Knitting in the middle of the night

I don't know about anyone else, but I have been bothered by hormonally caused insomnia for years. As I have headed towards menopausal age, the sleepus interruptus has become downright silly. Thus is born my waking at 4 in the morning, and thus is born the times when I talk about knitting at 2 a.m.

Last night I woke at 3 a.m. From past experience, I know better than to do anything which requires counting of any kind. (As Mr. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice would say, "No lace, no lace.")I have learned that counting above 1 is beyond me in the middle of the night. Which really is kind of sad because I do a lot knitting in the middle of the night. I did try some (I'm ever optomistic) in the dark of last night, but well, there will be no photos of that knitting. EVER.

Lets just say somewhere between 3 a.m. and now, I worked on sock blanks. I have a Tutti Fruitti sock done, second one begun, and I started work with Cascade Fixation.

This is really interesting yarn to work with. I wasn't sure how to approach its stretch. I tried and ripped once or twice till I got what feels right. I'm working this yarn stretched at about 3/4. Working with it totally unstretched made a fabric, which, when worn as a sock would leave you feeling strings across the soles of your feet. Working stretched full out, seemed to leave the fabric of the sock looking a little too tight, puckered perhaps, when it relaxed as I worked. 3/4 stretch seemed to produce the best overall result.

Its a little funny feeling as it goes through your hands, not bad, just very different. As if winds through my fingers (held crochet style for tension) it has to change from its unstretched self to its stretchy feel. It goes from feeling like crumpled crepe yarn, to feeling like a kind of impotent rubber band, stretched but just a little low self esteemed. Its a little dry to the touch, but it is 98% cotton. It is unusual, but nice. Really nice.

The best part of working with this yarn is how the sock feels as the stretch relaxes. It becomes a thing of wonder. Its cushy, snugly. Its thick. It just plain feels good. Up till not I have not been impressed by sock yarn without wool but this? This one works.

The members of my family whose home is animal product free are really going to like these. So far, they have been less than impressed, nay even to the point of being non believers in the superiority of hand knit socks. They are (sigh) muggles.

These socks ought to convert them. It surely converted me to great cotton socks. There will be much more of this yarn in my future.

I like weekends

I have developed a deep liking for weekends. Its an obsessive like, and it has probably fueled my current career goals which are to say home. Ah well, I'm near to counting hours now.

This weekend there was embroidery. I worked on the Dolly Mama (a Christmas gift) for a couple of hours. There was crochet. I ripped back a vest that wasn't working, and started to crochet another, which is also ripped back. That yarn really does not want to be crocheted even if it behave so well when I work it up. (I also know what I'm going to do with it. It may be silly... Oh I'll tell you about that tomorrow.) And there was knitting.

First things first. Tutti Fruitti socks. This was Friday evening. The first sock blank is much further along now.

Then some amazing news on the shawl front. Its probably amazing only to me, but well... I dedicated most of Friday evening to knitting on it, I knit on it on Saturday morning till Saturday about lunchtime, I thought surely it was time to measure it. It was 54 inches wide (unless my tape measure lies) which is right where I needed it to be so I began the lace edging. It took a couple of repeats to get it right, but its moving along quite nicely now. Its moving along 6 stitches at a time.

And then, I am pleased to finally show you the completed Noro scarf and wrist warmers for a friend.

Everyone should have a friend like this. Someone who takes you at what you assume is your darkest hour and has the smarts to smack some sense into you. She made me think about something else, and you know, of all the things good friends are, this surely has to be one of the most important. Everyone needs a friend who has the courage to make you move on when the time is right. That is why the Noro is so right for this person, and this project.

The photo doesn't quite show how green these green are. The khaki and olives fade to bland when up close they are such deep rich colours.
Maybe you can see some of it better here. I'm very pleased with the way this looks. It was a very good choice to make the project plain, to let the yarn speak. Again the scarf is garter edges, and stockinette middle worked on 7mm needles and the wristers are plain k2 p2 ribs worked on 4mm needles. For a first time working with Noro, I'm very very happy. Thank you River City for carrying it and making it accessible when I needed great yarns for an urgent thing.

Its easy to buy online. You can fill the need to buy yarn even if there is a hundred year blizzard blowing outside your door, or if its 40 below and you have the flu, but no way can you ever replace a good yarn store. The people, the skills the hands on talent, will never be replaced by the click of a mouse.

Socks and Books, Books and Socks.

Knowing full well that the new Interweave Knits was imminent, I've been scouting my usual places of purchasing looking for the magazine. Not having checked the day the issue would hit the newsstands, I decided I was heading for the big guns. Chapters, here I come.

Taking myself to Chapters is sort of like taking me to a yarn store. My wallet sighed before I opened the door. I of course, moved forward, undaunted.

A visit to a book store is an adventure. If you are me, you have to go through all the zones. I checked out all the mark downs (sorry authors, but my wallet obliges that I do this), and found nothing of interest. Well some things of interest, but they were not at the price I wanted to pay, just yet. They were books that people will send soon enough to the good used book store.

I moved on, down to the back of the store (otherwise known as the mall entrance) where the magazines are. Ah, they had it, as well as a couple other interesting looking magazines on knitting, crocheting, and needlework. I could have stood for quite some time, just looking at covers and flipping through pages. But I was trying to get home, so I picked up a couple including the Interweave Knits, and wandered down the other side of the store.

A friend recommended writer Geraldine Brooks a while ago, and I'll tell you, her books never show up in the used books stores (3 of them) that I visit fairly regularly. So as I cruised the store last night, I thought to check if they had her latest in.

Her latest is called People of the Book. I've read the Washington Post review, and it sounds like a very very good book. Here is what a friend says after reading it. So if you are looking for a good read, this looks like a winner.

The stores files by authors last name, alphabetically, so I hied off the the 'B' shelves. One lone book. Year of Wonders. I sat and read the back cover (OK, I read the last chapter. I often do. - it was wonderfully evocative). I think I read about this book before. The story of a woman and a village in the time of a plague. I kept that book in hand and went off to check the terminal to see if they might have other books hiding in another section. The store showed 4 copies of People of the Book, but none of March, her 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner. I hunted for those 4 copies, and voila, right where I never look, in the hot books section. So I grabbed one of the 3 on the shelf, and debated a bit if I should take the Year of Wonders. Which I did. FYI, there were only 3 copies, because one was in the hands of a lady just in front of me at the tills - great minds think alike.

My wallet sighed when I left tills, but you know, I, firm believer in finding homes for books without, did not even care. The yarn budget sort of became the book budget but oh well. Some things are meant to be.

There was knitting last evening. The toe and some of the foot on the Tutti Fruitti socks. I've a picture, but blogger doesn't seem to want to post just now. Maybe later.

Sock Blank Kits

Sometimes things occur to me, in those moments just between deep sleep and waking and surprise me, but mostly the rewarding thoughts come to me while knitting.

Yarn Harlot wrote about Elizabeth Zimmerman's afterthought heel in her December 28th post. I've usually done the afterthought heel using a piece of waste yarn, but I could instantly see how doing socks using this method would benefit me.

On the lovely red things, my goal was to try the EZ way. (Be still my beating heart. I cannot possibly explain how much I love these silly brilliantly coloured socks. See the neat almost bargello thing? Is that cool or what.)While knitting these up, I was struck by brilliance of this particular approach to afterthought heels. Elizabeth Zimmerman was obviously a very very brilliant woman (though I'd be willing to hazard a guess she would have said no, just sensible).

