "has the technical skills to do anything he wants with a piano; better yet, what he wants to do is sensitive, original, and brilliant."  If the performance I saw was typical, I think they're right. I couldn't track down a you tube of the Beethoven piece, but here he is playing a bit of Rachmaninov.

 

 

Okay, SAW isn't exactly right. We sat in the choral balcony, behind the stage.  It's a great place to HEAR the performance, but not so good to see -- especially (oddly) in the front row.  Occasionally I'd lean forward across the sort of aisle between the front row and the rail, and peer over the rail, but even then you couldn't see much of the orchestra.  That's okay, I wasn't there to see as much as to hear.

And not seeing meant that I could sit with my eyes closed, without feeling guilty about not watching raptly.  Sometimes, I even do that ... just sit, raptly listening.  But most of the time, my hands are busy.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I take knitting with me to hear live music.  Currently, I've been toting along this pair of simple plain socks to most events.  They're just simple stockinette (well, so far, we know about my capacity for endless stockinette), and that means that I can sit and knit, eyes closed, listening, while my fingers do their thing.  Golf Pro likes it, because it means that my hands aren't trying to conduct, which evidently they do unelss they're otherwise occupied.  I think it's pretty magical that my body can go on doing something as complex as knitting socks without watching.  I'm working two socks at a time using the "magic loop" method, which means I have to change yarns mid "row" (before moving the loop).  Even so, my fingers can do this without visual guidance.

The final piece is one of my most favorite in the world.  Rimsy Korsakov's Sheherezade.  I'm not sure, but I think I may owe a debt of gratitude to one Goeffrey Thursby (I know he shared Lt. Kije with me; I think he may also have introduced me to Scheherazade).  The concert notes say that Rimsy Korsakov considers this peice to be free from Wagner's influence, but I know that I heard things in Prelude and Love Death that were echoed in passages from Scheherazade.

This passage isn't one of them, but I figured if I was sharing music, I may as well keep it up  :-)

 

Last night, while knitting in the balcony, I was working on a pair of socks for Golf Pro. 

At the end of the evening, I had him try on the toes, just to double check how much further I had to go before starting the next phase in their shaping.  One would think that by now, I'd just know... but these socks are in a much finer gauge than previous pairs, and I've long since learned that when you change the gauge, you change not only horizontal stretchiness, but vertical stretchiness, so I checked before shaping. I learned that my husbands feet are just the right length that my forearm is a perfect measure for how long the foot should be before I start increasing for the gusset/heel dance.  (I think that's pretty magical).

30 Days of Thanks - Day Fourteen and an FO

Once upon a time, I wrote a knitting blog.  I took pictures of my knitting in progress, and pictures of my finished knitted objects, and posted them for all to see.

In theory, this is still a knitting blog.  But alas, my camera's battery charger is still in hiding (something that I must fix within the next week, since the camera kind of has to go to Disney with us).  With no camera battery, there can be no good pictures.  And today, I've actually got something worth taking pictures of.

Today..... (being thankful for the camera in my phone)

I finished a pair of socks!

I am thankful that yarn does not spoil, and that stitches do not just fall off of needles when they've been there too long. This pair of socks has taken a truly frightening length of time to finish. 

No seriously. 

I cast on over a year ago! (okay, only, like, for days over a year ago, but still over a year ago).  At first, I thought I was going to make some fancy socks (Leyburn's), but in the end, I decided that I didn't much like the yarn in that pattern, so I frogged the sock and started over.  And then, I fussed over a toe up pattern, and made mistakes, and had to reknit the plain simple sock heels about five times...  And finally, FINALLY, I finished them.

I am also thankful that this yummy yarn (Merino & Tencel sock yarn  from Ellen's Half-Pint Farm) withstood all that frogging, and still looks lovely.

And I'm really thankful to be done knitting this particular pair of socks.

And..... I'm thankful for the new addition to my winter sock collection, expecially since one or two pair are dying beyond my ability to darn them.

A finished Catkin

Yes, ladies and gents, I do sometimes finish things.  I also blog ahead sometimes, so that when I know I'll be too busy to do it, the poor blog won't lie fallow.  I have promised to blog regularly after all.

Wednesday, I bound off Catkin.  Yesterday I soaked it.  Last night I blocked it.  Today... I photographed it, and discovered a serendipitous pairing.

Here it is, all stretched out on the floor wondering if I'll actually go buy it some buttons.

If you're familiar with the pattern, you may notice that my corners are a bit different.  You'd be right.

