It Might Be a Metaphor

November, where did you go?

2011-12-09T17:09:00.001-08:00

Do you ever have those days (or weeks or months) where you feel like everything's going non-stop and you're so busy that you can't take a deep breath ... yet it doesn't sound like all that much was going on when you try to explain it to someone else? I can probably sum it all up by saying, I have children.

But let's not get bogged down with that. Instead, here's the yarny stuff...

I made a small Storm Cloud Shawlette (designed by Hanna Breetz and offered for free) using my handspun, ~220 yards of two-ply Shetland wool hand-dyed by The Thylacine. The shawl couldn't be simpler to make and it shows off the color shifts in the yarn. I ran out of yarn before I was quite ready to be finished, so worked in some gray handspun I had left from an earlier shawlette along the bottom ruffle.

There was also a Springtime Baby Cardigan and a Foolproof Baby Hat out of some super-soft alpaca yarn. I made these for someone else and was thrilled that she liked them.

Then the temperature dropped and it seemed like the perfect time to make a pair of Trenza mitts, a free pattern designed by Susanna IC. I used three-ply handspun (Ashland Bay merino fiber) and it worked very nicely for the cables.

I also finished up the "Entwined" Shoulder Shawl designed by O/C Knitiot. Blocking definitely let the Berroco Lustra yarn bloom and show the stitch pattern to best advantage. I love the "woven" part that connects the shawl in front, though I may do some hidden stitching to flatten out the stockinette "fingers". The applied i-cord edging took some time to do, but it makes a gorgeous finished edge, doesn't it?

I only have one Christmas gift to make this year. It's for a friend who greatly admired a shawl I made last year, which ensured her a spot on the "people I'm willing to knit for" list. The gift shawl is not quite to the halfway point so there's enough pressure to keep me motivated but not quite so much that I am berating myself for not starting it sooner.

Briefly noted, and pictured too...

2011-11-23T10:44:00.001-08:00

I'm taking a little break from the combined Thanksgiving/Early Christmas celebration with the relatives who are in town, so thought I'd take a minute to show you what's new here.

I just finished plying this blue-faced leicester fiber from BlueDog on Etsy...

248 yards, two-ply.
BFL wool from BlueDog Fibers in the Saime colorway.

The Cat's Paw scarf is also done...

Cat's Paw scarf, designed by Elizabeth Lovick. (Free pattern.)
Yarn: Be Sweet Bamboo in the Plum colorway

I'm knitting a Storm Cloud Shawlette out of my handspun so I hope that will keep me busy while everyone naps after the big Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. And if I nap, at least it's an easy enough pattern that I'll be able to remember where I was when I wake up enough to continue.

I still haven't started the one gift on my Christmas knitting list, but I did finally order the yarn. If only the rest of the Christmas shopping would be as enjoyable as the knitting is...

Irony of the day

2011-11-13T08:23:00.001-08:00

I've been enjoying the little ironies lately... like when my daughter's teacher sent home a newsletter with a typo in the paragraph about how the spelling tests work this year.

Today's came in my e-mail box, courtesy of Interweave -- a company I like very much for books and magazines, despite their desire to send me not just e-mail every day, but summary e-mails on the weekend to review what they have sent me during the week.

How's this for a subject line: "<Fname><Lname>: It's all about you!"

Well, what could be more personal than that? I was intrigued. It turns out to be a survey about my experiences using their website:

It's good to know that they are tailoring my shopping experience to my very individual needs... or at least the very individual needs of <Fname> <Lname>.

I feel a little guilty about making fun of this, the intentions are good and the mistake is too easy to make -- and I've made it myself back when I did marketing work. But forgetting to personalize it on a message that promises, "It's all about you!" is just too funny to ignore.

Road knitting

2011-11-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

Had I known what motherhood would make of me, I would have majored in Transportation and Logistics in college.

The Wedge scarf is done, with the majority of knitting done in the car, starting on the big road trip back in April and picked back up this month for waiting in school pick-up lines, etc.:

Wedge, designed by Norah Gaughan.
Free pattern from Berroco.com.
Yarn: Teksrena 4-ply (fingering weight) from Lithuania

I also refreshed my memory on what I was doing with the "Entwined" Shoulder Shawl though it is not as easy to cart around with me. After taking this picture, I started the interesting part with the knitted "fingers" that get woven together to form the shawl closure.

"Entwined" Shoulder Shawl, designed by O/C Knitiot Designs - Deby Lake. ($5)
Yarn: Berroco Lustra (50% tencel, 50% merino)

Don't be alarmed, but I actually swatched this week. With shawls and scarves, I generally don't bother swatching, but for a baby sweater I thought it might be nice to produce something in the expected size...

Turns out my gauge is even crazier than I thought.
Let's just all hope for the best, shall we?

The Cat's Paw scarf should be finished today -- one daughter has voice and piano lessons, the other daughter has religious education class. I think they may be trying to wear me out so that I'll stop panicking at the notion that Teen Daughter is less than 2 months from being eligible for a driver's training permit.

I wish I had a clever title...

2011-11-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Knitting binge this week, inspired by cooler weather and fueled by Halloween candy. (Milky Ways are my weakness. Or at least one of my weaknesses.)

In the "FINISHED" column ...

Garter Loop-Through Scarf, designed by Marci Richardson.
From the 101 Designer One Skein Wonders book, edited by Judith Durant.
Yarn: Mistletoe Farm's sport weight alpaca

Victorian Scarf, designed Kerin Dimeler-Laurence.
Available for free from Knitpicks.com.
Yarn: Mistletoe Farm's sport weight alpaca

In the "ALMOST FINISHED" section:

Cat's Paw scarf -- just a few more repeats
Wedge scarf -- possibly just one more repeat, yarn is almost done

And in the "I REALLY NEED TO GET BACK TO THIS BEFORE I FORGET WHAT I WAS DOING SECTION," my Entwined Shoulder Shawl. I divided for the neck and then put it down to work on the Halloween costume. Now that temperatures are dropping, it seems more appealing to work on it.

Have a great weekend --
Marushka

Halloween: The Recap

2011-11-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

Mission accomplished. Here's my angel ...

Top and skirt from
Butterick pattern
#3218

The halo came out better than I expected: I used black pipe cleaners as the base and wrapped the ring with sparkly star garland and a narrow braided silver cord. I used two pieces of floral wire to attach the sides of it to a plastic hairband so that it slightly "floated" over her hair.

She could have used an extra layer for warmth, but didn't want to ruin her "look." I carried around a sweater for her, just in case, and managed to lose it along the trick-or-treating route.

We went trick-or-treating with friends and acquired plenty of candy, so a good time was had by all.

What a treat...

2011-10-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

I keep wondering why the editors of Where Women Create
magazine haven't called... I avoided the chaos in the
officially designated sewing area by relocating to the kitchen.

I surprised myself and amazed the family by finishing the Halloween angel outfit (okay, except for the halo) in one marathon sewing session on Friday. There was one small tantrum (mine, how did you guess?), but once I realized that the sewing machine simply wanted me to use a needle appropriate to the fabric, all went smoothly.

This allowed me to attend the newly expanded Fiber in the Boro festival on Saturday without any trace of guilt (until I added up the receipts). Mariposa -- my faithful camera-girl, fiber enabler, and bag carrier -- provided this photo of fiber festival philosophy:

Keep your fingers crossed about the halo -- my vision includes a plastic hairband, jewelry wire, and sparkly silver cording. Photographic evidence of our successful angel costume making to come Monday night, or whenever the Halloween candy haze wears off.

On the wings of angels

2011-10-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Mariposa wants to be an angel for Halloween this year. I said, "That's easy! I'll make a costume."

The picture shows my progress as of this morning. I'm not procrastinating, I just like the happy anxiety of making a costume at the last minute. (Total lie that last comment, but it sounds good, doesn't it?) I will definitely be at the sewing machine today. Or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow.

Angel wings (stashed in our closet since a talent show 7-8 years ago)
Sewing pattern (discovered in sewing stash, going with a top and skirt rather than a robe -- too much to hope the pieces can be worn again?)
Fabric (soft and a little shiny, Mariposa totally approves)
Halo (need to find some sparkly ribbon)

Apparently I have once again been more focused on the chocolate aspects of the holiday.

What if ...

2011-10-23T09:25:00.000-07:00

"What if" entirely sums up my approach to yarn dyeing, so be cautioned as your read on that this is NOT a dyeing tutorial -- it's more like a page from my journal. Maybe it will spark some ideas for you?

If you have never dyed yarn before, many people have offered detailed instructions -- join Ravelry.com if you haven't already and go to the "What a Kool Way to Dye" group for a variety of tutorials on dyeing with Kool-Aid, Wilton's icing dyes, and other food-safe approaches.

A Note on Yarn, for the New Dyer
You can use Wilton's or Kool-Aid to dye wool and other protein-based fibers (alpaca, for example). For these experiments, I used a skein of Full o'Sheep, a 100% wool single ply yarn from the Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller line (available in big box craft stores) and a skein of the same brand's Washable Ewe, 100% superwash wool, two-ply. Since they are sold in center-pull skeins, they needed to be rewound into long looped "hanks" -- I have a niddy-noddy which makes this easy, but you can wind skeins around chairs, etc., if you don't. Take some scrap yarn and make several loose ties around various parts of the loop so it won't tangle as you work with it.

Another inexpensive choice for getting started with dyeing is Patons Classic Wool, also available in big-box craft stores. If you're willing to spend a little bit more, try out the Bare yarns from Knit Picks -- they come in various weights, are already in hanks and ready to dye.

Pseudo Tie-Dye, for the Lazy Dyer
For this skein I used three colors of Wilton’s icing dyes, vinegar as the mordant (i.e. acid, required to set the dye), and microwave for the heat. You could just as easily do this with Kool-Aid as the dye, which wouldn't require the vinegar since the KA includes citric acid.

I used pink, burgundy, and royal blue Wilton's dyes, dissolving about 1/4 teaspoon of each in a cupful of water. After soaking the yarn in water with 1/4 cup vinegar for about an hour, Iput it in a glass bowl, nearly covering it with lukewarm water and adding another "glug" of vinegar. I then poured from each of the three dye cups into a different part of the bowl, allowing the colors to go where they wanted to go. This works best with colors that blend into other colors (examples: red/blue/purple, or blue/yellow/green), rather than ones that are opposites and blend into brown. I've also had great results using two colors, each poured into two of the opposite corners.

I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and heated it 2 minutes in the microwave, let it sit for about 20 minutes, then microwaved 2 more minutes, and let it sit for over an hour until all the dye was exhausted. I then hung it up to dry.

Tah-dah! Or should I say… Tie-dye!

(2) Another "What If" skein...

I had a cupful of dissolved Royal Blue icing dye leftover from the previous skein, so that's what I used here. I wanted to see what would happen if I put the dye bath in the bowl before the yarn…

and used a minimal amount of water (with some vinegar added), bringing it not quite to the top of the yarn, and leaving it unstirred. My guess was I could get a lot of variation in the depth of color since the yarn in the bottom would soak up the most dye and the rest would get less and less of it.

That’s exactly what happened. (Always a nice surprise when something works as I hope it will!)

Finishing
After dyeing, when the yarn is cool or nearly so, I soak the skeins in a dishpan filled with lukewarm water and a small dash of Woolite or Soak wool wash. I rinse them and hang them on hangers in the bathtub until they're dry -- or when I get tired of hearing, "Mom, can you move the yarn so I can take a shower?"

Disclaimers -- Need I remind you that microwaves make things HOT, so you should use a potholder and be very cautious moving bowls of hot water & yarn? Or that dye can stain surfaces and hands? Cover your counter with newspaper, plastic wrap, etc., have bleach wipes on hand, and buy a pair of kitchen gloves -- though I have found that brightly colored blotches on my hands are always a conversation starter.

Really Red Yarn & Where My Camera Was Hiding

2011-10-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

Updates since Wednesday --

(1) The camera was hiding under the front seat of the car. I forgot that we went to the zoo on Tuesday and you can't go to the zoo without your camera, according to my daughter, Mariposa. Without the camera, you would miss things like this:

I admire flamingos. When I try to balance on one foot,
I usually fall over. (Ask anyone in my exercise class.)

(2) The super-bright, eye-popping red singles are now a three-ply yarn which wants to be a bright, eye-popping cabled scarf:

... and they will know me by my fiery brightness...
(I think I am still trying to overcome all the beige in my past.)

(3) It was good while it lasted, but the brief binge on red-colored spinning fiber appears to be over. Look what I just bought from The Painted Tiger... if this fiber is as beautiful to spin as it is to look at, I may never want to buy from anyone else...

"Stormy Daybreak," 8 ounces of Polwarth wool.
Dyed by The Painted Tiger.

"Dark Aurora," 8 ounces of Polwarth wool.
Dyed by The Painted Tiger.

I've got one more quiet hour before the school bus arrives ... life is good.

----

Fridays mean...
Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder
FO Friday at Tami's Amis

Who's got my camera?

2011-10-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to see the baby alpacas again and I know that Mariposa took my camera to capture all the cuteness. I even remember her showing the photos to The Husband when we returned. I wish I knew what happened to the camera since then.

With apologies for the less than perfect photos (old camera has few options and the weather's gloomy), this is what I have on the needles...

