Lorette

Langsjal Johonnu

Or, I Can Stop Anytime I Want

Here’s where I am in the Amazing Lace shawl. I’ve finished the first border, and have gotten to the second border. Once I finish that, I can start on the center section, all eighty thousand repeats of it, and really get to the fun part. Here’s a photo:

This is just so addicting. I even get up early to get in a row or two before I go to work. Those of you in my family know that this is serious knitting addiction we’re talking about. I am so not a morning person, and there is little that will get me out of bed earlier than I absolutely have to. I’ve given up reading, as I can’t knit and read at the same time. The TV choices have been pared down to mindless drivel that I can knit to without paying attention. I’ve considered buying a lottery ticket, so I can win big, retire from my job, and knit Icelandic lace forever. The lace and I have seriously bonded. My next post hopefully will have my second entry for the Amazing Lace challenge.

By the way, I am not sure whether or not I should be proud of the fact that if you enter “nupps” into Google, mine is the first site that comes up. That is truly weird. Try it, if you don’t believe me.

The house project is coming along. The stucco guys are here working on things, and it’s looking a little more promising. Yes, I’m still under the circus tent. Oh well, soon enough, they tell me. Here are my new ground-level closets that we gained in the course of the project. There is one of these on each end of the house.

And this next one just makes me laugh. For a while there, my house resembled a Holstein cow.

I’m off to knit. I’m starting to dream in Icelandic.

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Annie of Knitty Gritty asked us all to let you know that she is taking a blog break. She had a last post composed but her bloghost shut her down a little more expeditiously than she expected. If you are a reader, she wanted to let everybody know that she is taking the summer off, and may be back later in the year in a group blog.

One Row Forward, Two Rows Back

First of all, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. Last week was my 7-day work week, and was just busy enough that I didn’t get much knitting done, much less blogging. This week, my internet connection has been on the fritz. We took Comcast up on the offer to switch our phone service over to cable, and it worked well, for the first week. For the past week, it has been less than ideal. Some days I have internet, some days not. To give the Comcast folks credit, they have sent guys out twice, both times on the same day that we called, and were very helpful. So far today it’s been OK, since the cable guy came out yesterday. There were a couple days when we didn’t have phone service, either, but now that’s working as well.

I thereby proclaim today an official email-blog-post-answering amnesty day. I will go through all the comments and answer questions, but being as I’m over 60 emails behind (and that’s just the blog comments), I’m not answering all of them. Thank you to everybody who has 1) said how lovely my sister’s scarf was, 2) liked my Amazing Lace post, 3)felt sorry for me because my house has been eaten away by wood rot, 4) complimented my dog, and 5) offered Icelandic translation services. There, I think I’ve covered it all.

Oh, and I was joking when I said that I had Icelandic music loaded up on the Ipod. I have listened to some songs on Rhapsody, but they have precious little from Iceland. Lots of Scandinavian artists, not so much Icelandic. Though it might help if I knew what I was looking for.

Today was sort of a loss. I have been very distracted by all the pounding and sawing going on here. The stucco guys start tomorrow (at 6:30 AM, on a Saturday), so they are definitely making progress, but the noise is starting to get to me. It’s been rainy, so we’re still under the Big Top, which is starting to drive me nuts. Normally Riley gets to go for a long walk to the park every day, but today it was raining off and on, so I took advantage of a lull in the drizzle to take her out just around the neighborhood. I got about ten minutes away from the house, and the sky just opened up. Even Riley tried to hide under the bushes, and she normally likes the rain. By the time I got back to the house, I was drenched, and soaked all the way down to my underwear.

Then I started knitting. I should have just known better, given the way the day had started. I’ve been working on those two-color socks, and have gotten the second one done past the gussets, so now I “just” have the foot to go.* As a reward, I picked up the Langsjal Johonnu, and did a couple of rows. Then I found a mistake, and ended up tinking back the same two rows. Here’s a picture that shows about where I am. The idea is blatantly stolen from Claudia.

I’m starting to like the yarn more, though some parts of it worry me a bit. It is unevenly spun, with some parts looking more like a fingering weight than laceweight. And there have been a few short sections where calling it “cobweb” would have been generous. I’m hoping that these hold up to vigorous blocking. We’ll see.

