Thursday night at Wintergrass is always sort of low-key. The “real” Wintergrass doesn’t start until Friday night, and the crowd is always a bit sparse, with only one performance venue instead of the four or five that they have the other days. The “real” bluegrass fans show up on Thursday, though, and park their butts in a chair and never leave.
I didn’t take the camera, for a number of reasons. First is that it’s dark in there, and my pictures never turn out. Second, I’d have to put the knitting down to take pictures. Last, a few years back I lost* my binoculars at Wintergrass when I went to the bathroom and left my bag by my chair. Since then I don’t take the camera so as to not lose it.
The highlight of last night was the group Bluegrass, Etc. They’ve been around forever, but for some reason I’d never heard or seen them before. Byron Berline was playing fiddle with them, and boy can he play. They all are top-notch seasoned musicians, but their guitarist, John Moore, is just spectacular.
Here’s the knitting progress. I did work on the two-color sock a bit, until we decided to move closer to the stage and I didn’t have enough light to see what I was doing. I’ve finished the gusset decreases (again!), and am speeding towards the toe.
After I put those aside, I worked on the new socks for the rest of the evening. I cast on for these a week or so back, in anticipation of needing a mindless round-and-round project for the festival. Here’s what I accomplished last night.
This is one of the Opal Rainforest colors, in Ladybug. I have a bunch of Opal in the stash, but have never actually used it before. It’s lovely yarn, I must say. It’s also lovely having a plain round-and-round project after all that two-color, cable, and lace stuff that I’ve got going.
I have had a couple of questions in the comments about my needles on the two-color sock. They are Lantern Moon ebony dp’s. They are a dream to knit with; smooth, perfect points, short enough to not be in the way. The needles in the Opal sock are bamboo needles from S. R. Kertzer, purchased here. I love these; I also have a bunch of the circulars and a few of the straights. They are lightweight, flexible, and have perfect points. They are also a lot more economical than the Lantern Moons, which are a bit spendy. If I snapped one of those, I’d probably cry; if I snapped one of the Kertzers, I would say a bad word, then go buy another set.
Someone is making me bacon and eggs and grits (cheese grits, Kris, but not the instant kind!) for breakfast, so I’m off till the next post!
*”Lost” is of course a euphemism for “some sorry-ass person who can’t possibly be a true bluegrass fan swiped them right out of my bag”.
Well the Madrona Fiber fest was a blast. I didn’t sign up for any classes, as in my typically clueless fashion I didn’t know about the festival until they were all booked. I went anyway, Friday night to listen to Stephanie talk, and then again on Saturday to add to the stash.
Friday night I met Kris and Marti for dinner and the Harlot’s talk. We strolled up the street to a nearby Thai restaurant for dinner after meeting in the lobby. They both were a delight to sit and visit with, and yet more proof that you all are not “imaginary friends”, as my husband refers to you. The biggest hoot, I have to tell you, was sitting in a Thai restaurant packed with knitters, all talking about knitting, some of them actually knitting. I can’t even imagine what the restaurant people thought.
Here’s a picture of Kris and I. It came out a bit blurry, but proves that without a doubt we exist. For some reason I didn’t get a picture of Marti. And none of my pictures of the Harlot’s talk came out. Honest, I had green tea with dinner, nothing else.
Saturday I went again, this time to the market to shop. There were several local shops represented, and a few not-local. My favorite was Blue Moon Fiber Arts, famous around the blogs for Socks That Rock yarn. I have a couple of skeins of this in the stash already, but that didn’t stop me from getting more, as they had a fine selection of colors at the market.
From left to right, Yosemite, Spinel, Prove It All Night, and Heavy Metal. Only the fact that I already have enough sock yarn to last the rest of my life kept me from buying more. One of these will just have to be the next pair of socks once I finish the two pair I already have cast on.
Which reminds me, my one and only NY resolution this year? To have enough hand knit socks by the end of the year that I don’t have to wear commercial socks unless I want to.
I also bought this, which was a totally unnecessary purchase:
It’s pink, very pink. And alpaca, and it has just a touch of a silvery glimmery yarn spun into it. This will be a pretty little scarf, perhaps all for me. This is where we need that “touch me” feature in Typepad; this stuff is heavenly soft in person, not so much in the picture.
After the shopping, I went out to the lobby of the Sheraton, which was full of people knitting. I joined a little impromptu knitting session with these bloggers:
That’s Meg, from Knitting Knot. Go to her blog and tell her how sorry you are that we made her unravel a whole sweater on the spot. What are friends for??
