Clue 2 Done - Smiling Again

After spending a grumpy weekend digging in red clay mud and frogging the second section of my pi shawl, I think I have recovered. Hallelujah! Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad, but it was also PMS weekend and the combination was near lethal if you know what I mean :-) But the good news is my snowdrops are finished and they look pretty darn good if you ask me.

The silver lining in all this was opting to do the snowdrops, which look much better than I had anticipated. I moved part of the stitches to another circular needle so I could stretch the lace out and snap/scan some pictures. After everything I've been through I just had to get some pictures--not an easy thing with pi shawls I've discovered. So far it measures about 13.5" in diameter. I stayed up late last night moving all the stitches back to my addi and placing another lifeline (a necessary evil I've learned!). I'm using nymo (a nylon beading thread) for my lifelines and finding it far superior to the crochet cotton I've used before. Someone on EZasPi mentioned using dental floss, but I only have the waxed variety which didn't appeal to me. The nymo is finer which makes it easier to place the line and less of a bother to knit around. I use the last row of plain knitting before the doubling row for my lifelines--it's hard enough knitting 2 togs etc after the doubling row without having to fight knitting around a lifeline at the same time! I tie the nymo onto a tapestry needle and move the stitches to the cable section of the needle and the lifeline went in faster and easier than ever before. As Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing!"

Adventure-Grrrr!

Knitting this pi shawl is supposed to be a personal adventure experience, right? Adventure-grrrr! Ok, so I knit the center 3 times until I get it right/to my satisfaction. It's not my style to have to redo things multiple times to get it right, but hey, it's just the center and it's not that big. I only wasted, uh, spent about 5 hours having a "learning experience" with nothing to show for it. OK, it's not that big a deal and besides, I had to reknit because I made mistakes.

So here comes the 2nd big mystery clue on Friday. I finish the last few rows on clue 1 and am ready to to move on. Clue 2 has four options: snowdrop, leaf, corn, or bumblebee. Corn is definitely out. I swatch the bumblebee since I have no idea what it looks like--it gets vetoed quickly too. I just don't love the huge holes left by double yos. Snowdrop sounds interesting, but I'm not sure that's what I want after looking at some images online and in the BW treasury. I like the idea of the leaf motif coming after the swirls of the russian peas--kinda like the leaf canopy formed by the trees falling just below the swirls of clouds & sky. The bonus is the allover design of Mindy's leaf which should look nice as a transition from the swirls.

With the decision made, I set off to knit leaves. I follow the chart exactly as written, but the 1st set of "leaf" motifs look more like swirls than leaves. That might not be awful, but they swirl in opposition to the swirl of the russian peas. The second set of leaf motifs are straighter, but they are still a bit askew from the 1st set of leaves. I'm skeptical, but still trusting the pattern & the process. After all, it is a mystery adventure, right??? Then late last night I catch up on my email and read the group digests where other participants are asking if there is an error in option B because the double decreases in the first leaves didn't line up and went sideways. Arrrrgghhh! So it wasn't my problem after all. No, to get the leaves all straight you had to shift the markers back one and slip the stitch *prior* to the one you think you are supposed to slip in order to get things to line up. I am *not*, repeat **NOT** a happy camper about this.

I'm too irritated to stop and reason out where the problem is. Is it because of the circular knitting? Is it because the chart is in error (well yeah, sorta). Is this a deficiency of charted versus text directions. Maybe there should have been a note warning of this issue and suggesting a remedy in advance of working (well yeah, that would have been a good thing). Maybe I have unrealistic expectations. Maybe it's because this is my 1st pi shawl (uh, maybe). WHATEVER! The bottom line is I hate how it looks and I have to actually *use* that lifeline I put in. I am not happy.

I have never had to frog back to a lifeline and pick up stitches and start over before. It is a real PITA (pain in the a**). I dig out a set of size 1 dpns to do the deed after discovering that picking up with the size 6s I'm knitting with is a complete nightmare. I down my afternoon pain meds with a diet coke, take a bunch of deep breaths, a dive in. My mom comes out to join me and starts to chat/talk at me. I growl something about bad timing and pick up my weapon, uh dpn. Lifelines may save you from having to start over from the beginning, but they sure do squiggle around and get in the way of picking up and knitting real stitches. They save your life but they are a PITA. Nevertheless I capture all those little buggers, redo my doubling row and am ready to start clue 2 again.

Releasing the shawl from the needles before frogging gave me a chance to get a good look at the leaf pattern. I pull this way & that on it and decide I don't like the leaves at all. I check out the snowdrop chart (option A) again and decide that it is better. At least I won't be battling shifting markers and slip stitches. This time I will trust my instinct and experience more than the chart. I will trust my eyes and good esthetic sense. I plan on knitting this section again only once. Adventure--- GRRRR!

Third Times a Charm???

I just had to do it. I just couldn't let my 1st pi shawl have this weird extra loop at the center. So I pulled it off the dpns and stretched it out to get my 1st really good look at the thing. That's when I knew I was going to make some changes on my 2nd attempt to my KYOAPiShawl. For one, I realized that the size 4 needles really were too tiny for the lace. OK, so I should have believed everyone on the various lace & knitting lists that were recommending much larger needles for laceweight yarns. The other realization--I didn't love the leaf design (option C). The best part though--I do love the sunrise yarn! Oh goodie!

