Presents

I turned my dissertation into the Dean of the Graduate School yesterday afternoon. It's DONE!!!!! So what's time is it now? It's time for the presents! I celebrated the event by stopping in at the Yarn Haven on my way home. My intent was to purchase another skein of CTH SuperSock yarn since I'm so happy with the socks I'm knitting from my 1st skein. The problem was I *so* tired I couldn't get excited by any of the colors I saw, or to be more precise, not excited enough by any one color to be able to choose *only* one (there were several I really liked). So I started looking around the shop and noticed Sandy had gotten in some new lace yarn from Skacel. Of course the pink caught my eye, but I didn't want to knit another pink shawl just yet as I need some diversity in my colors. Fortunately there was a very pretty soft lavender that appealed to me. The deal was sealed when I glanced up at the Crystal Palace Kid Merino that was the shelf right above the Skacel Merino lace--the Kid Merino was is a fuzzy melange of soft lavenders that matched the Merino Lace perfectly! Suddenly I knew that's the yarn I needed to knit the Spring Things Shawl--you know, the shawl that I cast-on and frogged umpteen times in different yarns with different needle sizes and haven't been happy with any of the choices to date? That shawl!

Well I cast-on yet again and this time I think it's going to work. I so hope I have found the right combination. I've never had this kind of trouble before. Usually it's just the opposite--I have more good choices available to me that the really decision is which one should I use first. I thought about this a lot over the last couple of days and have come to the conclusion it the specific lace pattern that is the majority of this shawl design. I've had troubles with this pattern before when I was trying to knit a scarf out of some lovely Habu Textiles Silk/Mohair kusa. I started and frogged this scarf 3 or 4 times before relegating this magnificent yarn to the frog pond for an extended visit (it's still there). I didn't realize that Spring Things used this lace pattern as I only really "saw" the lace in the border. Had known this in advance I would have chosen another shawl pattern I think, but I do like this shawl, so I'm hanging in there for now.

I have a couple of pictures of my new yarn acquisitions and the latest start of the Spring Things. I know, it looks pretty OK, maybe a little too lacy as the Skacel Lace Merino is *very* fine yarn, but it's OK. It's doesn't look like SPL's shawl in the pattern, but it's still OK. But what is noteworthy is.... (drum roll please!) the crisply clear, close-up photo! It's my graduation present which was delivered yesterday too! I told you I got *lots* of presents yesterday;o) It's the digital camera of my dreams. All the options I deem essential in a good camera. It's a Fuji FinePix s700, which has a 10x optical zoom in addition to the customary digital zoom features and it has a 2x macro feature which allows me to shoot an object as close as 4" away and be in perfect focus. This will be awesome for taking pix of wildflowers and knitting, two of my favorite subjects. The price was fantastic too (<$300) thanks to a today's special on HSN. So this means I'll have lots and lots of pictures to enhance my otherwise wordy blog. Presents are a good thing!

I Like Finishing Things Too!

Tonight's post is all about finishing. The picture is the 1st sock of the Lilac socks which I started a few days ago and finished in the wee hours of this morning. I have already cast on for the 2nd sock so as to not be guilty of SSS--again :-) Not that I would not finish this pair anyway because I am so in love with both the yarn and the pattern and the fit that I want to finish the 2nd one ASAP!

And why was I knitting in the wee hours of the morning you ask? Because I needed to unwind after finishing writing my dissertation. Yes, I spent a goodly portion of today proofing and making final tweaks and edits, but the thang is hereby declared to be finished!!! I have my multiples copies along with fancy forms and other red tape all ready to go to the Dean of the Graduate School tomorrow. WooHoo!!!!

In light of such valiant achievement, with its accompanying sleep deprivation and otherwise brain overload, I hereby do declare my brain as finished too! not too finished yet, as I have one quick paper to rip out to meet a long overdue class requirement for graduation, but I'm writing on it tonight already and since it's about my research, it shouldn't be too awful to finish fast! Fast is good too, 'cuz I'm fading fast. yup, finito, finished. VBG!!!

Bugs and Spring Knitting

Is this not the cutest KAL button you've ever seen? The knitty gang over at EZasPi are gearing up for this years' spring KAL which is a sequel to the Pi shawls we knit last year. Last spring the Mystery Pi KAL had a garden theme where folks could choose from flowers, veggies or just green foilage lace motifs to create their own unique circular shawl. Mindy, the wonder designer, has been coordinating these KALs and has done a marvelous, mammoth job of keeping everyone going in circles. The Garden KAL was my 1st pi shawl and after that I started the Shetland Tea Shawl from A Gathering of Lace (which still needs an edging). I went back to triangles and rectangles for awhile, but now I'm ready to knit another pi shawl. This time the group decided to use Bugs in the Garden as the theme since most of us really like ladybugs, butterflies, dragonflies, etc. I have no idea what Mindy and her helpers have come up with this time, but we're supposed to get our pre-start instructions on yarn selection, etc. sometime in the next week or so. I'm still debating on what yarn to use, but I'm awaiting further instructions from our fearless leader before deciding to knit from my stash or buy something new.


It's a good thing I still have a little time before the Bugs KAL gets under way as I have to finish my Lilac Socks and the Spring Things Shawl first. I still haven't cast-on for the STS for real, but I have ditched several swatches. I'll try again later this week, but right now I'm totally smitten with the Lilac Socks. I'm working on the instep of the 1st sock now, and I swear the thing gets prettier with every row! I *so* love this Cherry Tree Hill yarn! I never thought that I would be happy to see the Knit n Purl close, but with it's absence and the opening of 2 new LYS, I now have ready access to yarns I never would have seen at the KnP. I've learned that each yarn shop has it's personality and each owner buys what they like, or what they and their customers like, but if the owner isn't interested in a line of yarns you are pretty much out of luck. And right now I feel pretty darn lucky!

Be right back...I left something out front

In my last post I gushed all over myself about this amazing sock yarn from Cherry Tree Hill that I *had* to get at my LYS the other day. Well, I didn't let this beauty languish in the stash, no way. I joined in the Lilac Socks KAL and cast on late Wednesday night. I had the cuff done last night and I just finished turning the heel and picking up the gusset stitches this morning. This is the dreamiest sock yarn I've had the pleasure of using to date. I love the way the yarn is plied and twisted so that it is firm, yet soft all at the same time. The stitch definition is crisp and the melange of colors is nothing short of spectacular to my eye. I was a bit concerned about pooling, but things ended up working out OK without needing a cut and splice intervention.

I've learned a few new things in the process of knitting Jeanie's lovely pattern. First was how nice a k2p1 rib looks--better than k1p1 (which I hate) or k2p2. Next was how to knit tiny cables with tiny yarn on a project using 4 tiny dpns. Talk about fine motor control--yikes!! I haven't done much with cables lately and this was my 1st encounter with charted cables. Oh, I've seen them charted, I just haven't knit them from a chart so I needed a way to remember when to hold the stitches on the CN to the front or the back--I never can remember which is what when I'm knitting on a project that calls for both. I came up with the perfect little ditty to help me get it right. To make a right leaning cable the stitches are held to the back of the work and in a left leaning cable the stitches are brought to the front. So right is back and left is front became "Be right back...I left something out front." Ta da! I chanted my mantra and didn't have to tink a single cable for going the wrong way!

