Wading through paperwork

I'm here, helping wade through paperwork for my daughter in law.  Dear Government of Canada , your forms are confusing enough in English, much less if English is your second language.  How about a copy of the how to guide in all kinds of languages?  Huh?  How about it.  Heck, it might just give the applicants a fighting chance. Sheesh.  And how about a person at the end of the phone?  Huh?  Couldn't there be people in this process?  Cause you know, I have some specific questions....

So I have not knit yet today.  I am feeling a little cranky and off my feed, as it were.  Which begs the question, am I addicted to knitting?

1.  Delay in getting next fix causes stress.

2.  Need for source increases over time.

3.  compulsive purchasing.

4.  Unable to sit still till need is met.  Excessive twiddling of thumbs.

Yup, I am addicted.  Or maybe it isn't an addiction, maybe it is just a compulsion.    

Either way, it could be worse.  At least at the end of this addiction there is a sock, or a sweater, or a scarf.  I think I am OK with that.  

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a...

mitten!

I have had a few good yarns hanging around lately, and finally, there was a lull in my knitting.  (?? Lull?  In the knitting?  Inconceivable.)

The soft creamy brown is Elsebeth Lavold Angora.  This is a funny yarn, a quiet yarn.  It sits there, on the store shelves, peacefully resting.  Rather like its source, the Angora rabbit, it sits quietly, not hiding, but just waiting for someone to notice it.  

For all that is is a quiet yarn, it is not insubstantial.  It is solid, stalwart yarn, though as I wear them, the soft soft soft feeling may grow stronger.  I expect the angora will bloom the more these are used.  It will be a really nice mitten.  

The rest will be made out of this.  

More angora, this time Fleece Artist's Peter Rabbit.  

From here on in, the mitten will appear more like a Mrs Beetons wrist warmer than a mitten cuff.  Because the cuff is knit from the ruffly bit to the upper cuff, the mittens ready had to be ready.  When the 2 ruffly layers of cuff are knit together, the mitten need to be right there too. 

There will be beads.  Simple, clear glass, silver lined beads, to add a bit of sparkle and flash, but in a classy, ladylike sort of way.

I think that is it.  That is what I have been looking for from these soft fuzzy yarns: a delicate ruffly ladylike air with a side of practical.  

     

  

   

Quick post today

I have to gather papers to send some stuff off to my daughter in law.  It means I will probably arrive at the store late and short of coffee but with luck, not tired and frustrated. The office is open much earlier than the store. And I need to get it off today.  

Now that I think of it, maybe if I take coffee and donuts to Mr. Needles office, maybe it will all go smoother.  Gee, I wonder if I could find a flower shop open at 7 a.m.?  That might help...

Riddle Me This

What starts like this,

and ends like this?

This!

MINE!

I'm thrilled to finally have them.  I had knit with a pair of tips from my bosses set (given to her as a promotional item during a business trip to Seattle) and I fell in love.  That was April and they were due to be released in mid May. It is now November.

Skacel, the makers of Addi Turbos spent the time between, working on their brass lace tip formula.  They tried all sorts of things, and could not get rid of the coating issue with the brass.  Sense finally reigned and they have issued them in nickel, good old rock solid, just like the regular tips nickel.  

And contrary to earlier reports from the reps, all the tips and cables are completely interchangeable.  There are some cables in this set, the very short ones, that can really only be used with short tips for circular knitting, but they are all completely interchangeable.  

The regular tips have been a huge hit with any one who has invested in a set and I anticipate that these will be too.

I love these stubby little tips.  I always used to worry about needles that were too short. I now think that if all I had for implements were forks, I would find a way to knit with them. If these were forks, they would be the finest platinum forks from the greatest makers of utensils.  And these are so not forks.

Nope.  These are Cadillacs.  They are Rolls Royces.  

Addi Turbo Lace tips. Ain't life grand?

And before I forget, a Happy Thanksgiving to all my American visitors! 

Seed Catalogues

As we go into the deepest darkest part of winter, there is one thing to keep you looking forward, to keep the dark wonter night at bay.  Seed catlaogues!  The first of mine has arrived!

Way back when I was young and growing my first gardens, I found T & T Seeds in the adds in one of the farm papers.  They sold pea seeds in large quantities at half the cost of anywhere else.  In those days, cost was everything.  I was hooked.

