Snowy Easter and FOs

Here’s what Regent’s Park looked like two weeks ago when I walked through on a sunny, though chilly, day:

This morning, the BBC site said that it was snowing in London! A white Easter. How awful.

But I’m back in Boston, where it’s cold and sunny, with my latest crop of traveling FOs and a new WIP. First, a scarf made of Baby Alpaca Grande Paint on size 10 needles. I used all of four balls, and it’s nearly eight feet long. Extravagant. But it’s not too wide, so it wraps and ties well:

The colors are somewhat spring-like, yet it’s appropriately warm. The stitch came from the Yarn Harlot’s “One-row homespun scarf” recipe, with a minor change. Instead of a multiple of 4+2, I stuck with a multiple of 4 and slipped the first stitch of every row instead of knitting it. It gave me a nice even selvedge. The stitch itself gives a very dimensional look to the fabric, which I love.

Next, Ysolda’s Gretel, which I’ve been wanting to try for awhile. I first made it “slouchy,” but it was too much—it overpowered my smallish sized head. I ripped it back and did the semi-slouchy version, and I just love it. It’s knit in Mirasol Miski (100% llama and unspeakably soft) on size 7 needles. The pattern was incredibly well written!!

And for my final FOs, two more charity hats. One was made from Nashua Handknits Wooly Stripes, which I got out of a sale bin. If I could wear wool, I would wear this. The other is single crochet in Araucania Nature Wool, two skeins of which came out of the same sale bin. It looks like I can make two more of the same, which is basically two more trips from Heathrow to Boston with no knitting needles—that’s pretty much exactly how much time it took.

And a new traveling WIP. A cables and lace scarf made from Laines du Nord Mulberry Silk in Taupe. I have two balls (from a different sale bin), and I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll have enough for at least four feet. I suppose I could make it narrower, if I need to.

So my portable project strategy seems to be working. I still have two unfinished sweaters, but I’ve given myself permission not to think about them until I’ve moved. I think I’ll try fingerless gloves next. That will be a handy thing to have next year when I’m commuting in London!

Happy Easter! Happy Passover! Happy spring to all!

FOs large and small

It’s been a month since I’ve posted—I can’t believe it! And tomorrow I’m off to London again for two weeks of business and relo stuff. Before I go, a quick update. The crocheted afghan is finished, and along with two hats made from the scraps, was sent off to Afghans for Afghans in time for their Campaign for Newborns.

The afghan ended up consuming 24 skeins of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, so it should keep some baby nice and snug.

Amazing how easily the crocheting came back to me. Also amazing how much harder it was on my wrist than knitting. I’m quite happy with the afghan, and I’ll take another crochet project with me (kids’ hats this time) in case I think I can’t get my knitting on board for my return flight from Heathrow. But I’m a knitter who crochets—I don’t think I’ll ever be a crocheter again.

I thought I’d share a brief detour into the distant past, though. A tunic made from mercerized thread in a tablecloth motif back when I could actually get away with wearing something so funky:

Back to the present—also in the FO department, a finished scarf from Muench Touch Me Due. What amazing stuff, and I love the scarf. Here it is:

Here’s what it looked like before “felting”:

The fabric does take on a lovely antique appearance after washing and drying, and it’s soft as can be. Normally I can’t wear anything against my skin with even a small wool content, but this doesn’t itch at all. The wool must be in the core of the chenille or something.

On the down side, though, after all the trouble I took with the cable pattern, it can hardly be discerned in the finished fabric. And unfortunately, the yarn is every bit as expensive as it is soft!

Since I’ve been home, I’ve worked on the cashmere cardigan a bit, trying to get the neck and shoulders right. The fabric is so stretchy that it all has to be pinned out on a blocking board just to see what’s what and measure it. So that project, as well as the infamous green sweater, are impossible to travel with—not because they’re big, but because they require measuring and trying on and tugging at and fussing over. Life right now demands projects with good variety but few challenges, whether I’m traveling or at home. The afghan, hats, and scarf really provided that. So I’m going off to London tomorrow with more of the same—some baby hats, Gretel for me, maybe a lacy scarf. I wish I were more fluent in sock knitting, but my inexperience makes even those too fiddly. Sweaters will definitely have to wait until I’m settled in the new home I have yet to find!

