Of Yarns and Patterns and Small Joy

I did not work on anything much yesterday.  It was a grand day out.  Not really but it was a day that was full of appointments and  associated medical tests for my yearly physical.  By the time I was done, I was tired and took a nice long nap.  When I woke up, it was time to decide dinner and when that was organzed and arranged I realized that my arms were too tired to hold in the way one does to knit. So I watched some shows and put myself to bed early.  

I am bright and shiny today so there will be lots of work.  I should insert wish in there somewhere if I am honest.  I feel a bit down and a bit out of sorts.  Not cantaknkerous, just sad. Sometimes the state of that nation next door overwhelms me with sadness.  It would be nice if those things would stay in their own place, but the truth is that what happens there legitimizes very bad things everywhere else.  It just makes me sad.  I usually take a double of B vitamins, which are my bolthole to keep that at bay,  but I was out for a couple weeks.  I know that it will come back to my usual more cheerful self, but I am going to have to work on it for a few days to keep me feeling chipper.  I will shrink my little world today and do the best I can.

I am debating what I will work on next.  The shawl will continue but it's very long rows can feel tedious and I hate to feel that way about a thing.  I need a little something to work on inbetween and I know what I should work on but I don't feel very like shoulds and musts right now.  Little rebellions as ever, everywhere I can.  Rebelling a little is a good thing.

Seasonally, I am due for a big dig in the yarn stash, to pull out  something lovely to put in my inspiration cabinet.  I can't do that without a big clean to put away all the sewing detritus, not a task for today, but maybe tomorrow. That is one way to start my next projects. I should be looking at patterns and designs on my favourites list too.  I looked at what my wardrobe needs.  Now it it time to sort out if I already have some starting points, IE, patterns I would love to knit.  

But I also want to get a few more things finished from the WIP bins.  My immediate next projects are going to be finishing my Threipmuir  

which is exciting colourwork and still looks exactly like this.  Then there is my coat.  It is at the waist now, according to a note on Ravelry, though I have only photos of it at the sleeves.  It is October now, so the coat could be seen to be necessary.  It might be really nice to work on something where a few rows mean inches.  It is a should in some ways, but the idea of chunky yarn is inviting.  

Then, in the spirit of lace, I am thinking of picking up my Bridgewater shawl and finishing it.  It needs just the lace border and the edging.  It is a horsheshoe lace so I know how lovely that feels to knit. Possible.

Today the plan is to get to the second last colour on the shawl.  I am going to make a big push for that, so I can feel real progress.  I would also do some sewing, but I am, oddly enough out of black thread. I am waiting till I can have some picked up to get back to that.  Still I may cut out a pattern, just to get ready for when that arrives.  

Anyway on to the day.  I will look to the small things for what joy the day will bring.  I will look at my WIPs and my lists of things I would like to knit and just enjoy that journey.

238

I counted a side yesterday while I was on a purl row.  238 stitches.  Per side.  I have two more increasing rounds on this lace repeat so by the time I reach the end of the repeat, there will be over a thousand stitches per round.  I am telling you this so you get an idea of the size of this thing.  I am telling myself so that I do not despair when it take a gozillion years to finish a purl round.

The stitch rounds go relatively fast.  Or feel as if they do.  There is always something to count or something to do so it is easy to keep your mind occupied, but the long rows of purl are just long.  And I like purling'

That is actually what I meant to speak of this morning.  My purling and how it helps me work this shawl faster than people who purl 'properly'.  When I purl, I have always wrapped my purl backwards, which results in the new stitch on the needle being mounted with the back leg of the stitch as the leading stitch.  , It is speedy to work with the same simple movement you make when you form a standard knit stitch.  In some parts of the world , this is the way everyone knits.   

If you want to get technical,  what I do could be considered eastern combined knitting.  Those lovely twisted stitches of Austria's Styrian knitting is perfect for mys tyle of knitting.  Forming the crossed stitches, is the simplest most natural thing in the world.  Knitting garter stitch in the round?  The most natural thing in the world.  

If you wrap your stitch in the opposite direction on the purl rows, your knit stiches present with the back leg of the stitch leading.  When you knit them, you knit through that leading leg, is, through the open back loop.  No twisted bases, just lovely easy garter stitch in the round.  Knitting this way does mean there are a few things you need to learn about decreases and how stitches will lean  but understanding how this style of knitting can help you allows you to be far more adventourous.  

