Not So Fancy Nancy

Birch is finished! Happy New Knitting Year

Cast off Birch just before the bell on January 1, 2007 at 11:30 PM. I wanted to start the new year with a finished object. Pre-blocked:

 

Blocking in action (wires from KnitPicks).

I belong to the "stretch the crap out of it" school of lace blocking. When I finished this thing was elevated 1" off the floor from the tension.

The wires are well worth it. They allowed me to pull each side to a very even line and adjustments were easier. Been eying these things for a while, but wasn't sure they were worth the money. I vote yes.

Did add to the kit by ordering fork pins today. This kit didn't have enough long straights and my sewing pins on hand didn't hold up well to the task. Also, as the tension increased the wires would jump the pin. Learned to turn them perpendicular so the T-top caught, which helped some, but I think the U shape will be better.

OK, another gratuitous shot, but I'm amused.

Post blocking shots to come when I'm appropriately dressed for modeling. Need to stop wearing my red bathrobe as a "house coat" but I'm not really compelled. I've always felt a certain connection to The Dude on this matter.

Kids have been off two weeks and we've all taken to spending inordinate amounts of time in our pj's. Four days in a row of playdates coming over have been the only thing knocking us into regular clothes (and not always then, as shown here).

The rill is serving its purpose as our personal woodland stream. As long as no not too much (I'm a realist) foreign matter gets added they can play. Yesterday Ems put on her swimsuit for a while until even she had to admit is wasn't that warm.

I'm enjoying putting this post together. Last week found me in a mood. Decided it was better to keep things to myself so I hibernated. In our world of "get it out there" I've found some things are better kept close. Things you can't change, or don't want to - really - but want to today. Things for which radical change would actually not be an improvement, but minor, manageable change is not immediately interesting (because your mind is having more fun with thoughts of radical change). Experience ... not grand wisdom per say, but just plain ol' years alive ... has taught me that when I feel this way I'm better off taking a wait and see approach. If I call every friend, startle every acquaintance (way too much information thanks) or bore strangers - or blog readers - with my frustrations I'll regret it. With some things talking is great. Therapeutic. Beneficial. The path to understanding. But with things like this I know that next week I'll find my way to that manageable change, but if I've talked, everyone around me will be expecting an explosion. No explosions forthcoming. 

To some degree I might attribute some moodiness to the time of year. I know I'm not alone (chin up Moni), but most of it's related to my own personal calender rather than the Gregorian one. We all have those moments of change - events that redirect our lives forever. If the work of countless poets and writers is any indication, I'd say I'm not alone in this human condition of melancholy reconsideration. Makes me envious of August and Raven. Cats understand what's important.

Yes, the photo is accurate. Raven is getting little white hairs all over her body. My vets haven't seen anything like it and they noticed it at the animal shelter too (took her back to get fixed). Her face has remained the darkest - she's gone pepper with a good dash of salt on her back. And yes, I'm such a sucker for this cat that I let her sleep on my swatches. Found her yesterday at the top of my shelves in another basket full of yarn. This kitten is no fool.

So, since I can't live lying around all day like a cat or dog, I'm a crafter. If the brain's running in circles, one might as well put the hands to work.

Ariann (in Rowan Kid Classic) progresses. Seeing the lovely finished ones all over blogland (Risa and Cara both love theirs) has spurred me on.

River (in Rowan Kidsilk Haze) is flowing again.

I've found for whatever reason I can't watch TV and knit this pattern. The back and forth movement is not a hard pattern, but I found myself, to abuse the metaphor, swimming against the current.

Still undecided about the beaded scrunchy thing Rowan shows holding the wrap across the front. Did any of you River knitters make one? Do you use it?

From the lost and found files:

I was connecting the blocks on the new Christmas quilt before my little hand surgery, but five days after Christmas it just wasn't compelling. Why bother?

Jan had great thoughts on starting the new year off fresh. Well worth the read. I like her attitude. Though you must finish those blocks Jan - if only to show the rest of us what the whole quilt top looks like.

So, in the spirit of new beginnings I went to put it away and found this. Oh. Would you look at that... an unfinished Christmas quilt. At least four years old! Guess I'll finish them both in 11 months. This one makes me proud of how far I've come. Cut this fabric about 4-5 months after I got my machine. No one told me it was hard to sew to points on bias cut flannel (what's bias?). I was going to do Christmas trees - how difficult could it be? Cut out a bunch of triangles and sew right? Who needs a stinking pattern? I ended up just crazy piecing all my bits and pieces after I discovered the pack of fat quarters I'd picked up didn't necessarily add up to a full quilt top. But you know what? I kind of like it for its naive energy. It will get finished in due time.

This one's time will come sooner. My first quilt top. (That box in the bottom of the closet held so many secrets!) What really makes me laugh now is remembering how I thought that dark green with the light flower stencil print was so ... bold! This from the woman taking a Kaffe Fassett class this coming weekend.

It reminds me of fields seen from the air. I even found it with the borders already cut. Fear of quilting stopped me then and ... well here we are. I intend to overcome my fear of free-motion on this one. It's not a showpiece. It's been languishing all this time. No fear.

