c r a f t i v o r e

now what?

2012-01-26T10:19:00.000-08:00

When you're knitting a garment that is steeked up the middle, the neckline, and the armholes, a certain amount of faith that everything is going to turn out OK is involved. And mostly everything did which is rather amazing. There is nothing sweeter than cutting that baby open, trying it on, and realizing that it looks pretty dang close to what I imagined it would look like when I was designing it. The only thing left to do is the covered steek finish on the front opening, which I've already done on the neckline and armholes. Once the front is finished this garment will be reversible. Depending on how I feel I can wear the "right" side or the "wrong" side of the vest with the collar that is laying open showing the other side of the garment. That's right ragazzi, a completely reversible stranded garment!

But, I think it's too short since I would like to be able to wear it with a belt. In the photo I have it pinned with a giant safety pin. As it is, it's not quite short enough to be a cropped garment and not long enough to wear with a belt. So now what? I'm going to try to unravel the garter stitches at the bottom, join it in the round again and knit in the other direction. This seems a little daunting since I will have to tug at some of the reinforcement for the steek that has been cut already, but this wool is so nice and sticky that it just might be doable. Wish me luck!

This a sketch that I drew last summer when I was swatching for this garment. Not too far off, right?

The mother of my high school roommate is Swedish and eventually returned there after a number of years. I haven't seen her in ages but my roomie pointed out my blog to her and she felt moved to send me this cute card and the Swedish stamps that feature knitting. She is really the loveliest lady and it's was so sweet of her to send me the note. I LOVE those stamps! It's nice when a country takes such pride in knitting. I also love that the socks in the big stamp at the top are nothing fancy, just fun, striped socks. Thanks Mommy Rowley! xoxo

blogiversary and other reflections

2012-01-15T13:04:00.000-08:00

This is a nice chair to photograph things in but I almost never sit in it. Mostly I sit on the floorto knit while watching TV with my back resting against the couch. Ithink it's better for my posture and I'm hoping that sittingcross-legged will encourage my hips to loosen. If you look closely you can see bits of the guinea pigs' hay under the chair.

My fourth blogiversary was yesterday. Four years seems like a lifetime in some ways and a blink of an eye in others. In that time I've discovered the level of blogging that I'm comfortable with, which is once a week most of the time. I know that I'll never be one of those bloggers who posts everyday or even frequently or I would burn out and wouldn't blog anymore. I also found my voice, it isn't funny like I would like it to be, but more matter-of-fact and to the point. The way I write can't be forced it seems, it's just the way it is and I've come to accept that. If you want funny, great writing, I highly recommend Steven's blog, he'll make you laugh and cry. Though I do occasionally wonder why in the world I am blogging, I think I still have things to share that aren't covered by all the other social sites that I frequent and I have met many wonderful people through blogging. So, I will continue to blog and see where it takes me. Thank you all who take to time to stop by and leave a comment, you make it all worth while.

For the last couple of years I've had New Year's Resolutions lists and they've hung by my desk. In 2010 I did a great job of getting through them but last year I didn't do as well. Maybe this is why I've been hesitant to make a list for 2012. Here it is, mid-January, and I'm still wondering whether I should write one up. I actually did fairly well with my knitting resolutions but not quite as well with my professional and personal ones. What this has made me realize is that I need to cut myself some slack. The demands of parenting and family are actually greater than I tend think and particularly in the last year, with my husband's new job, a larger load came my way than I was used to. Parenting and partnering-wise I think I do a pretty darn good job, or at least the best that I can possibly do and it's something that I never pat myself on the back for, it is just the way it is. When I look back on my resolution list from last year and all the spots in which I didn't quite achieve what I wanted (I don't set hugely unrealistic goals, except for the "do the dishes every night" one), I need to remember that it wasn't a failure on my part and I need to celebrate all that I do every day.

Last year's knitting resolutions:
1. Knit selectively, choose projects wisely. check. Though I reigned myself in so thoroughly on this that now I just want to knit something just for the hell of it, not because it's a learning experience.
2. Design a knit that has letters in it. not done. I wish I had, maybe this year.
3. Rework my fingerless chevron mitts pattern. check. see #5.
4. Knit myself a colorwork hat (I've knit several for others but not for myself). check. I knit Mary Jane's Castaway Tam.
5. Write up a pattern (I've slipped this one in the middle because frankly, I'm a little terrified) check, I published my Vagabond Mitts pattern last spring and it's done really well. It gave me new appreciation for how much work goes into writing up a pattern, I'm proud of having done it.
6. Take more photos. check. Not sure if I've taken more photos or just better ones, I got new lenses for my camera which are amazing.
7. Finish Manos blankie. check. This is the everyone's favorite couch blanket.

This year's knitting/creative resolutions:
Give myself the license to knit or make whatever I want because it gives me pleasure, and yes it's for me, it is my moment of zen and it is not selfish. Top of the list is a pullover for me. I have some light blue (The Square on the Hypotenuse) Sanguine Gryphon QED which I waited in line in Rhinebeck for TWO HOURS to buy and it has just been taunting me from my shelf since October. I'm not good at working on many projects at once and this yarn has been waiting since then for my other projects to be done. Other than that, I'm not going to plan ahead.

If you're still reading after all that, I hope this year brings you lots of time to do what gives you pleasure and the ability to appreciate it when it happens.

last FO of 2011

2011-12-31T16:08:00.000-08:00

Fittingly it's a baby blanket to keep little baby 2012 warm. This is an awesome and free pattern, called Baby Blanket Latvian Garden by the Needle Lady, available on Ravelry.

I started it last spring and it took awhile only because I kept putting it down to work on other things, it was some comfort knitting to slip back into when I needed it. My friend was pregnant when I began and I fear that the baby may have grown a mustache by now.

The original pattern has hearts on the either end which I replaced people and hence it is called Latvian Garden Party. Since long periods would happen between knitting it some mistakes in the pattern were made, like the orange people got taller but I forged ahead. This will be a little detail for the baby to puzzle over.

Learned a new technique, working the steek stitches in purl which apparently a common way to work the steek in Norway. A bit of a pain to purl stranded in the round but it works much better if you can master the Norwegian purl. The nice thing is that it will cause the steek stitches to naturally fold to the back. Crochet reinforced steek, cut it, and then machine reinforced too as I was worried that the sock wool would be slippy. The background reds are Wollemeise and the white is Cascade sock, these two yarns are almost identical in weight and work really nicely together. The other colors are all leftover scraps of sock yarn from other projects. I did the binding like a quilt binding and should have given myself bigger strips to bind with because I had to pull it tight in some places and squish it in and unlike a quilt, it’s not so easy to trim it down.

Happy 2012 all!!

mala

2011-12-09T13:07:00.001-08:00

Needed some easy, comfort knitting after the wedding shawl and I came up with this circular scarf, or cowl, based on a mala (mantra beads) and the auspicious number 108. There are 108 beads in a mala, so everything in the cowl is a divisible of that number. You can read more about the significance of that number here.

This is knit flat in stockinette with the edges unabashedly curling in and grafted together at the ends. It can be double or triple wrapped around the neck. It rolled into itself heavily while I was knitting but relaxed a bit after blocking. I experimented with a crochet edge to get it to lay flat and even went so far as to buy a book called Around the Corner Crochet Borders and used the puff stitch in there. It's a very nice looking book but isn't for beginners, I haven't done much crochet so I had to do some recon to figure out the stitch. Ultimately, I thought the edge looked better without the crochet, so I ripped it out.

The yarns I used were Madelinetosh Vintage in Warm Maize and Ginger and Mad Color Fiber Arts Sweet in Pharaoh's Gold. This is an easy cowl, most knitters could figure out how to do it on their own but I wrote up the pattern to share in case anyone felt the urge to make it. If you want to get your knitting meditation groove on and feel peace settle over you in your knit and purl mantra, you can download the pattern here . Also available through Ravelry here. Peace.

the wedding shawl

2011-11-29T18:44:00.001-08:00

November didn't fuss and delivered up a most beautiful day that it could, the bride looked gorgeous, the ring was lost in the mud and grass and then it was found, other small mishaps scuttled around and were shooed away, achingly sweet vows were exchanged, tears were shed, an 8 year old spoke his heart and touched everyone.

The shawl was a bit player but performed its job nicely.

Project details are on Ravelry, click here.

the covered steek sandwich

2011-11-16T08:10:00.001-08:00

This is a post to rhapsodize about the covered steek, it provides such a lovely finish, I am truly in love. This is a long and technical post, so if you're not interested just scroll to the bottom.

I've done the covered steek before but this was an adventure into it with a side trip to a Burning Ring of Fire, since the shawl I've been working on is so incredibly long. I don't recommend doing this on a shawl as long as mine (87" long) even though it does turn out effing awesome, because of how fussy it is when there are so many stitches jammed on to the circulars on both sides, but it is an ideal finish for a shorter edge like the front of a cardigan. Above you see a picture of the shawl that I've been making with the finished covered steek. It looks the same on both sides and the covered steek adds nice weight to the edge of the garment. A more traditional way of dealing with a steek is to sew it down on the "wrong" side of the garment and in a shawl where the inside and outside are visible this option wouldn't provide the clean finish I wanted. So the adventure began.

A little note about setting up the steek. I like to crochet reinforce my steeks and most tutorials (this is a great one) on the crochet steek recommend running both rows of the crochet steek within a stitch of one another, which is great if you're going to sew the steek down since it gives you several rows to work with, but with a covered steek the "extra" part of the steek will be trimmed away and you don't want to end up trimming away your reinforcement. I crochet reinforce one stitch away from the last steek stitch.

If you're nervous about the steek holding, you might want to also run a machine stitch alongside as well, but I really have never had a problem with the crochet reinforcement holding and with such a long tube as my shawl it would have been impossible to machine reinforce before cutting. Crochet reinforcement does add a little more bulk than machine reinforcement does, I always use a lighter weight yarn for the crochet reinforcement that what I've been knitting. I highly recommend using a "sticky" yarn that is 100% wool, I would never use a cotton or synthetic yarn for the reinforcement and I would be worried they might slide out. For something knit out of anything other than wool I would machine reinforce.

For the covered steek you'll need these supplies:
One 32" or longer circular needle 3 sizes larger than the needle used to knit the garment
Two(!) 32" or longer circular needles in the same size as the garment body needle
One additional needle of any length in the same size as the garment body needle for the 3 needle bind off

After cutting the steek, the first step is to pick up stitches along the edge. Pick up the stitches in between the last steek stitch and the body of the garment with a long (32" or more) circular needle 3 sizes larger than the one you were using to knit with. I was knitting with a size 5 US so I picked up with a size 8 US . This is so there will be enough ease to pick up the same stitches from the other side of the garment too.

Pick up the number stitches per inch that corresponds to your stitch gauge. In this case I had 6 stitches and 7 rows per inch, so I picked up 6 out of every 7 stitches, make sense? For my shawl that meant 458 stitches times 4 for a total of 1,832 stitches picked up for the front and back of the two edges, blurg.

Then you switch to the same size needle that you were using to knit the body of the garment in a 32" or more circular, and knit several rows of stockinette long enough to cover what's left of your steek. I knit 5 rows. This will form one side of the sandwich.

This is what the back side of the picked up stitches will look like. I used a little pink yarn just to illustrate what you will see. You use another 32" long (or more) circular needle in the same size that you knit the body of the garment, to pick up the "bars" that you see on the other side, plus an additional stitch on either end. Knit stockinette rows on this side of the garment as well to make the second side of the sandwich.

Here is the open sandwich with the steek in the middle of the two sides of stockinette, ready to bind off.

Trim away any extra yarn that is hanging out. Use another needle in the same size as the other two needles to do a three needle bind off and you have a nice tidy sandwich! Sew up the ends and bury an yarn hanging out of the ends into the sandwich. Seriously, you'll marvel at how nice it turns out.

Here is my finished shawl blocking. For much of the information in this post I'm indebted to KidsKnits and her great post on the covered steek, I recommend reading her post too.

This is why I decided not to publish the pattern for this shawl. Thanks to Gab, I'm calling this the Burning Ring of Fire. All those stitches jammed on to two circulars on either side of the edge was a total pain. Even if I had gone up to 40" long circulars I think it still would be a pain. On a shorter edge, this would have been fine. Other edge finishing options might be to sew the steek down on the "wrong" side and then cover the sewing with ribbon. I just don't love that idea. Karen says that in my knitting I have a "go big or go home" approach and I totally agree, I always go for the gold. Must try to knit something simple next. In this case I'm going home in the sense that I don't think I can write up the pattern but the shawl itself is gorgeous.

Next post I'll have pictures of the finished shawl. If you want to see pictures of our Halloween costumes, click here. In the meantime I'll leave you with Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson singing The Ring of Fire.

happy halloween!

2011-10-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Our town was hit by the snowstorm, but not as badly as some other parts of the North East. We have power and our town trick or treating has only been postponed by one day, feeling grateful. Boy was so disappointed that we let him dip into the Halloween candy. In Hollis, NH they initially cancelled Halloween altogether and then relented and changed it to November 5th. There is no mischief night here, probably because the police department usually schedules trick or treating in advance of actual Halloween. On Halloween itself there's an awesome parade that winds itself though downtown. This year we will trick or treat and head straight to the parade, which is will probably be exhausting from all the walking and cold since the low should be around 37 degrees. Girl is going as Medusa, Huz and Boy and going as Axl Rose and Slash, I will be some sort of dark fairy creature. Hope you all are having a great Halloween. What are you wearing? Do you do anything special for Halloween?

miles to go before I steek

2011-10-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Finally ready to cut that steek! I crochet reinforced this steek as it wouldn't have been possible to machine reinforce such a long tube. Really I'm a purist and think that a handmade item deserves hand reinforcement, why get a machine involved in all this? The shawl is 80 inches long (and will probably grow some during blocking) so that's 160 inches of chain crochet. The yarn is Malabrigo Silky Merino and the silk adds some slither which makes it necessary to reinforce that steek. With a nice toothy Shetland type yarn you really don't have to even reinforce the steek, it practically sticks to itself. Some folks get nervous about cutting something that has taken them so long to knit but I actually get excited because it's so close to the finish line and it's not really usable until it's been cut. If you're having the urge to cut your knitting (you know who you are) I say just go for it. Here is a link to a great tutorial on how to crochet reinforce your steek.

My camera got a new lens today and I rushed to use it. I have a micro 4/3 camera, an Olympus Pen E-PL1, which is sort of like a compact digital SLR. I guess it's not technically an SLR but you can change the lenses on it and have many of the same controls that you have on a larger camera. It completely suits my need for better photos without feeling like I'm dragging around paparazzo style equipment. I'm not a techie or a serious photographer so please excuse any misinformation I might be spreading here. Ever since I've started taking photos of my knitting I've been lusting after that in focus/blurry yarny beauty that many of Brooklyn Tweed's photos have. After some research I realized that I needed to be able to really lower my aperture and have a nice lens with a shallow depth of field. You can also achieve an effect that photographers call Bokeh this way, in a portrait the subject would be in focus and the background out of focus. My new lens, 45 mm f/1.8 (though I didn't lower the aperture all the way to 1.8), gave me the above photo. Not too shabby! I am in love. Thanks Mom, I am one lucky gal. xoxo

and... the cut!

Rhinebeck wrap up

2011-10-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since Rhinebeck and I'm still clinging to some of the good cheer. Packed into a houseful of knitters, it was as fun to hang out and knit in the great house that Kim found as it was to be at the fairgrounds. Michelle, Gabrielle, Yvonne, Angela, Shameka, Deborah, Kim, Karen, Kirsten, Meganne, and Stephanie (taking a pic along with me) made it the best house evah! I met some of my internet knitting idols and practically peed my pants with excitement, hugged tons of folks, had the best two hour wait in line ever thanks to the good company, bought yarn, ate many tamales and pounds of cheese, and really could not have had a better time. I may have developed a tolerance to yarn fumes because I didn't completely lose my head and took a few more photos than usual. Huge thank yous to Kim for arranging the house and Meganne for all the driving even in the torrential rain, you gals are awesome.

Will come to a screeching halt for junk shops, cuckoo.

The quiet gal behind the scenes, fueled by Squamscot soda.

Finished two sweaters in two nights!

So much knitting talent right there, yowza.

My Owl and the Pussycat sister.

The Queen of Cardigans with spice.

If I ever knit a blanket as incredible as Chawne's I might stop knitting.

You show me your slip and I'll give you a nip.

"You're fabulous!" "No you're fabulous!" They actually said that.

They're both super fabulous and are completely allowed.

Knitting idol who came all the way from Norway.

I really hope we get to hang out on this porch again next year, I'm already in withdrawal.

fine line forming

2011-10-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

Elissa Margolin asked me to design the CD cover for her newest album and band Fine Line Forming. This was great not only because it was a chance to do a different kind of design than what I normally do, but I really admire her music, her amazing lyrics, and her dedication to her art.

She gave me free reign to do whatever I liked and I jumped at the chance to work with hand lettering and whipped out my india ink, pens, and watercolors. This approach seemed like it was appropriate to her music, the title of the album and band, and exercised a part of me that has been banging at the door wanting to be let out. She loved the comps that I showed her and chose the above one for the cover.

For the back it was even more hand lettering fun to highlight all the great musicians that she worked with to put this album and band together.

