Still More Updates

In no particular order...
Mr. SABLE has found a job! It just fell down from the sky on Thursday. We don't have to move. He's starting tomorrow. I didn't realize how anxious I was until I felt the relief. The job is with a fairly new biotech company, across the street from his old employer. He'll be a Principle Investigator, i.e. head of a lab. This will be his first (people) management job and gets him back in the lab, which he's been wanting. Thursday morning, the call came. Thursday afternoon, he went for the interview. By the end of the afternoon, he had signed the offer, accepting it.

I'm busy on projects for the next Knitcircus, so not much to show you in photos. Yet. This issue will be heavy on kids stuff, but we could also use a few more items for adults. If any of you have any patterns you want to send our way, that would be great!

I've also been busy preparing an online pattern shop to be added to the Knitcircus site. We'll be making pdfs available for immediate download of some patterns from previous issues.

And I got roped into doing a sewing project for the 8th grade American history class at Owen's school. The teacher had each of the 8th graders embroider a quilt square with their names, birth dates, and some images that represented their interests. She needed parent volunteers to sew them together. I thought I was signing up to piece together a quilt top, but in fact, I was volunteering to assemble the whole quilt. Hmm. I'll get it done, but it might not be too elegant.

Additionally, Owen's 14th birthday was on Saturday. Yes, he's my Valentine kid. The great thing about teenagers' birthdays is that, as a parent, you don't need to do much at all. I dropped him and three friends at Ultra Zone, a laser tag place. I bought them each three games (and they all got great discounts for bringing their report cards and having lots of A's), left Owen with $20 for for the vending machines, and went back and got them 2 hours later. At home, they played video games, ate pizza, and played more video games. Parents came to fetch them around 5.

We've had wonderful sunny warm weather lately. Today is colder again and we may get snow later in the week. But, I tell you, it does wonders for our collective Midwestern souls to see sun in the sky after 5 p.m. and know that spring really will come again.

Book Review

Knitting the Threads of Time
Casting Back to the Heart of Our Craft
By Nora Murphy
© 2009 New World Library
Amazon Link

Knitting the Threads of Time is a memoir infused with history. Murphy tells the story of knitting a sweater for her son, which becomes a metaphor and life lesson for her as she becomes discouraged, learns new skills, and ultimately rises to the challenge. Along the way, she examines the history and mythology of textile production from ancient cultures to modern sweatshops, embracing simultaneously a pagan-feminist sensibility, a scholar’s interest in accuracy, and a deep respect for many differing spiritual traditions.

As long as there have been humans, there has been a need for clothing. Often the production of textiles has been women’s work and often, too, the resulting objects have risen above merely meeting utilitarian needs. Clothing has denoted power and status within a community since before recorded history. Textile production—once a rare skill infused with sacred power; later, an economic bedrock of empires; at times, a revolutionary act of rebellion, and, eventually relegated to the most oppressed workers as unskilled disposable labor—is a calling that modern fiber-lovers pursue out of love and reverence for that past.

For every knitter who was ever asked, “Why bother knitting when you can buy it at Walmart for $5,” Murphy gives an answer. There is a deep spiritual connection to our past, made physical through our ordinary activities. Yes, I could buy a sweater at Walmart. But I couldn’t buy this sweater. In our industrialized age, with its abundance of throw-away consumer goods, Murphy compels us to consider the importance of one garment: to the knitter, to the recipient, indeed, to our entire unsustainable global economy.

Updates

What have I been up to?

Last Saturday Knitting was a blast. We had quite a crew, including Molly B, Cindy G, Jen, Kathy, Linda, Brenda (no blog name), Dale-Harriet, and ... I am quite certain there was one more person, and I'm going to feel terrible for leaving someone out, but I cannot come up with one more name.

edited to add: It was Sheryl. Silly me.

I know that YarnThrower wasn't able to make it. Hmmm. Now, doing the count, it makes sense. 7 people plus me. There was much laughing and hilarity. Molly Bee's description of her first encounter with a naturalist named Tom had me in such a fit, I was crying from laughing so hard. Truly good for the spirit on a Saturday in mid- to late-winter.