I realized that the subtle differences between the colors look lovely in general, but totally lose what the designer was aiming for when the corners are worked up the way she planned. I was sure I'd taken a picture of that issue before I frogged it, but evidently not.  Here is what I did instead.

My version does round the corners a bit (the original has nice crisp ponts), but I rather like the softer corner given the soft colors here.

And for the art shot...

As I was laying this out, gearing up to pack, I happened to toss this shawl in the direction of a dress I'm contemplating taking along just in case it's warm....

The colors work even better together in person, but I don't have time today to do the good photoraphy that would let me show it off better.  I'll just sit hapily delighted that by total accident, I wound up making just the thing for somethign that is in my closet.

If I ever get a shot with someone actually wearing it... I'll share it.

Perhaps, someday, I'll knit shawls in colors that specifically go with clothes I own instead of just knitting in yarns whose colors I'm drawn to in the shops....

Dithering ....

I'm almost finished with two projects --

Catkin is in its final rows....and too scrunched on the needles to show off well.

And while Fairy Stars (which I've been working on for what seems like ages), is still on the needles, it's too close to the end to be appropriate for travel knitting, which is what I must plan now.  In fact, it is within the realm of possibility that it will be finished before I leave. (I'd show you, but it's really squished on the needles right now).

So.... I've been poring over my queue trying to decide what to take on my upcoming trip to Scotland.  When I leave home, I'll be gone for two weeks. Think of all that knitting time as I sit forever in airports waiting for my next flight... and then on the plane....  I could finish something on the way! (By the time I get home, I'll have sat through five layovers, and been in the air for about 28 hours).

On the other hand, one wants something that weighs very little, and takes up not much room, but affords hours and hours of knitting time.  Worsted weight takes up tons of room in the suitcase, making it not a good candidate for a carry-on bag.  And now that the airlines want to charge big bucks to let you put baggage in the baggage compartment, one does not want to carry more than one bag under the plane.  I'm pretty sure DH would be unhappy with me if I tried to use up all the space in our one checked bag with yarn.

So, I've been thinking of doing something with one of these yarns(all but one of which are a good thousand yards or more, so I can make a nice big shawl, and thus will not run out of knitting while I'm gone):

Some yummy yarn dyed for me by Alyse.  I really should figure out how many yards are in this 225 g of light fingering weight yarn...

Briar Rose Angel Face - 2500 yards of luscious alpaca (the largest skein in consideration).

 

BB Knits Divinity Lace -- 1320 yards of cashmere, alpaca, silk (possibly for Kamile?)

 
Tanis Fibers Pink Label Lace-weight - 1000 yards of merino

Fleece Artist Suri Blue 1320 total yards of alpaca/wool (in two skeins).

Miss Babs Mulberry Silk - 1250 yards of SILK.

There's also a lovely kit using Just Our Yarns Almaza that I can't seem to find a picture for -- but that one has beads.... and I'm pretty sure that the airlines will not be happy with that sharp little beading hook.

Dither Dither...  Recommendations?  Suggestions....

I will, of course, be taking a pair of socks, and a pair of fingerless mitts (that out of Malabrigo Sock, yumm).  I'm also contemplating something out of a heavier yarn, just to give my wrists a break.

 

 

So close..... and yet...

I thought I was going to do it.  I really did. I thought I was actually going to knit an entire pattern the way it was written -- with no modifications for fit, or style, or whim....

And I came close, too.  I'm on row 56 of 76 of the charted portion of Catkin (Rav link),
and still plan to knit rows 67 to 76 as the designer wrote them.  And the chart comes after 78 rows of uncharted knitting --- all of which I knit as written.

But alas, by going for the subtle look, I've chosen yarns that mean that what is supposed to happen in rows 44-66 ... well... doesn't happen. 

In this section, one should see stripes.  Vertical stripes marking off the corners of the shawl.  Kind of like this:

Let's zoom in a bit, shall we?

What I see, is ... well... nothin' much

Yeah, technically, the stripes are there... but... not very effectively.  So, I'm going to revamp these corners and work in another catkin at each one.  I've almost finished charting how to do it.

But .... I notice that in one of the original versions, it appears that someone actually did what I'm planning to do!

Again, let's take a closer look:

Does this mean that I AM following the design???

I spent a few minutes mulling over the possibility that I could just drop the stitches down and re-work these corners, but I think that the new version uses more of the darker yarn than the lighter yarn, while the original uses them equally - at least in the corners.  This may mean that I get to re-knit the last 10 rows again.  Sigh.

