Spooky Cuffs

I've been wanting to show these off for weeks, but my camera wasn't working. Or so I thought. Turned out there's a switch that does things I didn't know about. Pays to read the manual, right? Anyway, now I can take pictures again.

These cuffs were a gift from my batty friend DisGrace as part of our Secret Spook exchange for Halloween. She knit them. Lovely, aren't they? And they fit perfectly. Danger Boy says they're good for superheroes and punching things, and that they make Wii work better.

Over the years I've accumulated a lot of bats as a result of my involvement with this bat writing group, and my nieces and nephews are fascinated by them. I think it's because it's so unusual to have an office decorated with bats. I mean, who does that! Well, I do. The kids have named most of the little bats sprinkled all over my writing and editing corner. There's Batscot, Stretchy Uno, Sparkles, Nocturna, and a few more whose names I can never remember.

The kids are currently debating names for the bats on these cuffs. I voted for Bam! and Pow!, but I think they've about resolved on Scritch and Scratch. They say it's because the of the wool, which feels like a good Shetland wool, very sheepy and a bit crunchy. (Well, they don't know that it feels like a good rustic wool -- but I do.) It's not ruggy, not too coarse to wear, but it's rougher than the cheap acrylic gloves from Old Navy which these kids usually wear. So to them, this is a hallmark characteristic of the mitts and Scritch and Scratch might end up being the winning names.

Which leads me to an important question. How will I ever get these mitts back to myself? lol

Half a Hat, Now With Bonus Ladders!

Bleurgh. Look where the needles join. See the vertical ladder line in the fabric under the join? Bet you don't have to look very hard. (sigh) I never get ladders. I can knit with all sorts of yarns and dpns, and I don't get ladders. EXCEPT...

With very slick superwash wool. You know the kind I'm talking about. It's the stuff that gives superwash a bad name. Feels great, but handles strangely. Gauge might wobble, fabric might gain inches during blocking, ends won't stay put.

And in my case, ladders.

I reckon I'll have to use my crochet hook to turn those ladders into stitches, and then use a k2tog on the live stitches to get rid of the extra one. But that will come when I'm just about ready to close the crown. No point in "fixing" it too soon.

This is the Kittiwake pattern by Alice Starmore, btw, from Aran Knitting. Except I changed it a little. (Shocking, right?) I wanted more of the braid, less of the rib, so I shortened the ribbing section by an inch (leaving it still long enough to fold in half), and am adding another repeat of the braid cable. It's a slow knit, fiddly, and I will never, ever do it on double points again.


After the hat is finished, I get to knit this:














Details will follow. :)

Silence is Golden

I have the house to myself this weekend. Even the dog is gone. This is because, clearly, God loves me best.

And s/he wants me to have the knitting chair.

And s/he wants Panera Larry's baby to be warm this winter.

And s/he wants me to have the pride and satisfaction of finishing something. Anything, really.

Hooray for God for being smart enough to arrange all this.

The stats:

Pattern: Chevron Baby Lace hat (ravelry freebie) and my own baby mitt pattern
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull, what else ;) About 80% of a skein for the set
Needles: US2 dpns

Notes:

The crown of the baby hat is a bit fiddly, and I'm not sure the end result was worth it. But it will do.

To make the mitts, co 30 and join, leaving at least an 8" tail. Work k1 p1 rib for 1.25 inches. Increase to 40 stitches and switch to stockinette. Knit plain until mitt is 3.25" and then k1, k2tog on alternating rounds until you have just a handful of stitches left and can draw the yarn through the loops to close the circle. (On non-decrease rounds, just knit plain.)

Break the yarn and knot it to the 8" tail at your cast on edge. Slip a crochet hook into the cast on stitch next to the tail -- this will be the base for a chain. Chain stitch along the knotted tail until the chain is about 26-28" inches long when unstretched.

Using your final loop in the crochet chain as your slipknot, cast on 30 and make the second mitt as above. When you wind in the ends from the knot in the chain, weave them in opposite directions. to hide the bulk. And yes, it's best to knot this. You need a strong connection. Don't worry -- it's invisible once it's woven in.

This will look like a fairly large mitt, but it really isn't. Newborns tend to curl their fingers, but you want the mitt to leave them room to stretch.

Now, onto the hat for Panera Eric. He deserves something good, too.

New Math

I wasn't going to cast on any new socks. I thought that if I resisted that lure and focused on sweater knitting, I'd have a chance of finishing St. Brigid fairly soon.

Which would be true in theory, but doesn't quite work in practice.

I pulled out St. Brigid yesterday and went to sit in my big green knitting chair. Some of you know, I've recently gained some new roommates, courtesy of a bastard sonofabitch asshole piece of shit my sister very wisely, and at long last, is divorcing. (Not that I have formed an opinion of this man's character. These statements are all totally objective and based on clinical data. Ahem.)

So there I am in my big green chair, hunkering down for a spell o' knitting while watching the Purdue football game. And here's what happens --

-- The kid wants to watch cartoons. There are three other televisions in this house, but he wants this particular one. And this is the only one with a good knitting chair nearby. He whines when I tell him no, which is not too terrible to take, except that the whining is competing with the game.

-- My mother, currently in town again, decides to vacuum this room, muttering all the while about how there are two adult women living in this house and neither of them vacuums to her satisfaction. I wouldn't give a shit -- I have long practice in ignoring this sort of muttering -- but the noise was interfering with my ability to hear the game commentary. Vacuum + muttering mother + whining kid = starting to be a problem.

-- As soon as my mother leaves the room, my sister wants to complain about my mother's complaining. Mom's vacuuming other rooms now, and still muttering. Now we have Vacuum + muttering mother + whining kid + complaining sister = Goddamn, would you people shut up and let me watch the game and knit already.

-- Enter my father, who tolerates me watching football because he likes football quite a lot. But he wants the remote, and he wants to talk. A lot. He wants to talk about the game, which is a good thing, but I can't answer his questions about why the refs are making the calls they're making because I can't hear the commentary at all any longer. Also, he tends to change channels during commercials and replays, so we're missing quite a lot of commentary anyway.

Still with me? The end result:
Vacuum + muttering mother + whining kid + complaining sister + chatty father + constantly changing channels = mis-crossed cable in row 11.

