On Volcanos

Just one thing remains.  I have only to make a ghost like outline of that far away volcano and it is done.  I may have to do a little bit of something on the ash coming out of the volcano.  The stitches are long and straight and in service as a pillow cover, those long stitches will catch and eventually tear.  He is only 8 after all.  My goodness time flies.  Once the top is done, I have to pull out the stuffing and make a pillow to fit and then sew this top to some very smooth soft backing fabric I have in the fabric piles.

This means I get to start Carter's volcano picture and I am really looking forward to it.  They interpreted volcanoes very differently, according to their personalities I think.  As a subject for a grandmother's needlework, they are even more interesting.   

I did manage some knitting too.  The green Elton, my preferred sweater choice for weekends, is looking positively long.  Not finished long but it is getting to where it would look excellent as a cropped garment.  On someone else.  I have lots of yarn and I mean to make it a sweater that works for me, which means long enough to give my lower back some warmth.  

Weekdays are for knitting the Blue Elton.  The two sweaters were about the same length so if I can manage to get in a good sit of knitting time on it this week, I will feel very happy.  I almost would make it my goal to finish the body, but I am not sure I am quite up to that. You know how it is with me and goals.  If I say it, it becomes the last thing I want to work on and these sweaters, I really do want to get both done asap.  I want it to be the first thing I want to work on so mum is the word.  

It is chilly outside, -16C with a gusty bitter sort of wind.  Full winter in so many ways.  I am here snuggled inside warmth and comfort and coziness, and not for a moment do I forget how very privileged I am. Not for a moment.  

Two Eltons.

Nov 24 is a special day for me.  I usually remember it.  2007,  2008,  2009,  2010,  and after that, my Anniversary posts get sketchier.   It is my wedding anniversary and this year, would be forty three years.  Sigh.  It was the best day of my life.  There are reasons it is not such a good day too, but life happens all around you no matter what else is on your plate.  

The two men associated with today in my life, my dad and my husband have taught me to enjoy what you have in front of you.  So that is what I am focusing on. Happy wonderful things we did and all the good in my life now.

That lovely mohair takes longer to knit than the fingering multi colour in the other Elton sweater I am making.  This is a delicate dainty pretty knit.  The other, even using Fleece Artist yarns, is a more sweater like sweater, more robust.  Mine is the green, and Luda's is the blue.  

For now I must get back to work.  I want hers done asap so she has it for Christmas at least.  Time is all I have and I will happily share it with her.

A Sock. A Sock.

One of the things that I have missed all fall was talking with and general hanging out with knitters. Virtual or live, it made no difference to me. I was taking some very easy courses but I felt overwhelmed by them and stopped the visiting with knitters so I could concentrate on the material in front of me.  Now that all is said and done, I realize that being overwhelmed was connected to not being well for most of the fall.  I have missed my people and my contact with the joy that other people who knit have brought into my life.

Keith pointed out that some of my issues the last few days, could be alleviated if I just went back to my knitting groups, that 'maybe it was time, mama'.  I took his sage advice and I joined the International Virtual Knit Nights group today.  It was a lot of fun because if pineapple pizza day.  I can't explain it but it really was fun.  I haven't giggled so much in a long time.

I wanted to knit something simple and pulled out this barely started pair of socks.  The yarn is one of my very pretty Opal's, the Claude Monet colour.  I love how the artist colours come out in this whole series.  There was not a dud among them.  I only wish I had the Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night one.

I did spend most of the morning working on my embroidery things too.  Marcus' volcano is so close to finishing.  I have the smoke at the top and a few bits near the bottom to do.  Another day or two and it will be done.  Then comes Carter's volcano, a very different look, but really interesting to play with.  

As it is, this blog is written at my bed time.  I am tired but am feeling really good about my day and the general state of things.   I may learn to love Bob Vader** yet.  I need my sleep.

**Bob Vader, Darth's cousin, who wasn't evil like Darth, but wasn't entirely good either.

Actual Knitting

The way back to knitting has been rather strange.  It feels as if it has been a very long time since I really knit and did it with the sense of joy that I found today.  It felt so very very nice to feel like I was back in my right place.

I had been looking for something different to knit for a few days. I had my heart set on this sweater but that WIP bin of mine is large and deep and it holds a lot of things.  It defeated me for a day or two.  I had to empty the whole chest to find it. I was overjoyed when I found it this morning and I sat down and knit on it on and off for the whole day.  