The CD release party for Fine Line Forming is this Saturday, October 8th, at The Press Room. Come on by, it should be a blast!

Above are are few of the other comps that I did for the CD cover, hand lettering is endless amounts of fun, I could have kept going, and whoops I did... on the CD itself.

Knitting. It's still happening, slowly. We did find time to paint our front door blue, the old orange needed an update.

September was filled with little bumps as always. I've finally learned how to mentally prepare myself for it. After the long summer and trying to manage the kids and also find time for my own work it seems like September will be a big relief but there are always hiccups, nothing big but a bit raggedy and emotional and enough to throw us off course a little. By later in the fall we've all managed to settle into a routine. And then there's Rhinebeck to look forward to. I'll be in a house with 12 other knitters, this will be the most fun year yet.

fall knitting and swatch madness

2011-09-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Fingerless mitts are essential in transitional weather, I'll be wearing these at Rhinebeck so I can easily paw all the yarn. I designed these last spring but I thought I would mention them again because this is really the season for them. Vagabond Fingerless Mitts have a double thumb gusset which gives an extra close fit. All you need 110 yards each of two contrasting colors of medium weight sock yarn. The hand chart comes from Turkish socks, the thumb gusset is based on Scandinavian mittens (I’ve never seen a double gusset before but I hear they exist), the cuff chart is a Fair Isle peerie, and the braid Latvian, a true global mashup. The pattern is available on Ravelry for only $3.99.

The red pair are in Madelinetosh Tosh Sock and the gray blue and ocher pair are in Bugga.

Swatching is good, swatching is good. Repeat. This is a corner of my office with some of the swatches that I've done in the past year. Particularly with colorwork, swatching is essential. For my super secret project I swatched four times. Sadly, my submission didn't make it in but I will publish it myself down the road or perhaps submit it somewhere else.

This swatch is for my SILs wedding shawl, I made it particularly large so that she could feel the softness and drape of the fabric as well as see two different pattern options for the ends. I'm using Malabrigo Silky Merino which is 51% silk and 49% merino and is like a tactile dessert, a cozy cover up for a late fall bride.

Turkey trip

2011-08-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

There is so much to share from my great vacation to Turkey that it's hard to know where to begin, I will try to cram in as much as possible and perhaps come back to some of it in the next post.

Swatching was what my knitting was all about while I was there. I brought about 10 different colors with me and it is amazing how many different combinations can be had with them. I can't really show you the swatches because they're for a super secret project *fingers crossed*.

Here is one of my choice knitting spots in Assos, Turkey. This is a little seaside resort right on the Aegean with a dozen little hotels crammed into a cliff. The view is spectacular and our seaside dinner of fish and mezes was delicious.

Above is a woman in Behramkale, the newer Turkish name for Assos, doing crocheted lacework. In front of her is her lacework and knitted house socks that she is selling to tourists. I bought some of her lace edging from her for 5 lira, or approximately $2.80. It seems a crime that handwork is so undervalued.

Turkish style knitting has always intrigued me but I've never had anyone show it to me. A woman in Behramkale was kind enough to show me how. The video is short, shot on my little point and shoot and she is using novelty yarn so it is a bit hard to see but you can still get the idea if you look carefully. The yarn is tensioned around her neck wrapping from right to left and is also tensioned around her left hand. She picks up the stitch in the front with the right needle as though to purl and flicks the yarn with her left thumb. She is knitting a lacy shawl and increasing at the edges to make a triangular shape.

The view from the Temple of Athena in Assos where Aristotle spent a few years. The perfect place to worship nature or whatever you feel drawn to, I could feel myself soaring over the sea. This is just above where those two ladies were knitting. Across the water is the Greek island of Lesbos.

There was so much pattern and color inspiration to be had while I was there. Above is a photo of some kilims in Bergama. I wish my suitcase was big enough to carry a kilim or half a dozen. Click here to view more photos of Turkish kilims. It's amazing how universal simple geometric patterns are, these same patterns pop up in Fair Isle, Peru, Native American work, you name it.

The geometric elegance of the mosaics in the Roman Terrace houses (1st c. AD) in Ephesus, Turkey were truly striking. The carpets and mosaics will probably creep into all my designs. Click here to view more Roman mosaics.

summer rose

2011-07-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

It's done, I can move on. I feel vaguely deflated, the fun is in the making I think. Project details are on Ravelry.

Still love the colors but it could have been more fitted around the shoulders, it feels a little like they're slipping off.

This sweater taught me a ton and I'm so glad I made it, now if only it would get cold enough to wear. I ripped it right off as soon as the photos were taken.

The steek was so much fun to cut, what a high.

Leaving town for a vacation soon and will have very limited internet access while I'm away. See you all in mid-August, hope you're having a wonderful summer!

steek me, baby

2011-07-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

Weave in the ends, graft the underarms, cut the neckline steek, pick up and knit the neckline... a lot to do, but it still feels close to the finish line.

My drive took me by the RISD Museum a couple of weeks ago, which is a lovely museum by the way, small and well curated. I was thinking about the way in which I like to visit museums, I think they can be quite different from person to person. I don't stop and look at every single piece, I flit from piece to piece to the ones that draw me in. I won't fight with crowds to see something that is popular, if there are people clustered around a piece I'll move on. I prefer small museums that aren't exhausting, if I go to a big museum I'll tend to target one exhibit to go to and not try to see everything. I really prefer to visit museums by myself, or if I'm with people I don't want to feel like I need to wait for them. If I see one piece that really excites me, I consider the visit a success and try to hold on to that feeling and take notes on that work preferably with a photo if possible.

How do you visit museums? What is your strategy for viewing art?

It's an Edith Wharton summer this year. Meganne has started a read-a-long/knit-a-long for Wharton on Ravelry and I jumped in since I love her. I'm gobbling up The Buccaneers, which is her last and unfinished novel. The version that I'm reading was completed by Marion Mainwaring by referring to Wharton's outline and notes. It's filled with nimble writing and wonderfully flawed characters, culture and class clashes, impossible love, bad behavior, you name it.

She has so many great novels to choose from, The Age of Innocence, The Custom of the Country, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome... and most of them have been made into movies too, so you can read the book and then watch the movie too. Come join us.

making progress

2011-06-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

One sleeve is done, the other moving along, and then they'll be attached to continue the raglan decreases. You can see the beginning of the neckline steek at the top of the body.

The blue in the cuff has a more greenish cast to it that the camera doesn't seem to capture. The color change is aqua, bright blue, aqua, and then red.

My SIL has asked for a shawl for her wedding. She's getting married outside in November so warmth is a consideration. I'm thinking of a colorwork shawl but she would also like it to be soft and drapey to go with her simple and elegant gown. I'm thrilled that she's willing to consider a touch of color since lacework is not my forte. After a lot of consideration, I've ordered some Malabrigo Silky Merino (51% Silk 49% Merino, DK weight) to swatch with. I haven't worked with this yarn before, I hope it makes a nice fabric and still manages to show off the stitches. Notice how the Huz is completely ignoring my beautiful yarn and covering it with the paper? So callous.

a tam and fickle weather

2011-06-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Castaway Tam by Mary Jane Mucklestone was finished last week. I didn't make any mods except to omit the pompom, it might still need a little something right at the top, not sure what, perhaps a button? This hat has rockin slouch-itude. The design of the hat is very traditional in its use of classic Fair Isle OXO patterns, I love that it's a slightly different one on each band, simple but with subtle, classic flair. Union Pearl has a wonderful post about OXO patterns, here.

I used Harrisville New England Shetland as the yarn. The colors for this yarn are wonderful and it's very toothy, perfect for colorwork. It might be a tad itchy on the forehead if you tend to be sensitive to wool but will be very warm. Knit Picks Palette, which is the recommended yarn for the pattern, is much softer and would be less itchy. I was tempted to do a corrugated rib for the brim and if I knit it again would opt for that as I like a nice firm brim.

Summer is finally here in New England and came very suddenly as it sometimes does. Weeks of gray, cold, drizzle and then WHAM, beautiful sunshine and sparkling days. New England weather is a fickle lover. "In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather in 24 hours." —Mark Twain. The sun makes girls want to have mud baths, but notice how she managed not to get a single speck of mud on her outfit.

Found this at the thrift store. I think it's a men's vest, very small in size, even though they had it in the women's section. Commercially made, Adolfo for Saks Fifth Avenue, possibly from the 60s but timeless really. The yarn is some kind of synthetic so that the earliest I might place it is the 40s, but I'm really no expert. The colors and the all over geometric really get me in just the right way.

there has been knitting

2011-05-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

There has been knitting. Structurally this is Eunny Jang's Autumn Rose, but I've replaced the designs with ones from Alice Starmore's Child's Panel Gansey (like the one that Shkitty did), and the pattern on either side of the center is from Latvian Mittens. Yarn is Knit Picks Palette, which I love.

I'm worried that it's turning out too large. I was aiming for 0" ease, but it's looking a bit big and I feel like there's no turning back now. Hopefully a good steam blocking will tame it.

Travel knitting for my trip down to DC last weekend, I needed something small. I grabbed Mary Jane Mucklestone's Castaway Tam, which I've always admired for it's classic panache. Yarn is Harrisville Shetland, this is a toothy, rough feeling yarn but I know that once washed it settles into the stitches beautifully and will be hard-wearing and very warm.

Palling around with Ellen at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival was a great day despite the torrential rain. Here she is checking out Spark the Llama's incredible under bite.

A collage of some of the wonderful things I saw at the National Museum of the American Indian. Click on the images to see descriptions of them on Flickr. They also have an incredible cafe, which serves foods based on indigenous foods of the Americas and a GREAT cookbook. The last picture is about the rain and gray days that have not left New England for the past two weeks. I leave you with Gene Kelly whose JOY of movement, open chest, and beautiful smile could chase any gloom away:

2011-05-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

My knitting spot this afternoon, the driveway. Necessary tools: the beach chair, graph paper, gauge ruler, my latest swatch, iphone (for the calculator), Latvian Mittens (for a pattern), Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting (for more patterns), and Simply Shetland 4 (for the Autumn Rose schematic).

On the left is a new swatch on 3.25 mm needles this time as I wasn't even close to gauge on 2.75 mm. I'm still not on gauge for Autumn Rose but I prefer my colorwork knitting to be a little tighter for better stitch definition so I don't want the fabric to be any looser. My gauge is 32 stitches and 32 rows to 4 inches, the Autumn Rose gauge is 30 stitches and 32 rows to 4 inches, so I will go up a size. I tried an ombre look, but I don't think it works, the brownish orange and the medium orange just don't like each other.

One of these days I would like to do a color dense Fair Isle style sweater where there are a billion colors in the foreground and background patterns, but I'm finding it very hard to pick colors online and Knit Picks doesn't offer a color card for Palette. So instead of adding more colors, I find myself simplifying and eliminating colors because some of the ones that I ordered aren't playing together nicely. Local yarn shops don't seem to carry much fingering weight Shetland type wool either, and if they do there is just a smattering of what they think are the prettiest colors and not much of balance between lights and darks. There's someone coordinating a Palette yarn sampler (10 yards of each color) on the Knit Picks Lovers group on Ravelry and I've gone in on a share. Next time that will function as my color card.

On the right is Pinneguri's Latvian Garden with the hearts with replaced with little people, now it's a Garden Party!

color play

2011-04-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

Swatching for a possible sweater. This is the first time I've used Knit Picks Palette and I love the way it is knitting up, it feels quite soft. The pattern is from Child's Panel Gansey in Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting (a must have for anyone who likes color work, lots of great historical information too). I tried the pattern with a white background and then with the oranges as the background and I think I'm leaning towards the oranges overall. The jury is out on whether to use the red or brownish orange, I've toyed with the idea of having an ombre effect on the sleeves. The lovely neckline on Eunny Jang's Autumn Rose and the great fit have kept me going back to it again and again, so I may finally be casting on for it. Just in time for summer, a colorwork pullover!

happy easter

2011-04-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

We won the chocolate bunny at Bryne and Carlson. There was screaming, hooting, hollering and dancing around in this household. This bunny is almost 26 inches high and hollow but very thick. The chocolate at Bryne and Carlson is to die for, the quality and taste is amazing and the atmosphere at the shop is like the chocolate shop that you imagine in your fantasies, small, elegant, and crammed full of goodies. In a serendipitous twist, Meganne's daughter won the twin to our bunny from their Kittery store, the two girls were over the moon. We plan on having a party and inviting friends over to help end Brynie's short life and make this a very memorable Easter. Hope you're having a good one too.

At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston I had the chance to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit. I have had somewhat mixed emotions about his work in the past, feeling that sometimes it seems gaudy and showoff-y, but this show totally won me over. The sheer volume of the glass and the organic shapes create a fantastical world not unlike some of Dr. Seuss'. The beauty of glass is so seductive that I was putty in front of it and I can't even imagine how difficult it might be to make these glass pieces. There is one room where the ceiling is covered with glass of various colors and shapes and it's like being inside a coral reef on steroids. The kids didn't want to leave the exhibit. Go and see it if you want your day brightened.

vagabond is available

2011-04-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

Vagabond Fingerless Mitts pattern is went up on Ravelry yesterday and is already selling! I was shocked when the first payment came in and the butterflies in my stomach are finally gone. My Ravelry, twitter, flicker, internet knitter friends have given me so much support it's been quite humbling and lovely, thank you!

Get your copy of the pattern today, it's priced reasonably at only $3.99. Small knits like these are great for the warmer months when it's hard to be buried under a big sweater.

Vagabond

2011-03-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

Vagabond Fingerless Mitts, pattern coming soon by me. This will be my first ever published pattern, whee. You may remember an earlier version of these mitts that I knit in the fall. They were made of Shetland type wool and the "sore" thumb was making the pattern spiral around the hand, which kind of bugged me.

For the new version I redesigned it with a double thumb gusset, so that it has shaping above and below the thumb for a perfect fit, and the top and bottom patterns stay put. There are stripes on the palm and it is knit out of sock yarn.

The hand chart comes from Turkish socks (from Kenan Ozbel's amazing Knitted Socks from Turkish Villages), the thumb gusset is based on Scandinavian mittens (I’ve never seen a double gusset before but I hear they exist), the cuff chart is a Fair Isle peerie, and the braid Latvian, a true global mashup.

The one on the left is knit out of Sanguine Gryphon Bugga and are really lovely with the touch of cashmere. The ones on the right and the orange ones at the top are knit out of Madelinetosh tosh sock.

A couple of friends and kindly offered to test knit these for me and I hope to have the pattern out soon. Thank you Michelle, Tomo, and Benedetta!

The lyrics to the T. Rex song Get it On are apparently not “Get it on, vagabond, get it on”, as I’ve thought for years. But I would like to think that glam rockers would wear these mitts. I leave you with T Rex, bang a gong, get it on, (vagabond).

rechargeable batteries

2011-03-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

A little collage of my trip down to New York last week, click on any photo read a caption on flickr. There was wind, rain, sun, great food, friends, work contacts, shopping at Purl, a party with the Huz, a trip to the Museum of Arts and Design, a huge amount packed into just three days. The quilts from India and crocheted Zulu Queen Harvest Coat by Xenobia Bailey were on display at the Museum of Arts and Design. There is a nice interview with Xenobia Bailey where you can see her crocheting here. I saw Yarny Old Kim, Sayschnicklefritz, and KnitwithMe. There are so many other friends and photos that I didn't have the chance to take. I came back absolutely exhausted but with my battery re-charged in a professional, crafty, and emotional way, it's a price worth paying

Below is a photo of my score at Purl. The new shop is lovely although I almost walked by because I thought it was a kids clothing shop, since they had little sample dresses in the window. Three skeins of Alchemy Juniper (the pink, oh the pink, and the one that's the color of infant poop, it's just right) and two cute little cross stitch booklets. The booklets appear to be reproductions of old French ones by Sajou.

I haven't had a lot of knitting to post because I've been busy working on publishing my very first pattern (biting my nails). I have knit 4 different pairs of them at this point. They're a pair of colorwork fingerless mitts called Vagabond. I have two friends who have volunteered to test knit them, if you're interested let me know.

what I do the rest of the time

2011-03-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Design.
Yoga.
Parent.
Knit.

That's pretty much how things go around here. On my blog I mostly talk about my knitting or whatever other crafting I'm up to, but I spend a lot of time doing my graphic design work and Ashtanga yoga which blends all the crazy elements of my life together and gets me out of my chair.

I recently updated my book design portfolio, check it out.

For yoga I go to Yoga East. Thanks to them I have made more progress in my practice than I ever thought possible. Below is a video of a couple doing Ashtanga yoga, I hope someday my practice will flow as easily as theirs:

Or have a wee bit of the joy of movement that Anne Marsen has in this Girl Walk // All Day video.

Girl Walk // All Day from jacob krupnick on Vimeo.

GUS

2011-03-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

A long overdue post. I drove up to the Spa with Michelle and had a wonderful time. She taught me how to crochet a granny square which I've been dying to learn how to do. I saw Ellen and Mary Jane which was bittersweet because I didn't find them until the end. Only going for the day seems rushed when everyone else looks like they've settled in to spin and knit for the weekend but I still consider myself lucky to be able to go and it was a good day. I bought a gnome project bag by Jessalu from Spunky Eclectic and one skein of yarn from Sereknity, I was the model of restraint and as usual the fiber fumes gave me total camnesia.