Just think. I could knit up dozens of almost sock pairs -sock blanks if you will - tubes with toes. I envision piles of tubes with toes. It won't matter if I knit them up or down, or sideways even so long as tube to toe they are complete. Tucked into each pair of tubes will be the yarn needed to complete the heels, so that when I go to finsih up a quick pair of socks, everything is right there. If I am sensible I would also write down and tuck a note with the needle size into the blanks. Each pair would then be a little kit, ready and waiting for customising.

Off to visit someone? Are they really in need of a good pair of handmade socks? Grab a suitable set of blanks, and go. When I arrive, a simple how big is your foot, and just a very short time later, whilst sipping tea, swilling coffee, or quaffing all other manner of beverage, and I can deliver custom fit socks for anyone. What a delicious approach to socks making. Sensible, practical. Heaven sent to those of us who are never ever going to knit a bunch of stuff in December as gifts again.

If like me, you have a fondness for the look of the old fashioned workmans socks with the differently coloured toes, you could even set up a supply of toe blanks, ready at a moments notice for the addition of the tube.

Ok, maybe that is taking it a little too far, but you know, its like making big batches of tomatoe sauce, and using it for all kinds of dishes later. You still get the 'taste' of homemade, but the 'homemaker' ends up with some timely leeway and is speedier getting the final product to the table.

So, just because I could and because I'm going to need a little mindless knitting over the next few weeks as I train the new person (I can't see why I shouldn't manage to fit in a little knitting time), I'm going to prepare some of the single skeins to be ready to knit up sock blanks. I'm starting with

one ball of Patons Kroy, this time in Tutti Fruiti. These, like the red ones above, will have the plain cream toe, heel and ribbing, (a cream coloured Kroy) so they will make nice shortie socks (which I prefer).

I have some of my stashed Cascade Fixation with me too. This yarn was always meant for Son 3 and his wife. She chooses not to wear animal products and Fixation is cotton and elastic. I've been waffling getting these started, because though I know his size fairly closely, I don't know hers. By using the sock blank approach and the EZ afterthought heel, I can do them now and then next time they are over for dinner, custom fit them.

Its an interesting way for me to think of simple socks. I'm sure others have thought of looking at it like this before, but for me, for today, I will bask in a revolutionary to me way to look at knitting ahead.

Wait it's Wednesday

Short weeks are good. Sometimes they are very good. this week, well it remains to be seen. There is a funny balance to walk here as I prepare to leave this job. I need to pass on, to show how and what I do and did, and I need to allow them to find their own way, to not influence the procedures they are going to have to develop to fit some very different circumstances. I was never a neutral sort, so if it sounds if I am slogging through tough stuff, it is true and it isn't. I see light at the end of my tunnel, its just that the tunnel has some curves and nooks and crannies. After all these years, and after working so closely with a bunch of family, leaving is about me learning to let go as much as it is about training someone.



On to better things. When I vistied River City to pick that lovely Noro the other day, I did other stuff as well. You knew this was coming didn't you.

It is time to get a handle on that summer knitting and crochet. Not that I got a handle on my winter knitting, but well, I'd sure like to try for a summer thing or two. Its good to aim high right? And there should be some stuff for light weight stuff in the stash right? ( I've come to believe that rationalising yarn purchasing is my strong suit. If you gotta be good at something...)

I picked up some really fine Cloud Cotton, an organic product from Estelle Yarns, some of which is ranked as Eco friendly. If you get a chance, put your hands on some of this and just see if you can leave its soft and very rich feel behind.

I picked up some other things in the pre yarn stage. I have some plain prepared wool that I am working with for practise, and I really don't want to destroy these lovely things, till I am at the decent beginner yarn stage. I'm just stocking up for later right? Its not a compulsion at all.

And here are the forever green socks. The cuffs are a little shorter than I would like for this guy, but when the yarn is gone , the yarn is gone. His feet need just a bit more yarn and I think when I buy yarn for his socks, I'm going to have to go with brands with more yards in the skien or skeins.

I have very few pay periods left with a budget for building stash, though I learned yesterday I will have be paid a consultant retainer till things are comfortable here with the new team member. This means just a wee bit more stash building.

Which is exactly what I am off to do now.

Very Good Things

After some deeply dispiriting happenings last week (but not of the yarny sort), yarn, wooly things and a wonderful friend were my saviour.

Friday I also picked up a package from the post office.

It was an nice normal package, filled with one of these which may be mildy odd, but it is now mine, which is really what matters. I had a lot of fun playing with it. I produced some fantastic...

...yarn barf.

This was a term I heard before but could not truly appreciate till I saw it happen in front of my own eyes. I had wonderful pictures of the wheel dripping with the stuff from its orfice, but the photo files would not copy, but what I saw happen before my very eyes, was indeed best described as yarn barf. It is what it is, and so I am somewhat proud of it. OK, I'm inordiantely proud of it and I think it should be framed. See that peice there folded back on itself? I've invented the autoply.

By Monday, it was looking like this,

still seriously overspun, still not really to be called yarn, but in my imagination, almost yarn.

And tomorrow, the world. Well, not really. The goal is just to really know the process, to really understand the making of the end product. In my dream and fantasy world, it is to make things with my yarn, things people can use, things like Grandmas mitts she spun and knitted for my dad. I know that she did this, so it has become important to me that someone in my family be able to carry on that history.

Why pick a Babe Wheel to start with? Yeah they are not the classiest looking thing, yeah there is some mention of wheel snobbery out there should I go to classes. No problem. I believe in getting the best tool I can afford, and right now, this is my price. What if I am not good at this, merely passable? What if I never get the hang of it and remain in the vanity thy name is yarn barf stage? What if I spend the 800 dollars on a show piece that never gets used, for a study that doesn't have the space? What if I don't enjoy doing it? I can accept all this, spending only 200 bucks, but not 800. So for now its me and my babe.

So many other good things happened. I finished the green socks of forever but have no photo to offer as proof (eaten by computer glitch). I worked on the shawl. I began other socks.

As I put the coloured yarn on for the toe (Patons Kroy Paintbox ), and worked a few rounds, I had to laugh at what was happening. 2 stitches colour change, 2 stitches colour change. How could I not laugh. It was a very tough week, and I could not get those things out of my head till I laughed over this silly birght wonderful yarn. They will be done by Wednesday, and I'm really looking forward to having them on my feet.

The other thing that happened Friday that made life worth living, was lunch with a very good friend. Sometimes when I'm are stressed and worn, and in the middle of whatever little miseries I feel are my most heavy cross to bear, I forget to notice how just talking to some people makes things better. She let me vent, and then we moved on, to disscussing the rest of our lives. I wasn't ready to look at the rest of my life (and it is a very good life) but she made me acknowledge just by chatting that I do have that actual good life.

She kept noting that she really liked green things, interpersing it through our conversation several times. She also nagged me that I have not yet knit her anything. So I set out to fix that.

I went by River City and had a wonderful time, feeling up all the yarns. I picked up some tools that I could no loger do without, and I looked over all the yarns for their greenness. My friend is a dedicated walker, and often spends several hours at a time getting fresh air and excersize. Since it is near the end of winter, and since she needs warmth, but not weight, this seemed like the perfect thing to use for a nice long scarf.

Noro Silk Garden, colour 255. The scarf was knit simply, a garter stitch edge, and stockinette in the middle, on 7 mm needles to give it a nice open look that will give her warmth by the layers and will be light enough to wear all spring to keep that last lingering chill in the air off her neck. It turned out gloriouly but I have no photos of it either. I will get photos when the set is done. Yes there are handwarmers in her future too.

And so, as you see, I arrived sane, and whole, due to some very good things.

Tempting Lace

No, no, that really should be attempting lace, not tempting lace.
There is something about lace at 5 in the morning that does not work. It probably has something to do with the lack of coffee. It also has to do with the problem I have always had with knitting. When I do exactly what it says, knitting does not work.

