WWSIPD

Half the week is gone and I did not talk about our adventures for WWSIPD better known as World Wide Spin in Public Day.  

Last year we had a small gathering here in Mundare, well attended though the weather was awful.  It snowed and left piles of slush on roadways.  People thought about turning back and going home but came anyway.  

This year there was a smaller group, but conversation was lovely.  We talked weaving and spinning and a wee bit of knitting.

I had to compliment this really lovely Sock Arms sweater.  It was the perfect thing for the sort of blustery, sunny day that it was.  Very pretty.  Catherine is spinning a batt of alpaca, silk and wool, I think she said BFL, but I can't really recall, and is aiming for socks for this yarn.  She is going to three ply it for a tough,sturdy round yarn that will stand up to a socks wear and tear.

Another lady joined us from about 40 minutes north of Mundare and brought her lovely wheel.  

Lindsay calls this her fire wheel, as in the wheel she would throw in the car if she had to evacuate for a fire. I would too.  It's from 1863, and was made in Norway.  It is quite an unusual wheel but there are a few around.  It is a double drive wheel and Lindsay certainly made it sing. The only down side is that she only has two bobbins so spinning and moving your singles to a storage bobbin is a must.  She was working on a dark coloured fleece of an indeterminate origin sheep that her sister found for her and delivered all carded and ready to spin.  

I forgot to take a picture of what I was working on.  Lest you wonder if I was a bystander, I was spinning.  

This is from the second of two braids Falkland wool top from  Colour Adventures,  about halfway done.  This will be a two play, nice and lofty I hope and ought to be about a double knit weight yarn.  but I am looking forward to getting this done, clearing off the bobbins and starting to spin wht I have been combing all winter.  Mittens?  Hats?  Maybe a cowl.  It is such pretty blues.  

We had several people stop by to chat, particularly one elderly gent who grew up in New Zealand and had sheared sheep in his youth.  He said his mother used to get yarn back from the mill in return for the fleece which she would weave or knit for clothing and blankets, but he had never seen hand spinning before and was really happy to know people still did that kind of thing.  Another lady stopped who was a weaver.  She said she used handspun in many things over the years but she didn't do much anymore.  There were kids watching too and several gentlemen who were fascinated by the way the wheel worked and what it was actually doing.  

You just never know what sorts of stories you will hear when you sit and spin out in the world.  There is always a lot of interest.  

I really enjoy that little bit of social spinning and knitting that we do at Baba's Attic.  It is such a perfect little shop and they are so kind to host us and feed us.  If you are ever out and about and need a good feed of some great homemade perogies, come to Mundare. Let me know and I would pop down for coffee too.   

And that was Spin in Public Day 2019.  Looking forward to next year!

Vests!

Well one at least. There is work happening

I did rip back everything I did the other day sitting at laundromat.  I judt did not like the way the arm looked.  It didn't have enough room at the base of the armscye.  I pulled the book out and did exactly what it said and it worked perfectly.  Funny how that happens.  

There may have to be some changes.  The pattern arm is just under 10 inches.  That may be a bit long for dad.  It isn't  a difficult fix to shorten  it .  

Today I'm working on the back section but I hope to make good orogress and be almost done it by days end.  If I work hard I can look forward to finishing by the weekend. 

I'm also babysitting sick kids.  Who are well enough to get in trouble.  Wish me luck with the knitting plans.

A little whining, a little wool

It's race weekend.  Dad's vest my experience a bit of a slow down.  The vest, with the careful counting it will need for a bit is not a good F1 race weekend project.  I will try to knit on it during the times when I am not watching the race stuff.  

I did knit on the vest yesterday while I was waiting for my large items to be done at the laundromat but I had forgotten the book at home.  I have to sit down and compare what I did to what I ought to have done.  I knit but I may end up ripping most of it back.  It seems to wide at the shoulder and dad is a small boned leanly muscled man.  I want it to be a little narrower there than most of the vests show on Ravelry.  Too wide in the shoulders and it won't be the trim sort of vest he always wears.   

Knitting will happen but it isn't going to be so much as I would usually do.  I 've got  crick in my hip that feels best if I keep moving about and if I sit very very straight on a hard chair.  The conundrum is I have to keep moving about which means sewing enough to get done a project isn't going to happen,  weaving a lot isn't going to happen, with not a lot of knitting getting done due to the constantly moving nature of this ache.  And that is all it is.  An ache that just needs to heal up a bit and go back to normal.  It leaves me feeling unsettled as well as feeling unaccomplished.

Wandering from here to there, sitting only for short spells means I am getting up and down, leaving browser windows open on the computer, clicking things and going places I don't usually go.   Some of these things and places are really interesting like yesterdays Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.    Today's find is UllCentrum , a Swedish online store that actually has that rare thing, Z twisted yarns!  It is rare to find some place that has it.  

So there you have it.  One find for the day and that is it for me.  Honest, there will be photos soon.  I just need to actually accomplish something enough to take a photo of it.  At least when Marcus and Cassie or Carter, Isaac, and Emmett are here, there are fun things to show you instead of knitting.  

Just for fun, a little Marcus because he was here last and he is modelling his new Paw Patrol Eyepatch,  which is pretty cool according to him.  And a little dirt by his mouth because even when you wash his face, it is his natural state.

