robknits

I'm in love

I had a wonderful reminder this past weekend of why I moved to San Antonio: The Southwest School of Art and Craft.  Take a look here.

I spent Saturday and Sunday, from 10 am to 3 pm,  in a tapestry weaving studio in a converted Ursuline convent on the Riverwalk.  I could not believe how perfect it was.

"the school’s Ursuline Campus is the former home of the Ursuline Academy & Convent, originally founded in 1851 as the first school for girls in San Antonio. On this campus are the school’s extensive ceramics and weaving studios, its Young Artist Program area, and the tranquil gardens, arching pecan trees, and historic buildings that make the school San Antonio ’s “downtown oasis.”

That was the first weekend of a three-weekend class run by Liza Collins.  We are working on Ashford floor looms.  My own tapestry-in-the-works is a mishmash of experiments, can't be said to have a design, but I am learning tons and having a wonderful time.  They surprise me every time it is announced that it is already 3 pm.  The format of three weekends in a row is also great -- intensive sessions in the studio, but I am not forced to commit huge chunks of time for months from now.  One of the other members of the class is another teacher at the SWS, Regina Sanders, who is the assistant director of the Young Artists Program.  Her first tapestry, her first, was a group portrait of the women in her family dating back to her great grandmother, and is just spectacular. 

I am loving it, and am working on some designs for future tapestries.  I hope to sign up for the fall class (assuming there is one in the evenings or on weekends, I think there is), and that will give me a whole semester to work on a project. 

Of course, whenever I am called upon to come up with a design my mind goes blank.  Never mind that I have been collecting ideas for tapestries for years now.  Some folks react to exams that way, I react to design requests that way.  But I have been spending time I would normally spend knitting going through folders of clippings and ideas, and I have resurrected the sketch book that had, oh, about a 3 week life span.  That revived those ideas, and I am going to be working on creating collages with either paper or fabric to form a "cartoon" for the next tapestry project.  The cartoon in tapestry is usually a drawing that is pinned behind the warp to provide guidance to the weaver.  Since I cannot CANNOT draw what I see in my head, I decided to overcome that terror by using collage.  That lets me get into color right away too.  And thus instead of being paralyzed when asked for a design at the start of fall term, I can whip out some possibilities to discuss with the teacher.   So I am loving the location, the class, and tapestry weaving.  The studio is air conditioned, thank the gods, because early morning temperatures are 80 degrees with 79% humidity, and by afternoon the temperatures are in the mid- to high-90s.

Given all that, I have been thinking longingly of both the Campanula and the Swirl projects.  Tomorrow evening is a Knit Club night at Yarnivore, and I am looking forward to both the company and the knitting. 

Campanula Redux

     Found it!  Under bags and bags of aran and bulky weight yarns. (Yes, Rob, you must have put it there.  No one else here moves bags of yarn.  Don't even ask why.)  GREAT news, since that is really what I want to be knitting.  Warm-weather yarn, lace design... perfect.  Especially once I moved it from the Addi Turbo needles to Knitpicks Harmony.  My hands had been aching after knitting Campanula, so, building on my experience with Sockotta and the laminated wood Harmony needles, I knit it off the Addis and on to the Harmony.  I got gauge with size 3 Addis, and the Harmony are supposedly the exact same size.  I know there could be changes in the results on different needles, but nothing is apparent.  I discovered I made it past the beginning of the shaping for armholes, and actually had carefully marked on the pattern what I had done and still had the row marker pinned to the sweater (miracle of miracles!) so I knew exactly where I was and was able to take off from there.  One and a half more repeats of one of the charts and the back will be done.  I am still thinking of modifying the sleeves but that might depend on how much yarn I have left when I get there.  The faint stripes you see, by the way, are my lifelines.  I guess I can take out those earlier ones, huh?

     More good news: the Filatura di Crosa Mirto I bought in California turns out to be exactly the same weight and gauge as Katia Savanna, and the Katia 56 book I bought has several patterns for that yarn. 