Meanwhile I finished a giant scarf/wrap/shawl and didn't have time to photo it because the kids have been on winter break and the Huz sick, but finally managed to take some pics this week.

Clan of the Cave Bear anyone? The Huz has dubbed this GUS, which stands for Giant Unusable Shawl. It is kind of unwieldy. I was planning on naming it Hudson after the blanket, not Jennifer or Kate, but I'm afraid Gus is sticking. He also says that in this photo I'm coming out of my lair after having hibernated knitting this thing all winter. Let me tell ya folks, the when-in-doubt-belt-it rule definitely worked in this case.

These photos were taken at the Audubon Center at the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. This is a magical place, chickadees and nuthatches were actually landing on our hands to eat seeds. We saw tufted titmice and a woodpecker too. It was also colder than a witch's tit and I almost got frostbite posing for the pictures.

For the shawl I cast on 51 stitches with Thaki Montana, which is a bulky weight yarn and size 17 needles. The yarn is wonderfully light for a bulky weight, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it and bought it with a gift certificate from my awesome MIL, thanks Roberta!! I considered all kinds of patterns to knit with it but decided to go with something very simple to show off the big juicy stitches and big, bold stripes like a Hudson Bay blanket. I did 8 rows of seed stitch at either end but none at the sides, wanting some curl. Turned out there was too much curl so I ended up running a crochet edge along the sides which minimized the curl. I almost wish I had knit something large enough to be a giant robe, with any luck I might look like this:

Oh for the love of letterpress

2011-02-18T10:50:00.000-08:00

That's Whitney of Gus and Ruby Letterpress standing in front of the Chandler & Price press, circa 1896, that she does letterpress printing on. Doesn't she look great in her cute frilly apron covered with printers' ink? The place smelled wonderful, it was like stepping into an artist's studio soaked in years of oil paint. Yesterday I visited Kingswood Press in Wolfeboro, NH. They're printing wedding invitations that I designed for a friend and they were kind enough to give me the tour.

The press has been around since 1863 and has been run by the Swaffield family since 1948. Whitney Swaffield is one half of the fabulous paper goods store Gus and Ruby Letterpress and they do their printing at Kingswood Press. Gus and Ruby specializes in letterpress which is one of the earliest form of printing. The type is etched on to a metal plate and the paper is squashed on to the plate and ink as it is pushed through the press. With letterpress you'll see the indentation of the letters on the paper which is really special unlike contemporary printing where the ink just rests on the paper.

The drawers where they store all the old wood type are irresistible. I'm not sure what's better the drawers or all the great old letters.

Look at that tiny letter! There were even tinier ones, so small I couldn't make out what they were. Hard to imagine how they would set whole books this way. Today they etch the letters into plastic to do letterpress so they are much lighter and easier to handle and each letter does not have to be individually lined up.

Another drawer full of letters, they were incredibly heavy. I could have handled those letters all day.

They printed my business card. I tried to capture the indentation of the letters on the paper without a great macro on my camera, hope you can make it out. There's really nothing quite as lovely as letterpress printing. Even someone who doesn't know the difference between offset and letterpress printing will immediately feel the difference since there's this luscious tactile quality about letterpress. Letterpress obviously costs a lot more but for a special occasion it's totally worth it.

Below is a piece about Gus and Ruby Letterpress that appeared on TV on the NH Chronicle that shows the press in action and how the type is set.

Thursday February 10th: Gus and Ruby Letterpress - Chronicle News Story - WMUR Manchester

Knitting content in next post I promise. I'll be going up to The Spa in Freeport next Saturday with Michelle, hope to see you there!

peak knitting season

2011-02-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Yes, there has been knitting. The doldrums of winter are peak knitting season, so game on. The Huz and I blew through four seasons of Friday Night Lights during the month of January and knitted (me, not him). I never thought a show about football in Texas would be so compelling but it was and it was the perfect show to hibernate to. We took night nightly trips to Dillon, TX.

Neep heid is done. This is a lovely pattern, I particularly liked the centered double decrease. I changed the brim to a 1x1 rib for a little more slouch and cast on 160 with 2.5 mm needles, knit for 4 inches and then followed pattern exactly.

Trista asked me a question about using Bugga for colorwork since it is smooth yarn and won't stick to itself the way a toothy Shetland type yarn would. I love colorwork knitting with a nice toothy shetland yarn, there's really nothing better. There are so many lovely hand dyed sock yarns out there, very inspiring, and many people who can't take having itchier against their skin, so why not knit colorwork with sock yarn? My experience is that the superwash yarn tends to grow and get slouchier when blocked whereas shetland type toothy wool tends to knit togther. To account for this I would go down a needle size or even reduce stitches in the pattern. As always the mantra is swatch, swatch, swatch.

I've started reworking my Chevron Mitts to include a thumb gusset and I'm using Bugga this time, the skeins that keep on giving and giving. Most colorwork fingerless mitts seem to use a sore thumb or invisible thumb but these also mostly use an allover pattern. With the centered directional pattern that I chose I found that the sore thumb spiraled the pattern around the wrist during wear and that bothered me, so I'm trying again with a gusset.

And then there's some big ass knitting with Thaki Montana, a super bulky but lovely, fluffy and light yarn, with size 17 needles. I kept thinking about some sort of pattern to knit with this yarn, lace or colorwork, and decided to let stockinette and bold stripes inspired by Hudson Bay blankets to stand for themselves. The kids keep asking me what I'm knitting and I all I can come up with is giant scarf?

and the winner is...

2011-01-29T16:30:00.000-08:00

Desperate for some quick knitting I started neep heid with leftover Bugga. The bright colors against the dark brown remind me a bit of a black velvet painting. I was trying for something a little more subtle but had to work with the yarn I had. Instead of the corrugated rib brim I substituted a foldover rib to give it some more slouch. All this could end up to be a hot mess, have to wait and see.

Thank you all for the wonderful comments. It's great to hear from some new people and visit new blogs, really de-lurking does have its benefits. I tried to respond to as many people as I able to unless there wasn't a way to track back to them, please excuse me if I didn't follow up. There was a total number of 55 comments between the two posts which is a high for me, fabulous. I plugged 55 into the random number generator and got 39 which means, in the order of the comments received, the winner is Michelle!

It's been very snowy here and the novelty is definitely starting to wear off. We've also had some pretty impressive icicles. When icicles and snow fall off the roof they scare Beetle and she hides under my desk. I must be hiberating because I completely passed out on the couch last night under my blankie, the warmth and weight of that thing are dangerous.

blankie and blogiversary prize

2011-01-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

This blanket radiates heat, so cozy to snuggle under on the couch. A kind friend gave me a bag of gray Manos and I added colors to this improvisational blankie, using the gray as a unifying background. It's done for now, I’m thinking of adding a I-cord edge but have moved on to other projects. I may come back to the I-cord or maybe it’s fine just the way it is, what do you think?

This is made up of scarf-like strips in garter stitch. I chose the colors as I pleased to make the stripes and then sewed the scarfy strips together. Almost all the yarn is Manos with the exception of the knubby orange which is some Leicester Longwool from Hopping Acres that I got at Rhinebeck and the whites which were odd bits that I had in the stash. Manos comes in almost 100 colors, I could buy them all.

I tried taking a few pictures in our backyard which is buried under snow right now. That's right, the blanket is actually draped on a snow bank. This took a year to finish this mainly because it's kind of boring to knit. It’s a wild and wooly blanket, a bit primitive looking (might need a good blocking) but it sure is warm and the colors make me happy.

Here are some yarns for the blogiversary prize winner to choose one skein from. These are all stash yarns that I'm a wee bit sad to let go. The yarns are (from left to right) Socks that Rock Lightweight in Crabby McHappypants, Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Rosehip, Noro Transitions #19 (very cool yarn made of wool, cashmere, alpaca, angora, camel, kid mohair, silk), and Decadent Fibers Marshmallow. You can still enter the blogiversary contest by leaving a comment here, the end time for comments will be January 27, 2011 and 7 pm EST.

blogiversary and new year's resolutions

2011-01-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year all! I can't believe two weeks have gone by since I've posted as I'm usually very regular about posting once a week. 2011 has already been very busy with the Huz out of town for part of it, a massive snowstorm which I single-handedly dug us out from (my whole body still aches), work, setting up a new computer (yay for the new computer but not wrestling with all the updates), and well, life. So, I'm back.

The Manos blankie has been steadily chugging along, keeping me going through all of this. It's easy knitting but I am starting to get bored with it and hankering for something a little more.

Around the holidays I had a chance to visit the ICA in Boston where there is a wonderful show by the artist Mark Bradford. They are large scale mostly abstract collage and painted works which he prefers to call paintings. They are subtle, bold, energetic and beautiful, filled with contradictions. He also has some video work and an installation too. Below is a work by Mark Bradford called "Strawberry" (2002), which I think uses some of the curling wrappers from his mother's hair salon. Try to imagine that this is an enormous piece.

There is an interesting article in the NYTimes about him that details how he grew up (raised by a single mother in Atlanta) and how his background informs his work. Go and see the show if you have a chance, it's there through March 13th. Below is the photo from the NYTimes (taken by A.J. Zanyk/The Ohio State University), he's standing in front of his work called "Scorched Earth" (2006).

The fact that TOMORROW is my third blogiversary came to me while I was writing this post. Wow, almost let that slip by. So, I think there should be a blogiversary prize! Please leave a comment and some way for me to contact you and there will be a yarny surprise involved. I'll display some of the yarny goodness in my next post. The winner will be picked by a random number generator. The end time for comments will be January 27, 2011 and 7 pm EST.

And before I forget, I do have some knitting resolutions for this year which is a combination of a to-do list and some real resolutions. 1. Knit selectively, choose projects wisely. 2. Design a knit that has letters in it. 3. Rework my fingerless chevron mitts pattern. 4. Knit myself a colorwork hat (I've knit several for others but not for myself). 5. Write up a pattern (I've slipped this one in the middle because frankly, I'm a little terrified). 6. Take more photos. 7. Finish Manos blankie. All achievable goals, I think.

manos blankie

2010-12-31T11:41:00.000-08:00

One of my new year's resolutions from last year was to knit a blanket with the pile of Manos that I had, it's not done. I knit a few "strips" and then put it down, now I've picked it back up. It's good in between projects knitting, I wish it was done now though.

Looking over my New Year's resolutions from last year I think I did OK.

New Year's knitting resolutions (last year's):
1) Choose the projects wisely. There isn't time to knit everything I would like too, so I need to be selective. I really tried to resist many those shiny new patterns that pop up and begged to be knit and focus more on the kind of things that I like to knit, rather what is simply a popular pattern.

2) Knit more projects of my own design. I designed a few things this past year like the Huz's hat, the Owl and the Pussycat Dress, and Chevron Mitts.

3) Knit something with colorwork letters in it. 4) Show up at Rhinebeck next year in a sweater that I've designed myself. These two got combined into one project with The Owl and the Pussycat Dress, which took up most of my winter last year.

5) Knit a Manos lap blanket. Not done, still flying around as a UFO but it will be oh so cozy when it's done.

The total tally is 4 hats, 2 pairs of colorwork socks, 1 dress, 1 pair of felted mittens, 2 cowls (including the awesome Albers cowl), 1 scarf from hell, 1 cardigan, and half a blanket. I'm always a little disappointed looking over what I've made in a year, wishing I could have made more. Some of you might be laughing at this thinking I've made a lot, but seriously, who doesn't wish they had been able to whip up more? Knitting is such slow going, at least for me, that's why it's so crucial to pick the projects wisely. The resolution to be selective will definitely go on next year's resolutions too, more on that in the new year. Right now I have to go cook some chili cause we have friends coming over to festivate, yay.

Happy New Year all!

little girl camo and a secret knit

2010-12-23T11:17:00.000-08:00

Attempting to get a quick post in even though the holiday freak out is fully upon us. I have a couple of gifts that are knitted up and I know for a fact that knitters everywhere are in full production, panic, and cursing about the state of their knitted gifts, my twitter stream is proof enough.

Girl Thing couldn't wait until Christmas and has already begun wearing her hat. She picked out the yarn, told me exactly how she wanted it, and bugged me everyday until it was done. I used Cascade Superpaints on size 7s. I initially knit it on 8s and realizing that it was turning out big switched to 7s. The 7s created this funny pooling of the colors in the yarn but I like it, it's Little Girl Camo. The pattern is Thorpe by Kristen Kapur and is a go-to earflap hat pattern, you really can't go wrong.

Here is a sneak peek at another xmas knit. Hopefully I'll get some actions shots after the holidays.

felt holiday wreaths

2010-12-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

The kids and I made these super easy holiday wreaths last week. The colorful one hangs on our door and the classy white one we gave to my mom who is a classy dame. We bought a 12" wire wreaths from Micheal's like this one, and tied on 1" x 7" strips of felt to it. The kids loved making these and a homemade decoration made me feel less Grinch-like about the holiday. I'm sure I've seen designs like these out there, but this one is mine.

With the white felt wreath we used pinking shears at the end of the felt strips and I thought it added a nice touch. We used lots of felt leftover from when I used to make felt pillows, you can order felt like this by the yard at Central Shippee. The only skill needed to make these wreaths is cutting and tying, I love that there's no glue involved. The little balls were also from Micheal's, they have wires attached to them and we just twisted on after all the felt was tied.

Here's our assembly line in action with Girl Thing cutting the strips to length with the aid of a pencil as a ruler and Boy Thing tying them on. On the right is a view of the backside of the wreath. We plumped them at the end and brought all the felt ends to the front of the wreath and trimmed some of the longer pieces.

During my layover in Munich I saw this shop that sold nothing but felt in every weight and color. They made felt look elegant and fun. I love working with felt and would surely be beating a path to their door if I lived nearby.

a tam and a cowl

2010-12-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

Some trip knitting. First up is Snapdragon Tam by Ysolda Teague. This was semi disastrous but saved at the last minute. It was fun to knit but turned into an enormous bag when I wet blocked it. I’m always leery of alpaca for hats but I thought that since I was knitting it tighter than recommended it would be OK. The yarn is Louisa Harding Thistle, which is 60% Merino and 40% Baby Suri Alpaca. I did swatch but didn't block the swatch since I was worried about running out of yarn. It took a bit more yarn that I thought it would too.

After a little felting, which flattened out some of the stitches and the halo of the yarn, and stitching elastic thread inside the brim, it is wearable. Should have gone down a needle size at least and probably two for the brim. My sis looks adorable in it and I think she likes it.

Next up, the Albers Cowl by Ann Weaver. Easy to knit and engaging, this was such fun to make. I knit a lot of it on the airplane. Loved thinking about Josef Albers’ paintings as I made it. You knit three log cabin style, off-center squares and then sew them together. Love the squishy density of fingering weight garter stitch, and the yarn, wow, Bugga, loved every second.

Figuring out the colors is the hardest part. I looked at this for inspiration. For me what worked was a grouping of opposites, a strong light and a strong dark, a pretty color and a weird off color. The pattern calls for 7 colors, I used 6. I think the colors could be reduced to 4, but really, the more the merrier. Most of the yarn is Sanguine Gryphon Bugga!, the milky white is Tosh Sock, and the dark blue is Ellyn Cooper Zohar's Sock.

My favorite way to wear it is loose around my neck. When it’s doubled up it feels a little tight. People have tried to snatch this off my neck.

shopping day

2010-11-24T07:14:00.000-08:00

My stepmom and I had a shopping day in the oldest part of Ankara called the Kale. It's the one part of the city that still has a lot of charm and is filled with shops that sell hand crafts. Much of the rest of Ankara is very modern, a network of highways, apartment complexes, shopping malls, and lots of traffic.

Here are some of my purchases. A pair of woolen socks that the seller said were from Bursa, a small carpet the size of a doormat that I could roll into my suitcase, and a couple of scarves with crochet edging. The crochet edging, done impossibly small with thread, is called Oya, I think the white one looks like silk worm cocoons.

Some school girls on their way home for lunch. I used to wear a uniform similar to that, I'll have to dig out my school picture to show you.

A view of some storefronts stuffed to the gills with roving. I love the peppers that are drying in the window above too.

The store where I bought the socks had these antique coin purses for sale too, they were a bit beyond my price range but the workmanship is staggering. They are crocheted with thread, blinding work, I'm sure.

The carpet store where I bought my wee carpet. I love the crazy bright colors of the carpet, synthetic dyes probably. There was an old couple in there trying to sell some of their own carpets to the store owner. The old lady looked at the one I was buying and said that she used to make ones just like that, she didn't seem too impressed and thought I could get a better deal.

We stopped for lunch and I had my favorite, kuru fasulye! Kuru fasulye is stewed white beans, mostly served at lunch places that cater to workers, hard to find at other restaurants or other times of day. Here is a link for a recipe, but it wouldn't have as many vegetables as the recipe has. On the right you can see a cobbler's shop with leather boots for sale. The leather booties are worn inside of rubber overshoes, so you can slip of the rubbers and the instantly become slippers around the house.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

back home, quilt delivered

2010-11-22T06:44:00.000-08:00

It's great to be back home, though I had a good trip to Turkey to visit my folks. I have so much to share that I've decided to split it into a few posts, trip pics and what I did with my yarn will be coming up later. First up is the quilt that I was racing to finish so that I could deliver it to my sister.

