11.19.09
That Time of Year
I cannot seem to form a positive, upbeat, and enlightening paragraph, so I guess I must resort to pictures only.
So I give you, Hot Chocolate Socks. Toe up, 2×1 ribbing, short row heel, Magic Cast on. They are lovely, and I confess to being a toe-up convert.
An almost perfect magic cast-on. I confess that I love this cast on, but it was really not easy with this yarn (Patons Stretch Sock Yarn). When I say “Not easy,” I mean, hair pulling, muttered curses, teeth gritting, blood pressure rising, not easy. I overcame it, but the toe is not quite as perfect as I would have liked.
However, my short row heel was as close to perfect as I have achieved thus far.
The longer I knit the sock, the less I hated the yarn. It is ridiculously soft. It stretches very nicely without appearing stressed. In fact, it stretched well enough that what has been designed to fit a men’s size 9 foot slipped comfortably onto my women’s size 11 foot.
What? Don’t you get to put your feet up at work?
Anyway, I cast off using a very stretchy cast off I know, but it left me very unsatisfied. It isn’t a terrible issue, but I just don’t like it. I wish I knew more cuff treatments for toe up socks. I tried switching to a simple unribbed garter stitch, but I didn’t like that any better and ended up pulling back. The sock looks like it ended very abruptly. Ah well. It is for a 74 year old man that I love dearly, and I think chances are good he will either not care about their slightly odd top or he will simply not wear them at all, and my mother in law will get them.
I cast on the second sock tonight. God willing, there will be far less hair pulling and cursing.
And if not, well, the spinning wheel has been a little neglected in recent weeks, and I need more yarn to add to this:
Easy Drop Stitch Scarf, hand spun fingering weight yarn, Misty Mountain Farm Merino Top.
11.05.09
Finding My Voice
I have been struggling to find my voice for the past month, as any regular visitors here might have noticed.
This year has been a very difficult one: too many untimely deaths, too many illnesses, too much darkness, not nearly enough money.
Combining the trauma of the bus accident with surprising loss of Kitty Sexton, known in the SCA as Kolfinna sent me pretty deep into a funk. That was the straw that sent me over the pharmaceutical edge and for the first time in over a year, I went back on Wellbutrin. This turned out to be an excellent thing to do since in the weeks to follow, Byram took a 20% pay cut in the form of a one day per week furlough, scary news that something could be wrong after an ultrasound test he underwent in September showed some abnormalities, and then this week, my office lost a colleague and friend, unexpectedly. You know what “suddenly” or “unexpectedly’ is often code-speak for in obituaries.
I am coping with all of this now through knitting, spinning, exercising, and the aforementioned Wellbutrin. There are bits of good news in all of this. Byram’s tests came back negative and he is hale and whole. His pay cut is hoped to only last through the holidays. I have lost 15 pounds in the past month. My family is more budget focused than we have been.
Those are good things.
So is this:
Ruba’iyat Mittens (Rav link) in my handspun. There is only one so far, I am ashamed to say.
The back of the hand.
The inside of the palm and the thumb.
The handspun was FiberOptics’ one-off Blue and Charcoal colorway, and colorway Agate from Ashland Bay Trading Company.
Right now, I am closing in on finishing the “One Row Handspun Scarf” that I started back in August (I know. Its shameful, really.), and I started a Drop Stitch Scarf out of some handspun I picked up at the Fiber Festival last month.
I promise more pictures of knitting stuff soon, and I also promise some super-cute kid pictures of Grace who was Tinkerbell for Halloween.
Be well, and I hope to be back here more often.
10.05.09
Recovery
After the lows of the past week, I decided that recovery might come in the form of fiber over-indulgence.
I went to the Virginia Fall Fiber Festival early Saturday morning, where, sadly, I was cameraless. What a lovely way to spend a morning. I started with shopping. I went to get fiber, and I was not disappointed.
My first purchases were made at Misty Mountain Farm’s booth, where I picked up VERY reasonably priced 4 oz. rovings.
My next purchase was the major purchase of the weekend. Stony Mountain was there. This is a pretty well-known fiber store from Charlottesville, and I was looking forward to seeing their shop and I was not disappointed. They had the find of the day when I came across a set of Viking combs for $49! It is a standard set with a single row, nothing fancy, but good enough to get me started and I am excited to try them.
I went with the intent of buying a fleece as well, but I became intimidated by the sheer variety, range of colors, prices, and breeds. I now intend to educate myself and come back next year prepared to bring home a fleece.