     I also updated the stash section of my Ravelry notebook (I am Robknits on Ravelry, of course).  The stash album here on the blog is actually a collection of the oldest/oddest of my yarns, with just a few exceptions.  There is even more in the stash closet, and I want to add them to my Ravelry stash album gradually.  I am still waffling about selling some of the aran weight wool I have, but should probably wait until I go through a south Texas winter before I do anything rash.  And of course, this winter is going to involve trips to the mid-Atlantic states to visit friends and family, a conference in Colorado...  I really do not want to get rid of that gorgeous aran and worsted weight wool  A pile of gorgeous Lamb's Pride Worsted in Peacock (IMHO, some of the most beautiful yarn ever produced), two lots of tweedy Froehlich Bergschaf, a surprising number of skeins (small lots in different colors) of Rowan Magpie, Noro Silk Garden...  It might be more fun to knit that yarn in the cooler months and plan winter trips up north. 

     I am off to rummage around in the yarn closet to see if there are any stray balls of the Elann Callista I am using for Campanula.  I am also going to use the Tour de Fleece to help motivate me to get the wheels set up and put in a little time spinning on the neverending fuschia silk and the new Jacaranda on the spindles.

Yarn hunting in southern California

     Martha and I met via online knitting communities when it turned out we both were headed to the same library conference. Now meeting up and going yarn hunting is a regular, and wonderful, part of the annual conference for me.  Since she accompanies her husband, who attends the conference, and they always make sure to have some fun during the trip, she often has a car.  So we left the Anaheim convention center and headed off to find yarn.  First we went to Suzoo's.  In a way, Suzoo's is a surreal experience.  You pull into a maze of one-story office buildings.  A small sign, no window displaying yarn...  Full of doubts, we opened the door and walked into an alternate universe.  A yarn store three rooms deep, loaded with great yarn, a lot of which I have not seen elsewhere.  Claudia Handpainted Linen.  All kinds of Austermann yarns.  Filatura di Crosa.  We had a wonderful time, to the tune of more money than we meant to spend.  I ended up buying 9 skeins of Berroco Cotton Twist in a lovely teal (yes, of course) color.  Aegean. The goal is to use it for a hot-weather top, maybe a shell.  It depends on whether I can find a few more skeins in the same dye lot.   I also bought two skeins of Noro Daria, which they were selling at an incredibly low price.  The Daria is cotton and rayon turned into cord.  People seem to use it mostly for bags.  I bought it for experiments.  Maybe jewelry.  Maybe a wall thingie.  I also had a chance to try on the Shizuka kimono -- the store was full of items knit up from patterns.  I have admired this pattern for a while, but was worried about being overwhelmed by huge kimono armholes.  But... it looked great.  This kimono uses a square armhole that hangs very nicely, though I will have to shorten the sleeves by about a foot.  They made it out of a dk weight wool knit at 5 st/in and it was very light and draped very gracefully.  Other patterns I bought: Dovetail Designs' Cap sleeve sweater -- really a tee, designed for ribbon yarn and with some very nice shaping at the waist and shoulder.  And both Martha and I bought the Sausalito cardigan pattern.  Martha bought some gorgeous yarn there as well.  I also loved that when they handed me my purchases, it was not in a plastic bag -- instead they use these nylon bags that will be useful for all kinds of things now that I am home.

     That, of course, was not the end of the yarn hunting trip.  We stopped at another store that we found less interesting, though I found another pattern: a lace wrap cardigan that has buttons on the side instead of a tie.  Then we headed to Laguna Beach to our final stop.  But oh my, Laguna Beach.  The Pacific Ocean, California architecture -- very charming, very fun.  I think Martha intended to head back with her husband.  We found Strands & Stitches right on the street along the coast, and shopped the very interesting yarn with ocean breezes coming through the open door.  That's where I found some Filatura di Crosa Mirto, a cotton, linen and rayon blend yarn, in a lovely sage green.  I am fixating on cotton-blend and linen-blend yarns now, figuring out how to be a knitter in south Texas.  I bought all they had in that color, and was worried it would not be enough (thinking of knitting a shell) so I bought a skein in a cream color and will be creative with a trim or stripe or something. 

     Also added to the stash: Katia magazine, number 52, which had, oh, about 5 patterns I am interested in making.  When was the last time I found so many patterns of interest, and that even had a broad enough range of sizes?  So I snatched it up.