Now for the confession--knitting tiny cables on a project using 4 tiny dpns is a big PITA. Yuck, yuck, yuck! I do not like it Sam I am. In fact, I hated it so much I left the cable out of the last pattern repeat on the cuff. I figured it didn't really natter at that point and it was after midnight so...you get my drift ;O) If I'm going to continue to knit cabled socks I need to either master cabling without a cable needle (Grumperina shows how) or learn the "Magic Loop" technique or both! I am not knitting another pair of socks with cables on dpns--nope, no way! I considered leaving the cables out of the Lilac socks but darn it, I liked the swirling effect at the base of each "flower cluster" so I made the sacrifice this time--but never again.

The Lilac socks pattern is really wonderful, as are many of the sock patterns Jeanie has so generously shared for free to members of the Townsend Sock group. It's not a beginners sock, and it's knit cuff down with a traditional heel flap which might not make devoted toe-up sock knitters very happy, but it sure works for me. If you want your own copy, follow the link above or in the sidebar and join the group! It's a busy list, but folks are friendly and you can always lurk as needed (I do). I'm thrilled with how pretty the yarn is and how the sock is turning out. I will definitely be buying more Cherry Tree Hill SuperSock in the future--especially now that Sandy at my LYS across the street is carrying it. All I need is 10, maybe 15 minutes and some moola and I can have a new hank in my hot little hands ready to plop down and cast-on. How's that for instant gratification?

Rainy Days and Wednesdays

There's something about rainy days that just leaves me feeling yucky. Fibromyalgia and rainy days are arch enemies, ditto for SAD. I can't go for very long with out bright, cheery sunshine or I find myself in a blue funk that just ain't cool. Wednesdays are rough because Tuesdays are my most demanding day of the week, thus by Wednesday I'm weary and not very productive. Add the two things together and, well.... it's not a pretty sight.

The good news is the Big D is now at what my mother calls the Mini-skirt stage, that is the end is in sight. My major professor returned the last draft with her final edits and told me she didn't want to see it again--fix what needed tweaking and turn it in to the Dean of the Graduate School. WooHoo! The edits are quite minor, so that's nice given I still have to do a final proof of the reference list. Once that's done I can drop the page numbers into the Table of Contents, created the PDF file, and be done with it. Let me tell you, I am *so* ready to be done with it!

So instead of editing the Big D or writing the journal article that is also due ASAP in order to graduate, what am I doing? Yup, surfing and knitting. I stopped by the Yarn Haven on my way home yesterday thinking I would splurge on another 3.5mm Addi-Lace needle, this time in a 24" length. This is my favorite size needle for lace knitting and I really wanted the shorter length to start knitting on the Spring Things Shawl. It was just my luck, though, that Sandy had sold all US4/24" needles. She has them on order so I will get one when they come in, but in the meantime I'll just have to knit on with the 32" ones. I softened the blow by looking at all the yarn in the store--there are so many new ones I hadn't seen! I was especially taken with a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn in variegated hues of muted spring greens, purples, and yellows. The colors reminded me of irises, lavender, and pansies and I was so tempted. Then my left brain kicked in and reminded me of all the sock yarn I have in the stash already, and how I haven't knit much on socks recently (or anything else other than shawls for that matter), and how I needed to be frugal in order to have enough money at the end of the month to buy something if I so wished (and not be too broke to do so). I went home empty handed, feeling very proud of myself for exercising such restraint.

Can you guess where this is going? I thought about that yarn all evening, I even saw it in my dreams! Then when I woke up to a gray day and felt so achy breaky I knew that was it--I *had* to have that yarn! To top it off, Jeanie Townsend sent me her latest sock pattern for, of all things, lilac socks! And what would be perfect for lilac socks? The CTH yarn of my dreams. I stumbled out the door and made the 2 minute drive to Yarn Haven and bought that skein fast, before anyone else beat me to it (there was only one skein in that color). I confiscated my favorite dpns from some ufo socks and I am headed off to cast on. At last, something to smile about today :-)

Uh oh, It's another one of the quiz thingies

I am a Sunflower What Flower Are You?

"When your friends think smile, they think of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can't find something good about the world and your fellow human."

Happy Easter

I love Easter! It's my most favorite holiday and spring is my favorite time of the year. Even the record cold temperatures (low's in the 20s YIKES!) couldn't damper my spirits on this, the most significant day of the Christian year. I admit to getting a slow atart as I've had a migraine since yesterday afternoon, but fortunately for me church doesn't start until 12:30 so I was able to get things drugged and under control enough to make the Easter service. One of the unique things about being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka Mormons) is that multiple congregations (called wards) meet in the same building (called a meetinghouse). The Wards take turns as to gets the morning or afternoon schedule. It's not so bad here in TN when there's never more than 2 wards in a meetinghouse, in Utah it's common for there to be 3 or 4 and you could be going to church from 2-5PM. Not being much of a morning person, I always look forward to being on the afternoon schedule :-) If you are curious, you can find out more about the church here.

Mother suggested I stay home from church, given the migraine and all; however, I couldn't help but entertain the possibility that it might be my Father's last Easter on this earth (his health is so fragile, who knows?) and I knew I could not forgive myself if I wasn't sitting next to him singing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." The threat of death is a strange motivator I suppose. I dug in the back of my closet and pulled out a heavy spring sweater, one that doesn't get enough wear here in TN, and then in a moment of clarity, I wrapped up in my Garden Pi Shawl, secured with a bunny pin that was a gift from my dearly departed best friend Laura Lee, and headed off. I sang with my father and felt only marginally guilty about not singing in the choir again this year--I had a very good excuse this time :-) The choir was wonderful. It doesn't hurt that Phil and Caryn, our aspiring opera singers, have elevated the sound of the choir to an all-time high. But the highlight of Sacrament meeting was the talk given by my dear friend Mitch Borden about Christ and the Good Shepherd. He talked about shepherds and sheep and told of the history behind the text of Psalms 23 as a part of his Easter message. This information was new to me and held special meaning in light of my newfound interest in sheep and wool and my knitty friends who raise sheep. Mitch promised to send me a copy of his message. I'll try to post a copy when I get it if I figure out a way for folks access it online.

As if listening to Mitch Borden's wonderful message wasn't enough to lift my spirits, my friend Elaine, listmom of the EZasPi group, sent the endorphins soaring. You see she posted a darling photograph of a laughing little boy and a lamb from Diana Cooper on the group homepage then asked group members to come up with a suitable caption. In a moment of Dissertation-induced delirium, I submitted my idea. You can see the photo and caption on Elaine's blog, Out of Hand. Apparently Elaine likes puns, so my caption was named the winner! How cool is that??? Diana responded by saying "Seems I'm destined to illustrate Kristina's words...congrats, Dr. K." These girls are just the best kind of friends!

While I was trying to find my equilibrium this morning (do you like that phrase? That's what my mother calls becoming "conscious" in the morning) I cast-on for the Spring Things Shawl. I nixed the plan to use the white Zephyr, as I have 3 balls and want to do something bigger with it, or at the very least knit the Estonian Lace Shawl with it. I didn't have enough of the Habu textiles silk mohair yarn and I didn't want to knit with the KSH I have in my stash as it's a smoky teal color (wrong color for the season). I could use some ColourMart cashmere, but I have enough for a big shawl and didn't want to "waste" it knitting a small shawl. I finally settled on a new lace yarn I just purchased from the Yarn Place called Gentle. This stuff is really cobweb wt, not the laceweight it is labeled. A 100g ball has 1350 yds. which, when doubled, would be just the right amount for the Spring Things shawl. I purchased 2 colors, but chose the butter yellow for this project thinking it would be perfect for a lot of my summer things. I rewound the ball using my ball-winder so I could pull one strand from the inside and one from the outside to knit the shawl without making a permanent commitment to double-stranding the whole thing-- just in case;-) I cast-on using my new Addi-Lace needles in a US5/3.75mm as suggested in the pattern but after knitting just a few rows into chart A I can see the look is a bit too lacy, so I'll frog it and start again with my old reliable size 4 needles. I want to use the new Addis, but they are already in-use so I guess I'll quickly knit off the last few rows of the Shh! It's a Secret Shawl so I can have the needles I really want. How's that for motivation to finish a project?

