OK, I'm trying a new tactic.
I have been blogging only sporadically because I feel I owe it to you, dear reader, to see a picture of something every time I post. And then I get caught up in other priorities and don't do anything.
So, screw that.
Hello to shorter and more regular (I hope) posts, I hope, and (regrettably) fewer pictures.
The warmer weather overwhelms me with ennui. Ever since I can remember I feel "hot and itchy" and uncomfortable all summer -- just ask my mother, who had to put up with my incessant whining when I was a child. In Minnesotan, this is called "feeling logy". I've been extremely logy these past couple weeks, slumping around the house or slouching on a chair like a beached whale. Bleah.
This weekend is Columbia Heights' annual Jamboree. The parade was last night. There were Shriners in little boat-cars, unicyclists, clowns, high school marching bands, politicians, a bagpipe band, and lots of middle-aged guys driving by in cars with ambiguous hand-lettered signs so that one wondered: Yes, but who exactly is Joe Schmo, why is he riding past waving, and why am I supposed to care?
Lots of the organizations represented threw cheap candy, and I got beaned really hard by a Starlite Mint.
This afternoon I'm taking Favorite Child to the carnival where we can get pukey on all sorts of rinky-dink rides before the fireworks tonight, if the rain holds off.
I hope to start an adult-sized Norwegian mitten this morning before all the hilarity begins. I took Arnhild Hillesland's Norwegian mitten class last weekend at Borealis Yarns. The class was thorough, informative, exhausting, and Arnhild is a great teacher and lovely person. My class mitten was a bit of a mess, but I feel confident that the "real" mitten will be fine. I might even get around to posting a picture if I finish it and it looks OK!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Forgotten but not gone
Ever had one of those days when it was all you could do just to cope with daily life, much less do any of the things you should have been doing or wanted to do? Well, I've been having one of those days every day since my last post.
No, there's been no tornado, cancer, screaming meemies, or crisis of any kind. Just, you know: life.
I have been spending a lot of time with Favorite Child, now that she's graduated kindergarten. Today's activity was making a worm hotel. If you would like to make one of these with your own favortive child, here's the recipe:
YOU WILL NEED:
Clear cylindrical-shaped plastic container with a large mouth. One gallon is a good size.
Fresh soil from your garden, dry or slightly moist but not wet or muddy.
Sand.
A couple handfuls of grass and 3-4 fresh leaves of any type.
Up to 10 earthworms.
MAKING THE HOTEL:
Put a 1" layer of sand in the bottom of the container.
Put a 2" layer of soil over this.
Alternate layers of sand and soil until the container is nearly full, ending with a layer of soil.
Put the leaves and grass on top.
Spray LIGHTLY with water to just moisten the top layer of soil.
Add worms.
Cover with a layer of plastic film and secure this with a rubber band. PUNCTURE HOLES so your guests can breathe.
Find something that will surround the hotel and keep it dark while still leaving the top open to the air. You can open up the top and bottom of a cardboard box and slip it down over the jar like a sleeve. Or you can build a surround with black poster board.
Place the hotel in the basement or other cool, dark place. (Ours is in an unused dog kennel in the basement within its surround).
Within a day or two you should be able to look along the sides of your hotel and see the guests making tunnels and doing other wormy things.
Refresh the salad for the worms each evening and spritz with water at the same time. Try to limit the amount of time you expose the guests to the light. They don't like it! And is that any way to treat a guest?
HINT FOR FINDING WORMS: Early in the day, before it gets hot, run your garden hose on one spot in the lawn next to a sidewalk until the ground is saturated. At a certain point, the worms will come to the surface to get away from the water. Get a good grip on 'em ... they are wily, slippery little guys.
KNITTING? OH, YEAH. THAT.
I suppose I've been knitting a few things, though I haven't acheived finish-age on many since the silent auction extravaganza. I have put the striped Simply Shetland wrap aside for the moment, as we have no A/C and it's been warmish this week.
