For Becky – the view from my balcony:
Backyard Greetings
March 5, 2006 By
Embossed Leaves
March 4, 2006 By
God I just LOVE jumping on someone ELSE’s bandwagon. Love it! So I’m making these pretty socks from the Winter 2006 IK in Koigu #P704. I’ve decided that the spackly spotty Koigus are my favorites. What a surprise to knit! Every now and again such a shocking color rolls past my needle – something I’d never expect and seems so out of place – that I have to laugh. Very nice. (Although for the record, STR is MUCH softer than Koigu. Surprisingly so.)
Okay – so the socks. I LOVE the pattern. So much so I’m planning on knitting 8 million versions of this sock as well. There is a problem though. I followed the cast-on directions (even though they don’t really seem like what I thought a tubular cast on was supposed to be) and I did the ribbing on size 2 Addis (3mm) and then after fifteen rows of twisted knit ribs, I started the pattern on size 1 Addis (2.5mm). Now I’m thinking I should’ve done the whole thing on 2s. Or even start over and do the ribbing on 3s and the body on 2s. They seem too tight. All you embossed leaves knitters out there – what say you? Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t do a gauge swatch. They’re socks. Do you really swatch for socks? Isn’t it just easier to rip out and start over? Thanks for the thoughts.
I washed my yarn and hung it to dry and you were all right. It seems a lot better. Thank you all so much for your advice and encouragement (and offers for a good home for the yarn. The yarn appreciates it, but I think I’ll keep it.) I think my problem was I really thought my spinning was improving by leaps and bounds (and I still believe this) but when I went to ply and was reminded of those bits of the spinning where I HADN’T improved – I was disappointed. It’s a one step up and two steps back kind of thing. I’ll get there. I know I will and I can’t wait to spin some more.
Unfortunately though there won’t be much spinning this month. Although I’m going to kick ass to get the Project Spectrum Spinning in. It seems I’ll be on the road a lot this month – G’s away a few weekends in a row and I’m on my way to Philly today. We’ve got some family stuff going on this weekend that I don’t really want to talk about, but I will absolutely appreciate any good vibes you can send my way. I’m awfully open on the blog – but only when it comes to me and me alone. Stuff that affects my larger family I like to keep pretty quiet and it hasn’t been the best of times for us lately. Tomorrow is just another chapter in the continuing changes that we’re all still struggling to get used to. Blah. Let’s all sing together: It’s just another Xanax Sunday la, la! (Apologies to The Bangles.)
I be back home on Thursday, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be blogging between then and now. I’m on kid duty a lot – I’m actually going to help out my sister – so my computer time might be kind of scarce. Look for late night shout outs. Have a great weekend! See you soon!
L, C
Peace. Love. Natural Fibers.
March 3, 2006 By
Click to read the creed.
Yesterday I had an ultra fabulous lunch with the ultra fabulous Yankee Half of Mason Dixon Knitting. Kay has often introduced me to the finer corners of NYC — cool places where suave European men make me blush as they sip Espressos at the coffee bar with their little pinkies sticking out — so I thought I’d return the favor by taking her to a chic hip downtown Japanese Noodle place that G-Love recommended. Say what you will about my husband – he gives good restaurant. After our bellies were satisfied and full of homemade Soba noodles and green tea ice cream, Kay took out the book I had been begging to see for weeks.
First off, I should say that I LOVE Kay and Ann and have been lucky enough to photograph them for an author picture that didn’t make it into the book (damn those cute ass woodcuts!) and half of their children (Kay has me booked through the last grandchild’s wedding!) All that relationship stuff aside – their book ROCKS!
The book is part memoir, part pattern guide, part humor – 100% INSPIRATION. Whether they’re talking about dishclothes, felted boxes, or log cabin blankets, the main idea of everything is to be FREE within the confines of a pattern. There’s a great passage where Kay talks about making a mitred square blanket and how she gave herself rules to follow when choosing colors for the squares. Once she made these rules for herself, she was free to choose what she wanted, but not TOO free to be stymied by the choices. Know what I mean? Lolly made a comment on my blog the other day about this same thing (at least I read it that way.) I had said all of my Project Spectrum projects would revolve around my spinning, and she said, and I quote, “That kind of focus is going to open up so much creativity….” That’s exactly how I feel about Ann and Kay’s book. They give you boundaries in which to go crazy! For starters, as soon as I see one of those log cabin blankets my mind goes nuts with the possibilities – but it’s true – if you give yourself some rules (only choose purple colors or no center square block), whatever they may be, you can actually open your mind up to even more possibilities than you thought you had – but you still don’t overwhelm the project. How many of us have opened up a Barbara Walker book or Harmony Guide or whatever and been excited for like five minutes and then sigh because there’s too much to choose from? Well Kay and Ann’s book is a great place to start – whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro – just enough guidance and a whole lot of vision.