     Though I brought knitting with me on the trip, I did not actually do any.  Instead I walked (the heat wave in SoCal felt cool after 3 months in San Antonio), and had a wonderful time eating and drinking with friends from around the country.  Oh, and attending professional sessions at the conferece.  Really not an afterthought -- that part of the trip was very good as well.  So now I am dedicating myself to the house and to new friends this holiday weekend, and to figuring out what I really WANT to knit, as opposed to what I am actually knitting.  When I figure it out, I will let you know.

News, reviews and hexagons

     Not much blogging going on here chez Rob, but there has been some knitting.  First the news:  one complete Sockotta sock, completed on an unbroken wooden needle.   I knit this toe up, as usual, until I decided not to knit it anymore.  I began my usual K1P1 rib and then decided I didn't like it, so I just did a sewn bind-off without any intermediary steps.  Knitting this was fun -- the yarn does not produce the moaning sounds knitting with handpainted 100% merino can produce, or merino and silk, or merino and mohair... ahem.  But it was fun, and quick and did not hurt my hands.  And the size 1 Knitpicks Harmony needle is also just fine, thank you.  No bend, no breaking.  So I started this one's mate, just in time to take it on a trip with me.  Another good reason to use Harmony needles -- they don't scare anyone in airports.  I do like wearing the cotton blend socks I have made, so I foresee more Sockotta in my future.  Especially since the colors as they appear in the skein have always attracted me.  Here's a picture of the sewn bind-off you can embiggen if details appeal to you.  

     The review.  Did the latest Vogue Knitting just come out, or did I miss it due to moving pyschosis?  Did anyone notice the amazing fact that the shape of the Kaffe Fassett sweater does NOT resemble a cozy for a Volkswagon Beetle?  In fact, it has SHAPING!  I have always been tempted to knit one of his projects and then hang it on the wall as art.  I still remember realizing that one that I loved was marked "one size fits all" and measured 57" around.  Actually should have been marked "one size fits no one."  Though Erma Bombeck said it best when she asked "One size fits all what?"

    This issue was very interesting and full of creative design, if not very wearable for me.  There are some gorgeous items for very thin people, like the shrug worn with a wedding dress.  The one that went on my gotta-make-it list, though, is the last one in the thumbnails on the Vogue Knitting magazine web page, the blue lace tunic.  I am already considering yarns.  I'd love to do it from stash, especially since I have been hands on with that stash since realizing I was going to move.

     In the meantime, the lovely yarn on the left (Jojoland Melody in colorway 8) is slowly becoming the first few of the 80-something hexagons that make up the swirl stole.  Each hexagon is only 16 rows and once I got the right needles, and found a row counter, it went pretty smoothly.  The right needles were Knitpick Harmony double points, so I am knitting Melody with Harmony. Ha!

 Despites my doubts about the color before I started, I am really liking how it is developing.  But since there are 80 something hexagons to knit, I don't know how quickly this one will get done, even though I am not going to have to sew the hexagons together.  That sort of thing does not happen chez Rob.   Though again, this will be good travel knitting. It is still very small, and I can amaze the muggles by knitting with 4 brightly colored needles. 

An archaeology of my knitting

     A generous gift from family came in the mail the other day -- a gift card to Lowes, the ideal gift for someone in a new home.  One of the first purchases I have made using it was another garment rack for the yarn closet.  That also provided motivation for getting back to work in that room, making it usable.  That in itself should be motivation, but I am more than a little tired of the moving in/unpacking stage.  Anyway, I DID use the new garment rack to get started in there again, since it gave me more shelf space (hanging canvas sweater shelves) and allowed me to unpack and organize more yarn.  That, and starting the swirl stole, created a sort of fractured fairytale trip in the knitting wayback machine.

