Craziness

Snow day today. We had two other two-hour delays this week, and on our regular late-start day, I got to take my two sons on medical visits.

Youngest squirrel got to have an in-depth hearing test. It was cute. He did okay with taking it, but will hopefully get tube surgery over Spring Break. He has low level hearing loss due to recent ear infections. He just went on medicines for the third infection in three months today.





Then, in the afternoon, my eldest got a Herbst appliance orthodontic thingy. Here are graphic pictures.

Before.


During.


After.


Up close and personal. He has been re-learning such important skills such as biting, chewing, swallowing... closing his mouth. He lets it hang open now, in hopes of resting his jaw. His teeth are hinged, and he cannot shift his jaw left, right, backward or forward. Yuck! It should be on about 14 months, I think, and, according to the doctor, he shouldn't set off airport alarms. I'm holding him to that, especially if he goes in an airport!

On the crafting front, I cast on a Baby Surprise Sweater yesterday. I have seven rows to go...

Hmmm... I seem to be failing on the photo front.

I knit up the boathouse row pattern from stitch poet design by "champagne maker." I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. It is a small capelet/shawl knit in the round with a few simple cables and bobbles. The decreasing makes a shallow V-neck in front and back. The strangest thing about it is the yarn: a discontinued yarn by Cascade called "fascination."

There is a modern fascination that is a sock yarn. This one, I think, is called fascination because it is 50% linen and 50% rough alpaca. It is a dry-spun, loose single that is spun up in a bulky weight. Can you picture it? I bought it at a garage sale of a woman who owns a yarn shop... Yarns from her personal stash she thought she'd never get around to. It was already wound into a yarn-cake, and still a little crunchy from the linen content.

As I knit with it, it softened. When I had to rip a row (or-EIGHT-from-casting-on-a-bloody-moebius-strip-don't-get-me-started) and reknit, it had relaxed quite a bit. Actually, it made me worried, because as a loosely spun single, I was hoping the relaxing was a blooming of the yarn and not weakness. Then to further worry me, the cast-on tail broke off after picking up and turning the piece, oh, about 20 rows.

After I completed it, I steam blocked it, and tried it on. I will have to be careful what I wear it over, because it seems to want to mark its territory. "Who was that well-clad woman? " "I don't know, but she left a clump of ivory colored hairs!" Tufts of alpaca worked their way out while knitting, and, by golly, they aren't finished, yet. In fact, I was able to follow my route from refrigerator to knitting chair pretty easily both with my eyes when the sun was up, or by feel when it set.

Maybe I'll re-spin the left-overs.

Afterglow

The in-laws are on the road home, and I have firmly caught the cold of my youngest. Hopefully that means he will fully relinquish it and stop sneezing on things.

I am working on a lovely little shawlette called Boathouse Row. I'm making it in the strangest yarn: Cascade Yarns' fascination. It is bulky 50% coarse alpaca and 50% linen. It's discontinued; I got it at a a garage sale of a woman who owns a yarn shop. She didn't know what to do with it, I guess, and neither did I for quite awhile, but it knits up to a nice rustic look. There is little memory to it, and it will be quite warm, so I'm hoping a shawlette will fulfill it's purpose. Pictures of that later.

Today we have a picture of the mitts I finished last weekend. I finished the last cuff on the way to gifting it, so the pics are on the move...

Big day done.

I'm feeling sorry I haven't posted for some time, and I've left you all in winter! Well, two days after that last post, the temperature went up 50 degrees from -11 to 37. The snow got a serious talking to, and while there are still icy, crusty snowbanks, the majority has melted away. Even though it is brown and muddy, the grass is beautiful.

I have knitted two pair of beautiful mittens, and a lovely, cashmere cowl. You will have to go on blind faith that this is so, because we have guests, and the main computer is currently surrounded by others. That is where I download and upload pictures.

I'm having a little "quiet" time having had a big party for my mother-in-law's 60th birthday. It was nice. We had about 20 friends of theirs over, friends from when they used to live in Indiana. Many hadn't seen each other for years, and some for over 20 years. It turned out, Uncle Gene used to work with one of them about 35 years ago!

We had good grandparent time as well. Tomorrow Juston and Erin return to the Solomons. I'm sorry I won't be there to see you off! Many blessings on you, you flights and your house. I'll close this now and post pictures when I can.

Christina Rossetti Was Right

"In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago..."

That's been the tune of things this past week. Every day sees more snow, whether the weather man predicts it or not. Supposed to be warm and sunny? Snow. 30% chance? That means snow. No chance? Snow.