The book is an explosion of color as well. Everything is beautifully photographed (by Steve Gross and Sue Daley) and yet everything is still accessible. You can see these knits in your bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens. It’s an incredibly comfortable book.
Of course, what makes it so comfortable are Kay and Ann. They infuse the pages with their humor and their humility. They make you feel like YOU CAN DO IT! They’ve done it and sure they’ve mucked things up here and there along the way but they came out STRONGER and their knits came out BETTER FOR THE MUCK UP! Literally, though, the best part of the book for me is that there’s something on every page – some morsel – you have to read closely. Have you ever read any Maira Kalman books? I love her. When you read her books you need to read every word on the page because god forbid you should miss even one thing. Mason-Dixon Knitting : The Curious Knitters’ Guide: Stories, Patterns, Advice, Opinions, Questions, Answers, Jokes, and Pictures is just like that. You don’t want to miss even one thing.
Fat Thursday
March 2, 2006 By
Lisa Souza Biffle
approximately 380 yds.
It looks so pretty right? Well looks can be deceiving. Check out the back side of the skein. It’s positively skanky. (Click on it for a bigger look. I’m not sure what’s going on because some of the ugliest parts seemed to have plied well. Is it just that I need to set the twist?)
Let this be a lesson to you: DON’T FUCK WITH YARMA*. Yesterday I made the beyond beginner’s mistake over at Rock Chick‘s by mentioning that I thought plying was easy. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Yarma! That cruel bitch laughs at me and then makes me stay up until 2AM skeining and re-skeining and damn it took me like five hours to ply this crap! I bow to you YARMA! You are my queen! (And I was even spinning in front of the exorcised yarn cabinet. A lot of good practically setting my house on fire did for me!)
Anyway, before you all tell me how great it looks – it looks so sloppy to me! I was so excited about my nice even singles and when I said yesteray that the more you spin the more it covers up all the shit on the bobbins I was RIGHT! Maybe I just really do suck at plying? Could it be that the skein is too large and I should break it up into two smaller skeins? I haven’t set the twist yet because as I said I was up until after 2 dealing with this and this morning I wanted to take pictures which actually suck because it’s snowing today and there’s like no light in the apartment and I refuse to use a flash. And I got that 380 yds number by measuring the niddy noddy length (17″) and then counting how many strands there were on one side(203) then multiplying the number by 4 then by 17 then dividing by 36. Right?
Back to my yarn. I thought it would be so much nicer. I might not like the colors so much, that’s true, but I really thought it was going to be better this time. It seems just like the last stuff I plied and yes I was all happy about that stuff, but that’s because it was the first stuff I ever made. I wanted to feel like I made progress.
Ugly
Pretty
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
*Yarma: Last night I was talking to my brother and telling him about the whole Ikea debacle and I told him about the exorcism and I said I didn’t want bad Yarn Karma and he said, “Yeah. Yarma.”
Good Yarma: Anybody who participates in this or this has it in spades.
Bad Yarma: What happens to you when you don’t kiss the knit goddess’s ASS. “Oh that’s easy! I can [knit/spin/crochet/put your fiber related activity here] that with my eyes closed!”
Project Spin
March 1, 2006 By
I know I said I was going to work on Short Rows, but really, that’s about weaving in ends so any distraction is welcome. Luckily, procrastination projects are close at hand as this is the first day of
the brain child of superfantastic librarian/historian extraordinaire, Lolly. As soon as I heard about Lolly’s idea to concentrate on certain colors during each month, I KNEW it would be about spinning for me. One of the main reasons I got into spinning was because of all the color possibilities – mixing colors in fibers, making my own barberpole yarns, dyeing even, maybe?
Last night I got out the old wheel. (Yeah, yeah. I know it’s brand spanking new. Don’t think that its lily whiteness doesn’t remind of my newbie status at every turn. I’m a dink-ass nub.) I’ve missed the ol’ girl. I took her up to Boston, but she got barely a workout.
Enough, though, that Claudia was able to give me some excellent advice which I incorporated into my spinning routine right away. She noticed that I was spinning, but I wasn’t actually making yarn. Which, in retrospect, I knew all along. She suggested that I move the drive band lower on the Mother of All so that I could treadle at the same speed, but have the wheel make more revolutions. Yes?