 

Catkin, Challenging, Easier, Mindless

I'm knitting Catkin (Rav Link) as a break from tiny needles and endless lace.  (Not that I'm complaining about either the tiny needles or the lace, I'm loving both... but one's hands need a break now and then).

In the beginning, Catkin was pretty easy.  One had to pay attention every few rows to get the increasing right, but basically it was shaped stockinette with a regular stripe of the second color.

Once we'd gotten past that section, we started the area in which I found myself actually needing to use lots and lots of stitch markers.

It's a lovely pattern. Fairly simply really, rather like ribbing gone slantwise.  But somehow, when you until you've knit a few inches, you can't see what it's done before, which makes it far from intuitive for figuring out what's next.   I found myself checking the pattern every row ... and really relying on the stitch markers.

The pattern also has increases every row.  At first, I had to check the chart to determine whether to work a purl increase or a knit increase each time.  Now... it's easy.

As the inches of knitting flowed past my needles, I found it easier and easier to "see" what comes next in the pattern. The only challenge being to remember to do the button hole on the end of correct rows.

And now, it's my TV knitting. I hardly look at all, the pattern since ignored on the table.  Alas, I'm nearing the end of this chart, and will soon have to go back to looking at the chart.   I'm a bit sad about this, as I'd rather like it if this section were longer, but I fear that I won't have enough yarn to do that.  I'd rather like this middle section to be as long as the top section, but it won't be.

Luckily, the next chart is the chart from which our lovely designer worked up the swatch chart.  I anticipate that it too will become easy soon....

 

Kitting! Oh yeah!!

Once upon a time, I started a blog about knitting.  I blogged for years about knitting, and suddenly started going off track and blathering about books and customer service and make up....

But today I'm actually going back to knitting...

Well, I've BEEN knitting... a lot.  But I haven't been posting about it as much.

I've been making a little progress on Catkin...

 

What you see there at the bottom of the picture is an anamoly in my knitting.  There are three stitch markers there... three... in a picture that is close up enough to count the stitches!  I'm queen of minimalism when it comes to stitch marker use, but this pattern is hard enough to see at it's beginning that I'm finding having a marker for every stitch repeat really helpful.  So, what you see there is one repeat marker, and a pair of section markers (one on each side of a "centerline" stitch - though there are several of those).  I'm guessing that once it's established, and thus more visible, I may find that I don't need them anymore, but for now... I'm happy to have a stitch marker stash.

That's the newest project, and thus, inevitably, the most alluring.  But I'm still enjoying Fairy Stars ...

It's getting big enough that it's hard to photograph on the needles.  As it turns out, this is not going to be a small shall, it's going to be somewhere near the huge department.  And I'm changing the shape from triangular to something else whose name I'm not sure of.  I like to think I'm closing in on the place where I will split it in the middle....

...but really, there are two more sections to go.

In the mean time, my best buddy the Roomba..

has been being naughty lately.  It's been hunting string like things.  It bumps the wee side table next to my chair until things fall off it's bottom shelf, and then it gets tangled up in them.  This morning, I had to rescue a sock....

Just look at that mess!   Luckily, I caught it early.  Sometimes it winds up the yarn until it can't move.  Then it complains!  how rude.

Finished!

Yesterday, I finished a sweater that I designed for a client of mine.

I had some interesting design challenges as I went along.  The most recent was the realization that a section that I thought I knew what I was going to do with until I realized that I needed to make that section reversible.  I think my solution works well, and looks like it coordinates well with the sleeves (which it was supposed to match).  (I promise, pictures soon).

And then there was the bit where the collar and sleeves are supposed to be "lighter" than the body, and thus are using yarns that were doubled in the body in single strands.  That worked well until we got to the button-hole zone; my client chose a visually perfect glass button - which is heavy.  Again, I'm pleased with my solution there as well - it doesn't weigh down the collar/lapel, but does support the button.  (And again, there WILL be pictures)

My next challenge is to figure out how to get good pictures of the sweater without a model.  While it is possible that my lovely client will agree to pose for pictures, I don't to assume that she'll want to.  After that, I'll be working on sizing it down to tween size (Bookworm likes the style, and thinks she'd like one).  I figure once I've sized it down that far, it will be somewhat less of a challenge to work up the sizes in between.

