Visiting Dad || August 05, 2003 ||9:48 am

I'm in Massachusetts for a couple days, visiting my dear old dad. Actually, he's not that old, more like late middle age. But anyway.

Yesterday I travelled up to New Hampshire to visit my very pregnant friend Katie and give her the ladybug sweater, and her daughter Julia the felted lamb. Both were a big hit! When I get back home I'll post before and after felting pics of the lamb. It's so cute! Scott liked it so much I think he wants one of his own. (He's such a sucker for cute things I don't know what he's going to do when we have kids.)

Unfortunately I didn't finish the ladybug sweater until I was up here, and I didn't have my camera with me. Hopefully Katie will be willing to take a pic and send it to me. That is, if she doesn't go into labor first - she was due on Saturday.

Forest Path Stole is getting close - I'm on the last tier of lace units. I don't know how long the border will take me, but I'm hoping to finish it in time to wear it to a wedding on August 14th. I think it's doable, don't you?

Dial-up suckiness and steeky goodness || July 29, 2003 ||10:31 pm

Ohmigod, my internet connection is so slow tonight. At home I just have a dial up connection, NetZero specifically, and usually it's bearable, but occassionally it's, well, not. Sometimes I think it's a conspiracy by NetZero to make me upgrade to their alleged "hi-speed" service. (My husband claims it's not really very speedy.)

Okay, I'll stop venting now.

I was home sick all weekend and therefore got plenty of knitting done. I finished the sleeves of the ladybug sweater, and yesterday I machine-stitched the armhole steeks. I've never done that before, and truth be told, I'm really a bad seamstress. My lines of stitching are not perfectly straight. But I did the best I could. I really should get my own machine and practice more.

In other steeky news, it's looking like I'm going to teach a class on steeks at Urban Knitter in the fall. The plan is for students to make swatches as pre-class homework, then we'll cut and finish the steeks in class. I'll go over Fair Isle and Norweigan styles. I'm a little nervous about it, but quite excited to finally be teaching something other than beginning knitting. Woo hoo!

And my ongoing Tuesday night class (a group of graduates from my friend Nancy's class at the Y) has been making one of the hats I designed as a group project. One of them finished hers tonight and they all like the hat. It's very gratifying to me!

I've been thinking about how to do my beginning class this fall, because no one finished the baby vest in the 7-week class I had this spring. So I'm planning to go even simpler and I'm thinking of a bag. That way I can still probably work in a little shaping and finishing, but there's a greater chance they'll finish it. Anyone have any thoughts on other good beginner projects?

Felting felting everywhere || July 25, 2003 ||8:55 am

You know how when you hear about something or start thinking about something, it starts popping up everywhere you look? There should be a name for that phenomenon. It happens to me all the time.

Wednesday afternoon I went out in search of Baabajoe's Wool Pak to make Fiber Trends "felted flock" pattern for the sister of the the baby who will receive the lady bug sweater. (The baby is due on his sister's birthday!) I didn't find what I was looking for and ended up ordering it online. But then began all the felted bags: that evening someone in my knitting group was putting a button on a felted bag. Yesterday at the store my boss wanted me to work on a felted bag to show off our wool/alpaca mix. And no less than three customers (and it was a very slow day mind you) were buying Lamb's Pride for felting.

(Incidentally, if you're wondering why I didn't just use the Lamb's Pride, which I can get an employee discount on, for my sheep, it's because most white yarn is bleached and won't felt. The only white yarn I know of that is guaranteed to felt is Wool Pak. But if anyone knows of others that are bulky and felt well, I'd love to hear about them.)

Last night I worked on the sleeve of the ladybugs sweater. I couldn't find a 2.5mm DPN, so I'm using two 16in circulars. It's very fiddly with the two needles and the multiple colors and the very small circumference. I'm hoping it will get better. At least many of the rows are only one color.

Off to work!

