Where Did I Go Wrong?

Did I mention yet that the Not-Quite-Helena Skirt still was not done with giving me a hard time? I wore it a few times and it was fine except that the hem rolls up a little occasionally as I walk. I did forget to put thread chains linking the lining to the skirt which might have helped. Luckily I didn’t add them yet. Because that &%&%$# magenta lace that I used on the hem quickly looked like this:

Frayed and worn. And that’s after very little wear and only one gentle laundering. Argghh! So in anger I grabbed the thing and serged off the lace just under that nearest tuck. You remember the tucks? The lining turned out too long and rather than take off the lace and reapply it, I took a few tucks to shorten it. In hindsight I should have just hacked the whole thing off and turned up a machine-stitched hem. If I’d known the lace was crap I would have. And that’s not all the trouble I had either. In serging off the lace part of the hem while in a grump, I nicked the tuck with the blade! Whereupon I just threw up my hands and slapped some Fray-Chek on it. Then I made some quick-and-dirty thread chains at the seam allowances and called it a day. Now if anything else happens to this skirt it’s going to the Sally Ann toot-sweet. You have been warned, Skirt.

Meanwhile I finished the Speckled Socks (info to come) and started the new Blodgie Sweater. Knitting the Judy’s Magic Cast-On to begin was fun! It’s a bit loose though so I may have to start over again. It’s been too long since I’ve done this so my technique is a little rusty. I’m only a few rows into it so no real loss to begin again.

Also now that I’ve solved my chart reading difficulty with the Orange Aeolian Shawl, I’ve been hooked on working on this lace knitting project. Even the disruptions while placing all the gazillion beads hasn’t discouraged me. So what is it about lace that’s so fascinating? While you’re knitting it, the darn thing looks like an old shopping bag! The transformation into gorgeous doesn’t happen until you block it. But knitting lace is really fun – at least to me. And obviously to a few others as well or we wouldn’t have so many incredible examples to show off. Over 3,500 Aeolians on Ravelry so far!

While I was knitting away, I was listening to a new-to-me podcast: Thread Cult. (You can listen at Daughter Fish’s blog or get it from iTunes.) I really enjoyed the first couple of episodes which are in an interview format. The tone is intelligent and the subjects cover more than just sewing. I was hooked right at the first episode when the discussion was about natural dyes and growing them as well. Right up my alley since I’m scheduled to give a talk to my guild on this topic next month! Give it a listen and see what you think.

Speaking of web media, I recently heard about a new web-based contest sort of like Project Runway but for knitwear called The Fiber Factor. Besides the fact that it’s only open to residents of the US, you have to be able to take your own videos and to work quickly under pressure while being judged. Those criteria alone would leave out a huge number of designers, wouldn’t it? Maybe I’m just being an old lady here but it doesn’t interest me at all. I don’t know how you feel about these Idol-type things, but I personally think they are awful! Reduced to a personality contest and a panel of judges who can’t help but be subjective, the results would be suspect at best. In this case you wouldn’t even have professional people taking care of the presentation (camera, sound, light, makeup etc.). Ick. And no, I don’t watch any of the other challenge/reality shows either. I don’t enjoy contests in general but maybe that’s just me. As they say, YMMV. (BTW, how does that work in metric?)

Podcasts And More

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day”. - Elwyn Brooks White

Yep, I totally agree with that quote from the author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. I suffer the exact same problem. The solution is to try to fit both in somehow. We can but try to enjoy ourselves while creating the world we would like to live in.

So I was a naughty damselfly yesterday. You realize I need more sock yarn like I need another pair of thumbs. Nevertheless I succumbed to a couple of balls of Crystal Palace Yarns “Maizy” which is 82% corn fibre and 18% elastic nylon. I’ve never seen it before! It has a really interesting texture and the colours were short one-inch blips of rust, tan, sage and dark teal. Could I resist a new-to-me sock experience? I think not! I’m already casting on. Not sure who these are for yet.


I originally went to Birkeland Bros. to get a new set of 4mm bamboo dpns. I was trying to knit the lace edging on the ruffle of the Unmentionables and by the third time the heavy aluminum needle slid out of all the stitches I got cranky. It’s a very fiddly process even with the light and somewhat more sticky bamboo but it’s infinitely less crazy-making. And worth the price of 2 balls of sock yarn as well as the needles.

I now have 5 of the requisite 8 hearts knitted but only the first one has been fulled. I’m giving myself a week to get them completed and in the mail. I have a guild meeting on Thursday but it’s an evening one so I still have the day available. I’m on library duty again this time! I love that job. Not the least of which is that it gets me out of the executive meeting early. Playing with books and magazines and chatting is good too.