Now that I understand that all the directions are written for people who knit wrong (Western), I just have to convert the errors to the right way (combined) of knitting.

(Remember, this is my world, you'll get no argument out of me in the rest of the world about right and wrong knitting, my outside opinion is all knitting is right, but this blog is my world, and in my world I can be right and all the rest of you can be wrong, with no harm no foul.)

I'll show you what I mean on the pattern rows only. Alternate rows are simple purl across.

The book reads like this: Knit 1, Knit 2 tog, yo, knit 1, yo, slip 1, knit 1, psso, knit 1.

To work for combined knitters, it should correctly read: Knit 1, slip 1, knit 1, psso, yo, knit 1, yo, knit 2 tog, knit 1.

Charting this simple pattern would make life so much easier, right? Not really. I have a book with charts, and the symbol keys are only defined for knitters who knit western. Chart writers really should address this.

In my world, the directions are all backwards and most of the time I can translate as I go, I just can't do it well, at 5 o'clock in the morning, without coffee.

I'll have some coffee, and then, I think I am going to knit for a while and see what happens.

Another busy day

It's going to be another busy day at work, so I'm going to have to be quick. Last evening after that late and short post, there was some light consumption of a particular port I enjoy. Acompanying this consumption, there was sock knitting. About 2/3 of this happened

so I am well pleased with my progress. There has been very little real time put in and yet the sock is actually growing. It struck me as odd last night how fast it is growing (thinking it was odd was directly connected to the port), but morning light tells me that socks appear when you actually spend time knitting them and that since I am no longer avoiding them, I should not be surprised they are growing.

Feeling very good about socks (and the port) made me feel ready to tackle a new lace design. Again, I found it in Mildred Graves Ryan's Encyclopedia of Stitchery. It is called Cats Paws Lace, and is again an old Shetland pattern. Its has 3 rows of thinking and 3 rows of purling over 7 stitches. This I can do.

Right now, this lacy light design, as pictured here on this free pattern by Elizabeth Lovick, is in the running for the delft blue coloured yarn. There is another stitch design I'm looking at, but this one was the first I worked up.

There are all kinds of stitch variations out there for this stitch pattern and other ways to place the design within your project, such as blogger round n round she goes uses it, to make many variations of it. Its a lovely versatile stitch pattern and it would look nice no matter what yarn you worked it in.

Of all the lace stitches I have tried so far, the ones I have had most success with, and found the most easy to use are traditional Shetland patterns. They are so simple, and yet produce such lovely delicate things. It makes sense they would be.

These patterns were developed by women in small homes lit by fire and candle light. There were worked on in snatches of time between the heavy labour of keeping a early 19th century home on a small and rocky island. They were simple so they could pick up and quickly know what they needed to do next without referring to a pattern. They were passed by memory rather than by writing them down, by looking at previously made shawls rather than looking at charts. Celtic Memory refers to an Irish custom, Women's Christmas, or perhaps, St Distaffs Day, were likely the only time they might have just done for themselves, if they followed those traditions at all.

They were a far hardier sort of woman than we are, and yet, like us, they loved things of beauty, and delicacy. Those hard working women gave us the legacy of lace. With every stitich I make as I play with these lace patterns, I am aware of that every shred of elegance and beauty that appears so magically, was gifted to me by them.

What the heck happened to Wednesday?

It can't possibly be after 5 and I am only now getting a minute to write something. Or indeed even to feel like writing something.

Note to self:

Stop letting people walk all over you and your personal time and space. Long tough day but I survived and all that is left is the good part, the knitting, crocheting or other yarny pusuits part.

I'm thinking shawl since the green socks and I still are not on speaking terms.

Forever Socks

I'm developing a new pattern for socks. They are socks that will last forever. The desgn of them makes the fabric so sturdy, so ever lasting, that they will revolutionize sock knitting around the world.

Not really. The only thing that is taking them forever is the knitting. Maybe it is more apt to call these Eternity socks.

The first sock of this pair was cast on in November. I finished it just 3 weeks ago. This second sock was cast on immediately and languished with just 20 of the 80 stitches needed for this sock. I'd look at it and bury it at the bottom of the bag.

Its not that I don't love this yarn. I do. Trekking is a very nice yarn. It makes wonderful supremely washable socks. It's not that I don't love the colour. The greens are some of my favourite things. Its not that I'm through the sock phase. I don't think that can happen. Socks in general inspire me, but these socks have ceased speaking to me.

These socks just look at me, and don't say a word. These socks are not mad at me, they are just plain old fed up with my avoiding them. These socks don't care that they are for big feet. These socks don't care that I might be a bit cranky at how fine the yarn is, now that I have worked with bigger yarns for a while. No, these socks don't care. These socks know the power they have over me, and they are quite willing to guilt me into paying some attention.

I can allow them to languish in the bottom of the bag, but I absolutely can't seem to give myself permission to move forward and start another pair. Yes I did start that pair at the hopspital but that was new bigger yarn, and more suited to the light in the waiting room. (Look at how fast that excuse came sliding out of me) But I honestly, seriously, can't seem to put a new pair of sock yarn on a pair of needles even though every morning I bemoan my desperate need for a few more pairs of socks.

I've tossed new sock yarn in the bag several times, only to pull it out. I have wound single skeins into 2 balls, ready to knit. I have dug through, admired, contemplated some of the very nice yarns in my sock yarn stash, but, still I can't seem to allow myself to put new ones on the needles.

My only option is to sit down, smack myself upside the head, and knit till they are done. If it kills me.

The knitting you see above was done at my LTH (Local Tim Hortons) after dropping Mr. Needles off at the airport at an obscenely early hour. Even I won't go to the office at 5 a.m. I intend to go to a really nice quiet place for lunch and sit and knit. I will knit in the morning, I will knit at high noon and I will knit at the gloaming of the day, but these socks will be done.

And then when I am free, I will immediatly cast on more socks. In much thicker yarn.

Deer Knitting

Deer Knitting,

No really I mean deer knitting.

See? First thing Friday evening, I addressed the need for something to mark the memorable occasion of winning. I think this will do quite well, and the little guy seems very happy, dare I say, perky even, with the improvement in his dress.

As for the rest of that lovely skein, I'm searching for just the right pattern. I took a good hard look at the Mary Webb Knitting stitches book I have, but it doesn't have many of the lacy stitches this deserves. Today its back to the Encyclopedia of Stitchery. There are some lovely things in there, and I do have a fail safe. This search for the right stitch may mean I am forced to buy Barbara Walker's Second Treasury. Wouldn't that be a hard thing to have to do? (Not at all)

I accomplished a lot this weekend. I finished the scarf I have been working on.
I really enjoyed this pattern, and I will find other projects for it. It's a simple stitch but it produced something delightful.

And then becase of those antsy fingers, and the fact that my workbag really is falling apart, I took out the booklet I got from Son 3 and wife for Christmas, and sat down and began a new bag.
The yarn is Red Heart Super Saver colourway, Fleck, and a basic black Super Saver to the contrast. I had a couple of fits and starts, but in the end compromised between a bag shape, a stitch from the book and a size I wanted to have. I came up with this. The bottom is oval and it is wider than most of the bags in the booklet. I won't have enough yarn to make the handle I originally planned (from the book) so I'm opting for just a basic double strap. All the parts are complete, and tonite, I'm going to work on the innards.

With the oval shape, I hope to get nice end places for the water bottle I use to hold my dpn's, and the other for whatever socks or other small projects I may be carrying. Between the two end pockets, I will have side pockets, one of which I hope will function for my purse things, and the other for the bits and peices, scissors, tapes, calculator, for circular needles, whatever that I may need o carry seperate from a project. In the center will be a nice big place for the one big project I usually seem to carry. I'm waffling right now about putting a pocket on the outside of the bag. You know, you can never have too many pockets and yet, the more you have empty, the greater the chance that they will fill with junk.

