Taking Buffalo to tea.

My sister invited me to tea yesterday. It sounds like it should be a very calm activity, very high class, and restful, an entirely delightful and refined activity. And it was. There was quality tea served, there were proper dainties, shortbread, fine cakes, and finger foods. That it was served to me around the warmth of a campfire from a good sturdy tin campfire coffee percolator in tin cups, sans saucers , sans serviettes made it all the more special. As my sister said, there was a tablecloth and that must suffice for refinements of decor. It was as delightful a day as I have spent in a very long time. We should do this every year.

Getting to tea was an adventure. Getting out of Elk Island Park to go for dinner was even more of an adventure.

My sister was camping at Elk Island National Park just a few miles away from my home. Elk Island is a picture of the way the Canadian west used to be. Its a mix of grasslands, boreal forest, lakes, sloughs, and all the flora and fauna that really belong. It is fenced to keep the animals safe and off the major highway that cuts though the park but once you take the park road in to the centrally located campground, you cross ungulate gates and, you are in wild animal territory. They elk, deer and bison roam free and you never know what you will see. I saw not a single elk, no deer, but I saw a whole lot of these, a lot closer than I really wanted to see them. The pictures make it seem far far away, but oh me oh my, they were close.

There were several of them right along the road, eating the tender new grass where the park people keep it cut. At first there was just a couple in a group. Then a little further down the road, there was another group, and another till I got to a group of about 15 mothers with calves who were right on the road. I was pretty nervous by this time. Some of the mothers were looking at me a little funny. One little fellow did not want to leave the roadway, so his mama came out and nudged him along. As they stood to the side the momma glared at me and took a step forward. I instantly realized that my wee Honda Fit was not so big as her calf, and that she was looking at me exactly as would any mother who thought I was trying to interfere with her babe. I was not feeling really confident about my vehicle. The thought passed through my mind that in an altercation between a mad momma bison, and a Fit, there was only going to be one winner, and it was not going to be me. (I am considering making my next vehicle purchase a Humvee.)

A truck and trailer came along and I wisely decided to get behind him. If anyone was going to be rammed, it was going to be him, being the bigger threat and all, right?

We traveled on and cleared several more groupings, dwindling down to this one old fellow, who seemed to have the right idea.

He just ambled along peacefully in the centre of the opposite lane, minding his own business.

When I finally arrived, I forgot to mention all this bison trauma to my sister, and the day proceeded accordingly. Late in the day, nearing dark, we decided that we were going to head to town for a nice dinner. We were driving along, and she told me that she was disappointed that she had not seen any bison, one of the parks most visible animals (I understand why) on her trip in to the fenced off people area.

We saw the ambler, still just ambling along, though we did see him park to have a wee bite at the side of the road as we passed. We saw a couple groups of other bison, and then we came face to face with the mommas and babies. The whole crowd of them was standing right in the middle of the road. My sister was really really impressed, but noticed that these bison were not moving.

We approached a little closer in the hopes that getting closer that they would recognize that we were a car, and would move aside and let us pass. She encouraged me to honk the horn to no avail. A Honda Fit horn sounds like a child's tin flute and carries all the might and weight of one too. No fear factor here. We tried flashing the lights but the buffalo looked placidly in our direction. Then one sat down in the middle of the road. Clearly they were planning on staying right there, and they felt strongly that humans had no business being in their park. A momma placidly started nursing her little fella right on the white centre line. We tried revving the engine, which at least made the babies look at us, and some younglings began to gambol and play. There is evey chance that they were laughing at the silly humans. As the mommas fondly watched their children we noticed the whole crowd was now slowly approaching us. We decided to see how fast a Fit can drive backwards.

We took stock of our options and realized that the we were on the north side of the two southern park exits, and that our only option was going to be heading to the north gate, and finding dinner at the Lamont pub. We turned and drove off north. Buffalo 2, sis and me, 0.

We passed an SUV heading for the south gates, looked at each other and found out that Honda Fits can turn on a dime on the highway at low speeds without the need to back up. We were heading south again, speeding waaaaaay over the park speed limit of 60K to get close to the SUV. Let him be the guy the buffalo will hit. We will coast through on his path.

Mr SUV bravely and very slowly drove into the group on the road. There was a point where Mr. SUV almost stopped. there may have been a bit of panic in the car. We were in the centre of the group, buffalo were fogging up our windows with their breath (or was that me?) and my sister kept saying don't look them in the eye, and Oh my God and other words of wisdom and prayer, but she also said, I think he nudged that buffalo. If she would have looked she would have noticed that my calm demeanour was enhanced by the fact that my my eyes were probably closed (which was very very bad, since I was, after all driving). Magically mystically, Mr. SUV wedged his way between the buffalo and he slowly cleared a path. We traveled through calmly in his wake. We were clear, where only moments before we had buffalo standing mere inches from our doors.

Mr. SUV, pulled to the side and waved us past, then turned around and drove off north. Who that masked man was, I do not know but both my sister and I can attest that super heros still exist.

We had a lovely dinner, drove to my home, picked up Mr. Needles very large truck of the manly horn and the big engine, and I drove my sister back to her tently domicile. We passed several groups still feeding along the side of the road and Mr. Ambler too, but the mommas and babies were no where to be found. We wonder if maybe Mr. SUV was a park warden and turned back to move the herd away from the road for their safety and ours.

No Buffalo were harmed, no vehicles were immolated, my sister has seen plenty of bison and I only have a little laundry to do. It was plenty of excitement for one day.

Finally finishing

Today I have good news. I am finally finishing socks. I've been working on these socks since March, I think. A few more rows to the bind off and then a couple hours of knitting for the heel. Its darn tooting time. These are for my sister, and she is visiting today, for tea, and surely a tea party demands a good pair of socks.

This is the point in the project where I like to start thinking about what is next. To be completely honest, I am never not thinking of what comes next, but this is where I pull out yarn. I do have a pair of black socks to knit, as a special request, and I am going to use the pumpkin and grey yarn to work on learning stranded colourwork, a la EZ (its the hat I'll be working on), but the project I am looking forward to most is going to be out of the blue and white sock yarn.

In the spring 2008 issue of Interweave crochet, they had a pair of the most amazing crocheted socks I have ever seen. The Troubador socks are a wonder of stranded colourwork. I am really looking forward to what promises to be a new challenge in crochet.

Of course these are just the things on my small and short needles. There are some larger projects I am thinking of too, but they remain only in the thinking stage. I'm going to have to finish a bit more of the sweater I am working on now before the getting out of the yarn for those projects.

And then somewhere in there I have some baby things to do. My nephew and his wife are expecting as I mentioned the other day, but so is the daughter of a very good friend. Both girls. I am delighted for all, and am really looking forward to baby knitting. Its a long time since I did any baby knitting and crochet.

I'm always utterly delighted by the plans for the next projects. I sometimes wonder at why this is. Most often I stop thinking about the why part and just get back to planning, but it strikes me, that it has to do with the endless possibilities.

I love knowing that something I have choice and control over is filled with such endless possibilities. These little project plans remind me that life is a host of endless possibilities, and that just like in my projects, I have choice and control over what I do next. I may not always have a choice about what happens around me, but I always can choose what I will do in response. Always.

Whatever else knitting crochet and all the rest have meant to me over the years, they surely have been an affirmation of life, of strength, and a reminder of life's endless opportunities and possibilities. I might forget that once in a while, but not when I look at yarn.

Appreciating Elizabeth

The more I read Elizabeth Zimmermann, the more I come to appreciate her. Not just from a knitting perspective, but from a handworking fiber person perspective. She talks good common sense and I could use more common sense in my life.

I am working on a project for the store. It, of the ruffles conundrum, has taken up a lot of my thinking knitting time. Really, there were things that should have clued me in that this approach was not going to work. One was that with everything I was I avoided it. Knitting which is not happy knitting is telling you something. I realized this yesterday as I should have been unknitting, and was avoiding even that.

Instead of unknitting I was reading Elizabeth. Really, when you read Elizabeth, you should be knitting with her, but sometimes, you miss her most hearty common sense that way This time round I was just reading her, and I came face to face with the her belief that knitting should be fun.

