Yarn Rambles

Eccentric Golf

I started playing golf three years ago. I was obsessed!!! I went to the club two or three times every week to practice during lunch. I played nine holes with the beginning ladies on Friday mornings and often played another eighteen holes with Bob that afternoon. We played on Saturdays and Sundays. It was so much fun! I never took it too seriously which is probably why I enjoyed it so much.

The next summer, Bob and I were too busy at work to even think about playing golf. I was designing our first set of Knit Picks yarns and traveling around to factories. It was such a crazy time!

I now know that last summer's lack of energy was the result of my needing a hysterectomy. Looking back, it was frustrating to be in such bad shape I couldn't even walk nine holes with Bob let alone actually try to play. Well, this afternoon I took my cobweb draped golf clubs out of the garage and dropped them off at the club. Now they will always be ready for me to practice or play on a whim. I set tee-times for tomorrow and Sunday for Bob and I.

But what does any of this have to do with knitting?

Our golf course is a relatively flat course so the majority of people walk it as they play. I think that is why I fell in love with golf so completely. The experience is like spending four hours in a beautiful park. Occasionally I have to whack at a little ball but that hardly matters. The walking also means you are by yourself a lot. Once everyone hits their tee shots, each person walks off to find their own ball. You aren't hopping in and out of a cart with the requisite chatting. You get back together on the green for putting and then it's off to the next hole. As I wait for my playing partners to hit their ball, I knit. Yes, you read correctly. I knit. I have a lovely basket that hangs from the handles of my pushcart for holding whatever simple project I've brought along for the day. It's easy to reach down, grab the needles, get through a few stitches and then put it back down when it's time for me to walk on up the fairway.

Knitting and golf. What a delightful combination!!

Playing hookey

I really do not sleep well when Bob is away traveling. Tuesday night I tossed and turned all night and woke up in a very foul mood. I decided to focus that hostility towards my messy office. It took all morning, and several trips to my car, to clear out all the stuff I had accumulated in my office. How do things get so out of hand?

By 1:00 I had committed myself to working out a new felting project. After sitting through a friend's son's basketball game on a hard bench last fall, I decided a felted cushion would be a good thing to try to work out for other knitting sports fans. I have a theory and it became so absorbing I decided to play hookey from my "office" work and head home to spend the afternoon in my "home" office knitting as quickly as possible. I made very good progress and plan to keep on knitting tonight.

I took a break from my knitting to play with my drop spindles. My two favorites have now been assigned to colorful roving. It feels good to have taken that first step. If I have trouble sleeping again tonight, I may get some spinning done. That should be relaxing.

 

Creative trip to Norway

Today I've been working on my Norwegian style cardigan design. Not making as much progress as I would like. Some days are just like that when I can't get my mind to cooperate.

I am happy with the progress on the Fair Isle inspired hoodie. I wanted to highlight the new heather colors in Palette that we will be bringing in this fall. I started out with Fair Isle in mind but it sort of morphed into lozenges of heather set off by solid accent colors. Now I need to wait until the samples of the heathers arrive so I can make some swatches.

Bob will be gone on a business trip for the next three days so I have decided to organize my drop spindle projects. I have two or three groups of colored rovings that have been sitting around way too long. I went a little crazy with drop spindles this last year trying to find the "perfect" spindle. The two I like the best are from Golding and and a stunning Basket Weave spindle from Gabe Jaramillo. The fiber and the spindles deserve some love and attention so I'm looking forward to my next few nights all by myself at home.

Measure twice, cut once

This sage bit of advice is familiar to me thanks to all the quilters in Connecting Threads. I also know it is quite applicable to decisive points in knitting. Too bad I don't always remember to apply the concept when it is needed.

This weekend started off just as I intended. I settled down to read and knit early on Saturday morning. Reading while I knit, simple things like stockinette, is an art I discovered several years ago while watching a Wimbledon tennis match on television. I was knitting a sweater in the round. I became enthralled with the match but my fingers continued on by habit! I didn't realize it for awhile but it was certainly a very pleasant development. I have a collection of BookMates to hold my current variety of books. The Book Chair, from Schoolhouse Press, is also handy to keep my books at a comfortable reading angle. I like to read several books at the same time -- much like my knitting projects -- to meet different situations and moods. Here is a view of my weekend before the collapse of my knitting hubris.

After I had knit about four inches of stockinette on my Ambrosia vest, I realized I had forgotten the short rows. I learned about putting short rows in the back of sweaters and vests from Elizabeth Zimmermann's book, The Knitting Workshop. That way the back doesn't ride up like it often does with store bought sweaters. No problem. I looked at my notebook to check the number of stitches. I counted that number of stitches across the front of the vest and then placed the right side underarm marker. My mind was screaming at me to count the stitches back around to the left underarm stitch but I couldn't be bothered.

I put in two sets of short-rows and then knit on up to the underarms. I put stitches on holders and set up the armhole steeks. I knit about 8 rounds of decreasing when I noticed there were more stitches in the back of the vest than the front. Several more by the looks of things. I counted and, yes, there were about ten more stitches in the back. What had happened!!

The stitch number I had used from my notebook was the CAST ON number!! I had increased after the ribbing but had not bothered to make a note of that new number. So, the turns on the short-rows and the placement of the underarms were completely off.

RIPPING!!

The good thing about all that knitting, and trying on the vest as I went along, is that I know I want 12 inches of stockinette before I start the armhole steeks. And, it fits! I had to find something positive about a day and a half of knitting piling up in a jumble of ripped yarn laying on the carpet.