     First, I decided that knitting the hexagons or circles for the swirl shawl really would work best on double pointed needles.  A little nudge from the wayback machine, and the unpacking process, reminded me that in my knitting prehistory I had in fact collected more than a few sets of double-pointed needles.  At one point, learning to maneuver with dpns was one of my (achieved) knitting goals, though it took a mitten project on size 8 Bryspun needles to do it.  Those needles are great for learning to use dpns.  But, of course, one of the principal knitting corollaries to Murphy's Law struck -- I didn't have the size I needed.  Even though I had them all (or most of them anyway) organized this way.   So I started my first circle on a larger size -- size 7 -- but immediately missed the sharp pointed of the Knitpicks needles.  And since this pattern does a lot of K2togs and K3togs, I really missed the sharp points.  So I am waiting for some Knitpick Harmony dpns to arrive. 

     The return to organizing the yarn closet meant continuing to excavate through the historical layers of my knitting.  I found two projects abandoned long ago.  One is a pullover from an old Welcomme Pernell pattern book that I adored when I first started to knit.  Warning: that was in the 1980s.  Every sweater in that book is huge and oversized.  Except this one, a very nice pullover in DK weight yarn in reverse stockinette with staggered cables.  The yarn is Sirdar's Denim Tweed DK, a cotton, acrylic and wool mix.  Only 15% wool, and probably a VERY wearable yarn in San Antonio. (Well, not today -- it is 100 degrees F out there, but sometime in the future.  They promise the heat will let up... in October.)  If I remember correctly, I was unhappy with how the yarn showed all the uneveness in the reverse stockinette, and I think I also found that the yarn split easily as I knit.  The cables look really good though The size I was making will no longer fit.  So I am going to frog the piece I have done, and use the yarn for another project.  No heartache about it at all, just another opportunity to think of a good project for this yarn.

      Another layer at the yarn dig came up with this WIP/UFO.  The yarn is Gedifra Wellness, which I am pretty sure I bought at Elann.com.  The pattern is from an issue of Sandra magazine I found while at a library conference in Colorado.  A bunch of knitters got together and did a yarn crawl, though I actually found the magazine at a wonderful bookstore called the Tattered Cover.  I am not sure why I stopped working on this one.  I will take some measurements and maybe go ahead and finish it.  I like working with the yarn, which is a cotton and acrylic blend.  I was working this in the round and I think I am at armholes.  For some reason, I tend to stop projects there.  So I am going to dig around for that magazine, figure out where I was, and see if I can finish it.  One problem of course is that I may end up with a line in the knitting where the old work ended and the new work begins.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Lots of knitters chimed in, on the Knitters Review forums, on Ravelry, and via e-mail, about short rows on a cardigan.  I am going to finish thinking my way through all the info that was sent, and will post my understanding of how I can add short rows to the Pearl Buck swing jacket.  Now though I am going to go back to the shovel and pick and continue to dig through the layers of my knitting.

Conundrum, with short rows

The picture is not the conundrum.  It is a piece of stained glass that I bought a couple of weeks ago at the Texas State Arts and Crafts sale in Kerrville.  There was almost no fiber-based art at the fair at all, but I kept running into women who use blow torches and work with glass and metal   The artist who created this, Jan whose-last-name-Ijust-forgot, will be at next week's Texas Folk Life festival too.  I will make sure to pick up another of her cards.

The conundrum is about the Pearl Buck Swing jacket from Interweave Knits's Winter 2005 issue.  There are actually two conundrums.  The first involved my idea about lengthening it a bit.  I didn't think of that til I had already completed one side of the front up to the beginning of the armhole.  So if I want to lengthen it, I need to go straight up for a bit, though I don't think I would do it for more than 2 inches.  This blog entry by Bluestocking Knits, in what was apparently a knitalong for this jacket, mentions some concerns about lengthening a jacket that has a yoke and a pleat in back.  I still think it would be possible to lengthen it below the armholes and the yoke, but that pleat would need to be taken into account.  So then I thought, I don't need to lengthen it, I need to do some shortrows on the fronts of the cardigan so that the front will hang at the same length of the back despite my much curvier front.

And there's the conundrum.  I have quite a library of directions and instructions and explanations about short rows but I don't think a single item mentions doing this for cardigans. Usually when using short rows to create bust darts, the instructions talk about knitting them across the front piece of the sweater.  You work the extra rows from point to point, so to speak.  So, in a cardigan, do you make a separate pouch for each side of the cardigan?  Somehow divide the short row section in half so that it actually does continue across the entire front of the cardigan?  Does anyone know?

