Good Causes

This YouTube video made our local paper this morning. This was caught by a DOT camera as the police officer in the video stopped traffic for a family of baby ducks on one of our busy freeways during the morning commute. You just have to love a guy like this.

Cathy-Cate of Hither & Yarn is having a contest to celebrate her 1-year blogiversary. She’s giving away lots of free stuff if you enter, but for a good cause. You can enter the contest by donating to one of three charitable organizations, Doctors Without Borders, Knitters For Knockers, and The House That Yarn Built. Any one of those (or all of them!) would be a good choice, so get over there, send her an email, and help out one or more very worthy causes.

We’re off to the farmers’ market later this morning to check out the bounty. I’ll take the camera along so you all can see what’s for dinner!

Oops…

On Saturday I pulled out one of my favorite pairs of hand knit socks to wear, and discovered this:

I don’t usually get holes in the toes of my socks, but I think my aging pedicure was to blame this time. After rummaging around in my office, I found the ball of leftover yarn that goes with this sock. Here’s a link to the finished socks, if you want to see what they looked like brand new.

Fixing the toe was relatively easy. I just cut off the end of the sock with the hole, got it back on needles, and reknit it. It took less time than getting a new pedicure.

After I finished the toe, I inspected the rest of both socks, and found some perilously thin heels (the photo above), so I got out the darning needle and duplicate stitched over both of them. My duplicate stitching probably wouldn’t win any ribbons at the state fair, but it will hopefully give this pair a little longer lifespan.

And this is all the yarn I have left, so the next time this pair gets a hole, it’s history.

This past week was a bit busy, which might explain the lack of knitting and posting around here. My weekend was spent at a Catholic women’s retreat here. There were approximately thirty women at the retreat, and we stayed from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. It was a wonderful experience, and I would highly recommend it to any of you looking for something similar.

Here’s a photo of the view from the main conference room at the center:

I’m amazed that any of us could concentrate on anything but that view. I didn’t get much knitting done while I was there, but I did find a couple of other knitters to hang out with Saturday evening. I just might possibly even have some progress photos the next time I post. Though I suppose fixing socks is progress of sorts.

Last but not least, I was interviewed recently for WhoKnits online magazine. Go here to read the interview! New link via the Wayback Machine!

Project Update

I’ve come up with a new way to handle all my yarn stash. I created an Access database file a long time ago, before I got a Mac, but there is no good Mac equivalent of that software that is cheap and easy to use. I finally found one, and if you’re a Mac user, you might want to check out Bento. I was able to import the old Access file info, then I just had to update the thing, and add all the tons of new yarn I’ve added to the stash in the last year and a half since I got my Mac. I just love this software; it’s so easy that you don’t need any database experience to figure it out, and at $49, it meets the criteria of cheap. They have a downloadable demo so you can try it out. The only catch is that you must have the Leopard operating system installed on your Mac to use it.

The really nice part of all this organization is that I have one database field for yarn location, so I can figure out where something is without tearing apart the whole yarn closet to find what I’m looking for. I can sort by any field, which means that if I have a pattern for a lace shawl that uses 1200 yards of laceweight, I can figure out what I have in the stash that works. I also did a little reorganization this past week, as the various box contents are a bit random, and are in order of yarn vintage as much as anything else. I now have all the sock yarns in one place, and all the lace yarn in another place. And I’ve decided to start my own sock of the month club. Every time I get the urge to yarn shop, I’m just turning around and opening a box, and pulling something out that catches my eye. I brought all the sock yarn upstairs to sit right behind me, so I’m not tempted to buy any more.

Hey, it could work.

Here are the various current projects.

I’m not taking a photo of Cobblestone. I’ve done exactly two rows on it in the last two weeks. I need to line up some good movies and just sit down and work on this one.

Here’s my new lace project.

This is going to be a triangular lace shawl, using the Evelyn Clark Knitting Lace Triangles book. So far I think I’m going to use this particular motif for the whole body of the shawl, with a ripple pattern for the border, then an edging. Her book is simple, but brilliant.

The yarn is Alpaca With A Twist Fino, in cream. It’s an alpaca/silk blend, and is just heavenly soft, and whisper light.

