It's Wine-Thirty!

Believe me, I'm working on it....

But I must admit, my knitting has been slow going over the past few days.  The cold I came down with over a week ago is lingering on, and I just can't shake the last part.  I did spend half of yesterday just resting, which helped some.  Time will just have to take care of the rest.

But here is it.  The back, left side and half of the right side of the Ribby Cardi.  I'm sure I'll finish up the rest of the right side tonight.  Then I get to start on the turquoise blue sleeves.

I'm including a few more pictures for you to view.  My apple trees with their very fragrant blossoms. 

 

Oh yes, and Smitty, looking not too pleased that I woke her up for a picture. 

"Let me go back to sleep."

A day of rest can do wonders! And RIBBY HELP!

I'm bummed that I had to miss CTS&W, especially since I was thinking on going down with Marcy, but I'm finally starting to feel better this afternoon.  Six days of coughing, stuffed nose, and sneezing isn't fun, and the lack of sleep at night wasn't helping either.  Anyway, I managed to not do too much yesterday, except a few hours of work, and then a few more work hours this morning and that has helped.  Sometimes just knowing I won't be swamped the next day at work helps.   :)  Ahhhh, such is the life of a business owner.

I've felt so good this afterrnonn that I've been working on the Ribby Cardi again.  Only, I'm having problems with the pattern for the left front.  Here is where the problem starts:  "Work stitches as they appear on all rows until piece measures 13 inches, ending with a WS row, then begin armhole shaping".  LEFR FRONT ARMHOLE SHAPING: NEXT ROW: "Bind off 11 sts, then finish row working sts as they appear."  O.k, should I be binding off on the ribbed part (I'm doing the plain panel version).

Then "NEXT RS ROW - DEC ROW:  K2, SSK work stitches as they appear to end of row".  Now, when I bound off the 11 stitches, I was working on a RS row.   Did I miss something here?  Was I supposed to knit the next WS row and then start the K2, SSK on the next RS row?  Should I just assume that is what is meant?  Or was I supposed to start binding off on a WS row, which wouldn't make any sense according to what I see in the picture.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

What is it about me and lace???

   O.k.  Last night, I was all jacked up on the prospect of starting to knit this, the  Flutter Cardigan.  I cast on 283 stitches, and set out.  I've said for years that I'm lace impaired.  Why, oh why, must I love lace so much and be SO unable to knit it?!   I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the sequence of lace.  I understand the yo, s1k, k1, psso, etc., but maybe it is because I can't visualise exactly what I'm making that causes so many problems.  I knit the first row.  I'm psyched because I got through it and finished right where I was supposed to be.  Then I purled the second row.  I start knitting the third row, which is a very easy lace row, get to the end, and uh oh, I have 4 stitches where there should be five.  So I start counting back.  I'm looking at where I might have missed a k2tog, or knit 4 instead of just 3.  I don't see it, so I'll just tink my way back to the place where I must have missed something.  (Did I mention that this is a soft cotton, which is a three ply yarn that unplies easily?).  I think that I reach the spot, about 1/3 back, start going forward, and uh oh, I have 4 stitches again instead of 5.  So, we start tinkin back again.  I'm going back, going back, and not seeing anything.  O.k, no big deal.  I get back to the beginning of the third row.  Now I'm thinking that I'd better count the stitches there.  One, two, three....279.  Shit!  How did that happen?  By this time, I've been knitting for almost 2 hours, my brain is tired and it is way past 11 pm.  It is time to yank out ALL the stitches and call it a night. 

I'm thinking that the Ribby Cardi would be a good place to start on a big project for now.

Bigger and better things to come?

Another sock completed which is exciting, and I found some yarn (hell, I've got yarn stashed ALL OVER MY HOUSE AND in bins in the BARN) for a sweater I wanted to start knitting last summer.  It was one of those free patterns from Webs, where you purchased the yarn and got the pattern for free.  And of course, now I can't find the pattern.  I'm hoping that if I call them, they can send a pattern to me without too much of a problem.  It is time to start knitting a Spring sweater.

Milo is modeling the sock for me.  He likes to sleep on our bed during the day. 

Here is Smitty asleep on Calvin's bed.  She prefers to sleep on our bed, but because she really does not like Milo, she will pick any other place to sleep that he isn't. 

And here is Trina, caught in mid-yawn (ha! I had typed "mid yarn").  She's asleep on Boo's bed.  Any place that Smitty isn't, Trina will be. 

