Blue-Dyed Hands

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

Well, we finally got our visas two days ago after five months of living with my parents. This is truly a season to rejoice. We'll be leaving for Rio on December 31. I'm not sure how often I'll be updating this blog in the future, but you can see what I'm up to on Ravelry. Merry Christmas.

New project., new yarn

2007-10-15T23:33:00.000-07:00

I've started a new project, of my own design, using Colourmart DK weight coned silk. I'm having to double-strand it, because there is no way that this is a true DK weight. More fingering, I'd say. That's Colourmart. Their laceweight is cobweb, and their four-ply is lace-weight, etc. Gorgeous yarn, though. The color I have is "Camel," a nice neutral. I'm making a top-down raglan lace blouse, meant to evoke 1930s England.

I'm almost down to where I can put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn.

I did a bit of stash enhancement over the weekend. Because I'm just sitting here, waiting to go to Brazil, I'm going through the yarn at a faster rate than usual. I ordered some Elann Pegasus in Sky Blue and some Elann Ramie/Cotton. The Pegasus will be combined with some Connemara I bought last year to become this, and the Ramie/Cotton will become this. I love the look of Berocco's Bling Bling, but I couldn't justify $140 for a short-sleeved sweater. $16 from Elann suits me just fine. I am, however, considering at-home means of getting gold onto the yarn. Fabric paint? Jones Tones foil?

Tangled Yoke Pictures

2007-10-05T15:49:00.000-07:00

Buttons and everything!

Ravelry!

2007-10-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

I've finally gotten on to Ravelry! My screen name is Lobolita. (My little brother's nickname for me.) Come find me!

Tangled Yoke Finished!

2007-10-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I finished the last button band on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. Here it lies in its blocked-but-not-dry state:

Pattern: Tangled Yoke Cardigan by Eunny Jang in the Fall '07 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Jaeger Trinity from Webs
Needles: #6 Inox circular, #4 Susan Bates circular, #0 aluminum crochet hook
Start-to-finish: About a month
Modifications: Not many. Other than using a completely different yarn, I only made two significant mods. Obviously, the first was making it short-sleeved. For the sleeves, I cast on the final number of sleeve stitches indicated in the pattern and worked 6 rows of garter rib before joining to the body. Secondly, instead of picking up stitches for the purl bumps on the collar and doing a three-needle bind-off with the collar stitches, I slip stitched the live collar stitches down to the purl bumps using a small croched hook. I decided to do this after seeing Sil's collar travails.

The pattern was extremely well-written. Even the complicated cable was quite easy, as long as I followed the directions. I'll post a modeled shot as soon as it's dry and I sew on the buttons.

Bad News

2007-09-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

First off, we're not in Brazil. Things have been...delayed. The Brazilian government doesn't particularly like American volunteers, apparently, so it's really hard to get our visas through. So we're waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Did I mention we're living with my parents while we wait?

Right now, we're waiting in Long Beach, WA, which is kind of fun. We went to see Mt. St. Helens, too, which was awesome.

That was a pretty big boom when it went off. The National Park area around the mountain is incredibly desolate still, but Weyerhauser has done great job of replanting its lost forest.

It's pretty amazing what one little volcanic eruption can do to a landscape.

I've also had time for a great deal of knitting. I finished the Roundabout Tank, a shell of my own design, my Hedera socks, and am currently 5 inches into the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. With nothing else to do, I've discovered I can really fly through the yarn. I'm also forcing myself to practice some project monogamy, or at least bigamy, by having only one large project and one pair of socks on the needles at the time. That way, I actually finish things. Imagine that.

Very bad pictures of my Hedera Socks, featuring Abbey:

Pattern: Hedera, from Knitty
Yarn: Panda Cotton, in Red Cinnamon
Needles: Socks knitted one at a time on two #1 Inox 16-inch circulars.
Comments: I like the pattern, and I like the yarn, but Panda Cotton is a bit too splitty to knit lace comfortably. I'd pick a different yarn for this pattern if I were to knit it again.

I did it!!!!

2007-07-30T12:18:00.001-07:00

This morning I got a message from my college adviser that my final project was approved!!!!!!! My M.Ed. is done!!!!!!! Two years of sheer torture are complete!!!!!!! For the record, this is a Master of Education degree from the University of Washington, Bothell. My hood, when I get it, will have a purple and gold lining and a light blue velvet band, representing the field of education. This makes me want to knit something celebratory. Perhaps in light blue, with purple and gold accents? Hmmmm...I'm thinking fair isle....

Kiri Gifted

2007-07-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

The Kiri shawl I finished over a year ago has been given to my grandmother. I made it out of Icelandic laceweight she gave me, which my uncle had sent her while he was stationed in Iceland, so it seemed fitting that she be the recipient of the shawl. She loved it.

And here's the back, with Grandma doing her best snobby dress mannequin pose.

My grandmother is 82 and a character. She has 64 direct, living descendants, including 24 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. When you add in all the spouses of these descendants, there are over 100 people at most family gatherings. Grandma taught me to crochet when I was six or seven years old, and has always fostered my crafting habit. Unlike most of my cousins, I grew up next door to her, so I've been fortunate enough to have maximum Grandma-exposure. Her own mother lived to be 98, so we expect to see a good deal of Grandma yet.

The Roundabout Tank continues, sadly. It's not sad because of the tank, which is great fun, but it's sad because it means our Visas for Brazil haven't come. If they had, we would be in the air right now.

I'm making the second size, but I joined at 37" instead of 40", because I wanted a bit of negative ease. I'm three balls into my nine balls of Pegasus, and I'm hoping the yarn holds out until the end.

Pegasus

2007-07-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

I've succumbed to the siren song of Flickr. One of the big reasons I haven't blogged as much as I should is that uploading photos to our private server was so fiddly and time-consuming. (I know. Wah. Millions of people do it every day.) So I've switched to Flickr, which is much easier, and, quite frankly, cooler. I present to you, Pegasus:

And the much-desired appropriate edging stitches for the Roundabout Leaf Tank (The photo is flipped, lest you think I knit left-handed):

And finally, here's some of the Brazil stash:

Surprisingly non-blue. What you see are orange Jaeger Trinity, celery Elann Camila, three colors of Crystal Palace Panda Cotton and Panda Wool, camel silk from Colourmart, red KnitPicks CotLin, moss Misti Alpaca laceweight, and lime Lacey Lamb from Jade Sapphire.

Packed away already are a couple of cakes of Zephyr Wool-Silk, some Brown Sheep Cotton Fine, another color of Jaeger Trinity, and some sapphire blue Elann Luna. And the Pegasus, of course. I've got projects planned for about half of it already, and the rest will probably be my own designs.

Roundabout Leaf Tank

2007-07-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

The Elann Pegasus arrived in the mail this afternoon, so I immediately swatched it to see if it would work better than the Katia Jet. It's a lovely yarn, very squashy, with a good "crunch" and incredible shine from the rayon content. It is much lighter and drapier than the Katia, so I'm pleased. I'll upload pictures as soon as my camera batteries decide they're done recharging.

Unfortunately, beautiful though the yarn is, I'm getting 20 stitches to the inch on #7 needles rather than the pattern's called-for 18. I went up to #8 needles, and got the same gauge. Since the fabric is already pretty loose on #7s, I decided to go with it, and just add two stitches to the width of the strip as it winds around and around.

Speaking of the strip, I cast on immediately after finishing my gauge calculations, and discovered a rather glaring error in the instructions. This is in addition to the errors already revealed in the errata on the knitalong blog.

You see, in the picture, the knitted strip appears to be a field of stockinette bordered by two lines of faggoting and a couple of edge stitches. The problem is that the directions listed do not produce that at all. The holes on the left side of the strip line up in classic faggoting, but the ones on the right side just make two wonky lines of holes with a zig-zag stitch in between. To make the knitted strip appear as it does in the photo of the finished garment, the pattern should read like this for both the border and the regular strip sections:

Row 1 (RS) K3, yo, ssk, k15, yo, ssk, k2.

This should make the holes line up in the correct manner. I haven't gotten any further than this in the knitting, and I probably won't do any more on it until we're headed to Brazil, but I'll keep track of any more errors I spot along the way. I really wish that the patterns in this book had been test-knit. It's such a beautiful book, and the patterns are so unique, that it seems a great shame that there are so many errors. Everywhere I go on the web, it seems, the first comment I read about the book is that it is riddled with problems.

We are not amused

2007-07-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

The Katia Jet came in the mail today, and I decided to swatch it before packing it away, and I am very glad that I did. The color is lovely, and the yarn is very nice, but the fabric it makes is waaaaaay too firm for the Roundabout Leaf Tank, which, to all indications, should be slinky and drapey. (By the way, here's be best one I've found on the internet so far.)

So, back to Elann the yarn goes. This time, I'm going to order their house-brand Pegasus, and hope that the rayon content provides the necessary drape.

I've decided on the color "natural," because I don't really like the pale blue offered, Tim doesn't like pink, and none of the other colors really speak to me. Hopefully, this order will work out.

Love! Love! Love!

2007-07-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

I just checked out Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature from the library. I am in love. I know that this book made the blog rounds some time ago, but at the time, I didn't truly realize just how wonderful the patterns in it are. Right now, I am obsessing over two, the Roundabout Leaf Tank (like everybody else) and the Shell Tank. Both will be great for Brazil.

For the Shell Tank, I already have appropriate stash yarn, Elann Sonata in Tapestry Blue

For the Roundabout Leaf Tank, I had to order some yarn, since there wasn't any aran weight summer yarn in my stash. Once again, I went with Elann (I'm so close to the $50 free yarn!) for Katia Jet, which I hope will work well for this. I know, cotton's not slinky like the Berroco Denim Silk the pattern calls for, but I'm hoping the chainette construction will help with this. My husband chose the color Aqua, and I think he made a pretty good choice:

There will, of course, be no knitting on these projects until I get to Brazil. We leave on the 30th of July! Nothing but packing and panic for the next two weeks.

It tells you they didn't have a lot else to celebrate

2007-07-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

Lithuania has money with people spinning on it. Awesome.

Oh, and happy Fourth of July. God bless America and our soldiers.

The Stash for Brazil

2007-07-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

Lookee in the sidebar--a new shop widget! I am excited. Please, buy my yarn. I don't have anywhere to put it.

What I do have is lots of cotton and linen and silk to take with me to Brazil. I have spent the last three or four months building the Brazil stash, because Claudia told me to bring my yarn with me. Apparently, most of the yarn available in Brazil is acrylic, despite the fact that many of our natural fiber yarns in the States are manufactured there.