I've also finished the first section of Catkin:

For some reason, the contrast between the two yarns in these pictures is actually a bit stronger than it is in reality -- but not by much.  This one is a tad closer..

Either way, I'm really liking the subtle "contrast" of these two yarns.

I have run into a bit of a snag though.  At this point, I should have 233 stitches at the end of a wrong side row.

  I have 231 stitches, having just finished a wrong side row.  The thing is, one increases EVERY row, so I can't just do another pair of rows (thus leaving myself starting a right side row, as I should be to begin the next section) to get my stitch count.  So, somewhere in this next row, I guess I'm going to have to sneak in an extra pair of increases somewhere.  I'm guessing that the only person who will notice, is me.

Home Again Home Again

I just spent a fantastic weekend up in Lake County Illinois, where I attended the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair for the first time.  Despite some bizarre policies imposed by the Festival management, I had a wonderful time.

First off, I got to stay with my co-moderator for Seasons of Lace.  And, with the exception of a wee bit of updating (logging new participants for this season, and putting the preliminaries for new prizes up on the blog) that I did, we pretty much did no work at all.  YAY us.  We hung out, we knit togehter, we watched new-to-me TV, we listened to awesome music, we had great food.... just what a weekend away with a great friend is supposed to do.

Second, I got to spend an entire day learning from Franklin Habit.

Franklin is every bit as witty in person as he is on his blog.  And he's a veritable font of knowledge, which he shares downright eagerly.  His classes definitely count among the best I've taken at any fiber related venue.  And no, he most certainly did not pay me to say that.  He turned me into a sponge, and then filled me with knowledge, while keeping me eager for more, and smiling the while.

I spent the morning learning all sorts of wonderful things about how to use my camera (or any camera), and I'm going to pretend that this means that the photography here will improve.  I then spent the afternoon learning about tesselations, and how to make them work for knitting designs.  Among the things we learned, is that the word "tesselation" comes from "tesselum" - which is a single tile used in places like the mosaic floors in Pompeii.  Franklin demonstrated such tiles by passing around -- an actual chunk of Pompeii!

I came out of the second class with my brain so full that I couldn't even register any of the lovely stuff in the market.  In fact, I commented to Alyse that my brain was so full, and so done, that even a simple menu was likely to be too much for it. (I was right -- we had to get an appetizer (that she chose) before I began to be able to make any decision about my actual order).

I also came out of the second class with two workable tesselations, and ideas for more.  There's even one on the needles (one that Franklin called "hot" no less -- I'm bursting with pride), and were it not that I had been so disorganized on my way out the door Thursday that I grabbed the first two skeins of solid colored sock weight yarn I could find, wholly ignoring that they look rather putrid together), I'd even show you.  I'll work them up in better colors (or do some camera magic on them, perhaps), and show you when they're more presentable.

Despite all that joy, I do have a couple of bones to pick with the Festival organizers.  (The first three are all inter-related.) < kvetch mode on >

First:  As with many such events, they charge folks to get into their market, but allow students who have paid for classes (and thus some admin costs) to get in free.  The set up for getting in as a paid student was a bit of a nightmare: it took forever, as the staff first had to scan a bar-code thing you were supposed to have logged into their website to download and print out (one for each class day) so that as a student you could get in without paying an additional fee.  But they also had to mark you off a list (I guess so that no one could double print and share their bar codes).  Seems to me, if you're marking folks off the list, the bar code scanning was just a waste of time to show off cute little electronic divices.  If you're using a bar code scanner, oughtn't it be able to tell that you've used that code once already?  Doing both meant that the whole process took a long time for each person.  Arriving close to class time pretty much guaranteed you'd be late.

Second: If you didn't have your magic bar code printed out (for example, you didn't get the email that told you you needed one, or you don't have a printer or...), you were turned away and had to pay to get in.  Yes... even if you were on the list and had a printed confirmation that you were a paid student. (I think maybe if you hadn't registered far enough in advance you got charged?)

Third: Unlike other events I've attended, you only got in free on the day you had classes.  This means that if Person A took two half-day classes on two different days, that person got into the market on two days, and had, effectively, a full day to shop.  However, if Person B took two half-day classes (thus paying the same amount as Person A), but took them on the same day, Pesrson B only got in on one day, and thus had a maximum of two hours to shop (one hour between classes, and one hour at the end of the day).  If Person B wanted to shop the market, s/he had to pay to get in the second day. That seems unfair.  That seems unfair both to Person B and to the Vendors.  (By comparison, taking one half-day class at Stitches gets you into the Market for all three days of classes AND for the Student Preview (when only students get to go in)).