And here is Smoosh.  She'll usually sleep anywhere that either Milo or Smitty are, but she surprised me by being under the chair in the living room, surrounded by the cow-print throw.

And as a side note; I called Webs, and they immediately e-mailed the pattern over to me for the Flutter Cardigan, so I can cast on this morning!

Do they smell like the ocean when they get wet?

Marcy and I decided that we needed to get out, so we went over to a LYS which was having a "mini trunk show".  It was a knitting event, with some prize drawings (I was just notified that I won a foot care package), and I got to see the new Southwest Trading Company's TOFUtsies yarn.  I must say that this yarn is rather cool.  I like the ides of a tofu yarn (o.k, so it isn't exactly tofu, but it is close) which has a fiber called Chitin which is made from shrimp and crab shells.  I mean, how cool is that?  If you are going to be consuming a product, why not use the whole thing?

Isn't that a great Spring sock color?

Good things come to those who wait

Something wonderful happened last weekend.

I was doing some Spring cleaning of my old office, and I came across a sock that I had been knitting the week before my dad died.  All that it needed was the kitchener stitch at the toe.  This was a sock made from Lorna's Laces, some of the beautiful sock yarn I had purchased last summer.  I remembered sitting with my dad, and showing him how quickly my sock was going while we chatted.  So this sock has some wonderful memories attached to it.

For some reason, it felt really good to pick up that sock.  I took it into my new office, found a wonderful blog which has some excellent instructions on how to do this difficult (to me) stitch.  I sat there, finishing up the sock, thinking how nice it felt to be handling the yarn and how pretty it was; beautiful Spring colors.

The urge to continue was very strong after finishing the sock, so I cast on for #2.   Within 2 days, I had sock #2 almost finished.  Again, it only needed the kitchener stitch, which I finished up today.

Sock number 1 is on top, sock number 2 on the bottom of the picture.  Number 2 is a tad looser, which probably accounts for the striping being off.

The really cool thing is that when I started working on the second sock, I could feel my dad giving his approval that I was back doing something that I really enjoy.  Grief had kept me from doing anything fiber related for so long, and I didn't realize how much I had missed it.

I've cast on for a new pair of socks, while I'll be working on this week.   :)

I am heartbroken

Leave it to the snow to make me start thinking about knitting again.  Yes, I actually had thoughts of fiber running around in my head this past weekend. 

But that isn't why I'm heartbroken.  I've been eagerly awaiting my brochure from the Wool Connection about their Ewephoric Weekend, which happens each year at the end of March or beginning of April.  So, since I hadn't received anything yet, I e-mailed Bob and Phyllis, only to get this:

***********************************************************

Hi Helen

Sorry we did not get back to you sooner. We have decided it is

a good time for us to retire. we have sold our catalog division and

as of Monday we are having a going out of business sale with

40-60% off everything. Sooo obviously we are not having our

annual knitters weekend. Perhaps you will take a drive down

for a last visit. We will close around April 1st.

I want to thank you for attending over the years and Phyllis

and I will miss all the friends we have made via the knitting

industry.

Sincerely Yours,

Bob Fishberg
The Wool Connection
860 678-1710

**********************************************************

Oh no!!!!!!!!!  The Wool Connection was my favorite yarn store, and the Ewephoric weekend was my all time favorite knitting weekend!  I have enjoyed attending this since I was pregnant with my oldest son Calvin, who turns 9 in April.  In fact, I remember Bob joking with me that first year as I was due in 2 weeks, and he was worried that I would go into labor there.  ;-)    I've met some wonderful instructors there, including Melissa Leapman, Pam Allen, Lily Chin and many others, who have taught me so much.  I always considered this "my right into Spring".  Even if the weather was rainy, the smell of Spring was always in the air, and all was right with the world for that weekend, no matter what was going on in my life.  And now, it is over.  I am greatly saddened by this prospect, as I will miss the classes, the store, and Bob and Phyllis.  I wish them the best, and hope that one day, another yarn store which offers as much as the Wool Connection did, will come along.

Rip, rip, rip; get those stitches off those needles!