WIPs and Trips

I’ve been back from Athens for one week, and I think my jet lag may finally be gone. The time difference going west to San Francisco (-3 hours) doesn’t usually bother me much, but I returned from there, spent less than 48 hours at home, and then went off to Athens (+ 7 hours). I don’t think I ever really caught up in Athens, but it was an amazing trip.

San Francisco was hard work the entire time. I had planned a day off at the end for myself, and it shrank into about half a day off. Though the day was anything but clear

I was very clear about what I wanted to do with that time. A nice long walk, and this was my destination:

Yes, I sat and swatched—once I had looked at and touched every color of every yarn in the place. I ended up with two strands of Golden Chai in different colorways. The darker one has some very deep teal hidden in it, and the highlights in the lighter one pop when they’re together. It has the feel of a very fine wool (which I don’t wear), and I think it will make a very simple, elegant stockinette pullover that will be nice for work. As you can see, the cones, which I had sent to me because she didn’t have enough of one of the colors, have already arrived.

Then I had dinner in Chinatown with a friend at a restaurant that I’d never been to, but that’s been there forever, House of Nanking. Very tasty. And I was happy because I’d managed to have fabulous sushi twice while I was there as well!

Oh and what else happened in San Francisco? I accepted the job in the UK! So here’s my yarn buying pledge: No more yarn except exceptionally special souvenir purchases until after I move and fully unpack. Target date for the move: May 1, 2008. I’m about to panic.

Athens was a fabulous blur. I was working pretty hard—getting to know many of the people I’ll be working with and trying to remember who was already supposed to know and who wasn’t. I had two days at the end for sightseeing and took a couple of day trips with a tour company. Altogether I saw a bit of Athens, Cape Sounion where the Temple of Poseidon is situated, and the Strait of Corinth, Mycenae, and Epidauros on the Peloponnese.

This is the Acropolis from my hotel window. You can see how hazy the air is—Athens is as dirty, busy, and sprawling as everyone had told me it would be, but I still could have stayed a few more days. The Parthenon is nicer at a distance—and even more so at night where you can see it from nearly anywhere in the city. Close up, you see that it’s covered in scaffolding. Athenians still curse the name of Lord Elgin, who took away so many of the good bits and did so much damage.

Heathrow update/WIP: My flights in and out of Athens were booked through Heathrow (not a good choice, but that’s the way it worked). There are still no knitting needles allowed through security there, so I came up with this strategy: I had a bunch of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes I had bought on sale for charity knitting. I had been planning to do something for the Afghans for Afghans campaign for newborns, and the last time I was at their site, I noticed that they said they especially liked crocheted baby blankets because they’re denser. I haven’t crocheted anything more than a seam or an edging in years, but I thought I could probably get a bamboo crochet hook through security. I slipped the hook in with my pens and pencils and had the yarn in a ZipLock bag. I packed a second crochet hook in my suitcase just in case, but it wasn’t needed.

Before I left I did a “design.” I settled on a simple chevron pattern, and I had 16 balls of WoTA: 4 each of Arctic Pool Heather, Forest Heather, Amber Heather, and Firecracker Heather. I decided on a width based on AforA’s specifications and the size of the pattern, and then crocheted one stripe using two strands of the Amber Heather and a size K hook until the first two balls were used up. I got 8 rows out of them, and the fabric is dense but not without drape. I used a screen grab to get color samples from the Knit Picks site and got to work in Paint Shop Pro (which I use because I’m too cheap to buy—and too lazy to learn—Photoshop). As I was working on the color sequence, I realized I needed a fifth color, so I ordered 4 balls of Amethyst Heather to fill out the palette. I ended up with fat stripes and thin stripes and alternated them so that I’d get one fat stripe and two thin stripes of each color and tried to keep the color balanced. Here’s the design and the in-progress afghan:

As of today, I’m 52 rows through the 80 in the design, and I’m pretty happy with it, though the red pops way more than I thought it would. Also, the chevron pattern wants to accordion on itself, and the vertical edges curl just a bit. I’m hoping the whole thing relaxes when I wash it and lay it out to dry. If there are any crochet-heads out there who know whether I’m kidding myself on this, let me know. I don’t really want to crochet an edging along the sides. There will be about an ounce of each color left when I’m done, so there will probably be a stripey hat to go with this.

