Flat Stanley's Adventures

Hi Mom,

Love that sweater - it should be really nice when it is finished. Like a big blanket to wrap yourself in. Do you close it with a button? Should be perfect for spending some time by the shore!

I was pretty sure that double knitting would be in your repertoire too - I am sure you have seen many many trends come & go! But trying it to the nth degree would be too much for me - two balls are fiddly enough for my taste. Once I got into the flow of things it was easy to keep the two pieces separate, but with more than 2 strands that might have gotten a wee bit more confused. It is good to know, though, that it is possible!

I am taking a break from picking up the dpns for more double-knitting on the sleeves (hmm, wasn't this experiment supposed to help me get these done faster?) by working on my socks. The pattern is coming along really nicely, almost like leaves flowing up the foot. I am about 4 repeats in to each of the socks by now, and should be able to start the heel flap soon if all continues at this steady pace - at least it goes pretty quickly whenever I get a chance to pick these up. Now that I am driving more, my travel along projects don't get quite the attention they used to. (I am sure that the pedestrians of San Francisco are thankful!)

Is Clay all ready for his Caribbean adventures? I am sure it will be a really nice break from Toronto for him, at the very least! I hope he sends us photos to post while he is away...

I have been busy the past month adventuring all around San Francisco with Flat Stanley, thanks to Meredith who sent him to me as part of a project for her grade 4 class. He is on his way back home to Missouri right now to tell everyone about all the places he visited while he was here. Since I had so much fun taking him around (he got me to go to places on my 'to visit' list - and he was recognized everywhere we went, like traveling with a celebrity!) that I thought I'd share some of the photos with you too. So here we have:

Flat Stanley at Corona Heights, with downtown in the background, and in downtown by the cable cars:

















In Yerba Buena and in Chrissy Field, in front of the Golden Gate Bridge:
























Visiting the sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf, and the bison in Golden Gate Park:
















In front of the WPA murals in the lobby of Coit Tower, and up in the observation deck of the de Young tower:

















At Ocean Beach with Rushka (that's the Pacific in the background!) and enjoying the atmosphere of the Palace of Fine Arts.






As you can see, we had a lot of fun and explored a lot of the city together. Thanks Meredith - and Flat Stanley too!








I didn't know that there was a photo of me on the Afghans for Afghans page - I was pretty dazed by the time that photo was snapped, as we had gotten over 40 boxes ready for the FedEx pickup by that point - with another 30 to go. It is actually really good, after all the time spent sorting all of the items sent in by knitters from across Canada and the US into boxes of sweaters, hats, mittens, blankets and socks, to see them finally on their way. It is amazing all of the beautiful things that come in!

I hope you have fun at White Point - and that it isn't too cold! I am sure there will be plenty of needlework and bonding by the fire, and hopefully over good food too. It should be a great time.

Megan

PS My box in still in Montreal. I don't even begin to understand the inner workings of customer relations at UPS anymore, except to know that it is very, very, very broken.

Everything Old is New Again

Hi Megs,

Well - double knitting. As my father would say, well-well, well-well, well-well-well. Haven't seen this in years. Your grandmother used to do this and so did I. She made double knit hats. They were attached, one hat, double knit in ribs so that they were reversible. White rib on one side, red rib on the other. I did try - way back in the 60's to make socks with double knit but decided it was just too much work - too fiddly but interesting. As a mathematician, I also once tried triple knit and quadruple knit (3 balls, 4 balls) on a small sample just to see what it would do. It actually can be a nth knit with n balls. The reason I do both sleeves, both sides of a cardigan sweater at the same time is because I knew I could do it double knit but it was just too hard to do. Easier my way to get them to match. Great that this has been "discovered" again. Ha! And love your hats!

