Tricotomania and more

It seems that sometimes I need to be bullied to do things. Especially on line things.

I started blogging when MamaCate bullied me into it (and set me up a guest blog on her account).

And now I’ve joined Ravelry. Blame M-H.

These two are some of the nicest bullies on the planet.

And my Ravelry bio is competing for most crap bio ever.

I started searching for people I know and gave up when there were 163 Stephs and the one I wanted wasn’t on the first 2 pages.

I’m JoVE (still can’t believe that wasn’t taken. Thanks for saving it for me folks.) so if you are my friend from some other online thing, like this blog, go ahead and friend me and maybe I’ll even start hanging out over there.

Now, I’m off to have a beer and maybe talk to my pigs.

I took these a week or so ago but delayed getting them off the camera because of Freya’s backlog of iCarly-like movies on there.

So both of these projects have advanced considerably since the photos were taken.

So this is the yarn for the vest. With a bit of the swatch. I tried to photograph this on the sofa but it is kind of camouflaged there. I now have both back and front done. Need to block (at least steam block), sew side seams and then make neck and armbands.

This is the BFL that I dyed with drink mix a while ago (grape & cherry). All the singles are now spun up. I put a lot of twist in so I get a pretty tightly spun plied yarn when I’m done. Not sure there is much there (though maybe toddler socks?) Need to decide on 2 or 3 ply. Feeling like quantity is inadequate for sampling but maybe that is what I need to do.

Well, spring seems to be coming rather early this year. Of course there was much less snow to get rid of than last year. But it still seems really early.

I absolutely loved Sarah’s March needs… posts, especially the first one.  Although things are so bad here in Ottawa, I really liked this bit in particular:

March isn’t the beginning of spring.  It’s the end of winter, but  a long, drawn-out end that needs a stern editor to take it in hand.  All these “extreme windchill warning” plot devices are childish and should be deleted.

My snowdrops are out. This is not a sign of spring. They have the word “snow” in their name for a reason. But they are a sign that spring will be here soon. I’ll let you know when the crocuses are out. That’ll seal it.

I was going to post some photos of yarn and stuff that I took but when I went to download them from the camera it said it was importing 99 photos. I decided Tigger has to download all of that to here computer and then let me have the half dozen that are mine.

She’s been watching iCarly on YTV and on the internet. It is kind of cute. Especially if you are almost 12. And it has inspired her to make little movies. Which is why the camera has so much of her stuff on it. Grrrr. We’ll have to have a word about taking stuff off the camera regularly.

Of course the photos I took the other day are now out of date. I had intended to post a “my yarn is here” post with my lovely camo yarn (only camo on my aubergine coloured sofa but wonderful. And now I’ve got the back of the vest finished and have cast on the front and knit a few rows.

I’m also in the middle of Marge Piercy’s The Third Child which is excellent. Romance. Political intrigue. Coming of age. Women’s identity. If you don’t like Piercy you won’t like it but I do like her (though I have never read Woman on the Edge of Time).

Okay, back to whatever useful stuff I need to do.

All this work work is taking over my days. I’m feeling unbalanced. And now that the website has launched, I should be able to get in a rhythm of doing a few hours a day to keep things going and then do other things.

But the only thing on the needles is a pair of socks for my dad. They are moving right along, not least due to a long and boring meeting earlier this week

And I wear that vest I knit a lot. I had even considered joining in on Vest-u-ary but didn’t get my act together.

So the other day I decided to look around in the Knitty archive and see if anything grabbed me

This vest looks like a good option. But then I needed DK weight yarn. I figure it might look good in a handpaint or semi-solid and I’ve wanted to try some Briar Rose yarn for a while… So I ordered a skein of Glory Days, described as “dark cranberry” colours. With all the difficulties of judging colour on a computer monitor, I decided that there was no interpretation of “dark cranberry” that i wouldn’t like. And it is BFL! One of my favourite fibres.

It’s in the mail. Which means I can’t knit with it yet.

