Goodbye to WEBS !!

I think we've had three parties at WEBS in the last week: not only do we love to knit, we love a send0ff. And, lucky me, I'm the one being sent off. In the top picture, I'm wearing a present that I think is not originally a hat, but reminds me of what one wears to Ithaca's 8-sided school house, back in the days when one knit without a commercial alternative.

The other pictures feature the four tiaras I was given; and you'd need to know the Princely Prince Charles story to understand why so many great minds thought alike in giving me tiaras: "I'm a Winner."

I have made wonderful friends at WEBS, staff, teachers, and knit-along regulars. Such a snappy community, of edgy, witty, concerted, varied women. We learn from each other, about slip stitches and canine lupus and matters of the heart. What a rich six months for me!

Sharon, Barbara, Kathy, Marlene, Rina, Pat, Pixie, Beth, Jenny, Gail, Nicole, Dori, Louisa, Karen, Leslie Anne, oh my: thanks for sharing, laughing, and commiserating.

bathroom pictures

Good morning, Kangaroo yarns. I guess I won't be showering early this day. All my beauties have aired overnight, and feel ready to be wound today.
Above and below: wool with a bit of tencel, for sheen, a la J-Knit Stunning. We did two parcels of this, at 450 yards apiece, so lovely Sharon Burke and I can do identical scarves, a pattern that Dori Betjeman designed and displays at WEBS. I think this forest floor color range might be superb; it's the one I'm probably most excited by, maybe because I know what garment it's heading toward.
The other green colorways yarn is Green Mountain Spinnery's wool/mohair blend ("Mountain Mohair"), a 140 yd skein Gail had given me. It was my first try with the green blendings of dye.
And here's the kid silk haze. I'm not a little relieved to witness it fluffing up and drying away from the sodden matted plops it was yesterday. Gail and I set two chairs on her porch about twenty feet apart and strung this out, so we could, after tying it neatly along the ways, make long colors before it would repeat. Dyeing it in two bowls, I created at first what looked like the leftovers at a beauty shop. But it seems to be becoming. Will be tricky to wind, no?
Trying a range of reds on "O" merino wool, which I bought yesterday at the Shelburne shop, Metaphor Yarns:
And here's sock yarn Gail gave me, the same yarn she dyes her sock yarn for WEBS:
And now, on with the day.

Samantha Six

This one touches on majesty. The button choice is rare. Samantha remains my favorite girl baby present. Drat, the color of the photo doesn’t get the deep raspberry, mixed with hidden tone of blue. dark. Look deep into the top right corner of the front, and think even darker.

This Kate Gilbert pattern always draws me. This one for baby Saia Mizrahi, born on 2 June. The bold reds will take well into November and February. I can't wait to meet her, on my return to Ithaca next week.

I spent all afternoon dyeing, with my WEBS friend Gail Callahan, the fine KANGAROO DYER, whose new book on hand-dyeing will be published in January by Storey Press. (See her ETSY shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=57917; and her web site: http://www.kangaroodyer.com/index.htm

Gail and I had a fabulous three hours. I got to dye that "O" wool, some Green Mt Spinnery Wool/Mohair, some wool/tencel that's exactly the same as J-Knit Stunning (for twin scarves a Webs friend and I want to do), some Kid Silk Haze, in long variegations (by winding the yarn around two distant porch chairs), and a silk scarf. I'm off to hang them now, so I can wind them tomorrow.

Mo's Aran Sweater Pillow

What a great present for Mo, who’s brought me several Irish sweaters from her Galway travels over the years. This centers on and begins with the “three-hour aran,” a one-sided allusion to the sweaters she brings stateside every year. Then I running-stitched the sweater onto a twelve-inch stockinette square. Then knit a forty-eight-inch border, about two inches wide, with one fat cable running around between garter stitch edging. To ease the boredom of doing the edge, I simultaneously knit another, plainer–to not compete–12-inch square, using the “blackberry” bubbles to echo the popcorn on the sweater.

Thought I’d have to find a weenie 12-inch pillow, but with the edging of course the outcome is a plush 14-inch throw pillow. I stayed up late, for me, last night mattress-stitching it all together. and LOVE IT. (And Mo will love it.)

I used WEBS' Valley Superwash, and #6 needles. (I knit/closed the pillow into the pillow covering, so even though it's all washable, I'm not making it easy to do that: don't drink wine next to this one, Mo.)

I salute those who have knitted an entire aran afghan (see Great American Aran Afghan on ravelry and elsewhere), for such a long-running and intricate project. I’ll never do one, but will do lots of pillows in the future, both aran and fair isle (I already have some plans for fair isle sweater pillows), and who knows what else.

a little catch up

I've been busy in May, with a three-day wedding, a niece's Yale graduation, and Elizabeth's becoming Doctor Bogel. I've also been spending more money than I can tally with three dogs having Lyme disease (blech; the nicer person would feel sympathy for the dogs; I feel sorry for my bank account). Yesterday, I got myself tested for Lyme disease, at the Northampton ER, and seem not to have it, since no one's called me with positive test results: and I'm the only one with health insurance.

