A funny thing happened on my way...

...to straighten up my stash.

I’ve been reading a book called, “Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off”. There was a lot of talk about yarn and stash and stash maintenance/control (or lack thereof). Every once in a while I feel a need to gather all the projects in process and all the yarn that’s found its way around the house in one place to organize it and take stock (not to mention find long-lost needles). The book certainly stirred that desire such that I had, not only every intention, but actually moved to begin. I have a small rattan chest next to my ottoman that contains yarn. On top of it was a project bag with the Fair Isle U-neck Pullover from the Fall 2006 Vogue Knitting magazine with most of the back done. I started it with one of my favorite yarn, KnitPicks Merino Style yarn. (I first used this for this Turkish shawl – Fall 2005 VK – Mari Lynn Patrick – and some fair isle thick and warmy socks). I had been hearing the faint siren song of this project for a couple of weeks, catching the hint of the tune from time to time. It was even in a bag that was tied up. My miscalculation was in thinking I could touch it with impunity.

When I came to, it was bed time and I realized that my stash was safe for another day. But I did finish the back (although for some reason I found that I had shaped the back neck when the pattern called for it to go straight up – don’t know why but I’m sure I had a good reason so I just went with it) and got the front started. Oh, well. As my old friend Andy used to say, there’s always room for one more (project, that is).

Here's what it looks like so far:

Applause....

I’ve had a wonderful new experience this year. I’ve always loved watercolor and even dabbed a bit in the past but this year I found a local class that has inspired me to take it up again. I wanted this post to be a way of saying thank you to our teacher, Joan Beeman, and to highlight the work of some of the other students. Below you’ll see a couple of Joan’s paintings and some incredible paintings from one of the other students, Elaine Winans. One of the best things of being part of a group like this is that, not only do you get the instruction part of things, but you also get the inspiration of seeing what other people in the class are doing. It doesn’t matter if they’ve been painting for years or if they are just starting out, you can learn from anyone else that shares your joy and passion for the art.

Just click on the picture and it will open in a larger view.

Here are a couple of Joan’s paintings:

And here are some of Elaine’s.

Beautiful, aren’t they?

Thanks, ladies, for sharing these for me to post.

The Thumb - Green or ...

Usually plants are not my friends. I like them but they don’t usually like me. My mother used to have to rescue plants from room and bring them back to life. She, of course, has the greenest of thumbs.

So now I have to show you my plants hardy enough to withstand my presence. I wanted to get some plants last year but never really got around to it for a number of reasons. This year, I decided just to go for it and went slightly wild. Of course, I don’t know any of the names of most of them but I have a couple of different types of mint, two different types of lavender, some ivy and some herbs and they’re all still growing. Only 2 of the plants didn’t make it, one because it got caught in the drain from the roof when we were having some heavy rains and one got thirsty when I went on my trip. But I’m just thrilled. My Mom sent me a cartoon called “Get Fuzzy” by Darby Conley. In the first frame, the main character was writing that he couldn’t do anything right. In the second frame, his friend comes in and says, “Hey Poochy, your seeds are actually growing.” “They are?” he replies. The third frame has his friend congratulating him, saying, “You’re officially a mommy.” “It’s so much more wonderful than I could have imagined!” That made me laugh because we are always talking about new plants being new babies.

To projects:

I finished the latest clue for the mystery stole but I don’t have a picture yet. I need to pin it out and block it.

Here is a painting I just finished. The landscape is Seamill, near West Kilbride, in Scotland where I used to live. I love the west coast of Scotland. It’s so wild and so beautiful. (Yikes - I'll have to post the picture tomorrow. Forgot to bring it with me.)

I’ve started a pair of socks with the green Trekking yarn. Love it, LOVE IT! It’s 75% wool/25% bamboo. Just lovely.

I need to do my homework for my Stitches class. Oooooooohhhhh....I can't wait, I can't wait. I'm doing a 2-day class on a Danish pattern called Skrå-trøjer. It's only 2 weeks away.

Seems Jim Croce was right

There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them....

There’s just too much to do. I know I say this a lot but it’s still true. I don’t sit around and do nothing. I never just do nothing (although I probably should). But there’s still not enough time.

