Changing plans midstream

I stayed in at work for lunch today.  I was the only one around the office and it was lovely and quiet.  I had my lunch and then I sat back to knit.

 So I watched and knit.  The sock was just long enough above the heel to start the cuff.  My plan was to knit a 2 x 2 rib because I do like how that fits.  But somehow, this happened.

It just popped into my head and I double checked the pattern to be certain I was remembering it right and a couple of inches of toe up no purl Monkey socks were whipped up before I could blink.  Monkeys are like that.  At home, after knitting another inch on Myliu Lino,  the rest of the sock happened.  

Monkey socks are a great little pattern.  Intensely satisfying to knit, they look complicated but they are not.  Just a nice little bit of busy, to keep you engaged.  And I was!

I have knit a few of monkeys before but this is my first pair for me.  My keeper monkeys.  Toe is already cast one for sock 2.

Taking pleasure in small things

I finished the back and put a start on to the front.

This is the pickup at the shoulder seam.  The inside looks like a perfect 3 needle bind off.

Sometimes the simplest things give me such pleasure. 

Doesn't the fabric look stunning?  I love the way this tape works up.  I only hope the weight of it, which is substantial, doesn't make me dislike wearing it.

Till I know for certain, I will take pleasure in the small things, like a perfect shoulder seam.

A spring story

This is a family story, one for my kiddies.

There were rituals at Chez Needles that happened every year, not a certain date so much as a certain time of feeling.  I am thinking of it today because today, is a day with that kind of feeling.

Each spring, Brian would start to wander the yard. He walked the yard in every season, but as the snow melted in spring, he would start measuring things in certain places.  One of the places he always watched was the fire pit. The sun seemed to shine in there and it would melt off much sooner than the heavily shaded stairs and paths to get there.  Every spring, he would come in and give me a melting report till the time was right.  Once the grass was dried up around the firepit, and the wood was dry, it was time for a campfire night.

Sometimes we had food, but often it was just to go out and sit by the fire.  We usually planned well enough that we had a nice bottle of something warm to sip.  Warm, because it was spring and this is the Canadian prairies.  Spring evenings are chilly.

But we would talk about the wheres and when of what we wanted to do this year.  We planned the garden and farm.  We talked outside things at home, we talked about faith and belief, we talked life.

And we talked about death.  Not our imminent passing of course, but for that eventual day far far in the future when it was our end.  We talked about the things we would like, funerals, no funerals, about ways we would prefer to die if we had a choice.  Out at the firepit in the evenings, with a glass of warm wine or port we talked of life.  Beginning, middle and ends.

There were things that we did for Brian that were from those conversations.  Like no traditional funeral.  He did not want people to feel sad that he was gone, though we all do.  He liked the idea of a memorial, a remembering and sharing of stories of who he was, of what he meant to his family and his friends.  He wanted to be surrounded by life and by love and he was. He wanted sky and green and trees and we did that.

We had his memorial in the back yard.  He loved that yard and he worked so hard to make it the gorgeous place that it was.

He loved living there and I never forget how lucky we were to be there together.  Ever.

3 weeks after he died, we had a gathering of the people he loved.  Our families and friends met to share some burgers and beer.  We had some scotch for Grandpa Oscar, but only Grandpa Oscar and the boys kept Grandpa happy and cooked burgers. They stayed busy so they didn't have time to be sad.    

I think we all felt that way, that sad was not for when people were around.  Sad was much to new and raw and stayed private.

He would have loved it.  After a week of rain, the sun shone and we remembered him with love.

A little bit here and there

Well gosh darn it, it's Friday.  That makes me really really happy.  

There hasn't been huge amounts of knitting this week.  Not as much as I would like, or as I need.  And for no good reason either.  I think that is the part the worries me a little.  There are too many times where I just sit instead.

But there is a little knitting.  

The Myliu Lino is not so far as I aimed for but It has moved forward.  It is getting heavy, as bamboo fabric does, but I love it, love it, love it.

I have a sock with the heel almost completed.

My pretty blue shawl is moving along.
Slowly to be sure, but it is moving.

I wish I had better light to show you just how pretty this is,  Kauni Effektgarn in the prettiest bluebells colourway.  I got mine at River City Yarns locally and Lucy Neatby carries it online.

