Knitting – Page 23 – The Knitting Doctor

Project Update

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so here goes with where I am with the knitting and spinning. I dragged everything out this morning to take photos of it.

But first, a few housekeeping chores. I’ve been getting hit with a lot of spam on some older posts and photos since I moved the blog. I’ve installed an anti-spam plugin, and we’ll see how that goes. I may close comments on posts past a certain vintage if it keeps up. I really don’t want to go to moderated comments, as it won’t fix the problem. WordPress marks the vast majority of them as spam so they don’t hit my email inbox, but I still have to go through them to make sure they are real spam, and not a real knitter who happened to fall into the net. As a hint, if you use the name of a prescription drug in your comment, or if you talk about certain male physiological processes, it will be likely marked as spam. I do scan through them to catch the real comments, but I might miss some. If you’ve commented and it doesn’t show up, don’t take it personally. Come back and try again, or email me directly (link over in the sidebar).

I haven’t given a recent progress report on the state of moving the blog. I’m still happy with that choice, despite the spam. For those of you thinking of making a switch, I’d highly recommend WordPress. I have about half of the older posts updated with the new photo locations, as well as tidying up the few individual posts that didn’t transfer over correctly. I’m fixing most of the internal links back to my own blog posts, but leaving everything else as it was. On a few posts, not all of the comments made it over, but I can live with that.

Here’s a photo that I found in my email yesterday.

Apparently John took this with his cell phone one night last week after dinner. Monday was my last day in my old job, and it was another of those fabulous eighty hour weeks that I’m so fond of. This is mostly what I look like at the end of the day, whether I’ve had wine or not. Sleep, eat, work, that’s pretty much it for the week. I have no idea how long I was like that, he finally woke me up and told me to go to bed.

I start my new practice in November, so I do have a couple of weeks to regroup in between now and then. I’ll be at the same hospital, which is a good thing, but also will be able to do a little outpatient work as well. I was in private practice as an internist for about a dozen years before I left that to be a hospitalist, and I’ve done hospitalist work for over a dozen years, so this should be interesting going back to the office. The internists in the new practice do primarily consultative internal medicine for the other doctors in the group, rather than carrying a panel of their own primary care patients, so that I know how to do. About a third of my time will be in the office. Yes, I’m a bit nervous about that, since I haven’t done it in awhile. The real upside will be that I’ll be working generally a forty hour week. I won’t get the big blocks of time off that I’ve had in the last several years, but I also won’t have those work marathons that turn me into such a sparkling dinnertime conversationalist.

On to the projects. You thought I’d gotten sidetracked and forgotten, hadn’t you?

First up, True Blue. This is the sweater that I’m making for John. It’s a plain crew neck pullover, and this is the second sleeve. I have all the other parts done, and am just a few rows from the armhole decreases. I have to finish this soon, as I need to have needles at the ready to start the Faery Ring KAL that Jennifer and I are doing starting November 1st.

I’m knitting this in Beaverslide Dry Goods yarn; the color is Lake Josephine.

Next up is lace. I haven’t shown this in awhile, because I hadn’t worked on it in awhile. I set this aside to finish knitting the big baby blanket, but recently pulled it out and figured out where I am. This is the Froot Loops wrap, actually Morning Glory, by Anne Hansen.

As usual, photos of unblocked lace look like crap. Have faith. This will turn into a beautiful swan someday.

Last but not least are socks. I have two pairs on the needles, both plain-vanilla socks, in anything but plain-vanilla colors.

That’s Shalimar Zoe Sock yarn, in Peony. I’ve finished one sock and am partway to the heel on the second.

And that’s Wollmeise sock yarn, in Lowenzahn. I started those on my beloved Ivore needles so I would have an airplane-appropriate project for the recent trip. While the Signature double points are lovely, I am pretty sure they wouldn’t make it past airport security. These will be in a holding pattern until I finish the Peony socks.

And that’s it. I’m saving the spinning updates for another day.

Blogging From 35,000 Feet

Who knew? You can get the internets from an airplane, and our new Mini Dell takes photos. Here you go.

We’re on our way to Chicago, then we change planes for Dublin. As you can see, I started the new sock. John has changed the color name to Squashed Frog. Who knows, maybe Lowenzahn means Squashed Frog in German!

