03 October 2010

You Know You're a Knitter (part 1)

... when you see a television listing for "Twisted Sisters" and you immediately think of Twisted Sisters Knitting, not the lady wrestling thing that it apparently is. Thanks, MSNBC, for getting my hopes up.

In more exciting news, I've submitted patterns to Knitty and Twist Collective in the past month, so am keeping my "pointy sticks" crossed. If they aren't accepted, I will publish them myself. And then I have some other designs I'm working on.

For now I'm taking a wee break now to knit up a special request: a Hap-style blanket (variation on Ysolda's from Whimsical Little Knits 1, doing the center panel on the diagonal) for my stepson. I'd made one for Nick for Father's Day, and Stevie wants his own. Nick's uses some of this natural, cream-colored Lopi with Manos del Uruguay in this fiery red for contrast. Stevie's uses the same Lopi (I have a LOT of it) with two strands of this gorgeous blue from Wellspring Woolens (thanks, Annie!). This Poppi's Worsted Plus is an icelandic wool from the Minnesota River area, so it's a perfect complement to the Lopi. It's all a little too itchy for me to think of having next to my skin, but Stephen is always snagging his Dad's blanket, so I know he'll like it. And it's nice to work with. Sometimes you just want some good ol' wool, you know?

Speaking of "sensitive skin", it turns out that I am allergic to Propylene Glycol, which is in SO MANY THINGS, Gallate Esters, which luckily are not as common, "fragrance" (seriously?! even things that are unscented often have masking fragrances in them), and dust mites. At least I know what to avoid, even if some of those things are virtually unavoidable. Hopefully, I can avoid the horrible eye area rash of this past spring in the future (or I'll have to start hiring models to photograph my knits on, which is not in the budget :)

Darn! I thought I had some photos to share of Thursday night's book signing at Knitty City, but, having just checked (and deleted) them, my camera did a terrible job of capturing Julie Turjoman, author of Brave New Knits. I had seen an advance of the book at Purl Diva in August so was excited to meet Julie and snag my very own copy. It's a book I'm really looking forward to reading, as well as to knitting some of the patterns. Happily, I ran into the Subway Knitter herself, as well as Connie Chang Chinchio, Kristen Kapur, and Melissa Wehrle, who are profiled in the book. I had hoped that Mr. Brooklyn Tweed might make his way uptown for this, but as he was announcing his new yarn line, Shelter, the next day, I guess it makes sense that he wasn't there. Still, his photographs are lovely.

I know there's more to catch up on (new yarn stashed, an adjustment to the home of the stash, and a raft of other books to talk about), but this will have to suffice. Hope you had a great weekend!

25 September 2010

In Memorium: Riley

Riley in Winter

Riley
As those of you who follow me on Twitter or are a friend on Facebook know, my sweet cat Riley died at the end of last month. He was such a sweet boy, patient with the kids, soft as a kitten, and well-behaved around yarn. Every night after the children went to bed, he'd roost behind my head, me on the couch, him on the table. At bedtime he'd curl up next to me, effectively pinning me into one sleeping position. We all miss him. Soon we will bring home a new ball of fur, but we needed a little mourning time.

I realized that I'd avoided blogging the past few weeks, except for the new scarf pattern, because I knew I needed to blog about Riley. I even avoided putting birthday wish list together (something I usually enjoy immensely) or acknowledging this blog's fourth anniversary (I've babbled about knitting for FOUR years?!). Losing my grandmother and Riley in the same month has done a number on me, but it's time to pull myself together (all the way - I've gone part of the way getting the kids back in school and all). So, there will be more blogging, more pictures, and some new patterns coming down the pike. I might even have a contest, so, please, keep reading. And give your pets an extra hug for me.

17 September 2010

Pattern: Captain Austen's Scarf

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I've had an idea for a red captain's scarf for quite some time (think "Captain Jack Sparrow", if you've seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). Then, one day I walked into Yarntopia and saw this Malabrigo Twist yarn in Ravelry Red - perfect color for what I had in mind and, oh my, what a yarn! All the softness and richness of color that you love in Malabrigo Worsted with multiple plies to keep pilling at bay. 


A cozy scarf is a must for walking the deck of your ship, and what better way to dress it up than with a little of Frank Austen’s fringe? He worked the very same fringe (on some curtains) while on shore leave with his sister Jane. Luscious, bulky Malabrigo Twist makes for a quick knit, and the reversible Seaweed stitch pattern will keep your interest until it’s time to tie that fringe and board your ship.

The pattern is available here on Ravelry, or you can purchase it directly using the button below.

Pattern: Captain Austen's Scarf

Apologies for the blog silence - I've been, alternately, very busy and getting away from it all, but that's for a different post. I have a new pattern!

captainaustensscarf_image.jpg
I've had an idea for a red captain's scarf for quite some time (think "Captain Jack Sparrow", if you've seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). Then, one day I walked into Yarntopia and saw this Malabrigo Twist yarn in Ravelry Red - perfect color for what I had in mind and, oh my, what a yarn! All the softness and richness of color that you love in Malabrigo Worsted with multiple plies to keep pilling at bay. 


A cozy scarf is a must for walking the deck of your ship, and what better way to dress it up than with a little of Frank Austen’s fringe? He worked the very same fringe (on some curtains) while on shore leave with his sister Jane. Luscious, bulky Malabrigo Twist makes for a quick knit, and the reversible Seaweed stitch pattern will keep your interest until it’s time to tie that fringe and board your ship.

The pattern is available here on Ravelry, or you can purchase it directly using the button below.