At last count, here's what's going to Brazil with us:

Elann Camila, Sage, 7 balls
Jaeger Trinity, Dull Pink, 5 balls
Jaeger Trinity, Flamenco, 5 balls
KnitPicks CotLin, Red, 7 balls
Elann Sonata, Blue, 8 balls
Queensland Cotolino, White, 10 balls
Elann Esprit, Brazil, 6 balls
Elann Connemara, Blue, 6 balls
Colourmart Silk, Camel, 2 cones

Not to mention the lace and sock yarn. So, you can see that I will be prepared.

By the way, Rosemary mentioned that I hadn't said anything about our new blog. You can find out about our Brazil adventures at TimAndLorraine.com, and I've also put a permanent link in the sidebar.

I think that I will keep this blog up, just for knitting-related blogging. Now that school's out, and the masters-degree-of-death is nearly complete, I should be able to get to this more often. I hope. No promises, though, if the last six months are any indication.

Gagh! Still here!

2007-03-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry, blog-friends. I have been remonstrated by the husband of a regular reader (you know who you are) for not posting more often. All I can say is mea culpa.

And what's more, this is going to be a lame, picture-less post. Sorry.

So, Brazil. Yes, we are moving to Rio de Janiero this summer. We'll be teaching History and Science at a school in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood, commonly known as Barra. (I've read that the "rr" in "Barra" is pronounced like the "tt" in "butter." This makes no sense to me, but I'll go with it. My husband has chosen an elaborate tongue roll instead. I think I'll go with the path of least resistance.)

In response to my last post's comments, yes, if you know us and want to visit us, you'll be very welcome. We have no idea what our living arrangements will be like but we'll figure something out.

Rio is a very beautiful city known for its beaches, bikinis, Carnival celebrations, cocaine syndicates, and crushingly poor favelas. It also has a tropical climate and about 11 million people, both of which will take some getting used to for two people from Western Washington.

We'll be gone for two years, during which I intend to

Learn Portuguese
Learn to cook Brazilian food
Knit a lot of cotton
Not get tan (I realize I'm asking for the moon here, but I'd like to put off the wrinkles as long as possible. That and the skin cancer.)

Since this is a knitting blog, I'll be doing in-depth coverage of the knitting scene in Rio, which looks pretty sparse, to say the least.

Speaking of knitting, I've got a couple of super-secret gift projects going, which severly limits the blog fodder. I do have some socks to show you, though, which I will do soon. Soon, I promise!

Utterly remiss in my geographic duties*

2007-01-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I last posted.

For my birthday, I got a skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk in the "Ocean" colorway, which I promptly turned into a "Stole in Spider Pattern," from Victorian Lace Today. The book was a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law, who showed his true superiority of mind by being the only person to get me knitting paraphernalia for Christmas.

And here is the lovely result:

The Sea Silk is everything everyone says it is. It is shiny, and slinky, and crunchy, and all around good. Oh, and it has about 10,000 white nupps that have to be picked out of the yarn as you knit, resulting in strange little nupp piles on the arm of the couch. But I'm not bitter. My skein didn't smell of the sea when dry, but did smell faintly salty when wet.

I wanted to take pictures of the knitting and blocking, but we suffered an acute battery shortage around the house over the Christmas season, and it's only in the last week that I've been able to unite the technology and power supply necessary to take pictures.

Another reason I haven't posted in a while is that there's been something else taking up a bit of time.

You see, we've decided to move to Brazil.

Not permanently, just for two years. We're going to teach at a mission school there. So now I get to try to learn enough Portuguese to find out how to obtain yarn in Rio de Janeiro. But that's a topic for another post.

* The title is taken from a CD I dearly loved as a child, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, as sung by Rockapella. In a particular song about state capitals, they forget Pierre, South Dakota, so the mayor comes on the song and tells them they have been "remiss in their geographic duties."

Can anyone explain this?

2006-12-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

In my monthly newsletter from Christian Book Distributors, I came across this:

What I want to know is this: exactly what theological concept is this meant to express?

On the knitting front, I am feverishly into my gift knitting, so no peeks here. I'll post the FO's nearer to Christmas.

One Finished Object

2006-10-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

I give you Sienna:

Obviously, with some mods. The big one is the yarn, which is not the Blue Sky Alpaca called for in the pattern, but Malabrigo handspun in the Thistle colorway. Nice yarn, okay pattern. My other mod was to make it 3/4 length sleeves rather than full length, since I tend to push my sleeves up at work all the time.

This is a comfy cardigan. A bit too boxy, in my opinion. It adds pounds I don't need to add. I think if I made it again in the future, which is unlikely, I'd add significant waist shaping. The yarn is lovely and soft, and I like the color.

The other major project I'm working now is top secret, so I can't show it here, but hopefully you'll see the pattern somewhere else someday.

P.S. I was interested to note the three new yarns on the KnitPicks website. This looks like an Elann-style short run, or perhaps they're market-testing some new lines. I ordered up a vest-worth of Wakashan in "Wild Cherry Quinault." Worsted-weight baby alpaca. Yum.

Time-waster

2006-10-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

Four things that keep me from knitting:

1. Work
2. Night school for my masters
3. Worship team practice at church
4. Yarn-hungry kittens

She is tiny, she is affectionate, and she loves to chew on yarn. Her name is Elf.

Stealth project

2006-09-13T22:45:00.000-07:00

I often forget to blog about what I'm knitting. I realize this defeats the purpose of having a knitting blog, but it's just so hard to lay down the needles sometimes in order to type up a post. No excuse, I know.

But I have been working on a project for a couple of weeks now, and since I've gotten to the blocking stage, I figured it was high time to post a picture. I'm making the Sienna Cardigan, from the Fall '06 Interweave, in Handpaintedyarn.com bulky handspun wool, in the "thistle" colorway. This is obviously not the yarn called for in the pattern, but I got gague, and I think it's turned out pretty well:

Don't be alarmed by the oddly disparate sizes of the sleeves. It's a camera illusion. I measured them several times, and they are actually the same width. 14" at the armscye, 10" at the cuff.

I cannot begin to describe how much I love this yarn. It is soooooo soft, and the color variegation and thick-and-thin texture were enough to keep me interested all the way up the stockinette back and sleeves. And so far I've only used 5 skeins! Talk about a bargain. I'll probably make it through skein #6 doing the collar and button bands, but even so, that's pretty inexpensive for a cardigan. I am doing 3/4 length sleeves, because I'll be wearing this to work, and I tend to push my sleeves up while I'm typing, so I'd rather not have to.

Now I've just got to wait for this to dry, and then I get to mattress stitch!

Shop news
I've put up four new sock yarns in the shop and one new roving. I really love the tourmaline colorway. Pretty, pretty.

Of Harlots and Shawls

2006-09-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

Guess who I saw tonight?

And guess who else was there?

About 500 knitters. Maybe more. It was crazy. Stephanie was, as ever, amusing. This was the first stop on her latest tour, so she was charmingly frazzled, and sticking pretty close to her notes. She was wearing her Icarus, which she blocked on her living room floor last night, and I was wearing my Icarus, which I blocked on my sewing room floor last week before I became deathly ill. Want a finished pic?

Here's the blocked shot:

Pretty, pretty eyelets running into pretty, pretty scallops:

Running into a pretty, fluted edge:

I've put some new yarn up in the shop tonight, and have 5 more skeins to post later in the week. It's great to be back in America, back on my feet, and ready to get back to work on Tuesday. My classroom is almost ready, and I am only a little bit behind it. September, here I come!

Interesting

2006-08-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

I always pictured myself as more the Vizzini type. Though after the results of my first quiz, I went back and played around with the answers and kept getting Count Rugen, which is a little disturbing.

The reason I haven't posted a picture of my blocked Icarus is that as soon as I got home from Korea I was laid low by a soul-sucking virus. Possibly bird flu. Probably not. Anyway, I was truly bedridden. But now I am better, I start work tomorrow, and I will try to get a picture of Icarus up this afternoon.

Korea Knits

2006-08-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

I finished it!!!!!!!

Icarus:

Unblocked, of course. That will have to wait until I get home. Which will be soon, as you can see from the bag being packed in the background. We fly out tomorrow. A detail shot of the bottom point:

The yarn is Little Lovely Pure Wool laceweight from Handpaintedyarn.com, aka Malabrigo. It's nice and "crispy," just the way I like my lace yarn. It will hold its blocking nicely.

And here is the first finished Opal Petticoat sock and its newly-started companion.

I intend to finish the second on the 11-hour plane ride home tomorrow, assuming I can get on the plane at Incheon with my knitting needles, given the new travel restrictions. We shall see.

Breakfast

2006-08-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here is what the school served for breakfast this morning:

I am 5 rows from the end of Icarus. I will post pictures as soon as it is done. Don't worry, Yarn Harlot, mine looks the same as yours.

Seoul II: Seouled Out

2006-08-03T05:29:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we went on a tour of the sights of Seoul in a real live tour bus with a real live tour guide. In the morning, we went to the largest church in the world, Yoido Full Gospel Church, which has 800,000 members. It was...large. Otherwise unimpressive. I prefer smaller churches, I must say. Though the enormous, well-trained choir was awfully cool.

Then we went to lunch, and I had my first experience with Bimimbop in a stone bowl. They heat up these stone bowls and then put in raw vegetables, rice, and a raw egg. The heat of the bowl cooks it as you stir it around with your chopsticks. It was easily the best thing I have tasted in Korea.

The dark green shiny stuff on top is dried seaweed. I picked most of that out before I started mixing.

After lunch we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the largest of the royal palaces of the old Korean monarchy. It was disgustingly hot and humid, but the palace is truly amazing, at least as impressive as the castles of Europe. Here is the main castle enclosure:

And a detail of the painting and fretwork that lines every roof:

A pedastal within was topped with this adorable stone horse:

The guide told us that that particular courtyard was the site of mass suicides in the old days, when the nobility wanted to get the king to change his mind about something. There is also an ornamental lake surrounding another outbuilding:

It is an amazing piece of history, especially when you consider that most of it was built in the 1300s, when European kings were still living in unsanitary stone battle-fortresses, for the most part. Gyeongbokgung has central heating and reasonably sanitary bathrooms.

After the palace, we went to the blessedly air-conditioned National Museum. The most impressive things there were the medieval crowns, all finely stamped gold:

Every one of the individual pailettes on this headdress is hinged, so that they shudder and shine with the slightest movement:

For my husband, here's a medieval Korean soldier's armor:

And some early medieval swords:

This was a great tour, but exhausting. We only had an hour in the museum, so I did two floors at a dead run, pausing to photograph what I thought might be useful in my classroom. Luckily, all of the descriptions were in Korean, so it wasn't like I needed to pause and read any of them.