Back to shawl knitting.  There are two rows of pattern and two rows of purl left to work in this very delicate grey.  Three colours down and two to go.  There is only Shaela and Shetland black to go.  I can see the end of it all.  It is time to start thinking of what kind of edging to use.  

I had an idea at the start about the edging but I am not so sure now.  I am going to go through my books again and find the perfect thing to finish of this epic shawl.  

Mail!

I knit the last bits of the sweater yesterday morning.  It went smoothly and I am so pleased.  

I spent yesterday afternoon working on ends.  There are thousands of ends, and I cannot for the life of me understand why I did not weave my ends in as I worked.  That would have been soooooo sensible.  But sensible has rarely reigned supreme when it comes me and knitting.  

And then the mail came.  

I picked up my shawl and just moved right back into knitting it.  

And look at this.  Just look at this.

Look at this soft colour change.  So beautifully delicate.  Light.  Gentle.  It is exactly what I always dreamed a gradient of natural sheep colours could be.  

Colours and Joy

I met my goal of getting a good part of sleeve two done.  I did more than I thought I could, in fact.  There was only one colour section to knit this morning and the ribbing and that last colour section was completed with coffee one.

Because coffee.

I have only the ribbing to do and the neck and placket work and it is time to think about buttons.  And when I realized that it was button time, I started to cry.  I have no idea why, but the tears flowed down my cheeks unbidden. As Cassie said to me the other day, Grandma, I don't know, but sometimes my tears just come out.

Whatever it is, it is connected to the knitting, possibly even to this sweater.  It is possible that it is connected to the yarn, though I don't think that is it.  It is this sweater, I think.

Tears tend to flow every time I feel deep emotion.  If it is happy, I cry.  If it is sad, I cry.  If it is stress, I cry.  It a kind of knee jerk fall back reaction that must have stood the test of time for some of my primordial ancestors or it would not have developed and resulted in me.  So what I need to think of is why this sweater is causing such deep emotion.

I chose the colours and bought the yarn with Myrtle in mind, I remember that.  My only error in the purchasing was that I thought I needed 5 colours when Myrtle only calls for 4.   I remember sitting in the store on my shopping stool, putting cones of colours up on the counter nearby. When I looked at Kate Davies Myrtle , what caught my eyes was the pop of the cream against the other colours.  I wanted one colour to be a bit of a standout too.  Putting up the blue chicory was the punch of colour, and the perfect intensity of feeling.  Oh my, that punch of blue.

On reflection, my tears this morning are about the colours. Sounds odd doesn't it, but colour has been very much part of  my whole progress making a life, making a framework for myself as just me rather than as the me that was part of a couple. Colour was part of my fight to feel like me again.  I think the punch of blue is what brought my tears.  It is a very powerful thing to look at what might well be the first glimmer of me alone, the first sign that the me who I am now, was fighting to come out.

I have been knitting this sweater from cones and I have used little of any one cone.  The black used the most by far, but I have more than half left even of that.  There will be lost left to make another sweater of some kind.  It will probably be one using just the warm colours with the cream and another using the leftover black and my gorgeous punchy blue.  But not immediately because there are some other fun things to knit first.  

That is the best thing about knitting.  There are always more fun things to knit.  Colours and joy and knitting.  

Sleeve Two.

And there we are.  Sleeve one done.  It looks a little stubby though, doesn't it?  

I am keeping open the possibility that it will need to be longer, depending what happens once the garment is fully blocked, but I think it will be okay.  It it close to the length I want now and once blocked, should be perfect.

As I was knitting the sleeve, I realized that I kind of have a time crunch happening.  The yarn for the shawl has arrived here at the post office and will be picked up with mail this week.  Mail day is Thursday.  I want to get most of this last sleeve done before it arrives so.  My fear is that once the yarn arrives for the shawl, my feeble mind will only want to knit on the shawl.  It would be such a waste to have this striking sweater sitting there, waiting for part of a sleeve.

