Adventures!

I am going to a picnic today.  It promises to be a bit cloudy but otherwise nice sweater wearing weather, so I am grabbing some sub sandwiches from the pizza joint, putting some cucumbers and tomatoes and juice boxes in my bag, and I am off to one set of grandkids today.  I will go to the other grandkids tomorrow and repeat.

The weather office is calling for a high of 17, so I expect it will be close to that by noon.  Normally, the hottest time of the day is about 2:30 or three o'clock.  I think 15 is a reasonable expectation for noon.  Sweater Weather.

So far as I know, we will picnic in the front yard, and I will sit on the sidewalk in front of the house and they will sit on the high part of the lawn above the retaining wall.  That will keep us separate enough to meet the demands of the current quarantine but we still can have a visit.  

I feel a bit giddy really and I have been trying to figure out what to wear.  It is very silly really, to feel like this about it, but I want to give them a little event that they can remember about the quarantine, when grandma came to visit.  There will be bubble stuff and balloons and Smarties too.  Mama will have to be the store keeper, though but it will be good for mama to play too. 

In knitting adventures, I have been putting in the most time on the landlord's sweater.  I wanted to get it past the yoke so that it then becomes an adventure in three tubes.  Once it gets there, it can be visiting knitting.It will be perfect.  Large gauge knitting in the round all the way down, all the decisions done. At the moment, I am at the end of the increases and am just wee bit short of the length the pattern asks for before separating sleeves and body.  Otherwise, I am following the pattern.

Which is the weirdest thing of all.  I am used to counting stitches and doing the math to know how many inches I have. Weird is to count and check against the number of stitches on a particular line of a printed pattern page.  

I am debating making one small change.  I am thinking of putting a garter stitch panel at the underarms down the side of the sweater, as boredom relief.  It won't change anything else about the pattern but will give me something to look forward as I knit round and round.

It is time now to go get organized.  I have places to be and important people to see. I hope each of you has just as nice a day as I will have.  

Why Don't You Get Out More

It is 8 weeks now, since news came that schools were closing and since I have been out of my house  and most days, life has been pretty normal, or would be, if the oven was working or I could get a repair person to come.  My biggest problem through all of this was the quest for yeast. I have had a marvelous time knitting and carding and generally doing my stuff, feeling utterly content with things as they are. 

But the best thing of all has been there is no burden of expectation.  No one is out there wondering why I am just sitting at home.  You cannot imagine what a relief this is.  

Of course, I know I am not just sitting, but to most people, the knitting doesn't count as doing something. The reading doesn't count as doing something.  Reading and knitting are prefaced with 'just' as if it isn't real somehow.  Reading might be occasionally seen as a valuable and important thing to do, but knitting?  

Never.  Not in the modern world. I don't even think in older times either.  Longer ago, knitting is what you filled the spaces between and after other large tasks with.  It needed doing, but it was a thing done in fits and bits and pieces. It wasn't a specific task that took x many hours of a single day so it wasn't really seen as a job to be done.  It was just knitting.

Some people might not agree with me that most people don't divide the world by  'just' things and do things.  But let's look at running.  

When I was a kid, if an adult told you they were out running, people would have looked at you oddly.  Only children were out doors running.  Grown ups did not run.  They may have gone for a walk, but certainly not gone out to run.  Just running?  Hmmm, how odd.  

Somewhere over time, things changed and running became fashion and then that something more, till it is what it is today.  Today, if you say you run, the world looks at you as if you really are doing something. 

Knitting remains a just in the eyes of the larger world. It remains something slightly odd, slightly strange, slightly subversive to the few who feel subversive is good.  But finally, no one is asking why I am sitting at home. 

If I happen to be knitting, energized, excited and occasionally wildly fulfilled, at least no one is saying why don't you get out more.

Not the Vacation of Hercule Poirot

Yesterday was such a lovely day.  I had a good visit via Skype and I could have chatted for hours.  However, oddly enough, I could not sit for hours!

Do you recall the other day, me talking about something that just made me laugh when I was feeling low?  I was talking about a shawl named Les Vacances d Hercule Poirot  , The Vacation of Hercule Poirot.  I knew exactly what yarn I would use too.  I have some lovely soft sock yarn from Custom Woollen Mills in grey and cream that will be marvelous for this shawl.  I would be knitting it now if I could have found the yarn without ripping the closet apart this morning.

While I did not find the sock yarn, I did come across this yarn, Country Silk or something like that. It is a blend of silk, wool and nylon in a lovely blues with bit of warm taupe and warm purple.  I have tried it as several things but it just never felt right.  But I have wanted to knit with it forever.  It is always at the top of the next up pile and is perennially passed because I don't know what to knit from it. 

When I woke this morning, early as it was, I woke thinking that the right kind of project for this yarn, with it's multi coloured bits, was Matchmaker, or Hitchhiker or one of Martina Behm's other ever so knittable garter stitch delights.  It is too long since I knit something from Martina. 

 

I had so much fun knitting my yellow Matchmaker and it is one of the things I wear all the time so I quickly decided on that.  And away I went. 

Not too far though, not yet.  I have other things to do, some of which is to finish up the carding before my new fleece arrives and some of which is not nearly so much fun but has more to do with laundry and dishes and the like.  I will obviously have to dig in the boxes to find the yarn for Hercule's Vacation too so that I can knit that at some point  not too far away. 

