I leave early this afternoon for an 11-day trip to Greece.* It’s a National Geographic Expedition trip, “Wonders of an Ancient Empire”. Since I’ve been studying a lot about ancient Greece for the past two years, I jumped on this trip as soon as I saw it.
No, John isn’t going with me. He doesn’t get around well enough to do a tour like this. So he and Hank will be here to guard the yarn stash. John’s two kids and his sister will be here to help John out and to keep Hank in line. Here’s my itinerary.
Stay tuned!
*Yes, there is a knitting project in that bag. Socks, and as per usual, enough sock yarn for me to remain in Greece for a couple months. You never know.
I have so much yarn, a significant portion of which is single skeins of the “my precious” variety. A lot of it is sock yarn, which will become socks if I ever get to all of it. I also have a bunch of non-sock single skeins, including impulse purchases, or “souvenir” yarn.
Enter “little neck things”. Little scarves, cowls, etc. This one seems to be the latest thing on Ravelry.
Isn’t that pretty? It’s just the right size to grab and go when it’s chilly out. Here’s another photo.
It’s an idiotically simple pattern, but the i-cord edging jazzes it up and makes it look like something more than a plain garter stitch scarf.
Yarn: Shilasdair Aran merino, I bought this on a trip to Scotland in 2011. The color is Sandstone. Their yarns are dyed with natural dye materials; this skein was dyed with madder root and onion skin. I used one skein of this, 175 yards. I have a tiny little ball of yarn left over.
Needles:5.5mm/US 9
Started: November 2
Finished: November 4. That’s right, people. I started and finished a knitting project in less than a week. The fact that it was finished in the same decade in which it was started is newsworthy around here.
What I learned: Knitting from stash is delightful. Knitting something useful from stash is even better. This is a dead-easy pattern, and though it is written for DK-weight yarn, it could be knit from a skein of almost anything. Just weigh your yarn, knit the increase section until you’ve used half the yarn, then do the decrease part.
In other news, our sunny fall is finally over here in the Pacific Northwest. We’re being hit by an “atmospheric river” today and this weekend. This basically means we are going to get a shitload of rain. And apparently, severe winds, though that hasn’t hit yet. Thankfully, our generator has been serviced and fueled up so we’re ready if the lights go out.
We’re also nearing the end of our bathroom remodel. I’ll save photos of that for the next post.
Oof. Again. I keep waiting to post until I have time to catch up, but I never seem to make that time. So I’m just going to start where I am.
Two new projects, both “knit-alongs”. the first is Casapinka’s Sharon Air shawl, which started a week ago. Here is where I am.
I’m a few rows into Clue 2. The yarn is from stash*, Plucky Knitter’s Lodge fingering, which is a wool/linen blend. I’m not sure what I was thinking** when I bought four skeins of this in different colors, since one skein isn’t enough to make much of anything that I’d ordinarily knit. It will work perfectly for this though. Here’s a closer view of the stitch patterns.
As usual with a Casapinka pattern, there is lots of fun and goofiness that accompanies the knit-along.
The next is a sweater.
I know, it doesn’t look like much. The pattern is Vanilla Sweater; it’s a top down raglan, knit with Rauma Finullgarn at a relatively loose gauge. Here’s a photo from the pattern.
So far I really like how the Rauma knits up. I think this will be a terrific between-seasons layering piece.
That’s all for now. I have lots more going on, but I’ll save it for next time.
*Because I have SO MUCH STASH yarn.
**Thinking? There is no thinking when it comes to yarn-buying at Chez Knitting Doctor.
Our excursion Sunday was to a nearby village that was the site of a small knitting factory that opened in the 19th century. The factory unfortunately closed in 1989, but it has been converted into a museum, keeping most of the old spinning and knitting machinery in working order. The original factory primarily made machine-knit (and hand-finished) clothing, especially woolen long underwear.
That is just some of the old equipment on display.
That is a bin of single ply thread ready to be made into either cloth for garments, or finished yarn for knitting.
The museum shop was lovely, with a nice collection of knit items, books, and other souvenirs. You know I was there for the yarn, right?
Some of that did come home with me.
That little guy didn’t end up in my shopping bag, though he sure is cute.
We are having a blast so far. Our wifi is a bit spotty, so this will be short. We have a tour this afternoon of Orkney Island. I hear there may be wool shopping opportunities there.
The project up there is a simple garter shawl; no pattern, just garter stitch with increases to make a triangle shawl. I’ll change colors when each yarn runs out. The wool is Icelandic light fingering, dyed with various plants. As we’ll end our trip with a few days in Iceland, I thought it was appropriate.
So far we are still on deck for our vacation. We did home covid tests yesterday just for reassurance (both negative), and had our ”official” lab tests this morning to enable us to get on a cruise ship by the end of the week.
This is my retirement trip, delayed from last summer due to covid. If anything screws this up, I may need to be put into restraints. We do have trip insurance, so if those covid tests surprise us, we’re covered. BUT. I’d be really pissed off. We’ve been REALLY careful about exposure in the past few weeks.