The pattern is Kaffe Fassett's Tapestry Garden Quilt from Kaleidoscope of Quilts, fabric and color choices are my own. The fabrics are a mixture of Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler prints. I love the way it turned out, how could anyone not be happy waking up under these colors? My sister loved it too. As I was trying to take pictures of it, I had a woman come up and ask me if I took commissions, which was a nice compliment. Most folks have no idea how much labor and materials cost goes into making a quilt, really more a labor of love than something that would be worth my while to sell. The same goes for knitting, people always say "You could sell that!", but really at what price point can I recoup some of the hours that have been put into it?

Above are some detail shots and on the one on the right is a really good view of the quilting, it is nice organic swirls. The quilting was done by Linda Bevins, a really talented long-arm quilter, you can find her at her blog Crazylegs Quilting. She got it done just in time for my departure and I finished putting the binding on while I was there.

This is a quilt that I made for my dad eons ago and had a chance to photograph while I was there in his little spartan room. It's really touching how little he needs, some photographs and his scholarly publications, almost a monk's cell.

This is the first big quilt that I ever made. The pattern is Yellow Brick Road and I chose some watery batiks for him since he loves fishing and the sea. Yellow Brick Road is a great pattern because you can throw almost any grouping of fabrics together and it will work, the trick is laying them all out like a puzzle so that there aren't any of the same fabrics touching. The Tapestry Garden pattern bears more than a passing resemblance to Yellow Brick Road except that there are larger squares to display big patterns with and big patterns really are needed to make it work.

A detail shot of the watery batiks. Somehow I feel like I'm there with him, knowing that he's sleeping under this quilt.

traveling

2010-11-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

I'm headed out of the country for 10 days and here is my pile of travel yarn. Mostly it's Bugga that I bought at Rhinebeck. Packing my knitting projects takes more thought than packing my clothes, there's the worry that I might run out of projects, egad. Plus I have make sure I have all the right needles and notions. Let's see how much I can make with six skeins of sock yarn in 10 days.

For reading I have The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, recent winner of the Man Booker Prize, The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, and Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. All paperbacks and hefty enough to last a little while.

This is my latest submission to drawing Friday on flickr. Weaverknits Albers Cowl got me thinking about Josef Albers. Like the Mondrian drawing that I did, this is more adventures in the inconsistencies of the hand compared with the precision of the artwork that inspired it. I was looking at a gallery page of Josef Albers' series "Homage to the Square". Didn't use a ruler, but did sketch it out with pencil. Despite my best effort, everything tilts up to the right. Am I right handed or what? The scan might be a little off kilter too. Still, I like the little accidents, like the corners that don't quite meet and the watercolor bleeding into each other.

See you soon!

adventures in thumb anatomy and halloween

2010-10-31T20:17:00.000-07:00

These chevron fingerless mitts have been taking form since Rhinebeck. They are top down with a sore thumb. I finally got my hands on a copy of Kenan Ozbel's out-of-print book, Knitted Stockings from Turkish Villages, and the pattern is Corporal's Stripes from the book. This book is such a treasure, I hope that it will be reprinted. I sent my money off to Turkish Culture Shop and since I didn't receive a confirmation of any kind, was worried I had tossed the money out the window but my book eventually arrived via DHL. Bliss.

Anna Zilboorg says this is her book Magnificent Mittens: "When mittens were made of woven cloth or leather, it was necessary to use gussets and shaping to make them fit at all. When Scandinavians started knitting them, they followed the sewn patterns far more than was necessary for comfort." And later: "In Knitter's Almanac, Elizabeth Zimmerman declared that there was no need to place a gusset on the palm, thereby distinguishing the right and left-hand mittens. She said the gussets should stick straight out from the side so that mittens could be worn on either hand. Since her word is law to me, this is the way I have designed the mittens and have named them "Sore-Thumb Mittens," because the thumb sticks out like one."

A little note about thumb anatomy: 1. The Sore-Thumb sticks out to the side and the mittens are interchangeable. This is nice because there's no disruption to a stranded pattern. 2. The Invisible Thumb, common in the Baltic regions, in which the pattern on the thumb would blend in with any stranded pattern on the palm. 3. The Gusseted Thumb or thumb with gusset, is where stitches are increased in a triangle shape the accomodate the thumb on the palm side of the mitten, typical in Scandinavia. 2 and 3 both create right and left hand mittens. I've paraphrased what Anna Zilboorg described in Magnificent Mittens.

Since both of these women are my heroes, I thought I would give it a go. I knit the mitts top down, cast on separately for the thumb and inserted it on the three side stitches, then reduced as I knit down creating a side gusset or sore-thumb. The up shot of it is that while they are perfectly comfortable to wear, in this case I don't love them. The pull on the thumb makes the side "seam" spiral in a way that bugs me. I think the sore thumb would be fine on a looser fitting mitten but I wanted these to be form fitting, I will redesign them with a gusset.

Happy Halloween! We were a viking wench, a roll of toilet paper, and two decapitations.

rhinebeck or the hugfest

2010-10-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

The hugfest, otherwise known as The New York State Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck is over. I'm fully in recovery from the yarn fumes and all the good cheer. I met and re-met so many folks and was really terrible about taking pictures. What photos I did get are on flickr. Give me a good festival and my head goes out the window. Next year I'm going to wear a camera around my neck.

Ann Weaver (she sold me a copy of her new book in person!), Mary Jane Mucklestone, Ellen, Kim (why must you live so far away?), Deborah, Mary Beth, Yvonne, Steven Hot Pants, Gale Zucker (I got to pose for her!), Rebecca, Angela (she gave me my blog prize! Thank you, I'm a lucky winner of a nice book), Tomo, Karen, Adrian, Gaby, and countless others were among those I got to see. Please forgive me if I haven't added you to the list, my mind is a sieve. And of course, there is my awesome road trip pal and roommate Meganne. Why oh why didn't I get a picture of the two of us in front of the rundown Days Inn sprawled across the hood of the Camry Thelma and Louise style?

As for the fair itself, it was pretty much mobbed on Saturday. Anything we did involved waiting in lines, I definitely got sick of that. The "it" yarn seemed to be anything that Sanguine Gryphon was selling. They were selling their yarn in Elizabethan costume. I managed to score some Bugga, perhaps to make Ann Weaver's Albers Cowl. There didn't seem to be an "it" sweater this year. Perhaps the "it" garment was a slouchy cabled beret? Went to the Ravelry party but didn't stay long, that was also mobbed. It's a great place to see people though. Sunday was nicer since it was less crowded. Overall, the weather was fabulous, the people were smiling, the yarn was glorious, and Rhinebeck really is the highlight of my fibery year.

double knitting, drawing, Rhinebeck Bingo

2010-10-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

I've been slowly working on this scarf, and when I saw slowly I mean it, I can really only do about an inch of it at a time before taking a break. I've thought about quitting a number of times. The combination of the double knitting and Rowan Kid Silk Haze makes it really tedious. Double knitting creates a two layer, reversible fabric, where you're knitting both sides at the same time. It's like knitting a 1x1 rib with two colors. The toughest part was the cast on a first few rows and then it's easy to follow but all the knit and purl and the thin thin yarn is tiring. The fabric that it makes it luscious though and I think the end result will be gorgeous. The pattern is by Erica Schlueter from a hand out that she gave in a class that I took a couple of months ago. It's similar to a pattern (ravelry link) she designed that was published in Knit 1.

The drawing Friday flickr group is picking up steam, it's great to have some submissions. Come join us if you're feeling the drawing urge. Above is what I posted last Friday. There was an article in the NYTimes about a sculptor named Patrick Dougherty. He makes large hut-like sculptures out of sticks and twigs. This is an inset quote from the article. He seems like quite a character, nutty in a really nice way, and his work captivated me. Here's a link to his website: www.stickwork.net/installations.php

The NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck is coming up this weekend and I'll be a square on Rhinebeck bingo, wheee! If you're looking for me I'll be wearing one of these two items on Saturday and Sunday though they may be somewhat covered if it's cold and rainy.

the curse is lifted

2010-10-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

The Manly Man hat is finally done. It was not without many fits and starts. Two swatches, yarn ordered that was taking too long, accidentally switching to a size 2.5mm needle after I swatched with a 2.25mm and ending up with something that was ginormous. Casting on again and forgetting an entire repeat! At that point I just had to keep on going, figuring it would fit someone if not my husband’s big head. Luckily he is able to wear it and is happy with the fit, otherwise it’s a nice fit on a normal sized head. If I were to knit it over again for him, I would still make it a bit bigger. He doesn't seem to mind though. Now it will be stashed away until Xmas and he'll have to act surprised when he opens it.

We teased him by texting these pics to him, and no, there were no guinea pig nuggets left behind. Project details are on Ravelry.

I've started a Drawing Friday group on flickr. The idea is to post one drawing a week, no other rules. If you're a designer, knitterly or crafty type and feel like you want to get back to paper and share what you came up with, come on over! No pressure, it doesn't have to be perfectly realized, sometimes a scribble is just the right thing.

Below is my first submission. I looked at the New Yorker mag that was lying on the floor of my office and the word vacuum jumped out at me. It's not often that you see a word with two "u"s in it and I was just vacuuming the previous night, it seemed right. I've been wanting to experiment more with hand lettering so I plunged in.

drawing letters

2010-09-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

A friend wrote a children's story and asked me to do an illustration for it. I can draw, but I'm certainly not an illustrator. Why not give it a whack? It gave me the chance to have fun with hand lettering. I did various separate drawings and then pieced them together in photoshop. I had more fun with the lettering, with the girl I felt like I was struggling with having it look too cute. The drawing may never be used for anything, but it did make me feel like I need to make a regular go at drawing, something, anything. Perhaps a Drawing Friday post? If you're looking to be inspired by hand lettering, Hand Job is wonderful, I look at it whenever I want to feel looser in my design work.

The cursed Manly Man hat is slowly moving along. The Huz was away for almost all of last week and I was lost in parenting with hardly any time to knit or blog. I knit the crown once and then had to rip it back because it wasn't deep enough, the curse continues. The crown had been knit again and I've started on the facing, perhaps next post there will be a hat.

Rhinebeck is on the horizon. I'm getting very excited about heading back there in a couple of weeks, I don't even care about buying much yarn this time, I'm just looking forward to all the good cheer. This time I'll be traveling with my friend Meganne, road trip! I'll be playing Rhinebeck Bingo, hope to see some of you there.

the manly man hat is cursed!

2010-09-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

The manly man hat that I'm knitting for my man is officially cursed. Sometime ago I decided that I would knit a hat for my husband, he has a big head and has a hard time finding hats that he likes and that fit. I showed him a few different patterns, none of which were to his liking. He seemed very reluctant to let me knit him a hat, I finally dragged the answer out of him and he was worried that he was not worthy, he would lose it somehow, did he have to wear it if he didn't like it, and that the hat that I knit would be too colorful or whimsical. Well, that was throwing down the gauntlet, how dare he question my sense of color and knitting abilities?! Of course I could knit a hat with manly colors!

I bought yarn and swatched on size 1 needles (top left). The swatch seemed a little tight to me and the Huz didn't like the oatmeal color or the blue. He would rather have gray instead of oatmeal. Ok, fine. I ordered new yarn, but horrors, the vendor was on vacation and wouldn't be able to get me the yarn for 3 weeks. I waited until I got desperate and then ordered other yarn from my LYS, which came in quite quickly.

Swatch number 2 (top right) was on size 2 needles and a smorgasborg of patterns to choose from. Huz liked them and the colors but preferred the density of swatch 1. Both swatches had been knit on double pointed needles and I realized that I didn't have size 1 circulars (more than one pair of size 2s though!) so I ran down and bought them. I figured out the math and cast on, wheee, finally.

Partway up the patterns on the brim it looked pretty clear than it was going to be ginormous. I took it off the needles and tried it on the Huz's pumpkin head. Sure enough, even for his giant noggin it was huge. I had been thinking that my gauge was off somehow but chalked it up to the fact that it wasn't 95 degrees and humid anymore. Panic ensued, had I bought size 2s instead? I tested the needles on my needle gauge and whaddoyaknow, they didn't fit in the size 1 hole. I ran down to the yarn shop in a lather and bought another pair but before I even took them out of the bag at home I realized that my circulars were 2.5 mm instead of 2.25 mm like my double points. Argh! So, they were effectively really size 1.5, foiled by the difference between metric and US sizes.

Math was rejiggered and I cast on for hat number 2. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly even though Foggy, the guinea pig, nibbled through my working yarn. I made it up to the point where I wanted to divide for the crown and my stitch count was way off. GAH! I had been thinking that my join was looking a little wonky and that my stitch count must be off slightly, but it was actually off by 11 stitches, that's almost one whole repeat of the big pattern. I've been distracted knitting lately, work, noisy kids and husband, loud budgies, TV, clearly the manly-man-hat-disaster is all their fault. I'm almost ready to throw in the towel. The poor Huz is apologizing for the agonies, but doesn't he understand that the "agony" is half the fun?

Women like Renate Hiller keep me going, she's my new superhero. An incredibly eloquent piece on the value of handwork today:

my socks are old, I have a bike I like to hold

2010-09-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

Socks designed in the 15th century and still being knitted today, a pretty amazing thing. I love that knitting is such an ancient art and that what I'm doing was also done by an unknown person centuries ago. What was their life like? The pattern for these socks, Mamluke Socks, is in Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. She based them, almost exactly, on a pair of socks that are in the collection of the Textile Museum in D.C. The lettering is Cufic style Arabic letters that spells "Allah". I hesitated about having the word God on my socks but decided that I wanted to stay true to such an ancient design, and the lettering is very pretty.

I used size 2 needles, the yellow yarn is Socks That Rock in My Little Color Brain, and the orange and blue are Koigu KPPPM. The sock has a small short row heel that creates a little buckling around the ankle, heel anatomy may have been in it's infancy in the 15th century but they are still plenty comfortable to wear. The star toe is gorgeous

My birthday was last week and my family got together and got me a new bike like the bike of my dreams. It's an Electra Amsterdam Royal, sigh * it's gorgeous. Thank you!!!

My daughter did this drawing for me and her birthday wish for me was that I knit all day. I think she knows her mother. It's a sheep knitting a scarf in front of the fireplace.

Gale is having a contest, head on over to her blog and check it out.

double your fun and the norwegian purl

2010-08-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

Double knitting has been something that I've been hankering to try for a long time and I finally got my chance this week at a class with Erika Schlueter at the Yarn Basket. She's teaching a mohair double knit scarf similar to the one (ravelry link) that she designed for Knit.1. Erika was lots of fun and full of great tips. She also showed us how to do the Norwegian Purl which may finally be the answer to my continental style purling awkwardness. It's a bit of a mind bender at first, but it didn't take too long to get comfortable with it. I'm nervous to work with mohair again after my last Rapunzelian affair, but for the sake of being a good student I'm diving in.

There's a pretty good video on youtube of the Norwegian Purl, but I thought that I would share my photos from the workshop.

Step 1: Leave the yarn in back. Don't bring it forward like you would normally for purling.

Step 2: Put tip of right needle through to purl as usual.

Step 3: Pull the stitch out quite far and twist to grab the yarn in back.

Step 4: Grab the yarn in back over the top and pull through the loop. This is hard to see in this pic, but if you grab the yarn in back from underneath your stitch will end up facing the wrong direction.

Step 5: Pull the old left stitch off the needle and voila, Norwegian Purl is accomplished.

We got Poof from the NHSPCA about a month and a half ago. He's 2.5 years old and a total love. He and Foggy are still living in separate cages but we let them have a pig party once in awhile so they can rumblestrut, butt drag, butt sniff, chutter and engage in other dominance behaviors.

My quilt top is all done and just waiting for the backing fabric that I ordered. I'm going with this.

drive by

2010-08-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Drive by post. Been a bit MIA here, bogged down by a lot of work, but taking a quick break to update.

Here is my swatch for the Huz's hat. It's a mixture of New England Shetland and Rauma Finullgarn. The pattern is from Mostly Mittens. The Huz has decided that he likes the red and the orange, but not the oatmeal (he would prefer gray), or the blue. Oh, you picky man. I have ordered new yarn and will reswatch, going up a needle size to 2s, and maybe try another pattern. The fabric turned out pretty stiff.

Since I've been on hold for the Huz's hat, I have been ITCHING for a colorwork fix. So I pulled some yarn out of the stash and started working on Mamluke Socks (rav link) from Folk Socks.

puzzling

2010-08-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

Putting this quilt together is like working on a giant puzzle. The pattern of the quilt (Tapestry Garden from Kaffe Fassett's Kaleidoscope of Quilts) is actually harder than it looks. Sewing it together is easy, it's the layout that is tough. The arrangement of the fabrics should allow the eye to happily dance around the surface without getting stuck anywhere.

The layout is in three columns, with a mixture of three different sized squares. I had two columns laid out during the workshop but I had to work out the third column at home. It really helped to have a reducing glass to be able to take a step back from it where I had it laid out on my bedroom floor and see the bigger picture. The fabrics used need to have some drama but work together, like big prints in the big squares. I'm using a mixture of Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler prints. Some people in the workshop attempted to use small prints in the large squares and it really did not work. It was cool to see how different the same pattern could look with thirty different versions around the room. I have it all put together now but just need to add the borders. It's been fun to make this, like solving a puzzle with no prescribed end.