For pictures today, look at a white wall.

In the meantime, I've been having a grand time with mittens, and stock piling books to help me do the same. Love of my heart, the Haavisto book which I did win arrived on Monday. Sigh. I took it to the gym to study while I worked out. It gave me motivation. Not many people there are surprised, I don't think, since I regularly knit while working out (I've drop spindled as well, but that affected my speed on the treadmills). I have plenty of plans, but only one set of hands, and finite time.

I plan to post pictures of this, but I also received three beeeeau-tiful mitten and glove books from Heather in Wisconsin. Triple sigh. Much to study and much to do!

Happy Chinese New Year

I officially declare this the year of the mitten.

Architecture mitten in the works. Actually being put in time out, because it isn't the proper length. I will need to frog some of it, and reconfigure the pattern. Sigh.

I started Lucy Neatby's Fiesta mittens in the meantime, and am LOVING them. Knitting with The Loopy Ewe's Purple Rose color of Casbah, and Blue Moon Fiber's Socks That Rock Silkie. Total heaven.



I also knit a pair of standard mittens in some of my first homespun from this Fall.


Here is a picture from our snowstorm Tuesday/Wednesday.



School was out yesterday. Two hour delay today. Even my husband's work was closed yesterday. We traipsed up and down the street with shovels and cookies, and when we got home, we tackled winnowing down and moving toys in the house. Had to rest after that. Nothing like a day off!

Today, I made some no-knead bread. It was delicious: very crusty on the outside, moist and springy on the inside.


Lastly, I finished my hat for Warm Hats, Not Hot Heads, a campaign headed up by the inimitableEllen Silva, half of the twinset knitting blog. Head over there and see what it's about, and join in! My hat is for Joe Donelly, IN rep.

Day of rest

Yesterday I drove our eldest to a Saturday enrichment school in Layfayette. The daughter and I ran around doing errands which MAY have included a yarn shop. Last ball till May, I swear. Anyways, when there I had a nice chat with one of the workers, and she ended up asking me if I'd take over the helm for the Nordic Knitting circle there. Would I? Well, she isn't the owner and so there are still some conversations that need to take place, but I'm excited by the prospect.

Then, last night I got to fulfill my fantasy to be a flight attendant and give the safety speech. Well, maybe it wasn't a fantasy of mine, but I did apply to Delta airlines about 20 years ago and didn't make the cut. In retrospect, I'm thankful. I don't think those passengers appreciated all the work Brenda and I did for them! The venue was our church Ladies' Night, and the theme was Fantasy Island/It's All About You. We greeted everyone with a check-in area and boarded them on the flight. Mayhem ensued, including the pilot bailing out with a parachute because he had to use the bathroom! Brenda landed the plane in style, and we de-planed at Fantasy Island!

Welcome! Welcome everyone!

Mr Roarke and Tatoo were there (Joy, I need pictures!), and we all enjoyed food, a swap shop and a spa room. Then Kay Maclain gave a marvelous talk full of transparency and personal challenge. I was so pleased a posse from Rochester joined us!

Afterwards, I slept like a baby and have rested ever since, fighting off a cold my youngest is determined to share. Now, I'm ready for the week!

Please don't tell my husband: I am an idiot!*

So, I have been stalking an out-of-print Finnish mitten knitting book. I joined the Finnish rendition of ebay when one popped up on it (thank you Lilia for letting me know!), but I accidentally entered my top bid as my first one. What a fool! The box came up for me saying the equivalent of "are you really sure?" It wouldn't allow me to leave the box without answering; I couldn't copy and paste it into my translator box. I punched whichever box was blue and glowing.

Now I'm up at 3am to see if I won.

In the meantime, here is a picture of the mittens I knit my daughter. I have never embroidered before on knitwear. I freehanded it, mainly because I couldn't think how to mark on this bright material. I don't have any disappearing quilt markers -- they always seem to dry up before I use them. I did try a chalk quilt marker on the interior circle, but it didn't mark well. Any ideas?


Here is a gratuitous picture of my finished stranded mittens. Love 'em!

*In Michigan, when applying for a marriage license, applicants must swear they are not marrying an idiot. So, this could change everything.

Squared Away

New mitten up: 36x36 mitten Building Chart, to be exact, charted from a historical mitten by Jessica Tromp. Check out her site. Quite amazing the number of charts and information it contains.