So, where are we going? We decided on a Scandinavian/Baltic cruise. We fell in love with Viking cruises when we did one just before the pandemic shutdown, and signed up for this before that cruise was over. We fly into London, spend a couple of days there, then the cruise goes to Scotland for a few stops. The majority of the trip is along the northern Norwegian coast, going up to the Arctic Circle before heading back, then to Denmark, one stop with a bus trip to Berlin, a stop in Gdansk, Poland, ending up in Sweden. We disembark in Stockholm. We’re making a short stop in Iceland on the flight back. We’ll be gone close to five weeks. The ship was supposed to dock in St. Petersburg, but obviously that’s not happening.
I have everything staged to pack. Not surprisingly, I’ve agonized more over the knitting/spinning projects than anything else. I do believe that there may be a few yarn-acquisition opportunities on the cruise (Shetland islands, all of Norway!). So I’m trying to not overpack and leave a little room for souvenir yarn.
After some dithering, here are the spinning projects I’m taking:
Fingers crossed for those Covid tests!
*And yes, the house, the cats, and the yarn stash will be carefully guarded while we’re away-we have a house sitter!
I had a little out of town trip over the weekend. My great-niece Elise graduated from high school in Sacramento, and I flew down to join the festivities. Fun was had by all. Here are a few photos.
There weren’t a lot of masks in evidence, either on the airplanes, or in Sacramento. I’ve only been home for two days, but so far I’m testing negative for Covid. We have a big trip coming up in late June, so from here on out John and I will be trying to isolate as much as possible. This is my retirement trip that got postponed from last summer due to Covid, so I’m going to be really pissed off if it gets canceled again. More on that in a future post.
I have all the pieces for my newest sweater finished and blocked. I started seaming things together last night. I have one sleeve in, and am sewing up the side seam. Once it’s put together, there is a wide band that goes up and around the fronts, I suppose that will take forever, but I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the sweater tunnel. I might even have this finished to take on our trip. here’s a photo.
Those clip things to hold pieces together for seaming are one of the great knitting-world inventions. I tossed the packaging long ago, so have no idea of the brand or where I got them, but they really do make lining things up much easier.
I’m off to do more sewing! I do have a great big finished project to show you, but it is a surprise, so it needs to be gifted first.
Wintergrass is wrapped for another year. It was a great festival, with a nice variety of music styles, and a diverse cast of performers. It’s tough to pick a favorite, so I won’t. This is the first time in two years we’ve been out doing much of anything other than with our close family and friend ”pods”. It was REALLY nice to be in a concert venue with live music. The festival is in Bellevue, which is in King County to the north of us, and they are still requiring masks and proof of vaccination for indoor spaces. They also sold only about the half the usual number of tickets (intentionally), so we felt pretty safe, especially since the Covid numbers have dropped pretty dramatically here.
I did get some knitting done. Here’s the sock in progress.
I started the long weekend with just the cuff of that second sock started, so got about half a sock knit. I also worked on a secret project that will be a gift, so I can’t show it to you. That sock yarn is from Three Irish Girls, it is their Adorn sock yarn, color name ”Tits Up!” (reference to a character in Mrs. Maisel).
I realized while uploading that photo that I completely missed posting a finished project.
Those are socks for John. The yarn is John Arbon Exmoor Sock yarn, colors Mackerel Sky and Mizzle. It’s the same ”pattern” I always use for socks.
I really am going to try to be a better blogger. Really.
Sweetpea is pretty damned happy to be at Wintergrass again. The 2020 festival was the very last public thing we did before the pandemic hit two years ago.
I’ve got the knitting planned, we have reservations for most of our meals taken care of. I’m pretty damned happy to be here, too.
I started a new project a few days ago. It’s a lovely pattern, and lovely yarn, and the whole damned mess almost got tossed in the trash this morning.
The pattern is Quatrefoil, by Janina Kallio. It’s a dead simple lace shawl pattern, easily memorized after the first few repeats. The yarn is divine. It is Creamsilk, from DyeforYarn on Etsy.
I settled in this morning for some relaxing knitting, or so I thought. The yarn is 100% silk, and very slick. I wound it up using my swift and ball winder, which clearly was not the way to manage this.
It took me about three hours to get it untangled and wound up. Isn’t that a pretty nostepinne? It’s made out of holly, made and sold by Dancing Goats on Etsy. They have some lovely tools if you are in the market for a little post holiday gift for you or someone you love.
The right tools make all the difference, as usual. Back to knitting.
I’m not sure how much fun barrels of monkeys really are. This crazy shawl is more fun than a barrel full of pretty much anything.
The pattern is Snark-o-Meter, a mystery knit-a-long shawl by Casapinka. For someone who finds plain stockinette sweaters and socks a blast to knit, this much color and texture is almost more fun than I can stand.
The colors and stitch patterns change just about the time you get bored, but it’s still an easy enough pattern overall to not be too mentally taxing (i.e. still works for binge-watching a favorite show).