I’ve got my mystery stole going (here’s what it looks like so far). It's not properly blocked but you can get the idea. When I’m working on it, I don’t want to do anything else (include sleeping). I’m also trying to test out my fisherman’s knit sweater and get my sock pattern finalized for the fall Lincoln Land Community College class. At the same time, I’ve got this new yarn from South Dakota that’s mocking me continuously. I started a swatch with the Malabrigo because I want to try to use it for the circle sweater (I’ll show you in the next post). I think the flow of colors will look really interesting in the circular pattern.

Of course, I also got some wonderful Trekking Pro Natura sock yarn (75% wool, 25% bamboo) that is almost jumping on the needles all by itself. I also find myself drawn back to a fair isle sweater that I started back in the spring that I need to rip back about 2 inches because I missed a turn.

On top of that, I’m spinning some wool for a gansey sweater. I’ve already got a little over half of it done in singles with a light/medium brown. I ran out of that so now I’m working on some medium brown that I’m going to ply with the lighter color to get (hopefully) a nice tweed. Here’s what they look like separately. Right now I’m in the process of pre-drafting my darker wool so when I get to the spinning part, I don’t have to work so hard. This wool isn’t processed quite as nicely as the other was so pre-drafting is also helping me weed out some of the second cuts and noils, too. When I’ve got the fiber in my hands, I don’t want to be doing anything else. I just want to get the wool pre-drafted and sit at the spinning wheel and spin and spin and spin.

Then I’ve got my watercolor class. I’ve been a little frustrated because I haven’t really felt like I’ve been able to take time to really take time over it. It takes time to look, to observe, to see. I’ve got quite a few pictures I want to start but need to take time to make some choices.

I’ve been doing more beading, jewelry-making and wire work but, again, it takes time to get things set up and carry through with most of what I want to do with the beading. I have a few half-kilos of seed beads that I want to do some purses and a wall-hanging with. (Yeah, who knew seed beads come in half-kilos! Did you know you can buy crickets by the half tube? You pick these things up.)

Now it’s not like I waste of lot of time doing silly stuff like cleaning my bathroom or vacuuming my carpets, although I do lose 8 hours a day going to work but that’s sort of unavoidable. But there are just so many things I want to do and learn and there just isn’t enough time.

On top of this, I’ve decided I want to learn Danish. No particular reason, I just never did it before. It really isn’t like I need something else to do (see above). I’ve been working on brushing up my Spanish and building my French. Not that I think I’ll ever use Danish or become particularly fluent because I probably won’t. But I could. You never know.

I remember from a young age that I never wanted to go to bed. I think I was always scared I would miss something. I’m not quite sure if that’s the cause of my night owlism or just an early symptom. Not much has changed. I’m still scared I’m gonna miss something because there’s just so many blinking things to do!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Wow! That was the best trip ever! 1400 miles in 4 days! I had a ball, every mile of it.

I don’t want to bore you to death so I’ll just give the highlights and a couple of pics.

After missing a turn off and going about 2 hours out of my way, I wasn’t sure how this trip was going to go. But I calmed down, reminding myself this trip was all about the journey, not about getting somewhere a special way. I finally did make it to southern Iowa, which to begin with wasn’t all that different from Central Illinois – lots of corn, lots of hay (it was hay baling season). I don’t know how many little old ladies there are in southern Iowa but I’m sure I got stuck behind at least half of them! Not that I have anything against little old ladies – in fact, I hope to be one someday. But they weren’t exactly speed demons (not like my Grandma who love to race teenage boys in her little red sports car as the light turned green - but that's a story for another time). But it was lovely countryside.