That’s Jessica, from Rose-Kim Knits. She’s working on her Knitting Olympics project, and I learned a few new swear words from her on Saturday.
And that’s Rebecca, from Supergirl’s Blog. She knits at Warp 10, really. I kept staring surreptitiously at her hands, wondering how the hell somebody could knit that fast.
I met with Kris again, who was getting a lesson in the lobby from a spinner, Blogless Betsy, on how to use a drop spindle. And met Kris’ family, including that adorable child of hers, Anna Grace. If I could have been guaranteed offspring that cute, I might have been convinced to reproduce at one point in my life. I didn’t get a picture of Betsy either.
Now it’s back to reality, though I got a real gift this morning at 7 AM. I had signed up for an extra day of work today, for some reason that totally escapes me. (My husband reminded me that it was no doubt to pay down the yarn debt, which is starting to rival the national deficit.) As I was getting my butt out of bed, grumbling to anybody who would listen, the phone rang. It was from one of my partners, to let me know that they weren’t busy enough to need me, go back to bed. Free knitting time!! Here’s where I am on the sock:
That two color heel was truly a pain in the ass to do, though it looks very cool now that it’s done. There’s no need to remind me that I need to do a second one.
On the knitting front, I have actually been knitting. That two color sock looks just the same, as I haven’t worked on it a bit in the past week. I have picked up the Jo Sharp eggplant sweater from several posts back (the one with the misbehaving schematic measurements). It is very difficult to take pictures of dark eggplant colored yarn, let me tell you. Well it’s actually not hard to take pictures of it, it’s just hard to take pictures that show any detail. Here are a couple of attempts.
I also started a new lace project. It is the Estonian Garden Wrap; here’s a link to a photo. And here’s mine:
The yarn is Zephyr lace weight, in a bottle green that doesn’t look nearly that washed out in person. I’m loving this pattern so far!
And one new one. Though I didn’t sign up for the Knitting Olympics, I have one project that will be worked on for much of that time. Around the Knitting Doctor house, the third week in February is the Week of Bluegrass, better known as Wintergrass. I have tickets for the whole four day festival, right smack in the middle of the Olympics. I have one heavily cabled project on the needles, one lace project, and one sock in two colors, all of which require a decent level of light and the ability to count. None of these will work at a bluegrass festival that is mostly in the dark and involves a lot of foot stomping and clapping. So I started a new pair of socks that will be the 2006 Wintergrass project.
The yarn is Opal, I think the color is one of the Rainforest group, Ladybug. It’s my first attempt at a picot edge. I used Claudia’s excellent instructions, found here. Other than the picot thing, these will be just plain socks. Perfect for knitting in a dark music hall!
I just love those little picot points! Very girly!
If any of you are going to Madrona this weekend in Tacoma, I’ll be there for the Yarn Harlot’s talk tonight, then shopping at the market tomorrow. I didn’t sign up for classes, but can’t resist the possibility of yarn that I might not own already. Hope to see some of you there!
The blue scarf is finished. Before I say anything else, if your name is Linda, and you’re my sister, and you’re expecting a gift from me, don’t go any further if you want this to be a surprise.
If your name is Linda, and you’re my sister, click here instead so you have something to do for the next few days until this arrives in the mail.
Here it is, for those of you not named Linda, and not related to me.
Pretty, eh? Project details:
Pattern: Lead or Follow Lace Scarf, by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer. Her website is here.
Yarn: Richesse et Soie, by K1C2, a cashmere-silk blend; color is #9633, which is a pretty cornflower blue.
Needles: 3.75mm
Started: July 2005. Actually I started this a couple of years ago, but it sat in hibernation for awhile, so I had to restart it because I couldn’t figure out where I was in the pattern.
Finished: January 24, 2006
This is a great pattern. It’s clear and well-written, and once I figured out that it doesn’t mix well with bourbon, I did OK with it. It’s “knitted lace” instead of “lace knitting”, meaning that every row is a pattern row with increases and decreases. “Lace knitting” means that every other row is a plain row, either knitted or purled. I didn’t know that before. “Knitted lace” is really no harder than the other kind, it just means you don’t have that long easy row every other row to relax with.
The yarn is heavenly too, though spendy for anything more than a scarf. It’s fingering weight, so it’s a little easier to handle for someone relatively new to lace.
My next lace project (already started, but no pictures yet) is in “real” lace yarn, and I’ve already expanded my knowledge of swear words logarithmically.