Also, game? What game?

So I'll be saving St. Brigid for SnB nights, and when I need to knit at home, a simple sock will have to do. This one will be a 2x2 ribbed leg and instep out of Mountain Colors Bearfoot, a yarn I purchased about a thousand years ago from Nana's.

Worth noting: When I sat down at the kitchen table this morning to cast on and browse my Sensational Socks books for a leg pattern, the kid came in to play video games "with" me (a/k/a he plays and shows me the screen at intervals), my sister came in to complain about my mother, my mother came in to complain about housekeeping, and my father came in to talk football. The only difference from yesterday? Different room, no vacuum, and we were talking Bears instead of Boilermakers.

So I closed up the pattern books and opted for a simple ribbing.

Because sometimes, the best answer is the simplest one.

Ball One

I've been working on this afghan while watching Mad Men. (By the way, those of you following Mad Men, please read my editing blog and help me figure out whether there's a connection between Grandpa Gene and the dead snake. Or between baby Gene and the mouse.)

This is the first super-saver supersized skein of Red Heart, and it got me 8" of blanket. I bought twelve skeins. The future owner of this blanket, Danger Boy, is large for his age, and most growth charts peg his adult height at around 6'5" to 6'8". So the blanket needs to be large, too. Maybe ten skeins for the body, one or two for the border? We'll see!

The Curse Has Been Broken!

I spun around in a circle three times, clicked my heels, threw salt over my shoulder, and---


















--broke the antiknitting curse that some fiendish devil put on me.

The socks are done. I'll never be able to wear them without thinking of the last six months. The car wreck, all the trips to the pain clinic with my grandmother, the endless work hours, and all the other distractions, both good and bad.

I'd say that I'm happy to have them -- and this time in my life -- finished, but the truth is I'm more relieved.

I'm not going to cast on another pair of socks just yet. Next, I hope to finish the baby hat for Panera Larry's soon-to-be-born son. That's a small project, and I'm still just skittish enough to want to keep things simple. There's always the temptation to cast on something new, but practicality must prevail. Even without the hat, I still have three sweaters and a t-shirt on the needles. That's more than enough for now.

Post-Stitches

Got home from Stitches mid-day Sunday. Within hours, my parents had arrived in town, my sister left her husband and moved in here with her child and dog, and my life
changed dramatically. I've had to empty closets for her, just at a time when I wanted to reorganize my stash and spread it around a bit so things might be easier to find. Oh, well. Family comes first, even ahead of stash (though it is a very, very, very close second, lol).

Abbreviated Stitches report:
I bought some yarn.
I took some classes.
I enjoyed the uninterrupted company of knitters.
I ate amazingly good Indian food. Twice.


The best part was the company of knitters. There hasn't been enough of that lately, and I cannot begin to express how lovely it was to get away from the stress and chaos and just be with friends in a fun and relaxing environment. Big hugs for all my friends. You guys are the best!

The second best part was the Advanced Finishing class with Margaret Fisher, who is my new idol. Everyone should take this class. She'll blow you away with how much she manages to jam into a three-hour class, and all of it is useful. Plus she's adorable and very nice. And she agreed with me that my kitchener is weird, and she might have even pinpointed the problem. We'll see. I've spent years unable to figure out why my kitchener grafts always look grotesque, so if nothing else, there's comfort in knowing an expert also sees the same problems I see. It's nice to know I'm not imagining things!

Yarn. Yeah, okay, I bought some. Not as much as I had budgeted for -- I came home with a couple hundred (and then some) left over in my annual Stitches set-aside. The market was underwhelming this year. Many of our regular fave vendors were not in attendance -- the rainbow button lady, the antique button lady, The Fold, Black Water Abbey, Shelridge Farms, Jojoland, Manos, and this is but a partial list of missing vendors. The market was easily 20% smaller than in past years.

So there were some disappointments, but honestly, I'm not disappointed overall. I was able to get some new indie yarns and a few things not available around here. A skein of Kauni for a shawl, some cones of laceweight that were a real bargain -- don't have a clue why the laceweights are calling to me lately. I'm not a lace girl. Or maybe I am but didn't know it before now.

What's that? You want to see? Oh, okay. I guess I can understand that. ;)

The pink is an alpaca laceweight, about 800 yards, from Webs. And the other is the Kauni. If you could see through the layers of the Kauni skein, you would see all the colors of a rainbow. It's very bright and colorful. I really can't wait to knit it, and am torn between two patterns.

End/Begin

I was profoundly moved on Wednesday to learn of the death of Ted Kennedy. My father's family is Irish Catholic, and though many of them scorned the idealism of the liberal left, they honored the Kennedy family for its great accomplishments in the face of religious and national-origin discrimination. For many of the old cranks in my family, the 1960 presidential race was the one and only time in their entire lives at which they voted for a Democrat. They were proud that "one of their own" was voted into the highest office, much the same as today's African-American population is proud of President Obama. It took an Irishman in the highest job in the land to erase the pain of "Irish Need Not Apply" signs in job placement offices.

Like many Irish Catholics, my grandmother hung a picture of JFK in her house right under that of the Pope. He was a martyr in her eyes. When Bobby was assassinated, many in my family were sickened with grief and dread. If "they" could do this to, not one, but two Kennedys, what hope remained for the rest of us? What would stop "them" from picking us off, too? Such were the fears engendered by the second Kennedy assassination.

But Teddy remained. His was a long life scarred by tragedy, and if there's one thing an Irishman loves, it's a good lament. Even though many of my family members abhorred his politics, he became almost emblematic of the best and worst of us, a symbol of all we had gained and lost. And through it all, he endured. He avoided the assassin's bullet. He retained his high status. He sang, he roared, and despite his many great accomplishments, he failed to achieve his highest goals. There's something both tragic and beautiful in his life.

I had few qualms about his politics and agreed with him on most matters of social justice. I respected all that he did for the arts -- my community lost one of our strongest champions on Wednesday. Now that he has fallen, who will catch the flag? There is no one left in politics who cares about arts the way the Kennedys did. Instead of appealing to our highest humanity, today's leaders settle for the basest greed. Money is all that matters now. Greed is good.

