Too Much Wool

easily distracted by red things

So - the daughter-child is away on her Peru adventure. Please be advised, I really don't worry as much as everyone obviously thinks I worry. I have this anxiety thing that seems to be anticipation related; once things get going, I'm fine. Like, 'I don't know when I'll hear from her again this week, but that's cool because she's in Peru having fun' kind of fine with it. Let me put it this way: If you ran away from home at 15 you'd be pretty darn amazed by any kid of yours who asks permission to do almost everything at 17. If my daughter weren't so damn well behaved I'd probably get accused of being negligent. (Did I mention her report card average? 98. Ahem.)

I spent a good part of the morning spinning. I thought that I'd have a second bobbin of gorgeous roving all spun up and then plied into a nice 2-ply (with blogworthy picture). But that didn't happen. The spinning was mostly a diversionary tactic, to keep me busy and hypnotized until I could stop obsessing and get on with life.

After checking that the flight got off the ground (assuming my daughter was on it, having gotten no hysterical phone calls), I proceeded to......

.... do you really want to know how shallow I am?

I thought so.

I proceeded to buy shoes.

Shoes being my other weakness. After wool of course.

Red shoes being my ultimate weakness.

PS - the red/orange stuff in the upper left corner is what I've been spinning.

That's the obligatory wool content. In case you were wondering.

knit on

Here's the sock I've begun from the Trekking yarn I bought the other day at Seaport. I'd say that so far, its my favorite self-striping yarn ever. Its hard to see in this picture, but there's a blue-red, a dark deep orange-red, and a blue-gray stripe.

Here's the progress on Leaf Lace - I knit about 16 rounds yesterday. Its on a 60cm/24" circ so its becoming difficult to spread it out for photos already.

There's a lot more I could say, but I'm going to leave today's post alone with its knitting content. And hopefully I'll be back to normal tomorrow.

to the wire

If you're reading this on Tuesday morning... you should know that we're down to the wire here. My daughter leaves for Peru Wednesday. I've spent the last week buying film, travel gear, socks, band-aids - you name it.

Having finished Birch at 6pm on Sunday, Monday morning I was left bereft and empty handed.

I swatched on 5mm/8 US needles:

It looked okay at 8am. And then I knit a little more and thought about it. I thought that with some healthy blocking, it might be too loose. I frogged that poor swatch into oblivion.

My progress at 11pm Monday night:

Leaf Lace Shawl, Louet Gems Opal Merino, 4.5mm/7 US needles.

Knitting soothes the savage beast?

Sure, why not.

The birch has landed

The birch has landed.

Pattern: Sharon Miller, Rowan #34.
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze, color 596, Marmalade - 2.5 balls or a little less.
Needles: 4mm/6 US, Aero circs

For the Claudia pose, click HERE .

These pictures show the birch hot off the needles - unblocked. I'm not sure if there's going to be any real blocking of this shawl. I like the size that it is pre-blocking. I may just steam/spray it to get the edges to flatten out a bit.

This is a very easy knit, and would make a great beginner lace project.

For anyone who asked, "the other bird" in Saturday's post is Moe (like one of the Three Stooges). He's a nine year old budgie who has lived with us for almost all of his life. He rarely stands still for a photograph, so there are fewer pictures of him than there are of Alice.

Next up on the needles? Remains to be seen. I've already started a sock from the sock yarn I bought on Thursday. I have plenty of UFOs to choose from, and then there's the Leaf Lace shawl, as enabled by Cari. Big needles. Big yarn. Small shawl. A seductively wearable finished object....

the other bird

bad knitblogger

I had a rather blogworthy day on Thursday.

I met up with Ann, Lauren, Jen, and Nancy at School Products, where we browsed, shopped and got to know each other while waiting for Vicki and Cara to extricate themselves from Tender Buttons [a place for which I'm unable to find a website].

First of all, it was the first time I'd met Lauren, who lives all of a state away. That was great and I'm so glad we were both able to come in on the same day and finally get to meet face to face. Ann was there from not-too-very-far-away, and Nancy, who lives pretty much right nearby. It was a first time for meeting both of them too. Its funny how you can knit, and blog, and live close to people, and never meet up with them or even meet them unintentionally. Or maybe its not so odd - but when you finally do meet, its a lot of fun and you wonder why you didn't try harder to make it happen sooner.

After Cara and Vicki showed up button-laden, we meandered our way over to Habu. I suspect I shopped more than the others did there, but I think its one of the more interesting yarn stores I've ever been to. Laceweight. Wool with silk tweed flecks. Say discontinued and I buy. Say discontinued laceweight and I buy six ounces. Ouch.

We went for lunch and then sat outside in the park on a beautiful day and knit for a while. When we finally roused ourselves from our food, yarn, and friend-induced reveries, headed down to Seaport Yarn and shopped there a bit. I do think that everyone walked away with sock yarn. Well, I walked away with sock yarn. Self patterning sock yarn. Yes, you heard me. I fell off the wagon. I can't even knit a stockinette stitch sock and I bought MORE self-patterning sock yarn. Shoot me.