And then there are those socks. Here’s a picture:
If you’re thinking that it looks like I finished the first sock and that this might be the beginning of the mate, you would be wrong. I ripped the damn thing out and started over for two reasons. First, I decided that I liked the section where the contrast-rainbow color pops out better than the more subtle version. So I switched the yarn-hand-holding position when I restarted. So now the multicolor is in my LEFT hand. I like it better. The second, and more important reason, is that I think they were going to be a bit tight on my Bigfoot big feet, so I started over with the next bigger size on the chart.
Last, but not least, a little amusement, and a quiz. I always knew I was a nerd. Not bad for a biology major.
True English Nerd
You scored 89 erudition!
Not only do you know your subjects from your objects and your
definite
from your indefinite articles, but you’ve got quite a handle on the
literature and the history of the language as well. Huzzah, and well
done! The English snobs of Boston salute you.
My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:
OK, after some fiddling around, I still couldn’t get that to fit in the blog window, so it’s staying the way it is. I have zero patience for html crap.
I really liked this one, and it was a fast project to knit. Project specifications:
Pattern: Bea Ellis, her own design, purchased as a kit here.
Yarn: Dale Heilo in red and white, and cotton sportweight for the headband lining.
Started: December 2005
Finished: January 7, 2006
Needles: size 3.5mm. (3mm for the lining)
What I learned: Two color-knitting is a blast. I practiced knitting with one color in each hand. This required that I polish up my continental style knitting, which was awkward at best.
Would I do this one again? Yes, ma’am. I thought it might be too warm to wear this where I live, but the Heilo is a sportweight yarn so it’s not too heavy. I really, really liked making the tassle!
I’ve also been working on my socks:
This two-color stuff is big-time trouble for all the other stuff on my to-do list around here. I just keep knitting and knitting and knitting…
There was a question in the comments from the last post about the yarn for this one. It’s Lorna’s Laces sock weight yarn. The solid is red, of course, and the multi is her Rainbow color.
I’ve learned some things already. It does indeed make a difference which hand you hold each color in when you are knitting with one color in each hand, as most knitters knit with a different tension between the two hands. It’s a little hard to see in that picture, but the first half inch of the leg part (after the ribbing) shows that the rainbow stitches are more prominent than afterwards. I switched the yarn colors between the hands at that spot, and in person it is noticeable. I decided that I’m not ripping it out, but definitely learned the lesson for the future. Given my inability to remember simple things, I’ve made a note on the pattern itself which hand I’m carrying which yarn in for future reference. And in case I lose the working copy of the pattern with the notes, the multicolor is in my right hand on this one.
And in non-knitting pictures, I keep meaning to post this and keep forgetting:
Yes, it’s a ladybug. I took this picture in my bathroom, where I have about a half-dozen ladybugs that have taken up residence. There are no plants there, but they move in around December every year and stay until it warms up a little. I have no idea why, or what they eat, but I find this somewhat fascinating. So do the cats, though they never catch one.
Finally, the last of the Spain travelogue photos. There were lots of them, but I’m getting tired of putting them up, so here are all the rest of them, in one big post. The knitting content is at the end of this post, so if you’re getting tired of them too, just scroll on down.
Your fearless Spain adventurers left you on the road to Arcos the last time. We stopped along the way at one of the little white hill towns, Grazilema. We took the very scenic route off the main road to Grazilema, with miles of twisty, hairpin-turning roads.
I didn’t get much knitting done on this leg of the trip, as I wasn’t about to pry my hands off the dashboard to take up the sock. I did get one shot of the sock over the valley, though.
And here a a couple of pictures of the town of Grazilema. This was the cutest little town; I’d go back here for a longer stay next time.
After a lovely lunch, we continued on to Arcos. We stayed in one of my favorite hotels of the trip while there, La Casa Grande. If you have a few minutes, go to their website and check out the photos; they are better than mine. The house is almost 300 years old, and very charming. We had one of the rooftop rooms, next to the terrace with a spectacular view. The only drawback to the place is that it is on a tiny street too narrow for a car or taxi, so we parked and walked, lugging our luggage the last few blocks.
Arcos is only a short drive to Jerez, so we drove there the following day for a little horse-watching and sherry-tasting. Unfortunately, Jerez is one of the worst places in the entire world that I’ve ever navigated. There are absolutely no street signs, so a map is next to useless. We got hopelessly lost, though finally found our way after stopping several times and getting help from mostly non-English speaking locals. They couldn’t read the map, either, so I didn’t feel so bad. We missed the horse show at the Equestrian center, but made it to the Gonzales-Byass (the Tio Pepe people) sherry bodega with plenty of time to spare for our tour there.