I realized that I was going to have to pick up to cast on for sleeve two immediately after finishing the cuff on sleeve one.  I also realized that getting those second sleeve stitches picked up quickly on any project is why I don't suffer from sleeve island syndrome.  Just like second socks, it is easy to fall into the trap of casting off part one making you feel like you really ought to be done, and resenting the entire job you have left to do.  I don't usually feel like that.  When I cast off, I am always so excited that I get to start again, be it something new, or another part of what I am working on.  I just like starting things, I suppose.

This is a little different simply because this sweater is something to do while waiting and I am so excited to see it come so far in such a short time that I want it done first!

This morning, with my first coffee it was very important that I do this.

Cast on, counted stitches to match with sleeve one, and ready to go.  I am aiming for more than half a sleeve today and finishing before lunch tomorrow so that in the afternoon, I can knit the collar and button bands at the neckline.  

I also realized that I really really ought to have had the foresight to weave in the ends as I was knitting.  There are an awful lots of ends.  Lots and lots.  

It is going to be a few evenings of work just to weave the ends in.  Sigh.  Oh well.

Sleeve Island

Some people call this part Sleeve Island.  I call it almost done.  I am almost done.  

I have one complete four colour section done and if I tried it on right now, the sleeve would be more or less elbow length. There is a bit to go yet.  If I did full sleeves, it would likely be two and a half colour repeats. 

I was struggling on Sunday evening with the short needles but I think that was more to do with short needles after a full day of knitting.  My hand was cramping a bit but it didn't feel like tired hands, it felt more like hands that really wished they had longer needles to knit with.  But no.  Everything is fine today and i have worked a couple good hours already with no trouble.  It was just tired hands.  I am very glad of this and supremely happy that my stopping every hour for an excersize break is working.

I get to debate how long the sleeves will be.  I am going to aim for three quarter sleeves  I think.  I have to look  at sleeve lengths on various cropped and shorter sweaters and see what I like the look of.  That should take me two full colour repeats or very close to it.  I think I will do another sweater try on at that point to check and see exactly what I have.  

Always something to think about in sweaters.  Always.

Rain

Magic

I can hardly believe it.

The body is done. It fits nicely.  Which means that it fits close to the body at the moment, with a couple inches of ease, in a way lets me know that when I block it, it is going to be perfect.

I even have a couple colours of sleeve one done.  It is seriously lyrical knitting.  If this keeps up, I am looking at finishing this week. 

An Enchantment of Lace

I was captured yesterday, enchanted if you must know by the glory of knitting lace.

Like most things knitted lace, this sweater is hard to put down.  I knit and knit and just never seem to get tired of working on it. I pick it up and go straight to my hyper focus place of peace and joy.  Almost.   Everything I am wants to knit on that lace shawl but the yarn won't arrive till next week. I have no idea why I did not pick this sweater up last time I was waiting for yarn.  It sure scratches the lace knitting itch and the sweater might be done.

I took the sweater to past the bottom of the armhole, which means I am now working back and forth.  It is going unbelievably fast.  Not really but with the stitches gone for the base of the armholes and the further decreases to get the sahpe Kate has on this pattern, there are comparably few stitches left to work on and it just zooms along.  

It seems like the shoulders are not really shaped, but are more like a gansey is with a simple no shaping.  The sleeves are also a bit looser than something like Joji Locatelli's sweaters but that suits the more gansey style shape of this one.  So it will go quick and fast to the end.

I have a bit of sewing today.  More masks will help for school where even my grade ones are wearing them all the time.  A couple more masks means less worry about getting them washed and dried properly every day.  It's kind of like changing your underwear daily. It works best if you have more than a couple.  They are cut out and ready to sew so easy peasy.  I just need to do it.  Plus it is time to make some for me too.  I hate the mask the landlord gave me.  I think it will be much easier to catch my breath with one of these handmade ones.  I am going to have to cut out a couple of those though.  The kids size is just a tad too small for my face.

So mask making, some chores and a little bit of knitting.  Sounds like a pretty good day coming my way.  

Thinking About a Knitted Wardrobe

My day started all wrong this morning.  Not really.  It started differently.  I woke at 5:30 and faced with the choice to get up at 5:30 or go back to bed, I went back to bed.  And then I slept in till almost 8.  I hate when I do that.  I really do.  It feels like I lost half my day.  Since I am retired and the whole day is mine and mine alone, I am working on lettng go the idea that I lost anything.  The day is mine.  Everything is just going to be a little later than usual in comparison to the clock.  