Fourth: They completely wasted the wonderful musicians that were scattered throughout the market.  They had folk musicians all over, but in that cavernous space, one couldn't hear them more than about five feet away.  They also neglected to set up any chairs to allow folks to sit and listen to the musicians.  I'd have liked to have seen at least small speakers and some mics and a few chairs for each musician so that folks could enjoy the lovely music they played (and sang).  Pretty much the only instruments whose sound carried far enough to enjoy without sitting in the musicians laps were the hammered dulcimers.

< kvetch mode off >

Despite all that picky whining, I had a great time, and am really glad I went.

I did go back on day two to wander the market, even though that meant paying for the privilege.  Mostly, I talked to vendors about supporting Seasons of Lace, but I did succumb to one skein of sock yarn just for me:

  That's luscious Blue Faced Leicester Superwash.  Sofffft... but not felty.

I also bought a lovely little pottery bowl, which I've wholly failed to photograph.  I'll work on that soon (using my newly learned camera skillz).

We will not discuss that my entrance fee to the market was a nearly a quarter of my total market spending.

 

Catkin Swatching Finally Done

Back to the knitting thing.

There was all this swatching, and planned swatching, and dithering.  And then I went to DucKon, and couldn't figure out how to reasonably pack a swatch that still had... oh... five balls of yarn still attached (one of which hasn't been wound yet, so it's still a hank) plus another ball (which had yet to be wound).

  

But as I was packing, I was still obsessed with the Catkin.  I wanted to swatch more.  I wanted to find the yarn combination.

So, Catkin was on my mind as I cleaned up my knitting nest to pack the projects I'd take with me so I could knit during filking and panel discussions and down time (and the time I got to spend as a passenger because Kitty is this close to getting her license and thus wants to do more driving).  As I re-claimed a small knitting bag to use for an in progress sock (for those moments when Stars over Diamonds was going to be more than my brain could do while still listening to interesting authors talk), I wound up placing two yarns next to each other that I hadn't previously considered for Catkin.

They looked good to me.  Like they'd make a nice subtle Catkin.

 

Depending on the light, the lighter color tends towards pink or towards pale blue.  In the flesh, it's quite nice. 

So nice that I've cast on at last! (Not that I've gotten very far -- I was at a con, don't you know).

 

Swatching Mania

Evidently there's this thing going on over at the Loopy Ewe where they're donig a sort of online summer camp, and this month they're encouraging folks to do things with two colors.  I'm a regular Loopy Browser, and I drool at my keyboard alot while browsing.  So, I browsed through some of their suggested patterns, and discovered Catkin (Rav link). 

I liked it. 

A lot.

But I've got all this other stuff on the needles.... so I queued it for myself, and managed to look away.

Then, I learned that not only had the Divine Though Blogless Elizabeth (again, Rav link -- she's blogless, remeber?) queued it, she'd gone and chosen yarn and started to swatch.  So I started thinking about my stash a little, and browsing Loopy Ewe a little.  I felt myself starting to cave to the temptation of a NEW somethign that ... well... I didn't have to design.

And then.... I learned that not only had Janna queued it, and chosen yarn, but she'd actually started knitting it...

And I caved. 

By then, I'd racked up a veritable yarn store's worth of color combinations out of my stash.  Many of them are at least tonal, if not lightly variegated (okay, all of them are at least tonal).  That means that no matter what you think the skein shows you, you'd darned well better swatch to see how the yarns Actually play together.  So... I started to swatch -

First, I grabbed some Koigu that I'd actually purchasd to go together, intending to make the Shadow Shawl out of them.  And then, I looked over at the pile of Malabrigo and thought that one of those colors woudl actually look pretty good with the koigu... and then... and then...

And now I've got another little pile of yarn in the knitting chair, waiting for me to try still more combinations.

I was going to run a wee poll here, asking you which you all like best.  But perhaps, since I've obviously caught some kind of swatching disease, I ought to ask which I should rule OUT?

Koigu and Koigu

Koigu and Malabrigo Abril

Koigu and Malabrigo Azules (unfinished swatch)

Malagrigo Solis over Abril

Malabrigo Abril over Solis

I'm going to go finish up with Azules, and then try it against the Abril for a more sublte combination ... like this one from the Catkin page

 

All done but the buttons

I've been secretly working on a wee pattern .... and since I've decided that I'm not going to fuss with submitting it for publication somewhere besides Fiber Dancers' own pages, I can haul off and show you the finished product.

