Happy Anniversary

I wanted to take the opportunity to wish my parents congratulations on 25 years together. I well remember the day they got married in a quiet ceremony. For making the commitment to each other, sticking through the hard times and always encouraging and supporting each other I have to say I’m humbled and honored to be your daughter. I love you both.

In other news, I finally got my latest watercolor framed and I’m very happy with the way the white frame sets it off.



One other thing I got on my recent jaunt was this pattern and the Berocco yarn in charcoal. I can’t tell you how gorgeous and sensual this yarn is. A fairly chunky yarn in half superfine alpaca, which gives it weight and softness, and half Peruvian wool which gives it some loft and memory. I’ve got the back and the left front done. The right front and sleeves should go quickly (on size 10/6mm needles) and then all I have to do is wait for the cool weather!

Road Trip

I had a bit of a get-away this weekend with a trip up to Madison, WI. The main reason for going was that I’d never been there and it was an easy long weekend trip. It wasn’t until after I’d planned the trip that I discovered it was the same weekend as the Jefferson County Sheep and Wool Festival. I also didn’t know that this was the BIG sheep and wool festival for Wisconsin, as I was told by one of the vendors. There were 2 large buildings just full of fiber and spinning wheels and fiber and looms and yarn and fiber.

Here are some pics:

There was also a sheepdog demonstration from a lady who ranches in southeastern Illinois. I didn’t get her name but she definitely knew her stuff. She was also spending time coaching some folks with sheep dogs that had not had any training. When I first got there, she was working with a man and his dog who was doing amazing. Little did I know that the dog had never herded sheep before that morning. Two hours of work she did with the dog and his owner and they were going through all the paces.

Then she brought out her dog. Wow. What a performance!

Fortunately I was only there for Sunday morning! But I got some yummy roving and a beautiful Border Leicester fleece. It’s so scrummy that I’ve been able to ‘card’ it with my fingers. It’s still in the grease but it’s only a light lanolin and there’s almost no vegetable matter. Can’t wait to get it spinning.

The roving I bought is a gorgeous dark green with black highlights. It’s the exact color I’ve been wanting for the fisherman’s sweater I designed a couple of years ago. Yes, the ‘pretty man sweater!’ I’ve been looking for more than 2 years for the right yarn in the right color and haven’t been able to find it. Well, now I just have to spin it!

I did also visit the 2 yarn shops I found in Madison – both very nice. One is a smaller shop but with some lovely yarns and lots of sweater samples. I found a pattern book from Gedifra Moments that really took my fancy. I’d never seen this company before and when I searched on it mostly found German and Greek web sites that carried it so I’m guessing European.

But it was at Lakeside Fibers that I fell in love. For it was there that I discovered the Weldon’s Practical Needlework series. Weldon’s was a late 19th century needlework magazine that was published in Britain. Obviously getting hold of a real copy of one of them is not easy these days and not at all cheap. But bless Piecework Magazine’s pea picking hearts, they republished them in a series of 12 volumes a few years ago. I knew nothing about this. I poured over the volumes for a long while before deciding which I was going to splurge on. I decided this was what I would spend my State Fair winnings for! I wish I could tell you how wonderful and amazing these reprinting are for a lover of vintage patterns. Sigh…. I’m still swooning just a little bit. Click on the Amazon.com link above and you can have a little peek into the volumes. Lightheaded. Ohhh… I’m okay, I’m okay. Whew.

All in all, quite a weekend! Just as well I was driving.

You take the high road, I'll take the low road

and I'll be in Scotland afore ye.


I’ve finally gotten back to the Saltire and Thistle Shawl. I put it aside because the thistles in the pattern are going to wrong way. I kept thinking I would spend some time working out how to reverse the pattern, which I’m fairly sure is a pretty easy thing. Thing is, though, I’m not and it’s been sitting patiently by my chair with the border halfway done. I’ve finally embraced the fact that I’m not going to do anything with the thistle pattern and have come to the realization that if the thistle pattern wants to be upside down, I’m jolly well going to let it be upside down. Who am I, after all, to tell the thistle which way it has to face. Here’s my ‘prototype.’ I don’t have a new photo but this is what I’m making except this one is where I’ve done the thistle pattern wrong.

Again, don’t get me wrong. It’s pretty and very uniform so that it looks like it was done on purpose – and it was – but it’s not a thistle. It came out more like a shell. Pretty but not a thistle.

So now I’m doing one with a thistle. The other thing I’m doing differently is in the corner sections. In this photo, you can see I just did plain stockinette stitch in this original 'prototype' shawl because I wasn’t sure how things would go. I decided to go plain and figure out how the shaping works.

On this one, I’m doing a Shetland eyelet pattern, in keeping with the Scottish theme – Saltire (Scottish flag) in the middle, thistles and the Shetland eyelet pattern in the border and then I’ll do a wide knitted off border (over the almost 600 stitches there will be around by the time I finish the border. You're right if you're thinking the prototype doesn't have an edging. I was doing it to learn the technique so I didn't go to the trouble of doing the edging, I just crocheted it off.