Kaffe has done this pattern in at least three different ways. The first version, Shirt Stripe Boxes from Passionate Patchwork, is made entirely out of shirting fabric. It's a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. The two others, Tapestry Garden and Morning Garden, are from Kaleidoscope of Quilts, and are a reworking of the first one in florals. The floral version is a great platform for him to teach what he does best, color, and of course sell all his fabrics.

The beach was a nice place to do some swatching yesterday. I'm thinking of making a hat for the Huz using patterns from Charlene Schurch's Mostly Mittens. The Huz has a bit of a pumpkin head and always has a hard time finding hats that fit and is particular, so he's hesitant about me making him a hat. What if he doesn't like it, will he have to wear it?! Will I make him something too whimsical like my "giant sock dress" (his words!) ?! Will it be too colorful? I can't believe he doesn't trust in my knitting and color abilities, just shut up and take the damn hat, will ya?

high summer quilt

2010-07-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

Pulled out the quilt that I started in the Kaffe Fassett workshop TWO years ago and finally started putting it together. It was pinned to and rolled up in the flannel that I was using as a design wall in the workshop and it came out barely needing to be pressed. I will definitely use that technique again. I'm loving the colors even more right now, I thought it would have lost some of its appeal over time but it didn't. The colors are like high summer with an abundance of greens and warm oranges. The pattern is called Tapestry Garden from Kaleidoscope of Quilts and looks very much like Yellow Brick Road. I will add a small inner border and a wider outer border.

There was a great interview with Paul Buckley of Penguin Books about book design there for the last 10 years or so and his upcoming book, Penguin 75. I really admire his commitment to illustration and his creative, strong designs.

I finished reading One Day in practically one day. This is a great, quick read about a man and a woman over the course of 20 years. It checks in with them once a year on July 15th. If you want a summer read that isn't going to make you feel sleazy, this is it. There's love, lust, humor, and wit, yet it's meaty and complex enough in its read of relationships to make me feel as though the author has touched on truths that I haven't been able to articulate.

cerisara and camping

2010-07-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

Cerisara is done finally. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, the yarn is luscious and feels nice even against bare skin. In the background is a the siding of a wonderful bathhouse built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30s at Moosebrook State Park. It's a lovely rustic building with stone steps leading into a man-made pool of mountain water. Sadly, they don't have money to repair it.

You can find all my project notes and mods for Cerisara on Ravelry, there are also more pictures on Flickr.

Since Cerisara is done, I'm chomping on the bit for a new project. Some colorwork is welling inside me. I tried to convince the Huz that I should knit him the Komi Cap from Charlene Schurch's Mostly Mittens, but being a diva he balked at it. How dare he squelch my fire?! So I took my long abandoned Manos blankie camping. The plan is to knit scarf length garter strips is various stripes and then sew them together. I have three strips at this point. You can see Girl wearing Cerisara as a beach coverup.

We had a wonderful time camping, I love Moosebrook. It's a relatively small state park with mostly tenters, a natural and cold pool for swimming, and they allow dogs. We have two backpacking tents, one for the girls and one for the boys. I'm still pushing for the grownups tent and kids tent, but I guess we haven't quite gotten there yet. There were lots of families there that we knew and the kids had a blast playing capture the flag and swimming all day. Beetle totally wore herself out with all the excitement. I finished reading Jar City during a thunderstorm one night. It was gruesome but a page turner, all the details of life in Iceland were fun.

still on vacation

2010-07-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

We're still on the island and have very limited internet access, sorry I haven't had a chance to respond to comments. The rest of the family is bold enough to jump off the wharf, I'm too chicken. I did go swimming once in the warm water of low tide and I consider that a huge success.

A rare moment of calm while the kids are busy. I finished knitting both sleeves on Cerisara and then decided to rip back part of the body to add some more increases at the hip and length to the body. Hopefully blocked with pictures in next post!

vacation

2010-07-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

I'm on vacation with the family and somehow I have no time to knit or even read, how does that happen? With no internet access (except at the library) and barely any phone reception, blogging is a real treat. The weather has been glorious though, we've had a number of those days when summer in Maine seems magical with fireflies twinkling in the field in front of our cottage at night and dragonflies circling in the day. A bit of the field is visible in the picture of the eggs. We got the eggs from our neighbor. From the cottage that we're staying in we can hear her rooster crowing every morning. It woke me up the first day, but now I sleep through it. It's a very cheerful sound, I don't find it annoying.

The kids seem to think the water is warm and on a bright day I might almost believe them. The kids say that I'm cold blooded because I get cold so easily and I'm inclined to agree. Boy Thing and I rowed out to a little island nearby and he went for a dip in his underwear. I lounged on the beach enjoying my five bars of phone reception and got some blisters from rowing on the way back.

Maybe vacation cannot be without highs and lows, maybe memorable good moments can't happen without memorable bad moments. We had to put Alfred the guinea pig down a couple of days ago. He rallied for awhile with the liquid food and seemed to be gaining weight, but he started losing weight again recently and seemed to have a hard time eating. Perhaps the infection never cleared up or maybe his teeth were already growing. We knew it would just be a downward spiral so Boy Thing was brave enough to not want him to suffer. The kind local animal control officer (and the one who gave us the eggs) took care of it for a bottle of wine. The kids wailed and were sad, but were over it in a couple of hours. I think kids process emotions much more quickly than grown ups do.

One sleeve is done with Cerisara, I'm beginning to think that I might need to rip out the body a bit and add some more hip increases. I'll rip for fit, but not the goof ups with the lace pattern under the arms.

I've started reading Ilustrado, which I borrowed from the library here. The cover is by Gray 318, and is mainly why I picked it up. I love the way the type is shaped out of the little tear drop shapes, is it mimicking some kind of Filipino art, I'm not sure. I was worried that there wouldn't be a narrative voice that I could grab on to, because it has been alternating paragraphs between a novel written by a character in the book, a bio of this same character, and the voice of one of his students. But it has finally settled on a narrator and I'm getting sucked into it.

Happy 4th! I plan on eating a lobster roll and too many potato chips.

hammocks and lace

2010-06-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

Cerisara is moving along. I finished the body last night but the pictures are from earlier in the day. I decided to use the knit side of stockinette for the body rather than the purl side the way the pattern is, but left the collar in purl side stockinette. I like it better this way. This does cause a little ridge between the collar purl and the body knit, but I think it will flatten out in blocking.

I made many mistakes at the side "seams" under the armholes where the lace pattern is temporarily disrupted. The idea is just to add a couple of stitches of plain stockinette in the middle of the repeat, which makes sense now that it is done, but I couldn't seem to wrap my head around it as I was knitting it. I left the boo boos, no one will notice them and I decided that I'm going to avoid ripping unless absolutely necessary, perfection is for the birds.

The Huz got a hammock for Father's Day, which he loved. The down side was that the kids bickered endlessly about whose turn it was to go in it and drove him crazy.

Did any of you catch last night's episode of Work of Art, The Next Great Artist on Bravo? I missed it, but will try to see it in rerun, especially since their project was to design a book cover! You can see their work here , I love seeing hand drawn type. The winner's design will be used by Penguin.

reading, painting, piggie drama

2010-06-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Finally got a copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson (Thanks, Mom!). This is the third book in the Swedish series which are great reads. Wonderful jacket designs by Peter Mendelsund. Filled with grisly murder details and compelling characters, they're hard to put down. I saw the Swedish movie of the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and it totally delivered. The main character Lisbeth Salander is very unusual, she's androgynous, angry, anti-social, yet somehow you root for her. I was skeptical of the Swedish actress, Noomi Rapace, pulling it off and being too beautiful but she did a great job and was hot at the same time. I'm sure that when the Hollywood version comes out they'll screw it up.

Cerisara has been on the back burner this week as we've been working on painting our living room and tending to Alfred the guinea pig. Above you can see the Huz in contemplation of our living room color. I ended up getting TEN different swatches before we finally settled on one. Ochre proved too elusive, the swatches either looked like straight up yellow on the wall, or blah beige, and Boy Thing named one of them Poop Stain. That definitely put the kabosh on that color. So I decided to go darker and we picked a color called Wet Riverbanks, which is orangey brown. It reminds me of earth in Turkey or someplace with a lot more clay in the soil, not New England. Or maybe it's the color of tandoori chicken. I'm hoping it will feel vibrant yet relaxing, and help me feel warmer when I'm knitting in front of the TV in the winter. I've got one coat of paint up already but have had to take a break since we're getting new windows, whee! Joining in the local pastime of spending our summers fixing the house.

This is Alfred. We've had him for a few months, he's young maybe 6 months or so. He didn't seem to be thriving, so I took him to the vet. We were expecting that maybe he needed vitamin C, or some other easy fix, but it turns out that he has horribly deformed teeth one of which was growing into his cheek and causing an abscess. For $350 she trimmed them down. Really a lot of money for a guinea pig and we hesitated over doing it, but Boy Thing was crying into his cereal bowl. Bad news is that his teeth will grow back and because they're so wonky they won't get worn down properly by eating hay like most pigs' teeth do. Since the procedure we've been feeding him medicine and food with a syringe. He was losing weight and looking wobbly and I thought that he might be a goner, but then two days ago he started eating on his own. Part of me is rooting for him to get better and be a miracle pig and another part of me is worried that there will be another downward spiral soon enough.

seeing yellow

2010-06-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

I've started working on Cerisara (Ravelry link). I chose to do the smallest size because the ones that I liked on Ravelry are the ones that are more fitted rather than loose. One worry is that that the armhole won't be deep enough, so I might go up a size for the armhole. Once again my lace-tard tendencies are showing up. It's a pretty easy pattern, only six repeats, but I still manage to f it up continually. The way the collar attaches is totally genius. The first thing that is knit is the back with a provisional cast on, and then from the provisional cast on, you pick up for the left collar and then shoulder, and then do the same for the right attaching the collar in the middle with yet another provisional cast on pick up for that. Where each side of the collar joins in the back is completely invisible, very cool.

Living room renovations are percolating, I'm gearing up to repaint the living room. A warm ocher is appealing to me right now. It's amazing what a difficult color that is to find. Ocher is riding a precarious line between green, yellow, and brown. The living room is currently a brighter and mintier green than in the picture, and the paint chips aren't quite so yellowy. I chose the minty green when I was pregnant and it has always been just a tad too bright. Blame the pregnancy, my color sense seemed to go a bit of of whack and much more saturated when I was pregnant. Seven years later, it's finally time to do something about it.

Wanting some lighter reading, I've been blowing through the Twilight series. They really are page turners, in only a couple of weeks I'm already almost finished with book four. The abstinence before marriage subtext got a little annoying in book 3, but now that she's managed to move beyond that into supernatural sex and what not, I'm OK.

rapunzel, rapunzel, let down your fine mohair!

2010-06-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

The stockinette scarf from hell is finally done. It turned out pretty long. I like to be able to double wrap my scarves, particularly if they're thin, and I had three skeins of blue Alchemy Haiku so I kept knitting until the yarn was done. There is still good amount of the orange stuff left over, perhaps is will make a snazzy lining for something. The gorgeous swatch at Purl Soho inspired me to make this scarf and I oohed and aahed halfway through knitting it about how lovely the yarn was, but then started cursing myself for once again falling prey to sexy yarn. Never will I be so weak again! (famous last words). The "numbing ennui" (yarny's words) of knitting it is starting to fade and I think it looks pretty and will probably wear it a lot.

Vitals stats: 3 skeins of Alchemy Haiku in Soft Turquoise, 1 skein in Persimmon, on size 7 needles. Cast on 80 stitches, knit four rows of garter stitch at either end, six rows of garter stitch on each side of the scarf, all the rest is stockinette. The yarn is 60% mohair and 40% silk. It appears to be mohair wrapped around a silk core and is hand dyed, absolutely stunning. Beware the siren call of this yarn.

The stockinette might have been restful if I was using a thicker yarn, but this yarn is so thin and a little slippery that I actually had to pay attention so that I wouldn’t drop a stitch or accidentally pick up the stitch underneath it. I had to switch from my bamboo circulars to using Addi Lace Turbos because the yarn was getting caught on the join of the bamboo circulars. The Addi Lace Turbos were a dream.

Checking Ravelry for who had worked with Haiku I found that Weaverknits was inspired by the same swatch at Purl Soho to make a lovely scarf too. She somehow makes hers look rock and roll. Girl, I am jealous of your boogie.

Boring Knitter, TOTB, and Nimitz came to town last week and we had a lovely lunch on the square followed by some icecream. Nimitz was a perfect gentleman and everyone on the street had to stop and comment about him. They might be moving up here in six months, lucky me!

good karma

2010-05-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

A couple new good things have come into my life. First up is my uber hip HubbyCo jacket. I helped my friend Bettina Hubby finish a quilt and in return she gave one of my jackets the HubbyCo treatment. Bettina is an artist who deconstructs and reconstructs garments into one-of-kind pieces, among other things. Can't wait to see how her collaborative project, Get Hubbied, turns out. It's a contest for an arty wedding like no other, with dozens of artists involved in everything from making the wedding gown to filming the event. Below is the before and after shots of my jacket (click on image to see a bigger version on flickr).

Originally the jacket was made by JCrew, I've it had for awhile and I always liked the wool and the fit, but the ruffles on the pockets and collar seemed a bit fussy for my taste. The jacket has gone from stuffy to hip. Thanks, Bettina!

Above is a detail of the carefully reconstructed waistband and pocket. I love the two-tone stitching and the bits of facing peeking through.

Next up is a shawl pin and also a necklace from Shipyard Point Glassworks. While I was at The Spa, I was chatting with the vendor and asked her why she wasn't making shawl pins. She said that she would try some and send me one. Well, she did! It was soo nice of her to send me the shawl pin, now that is good karma. I love the blue blobbiness of this pin, it reminds me of Yayoi Kusama. I got some of the her beads at Rhinebeck and some more at The Spa, and then strung them on to leather with another lampwork bead as the fastener, it's like a party around my neck.

My new swift and ball winder kept me quietly busy Sunday afternoon. I got six skeins of yarn into nice cakes likety split, something that would have taken me hours normally. I really like hand winding my own yarn since I think my own balls are nicer than cakes, but sometimes speed is a good thing and I finally caved and bought them. I only screwed up with one cake by going too fast, which threw it off the end of the winder and part of cake got messy. Otherwise, it was the most relaxing afternoon I've had in awhile with the house to myself.

the stockinette scarf from hell

2010-05-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

Sighs of pleasure about the beauty of the yarn have turned into puffs of frustration with this never ending scarf from hell. This is why I hate knitting scarves, the boredom and tediousness of it all. Colorwork is looking sooo appealing. Maybe if there was a cable, or a pattern, or something to break up the monotony. There is plenty of yarn and I would like to be able to double wrap it around my neck since it's such a lightweight fabric, so my slog continues. I'm afraid that if I put it down I will never pick it up again and it will be relegated to the outer edges of UFO universe.

a veritable smorgasborg, orgasborg

2010-05-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

We went to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool festival this past weekend. This has become a Mother's Day tradition for us and we managed to make it there despite the usual amount of family drama. Beetle's head was almost squashed in the car window, Girl Thing cried terribly and Boy Thing made a remark that made things worse. Moms never really get the day off. But once we got there we had a great day. It was so cooold that the Huz and Boy Thing both bought hats, and Girl Thing got a pair of mittens to stay warm. The kids ate their way across the fair like Templeton in Charlotte's Web, sausages, fried dough, hot cider, kettle corn, honey sticks... the fair was a veritable smorgasborg, orgasborg!

There seemed to be a few less vendors this year, I wonder if the economy is keeping them away? Despite the cold, all the vendors (there were still plenty of them!) were in good cheer and many of them commented on my "skirt", since that's all that you could see of my dress. One even took a picture to inspire her daughter to knit a dress.

For the car knitting (my favorite kind) there and back, I was working on my stockinette scarf from hell. I started knitting this scarf in NY a couple of weeks ago, based on a swatch that I saw at Purl. It's much longer now, but I'm starting to get tired of it. What keeps me going is how gorgeous the yarn is, Alchemy Haiku, 60 Mohair, 40 silk. Little sighs of ecstasy when I touch it.

the owl and the pussycat dress

2010-05-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

It's done!! I’m in lurve and feel a bit like Joan of Arc when I wear this, there’s something medieval about it. Despite the fact that it is covered with patterns and words, it really blends together well and doesn’t look freakish when I wear it (I hope!). I decided to go with dress length because I wanted to add more text and didn’t want it to end up around my hips or crotch. A-line and knee length is a good length for me. I was worried as I was knitting it that it would be too tight because I was aiming for 0 ease, but it loosened just enough with blocking.

The whole thing is knit top down in the round with just little seams in the underarms. The only place I used size 3s was on the neckline, the rest was size 4s to the hip and then I switched to 5s for the skirt. The yarn is Reynolds Whiskey, which is surprisingly soft and light, and the colors are fantastic. I can't think of why this yarn ended up in the sale bin at my LYS. The gauge is 27 stitches/32 rows to 4” on 4s, and 24 stitches/31 rows to 4” on 5s, blocked. If you look carefully at the sleeve detail pic, you can see the join underneath it. Below is a sleeve and torso detail.

