robknits

More weaving, and lots of Magpie

 First, the picture of the Magpie.  This is Rowan Magpie that I appear to have accumulated in pieces over the years.  Some of it was acquired when in a moment of insanity I decided I was going to knit a Rowan jacket whose name I have forgotten -- it looks like a Kilim, and required combined stranded and intarsia knitting with something like 14 different yarns.  I now acknowledge I am not going to knit this jacket, as much as I would love to own it.  Other skeins of Magpie I acquired at my LYS.  Anyway, I am destashing all but the Oatmeal colored Magpie (I still plan on using some of it for a vest, with some Noro Shinano, swatched ages ago).  It is on my Sell or Trade stash page on Ravelry, or you can email me if you are interested.   The Antique Gold colored skeins are not Magpie, by the way -- they are Rowan's Designer DDK.  Also for sale.

The online community of fiber artists came to the rescue via the Yahoo!Group Tapestry2005, where a member suggested turning my tapestry-in-progress upside down (the benefits of working on a small loom) and beating the bottom edge straight.  I did that, retied the string of knots supposed to hold it level to the sides of the frame, and wove in a metal ruler below the knots, to help form a base.  I am continuing to weave the image.  You know how in knitting you have to modify an image to make up for the shape of the stitch?  Otherwise the image comes out oddly elongated.  I am running into a bit of that in my tapestry weaving and need to pay more attention to the shapes that result, so that I can weave greater width into my images.  That first tapestry, the Northern City Lights, suffers from that, with the image elongated and not wide enough.  I am now thinking about a more satisfying image (to me) to represent that Northern City Lights idea.

I also succumbed to my latest weaving obsession and bought, as I suggested in the last entry, a rigid heddle loom.  I chose the Glimakra Emilia after my usual obsessive search for information.  I deliberately chose a rather narrow loom (15" weaving width, I think) and one that was reviewed as having a good (i.e., relatively large) shed and a good tension device.  My goal is to "weave close to the thread" as Betty Linn Davenport said on Syne Mitchell's podcast about rigid heddle weaving.  An early birthday present for myself.  Now I want to create a record of my weaving stash, since I have accumulated some weaving yarn/thread, so I am looking forward to the start of Weavolution, which is going to be a Ravelry-like online resource for weavers.  Just as I do on Ravelry for knitting, I will be able to inventory stash, projects, get ideas, communicate with weavers, etc.  I am looking forward to it!  The Beta testing is going to happen in June.

Knitting is continuing on the Sausalito jacket.  I am kinda ready to be done, but I still have both sleeves and the left front to knit, so I can't run out of steam now.  I am knitting the first sleeve -- it is pretty mindless knitting at this point if I pay attention to which row I am on, so I am getting it done in front of the tv.

We are enduring a historically extreme drought here in San Antonio but it has been drizzling on and off and really looks like rain.  Who knew rain could be so exciting!

Working my way back

     I couldn't resist.  After the very great satisfaction of finishing two pairs of socks, images of sugarplu some of the fancy sock yarns I bought this summer dancing in my head, I cast on with the Schaefer Anne.  While I used Anne for the Scotch Thistle stole this spring, this is the first time I have used it for socks.  Wow.  Double wow.

     First, a sock toe.  I actually have two of these, luxuriating in knitting both socks of a pair at the same time, but I only scanned one.  I use the wonderful Turkish cast on that Meg Swansen wrote about in Vogue Knitting.  I used to use Judy's magic cast on but this one is even easier.  And the yarn ... knit at its standard gauge, Anne is absolutely amazing.  This yarn is a mix of wool, mohair and nylon.  It is incredibly luxurious to the touch, just a tremendous pleasure to work (and pet).  And since mohair is known to be durable, I am hoping that the combination of mohair and nylon means these socks will be very long lasting.  That helps assuage my ... guilt?  embarrassment? horror? ... at the cost per pair of socks.  But wait!  This skein of yarn has something like 560 yards.  So who knows, I may get more than one pair from it.  That would be perfect.  It might be expecting too much but I was surprised at how much yarn I had left over from each of the two recently completed sock projects.  Hey, if I buy two skeins in the future, I would easily get 3 pair from the two skeins.  That would bring the price down per pair a bit.  Anyway, my pleasure in knitting with this yarn is tremendous.  I am getting a much smaller gauge than I usually do with sock yarn, so folks are right when they say it is lighter in weight than some fingering yarn, though it doesn't feel like it at all when you work it.  I am getting a great fabric using a US size #1 needle, getting about 10 stitches to the inch.  So this sock is being done on a few more stitches than I usually use -- the 60 stitches that did NOT work with the Opal yarn.

