Too Much Wool

gourds

Turkey January 2008

comfort knitting

I'd like to say that all of the well-wishes, good thoughts, and prayers meant an awful lot to me on Monday (and yesterday as well). It helped me get through a difficult day, and then I came home to an inbox full of hope.

Monday morning I cast on a sock. I thought I was being overly optimistic about that sock, but it turns out that it was just the right thing.

The yarn is Schaeffer Yarn Heather, 55% superwash merino, 30% silk, 15% nylon. It had been wound into balls a while ago, but I think this is the perfect project for it. Super simple mostly stockinette socks, and a chance just to enjoy the luscious yarn at a time when I really need to keep my hands busy. Busy knitting rather than punching walls or anything like that. It turns out that I was able to keep my gauge normal (I had worried that it might be bulletproof and never fit anyone, with the way I was feeling), and I've got six inches of sock to show for it so far.

Yesterday was another day with my grandmother, now at the rehab facility. Honestly, things aren't as great as I'd like to be able to report. I won't go into details, but we're not out of the woods yet. The facility is nice, as these things go, but after four or so hours at a place like that one gets a little ... ragged. [Or to put it another way, Monday night I described myself to everyone I spoke to as "feeling like 'mangled roadkill'". I think that might be a little more honest than "ragged".]

On my way home yesterday, I decided to stop into a yarn shop. Now, I've been to this one before but truly, the placement of a well-stocked yarn shop two blocks from a nursing home/rehab center struck me as one of the most brilliant things ever, about 6pm last night.

I was going to make all kinds of excuses about my purchase. Make jokes about having bought sock yarn without a single hair of natural fiber in it. (This is 50% "super fine nylon" and 50% "super fine acrylic" - how's that for an oxymoron?) But then I thought about it, and I really had to laugh. I wandered around the yarn store in a total daze, and walked out with something called "Comfort Sock". One hundred percent plastic, but it had the word comfort on it.

Seriously now, it's pretty funny, isn't it?

tension levels - personal

Just a quick note to say that I'm still here. Yes, I admit that my new quilting endeavors have sucked me in quite thoroughly, but there are other things going on.

I'd like to ask a personal favor. Good thoughts for my grandma, from anyone willing to send them out to a tiny little lady here in Brooklyn. She's been in the hospital for nine days now, and is due to be moved into a rehabilitation facility today. It hasn't been pretty, to be quite honest. Any good thoughts - for strength, health, determination and peace/calm - would be greatly appreciated.

I'm off to the hospital soon, with a bag of sewing and a bag of knitting. I'm afraid my tension levels aren't really conducive to knitting right now, but it really is more portable than the sewing. I'll have to to test it out.

announcing ....

Wow. This is hard to do.

I posted about quilts a couple of weeks ago, and mentioned that I was taking pictures for Lene. What I didn't mention was the frenzy of emails we'd been exchanging, and the excitement it generated for both of us - talking about quilts, looking at quilts, and plotting an adventure together.

Well, it's come time to announce the adventure. Lene and I have started a quilting blog, together - a joint venture. You can see it here - Fine Stitches. We're going to be working on our own quilting projects, each of us on our respective sides of the Atlantic. For those of you who are into these things, we'll be working on (at least to start out) large appliqué quilts.

Now, I've told a couple of people about this idea over the past week, and several of them asked why we were starting a new blog. As far as I'm concerned (Lene will have to speak for herself), I thought the excitement and the inspiration deserved it's own space. Also, I think that realistically, many knitters tune out when quilts get mentioned. Admittedly, not all, but a lot do. So, this is going to stand by itself.

I have no intention of quitting this blog, just in case anyone was going to ask about that. I suspect the renewed quilting obsession may nip away at some of my knitting time, but I still plan to spin every night, and knitting my new sweater isn't slowing down at all.

If you're interested in quilting, I hope you'll stop by and take a look.

[And I bet there were a few people out there who thought I was going to announce that I had two sleeves done. Not quite ...  yet.]

spinning and sleeves, oh my!

