Of Ways and Means and Woes

Just because there is no knitting doesn't mean there is no thinking about fibre.  Fibre, yarn, fuzzy stuff is all I am thinking about. Though my poor thumb isn't in so much pain anymore, does not mean it is ready for a workout.  By my reckoning, it is going to be another two weeks of healing.

Which is really kind of a pain, since I am going on a retreat shortly, where it will be all about spinning and knitting.  What on earth am I going to do?  

I already have part of my solution.  I am thinking of taking a ball winder and swift along.  I can wind reasonably well with my left hand, and I do have a whole bunch of yarn that needs to be prepped.  

Three large hanks of Eco + Peruvian Tones.  This is my next up yarn.

And I have all sorts of Kauni to wind to ready for the shawls of summer.  

Yes, that is the plan.  Shawls for summer.

And then there is the matter of bobbins.  I need to empty one to ply the colourful Big Ball I just completed working with, but I also need to empty my bobbins because I am probably selling one of my spinning wheels.  I have been mulling this for some time now.  I never seem to get around to working with my Julia. When I moved to my wee house, Julia was my principal wheel.  I had my Victoria at the time, but I struggled to get a feel for it.  The Julia is such a wonderful spin that learning the fine differences between the two just never happened. The Julia went into storage when I moved back to my house simply because the spinning wheel had to stay in my car.  Victoria had a large case to keep her in.  Even now that I am pretty settled, my spinning is mostly on the road. Victoria just is easier for me to transport.  All the Julia needs to make her easy to transport is a little strap on her back post, but she is a bit heavier than Victoria and the Vic is already to go. I never quite make it to the Julia for all my good intentions.  It says to me, I am a one wheel person.  

The prospective buyer wants the bobbins so I have to empty some bobbins for her.  She remains prospective to me because she is going to the fibre retreat too.  It gives her the opportunity to spin on the Julia and see if she likes it.  I am going to dig out some fibre for her to play with to give her a good running start. I have shome Shetland in my stash that came with my original purchase of the wheel and the Louet prep is particularly fine when you are just learning to draft on to a new wheel. That way, she can play all weekend and never worry about running out of fibre.

If I get more bobbins for myself, I plan to get the Akerworks bobbins.  The larger capacity is very appealing to me, but for now, I will carry on with just the three bobbins that came with the Vic. I have a large stable of very firm cardboard tubes to use to wind single on to  

and I purchased some large 2 3/4 inch spools from Camilla Valley farms to use for singles storage as well.  The only thing keeping me from winding off my spinning wheel bobbins was that I had six.  There was no rush.  Truly, if all my tubes and spools get used, then I have a serious problem.

Anyway, that is enough for today.  But do come back to see tomorrow.  I am in the middle of a tale of woe that is...

Well come back tomorrow. 

An Easter Monday Tale.

I worked for many years in my brother in laws office.  It was small and quiet and I loved the work for the most part.  Because the office was small and quiet, there were only so many people that you got to know and for all those working years only so many good stories to tell.

One of my favourites is Easter Monday.  My boss, my brother in law and I grew up in the same small prairie town.  We were raised in a very traditional church, in that very small town and school was populated by all but a handful of kids of the same faith.  Some of the things you are left with don't carry on to the rest of the world.  Easter Monday is one such thing.

Easter Monday was a school holiday in our town. Most of the businesses were closed as well.  Easter Monday was a thing.  The idea that Easter Monday was a holiday stayed, burned deep into our thinking.  In the rest of the world Easter Monday is not a thing.

Early one very quiet Easter Monday morning somewhere about the middle of my time working in the office, I was up, chatting over our respective Easters with Marg at front reception and my boss came from the back of the building to open the front door. He was shocked to see both Marg and I there.  He said, 'but it's Easter Monday'  You aren't supposed to work today.'  Marg and I were flummoxed because it was just a normal work day.  The boss was quite determined that we go home and take our holiday.  Marg and I looked dubiously at this and weren't very willing to go, but he insisted.  

So we went home and we each had a wonderful surprise to us day off. 

When we got back the next day, I was up having my coffee break, chatting with Marg, and the boss came by and told us of his day.

The phones rang off the hook.  The mail came.  All kinds of people came and went.  It was a usual Monday.  He was so very, very happy to see us and just a little sheepish about his Easter Monday mixup. He said he didn't get anything done because he spent most of the day doing our jobs.  Didn't even go out for lunch because it was too busy.  Every year after we laughed about that come Easter Monday.

And it never, ever happened again.  And all these years later, it still makes me laugh on Easter Monday. 

Loom Play

I mucked about with my loom yesterday.  I tried to resolve my troubles and discovered other troubles with the warp which led to tring to fix that which then created yet more trouble.  So I cried uncle.

and am rethreading the reed and heddles.  Most of what I cut off will be recovered in one way or another.  

The other interesting thing I did yesterday is to check out Interweaves sale on weaving downloads.  For the last several years, Interweave has made and sold DVD courses for those who don't like or cannot easily get out to courses or if a course doesn't fit your budget.  I have a Spinning for Lace course with Margaret Stove, a Drafting video with Abby Franquemont, The Gentle Art of Plying with Judith MacKenzie and Knit Free Sole Socks with Anna Zilborg.  It would be very pricey to see all of these wonderful teachers but here they are, waiting for me.  There are a ton of great things online for free, but it is nice to have a program with a quality instructor doing what they do best.