This was not an aha moment at all. It was more like a D'oh moment, where I realized how silly I have been for even a moment forgetting that basic precept of things we enjoy doing. Everybody in their hearts knows their chosen craft should be fun, and probably stops when they aren't having fun anymore. I seem to get so stuck in my one set way of seeing a project that sometimes I miss the obvious thing a project and a yarn is trying to tell me.

If you don't already have her books in your library, consider them. If you have them, take a time out to re-read them. If you don't knit, get them from the library, and read them anyway. She has the most common sense approach to her craft, that you will be inspired to look at your own loved handwork with new eyes. If I was rating her books they would all be Dobule Trebles, but her books are just simply must haves, no doubt about it. Waaaaay beyond any pithy ratings I might use.

So, next time I have a project that is simply killing me, I intend to take a little Elizabeth break, and read her books. I appreciate the small nudge to better knitting, clearer thinking. Thanks Elizabeth wherever you are.

I am well on my way to becoming a Zimmermaniac.

What I have not talked about

Or maybe I have. In the cold light of morning, it is hard to remember. It may be a shortage of coffee. Yeah that's it. When I have coffee, my memory will improve. It may be the sheer loveliness of the yarn I am working in at the store. Yeah that is what I will blame it on. There are just so darn many good things to play in, that each day is wondrous.

Neither of these excuses work for why I have not shown you some of the loveliness that now graces my yarn cabinet. It is blog fodder and I have ignored its fertile territory long enough.

When the new interweave Knits came out, I noticed this design right away. Seriously. How can I avoid thinking about it for 24 hours straight with little or no respite, till I was driven to stop at the store on a non work day, and check out which yarn I was going to use. I had decided on Love It by Berocco, (a seriously fine yarn) but it cost a little more than I wanted to spend. I came across this instead.

Donna from Scheepjes. The price is a couple bucks less a skein and choosing it cuts the cost of the sweater considerably.

Next up, is the green multi-shaded Oasis from Lang Yarns. It seems they are no longer making this yarn, which really is a shame. For my purposes, it will be used with the green sportweight yarn it is pictured with. Though it doesn't quite seem to here, they go together very, very well. I am hoping to do a cabling project with these.

Lang Silk Dream in an absolutely lush red. I may have shown you this already. These will be variation on a theme memory bags, for some old bags (me an a couple of 50 year old friends) Instead of red hats (we are not hat people) we will be the red bag ladies.

And finally, isn't this cool? This is a skein of Socks that Rock Sherbet. I love this brilliant brash colourway. I can't imagine wearing socks made from it and yet I covet the brilliance. Then the other day, after digging for a particular colour of yarn in a particular box at the store, I came across some brilliant cerise Merino Soft, and in that instant I knew what how I could use it, plus that gorgeous Sherbet. A baby sweater for my nephew and his wife who will have a wee girl just before Christmas. Yes it is brilliant but its going to look absolutely fabulous.

Two small things in the works, two big things. when I think of all the other great yarns in my now pretty fine stash, I have a lot of lovely knitting ahead. Even if the sky should fall and I could not afford yarn, I could knit for a good long while. If I looked at all my various stashes, the yarn stash, the linen stash, the fabric stash, the embroidery floss stash, I could do a couple of things for a good long while. Its just really nice to know that knitting and crochet with quality yarns will be among them.

Oh dear I just remembered. I am a little short of cotton and linen yarns. I have both in quantity in fibre, but not in yarn. Hmmmm. I'll have to work on that.

Summer Chevron

I'm really really pleased with the way this sweater turned out. Really pleased, particularly when I think of the changes that I had to make. My good:

I used 2 different yarns, 1824 Cotton in the cream colour and Rowan Cotton Jeans is the green tweeded colour. Though the two yarns work to the same gauge, they are a different gauge than the yarn used in the book. I worked out the number of stitches I needed based on the gauge the yarns gave me naturally. I swatched a couple different needle sizes and used the one that seemed to match the yarn best. I did not worry about row gauge, and figured I would just knit to fit following the design.

Then there was the size adjustment. I needed one size up from what the pattern lists and used a simple percentage for the adjustment. A 1.2 percent straight across upsizing, based on the numbers I came up with in the gauge swatches, gave me enough room across my hips without making the rest of the sweater too broad.

I stopped increasing at the sleeve chevrons on the last 3 rows because I was worried about the sleeves getting to wide, though if I did this sweater again, I would not worry and would just keep working as usual.

I made the top longer using a method I read about on Ravelry. As I worked each side panel, I did an extra 3 inches of length following the pattern increases and decreases before starting the wraps.

I did hip shaping along the sides to allow for good ease on the bottom third of the sweater.

I used a seed stitch rather than a rib stitch, purely a matter of personal preference, along the bottom and arms.

After the sweater was complete, I felt the neckline was a little too dramatic. The deep back v shape meant a less than stable wear. Even while trying the garment on, I kept having to adjust how it sat on my shoulders. I worked a panel, across the back neck, in pattern and I added a seed stitch edging around the entire neckline. The crispness of this edging means that I'll never have to worry about slippage while I reach and lift at work.

My bad.

There was a fairly dramatic pull along the chevron at the centre front and back. The front isn't too bad, due to 2 very very loose stitches, but the back displays a really dramatic pull on the bottom band. I'd hoped that the weight of the sweater would mitigate the problem. It didn't.

I showed the project to C at the store. C has one of those very questing knitterly brains. She can tell you what is wrong or right about a project in an instant. She has watched me knit before, and diagnosed my error.

On combined knitting yarn overs, you have to yarn over from back to front (or is it front to back) rather than the normal way to avoid twisting the stitch when you knit it on the next row. I didn't even think about that when I did the centre and back increases, and just added a stitch. Each and every increase stitch is twisted, and that twist gives the chevrons a firmness rather than the drape the fabric should have had.

I'm considering correcting. Do I try try to correct by dropping down to redo each twisted yarn over, or should I try some sort of short row magic to make the bottom hang better at the back v.

So, before this sweater goes public, I have to have some touch up work to do, but overall, this pattern is a winner. A quick simple rewarding summer knit.

I know a lot of people have had issues with this sweater, principally gauge issues, but if I read the designers extra input on Ravelry correctly, row gauge is in the pattern stitch, not just a plain stockinette swatch. Don't give up on this design because of row gauge. It gets a little more intuitive as you go along and come to understand the interesting construction.

Interesting construction, a very simple adjust to fit design, and endless possibilities for an attractive answer to stripes and striping yarns for a broad bottomed girl means this is a sweater I'll be making again.

Tomatoes and Olympics

After losing a tree last fall, and cutting down its dead partner tree, we thought there would be a lot more sun on the back deck. We were in fact a little worried about the amount of sun turning the backyard into a heat sink.

We decided to try planting in containers, which until now, seemed impossible with all the shade. I planted beans, carrots, peas, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes and tomatoes. The radishes were a total bust, and I am losing hope of getting any cukes at all. The peas and beans are doing well, and we should be eating some this weekend. The lettuce is OK, and there are carrots below the carrot tops. But our grandest success is tomatoes.It is entirely possible that no one else in the world would consider these a grand success, but here at the Needles, our gardening standards are a lot lower. There are 4 tomatoes on the regular tomato plant, pictured last, whose name I have forgotten, but it most likely is a variant of Early Girl.

The other is a grape tomato, whose name I will never know. If you look closely, you can see that one of them is thinking about turning. It has a mildy yellow cast to it. Right there, is success on the vine, even if, to the worlds jaded eyes, this is a small success.

With the Olympics on right now, I have been thinking a lot about the nature and value of success, and the nature and value of winning. Those big successes are wonderful and I'm certain that in the grand world scheme, they are important. Humans have placed value on competing and winning since the dawn of human prehistory.

But I think I like little victories more. I like the victory in a wee ones face when he first pulls himself up against the sofa. I like the victory in a child's voice when he realizes that he has read an entire chapter book. I like the victory you feel when you jump out of your regular scope of activity and try something that you only dreamed about doing. I like the success I feel when I learn a new stitch properly, or when a project is complete.

I'm very pleased with my small tomato success. In fact, I have felt like a successful tomato grower since the plants decided to live and grow, despite my less than green thumb.

I'll never be an Olympian athlete (or any kind of athlete). I'll never be an Olympian tomato grower. What I will be is successful.

My world. My kind of success.

