Kay In Stitches

Where am I?

2007-02-01T08:03:00.000+01:00

I'm sorry everybody, I'm not swamped or beleaguered, I'm absolutely buried in work. I can't even think straight, let along knit and blog.
Next week will be a little better, hopefully. But then I said that last week.

Anyway, I shall return!

Not so good

2007-01-11T07:24:00.000+01:00

It was to be expected. After all the hysteria and hijinks of Christmas and my sunny "cruise mood" of the past two weeks, I should have known it wouldn't stay that way. I'm back in full grief mode with not sleeping, nightmares, helpless weeping at inopportune moments - all the bells and whistles. It's okay. No, seriously, I'm not gunning for pity or anything. It's just the way this works. Fretting about the process does not simplify or shorten it.

Have I gone back to smoking in those long nights of not sleeping and nightmares? Nope :o).

In other news: there is some exciting new job stuff going on - a new book, maybe, go cross something, please - and some writing with an actual deadline.

There has been spinning, sock knitting and fair isling.

I know, the minute I mention that it might be nice to tackle a few UFOs this month, I'm following my startitis wherever it may go. However, please observe the mittens on the left. I started them back in November from one of my first home-plied, home-dyed yarns. No pattern, no nothing, just 2x1 rib, stockinette and a picot edging.

I can explain the lone sock.

It looks as if not much happened since last time, but I frogged what I had done on the Endpaper Mitts and started over on 3 mm dpns. Hence the lone finished Trekking XXL sock - I've got one set of 3 mm bamboo dpns, and according to my laws of KFYS, buying tools is only okay if I NEED them. Wanting to start two projects just because I can't wait to try the Trekking yarn/fair isle knitting does not count as a legitimate need.

This blurry thing
is the first Pink Ribbons sock. I'm making them to ease myself back into cabling, and because I like them a lot. The Tofutsies sock yarn is lovely to work with. It's soft, but crisp and will be great for spring socks. But then I like cotton a lot, so if you don't, this is probably not the sock yarn for you.

I admit it, I'm proud of my yarns.

The grey is my first alpaka two-ply. The singles could be a little less twisted, because I ended up getting a few hard, overspun bits, but overall it's slinky and soft and shiny. I love working with alpaka, even though it took me a while to get used to the slippery feel of the fiber. Maybe it's because the fiber is so soft and fluffy. I spun it thicker than I would have liked, because I was afraid the fibers would separate with even the tiniest bit of take. They probably wouldn't have, but I couldn't get used to the feeling.

The green is the neverending Wollfabrik merino. I've spun these two skeins of two-ply, and there's still enough left for another attempt at sock yarn.

On the left is Strawberry. The first yarn with an actual design process, which is to say I thought about what I would need to do to make it look like this. It's natural moorit Shetland laceweight single plied with mill-spun silk/rayon two-ply cobweb weight in a light beige. I overdyed the plied yarn with Jacquard acid dye in scarlet, which resulted in a deep red yarn with tiny candy cane spots of bright red (the silk) and a pink-y beige (the rayon). I like it. This skein is already destined to leave the house, but I've got more of the yarns, so I'm going to try to repeat the exercise and knit a swatch with it.

It's heigh-ho time. With a few knitting breaks. I'm only human.

All kinds of good

2007-01-04T17:23:00.000+01:00

Okay, who wrote that confused post the other day?

In my defense, I had a fever. It was one of those 24-hour things that make sudden death look maybe not so unwelcome. But I'm back now.

And life is all kinds of good. Allow me to count my blessings for the record.

My long vacation is over, but I've got nothing but nice projects I like doing for nice people I like dealing with. Believe me, this is rare, and I intend to enjoy it for all it's worth.

Tomorrow will mark my first full week as a non-smoker, and I couldn't be happier about it. Okay, so I didn't exactly have a chain-smoking habit (anymore), but hey, it's still sort of an achievement. It's also embarrassing how little time I spend actually craving a cigarette - if I had only known (read: if I'd had the guts to try) I could have quit a long time ago. Whatever, I'm doing it now, that's got to be good enough.

I signed up for Project Spectrum 2.0. Love it! I so wanted to do the first one when I first saw it, but I was busy just looking around blogdom then - and PS1 was already well underway. It's going to be a great incentive to get creative and to take more pictures. I admit that I'm a bit of a photo slacker. Not my medium, really, but I can try to change that within the limits of Project Spectrum, which is easier for me than just resolving to "photograph more stuff".

Look what I made.

Outside in: Shetland moorit singles - about 25 g, for a fingering weight 2-ply, I think. Green silk (not hand-dyed, from Die Wollfabrik), about 50 g, also destined to become fingering weight. I don't know, spinning silk is really hard for me, maybe I'm not doing it right. So I'm very proud of getting the singles so fine. In the center is some Schachenmayr Merino dyed as a sort of solid in purple.I dyed the merino for this:

My first experiment in fair isle: Eunny's Endpaper Mitts. Yes, I know I said that I didn't want to start anything new in January. Fever, remember? It's terribly uneven, and I'm having a devil of a time knitting with the colours in both hands, but it's great fun.

I'm not totally going back on my word though. There has been UFO knitting. And finished grey socks - only they are in action right now and I forgot to take a picture before. It will have to wait. See what I mean with being bad about taking pictures?

I've made lots of plans lately. For knitting projects, a bit of self-improvement and other things. I wasn't sure whether I'd write about it here, because I'm embarrassed about the amount of good fortune coming my way. It's always like that. However, maybe that's the wrong attitude. How about some grateful joy for a change?

So, Andy gave another Christmas present to both of us. He said that 2006 was overshadowed by this huge terrible event we knew would come. And by the one we didn't know about. It was a year of fear, sadness and death. Andy wants 2007 to be just as influenced by something utterly fabulous, so that we will be able to look forward to the passing of the year, instead of being scared by it. I'm not kidding, he really is that wonderful. I do know that I'm extremely lucky to have him in my life, not to mention rather undeserving. Me? Far from wonderful.

On August 23, Andy and I will make our way down to the port of Hamburg and board the Queen Mary 2 for a transatlantic passage to New York.

Way!

Yeah, this has only been my dream since I was a kid and my grandma force-fed me 1930s movies (not that I complained, mind). Eight days at sea on the Queen Mary and then the Statue of Liberty - seaside. And NYC, for the first time in my life. Name yarn stores, people! Oh, in Southampton UK, too, if you know any. We'll be there for a day, and while it's certainly possible to go to London that day, I know that I'll be too scared to miss the boat and probably won't budge.

You know, I've known this for almost two weeks now, but it doesn't get any more believable. Every time I think about it I could just sing and jump - and cry, because I can't discuss it to pieces with my mom, but hey, no plan is totally perfect :o).

The first words out of my mouth? "I don't even have an evening gown." (Well, I wasn't as horrible as all that, there was a lot of gasping and shrieking and crying and hugging before I could speak again.) There is no way I could come up with anything approaching a "suitable wardrobe" in terms of luxury (giggle, they do have "attire suggestions" in the daily board newsletter), so I think I need to beat that with originality. I mean, think Annie Modesitt's Corset Tank. That would be perfectly fine for a formal dinner if paired with a long skirt or something. Creativity rules is my motto.

So, tops, shawls and accessories 2007. Obviously, suggestions are very welcome. If I can figure out how to work it, there's going to be some extra cruise wardrobe action on the sidebar. But I'll have to fiddle with that a bit, when I have the time - either I am rather limited here, or Blogger is. Stay tuned.

Well, hello 2007

2007-01-01T16:40:00.000+01:00

Nice to meet ya. Hope you brought lunch, because you are going to stay a while.

The party was okay. Andy and I partied the way we always do - mindful of the fact that a hangover is a terrible way to start a year.

Still no smoke in these parts, I'm rather surprised. I don't even want to, so I'm guessing that the hard times are still to come. We'll see what happens. I'm getting all kinds of support (thanks Claudia and Elyse :o), and I'll give it my very best shot. I promise that I'll be honest about it if I slip.

I would like to make January 2007 a UFO month, meaning that I won't start anything new - except second socks, because technically they are part of a UFO. My somewhat addled state of mind had me start tons of projects in the second half of 2006, and I need to review them, decide whether to finish them or not, and work on them accordingly.

Like this one:

This is a sort of lace sampler scarf in Lang Mohair Luxe. You know, the one with the beads :o)

I think I'm going to finish it. The patterns I've combined are not a perfect match, but they are okay, and I like it better now than when I stopped working on it.

Then there is the Sea Silk shawl, the new Clapotis, a shawligan I'm making up as I go along, and a variety of second socks. I'm also still frogging.

Andy and I decided that we need an afghan or two for the living room, so I'm going to think about squares soon. Or log cabins maybe? Obviously, I'm going to start thinking while finishing something else.

In the interest of full disclosure, let it be known that there was a bit of last-minute stash enhancement on Saturday.

Top: two balls of regular Regia in black for more dress socks for Andy, and a ball of Schachenmayr Merino for Eunny's Endpaper Mitts - see: getting the hang of fair isle. Next: two balls of white Regia to try the SP9 kool-aid. And two balls of eyelash yarn in blues, greens and turquoise. And I don't have any excuse except they were € 1 and I liked the colours. The last three balls are more merino in natural and white for some dyeing experiments - to get a contrasting colour for the mitts, obviously.

You know what? I'm going to stop nodding off and writing a blog entry in fits and starts and take a nap instead. I know, this is rather sudden, but ... see ya tomorrow.

Revelations and Resolutions

2006-12-31T08:04:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-26T15:55:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-24T07:48:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-22T07:20:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-18T09:41:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-17T08:48:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-14T12:29:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-12T14:39:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-09T07:17:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-07T13:20:00.000+01:00

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?

2006-12-06T06:20:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-03T21:10:00.000+01:00

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

2006-11-23T10:35:00.000+01:00

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

2006-11-15T10:51:00.000+01:00

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

2006-11-06T18:52:00.000+01:00

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.

Surprises

2006-11-05T19:30:00.000+01:00

So, wanna know what goodies Marty the Gift Bag contained? Boy, was it ever worth the wait!

Apart from a sweet card (love that bear!) and a lovely birthday letter - a letter that foreshadowed a possible real-life pal event next year - the bag contained a cute notebook (already in use), a pack of tiny origami papers (a particularly inspired idea :o), a box of wonderful chocolates (uh, I just noticed that they are not in the picture, because I forgot to take them out of the fridge, but it's a big red box full of handmade, creamy chocolate heaven) and a skein of KOIGU. Yep, that's right, the Holy Canadian Grail of Sock Yarn in my humble home. I love it all, and the yarn is already balled up and on the needles for a pair of mittens. Andy had a reeeeally good long look at the yarn, the sweet man is trying his best to learn what fibery stuff I like. Yeah, honey, just keep thinking along the Koigu lines, and life will be great ;o)
Thank you so much, pal, for a great birthday surprise. I appreciated it all more than a blog entry can say. I'll miss Marty though.

Otherwise, my birthday wasn't completely terrible either :o). I spent all of Friday and most of Saturday home alone, because Andy had an out-of-town workshop, and I used that time to give my room a complete do-over, including moving furniture and rehangingn pictures. I love how it turned out. My work/computer area is much cozier and tidier now, and I made a lot of room for all things crafty. Then on Saturday, I talked on the phone with my dad (who got over the chicken incident, thank goodness) and some friends, had a little cake and bubbly by myself, while chatting with my friend D. I liked puttering around by myself for a bit, all relaxed and low-key, and when Andy came home, he broke out the champane, ordered great Thai food, and there was a bit of present-opening going on.

Apart from see above, I got some very nice, posh care products from Andy, who knows that I love them but almost never indulge. He also gave me a fantastic book called "Aftermath" with Joel Meyrowitz's exclusive photos of the post-9/11 work at Ground Zero. Utterly captivating. He said that he was nervous about his rather less-than-cheerful choice, but the pictures and stories are so impressive and meaningful ... it's really hard to describe, have a look at the photos if you can.

More books. "The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques" by Nancie Wiseman, a book I had wanted for a long time - very useful, with clear, detailed explanations. And two books that had me slightly puzzled until I talked to my dad today. "The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook" and "Hands On Spinning". Can you see where this is going? Oh yeah, I got a spinning wheel for my birthday!!!! And since I have to choose and buy it myself (Dad doesn't know from fiber-related things :o), Dad wanted me to have something to read in the meantime. I am excited like you wouldn't believe. Dad wanted to spring for a new Ashford Traditional, which was my choice among the wheels I had the chance to try a while back - although it's hard to say for a beginner, because the process is so new that you can't really concentrate on the differences between wheels. But it felt really good and can be upgraded quite a bit, so a Traditional it is. However, I told Dad that I would get a used one on ebay, because it's not exactly cheap to begin with. I mean, you don't give your kids a new car as a first either, right? I can always learn on a used wheel and get a nicer one later or something. So I placed a search with ebay and, as a little extra, ordered a spindle starting kit with some mixed fiber to play with - as a little gift from me to me, to sweeten the waiting for my wheel.

