Revelations and Resolutions

So, first up on this fine day that is the last of 2006 - THANK GOD!! Buh-bye now, 2006, you take care, don't let the door hit you in the ass ... where was I? Right. First up on this fine day, a secret pal Christmas box.

She made me socks, people. She made socks for a perfect stranger with size 11/9/42 feet. Nay, she designed socks for a perfect stranger with size 11/9/42 feet. And put them in a box filled with candles, cookies, cable needles, festive napkins and a Santa-snowman-guy in a bubble ... whatever, he's cute and bearing chocolate, what else do I need to know?

Socks. Did I mention? With a mirrored faux-cable pattern. I'm not going to show off too much detail right now, because I know that my pal is thinking about doing things with the pattern.

I had a bit of an accident (long story) and my feet and ankles are still rather unsightly and misshapen from it all, so if the socks look strange, please don't blame them.

Yeah, the swelling is that bad :o), but don't look at that, look at the gorgeous socks with the perfect fit!

I have been very lucky with secret pals this year. The woman who never got anything handmade since her grandmother died 23 years ago sure has collected quite the pile of handmade gifts in 2006. First there was a cute red hat and a shoulder shawl/blanket that is actually on my knees right now from Alison, then lacy gloves, flower pins and a felted key ring from Sabine, whose blog AND email address I managed to lose, because I'm such a super pal :o( and now socks from Elyse, if that's her real name :o) - I'll find out. Gifts and all notwithstanding, the best part of the exchanges was/is that I got to "meet" eight lovely women and learn a little bit about their lives and craftiness :o) - in a bit of a different way than just finding their blogs accidentally and reading them. This has been and still is a great experience with global fiber love :o), not to mention the kindness and sympathy my pals have extended to me when things got rough this year.

What else happened in "Oh"-Six? Well, obviously I began to knitblog (of course it's a verb, silly) and learned about the fiber-blog community. It continues to be a daily joy. I made my first sorta lace shawl for the World Cup Challenge and my first pair of socks in ten years. (I found that it's not quite like riding a bicycle.) I perpetrated three sweaters we shall never speak of again and knit a shawl that made my mom feel like a queen. She was buried in it. I learned to spin - on a spindle and a wheel, and I can't quite believe myself how happy spinning makes me. The only thing better than spinning is knitting with the handspun :o). All this salt-of-the-earth homemade yarn attitude didn't stop me from having quite a bit of S.E.X. (mostly online ;o) - I encountered SeaSilk and Kaalund Laceweight, not to mention my ongoing love affair with Lang yarns.
My favourite yarn store 2006 was actually not the LYS in my parents' town, but Wollsucht ("wool addiction", if you must know :o), a German online store. They don't have the biggest selection ever, but still plenty of beautiful yarns and everything else the deprived German knitter needs. They are FAST. And nice :o).

2007 is going to be the year of the stash - and the sock, seeing how that's the only type of yarn I may buy according to the KFYS rules. Recently, there has been a rather surprising development that makes it necessary for me to amend those rules.
See, I'm quittin'. Bet you didn't know I smoked. It wasn't much - my two-pack-days are long gone, and ever since I began stashing wool in my office, it happened only outside anymore, but still. I smoked. Until I finished a pack the other day and decided not to buy any more. Just like that. Not as a New Year's resolution or anything, I'm just fed up with it all. So, right now, I'm having a bit of a rough time - I learned that even if you don't smoke a lot, you've got quite the withdrawal going on when you stop - so I compiled a list of little rewards for myself - you know, a week, two weeks ... like that. I'm not going to post the list here - I'll tell you about the individual rewards when they are about to happen - but there are books and yarn on it, and it's exempt, because ... well, because I say so :o). The list is currently going up to 12 weeks, because they say that's the worst of it. I reserve the right to add a few weeks if I need to, but my reward list is not a free-for-all, I'll be very specific. And nothing will be added AFTER I bought it or anything ("oh, oops, let's just call it a reward, shall we?" - not going to happen.)

I also changed my goal for KFYS, since I really don't need to save for an Ashford Traditional anymore :o). I would like to give fair isle a go next year, and if I can learn it, there's going to be Zauberflöte in my future. It's the one AS fair isle sweater I am utterly in love with. But it's raaather expensive, so I'd better be sure I like knitting fair isle first.

Hmm, where are the resolutions? Well, I suppose Knit From Your Stash is one, and not smoking is sort of an unintentional one. There's also kind of a big thing going to happen in 2007 that will come with a couple of resolutions - it's not what you think. No matter what you think, it's not it :o). But I want to give it its own entry, so I'm just going to stop yammering and get ready for the party tonight. I got a very bad cut on my foot today (yeah, I know), so I'm not sure how much partying I'll be able to do. Ah well. There will be more incoherent musings tomorrow.
See you next year.

Aftermath

Christmas is almost over. Andy's mom is leaving this afternoon, and tomorrow we'll have a little low-key celebration with my dad. Everything went really well. The most important thing: Andy's mom enjoyed herself. She talked a little about her husband, but mostly in a fond, smiling way, there were only a very few tearful moments. I had a few moments about my mom as well, but, thankfully, we had planned for some alone time in the Christmas itinerary, so it was alright. Lots of great food, lots of wine, sparkling, hot and otherwise, movies, conversations ... a lovely time was had by all.

There was the odd fiber-related gift, too. I found out that the muggle in my daily life actually listens to my fiber rants.

Yippie! Not pictured, but ditto on the yippie: Spin to Knit. It's not pictured, because I left it where Andy's mom was sleeping, and she wasn't up when I took the photos. Obviously, I'm not going to choose my first colorwork project from The Celtic Collection, but it's sure fun to look at and remember what one could be working towards. The Knitting Calendar speaks for itself, I think. What better thing to have on your desk every day? :o)

Oh, yeah, remember what I said about saving the money from the Knit From Your Stash Challenge? Buzzzzzzzzz. Thanks for playing.