That last photo is part of a display of some of their original bottles and barrels. The new ones weren’t quite that dusty.
After the tour, we got to have a little tasting and eating, our favorite part.
That tapas platter (and the bottle of sherry) was just for the two of us. They don’t believe in letting you go home hungry in Jerez. Probably this is because they know you will get lost and spend hours wandering around Jerez trying to get out.
We were back in Arcos for another night:
Those two photos really give you an idea of how narrow those streets are. And here is our private terrace:
After Arcos, we headed for Sevilla, another one of my favorite places in Spain. We had a walking tour of the old part of the city our first day, including a tour of the Cathedral, one of the largest in Europe. It’s hard to take a photo of it, as it is so huge. I didn’t get many good interior shots because of the vastness of the space.
We also toured another Moorish palace/fortress, the Alcazar. Here are a few photos:
And a fine example of rococo excess:
This is one of my favorite photos of the trip. It was in a cave-like lower room, with a ground level pool. The arched ceiling reflects in the pool below.
And a couple more Sevilla street shots:
We stayed at the Convento La Gloria Hotel in Sevilla, another one of my favorite sleeping-places on the trip. As the name suggests, it is an old convent that has been converted to a hotel. The rooms were small, but the service was wonderful, and the family run restaurant downstairs was fabulous. There were dozens of paintings on the walls of the hotel, but this is the photo I found the most amusing. This is the fire-extinguisher box outside our room.
I believe that was a commentary on the narrow streets of Sevilla. If there were to be a fire, there is just no way a fire truck would get here, so you might as well pray.
There was a little sitting area outside our room. I took advantage of it for a quiet knitting space.
We ate at the hotel restaurant our last night in Sevilla. I think they must have heard about us.
Sevilla was home to many more Don Quixote statues. Here are a few.
There were several more in the train station:
While we waited for our train back to Madrid, I did the usual:
We took the fast (Ave) train from Sevilla back to Madrid:
After our arrival in Madrid, we checked back into our original hotel for one more night before our flight home. We did a whirlwind tour of the Museo Del Prado and the Thyssen Museum. Without a doubt, my favorite museum of all time is the Thyssen. It would be worth a trip back to Madrid just to get a longer visit there.
Here is Sweetpea after a long journey. Sweetpea loved Spain, too.
And last but not least, the last photo of the trip, from the plane over the coast:
——————————————————————————–
Knitting Content
The Jo Sharp sweater is still in time-out. I’ll get back to it later this week, as I’ve decided that I don’t hate the details of the pattern as much as I love the look of the finished sweater. I’ve gotten caught up in two-colored knitting this week. First is the latest sock pattern that I started.
The pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch. This is a great book, for all you sock-knitters out there.
The other one is a Bea Ellis hat pattern, using two-color Norwegian style knitting.
The pattern is rather ingenious. Because it is relatively itchy wool, the first two inches or so of the hat are knit in a soft sport-weight cotton. Then you change to the wool, purl a turning row, and start the hat pattern. When you’re done, you turn up the cotton lining and hem it, so you have the soft cotton over your delicate little ears. I am a right handed thrower, so I’m learning how to knit continental style, so I can have one color in each hand and not have to stop and change yarns every couple of stitches. I’ve learned that I actually do continental much faster than the way I’ve always knit, though I’ve not been able to master purling and picking at the same time.
I’m also still working on that blue lace scarf. I hope to finish that one soon, so I can get some wear out of it this winter!
We will take a short break from our Spain travelogue for a brief knitting update. After I finished the Peace Fleece sweater, I was one project short on the needles, so I started a new sweater. What do knitbloggers do when they run into a pattern glitch? Go to their readers, of course!
Here’s what I’m making:
Pretty eh? So why has it generated a string of menopausally-induced swear words in the Knitting Doctor house, you might ask?
It’s from Jo Sharp’s Handknitting Collection, Book One. I bought the book and yarn some time last year, I think, and it’s been aging in the stash until just the perfect moment. I dug it out last week, dutifully swatched, and surprisingly got perfect gauge with the yarn and needles recommended in the pattern. I cast on for my chosen size and was off doing that ribbing section. The yarn, by the way, is Jo Sharp DK Wool, which is heavenly.