The really nice part of bag making is that if I don't like it, I can take the lining out, and redo. If it works but over time I find I keep saying, I wish this was..., well I can fix that too.

The simplest things

The simplest of things are often the nicest.

When I got home, again, since Mr Needles was away, I stopped for mail. I had a package! From Curlerchik! (CURLERCHIK!! what have you done to yourself?) It was my surprise win for her 1000 comment.

I of course drove placidly down the subdivision road, and walked carefully into the house and calmly opened the envelope to find a very pretty package. I oohed and ahhhed over the dainty packaging, dainty shoes and delicate bags scattered across a bright cheerful yellow background tied up with an elegant golden bow. There was a lovely card with a leaf on it (Handmade? I love that little leaf) and warm greetings inside.

Lovely isn't it. Carefully, I untied the bow and unwrapped the dainty paper.

Ok, my entire family is killing themselves laughing now, and I don't want them to hurt themselves, so I will be truthful.

I left all the mail but the package in the mail box, someone else can pick it up later, I ran back to the car, drove down the short road to my house (without putting my seatbelt back on, .4 km) grabbed all my crap from the car, and opened the house door so hard it moved shoes and the door knob dented the wall. I slammed the door shut, tossed my coat on the bench, ran up the stairs, and sat down to open the envelope. I did admire the package. I contemplated taking a picture, I debated about going down to my study to get the camera, but decided to open the package instead (a recreation is pictured above). I read the card and smiled, but even this could not slow me down.

I did ooh and ahh over the paper later, and I almost cried when I realized there was no way at all I was going to be able to recreate the beautifully tied bow Curlerchik made, not even close.

The outside was good, but the inside, oh the inside was spelndid.

Curlerchik, its wonderful. Its a true delft blue, with magical variations deep inside, hiding in the twists and turn of the wound ball. There is a richness of blues down in there and I can't wait to find them all.

This is magic of the very best kind. I can see hints of its colours, but I can't see it all. Knitting this will be a surprise in slow motion as I work.

And it will certainly be knit. I have decided that much. It will be a scarf, or handwarmers, I've decided this too. The details are up in the air.

There are antsy fingers in my house, indeed right here at my office desk. And I don't think even my very forgiving boss won't like me knitting the day away.

Arrivals and Departures

I had the urge to pick up the mail when I got home last night, and its really nice that I did. I found most of the things I hoped for from my Webs order.

Silk Garden Lite. Its probably not a colour I'd have choosen but of the two on sale, it was the one I will find all sorts of things to use it for. Now I just have to think what. It will pair really well with a plain black or maybe a less harsh charcoal.

And this milled end 2/8 yarn, again a very very good buy. I washed and dried up a sample of this, and I think this is going to be very nice yarn. It reminds me a lot of the yarn I'm using for my shawl, only a lighter weight. Lovely heathered greeny greys, my kind of colours.

The third thing I ordered was indeed out of stock. I figured as much, but well, it was worth a shot. So I have money in the kitty and some other yarn to choose. And yes I do have a trip to the yarn store planned. Oh I know, but its time to see what is in stock for spring knitting.

Another day of no knitting

Do your hands ever get antsy? Mine do whenever I can't get to do the things my fingers love to do. I pretty much crawled to bed when I got home last night and selt through till 2 when I woke with a headache. I think this is my version of the flu that is going round, only like usual, I don't get sick enough to not be expected at work. I have long suspected that I am the office Typhoid Mary spreading germs but never getting sick myself. (If you ever want to read a story of an injustice, read what happened to Mary Mallon, even though she wasn't the only one who spread the disease through misunderstanding it, and how at her death in 1938, she was still confined because of it).

I woke in the middle of the night, I knitted, and worked on Annie Modesitt's mini tutorial from her blog, and yup, it works. But there is more. I figured out another little decrease thing I ended up doing oddly because of the the way I learned to knit. Her instruction to wrap your yarn in the other direction in class mystified me, and even as I worked through the tutorial, I remained unclear about 'wrap' because I don't wrap. I see the light now.

Even though I don't wrap my yarn as most people do, the yarn is coming from a definite direction. My yarn is always between the two needles before it is picked up for each stitch. I just needed to place the yarn above the working needle before picking it up to make the stitch. I did a nice long sample of tidy left leaning decreases and then I ripped back without taking a picture. But it works! (At this point I crawled back to bed. I might get up early but 2 is insane even for me.)

Monday while picking up Son1's drugs at the drug store, I found some very interesting knitting things. One thing was to be expected. I picked up a copyu of 'The Friday Night Knitting Club' . I had to. I read the last page of the book, and found myself crying, so I knew I had to have it. It seems it's going to be a movie. I'll probably cry when I go to see that (whenever that may be). So get your needles ready, people.

This drugstore also has remaindered books on occasion. I always dig through those. You can sometimes get real gems that way. My all time favourite novel, 'A Vision of Light' came to me this way. Its a wonderful story and if you are looking for a really entracing historical novel, this is it.

Amongst the very picked over remaindered pile, I found this. Luxury Knits by Amanda Griffiths. For 6.99, this is a bargain. A huge bargain. Its a very nice book. Everything in it is made from those yarns you dream of using, that for somehting very special you would consider using. These are yarns to sigh over, to fondle, to pet. Cashmere, silk, fine cottons, soft microfibres from yarn places like Rowan, Jaeger are used to make a variety of lovely things. There are projects for you home, accessories, baby things, and lovely sweaters for all seasons.

These are elegant shapes. Its all the best of today's fashion trends and shapes with the classical air of yesteryear. Knitting and wearing the things in this book will make you feel pampered, cared for, dainty. There are some interesting things with beads, and some very delicate lace touches.

This 2005 release is not a trendy book, it breaks no new ground, but what it does it does very, very well. It rates a double crochet with me.

PS: My spell checker isn't working, so if you see more than usual glaring spelling errors this is why. I'm working on it.

Annie Modesitt's Lace Class

You will recall that I was at a lace class taught by Annie Modesitt in November at River City Yarns. I posted about it here. I have learned so much in the days since then. In a lot of ways I knit with much more assurance now, much more ease because of just a couple very small things she said in the class.

But there was one thing I could not get, one I missed, and quite possibly the part that just made me feel like the veriest fool on the planet. It has to do with left leaning decreases. I'll show you how mine look on mom's Christmas scarf. You can see how almost decent my right leaning decreases are, and how sloppy my left leaning decreases are, some straight some very leaned some medium leaned. In class I was utterly confused by her instructions of how to make the darn things be nice.

Yesterday while cruising blogs, I visited hers at Modeknitdotcom, , and guess what. She was talking about this very part of her class. Check out her February 1, post and the photo at the top of February 2nd.

All I can tell you is this works to make those single left leaners nice as a smooth baby's bottom. I even figured out why I was lost the moment she talked about this in class. That has to do with how I was getting them done till now, and how I've been looking at the various ways of decreasing on the flat and in the round. My project today is to work through her mini tutorial, and see what happens.

There was precious little knitting last night. There was some book reading about knitting, and finding of one knitting book at the drug store but no actual knitting. Son 1 finally is home from the hospital, and the entire evening was about getting him food he can make, drugs for his infections, and getting him settelled. I did work for a short time this morning on the blue scarf, but it hasn't changed enough to show you anything significant (like finishing).I did notice this the other day. This is the backside of the lace. How come no one told me that backside of lace, even stockinette stitch lace has cool and interesting things happening? These little hillocks and bumps are fascinating, and I just don't get it. Everybody talks about the front of their lace, but like everything knit, there are two sides. Check out thge other side today. Who knows what you will find.