Next up is the current sock. This is the Madeline Tosh yarn, in Amaranth. I’ve finished one, and near the heel on the second.

Notice anything odd about those stripes? Here’s a better photo to show you:

What the bloody hell? Yes, I’ve counted and measured. I have the same number of stitches on the needles, the same gauge, and the same size needles. Now I could understand this if this yarn came in smaller skeins, with one separate skein for each sock. But this was one skein, which I split in half to make things easier in trying to calculate how long I could make the cuff. These socks aren’t fraternal; I’m not even sure they’re related. For what it’s worth, I’m liking the second sock better.

Last but not least, I’ve resurrected the Sock Hop yarn from last fall. Remember the ball of sock yarn that I apparently misplaced somewhere between here and Idaho? I finally unravelled the first sock, figuring that after all this time, if I haven’t found the yarn, it’s lost forever.  Here’s its new incarnation:

That’s going to be a jaunty little beret. The pattern calls for one skein of Koigu, so I figure this should be enough. So far, I’m loving the way this yarn stripes.

And finally, my gadget of the week photo. I saw these on a couple of other blogs, and had to get one (of course!).

This is a knitting abacus bracelet, by Hide and Sheep. I figured this might be one of those gadgets that looks nice but never gets used. Not so. I really like the simplicity of how this works, and it’s much prettier than my office supply store clicker counter. I also got some of the stitch markers, which are lovely as well. They make a wide variety of marker styles, including markers for crocheters. Check it out!

To The Beach!

You will note that the ticker was reset again. I’m hopeless, but least I’m honest. More about that later.

We went on a little road trip this weekend to the Oregon coast with the new car and the dogs. We found a nice little resort right on the beach that was dog-friendly, and stayed for a few days. It was cool, rainy, and windy, but just a perfect get-away, and the dogs had a blast running on the beach.

Here is a travelogue, in photos.

In the car, more than ready to go:

Me too:

Our room:

It would have been better if we’d gotten a room with a nicer view:

The beach:

All this leads to two very tired but happy dogs.

Of course there was a yarn shop in town. Isn’t there always? I bought two skeins of sock yarn, which of course I don’t need. What’s your point?

There is a skein of Jitterbug sock yarn, in the color Lapis. The other one is Noro Kureyon sock yarn, which I had no desire to buy until I actually saw it.

My second mistake was that we took our laptop along with us. We had wireless internet access, which is always dangerous when combined with a credit card and lots of free time. My logic went like this: I’ve already blown the yarn shopping fast, and have to post about it, so why not really do it up right? This makes perfect sense to all of you, right? Don’t even begin to try to convince me that you all wouldn’t do the same.

So I was browsing online and found the Three Irish Girls website. I couldn’t resist some more sock yarn. Look at their colors, and see if you don’t fall for this, too. Then I realized that I had a coupon for 10% off at Kris’s shop, Sonny and Shear. Let’s just say that I won’t need to buy sock yarn for a few more lifetimes. These haven’t arrived yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll love all of them, too.

Last but not least, thank you all for the lovely comments on my last post! I got to wear the stole on vacation, and it provided some much-needed warmth!

Langsjal Jóhönnu

The stole came off the blocking board this morning, and was finally seen out in the wild (in between rain showers!).

Yarn: Lodband Einband, Icelandic laceweight wool, purchased at Schoolhouse Press. The color number is 9808, and I used all but 1 gram of 5 skeins of yarn (225m each).

Pattern: Langsjal Jóhönnu, from Three Cornered and Long Shawls, by Sigridur Halldórsdóttir. I also purchased this from Schoolhouse Press.

Needles: Knitpicks Options circular, size 3.75mm

For: Me

Started: May 2006, for the Amazing Lace knitalong. It went into an extended timeout in September of that year, when I got sidetracked by other stuff. I did a row here and there just so the poor thing wouldn’t feel abandoned, but started back in earnest on it over this winter.

Finished: April 5, 2008 (Thanks, Chris, for noticing the “2007” typo!)