I knit quite a bit more on my Myrtle sweater yesterday and have made a decision about sleeves.  Sleeves are going to be modified and the sweater is going to be longer, but not overly long.  

I am going to compare lengths against my Granito

Which I dearly love to wear, but I make absolutely certain that I have a top that stays well tucked in on as well.  It isn't quite long enough to keep my lower back cozy.  I do think about making it longer. I have the yarn but there are so many interesting things to knit and I wear this one a lot even so.

I realized this was the perfect sweater to judge length against yesterday when I wore Granito.  

I find myself thinking about what else my wardrobe needs as I knit.  Making the leggings helped so much that it is hard to imagine I need more, but I do want a few more of those and I would like several other pairs of pants.  The Wilandra pants, spoken of so highly by Amy Beth at the FatSuirrel Speaks Podcast and I am determined to have a pair of Winslow pants to wear with my completed Myrtle as well.  There is still a great need to replace the t shirts that I am so utterly sick of with a bunch of comfortable shirts and tops too.  

But I am also taking a critical look at my sweater wardrobe.  I know.  You wouldn't think I need to but I wear sweaters pretty intensively. So many of them are looking worn out or are really worn out.  I have avoided having a generation of sweaters equivalent to painting pants only by the need for felt for things around the house (my potholders, my coasters, bags of everything for a carryall).  There will be a couple more sweaters that go the way of the felting this year, and that means I have to think about what to replace them with.

One of the things that is on it's last legs is a tunic sweater 

I finished in early 2016.  I wear this all the time.  I wear it several times a week or I did till I finished that greigey green sweater early in 2019.  The yarn this taupe tunic was made from did not wear particularly well, and it looks very shabby now.  When it goes, there will be a definite hole in my wardrobe.  So I need another tunic and probably two. 

I wore my Willard sweater, the cozy blue sweater I worked on last winter, the other day, and that reminded me that I want/need more sweaters I can just pop over my head and call it good.  I need/want two simple pullovers.

I need some vests too, to wear over those shirts I will be sewing shortly. Sometimes sleeveless is the best knit to wear.  Baking days and when I am doing a lot of cooking and veggie chopping really reauire a vest if you also want to stay cozy. I purchased Cat Bordhi's Wherewithall vest pattern a few weeks ago and just this morning I purchased her Versatildes pattern e book because I love love love the cables on the vests.  And now that I understand how she got there, I think I love them even more.  These are brilliant.

Then there is also the stuff that is smaller and simpler to knit.  I want a couple more simple cowls like the Huj Tub I knit last winter.  

I love this thing and I have some really great yarns to make them with.  They are perfect to wear when you can't have ends hanging but want to keep your neck warm.  Again, great to wear with the shirts I will be sewing.    

I need some more wristwarmers too.  I have a pair on the needles right now from the inimitable Cat Bordhi's collection, Cat's Family of Fingerless Mitts but I can sure use more than one pair.  I could use a few pairs of wrist bands as well, to wear during the day.  Nothing like keeping the pulse points warm in winter to stave off the cold.  

And mittens.  I don't go out much but I want a pair of mittens that are long in the cuff to wear with my green coat (eeeeep, I need to finish that).  

Some of the stuff I have on my needles right now will fill those needs but not all. I am glad I have this time to think through what I will knit next but I  need to stop thinking right now.  It is time to just go and knit.

   

Maderia and Horseshoes

Loving every minute of the shawl means that I made it to the end of the second ball of my second colour.  Unfortunatelly the work on the shawl must pause for a day or two because I did not make it to the end of the lace repeat.  More yarn is coming and I am really really glad that I ordered another ball of this shade as well as another ball of each of the remaining three colours.  

That left me with a lot of day for knitting.  I looked through all the projects and decided to give my version of Kate Davies sweet Myrtle  sweater some love.  

So if you recall, Myrtle is a laceweight sweater in four colours.  I am knitting it in sportweight Harrisville Shetland in five colours.  Because I can.  I am knitting it bottom up like the pattern just to stretch my limits though I am debating changing the way the arms are made.  The pattern is a modified drop shoulder design and I am thinking very seriously of making it just a simple drop shoulder.  It's a style I feel very comfortable in.