And We’re Off Again

This time we’re off on a two-week vacation to Ireland. We leave tomorrow morning, so I’m frantically going through all the knitting bags to get stuff sorted out. Of course I have nothing else packed, but damn, I have the knitting ready. Here’s what I’m taking with me. This will also serve as sort of a mini-Project Update as well. Cool! Two posts in one!

First, here’s the spinning portion of the blog. If you don’t give a hoot about spinning, scroll down. I finished some pretty pretty yarn this week. A few months back, I scored a couple of Abby’s Batts. Here’s one of them all spun up. As usual, click to embiggen.

The fiber is 69% merino, 30% tussah silk, and 1% firestar (aka sparkle!). This is roughly a light fingering, and there’s about 600 yards of it, enough to make a pretty shawl. That’s not coming to Ireland with me, though. The color name is Green Green Grass.

I’m still working on John’s True Blue sweater, and am partly through the first sleeve. The front and back are both done. This will come with me on the trip. I transferred it from straight needles to circulars, to make stuffing it into a travel bag a little easier.

And I’m still working on the Peony socks. These will go in checked luggage, because of those wicked sharp Signature double points. I’m not crazy enough to try to get those on a plane.

Last but not least, some green yarn for another pair of socks, just in case I finish the Peony socks. This is one of my treasured Wollmeise skeins, in the color Lowenzahn.

And I have a suspicion that I might find some yarn while I’m there. At least I can hope. If not, I’ll drink lots of Guinness to drown my sorrows. We leave in the morning, and will have a mini-computer with us, so there might be an update or two along the way. Otherwise, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks!

The Next Big Thing

If I ever finish that True Blue sweater for John, here’s the yarn for the Faery Ring sweater that will be next.

This is Black Water Abbey yarn, in the color Haw. I think it will be perfect for this cardigan.

And what’s that little green velvet bag in the middle? Why, buttons, of course.

Those are just the most perfect thing for this pattern. They cost more than the yarn, but I could not resist. If the sweater wears out, I’ll cut the buttons off and re-use them. The goldsmith who make these is Carolyn Kent, though she doesn’t have her website up and running yet. These are silver, with real garnets in the center.

I’m off to the farmers market for provisions. Don’t forget that it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Arrrr!

Miles & Miles of I-Cord

Hey, that could be a country-western song!

I’m nearly done with that endless baby blanket. I have to say that I almost wienied out on doing the I-cord that this pattern suggests. By the time I got to the last pattern row, I had 544 stitches on the needle, and the thought of doing I-cord around all that was enough to make me want to drink bourbon.

Wait, I already drink bourbon. Oh well.

Here it is. I’ve almost finished three sides, so don’t have too much left to go.

I really like this yarn. Since it’s taken me so long to finish this thing, I’ll forgive you if you’ve forgotten what I’m doing here. This is Knitpicks City Tweed, in the heavy worsted weight. It’s very soft and squishy, and I just hope it holds up well. It’s soft enough that I’d worry a bit about pilling and wear, but we’ll see. Baby blankets don’t need to last forever, after all.

I’ll be glad when I get this done and off in the mail before the intended recipient is old enough for college. I need to finish John’s True Blue sweater next, since the Major Knitter and I have just committed to a knit-along starting November 1st. Here’s what we’ll be knitting. We were planning on doing a Rogue knit-along, then saw this, and fell hard. Within about thirty minutes, we’d both changed our minds and ordered the Black Water Abbey yarn for Faery Ring. Mine will be in Haw, which is a lipstick-scarlet red. I believe the Major will be knitting hers in Wine.

Here are the Ravelry links for the pattern. There are two versions, but the only difference is the range of sizes. The pattern is free, which makes up a bit for the fact that I just bought a couple thousand yards of yarn for the danged thing. There’s even a Ravelry group, of course. Anybody want to join us? We’ll see if either the Major or I can hold off on casting on until November 1st!

Half FO

I actually partly finished something today! Actually, it’s one sock of a pair, but that’s something, right? Everything else has sort of taken a back seat lately to 1)Spinning; 2) Feather and Fan baby stuff; and 3) Finding a new job and getting all the ridiculous paperwork done that is required, even though I’m not changing states or moving to a different hospital. And I haven’t even started with the HR stuff yet.