In the interstices, at the top of the page, is a three-hour aran sweater I made on Tuesday. Three-hour sweater! faster even than a baby sweater for this one is a one-sided, 9-inch "allusion" to "real" sweater. It will get sewn onto a square--which I'm in the process of knitting, to become a pillow. From The Great American Aran Afghan.

I've also made progress on Luella, the cotton vest cardigan:

And worked up a little demi-tam, out of yarn I dyed, in Gail Callahan's workshop at the MA sheep and wool festival: an organic wool from the Green Mountain Spinnery. The hat took one skein, of undyed gray, and I dyed a second skein, of white, which I'll knit another hat from.


Here's a version of Kate Gilbert's "syncopated cap," done in Regia sock yarns:

Tonight I listen under the stars (and knit onward making the aran pillow?) to my dear friend's two-person Blue Grass band, The Don't Tell Darlings, on tour in my part of Massachusetts. Have a listen: http://www.myspace.com/donttelldarlings

Luella

I just started this one, which I'm aiming to give to Schuyler, should it fit (I've been having challenges lately about who fits what, what fits whom). A summer robin's egg blue vest, in cotton with a touch of rayon for drape (Berroco Touché). It's a free Berroco pattern with the regional name "Luella." When I noticed pretty much everything I've knitted this past month has been in tones of brown, I thought it advisable to lighten up color wise.

I'm now mother of Doctor Elizabeth, while she, just back from Africa, without even her internal clock readjusted during graduation rituals in Boston, has taken wing to Paris, to hike in the French Alps with a dear high school friend, before returning to NY and MA, and driving west to Seattle. But she's clothed, should it be intemperate, in new sweaters from moi.

That's Connie's design, and isn't it a beauty! Fleece Artist Woolie Silk 3-ply.

So now, onward to Spring colors, and armless fast-knits.

Zebra Pakuna

Four-fifths of this sweater is a rush, a dash, a few evenings’ stockinette. Then, as though I’d come to the great jungle river, there’s the cautious slowing down, the tediousness of wrapping each strand over the other, the switch-ups, the sleep-inducing slog of the corrugated ribbing. But, having finished that and so feeling sassy, I’ll not complain, except to say I’m not complaining. Quite a bit of satisfying edge and collar work to do, which pulls the sweater together.

Thanks to Pat Ocelet, top, and Dori Betjeman for modeling this sweater at WEBS. (Dori is the knitter's guru, the fearless leader of my Advanced Fearless Finishing Class; Pat O is a knitting pal in several weekly drop-in-knit-alongs, also at WEBS.) It was excellent to fit the sweater onto actual bodies, since the asymmetry made it challenging to envision how it would suit a person, and where to put the single button.

We opted for no button, so the recipient could place the --what's it called?--where the lines fell right.

As you can see from the two bottom pictures, after photographing friends at WEBS this afternoon, I added a braid at the left neckline, to cover the awkward transition from corrugated ribbing to stand-up collar: a successful little trick.

I modified the pattern--Berocco, #277 Pakuna--to fight boredom, by putting in the various lines of contrasting color all about. I didn't use Peruvia (though it's very nice), but kept plugging away at the Cascade Eco Wool I'd bought much of during WEBS' April sale.

And I thought of this as being, in an abstract sort of way, an homage to zebras, and a present to Elizabeth on her return from South African Safari (zebra...). I still believe in the zebra allusion, but don't think the sweater's going to fit Doctor Liz, think it will be a bit small.

If that's the case, Schuyler will get a Zebra Pakuna (and if it doesn't fit or suit her, on to my next smallest friend...).

Knitting Notes from Abroad

Here's Elizabeth and Camille, a woman she met this week while on budget safari through Kruger National Park, in South Africa. On their way to the Park, before the sights became lions eating Water Buffalo kill, and thirty passing elephants, and one hundred tree-grazing giraffes, and impatient hyenas, on their way, they got to know each other while they knitted. E's been doing row after row of her baby blanket (due date for little Mizrahi is 5 June), and Camille was doing socks, with yarn she'd found hand-dyed in Scotland.

What brings us together and where: the contest winner of the week.

(And Camille, who works in London, is a 2002 Cornell graduate, an English and Classics major: small world, small stitches.)

Tonight Elizabeth will be home, in Boston, after two months in Africa, and will be DOCTOR LIZ on Sunday. Party time in Beantown for everyone who can make it.

Icelandic Improv and Fearless Finishing sampler

I whipped this Icelandic goodie up, after mis-gauging my gauge. That is, I’d started to make a (Lopi) patterned Icelandic sweater for my full-grown son, but soon noticed I’d miscalculated the gauge swatch. So, I took off boldly to make a sweater that fit the gauge. Added lots of Balkan braids, left the neck opening large, so, even though this (Cascade0 Eco wool is quite soft, no neck would be scratched for this project. At the finish, the arms were longer that the body, proportionately speaking. So, I cut the body (with two lines of live stitches on needles), and added a few inches and another braid (to hide the 3-needle bind-off), and VOILA. For some lucky seven-year-old. About four nights of knitting pleasure. And I’m on to another Eco wool project, a Nora Gaughan sweater, having bought mucho at WEBS’ sale, one of the bargains of the world, even when it’s not on sale. Yogi with a summer buzz cut labors to absorb the sun, unimpressed with the sweater.