I picked up a beginner weaver course with Tom Kinsely and I picked up a Doubleweave Basics video. It's hard to beat the ten dollar price tag, even for my sadly beleagured Canadian dollar.  There is a Weave Structure Bundle that I would love to have and other technique videos that would be wonderful additions to my stable of learning tools, but even at ten dollars, I have to stop somewhere.  I am still at step one in weaving and all those other many wonderful things will get sorted out as I go.

There are a whole range of downloads available that are on a special price right now.  There are a couple spinning ones that I would love to have, but like I said, I have to stop somewhere.  Check it out because the sale isn't going to last forever.  

I'm going to give my hand a rest today.  It's a sneaky thing, but even holding the heddle hook to pull the thread through is hard on my hand right now.  Sneaky because it doesn't feel like it should be.  I probably wasn't listening carefully enough to what my hand was telling me and while it isn't sore, it is tired.  So to rest.

Good thing I have all these cool new video downloads to watch!  

Feeling much better.

My hand has been feeling better, so much better that I decided to try a little something.  

Spinning has also been affected by this injury, but I have still been meeting my spinning buddy to chat while she spins.  We have been talking fibre and sources and Ply magasine, so it still counts as spinning time.  

Yesterday, I decided to try my hand at knitting for a bit.  And I do really mean a bit of knitting.

l

See that letter l ?  It marks where I was on this section of the First Point of Libra Shawl.  I had 9 rows to knit to the pointy end of the section and every two rows, there was one less stitch.  I did it a little bit and then would set it down, spread over the course of two hours.  By keeping the stitch count low, and the demands on my hands low, it didn't ache or even feel the injured place.  There was a sense of tiredness after each of the longer rows, but even at the end, when I was down to 5 stitches, I set it down for a bit to rest.   And yeah, that 9 wee rows told me what I wanted to know.  That I might feel good, but the tendons aren't ready to knit or do significant work.  This time, I am hoping for complete healing even of the injury from last fall.  That was mostly good, but lingered in the background some days and would pop up on occasion. This time I want it all gone.

So however long that takes...

Things are getting better.

Things are getting better, but I am not about to mess this healing up by using it too soon.  It's better not cured.  I am at the point now where I don't wake up in the night in agony.  Big relief.

The weekend was busy, and yet torturously difficult.  The World Women's curling was on, as was the first Formula One race of the season.  I watched and enjoyed both, but it was hard not to mourn all that good knitting time I was missing.  It was fine, but by the end of the day, I was going just a little stir crazy.  If I had one, I would be ripping my styrofoam cup into itty bitty pieces.  If I had an older beer bottle, I would be ripping off the label.   

On the upside, it gave me time see if I could address what needed addressing on my loom.  I played for a while with some success, but I think I still have a problem.

These are before, 

And this is after.  I am trying to correct the place with the three strands which are wrong on the warp by using a repair heddle.  I inadvertently also repaired the double pair right beside it, which made for another whole kettle of fish.  The two repair heddles so close together may be the source of my trouble now with that long thread not being woven.

Today my goal is to dive back in and see what else is going on, and fix it.  If I cannot sort it out today, then I may just cut off this whole end and re-warp it correctly.  That re-warping isn't something that I can do in a single day and it would stress my hand too much to even try.  But I think I can take it bite by tiny bite and make a little progress.

My other plan for during this time of not knitting, is to go through photos.  First step is to get all the photos from my little laptop, which still works but has no wireless and has defeated all our tries to get wireless back.  Then I have stacks and stacks to scan. I would like to get a set of the highlights to each of my boys.  I have long wanted to do this, and now seems like a good time to start.

I'd much rather be knitting or sewing or embroidering, but at this point, smart money says heal first.  So I will.

The Blue Tape

This is where we are at.

It helps to force me to not use my thumb.  I do have a proper brace coming but this is helping.  On the upside, I am getting much better at using my left hand for things like the mouse for the computer, pouring coffee, drinking coffee.  Not going so well is eating with my left hand, though if I work hard enough for long enough, I know I can adapt.  

I'm going to go on a bit of a stash dive today.  I have hardly touched yarn all week and I miss it.  I am going to get out a particular pair of yarns.  I have had this pair for a while now.  

 

Somewhere, on my laptop, I suspect, is a photo of these two skeins, curled together in a ball like a kitten when it sleeps.  The gentle variations in the Adam and Eve become magic against the glow of the Shibui Silk Cloud.  I have a hankering to feel these yarns.  To touch them and run my hand on these.  But not to knit them.  That will take a while.  

With nothing else to do yesterday, I made a run  for groceries so my breakfast today is going to be my very favourite thing, oatmeal with peanut butter.  Who needs sugar when  you have these glorious things together?   

Absolutely no knitting

Since I have nothing interesting to post today about yarn or fiber or wooly things, I am going to tell you about my breakfast.

My grandson Marcus always tells me 'I yuv kashoo' meaning of course that he loves what he calls kashoo.  What he really loves is buckwheat.  Even as a wee tiny boy he could eat two big bowls of his kashoo.  Often he would finish up his sisters too.

As an adult, whenever I tried it from my average grocery store buckwheat, it formed this gelatinous mass, that may have tasted okay, but looked awfully grey and gluelike.  Enter My Marcus' mama and buckwheat from the European grocery, where you can get the same brand that she purchased in Ukraine and wow, what a difference.  The stuff on our average store shelf is partly ground.  The stuff she always has is whole grain and clean.  There is nothing grey or glutinous about it.

