Knitting – Page 28 – The Knitting Doctor

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.

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!

Socks And The City

Sorry, I couldn’t resist that title.

I cast on for the second sock late last night, so I’m ready for the Yankee’s game today, assuming it quits raining. And yes, I was the only person knitting in the line waiting for a table at the Carnegie Deli.

And yes, Sweet Pea is enjoying NYC very much, thank you.

Half a Pair

I have one half of a pair of socks done:

The second one will be started as soon as I get this posted. And it’s a good thing, too, considering what came in my mail today.

I couldn’t resist joining the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin’ Sock Club. If you haven’t received your first box of goodies, and don’t want the surprise spoiled, look away now.

There’s a binder with the first month’s pattern, a bumper sticker, the club pin, and of course the hank of sock yarn. The color is Rainforest Jasper, and included is a tiny little hank of yarn on a keyring, labelled Emergency Sock Yarn.

I will NOT cast on for these until I finish the Candy Stripe Socks. Really. I’m going to start that second one right now.

Balance in the Universe

I missed an important anniversary of sorts around here. Last week was the 1-year anniversary of this. I’m happy to say that at one year, the hand is functioning much better than I thought it would. I can do almost everything that I was able to do before the accident. My “disability” consists mostly of not being able to get caps off things (damn those screw-top wine bottles); and heavy-duty wrenches, and the husband, takes care of those for me. I think the importance of the anniversary lies in the fact that I’m better enough that I forgot about it.

I’m having a knitting dilemma. I seem to have too many projects going at once. Normally I have one big thing, one sock, and one other…the current configuration seems to be sweater, sock, and lace project. This configuration suits me, and I don’t get too discombobulated by it all. I threw an extra sock into the picture a few weeks ago, for the bluegrass festival, and now I’m a mess. I can’t decide at any given moment which one to pick up and work on. I probably need to just pick up that second sock and get the pair done, then life will be back in balance.

Here’s where things are. I didn’t take another picture of the eggplant sweater, as I haven’t touched it since the last post.

Sock number 1:

I’m in the doldrums on this one, for a couple of reasons. One is that I think that it’s still going to be too tight for me. I’ve never done a two-color sock before, and the gauge is pretty firm, making a smaller sock. The cuff would go around my leg, but I’m not sure that the instep is going to go over my foot. That problem could be overcome, however, by putting these in the gift pile for someone with smaller feet than mine (not hard to find, admittedly). A more worrisome possibility is that I have a sinking feeling that I’m going to run out of the red yarn before the second sock is done. I have two balls of the rainbow, but for some reason only had one of the red. This is a busy enough sock that I’m relatively sure that a different dye lot wouldn’t matter much. I’ll probably finish them, if no other reason than to prove I’m no quitter.

Here’s the second, dither-inducing sock; the one that threw the knitting balance off-kilter:

Maybe I need a knitting challenge. Let’s see how fast Lorette can finish a pair of plain socks, shall we? This is the first of the pair, so I either need another bluegrass festival, a long train ride, or a heap of good movies.

Last, but not least, is the lace project.

This does have a deadline of sorts, though it’s a ways off in the future. This will be a gift for somebody later this year. I’m a little shy of half done with the center part of the scarf, and have memorized the pattern enough that I can do this while watching a movie or talking. The pattern stitch is really only four rows, as the back side is all purl rows. It’s also easy enough to see where you are by just looking at the row before. I could see making another of these someday. It’s an easy project, at least so far. I’ll give you another opinion later when I get to the border section.

Speaking of lace, go look at Eunny’s blog for her “Majoring in Lace” series. She’s done three different installments so far (go back a few posts to find them). This is the best lace “school” I’ve ever seen.

I’m off to knit that sock!

Eggplant Sweater, v.3.0

Here it is again, in all its resized glory:

And a closeup of the center cable section:

It’s actually prettier than that last picture would indicate. This color is hard to photograph well. Either it’s so dark that you can’t tell it’s a cabled sweater, or it’s washed out from the flash.

I think the size/gauge is going to be correct this time out. And the number of stitches on the needles is correct this version, unlike the first time, before I found out that the pattern was incorrect. I’m sure that there will be some other glitch that I will discover, but only after I’ve knit another eight inches or so.