Knitting progress: I'm on Chart 2 of Icarus, and finished my water bottle cover. Pictures coming up soon!

A trip to Seoul

2006-07-25T03:53:00.000-07:00

I apologize that I took only 4 pictures on my trip to Seoul on Sunday, but my camera ran out of batteries, and so I couldn't get as many photos as I wanted. I'll be going again this weekend, and I'll be sure to take more pictures then.

First, we got on the Seoul subway, which was very clean and nice, and the signs all had English on the bottom, for which we were grateful. I was with 12 other teachers, and we all scattered in groups of two or three.

The subway was empty at times, and fairly crowded at others.

We walked all around Namdaemun Market, which is acres of twisting alleyways filled with hawkers selling everything from knives to bathtowels.

And emerged from the market to see this enormous monument in the middle of a roundabout, the Korean version of the Arc de Triomphe. That's Janine, whom I drug around with me all day. We had lots of fun.

A trip to the Village

2006-07-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

The town where the school is located is called Yong-in, and is about the same size as my hometown, Spanaway, WA. Several of us teachers took a trip down into the village just below the school.

There are some very large vegetable gardens on the way down. They're growing corn and tomatoes and melons.

Here's the sign to our school at the bottom of the hill.

We walked to a very small open market with about 15 stalls, one of which was selling fresh fish.

And we found a violin shop, where the owner was kind enough to let Christi play a Bach fugue on one of his violins.

Yesterday evening, the camp directors took us out to an authentic Korean barbecue. In front of the restaurant was an authentic shark pond with an authentic Korean pondkeeper.

We had a lot of fun.I got to cut up meat on a grate over glowing coals.

And everyone at our table was stuffed and happy.

I've done a bit of knitting here, which I will show you tomorow or the day after. I'm working on a water bottle cover with a strap so that I don't have to carry my water around in my hand all the time. I'm using Elann's Espirit in Rosetta. Pictures to come.

In Korea!

2006-07-21T03:01:00.000-07:00

The flight was long. 12 hours. We crossed the interntional date line, so I woke up one morning on Tuesday and the next morning on Thursday. Or something like that. Anyway, we're here. There are 25 teachers in my group, all from the Seattle area. By the time this picture was taken on the bus, I had been up for far, far too long.

That's the Incheon Airport you can kind of see behind me. We rode on the bus for 2 hours to get to Yongin, a small, very new city surrounded by wooded hills. We stumbled into our room around 9 PM local time and fell into a stupor on the rock-hard Korean beds. Two days later, here is a picture of our room. I'm sharing with Christi, a fellow teacher and friend from high school.

Our room is pretty nice. Small, but sufficient. And we have our own bathroom and shower. The shower goes in 12-second spurts, and then you have to push the button again to get more water. It's hot, though. We're on the 7th floor of a 9-story dorm, one of two. This place is huge. We're on the campus of the Hanguk Academy of Foreign Studies, which is one of the most prestigious high schools in Korea. Here's the view of campus from the window of our room:

And here's the courtyard stretching out from the main entrance, graced by a few members of our group:

I'll be teaching English to the second-to-most-advanced level of kids, and the book I've been assigned is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Which reminds me that I need to get back to writing lesson plans. More pictures later!

Of Shawls and Purses

2006-07-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

So in the fury of packing for Korea, I've been very lax in posting my FOs. Here are two:

Kiri

A lovely pattern. I knitted Kiri in Icelandic laceweight from my grandmother's stash (my grandmother attained SABLE* in about 1974). It blocked beautifully, as you can see. Instead of the very strange cast-off directed in the pattern, I did a crocheted cast-off as follows: (sc2tog, ch3) rep to end. The little loops created by this pinned out into a nice, lacy edging. A close-up:

And a close-up of the lace pattern:

All in all, a very satisfying knit. Due to this, I have caught the lace bug, and ordered two skeins of laceweight from handpaintedyarn.com for Icarus and a shawl of my own design based on the old Madeira lace motif. Icarus will be knitted in a variegated red-pink, and Madeira in variegated blue.

I also whipped up a purse out of some pretty green toile fabric I had on hand and a skein of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Fern.

I needed a purse for Korea that would fit in my carry-on bag and have a strap that I could sling diagonally across my body to discourage pickpockets. Not that Korea is full of pickpockets, but I always figure any large city, from San Francisco to Seoul, has its share. I sewed in what is, for me, an unusually successful zipper:

The pattern was quite simple, since I made it up as I went along. For the seed-stitch base, I cast on 30 stitches with a size 8 needle, then knit in seed stitch for an inch. I then picked up stitches around the edge of this rectangle with dpns and knit until I had a little box that was three inches deep. I cast off and worked a row of shrimp stitch (backwards single crochet) around the edge for firmness with a size F crochet hook.

For the strap I chained 150 with my size F, then worked back along the chain with single crochet, then worked all around that loooooong, thin rectangle with shrimp stitch.

I cut out two pieces of toile measuring 18" x 10" and lined them with iron-on interfacing. I sewed the two long sides and a short side together to make a pouch, then sewed off the two bottom corners at a 45 degree angle to give the pouch some depth. With the toile on the inside, I folded down the open edge of the pouch until the raw edge was 3 inches above the bottom, then whipstitched the knitted base to the raw edge. Voila, a self-lined purse. I sewed the handle around the top edge, then inserted a zipper, and I was done. A one-hour project.

I'll be in Korea for the next four weeks teaching English, but I'll try to post at least a couple of times while I'm there. The school where I'm working has wireless internet, and I'll be lugging along my laptop, camera, and knitting. I don't know if I'll be able to hit any Korean yarn shops, but I'll sure try.

*SABLE: Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy

Indigo and back again

2006-06-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the delay. I've had some trouble making these pictures come up properly, but now everything seems to be fixed. So, then, indigo dyeing.

First, you have to make the dyebath. I got my indigo from the Weaving Works, and it came in gravel-sized chunks that I chopped up with an old knife into a fine powder. Now with a regular dyestuff, this should be sufficient to create a dyeable medium, but indigo requires two further steps. First, the dyebath has to be extremely basic (as opposed to acidic), so I mixed one cup of soda ash into warm water and added it to a stainless steel pot with 2 gallons of warm water. I then combined the now-powdered indigo (about 2 ounces, which was way more than I needed) with a bit of warm water and worked it up into a paste. I added progressively more water to this until I thought it was thin enough to add to the dyepot, which I did. This is the result:

I warmed this to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, without stirring. It is important when dyeing with Indigo to not introduce any extra oxygen into the mixture by stirring it or sloshing it around. One book I read even said not to let your yarn drip back into the pot when you pull it out after dying. This, it turns out, is just a bit too persnickety. Drips, as long as they are kept to a minimum, are fine.

Now, to the 140-degree dyebath, which I was heating on a hot plate on my back porch, I added one package of RIT color remover. This is a "reducing agent," which removes all unattached oxygen from the dyebath and turns what was now a deep indigo color into NEON GREEN. This is referred to, for unknown reasons, as "indigo white." It's not. It's neon green. I can't show you a neon green dyebath, unfortunately, because the surface, which stays in contact with the air, does not reduce, and therefore remains blue.

It worked, but you'll just have to trust me. Now this "indigo white" is what you need to dye fibers. The plain blue dye will not bond to your yarn, but the neon green will. And, boy, does the yarn come out green. Exposure to oxygen, however, returns it to a blue state. Observe:

And that's all there is to it. For the actual dyeing, I dropped already-wet yarn into the dyepot, let it simmer for 15 minutes, and pulled it out again. For darker blue, I repeated the process two times. For light blue, I dipped it in and pulled it out immediately. Here, you can see the results of my experiments:

The green and purple skeins were originally dyed with cochineal and osage orange, then overdyed with indigo. After the skeins had cooled, I rinsed them out, which was a very labor-intensive process, since I had used far too much indigo in the dyebath. Next time, I will use half as much. I never even came close to exhausting the dyebath, nor did my dipping and dripping ever turn the indigo white back into indigo blue, which indicates that the bath has become useless. All in all, I'd say this was a successful experiment. Not something I'd want to do every day, but something I'll definitely do again in the future.

A Dye Odyssey

2006-06-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

Usually, I use Jacquard Acid dyes for the yarn in my shop. Simple, safe, mostly non-toxic, and they yield consistent, perfect results every time. Why, then, should I have a sudden, uncontrollable urge to experiment with natural dyes? Insanity, my friends. Insanity.

I took myself off to the Weaving Works to see what they might have in the way of natural dyes. They have all sorts of things you can imagine: logwood extract, madder, cutch...I came home with 3 ounces of refined indigo chunks, a pound of alum, and a bag of osage orange sawdust. I wanted blue, yellow, and red, for primaries, but the cochineal extract was just a little too steeply priced for my wallet, so I decided to see what Dharma had to offer.

Thankfully, Dharma had little packets of dried cochineal bugs (yes, they're dead bugs) for sale at a reasonable price, so I was in business. I decided to try the osage orange, which really dyes yellow, not orange, first, because it seemed the easiest. It requires no mordant, and I could simmer it in the dyeing crock pot overnight, then strain out the bits, add the yarn, and simmer it some more. Here's what I got:

Pretty good, eh? This inspired me to try the cochineal, which is, of course, dried, dead bugs. I dumped them into my little food processor and gave them a whirl. Not enough of a whirl, I later found out, since there were still substantial pieces of bug bodies in the mix. I couldn't see them at the time, though, so I blithely dumped them into the dyepot with some alum and citric acid, brought it to a simmer, and stuck in some yarn. Here are two of my skeins and some superwash wool roving:

The nylon ribbon is pretty spectacular, I think. I also dyed about 8 other skeins of pure wool, which you'll see at some point either here or in the shop.

But now, the crowning glory of natural dyeing was before me. Indigo dyeing, you see, requires complex chemical reactions. Chemical reactions that have the potential to CATCH ON FIRE. Or totally ruin your dye project, one or the other. But, to keep this post from being too long, I'll just leave you with a teaser shot:

Ta Dah!!!!

2006-06-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

In a new development here at chez TwoWaters, I give you an official FO! Green Gable, on the blocking towel:

The pattern is extensively modified, for no particular reason other than I felt like it. I made the sleeves longer and the ribbing deeper, and I added more decreases and increases in the side shaping. I tried her on before I blocked her, and she fits pretty darn well. I promise to show posed shots once she's dry.