So last night I spent a couple of hours knitting my center again. This time I used size 6 needles and the Russian Pea lace pattern (option B). Wow what a difference! I love it! Well, that is everything except there was this one spot that looked kinda uneven on the start. I used a different start that I read about on one of the lists this week. This one is called "Round and Round" and the gist of it is you do a knitted cast-on (k1, yo, k1, etc) into the hole of a slipknot (the slipknot itself is not a stitch). Once you have all your stitches one your working dpn, you pull the other dpn out of the slipknot and pull the knot until it disappears. Divide your stitches onto your dpns and start knitting. This is even easier and neater than Emily Ocker's crochet cast-on IMHO. Well, that is unless you make the fatal error I did and accidentally twist one of the dpns so you knit the stitches off in reverse order. Then you get a weird looking center that's hard to figure out. Back to the frog pond I go! Why is it that I can't figure out I have a problem before I finish the center *and* the 1st clue???? So I'll be reknitting the start for the 3rd time tonight. But then we all know the third times a charm, right??? LOL

Gardening & Knitting

I just can't help myself. As soon as the daylight stays around long enough and the weather warms up, I gotta go dig in the dirt. No, I'm past the days of making mudpies and I don't mound it up to pitch balls from, it's all about the flowers. Beautiful (I hope) flowers. Pink flowers. Oh, they can be white, blue, purple, and yellow too, but it's really all about the *pink* flowers. The other flowers and foilage only serve to enhance the beauty of the pink flowers.

In bloom right now are some very large pink tulips plus some nice fuschia tulips. The pink hyacinths are fading but the bleeding hearts (dicentra spectabilis) are coming on strong in the shade garden. Being a frugal gardener, I prefer to buy small potted perennials as they cost less and grow just as fast as their costlier big pot neighbors. the exception is if the big pot plant is such that it can be divided so the beauty can be spread around. I started out with one bleeding heart and this morning I had four. Tonight I have 7 plants after digging up one poor performer. No wonder it wasn't thriving as it was being choked out by fat roots from the tulip popular tree! Add a little insect trouble and voila--sad bleeding heart. But tonight that little beauty is now 3 plants relocated to the new shade garden that has lots of compost & manure enriched soil. Just add water and smile! It's a beautiful thing.

I would have continued in the garden but my allergies were so fierce that I finally had to retreat inside. Tree pollen is the biggest culprit, but the grass & mold are bad too. Even Allegra and (horror!) a face mask couldn't win against this stuff. My poor immune system has been on the rage. The worst was on Easter Sunday while sitting in church. Some dear sister walked in late (later than I was even) and sat across the aisle from me. Her perfume was so strong it went into a full blown allergic crisis--red swollen face, burning eyes and difficulty breathing. I had not taken any allergy meds that morning, so I was defenseless. I moved to the far end of the pew and used a linen hanky as a face mask to help with breathing. It was just enough to get me through the service (I didn't want to miss Daddy singing in the choir and my dear friend Bro. Clark giving the Easter sermon). Then I had to hurry home and take Benadryl as the reaction was so bad nothing else would do. I don't know why people have to wear that wicked garbage to church. I mean I like a nice light fragrance, but the stuff some people douse themselves in even oxygen can't resuscitate the rest of us to have to breathe it. The only thing worse is cigarette/cigar smoke.

Now that I've wheezed on, I guess I should talk a little about knitting. I just finished my 8th repeat on the leaf lace shawl. I'm pretty bored with it and the rows are getting terribly long, but I'm using the pi shawl KAL as motivation to get this one finished ASAP. The LLS is simple knitting so I work on it when I'm tired from working in the garden and need a break or at night while watching (also boring) tv. The biggest challenge is trying to get most of the dirt out from under my fingernails before picking up the knitting. I promise I do wear gloves when I'm digging in the dirt and I wash my hands thoroughly afterwards--but you'd never know it by looking at my nails! I wound another skein of the sunrise into a ball last night. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna redo the start to my pi shawl. Everytime I look at it that little loop of extra yarn on the first row just screams at me. I know I won't be able to stand it so I'll probably reknit it tomorrow. That way I'll be all ready when the 2nd clue is posted on Friday. Oh boy!

My First Pi Shawl, KAL Begins

When I knit Kiri for the KO, I fell in love with knitting lace shawls. So I started joining eGroups for shawls and lace knitters, including the EZasPi group which has as its focus the works of Elizabeth Zimmerman and her daughter Meg Swansen. The EZasPi group is a bit different than the other knitting lists I've been reading. These folks chat--about everything! No knitting content only rule here and yet I find I enjoy reading what everyone is saying rather than exercising my finger on the delete button. This is a really fascinating group of folks!

When I joined EZasPi I really was only looking to glean tips and technique ideas from experienced lace knitters, I wasn't planning on knitting a pi shawl anytime soon. I lurked and learned--and then it happened. I got bit! Bit by the "we're starting a new pi shawl KAL" but itwasn't *just* knitting a pi shawl. No, it was a mystery shawl KAL where the clues to the lace designs in the shawl are doled out once a week. Hmmm...sounds well, intriguing. But this mystery KAL has the added twist of multiple choices of lace patterns given in each clue. You pick the option you want to knit not knowing what your next option will be. The only thing you know is that the overall theme is garden. Choose your own yarn and needle size and have a go at it! It was a temptation too good to pass up. After all, I love gardens and all the pretty colors and images that gardens bring to mind.