And so, on we go.  Be safe.  Be kind. Stay Healthy.

The happiness quotient is high in the house today for no specific reason other than it is.  It is okay to just feel happy.

So with the finishing of things last week, I had the pleasure of starting something new.  Two things actually.

When I moved here three years ago, the landlord said he wanted a sweater.  I knew what yarn I would use, though I had no idea what pattern I would follow.   When I decided to pull out some Berocco Remix and begin  I still had no idea what pattern.  At the back of my mind I have always put Cobblestone high on the list if pattern choices.  I have the book.  I love the easy style.  I love to knit garter in the round.  Sitting here on my sofa, I picked something different.  

Because the book was over on the shelf and I was too lazy to go and find it.  Yes sireee.  I am 'that' lazy.  

I went with Flax.  I could put it straight on my tablet and the pattern was free.  Plus it still has some of the garter in the round I enjoy.  

The next thing I started was another shawl in precious yarn for evening knitting.  

It isn't going to look like much other than a triangle and eventually a square for a very long time.  It won't look like lace till the last couple of sections.  I am making a Hansel for my very own out of Shetland Ultra.  I have made this pattern before for Olga's grandmother in testing it for size, I knew I wanted one of my own.  Maybe two.  Okay I have yarn for two.  This in a delicate laceweight and some Briggs and Little Sportweight to make a giant  warm cozy TV watching masterpiece. 

Somehow, that wasn't  enough.  I do want to keep moving my WIPs through to become finished objects.  I would like the summer sweaters at least, complete this year before summer is done so I can start fall sweaters in July.  

So I pulled out this delicate Phil Light sweater I started in February.  I had set it aside with a bit of a problem and since I don't  want to let things with a bit of trouble sit anymore, I dealt with it.

It had one place where there was an uneven number of increases down one sleeve.  I hate pulling this yarn back.  It can be difficult with all that fuzz, but facing it and doing it had to happen.  So here we are, pulled back and almost reknit to where I was.  And no mistakes.  

I could do all this because Friday afternoon I completed half of the fibre I was working on.  Later today that work starts again.  The plan is to have it done by the weekend.  We know how that goes, but I am going to give it a shot.

Turning things right.

I spent a great deal of time today carding fleece.  It was the work of the morning.  It was the work of early afternoon.  I almost have the first of the bags from this locally produced Border Leicester cross fleece carded and ready to spin.  Carding is faster than my tiny combs could give me, that is for sure, but it remains a very great deal of work.

I sat down and did a swatch today with some laceweight linen.  Well half way did it.  I really want to make the Shakerag Top from Mason-Dixon's Transparency Field Guide.  This is the same top that I swatched with the yellow Patons Hempster.  I am hoping that this  Fibra Natura Flax Lace

works for both the double stranded rows and the single strand areas.   From my early swatching, this will work, though I can't be sure about gaugetill I wash it and dry it a few times.  One way or another, this top with its interesting stripes, will be mine.

And then I sat down in the evening and knit a bit on this.

 

I knit so much that it became a finished thing!  This came as a bit of a surprise to me, but I guess that is the way of things when you are knitting from the bottom edging lace to the neck back.  I really enjoyed knitting it and before you know it, there will be another lace something on the needles just for evenings.

And then, as usual, I had a little bit of a letdown.  I sat down to read and get caught up in some of my online friends daily adventures.  There were great epic adventures and some whose days did not go so well.  It would be so easy to slip to that place where you could start the slippery slope to despair.  I would carry their sorrows for a moment if I could.  Ah well.  

My action this evening is to focus on something that will make tomorrow shine.  And I think I may have it, just a little something that I stumbled on, on the way to something else, something that makes me laugh. and gives me comfort in the silliest way.   

I spent the last couple hours feeling just a little bit of sorrow and sadness, but things have turned right, and I can look forward to getting out the yarn.  Life really is pretty good.  I only wish that everyone could see the small things that make it so.

Whack-a-mole

This morning it struck me that life is a lot like a good game of whack-a-mole.  You go along your way and then something comes up and you need to resolve it and you try and try and try, eventually whacking the darn thing into the order you need to get back on your merry way.  

That is what the carding problems felt like, but without the ever so rewarding whacking, which give you some relief even if you happen to miss.  Still, as I mentioned in the highly unusual second post yesterday, it got much better.  

Carding is once again the order of the day.  I really want to get this job done so that I can move forward on the next fleece that has been sitting far too long, waiting for me to do something with it. But this whole adventure has made me wonder about something else.  

I mentioned seeing a lady carding a prepared top?  It never occurred to me before that this would be something one would do.  I mean, it is ready to spin as is but sitting here, carding yesterday and thinking about stuff, I did think of my vast quantities of beautifully prepared top sitting in the other room.  

When I purchased my Julia wheel oh so long ago, there was a credit included for two hundred dollars of prepared top.  I could have traded the store for some of it but I decided that I wanted it all.  It seemed like a good way to get a good supply of stuff to spin in one fell swoop.  

I planned for project spinning.  My dream of spinning has always been to spin lace fine enough to make a shawl so I bought lovely gradations of colour in Shetland sheep top and blue faced leicester top enough that even counting practising and messing up, I would have lots to knit a shawl.  I bought Finn and Gotland to try some different breeds.  I bought some wool and linen and some soysilk and corn fibre just to try that too.  And I bought some good sturdy superwash wool to spin some sock yarn for socks.  All tops.  

