The Yarnpath

Knitting on - slowly :)

Dad is making progress - slowly - but we’ll take what we can get. He is venturing out more and trying to do more all the time. Mostly he is succeeding which improves his confidence and helps motivate him. He still tires very easily and he is still eating poorly. For that matter, my energy levels aren’t what they once were so, as you can probably imagine, we make an interesting pair as we stumble through the market on impulse power, creaking all the way :)

I am spending a lot of time with dad these days so not a great deal of knitting is getting done. However, the blanket is about half finished -

I believe I am going to do a border for this, but I don’t quite know what it will be :) I like the thought of a knitted border but the thought of picking up all those stitches around the perimeter makes me a bit dizzy! A crocheted border would be nice and sturdy too. And what color? A darker blue? White? Pea green? Heh… All in good time, I guess. I’ll know when I get there.

I have also been playing with the idea of combining entrelac with mosaic knitting.

I’m not quite sure how, or even if this would work but I’m hoping I can figure it out because it would be seriously cool!

I also have a notion for a sock/slipper that I think I will start working on fairly soon - maybe over the weekend. I sure do like the image in my head - now to see if I can squeeze it down through my arms and fingers out onto the needles and into the yarn!

I finally got some more pins yesterday and am hoping to be able to dress the shawl over the weekend. I confess I’m having some problems in writing the pattern for this but I promise it will be available eventually. I still haven’t come up with a name though.

The Horse you Rode in on

The Galloping horse

Lucky Horseshoes

Eh....

I met a friend for breakfast on Tuesday and we had such a lovely time, chatting, knitting (me) or crocheting (her) and just peacefully and happily sharing the day. I had a crepe that was stuffed with fresh strawberries and bananas - wonderful!

I know this is vacation time for many folks but Chatters will be available at the regular time on Saturday evening.

See the “Knitting Chatter” button on the side bar for more information.

Drop in if you have the time and the inclination!

Have a wonderful Independence Day, those in the states. And for those in the rest of the big, wide, beautiful world - have a great weekend!

I’m not Denny Crane…

God save me from supermarkets on Friday afternoons :) I’m not the most patient shopper in the world to begin with and when stores are crowded and aisles are too narrow to allow two carriages to pass one another, I get a little frantic. I’m not a full blown claustrophobe, but when I get boxed in and can’t move backwards or forwards, I get just a little panicky. However, dad needed a couple of things and I wanted to have enough on hand so that we wouldn’t have to go out this weekend if we didn’t want to.

Mission accomplished :)

I’ve been watching Boston Legal (the first three seasons are available on DVD) which I have been meaning to check out, but which I had never seen before this week. I highly recommend it. Shatner and Spader work wonderfully together and Shatner is especially impressive as the eccentric Denny Crane. More than that, the show can be utterly hilarious - something I did not expect from a prime time program involving the legal profession. My only objection so far is that all the women are Barbie Dolls - pretty, plastic and brains optional. I know that Candice Bergen joins the cast at some point and I’m hoping that her presence will correct this somewhat.

The baby blanket is coming along nicely and I’m really enjoying the almost mindless knitting. Everything just flows nicely and it’s all very soothing :) The only thing I was concerned about - and you all know I get a little obsessive about this - is whether I’d have enough yarn. Having reached the end of the first skein this morning, I can tell you now that I should have more than enough - so I don’t have to worry about that any more. Yippee!

See the “Knitting Chatter” button on the side bar for more information.

Chatters is definitely on for tomorrow evening - drop in if you can!

And have a sensational weekend!

Shawl, Blanket, Degus and Dad :)

I bound off the shawl on Saturday afternoon.

I’m pleased with it so far. Obviously it isn’t blocked yet :) I have been too busy with dad, for one thing and our weather has been very humid, for another. This has to be able to dry in a day so I’m waiting for a less muggy stretch of weather. Also, I’m going to need more pins - a lot more pins! I think this is going to grow considerably with dressing - not that there’s anything wrong with that :)

I have started what I thought was going to be a baby blanket for the little fellow downstairs. My landlord’s son is just short of a year old and was christened over the weekend. I had intended to make the baby something all along, but I never came up with an idea I liked and eventually the whole thing just got away from me.

