Equi-knocks

This afternoon just before suppertime will be an astronomical event that I dread every year....the Autumnal Equinox. Why, you ask? I will answer in just one word. Light. That's it -- Light. I crave light. Daylight, sunlight, bright light that is not fluorescent or otherwise artificial, REAL LIGHT. And starting today there will be less of it in a 24 hour period and more of darkness. Darkness is confining, depressing, discouraging, and just plain old not fun or exciting.

After having worked far too many 12-hour shifts in windowless NICUs where it was dark when I drove to work in the morning and dark when I left in the evening, never having seen the light of day all day, I have this pathological thing about light. I have to have a window seat at restaurants, I wear light and brightly colored clothes. I don't wear black. My bedroom walls are a cheery shade of pink. I have at least 7 lamps in my room, just so it is light enough where I need it (studio table, desk, by the bed, etc.). I'll do most anything reasonable to fight off seasonal depression triggered by insufficient light.

Fall is always difficult for me. My fibromyalgia flares fiercely every year in October. This year the flare came a month early and I have been completely miserable. Mind you, I have spent one afternoon per week with my wonderful dentist, "Dr. Michael". I think I have paid for the private school tuition for one of his sons this fall with all the work I have had done. But I am now officially worthy of being called a QUEEN....and I have the gold crown to prove it. Ouch! I have coped as best I can by doing what usually helps the most...meds and knitting. But somehow my right shoulder got hurt last week...it may have been the serious cleaning and dejunking I was doing. Whatever, the pain has been so bad that I haven't been able to do much of anything, most notably knitting. ARRRRGH! This has made me one grumpy gal...my poor family is still putting up with me though.

In my restricted state I found I could not knit on my complicated, twisting, CookieA Clandestine socks, but I could knit "plain vanilla" socks. And so this morning I finished another pair of socks for Daddy. I dubbed this pair "Ugly Man Socks" because that's what I call all of his socks. After all, I use pretty, colorful yarns and interesting lace patterns for my socks; for his I use plain stitches and dark, rather boring colors. The irony in all this is that this pair of socks is really quite attractive. I love the yarn. If I hadn't knit daddy's socks from it I would knit socks for myself from it. Awesome yarn. Sigh. I never was any good at cynicism, sarcasm, or any other of those acerbic things. I should know better than to label something "ugly" before seeing the end result. Double sigh.

Better luck next time...with the next pair...or two...of socks. Knitting on!

Summertime Knitting

Since I haven't been exactly diligent in keeping my blog up to date I thought I'd start back with a progress report (or two) on what I've been doing the past 3 or so months. First I must tell you what I haven't been doing as much of....gardening. The workload is getting to be more than this old girl can handle. I did turn the big Five-0 in June you know and I guess my age is starting to show along with the limitations of fibromyalgia. I still adore flowers though so my answer is flowering trees, shrubs, bulbs, and perennials. I think this Forever Pink hydrangea is stunning, yet it requires very little care at all. That's a plant I can dig!


On the knitting front, it's been a super lacy summer. Things started out last spring when I started knitting this gorgeous shawl as a part of the Spring KAL for the Lace Knitters group that meets at my LYS, The Yarn Haven. Each person chose a project from the recently published Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush. KLE is an awesome book and this shawl, the Lilac Leaf Shawl, was perhaps my favorite design in the book. I love the leaf lace pattern and have knit it in a number of different projects, but when combined with the restrained addition of nupps (a type of cluster stitch that is characteristic of Estonian Lace) in a diamond border, it's a real winner. I knit my shawl using a luscious shade of a soft purpley pink alpaca & silk lace yarn (Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace) and US 5/3.75mm needles. I used a generous needle size for the yarn because this design was meant to be very open and airy. The finished shawl used ~1.5 balls of yarn and measured 20" x 66" which is just perfect. Everything about this shawl was a two thumbs up for me. WooHoo!


Braced by the positive experience of knitting the Lilac Leaf Shawl I next turned to a long-time WIP that had been hibernating in a basket for a seriously long time - Evelyn Clark's infamous Swallowtail Shawl. Zillions of knitters made this shawl, including many who had never knit lace before...or since for that matter. The original pattern was little more than a generous scarf with a pretty edging, but I wanted more. I wanted a big shawl...a BIG shawl. Why? Because I had discovered that the few little shawls sat in my closet and never got worn. Oh, OK. So I added many extra repeats to the top portion of the shawl, like 10 extra to be exact. The pattern called for 14 reps. The design demanded extra reps be added in groups of 5, but one set (19 reps total) wasn't big enough so I stuck it out (BORING) until I had 24 reps total.

I was already weary by this time, but when I hit the Lily of the Valley edging I kinda lost my love for the project. Knitting nupps was a huge pain in the you-know-what. Ugh. And so the shawl sat for more than a year while I found it in my heart to forgive it for being a pain and finish. I found a few helpful tricks for knitting good nupps and pushed my way through. The completed shawl used only one 2oz. ball of white Jaggerspun Zephyr, was knit on US 2.5/3.0mm needles (tiny!), and measured 30" x 60". So, after all that the shawl is a nice size, but it still isn't big. It is pretty though and I'm glad I stuck it out.