I ought to work on socks

But I am sort of really enjoying this instead. It is, by its nature, akin to a prayer shawl, and there are a lot of hopes and wishes for ease and consolation for the receiver in every stitch.
It will be made of simple garter squares, but eloquent in its simplicity.

Which brings to mind my growing fascination with all things Mason Dixon. I am fascinated by the colour sensibility (check the pattern preview) these lovely, funny ladies have. There is something about this complicated simplicity that gets right to my heart.

I have to wonder if this very very strong appeal of Mason Dixon is part of my process to simplify my life, to search for the less busy, the less rushed.

I am eagerly anticipating their second book, coming out mid September.

Support your local LYS. If they carry it buy it there.

A ruffly hellish place.

I'm sitting here this morning unable to sleep because of a ruffle.

I've been working on a design for the shop, to feature a couple of yarns we routinely sell, and the start went brilliantly. It was kismet, it was fate. It flowed off my needles so fine and free that I knew it was just meant to be. The yarn really wanted to be one with the design.

This last bit is just anguish. Torture. It is the matter of a ruffle. After thinking long and hard about how to do it, and trying all sorts of different things, the ruffle exists and is finished. 1200 freakingly long stitches along the edge. Maybe more. Each row took an entire ball of yarn. That really should have told me something was not right. And it is wrong. So very very wrong.

A ruffle should accent and highlight. A ruffle might display a flash of delicacy. A ruffle should be an insouciant little finish, it should gild, but a ruffle should never ever take over everything in sight.

This one does. It takes over the delicacy of this knit, and just drowns the wearer in ruffles in a most alarming way. This ruffle says shut up and hear me roar. It is a standing on a soapbox, shouting in the park sort of ruffle. It is an elbowing everything else out of the way, the ruffle is going to get to the front of this line kind of ruffle.

I'll have to show it to the shop ladies first, it is after all their yarn, but I think it is wrong the way it is. I'm going to have to come up with something just a little less ruffly.

Like the Peter Principle, there ought to be a name for this principle where just when I am feeling really, really good about a thing, where just as I am about to feel my moment of triumph, where I really feel I am about to take off and fly, and then it all turns into the most amazing plop upon the floor.

Good thing I have all this patience I spoke of yesterday. I really wasn't planning on having to use this much all at once.

How knitting changed a world.

When I cleaned out the study on the weekend, I found a couple of projects that need just a little bit of finishing work.

Remember this lovely blue capelet begun in May or June of this year?
The hem needs to be redone. When I tried it on, it felt like a line was drawn across my back and was being pulled tight. It doesn't look bad, but to leave something so soft and airy and light feeling stressed would be just wrong. There is also the small matter of fronts bands and some kind of finishing at the neck edge to complete. It's a good month and a half till we need to turn up the heat in the house so this one can wait.

Then there is the matter of the green and cream top from More Big Girl Knits. When this top last appeared on the blog, the bottom band was completed, and I was thinking about the neck edge. After my cleaning work was done on the weekend, this is the project I picked up. I redid the bind off on the seed stitch bottom edge to loosen a too tight cast off.

I did not like the deep back v so I needed to make an insertion in the pattern design. I started by picking up stitches from the cast on edge of this top down design and worked short rows just as I did along the bottom side sections. I knit till I thought it looked about right, and moved along and did the seed stitch neck edge. I tried the sweater on again, and (oh my this is going to look great when it is done) and found a couple of things that I know I can do better. I am determined to repair them.

First off, the cast on edge at the back neck seems to show up as a line of very tightly knit stitches. I picked up at least one wrong strand of yarn.

Next, the neck edge is worked just a little too many rows up the back of the neck. The seed stitch edging appears to be climbing my neck, rather than laying nicely flat and fitted.

Third, I am in the middle of reworking the bottom bands of seed stitch because the larger needle and knitting the bound stitch cast off I used is just too loose. It looks downright sloppy. The technique is right, but I should not have used larger needles. No more biggie needle for sweater bottoms. Maybe. We'll see.While I am at it, I just might make the seed stitch border a little deeper than the first incarnation.

I am so pleased with the sweater that these little re-workings are not bothering me a bit. No tossing it into the corner in frustration, no putting it down while I contemplate what a harsh task master knitting can be. All there is, is the urgent desire to wear this sweater and the desire to do it well enough to wear it to the shop.

The old me, the stuck me, the frustrated by everything in the world me, the angst ridden supervisor of people who was completely unable to supervise people me, the living to the edge of the Peter Principle me, would have seen this small knitting problem as just another confirmation that I was not good enough or smart enough to knit right. The old me would have castigated me unceasingly and would never have forgiven me for my failings.

Knitting changed me. Knitting taught me how to give myself permission to fail and screw up endlessly. Knitting showed me where I was hiding my persistence, my patience and strengthened a vague sense that there just was no reason that I couldn't, into belief that, heck yeah, I can.

A lot of people including me talk about how knitting is a meditation. It is, but the real secret of knitting is that when I was busy meditating, knitting changed my world.

Tricky stuff, this knitting. I so very glad I found it.

New Stash Storage

Friday's post was not really a sign that I am a sad lonely person who focuses just a bit too much on a collection of beer bag coolers(which may or may not be true), it was an ode to the beer bag coolers as I send them on their way.

The beer bags are now back to their original use. No, not for beer, silly. Their original use was as storage for times when I didn't have any more space in my original stash bins. They were to be occasional work bags, large project work bags. They only became stash storage by need.

I picked up this rather nice cabinet a few weeks ago from the lady who sold me the knitting machine. I did not see how I could possibly fit it in my study. The last empty wall space was allocated to the knitting machine, and it barely fit. Moving a bookcase over to the other wall, and accepting that my chair will sit in in front of the bookcases, meant that the machine, and the cabinet fit.(Pardon the picture quality. I'm having some issues with settings)

All my yarns but the sock yarn and lace, fit in this one small cabinet. I could, if required, fit at least another 2 sweaters worth of yarn in there.

It is really nice to have the yarn out where I can see it. I can see how lovely those reds really are (Maybe I won't covet the reds at the store). It even nicer to see how that yarn I searched for, for weeks, fits with the green sportweight. I knew it was exactly right the minute I saw it. Then there is a yarn which is a lovely shade of blueberry, and a cotton in a shade named Victorian grape, that I have fallen in love with all over again. There is some SWS soy yarn there too, just waiting to be a warm heavy middle of winter sweater. On top of these, there is yarn for Mr. Needles sweaters. Good stuff all.

Maybe now that I can see all my really nice yarns, I will stop having that little problem where the world stands still and I must have a yarn... Nah, didn't think so.

Besides, all those empty beer cooler bags? I have room for more stash.

Defining moments

I've always had a very strong definition of and a very grounded belief in who and what I am. There have only been two times where that sense of identity has been shaken, the first when I was just out of high school, and then more recently, as I was struggling to leave a job with an employer who was and is important to my family. Both of these crisis of faith have led me to good things. The first time it was to find the man I would marry and have children with, and this second to bring me back to work, personally and professionally, that I really love. I play with strings. I play with needles. It is who I am without question. These things have accompanied all the days of my life.

These days, should you happen to wander into my study, you would be confronted by beer can corner, between two book cases, tucked right beside the treadmill, all along the wall. I was showing pictures taken inside my study to someone the other day, and they asked what those things were in the background. (They used a very odd tone of voice. I think they were worried) The universe shifted ever so slightly, and I had a defining moment.

It seems I have a collection of beer bags. It is starting to be impressive in its own right.

Hello, my name is Needles. I play with strings and needles, I read, I collect cheap blue and white china, and free beer bags.

Beer bags are where my two personal crisis of faith have collided. Mr. Needles (who drinks the occasional beer) the pleasant result from crisis one, and a reinvigorated joy of yarn from crisis two. The universe is unfolding as it should.

The universe has a strange sense of humour.

Overwhelmed

From the first day, working at a yarn store has been a joy, an eye opener and a mystical magical experience. I find the process of handling great yarn just an absolute pleasure. It feels like Christmas as each box from suppliers is opened. It is a gift all over again, to fondle each yarn as the yarns are priced and put away. Among all the glory that is yarn, I managed to stay just a step removed for the first little while. I had the dream of yarn in control. After a 15 years doing accounting, the entire yarn store experience was just a little surreal and I did not trust that I would not wake from the dream.