I wanted to thank everyone who sent me notes either in the comments section or personally about my uncle, and what has been happening here.  You guys are the best!  You've made me feel so much better than I did on Monday night and yesterday morning.  It has been so stressful, and it helped a bit to share some of what has been going on.   :)

Do you ever start knitting something only to realize that what you planned on just isn't working?  That beautiful Louisa Harding yarn that I'm so in love with just isn't working as a potential stole.  Nope, nada, nothing.  I would probably have to have 10 skeins just to make it long enough to drape over my shoulders, and hang down far enough to have it actually look like a stole.  So I'm going to rip out everything that I've done.  So far, I've only knit one ball of it because knitting is slow going, trying to keep the ribbon from twisting.   It really isn't too much of a loss; because it gave me comfort while knitting.  Besides, I think that I might look for a pattern for a shell for the yarn, because it would look really cool as a top.

So it was back to Webs today, because I really want to start the Fleur Coat knit in Berroco Foliage.    I get over there, only to find out that there was a run on the Foliage yarn after Saturday's talk by Norah Gaughan, and they are out of the two colors that I was considering;  Asters and Walnut.  I finally decided that Walnut #5989 was the way to go and ordered the yarn.  Don't let their shade card fool you; the Walnut is actually much lighter in color, and even has some blue/grey in it.  I'm hoping that the yarn comes in soon, because I'm itching to start that one.

But because I can't start the Fleur coat, I'm going to start working on the Flutter Cardigan in Aegean which I already have.  The Longmeadow yarn is a 60% cotton/40% microfiber which is very soft, but has a nice sheen to it too. 

Anyway, that is just about it in a nutshell.  I've been busy with work, and spent all of yesterday out in the Berkshires in Great Barrington and Pittsfield again (sorry Jess that I didn't get a chance to let you know I was headed that way, but it was really last minute).  It was lovely out there again, even with the humidity.

I did take the plunge today and buy an ice cream maker over at Lamsons in Northampton (I dream of one day walking in there with $1,000 to spend on kitchen stuff!).  Stephanie has inspired me with her talk of homemade ice cream and sorbet.  I love ice cream and sorbet all year round, but especially in the summer.  And the kids have been wanting to cook, but it has been too hot.  So this is the perfect alternative.  I have the freeze bowl in the freezer right now, so we'll be making ice cream tomorrow.   Mint Chocolate Chip here we come!

Busy, busy, busy

It has been a busy two days.

Yesterday I was out in Great Barrington, MA for work.  I was lucky enough to find the plaque which showed the location of the house where W.E.B. Dubois was born.  Unfortunately, the house is now gone, but there is the plaque, which was nice.  I remembered learning all about him in my African-American lit course my senior year in high school.  UMass Amherst named the library after him, which at one time, was the tallest library in the world.

Today has been more of the pleasure sort of busy.  My first stop of the day was over at Webs for a talk by Norah Gaughan.  There, I met Diane who had come up from CT for a quick visit and to also see Norah. 

I have to say that Norah is a great speaker, and a very talented knitwear designer.  She first went through the Berroco trunk show and talked about the patterns available.  There were 2 patterns from that selection that just have me itching to knit.  The first one is this incredible  sweater called Tierra, knit in Berroco Softtwist.  Because the Softtwist is a rayon/wool blend, the yarn is light weight, which would make this perfect for all season wear.  But I'm really eyeing it for the holiday season, when I attend holiday parties given by my clients, where being dressy is the norm.  This very cool asymmetrical sweater would be perfect!  You really have to see it to appreciate the garment, because the picture on the pattern does not do it justice.   The second one is the Fleur coat, knit in Berroco Foliage.  Now, this coat looks like a circular shawl, but it has sleeves set into it, and the top part doubles as a hood.  This is truly a very cool coat, which I think would look spectacular in either the February Mists color or the Asters color.

Then Norah started to talk about her new book Knitting Nature . 

This book wasn't what I had expected, but I'm not disappointed.  It is a book of patterns inspired by patterns in nature.  Think of a sunflower, and how the seeds radiate out from the center of the flower.  Then the petals also radiate out from the seeds, and then the leaves radiate out from the petals.  This is the type of geometry I'm talking about.  It was fascinating to hear Norah talk about what inspired her to design these patterns.  And the trunk show for this book was outstanding!  The Basalt Tank (the longer version) is really interesting how it goes together, but yet, I think it would look good on almost anyone.  The Swirled Pentagon Pullover was another favorite of mine.  When I look at this sweater, I see a classic that could be worn for many years, but still look fresh.  The Cabled Spiral Pullover is another sweater that will be a classic.  Simple lines, but very elegant.  The Shell tank is very cool looking, but I"m not sure someone of my body shape would look good in it.  The Phyllo Yoked Pullover adds a lace-like look, but the neckline makes this a perfect every day sweater.