I have always kept up an association with them, though in this yard,    there was always a strong focus towards the shade plants.  Hostas, 

and ligularias and all sorts of lovely plants that thrive in sheltered, dense shade.  

Now, with the farm ready for next year, I will think of sunflowers 

and Four O'clocks

I shall think of  plums

and red and golden raspberries

(all but the first photo are from the T & T Seeds catalogue)

This time, I got too look at it and know that come spring, I will be planting for the sun. I can take that wee fact out and think of it, any time I feel the dark long winter setting itself just a little too firmly in my soul. 

Brrrrrrr

I checked the thermometer this morning.  That wee little red stuff?  Its gone down into its ball and is running home to momma.  Well not quite.  It is only -28 or -29C this morning.  Running home to momma would be -40 and it is a long way between this and that. It is thinking about it though.  

No going out to knitting for me.  It is just too darn cold.  I was really looking forward to it, after all these weeks, but it is just too cold.

I shall hide down in my cave today instead. I shall be knitting and listening to an audio book.  I downloaded Jane Austen's Lady Susan, an unfinished novel.  Oh what we lost when she died so early.  It would have been brilliant.  In it's bare essentials as the exchange of letters, it already is.  

I am going to work on what I picked up again yesterday, Mr. Needles vest.  I really do like colourwork.  It has been too long, but I was right to set it aside.  It takes a lot of brain power.  I did a couple of rows - my version of a good time - and then needed to take a break.  

I made a really big decision.  

I am going to make me a bigger copy of the chart.  One I can... you know... see.  

Yup.  Really 'going to town' with this one.   

Foolin' around

The pity party is done, though I am still wishing and hoping that paper can fly.  Instead I shall focus on the knitting.  Knitting is always a consolation.  There is always something to knit around here.  And always something new to cast on.  This is new, but it just replaces something I was unhappy with. Therefore, it is not 'new' new.

The fir cone pattern for the center of a Shetland shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls, knit from a cone of unnamed yarn that looks suspiciously Shetland like. It looks a little stringy and gray right now, but once washed after it is knit, this yarn blooms and becomes something very fine. I am looking forward to the finish!  And the gray is not so gray.  It really is a soft heathery green, perfect for a Shetland style shawl.

This is being knit instead of that lovely Onerva, for my daughter in laws Grandmother.  I love the Onerva pattern and will finish it for myself, but I just was not happy with the quality of my knitting.  The reverse side of stockinette is always the true test of a knitters skill, and I am not there yet. My skills are not ready for that challenge.

So here I am back in the land of Shetland, with a slightly bigger yarn, and a much faster to knit pattern.  Well maybe not a faster knit, but surely a more fun knit than a large centre of stockinette (and yes, there is a wee bit of wussiness involved here). It is a stockinette lace but the pattern hides my knitterly flaws.

I am not going to knit the same border on this shawl as what is shown in the book. I like the border from another just a few pages farther on better, so traditional without all the traditional parts.  The goal is to make a beautiful shawl for a sweet lady.

I have a trip to town and a hundred errands but this afternoon is reserved for knitting on Mr. Needles vest.  I'm looking forward to it.  

A Shout Out to the World

I am the mother of sons.  While I loved being the mother of sons, and was probably best suited to being the mother of sons, I have always longed for a daughter.  

Sons, on occasion, bring daughters into your life.  My eldest did.  

My very treasured daughter is still in Kiev, and we are still waiting.  This is so hard for me.  I can barely begin to imagine how hard it is for my son, Tony and Olga.  Married but not together, trying to build their life together, but just waiting.

I am sorry.  I am having a wee bit of a pity party today, sitting here wishing that government paperwork moved along faster.  Wishing that the good paperwork fairy would clear the visa process faster for us.   

Please world, wish for me my daughter.  Wish for my son his wife. Here.  In Canada.   Cross your fingers and toes.  Send Canadian Immigration a pack of pencils so the stuff that needs doing can all get done faster.  Please world, if you can spare a moment, think of my daughter and wish her to us.

If wishes were horses...maybe it would all happen sooner.  

Knitting From Your Closet

I took a course a while ago with Sally Melville, and while I disagree with some of the things she discussed in class, there was much in the class that I took home with me.  