Here is the Cat's Paw scarf, at nearly the halfway point:

Cat's Paw scarf, designed by Elizabeth Lovick. (Free)
Yarn: Be Sweet Bamboo in the Plum colorway

It will look better when blocked, I promise.

I like this bamboo yarn very much -- it is soft and very drapey. The color isn't a perfect solid, but the variation is subtle, like a kettle-dyed effect. As with the other bamboo yarns I've used, it is splitty and a little slippery on the needles. I am keeping this as a "work at home and in bright light" project for those reasons.

The "Entwined" Shoulder Shawl is also zooming along and I'm nearly done with the first skein of three:

"Entwined" Shoulder Shawl, designed by O/C Knitiot Designs - Deby Lake. ($5)
Yarn: Berroco Lustra (50% tencel, 50% merino)

The Berroco Lustra yarn has a sheen and looks almost metallic so it's going to catch the light in fun ways in this basketweave stitch pattern. The designer used Universal Classic Shades, a yarn with long color changes, so this is a good option for those slow-changing, self-striping yarns. Here's the the projects page for this pattern on Ravelry so you can see what I mean.

Have a great day & thanks for stopping by.

---

Since it's Wednesday, wander on over to Tami's Amis for the latest works-in-progress -- the list of participants gets longer every week.

There's a color stuck in my head

2011-10-14T06:39:00.000-07:00

Usually I get songs stuck in my head, but for the last week or so it's been a color:

RED!

I started by spinning this red-with-gray Shetland...

4 ounces of Shetland fiber dyed by The Thylacine.
Colorway: Eddystone Point. 196 yards, two ply (fractal spinning - explanation).

which led to this red-with-light turquoise Merino...

4 ounces of Merino fiber dyed by Natural Obsessions.
Colorway: Highway Roses. 130 yards, two ply (fractal spinning).

which gave me the courage to attempt this eye-popping tomato red Blue-faced Leicester (BFL)...


8 ounces of BFL from Copper Moose. Everyone who walked in the room while I was spinning this said the same thing, "Wow, that's a bright red!" I think it wants to be a scarf to go with my black/white tweed coat.

Maybe I just need more brightly colored spinning fiber to get me through the gloomy winter? It is a theory I will have to run by The Husband -- I just love to see the facial expressions when he encounters one of my new self-enabling justifications.

Enjoy the weekend -- make something beautiful!

Fiber Arts Friday @ Wisdom Begins in Wonder
FO Friday @ Tami's Amis

Where's the sun when I need it?

2011-10-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

The leaves are changing color, the geese are headed farther south, and I'm already unhappily anticipating that today's grayish weather is the beginning of the gloomy, damp season we call "winter" here. Do you think there's a good lamp that lights your knitting while also combating seasonal affective disorder? Or maybe I should start a separate blog where all I do is complain about the weather?

Enough whining. Here comes the knitting... Two new projects this week:

It doesn't look like much yet, but here are the first few rows of a Cat's Paw scarf using Be Sweet Bamboo yarn which is both soft and a little slippery (as bamboo usually is). Be Sweet is a certified Fair Trade company that works with job creation programs in Africa to assist artisans in economically depressed areas.

Cat's Paw scarf, designed by Elizabeth Lovick. (Free)
Yarn: Be Sweet Bamboo in the Plum colorway

I also cast on for an "Entwined" Shoulder Shawl, which I think is a very clever pattern. Most of the shawl is done in basketweave stitch, then you knit "fingers" that are woven together before you finish the shawl. Details include some picot edging in the front and also an i-Cord bind-off. (I'm still in denial about having to pick up 317 stitches at the end to do the edging.)

"Entwined" Shoulder Shawl, designed by O/C Knitiot Designs - Deby Lake. ($5)
Yarn: Berroco Lustra (50% tencel, 50% merino)

Unfortunately, now that I've done about 20 rows, I'm having the persistent feeling that my gauge is too loose and I ought to be using smaller needles. I will most likely tear this out later today and give it another try. (Yes, I know I could/should have done a swatch first ... it was a case of laziness rather than rebellion.)

* * *

I need to end with a big thank you to Dina, who blogs at Five Cats from Crazy. My number was chosen in one of her giveaways and I just received a box of her handmade soap in these amazing scents: Ghiradelli Chocolate Mint, Martini Mafia, and Vanilla Caramel Coffee. If you don't already have her blog on your list, drop by and say hello. She makes lots of pretty things and her writing is always fun to read.

And don't forget about the WIP Wednesday show-and-tell over at Tami's Amis.

The house is a mess...

2011-10-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

... but the fiber hobbies are doing just fine.

Teen Daughter's performing four times this weekend in Oliver! and Mariposa had her first Sick Day yesterday (thus heralding the official start of Fall Allergy Season), so the chaos level here is a bit higher than normal.

Fortunately my silver kerchief/triangular scarf/small shawl (you make the call) was a very portable project. The five-row repeat was easily memorized and I have worked on it in waiting areas all over town. I finished it last night while Mariposa read me a story about cowboys from her reading textbook -- what are the chances I'll think about branding cattle every time I wear it?

Sunshine Shawl, a free pattern from LionBrand.com.
Pattern is for a small kerchief size, but I added four repeats
and used about 220 yards of handspun, total.

Some day I need to try using a tripod instead of just
holding the camera out in front of me and hoping for the best.

For instant gratification, I made a dishcloth using the Harmonic Mosaic pattern. Mosaic knitting uses slipped stitches so that you get the effect of colorwork but only have active stitches in one color at a time. I am better at knitting cleaning supplies than actually using cleaning supplies so this may remain pristine for months to come...

Harmonic Mosaic Dishcloth, designed by Renee M.
I stole the yarn from Teen Daughter's not-so-secret stash
of brightly colored Lily's Sugar 'n' Cream yarn.

This one's not officially done since I haven't washed it to set the twist, but it's already one of my favorite handspun skeins. I think it wants to be a Storm Cloud Shawlette when it grows up...

Hand-dyed Shetland fiber from The Thylacine (in Tasmania!),
spun two-ply (fractal plying), 196 yards.
The colors are GORGEOUS and it spun so easily,
I definitely want more of this.

Next project -- using double-sided hem tape to adjust the longer-than-floor-length dress Teen Daughter is wearing in the show tonight. I'm pretty sure that "Break a leg!" is not intended to be taken literally.

Share the crafting love...
Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder
FO Fridays at Tami's Amis

Emphasis on the Progress not the Work

2011-10-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

in which Marushka walks on the bright side
(and for once does not feel it necessary to put on sunglasses)

Sunshine Shawl, a free pattern from LionBrand.com.
Pattern is for a kerchief size, but you can just keep
adding repeats until you get the size you want
(or run out of yarn, whichever comes first).

I'm using my handspun yarn for a lace project -- a milestone! -- and I am pleasantly surprised to find that even though the yarn seems too loosely plied, it still knits up well.

In additional happy news, I have official permission to begin reducing my use of the hand splint.

Now I'm off to exercise class before I get sidetracked by the shawl. Or the spinning wheel. You know how it is.

For more Work-in-Progress inspiration, visit the WIP Wednesday page at Tami's Amis.

Fresh perspectives

2011-09-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

After a year's worth of obsessive lace knitting on progressively thinner yarn and smaller needles, the advent of handspun in my life broadened my knitting horizons. I started looking for patterns which either showed off the handspun's finer qualities or camouflaged my spinning shortcomings. When you're lucky, you find patterns that do both.

Alpaca fiber -- two-ply, 196 yards.

The first time I used alpaca fiber, the result was somewhat loosely spun and also loosely plied, on the heavy side of worsted. This matched up perfectly with the only cowl pattern that I have ever truly loved -- the Shawl-Collared Cowl. This is how it came out, pre-blocking:


Shawl-Collared Cowl, designed by Alana Dakos. Calls for 175 yards of bulky yarn. Pattern: $5, available on Ravelry.com

I don't have a picture of it blocked (the models are at school), but it grew a couple of inches, exactly as I hoped it would. A little of the detail is lost in the two-color, highly textured yarn, but I think the effect is still elegant. The handspun is definitely a little fuzzy and is going to shed a bit due to the looser twist, but the softness makes up for that!

This pattern is also a great excuse to go looking for large, dramatic buttons. I found mine at a local fabric store.

And this week's "fresh of the spinning wheel" report --

Merino/tussah silk, spun two ply, 146 yards.

I had read that as spinners produce more even yarns, they sometimes find it difficult to reproduce the thick/thin yarns that most start out with. Naturally I had to give that a try so the above yarn represents me trying to produce a thick/thin yarn on purpose.

I also had some very crimpy/springy Cormo wool that I didn't know what to do with, since it is definitely outside of my wearable color palette. I decided that it had nothing to lose if I messed it up, so I spun it with "reckless abandon," as they say, going as fast as I could and paying little attention at all to the smoother, finer yarn that is usually my goal. The yarn is thick, thin, and moves past fluffy into downright fuzziness -- and somehow now I find the color a lot more appealing -- reminds me of fall harvest colors and Halloween. It looks like it might want to be knit into pumpkins like these from Knitty.com.

3.4 ounces of Cormo, spun two-ply, 134 yards.

I hope the sun is shining where you are. Have a great weekend!

A thousand inspirations available for the looking... I'll try to catch up on my commenting over the weekend, I promise.

FO Friday at Tami's Amis
Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder

A little more knitting

2011-09-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

I became slightly obsessed this week with using up a particular ball of yarn that I bought about two years ago during my "Look! It's on sale! I'll figure out how to use it later" stage of yarn acquisition. It was a skein of Elizabeth Austen Antuco thick/thin cotton in gold, pink, and blue. With just 120 yards of yarn and no baby to knit for, I tossed it in the yarn bin where it occasionally reproached me for adopting it but paying it no attention.

Now it is a dishcloth and a potholder, both from the same super-simple pattern (see caption). I edged the smaller one with single crochet stitches to make sure I used up the whole skein, so there wouldn't even be scraps of it to make me feel guilty.

Grandmother's Favorite dishcloth (free pattern) -- the larger
size is the pattern as written. 120 yards of cotton made both.

Uplifted by my success with the dishcloth pattern and recent triumphs at the physical therapy office (left thumb is re-learning how to bend & splint #3 has less velcro to catch on my yarn), I went back to the Work-in-Progress basket and found my Wedge scarf. This is the project I worked on during our long car trip in April when my mother-in-law was in the hospital, so after all that togetherness I was ready to give it a break when we came home. But a few months later it seems all new and exciting...

Wedge, designed by Norah Gaughan.
A free pattern available from Berroco Yarn Company.

The pattern alternates strips of garter stitch with a simple lace insert that's done with short rows. If you've never done short rows before, it's easier than it sounds -- you knit part of the way across the row, then turn the work and knit back to where you started. This creates the triangular shape of the lace sections.

What are you working on this week? Join the list at Tami's Amis for WIP Wednesday and share the crafting love and inspiration.

Fun on the farm

2011-09-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

I think the baby was 3 or 4 days old.

Having survived a difficult childhood on a dairy farm, this may be the first time I've used "fun" and "farm" in the same sentence with any level of sincerity. But my daughter Mariposa and I had a great time Saturday afternoon when we visited Mistletoe Farm Alpacas. There were two pastures filled with alpacas, plus three new babies to admire.

One of these things is not like the others.

They had many lovely craft items for sale, including felted bags and woven scarves, plus yarn(!), but I managed to restrain myself to just a nuno felting kit to see if I can turn it into a scarf. Mariposa brought some cash of her own -- just in case (i.e. she has an uncanny capacity to find a gift shop at any attraction) -- and managed to acquire the softest teddy bear ever, with "fur" made from alpaca fleece.

When I mentioned the house rule limiting acquisition of any more stuffed animals, she was kind enough not to mention the hypocrisy of me telling her that while holding a bagful of wool. Suffice it to say, we both came home happy.

I know you will understand...

2011-09-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

why I am so happily celebrating this simple scarf ...

Modeled by younger daughter, She of the Many Nicknames.

It's my first knitting project since having ligament reconstruction surgery on my left thumb -- I now have enough pain-free mobility to knit if I keep it simple and use bigger needles/yarn. This scarf uses up some yarn my daughter bought for a project which wasn't meant to be -- a skein of Lion Brand Jiffy in solid Caffé brown held together with a strand of Premier Yarns Serenity Chunky in Red Bayou, a self-striping yarn that gradually shifts between red and cocoa brown.

The scarf also reminded me how much I love this particular pattern -- it's the One Row Handspun Scarf by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka the Yarn Harlot). I've made three of these -- one in Noro back when I was a total novice, a second one last year which was also my second knitting project using my own handspun, and now this one. Here's why I love this pattern--

simple stitch pattern is easy to memorize, but not mind-numbing
reversible
non-curling
easily adapted to any width
looks great in any yarn, including self-striping, wildly variegated, etc.

I also managed this week to sew the side seams on the Ribbed Vest shrug Teen Daughter made last year. She rated the entire project as extremely boring (a few hundred yards of single rib) and then decided upon casting off that it would be way too small.

Especially good news -- the wool yarn (Cascade 128) was knit at loose gauge and relaxed when wet so it easily blocked to the size we needed. It's a nice feeling to be right, isn't it? (Did I mention I have a teenage daughter? I don't get to be right that often, I have to enjoy it while I can.)