The new Knitcircuses have nearly all been mailed. Jaala still needs to take a few that need international postage to her P.O. If your local yarn shop doesn't carry it, we'll happily send them a sample issue and try to persuade them to do so. We really hope that this will be the issue that breaks even on printing and postage costs. The last one came darn close.

We'll be hosting a Kate Cardigan Knit-along on the Knitcircus group on Ravelry, starting March 1. There are a few technically challenging aspects to the pattern, so I figure if I'm around to walk folks through it, we'll have more success stories.

I've got a couple of boy things in the works for the next Knitcircus. We're hoping to have a cluster of kids items as a focus, so the issue will be useful beyond the season in which it gets released. We're definitely still looking for patterns for the next issue. We will be paying a very modest fee this time, so if you have a pattern you've been sitting on that you would love to see in print, send it along!

I've been chatting with the Sow's Ear about teaching a class this spring. The class will be on working with color: not the techniques, but the design end of it. This should be interesting. I've never taught a class before, except for a bunch of grade school girls learning to knit 9 years ago. I have ideas, but I'm a nervous quasi-public speaker. (You don't believe that, but it's true.)

Finally, I've decided to start offering graphic design services for knitting designers. I can make charts and schematics in Illustrator, create a pattern template, work on logo options, do ad layouts. I don't know how great the demand is, but I figure it might get me a job or two here and there.

Mr. SABLE is still searching for his next job. He had one encouraging call from a person he knew through his old employer. At the very least, it should lead to some freelance consultant kind of work, if not permanent salaried employment.

That's the new.

Itty Bitty Handwarmers and other news

Ah, let's see.

We are in the throes of Too Much Winter already, and it's only late January. I don't mind winter for myself, but I sure hate the effect it has on my family life. We just wrapped up two ridiculously short school weeks in a row, most of it for no real good reason. Everyone hangs around indoors picking fights and sniping. My coping strategy is just to tune it all out, which seems to really annoy my Better Half. I think because he doesn't tune it out, and he feels like he has to make everyone happy. I already know that that is an impossible task and a thankless project, so I don't bother. They won't be happy because that's the human condition.

Well, I did briefly make my kids happy. They were coveting my handwarmers.

Here's one of a pair for the little guy. He loves them.


See how pilly and ratty they are getting already?

I also made Owen a pair of plain black ones from the same black yarn. He's being very teenly today and doesn't want to model.

While I was on a roll with sewing week before last, I also made myself some new pajama pants. I don't have any pictures of them, but they were a great success. The fabric was a piece I found at a thrift shop a while ago, kind of brushed, flannelized knit, with a subtle paisley design. And it only cost $1.

The next issue of Knitcircus ships from the printer Monday. It usually takes 3-4 business days to get here, then we'll get them posted to the subscribers A.S.A.P.

That's the news as we wait until spring and the mental and emotional space that warmer weather will bring.

Evidence of Activity

After all the flurry of work, getting the next issue of Knitcircus ready for the printer, it's hard to believe I have other stuff to show you.


My friend Jim asked me to make him a hat based on my Iron Mountain hat quite a while ago. He picked out the colors from yarns I had in stash, and I started late last winter. Then I parked it. Finally, I dug it out and finished it up. (Shown here on The Little Emperor.) Yarn: unknown stash yarns, around sport or DK weight.


While I was getting all the formatting done on Knitcircus #5, I noticed that my hands often got bone-cold while sitting at my computer for hours at a time. And I thought, maybe after all this time being the last hold-out, I could get in on this trend. So, the world's quickest project: a pair of wristwarmers.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Naturespun worsted wt. superwash. Color: Sable (naturally!) that I picked up in a swap at alt knitting camp last summer. (Thanks Kathy!) On my next pair, I'll make the wrist cuff ribbing longer. For most other women, I'd make these a bunch narrower.