About 3 weeks in, I recovered. The yarns started being something just to enjoy, and play with and it has stayed that way. I enjoy them. Nothing is finer than digging through hanks and hanks of yarn, touching and feeling them. Sometimes the quantities are overwhelming, like not too long ago when 10 chair sized boxes came to the store at the very end of the day. Even you are overwhelmed by volume, it's fun. Peeling back the layers of bags and bags of yarn is like turning the pages of a good book. You just have to go through it, urged on by the story that is unfolding as you turn the bags of yarn to see the next layer.

Each bag of yarn arrives sealed, and has to be priced and labeled before it can go on the floor or back into the stockroom. That is when the real fun starts for me.This is also where it gets hard.

I can see the skeins of special yarn sitting on a shelf in the very neat stash room that I have in my head, I can see me sitting enjoying its company while I have a well mannered cup of tea, while I visit with it. I would get to know the yarn, become friends with it, and then I would knit it into a lovely lovely sweater, or hat, or soft warm wrap. I can see myself swathed in the comfort of it all the rest of my days.

Not a day goes by when I am in the store, that I don't fall deeply madly in love with yet another yarn. Sometimes it is the colour, sometimes it is the feel of the yarn as I hold it. There are so many wonderful colours, fruitful reds and eggplants, fields and forest of greens, soft waves of blue, so many wonderful textures, smooth, soft, crunchy, warm, papery, buttery, that each day there is a moment when I know nothing could get better than this.

Working as many days as I did through late June and July, I was becoming accustomed to the rush of good yarns. It was part of my expectations of how a day would feel.

Returning to work after a spell of days off? Whammo. Smacked upside the head, sunk, snookered, landed flat on my back. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the loveliness of a yarn, and by its truly rich colour. For a short time, the earth stood still and all I could see was this one absolutely lovely yarn.

I fell under the spell of a pile of hanks of rich red Cloud Cotton. (Colour 112) It doesn't look like much, sitting there among the other colours, does it? It looks like a nice mannerly red, an ordered red.

But I tell you, I swear, that this mild mannered soft deep rich red, has a wild and dangerous heart. It will sweep you off your feet, even if you have a hundred hanks of other reds, even if you already declared a new favourite yarn for the day. Why yesterday, a day when things were going along just fine, when I had already chosen a new favourite yarn, when I knew and had seen the colour before, did this yarn make me weak in the knees?

I have no idea, I just know that someday soon, there will be a bag of great red Cloud Cotton in my real world. I wouldn't have been able to control myself at all, but the kitty is empty.

Will work for yarn. Literally.

Humans are like cattle

When I was a kid we lived on the shores of a very deep lake, formed when a chunk of ice fell off the glacier as it was retreating. Ancient soils filled and piled against that great chunk of ice, leaving some of the finest farmland in the world and a very very deep hole which promptly filled up (more or less) and was our own lake. It was ours because it commonly bore our name since only Dad, my uncle and Mr. Potts lived along its shores.

In my childhood it's edges were fenced pasture, and along its steep sides, the cattle had carved trails and paths through the bush that took you right round the lake but for the really steep side. This wild glade of well trodden cow paths, and deciduous forest was my childhood wonderland. Like all childhood wonderlands, you are left with impressions of the world and mine is how animals like to follow along the same day after day. So do people.

Ever notice how you just don't feel settled when your day can't start as usual? Ever feel just a little off kilter when your normal morning isn't your normal morning? My regular coffee buddies are unavailable due to a program upgrade, and I feel like a sweet moo cow without a path to follow.

To top it off, I slept in. If this is not going to upset the day, I don't know what will. Darn good thing I have knitting and very pleasant work.

The same technical problem kept much of yesterday free for knitting. The sweater is positively zooming along. I have another 8 or 10 cm to go till I have the length we want, and then I will start the arm decreases. The top of this sweater is supposed to be reverse stockinette stitch, but I don't know. I have a feeling that I'm going to make it just stockinette. I find I'm not uber fond of the trend to inside out looking stitches.

Looks pretty skinny for a sweater doesn't it. That is one of its charms. No fit issues and still great fitted design. It's other great charm is how simple this is. Mindless knitting at its finest. I can see more of this sort of ribbed look for sweaters in my future.

Big Thunder

I am going to try to make this quick. We are midst thunder storm at the moment, and my satellite Internet connection sometimes goes wonky when there is lightning and thunder about.

I love storms. I love their elemental feeling, and how they make you feel the grand wonder of things we just barely understand. Storms are life on the big scale. Wild, elemental, primitive. Storms make me feel tied to earth, tied to all the millenia past, back to our most basic human roots. Storms are mystery and awe and fear and wonder.

Sure as I sit there now, watching the storm, I know someone, somewhere back in the mists of time, sat and watched and felt exactly the same thing.

Itchy Fingers

I don't know if other people who do handwork get this same feeling, but every once in a while... OK, a lot of the time, as I approach a finish, I am very busy thinking about what is next. I had a severe case of itchy fingers, and instead of finishing my on the go things, sewing and otherwise, I played around with something new. For some time now, I have been contemplating a sweater for SS. After many long months searching for a pattern, I came up with Drops 103-16 .

We will of course make some changes. Nothing big though. The body will be a bit longer, and we are choosing the long sleeve option, and last, we are changing the collar into a hood. Not too substantial. No waist shaping to add since the ribbed design will take care of the fit, so I am looking forward to a nice tidy, easy knit. (This is where I start to worry when I think something is a nice easy knit)
The FilTweed we are using for this project was not the original yarn choice. In fact we have gone through 3 yarn choices for SS's sweater. I have a lovely mossy tweeded green Jaegerspun Heather that was SS's original yarn choice, but I wanted that for myself. Then I picked up some Cascade 220 in a wonderful loden colour, but I just could not get past the part both SS and I loved about the Heathers yarn. We loved how Heathers had other colours mixed in making up the tweed. I searched for a long time for something that had that same effect, and found the Filtweed on a bottom shelf at the store, looking just a might forlorn. It is forlorn no longer and it is exactly right for this sweater. See how there are tiny flecks of green and yellow and blue mixed in there? It is going to keep this very plain patterned sweater from being just a little to plain.

Megan asked about running out of water. Our water is an issue here. We have a well with a lot of water, an almost inexhaustible supply. The water quality is less than perfect. Though the health department says it is safe for human consumption, it tastes like soap. Coffee that tastes like soap is darned awful, and tea is even worse, so we haul drinking water from town. As to the question about how we ran out of water, I normally would say that would be a question to ask Mr. Needles, only I cannot ask him how we ran out of water, because this morning we are out of coffee filters.

And no way am I going to ask the water question of a man without his morning coffee.

PS: Thank you all for your kind thoughts about my buddy. he continues to do well, and I would have to say the good thoughts are working.

A tough Old Bird

The last several weeks have been filled with daunting news from all sorts of people around me. So many people seemed to be having ill parents, brothers, in laws. I felt for all of them and prayed my small and private prayerful words for all of them.

I'm not a big 'P' prayer, I'm more of a little 'p' prayer, and I don't honestly know if I pray to a deity or if I pray to humanity or just simply believe that good thoughts about a loved one are a prayer. I only know that I feel better if I think about a person who needs a hand for a while. It might not help them, but it helps me and I know my friends appreciate my thoughts.

Suddenly last Monday, I had cause to include a a fellow I worked alongside of for the last 15 years, in my list of people to think about and pray about.

I did not work for his business, but when you share the same small office building for 15 years, you get to know a lot about one another and this guy, well we talked a lot over the years. We became friends one day when the power was out for an entire business day. Without phones and power, everyone else left, but he and I stayed to hold down the fort. He stayed ostensibly to work on his filing, and I stayed to get the door, direct couriers, and be there in case the power came back on.

What we really did was get a case of beer and proceed to drink the afternoon away and just talked, about life, kids, family, things we wanted to do in life. Since then we have just been good office friends and his wife and I have become good office friends. A comfortable work family of sorts, if you will.

He has had a tough go of it the last few years. He lost one of his three good functioning fingers in a home construction incident a few years ago, and took that in stride, considering he is left with several non functioning fingers and a couple good thumbs. He has had a few bouts of pneumonia and worst, a period a few years ago, where he almost died due to a perforated bowel.