Yes. It is. In the flesh, or wood rather. A beautiful, perfectly preserved Ashford Traditional, a used one, thankfully. And it's all mineminemine!!! Andy had wrapped the parts except for the wheel, and he gave me one of the side bars to unwrap first. I recognized it right away, but I didn't want to say anything, in case I was wrong. I might have shouted "Yay, an Ashford!", when he was really giving me a (much needed!!) bookcase or something. But the next thing he gave me to unwrap was the flyer, so the shouts and tears were a safe bet then :o). It is even better than I had remembered. It spins like a dream, and so do I, if I do say so myself. Okay, like a dream of a wet-behind-the-bobbin beginner, but still.
The only thing it was missing was the lazy kate that usually comes with it. But hey, I can splurge on that, I would like to have the one with the brake anyway, and besides, I made do without one thus far.

I love these gifts for more than the obvious reasons. Andy gave them to me because he knows that wool is an important part of my healing process. He said so a few weeks ago and told me that he would support me in that in any way he could. Looks like he meant it, huh?

I still have almost a week of vacation time left, and I'm going to spin up a storm here. And, by the way, Knit From Your Stash is still very much on.

Another great fiber-related gift is the new desktop computer ... she says nonchalantly ;o). Andy refurbished one of his old ones for me, which means that loading a webpage or email or processing a photo will now take fewer than five minutes (I'm so not kidding about the five minutes!). Which means that I might be in the mood to take more pics and update the blog more often. The gift includes the reformatting and streamlining of my laptop once the new computer is installed and everything, so I can keep it for trips. Andy doesn't count this as a "real" present, because it's all his old stuff, but I do count it. There was a lot of time and work and parts involved - and in the end, it's a new computer for me, no matter where it came from.

Gifts and food notwithstanding, the best thing about this Christmas was/is connecting with people who are important to me, be it by card, email, phone or in person. It took a hell of a lot of heartache to get through to Christmas this year, so my family and friends are more important to me than ever. And not just over the holidays.

May all carols apply

Here in Germany, it's Christmas morning now, and I'm sneaking in a few minutes in blogland before attending to tonight's feast.

Andy's mom arrived last night. Seeing her here for Christmas was harder than I thought. There should be someone next to her on the good sofa. A quiet man with twinkling eyes, who will tell childhood stories after a glass of punch, and who will come back from church with his wife and son tonight to look at the lit tree, the artfully (right!) arranged gifts and the table with the Christmas fare, clap his hands together and exclaim invariably that this should really be photographed for one of those home magazines - no matter how much of a slapdash rush job I've had to do on it. He should be here.

In a little bit, I'm going to call my dad. He is not going to be here either. He will spend Christmas Eve helping out at a homeless shelter. I understand him - better than he knows, actually - because I did the same thing that first Christmas Eve after my ex-husband and I separated. I'm not comparing the events (that divorce was a blessing in disguise), but I understand the impulse to be alone, to not have to play along with family Christmas conventions, to reach out to people who most definitely have a shittier deal than you have. I get it, but it's still hard. And I'm not even going to talk about Mom. Nope, not touching that. At all.

Sorry to be so maudlin today, but I promised myself that I will take quiet moments if I need them this Christmas. This is one of those. And I don't want you to think that it's all sad and gloomy here. On the contrary, Andy's literally un-adult-erated Christmas joy is contagious. You simply cannot be a Grinch around the man, he just loves Christmas too much. So, merry we will make, and - if pressed - a-wassailing we will go, even though I only have the sketchiest of ideas what that might entail.

Since all the cool kids are doing the YouTube thing, I want to share with you my favourite carol ever.



Still dry-eyed? Well, you are way stronger than I am then :o).

I think the seasonal sentiments are best expressed in this find from www.engrish.com. Come on, people, BE THE HOLIDAY!

Knitters and muggles out there, whatever you are celebrating this season, I wish you the best holiday ever. And if yours is over already, I wish you the best Sunday and Monday ever. Enjoy the lights in the windows and on the streets all the same - the way I understand Christmas they are shining for everybody.

Indulgences

I gave up on the Christmas knitting. Well, not on all of it, people will be getting handknits, but I took a good long look at one big part of it and realized that it would make a perfect birthday present, too. I'd have a chance of finishing it (a real chance, not a "I can sleep again on Christmas Day" chance), but I don't want to sit here knitting for the next two days - I probably will anyway, but I would like to know that I CAN do other things if I want to. There will be carolers at the mall tomorrow, there are cookies to decorate and appetizers to prepare and Christmas movies to watch (okay, I will knit during the movies). Of course they are the same every year. I start with Scrooged, then it's the Muppet Christmas Carol (Oh, there goes Mr. Humbug, there goes Mr. Grim - I can't wait :o), and then it's Jimmy Stewart, naturally. It's not Christmas without him. I'm doing this on my own, because nobody else is interested in watching the original versions - and also because I can bawl as I please. Yes, even with the Muppets, have you seen those hungry mice?

I know nobody wants to hear this, but I'm having a rather relaxed holiday run-up this year (see lack of Christmas knitting spirit above). As an unprecedented indulgence, I took ten days off work over the holidays, so now everything is decorated, wrapped and prepared, and I'm walking around the house thinking that I forgot something major, because there should be a mad rush, shouldn't there?

Speaking of indulgences ...

Cherry pistachio and chocolate coconut. I'm a biscotti fan, so traditional Christmas cookies are not for me. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chocolate coating thin enough for dipping, so the cherry pistachios are a bit of a chocolate overload. How can something so wrong be so very right?