One of the things she said was to knit the things you wear.  Favourite shirt?  Consider re-interpreting it in knitting.  Favourite sweater? Consider repeating it.  Favourite hemline on a garment?  Put that into your next innovative piece.

So there I was yesterday morning, digging through the laundry in the laundry room, trying to find a top to wear with the other garments I intended to wear.  I have enough summer short sleeve tops, with necks designed to wear pretty necklaces, great for showing off small shawls.  They have been fine up till now.  Our weather has been stunningly lovely for this late in the year.

But this week, everything changed.  Winter has arrived.  No point in gradually getting colder, gently acclimatising us.  No it lands in one fell swoop.  From +10 C down to -20C in one fell swoop.

As I was getting dressed yesterday I dug and wished for a turtleneck or at least a fake o' turtleneck.  It is time to cover my neck and wear it close so no body heat escapes.  Sort of.  

I need short sleeves.  Why short sleeves?  Because when it gets busy at the yarn store, you have to toss your layers, and get down to as little wool as possible.  There is also the middle aged woman thing, that means there are times when...well, just trust me.  If you are a middle aged woman, I need not explain about suddenly warm.  

In my eyes, the perfect winter top is a short sleeved turtleneck or high crew neck. The ones I used to wear are just not fit for wearing in public.   It hit me.  Knit the things you wear.

So I am on the hunt for finer yarns that will make great tops for wearing under sweaters.  It has to be just the right blend of fibres.  Pure wool very likely will be too warm.    

This is what I came up with.  Duett from Sandnesgarn, a washable wool cotton blend in a fine fingering gauge.  As soon as Mr. Needles sweater is done, as soon as my green vest is done, as soon as my black Elysium is done, I will begin the knitting of fine turtlenecks.  

And I just might get them done before the winter is over.  

Wishing I was inspired

But alas, I am not.  

I haven't really picked up any knitting for a few days.  I can tell.  I have a cold in my head and it isn't any fun.  I am going to stop for the appropriate drugs on my way to work today.  Here is hoping that they are strong enough and that they work all day.

Tuesday works

What is this working on Tuesday thing?  I know not of this Tuesday working thing.  

I picked up a day filling in for someone else, and my week feels just slightly skewed.  It feels like Thursday but it is only Tuesday.  That will make my Wednesday be on Thursday and my Saturday be too far away.  If you know what I mean.  (if not, please accept this is how my brain works.  Scary isn't it?)

But, driving home last night gave me the opportunity to hear something on the radio in a time slot I normally don't hear.

There was a musician being interviewed, an interesting man, who said he had never quite been able to see himself as just musician, as a teacher, but that he also felt like a student, a band member, a player. He felt there were just so many ways, big and small that his music touched his life, was interwoven with his life, that one word could never possibly contain all the many layers he feels from his music, within his music.  That he was passionate about music was not in doubt. 

That is exactly how I feel about knitting.  It is not just one thing, it is so many small things, and big things.  It is not easily quantifiable, but it is so right, so much a part of me.  

From the memory of that brownie swatch where the instructor said I was doing it wrong, but could not tell why my perfectly knit (for a 6 yr old) square was wrong, to the funky knitted Christmas socks, to my first pairs of socks before I realized that I was still purling twisted on sock ribbing... 

Yesterdays knitting adventures were yet another way that knitting has touched my life.  I picked up my small machine, a Singer LK 100, a hobby knitter, from an old Club Z program from Zellers, in the late 80's or early 90's. I really wanted to knit sweaters.  I really needed to knit, but somehow the machine lagged and it lay, not forgotten but in the state of getting around to it for all those many years.

All of these things, all of these attempts, these desires, these lame and lacklustre efforts were supposed to happen so that I could land in the world of knitting now.  Perhaps something magic was supposed to happen if I landed in the world of knitting now.  That must have been it. Magic it is.  

I am not who I was, I am not where I was, I am not what I was.  In so many ways, knitting changed me, and in all the ways it has completely filled all the places that needed filling, it has not changed the core of me. It has added spice, colour, grace, forgiveness, acceptance and patience and it has made me a better person.  

How lucky can a guy get?  I live in the land of knitting.  Teacher.  Student.  Explorer.  Practitioner.  Participator. One word.  So many layers.