Oh right. I promised to talk about podcasts. They are sometimes the only thing that gets me through the boring housework stuff or anything else where I can’t knit at the same time! First the disclaimers. My favourites are ones that have interesting commentary, interviews or stories and not necessarily about knitting. I sometimes get bored with the “what’s on my needles” and the “ooh, yummy yarns” and also have trouble following anything too technical when I can’t see what they’re talking about. The voices have to be enthusiastic, not a monotone. Being somewhat hard of hearing, I’m more visual than audio oriented so it has to be fun enough to keep my attention or my mind wanders. I also have a very odd sense of humour and I don’t always find the same things funny as you might. And vice versa. These things are very personal and what turns someone’s crank doesn’t necessarily work for another. Don’t forget that sometimes old podcasts fade away and new ones begin so check the listings often.

In alphabetical order, my current top faves are Cast On with Brenda Dayne, CraftLit with Heather Ordover (books read by chapters), Craftsanity with Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood (interviews with many different craftspeople), Knit Picks’ Podcast with Kelley Petkun, limenviolet (very fun but can be raunchy), Socks In The City with Carrie Barraco (just started listening to this one), Stash and Burn with Jenny and Nicole, Sticks & String with David Reidy from Australia, and WeaveCast with Syne Mitchell (not knitting of course). There are others too but if you’re new to podcasts this will keep you busy listening for quite awhile! There’s also Let’s Knit2gether with Cat which is a video podcast rather than just audio. Download episodes of all these individually or better, subscribe through iTunes. If you don’t like it, just unsubscribe! Easy peasy.

Question To Ponder

Why are so many knit-related podcasts created by Texans? Is it something in the water there? Do they just have a lot to say? On the other hand, I don’t think any that I’ve listed are Texan due to one of my favourites having podfaded. Yes, that’s a word.

A Sockish FO

Pink Froth Socks

For 3-year-old granddaughter

Yarn: Sisu, 80% wool/20% nylon, 160 m = 50 g, colour 1001, dyed with acid dye
Needles: Clover Takumi 5” dpns, 2 mm.
Pattern: Modified Basic Socks on 52 sts, cuffs ruffled then 2/2 ribbed for 2”, heel flap is 2/2 ribbed & cont rib on top of foot, foot 4.5” before toe, dec to 5 sts each needle, dog-ear reduction. Completed socks are 6.25” long.

Ruffle Pattern:
CO twice the number of stitches needed for cuff. K 1 round, p 1 round, k 1 round, k2tog around, begin ribbing.

Comments: Socks are cute though the ribbing didn’t segue as nicely down the foot as I might have liked. I haven’t come up with any improvements though. As usual I could have gone a bit further on the foot before beginning toe decreases. Next pair will need to be on 56 sts and go 5” before toe decreases! I already have the yarn dyed.

Note that I tried yesterday to get a photo of her wearing the socks, but Little Miss Independence decided that it would be more fun for her to take a photo of me instead. She got my arm:


And then most of my face:


Very artsy photography for a 3-year-old methinks. Heh! I fruitlessly tried to show her how to look at the screen to see what was in the shot before she took it but she kept trying to squint through a non-existent viewfinder like it was an old film camera instead of a digital. I have no idea where she got that from since her parents also have a digital camera and I’m pretty sure they’ve had one since she was born. Interesting. At least with digital, you don’t have to concern yourself with wasting film on wild shots when a small child wants to harness her inner Annie Leibovitz. All she wants to see is the photo in the preview screen. After that her interest in it wanes and she’s content to let it go. It’ll be fun to work with her on learning how to take more deliberate photos, then actually edit and print them out.

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten to the gussets on the OYT Socks for T-Man and will be heading down the foot soon. I also got a hint of what The Ninja wants for his birthday socks which are my next project. I already have a grey ragg wool but I plan to overdye them and the request was for a soft burnt orange which will be automatically muted by the grey wool. I’m actually kind of surprised at his choice of something other than black, white, grey or red which are his usual colours. Must be mellowing in his old age of nearly-34. Akkkhhh!! My baby boy is turning 34! My own birthdays whip by with nary a ripple in my consciousness but my kids’ birthdays are a lot more traumatic to me. Why is that? I like them as adults with their own lives and interests and wouldn’t go back to their childhoods again even if I could. It’s more fun right now to spend the occasional special time with my offspring’s offspring instead of the 24/7 of parenthood. I truly enjoy being Granny. But I guess there’s still a whiff of the young mother I was lurking around in my brain.

Changing the subject completely (as I am wont to do), I’d like to share a couple of things that I’ve been amusing myself with lately as I work. One is Jane Thornley from Nova Scotia. If you love colour and texture, she is your knitter (and photographer)! Her website is lovely just to look at but do read it as well since she’s an excellent writer. She has links to her free patterns, just to get you started on her style of “free-range” knitting, and more elaborate patterns and a book to purchase in digital or paper format. Some kits are also available if you aren’t into foraging for fabulous yarns yourself. Jane also leads fibre excursions to inspiring places such as Tuscany and Morocco if you are so inclined. She even makes jewelry that coordinates with her knitting. I just love to ogle at everything on her site.