The last few years, I have been spinning differently, trying to spin woollen.  Once I learned how to do that or to do my version of it, it quickly became my favourite way to spin.  After spinning the first carded fibre from one of my  fleeces on hand, I wan't sure what I was going to do.   Yes, I had fleeces to have my own carded fibre, but I had all that top that wasn't nearly so much fun to spin. It became one of those niggling little things that hangs at the back of your mind, ever present, but not presenting itself into conscious thought.        

After seeing that lady card prepared fibre, I realized that this is what I need to do with at least some of it.  Maybe not all of it, but a good portion of it.  And this is kind of an exciting thing.  

But first, fleeces.  I need to whack these fleece on hand into order and get them ready to spin.  Then I can play to my hearts content and practice spinning fine wool, fine enough that I shall have that shawl of my dreams hand spun  and knitted by me.  Sometimes in life, you are not the guy whacking the mole.  Sometimes in life you are the mole, you get whacked and you see things just a little differently.  

Life is a lot like a good game of whack-a-mole.

Doing Better

Because I would have had to put the carder mess away before doing anything else, I decided to give it one more try.  I googled left, I googled right, I googled upside down and finally came across a couple of things that I hoped would help.  

Like most people, I usually put the locks of fleece into the carder from cut end to tip.  I came across a post from 2009 from the Yarn Harlot about something Judith Mackenzie said in a class, a bit of a throw away comment, not anything that would have made a bullet pointed list.  

Judith said to card from the side of the lock like commercial carders do. I had seen someone do this on a video, but they were using commercially prepped top so I discounted the video.  After reading the Yarn Harlots post, I wondered if that would make a difference. 

I found another blog from a person who had something similar happening, and she talked about adjusting things on her generic carder.  This helped enormously.  Every other thing I found was from carding machine makers and resellers and seemed more about setting up the carder properly, rather than adjustments to resolve  the glompy mess I was getting.  

I approached the carder with pliers and wrench and a piece of paper and mucked about here and there and wouldn't you know it, it made a difference. 

It isn't perfect.  I have had to start by carding only a few locks at a time, but I can get a reasonably smooth batt after the first carding, and a really lovely one after the second.  They are much lighter batts than I was able to get previously but that could be the wool itself.  

Anyway, it is making enough of a difference that I may yet become the owner of fleeces ready to spin in this century.  

So, yeah...

So yeah...that went well.

I had myself set up.  I had everything just so.  I combed for about a half an hour and things were going great.  And then the comb with the previously broken handle, broke again.  I spent a while sanding it off again and then decided that maybe I should just card everything.

But there was a reason I am combing and not carding, and all I really did was invent something new to clean up.  I thought to try flicking and that was partly okay, but really doesn't work as well with this fleece from one of my local growers as it did on the Columbia fleece I got from Woolly Wool of the West a few years ago.  

So I gave up and did something else.  I was so mad the only thing I was fit to do was to move large pieces of furniture around in my spare room.  At least that was not going to haunt me and the physical effort of moving stuff took the grump right out of me.

I talk about my spare room/guest room far too much for how much time it is used. I clean and tidy it all the time and I seem to forever be sorting stuff out in there.  To me, that is a sign of a room gone wrong.  Taking the old dresser out of there is the right decision.  I still need room for my loom.  I need a decent place for my treadmill, and I absolutely need a guest bed that I don't have to fold up and put away all the time.  

In a perfect world, the loom would slip into the closet.  That was my plan when I moved it into that room.  It mostly does fit, but the closet doors are a bit of a problem.  They could impede working the weft. I am considering asking the landlord to take them off but I don't know if he will.  Where could we put them so they do not get ruined.  Eventually, he will need them back.  Without the doors and with shelving on the sides made to suit all the weaving things, it would be a great little nook and would leave plenty of room to pull the loom out and move it about to dress the loom.  

I would have to deal with the problem of the extra large containers of fleeces waiting for processing and all the spinning fibre, but see above for why that isn't happening fast.  They will probably act as a side table for the guest bed in the short term.  And if they remain, they will come into my yarn closet in the not too far off future. The knitting of the past winter has made some pretty deep inroads there.  If all the containers were a hundred percent full, there would be two or three less large tubs, which mean fleeces and fibres could fit.  

The treadmill issue is sorted by moving the dresser out, so win.  And after yesterday morning, I so desperately felt the need to win at something.  

More than anything, having the feeling that I have had some kind of small success keeps my head straight.  It doesn't have to be much of anything, just one small thing, like a loaf of bread that worked or a particularly nice blog post.  The blog post is not going to win this day, that is for sure.  Too rambling.  Too much frustration without resolution.

Time to get my day underway.  I am looking for the good today and that alone is a win.

Emily's Fleece

I love a good silent auction.  They can be enormous fun so long as everyone else is in it for fun too.

I cam across one last fall on a sheep farm I follow,  where funds were being raised to help someone do a Chalice Mission trip in Tanzania.  I read about the mission and decided the bids people had posted needed improving.  So I helped.  I had hoped to get people going, to give in the spirit of the thing but it was not to be.  Sadly.  Had I known it was going that way, I would have done more.  I will end up with a fleece because no one bid above me.  Ending up with a fleece is not such a bad thing but ending when you had just begun is.  I am really excited. 

copyright Aspen Grove Farm

You can read the story on this link.  Aspen Grove Farm & the Wool Room

I am getting the fleece of a yearling Lincoln Finn Romney cross sheep named Emily.  The locks are between 7 and 8 inches long so definitely a long wool. 

copyright Aspen Grove Farm

Her coat has been covered and so it looks lovely and clean.  And with spring here and with the landlord telling me there is hot water outside, and with my screen bags and the tools I need to wash the fleece in place, I am almost looking forward to this!