I started the Harebell Lace Fichu from Victorian Lace Today, and found it extremely challenging. (When they say "Experienced" they mean it). That is on hold until the mood takes me again, or until I turn brilliant overnight. My friend Karen finished hers in a few weeks and was wearing it already, Ms. Smarty-Pants.
I mostly finished a sort-of pair of Mermaid Socks (or at least my take on them) from Cool Socks Warm Feet by Lucy Neatby. See the picture above when it's posted. In so doing, I re-injured my sock-knitting overuse injury, which results in a very sore and bunched-up trapezius muscle. So I have been taking it pretty easy for a few weeks trying to let that calm down.
However, I did start a KPS neck-down cardigan. I'm going to put a hood and pockets on it, and put a zipper in. I'm doing it in cranberry Fantasy Naturale. Sort of a classic Red Hooded Sweatshirt deal.
AND ... I actually have a day off at Borealis that coincides with a class that's being taught by Arnhild Hillesland. I'll be learning about Norwegian Mittens. I've done these before, but because I'm self-taught, I look forward to doing them the "real" way.
Happy Summer Solstice!
No, there's been no tornado, cancer, screaming meemies, or crisis of any kind. Just, you know: life.
I have been spending a lot of time with Favorite Child, now that she's graduated kindergarten. Today's activity was making a worm hotel. If you would like to make one of these with your own favortive child, here's the recipe:
YOU WILL NEED:
Clear cylindrical-shaped plastic container with a large mouth. One gallon is a good size.
Fresh soil from your garden, dry or slightly moist but not wet or muddy.
Sand.
A couple handfuls of grass and 3-4 fresh leaves of any type.
Up to 10 earthworms.
MAKING THE HOTEL:
Put a 1" layer of sand in the bottom of the container.
Put a 2" layer of soil over this.
Alternate layers of sand and soil until the container is nearly full, ending with a layer of soil.
Put the leaves and grass on top.
Spray LIGHTLY with water to just moisten the top layer of soil.
Add worms.
Cover with a layer of plastic film and secure this with a rubber band. PUNCTURE HOLES so your guests can breathe.
Find something that will surround the hotel and keep it dark while still leaving the top open to the air. You can open up the top and bottom of a cardboard box and slip it down over the jar like a sleeve. Or you can build a surround with black poster board.
Place the hotel in the basement or other cool, dark place. (Ours is in an unused dog kennel in the basement within its surround).
Within a day or two you should be able to look along the sides of your hotel and see the guests making tunnels and doing other wormy things.
Refresh the salad for the worms each evening and spritz with water at the same time. Try to limit the amount of time you expose the guests to the light. They don't like it! And is that any way to treat a guest?
HINT FOR FINDING WORMS: Early in the day, before it gets hot, run your garden hose on one spot in the lawn next to a sidewalk until the ground is saturated. At a certain point, the worms will come to the surface to get away from the water. Get a good grip on 'em ... they are wily, slippery little guys.
KNITTING? OH, YEAH. THAT.
I suppose I've been knitting a few things, though I haven't acheived finish-age on many since the silent auction extravaganza. I have put the striped Simply Shetland wrap aside for the moment, as we have no A/C and it's been warmish this week.
I started the Harebell Lace Fichu from Victorian Lace Today, and found it extremely challenging. (When they say "Experienced" they mean it). That is on hold until the mood takes me again, or until I turn brilliant overnight. My friend Karen finished hers in a few weeks and was wearing it already, Ms. Smarty-Pants.
I mostly finished a sort-of pair of Mermaid Socks (or at least my take on them) from Cool Socks Warm Feet by Lucy Neatby. See the picture above when it's posted. In so doing, I re-injured my sock-knitting overuse injury, which results in a very sore and bunched-up trapezius muscle. So I have been taking it pretty easy for a few weeks trying to let that calm down.
However, I did start a KPS neck-down cardigan. I'm going to put a hood and pockets on it, and put a zipper in. I'm doing it in cranberry Fantasy Naturale. Sort of a classic Red Hooded Sweatshirt deal.