Spring Things Shawl

I just stumbled on a nifty new lace shawl pattern from Susan Pierce Lawrence called the "Spring Things Shawl." I really like this one, so of course I purchased it immediately! I'd show you a picture of it, but it's "strictly prohibited" so you'll just have to go look at it yourself. It's a triangle shawl similar in form to Kiri or the Flower Basket Shawl. You can see the details and purchase the downloadable pattern here. Although this pattern is truly "hot off the press" there's already a KAL forming, which I am joining right now!

The shawl is medium sized (30x60") and can be knit with ~550 yds.of a fine mohair (she used 1 ball of Karabella) or one 2 oz. ball of Zephyr according to the pattern. I think you could probably knit this design with a very subtle ombre yarn, but I'm not so sure about a variegated one. I have some white Zephyr that I just purchased that would be wonderful for this shawl. I could really use a white shawl to knock off the chill in church this summer. I don't know why it is that the coldest place on earth seems to be the chapel. I swear they keep that cold so the devil won't try to invade the flock, if you know what I mean ;-D On the other hand, I may have just enough of the pale green Habu Textiles silk mohair that I recently pitched in the frog pond. It would be pretty, but maybe not with nupps. Deciding which yarn to use is half the fun of knitting.

The upper border has nupps in the design, which look cool. I've not knit them before, but I'm armed and ready to learn with my new Addi-Lace needles. If the nupps don't work out, the designer provided an option to use beads instead, or you could just skip the nupps and beads altogether and just leave the center of the leaf-thingies just plain. After all, designs were meant to be tampered with

I'm coming oh so close to being done with the Big D. When I shut off the computer last night, after a 12 hour marathon of writing and revising, I could finally see the end is in sight. I should have most of the work finished tonight and ready to go back to Sandra (my *wonderful* professor) on Monday. As soon as that's off, then I need to rip off a quick manuscript for a journal article to finish an incomplete I've had hanging out for way too long. I'm going to write up the study, so it will be a useful exercise in writing to meet a class requirement. I ordered the graduation announcements from Jostens and mother is making plans for the party we're throwing the Saturday after graduation. I keep reminding her it's the "wedding reception" I never got the opportunity to have (and most likely never will).

I Got Lace Needles!

Sandy at the Yarn Haven e-mailed me yesterday to let me know the Addi lace needles were in. Needless to say I dashed right out and bought 2 sets-- sizes 4 & 5. I switched over to the lace needles on my Shhh! It's a Secret shawl and knit about 4 rows this morning. These needles are definitely different from anything else I own, but here's what I think so far:
1. The golden brass color of the needles is great for knitting with light colored lace yarns. I can actually see the yarn, even in less than ideal lighting, which is a very good thing.
2. The needles aren't as slick as the Turbos or the Knitpicks circs, but they are more slippery than plastics or bamboos. It's a little different from the turbos, which I adore, but I adjust quickly and am satisfied that these are slick enough that I won't go crazy shoving stitches back and forth.
3. The tips are the pointiest things I ever seen--even sharper than the new KnitPicks needles. The taper is totally smooth and gradual enough that there are no humps or bumps to contend with. Here again, these new needles win first prize in my experience.
4. The cable is super flexible, with absolutely no memory or curves to fight with. This cable doesn't have the wire core that the Turbos have and I don't think I would want a heavy, bulky sweater hanging off of it, but then I'm knitting lace so that's not an issue. This cable is at least as good as the KnitPicks, possibly better. I need more time to declare a winner, if there is a winner in this aspect as they are both really good.

I found it so much easier to knit multiple stitches together or lift a stitch to pass over with the Lace needles. Because of the super sharp tip and long taper, you don't end up distorting the stitch in order to manipulate the yarn. While I'm knitting with a very springy wool right now so it's not as big an issue, I think this feature will be a big plus when knitting with fibers such as silk, cotton, or alpaca which don't have the give that wool does.

I have to give the Addi Lace Needles a big 2 thumbs up. If I were a rich woman I would buy them all and make them my needle of choice for all my fine knitting. As it is, I will probably stick to my original plan, which is to use the KnitPicks for sizes 1-3 and the Addi Lace for sizes 4 & up. I don't have the size 1 KnitPicks needles yet and I may give in and buy Addis when I come to a project that requires that small size, or if I finally learn to magic loop my socks :-)

My favorable experience with the Lace needles lessens my motivation to buy the KnitPicks Options, esp. in light of the numerous reports of difficulties folks seem to have with the Options sets. From what I can surmise, the Options tend to be fiddly, requiring frequent tightening with this little dohicky to keep them from falling apart. I don't see myself paying close enough attention to such things while I have a WIP OTN. Nope, an all-in-one-piece circular seems like a better choice for the way I knit. Knit on!

Happy Dance

This has not been a good day for making measurable progress on anything. Well, that is unless you count wading through about 30+ e-mails progress, which doesn't count when the Big D needs a revised Chapter 5 like yesterday! But I have this ugly sinus/trying to be a migraine headache and I have been cooped up in my house for going on 5 days now, and...well I could just scream about now.

In that big pile of e-mails was the monthly newsletter from my new LYS (just across the street) the Yarn Haven announcing the arrival of the new Addi lace needles and lots of new lace yarns. It's the 1st of the month so my meager allowance is at it's fattest, so the temptation was just too much. I grabbed my Get Out of Jail Free Card, er the dog and the car keys, and I did a happy dance right on over. The owner, Sandy just grinned when I walked in the door. She said she just knew I would show up in the next day or so and she was so right. I've been wanting the new Addi lace needles and was sort of waiting for Jinka, the owner of my other LYS Loopville, to get them in since I told her I would buy some. Well, I stopped by Loopvile last week and she didn't order them, so I was thinking I would have to resort to ordering them online. Well brava to Sandy for saving me the grief.

Apparently Sandy has had quite a few people ask about lace yarns in the last month, so she decided to give it a whirl. Don't you just love new shop owners who only want to please you and try to get whatever they can for you ;o). In fairness to Jinka, Loopville is located in a very small place that is just overstuffed with yarns and everything so space is at a premium, whereas Yarn Haven is in a big, very open space with lots of room for displays of nothing but lace needles. I love both shops and patronize them just about equally thus far. In addition to the lace needles Sandy acquired signed copies of Lavish Lace with pricey yarn packs to match, plus NZ Artisan yarns of Margaret Stove fame, plus lots of fancy handpainted lace and fingering yarns from Cherry Tree Hill, plus some great yarns from Crystal Palace that I've been itching to try. Talk about doing the happy dance, just fondling all this stuff made me happier than Zoloft could ever achieve. LOL

In the end I limited myself to 2 sets of needles, a 4 & 5 in 32" lengths. I use size 4s more than anything it seems, and I needed a 5 to knit the FiberTrends Estonian Lace Shawl which I think is up next on my list of "wanna knits". I have the KnitPicks circulars in the smaller sizes (2 & 3) so I don't need to buy the pricey Addis there, but I'm not convinced about using the KP Options so I'll buy Addi lace needles in the bigger sizes.

