Oops

Ever since I finished the red sweater and finished the colourwork on the Lichen vest, my fingers have been restless.  I have not been ready to cut the steeks for the vest.  I want to leave that for after my garden is weeded.

With restless fingers I have been playing around with several things. Some more swatching has gone on, but mostly I have been playing with Big Fabel.  I have 8 skeins of red.  I really like this yarn for socks, but it also seemed to me that Big Fabel might be able to do something like this but in an adult size.


And it is!

And somehow, between laundry dishes and other household chores, I knit the front of the sweater.  Not quite sure how that happened, but it happened.

Itchy fingers.  Got to love it when that happens.

Dampish

It isn't what I call dry, but it is dry enough to lift up off the mats and take some photos of.  

A very long time ago, I saw a really cute little vest with a fold back ribbed collar in a Noro Mini Knits book.  If I could tell you which one it was, I would.  I started thinking about it again after I finished my Seaglass vest.  That, too, had a fold back collar.  

And then there is the ever present Featherweight Cardigan.  So many of my knitting friends have been working on those.  That wide simple collar and classic simple lines.  My wardrobe could use a new light weight sweater. 

Featherweight has a few things I don't like about it.  It has raglan sleeves and I think a set in sleeve looks much nicer particularly in fine yarns.  Its very straight line from shoulder to hem on the fronts, is a bit of an issue.  With my narrower shoulders and wider everything else, I'm not so sure that a straight line will work.  

I'm left in my usual country.  I have to understand a shape and what adjustments will be needed before I can knit the vision in my head.  

So that is what I did.  In my Ravelry project, I called this one Testing, because that is exactly what I did.  I tested.  I tested what leaving the fronts straight looked like. Not ideal.  When you leave them straight, they fall so far off to the side, that any collar work you do is immaterial.  I tried it again, and added width. I added it high and too fast and then tried again adding it long and low slow.  More than just tracking rows and stitches, I learned just where a garment with simple shaping like this should fall across my frontage.  I know just what I would aim for, should I ever get around to knitting a Featherweight.  

After all that testing, and then knitting the collar I saw so long ago, I end up with this.

This is kitchen knitting at its best.  It was knit between putting water on and waiting for it to boil.  It was knit while waiting to flip the food on the grill.  This is a sweater of minutes.  I've only had 2 days, one earlier in May and last Saturday, where it was the core of my knitting day.  One day was devoted to making the sweater long enough, and the other, to making it longer still and doing all the ribbing.  

The ends have been woven in and I have some hidden chunky hook and eye closures to attach, so close to complete.  It is just what I wanted.  Warm but not overwhelming.

Yarn stuff

OK, still no knitting.  The kitchen knitting is looking great but is still to damp for photos  I have moved it to dry right on top of the dehumidifier.  Hah, dampness.  Take that.

But do not despair.  I have some lovely stuff.  I stopped at Custom Woolen Mills the other day.  There was a sale bin.  Be still my beating heart. I delved.  I dug. 

The cones are sock wieights.  One full cone of red singles, and partial cones of singles in green and navy.  The white is a very fine 2 ply.  They are soft and lovely and make my fingers want to sing. 

The other skeins of mulespun have a purpose.  I have long needed more of the soft alpaca blend for the shawl I envision it to be.  And the steadfast gray is to use with some turquoise Mulespun I have in the stash.  Originally the turquoise was for with the black mulespun that my Elysium sweater was made from, but the contrast was too strong.  I think this softer colour will show off the good points of the turquoise (still one of my favourite shades) rather than making it look garish and too bright.  

Time will tell.  There is a heap of yard work to be done this morning.  And laundry is mountainous.  A week of goofing off, watching the rains fall, mourning my river.

 Ah yes.  The rivulet.  Didn't mention that did I?  See the middle of the garden.  Yeah.  River.  

I don't know how we missed this.  The ridge does have shallow spots along the top of it.  Those spots do collect water.  It has to drain somewhere when it overflows.  

So...

a needle pulling thread.  

The vest is ready to steek, but it is going to be a day or two till I get there.  It took days to dry, unaided by the weather.  It has been very very humid around here.  Accumulated inches of humid.  There was a lot of other knitting this weekend too, but it too is going to take days to dry from its blocking.  It isn't ready for photos at all.  

I'd tell you about my garden but it is very wet over there too.  There is a little river running through it, which makes Mr. Needles and I laugh a little. This is why we are moving slow over there.  Unexpected rivulets are, well, expected.

There will be a much better knitting post on the morrow. With actual knitting.  

XOX

We have a vest.  Yes a fully un-functioning unsteeked vest.  

Its beautiful, and my worries about some strands being knit too tight and about gauge and even about sizing were just time wasted. (At least I knit on other things.  It wasn't a total waste.)

 Those tidy rows of Xs and Os tickle my fancy.  I'm even thrilled by the steeking stitches and the tidy rows and columns of alternating colours.  

It will dry tonight, but then I will let it sit for a bit.  Come the weekend, I will sit and have a good long look at the vest again.  I will make sure all the stitches are balanced and that no errors snuck in like a thief in the night, to muck up the pretty patterns.  

Tomorrow I am going to go back to that darned misbehaving sweater.  I have knitting company coming and the long plain stockinette suits the visit just right.

 

I knit!

I had a marvelous day of knitting yesterday.  I think there is only 1 set of patterning left on Mr. Needles vest.  Much as I love working colourowrk, much as it feels like music in my hands, it is like a song played over long and I am ready to move on to something else.  