And it is so simple to cook.  But it in a pot to boil for 5 minutes and then just let it sit till it is cool enough to eat, usually another 10 minutes or so.  All the water is taken up by the buckwheat and what remains is a wonderfully nutty delicious breakfast.  Or other grain substitute.

Today I had mine with raisins and a little bit of molasses for sweetness, with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  

I know. But in a world of no knitting...

Not Stopping

After having a nice time thinking about yarns for sweaters for Keith, in a casual I get to go yarn shopping sort of way, I realized that I do have 8 balls of Remix in that soft Patina colour that I made his original sweater from.  According to my notes, I thought it would be a great colour for Brian and snagged more skeins.   They are of two dyelots though, but again, according to my notes* there is no visible difference.  Time will tell in the knitting.  That is going to be a project for next fall.

However, realizing I had the yarn in my stash did not stop me from going shopping.  He did say grey and this Patina colour is a more browny colour.  It's a nice excuse to see what is in store, isn't it?

I saw some lovely things.  My adventures yesterday were to Jo's Yarn Garden in Stony Plain, not too far from where my wee house was.  It is a truly lovely store full of very special things including Rohrspatz & Wollmeise and Colour Adventure yarns but also is my localish purveyor of all things Briggs & Little and Custom Woolen Mills to boot.  It is a place of the most basic of yarns to top end delights. I did have a very directed trip though, and only came home with some very pretty new sock yarn to make a sweater for Cassie.

I know I shouldn't choose to make a sweater for her over my little boys, but she does really love to wear what I make her.  She has such fun with clothes, even if she loves superheros more than princesses And why not I say.  And she does love purples.  Each time she sees these socks, 

she just has to pet them and admire them.  Then she says how she just loves purple.  I suspect she is wanting a pair of purple socks, but I know that my little girlie needs a good sturdy school sort of sweater.  She is tiny enough that I won't mind knitting one of of sock yarn still.  Those days will be gone soon enough!

I did see so many other stunning yarns, some really lovely alpaca and silk and some seriously wonderful silks and cotton blends.  I could have knit a dozen different shawls out of the lovely things I saw.  But, I'm kind of in sweater mode.  I do have shawlish plans, but I already have they yarns.  

Next trip I'm going to my other localish yarn store River City Yarns.  They have carried the Remix before though I am not so sure about now.  It really doesn't matter if they do or not.  I will enjoy the trip and the meander in the world of yarns. Not gonna stop.   

*I had Ravelry notes.  I 💗 this and can hardly believe it.  But I had Ravelry notes!

When you can't knit you...

Go looking at yarn.

I think.  I spent a fair bit of time meandering the internet yesterday, looking at various yarns and filling shopping carts with delicious things.  It's a sort of fun sport, because really, I do not need more yarn.  Well, not for most things anyway.

Today, I actually have a commission of sorts.  Keith said this morning, 'Now there is a sweater"  The Weather guy on CBC's Edmonton morning show, otherwise known as the TV camera in the radio studio show, was wearing a nice basic sweater, v neck and it was grey.  Keith said that it was a man sweater for the ages, no stripes, one colour, plain.  And then he said he wished that he could find the sweater I made him a few years ago because he would probably wear it downstairs, where it can be cool at this time of year.  

It was a great sweater, using Jared Flood's Brownstone pattern using Berroco's Remix.  At the time, he wanted the sweater for golf, and asked for that kind of collar.  He found the collar just too much to wear it for golf, and I think he wore it most often in his car, while driving with the top down.

He didn't realize it was missing till we were talking a while ago, and I told him I could change the collar if he wanted.  He went looking and nada.  He thinks it was in his car, and he can't remember seeing it since his car was stolen a few years back. 

He may or may not have asked for a sweater.  Nonetheless, he is getting a sweater. I asked him if he wouldn't like wool, because I have a couple things here already that would make nice warm plain sweaters, some Briggs & Little and some Cascade Eco+, in the quantity I would need for a sweater.  BUT  he said no wool.  Which is a little sad, but not really.    

 It gives me something to look for when I am out and about meandering.  I will look at other non woolly blends, but for the same reason as that first sweater, Remix is a contender.  

So shopping.  With a goal.  I like that.

Since Friday

I don't clearly recall watching TV as a child, but I do recall as an adult.  There has never been a time where I did not have a book or a something in my hand while watching TV.  

I crocheted or hand sewed or embroidered.  Or read.  Mostly reading through the years, while watching TV.  Anything, but I never just sat and watched TV.

And this weekend, that was all I could do.  Wednesday I hurt my thumb while carding the batts.  I took it pretty easy Thursday with only the spinning but that was it.  Thursday night was horrible and night has been horrible since.  My thumb cramps up badly every couple of hours and I wake up in pretty serious pain.  I would have gone to see a doctor on Friday afternoon but he doesn't have office hours.  I didn't think it was an emergency room type problem.  

I was wrong. It was. There will be doctoring today.

My previous injury isn't bad, though I think it is greatly irritated and affected by this one.  But considering the worst is my thumb, I haven't been able to do anything.  But watch TV.  

Without something in my hands.  I am going nuts and not so slowly either.  I tried going through books on my shelves.  I love meandering through the knitting books, the miniature books, the crochet and quilting books, just for fun, but books are heavy.  I couldn't read or hold a book for very long.  I did try the Kobo ereader, but even that has weight and caused some problems.  

Heck, I can't even decently clean.  Holding a broom or mop or the duster is a problem, and using my left for these jobs ...I am so not ambidextrous.  This part doesn't bother me much though.  I can leave cleaning, no problem.  But everything else.

