Bye, Jeanie.

As you may remember, I decided to turn some lovely Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock into Jeanie.

After about two weeks of knitting, and a few mistakes, I got frustrated and didn’t love how it was coming out, so I pulled out my old issues of Interweave Knits and poured over them, looking for inspiration.

And I found it in the Swallowtail Shawl. I check out Ravelry, and found even more inspiration. There have been some beautiful interpretations of this pattern.

I almost immediately cast on. It’s been two days, and I’m almost one skein in.

The pattern is written for lace weight yarn, on Us4s. I’m using fingering on US7s. The pattern calls for 15 repeats of the main pattern. I’m doing 19. So it’ll be a larger shawl, which is nice, because it is why my Flower Basket shawl met its demise.

And it’s fun to knit! It’s much easier than the Flower Basket shawl so far. I haven’t reached the infamous “nups,” the little bobbles that are on the border lily-of-the-valley pattern. But I’m preparing.

That last one is kind of electric looking ’cause of the flash.

I think I made the right decision. I really love it. It’s making me rethink my lace moratorium.

Too much.

Last week, I went up to Massachusetts to visit Lindsey, and we had a yarn-filled weekend.

We drove two hours in the pouring rain to WEBS.  It was amazing and overwhelming.  We ran into Adrian of HelloYarn and Ravelry’s Jess (along with a group of their friends), walking out as we walked in.

We wandered the aisles, touching everything.

I bought enough yarn for a sweater, probably that DROPS Cardi that everyone’s making.  I also bought two skeins of Louet Gems in fingering weight, which will probably be some kind of colorwork mitts or mittens.  And two skeins of Malabrigo in Bobby Blue because I just couldn’t leave without some Malabrigo.

Afterwards, we braved the rain and had Tibetan food in Northampton for lunch.  They had amazing dumplings. Mmmm.

We drove home, and tried to stop at another yarn shop, in Lexington, but they were closed.  You can see how much rain there was at this point.

We made our way back to Salem, where we watched Woody Allen movies and knit.

The next day, I took some pictures of Lindsey modeling a scarf she knit, and we had coffee.  It was really, really windy, but not raining!

Yes, there’s a ship (the Friendship!) on the walk from Lindsey’s apartment to the coffee shop.  And this beautiful view.

Oh, and of course, there was some Queen Elizabeth playin’.

 It was a fabulous, Lindsey & yarn filled weekend.

Sick Day.

1pm this afternoon.

 

7pm this evening.

This is HARD!

But totally worth it. I almost (ALMOST) ripped it all out because it was looking funny a few rows in, but I’m glad I didn’t. It’s a knit I have to pay attention to, but fun. And beautiful! Dropping those first few stitches were a lot of fun.

What does this yarn want to be?

I got a pile of Rich Chocolate Malabrigo Worsted through a swap.  I’m not a big brown person, so normally this isn’t a color I would buy, and I think I’m having trouble seeing past the color.  What does this want to be?   It’s eight skeins.  More than enough for a sweater!  Lovely Malabrigo sweater…

The periwinkle in the back is enough Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock to make Jeanie.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but I’m currently studying to become a Celebrant, a trained ceremony expert and an ordained non-denominational minister.  My goal is to start my own business in the late Spring of 2008.  I will write and officiate original wedding ceremonies that reflect the beliefs, needs, values, cultural background, and personality of the couples.  I’m really excited!

For my graduation in May, we have been asked to bring a symbol that speaks to who we are as a Celebrant and as a person, something that is evocative of us and the journey we are about to embark on, as well as the path that has lead us here.  I am choosing to knit this shawl as a symbol of myself and my choice to become a Celebrant.  There’s a lot more to the choice, and I’ll write about that when I’ve finished the shawl.  But first I need to wind all of that yarn!

Oh, and if you are in New Jersey, and planning on getting married or know someone who is, and needs an officiant, let me know!  I’ll have a website up sometime in April with more information.

Scarf Exchange: Received! and Evangeline

You may remember that I took part in the Ravelry Scarf Exchange. The deadline to have the scarf mailed out was December 1 - and then the New Year came and went, and I had not heard from my pal or received a scarf.