I have at least 4 skeins of KnitPicks Gossamer laceweight merino in my stash. The colorway is "sunrise"--a blend of a chambray blue and 3 values of muted pink. I bought it with the intent of knitting a faroese shawl but started knitting a lace scarf instead. The scarf never did speak to me so I frogged it after a couple of months in the UFO pile. I'm not sure the sunrise is the right yarn for this project either so I ordered 2 different lace yarns from KnitPicks on Thursday, but started off with the Sunrise yesterday on "cast-on" day. Actually, I think it looks really good at this point, so I'm pleased. I am using US 4 needles for my shawl. I know others are using larger needles with this yarn (size 6-7 or even 8!) but I don't like my lace to look too loose/lacy. I played a bit with a size 5 which looked ok, but I let my practical self decide to go for the 4s. I had to buy both the dpns (Crystal Palace bamboo-my fav) and 16" Addis for the project--not cheap! I knew that I would use the size 4 dpns a lot more for knitting socks and such in the future making them a wiser choice for my meager budget. Ta Da! The shawl will be on 4s! I just love the flexibility of knitting lace! Or maybe it's just that I hate the battle to make gauge for sweaters and things where it matters.

So needles and yarn at the ready, next comes casting on in the round with tiny yarn and fat dpns. I've used Emily Ocker's crochet cast-on successfully for a couple of hats this winter, so that's what I chose. It wasn't too bad, but the finished result wasn't perfect as I ended up with a weird extra loop. It's not that obvious and I can hide it when I weave in the tail. Well, that is unless I return to my perfectionist self and decide to frog and reknit the center. It wouldn't take very long. Maybe I will, maybe I won't...

Distractions

My life has been filled with wonderful distractions lately. That's good for life, but not necessarily good for knitting or blogging. Spring has arrived and I just gotta go dig in the dirt! I have never had such beautiful tulips and narcissi before--all pink over a carpet of purple and yellow pansies. It'a truly amazing and well worth the killer pain and wipe out I had last fall after prepping the beds (that is digging out honking big rotting tree roots) and planting all those bulbs. I've hit the home depot twice this week to load up on composted manure & top soil, a couple of new bareroot roses (pink, of course), and several pots of perennials. I'm tired, my fingernails are perpetually filled with dirt, but my soul is so filled with joy!

My knitting also took a backseat to Spring Break--for my niece and nephew. My sister works for Uncle Sam and had to go to Washington for meetings the same week her kids were out of school for spring break. Daddy is away getting a PhD so the kids came to stay with us (the grandparents and aunt). I totally loved having the kids. Mark Thomas is 11, calm and studious, and Victoria is 6, very creative and full of energy. I slept for three days after they left. I am an old maid and am not used to the demands of motherhood LOL! After I was able to stay alert again, I spent Monday and Tuesday doing what doting Aunties do--making a pretty Easter dress for the doted upon niece. Victoria helped me cut it out while she was here, but I needed peace and quiet to do the sewing. Thank heavens for Fed-Ex--the dress is now in Georgia and ready for the big day tomorrow.

I did add a few more rows to my leaf lace shawl while the kids were here. I think I'm up to 7 repeats now and it's looking fine. The LLS is a nice pattern, but I think I like the finished look of the Flower Basket Shawl better. The center vein in the LLS is formed by a single purl stitch which doesn't really look that wonderful to my eye. It may have something to do with the softness of the Alpaca Cloud yarn. I suspect that the sharper definition of a merino, cotton, or linen yarn would improve the look. But the shawl is wonderfully soft and lucious and I will use it a lot to wrap my aching shoulders in. Now it's time to head back to my garden and inflict some more pain to my creaky old body. Stayed tuned for pictures of my efforts!

Lifetime Learning

One of the things I have been taught both at home and at church is that one should make a concerted effort to learn new things throughout one's life. Every day provides an opportunity to seek out people, places, & things that are new and to learn all that I can. Reading, and now writing my own knitting blog has been on of those learning adventures. It involves taking digital pictures, editing them & posting them in a web-compatible format. I have to think about what I want to say, write it out, then edit for typos, spelling, and coherence. Most recently I have worked on my html coding skills by adding links and graphics to my sidebar--not a simple task! I am learning and having fun at the same time!

I am inspired by the blogs of other knitters, both in what they are knitting and how they are blogging it. Today I looked at one blog and found this quiz (see below). I determined to learn more about how these things are done and satisfy my curiosity on how a quiz decides "what type of yarn" a person is by asking a handful of seemingly unrelated questions. I confess I took the quiz a few times before feeling satisfied with the declared result. Now this is not cheating, but rather taking a second or third opportunity to choose different, but equally suitable answers to some of the quiz questions. Yes, I would be equally happy to live in the picturesque Carolinas (I love the low country & Hilton Head and I also love Asheville & the other side of the Smokies) or to spend summers on Martha's Vineyard & winters on a tropic island. My 1st trip through told me I was dishcloth cotton-sturdy, love to clean, and hard work. Sorry, wrong number! The 2nd time I went on a lark (Jimmy Choos & 5th Avenue) and ended up at cashmere. Nice for sure, but not really me either. But I finally got it perfect--mohair. Yup, that's me--very stubborn but also warm & fuzzy. The funny thing is that I love to knit with mohair yarn! Nice, soft & fuzzy, warm & cuddly--it's one of my most favorite fibers (along with alpaca, silk, fine merino & lambswool). I guess you could say I learned something new while affirming that which I already knew about myself--not a bad thing if you ask me!