Once I get done the colourwork, there still is a lot to do.  There will be a collar band and sleeve bands done in corrugated ribbing.   There will be pocket facings and bands for the tops of pocket.  There will be front button bands in the ribbing as well.  

I intend to close the vest with a zipper. There might be a bit more knitting than I initially planned, to accomplish that, but that is only because in the 2.5 years that I have been working on this vest, I seem to have misplaced the ease I built in.  It will still fit, but rather more closely than he would like his vest to fit.  I think I can get out of this by adding just a little more depth to the button bands, and then knit in a 'lining' in the plain green or the warm brown colour yarn to attach the zipper to.     

I've been looking forward to this part.  It is the perfect time to try out those zipper instructions from last falls Interweave Knits.

I have the tools and a spare tip for the tool, so I am armed and ready.  I just have to finish the knitting.

Not knitting

I didn't get to a whole lot of knitting yesterday.  My FIL is visiting and I ferry him wherever he wants to go.  He doesn't go much, so it isn't a big deal, but even though I have been sitting around a lot, I cannot seem to get in any volume knitting time.

Yesterday was complicated by the nicest thing.  

Several weeks ago, I met an older fellow at the library.  He noticed my spinning wheel, and asked if I might have a need for some fibre.  We talked, I gave him my number and let it be.  His wife called yesterday, so I went by to check it out.  

It's a lot of fibre, ready to spin or quilt and it was an incredibly generous offer for a very nicely prepared fibre.

100% Suffolk fibre, 100% locally grown near Hay Lakes Alberta, locally processed, lovely sheepy goodness.  Now where the heck do I put it all?**

**I have this figured out.  At friends houses! :)

Desultory

Or maybe not desultory.  Maybe it is more disconnected, or busy, or heartsick, or not having long enough to sit still and get down to colourwork?  I don't know. I knit only a very, very little yesterday.  A few rows on an edging.  A few rows on a scarf.  

It might be more of the same today.  The garden gets first dibs on my time.  I should be weeding, but there is a soft rain falling here at home.  I'm heading up to the farm first thing and I'm praying that we have some rain there too.  Right now I need the rain more than I need the weeding done.   

Should it be raining up there (crossing fingers, crossing toes) I am planning on scooting home to knit my heart out.   I would go in to my knit group, but my FIL is here for the week, and I don't want to abandon him.  Of course, he may want me to abandon him so he can have a nice long nap!

If I am lucky, if the stars be with me, I'll have lots of quiet time to knit.  Knitting a good long while will shake out all the clutter from my head and my heart.  Knitting for a good long while will put the universe back on its axis.   

Here is to hoping.  Here is to keeping my fingers crossed.  Here is to a lovely day.

And so it goes

And so it goes.

I was a more or less good knitter while I was off in the wilds.  I did stick to the plan.

I completed one full pattern.  What I am calling a pattern is one peerie repeat and one xoxo section.  I had hoped for more, but one will do.   I anticipate much more knitting on this vest this week now that my head is back in colour work.  There isn't that much left before steeking.  And then button bands, pockets, etc.  Lots of details, but once the patterning is done, it will go fast.

I did  need to add a ball of yarn while I was at the lake.  Time conspired against me. The yarn did not get wound into a cake before we left.  I don't usually mind not using my ball winder but oh how I miss my swift when it isn't there.  I had a challenge on my hands.  One way or another, one simply cannot stay as clean as one usually does.  Feet were out.  Mr. Needles was off fishing so he was out. The rain outside limited me. I could not use the picnic table.

What to do?  

Well I did this.  

It worked really well.  What do you think?  It looked almost human to me.  Maybe its name is Wilson?

It is even adjustable in a way.  If the skein is longer and needs to be a little tighter, all you have to do is tilt one arm higher or lower till the tension is right.  If your skein is shorter...  It isn't going to work all the time, but this time it worked just fine.  

Inexplicable

I know I have spoken many times of my boodle buddies, fans and followers of Joel Achenbach at the Washington Post.com.  

I cannot explain what it is to have people like these in my life.  I was blessed with a richness beyond compare in knowing them.  They made a bad time in my life better and gave me the strength to move on.  They challenged me, pushed me, prodded me and made me be better.  They led me to knitting and in a lot of ways, saved my soul.  They were my hope when I had none.

To my deepest sorrow, one of us has inexplicably lost her way.  

Dear heart, may you be where the peacefulness is so big it dazes you.  

By the time you read this...

As usual, I celebrate the arrival of summer, by heading to where it is colder. By the time you read this, I will be un-thawing.  I will likely be sitting in the van, urging Mr Needles to turn up the heat, and will be well on my way home from a trip to the high country.  The weather forecast has been dismal.  

I anticipate absolute misery broken only by coffee and a small fire (if the fire bans have have been lifted in that part of the province). Otherwise I anticipate sheer and total misery with my coffee {and yes, I can drink coffee.  I am not home, so I can have coffee.  If I didn't have my coffee, trust me, misery does not describe it})    

Long Johns.  Check.  Heavy Wool socks.  Check.  Warm wool sweaters, vests and multiple scarves.  Check. Toques. Check.  Mittens - 2 layers.  Check.

Hmmm, I hope I tossed some extra blankets in there.  Maybe a couple of sleeping bags too.  

Still, after a week of this, I relish un-thawing.  

And sticking to the plan, I should be able to report significant progress on this,   

but because I know the high country in the early summer, I'm packing some of this.  