To Show you how old it is, Wikipedia says this:

The most famous example of double knitting is the pair of socks knitted simultaneously on one set of knitting needles by Anna Makarovna, the nanny in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace
"When the pair was finished, she made a solemn ceremony of pulling one stocking out of the other in the presence of the children. "

I decided I better get some of the thing I have been knitting finished. So picked up the Four Panel Jacket, Jamieson's Shetland Knitting Book 2 designed by Carol Lapin. It is knitted in Jamieson's Chunky Shetland North Sea - a dark dusty blue. It is an easy pattern but it is also the seed stitch and I just can't take that for very long. I now have all the pieces knit and blocked and am ready to put on the I-cord trim. Maybe it is our cold weather that has inspired me to finally finish it.

I have been fusting around with hooking. I am off to a hook-in at White Point Beach next week with the South Shore group. Looking forward to doing nothing but watching the ocean and talking to "the girls". I am also going to take along some knitting. Give my hands a change from pulling a loop. I want to finish the jacket so I can wear it. It will be so cosy!

Your brother, Clay, is off to the Barbados tomorrow. He is on an adventure!

Take care, love your two hats - also saw your picture on the web working with the Afghans for Afghans group.

Love ya, Mom XOP

Double Knitting Fun

Hi Mom,

I really like your socks - they make me want to try that pattern again, or at least the Briggs & Little sock yarn - I love that gray. May be perfect for a pair of Snicket Socks? I will have to keep an eye out to see if it is in any of the LYS's here.

If only there weren't so many cables on those socks, I might even be able to try out the new technique I just added to my repertoire - knitting two objects at the same time and on the same needles - using double knitting to make two things at once!

You see, I managed to finish the body of my Klaralund in record time - less than one week all the way from cast-on to cast-off. Doesn't it look great? I am so much happier now that I am working with the silk garden - the colors are just so beautiful, and still always surprising.


Now, it's true that I only needed to go as far as the armholes but still that's pretty fast, which I attribute to being able to knit it all in one tube in the round. So now that the sleeves are next, I was searching for a way to do those in the round as well, at least up until where they separate to form the shoulders. But I'm not really a magic looper and using two circulars at once has always seemed too fiddly for me - all those ends hanging out (plus, I only have one circular in size 8, and I'm feeling lazy to go to the store).

Then I found a link to an article on knitty about using the double knitting technique to knit two seperate somethings, rather than one think something, so I thought I'd give it a try. After a bit of a false start where I was very confused about what was meant by having the two yarns on separate sides, the whole thing clicked. Since the yarns I was using were leftover blue and red wools, I decided to practice my making two hats, one red and one blue, for the current Afghans for Afghans collection drive - they are looking for hats in solid color red, blue, green or yellow for children participating in a mobile educational circus. Here are my hats about halfway through the process - since the outside yarn wants to be knit and the inside yarn wants to be purled, I thought I'd just go ahead and let them do that once the ribbing was done. So that in the end I was effectively knitting both of them inside out.














It is slow going, I have to say. I could probably have knit the two hats faster seperately, but where would have been the fun of that? Plus then I would have missed the joy of the 'wow' moment this evening when I finished them off and got to pull them apart:



As you can see, one is red and will go for the mini circus, but the other ended up being striped when I ran out of blue and will have to be for their regular collection. Still, that's two more hats added to the pile, all at once!

Now my next trick is to try this with the actual sleeves, trying to keep the garter ridges in the round straight and all of that. We'll see how it goes. At least it was fun learning something new, although I'm not sure how many times I'll pull this trick out of my hat (ha ha). With lacy sock patterns, I think I'll stick to the two-at-a-time-on-individual-sets-of-dpns. I'm glad to hear that that technique worked well for you too. I'd be making progress on my socks if I wasn't so distracted!

Megan

PS I can't believe you found regular Rooibos at Sobey's. Here there is sometimes too much choice to be able to find real food at all. The American grocery store continues to overwhelm me on a regular basis!

Great you found it!

Hi Megs,

So happy you found it. The Yarmouth UPS'ers called me yesterday to say that they were working their way through the pallets of lost stuff and said it could be weeks but were SURE they would find it! At least somebody did! I was worried because I know those are pictures of YOUR LIFE and can't be replaced! That box didn't have a great start considering the beads were spilled before it even got sealed.