I made it to Omaha, NE, Thursday evening. I drove around, found a hotel near downtown and then rested up. Friday I started my search for the yarn shops and used book stores that I had dug up on the internet. I did find one of the yarn shops. It was pretty nice but crowded with one of those tables that blocks half the yarns. They told me they were building a new building where they should have more room. I went in search of another of the yarn shops which was in the Benton area. It looks like an old main street, although now it’s a little run down. Unfortunately the yarn shop was closed down (due to the city doubling the property taxes of the building) but there was a wonderful used book store just a few doors down. I met the lovely couple who run the bookstore – she’s retired from the Air Force and he was from Mongolia. He met me as I was wandering the aisles and asked me straight out if I’d ever seen the movie, “The Godfather.” He was HORRIFIED when I said I had never seen any of the films. “Lady, don’t you know this is a great movie? Do you not have a television?” I really had to laugh because he was so adamant about it. I did tell him that I would have to rethink seeing it, since he was so stirred by the movie. That seemed to assuage him a little. The funny thing is that I noticed it was on television the other night. I didn’t watch it but I have to admit, I actually wished I wanted to watch it!!! I drove past Bronco's and thought I just had to experience it. Had a tenderloin burger and crunchy fries - definitely worth the experience! Who could pass that up?

I headed west of Omaha to pick up Highway 77, a backroad north to Sioux City, on Friday afternoon. On the way, I went through a town called Oakland (about 17,000 people) where I noticed they had something going on. Since exploring was the point of the trip, I decided to stop. Around the corner I came on the old main street. It so reminded me of my Mom’s hometown, Rotan, in West Texas, that I had to stop and take a photo for her. It wasn’t totally like Rotan which has a central island between the 2 lanes but it just reminded me of it.

While there, I met 2 sisters selling kettle corn (and I’m all about the kettle corn!!). They told me they were having a 4-H gathering and this festival was part of that. They seemed interested that I was making the trip by myself – they often do the same thing, they said, but together.

From there I continued up through Sioux City on to Sioux Falls. I don’t know why, but I was fascinated with the thought of Sioux Falls and I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed. I would LOVE to take a week or two and just explore further there. I found a wonderful yarn shop, an interesting little museum and a unique downtown attraction.

Firstly, I stayed at a hotel right on the bank of the Old Sioux River – made a nice walk on Saturday morning. Just over the bridge was the start of the statue walk. Over probably 10 blocks, there were statues from a wide variety of artist. You can stroll through with a little guidebook and admire the artwork. I didn’t have time to do the whole thing but I saw bronze horses and buffalo, a huge wirework dragon fly and more. There were probably 50-60 statues along the way. Oh, yeah, speaking of buffalo, I saw a herd (domesticated and in a field) on my way through the Winnebago Indian Reservation! Unfortunately, there was no place to pull over so I couldn’t get a picture but it was fun anyway.

I also went to an interesting little museum called the Pettigrew House and Museum. Pettigrew was an early leading light for the city, businessman, politician, etc. but also an amateur archaeologist. The museum part had a lot of artifacts and old photos detailing the history of Sioux Falls with lots of hands on exhibits and the house had been restored with period furnishings and wall paper – just beautiful. The guide (I was the only person on a guided tour) told me they had actually tracked down a lady who had been a maid in the house when she was very young and got her memories of how the house had been furnished and run during the final years of Mr. Pettigrew. Kind of quirky but right up my alley!

I also went to Falls Park, which is where the real falls of Sioux Falls is. I never thought about there being really falls but so there are and they’ve got it very nicely laid out. Here are some pics:

The crowning moment, for me, was finding Athena Fibers. The quintessential yarn shop, I think. Here’s what it looks like from the outside.

A large front porch along with a seating area complete with knitter and Chihuahua dog! You can wander through the rooms filled with wool and bamboo and cotton and sock and lace yarn. You know how yarn shop owners are either stand-offish and unhelpful or welcoming and friendly (as Anne of Green Gables would say – Of the race of Joseph)? Well this one was most certainly the latter. I had a lovely chat with her and found out (why didn’t anyone tell me this) that XRX – publishers of Knitting Universe magazine and the people responsible for Stitches – is based in Sioux Falls. If I had known, I could have arranged a tour of their facility. Who knew? I’m definitely going back!

From there I headed home, via Des Moines, IA. I just had a short amount of time to sort of poke around and it was Sunday morning so I didn’t really get to see much but I can still say I was there (should I ever need to pull that out of my pocket!).