Moral of the story -- count twice, steek once -- or something to that effect.

It's going to be a boy!!

Last night at dinner, Matt and Jessica told us that our first grandchild will be a boy. That certainly takes care of choosing buttons for the Surprise Jacket.

I really should get started on the Baby Kimono Jackets from Mason Dixon Knitting. They won't take too long and it would certainly feel satisfying to have several ready for August. After that, I will begin to investigate tiny sweater options to have ready for next winter's cold weather. I might make a couple more Baby Surprise Jackets. Probably with only two or three clearly masculine colors. Maybe I should find some fun buttons first and then make a jacket to show them off.

Filling up my needles

I have been wanting a simple vest for many months. Not plain, though. As a compromise I decided to strand Ambrosia in Mint with Alpaca Cloud in Tide Pool. I like the look. I had thought of putting in cables but the swatch just made it look busy and messy. I like the idea of plain stockinette because it will knit up relatively quickly, I can read while I knit and it will be that much more versatile in my wardrobe.

We've had out of town visitors this week so lots of eating out. Just the ticket for making good progress on my cable socks. A simple single twist cable every four rounds that has been easy to work and keep track of as I knit. I'm working down the gusset stitches. Soon I can sail along down towards the toes.

Spring Showers

It feels so good to finish things! Rob's sweater has been sent off. I've got my fingers crossed that it will fit him.

I also delivered my young friend, Chris', socks to him.

The last couple of weeks I have been learning how to produce a podcast. The podcast will be launching from the Knit Picks website in early April. I'm rather liking the direction this new year is taking. Between improving my blog entry frequency and the weekly podcasts, I am feeling completely immersed in my knitting life. A bit different from organizing yarn selections and supervising catalog layout. Now, my personal daily knitting will be the focus.

My energies will be centered around taking decent photos for the blog, keeping notes in my planner for podcast topics, enjoying my knitting projects as part of my "work" as opposed to trying to fit them in at odd moments. Yep, this is looking to be a very good year!

I am still going to be doing a tiny bit of designing for the catalog. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be working on a fair-isle hoodie to highlight the new colors of Palette we will be introducing in the fall. Several people have asked for a cardigan version of the Telemark Ski sweater. That will be another fun project. I may have to get a computer for the house. Bob and I have been holding out against the house computer for fear of too much work creeping into our home. Still, it would be nice to capture ideas when the spirit moves me and that frequently happens at home. I see something on television or get a brainstorm while cooking dinner.

Here are the colors I have set aside for the Fair Isle hoodie. 

And, for the Norwegian inspired cardigan. The red and black will be the body colors with the light brown as an accent -- i-cord edging or something.

Just laying out the colors is an inspiration. It will be fun to settle down in front of the computer and start playing with different designs and color blends. If it keeps raining like it has the last couple of days, I will be happy to get lost in the haze of creativity.

Quite a productive weekend

I spent all of last weekend in the office catching up on a project I can't tell you about quite yet. So, I was determined to be completely self-indulgent this weekend. What a good decision.

I have a distinctive knitting project cycle. I love knitting several projects at the same time because I want to always have knitting with me. I need knitting much like I need to breathe. To keep my hands busy I have categories.

Socks are my "go-to" projects. I keep them simple so I can grab them at any time. I find them particularly helpful when Bob and I go out to dinner. Now, I am an extremely social person - must have constant contact with other people. But, I am not interested in food at all! I know that sounds weird but it is just the way I am. The problem is that everyone else likes food. We meet friends for dinner and I get fidgety after the appetizers. All our friends and family are used to my whipping out a pair of socks to keep me sociable while everyone else enjoys their meal. This also works well at symphony concerts, parties at friends homes or even political speeches.

When I know I am going to be sitting still for a long time where space isn't an issue, I take care to have something like a simple sweater in the round. That's what I call "meeting" knitting - staff or department.

When life gets overwhelming, a complicated project is just the ticket. Distracting and productive. You can see where all this is going. At some point, I simply must finish projects. That is what has been going on the last couple of weeks - finishing. Particularly this weekend. I finished Rob's grey sweater, a pair of socks and I began the edging on a rectangular shawl. Talk about a satisfying feeling. Next weekend will be all about getting new projects on my needles.

And we're back!

The trip to India was wonderful!! It took about ten days to get over the jet lag when we got back home. What a strange feeling, you fall asleep about 7:00 p.m. and then you are wide awake at 3:00 a.m. I do quite a lot of traveling so I have gotten used to admitting defeat and getting out of bed for those odd morning hours. They can be quite useful as long as you have a couple of mindless knitting projects. Oh, and cable television is a good thing. Eventually things do get back to normal.

Normal is certainly the word for it. I have always enjoyed the beginning of a new year but this one seems to have more potential than most of the others. I'm completely recovered from the hysterectomy in November, Bob and I had a relaxing Christmas trip, and a bit of an adventure in India during February. The rest of the year is looking to be quiet and simple.

Visiting the needle factory in Delhi was thrilling. Never in my most wild imaginations had I thought I would have designed a whole new line of knitting needles let alone seen them made in a factory. We spent two days working with the vendor reviewing our current product and finalizing details of some surprises you will see later this summer. Three more days in Delhi were spent being tourists.

We then spent a week being classic tourists. We started in Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Next came Jaipur and Udaipur. Such beautiful buildings! We flew south to spend three days in Cochin floating in a rice boat on the delta. Rice boats are sort of floating bed and breakfasts. Very relaxing.

I've set up a photo album of the trip. I hope you enjoy them.