I have had this in my queue for quite some time. When I finally succumbed and ordered some Evilla yarn, I knew its time had come. Kauni and Evilla yarns are both lovely Estonian milled lace weight yarns. They are natural, contain some lanolin still, and have a bit of "stickiness" to them. For a knitter, this does not mean they are literally sticky. Rather, two strands of yarn together will tend to hold onto each other and not slip past. This is a looked-for quality in yarns when a knitter is knitting with more than one yarn and carrying both yarns along the backside of the work. This is called stranded work, or sometimes, fair isle. Fair isle is a real place, one of the Shetland islands off the coast of Scotland. More places than this one has a tradition of stranded work, so it isn't always just called fair isle.

Both Kauni and Evilla have wonderful colorways available which have very gradual color gradations. That is how the colors shifted in the last set of mittens I knit. I just got a Evilla yarn with gradually changing blue colorways, and I thought, "a-ha! windows in the architecture mittens."

At first I thought I would like to knit the building in brick red. But red with dark blue windows isn't enough of a color difference. After researching on Ravelry some of the colors these mitts have been knitted in, I decided I liked the the windows and outlines in a darker color than the building color. With the colors I own, that left a nice cement gray for the building.

The pattern does not specify a cuff. I thought a nice braid and some corrugated ribbing would be lovely. Concerned that 2x2 ribbing in navy and grey would be too stark and not balance the rest of the mitten, I decided to stagger the ribbing. Maybe make it look a bit like a cobblestone path?

Here are some pictures of the cuff so far:



If you can see in this photo, the purled blue makes a nice textural square. I really like this on top of the braid.



In order for the blue and grey squares to have clean edges, it is necessary to KNIT the first row of blues and greys. The second and third round are purled for the blues, and knit for the greys. If I had purled the first rows of blues, there would be a grey strand that would pop up in the first ridge. When wanted, this is a lovely decorative technique. Bohus sweaters incorporate this with great artistry. For this cuff, however, I wanted a clean line -- so I knitted that first set-up row.

Off to tame the house, and maybe, just maybe, knit another row.

Ever get that strange feeling
that somewhere, somehow, a monkey is watching you?

Plain fun.





...or maybe fancy.

I had a lovely day today! So many nice friends and relatives wished me a happy birthday -- it was quite heart-warming! My family thoroughly feted me, from my nice hand-made cards from my kiddos, like this one:



Yep. The child that choose a pink marker initially called me 60, then, realizing her mistake, corrected it in pen. Jane, watch out! She may use this one for your birthday next month, too!

When I thought about this comic mistake, though, it is reassuring, right? To our kids, or any kid, we're just way up there. Then the truth will out: age doesn't matter.

Last night I cast on the first few stitches of the "Birthday Cowl." Today it morphed into this one. I call it "Sha-ZAM!" There is a lightening bolt zigzagging down the front.



Thank you all, who contributed to a fantastic day!

My Biggest Baby

Is getting fitted for braces. Second visit to the orthodontist was yesterday.

"Where are the exits?"

"I am smiling, mom."

Making a good impression.

Caps and bands.
That's all till next time!

The Tale of Two Mittens

Yesterday, I finished two mittens. Unfortunately, they don't match, but they are in the same general color family.

The first is the first mitten I have knit from Eeva Haavisto's Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia. And what I really want for my birthday is that book. Please. I will gladly swap yarn, another book, mittens... Turns out it is scarcer than hens' teeth, even in Finland.

A nice lady in Oakville, Ontario sent me two patterns from the book, and this mitten is pattern 92 of the 100 in the book. I am confused, though, 'cause Ravelry has it in pictures as pattern No. 89. I knit this out of Kauni yarns, a Danish yarn milled in Estonia. The yellow/orange yarn has gradiated yarn color. The color is dyed in the wool prior to spinning. It is a 8/2 two-ply yarn. The turquoise is also a 8/2 Kauni, but a solid color.



In addition, I have finally scanned the Seattle Times Photo of us taken at the Nordic Knitting Conference and published in the October 18, 2010 paper. Here 'tis:

So... at my friend's 50th birthday party, everything got kind of wacky...



...and, Mrs. Napkinhead showed up.

Gettin' the Fur on!

So, there we were in bed last night. And I was winding the fur tape.


I know what you're thinking! You're thinking it has another name. It does. Today, I was thinking that "yarn ruff" might be more descriptive. During the Medley of Finnish Knitting Techniques at the Nordic Knitting Conference last October, Carol Huebsner Rhoades said that a Japanese woman came to the first or second Nordic Knitting conference, absorbed as much as possible and then returned home and wrote this book.

It's great! It has entrelac, stranding, fur tape, garter stitch beaded wristlets...