UFO pile || July 23, 2003 ||1:59 pm

I dug into my yarn stash today to find some yarn for a felted lamb. Amazingly, I found the yarn I was looking for very quickly, but in the process I unearthed several UFOs. Here are the things I'm challenging myself to finish by the end of August:

Hank8, of course; the navy blue blob is a sweater that I made most of while writing the pattern for Karabella; there's a Debbie Bliss entrelac coat out of Kureyon; and another Bliss sweater in wool/cotton that only needs to be sewn up; another Karabella sweater I wrote the pattern for (in Vintage Cotton); a sock that needs a toe and a mate; and Morehouse Merino scarf.

I really want to concentrate on designing in my free time this summer, but reducing this pile would also be very satisfying!

Ladybugs with spots! || July 22, 2003 ||10:26 pm

I duplicate stitched the spots on the ladybugs this evening.

I had never done duplicate stitch before, and found it oddly satisfying. In the past I've gone through embroidery phases, but always gave up on it quickly, finding it infinitely more tedious than knitting. But doing just a little embroidery on my knitting is much more palatable.

And the sweater is so cute! One cool thing about the duplicate stitch is it flattened out the knitting a bit - got rid of the puckering. I rarely have puckering on fair isles with shetland wool, but with this baby wool, I can't seem to get it to lie perfectly flat in the ladybug sections. I figured if the duplicate stitching didn't help, steaming it probably would.

The downside to duplicate stitch is it took forever. One hour for each stripe of ladybugs, i.e. three hours total. But it was worth it to not knit with three colors at once!

Monday, blah || July 21, 2003 ||3:22 pm

I'm at my office job today, and bored out of my skull. I will probably skip out early soon since there's nothing for me to do here, and it's really warm in my office. (It's air conditioned here only sort of.) I think I'll go play the piano in the sactuary (I work at a church) when I'm done. As The Knitting Curmudgeon would say, how rare and handy. [Not so very rare, I suppose - except that it's rare for me.] I took lessons for 12 years starting at the age of 6, but rarely play anymore. Someday I'll own a piano again, but I currently have neither the money to buy one nor the space to put it.

I had a very relaxing and fun weekend. On Saturday Scott and I went to Our Name Is Mud, a pottery painting place. We painted goblets. It was delicious crafty fun. If you live in the NYC area, I highly recommend giving yourself a play date there. They also have adorable already-painted items that you can buy. Last Christmas I bought an ornament from them with a sheep on one side and the words "Fleece Navidad" on the other. Highly cheezy pun, but cute all the same.

Wrist pain || July 20, 2003 ||1:29 pm

I had something of a scare Friday night, when I suffered some pretty bad pain in my wrists, particularly the left, radiating out to my hands. My knitting life flashed before my eyes! And I was particularly upset since the pain was likely caused not by actual knitting, but from winding all those hanks of cashmere. So I didn't knit Friday night while we watched Red Dragon on DVD. And then I woke up yesterday morning and my left wrist and hand still hurt. Yikes. However, I was out and about all day, and by afternoon it felt okay again. Last night I picked up my shawl and knit through Adaptation (an interesting movie, but got kinda stupid about two-thirds of the way through in my opinion). No more pain. But man will I think twice about winding a couple hundred hanks in the future. And I'll definitely stop if I start to feel pain... what would I do without my hands?

Mmmmm... cashmere! || July 18, 2003 ||6:12 pm

I spent the better part of the day at the store today winding hanks of hand-dyed cashmere/silk blend. And so of course at the end of the day, I had to have some for myself. A designer dyes cashmere blends for School Products, and usually I don't like her colors, but this time there are lots of purples, which I can't resist. Here's a photo of the yarn I bought:

I plan to make a shell with a bottom wide border in the multi-colored yarn in feather and fan lace, then continue in stockinette in the solid(ish) purple. And I'll make the neck and armhole borders in the multi as well.

Lord knows when this will happen though, since I'm currently working on way too many projects. I hate that; I'm not finishing anything.

I've been doing some work on the ladybug sweater - I'm just about done with the body. Here 'tis:

I'll duplicate stitch the ladybugs' spots after it's done. Which better be soon, since the baby's due in a couple weeks.