The top yoke says “the • owl • and • the • pussycat • went • to • sea • in • a • beautiful ** ”, the hem line says “pea • green • boat • they • took • some • honey • and • plenty • of • money”. The text is from The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear, full poem is here. It's my favorite nonsense poem and I have many fond memories of reading it to the kids, though I can recite it from memory now. Hem and yoke details below. Click on photos to go to flickr and see bigger versions.

The design of the dress is my own, but all the patterns are from Anna Zilboorg's wonderful book of Turkish socks, Simply Socks. For the construction, I used Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top as a guide. Both books are a must have.

One last picture. I couldn't resist this photo of Beetle using her beagle bugle, that girl has some lungs. I've started Twittering. Why? Not sure exactly, Yarny Ol Kim keeps leading me further into the internet and it's always been worth it. Stop on by!

almost done

2010-04-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

Weaving in ends, and ends, and more ends. In the time that it has taken me to weave in all the ends on this piece, I probably could have knit another sweater. Some folks like to weave in as they go, but I don't think it looks as good that way. Didn't Elizabeth Zimmerman say something about not weaving in the ends as you go along? I did stop occasionally to weave in as I was knitting, but there were still heaps of them to do at the end. YES, I said the end!! It is wet and blocking on the floor of my bedroom. Next post I promise photos of this dang garment. Since I started knitting this thing during the Winter Olympics in the beginning of February, it seems like I've spent a lifetime on it. It's been pretty enjoyable and has practically knitted itself, I relinquished control a long time ago. This might also mean that I've given up my critical eye. Tim Gunn might tell me to take a step back and really consider what I was doing. Too late Tim, this one is done.

bus knitting again

2010-04-14T18:03:00.000-07:00

An embarrassment of riches it is to be able to go down to New York again I went down again last weekend, this time for a reunion with a group of my high school friends. We all squeezed into one hotel room, cozy!

On the Bolt Bus ride down and back I finished Crooked Paths hat, by Knitting School Dropout, with the crazy yellow yak yarn that I bought at School Products when I went down earlier this year. The pattern was great and clear, the yarn was weird stuff, six thread-like strands held together. Constructions details on Ravelry.

After a day of wandering around lower Manhattan, we all went to see Fuerza Bruta. Combine loud club music, dancers, unusual stage props, performance art, and you might get close to describing this show. During one part of the show they lower a gigantic plastic sheet with water on it over the audience. The performers slither around and slide across the plastic, rather amazing. Loaded with sensuality and symbolism, it still seemed more fun than heavy handed.

Purl worked it's magic on me and I succumbed to several skeins of Alchemy Haiku while I was there. There was a lovely swatch of loose stockinette and it just looked so pretty, I thought it would make a delicious scarf. Turns out that Weaverknits Mom loved the same swatch and got a scarf just like it too (Rav link). I wound the yarn around my knees on the bus ride home, no mean feat because the mohair is so clingy.

The metal numbers on the utility pole are so alluring, I wish I had a whole pile of them to play with. I wonder if the utility company still uses them or are they incredibly old?

eggs, eggs, eggs

2010-04-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

Five dozen eggs boiled, dyed, hidden, found, and some consumed. Here is our egg dyeing station. I saved the little plastic egg dyeing containers from previous years because they're really the perfect size, it's so hard to find bowls where the dye completely covers the egg without being too wide. You can see our letter stickers, electrical tape, and the Easter issue of Martha Stewart Living in the foreground. I can never resist the Easter issue since her eggs are so pretty. Our eggs are much less perfect and I prefer them that way.

The Huz accused me of making the "knit" and "K2P2" eggs just for the blog, and maybe I did! I particularly like the way the small knit egg came out. Smaller letters seem to work nicely, I can see more extended texts next year.

We made letter eggs done with (clockwise from top left) stickers, electrical tape eggs, rubber band eggs, and marbled eggs. This was the first time for electrical tape eggs and it worked out really well. For the stickers, I just bought a bunch of letter stickers from Michael's. I love the face that Girl Thing made with two commas and a bracket, which she says is a mustache, the 007 and OMG eggs are pretty priceless. We had a few puffy heart and skull stickers, but they were too sticky and couldn't be fully removed. For dye I mainly used drops of food coloring with hot water and vinegar instead of the Paas pellets. I was a little disappointed with the vibrancy of the colors, the few Paas pellets that we had lying around made much brighter colors.

To make marbled eggs you dye the eggs with a light color and then make a bath of darker dye that is no more than a 1/2 inch deep. Add in tablespoon of olive oil and then double dye the egg. Our marbled eggs didn't turn out as well as the first time that I did them, I think because I used canola oil. The olive might be key in the way that it clings to the egg and the water. There's a nice tutorial for them here.

Here are a couple of favorite eggs, Girl Thing's on the left, she did that herself with stickers. My favorite egg is on the right, it's a total accident which achieved a lovely patina with a lot of overdyeing and a weird streak, it's like Raku pottery magic.

Three new books entered my life this week. One was a gift from Bridget from The Ravell'd Sleeve. She's a knitter, librarian and always has interesting thoughts, she was offering up Three Cups of Tea and I got it! Thanks, Bridget!

Book #2 is A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles Volume 2 1901-1938. I have Volume 1 and knew that this one would be a typophiles dream just like the first. Taschen also has all the images online as hires, which is free access to anyone who has purchased the book. This one is sure to be a useful tool.

Book #3 is Small Sweaters. This was an impulse buy after I saw this (Ravelry link) ridiculously cute stranded squirrel cardigan. I got the book used on Amazon.

bring on the sun

2010-04-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Oh, that spring sun feels so good. My Owl and the Pussycat tunic/dress is moving along. I've gotten to the point where I'm going to add another row of text and have to stop to chart them.

Five dozen eggs are boiled and ready to go this afternoon for dyeing. This is my favorite part of Easter, I'm always a bit shocked when people say that they don't like to do it or that their kids aren't into it, how can that be? I bought a pile of letter stickers at Michael's today in anticipation of more letter egg magic like last year.

Hipstamatic and FX Photo Studio apps for the iphone are my latest toys and the photos above are their products. I have some nice pictures of the rain this past week but it seems criminal to post them when the sun is finally beaming down, here's a link to one on flickr.

Meganne pointed out this article in The Wall Street Journal about truckers knitting and crocheting in their down time. My favorite quote is: "Kevin Abraham-Banks, a 37-year-old trucker with a shaved head and dragon tattoos, passes time at truck stops with his cocoa and knitting..."The fact that you can take strands of thread and basically make something out of it, that's awesome I think," he said. "It's pretty cool stuff, man.""

forging ahead on the road

2010-03-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks all for the great comments, I've decided to forge onwards with the sweater and see what happens, so option #1 is out. There was a lot of my favorite kind of knitting time this past week, car knitting, since The Huz and I went down to New York for our 15th (!!#*!) anniversary. I've already managed to add on a few more inches even though the going is slow with around 300 stitches per round at this point. I desperately wanted to post on the road, but couldn't figure out a good blogger app for the iphone.

We stayed at The Pod Hotel in New York. They advertise very small rooms and small prices, so I was a bit worried that they would also be issuing orange jumpsuits at the door. It turned out to be stylish and cute, like if lounge music was a hotel, loved it. Above, on left I'm knitting in the lobby of The Pod, on right a view of our room. Below, on left another view of our room with The Huz actually in the shower, and a shot from the roof of The Huz doing his best Jason Bourne imitation.

We had dinner that night in the Meatpacking District which has turned into an uber stylish tourist destination. We went to Spice Market which had a bit of a theme restaurant atmosphere but the food was delish, mushroom egg rolls, vegetables in green curry, and silken tofu with pad thai flavor, all amazing. When I met the Huz he was living in the Triangle building right in the middle of the Meatpacking district and from his window we could see trucks filled with guts and tranny hookers picking up johns, there were s/m clubs in the basement and for a while the Pope of Pot occupied one of the store fronts. It's amazing how much the neighborhood has changed, I knew that it had changed but it was still a shock to be back there.

As always, New York is filled with wonderful signs like the faded old hand painted sign above Spice Market (above left). I've been enjoying New Type York, a blog that documents New York signs daily. Took in the Whitney Biennial and realized I wasn't missing anything. Saw The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, it delivers and the actress who plays Lisbeth Salander is almost too good looking but nails the part.

It's been a dang good fifteen years.

help me

2010-03-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

I need your help deciding what to do about this sweater. The question is how long should it be? I put it on last night for the Huz and he fell down on the floor laughing at the idea that I would just keep on knitting. He thinks that the length is good and I should just add a bit of ribbing and be done with it, no more text. So that's option #1.

Option #2 would be to add another pattern row or so and then another band of text. This would make it about mid-thigh, what I call tunic length. The Huz says that it would look like an overgrown sweater, but that's what I had been leaning towards and now he has lodged doubt in my mind.

Option #3 would be to keep on going until it's really a dress. In which case there would be another band of text around the hem, followed by the ribbing. This would take the longest time obviously, but I think I still have that much gas in my tank though I am continually eyeballing other shiny little patterns that I would like to knit.

The appeal of adding another row of text is that the text around the yoke ends a bit abruptly "The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea In a beautiful...", it's sort of begging for at least the "pea green boat". I suppose I could add that text around one of the arms if I went with option #1.

Help me out of my quagmire. Here's a link to the full poem by Edward Lear.

hat pie

2010-03-11T09:21:00.000-08:00

Too much to share, so I'm going to try to be brief and let the photos do the talking.

First off, the Inga hat (free pattern). I ended up doing this one for the school silent auction instead of the Mini Mochi one. I keep wanting to work with self striping yarn but always back away, I guess I like being able to control my color changes.

I think it turned out pretty bangin, hopefully someone at the silent auction will bid it way up. I followed Helloyarn's great mods, and other details on Ravelry: rav link.

Manos Blankie was cast aside during the Olympics to jump head long into the abyss of a freeform, top-down, colorwork sweater (detail above). This might turn out to be a "what was she thinking?" fashion blight or it might be a freak flag to wear with pride. Stay tuned.

A sign at my local post office. Possibly used to say "copies". The clerks stare it all day, I wonder if this sterile Helvetica "pie" makes them hungry?

Scarf watching in New York isn't just my pass time, the adorable Bill Cunningham (I would like to adopt him) was at it too. There are some great scarf inspirations in there: Bill Cunningham of the New York Times on scarves.

Spotted this Lego fiend artist's work on The NY Post website, I bet it makes everyone who sees it smile: Lego art in the cracks.

uncooperative stash, guinea pigs at the nightclub

2010-03-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

Went to The Spa in Freeport last weekend with a couple of friends and studiply forgot to take pictures. This seems to happen to me when I go to a fiber event, the yarn fumes, the friends, checking out all the other great knits, and apparently my head is checked at the door. Attempted to be restrained in my purchases but spent the bulk of my budget with Shipyard Point Glassworks. I bought some of their stitch markers at Rhinebeck last fall and made necklaces out of them to give as gifts. I'm planning to make a choker with what I've bought. Also managed to limit myself to one skein of Sereknity Sweet in Pharoah's Gold, a huge success since I wanted so much more. This didn't stop me from looking to see what The Yarn and Fiber Co. had online of Sereknity, still wishing I had bought more.

Why doesn't the stash cooperate when I want it to? I agreed to make a hat for the school fundraiser and figured that I could just pull something out of my stash to do it with, but after arranging and rearranging my stash all over my office floor yesterday I can't get what I have to cooperate with the patterns that I might like to use. I would really like to do something fair isle because, well that's just more interesting for me, and also because that might justify the high value I suggested for my hat. Today I found the free pattern for the Mini Mochi Fair Isle hat, is this a good enough excuse to rush down to the LYS and finally buy some Mini Mochi?

Over the weekend our lives became two baby guinea pigs richer. Meet Alfred (on the right with Boy Thing), whose fur looks like he gets hennas with Kim, and Foggy who has gray fur and pink eyes. Two guinea pigs were the compromise between father and son after a two day battle of wills over a rat at the pet store. According to The Huz, our house is like an exclusive nightclub with a red velvet rope across the door and when one creature leaves another may come in. Boy Thing apparently has some pull with the bouncer but not enough pull to get a rat through the door.

chebeague island lobsterman's mittens.

2010-02-25T10:49:00.000-08:00

Between the kids winter break and trying to work at my home office, it's been tough to get to blogging. But, there's still plenty of knitting going on.

The Chebeague Island Lobsterman's Mittens are finally done. Mittens to be worn by lobstermen as they pull traps in and out of the water, how could I not love this pattern? My family has a been a part of this island for a long time and it felt good to be knitting local history as I worked on them. These mittens really are worn by lobsterman and they say that they're still warm, even when wet. I used the pattern in Favorite Mittens and knit the medium size. The Chebeague Island Ladies' Aid pattern that Diane gave was for a large, and I knew it would be very big. I decided not to try and second guess the pattern in the book like I usually do and follow the directions exactly.

The knitting part was easy, a quick knit, but knit tightly. The pattern calls for raw wool and this stuff was raw alright, a very sheepy smelling 2-ply which moisturized my hands with lanolin as I knit. The yarn is from Riverslea Farm and I saw at the local farmers' market, about worsted in weight and I knew the moment I touched it that it would make good mittens. Size 5 needles is what I ended using, which gave a nice dense fabric even before the mittens were fulled. The cuff felt tight as I was knitting and the X-factor was going to be the fulling, I had no idea what size these would turn out to be, but figured some lucky soul would get them.

Fulling is not something that I love. I've taken a felting workshop before, and I know how much work it can be. Putting the mittens through the washing machine and then the dryer is an option I suppose, but I don't think it works as well. I was determined to follow the pattern exactly, so fulling it was, dipping in and out of hot and cold water baths, and scrubbing on a washboard with liquid soap. I didn’t have a washboard so I used our griddle and dish soap, which worked fine. Where would I find a washboard these days anyway? The book says the fibers will give up eventually shrinking and relaxing and they did, after about 45 minutes.

The pattern says that the mittens will shrink approximately 25%, and they did that, maybe even a little more. Most of the shrinkage happened in the length and not much in the width. The cuffs relaxed during fulling (phew!) and I would say that these mittens turned out to be a men’s medium. I brushed them with the dog’s brush since that was the only wire brush I had.

The Huz got such a look of happiness when he put these on that I thought I might knit them again after all. He says they’re very soft and warm. He probably likes these mittens much more than the lovely Norwegian mittens that I made for him and wears the Lobsterman's mitts with the cuffs folded up.

caaake

2010-02-11T09:29:00.000-08:00

It's been an unending celebration of Boy Thing's birthday this week. Hard to believe that this large person and personality was just my little nugget not so long ago. He's standing on his new longboard skateboard and holding a model of a WW2 airplane that was flown by Tuskegee Airmen. The bigger he gets, the more I can squeeze when I hug him.

Between the party on the weekend, the classroom celebration, and our family party, I've made 4 dozen cupcakes (spice cake with lemon frosting dyed either green or pink per Boy's request) and a gluten-free chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. No frosting is complete without rainbow sprinkles. The gluten-free part was for me since it was kind of torture to make all those baked goods and not eat them. I'm not supposed to eat dairy either, but I relented with the frosting and paid for it with itchy ears and congestion this morning. It tasted pretty darn good though.

I've started working on my Manos blankie. My approach is do long strips of garter stitch stripes and then sew them together. Very free form stripes, like jazz, I think I will call it Birdland.

nyc wrap up

2010-02-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

The BoltBus was clean and quiet, thumbs up. Got off the bus and met Kim at M&J Trim to buy buttons. I wish I had a project that needed ribbon, their display was staggering.

Ate Korean food (Hangover Soup and other unidentifiable fishy and salty things). I miss the wealth of food that NY has to offer at good prices.

Kim and I ogled hideous wigs and an amazing Korean plastic food display in midtown. Bought a brick of yellow yak at School Products, and lusted after a giant cone of orange cashmere and other unusual fibers. Visited Habu and loved hearing the whir of women working behind the divider but couldn't figure out what to buy from their esoteric display. Delivered the hat and cowl that I knit to my friend and her daughter.

Ate Japanese food. Warmed their cozy couch.

Ate breakfast at City Bakery with good company and scoped out all the scarves buying their morning coffees. Big, chunky, drapey knits are in.

Visited work contacts and felt good delivering my new business cards and leave-behinds. Wandered around MOMA. The Tim Burton show was packed with hipsters. Mostly illustrations hung salon style, a few props, and some videos that were too crowded to watch. He's amazingly prolific and must draw all the time. I found myself smiling at some of the props. The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands have become a part of my personal history, watching them over and over again with the kids. The coolest thing I saw at MOMA tucked in a corner of the design section was a tiny video of Loie Fuller and her Danse Serpentine from 1896.

Ate Thai food. Warmed the cozy couch again.