Another indulgence:

TOFUtsies sock yarn from SWTC. Wool, soysilk, cotton and chitin. I'm a sucker for interesting fibers (see my sadly repressed obsession with Seasilk). It feels very cool and soft, great for spring socks.

Now that the secret knitting is coming to an end, I need to choose my holiday knitting. Sigh. I have so many UFOs left over from this summer (will you tell me why I finished all the hideous sweaters, but didn't knit but two rows on the seasilk shawl?). I also have some mohair luxe to frog. SP9, this information is for you :o). The mohair with the beads on the rosewood needles? Yet another ill-conceived project, my lace sampler scarf without any thought whatsoever. I'll take a picture when I have the heart to deal with it.

Speaking of which, I'm collecting evidence for a post entirely devoted to frogging. It's a major opus, so it will definitely be posted after the holidays, but not a day goes by without determined ripping. Stay tuned.

Meme from your stash

Theresa over at the Keyboard Biologist threw down the meme gauntlet, and since it's about weird things, I can't resist.
Here are the rules: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.
Alrighty.

1. I like eating fish and seafood, but it can't look like fish or seafood. So trout, sardines and whole lobsters are out of the question. I have no such qualms with meat. Maybe it's the eyes.
2. I know the entire text and all lyrics of the movie The Wizard of Oz by heart - in two languages, English and German. Even weirder: when I was still translating novels, that knowledge came very handy. You wouldn't believe how often that movie is quoted. A friend of mine, also a translator, would call me in the middle of the night sometimes when she got stuck. I could rattle off the Munchkin song at 3 am out of deep sleep. I'm not sure I could anymore though, these days I need more concentration.
3. Another weird bilingual tidbit: as a true bilingual person, I mix and match the languages freely. Thoughts and personal notes are often composed in Germlish, and sometimes I'm not even aware of it. But: I count in German. Always. I can be totally immersed in a knitting project from an English book, watch an English movie and talk to an English-speaking person, I will count my stitches in German.
4. I'm very much a dove when it comes to my opinion on political conflicts, but I'm a passionate amateur military historian. I have "favourite wars" (Gallic and American Civil), and my dream vacation would be a tour of civil war battlefields. I think I could market my monologue on the fabulousness of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain as a sedative ("I could never be a partisan leader - a man of one idea" - I'm telling you, do not get me started.)
5. I like knitting socks, but I don't like wearing them. Of all features of my sometimes rather odd appearance nothing draws more strange looks than my feet. I go barefoot in Birks and other open-toed shoes as soon and as long the weather allows - and my standards are pretty loose there (it was unseasonably warm here, so I went barefoot until late last week, December or not). I never have cold feet.
6. I cannot watch horror or other violent movies. I know it's just fake blood and perfectly healthy actors, but that doesn't help me. If I'm in a group hell-bent on watching a movie like that, I do not look at the screen at all - for two hours, if necessary. True exchange: "Have you seen Pulp Fiction?" - "I heard it." - "You mean you heard of it?" - "Nope."
On the other hand, I have absolutely no problem with psychological thrillers - the scarier the better, as long as there is no blood and guts - and Stephen King is one of my all-time favourite authors.

Bonus weird thing: I'm posting this meme even though I don't know six other bloggers well enough to inflict a meme tag on them. So, Poet, feel tagged, otherwise I'm going to have to make this a free for all. So there ya go.

In other news:

Oh yes, I will. I think Wendy's and L-B's idea is great, and this shall be my New Year's resolution. Well, the bloggable one, anyway.
So, in order to set myself up properly for pointy fingers if I fall, here are my modified rules. I marked the original parts I took from Wendy's blog in red.

Knit From your Stash 2007

My rules:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:
2.a. Sock yarn does not count.

2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that I really and truly do not have the yarn for, I may buy yarn to knit that gift.
Also, I’m allowed to buy yarn as a gift to friends or secret pals. But I must give away ALL of it, no sneaking in a test skein to see if the yarn is „good enough“.

2.c. If I am knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.d. I get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card – I am allowed to fall off the wagon one time.
Nope, there are enough exceptions to the rule as it is. And here's one more: all bets are off if I get to go to the States before the end of the challenge. I’m allowed to buy yarn in the US as I please (why oh why wasn’t the Mason-Dixon warshrag craze upon me while Peaches and Cream was still within my reach???). In person, this does not apply to shopping online at US stores.

2.e. I'm planning to do some charity and fundraiser knitting in 2007. I may buy yarn for that if I can't find anything suitable in my stash. Again, that means ALL the yarn has to go into that, there will be no instances of "Oops, who'd have thought the laceweight silk would not make a warm afghan, guess I'll have to use it for myself."

3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn.
Well, anything else would be positively churlish, wouldn’t it?

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt.

5. Tools are exempt - after a thorough reorganization (who am I kidding, I mean organization) of the ones I have. After that, I suspect that I will have all the tools I need.

6. Books are hard. I don't really "stash" my books either and I can't get most English-language books at the library to look at them before buying. However (deep sigh), there will be a limit of five knitting, spinning or otherwise crafty books or patterns (five overall, not five each). Magazines are exempt, because I've got a subscription.

I don’t have a stash of epic proportions. Basically, I'm joining the challenge because I want it to stay that way. I know, I know, what red-blooded knitter doesn’t want a huge stash, but I must admit to feeling overwhelmed by it sometimes, even though it’s not that big. It’s a general question I find myself thinking about - when does hoarded treasure stop being treasure?

There is a practical consideration as well. In 2007, I would really love to save enough to buy an Ashford Traditional, you know, a "serious" spinning wheel. I'm not knocking my lucky find or anything, especially since I haven't even tried her yet, but with the Ashford was love at first sight for both its growth possibilities and beauty. As a bonus, I was actually able to try one of them, so I already know that it spins like a dream, even if I don’t :o). I was going to simply work this plan into my budget, but if it could be a side effect of this fun challenge, so much the better. Yes, I think it's going to be fun, I’m feeling the stash love here ... and now I’ve got the voice of Julio Iglesias stuck in my head („To all the yarns I’ve loved before“). Julio Iglesias? I worry about myself sometimes.