I've been making decent progress on the Forest Path stole. That's probably the only thing I'm working on really consistantly, but I'm still only about halfway there I think. I'm also getting a row in here and there on Hank8 - at least Christmas is still a long way off! And my feather and fan shawl is at the one row per hour stage... plus I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of yarn. Sigh. When will I ever learn??

In happy news, this week I've made reservations for Annie Modesitt's seaside knitting retreat and also for a class at Stitches East. Woo hoo! I've never gone to any knitting retreats or conferences - in fact, I've never taken a class - so this will be exciting and new. Yay!

Yay for meetings! || July 02, 2003 ||10:33 pm

I'm back. General Assembly was really amazing. UUs are very cool. Plus, I got plenty done on the Forest Path Stole while sitting in meetings and lectures. Wanna see? Of course you do!

I'm loving this pattern. And it eliceted many compliments at GA and at my knitting group tonight. We can all do with some stroking now and again.

My boss is on her way to Italy to buy new yarns so I'll be at the store mostly by myself this week. Then at the end of next week I'm off to my friend Hoah's wedding in Virginia. I'm a groomsman! In a dress, no less. A black dress that I could even wear again. This is good.

Summer at last! || June 24, 2003 ||10:31 pm

I love summer. The rain has finally stopped - for now, anyway - and we finally have bright sun and warm tempatures. And things in general are going really well.

My Makor class is finished. I learned a lot about how to run the class and will definitely do some things differently next time. What I'm struggling with is figuring out a sweater pattern that people can actually finish in 7 weeks. We did a sleeveless v-neck pullover, with an optional cable for the front. I guess this was a little ambitious for beginners. But I really feel that in 7 weeks you should learn more than the knit stitch and the purl stitch. So we'll see... if anyone has bright ideas for me, I'd love to hear them.

My other class - an ongoing group of six that meets every other week - is starting a hat. I'm giving them this hat that I designed for Karabella:

It's a fun pattern, easy enough for this group, and not expensive if you use only two colors instead of the five I originally designed.

And speaking of my Karabella hats, they took a bunch of the hats and scarves to the show in Columbus, and reported back that they were a big hit. I'm thrilled!

In other knitting, I'm on a major lace kick. I decided to knit along the Forest Path Stole from Interweave Knits with someone from my knitting group. I enjoy entrelac and lace, so putting them together is just peachy. Here's my progress so far:

The yarn is Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk. It's really soft and lovely. I have The Knitting Curmudgeon to thank for giving me the idea using this yarn with this pattern. I ordered a whole pound cone of it from Halcyon Yarns, which is an excellent retailer.

While I was waiting for the Zephyr, for some reason I started another lace project. Some months ago I began Elizabeth Zimmerman's pi shawl with blood red Skacel Merino Lace. I love the yarn, but the pattern became so boring around the time I had several hundred stitches on the needle. So I decided to recycle the yarn and make something else instead. I settled on the Feather and Fan shawl from A Gathering of Lace. It's quite beautiful, but not at all photogenic in its current state all squished on the circular needle. Someday when I finish the thing I'll post a pic. I currently have 720 stitches on the needle, with many more increase rows to go. I can't remember how many I end with - some crazy number over 1000.

Tomorrow I'm off to Boston for the UUA's General Assembly. I plan to knit lots during the long daily plenary sessions. And on the train ride to and from Boston. So expect further updates upon my return!

Yes, I'm still here. || June 01, 2003 ||5:26 pm

Not much time or energy lately for blogging. And to be honest, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about keeping a blog. I keep bugging Scott to make my website (something he's been promising for as long as I've known him). Once he does, I think I'll just use this blog site to post occassional WIP photos, and not worry about writing much. Of course, that won't be very different from what I'm doing now!

For the past couple weeks, I've been knitting on a project for work. It's a pullover knit in the round to the armholes, then split for front and back. It's got a leafy pattern which I'm enjoying knitting, and the yarn is a very soft merino and mohair mix. I tried to take a picture of it, but the navy blue color is too dark to show the pattern, at least in the gloomy light of this rainy Sunday.