When Distracted

When I am distracted, I really ought to stay far away from wool.

Yesterday I knit about 3000 m of yarn.  I am making a blanket for my bed,a big warm blanket, simple rectangles of the basic natural tones of Lion Brand Fishermans Wool.

I was not sure if I would like this yarn.  I assembled it over several years.  It was a reason to go to the big box stores.   If there was no sock yarn I wanted, then I came home with this.  It is after all an incredible price and for a project of size, you do want an incredible price.  It isn't fancy, it is a wee bit coarse, but when knit up, I am  impressed with the fabric it makes.

No magic here.  It is a quickie machine knit.  I have two more rectangles to knit and then a border to add on, probably in crochet, to stabilise the whole thing and to help the edges lie straight.  

This isn't included in the Knit Metre totals on the side bar.  That is strictly hand knitting.  It would seem wrong, like cheating to add machine knitting to that.  They are after all 2 completely different sorts of things.

'Monday, Monday, so good to me'

I am a wee bit distracted today.  I have so many things I want to accomplish.  And so few hours in which to get it all done.  

But mostly, my head is in the dirt today.  I have been thinking about all the things I want in my garden next year.  

It is time to pull out the old garden notes.  Every year, I used to cut out the blurbs from the seeds I planted and paste them into a journal.  Then I wrote notes about how well they performed.  I tried to assess plants and production for the conditions I had.  I had hoped that over the many years I planned to garden, that I would be able to figure out which varieties of peas I like the best, which potatoes I preferred, which zucchini.  I had hoped to have thick journals with many details.  And then it all ended.  And I have not had a vegetable garden since.  

It sounds silly, but it won't be long now and the seed catalogues will be out.  I know I have time to think about it all, but if you want to start seeds indoors, you have to be ready to begin by late January or the beginning of February.  

In that long time ago, I had peas, carrots, onions, potatoes, corn, cucumbers.  Just ordinary things.  And zucchini.  I always seemed to have an extraordinary crop of zucchini, but then, who didn't.  My biggest adventure was asparagus.  It would have produced its first crop the year we moved.  

I want more this time.  Much, much, more.  I want turnips and garlic.  I want a few tomatoes.  I want cucumbers enough that I can pick them small and pickle real honest to goodness baby dills. ( I want dill and herbs in this garden too).   I want raspberries and apples and gooseberries and plums and strawberries...

And I have to begin to figure out just how I am going to store all these things too. This current house does not have a cold room, unless you count my study.  And I may yet consider that, though there would have to be some adjustments.  I'm not sure yellow is a good colour for storing vegetables and it is nice and sunny in here.  

And the big question, if the vegetables move in here, just where the heck will all this stuff go?  

Seriously, I am considering building a good old fashioned root cellar at the farm. I have a suspicion that Mr. Needles is not even remotely thinking of it.  Indeed I think he would be appalled.  

Such is the set of my thoughts today.  Today garden paths are true garden paths.  Simple knitting accompanies it all.

Or it will once I fix this mess.  

(Song lyrics in title:  'Monday, Monday' by John Phillips)

The land between

Sometimes, there are so many things I would like to knit, that I am left wishing for more hours in the day, more in the month, more in the year.  Sometimes I have the overwhelming need to learn to knit faster.  

Yet some things require slow.  Some things are best done deliberately, with great care.  Some things are best savoured, best when you really slow down and taste the goodness.  Knitting is like that too. 

Somewhere between this slow dance of savouring each moment, and the desire to knit faster, to knit more, is where I am.  

I love this Watershed pattern.  I really really love the yarn, Renaissance from Classic Elite.  With these, I dwell in the land between.

Of Rights and Wrong Again.

Have you ever completely lost your sense of direction?  You know, where north becomes south and west, east, where familiar landmarks approached at a slightly different angle become something completely unrecognizable?  

That is exactly how I feel as I work on Watershed.  I have lost my sense of direction over some small but very important words. This is not a criticism of the pattern.  I cannot see how she could possibly have made it clearer.  No the fault, as usual lies with this knitter.

I am onto the body knitting now, which has lace panels at each front edge and a lace panel up the centre of the back.    There are three charts, a centre chart, a left chart and a right chart.  