So, a long wool.  Which is going to mean more combing.  Maybe I need bigger combs?   A hackle? Tools are a bit difficult to source right now.  Shipping is really expensive and slow, so I guess I just need to comb more.

I baked and did laundry yesterday.  I do have one room on my to clean list (I made a list.  Maybe if I do one room a day, I won't get so far behind, hahaha.  I know me.), so on this sunny morning, the only thing I really have to do is to get off this computer and gather my tools and comb.  I'd like to get the job I have going on my combs finished before I get this new fleece. 

So, for now, bye.

Such a lovely weekend.

I did finish Friday, the knitting part only, but that is always such a exciting thing to complete!  I had to stay up late, till the painfully late hour of 9:00 p.m., but I told myself no computer till the work was done.  I adulted and forced myself to complete the last 6 rows.  Saturday morning at the much too early hour of 5 a.m., I sat down to put it together. 

The very important front and back seams are complete.  It looks really great.   I still have the sides to do, and I have to confess I am waffling about the arm opening.  I think what I have to do is sew up the sides and leave a long tail on the sewing thread and wear it for a bit as I type, as I knit, as I do ordinary things where I reach and put.  That way, I will know if I can close it up more or less and find the perfect nonbinding sleeve opening size.

I have one more day till Tuesday.

After that success, I got out my lovely Icelandic shawl, which I have not touched since July last year.  It had an issue with the lace that I couldn't sort out.  It never seemed to matter how much I went back, there was always some kind of problem, one stitch too many, one stitch too few.  I went back a couple rows but kept coming back to the same trouble.  Sunday morning, I pulled back all the lace that was already complete.  The really interesting bit was that as I was doing it row by row (only 8 rows), I found where the trouble was!  On row 1. 

With that out of the way, I could sit down and do this which got me back right to where I was, but it looks right this time, not mostly right.  Or it will when it is blocked.

As I knit, I had the chance to really appreciate the delicate colours of Einband.  There is just nothing else like it. 

This design is from the book Three-Cornered and Long Shawls, Dýrfinnustaðahyrna með blúndu.    Just picking up that book makes my head dream all sorts of dreams of shawls future.  My ultimate goal is a Thordis Shawl.  It has 9 colours making up it's rich yet softly shifting natural colourscape.  I think I am short a colour or two so eventually...

Besides all the dreaming, I did a little prosaic knitting too.  I really need another pair of arm warmers for bedtime wear.  These have made such a difference to my knitting.  My hands rarely have that milld generic ache they did before.  Yes turning up the heat a wee bit in the house helped, but the warmers still make a huge difference.  

I am still not past this rich golden rusty bit, but as you can see there is a rich vibrant violet in the offing.  While I need them, there isn't any rush.

I think I am going to dig out my really pretty lace sometime this week, the stuff that excites me when I think about knitting it.  The Einbnad, the Isager Spinni Wool 1, the Shetland Ultra.  A little dreaming while I knit that lovely lovely mohair and Adam and Eve Elton sounds like just the thing.

And soon to come, combing season on the back deck and the front drive.  Warm and a bit protected on a sunny day, it is lovely, even early in spring.  And there is a lot to comb and card.  Plus...well, we'll talk about that tomorrow. 

That long part.

At the start of this week, I thought Tuesday was the day this would get sewn together.  Yah.  sure bang on with that prediction.  I am a good 6 inches away from that yet. 

It really wouldn't take that long except that it feels as if I am in that very merry middle** with no end.  It is a challenge to sit and knit for long on it. 

It is also the point where the rows are getting longer, and even though the knitting is only across one quarter of the garment, it still takes longer and feel like forever longer.  Today I am determined to do better.  Maybe. 

I will now aim for a next Tuesday finish and call it good.

**Piggy in the Puddle reference

Far Enough

I managed to take the green top far enough that I can put some dpns in to hold it together so you can see where this is going.  Finally.  This is one of the reasons that I like knitting top down and without seams better.  You can see where you are going so much faster when it is all together, and the most important part for fit, is out of the way at the start.

Pieces and sewing notwithstanding, I love the way this is going and I am pretty much over the moon about it.

It is very very simple, but quite striking.  I love the neckline, but I am glad I made the choice to fill in the back neck.  It will be so much more wearable for me in my mundane life.  As I was starting this knit, I debated about how fancy it is.  

It is the sort of top that could be anything, but in these yarns, it is a top that is more than office worthy.  With a nice skirt is is very very take me out somewhere fancy worthy.   But I don't live that kind of life anymore.  As I was getting ready to knit this, I did ask myself if I would wear this regularly at home or if I was kind of wasting my time.  Just like saving the good dishes, knitting something and not wearing is is kind of a shame and wasteful.  I had to be sure I would wear it regularly before I began.  I am and I will. It will make sitting on the drive knitting this summer the kind of thing I will do with a glass of wine, nay champagne even, rather than my regular coffee. Even if all I am knitting is dishcloths at the time.  Might even weird out the neighbours.