Another thing I’ve been doing is listening to a lot of podcasts. I still haven’t caught up to date on most of them and when I get close I find yet another interesting one to subscribe to. Current favourites (besides the popular Cast On, Craftsanity, CraftLit, Weavecast and Lime & Violet) are Sticks & String, Yarnspinners Tales, Stash & Burn, Knit Picks and Craftcast. There’s even a video podcast Lets Knit2gether. Of course some are more professional than others and some may not turn your crank the way it does mine. Or vice versa. You might even have a fave that I’ve never tried. I’ve only recently discovered Stitch Stud & His Bride, which I didn’t try originally because of it’s rather dopey title but it’s really rather good. And Canadian. I’ve also learned a new word, “podfaded”, which means a podcast that has not been updated in quite some time. There are a number of those as well as ones that have been definitively ended by their host. I think it’s far more polite to tell the listeners if you aren’t planning to podcast any more but I can see how the wish to put out an episode is still strong enough not to close that door entirely. Oh, and when I get tired of crafty talk (as if!) there’s lots of Celtic and other folk music podcasts to listen to.

You don’t need an iPod to listen to podcasts, just a computer will do. Though if you have another portable device that can play MP3s then you can be more mobile. I use iTunes on the computer and Pocket Tunes on my Palm T/X and load my podcasts onto my SD card through a card reader slot on my computer and then just pop the card into the slot on my Palm. If you don’t want to subscribe through iTunes (though it makes it all awfully easy), you can just manually download the file from the podcast’s website onto your hard drive. Of course the video podcasts won’t play on my Palm so I watch them on the computer instead. The big advantage of audio podcasts is that your eyes and hands are free to work while your ears are engaged! I’ve been getting a lot of spinning done.

Which brings me to my madder-dyed yarn. I think I made a mistake in plying my slightly more orangey wool with my more rosy wool. The yarn looks and feels perfectly fine it’s just that I only have 2 skeins worth of this combination and almost 2 more skeins left of rose plied to rose. Neither one is quite enough on its own for the main colour of my planned sweater. Perhaps I’ll have to use the one with the smaller amount for the borders and the larger skeins for the main sections. I might also decrease the area of plain knitting by working more rows of the feather and fan lower section, bringing it up to just under the bust. In a pinch I can make a vest rather than a cardi but I think I’d rather have the sleeves than not. We’ll see when I’ve finished more spinning and plying and calculating.

Autumn in the Morning; Summer in the Afternoon

The weather has cleared up quite a lot and apart from a little rain Saturday and more overnight into Sunday, it’s been very nice. It’s still very cool in the mornings though. My bedroom was 13 Celsius this morning which makes it hard to get out from the warm covers and a bit chilly getting dressed! (Nothing like an ice-cold bra to wake you up.) It warms up outside after noon to the low-20’s which is quite acceptable and the actual house temperature is not as cold as my bedroom. We aren’t planning on turning on the furnace for awhile yet unless we have to. I’m hoping this carries on into October. But I’m not holding my breath — just enjoying it while I can.

In other news, I’ve sadly deleted the Spindlicity button from my sidebar. There hasn’t been a new post since last winter so I figure the editor, Janel Laidman has other yarn to spin. There hasn’t even been a notice posted to the Yahoogroup since April. If she does get another issue up, I’ll restore the button. Otherwise I’m wasting people’s time with a link to a very old issue. On the other hand, there is a Lughnasadh issue of Anti-Craft if you haven’t seen it. (Their goth-y sense of humour cracks me up!) Also an August issue of MagKnits that was new to me. It’s still the older summer issues of all the rest of the online magazines. New ones should be coming up soon. Including one that’s not yet on my sidebar: Spindle and Wheel. Allena has done 2 issues so far and promises the next one soon. It’s full of great tutorials and has new extras weekly (or thereabouts). Do check it out if you haven’t seen it yet. I’m not sure if past articles remain because I can’t find any archives. Read it while it’s hot!