A found day

I have already had a full day and it is only 8 a.m.  I got up prepared to run my errands and then to babysit this afternoon.  I did a couple loads of laundry before I left my room (the laundry is in my ensuite) and made some coffee and sat down to see what was up with the world today.  But no babysitting. Their daddy has succumbed to back to school flu, which changes everything. Not only did I do laundry already today and make coffee, but I now had to make large decisions. That is a lot before the coffee is done.

I did a fair bit of knitting yesterday on the vest for dad.  It is looking pretty fine, if I do say so myself.  Today I will be starting work on the yoke of the vest, which I expect to go fairly quickly.  The vest fronts with a shallow v neckline and comfortable sized arm openings, mean many fewer stitches.  

I want to knit section one, then the back and then the second front and in order to keep all the decreases the same on all the parts, I am going to have to go find my marker stash.  I have a  little emptied out mint box full of the little bulb markers somewhere, but I am not so sure which where.  Pictures will be much more interesting now.

Which where.  Isn't that the sort of phrasing that teachers would stamp out in an instant if they could?  I've been reading a book on the English language, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue which delightfully illustrates what we would lose if teachers could stamp it out.  

And then, in honour of today being International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I came across this delightfully piratical offering, the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.  Interesting and delightfully rougueish reading.

  

I am off to do some heavy laundry that doesn't fit into my small machines. I shall sit and knit and listen to interesting books.  A found day ought not to be wasted.

Weaving

I dug my way into the spare room, aka the loom room, and did  bit of work on my problematic battens and reeds.

I read everything that I could find online and yes everything was indeed being put together right, though there are some swinging beaters out there with a wingnut to hold the battens together. Mine is a simpler nut.  This is a good thing because I do not have enough hands to hold everything together and tighten up the nut and a wingnut besides. 

It took a while to get it together again.  Putting it all in place with a warp through the reed is awkward to say the least.  But this time, I made certain to tighten up the nuts holding the reed in place till the nut wouldn't turn any farther.  

And then I sat down to weave, just to see if I could. I took photos of the nuts before I started and about halfway through just to see if they are still loosening off like they were before.  That seems to be the trouble everyone has with this beater, that the nut loosens after very little work.  I wanted to see if the ultra tightening would make a difference.

 Before

After

  

No significant difference after weaving about half of the second dishcloth.  So I kept going till I ran out of filled bobbins for my shuttle.  I checked the nuts again after I was done and still no movement.

It was a pretty good days effort all in all.

The only problem I have right now, is that I cannot seem to loosen the little suckers at all.  They are good and tight.  I have no doubt that more weaving will change this.  At least I hope so, or it is going to be a problem if I want to weave up some Zephyr  and need to change the reed.  

Places I go while sitting still.

There are so many things I want to do.  I sometimes feel as if  no matter how many days there are, I don't have enough. I am greedy for days to try all the things I want to do, to express all the things I want to express through the work of my hands, even if no one but me understands just what it is that piece of work says,  even if no one else feels a handmade thing says anything at all,  even if it is a journey no one but me goes on, sitting there in my chair.

All last week, while studiously working on my knitting, I thought about embroidery.  I have several pieces on my walls and have ideas for more. So many more.  I was thinking about pulling out all my embroidery books today just for fun.  I cannot imagine not being deeply inspired by Trish Burr's intensity and sure hand in her lovely work (See her website too) or the delicate touch of Kazuko Aoki .  

I think that is what I am looking for today.  Inspiration.  I am looking to go on a journey in my head rather than sitting stuck in what I am doing.  I may not be much of a real world traveler, but I go miles, many, many miles, while my hands are busy.  

The vest is in the middle of the body and is very back and forth and mindless.  I am trying not to think of knitting other things so I can stay happily focussed and busy knitting this project but I still crave the inspiration of the journey to something else, somewhere else.    

Monogamy

any person who checks out my Ravelry project will  note that there are a lot of WIPs.  A lot.  Sixteen if you include the Sock Parade. (Which I do, but I kill it every year and start over)  Project monogamy is a big thing here at Chez Needles.

It makes a difference though.

Dad's vest is coming in at just shy, a half a row shy, of 12 inches.  The vest pattern  from a Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd says 14 inches for a medium mens vest.  That may be a little long for dad.  He was never tall and now that he is 90, he is no taller than I. Well, maybe an inch, but that is it.  Longer is better in my books.  That way the chill cannot climb up your back when you sit.

I love this yarn though.  It is so soft and tweedy.  No one could ever say its scratchy at all.  This is wool for the fussy people of the world who need wool.  Not that dad is fussy, but mom is.  In her world wool is itchy.  

My world is a wool is not itchy sort of world and that makes me happy.  I can wear Einband at my neck.  I am sturdy or weird, your pick.  Quality wool generally doesn't bother me.  I'm just lucky like that.

In a week where I hopped to be sewing and knitting, I am knitting and babysitting.  My daughter in law had organized a caretaker while she took some classes, but it did not work out and she asked if I could come and take care of them.  

So I am knitting, but it is early starts and full days.  It isn't like they are small anymore, but still I am out of my element.  My work sits and waits for me as householder tasks always do.  Like dishes, only a broader range of tasks.

I will try to take some photos later of where the vest is at.  It is the one thing I am taking with me each day.  Good for project monogamy!  

A little sewing

Way back in spring,way way back, I talked about sewing some new things.  I think I even talked bout it last October when I got some very pretty plaid for some 3/4 length sleeved tops.