Deciding which yarn to purchase was not so easy as I wanted them all, naturally! In the end I decided to go for a couple of balls of the new Panda Cotton from Crystal Palace. This yarn is 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, and 21% elastic nylon so it's stretchy, kind of like Cascade Fixation. I chose a subtle ombre of blush pinks they call rosewater which should knit up nicely into this great sock pattern, Early Spring Sock, that I saw on their website last month. This is a totally new adventure for me, knitting with elastic yarn, but the Panda Cotton should be perfect for padding around in in Tennessee summers. I'll keep you posted!

Lessons in Horticulture

Today, my knitting friends, we have a lesson in horitculture. I call your attention to the pictures to your left, most of which I took this afternoon in my garden. The first picture is of one of my most favorite spring- blooming perennials, the bleeding heart (dicentra spectabilis). It's thing of beauty to be sure. I started out with one plant and she has expanded now to five(3 nice-sized, 2 little bitty babies). That's also the advantage of many perennials. if you are patient, a small initial investment pays off with big dividends down the road (sounds kinda like lace knitting, doesn't it?)


Okay, so that's the fancy flower. Next we have the humble Hosta, a gold standard hosta with pretty variegated leaves. My one plant that I bought on sale at the end of the season 6 or 7 years ago is now about 8 plants filling shady spots under towering tulip poplar trees. Hostas are great shade plants, but are hardly spectacular since they are mostly about the leaves. And my point in posting this picture is to call your attention to the leaves.


Next we have picture number three which is also a bleeding heart. This version is dicentra eximina more commonly known as the native bleeding heart. This plant grows wild in my beloved Great Smoky Mountains although I had to plant mine. I have one nice-sized and 2 baby plants thus far. One of the great features of this wildflower is that it has beautiful flowers *and* beautiful foilage. Hence, this picture has both bleeding hearts and leaves.


By now you may be wondering what this has to do with knitting. The next, very blurry picture offers a hint. This is my 1st pi shawl, which I finished off with a bleeding heart edging. The pattern was a modification of the bleeding heart stitch in the Barbara Walker Treasury of Charted patterns (whichever volume that was, don't ask me 'cuz I had to give the books back to the library). I sort of created a way to make this stitch form nice little points so its a great way to finish off any lace project (this is a key point-hint, hint)


And now we have the last picture, also a bit blurry (anyone want to gift me a *good* digital camera?). I am so proud of this red shawl--it's Kiri, my first ever lace knit shawl. Kiri may be the most famous lace shawl pattern out there right now because 1) it's a great design and a good 1st lace shawl knit, and 2) it's a freebie on the web. A leaf motif is the basis for Kiri, a very nice *leaf* design that is good for shawls and such.

So why this lesson on horticulture? Is there a point to the comparing of bleeding hearts and leaves? Well, yes. Call it a lesson learned in the adventures of designing my own lace shawl pattern. I was looking for another lace pattern to finish off my shoulder shawl design after I frogged my first attempt. That's when I remembered how much I liked the bleeding heart pattern in my pi shawl. So I pulled out my sketchbook and retrieved the graphs. Yup, they were a perfect match. I transcribed it to my current design and started knitting. After the first repeat was done I took a closer look at what I was doing (it's a challenge in the deeply hued variegated yarn) and thought, this looks different. This looks more like the leaves in Kiri. That's when it dawned on me. The pi shawl was knit in the round--every row of the bleeding heart pattern was lace. Kiri was knit back and forth with the return rows being all purl stitches. Guess what the difference is between leaves and bleeding hearts? You guessed it, a row of purl stitches. Horticulture for knitters: lesson learned!

Which Jane Austen Heroine Am I?

:: E M M A ::

You are Emma Woodhouse of Emma! You like being the queen of your social circle (small and provincial as it may be), and feel it's your duty to help those less influential than you. You often meddle in the affairs of others, though you do it with a pure heart. You are often deluded in your flights of fancy, but your good intentions and creative spirit make you someone anyone could like.

Take the Quiz here!

Spring Fever!!!

Spring has sprung, the grass has really risen, and boy oh boy is my garden growing! The unusually warm March has everything growing well-ahead of schedule, including the weeds. My time has been rather limited since I *am* writing a dissertation so I haven't had the chance to dig in and do my early spring yard work. Ugh! The beds in the back yard are a complete disaster! Well, they will just have to wait a little longer I suppose.

Today it was so perfect outside I just couldn't force myself to stay indoors hunkered behind my computer all day. Nope, no way. I got Spring Fever and the dirt was calling my name. So I took lots of breaks to slip into my new gardening clogs and well-worn gloves and haul out my little wheelbarrow. I got quite a bit accomplished too! I transplanted 2 small hydrangeas into the front bed in front of a Natchez (tall white) Crape Myrtle and a couple of small Burning Bush shrubs. I bought these hydrangeas for myself last year for Mothers' Day. I bought a small pot that had forced to bloom early in a greenhouse in Canada. After the blooms started to fade I decided to repot the bush into a bigger pot with better soil and was surprised to find not one, but 2 separate plants crammed into one tiny pot. Once separated, I had 2 happy little shrubs that bloomed for months in a sheltered location in the back yard. And now I'm gonna end up with 2 big shrubs that will make happy pink mopheads for years to come. And to think I felt guilty for indulging myself when I bought the plant to begin with ;o)

I got a few more things planted besides the hydrangea bushes. I bought 4 Winky Rose Aquilegias (cultivated columbine) last week for a great price at the Home Depot. I planted a couple of these last year along the north fence and they were beautiful. The front bed gets a lot more sun so I think these new plants will very happy. I added some new Oriental Lily bulbs to the area, all pink varieties (Mona Lisa, Lollipop, etc.), so I should have lots of pretty pink blooms this summer.

On the knitting front, I'm still working on the secret shawl. I'm just starting the 2nd repeat on the new pattern section and so far it looks good. I didn't make much progress today though because gardening occupied my discretionary time. And now it's time to go back to writing. I'll watch the men's NCAA championship game at the same time (I'm cheering for Ohio St. since they beat us to get there). Of course the "big" game is tomorrow night when the Lady Vols try to win it all for the 7th time. "Seven in '07" is the word around here :-)

Happy International Tatting Day

Some of you may have been led to believe that April 1st is a rather infamous "holiday" known as April Fool's Day, but it's actually International Tatting Day. Celebrations, small and not so small happen among tatters across the globe. To honor the occasion I am posting a picture of my favorite "beadntat original" tatting design-- a heart I created in the aftermath of the 9-11 bombing of the World Trade Center in NYC. I also pulled out my favorite shuttles and petted them a little, but I didn't add any stitches to the project as I didn't want to unpick them later if I made a mistake. Tinking or frogging knitting is a piece of cake compared to undoing mistakes in tatting! Since I didn't go anywhere today I couldn't "tat in public" but I did adhere to the other celebratory ritual of eating chocolate--a Harry & David raspberry truffle, Yum!