I am liking the pattern. I think I might do the two ends first. The construction goes like this: you knit one border and the center section, put it on a holder, then knit the second border and graft the two together. I’m thinking that if I do the two borders first, then I don’t have to think about how much yarn I might need for the second one, and can just knit merrily away on the center part until I nearly run out, leaving just enough to graft the last row. Smart eh? We’ll see on that, too.

Everybody think good thoughts for sunshine in western Washington. I’m just sick of rain. Even the ducks look like they are sick of rain. I’d even settle for just overcast and dry.

*”Just”. I have size 10 1/2 feet, so this is not much consolation.

Dog Tricks

I’m back at work this week, so I haven’t had much time for knitting. I’ve put the two-color socks at the top of my list to finish, as I have NEW Socks That Rock yarn to get to. Not to mention that I haven’t done the socks from the last shipment of STR. So the two-color ones just need to get done. I do like them, it’s just that I generally see socks as that easy mindless project to pick up when my brain is overloaded, or when I have to pay attention to something else, or when I only have two minutes to knit. I’m only about an inch farther than the last photo, so check a few posts back, add an inch, and you’re good. I have reached the heel, so it won’t be long.

In lieu of knitting pictures, I have good dog and cat photos to show. We got Riley (and the cats, too) from the Humane Society when she was about a four month old pup. We did the dog-training thing, and she’s probably one of the best-behaved dogs I’ve ever seen. She follows the usual commands that dogs should follow, though she draws the line at “roll over”. She did it for awhile, then when she got older she just refused. For a few months she would run in a circle when you would tell her to roll over, but then she even stopped that. This dog will do nearly anything for a treat, but rolling over is clearly one of those things that she thinks is pointless.

Her best trick is the dinnertime trick. We did not want her to be one of those dogs who is jealous and grabby about food, so from the time we got her, we trained her to sit and wait when we put her food on the floor. She has to sit there until we tell her “that’ll do”, and then she can eat. She has pretty good self-restraint, and most of the time will sit there and wait even if we leave the room. This comes in handy, as we feed the cats a little dish of wet food in the evening as well as a treat. Riley just loves wet cat food. She’s pretty sure that it is much better than even the best dog food. The cats rarely eat the whole thing, so Riley gets to clean their bowls once they are done. She has to do the same “sit and wait” thing for that too.

All of that is a very long-winded introduction to three photos. You can see that the cats (Willie in this one) don’t seem too perturbed by Riley drooling on their heads, waiting patiently for them to finish. She will sit there for as long as it takes.

“That’ll do, Riley!”

Seven Things

Tagged by Ladybean:

Seven things to do before I die…
Learn to speak and read French, so I can read Les Miserables in the original.
Learn to play the fiddle
Sail across the ocean (any ocean)
Knit Sharon Miller’s Wedding Ring Shawl
Spend a whole lot more time with my sweetiepie
Retire (really, I love my job, though ;-))
Write a novel

Seven things I cannot do…***
Become Queen (despite what I’ve led my family to believe)
Run a marathon
Sing an opera
Speak Russian
Read Icelandic
Climb Mt. Everest
See worth a damn without my glasses/contacts

Seven things that attract me to my man…
His hilarious sense of humor
He gets my jokes
He’s the cutest guy ever
He is just a sweetheart
Ahem, there are at least two or three that I can’t mention on a family blog
He makes a mean martini, and knows how I like my bourbon

Seven books that I love…
Lord of the Rings
Les Miserables
The Lymond Chronicles, by Dorothy Dunnett
Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner (actually, anything else by Wallace Stegner)
Time Will Darken It, by William Maxwell
Principles of Knitting, by June Hiatt
Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon

This list actually could be about twenty pages long!