I also have the yarn and patterns for a couple of her other shawls, including the Crown Wools and the Sharon Show. Both look equally fun to knit. All three are big squishy fingering weight rectangular pieces with lots of color and texture, so should be fun to wear as well.
Everything else is OK in Chez Knitting Doctor world. We are recovered from the Great Summer of Visiting Relatives. I love them all, but it did seem like every time we woke up, there was another bunch moving into our guest rooms.
We’re now heading into the season of major home maintenance. Our master bath has been in need of some upgrades/repairs ever since we moved in here two decades ago. And our kitchen wall oven has been unreliable for close to a year. It’s a gas oven, and it sort of works as long as the temp stays under about 400 degrees. Anything higher than that, or if it is on too long, and it just shuts off. It’s an old Viking, and they don’t make the parts to repair it. When we remodeled the kitchen several years ago, we discovered that there was never a 220v outlet installed in the kitchen. Gas ovens in general are hard to find, and quite expensive, but it would be a major project at this point to run a 220 line to the kitchen. We’ve finally found the right oven (and cooktop, since that needed replacement also), and it’s on order. And we’re at the beginning stages of the bathroom remodel planning.
But we’re not spending money on travel, so we have more cash available for home upgrades, right? We’ve recently canceled another big trip that was supposed to happen in October. This was already rescheduled from last spring, so it’s beyond irritating that we’re still in this pandemic largely due to selfish idiots who won’t get vaccinated.
I didn’t mean to just disappear again. I am finding that the list of things to do isn’t any shorter when you are retired, in fact that list just gets longer. And the list of course includes the occasional nap on the couch, and getting lost in a book for an entire afternoon, so sometimes the list doesn’t get done at all. And that is OK with me.
I’m making good progress on my Dockside Cardigan. I blocked the finished pieces this morning, I just have the sleeves left to knit, and then put it all together and put on the collar and bands.
Oh right, I’ll need buttons. Where do you all buy buttons? I haven’t finished a sweater with buttons in quite some time so have no idea where to shop.
Anyway, here are the pieces.
The pieces do match in size, it just doesn’t look like it from the angle that I took that photo.
I like how the ribbing on the front transitions into the decorative bands. It’s a bit hard to see since the fabric is dark due to being wet. And I see that I need to straighten out that ribbing edge.
I have a good bit of the first sleeve done. I discovered the utility of the “smart counters” in KnitCompanion while doing this. I knew they were there, but had never used them before. They are perfect for those “at the same time” shaping directions. Once you set up the individual directions, as you knit through each row, it pops up when you are supposed to start a shaping direction. And it doesn’t let you advance to the next row unless you’ve “cleared” the shaping counter by tapping it. It is ingenious.
The sleeves have the same shaping of the ribbing, every 4 rows you take out one of the rib repeats. I think I am going to love this sweater.
That’s all for now. I might have a finished project for you next time!
If there was ever any concern that I would be bored in retirement, stop worrying. I am having a blast, with no regrets, and no thoughts of “oh, maybe I’ll keep my work privileges and work a few days here and there”.
Nope. Just nope. I’m already running into the problem of too many fun things to do and not enough days in the week. And we’re in a pandemic in crappy weather, so I’m stuck at home, indoors. Once the weather gets nice and we’re all given the green light to get out in public, I may have to give up sleeping.
Of course I’ve been knitting. I’m trying to pare down my WIPs (works in progress, for the uninitiated). My ideal number of on-the-go projects is five or six: a sweater, a sock, a lace thing, a simple mindless shawl for knitting when I’m doing something else, and perhaps one or two small things (think hat or mittens). I’m getting there. I still have 3 complicated lace shawls in progress, but my goal is to get that down to ONE complex lace shawl at a time, in the hopes of actually finishing things.
The sweater project that I mentioned a few posts back has been started. After a lot of dithering around, I found a CustomFit sweater pattern by Amy Herzog that is just what I was looking for. It is her Dockside Cardigan. If you aren’t familiar with her patterns, she sells pattern templates that you can personalize with your measurements and gauge.
That’s a photo from the pattern page on Ravelry. Isn’t that pretty? Here is where I am now:
I think this will be perfect for this yarn.
I have bunches of other non-knitting projects in the works, but I’ll save that for later. Happy Monday!
As it turns out, this yarn does not want to be knit at 20 stitches per 4 inches. I sort of expected this, which is why I did a swatch. It also doesn’t like being knit into cables. The heathery alpaca/wool blend just really wants to be stocking stitch. Fortunately I’m not bored at all by miles of stocking stitch.
So here’s the deal. What I want is a plain long cardigan, knit in pieces, seamed, and with a wide shawl collar. I don’t want to do a top down cardigan. My ideal gauge for this yarn is at 17.5 stitches per 4 inches. You wouldn’t think this would be a tough pattern to find, but there you have it.
You do know where this is going, right?
It looks like I’m cobbling together my ideal sweater on my own.
This is either a brilliant idea, or quite insane. But how hard can it be?