All that fabric has been sitting waiting for me to work on it.  I was sick of my clothes then and I am even more sick now. Plain t shirts matched my mood for a very long time, plus they were cheap and sturdy.  but they are not the me who remains.  They are not me now. 

I have been thinking of sewing while I knit.  I have been thinking of sewing as I fall asleep, leading to dreaming of new clothes.  I think more of clothes now than I did when I was 16.  As soon as dad's vest is close to done, sewing is going to commence. 

Nice soft easy shapes, stretchy fabrics with beautiful drape.  Some of it at least.    I have fabric for pants, some knit, some soft medium weight linens, some sturdy cottons.  I've even been thinking of skirts. 

I think very differently about sewing now than I did before.  I have sewn since I was 14 so I know the basics  (I do not always do the basics...), but my thinking about shapes and ease and form and fit is so very different now since I learned how to knit a shape that fits me well.  I have a different approach and a different kind of confidence.

Very shortly some of this pretty stuff is going to be sewn by me.  Wearable or not, is yet to be determined, but it will be sewn.

Starting more

I have been thinking of knitting a vest for my dad for a good long while. Several years, in fact. I had kind of decided against it because mom would have to wash it and she hates wool.  I was telling my sister about a conversation I had with my dad on one of the few brutally hot days we had.  He said it was the first time he had been warm in a long time. 

That meant the vest was back on.  My sister said she would wash it for him, though we both agreed that a ninety year old man rarely gets dirty enough that a vest, worn over a shirt, would need washing more than once or twice a season. 

So my sister and I went looking for yarn.  I told her the kind of thing I thought would be nice and showed her a few things as we came to them.  We talked about colours and since she sees him much more often than I do, I went with what she thought.  I thought that it needed to be a basic thing, something tweedy and not solidly coloured.  I showed her some stunning blue Rios.  She thought it was a little too bright, but not bad.  She wondered off while I thought about how much I would need and then she called and asked about some yarn she found. 

She scored.

She found Friday Harbor from Cascade Yarns.  It's a new yarn I think, with only five projects on Ravelry, but it is a stunner. It is 80% merino and 20 % silk and oh my goodness.  Once I saw it I knew it was right.

I started this after supper Saturday and knit a good portion of the ribbing.  I knit on it this morning while watching the F1 race from Monza and did very well. 

Friday Harbor is a lovely smooth yarn, warm in your hands and a bit of that dry feeling from the silk but it is so soft and is a perfect sort of gentle tweed for dad.  It is knitting up wonderfully fast, which is great because I really would like this project done before it gets desperately cold.

I am using the basic vest pattern from Ann Budd's  Knitter's Handy Book of patterns, one of my favourite go to books.  The yarn will speak in this project and besides, dad is not  fancy vest sort of guy.  Simple is exactly right.

On Coats

Well gosh darn it.  I had a post in my head, was ready to write and then started watching an episode of Rumpole of the Bailey and forgot all about it.  If you have never watched Rumpole, you ought.  I went to bed awash in the complexity of the stories and in amazement that the two episodes I watched remain absolutely relevant today even though the stories were produced in 1978. 

Yesterday was a waiting day.  I was waiting for a call back that never came.  And that is ok.  But I am still waiting today for that return call.  In the meantime I am knitting.  

I started by opening bins of WIPs and picked up my jacket.  I ordered a deep grey yarn to do the colour blocking this jacket will need and then started knitting.

I knit and knit and then wouldn't  you know it.  The ball of yarn ran out.  So I measured. It's  actually just about what I hoped for.  The green ran out right about 3/4 of the way down my arm.  I may extend it a bit longer but that will have to wait to see just how much green yarn I need on the body.  Since I only had one skein allotted for the sleeve, I put the stitches on a holder and picked up for sleeve two.

As you can see, the sleeve is huge.  It looks particularly odd because the width of the coat is pulled together on its holder so the center looks small and the sleeves, weird.  It is perfect though.  I want this coat to fit better over the top of another sweater.  The roomy sleeve means minimal pulling as I put it on, and no binding as I move.  Everything about this sweater is made to be an outer layer, a coat.

I don't  know  why but moving to sleeve two has been such a boost.  I felt as if completing sleeve one  is confirmation that this sweater will get done.  I will get by till it is done, but I do need it.  

I have been using an Argo sweater that I knit several years ago for my outer garment, 

but it does have issues when using it as a coat.  The sleeves are a bit short and it isn't quite roomy enough for over top other layers.  It's a perfectly marvelous sweater though, made from the warmest locally produced yarn (Custom Woollen Mills Mule Spinner) and I wear it as much in my house as I wear it outside.  It's difficult to explain just how much I love my Argo other than intensive use.  It isn't a great coat though.  It's just an acceptable over layer and I want more and better.

There are five skeins of dark grey Macausland's yarn  on order and five skeins of this green left.  It seems like a lot.  It well may be, knowing my deep seated fear of running out.  I meant to order four grey but I found myself telling the lady five.  I guess I will have lots now to if I decide to make the hood I've been thinking about and plenty for the generous button bands. 

 I hope.

Did you hear that?

That noise?  That loud and frightful screech that could only be a creature in deep distress?  

Or me, trying to weave.

I had some trouble getting going but then started to feel more in charge of the thing.  Not everything was perfect, but this is a dishcloth.  I just need to to get weaving. 