Things were a bit funky at first, but the beauty of spinning is that the more yarn you make, the faster it covers up the icky stuff with lovely, evenly spun yarn.
I know it’s not pink or red, but I love the yarn. And as I mentioned yesterday, Jan sent me more of this great Lisa Souza Biffle (Mardi Gras colorway) which I plan on diving into later today. Have I told you lately that I LOVE spinning? It’s been a while since I sat down at the wheel for some extended spinning and last night I spun up around 4 oz. and it was heavenly. The best part – G loves when I spin too. He loves to watch my feet treadle and he loves the whir the wheel makes as it goes round and round. He’s been pretty crazy at work, so it’s a nice break for him and me. Perfect!
Back to Project Spectrum. As I said, my goal is to spin yarn in the colors assigned to the month. I was behind in figuring things out fiber wise – I want to try some Grafton Fiber batts because I hear so much about their goodness, but they won’t get here in time so that will have to be for next month. In the meantime, my friend Tina is special dyeing some Biffle for me! Yay! I can hardly wait for the pink and red goodness.
So that I can start the month off right, here are a couple of pink and red pictures. (I know – the sky picture’s been getting a workout lately, but I just love it so much!) Enjoy!
The Aftermath
February 28, 2006 By
We’re going RANDOM today – hold on for the ride….
So the Olympics are over. Huh. What now you ask? Short Rows. I am determined to finish Short Rows. DETERMINED. D-E-T-E-R-M-I-N-E-D. Don’t ask about it though, okay? I don’t need the pressure. I want that monkey off my back. Although I gained back all the weight I lost this Summer and now I’m scared it won’t fit. But we’ll deal with that when it’s finished. AND IT WILL BE FINISHED.
I’m also going to start swatching for Crossed In Translation. Teresa came up for the party on Sunday and we had some quality time together. After making like 200 swatches for this thing, she can knit the sweater in her sleep. Which works out extremely well for me because I got a nice little tutorial on all the different stitches and now I am very confident. Although I’m also bummed because I would really like some Rowan Magpie. Theresa’s swatch in that was really great. Anyone know where I can get a sweater’s worth of Magpie in a pretty purply pink color? I will pay. Anyway, I will start swatching asap. Don’t ask about it though, okay? I don’t need the pressure. Speaking of PRESSURE, did you see that (the other) Theresa knit her Am Kamin sweater in SIXTEEN FREAKING DAYS!!!! It was her Olympic Project and my god she deserves like a PLATINUM medal. With diamonds and sapphires encrusted in it. And a tiara. Definitely a sparkly tiara. The sweater is absolutely GORGEOUS and Theresa is GORGEOUS and oh my god she’s my inspiration. Please, PLEASE run don’t walk to go tell her how magnificent it is – the accomplishment as well as the sweater. It’s so good I’m linking to it twice.
More Olympic goodness: Have you met Maisie and her mom Rowan? They are too freaking cute for words. And I say cute in the best most grown-up sophisticated practically a teenager who probably hates to be called cute way. Maisie is I don’t know, ten? Eleven? Speak up Maisie! I forgot how old you are! And she’s an amazing knitter. I watched her knit WITHOUT LOOKING on her super tiny DPNs and I was in awe. She rocks. And she taught her mom to knit too. And Maisie made a sweater for her older sister for the Olympics which you can check out on the blog she and her mom write together and lots and lots of socks and she knit Phil an AWESOME sweater (because, really, she says curse SHMURSE!) And in one of my favorite closing ceremony party moments, Maisie and her mom had to leave earlier than expected due to the death of her older sister’s guinea pig (and no, neither the dead animal nor Maisie and Rowan leaving were my favorite part) and Maisie exclaimed that ALL her sister’s pets died and the drama in her voice was all MARSHA MARSHA MARSHA and I felt so bad for Maisie having to leave and wanted to tell her that she rocked even if her sister’s pet died and Rowan showed that she’s an awesome Mom and girls I’d hang with you BOTH anytime. Any time. Thanks so much for coming to the party!
These are the only pictures I have from the party:
Where are all the pictures? I know people took pictures? Where are they? Please leave me a comment or email pointing me to pictures. I want to see them!
Guess what was waiting for me when I got home?!?