That other thing I do

Fiber content? I got nothin'.

All the knitting going on in these parts is still top-secret, and I haven't even had time to take Molly for a test spin.

For the past two days, I have been in a cleaning and decorating frenzy. Andy's mom is coming for Christmas, and while I do try to keep the apartment's resemblance to a pigsty to a bare minimum, standards had to be raised to mother level.

We don't have that many Christmas decorations, because we don't spend Christmas here very often. This year, however, Andy's mom doesn't want to be at her home for Christmas, while my dad wants to be alone at his, so we are trying to accommodate everybody's wishes. I am looking forward to Christmas. It's my favourite time of the year.

So, in a desperate attempt tp make up for the lack of content, I've got a few pictures that will never make it into home decoration magazines. I'm calling the style "Oh shit, we just have baubles and not much else".

Uh, that last picture? This is NOT my idea of a decorated tree. That still needs to be done. Looking at the other decorations, I realize this fact might not be obvious to everybody. If you are experiencing a panic attack right now, you are most likely not a German reader. Rest assured, many Germans don't put up their trees until a few days before Christmas.

Holiday spirit and all - also still due to lack of real content - I thought I'd share with you a bit of the other stuff I do with my time, the one thing I love even more than fiber arts, which means, of course, that I'll never be a capital Knitter :o). Instead of traditional Christmas cards or letters, my friends get a Christmas story every year. It is not the only project I work on all year long, although this year's will be close to it. Words had a way of coming hard in the past few months. Some things, I found, are too big to be written about right now or shoved aside to resume the regularly scheduled writing program.

A few weeks ago, I came up with the plan to post a few of those Christmas stories. They are also over there on the sidebar listed by year. Not so much for an audience - there are about three and half people out there reading this blog (hi :o), and none of them may be Christmas story people, for all I know. Putting the stories up here gave me an excuse to look at them over the past weeks, rereading them, tweaking them, gently easing myself back into the program, as it were, so that the moments of quiet concentration are no longer filled with the big stuff I can't find words about. Well, it sorta worked. The big stuff is still there, but I got used to it.

So, enjoy, if you have a mind to, I'm off to take a hatchet to that tree trunk.

The damnedest thing

First of all, I've got something from my perennial favourite website www.engrish.com - pet bottle yarn. Hey, people do knit with dog hair already.
So. I went to the market this morning for some fresh pecans to make the Poet's perfect caramel pecan pie for Christmas. I had quite forgotten that there's also a flea market in the weeks before Christmas. Apples and old books, I'm always enjoying that.


Strolling around the flea market, I saw a booth with lots of old toys, mostly wood, nice but not collectible. Still, I went over to look at a few things. Under the table, I spotted this:

Lookit! A box of mystery fiber right here in this non-spinning community. I stooped to investigate. There was only a fairly thin layer of fiber, because it covered this:

See it? How about this view?But it couldn't be! Could it?Oh yes, it is! A discontinued Louet S 40 hatbox.
I stayed under the table for a moment just to get a grip, then resurfaced all casual-like and asked whether the stuff under the table was for sale, too. Affirmative, the guy just didn't have enough room to unpack it all right away. "It's for kids," he said.

"It's cute," I replied, discreetly steadying myself on the edge of the table. "How much do you want for it?" Good thing I was wearing a scarf, because my heart was pounding so hard at this point that he could have judged the state of things by my pulsing carotid.

"Well, I'll take four skeins of Cascade 220 for it." (He really said the price, but I don't want to make anyboy weep outright). "But it's nice and you can have the box with the stuffing, too, if you want it."


Yes, I wanted the stuffing.


I had my wallet out even as I was trying to catch my breath. "That's fine," I said, faintly. Then I handed over the cash, dove under the table and clutched the box for all I was worth. The guy folded up my money with a sly grin and said, "Not much of a barterer, are you? Well, most women aren't."
That cute little comment earned him a beaming smile as I departed. Now I'm not even feeling bad about it anymore.

So, meet Molly, Emma's little sister.
(Germans: Yes, there is a reference to the Augsburger Puppenkiste in there.)
Isn't she cute? Isn't she perfect? Yes, she has all her extra bobbins, instructions and everything, and she is in perfect condition.

Christmas came early this year. And very unexpected.

Right now, Molly is standing by my desk, still in her hatbox. I'm happy with gazing at her in rapture. I can't quite imagine turning her into a common tool by, y' know, actually spinning on her. But I'm sure I'll get over it.

Mail Call

I’ve given up on that ebay search for the time being.
It’s just too crazy before Christmas. The other day I saw a spinning wheel that looked to be in a worse condition than Emma but was not a valuable antique or anything. It went for EUR 170 (that's about $200) . I didn't watch it for bidding though, just out of curiosity. Perhaps this frantic buying up of available spinning wheels is a positive trend, maybe spinning is becoming more popular in Germany, ya think?
Anyway, while it would have been nice to snap up a bargain, there are no bargains to be had at the moment, so I'm going to remain faithful to Emma, rattle and all.

Work was crazy all weekend and yesterday, so there isn't much to say about Christmas present progress - if I could talk about it, that is :o). I could tell you that one Christmas project - the type that may involve afterthoughts, eyes of partridge and the like, if you catch my drift - is going really well with the magic cast-on.

Great technique. Makes for very tidy *that part of the thing I can’t name*. Now I’m looking for a better way to do the other tricky part, because my short rows are too wonky. I don't know if they are proper holes or if I'm too anal about it, but I want to try something different.