It is plain knitting just like the Elton out of the lovely yarn from River City Yarns, but this is such a different combination of yarns and it is such a different experience to work on it.  I love both projects but it is nice to have something to switch to as I work through both sweaters very long middle of the torso sections.

Not sure what will be tomorrow, but there will be knitting and there will be joy.  That will be enough.

Onward ho.

And as things so very well must, they go on.  It has been this way through all human history and will remain long after I am done.  So I will go on.

Besides all the things going on with my dad, I have been ill.  Very ill.  I did not recognize it but it ended with me being utterly undignified in a place where they deal with sick people for a much longer period than I ever want to be there again.  I came home with Bob Vader and his Deathstar.  Every time I wander down my hall, my hands are full and I find I need something for my phone.

Do you remember this sock?

It is one of the many I have on the go and it was the right place to turn into a nice little bag.  

I thought about knitting an icord strap, but honestly, there are a hundred things I want to knit more than miles of icord.  And not nearly enough time in the world to do them all. 

Later today I will hit the embroidery bag.  I have volcanos to finish.  

My dad

My dad passed away yesterday at the grand age of 93.  

There is so much I want to say about him and yet words fail me.  He was such fun.  He was kind.  He was a tinkerer and inventor of solutions to whatever little thing stood in his way.  He built a house.  He made a home. He loved us most of all and made sure we knew that.  I am going to miss his laughter and his care and his being in this world.  He had a long life and his passing was peaceful and quiet and really, that is all any of us can ask for, isn't it.

 My dad at his 90th birthday.  Photo by Olga Renneberg

I am going to miss you so very much.

Here

I am here.  Still planning on blogging and will update next week.  Happy to be able tp pop in.

Here and knitting

I am here.  There is knitting but very plebeians knitting. 

Still, even plebeians needed socks.

Just restarting a garter stitch heel.  The first time around I was suffering from a lack of clarity and the heel was a mess such as I have not made since heel number 1 on that fateful may afternoon.  

But it's a busy couple days and will be a busy couple more so I may or may not get posting tomorrow.  

Six is Not Enough

No pictures today.  Most of yesterday was sewing and not the inspiring kind.  There is a bit more to do of that sort today, but then,..

I have a few other errands to do as well as go through some material for some classes I am taking and then, before i know it, it will be time for The practise sessions at the Grand Prix in Mexico.  The day will be full and busy and interesting.  

And there will be knitting.  i have a blanket to work on that I have been forgetting for far too long and it would be great to get that out of my way.  

Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket, you are calling my name.  Six is really not enough.

Any Day Now

After being energised by the ghost costume, I sat down and did a bunch of household sewing yesterday.  There is more to do.  there is always more, but still, it filled a need and I am happy to have that done.  There is a bit more on that pile for today, but after that, sewing will get interesting again for me, if not for you.

When the sewing was completed, I wanted something simple but interesting to knit.  The lovely striped sweaters were not it.  I wanted socks.  I really could use them too.  This is always the time of year when socks die and the sock drawer assumes I have some new socks waiting in the wings.  Usually I do, but not right now.  Right now, I have nine different sock events on the go, but only one has a single sock complete.  

I dug through the depths of the sock project bags, but couldn't find the one I was thinking to work on.  I settled for this one, which was ready for a heel.

Unfortunately for this sock, I was looking for a second end from the sock ball so I could double strand the heel and before you know it, half the ball was out on the floor.

I thought I was working with the inner end, but no, contrary to common practise, the ball had both inner and outer ends coming from the center, all mashed up together.  The ball had obviously been looked at somewhere along the way to me, and it took half the day to sort it out.  I ended up cutting the  sock off the ball with a good long tail, and rewinding a good socks worth.  Then with two ends coming from places I understood, I started the heel.  

It will be fine, better than.  I just need to get some socks done.  Winter will be here any day now.

In Defense of Old Books

I know what to knit next, and yes, it is the things for Carter and Marcus.  But I have to wait for a budgetary opening to be able to get the material required.  sigh.  Life happens and sometimes the knitting does indeed have to wait.

In the meantime, it isn't like there isn't plenty to knit.

I pulled out this pretty thing and worked on that most of the afternoon.  It is now over nine inches long so I am just over halfway on the body.  This is thrilling because with the very lacey mohair, its a slower knit than most.  Still, it is a gift and I can't wait to see Luda wear it.  Christmas maybe?