Which do I follow when?  Right side of fabric or right edge?  Reading charts from the right or reading charts from the left?  Left edge of right chart? Right edge of left chart?

Its not a difficult knit. The lace is simple, but you do have to do the right thing at the right time, and the right time to do the right side is not always the right I am thinking of.  

It is a pattern that feels intuitive but I am already aware that the moment I feel comfortable with it, is the moment I have to watch carefully.  I am about to commit knitting that cannot be corrected.

The funny thing is that the re-knitting I am doing is Ok.  Really Ok.  I feel good when I do it because I know that when I do it again, I will be doing it right.  (Maybe left)     

It occurs to me that just like when I get comfortable with a pattern, that the moment I am really really OK with re-knitting is probably a warning sign.  It likely is the moment that I should recognize I have completely lost it.  

A Matter of Time

I don't usually work Mondays or at least I haven't for a long time. Working Monday made it feel as if something unusual happened.

It felt like we took lunch late in the day.  I had no idea what time it was, but it felt like late.  A couple hours later, I asked my co-worker what time it was (she wears a watch) and it was 3:30 p.m. That hardly seemed right.

I think I asked her a dozen times after that.  Something felt so wrong.  Completely wrong.  It was just wrong.  And hour later, after I was sure we had worked long and late I asked her again.   

What the heck was wrong with me, that the day felt so late, yet hardly any time had passed.  She said the same thing.

Ahhhh.  Time change. That was what was going on.  The light from the south window was telling us it was later than it was. I had been  been following the light cues all day and the long, long DST adjustment made everything feel wrong. 

I hate time change. And this fall change is the easy change. You get to sleep later.

The real measure of time is experienced more than measured.  If we are knitting something that is deeply valued by us, time moves at lightnings pace. If we are waiting for our pot of tea to boil, time moves slowly. If you are waiting for a treasured daughter in law`s paperwork to clear the governments bureaucracy, time moves at a glacial pace.  

Our ancient ancestors would have marked the passage of time by the rise and fall of the sun and where that sun set on the horizon.  They would have watched weather and temperature as well to mark the times they needed to measure to survive.  Small measures of hours were pretty meaningless.  

We no longer allow ourselves the luxury of experiencing time the way our ancestors did, large scale watching the movements of the sun and the earth.  We have mangled the whole notion of time. Time is measured and ordered and sorted within an inch of our lives.  Our species likes this sort of order, I suppose but really, does that harshly measured time mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

And that wasn`t enough.  We invented Daylight Savings Time, and try to convince ourselves we actually gain rather than just shifting our measure of time to start at minus one rather than one.

 It is a way of thinking that is slightly less logical than this map of  the legislated time zones of Canada.  It looks goofy.  I mean, half hour later in Newfoundland.  It is goofy.

Still it is the way we measure our lives.  And goofy measure or not I have an appointment this morning that I have to keep.  Maybe if I take my knitting, the pleasure of it will offset the tedium of the wait and 10 minutes will only feel like 10 minutes.  

I did not knit on the vest.  To be truthful, I didn't even look at it.  A lot of concentration will have to happen to knit that vest and I'd rather do it when I have a feeling of time.  

Right now, I don't have the feeling of time.  I am working 3 weeks in a row where a.) I am working 5 days a week, and b.) my 2 days off are split by a work day.  I wish I were stronger.  I wish I was not such a wuss, but of the 2, it is surely the split days off that are difficult. It is what it is, and I shall work on things I have to focus on after these few weeks are done.

 In place of the vest, I am knitting this, my version of Amy Swensons Watershed.  Nice wee cardi/vest pattern, complete with enough challenges to be interesting, but not enough to be painful.

I am also knitting a small Baktus,a sideways knit triangular scarf.  This one isn't for me, it is for the store.  Every once in a while, in any yarn store you get yarns that don't move quite so well.  The multi colour stuff,  is one of them.  I'm knitting a small sample so that scarf knitters can see what it could add to their multi yarn scarves.  

So many things, so few hours.  Insert one 32 hour day, please.  

Post Sweater Lull

There is always a period after completing something large where my hands just sit for a bit.  The urge, the itch is quieted and calm as I sit and dwell in the land of satisfaction.