I hit the patterns thirteeen and a half inches from the underarm at the end of this third section of cream.  I measured myself and it would be a fine length for a cropped sweater but a cropped sweater would lead to only one thing.  Me, pulling it down in the back because my back feels chilly.  I would like to be able to wear this sweater with my upcoming Winslow Pants   so I don't want the sweater too  long.  Cropped tops and wide leged pants are a look I really like.  ** 

There is such comfort knitting this design too.  The Maderia lace of the shawl is a delicate variation of the horseshoe lace of this pattern.  It is such a lovely rhythmic knit. The other thing about this lace is how different it looks with colour changes and in a single colour.  Check out this pinterest link for many amazing variations of single colour work.      Compare those to this

and you see what I mean.

You know what the funniest thing about this is?  When I was looking at patterns for the border of the shawl, I wanted something really different but as different as Maderia lace looks, it feels like knitting horseshoe lace and here I am, with three projects on the go using essentially the same stitch:  Myrtle, the Bridegewater Shawl and my Shetland Shawl.   

**Look at me talking named independant designer designs and sounding like I care about style and the way things go together.  Who is this person I am become?

Loving Every Minute

Time to talk about the true scale of this thing.  Tis a beastie.

At the start there were about 180 stitches on each side.  Each repeat of the lace gives me an addtional 20 stitches from increasing for the corners.  At this point of the shawl, I have gained 160 extra stitches 

or in other words, almost another side of the shawl.  

It is taking me a healthy hour to get a round complete no matter where I am in the lace, though the first couple rows of each repeat are a little slower till everything is clearly established again.  

And I am loving every minute of it.  

A little Different

Today I have something a little different for you.  It was a little different for me too at first.  

A couple months ago, back when I purchased my spanking new carder, I also purchased something else.  They were my gift to me from my taxes.  I talked to you about my carder.  Today I will talk about the other thing.

I am and have always been a rather sedentary person.  After Brian died, along came a complex set of physical complications that can often be part of losing a spouse.  Yes, even your physical self can grieve. This winter, physically and mentally, that grieving process changed somehow.  I don't feel cold from the inside anymore and I feel stronger and am in the headspace where I can start again.

 I have been very active at times in my life though, but I am not into sports or competition at all.  I love walking and bike riding but most of the things I really like to do are pretty sedentary.  Knitting and my obsession with it really don't  help.  But none of that means I don't want to be more active and be stronger.  With the pandemic and even my most basic tasks being done at a distance, I knew I had to do something.

I did purchase a series of seated excersize videos.  I thought that would be a good way to get myself ready for more vigorous weight bearing workouts.  Honestly, they are great but at the time were very much beyond me.  

I looked at ways to be more active in a way that fits with where I am today, that fits with books and movies and reading and knitting.  I often thought about getting some kind of stationary pedal excersizer.  Those useless ads that show up on Facebook?  Well this came across my screen last winter.

It is a Cubii Jr to be precise.  They are a bit pricier than some but they are noiseless and that ranks high with me.  I have used it, in front of company whith our morning coffee.  The way my WIP bins were sitting they could not see my feet.  They had no idea that I was getting my workout but they knew something was happening.  My lap was moving!  And that is the only way they could tell I was doing anything at all.  As advertised it really would work noiselessly in an office situation.  

I can't  explain to you where I was before I got this thing, but it was not a good place.  I started at the lowest of 10 tension settings and have slowly been working up.  I have to be at a certain level before I let my self go forward.  I have just moved to level 5.  I did try level 6 this morning but that wouldn't be wise.  All things come and I can go there in a couple weeks when I am infinitesimally stronger.  

I have a treadmill.  I have had bikes and other workout gear.  I have all the workout videos, but none of those things were a good place to start.  I needed something to get me to them and this has been it.  I am at the point now where the chair workouts are something I could do.  

I have to get some DVDs burned and I am going to try adding some to my mornings.  Halfway to regular.  That is about where I am.

If you or a loved one wants to keep up your strength and heart and lung capacity, do consider Cubii.  It pretty much saved my life.

And no.  No sponsorship, just my honest feelings about a very good tool.

Epic

I have been having the most amazing fun the last few days.  You wouldn't know that from yesterday's coffeeless post.  Note to self. Have coffee first.