Let's just say that my Audible and Acorn subscriptions were in heavy rotation but my hands were still free and restless. As am I.

This pretty much describes my weekend.  Starts slow and in control and then at about the 1:50 mark, it goes nuts.  

I'm just going to hope that there are not too many knitting free days in my near future.  

 

Singles complete!

And then there is that day where you finally get to to this.

There is a pouffy bit where I just called it quits.  I could have made another metre or two of singles, but when the bobbins get full, the Victoria really struggles.  I was tired of fighting.

The big ball

is done.

Two really full bobbins of singles.

Up next, to N ply or chain ply these.  That's a lot like a really long single crochet stitch while applying twist at the same time.  The last time I did it was a lot of fun, so I am looking forward to trying it again. 

Past Time to Start

I began the day in high hopes of getting lots done.  Well, it did not happen.  As soon as I picked up the needles to knit, my hand hurt. All I managed was one round. I think I slept stupid the night before. It did not mean the day was a waste.  I had tons of fun.

I have a large bag of Corriedale that is ready for carding.  It's about a half a fleece, plenty to do something significant, handspun.  My not being able to knit opened the day up to pull out my drum carder and see what I could do.

I have had the carder for almost 2 years.  I bought it from a fellow Raveller just before I moved from the west side.  It lived in my car for months sheltered in a box.  As soon as it could, it went to a safe place in the garage here and then, finally to a lovely cart to sit on and to work from. It has its own very proper spot in my study.  I meant to give it a whirl sometime this winter, and still it sat.  Carding seems like such a huge step. It intimidated me a bit.   I mean, it might...What?  It might what?  I have told myself that the worst it could do was need to be tossed, and I could then work with the other two big chunks of fleece I have.  I have been meaning to give the carding a serious go for months and I made time yesterday.

Before I started, I wanted to take a good picture of what it was in the before.

The fibre has a lovely crimp, right through the whole of it.  I watched a few videos to bolster me.  I particularly liked the video I linked to, because the shot shows the fibre going into the carder and he does it without any fanfare at all.  Such an unhurried take on carding, a simple put it in, like this and a way you go, approach. And I did.

And off the carder. Pretty great isn't it?

And a side shot.  It's the most impressive light airy pile of fibre.  I did that.  Well, the carder did that, but I was there.  

I ran these first batts through twice more just to make sure that the fibre was nicely even and that all of it was equally airy.  Next time I will run some through a third time, just to see if there is a difference in how light and airy these batts can be.

I stopped after this point.  I don't have any place to put a huge number of fluffy batts right now and I think I would rather card as I spin.  So three is enough to be going on with.

I would spin it all right now, but all my bobbins are filled.  The spares I had, are full of the Big Ball singles. I did do some spinning yesterday and I am now back to the last couple feet of blue roving. It would be so nice to get this done.  The plan is to N ply them, to maintain the lovely bright colours.  

I would dearly love to knit today, but as I did the last batt of fibre, I realized my thumb hurts.  It is a bit better this morning, but I am only going to do easy light things with my hands today.  So spinning or plying day.

The other thing I am going to do today, is pay attention to my loom.  That too has been sitting there waiting.  I have dish towels that need some doing and it is past time to start.

At the start of the winter, I set myself a goal of carding some before winter's end. When I was working in the spare room back in January, the Corriedale stayed out to be worked on.  And it has begun.  I may have left it to the bitter end of winter, but I did meet my goal to begin.  Well past time to start but it is a start. 

Almost

The debate is about to begin.  Is it long enough?

Generally, the answer is yes but there is still the ribbing to go.

But we are there.

And that is pretty darn awesome.  I always feel that way at this part of a project, almost more so than at the end of a project but when a project is wearable, you have to say goodbye to making the magic. I'm not quite ready to let go this magic.

According to the pattern, there ought to be a very long ribbing, but I'm not so sure that mine will be.  I have to see how far the black yarn will take me and with the ribbing yet to add, I really am very close to having made one of the longest sweaters yet. I'm not really in need of a dress, and a tunic and a dress are pretty much the same neighbourhood for me. What I really need is a sweater, so the shorter ribbing is likely.

Time to go ribbing.  Isn't that grand?



 

Little Mittens

Yesterday was a very special day.  It was my Carter's 4th birthday.  Because Carter is such a sweet darling boy, Carter deserves a pair of mittens from Grandma.

A pair of mittens for small kids doesn't take much.  Not in yarn or time.  I pulled out the good stuff, some balls of Drops Big Fabel (I wish there was more on the market) .  I did consider some Briggs & Little, but I think Carter and his momma will like this supremely superwash better.

 

I'm knitting these fairly tightly.  I think that is better for a good snow proof mitten, and I am also knitting them a bit big, for a 6 year old rather than a 4 year old.  They are okay for now, and with spring mere days away, they will get much more wear next winter.  Bigger is good.

And before you know it, voila, a sweet pair of mittens for my peanut.

Happy Birthday to my sweet little boy. Best giggle ever.

Brier Knitting

It was the closing weekend of the brier, and I am afraid, knitting got a little out of hand.  On Friday's post the picture showed I was just starting the third section of colour.  

That is Friday.  A quick glance will look like I haven't done all that much,

 only I have.  I am on the last colour of yarn.  