I missed my mom a lot during all the excitement. She always took a great interest in all my yarn (ad)ventures, and I would have loved to share the spinning plans with her. Not to mention the family birthday cake. The last time I ate it was Dad's 60th birthday last year, and I remember having a slice while watching my mom, who had the greatest time. I remember thinking that this might be the last time I would be eating Mom's patented birthday cake. It was. I'm very grateful for these memories. Knowing that you will soon lose a person you love is terrible, but it does teach you to really live the happy moments, something we all know we should do anyway, but never seem to get around to doing. It's a gift I'll do my best not to forget again.

Marty 'n' Me

2006-11-03T17:27:00.000+01:00

First of all: Thank you all (and y'all) for the kind and comforting emails and comments. As you know, bereavement tends to make people very receptive for warmth and kindness, so please know that I appreciate every word. This is not the only thanks you'll get, but I'm so hopelessly behind on my emails that I didn't want to leave it all unacknowledged until I'm caught up.

I'm feeling a bit more like myself today. Sad, yes, but not sleepwalking while a voice in my head whispers, "It can't be, it can't be". The voice, I'm happy to report, has returned to its usual chorus of story ideas and suggestions for extravagant yarn purchases. I tend to ignore the latter. I also tend to ignore the state of my office/knitting room/general hanging-out place, except I've got the sinking (or rather tripping and falling) feeling that I need to do something about the 14 bags on the floor (6 months worth of stuff I took to my parents' house and back) and the general air of neglect, spilling yarn and none too fresh coffee mugs. And I need to do it while I'm still 35. Kind of a tight deadline. I thrive under stress, did I mention?

Speaking of upcoming birthdays, here's what Marty did today. (Yes, I named the gift bag Marty - what do you want from me? Andy is on a business trip, I've been talking to myself all day, and things with sunglasses just have to be named.)

Here's Marty having coffee and basking in the morning sun. In case you can't read the sign the demonstrating cows on the mug are holding up, it says "Make coffee, not war!". There are also signs with "Coffee is the answer" and "Teabags go home!" I'm always a fan of the relly constructive political statement.

Marty is appalled at the cruel and unusual treatment of freshly dyed chenille. Uh, I think I missed some trick or other about rewinding a skein of dyed and dried chenille. Is there something I can do to prevent the yarn from curling up on itself?

Mittens, made from homedyed and -plied silk/angora, getting the Marty Seal Of Approval. I was so pleased with my very first trial skein of dyed yarn that I had to knit with it immediately (I let it dry first, but it wasn't easy). The pattern is the ever popular "I think this is how you make mittens, so I won't bother looking up a pattern", and in this case, I'm pleased (and quite surprised) to see that it worked. Stay tuned for a cautionary tale of three sweaters, wherein things didn't go quite as well.

So, as I mentioned, first item on the "Things to do before I turn 36" list: Transform this pigsty into a room.

Second item: Have a couple of shots of "Winter Apple" liqueur.

Third item: Comfort my dad when he calls back later. Sigh. The fox got two of our chickens. No, seriously, my dad had three chickens - he kept them as a hobby - and they are like family members. After eight years, the fox apparently found the one weak spot of the coop, where there is no wire mesh in the ground (to prevent foxes from digging under the fence, you see), and made off with the chickens. My dad is not having a good day. He will call back when he is done with some sort of deputy mayor activity. Sigh.

(In case you want to write and tell me that chickens don't live to be eight ... I know. Let ths fact speak for the amount of love and care lavished on our feathery folks.)

The attentive reader might have spotted the odd reference to certain dyeing activities going on here. Full disclosure to follow.

We have a situation

2006-11-02T08:30:00.000+01:00

These shocking images of a yet unidentified, gagged and ... uh ... blindfolded birthday present were just released by the authorities. No ransom demands were made, but officials say that the kidnapper, calling herself "Secret Pal 9" released a statement claiming that the hostage will be released on November 4, 2006, provided that no rescue attempts are made before that date. The motives of the kidnapper are still unclear, but experts assume that "Secret Pal 9" suffers from BSS (Birthday Surprise Syndrome), a mental state closely linked to the psychological phenomenon of "Santa Claus Impersonation Disorder" and obscure Easter rituals involving the covert placement of coloured eggs in unlikely locations.
K-NEWS will keep you updated as this latest hostage situation in a long, terrifying series of BSS-related incidents unfolds ...

What they call normal

2006-10-30T10:52:00.000+01:00

Mom's funeral was on Friday, and now I'm back home. Strangely enough, I feel like a guest in my own house, not quite comfortable with spreading out my stuff and pouring the last of the milk in my coffee. I told Andy to enjoy the relative order of things, because I don't think it will last long.
Leaving my dad was hard, but after we cluttered around the house in shock and awe for the past week or so, it was time to go through the motions of making things normal again. Right.

I'm knitting, and I've got quite a few pictures lined up, but I'm not quite up to being THAT normal just yet. All in due course.

Dirge Without Music

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,--but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love, --
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave,
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

After nine years of battle ...

2006-10-21T01:09:00.000+02:00

Mom

April 5, 1947 - October 20, 2006

I wanted you to see something about her –

I wanted you to see what real courage is,

instead of getting the idea that courage

is a man with a gun in his hand.

It's when you know you're licked before you begin,

but you begin anyway

and you see it through no matter what. […]

She was the bravest person I ever knew.

Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird

It's that secret time of the year again

2006-10-14T09:38:00.000+02:00

Whoops, how did it get to be October 14 already???

I must say it's about TIME to get my Secret Pal 9 questionnaire up. At least I did try to put up a button. See sidebar for lack of success.

So, here goes ...

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

And again, if it's soft and pretty, I love it. Since the last exchange, I also learned that it's not the wool I can't wear next to my skin, but the utterly-wonderful-totally-non-allergic wool wash I used. Live and learn.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I've got a set of Denises, so that's storage right there. Otherwise, I've got a tall glass (the plain drinking variety) for my straights, and I keep my hooks in my "notions bag". My non-Denise circulars ... uh, well, they are sort of in my knitting bag.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced.

My grandma taught me to knit and crochet when I was about five. So that's 30 years of yarn stuff right there, although there were periods where I did so little knitting that I almost reached muggle status. I'd say my skill level is intermediate with a sense of adventure. I'll try anything once :o).

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Not really.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)

Fresh stuff - citrus, green tea, cucumber, melon ... that sort of thing.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

I've got about 30 of them. My favourite candy is anything that has chocolate and peanutbutter.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I do some bead work, and I like paper crafts and sewing (but don't do any of that right now). I'm all set to try dyeing yarn, and I would LOVE to learn how to spin.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I'm so not in the loop where music is concerned. But I like all kinds of music, except the really, really heavy metal and songs where people recommend to kill or rape other people. And it's yes on the MP3 thing.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

Deep, rich reds, all blues and greens. I'm a denim kind of girl. I don't wear white much. And I have yet to find a shade of yellow I like.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

No kids, no pets, not married, not single :o).

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Yes to all, except for the evil poncho ;o). Yeah, I read the Manolo.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Shawls - hands down. Then socks. And cardigans. And BAGS!!!

13. What are you knitting right now?

I'm almost done with the ostrich plume shawl in Sea Silk. And I've started the Magical Earth Shawl from A Gathering Of Lace. Other than that, I need about 20 cm on my Everyday Tweed. All in good time.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Of course!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Circulars (for socks, too). As for the material, whatever works, really, but I love the Denises, so that's plastic I suppose.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Yes to both, thanks to ebay and Alison, my SP8 :o).

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

About 8 months. Sigh. It's Chocolate Covered Cherry from BGK. I can't wait to wear it, but for some reason I never pick it up :o(.

18. What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Dust? ;o) I sort of collect giraffes and armadillos. And sheep by default - it's what knitters get from muggles. Sheep stuff. Luckily, I really like them.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

Well, duh, ALL the books, yarns, needles and patterns, just like any red-blooded knitter :o). Okay, seriously, I'm always game to try a laceweight I've never met. Sock yarn. Lace patterns. No, I really think the first answer is correct.

I subscribe to Interweave Knitting.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

Spinning and dyeing, see above. Other than that, I'm about to try socks with the magic cast on.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

Yep. Size 11, don't knit me socks. Nobody should make that sacrifice ;o).

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

November 4. I'm going to be 36.

Now I'll leave you with a picture of true soul knitting. Lace scarf, Lang Mohair Luxe (kidsilk haze, only softer and cheaper), Swarovski beads and rosewood needles. Heaven.

All we need is a racoon hat

2006-10-06T09:44:00.000+02:00

It’s a bit like being a medic at the Alamo. The battle is lost, but you still patch Davy Crockett back together, so he can go fight another round.

A few days ago, I reserved a nice, warm spot in Hell for myself.
It was a bad day, one of those which much shrieking in pain and very little relief. When the bell rang, I sprinted to the door thinking it might be the doctor or the delivery person from the pharmacy. But nay. At the door were two elderly, smiling ladies in nice and proper dark pleated skirts and cardigans. One of them proffered a thin, psychedelic, sort of familiar looking magazine and inquired, “Have you thought about the Creator lately?”
She flinched a little when my mom gave a particularly loud cry for help just then - she needed someone to take the car off her legs (don't ask).
I just stood there, speechless, for a moment, while my entire spotty relationship with organized religion in general and in particular the theory of the Lord making you suffer if He loves you very much flashed before my eyes. And then I did a horrible thing. I started to laugh. Quite hysterically, I’m afraid. I tried to say something polite or witty or … well, I basically tried to say something, but all the guffawing made it impossible. Finally, I just closed the door, wiping my eyes.
Dear Jehowa’s Witnesses, I can’t say that I particularly like you, but I would have liked to decline politely instead of laughing like a hyena. I know you are very serious about your faith and truly want the best for my soul, even if you do think that the best way to convert people is to bother them by surprise, which is a tad risqué as strategies go. I shouldn't have laughed. Sorry.

So, I think I said there would be FO pictures.

Ages ago, knitcrazy asked about the Garnstudio cardigan. So here it is at long last:

I used 13 balls of Lang Twin (cotton, very splitty, but lovely), and my only real pattern modification was in the sleeve ribbing, where I cast on more stitches to decrease the purl ribs for a bit of flare flair. Other than that I left out the crochet border. I love Garnstudio patterns (I think I've mentioned), and this cardigan knit up like a dream and fits well.

Alors, Clapotis.Done in Lang Silk Dream (9 balls) - and yes, I know that there is one undropped stitch in this picture. It's dropped now :o). I didn't even have time to weave in the ends and block it, because my mom claimed it right away. You know, I've asked her many, many times what I should knit for her, and she never wanted anything. The, a few weeks ago, when she got cold and needed something to put on her shoulders, I found out that she doesn't have a single shawl. Well, she has one now, I only wish she would part with it long enough for me to do the ends. Not happening, this must be one of the world's best-loved shawls. I'm happy.

Pulbic service announcement: Do not make up a sweater as you go along, if you are under extreme emotional stress. Let this be a warning:

I don't know what I was thinking, but I do know what I thought when I frogged that thing. I just can't repeat it in gentile company.

Other than that, I'm almost through with Cinxia. Bad judgement on my part, I'm too tall and ... uh ... top-heavy for this lovely design, but I'm trying to come up with a save.

Now on the needles: Everyday Tweed from The Garter Belt. Go look at their stuff, it's great!

Unfortunately, Everyday Tweed is also acres of stockinette in the round, so I'm thinking of starting a "break knit". Something shawlish perhaps?

The long goodbye

2006-09-26T09:26:00.000+02:00

The doctor is baffled. The nurses are baffled. Dad and I are too exhausted to be baffled.
Several times a day, Mom’s heart starts to race so violently that it shakes her and the bed, and it makes like it wants to give out. But it doesn't. Several other times a day, she is in so much physical and psychological pain and tries so hard to find relief from it that you'd think she'd die from exhaustion alone. But she doesn't.
Last week, when I saw the doctor to the door, he must have seen the bewilderment in my eyes, because I didn’t even have to ask that most tactless of questions, “How long?”
He shrugged helplessly and said, “Your mother should not be alive anymore."
But she is.
Life has taken on a timeless quality. The days blend into each other, because we don’t organize things by office hours or meal times, but by the nurses, the medication and the feeble attempts at giving Mom some sort of relief with massages and compresses. When I planned my day trip home last week, I was startled to realize that it has been a month already. I have no idea where it went.