His death marks not just the end of a life, but the end of an era.

Throughout the course of the week, those of us who watch the news were reminded again and again of the great care Teddy took of the next generation of Kennedys. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, about how he made sure that Bobby and Jack's kids were always a strong part of his life.

This is why, during the funeral yesterday as I listened to the speeches and songs and even cried a little, I started the next afghan for my nephew Dylan.

Bless you, Ted Kennedy, and thank you for inspiring so many. Eternal rest grant unto you, and perpetual light shine upon you.

Yarn Crawling, DC Style

Those are some happy knitters. On the left, in the black and white dress, is Rachael, who blogs as Yarnagogo, and whose first knitting mystery romance will be released early next spring. Believe me, you will all hear from me when her book comes out. She's a terrific writer and I've done what I can to mentor her along the way. She repaid me last year in San Francisco by introducing me to Kyoto, a truly fantastic mohair and silk worsted yarn.

In the middle is the glowing-with-pregnancy ninja knitter, MB, who blogs as Merry Gentlemen. She is also the entrepreneur who has brought us Rock Creek Yarns. That's another brand of crack to add to your collections. Gorgeous stuff, and if you need proof, it's at the end of this post. MB was a Chicago knitter until she became a DC knitter, and she was kind enough to play hostess for our little band of writer-knitters during the DC conference. She did a marvelous job of enabling our addictions.

On the right, wearing the uber-cool shades, is Tara, who blogs as Random Ranter. She's a writer in the early stages of her career, and a knitter of many talents. I don't get her love of cotton, but hey, she can have my share of the cotton if I can have her share of the shetland wool. Check out her blog for a really interesting multicolored cotton scarf that's so cool it makes me want to give cotton another try. And that's saying something.

We spent a lovely day touring the Maryland side of DC. Our lunch was in a little French bistro with outstanding spinach and brie crepes, which adds another line item for my theory that it's impossible to get a bad meal in DC. (Have I already mentioned that my hotel was across the street from the Lebanese Taverna? This is the best middle eastern restaurant I've ever visited, in DC or in any other place.)

Enough about the food. Let's talk about the important stuff. The yarn.

At the first shop we visited, which I think might have been in Bethesda, I bought this gorgeous pink laceweight merino and some wonderful Jojoland sock yarn. I have no idea what I'll do with the laceweight. There are about 1400 yards on that skein, so options abound.




















And this is the rest of my haul. This is the indie-dyer portion of the adventure. Left and center are sock yarns from local DC dyers purchased at a shop in, if memory serves, Hyattsville. Charming shop on a charming street. I fell in love with that blue at first sight, but fate alone knows when I will ever be able to knit it.

On the right is a skein of MB's wonderful silk laceweight. I love her color sense. This one feels like the color scheme you would find in a wild, modernist or impressionist painting of irises. The color manages to be both saturated and pale by turns. Very appealing stuff.

Another One Gone

This is the cabled cardigan back piece. Or I should say, WAS the cabled cardigan back piece. I was, as the guys in the trades say, balls-on with my gauge. The finished piece was four inches narrower than the pattern specs called for, though, even after I tried to block it wider.

So I spent a pleasant half-hour last night trying to rework the pattern schematics to come up with a garment that would go all the way around me. But this is a very tailored, fitted piece, and I gave up without even fighting too hard.

Check out the kink in that frogged yarn. I wound it into loose round balls to let the yarn relax a bit, and then will wind it into cakes in a few days or so.

My list of KIPs is shrinking, and I must confess, it feels good to ditch things that aren't right. It's liberating. Not sad or depressing at all. This is my mindset when I stare down Catherine Parr, still laying on my kitchen table in all her botched glory. I still haven't decided what to do about this one. It's the toughest call on the list.

Goodbye, Times Three

Goodbye, fair isle bag. We like your colorwork, but the design (by me) needs a bit of refinement, and the needles were awful. You'll be knit again some day, but on different needles and with a better thought-out design.




















Goodby, Kyoto Banff. Nice pattern. Lovely yarn. But when you put them together, meh. The fabric just wasn't working for me. Kyoto, you'll be knit again someday. Banff? Maybe not.























Goodbye, Snicket socks. You drove me crazy almost from the second I cast you on. Yarn is lovely and will make a beautiful pair of socks, just as soon as I find a new pattern.

An Unholy Mess

This is my knitting. I have reached the turnaround point in my stress saturation level -- bottomed out, beginning to climb back up into the land of the normal -- and I know this is the case because I am suddenly possessed by the urge to clean out all my closets and drawers, empty all my bags, reorganize my filing cabinets... you get the idea. When I get busy like I've been since last winter, I can't stop to think about how my life is organized. I just shove things in drawers and cabinets and hope for the best. Then when things begin to calm down, I wake up and realize that my home and office aren't quite where I want them to be.

So today I started the Great Knit Reclamation Project, which begins with emptying out all my knitting bags to see what, exactly, might be hiding in them. Now it is all on my kitchen table. As you see.





















The pictures are dim because it is dark and rainy today -- really, the perfect day to start this sort of thing during the lunch hour. Starting with the dark green yarn in the lower left, and working clockwise, we have--
1 - St. Brigid in olive green, about a third done
1 - a cabled cardigan in marine blue, about a third done
3 - two cones of purple Kyoto, swatched but never started
4 - three balls of cream bamboo for a scarf
5 - purple crack in a bag for a lace tee
6 - a disgustingly huge pile of notions, notepads, and medications left over from pneumonia
7 and 8 - two socks in the middle, the green snickets and the plain Malabrigo socks






















Starting again with the green St. Brigid yarn, this time lower right and working clockwise, we add,

9 - the fair isle bag of my own design
10 - Catherine Parr, inches from completion
11 - Fulmar, about half done


I have to make some decisions this weekend, not the least of which will be what to do with that Catherine Parr. I hate the lower band on it to the point where I can't bring myself to complete the project. I need a solution that won't disappoint, and that might mean ripping and reknitting.

I think the Snicket socks are done for, too, because I'm just not digging the pattern. And the marine blue cardigan -- despite perfect gauge, the finished piece is several inches narrower than the pattern claimed it would be, and my attempt to block it wider has failed.