Nick took the photographs for the pattern, as usual, this time at Conservatory Water in Central Park. I thought you might enjoy this outtake. I LOVED sailing the boats, but I don't think Isobel really appreciated that :)


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27 August 2010

In Memorium: Kathryn Amelia Wilson

After an amazingly full life of 94 years 356 days, my darling grandmother passed away earlier this month. Since this August 15th was to have been her 95th birthday (a milestone any way you look at it), we planned a celebration for her in Freeport, Illinois - her hometown for all of those years. In addition to the little partay the family planned, I designed a shawl for her - a pi (circular) shawl to be named Perseid Shower in her honor, since her birthday always comes at the end of the annual meteor shower of the same name. It has a variety of leafy and starry motifs that take you out from under the shelter of a tree to a starry, meteor-filled sky.

So, this shawl. I cast on at the beginning of July (once we were up in Maine) and immediately had problems. My second chart was wrong, but I didn't realize this until I completed the second repeat. I got frustrated, put the shawl in timeout, knowing I had lots of time until mid-August, and cast on a sweater (more on that later). Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and I know I need to get this show on the road. The charts are revised, and I'm ready to go. Things go pretty well until just after the last increase, when I discover that I'm off by a stitch at the end of the round. Ack! This is when I have 576 stitches on the needle. Five hundred seventy-six. And the yarn is the super-thin and super-duper sproingy Jade Sapphire Lacy Lamb. And the stitches to be tinked alternate between sl1-k2tog-psso and sl2-k1-p2sso. Impossible. Just maddeningly, frighteningly impossible. If you manage to discern the slipped stitch(es), it might work. But the yarn is so fine and sproingy that you're more likely to have stitches slip off the needles and bounce out of the row below. Suddenly you have runners into some pretty complicated lace.

Did I use lifelines? Of course not, because I'm an idiot. But after tinking back what seemed like hours, leaving a raft of coil-less safety pins in dropped stitches in my wake (and only a small fraction of the stitches tinked), I knew something had to be done. So, I bought a gigantic cone of crochet cotton, laid the poor shawl out, stretching it onto two needles, and wove the thread through the last two increase rounds (the inner round was for "insurance" in case something went horribly wrong again). It didn't take as long as I thought it might, and I started to feel better immediately. I also realized that my plan for which lace pattern to use after the last increase needed to change - this whole thing had been Fate/God/Karma/What-You-Will's way of saying I'd made the wrong decision when waffling over the plan at the 576 stage. OK, OK, I'm listening!

That was Wednesday, August 4th, and I spent that Knit Night ripping back to the lifeline and putting the stitches back on the needle. And I have to say I'm pretty proud of my lifeline weaving - I managed to weave all the stitches in the correct row (it helps that it was the increase row: yo, k1 all the way around). I started the new lace plan on those stitches and persevered, knowing I had a car ride from Maine to NYC to put a big dent in the last section before the border and then a few more days for border knitting before blocking needed to happen; I knew such fine yarn would block in a matter of hours.
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Unfortunately, that Friday was a flurry of phone calls and messages about my grandmother. She was short of breath and taken to the emergency room. She was admitted to the hospital with fluid in her lungs. They had eased that situation and she was resting, then sleeping, then restless. And, suddenly, she was gone.

Honestly, we were all surprised. She had pulled through many things before; she was a tiny lady by the end of her days (under five feet, though she was half a foot taller in the prime of life - eat your yogurt and take your calcium, ladies), suffering through fractured vertebrae due to osteoporosis, but she was so strong, such a force to be reckoned with that I think we thought she would always conquer whatever health problems arose.

She was gone, and we had to get back from Maine to New York and then out to Northwest Illinois to say goodbye. I worked some more on the shawl on the drive back to New York, thinking I would give it to my aunt or just hold onto it. But the wind had gone out of my sails. It sat in my bag on the plane, and in the car, and on our annual family trip to Wisconsin. It's sitting in there, still. I'll take it out at some point, but it's going to be a while, I think.

There's more going on knitting-wise, and I promise to blog about that "real soon now". In the meantime, if you still have your grandparents in your life, give them a call or stop by if you're lucky enough to live close.

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Three out of four generations of Wilson women (Christmas 2009)

27 July 2010

FO: Matryoshkas (Pink/Blue and Red/Purple)



My former roomies have two cuties, one of whom arrived this winter. Since you can't give the baby a present without something for the big sister (in the interest of continuing family harmony), it took me a little while to decide what to do (why, when it was obvious what I could knit for two little girls?) and get it done with my own two running around.

I really liked knitting these with colors that are close in saturation - it gave them an almost damask feel. As you can see I changed things up here and there. My laz y daisies were too lazy to contemplate, so the babies are in unadorned clothes. I also knit these on US4s and achieved a denser fabric, which is better for stuffies.

I tried to weigh them as I went along to determine how much of each yarn I used, but I wasn't as diligent as I hoped. However, each main color used less than half a skein per set of dolls and mere scraps of the hair/eye/lips/cheek yarns.

BTW, what do we think of my new camera phone? Far better than my old camera phone, though still not replacing my DSLR. It's a Palm Pre, and I really like it. There was no way we would get iPhones with AT&T's abysmal coverage in NYC. And the Pre can also serve as a mobile hotspot, which is perfect for our time up in Maine, since we don't want to subscribe to a service when we are here so sporadically. Plus going back and forth between the Pre's interface and my iPod Touch keeps me mentally on my toes.

21 July 2010

ARAN KNITTING!!!!!!

Did you hear me? Aran Knitting!!! Alice Starmore's beautiful book of cables is being republished by the wonderful people at Dover. Due out 16 September 2010, just a few days after my birthday - what a perfect present to myself :) I've been pondering "keeping" the copy from my parents' public library for years, but now I can be a good girl.

Pre-order yours NOW!