In addition, the band of the cardigan is knit along with the fronts, and has a charming design knit into it that is worked, of course, across a predetermined number of rows.  I could certainly incorporate the design of the bands if I were working separate short row sections for each side of the cardi -- basically the band would be put on hold as the short rows were being worked, and in the row when I return to working all the way across the piece I would work the next row of the design.  Right? 

I love this design, but think I especially need those short row sections on a short swing jacket.  So please chime in with recommendations.

And on the shawl/stole front, I have decided to use the purple copper novelty yarn for something other than the Lattice lace shawl.  Bascially because I found a stockinette swatch I did with this yarn and it is stunning.  So I am going to develop a stole pattern that uses a lot of stockinette for this particular yarn, and go back to the lattice lace stole some other time.  I also fell in love with Knitty's Jeanie, a wrap that uses fingering weight yarn, cables and drop stitches, but I am trying to resist buying 3 skeins of Dream in Color Smooshy.  Though I think it is a perfect yarn for that pattern.  I can feel my resistance dropping, oozing from my pores.  The only fingering weight I have enough of for this pattern is the self-striping Jojoland Melody, which I bought for another shawl.  And I don't think self striping is right for Jeanie.  I also have enough of Knitpicks Gloss in burgundy.  A gorgeous yarn, but I want something with subtle color changes or a heathery look.  OK.  I think I'll try to find the pattern I bought to use with the Jojoland.  That way, I can start something cool, use yarn I have already bought, and put off the purchase of the Smooshy for a bit.  Anyone taking bets on the odds of my actually doing this?  I might, because that would mean working on this intriguing stole:

You can see it at the Jojoland site, at knittingsoftware.com where Carol Wulster also has some notes about knitting it, and at the Knitting Zone, where I bought the yarn and the pattern.  All I have to do is find the pattern, which gives me some much needed motivation to tackle more organizational tasks here at the house.

Tagged!

     A knitting retreat!  The folks at Yarnivore have organized a knitting retreat for the fall at the very beautiful Mo-Ranch retreat.  A weekend someplace beautiful designed to let knitters be with other knitters and focus on their knit-work.  My registration was my birthday present to myself.  I think we still need 2 more participants to make this happen, so I have my fingers crossed.  Just 2!  If you are reading this from within an easy drive of San Antonio, make sure to register ASAP.

     While I was at Yarnivore I showed Mel the yarn I am spinning, since I bought the merino-silk roving at the store.  I said I didn't know what size yarn I was spinning, and she unwound a  bit and said, "Oh, a variegated weight."  Um.  Not deliberately, though I have to admit that last bit was a bit thin.  That little bit, anyway, is going to get fluffed out and respun.  I do want to develop a more even result to my spinning on drop spindles, but I suppose that will come with more practice and a bit of attention.  So I am going to work on that as I continue to spin this roving.  She plied a bit back onto itself so we could see what it looked like, and it seemed a bit drab -- hard to imagine, given what the roving looks like.  But then I remembered that I am splitting the roving lengthwise, and will NOT be plying this part back on itself, but with another colorful strip from another part of the roving.  So now I am eager to get a lot of this done.

     Instead, though, I went to bed last night at 7:30.  I am living up to my reputation of catching every little thing that goes around, and some local virus has hit.  Although I am still living on yogurt and applesauce because of the accompanying sore throut, I am hoping to go to a French film called Hors de prix, or Priceless.  It will be my introduction to what appears to be an interesting movie theater here in San Antonio.  The film stars Audrey Tautou, who starred in Amelie, a film I have really enjoyed each time I've watched it.  So the spinning will be put off for another day.

And Martha tagged me!  We meet up at library conventions to do fiber stuff, so I will play along.

"The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer."

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Hmm.  That was Spring 1998.  I was finishing an MLS (master's of library science) degree at Indiana University Bloomington, and preparing to move to State College PA to take a job at Penn State.  In fiber, I don't think I was doing much those days.

