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No deep thoughts today.
These are the remains of the building I posted about a while ago HERE. The bulding you can see beyond the rubble is an old church. The passageway picture I posted (1/1/05) was on the other side of the church, St. Ann's Shrine on E. 12th Street.
I just looked into it, and you can read about the history of the church here and the development plans here. It's going to be luxury apartments, it seems.
I'm not really surprised.
This is, without a doubt, the most difficult post I've ever had to write.
The Event was fabulous. It was not an 'auditorium' at Lord & Taylor, with rows of seats and unglamorous carpeting and a cheesy sound system. It was round tables with tablecloths, white wine, and trays of h'ors-d'œvres carried by around the room by waiters who were all most definitely also actors.
I sat with Juno, Cara, and Jen. Front and center, so close that there were spotlights frying us as we sat and knit and listened. (Note: there's a really freaky reflection of someone's face in othe wine glass on the right. It might be me. Click to enlarge.)
Stephanie (aww, c'mon, do I really have to link her? ok, here) was ..... herself. Funny and engaging. She really does have a little giggle/laugh thing going on, but its endearing, not REALLY chipmunk-like. Not.... at all. I laughed until I cried, and even when she read from a page here or there from the book, which I've read, I laughed again. Its even funnier when she reads it in person.
I am, in truth a shy person. But I had to introduce myself to Cari - we emailed yesterday about it and I said I would. From there I met other bloggers. Other people, even. (Non-bloggers.) Until it snowballed and I couldn't really remember everyone's names (they served wine, remember?) and I met lots of people. It was fun. I remember that.
Here we have Em, Cari, Stephanie, Jackie, and Mindy. Obviously they are not looking at me. But it was better than the other picture, so this is what you get. Forgive me. (Note, Steph has wine in hand.)
Freakiest occurence (this deserves an entire post but I'll just ruin it by showing a horrible picture. There were three, 3 - count it -THREE Cassies there. All of us Cassandras.
Now, Cassie #2 (in the middle) has caused me untold confusion while reading other people's blogs. I see "Cassie" and read the comment and think, "I did NOT say that!" and then realize that there are more of us than just me out there. I had no idea she was here in NY so I had no idea I'd meet her. I think we were all a little freaked out, but it was fun. I just hope that the pictures on someone else's camera are better than mine. If so, please send them or email me a link to your post. Because believe it or not, this was the best of the three 3-Cassandras pictures I got.
After the official event/party, some of us went out for food and drinks. Em, Sarah, Valentina, Mindy, Juno, Jackie, Irene, and me. I had never, until that night met any of them. Blogging away in my own little blog-bubble with very little contact with the local blogging world. I've had very little contact with anyone, even with the local knitting world, for that matter.
There were lots of other bloggers there, which was obvious when someone asked for a show of hands. Kay was there, but the picture is so bad no one would ever forgive me. And I found out that my old friend and neighbor Shirra knits and blogs. And I didn't even know.
Cheesy but true: thank you to Lion Brand Yarn and the Craft Yarn Council and Lord & Taylor and whoever else paid for everything. There were free books and free yarn and free food and the brilliant idea to have everyone use their free yarn to make things for the Dulaan Project. Except for the fact that I didn't get a pair of campy pink plastic pearlized needles, I was really touched by the generosity of the gift bag.
Bloggers. That's all that I can say.
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It's almost 2am. If I mis-linked you, didn't link you, forgot your name or couldn't find your URL, please forgive me. Send me corrections and I will take care of it. Irene in particular.
[Insert artistic photo here] If you don't like this, you wouldn't like me right now.
I do not have a finished anything to show anyone. If you are looking for a finished something, you can leave now - quietly and without making any noise. Ok?
If you absolutely need a new knitting picture, go look at the Oriel Lace Scarf picture I posted in the 'Finished' album. I made it a year ago for my Gram; but finally just got a decent picture on Sunday night (My sister is modeling.)
PMS does not improve my outlook on life. Earthshaking news? Not exactly, but this is about all I have to go on right now.
Really and truly:
I have picked up a crochet hook. It was the wrong
size, but I picked it up.
I followed the instructions and I now fully
comprehend the crochet cast off for Hulda's shawl. I even did a few of the
chains, but they were TOO small and I frogged it. I will have the shawl
done in time for MDS&W (where I can roast in Icelandic wool while
more intelligent people strut around in knitted tanks and sleeveless
shells). I promise.
