Everything But The Kitchen Sink – The Knitting Doctor

Today

It’s that time of year. As the weather gets nicer, it’s time for all the outdoor projects to get started. Those big windows are the originals that were put in when this house was built decades ago, and the seals have failed on all of them. So we have scaffolding built, and measuring happening. The rectangular ones were easy, not so much with the top two curved panes. They are having to take off the framing and remove the glass panes to measure accurately. It’s a good thing that there is no rain in the forecast. They already have one taken out and measured, and are putting it back in. Given that this house was built from Halloween Fun House architectural plans, they are taking the other one out to measure as well, just to be sure.

Hudson Bay socks. I’m a little farther towards completion than that photo. I have the heel done and the gusset decreases completed. A night or two of good television should do it.

We’ve been watching Atlantic Crossing on PBS the past few weeks. It’s the story of the Crown Princess of Norway and FDR during WWII. Not sure how historically accurate it is, but it is entertaining.

Lastly, my newest journal. I love the leather, it is a deep green, and smells lovely. The company is Galen Leather, this is their leather Slim Notebook cover. It comes in other lovely colors as well. The notebook inserts are also from them, they use Tomoe River paper, which you should try if you never have. I’m using the A5 size.

Hope your upcoming weekend is full of fun and happy projects!

I Almost Forgot! Blogiversary!

It’s 12 years here at Chez Knitting Doctor! I opened up my calendar to check something and saw that today is my Blogiversary. Nothing much new to say about that, except that I’d really like to get back to blogging more regularly.

So what else is new? The knitting projects are all the same. It’s been a bit of a slog around here, and I actually haven’t gotten much knitting done. I’m just plugging away on the same old projects, which is fine with me.

Here’s Hitchhiker:

And socks:

One sock done, the other nicely started. I’m not dragging out any other projects to take pictures of, that’s all you get. The Hitchhiker yarn is Wollmeise Pure fingering weight, which is gorgeous. And the sock yarn is Skinny Bugga from Verdant Gryphon. I might have a few other skeins of this in the stash. It is just the best sock yarn, it’s a merino, cashmere, and nylon blend.

The other thing going on around here is fluting, as you might notice from the photos.

I had a little excitement last week. I had a medical conference in Boston, and the second full day we were there, I developed a whole raft of floaters in one eye. Long story short, I ended up having a posterior vitreous detachment and a couple of tiny retinal tears. I ended up at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital, was seen in the ER there around mid morning, diagnosed, sent upstairs to the retina center, and had laser surgery. I was back “home” at the hotel by noon. If you have to have a retina problem, having your hotel located 10 minutes from a major eye hospital isn’t a bad idea. I still have a big jellyfish floater and a bunch of little ones that are driving me nuts, but my vision is fine, so all in all things are OK.

As a public service announcement, these things are more common as we get older, and way more common in people with severe myopia. Symptoms are a sudden splash of floaters in one eye, and lightning flashes. It can be accompanied by a retinal detachment, so it’s one of those things that is a relative emergency.

Zoe is doing very well. She has morphed from the shy, compliant little kitty that she was when she showed up on our doorstep to a very confident zany alpha cat. She and Will are actually turning into buddies, they chase each other around and have little pretend kitty brawls. I think he’s actually enjoying having someone to play with.

Last but not least, this is the new obsession around here:

It’s a Peloton spin bike! I’m not sure exactly what’s come over me. I guess some switch finally flipped and turned off the couch potato in me. I’ve had it for a month (minus the week we were in Boston), have done 21 rides, lost 7 pounds, and I’m noticeably stronger already. It’s a spin bike, but also comes with live and on-demand classes via a monthly membership. And I really needed to do this. I’ll be 60 this year, and already have a couple of medical issues related to weight and being out of shape, so it’s sort of now or never. I’m actually looking forward to getting up before 5AM every morning to get my butt on the bike.

That’s all I’ve got. I’m going to practice before it’s time to get going to Easter Vigil services tonight. Happy Easter to everybody!

Stuff That Makes Me Happy

It’s Game Day! Lewey is ready!

That one is just because Lewey really makes me happy!

I have a new pencil sharpener in my office at work! It’s bright red. That makes me happy, too.

My sister-in-law was here to visit. We went to see Mt. St. Helens. I’m really really happy it didn’t blow up while we were there.

There’s been some cooking around here. We had about a million tomatoes that all went ripe at once, so I made tomato sauce to freeze. This will make me very happy in a month or two when all we have is canned tomatoes.

Dinner last night made us both very happy. Lamb chops, potato tortilla from CSA potatoes, and CSA veggie ratatouille. Oh yeah, and wine. Happy, happy, happy.

To those of you who snickered when I said I wasn’t buying any yarn for a while, this makes me deliriously happy.