My latest Better Pal gift! Yay! Jan from Be*mused was my Better Pal. In this package I got the BEST stuff! Some Rowan Wool Cotton – one of my favorite yarns. Some (more) of Lisa Souza’s GORGEOUS Biffle, which happens to be what I have on my wheel at the moment. EXCELLENT coincidence, Jan. Just great. I’m so glad to have more of this fiber. I love it! Of course, some more caramels. (It’s a good thing I got a clean bill at the dentist!) And a super special KIT KAT from Japan. It’s CHERRY BLOSSOM flavor and it’s a Special Edition. Do you believe that? Special Edition Kit Kat. Awesome. Thanks so much JAN! It was a great Better Pal exchange.
My pal was Dalai Mama Liz. She’s a hoot and a half and I tried to knock her socks off with my gifts. I think I succeeded, although at the beginning I thought I gave myself away. Apparently that wasn’t the case because she bought a crapload of STR a couple of weeks ago. Silly girl! I had to call Tina and change all the colors I ordered for Liz at the last minute because she bought them herself! Thanks Liz for being such a great giftee!
I don’t think I ever showed you the GREAT contest win from Danielle.
It’s all silk and silk blends and it’s soft and GORGEOUS and G was really taken with it. No plans for it yet. I love looking at it though and I think it will have a special place in the yarn cabinet. Beautiful stuff. Danielle dyed it all herself too. She gives great contest, so check her out!
Ready for another KAL? Check out Kris, Miyon, and Scout‘s new endeavor. A Rockin’ Sock Club KAL! Did you join the BMFA sock club? Now you can knit the patterns with other members. Check it out!
Speaking of socks, I’m almost through another Jaywalker and Jenn asked the other day about the Embossed Leaves Koigu socks I started. I hate to admit it, but I’m barely through the ribbing. They’ll be getting a boost soon!
That should be random enough! Have a great day!
D is for
February 28, 2006 By
Dial
I had a really hard time deciding what I was going to photograph for D. (This being the last day and all. Okay. So Margene pointed out to me that I’ve screwed this up – it’s not twice a month, it’s every other week. Look for an E coming soon so I can get back on track.) This weekend G and I went up to Boston and stayed at the house his mother grew up in. As soon as I went up the stairs I knew what D would be! In an alcove at the top of the stairs was the phone, with it’s own bench and pad and pen and shelves for phone books. Completely and totally intact – with a rotary phone that still works! I was OVERJOYED! Mainly because this totally reminded me of my own grandmother’s house (this house being G’s grandmother’s old house) and her phone station with a black rotary. It’s just so classic. That’s the only phone on the second floor of the house, which is in stark contrast to the cordless phones I have in every room of my apartment. Often I can’t find one and that’s because there are three in one room – always the room I’m NOT in. The phone rang only a couple times this weekend, but each time I was thrilled to lift that heavy receiver and listen to the lovely, lovely ring. I include the key pad to our newest cordless for comparison.
I have to say how much I’m enjoying this ABC challenge. This was my favorite shoot by far. Sorry for the ton of pictures but I love them all! Thank you!
(There’s another D in the extended entry. Check it out if you like – it’s not my official D, but it was a fun photo shoot.)
Knit Olympics: Day Sixteen: TEAM BOSTON ROCKS!
February 26, 2006 By
I wanted to thank everyone who came out for the Closing Ceremony party! It was by far the best party I’ve ever thrown and that’s only because of ALL OF YOU! TEAM BOSTON ROCKS!!!!!
I also wanted to CONGRATULATE all of the knathletes whether you finished your project or not. It’s enough that we all participated and challenged ourselves. What an amazing endeavor! I’m truly impressed. So I say GREAT JOB! YOU ROCK!
And last but not least, I’ve been told by the designer herself: my Olympic mittens are mutants. 😉
Knit Olympics: Day Fourteen: Stick a medal on me BAYBEE!
February 24, 2006 By
I’m DONE!
Alright, ALL RIGHT! I have a few ends to weave in but I plan on doing that as a symbolic closing ceremony thing. You know, for the DRAMA and all.
Lemme tell you, I actually don’t need the drama. A word of advice, my fellow knitters. If you fuck up your Olympic knitting the night before a major road trip, with only two days to go in the competition, and you’re pretty sure if you don’t finish tonight they won’t get done, and you’re thinking the misstep is big enough that you may have to rip out a WHOLE FREAKING MITTEN to fix the mistake – well – DON’T CALL ANN. She won’t help you. She will LAUGH at you. (Cue the creepy Carrie music. Piper Laurie in her witch costume. “Ann’s gonna laugh at you. Ann’s gonna laugh at you!” Yeah. I was throwing knives in my mind.) Bethe will be helpful. (Oh my! Check out Bethe’s banner! TOO FUNNY!) Kathleen and Peggy, a little bit, but they were under Ann’s influence. The thing to remember is that you’re ON YOUR OWN when it comes to Olympic Knitting. It’s just you and the yarn, baby. Just you and the yarn.
