Too Much Wool

Dear Blog...

Hello Blog - its been a long time, hasn't it? 

Its been just over five years (yes, I missed our anniversary - I'm very sorry about that), and we've been through so much together. There are times when I think back over the last few years, and realize how much you've contributed to my life. Our relationship has given me so many friendships, so many lasting connections ... and yet I feel that I've let my connection to you (dear, dear blog) fade away. 

I can make excuses. I've been very busy with work (occasionally, I talk out loud to my spam folder and laugh when it asks if my job is 'recession proof'). There have been a lot of family events - my sister's wedding in October, various illnesses of close relatives. The fact that having a two-day weekend is something that happens once per month, if I'm lucky. 

I really started to realize that there was a problem when close friends starting to ask me if I'd "quit blogging on purpose". Then there was the little ... issue ... of not even remembering what my member name was on Typepad. It had been so long since I'd even signed in. 

Its not really an issue of having given up fiber, yarn, knitting/spinning or wool. I've been adding to my collection of knitting/spinning books and patterns on a regular basis lately. I spin every night. I had to move a huge pile of handspun yarn just last night to access the unspun fiber in the cedar chest that houses my fiber stash. I've knit socks, and spun hundreds of yards of yarn since I last blogged. Yet the habit of writing about all of that has just fallen away in the last while. 

Things have changed a lot in the last five years. When I started writing here, I hardly knew anyone in the fiber world. Now, most of my close friends are people I've met through blogging. So, in many ways, I owe it all to you, dear blog. But in many ways, the actual process of blogging - of writing - has eluded me for the past while. 

I think I started out with an inflated idea of the whole thing. Public forum! New persona! Reinventing myself for the sake of the internet (not to mention a chance to finally show people who were interested some of my handwork) ... something like that ...? And while watching so many people join the blogging bandwagon, I somehow lost faith ... or interest. Lost momentum. And I sort of lost the sense that I had anything of real interest to add to the whole conversation that is the knit-blog universe. Do I really have much to add to the chorus?

I've thought a lot about starting another blog (is that cheating on you in some way?). Just writing about thoughts - because, I'm really not just all about the knitting. Is anyone, really? But time constrictions and family obligations have just crept in and taken away the time I might have to write out whatever it is I'm thinking about. While I've always been a writer, I've hardly ever approached it with a sense of obligation or discipline. 

There are no pictures here now. Nothing to make people "ooh" and "ahh" about whatever it is I've been doing. Lace, spinning ... everyday socks. None of that. I'm not even sure where the charger is for my camera battery right now. I hope that there are a few people out there who can read through this - sans pictures - and still come away with something. 

Thinking back over the last five years, I have been given so much. I have friends (you know who you are) who send me gifts from Rhinebeck when I can't attend because my sister - bless her - gets married the weekend of the big NYS Sheep & Wool festival. People who I've kept in touch with, who occasionally send me an email to ask if everything is ok (Séverine, my reply to your email didn't go through - please write to me again). My knowledge base has grown so much, because of all the tremendously talented people I've met through blogging.

I have no momentous announcements to make here. I have no intention to stop writing, but can make no promises to be more faithful about blogging regularly. But I do miss the way we used to communicate regularly. I miss writing here. Although it somehow turned into an obligation - although of course its not your fault that I started out writing five days per week - whatever failures happened along the way are entirely my fault. I miss the blog, and the connections to all of my friends - met or unmet - that I've made here. Can we rekindle our connections? I need to rethink my reasons for being here, really. 

And that last line really sums it all up. I hope that after all these years, you can be patient with me. Patient enough to wait until I can find the camera (or the camera battery charger), to take a few pictures of the beautiful Finnwool that I've spun recently. Until I feel confident enough to post pictures of the things I've made recently, however simple they may be. 

all my best, 

Cassie

 

just in time for autumn

Rather than make excuses, let's just segue right into the current state of affairs here. 

I'm going to skip over the socks that I'm knitting on, and the pair of ankle-socks that are giving me fits (re-knitting something four times isn't my idea of a relaxing hobby), and show you what I'm currently racking my brain over. 

I started this DROPS cardigan back in August '08. And actually, its been nearly done since I last picked it up. I put it down at the "almost done" stage because I was perturbed/perplexed about the collar. 

You see, the collar is supposed to look like this, and mine just wasn't happening the way it was supposed to, although I know I had the instructions for knitting the collar right. 