I love the shawl shape I am getting with my yarn over, knitfb beginning of every row.  It's going to be lovely and wide but deep enough to be a truly wonderful thing.

This weekend will be filled with knitting and babies and playing with my kiddes.  These are good things and with a little work and a little less focus on sorrows, there will be much more knitting next week.

A Little Eye Candy

Back in the time before, I had a glass cabinet in my study that held a changing palette of lovely inspiring yarns and yarn colours.  Often after a big stash dive, I would switch out yarns and refresh my space.

When I moved, I needed the cabinet for other things.  

Its kind of sad without the yarn in it but I love these things too.  

Please forgive the fuzzy photo.  Its late. But this is what is in my glass cabinet now.  The music boxes given to me over a lifetime.  They warm my heart and I like to play them when the kiddies come.  Or rather, I will soon.  Only Isaac is old enough to take the care of them that they require.  And my remaining dolls.  These things warm my heart and my glass cabinet is the perfect home.

But that means that if I want inspiration, I have to dig.  I don't care for that.  There should be yarn that is just out for touching.  For play.   For dreaming to. 

I made that happen.

It's a real mix of things that I would like to use over the next couple of months.  No absolutes though.  We all know that I sway to the winds of change and don't follow any kind of plan I ever made.

At the back is Estelle Yarns inimitable Cloud Cotton, my forever favourite cotton.  I made one sweater out of that stunning red and a want another made with my now wiser much steadier hand. There is plenty for a sweater and a tank.  Or two short sleeve sweaters.  Or something like that.  The brilliant white is the same yarn and I might use it with the red and I might not.  I haven't quite decided if I want some colourwork or not.  I can't really say how colourfast the yarn would be, but a guess would say, not really.  

Then there are two skeins of yarn for my Auntie, my most dearest auntie who asked for a couple of scarves like one I made a while back for her, in aquamarine and a rich purple from Rozetti yarns.

Then 2 Zauberballs for more of those delicious baby pants.

A green cotton silk blend , again for auntie, and then a homeless ball of Jo Sharp that was missed after sorting through stash but is a lovely yarn that I am looking forward to knitting.

Then the soft pale grays of the pewter colourway of Handmaiden's pure silk Rumple.

The rich purple in the foreground?  Silky Wool  from Elsebeth Lavold. That is definitely for one of my daughters and oddly enough is probably the source of my current obsession to knit a Adrift (my daughter looks great in that kind of style)

And then a yummy blue/green pure silk in an almost worsted weight yarn.  It doesn't really have a name and is a one of from a top Canadian dye house.  Or a two of, seeing how I have two that are going to work well together.  

And then a wonderful sea coloured BFL 2/8 that a friend brought me from the East Coast.  I think this is going to be the summer to knit with it.

A big basket of inspiration and dreams and all the other good things that yarn does for me.  Courtesy of freeing up the basket from errant WIPs and detritus of stuff and a wonderful weekend stash dive.

I still love wandering over to the yarn stores and looking over all the good things they have, but I love how I can shop in my wee store at home full of the wonders of my world. 

Not gonna lie.

I am here to report the silliest consequence ever.

I bought that Phil Light yarn forever and a year ago, and knit it to almost completion almost as long ago.

 And now, all I can think of is knitting it again.

Contiguous to a shape inspired by Adrift or Ecuador  .

Or maybe an actual Adrift or Ecuador.  Long sleeves.  Casual, soft, all the things you just want to snuggle into to wear on chilly spring days. Or summer evenings.

Cannot get this off my mind even as much as I love the way the Myliu Lino is working.  Almost done the back of it and in so many ways, loving every single moment of knitting it.

Only I want to start this other idea too.

What else a stash dive does.

The big stash dive that just wound up wasn't just about sorting stash.  it was also about assessing WIPs and asking myself, 'do I really want them?'

There is one large box of yes, I do but a couple things turned toast.

Most of them were deleted from Ravelry some time ago, but the actual taking apart of the project and ripping back the yarn was waiting.  I had room for large numbers of WIPs.  Sort of.  There wasn't any rush.

The oldest was a shirt that was my first pieces knit it to fit me challenge back when I hardly knew what I was doing.  