Now, to fend off any suggestion that perhaps I'm not really making as much sleeve progress as I say I am, I present this to you:

One and a quarter sleeves. This sweater has 3/4 length sleeves, the yarn and needles are fat, and it's going very quickly. I'm not up to the yoke part of the body yet, but I promised that when my first ball of yarn ran out, I'd start sleeves. And I did. [This has got to be a first. I should promise things to the blog more often.]

And then last night, I started turning this

into this

Which is hopefully the first step in a three ply sock yarn. I say 'hopeful'' only because ... I've never actually set out to make a three ply sock yarn before. Wish me luck.

another day, another sweater?

I haven't been blogging as often as I used to, so somehow the fact that I  .... started another sweater seems to have just slipped by without my mentioning it.

I said the other day that I got royally stuck at the point of grafting the last six stitches of the Lucy cardigan. I also mentioned in a previous post that I had swatched for a Garnstudio cardigan.

Well, when I was really stuck and frustrated on Saturday afternoon, I started this:

I guess I more than "started it". It's at about 21cm/8.25" right now. A bit more than half the body length. So far, I'm loving it. The main yarn (from School Products, a coned merino/cashmere blend) is just a pleasure to work with. It's springy, super-soft, and addictive to knit with. I'm also loving the way the Habu yarn (#A-97, 2/24 silk nep, 95% wool/5% silk - eep! it's not available anymore!) that I'm holding with it is adding just a subtle bit of a "heather" to the fabric.

I tried really hard to get a good picture in natural sunlight (rare these last few days!), but I'm not sure that it really does it justice.

I did say subtle, didn't I?

Now (are you listening, Tsock Tsarina?), I had intended to start the sleeves on this first. Really, I'm serious. But it turns out that I've never knit anything on 5.5mm needles before. Or at least not needed double pointed needles in that size. So I ordered them, but it took over a week for them to arrive in the mail (yesterday), and so I started the body first. As I'm almost done with the first ball of yarn for the body, I'm thinking I'll break with tradition and start the sleeves before I'm forced to. When I run out of yarn for the body, I'm going to start a sleeve.

You can hold me to that. It's a promise.

here you go ....

The weather really wasn't cooperating with getting my new sweater dry. It took days - and it's still raining.

After struggling badly with the grafting of six stitches worth of seed stitch (in the end, I grafted normally and then duplicate-stitched the purl stitches - cheated, in other words), it was done.

Here's a picture of it on me, just prior to tackling the grafting (note dpns on my left shoulder):

And here's a picture of me this morning, wearing the finished sweater (still slightly damp):

... and still without buttons. I hope to deal with that last detail today.

Project info:
Pattern: Lucy in the Sky Cardigan from Cosmicpluto
Yarn: Paton's Classic Merino, just under 4 skeins/400g
Needles: 4mm/US6
Started: November 2006 (you can laugh)
Finished: April 26, 2008
Mods: None. I would have made it longer, but I knew I didn't have enough yarn.

Whew.

finishing and I do not get along well

I had really hoped to have a finished sweater ready to show here today. I had kind of planned it like that: Friday the sweater will be finished, and I can write a triumphant blog post about it.

Instead, I have this to show you -

This is the beginning of my little seed stitch band that's going to get sewn down at the back of the neck. I actually tried to do it a different way yesterday (a different way than what the designer directed), but it was a disaster. I'm not sure why I can't just follow directions, but it seems to be really hard for me.

The good news is that the rest of the sweater is done. Ends are woven in, underarm seams grafted - yes, I did that before I finished the sweater, both for fitting purposes as well as in trying to avoid the cursed neckband issue.

So, it's likely that I will finish this sweater today, but not in time to blog about it. I'm hoping to get it done, washed and blocked, and ready for Monday.

funny quilts

I've decided, suddenly, that Wednesdays (or at least this one) are for quilting posts.

