Drive-by blogging

I just got started in a shawl for me. It's in laceweight, but I decided on a really simple, mostly-stockinette pattern. Why? Because as much as I love the process of knitting lace, I'll never manage to finish a whole patterned shawl while my kids are young. I've had to accept my limitations, and go with something attainable.

But once the kids are both in school all day long, watch out! I'm going to be a lace fiend. I hope it's not out of style by then.

City-wide garage sale is this weekend. I have lots of pricing and purging to do before Saturday. Why do I do this to myself?? At least I have some furniture-like stuff that will make the yard look full without being a PITA for me to deal with. This afternoon I hope to put the 1960's formica kitchen table together so it can go. I love the table, but just have no place for it in my house. I bought it at auction 6 years ago and have not once used it. Bah.

Blogstalking week Four: Stuff I love and/or hate

This week's task is to name three things I love and three things I hate. That's a lot of picture taking. So I thought I'd be clever and take just three pictures to signify all six items. It almost worked, too, but try as I might, I could find no love in the third picture. My internal need for things to work out "just so" has kept me from posting anything all week. Until now, that is. I am boldly laughing in the face of my obsession with this, and posting my irregular and imperfect loves and loathes.


First up, the easy one. I love my Tivo. I had planned on discussing my hatred of commercials. But then I uploaded my photo and realized something. I apparently hate dusting, too. Actually, I don't hate dusting so much, I just don't get around to it very often. I'm a sub-par housekeeper. I hate that about myself.


Second photo. This is a bit of an easy one, really. I love knitting lace. It feeds my need for instant gratification in a way that making garments just cannot. There is a LOT of knitting, then waiting for the other parts to be knit, then seaming, blabbadee blabbadah before a hank of yarn becomes a sweater. Conversely, with lace, each row is a new part of the pattern. It is constantly changing and growing and blossoming into a piece of art. This particular one is my beginnings of the Luna Moth Shawl from elann.com. The pattern is pretty easy, though, which can lull one into a false sense of security.

Which brings me to hate #2: I hate when I get cocky and neglect to count the number of stitches in each row. I managed to get one extra stitch in row 35, and because I was so sure that I rock at knitting lace, I went ahead and not only knit row 36 on top of it, I put a lifeline in. It wasn't until I started the next pattern row that I realized my error. That's a lot of tinking. Argh.


Third photo. This is the one for which I have no love. I hate my bedroom closet door. I hate this thing with a white hot passion. Why on earth would anyone take down a perfectly good closet door only to replace it with a hollow core sliding door that slips of its track at least once a day. And for reasons unbeknownst to me, it doesn't fit correctly into the lower track, so It swings loose at the floor. The cat enjoys batting at it while I sleep. I used to think that she was trying to push it open to get in there for various and sundry nefarious cat purposes, but I was mistaken. She bats at it so that I will wake up. When I stir, she runs over to me and purrs and rubs her little kitty noggin on my hand. The little shit is waking me up on purpose for midnight tickles. I hate that too.

And don't get me started on the fact that instead of real moulding around the door openings, the previous owners used lumber. Plain old 1x4s. They neither mitred nor sanded it before slapping it up on the wall around the room. Another thing about which I have no love.

There are lots of things in this life I do love, however most of them are not photographable. (is that a word?) Here's a quick list of some off the top of my head (in no particular order, of course). I love that when my daughter put on her hat and scarf this morning, she stated that she was "all bungled up and ready to go." I love that my son calls his favorite fruit "blannas." I love that our home is less than 3 blocks from the girl's school, so we can walk there every morning. I love that my husband is home most evenings, and that he's a really super dad. I love that my parents are both still here with me on this earth. I'd miss them terribly if they weren't so close. I love that we have a roof over our heads and a little money in the bank. I really do love my life, even if I bitch about it a lot.

So there you have it. Some things I love and some things I hate. Pretty close to the assignment. As my dad would say, "close enough for government work."

Here is my test swatch for the Mystery Stole, knit with US5 needles. I'm happy with it. I'm so anxious to start. I cannot wait for Friday. I need to get the house extra clean before then, because I'll spend too many hours knitting, lol.

Hier ist mein Test swatch für die Mystery Stole 3, stricken mit den 3,75 Millimeter Rundstricknadeln. Ich bin begierig nach den Stolen anzufangen.

Wenn meine Deutsche unrichtig ist, sagen Sie mir bitte. Ich mag lernen.

Post title TBA

I have begun the swatch for the Mystery Shawl 3 knitalong. I'm ridiculously excited about ti all. I have yet to complete a large lace project, and I feel like the 'game' of this one will carry me through to the end. I really want a fancy knitted shawl to show off to every one. I can imagine the conversation...
Impressed Person: Wow, what a gorgeous wrap!
Me: Yeah, I knitted it.
IP: By hand?!?
Me: Yep. With yarn, a pair of sticks and some perseverance**
IP: Wow! You are so talented! I wish I could be as fabulous as you!