Modifications: None, except for my possibly creative interpretation of the charts. I also used way more yarn than what the pattern called for, which was 500 yards of laceweight. I used 1230 yards of the Lodband Einband. I did use a larger needle than called for in the pattern, as I liked the look of the pattern stitches better at that gauge, so that accounts for some of the difference. The finished shawl measurements given in the book are 25″ by 75″. Mine is 26″ by 84″, so that accounts for some of the rest. I think if you only went with the 500 yards, you’d have a really short stole. I wanted something that I can really wrap up in.

What I Learned: Where to start? This is easily the most difficult thing I’ve finished. The original book is in Icelandic, and the included translation is somewhat terse, at only 15 pages to the original book’s 77 pages. This shawl is one of the more challenging in the book, as it is patterned on both sides, meaning no long purled or knitted row on the return row. If you make a mistake, there’s no “easy” row to rip back to where you can get your bearings and get the thing back on the needles. I did a lot of painstaking “tinking” to fix mistakes. I used lifelines, and stitch markers to separate the horizontal repeats.

The chart in the book also doesn’t have the horizontal repeats marked, so that required a whole lot of fiddling in the beginning that I probably made much more difficult than it really should have been.

There’s a really looooong grafting row at the end; 125 stitches to be exact. It’s done on a plain knit row, though, so it works just like grafting a really big sock toe, and if you think of it that way it’s much less daunting. I also learned the hard way to make my grafting much looser than I would think necessary. A lot of ripping and swearing ensued, then re-grafting.

While I would not necessarily recommend this to a complete beginner, any knitter with patience and an ability to read a chart can do this one. After I first started this, I wasn’t thrilled with the yarn, as it’s fairly rustic and plain, but it has grown on me. It goes with the pattern perfectly, and will be a warm, yet stylish stole. It also blocked out beautifully.

While this book is fairly expensive at $45, it has several other lovely patterns that I want to make someday.

Here’s a close up of the stitch pattern:

And me, all wrapped up and warm.

The only thing I’m not happy about? It doesn’t make me look like this woman from the pattern book:

Pin Forest

Langsjal Jóhönnu is actually done, all except for the waiting for it to dry part, and that’s not far off. Here are some finishing shots.

Off the needles, finally, and with the lifelines bravely removed.

How much yarn did I have left after the edging?

One gram. I calculated to the tenth of an ounce how much yarn I was using for each repeat, so I could use as much of the yarn as possible, but sort of forgot to figure in the crocheted edging. I just squeaked by.

Here’s one of my latest gadgets:

It’s a sterling silver tapestry needle, from Celtic Swan. I really am coveting their sterling double point needles, (hint, hint to husband), but I settled for this. It’s heavenly, and perfect for finishing a project that’s been in the making for nearly two years!

After the stole got a good soak in the sink, I crawled around on the floor with blocking wires and pins. Here’s the pin forest:

And the long shot:

I am ecstatic that this one is finished, finally. I’ll post project details once it’s dry and I can get an action shot.

And Here We Go Again…

I’m back to being finished with the knitting on Langsjal Jóhönnu, as of this morning. Here it is in a couple of pieces:

And the grafting started again.

That’s it. Row 37, neatly flanked by my safety lifelines, which are going to stay there until this baby is completely f******d.

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got for you in the knitting department. I ended up ripping a big section of Cobblestone, too. I decided that I will drop the line where I start the garter stitch to where my waist would be, if I actually still had one. Since I’d already merrily knit past that before I made that decision, I ripped. There seems to be a lot of that going around here this past few weeks. I’ll show a photo of the sweater in progress the next time.

I also missed my blogiversary in March. How lame is that? March 26th, 4 years ago, was my first post. It’s been a really fantastic four years, and in honor of the anniversary, I hope to have something f******d soon.

In other really big news, we drove this off the lot and home yesterday.

It’s technically John’s car, but I’m really excited that it has lots of room in back for yarn purchases. He was driving a 14 year old Volvo that was on its last legs, so he deserves it, don’t you think? Also, he was trying to think of the last time he actually bought a new car, as we mostly get “pre-owned” cars and drive them to death before giving them up. 1968. 1968, people, that was the last time my hubby actually purchased a brand new car for himself. Oh yeah, it’s a Hyundai Santa Fe. Sweet, eh?

Edited later to add a photo of the new car in action. Apparently it’s dog-approved. And apparently the dogs have a different idea about the yarn-storage compartment. (The light-colored Corgi in front is Pete, the neighbor’s pup.)