That mottled grey section is a section of serious work.  It is about that point in a sweater body where I start working increases across the back to give a me a fit that looks nice.  It is where the stitch count goes wild, you might say.  By the time that grey section is done, a significant number of stitches have been added.  It's a lot of knitting and by the time I get to the end of the increases, the stitch count is where most people get nosebleeds and whine about the number of stitches.  

I however am made of sterner stuff and never whine about stitch counts, cough cough.  

No more increases though.  This last section is all a straight tube of knitting.  I have 4 balls of the darkest grey colour which should be ample to take me to the length I want.  I aim to have at least a half ball of yarn left of that darkest grey to modify the sleeves.  I want to take out some of the black on the sleeve cuffs because I don't have enough of the black to make the entire bottom hem black plus I also need a bit of black for the placket and neckline edge.  The black is not the colour I thought I would be short of at all.     

Curling is such a great thing to watch while you are knitting.  It is broken up into time to watch shots closely followed by shot talk and setting up and things where you can pay attention to your work.  Not sure what happens to other knitters, but when it gets a little more intense,  I knit faster and faster and then, wham, the end is complete and I can knit at a more reasonable pace again.

Much of this sweater ended up being brier knitting and I want to thank all the curlers who helped me get here with such speed.  If it happens that I don't get this sweater complete this week, it's good to know that Ford World Women's Curling starts this weekend.   And it is also good to know that I have the next sweater all wound up and ready to go.

Explaining a wish

I was visiting my family last week to take my youngest sister, who is now 50 out to dinner.  As we left the dinner venue, I said I wished her everything I found in my 50's.  That probably needs some explaining, since so much of the last 5 years was so difficult.  But I do stand by it.  

When I was 49, I was at the lowest point in my life.  It was connected to a job I never ever wanted to do, but the job came to me at a point in my life where it worked, where it fit my life and gave me a sense of stability that I lost after we left farming. I was very very good at my job, good at that kind of work, because it fed my need for things to be ordered and have the right place and the right purpose.  Over time, I felt trapped, trapped by obligation to family, to Brian, to many people that I really liked.  I gradually lost confidence in my ability to be anything else until I lost all hope that there could ever be anything else.  When I write that out now, it sounds so mild, but it was so very, very dark.  Being without hope is the hardest thing.  

 But in spring of my 50th year, I came to knitting.  I found it wasn't just knitting, it was KNITTING.  For some reason, knitting is where my brain always needed to go.  I found and still find, an endless well of creativity, and joy, and goofiness, and light and air, so much so that I wonder how I used to breathe.  I found strength and belief in myself and the power to change my world.  The whole structure of my inner life changed.

And that gave me the ability to change the rest of my world. Life got so much better and oh so much more fun.  Through it all, my dear Mr. Needles, stood stalwart, supporting me, building me stuff, listening to my endless yarn talk.  He was happy that I was happy.  Isn't that just the greatest thing?

 Yeah, in the middle of my 50's Brian became ill and in very short order, passed away, but if that had happened to the person I was at 49, I would not be sitting here chatting today.  Simple truth.  That person could not have withstood the pain.  Even as it was, I very nearly didn't.  But I did, and there it is.

When Brian died, I knew that I had knitting.  I knew that I had something to hold to and I knew that as long as I had something that I really liked to give me strength, I would somehow get through the hard parts to something else. Don't get me wrong, the loss looms large daily, but I know how to handle it now and how to walk that path of sorrow.  Sorrow is always in my eyes and my heart and is there for anyone who cares to know me, on my face, as much a part of me as knitting.  There are parts of that journey in time, I would not live over again, not in a billion years and I would not wish on a single soul.

But what I wish for my sister, for everyone really, is that they find something that feeds that inner you the same way knitting feeds me.  My 50's were the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, but at 60, I feel like I left that decade stronger and more sure of who and what I am than I have ever felt before.  I found my inner light and as silly and new agey as that sounds, that light sustains me.  Maybe most people don't find these things so late in the game as I did, but I have a feeling I am not alone.   

I wish that for my sisters.  For all of you.  Find that thing that lights the inner you and find a way to live it.  Everyday.

Great Days.

I had the loveliest day yesterday.  For the last several years, a doctor's appointment, was a trip to the west side of Edmonton and consumed the better part of a whole day. The only saving grace was that I usually scheduled it to be on a day where I was in Sherwood Park already spinning.  It meant that my knit group attendance was limited and it was hard to re-establish a healthy routine. She was a good doctor, but it was time to change.

I went to my new family doctor and in less time than the previous drive, one way, I was home again.  Instead of a whole day gone, it was merely a blip in a day of getting groceries and the mail.  What used to be major is now routine and that is such a relief.  Plus I don't have to drive all the way through a major city to do it.  Huge relief.

I did all my little errands in under two hours, and then came home to knit.

I made a chai tea latte with my spiffy new frother from my niece's tea party (Steeped Tea frother.  Works great) and watched curling and had a wonderful afternoon. 

And this morning, I awoke feeling so bright and cheerful.  The sun is not quite up when I get up, but it is light enough that I don't have to turn on lights to make my coffee.  Spring is so close.  

That makes me really happy, till I think of daylight savings time, and how next week, it will once again be dark when I get up in the morning to make coffee.  I wouldn't normally worry about it and just live life according to the sun but the world around me marches to the beat of a different drummer, so I cave too.

Still, spring is coming and even stupid daylight saving measures cannot change that.  Sun will soon be hitting my bookcases full force in the morning and I look forward to it.  