Monday last week, his family called the office and told us that he was in an induced coma, and they did not expect him to live. His bowel had become diseased again, and he lost another third and worse, he had pneumonia, and it seemed to be drug resistant. He was in tough tough shape. This Monday, I heard he was doing a bit better, and yesterday I took the time to visit him.

This man is the definition of tough old bird, even if the term usually means a woman. He is in pretty good spirits, just really really tired. We had a good talk about just how he felt surviving all this, how this time his life really is changed, how he is just is not going to lose this second chance at a good life, and how having is not really the point, how good days, and bad days really doesn't matter anymore, he is is going to enjoy them all with equal relish so long as his lovely wife is there with him. That is his only fear. That he won't get to have enough days with her. It was very very sweet. I am thrilled that my good old buddy is going to make it. It is going to be a long road, but he will make it. Nothing pleases me more than when a person figures out what really matters to him and makes his peace with it.

His wife said later that she had not realized how good of friends we are and that he must really feel close to me to speak about his very closely held feelings . I think it is the years, and his need to speak. The way things went at the office, when he needed an ear and someone to talk to, I was there, non-threatening and safe, and just listened.

Sometimes isn't that what we all just need? A place to just be free to speak and know that at the other end, there was a willing listener?

Blogging from a secret location

No blog this morning due to unforeseen complications at previous place of employment where I still consult. Unforeseen complications is why I still consult.

In the mean time, check out some of the neat blog links on my side bar, like Curlerchick, or Achenblog, or the absolutely stunning Contemporary Embroidery by Karen Ruane.

I'll post this evening after the days kerfuffule is resolved or the day is done, whichever comes first.

Dusting out the corners of my mind

and I can, now that I have a nifty new duster. The fibre of the 1824 cotton will work, just not as well or as fluffy as a wool or acrylic yarn. For a project from leftover yarns, this is fine.

Part of me is appalled that I have done this. I am not into knitting or crocheting the little towel toppers, and kitchen fripperies. I will make dishcloths only when my supply needs replacement. Part of me is thrilled to bits. Like a dishcloth, I'll make these when I need them because they work, and work well.

The original was worked flat, cuff first and then sewn up one side, this one was worked as a long narrow rectangle, with the sides being sewn and a cuff worked circularly after the rest was done. If I was doing this again, I would start with dpns and work circular for the entire thing, rather than just doing the cuff in the round. so there is any number of ways you could work it. I won't write up a pattern, because it really doesn't need a pattern, it needs more of a recipe. I might write up a recipe on the weekend, along with the Bride's bag, which is still awaiting a pattern.

All the other knitting I am doing is backwards knitting and not the kind of backwards knitting that moves a project forward. Or maybe it is, even if I am unknitting. If I am unknitting, and I know where I am going after the unknitting is done, I am in essence moving forward. It is just taking me twice as long to get there. If cutting corners is taking a shortcut, this is surely a longcut.

Just Sayin'

There is just nothing more to say.

Thank you to whoever first did this and thank you to the friend who sent the link.

Interesting Finds

In order to start sewing, I had to do a little refining in the sewing room. the sewing room also functions as the laundry room, and occasionally - normally - the sewing space is overwhelmed by the flotsam and jetsam of daily living. As usual, the flotsam and jetsam is deeper than I think it is.

Under piles of prepared fabrics (I wash them all first) I found a little treat I have been looking for for quite some time.

Many moons ago, we lived near and became friendly with a family from a Hutterian Brethren community. They stopped by on their way back from the farmers markets on Saturdays and would give me a good price on whatever was left of the garden produce. It meant that the ladies would have less to do when they got home and they were greatful, so occasionally they would give me other little things. One of them was this duster. It is made of acrylic fibres, garter stitched, sewn together, with a cuff to hold it on your hand. On one side of the palm, around each stitch of the garter, a short piece of yarn is latch hooked, making a fluffy dust catching surface.

It's quite obvious that the last time I saw it, it was in use, doing its dusty job. Please forgive it.

I have used this for 20 years, and when clean, it is a wonderful thing. Beats the heck out of a throw away duster, or plain cloth. Its great for cleaning in tight places, like on stair balusters, and small edges of almost everything.

For years I meant to make more of these out of crochet. Crochet a rectangle about the size of your hand, crochet a ribbed cuff, and then latch hook the duster yarns. It never quite happened, though I did think of it a lot. Being a little lazier than the industrious women of the Hutterian Colony, I long ago decided that I would work the duster part, using a short loop stitch rather than latch hooking.

And I would do this in Knitting too. I'm doing it in fact. Here is a quick look at the loop stitch via Crazy Aunt Purl

I dug for yarn in the leftover basket, and came up with what I hope will be enough Cottonlicious and 1824 Cotton. I'm going to make this with two side seams, rather than the one seam the Hutterian ladies did, and I'll do the cuff in the round. No reason you couldn't do the entire project in the round.

Though it is looking really nice, the 1824 Cotton might be a little too well mannered for a duster. The Cloud Cotton I have, with its heavier loosely spun texture, would work much better. Any good heavier weight acrylic or washable wool would be nice too.

I like things you toss in the washer rather than toss out and this is a great idea. I might use this same technique to make a knitted replacement for my dust mop too, rather than buying the new duster end.

And the sewing? Hah, I was trying to avoid that it seems.

I sewed two tops, have one skirt cut, the fabric washed for the dress, another couple tops and the skirts. It was really lovely outside in a dog days of summer sort of way and most of the time I sat outside.

I finished the sleeve bands on the knitted top from More Big Girl Knits (Not too much to do now. I need to block and decide if I want to do a collar edging but otherwise its looking good), and worked on socks and thought about spinning and avoiding sewing.

More sewing tomorrow though. I really really need the clothes.

A stitch in time

Today I plan to make a foray into the world of sewing. I've sewn a lot in my life. There was a point where most of the boys clothing, and most of my own clothing was handmade. For most of the many years I worked in an office environment, my clothing was sewn. It was only the last 5 years that my sewing dwindled.

Working in the yarn shop this year I realize how much my clothing choices were tailored to fit that office environment. I have a lot of suit type things. Jackets to coordinate and match almost everything. I have several black jackets so I could have a variety of sleeve lengths. I never had to worry what fabric they were made from because the office was always cold. There were summer days where it felt like we were sitting an arctic cavern, and winter? Don't get me started on winter. Heavy sweaters were a must. A lot of my knitting goals were designed around that office.

Now that I no longer spend all my time in that office, I have come to realize, people don't wear long sleeved heavy polyester fabrics in summer. People have actual short sleeve shirts and blouses. People wear jersey knits. I mean really, for 15 years I did not know these things, because I worked in a cold space.

In the store, we work under normal conditions. It is warm (a mild understatement) on Mondays before the air conditioning cuts in. It is still warm the rest of the week, only not unbearably so. Cotton and linen are my new best friend. It is urgent that I have some cotton and linen in my wardrobe, and has been urgent for some time.

So today I'm starting with tops. One simple pattern, and two mildly more complex patterns. Next will be a couple of skirts from 2 different patterns, again, one basic and simple, and the other a little fancier and new to me. I hope to squeeze in at least one simple sleeved dress in there somewhere too. These are goals, mind so don't hold me to it.

Usually when I do a mass of sewing, I work up the main sewing, and get the garment bodies sewn together. I leave all the finishing to later for one long sit down session of hemming and button sewing. If you work off just a few patterns you can do an amazing amount of work in a very short period but I expect to have some finishing to do through the evenings next week.

Sewing is not nearly as much fun for me as knitting, crocheting and embroidery, but I do it because it is very hard for a plus sized person, such as I to find stylish garments at a price I want to pay. OK, that is not really true. I'm not into stylish at all. I'm into ordinary, I just don't want to have to pay 40 dollars for a simple lightweight polyester blouse that won't last a full season. I am so tired of paying big bucks for ill fitting clothing. I am so tired of clothing fitting my bottom but not my top, or my top but not my bottom.

I shop in the discount aisles and I watch for sales. Even when I wasn't sewing I shopped. So yes there is some stash here, and only a little new stuff. My choices tend to be plain and classic fabrics and colours, so I usually get away with a deep clothing fabric stash.

Really the knitting stash is just in its baby stages in comparison to the age of some of my other stash. Thank heavens for small mercies.