Seven things I say…
Trust me, I’m a doctor
Common sense isn’t all that common
I’d buy a case of that
I can’t think of four more

Seven movies I’ve loved…
Princess Bride
Lord of the Rings, all of them
Philadelphia Story (Yum, Jimmy Stewart at his sexiest best)
Paint Your Wagon (how can you not love a movie in which both Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood sing?)
Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day-Lewis at his sexiest best)
To Have And Have Not (Say, was you ever bit by a dead bee?)
Triplets of Belleville (one of the best movies I’ve ever seen)

Seven ladies I’m gonna tag…
Not a one. I think everybody else has done this. If you haven’t, and want it, consider yourself tagged.

***Yet. I was raised to believe that there is nothing that I can’t do, so take these with a grain of salt.

And I’ll add one more category, as an afterthought.

Seven favorite Google search strings that brought people to my blog…
Getting stitches from a doctor
Knitting related tattoos
Knitting bandages for lepers
Full body sock (huh?)
Rotted sill (I’m not making these up)
Lace blocking wires welding
Last but not least, my favorite, “knitting doctor”. It just gives me a giggle that people actually search for me by name.

Amazing Lace!

Challenge #1,

Or, A Very Long Post

I have indeed joined the hordes of laceknitters that have signed up for the Amazing Lace summer knitalong. After a great deal of dithering and mind-changing, I’ve chosen my trusty teammate for the summer. It was a difficult choice, as I have a multitude of lace patterns on my to-do list, and it finally came down to two:

Frost Flowers & Leaves, from A Gathering of Lace, compiled by Meg Swansen, for which I have the yarn and pattern, and have wanted to knit ever since I first saw the book.

Langsjal Johonnu, from Three Cornered & Long Shawls, by Sigridur Halldorsdottir.

I was leaning towards the former, as I wasn’t sure that I wanted to have to be able to spell Langsjal Johonnu for the next several months. Then my husband, ever helpful, made a somewhat disparaging remark about collecting patterns written in foreign languages which I don’t speak or read, when there are plenty of fine patterns written in English, which I do read, more or less.

That settled it. The gauntlet was thrown down. Langsjal Johonnu it is. I’ve collected all the parts of my team, and present them to you here.

The yarn is genuine Icelandic laceweight wool, purchased here (color number 9808). It’s actually somewhere between laceweight and fingering weight, and is not a sissy yarn. It is substantial, hearty wool, made to get you through those long Icelandic winters in style. The color is a little more purple than shown in that picture. And yes, I have already cast on and started. Once I got past row 3 (don’t you dare laugh, it’s harder than it looks), I am zooming right along.

The pattern book is also purchased from Schoolhouse Press (scroll down the page a bit). It has a number of lovely shawls and stoles, and though it’s a bit spendy, I probably will do more than one out of this at some point.

Next up, we have my “Learn Icelandic” kit.

Just kidding. The pattern book does come with a translation. Though it worries me a bit that the original book, in Icelandic, has 78 pages, and the English version only has 16 pages. There might be a few things lost in the translation.

The stole on the cover of the translation booklet is the chosen team member, Langsjal Johonnu (I just love that name). Here’s a better look.

I also just love this woman. She models all the pieces in the book, and has exactly that same “don’t screw with me” expression on her face in every photo. That’s the other reason I chose this one over the FF&L. She means business.

Here are some of the other teammates, gathered together to help out.

There is the photocopy of the pattern, my gadget bag, and my trusty Denise needles, which are honored to be chosen for the lace race. I have a little notebook and pencil to keep track of stuff, and my reading glasses, which I’ll surely need. Actually I may take this one to the copy place and blow it up a bit bigger. Those Icelanders must have good eyes.

I use a music stand to keep my pattern where I can see it. I have a large magnet board that has a permanent home here, and a smaller 8 by 10 version that slides right into the plastic page protector with the pattern page. The Ipod is loaded up with Icelandic music for the occasion. The second picture is my trusty clicker counter, to keep track of rows. I also ordered one of these to hold my magnet board:

because you just can’t have too many gadgets.

Because I’m optimistic that I will eventually finish this, my blocking gear is ready.

Last but not least, I have plenty of refreshments ready. First, a nice selection of fine tea from Adagio:

And just in case, a brand new bottle of the Knitting Doctor house bourbon:

Just in case.