In mid-January, I was assigned a wonderful angel in KnitMongrel form. And I received my package from her last week!

Waiting to be torn open!

Hurray for swap angels!

Inside was this beautiful multi-directional scarf made from Noro Kureyon. She enclosed the extra yarn as well, as well as some very good chocolate coins and a very cute Lantern Moon ladybug tape measure!

Thank you again, Alyssa, for not only sending me a hand knit beautiful scarf, but also for making this exchange for me! You’re all kinds of awesome.

Still dazed from the commute

I recently finished a pair of fingerless cabled mitts, too. They’re knit in amazingly soft worsted Malabrigo, and I followed the pattern, Evangeline pretty closely (aside from doing an afterthought thumb, like the one outlined in Fetching, instead of casting off and casting back on mid row). Love them. Wish they were for me and I could wear them forever.

Because I’ve seen Nanny McPhee one too many times, but the name Evangeline always makes me think of that movie. And that makes me think of the wonderful green velvet frock coat that Colin Firth wears. I want one!

These were a satisfying and quick knit. I knit the second one in about a day (hurray for three day weekends!). The cable is fun and interested. If I was making them again, I would add 2 to 4 extra stitches to the circumference, as they are a little tight higher up on the arm, as well as add a few extra stitches to the thumb (which I knit as an afterthought thumb, instead of binding off and casting on stitches). Some blocking will help that, though.

Third Annual Silent Poetry Reading.

In honor of Imbolc, here’s my contribution to the poetry invading the blog world.  Knitting will return soon.  There is a mention of yarn in the poem, so it’s a bit appropriate.

Persimmons by Li Young Lee.

In sixth grade Mrs. Walker
slapped the back of my head
and made me stand in the corner
for not knowing the difference
between persimmon and precision.
How to choose

persimmons. This is precision.
Ripe ones are soft and brown-spotted.
Sniff the bottoms. The sweet one
will be fragrant. How to eat:
put the knife away, lay down the newspaper.
Peel the skin tenderly, not to tear the meat.
Chew on the skin, suck it,
and swallow. Now, eat
the meat of the fruit,
so sweet
all of it, to the heart.

Donna undresses, her stomach is white.
In the yard, dewy and shivering
with crickets, we lie naked,
face-up, face-down,
I teach her Chinese. Crickets: chiu chiu. Dew: I’ve forgotten.
Naked: I’ve forgotten.
Ni, wo: you me.
I part her legs,
remember to tell her
she is beautiful as the moon.

Other words
that got me into trouble were
fight and fright, wren and yarn.
Fight was what I did when I was frightened,
fright was what I felt when I was fighting.
Wrens are small, plain birds,
yarn is what one knits with.
Wrens are soft as yarn.
My mother made birds out of yarn.
I loved to watch her tie the stuff;
a bird, a rabbit, a wee man.

Mrs. Walker brought a persimmon to class
and cut it up
so everyone could taste
a Chinese apple. Knowing
it wasn’t ripe or sweet, I didn’t eat
but watched the other faces.

My mother said every persimmon has a sun
inside, something golden, glowing,
warm as my face.

Once, in the cellar, I found two wrapped in newspaper
forgotten and not yet ripe.
I took them and set them both on my bedroom windowsill,
where each morning a cardinal
sang. The sun, the sun.

Finally understanding
he was going blind,
my father would stay up all one night
waiting for a song, a ghost.
I gave him the persimmons, swelled, heavy as sadness,
and sweet as love.

This year, in the muddy lighting
of my parents’ cellar, I rummage, looking
for something I lost.
My father sits on the tired, wooden stairs,
black cane between his knees,
hand over hand, gripping the handle.

He’s so happy that I’ve come home.
I ask how his eyes are, a stupid question.
All gone, he answers.

Under some blankets, I find three scrolls.
I sit beside him and untie
three paintings by my father:
Hibiscus leaf and a white flower.
Two cats preening.
Two persimmons, so full they want to drop from the cloth.