It isn't wool, but it is heavy and the blanket will be tightly knit, and will be dense and warm.  It is also garter stitch.  Garter stitch is great, particularly when all you can think about is how cold you are, and when your fingers are too stiff to do anything complicated. 

But, by the time you read this, I should be un-thawing.  If it is Saturday and you are reading this, I'm back at the farm, weeding.  Farming never stops and even if we have not had a drop of rain, the weeds still seem to grow.   But I will be warmer.  That is a given.

Knitting for the wrong season

I know I have said it before.  I ought to be knitting for summer in January and winter in June.  That way, the things I start will be ready to wear when the season arrives.  

Instead of thinking about those light, cool to the skin yarns, I really ought to be thinking of warmer things.  Things like this

From left to right, top row and clockwise, Harrisville Flax and Wool, Cascade Eco +, Noro Silver Thaw, Cascade Eco, Needful Yarns London Tweed, and several colours of Briggs and Little Regal.  These are yarns that I like to think of as substantial sweater yarns.  They are not all heavy weight, in fact most of them don't go outside the 4 or medium weight category, but they all will make substantial warm sweaters.  

I have many more options.  Plotulopi, Royal Tweed, Mission Falls, Prairie Wool,   RCY Aran,  Berroco Remix, Ultra  Alpaca.  These are just the yarns I can see as I sit here at my desk.  I am blessed with a very lovely stash.  A lovely, lovely stash.  

It might be a while till one of these gorgeous things jumps up and demands to be knit first, though now that I think of it, there are the occasional whispers that are heard outside the closet.  

Though my 'what to knit next' dreams are all warmer weather wear, I know all too well, that much of Canada is a place where sweater weather is only as far away as sunset.   Wool.  Keep it close at hand.

Dreaming

And this is what I am dreaming of.  

And these

I'll be swatching these.

And then there is this.  

What about something like this for the green yarns I talked about a few days ago?  I think I am going to try swatching them up in pattern just to see what they will look like.  

I'm not knitting anything new.  Oh no.  I am being a very good girl, standing in a corner, being ladylike, biding my time till its time to knit  on the KAL sweater again.

But I can dream, can't I. 

Consolation

I am taking a one week break and only a one week break from that darned sweater and I will not swear (out loud) and I will behave like a lady (in public) when speaking about said sweater.

In consolation, I dug this out of the basket and am having a really good time.  All Clapotis are a really good time.  Simple knitting.  No brainwork required so long as you use a lot of stitch markers.  Hypnotic?  Yes. What's not to love?

I will also console myself with Persuasion.  In it, Jane Austen affirms that even a love lost can be renewed if that love be true.

Updated to add:  I was watering the garden yesterday.  I have vegetables!  Not all are up yet, but some things are peeking through.  There is always the smallest tension before the plants come up.  Did you do it right?  Were the seeds good?  Will all my hard work be worth it?  Small tension, with a big reward.

Hey it sounds a lot like knitting! 

In the Matter of:

Between:

Plantiff:  The Knitter

v

Defendant:  KAL Sweater at Edmonton Knitters Group

 as hosted by Ravelry

The plantiffs case:

1.  That the defense has completely dropped the ball and not kept its end of the knitting bargain.

2.  The knitter asks the court that the plaintiff be tossed into a corner, never to be looked at again.

The plaintiff rests.

The defense:  

1.  That the plaintiff did, on 31 May, 2011, frog back to reknit a portion of the defendant.

2.  The plaintiff is responsible for any and all events pursuant to the decision to frog stitches up to and including dropping of stitch markers from established positions.

3.  The defendant did not at anytime misbehave during said process. 

4.  The plaintiff is a numbskull.

Exhibit 1:

Exhibit 2:

If it pleases the court, the defendant respectfully requests that all members of the jury count the stitches between the stitch markers in each photograph,  known by the plaintiff as left side of chest and right side of chest, stitches which have been appointed to be short rowed to form proper darts for frontage.

The defense rests. 

Verdict:  The plaintiff is an idiot.

Sentence:  The plaintiff, also known as the knitter, will go to a corner and will not stamp her feet, will keep her language clean and will be noble, gracious and ladylike.  And she will not shed any tears.

But she doesn't have to knit on said KAL project for one whole week.    

May Socks

Up till now I have not talked about May socks.  I have not worked on the May socks in weeks.  I don't need them you see.  When I decided to start knitting one pair of socks a month, it was because I was always running out.  Now that I am home all the time, my laundry is kept up better, and my drawer runneth over.  

I could make them for Mr. Needles I suppose, but there are too many other things on my plate.  All I have to do is look at the basket beside me with its many many WIPs and I know there are too many other things on my plate.

Every once in a while, I contemplate the idiocy of sticking so much to WIP's.  They are such nice projects though and I really would like to have them to use.  I know I will feel much better about the pile when it isn't there, when the WIP basket actually contains things that I am working on, rather than things that I have not touched in months.  This volume of WIPs are  a weight I am tired of carrying.

There are so many dreams of different things in my head.  I will not start them, not even one, till the Shetland Shawl is done, but it occurs to me that sometimes even dreams weigh you down and distort clarity and focus.   

I will stick with what I am doing, really I will.  I will not slip into something new no matter how much I want to.  I will persevere.  Darn it all.

Don't you just hate it when you get all noble and stick to the plan?

  

Nature, taking its course.

Once again, almost a week has gone by with several cloudy days and the smell of rain showers in the air, but nary a drop of rain falling anywhere near here.  Many many places in Canada, including the prairie are having water problems of an excess nature, but we are having a drought.  

