Cottage46 Knitter

Happy New Year!

I'll be happy to put 2009 behind us.  Unemployment in this area has been around 15%, and there have been a number of deaths lately.  Not immediately close to me, but close enough to knock the wind out of me a little.  Three friends/classmates from h.s., and our maintenance man at the library was murdered by his wife a couple of weeks ago.  Hopefully 2010 will be better.

I am excited about the Knit a Norwegian KAL that starts tonight (midnight Oslo time).  I'm returning to the long neglected Ingeborg.  I knit about 30 rows before I put it aside to knit VK's moose sweater 3 YEARS ago.  I dug it out yesterday and figured out where in the chart I left off.  I added an embarrassing number of stitch markers to help me stay on pattern. 

I didn't get quite as far on Irish Moss as I wanted to because I got distracted by a sock.  Here's the Irish Moss progress.

The little white spots are because I photographed it over snow.  It's actually knit pretty tightly.

And here's the distracting sock.

The pattern is Window Pane socks.  The more I do them, the more I love little twisted, traveling stitches.  I have some Di-ve Zenith in stash for a couple of Bavarian vests and I used some Christmas money to get a sweaters worth of the stuff on closeout at Webs.  Now that I have Maria Erlbacher's fabulous book in English, I really need to get moving on those.  (I have the German books, but my German consists of "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht."  Surprisingly unhelpful for knitting.) 

We've had some swans on the lake for a couple of weeks.  Even a black one!

Pretty cool, isn't he?  Or she.  (The lake is starting to ice over lest anyone think the swans are walking on water.)

I'm off to knit a few more rows on Irish Moss before it's Ingeborg time.  I hope everyone has a healthy and happy new year.  I've made some wonderful friendships through blogging and Ravelry that are truly special to me.

I know I don't log into Typepad very often

... but does it have to be different every time?  Grrr... 

Anyway!

I cast on for Irish Moss a couple of days ago.  About a minute after sending off the second of 2 overlapping indexing projects. (Sorry, we've reached the season of the crappy indoor photos.)

There are also the ubiquitous boring, 2x2 rib socks.

I worked on them at knitting group and a couple people asked if I was going to felt them.  No, DH's feet are just that big.  I totally did not even notice that pooling when I was knitting them.

There's been some spinning:

I took a wonderful spinning class at the end of November.  I learned so much!  One of those things being that I really need a drum carder.  We played around with blending fibers and colors.  I found it interesting that no matter what colors I added, it just kept looking purple.  It's a magical drum carder!

And I have most of the pound of Blue-Faced Leister spun up that came with the wheel.  It's undyed although it looks yellow in the picture.  I'm debating about Kool-Aid dying or ordering some actual acid dye.  Would you like to hazard a guess as to the color? 

Soon I will knit with handspun, something I've yet to do.  I know, weird. 

How I love twisted and traveling stitches

My sock mojo is back!  I'm so pleased.  I missed it.  (This may have something to do with my profound jealousy of all the lucky knitters at the Sock Summit.)  I'm nearly done with my first Yarnissima Firestarter.  How have I not noticed her patterns before?  They're amazing.

These are knit from the toe up.  I used Judy's Magic Cast On which is great.  With the Figure 8 cast on I always had to go back and tighten it up and it usually ended up being uneven.   The magic cast on is tight and tidy.

Joan Schrouder (Rav link) taught at my local knitting retreat a couple of years ago.  (They don't call her St. Joan for nuthin'.)  She showed us a wonderful vest made up of traveling stitches from Maria Erlbacher's Uberlieferte Strickmuster (Typepad evidently doesn't like umlauts), a set of 3 books on Bavarian twisted stitches written in German.  Sadly my experience with German begins and ends with learning Silent Night in German 30 years ago.  That did not stop me from tracking the 3 books down on the German ebay.  "It's charts!  It doesn't matter if I don't read German."  Ha.  The charts were like none I had ever seen so I really wasn't able to figure them out. 

Luckily, in addition to all EZ gave us, she also gave us Meg Swansen.  She had the books translated and republished them in one volume.  More info about how that came about here. (Rav link)  I just about passed out with joy when I read that.  I nearly passed out again when the book arrived long before I was really expecting it.  (Notice yellow table is now purple.  As are several other pieces of yard furniture.)