I went with entrelac, since it is a technique I really enjoy doing and am alternating rows of stockinette blocks with rows of broken (beaded) rib blocks. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft in Light Country Blue and the needle is a Knitpicks Options circular, size 8 US (5.00 mm). It’s going great guns and I’m enjoying working it up, but…

It’s going to be considerably wider that I had thought. I keep forgetting that with entrelac, you’re measuring on the diagonal for the width of the piece. Here, there are nine blocks across; each is 11 stitches wide. The diagonal on the blocks is just a hair over 5 inches so I’m going to wind up with an overall blanket width of at least 45” - more if I put on a border. That’s a bit big for a baby :) Still, I don’t think I want to frog it and start over. Perhaps in a larger size, it will be useful for a longer period of time.

We’ve been watching the degus carefully for signs of another pregnancy. There haven’t been any. Our current surmise is that Emma was expecting when we brought her home and that Sunny (formerly Sundance) was simply another young female. This is a relief. They have gotten their home the way they like it now (the babies have gone back to the pet shop) and seem to be relaxing and enjoying life. They’re eschewing their house these days - the warm, humid weather, I think - and have built a rather large nest out of hay and fluff at one end of their cage. They sleep in the nest, curled quite endearingly around one another :)

Dad is improving a little more every day - definitely a good thing. I have been taking him wherever he needs to go and I know he’s feeling better because he’s begun telling me how to drive. Before this, he didn’t have the energy to complain :) He has/had three follow-up appointments in Boston over the next week. We did the first one yesterday, there’s another on Friday and the last next Monday. By then, he thinks, he’ll be ready to venture out on his own - at least for small trips like shopping and paying bills.

I hope you’re all having wonderful weeks and that summer and the world are treating you kindly!

A brief note…

Dad’s doctor says he needs to eat, needs to put he weight back on that he lost in the hospital. Getting him to do so is another story entirely because he tells the doctor, “Yes, you’re right.” And he tells me, “I don’t feel like it”. But, hopefully, he’ll find his appetite somewhere and things will improve.

See the “Knitting Chatter” button on the side bar for more information.

Chatters is on for tomorrow night. Bring your knitting/crocheting (whatever) and join in the conversation!

Have a lovely weekend :)

I need to come up with a name for this thing…

I had thought about calling it The Galloping horse. You know, the one from which if you can’t see the mistake in your knitting, it’s fine? But I’m not as enamored of that as i was when it occurred to me :)

Finally, finally, I seem to have gotten past the knit-a few-rows-and-rip-’em-out stage. Enough progress had been made, in fact, that I bound it off last night. However, when I spread it out this morning, I could see that the design wasn’t balanced and that the last stage (doesn’t that sound all complex and knitterly?) needed several more repeats in order for the whole thing to look right.

I started with alternate columns of Razor shell and Horseshoe lace and then converted the razor shells into horseshoe lace so that the bottom of the piece was Horseshoe lace all the way across. But I hadn’t done enough repeats for it to look right taken with the alternate patterns of the rest of the shawl.

So this morning it went back on the needles - and I didn’t mess anything up, may miracles never cease!. This means two things:

1. The shawl is going to be bigger than I had initially imagined. This isn’t a problem; I have plenty of yarn and certainly do not mind a larger piece. I was never set, heart and soul, on a shoulder shawl. I just thought it was something I should try.

2. Because the shawl is going to require more yarn, the possible matching socks are a no go. This also isn’t a problem because I was never entirely sold on green socks :) Also, I would have felt compelled to make the sock’s stitch pattern(s) match the shawl’s and I have no idea how I would go about that. Well, the real truth is more like I don’t want to bother with figuring it out - and now I don’t have to!