Last but not least, knitting. I got tired of all the red knitting around here. This is in honor of Start Something Sunday.

Yes, I know I still haven’t finished the last pair of socks. I might just start two or three more pairs, too, just because it makes me happy.

A Decade of The Knitting Doctor!

How about a contest to celebrate? Details tomorrow!

State Of The UFO’s

Here we go. I’ve been a slackard when it comes to blogging and knitting. I’m hereby posting photos of some of the things from the top of the heap in hopes of inspiring me to get knitting. There are a few more UFO’s in the pile, but I’m not dragging them out. These are the “in progress” projects.

That’s the Platinum Seraphim shawl. I just finished the first chart, which is mostly stockinette stitch. On to the fun part!

Oh, by the way. I had purchased an ancient version of this pattern, way back when the designer, Miriam Felton, had a different blog and website. There is a rewritten version of this that you can download automatically if you had bought it from her new website or from Ravelry. I had run into trouble with the stitch counts on one of the rows, and sent her a message on Ravelry. Literally within minutes she responded with a “fix”, which was all I really needed, but she sent me a link to the pattern and had the new version in my Ravelry library waiting. I love good service!

A River Runs Through It Socks, for John. That’s the first sock. John’s feet are about the same size as mine, but his foot is wider around the instep, so I’m doing a little widening around the gusset area so he can get them on his feet.

Evenstar! Beads! I have to tell you, the beads are making me pull out every swear word I know. They are very pretty though, so I’ll suffer through them.

Right. Another crappy Green Jeans Corduroy photo. That yarn is just impossible to photograph attractively. It’s Araucania Nature Wool, and the color is not quite solid, but not really variegated. In real life it doesn’t look so horrifically splotchy. And it’s hard to tell, but I’ve finished the bottom part and am knitting the back.

If you have too many UFOs, the only sensible thing to do is start another, right? Right. That’s a Pretty Thing. I skipped right over all of February between our trip to Hawaii and when Riley got sick, but there was some Great Big Fun in there. Dorothy came to stay overnight to visit the fiber and yarn market at Madrona in February. We met Sally, the owner and inventor of the Knit Companion software. The three of us wandered by a booth with this incredibly soft yarn, then discovered that it was real MINK. We each swooned and picked out a skein, and a Pretty Thing KAL was planned. Here we are:

We should look happy. All three of us got a lot of loot at that market. Sally is a genius by the way. I can’t imagine knitting without Knit Companion at this point. You should go check it out.

The Pretty Thing pattern calls for doing this on a 16 inch circular, which I’m not very fond of, so I found a video to teach me to knit on two circulars and took off. This will have to be frogged and restarted, unfortunately, since it looks like crap. My joins at each end are loose and wobbly, way too ugly for even me to tolerate. Part of it is my inexperience, but part of it is that this yarn has absolutely no memory, so it’s not very forgiving of knitting inconsistencies. I’ve dug out a 16 inch circ and will bite the bullet and use that on the do-over.

By the way, those needles are Chiaogoos, which are hands down my new favorite lace needles. The tips are perfect, the needles themselves have just a touch of texture so stuff doesn’t just slide off, and the cables are flexible but not too flexible. They also don’t have any memory, so don’t coil up on you while you are trying to knit. And the join is absolutely smooth. I dithered over whether to buy the interchangeable set or just a bunch of the fixed sizes, and decided on the latter since I mostly use the smaller sizes of needles anyway.

Things were in quite a whirl around here after Wintergrass. I realized that I had never picked my favorite artist of the festival. It just has to be Seldom Scene. We saw two of their shows, and they were just terrific as usual.

My favorite song was their rendition of Darlin’ Corey. Here’s a relatively recent video of them performing this. Lou Reid’s voice alone is worth the ticket price to a show. If you ever get a chance to see them live, don’t think about it, just go.

Last but not least, Riley came home for good today. We decided to have her cremated, and the vet that did the home euthanasia brought her ashes back today. It was a bittersweet moment, but we’re glad we paid extra to do this.

Leaping Lizards!

We get an extra day today! Make the most of it, I say.

Here’s the wrap up on Wintergrass. It was a terrific festival. The theme this year was international bluegrass, and there were groups from the Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, Japan, and Switzerland. We saw all of the non-US groups except for the Swiss group, and they were all good. Väsen, the group from Sweden, has been to Wintergrass a couple of times before, and they are always a hit. Despite the fierce competition from many other fine bands, they were also my favorite group of the weekend. Here are their photos.

That instrument is a nyckelharpa. They play Swedish folk music, sort of. You really have to listen to it. Here you go!