PS.

Thank you Kathryn for your comment about knitting machines. I love your website and I already learned a ton from you.

The fine art of doing it wrong.

This morning I got up and decided to just knit for fun.

Knitting for fun can mean socks but today, I was trying to understand a new pattern. It is an intriguing all over pattern called herringbone. On a sweater with a plain dyed yarn, it will bring a little zip and on a sweater with a tweedy yarn, yowza.
The herringbone should be a constantly interrupted, steadily flowing pattern, where every few stitches intersect with the next row slanting across. Nice isn't it?

I sat down to read what should be fairly simple directions. Well they are simple directions. Decrease, knit a few, increase, knit a few, decrease...you get the picture. And then purl back. It should be so simple even a child could do it. Good thing I am not even a child.

Obviously I missed something. There is no intersecting of coolness, there is no steady flow. What we have here is a nice solid angling stitches pattern, but it is not the herringbone I was aiming for. I knew something was wrong when the swatch which should be balanced, had the most alarming lean. But did I try to find out what I was doing?

Heck no. I had to wait till I spent more time knitting. Practise makes perfect, even if what you are practising is wrong. If you are going to do it wrong, you might as well be perfectly wrong.

Practising imperfection is a fine art. So is ripping back. Don't forget to include some of each in your study of the knitting world.

A knitting machine

This morning I slept in. For an ordinary sleeper, this would mean 10 a.m., but when you usually wake at 4, 6 feels just like sleeping in. So no knitting content this morning.

A month or so ago, one of the items in the store newsletter was from a woman who was moving out of country, and who had two knitting machines to sell. One sold almost instantly, and I did think about going to look at the remaining machine, but I was slow and assumed it would be gone just as fast. Last week I learned that the move was imminent, and the machine had still not sold. I went and took a look and came home with it. it is a bulky machine, meaning it can do down to about worsted weight yarn, and has a ribber and lead with it. There is a table to set it all up on and there are all kinds of little bits and pieces that I haven't even looked at yet.

I like the idea of being able to do bigger projects just a little more quickly. I can't see me doing anything too fancy, but if all I use it for is blankets, and afghans, and plain knitting, I'll save hours of hand knitting time for smaller yarns and fancier knitting. I can see using it for plain backs and sleeves, combined with hand knit fronts too. It might be a great way to get some knitting for felted bags done. I am also fully aware that this machine might get as much use as my sewing machine, which has not been used in a long, long time.

I know there is a huge learning curve and I am sort of looking forward to it. Reading the wee bit I have on the Internet, has taught me that I have to think about machine knitting in a very different way. It isn't going to be a problem. My adventures into knitting this last year or so, have been about learning to look at it in a different way and that there is no wrong in knitting, there are just different way of getting to the same end. I suspect that this will have a little less of the flexibility of hand knitting, but more speed.

I'm going to try a baby sweater on it shortly. A small sweater will teach me all the things I need to know about most sweater construction. Sleeve decreases, ribbing. It should all be there. With luck and a little Internet searching, I hope to have actual knitting from it soon.

And time. I'll need some time before there is actual real wearable knitting from it. That always does seem to be the missing ingredient. If we could just invent a machine to give us all a little more time...

Too darn hot to knit.

Ever feel like that? That the weather was just plain old too hot and sticky to knit? That all you could really find the energy to do was to sit back and sip a long cool drink of water?

Nah, me either. That does not mean that it was not hot here yesterday but summer heat on this part of the prairie is generally dry heat. Humidity only becomes noticeable as the temperature falls as the sun gets low to the horizon.

We sat outside, till well after 9 p.m. Near the end of the evening, I was wishing that what I was working on for the store was an afghan, or bed blanket, or pretty much anything that was pure wool and really big. As the air cooled, even with a temperature of 28 at 5p.m., by 9:30 we were all crying for warm sweaters. ( and the others went and got some)

My not knitting last evening had nothing to do with weather and sunset. My not needing a sweater had nothing to do with weather. It was all the knitting's fault.

I knit for a couple of hours after coming home, only to find it had gone mobius on me. So I took it apart and reworked it, very carefully making sure that it would not go mobius on me this time. I blinked and it of course, went mobius on me.

Its not like I had a hissy fit, or even a mild temper tantrum. Its not like my behaviour was that of a 4 year old at all. No my behaviour on finding the mobius mojo twice, was to just absolutely drop the beast in disgust and speak to it in carefully couched terms, that were very, very adult. Longshoreman adult, but still very adult.

I was just a little to hot to knit last night.

I'm working the bleeping thing flat this time. Nuff said.

Maybe pictures tomorrow.

Down to the Wire with the Summer Chevron

I'm down to the wire on my sweater from More Big Girl Knits. The knit fabric is really really pleasing. The sweater seems to fit all right in the crucial areas. Sleeves seem just perfect, not too wide. The underarm insertion has done it job beautifully.

And on to the next. It is going to need a severe blocking to make the pulled in centre of the design, the part where the v goes down the front and back, to make it appear level with the outer edges when wearing it. As you can see here, it seems to like to pull a bit.

The centre stitches are very very firm, and if I was doing this again, I think I would work these centre stitches really really loosely. My hope is that, as everyone says, plant fibres relax, and that this centre part just relaxes right into place.

One thing I am going to do for certain, is to work in a border of seed stitch in the neck line. No doubt about it, it needs a little something. The pattern doesn't add a neck edging, but there is a lot of room in the neck for, well, my neck. It's going to look better on me if there is just a little something crisp anchoring it.

Except for this need for serious blocking, I feel pretty good about the sweater, the gauge, the resizing. I am looking forward to doing up the cardigan interpretation of this design. Or not. I might put that off for a project for later.

I do want to get moving on another sweater project, this time for SS. She is so darn small, it won't take any time at all to work one up for her.

American Needlework by Rose Wilder Lane

I know that I've mentioned it before, but I like to stop by the used bookstore not far from my previous place of employment and check out their old books. They get things from all sources, and sometimes have the most amazing things there. Libraries are getting rid of books that are no longer read or things are donated from private collections. I have gathered some seriously fine books this way.

Along the way I came a cross the Woman's Day Book of American Needlework by Rose Wilder Lane. I'm still debating if I was excited to see this book because it was written by Rose Wilder Lane who was the daughter of my favourite childhood author, Laura Ingalls Wilder (who I still read at least once a year) or because books like this are a unique collection of fibre arts and crafts.

The book, like many others of its day, were not devoted to one craft. They tried to cover most of the things people did at that time. The book includes general embroidery, crewel work, candlewicking, cross stitch, needlepoint as it covers thread arts. It covers patchwork, applique, and general quilting as it covers quilted arts. It covers two styles of rugmaking, and weaving before finally getting to knitting and crochet.

Much of the book is a history of the craft, but there is also a detailed discussion of how to do each craft, and then finally one project. That is the sad part. Only one project. I suppose that this came about because each book section probably began life as something for a magazine article for Woman's Day Magazine. Usually the project they have included is not one I would have chosen. Usually I'd have picked something else from among the many projects pictured.

This book is why it was an absolute delight to come across The Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffmann. Mary Schiffmann had a hand in providing the lace samples, and is the person who wrote up the knitting instructions for American Needlework. Wandering through the Woman's Day book, looking for clues of Mary Schiffmanns work, I immediately found these. the first is from American Needlework, and the second is from the Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffmann. In the first book, only the pictures are shown, and in the second, Mary Schiffmann says her pattern is an adaptation from the first piece. The design actually was knitted about 1890, and is now at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Museum in Mansfield Mo., and is part of a luncheon set. I have no doubt that somewhere in Mary's collection of patterns, there are the written instructions for the other edging patterns in this book too.

If you should happen to see the book at a second hand sale, you may want to pick it up. Some of the history may be out of date, but some is right on target. Some of the projects look a little dated, but these days we are calling old styles 'retro'. For a couple bucks, this is an interesting book. Pick it up. I rank it a half double crochet.

Swift reversal

Yesterday I was talking about the store project with my boss, and she had a really great idea. Which I can't talk about till I work it up. But let me just say, this kind of thing is why she is the owner of a yarn store and I will always only be a needle person who loves yarn.