I wasn't planning on starting anything else until I finished that, and hopefully Hank 8, but I realized I'm running out of time to knit for the recipient of the Dale ladybug sweater that I bought yarn for a few weeks ago. Here's a photo of that in progress:

It seems to be puckering a little, but I think it'll block out okay. The shetland wool I'm used to is a lot more forgiving. I'm looking forward to trying the Norweigan style of steeking - it's always exciting to learn new skills.

As exhausted as I am, I have to admit that I'm learning a tremendous amount about knitting and designing. And there's always more to learn. Teaching teaches me a lot. I've been wanting to teach a Fair Isle knitting class or workshop, and I may have found a venue for it, so that will be a good challenge I'm sure. I keep telling myself to slow down and not take any new students or classes, but opportunities keeping popping up. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I'm not good at saying no. Last week I got a call from a woman who was looking for a knitting teacher for her two daughters, ages 9 and 12. I don't have much experience teaching kids, and the mom seemed cool, so how could I resist?

At least I'll be off from one of my jobs for most of the summer. And where is summer, anyway???

- || May 16, 2003 ||6:28 pm

I finished my doily last night. Here it is being blocked:

I came within a yard or so of running out of yarn. I used crochet cotton, so it would have been cheap and easy to get more. But then I would have to make another doily... and maybe I'd run out of yarn again... and it would be a neverending cycle...

This one is huge - I think about 24" diameter. I still haven't quite figured out what to do with it. It would work really well as a covering for a small round endtable. But I don't have one of those.

In any case, I really like how it came out. I keep staring at it, in fact. I may use this same pattern again with thicker yarn to make a shawl. Sometime. Not soon, though... lots of projects waiting in the wings, too many to repeat a pattern twice!

This week I'll be devoting most of my knitting time to a new Karabella sweater that I'm writing the pattern for - not my design. I'm testing the large size by knitting one for myself. The yarn is a new (not yet released) merino/alpaca mix. It's very soft and lovely! Should be fun. But poor neglected Hank8...

Busy as usual! || May 13, 2003 ||4:15 pm

Last night I had my second class (of 7 sessions total) at Makor. It went really well! As it turns out, 12 people signed up (double the number I was told). I'm feeling like I'm getting more into the rhythm of teaching, and I'm enjoying getting to know my students. In the first class, we did casting on and the knit stitch. Last night everyone who was comfortable enough with the knit stitch learned to purl. It's amazing how quickly they can learn to purl if they really have the knit stitch in their hands (as opposed to in their heads)! It seems to be all about muscle memory and getting comfortable with the tools. Next week I'm thinking we'll bind off, review casting on (since they all forget), cover ribbing (a few already have that), and possibly start our project, which will be a baby vest.

The bad news is that my hat book is not going to be a book. I'm pretty bummed about that. They're just going to publish the hats and scarves as a series of individual patterns. And they're not taking all of the ones I did. (I will get paid for them all, thankfully!) I'm trying to look on the bright side. The patterns will have my name on them, at least, and who knows, maybe we'll do the book next year or something. But apparently it's too late for this year. Too bad no one ever let me know what the timeline was. Live and learn: next time I'll definitely ask!

Being mostly done with that project (although I'm still working on one last scarf), I've been able to put a little more time into Hank:

I feel like I've gotten more of a rhythm with the knitting than I did before. But it's still seeming to take longer than the other 2 fair isles I've done. I've just started the armhole steeks, which I like to do checker-style, rather than striped. Would you like to see what my steeks look like? Sure you would:

I'm also almost done with my doily. It's now got close to 500 stitches per round, I believe. And I thought this would be a quick project! Parts of it were challenging, and I've enjoyed coming up with creative answers to the question, "Why are you making a doily???" My favorite is, "Because I can."

Five FOs! || May 04, 2003 ||7:24 pm

Okay, a couple of these I've posted before, but I had to fix them. My to-do list is getting shorter! Only a couple of scarves left and then I'm done with the hat book.

I snuck in a couple of rows on Hank last night. He's feeling quite neglected.