I figure I should be finished with the border in the next week or so and then the edging will take a while. The last time I did a simple garter knitted edging, it took me about 3 months to do it!! I’m a fast knitter but having to knit the equivalent of 1200 rows takes a while, I don’t care who you are!

It's nice to embrace the realities of life and enjoy the process of knitting a beautiful shawl that will remind me of my life in Scotland. They not facing the wrong way, they're just facing the other way.

Relaxing

What a nice, long weekend. Of course, it’s never long enough – I’m just beginning to wind down and get the things done I wanted to get done. But, nevertheless, I’ve had a good time.

One of the things I wanted to do was get my hand in with some watercolor projects and I’ve had a lot of fun with it. Here’s one of the projects:

Now that I see it like this, I realize there’s still some work to do on the flowers but I’m pretty happy with it.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time with Mary Salinski, a local watercolor artist and long time fiber artist. She had some fiber stuff she wanted to clean out and invited me to come have a look. Not only did I end up with a back seat full of stuff but I got to see some of her beautiful, beautiful cross-stitch and weaving work. What a lovely lady. I’m looking forward to her watercolor show that will be opening at the Hoogeland Center for the Arts next weekend.

itsy, bitsy spider

Just a quick post. I was watering plants on the patio after work this afternoon, looked up and saw this.

(Click to enlarge)

Do It Yourself

This has been the most fun I’ve had in ages. A cardigan that knits itself! It’s been such a weird experience. It started out, as I posted previously with a yarn that I bought over in Bloomington, intending it for a shawl or stole. I had the inspiration of the simple lace pattern (see Wednesday's post) so I started a wide stole (120 stitches on US size 8/5mm needles). I’d only done a few rows when I realized that it wasn’t a stole, it was a lacy cardigan. It was just the right size for the back. I knitted on, well, I say knitted, I really just held the needles. It really sort of knitted itself. I said I would keep “down and dirty” notes so you can try it if you’d like.

When I’d knitted far enough (12 inches/30 yo holds), I bound off 3 stitches on either side. From there, I decreased 1 stitches each side until the raglan sleeves were long enough and I did a basic shaping for the back neck, leaving 21 stitches on either shoulder.

I made both front pieces at the same time so I could make sure they were identical. I casted on 60 stitches and worked even until they matched the back (12 inches/30 yo holes) and then shaped the sleeves exactly as I’d done for the back. When they were at 38 yo holes, I shaped the neck like this:

On the last row before I was going to bind off at the neck edge, I knitted the 10 stitches of the neck edge on each side (I didn’t do to the lace pattern). On the next pass, I bound off 8 stitches on each neck edge then decreased 1 stitch at neck edge and armhole edge every other row until there were about 21 stitches (to match the back shoulders). I did a 3 needle bind-off to join the front and back and give it a little structure to keep it from stretching too much.

I also sewed the side seams to make sure it was going to fit okay. Actually, it would have worked nicely as a vest but I don’t like to wear vests so it was on to the sleeves.

Sleeves – Again, I did them together so I would know they were the same, working off of 2 skeins of yarn. I cast on 40 stitches and worked in pattern for 1 inch. Then I started increasing 1 stitch on either side every other row 8 times, then every 4th row 7 times. Then I worked even until it was time to start the sleeve. I worked the shaping exactly as I did for the back until there were 20 stitches left (or so). This fit was a little tricky and I measured against the armhole as I went to make sure I didn’t make it too large. I sewed the sleeve seams and then sewed the sleeves onto the body.

And that’s it! I absolutely love it and it fits perfectly. The large size needles and the open stitch pattern make this go super fast.

Blueberry Bread Pudding
I've been trying out another vintage recipe. This time it’s been a blueberry bread pudding from the July 1925 Needlecraft magazine. So easy, so delicious.

Here’s the recipe:

“Pick the stale bread over into tiny pieces, the smaller the better it will be, until you have two cupfuls (I used a container of bread crumbs which worked great). Then put into a saucepan one cupful of milk and two tablespoonfuls of butter. If you live in the country and have plenty of cream, use fairly thin cream instead of milk and omit the butter. Bring to the boiling-point and pour over the bread crumbs. Let it stand for fifteen minutes. Then press the softened bread with a fork, tearing into still smaller bits until the mixture looks more like a rather rough custard. This not absolutely necessary, but it makes the pudding softer and nicer. Now add three tablespoonfuls of sugar and two well beaten eggs and one heaping cupful of blueberries. Pour into a pudding dish and bake. (I baked it at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.) Serve hot with hard sauce or cold with cream.”

It would also be nice with this blueberry sauce (from the same magazine):

“Mix two cupfuls of blueberries with one cupful of cold water. Let them come to a boil and then stew slowly until the water is half gone, and the berries soft enough to rub through a sieve with a flat strainer.”