But all well that ends well....you can now relax, have a cup of Rooibos and enjoy your weekend. Your weather may be warmer but there is something about the snow as it sits on the trees and watching the birds and feeling wool run through your fingers.

Love ya, Mom XOP

Finished Something!

Hi Megs,

I love days when I get a package - but when you get 3! At first I wasn't sure I liked Mason-Dixon Knitting but it is growing on me when I actually read some of the text and didn't just look at the patterns and pictures. Some of the geometrics are cross-overs from rug hooking patterns. The hooked rug you reference - hooked with yarn - is really nice. Many of our hookers use yarn. We dye it just as we would the wool. I really prefer the wool strips - and feel you can do more variation of dyeing techniques with a large piece of wool material rather than a skein of wool. The fog purse I am making now I have done the outlines with wool. When we use skeins of wool for rug hooking and for the trim on rugs usually use Briggs and Little pure wool sport weight because it dyes and overdyes so well.

I have been sooo busy this week with meetings - garden club, rug hooking, rotary, craft guild, lunch with the girls and going to Figures. This retirement is exhausting. But I did manage to finish a project! I finished my grey socks. Now this is truly the first project started and finished in 2007. The "knit the two together" really works. And are they ever warm. They are from Interweave Knit Winter 2004. Really like the way they fit. Also used Briggs and Little but the one ply wool/nylon.

Have needed that because we have gone into a deep freeze and it is snowing every day. Not a lot of build up - just enough to get your feet messy. This weekend we are staying in and doing nothing but watch the birds. We now have 3 pair of cardinals. All the birds love the red egg you gave me. I also put in the birdbath heater so they have nice water. Our deck is very popular.

And - surprise - the Sobey's grocery actually had Rooibos tea - and is it ever nice. Was very surprised when I found it in the natural foods section. And it has nothing silly added - just tea. Proud of good old Sobey's. So had a cup this afternoon and though of you and our very strange adventures in Namibia. It is nice but the tea does NOT have my name on it. I loved that idea from Portsmouth Tea.

Really do like the snow and cold. Is a great reason to just stay in till we get dug out - knit and hook and watch "The Wire". We got season 2 and 3 and are really enjoying it. You got us hooked over Christmas.

Take care - love the Rowan sweater you are making, very YOU - the best in that issue. And just enough colour to be interesting without getting tiresome.

Love ya, Mom XOP

PS - More package goodness

UPS called this morning, and they finally found my box! 30 days (count'em, 30) after I first dropped it off at the UPS store to be shipped out. You know the one, the box full of photo albums and journals that for the longest time no one at UPS seemed concerned about, even though it appeared it had fallen off the face of the planet and, no, the items weren't just something that I could claim out on.

They just found it among the pallets of 'overstock' (ie no label we have no idea who it belongs to) in Montreal - the same pallets they were supposed to search for it last week, but we're not getting into that. I'm also not going to go off on the fact that the woman who found it wasn't actually looking for it - her job was just to open boxes and trying to figure out who they belonged to. She saw that my name was in the journals (yes, she read them, nice!) and did a search to see if that popped anything up in the system. Hello! This after UPS rep after UPS rep kept telling me that no, really, they were doing everything they could to find it, searching high and low. Really?

In the end, I'm glad they found my box, but I am never ever shipping anything on purpose through UPS again. Unless I'm willing to have it just be lost and be made to feel like a fool for thinking that might actually be something to be concerned about.

Enough of my rant. The box is supposed to arrive on Monday - I'm still keeping my fingers crossed!

Megan

Goodies in the mail

Mmmmm..... the picture of the Maple Leaf cookies makes me want to run out to the grocery store (they are available in the states, if you know where to look for them). One of Nathan's employees went to Vancouver for Christmas and brought a box back to the office. They disappeared so fast that Nathan wasn't able to grab any to bring home!