I am also thinking hard about the next thing I really want to work on, and surprisingly, it may very well be one that is already in the stream of WIPS.  

It is the Scandinavian Star Vest from Chryl Oberle's Folk Vests.  This was one of the first books I bought when I started knitting.  It was a bit 'old' even then, but it is filled with timeless things.  My fingers are looking forward!

Do take a look  at these older project books.  There are some really wonderful pieces in them and I hate the thought of them going missing for a generation till the knitter's of the future find them on some dusty shelf in an abandoned library.  Find them now.  Enjoy them now.  Get the word out.  

Today's idea

One of the very few things I can do for mom and dad , living far away as I do is to try to keep up their spirits with the weirdness and silliness of the world.  So every time I think of something they might enjoy, I am off, writing a letter to my dad.  I have been doing this for a while now, so if the blog is spare and odd, that is why.  They are getting the best stuff (if I have best stuff that is).

But writing letters takes time.  I am surprised at how much time.  When you watch characters in Jane Austen write to their loved ones, it seems there is always stuff to write and it is done on an elegant afternoon, in front of a sunny window with a good view and ones hair curling effortlessly over ones shoulder, dressed to the nines in a simple but stylish garment.  If you read any decent biographies of people of the day, you will find letters often took days and it was something that was done quite carefully.  Austen has several samples of such things in her books as well as in her letters as collected.

I tend to write once a week, though sometimes, subject matter fails me.  Keith is a not too bad source of things, but the kids, the kids are a treasure trove of good stuff to write about.

There is always some one doing something goofy or weird.  Or worse!  But finding the subject matter is something I try to do with great care.  

This next week and a bit is going to be a treasure with Halloween coming up so soon.  And fast as ever things follow along, Christmas.  So much to tell before those days.

Sadly, this does leave the blog with not a lot to write about.  Take today, for instance.  Zip.  Nada.  I haven't knit in three days nor done anything else remotely craftlike.  What I have done is cut some fabric for an around the house project and sewn the sides of some old white curtains for a ghost costume.  

What I can tell you today is that this tiny venture into the sewing room is making me hunger to do some more work in there.  As ever pants!  T-shirts!  Sleepwear! More dresses!!! I still have a long list on my list of things I could really use to dress properly.  

Still I will save that for tomorrow.  If I wrote about that today, I would have little to say then and I wouldn't have gotten anything done today but writing.  

Not that that is a bad idea.  It just isn't today's idea.

Better but is it Done?

And done.

It's such a small difference and yet, it is so much better.  

Now the question is Do I make it longer?  It is cropped, and looks good but it still needs to be a sweater and keep me warm..I'm not a hundred percent sure if it does that.  

I will wear it today and then I will decide.

Cutting!!!!

Yesterday's chores involved taking a scissors to the knitting and cutting.  Harsh, but necessary to make this a really wearable sweater for me.  

It's my version of Threipmuir and no matter how much I loved it, I wasn't wearing it and you can see on this photo why.  It bunched up at my neck and no amount of blocking kept it out,.  It is probably knit a little to tightly at the start leaving me feeling choked.  It is a bit short, I think too, though honestly, I am not sure I wore it long enough to really know for sure.  Still more length wouldn't hurt and I do have the yarn.

The firs brave snips took a whole section right off.  

After that it was a matter of getting one leg of each good stitch on the needle and pulling off the excess partial rows above.  

The yarn here is Briggs and Little Sport, on of the best stickiest yarns on the planet.  It wasn't going anywhere...not even when I wanted it to.  There were bits and pieces of the cut row to pull out and two rows of knitting to get me right where I wanted to be to start knitting a new neck ribbing.  It took all afternoon.

In the end, the job is done and I am kind of looking forward to making this one be even better than the first go round.

My next up trick is going to be getting the ghost costume started.  Yup.  A ghost factory is what we are.

Winter green.

There is nothing like wearing a sweater you have just finished, particularly when it is a warm an cozy garment.  It's perfect from the deep but not wide v neckline, to the flash of rust at the hand pocket, to the rolled hem wihch is the perfect longer in the back than on the front.  Sigh.  Perfect and it is mine.

You still can't really tell the rich deep green from this picture.  It's just not a colour that works well in photography indoors.  Now outdoors is a whole other thing.  

Normally, this is where I would be pounding off to start Marcus sweater , but it seems I got that wrong.  He wanted a red mitt and a blue mitt and a yellow sweater.  Which means I am going to have to ask Carter what he wanted, because he was talking about some weird stuff earlier that same day.  I shall consult with the boys and then I guess go shopping for yarn.  I do not have any yarn in yellow for boys sweaters.  