These dishtowels are just a silly little filler project. I found a dress in the bins at Diggers Outlet last summer (all textiles, $1 a pound!) that was really ugly in the sum of its parts, but I liked the fabric. A nice seersucker in a grey-green kind of cotton. As it turned out, I also had a baggie full of cards of vintage rick-rack from a different thrift shop jaunt. This black and white rickrack just seemed to go so perfectly with this fabric.


Another quick sewing project...
Yesterday, I was pawing through all my knitting needles, trying to get sets together and organize them in some retrievable way. It occurred to me that I need another double point case. After digging out the rest of the striped fabric (seen in some shopping totes a few months back), and some remnant heap quilting cotton, I made this one.


The concept is very simple. Two rectangles, one of lining and one of main fabric. Sew together, right sides together, leaving an opening for turning. Don't forget to get your button loop inserted in the seam! Turn, press, fold over ends. Topstitch flap in place. On the other side, sew parallel lines to hold needles. Sew on a button.


Voila!

Knit Circus Issue 5 Preview!

Here are my three contributions to the upcoming Issue 5!

The Rosepole Cardigan


The Kate Cardigan


The Angularity Vest

See the entire Issue 5 Preview Page!

Pre-order Issue 5! Expected ship date Feb 1.

Socks!

Yesterday I started the Charade Socks, by Sandra Park. This pattern is a free Ravelry download. I was playing around with the LittleFreak sock yarn, trying to make the best use of the long sections of color. Each length of color in this skein would make about 1 round of a 72 st sock. I was hoping to make a cool effect with pooling, and played around with a few ideas before I hit on this plan.

This sock is worked on 68 sts, on size 0 needles, which creates a bit of overlap on the brown color. This is resulting in a very subtle spiral winding down the sock, which otherwise alternates a round of green, a round of brown. The herringbone columns in the pattern are subtle (and would be great in a solid yarn) but I think they add a nice touch to this and make a play of texture in the color that works pretty well. It's also a fun pattern to knit: quick to memorize and, so far, not boring.

Knitting Content!

Ok, it's not the most awe-inspiring knitting ever, but, hey, it's knitting. This is a hat for my brother. Just a basic watchcap, 2 x 2 ribbing, over 120 stitches. This is Blue Sky Alpacas 100% alpaca. It took most of two skeins because I wanted a nice generous fold-up brim. This yarn is so soft and warm, I might need to make one for myself!

Here it is on Owen:


And then, I cast on for another hat for Owen. We've had some hat attrition lately, plus his head has grown to what I think will be his final adult size.

This is Gjestal Superwash Sport, worked on #3 needles. Just a basic 1 x 1 ribbing, worked on 108 stitches. I'm getting a little worried that it might be too small, but I think it'll stretch nicely without being tight.

Stash Enhancement

Not like I needed more stash, but a gal's gotta do these things sometimes.

One of the folks I see often on Ravelry has just set up shop as an indie dyer. I hope she'll be able to make a go of it with her hand-dyed yarns, so click on over to her shop: LittleFreak Yarns. Look, she even included a couple of nice stitch markers with my skein!


This colorway is called Inference. You'll notice a lot of her color names are a bit unorthodox. Many of them have been named after running jokes on the Ravelry Rubberneckers forum. She put up a good selection of yarns, from vivid to subdued, pastel to saturated, for the opening. Hurry on over before the good stuff is gone. (Don't worry: there'll be more!)

What a difference

24 hours can make...

Owen's been getting a little fed up with his long hair lately. Tonight I gave him a cut. Not too bad. He didn't scream at me and try to glue the old hairs back on one by one. So this is progress.

In spite of the angry teen look he's making in that photo, he was really just goofing. He was laughing about 2 seconds before that picture was taken.

lulz

O hai, all your blogz are belong to me, Owen! Mua ha ha!
Kthxbai

It's all because of the tree...