I am completely struck at this unexpected spurt of spring fever project monogamy.  I have no idea how or why I am doing this.  I usually knit all  over the place but these spring tops have driven me to complete them.  I wasn't sure about this one.  I thought it would be put aside under the spell of the yarn for the Elton sweater.     

Add caption

Elton is sitting there, looking quite splendid, never out of sight. I want with everything that I am, to knit on that sweater but I want this one done first.  It is almost as if I can't enjoy Elton's delicious yarns if I don't get this finished first.  

Self, just who are you and what have you done with your regular operator?  

Anyway, pretty yarn pictures will only take me so far.  Today's plan is to get my guest room/weaving studio sorted out.  It's been in limbo pending a place to bash out what needs bashing.  The place is here, the time is now.  Busy day ahead.

A Reading Life.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.

Do not suppose, however, that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets at work. I have known people who have actually read all, or almost all, the guaranteed Hundred Best Books. God save us from reading nothing but the best.

May I make a suggestion, hoping it is not an impertinence? Write it down: write down what you feel. It is sometimes a wonderful help in misery.

Each of these is a quote from Robertson Davies, he of my most favourite sidebar quote on happiness.  

I have never read any Robertson Davies.  Much of that was a lack of exposure but it also was because of a deep and very strong prairie person's dislike of Toronto pomposity.  In the 50s, 60s and 70s hating Toronto was the hallmark of western Canadian life.  It remains and pops it's head up occasionally, particularly in relation to news on our national broadcaster. Those early almost unconcious biases are the hardest to overcome, but they out to be looked at.  Perhaps it is time I do read him.  A man with so many good quotes can't be all popmpous, can he? 

I have been thinking of him because yesterday was the day my next Audible credit fell. I think of him because I keep feeling I ought to read him, that I ought to break the bias and see what there is to see but I don't. When I buy, it has to be something I would reread or relisten to.  That has always been the case.  Library perhaps, so later.

I have been watching a lot of movies and series during this time of quarantine, but I have also been reading a lot.  I don't talk much about what I am reading because there is always something knitting to talk about, but right now, in this current phase of 'project monogamy' writing about what I am knitting is rather boring.  Particularly because everything I have been knitting the last while is pretty straightforward stockinette.  This latest and final top or the upcoming season, is at least different yarns and is knit in two pieces, which mean rows which are not overly long.  But it still looks the same as it did yesterday.  I needed to write about something else.

So reading.  

There were several years after Brian died that I found it really difficult to focus on words on the page.  It was a stress reaction no doubt about it, but it is also part of getting older.  I can't physically focus on small lines on a page as long as I used to.  So keep in mind that all the books I speak of are going to be audio books.  Only rarely will I read a whole book from my library.

I  did the NaJuReMoNoMo challenge in January which is always a lovely way to start a year.  New to you novels.  The big plus from this is finding new authors or new books by authors you may have read before.  When I participate, I always come out of January feeling so alive to the magic of reading.  It doesn't always carry through.  This year it has.

What Audible does tell me is that I have an established pattern to my regular reading.  One month heavy reading, the next month, lighter.  I have been reading between 30 and 85 hours per month over the last 6 months.  FYI, January has not been my heaviest reading month.

So far this year I have read Murder on the Orient Express, several of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache novels, the newest novel by Ann Cleeves, and four of her Shetland series. I have also read Tracy Chevalier's A Single Thread and an Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor.  The most moving book I have read so far though is one I bought last year, A Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.  We think we have it hard, having to stay at home, but oh, who would we be if we had to live through all that.  

I have also read things over again as I am wont to do. The Labours of Hercules,   Sense and Sensibility, Curtain, The ABC Murders, A Caribbean Mystery.  You will note many of these are Agatha Christie.  I still love the resolution of a good mystery.

So that brings me to what I am reading starting yesterday.  Dorothy Sayers has been recommended over the years by several reading friends, but I just never got around to it. Well I did once.  I have a collection of radio dramatisations of Lord Peter Wimsey that were not really my cup of tea. After all this time, I know well that the person reading the book can make a huge difference to how much I enjoy it.  Yesterday I picked the Second of the Lord Peter books with a very pleasing to my ear narrator and it is lovely.  Crisp and well written and a voice that lets me see the characters in my own way.  

I am also about an hour into another Shetland novel by Ann Cleeves. Listening to these is like traveling to Shetland and meeting her people.  I know it is only in my imagination, but the place comes alive through her words and the readers voices.  Reading Cleeves makes me want to knit more.

So that is what is on my plate today.  Some reading.  Some knitting.  Some very good stuff.  

Changes and Challenges

I had a good laugh yesterday morning when the landlord came bouncing up the stairs, bouncing literally, socks in hand, well dressed, with combed hair.  I asked if he was going in to the  office.  He laughed and said he had to just so he knew what day it was. He was a bit surprised at how much he looked forward to going, but he said it felt like going to school in September and how exicted you were at the prospect of the first day.  Just like school, he went back today.

So that changes a few things.  I couldn't do a lot in my bedroom or study while he was here.  That giant space is right over his office downstairs and day time, it was best if I didn't make any real noise that his clients could hear.  Most of my time was in the kitchen and living room on the opposite side of the house.  But, now we are back to routine, and I can do anything I like. Bwhahahaha

Instead of doing what I like, I will be in the kitchen for a good part of the morning.  My adventures there, without an oven, have made the kitchen feel like a war zone to me and my side isn't doing very well.  Bread is my enemy.