Meanwhile, I’m remembering why crochet is not my sport of choice. If I work it too long, my wrist hurts. I have to look at it much more when I’m working. And most of all–if I notice a problem in a previous row, I either have to pull everything out or live with it. On the other hand, it’s a good solution to flying where needles aren’t allowed, and even if they do take your hook, the work won’t unravel on you!

Happy New Year

I had visions of doing a comprehensive end-of-year post looking back at my foray into blogging, the advent of Ravelry, etc., but I just can’t seem to find a quiet moment. So I thought I’d at least take enough time to wish everyone a good start to 2008.

I’m off tomorrow to San Francisco for a week (business) and looking forward to finding a few minutes to sneak off to Artfibers, which is not too far from the hotel. Of course—just what I need is more yarn. My stash is looking very different now that I’m pondering the possibility of packing it up and moving it to another continent. Airline travel does encourage knitting, though!

Happy knitting and crocheting to everyone, and a peaceful and productive new year.

Where in the world have I been?

New York for Thanksgiving, which was just so New York: the home of my eternally teen aged soul. We saw two Bob Dylan movies in one day—The Other Side of the Mirror and I’m Not There. Ooooh Cate Blanchett was goooooood.

Ooooh Bob Dylan was good. (Still is if you ask him.)

It was bitter cold and windy, so the ribbed hat was on HWSRN’s head the moment it was finished. No picture of it, unfortunately. But it fit perfectly and kept his head warm.

Then, overtaken with missing my mother, who died in NY at Thanksgiving many years ago, I took this in the bleak garden of the new MOMA:

(I think it’s true that one never stops missing one’s mother. I still talk with her in my head.)

Then a business trip to Idaho with a colleague. We saw a sign for the Idaho Potato Museum and couldn’t resist trying to find it. It was closed, but there was a big potato.

The museum is in an old train station.

And what of my knitting? I cast it all aside on a whim to make a baby blanket for a friend and his wife for their second child. I was charmed by the fact that they had opted not to know the baby’s sex ahead of time, and this color combination somehow made me think of them and seemed perfect for either a boy or a girl.

I made it up as I went along in Plymouth Encore (75% acrylic, 25% wool) on size 7 needles. There are some things I’d do differently, but all in all, I’m satisfied with it.

Like many New England babies, she decided to come during this past weekend’s nasty storm. She came, in fact, as I was finishing the cast off and weaving in the ends. Now I can get back to my UFOs, I guess. The problem is that none of them are portable. I’m afraid I’m going to have to cast on a hat or something. I tend to stay away from patterns that everyone is making, but I’m smitten by Koolhaas. I wonder if it would work in alpaca. I have tons.

Tomorrow an important conversation about London . . . . no—that still hasn’t been resolved. But it’s close, very close.

Speed knitting

I seem to have come upon a way to knit on an un-magic loop that is yielding the fastest in-the-round knitting I’ve done so far:

HWSRN lost his hat last weekend when we went to a friend’s wedding in Maine (to which I forgot—can you believe it—to bring my camera. So I decided to slam through a 2X2 rib watch cap and take it to him in NY, where we’ll spend Thanksgiving with his family and assorted extras.

So this is 80 stitches of two-strands of worsted weight wool—one is a dark, nearly black charcoal and the other is a heathery gray. I’ve got it on a 32″ circular. With the end pulled out (but with no “magic loop” on the other side), I can knit about 1/3 of the stitches before I start to feel resistance as I slide new stitches into place. At that point, I simply yank on the right-hand tip, pull the cable through so I have a long end again, and keep going. I may need to divide the stitches in half and create the magic loop in order to get through the decreases, but for now, this is moving very quickly.