On holiday Monday, I knit to the max.  I thought about doing some sewing but sewing feels like a responsibility and I had promised myself that Monday was a day to do just what I wanted.  The shawl is not a requirment.  The shawl really is about knitting with the good stuff, and that is really what I wanted.  I knit from 8 a.m. till about 8:30 in the evening with requisite sensible breaks and rests with stretches and excersizes inbetween.  Monday was a glorious kind of day where I learned that I was going to need more yarn.  

That small ball was all that was left after the first full repeat of the lace border.  It would most likely have done one and a half more plain ounds of knitting, but not more than that.  Unless there is the smallest extra yardage in the next two skeins of yarn, the lovely Eesit, when you take into consideration all the stiches being added at the corners, I expect I will be short but only just. 

The colour change is truly lovely.  I took all kinds of shots over the last few days

but it wasn't till this morning that the light was finally right for you to see the beautiful subtelties.  

and depending on your monitor, you may still not be able to see it.  It is just the most subtle bit richer, warmer, almost greyer than the mooskit.  

This morning's first task is to order another ball of the three darkest cokours.  By the time I make it to those colours, there will be significant shortages with the two balls i have on hand.  It is also very possible that another ball of the Eesit that I am now working with will arrive.  I haven't quite decided if I should chance it or just do the full measure of justice to the shawl.  No.  It will be full meausre of justice.  At this point, it would be a disservice to my knitting life to not do it right. One more Eesit as well.

I really did not want to do it but now that I am on this course and have this design well under way...

Should have had coffee

It is well after 9 a.m. and I have not left my bedroom.  So far, no coffee.  I rarely post before coffee, but this seemed like a good idea.  

I am saying good by to my favourite pair of pants today.  Until leggings and pj pants, I needed them  in my wardrobe rotation because I did not have enough pants.

This is the waistband and you can see how it is worn to nothing.  See that cord?  That is coming out of the back of the pants.  This is threadbare.  This is the pair of pants that until a few months ago, I thought just needed a little repair and they would be fine.  I obviously need my head examined.  Or did.  I am much better now.

I looked at them this morning and was going to end this post by cutting them into rags to prove to myself that I really got rid of them, but honestly, these pants are not even fit for the rag bag.  It isn't like the old days where my did did all the farm mechanics in his shop and was always on the lookout for good rags.  Good I say.  I am not sure these would hold up to his standard.  I have household rags from old bath towels and I really don't need more.  

The fabric is thin and I really cannot think of anything I could do with them.  If I was into making rugs, perhaps, but honestly, I am not sure there is enough good stuff in them for that and I do not make rag rugs.

They were my favourite pair of pants for twenty years.  But I won't be missing them. 

The plan is to do some sewing today.  Or at least activities that will lead to sewing.  If I get no farther than putting together a pattern that will be okay.  And knitting continues apace.  Knitting is actually very interesting right now, but I am saving it to show you till tomorrow.  The colour change is too subtle to be caught on camera yet but it is very very good.  

Yeah, I probably ought to have had coffee first.  A more sensible post may have happened if I would have had coffee.  So it goes.

A Lace Knitting Fairy Tale.

 Once upon a time, there was an enthusiastic knitter who got her yarn in the mail and just began to knit.  Unfortunately, she also forgot to move her pattern row marker, and she got lost in the big forest of the pattern.  Before you knew it she had rows combined and rows counting wrong and while it worked a few times, there was a point where nothing worked anymore.  The knitter had to stop and face the mess she had made and

pull back.  She wasn't sure just how far back she had to go but she knew whe had to go back to the absolute perfect place on her pattern map.  She was very very sad but ever so slowly she found her way.  There were many times around the square, pulling back her work but she kept tugging gently, one lonely stitch at a time.

Finally, in the middle of Sunday afternoon, with a fresh cup of hot black coffee at her side, she began to take cautious steps forward again, none too sure she could actually carry it off.  She knew she was going to have to be much more meticulous about moving her pink highlighter tape this time.  It would take diligence and care, and she knew diligence and care were not her natural state of knitting.  Her natural state of knitting was winging it, but she knew it was important to keep her wings firmly furled.   

The knitter knit late into the night.  She woke early to knit before sunrise.  She knit long all through the day.  And when she was almost done one full repeat of this pretty lace, she knew it was time to set the lace aside and go to sleep, having slayed her demons.  The End.