I thought I was doing pretty well even though I seem to have missed one reed space.  It isn't going to compromise a dishcloth.  Later I noticed that there is one place where I have two warp threads on the same shaft, but again, not going to be a real problem on a dishcloth.  I made both ends with a crochet cotton so that I could sew a sturdy proper hem and not have it be so heavy.  

If you look carefully above, you can see that the bottom batten is not on the reed.  Look for a dark blue straight edge near the top of the photo.  That is the bottom of the reed and ought to be encased in a frame made of wood.  Mine kept falling off. I checked more than once that it was seated properly and it was.  You could not get it any farther into the frame than the wood is cut.  That was the trouble getting started.  I decided that I really did not need that piece.  It wasn't attached other than by friction fitting and since it kept falling off, ha, I was going to ignore it.  And I wove.

And then this.

The top of the reed fell out.  

I replaced it...'eighteen... times 'to quote the brilliant and much missed Robin Williams, in his ever so funny piece about the invention of golf. (Please don't click the link unless you do not mind a bit of rough language.)  I think of this because that is exactly how I felt after the fourth of fifth time. There was language.

And then I decided that I had done enough for the day, that it was time to go to the manuals to see if the parts were put together correctly (they are), to see if I could find some help on ravelry and to have another cup of coffee.  

And then I noticed it was 1 p.m.  I ate some lunch.  I did some knitting.  

If anyone says that knitting cannot soothe the savage beast, they are wrong.

Does gauge lie?

And because I m too lazy to do anything else, a sweater knitting update.

I really like how this is working out, but I am going to have to take it off needles and put it on a holder so I can see what I have.

I have started decreases but honestly, this is a stressful way of knitting. My nerves are shot.  What if it doesn't fit even now?  Eeep.  I mean, I know there is math and gauge and everything says it will be fine, but I have trouble believing it.

Gauge lies sometimes.  I worry.

Go North

I am here. Now.

I wasn't here last week.  I was there.

There was a lovely little rustic cabin in Northern Saskatchewan, not too far from Prince Albert National Park at Anglin Lake.  Northern is debatable.  It is not even an hour north of Prince Albert, but once you leave that little city, you really are north.  My sister knew of it and did the arranging.  I would love to go back and just sit and knit on the lovely little deck.

Because it was pretty much the same distance from here to the lake direct, versus a stop in Saskatoon, I did stop and start my trip in Saskatoon.  It gave me a chance to visit the lovely yarn store there, Prairie Lily, and pick up some yarn for a couple projects for the fall.  More on that as I work them up.

And I knit.  I had two projects along, but I found the blanket was my best bet. 

For the dimensions I want, I am almost halfway there.  I worried about how my hands would cope, but seriously, so long as I am mindful about keeping my hands relaxed, and not let them go to the grip of death, I am fine.  Big needles.  Who knew?!!

My trip also included  side trip to our old farm, which is once again, lived on and at by a new family.  I am so happy about that.  It is really wonderful to see it with a lovely new home and kids and a wee doggie.  It was nice to see the changes in the community and still to feel like it was, at the heart of it,  the place I remember.  It was sad and happy and more than a little nostalgic.

Back to routine today.  Back to errands that should have been done last week, like the plates for my car.  Little stuff like that.  And knitting.  Lots and lots of lovely knitting to do.

Taking myself to school.

By now everyone knows about the fiscal troubles of the last owners of the company that published Interweave magazine and many others.  It is getting sorted out but in the meantime, I thought I should do a backup of all the video and other digital product that I purchased from them over the years.  As I was doing my review and backups, I was reminded that last fall, when there was a really good sale price on, I purchased several videos about weaving and spinning.  I had kind of forgotten I had them, so it was a nice surprise.

Now that school is almost back on, and that life should settle down for a bit, and that I am working to change the way I use my time, taking a video class seemed like a good way to begin.  I started watching a basic weaving class hosted by Tom Knisely .  This is a really nice beginner class and has already been well worth it.  

I had the loom warped at one time and had woven an couple inches.There were errors  I wanted to correct before I got too far so I cut it off to repair.  Cutting it off wasn't my original intention, but I couldn't see how else to resolve it.  I had planned on sorting it out with repair heddles but they did not work as well as I hoped.  Too bad I had not watched the video before now.  I could do it now with minimal trouble. Ah well.  

Over time and what with the grandkids being curious about the loom, it all sort of got messed up and I just covered it with a blanket and wished it away.  

A few weeks ago, I decided I was just going to do dishcloths which is what I really need right now, and could worry about towels when I was a wiser and smarter weaver.  Then my recent conversation with frazzledknitter helped me sort out what I needed to do to make it happen and here we are, ready to go, all tied up nice and firmly, so nothing will happen till I get to the weaving.  Which will commence next week.  The plan is working!

It was nice to begin this little adventure by taking myself to school. It is the time of year when stretching your brain is good.  Mine got a real workout today and I feel fresh and invigorated and tired, but the good kind of tired.  

Meandering Myrtle

I am not sure what happened to Friday.  I meant to post but it was late Saturday when I realized that Friday was missing and at that point, that knowing Thursday was there, was enough.

It wasn't the quiet weekend I had thought it would be.  No sleeping in at this house.  A certain young man was feeling a little hesitant about being up early all alone and needed grandma to get up to keep him company.  So grandma got up at 4:52 a.m.  Sigh.  The kids came for a quick overnite while mommy and daddy had some grownup time.  I appreciate that grownup need time too. I really really do.  I remember the way my mom and dad stood in when we needed them.  They were always there for Brian and I and the kids. Grandma's time will come when small children no longer need grandma as is the way of things.