We usually get our tree on the first weekend in December. This is a bit of a compromise between me and Mr. SABLE, and now, the kids. I grew up in a family that typically waited until the last minute to get a tree. Truth be told, we often scrounged our tree from behind the dorms in the town where I grew up. A lot of the college students would put up trees in their lounges, then toss them out when they left town for break. My dad would load us kids into the Rambler station wagon (3 on the column, I kid you not) and we would cruise around near the Dumpsters® to pick one out. When Mr. SABLE and I first moved in together, in 1984, he was incredulous when I suggested this approach to Christmas tree procurement. In fact, a few times, I did persuade him to wait until the Cornell students had left Ithaca, and we did, in fact, score some pretty nice trees near student apartments. But it always made him nervous and struck him as wrong at some level. Of course, the kids are on his side with the early tree longings. No sooner is the mess cleaned up from Thanksgiving dinner than the three of them are wondering when we can get a tree. So, the compromise. Not until December. The first weekend in December.

For a number of years we went to a You Cut tree farm west of the city. The prices were kind of steep, the crowds were fierce, and the trees didn't seem all that special to me. The You Cut places are particularly not a good deal if you want a smaller tree. They charge a flat rate, based on the species you choose, not the size. After all, they can still sell it next year to someone else. A few years ago, when we went (maybe we were one weekend late that year) they were sold out. So, we drove off on a state highway toward the northwest a bit. We saw many cars coming back toward Madison with trees tied to the roof, so we knew we were on a hot trail. Lo and behold, there was a sign by the side of the road with TREES written on it. We turned. We went over hill and dale, around bends, up a long driveway, and found another family-run tree farm. Their prices were kind of steep, too. But the pre-cut trees were far more reasonable, especially, if like me, you want a smaller tree.

This farm has a little Christmas Shop where you pay for the trees. Mostly it's very kitschy country stuff that I can live without. But I always buy the kids a little candy treat. On our way home this year, Owen asked how they make hard candy.

(Ah, that's where this story was leading...)

And I told him it involved mostly boiling sugar water until it was mostly sugar, adding some flavor and color, and VOILA. He said he wanted to try it.


This may look more like broken brown beer bottles, but it's root beer flavored shards of hard candy, coated in powdered sugar. That was the first attempt, made last night.

Today, while the kids were at school, while I was out on errands in advance of our major winter storm, I stopped in at The Vanilla Bean, a store that sells cake and candy making stuff. I bought some molds and some official flavors, and a nifty little gadget that makes accurate dispensing of the hot candy solution reasonably efficient. It's like a funnel with a stopper you can open or shut with an easy thumb movement.









Owen made these tonight. They are cherry flavored. He overfilled the mold a bit, but I think he'll get the hang of it. I need to go back to the store and get a few more molds and also the special little baggies to wrap the candies in. And a lot more kinds of flavors. They have about 50 different flavors, in one-use little bottles, for $1.40 each.


Sampling his wares.

The tree is still a bit bare, but we'll do a bit more tomorrow while we're snowed in. Unless the storm somehow wimps out, but I don't think it will.

Enjoy!

This seems like a nice way to spend 5 minutes on a cold snowy December day.

Thankful for improved needles

click to biggify pic

The guys at my house are waiting for more felted clogs, and I have to say, I wasn't eager to get started on them. Being a tightwad, I bought some super cheap Susan Bates circular needles when I made the pair for Mr. SABLE. It took real muscle to get the stitches back onto the needle part from the cable. One day I happened to notice some higher-priced big-ass needles that had something like aquarium tubing connecting the business ends, rather than plastic cable. So, I asked Mr. SABLE if he could duplicate this with my cheap-o needles.

Yesterday, he cut the original cables off, took the plastic needle parts to his workshop, and used his lathe to trim down a bit on the connector end. Then he slid on the tubing. I need to have him take off just a titch from the needle parts of the join: it's not quite smooth yet, but it's darn close. If the tubing works loose while I use them, we'll superglue it on, but I'm pretty impressed with this needle mod.

Progress Pictures

The Kate Cardigan

I decided on a narrow front band that folds to a facing which stabilizes the front bands. I have a few ideas for closures, maybe button loops along the edge and pearly buttons. We'll see.