I got quite a bit done on this the past week, due to a trip to Phoenix to visit my sisters. I have two sisters, one lives there, the other one still lives in North Dakota. We all met in Phoenix for a week of sister activities. The long-standing joke is that if any two of the three of us gets together, the third one has to show up too, or the other two will talk about her. Because of this, we actually see each other rather often. I worked a bit on the two pairs of socks I have in progress, but mostly on the sweater. And I didn’t do any yarn shopping while I was there. There are a couple of yarn shops in the Phoenix area, but my sisters have a low tolerance for hanging out in yarn stores, and I really don’t need any more yarn anyway.

Ack. I can’t believe I just said that. I did buy some yarn online before I left, and it was delivered while I was gone. Here’s a picture, but it just does not do it justice.

It’s laceweight silk, from Hip Knits. I purchased it from a UK shop called Yarnsmith, which quite possibly has the best online service I’ve ever experienced. Good communication, fast shipping, lovely yarn, and a handwritten note in the package; what more could you ask?

And what might I be planning for that lovely pile of ivory silk, you might ask?

This:

This is the Frost Flowers & Leaves Shawl, from A Gathering of Lace. I have a few things to finish up before I start on this one, but I’ve been dying to make this ever since I saw it. When I saw the silk yarn, I knew that it was just what this one needed. I hope it swatches up ok, as I’m not sure exactly what else I’d do with 3600 meters of silk laceweight yarn.

When my sisters and I get together, usually there is a lot of fun and shopping involved. Often it involves wine and bourbon. (OK, it almost always involves wine and bourbon, but we’re getting more responsible as we get older.) One year we each got a second ear piercing done while we were together. This time it was a tattoo*.

Really. Well, only two of us got tattoos, my third sister decided that it just wasn’t “her”. Here’s mine, first, just getting started:

And finished:

Note that I’m smiling in that first picture. It wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as I had thought it might be. I have wanted to do this for a long time, and decided to put the first (!) one where it can be easily covered up, in case I didn’t like it. I love it! The next (!) one might have to be knitting related!

*And no, there were no alcoholic beverages involved in this escapade. Tattoo places insist that you be sober and not under the influence of anything when you sign up for body modification.

Size Does Matter

Or, Why Gauge Is Important

Or, How Bourbon Can Be Useful While Knitting

Remember this?

I finished a couple more repeats of the cable pattern, then got the bright idea to transfer it to a circular needle to finish it, as it was getting sort of unwieldy on the straights. As long as I had it on a circular needle, I decided to measure it.

Uh-oh.

I found a top that fits nicely, not too big, not too tight, and compared.

Well, damn. I got out my trusty gauge-measurer and found that I was off by half a stitch per inch. Now that doesn’t sound like much, does it? When you multiply that out over the width of the whole garment, this is what you get. It’s about an inch and a half too wide, which means it would be almost three inches too big around in circumference. This is just not the look I was going for with this one.

As Norma would say, ” Oh for fucksakes!”

I contemplated this a bit, then got up, got myself a little fortification, and the camera. As long as I was going to rip the whole damn thing out, I might as well document it for the blog.

Here I am waiting for the fortification to take effect:

And here we go:

And my trusty helper:

And I started over, again.

The Church of Bluegrass, Day 4

Or, 364 Days Until Wintergrass 2007

I’ve learned after four years of going to Wintergrass that it just isn’t over until the final band has performed “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”, complete with audience participation, and until George (the emcee) says it’s over.

John always gives a big sigh of relief when they play that song. It means he can finally go home and not listen to banjo music for another year. For the record, I don’t make him go to the whole thing. We get two weekend passes, I sit through every note, he drops in and out when he feels like it, using the “I have to go home and feed the dog now” excuse.

Highlights of the last day? Sunday morning is always the bluegrass gospel show, and only the diehard bluegrass fans, or the ones who got some sleep the night before, show up. Everybody else starts drifting in to the pavilion around noon. Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum gave a fine performance, including an impromptu number called “The Vice President Has A Shotgun, and He Can Shoot Whoever He Wants”, that brought down the house. Mountain Heart had the whole pavilion crowd tapping its feet, and Del McCoury did a long set that was pretty good. He’s a little too much “high lonesome” sounding even for my taste, but puts on a good show.

I have 6642 bluegrass songs lined up on Rhapsody to tide me over for the next year. And I already have tickets for the next festival in July, the Adventure Bluegrass Festival in Stevenson, WA. My favorite bluegrass boys will be there; the US Navy Bluegrass Band, Country Current. And yes, John knows we’re going. It’s an outdoor festival, so he can take a book, or his Ipod, or wander around the Columbia Gorge area.