Come to think of it, that is good advice for a lot of things. Check out the other side. They are probably just as nice and as interesting as this lace.

Grandpa's Blanket and a Life in Crochet

I taught myself to crochet while in high school with a granny square blanket from a kit. I was proud as punch of this kit. It was one of the first things I bought with money from my first real non-babysitting job. It was 1970's brown and gold. There were two pattern choices with the kit, and I chose the one with single and half double crochet squares. It was pretty darn close to perfect, even if the squares looked rounded on the sides more than I wanted. I could not understand what I was doing wrong but it was good enough that when I sewed the squares together, they were most amazingly, square. Success and no one helped me, not with one single stitch.

Next I made the other granny square pattern from the kit, in a rich forest green and cream yarn from Eatons Department store. It was 100% acrylic, but soft like butter. The pattern was solid double crochets down the sides of the squares, no chain spaces, just double crochets, chained corner, growing by a couple stitches on each side of each row. The squares were mostly green, broken only by a double row of cream about 2/3rd of the way out from the centre of each square. I recall having a lot of yarn, so I just worked the squares to the size I wanted them rather than the size the pattern asked for, and instead of sewing those large squares together as the pattern said, I worked them together with a single crochet in the cream. This blanket was my pride and joy. It was a pattern I changed and adjusted to make it my own. My colours, my size, my join.

After this came doily season. My maternal grandmother and my dear Aunt Lorraine absolutely loved doilies, and they knew my mom wanted some new ones. They gave mom their Elisabeth Hiddleson pattern books and once I had seen them, I wanted to try some too. They sent along a booklet with very easy patterns, and smaller doilies for me to try, and away I went. The three of them, Grandma, Auntie and mom, were very willing enablers, freely giving me advice on what size thread I would want to work with and what size hooks I would need. I went off to the city and picked up doily thread and hooks in abundance.

By the time I left highschool, I was an experienced crocheter, having worked many many intricate doilies from Mrs Hiddleson's challenging patterns. My paternal Grandmother asked if I would make a ripple stitch afghan for Grandpa.
Eatons was still carrying yarn, and I knew it was good stuff, so this very simple ripple afghan was made from that inimitable very, very good acrylic. It remained on the back of Grandpa's chair till the day he died when Grandma put it on his bed. After her passing, it came back to me.

Of all these wise women who led me to strings, only my mom remains. Only one blanket remains.

The gold and brown blanket literally disintegrated when the boys were still small. The strands of yarn just gave up the ghost. After washing one day, it just was full of separations and broken strands, and though I tried to keep it going, it met its end shortly thereafter.

The green one met it's end about 5 years ago. The blanket had been filched for the bachelor pad, and somehow the bachelors tore a strand of yarn, and managed to pull the stitches out along a couple of rows. One square was a huge mess of tangled yarn before it was brought to me to reapir. I put it aside for sometime when I had time, but time never came and I sent it to blankie heaven. I've always regretted tossing the green blanket. It was soft and warm and just got better with each wash.

As you can see by the picture, Grandpa's blanket soldiers on. It is in full time use in the living room. It doesn't need washing as often as it did while the boys were growing and the cat has taken a liking to it, but each and everytime I wash it, it looks and feels as good as when it was new. There is no relaxing of the fibres from the heat of drying in the dryer. In fact, the dryer pulls the strand together. In a lot of ways, it acts like there is some wool in there. Hard to say, but back in the day, not every item was labeled as it must be today.

Eatons went out of the yarn business sometime just after this blanket was completed in 1980, and then Eatons itself filed for bakruptcy in 1999.

The blanket and the memories of the people, places, and a beginner's success,live on. They inspire me still.

Blogger's Silent Poetry Reading

This just seems right. It could have been my friend CP who knows about such things, or perhaps my friend Mostlylurking who simply loves such things, who who directed me to this poem. I don't recall. I only know that it says everything I want my socks to say.

"Ode to My Socks" by Pablo Neruda

(translated by Robert Bly)

Mara Mori brought me

a pair of socks

which she knitted herself

with her sheepherder's hands,

two socks as soft as rabbits.

I slipped my feet into them

as if they were two cases

knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,

Violent socks,

my feet were two fish made of wool,

two long sharks

sea blue, shot through

by one golden thread,

two immense blackbirds,

two cannons,

my feet were honored in this way

by these heavenly socks.

They were so handsome for the first time

my feet seemed to me unacceptable

like two decrepit firemen,

firemen unworthy of that woven fire,

of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation

to save them somewhere as schoolboys

keep fireflies,

as learned men collect

sacred texts,

I resisted the mad impulse to put them

in a golden cage and each day give them

birdseed and pieces of pink melon.

Like explorers in the jungle

who hand over the very rare green deer

to the spit and eat it with remorse,

I stretched out my feet and pulled on

the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:

beauty is twice beauty

and what is good is doubly good

when it is a matter of two socks

made of wool in winter.

I've read about Blogger's Silent Poetry Reading day, St. Brigids Day before, but was reminded of it by the Yarn Harlot.

Just playing around with lace

Sometimes I cleave to only one project, and sometimes, I just want to have fun. This week, with all the unusual rushing around, I'm not getting anything big done, but I am finding small corners of time to play.

I was picking up books around the chair in my study, and my old and now indispensible Mildred Graves Ryan's Complete Enclycolpedia of Stitchery, fell open at the page for this lace. Having recently dug in the pile o' yarn, I knew I had a yarn that would make a fine looking scarf and that a scarf would be a great way to practise this new to me lace stitch.

I can't remember the name of the stitch. The book is at home (sigh for my lack of memory). Whatever its name is, it is one of several I have seen that remind me of a candle's flame or the flower bud of a moonflower just before it bursts open.

The lace is very, very, very simple. I had it memorised after the first half of the pattern, and the second half is exactly the same, just shifted over a half set of stitches. For simple to remember lace stitches, it rivals 'old shale'. So far this lace scarf is proving to be a nice, extremely relaxing knit, full of rewards.

The yarn is Bernat Softee Baby in the Denim Marl colourway. It's a splity, unforgiving and firm to work with yarn, and yet for all that, it is producing a very soft, cuddly and pleasing project. It is harder to make an even 'slip one, knit two psso' stitch combinations than I prefer, but for knitting lacy projects with acrylic, it will do.

All along in my adventures learning to knit, and finding knitters and crocheters online, I've wondered why crocheters en masse have stayed quite comfortably with acrylics and plant fibres. Reading the various crochet forums like Crochetville, and Crochet Me reflect that most crocheters are still using the old easy to purchase standbys. They are using all the newer yarns, but still are more likely to use yarns with very large acrylic content. With all the myriad of very good inexpensive wool and alternatives, why do they stay with what they have used for years? Why did I, until I took up crocheted socks and then came to knitting?

Crochet never left me craving something more from a yarn. In crochet, with its lone needle you don't have the interaction between the two needles of knitting. You are not trying to manipulate two points over a connected fibre below, you just have one needle and one stitch to work with over the fibre below. You end up requiring the stretch and ease of animal fibre knitters much less often.

Knitting this lace in this good quality acrylic is doable but as you work, the knitting needles crave stretch, crave give that just isn't there. In all the grand debates knitters have over acrylic versus wool, I'd be interested to watch how people knit, how they hold their needles, how they hold their hands, to see if yarn choice is aligning with a style of knitting that just requires less ease in a yarn. Do knitters who choose to avoid animal products for health reasons or personal choice, end up adjusting their knitting style to accomodate the yarn?