Here's a first photo of one of the two sampler sweaters, knitted during Dori Betjeman’s “Advanced Fearless Finishing” class at WEBS. I haven’t even finished the zipper, but someone loaned me a bear yesterday at WEBS, so I snapped this picture.

six sweaters in one week

Of course the title lies, but it gets one reading, doesn't it? Three of the sweaters would fit (will fit) teddy bears. They're samplers, as it were, from classes I've been taking, to try out techniques in a small space: four kinds of pockets, steeking, double pick-up neck edging, tubular cast-ons and bind-offs, invisible hems, knitted bias edging for the zippers, on and on. These best-dressed teddy bears, belonging to Ainsley and Eliza, will be the envy of shabbier toys. Three of the sweaters are "real," and have been being juggled one against another for several weeks.

Norah Gaughan's "Manon," in heather brown Cascade 220 super wash, and Connie Chang Chinchio's "Varese Hoodie,"in the variegated Nova Scotian Fleece Artist (woolie silk). Both of them quite wonderful, better of course in life than in the photos. Thanks to NICOLE at WEBS for modeling them today.

I'll post teddy bear sweater pictures another time (it's 95 degrees here at 5:00 p.m.), and the sixth sweater is a Zimmerman one I started and disliked in March. But I'm hell-bent on finishing all six this week.

Cabling at six thousand miles

Ain't it a little mystery that Elizabeth, down under in Lesotho, southern Africa, can learn how to cable--working on a baby present for her best high school friend--while six thousand miles from Knitting Etc., her knitting mother, and a knittinghelp.com video !! She emailed this picture, to brag about her first cables.

ooops

I've overlooked this poor knitting blog, perhaps because I've been jumping from sweater to sweater to hat to "fearless finishing" projects during the last month. And been working on "real life." But here's one of the four sweaters I've finished, or almost finished, the only one I've got pictures of yet: Connie Chang Chinchio's "Far Afield Vest," from Interweave Knits (Fall, 2008). Modelled by pals at WEBS, the vest was an Easter present for my friend and DIL, and still wants its belt. Knitted in Cascade's Eco Wool--on super sale at WEBS--


I'll snap some of the other projects, even if they're not quite finished, and enter another "got gauge" hello...soon.

Elizabeth knits and so do I

I had my last, last visit with Elizabeth, before she leaves for two months working at an AIDS and tuberculosis hospital in Lesotho, southern Africa. After seeing her last Sunday at Alexander's, and seeing her overnight in Boston on Tuesday and Wednesday, with my mother, I met her at WEBS yesterday, for a two-hour stitch and bitch: she's decided to relearn how to knit, to make a blanket for a dear friend's first baby--a good occupation during twelve-hour flights this week, and post-stress evenings in her little apartment in Lesotho. After I'd devised a pattern, with texture, cables--variety--for her, and after choosing the super-wash Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, we sat in one of the classrooms at WEBS, having a knitty visit. So, above, she is casting on and garter stitching a border. We'll hope to post pictures of her cables and so forth as the weeks go by.

And I've made beautiful headway with Connie's Varese Hoodie:


Though I had another five inches, yesterday, to finish the back, and though these colors aren't true, you get the idea.

Connie's Varese Hoodie and tube scarves

My yarn, to knit Connie Chang Chinchio's "Varese Hoodie," for Elizabeth's birthday JUST ARRIVED (and I have to go to Boston for two days, darn, as I'm chomping at the bit to start this). The yarn, in ""Woodland," is Fleece Artist Woolie Silk 3 ply, not an easy yarn to come by, especially in some of its most earthy tones. But I found a seller in Oregon, who sent along a lovely small zipper pouch, as a bonus for spending (almost ) $100: nice.

While I rubbed my needles together waiting for the yarn, I made inordinate use of the Addi Express, an odd "machine," aka turn it clockwise for half an hour, ouch, that knits tubes of a modest circumference. Some years back, Hickory demonstrated for me by "knitting" a mohair scarf, which I gave to my mother, whose friends in her retirement community quite coveted. So, I asked Hickory to send the machine to me in Northampton, and to send a few balls of Filatura di Crosa Multicolor, a mohair/acrylic delicacy. She sent eight skeins. I worked them all into these scarves; then, like the obsessed princess who couldn't think of Rumpelstiltskin's name, made scarves for my grand daughters, scarves for their Lady Alexander dolls, blankets for their Disney fairies--what a way to bust stash!

I'm very ready to resume hand knitting. I've almost finished the February Lady Sweater, which I hardly like at all, though I'm wild for the Jamieson's Grouse Shetland Heather. I can only hope the finished sweater makes me think less often, than it does now, of shapeless old ladies milking the cows in Michigan while they crochet toilet paper cozies.