In other news, the dyeing saga continues. The candycane effect on my silk/rayon yarn (3.5 kg, did I mention?) was fun while it lasted, but now I want solids. However, for some strange reason, the rayon part refuses to be dyed. I've even written to the manufacturer and asked them if they lied about the contents of this yarn. They say they didn't.

So ...

Next stop: Dylon. In the washing machine. Yes. 500 g of silk/rayon are currently not knowing what hit them, but it is the hot cycle. I also ordered a few new jacquard colours. And the Christmas cookies came with the order :o).

I needed dpns for my Christmas knitting, so ...

In my defense? If you could see my Christmas knitting, you would not blame me for falling for a little colour. This is Regia Canyon Color 2806 and Trekking XXL 107. I wish they'd give their sock yarns nifty names.

I've returned to the dpns for the time being. My favourite technique is still two on two, if you know what I mean, but it makes for rather impractical storage on my overflowing desk.

Also in the mail: a used copy (used, hah! It looks brand new) of Loop-d-Loop. Yes, I'm the last person on the planet to buy this book, but I'm here to tell you that it's still great even years later. First on my wishlist? The paisley carpetbag in Summer Tweed. Sigh.

Sweatin' the sweaters

Yay, winter Knitty is out!

Honestly? At first glance, I was a tad underwhelmed. Fall Knitty had so many glamorous, in-your-face gorgeous sweaters and things, and when you first look at the thumbnail pattern page, the new one looks a bit like the extremities issue. But it's Knitty, right? It's gotta be good. And it is, naturally. Eiffel? The Brown Bag? Monkey? Lauren? I love Knitty. I can't believe the incredible job they are doing over there every time.

And they have Sheldon, the turtle. Sheldon the undressable turtle. If you are sensitive to knitted turtle nakedness, do not go look at Sheldon. Sheldon's removable shell means, of course, that you can knit him more than one shell outfit. A shell for every day of the week. A holiday shell. A beach shell. I will knit Sheldon.

In the interest of full disclosure - and due to lack of postable progress pictures of secret Christmas stuff - I decided to share with you the memories of the summer of desperate sweaters. Memories both misty and water-colored.

This heap of yarn in tasteful shades of blue and green weighs about four pounds and represents most of my summer knitting 2006. Three sweaters, each of them wrong. Oh, so very wrong.

I think I already posted this one earlier. There is nothing wrong with making up a sweater as you go along. It would probably be good though if you were to put some actual ... y'know ... THOUGHT into it. Please have a good look at that, uh, extra spacious sleeve. And I did not stop when I saw the first one. Oh, no, I made two of them, but I fished this sweater out of the frog pond to take the picture. The sweater was already taking a dive there because I like the yarn a lot.
Next up: Cinxia.

There is nothing wrong with the pattern. I like it a lot. But chunky, elastic yarn that will pull up and make the cropped cardigan even more so? Bad call. Also, Cinxia is not really the best choice for tall people with really long arms and ... ahem ... lots of logs in front of the cabin, as we say in these parts. Again, the stupidity is all mine, go knit Cinxia if you feel like it, the pattern is great. Excuse the blurry picture. I took all of them during the 5 minutes of daylight we had yesterday. And we haven't had any since.

At this point you'd think that a charitable soul would have taken me aside and told me to knit stockinette socks or maybe wristwarmers for the duration. I'm the first to admit that I was completely out of my mind for about 10 months out of 12 this year. I should not have been knitting sweaters.

However, I remained undaunted. When I needed to think about the two not so totally successful sweater experiences, I did what I always do. I blamed my weight. The months of not leaving my mom's bedside for more than a couple of hours a day took their toll on my never less than ample figure. No regular exercise, but plenty of comfort eating. You do the math. So I decided that I had just gotten too fat for these sweaters to look good on me, and things would be peachy in Sweaterland, if I could only find a nice, roomy and relaxed pattern to make the most of my remaining assets (logs, cabin, you know what I'm saying). Again, take a peek at that monstrous sleeve up there. Weight loss was clearly not the answer.

But I still had yarn and was not afraid to use it. Enter Everyday Tweed. They got lovely things over at the Garter Belt, you should check it out if you haven't yet. Everyday Tweed has it all. Easy to knit, comes with my favourite type of neckline, it has picot edging, and it was even long enough without the need to add extra inches (I'm 5'11" or 1.80 m, the standard sweater length of 24-26 inches hits me in really unfortunate places). I was motivated. I had found the perfect pattern. All systems go.

Looking back I'm finding it hard to explain this. I vaguely remember being bored with all that stockinette so I felt the need to add the ill-advised band of twisted rib somewhere around what I thought to be the waist (trying it on or measuring it to find the waist or sucking up the stockinette - none of these viable options occurred to me). The sweater is 32 inches long, and the fact that it still looks really short and boxy should tell you just how bloody big it is (especially if you've read the Yarnharlot's knitting group adventures. I've read them. I still did this.) It's really hard to drown a person of my stature in any garment, but this sweater? Well, I knit it in the biggest size (that's a 57-inch chest. My chest? Well, I'm not gonna say but it's not 57 inches) and when my yarn gave me a slightly larger gauge I was pleased. Relaxed and roomy, remember? My careful study of Big Girl Knits? Forgotten. Caution? To the wind. I even had the wonderful idea of switching to bigger needles as I made my way down, so the sweater would have a bit of a flattering flare around the hips. Snort. This sweater is many things, but flattering is not one of them. When I finally tried it on, it slipped right down over my shoulders. It was, after all, just a touch too big. Never mind, thought I, I'll just add a couple of inches to the neckline ribbing. Piece of cake. Surprisingly, that did not help the sweater, but it did make more of my assets, because they were now almost completely encased in 6 inches of bulky (again twisted) rib. What was up with all that twisted rib? I don't have a clue.