There were lots of other great things going on. Here are just some photos…

Ok, I have to comment on that one. That’s a young lady we met in the restaurant at breakfast one morning. The instrument is a stumpf fiddle, made at home with a variety of pots, pans, a toilet plunger, and a wooden car horn. She even played it for us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIuDWA1t1fc&feature=youtu.be

That’s not her in the video, obviously.

There was some spinning! I didn’t spin during the performances, since I think it’s a bit distracting, but did during the breaks. I also did some knitting during the music.

And those are done done done!

Project Details:

Yarn: Pink Carrot Creations, color is Carrot Top. I bought this in Ketchikan when we were on our Alaskan cruise.

Pattern: same damn pattern as always

Needles: size 1, sterling silver needles from Celtic Swan.

Started: Oh who knows. Probably in November, since that’s when I finished the last pair.

Finished: Today!

For: Me

There you go! I really need to kick it into gear and finish more socks. My sock collection is starting to show its age, so I need some new ones. Bluegrass festivals are terrific for sock knitting!

And here are the new socks:

The yarn is Tinsel Toes, from Unique Sheep, in Primary Ink. For the record, I’m using Ivore needles in 2.00. I snapped one of them this morning while doing the picot hem, which irritates me to no end. These are my favorite needles, a little hard to come by. I can’t find them in the US anymore, though I have a website in Australia that still sells them, albeit with exorbitant shipping costs. I have a couple extra from another set, so I’m good to go for now, and there might be a spare set or two on the way just for insurance. I’ve had these a long time, and this is the first time I’ve ever broken one. Most people hate these because they are very long, and very flexible, but I adore them.

Last but not least, we’re on our way out of town again. It’s about time for some warm and sun, since we’ve put up with months of cold, damp, rainy, windy, dark, gloomy, and tree-killing weather. We’re headed for Puerto Vallarta tomorrow! We’ll have internet access there, hopefully, so I should be able to update!

I’m off to pack!

This And That

Just as the title says. First up is knitting. No photo, but I’m almost done with the second sleeve of the Faery sweater. Then it’s the hood and the button band, and it will be done done done, probably just in time for summer. There was a brief dust up with the second sleeve. I sat down last week to start working on it, found the finished first sleeve and all of my very cryptic notes, and found a ball of yarn to cast on. As I was doing so, I had the distinct feeling of deja vu. I almost chalked it up to the fact that this was in fact the second sleeve, and I indeed had done it before. Some little voice in my head made me go upstairs to my disaster of an office. I hunted through about six knitting bags before I found it. Not only had I cast on for the second sleeve, I had finished the cabled cuff and about eight inches of sleeve. Sheesh. I need a better organizational system. Either that, or I need to cut back on the vodka martinis. The theory* that the alcohol only kills the weak brain cells, leaving me smarter, may be wrong. Sorry, Cliff.

Next is the dyepot. I did some fiber prep last weekend, and did a bit of dyeing this week. Here you go.

That is undyed wool yarn, pre-mordanted in a copper sulfate solution. The pretty blue crystals in the jar are the copper. I liked the color so well that I almost left it like that. Almost. Here’s the dye stuff.

That is a bowl full of mostly marigolds. I had topped all the marigolds in our pots last fall when they were at the very end of the season, and spread them out to dry. I got a little paper bag of more mixed flowers in my last CSA dye shipment, and mixed the two. Here is the dye pot simmering.

That simmered away for about an hour, then I let it sit overnight before straining the flowers out. Then the wet yarn went in, that simmered for an hour, and again sat overnight. Here’s what I got for my trouble.

I think that is just the most gorgeous bronze color. I put a bunch of alum mordanted Polwarth top in the same dye pot yesterday, It is draining right now. It’s a bit hard to tell when it’s wet, but I think it will be a paler less vibrant version of the same color. So far it is exactly the color of something Lucy might hork up, so it might get overdyed. We’ll see. I’m pretty pleased with the yarn, though.

Next up is food. Tuesday of course was Mardi Gras, and we celebrated in style at the Knitting Doctor household.

Yum. The dinner was shrimp etouffee, rice, braised kale, and bread. And wine, of course.

Last but not least, you might notice that sweatshirt that I am wearing up there. This is Wintergrass weekend, and we are off later today for the festival. We have tickets to hear Itzhak Perlman at the symphony tonight, then the rest of the weekend is all bluegrass, all the time. I have my knitting and spindle packed and I’m off to follow the call of the banjos! I’ll update as I can!

*”Well you see, Norm, it’s like this . . . A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the heard is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first . This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”

Still Digging Out

Well. This week has been very weird. Thank you to everybody who commented on my last post. It is indeed traumatic to lose a grand old tree, and even more traumatic to think how close it came to doing serious damage to my sweetie and the house. At some point though, you have to put it in perspective, and move on. We were only without power for a little over a day, and we do have a generator that runs the essentials. I couldn’t get my car (a little VW Bug) out of the driveway until Sunday, but John was able to get his car out once we cleared some of the downed branches, so I did get to work.