A whole week of blogging too!

No pictures today.  The sleeve still awaits.  I had several things I had to do yesterday. You can only put some things off so long.  Those things are done, but it didn't lead to more knitting.  I have been sitting up routinely this summer till at least 9 before heading off to my room, but now, as fall comes in, I feel the urge to crawl into bed once it is dark.  So seven p.m. was my crawling into bed time last night.  And I did sleep.  Long and peacefully.

So today I face the sleeve and once that is done, the v neckline finish and then, the sweater is done.  I am looking forward to it.  I needed another good workday sweeater.  My good things like my Hun were starting to be used that way, and i Love that too much to waste it on dishes and chores.  There might be another workday sweater for me before Christmas too.  You never know.

But first Marcus' sweater.  I am really looking forward to getting going on that.  I love that he loves his sweaters.

The green and the next thing.

Sleeve two is a go.  I got a decent way along it, though not as far as I dreamed I might.  My dream was unrealistic, if I am honest, particularly with the state of me and napping these days.  Napping has become my superpower and one of these days, I do indeed hope to resolve it so I can get more of the things I dream of done.

But as you can see, sleeve two is well underway.  I am just about to switch over to dpns and that is when knitting goes really fast.  

I usually keep the sleeve on my short circular tips till I get to the point where I don't have to turn the entire sweater to work around.  Once the sleeve is long enough to turn back and forth to work on and I don't have to worry about all the points and possible stitches slipping off,  I move to the dpns.  I don't know if I knit faster on them, but it seems to be faster and I really do enjoy it more.  

And that is what it is about, isn't it?  

Now for the next big thing, Marcus has asked me for a red sweater.  I want to give him a red sweater but I really don't want to have to buy more yarn.  But it needs to be superwash.  Really superwash.  I have a couple of lovely reds but not superwash.  I have one possibility but it is a four ply, in other words, fingering weight.  It's all cotton and would wash up like a jeans yarn and should be a great choice but fingering?  I may have to see what it looks like doubled.    

I will also need to make it a growing sweater and it is going to need some size.  My little boysand girls are all growing fast.  And so it goes.

Little mysteries.

By the end of the afternoon, I was deep into the swing of knitting.  I really felt like I could do more than a round at a time again, and that I could make visible progress and just sit back and go along for knitting's lovely madcap ride.

I finished sleeve one and sleeve two will be a go today.  I have nothing much else to do for a change and though I could join my online community today to knit I am just going to sit and watch a some old movies and maybe a Poirot or two for my general mental health and knit.  

Yes, once again, the Poirot thing is working.  It's a mystery to me.  Bahahahaha

I am not sure about the bottom edging with the rust on my sweater.   As you can see in the picture I completed the sleeve with ribbing.  I have a feeling I will redo it and change it out to ribbing too.  It has to do with the neckline.  

I wanted a nice deep neck and the v is nothing if not impressive.  But I have a really strong feeling that I am going to like the neck finish to be ribbing in plain green.  It's just a more classic workmanlike finish, simpler, plainer.  And this is a sweater I will wear through all the days tasks even if it has the very cool inside pocket colour detail (A little flash is a wonderful thing).You don't have to be plain to work.  

Anyway, the sweater will soon be done and then there is something special in the wind.

Yes. I still write this blog.  In my head I write it every day.  It's only when I wake in the morning, that I realize I had written nothing.  

It's a bit like that with knitting. 

It comes out and onto a pile and sits like this most of the day.  Occasionally, as I walk by, I knit a row or two.  I have advanced by a few decreasees but it doesn't look like much.  

And yet it should.  It's five inches long, my little sleeve, and when the total desired length before the bottom hemmy bit is ten inches, that's pretty good.  I need to look at this as much as a measure of my success as much as I look at the total length of my sleeve. 

Small knitting and invisible change.  This can be success as much as anything else. 

This is the sum total of my knitting this week.  

I had so hoped to be done.

My mom and dad are doing fine. A few med changes additions and subtraction, and starting to feel a bit more comfortable with the new way of eating and they are doing better.  Personally,  there was a doctoring  day, and a few struggles thereby, and then company for a couple nights while getting some things for mom ABC dad to make life easier, and today some housekeeping so I am ready for Thanksgiving company.

I miss knitting.

I miss it a lot.