Funny Quizzes

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Mohair.You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with others, doing your share without being too weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely refuse to change your position once it is set, but that's okay since you are good at covering up your mistakes.
Take this quiz!








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Bored & Boring

OK, I admit it. I was bored--bored with all the WIPS I was working on (we won't talk about the WIPS I'm not working on LOL). I added a few more repeats to the cuff on the 2nd of Holly's socks, but I haven't fallen in love with knitting patterned socks yet I guess. Or maybe it just takes too long to knit fancy patterns into the socks and I want really fast results. I knit a couple more repeats on the coral lace shawl too, but working with single strand lace weight makes the growing slow and a bit tedious. I need to have several different things going on simultaneously so I can switch out whenever I get bored. People who can pick one project and work it start to finish before starting another project amaze me. How do they do it??? I am so *not* wired that way!

I cast on a new pair of socks yesterday morning using some KnitPicks Dancing from my stash. Now that warmer weather is finally coming I figure its a good time to try knitting a pair of cotton socks. I'm not following a pattern per se, but I'm going for a simple little anklet. I haven't worked with elastic yarn before, but I'm trying to not stretch it as I knit. I kept to the size 1 needles and 64 sts that worked for my Regia socks. So far I've worked 6 rows of 2x2 ribbing & 10 rows of St st. I'm halfway through an eye of partridge heel over 30 sts and it looks pretty good.

Knitting new socks is a good thing, but somehow I was still kinda bored. Maybe I should blame the weather. It was rainy and icky yesterday and my body was super achy, due in part to excessive gardening/yard work activities this week. When I feel really bad I like to make little visits to the Knit n Purl. I have this shawl pattern I want to make, but I needed a size 5 Addi to do it. I didn't have one so I had good excuse to visit the KnP, right? I booped on over and picked up the needles, but then I remembered that I wanted to check out another shawl pattern to go with the new blue Alpaca Cloud in my yarn basket. You know, that luciously soft, yummy new yarn that just arrived in the mail the other day and has been calling my name ever since, that yarn that wants to be a shawl but doesn't know which shawl to be. Yup, that's the stuff! At first I thought I would just knit another FBS with it, but then I would have 2 identical shawls except one would be pink and the other blue. Nah, that would be boring! I don't want to be bored or boring so I can't do another FBS. I had looked at another Evelyn Clark design before, the Leaf Lace Shawl, and liked it. It's worked in a similar manner to Kiri & FBS, which I like, but it would still be a bit different too. This is good, very good. I bought the pattern and went home feeling better already. Yarn shops are wonderful "medicine."

I cast on last night. I'm getting good at Evelyn's provisional cast-on, garter strip start--this one looks much better than the one I knit for Kiri. I chose to work with a double strand of the alpaca cloud as I did for the FBS. I really like the weight double-stranded and let's face it, at a fingering weight it won't take forever to knit. By bedtime I had the 1st chart plus 2 repeats done with ease. I did give in and place a lifeline at the end of the 1st chart. It's a good habit to get into and it will make it easier for me to count the repeats afterwards. The small shawl calls for 12 repeats, but this time I think I'll knit as many repeats as I have yarn for. I did 12 on the FBS, but maybe I'll do14 this time. Maybe that is unless I get so *bored* I can't stand to knit another repeat. LOL!

Lady Vols Lose, Tink-Tink-Tink

It was a rough night Tuesday. I was working on the coral lace shawl and watching the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team play North Carolina for the right to go to the NCAA final four. Pat Summitt and the Lady Vols have been to the final four a lot. When you come to TN to play for Pat, you expect to be in the final four. Women's basketball is just that good around here. They even built the National Women's Basketball Hall of Fame here in Knoxville. Yup, our downtown has two big round symbols: a big orange basketball at the WBHOF on one side and a big shiny gold ball atop a tall tower on the other side- the Sunsphere from the 1982 World's Fair.

The Lady Tar Heels lead from the beginning of the game and Pat's girls just couldn't seem to find their rhythm. I knit on my shawl all the while hoping Candace Parker & Alexis Hornbuckle would get everyone revved up. That's when I found the booboo in the shawl a couple of rows down-a centered double decrease was not centered and I had too many stitches. I tried going down to fix just the messed up spot, but it looked awful. Lesson learned: when knitting a shawl from small point upward, you will have extra yarn hanging out when you forget to psso and end up with too many stitches. On Kiri or the FBS boosboos meant that your tension might be just a tad tight in the spot, but blocking would solve the problem. Not so with this pattern.

Of course I had no lifelines in place as I hate putting them in and hate knitting around them once they are in place, so I had no simple rescue. The only safe solution was to tink back 3 rows, one stitch at a time, and fix my mistake. Blast! It's kind of like playing a bad game of Mother, May I? where you were progressing along just fine with your baby steps. Then suddenly the mother shouts "take 3 giant steps backward!" Tinking back takes at least 3 times longer to do than knitting in pattern did in the first place. By the end of the night I managed to make a net progress of zero on the shawl. And the Lady Vols never did really get into the groove of the game and ended up losing. It just wasn't a good night. Period.