The “F” Word

No, I’m not talking about that “F” word, though that one did get used a bit yesterday as well. I’m talking about the “Finished” “F” word. You know, where you are approaching the end of a looooong project, and you are merrily grafting along on 125 stitches, thinking cockily to yourself, “I’ll be Finished with this one soon!” I just wonder what I’ll knit next!”

In my defense, I actually did finish that looooonnnnngg grafting row on Langsjal Jóhönnu yesterday. I was about to pull out the last two lifelines when I decided to look it over first. I gave a simple little tug to even out some stitches, and the yarn snapped, unzipping about three inches of the grafting seam in the center. Really, I wasn’t tugging hard, not even as hard as this puppy will get tugged around during the blocking. I think my grafting was much too tight, so it would have needed to be redone anyway.

After the first horrified thought of running to the back yard and lighting the whole mess on fire, I took a careful look at it.

I fiddled with it a bit, trying to get those unzipped stitches corralled on needles, then decided that the whole seam would need to be redone anyway, and just undid the length of it.

That’s the big mess, off the needles. I frogged the bigger piece back to the lifeline, and got it back on a needle without too much swearing (giving thanks about every two stitches that I hadn’t ripped out the lifelines). The smaller end piece was a different story. I hadn’t bothered with a lifeline when I did this one, and I kept unravelling row after row, trying to get to a row where I could actually identify stitches to get on the needle. This whole section was a mess of double yarn-overs and  Sl-K2-psso’s, and I finally gave up and just ripped the whole thing out.

Ahem. There might have been a few f-words heard along with this one, too. John was smart enough to leave the room and go watch the basketball game during this part. (Go ‘Heels!*)

I reknit the last 15 rows or so of the big section. This time I placed a lifeline on the second to the last row, so if I have to do this again, I’ll only be a row short. I tried out a new-to-me trick with the lifeline. The Options needles have a tiny hole at the base of the needle, which is used with a tiny tool to tighten the needle on the cable. If you run your lifeline through this little hole, then knit the row, it pulls the line through the stitches as you go.

That hole is really tiny, but I use waxed dental floss (Glide Original!) for my lifelines, and you can smoosh the end of it so it will go right through. Note that if you use stitch markers along the row, this method of threading a lifeline through the stitches won’t work, as your line will also end up through the markers.

I didn’t invent this method, by the way. I’ve seen it several other places, but Fleegle has several links for how to do this here. She even drilled holes in some of her other circular needles to make this possible.

Then I cast on a whole bunch of stitches, and started the second end over.

Thirty rows to go, then another lifeline, then I’ll try that grafting again. Loosely, this time.

*Yes, I married a Carolina boy. He made me learn the Tarheels Fight song before he would marry me.

Project Roundup

Well. I’m back from my little unintended blog vacation. What can I say, Shift Happens (see previous post!). I have been knitting a bit, though the past couple weeks have been overrun by work, and this week, church activities in preparation for Easter. I haven’t gotten nearly as much knitting to brag about as I’d like, but here goes.

Here’s what I’m working on now:

That’s the Cobblestone sweater, almost up to the underarms. I still haven’t decided if this is for me or for John. I’d love to wear this one, but that line where the stockinette turns to garter at the yoke falls right across the boobage line. In a skinny flat-chested girl, maybe that would be flattering. Me, not so much. We’ll see when it’s done. This is good mindless round and round knitting, sort of like a big sock.

Next:

Yes, this is still the first of the pair. I really need to finish these before I get sick to death of them. I love how the stripes changed at the heel and gusset. This is Madeline Tosh yarn in Amaranth.

Last but absolutely not least, I’m close to actually finishing Langsjal Jóhönnu. I have spent the last few weeks weighing the remaining ball of yarn after every repeat so I could use as much of it as possible. I’ve ended up with 46 repeats, and am ready for it to be done. For those of you who haven’t done this one, you knit the first border, then the body, then on another set of needles knit the second border, then graft the two together. Yes, that would be Kitchener stitching 125 stitches. Here’s where I am:

There’s also an edging of single stitch crochet chain to go on each end, but I’m not sure I want to bother with that. I might start it and see what it looks like. It might help the thing block flatter and not ruffle at the ends.