Still, I got a lot of knitting done.  

I am so please with the way it is going.  I knit the first couple inches straight and just did the first set of decreases at the sides.  I can see how much more math dependant knitting from the bottom up is.  When you knit top down, the rate of decreases matters less.  You just keep going till you have it to fit, but this...this is requires that I know row gauge and that I know how long I want the finished sweater to be, so that decreases can be in the right place.  

Sure, I am knitting a pattern, but as usual, I also have to fit me.  I simply cannot follow the pattern. I am not built that way.  I'm also not knitting the pattern gauge.  The yarn is lace weight in the pattern.  My yarn is a sprotweight.  Very different gauges as well as the different dimensions mean math and bottom up, means much more attention needs to be paid to that math.  

But my interpretation of Myrtle is well under way and all is very good.

PS, I am knitting this off of cones of yarn meant for weavers. Up till this afternoon in the heat of the day, I wasn't aware of the oil that is usually put into coned yarns.  As I put it away for the evening, the oil smell was there and I noticed that my hands are so wonderfully soft.  I can't rub my eyes though.      

I am tired.  Maybe it is a leftover from the kids, but I have had a couple days now.  You would think I would be close to well rested.  But no.  I had a nap after lunch that I did not mean to take and I have been feeling thick headed ever since.  

There hasn't been any knitting activity.  Seeing how fall is so close to here, I decided that it was a good time to do a deep clean.  Two rooms, no, make it three, are substantially done but for cleaning the floors and having the walls washed.  I'm going to get someone to do that for me.  I am not a good bet climbing ladders anymore.  The laundry is also done.  

And my ginger is half done.  I have had some lovely fresh ginger for a couple days now, and with my thick head, it seemed like a good time to get it ready for hot tea in case a cold should decide to come along.

You know,I have been sitting here, feeling like I didn't accomplish anything today, but I did.  I did a lot.  And I think I am good with that.

Yay me.   I will find a way to fit some knitting in tomorrow.  I need to knit like I need to breathe.

And Away We Go

After finding the yarn and needles, I took the time to cast on my version of Myrtle.  What you see here is the ribbing...of the bottom edge.

Yesirree, Myrtle is a bottom up sweater and wouldn't you know it, I have to go and fall in love with a bottom up sweater, when for months I have been fearing knitting from the bottom up.  My fondness for Myrtle is more powerful  than my worry about not being able to try it on as I go.  Yes I could have changed it all to knit a variation from the top down.  I did think of that a lot, but sometimes, the answer is to just boldly and blindly jump in at the deep end.  I did the calculation based on my gauge swatch in the lace pattern and cast on that amount of stitches.  If the ribbing is too tight, I can pop it off and re-knit it later.  It is much more important that the lace body fit right. 

It was going well, and I cannot begin to say how nice it is to work with wool again after a summer of bast fibres, but as the photo shows, the ribbing is black.  I would still like to be knitting it, but even my very well lit (big light in ceiling fan) living room is not lit well enough for black.  Time to do something else.

So, here I am, doing the writing in the evening.  I'm am seriously going to work harder to do this in the evenings regularly.  Mornings are very natural for me to write, but it takes a lot of time.   I want to work hard to build a better routine for myself and mornings, being my best and most energetic period of the day, are very important to making and keeping new routines.    I need mornings for other important things, like weaving and spinning the mass of fibre I have.  And sewing.  I am developing a larger stash of fabric than I have room for. 

Knitting is easy.  I will always knit.  Since those epic days when I first understood knitting, I knit through the highest points of my life and the darkest lowest days.  Knitting is like coming home to something safe and comfortable and cozy.  I will always knit. 

All the other stuff, is work of a sort.  It is work that I dearly want to do, and to understand at its most basic level, but it is work none the less.  The things that are work are things I need to trick myself into doing, to force myself out of my comfort zone. My friend and I were talking about this today while spinning and I think starting with her suggestion of small increments of  weaving and spinning, done early in the day when my head is clear and my will is strong, ably abetted by coffee/tea will be a sensible place to start. 

Sewing is easier.  When I have no pants, I will sew. 

I was sort of planning all this a while ago and then kids came for a summer vacation, and shortly after that, they came while their mom was doing family things far, far away, and my plans of changing my routine just never really got off the ground.  Now these things are done, and I am here back to just me and it is time.

Just like Myrtle, I need to jump straight in with both feet.  If you hear screaming, ignore it.  It is just the sound of me conquering my little fears. 

Treasure Found!

I didn't find the bag of yarn for Myrtle yesterday.  I thought it was going to simply be the case of looking in one of three places I may have tucked it, but nope.  Not in any of those places.  I looked in all of the weird places i may have put it thinking I wasn't going to be needing it for a while, but no.  I checked its source box in the stash.  No. I gave up and knit on the blanket.  

This morning, on my way back from spinning, I decided the next place to look was under things that it could have gotten stuck under.   I looked under chairs, a very plausible hiding place because of the long skirts.  I looked under the loveseat.  I looked under its matching chair.  I looked under every piece of furniture in my study and bedroom.  Nope.  