I'm not very happy with this collar, but not sure I want to take it out and redo. I saw it on a person last night, and I think the collar is better on than lying flat on the ground. I think this collar is a bit too frilly for my personal aesthetic, but, oh well. Interestingly, I think the other side of the collar, the part that won't show in normal wear, is much better. It still has a lacy quality, but it's less busy.

Here's a detail of the fronts at the lower edge:


The Kauni Cardigan

This is coming along. I'd like to get it finished soon. One more sleeve and a lot of finishing details. Last night after I bound off the top of the sleeve, I spent about 20 minutes winding yarn off my cones to get the colors to line up when I cast on for the second sleeve. It would be nice if both sleeves start and stop at similar places in the color scheme.

Knitting Pictures!

This is a simple alpaca watchcap for my brother. This yarn is wonderful! Blue Sky Alpaca sport weight my friend Wendy sent. My brother has lost most of his hair, so I think a nice cozy alpaca watch cap will be a good thing in a Maine winter.


This is a cardigan I'm making for my sister, and maybe I'll make a pattern of it, too. I've done the majority of the knitting on the machine, to speed things up, but I have a lot of finishing to go, still. The blue yarn is waste yarn that's just holding the stitches. I've got a hand-knit length of the same edging from the cuff of the sleeves almost ready to attach to the bottom hem. I have a few ideas for the neckline and I'm quite baffled, as yet, about how to handle the front edges and closing. Mulling mulling.

The color of this yarn is one I knew would be hard to capture in a photograph. It's kind of a loden, mossy, grey-green, more green than grey. The camera caught it more grey than green, so I compensated in photoshop, and indeed, I may have gone too far toward green now. Alas. And your monitor will see it differently anyway.

It's Universal Yarns worsted wool, which I got on sale in the spring at The Sow's Ear. Total bargain project!

In Other News
For those who occasionally ask, Mr. SABLE is still collecting unemployment insurance. We're still doing ok with that. I'd say he's enjoying his little sabbatical from the working world at this point. Stay tuned!

Is this Startitis?

On Monday Kathy mused a bit on the nature of Startitis, as opposed to Stop-itis. Hmm. Well, I agree there's often a correlation between the two syndromes, and I agree that they aren't exactly the same. For me, startitis is just that: the compulsion to keep starting more projects, regardless of how many are currently in the pipeline. This often leads to stopitis, but only because I only have one pair of hands and one pair of eyes. So, if I start on something new, I'm not working on the something old. It doesn't mean the something old is necessarily stopped, though, until I realize it's been several months since I picked it up. That makes sense, right?

So, currently I have the Bourgeois Swing Coat, which is cruising along nicely. I will need to pick out the cast-off on the body and knit that a bit longer, but I'm going to wait until I'm done with the second sleeve, so I can see how much longer it can go. I noticed that Webs currently has some of the DiVe Autunno discontinued colors on the Close-outs page, so hurry along and order some, so I won't be tempted. I can tell you from having this project in my lap while knitting, that it will be a wonderful warm sweater in January.

Also I'm working on the long-dormant Kauni cardigan.

I just started a machine knit cardigan that will probably be a Christmas present for my sister, if it comes out ok. That's so fast, it almost doesn't count.

And I started a 2X2 ribbed watchcap for my brother from Blue Sky Alpaca's sport weight.

And I'm planning to machine knit a cardigan for my Dad, too, after I dig out some suitable stash yarn.

Then there's a scarf from Mirasol Hacho, which I started earlier in the fall, but haven't shown you.

I need to get busy with the camera. For that, I think I'll need light, which is sorely lacking in Wisconsin lately.

I know there are some other pending projects slipping my mind right now.

Monday night I got the GI bug that the Little Emperor had Thursday and Friday. It was short, but vicious. I'm almost restored to my right self. I hope Mr. SABLE will finish the meatloaf that was Monday night's dinner, because I know I'll never want to face that again, having become all-too-reacquainted with my dinner around 9 on Monday night.