Estonian Garden Scarf

Project Details:

Pattern: Estonian Garden Wrap, pattern by Evelyn C. Clark.

Yarn: Zephyr wool-silk laceweight, color Basil. The pattern called for 2 oz, I ended up using about 1 1/2 oz.

Needles: Holz & Stein ebony circular, size 3.25mm.

Started: February 2006

Finished: May 19, 2006

For: my sister, for her birthday. (Shhhhh, it’s a surprise.)

What I learned: I learned more about making lace, which I’m beginning to think is my favorite kind of knitting. I learned how to do a provisional cast on, and then to unzip it to get “live” stitches. Most importantly, I learned about the behavior of nupps. I even learned to like them a little bit. They are quite pretty once they are done; it’s the doing that’s the trouble.

Verdict: I love this one enough to do another. The pattern has two versions, the narrower scarf, as shown here, and a wider stole. I can see making this again in the larger version. The pattern is clearly written, and without errors that I could find. The lace directions are written out as well as charted, and the charts are very easy to follow. I give it 5 stars.

Opal Candystripe Socks

Details:

Yarn: Opal, #518, from the 2002 collection. I named it Candy Stripes.

Pattern: Basic top-down, flap-heel, stocking stitch. I used a picot hem on the top, which I shamelessly copied from Claudia. This is my first picot hem, and it is fun, easy, and flirty. Perfect for girlie socks.

Needles: 2.25mm dpns.

Started: February 2006 as the Wintergrass knitting project
Finished: 4-9-06.

What I learned: I love plain socks. I think all those other fancy socks are very pretty, and no doubt fun to knit, but I love the process of just knitting around and around mindlessly in plain stocking stitch, and coming up with a sock at the end. The picot hem was new, and I might put it on everything else that I ever knit, it was that much fun. This was also my first experience with Opal yarn, and it is indeed as wonderful as everyone claims.

Lead Or Follow Lace Scarf

Pattern: Lead or Follow Lace Scarf, by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer. Her website is here.

Yarn: Richesse et Soie, by K1C2, a cashmere-silk blend; color is #9633, which is a pretty cornflower blue.

Needles: 3.75mm

Started: July 2005. Actually I started this a couple of years ago, but it sat in hibernation for awhile, so I had to restart it because I couldn’t figure out where I was in the pattern.

Finished: January 24, 2006
Who For: My sister Linda, for her birthday.
What I Learned: This is a great pattern. It’s clear and well-written, and once I figured out that it doesn’t mix well with bourbon, I did OK with it. It’s “knitted lace” instead of “lace knitting”, meaning that every row is a pattern row with increases and decreases. “Lace knitting” means that every other row is a plain row, either knitted or purled. I didn’t know that before. “Knitted lace” is really no harder than the other kind, it just means you don’t have that long easy row every other row to relax with.
The yarn is heavenly too, though spendy for anything more than a scarf. It’s fingering weight, so it’s a little easier to handle for someone relatively new to lace.

Nordic Ski Hat

Pattern: Bea Ellis, her own design, purchased as a kit here.

Yarn: Dale Heilo in red and white, and cotton sportweight for the headband lining.

Started: December 2005

Finished: January 7, 2006
Needles: size 3.5mm. (3mm for the lining)

What I learned: Two color-knitting is a blast. I practiced knitting with one color in each hand. This required that I polish up my continental style knitting, which was awkward at best.
Would I do this one again? Yes, ma’am. I thought it might be too warm to wear this where I live, but the Heilo is a sportweight yarn so it’s not too heavy. I really, really liked making the tassle!

Stick A Fork In It, It’s Done

The Estonian Garden Scarf is finally done. I cruised across the knitting finish line yesterday, then got out the camera and the blocking gadgets and went to work. I love blocking lace. The pre-blocking product looks so unimpressive, then voila, you have a work of art. I’ve been carrying this thing around for weeks working on it, and everybody that looks at it mumbles nice things, but I could tell that they were really thinking, “that looks like a pile of crap”. Well, here’s the reward.