This morning I took the time to enjoy the morning light while I have it and just knit to honour the tremendous privilege I have in this world.  I have sunlight, I have knitting, I have coffee and I have the time to chose these things.  How lucky is that?

Today is going to be another great day.  I am certain of it.

More and More Sweater Like

I've spent time the last couple days working on the sweater and have almost finished another colour.  

I wanted to finish it before I showed it off again, but when it is time to set it down, I set it down.  It's at the point that this last ball has only strands running around like a skeleton skein but it will probably knit 3 or 4 more rows.

I am hopeful that the black and red that separate each main colour will fall at a place that works, not something awkward.  Where it falls, it falls though.  I have not one scrap more of that colour and moving the colour change up would only make it worse.  

I gave it a real quick try on yesterday.  It's a little hard to tell exactly, without the yoke being blocked, but it looks pretty great so far, I think.  

Thing is, even if it doesn't, even if it falls so short of what I think it can be, even if it verges on looking like a disaster,  I am going to be thrilled with this sweater and will wear it.  I wear everything I have ever made (that I still have) even when it doesn't look like it did in my head before I knit it.

This sweater is warm at the neck and that is exactly what this house requires for coziness.   There are 3 layers of DK and more, weight yarn in the yoke.  If I am absolutely serious, that warmth is the only thing that really matters. It could look like complete garbage and I would still wear it if it kept me warm where I need warm. 

Only I don't think this will.  I think it is going to look good.  I think it is going to look striking, really striking. I think it already does.

I can't wait to move on to the next colour.  It's a marled grey up next, but first, comes that punchy black and red.  Even that little stripe is fun to knit.    

I know I can knit about a ball of yarn a day at this point, and though I don't know how many days of full knitting of a ball I will get in, I do know that the number of balls at the bottom of the bag is decreasing fast, looking more and more sweater like every day.

On a First Point.

Yesterday was an odd day.  I had things I had to do, and then I got to sit around and wait for the next thing.  While sitting around waiting, I managed to get in a bit of work on this.

This is of course section one of the First Point of Libra Shawl.  I am getting very close to the end of section one and I can't wait to start section two.  I may have missed the mystery knit along, but I still get to enjoy the show, so to speak.  I love this fun and funky construction.  Why do it the same all the time?!

Aren't the variations in this yarn beautiful?  They look pretty evenly coloured in the skein, but I adore the subtle variations.  In a perfect world, all yarns would have this slight colour variation, but The nice people at Sweet Georgia would be exhausted by that.  But that would mean that everything was the same and it would not then be a perfect world.  So I will work with what I have and enjoy it to the fullest. 

Just a few more minutes of knitting and I will be at the point of this piece, and then on to the much larger centre triangle section.  That triangle section will be knit from another hand dye, Hat Trick Semi solids from River City Yarns, a compliment to their Hat Trick and Touchdown lines of special sports hand dye lines.  You can see the soft variations in the colour.

It is grey but not all dark. I can't wait to see how this knits up!

I love the way it is all working out.  Beautiful yarns and beautiful project making something to keep me warm.  That's a really nice thing isn't it?

Looks Like a Sweater

And there we are.

It almost looks like a sweater.

Over the weekend, while visiting, my only knitting goal was to correct the row that needed correcting.  I had a strong feeling that if I didn't this sweater was going to sit and perc in a corner for a while.  

When I got home, I knit a couple of rounds and then thought it would be a good idea to measure the depth of the yoke.  I am short from underarm through to general neckline.  It is a darn good thing that I did measure before I knit all the way to the end of the yoke patterning.  It was perfect as it was.  The trouble with that perfection was that there was still far too many stitches on the needles.  In the course of two rows, I had 4 decreases to deal with and I had to make them look good.  I chose to do a centered double decrease in the centre of the main colour part of the last motif.  I think it worked like a charm.  

Anyway, I picked up all the body stitches and am knitting my way down.  I'm just doing a few short rows on the back to give it a nicer more natural fit on the backside (short rows push the back neckline higher), but I am pretty much on the way.

It's a lot of knitting yet till this sweater is complete, but all the hard parts are done.  Only side seam shaping remains and that is easy enough to do.

There was a snowstorm so I went traveling!

A quick trip to Saskatoon in the middle of a snowstorm netted me something lovely.

Prairie Lily carries Remix Light and now, so does my stash.

A few years ago, I knitted a sweater from Remix and it quickly became a mainstay of my wardrobe.  What sweater wouldn't when you can machine wash and dry it.  When they brought out the Light line in the same blend of fibres, I was thrilled.  This might very well be the best summer yarn ever.

I have an idea too that magically appeared when I was looking at patterns online one day and the same idea came to me when I was looking at this soft range of colours.  She had lots of the gray so that will be my main colour.  The yoke of the sweater is going to be a darkening colour gradient that may or may not be separated by a band of the darkest blue.

I know what i want it to look like.  I have to swatch now to see how that idea will look.  

The other thing that the quick trip to Saskatoon dealt with was to finally get the Christmas presents to their homes!  I forgot them at Christmas and with the snowstorms Western Canada had last weekend, it was perfect for winter gifts.

The guys opened their hats first, and then the girls got into it.  Ms Birthday girl opened hers up first and with the guys having put their hats on, she put her tea cozy on.  It actually fits really nice as a hat.  Even sister Kathy beside my dad, who got the largest of the hats  (They have me doing it now) tea cozy, found she could get real style if she rolled the brim!  They are trying to make pouty mouths for the picture, but they laugh too much!  Anyway it was a lovely weekend, and baby sister, Glenda has now joined us among the really big 0's.   