Stephanie is in town tonight. And guess what? I'll be there, with my red knitting bag.
Now, please let me go back to my cables.
I was hoping to have a dramatic wind-up with a finished or almost finished picture of Hulda's shawl. I got home too tired to tackle a crochet hook.
As an aside, I'd really like to know how it is that someone can sit on the subway, with 5 very pointy bamboo sticks in hand, and still have the biggest morons on the train sit next to them? No matter what I do, I don't seem to be threatening enough to deter these people. I thought pointy things were threatening. I guess they're not threatening enough these days.
So, in need of something soothing in hand, some relaxing knitting to work on, I picked up the cable project when I got home. And discovered, to my utter amazement
Not just one, but TWO cables gone bad. We'll just ignore the fact that I was able to knit blithely away for four rows without noticing that I had totally reversed the twist on two cables, without seeing the mistakes. Let's just say I was really tired the other day.
Here's the problem four stitch cable section. I undid all four stitches down to the cable row
.... and with the help of a crochet hook, an extra double-pointed needle, and my perfectionist streak to hand, I fixed the damnéd cable crossover.
And even managed to finish a few more rows as well as fixing the mistake.
Hopefully, I'll have something to show tomorrow.
Ok, ok. I didn't really mean to be a tease about the project yesterday. I got 6 more rows done on Monday - not a whole lot, but I had optimistically hoped I'd get another full repeat finished - hopefully its enough that you can see some progress.
Its the Wrixlan Jacket from Jamieson's Shetland Knitting, book one.
You can see a picture from the book of the finished project HERE.
I've loved this pattern since the first time I saw it. I hemmed and hawed about buying the yarn - Jamieson's Soft Shetland - for a while; no one carried it locally, and I wanted to see the colors in person. When I tried to order a color card, I was told the line was being revamped and it would be a while. I should have known at that point not to wait.
A month or so later, I was at a yarn shop a few hours from home, and they had almost the whole range of Jamiesons yarns. But not 12 or 13 skeins of any one color of Soft Shetland, which was what I needed for the jacket. The shop also didn't offer to order it for me when I expressed an interest, which I found strange. It turns out that less than a month later, the shop started their going out of business sale. 20/20 hindsight, eh?
I forgot about the jacket and the Soft Shetland for a while. When I came around to it again, and started looking online, it seems that the line had been so thoroughly redone that half the colors were gone, including all of the ones I was interested in. I could have bought some ivory at a decent discount, but I was interested in the rich heathered colors of the line, not off-white.
Somewhere further down the line, I heard of a "chunky" yarn that was very close to the Soft Shetland. It was Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky*, which was a little more than half the price of the Jamieson's yarn. I ordered it in two colors and even got one of them for 'free' because of a credit from Elann for having spent so much money there. The color above is the one called "Harvest."
My misgivings, such as they were, ran this way: a friend who also ordered the same yarn (at my instigation) sent it back because it seemed flimsy. It did, I guess, if you were looking for a chunky or bulky yarn, but I wasn't. I knit a stockinette swatch on size 6 or 7 needles and was happy with it, but a seed of doubt had been sown.
Then, as I was knitting the other night and telling my grandmother about discount yarn on the internet, she interrupted me with: "There's no point in using cheap yarn. Its a waste of your time. That's why I stopped knitting - the yarn had gotten so expensive and I wasn't going to use junk."
I'm still not 100% sure its worth all of my time. The yarn seems loosely spun. However, the fabric I'm getting seems quite solid and not flimsy at all. The color is to-die-for, and I like the feel of it in my hands. At any rate, its the knitting thats holding my attention right now. And its going very quickly.
Monday I got out and found myself a 32" size five Addi needle. It doesn't look like I'm quitting anytime soon.
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*The Peruvian Highland Chunky is out of stock or no longer available.
Anyone remember this? Well, it still looks like that.
So, in a predictably irrational way, on Saturday I got busy knitting.
I cast on and began this:
Mini-gripe:
Somewhere along the way, I swear I read something by Elizabeth Zimmerman that said there's no need for anything longer than a 24" circular needle except for shawls and huge sweaters.