The yarn is Phil Light from Phildar.  Its a brushed nylon yarn that I fell in love with back when I did not particularly care for Phildar and when I did not particularly like brushed yarns much less inexpensive brushed yarns.

But I loved the colour and I loved the way the completed body felt when I tried it on.  Yup.  That is right.  I had the backs and fronts done, it was all sewed together and if I recall correctly, I even had a sleeve knit.  The sleeve was too small or something and I had to take it out. And that is when it stopped.

I thought I would redo it but the longer it sat the more I recognized that there was something about the project that meant I was never going to wear it.  

It fit too well.  Too closely. It was meant to be a casual shirt, the sort of thing that you would toss over a t-shirt with jeans and the fit that I knit it to, meant it was much to shaped and form fitted for the look I was after.  

I have long thought about redoing it as something softer, less formed and fitted.  For a very long time, I worried that I wasn't going to be able to rip it back and recover the yarn. And so it sat in a box all on its own.

But I did find the time this weekend and its ready to re knit.  That soft lovely yarn came through the rip back nicely enough and once again, it is that most marvelous thing of all about yarn.  

It is a pile of possibilities, just waiting to be knit.

Oops.

I finished going through the last remaining bits from the great stash sort of 2015.

I mentioned last week that sock yarn ends have babies?  

Well, OK.  The top few balls aren't really sock yarn bits, but there wasn't any room in the heavier than sock yarn bits container.

I had everything ready to be tucked away and was ready to turn off the light and leave the wool room settle into its new tidy self, and then I found these.

which are ends from the kids hat making last winter.  They won't fit in the sock yarn container.  

Demoralising.  Seriously, I could have cried.  I debated going back in and making room by moving the yarns that weren't sock yarn but I just did not have it in me.

And that is how the stash seeds another stash dive.

Its been a kind of hectic week so there hasn't been a lot of time for thinking about writing. Knitting has been steady though and I think that is what is keeping me going.

I knit on my nice sweater in the evenings. I am trying to work on my socks at lunches. When I get the chance to take lunch that is. It is almost the season where I can go sit in my car without having it running and it stays warm enough to knit. On a sunny day it already is many days. 

What I am really waiting for is the sunny warm weekend days where its nice enough to sit and knit outside in spring.  The snow pile is almost gone from my deck and I should, I hope, be able to keep the light layers of spring snowfalls shovelled.  And then, the sunny days are mine.  

I am already dreaming of pretty red and white flowers and fronds of green grasses and thinking about how I can make it more of a retreat, with just the smallest bit more privacy.  And perhaps a wee corner where shade is created for the heat of high summer.  

I don't have a garden really and if I am not the person cutting my lawn, I will leave it plain to make his job lighter.  But I dream of fancying up my deck.  

Like knitting dreams only sunnier instead of woollier.

Moving Along

There is lots to see here and I am so happy to say it is moving along!

I just moved the sleeves on to stitch holders and I am pretty happy with the way everything is working up so far.  It fits just about how I want it to fit.  I was going to move to larger needles, but I am going to leave that for a little later.  I will need the width at my waist but for right now, it is just about perfect.

I love love love the texture from this yarn.  That will change somewhat when it is worn, but it is pretty darn easy to love a project when it does that wonderful garter stitch thing every few rows.

Its like knitting with striped sock yarn.  You just keep waiting to see what comes up next.

The Little White Horse

When I was in grade 3 and still in the elementary school building, I was allowed to go over to the highschool, where the big library was located to chose books. It was almost unimaginable fun.

There was a story I remembered for years but didn't know the author or the title.  It was such a good story too.  A couple weeks ago, I googled a few salient facts about the book and found it.  I now own a copy and even though it may be children's literature, it remains a lovely story.

The Little White Horse by Elisabeth Goudge.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the first books I took from the big library.  I remember feeling exactly how I felt on reading it when it arrived the other day.  I was charmed.  And challenged.

The writing is just slightly old fashioned.  Not so old that the language doesn't make sense, but that subtle phrasing that is just different. And words.  Old fashioned words abound.  Heliotrope. Puce.    

It was a demanding book for a young person, but I looked a few up in my dictionary and then I was off and running. I kind of feel that way now.  Re-readng it is a refresher course in innocence.