However, I’ve decided that I need to return to some of the joys in my life. Actually, I was reminded in the nicest way by the things I found when I went home on Saturday.
I knew that my pals Alison and Sabine had sent me things just after I had gone into exile, so I was already happily curious when I got home.
But I wasn’t prepared for the life-affirming (and raaather emotional) effect of my pals.
The lovely Sabine sent me a whole parcel of one skein goodies – and I can’t tell you how bad I feel that I couldn't acknowledge it before now - with not one but three projects.

A flower pin that will be perfect on my winter coat, a key ring with a felted flower that just makes me happy looking at it, and gloves. Yep, not mittens, gloves, Vanalinn gloves from A Gathering Of Lace.

The ones I had coveted but never dared to try, because let's face it, I have enough trouble with socks. They are much more beautiful in person even. And since three one skein goodies weren't enough, apparently, Sabine put in some heavenly olive oil soap, a Bach flower bath (boy, do I ever need that), a Japanese bandana

and a chocolate sampler. I'll get to try that Black & Green stuff everybody is raving about. But the nicest thing was her note (on a card with real fluffy sheep). Sabine, thank you for everything. You’ve been such a wonderful pal and your gifts “got” me so accurately that it’s hard to believe we don’t know each other.

Of course, the same thing goes for Alison, who couldn’t let me stop being her spoilee without more chocolate drinks.

I do appreciate that! And the soft yarn

and the handbag charm and a card with the Ancient Mariner on it!!! Hee, that wasn't just a clue, that was balm for the literature student's soul. Oh, and a reminder to be really careful with albatrosses. Always handy.
Alison, I thought a lot about you on Saturday, because apart from these gifts, there was an ebay purchase waiting for me. A swift to go with my cool vintage ball winder, so I spent some time winding to replenish my yarn supply here.

There has been therapeutic knitting. Pictures of the FOs of the last month to follow.
It feels good to blog again. And to read blogs again And even better to think about all the good things in the knitting community. I think I'm back.

It is time

2006-08-27T00:25:00.000+02:00

I wanted things to be very different. I thought I had more time. I had a post all planned and set up to download pictures tomorrow (long story), about my wonderful SP8 Alison (who sent a package AGAIN) and my equally wonderful (and patient with international mail service) SP8 spoilee Theresa.
However, life made other plans. A little while ago, I got the phone call from my dad that I have been expecting and dreading for a long time. It's time to say goodbye to my mom. I was going to go to my parents on Monday morning anyway, for my regular stay, but at this point it is best not to take any chances, so we're leaving as soon as I got my head and bags together.
I think I'll be gone for a bit, but then - for shame - I haven't been the most regular poster anyway.

All of my pals in the exchanges I've participated in deserve much more fanfare, because they are so much fun and inspiration (not to mention responsible for the ball-winditis in this house), and I will definitely have a pal party here when I get back. For now, my apologies, ladies.

I am taking my knitting. Lots of it. It's not frivolous, it's therapy.

How cool is this!

2006-08-19T11:03:00.000+02:00

Check out the ladies at Romancing the Yarn.

Ten knitting and crocheting romance writers, it does not get better than this.
No, really, apparently there is something about knitting and romance novels - uh, and I guess the conventional association wouldn't be a flattering one. Never mind, count me in anyway.

Now here I was quietly celebrating the fact that I'm no longer in the romance biz - nothing personal, I just need the break from the vampires - and suddenly I'm discovering a great new blog with at least two authors I know, so to speak. Barbara, Elizabeth, if you ever wanted to know what one of your German voices sounds like - that would be me. Not that I could think of a reason why you would, but there you are.

I was reading through the posts and visiting the ladies' websites, getting all verklempt about the good old days - you know, before the vampires.
Ten years ago, I cut my translating teeth on Barbara Bretton, Operation: Husband. Jeez, was that manuscript red when I got it back. My editor had, well, edited it by hand and made me enter every single change and correction. I hated her, but I learned. I learned enough to be able to appreciate the art of the romance novel and to do my best not to hack them up too badly. I learned about cultural transfer, about different audiences and standards when it came to sex. (German readers have a much more .. uh ... delicate taste, which means I also know all the sexual euphemisms of the German language never dreamed by Goethe and Schiller. Really, try me.)

I may sound full of myself here, but I owe it to those first romance novels that I am, in fact, a pretty darn good translator today. Translating novels is a balancing act. You need to find the creativity that is necessary to turn an "alien" story into something that reads as if it was meant to be written in your language, but you must never forget your responsibility to the author. You are trying to make her work accessible to a new audience, to people who wouldn't have the chance to appreciate it otherwise. And if you screw up, they won't like the book, no matter how lovely it is in the original version.
I never took that lightly.
Yeah, you know what? I can virtually see the curled lips. (Come off it, this isn't Finnegan's Wake, it's romance novels.) Many of my colleagues see it that way. They take romances as a quick and dirty way to make money while waiting for an "important" book to come along. Me? I've never been one for intellectual auto-eroticism. I love stories. All kinds. And retelling them was a joy.

My first ever contract for a "big" book was Once Tempted, by Elizabeth Boyle.
Historical romance. Over 300 pages. And enough wordplays, non-translatable clues and details of dress to drive me mad at times. But I still love that story. And I still remember it in great detail. That's no big deal, really. As a translator, you ponder every single line of a text. Nobody, with the exception of a good editor, will ever read a book as closely and think about it as much as a translator. Full of myself again? Nope. Think about it. You have to understand every shade of meaning of every sentence, every image, every line of dialogue, because you have to rewrite it in a completely different language, yet as close to the original as you possibly can. There is no skipping over things, there is no inventing something else, because you don't get it. Not if you are translating sans curled lip, that is.

The point of this lengthy stroll down literary memory lane? Well, duh, that should have been obvious from the beginning. The ladies are KNITTERS.

Work in transit

2006-08-14T00:03:00.000+02:00

Whoosh!
Where did my home week go? I guess there is a reason why I usually need two weeks to do two weeks' worth of work, errands and house stuff. Not to mention knitting.

I was going to write a long entry about my works in progress and the latest cool secret pal stuff (a lovely hair band in self-patterning American flag yarn, three cute fabric-covered pins in shades of blue, Mexican "hot chocolate" chocolate and another very "me" card with Wendy the sheep) with tons of pictures. However, my ailing camera didn't think that was a good idea. It took about three crappy pictures, flashing or under-exposing at will (yes, I do know how to use it) and then died rather unceremoniously. Whatever. I've had it. This time I'm getting a new camera.

The Garnstudio cardigan is inching along on both sleeves.

What did I tell you about the crappy pictures?
I really want to wear this (did I mention that I love the Garnstudio designs? Clear, no-frill designs for stuff I would actually wear. And plenty of sizes, too.) but the plain stockinette sleeves haven't held my interest for long lately.

Not when I'm in love with Seasilk. Boy, is that yarn beautiful!

This (I'm not even going to comment on the quality of this picture)

is one half of a rectangular shawl. I'm knitting two halves to be grafted in the middle because of the directional pattern. The ivory hues of the yarn are so gorgeous (please scroll back two entries for a better idea of what it's like) that I wanted a pretty substantial lace pattern that would show off all that gorgeousness. And I wanted it to look like just "a piece of lace", so it's one pattern all over, ostrich plume with a narrow seed stitch border, instead of a combination. My two skeins are going to make a very generous shawl, and I can't wait. Go and get yourself some Seasilk, you have to see it in person.

Here's another WIP with a better picture, because I took it a while back and forgot to post it.
This is going to be a bag made with two lovely secret pal gifts, inspired by Noni' "In the sculpture garden". Inspired by, because I'm basically just using the colour combination (sorta) making everything else up as I go along. It's going to be roughly the shape of the crochet bag I made a while back, with the handles my SP8 sent me. And I'm not sure what colour the felted flowers will be. I'm going to felt it by hand, because I'm a scaredy-cat :o). The swatch I felted worked beautifully, and the fabric is solid but still unbelievably soft.

I succumbed to the lure of Lang Silkdream. It was just stronger than me. Soft, shimmering silk/merino at less than half the price of Lion and Lamb. I'm only human.

So, yeah, I'm the last person on earth to knit Clapotis. In Silkdream in plum, dark red and rosé. I'm loving every single stitch of it.

I've put the blue crochet not-a-hoodie-anymore aside, because with our heatwave it felt as if I was buried under tons of fiber when I had it in my lap to knit on the ribbing. But I want to work on it, because I think it could be something really nice and wearable after all.

And I can't say anything about my last WIP yet, because it's for my One Skein Not So Secret Pal (hi Claudia). But I will say that getting to know her and her blog has inspired me to look at and think about Japanese arts and crafts, and that I've learned a little something along those lines specifically for this project to thank her for opening this world to me through her blog.

Well, I'm off to pack my knitting and head for the sheep pastures of Lower Saxony. But before I go ... it seems to me that I've been whining a lot on this blog lately. Yeah, things are rather on the rough side right now, and what with all the little everyday things it's hard sometimes to remember something that I do want to remember always, because it is one of the few things I believe in with all my heart. So I'll leave this post be with a few words by my favourite spiritual writer ever.

Joy and Sorrow

Then a woman said, 'Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.'
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, 'Joy is greater than sorrow,'
and others say, 'Nay, sorrow is the greater.'
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board,
remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Kahlil Gibran

Outpost

2006-08-03T09:04:00.000+02:00

Greetings from Lower Saxony.
I've decided that I'm going to try and post at least once during the week I'm on my care mission. Picture-free, unencumbered by content :o).

There has been lace knitting, especially last night when Mom and I watched two movies - an unheard-of record - while waiting for Dad to return from his city council meeting. Pictures on the weekend. Of the knitting, not the movies, which were ... eh.

So far, it has been a productive week. I've solved the mystery of the non-disconnecting internet connection, a problem if you pay by the minute. I've uncovered the secrets of the incontinence pants - place them where you think they should go in the back, then lower them by four inches. I've mastered the art of the bedpan - if you don't hurt the patient a little now, you need to hurt them a lot more later when you change the sheets. It's a learning curve, but so far, so good.

The Sea Silk is a dream to wórk with - see lace knitting above, and I'm so going to show off when I get home.

Goodies

2006-07-28T06:59:00.000+02:00

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

2006-07-25T17:30:00.000+02:00

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

2006-07-15T20:55:00.000+02:00

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

2006-07-11T17:08:00.000+02:00

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?

2006-07-07T19:11:00.000+02:00

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

2006-07-07T10:13:00.000+02:00

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

2006-07-04T07:06:00.000+02:00

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.

This I gotta blog

2006-06-23T10:58:00.000+02:00

You know, here's why I'm an incurable optimist: I'm right.

This is so not my week. Working on hopelessly late stuff, scrounging for appropriate clothes in the closet of Ms. "Olive green is the new black" (I guess it won't surprise anyone that the tragedy that shall remain unblogged involves a funeral?), getting organized (ha!), listening to my dad as he barked his bronchitis in my ear, and I wasn't there, watching helplessly as people I love went through hell (they are not back yet). Not my week.

But sometimes, when you are really stressed out, miserable and ear-achey, Fate decides that you need a heaping load of good stuff to perk you up a little.

First of all, people sent love. In person and in cyberspace, I was offered shoulders to cry on all week long, room and board if I needed a vacation from it all, and chocolate. I mean, what's a good crisis without chocolate? All that felt really good, and I'm deeply grateful. This is a trying time for me, but I'm finding that sorrow does not just make me vulnerable, but also wide open for all sorts of hope and kindness. I truly appreciate that.

Apparently, Fate wanted to reinforce the message with a little fiber therapy. Thus, it dispatched the postman to my door today.

First we have ...

... one skein of Japanese goodness. Silk Garden in #84, about 237 gorgeous shades of red. I have been toying with the idea of trying Silk Garden for a while now (unbeknownst to my Secret Pal), but so far there was no chance of meeting it in person. Pal to the rescue. I love it, and Secret Pal, you are right about everything you said in your letter. The blend! The colour! The yardage! The character! I think she sort of likes this yarn ;o). And so will I. I already swatched a little bit, and so far so lovely.

Speaking of the pals, the postman also bore a big package from England.
Apart from the fact that I always want to frame her wrapping paper, here's some real chicken soup for the knitter's soul:
An entire shawl. Handknit. For me.

This shawl is just so right for many reasons. It's soft and warm, for one thing :o). My pal says she thinks it's a bit short, but it works really well for me, because the boucle fabric is stretchy and doesn't slide off my shoulders, when I sit at the computer, but I don't have to worry about spilling coffee on the parts that would be draped over my arms with longer shawls. And those shades of pink? Love them! I really need to look for those shades more, what with all my muted greens and blues and purples. And did I mention that it was handknit? For me?

And ...