I also found something that would look really cute on Tigger. She can wear a women’s extra small now so that opens up a lot of interesting possibilities. We like  Yosemite. And I think Elann has some cotton/hemp that would work in colours she loves. (She ooh’d at the orange but then saw that deep purple, so I think it might be purple.)

Haven’t ordered it yet. So can’t knit with it. (There seems to be a pattern here.) But should probably get on that. It does look like an interesting knit. And a cute top for spring, fall, and cooler summer days. (Mat has a hemp t-shirt and I know he finds it warmer than cotton.)

Maybe now that she can wear women’s sizes, I should go through the old Interweave Knits mags that are lying around. I’m pretty sure there are some cute summer camisoles in there…

You know that project that I started on or around December 30th? Well, I have a back and a front and about 3″ of both sleeves. Sorry, I forgot to take photos while it was still daylight. Maybe I’ll add some tomorrow. This project goes quickly. There is something about a relatively simple repeat that just encourages you to knit that next row, and the next one, and …

I’m thinking about what’s next. There is a sweater in the time-out basket that I’ve been avoiding. (backstory here, and here, and here)  Looks like I started it 2 years ago. I had it finished but the sleeves were too long. After a while, I tried it on and the body wasn’t quite right either. I took back a bit at the shoulders, sewed them back on, and picked up around one armhole to knit the sleeve downwards. And then it has been so long that I don’t know what I was doing and the whole thing seems daunting and like it isn’t going to be the sweater I envisioned. Not only that but one skein was redder than the others and I decided to use it, alternating with a bluer skein, around  the waist area. And then it looked like I wasn’t going to need all the yarn I have so I could have just skipped it.

So as I knit this lovely denim-y blue sweater, I get in a kind of calm space. And I think “Why not rip that other one out and start again.” It’s been quite a while. It would be more like buying new yarn and starting a new project then fixing something gone wrong. And I could start from the beginning. The yarn is great. Koigu bouclé. But I think I overthought the design the last time. (It is interesting that I ordered the pattern for this blue sweater when I was planning what to do with that Koigu stuff.)

So my plan is to rip it out, reskein the yarn, wash it and let it dry to get the kinks out. Then knit a sweater bottom up using the Shapely Tank pattern to start because it fits sooooo well. I see in those old posts that this was also my original plan which got sidetracked somehow. When I get to the armholes I’m going to pause and start the sleeves and knit them to there, join it all and knit the top raglan style. Must decide on a neckline but I have a lot of knitting to do before that becomes crucial.

In any case, ripping and reskeining the yarn seems to be the right first move. Gets a half-finished not very satisfying sweater out of the basket and puts very nice yarn back in stash where I might be inspired to do something with it.

I’m also very tempted by Sarah’s Vest-uary.  The vest I knitted recently is getting a lot of wear. I’m wondering about doing something with some Silk Road Aran Tweed that I have in the stash (some of which I used for a modified Otis that was too short-waisted and now lives with J.).

I’m also thinking that though my red Manos sweater has got a lot of wear, I’m not wearing it much this year. In searching the links for the first part of this post, I notice that I was wearing it so much I was starting to get sick of it back in 2006, so maybe I have worn it enough. I’m thinking that ripping it out and reknitting something else might really get me my money’s worth from that yarn. It looks great with both pairs of cords (which I seem to live in in the winter). Maybe a vest in that would be a good option.

Much to ponder as I knit the sleeves of my denim-y blue thing. And I really should cast on some socks for my dad, whose birthday is at the end of February. My LYS seems to have stopped stocking Regia Silk (which he loves) but they have JaWool Silk instead. So I got a brown one. It’ll be stripey but subtle, I think.

I’m on a roll. I think the knitting funk is over.

So, you may recall that the vest project began when I bought a Fleece Artist Celtic Vest kit at the LYS only to discover that it only had enough wool for a small. After some delusional knitting, I reskeined the yarn and it sat in the stash for a bit. Then I went to Rhinebeck and bought the Manos de Uraguay with a vague plan (enough for a vest).