For all the latest "Look what I made" reports, wander on by these friendly link-ups -- knitting, sewing, weaving, felting, spinning, there's something for everyone --

FO Friday at Tami's Amis
Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder

All spinning, all the time

2011-09-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

The spinning binge continues. Here's what I've finished in the past couple of weeks...

Pencil roving from Pagewood Farms -- all my favorite colors in one skein.
288 yards, 2-ply

Merino from Chrysalis Fibers -- so soft!
2-ply, 400 yards -- highest yardage so far from 4.5 ounces of fiber

BFL/Tussah silk, unknown dyer -- harvest colors with a good dose of purple.
2-ply, 210 yards

All this practice is paying off -- my yarn is getting more even. I had to buy another bin for the handspun storage, but I'm definitely not complaining.

I've been falling behind on my blog reading and commenting, but will make a better effort this weekend, starting with Fibers on Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-09-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

A marathon binge of spinning and some fun dyeing experiments kept me busy this week, prompting questions from The Family like "Could you move the yarn so I can take a shower?" and "Why does the car smell like vinegar?"

I'm trying to get used to dyeing with Wilton's icing colors. I dyed these two skeins (trying to match the Ravelry logo colors -- my first ever intentional dyeing) in the microwave using the basic Green for one and a combination of Pink and Burgundy for the other:

Yarn: Nashua Creative Focus Worsted wool/alpaca, a yarn
that's been discontinued (with many negative reviews), but
since I got it for $3/skein and will felt it anyway, no complaints here.

I also tried sun-dyeing a skein of the same Nashua wool/alpaca blend in a glass jar, using Wilton's Purple. When it occurred to me that the only place hotter than my 100-degree-Fahrenheit patio that day would be the car when it was parked outside during my errands, I took my little dye project for a ride...

The seat belt wasn't a great fit, I might point out.
The ziploc bag was to protect the car seat since
the jar seal was old and cracked, and I am accident-prone.

For reasons I can't explain (or even remember), I decided I would just shake the jar periodically rather than opening it up to stir the dye bath (shaken not stirred... imagine James Bond accent here). This produced yarn that was .... interesting ... but which I didn't think I would like knitted up ...

... so I dyed it one more time using the same Wilton's Purple, but this time in the microwave. I can't believe how beautifully it came out...

Any chance I can reproduce this without driving
the dye pot around town again?

Still at least two weeks to go with my hand splinted, so I gave this sock loom a try yesterday. I can make it work, but it seems like it will take twice as long as actually knitting a sock on needles. Maybe it'll get better with practice?

I bought the loom at the local Jo-Ann store (with a 40% off coupon), but they are
pretty easy to find online for about $25. The Loom Knitting Socks book was purchased
separately from Amazon.com and is by Isela Phelps.

There will be handspun to display on Friday if I get some energy going. In the meantime, I'll be checking out everyone else's Wednesday projects over at Tami's Amis.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-08-31T06:52:00.000-07:00

I've survived eight weeks in the hand splint and have four more to go. Healing is progressing well, but my patience with the whole experience remains variable.

This week I decided to focus on finishing some hibernating projects for Teen Daughter since she's now busy with school, after-school activities, and social networking.

(1) Over the summer we dyed two skeins of Knit Picks Bare DK for her using McCormick's food coloring, but ended up with a disappointing shade of faded purple. The yarn went in time-out, but this week I rescued it and overdyed it first with Burgundy and then Red from the Wilton's icing colors. It is a little fuzzier now than when we started since I was impatient and let the dye pot temperature go too high (see what I mean about the patience problem?), but the yarn still feels soft and Teen Daughter seems quite happy with the new reddish-purple/purplish-red color.


I used this tutorial from Pie Knits for dyeing with Wiltons colors. I also recommend joining the "What a Kool Way to Dye" group on ravelry.com if you're interested in food safe dyes (drink mixes, food coloring, icing colors, Easter Egg dyes) -- there is a nice list of tutorials on the group's Pages tab.

(2) Teen Daughter made the Ribbed Vest shrug last year but didn't seam it up because it looked to be too small for her. I'm betting that since it's 100% wool at a fairly loose gauge, I can block it bigger. And if I can't, she does have a younger sister who would look great in it (this latter point was not seen as comforting by Teen Daughter). I've been doing the side seams in mattress stitch a little at a time. One down, one to go...

Ribbed Vest shrug in Cascade 128 yarn. It's basically
a big circle of ribbing with two side seams to create
the armholes.

I'm incredibly grateful that I can still spin despite the not-so-functional left hand. I'll have a couple of skeins of handspun to show off on Friday. I hope to get back to posting here more often, too.

Thank you for visiting -- your comments are always appreciated.

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If you're not already part of the WIP Wednesday group at Tami's Amis, take a look -- it's fun to see what everyone's making and also to discover new blogs there every week.

My oldest work-in-progress

2011-08-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I remembered this work-in-progress over the weekend and surprised myself by being able to find it fairly easily. I haven't worked on it since the mid 1990s.

I think it's a little sweeter and more pastel-y than I would choose now.

About five weeks before our wedding, it occurred to me that I had completely forgotten to get a gift for my soon-to-be husband. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything special enough (that I could afford) and realized that I wanted to make something for him. He was working a lot of nights and weekends so I had the brilliant idea to embroider a wedding sampler for him, in secret.

I was clearly deranged thinking I could do something like this in five weeks while working full-time, planning a wedding, and only embroidering on it when the husband-to-be was not around. I worked on it right up until the day before the wedding, showed it to him tearfully because it wasn't finished, and put it away until that mythical time in life when "things are calmer." (Still waiting...)

I have not added a stitch in all the years since. This may be genetic, since my mother suffers from the same affliction, but I can work on a deadline-driven project like a maniac, sacrificing sleep and putting everything else on hold... right up to the point where I realize it can't be done in time. Once I surrender to this realization, I lose all momentum. I decide to "take a break" to make up for all that stress on the project and put it down. I am tempted to try something new. Time passes and I realize that it will take some effort to return to the dropped project and remember what I was doing with it. This seems like too much work so I opt to do something new instead.

I wish I could say that the time to finish it is definitely now and I will proceed with determination to get it done before our next anniversary. But there's a lot more left to do than I thought and I have also remembered how much I hate to do French knots... (Sigh.)

For today I'll settle just for getting the canvas back on the stretcher bars. Baby steps, right?

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Step on over to Tami's to see Work in Progress Wednesday posts which feature actual work and noticeable progress (unlike mine).

Return of the wool bunnies

2011-08-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

It's good to have friends who understand what you're going through. What follows is an actual email transcript involving the members of my favorite writing group (ever!) as they cheered me up during the Summer-Without-Enough-Knitting.

Subject line: Activism

Marushka, in light of your upcoming surgery, I think it's time for the Free Roaming for Dust Bunnies advocacy group to step up its efforts once again. Personally, I won't look under another piece of furniture for at least 6 weeks. Yours in solidarity, Linda

Your timing could not be better... I recently found a handful of spinning wool fluff hiding behind the bread box. I am not making this up. -- Marushka

If it looks happy, just leave it alone! -- Linda

Perhaps the wool bunnies will multiply if I leave them in the dark... -- Marushka

On behalf of the AWBD (association of wool bunnies in the dark), let me say that our stated position is that what wool bunnies do in the dark is none of your beeswax! -- susie

I get it... What happens behind the bread box stays behind the bread box! -- Marushka

I hope the wool bunnies are rocking on... -- Patty

Just wanted to warn everyone...
The wool bunnies have launched their plan for world domination. Last night at a restaurant the kids found one of them hitching a ride on the back of my pant leg. Apparently our house no longer provides enough free range for them and they seek to form new colonies. -- Marushka

Updates to the wool bunny saga...

When I went in the bathroom at the medical center the day of my hand surgery to change into the hospital gown, a small piece of black wool fluff flew off my clothing and started floating around on the floor. In light of the previous week's emails, this cracked me up -- I took it as a good sign, but felt like I should pick it up before someone thought it was a bug zooming around the bathroom. I captured it successfully, but given my one-handedness and the hospital gown with the less-than-perfect coverage, I'm glad no one was watching.

For a few weeks we had no wool bunny problems at home because I wasn't able to spin. But you can tell that spinning has resumed by this comment from the young female clerk at the grocery store a few days ago ...

"Umm, you have something fuzzy and blue on your ... ummm ... pants. Like on your lower back, but lower...."

Yes, the wool bunnies continue their world tour.

Before and After

2011-08-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

The surgery two weeks ago to repair the torn ligament in my thumb went well. Yesterday I was promoted from the almost-a-cast to a rigid-but-removable-for-showers splint for the next six weeks. I also have some interesting new scars, but we'll skip the photographic evidence. (You're welcome.)

The surgeon says I can do whatever I want in the meantime, provided that I can do it with the splint on and I'm very careful to protect the thumb. Unfortunately for crafting, the splint prevents my thumb-to-fingers grasp on the left so it's hard to hold projects in place for work with my right hand.

On the bright side, without so many yarn distractions I'm spending more time on my writing and that is a good thing.

Also on the bright side, especially if you dropped by to see some projects involving yarn, I tried last night and found that I could ply already spun singles easily using my "good" hand and my new tensioned lazy kate to hold the bobbins. So here's the yarny goodness...

Before: Funky Carolina BFL/silk combed top, 4 ounces

After: 180 yards, 2-ply, worsted weight or a little bit thicker.
I think I'm still plying a little too loosely some of the time.

I also plied what I had left of this Sakina Needles fiber (2 ounces) but wanted to stretch it out so I spun it up with some almost-black cormo wool...

Before: Corriedale wool hand-dyed by Sakina Needles
in the colorway Urban Decay Barbie. 2 ounces.

After: 392 yards, 2-ply. The black strand is from cormo wool
in the Labradorite colorway from Natural Obsessions.

It's good to be back online! Next up -- taking a look at the WIP Wednesday blogs listed at Tami's Amis. I need all the vicarious knitting I can get.

Two more days...

2011-08-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

... until I have my hand surgery and begin the slow road back to having not just one but TWO fully opposable thumbs that bend in the right places.

In the meantime, spinning is pretty much the only craft action I'm getting, provided I work with fiber that is easy to draft. I found this "Kitchen Sink" batt at the LYS and it was soft and lovely to spin -- filled with bits of fluff, rainbow-colored trimmings, and lots of sparkly stuff.

It was only 2 ounces so I plyed it with some almost-black cormo wool and now have enough yarn to make a fun scarf:

Not that more proof is needed, but the spinning addiction may be serious. This week I found a piece of wool fluff behind the bread box and yesterday went rushing into the living room when I heard a voice on a commercial say, "...with spinning wheels built in!"

It turns out Skechers now makes shoes for girls with a spinning disk in each heel... remember back in the old days, when you could do a princess spin without expensive equipment?

Stop by Tami's Amis to see what everyone is working on, and don't forget to wish Tami a Happy Aniversary for her blog and for WIP Wednesday.

Blatant appeal for sympathy

2011-07-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

Just because it's not broken doesn't mean it's just sprained -- or so I learned from last week's MRI to find out why my wounded thumb isn't improving after four weeks. There's a torn ligament which is now out of position so that it can't heal without... surgery. This should happen next week and will be followed by six weeks with the left hand immobilized in a splint, followed by physical therapy.

This injury is most common in skiers who fall while holding ski poles that are strapped to their wrists, so much of the online information involves estimating the time until one can ski again. None of the authors seem concerned about when one can knit again.

I am already bored. I will definitely be doing a lot of reading and writing, but ... I miss my knitting.

I have managed to spin a little with a lot of pre-drafting help from my daughters. Plying is easier than spinning singles.

260-ish yards of 2-ply merino/silk blend

Fine South African merino from PigeonRoof Studios
2-ply, about 160 yards

I will have to craft vicariously by keeping up with your blogs and checking out the WIP Wednesday list at Tami's Amis.

Pictures, at last

2011-07-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the Ethereal Triangular Shawl, all blocked and ready for romantic evenings... now all I have to do is create the romantic evenings... oh never mind, I'll wear it whenever I want to wear it...

I bought this yarn, a skein of Manos Lace in Natural, thinking I would dye it, but there's something very appealing about lace done in white or cream yarn, isn't there? It makes even new patterns look like heirlooms.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-07-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

Ethereal Triangle Shawl, designed by Lakshmi Juneja.
Free pattern, available on Ravelry.com.
Yarn: Manos Lace

I am blocking the Ethereal Triangular shawl on the kitchen table because:

It did not fit on the folding table where it would be most convenient

It is too pretty to block it on the floor (anything could happen)

I do not feel like cooking dinner tonight

All of the above

I have fallen out of like with my Percy shawl this week and am pretty close to frogging what I've done so I can use the yarn (Manos Lace in a teal color which I love) for something else. I have a hard time seeing what I'm doing with laceweight on size 3 needles and I fear it will come out too small anyway using just one skein. This may be its last public appearance...

While avoiding the Percy shawl, I started playing around with a pattern to practice my new crochet skills. There are six rings, three each in two colors, with a seventh piece (the white strip) that weaves them all together. Clever, isn't it? Mine is unique because of the eye-popping color combinations (all from scraps in my daughter's treasured stash of Lilly's cotton) and my complete unconcern with gauge, which produced a more open look than in the pattern. I need to crochet a circle for backing and then do an edging to connect front and back.