Book review: Knits from the North Sea

I haven't done much blogging lately but I have been doing a ton of knitting. Lace knitting. I owe many explanations and photos and I promise I will post them, but I'm a bit distracted right now by a new lace knitting book that was just released, Knits from the North Sea: Lace in the Shetland Tradition by Carol Rasmussen Noble and Margaret Leask Peterson. Sandy, my LYSO showed us a flier from the publisher at our lace knitting group a couple of months ago. From the flier the projects looked wonderful and based on the success of our spring KAL using a book group members agreed that this new book would be wonderful as the source for projects for our fall KAL. We decided to go for it, sight unseen. Note to self: never ever commit to a book or pattern for a KAL sight unseen ever again. PS. Wait to see what the real contents a book are before blowing big bucks on a copy. PPS. Don't trust that a book labeled Shetland lace will indeed contain Shetland lace projects. PPPS. Never buy a lace book authored by Carol Rasmussen Noble ever again---it is bad for one's blood pressure and quality of sleep. That woman has some mighty crazy ideas about lace knitting.

I have spent a serious amount of time over the past week trying to decipher, decode, and or otherwise make sense out of the content of this supposed Shetland lace book. It hasn't been easy. I forgot to take note of the author when making the initial decision to use this book for the LK group Fall KAL. I was reminded very fast when I turned the introductory Tips and Techniques section and saw the recommendation to only use straight needles (not circular) when knitting lace. GROAN! Oh no, that crazy lady. I didn't purchase her previous lace book as a newbie lace knitter based on that blanket statement. The consensus of the online (international) lace knitting community is that using circular needles is not only perfectly fine, but frequently necessary to accommodate the large number of stitches in a project. My current shawl project, the Aeolian Lace Shawl has ~450 sts at present. That just ain't gonna ever fit on Ms. Noble's 10" straight needles. But I digress.

I knew right away I was in for trouble upon looking at the first project, Carol's Mountain Stream Scarf. The knitter is instructed to use US1/2.25mm needles to knit a popular kid mohair/silk lace yarn, Douceur et Soie. Huh??? I have always used either a size 5 or 6 needle with the yarn as it has such a lofty halo from the mohair content. Trying to knit this stuff on a sz 1 could make a sane lace knitter suicidal, really! The whole book was filled with cra* like this. To make matters worse, very few of the designs used distinctive Shetland motifs, most were either plain vanilla, simply nice, or worse, from the Orenburg Russia lace tradition. If you can explain how that fits in a Shetland lace book I'd love to hear it. Don't tell me it's because both countries touch the North Sea cuz Orenburg is a far cry from the North Sea..like the whole of the Ural Mountains away. To make maters worse, all of CRN's designs are labelled and presented in such a way as to more closely reflect her Reno, NV home--not the Shetland Isles. Go figure?

My first reaction/recommendation is to save your money and don't waste it buying this book. Nothing in it is worth even the Amazon price of ~$17. But I have already committed to using this book for my KAL and the announcements are out so I have the unpleasant task of editing the errors and just plain nonsense and turning the projects into something my newbies can manage and my intermediate knitters will enjoy. Translation: much swatching and many long conversations with my LYSO on how to guide customers who plan to knit projects from the book. Martingale Press should pay me for all the work it has been fixing this mess. Never again I tell you.

I am knitting a couple of scarves from the book just so I can know how to guide the knitters in the group. The projects will be nice once I have finished editing the patterns so all is not lost. It's just a whole lot more work than I had planned on and the projects aren't what I had hoped for. Lesson learned. SIGH!

Gotthold Doily

Gotthold
Originally uploaded by beadntat

I'm finally getting around to posting photos of my recently completed Niebling Doilies. This is Gotthold, from the folio Kunststricken: Grosse un kleine Decken that was reprinted by Verlag fur die Frau in Germany and made available in the US at Lacis. It is so nice to finally be able to access legal copies of vintage Niebling designs at an affordable price. Before then avid lace knitters either had to pay a King's ransom to buy the patterns on Ebay or they downloaded illegal copies from the internet. I refused to do either so I was out of luck. No more! Lacis says they will have another collection ready for purchase soon...and this time it will be translated into English and the patterns will all have been proofed and test-knit so they will be error-free. WooHoo! I can't wait :-)

Christel Doily

Christel
Originally uploaded by beadntat

There were many long evenings of squinting and finger stretches, but at last little Christel is off the needles. I say little not because the doily is small, at 18 inches blocked it is anything but small, but the DMC tatting thread and the US000/1.5mm needles I used to knit Christel are most definitely small. Very small. Crazy small. Forget bifocals and ditch the glasses small. That's SMALL!!! But I really love this little doily. She is so delicate when compared Gotthold knit with sz 40 cordonnet and US 0/2.0mm needles. Yes, Gotthold looks huge!!!

Gotthold was my third Niebling Doily (Starry Night/Valentine's Day was my first, Mallins 44 the second) and Christel my fourth. I am most definitely hooked on knitting these vintage German designs. So much so that I dropped a small chunk of change on ebay last night for an old magazine filled with patterns by another designer, Erich Engeln. In German Engeln means tulip so it only makes sense that his lace designs frequently featured tulips. There are several doilies plus a large tablecloth with the most amazing tulip motifs that I can't wait to knit. I'm sure Mom will be thrilled since tulips are her most favorite of all flowers. She loves many types of flowers, as do I, but she loves tulips the most. Now all I have to do is contemplate thread choices and wait on the DM (Deutsch Mail, known to be notoriously slow at times) to send my little treasure on its way to me. I can't wait!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

It's February, it's still winter (ugh!), and I, the Queen of Old Maids, have survived yet another Valentine's Day. Unlike times past I have now arrived at the age of wisdom where I know it is perfectly fine to be single and even better to celebrate the day in my own way. I did very good this year. Very good!