Preblocked scarf:

You might note some little ends sticking out if you look closely. Because the lace gets stretched quite a bit during the blocking process, when I wove in the ends, I left about an inch and a half when I trimmed them. After it was blocked and dry, I trimmed them close. I have no desire to see things unravel before my eyes.

I believe in the full-immersion theory of lace blocking. Sort of like full-immersion baptism, it turns it into a completely new thing.

I let it soak in a combo of wool wash and cool water for fifteen or twenty minutes, which gets it thorougly soaked and removes the road dust. I use Kookaburra wool wash, which you can get any number of places. I buy mine here. It also smells very nice (if you like tea tree oil; if not, use something else). After the wash, I rolled the scarf up in a bath towel and pressed out the excess water.

Then out come the blocking wires. I bought a blocking kit years ago, but it didn’t have very many pieces with it. Instead of paying a fortune for another kit, I went to the local welding supply place this week and bought more wires. The guy at Airgas was a hoot. He told me all about his wife’s knitting, and I’m pretty sure I am the only knitter who has bought welding rods from him for blocking purposes.

These are sold as “Cut Length Rods”, and are stainless steel, the 1/16th inch size, which was the narrowest diameter that they carried. There are about 24 pieces in a tube, and the tube itself provides handy storage. The ends are not rounded, so you have to be a bit careful with them, but I might get John to file them off for me at some point. These were much cheaper than a professional blocking kit. One other bit of advice; if you buy these, take a damp cloth and wipe them down before you use them. And make sure you get stainless steel, for obvious reasons.

I used two on each long side of the scarf, and carefully threaded them through the edges. This is a bit fidgety, but not nearly as fidgety as using nine million pins to get an even edge. I used a couple of shorter pieces from my old kit for the ends. If you buy the welding rods to use, you could probably cut some of the longer ones in half for this.

Then you stretch it out and pin it down:

One of the nice things about laceweight yarn is that it dries fast. Here’s what I had this morning:

A closeup of the nupps:

And the obligatory lake shot.

This will get packaged up and sent off to my sister for her birthday next week.

Project Details:

Pattern: Estonian Garden Wrap, pattern by Evelyn C. Clark.
Yarn: Zephyr wool-silk laceweight, color Basil. The pattern called for 2 oz, I ended up using about 1 1/2 oz.
Needles: Holz & Stein ebony circular, size 3.25mm.
Started: February 2006
Finished: May 19, 2006
For: my sister, for her birthday. (Shhhhh, it’s a surprise.)
What I learned: I learned more about making lace, which I’m beginning to think is my favorite kind of knitting. I learned how to do a provisional cast on, and then to unzip it to get “live” stitches. Most importantly, I learned about the behavior of nupps. I even learned to like them a little bit. They are quite pretty once they are done; it’s the doing that’s the trouble.
Verdict: I love this one enough to do another. The pattern has two versions, the narrower scarf, as shown here, and a wider stole. I can see making this again in the larger version. The pattern is clearly written, and without errors that I could find. The lace directions are written out as well as charted, and the charts are very easy to follow. I give it 5 stars.

Next up: New lace project in the making. I joined the Amazing Lace knitalong, and have finally picked a project after changing my mind fifteen times. The first challenge is to introduce your “team”, so that will be my next post. You’ll just have to stand the suspense until then.

Nupps, Again

I’m not done with those nupps yet. I did get half of them done, however. Here’s where I am on the Estonian Garden Wrap:

The first border and edging is done, and I have the provisional cast on stitches back on the needles, and am half done with the first repeat of the nupps section. I’ve never knit from a provisional cast on before, so that was a little anxiety-provoking. If you’ve never done this, you cast on with waste yarn (there are a variety of ways to do this so it comes undone easily when you’re ready). When you get to that part, you simply unzip the waste yarn, placing the live stitches on the needle, then you’re off knitting in the other direction. Very cool. Eunny has a whole post about cast on methods for lace here. Here is another site, showing the method I used. Here are a few pictures of the unzipping part.

And the finished stitches, back on the needle.

This was a load of fun, really. I guess I am easily entertained. I kept calling John out to the patio to watch. He was polite enough to pretend like this was a major feat of knitting engineering.