I sometimes feel a little bit ashamed about my enjoying children's movies and children's books but I have always read as a form of escape.  That I escape into innocence sometimes, is not really surprising.  Not to me.  I will wander there with joy for a little while and then feel lighter when I have to face the grownup world. 

Finishing a good sort

There are 6 empty containers here.  2 are larger ones, and 4 are smaller size bins.  One large container comes from getting rid of the Cascade 220 that was excess. The rest, just sound reorganizing. I also have a shelf that is almost free in the wool room. 

That is what a good sort and order accomplishes.  Well that and a couple other things.  

Once I had all the bits and pieces of sock yarn from the various baskets and bags that it was stuffed in, I had to move to a much larger container for sock yarn.  If you ever doubt that sock yarn breeds, come see mine.  I am positive it does.  

Another surprising bit.  Sock yarn ends breed too.  More of the bits than I though I had left.  More culling in my future and I don't see that as a bad thing at all.

Then, there was seeing things with fresh eyes.  I don't generally forget yarns that I have but on occasion, when playing in the boxes and boxes of it, I see new combinations and new projects for a yarn. Playing in yarn always inspires.

While I have a sound stash of sweater yarns, I am quite surprised at the amount of small project yarns I have. I could knit small shawls or hats and mittens till the cows come home.  

Which kind of brings me to my absolute.  I need to knit more for me.  I need to knit more for my kiddies. I need to knit more for my daughters.  I just need to knit more.

Casts on

For the first time ever, I am one of those people who casts on almost the moment she sees a Knitty pattern and just goes for it.  

I am really enjoying it.  The yarn I am using is Rowan Bamboo Tape and it isn't being knit to gauge for the pattern, but because of the yarns decided tendency to grow over time, I am starting with a fairly crisp knit.  In a way.  I think that once I have the back done, and it is carrying the full weight of itself, I think it is going to be exactly what i am looking for.

And I am pretty sure there is going to be another.  I do have some silvery purple linen but not enough for an entire garment.  Cue Mikonos which is a sort of mottled lavenders.  I don';t have enough for a garment either but together...Oh yeah.  I think it would look great with a blend, using one yarn for the lase and one for the stockinette.  (Did I say that yesterday?  Why yes I think I did)  Oops.

But there are also some other cottoms that would be great knit like this.  And when you add in the many ways this kind of piece would work in my wardrobe, well, there might be a few over the next while. 

So long as this one works out.  And I just don't see why it won't.

Spring Knitty

I have long noticed a trend in knitting magazines.  I find more things that I want to knit in the spring issues.  More than one magazine, more than one year, but spring is a season that excites me, in a very knitterly way.

The new Knitty magazine went live yesterday.  When the fall issue goes online, I think oh lovely, nice, but I don't mark fall in fact.  When the winter issue  comes up, I am thinking Christmas not winter.  But when a spring Knitty arrives, it is spring. Even in western Canada where spring really doesn't show up till late May.

March Knitty is irrepressibly spring and I want it all.

Shawls? There are 4.  As I was looking last night, I realized I want them all. I know exactly what yarn I will use for each.  Not later, but right now.  I had the yarn for Peppermint Bay pulled out and the shawl cast on in my mind before I even noticed the sweaters. 

The sweaters.

Oh my.  

The French Smock   Only I would probably wear it backwards as often as not.  Its my back that gets a chill.  Or not.  I am intrigued though and I want it.

Crane Hill?    Oh it will be mine.  I have the yarn already picked out from my stash.  I have a few cotton and cotton blends where I don't have quite enough for a sweater with sleeves.  Also, I have been thinking a lot about a design that combines knitting and crochet.  This one is lovely.

Mia?    I know what I want from this one, but I would have to move the pleat up a little farther on my back.  No problemo.  The greater trouble is sorting out exactly which yarn will work best.  Because I have choices.  Too many choices  :)

Lorinda  Oh yes.  Round yoke?  Check.  Pattern details?  Check.  At the drop of a hat I will knit it.

Which is funny, because apparently I did not have a hat to drop.  Because I cast on Myliu Lino   

I'm not making it in linen, though I can see me making another one of these in some of the cream coloured linen and silk I picked up a couple of years ago. Or a blend of linen and linen blends in wonderful coordinating colours.