I had to take a break from the shawl yesterday. The weather finally warmed up and I ended up spending the day in the yard doing a little garden stuff while supervising the nice man who came and demolished a big stump from an old maple tree in my backyard. Heavy machinery sure can do amazing things! He also got rid of the stumps of the diseased laurel bushes I had Mr. Jim (the yard guy) cut down on Monday. I am deliriously happy to be rid of those bushes! Next up is compost & topsoil, plus lime in the places that will be returned to grass. I might turn some sand into the front bed too before planting new shrubs. Right now I am thinking about a Natchez (white) crape myrtle with Nikko Blue hydrangeas on either side. That should make a perfect backdrop for my pink rose garden! Yum! (Digging in the dirt really is fun!)

I Love FOs

I just love *finished* knitting projects. Being an expert at UFO/WIPs, it's especially satisfying to see a project through to completion. I finished these Regia socks Sunday evening and they turned out just perfect. The fit is perfect--my best pair of socks yet, and the color is totally cool. When I put them on my feet I feel... well, groovy! Handknit socks really do rock!

Finishing a new pair of socks gave me something to feel good about on a weekend when I felt awful physically. Between the wacky weather, wild hormone swings, and fibro my poor body just lost it. Yeeeouch! But I put those toasty warm socks on my feet immediately after grafting the toe closed and ahhhhhh...yes! Warm, soft, yummy, and happy bright! What a way to turn icky into ahhhh! I had my camera at the ready so I didn't even have to move from the recliner & heating pad to snap this pix of my toasty tootsies. Now that's what I call groovy!

It's Like Christmas!

I just happened to be looking out the window when the mail lady pulled up in front of the house with a big box in her hands--a big box full of yarn from knit picks! It must be Christmas! No really, it's been *so* cold here this week, it even snowed on Rocky Top. It feels like Christmas. I've been doing a little sale shopping for spring/summer clothes & shoes or fabric to make my own clothes, so I feel very indulged in this week. The arrival of my yarn box was just the frosting on the cake.

I couldn't resist the KnitPicks sock yarn sale. I ordered two colors of parade to knit socks for my father. He wants socks that don't touch his ankles as they are very sensitive. It will be an adventure to knit big feet socks but at least I don't have to do much ribbing so that's a plus. The rest of the box is planned for me, but that could change. I love the 100% merino so I bought 2 colors (hydrangea, tropical sunrise) for socks for me and a bunch of the stargazer lily for the Sock Memories Shawl pattern. The shawl is a big rectangle and uses the home sweet home pattern. The shawl looks easy enough but I wish they had charted out the pattern. I'm hooked on the visual of charts now--it just makes so much more sense when you can see the design on paper and match up what you're knitting to it. It's also a lot faster to glance at a chart than read a bunch of encrypted text. I guess I'll be practicing my own charting skills for this one.

I also ordered 3 hanks of alpaca cloud in the mist colorway for another lace shawl. I used the peppermint pink AC for the flower basket shawl and it is totally yummy. I've worn my FBS so much! It has been the perfect thing to wrap around my neck and shoulders while puttering around the house or dashing out to run errands in the chilly March winds. I never thought I would wear it as much as I have. The pale periwinkle shade of my new alpaca cloud is lovely. I may just knit another FBS with it since the price is right--I already have the pattern and needles I need.

I've been knitting away on socks this week. My colorful Regia socks are coming along. I finished working the gusset on the 2nd sock last night. I hope to finish the pair this weekend. After all my false starts with this yarn I finally have a result I'm pleased with(the socks that is, the picture is terrible). I'm glad I knit a long cuff and even my experiment with extending the ribbing partway down the top of the instep looks interesting. I wanted the top ribbing to be there to assure a snug fit. The other pair of socks I knit without a real pattern ended being very baggy at the instep/arch and I didn't want that to happen again. I now know that I would have been OK without the extra ribbing as my heel flap depth was perfect this time, but a little extra caution never hurts!. And I now have the right yarn/needle size & stitch count to make simple socks that fit me perfectly. How cool is that?

Knitting Socks, Vols Lose

It was rather late Friday night when it bit me--the urge to knit socks. I have a some WIP socks in my basket, but they are patterned "fussy" socks that require thinking and fancy maneuvers. I wanted to knit simple, almost no-brainer, no pattern needed socks. I think the urge may have had something to do with the Townies sock knitting group I belong to. These folks are plumb crazy about knitting socks! They buy lots of expensive fancy sock yarn and knit amazing apparel for feet. But they are loads of fun and they are most respectful of us humble sock knitters.