AND ... I actually have a day off at Borealis that coincides with a class that's being taught by Arnhild Hillesland. I'll be learning about Norwegian Mittens. I've done these before, but because I'm self-taught, I look forward to doing them the "real" way.
Happy Summer Solstice!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Too many stripes
No pictures ... read on ...
I "misunderestimated" how long it would take me to finish the excessively stripey baby cardigan for the silent auction at my favorite 5-year-old's school, so I was madly working on it till 5:30 the day of the auction. The auction started at 5:00. Oops. I did finish it, though, and people bid on it, and it made money for the school.
Because I had to rush out the door, I didn't take any pictures of it or the other things I made, as I'd planned. So a lame description will have to suffice:
The cardigan was "Lily the Green" from one of the Sublime baby books, a bolero with stripes of lime, pink, white, and sage, and a sweet striped garter border and ruffle around the lower edge. I estimate I had to weave in about 200 ends because of all the stripes. I wish I'd knit it in one piece up to the armholes! And for the ruffle, you start with 80-some stitches, and end up with 240, so that took a bit more knitting than I'd planned time for -- duh.
I knit two coordinating hats, one lime with a pink/sage garter border, and one pink with a white stripe and a hemmed picot edge. All in all, the ensemble was incredibly sweet and it was hard to let go of. I am trying very hard not to start another one. Although I didn't enjoy making it, I know now what I'd do different and better, so it's tempting to start.
I also make a Lola baby bolero (Schaefer Yarns' Lola) in vivid turquoise/lime. And I knocked off a quick hat in Bella Color cotton, which was on sale at Borealis so it cost me next to nothing, and earned the school $15.
I will post some pictures of some random things next time!
I "misunderestimated" how long it would take me to finish the excessively stripey baby cardigan for the silent auction at my favorite 5-year-old's school, so I was madly working on it till 5:30 the day of the auction. The auction started at 5:00. Oops. I did finish it, though, and people bid on it, and it made money for the school.
Because I had to rush out the door, I didn't take any pictures of it or the other things I made, as I'd planned. So a lame description will have to suffice:
The cardigan was "Lily the Green" from one of the Sublime baby books, a bolero with stripes of lime, pink, white, and sage, and a sweet striped garter border and ruffle around the lower edge. I estimate I had to weave in about 200 ends because of all the stripes. I wish I'd knit it in one piece up to the armholes! And for the ruffle, you start with 80-some stitches, and end up with 240, so that took a bit more knitting than I'd planned time for -- duh.
I knit two coordinating hats, one lime with a pink/sage garter border, and one pink with a white stripe and a hemmed picot edge. All in all, the ensemble was incredibly sweet and it was hard to let go of. I am trying very hard not to start another one. Although I didn't enjoy making it, I know now what I'd do different and better, so it's tempting to start.
I also make a Lola baby bolero (Schaefer Yarns' Lola) in vivid turquoise/lime. And I knocked off a quick hat in Bella Color cotton, which was on sale at Borealis so it cost me next to nothing, and earned the school $15.
I will post some pictures of some random things next time!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
That's a Stripe of a Different Color
Drug of Choice
Crack cocaine and methamphetamine have nothing on Jamieson's Shetland Double Knitting yarn, my new drug of choice. And my favored method of administration is the Sonoma Mountain Wrap. I can't put the thing down. The Woven Stitch seems to be in harmony with my natural rhythm, a rocking motion that's soothing and mesmerizing. And the yarn flows through my hands like buttah.
Whenever I am tempted to put the project down, I think: No... just one more stripe! The colors are so rich. The designer, Carol Lapin, has put the colors next to each other in ingenious and varied ways. Each time a color appears, it appears next to a different color than it did the last time. My especial favorites so far are Purple Heather/Peat and Olive/Seaweed. Ooooooooh. Ahhhhhh.