Today has been a day of lots of good things arriving in the mail. First the virtual kind, with a message through one of my online knitting groups linking to a blogger's post about a hooked rug that was brought into her LYS - only it was hooked with yarn, not with wool strips. Thought you might be interested in that - check out the link!

Then I picked up the mail as Rushka and I came in from our morning walk. There waiting for me was my box from KnitPicks with the yarn for the Rowan sweater (Eveleen, from the current Magazine #40) and my very own copy of Mason-Dixon. Looks like a little replica of your own yarn room here in San Francisco! (At least as it looked when I was flipping through your copy of the book and playing with which colors of the KP Palette would be best to make this sweater out of...).

Finally, I got a call from the building's security desk telling me that a package had just been delivered for me. I was so excited to see that it was my Portsmouth Tea! You see, my years living in South Africa have given me a passion for pure, unadulturated Rooibos tea, a wonderful non-caffinated way to warm up in the afternoon. The problem is that it is almost impossible to find in the United States unless I want it mixed with honey, or peach, or mango, or lemon, or any other multitudes of combinations that tea manufacturers here seem to think it needs to make it palatable (even my favorite Numi tea is a culprit). Ever since I ran out of my last teabag (after Nathan scored a box for me at a trade show last year) I have been determined to find a permanent source. Thanks to Daily Candy, a few weeks ago I found out about Portsmouth tea, a company which makes it own unique in-house tea blends, several of them rooibos-based. So I though they must have the 'pure' stuff to use as a base, right? and I called to see if they would sell me some. They did (it is organic to boot) and they would, just for me. See the label? Since we use so much loose tea in this house, I ordered some teabags too (those are the beige things in the picture). I have one filled with rooibos steeping in my mug right now.

Going through all of the sweaters you have made for Dad must have made for quite an afternoon. 34 years of marriage = a lot of sweaters! I am also glad you will find a use for that Rowan yarn - it was really beautiful, but that was not the right sweater for Clay (or really for any male that I know, to be honest). Nathan just shudders at most of the patterns that are out there!

Now I'm off to go play with my new toys....

Megan

PS Now that I've tried it, I can say that this tea is really loveley. Thanks Portsmouth Tea!

Sweater for your father

Hi Megs,

Loved the tulips - am jealous. We have been cold (+2 to -8 C) the last two weeks and we are all tired of it. So the sight of the tulips - very nice.

And I do LOVE the idea of the maple flakes. As you know - I DON'T like those maple cookies that are shaped like maple leafs. But the idea that I can have real maple on my oatmeal or Red River Cereal - I like that idea! I think I am going to order some. An innovative Canadian product.

I also love the flower tea. What a crazy idea to have a flower bloom in your tea. They probably won't ship to Canada. It is on my "wish list" when we come to San Francisco in May. The advantage of living in a city is that you can go to events like the Fancy Food Show and also buy interesting and trendy products. The best we can do (at least this time of year) is have great lobsters and sea food! Not so hard to take.

Now - what knitting have I been doing? Well - started several projects (like I need more). Mainly I have been trying to find a nice sweater for the really beautiful yarns I bought to make you brother a truly horrible sweater - but didn't thanks to your advice and his funny look. Dad wanted a vest so I did find a nice one (the colours in the picture are awful) but the fall browns and greens are going to be very nice. This yarn is three different textures: Rowan's Silk/Cotton, Tapestry and Kid Classic. I particularly like the Tapestry. It has a very subtle variegation. The pattern is from Knitter's Magazine Winter 2006. Usually don't find things I like in this mag - they pick truly awful colourways and designs where they are just trying to hard to make it different! But this is a nice one. Classic bones.

Before I got very far with it I did check it out with Dad to make sure he liked it. He pulled out several of the sweaters I made him in the past because it was cold and he wanted something warm. He wore the Alice Starmore "Stornoway" I made 9 years ago (and won "best knitted item" the first time I entered it in the Western Nova Scotia Exhibition) from the book "Fishermen's Sweaters". I made it from beautiful 5 ply gansey wool. So yes, us old gals (and guys) have been knitting for a long time and when Stan started pulling out all the sweaters I made over the years, I guess I have been productive. Note: picture is NOT Stan! He is better looking.