I'd like to say that statement stands in need of correction. I'm using a thick wool and a very heavily textured cable pattern and the 24" needle seems crowded. But of course I know in my heart of hearts that EZ was so darn practical that there's no way she'd make an unequivocal statement like that.
I'd also like to know how I came to have two 24" size 5 circulars, but no 32". Is there a law that says that whatever needle size you need, thats the one that will be missing from your collection?
An 11pm (Sunday) update on progress:
This picture shows the true color of the wool much better than the previous picture. I'm just one row short of a full repeat.
I'm considering acting like Susan and giving this as a Monday mystery WIP.
I'm still not willing to admit that I'm committed to this project. I've had a lot of .... misgivings. Is the yarn "good enough" for the project? Am I being silly worrying that an Elann-brand yarn at half the price of the project-specified yarn will not be worth my time and skill?
All I know is that I love the color, and love the pattern. And I can't stop knitting.
Cables. Just as addictive as lace. But meatier.
About my comment yesterday:
I said something about becoming "a real spinner". That was probably a mistake. I've considered myself a spinner for a couple of years now. I should explain that I start almost every post with a sentence or a couple of sentences, and then just let things flow from there. Sometimes, I can see that my jumping-off point for writing was barely connected to the rest of what I wrote. Sometimes I delete it; yesterday I didn't.
What I probably should have said was that I'm feeling an urge to actually knit with my handspun. Have you noticed the lack of handspun swatches? I feel like my spinning needs to acquire some purpose, and that the purpose will be found through knitting with it. Although, to be honest, spinning is even more about the process for me than knitting is.
I've thought quite a bit recently about how some people who spin quite a lot rarely seem to knit much with their handspun. I used to marvel and even question that, but the more I spin (and knit) the more I realize that spinning is, in a lot of ways, its own process. It can indeed stand alone; a fact that is probably hard to understand unless you try it. I will admit, as a knitter, piling up skeins of handspun is just a few degrees more satisfying than buying yarn and adding it to the stockpile. I feel an urge to work with it what I've spun. But I'm also waiting to be inspired as to what to do with my handspun.
And on a knitting note:
I own one vest. It's a wool vest that belonged to my mom; my grandmother mistakenly threw in the washer and felted it. My mom didn't have the heart to tell her that it had shrunken, so it got foisted on me. I do wear it sometimes in the winter, around the house. Not out of the house. This vest is warm, but not really "me".
I really liked the Lavold vest from Knitters Fall 2003 issue. Stephanie/And She Knits Too! made one a while ago and I thought it was gorgeous. You can see the back detail here.
I've also planned to make the Clock Vest from Folk Vests. This is a gorgeous Bavarian twisted stitch patterned vest, done in Schoolhouse Press's Quebecoise yarn. [note: I spent too much time looking for a picture of this but couldn't find one. I know I saw a blogger make it a year or so ago, but I can't find them anymore. Email a link if you can find one.]
The March/April 2003 issue of Piecework includes an article by Nancy Bush about a Norwegian folk dancer named Jody Haug. Besides making and wearing traditional regional costumes for her dacing, Jody has also knitted herself several vests inspired by traditional Norwegian folk costume.
A few years ago, a Norwegian friend introduced me to the Husfliden
website. If you click on Bunader I Norge at the top, you can choose
from any of the regions in the popup menu on the right and see the
different costumes from the towns in that region. I'm not sure why this makes vests even more appealing but it does. The bodice thing, I guess.
And then there's the amazing Byzantine Vest by Sarah Swett. Handspun. Hand dyed. Gorgeous, original, and unusual enough to be neither out of style nor unstylish in any way.
One of the very tempting things about vests is lack of sleeves. Quicker knitting results, and something that's probably more versatile than most sweaters. The d*mn sw**ter is stalled at the sleeves. If I had just chosen to make a vest, I would be done by now, right?
Except for the fact that I haven't yet worn a vest in real life, vests seem like a wonderful option.
Am I just looking for different things to knit? An excuse not to finish a sweater? I'm not sure how rational this is. Can you be converted to vest wearing? Is it something you can grow/age into, or are you born a vest-wearer? Never having worn a vest, I wonder if I'm just grasping at straws - a new idea for a 'quick and easy' finished project. But what's the point if I won't wear it? Or would I wear a vest if I had made it myself?