Dad’s problem was, apparently an ulcer. It seems to be the feeling of his doctor that this was brought about by ibuprophen on his always chancy stomach. In addition, there was a urinary tract infection and God knows how long that had been in residence. I believe both those issues have been resolved but I’m bringing him to the doctor’s tomorrow morning and we shall see what happens.

I have been dropping by as often as I dare because he is tired and weak - he lost a great deal of weight and, for the first time, looks frail to me. He, of course, insists that he’s fine and getting better every day and doesn’t need me to baby-sit. I’ll be more comfortable with that assessment when he eats more than half a piece of toast and a banana a day. Well, to be fair, he did eat a whole bowl of soup on Saturday.

A former co-worker sent me a whole box of yarn as she has been, over the last several years, more into quilting than knitting. It is all acrylic, some of it quite nice. I had hoped that, after the blanket project earlier this year, I had worked up most of my acrylics - but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have some on hand for last minute things.

I keep trying to think about new projects - the shawl isn’t going to last that much longer :) But I seem to be pretty focused on that for now and find that when I have my knitting groove on, it’s that I want to be knitting.

I wonder if it’s the lace getting to me? Heheh…

And the shawl goes on…

I’m still plugging away on the shawl, though I had hoped it would be closer to being finished by now. I had a brilliant idea...ahem… The execution of said idea was, however, less than brilliant and will have to be frogged and re-attempted in a modified fashion. Good thing this yarn is sturdy because I keep having to rip an re-knit it!

I did indulge in a bit of toy-making :)

I used this pattern, which is excellently designed. I did not do a very good job though because I had neither the right kind of eyes (and the crocheted jobs just don’t work for me - ugh!) nor enough stuffing. The ears are too far apart and there’s no tail because I didn’t have enough of the right color yarn either :) Enough excuses? Heh…

As I said though, the pattern is very good and I will be trying this again. This critter comes from an older Hayao Miyazaki film, My Neighbor Totoro. This is one of my favorites :) We have a sub-titled Japanese version and, having heard clips from the dubbed English piece, I recommend the Japanese. It is utterly charming and great fun.

By the way, these “safety eyes” that are often suggested for stuffed toys - are they available in the craft shops - Michael’s, A. C. Moore, etc.? I can’t seem to locate them and it seems like they should be easy to find. No doubt it’s a matter of just being blind in one eye and not being able to see out of the other :)

The animals all seem to be managing the warmer weather well.

Cocoa is busily chewing up a bit of cardboard here - her equivalent of a morning constitutional.

Jade is having her morning lie-in - resting up for her afternoon nap, no doubt. This cat “tower” is getting shabbier and shabbier by the minute, but she loves it and I don’t know if replacing it (it is structurally sound despite it’s disreputable appearance) would make her happy.

Dad came home yesterday and is doing reasonably well. As to what was really wrong and how it happened, who knows? If he does, he isn’t telling.

We’ll try for Chatters again tomorrow night. I think we’ve gotten things straightened out.

See the “Knitting Chatter” button on the side bar for more information.

Hope to see you there - and have a wonderful weekend!

All the news that’s fit to knit…

Ahh well, the fun never stops.

Sunday, as I was getting ready to drop by dad’s - father’s day, you know - the phone rang. It was dad.

“You’ll never guess where I am!”, he said.
“Okay”, playing along, “Where are you?”
“I’m in the hospital. I’ve been throwing up blood.”

So I scraped myself off the ceiling and had him tell me the story. Turns out he’d been vomiting blood for two days and Sunday morning, around 3:30 AM, decided he should probably get himself to the emergency room. Not that he’d call me for assistance, heavens no! Kenyons don’t do anything as weak as asking for help… And he drove to the hospital. Not to the local one about 10 minutes away but to the VA in Boston - about an hour away.