I don't know that I will ever give up looking for nice feeling strings. My searches at my trips to my LYS are all about playing touchy feely. Feely first, then look at the label. Same thing at the big craft places. It always begins with feel.

What I do know for certain is that I am paying much closer attention to what a yarn can do well.

I might like winter, but I'm no dunce, just slow.

As previously mentioned, it has been very cold this week. Each day, I drive to town with a chill running down the back of my neck. In this 4th day of severe cold weather, I, who live in Canada, was born here, have spent 50 winters gaining experience, own no winter boots, no toque, no scarf and have not for a couple of years. I have no warm mitts only plain sturdy cowboy leather gloves with no lining that I buy at the work wear store. This chill down the back of my neck is not a new feeling.

There, now you know my dirty little very un-Canadian secret.

I just never made anything like that for myself. Years ago I knit and crocheted scarves for my kids on a regular basis, just never for myself. I did contemplate a fun fur scarf a couple years back when that was popular, but I found I really hate working with all that fuzz, so it never happened. My approach to staying warm and winter wear was always about extra for the office where it is frigid and you can't reasonably wear your coat. I never even thought about the half hour one way I spend commuting. It just never occured to me.

I consider myself reasonably bright, generally competent, even brilliant on one or two rare occasions in my life. I always knew I would find something that would reveal the empty parts. Knitting seems to be the key to the Pandora's box of my common sense. Since taking up knitting, my lack of brain power is now not just on display, but is on display distressingly frequently. It just never occurred to me to make a scarf for myself, only for my kids.

Sigh.

Since it has been brought my attention by reading recent crochet and knitting magazines, that scarves are not just for cold, but can be very stylish accesories, it finally, belatedly, occurred to me that I had the power in my own hands to make a scarf for myself. So I did. Sort of.

I came across pepperknit's blog, and saw this nifty little thing, The Bainbridge Scarf. I was intrigued. It was small, and looked like it could be finished quickly, it didn't look like it would be bulky under the front of your coat (my chief objection to winter scarves is that they always make me feel stuffed in ), and I liked the way it tied to stay in place. It also looked like it would be a great little crochet project as well as a knit.

The overall size of the project called to me too. I had a single skeins of several yarns given to me for Christmas (thanks again guys for the yarn, just to play with). I tried a couple different things, and ended up using Paton's Shetland Chunky in a rich burgundy colour.

The photos is a bit fuzzy (it's greatly enlarged). It is a stitch pattern from Harmony Guide Volume 6, called Wide Double crochet (I think - I really should confirm these things). Regular doubles except that you place your stitch between the double crochets in the row below rather than in the loop of the stitch below. Its a interesting variation on this most basic of stitches, and it worked well with the bulky yarn.

The fabric it created has such a soft flowing drape. It is a relatively open pattern, and yet the bulk of the yarn fills the openings in the nicest way, without adding any additional firmness or stiffness. And no, no ties. It ended up not being a Bainbridge at all,just a nice loop scarf to wear under my coat.

Why not Bainbridge? Well, I know I've mentioned how I just seem to go off on my own without reading very carefully, so it should come as no shock. I missed the part where the project was supposed to be only 4 inches wide. Mine is at least 6 inches and verges on 7. Its just too much fabric.

But I am going to do that Bainbridge in crochet. I don't think the Bainbridge is really suited to a bulky yarn, though I do really like my result as is, but next go round, I'm going to use something lighter, a double knitting weight or heavy fingering weight ought to be just right in crochet.

And yes, my neck was toasty warm driving to work this morning, thank you very much.

I Love the Depths of Winter

I don't know if it is normal for most people to feel a rhythm to their projects when they look back over their hand working lives, but I sure do. There are always the little exceptions, the little hiccups, but the rhythm is there when I look at the projects where I have followed my heart. Maybe its part of getting to the age that I have come to. There is comfort in that flow of things, comfort in the stages and the processes and I revel in it.

Winter is a great time of year to work big heavy things, things that you can cover yourself with as you go to hold off the chill. The deep winter, the part after the holiday rush is done, is when warm afghans are crocheted, and quilts are completed. Deep winter is for epic embroideries, large panels, and huge pictures with fine shadings and rich tones that take months of dedicated thought and work to complete. My deep winter projects have always reflected my need to hunker down, burrow in, hibernate in the quiet of the day, the quiet of my thoughts to survive the dark and the cold.

As the days get lighter, in the pale of winter, there is a change in the air. Its too cold but you can't help thinking about what is next. Your thoughts are full of garden catalogues and magazines, and there is a lightness in the air that just has to come out. Everything within you is straining to spring. Projects are light tones, small, quick to complete, things that express the urgency of green bursting through the thawing forest floor, of newness, of freshness. It is the season of projects that are light, open, airy; laces, doilies, delicate things, beaded embroideries, but always things that tell of crisp edges against a rich deep blue summer sky.

June is all show, all flamboyance. It's the season of testing yourself, working faster, pushing to meet deadlines, like wedding samplers and bridal gifts. June is warmth and busy days doing everything so long as it is under the sunny skies. Its often about trying something just a little further on the edge than you normally go, like socks, like knitting. Its about not fearing failing, about bold, big movements, confident things that you might not try other seasons. Its when I am most likely to experiment with new techniques, with new processes. Working in the dappled shade on a hot day might bring out lazy hazy days of summer for others, but for me, its all about growth.

August is the fullness of spring and summer promise. August is for bringing things in, for earnest efforts for completion. Everything is about making ready, about preparing for the next step. Fall is purposeful thinking, purposeful handwork. Fall is the time of sweaters, vests, socks, things that have a job to do. I find my self arranging and planning gifts, embroideries , long hardanger pieces, graceful little crocheted snowflakes, long strings of beads surrounded by lace crochet, tatted edgings and small bags to fill with lavender for people you love.

Fall is always followed by the rush of Christmas approaching. Its not about choosing anymore, or planning, its just about making sure its done with enough time to wrap and deliver under a tree. Sometimes this is the season of panic, and rush, but only when you can't reign in your inner belief that you can and must do everything even when everything is unrealistic and downright ludicrous. Its the season of midnight knitting, and beading enough to drive you mad.

I find myself wishing the time of each season would last longer, sometimes wishing days moved slower even now on these dark and cold days. I can't help but see that its the end of January and I want more days when I can simply sit and work. I wish time would move as slowly as most things do in this kind of cold. I'm not really in love with -32 and severe weather, but I'm deeply enamoured with winters projects.

I worked on the shawl yesterday at lunch, I worked on the shawl last evening while visiting the guy stuck in hospital, I worked on the shawl this morning in the wee early hours. It still looks much as it did in the photo I took more than a week ago, even though it has been a constant in my days. It is with me everywhere, and it is in my mind even as I finish small and more urgent things. Most days there is a row or two of the shawl. Part of me is distressed by this slow middle, but most of me is entranced. Projects like this are like finding a friend, learning who they are, getting to know their secrets.

This shawl will be my companion a while longer still, and that is very very good.

Just saying

I woke really early this morning. I think the furnace was bugging me. The darn thing would not shut off. This happens if someone hit the temperature hold button (it stays at the same temperature no matter what) rather than temporary to give yourself a wee temperature boost in the evening.

The airport is reporting a reasonable -35 C but we are 80 km from the airport.

I looked at the thermometer outside. The little red stuff? curled up into a ball and went home.

Just saying.

Knitting Happens

Wow. This weekend, actual knitting happened. It feels like ages since it worked that way. I also managed to sneak in a few stitches on that cute little Dolly Mama son3 and spouse gave me for Christmas.