So today I am off to the farm, water jugs in hand, a a few good ideas to make the task of watering the beast of a garden just a little easier.  I also will be planting the cabbage, cauliflower and tomatoes today.  It might yet freeze and they will have no shelter, but at some point you just have to get on with it, plant them and let nature take its course.  If nature decides you are not going to have tomatoes, well, there it is.

Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.

Nothing Much = Eminently Fulfilling.

Yesterday I did a little of everything.

I cleaned my house, but not all of it.  I watered plants, but some of them didn't need it, so I skipped those.  I knit a little on the lovely red scarf.  I frogged back on the teal top to where I needed to be to insert the first of the taupe stripes, picked up the stitches and knit precisely one round to make sure everything was seated right and that I was ready to go.  I made a simple dinner for some company and visited and had a lovely time.  I read a little Persuasion as I lay down to sleep.

A nothing much sort of day and yet it was eminently fulfilling. 

The single most exciting thing of the day was the pleasant discovery of this:

 Old fashioned Woody's Sasparilla.

Not for kids, but for kids at heart.  Perfect for the sort of day it was.  Eminently fulfilling.

A change of plans

You Know that rust yarn I have been working into the teal?  Its out.

Now that I have the sleeves done and can try it on again, I realized there is just not enough yarn in one skein to do what I need it to do.  So yesterday, I went scouting through the vast stash, looking for something else that would work, something that I had in greater quantities.  

I think I found it.  

It doesn't have the punch of the rusty orange, but it looks good with teal.  

I've just finished the sleeves and am about to start working on the rest of the body. First things first, will be a wider stripe just at the upper bust (It looks best when it doesn't hit right at the widest part of your bust). Next a series of narrower stripes through the body of the sweater.  The change in stripes gives shape and form and will I hope suit.  

If it doesn't work, there is one other option but that would mean reknitting the whole darn thing.  I'm not ready to give up just yet.  

Some Top Down Sleeves

If all you did was look at the pictures

You would think I did very little knitting.  Pictures don't tell the whole story.

This little sleeve was knit and reknit and reknit again.  I pulled about half of it out because the wrapped stitches were too tight and were pulling the fabric. Then I pulled it back because I it was too loose.  Then I knit it all the way, aplied the edging and tried it on.  Too tight. So I ripped back and redid once again.  And there may yet be one more reknit. 

There still is a couple of places where there is some unevenness, a sort of ripply look to the fabric.  It might be that my picked up stitches were too close together in that section.  Or not, but there is definitely something funky going on.  Sleeve 2 will tell the tale.  I paid much closer attention to the picked up stitches and if this one is better looking, sleeve one will be redone.  

About the only thing I know for sure, is that sleeve will not be any longer than you see here.  That little capped look used up much more yarn that I thought it would.  Much more yarn.

Though I did finish one sleeve, it was a frustrating day.  I found consolation.  

100% silk Rumple from Handmaiden and the Beaded Beauty Pattern from Holly Yeoh.  Sans beads.  Just a little something for my mom,  who will enjoy the silk even if she isn't sure she would wear a scarf rather than jewelery with her grey suit.

PS
It might sound as if I am not enjoying the sleeve knitting.  Not so.  If I wasn't having fun, the top would be buried deep in the dark bottom of the WIP basket.  Sleeves from the top down make so much sense.

Focus on the Needles

Though my mind is busy with what will be next, my hands are busy with one of the things I have on the needles.  It is simple knitting, just stockinette and a nice change from the patterning of the never ending Shetland Shawl edge. Simple doesn't mean without needing thinking.

I've skipped the collar and moved on to the sleeves of this top.  Part of it is concern for yarn quantities (the polo collar seemed to be taking a lot of yarn) and part of it is that I am just not certain that I really want a polo type shirt, even though that is what this top started out being.

And another part of it is serendipity.  I was digging in the cabinet for the green yarn I showed you yesterday, when I came across something very interesting.  

Webs Valley Yarns Colrain Lace.  The colour matches perfectly in daylight.  The difference you see in the picture seems to be a matter of sheen and perhaps, slight difference in intensity, but that doesn't show up in natural light. I am just so amazed at the matches I find to Colrain Lace. For every yarn in my stash there is a matching lace.  Or so it seems.  

I'm not sure how I would use it,  but maybe it will provide me a way to gain a precious inch or so of length.  By the time I get these sleeves done, I will have used much more yarn than I planned for (the sleeves seem to be gobbling up yarn like nobody's business) and if I decide to add the lace to the mix, the rich rust cotton is very likely out, making every inch of teal even more precious. 

I have to get the sleeves done before I need to make a decision.  If  I really wanted to know, I suppose I could do some math and calculate how many square inches I will get from how many grams of yarn remaining but that would be, ummmm, all mathy.

Nobody told me there would be this much math in knitting.  (There's probably tests too.)  All that math takes the joy right out  of winging it.  I'll probably just keep knitting and see what happens.  

PS, Sandra, thank you for you input with the yarn choices yesterday.  That is exactly what I was thinking and you have confirmed it.   Still not sure about how to use the yarns to their best advantage, but I'm going to keep looking till I find a pattern that is just right.

A cold day

Yesterday morning, it was cold and chilly, toque weather really, but I worked until it started to rain. I could do the cold.  I could do the wind.  What I could not do is cold and windy in the rain.  I came home to warm up and think about knitting.  