Because of the yeast shortage here in my house and out in the local stores, I started a sourdough starter. It mad sense and I have been thinking about getting one going just for fun.  It is years since I made sour dough, but I have found that without an oven, sourdough can be a bit of a challenge.  There is no sourdough setting on the bread machine and sorting out what would make the nicest loaf of bread has been an adventure.  

I prefer to start with a sponge so that I have a nice lively bowl  of goo to properly recharge my starter.  It keeps your starter just a bit more peppy if you recharge it with sponge rather than just setting more flour and water for it.  But a sponge start is umm, a challenge with a bread machine.  They are not designed for a sponge start at all.

Yesterday, I started a loaf in the afternoon.  Everything was going along well. I decided to put the dough it into the breadmaker pan immediately after kneading in the rest of the flour.  This is a bit of a departure.  Usually, I was proofing the dough in a warmer place than the bread machine. Doing that was giving me heavy loaves because the yeast was pretty much tuckered out.  Putting the dough straight into the pan, without needing that final rise in the bread maker pan was my last option.  When it was risen enough, on went the bake only setting.    It turned out not too bad.

One of the things I can tell you about the bake only cycle is that it is meant to finish a product if your dough is not done.  It really isn't meant to be used like this.  What I find is that the top of the loaf stays very light on the bake only cycle. Still, perfectly acceptable.  I wrapped it up to cool and went off to rest the rest of the happy baker. 

And then in the middle of the night I awoke.

I realized that after the sponge, I forgot to add the salt and the shortening before kneading in the rest of the flour.  Shortening isn't really a problem.  French bread has no shortening but salt plays a role in the chemical process that is bread.  Oy vey.

The only way to know is to try.

It has a fantastically crisp crust.  That would be the no shortening in action.  And the inside is lovely and moist too. It is a little coarse looking, ie, the holes in the bread are a bit larger than they ought to be, which is the hallmark of no salt.  It tasted a little different with no salt but decent enough to be getting on with.  It is going to go nice with our supper tonight.

I will pronounce it artisanal and be happy with it.

If you are quarantining and are no longer working, do you still have a long weekend?

Thursday morning dawned and I had nothing to say.  I decided to give myself a break and take an extra long weekend.  So yes.  Yes I do. 

I had to make a dive into a much deeper and darker section of my stash of stuff last week.  Yes, the not yarn part.  A friend was looking for some cross stitch fabric and I had some stuff that would work.  Or that I was pretty sure would work.  And indeed I did, though honestly, there were a few surprises in the boxes of fabric.  I found a small spring embroidery hoop that is my favourite hoop that I thought was lost.  I am thrilled to have it again. 

As I put those things away, I also dealt with a few tail ends of things on my table and it has now been cleaned off and is ready for cutting fabric for sewing, which is the whole reason I have had this table set up since Christmas.  Let's see if this is enough to drive me to sewing.  Will she or won't she?  Nobody knows.

Most of my time over the weekend was devoted to getting this top done. 

Half of the sweater s complete and I am just finished the neckline decreases for the second front.  It is a very simple shape, with only the smallest bit of shaping to fit me better and with only one major change to the pattern.  The back and front on the pattern have a neckline v that is exactly the same.  I didn't want such a low wide back, so I am adding all the stitches that I decreased for the neck v right where the yarn changes at the shoulder.  You can see it on the photo.  I thought about adding some shaping to the back of the neck, but I think this will work well enough to be getting on with.

I figure that there is another good day today and most of tomorrow but that should take care of knitting for this simple top.  It does need to be sewn together though, which is all nice straight seams. 

After that I can put all my energies into that lovely blue Elton.  Unless I sew...  Because I might.

Stash Dive!

I don't have a lot to say.  I confess to feeling a bit overwhelmed the last few days.  

I did have a little adventure in my stash this morning.  A friend was looking for some fuzzy yellow yarn.  I wasn't sure if I had any of the kind of things she was looking for but I did gave something that would get fuzzier with handling.  

Let's  turn up the view so you can see the soft fuzz better.

And oh so soft.

Digging in the stash first thing in the morning certainly is a great way to make one feel cheerful.  

Otherwise there are these things.

I am about 3 inches from half done this summer top.  I would be farther but this is my last knitting each day and I kept making mistakes and forgetting increases.  Let me be clear.  There is only 1 increase every 4 rows.  Trouble is, the rows feel like they go so fast that the increase rows are past before I remember.  Still, it is a good knit and I really like how it looks.

And then this.

 

Sigh. It is a thing of great beauty.  I can't  wait to wear this.

Mark Me a Happy Soul

I wound a lot of yarn on the weekend.  I wound 2600 metres for the blue sweater and I wound up 4000 metres of lace weight linen for the Shakerag Top from Mason Dixon's Transparency.  I have been gathering yarn for a while now and I have enough to be getting on with.  4000 metres should be enough no matter what I was making.

Only I do not have 4000 metres.

I have this much less than 4000 metres. 

As I opened up the loose hank of yarn to put on my swift, I realized that there was a lump on one of the ties holding the yarn tidily together.  Not just a knot, but a lump.  It looked like a weird knot of ends, as if something went wrong on the machine that cut the short bits of yarn meant to hold the hank strands together.