Anyway. Today was such a nice day, that I got to do a little knitting outside. The heat wave that we’ve had has passed, and I’m not sure it even hit the mid-70’s today, but it was nice and warm out in the sun. We went to the Steilacoom farmers’ market, which is only about ten minutes from our house, and found a lovely spot to have lunch on an outside deck. Knitting in public ensued.

After we got home and put away all the veggie loot, I sat down and finished the first sock. Here I am, trying it on to make sure it’s long enough before I close the toe:

And done.

Pretty, eh? That’s Zoe sock yarn from Shalimar, in the color Peonies. You can get your very own at the same place I did.

And second sock started.

There was more knitting loot that arrived at my house today. I have a set of the Knit Picks Options needles, and a set of the Harmony wood tips. They came out with acrylic Zephyr tips, and I had to have those as well. A lot of people despise plastic needles, but they have their place. They are a lot easier on my hands than metal needles, for one thing. Those lovely Signature sock needles up in that photo are beautiful, but they really make my hands hurt if I work with them for hours on end. They also have lethally pointy tips that I would not try to sneak on an airplane.

Here are the Zephyrs.

I’m off to make pizza. Sunset magazine had an article about making grilled pizza recently, and the dough is all done and ready to go (made in my brand spanking new bread machine). We have all sorts of options for toppings, but I think tonight’s version is going to be white cheese, basil, and perhaps some of those heirloom tomatoes from the market. I’ll take photos!

Ooooh, Shiny!

Here’s my second handspun yarn. This is a merino-tencel blend, though I don’t know much else about the fiber as it was in a big bin at the only LYS in town that sells spinning fiber. I think it’s from Ashland Bay, but I’m not sure.

I keep reading that merino is hard to spin, and not for beginners. Bah, I say. I just waded right in. I figure the only thing I have to lose is my dignity. It looks better than my first yarn, so I think I’ll count it as a success. There are about 260 yards of that stuff, and it’s roughly a bulky weight, though I haven’t swatched it yet. It’s just dreamily soft, and I think it will make a lovely winter scarf.

I promised a better photo of my first yarn. Here it is. This is Colonial Top, about 112 yards in all.

The wheel now has a name. Meet Seamus:

Yes, I went ahead and bought the silly wine glass holder. It just had my name on it, don’t you think?

In knitting news, I’m still working on the stealth baby project. It’s coming along, but I still can’t show photos. Oh, OK, here’s a teaser.

Big and grey, that’s all I can say. It’s much prettier in real life.

Last but not least, we’re leaving for an Alaskan cruise in the morning. It was sort of a spontaneous thing that we signed up for just a month or so ago. It’s a round trip from Seattle, so didn’t require an airplane ride, and if you can book close to last minute, the deals are pretty good. What’s not to like? Work has been a bit of a drag recently, and it’s been somewhat of a difficult early summer around here, so a cruise seemed just the ticket. No, I’m not taking the wheel. Yes, I am taking the Bosworth spindle. I’m also taking the laptop, so hopefully there will be a post or two.

Another FO

No, I haven’t been knitting like a maniac. This one is frogged, not finished. I started this sweater knit from SWTC Bamboo two years ago (Ravelry says July 2007). I worked on it during the summer months, finishing the whole back. It sat in hibernation for the winter, then I dragged it out last summer and hated it. I hate the color, I hate the pattern, and I really despise the little hem thing I did on the bottom. It went back in the UFO pile for another year. So last night, for Frogging Friday, out it came.

Yes, there was a martini involved. We have a house guest who was horrified that I’d rip out half a sweater’s worth of yarn.

RIP

Specifically, what is it that I hate about this? The color is just not me. I can wear all sorts of jewel tones, and even pastels if they are clear and bright. While I can get away with some yellows, this just makes me look consumptive, not a good look.

The pattern was one I made up using Sweater Wizard. I did a picot hem with a little cable-cross detail, and in this light, drapey yarn, it just doesn’t work. The ball band calls this a DK weight, with the suggested gauge of 22 stitches per 4 inches. The fabric I got with this stuff was perfect at 28 stitches per 4 inches on 3.75 mm needles. I also designed a v-neck for the front, which I think would have been pretty droopy.