 2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

• Find someone to help clean up my yard after years of neglect. 
• Clean off my desk at work.
• Read "Electronic Book Usage at a Master's Level I University: A Longitudinal Study"
• Go see the movie Priceless.
• Blog. :>

3) Snacks I enjoy:

      Fresh fruit.  Dried fruit.  Cookies with fruit.  Fruit sorbet. Trail mix with nuts and dried fruit.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

• Buy a beautiful house somewhere green, beautiful, near the water and near an active arts community.
• Study fiber arts seriously, if not formally.  Buy just the right floor loom.
• Find ways to use that money for progressive social action.
• Travel comfortably and often... Italy, Spain, Morocco, Viet Nam, Argentina ...

5) Places I have lived:

      Long Island, Rochester NY, Mexico City, New York City, Toronto, Urbana IL, Madison WI, Pittsburgh, State College PA, San Antonio.

6) Jobs I have had:

• ESL teacher
• Spanish teacher
• textbook copy editor
• media studies professor
• librarian

I am going to tag:

Kim, Ivete, Ev, Laritza, and Phiala.  I have mixed feelings about tagging folks with memes, but I hope you all enjoy it.

Busy

I wrote a long blog entry with photos and links and Typepad lost the whole thing.  Snarl.  Emailed apology notwithstanding, snarl.  It's driving me a bit nuts tonight too.

But. I'm trying again.  In the continuing projects arena, the Sockotta sock is speeding along.  I am past the heel and onto the leg of the sock.  I was going to use a garter rib pattern, but didn't much like how it looked with the self-striping yarn, so I ended up going back to an old favorite of mine.  Row 1: Knit around.  Row 2: K3, P1.  For an example of what this looks like on a solid-colored sock, take a look at Knitty's Thuja. Looks really nice with the self-striping yarn, and is going very quickly.  And I have still not broken the Harmony needle.  This sock actually fits really well, thus breaking my streak of carefully knitting socks that don't quite fit.  I am breaking another rule, by knitting this sock before knitting sock 2 of the Moving Socks, and by not rewinding the large skein of yarn into two balls so I can knit both of these socks at the same time.  'S OK, though, since I only have one of the Harmony size one needles.  But I do have to finish both pairs before actually casting on for yet another pair of socks.  The threat of SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) is just too scary.  I was going to use a heel stitch on this sock but as usual forgot as I started the back of the heel.  I like how the stripe worked out on the heel

The urge to spin has been lurking in the background for weeks.  With the studio room still in chaos, I have not yet set up the Columbine wheel, and the new-to-me Suzie is under a table.  But the drop spindles are lined up and ready to go. 

 It is fun looking at them lined up as shown in the picture below but this is not a great way to store them -- the heaviest part of the spindle is of course the whorl, and so if I touch any of them they fall off the shelf.  Left to right we have:

• One of my favorites, my little Jenny, a bird's eye maple spindle from Red Barn Farm.  It weighs an ounce and it has been great for spinning the fuschia handpainted silk roving I got a few years ago at Maryland Sheep and Wool.  A very reasonably priced spindle too that has the longest spin of any of my spindles.
• The Greensleeves Bare Bones.  A great basic spindle.  It weighs, according to my postal scale, about 2 oz.  My only problem is that the hook now spins inside the spindle.  The Greensleeves folks told me to send it back for a tune up but I haven't been able to bring myself to do that.  Very dumb.  Now that I want to, their website is missing lots of info, like their address. 
• Above the Bare Bones is the Greensleeves Tom Foolery.  Very pretty.  The postal scale says it weighs about 1.5 oz.
• Then, pretty but not much for spinning, is that little one made of two stone whorls.  It doesn't spin for very long at all.
• The next big, beautiful whorl belongs to Hatchtown's Amelia, bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool two years ago.  I raced over to their booth last year to buy another, but they hadn't shown up.  No new spindles are available on their website either.  If I remember correctly, it weighs about as much as the Tom Foolery.
• So, since I couldn't buy another Hatchtown in at the 2007 MDSW, I bought that beautiful spindle next to it at the Turnstyles booth.  That white wood is holly.  I haven't used it yet because it doesn't have a notch in the whorl for the yarn.  I need to find instructions for using a top-whorl spindle without a notch, or find a woodworker to put one in for me.  It weighs an ounce, which means I can use it to spin some of the other batches of handpainted silk waiting in the stash.