After I finished the ribbing, I set it aside and looked at the cable pattern. It was written out, not charted, so I printed out some graph paper from here, and spent an evening charting it out, as I find cable charts much easier to follow. I grumbled just a bit about good old Jo not including charts with the pattern, but figured that some editor cut them due to space considerations.
The next evening I started on the first pattern row, and came up two stitches short at the end of the row. I counted, recounted, and my stitches were right, it was the pattern row that was short by two stitches. After a few swear words, I did the Google thing and found the corrections page* on the Jo Sharp website. Yup, it was the pattern that was wrong. I needed to adjust the stitch count on the moss stitch panels in the body section. This was a simple fix, I just needed to go back to the beginning of the row and reknit the first cable row. I did that, grumbling a little more at good old Jo. Then I looked again at the corrections page, and read the rest of the story. Not only was the stitch count incorrect for the two larger sizes, ALL of the body measurements had been revised. Here’s a table to explain:
Bodice Circumference (inches)
Published pattern…
A B C D
42.5 46.5 50.5 54.5
Corrected…
A B C D
33.5 38 39.5 44
For the Diagram width measurement (the width of the front/back pieces, finished), here are the measurements for size C, which is what I was going to make.
Published: 25.5
Corrected: 20
Would this piss anybody else off royally? Does anybody else think that an error of over TEN inches in body circumference is unacceptable? I took the thing off the needles to measure it, in case their “corrected” measurements are wrong, but nooooooo. I am still perfectly on gauge, and my measurements match the corrected measurements pretty well. I briefly thought of finding somebody who fit the size C measurements and packaging up the whole damn mess and mailing it to them to finish. As this is supposed to be a relaxed fit, not the Jane Russell look, it will get frogged again, and I’ll start over at the larger size. Right at the moment, the whole thing is sitting over there on a chair, in time-out. Fortunately for whoever answers the phones for good old Jo, I bought an extra ball of yarn when I purchased this, for insurance. I guess I’ll need it.
* Here, if anybody is interested. All of the pattern books have at least one correction listed, so check it out.
I’m getting over the Bug of 2005; you know, the one that involves vomiting at a swanky holiday party, then spending the next two days in your jammies on the couch. I think I picked it up from my spouse, who has been sick for the past ten days and is just getting over it. I’m feeling considerably better today, which I attribute to the fact that I got a flu shot, and he didn’t, and that I come from much hardier peasant stock than he does. (For those of you with inquiring minds, the swanky holiday party was at our house, and no, I didn’t drink too much pomegranate punch.)
The only good thing about the Bug of 2005 is that spending two days on the couch in your jammies gives you lots of knitting time. Here’s the Not-Really-An-Everyday Cardigan, finished. Even the buttons are sewn on, my least favorite part of knitting.
No, the front is not asymmetrical, I think that I am. The button bands are actually quite straight. They should be, I had to knit one of them twice. I had the whole thing done, and as I was crawling around on the floor putting pins in to mark where I needed to sew on the buttons, I noticed that the button band was about two rows narrower than the buttonhole band. My ever-helpful spouse said that nobody would notice, but really, they would. So I undid the bind off and added a couple of rows. Here’s the “Rachel“.
And a close-up of the buttons.
Specs:
Pattern: Plain cardigan, set-in sleeves, pattern generated by Sweater Wizard software. Yarn: Peace Fleece, in the color Kamchatka Seamoss. Needles: Denise circs, size 7 & 8. Started: Late September, but I took a long break while we were on vacation to Spain. What I learned: I started this one as the Everyday Cardigan sold as a kit from the Peace Fleece people. While I just love this yarn, I didn’t love the pattern. It’s a drop sleeve style, which isn’t what I had in mind, so I ditched it and made up a pattern with Sweater Wizard. So I guess the main thing I learned is to knit what I want, not just follow a pattern. I also learned how to do buttonholes a little less sloppy, and did a buttonhole stitch around them to neaten them after I finished them. Verdict: I like this one a lot, and I predict that it will get a lot of wear. I would definitely make more just like this, and will definitely use the Peace Fleece again. It’s not one of those soft-against-your-skin yarns, but is a good, basic wool yarn in great colors.
Last but not least, a picture of Willie being his intrepid self.
First, the knitting content. I’ve finished all the pieces to the Not-Really-An-Everyday Cardigan. There was a little sleeve mishap in the process. I finished the body pieces before we went to Spain, but didn’t take it along to work on, as it was a little bulky for the carry-on bag. After I got home and recovered from my jet lag, I pulled out the sleeve that I had started, and went back to work. I was about a third done with the sleeve, and decided to go ahead and block the body pieces and the first sleeve that I was certain that I had finished, so they would be dry and ready to start seaming when I finished that last sleeve.