... three skeins of handpainted cotton in greens and rust? maroon? brick? Whatever, it looks like the view from my window in October. And I love that view :o). Gaaawwwwgeous. And ... gulp ... it looks like laceweight to me. That means, I guess, that I can't get away with knitting DK lace anymore. I shall rise to the challenge ... well, I'll have a go at it anyway.

Thank you soooo much, Secret Pal - and other Secret Pal!

If you're here for the World Cup Knitting, let me update while I'm here.

For a variety of reasons, I'm not very far along (row 65 of 140-something). Me? Not a natural lace knitter, not even polite garter stitch lace. But I'm getting there, and it's addictive in the "Just a few more, I have to see how it turns out" way. In case you're wondering about the colour, which looks very much like my Pal Shawl on here ... it's not. It's "dark dusty rose" alpaca, because I'm all with the dark and dusty. Not so much with this alpaca. It splits.

And I have to do just that now!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog entries ...

2006-06-18T23:19:00.000+02:00

This is the week where I'm at home, so I should update like mad. However, I might not be able to do that right now.
Something very sudden and sad has happened to people I care about a lot, so that's where my energy will be going. I know, everybody hates a blog teaser - "Something hugely interesting is happening in my life, but I'll only talk about it in oblique references" - but I know for a fact that the people in question would not appreciate to be blogged about right now. I also didn't want to leave the blog unattended for too long without an explanation of sorts.

So, see y'all. Have some fiber in your life!

Woman is fickle

2006-06-10T08:29:00.000+02:00

Didn't I say yesterday that I wanted Germany to win the World Cup?
Well, I do, but there is a contender for that place in my heart now. Last night, I read about THE ultimate underdog: Trinidad and Tobago. The smallest country ever to take part in a Cup. Heck, Berlin, where they will play ... Sweden? ... today, has three times more inhabitants than T&T has citizens. And they tried to make it to the Cup 11 times. That's 44 years. I don't really think they have a chance to get to the end, but I sure hope they'll make it out of their group games! Go T&T!!!

Speaking of things I said yesterday, the Lang-Covered Cherry being my favourite project and all? You'd think I would be happily working on it during work breaks and the opening match.(4:2!! I don't care what German newspapers write today - critical things, I can tell you that without looking - "we" won!) You'd be wrong.

Lunch break:

Corrections chapter 7 (of the novel with the bloodsucking fiends):

See where this is going? That's right.

Chapters 9-12:

Yes. I am the last person on earth to make an Amineko. Don't ask me why I felt suddenly moved to do it, but I'm already finding it just as addictive as everybody says. Visions of (sugarplums) colourful animals dance in my head. Oh, the cuteness of it all!
I'll be stuffing it with cotton wool and dried beans despite the dire warnings of weevils and roaches, because it's what I have at home. The next one - and there is going to be a next one - will get properly stuffed :o). I also remember my Monchichi. Back when I was a kid they were stuffed with rice, and no creature infestation ever befell mine. I'll take the chance.

Oh dear. Now I want a Monchichi. The one in the giraffe suit. I collect giraffes. I could rationalize this. It's not a toy, it's a collectible item. I really need to stop surfing while I'm ahead.

I did not busy myself with the creation of cute Japanese toys during the opening match, however. There is a limit to the excitement I can stand, so I ...

... sort of cast on a sock. Regia, naturally. Cotton India this time, in "Jaipur". Pretty. And totally without lace or ribs or checkerboard pattern or anything that requires the least bit of thought. Sock nirvana, if you will.

I also had a first look (read: panic attack) at the Gardenpath pattern. Oh heeeell, what have I gotten myself into? I - see above - am Sock Nirvana Girl. I make mistakes with 6x6 checkered sock patterns. And I want to knit an alpaca lace shawl?

Well, the alpaca will certainly be soft on my hands when I frog. There is that.

Kick it like Schweinsteiger

2006-06-09T10:06:00.000+02:00

With my belongings strewn in two households 100 km apart, I'm having a little difficulty updating my projects. Still ...

This is Chocolate Covered Cherry from BGK. I'm still on the hood, and the little ruffle on the side is the beginning of a sleeve. The yarn is Lang New Angora. It's a little lighter in person. Unbelievably soft.

This is my favourite project right now. The lace has a really easy repeat, and I'm knitting with 7 mm needles, two sizes above recommended needle size for the yarn. The stitches are still small and even, but it makes the fabric much lighter.

The pattern says to bind off the stitches in the back between the shoulders, but I just put them on a holder, because I had to pick them all up for the hood anyway. Well, in my second attempt I did. I don't know what it was with me and that hood. I'm really looking forward to finishing this cardigan. Because that means there can be more New Angora in my future :o).

Today is the kick-off date for the Knitting World Cup. Oh yeah, I think they are also playing football somewhere in these parts.
The project I picked is this:
It's the Gardenpath Shawl from Elann.com. Personally, I think I'm mad. I'll be lucky if I can finish one repeat by the end of the Cup.
I will also begin the challenge with a severe penalty, because the yarn won't be with me befor Tuesday. Yes, I planned this well. But whatever, just call me the Swiss football team, I'm not in this to win.

For his WC pool at work, Andy has today's game down for 4:1 to Germany. I'm not quite that optimistic, but I do think Germany can win this, although it is reported that the Costa Ricans are responsible for our weather upswing. Today I used my sunglasses for something other than hiding my puffy eyes from crying over the bad weather. The Costa Rican football team claims credit for this. They say that sunshine travels with them. Hey, whatever works.

My tip for the final? Brazil - Germany again. Please bear in mind that I know not of football. Honestly? I want Germany to win. Very much. This country needs a positive experience.

The good, the bad and the fantastic

2006-06-06T13:33:00.000+02:00

The good news is that I sort of have pictures again.
I managed to get the camera to work, only the quality of the pictures is rather variegated ;o). Ah well, it will tide me over until I can buy a new one ... about 2010, I reckon.

Here's the bad news, well, for me anyway.
Blueberry Bomb turned out to be just that. I made it from the Cherry Bomb pattern in BGK with Rowan Summer Tweed in Blueberry. It knit up well, I got the right measurements, it blocked like a charm, it fits - and I look horrible in it. All weird and droopy and lumpy. I tried everything I could think of, different outfits, a bit of steaming, different attitudes ... no go. The top is lovely, but I suppose it's just not into me.
So ...
Much frogging ensued, before I lost my nerve. See what I mean about the bad pictures? I mean apart from my bad (annoyed about having to take a picture of an about to be frogged item) image composition?
Yeah, well, it gets worse.

This? I'm making it up as I go along, using the blueberry and some mohair/wool. A vest? A cardigan? We will see how far the yarn goes. It does look completely different in person.

I know I'm owing tons of pictures of socks and other FOs. I'm getting there.

Now ...
It's been one of those days. Boring but difficult work, a raaaather unpleasant phone conversation with my editor AND my bank manager. Lots of chores.
But: MAIL!!!!
My Secret Pal strikes again! And hurray for both the British and the German postal services, because it didn't take long at all.
Let's peek inside, shall we?

A letter and lots of gift-wrapped packages. Love the paper.
Yeah, I know YOU can't really see it very well. It's lovely, trust me.

When we were kids, my cousin would have called this a seriously good haul. Well, if he were a girl. And into fiber stuff. You know what I mean.
First of all, there is a cute little note pad with a sheep. As I always say, even notes from unpleasant phone calls are not so bad if a sheep is looking at you.
Then there is chocolate. KitKat Chunky Peanut Butter :O). Two and a half of them!!!! Oh alright, there were three. This is a long entry.

Yes, that great hat is just as soft as it looks. Umm, it's a lot less bumpy in person, those are due to my mad photography skilz. Frankly, looking outside I'm not so sure I won't need it before next winter.
I love the colour, it fits my big head perfectly, and I don't really want to take it off. Also, as my Secret Pal already knows, it's the first handmade gift I received since I was a kid and my grandma was knitting doll clothes for me. :OD

A close up of the stationery. Just because it's pretty.
The letter says that the long red box with Pooh, Tigger and Piglet on it is a toothbrush box for travelling to my parents, but ...

... it is OBVIOUSLY a case for my dpns. :o) It will still go on my trips with me, so all is well.

And then there is this deliciousness. A supersoft Patons cotton blend in "Herb". Exactly my colour. And a whopping seven balls of it, too. Don't you love a pal who keeps in mind that you are a big chick and might need a little more yarn?
Now I'm in full frontal "new yarn mode". Must browse knitting books. Must find pattern.

Thank you so much, Secret Pal, I'm delighted with everything, and I do feel so spoiled!!

Love you, Scary Pal 8

2006-05-27T15:52:00.000+02:00

This morning (this gloomy Saturday morning) I amused myself with a bit of internet window shopping. Somehow I decided to check out the BUST Magazine homepage. I saw this:

The BUST Boobtique: "She had not yet decided whether to use her power for good...or for evil" Journal

and thought that the caption was pretty much made for me and that I would love to have it.

I swear to you, I had never seen this product line or referred to it in any way. I just loved it at first sight.

Now, here's what the mailwoman brought a few hours later.

Is that scary or what?
SP8, thank you so much for the card! Not only did it absolutely brighten my day and I love it, it also showed me that I must be rather transparent.

Oh, and your last email arrived, too. Only our server thought it would be a good idea to spit out that week's emails in increments of two a day for the next week. This as a dire warning for anyone using my "non-anonymous" email address. It doesn't happen often, but happen it does.

People, do not get excited about the picture. I took it with an ancient webcam (after I couldn't find this particular card anywhere online) and I'm not going through that again for anything except to show y'all the coolness that is my Secret Pal. However, my dad tells me that my camera-less days are numbered, because he sorta fixed it to the point where I can sorta use it until I can buy a new one. We shall see.

Am I the only person who frogs perfectly good FOs, just because I think they would look better if I did something different with them? I did that with the BGK Blueberry Bomb top, because I put a ball of my green and blue Wolletempel yarn on top of it while it was blocking (I was absentminded and the top was dry). On passing the arrangement a while later, I decided that this would be a great colour combination and the border I had done was much too frilly for the summer tweed anyway. Frogging ensued. I was right, it does look much better now. I do this all the time. Also frogged, while I was at it: Waterlily. After reading the great booty post by Crazy Aunt Purl , I came to the conclusion that a) Waterlily's main problem is its upper part and b) even if I starved myself (and believe me, I have done this before), my boobs are just not going anywhere. And they shouldn't have to.

In an amazing fit of willpower, I finished the sleeve of the blue crochet hoodie this week. Now all that's left is the, y'know, hoodie. I don't know why I can't seem to finish this thing. I love the stitch and the yarn and the book the project came from, but still ... Well, I'm not taking it with me to my parents, so maybe next week.

Speaking of which, now comes the fun part: What DO I take with me to my parents? Can't take the Chocolate-Covered Cherry, because it's too big and fidgety at this point. Also because I would finish it during the week and I can't block it at my parents' house, which would drive me nuts :o). Trust me, springing new activities on my dad is not a good idea. He might build a new table if I ask him where I could put my stuff to block. Last week I asked him for an old blanket to put on the floor for my exercises. Immediate hysteria, an hourlong search and plans for buying a new blanket (where? when would he leave? what sort of blanket do I need?), because dear God there wasn't one! I'm not being disparaging, it's a fact. My dad is hanging on by one ply of a thread. But I digress.

Other than the Chocolate-Covered Cherry I don't have anything exciting on the needles right now, except plain vanilla Regia Bamboo socks (still). And socks don't really count. Sooo ... What's next? I'll have to think about that. Not that I'm lacking a "To Knit" list, mind you, I'm just not sure what I'm in the mood for. I'll keep y'all posted (with pictures, I hope).

Typing is done without yarn

2006-05-25T11:01:00.000+02:00

And a damn shame it is, too.
Sorry about the nonexistent updates, but between work and not having a working camera, it's been a week that hasn't been too blog-friendly. I'm getting kinda tired of those pictureless descriptions, and my new novel doesn't translate itself, either. A big flaw, if you ask me, I wish authors would think of that.
Since the demise of my dictation sweater - not a long story, it's ugly and the yarn sucks - I haven't been knitting anything at work, because I'm raaather tired of stockinette stitch, which is all I can knit without looking or concentrating. I tried dictating Chapter Six with a 2x2 rib, but that didn't work too well with either project.
I think I could be swayed in favour of acres of stockinette by the Meryl coat in BGK, but I can't decide on a yarn - and I also can't put the contenders up here (see above: no camera). Arrgh.

I did manage to find some lovely stuff for my One Skein Secret Pal, only I'm having a hard time with the one skein idea. I got her first skein, but I haven't sent it yet, because I'm still contemplating adding a second one "just in case". I'm a yarn glutton. No, seriously, the idea of giving just one measly ball as a gift to an accomplished knitter is really weird. For a beginner, yes, take this and go play, but ...
I'll get over it.