Finally, I picked up the Hatchtown Amelia and the gorgeous merino-silk roving I bought at Yarnivore last month (turns out it is Louet/Gaywool roving in the Jacaranda colorway) and started spinning.  To preserve the colors I stripped the roving into pretty thin strips, so that I didn't have to do much predrafting.  When you gently pull the strands to predraft, the colors blend a bit.  Spinning strips helps preserve the color variations. 

I am finding this easy to spin on the Amelia.  In fact, it might be a bit overspun, but since I am going to ply it, and that involves spinning it in the opposite direction, that's OK -- it should unspin a bit during that process.  The Amelia is much heavier than the Jenny, letting me spin a thicker yarn, and that is probably contributing to the overspinning.  But it doesn't spin for as long as the Jenny, or at least I haven't gotten it to that point yet.  I have 4 oz., I think, of this merino-silk in the Jacaranda colorway.  I haven't yet figured out what weight yarn I am spinning, though whatever it is I have been pretty consistent. 

I am still spinning the fuschia silk on the Jenny.  Once I fill the cop this time though, I am eager to try plying it.  I have a lot of it left to spin, but I am going to ply together what I have already spun and see what sort of yarn I have come up with.  I am thinking of knitting this into Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy scarf/shawl.  Some research is needed though -- everyone seems to use a heavier spindle to ply, which I suppose makes sense since the yarn you are working with is now twice as heavy (two strands of the original spinning).  I have to figure out which spindle I would use. 

I can't tell you how great it felt to find the following:

Hard to work without your tools!

As far as I can tell, I could find a knitting meet-up in San Antonio on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, a couple of Fridays a month, and Saturdays.  Some minor health problems have kept me home and going to bed at 8 pm, so I have missed a week's worth of meet ups, and miss other knitters.  I need to catch up!  Tuesday will be the first chance I have.  In the meantime I am going to keep knitting and spinning in an effort to keep from scratching the itchy spot a new vaccine gave me.  But I am going to be sneaky -- I am going to STOP looking for the missing Campanula project.  'Cause the minute I stop looking, I'll find it.

Doing what I said I would do.

Well, not so much.

A number of WIPs were reunited with their patterns.  Caches of knitting notions were unearthed and organized (where did all those crochet hooks come from?).  WIPs with their patterns found nooks in an artistic tower of wicker baskets next to the couch.  It was actually possible to sit down and knit.

So I did.  But not, of course, on any of the WIPs.  First, I had to try an experiment.  At Yarnivore, a member of the Alamo City Knitters gang suggested trying different needles when I said knitting with the cotton-blend sock yarns made my hands ache.  I remembered how I had snapped every wood or bamboo size 1 needle  I had ever used.  But... a brand new Harmony wood laminate size 1 needle had arrived in the mail from Knitpicks. You see, I was already thinking about trying it out, remembering from somewhere that laminated wood tends to be stronger than plain wood or bamboo.  So I picked up the Sockotta I bought at Yarnivore and the new needle... and WOW.  I have most of the foot of the first sock done.  And I have not broken the needle.  No real ache in my right hand either.  I had bought, in the same order, the Harmony tips in sizes 5 and 6, and I am about to go back and order some more in other sizes, as well as more size 1 circular needles.   The Sockotta sock went with me to the doctor's office and the lab for a blood test today (sinus infection #376,421,686.  Or is it 376,421,687?).  Considering there were no magazines in the lab waiting room, that was a life saver.