I carried on and put it on my swift. It became apparent, in seconds that what I had was not a factory error.  It was a human error and I doubt that it happened in a factory.

It is cut through about eight to ten of the long winds of fibre.  This is not a problem of the store.  The store where I purchased these is a lovely store and I make a point to support her as much as I can whenever I am out that way.  She is lovely and would be mortified if she knew.  No way would any owner put this out on their shelf.  They would have returned it to their distributor for credit.  

The only way that this makes it out for sale is some sad excuse for a human being hiding the mess and taking the damaged hank back to the store and swapping it out for an undamaged one without the store owner knowing.  The knot was well camoflauged.  I worked in a yarn store and yes, there are low lifes, even among knitters and other various craft people.  People who would do this are out there, and I am pretty certain they live with themselves pretty comfortably. I loathe it but I have to acknowledge selfishness is one of humanity's least nice traits.

I have lots so I am not too worried about running out for my project but I am keeping the damaged bits in case.  I am not worried but I am also not going to be stupid about it.  There will be a place where these strands of linen will have a purpose. 

I could focus on this little misery, but you know what?  I get to choose what I will focus on and I don't have to let the actions of that miserable soul affect my way of  being in the world.  I can choose to put out ugly in return or I can choose not to.   

I choose not to.

I get to knit with pure linen.  That is a pretty wonderful thing.  Mark me a happy soul.

Taking my breath away.

The yarn I ordered last week arrived.  I did not strictly need this yarn, not really.  Not at all.  Need is something entirely different.  It was a want, but not strictly for this yarn.  This yarn is just because it solved a problem.

I purchased for one reason.  I want my local yarn shops to be here when this is over.  Man, I hope that they can continue doing business.  I wish I could do more but that just isn't possible.

Isn't is lovely?  Sigh, and it is mine.  The mohair is Zambezi from Fleece Artist, dyed in colours to match to the lovely colours of Adam and Eve from River City Yarns.  And that, good people, is what the stunning blue yarn at the bottom is, Adam and Eve, a blend of merino, cashmere and nylon in colours custom dyed for River City Yarns. It's a sweater quantity.

I have not bought a sweater quantity of luxury yarn like this since I quit working.  I have bought a few sweaters worth of the marvelous yarns produced by Custom Woollen Mills and Briggs and Little and Camilla Valley but they were yarns bought for their very particular qualities.  But luxury  yarns?  Not at all.  I tried to purchase only things that I could not source from my stash.  If you recall something I have forgotten do tell.

I purchased this after months of searching my stash for a yarn to use for Elton.  I have loved this sweater for many many months.  I would start with a yarn but not be able to find a laceweight.  Where I had a laceweight, I had no coordinating fingering.  I did not want a sweater of stripes, I wanted a sweater of textures as the original is.

Purchasing this yarn was fun.  I looked online but I wasn't sure if the colours were right online.  I knew what I wanted for in the Zambezi which was the perfect solution to the lace part of it.  There are a thousand metres of Zambezi for 45 dollars, which may not sound like a bargain but is. To get this same look with Rowan or with Shibui, you would be spending more than double this amount.  And the lace is only half the sweater.

When I first decided to do this, I wasn't sure what yarn to use with Zambezi.  In the store, you could wander around and choose what looks right to your eye, but by phone, you have to put your trust in the person at the other end of the phone.  I hoped, on finding a colour name in the Adam and Eve line, that matched my Zambezi choice , that they did coordinate but it looked a little far off the mark.  So I called rather than using the online store.  Cynthia pulled out the yarns and had a look after I explained what I wanted and confirmed they were dyed to coordinate.  So then, sight unseen, I spent a lot of money on a lovely sweater just to keep my favourite place going through these tough times based on trust.

And it was the right thing to do because the yarn is so unbearably lovely. Cynthia and River City did a wonderful job.   It is just breathatking and I can't wait to work with it and I can't wait to see how it turns out as an Elton sweater. I wound it up

  

and I knit the swatch.

What a lovely way to spend a weekend.  The knitting commences today.  Do what you can to keep your local small businesses going.  

Insipration Storm

Yesterday's post was a struggle to write because I was under the influence.  No, not that kind, though a case could have been made that I was under the influence during the great date event of 2020.  I was under the influence of an inspiration.

Deb Gemmell put out a pattern yesterday called Build a Bigger V.  I suspect she has been busy playing with yarn during the epidemic lockdown.  And I like where she went.  

I saw the design, and ... mind blown.  It was all I could think of while I was writing yesterday.  Because it is designed and written to work with yarns of any gauge, because it is garter, because it is adaptable to any size and to any shape, because it is just a little different than everything else out there** my mind was completely and utterly blown.

I instantly understood what she was doing.  I think I gained that from knitting an Elysium years ago.  Approaching a sweater that way really does make it possible to shape it as you want no matter what you are using and no matter what size you need.  

I love that about this design.  It speaks of the same innovative approach, the same sort of quirky brain and knowledge of knitting and the human body that Elizabeth Zimmermann had and EZ was nothing if not a genius to know that people ought to be in the drivers seat of their knitting.  Deb Gemmell gives you the same ability.  And I want to drive.

I have a stash of yarns that were purchased with sweaters in mind, but where some of them are short of a ball or two of yarn for every pattern that I want to knit using them.  Like this mish mash of yarns.   None of these were purchased for a sweater.  I was thinking shawls and scarves, but when I see these all together like this...