The Blueberry Bomb is done (I know, I know, I can't give image evidence, I'm working on it). You know, the BGK Cherry Bomb Top in Summer Tweed Blueberry. Lovely yarn, if a little bulky. I made some changes to the pattern. I added a row of eyelets and some additional shaping under the boob part for a tie and fake empire waist, and I made it longer, because I make everything longer (did I mention I'm 5'11"?). For length I added a few rows of the lace pattern from the accompanying Chocolate Covered Cherry Jacket, and it does look nice, if I do say so myself.

The top looked lonely on its own, so I decided to give it the above mentioned jacket as a partner. Finally a use for the lovely but much abused Lang New Angora in a smoky blue with a little touch of purple, so it goes well with the Blueberry, which I've used as the accent colour in the lace. Right now, I'm struggling with the hood.
Does it surprise you, too, when you are doing something right? I swear, at the end of every lace row I'm, surprised that I have the right number of stitches remaining, or when I count my stitches, I'm happily astonished that I do have the number I should have. I'm not making all THAT many mistakes usually (we will not discuss Waterlily at this point), but still the surprise is there.

The owner of the Evil Crack Den gave me a slightly battered copy of Classic Knits for Real Women (German translation)with my Rowan purchase. It's a nice book, but it ain't BGK. I like some of the cardigans - I like cardigans :o) - but there are quite a few project I wouldn't do, not to mention the moment when I saw the loopy pompom hat and thought, wow, they even have a pattern for a Halloween wig. They didn't. They were seriously suggesting a ball-shaped hat covered in lilac loops as a chic look. And you can knit the matching shagpile scarf and handbag. Little hint: do not go out in public looking as if you did cruel and unusual things with your bobtail puppy. It's just not a good look in any size.

The dinner went well. My mom had a blast, and it was nice to see how everybody wanted to sit next to her. My dad's friends are really special people. Many times, my mom gets the reception of "Oh, yes, that's Gunther's poor sick wife", but not with that bunch. They just like her and are happy to see her whenever she can manage it. If you have ever tried to negotiate a situation where you thoroughly enjoyed yourself while at the same time your heart was being shredded, you will know that these occasions are a mixed blessing. But a blessing all the same.

Rowan, Rowan, Rowan your boat ...

2006-05-18T09:45:00.000+02:00

Just me with a brief update from Chez Parental Units.
Exciting things happening (well, I'm excited, anyway). Saturday will be the day of the Big Outing, wherein the entire family will actually leave the house together and have dinner at a friend's house. Yep, Momma 'n' them included. Half the town is a-twitter with the news. I'm not kidding, since it would appear that half the town is invited. Did I mention my parents live in a small place?
So right now, Mom and I are in the middle of The Great Outfit Issue of 2006. It has to be light, cool (temperature-wise) and roomy enough so people won't see that she's not wearing the fake boob, although the last item has become negotiable since we realized that the only garment able to conceal this little fact would be an oversized steel breastplate (see light and cool above).

On the knitting front ... I'm in the middle of the second sock of the second lot of Regia Bamboo - and there must be a way of rephrasing that dreadful sentence, but I can't think of it. Love the bamboo fiber, I strongly recommend it for summer socks.
Also, a visit to the Evil Crack Den brought forth my first project from BGK - Cherry Bomb, only with modifications to make it an evening top. The yarn? Rowan Summer Tweed in Blueberry. Oh, yeah.
I really tried to stay away, but the urge was too strong. Really, I tried.
Now, the silk-wrapped package tied with hand-woven strings made from Highland heather will arrive at the Crack Den on Saturday. I can't wait! Blueberry Bomb, you will be mine! (cue in deranged laughter)

Book Report

2006-05-14T11:03:00.000+02:00

The mailman must have heard my whining yesterday, because about half an hour after I wrote that One Skein isn't here yet, he appeared at my door with not one but two packages.
In addition to One Skein, I also got Knitting Over The Edge . Wow! Nicky, how do I love thee, let me count the ways. This book is so great that I'm actually glad that Mariposa turned out too short, because now I can add an edge. I am also contemplating the purchase of an old childhood nemesis, the Knitting Nancy, to produce i-cord for the funky edges in the book. Here in Germany, they call them "Strickliesel", Knitting Lizzie, by the way. Just some international knitting trivia for ya.
I like most of the ideas in One Skein. I think the mini clutch is adorable, and I'll definitely make a pair of the silk sleeves, and in terms of the Secret Pal exchange, I'm glad that the one skein idea also includes using different partial skeins, because I have something in mind for my pal that wouldn't work otherwise.
Overall, it was a good book day.

No pictures of the instant gratification project, because the camera, it is dead with a capital headstone. A solution must be found.

One Skein Secret Pal

2006-05-13T07:25:00.000+02:00

Okay, here's an opportunity for a picture-free entry (sigh), the One Skein SP Questionnaire:

1. Which yarn is most like your personality?

I'm thinking I'd be either a dark red or rich green silk blend, or periwinkle cotton. Hobby psychologists, have at it! :o)

2. What is your favorite color yarn to knit/crochet with?

Non-yellow

3. Have you ever used variegated, or magic, yarns?

Yes, lots. In fact, I bought I don't remember how many pounds of sorta variegated yarns in that ebay-store clearance sale about a month ago. The colourway really has to appeal to me though.

4. Do you tend to favor certain fibers when choosing yarns?

I like blends that contain cotton, merino or silk. I rarely knit with any "pure fiber" except for felting.

5. Do you prefer to work with center-pull or traditionally wound balls of yarn?

I don't care either way.

6. Have you ever worked with organic yarns or are you interested in trying them?

Uh, organic as opposed to man-made fibers? Or organic in the environmentally friendly sense? Whatever, I've used it both ways.

7. How many and what projects have you made in the last year?

Three cardigans, a shawl, two scarves and the cotton monster that was an ill-conceived sweater in a previous life. I know, I have to get more pictures up. Also, two WIPs, cardigans again.

8. Will you be knitting any gifts this year?

Yes, felted slippers, socks and a sweater.

9. What is your favorite one skein project?

Haven't got the book yet. I don't know why, German Amazon is usually very reliable.

10. How much yarn do you have in your stash and how do you store it?

I store most of it in a huge red chest of drawers in my room, the overflow (ahem) wrapped in boxes, all with lavender and sandalwood stuff in them.

11. Do you have a yarn in your stash that you love so much you can never use it or part with it?

I have yarns that go through several swatches and plans, before I come up with a project "special" enough for them. I do want to knit with them eventually though.

12. Do you knit less or differently in the summer?

Not really, I almost never knit with really warm or fuzzy fibers anyway.

13. Do you belong to any knitting groups (online or offline)?

Well, the decision to go online and "knit in public" is a recent one, so I'm just getting started on looking at groups and all that, although I have been lurking in blogs and on message boards for a while. Offline? I'd love to, but I can't find any.

I've got an exciting instant gratification project planned for today, and there will be one last stab at camera CPR, so there might be two entries today, since I'm leaving again tomorrow.

Palling in comparison

2006-05-12T08:11:00.000+02:00

Well, I've got my two secret pals - or rather the women who will have me as their secret pal. One from SP8, one from One Skein. Buttons, you say? I know, I know. Getting there.
I'm really happy with the choices the hosts and hostesses made. Both pals seem like very nice, interesting women and their interests and favourite things are stuff I can relate to, but just different enough to make finding the right "spoilage" for them interesting.
I love this idea. And I love giving gifts. It's like miniature Christmas.

In other news. Have I mentioned that I dropped my camera about a week ago? It worked for a bit, if I pressed down on the little lid that holds the batteries in, but now it's dead. That's raaather unfortunate. I had this vague idea that I would get a nicer camera one day (in the very distant future), but now it looks as if I'm once again stuck with whatever is cheapest out there. On the other hand, my little cheap-o Jenoptik did a good job for five years, so who am I to complain?

So, due to equipment issues, today's progress report will be 100% bandwidth-friendly (you just have to know how to put the right spin on a problem - for how-to reference, check out statements on environmental policy issued by the government of your choice.)
Mariposa is done. Even though the measurements were just right when compared to tops I like to wear, it turns out to be a little short on (my) person. So now I'm thinking of attaching some sort of crochet edging for an extra inch, which is not easy, because Mariposa's edges are seed stitch. The only other solution would be longer straps, but that might be a little more cleavage than I'm prepared to show in public.
Also done: socks in Regia Bamboo, toe-up with my own half-butted "so, what do you want to do with these?" pattern. I like the yarn a lot, but I'm not overly fond of the colourway, "Passion". I was told that the 5 colours the store had on display were all this yarn came in, so I chose one, because I wanted to try the bamboo, only to discover later that there are, in fact, 13 colours available. Grrr. I should have known though. I mean, does any Regia yarn have fewer than 10 colours?
(Not having a camera really stinks.)
The Goof Off Scarf is coming along.
Sigh. I really want to start the Meryl Coat from Big Girl Knits. Lovely pattern, and I have the right yarn for it that will work pretty much all year long (with a little layering in winter). Only ... it's miles and miles of stockinette. Again. As was the unfortunate Waterlily. As was Mariposa. As are the eyelash parts of the scarf (and the other parts are 2x1 rib, how riveting). I love the projects, but I'm BORED. I need to find something with at least two different stitch charts. This would be the perfect moment to try a lace shawl, but I haven't got the nerve.
Remember I mentioned the Lang Yarns "Twin" recently? Yeah, I shouldn't have mentioned it to my mom, because she insisted on giving me a sweater's worth. What with treatment costs and care and everything, I don't want her to make these lavish gifts, but she shut me up by telling me that she wants to spoil her girl while she can. Now I can't even look at the yarn without crying. I wish I could make her something wonderful, but I know that most things except very thin cotton nightdresses and PJs make her uncomfortable. She wears the shawl I gave her last winter, but I can tell that it makes her uncomfortable, too, and that she only wears it, because I made it. Same for the socks. I made her a little crochet cosmetics bag last week, because she said she needed something for her hand lotion and assorted things that clutter up her bedside table. Strange, isn't it? Usually, a knitter expresses love by making something fabulous for her loved ones. I express love by not knitting for my mom.
She loves to see me knit though and watch the progress. In fact, we've founded our own Stitch & Bitch group. I sit by her bed knitting, and she tells me stories about the family (and if you knew my family, you'd know that those stories make me lose stitch count on a regular basis).

Hmm, I guess Lang Twin it is, tears or no tears. And I'll find something more "showy" (read: interesting to watch it grow) than the Cinxia I originally intended to make with it (no disrespect intended, I love the Cinxia pattern, but ...). Stay tuned, I'll resolve my camera issues ASAP.

German Mother's Day is on Sunday. My mother issued strict orders to ignore the occasion. I'm not even to mention it in her presence. But here's the thing. I'm fortunate in actually being aware that my time with my mother is very limited and even more fortunate that my life and job situation allows me to spend a lot of time with her. So, y'know, go hug your mom. Or call her to make plans for a visit, if she lives too far away. Or, if your relationship with your mom is strained, try to think of at least one positive thing or fond memory about her.

This gratuitious public service announcement was brought to you by Gratuitious Public Service Announcements 'R' Us.

Secret Pal 8 Questionnaire

2006-05-07T08:41:00.000+02:00

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I think I said this before, if it's pretty and soft I love it. I can't wear pure wool next to my skin, but wool blends are fine. I'm definitely not a "yarn snob" as they say.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

Straight needles and dpns - a vase on my desk. Circular needles - a dark red fun fur bag that's supposed to be for cosmetics, I think. Crochet hooks, sewing stuff, tape measures etc. - another big cosmetics bag.

3. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I've been knitting and crocheting on and off for about 30 years (mostly off during my 20s, totally ON for the past five years). I'd say my skills are intermediate with an adventurous spirit. Basically I think if I can read the instructions I can knit it. Eventually :o).

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Not at the moment.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

Anything citrus-y or otherwise fresh, like melon, cucumber, green tea (although I still don't know what that smells like, really)

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

See entry about being a big chick :o). Favourite candy: peanut butter cups, bars, bits and pieces. I don't care, as long as somebody's peanut butter is in my chocolate.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I make bead jewellery and I get the occasional paper maché fit in the summer, when I can work out on the porch. I love any crafts involving fabric, yarn, paper, dye, beads and candles. Except, I don't do scrapbooks. I love to look at them, there's some amazing stuff going on, but it's not for me. I've never dyed or spun yarn. I'd love to try, but where I live supplies or classes aren't easy to come by.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I'm so not in the loop where music is concerned. But I like all kinds of music, except the really, really heavy metal and songs where people recommend to kill or rape other people. On my play list right now: "Tyrone" by Erykah Badu, REM cover versions of pretty much anything, "Variations on a Shaker Hymn" by Aaron Copeland, the soundtrack from Chicago, "Lady in Black" by Uriah Heep and "Hard Candy Christmas" by Dolly Parton. Get the picture?
And it's yes on the MP3 thing.

9. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

Deep, rich reds, earth tones, all blues and most greens. I wear a lot of olive gree and terracotta, because they just look really good on me although I wouldn't say they are my favourites as colours, if that makes sense. And I'm a denim kind of girl.
I don't wear white much. And I have yet to find a shade of yellow I like.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

No kids, no pets, though I love both. If I had my way about things, I'd have one kid of each kind, one tuxedo and one orange tabby cat and a pug. A girl can dream :o).

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Love them all, except for the ponchos. Never wore them, never will, because I'd be the Strange Case of the Walking Tent.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I don't really have favourites. Whatever strikes my fancy, with a tendency towards tanks with a cardigan or shrug rather than sweaters, and scarves and socks. One of these days I'd love to try a lace shawl, but haven't worked up the nerve. Oh, and BAGS. Love the BAGS.

13. What are you knitting right now?

A top (Mariposa, from Knitty), my Goof Off Scarf with eyelash yarn and a pair of Regia Bamboo socks.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Of course.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Not particular there either. Whatever works with the project, doesn't hurt my hands or snag the yarn. My knitting needles are mostly INOX, because that's the main brand here in Germany, most of my crochet hooks are US aluminum. Next time I'm in the States, I'll try to get me a pair of those aluminum knitting needles in the funky colours.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

My yarn winder's name is Andy :o). So, no, I own neither.

17. How did you learn to knit?

My grandma taught me to knit and crochet when I was 5. I loved her a lot, and since she died when I was 10, I love the fact that I have a lasting, living memory of her.

18. How old is your oldest UFO?

About three years. A crochet cardigan with too tight sleeves that I need to frog.

19. What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas.

20. Is there anything that you collect?

I collect giraffes and armadillos. You'd be amazed how few things are giraffe- or armadillo-themed.

21. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

Since I live in Europe, I covet all things American, as customs officers checking my bags when I return from the States can tell you. Especially all things for making bags, frames, handles etc. I subscribe to Interweave Knitting,and I buy the German magazines at the store.

22. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

See lace shawl above. I'd also like to try hairpin lace and do more felting. I love vintage-style hats, but I have a big head, so felted hats will be my next major ambition.

23. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

Love the socks. My feet are huge. I'm 5'11", 180 cm, and wear a size 42 German, 10 1/2 American.

24. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

November 4. (1970, in case you're wondering)

The freak show folded its tent

2006-05-07T07:23:00.000+02:00

Okay, the most embarrassing thing first: I cried. A little bit.
Granted, I just returned from a very emotional week with my parents, so it may have been one of those moments anyway. Along with my mail, there was a package waiting for me, and I knew it could only mean one thing:

Big Girl Knits. Let me say it again: Big Girl Knits.

The book is amazing. Actually, I think I'm in love. Not just with the projects, but with the whole approach to the subject of the female body with the sheer audacity to have a waist of more than 25 inches. There's been a lot of hype about this book, and as far as I'm concerned it's all justified. If you are a big chick, or even in the vicinity of biggish, go and buy the book. Right now. I'll wait.
If you want to know where Jillian Moreno and Amy Singer are coming from, all you have to do is flip to the back of the book and look at the essential reading list. Rita Farrow, Catherine Lippincott, Wendy Shanker? Gimme more of that. And they do. Even if you are not a knitter, this is some of the best fashion advice out there. Because it's as real as the title promises. And because Jillian and Amy treat the big sisters with dignity and respect and a GOOD sense of humour. Could it be that we are really not just freaks who literally don't fit in?
Big Girl Knits is - excuse the psych lingo - absolutely empowering. I can't even tell you how many times I found myself nodding emphatically at sentences like: "... very few sock patterns take into account that your big bits don't stop at the knee." Or laughing at observations like the baffling fact that yarn store salespeople don't fall over themselves to help a big chick when she comes in, because she will spend about twice as much on yarn as a skinny woman. Strange, innit?

I want to make every damn project in the book. Some are stronger favourites than others and I would make changes in some of the patterns - but here's the best thing: they tell you how to make those changes.
It's my sweater (or tank or skirt or wrap), so I should be able to make it so it fits and flatters ME. According to MY taste and specifications.
That reminds me of my one and only attempt at custom-tailored clothes. We have a dressmaker's shop right around the corner. And one day last winter, I screwed up the courage to go in there. Y'know, a strange woman would take my top-secret measurements and all. Never got that far. I explained to the (tiny) dressmaker what I wanted. I'm a socialphobe and being a big girl doesn't help, so I wanted an evening top - deep, square neckline, slight empire waist - that would really fit me so I could just slip it on and feel good about the way I look without giving it any more thought. I was willing to shell out € 110 (about $130) PLUS the price of the fabric if it would help me solve the problem of what to wear on a night out once and for all. Only the dressmaker wouldn't do it. It wasn't that she was all booked up, the woman just refused to make the top I wanted. What she wanted to make for me was a "loose" (read: tent-like) tank with a "loose" (ditto) blouse to wear over it. No matter how many times I told here that I've got that combo in 27,000 variations and that I thought the point of having something tailored was that I could get something I really wanted and couldn't buy at any department store (for a fraction of the price I might add) - it didn't happen. She told me that she was a size 10 and SHE wouldn't wear the top I requested. Was I aware of how FAT I would look in that?
Yeah, it was full frontal freak time. Pretty humiliating. Never tried it again.
Now I think I'll knit myself an evening top from the book I may have mentioned in passing here :o). Strangely enough, deep, square necklines and empire waists are exactly what's recommended for my body shape. Either my idea of what suits me isn't so freakish after all or there are more freaks like me out there. Either way works for me.
Here's something else I found interesting. I'm a person who is very aware of real body shapes (how could I not be?), and I actually like the look of some flesh on the bones. Jennifer Aniston, while a big (tee hee!) favourite with the male population of my life, is not exactly my beauty ideal. However, when I first looked at the models in the book, my reaction was not positive. I thought they looked big. DUH, Kay, they are big. Like you. You know why this happened? Because even the large size section in most knitting or sewing magazines is modeled by skinny women. I know this is not news, but I was amazed at how much that fact had distorted my perception. Apparently, I'm so used to being lied to in the context of fashion photography (yeah, we shot this sweater on a size 8 model, but it'll look just great on your size 20 body. Honest.) that I don't even realize it anymore. At a second glance though the models looked totally gorgeous. And very much in keeping with the premise of the book, because a lovely, well-cut sweater won't make you look skinny, it will make you look GOOD.
Now excuse me, I gotta go swatch for my Trinity Bay Skirt.

Whoops!

2006-05-04T08:36:00.000+02:00

It's been five days, huh?
Sorry about that, but there is not a lot of knitterly excitement going on here. Okay, there is some, but I don't have my camera with me. I'm about done with the front of Mariposa (excuse the linklessness, but if you were sitting at my dad's computer, you wouldn't mess with that stuff either). Love the yarn, love the pattern, but it sure looks huge. I think I'm having top issues, last one - too small. This one - too big?

Like a dumbass (I think I mentioned), I left a half-finished sweater here when I went home last, but I took the pattern with me. Need I mention that I didn't bring it back? I THINK I could work on it for a bit without the pattern, but then again I THOUGHT I had the calculations for Waterlily right. Less thinking and more pattern reading sounds like a plan.

Of course I had to enter the Den of Evil yesterday, and the Wicked Temptress plied me with Lang yarn. Forget Rowan, this stuff is my crack. I bought one ball of Lang Twin, a cotton blend, in Perfect Red. I don't know what they call the colour, I call it Perfect Red. I swatched for a summer cardigan (a modification of Cinxia from Knitty - again without the links), and now I shall go forth and torture my budget. Maybe I should knit me some willpower.

The SP8 questionnaire is up! Need to put it up - and the button, too. Again, I'm going to have to do that on Sunday when I get home. I'm so excited! My first Secret Pal exchange, yay!

Parting Shots

2006-04-30T07:42:00.000+02:00

Okay, I'm leaving for the land of the funky internet connection, aka my parents' house, this afternoon. I'm going for at least one update next week, but you never know with the delicate ecosystem that is my dad's computer.

I'm still torn how much of the sad stuff I want to put into this blog. It's about hooks and needles after all. I'm sure caregivers of terminal cancer patients have their own webrings. So I could blog about it all and join one of those communities, only I don't want to do that. I want my blog to be a place that is not all about the tragedy, I need it to be a place that is about the things that help me stay reasonably sane.
There are two things. Writing and yarn stuff - and I can't really blog about the writing, because ... uh ... what would I say? Had coffee while killing an obnoxious reporter totally dead with a shotgun? Now, that might be sorta entertaining, but waaaay too meta. Yeah. Meta is when the cool blog kids talk about blogging. On their blogs. Learned that. But in my opinion, a writer who talks about writing too much and in too much detail is not being meta, but foolish. Stop telling people how you are going to write the novel and how cool it's going to be and what great things will happen, just, you know, do it. Learned that, too. From my mistakes.

Which leaves me with the yarn stuff. Good thing, that, because I love all things yarn (really, I'm hoping I'll be done ranting soon, so I can show you Waterlily and my new felt swatch). Not a good thing, because for me the subject doesn't exactly lend itself naturally to tragedies bigger than not getting gauge. It will have to do though.

For the past two years and a bit, the fact that my mother is losing her decade-long battle with cancer has soaked through all layers of my life. And only now, in what her doctor solemnly calls "the last stages", the changes become apparent. Apart from the daily sadness and fear of yet another new way of suffering she may have to go through, I dare anyone to be plunged into the matters of fate, faith, mortality and the meaning of life and emerge unchanged. Doesn't happen. I know that underneath all the things I do, all the things I am every day, something else is emerging. Changes happen. I guess it's a little like test-driving a new car (talking out of my butt here, since I do not know how to operate an automobile), everything is sort of in its place, but it handles differently.
So far, this test-drive of the new me turns out to be a rather bumpy ride. We'll see where it takes me. And what it does with this blog.

Right now, all I know is that by tomorrow afternoon I will sit by my mom's bed in the living room. I'll show her what I've knitted this week and what I've cast on. She'll probably have cut out some magazine picture of a gorgeous model in an expensive handknit sweater, and she will tell me - with the loving blindness that is reserved for mothers - that this would look much prettier on me if I made it. Then it will be 3 p.m. and we will watch McLeod's Daughters and ... that other thing ... with Amy the judge and Tyne Daly ("Detective Lacey" to my mom). I'll knit and lose count, either of the stitches or the plot of the show, Mom will fill me in on whatever I'm missing. And we'll both collect another two hours of happiness. That's something.

Now with the knitting.

I may have found new cheap yarn for felting. Told you, it's not that easy here. What I can get is the handspun, hand-dyed wool of sheep with royal lineage. I may be enamoured with felting, but that seems like a waste.

This is Schoeller & Stahl Wonderwool, 51% wool, 49% acrylic, after a hurried, half-assed attempt at hand-felting (as in: I kinda kneaded it a few minutes in a bowl of hot water with the wrong kind of soap). The colour bled a little, but overall I think it has promise. Not too fond of the seed stitch felt, but that might change with proper felting.
For the bag I have in mind, I'll have to use double strands and smaller needles, I think, but I was amazed that it would felt at all, what with being half plastic and all. (Love the plastic, have I mentioned?)
Last week, on a whim, I bought two skeins of Schachenmayr Brazilia Fantasy Color in 392 ("Diana", I think), just because I liked the colourway. I've never worked with eyelash yarn, so I decided to start something simple to try it and to swatch some of my "WolleTempel" yarn as well (I do love it, but it comes without any information about yardage or anything). So, here's the Goof-Off Scawl.

On the non-eyelash parts, I'm doing a 2x1 rib, which gives it some shape and makes the eyelash parts look fluffier when it's not stretched out. The width is 15 inches, which is right between a scarf and a shawl for me. Planned length: until the eyelash yarn runs out (I have three skeins now, and the first is almost finished). This is as much "novelty" as I've ever done, but I like it. It's fun and light and fluffy. And SOFT!
The blue regular yarn stripe is smaller than the brown, because the yarn has a lurex thread in it. Since I'm planning on wearing it as a shawl, too, I don't want too much lurex on my skin.

The Waterlily, she is finished. And I have no idea what happened. I swatched. I washed. I swatched again. I calculated. I swatched in the round. I calculated. I knit. I measured. It's too small. Where did I go wrong? I have no idea. All I can say is that the whole Weight Watchers shebang better keep working, because I want to wear that thing.