I also was able to go ahead and start another project that had been percolating for quite some time.  Several years ago, when I treated myself to Stitches West, I bought some gorgeous yarn at the Newton's Yarn Country booth that I have tried to photoraph several times, unsuccessfully,  for the blog. Here's another attempt.  (The yarn is actually more purple and less blue than this appears on my screen.)  It is one of their novelty yarns, with a contents label that makes it sound like it has a bit of every known fiber in its make-up.  Visibly identifiable ingredients include mohair and rayon.  The right pattern just never appeared.  Recently though it occurred to me that I might like to do Lou's Lattice Lace Wrap in this yarn.  Lou calls for Knitpicks' alpaca lace yarn.  The purple and copper mystery yarn is heavier than that.  Last night I wrapped it around a ruler, decided it gets 16 wraps per in (wpi), and went to look up what that translates into in knitting weights.  Turns out 16 wpi is a fingering weight.  So I pulled out the new size 6 Harmony needle tips and cast on.  The combination of yarn and pattern might work very well, and the wrap will be larger than one done in lace weight.  I am close to done with the garter border, so will see soon how the yarn looks in the lace pattern.  I am not adding beads -- this yarn has occasional flashes of shiny stuff in it already.  Now, though, I want more of the Harmony laminate needles. :>  Lucky Kim, she got a complete set as a Christmas gift!

What's new

     OK, Kim is demanding a healthy rate of blog growth.  Here's a capsule summary of life chez Rob.  San Antonio is sunny and warm, but it actually did rain -- really rain -- two nights in a row.  I didn't say much to Kim aboutu the weather when she called because she told me it had just snowed in central PA.  (I wanted to be nice.) The job is good, more than good.  The house feels like mine, but needed an air conditioning repairman yesterday, and still needs screens, a lawnmower, a landscaper, and some final unpacking.   On the reality side of life, what I thought was an allergy to whatever blew in with the storm might in fact be a cold, so instead of going to knitting group activities this weekend, I am sticking close to home.

     The knitting is still a bit up in the air.  Meeting with knitters encouraged me to get going, and I did start a sock with the Apple Laine Best Friends yarn.  Here is a picture -- as usual, I think sock toes are very cute.  But I decided at just this point in the knitting that I didn't want to do this one all in stockinette, so I have to decide what stitch pattern I am going to use.  The Apple Laine has brilliant colors and a very luxurious hand.  Thanks again Kim! 

     I found both the beginnings of the second Moving sock and the finished first sock.  I do not remember why the yarn on the sock in progress was broken, but I am going to use this as the carry-around knitting project.  The stitch pattern I used on the first sock was a K3P1 rib which is easy to do in stolen moments.

     I found: all the red sock yarn, two more hanging sweater shelves used to store yarn, and a lot more aran weight, the Victorian Lace book, and more knitting magazines.  At this point I am out of shelves and containers, so dealing with all that came to a halt.  This weekend I will buy more clear storage containers for the aran weight yarn another garment rack; I will put together a closet shelf unit sitting in the middle of the studio; and I will create work spaces in there.  I also found some old WIPs/UFOs, and one, which was on the frog list, now seems like a brilliant choice for life in San Antonio.  This cardi is done (in one piece) up to the underarms.  I used Henry's Attic Monte Cristo II combined with a mystery carryalong that my former LYS had.  It was from a Vogue Knitting pattern that I now have to find again, but I think it was the cover sweater so that shouldn't be too hard.  I think it was on the frog list because it just seemed inappropriate for central PA.  Or because I was sick of it.  Don't remember.  I do like the way the two yarns came together.  Here they are individually.  

     My goal for the weekend is to put projects back together by rejoining patterns and yarns that got separated in the move.  That of course will let me get going again on projects.

     On other fronts: I went to two concerts this past week.  In one, the San Antonio Symphony shared its music stands with members of the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio to play Stravinsky's Ballet of the Elephants.  A fun, free concert at Trinity University.  Then on Monday night I went with some of the same people to hear a quartet called Soli.  Three of its members are also San Antonio Symphony players.  They specialize in modern and contemporary classical music, a genre I would have told you I dislike.  Actually, I always felt I just couldn't hear it, couldn't figure out what was going on.  This quartet played at a local art gallery, with seating for maybe 50 or 60 people in folding chairs.  The music was fascinating -- I was completely absorbed for the entire concert.  They played pieces by John Adams, Hindemith and Elliot Carter (I didn't love the Carter as much as the others).  The cellist played a solo piece written by Crumb.  It was great.   

     I was sorry to miss the knitting club at Yarnivore last night, and I am going to miss the monthly potluck dinner of the Alamo City Knitters tonight.  Not as depressing as it might have been, since there is such a dynamic knitting community in San Antonio -- I can catch up with them again on Tuesday!