So, my advice of the day: wash your hands! Then wash them again!

Maybe it's the change in the weather...

I don't know.

I never knit Christmas presents. Well, sometimes someone gets a thing I knit for Christmas, but only if it happens to be ready and done about that time. But I'm not one of those knitters who sets out to make things for a long list of relatives and goes crazy in the process.

First, the whole mid-winter holiday makes me a bit conflicted, which is an essay and a half.

Then my relationship with my extended family (including the in-laws) is a bit laissez-faire, so that throws a little more confusion into things.

And then you have my essentially anti-consumerist mentality.

And I have a hard time knitting for anyone but myself because I always talk myself out of what I think might be a good idea. It'll be a bad choice of yarn or color or style. They'll think it's weird. It'll be too much. and yet, not enough.

But somehow, just now, with the cold air blowing in and snow showers knocking the remaining leaves from the trees, I got the idea of knitting a bunch of presents for folks this year. Not sure where that came from. Maybe I'll see where it leads me.

We've had an interesting time this week. On Wednesday both kids had some troubles related to school. Owen was on the receiving end of harassment on the bus ride home and the Little Emperor was dishing it out to an innocent kid at recess. Mr. SABLE caught the virus we've been passing around, featuring an annoyingly long-lasting sore throat accompanying a cold. And the LE came down with a GI thing yesterday morning. The LE was much perkier this morning but I kept him home today, because I thought it might be bad if the trouble moves south, so to speak, and he were to have a mishap at school. (You know, try to sneak out a little gas and get more than you bargain for... Or maybe you don't know.) So it's been a week of disruptions and grumbling and malaise in our house, even though it's also a week of great triumph and change in the national political scene. Now, we're just hoping for a bit of triumph in the national economic scene. Though that leaves me conflicted, too.

And why should that be? Well, I have this really strong anti-consumerist attitude. And yet, our economy's health is largely judged on the quantity of consumer spending. I know that for our planet's health, it would be much better if everyone tried to stop buying stuff, just for stuff's sake. But as people have done that, because they are living with economic insecurity, then it causes more economic trouble. I'm glad I'm not in charge of solving these problems. They are big and complicated. And the experts are predicting that things will get worse before they get better.

So maybe I'll go cast on a few nice cozy projects that I can give away in December. It seems like a good thing to do on a cold dreary November day, a week before I turn 47.

Autumn

Halloween

My little fuzzy brown bat
I found a brown velour zippered hoodie and pants in the woman's section of a local thrift store. I had to hem the pants up a bit, and used the extra for the ears. The wings and insides of the ears are craft felt. This was a darn-quick costume and made him very happy.

Our other news is that we finally replaced our disgusting old couch.

I liked this furniture well enough when I bought it in fall 1997. I would still like it, if it hadn't been abused for 11 years by wild, crazy, messy boys. Faithful readers of Bezzie's blog might remember my entry into her Ugly Couch Contest. I didn't win, only because my couch wasn't inherently ugly, just worn out. (But I attracted some interesting comments about the state of my housekeeping.) That old couch and chair aren't even worth Freecycling, so they're at the curb, giving the kids somewhere to play trampoline a few more times before garbage collection on Tuesday.


I'd been scanning Craigslist hoping for a good deal on a couch and/or comfy chairs, but was amazed at the bargain I got. This couch, plus a matching big chair and ottoman, plus another big chair (covered to match the throw pillows) with ottoman, all for $200. The really nice guy who was selling it said he had about 12 immediate responses to his posting. Then he added, "I wonder if I priced it too low?" and Mr. SABLE and I both said, "Yes." Because really, we would have called it a bargain to get this very comfy couch for $200, let alone the big comfy chairs and ottomans. The kids are remarkably accepting of the new policy that there will be no eating on the new furniture and no using the furniture as a trampoline.

Knitting progress has been slow and intermittent. The Bourgeois Swing Coat is coming along nicely, but I don't have any pictures to show.