The explanation of the charts is excellent and includes a few examples.  I totally get them now!  I have some Zenith Di-Ve in stash for a vest similar to Joan's.  I might do some more traveling stitch socks to perfect my technique before I tackle the vest.  Not to mention I have 2 color work KALs this winter which I'm really looking forward to.  It's been hot here for a grand total of about a week and I'm completely ready for fall. 

I'll leave you with a picture of inter-species harmony.

I. Have. Made. Vegetables.

Or grew them, at least.  I'm still in the throws of beating back the grass (resilient stuff that), but we have produced veggies.  My butterhead lettuce (which is under the green beans in the photo) is bitter.  Any suggestions?  The summer has been remarkably cool which is wonderful if you hate sweating and mosquitoes like I do.  But it is slowing down the tomato ripening. 

My sock mojo seems to be coming back to life.  I got Wendy Johnson's toe up book and am waiting for Cookie A's Sock Innovation to arrive.  I'm working on a plain toe up sock with a heel flap because I couldn't picture how that was possible.  In all the excitement I forgot to do the slipped stitches.

But I did learn Judy's magic cast on which is wonderful and my new go-to toe up cast on.

I've also been working on Chic Knits CeCe which seems to grow at a seemingly imperceptible rate.  Seriously.  I was going to try to squeeze Cassidy in before fall, but I'm not sure I'll be able to.  Maybe that will be my backup cable project during the Henry VIII KAL.

The summer has been bone dry as far as indexing, so I've been happy to get 2 projects in the last week.  Yay for yarn money!  I'm thinking of some Frangipani for Fulmar.

I'm keeping up with my reading challenges.  I've been listening to Haven Kimmel's memoirs on audio.  OMG is she funny.  And she is soooooooo from a small town in Indiana.  I've been chugging around the track at 5 a.m. listening and laughing like a loon. 

Serious knitting ADD

Since the big Oregon finale my knitting has been all over the place.  Seriously.  I've had a cold so that hasn't helped.  It's a good thing my current project basket is large because I can't focus on anything for very long. 

There have been numerous sock projects cast on and tossed aside. 
Salida:

Bayerische (which I think might work better for me on US1s instead of 0s):

And this poor yarn is on its 3rd or 4th incarnation. I don't even remember what it is anymore.

When I am able to concentrate, I've made pretty good progress on Must Have Deux.  Although checking the Ravelry page I see I started it last April, so not exactly lightning speed here.
       

And even when I can't hold myself upright, I can work on this stockinette alpaca vest. 

I did a few rows of Abalone's swatch.  Spindrift is scratchier than VY's 2-ply, isn't it?  I'll get back to that when I don't have to stop to blow my nose every 20 seconds.

I survived celebrated by 41st birthday yesterday.  Whoopee!  No big yarny gifties to show, but VK always pays for my summer knitting retreat.  I hear that I have some lovely flowers from my parents at the library.  (My gift to my co-workers was to keep my germy self home today.) 

VK was home sick today too.  When we're both sick we call ourselves Pneumonia and Congesto Sniffiletti.  Funniest if said with a fakey Italian accent.  Anyway, VK was in the kitchen fixing lunch when I hear, "Ouch!  Oh, I need some paper towels."  He had dropped a knife and the blade landed on his big toe.  By the time I managed to get to him, his flip-flop was full of blood.  Honestly, I've never seen so much blood from something that wasn't a head injury.   It bled for a long time, but finally it stopped and we got it neatly bandaged up.  So the day was not totally without excitement!

Lost on Sleeve Island

One sleeve done.  One sleeve to stub length.  (And the trees are not upside down this time.  I checked.)  Despite all the snow we've had, there was one clear spot on the deck.  Go figure.

I finished my TKGA master knitter swatch resubmits and mailed them off yesterday.  Hopefully by this time next week I'll be starting Level 2. 

When I was buying Malabrigo for Christmas presents I bought myself a skein (purple of course) for a cowl.  Now I'm ready to make the cowl and I. Can't. Find. The. Malabrigo.  I intend to conduct an indepth search tomorrow, but if you hear weaping and gnashing of teeth from the Midwest tomorrow, you'll know I didn't find it. 