The yarn is WolleTempel again. Pink on Olive. Much prettier in person. I haven't seamed or blocked it yet. When I realized that it would be too small, I wanted to stay away from blocking until I had calmed down enough to not try and stretch the crap out of it. I'll finish it when I return.
Hey, I still have enough yarn left over to do another, bigger one. I'm tempted, but while the top is really pretty, I'm not too much in love with the pattern. So, I left the Pink on Olive alone and cast on for Mariposa by Sarah Sumner-Eisenbraun (Knitty, gotta love the Knitty) in "Poppies in a Wheat Field". I'll post a picture when I have more than a couple of inches, because it doesn't show off the pretty colours yet.

Also, scary acts of mutilation have been perpetrated in this innocent household.

These are the remnants of a pair of old canvas Mary Janes (excuse the icky-looking parts, it's glue from the old lining).
I'm not quite sure what to do yet. But I know this. I adore shoes and handbags (and jewellery, but that would be a beadwork topic). I can already make handbags. Now, we'll see about the rest.

That's it for now. I'm off to pack and catch a train.

10 Crafty Things About Me

2006-04-28T21:11:00.000+02:00

(Instead of a progress entry. There's progress, but my camera is half-broken, and I just didn't mess with it today.)

1. I used to sew a lot some years ago. Then I returned to knitting and crocheting, because it means making clothes without the big production sewing turns into (if you do it at the dining table). So, I think that there is basically no garment that can't or shouldn't be knit and crocheted. I very much embrace the notion of knit lingerie and crocheted tuxedos.

2. I'm not a fiber snob at all. I'll work with anything, as long as it's pretty and soft. I'm also not a tool snob. I'll work with anything, as long as it gives me gauge and doesn't snare the yarn.

3. I rarely knit for the people in my life. Unless they ask me for something - enthusiastically. If they do, I'll make them anything they want.

4. I don't think there is a craft I wouldn't love to try. I have tried many and loved them all. Some did not love me back. I am spectacularly talentless when it comes to silk painting, origami and everything involving wood.

5. I don't get the Noro craze. Shun me now.

6. I always have at least five "live" projects going, because I have one for every routine situation of my day. One small "to go" project for public knitting, one by the bed, one by the TV, one for work (the dictation sweater du jour) and one for concentrated escape knitting.

7. While it can take me a while to make the rounds and finish my projects (see above) I only have one abandoned UFO. It's a crochet cardigan that needs to have its sleeves frogged and redone.

8. I'm a part-time perfectionist. Sometimes I will frog the same rown three times until I get that one stitch under the armpit right, other times I call it creative license and thus good enough.

9. I have never bought the original yarn for a project. I like the "designer" patterns, but hell if I buy the € 15 per skein yarn for them. Also, I'm a plus-plus size. That's an awful lot of € 15 yarn. I'm really good at adjusting gauge and cast-on stitches.

10. Right now, knitting and crocheting are my life savers. I would recommend them to everybody in a crisis.

In other news: Waterlily is almost done. But I totally messed up the gauge despite excessive swatching (see above, the thing I'm really good at. Right.) I'll reserve judgement until blocking, but I don't have high hopes for it.

The one where I almost kill myself

2006-04-27T18:43:00.000+02:00

Last night I was sittin' here knittin' (Waterlily, in case you are wondering), and suddenly my hair started to bother me. Baby blue hairbands and all, it had to go up up up - I'm like that sometimes. Since there were no scrunchies or barettes on my desk - an almost unheard of state of affairs - I decided to be all cool and casual and knitterly and secured the long heavy twisted sausage that is my hair with a pair of 2 mm dpns. What can I say, it worked. No more bother, and I did feel all cool and casual and knitterly.

Only, dumbassery, thy name is Kay, I forgot about my dpn updo until bedtime. After the usual nighttime rituals (maybe I should mention that I have body image issues at the moment, so I avoid looking in the mirror), I breathed a huge sigh of tired relief and plopped down on my bed. The 2 mm dpn? Went into the back of my head. Screams, blood, general carrying on. And when everything was cleaned up and band-aided, I started thinking about what could have happened, had the dpns be placed slightly differently or had I hit a harder spot on my bed. And fainted. Well, almost.

I strongly recommend you don't try this at home.

In less lethal dumbass news: We have feltage.

I think I mentioned that I read every felting tip and instructions available to me, but the blasted bag just wouldn't felt!!

Yeah. The one thing I didn't read? My washing machine instructions. I never use the really hot cycle, so apparently I had no idea how to set it. Once I figured it out - magic.
I love this bag so much! It's not perfect, and it pilled because I forgot the time and reached the machine when it had already started the spin cycle. But still. I love my bag. And I want to make more. Must find feltable wool. Now.

Still knitting

2006-04-25T21:04:00.000+02:00

Sorry about the long pauses between posts right now, but I am still trying to adjust to my new schedule of spending a week with my parents and a week catching up with work. I can't say that I'll always keep the sad stuff out of this blog, since caring for my mom is such a big part of my life right now, but for the moment this is all I have to say:

"Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crisis."

Elizabeth Zimmermann

And there has been knitting. Lots of it. I only had time to take a picture of one project, but I'll try to do more tomorrow.

Better late than never I've started the Waterlily Top from IK Knits, spring issue. It's my current work knit, since the "Dictation Sweater" has reached a point where I have to pay attention to it. Unfortunately, Waterlily has almost reached that point, too.

I might be able to finish the second sleeve of the crocheted hoodie during tonight's episode of Little House on the Prairie (don't ask), so it might be done at the end of the week and I might be able to block it before I leave again.

For some instant gratification, I've been making hairbands. Hang on a sec ...

It's amazing how hard it is to take
a picture of the top of your own head. But you get the idea. It's a light blue cotton with three rows of twisted rib in the middle. I made a few more in other colours and patterns, but they still have to be seamed and blocked.

I've been looking for the right yarn for my first felting project for a while now, and I thought I found it at that great yarn store in my parents' town. Alas, it didn't work out, because after three washer runs and painstaking observation of felting tips everywhere, it still didn't felt properly.

It's not all bad though, because I have some embellishments in mind which will work better with a not too densely felted fabric.
I'll keep looking, but the problem is that whenever I ask whether or not the wool I want to buy will felt, the salesperson feels compelled to reply (indignantly), "Of course not!" Maybe felting needs to become more popular in these parts.

And now I'm off to some pasta and my hoodie.

Bedsocks

2006-04-19T09:00:00.000+02:00

Well, here they are.

The Mom Bedsocks.
The yarn (Fabiani Micro-Plus) is totally wrong for socks, as you can see from the inconspicuously mitered toes and heels, but totally right for Mom's feet and Dad's laundry skills.
She loves them, that's all I care about.

I bought some Regia Silk in a lovely blue grey for the next sock experiment, The Sock 3.0 - Regular Version.

How pathetic is it that the highlight of my day is the fact that the new Sabrina is out? I can't wait to go get it and add more "things I'll knit one day" to my list.

Away

2006-04-18T16:59:00.000+02:00

Not a lot of updating going on. I'm with my parents for the time being, helping with taking care of my mom, so there is not a lot of blogging time.
There has been knitting though!
First of all, The Sock 2.0 is getting close to completion (the pair, that is). Since the recipient - my mom - is monitoring the process, I knit them according to her specifications. Much shorter than I would have made them on my own (good to know) and with a bit of a ruffled edge.

Also, leave it to my parents' small town to have a fantastic yarn shop - The Red Thread. I got some lovely (discontinued - of course) wool there for a felted bag and the owner is going to get me a few more leftovers for a pair of slippers. The bag is about half done.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get my dad's camera to work for some pitchers.

Suddenly Stash

2006-04-13T19:04:00.000+02:00

You know, before yesterday my yarn stash consisted of a few balls of home-mixed, two skeins of sock yarn and the yarn already involved in current WIPs. I couldn't have flashed if my life depended on it.

Not anymore.

I give you "Da Stash".

The peach, pink, pistachio and indigo in front were free yarn (long story) and there's lots of each. The rest is my ebay order from the magical WolleTempel, also with tons of unexpected freebies.

Okay, I know it's a lot - but I don't care! :o) They are all natural fiber mixes, and I already know that they knit, wash and wear like a dream. The colours are a little off in my crappy photos (like the brownish yarn on the left - it's a rich chocolate bunny brown in person). The lovely extra surprises were "Pink and Olive" on the far right in both pictures on the left (you can only see the pink part, sorta) and "Green and Blue" next to it, both yarns I really wanted, too, but refrained from bidding on.

Sigh. I guess it's time to go to bed. No, Kay, you will NOT take the yarns with you!

Soccess!

2006-04-13T17:07:00.000+02:00

Achievement #1: The Sock 2.0 is off to a good start. It's not perfect, but I resolved the toe issue and the holes issue - so after a little relaxation with some simple twisted rib, I'm quite optimistic that I can figure out the heel this time.

Achievement #2: The Sock 2.0 matches the colour of my Swiss ball exactly.

Sock Suck

2006-04-12T19:29:00.000+02:00

Hooo boy!

What can I say?
I didn't rip it though, but saved it to serve as a warning for future new techniques. Never just pick instructions off the internet unless you found positive reviews of them on at least three blogs.
It's all for the best, anyway, because I just found out that my mom can't wear wool anymore. So, I'll start The Socks 2.0 in my beloved Micro-Plus. Don't be horrified, it's not like Mom will go on three day hiking trips in acrylics.
Gotta go cast on.

I heart artificial fiber

2006-04-12T09:57:00.000+02:00

Yes, you heard me.

I know, it's all about the cashmerino and the angora and the silk and the wool from sheep who can trace their ancestry to the herd owned by King Charles (you pick which one). But I love me some good plastic :o).

I don't love them all equally. There is a lot of crap out there, and I think it depends a little on the natural fiber they are trying to "mimic". I don't like most of the acrylic stuff that poses as a wool substitute. Not a chance. The ones I know are scratchy and awkward - maybe I don't know the right ones.

My absolute favourite of the plastiques is Fabiani Micro-Plus. I think it's the home brand of one of the big department store chains here. It's soft like you wouldn't believe, has incredible stitch definition, washes well, doesn't lose shape and comes in all kinds of terriffic solid colours. And it wears well, too, all year round. (Maybe I should mention that our climate isn't really extreme. I don't know how it would wear in, say, Texas.)
Oh, yeah, it's also dirt cheap.

Next on the list of favourites is cotton/acrylic mix. I like it about 50-50. It wears and breathes like cotton, but it doesn't morph from a sweater to a tent after the second wash. I'm all about the progress, people. Embrace modern times, buy plastic!

Part of my love for artificials comes from the fact that I'm a scatterbrained klutz. I will spill coffee on my clothes, eventually I will throw handwash only stuff in the laundry basket and my sweaters will get pulls. Knowing this about myself, I can't imagine knitting something with yarn that's € 20 per skein. Not for myself, that is. I would probably buy the yarn and never work with it, because it's too precious. And if I ever worked up the nerve to actually knit with the good stuff, I wouldn't ever wear it. Because, you know, it's too precious. What's the point?

That doesn't mean that I don't lust after all that hand-dyed-cashmere-silk goodness. I'm as big a yarn addict as the next knitter. Sigh, but it's just no good.

In other news: gratuitious, blurry sock update:

Getting there. Slowly.

We've got a live one!

2006-04-10T16:32:00.000+02:00

I think I mentioned recently that I have been knitting and crocheting for a long time. My grandma taught me when I was five, I did it for about six years and then I didn't do it consistently for about 20, except for the occasional quickly abandoned UFO.
Now I do it again.

After 30 years of knitting history, Kay In Stitches proudly presents:

My First Sock

This is an unusual development.
Normally, I only knit what I like. It doesn't necessarily have to be intended for me, but I have to like the item in general and see its justified place in the universe, or I'm not interested.
Me? I hate socks. I would (and did) go barefoot in winter boots. My feet are almost always warm to hot (yeah, I'm a very sought-after snuggle partner) and come April 1, I abandon all pretense and go sockless until people look at me funny in October.
Knitting socks never really occurred to me until I thought about new stuff to give to my mom the other day. I used to give her nice hand lotions, funky magazines, aromatherapy anything and the latest chocolate developments - all the things my dad wouldn't necessarily think of. Now, however, the time has come to think of other kinds of comfort, because Mom can't enjoy most of those things anymore.

A little explanation here: my mom is dying of cancer and has now entered the stage where she can't leave the bed anymore and takes meds that impair her mental clarity. She doesn't wear shrugs or shawls, because she has to turn frequently and gets tangled up and uncomfortable in anything but simple cotton PJs. (Mom would kill me dead for mentioning her PJs in public. :o) And after a total of six years of chemotherapy, she has about 27,000 chemo hats. She also has hair at the moment.