This morning, I decided to take the plunge. I pulled the sweater out again, and this time I basted the collar to the bound-off stitches at the neckline, to try and figure out what was going on. It turns out that what was going on was that I had bound off too tightly - this, by the way, is nearly viral with me - and I was facing the certainty that I had to rip that bound off edge back to raw stitches, if not re-bind-off. 

 

Oddly enough, it really wasn't all that painful. You can see (especially if you click for big) that I'd done something funky in my last row before binding off - the left side of the above picture. On the right you can see the stitches that are ripped back to live ones. I need to put it all on a circular to try it on, but I am hopeful that it will work out. 

Perhaps I need to re-bind-off? I'm not quite sure about the wisdom of trying to sew/graft live neckline stitches to a garter stitch collar piece. However, in trying it on (before ripping), it did indeed seem that the yoke was too firm around the back, precisely where I'd bound off. 

I'm not a huge fan of sewing in knitting (with my inability to bind off loosely enough, its no wonder), but I'm a little nervous that there was A Really Good Reason why the sweater was constructed this way. You know, like stability around the neckline, or something like that. I'm just figuring that there's nothing lost by trying things a little differently here. 

At any rate, the underarm seams are grafted, all the loose ends are woven in, and there's nothing stopping me from wearing this except finishing this collar...

... and sewing on three buttons, but I think I can handle that. 

we are blocked

I finished the Triinu scarf yesterday. I weighed it carefully as I went along, and wound up having just a few yards of handspun left over when I bound off. 

I just this minute finished pinning it out for blocking. 

 

It turned out bigger than I expected, considering that I used just under 450 yards of yarn. 

12" wide x 64" long, as pinned. 

Other than that, and a pair of socks finished (plus another pair started), I've been consumed with a major housecleaning binge. Remember the daughter? She's coming home Thursday night. And yes, her room is cleaned up. I moved on from that to the rest of the house, basically a Very Big Project. Not just cleaning but organizing and weeding out things that should be tossed or given away. 

Hopefully after the kid gets home, I'll have a chance to get a modeled picture of the scarf. Until then, I'm going to see if I can make a path through my sewing room... scariest room in the house. 

must.knit.lace

Shall we just say...

that I've been doing a lot of knitting?

And also, can someone please explain to me the reasoning behind weaving in ends after blocking? I'm willing to just do whatever Nancy Bush says, but I would like a reminder of the reason behind it. 

the nuppish truth

Often, after finishing a marathon project (like Miralda's shawl), I take a break, think things over, and play with yarn and patterns for a bit before starting something new. This time, however, I had spent most of the last few days of the shawl project contemplating my next project. I knew it would be handspun this time around, and something not too dark in color. Also, a smoother yarn, given that the hot/sticky weather was bound to hit NYC eventually. (It did. Yesterday. I finished working with the sticky Shetland wool just in time. Whew.)

I had thought I had a plan. I had thought the plan was Ene's Scarf [Ravelry Link] in handspun laceweight. However, literally minutes after finishing blocking the shawl, I looked up the Ene's Scarf pattern and realized ... I'd be bored. I mentioned with Miralda's shawl how those 80-odd rows of the same pattern bored me, and the Ene's (Enes'?) pattern was going to be worse in that department. 

Lo and behold, I turned the page in Knitted Lace of Estonia and saw the Triinu scarf. It met all the criteria - not too wide, not too much yardage, and a construction method I like (no grafting). 

Definitely easier than Miralda's Shawl. Possibly insanely repetitive, but in a way that I could live with. I found my handspun-of-choice and cast on while Miralda was drying...

[3.5 pattern repeats into the scarf]

The red at the bottom is a provisional cast on, to be picked up and knit from later. I took this picture after I'd been working on it for less than 24 hours. 

And yes, I know the pattern hardly shows. At least in this photo. This scarf is going to need a major blocking to show much of anything. Also, the yarn is nearly florescent orange, and difficult to photograph. It's handspun merino/camel/silk in "creamsicle", from Abby batts a while back. 

I did get a nice close-up shot of the nupps, though: 

But really, there's something I realized yesterday that I wanted to talk about. 

I do this sometimes. I go on these insane knitting marathons when I'll knit a square shawl in 11 days, or a lace sweater in under a week. The crazy-marathon projects are always, always lace. And generally, its a stress reaction of some sort. I can lose myself in lace. Just enough going on to keep my brain moving, just enough mindless hand-movement to keep me from freaking out about something or other. 