Somewhere in my closet is that purple Lady Eleanor. My radar is picking up its vibe now, too.

But these decisions will have to wait until tonight. I have quite a bit of editing yet to accomplish this afternoon, and once that's done, it will be time to figure out the knitting. I'm anticipating a fun Friday night. Just me and my yarn. I can't wait. After I sort through my works in progress, I'm going to pull the yarn from my closet and figure out what I've bought since the last time I logged onto Ravelry for more than five minutes. There isn't much new yarn, but there's enough to keep me busy for a bit. Busy in a happy way. The kind of busy we like.

The Saturday Curse

So, last Saturday was a big day. I spent a good part of the day in a tv studio out in the western suburbs, taping a talk show about writing and publishing. Cool stuff. When I got home from that, I thought I would have an hour or two to knit and unwind.

No such luck.

We have the worst golfers on our course. I swear, it's like they give a special rate to anyone who can't tell a nine iron from a tire iron. As I was changing out of my tv clothes and checking email and so on, I heard a crash. Thought a golfer had probably hit one of the contraband tomato pots on the patio and shattered the planter.

They hit something a little north of the planter.
























There went my knitting time. I had to go to the golf clubhouse to report it, where that nasty woman who works in the golf clubhouse amply demonstrated why all the residents refer to her as "that nasty woman who works in the golf clubhouse." It took forever, got me nowhere, and I'm still annoyed over how difficult she was.

But that was last week. This week, I thought I would get an hour or two of knitting time on Saturday after I finish up some line edits and a revision letter. But I woke to the sounds of an unexpected visitor who was imitating Santa Clause and coming down my chimney.





















This poor little morning dove has had quite a difficult day. It got its foot caught in the mesh that hangs over the glass windows, finally worked free, and took a rest on the kindling. Thanks to all the facebookers and twitterati who gave me tips on how to get it out of the fireplace. As you can see, opening the fireplace doors didn't persuade it to leave. It just sat there and watched me for a while. It seemed very dazed.

So I got an old towel and thought I would wrap the bird in the towel and carry it outside. Of course, it took one look at the towel and freaked. Me, it would tolerate. The towel? OMG, utter terror. It flew up the chimney, then somehow out the fireplace door, all over my house, into the ceiling a few times (ouch) and finally came to rest on an umbrella stand in the front hall. You would think with all it's blind, frantic flight, it might have accidentally managed to go through one of the doors I'd opened, but no such luck.

While it was on the umbrella stand, I was able to get the towel around it and carry it outside, where it sat on my railing for a good hour and a half. I was afraid it might be hurt, so I sat out there and talked to it and put out some bits of bread. Me, it tolerated. But as soon as it saw the bread, it flew to the roof. It's still on the roof, but I figure if it could fly up there, it should be okay. Just needs a bit of recovery time.

Anyway, that's two Saturdays in a row where my hope for knitting time was dashed by odd occurrences at the house. Wonder what next Saturday will hold.

One Is a Lonely Number

This is the one and only thing I've knit since February. It's a sock. My feet can take turns wearing it.

(sigh)

It's not lack of interest keeping me from knitting. It's lack of time. Things are improving in that department, though, and I expect to gradually add knitting time back onto my calendar over the next several weeks.

It's either that, or turn into a superstressed renegade rogue killing machine.

GOD DAMN, DO I MISS HAVING TIME TO KNIT.

Look, Ma! No Holes!

So, we could sum up the last six weeks as: construction, car wreck, employee issues, sick grandma, major national conference, and way, way, way too much work. It has been chaotic and at times stressful, but there have been a few good things, too. Notice what's missing in the picture above? Anyone who has been in my backyard the last, oh, two years or so has seen the giant holes next to the foundation. There were another several days of muddy boots tramping through my house and loud noises sloshing the coffee right out of my cup. But in the end, they must have run out of ways to waste time and make messes, because they filled in the holes.

Does that mean the foundation is repaired? Uh. Maybe.

See what else is missing? No more bobcat! No more day-glo orange safety fence! No more lawn, either -- the damn thing was parked there so long, the grass has died and disintegrated.



















There hasn't been much knitting. Less than two pattern repeats for the front of St. Brigid, less than a gusset for one sock. But I did cheer myself up by breaking my yarn rules and splurging on some new sock yarn.





















That's Lorna's Laces Mixed Berries on top, some Regia on the left, and some Fortissima on the right. I picked them up at Ivelise's yarn shop in Benton Harbor, Michigan, during Memorial Day weekend. Isn't it pretty? I wonder if I'll ever get to knit it.

The Back Is Off the Needles

Well, gosh, that only took ten weeks.

There's one mistake. Can you see it? I think it's totally obvious.

A Sad Story With a Happy Ending

Once upon a time, there was this knitter, and she mostly went about the business of living and working and knitting and being a smartass without much trouble or interference.

But then this knitter got sick and things got pretty shaky, and between the effects of the illness and the cure, her brain shut down. Couldn't read charts or instructions or her live stitches. Couldn't count past three. Couldn't look at math she'd done in the past for pattern alterations and understand her instructions to herself.

She cast on a very easy lace scarf, knit a few rows, fucked it up spectacularly, and ripped it all out. Six. Times.

She tried to understand her snicket socks, already in progress, but no amount of staring could help her find where she was in the charts.

She even tried casting on a simple, plain, dull-as-dust sock. Made it through less than half an inch of cuff before giving up because, no shit, she was too weak to hold up the yarn and needles.

(Yes, this is a scary story. Terrifying. We're talking about a knitter with a couple decades of experience here. Ponder, if you will, what it must be like to suddenly be unable to remember which way to wrap the yarn for a yarnover. Have you ever felt too weak to hold sock yarn? Eek!)

So she put her knitting aside, slept 20 out of 24 hours, and occasionally thought about how much she missed things like breathing and her voice. Went to the doctor a couple more times. Work piled up all around her and her knitting collected dust.

Four different drugs later, she could no longer remember which project was in which knitting bag.