I also added:

Bust shaping! Without it, knits look...er...unpleasant on me, for reasons we shall not discuss.

All in all, this was a very nice pattern. Very well written, for as far as I stayed with it. I cannot say enough good things about the yarn. This is the first time I have worked with Cotton Fleece, and I am very much in love with it. Even though this was made with factory seconds bought off of Ebay, the yarn was perfect. (Any splotches in the pictures are from wet spots.) There's just enough wool in it to keep it from feeling like string, but enough cotton to make it cool enough for summer. Thumbs up!

Double-Pointed Odyssey

2006-05-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

I am an unfaithful needle buyer. Some people swear by Addis, some by Inox. Some will only knit with natural wooden needles, some knit with glass. I have to admit that I've had a hard time finding my true calling, needle-wise. I love Addi circulars for the big stuff, mainly because of the supple cord, but I will admit I find the nickel plating...disconcerting. I love the sharp tips of Inox needles, but the cord is too stiff in the cheap ones, and the good ones are too hard to find. All of this dithering has resulted in a wildly varied needle stash crammed with Takumi and Inox and Addi and Susan Bates and Suzanne's rosewood and who knows what else.

All of this came to a head last month when I started to get serious about sock knitting. Oh, sure, I've dabbled in socks before, but last month I tripled my sock yarn stash by buying two skeins of Regia and a skein of Trekking XXL. So I decided to give several types of DPNs a go to see how I liked them. The results were conclusive. Please keep in mind that I am a fairly tight knitter, so you may not get the same results with these needles.

Bryspun

We begin with Bruspun plastic DPNs. These are situated four rows from the top of a pair of KnitPicks "Simple Stripes" socks in Crayon. They have been sitting there for months. This is because I HATE them. The plastic is flexible, which is kind of nice, but it has so much grab that I can barely knit.

Pony Pearls

Ditto the Pony Pearls. They're gorgeous and warm and feel nice in my hands, but the plastic suffers separation anxiety every time I try to pull a stitch over the tip.

Brittany

Now, these are lovely. I adore them. They're soft, smooth, they feel good, they even smell good. I just wish I could knit with them. They're not as sticky as the plastic ones, but they're still just too slow. It takes me almost twice as long to knit a sock with these puppies as with any metal needle.

Inox

Now these are getting better. These are Inox grey enamel-coated aluminum DPNs, size 0, that I got last Saturday at the Weaving Works. I've started a sock out of Trekking XXL on them, and I do like them. They are a bit draggy, but not too bad.

Bates

Now, I'm ashamed to say, these are the winners of my very unscientific survey. The least expensive and least attractive of them all, good old wicked-sharp Bates DPNs just really do it for me. They're sharp, they're smooth, and they're super-fast. They're a bit longer than I would like, but other than that, I have no complaints. They are the clear winner as far as speed is concerned, and they produce a consistently even fabric. Here are the Rajastan socks, 3/4 of the way finished:

So the moral of the story is this: sometimes, cheaper is better. Of course, they come in packs of 4 instead of 5, so I have to buy two packs of every size, so it doesn't really turn out to be cheaper, but...oh, what does it matter. They're still better.

Ew.

2006-05-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

Why?

Socks Came!!!!!

2006-05-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

Oh, they're so beautiful!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Stephanie! They fit perfectly, and the yarn is sooooo soft and beautiful, and the knitting is superb. Take a look, world:

And look at this lovely gusset:

Stephanie even sent me the leftover yarn for future repairs. I do not deserve such a wonderful sockpal. And they fit! Somebody who actually, you know, GOT GAGUE before knitting a Pomatomous. Who knew?

Thank you, Stephanie, they are wonderful.
PS. I love your blog.

Sock Obsession

2006-04-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

So no sooner do I finish my Jaywalkers than I begin another pair. I'm really not following in the footsteps of Wendy, honest. This is a genuinely spontaneous sock obsession. I give you Regia India Cotton in Rajastan from this shop:

I'm doing short-row toes and heels, and decided not to pick up the double wraps on the heel. I think it actually looks kind of cool:

I'll do another post on my dpn choices, but for now I'll tell you that I've recently converted from Brittany Birches to sharp, wicked aluminum dpns.

Also new on the needles is Green Gable in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece from this Ebay seller in the color "Avocado."

Finished!

2006-04-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

Sockapaloooza Jaywalkers finished:

From another angle:

The pedals you see are on my Babe Double-Treadle Production wheel, on which I am spinning laceweight cormo singles. I'm getting about 30 wpi, which, since I have 4 ounces of cormo to spin, means I will be spinning this for the rest of my life. The ultimate goal is a cormo lace shawl. We shall see if that ever happens.

And, for sheer novelty, the lion lies down with the lamb:

A tale of two socks

2006-04-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

Some teachers enjoy assessment (testing and grading). They like to see how their students perform so that they can tailor their instruction to bring the best out of each individual student. Or, perhaps they are misanthropes who simply enjoy throwing eight-page tests in the faces of their trembling teens, hoping that a majority will fail so that they (the teachers) can make big juicy red marks all over the papers before handing them back.

I hate assessment. Oh, I like to see how my students are doing, but I HATE grading papers, which is what I've been doing for the last two solid weeks. It's the end of third quarter here at the school, and all my blogging time has been eaten up by either grading or grad school. But the knitting time is sacred, and not even grading papers may be allowed to interfere. Therefore, I have for you the long-awaited next installment in the...

SOCKAPALOOOZA GRAND ELIMINATION FINALS

Remember the nice little self-striping socks I started just after the sock pals were announced? Yeah, those were too small. So I dyed up some gorgeous, Koigu-like superwash to try again, this time with the fabulous Pomatomous pattern from Knitty.

I knitted an entire sock before I had to face the inevitable. THEY WERE TOO SMALL!!!!! My feet are the same size as my sock pal's, so I knew if they didn't fit me, they wouldn't fit her.

(insert sounds of weeping)

The extreme, screaming brightness of the pink pomatomous makes it hard to tell, but believe me, it was a stretch to get it on my foot. Here's a close-up, for effect:

So what am I left with? A single too-small Pomatomous and about 300 yards of hot pink superwash. I am gripped with indecision. So I take the easy way out. I dig some of my own TwoWaters handdyed out of the stash and cast on a pair of Jaywalkers.

One finished sock later, glory be! It fits! for comparison's sake, I give you the too-small Pomatomous next to the perfect-fit Jaywalker:

And so here's the second Jaywalker, nearing completion.

I shall meet the deadline, after all. So much carnage for one simple sock exchange. I hope she likes them. I think I'll send her the leftover screaming pink along with the finished pair of Jaywalkers so that she can redeem it and give it a purpose. It certainly will never leave my stash any other way.

P. S. For those who like knitting and baseball, this week's PastCast is on Jackie Robinson. Enjoy.

Blatant Campaigning

2006-03-28T21:41:00.000-08:00

I'm a finalist! I entered the Lorna's Laces contest over at Yarn Miracle, and my essay got picked to be in the top three! Go vote for me! I've been drooling over LL for months!

Life as craft

2006-03-21T15:15:00.000-08:00

I’m an unfaithful crafter. During my recent cleaning and re-organizing of the craft supplies, it came to light that I have substantial amounts of materials for the following hobbies:
1. Knitting (duh)
2. Spinning (also duh)
3. Crochet
4. Dyeing
5. Shibori
6. Calligraphy
7. Watercolor painting
8. Acrylic painting
9. Sewing
10. Beadwork
11. Embroidery
12. Scrapbooking
13. Ukranian Pysanky
14. Soft-glass lampworking

I knew in a vague sense that I had a lot of crafting material, but reorganizing it all really brought it home to me. And the thing is--I'm not very good at any of them. Oh, sure, I can knit 3/4 of a sweater or a pair of socks. I can crochet afghans, I can dye cotton and wool and silk. I can produce the odd painting or calligraphy for a Christmas gift, I can sew and bead and embroider (Ugh. I hate embroidery.). But I never really take the time to master anything. I never get to the "art" level. I steam ahead into every new project, but I peter out at the end.

I need to learn craft commitment. My new goal is to really master something. Knitting, to be specific. I want to get really, really good at it. That's going to require a lot of work, most of it in the form of finishing the many UFOs that are lying around the house. I hereby pledge that I shall finish one UFO in between every new project I start. I know I can't promise not to start things, but if I give myself an every-other-project diet of UFOs, I think I can make a dent in this thing. It'll be tough, but I shall persevere.

P.S. If you like history, don't forget to check out PastCast.net, where every week my husband and I produce a new historical podcast. This week's is on Douglas MacArthur. See you on the radio.

Bad, Bad Blogger

2006-03-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

So I got sick. And then we went away for a weekend. And then I had finals at UW. And then I got sick again. For this, gentle reader, I beg your forgiveness. Nothing should bring me to so shirk my fiber duties. I haven't even taken pictures of the new Sockapaloooza sock I started. Mea culpa. But I shall, oh yes, I shall. For now, though, my latest purchases on Ebay, from Holland and England, respectively.

First we have the sock yarn. I desperately wanted some self-striping sock yarn, but I hate the faux-fairisle ones. You know, the ones with the little short blips of color and white that make little checkerboards, or vertical stripes, if you are untalented like me. So I hied myself to Ebay and found some lovely cotton-blend Regia from the India collection and blew a fairly shocking (for me) amount of money on two skeins:

Rajastan

Patna

Then, I set out in search of affordable Kidsilk Haze and discovered this seller, who not only had KSH for $10.50 a skein, but was also offering free shipping from ENGLAND! I got two skeins of this:

Heavenly

I'd like to design an Orenburg-style scarf for it with some of the patterns out of Gossamer Webs. If it comes out nicely, I'll post the pattern for sale at Etsy.

Does anybody have any suggestions for working with KSH? I've heard it referred to as "yarn crack," but I've never been able to afford it before (Etsy is a wonderful thing), so have no experience knitting it. Would Bryspun or Balene needles work well? I'm thinking that Addis would be way too slippery and blunt-tipped. Any comments would be appreciated.

Coming soon: Hot Pink Sockapaloooza Pomatomi.

Yarn! Socks! Other people's knitting!

2006-02-22T23:11:00.000-08:00

Heide has finished a pair of socks in TwoWaters Bombay Merino Sock Yarn! They are GORGEOUS.