And the grafting started:

The color in that photo is closer to the real thing than the first photo up there. In some light this looks just navy blue, but in natural daylight, it has a deep royal purple color.

And I’ll leave you with a photo of what’s blooming in my front entrance:

I think it’s confused about which holiday is this weekend. Happy Easter everybody!

Oops…

I Did It Again…


The Yarn Truck came this weekend! I don’t know what happened, they just deliver this stuff when I’m working. Ok, ok, I’ll reset the shopping counter, if you all insist. Part of the problem with ordering online from vendors who are also bloggers who know me is that they can bust me big time when I break the yarn fast and don’t “fess up”.

The top yarn is Dream In Color Baby, in the color Flamingo Pie. I bought this from Kris, and honestly, I’m pretty sure she must have a warehouse across the street from my house. I ordered it, and it was here 2 days later. Go there, she might still have some left. This will be a shawl someday, when I quit squishing it and start knitting.

The second yarn is from Shelly at Butternut Woolens. It’s her once-a-year special, the Rabbit’s Foot angora blend, color Foxglove. This will make some great socks. I just love this yarn. It’s soft and fuzzy, and that photo does not do justice to the colors.  She included a little sample skein of one of her other sock yarns, which are equally lovely.

We’re off tomorrow on another adventure. One of my sisters lives in North Dakota, the other in Phoenix. Guess which one we’re all descending on for a week in March? I’ll be in the sunny state of Arizona for a week. We have lots of activities planned for the week, including a few* adult beverages! I’ll try to post from the road. I’m off to pack the knitting projects!

* OK, maybe more than a few…

Yarn Porn

I got a couple of requests from my Oodles of Yarn post, for more yarn porn.

For Chris:

Oooh, shiny! It’s nearly impossible to photograph that accurately. It’s much more, well, black, with hints of color as you turn it in your hand. It is just lovely. This is the color Grawk. I could not possibly resist a hank of yarn with the name Grawk. It’s Socks That Rock Raven series Silk Thread, enough to make something lacy (perhaps this?).

And for Debi:

That’s Shoefly sock yarn, from Angora Valley Fibers. Yes, it really is that bright. The color is labeled “One of a Kind”, and I don’t see this yarn on their web page. They do have some fairly wild colors, though, Debi, including a lime mix in their Lacewing fingering sock yarn.

Last night was the first night of Wintergrass. Thursday is often sort of a ho-hum night. It’s not terribly crowded, and usually the bands are less well-known, and sometimes, um, a little dull. This time was different. The place was packed, every group was great, and the last half of the evening was devoted to Black & Bluegrass, with some outstanding music from a few African-American old time string bands.  Old time string bands are my favorite, so I was sad it was over. My favorites tonight were Laura Love & Harpers Ferry, and the Ebony Hillbillies. The rest of the weekend has a great line-up too, so I’m looking forward to what’s next!

Random Things From My Day

Here are just a few random photos and comments of the day:

Notice how Riley and Lewey’s facial markings are similar!

My newest knitting bag. Go here to get your very own. This one is the Carpetbagger Briefcase/Purse, measuring 12″ by 17″ by 5″, and it’s plenty big, but not too big. They have a larger one which is much more expensive, and would be a little too large to actually carry around.

I spliced in the final ball of the Icelandic lace shawl. Now that the end is in sight, it’s starting to get fun again. I hardly want to put it down.

I love this stuff for lace knitting. Put a little on your hands, rub it around, and that pesky sticky yarn just glides through. Real unscented talc, not that fake stuff; you can get it here.

Wintergrass starts tonight. We have festival passes for the whole weekend, so I’m just ecstatic. John, not so much, though he humors me. We’ve finally come to a solution. I show up Thursday night at the beginning, and don’t miss a note until Sunday evening. He comes and goes as he pleases, and we’re both happy.

While you’re here, check out “What I Am Listening To Now” on the sidebar. There are some of my current favorite bluegrass artists over there.

Now, to go get the knitting ready. I think the Cobblestone sweater will be perfect: miles and miles of stockinette in the round. That Icelandic stole won’t be in the bluegrass knitting queue, though. I’m not a complete idiot.