State Fair Entries
One other thing is that I've had several people ask about entering things into the State Fair. Each state will have a different procedure but you can find instructions by search for the state fair website in your state. In Illinois, the address is here. Click on the Competition tab and you'll want to look for the "Premium Book" for the General Competitions. Of course, you won't be able to see the Premium Book now since the fair is finished but they'll post it in March/April 2009. Section M is the Textiles section and you'll then be able to see instructions for entering and the categories. You'll need to complete the entry form and send it in with the fee before the middle of July. It's only $1 per entry so I chose a wide number of categories which gave me some leaway as to what I was going to enter without getting caught at the end. You don't have to enter everything you have tags for. They will send the tags that you'll need to attach to your piece and that's it. Just follow the directions for when to take them or send them in and you're set. Most categories allow you to enter up to 2 items. Have fun and enter lots of stuff!

Meet the Bear

Let me introduce you to my knitting chair companion. This is Robert the Bear, given to me by my friends Robert and Anne when I visited Scotland in February. They gave me the Bear and a magnet that plays Scotland the Brave – the whole Scotland the Brave – all 3 ½ minutes of Scotland the Brave. Still I play it every once in a while when I need a smile. Do do da dodo do do dooo do do do dodo do do. Robert and I exchanged tacky Christmas gifts for several years until I moved away – he gave me a sampler paint pot one year and I sent him a cheesy Christmas yard decoration one year. Ah, good times.

Anyway, the Bear got put in the corner of my big chair when I got back from my trip and he seems to really like it because he almost never leaves it. He’s really helpful and sometimes even holds my patterns for me. Good Bear.

A couple of finishes or almost finishes. I've got almost 700 yards of wool spun for my planned fisherman's gansey sweater. I reckon I'll probably need about 500 more yards but that means I'm more than halfway there (and it's only taken me 2 years!) I wasn't pleased with it after I'd plied the first skein. I'm not that experienced a spinner and my plies are really only good for 2 ply unless you're after super big fat chunky yarn - and I'm not. Like I've been reading on other blogs, my 2-ply yarn was way under spun and I wasn't at all pleased. My friend, Karen, who is quickly approaching master status suggested I should put it back on the wheel and add more twist. At first it seemed like too much trouble but then I thought, "Isn't spinning any yarn way more trouble that just buying some yarn? Is trouble really the point?" I put it back on the wheel, added some more twist and Bob's your father's brother - it came out great. And I got enough twist put into the other 2 skeins that they were fine even after I'd washed them. I'm gonna love this sweater. The plan is simmering away in my strange little brain. I'll let you know when I get it started.

Anyway, back to the post. I finished my scarf that started out as a sampler to show the pattern on the Desert Sunrise yarn I dyed. I liked it so much, I decided to just keep going and make the scarf. Can’t wait for the cold weather to come back so I can wear it. I’m not, by the way, talking about the seriously cold weather, just the weather where it’s cold enough to wear things like this. I need to get some socks knit before the really cold weather comes.

And I wanted to show this project, too. Before I show this project, I want to share the stitch pattern I’ve been using. For some reason this has become my catch-all stitch pattern lately. I started using it because it was the cuffs of the Nancy Bush Norwegian gloves I finished last week. But it’s such an easy, nice looking pattern that you don’t need to think about (too much-see note below) that I used it for the scarf right up there and I started using it with this lime green Mandarin Petit yarn (100% cotton yarn from a Norwegian company called SandnesGarn).

(Cast on multiple of 10.)

Row 1: SSK, K2, yo, k2, yo, k2, K2tog
Row 2: Purl (unless you’re working in the round, in which case you would knit the second round)

Repeat as needed. That’s it. Yeah, the only thing you need to watch out for is that it can be easy to get into your mind that you should yarn over after every time you k2. Not so much. You’ll get into all sorts of Scotland the Brave if you do that because that last k2 is there to keep you on your toes. Ask me how I know.

You probably have gotten an inkling that I don’t generally like cotton yarns but this is one of those yummy soft cotton yarns that knits like a dream, kind of like the Katia Mississippi 3. It not only knits like a dream, it is a dream to knit with.

This, like many of my projects, started life as a shawl/stole. In fact, the reason I bought it was to make a shawl. I have about 6 skeins (180 meters each) and thought that would be a good use so I promptly cast on 120 stitches. I wanted a wide stole and figured almost 1,100 meters would be plenty to make something a decent size. What I didn’t know at the time was that this yarn actually was born to be a lacy raglan-sleeved cardigan. It wasn’t until I had about 6 inches knit with this lovely stuff that I understood what the universe had planned. I did a provisional cast on and will use that to crochet off a little lacy edging when I’m done. I’ll just wait until I have both fronts done and get it put together so it will have a continuous edging.

I’ve already started on one of the front pieces and in an hour tonight got about 6 inches done. I don’t know that I’ll do a formal pattern but I am keeping notes so let me know if you want directions after I’ve finished. It will have raglan sleeves but I haven’t yet decided on the front. My really narrow shoulders don’t do so well with the v-neck so I’ll have to wait till I get there and see what happens.