This whole retail experience has been so very interesting. Sure there are a lot of little mundane tasks, like dusting, and pricing, and restocking shelves, but over all the other jobs I have had recently, these simple mundane tasks are just lovely. It is so nice to go home at the end of the day and have a brain that feels almost whole. I'll admit, the first few weeks were a BIG learning curve, and sometimes I wondered if I could possibly get it all right. I still make stupid mistakes, but only a normal amount of stupid mistakes. Usually they are the sort of things that make me laugh at myself, and are quick to fix. Its a simple job, certainly in keeping with this weeks blog posts. I realized as I wrote this that there is a theme this week. I might have to worry about this. I'm not sure yet. Themes sound like advanced blogging and I don't know that I want to be advanced. I like simple things, right?

I really enjoy my time in the store. I knew I would but I'm a little surprised at what I find the most satisfying.

I'm starting to observe the knitters and crocheters who come into the store, as subgroups inside the bigger world of yarn.

People my age fall into two categories. There are people task oriented knitters and crocheters. They might have a daughter who is getting married and it has been a dream of theirs to knit or crochet her something for her birthday or their daughter is having their first or 5th grandchild and they just want to make something special for the baby from grandma, who loves them waaaaay before they are even a twinkle in their mothers and fathers eyes. (Grandmas are like that) They are generally knitting or crocheting to a specific task and they will keep on knitting to task and to project till people stop giving them babies to knit for and things to make.

Then there are people who are like me who cannot possibly explain. Yarn is a compulsion that has always been a quiet closely guarded little secret that lived inside their minds, and would only ever be referred to as 'I like knitting'. They have never met anyone whom they could talk to about how they feel about yarns and strings and needles, and may even be the tiniest little bit ashamed of how they feel about yarn. They were taught to knit by mothers and grandmothers, who saw knitting as work, and well, in polite 60's modern society, it was just a little hobby. Generally, a passion for 'hobby' was not encouraged. You could like your hobby, you could even really enjoy your hobby, but your hobby could not rule your life. It just wasn't done. There is a whole generation of women my age, who have been hiding this compulsion to touch and feel yarn, like some dirty little secret. These people are just waiting for the chance to talk with someone who understands, and who shares this little obsession. Its such a relief and you can see it on their faces when they realize that you are like that too.

Younger women are a slightly different kettle of fish. they are very open about their love of yarn. they are vibrant and interested, and see this compulsion about yarn as the way a life should be lived. It is refreshing, and delightful to be surrounded by such cheery warm sensible folk.

The other group of young women are the ones who feel isolated in their knitting and crochet now that they are out of college. They want to do it. They feel fulfilled by yarn things in a way aren't filled by other things. When the knitting classes are done and when their student days are past, they move forward to the rest of life. They quite suddenly find they have no one to work with. The social aspect of knitting is gone, and in some places, the resources to find new knitting companions are thin or non existent. They have no one, they are alone and feel bereft. None of their grandmas knit or they live far away. Their moms don't knit. Maybe an aunt does but they only see her a couple times a year. In the general business of getting on with life, knitting slips away.

The nicest thing about working in the store is when you find one of these people and help them satisfy their particular itch. It is a joy to be able to be part of their social aspect of knitting, to be the support they miss, or to be a compatriot in our love of yarns. Helping someone find something they didn't know they were looking for is a delight in my day. I love watching their faces light up when they feel just the right thing between their fingers. I love watching someone who isn't confident in their work, realize that yeah, they are too a knitter.

Working with the customers, filling their needs, and wants, and unknown desires with lovely yarns and solid knitting and crochet is quite simply the best part.

Verrrrrry interesting

The store I work at asked me to do a little knitting home work. I had to come up with a quick to knit project for a yarn project they are working on.

I knit it a couple different ways already and found that each way of working it was defeating the yarn project yarns. So once again, just like socks, after a couple weeks of stressing and avoiding, I am adopting simple is as simple does motto.

Once again things are zooming along. The yarns I am working with are showing off what they are supposed to show off.

and if the photo ever decides to upload properly, you'll even get to see it.

Regina and socks

Back from our travels. It is years since I was in the Queen City, close to twenty. Regina is a small city, but fits perfectly in her place in the world and fits her people. She is unassuming and keeps her flash all to herself.

Going to Regina has been one of those trips people from Saskatchewan find about as exciting as weeding the back 40. It is a step down from going to Winnipeg in winter. The trick about Regina is that is is filled with these hidden corners of beauty and you would be hard pressed to match them anywhere. Wascana Park, and its environs are lovely.

Our hotel was a typical Regina expression of that prairie secret. Very unassuming. A little careworn on the outside, and one of those sprawling places built with 50 rooms and then added on and on and on again, and mangled, making that first trip looking for your room comparable to being in a maze. The inside of the facility was grand. The food was amazing. It was simple fare, but well prepared and well served. It stands against the fanciest of haute cuisines any day. It was a wonderful wedding dinner, a wonderful stay, and the city and the parks can hold their head up among all the cities of the world.

At it's heart, Regina is a small town, just don't think less of her for it. She can pull out all the big city she needs when the time is right. Victoria Regina would be pleased, methinks.

Now about that sock thing. Driving to Regina means I was captive for a long time. I worked on unfinished socks. 9 hours of travel, means you can get a lot done.

I finished this pair.I worked on this pair. I worked on this pair a lot.

I knit two heels for this sock, and neither of them matched. I could not make the flap length and the slipped stitches on the side match the first completed sock without going seriously off track on the total length for the foot. The starting pioints matched. The stitch counts matched. They just refused to work out the same.

I ripped, and thought about things for a while. I snoozed and dreamt. I debated long and hard. If I can't seem to make an adequate repeat and I was having serious avoidance issues on this sock anyway, maybe it's time for something different. It would mean a lot more knitting, but it's simpler, more basic approach might be just right.

Back to basics, back to idiot knitting, back to simple, do the heels at the same time in the same couple of hours. Back to peasant heels and you know, I just might stay there.

Simple socks, a simple heel, but they can hold their head up with the fanciest of sock architectures. Suits a prairie person just right.

Friday again

For a couple years, I emailed my family every Friday. The email was notable for its title, which varied from 'Friday', to 'Friday Again', and occasionally,' Its Friday, what happened to the week?'. That is what this week feels like.

It Friday, where did the rest of my days go? Surely some days went missing? Ah me. I did not accomplish nearly enough.

I'll have to go to town this morning for a haircut, and I'll have to do up a bunch of laundry, and then somewhere in the middle of the day, I am being whisked away to the fair City of Regina Saskatchewan for the second of the family weddings. I have all my supplies for the Bride's Memory Bag, but I really meant to get the beads set up so I wouldn't have to bead while we drove.

This time the beads are going to be mounted on a small wire, so that the dangly short strings can simply be knit in. I am just going to suck up and figure out how to manage stringing beads and knitting at the same time. I figured out how to knit backwards, I'm in the middle of figuring out how the rest of the world knits, so I will do this to.

And maybe if I keep saying it to myself often enough, it will magically be true.

I'll try to get photos of the finished bag this time, and then I'll see what I can do about writing it up.

A sleeve?

A sleeve, a sleeve, my kingdom for a sleeve.

No matter what it looks like, it fits! No dreaded and fretted over gargantuan extra width as I worked the extra 20% to accommodate the size I needed. Just nice space in the armsyce. I don't think that I will have the dropping shoulder problem that many have had. Well, near as I can tell with needles and yarn hanging all over the place.

Whenever I see the works in progress on the Internet, it always looks so tidy and neat. Obviously there is something out there about trying on top down sweaters that I don't know (keeping in mind that I really don't know a lot about knitting at all) . What is obvious that most people whose photos I see on the Internet have help. I'm thinking it is a good thing I didn't go looking for help when I was trying this on. I can just imagine the kind of response I'd get to 'honey, I need a hand with my knitting' at 4:30 a.m.

But it does fit decently. The sleeves are about right, the neckline should be just about right. I knit the sweater a full two inches longer than called for and I hope that will be enough, though I guess I could make the bottom edging deeper if I need just a little more.

I'm definitely adding some hip shaping, but it will be pretty much what I do whenever I sew. I need another inch to the hip area for added ease. Always have, probably always will. That has stayed the same no matter what size I wore.