So, the bad blogger part? I took no people pictures. If you want people pictures, go look at Lauren and Vicki's blogs. I did, however, take the obligatory shopping haul picture. Under the Ott-lite, of course.

The new edition of Knitting Languages, by Margaret Heathman, coned laceweight tweedy stuff (Habu), wooden bobbin-like thingys (Habu too), and very red/orange self-striping Trekking sock yarn (Seaport).

Good shopper. Bad knitblogger.

 

for the love of sock

I have had a sock that's been my subway knitting on and off since last Friday. I wasn't happy with this sock. I was frustrated (I ranted about 72 sts not being enough just the other day), and I procrastinated for 2 days on doing the heel because I just.... wasn't happy. When your knitterly sense is tingling and you feel bad about something, the best thing to do is to STOP.

Exhibit A: The sock

Gorgeous, right? Lorna's Laces self-striping sock yarn in one of Purl's special colorways. 72 stitches cast onto 2mm Addis (I cast onto bigger needles for stretch, always do) and then K1, P1 rib for 10 rows [corrected: whoops, K2, P2], then stockinette.
Lovely. Stripes. Charming. Yes?

Exhibit B: The Tourniquet Sock

Can you see that ribbing? Can you see how tightly its stretched to go around my shapely calf? I tried it on over the course of three days, thinking maybe I was bloated - PMS being the wonderful all-purpose scapegoat that it is - and that I'd unbloat.

Well, I didn't freaking unbloat.

So then, I come up with the brilliant solution of ripping the whole sock. Mind you, I took pictures to show you that I had indeed knit something with the yarn. So you could see my fine gauge sock and how far I'd gotten (on circs no less, Cari is smiling down on me from ..... um, from Brooklyn). I was going to start again, and cast onto a size larger needle (2.5mm) to give me more ease and then switch back to my zero/2mm when I got to the ankle.

Anybody out there figure out what I'm going to say next?

I got about 20 rows into the second incarnation of the sock, past the ribbing. I hate the fabric. It's loose. Its flopsy. It doesn't feel right to me. 2mm was too tight on my leg, and almost too tight of a fabric. 2.5mm is too loose of a fabric for my taste. My 'solution' didn't work and I'm either going tohave to go back to the 2mm needles and actually do some real live sock shaping or suck it up and have yet another pair of short socks.

All this proves to me is that stockinette stitch wants to make me feel like an idiot, is conspiring against me, and is forcing me to work on nothing but lace.

A few questions....

Question 1: Why does Addi Turbo not make a 2.25mm needle?

Question 2: What kind of a person needs a needle .25mm different from the sizes she has?

Question 3: Do I order non-Addi 2.25mm circs just for this pair of socks or do I <gulp> cast on 80 sts?

Question 4: Is it wrong to just want a simple sock that FITS?

Moment of truth

Here goes. The moment of truth.

This has nothing to do with any kind of finished object, so don't get all excited.

I've been keeping big secrets from the blog. For weeks and weeks. Five weeks ago, when I was up in Vermont and New Hampshire hobnobbing with the sheep and visiting the beautiful green mountains, I got a phone call. It went something like this:

Me: Hello?!
Aunt: It's your aunt! I can't hear you!
Me: (screaming) HELLO!!!! I'm in Vermont!! [I'm sure Norma's neighbors loved this.]

Mind you, this is on the top of a hill where seemingly, there is no cell phone reception in spite of being at the top of a ridge.

Aunt: Vermont? What are you doing there?
Me: Visiting friends. Traveling to New Hampshire. (repeat 2x, scream 2nd time)
Aunt: Uh, okay. Well, I have to ask you, how do you feel about Bee [my daughter] going on a trip?
Me: Fine. Where to?
Aunt: Umm.... South America? Peru, to be exact.
Me: Um..... well.... okay...... does she want to go?

So, precisely five weeks ago, I got a phone call that was both very exciting, and also meant a lot of work for me. I mentioned the passport headache a few weeks ago. That was for the trip. I've mentioned being busy. For the trip. I've had to do paperwork. I've had to do official bank and passportish things. I've had to shop like a lunatic for outdoor wear for a season that we're not having here right now (fall/mild winter). For the trip.

School isn't out yet in NYC. Still isn't out. Isn't out until, oh, precisely the day before my daughter leaves for the trip. She's had Regents exams, AP tests, finals - you name it. And yesterday she even managed to come down with a whopping head cold, necessitating all kinds of witchdoctorish activity from me, with administering of herbs and potions.

So, in precisely one week, my dear, darling daughter is going to Peru. Ok, damn it, I'm REALLY excited. Do you know who lives in Peru?

Alpacas. My daughter is going to visit the Andes where.... you guessed it... Andean plying comes from. Where people spin still spin on drop spindles. (HERE, go look.) Where they knit. A lot. Look, I even found an article about knitting and weaving in the Andes.

A couple of months ago, when I blogged about getting the Andean Folk Knits book, I didn't expect that I'd be studying it as a way to learn about the textile culture of a country my daughter was going to visit. It was a wonderful resource in that area, though, and has beautiful pictures of many of the places she's going to visit.

