Yarn Rambles

I've begun the stripes!

Ben's vest is now coming along quite nicely. Tonight I'll check the heighth and get ready to set up the armhole steeks. The weather has been absolutely wonderful the last few days. Tonight Bob and I will head directly home to enjoy an evening on our deck. Melissa, one of our visitors, is making up pasta and a green salad for dinner. I'll be settling into one of the deck chairs for a productive knitting night.

I've taken steps towards purchasing a new spinning wheel. I spent craft night setting up two Craig's List selling posts. I was surprised at how easy it was to go throught the straight forward instructions. One ad is for my antique spinning wheel. I don't know much about its background. I bought it twenty years ago through an ad in Spin Off. I do know that it spins beautifully. As you can see it is a double treadle, gossip wheel. The only reason I'm willing to sell it is that I really need a portable wheel to fit my current lifestyle. I'll get much more use out of a wheel I can take along with me to craft nights or even on vacation.

The second item is a D10 hammered dulcimer from Dusty Strings. Many years ago I got it into my head to learn to play. Since I don't have time to practice my piano these days, I figure the hammered dulcimer is way beyond my reach.

With the sale of these two items, I will be very comfortable buying my new wheel. I went blog searching last night and found several photos of the Kromski Sonata in the walnut finish. These photos are from In Yarn Veritas. All the advertising photography shows it in a plain finish which I didn't find too appealing. But, the walnut is stunning!! I am going to be heading to The Black Sheep Gathering in June to try out wheels and bring one home. If I hold out that long. There are a couple of stores in Portland that carry spinning wheels. If my Craigs List ads work, I may need to take care of things before my trip to Eugene.

Xena

Since I'm not doing too much interesting in the knitting world the last couple of days, I thought I would show off Xena a little bit. Ever since she met Ben three years ago, he has been one of her favorite people. He visits us a couple of times a year and she is his shadow each time. Whenever Ben sits down, Xena is in his lap in a moment.

Earlier this week Xena started licking at her left paw. When I got to work on Monday I grabbed a strip of Connecting Threads fabric to wrap around her paw to keep her from gnawing at it. The ladies in Connecting Threads thought she looked "incomplete". The next thing I knew, Xena had a matching bandanna. I like the look!! I had the ladies cut up a few more to dress her up regularly.

One step forward, two steps back

A very relaxing weekend. After all the stress and activity, it felt to nice to have nothing to do all weekend. But, my coping mechanism is to nest so I woke up very early on Saturday, plugged my iPod into my ears and got started. Four hours later the refrigerator was clean, there was "Clean The Refrigerator" soup on the stove, bread was rising in my bread bowl and Xena had been washed and dried. Knowing that my temporary "family" of golfers had sustenance, I could slump onto the couch and knit Ben's vest.

Here is the two steps back part. I am a slave to swatch knitting and checking gauge. But for all that, I always end up with a first draft that is too large. Sunday morning I had Ben pull the five inches of knitting over his head and, of course, the thing was huge!! I really need to just take ten inches of my stitch calculation no matter what I make to save myself the heartache. Ok, I didn't want to rip out so I started all over with a new ball. My consolation is that I have many fewer stitches than the first version. I can still finish it in the next three weeks now that I know I have the sizing correct -- fingers crossed.

Oh, I didn't think of getting a photo for this next little story. We went to Bob's son's house for dinner Friday night. Jessica is expecting a baby boy in August and has started setting up the nursery. Would you believe she has an Elizabeth Zimmermann Tompton Jacket that her grandmother had knit for her!!! Unbelievable given that I have knit a Baby Surprise Jacket already! What a woman -- Elizabeth Zimmermann. Jessica also approved the Baby Kimonos.

Sandy asked me to explain the border on the kimono jacket. It is an applied i-cord. To get started you will need a double pointed needle. I knit so loosely that I used one that is a couple of sizes smaller than what I used on the body. But, you want the cord to be loose and flexible so you may want to stay with the body size. Decide where you want the join to be after you have finished going all around the jacket. No matter how careful, the join will show a bit. I put mine under the left arm but I think I will do it in the back for the rest. Pick up a few stitches onto the DPN.

Cast 3 stitches onto a second DPN of the same size. You will need a third DPN to do this. Slide the stitches to the other end of the DPN. Pulling the yarn from the back left, knit the first two of the three stitches using the third DPN. Now, with just the one DPN, knit the last stitch of the three with the first stitch of the body that you have picked up. You now have three stitches on the right hand DPN. Slip those three stitches back onto the body DPN. Knit two stitches and K2Tog the third stitch with the next body stitch. You will need to pick up more body stitches as you go along to work all the way around the edge. When you get to the bottom turns heading up the front of the body, knit just the three stitches without attaching to the body two times. Then continue on as regular with the K2Tog. This little trick will give you extra stitches in the i-cord to make the turn gracefully.

I hope this helps with anyone wanting to add an i-cord to anything. Elizabeth Zimmerman is quite a fan of i-cords and she gives many examples of its usefullness in the Knitting Glossary DVD.