While I’m waxing poetic about online magazines, how about the podcasts that keep me working when otherwise I would either be bored or quit to go read something instead? My favourites (in no particular order depending on my mood) are Cast On, CraftSanity, Lime & Violet, Sticks & String, KnitWit, CraftLit, WeaveCast and Craftcast but there are lots more. I especially like interviews, essays and books read to me. Sometimes I even like the music, particularly the humourous songs, though it can distract from the point of the discussion so I don’t really miss it when there is no music included. Some podcasts are more serious and some (like Lime & Violet) are hilariously silly. All are a great entertainment when my hands and eyes are busy but my brain is not fully engaged. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have an iPod so I use my Palm T/X. If I work near my computer I could listen directly from iTunes through my speakers (but that’s not usually as satisfactory because of my hearing problems — it’s just as easy to wear earphones as hearing aids). You don’t even need iTunes if you have some other software on your computer that can play MP3 files. All the podcasts have links on their websites to download the shows directly. Subscribing through iTunes just makes it easier. If you haven’t tried podcasts yet, what’s stoppin’ ya?

So what have I been doing while listening to podcasts? Spinning some more for the Icelandic Shawl. Here’s the Ashland Bay merino colourway Mojave:


Pretty huh? It reminds me of the red rocks in Utah that I so love and though I’ve never seen the Mojave Desert in eastern California, the photos don’t show much in the way of red rocks. Personally I’d call the merino's colourway Capitol Reef instead, but I guess that doesn’t have the same cachet! Now I’m on to spinning the next colour and am aiming for 9 in total.

While we were out walking yesterday, I found an issue of Wild Fibers magazine for the first time in Chapters. I’ve always wanted to read this magazine but hadn’t had a chance to see a copy yet. I was not going to pay US $40 for a 4-issue subscription to Canada when the price for a US address is $28. That is totally out of line with exchange/mailing costs. I paid CDN$8.95 for the issue which is the printed cover price! And somewhat more reasonable I think. I always believed that you should be rewarded for your subscription by it being at least slightly cheaper than cover price. Obviously not in this case. I do hope the store continues to get this magazine in because it’s really quite gorgeous. Kind of the National Geographic for fibre-philes! The photos and articles are very high quality, not how-to’s but stories about the animals, people and lands that provide us with fibres and fibre tools. I’m kinda sorry now that I didn’t get in on the beginning when the mag started publishing in 2004. However US dollars were a lot more expensive for us Canadians then and I stick with my stubborn refusal to subscribe even now. I’ll be looking out for the next issue anyway on our usual magazine runs. Just what I need, more weight for my groaning bookshelves! But you know I can’t help myself.

Amusments Too

Glad I nipped out yesterday morning and got my hair cut and a few groceries while the getting was good. It was really windy again in the afternoon with lashings of rain and yes, we have some snow today! Not much but enough to bring on the winter wonderland feeling. I have to teach a Beginner Spinning class tonight (assuming my students can make it in) so T and I will slog over to the shop later today to do some wheel maintenance. The poor things are really suffering from alternately being used and abused and neglected. They need a little TLC. That’s not “tender loving care”; it’s T and L Care! Even better.

Today I got bored with all the Yahoo lists I’m on and decided to join one for lace knitters. As usual when I join a group, I go in and read some of the past messages to get a feel for what’s going on. Right away I found a reference to a video podcast I’d forgotten about called Lets Knit2gether. I watched the episode on Stitches East which included a great interview with the Jane Sowerby, author of the Victorian Lace Today book I posted about recently. Nice thing about video is you can see the person speaking and in this case a portion of the fashion show featuring Jane’s shawls. A fast internet connection is demanded however.

Meanwhile I’ve been knitting on my SIL socks. I’m already up to the heel turns on both of them. Just shows you that my hands can work on plain socks on autopilot while my brain does other things! The yarn is Fortissima Socka Colori in a bright rainbow colourway. The colour repeats are very short (1 – 1.5”) and they pool just a little with a nice effect. This gives me ideas for further dye-painting my own yarn colours.

I also finally received my winter issue of Knitter’s magazine. I was beginning to think it had gone the way of the fall issues, aka lost in space. I had to email and ask for a replacement for that one, but I got it very quickly after that. This issue is a bit better than the last one, being on colour techniques, but there’s still not much in there that I would knit as is. I haven’t read all of it yet. I’m saving it for tomorrow morning with my tea. That’s before I get my arse in gear to vacuum the main floor. My Spectrum dye and surface design study group are coming over on Saturday so I have to make the joint a bit more presentable. Friday is reserved for vacuuming the basement where the dye studio is. It’s carpeted in kitty litter that the Old Ladies tracked all over. Kind of crunchy under the feet. Yuck. We’re going to be dyeing merino sliver in rainbow colours for our Year of Felting Exploration using Lanaset/Telana dyes. That reminds me. I have to update the instruction sheet and print out copies for all. Plus make a big pot of soup for the potluck lunch. Maybe I’ll use some of the leeks that are still in the garden. If they’re still edible that is.

So ’splain to me why my hairdresser cuts off all the dark hair and leaves the grey? It’s happening more and more every time I go in. I didn’t notice how she did it, but the results are increasingly obvious. Sheesh. You’d think I was somebody’s granny or something. Oh yeah. I am.