Almost Spring but . . .

The sun is finally shining and promises to shine for a couple of days this weekend here in the Pacific NW.  Relatives and friends in the NE are stilling digging out from YAS (yet another snowfall).  I am still knitting with wool.  (Don't really like cotton so I continue with wool and blends even during the summer.)

Bot some fabulous Mini Mochi at Weaving Works in Seattle during a yarn shopping trip with friend Darliss. WW is a great shop with a wonderful selection and variety of yarn, plus supplies for weavers.  Also, they have lots of books and notebooks of patterns.  I wish I lived a bit closer as it's a 50+ mile trip one way thru downtown and the worst of the I-5 corridor traffic.

One of the store models was a wonderful shawl that included some leaves and a growing band of stockinette.
 Here's the beginning of the shawl . .

The yarn specified by the pattern was Regia Angora Merino
solid colors.  But I preferred this Mini Mochi in
a color wave that includes dark emerald and some copper

Up close . . .

Will need a good blocking (you can see the pins holding
scarf in place for pix.)  The center section expands while
the leaves travel up each side.

Great pattern at a great price.  This little "journal" from Regia has at least 12 patterns, including a series for babies.  There are hats, scarves, shawl, sox -- variety at a great price.  $6.95 US.

After the expansion, the center stockinette section will decrease its way back to nothing, leaving only the leaves to intersect at the finished (and narrow-again) end of the scarf.

Love the yarn, though I have to watch not to split.  I am using
a US 4 needle.

Really enjoying this one.  It moves along.  It's not too taxing.  The yarn is soft and the colors are yummy.  I will wear it this Spring even if the sun is shining.  I am a knitter.

Fledge 2 -- Happy Birthday to me

Megan Goodacre at Tricksy Knitter does some wondrous things with style, yarn, and photography.  I've made her Fledge Shawl once as a gift.  Very wonderful and so I decided on a second journey through this wonderful pattern.

The first time thru I had some yarn challenges, as in "not quite enuf."  So I bot some coordinated yarn and finished the last of the border (2 rows and bindoff) in the contrast.  Worked out great.

Even better, the leftovers from the skein of Really Red Chugiak, Pagewood Farm, sock yarn had yardage sufficent for a second Fledge Shawl.   Ooooh.

Yup, it's Really Red.
It's a hand-dyed sock yarn from
www.pagewoodfarm.com

Megan's design is just wonderful.  She includes charts and words, plus careful instructions on how to change the size.  In her latest blog she has included notes on choosing a heavier weight yarn, perhaps a sport weight instead of sock.  

She advertises email support with each design and I can attest to a promise fulfilled.  I found what I thought might be an error in the written words in one row, they didn't match the chart.  I emailed her and she agreed and made the correction for her downloadable PDF.

Final dimensions:  48" across the hypotenuse (long side for the geometry-challenged!) and 24" down the center of the back.  The border points are done with a clever stretchy bind-off combined with knitted chains.

Rest rows are inserts of stockinette with yo at ends and center
of each row.  They are a nice break.

So, I will have a new shawlette to adorn my shoulders when I visit friends for lunch on and around my birthday.  It's Really Red -- did I mention that? -- so this accessory will take me into Christmas.

I'm a lucky lady -- I knit and now and then I have enuf yarn to adorn the edge of a gift for a friend and then make something just for me.

Life is good.  Sure hope your knitting adventures are taking you into joy-land.

Mostest Biggest

This one is huge.  The neighbor's tree is shedding, as it does every year about this time.  Found this one on the back deck.  It's the most biggest gigantic-est leaf I've ever seen.  Too bad I can't make sox from it.

Meanwhile, we've had lots of rain, though nothing like the tragic weather events on the East Coast.

 I left this pitcher on the deck the last time I felt a need to water thirsty plants.  That was probably early October.  Someone will have to fact check the first date of our NW rainy season (which will end on July 15, 2013.)  The pitcher holds 2 qts.

Meanwhile, closing in on the last bits of knitted-on lace border for the green lace shawl.  Pattern from Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby, one of my favorite lace designers.  

I've turned corner #3 and am making my way across the bottom
of the shawl.  One more corner and a border repeat to
connect to the starting point.
Hope to have this on the blocking board tonight.

When my elderly eyes weary from tiny stitches, I turn to larger needles and yarn.  You've seen this one before, during a progress report.  It's from Weekend Hats, page 89.  All done.  Yarn is Bernat Waverly, very soft.  I used #7 Kollage square point circular (confused!?) and the Magic Loop Method.

The green hat (though it looks gray) is part of Christmas gift knitting, which is the most wonderful knitting I do.  The quiet time with yarn and needles allows me to remember the person for whom the gift is intended.  Now and then I listen to a Rosary and do some praying.  It's all good.

