Pardon me while I rant…

Dear Supermarket Cashier -

You know, I thought I’d seen the ultimate in snottiness when I was in highschool but I swear, those girls had nothing on you!  What are you - 45?  46?  And you’ve still got something to prove?

I watched how you handled the lady in front of me at the market the other day.  You remember, the little Oriental woman with the two children?  The one who’s English wasn’t so hot?  You know, the one you told - in the most arrogant, insufferable and loud tone of voice - that her bank card wouldn’t work because she obviously didn’t have enough money in her account?  Right, the one who was so humiliated…

And then you rang up my order and my bank card wouldn’t work either.  But of course because I’m white and speak English fluently (and maybe because I’m bigger than you), it couldn’t possibly have been a problem with my account and so further investigation was required.  Well, what do you know?  The store’s debit/bank connection was down!

I’d also like to thank you for putting the strawberries in with the honeydew melon.  How did you know I was going to mash the berries?  That certainly saved me a lot of work although I’m not sure how you were trying to help by putting the drain cleaner in with the eggs.  No doubt it will come to me in time…

Mad in Massachusetts

I got my Dulaan stuff mailed earlier this week.  The final tally was as follows:

Children’s hats…

Children’s socks…

A bit of baby stuff…

Some scarves…

Adult sized hats…

...36 items all together.  I had really hoped to get at least 52 items done this year, equivalent to one a week, but that obviously didn’t happen.  Maybe next year :)  If you haven’t already sent your Dulaan items to F.I.R.E., you might want to get a move on.  For this year’s distrubution,  F.I.R.E. has to have the stuff by July 1st.

Thank you all for your thoughts and opinions of the shawl-border colors - I appreciate the input.  More than that, I pretty much agree with the gist of it.  Some interesting alternatives were suggested though it will surprise none of you I’m sure, to know that I haven’t decided on anything yet :)

On Friday - a visit from an old friend…

Color, color - what kind of color do I want?

I have something over 600 yards of yarn that I set aside for the border work on the entrelac shawl and I will probably need to use most of it.  But I also needed to do a little experimenting to see what color would be a good fit with the robin’s egg blue of the body.

I set out to acquire a skein of Lionbrand Fisherman’s wool - my old standby for dyeing.  It’s a good, hefty 8 oz. Skein and is a nice, natural color - perfect.  I got to the store, proceeded to the yarn and had this in hand when I spotted the Paton’s Classic Wool at the end of the aisle.  So I went down to have a look at it.  It didn’t offer quite the economy of the Fisherman’s wool but it was a nicer feeling yarn.  It also had the advantage of being packaged in 100 gram balls which would make it easier to divide evenly for experimentation purposes.  Finally, it’s natural color was paler and creamier than the Fisherman’s wool (which had a very slight yellow cast to it) which came much closer to the color of the Knitpicks yarn I would be dyeing - and so would yield a truer color match for that yarn.  Right?

I went with the Paton’s, two 100 gram balls, which I divided into four 50 gram hanks.  And the experimenting began.

Note: These are all linked to the dye posts at The Dye Pot.  Click on the color name below the photo to go to the related post.

Actually, this isn’t too bad, though it isn’t what I was going for :)  I accidentally grabbed two tablets of yellow instead of two tablets of orange.  Man I hate having to admit what a goober I can be - but what are you going to do?  Heh…  I wasn’t considering a yellow or anything even close to it but this is pretty cheerful.

This is much closer to what I originally had in mind.  This time I did manage to actually grab the right color dye tablets.  The results are pretty nice I think, but I’d like it to be just a skosh darker than that.  I’m just not sure how to manage that - use strong tea as the base liquid rather than water?  That could be interesting at that….  The solution may simply be to buy more yarn and do more experiments :)

While I think this works well enough with the shawl, my eye tends to see it as uninteresting.  I do understand that spread out over the entire border, it might be perfectly acceptable - maybe even pretty good :)  But that means committing myself to the color as there’d be no turning back.  I’m chicken - as you well know.  Still, some nagging little part of me thinks this one is the one to go with - perhaps with a narrow crocheted border incorporating each of the other three colors?  Hmmm…

Okay - put on your sunglasses :)

This was the last one and came out a little brighter than I expected.  It doesn’t exactly burn out the retinas but it makes a good stab at it.  I actually do like the color, but I don’t think it’s suitable for the border - at least not as anything but an accent.  It’s certainly energetic, though!