Score! I found buttons!

Anyone who has spent even a small amount of time with me knows I am phobic about shopping. Any shopping - groceries, household appliances, clothes, shoes, even garden supplies. I hate shopping!! But, there are times when I have to shop for my job. That is "prop" shopping. Picking up things we need in order to have pretty pictures in our catalogs. Usually someone in the office has to come along with me to keep me from fleeing the store in the the first ten minutes. A detailed list is also very helpful.

This week we had a photo shoot. I went prop shopping with Tina. We needed some zippers so we headed off to Fabric Depot. I don't know how I had the presence of mind to bring along the baby items, but I did. With Tina's encouragement, I managed to find buttons for the Baby Surprise Jacket and for the kimonos. None of the knitting I will do for this child will ever reflect my level of love as much as whatever shopping I have to do in order to finish off the projects. My equivalent of walking through fire.

Bob and I have had a bit of a rollercoaster this week. The low being the death of a good friend and the high being the arrival of more good friends who will be staying with us for about a month. Tony's funeral on Saturday made both Bob and I step back and remember how important we are to each other and how every day has to lived to its fullest. We've been doing more hugging and kissing the last few days. More glances at each other and more gentle words. A gift from our friend, Tony.

About three years ago we had three amateur golfers from Australia stay with us. They were participating in a tournament our golf club was hosting. Since then they have become professionals and are starting down the long path of making golf their careers. Whenever there is a break between tournaments, they come to stay with us rather than fly all the way back to Australia. Ben, Luke and Luke's girlfriend, Melissa will be staying for a month. On Sunday, a new golfing friend, Andy, will be joining us. In two more weeks, Ben's girlfriend, Emily, will be arriving.

In mid-June we will all take a road trip to Victoria, British Columbia for a golf tournament. From there, the guys will have a busy summer on the Canadian Tour. Until then, we are enjoying having them around. They are so easy going that it is a pleasure. Last year I promised Ben a vest but never got around to starting it. I cast on last night. I am using a sweater pattern from Sally Melville's book on color. I like the striping pattern and I will, obviously, be leaving off the sleeves. I'm using Main Line because the touch of Merino will give it a little bit of warmth and the cotton will breathe easily. The colors are Butter Pecan and Red Velvet Cake.

It's officially spring!

For the first time, I am wearing my pink pi shawl in a non-vacation setting. We are having a spell of lovely weather. I'm in a light blue linen dress and the shawl is wrapped around my shoulders. I am reminded why I love shawls so much. Particularly in the spring. I'm so tired of wearing sweaters that I can't even handle a light, cotton sweater with equinamity. But, a shawl is an entirely different layer of warmth. Comforting, elegant and warm. The only problem is that I get all enthused about making more lace shawls and I know I'm not ready for that sort of committment right now what with baby knitting and getting caught up on other project in-progress.

Last night was productive, as usual. I love craft night!! I sewed up the seams for three more kimonos and I solved my buttonhole issue. I decided to i-cord all around the edge and not connect the i-cord just above each corner to leave an opening for a button. A little trick I learned from Elizabeth Zimmerman. I'm going to use cream on each one to pull the set together visually. I like the finished look the edging gives the kimonos.

The funny thing about last night was all the whining I was doing as I seamed the jackets. I think there is something in every craft that the artist finds frustrating. For me it is seaming. This is particularly irritating for me because I knit in the round 99.9% of the time. I just don't do seaming!! But, I happily i-cord all the way around the edge. What is up with that? Most people find it mind-numbing to knit i-cord. I find i-cording relaxing for some crazy reason.

I am slowing getting back into my usual level of knitting enthusiasm. Before my surgery I had just finished up nearly every project in progress. That means I need to organize some new challenges. A nice way to spend time this weekend.

Slowly returning to regular knitting routine

Today I'm feeling like a productive knitter for the first time in two weeks. I've cast off the third kimono jacket. As I suspected, seeing the first three laid out together is a strong incentive to finish off the last four.

I may have mentioned that I was a History major. I have always enjoyed losing myself in well written history books no matter the time period or part of the world. Currently I am obsessed with The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk. It is the history of the struggle between Russia and Great Britain for control over the middle east. Fascinating reading to keep me entertained while I knit the last four kimonos. One of my perfect pleasures is reading a good book while I knit something simple like these cuties. Since I won't be able to play golf for a couple more weeks, this weekend will be set aside for quiet pastimes.

Last weekend I worked out a swatch in Palette to include some new heathers we will be receiving this fall. I'm designing a colorful hooded jacket. I need to write up the instructions over this next week so we can get everything off to a test knitter in time for the photo shoot in August. The cream at the top and bottom is just cast-on and cast-off - not part of the colorwork planned for the jacket. I have a plan for smaller repeats to use on the sleeves and the hood.

I launched my first podcast this last week. It is called Knit Picks and you can find it at iTunes. I intend to have a new episode every week. I love the way my life is becoming more and more centered around the joys of knitting. Catalog, yarns, needles, designing, blogging and now podcasting. Every day is filled with creativity and challenge.