The hardest part was understanding how to weave that white piece through to hold it all together. My brain is fine with knitting charts but lousy at diagrams involving shapes and layers. Even with pictures and a written explanation, this step took me several tries (and a Peppermint Patty for consolation). I persevered, however, knowing that otherwise I'd have to ask my nine-year-old to do it for me (and yes, it would have been easy for her).


Interlocking Rings Hotpad, designed by Caitlin Pensak (available free on ravelry.com) Yarn: scraps of Lilly's Sugar 'n Cream or Pisgah's Peaches and Creme

Join the party -- WIP Wednesday at Tami's Amis, now in its 50th consecutive week.

No surprises, just shawls

2011-07-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

We are in that part of summer here where it's so hot and humid that no one has the energy anymore to complain about the heat and humidity. It will not surprise faithful readers to see that despite the weather I am still making shawls.

Yesterday I finished my first-ever crocheted shawl. I am very pleased with it because it exceeded my expectations: it actually looks like the one on the pattern and it is quite close to being rectangular.

Elegant Simplicity Shawl, a free pattern from lionbrand.com
Yarn: Plymouth Kudo

Tonight I cast off the Ethereal Triangle Shawl, a project which has had ups and downs, triumphs and tears, agony and, well you get the idea. Even at the end, there was drama -- I realized my single skein of Manos Lace yarn was not going to be enough to finish the shawl. I cut four rows out of the final section and managed to cast off with about two yards of yarn to spare. Here it is, done but not yet blocked...

Ethereal Triangle Shawl, designed by Lakshmi Juneja.
Free pattern, available on Ravelry.com.
Yarn: Manos Lace

There are beads in the outer row of diamond-shapes though you can't see them in this picture. (There are also beads in and under most of the furniture in the living room, but that's pretty much inevitable whenever I work with beads.)

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Meet nice people, admire their beautiful projects --

Finished Object Friday at Tami's Amis
Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder

Spinning for your health

2011-07-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

One last post about the last week's vacation...

The Public Hospital building at Colonial Williamsburg, now used as the entrance to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Museum, was the first building in North America solely devoted to the care of the mentally ill.

Naturally, this display about the hospital caught my eye...

The Husband, coming in from the hallway, said, "Why would they have a spinning wheel at a mental hospital?"

And I said, "Same reason we have one at our house. It kept the residents calm and happy."

No need to worry that our entire vacation focused on spinning and knitting. My daughters would tell you that this was the highlight of our trip ...

As enthusiastic watchers of TV shows involving extreme cake-making, the girls were delighted to visit Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken, NJ, site of the show "Cake Boss." They were so happy to be there they did not complain about the two-hour wait on the sidewalk to get in, nor the half-hour it took in the very crowded shop to place an order. (Rumors that I complained enough for all of us are completely untrue! But in my defense, it was HOT outside. And I left my knitting in the car.) But they still shared the proceeds with me -- cannoli, cupcakes, cream puffs, cookies, and chocolate-covered strawberries. It was lovely.

The girls were also pleased to score Cake Boss t-shirts -- it's not worth visiting if you can't get a t-shirt to show off to your friends when school starts, right?

Fiber-friendly Road Trip

2011-07-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

We do not go on exotic vacations. We go on the kind of vacations that involve long car rides and the search for fun and interesting things to do between home and the relatives You Must Go See. Fortunately, we usually have a great time on these trips (despite the relatives), with visits to historic sites, kid-friendly amusements, good restaurants, interesting shops, and the occasional yarn store.

Here are the fiber-esque highlights of last week's trip...

First stop, Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. My favorite spot was the spinning/weaving/dyeing room. I could have stayed all day and now not-so-secretly dream about getting to spend a season there as their apprentice. Like the other artisans and experts there, the woman who spoke to us not only knew the tasks but their history in the context of that locale and time period.

We spent a few hours in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum which is located next to the colonial area. Their quilt displays often change, but they were showing two of the Gee's Bend quilts, a Hawaiian quilt, and several others. My favorite was this crazy quilt which was done by the "Ladies of the First Presbyterian Church, Reedsburg, Wisconsin" in 1886. It was a gift to their minister but for reasons unknown was never finished (and isn't it intriguing to wonder why not?).

I dream of making a quilt like this. The textures, the color, the
graceful chaos of it -- I just love it all.

In the gift shop at the folk art museum, I found the cutest pin cushions I have ever seen (though I was too cheap to buy one). I also passed up the stacks of quilting fabric squares and am still feeling both virtuous and somewhat remorseful about those decisions.

On the way home from the northern section of the tour (i.e. after obligatory relative visit), I coerced the family into a short detour to visit The Mannings Handweaving School and Supply Center in East Berlin, Pennsylvania, which is a mecca for anyone who uses yarn. The main draw for me was their showroom of spinning wheels where you are encouraged to grab some wool out of the baskets and try things out. The only wheel I had spun on previously was the Kromski Minstrel so this was both fun and educational. Everyone at The Mannings was welcoming and helpful -- I wish we lived several hundred miles closer so I could take classes there.

Here I am trying out the Kromski Sonata, which is similar to a Minstrel (the one
immediately to the left), but more portable. You can take it apart to fit in a bag.

I tried out several of the more portable wheels in the hopes of getting one at some point that would be easier than my Minstrel to take to workshops, etc. The one I liked the best was a Lendrum folding wheel -- it spun very nicely for me and was the easiest to get ready for traveling. (Okay, I admit it, I really would like to take a spinning wheel on these vacation trips -- is that obsessive?)

Work in Progress Wednesday

2011-07-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

My sprained left thumb is mending (though more slowly than I hoped) and after a week's crafting hiatus, I am now managing to crochet and knit for short bursts of time. Certain family members express amazement that I can hold knitting needles despite still needing help with other basic things, like managing my own buttons, hooks, etc. All I can say is, Where there's a will, there's a way.

The Elegant Simplicity shawl (my first crocheted shawl) is about two-thirds completed...

Elegant Simplicity Shawl, a free pattern from lionbrand.com
Yarn: Plymouth Kudo

I also just started a Brandywine shawl. It's triangular, worked from the bottom tip up to the neckline, so I'm still at the "wow, this is moving along nicely" stage, eventually to be followed by the "I can't believe how long it takes to get across a row" stage closer to the end.

Brandywine, by Rosemary "Romi" Hill
($6.50 for pattern, with $5 of each donated to charities serving Haiti)
Yarn: Punta Merisock Handpaints

See what other crafty people are working on this week at Work in Progress Wednesdays, hosted by Tami's Amis.

Knitting is safer than pulling weeds

2011-06-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

Proving my theory that some projects have difficult karma attached to them, I was working on this... eight rows from the end... finally... after ripping back to lifelines ... more than once... and at last the END WAS IN SIGHT.... and it's going to be a beautiful shawl and worth it all....

Ethereal Triangular Shawl, designed by Lakshmi Juneja
(Available for free on Ravelry.com)
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Lace

and that's when I took a break to do some weeding in the backyard, fell, slid down a slope, landed on my thumb, and got this...

I hate to think what all this velcro is going to cost me.

It's just a sprain, fortunately, and should be better by next week. But no crafting for a few days. I think the shawl is laughing about this.

I will be making limited blog comments this week, as a result, but I will be happily reading them over at WIP Wednesday.

Handspun possibilities

2011-06-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

I tried spinning alpaca fiber for the first time this week and it definitely got better with practice. By plying silver and black singles, I managed to spin a chunky yarn that I am hoping will work to knit the Shawl-Collared Cowl by Alana Dakos. That pattern's been in my queue to knit since seeing the lovely cowl made by Autumngeisha.

196 yards of 2-ply alpaca handspun

I also plied two bobbins of this dark red wool which is now set aside to make a Scroll Lace Scarf (designed by Ysolda Teague).

280 yards of 2-ply wool
spun from Ashland Bay Colonial Wool
in the Raspberry colorway

I hope you have time to do some ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the many creations posted by the participants at these Friday link-ups... you'll be amazed and inspired.

Work in Progress Wednesday

2011-06-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

I'm in the final chart of the Ethereal Triangle Shawl and I will not tempt fate by saying it is going well, because every time I've said, "This is going well," or "I am making good progress now" on this particular shawl, something bad soon followed (later this week I'll be writing my homage blog post to the value of lifelines in lace knitting).

But for now, here's the Ethereal Triangle in its not-quite-finished, wait-till-I-block-it-and-it-blooms natural state...


Ethereal Triangle Shawl, designed by Lakshmi Juneja (Available for free on Ravelry.com) Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Lace, and it is luscious.

Admire all the lovely works-in-progress at the WIP Wednesday party over at Tami's Amis.

If you see any mistakes...

2011-06-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

... I'm officially past the point where I would be willing to fix them.

Bird's eye view, or at least Marushka's view
while standing on the piano bench. (If my daughters
are reading this, DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO.) Ahem.

Close-up view for colors and patterns. I followed the
fabric selection plan provided by the Jo-Ann store for the
class, with one exception... so far...

The good news -- great news -- is that I finished the center of the pink and green quilt top. Statistically speaking, this represents 280 squares sewn into 70 blocks, onto which 70 more squares were appliquéd, and that's probably the last time I'll ever speak statistically, I promise.

This was a complete mood boost to get this far with it today -- I put it away happily knowing that the next phase, the wide border, will be easier and faster than what I've just completed. It's very nice to put something down knowing that it is working, rather than -- as it has been the last few weeks -- putting it down because I'm stuck on how to do the next part, frustrated with how slow it's going, or because I'm too tired to repair the latest mistake.

Perhaps the return of the crafting mojo will energize other life areas? Let's hope!

Speaking of mojo, check out the beautiful things going on around the virtual neighborhood:

Progress?

2011-06-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

I believe these two quotes from my daughter, age 9, best summarize the crafting process here at Chez Marushka this week...

(1) "Are you past the boring part yet?"

and the next one, called out from where she was sitting in the next room (unable to even see what I was doing) after I made a horrified and wordless What Have I Done??? kind of groan...

(2) "Isn't it better to find the mistake now than later?"

The second one was right on cue and sounded almost like an automatic response, along the lines of saying "bless you" when someone sneezes.

Things are going better now... I've taken my lace shawl out of time-out and successfully ripped out and re-knit a large chunk of it. The pink quilt continues to absorb hour after hour of crafting time, but I'm nearing the end of the beginning, if not the beginning of the end.

For progress that is actually progress, visit the WIP Wednesday list at Tami's Amis -- the round-up gets bigger every week.

Soundtrack of the day

2011-06-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thinking in song titles...

"Electric Blue" by Icehouse (I remembered the words -- "Tell me baby, what can I do? Electric blue..." but not the band name until I asked Google for help. Click here for blurry music video -- it's worth it just for the '80s hairstyles.)

BEFORE: 75% BFL wool / 25% Tussah silk fiber
from Spinning Awesome Good

AFTER: First attempt at fractal spinning and first time
using fiber that wasn't 100% wool. A success overall --
240 yards of 2-ply almost-worsted weight yarn with
occasional slubby spots, but fabulous colors.

"True Colors" (... that's why I love you, so don't be afraid, just let your true colors, come shining through...). If you can hear it in your head sung by Cyndi Lauper, rather than by the cast of Glee, welcome to my generation.

BEFORE: Knit Picks Bare merino fingering weight yarn,
dyed with McCormick food coloring.

AFTER: Same yarn overdyed with purple Wilton's icing coloring.
The first purple was fine, but the Wilton's gave me a richer, brighter shade while
still keeping some of the depth of color from the first dye bath.
This was my first time with Wilton's for dyeing and I used this tutorial:
http://pieknits.blogspot.com/2006/02/dyeing-with-wiltons-icing-dye.html

"Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi ... because I'm "HALFWAY THERE, OHHHHH" on my first crocheted shawl...

Elegant Simplicity Shawl, a free crochet pattern from LionBrand.com
Yarn: Plymouth Kudo, colorway 49

"The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel
This one's still a work in progress... I didn't realize that the persistent, mild squeaking of the spinning wheel was bothering anyone else in the family until I mentioned that I'd heard of something called "white lithium grease" that might fix it -- The Husband immediately offered to go find me some and the kids were happy to go with him. The big box hardware store didn't have it, but the local True Value had it in multiple brands and sizes. I had several hours last night of blissfully quiet spinning, but apparently need to apply more as the squeak has started to come back. Another old cliché turns out to be right -- the squeaky wheel really does get the grease.

Let's experiment, shall we?

2011-06-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I came across this blog post about felting a wool sweater and using the resulting fabric to make a bag. I had never done this kind of felting before so I went to the local Goodwill thrift store where I found this cute little number...

Misses Size Medium sweater from Banana Republic.
100% merino wool. $5.99 at Goodwill.

Instead of following the tutorial mentioned earlier, or following my typical "I must research this thoroughly before I formulate a plan to try it" approach, I decided to experiment and see what I could do with whatever fabric I produced. Also in opposition to my normal thought patterns, I forgave myself all imperfections in advance and just had fun with the process.

I ran the sweater through the washing machine with my next two loads of bath towels, using a hot water wash and cold rinse each time. It came out looking like this...

My washer is a recent top loader (Whirlpool Cabrio) with no agitator in the center, so I suspect it takes a little more time to produce a dense fabric than if it did have an agitator.
(Yes, you can felt wool in a front loading washer, it just takes
a little longer. Search Ravelry.com for tons of advice on this.)