There ya go. I spent the entire summer knitting three sweaters. None of them is even remotely usable. With the time and energy spent on them, I could have knit socks for the entire German football team or started my own Dulaan Project. It won't come as a surprise if I say that I've been a bit sweater-shocked ever since. I might need a spot of sweater trauma intervention.

The Love Story Project

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a cozy.

It ain't the prettiest, and the amount of yarn came out juuuust so - but it is a tea cozy, by God.

I adapted the pattern of the cashmere tea cozy from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, basically by knitting two sides and adding a row of eyelets at the bottom. I also liked the pattern better straight up (In the original pattern, my sides would be the top and bottom). The cozy is currently warming a pot of organic Earl Grey.

I didn't accomplish much else yesterday. I spun about three meters of yarn and prepared some of my silk/rayon mix for dyeing. Remember I've got the 3.5 kg cone?

And then there was this:

A dear friend of mine gave me an early Christmas present (the needles, not the orchid, this isn't a florist's blog :o). She said that she knew I already have one of these (she should, she gave me that one, too), but felt that this would still be a special gift. It is. Proceed with caution. I feel a rant coming on.

If asked about my wishes regarding the big things in life, a cure for breast cancer would probably make the top of the list (it's more attainable than world peace, people). Like so many other lives all over the world, my life and the lives of my family and family friends were forever changed by it. And it doesn't end there. Only the other day, a woman who used to be more of a casual acquaintance of mine called me and wanted my advice, because her sister was recently diagnosed with the same combination of secondary tumors that killed my mom. Honestly? I didn't quite know what to tell her.
As deputy mayor of his town, my dad is currently covering almost all of the mayor's duties, because - guess what - his daughter has exactly what my mom had. And her husband left her. The sister of my dad's best friend? Same thing. The wife of the man running my corner newsstand? Need I say it? The husband is staying though, by the looks of it. And those are just the terminal cases, to use a cruel, but sadly accurate term. I can't even count the number of people I know who survived or are currently being treated for breast cancer.
It is a matter of cold statistics that you, who are reading this now, know someone (and if you take in all the other big C's, the statistic becomes truly mind-boggling). You may not be aware of it, because they may be the people running your newsstand, and maybe you are not wearing a recognizable pink ribbon pin on your collar on a slow day. Or maybe they are the makers of your favourite knitting needles.

If there were just one thing I've come to appreciate about it all, it would be the instant warmth and understanding whenever you happen upon people with cancer in their lives - any kind will do.
One day, the fate fairy knocks on your door and says, "So, yeah, you thought your life would go on all normal-like, but you know what? Change of plans. How about being really ill and scared to death (this is where she does this evil little giggle) and in pain, discomfort and indignity, maybe for a goodish while, maybe for the rest of your short life? Okay, done. Oh, and I'm going to invite your nearest and dearest to watch you suffer helplessly, that's okay with you, right? Good." Cancer patients and caregivers - we know what that's like, and the knowledge creates a rather strong bond. We tend to not remain strangers for long. And just in case you're miffed right now, because you did watch Love Story after all, so you know just fine - I'm going to include you in my prayer that you are going to stay miffed like that for the rest of your life, and that maybe one fine day people will know terminal cancer of any kind only from cheesy 1970s movies.

The paltry rest of this year is, I'm afraid, earmarked for basic grieving, not to mention for holidays with two freshly widowed parents. (Yeah, I didn't say anything about those visits from the fate fairy wherein she tells you that she sure hopes you told your loved ones all the important things, because they just had a fatal accident. Man, I hate that fairy bitch.) But come 2007, there will still be chemo caps to knit and, hopefully, flower pins to felt for a fundraiser towards the next Susan Komen 3-Day, and God knows what else I can come up with. It's my personal Love Story project.

Dang, I knew those new needles would come in handy :o).

Is it a cozy yet?

Well, almost. The green and rose merino I spun is, at last, enough for a tea cozy. I've got about half of it done. It's a modified cashmere tea cozy from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

Also half done: the yarn I need for the rest of my Christmas knitting. I wanted to start the other half on Emma's tiny (50 g max) single bobbin right away but was waylayed by some mean, cruel alpaka. Really bad idea that. I'm pushing myself and Emma to our respective limits in order to spin at least fine fingering weight so the gorgeous, soft (if mean and cruel) alpaka will make a VLT scarf. Emma, she is not made to spin that skinny, and - quite frankly - neither am I. So it takes its sweet time, which might not be such an inspired idea 18 days before Christmas.

I've been looking to buy a companion for Emma. Yes, I know, I've had her for less than a month. I adore her and she'll always be my first love, but ... she has issues. A shake and rattle, for example, that even the most conscientious oiling won't take away. Even with the brake cut loose and the drive band practically flopping off her, she still has too much take. No, really, she pulls on the fiber something fierce. And then there is that lone, tiny bobbin. I've taken measurements and looked everywhere, but I can't find any bobbin that would fit her, mainly due to the fact that most replacement bobbins have a capacity of more than 50 g.
So, I've spent a lot of time on ebay. Shaking my head. Understand, I'm passionate about ebay, maybe because I'm one of the blessed few who made about a hundred purchases over the years but can count their bad experiences on one hand. But the spinning wheels on German ebay are mystifying. I've seen pictures of wheels so dusty you could not tell the colour of the wood, and one picture was taken in the garage with a paint can perched on the treadle. "Excellent condition", I think that description said. Then you have your "perfectly functional"s and "tested, spins beautifully"s. Those would be the wheels with the missing drive bands. I'm assuming that these thorough examinations were made with the drive band in place, but the seller removed it later for aesthetic reasons? When I asked one seller of a reasonably good-looking wheel about the ratio(s), she sent me the following answer: "The ratio is calculated using the diameter of the bobbin whorl and the diameter of the wheel." Well, no poop, Sherlock, but don't you think it would have been helpful to share those measurements?
One other thing. I like Louet wheels, really I do. They are way beyond my budget, even on ebay, but I like them just fine. But why on earth would you put one in your living room as "decoration"? Seriously. I can understand the decorative merits of a Minstrel or an Elizabeth, even Emma would look nice by the fireplace with her spoke wheel and all, but a Louet? They are advertised as "design classics", I'm aware of that, and I'm sure that a spinner would be proud to display her S10 for all the world to see, but buying one (new) for decoration? I don't get it.
Anyway, I'm bidding on a wheel that looks a bit like an S 75 (discontinued, I think). My current bid is half a skein of Koigu (hee) and my overall budget is about a skein of STR, so I'm hopeful.