I have precisely one novelty yarn in my stash.  It really isn't a novelty yarn, just a lovely blended multi coloured thing. I love it dearly, and for a very long time, I knew just what I was going to do with it.  And now that the time is getting closer, I am not so sure.  

Just a quick colour note:  The yarn is not brown. It is a lovely olive green and though the photo doesn't show it, they look wonderful together.  

My plan was to have twining cables climbing up as you can see here. I have looked at this little swatch for a long time.  I like it, but I am not sure I can wear something like this.  I worry that the panels of multi would end up looking busy and fussy.  I don't want fussy.

I've also become concerned about the yarns.  I've learned a lot since I first thought this plan up, and now I have doubts.  One is a pure wool sport weight and the other is a linen-cotton-viscose blend.  Its fine for a swatch, but in a garment the size of a sweater, will the yarns work together?  I worry that the wide panels of the mixed fibre will sag in comparison with the wool.  

I did find a bargain cotton and I think the colours work.

 Far from what the photo shows, the green is a real cedar green, warm and lovely. There is a slight sheen to the cotton that will work well with the sheen in the multi and being cotton is a far better choice for with a mixed blend of plant fibres.  I still don't think the cabled panel plan will work.

. 

I'm leaning to a grown up version of this. Its Holly Yeoh's Jaimie, a sweater originally designed and knit with sock yarns, but I feel sure that its modular construction with uneven stripes will give me  some fun and some good structure for the cotton. I could even add a little texture by switching between garter and stockinette.  It would be casual and easy and would take advantage of the multis good qualities without allowing it to overhelm everything else.  

There is no rush.  There so seldom is in my personal knitting.  There are dozens of projects around here to knit, but this is one of several I could drop everything to play with.  I could, but I won't.  I really want to finish the tank.  I really want to finish the big Shetland Shawl. This next project is kind of a reward for finishing.        

What I can do, in the meantime, is swatch and play and somewhere over the next few days, I will.

Dirt between my toes?

Not at all.  Because I wear shoes.  And socks.  Planting in a field with some stubble still standing from last year would be murder without shoes.  But my ankles are a study in dirt that only a 4 year old could love.

The wind was up and down today and when it was down it could have been misery.  

I can still hear the buzzing of the swarms that stayed above my head all day today.  They stayed near my head just in case.  I mean who know when a patch of white tasty human skin will stick out?  The mosquitoes here are voracious and plentiful, and they would eat you alive if you stood still without a good layer of deet.  I was prepared.  I bought bug spray before the stores ran out last weekend.   

I know a lot of people won't use it anymore but that only works if you live in cities and towns where they either spray or have a good program for keeping the area free of standing water.  Remember the creek on the front of our property?  Its down to very sluggish or still pools. Mosquito breeding country. 

Deet is my best friend.  (But only when I absolutely need it.  I know.  I'm fickle.)

A long weekend

We planted our hearts out and barely scratched the surface.  We got trees and potatoes in, but there still is a nice little bunch of spruce to plants, and I think it is going to be up to me to get that done a few at a time.  Somewhere about 3 pm on Saturday, I was heard to mumble 'who thought this *insert curse of choice* thing up'.  My dear husband ungallantly pointed in my direction.

Today I have to go out to find something to mark the rows so that he can work between them later, and then, off to the garden.  There still is corn, peas, onions, and few other things to put in.  All the tender things will wait, unless I find some hotcaps or other frost protection on my jaunt today.  

There has been knitting too, though it isn't what I thought I would be knitting on.  The wool of the shawl is catchy and my hands are a little rough right now.  I picked up some cotton knitting and that seems to be working up easier.  

 I'm trying to knit a polo shirt but I realized too late that I left out too many stitches for the bands.  That stopped this project for a long while, so its been good to knit on it again.  The two bands will be laced together, I think.  So far so fair.  Proof will be when I get the collar done and can try it on.  Then to the severely short sleeves, and then to knit and see how far the yarn will take me.  

I know I am skirting the bounds of yarn quantities here.  I started with 4 balls of the teal when I really should have had 5 to get the length I want.  Once collar andsleeves are done, once I know how much I have left, I will be able to judge just what I have to do to make the teal go farther.  

See the little stripe in the button band?  The same stripe will be appearing in the collar and on the sleeves.  It is part of the plan to get more distance out of the yarn I do have.   The plan right now is to put in a few stripes of rust in the mid section to help the teal go farther.  I am thinking stripes a la Tempest, narrow at the mid section.   And if that doesn't look right, then it will be hippy stripes of rust among the teal.  

My other option is to simply accept that this will be a short top (not fond of this choice).  One way or another, it will be a top I can wear.  It will also be a learning experience and that is never a bad thing.  

Its time to get this day begun.  Off I go into the wild garden yonder.  

Farming

I say that with tongue in cheek, you know.  I'm not farming, nor do I intend to.  I did that and this is nothing like the scale farming requires, nothing like the comittment that farming requires, to bet once again on the season being fair.  Farming is not what this is.  This is play.

What I am doing is gardening.  And a lot of what I am going to be doing this weekend, has little to do with gardening, it has more to do with trees.

This weekend we are planting a bunch of trees that arrived this week.  Mostly fruit trees, and berry bushes,  raspberries, cherries, saskatoons, but there are alos a bunch of trees that we are moving from here over to the farm.  

Remember this?  

Not the big trees, the wee ones that pop up every time we turn around here. We never did get around to taking them out and then when the land happened last year, we decided to leave them and move them once we had things organized.  Things are organzed,  Mostly.  This weekend we are going to be moving them and a lot of other small seedlings.  Birch, hazelnut, the occasional small poplar.  These all have popped up in planters and in the mulched areas around here.  So the big move is happening this weekend.  