I got to meet Gale of GalesArt, which you can find there at Etsy or over at The Loopy Ewe. I picked up my long-desired Proud Peacock roving, but it was a close call between Proud Peacock and Gumball, which was also very attractive. All of her work was very nice looking and of all the fibers I have brought home, it gets the most attention.
The last purchase was from Wild Hare Fiber called Citrus Tonic. It is greens and yellows and a hint of light blue in there and it was delivered to its intended receiver- my Mom. She seemed to like it; she liked the Lemongrass colorway from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I don’t think I can do socks out of the three ounces I have, so I have to come up with something else. I could tell she was disappointed when I told her I couldn’t do socks.
Mental note to self- mom wants spring-green socks.
My only disappointment about the entire festival was that not a single merchant and not a single spinner there had a Kromski wheel. Of any model. At. All. This made me pause in my quest for a Kromski, since when you see most people at a fiber festival spinning on either Majacraft or Schact wheels, you have to wonder what makes these so popular; and if there isnt a SINGLE Kromski there, why was that? Must investigate this further.
After I had shopped myself broke, I went and looked at the competitions. I saw Ms. Ashley’s Moonlight Sonata shawl which made me jealous that I lacked the skill to make my own Moonlight Sonata shawl, but after seeing how pretty her shawl was, I think I will give it another shot with a heavier weight yarn.
I was thrilled to see a friend from the SCA had entered her stranded knit silk bag and won first place with it. It was quite pretty and Ms. Maggie was the person who inspired me to jump off and start knitting this time last year when she showed me a pair of handspun naalbinded socks she had made for an SCA event last October. Yay for her winning first place.
There was a stunning white circular shawl there too that made me want to get another circular shawl on the needles. I am thinking of doing either Rona or the very beautiful but somewhat scary Wedding Peacock shawl by MMario on Ravelry.
After oohing and ahhing over the beautiful hand knits and handspun skeins, I went and watched the sheep shearing demonstations, which was cool to see, and also made me rethink the idea I had this year of learning to shear sheep and doing it as a side-job to help fund my hobby. Shearing is not a hobby job. No way.
Then I watched the sheep dog trials which were phenomenal! I have never seen sheep dogs at work, but wow, it was cool to see. They are lightning fast and smarter that a few humans I know. Really, it was the most impressive display of animal behaviour I have seen before.
The rest of my Saturday was spent exploring the eastern end of the Virginia Piedmont; New Kent Winery in particular. Wow was their wine good. They had a red Meritage that blew me away, and in general, I am not a wine drinker and especially not a red wine drinker, so this was really special.
I finished the first Ruba’iyat mitten this morning. Need a little kitchner on my thumb and to weave in a couple more ends from the thumb, and it will be done.
No, no pictures today. Camera was left at home. One of these days, I promise you, I will get around to posting pictures again; hopefully all the neat stuff I picked up this weekend will make it up here shortly.
In the meantime, wash your hands, get your flu shots, and stay home if you feel poorly.
10.01.09
A True Knight
Please forgive the lack of knitting content. I promise there will be pictures of my first Ruba’iyat mitten, soon, but not today.
After the horrific drama that went on just outside my office yesterday, I was wound extremely tight. It wasn’t until I got home, when my whole body finally relaxed, that I realized just how hard the incident was on my mental state. Today, there are pictures taken of the body and the scene, up close, apparently floating around my office. I veer the other way when I see people congregating around a photo, and have declined every offer to see it.
Seen enough, thanks.
Then today, the news came that a lady in the SCA that I know via the internet, whom I respect, admire, and for a while, even had a bit of hero-worship of, was taken off life support after contracting H1N1 a few weeks ago. She was very seriously ill, and each complication she suffered was worse than the previous. It is finally over for her and the Society has lost a True Knight, a Pelican, a Duchess, a Fighter, an Artisan, a Teacher, a Heroine, an Inspiration, and a Queen.
To say I thought highly of Duchess Kolfina would be an understatement. She was knighted around the time I made my last hard-core efforts with my own fighting. Her articles on SwordMaiden and her words through that now defunct forum inspired me and helped me find my path.
Heaven has gained a Knight and the Society has lost another bright light.
Death is our doom but let us die with honor
All that lives after is what the bards do say
Fight to be worthy of fame in the future
Let them remember the deeds we do today
For our hands shall be the harder, and our will shall be the wiser
And our hearts shall be bolder as our strength must end
Come and follow me to glory, so that when they tell the story
We shall not be forgotten in the halls of men
Battle of Maldon- Rosalind Jehanne
09.30.09
Fighting Panic
It is an achingly beautiful day in downtown Richmond. A beautiful sky with a view of the Monroe Building.