And distracting me from all my other WIP’s!

I thought I’d post about it because I don’t remember seeing this anywhere. Did I pick it up from something I read and forgot?

Meanwhile, happy Thanksgiving to all! By Monday there will be much knitting to report (train rides are the best) and a job update.

Knitting update

Can you be a knitter if you never finish anything?

Of course I’ve finished things—but not lately. But I keep plugging away. I think I must have turned into a process knitter. Other than thinking that I should have something to show for all my effort, I’m not really an unhappy needlewoman. Think of those fishermen who sit with their hooks in the water all day, throwing back most of what they catch . . .

Strange metaphor. Anyway, here are the sleeves of the green sweater:

Yes, folks. I frogged them again. Lesson learned: you can change a lot of things about a sweater, but if you change the shape of a set-in sleeve, you may not be able to get the sleeves to fit the way you want. I definitely didn’t want little gathers at the shoulder as a result of having too much fabric in the top of the sleeve. So next I’m going to try Ruth’s very sensible advice to try knitting them from the top down. I’ll use the instructions in Barbara Walker’s book, since I have that on hand.

I haven’t frogged the bouclé Einstein Coat yet, but I have definitely decided to. Careful analysis of the messiness of the edges leads me to believe that I caused it not only by a slight change in gauge but also by handling the selvedge stitches inconsistently. I’ve spent too many years purling the last stitch and slipping the first knitwise. But in The Knitting Experience, Sally Melville says to knit the last stitch and slip the first with the yarn in front (purlwise). She does this (I suspect) because it’s supposed to be a book for people who don’t know how to purl yet. I think I must have started with her method but changed back to my own from time to time out of habit—and the bouclé hid a mistake I would otherwise seen and corrected as I went along. Why I didn’t just do it my way (knowing that the result would be equally satisfactory), beats me. I’ve found this pattern, which I might just try to follow as written because it’s actually written for this yarn (Plymouth Alpaca Boucle)—and that bit about finishing in a weekend sounds really appealing. Some other yarn will become an Einstein—I really do like that coat.

HWSRN’s socks are stalled. I started following the instructions for the gusset and lost it completely. My eyes aren’t what they used to be, the needles are much smaller than I’m accustomed to, the yarn is dark, and I’ve never done a toe-up gusset before. I decided to rip back (also a neat trick, since I really couldn’t see what I was doing clearly) and go for a short-row heel, which I know how to do. Then I realized I needed to resort to mechanical assistance or I’d never be able to pick up the wraps. I’ve ordered this, and when it comes, I’ll finish the darn socks!

So mainly, I’ve been knitting on the cardigan, which has its back all but done and is waiting for the fronts to catch up.

I wound the rest of the yarn into balls last weekend, and as I was turning the crank, I had the very bad thought that I didn’t have enough yarn left! Holy crap! I had made the sweater longer than the pattern, since I’m not really built for “croppy,” and used more than I thought I would. A Ravelry search and Somebunnyslove to the rescue. Kimberly traded me for three hanks of the yarn, which she had in her stash. That should get me through the sleeves just fine. I salute her! BTW, this pattern calls for the sleeves to be knit top town. Very sensible.

I’ve swatched for two other projects—because I know I don’t need more WIPs, but I do need to think about new projects in the moments when mindless knitting isn’t satisfying. First, a swatch of Kathmandu Aran Tweed for a sweater for my son, who is planning to move back to the northeast this winter.

Second, a swatch of Misti Alpaca Chunky, which might be an Einstein Coat with some seed stitch thrown in for interest, but I don’t have enough of the yarn.

This sage green might look good with a natural brown or camel color, I think. And the Einstein lends itself to color blocking, though I wouldn’t do anything as extreme for myself as I did for this baby version:

I don’t think it’s possible for me to write short posts. Sorry!

Brief desert sojourn

Tucson is an otherworldly, brilliantly beautiful landscape. I traveled late last week to a three-day conference and then spent a day with my dad, who lives by himself in an apartment there. He’s not in terrific health, but independent (fiercely so) and seems to prefer solitude at this time in his life.