I did put this aside for awhile over the weekend to do a little more on the Orange Pippa sweater. I got enough done on the sleeve to determine that the gauge is correct. Here it is:

What do you think? Are the yarn and the pattern a match made in heaven? Or not?

Last but not least, more house pictures. The circus tent came up yesterday, and is rolled up on the roof for now, so we went out last evening and got a few photos.

Deck 1:

Deck 2:

There is still a lot of work left to do, but it’s looking less depressing by the day. And it’s nice to be able to see the lake again. I was getting a bit claustrophobic in here. Also, we have new arrivals on the lake, who were out for a brief evening swim last night for the first time with their parents. If I can catch them on camera (they are all very shy), I’ll post pictures later this week.

Nupps, Take Two

Here are the Nupps:

And a close up. Click on the photo to get a better view.

The arrows point to the little troublemakers. For those of you who don’t know what “nupps” are, they are evil little bobble-like creatures, in this case intended to look like lily of the valley buds. You make them by doing a K1-yo-K1-ko-K1, all in the same stitch, thereby increasing 5 stitches in one. On the next row, you purl those 5 stitches together to make the nupp. Or you can cheat, and do K1-yo-K1, followed by purl 3 together on the flip side. Kate (no blog) had a good suggestion in the comments from my last post. She recommended pushing the stitches down to the cable part of the circular needle, then purling them together. That works pretty well. So does getting them all bunched up on the very tip of the needles, but they tend to do the lemming thing and jump off the edge, so I abandoned that approach.

Once the nupps and I had a little “come to Jesus” meeting, we are getting along fine. Though I would recommend very sharp pointed needles. And a good vocabulary of swear words.

I pinned this out slightly so you could see what the lace looks like. I really have fallen in love with the Zephyr yarn. It’s a wool-silk blend, and comes in lots of lovely colors. I have one more repeat of the nupps section, then the final edging, then the same thing on the other end of the scarf, then it’s done.

The “unbuilding” phase is mostly done, and the rebuilding has started in earnest. We are going to have two huge decks on the lake side of the house when this is all done. Now I only hope it’s done in time to enjoy at least a little of the summer out there. Here’s one photo. It’s hard to get a good idea of what the decks will look like, as we’re still under the “big top”. The kitchen windows still need to come out so they can rebuild around them, but I think they are saving that for when it’s hopefully a bit warmer so we don’t freeze to death. Actually I think they are saving that for when the decks are framed in so it’s easier to get to the windows.

Have a good weekend, and a nice Mother’s Day for all you mothers!

Nupps!

Or, Open Letter To My Dearest Husband:

My dear John,

I sincerely apologize for yelling at you tonight and shouting, “shut up, I’m counting”, followed by “leave that f*****g light on”. I have reached the “nupps” section of my Estonian Garden Scarf, and while “nupps” sound like something cute and innocent, they are anything but that.

This behavior most certainly does not reflect my true feelings for you. It only means that I apparently don’t have a drop of Estonian blood in my heritage. It also means that my cockiness at finishing the center section of the scarf, followed by the statement that “I most probably will finish this over the weekend”, was pure folly.

“Nupps!”, henceforth, will be a euphemism for another swear word that cannot be printed in a family knitting blog. As of tonight, I have modified the 5-stitch nupp to a 3-stitch nupp. I refuse to give in and abandon the nupps altogether.

No pictures, as I’ve ripped out the damned thing enough times that it’s now too late to dig out the camera for a photo shoot. At least I had the sense and humility to put in a lifeline thread before I started the nupps section.

Sheepishly,

Lorette

Project Roundup

I haven’t posted pictures of everything on the needles for awhile, so here goes. A couple of these are old, a couple are even older, and a couple are new-to-the-blog.

That’s the Estonian Garden Scarf, which I really need to get working on, as it will be a gift. I’m a little over halfway done with the center lace section, which is way more mindless than it looks.

This is a Euroflax linen “warshcloth”. I started this a long time ago, from a pattern in Knitters’ Stash, but got inspired to pull it out by Kay and Ann’s book. I’m a little over half done with that one, too.