My office framed in blue.
Some mums out by Vogue just one block from me.
This morning, I got up and spent a few minutes with my daughter. Not enough time; just a little. I didn’t say goodbye to my sleepy husband or kiss him goodbye. I was a few minutes behind because I stopped for coffee and to get some cash to pay for my parking space.
As I came off the interstate, 3 fire trucks and several police cars came flying past me. I made my way to my office and discovered there had been some kind of accident, so I called my boss to tell her there was an accident outside of our building and I would be there as soon as I could be.
As I got closer, I saw a bus. I looked for another vehicle and saw nothing. Well, something. I flash of gory reds and pinks, partially covered by a white sheet. I averted my eyes as my stomach balled up; my gut knew what I was looking at before it registered in my brain.
That was a person. On the ground. Under the bus. The police closed the intersection just as I got to the light. I was the first in the line. Right next to the body and the ambulance, where the paramedics were helping a visibly shaking bus driver into the ambulance. My heart went out to her.
I saw a co-worker standing across the street. I saw a high heeled shoe and a purse by the bus. I saw the café manager from my building standing and watching from the corner. I saw a lady break down into tears as she watched the scene. I remember holding my hand over my mouth. I remember wanting desperately to be away from there. It is funny what I remember and what I don’t. I would have sworn to you that her shoes were brown, but the TimesDispatch says they were black.
I did eventually drive through the intersection without being prompted by the police. Asshole that I am. I guess a little panic took over. I just had to get away from her body. It was 10 feet from me. It wasn’t completely covered. I was shaking and I couldn’t think, I couldn’t help them or her, and I couldn’t breathe; I just had to go away. Fight or flight took over, and with nothing to fight except my rebelling stomach, there was only one alternative.
Because I had called my boss to tell her of the accident, everyone in the office had gone to a window to see what they thought was a car accident. We had a perfect view of the intersection. Everyone knew what had happened by the time I got to the 10th floor. I could not join the crowd at the window. I couldn’t even think straight still. Three people offered me a Xanax and I declined each offer, though I sort of regret that now.
It looks innocent enough, this intersection, but I cannot get it out of my mind that a woman died here this morning.
I am going to go home a different route just to avoid driving over those paint marks that show the bus’s outline and the spot where I know the lady was under the left front tire. The woman was a state employee, like me, heading into work, same as me, and all my coworkers. She probably has a family, and left this morning probably thinking of work on her desk, or about an annoying coworker, or the budget cuts, or whatever. I am sure she didn’t think she wouldn’t be home this evening.
I cannot wait for this day to be over; to go home to what really matters. To hug my daughter, kiss my husband, and remember what really matters in life.
PS: I have half a mitten to show you, but just not today, okay?
09.28.09
Lithuanian Love
Inspired by having 4 ounces of beautiful roving that needs a project, the changing season, the latest Knit Picks catalogue, and the YarnHarlot’s search for the perfect pair of mittens, I am planning on knitting mittens myself.
As of last week, I had settled on Hansa, but as much as those need to be mine (and they still really do), I want a motif that lets me focus more on the blue/gun metal colors of the roving, with the pewter gray color I plan to use being more of an accent. I feel like Hansa is too perfectly divided between the two colors.
I found the Squirrelly Swedish Mittens, which would allow me to really show off the changing colors of the blue handspun, and be a nod to “Kim, step away from the squirrel food!” but I was hoping to knit something a little more traditional looking. It does have the advantage of being in English, at least, and it comes with full instructions on how to do things like knit the thumb, which will be important to me, at least this once.
Today, though, I have fallen in love with Kiehkuralapaset, or the Swirly Mittens. They are absolutely beautiful, have more of the traditional Baltic look I am after, and I think they would show off the blue yarn very well. But…there is a chart; no pattern per say, and no assist on the thumb.
I have managed Finnish-only charts before; in fact, this one has more English that the Finnish Socks I did earlier this year, but I had done socks before and had more of a clue what I was getting into.
The last pair I am considering now are Ruba’iyat. This might be the perfect pair. They have the “look” I want, the colors will show well, they aren’t in a foreign language that I read not a word of, and have complete instructions on how to work a thumb.
I don’t know how to choose, but I am leaning more towards Ruba’iyat. I want something with a strong Scandinavian/Baltic influence. In doing some very brief research on Lithuanian knitting (because there is SO much information out there…ha!), I learned that Lithuanian patterns strongly influenced by Scandinavian, Latvian, and Turkish motifs, simply because the borders in the Baltic region have shifted around so very much in the past century or two.