The first of April marks another important time in East Tennessee. In this part of the world there are only 2 "important" times of the year. The first, of course, happens in the fall when it's "It's Football Time in Tennessee!" This is to be yelled loudly and proudly in support of the University of TN Volunteer football team, our favorite local obsession (I use that term knowing it is an enormous understatement of the situation). But that is the fall and this is spring so the cheer changes to "It's Dogwood time in Tennessee!" This time one can speak in a more dignified tone as the focus is on flowers, flowering trees, and local arts and fine crafts. The festival officially starts next weekend and lasts about 2 weeks and it's lots of fun. But the dogwoods bloomed very early this year-- I can't ever remember them blooming in March before.

I'm continuing to work on my Shh! It's a Secret Shawl. I finished the first section of lace and was quite pleased with how it looks in the highly variegated yarn. Unfortunately the second section of lace didn't end up looking as nice knitted up as it did on paper. I knit about 10 rows into the 2nd section before calling it quits. This morning I frogged back to the lifeline and worked on designing something else. I'm a bit more optimistic about my current plan, but I need to knit a few more rows to know for sure. Designing for highly patterned yarn is a much greater challenge than knitting with a solid color yarn. Fortunately the Kaalund yarn is both durable and delicate so it's holding up nicely to all the tinking and frogging. There's nothing like a good yarn! I should be working on the rewrites on my big D, but I'm feeling pretty icky tonight so I may just do some knitting while I cheer on the Lady Vols who are playing in the NCAA Final Four semi-final basketball game tonight. Go Vols!!!

Marinating

I was taking a brief "break in the action" this morning to do a little reading in my private suite. You know the one I'm talking about--it has 4 walls and a door that really closes and locks, there's a sink and a shower/tub and a.... Well I was parked on the throne so I grabbed the latest magazine to thumb through which happened to be the April issue of Harper's Bazaar. In it was an article called What's Age got to Do With It? by Gail Sheey (p.122). I haven't read any of her previous books (Passages, etc.) but one line in the article caught my attention. She was talking about women over 50 (I'm not quite there yet, but close enough) who are now "feeling free to reinvent themselves, to find and follow their passions, and to celebrate being seasoned women."

Interesting idea, I thought, and to some extent I sort of fit although not necessarily in the same way that she is thinking. My changes in course have been out of necessity as much as personal choice. But I loved her definition of the seasoned woman as "someone who has been marinated in life experience." Sheehy goes on to expand on this notion, but it struck a chord with me. I am at one of those turning points in life where you look back at where you were, assess how far you've come to arrive at the current place, and look forward with an openness to the possibilities that lie ahead. And while I think I have always followed my passions I have been quite conscious of the effect that being seasoned with life's experiences has had on me and those with whom I interact. Marinating really is a good thing!

I picked up some knitting in the last day or so, mostly because I was too fried to do anything constructive with the Dissertation. When I am that exhausted, lace knitting usually isn't a wise thing either. Late last night I discovered that I had made a mistake in my Shhh, it's a Secret Shawl that I'm designing. I tried to ladder down and fix the mistake, but I couldn't really decipher what I done wrong and I couldn't fix it either. The complex color variegations of the yarn both helped and hindered the process. I might have fudged it and gone on, trusting that the colors in the yarn would hide my error but I was on the last row before a planned pattern change and I was afraid the error might really mess up my stitch counts. So.... I patiently tinked oh, maybe 500 stitches? I don't really know. I am proud of myself for fixing the mistake. I just finished putting in a lifeline so I can frog back if I don't like the design I have planned next. I don't use lifelines much, but this time I know I need one. Who knows what will happen next? LOL

And miles to go before I sleep...

Well, I did it. I successfully defended my dissertation late Monday afternoon. The presentation went as well as I could hope for. Everyone was in a good mood and my committee was absolutely fabulous both in their support for me as a person and in their feedback of ways I can improve my work. The presentation was too long, something I knew going in but didn't know how to cut it down without omitting something important. From developing the presentation I saw some pretty glaring mistakes in my last chapter and some bugs with the way I had thematized my results. Let's just say that I got so caught up in the trees that I forgot to step back out again to look at the forest! I sort of forgot that the focus was on hope, and not all the other stuff that caught my attention ;-) I got some good help in the discussion with my committee afterwards, help I desperately wanted! I still need to read all the notes in the manuscripts before I can proceed with rewrites. I need to get started but I've been miserably sick all day so that's been a problem. I figure I can read and brainstorm and takes notes tonight, then start the revisions in earnest tomorrow. Let's just say I have miles to go before I sleep-- many miles.

When I got home form the University on Monday evening I was greeted with two surprises--well, that is in addition to the smiles and hugs from Mom and Dad;-) My dearest friend Wendy Shea-Messler called my folks to report on my successful presentation as she was driving home so they knew a bit of how things went. I thought that was incredibly sweet of her! Wendy's baby, Mason, also sent me good wishes and baby kisses for luck in the form of a tiny stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh bear. Pooh sat at the head of the table next to my notes and presided over the proceedings. I sure hope my other bestest pal Peter Rabbit wasn't offended by being left at home! Surely such things as this could only happen because a preemie nurse was presenting!

But... I am digressing, aren't I? I had 2 surprises waiting for me. After I got home I quickly changed clothes and slipped on my gardening clogs and headed out to the yard the breathe and cry and offer my thanks to God in prayer. Gardens are good for these things, so I wandered out. We've had strangely warm weather and everything that normally blooms in April is already in bloom in the 3rd and 4th week of March. It seems as if my perennials double in size literally overnight. But on Monday night I walked out and was surprised to find the first blossoms on one of my bleeding hearts. I couldn't help but be struck by the irony of the timing as I stood shedding tears of gratitude for coming through such a momentous life event. I thought it rather quite symbolic of everything I have been through these past 9 years.

My other surprise was the two packages of lace yarn that arrived in the mail. The first I had been waiting on for a couple of weeks, 3 balls of white Zephyr from The Knitter in CO. I figured the delay was related to demand as many folks want white lace yarn this time of year, and with free shipping I wasn't about to complain about yarn taking more than a week to arrive. I think I do get spoiled sometimes by fast shippers and besides, it wasn't like I had time to do any new knitting anyway! As expected, the yarn isn't pure white, but is rather a creamy white color--the color you would expect to see in fiber that had been bleached. I think it will make for a lovely intricate shawl or stole, although I haven't decided exactly what to knit yet.

The second package of yarn was from the YarnPlace in CA. Now they shipped it out speedy fast! I bought 2 balls of Gentle, a 5% cashmere/95% fine Australian Merino blend. Gentle is a good name as this stuff is exquisitely soft and beautifully spun. It's also very, very fine--cobweb weight fine. It takes 2 strands of this stuff to make it laceweight. I played with it a little and knit a couple of rows on 2.75mm needles. It's tiny, but very easy to work with. I'll have to think on what to do with this pretty stuff. I bought one ball in a rich buttery yellow and the other is my favorite blush shade called Ahhh Pink. Each 100g ball has ~1350yds which is enough for a modest sized shawl. I may consider ordering a second ball and double stranding one of the projects though, as this stuff is just so fine I might be knitting forever to finish a decent-sized project. I don't want to spend the time it would take to tat a shawl to knit one I suppose.

What a Relief!