I've updated the shop with handspun silk, a couple of sock yarns, and two new sock yarns I knitted up on 007 before dyeing in a self-striping pattern. This, I learned, is WAY too much labor for something I'm going to sell, but it was really fun anyway. If I charged by the hour of labor for my yarns, these two puppies would cost about $65 each. But what can I say? I am a slave to my art.

In BONDage

2006-02-21T17:01:00.000-08:00

Lookee here:

A Bond Incredible Sweater Machine, bought on EBay for $32, used. I shall call him "007." When deciding whether or not to buy it, I read that you either get it right away, or it's a huge struggle. Luckily, I picked it up pretty quickly, and produced this:

Project: Felt Bag
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes
Pattern: Knit a rectangle. Seam it up one side and on the bottom. Felt it. Cut handles. Voila.

This little machine is my new best friend. It's not perfect, and I'm not very good at it yet, but boy, howdy, can I knit rectangles! I have great hopes for getting large amounts of stockinette knitted very quickly. This will never replace handknitting for me, but it will make some things easier.

My second project with 007 was this hat

Project: Pinky Hat
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes
Pattern: My own.

I knit the body of the hat flat, then seamed and joined to knit the crown and brim in the round. Check out the spiral decreases:

I'm really loving this Wool of the Andes. It is softer than I expected, and felts beautifully.

I made a hat for my husband this weekend, too.

Project: Green Hat
Yarn: My own handspun, handdyed cormo yarn.
Pattern: Short-row shaped man-hat, lined with black polar fleece.

And the short-rows on the crown:

And last, but not least, the Raspberry Jaywalkers:

And, for the nerds among us, our latest PastCast is up, this one on George Washington.

Nerdification

2006-02-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

Want a glimpse into my other life? In addition to being a knitting superhero (okay, maybe comic sidekick?) I am, by day, a mild-mannered history teacher. Go on over to PastCast.net to see the latest project my husband and I have cooked up. It makes good listening while knitting.

Tragedy

2006-02-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

The self-striping cashmere socks are too small, *sob* so they will have to be ripped out and a new pattern found. Anybody know of a lace pattern that works well with self-stiping yarn? My sock pal specified lace, so Jaywalker won't work. At this point, though, I'm thinking of overdying this yarn a subtly variegated dark red so I can use any lace pattern I darn well please. Like Pomatomous, perhaps. Or, I could save the cashmere for another project and dye up some of my standard Merino, opening up a wider range of possible needle sizes. Choices, choices.

Speaking of Jaywalker, the hot-pink-and-green ones are going well. And Mariah hasn't been forgotten. I'll upload some progress pictures pretty soon.

One sock's struggle against all odds

2006-02-09T21:53:00.000-08:00

The sock in her native habitat perches warily on her ball of yarn, aware that a predator is nearby.

The predator approaches. In terror, the sock jumps from the ball of yarn, flattening herself against the window sill in a desperate attempt to blend in with her surroundings.

Too late! The sock has been spotted! The vicious beast sniffs her cashmere-y goodness.

The above drama is brought to you by Sockapaloooza Sock #1, who likes long soaks in lukewarm water and dreams of becoming an actress. I dyed up the yarn to self-stripe in lavender and apple green with interludes of yellow, orange, and rose, and I think it looks okay. Not my colors, certainly, but I hope my sock pal likes them!

So I've been going a bit mail-order crazy in the last few days, and two boxes arrived today. One was dye from MisterArt.com for the dyeing business, and one was THIS:

5 ounces of cormo batts from Ebay seller Mmfwool, who is now tops in my book. The cormo is perfect--almost like cotton, it's so fine and, well, cottoney. I can't wait to spin it up. Cormo is my favorite wool to touch, but the crimp can make it a little hard to spin. I'll keep you posted.

Sockapaloooza

2006-02-08T14:06:00.000-08:00

So I didn't think Sockapaloooza would cause this much stress, but I've suddenly turned into a knitting perfectionist. What if the yarn I dyed up (Elann's Baby Cashmere. Divine.) isn't the right color? (pictures of the dye job to come. I call it "Victoriana.") What if I pick the wrong pattern? What if I forget how to knit? What if she HATES it?

So many worries, so little time. To combat them, I have started a pair of hot pink and green Jaywalkers. So there.

The fruits of my labors

2006-01-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

Knitpicks came! You can go see the fruits of my labors at the shop. Alison was kind enough to mention my 10% off deal for Sockapaloooza participants, so I'll offer it here, too. 10% off on any sock yarn to Sockapaloooza sock knitters, even if the yarn's just for you!

And now, the promised progress pics.

First, the Elann lacy cardi, sleeves done and now working toward the waist:

And Mariah! Threaded onto my yellow ribbon are a sleeve, the back, and the left front, awaiting the other sleeve and the right front before all can be joined for the yoke.

Sleeve cable detail:

Cable ribbing detail:

I'm finding that the directions for this pattern are not quite accurate. The sleeve length, in particular, is problematic. But I persevere.

Waiting on Knit Picks

2006-01-27T14:20:00.000-08:00

Hurry...hurry...hurry.

Progress

2006-01-26T14:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the radio silence. Night classes on top of full-time teaching have really been taking it out of me recently. I've finished one sleeve for Mariah and am nearly done with the back. The pieces are knit separately up to the yoke and then joined for the raglan decreases. Unfortunately, the cable ribbing on the lower edge of the back is drawing in alarmingly, leading to that pooched-out-over-the-ribbing look I so despise. I'm hoping the ribbing will block out a bit, but if it doesn't, I'm going to have to rip out the back and figure out some modifications. I already know I'm going to have to modify the neck to make it higher and give it a collar instead of a hood.

That has been most of my knitting lately. I sewed myself a bigger purse so I can carry around whatever piece I'm working on. It seems to get done more quickly that way. I promise there will be pictures of both purse and sweater pieces soon.

I also got a new toy:

An RCA Lyra. 4 gig, so I can have a couple of audio books and a few hundred songs on it at the same time. I love it so much. This is my first MP3 player, and I'm hoping it will lead to more exercise, since now I can have it on when I walk the dog or hike. I know, I know, what an exciting life I lead.

Go Hawks!

2006-01-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

So I really don't understand football. It's not that I'm incapable. Indeed, anyone who can read a lace chart and reproduce those symbols in thready yarn on tiny needles ought to have the brainpower to understand any sport they choose. I am deeply interested in the nuances of baseball, and even enjoy watching my students play basketball now and again. It's just that football has no pull for me. I've been to high school and college games, and even watched a bit on the TV with my dear husband. But my overwhelming reaction is "meh."

Football makes excellent knitting time, though. Hours of television I have no desire to pay attention to--what more could I want? The only disruptions could come when my husband jumps from the couch yelling over some thing or other and catches my yarn on his jacket zipper. Other than that, no prob.

So the Seahawks, my hometown Seattle team, are going to the Superbowl for the first time in the team's history. Since the Knitting Knotebook has declared for Pittsburgh, I will declare for Seattle. Two Waters is now an official bandwagon Seahawks knitting blog. Eat your heart out, Steelers.

The twins

2006-01-15T17:03:00.000-08:00

Introducing the Twins, Swifty and Windy.

The ball winder was a Christmas gift from my in-laws, and the swift a birthday present from my grandmother. A closer look at the swift:

She got it in the 1970's in some European country. She can't remember which one. My grandfather was stationed as a civilian with the military in France and Germany during my father's adolescence, and they traveled throughout the continent dickering in little shops and at flea markets. I'm afraid I'll never know the origin of my swift, but she is a beauty.

Swifty and Windy have helped me do this:

Yarn for the shop, now updated. Go over and browse and enjoy Swifty's efforts.

As for knitting, I'm on the third cable repeat on the first sleeve of Mariah and 4 inches from the ends of the sleeves on Lace Cardi. Progress pics in my next post.

So....Much....Yarn

2006-01-12T14:33:00.000-08:00

So I got Indigo Sierra Aran from my sweet husband for Christmas, and I loved the yarn so much that I immediately ordered 12 more skeins in Plum Heather. Bad idea. I am 8 inches into the sleeves of the Elann Lace Cardi with the Indigo and doing the "two-lace-sleeves-on-two-circs with TEN THOUSAND stitch markers because the pattern is a 6-stitch repeat" is driving me crazy. So I ordered 5 more skeins of the Plum Heather and cast on the cabled sleeve for Mariah. Now I have a grand total of 5 serious projects on the needles.
1. Mariah
2. Kiri
3. Elann Lace Cardi
4. Handspun socks
5. Crusoe socks

There are also at least three scarves on needles swimming around in the bottom of my knitting basket, including an Old Shale scarf for a friend. I also need to get my act together and finish a wearable baby sweater for my best friend's baby who is now a month old and rip-out and restart my husband's Merino Style sweater and my Wool of the Andes Cardi.

Startitis, anyone?

St. Distaff's Day

2006-01-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

Where will I be tomorrow (correction courtesy of Jessica) afternoon? At St. Pius X Catholic Church in Mountlake Terrace at the St. Distaff's Day celebration, of course.

In celebration of St. Distaff's day, I give you the first ever socks knit from my Two Waters yarn by Rosemary of Quietish. Aren't they gorgeous? I am humbled by the idea that my yarn could become something so beautiful.

Christmas Break Knitting

2006-01-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

Since school starts tomorrow, I thought I'd show you what I've been knitting over Christmas Break. First up is the handspun sock yarn, which became this

on Christmas Day while sitting on my Grandma's couch listening to various family members talk about other various family members. Grandma is a great crocheter, by the way, and it is her I have to thank for my embarassing ability to turn out large, perfect, hideous, crocheted doilies at a moment's notice. Grandma, now that arthritis has ended her doily days (like salad days for other people, but primmer) has been churning out the same afghan pattern for about 10 years now. I think she's made 53 at last count, and given all but three away. I have two that she made, one my graduation gift from high school, blue, and one our wedding gift, green.

Here is the second sock, begun on the 26th at Tim's family Christmas in Portland.

Modesty forbids me effusing over my own handspun, but let's just say that I love this yarn more than I love either my dog or my cat.

All non-sock knitting time has been devoted to this

Tim's Christmas gift to me, 10 skeins of Elann's Sierra Aran in Dark Indigo. He picked the color himself, and I must say he did an excellent job. It is swiftly becoming this

A wadded mess of lace, which will block into Elann's Aran Weight Lace Cropped Cardigan. I'm on the two-sleeves-on-two-needles part, which is a major pain. This is what I'd term an advanced pattern, not because the knitting itself is difficult, but because the pattern is little more than two lace repeats written out and some vague suggestions as to how to use them.