I bought this colorful Regia (sorta pricey for me) sock yarn on sale at the KnP in January. The colors are fabulous. But I was less than thrilled with my inital swatches and beginnings of cuffs, so I relegated the yarn to the frog pond and started knitting lace shawls instead. A helpful Townie assured me the yarn was really great and a smaller needle size/higher stitch count would solve my frustrations. So I opened a new set of Crystal Palace bamboo dpns (2.25mm/US 1) and cast on using my favorite 2x2 rib cuff. When stretched out, I think a 2x2 rib has a superior appearance over the usual 1x1 rib. And since I dislike knitting ribbing, 2x2 is much more tolerable (less manipulating of the needles and yarn to form the knits & purls for us throwers). Ribbing is even better tolerated when worked in superior quality needles and these CP needles are smooth and sharp and totally awesome to work with (translation=much better than Clover/Takumi dpns). Two hours later when I was ready to kiss Miss Emme (the dog) goodnight for the last time and turn the lights out I had a very respectable start to a cuff. I convinced myself to stick with it and knit a cuff long enough to fold down rather than just a quickie anklet. After all, it was pricey yarn--no sense having a bunch leftover in my basket.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon and time for my beloved Vols to play in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney against Witchita State. I debated between the coral lace shawl (the lucky project in the 1st round game) or the Regia socks for my game time sanity activity. I decided to stick with the socks since I was already on a roll with them. The basketball game was very close--again. Too close--again! The ribbed cuff grew fast with the distraction of the game. The Vols went on a run late in the 2nd half. I was excited and knit fast. Then suddenly the ball stopped going down the basket. The lead melted away as only 2 minutes remained. Andre' Patterson fouled out. Ouch! Dane Bradshaw missed critical free throws. Oh no! The Big Orange went down! Moan, groan!!! Maybe I shoulda stuck with the shawl.

Vols Win, Shawl Progresses

It was a long, nail-biter, but my beloved Tennessee Vols Mens' basketball team won their first round game at the "Big Dance." Winthrop was tenacious, but a last second miracle shot by Lofton put the Vols ahead and guaranteed another game and another chance at victory. The arrival of Bruce Pearl in Knoxville has brought about a mighty miracle both on and off the court. It's been fun to watch the same guys who repeatedly lost last year suddenly come to life and upset the big win teams. It's been 6 years since the Vols won a game in the NCAA tournament. I find great inspiration in this, as I try to overcome my own "formidable opponents" in my personal life. As Pearl has shown Vol fans, attitude is everything. After all the hard work and discipline, ya gotta believe you can do it. Believing is the hard part. After that, the doing gets easier. Not easy, mind you, but easier.

I have found my new found love of knitting lace to be a perfect companion for watching my favorite sports on TV. This was confirmed knitting Kiri during the olympics. When the game is a little dull, I focus on knitting. When the game is so intense I feel like exploding, I knit like a mad woman and I feel like I'm a little bit more in control-- of myself at least. Yesterday's basketball game was close from start to finish. Too close! I managed to knit 2 more repeats on my coral lace shawl as a result of this "madness." This shawl pattern is really wonderful (Wiseman, 2001. Knitted Shawls, Stoles, & Scarves, pp. 62-64). It is really quite simple to knit and would be a perfect 1st lace shawl for just about anyone because it doesn't have all the complicated manuevers of many lace patterns. There are only 3 stitches: knit, purl, and sl1 k2tog psso. That's it! Add a few yo s and you have lace! It's very dainty in laceweight yarn, but I suspect this design would be just as wonderful worked in a DK or WW yarn on larger needles. I will probably try this as my mom wants a warm shawl to wrap around her neck and shoulders during little naps in the recliner. Just another project to add to my list. It's a *long* list!

One of Those Days

It was one of those days. You know, the kind of day where nothing seems to go right and Murphy's Law reigns supreme. Tuesday was one of those days for me. I didn't feel all that great when I got up---not all that unusual for me since I have fibromyalgia, but still not as good as I feel on good days. I had my usual morning bagel and diet coke breakfast while watching Martha Stewart teach the world the basics of cooking. Not so bad. then I crawled in behind my computer to capitalize on a moment of inspiration and work on my dissertation. These moments are not common, so I have to go at it while the brain is functioning. Time is irrelevant in these moments, it just goes by.

So I was late getting out of the house to go to campus for my weekly research group meetings. I arrive at the freeway to find it a parking lot. Stopped dead. I hate road construction! The drive down the back roads was beautiful, but it took twice as long as usual. Then a female (she was no lady) driving a clunker car older than mine (mine's old!) ran the red light and tried to hit me as I was turning into campus at the arena. At least my car has good brakes. Hers squealed like crazy as she gestured madly and flapped her jaw at me. I'm an extremely careful driver--the post-traumatic stress result of 2 bad life experiences involving cars--so I had been watching this woman carefully even before I turned. I thought she really was going to stop and I had plenty of room, but it was clear she was not paying attention to anything except where she intended to go. I won't post the evil thoughts that went through my mind at that moment. She didn't hit me and I survived to get to the parking lot--which was full. Totally full. I don't usually have trouble parking, but it was one of those kind of days. Finally someone leaves, I park and hike up the hill to the College. I get to the conference room only to find that the meeting was cancelled due to the fact that most everyone was gone. Its hard to do group work with only 3 people. My professor, who is in charge of the group, was away in Salzburg, Austria presenting at a conference. Oh duh, I forgot it was this week.

I get in my car and head home. Traffic is OK and no one tries to kill me this time. I'm in an awful mood, so I stop in at the Knit n Purl on my way home (it really is on my way home, no detour needed). There's been a fair amount of chat about the Branching Out Scarf (from Knitty) on the knitlist lately, mostly whining about the chart being difficult. It doesn't look hard to me, I've wanted to knit this one but I did't have anything suitable in the stash. The designer recommended Doceur et Soie, which I love but the KnP doesn't have any good colors left, or Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool. The KnP has lots of Silky Wool in bright, vivid colors like pink, periwinkle, and turquoise. I'm wearing a new jean-style jacket, hot off my sewing machine in shades of white, lime, and turq so I opt for the turq SW. I pick up another set of Addi circs to add to my collection and walk out of the store feeling much better about life. Visiting the KnP has that effect on me. I always feel better after a visit to look at the colors and pet the yarn.