Now don't get me wrong; there are some outstanding garments in here that are what I would consider "fun" types, like the Coastline Camisole and Skirt.  These have a unique look about them, as does the Mosaic Shrug.  But I'm more of a classic type of sweater girl myself and I'll leave the funky stuff to women who are thinner.  :)

What I liked most about the talk Norah gave is how she was inspired to create these garments.  The thought process behind each pattern is fascinating and listening to a designer talk about this is like picking their brain a bit.  I think everyone enjoyed being able to ask questions about the designs and the garments.  Andra Assars was there too, interjecting somethings about the Berocco yarns (Andra is an excellent teacher, so if you have the chance to take her Finishing class, do it!).

You want to know the one thing I found discouraging (and not that it was Norah or Andra's fault), is that a "plus size" model is a woman who wears a size 12 or 14.  Yikes!  Considering that the "average" American woman is a size 14, what does this say about our culture?

Here is the picture I took of Norah after she signed my book. 

She was inspiring and delightful to listen to.

After Webs, we headed out over to the Quabbin for a quick trip around the park.  We did park by the observation tower, where I took this photo: 

It was so foggy that it reminded me of the fogs we used to get on Nantucket the summer I lived there.  It was hot and muggy and you could barely see the water line of the reservoir below.  But it was beautiful just the same.

Then we drove out to Spencer, where I had a bit of work to do, and on our drive out there, I took this picture of a small pond next to the road.  You can see the water bugs out there, who looked like they were preforming a water ballet on top of the water.  It was a beautiful thing to see.   

I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow, but one thing is for certain, I'll be pouring over my new book looking for potential projects.   :)

So Sinful

Did you ever have yarn or any other fiber that you were so in love with that it felt almost adulterous, like you were cheating on your spouse?  O.k., so that sounds a bit extreme.  But once in a while, I find something that I just love so much, that I wonder how I got along without it.

Right now, I have two of those yarns on the needles, and it is heavenly! 

The first is my Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the color way Happy Valley (kind of funny to me, especially since newcomers to my area call this the "Happy Valley" much to the chagrin of us natives).  It has gone from this:  

To this:

To this:

When I first purchased this yarn, the color that really drew me to it was the soft peach in the middle of the skein.  But once I started knitting the socks, the peach all but disappeared, except for a single row on each side of the purple/pink areas.  But, with doing short row heels and toes, you can see more of a striping pattern happening, where the peach color shows at last, which I really like.  I'm doing a short row toe similar to the one that Claudia showed on her latest socks, since I despise, hate, abhor, detest, loathe sewing up the toe on socks.  I'm finding this way to be much easier, especially since I've been doing short row heels on socks since the first pair I made back in 1997.  What took me so long to do a short row toe? 

My second project is a shawl.  I purchased this Louise Harding Kimono Ribbon yarn in the grey, purple/blue colorway, intending to make a shawl.  It started like this:

And has gone to this: 

I just love, Love, LOVE this yarn!  I keep thinking of all kinds of projects I could make with this, including a really stunning short sleeved top for holiday wear.  If only it weren't $11  per ball, for 102 yards.

One thing that I knew from watching Stephanie knit a dress for this book several years ago at a fiber gathering I hosted, is that ribbon yarn tends to twist.  And when it twists, it makes it hell to knit with.  So Sunday evening, when I cast on for this project and found that the yarn was twisting extremely quickly, I decided to see what I could do to make my life a bit easier.   This is what I came up with:

Simply putting a rubber band around the ball of yarn to hold it in place.  When I need more yarn, I simple take off enough ribbon to knit through one row, rubber band it back into place, and knit away.  When I come to the end of the row, and the ribbon yarn is twisted, untwisting it is now easy.  I don't have to worry about more of the yarn coming off the ball and I have a shorter piece of yarn to untwist.  It isn't high tech, and someone has probably already thought of this, but it works for me.  I get nice even stitches, without the twist throughout the fabric.

With this hot weather, knitting small projects is the way to go.  Since I'm not a fan of air conditioning, because it makes me sick when I have to go from extreme temps to a/c, back and forth, knitting takes my mind off of how hot and uncomfortable I am.

Off to work.  Stay cool!   :)