Happy I brought back memories of grade 6. I was trying to find a picture of you wearing the sweater - I know there is one - but can't find it. Oh my - what we thought was pretty in the 80's!

Take care - enjoy life.

Love ya, Mom XOP

Sunny days

Hi Mom,

Yikes! I do remember that sweater. Grade 6 I think it was? I definitely thought I was too stylish in that - although I think I was missing the hair to match. It is funny that you & the yarn donor were knitting the same thing at the same time - there are now so many knitting fads that swamp the internet that everyone "has" to be knitting, but it seems that that definitely isn't a new phenomenon!

I don't really have anything knitting related today, just wanted to share some pictures of happy tulips taken here at home. Yes, it is tulip season here - it seems that the city collectively shook off winter along with the confetti from new year's eve. It's still chilly at night, but warm & sunny during the day. They say the rain is coming, though...

I spent the day walking the Fancy Food Show downtown at the Moscone Center, getting to sample all the best of the new food offerings thanks to Glenn & Nathan (this is what Glenn was in town for - he left for Sacramento today). I really just hit all of my favorite foods, where I could find them - there are literally thousands of exhibitors at this show, offering all kinds of goodies from candies to chocolates to coffee to tea to olives to cheeses and on and on and on. My favorite find, though? A new product from Quebec, dried maple flakes to use in baking as a sugar substitute. Yes, Mom, I can see the "yuck" face you are making but I can also see using this on oatmeal, in cookies and pancakes - for me that's yum! Too bad it's not available outside of the east coast for now, though. But I did stop by the booth for Numi tea, makers of the dried lime tea that is my absolute favorite (but somehow very hard to find) and they were very generous with the samples - that was the true highlight for me!

Now my feet are tired and I am looking forward to just relaxing this evening with my sweater. The Noro is beautiful, but I'm not so sure about the feel of it - I spend most of my time running it through my fingers just so that I can find all the bits of straw and crustiness and pick them out before they make it into my knitting!

Hope you had a good day,

Megan

Memories

Hi Megs,

Really can't believe you had a "football Sunday". Your Grandfather Place would be SO proud of you. I have many memories of football Sundays, football Thanksgivings, football all the time when I was growing up in Missouri. Also remember - horror of horror when we had football the first time on Christmas day! I also remember the first Superbowl Sunday. That is SO US! But at least you got to knit and both your teams won. Strange.

And - for another memory - remember this sweater I made for you in junior high? Really chilling feeling when I went through the knitting patters and magazines my friend gave me I found this one. To add to the memories - she had the same yarn I made it with - exactly.

While I was knitting it in Ottawa, she was knitting in in Yarmouth. Strange connection. Really "k2tog". So I made a cupcake out of it! A special one.

I though of Rushka when I saw the 7 deer in the backyard - don't think she would have allowed them to be in her backyard. But we do enjoy them - and run them off every time we come home or turn on a light.

I do like the Noro so much better. It is also such a joy to work with - running through your fingers.

And still can't believe you watched football and even more can't believe you watched in a sports bar-thank goodness for non-smoking laws. And the sock pattern, Baudelaire deserves to be admired - even in a sports bar!

Take care - off to hooking tonight.

Love ya, Mom XOP

Yay! Football Sunday

Hi Mom,

Yes, that's right, I got to spend the whole day knitting to two great football games (aside for a brief time out for a nap) - and our two teams won! I had a great time. The biggest excitement was seeing that THE BEARS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!! I never thought they would ever get there again. Then the Colts just squeaked it by in a really exciting face-off with the Patriots. The Superbowl is only two weeks away...

Okay, so I'm sure you're asking yourself whether your daughter has completely lost her mind. Football? Have I become totally brainwashed by America? No, just by Glenn and Nathan, both former high-school football players and fans of the game, Glenn in particular. Actually, I think I've been slowly infected by all the time I have spent time with any and every Smith male during the past football seasons. Oh, and watching Remember the Titans on Friday night probably helped too.