Here is a detail of the lace

I'm having fun with it. All in all, a productive break, with knitting time dented only by learning Sid Meyer's Civilization IV, my Christmas gift to Tim. It's not as bad as I thought it would be, especially since I get to play the Mongolians, my favorite historical barbarian culture.

Irony

2005-12-28T11:38:00.000-08:00

So my husband said to me, when we first heard about the Amigurumi competition on Etsy, "Hey, hon, why don't you make a pirate squid?"

"Hm," I said. "Sounds good, but let me make a few simple things first."

Like Jellyfish. So I make Angel and Devil Jellyfish.

Then, I say to myself "A squid is still too hard. I'll warm up to it by making a pirate whale. And so I do.

And then I say "Now that I've made a pirate whale, I want to branch out. What would be really aPEELing? (Get it, aPEELing, like a banana? Snort. I crack me up.) So I made a Bananamonkey, and put a lot of time and effort into it, because the competition was ending, and I wanted a good shot at a prize.

So the competition ended. And what won?

A Pirate Squid.

Merry Christmas, one and all!

2005-12-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiance, who was obviously pregnant by this time.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn.

That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior--yes, the Messiah, the Lord--has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!"

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others--the armies of heaven--praising God:

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and peace on earth to all whom God favors."

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Come on, let's go to Bethlehem! Let's see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

They ran to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. Then the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds' story were astonished, but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their fields and flocks, glorifying and praising God for what the angels had told them, and because they had seen the child, just as the angel had said.

Luke 2:1-20 Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.

Bananamonkey Roscoe and Friends

2005-12-21T16:40:00.000-08:00

So...I've been bitten by the craft bug. Bitten badly. Here is a sampling of what I've been up to in the last week, NOT including Christmas presents.

Bananamonkey Roscoe was my final entry into Etsy's amigurumi competition. Click on the picture to see more poses at the shop site.

And here is my progress on Kiri. I've done 10 repeats of the leaf pattern in chart 2, and am planning on doing two more before starting the edging with chart 3. This is a great knit, and everything you see has come from only one ball of yarn, of which I probably have 1/8 left.

Here is the scarf I was starting in the last post. I knitted it diagonally, increasing one stitch every row on one side and decreasing one stitch every row on the other. It's pretty long, probably 7.5 feet.

And another bulky scarf, knit from rosy-orange handspun Blue-faced Leicester, in a simple basketweave pattern to keep it from curling.

Progress has been made on the Crusoe socks. I've turned both heels and am progressing up the ankle.

And here is my pride and joy, 300 yards of sport-weight superwash superfine Merino, destined to become either socks or gloves, depending on whether I can figure out how to knit the fingers nicely before Christmas. I had to have some impressive yarn for my Christmas knitting, because one of my cousins' wives is an avid knitter of Opal sock yarns, and since I came to sock knitting later in the game than she did, I'm sure as shootin' gonna have better yarn to make up for it!

Merry Christmas, one and all!

Amigurumi and others

2005-12-12T20:29:00.000-08:00

Alison mentioned a few days ago that Etsy was having an Amigurumi competition, and that was enough to send me down the path to a debilitating addiction. I cannot believe how fun these little guys are to make. For instance, I give you Eva, the Devil Jellyfish:

And Blueflipper, the Pirate Whale

Both are entered in the competition, along with assorted cats, monkeys, and horrifying hybrids. One of mine has already sold, much to my surprise.

Also in the works is Kiri:

And this handspun is quickly becoming a funky scarf:

HANDDYED YARN SALE

2005-12-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

In honor of Christmas, Two Waters Fiberworks is having a free domestic shipping sale at Etsy.com. Join me in celebrating the holiday season with some warm, woolly sock knitting!

Shop update

2005-12-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

I've put five gorgeous new yarns up in the shop for your viewing pleasure. Handdyed sock yarns, of course, make the best Christmas presents for knitters and non-knitters alike. Knitters can make beautiful socks, and non-knitters can cuddle them up to their faces and ooh and ahh at the pretty colors. And, to spice up your wassail, I've swatchified this latest batch, giving a better impression of the interplay of colors and tones:

"Carnavale"

"Sunrise"

"Blue Nile"

I hope you enjoy this batch, as I certainly did. Coming soon: Kiri and one cute dog.

A Winter Wonderland

2005-12-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

As I told my 2nd period class today, any snow at all in Western Washington is a meteorological miracle, but it is coming down hard and sticking. I always envy knitters in snowy climes, and today, for once, I am practicing a craft that could, indeed, mean the difference between life and freezing to death. I am fulfilled.

A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama

2005-11-27T18:12:00.000-08:00

I have jumped into the world of Ebay, against my natural inclinations, to see if some of my non-starters from Etsy.com will find better luck there. The inner workings of Two Waters Fiberworks are deep and unfathomable, are they not?

In much more exciting news, check out this weekend's find:

2400 yards of lace-weight lopi that my Uncle Dennis sent my grandmother from Iceland when he was stationed there 25 years ago. The label says that it is "The Original 'Alafoss Lopi Crystal-Fleece" produced in Iceland and mothproofed with "Eulan." Research reveals the same yarn being made by the same company today, under the name "Plotulopi." The company's art gallery is worth a look, in addition to the yarn.

I've made a swatch on both size 3 and size 5 needles, as you can see here:

This yarn calls for a really special project. It is sturdy and springy, with a slight hand-spun look to it. I've been searching for Icelandic lace patterns, but without much success. Any suggestions?

Zippy is coming along nicely. I have reached the point where I am increasing for the hips. I'm using raised bar increases, since they seem to complement the k2tog and ssk that I used for the shaping decreases above the waist. I'm really enjoying this KnitPicks Wool of the Andes. I wouldn't want to wear it against my skin, but it shows cables really well, and is a pleasure, though slightly dry, to knit.

At this time of the year, Lily wishes she was a longhair cat so her paws would be warmer.

Shop Update

2005-11-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

I have updated the shop with four new sock yarns, including my favorite, Vermont, which reminds me of spiced apple cider and L.L. Bean and Maple Syrup and all the things that make the Northeast so Northeasty.

$4.99 Merlot

2005-11-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

So here we have a pear poached in spiced w--- sauce with chestnuts and sweet cream. Am I crazy, you ask? But of course!

Tim had to buy the w---, since I am contractually obligated not to. I won't even spell out w---, since who knows who may be reading this. So, for the record, no, I did not, on this day, purchase w---, nor did I poach pears in it, nor did I eat sauce made from this same, heat-dealcoholized w---. Nope. Not at all.

Or DID I?

Knitting has been slow but steady this week, as I have begun a new sweater in response to the intermittent frigidity of my new classroom. After the second day of having to blow on my hands to be able to type my lesson plans, I decided that wool was in order. Lots of wool. So an order to KnitPicks was made, and Wool of the Andes was purchased in various colors. I present "Zippy," a top-down cabled raglan with stripes and other knitted vagaries.

We shall see how she goes. I am still debating what to do for the hem, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Hmm...I sense a new cliche in the offing. "I'll knit that hem when I come to it" seems an apropos addition to my vocabulary.

Your assignment: Read the next chapter in your textbook and define all the bold terms in your own words. Oh, and use the phrase "I'll knit that hem when I come to it" at least once in your conversation each day. Cheers!

Shop update

2005-11-14T20:02:00.000-08:00

There are five new yarns available in the shop, including two superwash sock yarns, two 100% Merino sock yarns, and an 880-yard skein of %100 Merino laceweight. These yarns came out even better than the last set, so I hope you enjoy my new colorways. Three of my favorites are:

Carnavale - a superwash sock yarn.

Cady Ridge - this is the laceweight yarn, and there is also a superwash sock yarn in the same colorway. (See the inspiration for the name here.)

Slytherin - for a bit of devilry (100% Merino sock yarn.)

Hah!

2005-11-12T13:42:00.000-08:00

Just to show you that the internet doesn't know everything (in case you were in doubt) I give you by birthdate profile, inspired by Claudia:

Your Birthdate: December 27

You are a spiritual soul - a person who tries to find meaning in everything.
You spend a good amount of time meditating, trying to figure out life.
Helping others is also important to you. You enjoy social activities with that goal.
You are very generous and giving. Yet you expect very little in return.

Your strength: Getting along with anyone and everyone

Your weakness: Needing a good amount of downtime to recharge

Your power color: Cobalt blue

Your power symbol: Dove

Your power month: September

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Anybody want to guess which of these things about me isn't true? I'll give you a hint: There are nine things on this list that are nothing like me. Cheers!

Wow!

2005-11-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you, everybody who is buying my yarn! I can't believe it! I'm so incredibly grateful and just--ecstatic! Keep the joy flowing, my wonderful readers and customers (Eek! Customers!). Shop, buy, and knit.

Two Waters Fiberworks Grand Opening

2005-11-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

Today is the grand opening of my new shop, Two Waters Fiberworks. I've had it live for about a week with some handspun, and have already sold two skeins! Today, however, is the day of the official launch, as I have posted seven newly dyed skeins of merino sock yarn, including:

"Bombay"

"Ravenclaw" (to complement the ever popular Sunshine Yarns' "Gryffindor")

and "Bermuda"

I have always loved playing with dye, and I'm so excited to be able to offer my dyeing experiments to the public! There are few people who can make their hobbies profitable, but I hope to be one of them.

The way I figure it is this: It's not like everybody on Etsy.com isn't starting with the same base yarn, so the real choice has to be based on color and price. So buy Two Waters Fiberworks yarn, and supplement my starving-teacher income!

What's all this?

2005-11-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

Go see the shop! I’ll have an official launch as soon as I can get some sock yarn dyed and up on the site, but for now you can take a gander at some of my handspun and check out the fabulous banner my wonderful husband created for me.

Playing catch-up

2005-10-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

First, spinning:

This, along with two other skeins, is 8 ounces of navy blue merino wool blended with white tussah silk I bought at the Puyallup Fair in September. I've finally spun it up to a light worsted-weight two ply, and now it's waiting for a project that needs 300 yards of slightly scratchy streaky navy blue yarn. Any ideas?

Next, sewing:

Purl of the Orient has got me hooked on sewing tote bags and purses recently, and this is but the first of my efforts.

Next, knitting:

The Crusoe socks, on one circular, with KnitPicks Dancing sock yarn. It's a fun pattern, and a fun way to knit socks. What more could I want?

Last, kitty:

Lily in her daily battle against the evil shade pull. Die, pull, die!