We still have snow on the ground, though it’s melting relatively quickly. We also still have a huge tree on the ground in the back yard. Zeb (remember Zeb?) and his crew came last week to survey what needs to be done, but couldn’t get their truck down into our yard, so all they were able to do was cut the tree back enough so it wasn’t leaning on the house and deck rails, in case it were to shift. They are coming tomorrow for more definitive management, meaning turning it into firewood. Here are some more photos.

And here’s the maple in the front yard. It lost about a third of its branches. Zeb thinks it will survive, though it looks like it got drunk and gave itself a really bad haircut.

The good news part of this is that we’ll get to plant a new tree in the spring! Exciting! I want an oak tree, but I’d have to live to about 150 to see it grow up. Whatever we plant, it will be fun to watch it grow.

In much more fun news, my home town has a new burger joint. The sign has been up for awhile, but they finally opened a week or so ago. We got there today for lunch.

Really, John was much happier about his burger than he looks. I just didn’t want to take any more pictures. Yum!

And speaking of even better news, I got an early Valentine’s present* yesterday.

My old camera was starting to get a little “quirky”, and this (it’s a Canon 60D) is a definite step up. It does everything except, apparently, clean dog hair off my furniture.

OK, I’m off, I have an appointment for a haircut later today. One of these days I might even post knitting photos!

*Of course, John thinks it’s OUR camera. He can have his little delusions.

Summer Wrap-Up

Or, A Very Big Post

Now that summer is officially over, let’s get back to the monthly wrap-up posts, shall we? This summer was a bit of a bust as far as knitting goes. I got lots of other non-fibery projects done though, and enjoyed a lovely summer with family and friends, so I count it as a success all the way around! Here’s the summary:

I did no knitting at all on the True Blood Faery sweater. The current status is that I have the main body done and blocked, and I’ve started on a sleeve.

I knit about an inch on the current sock in progress. It just seemed to want to stay in hibernation.

I am nearly done with that Electric Blue High School Graduation Baby Mystery Project. I’m on the edging, about 6 rows to go, but those rows currently are at 592 stitches, and getting bigger every time around.

I spun up several skeins of yarn.

I started doing natural dyeing. Here’s the latest:

These were dyed with chopped dried madder root. The top yarn is handspun Romney, from a sheep named Rainbow, that was a gift from Dorothy* last year. I spun it up into a two ply right after she gave it to me, and it went into the stash. I was looking for something else to toss into the dye pot and found this, it was spun undyed. The roving is BFL, about 4 ounces. The color is pretty accurate, at least on my monitor.

After I pulled those out of the dye pot, I decided that there might be some color left, so tossed in the skein of rhubarb-mordanted Perendale wool that was in the August CSA box, along with 4 ounces of a BFL-Silk blend. Here’s how it came out.

That’s also pretty accurate, it’s a pale peach color. I haven’t quite decided if I like it or not, but I can always over-dye it next time I have the right color dye pot going.

Project Details:

Fiber: Two skeins of Romney wool, handspun by yours truly, 4 ounces of BFL roving, one skein of local California wool, and 4 ounces of BFL-silk roving

Mordant: The peach wool was mordanted by Birdsong from the CSA with rhubarb. I did the rest with an alum/cream of tartar mordant. I used about a 10% alum mordant solution

Dye: Chopped madder root. There was about 230 grams of the madder, I would definitely use more if you wanted to dye this much fiber and have it all come out red.

What I Learned: As the dye pot exhausts, the color changes. Duh. Madder is treated a little differently than the fennel. For one thing, it doesn’t stink like the fennel, I did this in the house without any problems. From what I read, if you cook the madder too hot or too rapidly, it will turn more orangey than red.

Here’s another summer thing. I bought a new spindle! This is sort of an early birthday present for myself. I’ve been looking at Golding spindles for a long time, and finally saw one that had my name stamped all over it.

Do you want a close up of the top? Of course you do!

Pretty, eh? The Scottish thistle is in honor of our next big adventure. We leave for Scotland** next week for a couple of weeks. I can’t wait! When I saw this up for sale on the Golding website, I knew it had to be for me.

OK, a quick list of September fiber goals and I’m out of here, or I’ll be late for church. I’m not getting very ambitious since I’ll be gone much of the time.

Finish the baby thing.

Finish those red socks.

Read books.

Enjoy the vacation.

That’s it. I’ll try to do one more post before we go, since we had a very special visitor last week that I’d like to tell you about!

*The wool was the gift, not the sheep.

**As usual, for you stalkers thinking you can steal my yarn while we’re gone, we have a house-sitter. She brings her llamas to guard the wool, so don’t even think about it.