Meanwhile, more rain, and more of the mostest biggest leaves from the neighbor's tree.  It's Fall in the NW.

Second-Guessing

The first time through a new knitting procedure is always a challenge.  The latest one for me is turning a corner with a knitted on border on a lace shawl.   (Now, THAT was a mouthful, huh!)

Lots of reading, counting, thinking and finally -- the method that works for me.

Suspend everything I think I know about knitting and just follow the directions.  

Works every time.  The only time I've really had big problems with a pattern or a technique is when I tried to second guess the process.

Two pics to show the result.

Just by chance this pic shows the color truest to real life.

Here's to Suspending What We Think We Know.

#17

The last 4-5 months have been marked by a series of "events' in my husband's health -- heart not working correctly, blood pressure too too high, several falls, a week of nose bleeds (you don't wanna know), accommodating to limitations, hospitals, ER trips, etc.

Knitting not so much.

The #17?  In any day, we each encounter event after event.  Some are part of the every day nature of life -- adding laundry detergent to the list so you can do the next load.  Others have more impact -- a trip to the ER at 4:30 am.  Most days we manage the chaos with a minimum of anxiety -- the first 16 items in the daily encounter are a 'piece of cake' so to speak.  It's #17 that can throw us into a tailspin.

Pick your own number and maybe that number changes daily.  Believe me I don't keep a list but I do know -- and so does poor dear husband -- when #17 arrives.  Friday it was the reminder beep from a smoke alarm that the battery needed changing.  #17 -- the smoke alarm is at the apex of a cathedral ceiling and I have no ladder and sure as hell do not wanna listen to that annoying beep all day.

Firefolks to the rescue.  We're lucky to have a program that funds their visit and work to check all smoke alarm batteries.  No more beeping.  Safety assured.

Moving on to the next set of life encounters . . .

Here's the pix of what I've managed to work on, knitting-wise.

  A crocheted Hair Scrunchy.  Love Stitches.

 A couple of hats because I had the yarn, had identified the recipient, I could maybe concentrate enough to finish.  White one  Battleboro Hat from New England Knits, using Bernat Winter White worsted acrylic.  Green one is from Weekend Hats, using Bernat Waverly.

Green lace shawl from Victorian Lace Today.
Center 26,880 stitches are complete.
One side of knitted on border ready to turn the corner.
The celery green is really prettier than the pic shows.

Second time thru the Feldge Shawl by Megan Goodacre
of Tricksy Knitter.  This one is for moi.

Husband and I are looking for the "new normal" -- that series of daily events that are reasonably predictable, even if in total they re-define our life dramatically.  Next is an EP (electrophysiology procedure) to discover more about the heart activity.

I hope to have finished several of the above items before I choose what to put into my knitting bag for a long, long day at the Cardiac Cath Lab.

26,880

Do you ever wonder just how many stitches you are knitting in a project?  I'm a math nerd so this concept is usually lurking somewhere in my brain as I am doing yet another knit, purl, or yarn-over.

For the Shetland Shawl, from Victorian Lace Today, the answer is

26,880 stitches  for the center portion.

There are 70 stitches across each row, using a pattern with an 8-row repeat.  Instructions call for 48 repeats of this pattern chart.

Math nerds do things like this -- 70 x 48 x 8 = 26,880.  Yikes!  If we knew the answer we might not ever ask the question -- and this would mean no more knitting.  Not a comfortable or pleasant outcome (though the nerd in me will likely continue to do the computations.)

For the Shetland Shawl I am making progress toward a finished center portion.  Knit-on border to follow.  I've started this border, a 12 row repeat with double yarn overs to make nice large holes.  Pictures show the details.

If you look at the upper left you'll see the sticky note
I am using to mark 1) the row I have worked and
2) the number of repeats of the pattern.
Remember 48 is the target -- I am at 29.

Here's the border with its accompanying chart.
The 'rule' is that I must finish a 12 row repeat completely
before I put down the needles.  Border goes up one side,
around the corner, across the top, and so on.

Close-up of the border, unblocked.  Size 4 US dpn, same size
as circular used for the center portion of the shawl.

The light is courtesy of the last of the sunny days we can expect here in the Pacific NW.  Days are opening with heavy fog and chilly temps.  Favorite, and oft-asked question:  Has the sun come out yet?

Hoping your sun is shining.

That #Completion Thang

If you Blog, Read, Knit, Quilt, Run, Weave, Spin, Rebuild Cars, Boat/Sail, or whatever you know this for sure -- Life is what happens when you're making other plans.  Old maxim, but oh so true.

• Spent four days at Ocean Shores, WA, with grandson and husband.  Built some great sand castles, ruined my hips on the back of an intractable nag, and flew a wonderful Red Baron kite.  #Knitting -- well only a bit.