So then I went back to the livingroom to tuck my various bags of projects back to  beside the sofa  and there, jammed between shelf and sofa back, but not tucked under anything, was my bag of cones.  

There will be knitting here today.

Just like that.

And just like that, the kids are back home and within the hour, their mom will be arriving at the airport.  I will miss the kids whole bunches.  I will miss tea with Cassie after Marcus is in bed.  I will miss looking at Pinterest with her and her giggling.  I will miss having to tell Marcus his bedtime Paw Patrol story where he corrects me and tells me where I'm telling it wrong.  I will miss his ardent interest in everything and his cute stubbornness and determination to figure it out himself.  I will miss his giggles when he gets a case of the sillies. Till the next time.  

What I won't miss is the noise and the sticky.  Honestly, everything in my house is sticky and I don't always understand why.  If I could touch my ceiling, I am pretty sure it would be sticky too. It should be noted that the landlord...well, survived.  He was just starting a new job and I was concerned but he made it. He loves his niece and nephews, do not mistake that, but he loves them more when he gets to go to their house to play with them.

I am sure I will find socks, and underwear stuck under things in their bedroom, and I am sure there is at least one toy left behind, but it will all get sorted in time.  For now, all I really want to find is my knitting.

I said that I was going to start Myrtle, and I meant to.  I cannot find the bag with the swatch, the needles and the yarn.  It is here somewhere but I just don't know where.  

I have been snoozing since the kids left with their dad left and now I am going on a serious quest, a yarn quest. Because I really deserve something new to knit.

 

Ta Daaaaaaaa

Ta Daaaaa

It isn't striking looking at all.  It's really rather plain and simple but let me tell you, it is the most wonderful thing to have on your head and neck.  It is going to be just right for wearing in the car on chilly winter mornings.  It is long enough to have a puddle of cowl at your neck when you have it pulled up on your head, but not so long that when you have it all down around your neck, it is too much fabric for comfort.

It is just the perfect thing.

There is some yarn left.

Not enough to do anything serious with, but it may work for colourwork on mittens or sock tops.  Even though the yarns were very close in length, I wasn't at all surprised that I ran out of the Silk Cloud first.  The mohair silk blend doesn't have the same slight stretch that Adam and Eve has and its grabbiness meant that I was always consuming just a bit more the Silk Cloud.  

I used every single molecule of the gorgeous Silk Cloud, running out about halfway through the bind off.  I thought about pulling back, but this is an item for heavy winter use.  I didn't feel that it's use would be affected by the missing slight haze enough to warrant pulling back mohair.  I would rather tease out knots that go through pulling mohair back.

The kids and I did some experimenting last week.  Well, I did.  The kids painted letters for their rooms.  I painted some fabric.

Almost looks like a field with a distant horizon.  Needs a lot of work though.

When I lived in Spruce Grove, my friends there did all sorts of hand work.  They loved embroidery and some really splendid pieces.  We talked a lot about different kinds of embroideries and that reawakened my interest in the craft.  I purchased some really lovely books by Trish Burr and Kazuko Aoki and the life changing Embroidered Landscapes of Judy Wilford.

Most of the others are really just inspiration books, but this last was something I wanted, with my whole heart and soul. When I moved here to my small prairie town, to this house with it's lovely bright bay windows, I knew I could have it.  She uses silk chiffon overlays to colour her backgrounds, but finding silk chiffons in my price point is difficult so I had to cast around for other ideas.

Watercolours are proving the answer to my quest and this is my first test.  I've never been an artist, not by a long shot but I can do well enough to colour the back of distant landscapes.  Foreground embroidery will provide prairie detail.  There is going to be more experimenting with paint on fabric before I start working on the piece, but it is nice to know that I can get where I want even with my terribly small, non existent skillset.

For today though, I am knitting and it looks like an inside day so I have decided that I am going to treat myself and start a new sweater.

Myrtle, here I come.

Back on the back burner.

If you recall, a few weeks ago, I picked up my winter overcoat project and talked about needing more yarn.  I think I said that I ordered from Macauslands again.  This is such a distinctive yarn, unlike anything in my stash and I really wanted the character of the yarn to be the same all the way through my jacket.  The yarn arrived yesterday.

I had two prospective colours that I thought would give me what I wanted.  

I choose poorly. 

I didn't want to just choose black.  That is my fallback, but I didn't want to go there without trying something else.  I had two really good choices with the browns and I just picked the wrong one.  It is a beautiful foresty green brown heather with undertones of rusty red and is very pretty, but my yarn is a more teal brown heather. I felt that sticking to two heathered colours was the way to go.  But no.  

I did debate closing my eyes and knitting it, colour be darned, but I simply cannot do that.  

I went trolling through the colours on my sample card, keeping in mind that they are only samples, and found the colour that works the best with my colour is teal.  I'd be willing to bet they don't have teal in the three ply.  I'm also not sure that I want to have teal on my winter outer coat.  It would be striking in colourwork, but it isn't quite the look I want as colour blocks.

It feels like my current choices are going to be natural brown and black, if they have black.  (Not all colours are available in three ply at all times.)  Plus, I have to decide if I want to mail order again.  

Before I go weeping in my tea/coffee, this isn't all bad.  Not at all.  It is a strikingly pretty heathered yarn and is going to make something fantastic.   If it doesn't go for mittens and hats, it will be great as a warm vest or as a sweater for some little boy who thought he would like a heavy warm sweater for going to school in the fall. 