Just so I have a 2-picture blog post, the socks I've been working on.  Grumperina's Roza's socks from an IK issue that I can't find right now.  The pattern makes a nice snug sock. 

Does anyone else think this winter has been a bit... much?  If so, enjoy the following.  A Texas friend of VK's sent it to him, hence the Indiana references.  Insert your favorite cold weather destination.

65 above zero:
Floridians turn on the heat.
People in Indiana plant gardens.

 

60 above zero:
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Indiana sunbathe.

 

50 above zero:
French & English cars won't start.
People in Indiana drive with the windows down.

 

40 above zero:
Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats.
People in Indiana throw on a flannel shirt.

 

35 above zero:
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
People in Indiana have the last cookout before it gets cold.

 

20 above Zero
People in Miami all die.
Indianans close the windows.

 

Zero:
Californians fly away to Mexico.
People in Indiana get out their winter coats.

 

10 below zero:
Hollywood disintegrates.
The Girl Scouts in Indiana are selling cookies door to door.

 

20 below zero:
Washington DC runs out of hot air.
People in Indiana let the dogs sleep indoors.

 

30 below zero:
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Indianans get upset because they can't start their snowmobiles.

 

40 below zero:
All atomic motion stops.
People in Indiana start saying, 'Cold enough fer ya?'

 

50 below zero:
Hell freezes over.
Indiana public schools will open 2 hours late.

Oh for Pete's sake

Here's the first 3 inches of my first Oregon sleeve.  Notice a problem with the !@#$% trees?

Oh yes!  They are upside down.  I've already even woven in some of the ends!  So Oregon is going to be on a brief time-out. 

I did manage to finish one moose mitten.  I duplicate stitched his eye and you still can't see it very well.  I don't do well tensioning yarn when there are big blobs of color like a moose body.  Had the same problem on the sweater.

  

And I finished an uninspiring pair of socks that I started... wait for it... in May. 

I also managed to finish and mail my Master Knitter Level 1 binder today.  Woot! If levels 2 and 3 take as long as level 1, I should be a master knitter in 8 to 10 years.

A surprising amount of progress

Especially since I don't feel like I've been knitting much at all.  Perhaps I finally have learned to knit in my sleep.  All my spare time seems to spent obsessively checking pollster.com and political blogs.  Election day cannot come soon enough.

I've finished one repeat of the 2nd chart on Oregon.  My Knit Picks #3 circular broke last night as I was spreading stitches out.  (!!!)  Saved by sticky Shetland wool.  The stitches were quickly recovered onto an Addi Turbo 40" needle which is actually working better because the KP was a 32".  It sounds a lot less dramatic than it seemed while it was happening. 

I started a stockinette v-neck cardigan adapted from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns.  I'm using Stonehedge Shepherd's wool which is deliciously soft.  (Sorry, no links.  I've been editing an index all day and REALLY want to get to knitting.)  Anyway, it's navy blue, it's stockinette, boring but satisfying.

My meeting and webinar project has been this lovely pair of toe-up socks in Online Supersocke cotton.  Since Indiana revamped librarian certification, I've become a slave to LEUs (library education units), hence my attendance at lots of webinars.  I guess a lifetime certification for $1 with no continuing ed requirements was deemed insufficient. 

And I have a pair of 9 to 5 socks ready to start the heel.  These have completely stalled since I have 3 stockinette projects in active rotation and never really feel like concentrating on a heel.  Or even a heel flap. 

Here's Zoey willing the door to open so she can get back in on my chair where she belongs.  Between Zoey and my hormones, I am never cold.

I do love spring

Because we get to see the heron.  Here he is sitting on the end of our dock.  This could be one of many herons of various genders, but we choose to think it's just one and he's a guy.



And we have the obligatory flower shots.  Note that there is only one overwhelmingly purple shot.  Personal growth, I say.



I got to spend the entire day at a budget workshop today.  Oy.  These things generally cover the same thing from year to year.  But we had a lot of legislative changes this year, so I went.  It's broadcast over the web so while you can hear the speaker, you can only see the power point presentation on the screen.  The exact same one I have printed out right in front of me.  We also got to hear lots of loud paper russling (sp?) in the microphone.  Sheer bliss, let me tell you. 