Tomorrow's my class - as of Friday only six people had signed up (they were expecting 24). This is probably for the best - it's very hard to teach 24 people to knit, even with great help! - but the sucky thing is I had to order the materials ahead of time, so I got 24. I'm sure I'll use them in the fall, though.

Okay, lots to do tonight. Wish me luck tomorrow!

When will it end? || April 29, 2003 ||4:08 pm

I've been a very neglectful blog writer. It seems as if I begin every entry with an apology for not writing more frequently. *sigh*

I spent the weekend trying to get as far as possible with the hats and their matching scarves. Mostly this entailed designing scarves, since I hadn't even gotten that far on most of them. I hate making scarves, and they take forever, so I'm relieved that other knitters will be working on the longer ones.

I have a new hat to post, but my camera is at home and I am at work, so it'll have to wait until tonight. Actually, I may have more than one - I can't even remember what was the last pic I posted. The newest one is out of Soft Tweed, with a sort of medallion design around it.

Yesterday on the subway home from meeting Berta to go over all my scarf ideas, I very ironically had a ton of knitting with me but wasn't able to work on any of it because I either didn't have the right needle with me, or the right yarn, or I had to work out part of the pattern. And I didn't even have any reading material. Never one to sit on the subway unoccupied, I started working on a To Do list for this book. Much to my dismay, the list took up two screens on my Palm Pilot. And I thought I'd come so far this weekend!

And of course I'll get little done until next weekend, since every weeknight is busy as usual. Tonight I'm teaching - a sort of mini-class made up of people who were all in my friend Nancy's class together at the Y.

Which reminds me, my class at Makor starts on Monday. I'm a little nervous because I'm used to teaching small groups, and this one could be really large. On the other hand, as of Monday, only 2 people had signed up. The guy who runs the classes seems to think that it will fill up, though.

Well what else can I tell you? I'm very very tired and ready to be finished knitting hats and scarves. I promise to be more interesting when I'm done with this project.

Yay presents! || April 21, 2003 ||3:03 pm

Okay, maybe they don't count as presents, since I ordered them myself, but I got 2 packages at work today. Both were Norweigan-themed. The first was from Bea Ellis Knitwear. This month the Dale Baby Knits book is on sale, so I purchased that, as well as yarn (Baby Ull also on sale) to make the cover ladybug sweater. I plan to make the sweater for my best friend's 2nd child, a boy due in August. Too bad she just moved away from Ladybug Lane - it would have been so perfect!

My second package was from Nordic Fiber Arts, my other favorite place to buy Norweigan knitting stuff. From them I got a kit for the Swan Sweater from Norsk Strikkedesign. They have great deals on the original Norweigan yarns called for in that book and Poetry in Stitiches. The kit was priced far cheaper than I've seen it elsewhere. And the colors are so me! I want to start it right away, but I won't until I finish Henry.

Speaking of Henry, I haven't worked on it in an age. Last week was crazy busy, plus I was sick. Yuck. Today I'm feeling slightly more sane and on top of things. Hopefully I will be done with all the hats soon and can return to my normal knitting schedule.

And what's up with me not even feeling like working on Hank8? The few breaks I've taken to work on something other than hats, I've worked on my silly (but lovely) doily. I can think of a few reasons for my lack of progress on Hank: 1) very little extended knitting time - usually when working a fair isle sweater I like to get very comfortable and knit for at least an hour or two without interuption. 2) I know of several other knitters in the online knitting community who are also working on Hank8. I like to be original, so maybe feeling like one in a crowd makes me a little blah about the project. 3) Speaking of blah, the dark autumnal colors, while very beautiful and simultaneously manly, aren't really my favorite palate. I'm more of a bright, rainbow colors kind of gal.

In any case, I'd better get back to it - even though it's a Christmas gift, there are plenty of other big projects on my radar screen. A fair isle for Scott, this Swan Sweater for me, other Christmas gifts (really not going to get caught December 23rd knitting gifts this year!) Thank God summer is coming soon - my life will surely slow down a little then. At least it better.

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