But she felt a lot better, and she was working like a demon to get caught up after all the time away, and this meant no knitting time. Still. Employees went on vacation, employees resigned, cars broke down and were fixed. iPods developed mystery playlists, DSL spasmed, light fixtures failed, and a string of repairmen concluded that, yes, there is something mighty wrong with the house's foundation. Somebody better get a bobcat out here right quick.

Three, four, five days at a stretch, she would go without touching her knitting. When she did risk a half hour for knitting here or there, it was always a row on St. Brigid. Others around her finished their St. Brigids. But she couldn't even complete the back.

Weeping hot tears and raging at the heavens, our knitter concluded that her knit-fu had abandoned her.

But then....

It came back.

The mojo cometh, and the mojo goeth away. It is a fickle bitch. But it's back. And I'm gonna duct tape it to my stash boxes so it doesn't ever get away again.

(Pictured above is the plain sock, actually not dull as dust but quite gorgeous in person. Malabrigo sock weight, color Persia -- imagine jade smoked over with charcoal, and you'll get a feeling for the depth and complexity in this deceptively simple yarn. The camera can't capture the hints of green and teal accurately.)

More Durable, My Ass

I knit this big poncho out of Lion Brand Cheap 'N Chunky (or whatever it's called -- the rope-like version of wool-ease) around four, maybe five years ago. It was one of those soopah bargains in the clearance bin at JoAnn's, so I thought, what the heck. Might as well give it a go on the needles. See whether the reputation for durability and quality is deserved.

Answer: no.

I'm not a big fan of ponchos in general, but this one came in handy at the old house for lounging in the cold basement. And since we moved almost three years ago, it has lived in the back den, also a very cold room, where I cozy up under it while watching tv. Regardless, at the end of the cold weather season, I would wash it (cool water, gentle) and spin dry it. For a yarn that is nearly all acrylic and rumored to be durable, this should be no problem at all.

That means this is its fourth washing. Maybe it's fifth.

And look at it. The heathering fibers are separating from the yarn. You see that fine gray haze over the whole fabric? You see the gray pills forming? Grr....

But that's not the worst of it. It shed all over the few other items I washed with it. Look at my cotton turtleneck.





















Very frustrating.

Take Two Stitches and Call Me in the Morning

Back to the doctor yesterday for the never-ending chest infection. I am now on my fourth different medication. Because nothing we're doing seems to cure this, I decided a little home remedy might be in order.

New knitting. Just what the knitdoctor ordered.

This will be the skater's overtop from the Veronik Avery book. This was my birthday yarn last year. I want to knit it before my birthday this year because I'm convinced this will somehow make me feel less guilty about my stash.

Also because I'm addicted to this yarn and have spent the past ten months fondling it and dreaming of casting on. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so here I am, starting something new even though all my something olds still linger.

Special thanks to everyone who has pledged wool for the Bosnian refugees. I will be sending my friend Kate a big box sometime around March 27, so there is still plenty of time for you to round up your remnants and get them to me. If you can't make it to one of our knitting events, please let me know and I will be happy to come collect your donation. It's for a good cause!

ETA: If you want to see the Bosnian knitters and some of their work, go here. Kate tells me she hasn't updated the page in ages, so don't believe everything you read there. But it will give you some idea of the work they're doing.

A Call to Action

A friend of mine volunteers with the Bosnian refugee community in Massachusetts. These refugee women have survived a kind of hell that most of us have only seen in tv newsreels. They support themselves by weaving rugs and knitting socks and selling them through a cooperative effort. It's pretty cool stuff, grassroots activism, people helping people in the most fundamental kind of way.

My friend tells me they're running low on yarn and on cash, and they have several orders to fill. They're coming up with a short term solution for their most pressing needs, but I promised her to tap my knitters for donations.

Please go through your stashes and cull for any leftovers or other lots of yarn you won't use. The only catch is that they need wool or wool-cotton blends. I'm going to send her my sockotta and all the leftover bits of sock yarn, and probably all the yarn leftover from Lady Eleanor, and anything else I can find for them.

If you bring whatever you can donate to SnB or to Open Knitting on Thursday, I will arrange to get it to Kate so she can distribute it to the refugee women.

Thanks in advance -- I know my knittas will come through on this one.

Half Back

Here are four pattern repeats of the back piece for St. Brigid. I love the way this pattern unfolds, and I especially love how quickly it happens.

Laying this piece out for a photograph helped me reach a decision about something. The original design calls for a fringed hem, and I'm not a big fan of fringe. But something has to be done to even out that hem. I mean, look at it, wobbling and jiggling up and down like that. Ugh. I know others have managed to go fringeless and have a nice, even hem, but it appears I am not one of the fortunate few.

So I'll be attaching a banded border of some kind, probably of the braided rope cable, to give a neater edge there.

The meds are beginning to knock out the chest infection I've been fighting for the last few weeks, but I'm still a bit like that lower hem edge -- raw, weak and wobbly. S'ok. It will pass.

Goal

Knitting Goal For March:

Knit one hour each day.

That's it. You'd think that would be an easy goal to reach for an obsessive knitter like me, but not so. All year I've had to fight for knitting time. Between working two jobs and illness and family obligations and other demands on my time, I've completely lost control of my schedule and my routine.

And you know what I've learned from all this? Sweaters don't knit themselves.

Imagine that.

So I made a good start on my March knitting goal today by knitting 4 rows of St. Brigid, which is just a bit over an hour's worth of knitting, while I was watching a bit of tv. I only watch about 3 hours of tv a week, so that tv knitting time is pretty precious. And lately, I've been sacrificing it to the laptop, dealing with routine email and filing tasks while watching my shows.

But no more. I'm allowed an hour a day for knitting. Allowed? Required.

Why I Am A Bore

Secret Knitting + Crap Virus = Boring Blog

The good news from my corner is that the secret knitting project is off the needles. As you can see in the picture, it is still in sore need of blocking. I don't know when I will get that done -- my house is under construction again, and the dust isn't so good for wet yarn laying around. But there's no rush on blocking it. I have time.

The good news, part two, is that yesterday we finally found a remedy that is helping with this horrible, hideous, body-wrenching virus. I'm not over it, not by a long distance, but it's better today, thank god. I managed to work a half day yesterday and a half day today, with hope that I will log in another couple hours yet. With any luck, I might even get my voice back in another day or two.