The upshot however is hours of nearly uninterrupted knitting time.  I had about half an inch of this sock started last night.  The rest I did today during the workshop.  On #0s.



Progress on St. Brigid continues.  It goes very smoothly once the first repeat is under your belt.  I have decided to change it to have set in sleeves.  I've never done anything remotely like this, so prayers would be appreciated.  I had seen a couple with set in sleeves on Ravelry so I PMed Larisa (whose St. Brigid is gorgeous) and she sent me a link to a wonderful series of Jenna Wilson articles on Knitty about set in sleeves. 



And Sitcom Chic #2 is done except for blocking and the cool spiral clasp that I'm waiting for.  This one doesn't fit quite as well as the first one.  Something is a little different about the neckline.  But I still like it.  I hope the clasp comes soon.  It's going to be too hot to wear it soon.



I watched the PBS documentary about FDR over Memorial Day weekend.  I just love that guy.  He's always been my favorite president, faults and all. There were wonderful video shots of him laughing and playing with kids in the pool at Warm Springs.  And one 4-second shot of the "walk" that he developed with braces on his legs and holding the arm of one of his sons.  To think that if his paralysis would have been known he wouldn't have been elected.  But it was the experience of polio that made him the perfect president to lead the country through the Depression and WWII. 

Then I happened to watch the Waltons episode that had FDR's death.  At the end, the Waltons all go to Charlottesville before dawn to watch the train carrying FDR's body back to Washington go by.  His casket was in the last car, the only car lit, with four soldiers standing guard around the casket. 

I don't know what my point is here other than that they just don't make presidents like they used to.

New WIPs and St. Brigid yarn

Sitcom Chic #2 is coming along nicely.  I have one sleeve done and the other one is about halfway.  I ordered a sweater clasp for it instead of a button, but it hasn't arrived yet.

I went on a little cast on binge at knitting group.  First, Lupine Lace socks from Fiber Trends in ONline Supersocke cotton.

And then Branching Out from Knitty in Dream in Color Smooshy.

I haven't touched either project since then.

My St. Brigid yarn arrived!  It's Cascade 220 Heathers, Colorway 9463.  It's a little less pinkish than shown in the picture.  More burgandy.

Although it was in the house all last weekend, I did not touch it until my Economics index was done.  So I wound all 10 hanks last night and Actually. Swatched.  Got gauge with #5s and happily cast on, carefully placing my stitch markers between cable sections.  On the first row I realized that there 2 sections where I hadn't cast on enough stitches. Duh. So I ripped it out and will try again tonight.  Evidently it takes at least 2 tries for a 5-years-of-knitting-experience knitter to cast on the right ^&$*!%& number of stitches.

I also picked up another hank of Smooshy.  The colorway is Pansy Golightly.  I love that.

Brigitte tagged me for a meme!  (Appropriate to be tagged by Brigitte on my first St. Brigid post.)

 

The rules: Posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer. Play nice, children.

 

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Hmmm... working at the same library, but as a part-time circulation clerk. And commuting 3 hours round trip to Kalamazoo's Western Michigan University for my history masters.  Glad gas wasn't $4 a gallon then.

 

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today - in no particular order? Cast on the appropriate number of stitches for St. Brigid, run library payroll, read some more of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (great writer, great book), avoid the chocolate cake in the staff lounge, pick up some groceries.

3. Snacks I enjoy - potato chips, popcorn (not microwave), pretzels, really anything covered in salt.

4. Places I've lived -Indiana and Michigan.  Well that's just sad.

5.  Things I would do if I were a billionaire - Set up various friends and family for life, travel, add a few hundred square feet to the cottage, adopt several children, try to reduce the number of kids in the world who starve to death or die of stupid treatable disease.

 

6. Peeps I want to know more about - Skipping this one since most knitters have been tagged by the time I get around to doing memes.

Monday is Memorial Day in the U.S.  I'm looking forward to a 4-day weekend.  (I see no reason to work Friday.)  It's supposed to be in the upper 70s which will be nice since it's been pretty cool.  Sunday will be the running of the Indy 500.  This is the only car race that we watch and we both get weepy when they sing Back Home Again in Indiana.  "When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash, then I long for my Indiana home."

There will be much knitting and reading; hopefully we'll get the kayaks in the water too.