I went home and cast on the BOS. The SW yarn is quite textured. I suspect the silk content is silk noil as the texture resembles the nubbiness found in silk noil fabric. But it is nice and I can see why SW would make a great wear-it-all-the-time cardigan. In reality I will never know this as I can't afford to spend approx $100+ on yarn to knit a sweater. I am on a very tiny fixed income. I just don't have that kind of money to spend on yarn. If I *did* have that kind of money, I'd buy a really amazing sweater that I didn't have to spend months knitting. But I can buy a skein or two of an expensive yarn for a lace scarf. And that's exactly what I did!

It didn't take long to see why some of the knitlisters were having a hard time with the BOS. Every version of a 3to1 decrease is in this scarf, often in the same row! The symbols for these decreases were hard to read and required squinting intensely at the chart--not good for smooth knitting. The stitch counts vary and I managed to lose several yo stitches while working the purl rows, typically not a problem for me. I had to tink several times to recover the lost stitches but the good news was that by the end of 2 repeats I had it all figured out and the knitting went smoothly and quickly after that. SW yarn is big compared to lace and fingering yarns I've been using lately, so the BOS should be a very quick knit. I like quick knits!

Pretty in Pink

Pink is my favorite color. I have pink skin. I look good in pink. Everything is prettier in pink. I was so happy to see my pretty pink flower basket shawl all stretched out and blocking on the bed yesterday. I just unpinned her and wrapped up in her yumminess. Alpaca Cloud is definitely a fabulous fiber for shawls and scarves--so soft, so delicate, and with just the right amount of warmth for a Southern Belle. Since the weather can't seem to make up its mind right now, a little extra warmth in the morning is a good thing.

I started working on the Trellis Scarf the other night. My first attempt looked pretty strange, so I frogged it and started over. I got through the first chart just fine, but then came this little monster called a 7 to 5 cluster. Evil monster. I did not knit the future cluster stitches extra loose on the previous row as suggested in the pattern. That would have required knowing what was coming up on the 1st row of the 2nd chart, which I hadn't really studied intensely yet. I did try using a crochet hook to pull the yarn through the 7 stitches, which is fine if you only need to pull through once. It doesn't help for the following yo, k1, yo, k1 that are supposed to be worked in the same place. Next I tried slipping the 7 st to a 0000 dpn, meanwhile shoving the addi forward so the needle is out of the way and maybe I won't drop any stitches during the gymnastics. it worked, but how fiddly is that? I made it through the row (3 clusters) only to discover that I did drop a stitch after the first cluster and the others were all off by 1. Yikes! Its a really pretty scarf, but it's not worth all the headaches to work the 100+ clusters called for in the design. Call that Trellis frogged! BooHoo!

With Trellis is the frog pond, I just had to start something else with the coral Zephyr. I spent quite a bit of time perusing my pattern collection and B. Walker's 1st Stitch Treasury book. I ultimately decided to try the Lavender Linen Lace Shawl from Nancie Wiseman's Knitted Shawls, Stoles, & Scarves. This is a lovely little triangular shawl, more like a large scarf really. Since it is worked with a single strand of laceweight yarn, it is lighter and more delicate than the Flower Basket Shawl or Kiri. That makes it perfect for spring and summer! The pattern is pretty easy to follow & remember, so I should be able to knit away without the chart soon. This lace shawl thing is *so* addicting!

Another Shawl Dances Off the Needles

Yes indeed, another lace shawl has danced its way off my addis and into my heart. I just love the look of the Flower Basket Shawl. It took me a lot longer to memorize the pattern repeats, so it took more presence of mind while knitting than Kiri did. But it was oh so worth it! I ended up knitting 12 repeats to get a shawl that is similar in size to Kiri. I had hoped to do 10 repeats, but it just wasn't big enough. Two skeins of the Alpaca Cloud lasted through 11.5 repeats, so in the future I'll know to plan on three skeins for this design. One or 2 more repeats would have been nice, but frankly I was just ready to be done, so I quit at 12. I think I'll be happy with my decision once I get her blocked.

Next up on the needles is the Trellis Lace Scarf from the current issue of Interweave Knits. Trellis is another Evelyn Clark design, so it should be a well-written and well-conceived project. Clark has an excellent reputation for her lace designs. This time I'm using another very popular lace yarn-- Jaggerspun Zephyr, which is a 50/50 blend of fine merino and tussah silk. I've chosen a bright coral pink, one of my favorite colors for spring and summer. I swatched on the size 5 needles suggested in the pattern, but my gauge was a bit big. More importantly, I didn't like the look on 5s, so I switched to size 4s. I swatched with Balene II needles, which have a fine tip, and with Clover bamboos. I've used both of these on previous lace projects and have been quite happy. Not this time. Oh the drag!!!! I am rotten now. Addi rotten. Those super slick suckers that drove me crazy only 3 weeks ago have become my best friends. The yarn just slides along those lovely flexible cables. Oh my poor budget. I dragged my poor sick, ashy green body out of the house to my lys for some size 4 addis. It's a very good thing I live close by. If I buy a new size each month, eventually I'll have what I want. Add me to the list of needle snobs. I just knew addi addiction was a contagious disease.