This time, however, I had an epiphany. I realized exactly what it is that I'm freaking out about (score several points for self-examination there, please). My daughter is coming home. I haven't been blogging much about anything, but she's been gone since January. That's, umm... 7 months now? This is not to say that I'm nervous about seeing her (I saw her in Italy in April, after all), and I quite like - nay, love - the kid and am excited to see her again. She's been in Spain for the past two months, and will pass through Italy again on her way home. Hell, she's been to Budapest and England too. The kid gets around.

Now, I listen to advice (hi Suzanne!) and was a good mom when she went off to college. I didn't commandeer her room when she started freshman year at school. Hell, I barely use the room. Because for the last 3 years, she's been home every other month or so, intermittently. But this has been a 7 month absence, and in that time, her room has turned into a bit of a ... black hole mess. In other words, I've been using it. Being that its outside the main living space of our apartment, things just sort of migrate there when I'm straightening up other spots. 

All of this to say, I have 13 days and counting to straighten up her room, clean it up and make it feel nice and home-ish for her return. And what am I doing? Knitting like mad on a scarf, back-to-backing projects one after another. Lace projects. 

Might I mention that its kind of hard to clean and organize with your hands full of knitting? One can't do both at the same time. Also? I'm up to the 12th repeat of the orange nupp Triinu scarf right now. Its 4 times bigger than it looks in that first picture. 

Procrastination is nuppish. 

and the shawl, she is done

... although it took a little longer at the end than I expected. I also sort of overestimated my boredom threshold for knitting 80+ rows of a 4 stitch lace repeat. 

But really, it was worth it.

[click for big]

Pattern: Miralda's Triangular Shawl by Nancy Bush, from Knitted Lace of Estonia

Yarn: Elemental Affects Shetland in Moorit (Montana Shetland, fingering weight)

Needles: 4mm 

the color is true

lace love

I started a shawl. Right, I know. It doesn't sound like much. Back in the day, I used to knit shawls all the time. But its been a really long time and I just hadn't been feeling up to dealing with charts and complicated lace gymnastics for ages. 

That all changed over the weekend, when I found myself stranded in the country with nothing much to do. Well, that's not entirely true - there was a lot of weeding to be done, but after spending some time doing that in the hot sun, I was ready for something different. 

Fortunately, I had thought ahead. Although I brought along a pair of socks in progress, I also brought books and yarn for a couple of maybe-projects. One of these was Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia. I'd been wanting to make Miralda's Triangular Shawl since I got the book, and had even bought yarn (yes, I bought yarn) to make it with. The yarn was Judith MacKenzie McCuin's "Natural Shetland Fingering" in Moorit. 

So, by Sunday afternoon I was pretty much burnt out on weeding, and decided to cast on for Miralda's shawl. This is one of those shawls that starts with five gazillion stitches cast on (well, more like 331, but that's a bunch), and decreases as you go along. I know a lot of people don't like that method of making a shawl - the reasoning I've heard is that if you make a mistake at the beginning, with all those stitches there isn't any time to get into the groove of the lace slowly, you have a huge mess on your hands. 

However, I like shawls like that. Its not an easy start, but I love the fact that the number of stitches decreases as you go. Way easier to gain momentum that way, for me at any rate. I always seem to bog down on the shawls that start with very few stitches and then work their way up to rows with hundreds and hundreds. I have way more enthusiasm at the beginning, so the huge cast ons and consecutively shorter rows works better for me. 

This is how the shawl looked about ten minutes ago. Not a great picture, but I'm messing with a lot of stitches on a 32" circular needle and the sun playing peek-a-boo this morning. 

I had a few moments of doubt about the color. While I thought a dark, Moorit shawl would be nice to wear, it can be hard to see the detail. But I keep telling myself that its not blocked yet. Holding it up to the light does erase a lot of the doubt - 

I am worried, though, that the nupps aren't going to show as well in this yarn as they might have in a lighter yarn. And there are a lot of nupps, at least in the section of the chart I'm working on now. 

Can you see that triangle of nupps there? Trust me, there are lots of them. 

What I'm finding is that I'm still in love with lace. Although I had an idea that I didn't want to "fuss" with a "complicated" lace chart, I'm not finding this one difficult at all. I'm remembering why I love lace in the first place. The rhythm and flow of the stitches, the thrill when the chart just makes sense and you can knit a 20 stitch repeat from memory after the first go 'round. The weird thrill that the symmetry gives me when I cross over from the center stitch and have to wrap my brain around a slightly different placement of the stitch markers in the pattern. 