Why Lithuanian? It’s my heritage. At least, the largest part of my heritage. Like any American, I am a strong European blend, but my Nana’s family came over in her generation. My great-grandmother never spoke English. I identify strongly with my Nana and her heritage, and she would have turned 95 this coming November 8th. It all tied in nicely to me; beautiful motifs, combined with beautiful and useful handknits appropriate for the season, the season in which my Nana celebrated her birthday with me celebrating my own birthday only two months later, in the coldest part of the year, and the heritage and history of where I came from all combined into, well, mittens.
All this, just to avoid knitting those stupid beer socks that are overdue for my poor, beleaguered (and sockless) husband.
09.25.09
730 Days
Two years ago, we welcomed our daughter, Grace Elizabeth into this world at 4:30 a.m, on September 26, 2007.
She was perfect, with ten tiny fingers, and ten wiggly toes.
I never believed such a tiny little thing could have so much personality and be so incredibly funny. Look at all the spunkiness in this girl at all of 4 weeks old- raised eyebrow, little fists clenched, and a look that says “Woman, you need to reconsider your intent of changing my diaper.”
At only six months old (or so), she had a smile that could melt your heart and a tiny bit of red hair.
Now at two years, there is plenty of hair (all blonde though), lots of personality, and she is a complete ham for the camera.
She’s cute and she knows it. In fact, if you tell her she’s cute, she will respond, ever so modestly, with “I know.”
I cannot even begin to enumerate the number of things this little half-pint has changed in my life.
And I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
09.24.09
Autumn’s Herald
I would like to show you pictures of the really neat sampling I did last night with my FiberOptic roving, but my camera disapproves. I smudged the lens apparently without noticing until I uploaded all my images and the samples look like crud. As did all the other pictures I nabbed.
I did manage to get this:
You can see I am using a drop spindle for portability and also, because now that I have a goal for this yarn, I want it as close to perfect as I can spin it. I decided, after sampling a cushy and chunky weight two ply that as lovely and soft as it was, my heart preferred the easy spinning/hard knitting project of Hansa to the hard to spin/easy to knit multidirectional scarf I would have knit with the soft and squishy version. I have knit 4 of those scarves, and while I think they are tremendous fun, I want to try something totally new and different.
One of the aspects of spinning that I love best is that the finished product isn’t the only beautiful part of spinning. I love looking at the fiber as it slips from my left hand into the space between my right thumb and forefinger, and appears on the other side as a beautiful strand of yarn. I love looking at the luster and crimp of the fiber; I love watching the twist pull in individual fibers and seeing how the colors come together. I even really like winding on. I am trying Abby Franquemont’s method of winding on to achieve a heavier cop for the first time, and it is really pretty to watch in action.
Far less messy looking that my normal wind-on (the “cone style”) ends up becoming, and I hope to really pack some yarn onto this spindle. I loved the wind on and I noticed just how pretty that deep gray single looked against the cherry red of my spindle. It was even pretty to watch the single change from gunmetal gray to a lighter gray, to a blue gray, and now I am up to varying shades of cobalt blue.
That is all I have for now. I put a few more stitch markers up on Etsy today. If you want something to pretty up your knitting, I might have just what you need. And with that, I leave you with an image that just barely heralds the coming of Autumn to Richmond. Just a hint of color in those trees. Wait for next week and we’ll see if it’s a little more pronounced.
09.23.09
An Unworthy Spinner
Last night, the girl went to bed after a particularly “Two” kind of evening, and I settled down for some computer-free time, knitting and watching the Biggest Loser (a show I both hate and love). I picked up my Faroese shawl that I had been so smugly working on all day; I say smugly because I was so proud of the fact that I had learned the pattern well enough that I could anticipate my next row without pulling the pattern out of the bag.
Now, what would I have lost by pulling that pattern out of the same bag I was pulling the actual knitting out of? Nothing, of course. But I was smug, and I knit two rows without glancing at the pattern.
Later, I get home and settle in for knitting and pull the pattern out because I think I am on the row where we begin the point of our first set of large diamonds and I need to know some numbers. You can see where this is going right?
It only takes me half a second to realize the row I was working on earlier in the day should have started the large diamond motif, and that despite my smug sureness, the diamond motif actually did begin BEFORE the final zigzag motif is complete. I blew right on by the first point of my 8 large diamonds.
Queue much grumbling and kicking myself in the imaginary pants. Also queue the tinking of 678 stitches. I know how many because I counted. I wanted to know exactly how much the effort of NOT pulling the pattern out had cost me. I set about tinking half last night, the other half this morning, and reknitting those two rows this afternoon.