We missed the farmstead tree order this spring by a few weeks, but next year there will be some good old fashioned Northwest poplar, some laurel leaf willow,  different varieties of spruce.  While I crave the long views and plenty of sunlight, what a good sensible farmyard needs is a windbreak.    

This weekend I shall play arborist, but it is also time to get my flower pots planted here.  By Monday I should be ready to start the garden proper, so this next week or so, there will be plenty of garden, but little knitting.

The knitting I am doing is on the Shetland Shawl.  I am about 20 stitches from the second corner and am really looking forward to the turn.

Way back when , one of my quests was to explain the dirt between my toes.  Now I seek only to put more there.  This is a good thing.

The vest you ask?

Brenda of the comments asked yesterday if I had finished my husbands vest.

Sigh No.  It sits there in a wee basket all its own taunting me, saying not a word but speaking loudly none the less.  I don't have that much to do on it.  I have only the upper body but I have not worked on it a day since last summer.  

I know I mentioned the way the days I worked went through most of the fall.  I worked my regular Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays but for many weeks in a row, I also worked Mondays.  It still gave me 3 days off each week, but for weeks, I did not have 2 off together. I found that so incredibly wearing, to the point when asked to do it again after Christmas, I cried.  I would have been glad to do it, but somehow, there was just nothing left to give. I think it is connected to the over stimulation, the incredible energy that I felt working with knitters searching for yarn.  

My very forgiving hubby's vest has been a victim of that.  I found that following the pattern was hard.  Hard on my eyes, hard on my brain, hard to do when I had no down time after a day of recovery.  Overstimulating. 

Colourwork is like playing a grand symphony.  It is wonderful and marvelous and deeply compelling. There is a pattern to follow flawlessly, there are colours of yarns to change, there is the rhythmic music that flows through you as you create magic on your needles.  Just thinking about it, I can feel that energy weaving it mystic spell.

Knitting lace is a sort of play.  It is fun and challenging and relaxing.  Even the tinking back is fun.  Irritating, but fun so long as you can discover what you did that caused you to reknit yet again.  Ishbel, for all my problems reading the charts, was fun.  

But the colourwork?  The colourwork demands more.  Colourwork at this sort of scale, demands everything and then it asks for just a little more. And for a very long time, I had no more to give.  I was ready only for the relaxing, peaceful joys of garter stitch.        

There is magic in colourwork, but when I get there I want it to be right.  The fall upcoming will be the third fall I have been promising the vest, thinking about it and working on it. It needs to be finished.  

Maybe my plan should be to take it with me camping this summer, where the colourwork can be finished in the great and peaceful glory of the high country.  Where there is nothing more demanded of me than making a meal here and there and to keep the coffee hot, where I scoot my chair around through the day, seeking the sun.  Maybe my plan should be to take it where I have no choice but to work on it.

Two (or 3) extra balls of each of the colours is a bag.  All I need to do, is tuck in the basket with the partially knitted vest and the book and the van is packed for summer knitting.  I will tuck in a little emergency knitting too, but that is only in case of a real emergency, for instance if I finish and have nothing to knit (oh, the horror!). 1 ball of sock yarn is the limit.  

Camping isn't that far away.  I am already starting to air and pack the van.  It's been a real pleasure to spend time this morning thinking about summer knitting, focusing on this marvelous work in progress, firming up a hazy plan for when to get to it.  I have not felt the need to push aside the thought and close my ears to its siren calls.  Must be that I am finally ready.  

Brenda, I owe you one.  Maybe two. Thank you.

Moving on

I realized something yesterday.  I realized that I hate binding off. There is something about the physical, technical actions of it that irritates me.    

But there is also a kind of regret that comes when you have to say goodbye to a nice yarn and the feel of it flowing through your fingers.  There is joy that you have a finished object, but mixed in with that dance is the smallest bit of sorrow.

There is also the possibility that I made all those silly mistakes while knitting Ishbel and reading her charts, to avoid finishing.  Because I know how I feel when finishing.

I swatched a few things and pondered what is next, but didn't really find anything I felt the urge to keep on working with.  I stared a little at parts of the stash but could not find an project and yarn that that spoke to me.

So today, I will sluggishly block Ishbel, and I will sort out what is next.  I will work on the Shetland shawl and its1600 rows of knitted edging (200 stitches per side x 4 sides x 1 row attached and one row unattached = 1600 stitches and I am rounding down.  There are more than 200 stitches per side.) I have plenty to keep me busy.

There is also a pair of socks waiting to knit.  Mays socks are sitting there, quietly.  Might do some work on socks today too.  Plenty to do.

Dear Ishbel

Dear Ishbel,

I loved knitting your plain stockinette part.  Your increases filled me with delight.  The cool green mottled yarn was meant for you.  

And then I met your charts. Ishbel, you are driving me batty.  Knit one row, take it out.  Knit tow rows, take it out because the first row is wrong, only it looked like it was ok after the knitting. Reknit a whole section because you aren't sure.  

These are just variations of what I have been doing while knitting amongst your charts, and Ishbel, I am not happy. I have already knit each chart, except chart C several times.  I am seriously thinking about reknitting chart C, because I have one too many stitches on one side and one too few on the other and it matters.

I think that is the problem, Ishbel.  You require perfection and I struggle with it.  You require counting to 2, and I struggle with that too.

