Goodies

It's hard to find a transition from my last post, so I'm not trying, but Blogger is in a picture mood, so beware, bandwidth sucker ahead.

First of all, my Secret Pal struck again.

She sent me a skein of the softest chocolate brown alpaca from UK Alpaca (amazing, they take online orders), two skeins of Melody "Jive" and lovely bag handles. Also, a pretty carved bangle, a white chocolate treat and a card that made me snort with laughter (but which I couldn't manage to get in a picture). And this:

Now, in a dessert, the combination of chocolate, coffee and lime would be ghastly (not to mention the hemp oil), but in shower gel, they are amazing. I'm trying to make it last a bit, but the name cracks me up every morning. Thanks pal!

Speaking of thanks pal ...

My One Skein Pal is really taking the one skein thing to its limits, sending me this gorgeous Finnish wool in a 100 g skein. The green is a little lighter in person, but my kitchen wasn't when I took the picture. It's great stuff - no frills, but soft and sturdy, if you know what I mean.

I make beaded jewellery, which means that I also produce stitch markers for everyone I know (whether they knit or knot), but my own knitting gets marked with scrap yarn. My pal seemed to know this, because she sent me two beautiful green ones. For the Germans visiting this blog, the card says "Na, du alte Socke". Hee.

But wait, the goodie stampede doesn't stop here. Meet the new love of my life.

I sort of knew that there would be a gift of Denise Interchangeables in my future, so I read all reviews I could find. The raves are right, these needles are great, easy to use and just a pleasure all around. At first I thought it would be weird knitting with plastic. I have one pair of plastic straights (8 mm), and I hate them. I'm an INOX girl with a secret passion for bamboo. I was surprised how nice it was to knit with the Denises. I actually like the fact that the smaller sizes are a little flexible, which I thought would annoy me. And the cord extensions are pure genius.

The Denises were accompanied by this ...

Handmaiden Sea Silk in Ivory. What can I say, there is really nothing like it. There were two skeins of it, but the astute observer will have noted that there is also a pair of needle tips and a cord missing from the Denise set. I'm already playing.

My delight about these things in the middle of plenty of sad stuff going on in my life feels shallow to me sometimes. Even the softest alpaca or greenest green or even Sea Silk won't make anything better or help anyone. But then I keep thinking about the story told by the Yarnharlot in her latest book, the one about sending the makings of kilthose to a non-knitting male friend in a crisis. Yarn and sticks or hooks do possess healing qualities, and even the material joys inherent in them are connected to a passion that has nothing to do with expensive yarn.
Not counting loved ones, fiber art is one of the two great passions in my life, and sitting down to knit or crochet, the act of making something with my hands and soft fiber creates little pockets of happy when I need them most.

You didn't think that was it with the pictures, did you?

Here's a progress report on the red Garnstudio cardigan.

Stylish lighting by IKEA :o).

I really like the Lang Twin, even though it splits (cotton just does, I guess) and the balls unravel annoyingly. But it creates a nice fabric. I knit the two fronts at the same time, now following with the sleeves. The 2 on 2 socks taught me that I mind untangling yarn much less than knitting two of the same thing - especially if it's mostly rib and stockinette. After the sleeves, I'll have to pick up stitches all around the bottom and front of the cardigan to knit the edging. Did I mention that I love the Denise cord extensions?

A word can replace a thousand pictures

No pictures on Blogger since the weekend. At least none for me, it would appear. Sad thing that, because I've got progress pics and lovely secret pal stuff to show off.