For those of you who don't do both, quilting and knitting patterns share common phrasing at the end ... "bind and quilt as desired" and "finish and block as desired". Time-consuming, technically challenging and often tedious processes all wrapped up in five simple words. Make-or-break steps referenced with a vague wave of the hand. Run along now, this pattern is finished. It's taking me several years of knitting and quilting to even being to understand my "desires" for finishing. ... Please know I type this stuff innocently, but see my own allusions and metaphors when I proof. Too much art. Wow, that phrase takes me back! After a semester full of lit, art and philosophy classes EVERYTHING became symbolic. "Too much art," was our cry for release from the mortal coil. Time to go out to the bars kids - there's a good band playing.

BTW, I understand now why patterns end the way they do and I know there are myriad books to fill in those technique gaps, but that's an understanding developed over time. In the beginning this self-taught knitter/quilter went numb when the pattern ended ... What now? Lot's yet to learn, but at least I'm no longer frozen.

Happy New Year!

We have cast on

I'm alive, somewhat well and once again knitting.

The jackhammers and stone saws finally stopped two weeks ago and I got cast on fever. Have been intending to blog ever since. But I couldn't focus on the screen (drat turning 41) and a new prescription was required. Then there was a four day weekend to Portland OR with art friends (photos upcoming). Then the medicines I was taking for my back conspired to rip out my stomach lining (feels like it sounds), which required dr visits, etc. Then I came home to discover our painfully shy kitty had disappeared while I was gone, which means my nine year old with whom he slept had a very rough week (lots of tears all around). Add to that housekeeping and gardening and you get the picture (which is good since I'm out of parentheticals for now). When I finally found a chance to blog this weekend Time Warner was having issues. Brenda? get on the ball woman.

The CO fever started with a nice little email from Chic Knits. Might I be interested in Ariann, Bonne Marie's new cardigan pattern? Oh yes.

Just so happens one of the those industrious little stash swatches reveled that Jo Sharp's Silkroad DK Tweed (colour 404 Boheme) had the right gauge. I could see this pattern worked in a more fluid yarn, but I like the rougher texture too. It is a little slower going across the needles though. 

Hum, that's a nice cardi, but what about a pullover for more casual wear? There's that green Noro Silk Garden (#203) feeling kind of lonely in my closet.

The pattern is Y772 from Noro Book 20. If you don't want to click, imagine an entire ribbed, funnel-neck pullover with these color blocks.

This may sound perverse to some of you, but I hate knitting rib stitch and only considered this pattern because of the intarsia. All those color changes makes the tedious front and back switching of the yarn worthwhile. Yeah, perverse. This color section had eight balls going across the row. Just finished this section last night - I'll get another section going before I take more pics.

Very pleased to report that this is the Silk Garden I love - no sticks, no excessive funky fibers, silky wool feel on the fingers and of course, those colors that keep you knitting just one more row to see where they're going to go. Bought it at Sophie's Fine Yarn the last time I visited Louisville, so I still wonder if there's a difference between what gets dumped on ebay vs what gets delivered to a LYS. Maybe it was just a production glitch that one year? Anyone with info - just for curiosity's sake?

So, two sweaters in process - very good. Still, I needed a travel-worthy absolutely mindless, alcohol-induced-dropped-stitch-proof (ok, resistant) project for going to Portland. Add that the two hanks of Brooks Farms Primero I got at Rhinebeck last year were calling me. A thousand yards of pure mohair goodness that's so soft and silky ... words fail me. This is wonderful yarn. I love the colors and wanted to keep it simple. The original Pi Shawl from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac fit the bill with instructions that fit on a 3x5" card:  Cast on and knit forever with occasional YO rows.

This photo is from the transfer between 16" and 32" circs. Now it's in pouch form until cast off. Got the rough gauge with US8's Certainly easy as pi ... after that nasty CO. Was going a little crazy until I googled the Emily Ocher CO to find it's universally a DP-throwing, curse-word-muttering PITA, especially with silky yarn. No single bit of info I found on line turned on the lightbulb, but all together it got me there and I found it very reassuring to know I wasn't totally crazy, completely inept or both. Of all the knitting techniques I've ever done, this is the one that I would most recommend being shown in person. I got there, but precious knitting time was wasted. If you ever need it, find the nearest knitter who knows how.

So, now I'm really back. With some consistency I hope. I've found I missed reading blogs and writing mine, which is kind of nice. This is not an obligation but a pleasure. I appreciate all of you who've dropped back by 'just in case' and want to extend my thanks for the emails of support over the last three months. There are a couple of you I still need to answer. I will be forthcoming with more landscaping photos, Portland photos, knitting and quilting updates. Just wanted to get the ball rolling today. Here are a few pics of my one semi-planted bed.

Dahlias, switch grass, caryopteris (out of bloom) and sedum.

Verbena, penstemon and orange sedge in the background.

As soon as the plants arrived we had bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, song birds a lizard and a frog. The next shot was a lucky surprise I found staring me down from my PC screen when the photos uploaded.