I will devote this one last day to you without resenting it.  Some might call you a speedy knit.  Two evenings at moms, plus a morning of charted agony. A good hearty day of slogging through charts here at home.  Not too bad, though, if you would knit up peacefully, with 'gentlemen like manners', I might still consider you speedy.  

I look forward to finishing you.  I can't wait to see your pretty little lace blocking.  I know I am going to love your yarn against my skin. But Ishbel, if you could just see it clear to granting me a little grace, so I could get through the rest of you without issue, you would be a whole lot more delightful than I currently find you.  

With respect,

Your knitter.  

PS
You granted grace.  This morning found I could count to 2!  Isn't it funny how that happens.

Home again, home again, jiggety, jig

Back home and back to work.  Or I would be if it wasn't so darn windy.  I did do a little raking the other day, but the wind kept blowing things around.  It is just going to have to wait.  There might be a small nook, well sheltered from the wind, that I can rake today, but only if the wind isn't so gusty as it was yesterday.  

There won't be any garden work either till the wind goes down a little.  Behind before I have begun. Sounds like farming!

I had a lovely week at Moms.  I had a chance to visit all my sisters and an aunt.  Dad and I went adventuring and mom and I went shopping.  It was lovely.  

There was knitting beside the stop at my Saskatoon LYS. 

Remember these lovely yarns?  The Yellow was made into the lovely Oscilloscope and now the rich warm cashmere is in progress and so is the lovely absinthe Madelinetosh.  

I have all the plain knitting done on the cashmere Trauco.  I worked several rows of the charts, but as everyone knows, the charts are not right, and I am going to have to go back to the written work.  Not visiting knitting.

Then I began the Madelinetosh.  It will be an Ishbel.  The plain parts are done, and I am enjoying the knitting.  Sort of.  

Ishbel demands you pay attention so it isn't visiting knitting either.  But that story deserves a whole page all on its own.

Hanging Out

I'm still posting from dads computer, so no photos from me this week.  But just think of all the good things I will have pictures of next week. 

Visiting is hard work.  I've been practising saying no to all the good food people ply me with.  I did pretty well too, till last night.  I forced my sister to choose the restuarant, which she really hates to do, and then suddenly she said, maybe we should just do desert and coffee.  So, off we went to a long time favourite,  Alexanders, which is just off Collge Drive near the Field house and across the University. We did a sensible dinner, but oh yes, there was desert.  Mmmmmmmm Peanut Butter Pie.  I am sure that heaven includes not just Peanut Butter Pie, this peanut butter pie.

I should have know I was weak.  There was a small incident at Prairie Lily Yarn and Weaving just before dinner.  I did well...and so did the Prairie  Lily lady. An even deal, though I went home with yarn....OK I won.  She has some glorious things in stock.  Some Prarie Fibre Mill Alpaca Laceweight that is quite breaktaking. Drops Lin was another delightful little gem.  I have enough of it to do a nice summer something.  Really a stunning yarn.  I managed to get out without any Viking Alpaca Silk.  The Alpaca Silk was a real stunner.  I was feeling really under control.

Then I went into the back.  I think she reserves little pockets of goodness all over the store to catch the unwary and the weak off gaurd. 

I spied a nook of tweedy goodness.  Llama Silk from Diamond Yarns Luxury Collection.  Its a chunky tweedy little corner of heaven here on earth.  Fell kind of hard there but it might just be worth it.  Ok it is absolutely worth it and I feel a little guilty. But not much.

The good thing about Saskatoon besides all the family, the conversation and the very very good food and desert, is that Saskatoon only has one full service yarn store. I should be able to ignore one little store in a whole city, right? Even if that one store is calling my name from way across the river.  I am going to keep myself distracted so I don't go back.  But oh if you are in the mood for a fall off a yarny wagon, what a lovely place to fall.        

I have arrived

It was a greatday to drive across the prairies.  Sunny and breezy and just nice.  There are farmers in fields all overthe place and not a bit of snow left anywhere. 

I'm just popping in to say I made it, and if I get hold of my brother will be able to connect to the internet from my laptop instead of moms.  Then I will post pictures and stuff. 

Right now I have to go out for coffee.  Its a tough job but some one has to do it.

Road Trip!

I'm heading on a bit of a road trip today.  I'm heading out to visit my mom and dad.  Mr. Needles is staying home, so I can pack my car with all sorts of good things to take along.  

I'm going to take along some reading material. The Margaret Stove Lace Book and Estonian Lace are tagging along, as is the Book of Wool, Knitting Plus and some Noraha Gaughan and Elsebeth Lavold books.  I'm generally trying to sort out what I am going to knit after I finish this shawl.  I know I want to knit a sweater, but seriously, one ought to knit in summer for winter and in winter for summer, since it always seems that we finish up sweaters just as the season changes and the garment is no longer suitable for the weather.  The lace books are just for fun.  Maybe, just maybe someone will really like something and then I can be sneaky and knit it for them.  

 I'm also taking along some new small shawls for my travel knitting.  The rich rusty cashmere is coming and so is the green yarn.  

The rust is for a Victorian Shoulderette, and the green will be an Ishbel.  (The Ishbel has a story behind it which I will save for another day)

It is my Monday morning spinning session with a friend, and I won't be coming home after that, so I guess my spinning wheel will be with me.  I don't know if it will get any use, I worry about weirding people out, but I am going to be sure I have ample fibre along with me just in case.  