This project was in response to a Ravelry Designers Group challenge.  The cues were: Baby, Cables, Ocean.

Now, that's certainly not a glamour shot (and there will be some), but I wanted to get something up ...

I had a devil of a time getting the sleeves to come close to the body.  Side to side intarsia cables is easy.  But regular up and down intarsia cables that manage to mirror the sideways ones whupped up on me hard enough that I abandoned the effort.  I'm thinking it may have had something to do with the tiny space I was working in (a whopping 24 stitches).  Here's what I did instead:

 

And since I wasn't paying attention to the fact that the intended recipient of this sweater is reported to be a girl, and failed utterly to put the buttonholes in the right place, I came up with an alternative to actual buttonholes so that one button goes on each side....

As you can see, there will be fish buttons.

I'm trying to resist the urge to put fish buttons on the back -- it'll be visually great, but not so comfy for sleeping on --

So .. that's Cables by the Sea.  I'm writing up the pattern, and will be doing a tutorial on intarsia cables, as well as one on that freaky little button loop I devised.  (Only I would come up with a button loop that requires grafting stitches... ).

I'm plotting a co-ordinating blanket.

Stars -- Splitting?

Ages ago, I started knitting a shawl for a dear friend.  She had chosen my design Stars Over Diamonds (Rav Link), and that meant i got to knit something I knew well.  Other things have slipped in, but I've been working on it fairly steadily (even though the original deadline was removed).

But wait, what's going on up there at the top?

That is where this shawl diverges from the original pattern.  We decided that the triangle shape was not quite right.... in order to make it as wide as she wants it, it was going to wind up going down to her knees, which was not what she wanted.

Redesign happening now.

 

In Which I Threaten, but Do Not Provide, A Tutorial

I learned a new skill today!

I know I've plugged Judy's Magic Cast On many times.  (oops, there we go, I did it again).  But today, that cast on was the wrong answer. sort of.

Why?

Well, Judy's Magic Cast On leaves one with what looks very like a lovely purl bump at the back of your knitting (on the wrong side, where most folks want it).  Today, however, I needed that "purl bump" to show up on the front of my knitting.  Generally, that's easy, since generally you cast on starting with zero stitches, and you can thus sort of arbitrarily declare either side to be the right side.  Have you ever known the "generally" to really apply to me or my knitting? Me either.

This particular provisional cast on needed to come at the end of a row of knitting.  It needed to match that row.  Thus, it needed to have the "purl bumps" on the opposite side of the knitting.  Armed with Judy's Magic Cast On, I figured out how to do it backwards... and lo' there is a "purl bump" right where I want it to be!

I was so tickled I decided to do a little tutorial.  But, alas, I only learned ONE new skill today.  I have clearly not mastered the skill of holding the camera in my left hand to take pictures that show what I wanted to show.  Nor have I mastered the skill of placing the camera somewhere that I can shoot a decent video of my own hands.

I'm pretending that this means I'll actually produce a better tutorial, since I'll be using yarn and needles chosen for their visibilty, and not just using the yarn that happens to be on the needles.

Renewed Love Affair - with Interchangeables

I've fallen in love all over again.

And no, I'm not going to wax eloquent over a particular brand of needles, though I am loving these points.  It's the interchangeability that I'm loving; and what that interchangeability brings with it:  extra cables.

Why all this cable love, you might ask?  And what got me here?

Well, I'm workig on a sweater design that involves lots and lots of "work to this point, put these stitches on a holder, and pick up...."  Right this very minute, I've got sleeve sitches on a "holder" until later; and I've got front pieces on a "holder" until later; and in a few more rows.... I'll have MORE front pieces to go on a "holder" until later. 

But I'm not using stitch holders. I'm not even using waste yarn.

I'm using the spare cables from my lovely interchangeable needles.  This meant that, when I got there and it was time to pause on those stitches, I didn't have to slip all those stitches onto a holder or a piece of waste yarn.  I just took the needle tips off, and put stoppers on the ends of the cable.  And better still, when I return to those sections, I won't have to slip all those stitches onto a needle (the smallest number of them being about 86 stitches).  All I'll have to do is move the needle tips over to those cables!  Does this not rock?

Alas, once again, I'm working on a design that might get to be submitted somewhere, so no pics. (Okay, I will try to get a pic that shows all the cables without revealing the sweater itself).