Of all of them, I think Terra Copper is my favorite.  However, I’m not sure that it’s the right choice for the shawl.  Part of me still thinks that Evermoss should get the nod - even though I’m not real thrilled with it.

The odd thing is that I have clearly produced an autumn palette here.  It’s entirely coincidental, believe me; it truly wasn’t what I had in mind.  The colors go very well with each other…

But do they (or does one of them) go with the shawl?  Would a lighter shade of something be the ticket?  Maybe the soft cream color of the undyed yarn should be considered…

Thoughts, opinions, brickbats?

I’ve finished the body of the entrelac shawl.  Though the color segues didn’t come out quite as I had envisioned them, I think they are quite lovely.  It’s like that with dyeing.  You only ever suggest what color you’d like and then the yarn and the dye tell you what color they want to give you :)

So the search for a suitable border was on.  Well, that’s not true; I’d been thinking about borders for quite a while and was beginning to feel a little desperate.  Originally I had thought I would like a seed stitch border done in a variegated yarn that would suggest pebbles or sand and I saw this as a simple, straight strip, 13-17 stitches wide, going down one side of the shawl and up the other.

Then it seemed that a saw-tooth or dagged edge, still in seed stitch, still in a sandy/pebbly colorway might be more desirable.  Two things got in the way.  First, in order for it to look the way I wanted it to, I would have to work each point separately.  That’s not such a bad thing, but it wasn’t entirely acceptable either :)  Second, I have, and will probably use, something over 600 yards of yarn for the border.  And I suddenly realized, thinking this over for the umpteenth time, that I don’t have the facilities to dye that much variegated yarn in one batch - and doing multiple batches would introduce too much variation.

Those dyeing restrictions put the kibosh on the first possibility too.  So I was looking at using a solid color yarn that could, by use of a little experimentation and careful note taking, be reproduced in two or three batches.  And that threw the whole design idea up in the air again because if the yarn wasn’t going to be complicated, then the design could be - at least a little more than the initial concepts.

Aha!

I won’t bore you with how many times I went through my books or through the offerings of various on-line sites.  Suffice it to say that I finally found something that made me seriously happy and it was the Hilton Lace.  There is also a garter stitch variation here.

Worked up in worsted weight cotton, this is what it looked like:

For some reason I decided I didn’t like the double line of faggoting on the outer edge, nor the eyelets on the inner edge, so I made some changes.  Since the pattern is directional, I also had to work out how to make it in reverse and it will have to be applied to the shawl one side at a time.

The next step seemed to be to see how it would work on the shawl.  So I made up a mini-version and applied the lace.

At some point I decided that the single line of faggoting down the outside edge looked a little naked so I added a few garter stitches.  They not only fleshed things out, they help the edge not to curl so badly.  This won’t matter with the actual shawl which will be carefully blocked but for the mini-shawl which was made in acrylic (and for the sake of easier picture taking!) it was very useful :)  I may even add a couple more stitches just for a bit of added…er…je ne sais quoi?

However, the shawl point didn’t come out so well…

Some mitering is going to be necessary.  Since I haven’t done that before it’s going to be back to the books :)

Next up, if the border is going to be a solid color, what color is it going to be?

As you all probably know by now, I am a huge thrift shop aficionado.  I grant you, there’s lots and lots of junk but there are also, once in a lucky while, some truly amazing finds!  This book was one of them:

Doesn’t look like much, does it?  Older, obviously, with a cloth binding.  Does anyone actually use a real cloth binding any more?  The tape at the corners and spine also indicates age as well as revealing the book’s provenance to have been that of a library (a discard from the town library in Salem, NH).  I remember watching the librarian apply this sort of treatment to books in the tiny library in the small town where I grew up.  The tape was used to cover wear spots on a book and to help prevent further degeneration but I don’t think this sort of thing is done any more.  As a 10 or 11-year-old, I thought this was marvelous - a way of keeping the book “alive” even if borrowers didn’t, perhaps, care for it too carefully.  I loved watching the process too, from the careful placement of the tape, to the precise inking of the author’s name and the book’s title (white ink!) on the spine…that is, when I wasn’t arguing with Mrs. Dockett that I did too read at least 6 books a week!

...Mary Thomas, that is!  I tell you, my jaw just about hit the floor when I saw this sitting amongst the paperbacks and craft magazines (mostly quilt related) because this isn’t the sort of thing that people typically donate to thrift shops.  People who own this kind of book tend to hoard - and I include myself in that group.  Absolutely the only reason I got so lucky is that I was the first knitter to see it after it had been put out.