The only problem was that I couldn’t find the first sleeve. I was quite certain that I had done it before we left for the trip; so certain that I tore up the house looking for it, and even considered the possibility of a sleeve thief in the neighborhood. After digging around for days and losing sleep over where it might be, I reviewed previous blog posts, counted up the balls of yarn remaining, and determined that I indeed had not ever knit the first sleeve. I do occasionally dream about knitting (OK, I frequently dream about knitting), but I’ve never actually hallucinated finishing a whole garment piece that I have in fact never started.
After some judicious swearing, I have now finished both sleeves, and it’s all blocked, ready for the sewing party, then the neck and band finishing. Here are the pictures:
Now for the Spain pictures. Today, we travel to Gibraltor. We drove from Marbella along the coast to get there, but then parked our car on the Spain side and walked across the border, thereby avoiding the hour-long line of cars trying to get over. Here’s the Rock from the Spanish side:
And walking in:
We took a guided driving tour of the city, which took us to all the major sites. It’s not that difficult to walk the whole area, but as we only had a few hours, we opted for the more expeditious way to see everything. Part of the Rock is a nature preserve, and is home to the famous “Barbery apes”, which are anything but wild at this point. Here’s one fine example:
And a few more:
A word of warning to any other Barbery ape visitors: these monkeys are little thieves (maybe that’s where that sleeve went). That cute little fellow on my shoulder snatched my reading glasses off my bag on his way down and scampered off with them. Our guide had to bribe him with a whole bag of cheetos to get them back.
This photo is a reminder of what Gibraltor meant to the British in past years:
They wouldn’t let John fire the cannon, for some reason.
We toured the Siege Tunnels that were built by the British. Here are a couple of photos from inside the Rock:
Yes, the road in and out of town goes right across the runway.
That would be the shadow of the Rock, from inside the Rock.
After a busy day of touring, we stopped at a pub in town for some very British pub food and a pint to tide us over.
Ahhhhh. And no, I was not the designated driver.
Here’s another view of that runway, from ground level as we were leaving.
I hope they don’t make any unscheduled landings here.
Back in our condo, here is John reading up on the history of Spain, with a visiting feral cat that seemed to like our hospitality. Note: if you happen to be the owner of this condo, move along. There’s nothing for you to see here. We certainly weren’t the ones who let that cat in.
That’s enough of the travelogue for today. I swear, I’ll finish these soon! I’ll leave you with a puppy photo from earlier today. Riley likes to sleep in on cold mornings. Actually she likes to sleep in every morning; she’s not much of a morning puppy.
Needles: Size 0 for the cuff, 1 for the sock. I used Ivore double points, my favorite sock needles.
Pattern: Plain sock, generated by Sole Solution software. The sock cuff is 72 stitches, 2 by 2 rib, eye of partridge heel stitch, plain flap heel. Simple as pie.
What I learned from this project: Not much. I’ve done this sock so many times that it’s mindless knitting at its best. Perfect for a train trip, or a few rows after work when you are dead tired.
Pattern: Rogue, by the Girl From Auntie. Look under “Patterns to Buy”.
Started: early January, 2005. Derailed by my hand injury in March.
Finished: October 11, 2005.
For: Me!
Gauge: 4 st and 6 rows/inch. The recommended gauge for the pattern was 4.5 stitches to the inch, and I swear, I swatched. Twice. It still came out wonky at the very end.
Needles: I used my Denise needles, size 6 (5 for the hem). I can’t believe that I would need to use a size 5 needle for heavy worsted/aran yarn, but there you are.
What I learned: Patience! This one took me a long time to finish, due to my apparent ineptitude at walking. I also have learned to keep on measuring gauge as I’m going along. This sucker is a bit big for me, but there is no way that I’m giving it away, or worse, reknitting it. I wanted it baggy, because I will mostly wear it as a jacket outside (though I’m currently sweltering in it in the house because I just had to wear it today!). This is a bit baggier than I intended, but what the heck. I learned a lot about knitting cables also. That kangaroo pocket was a hoot to knit. Next time I do something like this with a hem, I will consider doing a provisional cast on, then knitting the hem up to the body. Verdict: I love it! It’s baggy, but I can wear it as “outerwear”, and I’ve worn it a lot already.