Of course, felting shrinks the item so I found that I did not have as much usable fabric as I expected, but I did have one long, almost rectangular, piece after cutting below the armholes all the way around. After playing around with the piece for awhile, I cut the rectangle in half and overlapped the two pieces to create a sturdy folding case for my quilting tools, especially the sharp pointy scissors and the rotary cutter. I sewed vertical seams the length of the front piece to form pockets for the tools...

If I do this again, I will apply a fabric strip or some kind of binding
along that raw edge across the top of the pockets. The edge won't ravel
as is, but it is a little stretchy for its purpose.

I backed the case with fabric that's been in my stash so long I can't remember why I bought it, then added an appliquéd pocket using a piece I cut out of the center of one of the sleeves. I used some leftover sock yarn to make i-cord ties with tassels, and added the buttons for a little fun...

Finished size, folded: 6" by 8", more or less :-)

I offer this not as a tutorial (although if I could figure this out, you can too -- but I recommend buying a bigger sweater than I did), so much as the opening point in a conversation (perhaps only with myself, but please feel free to jump in) about creativity and originality. I have felt lately that I want to branch out, with my knitting (etc.) into not just new territory but to uncharted territory... making up my own designs, for example, rather than just following other people's patterns.

It occurs to me that this kind of originality requires not just creative thinking, but the willingness to experiment. Will the vision translate into an object? Will the manifested object resemble the vision? This is often the place in the process where I flounder -- running out of energy to keep trying after the reality of the object begins to disappoint me or at least to challenge my expectations. But today, being a little more optimistic, I think that sometimes the difference between the original vision and the thing you're actually creating might be a good thing -- a sign that you trusted yourself in the process and were open to something evolving as you tried the various possibilities and saw what worked and what didn't.

Is it any different if I cross out "willingness to experiment" in the first sentence of that last paragraph and think about it as the willingness to play?

Hmmmmm....

Have a playful weekend...
Marushka

PS - Check out Susie's invitation to try something new this week and link up with her list at Useless Beauty Designs. Don't forget to take a peek at my favorite Friday blog meet-ups:

Work in Progress Wednesday

2011-06-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

Frank Sinatra singing "My Way" is the soundtrack in my head today: "Mistakes, I made a few..."

But instead of sharing the misery of the projects currently in Time-Out, let's go on to the bright spots, shall we?

I'm spinning my first silk blend fiber and it seems to be working...

Blue-faced leicester (BFL) wool + silk.
Hand-dyed by Spinning Awesome Good.

I'm attempting to fractal spin this -- it will ultimately be two-ply, with
one of the plies having color-changes that are half as long as in the other ply.
Or at least that's the working theory.

I also have a "reunion" meeting on Friday for the last quilt class I took, since no one came close to finishing during the regular meetings. I'm trying to finish the quilt's 70 appliqué squares before then -- 50 done, 20 to go. This is the first time I've done appliqué and even after 50 of these squares, there's still some exciting novelty to it...

Drop by Tami's Amis for the general awesomeness of WIP Wednesday #44. Be careful... inspiration of this kind will add to your project queue and potentially threaten any kind of yarn diet.

My side of the swap...

2011-06-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

I wrote earlier this week about the swap I did with Heather Woollove and the amazingly gorgeous felted messenger bag she created for me. I received an e-mail from Heather today and now that I know she has received my package, I can show you what I made for her...


Pattern: Summer Flies, designed by Donna Griffin Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss DK (70% wool, 30% silk) in the colorway Masala. Modeled by Teen Daughter.

The Summer Flies pattern is fun to knit and gets high marks from me for the clarity of the pattern writing and formatting. It's available for free on Ravelry.com. I thought it was a little small as written, but then realized it was designed for bamboo yarn which tends to grow quite a bit when washed. I used a wool/silk blend instead so added an extra repeat of the ridged eyelets and butterfly lace sections. The other modification I made was to lighten up the picot edging.

Heather's favorite color is orange, so this gave me an opportunity to dance around in a side of the color wheel I normally breeze right by. She sounded very happy with the shawl in her e-mail and that definitely made my day. I love making things, but sharing them with people who understand what that creative process means to me is always a special experience.

Speaking of creative people with lots of heart, check out ...

Work in Progress Wednesday

2011-06-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

Both of my projects this week represent a bit of a challenge ...

Elegant Simplicity Shawl, a free crochet pattern from LionBrand.com
Yarn: Plymouth Kudo, colorway 49

Last summer I decided to learn to crochet. I made one baby hat and one oddly shaped coaster, then went back to my knitting needles. I decided this year to try something bigger. This Elegant Simplicity shawl consists of a seven-row pattern which offers a nice combination of variation (for my short attention span) and repetition (for my lousy memory) ... and I can now do single, double, and half-double crochet stitches without looking at my "learn to crochet" book repeatedly.

The pattern has such a strong horizontal line to it that it's perfect for yarn with long color changes. I can't believe how nicely the stripes in my Plymouth Kudo are working with the stitch pattern.

Ethereal Triangle Shawl, designed by Lakshmi Juneja.
Free pattern, available on Ravelry.com.
Yarn: Manos Lace

I'm also determined to conquer my phobia of lace-weight yarn this summer. This Ethereal Triangle Shawl is starting to make sense for me, though there's an investment of energy in just keeping the skinny little stitches (a) on the needles and (b) from hiding under the stitches next to them. This definitely won't be a travel project.

In non-crafting news, we've progressed from spring into full, steamy-hot summer. When we're not fighting the army of moles that's taken over the neighborhood, we're moaning about the plague of cicadas. But there are some consolations...

The first baby deer we've spotted in our yard this year.
Some of the novelty wears off as you watch the deer
eat everything you plant, unfortunately.

Share the crafting love... show off your projects and admire the others in the WIP Wednesday party at Tami's Amis.

Lucky me!

2011-05-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

By Heather Woollove, Fiber Artist
www.woollove-functional-fiberart.blogspot.com

Earlier this spring Heather Woollove and Andrea at Wonder Why Alpaca Farm swapped one of Heather's felted items for one of Andrea's knitted items. I admired both projects (they were beautiful!) and said so in the comments on their blog entries. That's when Heather offered to do a swap with me.

We exchanged some info about colors and basic preferences, but left the rest to be a surprise. I have been working on my gift for Heather for the past few weeks and looking forward to what she would make for me. And now it's HERE! Yes, this spectacularly beautiful messenger bag is now mine.

Heather's a genius! I love the colors, the shape, the texture -- even the pockets she cleverly built into the inside of the bag. As I was writing this post, I clicked over to Heather's blog and she is doing a three-part series explaining how she made the messenger bag. I was completely impressed before, but when I see the process she uses, I'm even more in awe of her artistry.

Now the pressure's on -- can she like what I made for her as much as I love this bag? I'll put my gift in the mail tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed...

Rest & recuperation

2011-05-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post today ... I haven't abandoned the blog, just had to take time out for gallbladder surgery this past week. I'm feeling better (yes, knitting has resumed) and letting my family take care of me for a few days.

A short trip down memory lane...
In the U.S., today is Memorial Day, a holiday to remember and honor those who died in military service. When I was in high school, I marched with the band in our small town's Memorial Day parade every year, which ended at a small park where there was a monument to soldiers who had died in WWI and WWII. Floral wreaths were presented at the monument and then one of the high school trumpeters would play Taps. As the last note faded out, a second trumpeter, who was standing out of sight and farther away, played Taps again. It was haunting every time.

Get thee to a library

2011-05-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

If you haven't checked out the knitting (crocheting, quilting, etc.) sections of your nearby libraries, you may be pleasantly surprised. In both the county library near my home and the metropolitan library system in the next county, there's a decent selection of both classic and more recent titles in the craft sections. I have borrowed Judith Durant's One Skein Wonders series, Barbara Walker's treasuries of stitch patterns, the Stitch 'n' Bitch books, Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and many others. If you like vintage patterns, you might find those, too.

Ask about a non-resident library card if you live outside of the library's service area. I invest $50 annually in a library card at the metro system in the next county and it is more than worth it, even with the 30-minute drive. I can easily borrow books from any branch in the system and have them delivered to the branch closest to me for pick-up. This bigger library system also offers more services, such as an InterLibrary Loan program that is willing to track down books from all over the country.

Case in point: A few years ago fiber artist/knitting teacher Myra Wood wrote and published Crazy Lace, a guide to improvising lace patterns. I didn't buy it when it first came out and now the only copies available -- used -- are priced like this...

I asked for it via the Interlibrary Loan department. They located it in a library several states away and, within a few weeks, obtained that copy and loaned it to me for four weeks at no charge. I browsed the book, enjoyed it, and then returned it. For me Crazy Lace is encouraging, but falls into an awkward spot -- it won't seem revolutionary to experienced lace knitters, but could be overwhelming to new lace knitters.

I was happy to discover that both library systems near me are open to suggestions for books to be added to the collections. The metro system is more willing to do this, probably because they have a bigger budget and more staff. I submitted my suggestion that they buy Julie Turjoman's Brave New Knits: Dozens of Projects and Personalities from the Knitting Blogosphere using the online form on the library's website and within six weeks they had purchased a copy. I'm still in the early pages of reading it and have found several patterns in it that intrigue me. Check out the pattern pictures on Ravelry if you want to see what's offered -- the designers featured include Ysolda Teague, Connie Chang Chinchio, Anne Hanson, Stefanie Japel, Wendy Bernard, etc. This book I will probably buy, but it was nice to give it a test drive before spending the money.

Is there a knitting/crafting book you can't live without, one that's worth every penny? Do tell...

Playing with Color

2011-05-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

I love color, I just don't always understand how to use it.

True confession: There was a time in my life when my closet contained six pullover, cable-knit sweaters. All in beige. They were the cornerstone of my (very neutral) wardrobe. What's worse, I'm very pale and so beige is pretty much an invisibility cloak for me.

I've left the beige behind and never regretted it, but I am still trying to figure out how colors work well together in the things I make. The experiments are proving to be a lot of fun.

I showed you last Friday the two handspun singles I was thinking about plying together:

It would be a mixed marriage... Corriedale fiber dyed by Sakina Needles,
about to be plyed with nameless pink merino.

In my imagination, the pink would liven up the muted pastel stripes while the pastel shades would balance the pink. In my reality, I created this and didn't like it at all:

Ick.

The Husband said, "Maybe you will like it better tomorrow," but when tomorrow came I still felt the same. The pink, which I didn't like to start with, had taken over the world.

I had a bobbin full of raspberry wool next to the wheel, so as Round 2 of the color experiment, I plyed the two-ply yarn with the raspberry and got this:

This works for me. The cranberry comes forward more than the pink does. Some of the subtlety of the self-striping yarn was lost, but might still be noticeable in a knitted item if the stitch pattern is simple. There are 220 yards so there's enough for a scarf. Teen Daughter, also a knitter, was petting the skein yesterday with a certain gleam in her eyes so I'm sure she'll take it off my hands if I am willing to share...

Have a great weekend,
Marushka

There's a lot of beautiful work to see at these Friday get-togethers...

The Big Picture

2011-05-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

... once again proving that this is not one of those crafting blogs where the projects go together effortlessly ...

I finally got back to Quilt #2 today and found that I couldn't visualize from the instructions how the blocks go together. I spread the blocks out on the floor to get The Big Picture. This is great, I thought, I am taking the wider view and not getting bogged down in the details. Everyone who has advised me to stop overanalyzing the mistakes in my knitting will be pleased to hear this.

But could it be that easy, asked my inner pessimist. And it wasn't -- turns out the Big Picture can reveal your mistakes just like the Too Close View can. But that's a good thing when it helps you fix the problems before they multiply and ruin the project, right? I went back to the sewing machine, fixed two blocks that were put together wrong, and made new ones to fill a couple of gaps. I had a block left over which I couldn't explain (so I decided to ignore it).

I uploaded a photo to celebrate, got ready to drop it into a blog post, and that's when I found the remaining mistake, a block out of place... which needed to be replaced with the so-called "extra" block.

As if my craft projects didn't take up enough room,
now I have a quilt top that's trying to take over a room of its own.

Thanks for listening while I figured this out! I think I wouldn't have found that one error until much later in the process if I hadn't uploaded the photo for the blog.

High tech versus low tech

2011-05-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

I was relieved to read a few minutes ago that knitting mastermind JelliDonut of I Knit, Any Questions? fame, was taking responsibility for crashing Blogger yesterday and today. This was good news since I had started to wonder if it was MY bad technology karma expanding out from the house and into all of cyberspace.

Fortunately, I have low tech options to keep me busy when the home wireless network is having tantrums and Blogger goes on strike...

I finally figured out how to spin space-dyed wool so that the colors stay intact
and not all mixed-up together. I am spinner, hear me roar.

The fiber on the top bobbin is Corriedale wool dyed by Sakina Needles in shades of blue, sage green, lavender, and a dark pink. The colorway is called Urban Decay Barbie and it's got a sort of hazy shadow subduing all the pastels (it looked like this before I started spinning). The lower bobbin is Merino wool, brand unknown. It's pure pink and not at all my color, so I'm thinking I will ply these two together and see if the solid pink unifies the long striping colors in the other strand.

And if I don't like the results, I've got dye in the house and I'm not afraid to use it.

Share the crafting love ...

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-05-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

Warning: I am probably thinking too much. Again.
Feel free to ignore the angst and just browse the photos.