Visited friends in Brooklyn and my Bunny Love Mittens finally found their Cinderella. We went together to the Brooklyn Flea inside the former Williamsburg Bank building, such a cool space. I remembered why I enjoyed buying vintage so much more when I lived in NY. There were cute crafts and great food there too. My head whipped around when I heard someone say "Are you Craftivore?" It was Sayschnicklefritz! (above) A great blogger moment. Saw Broken Embraces at the Sunshine and finally decided that Almodovar is my favorite director. Went back to Brooklyn to spend the night at another friend's house. Why oh why can't I see these folks more often?

Ate Cuban food. Warmed another cozy bed.

Ate French food. Got back on the BoltBus, and almost finished a pair of Chebeague Island Fisherman's Mittens on the way back. A few days that were food for the soul.

busing down crafty lane

2010-01-27T15:55:00.000-08:00

I'm heading down to NY for the weekend and taking the BoltBus. My usual mode of transportation is usually the Fung Wah, so we'll see if this is actually more civilized or not. Having to make reservations takes a bit of the fun out of things. So, a quick post before I go.

Two little girls were very happy last weekend when we made doll dresses together. American Girl dolls kind of rub me the wrong way, probably because they're so expensive, but the girls seem to like them. The doll on the left is an Edith doll, c.1984, and has vaguely creepy real human hair. I used the free dress pattern here, and didn't bother finishing the seams. The fabric is from the stash. The dresses was very quick and cute and made me feel like the fun mom. The girls helped by pressing the foot pedal on the sewing machine. Next time I do it I'll have to figure out how they can be more involved.

Chickadee and Thorpe are both done. Girl Thing is modeling but they're actually a gift for a friend's daughter in New York. After all my kvetching, they did turn out nicely but I did knit both of them twice! Never think that any knit is going to be a quick knit until it's done. For Thorpe the magic combo was: 8 needles, increased until there were 96 stitches on the needle. Knit until hat measured 6 inches, used the Kathryn Ivy's jogless join, bound off 40 for the brim, saved 21 stitches for each ear flap, bound off 14 for the nape of the neck. I love the crocheted edging on this, it totally makes the hat.

website and un-knitting

2010-01-22T10:09:00.000-08:00

It has taken me well more than a year to finally put up my professional website. Foot dragging and excuses wore thin and I got my rear in gear. I've actually had it up for a couple of months now and Gale even tracked me down there, which was a really pleasant surprise since Google hadn't been finding the website. Google has found it now, so I must be somebody. I would like to add a links page to it and perhaps a finished objects page that would show others things that I've made. A work in progress is how I'm going to think of it, but at least it's up and linked to the blog. So head on over and check it out.

Knitting wise, I've been working on two seemingly simple projects the Chickadee Cowl and Thorpe hat, both free and on Ravelry. They both call for bulky yarn but I'm knitting with worsted, Dream in Color Classy, so I've had to adjust. I knit Chickadee first and the linen stitch (K1, slip 1) produced a cardboard like fabric on size 8s (cast on 95) that was a struggle to get over the head. So I ripped it out and started again, it was much nicer on 9s (cast on 99). The linen stitch has a lot of body and is dense enough to give some wind protection. I used a suspended bind off to give the other end the same flexibility as the cast on edge. After Chickadee I had a generous half a skein left over and it seemed a shame to waste it so I started on the Thorpe hat. I've ripped that back after knitting almost the whole thing because it seemed a tad big (details to follow when I've finished it) and I realized that the jogless join in garter stitch is CRUCIAL in this project because the ugly join ends up in the front of the hat. This time I'll use the jogless join for sure. So much for quick knits.

A number of you had great thoughts about mitten anatomy. The consensus seems to be that every one likes long cuffs, though probably not as long and wide as Anna Zilboorg's gauntlet style cuffs.

The length that I'm wondering about is the one from the crease of the wrist to the tip of the mitten. It seems like the mitten should be slightly longer than the length of the fingers to allow for movement and a warm air pocket. There should be some formula for this like Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage system for sweaters. Say something like measure the length of the hand from the crease of the wrist to the end of the longest finger and then add 10% and adjust for gauge. Anna Zilboorg's mittens are knit from the top down, so that would allow you to try them on as you go. But what if you're knitting for someone else and all you have is their hand measurements? In Mostly Mittens, Charlene Schurch says "Measure around the knuckles, and then add 1" to provide extra room for the hand and the floats on the inside....hand circumference and length are the same in classic mitten sizing." So if the hand is 7" inches wide at the knuckles then the length would also be 7". I just measured my own hand and holy mackerel, she's a genius.

Also in the works is finishing Bettina's quilt. In the photo on the right I'm basting, ouch my back. I love my Bernina, it can sew through anything. There are all kinds of unusual and different weight fabrics in this and with the walking foot on it is handling it with ease.

2nd blogiversary

2010-01-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

Today is my 2nd blogiversary. Thank you all so much for all your comments and sharing your resolutions. I particularly liked Emma's quote from Buddha "Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful." Reminding myself to be thankful for all that I have is key, especially after choking back tears looking at the photos of Haiti in the New York Times today.

Above is a view out of my office with the scrap basket in the foreground. Some of the stash is to the left tucked into shelves. I can hear Beetle's gentle sighs as I work. I used this random number generator to come up with the blogiversary prize winner, and it's Nurse Dragon, I'm heading over to Ravelry to track her down.

white fang mittens

2010-01-13T10:56:00.001-08:00

It's not too late to join in on the blogiversary giveaway. I'll count any comments on this post too, but won't count the same person twice. I considered not posting until blogiversary time, but I gave in, it seemed just too long to go.

I finally finished Boy Thing's White Fang mittens. They didn't get done in time for Xmas, or New Year's, but beginning of January ain't so bad. So far he isn't blaming me for the delay, I'm sure it will come out in therapy years from now.

Vital stats: Pattern: is a Selbuvotter mash-up, dog and snowflake are from Annemor #4, cuff is from Annemor #17, triangle on the sides of the front are from NHM #3, and the palm is from NHm #8. Needles: 0 for cuff, 1 on rest of mittens. Yarn: Rauma Finullgarn. Gauge: approx. 9 stitches and 9.75 rows to the inch. Heavy modification of the pattern was in order since my child seems to have very wide bear paws.

I ordered this book directly from the Selbuvotter website and it came signed by Terri Shea herself, so nice. It is officially declared that mittens are my favorite things to knit, now if we could only wear them all year long. What do you think is the perfect length for mittens? A bit longer than the length of the hands, but maybe even a little longer than that? I think Boy Thing's mittens could have been a touch longer.

There are little screw ups on the patterns of the palms of both of the mittens, but do I care? No, just keep forging ahead. At least both the dogs look good. With the bunny mittens I identified Second Bunny Syndrome, the second bunny that was knit always looked like a mutant cousin of the first. Was is because I lost concentration and forgot a few stitches, or was it because the bunny pattern was flopped and being knit from the other direction? Whatever the reason, second bunny always looked a bit pathetic.

happy new year! (and blogiversary prize)

2010-01-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year blogland readers! It's coming up on my second blogiversary and what better time to give away some yarny goodness than now. January 15th is my actual blogiversary, I will post the winner then. In the meantime, anyone leaving me a comment will be entered until January 14th, 11:59 p.m. EST, and I will choose the winner by a random number generator. If don't want to enter, feel free to leave a comment anyway. Thank you all so much for reading, blogging has definitely enriched my life in ways I couldn't possibly have anticipated.

My awesome MIL gave me a gift certificate for A Stitch in Time in Bethel, CT and we hustled over there in a snow storm to pet yarn. I loved this shop, they had a great selection of yarn, notions, and good things. Yes, that is another EDI cowl around my neck, I've made four of them and gave three away.

Above is my decadent haul, 3 skeins of Manos (I'm collecting for my dream lap blanket), Mostly Mittens, a cute shawl pin with crocheted flower stitch markers from Lantern Moon, a book mark that says I heart knitting. Magnificent Mittens I bought in a one-for-her-and-one-for-me moment when I was buying my MIL a present from my LYS. Both these mitten books are incredible, total mitten pron. But there is also a great hat in Mostly Mittens and really interesting socks in Magnificent Mittens with soles that are knit separately. And then there are the charts, the charts, the charts! Thank you, Roberta.

Overheard in my house: "We have to go to the party right now!" "What's the hurry?" "I don't want to miss a single minute of gaming, gaming is very important to a person of my age." "How important is it?" "As important as knitting is to Mom, well maybe not that important."

New Year's knitting resolutions: 1) Choose the projects wisely. There isn't time to knit everything I would like too, so I need to be selective. 2) Knit more projects of my own design. 3) Knit something with colorwork letters in it. 4) Show up at Rhinebeck next year in a sweater that I've designed myself. Hmm, I'm only coming up with 4 at the moment and some of the above could probably be combined. Oh yeah, 5) Knit a Manos lap blanket.

What are your New Year's resolutions? I have other non knitting ones, like being better at promoting myself, which is includes overcoming lethargy and self doubt. And yoga, always more yoga.

mitten love and the skating pond

2009-12-29T11:10:00.001-08:00

Girl Thing loves her mittens, I think they make her feel special. She told her grandmother what a great knitter her mother is. Two points for me, I'm going to stash them away for the teen years. Vital stats: Pattern: my own, Sized for a small girl with chubby hands, Yarn: Rauma Finullgarn, Needles: size 1.

Now that the shopping craze of Christmas is over, I'm finally starting to enjoy myself. The skating pond was so much fun, a wholesome good time that seems like what the season should really be about. The great thing about the pond on Chebeague is that one kind man floods his property and there are plenty of donated skates, sticks, and a nice fire going in the warming hut. People also stock the hut with hot cocoa and other goodies and help maintain the ice. It's such a great place for the kids to go and everyone is grateful and follows the rules, no D&D (drinking and drugs).

Clockwise from top left: Girl Thing catching snowflakes, Boy Thing spends just as much time on the ice as skating on it, view of the pond with the hut on the right, The Huz and Girl Thing doing doughnuts on the ice.

Making progress on Boy Thing's mittens, I hope to have them done for New Year's. He wanted a dog and I gave him a white one like White Fang, since he went through a Jack London phase last summer.

Tomorrow we're off to visit the in-laws for Xmas part 3. Happy New Year everyone!

self-portrait in gingerbread

2009-12-21T13:24:00.000-08:00

Self-portrait in gingerbread 2009. Not all that different than 2008, though the ladies seem to have become more prominent. Anatomically correct gingerbread was big in Boy Thing's decorating too.

The pink gingerguy was known as Sunburn Dad, everyone wanted to eat him. The blob at his groin was apparently his speedo.

We spent the weekend in Boston and thanks to a nice snafu, ended up with in a room with the most glorious view of the harbor. Popped into the ICA and really enjoyed the Damian Ortega show, which was a cross between sculpture, installation, and conceptual, all with a bit of a humorous twist. The piece that I really fell for though was a Tara Donovan work called Nebulous, made of bits of scotch tape coiled over and over until what was on the floor could have been a pile of chiffon, or a topographical map. Click here for a close-up of the piece. The repetitive, meditative quality of her work connects for me with knitting, needlework, weaving, and so many other traditional handcrafts.

The kids were semi-monstrous at the hotel. Why do they seem so loud and ill behaved when they're out of their element? They did swim in the pool, join in the mayhem at their cousin's holiday party, eat too many sweets, and stay up too late. But then again so did we all, so maybe I was semi-monstrous too.

I don't think I'll be able to finish Boy Thing's mittens by Christmas. Do 9-year-olds accept IOUs?

bunny love mittens 2.0

2009-12-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

The Uhlan Cap prize is open ended, so there's plenty of time to get in on it. Kim is threatening to make one, go Kim!

Finished Bunny Love Mittens. Vital stats: Yarn: Rauma Finullgarn Needles: size 0 dpns, Pattern: my own. People keep suggesting who I should give them to and I just say back off, OK? These mittens will find their Cinderella.

A second pair to fit my little girl's big hands involves recharting. For Bunny Love Mittens 2.0 I added a bunch of stitches and have gone up a needle size to size 1. Knitting with 0s or 1s produces a nice dense, mitteny fabric, but it's also rough on my needles, I've snapped my wood 1s. My LYS was out of wood or even metal 1s as replacements, so I bought they only 1s they had, Kollage square needles. There is no way I would have bought those needles normally because they seem kind of weird, but I was desperate. Guess what, I love them!! Who would have thunk it, they are comfortable and have relaxed my knitting a little.

PS. The lettering of LOVE reminds me of Robert Indiana's LOVE.

fishermen's gear (and a prize!)

2009-12-02T07:09:00.000-08:00

Over Thanksgiving, Diane Calder of the Chebeague Island Ladies' Aid was kind enough to share the Chebeague Island Fishermen's Wet Mittens pattern with me and my mom. She described how as these mittens are worn by lobstermen and are continually felted as they are dipped in and out of the sea as they pull out their traps and warm their hands up on the exhaust pipe of the boat. The lobstermen also wear the mittens double and even though their hands are wet, they are still very warm. Knitting with raw wool is essential to the felting process. Diane uses Bartlett Yarns 3-ply in natural and was laughingly sorting through all her balls to find whites that matched perfectly to finish the mittens that she was working on. These very firm and felted mittens would be great water resistant, insulated mittens for anybody.

The pattern for these mittens can also be found in Favorite Mittens by Robin Hansen. The Chebeague Island Ladies' Aid shared the pattern with Robin Hansen when the book was originally published back in early 80s. Diane said orders for the mittens flooded in to the Ladies' Aid from all around the country and she was even asked to do workshops on how to make them. Demand for the mittens has dropped and many of the Ladies' Aid knitters are getting older, so there is a real worry that the art of knitting these mittens may soon be lost. They still take special orders once in awhile and can be contacted through the church website. I would like to make a pair this winter and I'll report back on how it goes. My mom also wants to knit a pair, but I could see a scared look in her eyes at the thought of knitting on double pointed needles. She did go home with a little bit of Diane's wool to cast on with and some dpns. Come on Mom, you can do it, especially if Diane is helping you.

The Huz, who is good at finding things, found me this pamphlet with knitting instructions for the above Uhlan Cap for sailors. It was published by The Woman's Seaman's Friend Society of Boston and I'm hazarding a guess that it might be from the turn of the century. There are also instructions for Comfort Bags (?!!), Woolen Mufflers, Woolen Wristers, Mittens, Sailors' Curtains, and Finger Stalls. "Ladies having any of the above-mentioned articles can send them to the Woman's Seaman's Friend Society, 287 Hanover Street, care of Miss Frink, who will at once put them to good use."

The Uhlan Cap looks pretty styling even by modern standards and I would love to do a knit-along for this. Is anyone up for it? The word Uhlan seems to come from a Tartar word for brave warrior and I suppose the cap does look Central Asiatic when it's rolled up. I uploaded the entire pamphlet to Scribd as Seamans Friend pamphlet and you can download it from there or below. Please let me know if you knit something from here, I would love to know how they turn out.

PRIZE: There will be a special yarny surprise for the first person to knit an Uhlan Cap and send me a picture of it!

Seamans Friend pamphlet

bunny love mittens

2009-11-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

A quick post as I rush off for Thanksgiving with the folks. It's really my favorite holiday, I love that all we do is get together and eat. That's what all holidays should be like, not like that other unmentionable one that is looming on the horizon.

These mittens were charted when I was sick last week and I was chugging through them but I've lost steam. They're much too small for my own Bunny Love who they were intended for, so they'll have to wait for their Cinderella. They've turned out to be maybe a 3 or 4 year old size instead of the 6-7 that I was aiming for. Can you see the rabbit, the heart, and the carrot? The palm is supposed to be bunny tracks. There are tweaks that I would do to the chart second time around anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving all!!

listening, knitting, reading, watching, surfing

2009-11-15T15:36:00.001-08:00

Listening: Neko Case was in town this week and I was lucky enough to see her. Her voice is even more powerful and beautiful in person, it made a knot in my throat. Her Fox Confessor Brings the Flood album is one of my favorites. I like Middle Cyclone, her new album, but haven't gotten to that sing-along point with it yet. Except for her bright orange hair, Neko was very self-effacing in her stage outfit, she wore flats, dark skinny jeans, a loose brown t-shirt, and a slouchy gray cardigan. Her body was clearly not a part of the show and I respect that.

The album art for Middle Cyclone is great. I tried to discover who the designer was but couldn't find out, if you happen to know please leave me a note. I like the loose, irreverent, hand-lettering and the drama of her pose. She had videos showing on a screen behind her as she sang each song at the concert. The videos were animated with quirky illustrations or simple objects with a very DIY feel. The graphics of her t-shirts, posters, and videos all provide a cohesive package with their illustrations, but nothing can really match the power of her voice.

Knitting: Monkeys Who Lost Their Purls are finally done. I replaced all the purl stitches with knits and I think I prefer my Monkeys like this. Love the color, it's Socks That Rock mediumweight in Rare Gems, almost the same color as Neko's hair with traces of green.

Reading: Picked up a new book about the illustrator Charley Harper. His illustrations are so charming that I couldn't resist it at the sale table at the B&N. I wish I could pat Todd Oldham on the back for putting together such a great book about the life of a commercial illustrator. Click on images below to see larger versions on flickr.

TV: Bored to Death has been keeping me chortling. I always found Ted Danson annoying before, but he is spot on and hysterically funny in this role. Another bright spot is Modern Family, finally a new family sitcom that embraces the times and has comedic chops too. Ok, so I do fall into the trap of watching Cougar Town since it comes on right after Modern Family, I admit it, I'm weak.