Whew! What a relief! From the dialogue that ensued here and on the Lace Knitting list after my last blog entry the consensus is I'm not a yarn snob after all. I am, it appears, what one would call a yarn afficionado--one who appreciates fine quality yarns, a connoisseur. Yeah, that would be me. I appreciate the finer things even though I may not have them. I cannot afford to buy the super expensive wonderful yarns that are out there unless there is a bargain source like ColourMart or I opt for only one or maybe two skeins for a small project. Anyway, I'm so glad my knitty pals helped me get my terminology straight--I wonder if they want to volunteer to do like wise for the big D???? LOL

Speaking of the Big D, my defense is on Monday afternoon. It's at the College of Nursing on the left in the picture, Neyland Stadium, home to the TN Vols football team is on the right. I put together a rough version of my PowerPoint presentation and went to campus yesterday afternoon to do a practice run with the computer & projection system. It was a very wise choice since I've never successfully done a PP presentation. My one previous attempt failed when I got to the college and the computer wouldn't open my saved file. I have since learned to not use the "pack and go" feature and just take a saved file on a disk or flash drive with me. Pack and Go=No Go apparently, although I have no idea why.

Anyway, I now know that I need to cut a whole bunch of stuff in order to fit my presentation into the time limit and that I won't be able to use the notes feature at the bottom of the page because it projects on the screen. That's disappointment as I was hoping to avoid needing to use paper notes and just put everything on the computer. Oh well, it beats the old days of laboriously inputing text for slides on the computer, having the computer tell the camera to shoot the slide film, then whisking the roll to the Photo Pro shop down the street for 1 hour developing, then dashing back to the hospital to make the presentation. Yup--don't miss that one little bit!

To reward myself for exceptionally good behavior I stopped by Loopville on my way home. Late on a warm sunny Friday afternoon in March, the place was quiet--just me a Piper. I haven't been by in more than a month and Jinka has gotten a ton of new stuff in. It's a wonder they find room to cram all the yarn and etc in that tiny little shop. Most of the stuff is pretty high end--silks and Claudia handpaints and bamboo, etc. She had some new handpainted lace yarn from ArtYarns--pretty but not enough to tempt me at that price. I did buy another 2-ball box of the Kaalund Classic Two lace yarn that I bought on my last visit and am knitting with now. This is great stuff! I also splurged on the new issue of Vogue Knitting which is loaded with lace! This is the best looking issue of VK I've seen in awhile. Most of the patterns were reasonable, knitable, and wearable garments--a combination rarely found in recent VK issues. There is a nifty lace top which is labeled "oversized" meaning "will fit normal-size people without clinging to every curve or bulge" that looks like just the ticket for a summer knit top for me. The pattern calls for a dk wt silk yarn, so Richard's silk will be just perfect! Yippee!

On Becoming a Yarn Snob

There has been a rather lively dialogue among the knitting egroups lately, most especially in the KnitList and Lace Knitting, surrounding issues of yarn preferences. In today's Lace Knitters digest Gloria Penning, a lovely lady and expert on fine knitted laces and antique lace patterns, offered a thoughtful rebuttal to one of my posts. She spoke of her lifelong joy of knitting with products from such popular companies as Coats and Clark and the positive regard with which her handiwork has been received over the years. She concluded her remarks by suggesting that there were no yarn snobs in the Lace Knitters group.

I adore such dialogue among thinking people, especially where creativity is involved. Creating things with your own hands is such a personal experience-- there can be no one correct way to do whatever it is you are creating and the choice of media with one expresses creativity is likewise a matter of personal choice. But if that is the case, then why did Kimberly Chapman feel such a strong need to go on an extended rant about the virtues of Red Heart acrylic when knitting for her toddler on the KnitList the other day? Why such defensiveness over the choice to use Grandma's Big Ball or Sugar 'n Cream cottons as opposed to a DMC cordonnet or a cotton yarn with a fancy label purchased from your favorite specialty yarn retailer? Yet every few months or so, after a series of messages from knitters opining the virtues of using "fine quality" materials, the emotion-laden replies heat up on the lists. Clearly something is fueling these fiery conversations.


After a few years of observation, first among the tatters, then in beading and jewelrymaking community, and now knitting, the phenomena appears to be universal regardless of preference for creative expression. The tatters seem to have the fewest heated discussions about thread preferences. Perhaps this is because there is such an enormous difference in the ease with which the knots are created and advanced along the core thread that it doesn't take very long for novice tatters to realize that better threads make it so much easier to tat. Or perhaps its because fine quality tatting threads aren't terribly expensive and thus are accessible to most everyone. One can amass quite a stash of excellent tatting thread for a fraction of what it would cost to do likewise in knitting yarns. Tatting history may be a factor as well as our aunts and grandmothers did use cordonnet and good tatting cottons for their work, so the precedence has been set. Today's adventures include the use of color and innovative techniques or materials such as wire for contemporary tatting.

Beaders are more like knitters in their arguments over choice of materials. Here cost and accessibility are both a factor, but like tatters, beaders soon learn that less expensive, or what I call "craft quality" beads, are not such a great choice for most of their projects. Purchasing a few beads isn't too costly, but amassing a stash can be a budget buster depending on one's taste and where you buy your beads. Nevertheless most beaders quickly adopt a preference for higher quality materials. The good news is that so-called big box craft retailers have started to carry better quality beading supplies so they are accessible without having to find a LBS or resort to online ordering.


So where does that leave knitters? Are knitters a strange bunch? Perhaps, but I don't think so, especially since most knitters engage in other forms of creative expression too. But then why the fight? Maybe our knitting heritage has a great deal to do with it. I'm referring to recent history, what we know from the preceeding generation or two, at least in the United States. Let's face it, most of us were raised with Red Heart Acrylic and Knit Cro-sheen or comparable materials purchased at the Five and Dime, the predecessor to today's Walmart or JoAnn's. I well remember going to my local variety store, Whiteway, and buying crochet hooks, knitting needles, and Red Heart Sayelle to crochet my first poncho, then knit that first pair of slippers. I was so proud! It was so much fun! Those early experiences at age 8, 9 and 10 established my lifelong love for fiber arts. If I were so blessed to have my own children, I would start them off in exactly the same manner today.

And so that leads me to today's question, am I a yarn snob? I would have to say without equivocation, yes. Absolutely yes. I see it as a process of personal growth, a becoming if you will. Lest I wax too philosophical for most, let me explain in more understandable terms. Take for example the lowly hamburger. I like hamburgers. There's nothing I enjoy more than a nice fat juicy hamburger with my favorite trimmings. I prefer mine char-broiled or grilled, using freshly ground sirloin from Angus cattle, served on a toasted bun with a crispy crust out of perhaps sourdough or even ciabatta bread. Fresh mayo, bread and butter pickles, a dash of ketchup, and kosher salt and I'm a happy woman. Yum! But was I always that way? Not hardly. For many years McDonald's or those pre-formed frozen patties Mom bought wholesale from the slaughterhouse served on WonderBuns were just fine. I grew up. I matured, and so my tastes evolved as I came to experience something better. I feel the same way about chocolate. I can pass up a hundred Hershey's kisses for just one Harry & David or Godiva truffle. Similarly, I own a dozen acrylic pullovers which sit neatly folded in a plastic bin. Why? Because I'm wearing the one cashmere sweater I purchased on sale a year ago. It was my first taste of cashmere, and now I don't care for the others all that much any more. It's the same thing.