Knitting Advice: Fear Not
I sometimes tell my students: Don't be afraid of your knitting. New knitters are understandably nervous about dropped stitches and other mistakes. It only makes sense; if you don't know how something works, and don't know how to fix it, mistakes are alarming. But really, it's only knitting, and no lives are at stake. So get in there and dig around and see if you can figure out why that goofy stitch doesn't look like the others. See if you can get that dropped stitch back on the needle. And if you can't figure it out, ask for help. The only true knitting disasters involve scissors, fire, ink, and family members who help out by putting your heirloom 100% wool sweater in the washing machine on "heavy duty/hot/hot".
The beauty of knitted fabric is that it's flexible and forgiving. When sewing a seam, if you're a stitch or two off, you can easily fudge by stretching one piece slightly to fit it to the other. If you slipped a stitch somewhere instead of knitting it, chances are its hundreds or thousands of close friends and neighbors will draw attention away from it.
If you're seeking perfection, knitting is not the place to find it. You could end up knitting and re-knitting forever, and then your yarn would look like hell anyway. So, if it looks good, it is good, and no one need be the wiser about those little unexpected embellishments.
New Word
And, finally, thanks to Ms. Not-Morris, who brought a wonderful new word into my life: Poopstitch.
Crack cocaine and methamphetamine have nothing on Jamieson's Shetland Double Knitting yarn, my new drug of choice. And my favored method of administration is the Sonoma Mountain Wrap. I can't put the thing down. The Woven Stitch seems to be in harmony with my natural rhythm, a rocking motion that's soothing and mesmerizing. And the yarn flows through my hands like buttah.
Whenever I am tempted to put the project down, I think: No... just one more stripe! The colors are so rich. The designer, Carol Lapin, has put the colors next to each other in ingenious and varied ways. Each time a color appears, it appears next to a different color than it did the last time. My especial favorites so far are Purple Heather/Peat and Olive/Seaweed. Ooooooooh. Ahhhhhh.
Knitting Advice: Fear Not
I sometimes tell my students: Don't be afraid of your knitting. New knitters are understandably nervous about dropped stitches and other mistakes. It only makes sense; if you don't know how something works, and don't know how to fix it, mistakes are alarming. But really, it's only knitting, and no lives are at stake. So get in there and dig around and see if you can figure out why that goofy stitch doesn't look like the others. See if you can get that dropped stitch back on the needle. And if you can't figure it out, ask for help. The only true knitting disasters involve scissors, fire, ink, and family members who help out by putting your heirloom 100% wool sweater in the washing machine on "heavy duty/hot/hot".
The beauty of knitted fabric is that it's flexible and forgiving. When sewing a seam, if you're a stitch or two off, you can easily fudge by stretching one piece slightly to fit it to the other. If you slipped a stitch somewhere instead of knitting it, chances are its hundreds or thousands of close friends and neighbors will draw attention away from it.
If you're seeking perfection, knitting is not the place to find it. You could end up knitting and re-knitting forever, and then your yarn would look like hell anyway. So, if it looks good, it is good, and no one need be the wiser about those little unexpected embellishments.
New Word
And, finally, thanks to Ms. Not-Morris, who brought a wonderful new word into my life: Poopstitch.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
It's a sickness; I need help
Out (of mind) with the old, in with the new
In my last post, I said that my coworkers' hyperproductivity was making me feel like I need to finish some of the projects I've started.
"Feel like" is the key phrase.
Well, I felt like it. Didn't do it.
Instead, I started some new things. I get a pass on one of the things; it's a baby bolero for the silent auction fundraiser at my favorite 5-year-old's school. The other is sheer indulgence. It's the Sonoma Mountain Wrap from Simply Shetland 2. It's in a delirious range of colors of Jamieson's Shetland DK. I knit the first 4 stripes on Easter Sunday. Well, Easter is a time of renewal, is it not?
The wrap is in Linen Stitch, which is:
Row 1: K1, *sl 1 wyif, K1*, end with sl1 wyif
Row 2: P1, *sl1 wyib, P1* end with sl1 wyib.