Spurred on by a conversation with Lene, I set out this morning to take some digital pictures of the antique quilts in my collection. I have a huge collection of them, both finished quilts and tops, having gotten into loads of trouble on eBay years ago.

While I was going through the eight foot tall shelf in my bedroom (no kidding, it's that big) that's filled with quilts, I was looking for a few that would be of particular interest to Lene. However, there are two that I want to share today, and these are the two old quilts I own that just make me laugh.

The first one is an appliqué quilt. Many people think of applique as being fine, detailed, or especially fancy. This one isn't.

This is the funkiest looking appliqué flower, and the flowers themselves are somewhat randomly placed. Although it probably bears some vague relation to traditional pomegranate appliqué quilts, it's just it's own primitive self. Shamelessly so. What I love about this quilt, though, is that the appliqué is really very respectable in it's execution. This quilter didn't choose this simple pattern because her appliqué skills were lacking, she chose it because ... she designed it? She liked it? She wanted a simple project?

Another thing about this quilt is that the quilting is beautiful. It's got feathers and wreaths quilted all over it. This wasn't hastily executed, and considering the simplicity of the flowers, the quilting stitches bring the entire quilt up a notch. Here's a close-up of both the quilting and the appliqué:

As you can see, the quilt is faded, and has lost some of it's stitching. I think it was well used.

The other "funny" quilt I have is a pieced quilt.

Now, look closely. This quilt seems like it was trying to be a traditional eight-pointed star block. But it isn't, really. The pieces, quite honestly, don't fit together very well. Yes, there are eight points, but the points in between were cobbled together and appliquéd to the background.

The funniest part is the center:

(You can click for big, and I'm sorry that it's a little blurry.)

The center was totally and completely botched. You can see that the white diamonds aren't really diamond shaped at all. The solution? Just appliqué a yellow star in the middle and call it done.

This quilter didn't let her mistakes stop her from finishing the quilt with style. This quilt, like the previous one (even more so) is beautifully quilted.

Once again, feathered wreaths, skillfully quilted. Every area of this quilt is filled with beautiful designs, and the quilting is actually quite fine.

I think both of these quilts can teach valuable lessons. About not giving up on something that isn't perfect, about taking something through to the finish, and doing it well, if not flawlessly.

Having lost my good morning sunlight in the bedroom, I won't be taking any more quilt pictures today. But I think I'll be posting more about some of the quilts I've got, as I work on getting them out and photographed.

well, now

I thought I'd post yesterday, really I did. I thought for sure that I'd get two sleeves done over the weekend, and be able to show them to you on Monday.

Not quite.

However, I did finish the second sleeve of the Lucy cardigan on Monday, and then was excited enough by the [somewhat odd] sensation of having two sleeves and a sweater body at the same time, that I joined them in the round and started knitting.

Obviously, I started knitting and didn't stop.

Silvia expressed her thought that my 19" of sleeve length might be Too Much Sleeve. I gave her my rational explanations (tight armhole, raglan, fitted sleeve) and as it turned out, they aren't too long at all. I was, fortunately, not too tripped up by doubt after she raised the issue, although I did try on the existing sleeve fifteen times to double check.

Now, being myself - not always a great place to be but something that I'm left with no choice about - I didn't actually try the damn thing it on until, oh, last night at about 11pm. It's quite fitted. Quite. However, I plan to block it within an inch of it's life for a little more ease - I think the knit and purl patterns will relax a bit after a bath.

The really good news? I am not going to run out of yarn. Considering that I started this sweater with 50 yds less yarn than the pattern called for, this is a huge relief. I had thought that there was one more ball of yarn lurking about the house, but an intensive stash dive proved me wrong.

I'm feeling a little bit shell-shocked over all of this. The easy sleeves, having enough yarn to finish (even though I stopped working on this almost a year and a half ago for fear of running out), the fact that it fits, that I haven't hit any major glitches. I mean, whose life is this anyway? And is it too early to go shopping for buttons?