Of course, this is just a quick overview but suffice to say, I had a wonderful time, got some wonderful yarn that I’ll talk about when I get to making them up and found a couple of fun books. What more could a girl want?!

I didn’t have much time, obviously, to knit but here’s a photo of my mystery stole. I’m pretty far behind, having signed up late and losing 5 whole days of knitting (my watercolor class was Wednesday evening and I started out early Thursday). I think I’m on row 109 or thereabouts. Here's what it looks like so far:

I do also have about 10 inches done on my pretty man sweater pattern test. It’s much easier to work on since it’s just straight fisherman’s rib at this point.

At the last Fiber Arts Guild two of the ladies brought in a box of old knitting and crochet magazines. I LOVE old magazines! So now I’ve got magazines to entertain myself with. Not that I was looking for another thing to fill my hours, you understand.

Well, that’s way more than enough. Hope you enjoy the photos.

My knit's back...

I sort of had a break from wanting to knit. It didn't, however, last too long. You know how if someone yawns, you can't help yawning with them? Well, the Yarn Harlot had a post the other day about her severe case of startitis. Just like yawning. I broke down and started the Mystery Shawl (along with 6,700 others?!) and found at the Knitting Guild meeting on Sunday that there are about 8-10 others in the Guild also doing it. So far, I'm liking the pattern.


Of course, I've also started a sweater. Last year I designed a fisherman's rib sweater (remind me to tell you the story). I wrote out the pattern but I've never tested it so I want to do that before making the pattern available. Fortunately the body of the sweater goes pretty quickly. Once I've tested it, I'll post the pattern here and tell you the story behind it.


I finished my silk shawl (didn't use the beads, after all). I didn't get photos of it in progress (as promised) but here's what it looks like finished. I really love how it hangs and am pleased that I decided not to put a lacy pattern in the body of it. The colors are so pretty.


One other lovely thing about it is that it only took about half the hank! I was worried about what to make with the yarn because it was only about 660 yards. This shawl is a pattern of mine, too, that I previously made with a beautiful lace weight alpaca yarn (Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud). I had been wanting to try it out on a heavier weight yarn so it seemed a perfect opportunity. Of course, I had no idea of how much yardage it would take but I figured I would be okay. As you can see, I didn't skimp on the size. I was trying to be careful on the lacy edging, again not knowing how much it would take. I found this edging in an old book I inherited from my Grannie. I really think it came out the perfect size to set off the shawl. Once I rewound what I had left over of the yarn, I weighed it - 150 g. I weighed the shawl - 150 g. Couldn't do it again if I tried!


I also started a grannie-square purse with some cotton yarn I found on clearance at a local store ($1.70 a skein!). It's perfect for a purse, cotton and acrylic, not much give so it'll hold it's shape quite well, I think. Can you believe after 25 years of crocheting, I've never so much as made a grannie-square? Well, I have now because I started the purse but I hadn't before now.


What else? Oh, yeah, baby housecoats!! I love making baby stuff! Instant gratification and so cute! Several years ago when I worked in D.C., there were about 5 ladies who all had babies within about a month. I think every baby needs at least 1 homemade thing so I try, whenever possible, to make something for babies of colleagues or friends. For one of the babies, I designed this little housecoat. I also needed to test this pattern so when 2 ladies I work with came up pregnant, it was the perfect chance. Here's the original one:



I really like it in white. This is using Red Heart's Baby Teri yarn which is very forgiving. I'll post the pattern after my upcoming trip but if you want to use the Baby Teri yarn, you'll probably have to order it on-line (unless you have some stashed). None of our local stores are carrying it anymore so I wonder if it's due to be discontinued. If you can get some, do so because it's great to work with. This project took about a skein and a half.



I also tried it in Paton's Be Mine. The gauge with this is much larger but it still came out cute - just a little more cuddly! Here's what it looked like in yellow:


You can see (sort of) that there is a little more detail definition with the Baby Teri and I think I like that better but the other is definitely more fluffy!