Handspun vest? Why? Why not? Is this a crazy idea?
I am now the proud owner of "the wheel", which has become officially My Wheel. This might possibly make me a real spinner. Of course, baptism by wool at Maryland may actually be what makes me a real spinner. It remains to be seen.
This is where I was, Wednesday noon:
I went to visit the my wheel's previous mother on Wednesday, and I had a fantastic day. She has a weaving, fiber and sculpture studio and it was great to see what she's been working on. Not only because I enjoy her company, but also because she's been working with found objects and scrap metal and I really love what she's doing. You can get a glimpse by clicking here; her newest work is even better, the beading is mind-boggling.
We talked for a couple of hours about creativity, motivation, and following your muse. Annette and I met when she took a class with me a few years ago, and talking with her has always inspired me to verbalize the way I feel about creativity, and about inspiration and ways of seeing.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about my teaching, about what I do and why I do it, and what feels right and what feels wrong about it all. I've been told I'm a good teacher, but I've been feeling seriously boxed-in in the quilting world and need to get motivated to break out of that and be a little more adventurous. I'm not great at taking risks; I'm really low-key most of the time. I'm also not sure exactly what I mean by 'adventurous' either. A lot of uncertainty, but I really can't deal with my level of dissatisfaction anymore. It was great to have someone to talk to about it.
Other than all that serious stuff, I got a new book which will probably consume all of my free hours for the next day or so. Ruth Reichl's previous books were great, and this seems to be following nicely in the other books footsteps. I love food writing; I've always bought and collected cookbooks, but it wasn't until a friend introduced me to MFK Fisher's writing a few years ago that I developed a passion for reading about food in an obsessive way. Do yourself a favor and go read Savoring Winter, which is a great short essay by MFKF.
In weather news, it was at least 86F/30C here on Wednesday. Too hot. Really. Anyone who doesn't believe that global warming exists has their head up their arse.
This is how its supposed to be. I had a couple of 'private emails' yesterday pertaining to the ambiguity of my screwed up lace corner. If you look at the picture in yesterday's post (the second one, on the right hand side), you can see that it bears very little resemblance to the picture, above. This is the correct, finished, 19 rows of knitted lace as its supposed to appear at the bottom corner of the shawl.
Ripped/frogged, reknitted, and utterly and completely correct, if I may point it out.
The next step in the finishing of this shawl is - god help me - crochet. The instructions read thusly: "fasten the white yarn with a slip stitch. Work 3 chain stitches. Then, skipping the next edge stitch, work a slip stitch in the second edge stitch. Repeat across the top of the shawl". Lovely. Brilliant. Incomprehensible?
Given the fact that the last crochet I did was about thirteen years ago, I hope that all the crocheters out there are rooting for me. My previous crochet experience consists of learning the basics when I was 5 years old, making Barbie doll clothes, and then mucking around with projects that never got finished about 15 years ago, with no ability to follow a pattern.
Here , you can see my most recent attempt at crochet. Twelve years old and entombed in a mouldering ziploc baggie, I can assure you that whatever competency I had in 1993 is long gone. I haven't picked up a crochet hook in the interim, except to pick up dropped knitting stitches. The process of finishing off this shawlette/scarf should be interesting. A learning experience, right? Just what I need.
However, my ability to crochet even the simplest chains remains doubtful.
In other news:
Wednesday is the officidal day of my purchase of the Ashford Joy wheel that I've been using and enjoying for the past month or more. I'd appreciate good thoughts along the lines of, " Long may you spin." or something like-wise. Anything. I'm just hoping that owning it instead of borrowing it doesn't jinx my spinning.
If you read Norma's post, you might have noticed that she mentioned my mythological visit. If you took this remark as being along the lines of "when the cows come home" you were wrong. I've got a trip planned [and a flight booked], to Vermont and the New Hampshire/Yankee Sheep and Wool Festival, in mid-May.
And, given that I posted the Bitter/Not Bitter buttons that Abby designed recently, I think that its only fair to admit that things have changed and I now have concrete plans for a hit-and-run visit to the Maryland Sheep and Wolf* festival as well. So much for the Bitter/Not Bitter debate. I've crossed over to the dark side and will be there on Sunday. Hiding in a corner, no doubt.
