One Good Beer and Nobody to Drink It

Yesterday will go down in history as the Best Harlot Day to Not Actually Include the Harlot. At least, we hope it will. We hope she never again has a problem like the one that kept her grounded in Toronto all day yesterday. Poor thing. Here is my fervent wish that all future Harlot Days, regardless of destination, include a safe and happy Harlot.


Trish and Cory did a great job on all the arrangements and details, and each exhibited a lot of grace as things unraveled. We're proud of you, ladies. You two are a real class act --

Despite any evidence to the contrary. Here is Cory, modeling her carefully selected outfit for the evening. She is wearing everything she has ever knit, except for one shawl and a clapotis that were on display in the shop. She has so many sweaters on that she can hardly move her arms, and she looks about four sizes larger than normal.

You can tell by the condition of the shelves behind her that this picture was taken pretty early in the day. That's because a) hordes of knitters aren't yet blocking the view, b) Cory had time to pose, and c) there is still yarn in the cubbies that hasn't be whisked out of the shop by happy stash enhancers. When I left the shop shortly after six, those cubbies looked like they'd been ransacked. Because they were! I saw lots of knitters carrying skeins of the new Noro sock yarn and the Gypsy Girl, which is one of my favorite sock yarns. Can't go wrong with Gypsy Girl.

I spent most of the day in the shop. I didn't plan to go there as early as I did, but I was like a kid on Christmas. Couldn't concentrate all morning, and finally just threw in the towel on work and went a-knittin'. I spent all afternoon at the back table with my knit posse -- except for those moments when nosy li'l me spotted some gorgeous knitwear on a harlot fan and had to go ask all the knitty questions -- ooh! pretty! What pattern, what yarn, was it a fun knit? I now am obsessed with the Tahki sweater in Dream in Color Classy with the Smooshy socks to match -- and to the fine knitter who modeled those gorgeous items, let me just thank you for so ably adding to my queue.

Special note also to the lady with the purple scarf from the knitty winter pattern who was making the stained glass blanket -- we meant what we said. Come knit with us some time!

I worked Fulmar's sleeves for about 4 rows, then the table got crowded enough that I though the straight needles should go back in my knitting bag. I switched to my cashmere mittens.




The first one is almost done now. Every time I saw someone walking around with some of this cashmere -- on sale, half price! -- I made them touch my mittens. Maybe that was the kind of thing they're talking about when they say someone is preaching to the choir?

Finally,

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee missed out on one good beer. I won't save it for her for next time (a/k/a "Yarn Harlot II: Ripped and Reknit!") because this is a fresh pour from a local brewery and it's not meant to be saved. It's meant to be consumed. Sadly, at the pace I drink beer, it may take me until her next visit to finish this thing!

Special Note to Bron, Who Reads This Blog But Not Her Ravelmail

Hook me up, baby. Who do I need to talk to at RWAus?

The Mittens to Match

When I bought the Malabrigo for the newsboy cap and scarf, I already had two precious treasures in my stash, one 25g skein each of worsted weight cashmere in royal and teal. My original plan for these was to make either striped or stranded wristers, but as soon as I bought the Malabrigo, I knew I needed mittens to match.

So I hunted through my mitten books and picked up a bit more of the cashmere, and now the mittens are underway. My corrugated ribbing looks like crap, but other than that, I am head over heels in love with this project. The yarn feels like a dream and knits beautifully. The colors and the pattern are perfect together. (Mittens from Halland, from the Marcia Lewandowski Folk Mittens book.) I keep making everyone touch my knitting to marvel at its buttery, almost silky texture, and I keep pulling the mitten cuffs on "just to try" and then I hate to take them off. Hate. I have a feeling I'm going to want to wear these every day next winter!

Blocking at Last

It's not easy to take a good picture of a scarf as it blocks. Can't get the whole thing in one frame.


























And why would you want to when the close-up is so gorgeous? Look at that yummy mmmmmmalabrigo. Does it get any better than that?

This is the scarf to match the newsboy/rasta cap. Both in Malabrigo Chunky Whale's Road. I used the neckwarmer slip-stitch pattern that has caught on like a virus at Nana's Knitting Shop, except I made mine both wider and longer than the orginal neckwarmer. It took a skein and a half of yarn, making three skeins total for the hat and scarf together. This will be a good cool-weather combo to wear with a denim jacket next fall.