Nope, I cast on immediately for this top, re-interpreted in Rowan's Bamboo Tape .  I have been searching for the right project for this for years and it just never worked.  This is the perfect sort of thing.  It is meant to be light and flowing and draped.  It is meant to be open and relaxed.  Its fits all the criteria of the yarn even if the gauge isn't right.  It could be right, but I don't think knitting loose will work with this yarn.  I think it will be loose later all on its own.  

I have to confess, I did not go farther in the list of patterns. I was busy knitting.  I will do that today.  When I have finished knitting for the day.  Its nice to save a little something for after the first bite.

Knitty hits another one out of the ball park.  I love spring.  And I love Spring Knitty.

Perfect

Sometimes what you need as a perfect pick me up in sluggish knitting times, is something that is just fun. Something that takes you to your happy place.

Fun can be a difficult mitten like the Bird in the Hand Mitten.  I now have the pattern.  Just need to make time to knit it.  The thought of it makes me happy with the wee bird on the thumb.  I have admired it a very long time.  

Then I am working on this sock at lunchtime.  

Isn't that  fun?  It just tickles my fancy, that warm gold shot through with rust and green and navy.  I am in my happy place when I work on it.

And then this.  

How can you not find your happy place working these colours.  That is Kauni for you.  It is my happy place.

The Cascade 220 is taken by another knitter, there are good things being knit, the house is relatively tidy and the wool room is slowly being packed more efficiently and everything is sorted and gone through.  The snow is almost gone from my deck and in the sunlight, it will be warm enough to sit outside (Saturday, I am looking at you).

All these things together?  Just perfect.

Head's up.

I have dusted and sorted most of the wool room but there is still a lot of work left to do.  Sorting is a lot of fun.

You get to dig and touch and feel every little skein you want to an nobody can tell you knit a quick swatch if you are so inclines.  The best thing is you can dream.  Will it be a sweater?  Will it be a shawl?  For me?  A gift?  A bag?

And then you come across the things you know you will never knit.

When I was trying to settle on colours for Mr. Needles vest,

I managed to accumulate quite a bit of Cascade 220.  Some of it was play, but some was colour testing as I figured what would work and then the wonderful colours I did used.  Still the nicest thing I ever will knit. Plus he wore it all the time.

The last few years, the bucket of Cascade 220, the 2 and 3 skein piles, have been moved and shifted and shunted about. And you know what.  I don't want them.  Done done done.

So they are going to be posted on the Edmonton Knitter's board on Ravelry to give away.  So heads up, ladies.

Its time to clean and sort and love what I have.  And I don't have the energy to love this.

A friend.

Friendship is a funny thing.  Some of my closest friends, some of those who know more intimate things about me than I usually let people know face to face, are people who I have never met. They are like old fashioned penpals.

A good friend passed away in her sleep Saturday night and I am reeling.  Can people be vibrant on the page?  She was.  She was warm and vibrant and funny and oh so caring.  She loved unexpected things like bats and chickens. But most of all, she loved her mom.

I will never get to meet her and that saddens me more than I can say.

Mulling Viajante

I worked on Viajante yesterday and spent a great deal of time mulling.

Viajante is long and if you are looking at her website, you can see it is a perfectly normal triangular shawl.  An then some.

When you wear it as a 3 dimensional piece, one end is long.  Very very long.  If you want to see some examples, you go have to go through the Ravelry projects, first page, lots of examples.  worn over the head, on edge is at hip length and one at you knees or longer!

A couple of people have totally done away with the triangular convertible nature, and have done short rows to make the short side longer.  It still is a  nice piece but very different than the original intent. It would kind of go poncho if you knit short rows.

I am mulling over how I would wear it, use it.  If I only ever wore it pulled over my head, I would absolutely knit in some short rows.  I have done thought it through and know how I would do it, but the question is, would I want to defeat the triangular shape and  change its fundamental nature of doing two things brilliantly?

I think I want the changeability but really, only time will tell.  I just know that knitting this shawl has opened my eyes to the fabric that a very fine lace  weight yarn  makes.  It is something wonderful in simple stockinette.  I love the lightness of it.  I love the smoothness and the drape.  I know that the laceweight yarns I have in sweater quantities are not going to go to waste. 

I only hope that it doesn't take this long to knit each of them.

What inspires you?