Since Glenn is in town this weekend, that meant searching out a sports bar showing the Bears/Saints game this morning, then back to our house for the Colts/Patriots this afternoon. Today, for the first time, the game actually clicked and I was up and cheering with the rest of them. Oh, and I got a lot of knitting done too!

For the first game, which we watched at a sports bar in the Haight across from Kezar Field (former home of the 49'ers - thanks to my neighbor Connie for the recommendation) I watched the Bears win as I worked on my socks in the blue merino fleece artist yarn. I actually broke down this week, in between the cupcakes and frogging my sweater, and decided to just cast using the Baudelaire pattern I had originally picked for this yarn given that everything else had somehow gotten just too complicated. I started working on the size 2's recommended by both the pattern and the sock yarn label, but quickly decided it was just too loose. So I re-started this weekend on 1's while driving to the airport to pick up Glenn. I am know through both toes and into the lace pattern on one. They were much admired by the fans sitting around us and the waitress too. Plus they obviously brought the Bears good luck, so they must be a hit!

Back at home for the second game I switched to my sweater, which I have recast-on with the Noro Silk Garden. Thank you for pushing me to just frog and start again with new yarn - I love how this colorway is working out. I am already on my second ball, so I haven't lost my momentum with this sweater. I am now really excited to keep knitting on it and see how it will develop.

Your Ipod cover looks really cute. I just love Manos - I don't think I've ever knit anything with it that didn't turn out well. And I'm really impressed that you found a pattern to use in Knit1! I have never really been a big fan of that magazine, so to me that is a feat in and of itself.

The yarn haul is great too. So nice to be able to take that all in and give it a new home. I have always wanted to work with Cowichan yarn - it seems so soft and warm. (Probably too warm for San Francisco though - we have finally come out of the deep freeze and it is back around 60 degrees, at least during the day when the sun is out. So nice to leave the sports bar, after watching the Bears play in the snow, to come out into a beautiful day...) The rest of the yarn might be nice to use for a group charity project, if no-one has an immediate home for it.

Rushka was most impressed by the photo of the deer, though. We counted 7 in the photograph in all! She wants you to know that she'd help you take care of them if she was home, although you may enjoy their company right now - they look really beautiful in the snow. Once the spring plants start showing, though, it will probably be another story!

I'm glad that the power is back on and that you are re-connected with the world. Hopefully that will be the last of the winter storms for you this winter - you seem to have gotten a lot of snow in the past few weeks.

Happy knitting,

Megan

Knitting Stash

Hi Megs

I just got back from Halifax - picking the team for the Rotary Group Study Exchange to Brazil - going to be great fun leading the team. But when I got home our cable was down - including our Internet - so just now getting back on. Frustrating.

I am still working away on my grey socks - almost done. In the mean time I did make an I-Pod holder for my "new" I-pod - your brother's cast off. It came out really cute. I still mostly use my pink mini but this one is good for when I forget to charge the battery. I used some left over Monos del Uruguay wool, colour 109, using the pattern from the latest issue of Vogues knit simple (Winter 06/07). Of course I modified it (can't leave anything alone) for the thicker yarn. Used 5 mm needles instead of 4.5mm and a 3 st i-cord instead of 4 and I made the i-cord longer. I think it came out nicer that the one in the magazine - better colours for me.

While you were giving away left-over balls, I was collecting them. One of our rug hookers has had to give up knitting - but not rug hooking. She is in her 80's and a wonderful interesting woman. She wanted a good home for her left-over yarn. Her husband was the original "Toot's" of the magazine shop. She was a war bride from England. I collected some great yarn - some I will keep and the rest I will take to the Knitting Guild to divide up for our projects. We let no ball go unloved!