Side question: Why is it that doctors are suddenly all about the OTC meds? Dude, if advil and robitussin had been handling this damned thing, I wouldn't have come to you in the first place.

Who Could Resist?

Take a good look at that picture and imagine...
The top color is the body of a sweater.
The bottom four colors are a bohus-style yoke.

That's a pretty picture, isn't it? The yoke colors are Cascade Indulgence, a merino-angora blend perfect for a bohus yoke. The body color is Dale of Norway Tiur, a DK wool with just a soupcon of mohair to give it a slight halo effect.

And the best part?

All this yarn was on the 75% off shelf at this weekend's sale at Nana's Knitting Shop.

Here's something else to imagine. Imagine me in that store for the last, oh, two or three years, eyeballing that Indulgence and knowing it's just right for a bohus yoke. Imagine me doing the math in my head and reckoning that this sweater would easily cost over $200, without even trying too hard. Out of my reach for a single garment, especially now, with money being so tight. Imagine petting the yarn over and over again and daydreaming about yoke patterns, poring over the details on the bohus stickning website, and yet still never quite believing I would ever break down and get the yarn.

When I saw that it had been deeply discounted, I knew right away I would be buying it. How could I resist? I made an inspection of the rest of the store to check out the rest of the sale items, but even as I looked, I had that yippee feeling inside over the bohus yarn.

What would have cost $280 cost a few pennies under $70.
Yippee!

Shhh.... Secret!

It feels like spring this week, and we all seem to be suffering from spring startitis. I'm not immune to the seasons!

Super Krissie has been knitting something fabulous lately that requires one skein of crack and one of Ritratto by S. Charles Collezione. The Ritratto has that pretty metallic shine, and crack, as we all know, makes everything look soft and warm and happy.

Put the two together, and you get an almost magical fabric. Hazy clouds of mohair and glints of bright metal. Almost sinfully soft, but sparkly. This is one where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

This is intended as a gift for a dear friend who knows about this blog but probably doesn't read it. I feel safe showing this little bit above, but I probably won't blog much about it on the off chance she might come over here to see what's happening. We don't get to see each other often, but when we do, she always asks to see my knitting. Hers is an honest interest, the same kind that leads me to ask after her cats even though I'm allergic to them. It's not about self. It's about other. She doesn't care about knitting, but she cares about me.

She doesn't have a birthday or any other event coming up, but after decades of friendship, I don't feel I really need a reason to give her something that makes me think of her.

Yeah, I'm a bit leery of gift knitting again after the Infamous Incident Regarding The Crib Afghan. But if anybody can help me recover, it's a friend like her.

St. B-eginning

This is just a smidge more than two chart repeats on St B. So far, so good.

The pattern is far from intuitive, though. I have to consult the charts frequently on every right-side row. I keep thinking there has to be some kind of logic to these charts, some kind of rhythm to the cable crossings that will make itself apparent. So far, not so much. This may be one of those charts that you just have to memorize. Or keep in your lap while knitting.

Things are still pretty busy with work here, though I can definitely feel the tides begin to shift. I'm contending with fewer emails now -- under 200 so far today, definitely more manageable -- and fewer of those emails contain problems that need immediate attention. In other words, it's not January anymore! Woo hoo!

Nothin' But a Plain Pink Pullover

I have this odd affinity for pale pink v-neck sweaters. I've always got at least one in my closet. The one in the picture above will be folded and shelved right next to its near twin, a store-bought model in cotton with a higher rest on the neckline.

I still have a few minor ends to weave, and then I'll set the seams and neckband, but this one is pretty much in the done column. I love the way it fits. It's very loose and cozy through the body and arms, but the shoulders are exactly right and the length is perfect.

The Specs:
Yarn: almost ashamed to admit that it's wool from Joann Fabrics bought on sale for under two bucks a ball. The brand is Sensations Tesoro, and I must say, this is a really, really nice wool. I had expected to knit a vest with it, but was pleased to see that I had enough yarn for a sweater. Just enough. Just barely enough. There might be ten or twelve grams left over out of the 650 I started with.

Pattern: My own, adapted from the Ann Budd "Handy Book of Sweater Patterns." I started with her template, but shortened the arms and tightened the armscyes. The change to the armscyes was crucial for good fit. The body fit is very loose and fluid, oversized and drapey. I always think that when you do that with the body, the arms and shoulders had better fit properly or you'll look like a little kid wearing her mommy's clothes.

That's 650 g into the "yarn out" column of my stash minder, and I can already predict people will get sick of seeing me wear this thing.

A Baby Snicket

This is the result of last week's third grade basketball tournament. I swatched for St. B again, and then cast on the Snicket socks and made it this far. This is 19 rows of p2, k1b ribbing. I have one more round to go before I can start the pattern.

The yarn is Cascade Heritage, and I must say I'm in love with it. OK, yes, I say that about a lot of yarns. But this time, I mean it extra. It's so smooth and fluid, and the stitch definition could not be better. It feels almost silky, except the hand is all wool, not silky at all. If it holds up to wear and washing, this might very well be the perfect sock yarn. Fingers crossed.

Knitting on size 1US, but I can see dropping to a size 0 for a slightly denser fabric. The yarn is about as thick as Lorna's Laces sock yarn -- in fact, it's a near clone of Lorna's Laces, but without the slightly stringy feel. Don't get me wrong. I love Lorna's Laces and think the hand is excellent. But if you can imagine LL with a bit more spring and a little more slickness, you'll have a good idea of how the Heritage knits.

Fulmar Sleeves, Creeping Toward Completion

On September 23, at the end of my self-declared Summer of Sleeves, the Fulmar sleeves measured to about 6.5". I put them away then and didn't touch them again until just after Christmas. In a month of sporadic but somewhat concentrated knitting -- that is, not a lot of time for knitting, but what little I had went to Fulmar -- the sleeves almost doubled in length.

Kind of makes you wonder what I might be able to accomplish here if I actually, you know, tried.

With St. Brigid on the needles now, I doubt I'll be working on Fulmar much in the near future. New toys are so much fun! But knitting the Fulmar sleeves in January reminded me of how much I really love this pattern and yarn. This sweater deserves to be finished, and I have a feeling that will happen sooner rather than later.