I started things out by doing what I love, knitting. I knit a wonderful doily known as Starry Night, but really it is the Valentine's Day doily because the center is a ring of hearts. I knit mine using red Cebelia 20 and 2.5mm needles. Sweet! I can now knit such lovely little masterpieces with reckless abandon because I am the chuffed owner of a proper blocking board. A what you ask? Yes, a board that is padded and covered with a iron-proof cloth that is imprinted with a precisely measured grid, both square and circular, which allows me to pin out soggy little starch-laden cotton strings into glorious lace. oh joy!!!


After purchasing said board at my local JoAnn's (using a 50% off coupon, of course) I went on a spree and blocked every new doily I knit last year. As if that were not enough, I then proceeded to test my eyesight and teensy tiny knitting skills by knitting more doilies...with skinnier thread...and teensier little needles...and more complex stitches. Call it the lace knitter's endorphin rush. It's been a blast!


I did have balance to my Valentine's celebrating. I do more than just knit after all. I went shopping. Mom (love ya!) took me shopping for some new jeans, and pants, and a lacy tank, and a super pink shirt. Yummy, yummy. I wore said jeans and tank with a proper orange and white sweater and hand-knit socks (my Vols Victory Lace socks, of course) to the Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee men's basketball game at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tyler Smith had a super game. Bruce Pearl's guys played better than they did the previous week and won big over arch rival Vandy. I, having degrees from both universites, could not lose as a fan...but make no mistake, I am a Vols fan all the way. GO BIG ORANGE!!!

Busy Bugs

I just thought I'd post a quickie to let ya'll know I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I am alive and battling a respiratory bug which means I sleep even more than usual. When not sleeping I am knitting like crazy. I've had a acute case of finishitis followed by a case of blockitis. I have a number of new shawls ready to wear to show for it all. The unusually cold weather here in East Tennessee has prompted me to buy some fat yarn and use broomstick-sized needles to knit some toasty warm hats for my cold head. I made my first foray into entrelac knitting and I think I am hooked!

Before I hear the clamour about where are the pictures I will just say you have to be patient. I have taken them, but my poor old 'puter was so overloaded it just couldn't handle them. The good news is that Sinterklaas visited me on St. Nicholas Day and left me a present that was too big to fit into my wooden shoes...a new computer!!! A fast computer with lots of horsies under the hood (4G RAM/640G hard drive) and a big flat panel widescreen monitor. It's so clear and bright it almost makes my eyes hurt. In between naps I'm trying to move my files from the old 'puter to the new one. My attempts thus far to get my wireless access hardware to work and get online have failed miserably so I'm offline for the most part for a few more days. I do try and check my email every day or two so I will get important messages eventually. As for the projects photos, there are a bunch under beadntat on Ravelry. The rest will be forthcoming. Until then...Ho, Ho, Ho and don't sweat the small stuff...It's Christmas and you're supposed to feel a little joy, OK? Have a Holly Jolly adn I'll be back faster adn better than ever very soon. {{{HUGS!!!}}}

Halloween and other scary things

The month of October has come to an end. It's Halloween, a holiday celebrated with almost as many parties and candy as Christmas. Halloween these days is quite different from the one I knew as a kid. I remember getting dressed up in simple (mostly) homemade costumes and going door-to-door in the neighborhood Trick-or-Treating. We used pillowcases to collect our candy. Daddy always went with us so that nothing bad would happen. Daddy went trick-or-treating twice as a kid...without parents as was the norm in those days...and both times he got beat up by neighborhood bullies who promptly stole all his candy (OK, so he was a wimp). Daddy wasn't about to let someone do that to his precious darlings :-) We came home, carefully sorted our candy, then negotiated swaps with our siblings to get rid of the stuff we didn't want (black licorice, malted milk balls, peanut butter "kisses") for better stuff (Snickers, Reeses', Butterfingers, etc.). That was pretty much it.

Things have changed. By the time the kids have worn their costumes to Halloween events (Trunk or Treat at Church, Boo at the Zoo, Trick or Treating at the Mall, "Safety City" at the police Dept., area corn maze attractions, plus the local park and school) for at least a week, going Trick or Treating on the 31st is rather anticlimatic. We won't go into details about how much more candy the kids haul in nor the sugar high they've been on all week long. Yikes!!! I call this EXCESSIVE!

While I'm ranting about excessive let me tell you about a shower I was recently invited to. The "invitation" was sent via a website that specializes in sending "e-vites", a rather interesting phenomena that I'm not all that keen on. It seems that the availability of a free internet service (sponsored by retailers that feature registry services for the bride or mother-to-be) for inviting people to showers and other parties is the easiest way ever to invite an enormous number of people to come to an event...and bring presents. Lots of presents! Cutting and pasting lists of email addresses is fast and easy not to mention cheap. I don't recall ever attending a bridal or baby shower where there were 70+ invitees in the days of hand addressed, stamped and post-office mailed printed/engraved invitations. Excessive is easy when it's free and online. At least this most recent e-vite was to a shower being hosted in a private home. Previously I was e-vited to shower held at a cafe where attendees were free to order food and beverages--and pay for it--if they wanted to. I guess I'm Old Fashioned, but I find such things to be terribly rude.

