I had a very quiet and unmotivated long weekend.  I watched Myria playing Knights of the Old Republic, did a little crafting and mostly read.  It was a lot of fun to sit and read Billie Letts’ Hoot and Holler Opening Soon (not a bad story and lots of wonderful, wonderful characters) from cover to cover, watching it reel out in my mind like a long movie.  I used to do that commonly but I don’t have the time to read that I used to.  None of us does, I’m sure :)  I also got through Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones and most (eh, say three-quarters) of the way through Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett.  That probably doesn’t count though, since I’ve read it before!

I’ve been noticing lately, people talking about teaching new knitters as thought they were bringing them over to the dark side, or converting them to their religious belief system.  I know this is all meant in fun, but I confess to finding it a bit disturbing and to wondering about the motivations of those who couch it in these terms.  Knitting is many things to me - relaxation, discovery, articulation and sometimes a right pain in the ass.  But it is not a belief system to which I feel the need to attract other people.  Does it seem that there’s almost something defensive in this?  A way, perhaps, of proving that you’re not nuts, not spending too much money on stash or too much time on knitting to the detriment of other necessary tasks?  Eh…who knows.  Just makes me uncomfortable, is all.

I re-started the red mitts in crochet since they would look and feel just as nice as the knitted ones, but take far less time to do.  I will probably recycle the yarn in the partial knitted mitt into the afghan, whenever I can get back to work on that.

This is half done and, as always, I find it great fun to work.  It’s comforting to know there is at least one pattern it doesn’t bore me to tears to make more than once.  With almost everything else, the goal has been the finished object and the knitting the means to get there.  With this hat, it’s the knitting that’s such a delight.  The fact that there’s a perfectly cool hat at the end of the exercise is almost incidental :)

I started a fun fur cowl quite a while back and managed to remain enthused for about 10 inches.  Then the project got put in the closet and forgotten about.  I ran into it a few weeks back (instant guilt) and have been wondering what to do with it ever since.  I no longer want the cowl, but there’s too much yarn to just leave, or worse, throw out.  Can I solve this problem without throwing more money at it?  Nope (sigh) but it doesn’t have to be a lot of money.  Last night, I pulled the cowl apart and separated its two component yarns, Bernat Boa and Lion Fun Fur.  Then I pulled out a skein of Caron Simply Soft in a medium dusty blue shade, paired it with the Boa and started knitting.  I think this is moving toward a throw; I’m not sure there’s enough to make a full fledged afghan, but a throw will probably work just fine.  I’ll wed the Fun Fur to a deeper shade of blue (or violet perhaps) and alternate panels.  I also have, I believe, some red/flame colors in the same two yarns that it might be fun to mix in periodically.  (Mental shrug)  It will use the yarn up so “I can strop feeling guilty about having spent the money on it and we’ll have a funky throw into the bargain.  Not classy maybe, but hopefully fun :)

The evergreen scarf is still sitting on the coffee table with me feeling more and more reluctant to work on it.  I’m right at that point (you couldn’t guess, right? :) where I’m looking at all these things and thinking: This is never going to work.  These things are lame and nobody’s going to want them.  My logical brain knows that’s not true, or at least not entirely true.  But my emotional self is trying to defend itself against the possibility that someone will take a scarf, or a hat or a pair of mitts home and snicker over them.  I shouldn’t care.  Knitting and crocheting are what I do, what I can do for these people.  And after the items leave my hands, well, they’re out of my hands - so to speak. 

That’s one of the very nice things about blogging and talking with you good folks every day.  You understand :)

...courtesy of Daily Zen

Everybody doing okay?  Yesterday’s dinner all digested yet?  Dad and I went to the restaurant at the Ashworth Hotel on Hampton Beach in New Hampshire.  I had lobster for the first time in forever.  Sadly, though it was a very generous portion, it was a hair from being overdone and almost stone cold.  Still, the rest of the meal was pretty good and being able to watch the ocean out the front windows is a treat.

We haven’t gotten a turkey yet, though it isn’t out of the question.  We love the stuff but can really only afford it now, when it’s on sale.  We’ll do some grocery shopping today - hopefully the markets crowds will have dissolved by now, the holiday being over.