That’s the Eggplant Sweater, from Jo Sharp DK Wool. This one has been sitting in time out, as it’s gotten to the stage where it’s too bulky to drag around everywhere. I’m also sick of knitting wool when it’s been turning into spring outside, so this one may sit in the basket for a few months. I will finish it later this year, I’m just not terribly inspired by it right at the moment.

Here’s the sock pair, back from its trip to the Big Apple:

And here’s the current siren song:

That’s the yarn I bought from Elann last week while I was on my “free” yarn day spree. I had a little trouble deciding which color to get, and finally asked myself WWCD? (What Would Claudia Do?) Of course I bought the orange. (Coppered Sienna, which sounds much more elegant than orange.)

I am a bit perturbed by this yarn. It’s listed on the label as knitting to a DK weight, at 22st/4in. When I swatched it at that gauge, it is floppy and a bit see-through for my taste. When I went down in needle size to get a fabric I liked, the gauge was more like 28st/4 inches. I had contemplated making the Marla sweater out of Hot Knits, by Melissa Leapman, but the gauge wouldn’t work. (That lovely example of the sweater was knit by Laurie, from Etherknitter.) After dithering around for awhile, discarding several possibilities, I’ve almost decided on Pippa, a beautiful cardigan pattern by the very talented Anna. I’m still in the undecided stage, but once I finish the cuff on the sleeve and get to the main pattern stitch, I should be able to tell if it will look ok in this yarn or not. If not, it will be back to the drawing board. Here’s the first inch of the cuff.

Not quite as classic as the navy Baby Cashmerino called for in the pattern, but we’ll see. I couldn’t see springing $90 or so for yarn right now when my house is falling apart.

Speaking of which, here are a couple of photos of the house.

That one shows the horizontal beam being deconstructed. The next photo shows it being hauled off, and the last one shows it gone.

The three arrows in that picture (the top one is hard to see) show the other beams that are being taken out. We’ve decided that we are only going to have the vertical beams replaced up to the level of the decks, not all the way to the top. It would be prohibitively more expensive to get the heavy equipment back there to rebuild it the way it was. So it will be a very different looking house when done. The side benefit is that it will open up our north-facing house to a lot more light, not an inconsequential thing in the Pacific Northwest.

Those Darn Socks

I had a little interlude from knitting yesterday after I found this post by Theresa from Knitting Underway. She has a series of posts about darning socks, and why you might want to do this. There is a “Part 1” and a “Part 3” as well, so check them all out.

I just happened to have a pair of holey socks in the basket by my sink in the bathroom, waiting for a decision. These happen to be one of my favorite pair, though they are nothing special. They are plain ribbed socks that were knit out of heavy worsted Peace Fleece, but they are great for wearing around the house, and with Birkenstocks. (Yes, this is considered “fashionable” in the Pacific NW, if not anywhere else in the world.)

Several weeks ago I noticed a big hole in one heel, and the other heel was on the way out as well, so I tossed them in the basket. I’m fairly brutal on my socks, both handknit and otherwise, as I hardly ever wear shoes in the house. To darn, or not to darn? I am not much for sewing, and was mostly tempted to toss them in the trash. Then I found Theresa’s posts, and she inspired me to give darning a try.

Here are the socks pre-darning:

Sad, eh?

First I gathered my tools. Yes, I have a darning egg, doesn’t everybody? And I went rummaging in the boxes in the yarn closet and found the leftovers of the Peace Fleece yarn. I knew there was a reason that I never throw anything away.

Then I made myself a cup of tea, because I can’t imagine Great-Great-Grandmother darning her socks without a cup of tea. That, and it was too early in the day for a glass of wine.

Notice the Cinnamon Graham Cracker from Trader Joe’s. Best partner for a cup of tea that I’ve ever found.

Here’s how it starts:

Now go back over and visit Theresa and follow her instructions, and check out her links. I didn’t take pictures while I was actually darning, but it looked like a real mess while it was in progress. Apparently that’s how it’s supposed to look.

Here’s the finished socks. I did a combination of duplicate stitch and weaving on the one with the big hole, and duplicate stitched over the bare one.

And there they are, good for another couple of years!