     As usual, I started the toes before I decided on the exact pattern I am going to use.  I decided I wanted something like  this, or this or this (though definitely not in that yarn.)  Notice anything about the three?  Yeah, I may have bought 3 very similar patterns.  So that leads me to a goal for this fall.  I seem to have a mental block preventing me from figuring out how to convert flat stitch patterns into circular patterns.  If I could figure that out, I could sit down with a standard stitch dictionary and create a gazillion sock patterns.  So that is my next knitting goal -- figuring that out.  My biggest problem is getting patterns to line up, but now that I am comfortable with charting, I hope that will help me get it right.  Actually, it seems like it would be pretty simple if I chart it.   

     Isn't there an image in one of the Harry Potter books or some other fantasy epic of someone plucking scattered flying objects out of the air and putting them in their place?  That's how I visualize my attempts to create some order in my life.  Not quite the effort of throwing myself bodily across the thing like they do putting away the quidditch equipment, but it is difficult -- as soon as I place a flying whatsit in its place it takes off again, darting across my life.  It takes constant routine attention to keep ordinary life going smoothly and I am terrible at constant routine attention.  Instead I tend to disengage.  I am feeling and sounding better because I am slowly re-engaging with things at the moment.  The completed socks show that I re-engaged with my knitting.  I am showing a surprising (to me) amount of engagement with my house.  Instead of moving (don't laugh -- I have done it before), I am actually dealing with issues with the house -- got an electrician in to deal with several problems, bought a new vacuum cleaner, participated in a yard sale that got rid of all kinds of things I should have gotten rid of years ago.  The big issue for me now is re-engaging with my job.  The beginning of the semester helped with that, and I have been more productive in the last couple of weeks, getting a satisfying number of things completed (and enjoying the work).  How silly is it that a knitting-obsessed, reading-obsessed unathletic middle-aged (!) woman is a sort of adrenalin junkie?  Turns out it doesn't always mean climbing mountains or gambling.  But the beginning-of-semester burst of energy doesn't last very long, and I need to find ways to motivate myself other than designing new careers!  So instead I took on an intern, got started on some projects that had been left in corners, and have made plans to start blogging about language for my library.  As a friend pointed out to me yesterday, I periodically re-engage with my cello.  As a matter of fact, that's been on my mind.  All I need to do first is dig out all the crap in piles in the study, to make room for the cello...   'scuse me, gotta go.

Oops

    Well.  That's the first time this has happened, with all the times I have stuffed my knitting into book bags, suitcases, shoulder bags.  A size 1 Addi Turbo.  Think I had better jump over to the Knitpicks page and order some size 1 circular needles. [Ack!!  They don't have any.]  I have lots and lots of size 0s, but have become very comfortable knitting socks on 1s.  The Smooshy sock yarn-in-waiting is going to be knit on 0s, since there is no nylon in that yarn but I can't do without my 1s. 
    Here in Centre County PA we have what we are told is the last of the old camping county fairs.  The Grange Fair, every August, consists of the usual county fair activities: cows, goats, rabbits are judged and sold. funnel cakes are eaten, 4H projects of all kinds are presented.  There are country music concerts and craft displays.  Tractors are sold.  There are also camp sites, most occupied by big tents into which families move for the duration of the week-long fair (here's a picture of one of the "streets").  These tent sites are in high demand with a waiting list that is years long.  I was told when I moved here 8 9 years ago that you basically have to inherit or marry into a tent site, and I know folks who basically grew up camping at the fair every year.  As a discussion on Knitters Review has pointed out, there are a growing number of knitting entries into the craft part of the show.  Kim and I both put items into the knitting category last year, and Kim won Best in Show, and I took a First.   The deadline for entering is this week, and I sent in my form.  I told them I would enter items in several categories: adult hats, child's hat, socks, scarves and stoles, women's vests, women's pullovers with sleeves ... I think there was one more.  I did this really in an attempt to motivate myself to finish the neverending vest for my mother and the sleeves on the Pacific Grove pullover.  I was going to show the pink Meilenweit socks, but realized when I tried them on the other day that I had done an eye-of-partridge heel on one sock and a stockinette heel on the other.  So probably no sock will go in.  At the very least, I have a hat and a stole (the Scotch Thistle).  The actual items have to be delivered to them in, I think, 3 weeks.  The Sunday of the fair some of the knitters will be gathering at Kim's family's tent.    I like to visit the lop-eared goats and rabbits, drink some lemonade, and check out the crafts.   There is no weaving category, but maybe next year I will have some weaving to put in to the "other" craft category.
     And as part of a major purge event at my house, I sold some gorgeous yarn that had been in the stash forever -- the Cross Country Green  Brown Sheep Handpaint solid.  After I sold it, of course, I had a moment of doubt (so beautiful) but I am glad I did it.  Other yarn may follow.