My most recent e-vite was for a baby shower. The honoree is having her 5th child. FIVE! Please RVSP and oh, btw the mom-to-be is registered at Baby R Us :-) OK...I totally get a shower for the 1st child...even the 2nd, but I remember the shower for baby #4 just a few years ago, and now it's #5. Forgive me for thinking that this is a bit excessive, but really???? I mean I like the honoree and all and I have no problems with having 5 children, but puhleeze! Five baby showers is excessive in my book. I have recently learned that many Moms-to-be being feted with showers are requesting gifts of disposable diapers. Add this to my list of things in appallingly bad taste. Why don't we just have a donation drive at church or the office or wherever and everyone bring a couple of boxes of Luvs to contribute so the poor child will have something new to poop on? What happened to offering gifts that are of lasting value, perhaps even sentimental value, or at least something that can be worn more than a few hours before being thrown away? What happened to beautiful blankets, silver spoons, or even crib sheets? When it is baby #5 I'd rather fuss over the mother with lotions, bubble bath, or a giftcard for a manicure than tie a ribbon around a box of wadded padding encased in plastic cartoons that will be in the landfill in a few short weeks.

I don't know, maybe my Old Maid is showing. After all, I've never best the honoree in a shower. No one ever gifted me with a crock pot, toaster, or a package of onesies. If you don't get married or have babies, especially in Mormon social culture, you are essentially overlooked...except to be e-vited along with all the other ladies at church to a shower for a dear woman who is having her fifth child. After careful consideration of the event and the time of day (10AM...yikes!)I politely declined the invitation. Having a chronic illness can be very convenient when you need an excuse to avoid stuff. Mom & Dad are going to be in Alabama that weekend so Mom has an excuse too. I'm not sending a gift either...surely the Mom has plenty of onesies and crib sheets. Heck, she probably has a silver spoon tucked away somewhere too. I doubt I'll be missed. At the very least I won't be at an event trying to gush appropriately while feeling like a hypocrite. If nothing else I am an honest woman.

The Best Laid Plans

It was bound to happen. After all the careful contemplation of patterns, extensive swatching, a fair amount of math, and a sleeve aka lace pattern swatch I felt confident that I had done everything in my power to assure that this time the sweater I am knitting would fit. This one was not going to be wide enough for two persons like my previous attempts, after all, I am a much more experienced knitter now. O know what to do and I did it (that "S" thing).

I cast-on the stated 259 sts and started knitting this all-in-one-without-side-seams cardigan with great confidence. I knew the reverse stockinette stitch edging was supposed to undulate so it would take at least one repeat of the lace pattern before I could pass judgment on size. I chose to use a 60" Addi-Turbo needle so I could do a test "try-on" as I knit. Let's just say it didn't take a full repeat for me to know that once again, this cardigan was way too wide. It should be my motto...Way Too Wide. It was at least 4 inches too wide...possibly more. It was late at night (my best knitting time). I groaned and pitched the thing into a basket and called it a night.

The next morning I re-evaluated the situation. I did a bit more math, then I frogged the whole things and started over knitting one size smaller. The test-sleeve will have to be frogged too since the rate of increases is quite different in the smaller size. SIGH! This will be a beautiful sweater that fits...if it kills me!!!


In a fever of Startitis a couple of weeks ago I also cast-on a triangle shawl that I saw on Ravelry. It was a new pattern by an indie designer, Rebecca Hatcher of Archiknist, called Ariel. It was a simple top-down triangle shawl with one lace motif comprising the body of the shawl -- a style similar to that of my favorite designer Evelyn Clark. In a impulsive moment I purchased and downloaded the shawl. Then I dug out a cone of ColourMart merino laceweight yarn in a delicious pinky-raspberry shade and went to work. First I triple stranded the yarn to create a fingering weight (My ball winder and right shoulder have yet to forgive me for this), then I grabbed a big size 6 needle and cast-on. What a wonderful pattern! What a delicious yarn!! What a yummy shawl this is becoming!!! As of this morning I have ten repeats of Chart B (main chart) completed. I have lots of yarn so I'll knit until the shawl is big enough or until I'm sick of knitting on it. Either way it will be fabulous :-)


I didn't need to cast-on for the Ariel Lace Shawl because I have a backlog of KAL shawl projects that need my attention. But who's looking at the practical facts here? Not me. I also cast-on a brand new Stole from Birgit Freyer's Yahoo Group Knitting-Delight. I really love Birgit's design esthetic. Perhaps it is the German blood in me that bonds us, but she has more great designs that I would love to knit that I can ever imagine having the time for. The awful exchange rate makes it expensive for me to buy many of my favorites, but I do collect her free KAL patterns. When the 1st clue of her new Way of Life Stole was posted, I cast-on the same day using some Knit Picks Gloss Lace Yarn from my stash. This shawl is knit sideways having over 300 cast-on stitches. The pattern has been a geometric lace pattern that is repeated 17 times for the length of the stole. Not very complex really, but amazingly attractive and interesting. I have the 1st 4 clues completed and am anxiously awaiting the release of the 5th clue on Thursday.