Once I finished the Manos vest, I cast on the Celtic Vest and knit the small. Tigger is almost a women’s small these days anyway. I wasn’t sure if it would suit her but I have at least one friend who wears a women’s small so I figured there was a back-up plan. Well, it is DONE. And it looks GREAT on Tigger.

  We don’t have a shawl pin for a closure but that kilt pin works pretty well (and we don’t have a kilt, either).

I also did that last fiddly bit of Jaali. I though that there wasn’t enough neckband to go around the back so I knit a bit more and then there way and I hate sewing that kind of thing on but …

  I love it. Very soft and comfy. Now I just need to make that pair of pants because this isn’t really the time of year for those chinos.

And some more yarn came from Elann the other day (in denim blue). I’ve already started another sweater for me (the Keyhole Sweater, if you hit the search contents button).

Maybe I should cast on some socks for my purse, as well.

Our celebrations started with a party on Saturday, December 20th. Our first time attending, this is the annual do of one of the more active members of our church (and of Integrity Canada, if you are familiar with Anglican politics), a man that I like very much. It was a great party. But, as I was drinking the fabulous Cosmopolitans that his roommate made, I was aware of a faint tickling in the back of my throat as if I were coming down with something.

Sure enough I awoke Sunday  morning with a definite feeling of coming down with something. That and a minor snowstorm made me decide to forego church and lie on the sofa. I did a lot of lying on the sofa this past week. (Better now, thanks.) I finished my vest which I then wore to several of the activities later in the week.

  The Back-to-School Vest from Fitted Knits. It is a great pattern. (Errata for this book can be found here. There are a couple of errors in the pattern.) The wool is Manos de Uraguay that I bought at Rhinebeck in the fall. I thought it took all 6 skeins (and had ripped out my swatches to finish it) but I found a full skein today. That tells you all you need to know about the state of my living room. I knit it to the gauge suggested in the pattern which is tighter than the ball band gauge but worked fine. The vest looks very odd lying flat because the ribbed section pulls in so much but that makes it fit well. The top part is in a stitch pattern that doesn’t pull in but there are also darts to add width to the bust area. I am very pleased with it. And, as you can see, it goes well with my cords. I have 2 tops that are exactly the same colour so having the vest makes wearing those with the cords possible.

Monday evening we met my parents and my brother and his family for dinner at a country inn, the gift of my father. It was quite pleasant. I always dread that kind of occasion but no one said anything inappropriate and apart from running out of energy to hold my head up due to the something I had come down with (just a cold but energy sapping nevertheless) was a fine evening. We went to my brother’s place for a nightcap  before heading home. My first time in his house. It is very nicely decorated and welcoming. He was kind of quiet and formal but he did invite us over and, despite my weariness, I decided to accept that invitation as a gesture of friendliness. And his wife and kids were very cheerful and friendly.

Tuesday there must have been something but I forget what. More lying in the sofa, no doubt.

Wednesday my parents came over in the late afternoon and Mat cooked up a storm — lamb roast, pommes dauphinoise (which I think are the same as scalloped potatoes though he doesn’t skimp on the cream. He is English.), squash, rote kohl that I had preserved earlier in the fall (one of my dad’s favourite dishes; yes, I gave him a jar) and maybe something green though I can’t recall what. Broccoli? Mat’s dad’s fruit cake (also English) for dessert. Again, all went well. We talked about politics — the bailout, the transit strike, etc — and that worked remarkably well. I was too tired to stay up for the late church service so Mom and Dad took Tigger (who was serving), Mat went over to our friends’ place to babysit so they could all go (the advantage of having an atheist in the family), and  I stayed home and went to bed by about 10:30.

Christmas morning we had a quiet family thing involving pancakes and opening presents. Just after noon we picked up a friend from church and headed to our friends’ place for Christmas dinner, with Mat’s lemon tart and a selection of cookies in hand. Another very pleasant afternoon and evening though my friend had had a migraine for a week.