• Spent a few hours on two occasions in two different local ER's.  Husband seems to be having a hard time right now.  Slammed thumb in the car door -- 5 stitches.  Last night did a horrible face plant on the aggregate concrete of our front porch resulting in broken nose, abrasions that bleed like crazy, two shiners, a pulpy upper lip, and 4 stitches in knuckle of right index finger.  #Knitting -- not so much.

• Spent a week prior to Ocean Shores with grandson at our house.  Saw the latest Wimpy Kid movie, cleaned out paperwork in office, taught him how to knit, took him to play in the lake.  #Knitting -- not so much.

So I am proud to report the #Completion of a wonderful Fledge Shawl, designed by the talented Megan Goodacre of Tricksy Knitter.  Yarn is by Sweatermaker Yarns, 50 silk / 50 merino.  This yarn is what we will all be using when we reach heaven; it's that wonderful.

Several pix to show you WIP and FO.

Still proud to report I have not started anything new, tho friend Darliss and I went to a sale and bot great yarns.  I gotta tell you I am very very very tempted.  #RestrainingMyself

My friend Darliss

I can see her smiling, my friend Darliss.

Darliss is a great knitter and a great friend.  Her faithfulness makes her the kind of friend it's a blessing to have.  Her knitting makes me wish I were her.

You see, Darliss finishes things.  IMO this characteristic sets Darliss apart as a knitter.  She has a very simple pattern for this activity and accomplishment.   Only four steps.

• *She picks a pattern.
• She buys the yarn.
• She knits till it's finished, including the sewing together part.*
• She repeats from the *.

Now, let's talk about my stuff.  Sure I've got lots of finished projects, gifts, home decor, etc. that I can brag about, but I also have these.

Baby afghan -- crochet, Bernat Baby Softee

Sox, Magic Loop method with Chia Goo #2

Baby Afghan -- knitted, Patons Astra, vintage pattern

Bernat Waverly KAL Afghan -- needs 3 squares (I got bored.)

Cascade Sierra summer cardi I really did wanna wear this season.
(Some would say we haven't had summer, so that's my excuse.)

KAL top down that Knitting Daily did last winter.
Cascasde Superwash 220

Fledge Shawl from Megan Goodacre of Tricksy Knitter.
Sweatermaker Yarns, silk / merino

Patons Kroy sox on 2 sets of DPN's

Plus three (no, wait, four) quilts in various stages in the sewing room.  And more embroidery for pillowcase dolls.

When I grow up, I wanna be Darliss.

Free to Knit

Everyone in the US will do their own personal homage to Independence today.  We're free to do that, to speak and write as we please, even if sometimes our words and pictures offend.

Everyone in the US will have some sort of celebration, probably including food.  We're free to feed the hungry when our own abundance overflows -- and when it doesn't, we still are free to feed the hungry.

Everyone in the US will go about their daily life without restrictions.  We're free to do that, to drive (within the framework of the rules of the road) and to visit and to convene.

But perhaps, just perhaps, all of us here do not recognize that we are also free to do the right thing, not just the thing we think best for us.

Perhaps, just perhaps, this 4th of July will be a reminder that it's not all about me.  There are others who are celebrating, crying, laughing, sharing, and worrying.  We are free to be part of their lives and to lift them up.

We are free to think about others and their needs.

+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

Finished the Arimono Shawl, while on WRT (Waiting Room Time, first cousin to HT, Hospital Time.)

During the last week of finishing, Megan Goodacre of Tricksy Knitter announced the release of another wonderful pattern in hand-painted yarn from SweaterMaker Yarns.  Fledge Shawl in Romance  Great customer service.  Megan emailed me when she realized her pic of the yarn was mis-named.  She held two colors for me until I decided which I preferred.

I'll wind the yarn and cast on for this one.  I promised myself a new something when I reached 2 minutes on bridge/plank.  Done!  and done more than once.  Getting stronger.  Better for knitting.  Core strength helps with everything you know.

+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

We US Catholics are finishing a Fortnight of Freedom.  I am celebrating the freedom I have to be a professed Roman Catholic, to take this belief and faith into my daily life, to worship, to give, to share, to be joyful in Christ.

Happy Freedom Day to each of my US followers and readers.  

Hospital Time

There's God's time, earthly time, and Hospital Time.  If you've been a resident there or sat by the bed of a friend or relative, you know that HT elapses at a pace unknowable to mankind.  I don't think even the docs and nurses and aides can explain HT to you.  HT has a willful mind of its own and can be slower than glaciers and then pass more quickly than synapses in the brain.

Second verse -- sorta same as the first.  Another set of chest pains, a call to 911, EMT's at the house, ambulance trip to St. Joe's, boocoo tests (as in blood, x-ray, dye stress tests), and lots and lots of waiting in between -- all on HT.