There was knitting going on yesterday. I got the heel turned and picked up the gusset stitches, and am on my way down the sock foot.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like that picot edge instead of ribbing, but now that I’ve gotten part of the sock done, it looks pretty cute. I have no high hopes of matching the stripes for the second sock, but I like how they’ve turned out on the first one.

Congratulations to all the Olympic Knitters out there! Whether you finished or not is not the point. There’s been some fine knitting going on, worthy of gold medals all around!

Added Later, Almost as an Afterthought:

I almost forgot, I needed to pick the favorite artist of the festival. I loved Uncle Earl the best. They play oldtime music as well as great bluegrass. Their banjo player, Abigail Washburn, also does many of their vocals, and has her own solo album. She also speaks fluent Mandarin. This may be the first time ever that there have been bluegrass songs sung in Mandarin at Wintergrass. If you like old time music, go buy their group album, She Waits For Night, as well as Washburn’s album. Their fiddler, Rayna Gellert, has a solo album out as well, and that one is a keeper also.

The Church of Bluegrass, Day 3

No, it’s not over yet.* Yesterday was all-bluegrass, all-day. And yes, part of it was in a church. One of the downtown Baptist churches loans their building every year as one of the venues for the festival. The sanctuary is a perfect place to play bluegrass; the sound is good, the surroundings are simple and lovely. The performers always like playing that stage, and it always shows.

Highlights? It was one of those great bluegrass days. Uncle Earl again was superb. The John Cowan band did a marvelous performance at the church in the afternoon, and the Wilders and Psychograss were wonderful. This morning is a gospel show at the main pavilion stage, followed by a great lineup of some of the best in bluegrass.

Knitting? Here you go. The Candy Stripe sock:

I discovered that I don’t mind doing heel stitch while bluegrass is going on. I suppose I could save all my sock heels until February every year.

And I managed to work in a couple of pattern repeats of this:

I sat up in the church balcony all afternoon, and at least part of the time there was enough light to work on this a bit.

I haven’t seen many knitters at the festival. A friend of ours was there yesterday with a scarf that she is working on, and I saw a woman down in the church seats yesterday with what looked like a sweater in her lap. Other than that, nothing. I think I’m an oddity. In between sets, I stand up and knit, to stretch out a bit. A woman came up to me Thursday night and said “It’s good to see you back with your knitting”. And Friday night I was standing and knitting during a break. After a while I noticed a young girl (maybe about 11?) standing next to me quietly, watching. When I talked to her, she got shy and left, but she clearly was either fascinated or horrified by what I was doing. I’ve gotten a number of “what the heck are you knitting?” comments, and a couple of “I didn’t bring my knitting because I can’t see in here” comments. Well, that doesn’t stop me. I just fix the mistakes later. A couple of times I’ve had to take the knitting out back where I can see it and give it a thrashing, but overall I’ve only had a couple of malfunctions.

I’m off for more coffee, then more bluegrass. There will be a final report later!

*Just be glad that I have no idea how to attach sound files to this, or you’d have to listen to bluegrass while reading about it.

The Church of Bluegrass, Day 2

Here’s what I accomplished last night. There would have been more, but I was knitting in the dark, and had to do a few rows over.

It is too bigger. Go look at the last post and check.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, this is NOT the Ladybug Rainforest yarn that I have been calling it. It is Opal, and it was in my stash. After I got to the first yellow stripe, I thought, hmmmm. Then that big stretch of red, and the repeating blue and yellow stripes. Hmmmm. So I got out the ball band, searched through my Access database*, and discovered that this is a different Opal color scheme. I called it Candy when I entered it into the database. I don’t know if that was something I made up, or the real color name. Opal just puts numbers on the ball band. This one is 518.

Pretty, but not ladybugs. So I’m now officially changing the name to the Opal Candy Stripe Socks.

Wintergrass was toe-tappingly good last night. My pick of the evening was the all-girl Uncle Earl. They even have a clogger-girl. How can you not like them? They’re playing again this afternoon, so I need to go get my butt in the shower.

It will be partial daylight for this afternoon’s shows, so I might get some noticeable progress done!

*Yes, I have an Access database of all my yarn. It includes the yarn, manufacturer, color, yardage, gauge, what I intended to use it for, fiber content, and a photo of each yarn. I also have my storage boxes numbered, with a number beside each entry so I can find it easily. It’s a beautifully obsessive-compulsive work of art.

Ok, Ok. Here’s a screenshot of my database.

And a little research reveals that the Opal #518 comes from the 2002 Collection. I apparently made up the name.