Now I don't always get to eat my favorite version of the hamburger and I do still wear my acrylic sweaters. I even eat Hershey's kisses. Maybe it's because cashmere and Godiva and fancy hamburgers aren't my everyday routine that I appreciate them so much. I don't think any less of people who love McDonald's or think acrylic sweaters from Walmart are the best thing in the world. Everyone knows Hershey's kisses are wonderful. Nor do I think less of folks who only knit with Red Heart or Sugar 'n Cream. Hey, I patronize those businesses and have some of that yarn in my stash too. Sorry, I'm fresh out of Hershey's kisses but I was recently gifted with a tub full of Harry & David truffles by a thoughtful mother who knows good chocolate will help me get through these final days of my dissertation. But if someone asks me where to get a great hamburger in Knoxville, Tennessee I'm not going to send them to Mickey Dee's, but I will tell them about a nifty little place on the banks of the Tennessee river where they have tiered decks overlooking a marina and their blue-cheese burger is to die for. Yup, I'm gonna send them to Jenna's. If someone asks me about fine cotton threads, I'm gonna tell them to look for Flora or Manuela or DMC cordonnet. If they want laceweight yarn, I'm gonna brag about ColourMart cashmere and KidSilk Haze because they are just like fine dining. And on that rare occasion when I do go out to eat, or buy yarn for a lace shawl that I hope will be a joy to knit, delightful to wear, and an heirloom to pass on to future generations, I want it to be the best I can afford. And if that makes me a snob, yarn or otherwise, so be it. After all, like beauty, snobbery is in the eye of the beholder. I don't consider myself to be a snob. If others do, then so be it. It is their privilege to have an opinion-- I don't have to share it. So let the dialogue continue... and knit on! And I will continue to espouse that life is too short to knit with crummy yarn. Please pass the truffles!

Beware the Ides of March...

Or perhaps "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble" is just as suitable an expression for how I'm feeling at this stage of writing the big D. Did Shakespeare have to labor as hard as I am to produce his literary works? Did he have to battle with exhaustion and wicked headaches and muddled thoughts? I haven't even started writing chapter 5 yet and my brain is so fried I can't think of what to say at this moment. Of course I'm not quite awake yet, so that may have something to do with it, but I'm so fried I can't even knit. Now that is bad!

We've had remarkably warm spring weather the past several days. When I needed a break all I had to do was stroll around the house, watch the birds and admire my flowers. The yard guys came and mulched the flowerbeds yesterday so they look especially wonderful this morning. The Bradford pear trees started to bloom yesterday and even the hydrangeas are beginning to leaf out. So far it looks like most of the perennials that I planted new last year are still alive and kicking so that's good news. I even found the bee balm I relocated to the north fence bed alive and thriving under a huge mass of weeds. That bed is a big mess, but it'll just have to wait another week or two before I can get it properly weeded and prepped for planting this year's crop of tomatoes. I haven't had time to deal with starting seed this year, so I may have to settle for buying my tomato plants this year. It's a small sacrifice to make for graduating, but it just had to be done :o)

Madness Continues

When most folks talk about March Madness these days they are referring to the NCAA basketball tournaments. Well that's all good and and fine. I love B-ball and I love the Vols and Lady Vols---and I want them to win it all! I think the Lady Vols have a much better shot at it frankly, but the men got a great seed and bracket tonight so there is hope.... But when I say March Madness I mean dissertation madness or the Big D. And tonight my mind is Big D as in Dead from overuse the last several days. I have a headache. I'm exhausted. I'm not nearly close enough to done with the manuscript and I have 3.5 days left to write before it must go to my committee. Yikes!

You know, getting a PhD is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It's taken more courage, more tenacity, and more effort than anything else, ever. True lace knitting is a piece of cake by comparison, even with tiny patterns and cobweb yarn. But then I've never felt so supported by people everywhere in my life before either. These last few years have been something special. I have come to know the genuine goodness of ordinary, or in my eyes, extraordinary people who ask for nothing more than the opportunity to share their talents and be of help to me. That's what happened this weekend.

After much thought and stress, I finally arrived at the the climax of my research--the analysis of my interviews with mothers of premature infants about having hope while in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or NICU. The key themes from the study emerged and I conceptualized them in the form of a 3-D pyramid with 3 sides: Hope and the baby, hope and the mother, and hope and others (NICU professionals, family and friends). The pyramid was inverted to show the precarious and uncertain nature of being in the NICU. I needed to find a way to draw this image so I could present it to my committee and include it in the final written reports. I'm not very experienced at this sort of thing--like not at all. I'm good with scissors, tape and cardstock but not with computer graphics. So I'm worrying about what to do Friday night when I get the impression that I should email my knitting pal from the EZasPI group and proprietess of a photography and graphics publishing business, Diana Cooper. So I sent her a short email explaining what I needed and asked for suggestions on what to do. The next morning I boot up my computer and boom! There on my computer was an email from Diana with the perfect graphic enclosed. See how nifty it is! I almost cried I was so thrilled/shocked/delirious with joy.

People are good. I've found the folks online in the knitting and tatting communities to be especially kind, thoughtful, and generous with their time, talents, and resources. Now I'm a woman of deep religious convictions and I'd like to think that I would share whatever I could with others in need (and there are lots of kinds of needs out there that can be met without money). Diana's generous gift to me was yet another reminder of the importance of asking for help when you need it (and sometimes when you don't think you need it but you do). I have learned that there are lot of people in my life who are eager to show their kindness to me. All I have to do is present the opportunity, invite it, and then graciously receive. I can't help but think of a favorite passage of scripture from the New Testament:

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
"For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Matthew 7:7-8 KJV

Thanks Diana! You are one in a million--a million little miracles that have blessed my life in recent years. It's because of folks like you that I'm going to graduate in a few short weeks and go on to mentor the nurse of tomorrow. Your goodness will never be forgotton. You're the best :-)

March Madness

It was a remarkably warm, remarkably sunny, and remarkably nice spring day. I was rudely awakened by my lawn service guy, Mr. Jim, who decided to show up at 9AM to mow the lawn and reseed the lawn where the plumbing guys dug a big ditch last December to fix an old rusted out pipe. I am looking forward to the red mud not coming back into the house every time I let the dog out. Even still, I wasn't prepared for Jim's earlier than usual arrival.


Having spent yesterday's allotment of energy figuring out the revised thematic structure of my study (it's an inverted 3-sided pyramid!) today was the day to trek to the Bursar's Office one last time. This time it was to pay the $75Graduation Fee. Yup, you gotta pay them to stay in school and you gotta pay 'em again to be let out! But it's the last check I hope to ever write to the Bursar's Office so that's good. The next stop was the Registrar's Office. You have to file official forms to be allowed to schedule your defense of dissertation too. It's not like the University's gonna hang a big sign from the Torchbearer's arm announcing the event to the world, but you can't do it without the paperwork just the same. But I walked past the mighty Torchbearer on my way to the College of Nursing after I finished the formalities at the "tower" to chat one more time with my chair. I ran my inverted pyramid scheme past her and by george, she liked it! So with a big sigh of relief and a smile I trotted out into the warm sunshine secure in teh knowledge that all I have to do is write it, rewrite it, rewrite it again, duplicate it, and distribute the big D to my committee by this time next week. Yikes!


To cope with the thought of it all I stopped in at McKay's Used books on my way home to see if there were any new knitting treasures on the shelves. Nope, nada, nothing good. With is probably a good thing since I bought an issue of Anna (with a Niebling doily no less) off ebay yesterday (American seller who didn't know that the valuable content was the lace knitting, thus a cheap buy it now price--yippee for me) and 3 balls of white Zephyr from the Knitter for a summer lace project-TBD. Yup, it's a good thing I struck out at McKay's. To console myself once I got home I headed out to the garden with Miss Emme and the camera to capture the glow of daffodils in the setting sun. "A host of golden daffodils"--nothing can cheer the soul like a bunch of daffodils. Thye make me glad I crawled in the dirt last October and planted 50 more of the little treasures. Next Fall I'll add 50-100 more.