It's On!

Aw, wookit the cute widdle baby sweater! When it grows up, it will be St. Brigid!

I had to cast on twice. The first time, I missed a major cable crossing in row 3 -- I believe I was looking at the wrong chart when that happened. The charts for this are a bit confusing at first. Not dreadfully so, but enough that it would be pretty easy to look at the wrong chart that early on, and not realize what was happening. So that's my theory on that one.

Anyway, botched cable crossing on row three, discovered the problem on row four. Ripped and reknit and got to row eight before taking this picture. I hope to get a little knitting time in tonight, too, and have even rented a movie in a most optimistic, non-Monday fashion. (Pineapple Express, in case you're wondering. I'm told it's very silly and funny, which seems like just the right thing for the day.)

I got a gauge and fabric I liked on size 6 needles, by the way, but am wondering if I might not end up ripping and reknitting on 5s. I've heard other people complain that the gauge swatch was no accurate predictor of finished size, and almost all of them gained inches and inches in width. I figure I'll knit through a few more rows, just to let the cable crossings draw the fabric in as tightly as it is likely to, and then measure. But right now, with only 8 rows knit, this thing seems wicked wide.

Destroyed by a Basketball Tournament

So, today is the "March Madness" tournament for Danger Boy's third grade basketball squad. (Yes, I know, but the gym is booked up for March, and "January Madness" doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?)

I promised, cross-my-heart promised, a really-really-really-mean-it promise, that I would go to this tournament. And just for extra oomph, I called Miss Seven and my godson to ask them to come along. They're pretty excited because their alternative plans for this evening would have been playing in the kiddie care room at the racquet club while their parents get in a game or two. Sugar highs and cheering for little boys who can't dribble, pass, or shoot -- yes, I can see where that would be the better alternative.

So I'm all set. I have little snack bags packed with blue jelly bellies (leftovers from the winter blues party last weekend), Capri Suns, tissues, advil, pirate bandaids, single dollars for the concession stand, notepads and colored pencils and stickers (in case of boredom -- theirs), and -------

Crap. I don't have any socks on the needles.

I can't take the Fulmar sleeves because they're too complicated for that environment. Ditto the Fair Isle bag, which requires charts. I haven't cast on the sleeves for the cabled cardigan, and I need to find my notes on how to do the flippy-uppy short rows in order to even think about it. Branff -- I need different needles. The pink sweater is at the seaming stage, no good for working in bleachers. And the Catherine Parr is too heavy and cumbersome to work on without good supports under my elbows.

That leaves St. Brigid, which I want to re-swatch on 6s. I can do that. It will take me through maybe the first period of the first game. And then what????

No rational knitter would expect any other rational knitter to get through an entire third grade basketball tournament without knitting, would you? Or, to speak the lingo of the day, can I get a by on this one? How about if I promise, really-really-really-mean-it promise, to finish the pink sweater on Saturday before casting on St. Brigid Sunday?

(Ahem. Note to Mr Puffy and other interested persons: I'm thinking snickets.)

That's Two

One of my goals is to cut down on the number of OTN projects this year, and I figured I would accomplish that by not casting on something new until I finish two items. Easy enough, right?

So, I have finished two pairs of socks this year, which gives me permission to cast on St. Brigid on February 1 as planned. Yay! Well, except that now there aren't any socks OTN, and I'll have to finish two sweaters in order to cast on another pair of socks. Which doesn't seem to make much sense somehow. Clearly, I will need to think through my rules a bit more carefully for next year.

Here are the deets:
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa Maxime Print
Needles: Size 1.5US Crystal Palace double points
Cast on: 11/16/08
Cast off: 1/27/09
Pattern: A simple 2x2 ribbing all the way down.

I really like this yarn. Very nice, very cushy and springy and round, much like Dale Baby Ull. I made the legs very long so they could be cuffed and give an extra bit of warmth at my ankles and lower calves. Each one of the color stripes is about an inch thick, so each leg is a notch under 10" long when unfolded. (They are identical in length, to the eighth-inch, but I bent the unfolded leg in the picture to get it to fit better in the frame.)

Now, with that little bit of business out of the way, I must confess why I'm so intent on discussing my "2 projects done before casting on" rule. I just realized today that I have all of the yarn I need to knit the Veronik Avery Fair Isle Cardigan. I promised myself I wouldn't start that until Fulmar was done, and I've been pretty diligent about knitting Fulmar when time and my wobbly knuckle permits. The sleeves are over 9" long now. That's progress. But not enough!

So I'll be good and do what I set out to do, no matter how tempted I am to start the Fair Isle Cardigan RIGHT THIS SECOND.

Speaking of Bastards....

We interrupt this knitting blog to bring you yet another rant about (nim)Rod Blagojevich.

Lookee what the US Congress inserted into the economic stimulus package legislation.

SEC. 1112. ADDITIONAL ASSURANCE OF APPROPRIATE USE OF FUNDS.

None of the funds provided by this Act may be made available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the State, unless (1) the use of such funds by the State is approved in legislation enacted by the State after the date of the enactment of this Act, or (2) Rod R. Blagojevich no longer holds the office of Governor of the State of Illinois.

The preceding sentence shall not apply to any funds provided directly to a unit of local government (1) by a Federal department or agency, or (2) by an established formula from the State.

In other words, if the Illinois General Assembly fails to convict the bastard on his impeachment charges, Illinois doesn't get to participate in the economic stimulus package. My sense is that, in that case, the state's share of the money will instead go directly to counties or munies. The last sentence leaves that open as a possibility without requiring it. Except that I think it would be unconstitutional to apply this clause exactly as written -- not sure, but it smells like week-old fish to me.

But we'll never know for sure if it's constitutional or not, because it ceases to be an issue the moment (nim)Rod is convicted. Which they damn well better do. Fast.

Go, General Assembly, Go!

Kismet

This is my swatch for St. Brigid, which a few of us in my local SnB plan to start on February 1. I swatched it last night, for the fourth time, and I'm still not sure if I have gauge. The first three times, I measured the wrong number of stitches in the swatch and couldn't figure out why my gauge was so wild. This time, about halfway through the swatching process, my knuckle started to act up and my gauge changed. I was on gauge before my knuckle started swelling. But I lost a stitch per four inches after it began to hurt.