So the winter coat project is back on the back burner, till the right yarn comes.  The goal for next week is to put the oversweater to the forefront of my knitting.  There is a distinct chill in the morning air this morning, a reminder that summers end isn't that far away and that this particular sweater is becoming a need, rather than a want.

 

It is 6 o'clock in the morning and all is still and quiet.  That just doesn't happen a lot around here.  I don't want to disturb anyone so I am just going to stay very still and quiet and  type.

Very good progress on my little cowl.  It is such sumptuous knitting that it is easy to keep in my hand.  I've got it to about a third of the yarns used up, so I ought to be just right for stash dash,which finishes up on the 24th.  

These yarns are the perfect sort of pairing.  One is 325m and the other, just the very smallest bit less, clocking in at 300 m.  I'm just going to knit till it is all gone.

More of It.

Tuesday arrived in haste and yet, the day itself seemed long.  In the evening I had to check if it was actually Tuesday.  The kids are starting to struggle a little.  They don't realize just how much they miss momma but they fall apart for such little things.  Grandma is trying to give them the space they need to be sad.  It helps a bit when they talk to dad but right now, they just want mamma.

I wish yesterday had given me more knitting, but the lack of it may be why the day went on forever.  Today will be better.  Today there will be more knitting.

I don't know how it looks to you but it feels marvelous.  Still like kittens.  I think part of what I was disatisfied about was how strong the much lighter colour of the silk thread is than the Adam and Eve.  

My original vision of these two yarns was all about the ghost of the silvery warm haze on the surface and I think I just wasn't quite prepared for the real thing.  The haze doesn't show up immediately.  It sort of shows up as it worms its way out between the warm dark base.  Once it sat in the bag for a few months, it had all popped out to show what it would truly be, and that is exactly what I was looking for.  

I didn't really notice the difference in how it looked newly knit versus slightly used but it is very apparent to me now.  It's easy luxurios knitting, suitable for knitting while watchimg kids play.  There will be much more of that today.  

Kittens

In the continuing story of pants, we found the missing pair under the chair where a certain Mr. Someone's bag was sitting when he first got to Grandma's house.  Sigh.  We did get another pair though so no matter what happens, we are golden.

While the kiddies were chasing each other at a food play place, I ripped back the cowl/hood  to the line where I had separated to knit two layers.  I picked it all up and put it back together again and feels exactly right.  

It is so soft, so luxurious, it feels like knitting kittens, teeny tiny soft baby kittens.  

Every coin Two sides.

Last night as the kids were getting ready for bed, Marcus realized that he had left his pyjama pants at home.  In the way that only a four years old's heart can be broken, his was obliterated and he was very upset, almost panicking, because everybody would see his shorts.  He cried just heartbroken because he wasn't comfortable.  He said we needed to go to the store to get some pants, right now.  In the end he wrapped himself up in Great, Great Grandpa Diederichs blanket, because he said it felt like grandpa was hugging him.

And to the morning, this self same four year old isn't getting dressed, is quite happily running about in his underwear and pyjama shirt.  He wants to go to the store that way.

Oh to be four.  

I made a decision on Friday.  I am going to try to make my stash dash goal. The blanket will wait.  It's like dishes.  No one ever does it for you, only knitting is much, much more fun.

I am still a bit uninspired by socks after a winter's worth of them so I pulled out my other small project waiting for finishing,  a project I am going to call There should be umlauts.  

The pattern is called HÜJ TÜB and that is exactly what it is, a Huge Tube.  I wanted something for winter so that when it is cold, I have something that I can pull up over my head and yet wear comfortably around my neck when it isn't.  I thought of various smoke rings and other wimple type wear, but the simplicity of this pattern suits what I wanted.  You can make one out of any yarns and that is what I needed.  

The dark yarn is RCY Adam and Eve in Ebony and the delicate mohair silk is Shibui Silk  Cloud in Caffeine.  I started with the two held together and somewhere along the way, felt strongly that I wasn't getting the best from the combination of the yarns, so I separated them and decided to make a two layer project, finishing with the layers joining at the other end.

The top overlay of the Shibui was going to be a nice little lace pattern, nothing too fancy, with good stretch characteristics like Ice Queen from Knitty.  I didn't have that sorted yet.  It is a lovely idea.  Lace overlays are so delicate and pretty.  

At the same time, I wonder why I didn't like the two together.  They are really wonderful combined.  Touching the fabric they make is like petting a newborn kitten.  

It is such a delicate haze that softens the strong colour of the Adam and Eve, like an early morning fog over fields. The more I look at this and touch it, the more I love that first bit.  If the world worked perfectly the way I wish it to, I would knit a whole sweater with these two yarns combined.  They are just that good together. I can't afford to do that sadly, but I can do a neck and head warmer.  

I wonder now, why I was not satisfied with what I started.  Looking at the tube as I knit, part of me wonders if I should go back, go simple and just knit the tube plain, out of the combination of delicious yarns.  I might.

If I was four, I am sure I would be just as excited either way.  As a grandmother, making sure Marcus is wearing pants to the store is a given and a chore.  As a knitter, thankfully I have endless choices. 

Full Obsession Mode.

So here I sit having survived week number two of babysitting in August.  That makes it sound really bad doesn't it and it hasn't been.  It is so much easier to be able to do this in my own home, sleeping in my own bed, doing at least a few of my own things.  These are very good kids, and they have been so god, unless they are tired and when they are tired, they go to bed really fast.  Some days are a bit harder than others, but isn't that just like normal?