I finished the hat. It looks better on a head but the head is sadly still in hospital. He's fine, just still on iv for antibiotics and other liquids. Though it looks a little bit like a cartoon picture of the Matterhorn, it has been confirmed, it fits just fine.

And then I did this. Calorimetry 3 and wristers.This is made of Zitron Loft, a really nice un-plied yarn and Misson Falls. I do hope the recipient enjoys it. Its her first semester away from home at a new university, and she is having a bit of a mid season slump. We are thinking of you, songbird. Cheer up. It goes in the mail today.

A word about Mission Falls wool. Really really nice wool. It's so warm as it goes through your fingers. Its soft and squishy and just everything you could ask for in a yummy yarn to play with. I could sit here all day rubbing the wristers in my hands and marveling over the soft, firm (I know, its polar opposites, but knit up a swatch and you will see what I mean), well defined fabric it makes. I will be using it again. If I will be using it for large project is the question.

It is one of the higher priced yarns at 7 dollars a skein but its main shortcoming is the small skein size of 85 yds. For the life of me I don't get why yarn makers do this. I'm sure they have a really sound reason for it, but from the crocheters or knitters side of things, small skeins are a sort of a pain in the behind. It soft plies make joining the ends is very very easy, but all the stopping to do it, that would make me bonkers.

Both the wristers and the headband are very yarn friendly. Calorimetry takes about a hundred yards. The wristers take about 120 for the pair. A nice quick weekend project,t perfect for times when your knitting life needs some completion.

Its been a zoo round here, and I really needed a completed something, so Calorimetry was just the ticket, but that doesn't mean I have avoided things I am determined to complete in short order. The shawl is still there, still being worked on. I'm starting to think I am practising knitting garter stitch while asleep. I'm finding I have a distressing tendency to zone out when I'm working on it and before I can say boo, my brain is snoring.

Which is usually what wakes me so I can keep knitting.

Not Enough Coffee

I started my day by sleeping through the first buzzer. I turned it off, but have no memory of doing so. I recall turning off the second buzzer, but I feel back to sleep. I dreamed and when I awoke I felt worried, worn out, and like there is something I need to remember, something really important, something that matters, which I have completely forgotten.

Obviously, I needed a coffee to set myself to right. I usually get that first cup at the office, but today, I had to take stuff up to son 1 in the hospital. Air cast? Check. PSP? Check.

Ah right, there is the stuff I had to remember.

Doesn't sound like it should be a problem in the grand scheme of things. Except for the coffee. I'm an hour behind on my coffee intake, and I can tell. I did buy a cup of coffee at the cafeteria but we all know that the only thing less inspiring than your basic institutional food is your basic institutional coffee.

The day has been devoid of anything to soothe my soul so far, but I'll get over it by lunch time. It might take a Guinness though.

Hats

Since this is my first hat attempt, you'd think I'd worry a little more about fit. So far, I'm following my usual practise, of going merrily along, and waiting for utter disaster when I try to deliver the product. Let's just say my idea of how much hat his head is going to need, reflects an absolute blindness to size. I think I have demonstrated my disconnect from reality so far as size goes before. If heads fit hats, this hat would need a pin head. Literally.

Thankfully, we found a hat he was wearing and measured for size before I was too far down and I added what I needed. I'm also working in that other green colour. A quick trip to the yarn store fixed any lingering doubts about having enough yarn for hat and scarf, and cured that mild shortage of Mission Falls for the next project.

(It solved other matters too. I should be ashamed, but I feel strangely satisfied. I found the most wonderful Handmaiden Sea Silk, this kit actually, in the colour of the moonlight on the waves. I'm sure I can find reason to knit it.)

The addition of the green is doing something amazing. In a hat where you have darks and brilliants, its out brillianting the brilliant green. What a fantastic colour combination.

The true colour tone is somewhere between the first photo and the last. I'm working the new green in between rows of the variegated Patons Classic.

The new green is ... well darn it all, I've left the band at home. Its a yarn simply labeled Australian Merino, coloured in a tweed effect in varying shades of Granny Smith apple green. While its not a perfect match, it fits in with the varying shades of green in the Patons Classic. In the next round of the variegated colour, I'm going to work in two rows of the new green, then 3 and on up to the end of the hat. I hope to end in the plain brown, and may have to work an additional row or two to get it.

The scarf is going to be re knit to include this new green. Unless of course, sons 1's girlfriend, SS, takes this hat from him. Cause then I'd have to knit another hat.

This is starting to feel like sock knitting. You make one pair and pretty soon, people are asking for things.

Thanks for the good wishes for Son 1. He's had surgery to clean things out and get rid of the infection, and hopefully he is on the road to full recovery.

Hats for Sick People and Yarn Harlot Books

Soon after I started the scarf, Son 1, commented how much he liked the way it looked. I think he helped pick out this yarn while in BC. And then he said he could really use a good hat. I could have pounded my head on the floor, because this was a scarf and I was really enjoying it. I was determined to make him a hat out of something else, and yet...

This morning, I began doing this from the other end of the yarns. I have no idea what size his head is. I don't think you can take his guitar player fingers and hands to use as a measure of his head (Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules for hat size). But the hat begins. I'm feeling just a wee bit sorry for him. His place in the world right now sucks, so it just seems right to use something he liked to make him a little something to make at least one moment of his day better. Poor baby.

(And yes even when they are 27, they are still your babies)

With luck, there will be enough for a shorter version of the scarf, more of a coat length, something that tucks around his neck, and the hat. If not, I'll start the scarf a little thinner and introduce another skein of something worked alternately to make one nice comfortable length scarf. Maybe green.

Knitting Rules. I love this book. I don't think I could review it with a neutral eye. I was given the book as a gift, by my non yarny daughter in law. She picked well.

Like all of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books (I've two others since), it's a wonderful read. Homey, warm, and funny. Funny not in the big star way, not in the famous way, but funny in the silly things people do that you talk about sitting round your kitchen table sort of way. Her writing is infused with her warmth and her observations about human nature and knitting nature are on the money. I was not a knitter when I first read this book, but I was surely charmed into knitting by it. (Clued in is more apt).

What strikes me most about this book and why it is the book I most often carry, is her philosophy of knitting simple things, simply. Her basic sock pattern in the book is, well, basic. Her hat basics, scarf basics disscuss the projects for what they are, simple things we use every day. She makes you believe you can do these things all on your own. She makes you know that you can function without a pattern for these simple little things (Not that there is anything wrong with patterns). Its the sort of knitting thinking your grandmother would have given you if your grandmother knitted (or crocheted). Stephanie is part of the chain of knitters with their hands on our shoulders, passing on the wisdom of the ages, the best kind of wisdom which is fun too.

Knitting Rules is a Double Treble, just go get it, and while your at it get these too.

Brand spanking new on the Amazon lists!

Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted To Or Not)

And for 2009, her calendar - Never Not Knitting

2009 should be far away, but time flies when you wait for good things.

You Can Get a Lot of Knitting Done

in a hospital emergency room. Ask me how I know.

Yesterday, mere moments after I finished my goofing off at lunch, I got a call from my son. Son 1 broke his legs 18 months ago in a motorcycle accident, and one leg's more severe breaks have been a mild sort of on going nightmare of not healing, infection, hope and minor despair. Since his bone graft, he's had fairly steady low levels of infection, which finished in a massive round of antibiotics this fall - 6 weeks of iv treatments - followed by oral antibiotics. It seemed to be cured and by Christmas he felt better than he had in years. Yesterday infection returned, and not just a little. Massive infection. So we sat in the emergency room while he was viewed, poked, prodded and pictured till they decided what they needed to do.