Anyways, over the weekend, I knit the two mittlets, got out the packing tape covered 3/4" flexible thingy and started wrapping.




Here's how it goes. Get your working yarn, and another thinner yarn that will be used for binding. You will also need a crochet hook in a smaller size that matches the binding yarn.

Make a slipknot in the binding yarn and insert the crochet hook (one loop). If right-handed, place the working yarn on the left. Wrap the fur tape yarn thrice around flexible thingy, pull the binding yarn under and up (second loop), then grab the binding yarn over the top and pull through the other two loops = single crochet stitch.

Here are some pictures that demonstrate the knitting technique:
These three pics are 1) The wrap, 2) The second loop, and 3) The final loop pulled through







After one has made a whole tape of wrapped yarn held together by crocheted loops, one can apply them to a finished, knitted piece. This book has fur tape added to the top of a knitted purse, knitted throw pillow, and these mittlets. The mitt pattern called for it to be knit flat, four fur tapes applied to the top, sewn on together, then the seam sewn shut. I knit the mitt in the round and applied three fur tapes separately.

The teacher of the Finnish Medley class recommended linen thread. It is very strong. Maybe this is just tradition? Anyways, it isn't very common, but I found a spool at Erica's.

Okay, I'm hating this photo layout. I'm going back to the largest picture to stop the words over pictures and misplaced explanations...

Fully attached fur tape (second of three).

The cutting of the ruff.

The finishing of fur tape is to steam 'em up well.

And, here's the final product.








The "finished" ruff:

You know you're a Fiber Artist when...

...you wake in the middle of the night, pick a piece of fiber out of your mouth,

roll over and go back to sleep.

Day of knittin'

Yesterday, I had a day of knitting. Changed the top of the Molly hat posted a few days ago, and created a New And Improved Molly. Then, I knit it. The original is now the "Chrissy."

Today, I have cast on a self-design ascot, I am affectionately naming "The Secretariat." Nope. Coincidence.

New resolution: learn how to write up these patterns and link them to this page.

Sigh. It never ends, does it?

Another day, another insult

The day dawned early, with a 4:30a squirrel sneaking under the covers, shivering and complaining of alligators. Thankfully, he went back to sleep, but unthankfully, I did not.

Instead, I continued my study of the Sami peoples in the Northern Nordic countries, and the Kola peninsula of Russia. Fascinating info, and I kept being reminded of some of the folk practices of Mongolia. I emailed several Ravelry people in Norway and Finland asking questions re the handcrafts of the Sami peoples, particularly knitting traditions. Through a series of exchanges, Tuulia in Finland burst my bubble and basically said there are no knitting traditions. Sob! All knitting has come in through the majority culture of Norway, Sweden, Finland (and Russia?), and all "Sami" patterns are done by other cultures mimicking symbols from Sami weaving, or silvermaking.

Bummer. I love the vivid colors of the Sami, and am intrigued by their cultural history. Too bad I can't combine the study with my love of knitting.

In the course of the morning, I had message exchanges with people in Iceland and Sweden as well. This here internet thing is pretty fun! Life is sooo different from when I went to college in Canada and lived overseas in Siberia and Mongolia. I feel like an old-timer when I say I had no phone, there was no computer, I had no TV and the only way for communication was letters home. And yet, that was freeing, as well -- to not be tethered to an electronic gadget. I was able to do my real work.

What with the early wake-up, I was in a fog most of the day as well. Enough to insult people half-way around the world, and not operate heavy machinery. I'm good that way.

My brother-in-law opened his Christmas present late. Here is a picture of it. Oh, I forgot to tell him it won a first place ribbon at the fair. It is also encrypted with a code. Enter it, when you figure it out!

2011 has started with a bang

has started with a bang. I began it by knitting till 3am and managed to get the back done to the Short-Row Fair Isle. It is chock full of knitting that requires thinking, and with the rest of them pooped out and snoozing, I was able to do a short-row fair-isle WHILE decreasing at the shoulders. Kind of mind boggling. Now I just have hundreds of ends to weave in. My goal is to be done with the whole thing by my birthday. Since all I can do is dream of knitting other (smaller) projects ever since the late knit, I'm not sure if this goal will be achieved.


We slept in, somewhat, and then began the New Year together. Nice holiday. We all took it easy, but also went to a walk in the beautiful weather. It was just about freezing, but we went on a trail none of us had ever been on.

Today, we had a start of a new series with a sermon from our pastor titled "Resolve." Good reminders that things don't just happen. Then this afternoon we had our annual family meeting.

Looks like it will be a good year!