I believe that sometimes life lessons are lurking in the simplest of things -- coincidences, odd repetitions, meaningful words -- especially when connected to things that we feel passionate about. That's why the blog name is "It might be a metaphor" -- because I'm always looking for the meaning in things and whether there's a lesson that will help me grow toward being the person I want to be. I know that's a lot to expect from a needlework project, but there you have it. It might be a metaphor, a symbol, a lesson -- or it might just be a scarf. Either way is okay.

So what can I learn from some of the projects I have at hand?

Morlynn Shawl: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. No one will see the little mistakes unless you direct them there.

Morlynn Shawl/Tuch designed by Alexandra Wiedmayer
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Tidepool Heather,
Rainforest Heather, and Sky.

Elegant Simplicity Shawl: This is the third thing I've ever crocheted and the seven-row pattern was like learning a whole new language. I just finished my second repeat and the underlying logic is becoming easier to see. The lesson? If you figured it out once, you can do it again. And the next time will be easier.


Elegant Simplicity Shawl, a free crochet pattern from Lion Brand yarns. Yarn: Plymouth Kudo (cotton/rayon/silk blend, long color changes)

Lamina Scarf: You don't always get to start at the beginning and work in a straight line through the middle and on to the end. Sometimes you have to start in the middle and work your way out.


Lamina, designed by Lykkefanten. You start with a provisional cast-on and knit the first half out to the tip, then pick up the stitches at the cast-on edge and knit the second half outward to the other end. Yarn: Manos del Urugay Silk Blend. (70% merino, 30% silk. This is the yarn I would take if I could plan my knitting for the "stranded on a deserted island" situation.)

Speaking of repetition, I currently have six shawls on the needles, including my first crocheted shawl, and three scarves. Does this seem a little excessive, particularly since I only occasionally wear the shawls that I make? Thinking about it symbolically -- if shawls represent warmth, color, comfort, beauty, but I am not wearing them, does that mean I am denying myself those things? Or refusing to see those qualities as connected to me? Or maybe I'm just afraid that if I knit sweaters, I won't know how to make them fit.

----

For blogs with more projects and less angst, visit Tami's Amis and see what the Work-in-Progress Wednesday gang is creating.

The right tools for the job #3

2011-05-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

My most expensive yet essential knitting tool -- progressive bifocals

After much anxiety -- and one epic fail -- regarding knitting with laceweight yarn, it turns out that being able to see the stitches makes all the difference.


Ethereal Lace Triangle, designed by Lakshmi Juneja and available for free at ravelry.com Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Lace

Close enough

2011-05-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

I finished the Morlynn shawl and blocking has done its magic...

Morlynn Shawl/Tuch designed by Alexandra Wiedmayer
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Tidepool Heather,
Rainforest Heather, and Sky

The pattern calls for two colorways of Wollmeise, a beautifully dyed yarn I have heard about but restrained myself from hunting down. Instead, virtuously knitting from my yarn stash, I used three skeins of Knit Picks Palette in three different colors. Each was 231 yards.

1st skein: Stockinette section
2nd skein: Eyelet rows and lace sections. This one was going to run out before the end of the leaf lace in the outer section, so I stopped "strategically" and switched colors at the halfway point on the leaf diamonds. Now that it's blocked, the eye doesn't see the leaves so much as the triangle shapes above and below the color changes. I had enough left over to do the bind off which seems to help tie it all together.
3rd skein: The garter stitch stripes and the remaining leaf lace section.

I was running out of the third skein by the time I finished the leaf lace border so I ended this early, omitting several rows of the outermost garter stitch border.

I'm pleased with how it turned out. I used a little Soak wool wash to get out the evil spirits left over from all the whining I did while making it, and let the wonders of blocking take over.

My Friday plans include a lot of lawn mowing, but assuming I'm not totally lost in the tall, tall grass of the front yard, I'll be catching up with the crafty blogs over the weekend...

Work-In-Progress Wednesday

2011-05-04T10:40:00.000-07:00

When all else fails, lower your standards.

Morlynn Shawl/Tuch designed by Alexandra Wiedmayer
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Tidepool Heather,
Rainforest Heather, and Sky

I'm hoping to finish the Morlynn shawl today. It seems like it's taken a lot longer than it actually has, probably because I got so bored in the immense stockinette section at the beginning and have held a grudge ever since.

My relationship with Morlynn has gone steadily downhill to the point where I have been doing the occasional increase or decrease whenever I noticed was off by a stitch or two rather than doing my usual detective work to locate and repair the mistakes. It may be the first shawl I've made without ripping anything out, but only because I have cheated so blatantly at every opportunity.

It still looks pretty good and I'm hoping that between the magic of blocking and the dark colors, the mistakes will fade into the background. I'm planning to leave it in a bag in my car so I'll never again have to complain about how cold the air conditioning is at restaurants and movie theaters here in the summer.

I'm catching up on blog reading (and everything else) after being out of town last week, starting with the link-up at Tami's Amis for WIP Wednesday.

Don't leave home without it

2011-05-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

The mother ship of my knitting bags

Last Monday I had a busy day of errands planned. I deliberately left my knitting at home since I was sure there would be no downtime.

At noon I walked out of an appointment to find that my car wouldn't start. I called AAA and waited about 45 minutes for the repair truck to come. Yes, forty-five minutes in which I did not have my knitting. All I had was a paperback romance novel from the library which featured immortal lines like these:

She had, all unintentionally, beckoned and beguiled
him from the moment he had seen her. When he'd had no
right to feel such fascination, she had seduced him blithely
from the beginning, and it had been no fault of her own.

You can see my problem, yes? I did get some momentary entertainment from trying to remember the last time I heard anyone use "beckon," "beguiled," or "blithely" in conversation, but definitely not forty-five minutes worth.

Once the car was started, I found a repair shop which promised they could install a new battery in less than two hours so that I could pick up my daughters after school. I read magazines in the waiting room for two hours while they came up with an estimate proclaiming that the car needed not just a battery but an alternator and could be ready the next day. I said no to all of it and found that the car started just fine despite no repairs being done. I picked up my girls on time, barely.

At home, expecting to regale The Husband with the sad tale of "How the Car Wouldn't Start and I Didn't Even Have My Knitting With Me," I learned instead that his mother was in the hospital and that we needed to leave immediately for the fourteen-hour-long trip to get to her.

Could I be ready to go in thirty minutes, The Husband asked.

No problem. I had learned my lesson already that day -- I spent twenty minutes organizing my knitting projects and the remaining ten minutes packing my clothes. Seven days later, with my mother-in-law's health apparently stable, we arrived home, completely exhausted from the worrying and the traveling.

Thank goodness for comfort knitting... it kept me sane, there and back, and in all the waiting rooms and hotel rooms along the way.


Wedge, by Norah Gaughan Yarn: Teksrena

We drove my car and it started up every time without a problem. I had it checked by a Honda dealer before we headed back here and they said the battery and alternator were both fine. I can't explain it. I'm just glad to be home.

Regular Programming Will Resume...

2011-05-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow.

We are just back from an (unplanned) week-long, cross-country trip to take care of my mother-in-law while she was in the hospital. Things are not yet resolved and we may have to go back, but for the moment we're back home and trying to get reoriented.

By driving north in a hurry Monday night and most of Tuesday, we stayed ahead of the killer storms that devastated so many here in the South. This morning coming through southwestern Virginia, we saw a town that had been absolutely torn apart by tornado or straight-line winds -- the trees were broken off a few feet off the ground, houses destroyed, and even tractor-trailer trucks tossed around.

It gives new perspective to the idea of getting home safely.

First Try

2011-04-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

I did my first ever appliqué today. And it worked!

Not bad for the first try, right?

Details, for those who may be curious... The top square was backed with a slightly smaller square of freezer paper which was left in place until the square was sewn onto the four-patch quilt square. Then, from the wrong side, the bottom layer of fabric was cut away a quarter-inch inside the stitching so the paper could be peeled off and removed.

On the other side...

The worst part was pressing the edges of the fabric squares (all 70 of them) to the freezer paper squares, but all's well that ends well, or at least gets done without seriously burning one's fingers.

One square down, sixty-nine more to go. I may need Easter candy as fuel for the long haul ahead of me.

Enjoy your weekend, with or without chocolate bunnies. Don't forget to hop on over to...

A peek inside my Easter basket

2011-04-21T14:45:00.000-07:00


On the left: 100% corriedale wool from SakinaNeedles in the colorway Urban Decay Barbie. On the right: 50/50 Merino/Tencel fiber from Woodland Woolworks in the colorway England.

I mentioned the other day that I had discovered a destash group for spinning fiber on Ravelry: Fiberholics--Spinners ISO & Destash. Today I received my order from another Ravelry member and started laughing as soon as I opened the package. Two of the fibers are practically twins in their lovely pastel coloring and I'm not sure why I didn't notice that when I picked them out. I guess it's good timing -- my spinning fiber is all dressed up for Easter this weekend.

I'm still hoping the Easter Bunny will bring chocolate, too.

Work in Progress Wednesday

2011-04-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

...in which Marushka achieves new heights
in the use of parenthetical comments
(and now stops referring to self in third person).

The word of the day is Momentum -- in the sense of "strength or force gained by motion or by a series of events" (thank you, Merriam-Webster).

Since I tend to have the occasional conflict with the natural forces of gravity (I'm over 40, enough said) and inertia (when I come to a stop, it's hard to get going again -- in knitting as in life), I know that momentum is my friend. It's a lot easier to keep going once I've pushed through the awkward spaces and stuck spots which tend to bring on avoidance. This is why I try to rotate my craft projects so nothing sits for too long. (On the bright side, by avoiding my knitting last week, I accomplished a lot of spinning.)

I have at last begun to see momentum on the two projects I'm knitting right now. I have gained understanding (I wouldn't quite call it mastery) of the dreaded nupps in the Mimosa Scarf and climbed out of the dark depths of despair I was feeling about the large swath of stockinette at the beginning of the Morlynn Shawl/Tuch (I blame this on my short attention span and not on the pattern).

Mimosa Scarf, designed by Shui Kuen Kozinski
Yarn: Elann Baby Cashmere

I'm using the crochet hook method to do the nupps on the Mimosa Scarf and finally figured it out -- the stitches have to be loose and the crochet hook tiny, otherwise the hook catches on the stitches as you pass the working yarn through them. My nupps now look a lot more like ... nupps. It's a good feeling.

Morlynn Shawl/Tuch designed by Alexandra Wiedmayer
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Tidepool Heather,
Rainforest Heather, and Sky

Morlynn is easier than I anticipated, but that has allowed my mind to wander at times, ensuring some interesting design features (i.e. wonky bits) which I have no intention of correcting.

Now if only momentum could be contagious and infect other things on my ~~things-I'm-avoiding~~ to-do list...

Hop over to Tami's Ami's to gain some
creative momentum and inspiration.

Yarn finds new home...

2011-04-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations, Ginger! Better get those knitting needles ready for action... You won the blogiversary giveaway and I have 440 yards of Malabrigo Sock yarn with your name on it.

Ginger has been reading and commenting here from the beginning. In fact, it was something she said last year which motivated me to begin posting on a more regular basis.

Thank you to everyone who entered and especially to those of you who are frequent visitors. I appreciate you all very much.

P.S. Take a peek at Ginger's photography blog: Wonderland -- Not All Who Wonder Are Lost. She does a beautiful job at capturing moments in the natural world.

Slowing down

2011-04-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

My favorite skein of handspun to date --
120 yards of merino, two-ply, from Ashland Bay.
It was lovely to spin -- soft and silky, with gorgeous coloring.

For the first time in several busy months, the family calendar was just about empty this weekend. We all needed some downtime. Saturday morning the kids slept late. I started the morning with my knitting, took a break to do some spinning (see above), finished cutting out the fabric for my quilt class after lunch, and then went back to knitting after dinner. At one point, middle of the day, when we were all sitting around in the living room working on our own projects, my younger daughter asked, "What are we doing this weekend?"

I told her, "We're doing it."

It was great while it lasted, but tomorrow we're back to "real life."

One fun item on the to-do list for Monday will be choosing a winner (via random number generator) for the Malabrigo Sock yarn I'm giving away. To make things more interesting, if you comment on THIS post, I will add these entries into the contest, starting the numbering where the comments left off on the original post about the giveaway. If you already entered, please feel free to enter again. My yarn, my rules :-)

For all your faults, I love you still...

2011-04-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

400 yards, two-ply, approximately worsted weight,
using hand-dyed wool fiber from Dancing Leaf Farm
in the Blue Sky colorway.

Lovely things happen when you ply two strands of yarn spun from fiber dyed in varying shades of the same color. I'm leaning toward using this batch to make Ysolda Teague's Scroll Lace Scarf.

I'll be giving away a skein of Malabrigo Sock on Monday -- look for my post earlier this week on how to enter.

Share the creative spirit this weekend with these great link parties...

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-04-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Going slowly or slowly going? It's hard to say.

Adding to the usual chaos here and multiplying it, long-awaited landscaping repairs started yesterday, involving all kinds of men and machinery. I'm happy the project is underway, yet mildly anxious about all the chaos to be endured before it is finished.

In the realm of things which I feel some control over...

Spinning:
I discovered a Ravelry group for destashing spinning fiber, which was either really good news or really bad news. I bought this Ashland Bay merino fiber that way and cannot tell you how wonderful the stuff feels -- it just glides through the hands and onto the bobbin.