Socks on one circular

2005-10-26T16:09:00.000-07:00

No pictures, but I've started knitting a pair of socks on one circular, and I am absolutely hooked. It may not actually be faster, but it seems faster, and the thought that I will have both socks finished at the same time is glorious. The yarn is KnitPicks Dancing, in the Swing colorway, which is not really striping for me. I'm using the Knitty Crusoe pattern, and I really like it.

Waiting...

2005-10-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

Waiting for my shipment from Knitpicks. It got misdirected en route, so it will be another week or so. Until then, I'm stuck with acrylic. Red Heart, no less.

I'm making a baby sweater, hat, and booties for my friend Sara's first baby, due in November. I don't know whether the kid will be a girl or a boy, so I'm making boy colors, which I will sew embroidered ribbon onto if it's a girl. Red Heart has its uses--it makes unusually durable blankets and washable baby clothes, is easy to obtain, and is inexpensive.

Lily is unimpressed.

Unexpected outcome

2005-10-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I always thought it'd be Ravenclaw.

be sorted @ nimbo.net

Cabled decreases

2005-10-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

I am trying to recreate the cabled decreases found in most ready-to-wear sweaters as a decorative detail. So far, my technique is creating a subtly cabled raglan seam, suitable for just about any raglan sweater. Here is a picture, followed by instructions:

Each cabled decrease is accomplished over 8 stitches, with the second four mirroring the first. If the stitches are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, then you K2tog (1 over 3), K2tog (2 over 4), K2tog (7 over 5), K2tog (8 over 6). I'm doing this without a cable needle, but it would be much easier with one, especially for the fiddly second group in each set of decreases.

Raglan-ing

2005-10-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

Lacy Raglan continues:

I finished the second sleeve while riding home from an education conference in Portland. It's no mean feat to knit while arguing with three other high school teachers over politics and religion, but the sleeve, she is done. I joined the sleeves to the body last night, worked a few rows of stockinette to meld the whole thing together, and completed my first round of cabled raglan decreases. I couldn't find instructions for cabled decreases anywhere on the web, so I'm kind of making it up as I go along. When I have a few more done, I'll provide a close-up picture.

New month, old knitting

2005-10-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

I'm still plugging away at my Andean Silk sweater. I've done the body up to the armholes, and have knitted one lace cuff. Now I have to pick up stitches along the cuff and knit straight for about 8 inches to form the sleeve. I decided that straight, three-quarter sleeves that belled into lace would best suit the lace panel in the center of the body and the scoop neck I intend to create as I finish off the raglan yoke. Here's the body as of Friday:

I'm hoping that knitting the sleeves, attaching them to the body, and knitting the yoke will make sleeve island seem like a short vacation rather than an endless siege.

I start my new class tomorrow. "Using Multicultural Literature in the Classroom." Sounds like a barrel of monkeys, doesn't it? At least it will be more interesting than "Introduction to educational research," which I'm taking on Wednesdays. So far, grad school isn't amounting to much. But then, I never expected it to.

Voiceless

2005-09-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

After a day of lecture and review, my voice has abandoned me. I sound like I've been smoking oak leaves for fifty years.

But, a voice is not necessary to knit, and so I slog on with my new project, voici:

A sweater, loosely based on the Shapely Options series, with a lace panel in front, knit in KnitPicks Andean Silk in Navy. The lace is the Dotted Lace Insertion from Knitting-And.com. I'm designing as I go, so hopefully all will work out. I've put waist shaping in, as well as ribbing along the sides.

In the pet world, Lily has found a new bed in the fruit rack:

Home sick

2005-09-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

Germs are the worst part of being a schoolteacher. After my stressful week, my poor immune system was defenseless against the germs carried into my classroom by feckless 12th graders.

So here I sit on the couch, sniffling and coughing. My sympathetic kitty sits beside me, only occasionally attempting to assassinate my knitting.

It strikes me as I sit here that I wish I could knit as fast as I type. I'm a lightning-fast typist, thanks to my husband's and my courtship being largely conducted over Instant Messenger. if I could knit 140 stitches a minute, I could complete a pair of socks in...(pauses to pull up calculator)...a little over two-and-a-half-hours.

While I was out...

2005-09-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Purse: felting in the washer even as we speak
Crayons socks: nearing completion
Grad school application: sent

What? You hadn't heard about the grad school application? What a coincidence, neither had I. I called the UW on Tuesday, thinking to get a bit of information on the M.Ed. program at UW Bothell, and the lady said "Well, our deadline is over for Fall Quarter, but if you get the application in by Friday, we'll process you with the others."

Aaaaaaaack!

One 1200-word essay on "What does a professional educator do?" and 20 pages of forms later including two letters of recommendation from a co-worker and my boss, and I posted the application packet just before the 3:45 mail pick-up at the Mountlake Terrace post office.

You understand, I hope, why there was no posting this week whatsoever. Oh, and we had an open house for our new place yesterday (Sunday) to add to my stress load.

But now, the stress is gone. The house was cleaned in the nick of time, our friends, colleagues, and family enjoyed themselves, and I haven't a blessed paper to write for days.

Maybe I'll do some knitting.

Teeny Tiny Hems

2005-09-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

I learned a wonderful thing today, from Threads magazine. How to make a beautiful, tiny rolled hem. This couture technique will make my life SO MUCH EASIER. I hate sewing hems, especially on bias-cut or curved items because they never seem to come out right. This rolled hem technique is so easy and so fine that bias issues never come up, because you're always sewing right on the edge of a crease, where the iron has already smoothed out any creases. It's a lovely feeling to create a hem that hangs perfectly. Observe the rolled hem, magnified many times:

And the finished skirt, with rolled hem, bias-taped and interlined waistband facing, flat-felled seams and 100% finished seam allowances. And a wonky zipper, but that's not surprising, considering who was doing the sewing.

And my new skirt, posing by my new (to me, my inlaws found it on the side of the road) piano.

In knitting news, I've started a purse, knit from my own handspun, to be felted and edged with Fun Fur yarn, a la Wendy's kitty beds.

Opera Stole!

2005-09-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

Opera Stole is done in all its silky goodness. As a handknit, this has everything. It is colorful, easy, and stylish.

To make your own Opera Stole, you need three skeins of Himalaya Recycled Silk and a set of size 11 needles.

Cast on 40 stitches, and work 3 rows of garter stitch.
Row 4: *K2tog, wrapping yarn 3 times around the needle* across, creating 20 elongated stitches.
Row 5: *K1, yo* across, slipping the extra wraps off the needle with every knit stitch. In the last stitch, K1 front and back. This brings your stitch count back to 40.

Repeat rows 1-5 until you reach the desired length, then bind off. Use the remaining yarn to create a fringe by cutting it into 10-inch lengths and tying the pieces in pairs along each end of the scarf using lark's head knots.

And voila, your Opera Stole is complete!

What a fool I was

2005-09-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

I've thought a lot about how I could win my fame and fortune in the world of knit-blogging. Perhaps if I designed a drop-dead gorgeous sweater and offered the pattern for free on my blog. Perhaps if I kissed some sort of virtual blarney stone and became a scintillating knit-writer. Perhaps if I took knitting pictures of such surpassing loveliness that people would be drawn here like pilgrims to a sacred shrine.

Nah.

I found out how to do it, and it was really easy.

All I had to do was express political opinions contrary to the herd. You know the herd. If you read me, you probably read them. But I'm not going to tell you how I differ from them. If you read between the lines, I'm pretty sure you can tell already, but I, unlike some people, know how to keep my mouth shut and have a knitblog for knitting's sake, not as a grandstand for my political beliefs.

Sigh. I really like knitters, too. But today, I am the most hated person in knitblogdom because I dared to express an opinion apart from the mainstream. And I was even polite about it, unlike those who chose to villify me.

Bleh. I don't care anymore.

But from now on, we here at Blue-dyed hands are all about diversity (other than, you know, the stuff about knitting). We will accept you and love you no matter who you are or what politics you like or what opinions you express. Let the world shun us, we will be different, and no one, no how, no where, is going to stop us. You can be different, too.

Lily triple-dares you.

Tivoli!

2005-09-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

And the verdict is...a little too big. But nice, all the same.

And a silly one:

And, of course, one with Lily.

I am a terrible human being

2005-09-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

You know those little disposable sock things you get at shoe stores so your toe jam needn't commingle with the toe jam of countless others?

Opera Stole

2005-09-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

The last two times I went to the opera I mourned that I, a fiber artist, had no wrap to wear. In a day or two, that problem will plague me no longer. I give you:

Opera Stole

I'm about 3 feet into it, and I'm going to keep going until the yarn runs out. I'm alternating between three skeins of Mango Moon Recycled Silk. I love the colors and texture of the yarn, and I think this pattern showcases it nicely. Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern.

I'll publish the pattern here when the stole is complete. Now back to knitting.

Tivoli Blocking!

2005-09-03T12:42:00.000-07:00

I finished the main knitting on Tivoli two weeks ago, and have been dithering over it ever since, ripping out the edging and reworking it until it fit to my satisfaction. We know have blocking, which you can see below:

I am pleased by it, and excited to wear it tomorrow for the first time. Modeled pics to come.

Knitting! Blogging! Life!

2005-08-31T18:12:00.000-07:00

Since I last posted, there has been much crafting but little computing. Setting up classes on my work computer effectively nixes the desire to come home and spend an hour on my own PC. But life will revert to normalcy soon.

I finished a One-Skein Wonder in Katia Papiro, a discontinued steel-lavender cotton/linen blend I got from the clearance rack at Spin-a-Yarn in Edmonds.

Modifications:
Knit in DK weight on Size 6 needles, so I kind of made up the stitch counts as I went along.
I used yarn-over increases instead of make-one increases, so there are little lacy rows up the raglans and along the front hem of the sleeves.
I knit the body border in seed stitch instead of ribbing.
A great knit and a cute pattern. I highly recommend it.

I also entered some handspun in the Evergreen State Fair and won three 4th place ribbons.

My fair entries:

Third from right.

Third and fourth from left.

Disqualified because my scale and theirs had a difference of opinion over exactly how much an ounce is. I'm really bummed, because not only was it my best yarn, I had another 4 ounces of it at home.

Last evening's project was to paint a border in the downstairs bathroom to give it a little pizzazz before our big open house in a couple of weeks. Here are the results:

What do you think? I have determined that freehand border painting is far easier than stenciling, because it requires less exactitude, which has never been my strong suit.

And now, I have a date with the laundry. Au revoir.