There is one thing about Thanksgiving, that really doesn’t have anything to do with Thanksgiving (except incidentally) that I look forward to.  Thanksgiving night, the Christmas lights start coming out.  Here in Lowell, the lights downtown are traditionally turned on and there’s enough of the child left in me to want to see them.  So when I left Dad last night, I drove through the downtown area on my way home.  Not much traffic and the lights were lovely.  All the poles are covered with tiny white glimmers and the tired façade of the main street looks almost magical instead of worn out and shabby.  I was so mesmerized by the transformation that I ran a red light.  Oooops!  Lucky there wasn’t any traffic - especially of the official kind :)

The red knitted mitts are coming along and I started a Pinwheel cap in the blue for another name on the list.  When I got home last night, I started to work on the evergreen scarf but my shoulders cramped up (normal after sitting in my father’s car for any length of time) and my hands went slightly numb.  That was a bit alarming, so I finished the row I was working on and put it away for the night.  I really hope I’m not going to have problems with my hands - not until after Christmas anyway :)

We’re talking about Christmas trees again.  A real tree is wonderful but an artificial would be so much more convenient.  I guess we’ll have to see what happens.  There’ll be a tree in any case and oh boy - I can just imagine what kind of havoc Jade will wreak with it.  She seems to have tons more imagination in that area than Goldie does.  This always hits me as a cross between amusement and annoyance.  Amusement, because it’s fun to watch her analyze and work things out.  Annoyance because she’s neither going to clean up nor replace anything she manages to break. 

I don’t have any weekend plans yet, beyond working on my gift list.  I’m hoping to be able to meet with a friend but we haven’t made any concrete plans yet.  I hope you’re enjoying the long weekend and that you’re all having fun with the leftovers!

I completed one on the Christmas gifts.  Monday night I had a small epiphany in that I realized if I crocheted at least some of the gifts, I would be able to finish things a lot faster and maybe even have everything done on time!  So I worked these up…

These are for a very slender girl so I made them smaller than what I would make for myself.  I hope they fit.  The lavender is so in her palette of colors.  I really hope she enjoys them.

The knitted red mitts and the evergreen scarf are coming along too, just more slowly :)

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday tomorrow, and for those of you who are outside the U.S., I hope your day is also safe and wonderful :)

I am grateful for so many things, but when try to write them down it all seems so sappy.  They’re all really basic things like a roof over my head, plenty to eat, a wonderful partner and enough yarn to keep me occupied for a while.  I’m glad for my friends of whom there seem to be more than I thought - which sometimes confuses me because my social skills are very rudimentary - but which makes me happy.  I’m thankful for the beauty of the natural world - more and more all the time - and which I seem to appreciate more fully as I get older.

I enjoy and am every day thankful for my two terrorists:

and

And, I am just happy to be alive :)  As my mother used to say, “I’m planning to live forever; doing pretty good so far!”

I thought the Thanksgiving weekend was supposed to be the busiest shopping weekend of the year.  Did any of you happen to go out yesterday?  We decided to hit the local electronics store because of a popular item that was on sale.  This item is so popular, in fact, that it seemed altogether more prudent to go out yesterday than to wait until today and risk it having been sold out.

It was more like a kamikaze run than a shopping trip.  The parking lot was full of people who had nowhere to park, so they were just circling endlessly.  Shark parking at its finest.  Periodically someone would break for a space opening up somewhere in the lot and God help you if you got between them and that space and about half the time the space would be claimed by someone who hadn’t been circling nearly as long but who just had the confounded luck to be in a better position.  You could hear the agonized wailing and gnashing of teeth from the former and the smug chuckles of the latter.  Human drama unfolding…

Ugh…  We made a solemn vow that weekend shopping was out until after the holidays.  If this weekend was nuts, I can’t begin to imagine what next weekend is going to be like.  There are going to be hostage situations in the parking lots, I’m sure.

I got Dad’s socks finished and brought them over to him yesterday morning.  He seemed pleased and pronounced the color perfect.  I hope he enjoys them and that they keep his feet warm.  I told him he could chuck them in the washing machine without any problem (Woolease - 80% acrylic, 20% washable wool).  Then he mentioned that he did all his washing in hot water.

All of it.

I’m not sure a hot wash would do it - maybe they’ll be fine.  He doesn’t have a dryer and that’s probably a good thing as he’d probably have that on the “inferno” setting too.  I’ll keep you posted but I may have met the man who could kill an acrylic sock. 

Sigh…

As I mentioned Friday, I frogged the scarf one last time and cast on to size 8 (US) needles.  Of course I couldn’t resist futzing with the pattern again but it seems to be working out nicely this time.

Over 33 stitches, the pattern evolved into squares of stockinette framed by rows of seed and columns of Tweed mock-rib and, finally, the yarn seems to agree with my choice of pattern and needles!  I think it looks decidedly manly (I hope) and will be appropriate for one of the two guys on my list.