Back to knitting

    Well, my first stash sale went very smoothly.  The Knitters Review forums are a GREAT place to post knitterly things for sale or trade.  Tomorrow morning I am sending the Skaska laceweight yarn to Louisa, the Rowan DK Soft and A Season's Tale to Karen, the Philosopher's Wool book to Mimi, the Reyonold's Gypsy to Lynette, and needles to Amie. 
    Flushed with success, I HAD to buy some more yarn with the unexpected, uncommitted funds I earned selling off items that only caused guilt by sitting on the shelves.  So I headed out to my LYSes this afternoon, only to discover one of them (where I wanted to buy some Lavold Silky wool) closes at 4 pm! So I went to my other LYS to look for yarn for JustOneMoreRow's Pacific Grove pullover.  This is made very creatively with mitered squares, like most of this company's patterns.  I had originally started this in Henry's Attic white cotton boucle, but that first test square had no body whatsover.  So I went hunting at Stitch Your Art Out where Cynthia pointed out that the Harrisville Orchid Line Yarn I pet and drool over every time I go to the store would probably work just right.  So I got that!!!!  Whatta surprise, right?   The design of this sweater is very clever.  I am going to try, however, to get some projects done before I tackle it.  Well, of course I will make the first square, as a gauge, but I really truly am going to finish some things before I tackle the sweater.  So, with that in mind:

• I sent Carole Wulster a question about her Dusk through a Kaleidescope pattern.  I am now done with the body up to the neck shaping and wanted to be sure I understood the shaping and steek instructions for the neck.
• Someone on one of the mailing lists  (I think KnitU) asked when busy folks get their "real"  knitting work done.  Stuff that requires nerve and brain cells, I have to admit, have to wait til I have daytime to spend on them.  Tomorrow I am using some morning time to send off packages, as mentioned above.  But when I get back to the house, I have promised myself that I will sew together Mom's vest.  I could have that done tomorrow! Oh joy!
• The neverending Wildfoote socks will be finished tonight.   I have about an inch of calf pattern to go, plus about an inch of  k1p1 rib at the top.  I appear to have gone into sockfever remission -- I do NOT think I will  immediately jump into the next pair.  I could save that for the hot weather.

I am keeping my focus by imagining how great it will feel to have the socks, the vest, and Kaleidescope all done in the near future.  And both the Kaleidescope pattern and the Pacific Grove pattern both have you knit the sleeves onto the body of the sweater.  More joy!

My first stash sale

Hi everyone,

We interrupt this litany of unfinished projects to introduce my first stash sale.  Images or links to images provided when available.  You will see yarn, books, magazines, and eventually, needles on the list.

Business-y info: I would prefer a cash Paypal payment, but if you want to send a check, we will e-mail and arrange how to do it.  The buyers will pay shipping at the level of their choice.  Click on thumbnails for larger images.

Yarn

• Rowan DK Soft in color Flush (color is somewhere between rose and coral). 22 st and 24 rows over 4".  This is a discontinued Rowan yarn with a brushed look. 85% wool, 15% polyamid. 190 yds/ball. 9 balls (approximately 1710 yds) . Originally bought to make the large size (42.75" at the underarm) Jean Moss's Eriskay cardigan in Knitters  #60, Fall 2000.  All 9 balls for $40.

• Rowan Designer DK Wool. Color is Old Gold (690H) (see the color card at www.fiberartsshop.com/rwnwdkcd.htm ) 115 m/50 gr. ball. 7 balls. Sells for $5.95 a ball in yarn stores. Whole lot:  $30.  I will consider selling this in smaller lots.

• Skaska Designs, Laceweight Yarn, 80% silk, 20% cashmere, one 100 grms skein, 1600 yds.  Gorgeous handpaint (?) in mauve-ish purples to pinks.  Sells from Skaska for $59.  I would like $45.

• Reynolds Gypsy, 100% cotton, label says "20 st and 25 rows=4" on #6 needles, machine wash.  50 gram skeins = approx. 82 yds." 20 skeins. Color is denim.   Sells for $4.50 -$5.65 a skein in internet yarn stores ($90-$113).  Whole lot: $50.

Books:

• Philosopher's Wool Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified (paperback) Ann and Eugene Bourgeois  $10 + postage
• Sasha Kagan's Country Inspiration (hardcover) $10 + postage
  
• Kim Hargreaves A Season's Tale (paperback) $10 + postage

Magazines

• Knitters No. 54 Spring 1999 (sold out at www.knittinguniverse.com) - $7.50 + postage