Or just the beginning.  Depends how you look at it all.  It is lovely and I am very happy.  I have only 1 row to go in the first full row repeat of the pattern which means just a tiny bit more knitting and I will be changing colours.  I am so looking forward to that.  Each repeat here will be about 2.5 to 3 inches blocked so with 4 more colours plus the cream coloured edging, this is going to be the very large shawl I hoped for.  

A couple things to note:  The dye lots may be different but the colours are close enough that you won't be able to tell and you can see from the base of the solid section of the pattern, just how much the lace will curve.  I think it is going to be quite striking!

So whatever else I do today, there will be knitting and I promise you I will be having a lot of fun.

Oooooo a BIG Whine

I have to tell you that yesterday's mail was pitiful.  I mean I got the interfacing I was sort of waiting on and I got the ironable hemming ruler I ordered early in summer (well before its possible delivery date of October 8) but the yarn did not arrive.  

I have to admit, my cranky inner child reared her head and I had a bit of a hissy fit.  Big time.  It was a worse disappointment that time the landlord came home with flat bottomed ince cream cones.  **  Much much worse.  Had I actually been five, there might have been foot stamping.  I apologized to him later for my snit.  He does all these errands for me for not much in return.  

But meanwhile, I have to practise adulting and wait.  Waiting might kill me.  

I petted my linen swatch for a Shakerag Top.  I pulled out Amy's sweater and debated knitting on that and getting it done.  I am sitting here looking at the sewing pile and the patterns I printed yesterday that need putting together.  I am thinking about tossing all the sewing aside*** for a bit and digging into the depths of the yarn stash.  What I am not feeling like is adulting.  

What I want, what I really want to be doing is knitting on my shwal.  I want to finish Eesit and move on to Mooskit and I want to see the soft colour change happen in this lace with it's delicate undulation.  I can taste it, I want it so bad.  

The package is at the post office.  They did locate it and it will be picked up this afternoon, so no real problems.  I wouldn't be able to do much knitting today anyway.  There are too many other things that have slipped while I have been adventuring in sewing as an alternate to my knitting.  

Time is a waisting.  Time for work.  Knitting this evening?  Why yes.  I do think so.

**When I was small, my mom seldom let us have pointy cones because we would bite off the bottoms and suck the ice cream out.  The downside is that if the little girls did not go fast enough, they had ice cream dripping from the top and the bottoms.  I get that but I still hate flat bottomed cones.  

*** Putting the sewing aside means I would have to move a substantial amount of stuff first in order to be able to get into the yarn closet.  All the washed fabric is in front of the door as well as the stuff that usually lives under the sewing table.  It's a pile.

8 p.m. update:  Mail was lovely this afternoon.  I knit on happily and I am very sure that I will spend the rest of the weekend doing exactly the same thing.  Sigh.  What a great evening.  I love knitting lace.

Sewing!!

Hahaha, just kidding.   I am tired of talking about my sewing adventures and I imagine that my sewing adventures are just as tiresome for anyone reading this. So on to knitting!  

Because yes, in the background, every day, there is at least some knitting. 

I did the last bit of work on my shetland shawl that I could do till the other skein of yarn of this colour, Eesit, arrives.  It will arrive this afternoon with the mail so whatever else I do, I am reserving this evening for working on that shawl.  With this yarn restock, I think it will go pretty fast.  This is lovely and  intuitive to knit.  Plus with a rest row, like all good Shetland lace, you get a break from the intensity of pattern rows.

I know that there is no hope of having the same lot as that first skein.  It was two years ago that I went on my epic adventure and though I hope the shade is close, even natural sheep tones can be darker or lighter at different times of their lives and with different weather. It will be what it will be.  

In the background there has been a little sock knitting.  Yoga socks actually, with no toes and no heel.  I am doing a pair to test something. I had a wee minor medical issue after wearing socks to bed and socks and slippers last winter.  It appears that my cold cold feet are now suddenly sweaty.  