He raises both hands to touch the cloth,
asks, Which is this?

This is persimmons, Father.

Oh, the feel of the wolftail on the silk,
the strength, the tense
precision in the wrist.
I painted them hundreds of times
eyes closed. These I painted blind.
Some things never leave a person:
scent of the hair of one you love,
the texture of persimmons,
in your palm, the ripe weight.

FO: Dan’s Scarf and non-knitting faux-knitting knitting bag.

I started this when Dan and I went to a double feature in July.  JULY.  I knit through both of the movies, made some progress, and then have slowly been whittling away at it since then.  It’s a lot of scarf.

Based on the Harry Potter Scarves, it’s just a giant tube knit on a 16″ US8 Circ.  Stripes are 22 stitches long, and I knotted them together when changing colors, and tucked them on the inside of the scarf.  One end is sewn together - the other had some three needle bind off action.

 I was planning to keep on going until I had used all of four skeins of Malabrigo (2 of each color - Blue Graphite & Verdes), but Dan got cold and I got anxious, so it’s more like 1.5 skeins of each color.  Long enough to wrap around his neck, and unbelievably soft and warm.  Thanks, Malabrigo and double thick worsted weight fabric.

Dan really likes it.  I’m happy with it, too, especially to get it off my needles!  This is not a pattern I will be repeating.

The Blue Graphite is a Malabrigo True Solid, so there was no pooling or subtle kettle dyed variations.  The Verde had some pretty cool pooling going on that Dan really liked, so I just let it do its thing.

I was eager to get working on Lindsey’s chuppah wedding quilt, but I moved last week and couldn’t find me self-healing mat anywhere.  Which meant I couldn’t start cutting the fabric, which means I couldn’t start piecing.  But I really wanted to sew something.

Lindsey sent me a bunch of suggestions, and I picked out this Shoulder Bag.  I jumped into my fabric stash, and went to work!

The lining is lime-green fabric printed with a stockinette pattern.  The outside is some fabric I bought three years ago that has been wanting to be a bag for awhile.  I used some lightweight interfacing I had laying around to help make it a little more sturdy, and added a button from my new button stash.

Overall, I’m happy with it.  The tutorial was really easy to follow, and the results are awesome.  It easily fits over me, and I think will be a perfect supplementary knitting bag (i.e., in addition to a purse - so not tangled keys with yarn, and no more trying to shove my knitting projects into my purse).

My cable knit sweater is sitting there right now - all ready for a train trip up to Boston tomorrow.

Bonus Picture! Finished Koolhaas in Mineral Red Malabrigo!

I wake up when it’s dark, I get home when it’s dark…

Wintertime is not the best time for knit bloggers who don’t want to resort to using their flash.

I keep on forgetting to take pictures during my window of sunlight: the ten minutes between when I am ready to go to work and when I leave for the train.

So we have one picture to show.

The stripes are Needful Yarns Joy [on US9s, 21 sts] and the pink is Misti Alpaca Chunky [two skeins on US10.5s, 17 sts cast on - a PERFECT length and so soft!]

This is the pile of Mistake Rib that has invaded my life. Mistake Rib has always been my favorite go to non-curling stitch pattern for scarves, and I just keep on casting on and knitting long skinny scarves [Oddly enough, Crazy Aunt Purl posted recently about her new found love for Mistake Rib, too] .

My basic Mistake Rib Pattern:

CO a multiple of 4 + 1.

Row 1: *K2, P2. Repeat from * to end of row, K1.

Repeat. Every single row. Forever.

I like to slip the first stitch of every row knit-wise, for a clean edge, but that’s not required. It looks vaguely rib like, but actually reads like this across, stitch by stitch:

Garter, Stockinette, Garter, Reverse Stockinette.

Dan thinks I should be working on his scarf instead of continuing to cast on orphan scarves that have no intended owner, but I just can’t stop.

So far I’ve finished one (the pink blob in that photo), and am 1 ball in to the 3 balls of Needful Yarns Joy that will be another. They’ll make their way into the plastic tub I like to call “Christmas in a Box” until late November when I’ll thank myself for getting this knitting done so early.