I am very pleased with the shape the blue shawl is taking.  Its exactly the kind of ratio I wanted, the right sort of slope to the sides. Knitting continues!

Each night when I go to bed, I take a book.  sometimes I read a lot.  sometimes I read a little.  sometimes the book just comes along for a ride and I watch a movie.

Last night, I took Janel Laidman's Enchanted Sole to bed with me.  It has always been the colourwork socks I loved in this book.  Tree of Life.    Labyrinth.  Firebird. 

How can it get much better than that and yet....

Bonnie Birds .  Birdwalk.    Katya's Fancy  which are all from Barb Browns' Knitting Knee Highs.

When nothing else seems to inspire, I go to socks.  Though I have to admit, watching the colours change softly in this Kauni makes me feel pretty darn good.

Goofin around

I escaped my office by heading to the yarn store.  It was kind of stupid.  If I end up poor in my retirement, at least I will be happy.  Just sayin'.

And then I really ought to head to bed.  Wednesday is always such a long day and yet the urge to knit something is unbearable.  I'm back here in my study with all the yarn.  The good needles and all my WIPs are in the living room.  What to do.  I grabbed some needles and a ball of todays new yarns and just played.  Not hard play, just play.

 Kauni.  That pretty blue.  Everybody can use this pretty blue in the colours they could wear.  I want a triangle but one that is wider than long, so I am increasing with a yarn over at the start of each row and then a knit front and back in the first stitch.  It is working just how I hoped.

I have been dreaming of something hap shawl-ish. Or not.  I have no idea why, but I want the edging to be one of those lovely feather and fan variations, something wavy and warm and wearable at all times of year.  Pretty without being thought provoking.

I know that what I probably need is something thought provoking, but I just don't think I have thinking in me right now.  Too much work thinking.  I just need release and good old garter stitch does that every time.

So  there you have it.  Wasting time wisely, just goofin around.  And loving it.

I am quite determined to keep working on Viajante even as I play in yarn and as I tend to my knitting.  I might be dreaming of new yarn things, but I still work on the old.

I stopped to get a library card last evening.  Its been tough finding time to fit it in.  I thought of it, and zipped over just before the library closed.  Its not an active card yet but will be by the end of the day.

I mostly want access to digital resources.  ebooks.  There is so much that reminds me of my first library experience in this last.  

When I was a kid, my school had a library and there was a tiny library of books in the vestry at the church.  When I was in grade 3, my teacher asked if I wanted to join the provincial library. Of course I did.  

The provincial library sent out pamphlets and lists of books that they had.  You filled in what you wanted off the list and they would send it to you in the mail. You could ask for a title that wasn't on the list and they would send that too.  It was wonderful getting books in the mail.  

Within a year or so, I think as part of the centennial celebration, they took the entire collection and established regional libraries and local libraries.  The books would shift through the system and eventually the entire collection of books would hit your town. You could ask for a book and it would be brought in for you, if a title you wanted wasn't there.

In so many little ways, the digital age has made the library experience feel like the old time experience with the provincial library.  You look at lists of books, you pick, and if you can't find what you are looking for you can join the interconnected system and check out those resources.  Its kind of neat.  And just a little bit dejavu.

2 small things

Well, there you have it.  Two momentous things happened on the weekend.  

I made it past the end of ball one.  It took half my knitting time on Saturday but even though it seemed  it wouldn't, the first ball of yarn finally came to and end.  I won't even show ball two.  It's almost heartbreaking at the size of the thing.  But it marks half done.

I also finished a pair of socks!

I used a toe up gusseted heel for these and they are just the tiniest smidge too long.  I am debating living with them, or taking out a row or three on the foot.  I suspect, me being me, will choose to live with them.

And we played in yarn.  Oh I had a lovely time.  My daughter in law came and was working with the yarn, taking photographs, and I gave her free rein to go into any of the yarn.  There are boxes out and open that haven't seen the light of day in far too long.  It will be rectified.  

I think my plan for this week is going to be play.  I do feel as if I am in the doldrums.  I feel mildly stagnant and I can't think of anything so nice as digging in the yarn to wake my creative urges.  Its time to go through it all, sort and resort and reorganize all the boxes to get the most efficient packing.  I know there are boxes that have sweater quantities taken out and I look forward to finding room for more yarn!