I’m not sure what I’ll do with the yarn yet. There are 1500 yards of it, and I could do a stole or shawl of some sort, but that doesn’t get around the fact of the color. This might go in a give-away at some point.

What do you have in your UFO pile that needs to go? I dare you to frog it!

Pin Forest

The Peacock shawl is washed and blocking. It’s cotton, and a bit heavier laceweight at that, so it’s taking forever to dry. Here are some photos.

I think I used about a million pins on that border. This is the part where I’m really glad that I have my blocking tools. I soaked the whole thing in soapy water for awhile, then threaded blocking wires (welding wires bought in a large tube from Airgas) through the top and down the center. The bottom scalloped border is pinned. The mat underneath is a whole stack of those kiddy play mats, which I love. I can crawl around on them on my hands and knees without getting bruised up, and I just pin right into them.

This thing is huge. It’s about 84 inches across the top, and 42 from back neck to tip. If you are a shorter person, I’d think twice about making this one in a heavier weight yarn. More details and photos once it’s dry.

Peacock in Progress

I’m finally to that point in this shawl where it’s getting exciting again. You know how it is. You start a big lace project, you’re all enthusiastic about it, and you can’t put it down. Then it gets to that point. All you lace knitters know it. The shawl gets big enough that it just looks like a blob on the needles, and the rows keep getting interminably longer and longer. It seems like you’ll never get to that last chart.

Well here I am. At the last chart.

I have 22 rows to go. The rows currently have around 450 stitches, and are getting longer and longer and longer. Now that I’m seeing the end, though, it’s getting fun to knit this again.

Here’s how much yarn I have left of the first hank.

I’m pretty sure it won’t make it through the last row. Fortunately I bought a second hank of this. I won’t have to use much of it, but this is one of those shawl patterns that is a little hard to adjust by adding or subtracting rows.

Our other big project is the kitchen remodel. We now have cabinets and sinks, and the granite counters will be installed today. The rest of the finishing work should be done by next week.

We’re also remodeling the “powder” room off the dining room, since the cabinets and counters were the same as in the old kitchen.

Now we just need to decide what will be the first thing we cook in the new kitchen!

The P Vacations

I started to post some photos of our Portland trip this morning and realized that I completely skipped over the Phoenix trip earlier this month.

Here’s Phoenix in photos:

This is one reason I love my sweetie. He makes me drinks on airplanes. He packed his own Grey Goose vodka for me.

First stop on the way from the airport:

The family Mexican Train competition.

I got to meet Lee Ann, who was in town for a conference. Here are two knitting doctors:

I’m pretty sure that the centerpiece on that table was inspired by yarn balls. Yes, there were martinis involved.

I finished John’s socks.

The girls all got pedicures.

We went to our favorite fast food restaurant.

We also went to the Desert Botanical Garden to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit. If you have any opportunity to get to Phoenix before this leaves, go see this. It is just breathtaking.

We went to see a couple spring training baseball games also, but for some reason there is no photographic evidence of this.

OK, that’s enough photos for one day. I’ll leave Portland for another post!

The Church of Bluegrass, 2009

Well, it’s all over. I still have banjos ringing in my ears, but Wintergrass is done for another year. 2010 tickets are already on sale, and though I haven’t gotten mine just yet, I will soon. Gotta get those early-bird prices, you know!

Highlights of Saturday and Sunday? The festival Saturday ran all afternoon and evening, at five different venues in and around the hotel, including the Rialto, an early 20th century movie house that has been restored as a performance hall. That venue, as well as one of the oldest Baptist churches downtown, are likely everybody’s favorites, both audience and performers.

My favorites on Saturday included another Mike Marshall group, Choro Famoso. He had a Brazilian mandolin player, Danilo Brito, playing with him. They played a whole set of mostly choro music which was just fabulous. Another one of those surprise groups was Cody Bryant and the Riders of the Purple Sage, playing good old fashioned cowboy music. They were a lot of fun to listen to.

Sunday’s festival was just at the main pavilion, and started out with a bluegrass gospel show, then finished up with Laurie Lewis, the Isaacs, and Blue Highway. I would have trouble picking just one of those as a favorite, though I’d never heard the Isaacs live, and they are just terrific performers.