So, socks seemed to be a good idea. She wears them in bed all the time, and let's be honest here -my first pair of knit socks will be something only a mother could love. Perfect.
The yarn is Regia Color 5025, very cheery and springtime-y, and much prettier in person. You will note that I'm doing without any sort of sophisticated pattern, yet I still managed to mess up the "idiot rib" a few times.
I'm not sure that I'll fall in love with sock knitting, even though I do drool over all the cool patterns out there. On the other hand: if my mom actually likes them, this blog will turn into Sock-A-Gogo in no time.

I don't think it's an accident that knitting and crocheting play a big role in my life again. Lately, when I'm doing yarnstuff, I am overwhelmed with memories of the women in my family.
My grandma (dad's mother, we don't talk about mom's, for she was evil) was a wiz with needles. She'd look at you once and knit a sweater that fit you perfectly, no measurements, patterns optional. One Christmas, my dad made a wooden doll closet for me, complete with mirror inside the door (plastic, of course), shelves and all. And Grandma filled it with an entire collection of knitted clothes for my dolls in three different sizes. It was the best gift ever - and even today, people would be hard up to find something that could fill me with the same joy and amazement.

My mom knit her way through the 70s and 80s. I shudder to think of those creations from the original days of the bell-bottom and rainbow effect yarn, but she wore them with zeal, and so did I. Especially that grass green sweater made from bulky cotton that could have harbored me and three fugitives at the end of its life. She owned a business and had 70-hour weeks, then took care of assorted ailing family members on the weekend. Knitting was for sanity.

My grandma died when I was ten, but my memories of her are still vivid, and I don't think I'll ever lose my appreciation for the love and creativity that defined her life. Letting go of my mother is a long and hard process, and I'm not about to say that the craft is turning it all into a Lifetime TV movie. I wish. But the memory and appreciation of someone you love is never just about one thing, it is about the many connections between your life and that person's life, and you need to cherish as many of these connections as you can. In our family, wielding hooks and needles - like having big hips and boobs - is a tradition that connects at least three generations of women (I have photographic evidence of more, but I never knew these women personally). Compared to all the other gifts my mother and grandmother gave me, knitting is certainly a small thing (especially compared to those hips :o). On the other hand - a part of my soul remembers them every time I pick up a knitting needle. It's not always conscious, but it's always there. And so are they.

A matter of degree

2006-04-10T11:34:00.000+02:00

This morning, I found my perfect dream translation project.

I had mentioned my interest in needles (hee) to one of my agencies a while back, and they were looking for knitting pattern translators, English to German, I'm assuming for a website (agencies don't tell you the specifics, because they don't want you to contact the customer yourself). I couldn't quite believe my luck, when the agency called, and I think my enthusiastic answer blew up the poor woman's eardrum.
So, I swatched, i.e. did a sample translation (of three lines), and all was right with the world. Until it came to the following phone exchange:

Agency: The customer wants to know if you have a degree.
Me: A degree in what?
Agency: That qualifies you for this project.
Me: What do they mean? Languages, fashion design, what?
Agency: I don't know, just something that qualifies you.
Me: Okay, you know my credentials, and as for this project, I have been knitting and crocheting in two languages for 30 years. (With a 20-year intermission, I didn't tell her that.)
Agency: That's not a degree though, they want a degree.
Me: Well, what kind of a degree?
Agency: I don't know. Something qualifying.
Me: Do you think you could just submit my sample and references and see what they say?
Agency: No, they want someone with a degree.
Me: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WOMAN! WHAT DEGREE?!
Agency: Knitting?

People, I am not making this up. This conversation took place at 11:25 a.m. today. It took place in German, but I translated verbatim (although I'm not sure I'm qualified to translate knitting-related text).
So, kindly tell me where I can get a MKA or a KhD, because I'm baffled. What could these people possibly want? I've got the language part covered, so were they actually looking for a Fiber Arts major who happens to work as a translator? Good luck.

I am also really ticked off by this. It was the perfect job (sob)! I love patterns! I know what they mean (most of the time)! I am meticulous (snicker, I can say this here, because you can't see my kitchen). I've got five shelves of bilingual reference material!

What I haven't got is a knitting degree.

Yawn

2006-04-09T23:43:00.000+02:00

This is going to be a no-entry entry. I spent the whole day with the satanic romance, so there was no time for taking pictures and posting a real entry. However, they eloped today, so that's a good sign. It won't be long now. And it has been a good day for my dictation sweater. Or it could have been, if I hadn't frogged the same ten rows 4 times. New rule: the next dictation project can't involve increases.

Good night!

Kiss the frog (the knitter's version of "jumping the shark"?)

2006-04-08T07:44:00.000+02:00

Yeah, I had it all figured out.
Today is yet another day I'll spend with the romance novel from hell, but I had a quick post planned in which I would show off the half-finished DROPS cardigan.
Here it is.

I had six rows of the pattern left (20 inches, I'm making it a little longer), when I discovered that I had made a mistake counting the cable rows for the third! twist. I really, really tried to live with that one longer twist, but alas, I can't.

While frogging the whole thing I discovered one lone dark green strand of yarn just hanging out there, unattached to anything. Upon closer inspection I saw that the dark green had broken in several places. In the upper layers of ALL of the balls. Sob! What happened? Moths? Did DG get into a fight with the other strands? I don't even have a cat!

I don't have moths either. Which is a good thing.

It's the first yarn I ever mixed, so I guess I did something fundamentally wrong. Sigh. It's purty though.

Even after the frogging and rewinding of the balls o' doom, I still have enough for the cardigan. So I started over, because I'm nothing if not stubborn. Of course, I also thought about all the other things I could do sans balls o'doom, but that cardigan is exactly what I have been looking for. Once - the horror - I was even close to buying one like it. Didn't though.

Okay, one more latte, and then it's off to Regency England, where intrigue, corsets and bad metaphors await me. The fun never ends.

Is it me ...

2006-04-07T17:29:00.000+02:00

... or are there an awful lot of errors in The Happy Hooker?

I kept trying to remember what was wrong with Yeehaw Lady, so I went to look for the errata list for S&B Happy Hooker (duh!). Uh, there are two errors listed for that pattern, but none of them is the one I'm thinking of, which had to do with the crown increases. On the other hand, I didn't notice the two errors mentioned, so I guess I'll make another hat with the corrections and see if "my" error still pops up.
Now, really, I love this book to death, but errors in 13 patterns? Of 40? I haven't made anything from the S&B knitting books, simply because I've got so many other things I want to knit (seems to happen with knitting more than crochet), so I don't know about them, but I keep hearing about errors there all the time, too.
Do you think that's normal? I've got a few pattern books which I've used a lot and never found a single thing wrong with them. How about a few (more?) test stitchers next time?

Anything except temptation

2006-04-07T15:55:00.000+02:00

No, I didn't really think I would just buy two lots of yarn in that extra-special clearance sale at my favourite e-bay yarn store. You know, the sale with the EXTRA SPECIAL low prices.
(Ahem, just gearing up for the excuse here, people.)

So, I just bought 10 pounds of lovely natural fiber yarn in 4 colourways and a mixed bag. How's your week going?

I don't want to poach any more pictures from the store, so I'll take my own once the package gets here - for which the mail delivery facilitator person will hate me for all time. When you see the stuff, you'll understand. And that's without even feeling the lovely texture. Sigh.

In honor of the purchase - for which my bank account manager will kill me dead btw - I worked a couple rows of FrouFrou today. I dunno. I've seen it finished and lovely on a few blogs, but it still looks weird in the making. We'll see. In three rows, I get to tackle the dreaded collar. It seems simple enough, but for some reason I can't visualize it.

Speaking of Happy Hooker, there is an error in the Yeehaw Lady pattern. Somewhere in the crown shaping section - only I can't remember what it was exactly. But I wanted to start another one anyway, and this time I'll write it down.

I bought the April issue of "Sabrina" the other day. German knitting magazine for thin people. There was one pattern I fell in love with instantly, a long panelled skirt, one of the few truly lovely knit skirts I've seen. Yeah, took me a while to understand that it wasn't a knitting project, but just part of the models designer duds. I should have worn my glasses.
Behold the birth of a pattern project, because this skirt NEEDS to be knitted.
I made a few sketches so far, and I'm going to do the math right after the romance novel from hell is translated.

Speaking of which, my dictation sweater awaits.

PS: Thanks to Judy for welcoming me to the Knitting Blogs Group 2 ring. I've been doing some browsing (translate, Kay, translate!) and found me some new regular reads I think :o).

Make Up Handbag

2006-04-06T12:42:00.000+02:00

It happened like this: I was sad last night, thinking about my mom a lot, and somehow I remembered that she loves handbags. Then I remembered this drift of Lana Grossa "Party" languishing in my drawer - not really enough for anything, but soooo pretty. I got out a 6.5 mm hook and made up a handbag. It was done really fast, I just weaved, blocked and decorated this morning. I thought about a flap or some kind of closure for a long time, but decided that I like it the way it is. I love the shape, too, only the handles weren't quite right. I'll definitely experiment with that shape in various sizes. I think if I made it bigger and wider (with lining), this would make a great knitting bag.

VIWIP

2006-04-05T11:16:00.000+02:00

Here's what I'm working on right now.

That's Froufrou from The Happy Hooker, in one of my beloved WolleTempel yarns. I'm about halfway done, and my perception changes every other row. Too long, too short, too wide, too small. I have a feeling it will come out just about right. I've never crocheted a sweater all in one piece, so I'm a little wary of the shawl collar, because I can't quite figure out what it's supposed to look like. Guess I'll just have to trust the instructions ;o).

And another Happy Hooker creation (can you tell that I love that book?!), Yeehaw Lady, in black cotton ribbon. Ends are still sticking out and it is very much unblocked. Looks cute though, and it took about 3 hours to do it. I think I need to make some more before I go back to Texas. Pink, maybe?
I didn't have any floral wire for the brim, so I took a double length of 20 gauge jewelry wire. It worked just fine.

This is a hoodie from Cool Crochet. I've got one more sleeve and the hood to do. Again, this is cotton ribbon, which I love to work with. The color is somewhere between this and the detail shot.

I love this pattern, even though it does make for a somewhat bulky fabric. I want to try this with a small hook and some lace-weight yarn on a cami design I have in mind.

Here's a cardigan from DROPS. (Sorry about the blurry picture, it's not as blurry on the website.) It's number 88, pattern 4.
Since there is not much to see yet, I opted for the picture that shows the yarn colour best. I mixed the yarn myself in cotton/rayon. It's going to turn out a little sturdier than in the DROPS picture, but considering what spring is like in these parts that's a good thing. This is the first DROPS pattern I'm working. I don't know ... I keep checking the

Norwegian original (with the handy dictionary on the website). So far, so good, but being a translator and knowing that these website translations are usually done El Cheapo, I can't help being suspicious. On the other hand, I read a pattern instruction the other day (German original). There was a part I didn't understand, and my first thought was, "I wonder what that said in English?" I am most definitely Lost In Translation.

Sigh. That's all, folks, except for that "Dictating Sweater" I talked about yesterday. That needs to be a bit further along to photograph well (as well as I can manage, that is).

Up next: New things I want to make really bad, but won't even think about until at least two more projects are finished. Looong list that one.

Can you believe it?

2006-04-04T20:42:00.000+02:00

Got lucky again! All that yarn goodness is mine, mine, MINE. Mwaahahahaha!
Uh, right. Sorry about that. I see socks and scarves in my future. And a dress with a multicolour chevron skirt from DROPS. Sigh. It's the little things in life - like buying 4 pounds of yarn in one day on e-bay.

A new high

2006-04-04T14:18:00.000+02:00

I found the perfect combination of work and play:
I just dictated half a translation with voice recognition software while knitting a few rows of my "you mixed the yarn, so use it up, even though it's kinda crappy" sweater project. Unfortunately, I can only do stockinette without a) looking and b) thinking, so that sweater is not going to be very sophisticated.
But it didn't feel like work at all.

e-YAY!

2006-04-04T07:38:00.000+02:00

It's mine!
Well, not quite yet, it will be once I've paid for it, which will happen as soon as the other auction is over. Not that I expect to get so lucky again. The yarn is called "Poppies in a wheat field", and I got two pounds of it.
Unfortunately, my gain is my loss, because the yarn comes from the designer's ebay clearance sale. She's giving up, because there are too many people who can't or won't distinguish between yarn made from high-quality natural fibers and acrylic garbage. Too bad, I love her stuff and still have a few of her yarns in my stash, one of them a brown cotton mix that looks so chocolatey I think it has calories.

I've got one DreamMix project on the hook right now, "Frou Frou" from The Happy Hooker, in lovely dark blues with a touch of emerald. I wanted to take a picture, but the weather is so grey today that it turned out black with a touch of greenish black. I'll try again tomorrow. Rumour has it that we'll get some sun.