He has become their guest, and I knitted the better part of a sock. I expect more sock and simple knitting over the next little while

Yesterday something happened that reminded me of something strange about me. Not weird strange, just a rift between me an normalcy.

It began when I was a little girl. My paternal grandmother had a very small house and many grandchildren. We'd all show up on boxing day, the gents went to the basement (a surprisingly cheery place) to play cards, the ladies in the kitchen, and the kids went to living room where we'd play bingo. It didn't take much room, kept us quiet largely till dinner was served, and had one golden rule. You had to stay and play till you won.

I played a lot of bingo, and I never ever won. Games would end because dinner was served. Every year from the time I was 4 till I was about 14, I bingoed with the best of them and kept a losing streak that has never been equaled in the family annals. Grandma finally took pity on me and let me pick a pity prize from the box, and declared I would never have to play again. There were 2 things left in the prize box, and this is what I chose.

It sits in a position of honour on my trophy shelf. I have a trophy for being at the bottom of my bowling league, a trophy of a horses hind end for being the 'best' player at a kaiser tournament (I still don't know how they talked me into that) and this Rudolph mug. I do not win things. Ever. This is a blogs where you won't find memes, quizzes and contests. I rarely play games and when I do, it's not because I am trying to win. Decades of constant losses have taken a toll on my fragile ego.

A week or so ago, I posted a silly comment on Curlerchik's blog where she had a contest running for her 1,000 comment.

I winned!

For the first time ever, I can declare I have a winning strategy.

" I'm like one of those little old ladies who watches people play slots, and waits till they leave for more change, and then swoops in to win.

I'll just sit back and watch, patiently while I let everyone else bump up the number count."

My big quandary is do I simply put this lovely yarn on the trophy shelf or do I make something with it and sit the product on the trophy shelf?

Decisions, decisions.

Arctic Lace and other good things

All that changeable weather last week, brought some fresh new snow. This is a shot from my back door very early Saturday morning. Looks sort of sad and gray, but fresh snow much improved Sundays sun. We haven't seen a lot of sun this winter, not on weekends at any rate.

I have a request to knit another Calorimetry, so Saturday I was off to town for a quick yarn trip. I found some of my favourite things!
River City Yarns has Zitron Loft in stock again. This is a really, really nice yarn, truly wonderful to work with. Since the request was for a combination of yarns, we searched the store for a good colour match, and I came away with some Mission Falls, a new to me yarn, with a really great soft feel and a dusky warm tone. I'm looking forward to using it. Calorimetry is such a nice quick to work project. For those of us who thrive on the gratification of completed projects, this is as close to instant as you can get and a great study in short rows. I may go back for one more skein of the Mission Falls yarn. If I have two skeins, I will have plenty to make both the headband and a bonus of some wristers. The lovely recipient will have a treat more than she hoped for.

I did come away with some other treats too, I'll show you those tomorrow. River City has some really great stock in right now. Some of my favourite yarns and some really gorgeous colours, symphonies of colours.

Saturday afternoon, Mr. Needles and I found some intriguing stuff on the Internet about his uncle who was a POW in WWII. We spent a lot of time cruising sites WW II sites looking at and reading information about Lancaster bombers, the crews and reading POW stories. There were many tears, and much sorrow found, and a lot of contemplation about the dark side of humanity. But there was also a lot of good found, that some people still care to remember, that someone out there took the time to write and record and put in out there on the Internet. Some knitting happened around all this reading, but a lot of it was just a little too intense for knitting. Hard to believe, but it happened. Its been a while.

I worked on my shawl along with these other things. Its getting close to the size I want.I figure another weeks determined work and it will be ready for the edging. I had hoped to get it to that point this past weekend, but for all that there was knitting time, there was not large amounts of knitting hours.

I must beg forgiveness of the photo though, maybe Ms Shawl too. I didn't notice till I posted the picture that the needles are impaling the shawl. I will prefer to think of them as being Ms. Shawls delicately folded hands.

Thinking of folded hands, I am reminded of this pattern from Arctic Lace. This one too. The first is called a chevron scarf, and besides the chevron, I saw the folded hands of a contented knitter. Maybe some of you can see that too in these chevrons Donna Druchunas was inspired to create.

I see something else too. Something I saw from the first moment I saw the design of this lace. If you look at the pattern from the opposite direction, you see a woman. See her head centered in the pattern stitches - she is wearing her hair in a bun? She has her hands laid lovingly on her daughters shoulders, who has her hands on her daughters shoulders, and so on down the scarf.

This is the image that sticks in my mind. Its such an warm comforting concept that fits how I see knitting, spinning and all these wonderfully fulfilling things that use strings and needles. Someone at some point developed how to do them, and we are shown and taught, guided by those who have been shown and guided through the many seasons of humanity. Our ancestors hands are on our shoulders, and we have the duty of passing these things on.

We are one long unbroken yarn of time and love.

Books Needlework, Needlework, Books

I have a deep and abiding affection for reading that competes for time with needlework. Of late, the needlework has won the battle, but the last few days, I have been reading the Phillipa Gregory novel, 'the Other Boleyn Girl'. A very very satisfying read which I will likely finish this evening. I recommend it for your reading lists.

There is a lot of work happening on the shawl, just not as much as usual. Its so chilly in the house I can't bear to get out of bed where it's warm and cozy in the morning. That cuts out a healthy 2 hours of my work time. Still progress is happening. The needles will be full by the end of the day of my nice unsquished stitches, and its not too much farther till the main body of it is done, and I am ready for the edge stitches. This plain and simple Truly Tasha's Shawl, has a lacy bit on the edge, and I'm looking forward to the challenge.

I work on the forest scarf when my hands tire from the weight of the shawl, and that too is growing longer by the day. I'd take a picture, but I left my camera at home. It's going to be a nice long scarf, one that you can wrap around a few times. The single skein of Patons Classic would have been enough to make a short under coat kind of scarf, but longer one that you can wrap around a few times is what this kind of weather needs.

-27C at my house this morning, even if it was only -20 in the city. Verified by 2 different thermometers, and my freakishly cold fingers.

UPDATED: And last night on the way home from work the temperature read -11. Such is winter on the Canadian prairie.

Knitting in the Old Way

Knitting in the Old Way is one of the books I choose for my Christmas present from Mr. Needles. I may have been a little disappointed in The Vogue Ultimate Knitting book, but this choice amply compensates. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this book. I have read it through a few times already and I'm entranced over and over again.

It's not a book of patterns, and yet it is. Its not a book about history, and yet it is. Its not a book about traditions and yet it is. Its not a book about new and yet, it is. In a way it is a recipe book for knitting. Whatever you class it as, it is a masterwork and even if you never knit anything from this book your work will be changed by it. You won't be able to help seeing yarn differently. You won't be able to help seeing patterns differently.

Long ago when generations lived together, when knitting was the only way you could get socks and sweaters, your grandma would have taught you to knit when you were tiny. A lot of the things in this book are the things your grandma would have guided you to know and feel intuitively about your knitting.

Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson take the place of the past generations of women and do a wonderful job of bringing knitting to us as a living intuitive craft reborn for the future.

This book rates a Double treble. Just buy it if you can. If you cannot afford it go find it in a library, but whatever you have to do, you NEED this book. Keep it out as long as you can without the fines, sign it out again and again and take in what it can tell you.

Studying this book is like sitting on a low stool beside my grandma or perhaps Auntie Lorraine watching her, and being instructed as I work along side her, being gently corrected and shown every skill from generations past. It is like having grandmothers and aunts and mothers from many places as they lovingly teach me the way. It explores the very reason that I do handwork. It channels all the things that I have been waiting a lifetime to know. It channels all the women from ages past that I wanted to learn from and makes their voices sing. This book speaks to my soul and gives it wings.