My Devious Scheme, Foiled

Funny thing about kids and swifts. If they watch me crank my winder, they want a turn. They want to do it faster, make a race out of it. Competitive wool-winding. A most excellent sport.

I encourage them in this because it means I don't have to wind my own cakes. Why do the work myself when I can Tom Sawyer someone else into doing it? Heh.

I don't take the swift and winder out every time the kids are here, maybe every tenth time, so it still feels fresh to them. I can always count on them winding off a half-dozen skeins or so. I wait until they're riding the crest of their high at being together, and then I start innocently setting up the swift. La-di-da, don't mind me, just keep on playing pirates and superheroes while I turn the crank.

Works like a charm every time.

Except for yesterday.

Do you see that hank on the swift? That's 400+ yards of Araucania sock yarn with the most insidious tangle. The only way to deal with something like this is to wind the ball by hand and pass the ball over, through and around the tangles. The yarn actually changed direction several times in the middle of the skein, and each directional change created more tangles.

Takes a long time to wind a tangled skein of sock yarn by hand. The kids saw me set up the swift and start the crank, and they were just starting to tilt into "I want a turn" when we hit the first snarl. I was afraid to take the tangled skein off the swift -- who knows what kind of spaghetti glop would have resulted if I had. So they waited while I hand wound, and they fussed with the winder and argued over which skeins they would wind. (I had several hanks laid out on the table to tempt their competitive little hearts.)

Their patience and enthusiasm for cranking yarn did not outlast my tedious hand-winding. Not even the prospect of the camera to record the fastest yarn-crankers in action could prevent their loss of interest. So I wound by hand, and then I wound with the winder, while they played in the other room and assigned each other superpowers of heat and ice and wind and lightning.

If only one of them had the superpower of detangling! Ah, well. I hope their loss of interest in yarn winding isn't permanent. If there's one lesson learned out of all this, it's that I much prefer supervising their winding to winding it myself!

Better Than a New Box of Crayons

Get a good look at all those colors. This picture is blurry, but of all the snapshots I took tonight, it's the one truest to all the colors in my brand new skein of Noro sock yarn.

I officially joined Nana's Knitting Shop's sock club today -- meaning that if I buy sock yarn to make a dozen pairs of socks in a year, the sock yarn for the thirteenth pair will be free. The way I buy sock yarn, I figure I'll qualify for my freebie in around, oh, June.

Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration. It could possibly take me all summer. Hey, Trish? How many times can I join the sock club?

Anyway, I've been very curious about this new Noro sock yarn. Like many knitters, I find the Noro colorways stunningly gorgeous, but the yarn quality is iffy. My first impression of the sock yarn is that it's Noro. Eye candy all the way, but a little crunchier than you want it to be. And it's a single ply with a thick-and-thin variable strand, which worries me a little, though I have to say that the gauge swatch in the shop yielded a nice even fabric. So the varying thickness of the single ply may not matter much.

The yarn is probably not next-to-the-skin soft. I expect it might soften up after laundering, but maybe not. I intend to use my skein to make a scarf, not socks, so it's not much of an issue except for the wear on my hands during knitting.

How It Looks (Cringe)

I can't believe I'm posting pictures of my crappy mutant crochet for anyone to see. Told you I suck at this.

I finished the first two balls of Encore today and started the next two. Right now, the blanket is about 7" long and my wrist is beginning to protest. There's so much more twisting in crochet than in knitting. I may have to cool it tomorrow. My goal is to get past 8" by the end of the day Thursday, but I won't make that goal if my hand has to go in the splint. That's my big fear with this project. Return of tendonitis.

I have six balls of each color, and the first pair of balls yielded 6.5" of fabric. So that means the existing yarn will make a 39" blanket. I'd like it just a few inches longer than that, so I'll pick up an extra ball of the pink to do a border and edging.

According to the imprecise timing method I've been using, I'm averaging about 40 minutes per full row of color (one row of worms plus one row of shells). Each full row is right around a half inch. That means I'm looking at around 54 hours of crocheting time PLUS the border.

All of which just makes me appreciate my grandmother even more. When I think of all the blankets she made, OMG. Every one of us got a twin sized one to take to college and a full sized one as a wedding shower gift. Plus random surprise afghans when we'd happen to redecorate or something. Thousands of hours, miles and miles of yarn. Tell you what. Her wrists must have been a lot sturdier than mine!