All this spontaneity means I haven't finished several WIPS, nor have I written the sock patterns I have promised to do. I feel only slightly guilty. I will try to do better by at least getting the patterns done as folks are waiting on them. The WIPS are only about me, so they don't matter nearly as much. In the meantime, I'm trying to do as much knitting as I can given that my fibromyalgia is in a rage and my right arm fells like someone is trying to yank it out of it's socket. Yeeeouch! (that's a huge understatement). I rested it some on Sunday and Monday by taking time off to read Debbie Macomber's wonderful knitty novel The Shop on Blossom Street. The book was completely delightful and I've started reading the sequel A Good Yarn. If my shoulder won't let me knit then I guess I'll have to settle for reading about knitters. Such is life :-)

The "S" word

I am living proof that you can convince an old dog to do the old tricks she never bothered to do before. Huh? Well this Old Knitter has finally learned that if you want the outcome of your knitting to be what you expect(ie, if you want the sweater to fit), then you must SWATCH. Whew! There, I said it...the S word. SWATCH. You know, that thing I never did way back when I first started trying to knit sweaters from craft store quality yarn, only to discover that the finished garment was big enough for two people at least 8 feet tall to wear...at the same time! Don't ask me why I didn't figure this out until the sweaters were finished. I don't know. They had big wide horizontal stripes too (eek!). And some were knit out of Sugar n Cream yarn, so they continued to grow, and grow, and GROW!

So... I am older and wiser now. I'm a much better knitter too. This means that I have repented of my sins and have given in to the knitting of swatches. LOTS of swatches. I have committed to Knitting Fearlessly along with the rest of knitting world that reads the Knitting Daily blog. For me this means I will knit a "big girl" sweater this year. Given that it is September already, my time is running out and I need to get going. I have dug through my yarn & pattern stash and conducted intensive "research" at my LYS and my favorite online retailers in preparation for this big event. But before any serious decisions about patterns and yarn could be made I knew I had to swatch. I'm talking serious swatching! And so I have! There are funny little blocks of knitted fabric scattered across my room/studio and copious detailed notes scratched into my sketchbook as evidence that I am making progress! Scary, I know.


Up first was some Italian 15/44 Extrafine Merino DK (aka Baruffa Cashwool) from ColourMart.com. Richard was very gracious to send me samples of 3 colors (Tartan Rose, Tartan Green, Geranium) I was interested in purchasing. The samples arrived last Thursday and I wasted no time in swatching to see how this yarn knitted up. Each yarn sample was 7g/~20 yds. I measured them at ~13wpi. Gauge measurements were taken at three intervals: 1)immed. after knitting with the swatch pinned out but not stretched, 2)after handwashing in very warm water with shampoo and towel drying (sample still damp), and 3)after tumble drying for ~15 min. on the low heat/knit setting. All swatches were stretched, rubbed and otherwise "abused" by hand while still damp. Here are the gauge measurements:


A. Tartan Rose - US 5/3.75mm Addi-lace needles, cast-on 30 sts
1) 24sts x 32r/4"sq or 6sts x 8r/1"sq
2) 26sts x 32r/4"sq or 6.5sts x 8r/1"sq
3) 24sts x 36r/4"sq or 6sts x 9r/1'sq
A fairly firm fabric, great for designs in St st that require body, great for a sweater; the yarn was easily split with the pointy lace needles.


B. Tartan Green - US 6/4.0mm Addi-Turbo needles, c/o 30sts
1) 22sts x 30r/4"sq or 5.5sts x 7.5r/1"sq
2) 24sts x 30r/4"sq or 6sts x 7.5r/1"sq
3) 22sts x 34r/4"sq or 5.5sts x 8.5r/1"sq
Knit wonderfully smooth on the turbo needles with no splitting whatsoever, a very nice fabric that was neither too firm nor too loose. My #1 choice for gauge :-)


C. Geranium - US7/4.5mm Addi-Turbo needles, c/o 26sts
1) 20sts x 28r/4"sq or 5sts x 7r/1"sq
2) 21sts x 28r/4"sq or 5.25sts x 7r/1"sq
3) 20sts x 34r/4"sq or 5sts x 8.5r/1"sq
Technically this is a worsted gauge, but the fabric was more open or loose, not as cohesive for a St st project such as a sweater, better for lace. This swatch stretched out quite a bit after washing, though drying returned the body back to the knitted fabric.

I found the yarns pleasant to knit in their original, unwashed state. Splitting may be an issue if pointy-tipped needles are used. The fiber bloomed beautifully after washing and a brief tumble-dry. There was no evidence of felting> I would briefly finish drying the completed item in a tumble-dryer the first time, but would not machine-wash or routinely tumble-dry this yarn. My final swatches were wonderfully soft and cuddly, perfect for sweaters or baby things. It is very evident that this is a premium/best quality merino wool yarn.

I fell completely in love with this DK merino yarn. It will be the best yarn I've ever attempted to knit into a sweater. That fact alone bodes well for the success of my project. I will be FEARLESS! I will also post about my other swatches as I get to it :-)

Nicht Mein Tag

I was trying to wade through/delete all the knitting group messages from my overstuffed Yahoo mailbox tonight (blame the distraction of the Olympics) when I came across this message from Birgit Freyer, a German designer of lovely knitted lace shawls:
Oh jeeeh,heute ist nicht mein Tag ;-). Birgit, I couldn't have said it better myself. Loosely translated she said Oh jeez, today is not my day. Me neither Birgit, me neither. My German is pithy poor, but I know enough to be able to translate that line. Some aspects of my body clock/biorhythms are disgustingly predictable. Like every 4th Thursday I will have a migraine, sometimes a little one, sometimes a monster...a migraine that may last until Sunday. Blame hormones. Today's migraine was a real doozy. Not being able to find where mother hid the Excedrin (my most effective weapon) did not help matters. I take more potent pain meds for my fibro, but for some reason Excedrin works as well or better than any prescription migraine med I've ever tried. I've tried lots of them, and at around $15-20/pill those other meds are budget busters. I'll stick with Excedrin and a Diet Coke thankyouverymuch >:-(


And while today was nicht mein Tag,, I did make some more progress on the 3rd design in my series of Tennessee sock patterns. In this design I abandon lace in favor of the more traditional/classic look of the orange and white checkerboard. The checkerboard pattern is a revered symbol at The University of Tennessee. Football fans know the endzones at Neyland Stadium are painted in orange and white checkerboard, but did you know that the checkerboard is an architectural detail on the bell tower of Ayres Hall on the Hill? I was looking at some photos of Ayres Hall the other day and noticed the checkerboard for the very first time...how cool! So inspired I designed this sock with a checkerboard band at on the cuff, and intarsia Power T on the top of the foot, and contrasting orange afterthought heels and toes. It's an ambitious project for me as it's my 2nd ever stranded colorwork project and my 1st experience with intarsia and afterthought heels. This photo is not good as this lighting is way off, but I'll get a better one when the 1st sock is done.

I'm quite thrilled with the results thus far. I'm enjoying the learning process. Even more shocking, I'm loving the break from lace (gasp!). I know, shocking. I may get into this colorwork thing yet ;-) Kick-off is only 4 short days away.... GO VOLS!!!

Vols Victory Socks

Vols Victory Socks
Originally uploaded by beadntat

The first football game of the season is less than a week away and I'll be ready to cheer on my beloved University of Tennessee Vols in my new Vols Victory Socks! The second in a series of UT themed sock designed by yours truly under the Plaasabilites Design label, the Vols Victory Socks incorporate a simple V patterned lace motif. Not known for my speedy sock knitting, these socks were a quick knit..only 4 days! Not bad for knitting and designing socks for this gal.

The scoop:
Pattern: Vols Victory Socks
Designer: Kristina Plaas
Source: Plaasabilities Designs
Yarn: J. Knits Superwash Me - Go UT!
Needles: US 2 (2.75mm)
Gauge: 8 sts/"
Started: 22Aug08
Finished: 26Aug08

Details: A top-down sock design with Victory Lace pattern, Eye of Partridge heel flap and Star Toe knit in the round using the Magic Loop technique.

Look for the pattern soon at The Yarn Haven in Knoxville, TN and online. Go Vols!!!

Vols Victory Socks

Vols Victory Socks
Originally uploaded by beadntat

By popular request I am designing sock patterns to complement the J. Knits Superwash Me Go UT! sock yarn sold exclusively at The Yarn Haven in Knoxville, TN. I created another design last year when the yarn first came out, but I had mixed feelings about the pattern so I didn't write it up. To be truthful, my reservations were excessive and not warranted as the finished socks (Volunteer Spirit Socks) look great. But the Volunteer Spirit lace pattern did have some tricky aspects that would be challenging to less experienced knitters so I went back to my sketch book and tried to come up with something that still communicated the spirit of the Vols but would be more accessible to lees-skilled sock knitters.

And so I present the beginnings of the Vols Victory Socks. The V is for Vols is still there, but the lace is simple to knit. I am knitting the socks from the top down with an Eye of Partridge heel flap and, when I get there, a star toe (no grafting!). When I get finished the pattern will be made available for purchase at The Yarn Haven and online. The Volunteer Spirit Socks will also be available for purchase soon. University of Tennessee fans and those who knit for them will soon have their very own handknit socks to help them cheer the Vols on to Victory. Go Vols!!!

Play the Anthem, Raise the Flag..

 
Bow to Bobicus Maximus, Wave to the Crowd, and say "Hi Mom!", I finished my Ravelympics Events with honor, and under the time limit. Yes indeedy, I cast-off my Angel Lace Shawl with beads last night. This morning I did the bath and blocking thing. I am done :-)

The scoop:
Pattern: Angel Lace Shawl
Designer: Evelyn Clark
Source: FiberTrends, purchased at my LYS, The Yarn Haven
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace - color: lavender, 70grams/613 yards
Needles: Knit Picks Options US 4 (3.5mm)
Beads: 8-0 Ivory Ceylon (Czech) - 415 total
Dimensions: 50" x 23" not stretched; 72" x 33" blocked

Final word: A great design; the only troublespot was my split plied splicing technique failed me at blocking and required repair. I think the Misti Alpaca is too fragile for this technique if a severe blocking is planned. I'll use a different technique with this yarn in the future.

Tag, you're it!

A week or two ago I was tagged by Lovie, my nephew Tyler's mother-in-law, to reveal 5 things I love a lot. I generally dislike being "tagged" - it rates right up there with chain letters and spam for me. I refuse to tag others after me, but because I love your Lovie, I will respond to your request. I love many things, so limiting them to 5 is both a challenge an act of mercy on anyone else who is reading this.

First off I must say that I love my family. We're a small family, so staying in touch and being close isn't too hard. We each have very different tastes and preferences and are all strong-willed, so putting everyone in the same room at the same time and expecting all to be happy...well...no easy task. But we do love each other and look out for one another and that's the important thing.

Next I love the personal relationship I have with my Heavenly Father and my Elder Brother and Savior Jesus Christ. I love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have a firm testimony of the truthfulness of the church, it's leaders and teachings. 'Nuff said.

I dearly love the beauties of this world. I'm especially passionate about the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and all the treasures I find there. But no matter where I am, I find joy in the flowers and trees and birds and everything that is beautiful around me.

The 1st three items on this list were easy. The rest of the list is just one of the many little things that fill my life with joy. I love good music. I played the cello growing up and learned to love classical music. I also love to sing and have a special fondness for sacred and classical music, opera, and good old American favorites from movies and musicals and other traditional sources. I also love the arts of almost every genre. I love going to galleries and museums and arts festivals. I love attending plays and concerts. But, lest one think I'm all artsy-fartsy let me assure you that I love sports too. While I am not gifted athletically, I'm a great fan of my favorite sports: college football, college basketball, figure skating, gymnastics, road cycling & the Tour de France, swimming, etc. And finally, I love being creative and learning new things. Whether it's contemplating nursing theory, discovering history, or mastering a new knitting technique, I'm always learning new things. Each discovery I make adds to my understanding of the world, other people, and myself. Each new thing prods me to think thoughts I've never had before, make things I've never made before, and expands my world. It's a wonderful way to be :-)

What does 08.08.08 mean???

It's supposedly a very lucky number in China. How convenient that it happened to fall on a Friday this year...perfect timing for the Opening Ceremonies of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, China. I love watching the Olympics - everything from the Opening Ceremonies to most of the competitive events (nix wrestling, boxing, and a couple of others) to the Closing Ceremonies - it's all fascinating to me. Some sports I follow all the time - gymnastics, swimming, cycling are among my favorites. Some sports are novel to me. This year I've learned a little about the team sport handball. And to think I thought handball was a game played by 2 people in a racquetball court!


A more recent "sporting event" added to my "Olympic experience" has been knitting. It all started 2 years ago when Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka The Yarn Harlot got the wild idea to have an international knitting event of challenge and goodwill in association with the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy in 2006. And thus the Official Knitting Olympics was born. The KO is be held every 4 years in true Olympic tradition associated with the winter games. But the idea caught on in an enormous sort of way, so with the Beijing summer games looming on the horizon a comparable, but distinctly different Olympic event for fiber fanatics seemed inevitable. And what is the biggest thing to come along since The Yarn Harlot and Torino? Why Ravelry, of course! I love Ravelry, or at least most of the time I do, so it was the logical venue for hosting an Olympic-sized event. And so the Ravelympics were born. The knitters and crocheters, representing their unique teams, cast-on for their respective events during the Opening Ceremonies and work feverishly to complete their projects before the Olympic Flame is turned off in Beijing.


I was a beginning lace knitter 2 years ago during the Knitting Olympics. My chosen project was very ambitious - my 1st lace shawl. I knit Kiri in a heavy laceweight/light fingering weight red cashmerino. I finished in time, basked in the glory of my triumph, and forever sealed my addiction to lace knitting. Now, 2 years and many shawls later, I'm still knitting lace and loving it. This time the choice of what to knit was difficult as there were so many awesome patterns to choose from. I signed up for Team G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised In The South, one of the Ravelry groups I participate in) and entered the Shawl Relay, Laceweight Long Jump, and Balance Beads. That was the easy part. The rest was hard. I needed to use yarn from The Yarn Haven, my favorite LYS as I am also participating the int shop's Olympic event. That limited my pattern options some. The rest of the decision should have been easy--choose something you like that you know you can do. But could I do that??? No way! No, I desperately wanted to knit Mystic Meadows, an ambitious cables and lace stole that would be hard to complete in the 17 days of the Olympics. I quietly entered 3 shawl projects into the Ravelympics, knowing I would knit only one. Every good gymnast has an alternate plan for each routine, right? Right!


OK, so that's the scoop. Now to the event. I cast-on during the Opening Ceremonies. I started my ambitious project - the Mystic Meadows shawl. I calculated in advance that I needed to knit between 25-30 rows per day in order to finish the "race". It was ambitious, but doable, I thought. But 3 1/2 hours and 13 rows later, with a fair amount of tinking to correct mistakes, I knew I was in over my head. Could I knit this shawl in 17 days? Absolutely. Could I knit the shawl AND watch the Olympics? Nope. No way. Mystic Meadows demands too much concentration. Too much counting. And so I set it aside and cast-on the Angel Lace Shawl, my alternate plan.

The Angel Lace Shawl is another wonderful pattern by one of my favorite designers, Evelyn Clark. Like many of Evelyn's shawl, Angel Lace is a top-down triangle shawl which starts with a few stitches at the neck and increases as the shawl progresses. I'm using a favorite yarn, Misti Alpaca Lace in a pretty pastel lavender, and adding ivory ceylon 8-0 seed beads to the "face" of each angel and along the bottom edge. I started on August 9th knitting the 1st chart and 4 repeats of the 2nd chart. I added 1-2 repeats each day until I completed 16 repeats last night and declared the shawl big enough. Today, the 10th day of Olympic competition, I started knitting the edging so I should be ready cast-on Tuesday or Wedsnesday. The Shawl relay referee decided that blocking was required for the "race" to be complete, so I will be doing that as soon as I finish casting off. I will triumph once again! And best of all...I will have another wonderful shawl to wear with pride and joy! Yea team!