I had a flight instructor who explained Flight Instructor Time to me this way:  hours and hours of boring flying punctuated by seconds of sheer terror  (remember there's a student pilot in the left seat, Pilot In Charge.)

HT feels the same way.  Long periods of boredom, bad food, interruptions for vital signs, and then finally a minute or two with someone who can explain test results and next steps.

Meanwhile -- I've grabbed my knitting bag on my way to the hospital.  Of course!

Here's what I worked on, all depending on available mental energy, interest level, and access to decent light.

Snug Sockettes -- from Vanessa at Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts.  Vaness at Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts.  Also on Ravelry if you wanna log in there.  I used stash, left-over Harry Potter sock yarn.  It's Cascade Heritage washable.

All the pics today were taken on the deck, as we finally have a bit of overcast sun.  We call them sun breaks here in PNW, USA.  It's a situation full of hope as in "we see enuf sun we can hope for the full dose soon."

Arimono Shawl -- Megan Goodacre from Tricksy Knitter.  I'm completely addicted to Megan's designs.  Just bot two patterns at her end-of-summer sale.  You might still be able to find a kit for Arimono, using Sweatermaker Yarns.  I gotta tell ya -- this is some of the most wonderful yarn I've ever worked with.  It's silk and cashmere, hand painted.  Tricksy Knitter.

Manchester United scarf -- my design and first experiment with Double Knitting.  Yarn is Patons Astra, sport weight acrylic.  This is very fun.  I encourage you to try something in Double Knitting.

We're home now and much improved.  We both enjoy being on our own time and away from HT.

Me, I prefer KT.

Knitting Time.

Underline Sunny

People in southern, sunny California probably don't have much need for shawls that warm the shoulders.  But there's a mother there I know, one whose first born is flying the nest to college.  The info I have tells me she is already missing him though graduation is still an event in the future, albeit very near future, as in June 20.

The memory and prayer shawl is silk and cotton, not too dense, not too big.  Hoping this special mother will find a time now and then to wrap herself while she's reading during a cool evening or walking the dog early in the morning.  Maybe a wrap for coffee time or even a wrap for a dressy night out.

Do they have cool in sunny California?

From One+One by Artyarns. Design by
Iris Schreier.  Diamond Lace Wrap.

On the blocking board.

This one is definitely for intermediate knitters because of the turns during each of the diamonds.  There's no way to have a life line which can be a comfort and insurance during most lace knitting.  This is quite unique.  In the book it's shown in two colors and it's lovely that way too.

• Yarn:  Classic Silk by Classic Elite Yarns (50% cotton, 30% silk, 20% nylon). That should be OK for Sunny California?
• Needles:  I started with US8 and then upsized to US9.  The 8's made it too tight and dense and the 9's corrected that and matched gauge.

I'm delivering this one.  Lucky me.  It's 60 degrees, cold, wet, rainy and gray -- again, still, ever, yet, always, here in our part of the Pacific NW.  Twill be grand to hit the ground in Sunny California.

Underline Sunny.

325 stitches

Yup that's the count at the end of this one.  Bind off loosely in purl.  The cast-on count?  69.  So lots and lots of yarn overs!

It's a great cape.  Designer is Brooke Nico, with ArtYarns.  The pattern is in their One+One book.

I started it late last week and made it my weekend project.  Steady knitting brings me to Tuesday and a finished item.  Yeah!

It's a prayer shawl.  Dear friend lost her dear friend to suicide.  Fathoming this mystery is beyond the human heart or mind.  A prayer shawl is just one token of remembrance -- a way to tell my friend that I know her loss is deep and unfathomable.  It's a small bit of my heart and prayers, said while knitting, that I will give her tonight as a way to say "I love you, even if neither of us understands."

The yarn is Paton's Canadiana, a superb acrylic that knits up soft and even.  The cape calls for a CCYA 4 weight.  Of course, ArtYarns features their own incredible fibers in all the patterns in One+One.  (The link from ArtYarns takes you to Amazon.  I always hesitate to link to a particular purchase site, so check out KnitPicks or WEBS or your LYS.)

Here are some detail pix.

Whatever that color disclaimer is, you can insert it here _____.   The bottom foto is closer to the 'truth.'

This one has worked up quite smoothly.  It's rated "Intermediate" but only because the pattern, as you can see, is irregular.  The leaves get larger as they fall down the length of the cape/shawl.

• Yes, I'd make this pattern again, definitely.  
• Yes, buy the book.  My purchase was a kind of accidental online selection that's made me happy I erred.
• Yes, I'd love to try any of the designs in One+One, using the ArtYarns specified -- they are all gorgeous and incredible.
• Yes, prayer works.  This I believe.  Amen