There's a lot of maroon and dark purple in this, with streaks of blue and
green. It looks different in every variation of lighting.

Knitting:
I've been working on the Morlynn shawl but it is not moving quickly. I was so enamored with the two-color lace edging that I forgot how bored I get doing lots of stockinette to get to the interesting part. The shawl sucks up the time I give to it without showing much in the way of results. (I'm sure that's a metaphor for any number of things in my life -- how about yours?)

Quilting:
I started another class at the Jo-Ann store. I have a stack of fabric to cut out today, having learned last week that "fussy cutting" (to align each piece with a particular motif on the fabric) is another crafting technique that sucks up enormous amounts of time relative to output.

I started with the recommended fabric, but had to make
some substitutions since some of it was already sold out.

Here is the first square of the table runner I'm making "all by myself," as little kids say.

I aspire to making squares that are actually square.

Visit the Work-in-Progress Wednesday link at Tami's Amis to see what everyone is working on this week. Chances are good they are less whiny today than I am.

Blogiversary Giveaway

2011-04-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

The flowers were an anniversary gift -- wedding anniversary, that is.

In honor of my first year of blogging and all the nice people who have visited me here, especially those who leave comments, I am giving away a skein of my favorite weight of yarn in one of my favorite colors: Malabrigo Sock in the colorway Persia. This is 440 yards of fingering weight yarn in teal with black overtones. (It is difficult to photograph the exact shade, but I would say it's a little more toward green than the photo here conveys.)

I will choose a winner (by random number generator) a week from today and promptly ship out the prize. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post which includes a metaphor, a simile, or a brief bit of original poetry. Quality will not be judged and theme is completely up to you. Humor is always appreciated!

Some friends who read the blog are not knitters or crocheters -- if one of you wins, I'm sure we can work out an alternate prize.

Knitting knows no season

2011-04-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

I knit what I feel like knitting, regardless of season, especially since I lack the capacity to plan ahead to knit seasonal outfits in advance of the season in question. Thus, despite temperatures made for shorts and tee shirts, my completed project this week is a cuddly winter scarf made from handspun yarn...

Sunshine only occurs while my models are in school lately, resulting in this photo
taken of me, by me, utilizing the one-arm camera hold, with strategic cropping.
For the first time ever (and only temporarily), I wished my long arms were a tiny bit longer.

The pattern is Scarf Squared, designed by Sarah Bradberry (available online for free). It's knit but looks rather crochet-like. It is reversible, which I like very much, and absolutely does not curl. The middle section switches from the mesh pattern to a simple two-by-two rib stitch. It looks a little odd when you're not wearing it...

but that ribbing section lays perfectly, with no extra bulk, behind your neck or under your collar. You can knit the scarf from end to end, but I wanted to make the middle section as long as possible without running out of yarn for the mesh section at the end, so I did the mesh sections first and put one on a stitch holder. I used Kitchener stitch to graft that section to the rest of the scarf.

Instead of grafting, I could have accomplished the same thing by weighing the skein at various points in the process to know when to stop the ribbing and switch to the lace but that just seems so ... analytical. Besides, I like to do Kitchener stitch -- it makes me feel like a genius every time.

----

There will be a giveaway next week to celebrate my first year of blogging and all of you who are kind enough to let me know you're stopping by to read it. One lovely skein, 440 yards, in my favorite color range, will be the prize. I'll have the details posted here by Monday. Have a great weekend!

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Share your creative genius & be inspired by others...

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-04-06T19:18:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I watched about fifteen minutes -- that's all I could take -- of a reality show called Jerseylicious. Since The Husband is a New Jersey native -- and virtually accent-free contrary to all stereotypes -- I can only attribute those lost fifteen minutes to cultural research gone terribly wrong.

Long story made short, one of the Jerseylicious ladies, a make-up artist, told a client the following --

"Less is not more. MORE is more."

Aha! It was a light-bulb moment for me. No longer was I worried that this week's Work-in-Progress looked an awful lot like last week's Work-in-Progress. Instead, I present to you the More Work-in-Progress report...

Featuring MORE STOCKINETTE (than last week):

Morlynn Shawl/Tuch designed by Alexandra Wiedmayer
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette

More BLUE HANDSPUN :

Hand-dyed merino fiber from Dancing Leaf Farm.

MORE GUSHING about how fun it is to knit my own handspun yarn -- I suppose the novelty may decline eventually, but I'm still in the "wow, I made this!" stage of spinning. (Parents, praise your children abundantly while they are young, lest they grow up to be emotionally needy, praise-hungry bloggers like me).

Scarf Squared, designed by Sarah Bradberry
Yarn: handspun, using fiber from Christina Marie Potter's Etsy shop

and MORE CAST-ON STITCHES (289!) THAN EVER BEFORE (for me):

Mimosa Scarf, designed by Shui Kuen Kozinski
Yarn: Elann Baby Cashmere
4 nupps made, 172 more to go

That's all for now. The night is no longer young and I have MORE laundry to do, MORE lunches to make, and (lucky me!) MORE knitting to do.

But wait -- one MORE thing -- in honor of my first blogging anniversary, I went to the yarn shop today and bought a lovely skein of yarn just to give away. I'll post the details in the next few days. Thanks for visiting!

Thanks again to Tami's Amis for hosting Work-in-Progress Wednesday. Go take a look at what everyone's making. You'll be MORE than a little inspired.

Repetition as path to mastery

2011-04-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

in other words: Practice Makes Perfect. Maybe.

Mimosa Scarf, designed by Shui Kuen Kozinski
Yarn: Elann Baby Cashmere (mmmmm!)

Yesterday's topic for Knit & Crochet Blog Week 2011 was to write about a technique, pattern, or skill that you hope to add to your crafting repertoire. Most of the ideas that came to mind were in spinning or quilting, my newest craft ventures, simply because I know so little about what I'm doing that the field for learning is wide open.

But for knitting, the hurdle I'm presently facing is something very specific -- an Estonian lace stitch called a nupp, which everyone who cares about Estonian lace stitches will tell you rhymes with soup and not with cup.

The dreaded nupp involves turning one stitch into five or seven stitches through increases, followed on the next row by gathering those stitches back into a single stitch. It forms a kind of bobble or "popcorn" stitch.

So, with all that background in mind, I am attempting the Mimosa Scarf by Shui Kuen Kozinski, my first project involving nupps. I did my research on Ravelry and found this helpful web page with links to videos showing not one but three methods of doing a nupp. I settled on Myra Wood's suggestion of doing the nupp with a crochet hook. You can also skip nupps altogether and place a bead instead of the nupp.

At present it takes me about 4 tries per nupp to get the crochet hook back through the 7 yarn wraps without making a mess of it. The key is to keep those increase stitches very, very loose, but even knowing that isn't enough to produce reliable results for me.

Yet. I am determined. I will not give up. I will not surrender and use beads instead. I WILL FIGURE THIS OUT.

I have now managed four nupps that (mostly) look like nupps. The good news -- or is it bad news? -- is that the shawl offers me 172 more opportunities to get the nupps right.

Heavy sigh.

And if any family member makes that snide comment about how knitting is supposed to be relaxing while I'm working on those nupps, I will throw my nupp-making crochet hook at them. Or make them feed me chocolate to steady my nerves until I get these blasted nupps right. The chocolate option sounds much less violent, I'll probably go with that one. Probably.

The scarf as metaphor, with bonus haiku

2011-04-01T07:09:00.000-07:00

The open river

beautifies its obstacles.

Can I do the same?

Water Diamonds Scarf by Kristi Holaas
Yarn: Sheep Shop Company's Sheep 3, silk/wool blend (Discontinued)

Lace, cables, beads -- what's not to love?

Building the creative community...

Knit & Crochet Blog Week 2011 - click here to enjoy Day 5 posts from around the world (2KCBWDAY5)
Fibers on Friday at Visions of Sugar Plums
Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder
FO Friday at Tami's Amis

Now, where was I?

2011-03-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

Many things were accomplished here last week during our Spring Break Staycation, but I am still struggling to find my way back to what I was doing before the kids and the husband took over the schedule. Here's the Work-in-Progress report for this week...

After two episodes of great frustration with shawl patterns involving 200 or 300 cast-on stitches (don't ask, they are in time-out), I surrendered to the call of the familiar and cast on a triangular shawl -- Morlynn -- which starts with just two stitches and cruises for awhile with a lot of stockinette stitch. It's a medium green heather, despite all photographic evidence presented here:

Morlynn Shawl/Tuch designed by Alexandra Wiedmayer
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette

While the knitting mojo took its own spring break vacation, I spent more time with the spinning wheel and made some progress on my drafting which seems to have increased productivity.

Almost 400 yards of two-ply spun from
Blue-Faced Leicester (BFL) combed top
purchased from Copper Moose. Once I decide
what to make with it, dyeing will be next.

In progress: hand-dyed merino fiber from Dancing Leaf Farm.

The sewing machine spent part of spring break at the repair shop. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but the problem apparently was that moving parts had been damaged, probably by a broken needle, inside the bobbin case area. Like going to the doctor's office, I was a little relieved to hear (a) there really was something wrong with it and it wasn't "all in my head" and (b) the problem could be solved without huge cost or inconvenience. Here's hoping it's ready to go, I have another quilting class starting next week.

I hope the sun is shining where you are and that you are creating something beautiful. Stop by Tami's Amis for Work-in-Progress
inspiration regardless of the weather.

What we keep (and what we don't keep)

2011-03-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week my mother turned up an ancient photo album page which included these glamorous shots of me, circa 1972, both featuring handmade clothing.

The first one is a picture of me on the first day of school in second or third grade. I am wearing a blue and orange plaid dress, knee-high white "go-go" boots (anyone remember the TV show Laugh-In?), and a granny square poncho which my mother made for me. I can remember her making it, especially the fringe.

My mother was anticipating the Bicentennial with her
color choices, wasn't she?

I am laughing now at the frightening hair cut (perhaps the wind was blowing?), the look of total apprehension on my face (am I biting my lip like that because I am nervous about school or just about having the picture taken?), and the fact that no one noticed my grandmother's clothespin bag looks like it was growing out of my head.

My family only took pictures on milestones and holidays back in the "old days" because it cost money for the film, the flash bulbs, and the developing. Thus I wasn't surprised to see that the second picture of me in the set is my Halloween costume from the same year. For reasons now unremembered my mother decided to sew a pilgrim costume for me. She made it big enough that I was able to wear it for Halloween for two or three years. I even won a ribbon in a costume contest for it, which was definitely A Big Deal.

Note the white go-go boots appear here as well. Never let
historical authenticity get in the way of excellent footwear.

My daughters laughed at the second photo because of the orange mask -- clearly no self-respecting pilgrim would have worn such a thing. They don't understand that going incognito was a difficult task in a tiny town where everyone knew who you were and probably remembered that you were a pilgrim the year before, too.

I am a little sad that I don't still have the poncho or the pilgrim costume. The pilgrim outfit went to friends of ours for their daughters and the poncho may have gone to them as well. Back then we lived in a small mobile home where storage space didn't exist. I did keep many of the other things my mother made for me, including two prom dresses. Now that I'm making things for my own daughters, I'm more nostalgic about what my mother and grandmothers made for me.

However, I also believe that energy is freed up by sorting out what you have and letting go of what is no longer used or loved. It's interesting that these old pictures turned up at the same time we are doing a major spring cleaning and making stacks of stuff to give away or donate. We're a pretty sentimental family so it's often difficult to do this kind of purging but this year we seem to be more in tune.

I think we are making room for who we are now and for whatever comes next. (And I am trying to talk myself out of buying a new pair of go-go boots -- I had forgotten how much I loved them.)

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-03-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

We skipped the Spring Break traveling this year to stay home and Get Things Done Around the House. While this meant a reduction in vacation-related car-ride knitting, I'm still sneaking in some knitting time in between home improvement tasks.

The Water Diamonds scarf is going well...

Water Diamonds Scarf and Cowl, designed by Kristi Holaas
Yarn: Sheep Shop Company's Sheep 3 silk/wool blend (discontinued)

I also started a scarf to show off my second usable handspun yarn -- a 2-ply using Corriedale fiber dyed by Christina Marie Potter. I'm too new to spinning to treat the colors with much deliberation so after plying there's a nice random mixture of the white, brown, and rose...

Scarf Squared, designed by Sarah Bradberry
Yarn: handspun

My sewing machine has gone to the repair shop for a tune-up and attitude adjustment (perhaps even an exorcism), so sewing is not distracting me from my knitting projects. Unfortunately, cleaning the garage and mowing the lawn are next on my To-Do list. Sigh.

Cruise on over to Tami's Amis for the Work-in-Progress Wednesday line-up.

Finished. Or Not.

2011-03-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

Alternate post title: Ambivalence, The Musical
(A cautionary tale. Definitely a melodrama.
But wait, there is no music. Oh, never mind.)

Artistically posed shot of the Quenington scarf after blocking...

Ah, sunlight... I had almost forgotten how much better
photos look taken in natural light.

Lesson #1:
Thou shalt not be needy when it comes to praise. The first time I asked The Family to tell me how lovely Quenington looked as I blocked it, they admired it (the colors! the lace!). The second time (or perhaps the third time, I'm needy) I asked for admiration, Teen Daughter took a closer look and commented...

"So why did you switch from knitting to purling
over here?"