Let me say, I didn't choose this trip. My aunt (good aunt, we like aunts) offered my daughter a summer trip to ... I don't know, reward her for not dropping out of school and taking 6 years of Spanish, the last few years being honors or AP Spanish. For being a straight A student all those years. Something.

My daughter found the trip, chose the trip (its an organized group trip and highly chaperoned so don't get all worried on me, I'm doing fine with worrying all by myself, thanks), and she's way way beyond excited about the trip. I thought I should mention this, because I had no input in sending her to a textile paradise - she chose it of her own accord. Of course, she's had to promise me a spindle from Peru, but that's a given.

So, yes. I'm knitting on Birch. I'm thinking about what comes next (the orange cabled Wrixlan thingy won hands down), and I'm packing. And shopping. And doing a LOT to get Bee ready for her trip. If I miss a day here and there, please don't send out the search  teams, okay?

In place of worrying, I just keep telling myself: She's going to be with the alpacas. Peruvians spin. They knit. She spins. She knits. It's good.

Knitting time

In yesterday's post I said something about not buying yarn or mail ordering and having enough to keep me happily knitting for at least a year.

I promptly got two comments from friends who pointed out that my stash was at least two years worth of knitting time. Even more if I chose to sleep during those two years. And one of those friends has actually pawed through seen a good portion of my stash.

Now, I've never yelled uncle, yarn diet, stash or bust, or anything along those lines. I try to be realistic about myself, what gives me joy, and why I buy all this wool in the first place. I try to be honest with myself and allow a certain amount of inspiration to come home with me, in the form of yarn that strikes my fancy and for which I have no project in the lineup. Pure, unadulterated beauty - color, feel,  and sometimes, just because something speaks to me.

In a tangential sort of way, I should mention that the wool does speak to me. I think that yarn talks and I've recently discovered that roving goes beyond talking and actually sings. However, if I'm going to take that analogy further, a fleece might be singing an aria .... on second thought, nevermind.

I'm not declaring any kind of buying moratorium here, but given the fact that I've recently been surprised on several occasions by things I've "found" in my stash, I think the stash begs more exploration. As well as being given more of a chance in the inspiration department.

 

The shawl continues to grow, pointify itself, and use up yarn - all these clues point to progress.

Even I have to admit that having used up almost 2 balls of Kidsilk Haze means I've been doing some knitting.

I decided that rather than count shawl growth by inches, I'd look at the number of stitches left on the needles. I started with 299, and now have 170 stitches left. Considering that the number of stitches per row has been consistently decreasing, and also considering the fact that I took a full week off from knitting on the evil shawl, I'm actually doing pretty well.

I'm already looking ahead to my next project. I'm considering tackling a longtime UFO and seeing it through to completion. At the top of the lineup we've got the orange cabled thing, the Nattrøje, the second Hyrnan Randalin shawl, or the Eriskay gansey. This might call for a vote....

The two sides of me....

I'm grouchy. I'm grouchy because I'm sick of my knitting projects. And I refuse to listen to people who tell me to abandon them and go on to something new.

I'm grouchy because I'm just barely (not quite is more accurate) five feet tall and every sock I make is forced to be short in the leg because otherwise I have to do a bunch of math to shape it to my rather shapely and short calves. Seventy-two stitches is a lot, right? Not really. Not at the gauge I'm knitting at. Not when I compare it to someone else's 72 stitch sock in the same yarn.

I'm grouchy because every day when the mail gets delivered there aren't any fun packages for me. This is because, ironically, I've reached some kind of peace with myself about yarn buying and I haven't been ordering anything. This is freaky and unusual and makes me question my sanity.

I'm grouchy because the nattroje as I started it may not fit (but being my usual rational self, I haven't tried it on to confirm this); this is because I've gained so much weight in the past 6 months. I'm also fairly sure I gained weight from knitting. Or lack of excercise resulting from knitting.

I'm grouchy because I've hit the black hole void of the birch-from-hell and I can't even blog about it properly because someone (who remains nameless but is totally responsible for me knitting the thing in the first place) already blogged about the phenomena.

This is how I feel:    

As you may have noticed, I have PMS and am not quite myself these days.

On the upside - yes, Virginia, there is an upside -

• Plans for world domination continue apace - you should all be awaiting posts from here pertaining to this ongoing conquest.
• I blew off knitting with friends to be a good family person on Father's Day. Upside? - the sacrifice involved seeing the new Batman movie. I love it when things blow up. I'm not sure why - in other areas I'm a total pacifist.
  
• I succesfully navigated both the banjo/mandolin and potential BIL invasions on Saturday. Two social events in the same 24 hour time period may ruin my reputation as a recluse, but gave me some confidence in my skills as a hostess. Rachael - you're not the only one with the banjo/spinning thing going on. Just saying.
• The weather has cooled off to the point where layers are needed. I'm rather happy about this.
• I've realized I have a big stockpile of yarn and can happily knit for at least a year from it. Please see the third paragraph, above. I'm still not totally at peace with this concept.