But first, a finished knitting project. Don’t faint, there is still knitting going on around here. This pair of socks probably has taken longer to knit than anything. They’ve been sitting in the “I’m bored with this” pile for a month, and I finally pulled them out this week and just sat on the couch until I finished them.
And they fit perfectly!
Project specs:
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces sock yarn, Watercolor
Needles: Size 0 for the cuff, 1 for the sock. I used Ivore double points, my favorite sock needles.
Pattern: Plain sock, generated by Sole Solution software. The sock cuff is 72 stitches, 2 by 2 rib, eye of partridge heel stitch, plain flap heel. Simple as pie.
What I learned from this project: Not much. I’ve done this sock so many times that it’s mindless knitting at its best. Perfect for a train trip, or a few rows after work when you are dead tired.
At first the color pooling of big yellowish stripes bugged me, but when they occurred fairly evenly in a spiral pattern down the sock, I started to like them.
Now, on to Toledo. We took the bus from Madrid to Toledo just for the day, and had a tour guide show us around town. Probably one of the funniest language moments from our trip occurred in the Toledo bus station. We were sitting and waiting for our guide to show up, and I pulled out those socks to knit. After a few minutes I noticed a woman standing behind me watching me, and we began a conversation. She spoke no English, and my Spanish consists of about thirty food-related words. I can ask where the bathroom is, and I have a collection of medical-related phrases that can come in handy, but not in a bus station in Toledo. We seemed to be able to communicate, though. After a lot of sign language and smiling, it appeared that she is also a knitter, she knits socks, and she uses circular needles to do so. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough Spanish to ask where the yarn shop in Toledo was.
Here are the city gates of Toledo:
The cathedral is probably the biggest tourist attraction in town. You can’t take pictures inside, and mine wouldn’t have done it justice, anyway. I’m discovering that pictures inside of large dark buildings just don’t look like much most of the time. Here’s the outside of the cathedral:
Here’s one of the city streets. Yes, they drive on these.
We ran into these guys again. Though we saw Don Quixote all over Spain, this was the only statue of Sancho.
After a nice meal, we took the bus back to Madrid for another day of touring. We learned to take the metro, and walked some more. We did make it to the Palace in Madrid, though we didn’t go in due to the hot date we had with a paella waitress a little later in the day. Here’s the palace:
The next day we took the train from Madrid to the coast. This was not the fast train, and I had four enjoyable hours to listen to my Ipod and knit. Here’s proof:
While we were at the resort in Marbella, we played around on the beach, drove up and down the coast, and toured up into a couple of the white hill towns. Puerto Banus was just up the road from where we stayed, and we went there one day for lunch. John pretended that he owned one of these:
Here we are with a couple of friends that we found:
Here is one of the “white hill towns” that Andalucia is so famous for. We took day trips to Mijas and Ronda for some tourist action and more good meals.
Though it was a bit too cool to swim in the Mediterranean, we did stroll along it in the evening. Note the gin and tonic in hand.
Yes, we dipped our toes in:
And the obligatory sunset shots:
Next time: Gibraltor, Granada, maybe even Sevilla! And the Case of the Missing Sweater Sleeve, in case any of you are interested in knitting around here.
Here’s where the Not-Really-An-Everyday-Cardigan is at the moment:
One back, one front, and the second front started. This is a little bit closer to what the color really is (did I mention that I got a new camera?). I’m having loads of fun taking pictures, though so far I’ve deleted most of them as a little experimental.
We spent a couple of days playing in Seattle this past week. My sister is here visiting for a work meeting, and we went to the big city to see her, get a few really great meals, and play tourist. I didn’t even get to one yarn shop. She had never been to the Space Needle, so we took the ride to the top and managed to catch a wine tasting and some great views. Here’s us drinking wine:
And the view from the top:
If that one looks a little blurry, it’s because the wind was blowing about 80 miles an hour, and I was trying not to drop the camera over the side. Here’s a view of the Needle from below:
Though you’ll note that I’m holding a real wine glass in that first picture, I’ve been banned from any activities that involve wine and walking. We are scheduled to leave for that postponed Spain trip in eight days, and I am going even if I do major bodily damage to myself between now and then.
Here’s the other thing that I’m getting ready to do:
November is National Novel Writing Month! I did this last year, and finished. In case you’ve never heard of this, you commit to writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, starting on November 1st. Here’s the website, in case any of you want to sign up. I was waffling a bit as to whether I wanted to do this again this year, but finally just gave in and signed up. I figure if I don’t finish, that I’ll be in good company. The only thing that I was concerned about is that it means I have to take my laptop to Spain with us, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to haul it along.