That rapidly decreasing yoke

That rapidly decreasing yoke and I are not on friendly terms right now.  Not at all.  I am seriously miffed at it.  

I got to the round with two decreases and everything seemed to be going great.  I had a vision of finishing by the end of the movie I was watching.  As I started the next round, everything fell apart.

Apparently my decreases are wrong.  I have stitches that look like this, 

when they ought to look like this.  See?  I know.  It is subtle.  Two stitches of black where there ought to be one.  Any other time you could do a quick row below correction and go on.

But not in colourwork.  In colourwork, particularly this, where the decrease needed to take two black stitches down to one, and where I put my decrease instead, mean that there simply isn't enough of the main yarn te ease in to make nice stitches.  What I have here, results in the blorfy bit extra in the stitch of the row above.  It only appears because the row below is so tight.  Taking back the row to make it right is going to be the better option, certainly the only nice looking option.

What it means is that this very large project is accompanying me on my travels.  I cannot leave it behind to stew in its own juices because if I do, it stands a very good chance of being consigned to the pit of despair, aka that corner of the WIPS where things sit till I 'feel' like correcting them.  And I really want to see this sweater through in one fell swoop. 

Stopping mid stream with problems is too often what happens to good sweaters around here.

Like my Granito, which is sitting, forlorn

since August of last year when I had to start knitting on very large shawls for gifts.

Like a sweater for Amy that has been sitting because it is in the wrong yarn.  I am fixing that next week.

The right yarn appeared and is waiting for me at the store.  This one has to happen next because.  Just because.

I have a strong sense that if I get this one lone round tinked and corrected, everything else will go smoothly.  Right?

Right.

But there is always more to see

And do!  After yesterday's sorry tale, I bring you a much cheerier story this morning.

 

I have finished motif number 3 and am on the last of the 3 motifs in this lovely design.  What brings on this sudden speedy bout of knitting, you ask.  A rapidly decreasing yoke is the answer.  

There is more to it than that though.  On this last motif and through to the end, there are only two colours in my plan and not needing to manage that third colour changes everything. Plus the design is very simple here, having come down to alternating two colours by two stitches or four depending on the row.  Simple pattern, faster knitting.

I am very much looking forward to the end of the yoke though.  Much as I  enjoy this process, I am looking forward to the plain knitting on the body.  The Brier starts this weekend and curling and plain knitting make for ...plain knitting and curling.  And just after the Brier ends, there is world Women's curling followed by World Men's, and World Mixed Doubles curling way far in late April.  Which is after the Formula one season begins in late March.

It's a good thing I have sweaters to knit.  Always more to see. Always more knitting to do. 

A Tale of Woe

Today I bring you a tale of woe.  It is a tale brought home to me by my own stupidity and lack of care. 

I have a big popcorn barrel thing that belonged to Brian.  He never ever used it because if you were making popcorn at our house,  it wasn't big enough.  We used this giant bread bowl, that I used to mix up 10 to 12 loaves of bread at a time for a popcorn bowl. 

I recall one time we had company over to watch a movie.  I pulled out the popcorn jar, a large 5 litres jar, recovered from my restaurant days.  My kitchen compatriot started laughing almost uncontrollably.  The gentlemen came from the living room to find out what she found so funny.  And then I took out the bowl.  

They had never seen so much popcorn in one sitting in their life, but like all popcorn in our house, before you could blink, the bowl was empty.  Anyway, a namby pamby pop like the pot of popcorn you buy at a theatre was never going to cut it. 

So that popcorn pot was used for some kitchen knitting.  Till he died, that kitchen knitting stayed in the kitchen.  It was large enough to hold a small project, needles, yarn, and pattern and even the pen so I had no excuse not to mark off where I was on the pattern.  Since then that goofy pot has been hauled around with me and has graced my book case right along with my books and whatever else was on those shelves and it has always been stored open. That pot became a sort of memory of  popcorn times, such good silly sweet memories.  It just always came with me, stored open.

And that is where my tale of woe and stupidity begins.  It was in my room, stored open, during the great moth event that started with my swatch board.  I checked the knitting in the pot every once in a while, and it always appeared in good condition.  When I moved here that pot of knitting sat on a shelf in my study, again always open, being shifted and moved as shelf space warranted.  

But I haven't worried too much about moths here.  Number one, all my floors are hard surface, a bit of laminate but mostly vinyl flooring.  It is so much easier to keep dust free and clean and I became a little complacent.  There was a point in fall where I was caught several moths in the pheromone traps, but I traced that to a large metal vase that was tucked into Keith's closet.  It had an old woolen hat of Brian's in it.  Once I got rid of that hat and cleaned up everything, we were once again, moth free.  

I have been thinking of my pot and my kitchen knitting as I am working on this colourwork sweater.  I was thinking it might be fun to do a post on big and little colourwork and how the big project, the sweater, was actually the little colourwork project and how my kitchen knitting, a small pair of mittens, was a huge colourwork undertaking.  

So I merrily pulled out the popcorn pot and pulled off a doily that had been tossed on top and pulled out the knitting. 

 It wasn't attached to the yarn balls.  

You know how sometimes when a thing is so surprising that it is hard to take in, and how you kind of sit there bemused for a moment before the realisation of just what is going on has hit you.  Yeah.