Sigh…

He’s been keeping me at a distance (all very jolly and good natured of course) and not letting me come down to visit. He says I shouldn’t waste the gas and that it’s too hot for me to be driving around. That more or less translates into “I don’t want you to see me in the hospital but you can call every day if you like.” I know my father and since I still judge him to be of sound mind (if only barely sometimes) I decided to honor his wishes.

From what he tells me, the situation has cleared up - though he lost a significant amount of blood - and he expects to be home tomorrow. He has not told me what his physicians think caused the problem in the first place which makes me a bit jittery. Either they haven’t told him, he hasn’t understood what they have told him or they don’t know yet. Most likely he hasn’t understood what they have said; dad is a very poor listener. If you watch, you can see exactly when he tunes out and starts trying to think of a smart-ass response.

Stay tuned :)

I laboriously tinked the shawl back to the mistake (lifelines, I know...), got that fixed and proceeded with the next pattern repeat only to drop stitches another four rows down the line and have to tink it all back again. This shawl apparently hates me though I’ve never said an unkind word about it! Actually, I suspect my beloved Options needles. I think they’re probably too slick to be knitting lace with. I should probably go with wooden or bamboo needles for this - but I hate to give up those wonderful pointy tips. I suppose Knitpicks Harmony needles would be something to try too.

Anyway, I seem to be on my way again and hope to finish this later this week. Despite the jade green being a very unusual color for me, I have to admit it’s very pretty and I’m very pleased with the shawl - despite my apparent attempts to destroy it :)

Ev tagged me for a meme, so I’m playing along :)

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them 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.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

I had just been promoted to IT (tech support) from the executive secretarial position I’d started in and I was thrilled out of my mind :) I loved that job and I loved my boss and I still miss them.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

1. Work on the shawl
2. Watch The Shootist - one of my extremely short list of things that’s a better movie than a book.
3. Try to decide if I can justify going to the mill shop to buy more yarn :)
4. Start trying to write out the pattern for the shawl.
5. Further develop my new Blood Elf Mage, Satsuki (World of Warcraft)

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Cheese and crackers, scones, shortbread cookies, cherries, anything with peanut butter on it :)

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Set up yearly donations to my two favorite charities - one local, one international.
Buy or build a house with rooms, space and accoutrements to suit everybody - including the bazillion pets we would then probably acquire :)
Fulfill my fantasy of going into a yarn shop (a good one), coming in the door and announcing, “I’ll take one of everything!”.
Send my dad on the cruise of his dreams.

5) Places I have lived:

Massachusetts, Missouri and Illinois. I have yet to see the west coast.

6) Jobs I have had:

Technical Support
Cab driver
Bartender
Waitress
Distributor (dresses, lingerie, sportswear) for Marshall’s department stores
Executive Secretary

I won’t tag anyone, but please feel free to play along should the whim strike you!

The temperature got up to 100ºF this afternoon - a record in this area. We’re supposed to get some relief tomorrow which will be welcome. We do have the AC running, to be sure - but errands don’t run themselves. Really, I don’t think I’ve experienced this kind of temperature since I was going to college in Southern Illinois! I will not be sorry to see it moderate - bring on the thunderstorms!

Sorry Folks…

Because of external circumstances, Chat is cancelled for this week. The software doesn’t seem to want to run properly so I think I need to look for something newer or something different.

Hope your weekends are going pleasantly!

A little project catch-up and a mistake…

I made another blanket :)

I don’t know why I can’t seem to make one at a time like normal people. It seems that if I make one (like this one), I have to make another too. Doesn’t have to be the same, but…

In this case, I did use the same crochet square - Chris Simon’s Flower Burst Square, but I handled it differently. For one thing, I had no idea how far the scraps and bits I was using would go because there were so many of them and no real quantity to any one color. So I just winged it, joining things more-or-less at random and working things out as I went along.

These are all animal fibers - wool, alpaca, llama, mohair and even a bit of cashmere and silk.