This is one of those days where chatting about knitting is not the first thing on my mind anyway. I'm mad.
My mom was taken to the hospital on Friday, with cramps and dangerously low pulse and blood pressure. It turns out that she was severly dehydrated, a condition her brain tumors didn't take too well. The doctors sort of blamed my dad for this, saying that Mom needs to DRINK MORE in this weather. Well, we know this. But how do you make a person drink two liters of water every day, when she is too weak to even lift her head most of the day? In the hospital, they gave her a water IV. We can't do that. When my dad came to escort her home in the ambulance today, he asked again what he is supposed to do from now on. The answer: she needs to drink more. Get her to drink more. Am I so totally biased to be the only one who thinks that this is not an adequate response? Upon seeing my mother all weak and sluggish and confused most of the time (her brain is seriously going now), all the doctors can think of is putting the blame and responsibility on my father's shoulders. Because, you know, he really doesn't have to carry enough as it is.
This is only one incident. There are more. Many, many more. I've never dealt with someone who needed palliative care before. And I can tell you now, once a person is no longer in a condition where anything can be cured, they and their caregivers are shit out of luck where medical experts are concerned. All the information and help we are getting these days are from hospice service. My mom's doctor, the one who has gone through nine years of fighting cancer with her, the one who has invited her to lead a new self-help group, because he was so impressed with her attitude and personality, doesn't give a damn anymore. He goes on vacation, gives her case over to another doctor, finds out that this substitute will go on vacation three days after him, and leaves it at that. My dad found out about this when he went to the office to get a prescription and a signature for a new care application (Mom's care has to be intensified and we need a nurse for that). And my parents live in a small town, it's not like Mom's oncologist has a thousand dramatic cases at once and loses sight of them all. But that's all right, I hope he is enjoying his substitute-free vacation. Mom can certainly wait three weeks for her pain medication. Crying out in pain might even elevate blood pressure, so it's all good.

Sorry about this less than cheerful post, but I'm overdue with an update and this is all I got right now. I don't even want to knit. What I want is hit someone, preferably someone wearing a white lab coat.

ETA: Yes, I know that there are plenty of fantastic doctors out there, who will do everything for their patients. And good for them. We just don't have one of those available, so the knowledge that it does get better than this isn't really helping.

Industry

I've been quite busy lately. For some strange reason, the more I work the more other stuff I'm getting done, too. So this post is going to be quite picture-intensive.

I finished the 2 on 2 socks.

Still in love with the technique, I got out some leftover Regia Bamboo for another pair, but I haven't cast on yet. since I didn't have two circular needles, I took a hint from Elizabeth Zimmermann and used one 2.5 and one 3 mm needle. Worked like a charm.

Next up: the infamous crochet hoodie. Sometimes, when you've fallen out of love with a project, it takes a little bit of rededication. It turns out that I like the crochet hoodie much better if I don't have to turn it into a hoodie after all - and if I can combine the really nice crochet stitch with a knitted edge. So I played around a bit (sorry, no pics), found that I liked the results, finished the second sleeve and put the pieces down to block.

Excuse the crappy artificial light /flash picture. It looks as if there is only one front, but they are blocking on top of each other. The yarn is a cotton ribbon in a nice faded denim blue. And that's what I'll be going with - a denim jacket style collar, a simple knitted edge and buttons instead of a zipper.

I think my greatest problem with the cardigan was that I used a hook that was the wrong size for the rather bulky stitch, but the yarn gave a bit with blocking, and the edging will loosen everything up a bit and give it more drape.
Improvise with your mistakes is what I'm saying. :o)

I've been winding my lovely cranberry Lorna all week.

And I have come to the conclusion that I really need a swift and ball winder, as soon as my funds allow it. The dining chairs are a rather flawed system.

(Another crappy artificial light picture btw.)

I'm really excited that I get to knit with this beautiful yarn, and I'm still looking for the right pattern. It should be a rectangular stole, because I think that I'll be busy enough with the thin yarn and lace pattern and don't need any shaping issues on top of it.

As a "reward" for my efforts with the crochet hoodie (yeah, I know, it should be reward enough in itself), I cast on for this ...

The yarn (Lang Twin) has a tendency to split, but it still knits up fairly quickly. The eyelet pattern is ridiculously simple, but I think it has a nice effect. I'll try to update on this project.

Oh, yeah. Meet Lilly.

This is Lilly, the Amazingly Purple Armadillo. Lilly would like me to tell y'all that she is NOT nor has she ever been an ANT EATER. Thank you.
I'm quite fond of her, because -as James put it - "Lilly is a dilly of a 'dilla."

The addiction to crocheted toys is still going strong. Lilly will be joined by another friend soon. As you can see, she's pleased about it ...

Sweating and Small Stuff

Well, we are having about 350% humidity here, so I haven't done much on my eternal WIPs (the crochet hoodie and Chocolate Covered Cherry), because it's just too hot and sticky.
Socks, however, are perfectly acceptable summer knitting.