The problem was those freaking thumbs. I’ve never picked up stitches off of waste yarn before and the row before the waste yarn was super easy, but the yarn above the waste yarn? Where were the loops? I don’t get it. To clarify – I did stick the needle into the loops before I removed the waste yarn, but there seemed to be TWO loops, whereas in the row below there was ONE clear loop to stick the needle in. At the top, where there seemed to be two, well, they weren’t even loops! In the end I totally fudged the damn thing and it looks okay. Think Sasha Cohen falling twice but still getting the silver. That’s how it looks. Good enough. There was a moment though that I had ripped back to redo it because I didn’t like the gapping hole I was getting and I ended up losing what I thought were the stitches and I panicked and didn’t think I was going to get them back and I thought I might have to RIP OUT THE MITTEN down to the waste stitch mark. But I sat back, despite seven taunting phone calls from Ann, and persevered. I summoned up my Olympic strength. I thought about all I had been working towards. I thought about my family – the pain and humiliation if I couldn’t pull through. I thought about these kids and how excited they were when I cast on! I thought about my teamates: Team Philly. Team New Jersey. Team Boston. I knew what I HAD to do.
Doesn’t it look like I’m flipping somebody off? That’s because I am.
If I hated the yarn, Dale Falk, before, I REALLY hate it now. It’s splitty. Splitty doesn’t work when you’re trying to pick up stitches and there’s yarn behind and yarn in front and more strands than should be there and one color is so bright it gives you a headache while the other color is so dark it gives you a headache. I did like the pattern. I really, really did. I love the way the pirates turned out and I love my name and I love the year and I love that I reversed the yarns. They fit, although they’re still a little snug. I have to say I think I prefer gusset mittens to straight out thumb mittens. But it’s all good and I’m finished.
What is the sound of two thumbs clapping?
In order to celebrate my Olympic Achievements, G took off today and we’re ROAD TRIPPING!!!!
We’re throwing a PARTAY! Beantown style! WHOOHOO! I’m so excited to see all my Team Boston peeps and I’m hoping they’ll be plenty of pictures to share. I’m bringing the camera, but that doesn’t always work out and I’ll be hosting but someone will remember the camera, right? We’ll be back sometime Monday, and I don’t know if I’ll have Internet but whatever you’re doing this Olympic weekend, I hope it’s fun and you have friends around and you accomplish what you set out to do – even if that’s just learning your limitations. SO IMPORTANT in this life. Everyone’s got them. We need to embrace them.
Knit ON fellow knathletes. KNIT ON!
L, C
PS – Can I just second Lauren’s account of the Olympic Commentators? I’d like to tell you what I think Dick Button needs, but this is a family site. WOW that man is bitter. And HELLO? Skaters? I remember when Olympic Figure Skating was fun! Surya Bonaly anyone? It was everything I could do to STAY AWAKE. No one can get through a program without falling and yet they all seem like drones out there. Doing the same thing and the same music and Y A W N…. And I will agree with Buttonhead for a second and say if I see one more chick bring her foot up to her head and glide around…well…I’m going to be honest and say I was hoping someone would trip and the blade would actually go INTO her head. Not so deep as to do damage. A little superficial wound – but with BLOOD on the ice. You know. To spice things up. 😉
Knit Olympics: Day Thirteen: What separates us from the animals
February 23, 2006 By
Thumbs. So right now I’m an animal, cause I ain’t got no thumbs. But it’s all good. I’m thinking of doing one thumb today, maybe, but I have to get things ready for a road trip G & I are taking tomorrow. More info on that later. But back to the mittens: The second mitten is a bit wonky but you know what, I don’t care. I’m bored of this project. That’s not to say it’s a bad project and I do like to see the pattern appearing beneath the needles, but I don’t like the yarn. And when I don’t like the yarn, forgetaboutit! Ruins a whole project for me. (See Ribby Cardi.) But I’m persevering, if only to show Ann (there’s your link for the day, honey bun!) that I will finish. I think she’s got some money riding on me to fail. To FAIL people. Ann is betting AGAINST me. But I will WIN! No doubt about it. 😉