Sigh. I'm going to have to wait two more days for my winter issue of Knits. Two more days until it's definitely lost and they'll send a replacement. Considering that it has been out for about a month and that I could have ordered it from a German online store for about that long (they charge an arm and a leg, but I could have), I think "sorry, some international subscriptions had a later shipment date this time" is a bit lame. Ah well, something to look forward to.
This year, my Christmas present from me to me is another subscription. Spin Off, of course. So don't tell me, it's a surprise.

No pictures today. I'm writing this at oh-dark-thirty in the morning, so there is not even crappy winter grey light for photos. I'll document the cozy when it's done.

An actual FO

Okay, it's still unblocked. But it counts anyway.

It's a brioche rib scarf for Andy's mom. It's also the first item off my Christmas knitting list. (Okay, the list has a total of 5 items, but ... y'know, done is done.) And it's the first thing I knit from my handspun. I didn't dye it myself though, it was lovely space-dyed merino from the Wollfabrik (wool factory).

I won't be able to blog about the rest of the Christmas fiber activities, because the recipients do read the blog occasionally, but there's going to be more handspun involved.

It was a rather busy week. I finished a book and a fashion catalogue, so, frankly, I didn't want to write anything else when I was done at night. I love finishing book translations, it gives me a great sense of accomplishment. Much more so than the small stuff I work on every day, even though a book is nothing but lots of small files, once you break it down. A bit like knitting lace versus knitting, say, a scarf out of really bulky yarn. The next book awaits (modern architecture, I'm looking forward to that one), but it has a rather generous deadline, so I guess there will be some knitting, spinning and blogging room.

My secret pal struck again with an amazing early St. Nicholas box :o). She sent me a skein of wonderful Adriafil laceweight (absolutely VLT-bound), Kool-Aid, which I can't get here, some soft-to-die-for blue and green roving (she reminded me that I'm a knitter and should not get too obsessed with spinning, but she sent the fiber anyway. I like the way she thinks :o), a DIY candle in a glass bowl called "Burning Snow" (very, very pretty), and a chocolate K. No, really, the letter. The nicest thing about it all? The communication. It's what fascinates me most about SP. And we're even neighbours, so to speak. Although with a bit of a stretch of the imagination, Alison is a neighbour, too. There's just really a lot of water between us. The interesting thing? Both my pals live in countries where I feel the need to apologize for our rude tourists. If a future pal of mine should live in Spain, the triad of embarrassment would be complete. But I digress.

Is there anybody out there who isn't absolutely thrilled with Victorian Lace Today? Is it even possible not to love this book? Even muggles would not be able to keep their eyes off the photos. I'm not going to cast on for anything right now - and that takes up all my willpower, forget about not eating too many Christmas cookies - because there is Christmas stuff do be done, and I do have a languishing lace UFO. But soon. Very soon. Maybe I could swatch a little ...

Spinning did occur over the past week.

Top to bottom: a ball of the SP roving, plied and all, thinking about what it wants to be when it grows up. Next to it, a ball of brown Shetland single (the other half of that two-ply is on Emma right now). Next up, more SP ply, just not balled yet. A home-dyed rose and green merino two-ply, raaather chunky, but I have hopes for that tea cozy. The dark stuff is more Wollfabrik merino destined for some top-secret Christmas knitting that will involve entrelac (just put me out of my misery now), and bringing up the bottom is more home-dyed merino, the thinnest single I have been able to produce so far. If I keep this up, it will be fine fingering weight, earmarked for a pair of really impractical socks (it's not superwash).

I've been afraid to try spinning the gorgeous green silk that somehow made its way into the Wollfabrik delivery (ahem). What if I mess it up??? Well, at least I'm not goofing off on the wheel all by myself anymore. I consulted the master. Alden Amos. I splurged on the Big Book of Handspinning, so now the spinner of spinners is telling me what to do, rather sternly I might add. The first thing I learned was that Emma is only going to take me that far, what with her tiny bobbin and one, completely unchangeable ratio. Whatever, I love her all the same.

Meet Emma

Spinning, it's the new crack.

Before we venture into the depths of obsession and new inanimate objects with names, however, Here's the first SPFO. (Alison, Sabine? The bag made from your gifts is finished and felted, but it needs felted flowers, and ... knitting 60 petals? Not so exciting. I'm getting there.)

Blurry Koigu fingerless mittens. I used less than a skein, considerably less, in fact, so I might add to the cuff. Apart from making them up as I went along (seriously, I know there are thousands of patterns out there, I was just too lazy to look one up), I played with an openwork stitch called "Pillar" - no idea where I found it, probably Barbara Walker - and with picot cast-off, which worked on one mitten and not so much on the other. It was lovely to knit with this yarn, thanks pal.

The other project I'm working on right now is Clapotis II, my grieving project. The first Clapotis is resting with my mom, so I'm making another one for me (same pattern, different yarn ... kind of appropriate). I only pick it up when I want to be quiet and can handle being sad, because the pattern is so familiar now that I have a lot of free mind space. The memories of my mom, frail, in pain, but snuggled in her silky shawl ("This is too GOOD for me.") with a happy smile on her face always make me happy, too. At the same time I'm here to report that tears do not felt wool. A good thing, I guess. Blurry Clapotis.