In the quiet, I took out Mr. Needles vest and had a good long look at it.  I have been worried that one section of the perrie patterns was going to be too tight and would need to be reknit.  That idea was so strong within me, that I have spent weeks avoiding looking at this vest.  In that strong avoidance, I emptied a basket of sock WIPs started 2 other simple sweaters, finished one.  Not too shabby, even if the motivation for these was a negative sort of motivation.

There is nothing wrong with the vest.  One section is a wee bit tighter, but not what I had it built up to be in my mind.  My bit of blocking last night showed that clearly.  

Taking stock of just where the vest was at was easy.  There is a bit of the shoulder to knit, about 8-10 inches, then to steek, and knit the button/zipper and armscye courrugated ribbing, and then to knit the pockets.  (The pockets may get knit before the bands.) I think my hands are ready to tackle the vest again.  The Cascade 220 felt good, comfortable in my hands. 

A Leisl sweater is a speedy easy knit.  An Elysium is a hypnotic knit.  Socks are regular and comforting knitting. I am ready after these things for the intensity of the vest.  Bring on the charts.  Have at it.  Conquer it.

Knit Night

Though last night was my knitting evening with friends, that is not the sort of knit night I am talking about today.  I`m talking about the kind of knit night that means I have been awake since 1 a.m., out of bed since 2 a.m., at which time I decided there was no point lying there, so I got up to knit.  It is now 4 a.m.

Knit all night. You wonder how I get so much knitting time in.  This is how.

But knitting at night does have its advantages.  My sweater is done and blocking 

and I am back to working on my black Elysium.

I am also contemplating this.  

Shelter, the new specialty yarn from Brooklyn Tweed.  In case I forget to mention it, I forgot to show my knit night ladies this yarn.  They can shoot me next week.  I will even promise to show up. I have no excuses.  

A friend brought it back from New York for me.  (I have lovely friends)  I would like to crawl right inside this warm cushy woolen spun yarn before I knit with it.  

My new camera, a wee SD1300 IS seems to let me.  

And that is the kind of thing I do when I am up all night long. I will go back to bed shortly and will sleep till the 8 o`clock alarm. I think.  I will probably not be the sharpest cookie on the block at work tomorrow.

Almost a Sweater

One sleeve done.  A realistic estimate.  BUT, I also managed to get the hem of the sweater done.  So even the wild far out wing and a prayer dream I had was not that far out.  

If you ever need an emergency sweater and you have 3 days of sound knitting (by the time I complete this, it will be about 16 hours) to do it in, think Liesl.

The new camera is just fine. It will take a little time to get used to its features, but so far so good.  And it has a macro setting!  I always wanted a macro setting.   

How I was goin g to take photos

It is completely possible that you won't see this sweater till it is done.  

My camera is misbehaving.  The on off switch is misbehaving.  I can view photos but not take them.  Sigh.  This might mean that I need a new camera.  Which really is ridiculous.  Sigh.  My adventures today will mean a new camera.   

The sweater I am currently knitting (one of two) is a Liesl .  I have knit this once before and just like that time, this sweater almost seems to knit itself.  This is a speedy knit.

In the pictures I would have taken for you, you would have seen a sweater almost at full length.  When the current ball of yarn is done, the body will go on holders and the sleeves will be knit, and once those are done, any and all yarn remaining will be used to knit the body of the sweater longer.  

The real world says there is time today to knit one sleeve today. The deep inner me that lives a rich knitting fantasy life thinks I will be able to knit both sleeves and finish the sweater to wear to work tomorrow.    

Oops

I would show you what happened except I am downloading 'The Gentle Art of Plying' right now and it is going to take a couple of hours. 

I'm doing it via Internet Explorer because Abby Franqemont's 'Drafting" video took 10 hours via Google Chrome.  I think.  I went to bed.

Besides giving me a headache, waiting and watching this happen so slowly gave me a very long time to knit yesterday.  I just wasn't knitting on the black sweater.  Had I done so, I would be almost done the black sweater.  Instead, I have sitting here in front of me, two partially completed sweaters.  (with Mr. Needles vest sitting not too far away, partially complete.)

This second sweater is going to be fine.  I'm doing it in a yarn that has been hanging around the store from Needful Yarns.  The yarn is Super, a chunky, fine, fine, many plied superwash merino.  

I'll show you tomorrow. After the download is done.