The conference was hard work, and I came to it tired from all the goings-on in the office. The result was that I slept like a teenager for a couple of days—falling asleep knitting on the plane, over my email, whenever I was not actively engaged. I guess I needed it.

I also needed stitch holders, because the cashmere cardigan finally needed it’s fronts separated from its backs, and visited Kiwi Knitting on E 6th. The owner was there alone and she was very cordial to me and to another customer who couldn’t seem to bring herself to leave. I had a nice browse through her yarns to clear my head after three days in conference rooms and bought a ball of something to swatch as well as the markers. It isn’t a discount store, for sure—she has a lovely selection of yarns, though, and it’s a pleasant space in a series of rooms dedicated to different things (a vegan room, a baby room . . .)

The swatching fodder is Tahki New Tweed in a steely gray for a contemplated sweater for my son—but I think it’s too pricey for something that big.

I took the cardigan (because it’s endless mindless knitting with yarn I can’t seem to tire of) and the green sweater. I didn’t take quite enough green yarn, though, and ran out on the way back home, so a lot of progress on the cardigan. Pictures later, or I’ll never post this.

Knitting tally: I saw no one knitting on the Tucson trip—again. Two knitters spoke to me, though. A woman in DFW who is a new knitter and having trouble with a vest for her husband, and a stewardess who is still at the scarves-only stage. However, the day after I got home, I took the T to go to the Ravelry Lazy Redliners group and the woman in front of me was working something deep red and slightly lacy. I didn’t talk with her—both of us had ear buds in, which I think of as the universal signal for “don’t bug me!” The Subway Knitter told me that she takes her pictures with a camera and no one ever says anything. I’m not sure I have the nerve to whip out my camera and snap a stranger!

Unbearable lightness

My job proposal is written and conversations continue. I ask colleagues to review it and get some good advice and some questionable. I try to deal with uncertainty.

I was working on it the other day and found myself watching myself from above. Who’s that woman at the keyboard and what the heck is she getting herself into? It’s hard to tell what the predominant emotion is—fear? excitement? anticipation?

Or something else that I don’t know the name of?

Among my antique children’s books is a series by Madeline Brandeis called “Children of all Lands.” I own about a dozen of them: Little Jeanne of France; Little Philippe of Belgium; The Little Dutch Tulip Girl, etc. They belonged to my mother or my aunt. As I child I poured over them endlessly. I had foreign pen pals. I longed to travel, but it wasn’t something my family did. One summer we spent a week on Cape Cod. That was it, unless you count moving house every year or two. As a teenager I saw the USA pretty much on my thumb. No year abroad in college because I couldn’t figure out how to fund it. This is not self-pity, just the facts. I got my passport as part of a new year’s resolution for the year 2000:

I will get a passport and I will go somewhere.

In the fall of 2000, I spent two weeks in Europe with my daughter and a college friend, and it was like a dream. For weeks before we left, I was sure something would go wrong. I had the same mix of emotions I’m having now, actually.

At the end of the trip, my buddies were burned out and ready to get back, and I could have kept going indefinitely. There was still so much more to see! Since then the passport has gotten good use: more France, more Italy, Morocco, Guatemala, Belize, London.

So I have managed to do some traveling, but I’ve always said that when Pianogirl finished school, the one thing I wanted to do was to live abroad for a while. I didn’t do it before I had kids, so I want to do it now while I still can. So floating above myself, watching me writing this “job proposal”—including a time line for transitioning from my current position to this new one—which is part of a very very elaborate job interview that’s been going on for months—I had to wonder what the hell I’m doing. Am I really willing to pull up roots and leave the country for two to five years? Will I still love travel when I’m doing it all the time? Am I too old for this? What if I get sick? What if one of my kids needs me? How will HWSRN and I manage with an additional five hours time difference?

But I can’t seem to stop myself.

Yarnival!

Thanks ever so much to Emma at Stitch ‘n Sue for including me in the October Yarnival! Welcome to everyone who has clicked over from there. I hope you’ll come back again, and I look forward to hearing from you!