Then there are the nupps. I love nupps. I love the strangeness of turning one stitch into a bulging mass of multiple stitches, and the neat finish when I get to purl them all together and tame them into a single stitch again on the next row. And the weight that a nupp gives to the finished shawl, the texture and mass of the nupps amidst all those open stitches and yarnovers is just incredibly ... pleasing. 

Yep, I'm having fun. I'm on the big chart, row 12, if anyone is interested. Now, back to my nupps. 

in other news...

I keep saying I'm spinning a lot. I mean, its true that I'm spinning a lot, and every time I write a blog post, I mention it, but I realized I haven't shown pictures of the last few spinning projects. 

So, lumped all together for quick photography purposes (I had to take the yarn outside, and while I was out there a mosquito landed on the cashmere. Devious little bastard knew I wouldn't smash him into my cashmere...)

The green is laceweight, Foxfire cashmere/silk in the Northwood colorway. The orange is a very special fiber, gifted to me for my 40th birthday (umm... that would be nearly a year and a half ago...) by Elizabeth. Its a custom blend of cashmere/silk/merino/alpaca, made especially for me (the colorway was called "Cassie's Bday Blend") from Red Stone Yarns. And the purple - the back skein isn't dry yet - is a merino/alpaca/mohair blend from Morro Fleece Works. 

Because y'all know I can't resist the close-ups: 

As you can see, the orange and green are both very fine (350 yards of green, 650+ of the orange), while the purple is a more rustic yarn. I haven't counted the yardage on the purple, but its definitely over 700 yards. I'm thinking shawl.... probably for both the orange and the purple, while the green will have to be a scarf with the yardage I've got. 

In knitting news, there's really just, mostly ... socks. I found that after I sent the Norn pattern out into the world, I was finally able to knit it with enjoyment again. Not finishing the pattern was hanging over my head for so long that I felt guilty, but now I'm having fun with it. 

This is a 72 stitch version of Norn, and I'm using a blue-black colorway of Schaffer Anne that I've had in the stash for years. Lovely yarn, I'm glad I'm finally knitting it. 

My subway knitting is simple, another yarn that I've had around for a while and never done anything with - 

The yarn is Knitpicks Risata, and I'm actually quite enjoying the yarn after several false starts with it in the past. 

The funny thing about both of these sock yarn is that I've had both for a while, the "Anne" for years. In both cases I have more of the yarn, in different colorways. And, with both yarns, I've tried starting different projects in the past and wound up ripping them. Not just ripping but swatching, reswatching, and then ripping in disgust for one reason or another. I've almost given the "Anne" away a couple of times (it is blue-ish, after all...) but then for one reason or another, I kept it. 

I'm finding it fascinating that the stash is not just a museum these days. With all of the spinning I've been doing, I really haven't bought much yarn (not much, I didn't say none) for a while. And while in theory the idea behind the stash has always been to have inspiration and instant gratification on hand at all times, more often than not, I've just picked up what's on top of the heap when I look for a new yarn to cast on. Its really nice to know that there are some treasures buried in there. And also that I wasn't totally out of my mind when I bought multiple skeins of yarn that I'd never knit with.   

Hmm... I might have to change my blog name. 

Norn!

Finally, I'm posting a new sock pattern for sale. This one is called Norn. Make of that what you will - the Norns of Norse mythology or the dead language. Or even the meaning of Norn in Icelandic.

I've worked on this pattern for the past ... two years. Actually, it pre-dates Loksins. But with the time I've taken with this pattern, I've been able to offer two different sizing/gauge options, as well as a couple of different variations on the pattern.

Some pictures:

Norn is a simple, stockinette-based sock with a dramatic back lace panel, the four-row lace pattern is easy to memorize, and knits up quickly, as well as having several options for variations on the pattern.

This is an option for a less-lacy version of the pattern, with a simple eyelet back-seam:

I've knit nearly five pairs of socks in this pattern now...

It looks good in slightly variegated yarns, as well as solids. From back to front, I've knit it in Regia Silk, The Woolen Rabbit sock yarn (an old one), Regia Tweed, and Fleece Artist Merino, as well as the current pair in Schaeffer Anne.

The pattern is available for sale by clicking on this link: