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!!!

Row 367 - Check!

Yup-- I checked off the last row on the last chart of the Mystic Waters Shawl. Getting through that last chart proved to be a hellish experience. Long rows can be perilous! Why? Because you don't realize you did something wrong until 100, 200, or more stitches have passed. Tink, tink, tink!!! If I was a drinking and swearing woman, which I am not, I could have been tempted to outdo any sailor. Good thing I don't engage in such behaviors ;-D


It was terribly frustrating because I don't typically have such issues when knitting lace. Perhaps it was the very dark purple yarn which made things hard to see, despite my very excellent halogen gooseneck lamps (Ott lights give me migraines). Perhaps it was the very long rows and the relatively heavy, bulky pile of yarn-now-shawl in my lap. Perhaps it was fatigue, although I typically do my best work late at night. I don't know. While the stitches were simple, the shawl's design was complex. You really couldn't relax or take comfort in repetition either, because there was very little of that. Of course the same features are what made Mystic Waters such a fascinating shawl to knit! It's different! It wasn't just another triangle shawl knit from the top down ala Evelyn Clark-style with a handful of lace patterns from the Walker Treasuries. Don't get me wrong, I like those shawls too, but there are times when a gal just needs to knit something different. Mystic Waters is very different.

So the last row has been knit. All that remains is the sideways knit-on edging along the top. It's kinda cool because this finish resembles the yo/garter st edging of the sides, something i haven't encountered before. I wasn't sure about knitting this strange finish and was considering doing something more typical. But I hit the photo files on Ravelry in search of a picture of a finished shawl. I needed to *see* this edging as I couldn't visualize it in my mind. Once I saw it I knew it was the perfect finish. It's one of those "takes forever" knit-on edgings so it may be days before I get through it. You'll all know about it 'cuz the earth will shake when I cast-off the last stitch. Kidding, just kidding :-D

So, with Mystic Waters almost done it's time to move on to new things. And what could be a better than to start off a new year of knitting with a brand new swift? I'm deliriously happy about getting a swift. I've wanted one for more than a year, but swifts are expensive...and I am poor so I didn't think it was possible. Then a fellow member of the Lace Knitters list mentioned getting one from JoAnn's.com using a 50% off coupon. I got a coupon in the mail a few days later which made the price just right and I ordered one right away. I chose the big birch wood model because I've had problems winding very fine lace yarns or very large hanks using the smaller metal & plastic swifts. I've wound 2 balls thus far and my new swift passed the test with flying colors. Happy, happy, joy, joy!


As for the new year/new projects I cast on some new socks last week while sitting in the hospital with my father. I took my JKnits Go UT! sock yarn (which has been sitting on my desk for months), several pairs of dpns, and my sketchbook with me to the hospital. I had already decided to create an original sock design that reflected that Tennessee Vols spirit. So I sat in a dark corner of Daddy's room at UT Hospital with my orange and white yarn, sketch book and pencil in hand, and the UT/Vanderbilt Men's basketball game on TV, and started to sketch out the lace motif. After a few few tweaks to the design I cast on for my Volunteer Spirit Socks. I knit a good portion of a cuff before the ballgame ended (we won---big!) and continued with it the next day while doing my daughterly duty as the "night shift nurse." Once I had the cuff almost completed I decided something didn't look quite right. I wasn't sure I liked the placement and slant of my decreases relative to the yarnovers. So, I grabbed some leftover yarn and did a little swatching, trying out several variations until I found the one I think looks best. The fabric of the knitting on my 1st version was too loose and didn't look good either so I frogged the whole thing. But I did think to snap a picture before the frog croaked. Ribbit, ribbit. I have cast-on once again and reknit the ribbing. Stay tuned for another progress report :-)

Goodies!

My wonderful mail lady just came and brought me not one, but 2 packages from Richard at ColourMart. Goodies!!! And not just goodies, but goodies on an achy breaky bad body day that had me feeling rather grumpy. I was expecting one package from Richard, but 2 was a pleasant surprise. This man is *so* generous! I ordered a cone of red cashmere laceweight hoping it was a deep ruby red, with blue undertones and not orange ones. i don't look so good in the orangey stuff. I put a note with my payment indicating my color desire, hoping I had make a good choice as my monitor is old and not color reliable at times. Richard wrote me back to tell me the color I had chosen was probably not what I was hoping for, but he had just come across some Loro Piana cones that he thought would be more to my taste. Sweet man, he sent me a cone of each yarn. Sure enough, the first cone was a bit too "brick" colored, but the 2nd cone was perfect! I am casting on for a new shawl tonight!


The cashmere wasn't the only "just because I like you and you're a good customer" complimentary skein I received this week. Nope. Sweet Sandy at the Yarn Haven gifted me with a skein of Araucania sock yarn I was admiring last Thursday. It was her way of saying thanks for the lace scarf I designed and knit for the shop. I was so thrilled with how the Havenly Scarf turned out that I had to take it to her even before I had finished writing the pattern. All the ladies at the FNKC had nice things to say about it and I think I motivated at least one to venture into lace knitting :-)


I got a bit artistic with the photo shoot for the Havenly Scarf, but the fall colors in the trees and the summer colors lingering in the garden was just too much to pass up. I'm *so* pleased with how the scarf turned out. The yarns were so bright and cheerful! The Madil Kid Seta provided wonderful softness with just the right amount of FF (Fluff Factor) and the Cascade Copa added sheen and rich body--just the right amount of heft--to the airy ZigZag patterning. I'm feeling the "designers itch" again and my sketch book shows it. I've got a shawl and a sock pattern in the works, plus a sock pattern that just needs to be typed up. Designers get their inspiration in all kinds of places. You won't believe where the inspiration for my shawl came from. Even I can't believe it! You'll have to wait awhile for the results though, as they won't be ready until after the 1st of the year at the earliest. this much I can tell you, the main pattern did not come from any stitch dictionary (evil grin :-)))


Lisa brought homemade drop spindles to FNKC and many of us got our 1st lesson in spindle spinning. I did just fine with the yarn "practice" but I had a harder time with the fleece. I think my issue is with getting a proper draft as I couldn't seem to get the fibers to separate and thin out enough to spin a nice fine yarn. The fact that I'm not used to "fat" yarn complicated matters too. But Lisa sent me home with extra roving, both wool and silk, and the spindle so I can fiddle around with it on my own. Cool!


As if all that isn't enough to smile about, I finished (finally!) a pair of socks that has been in my UFO basket for, well, I don't even know how long. Yes, the Morning Glory Ribbed Cuff Socks, so named for the Knit Picks yarn I used, are finito and ready to warm my tootsies on cold winter nights. Double Cool!

I'm knitting furiously on the Fall Herbs socks too. I turned the heel and finished the gusset on the 2nd sock last night so I'm getting close. I'm highly motivated to finish these because 1)they are the perfect color to be wearing now, and 2)I need the needles to knit the next pair of socks I'm eyeing. At what are they, you ask? Well, the hottest pattern OTN right now according to Ravelry. Cookie's Monkey Socks. I think the Monkey Socks will work well with the Araucania yarn to make a great pair of socks that will be the perfect go between my new brown twills and my favorite brown clogs. Triple cool!

I have more things up my sleeve, but they will have to wait for another post :-) I just wanted you to have a reason to come back....Bwha ha ha ha!

Thank God for Knitting, part 2

It's been a horrible, long week. I don't know how I would have survived without my knitting and the kind words of others who have reached out to me via my knitting. I dragged my Little River Socks with me, from one Doctor's office to the next and through 2 days at the hospital as I tended to the needs of my father and mother. It took the cardiothoracic surgeons a long time, but with patience and persistence they were able to remove the occluded stent in a major coronary artery, clear all the plaque and calcifications, and place 2 new stents to restore perfusion to his stressed heart. It was exactly what I had hoped for and Daddy came through the procedure like a rock. I *know* miracles happen and the Lord just delivered our family another one.

After spending Wednesday going to doctor's appointments (1st daddy's, then my own) I was quite dissatisfied with having to untangle my knitting from everything else in my purse. I've seen those cute little bags for on-the-go knitting, but I just don't have $20+ to invest in such things, BUT, I do have a great sewing machine and a serger and a fabric stash that exceeds my yarn stash. So I dug through some remnants leftover from other projects and started cutting and folding, stitching and pressing. No measuring needed for this simple project.
It was 10PM when I sat behind the sewing machine and whomped up the cutest little knitting bag I ever saw. Do you like the FROGS? I couldn't think of anything more suitable than frogs...besides, I needed cheering up! I put pockets on the inside-one big pocket on one side that can hold a paper pattern and any notions like cable needles and scissors or a measuring tape, and 3 long pockets on the other side to keep my dpns sorted by size. In the middle is enough space for 100g of sock yarn (balled or partially knit :-) The froggy bag performed perfectly on its test drive at the hospital yesterday so I am pleased.

I took a break after daddy had been transferred to his room and came home for an afternoon nap. I was thrilled to find a package from the Loopy Ewe in my mailbox! I've been surfing the specialty sock & lace yarn retailers online for months and finally decided to splurge and try one out. I had heard good things about Sheri at the Loopy Ewe from, of all people, Sandy, the owner of The Yarn Haven, my just-across-the-street LYS. There were oodles of yarns I wanted at the Loopy Ewe, but I narrowed it down to one sock yarn, a beautiful hand paint from Apple Laine, and one lace yarn from J Knits. Not only were my yarns beautiful beyond words, but they were meticulously wrapped in tissue paper before being sealed in a plastic bag and sent speedily to my door. I felt like I just got a present, and frankly, I needed one :-)


I have knitting progress to report, but I think I'll save it for another post as I'm pretty wiped out. Thanks to all of you who sent your well wishes and offered prayers for my family. I know they made a difference :-)

Better news

Now that I've vented about my fiasco with the Jaywalker socks I'm feeling a bit better about things. Or at the very least I'm ready to move forward to knitty success. I've been watching the Tour de France faithfully every day for 3 weeks. I've only been a Tour fan for a few years, but I don't suppose there ever was a Tour with more unexpected events--good and bad. And so it is with knitting I guess. The Jaywalker socks surprised me kind of like the 2 dogs the jumped out in front of cyclists during the Tour. Yup, twice it happened--once during the first week and again just the other day. And so I've had big socks. The Panda Cotton ones I caught early on and remedied, but the 2nd jaywalker was just a bad surprise. But the Tour and knitting socks must go on! Vive le Tour!


The first thing I did after throwing the bad jaywalkers in the frog pond corner was grab my yellow Panda Cotton socks. I'm knitting the Victorian Lace Socks along with the Six Sox group and it's a pretty nice knit. It took a while to get used to the Mini-Melon lace stitch, but once I mastered that things went pretty well. Of course I sort of altered everything else about the pattern except the top-down start and the lace pattern, but it was all minor things really. The best part is I just finished turning the heel on the 2nd sock and I'll have another great pair of PC socks to wear in a day or so. This is very good since I ***LOVE*** Panda Cotton yarn. I'm already plotting and planning to knit several more pairs out of this awesome yarn.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

I spent most of last week with my Addis flying to catch up knitting on my Bugs Shawl, the KAL most of the others have been working on for a month now. I'm all caught up and the next clue hasn't been posted yet so I'm waiting, waiting, WAITING!!! Not knitting on the bugs yesterday felt a little sad, but two days with no bugs is awful! I don't want to appear impatient, or insensitive to the busy lives of Mindy and her team of test-knitters, or any such unladylike behaviors, but please HURRY!!!
I probably shouldn't be whining as I could be doing other things, like sending graduation announcements to my long-distance friends and family, or attacking that list of Thank You notes that need to be written, or even getting my paperwork in order to start job-hunting, but that's not what I feel like doing. I feel like knitting BUGS! So yesterday I knit some on my flamingo pink striped Jaywalkers (2 more inches before I can start the toe decreases on the 1st sock). But I was having a very bad fibro day so I switched to knitting on a long-standing ufo, the Lavender Leaf Lace Shawl from Nancie Wiseman's book that I'm knitting in a Coral Zephyr. I have promised myself to finish the ufo shawls I have piled into baskets surrounding my recliner.

I wasn't up to working knit-on sideways edgings in fuzzy mohair (fir cone)or alpaca (Shetland Tea Shawl) but the LLLS was a perfect minimalist project. Actually this is a good beginner's lace shawl project. It starts at the bottom point and progresses up toward the top/neck line so you can easily knit the shawl as small or as large as you choose. That was a great option for me as I had one ~600 yd. ball of Jaggerspun Zephyr that I will knit until I have just enough left to do a garter stitch border before casting-off. I figure this will be a good-sized triangle scarf or a small shawl and just right for spring and summer accessorizing.

So, since I'm not knitting on Bugsy, I spent a little time catching up on my favorite blogs. In the process I found a nifty online retailer for sock yarns called, of all things, yarn4socks. They have tons of cool hand painted and hand dyed yarns at usual market prices. Oh I fell in love with several! In addition to a great yarn seller, I also found a nifty KAL called Summer of Socks 2007. The deadline to sign-up is soon, but the start day is in late June. As a part of the KAL there will be some competitions with prizes, none of which I'm likely to win, but I decided to join in the fun anyway. The start time should come close to the time I'll be finished with the bugsy thing. So here's the blog button. I'm in!

Sunday Feast

I was surfing my favorite blogs tonight when I came across an interesting blog thing on the Stitches of Violet site. Apparently there is a site Called Friday's Feast where they ask a multi-course meal of questions every week on, you guessed it, Friday's. So I'm a couple of days late, but here's my Sunday version:

Appetizer
Name something you would not want to own.
A motorcycle. They are noisy, dangerous things that greatly increase the risk of getting a permanent head injury. My head's already in bad enough shape, I don't need to take risks.

Soup
Describe your hair (texture, color, length, etc.).
Ultra fine, super straight, fairly thin, blonde, cut short!

Salad
Finish this sentence: I’ll never forget ___________.

Oh gosh! There are lots of answers to this one! How about the first day I met my sweet little Emme. She was 3 weeks old and so cute!

Main Course
Which famous person would you like to be for one day? Why?
Martha Stewart. The food, the gardens, the antiques, the craft room, the homes, need I go on????

Dessert
Write one sentence about yourself that includes one thing that is true and another thing that is not.
I am a very creative person and I'm impeccably neat (ROTFLOL)

OK, so I'm a bad liar! I guess that's because I never practice telling untruths. Honesty is so much easier ;o)

I knit a little on my Jaywalkers today. I knit my heel flap a little longer than the pattern calls for, but then Grumperina didn't design it to fit my foot exactly. I'm almost finished turning the heel. I so ***love*** these socks! I worked a little on my yellow linen suit too. I decided the peplum was too long, so I cut 2 inches off the bottom. The peplum covers the place where I'm the shortest--from the waist to the crotch, so it's no surprise that I needed to do some alterations at that point. What is surprising, however, is how perfectly the bodice of the jacket fits me. Yup, every curve is spot on. That is so hard to achieve and is nearly impossible to find in fitted ready-to-wear garments. I guess that's why I ended up sewing this outfit--I couldn't find anything suitable in the stores at any price point. All I have left now is to attach the front facings, make the buttonholes and add the buttons, and stitch in the hems. I figure it'll take 2, maybe 3 hours to get it all done. It's really an awesome suit ;-)

Rainy Day

It's Saturday, so of course it rained pretty much all day. I don't like gray, rainy days as they tend to send me into a blue funk, especially if I'm tired or hormonal. They also guarantee that the fibro pain will be at least twice what it normally is. But, we've been in a terrible drought and some of my plants, etc. are still struggling to recover from the Easter freeze, so we really *need* the rain in a big time bad sort of way. So what to do? Why stay at home and be creative, of course!

I spent most of the afternoon hunkered behind the sewing machine while the races at Churchill Downs played out on the TV. I just love watching the Kentucky Derby, and it was especially neat this year since the Queen of England was in attendance. The favorite, Street Smart, won the race but I was pulling for Nobiz like Shobiz. My choice of horses tends to be based very unscientifically on things like appearance and name and who the owner is and not so much on winning races prior to the Derby. I'm at least half way through making the jacket for my yellow linen suit. The pattern is quite unique and I'm pleased with how it's progressing. I'd never be able to buy something this pretty in a store, that's for sure.

As for knitting, I'm making progress on my Jaywalkers too. I'm working on the heel flap and should be ready to turn the heel late tonight or sometime tomorrow. My cuff is about an inch or so shorter than the pattern directs, but that's to accomodate my anatomy (mega calves above!!!). Otherwise, I have a perfect fit. I knew I would have problems if I just knit the largest size with 2.25mm needles as written, so I cast-on with 2.75mm, then knit the ribbing and 1st 20 rows of zig-zags with 2.5mm before dropping down to 2.25mm needles. I'm very happy it worked out and I didn't have to make more elaborate alterations.

I was a bit bummed that my yarn from ColourMart wasn't in today's mail, but the summer issue of Interweave Knits was in my mailbox instead. There were lots of lacy things in this issue, but no shawls. There was a tie around your hips sort of a shawl/skirt wrap thingie, but I guess I was hoping for another Icarus or Swallowtail type project for this summer--not that I need another shawl project right now, mind you ;-) Richard sent out an email announcing some laceweight alpaca yarns he had just posted on the website. I *adore* knitting with baby alpaca so I rushed right over to see what was there. There were only 2 colors, a caramel color and buttercup yellow, and only a few cones of each. At $16/cone I wasted no time in ordering a cone of yellow. YUM! This could make for some awesome knitting!

Worth the Wait

After multiple delays and 3 long months of waiting I finally received my copy of Sharon Miller's "Heirloom Knitting" from Amazon in the mail today. All I can say is it was worth the wait--WOW! I've wanted this book for about a year now but just couldn't justify the $56 price tag, so when Amazon finally discounted the price back in February I jumped at the opportunity. I knew to expect a 6 week wait when I ordered, but when the 6 weeks was past, they said it would be another 5-6 weeks. I pouted and groaned, but said I'd wait. I figured I was too busy writing to have time to do anything with it anyhow, and this way it would be a graduation present.

This is one of those knitting books Regenia would say you read "like a novel" because the stories are so fascinating. I love the BIG PRINT charts that you can actually read and the fact that the knitting techniques used to create such beautiful lace are so simple. I also love all the history behind the lace motifs. Knitting my own Shetland Shawl is going to be so much fun, all I need to do is figure out what I want to knit ans what yarn to do it with. I have some excellent candidates in my stash already.

I was hoping my yarn from Richard would arrive today too, but I guess the presents need to arrive one at a time. I'm on hold with the Bugs shawl until I figure out what yarn to use. As it is, I will most likely need to drop down to a size 3 needle as the size 4 was huge with the cashmere. In the meantime I'm having a blast knitting my Flamingo Pink Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn. Can you tell what pattern I'm using from the picture? I''l give you three clues: 1)It's an infamous free pattern from MagKnits, 2) it has ZigZag patterning, & 3) The designer is friends with Oscar the Grouch. Have you figured it out yet??? Yup, it's from our favorite "Yankee" knitter Grumperina--Jaywalker Socks! I've wanted to knit these for some time too, mostly because everyone else seems to have already knit them with either raving success or endless frustration. I'm finding them to be a very easy knit and a perfect choice for the striping of the Flamingo yarn.

And while we're on the subject of socks, I read the funniest comic strip yesterday. Well, maybe not the funniest, but in light of my current addiction to knitting socks, it was humorous. Check it out here

I haven't done much knitting today as I busy sewing a new outfit to wear to graduation. I tried my best to find something new that I could buy, but I totally struck out there so I gave up and hit the fabric store instead. I bought some deliciously rich butter yellow rayon/linen fabric that is perfect for the skirt and short-sleeve jacket I'm making. I cut the jacket out last night and the I cut and sewed the skirt this afternoon. Skirts go so fast it's hardly worth the frustration of trying to buy one. When I do find a skirt I like in the stores, I always have to hem them up, so I'm behind the machine no matter how you look at it. I'll post some pictures once I get things put together.