Somewhere in there we did this:

  A jigsaw that Mat’s parents had made from a photo they took on their trip to the Gaspésie in the fall. 520 pieces. A great photo and ideal for a jigsaw. Challenging but not frustrating.

Boxing Day we went out to a cottage other friends had rented for a week and went snowshoeing (with our new snowshoes, our present to each other) and hung around by the woodstove chatting, eating good food and generally enjoying the company.

And that was it for festivities. Since then Mat has been finishing the kitchen floor and is now onto the trim. He also has all the materials to finish insulating the basement. He’s feeling productive.

I’m knitting. And I dyed a white linen shirt that I haven’t worn in a couple of years so that I might wear it. It is a kind of denim-y blue and I think will work well with my other cords. Or even under that vest (which has some blue in it) with some jeans or something. And I plan to take down the decorations tomorrow because they have been bothering me ever since they went up. The living room looks even more cluttered than usual.

I will leave you with this:

  Another gift from Mat’s parents. It is a pastel of the view from their window in Kendal, Cumbria, done my his mom. I love it. Must get it framed and find a piece of wall to hang it on.

(All those photos will be bigger if you click on them, btw.)

Jeri from my knitting list posted a link to a clip from this week’s Colbert report. Woman stopped at the border because of her knitting. Very funny.

I can’t figure out how to embed it so Americans can click here. Canadians have to go to The Comedy Network and find the Colbert Report. This link should work, it is clip 2.

Back in October I bought some Manos de Uraguay  yarn with the intention of knitting a vest (or, for the English, a tank top or waistcoat). If memory serves, this stuff is somewhere between a chunky and aran weight. I’m thinking of shocking my IRL knitting friends by not only demonstrating that I own needles thicker than 4mm but that I am prepared to knit with them.

I’m sort of thinking about winging it. But I’d welcome pattern suggestions, particularly for ones with interesting design details.

I’ve looked at the Knitty archive and like Honeycomb but it is for finer wool (might have to find something else to knit that in…). I also have a pile of Interweave Knits magazines around if you want to guide my dive into those.

I’m about a women’s XL, prefer V or scoop necks, have a waist, kind of long in the body, and 5′7″ if that helps with thinking of stuff that might look good.

You are going to have to imagine this because I didn’t go and get the camera. I’m not at all sure I’m even a good enough photographer to do this justice. So close your eyes and … Oh yeah, you have to read. Well, whatever, but imagine.

Last night Tigger ended up swapping beds with her dad so she was in with me. Her alarm still went off at 7 and she did get up and fetch the laptop so she could write for a bit. I was not really interested in getting up or even really being awake but I told her she could pull back one side of the curtain for light. I find daylight much less disruptive than a bedside lamp.

So I’m lying there half awake looking out the window and I notice the top of our neighbour’s now bare tree against the sky. It was clear this morning but at this time of year even clear sky is quite grey, particularly first thing. And the branches were a lovely brown, kind of cinnamon coloured in places where the sun hit them. And as I looked at various points over about a half-hour period, the sky got a bit bluer (though still that sort of washed out blue of winter). The juxtaposition of those browns against that grey to blue-grey sky was amazing.

I found myself thinking of Steph’s scarf and how cool it would be to have one yarn of long sections of colour varying from the grey to blue-grey and another of the browns and knit a stripey scarf like that. But I don’t think yarns like that exist. So occasionally through the day I’ve just been thinking about those colours. I might try finding one of the grey-blue and one of the brown and doing a shadow box scarf… Hmm, maybe I could do a seaman’s scarf with the rib section striped and the tails in the shadow box…. Hmmmm….

I do worry that those of you living much further south than I do will not know what I mean by this winter sky colour. I’m not sure if your sky is the same colour at all. Which also makes me think that maybe Becky’s sky is different again, as she is much further north than I. But I was quite inspired by those colours even though it is all quite vague still.