All except for the occasional rayon thread as in the block above, added for interest :) And let me tell you this is as warm and snuggly a blanket as you could ever hope for! I had worried that the pink/purple palette would result in a kind of one-note feeling, colorwise. I think if I had gone for black borders rather than natural, that might have been the result.

It’s the natural colored yarn, I think, that saves it. Because the undertone of the natural is yellow, it nicely but gently highlights and shows off all the blue tones in the pinks and purples. In any case, my stash cabinets are a lot lighter now, I have a blanket I’m thrilled with and I have space to legitimately contemplate filing with more yarn. Heh… I am going to try to vary my palette though - Some yellows, some of the less strident oranges, some reds and maybe even some greens. Doesn’t mean there will never again be any pinks and purples - only that I’m trying to expand myself to include other things as well.

Working on the shawl last night, I ran across this.

A dropped stitch… I should have fixed it then but I was so annoyed with myself that I was afraid I would just do further damage so I shall go a-tinking this afternoon. Grrrrr....

I’m also thinking about making this project a shoulder shawl rather than a full sized behemoth. One, while I never gave any thought to shoulder pieces (my mind running along bigger=better lines), it seems to me that I should at least try one :) In fact, I have a little top this would look very nice with. The other reason is eminently more venal though. I’m just about finished with the second ball of yarn - which you’ll remember, started out as sock yarn. You may also remember there were 5 balls of yarn to begin with. If I use a third ball to finish and edge the shawl, I’ll still have two balls left to make matching socks out of. For some reason this idea tickles my fancy no end.

Finally, Chatters is on for tomorrow evening!

See the “Knitting Chatter” button on the side bar for more information.

Bring your projects and come and enjoy!

And have a wonderful weekend :)

Knitting again - at last!

I think I’m back :) At least for a post or two a week - which means that I’ve got my knitting mojo on and I’m actually futzing around with something simple and interesting.

The following swatches were all done in Caron Simply Soft on size 8 US (5.00 mm) needles. The yarn is simply what I had lying around that I didn’t mind going for experiments. Please forgive the fuzziness of some of the pictures - the spirit is willing but the hands are still a bit shaky. First there was this:

I love the Fir Cone lace and have always wanted to use it in something. However, there are a lot of Fir Cone shawls out there (for example, this and, in an unusual and very attractive shape, this, not to mention this) and they’d be a tough act to follow. Also, I felt that the width of the three patterns didn’t balance well. Definitely something needed to change.

So then there was this:

I narrowed the Razor Shell down to it’s absolute minimum and dropped the Horseshoe Lace entirely. Definitely better but still…

I decided to shelve the Fir Cone for some other time and went with the Horseshoe and a slightly narrower-than-usual Razor Shell. This came much closer to what I was looking for. What was I looking for? All I can tell you is I knew it when I saw it :) Despite the fact that this isn’t terribly lacy looking, being worsted weight yarn on size 8 US (5.00 mm) needles, this one really tripped my trigger :)

Despite which, I went ahead and did a fourth swatch, narrowing the Razor Shell even further. You know, just in case…

When I cast on for this swatch, I thought it was going to be the be all and end all - the perfect balance of patterns and proportions - but I didn’t like it. I mean it’s okay, nothing wrong with it. But the third one’s the charm.

Should have known :)

Remember the dyed Sockotta yarn from back in February? I wasn’t awfully happy with the green color and so had stashed it in the closet to ripen for a bit. And what do you know? When I retrieved it last week, it had blossomed into the most beautiful Jade you can imagine! Amazing what a couple of month’s distance can do :)

I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having with this :) This is fingering weight (sock yarn - doh!) on size 6 US (4.25 mm) needles. I’m into the second ball and have just joined a longer cable - thank goodness for Knitpicks Options needles! I don’t know what I ever did without them :)

Of course I don’t expect to be finished with this for quite a while yet, being only a half-fast knitter :) But it’s so nice to be able to knit again!

And to want to.

I’m going to open up Chatters on Saturday evening. I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed it and missed chatting with you all. I’ll post the banner later in the week.