I'm still very pleased with the 2 on 2 technique. It's a bit slower and more tangly than knitting with dpns, but it's only my first pair, and for me the fact that I'm actually making two socks at once tops all disadvantages. The colours of this sock yarn (Regia Cotton India) are a bit drab I think, but they can't all be Baudelaire (which I'm dying to make, but I don't have suitably lush sock yarn and funds are low at the moment.)

Since there is not much going on here, I'm going to post a few pics of some small stuff I made recently.

My Mini Travelling Kit: a PDA cozy that will fit my PDA with its bigger-than-usual battery and a cup cozy for my train latte that always comes in thin cardboard cups and is very hot. Double-stranded eyelash yarn (Schoeller and Stahl, I think) and a green cotton blend. Why does the PDA cozy have a teapot button? Because I like it.

After putting up pictures of scarily disjointed body parts a few weeks back, I forgot to post a picture of the finished project:
My Amineko, made from assorted leftovers of microfiber. I really enjoyed crocheting that little fellow, and I think he'll be getting some friends soon. I guess bunnies and puppies are a given with that model. What I'd really want would be an armadillo though ...

Even though it's supposed to get cooler over the next few days, my finishing endeavours are in serious danger right now. I got a gift today ...

A lovely skein of Lorna's Laces, Helen's Lace in Cranberry. Just for me. I shall knit lace.

Did I do that?

Well, now that I see it all blocked and finished and "on person", I have to say I like it better than I thought. It sort of looks like the original, doesn't it? :o)

Here's the Elann version:

And a another look at mine ...

I'm quite pleased (though still not crazy about garter stitch lace). I made tons of mistakes, but hey, it's mine - and I'm not perfect either :o).

Specs:
Pattern: Garden Path Shawl from Elann
Yarn: 9 balls "Alpaka Sport" (100 m/50 g)
Measurements: 80" x 36"
Inspiration: World Cup Knitting

It's blocking

World Cup Knitting Challenge accomplished.

The Gardenpath Shawl, aka The thing that sucked the joy out of the last week of my life, is blocking in the hall. I usually block big pieces on my bed, but I wasn't sure how long the alpaca will take to dry. Unfortunately, there is not enough room to take a full picture.

It's huge. I ended up not liking it very much, although, as I've said before, I learned a lot and feel ready to tackle a more complicated lace project. I also learned that I don't like garter stitch-based projects. First of all, I miss purling! And the finished stitch pattern looks too "busy" for my taste. But this is the first shawl I ever knit, so I love it for that, and it's big and warm, so I expect to wear it a lot this fall.

I've got some other things to show, but they'll have to wait until after work.

Fifteen rows

I'm fifteen rows away from finishing my World Cup shawl. Excuse the picture, I know it looks as if I just threw that thing on the floor, but it's a bit bulky to say the least. I kept thinking I'd get longer circs for it, but it never happened. However, the days of not having the right circs on hand might be numbered. Odd behaviour and weird questions from a friend and a whisper in the breeze ... Denise. Hee.

Anyway, it was touch and go for the WC shawl for a while there. Last Friday night, I abandoned the shawl on my bed at my parents' house for the hair-raising end of the Germany: Argentina game. My parents have a cat. He's smart, because he wasn't seen anywhere near the house until I left on Saturday. Apparently he likes alpaca. Or hates my shawl. He tore into one of the panels and ripped it out to the second to last batch of "roses". (I tried to get a detail shot of the traces - see bulkiness above - but I'll get one in about fifteen rows.) And me without lifelines - foolishly, I didn't think to put lifelines in, because, y'know, this isn't REAL lace. Neither do I have even the slightest clue how to repair things that involve multiple yarnovers and three kinds of double decreases. I did my best to pick up the stitches of a knit row below the damage, but the angles of the four panels kept throwing me off. In the end, I didn't do a very good job, but the upside is that I learned a lot about lace and shawl construction (while plotting felinicide). I'm going to live with my mistakes, and I'm still really proud of this thing, because real or not real, it is my first lace project.

I have taken drastic steps to combat my Second Sock Syndrome.

Nothing like figuring out two toe-ups on two circs to make you feel really clever. This is what I did during processing times on a raaather tedious collating job. Please note that I made the decision not to bother with stripe alignment. To be honest, I'm not too obsessed about it. As long as my socks are fraternal twins, I'm satisfied.
I'm going to miss dpns, because I like knitting the traditional way - I like straight needles for the same reason - but this is sure going to take care of my SSS.