And Life Goes On

The olympics are over, my Kiri shawl is completed, and life goes on. My Mom graciously agreed to pose for the "bee-hind" pix of the shawl. The picture doesn't really do justice to the shawl, but Mom thought the contrast provided by her yellow house robe would enhance the view. Uh, well, I guess so. I'll have to try again later, maybe in the daylight in a room that doesn't have "Georgia Red Clay" paint on the walls. A red shawl does need a contrasting color in the background to be fully appreciated.

I spent most of yesterday cleaning. All the little things that I didn't do during the olympics once again captured my attention: things like vacuuming, dusting, and putting clean linens on the bed. Today I turned my attention back to schoolwork. I really *do* want to graduate this year! But not to worry, I haven't abandoned my knitting just yet. In fact, I'm so energized by my olympic success that I'm back at work on another shawl--this time it's Evelyn Clark's Flower Basket Shawl.

Actually, I started the FBS before the olympics, right around the 1st of February. The FBS was much easier to knit than I had anticipated and the first few repeats worked up rather quickly. My early success with the FBS really was the motivation for choosing Kiri as my olympic project. Of course I couldn't do the FBS for the olympics because I'd already started it. I wasn't about to frog the shawl when I had the beginning plus 3 repeats already done! I just tucked it away for a fortnight until after the olympics, and my olympic shawl were finished.

I'm knitting the FBS with 2 strands of Knit Picks Alpaca cloud (Peppermint pink) on size 7 Addis. I'm using the pattern published in the Fall 2004 Interweave Knits (or you can download the pdf file for free from the Interweave website) which is a small, shoulder shawl version of the original design published by FiberTrends. I finished the 7 repeats called for in the IK pattern, but after Kiri I think I want a bigger shawl. I certainly have more than enough yarn to do a full-sized version. I looked at the specs for the full-sized shawl, did a little math, and have deduced that the big version has 12 repeats of the lower basket chart (10 rows). I'm pretty sure I'll do at least 10 repeats, but I may just go for the whole thing. Who knows?

I even have my next lace project all planned out. The newest issue of IK (Spring 2006) has another Evelyn Clark design, this time it's the Trellis scarf. I bought the issue for this scarf pattern. It's that yummy! There's other good stuff in this issue, but the scarf is what made me whip out my wallet. I hit my LYS on Saturday and bought a ball of Jaggerspun Zephyr in a bright coral pink--one of my favorite shades and perfect for a spring scarf! I have some Zephyr in my stash, but it's red and after Kiri I needed something different. Yeah, yeah, just another excuse to buy more yarn, I know. After all, a woman has to have her projects all lined up so she has something to look forward to knitting next. Gotta keep at least one lace project and one pair of socks OTN at all times :-)

Olympics Day 16: Flame's Out

I just finished watching the closing ceremonies of the Torino Olympics on TV. I took a closer look at the festivities on the NBC website before coming here to blog my closing thoughts. My beautiful Italian red shawl is completed. I waited until tonight to weave in my beginning and ending threads, just so I could say I really ended my shawl as the games ended. It was a wonderful, challenging two weeks. As someone who struggles to stay devoted to just one project until it is completed and ready to be seen in public (ie. no loose ends or unsewn seams), this was a great success. It was also a big success in that I rose to the challenge placed before me, and I kept my confidence all the way through the project, even while tinking back to fix mistakes. I would not be discouraged--a life lesson that I need to hold on to going forward.

I made new friends by joining Team Deseret--wonderful people that I probably would not have met had it not been for the Knitting Olympics. Thanks Geo for initiating the team and extending your warm friendship. I hope our little group continues to knit and blog and grow!

The olympic flame is out. It's time to return to life. But for me, it won't be life as usual. I've really been blessed by this experience. And each time I look at my beautiful red Kiri shawl I'll remember the knitting olympics, the friends I made, and the things I learned not only about knitting, but about myself. Arreviderci Italia!

Olympics Day 15: Blocking on the Bed

I've had a day to recover from the elation of casting off Kiri. Actually, I needed to recover from all the walking I did at the Dogwood Arts Festival Home and Garden Show at the Knoxville Convention Center yesterday afternoon. I walked so much I thought it was an olympic event! LOL

Since I wasn't able to easily locate suitable wires for blocking, I just ran a long length of fishing line through the top of the garter stitch border prior to bath time. I used some lovely Italian bath gel(Elaria Jasmine by Perlier) for Kiri's warm soak in the sink. Twenty minutes later it was time to rinse, and rinse, and rinse, and rinse some more! My lovely red yarn made for lovely red rinse water! I added some white vinegar to the 6th rinse and called it quits after that.

I put an old comforter on the guest bed so any red bleeding wouldn't be an issue. I blocked Kiri to the pattern specifications wingspan 77" and top to tip 36". The shawl was a little bit wider than the bed was long, but I was able to fudge it.
I needed 3 measuring tapes for this pin out job. Who would have ever thought about that? Not me. Pinning out the tips proved to be easier than I anticipated because they lined up perfectly with the quilting on the comforter. That was a pleasant surprise. Using the fishing line made pinning out the top edge very easy--no dimples where the pins were. I will definitely use that trick again.

I plan to let Kiri dry for 24 hours. That will give me enough time to pull the pins and wrap up in her to watch the closing ceremonies tomorrow night. How cool is that?