I'm not a big fan of ribbing at the bottom edge. The last thing I need is something hinting at pulling in at my hips, so I'm considering side slits for part of the lowest area. This might mess with drape, so if I can't keep a wide rib with slits at the side, I will use a seed stitch.

Here is one of the nicest little features of this design. It is one of the things that drew me to the sweater in the first place (Its the return of my personal camera, a camera I know how to operate!). See the nice strong ridge line that develops as you increase? It anchors the chevron, and makes the V of the knitting show up all the more.

If this sweater turns out as good as I think it just might, there will be more of these in my future, including the cardigan sweater I'd like to make to coordinate with this one.

As I'm knitting I'm planning that out. I'll start with some short row chevron work to fill in the back neck area, and then when the stitch count is right, I'll start knitting along the front portion. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to do the edging after the rest of the sweater is complete. I can't see how I'd accommodate the increase with its strong ridge and make a nice seed or other stitch. I need to think on that part more. (If any of you have any good ideas, wild ideas, even freakishly weird ideas, do tell.)

Lots to think about before the set is done, but, I'm feeling really upbeat about what is my first sweater for myself.

59, 60

Mad Grover waves to the boy who commented on the blog. Kerric is my middle son, and no this is not the son who called me a stool stealer, but he probably will now.....

I've been working diligently on my sweater. It took an entire day to do about 12 rows. Sorting stitches for the arms had to be done 3 times due to miscounts and the serious problems of one side having 1 more stitch than the other. Then I had to figure out how many stitches I should cast on for the underarm. Too many, it looks sloppy, too few and I'll be feeling just like I did when my auntie starched our summer t shirts. Then there was the problem of how exactly to keep adding length without adding width to the sweater.

Ravelry was a great help there. Others had tried different things, and the most sensible sounding comment was to continue to work around the whole sweater increasing at the centre front and centre back, to keep the chevron, and taking off that increase along the side. This is where any waist and hip shaping will be done too. (Many steps ahead) As soon as I get to the length I want at the centre front point, I can go back to working the pattern to get the straight bottom edge that makes this chevron top so interesting.

(photo of decreases along the underarm edge)I'm going to work another row or two for added stability on those extra cast on stitches at the under arm, and then I will try it on and see exactly where I stand. It's so exciting.

This is when I will really see if the sleeves are too wide to drape properly. This is where I see if I have allowed enough depth in the arm hole. This is where I will see if my percentages to up size the top worked. This is where I will see if worrying about gauge when you do all these other adjustments really matters.

I read somewhere that a pattern should not be followed blindly unless you have exactly the same shape and size body as the original sweater was designed for. The same source said all patterns are really just starting points, inspirations and it is up to us to interpret the design so it fits us, and looks just as great as the original.

It feels like it is working right, I see very clearly what my goals at each point should be. I have every confidence that I am very close to where I need to be. Now it just is going to take a little more knitting to get there.

Bad knitting pictures and silly memories.

The camera is charged, but I cannot vouch for the quality of the pictures. Picture quality on this camera is directly related to the quality of the camera user, and using this camera is not my forte. Later today I will have my trusty camera again by my side and I will once again ride the wind with decent photos.
Summer chevron top.Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop practise knitting.

Fun knitting for the store.

These are my most recent knits, not one of which I worked on last evening.

We generally don't eat dinner till 7:30 p.m. or 8:00, and after dinner last night we just all sat around and chatted and talked and made fun of each other. Times like this, usually brings up old memories, mostly of silly things.

Over the years, my boys have gotten all sorts of interesting things from their paternal grandmother. She was very much into giving the kids something she made for Christmas, and her being a child in the 30's made her incredibly thrifty. One year, she made each of the grandchildren little stools. The stools were made of 7 empty 19 oz soup cans and were padded and upholstered. They were just like the grownup versions she had made the year before for the daughters in law out of coffee cans. A quick Internet search leads me to this link, exactly like it (you can find everything on the Internet).

Anyway, the boys used them when they were very small to sit on in front of the TV, to roll across the room, to stack and all other manner of silly small boy games. When they outgrew a thing the size of a soup can, I put them in a garage sale as we approached yet another move. They were a great seller. They were upholstered in nice fabrics, and they really were just the right size for little boys and girls. I made 15 bucks from the 3, but my desire to be rid of things that no longer fit with the stage of life the boys were at, has landed me with a heinous label.

No matter what I bring forth in my defense, the label sticks. That his 12 year old behind could no longer fit on a stool meant for a 4 year old, that the sewing was coming apart, that no one had used them as anything other than a bomb for years, none of these are adequate defence against the label he has coined. (The way he says it, you'd think I sold his best friend)

I will always be branded a stool seller.

But only after family dinners when there is much wine and more laughter. Ach, maybe you had to be there.

SS arrived home on the weekend, much improved. she is putting some weight on her leg, and the cast comes off soon. she is feeling great, and is getting around just fine. Now if we can just keep her off horses for a while longer.

This means my camera is home. I don't have it yet since SS still has to get her photos onto her computer, but we should be back in regular photo production shortly. The camera I have been using has a dead battery, and the Canons are great, but use their own battery technology. It will be a couple hours for the recharge.

So we are photo-less today and darn it, I had some really great knitting to show off.

I'm working on the Summer Chevron Tee from Big Girl Knits, and the talk on
Ravelry is not that encouraging. It seems a lot of people were confused by the gauge, and according to the designer, the gauge is related and created by the drape. I began mine with different yarn and need a larger size than what they have in the book, so I didn't worry about gauge too much. I am working off percentages, and so far so fair. I have about 6 more rows to go to get to the under arm section, and the side work. Once I get those 6 rows done, I am going to have a good look at how it is so far. Is there enough depth, and are the arms OK, or are they getting too wide.

When you play with dimensions like I am, you have to look at how the pattern is keeping its shape. If it would have been easy, they would have worked it up one more step when they were designing it. I am very aware that I might need more depth, and that by the time I reach the depth I want in the under arm, the sleeve might be miles too wide. Right from the get go, I knew that this is the one place I would have to watch carefully and be prepared to play with it. If the sleeves are too wide at the right depth, I'll have to go back and increase at the arm sides less often, so that the cap sleeves dip to follow the shape of my arm.

I am definitely going to have to make the tee longer. After reading the ravelry info on it, I think I know how I am going to work it, but, I'm not going to talk too much about that till I am working on that section. Which should be tonight. Whatever else this pattern is, it just zips along.

It was a lot of knitting getting to that point, so I thought I'd pick up a book and read. I picked up my brand new Zimmerman books. Which of course means I was knitting. I'm starting with Knitting workshop, so of course instead of giving my hands a break, I decided to follow along with the skill progression. It might very well be impossible to read thios book and not knit. I played some with colour work, but I admit if you want to start feeling like a beginner again, just try doing colour work with two hands. My right hand is not used to being that much in charge and I have only the faintest notion of how to hang onto the yarn, throw it, and then knit without dropping everything to the floor.

I think it is time I learned to knit Western. Be prepared for the mess.

The Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffmann

I cast on for the top from More Big Girl Knits. Twice. I had a little mobeius action going on, and once that happens, there is nothing you can do but rip. Second time around appears to be going better, but I find myself wondering if it is as easy to make a mobeius when a mobeius is part of your plan.

One of the books I picked up at the River City Yarns sale earlier this week was the Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffmann. This book published in 1998, is now into it's third printing. Its a small book. Sort of unassuming. Inside is a wealth of knowledge, knitting and tales of this lovely woman's life. The book intersects neatly with some of my other treasures, Arctic Lace by Donna Druchnas and the much older Woman's Day Book of American Needlework by Rose Wilder Lane.

There are some lovely patterns included in this book, doilies, scarves, and many many edging patterns but the best part of the book is the peek into Mary's story that we are privy too. The chatty format makes it feel like sitting down to tea, and having Mary teach us a few things while we chat. The book is warm and cozy and lovely. There is a reason why it is still in print after all these years.

If, like me, you are becoming, or already are a knitting bookophile, do consider this one. If you are like me, and fascinated by knitted lace, do consider this book. If you are like me, interested in the history of modern knitting, do consider this book.

In my books, this is top notch, a definite treble. If you are looking for a little lace theory, and a little lace history and a little refined patterning, this is the one.

If lace is part of your knitting journey, stop here and rest a while.