The copyright page indicates that this was published in 1945 during WWII and is a first printing.  This is only of historical interest to me (don’t you love the copperplate style eagle?) as even if the book were worth anything, monetarily speaking, I wouldn’t part with it.  However, it’s worth noting that for a 62-year-old volume, it’s in pretty decent shape.  The spine is whole and solid, as are the covers.  The pages, while a bit yellowed, are in amazingly good condition - not the least bit brittle, none missing or torn and no dad-blamed dog-ears.  I know it’s petty of me and probably indicative of a deeply flawed character, but whenever I see someone bend over the corner of a page to make a bookmark, I want to break their fingers.

This is a collection of knitting stitch patterns.  Many of them I am familiar with, as you would be but some of them I had never seen before.  There are some photographs…

...black and white, of course.  Most of the patterns, however, are illustrated by drawings…

...painstakingly (and tediously, I’d imagine) done in pen and ink.  There are also amusing little “cartoon” type drawings used to humorously illustrate the stitch being described.  At least I’m pretty sure that was the intention though this sketch of a woman taking a hairbrush to her son’s backside…

... next to the description of “Welts” probably wouldn’t pass muster for a contemporary publication :).  I apologize for the fuzziness - the sketch is only about 3/4” tall and this is the best my camera could make of it.

The book is so densely packed with information about how various types of stitches are formed and how different combinations of them affect the fabric that I’m sure I’ll need to read and re-read it before I even begin to assimilate it.  Not only are its descriptions and instructions clear and detailed, the book contains both history and translations.  For example, there is a photograph of the shirt King Charles wore on his execution day - for which the stitch pattern “King Charles Brocade” is named.  I have read this story many times but never before seen the garment.  There are also lists of knitting terms in both German and French.

But the thing that surprised me most was this:

I had no idea the use of charts went back as far as the war; none of the knitting instructions I ever glanced at over the years had them and I didn’t start seeing them in general use until about five years ago.  The symbols aren’t the ones we commonly use today (not that there’s really a common symbol set even now!) but the chart is clearly recognizable as such and all that would be needed in order to work it would be a symbol key - which there is at the front of the book.  Not all stitch patterns are charted, but most are.

I’ve had this book on the coffee table for days now and every time I pick it up I discover something new and fascinating.  This is going to be a valuable (invaluable?  In this context, what’s the difference?) reference and I am so going to enjoy ferreting out every little nugget of knitting gold it contains.

Oh yeah - it cost 99¢ :)

Note:This book is still in print, available from Dover Publications.  It’s paperback and I believe the last revision was in the early 70s.

Okay, I’m back.  At least I think I’m back :)

I have been knitting and crocheting as my stupid hands have allowed and I’ll catch you all up on that later.  For today, I wanted to share the kindness a couple of folks have sent my way.

First, this beautiful stuff!

This is Gedifra Sportivo self-striping wool that dear Ev over at Strings and Things sent me after a discussion about the Ultimate Crocheted Socks.  This is even the yarn recommended for the pattern and that has got to be a first for me :)

I did start the sock, as you can see in the far right of the photo, but I made a silly counting error that will have to be frogged.  My eyes are still watering enough to make this problematic as well as I have to take my glasses off and hold the work up to my nose to get anything done.  So this project will have to wait for a bit yet - though I eagerly look forward to my first pair of crocheted socks!  Thank you Ev, for your kindness and generosity.

Then there was this, from the inimitable Bron over at Bron’s Blog: Knitting Without a Net.

We have fairly similar tastes in some areas so I can’t wait to dive into the two new (to me) Robin Hobb books and all the others as well.  The funny thing is that Neil Gaiman’s American Gods was included in this largesse.  I have already read it twice (loved it) and it’s cued up for another perusal in the not too distant future.  It was the first Gaiman I ever read and I have read, helplessly and compulsively, everything else of Gaiman’s I could get my hands on.  Good call Bron :)

But there were also these:

I just love them - they are so bright and cheerful, so vivid and summery!  Believe me, they will be put to instant and good use.  Thank you so much Bron for your thoughtfulness; I can’t begin to tell you how much it’s appreciated.

And thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers.  The news is pretty good, all things considered - good enough, in fact, that I get the next two months chemotherapy free!  If all goes well, that might even extend to the next six months.  Believe me, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

On Wednesday, the tale of an amazing find :)