One other thing I got started was a knitted wire and bead light catcher (I'm not sure that's what it's really called but that's what I call it!). I think it's going to be really cute - I found little ladybug beads along with little blue flowers, yellow beads and green glass leaves. I'll post when I get it done. It's one of those things that, if it looks like what I see in my head, will be really cute. But you know how that goes! Odds are about half and half, I think...

I have one more day of work and then I have my little mini-vaca. To me there's nothing more fun that just heading out, not knowing exactly where I'm going or what I'm going to do. I love to just be open to whatever comes along. I'm going to go through Iowa to Omaha and then up to Sioux Falls and then back through Minnesota. It'll be a lot of driving (about 1100 miles!). Who knows if I'll make it or not but I have found some interesting things to see along the way. Making a trip soon? Try the AAA map service - it's very cool. You can map out your trip and then they have little buttons that pop up with hotel info, events, sites, etc. Especially for little out of the way things to do, this is great.


I doubt I'll be able to post much along the way but I'll take photos and fill you in later. Guess this is enough for one day!

You Can Find It Anywhere

I’m not a big celebrity follower but from time to time, someone catches my radar. I like to find out something that the person is interested in and use that as a jumping off place to discover something about the world that I didn’t know before (what can you expect from someone brought up to read the dictionary). This is the way that I found one of my all-time favorite books. I rarely remember how people stumble onto my radar – I just take it for granted that they did and leave it there. Usually it’s because I was reading something else that led me somewhere else that mentioned the person and, before you know it, Bob’s your uncle, and I’m there.

For instance, did you know that England’s Prince Andrew used to (may still for all I know) carry a copy of the book “I Heard the Owl Call My Name” by Margaret Craven with him in his travels. Now this fascinated me. For a book to have that sort of impact on someone with his background and experience was intriguing. But not half so intriguing as the book itself. I read it through and can now thoroughly appreciate how it could have impacted him (and said something to me about him that he would impacted by it). Such a simple sweet story with a depth beyond description. I have now read it at least a dozen times and every time I read it I can feel myself slowing down inside, simplifying and weeping at the ending. Silly, I know. It ends the same every single time I read it, I know it’s going to end as it does but every time it hits me like it’s the first time. I don’t guess I would have ever come across this book if it hadn’t been for the little detour that took me to that quote from him. Thanks, Prince Andrew.

A few months ago I discovered the Lord of the Rings movies (better late than never, right?). In poking around finding out little bits about the cast, I found that Viggo Mortensen starred in a Spanish movie called, “Alatriste.” It was made based on a best selling series of Spanish novels, the first called “Captain Alatriste.” Can’t find the movie but I did find the book. I had also (before this) found a book that sounded interesting on Spain’s Civil War – something I was aware had happened but didn’t know much about. From time to time Spain has popped up but now seemed the time to dive in. I had started the Spanish Civil War book and began the Captain Alatriste book but decided I wanted to know more about Spain post-Franco. Again, my little rabbit trail led me to a book that I can easily say was one of my most exciting reads in a long time. It’s by John Hooper and is called, “The New Spaniards.” I just couldn’t put it down - insight into the amazing intricacies of language and culture and politics that goes into modern Spanish life. I will never again call the main language of Spain Spanish. It’s Castilian, to differentiate is from Catalan (spoken by several millions of people and used as the main language for TV stations and newspapers in that region) or Basque or a number of actual dialects spoken throughout the country. Did you know that more people on the planet speak Catalan than speak Norwegian or Danish? Why do I find that fascinating?

Where did our friend Viggo learn to speak Spanish? Why, Argentina, of course. (Ha! Another place that I know is there but don’t know too much about.) Now I’m reading a books with a wide variety of articles about Argentina and its history, culture, politics, etc. Again, fascinating. All I knew about Argentina was the Falkland Islands (I moved to the UK in 1983 just after the Falklands War – or Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur as it was known in Argentina) and, peripherally, Evita. I’ve since seen a Travel Channel show about Argentina and Uruguay so that piqued my interest as well. (It just dawned on me that Prince Andrew was active in that conflict so we come neatly full circle.)

So, I guess my point is that you can find out all sorts of interesting things if you don’t limit where you get your inspiration from and don’t limit where that inspiration takes you.

What have you been reading?