FO Pictures

I did the washing, blocking, and writing last night but I had to wait until this morning for the light of day to snap decent pictures of the Hidcote Shawl stretched out in all her glory. Can you believe how black and mucky the wash water was? You couldn't even tell there was lots of liquid soap in the water because there were no bubbles to be seen. I've always believed that blocking lace is a magical process and this shawl was no exception. and while the lace was beautiful last night, when I went into the family room this morning and looked again in the daylight it was as if it was a different shawl. The light absolutely danced across the texture of the upper section of the shawl. I hope you can see just a bit of that effect in the pictures, although my camera can't do justice to it at all. The plain stockinette of the diamond motifs seemed almost bland in comparison to the top and bottom sections where the yarn swirls and ripples with life. It truly was a magical moment for me.

Hidcote Garden is a large shawl--large enough to wrap around my not-so-small-being and cover everything that benefits from being covered if you know what I mean. I can't sing the praises of the design enough. It was a joy to knit! And while it's not a first lace shawl project, Hidcote Garden is definitely attainable for the ambitious advanced beginner or intermediate lace knitter. And one more thing, the ColourMart cashmere that I used was an ideal choice for this shawl. I would absolutely recommend Richard's 2/28 laceweight or 4 ply cashmere for this project. You'll never wrap up in anything else more lovely or more luxurious than this!

Back Breaking Blocking

I had an extremely long, stressful day. the focus was presenting my preliminary thematic structure of my hope study to my research group for input and discussion. I wasn't happy with the themes and I got lots of feedback, but no clear answers. I think that's because there really aren't any clear answers. Hope is enigmatic so I guess it would be unrealistic to expect to come up with a nice neat package in the end. This is not nice for someone who likes nice neat packages!

So, to celebrate the exhaustion/frustration/panic what did I do? Of course, I washed, fluffed, and blocked the Hidcote shawl. It was a very yucky, mucky job washing all the machine oils out of the cashmere. It tooks 3 washes in very hot water plus 2 rinses until I felt confident I had all the grime out. Boy did the color brighten up after that!I started out the fluff process by tumble drying on the air setting for about 6-7 minutes. But the air only didn't bring out the bloom in the yarn adequately, so I followed that with 4-5 minutes on delicate. That worked.

It took 3 wires across the top and 2 on each side to accommodate the shawl. When everything was stretched and looking good my final dimensions proved to be spot on with the designer's at 44x90" Unblocked, the shawl was larger so I guess that's the difference a good fluff job can make on cashmere. I did have one catastrophe though when I didn't capture enough strands under the wires at one point on the shawl's side and the single strand snapped. Cashmere is more delicate than merino and will not take the same severe stretching. I protected the point with several other pins so it won't ravel and I'll mend it once the shawl is dry. It shouldn't be too big a deal so I'm not all that concerned.

S+F/K=T

For those of you not well-versed in knitting statistics, let me interpret the data for you (wink, wink): When you add Stress and Fatigue and then divide your limited attention by knitting, the end result is tinking. Tink, tink, tink! I was knitting row 21 and was more than halfway across the row when my stitches just weren't lining up the way I thought they were supposed to. I tinked and reknit the same 20-25 sts several times but still just couldn't seem to see where the problem was. But there was one thing I was certain of and that was that something wasn't right.

Let's face it, when knitting a very distinct lace pattern such as the basketweave section of the Hanami Stole, if you make a mistake it will be screamingly obvious down the road. So I applied the lesson I learned well as a neonatal nurse--when in doubt, yank it out. Of course in nursing the rule applied to IV's and endotracheal tubes which, when improperly placed or dislodged, can result in harm to the patient--something no nurse would ever want to inflict on a tiny newborn. It's a good rule and I applied it to my knitting as I painstakingly tinked back 2.5 rows and reknit them. I didn't really find the error in my previous knitting, but I know it's right this time and that's what matters most. I'm now 86 rows into the stole. My new KnitPicks Options circular needle was tremendously handy in picking out all those central double decreases--a nightmare to tink. I must admit those sharp tips are mighty handy and are allowing me to knit faster than I could with my rounder tipped Addi-turbos. Yup, I'm sold on these babies!

Moving on to the next lace project

Well I'm moving on to my next lace project, the Hanami Stole by Melanie Gibbons at Pink Lemon Twist. I loved knitting her Scheherazade Stole as a part of the Mystery Stole 2 KAL last summer so it wasn't a difficult decision to purchase Melanie's newest design when it was announced a couple of weeks ago. I love her very clear charts and detailed directions, making Pink Lemon Twist designs wonderful even for newbie lace knitters.

I took this picture a couple of days ago when I had knit the 1st 32 row repeat of the initial basketweave section. I'm halfway through the 3rd of 7 repeats thus far and am quite happy with how the stole is coming along. I am using 2 strands of 2/28 laceweight silk yarn, color-Melissa, from Richard at ColourMart for this project and 3.25mm (US 3) needles. This is my project using 100% silk yarn and I must say it is so soft and well, silky! It can also be quite slippery so I have to be sure to keep my tension consistent, but that hasn't really proved to be much of an issue.

I cast-on using a pair of Bates Silvalume straight needles, thinking it would be easier than using Addi-turbos since I was also adding beads as called for in the pattern (more about the beads in a minute). But after I had a few rows knit and had successfully shed all the stitch markers, I quickly moved over to my turbos for faster knitting and more space to spread out my work to inspect and admir it :-) Then my goodie box from KnitPicks came in the mail yesterday, so I switched over to the new Options circular needle to give it a test drive. I quickly learned to not push the needles around with my fingertips on the points of the needles as I apparently always did with my Addis. But once I conquered that move, it's been smooth sailing. The cable join is very smooth, the cable is so flexible & forgiving, and the pointy tips are totally awesome! I'm glad I bought the size 2 & 3 circs in 2 lengths. I will definitely be getting the interchangeables when the budget permits.

The one thing I'm not all that thrilled with in the Hanami design is the beaded cast-on. I normally use a knitted cast-on so following that direction was no problem. But stopping to grab a tiny crochet hook and pick up and place a bead on a loop, then slip that loop on the needle every other stitch x 95 stitches, well.... what a PITA! It took me over an hour just to cast-on. That might not have beem so bad but I'm not all that thrilled with the final look of the beaded edge. The size 8-0 Toho clear silverlined beads that I used were the same beads Melanie used in her pink version (Mill Hill beads are manufactured by Toho), but they are barely visible on my pale celery green silk. The effect doesn't seem to be worth the effort, at least in this case. I don't know, maybe if I had use a bead with more contrast, such as a gilt-lined opal frost bead, perhaps I would have been happier. In any case, the only 8-0 beads that will work using Melanie's technique are Tohos or Delicas--all the others don't have a big enough hole. I recommend folks get 6-0 or "E" beads for this project as they will all work no matter who the manufacturer is. Besides, 6-0 beads are much more readily available in craft stores, for those who don't visit specialty bead shops (or have a big bead stash like I do).

Also in the goodie package from KnitPicks were the blocking wires I ordered. One of these days when I get a breather from my research project I'll wash and block the Hidcote Garden Stole, but I doubt it will be anytime in the next few days. I have *so* much work to do and time is terrifyingly short. My dissertation defense is schedule for March 26th so I'll be working like a mad dog to make it in time. But I'll still need time to do a little knitting to keep sane ;-)