I was actually going to veer away from the Mistake Rib for the self-striping scarf, and was all ready to cast on Striped Wedges from Knitting New Scarves, which Lindsey gave me for Christmas. It’s knit lengthwise, and I thought it would be really neat looking with the long stripes of the Joy. Except the Joy is kind of oddly constructed - it has a core of a very lightweight, woven wool, surrounded by lofty soft fluffy poofy wool. When I was casting on, when I got to about stitch 50 or 60 of 150, I noticed that the lofty wool had completely separated from the core, and was all bunched up and broken and bad looking.

So if you’re knitting with Joy, or planning to, the long-tail cast on for anything more than 20 stitches? Total pain in the ass. I tried to use the knitted or cable cast on, but I’m just so slow with them as opposed to the long-tail, and I wanted to start knitting! So mistake rib it is.

[By the way? Knitting New Scarves is a kind of awesome book. It shows a lot of different structures of scarves, but not a lot of stitch patterns - they're all basically ribbed or garter stitch. It's cool because it's all about the technique of construction. I have a few skeins of Blue Sky Dyed Cotton begging to be this Shawl Collar and Meandering Stripes! That is, if Dan doesn't get mad at me for casting on yet another scarf...]

[And while we're discussing knitting books, I have to recommend The Knitter's Book of Yarn.  I know it's been all over the knitting blogs recently (well, a few months ago), but I got it a little bit before Christmas and it totally lives up to the hype.  Not only does it have great information on the different fibers and stuff that go into yarn, but it goes into yarn weight! and construction! And includes super cute patterns!   I love the XOX Vest, HelloYarn's mittens (both of them!), and the Scaruffle.  So not only is it an interesting reference book, but the patterns aren't too shabby either.]

I am still knitting…

Except apparently I’m also moving this week, and the batteries in my camera are dead.

And I think we packed the extra set of batteries.

So my Koolhaas and coordinating scarfette, knit from a single skein of Malabrigo with 13 grams left over?

Camera died before I could finish its debut photo shoot.

This is what I have so far [No Koolhaas yet.  Stay tuned.]

I used the Shifting Sands stitch pattern over 22 stitches for the little scarfette.

The buttons I picked up in Salem, MA over New Year’s.  Love the little blue roses.  I have ten, so I have plenty left.

I was thinking about a simple scalloped edging for the scarf, but I wasn’t sure about the yarn requirements and I didn’t love how it looked.  I ripped it out right after this picture. 

More pictures of the scarf as well as the Koolhaas (so much fun to knit!) coming soon.

In other knitting news, I tore up what is left of the apartment looking for the little ball of yarn left over from my Flower Basket Shawl.  I thought the Socks That Rock Heavyweight would be perfect for a little iPod cozy, and I love the color.

Of course, since the apartment is a sea of boxes, I couldn’t find it.

So what did I do?  I ripped out my Flower Basket Shawl so I could use, oh, I don’t know, 50 yards of it for the iPod cozy.

I’ve officially lost my mind.

In my defense, the Flower Basket Shawl did had a few major issues with it, AND it was too small to wear, even as a little tiny bandanna of a shawl.  So - goodbye.

Deep breathes.  Deep breathes.

419thousand stitches.

Lindsey has been wanted to do a combo-visual-crafty-picture-taking-blog with me for awhile. Since it’s the beginning of the year, we decided to go for it.

Our plan is to each take two pictures a week and post them there, to share our crafty endeavors with each other (because constant email and blog-stalking just isn’t enough for us anymore).

Lindsey does everything! She paints, knits, sews, embroiders, makes jewelry, draws, sketches, beads, crochets, makes prints, and even more! I knit, quilt, sew, and occasionally crochet. I think it’ll be a fun way to explore our craftiness through photography as well as stay in touch and share it with each other!

419thousand stitches

[We live nearly 419,000 yards (over 190 balls of Cascade 220, as I see it!) away from each other. Which is where part of the title came from.]