Now, some people find Linen Stitch putzy in the extreme, but I like the rhythm and am actually quite fast at it. It makes a nice dense "woven" fabric. This piece will be my take-along idiot knitting project until it gets too big to drag around. Maybe I can finish it before the weather gets too warm for me to want to knit on it. Oops, there's that word "finish" again.
(After) Thoughts on the Afterthought Heel
I've been re-thinking my toe-up afterthought heel socks. I've knit many pairs of these, and I've taught lots of people to knit them. I have many pairs that fit well. But I think the pattern needs a little refinement.
I have high insteps, so the fact that these socks don't have a gusset makes them a little tight across the instep for me sometimes. I've been fussing with different ways to add some ease across the instep. Often I'll just add some stitches in the instep for a few rows, which helps. But in some yarns the increases really show, and if I'm doing a stitch pattern down the instep, it's not an option.
Another option has been to rib all the way down the top of the sock to the toe. This creates a nice, stretchy fabric, and it's a good solution. But I don't always want ribbed socks, and a smooth fabric looks better with some of the self-patterning yarns.
Another issue I've sometimes had with the Afterthought Heel is that it hasn't been quite deep enough if I start with the heel decreases right away. So I've been playing with knitting 4 rounds or so plain before I start the decreases. This seems to work out OK.
I rather enjoy tinkering with patterns and solving problems. If anyone has any insights on the Afterthought Heel, please leave a comment.
New and Wonderful
Go to Borealis Yarns and see the gorgeous Silk Garden throw on display. It's done in strips, with each strip being a different colorway of Silk Garden. Unbelievably beautiful. The pattern is newly for sale at the store. (Rah, rah -- can't help proselytizing!)
In my last post, I said that my coworkers' hyperproductivity was making me feel like I need to finish some of the projects I've started.
"Feel like" is the key phrase.
Well, I felt like it. Didn't do it.
Instead, I started some new things. I get a pass on one of the things; it's a baby bolero for the silent auction fundraiser at my favorite 5-year-old's school. The other is sheer indulgence. It's the Sonoma Mountain Wrap from Simply Shetland 2. It's in a delirious range of colors of Jamieson's Shetland DK. I knit the first 4 stripes on Easter Sunday. Well, Easter is a time of renewal, is it not?
The wrap is in Linen Stitch, which is:
Row 1: K1, *sl 1 wyif, K1*, end with sl1 wyif
Row 2: P1, *sl1 wyib, P1* end with sl1 wyib.
Now, some people find Linen Stitch putzy in the extreme, but I like the rhythm and am actually quite fast at it. It makes a nice dense "woven" fabric. This piece will be my take-along idiot knitting project until it gets too big to drag around. Maybe I can finish it before the weather gets too warm for me to want to knit on it. Oops, there's that word "finish" again.
(After) Thoughts on the Afterthought Heel
I've been re-thinking my toe-up afterthought heel socks. I've knit many pairs of these, and I've taught lots of people to knit them. I have many pairs that fit well. But I think the pattern needs a little refinement.
I have high insteps, so the fact that these socks don't have a gusset makes them a little tight across the instep for me sometimes. I've been fussing with different ways to add some ease across the instep. Often I'll just add some stitches in the instep for a few rows, which helps. But in some yarns the increases really show, and if I'm doing a stitch pattern down the instep, it's not an option.
Another option has been to rib all the way down the top of the sock to the toe. This creates a nice, stretchy fabric, and it's a good solution. But I don't always want ribbed socks, and a smooth fabric looks better with some of the self-patterning yarns.
Another issue I've sometimes had with the Afterthought Heel is that it hasn't been quite deep enough if I start with the heel decreases right away. So I've been playing with knitting 4 rounds or so plain before I start the decreases. This seems to work out OK.
I rather enjoy tinkering with patterns and solving problems. If anyone has any insights on the Afterthought Heel, please leave a comment.
New and Wonderful
Go to Borealis Yarns and see the gorgeous Silk Garden throw on display. It's done in strips, with each strip being a different colorway of Silk Garden. Unbelievably beautiful. The pattern is newly for sale at the store. (Rah, rah -- can't help proselytizing!)
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