Sewing

2005-08-26T15:24:00.000-07:00

There has been little knitting chez moi of late, as I am getting ready for school to start. Today, I finished my classroom set-up and preliminary planning, though, so I'm now dedicating my efforts to enhancing my school wardrobe. Last night I cut out the pieces for a new suit, Butterick 4620.

I can't wait to try this pattern in boucle, but I thought I'd better give it a trial run in less expensive fabric first. I had 4 yards of dollar-a-yard drapey plum suiting on hand, which I think will look nice with a bit of interfacing. I'm going to trim it all with some ruched tulle, for a (hopefully) fashionable look.

In preparation for this sewing odyssey, I've checked out every Threads the library had on hand and re-read all the articles on custom tailoring, particularly set-in sleeves. Sleeves, you see, are my downfall. I'm an indifferent sewer, at best. Long, straight hems are my best work. Anything that features the term "ease" is 100% guaranteed to give me fits. Princess seams, okay. A slightly curved hem, okay. Set-in sleeves....shudder. Progress pics to come, if I don't lose confidence and curl into a fetal position.

Of cats and flowers

2005-08-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

"Honey, where's the cat?"
"I don't know. Do you hear her crying?"
"No, I just can't find her."
"Maybe she got locked in the laundry room."
"Maybe. I'll check."

It reminds me of this cartoon by Gary Larson.

On Sunday, while Tim was away on a hike with the men of the family, my mother and I went to Point Defiance to see the flower gardens. Notwithstanding the three weddings being held there at the time, I got some pretty good shots.

Tivoli tee is done! Pictures tomorrow!

Der rings des Nibelungen

2005-08-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

I went to see "Siegfried" from Wagner's Rings last night at the Seattle Opera, thanks to another teacher who had an extra ticket. I had a great time. Here's the basic plot of Siegfried:

Our hero, Siegfried, the son of the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde (yuck), and grandson of Wotan, king of the gods, was raised by Mime, a dwarf, and the brother of Alberich,who forged the Ring of Power. Siegfried repairs his father's old sword and runs off to kill the hand-operated dragon, Fafner, who used to be a giant. Fafner has the golden ring , which Mime wants, and only Siegfried can get. Lots of singing ensues. Oh, and Wotan pops in and out as "Wanderer."

Fafner dies quickly, so does Mime, and, on the advice of a little bird, Siegfried runs off to the top of a mountain to rescue his true love, whom he has never met. Wotan has an interlude with Erda, the earth goddess, and mother of his daughter Brunnhilde, who is the girl on top of the mountain that Siegfried has gone to rescue. The scorecard is somewhat muddled at this point but that makes Brunnhilde Siegfried's...aunt. Yes, his aunt on both sides because, as I said before, his parents were twins.

Brunnhilde is a former Valkerie with a major identity crisis who saved Siegfried's mother Sieglinde and tried to protect Siegfried's father Siegmund, so she is somewhat partial to Siegfried from the start. They kiss, they sing, they walk around, they sing, they declare their undying love, they sing, and they take their bows.

This is where the whole thing broke down for me, I will admit. It's one thing to rescue your true love on a mountaintop, but it's quite another if that true love is your somewhat...erm...substantial double aunt. A picture is worth a thousand words:

Our young lovers.

But the singing was lovely, and the sets were marvelous, and everyone came away from the opera house feeling quite satisfied, myself included.

I am weak

2005-08-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

I re-dyed the mohair. It just wasn't BLUE enough. And I must have blue. This, of course, resulted in blue-dyed hands. They're pink, now, though, because I immediately thereafter dyed 8 oz. of tussah silk top red, purple, bronze, and blue. But that's for another post. Here's the mohair-BFL, in its new peacock-ey glory:

And it's already on the needles. I'm planning to enter it in the Evergreen State Fair under "handspun knitted items." Also going to the fair will be this:

Not in that state, though. It's already spun and plied, and having its twist set even as we speak. It's a tweedy fuchsia-pink-orange sport weight, the result of dyeing blended dark-brown and white batts those colors, then layering them and pulling them into a roving, a la Deb Menz. The wool itself is pretty awful. Coarse, sproingy, sticky, and full of neps. But the yarn didn't turn out all that bad for all that. I don't expect to win any awards for it, but it will provide a nice contrast to all those lovely, downy white merino yarns entered by other people.

And finally, Tivoli, blocking.

You'll note that I didn't say "Tivoli finished." I tried her on, and she's about two inches too long. So a'frogging I will go, then re-knit the bottom band, then voila, Tivoli, she shall be done. Oh, and Lily, in the lower corner? She's pulling out a blocking pin with her teeth.

Doggie Backpack

2005-08-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last night's project was something of a rush job, Tim having planned a hiking trip for today. He wanted Abbey to have a customized dog backpack so she could carry her own food, toy, and rope. Accordingly, I set to work. The fabric and notions came from Seattle Fabrics, a firm specializing in outdoor and recreational fabric. Here we have the scene of the crime:

And here is the result:

I attached the pack assembly to a store-bought dog harness so that a leash could be used easily when necessary.

The "saddlebags" are 8"x6", large enough to hold up to 6 dog meals, or 8, if necessary. Don't worry about Abbey bearing the weight--she's an amazingly strong little thing, with very powerful legs. And she loves to hike.

The undercarriage is fastened with the harness in front and a contoured buckle assembly in back. The back isn't meant to be cinched tight, just comfortably snug to keep the load from shifting.

Doesn't she look spiffy? Tim's got her out on a day hike today, so her load is light--just a toy, a snack, and her water bowl. I will report back on the success of the mission.

A tale of two fibers

2005-08-12T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here are our two fibers, neatly spun onto bobbins. On the left, in my hand, is yearling mohair. On the right, on my Babe, is Blue-faced Leicester.

Here they are, plied and skeined, waiting for their warm soak.

After their soak, they went into the dyebath, or, rather, it went into them. They are dyed with Wilton's cake dye: Cornflower Blue, Royal Blue, and Brown, Ecru fiber reactive dye, and Silver-gray Jacquard acid dye.

I'm a bad dyer--at least production-wise. I don't measure my dyes exactly, and have been known to add more colors of dye to the dyebath after a while if it's not turning out exactly the way I want it to. This time, I started with the cornflower, royal, and silver, and added the brown and ecru later to dull the color somewhat. I was going for a yarn that would be easy to wear, not rainbow-bright, like Wilton's dyes tend to produce.

After 3 hours in the crockpot on high (A Goodwill crockpot, one I never use for food.), the dye was exhausted, and I rinsed the yarn in hot water with a little shampoo (wool has the same basic properties as hair, so washing it with a good hair shampoo is one of the safest ways to clean it), then gave it a few minutes of the spin cycle in the washer. And...voila:

It's damp in that picture, so the color will lighten somewhat. I thwacked it against the door of my bathroom at length to straighten the yarn, set the twist, and free up some of the mohair to create bloom. I like this colourway. It's a subdued peacock, which will go with many of the things I own. All in all, a successful yarn project.

Wedding cake

2005-08-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is, remarkably unscathed from a year in my parents' freezer. It's chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache filling. Yum.

You know, I have never heard anything good about the traditional first-anniversary cake-tasting, but ours was GOOD! I only had one bite on our wedding day, and I must say, even a year later, I'm pleased with how tasty our Fred Meyer cake was. And how pretty. The decorator lady did a custom job for us, and it turned out really nicely.

In other news, here is last night's project:

My mother and I took a trip to Shipwreck Beads on Wednesday and I got a bunch of 6mm natural stones, spacer beads, head pins, and split rings to make stitch markers. I love pretty stones and things, and these are just like jewelry for knitting. Tim says I should sell them. I would if I could get any customers. Anybody want stitch markers?

Tivoli will pose for an advertising shot. She says "Just look how classy I am with my new natural stone stitch markers."

Little show-off. I suppose now I'll have to start paying her modeling fees.

Awwwwwww

2005-08-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

So as I was working on a paper for school (SPU, professional certification for teachers), I noticed that things had gotten really quiet. I turned around, only to discover this:

The lion lying down with the lamb.
Of course, the noise I made when I went over to get my camera woke them up, and they immediately fell back into their preferred activity. This:

Supercurly

2005-08-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

Today's spinning:

Weight: Bulky
Length: 80 yards
Fiber: Fine merino, plied with acrylic fuzzy thread
Color: Sky blue with multicolored purple-ish slubs
Difficulty: A lot harder to manufacture than lace-weight. I actually find it more difficult to deliberatly spin slubs than to spin a relatively even fine single. Go figure.
Destiny: Dunno. Maybe a hat, if my best friend's baby is a girl.

Well stomp on frogs and shove a crow bar up my nose

2005-08-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

KnitPicks has cashmere.

For $6.99 a ball.

Life, as we know it, has ended.

Not only do they have cashmere, it's cashmere-silk-merino-baby alpaca. Oh, or, if that's not good enough for you, there's also just cashmere-baby alpaca. Or maybe just merino lace yarn. Or maybe boucle.

I can't take it. Where are my smelling salts?

Gratuitous dog-blogging

2005-08-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

Our intrepid hero confronts the great unknown Boulder River.

On Sunday, for our first anniversary, we went up to Boulder River to eat lunch under the waterfall. It's only a mile or so hike in, but Abbey enjoyed herself immensely. She especially enjoyed the opportunity to pose for many heroic pictures.

My knitting, alas, did not have the opportunity to pose for many heroic pictures today, because we forgot the camera in the car when we went to the game. Felix Hernandez, rookie phenom, pitched magnificently, and Tivoli was knitted upon doggedly. The end is in sight. I feel it in my bones.

Tomorrow: Mystery spinning. (Oooh...feel the mysteriousness-ness)

(ness)

Tivoli Progress

2005-08-08T16:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some knitting time in the car on the way up to Boulder River yesterday, the end of Tivoli Tee is in sight. I can't tell you how happy I am with this pattern. I slipped half the stitches onto another circular this morning to try it on, and it fits very nicely, not too loose and not too tight. The yarn I'm using is fabulous, and the color looks good on me (If I do say so myself).

I've completed the first increase row after the waist, and I just need to complete about 6 more inches total to finish her to my preferred length. Then, I think I'll crochet around the edges for added stability and a bit of armpit coverage. Unlike many of the knitters attempting Tivoli, I have no difficulty at all with crochet, having learned it as a tot at my mother's and grandmother's knees. Indeed, while I've crocheted for about 16 years, I've only seriously knitted for 1 year. I prefer knitting for garments, though. It seems to have a more professional finish. Crochet, is, of course, the afghan method of choice.

Lily cares not for the knitting/ crochet debate. She would rather just lay in the sun.