So do I assume I will get gauge as long as I knit with a healthy hand?

As I pondered this question, I googled St. B, and here are a few fun facts about her.

* She is the patron saint of bastards. Which seems appropriate, somehow.

* Her saint day is February 1. The same day we picked to cast on the sweater. Cue the Twilight Zone music.

* She was sort of famous as a child for giving away stuff to anyone who knocked on her father's door, which was a source of considerable strain between Brigid and her father. At first, she mostly gave them milk. But when she gave her father's jeweled sword to a leper, her father put her in a convent.

* Eventually, she founded a convent of her own, and as she was being consecrated as its Abbess, the priest accidentally made her a bishop instead. For about 500 years after this, all the Abbesses at this convent had the rank of bishop.

* Some say she never existed at all, but that early Christians swiped existing Celtic legends about a goddess Brigid (or Brid, pronounced breed) and stamped Christian ethics onto the existing faith. This was a very common conversion practice, but it seems pretty likely that she may have lived, seeing how there's a tomb with her name on it.

So there you have it. We all now have permission to mutter "Bastard!" whenever this pattern irritates us. And I think I'd better wait until February 1 to cast on. It is, after all, her day.

Things I Am Heartily Sick Of

I'm heartily sick of shoveling my walk. We pay good money to the homeowners association to have this taken care of. As you see, that is money well spent.



















Words can't describe how sick I am of having to brush and scrape my car. Do you think we could have just ONE MEASLY DAY where we don't have to do that? Is that too much to ask?

















And the bobcat. Oh, the bobcat. Yeah, I'm sick of that, too.

























And don't even get me started on Catherine Parr. It has been living quietly in its bag for weeks, taunting me with the knowledge of how close it is to being finished. But even after my knuckle returned to normal human proportions, I couldn't bring myself to take CP out of the bag. Sick of it. Sick of everything.

Luckily, there's a cure for the winter blues. Throw some hot cocoa into the mix (spiked with something medicinal, of course), and we've got the recipe for a new and improved mood.

Why Brains Matter

This is what happens when you have killed your brain. You try to do something simple like sew up some shoulder seams, and end up with -- well, good god, I have no idea what that is. A mess. And not only did I totally screw it up, but I managed to screw it up in two completely different ways. See on the right side of the picture, where the seam has a row of bumps sticking out? That's because I sewed the seam in the wrong place and left half the cast-off sticking out. And see on the left where -- well, I'm not sure exactly what happened there.

All I'm saying is, good thing I can unpick that seam.

I'm taking the day off today. Well, "off" meaning it's just gone past noon, and I've only worked an hour this morning, and probably won't work more than an hour or two later today. The last two days, about everything I've tried to do has turned out like that seam, so it's obviously time for some R&R.

I'm going to try for a little knitting this afternoon and see how the finger holds up. And I'm going to lay on the couch with the clicker for at least an hour. Maybe even take a nap. Naps are good.

And by the end of it, maybe, just maybe, I'll remember the right way to sew a shoulder seam. (sigh)

First FO of the New Year

All I had left to do on these socks was the toe of the second sock. Not a lot, not more than an hour or so of knitting. I can't knit much right now, but a round here and a round there, and before you know it, your socks are done.

This is the Alpaca Sox yarn. So soft, and the finished fabric has an almost velvety feel. We'll see how they wear and launder. I have a feeling the yarn might be tender.

I've sewn the shoulders together for my pink sweater, but I don't have the right circular needle for the neckband, so that's on hold until I can get to the knitting shop. That might be a while. Work is pretty demanding right now.

How to Not Knit

So far, in the quest to rest my index finger, I have:

1. Blocked the pink sweater. I did it in stages, and the final stage was the sleeves, which you can see here. They look like they're two different sizes, but that's because of the funny camera angle you get when you stand on tiptoe with your arms way overhead.
2. Wound off about eight skeins of yarn. I have to do that slowly, with long breaks between skeins, because the crank irritates my knuckle.
3. Put loose patterns into plastic sheet protectors in binders.
4. Spend eleven million hours browsing patterns on ravelry. I've been in the habit of storing patterns I like in my favorites folder. And then one day, my favorites folder was suddenly empty. I've spent some time trying to recreate it -- ha! as if that can ever happen -- and printing loose copies of freebie patterns I'd like to knit.
5. Found a sock pattern for some green Cascade Heritage sock yarn to match Catherine Parr. I wanted a diamond-like trellises that mimicked the Catherine Parr cable chart without actually being that chart. Because I'm sick of knitting that chart. The answer arrived in the form of Snicket socks, formerly of Magknits and currently a ravelry download.
6. Reorganized my knitting bookshelf. Knitting books are so oddly shaped. They never line up in a pleasing fashion.
7. Read my Harmony guides and other chart books for substitute cable patterns for my FLAK, which I expect to cast on in two weeks or so. I'm currently leaning towards a summer motif -- a trellis cable up the center, some vine and leaf cables on either side.
   
8. Stared dolefully at my knitting, wishing I could touch it.
9. I tried to make a pot of soup, but can't chop vegetables with a wonky index finger. Pizza!
10. Moved all the yarn for knits-in-progress out of the back room dresser where I so cleverly put it for safekeeping. Thank goodness I found it.
    

The swelling is going down, and the pain is fading. I knit a half a round of the gray socks last night, trying it out, but the knuckle started to twinge almost immediately. A couple more days rest should do it.

Also, movies are way more enjoyable when you can knit through them. I don't know how non-knitters can just sit there and stare at the screen. I kept wanting to make popcorn just so my hands would have something to do. But I watched Duchess, the Keira Knightley/Ralph Fiennes adaptation of the Amanda Foreman book. It was very good. I didn't expect to enjoy it because Keira Knightley annoys me, but she was restrained enough to be watchable. Shame it wasn't a faithful rendering of the historical character, who was far more interesting and quirky than the movie would have you believe.

And I watched Burn After Reading, which was about as good a Coen brothers movie as I've ever seen. Definitely worth renting.