She had some left over real Cowichan yarn from a sweater she made her son 30 years ago. It is still beautiful. I have some in the basement from a sweater I made Clay years ago so think if I combine them I will have enough for hats and mitts. Love working with this great big soft yarn. Quick, quick to knit something great. So - have added to my stash - there are some great yarns for cupcakes - frosting colours.

We now have our own herd of deer. With the snow - came the herd. It has been very cold so they are very bold. Pawing the snow for the grass - right up against the house to keep out of the wind. They are beautiful to watch. I think they have moved to our lawn because the d'Entremonts started building their house on the last wooded property on the lake - progress!

Stay warm - if that applied is San Francisco.

Love ya, Mom XOP

A visit to the frog pond, and a quartet of cupcakes

Hi Mom,

Well, I bit the bullet and decided to just rip rip rip out the sweater as it was done so far. While sometimes I've had yarns & patterns surprise me with how they suddenly just all came together at the very end, it just didn't feel like that was going to happen this time.

So I decided to go back to square one, suck it up and just buy the Noro Silk Garden that the pattern called for. After all, there's nothing really the same as Noro, and if that's what gave the look in the pattern that appealed for me then that is what I am going to use. I've never allowed myself to splurge on this yarn, so I figured it was finally time to just get over the price tag and let myself have the experience of working with this yarn for myself.

I also consoled myself - and kept myself occupied - by making cupcakes. 4 in all! I had enough of the pink and green leftovers from the arm warmers to make two of each (actually, I think I could make another pink one, but now I am running low on the brown!) It really is a fun pattern to knit, almost like candy - so easy to do just one more...

Plus, as I was roaming around online trying to take my mind off of the deconstruction of the sweater, I saw that Noe Knit - sponsor of the cupcakes - is having a January promotion where they are collecting odd balls of yarn for local charities, giving a percentage discount for each ball brought in. Now, I have a basket of oddballs, plus now the three used balls I had just unwound from the sweater. Noe Knits carries Noro. Unwanted rainbow yarn + extra oddballs = discount on the Noro I need to restart the Klaralund. Could it be more perfect than that?

So today I gathered up my bag off oddballs and two of the cupcakes (the other two I am going to keep as pincushions for myself, I admit it) and headed off on an excursion to Noe Valley. On the way I mailed all of the unused balls of Karaoke back to the shop I ordered them from. At Noe the two cupcakes were well ooohed and ahhed over, so the obsession was definitely worth it! Plus they had gorgeous Silk Garden, in color 86 (shades of gold, purple and turquoise) which should be perfect for the sweater. They even helped me track down a Dale book of baby patterns with the perfect vintage-style patterns for Sarah's baby (really, it has to be classic for her). All in all a great success!

So in the end I got rid of the top and middle piles, and came home with the bottom pile. Talk about trading up! Oh, and I ordered the Knitpicks yarn for the Rowan sweater we looked at while I was in Yarmouth. And I pre-ordered the new Teva Durham crochet book coming out in May (I loved her first Loop-d-loop). So I didn't actually knit much the week, but oh boy did I participate in much knitting enabling in its place!

Megan

The Rainbow

Hi Megs,

Well - think it looks like a rainbow. Sorry to say this but I find that if there is something nagging you about a yarn or a project - the best thing to do is frog it NOW - sooner the better.

I have bought yarn that really looked great in the store and in my mind for a specific project and then when I get it home and rewind it or when I start knitting with it it just doesn't look right. I find this is particularly true with variegated yarns because once knit, the colours just don't blend well. Also, if the variegation is too "regular" - like the computerized yarns - then after you make the body which looks great, the arms are awful! A hand dyed variegated yarn usually has enough differences that you can get away with it - but also sometimes they are the worst because the colours are too close together. I like a really random colour change with large chunks of colour. An example of this is a yarn I saw once (but unfortunately didn't buy and have not been able to find since) I think it was Noro and called "paint" but have never found any reference to it since. It was a solid colour with one splush of colour so that when you knit it you get a solid with one interesting spot from time to time. You want the colours to change but you don't want stripes.