I look and wonder if there is enough to do this sweater using the mash of the solids, and one of the colours. And then this.

 I have lots of the purple for a medium sweater but not enough for me. A pattern like this might give me exactly what I need.  It may have to be short or 3/4 sleeved but hey, why not?

But there are so many others.  There is leftover Silver Thaw from another sweater that I would love to work with again.

I do have some of the grey you can just see at the side, but I also have some darker, almost black, Regal from Briggs and Little that would look amazing with it in a sweater like this.  

I have so many yarns where I have purchased more than enough for a sweater and now have tons left,  but not quite enough to make another sweater or top, exactly like what happened with my blue top, and like the bunch of delectable fingering weight I have left over from my version of Granito.  

My brain was playing combinations of stash yarns all afternoon.  I knit my heart out on my green summer top, but my brain was thinking Build a Bigger V.  I think I am going to purchase the pattern right now.  I never do that until I am ready to knit unless the pattern has taken my brain by storm.  

Yarn storm, stash dive storm, pattern desire storm!  I love it!

 **That has come to market for the last while and that I have run into.

That Thing Where You Play With Your Breadmaker.

I never did get around to working on my Einband shawl yesterday.  I kept myself busy in the kitchen and socks were on tap while doing that sort of stuff.

I finally put those odd settings on my bread maker to work.  I made a date loaf in the bread maker using the Quick Breads setting.  I actually made a double loaf, which resulted in a large bread loaf sized loaf.

I'm not sure I would do the double again.  The baking time was too short so I had to use the bake only setting to finish it.  Turns out, this is what the bake only setting is for.  Interesting.  

Over all, it turned out well.  The Quick Bread setting mixed for much much longer than  than you would ever consider doing by hand.  Quick breads are usually mixed only till they are moist all through the dry.  Because of all the mixing, this loaf has a devoloped gluten look that is more like a bread than the ultra dense look of a muffin type loaf.  It doesn't change the taste though.  It tastes great and there will be more.  Much more. 

But that is not the end of the tale of Date Loaf in the bread maker.  

My usual date loaf recipe, almost word for word identical to the recipe in my breadmakers manual, start by softening the dates in boiling water and a teaspoon of baking soda.  I did that but I had whole dates and a blender.  It seemed smart to leave the chopping of my whole dates for after they were all nicely softened.  Seems a logical way to get the job done, right.  And it is..

If you cool the tastes all the way to room temperature.  Possibly if there was no soda in the water.  Possibly if I had not been using a tightly sealed blender.  I'm not sure about that part.

  I put the dates into my nutribullet, with its tightly sealed design, because getting it out was faster than setting up my little processor thingy with its various attachments.  I whirred away, till the mix of dates and water was this nice gooey mass.  Simple.  According to the book, the date mix was the first thing that should go in the breadmaker pan, so I got the pan, and twisted the nutribullet blade section off the container.  

As soon as the first sign of free air hit the mix in the nutribullet, things were out of my control.  It blew up in my hands, and in an instant I had warm date goo running down my neck and head heading straight for my cleavage.  

Because I am me, my first thought was 'huh'.  My second was, I should get a camera.  Only I couldn't because by then, I could see how far the exploded dates flew.  They hit counters, cabinet doors, floors.  The free flying date goo missed nothing.  Nothing at that end of the kitchen did not get hit except the ceiling.  Yup.  Shoulda had a camera.  Or video.  I would have loved to play that back. 

It was epic.  

I do have a baking adventure for today too.  Sourdough.  I wonder if a sourdough sponge can explode?  

All Boring Things

The long story of the blue top has come to an end.  I adulted all the way.  Well, last night I set it down with three rows to go, but that wasn't about adulting.  That was about being sick (of the blue top).

Bound off bottom.  Two sleeves.  It is done but for weaving in the ends.  And if I may say, it turned out pretty well, despite being the most boring blue in existence. 

I don't know why some things strike me as boring and others do not.  I go into garment making knowing I have a significant amount to knit, no getting away from that fact, and yet, some things are just more painful to complete.  This one sure was.  It can't just be the colour could it?  I don't think so because I just ordered a bunch more blue yarn. Wait till you see it.  Heck, these days, wait till I see it.  Maybe it is in part that I finished another blue sweater just before this one. 

Maybe I need some lilac.  Or Green.

There is always the possibility that I am bored of sweater and top knitting. I don't really think so.  My eyes keep straying to my striking version of Myrtle and I found myself looking at my variation on Threipmuir yesterday.  It is time to do something else though.  Getting away from plant based fibres will be good.  Getting back to wool would be good.  Might be I have more sweater knitting in me right now.

For this morning, I am going to work on some socks.  I can do those along with some other chores that need doing this morning.  I might even massacre that sock I hate.  Do you remember this one?

I might work on another sock but I am definitely going to rip this out and prepare to have much more fun with it by knitting two or three dark yarn rows striped between each of its very regular dull rows.  There are bright fun colours in there, I just know it, and I am determined to wrest them from their staid drabness.  I have had enough of dull.   

But this afternoon, I think I will work on my long set aside Einband shawl.  Working with Einband would be a far from cottons and hemp as you can get and I think my hands are looking forward to the difference. 

All the boring things do come to an end.  If that is how you are feeling about the current stay at home policy, think of that. Hold that thought.   This too shall come to an end.