We’re off to Seattle again today to have lunch with my sister. I’m hoping to get one more post in before we leave for our vacation!
First off, a big thank-you to everybody for the birthday wishes! I just finished one of those 7-day work stretches, so I haven’t answered any emails in a week. (And given my historically lousy letter-writing skills, I may never get to all of them!) The nice thoughts are very much appreciated, though.
Here’s something little that I bought myself for my birthday:
And when you buy a set of four, you get a fifth one, with a custom picture:
Need a close-up? I thought so.
I got them at Zephyr Style, you can find ’em here.
I haven’t figured out even a quarter of the features on my new camera, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying. The pets are getting a little sick of getting their pictures taken. Lucy has gone into the witness protection program again, and I can’t find her to get a shot, but here are the other two doing what they do best, during one of those famous Pacific NW “sunbreaks”.
And finally, the knitting content. Rogue is at last done. Here are a couple of pictures:
Specifications:
Yarn: Beaverslide Dry Goods Fisherman weight 100% wool, in the color Snowberry.
Pattern: Rogue, by the Girl From Auntie. Look under “Patterns to Buy”.
Started: early January, 2005. Derailed by this in March.
Finished: October 11, 2005.
For: Me!
Gauge: 4 st and 6 rows/inch. The recommended gauge for the pattern was 4.5 stitches to the inch, and I swear, I swatched. Twice. It still came out wonky at the very end.
Needles: I used my Denise needles, size 6 (5 for the hem). I can’t believe that I would need to use a size 5 needle for heavy worsted/aran yarn, but there you are.
What I learned: Patience! This one took me a long time to finish, due to my apparent ineptitude at walking. I also have learned to keep on measuring gauge as I’m going along. This sucker is a bit big for me, but there is no way that I’m giving it away, or worse, reknitting it. I wanted it baggy, because I will mostly wear it as a jacket outside (though I’m currently sweltering in it in the house because I just had to wear it today!). This is a bit baggier than I intended, but what the heck.
I learned a lot about knitting cables also. That kangaroo pocket was a hoot to knit. Next time I do something like this with a hem, I will consider doing a provisional cast on, then knitting the hem up to the body. This pattern was just so much fun that I might make it again.
I also just LOVE this yarn. It is so soft that I can wear it without any itch-factor at all, even right next to my skin. I already have another batch on order to make another sweater. Maybe another Rogue even??
When you don’t know what to write, lead off with a cute baby picture, preferably a cute baby wearing something that you knit:
That’s Huck, wearing the baby bear suit that I knit for his big brother two years ago. It was a bit snug for Griffin, and I think he only wore it once for a photo shoot before it was passed on to the next child. It fits this baby pretty well, don’t you think?
We are back from Georgia, and stepped off the plane to rainy cool weather. It’s finally Rogue-wearing season! I seamed the sleeves last night and installed the first sleeve before I just got too tired to go any further. I wore it around the house with one sleeve for awhile to celebrate, but I’m not taking any more pictures of it until it’s really done. It fits fine: I could have made the next smaller size, but it is just really not cold enough here to wear this much indoors, and I wanted it big enough to fit as a quasi-jacket over my clothing. I’m hoping to finish the sewing parts in the next day or two.
I did get some knitting done while away. We had four hours on the plane each way, and I worked on the Not-Really-An-Everyday-Cardigan all the way there. Here is the progress: a finished back piece, and part of one front…
This is really an easy, knit-in-front-of-TV project. Or the project you go to when your eyes are crossed from too much lace:
Notice anything sad about that picture? Here’s a close-up to help:
At least the stitches didn’t fall off the needle. I worked on this on the way home, and as we were in a bulkhead seat, the bag went in the overhead bin for landing. I think somebody shoved it in a little too hard. One would think that I would have another pair of needles in this size, given this collection…
…but I actually had to search a bit for a replacement pair. I don’t think that the busted one is salvageable, at least not with my lack of patience for anything fiddly. I learned something new while working on the lace scarf. I reached the end of the first ball of yarn, and realized that I needed to learn how to join the next ball. Usually when I’m knitting garment pieces, I just knit the first few stitches with the old and new yarn held together, then drop the old yarn end and weave it in later. Most of the time this works just fine, and the extra bulk doesn’t really show. That method doesn’t work so well with lace. So I learned the Russian join. Spit splicing is also an option for lace work, but this is a cashmere-silk blend, and when I tried it I just ended up with a spitty mess. I think that works better for mostly wool yarns.