So - think you should start over again, cut your loses because no matter what others say, YOU are never going to like this sweater. You will always feel wonky when you wear it. If you do decide to finish it then give it away ASAP - but not to me! Horizontal rainbow stripes are not going to do a thing for MY figure. Or think of something else to make with the yarn like thick bedroom socks (we call them hockey socks around here).

I am still working on my grey socks - working on both "foot's". I am switching between my knitting and hooking since we are socked in (no pun intended) because it snowed us in again last night and is really cold - for us! It was -13 C overnight. When I woke up last night around 4 am to p.., just outside the living room windows were 5 large deer right up against the house, keeping out of the wind, pawing at the snow for the green grass underneath. Really beautiful and serene. It was magical just to watch them.

I needed this bit of calm and serenity since my car is now at the Motor Mart Collision after it - all by itself (I was at a Doctors appointment) - traveled backwards in the hospital parking lot and hit another car. Fortunately the car my car hit belong to a friend so after the initial crazies we had a good laugh and parted friends. Got to love a small town.


Here are close up pictures of the shawl. Really proud of it.

Love ya, Mom, XOP

Rainbow bright?

Hi Mom,

Your shawl is beautiful! I hope you are really happy with it. You should take a close-up picture of the lace details to show off all your hard work.

I also hope that you got a lot of good 'hooking' time in yesterday. My projects are somewhat stalled right now so I am still cranking out cupcakes (although there are on hold now too since I've run out of juice bottle caps). I am still not sure where to go with my socks, whether to use an existing pattern or to try something new with one of the designs in my stitch-pattern-a-day calendar. There are so many nice patterns out there calling my name, but it would be nice to take a stab at designing my own too. I'm just not sure what to do!

As for my other "big" project, my sweater, it is knitting up fast but the results are, well, not quite what I was hoping for. The sweater is the Klaralund from Noro, which I really liked for the general drape (helped no doubt by the fact that the model looks to be about 14, so everything just falls off of her). I wasn't thrilled about the price tag that would go with actually using silk garden for it, though so I did a bit of digging for other yarns with similar long colorways and found SWTC's Karaoke, which is a wool and soy blend, and much more affordable. There was a purple/pink/green colorway that looked really nice, so I went for it and placed my order last fall. After finishing up Nathan's sweater last week, I finally had the chance to cast on.

The knitting has sped by working in the round on size 8's (which seem huge!) and I am already over 9" in to the body. The problem is that as it knits up, I am seeing more colors than just the green, pink and purple evident in the ball and the sample shown online. Specifically, I am also seeing yellow and blue. All together, the colorway has developed as: green - yellow - pink - purple - blue - green. What do those colors look like all together in that order? Oh yes, a rainbow.


Now, that is what I can't get out of my head every time I see it. Nathan says I am being too sensitive and that I am tainted by living in-between the Castro & Haight-Ashbury here in SF, so I thought I would photograph this for you and get your opinion. Am I seeing too much? Will the effect be muted by the overall shaping of the garment, or am I in for a rainbow-tie-dye style escape from the 70's?

What do you think? I really need to see this with someone else's eyes!

Megan

Snowing

Hi Megs,

I love both our cupcakes!

It is finally snowing here - real snow and it is -2 C so finally feeling like winter. I really like it - you have an excuse to just hunker down and stay in with projects.

I did go out early - before it started snowing - and picked up my shawl. Even-if-I-do-say-so-myself it is really beautiful. Just flows. No longer a bunched up mess but a lovely shawl.

I am going to sit down with my rug hooking this afternoon. You need time to gather all things together - unlike knitting. I am working on a "Frog Purse" designed by Bev Conway. My RH teacher Shirley Brandshaw dyed most of the wool for me but I did overdye the green tweed for the leaves. Shirley used the Dore wool you gave me for Christmas last year and I picked out the colours. Have cut all the wool strips (#4), work is in the hoop, sissors at hand - now ready to just sit and let it snow.

Love ya,

Mom

XOP