When Kool-Aid meets Sock Yarn

DSCN0267
Originally uploaded by creativelydyed

This is what you get! Or at least this is what I got when I took Dianne's class at The Yarn Haven on Tuesday. Kool, huh? And yes, the yarn smells like grape and cherry Kool-Aid. Soon it will be a pair of anklets...that will smell better than most socks do ... a lot better !!! ;-D

Dyeing is Kool!

DSCN0265
Originally uploaded by creativelydyed

This photo is evidence that I did create my own hand-painted custom-dyed skein of sock yarn in Dianne's class at The Yarn Haven. We learned how to use Kool-aid to dye yarn..it was fun! Dianne encouraged me to get crazy with the colors, and I tried my best. I thank her for taking this photo and hope she doesn't mind that I'm sharing it with you. I had so much fun! I came away with the itch to start dyeing my own yarn. I also fell hopelessly in love with Dianne's own Creatively Dyed Yarn. Truly no two skeins are ever alike as she paints each one individually. There are no standards shades or stock colors...a unique thing in the dyeing world. I bought one skein of fingering weight alpaca in shades of hot pink and pearl gray. Of all the yarns Dianne delivered to the shop on Tuesday, that was the one that screamed at me the loudest. I just love it when yarn starts talking to me. Thanks Dianne...you ARE the BEST!!!

Creatively Dyed Yarn

DSCN0270
Originally uploaded by creativelydyed

It was a red letter day for yarn lovers in Knoxville. Dianne of Creatively Dyed Yarn personally delivered the first of what will be many shipments of custom-dyed/handpainted yarns and rovings to The Yarn Haven. Ohmigosh, the socks yarns were TO DYE FOR delicious!!! Dianne taught 3 classes on yarn dyeing using the Kool-Aid method. I was in the last class of the day and I had a blast. This picture of Dianne (left) and Sandy (LYS owner, right) was taken in back of Dianne's trailer after the festivities were over. Can you believe they were still smiling (and ignoring how much their feet hurt)? I was standing just to the side of the trailer when this picture was taken...so I hope Dianne doesn't mind that I'm sharing her picture with all of my knitting friends. I was a great day!

Ketchup??? Fessin' Up!

Now if that title didn't grab your attention, I don't know what would :-) But the time has come for me to ketchup on my blogging and fess up as to what I've been doing for the last few weeks. My last few blog posts were filled with images of my spring garden. I love sharing my garden with ya'll, but the truth is I was working on a Top Secret knitting project so I couldn't blog about it. Why? Because the intended target always reads my blog, of course! Now the the mission was accomplished, I can tell all :-)


Several months ago I sent my dear friend Diana some yarn to finish a shawl she was knitting as a gift. She had that dreaded I'm almost done and the yarn is gone! experience. Fortunately I happened to have the very same yarn from the same dyelot even. Cool! So Ms. Di sent me her snail mail addy and I discovered that she lived in a really neat historic town in West Virginia--just the kind of place I love to visit. I dropped an atom bomb sized hint that I would love to come for a visit and see the territory. Diana figured it out and invited me to come. Oh joy!!!


Now my Mother raised me to be a proper lady and I know how to be a good houseguest (thanks Mom!). I started to think about what I could bring as a hostess gift. The first thing that came to mind was something knitted, of course. I was inspired by some Malabrigo lace yarn at my LYS in Diana's favorite color - purple. I bought 2 skeins and headed home to figure out what to make with it. Then I learned that Diana's beloved Father-in-law Bill was ill and she was very concerned. That's when I knew I had to knit a lace shawl. I scoured my files and the 'net for the right pattern, found one I liked, and cast-on. About 25 rows in to the bottom-up triangle shawl I realized the pattern wasn't right for the task at hand, I frogged the whole thing and started my search all over again. I had 1 month left to knit the shawl.


I learned that Bill's health was deteriorating about the same time that I ran across Myrna Stahman's pattern, Alix's Prayer Shawl, in my files. At last, the perfect pattern! I knew I had the right yarn and the right pattern, but the combo of the two demanded that I add beads as well, and so I did.

Cast-on: May 8th
Knit, knit, knit. Bead, bead, bead.
Cast-off: June 8th
Whew, just in the nick of time!

The scoop:
Pattern: Alix's Prayer Shawl
Designer: Myrna Stahman
Source: DebbieMacomber.com
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace, 2 skeins (100g) color-Jacinto (~80g used)
Needles: Addi-Lace US 5 (3.75mm)
Beads: Matsuno 8-0 clear silverlined, ~25g (513 beads used)
Knit Main Chart (a-d) + 8 reps of section d = 11 reps + 1rep modified edging.
Final stitch count (before last row and cast-off): 441 sts
Blocked Dimensions: 76" x 38"


I gift-wrapped the shawl along with a lavender "bottle" made with fresh lavender from my garden, packed my car and headed to West Virginia on June 11th. After an 8-hour drive up I-81 and a little jaunt through the country side I arrived at the humble home of Diana and Tony. Eager to see her reaction, I offered up my gift of love that night. The look on Diana's face was priceless. She was almost speechless...almost ;-) I think she liked it... a lot. I was *very* happy.

To be continued...