I am taking along my needle portfolio. There is sure to be time when I can sneak out to the Prairie Lily , my home away from home LYS.  They might have something that just demands to be knit.  You never know.  One cannot be too prepared.  Going for s couple of days, prepared for several months is my motto.

What isn't coming with me is the Shetland Shawl.  A few days away from it will be good for my soul.  When I come back, it will be time to start working outside in earnest.  The Shetland edging is going to be just the right sort of edging for finishing in the evenings after a good long day outside.

I have words

I just finished the first side of the outer lace edging.  Mr. Needles was standing right there.

I have knit in front of this man for 4 years.  I have crocheted in front of him for more than 30.  I have sewn and quilted and spun and not once, not once, did his eyes not glaze over and his mind not wander somewhere else while I prattled on effusively.  (It's OK. I do it when he talks hunting and such)

I took one corner and held as much as I could, as wide as I could and then held the rest up.

Mr. Needles eyes did not glaze over.  He was almost impressed.

Big.  Did I mention that it is BIG?

Wow

There are almost no words.

I am so pleased with it.  Just at the very top, you see the small open work triangles that make up the inner lace edging.  You get a feel for the gloriously deep mid-lace edging, and you can see exactly how much I did of the outer lace edging. A stunning design.

Without really pinning it out, without opening up any of the lace properly (all I really did was pin it flat), the lace edging is well over a foot wide. It took up about 2/3 of the square tile.  According to the pattern, the lace edging should be about 22 inches deep, and I have absolutely no doubt that it will be. 

This is going to be a big shawl.  

There is that word again.  BIG.  Spring 2011.  The season of big.  

All Shetland, All the Time

It was a day of hard slogging on the Shetland Shawl yesterday.  I have one round of patterning, 3 plain knit rounds and a round of eyelets to knit and I am done the middle lace edging. I had kind of hoped to finish yesterday.  Still, I had 'that' feeling. 

You know the one that says even though you know you are close and you would love to get there, put it down or you will pay in mornings cruel light?  Yes that one.  I  chose wisely.      

The knit rows, which till now have been a bit of a solace, have become long and tedious.  With this number of stitches, the pattern rows feel downright peppy in comparison.  Getting to the end of this section will make me feel like a conquering hero.

Next up, the outer lace Print o' the Wave edging. I know that just as these last rows of mid-lace edging go slowly, the outer edging may yet drive me batty.  I hold on to the hope that its fewer stitches and quick turns on rows,  will carry me through.  I look forward to the ebb and flow of the repeats too.  When you focus on the repeats ending and beginning again, the knitting feels like it goes fast even when it isn't.  

I will finish this section today.  I ought to have photos for you tomorrow.  I also hope that I have time to do a repeat or two of the outer edging.  It would be nice to get a feel for it before I set it down for the day.  

Still, I hope I don't fall into knittings little trap, where you are having such a good time that you don't listen to 'that ' feeling, even when you know you should.  I hate when that happens.

May it be a day of wise choices.    

A couple of busy days

After a couple of busy days, this morning, I can finally sit still.  And I plan too.  I might even make some coffee later.  Coffee is a rare event these days.  

This afternoon might find me outside the house working on one flower bed, which seems to be dry.  

There is  only the Shetland Shawl to knit on and while it is good, it does not make for good knit blogging.  It occurred to me yesterday, that this might be as close as I ever come to knitting a pattern exactly as it is written.  Right number on the centre, right number on the mid-edging lace, and we shall see about the outer lace edging.  

This is a big shawl but it is such a pleasure to knit.  I love the yarn, I love the pattern, the needles are OK.  Its a great time to be knitting.

Updated:  Oh yes there will be coffee.  There is a new Savvy Girls podcast!

Time to farm

Yes it is time to farm. Eventually the new place will be a retirement home, but it will also be a retirement project.  It will give us something to work together on, to play together on and just to have a little bit of fun with.  Its a good investment besides.  

And though we were starting to wonder, spring showed up! You saw our Easter Sunday photos.  This is a week later.  

out the front door

out the back door

And most revealing of the enormous change, 

the site of the Easter egg hunt.

When it decides to go, it goes.  No whimpering allowed.  The weather has been decidedly springlike, coolish, windy, but no heavy overnight frosts.  The ground is warming rapidly.

Though I did knit yesterday, I did not knit much.  I had lunch with my favourite knitters, I spun with a friend, I stopped at the yarn store, but it just wasn't a knitting sort of day.   

My plan for today is to get the Shetland Shawl to a knit row before lunch, do some housework, and then head to town for errands and knitting where I will knit 1 row.   

It is time to farm. It is time to go play in the sunny open fields.  It is time to wake up this lovely shady yard.   

A farm weekend.

Ever since we became farm owners again, at least once a week, we head over and check things out.  It is reminiscent of the Sunday drives of my childhood. It is casual and relaxed with no defined purpose and no real goal. Instead of ice cream at the end, there is usually coffee at the beginning. It usually is the first thing we do on those laid back days.    

That is at an end now.  The ground is more or less dry and it is time to refine and set some of our plans and it is time to get to work.  

Before we could plant anything or work anything up, we had to decide where we would put a the yard and where we would situate the house. 

It will be somewhere out there.  Yup.  Good decision.  Really definite looking.  

Its kind of hard to show in photos.  There really were a couple things to consider and look at.  Placement of the yard will determine style of the house, cost of putting in the yard, water, septic.  It may not look like a lot.  It may not show up in photos.  But with this one decision, a whole host of other things are settled.

Time to get to work on the garden.  It is time to play in the dirt.