Surfing: Some links that are new to me and are cool (thanks Meganne!)
Xenobia Bailey: unbelievable sculptural crochet, very cool hats.
Art Yarn: A collaborative fiber art duo using knitting and crocheting, as well as crafting news from across the pond.
Yarn Bombing: Jump on the wagon and clothe your environment with knitting.

I had a fling with EDI

2009-11-11T12:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I know I've been a bit MIA. Boy Thing had a fever this past week that kept him home for a few days. A touch of the Swine, perhaps? Apparently it's pretty rampant around here but is acting like the regular old flu, just a lot more contagious. We'll never know since they're only testing the critically ill. I wonder how many people are going to be vaccinated that have already had the Swine Flu and just didn't know it?

Meanwhile, I've been knitting. I knit two EDI cowls, they are squishy, warm, fast, and lovely. I'll think they'll make good gifts, so I may knit some more. Vital Stats for both: pattern: EDI cowl, yarn: Malabrigo Chunky in Bobby Blue and Intenso, size 15 needles. You can also pull these up around your nose or head if it's very cold.

I know Halloween seems like it was ages ago, but here is a picture of the kids in their costumes, The Puffs Box and The Leaf Bag. Why? You may ask yourself, I have no idea, but they had a blast with it.

A friend made me the T shirt below. She makes these shirts with knitted I-cord (I think) sewn on. Each shirt has a word specifically for the person that she made it for. Another friend got one that said "Tidy". I love my shirt, I think it's brilliant.

get hubbied

2009-10-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Are you thinking of getting married and want to most unusual, interesting, and artistic wedding ever? Then you might want to Get Hubbied. My friend and artist, Bettina Hubby, will select the winning couple and she and dozens of other artists will collaborate to put together the wedding. The wedding costume that she makes is sure to be fabulous. There was a great article about Bettina in the NY Times. She and I went to grad school together and we reconnected when I read the article, I've been helping Bettina to finish an art quilt that she's working on. Here's a teeny sneak peek:

Here's a shot of our backyard. Is it any wonder that Girl Thing wants to be a leaf bag for Halloween? Bizarrely, Boy Thing wants to be a box of tissues, Puffs to be precise. I'm just thrilled that the costumes will be homemade and that they're not begging me for some expensive costume out of a catalog.

Here is a picture of Mr. Baby who I made the Baby Surprise Jacket for. The jacket looked so incredibly big when I made it that I thought he would be almost a year old before he could really wear it. But, he's filling it out nicely at four months.

rhinebeck and a darn good sweater

2009-10-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

There was sun, rain, cold, and yes, even snow (on my drive home) at Rhinebeck, and it was an absolute blast. I loved rambling around the fair with my Knitting Posse of Yvonne, Mary Beth, Deborah, Shameka, and Kim. I counted 18 hand knits in the photo below, there are some hidden ones that I didn't count like everyone's socks.

Clockwise, starting at top left: Shameka was bobble-icious! Deborah and Mary Beth were so cute in their matching Ursas, sister power rocks. That's me and the Ravelry mascot Bob, knitted and worn by Ysolda Teague (she made that with a friend in a week!). And good old Yarny Kim.

The Ravelry party did not produce any winners in our group again but I did kitchener the toe of my sock in the dark and cold, Shameka has a great photo of it (scroll down to the end of the post). My sweater was done just in time, I was frantically sewing the buttons on the morning that I left. Vivian was the "it" sweater at Rhinebeck, I saw so many of them there. It was vaguely deflating to see so many versions of it, but that also reaffirms what a cool pattern it is. The runner up "it" pattern was The Einstein Coat according to Kim. What was really great was to have Ysolda Teague (Vivian's designer) see the sweater herself even though she was in a knitted Bob costume at the time. The Twist Collective folks said how nice it looked too, very chuffing. Construction details on Ravelry.

Rhinebeck was a total feast for the senses, color and beautiful yarn everywhere. I think I was in too much of a yarn haze to get many pictures of the fair, but I did snap a picture of folks working on Big Sock. The goal of Big Sock is to be the world's largest knitted sock when it's done. Meanwhile it is traveling around the world and stopping at yarn shops and fiber events where anyone can knit on it. Still lots of knitting to be done.

neither snow, nor rain, nor heat

2009-10-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, stays this fiber freak from beating a speedy path to Rhinebeck for the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.

The weather report is dismal, but I'll be warm in Vivian. My sweater is done and I'll post details when I get back. Must rush off and pack! Say hi if you're in Rhinebeck, you'll recognize me from my dizzying cables.

the many uses of clogs

2009-10-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

My sweater is finally blocking and I didn't run out of yarn, hooray! I did unravel both of my swatches to reclaim yarn and I had to keep snatching stray mini-balls of the stuff out of Girl Thing's hands. The yarn that I frogged from the swatches was very curly since I dutifully wash all of my swatches. In order to get the curlies out of the yarn I wet it and found a new use for my clogs as weights.

The biggest challenge that I had with this sweater (Vivian) was deciding to add a button band. The pattern calls for a zipper and I really prefer buttons. Picking up a button band seemed like the easiest thing in the world, not so. I picked it up three different ways, every 2 out 3 rows, every 3 out of 4 rows, and every 4 out of 5 rows, and I could not seem to stop the dang thing from gathering the whole side. In frustration I ran down to the Yarn Basket to consult with the Yarn Doctor, who was thankfully there, I love the Dr. Jay. She suggested knitting the button band separately and then sewing it on, which is what I ended up doing. It looks so much better, my one worry is that it may be on the soft side but I won't be able to tell until the buttons go on.

I've got a new iphone toy, the OldCamera app. (Click on any image to see a larger version in flickr) These are lo-res images so the photos don't really amount to more than a gimmick perhaps, but to me they have all the charm of a photo booth image.

Vivian and Wilkie

2009-10-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

Vivian is moving along and I'm also plowing through Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone. Bridget at The Ravell'd Sleave pointed out RIP IV (read any kind of gothic fiction before Oct. 31 st) and I jumped into the fray. I love the voice of the narrator, the trusted family butler, he is funny and down-to-earth in a way that I didn't expect from a novel written in 1824 and the story is utterly gripping.

Meanwhile, I've been having a bit of a knitting crisis with Vivian. I'm running out of yarn!! I called Halcyon and they said they wouldn't have Botanica for a few more months. UGH. I'm going to omit the hood and go for a collar, but I also want button bands. So, I think that yarn substitution is my lot. With the help of my friendly local yarn shop, The Yarn Basket, I compared yarns. None of the yarns have this crazy strong 2-ply twist that Botanica has, so I bought a skein of Montera. I'm hoping this will look like an intentional bit of decorative haze on the edge of the collar and button band and not like a weird mistake.

accessible art

2009-09-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

It's a soft news day here for me. Vivian is moving along but there's not too much more to show, I've gotten a sleeve done. So, here are a couple of artists whose work I really love. First up is Kate Bingaman-Burt.

Hand drawn type has been on my mind for the past six months. I came across MikePerry's great book Hand Job and I've been yearning for the irregularity and life that the live line brings to typography. When I saw the drawing above at Nahcotta recently and the fact that it was only $20 bucks made it a must buy for me. I love the linework, I love the afterthought "i", I love affordable art, and I love toast.

The drawing is by Kate Bingaman-Burt. She does a drawing of something that she has bought everyday, you can follow her work on her blog Obsessive Consumption. After I visited her blog I realized that I knew her work from the super looking Handmade Nation. Smart concept, funny and endearing work.

Next up is Erin Moran and her gorgeous pottery. She's like my crack dealer, every time I see her at the Portsmouth Farmer's Market I feel compelled to buy a piece. Food and drink really tastes better out of her pottery. The mugs are light, thin and elegant. They do not feel the way most handmade pottery does, like something a Viking would drink out of. The bright colors, which are always different on the outside and the inside, just sing.

rhinebeck sweater fever

2009-09-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

I've caught the fever, Rhinebeck sweater fever. Can she do it ladies and gentlemen, can she get this sweater done in time? Mary Beth and Deborah are both knitting sweaters to wear at Rhinebeck, the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, and they've inspired me. It's not like I don't have other sweaters that I've made that I can wear, but I'm susceptible to sweater fever. Wandering the fair with these gals, all in our lovely new knits, is a happy day dream to knit to. Rhinebeck is October 17th and 18th, so that means I have exactly one month to get this baby done.

That's Vivian all laid out, I'm almost up to the armpits. This pattern is from Twist Collective, the great online knitting magazine, nice eye candy on any day and super stylish patterns. The yarn I'm using for Vivian is Halcyon Botanica, 100% wool. This is the closest I've ever come to actually hating wool yarn. The yarn has an very strong twist and is not giving the greatest stitch definition, kind of lumpy. It also knits up very firm even though I'm using a larger needle than they recommend. I've washed my swatches, so I know that it will relax and soften up a bit, but I really get off on the sensuality of the yarn as I'm knitting and this one is just ain't tickling my pleasure center. I'm holding on to the fact that it will probably wear very well and the pattern by Ysolda Teague is so beautiful that it would make any yarn look good.

munich stopover and selbu mitts

2009-09-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

Airplane knitting! Scroll down for more pictures and deets of the mitts after the stopover story.

On the way back from Turkey we had a magical one night stopover in Munich. We stayed at a cute little hotel smack in the middle of Munich and learned exactly how seriously they take their sausages and beer. Though what really impressed me was the strength of their bicycle culture. EVERYONE was riding bikes, men in business suits, old ladies, students, you name it. Interestingly, I did not see one single helmet. Below is a picture of a couple of bicycle parking areas just to give you and idea of how many bikes were on the road. (click on any picture to see bigger versions on flickr)

This stylish commuter, all in white and wearing stilettos, is unloading her fluffy white pooch from the basket in back. Now that is fashionable.

Here's in my perfect bicycle, the glorious Gazelle with the wheel cover and chain cover. There were lots of beater bikes there, mountain bikes, and cruisers too. The Gazelles seemed to be a bit of status symbol, I only saw business men and older women riding them. This is on my wish list in case any of you are feeling super generous.

We popped into a yarn shop, the Wolle Rodel, where the kids bought yarn for finger knitting and I picked up some colored wooden sock needles and a great gauge. Boy Thing was frantic to wind his yarn. After weeks of being in another culture, winding yarn must have seemed familiar and grounding to him. Perhaps I'm influencing the wee bairn after all. Girl Thing did finger knitting on the plane until she had finished her whole ball. Maybe I should put up a finger knitting tutorial since I'm living with two experts.

Ok, back to the mittens. Vital stats: Pattern: #1 Herrevott from Selbustrikk booklet (an English translation for Selbustrikk is available through Nordic Fiber Arts, thank goodness. I did attempt to try to figure some of the Norwegian out, but that was a lifesaver.) Yarn: Kauni Effektgarn 8/2 EQ (rainbow) and Rauma Lamullgarn (off white) Needles: size 0 Brittany's

I finally got up my courage to do these mittens, they’re charted majesty. I love the little people on the cuffs and thumbs, so cute. The Kauni Effektgarn and Lamullgarn are a nice match, they might as well be the same yarn. I didn’t try to manipulate the Kauni colors but just knit them exactly how they came off the skein.

There is only one size listed for these mittens and that’s “men’s”. I have large hands for a woman, so I thought they might fit but they were still pretty huge. I fulled and fulled and now they are acceptably biggish but wearable. I may knit liners for these down the road.

Generally I think wooden needles are the bomb and knit these mostly with Brittany 0’s but by the end it was a relief to switch to metal. I had only two of the original Brittany’s left, the other four snapped. But I did manage to get most of my knitting done on the airplane and I don’t think they would have let me on with a set of metal 0’s, so the Brittany’s were great for that.

These will make me happy all winter.

vacation knitting

2009-08-31T06:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit that I've been home a week and have been in cyber hiding. It was relaxing while I was on vacation to be totally unplugged and I've been clinging to that and pretending that I'm still on holiday as the last days of summer wind down.

What was so jazzing was to find all of your comments here and on Ravelry where more than 320 have favorited my A Very Warm Book. It's really rewarding and validating to get that kind of feedback on a project that would have otherwise been made in a vacuum. Thank you all!!! I will try to respond to all of you individually.

Part of the reason I haven't posted yet is that I've been feeling like there were so many things that I wanted to share that I got overwhelmed. The pile of photos that I have to wade through hasn't been helping either. I might have to split this up into more than one post.

For airplane and vacation knitting I wanted things that were small but with plenty of interest to keep me engaged. On the way over I chose Selbu Modern. This is a free pattern that knits up quickly and easily following the nice chart.

Vital stats: Pattern: Selbu Modern by Kate Gagnon Osborn.
Needles: size 0 and 3, 16" circulars.
Yarns: Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino KPPPM (blues) and
The Woolen Rabbit Harmony in Tupelo Honey
(a riveting, unidentifiable color, neither ochre, green, nor yellow).

This color combo tweaks me in exactly the right way. The Woolen Rabbit yarn is the most intriguing color, and I've been looking at it since The Spa Knit and Spin of '08, trying to decide what to do with it. Suddenly paired with the blue it was just right. It reminded me of sun burnt weeds and the blue of the Aegean in Turkey, which was exactly where I was knitting it.

Now that I've knit a couple of pairs of mittens and a hat with sock yarn, I have to say that I like the fabric of these things to be a little tighter. Superwash sock yarn tends to loosen up when it's washed instead of knitting together, which is exactly what makes it washable. I still like this hat, but might consider knitting it with a shetland yarn next time for a little more body and a firmer fabric.

There are a few more photos on flickr (click here), and I hope to have our magical stopover in Munich and another project in the next post. The kids are back in school and it's back to work.

a very warm book, or a knitted book jacket

2009-08-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here finally, is my super secret mystery project unveiled. Yup, it's a knitted book jacket. Why oh why would anyone go to the trouble of doing such a thing, you may ask yourself. All I can say is because it was there. My job job is that I'm a graphic designer, or a book cover designer to be specific. It's something that I've done for years and it just seemed to make sense finally to knit a book jacket.

Click on any image to see a larger version on flickr. Details of materials on Ravelry.

The greatest challenge that I had with this project was sizing and charting. This seemed much more difficult than sizing for a garment because I had to make it fit EXACTLY to the height, width, and spine of the book. I made my Lorem Ipsum swatch and I charted, and charted, and charted. Knitted stitches aren't exactly a square in dimension but more of a rectangle. At one point I got hung up on the difference between stitch size and the graph paper squares and made the dang thing much too short. So I had to chart all over again, which took me almost two weeks. Stranded color knitting requires an even density of the the foreground and background colors since both are being carried along as I knit. For you graphic designers out there that meant no really big white spaces.

Above you see the front of jacket, back of jacket, front flap and back flap. I couldn't resist adding in a bar code on the back and a self-portrait on the back flap, it kind of looks like me.

What is Ex Libris? Ex libris is Latin and it means "from the books of...", but it also refers to a bookplate. A bookplate is a small paper label that is glued inside the front of the book, usually on the endpapers and has the owner of the book's name on it. Bookplates were at one time very elaborate and could be a piece of art of their own with great type and a lovely illustration. You can see many examples at the Book Plate Society website.

What about the ME part? ME are my initials, so this is my book and exterior bookplate. I've been thinking as I worked on it that it's a bit like a sampler for me. Cross-stitch or needlework samplers used to be something that women made to show off their skills, but also as a little library of stitches. I pulled designs from Norwegian and Fair Isle books, the Digitale Bibliotek, but also charted the letters, self-portrait, and a few other parts myself.

The book underneath all of this knitting is Fashion: The Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute, a great book by the way. I picked it because it was on my shelf, was a hefty size (about 8 x 11")which gave me more room to design, and had a nice red case. It seemed kind of empowering to be dressing a book about the history of fashion.

After all this effort I finally steeked and the damn thing was too big. I tried the covered steek method and it looked nice, but it seemed a bit bulky and stretched the end seams out a little, so I ripped it out. A little machine stitching up the sides held it together as I steamed, and fulled with the trifecta of hot water, soap (lavender shampoo!), and agitation, and finally it was the right size. A big shout out to the folks at Rauma Yarns because the colors did not run in the hot water. The red bleeding into the white could have been a disaster. This book is going to be mighty warm this winter.

Above is a glimpse of what my charts looked like. And below, the book jacket made a nice tube top before I steeked it.

Here is where the book will be living, it's in good company. Is it practical to knit a book jacket? No, the jacket slithers off the book and it's really too hard to get the knitted piece just the right size. But it was a fun brain, hand, and art exercise.

I will be on vacation and away from the internet (yes there are still parts of the world where people aren't spending all their time blogging), for most of August. See you at the end of the month!

steeeeeeeking

2009-07-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Fingers and toes are crossed and I'm starting to steek, eek, eek. I'm going to follow KidsKnits covered steek method. If mine turns out half as good as hers it will be great. My goal is to get my super secret mystery project done and blogged by the time we leave for our big vacation on Monday.

More toycamera app pictures with the iphone, I can't resist. The kids have been working on their hula hoop skills this summer. Girl Thing can twirl it around her neck and then move it down to her waist. It's hysterical to watch her arms pop up as the hula hoop moves down.