I have a mug that says “H if for Hardwon Humility.” It was meant to be a constant reminder to me that every time, in any aspect of my life, when I get too cocky, God sees fit to send me some more hard won humility. Interestingly enough, I stopped using it and went back to my old Rosie the Riveter mug (it holds more coffee and that’s important!) about a week ago. Coincidence? One mug reminds me not to get overconfident, and the other one cries “We Can Do It!”
The rest of my evening was spent working on more stitch markers. Here is the haul from last night:
They aren’t on Etsy yet, but they will be soon (today maybe). My favorite of the batch, the set that might not get offered up, is the set at the top; 5 multicolored moonstone beads. I bought those moonstones several years ago to make a rosary from form myself. They were NOT cheap. Their colors ranged from the milky white associated most often with moonstone to peach and silver. They have that gorgeous iridescence you want in moonstone, and I love them. Sadly, they are poorly drilled out and my 22 gauge wires won’t fit through most of them. Of the 50 some beads I purchased, these five were the only ones so far I have successfully strung on anything. I cannot tell you how sad it made me not to be able to use them as I originally planned.
Moving forward; I have an interesting problem that the spinners out there will probably be able to relate to. I went to visit FiberOptic’s Etsy page, and she had a one-off braid of roving for sale that so enchanted me, that before I knew it, I was PayPal-ing her my mortgage money. You’ll never guess what color it is. (Okay, you probably will.)
It’s not just blue though. Its gray and black, and blue, and almost even some white in there.
I also desperately want roving in her Superstition and Badlands colourways. I am being very good though because I am going to the Virginia Fall Fiber Festival in 10 days and after that, I hope to see Feeling Sheepish at War of the Wings in Elkins, NC.
Besides, I have to figure out what to do with this 4 ounces of superwash Merino bluey goodness.
What would you spin up from 4 ounces of superwash? Socks seem like the obvious answer, but I am hesitant. Is 4 ounces enough? I have also never spun superwash before, and I anticipate it being slippery, and my yarn will likely not be consistent enough to make good sock yarn. Plus, if I did socks out of it, I would want to keep the colors together with chain plying, which I am famously bad at still and would probably not have enough wool for the yardage necessary.
I could do a hat or a scarf out of it, but…I don’t know. It isn’t telling me what it wants to be. I don’t want it to be lace. I don’t like variegated or self-striping lace. I love the look of “barber pole” style handspun, but I haven’t seen that knitted up into anything too often to see the ultimate result.
The idea struck me yesterday that it could become mittens, and in looking for mittens, I found Hansa, which appeal to me on several levels. In this case, I would need two colors of yarn of course. I have that pewter gray yarn I have been spinning from the Ashland Bay roving, but I am not sure what would happen by mixing a superwash with a very feltable yarn, but it would be cool to do a mitten and hat set from the two.
I just don’t know how to proceed, and before now, 4 ounces always seemed like plenty of wool, but today, I am feeling stingy of those precious fibers. I need to sample it a bit; try it as a fluffy two ply, a tight 3 ply with the colors preserved, and maybe a fine fingering weight type. Then I think to myself, this roving is far too pretty to spin. It is too soft. Too lovely. I am too unskilled. I have nothing to knit it into. I am unworthy of this fiber…
What is an unworthy spinner to do? I have an idea…stop and smell the last roses of the year and worry about it all later. Meet Don Juan, who is unequivocably not blue.
09.22.09
An Etsy Blitz!
So, I made an Etsy blitz this morning. I rebooted my defunct shop, took down the old items, and posted new shiny and lovely items for your knitting pleasure.
I love beads. I mean, really, I love beads. It is the “OOOH! Shiny!” factor. I am part magpie or something. I had a stint of making rosaries a few years ago, and having all the parts and pieces necessary, I set about making stitch markers last week, and have finally gotten them up for sale.
Here is what I have:
Lapis Howlite Leadership Markers ($4)
Czech Glass Pearl Leadership Markers ($4)
Czech Glass Garnet Beads Leadership Markers ($4)
And my favorite set, from the Beautiful Beads collection (which I promise will grow soon):
Emerald, Cobalt, and Garnet Czech Beads on a Genuine Clear Quartz Rondelle (Set of 5) ($5)
I plan to work on some more tonight, but if you are interested in a custom set, with particular colors, gemstones, or the letter type beads with a custom name or word spelled out, feel free to either convo me at my Etsy shop or leave a comment with contact info here, and we can set something up.