But enough about my crazy inner dialogue, back to the yarn and sticks. I'm using Knitpicks Bare merino laceweight. I wound the first hank yesterday. I was a little scared of winding 880 yards of lace yarn by hand, without the aid of a swift or ballwinder. As far as I could tell from things I had read on the internet, it is impossible to wind that much yarn by hand. Time and time again I had read that a swift is a must for any yarn winding, and a ballwinder is a must for laceweight. To those people, I say pbbbtttptptp.

I've come to realize that I'm a Luddite. (Not about my computer, mind you. They can pry my keyboard from my cold dead hands.) But about fiber arts? I eschew the technology. And I'm a miser. So I do things the old fashioned way most of the time. There's just no fun for me if I don't do it the hard way.

Again, I digress. My coffee is getting cold and I need to eat breakfast. Back to the specifics: I used the back of my office chair in lieu of a swift, A 3/4" cylindrical wooden block from my kids' toy drawer in lieu of a nostepinne, and wound the giant ball while watching Barbie Fairytopia: the Magic of the Rainbow with my girl. Totally do-able. I'll probably invest in a swift someday, and the wooden block didn't feel great in my hand. Those beautiful hand-turned nostepinnes (also spelled nøstepinde or nystepinne) are calling my name. The plastic ball winders just lack flair.



** Sorry for completely ignoring the pattern designer in this imaginary conversation that will never happen. I promise that will I give proper credit in any and all actual convos.

I'm still here.

Still knitting, too. Not sure why I haven't posted lately. I'm working on the Luna Moth Shawl from elann.com (I really love free patterns-- who doesn't?)in a vintage fingering weight wool. The color is called "geranium red" but it looks more like dark pink. I like the pink in theory and it is fun to knit with, but I am not sure that my ruddy complexion could handle it. I might end up frogging it and re-knitting the pattern in a more neutral yarn. I hate to waste several hours of work, but then again, I'd hate to knit the whole thing up and then never wear it, either.

Meanwhile, I have signed up to start the Mystery Stole 3 over at Pink Lemon Twist. I bought the pattern for Leda's Dream Stole (Mystery Stole 1) a while back, and swatched for it, but the yarn I used, while beautiful, was too fine. I could use it double-stranded, but then I don't have enough. I'll knit it someday. But for now, I have my hands full. The Mystery Knitalong officially starts the 29th of June. My yarn should be arriving any day now. I wonder if the mailman knows I'm stalking him.

I won't get any knitting in today, I fear. My two-year-old guy has learned how to open every child-proof drawer and cabinet in the house. I need to find new hiding places for the sharpies and scissors and gum. It's going to be a massive undertaking, I fear. I know some of you will be clucking your tongues at this, knowing that I should just teach him to keep his little hands off my stuff. In theory, that would work. It worked for my daughter. I know how the books tell you how to do this parenting thing.

My son has not read those books.

Adventures in lace and ebay yarn.

I bought this merino lace yarn from Yarn Treehouse on ebay. It is beautiful. But it is so very very fine. At 880 yards per 50g ball, it falls somewhere between 'cobweb' and 'gossamer' on the weight chart. I started swatching with it last night, and it's like knitting with a spider webs. I think I'll try the swatch again tonight with it doubled up. It was actually not as hard to knit something so small as I expected (my previous lace-type knitting has been done with fingering and sport weight yarns), but I'd need much better lighting. Knitting by the light of a little table lamp and the television just doesn't work with this stuff. I'll post pictures when I have something large enough to photograph.

The Song of the Lace Siren

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a lace person. I have never been a lace person. Nor have I even been a fan of pink. Or ruffles. Or overly feminine clothing. So why have I become obsessed with knitted lace? And dream of making something like the Pacific Northwest Shawl or Scheherazade?

I spend too much time browsing the internet, looking at the beautiful shawls women have made for themselves, wondering if I could possibly master the art of knitting laceweight yarn in a huge complicated pattern. And could I master knitting from a chart? In my first attempts at chart-reading, I kept getting confused and knitting random rows backward. Have I mentioned that my fingers have a tendency to knit willy nilly, not paying attention to pattern or number of rows? (I'm working on that, though).

Whatever the reason, I keep imagining myself with a huge beautiful shawl wrapped around me, looking horribly elegant in spite of my my t-shirt and jeans. I don't know, but it is a strong pull. I just need to practice a little more before I go tackling the Peacock Feathers Shawl.

In the meantime, I'm practicing on sport weight yarn and a small pattern. This is the Kendal insertion, and I plan to make it long enough to tie back my ever-longer hair. It's not perfect, but it is progress.



P.S. I also need to learn the art of photographing lace. I promise to get good at that soon, too.