I sit out front by the garage, and have a coffee and knit, and they go up and down the sidewalk exploring.  Cassie can go to the end of the block and Marcus can go to where I have to lean forward to be able to see him from where I sit.  It works well.  They feel responsible and trusted and have nice safe adventures.  Occasionally, the little girl from next door comes out to play and then all sorts of fun happens.

Meanwhile back at the ranch,grandma knits. I am getting a lot done on my blanket.  There is only one problem with it and it is only a problem if I think it to be.  

I have once again been participating in Stash Dash.  Last summer with my long adventure, I missed my goal by a bit and this year, with a smaller and very reachable goal, I have only a few hundred metres left, two to be precise.  There is lots of time to finish something.  So long as I set the blanket aside.  The blanket consumes me.  Putting it down is a difficult thing.  I haven't even thought of the two summer sweaters in days.  The green jacket is only for when I am done the large needles or when I feel the need for wool.  The blanket is all.

Still, I am going to give it a good go. I really would like to see myself hit that goal. There is a pair of socks I could be working on, and should be working on, that would take care of things.  There is a cowl in the works that is just knitting a tube. Both of these are lovely knits, easily done while child minding. There is no reason not to get to goal.  So long as I set the blanket aside.

That is the problem.  Setting the Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket aside while in full obsession mode is hard.  

It was  very long day.We had company this morning for spinning and I desperately needed to get the house in some kind of order.  Early was the only way to go.

And now because grandma is pooped right out, the children decided that they didn't want to go right now to bed,they wanted to go in half an hour.  I am just playing relax music and hoping that the last is out.  I think she is, but you know how that goes.

I ought to have taken photos but oh well.  I will leave all that for tomorrow.There is big thunder here this evening, so I am going to sign off and shut down.  no point losing a computer in a direct strike.

Sweater weather

I don't know about anybody else but yesterday was sweater weather for me, more than. I put on a sweater, a cowl and socks to get warm.  I wore them most of the day.  

It made me feel like knitting bigger heavier garments.  I spent the day working on my coat.

It looks odd.  The sleeve is just so outsize but when I try it on, it fits just about right.  I want this to be comfortable over other sweaters and to be a good looking top layer in place of a purchased winter coat.  I haven't bought a winter coat because layering wool sweaters is much much warmer than any coat out there.  And the fit! Even my worst sweater fits much much better than the best coat on the market.  

What I have needed is a top sweater knit to be a top sweater.  I am knitting this out of the wonderful hearty yarn I picked up on PEI last summer.  The only problem was that I worried I was going to run out of yarn.  And the more I worked on this sleeve, the more likely that looked.  Each sleeve is going to take more than a skein each.  

So yesterday, I took the matter in hand.  I ordered more yarn.  Since there was zero chance of a same dyelot, I went with a very heathered brown grey colour.  It was the best choice with the gorgeous green I have.  

So let's all keep hoping that the sweater will fit as planned and that the sleeve fits as well once it us done.  

The continuing story

of an obsession.

I knit a bit here and there over the long

Isn't that cool?  I am into the long middle and am having the time of my life.   It is silly how much fun I am having with this.  As you can see, it is a double stranded knit, on large needles and I am not really into very large needles.  Is this what they mean by suffering for your art?

It is a good opportunity for me to learn not to tense my hands so much on large needles and thinking about that, consciously relaxing my hands around these 9 mm tips, is making a difference.  Not sure why I do that, other than it is the stress of holding large things with some added 'I can't hold these things forever' thrown into the mix. 

I have made one small change to the pattern.  The second section of white on the border, after the red rows, is slightly shorter (2 rows) than the pattern calls for.  Two more rows would have made that part out of scale just enough to be bothersome but not enough out of scale that you could tell what was wrong.  I don't think it is a pattern issue.  Not at all.  This is pretty clearly a knitter issue. My rows gauge isn't quite what the designer got.  It's a blanket so it doesn't matter.  I guess I did make one other change.  I am making it a bit wider too.  The landlord is tall.  Size matters if you are a big guy in a world of small lap blankets.

He was having coffee while I was working on it yesterday, and a look crossed his face.  He says 'Oh, I get it.  It's a giant sock.'  I did not tell him this blanket was for him.  He had chosen a rather different pattern and I had a different yarn set aside, but I just don't think that in the long haul, a wool blanket is what he needs.  He is  bachelor and likely to remain so unless some smart cookie snaps him up (She would have to do the snapping) and he would eventually launder the wool in the machine and ruin it.  He wouldn't mean to.  He would just forget. 

There wasn't much time for huge amounts of time spent knitting though.  My sister stopped overnight on her way on a long winding vacation with no fixed route and my brother popped in for coffee before he watched his son in his final race of the season.  His son races motorcycles, hence the quick trip up here. 

The rest of the time, was spent getting ready for my munchkins to come visit again for the week.  My darling granddaughter hates me taking her picture and usually I don't (unless she is trying on a sweater) and I  respect that, but sometimes I get  little trigger happy. I want to remember her, just as she is right now, scolding grandma fearlessly. 

More than anything, I hope this little girl, and all my grandsons too, hold on to their childhood fearlessness as they take on the world.  It is a different kind of continuing story, fully their story, but I hope it plays out well and for a very long time to come.