Yes.  I am no longer as cold as I was.  I have spent most of the summer not wearing socks for the first time in many years and I have worn sweaters only on occasion, like a normal person.  I did not have to use my big wool comforter or my wool blanket at all.  All summer I have been sleeping with a sheet and a light cotton filled quilt.  Like a normal person.  I think that means that my thyroid medication is where it needs to be.  All this normalcy hasn't quite worked for my toes.  My toes are still cold when I go to bed, so I started wondering about just warming the pulse points in my ankles and feet and would that help to warm my toes?  It seems to makes a great deal of difference for my hands. So yoga socks with a wide cuff band at the ankle and a little down the foot, but open toes.  I will let you know if it works.

There has been other sock knitting too, but a little here and a little there resulting in no solid change on any single pair of socks.

Knitting is happening on Drachenfels.  You can just start to get a feel for this shawl, with its different patternings.  That black and grey will go on for a while yet but I am looking forward to working with the red and black.    

Today, while I wait for yarn, I have some fabric to wash and some bread to bake and a pair of leggings to sew and a pattern or two to print out.  Plenty to do to keep me busy till the mail comes.  

But I can't wait! New yarn!  Even when it was a had to purchase, it makes me want to jump and celebrate!

Leggings That Are Pants

I am sitting here this afternoon in a pair of leggings that are completely finished and that fit me perfectly.

And I have to tell you that I feel like sitting down and having a good cry.  

I remember doing that after completing my first few sweaters.  It was just so overwhelming to reach that place where I could do that and have something I could proudly wear out into the world.  This is exactly the same.  

I made one pair of pants for myself before this legging adventure, and that was decades ago and they did not turn out well.  I had no idea how to adjust things so I trusted the pattern and even in those much much slimmer days, no pattern company has ever had patterns designed for a waist to hip that was over 10 inches different.  None.  Brian said not to wear them out because they looked weird.  And they did.  Even hanging they were just odd and I never ever tried again.  Knitting made me braver and let me take this giant step.   

I would wear this pair of leggings out proudly and I would even tell people I sewed them.  So I sat down and put on a top that I knit and I feel good.  I am going to pour myself a glass of wine.  

The plan for the day was not supposed to go this way, but I just got the notice that the rest of the yarn is here for the shawl, so I can go forward on that full steam ahead.  I will cut another pair out later this afternoon, a repeat on this same fabric while it is out on the table, so that tomorrow I can sew another pair.  If I get really motivated, there will be more cutting out so I do  two pairs at once.  And maybe three for good meausure.  Nah.  Two is lots for one day.  

For now I have some fabric to wash so that I can do some shirt sewing shortly.  Just like knitting, there is always something that is next up.

If I sound gibbled and excited, I am.  Oh I am.  And yes, I am crying.

Where in we finally made it.

We have leggings!  That fit!  Reasonably well.  Really well except for the waist band if I am truthful with you.  

I tried them on yesterday morning after sewing them together and was amazed.  I debated if I was going to fix the mess I made with the waist band or if I would call it good and tuck some elastic in.  This fabric is really thin and light and I am not sure how sturdy it would be after changes. Plus the single place that  I neeeded to make any real change on my measured out pattern is the back rise.  Changing the wiastband would mean the back rise, already a tiny bit short, would be even shorter.  So I opted for elestic in the waistband and my test pair was good to go.  I am wearing them right now with the dress I sewed earlier this summer, which is exactly what this dress needs.  

The dress is made from a years and years old t shirt I wore under a jacket when I worked at an office.  It was in great condition, not having been worn for a decade.  It fit through the shoulders but rolled up because it was just too short and small at the bottom.  I cut the shirt shorter by about four inches and attached a skirt from some bright tropical fish fabric.  I really like the dress, but haven't been able to wear it with confidence because the dress isn't long enough to cover adequately when bending and moving around.  This dress is very much part of my wish for leggings.

And this is probably the only picture the world will ever see of this pair of leggings.  Just a knee, but it thrills me!

They may have a seam up the side of the legs, but the fit is just what I was looking for.  And considering this was just the test pair...bonus me.

I laid out the first official pair of leggings on fabric yesterday.  I didn't cut it though.  There are only a certain number of hours I can see well enough in a day to work with the black fabric and black thread, plus waiting to cut till this morning allowed me to sort out what I did wrong with the waist band on my test pair.  I have to change how I think of a waist band on leggings and think of it as the elastic rather than as a finishing element at the waist.  

Anyway, on to cutting and sewing this morning.  And if I am lucky and everything goes well, maybe on to a top this afternoon on lighter brighter fabric!