So, now meet Emma. (Image copyright: Wollespinnen - because I can't manage to get a decent picture.)

Isn't she pretty? Emma is a late 19th-century castle wheel, and the only non-original parts are the flyer hooks, because the original ones probably rusted through in the 1950s. She came with only one bobbin and without any bells, whistles or lazy kates. And I got her for a song. Really, about a skein of Sea Silk. I waxed and oiled her, and I'm thinking of a light stripping and linseed oiling, because as far as I can tell, the wood was oiled once (probably in 1880) and hasn't been treated again ever since. But! No worm.

So I sat down with Hands On Spinning ... and stared at my wheel. I tried to recognize all the parts and get an idea of Emma's workings, because she also didn't come with a nifty instruction booklet. But I figured out that she is bobbin-lead, found the brake and managed to adjust the drive band tension. And there really wasn't much more to do, so I grabbed the mystery fiber the seller had thoughtfully included, did the leader thing and went on my merry spinning way. For about a minute. Then I spent the next hour practicing my treadle technique. Even when she is all oiled and detailed, Emma rattles, shakes and screeches. Well, I guess when you're 120 + years old ... It's not so easy-going. However, I'm proud to report that I got the hang of it at last. Again with the merry spinning way.

Dark brown fiber, grey winter light? Sorry about that. This is my first Emma-spun.

Next up: some merino I had dyed to achieve a "Delft china" effect.

Uh, Delft 2-ply novelty yarn. And not enough for a tea cozy. Sigh. But Emma and I really got acquainted with that one.

My current experiment: lovely Shetland roving I bought on ebay (Euro spinners, look for kraftmania-uk, terriffic shop).

I am REALLY proud of this. It's overspun in places and still not so very even, but if I keep working hard at it, this might turn out to be my first non-chunky yarn.

Before Emma arrived, I had started spindle-spinning some merino pencil roving dyed in lovely fall colours. I finished 100g of it as "chunky on purpose, hopefully a scarf for my brown coat 2-ply". It's lovely and soft, and I'm not giving up the spindle.

Oooh, the postman rang! He brought my (pre-ordered when the dinosaurs still roamed) copy of the book with the biggest buzz in a long time. Gotta go!

Spinning

So, I've been making yarn. Between that new obsession and my involvement with Renaissance castles, I have no idea where the week went.
I've fallen hard for the entire yarn-making process and can't wait to learn more about it all.
Here's what I did.
I used Lynne Vogel's hotpour method to dye some of the whatever roving that came with my beginner's spindle. It wasn't the best of qualities, I don't think, but that actually worked in my favour, because I wasn't too terrified of messing up something precious.

Then I split the dyed roving lengthwise, and each strip into four thinner strips, trying to keep the colours in order as I spun. I ended up with this:

While my singles were decidedly uneven and raaather chunky, I managed to make two reasonably consistent balls. Before plying them, I actually thought about it (a novel concept for me, because I'm more of a "let's try and see" kinda gal.) I wanted to ply the singles with the same succession of colours, thinking that the unevenness of my spinning would have produced colour sections of different lengths. So plying would mix up the colours of the two singles in some places, but since the individual colours were fairly "long", I hoped for an overlap in other places. This is an enormous amount of planning for me - I was actually trying to predict my result.
So I plied.
My plying is not a bit better than my spinning :o), and I produced some of the chunkiest yarn in my possession, but would you believe it? The whole result-predicting thing actually worked out. I was very proud of this, probably much more than the yarn quality merited :o). But chunky and uneven as it may be, by golly, I made yarn!
And I knit with it, too.
In these pictures, the colours are most like the original. I am very pleased with my first spinning experiment. All I wanted was an idea how the whole thing works, and I was surprised that I managed to make real yarn - if that makes any sense.
I can't wait to practice some more - in fact, I've got some undyed merino soaking in the sink as we speak. 100 g of German merino roving for my next experiment: making enough yarn to actually knit something with it. I need a tea cozy :o).

Colour me blue

For the past week or so, I've been playing with yarn and acid dyes. I've never dyed yarn before, although I used to do fabric some years ago. After a few mishaps - honestly, skeining and ball-winding seemed to be a bigger problem than the actual dyeing process *ahem* - I managed to get results I'm happy with.

Now, here's the thing. As with many new things I want to try, I used the materials and tools I had on hand. Obviously I bought dyes (Jacquard), but other than that I adapted the process to my conditions, instead of the other way around. So, here's what I had: silk and angora blends (laceweight), glass baking pans, not a lot of time to watch the stuff simmer.

Thus ...

It's why I like casseroles. Throw everything in, put in oven, set timer, forget about it for 40 minutes. So one might call this the casserole approach to dyeing yarn. First I dyed skeined yarn, but then I thought that leaving it in balls might give a nice effect. It did, but the tricky part was getting the damp balls into skeins to dry.

Since I had only silk and angora blends, I knew that there would be a candy cane effect in the finished product, and it took a while to figure out how to use that, but here's one of the results ...

The yarn (two strands of silk blend one strand of angora) is very soft and fluffy, and the colours (dyed in two dye baths, bluer/black and lavender, once as center-pull balls, once as skeins) are just beautiful. The undyed rayon plies actually enhance the light sheen of this yarn.

I'm going to have to take a raincheck on the other yarns, because it was already dark when I remembered that I wanted to take pictures of them. All in all, it was great to play with all the colours - a great mood lifter in dreary weather, I can recommend it - and I can't wait for my budget to allow for different yarns and fibers and some other stuff. When I think about learning to spin soon and imagine that I can dye, spin and knit my very own yarn in addition to drooling over other people's blogs ... happy.