There is, however, a small issue.  This particular deep, evergreen shade is crocking onto my hands and my birch needles.  I don’t really care if the needles are stained with dark green dye - but I don’t want it coming off on any other yarn I may wish to use these needle with.  The dye does wash off my hands easily with soap and warm water - but how would I clean the needles?  Can it be done without risking the possibility of them warping into pretzels?  Of course I’m also going to have to wash the scarf before I can make a gift of it and I can just imagine what the water’s going to look like.  That’s not really a problem though - at least I don’t think it is.  Mostly I’m concerned with my beloved birches.

Has this happened to any of you good folks?  Any advice you’d care to share?

A pair of cabled mitts for the gift list.  I was thinking about this particular woman the other night and realized that she always wears (and looks smashing in) strong, clear colors.  The choice of color for the mitts then became perfectly obvious.  I’m particularly enjoying working on these as the shade is especially rich and luscious :) 

Ever notice how often we use food terms and descriptions to talk about our yarns?

I kinda thought that the cup, reflecting the light from the flash, said it all - Hah!

Happy Monday folks!

Materials

Worsted wool (enough for desired length)
Size 7 US knitting needles

Notes

psso:  For the purposes of this pattern, psso means to pass the slipped stitch over both the K1 and the YO.

Sl1p:  Slip 1 stitch purlwise.

Cast on 33 stitches.  For a wider scarf (this one is about 6” wide) add stitches in multiples of 9.

Pattern 1

Row 1. (RS)  K1, *(Sl1p, K1, YO, psso) twice, K1, (P1, K1) twice; repeat from * to last 5 stitches. (Sl1p, K1, YO, psso) twice,  K1.

Row 2. (WS)  K1, *P4, K1, (P1, K1) twice; repeat from * to last 5 stitches, P4, K1.

Repeat rows 1 and 2 two more times for a total of 6 pattern rows.

Pattern 2

Row 1A. (RS)  K1, *(Sl1p, K1, YO, psso) twice, K5; repeat from * to last 5 stitches.  (Sl1p, K1, YO, psso) twice, K1.

Row 2B. (WS)  K1, Purl to within 1 stitch of end of row, K1.

Repeat rows 1A and 1B two more times for a total of 6 pattern rows.

Begin working scarf with Pattern 1 and alternate with Pattern 2 for desired scarf length.  End after completing a Pattern 1 segment.  Bind off scarf and weave in ends.  Fringe or trim as and if desired.  Block if you wish and enjoy!

I started to work on a scarf last night. 

I decided to start with the dark, evergreen yarn and cast on 36 sts to start the Cameron Scarf (see sidebar under “Patterns”).  Got a couple of inches along and realized that the yarn was so dark, I couldn’t distinguish the Tweed mock-rib from the cables.

Frogged it.

Began again, taking a thought from the Landscape shawl and cast on 38 sts.  This would go Garter - 5 sts, Seed St - 5 sts, Stockinette - 5 sts, Center Panel with single-st. cable - 8 sts - and then back out the other side the same as the first side except in reverse order.  This was a little better.  The seed stitch would have been better placed after the stockinette than after the garter stitch but I didn’t think it was too bad.  But again the yarn was too dark to effectively show off the stitches - except for the single-stitch cable which was loose and sloppy-looking and on which no amount of “neatening-up” seemed to make any difference.  I got about three inches done this time before I realized it was a lost cause.

I turned the light out at about midnight.  Note: I didn’t say I went to sleep :)  After fighting with the quilt and going from freezing to stifling in the space of what seemed like seconds (but probably wasn’t, really) and throwing Jade off me at least a dozen times (Persistence, thy name is feline!) I gave up.  Turned the light on in the living room and finished my book.  Still not sleepy.

Hungry, though…  An onion bagel and a bit of provolone cheese fixed that right up!

So I watched some stupid television and tried the scarf one more time.  This time I cast on 40 stitches and did a plain simple Tweed mock-rib (Even # of stitches, Row 1: K1, *sl1, K1, YO, pass slipped stitch over both K1 and YO; end K1, Row 2: Purl).  This actually held some promise except that I cast on to size 7 needles and the yarn isn’t liking that.  So I’ll rip this too and try it again on size 8’s.

Finally I did a few more rounds on the sock and realized that at last, I was getting sleepy enough to lay down.  I opened my window and gave it another try.  It was after 4:00 AM then.  The garbage truck woke me at about 9:30 :)

So I don’t have any pictures this morning.  For one thing, the yarn is so dark, I’m not sure it will photograph well though I’ll probably give it a try at some point.  I’m trying not to worry about having bitten off more than I can chew with the idea of getting presents done.  Worry is something I do very well, though :)

And you know what they say: Go with your strengths.

Have a great weekend everyone!