Best of the weekend? This year it’s nearly an impossible choice, which is a good thing. In the not-quite-bluegrass category, it would have to be Mike Marshall and Choro Famoso, though there were a lot of very close seconds. In the more mainstream bluegrass category, Blue Highway is my favorite, though again, it’s a tough choice!

In the category of festival knitting, here are my winners:

I finished one sock and grafted the toe on Saturday (during Choro Famoso!), and then got the whole cuff of the second sock done yesterday. Since John likes his socks a little longer, I knitted the cuff of the first one as long as I dared. Yesterday I started getting a little concerned about yardage, so out came the trusty scale. I weighed the first sock, then the second half-done sock and the remaining yarn, then subtracted the weight of the needles.

Enough to finish the second sock, with several grams to spare! Whew!

Wintergrass, Day 2

Just a quick post, since I’m headed out the door. Last night was yet another spectacular WG evening. Lots of good music, bad festival food, and mindless knitting.

Picks of the evening for music? Three Ring Circle, with Rob Ickes on dobro. They were so good that I listened to two sets. And Scythian. They’re at best a distant cousin to bluegrass, but if you ever get a chance to hear them live, just go. Somebody should figure out how to bottle their energy.

Later!

Wintergrass, Day 1

As usual, the first evening of Wintergrass brought some great entertainment. The festival starts Thursday night, then continues Friday evening, most of the day and evening on Saturday, and all day on Sunday. Thursday is sort of the “warmup” session, but there are always a couple of “sleeper” groups that turn out to be great. Last night the Tallboys, a string band from Seattle, were my favorite. It’s an old time string band, and as they point out, are neither all boys, nor all tall. They have fiddle, banjo, bass, and a clogger girl. What more could you want in a group?

The other hit of the evening was Mike Marshall and one of the many group iterations that he plays in. This particular group was the Big Trio, playing acoustic string music that is difficult to pigeonhole into one genre. Mike is also playing with a Brazilian acoustic group tomorrow, and that should be terrific as well.

As to knitting, I worked on True Blue last night. I’ve finished the back piece, and cast on the front so I was ready for the evening. I managed to just finish the bottom ribbing and the increases last night, so now I’m ready to just knit mindlessly back and forth on the body without having to pay much attention. The ribbing is a twisted rib (P1, K1tbl on the front, K1, P1tbl on the back), so I had a bit of trouble with it in the dark, but from here on it should be easy. Here are photos.

The back, done.

Those little clips holding the extra yarn on the shoulders? They are from a set of bag clips that we got at Ikea. The smaller ones are just a little too small to work well on food bags, but are perfect for this application!

Ribbing done:

What? You don’t have a pirate pencil case??

I suppose you want to see inside, too.

Well, of course it came with the pirate pencil sharpener and the pirate eraser.

Arrrgggh, matey. I’m ready for the weekend.

Wintergrass

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Wintergrass, the annual bluegrass festival held in Tacoma, starts tonight and runs through Sunday evening. As usual, I have tickets for the entire festival. I also have my knitting lined up.

The Peacock Shawl is not one of the things that I’ll be taking. It’s not so difficult that I can’t work on it when chatting or being sociable, but it is definitely not something I’d want to work on in near darkness while the fiddles are playing. Here are a couple of progress photos.

It’s just really difficult to get a good photo of this at this point. It is going to be one huge shawl when it’s done, since the pattern calls for laceweight yarn, and this stuff (Blue Heron Mercerized Cotton) is somewhere between a heavy laceweight and fingering weight. I have 50-some rows to go, and the rows are close to 400 stitches at this point. It’s taking me a little over half an hour to get across one of the knit-side rows. The wrong-side purl rows go a little faster, but not much.

What I am taking to Wintergrass is socks. I have two pairs of socks in progress, both at a point where I can just knit around and around in circles mindlessly. I’m also still working on that True Blue sweater, and have just finished the back and have the front started so I can knit away on that as well for a little variety. I’ll show photos of those next time.

I’ll leave you with a photo of Lewey. He frequently can be found sitting by our kitchen windows, with his chin resting on the window ledge. He just likes watching the animal activity in the back yard, especially the birds.

I’m off to listen to the banjos!