It was only seconds till I realised that my kitchen knitting had indeed come under attack somewhere along the lines. I haven't seen moths for months but at some point, there was activity there.  I pulled out the needles, and took yarn and mitten cuff and tossed them in the oven to bake for a while.  After a morning baking, I tossed them in the freezer for a couple hours.  That sudden shock of temperature change is as important as any other technique to make sure you have a good kill.  

My kitchen project was a pair of Deep in the Forest Mittens by Tuulia Salmela that I started in January of 2012.  So much was going on at that point in our lives.  Brian had just had his first knee surgery and that spring I started working a full time mat leave temp job that took me through to the our last spring.  I made pretty good progress through that summer and fall.  The project was set aside what with everything else, including my dear Sweet Thing, Cassandra being born, but I always meant to finish it.  It always remained on my radar and was never very far from my thoughts.

I am going to wind the now bug free balls of yarn on my ball winder to see what the damage is on the yarn balls themselves.  Steady tension between the swift and winder and keeping a hand running along the fibres should help me assess whether the yarn is salvageable. If it is, I will restart someday, probably with this same yarn.  If not, well,  I have plenty of other yarn.

One thing I am sure of.  I won't be so careless again, not even in this hard floored house that generally stays cleaner than any place else I have lived in before. Everything in secure storage.  Everything.

But that is my tale of woe for you today, woe and popcorn and sweet memories because of it all.  But not sweet memories of the moths.  No I pretty much hate the moths.    

  

A KonMari Kind of Thing

First off, Thank you for the comments on my Shalom sweater.  Yes, it is a faux cardigan, and it is wonderful and  much less fussy than a cardigan for wearing all day.  I love the gold orange crimson combination of the yarn!  Oranges and golds are not colours I can wear easily unless I use them like this and it is such great yarn.

A family member has a friend who is going stir crazy, in small town Alberta, who doesn't drive and who would really love to knit a few things to keep busy.  She is using your basic yarn that she can get at Walmart, but not driving, it is really difficult to get to local yarn stores for decent yarn.  My daughter in law, asked if I might have something she could have or buy.

Yes, of course, but... My gut reaction is always anguish when I think about selling yarn.  I am rather emotionally tied to it, in the same way that I am tied emotionally to knitting and I can never quite decide if that is a good thing or not.  I do know that when someone I know needs it for a project, I am delighted to contribute. It is such a pleasure seeing how it gets used and if I have learned anything in the last few years, I have learned that it is all just stuff. Even knowing this, my inner voice says, 'but I have plans for it.  I can use it.  I need it.' 

The town garage sale is coming up in May and I have been going through all kinds of things.  Why not the yarn?   Sure all of it was purchased with a project and an intention in mind, but there are lots of yarns that are on the back burner, and will remain on the back burner for a good long time to come.  I did go through a lot of it just after I moved, but it didn't result in much of a pile.  One small box.  But going through the yarn and letting go of what I love a bit less might have a different purpose in my life. Having yarn on a table during the town garage sale might be a really great way to out the knitters in my small town.  So far as I can tell, we are not a force at all in this neck of the woods.

So, all day yesterday, I went through yarns.  I KonMari'ed my way through many boxes asking did I really love this yarn?  Did it bring me joy? The answer is always yes, but I also asked myself if I would use it if I was looking for a yarn to make generic mittens or generic hats or to experiment with something or other.  If the original project is no longer clear in my head and I wouldn't use it for play,  is loving yarn because it is yarn, enough? 

Putting yarns on the pile got easier and easier through the day as I became more confident in my choices.  Morning light is the real clear tell.  I looked at what I had sorted this morning and there isn't anything on that pile that I would take back.  

I have more boxes to go through today and I am kind of looking forward to it.  It isn't a huge pile by my whole stash standards, but it is far larger than I ever thought it would be.  I'm kind of looking forward to see what today's adventures bring.    

 

Motif Number Two

I knit all Saturday afternoon on the colourwork yoke. Then I knit about 6 more rows on Sunday.  By Sunday at noon, there was a point where my hands said whoa.  Instead of carrying on like my heart's desire, I stopped. Sunday afternoon was long.

Terribly long.

But I am glad I paid attention to my hands because today, they are fine and there will be knitting.

I should show you the knitting.  I am so pleased.

It looks pretty crunched together, but I can stretch it out nicely so I think I am not worried about it.  Well, maybe a little.,  That is what I do, but I think the biggest reason that it currently looks so crunched is the difference in the weight of the yarns.  I think they will be fine once everything is blocked.  Maybe. I'm focusing on that thought.  I already have an innovative way to sort it out.   Let's hope I never have to try out that innovation.

As the title of this post mentions I am almost at the top of this motif.  I think I have half a round left with the red and then only the black is used for a few rows.  Then there is a 4 or 5 row section with a bit of the red, and then If I recall correctly, there is only black colourwork remaining.  

The other exciting thing is that just at the end of this motif, is the first decrease set.  At first glance, it looks like there cannot possibly be enough decreases, being only one decrease per chart repeat at this point.  However, then you look at the number of repeats, and yeah.  There are enough.  And that is really good, since I have already started the second ball of the main colour.  I need there to start being fewer stitches so that I have more rows of this main colour on the body after the underarms.  

I could start worrying about the last of this main colour ending at that awkward place at my bosom, but I won't.   Because there are so many other things to worry about.

Please note, the worry I describe here is part of the fun of my knitting.  Figuring out where all this stuff ends and goes to and how things fit:  these are part of the pleasure of doing them, part of the challenge.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  That is life without a pattern perfectly described all in one simple sweater.