Lesson #2:
Just because the project is small enough to be portable doesn't mean it's a good idea to work on it while carrying on conversations with multiple people and watching your daughter's gymnastics practice.

Lesson #3:
Even in reversible stitch patterns, right side rows and wrong side rows may not be interchangeable.

Lesson #4:
The word of the day is Ambivalence: from the Latin, ambi- meaning both, and valentia meaning strength.

While I enjoyed the pattern, I was so happy to be finished. I am not enthusiastic about re-knitting the last several inches. I may well procrastinate on doing so to the point where the scarf will sit in the "things to finish" pile for a long, sad period of of time.

On the other hand, while it's unlikely many (or any) people will notice the complete reversal of right and wrong sides, I will always associate the un-fixed scarf with that mistake which is equally likely to put the scarf into the back of my closet where it will be unappreciated and unworn.

There's no hurry to decide, however, since the weather has now topped 70 degrees and I have no shortage of other knitting projects. M. has gymnastics again tonight so I will be looking for a pattern this afternoon which features extensive garter stitch or stockinette.

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You can see non-ambivalent crafting projects at any of these Friday link-ups: Visit the blogs of friendly creative people in several countries by stopping by Tami's Amis FO Friday, Fiber on Friday at Visions of Sugar Plums, and Fiber Arts Friday at Wonder Why Alpaca Farm.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-03-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

Since I finished a few things last week, I started something new... a scarf with many of my favorite things: lace, cables, and beads.

Water Diamonds Scarf, designed by Kristi Holaas, with matching cowl.
Yarn: Sheep Shop Company's Sheep 3 (discontinued)

The yarn leans a little more toward teal than it appears in my photo. It's a skein I picked up last year in a clearance bin at the LYS. It's a lovely yarn -- 70% silk, 30% wool -- and I like it so much I'm sad that it's discontinued, though at $25.50 each it's probably a good thing I didn't discover it sooner.

On the quilting side of things, I started a table runner yesterday using a kit I bought from ConnectingThreads.com (sister company to Knit Picks). So far I've made three nine-patch squares and twelve flying geese squares.

I have also had several unhappy discussions with my sewing machine as it does not seem as interested in quilting things as I am -- the feed dogs don't like quarter-inch seam allowances at all and either stop feeding the fabric or grab corners and pull them in. I'm going to clean and oil the machine today and see if that helps. And if it doesn't, I'll just ignore it for awhile and knit something instead.

Wander over to Tami's Amis to see what everyone else is working on this week.

It was a sign

2011-03-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

Back in January, I pondered the question of why I was suddenly knitting multiple projects in the rose to purple spectrum instead of my usual teals, blues, and greens. Here's what I was working on...

Today I finished the last of those four projects, the Quenington scarf (I'll show it off later in the week) and realized what the universe was trying to tell me with this odd confluence of reddish hues. It's time to finish the only project in my long-term hibernation section...

Lace Spiral Scarf, designed by Gail Owens,
published in Judith Durant's 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders

I started the Lace Spiral Scarf in November 2009 but quickly learned that no matter how pettable it is in the yarn store, Rowan Kidsilk Haze is not nearly that easy to love when you are a fairly new knitter. It's slippery, it's fuzzy, and it does not tear out well at all. The good news about learning this lesson was that I figured it out after buying one $14 skein of Kidsilk Haze instead of a whole sweater's worth, which had been my plan after I saw Sally Melville's Classic Shirt pattern.

It must be time to give the ruffled scarf another try. My knitting skills have progressed since 2009 so maybe the experience will be more positive the second time around. I still like the pattern and the color (good thing too -- the yarn is so hard to rip out).

Now that I have figured out the mystery of the rose-colored knitting projects, we can turn our attention to why I keep buying quilting fabric that has butterflies on it.

Finished & Felted

2011-03-11T07:26:00.000-08:00

I finished my Mitered Square Quilt Bag on Wednesday and felted it on Thursday. The finished size is 9" wide x 10.5" tall so it may be destined to be the knitting bag for the smaller portable projects.

Before felting:

I used nine colors of Knit Picks' Palette fingering yarn, held double.

After felting:

Hot wash, cold rinse, normal spin speed, tossed in with a load of towels.

Ready to go:

I've given up on knitting handles -- they usually stretch and they're boring to make.
These microfiber handles cost $4.99 at Jo-Ann and just took a few minutes to sew on.

Edited to add: Several people have asked questions about felting. You can definitely felt knitted items in a front-loading washing machine, I have done it myself. I am guessing the reason people think you can't is because the door locks during the wash cycle unlike traditional top-loaders where you could just pick up the lid and look inside to check on your item. There are some good threads on Ravelry about this. The one time I did a felted bag in a front-loader, I just ran it on the shortest cycle time -- about 16 minutes -- thinking I could run it through again if necessary.

Now I'm using a new top-loading machine (Whirlpool Cabrio) which is designed to be water-efficient and has no agitator in the center. The first time I ran it through, I put it in a mesh bag as recommended in the pattern, but this didn't allow enough friction apparently and the bag came out virtually unchanged. Finally I just tossed it in, sans mesh bag, with a full load of towels and ran it on the "Towels" cycle (hot wash, cold rinse, normal spin speed) and it came out just the way I hoped it would.

The finished size changed from about 10" x 12" pre-felting to 9" x 10.5" after felting.

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Visit the blogs of friendly creative people in several countries by stopping by Tami's Amis FO Friday, Fiber on Friday, and Fiber Arts Friday. Knitting, crocheting, weaving, spinning, dyeing, quilting, they're doing it all and the list keeps growing...

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-03-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

Progress always seems to speed up as the end of a project moves into view. All of my knitting time went into the Mitered Square Quilt Tote this week, much of which involved weaving in all those ends.

Today I nearly finished the rectangular bottom panel. It's constructed very cleverly using short-rows and decreases on either side to join the smaller sides as you go. All that's left is to use Kitchener stitch to graft the "active" stitches on one side to the rest of the border and then it'll go into the washing machine for felting.

Mitered Square Quilt Tote, designed by Krystie DePue
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette

The pattern calls for i-cord handles, but I'm leaning toward making them out of sturdy fabric or some kind of cording instead. I will felt the bag first and then decide.

I pictured the bag being larger than it turned out to be, but that's my fault for not reading the pattern where it clearly states the finished size is approximately 10 x 13 inches. I was thinking that "tote" meant more of a book bag size than a purse. If I make another one, I will adjust the structure to include more quilt blocks or at least move up to chunky yarn and bigger needles. This one uses fingering yarn held double.

Meanwhile, I am about a quarter of the way to finishing the hand-sewn binding on my quilt. Today I also discovered a quilting store in our town that I didn't know existed -- they recently moved into a new shop so now they offer a convenient location, beautiful fabrics, classes, nice salespeople, and a small room of yarn (plus Knit Picks needles!). Yes, it is just as dangerous a place as it sounds.

Go browse the WIP Wednesday list at Tami's Amis to see what all the other creative folks are making this week.

It's not just a bunny...

2011-03-07T14:59:00.000-08:00

Dusty but undaunted

When I was in my early 20s, I made a new friend at work and she invited me to go with her to a ceramic shop and do some painting. I made this little bunny and I was so proud of it that I drove The Husband (technically still The Boyfriend back then) a bit crazy. For the following week, I kept asking him, "Do you like it? Did I do a good job?" And every time, he patiently reassured me: "Yes, I love the bunny. You did a great job. It's a beautiful bunny."

I desperately craved that reassurance. I think the little bunny -- then and now -- represented that creative part of me that wants to be witnessed, acknowledged, encouraged, and -- yes -- praised. I grew up in a family where praise was hard to come by, and usually only found in listening to what was said about you to those outside the family rather than to you.

There are people who love you deeply, who would give you a kidney if you needed one, who may not be able to look at your handknit sweater, your short story, your sculpture, your blog, your scrapbook, or whatever, and understand what it means to you. Even if they are impressed by what you have done, they may not be able to reflect back to you in words what, if anything, it means to them. That's why it's so good to find the people who do know what it means and aren't afraid to tell you, "I love the bunny."

I still have the bunny. I still have the friend who took me painting that day (and she now makes her own gorgeous pottery). And I still have The Husband who continues to encourage my many flights of creative fancy. Talk about lucky.

In writing and re-writing this, I have managed to cheer myself up. To add the finishing touch, daughter M. walked in a few minutes ago, saw the bunny on the kitchen counter, and said, "That's a pretty bunny!"

Yes, I am indoctrinating the next generation!

(Close to) Finished on Friday

2011-03-04T07:15:00.000-08:00

Once again I'll be slightly stretching the edges of the meaning of the word "Finished."

First, I have a new skein of handspun yarn, fresh off the spinning wheel, though still needing a bath to ~~be finished~~ set the twist. I'm pretty new to spinning and still working on consistency in thickness and amount of spin. Pretty colors and plying seem to disguise some of my lapses...

2-ply, almost worsted weight using handpainted wool top
from Christina Marie Potter's Etsy store. See the original fiber
on my Ravelry stash page.

Second, was anyone skeptical when I said on Wednesday that I would have my quilt finished for today? Well, it's true that I did finish my quilting classes, a set of 4 with a great instructor at the local Jo-Ann store. Lucky me, I was the only one signed up and the store allowed the class to proceed so I had individualized instruction. With a bunch of sewing done at home in between sessions, I managed to finish the top, machine quilt it (though I may quilt more inside the large blue squares), and apply the binding*:

Finished size: 43" x 51"
Rebel that I am, I ignored the fabrics the project called for (large bird
motifs for each square), and went my own way.

*Beginner's oversight... I didn't realize that the binding is machine sewn on one side and hand-stitched on the other. I don't mind blind-stitching but it does take awhile. This next photo shows the 22" of binding that I finished blind-stitching yesterday. Mathematically, this places the blind-stitching completed at 22/(43+43+51+51) or 11.7%.

Those are not hair barrettes clipping the binding to the quilt, they are official
quilting clips. (This means that they are exactly like barrettes, but cost
$2 more per package by virtue of being sold in the quilting section.)

When I told the instructor that the quilt colors match nothing in my house, she pointed out that they perfectly complement the colors I usually wear, which was true. (No, I'm not painting a room to match the quilt!)

Our circle of Friday project sharing keeps growing. I'm now linking to Tami's Amis FO Friday, Fiber on Friday, and Fiber Arts Friday. So many beautiful things to admire and be inspired by... it's amazing!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

2011-03-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

You'll notice my pictures this week have a strange new tint to them. It's called sunlight. Yes, at last -- enough sunshine that it's beginning to creep into the house in the mornings again.

My projects will otherwise look familiar to those who dropped by last Wednesday...

Mitered Square Quilt Tote, designed by Kristie DePue
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette

Quenington, designed by Laura Patterson
Yarn: Sirri Sirotogu Colours 2-ply

I hope to have my very first quilt finished tonight and will show it off on Friday if all goes as planned. Finished or not, The Family will be glad to have the quilt stop spending so much time on the kitchen table. It's not just the artist who suffers for the art, you know -- it's everyone who can't eat their cereal in the morning without dire warnings of what will happen if it gets on the work-in-progress.

Machine quilting could be an Olympic sport. I think I pulled a shoulder muscle
just getting the quilt top this far.

Enough about my stuff. Go take a peek at Tami's Amis for all the good things people are sharing on WIP Wednesday.

Because. Just because.

2011-03-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

So, there I was, getting out of my car at the public library today when I spied this tree next to my car, with these seed pods hanging down from it. They looked exactly like Christmas ornaments and I stopped for a minute to make sure they were actually part of the tree and not tied onto it. I took out my cell phone and tried to figure out how to get the possible shot given the low resolution of the cell phone camera and the not-very-pretty background of the parking lot. My best guess was to aim up into the branches and get sky rather than cars as the backdrop.

It was at this point a man about twelve cars away from me called out, "What ARE you looking at?" I wasn't sure he was talking to me, so I didn't answer, but by the time I had my phone put away and my book bag out, he had walked over to me, demanding to know what I was photographing.

I didn't have the inclination or the energy to explain myself to a stranger in a parking lot ("Well, the seed pods look like Christmas ornaments... and I sometimes wish I was a better photographer .... and taking pictures might help me get out of my head to be more mindful of the world around me...."). Thus, I gave a simple answer:

"The tree."

He looked at me (and I admit this is my interpretation only) as if I were crazy and swept past me to go into the library.

On the other hand, if I had shared my creative process ("Well, the seed pods look like Christmas ornaments..."), there's an equal chance he would have still given me the "You're crazy!" look.

Some days I don't mind being a patient and cheerful ambassador for crazy creative folks everywhere, but other days (like today) I just want to see what I see and make what I make. I'm tired of explaining myself. I do it because I want to, isn't that enough of a reason? Why am I even asking you that, of course it's a good reason.

(Marushka will now step down off soapbox and return to cursing the walking foot on her sewing machine which is showing a sad tendency to interrupt its normal walking with periodic hops, skips, and jumps. Bad walking foot, very bad walking foot.)

Signs of Spring?

2011-02-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know that turkeys are more of a fall symbol, but they happened to be visiting this morning when I went out to check on the daffodils. Baby deer would be more picturesque, but they're not here yet.

Finished on Friday

2011-02-25T07:12:00.000-08:00

We were taking knitwear photos this morning before school and the good news is that only one child missed the bus because of the photo shoot. The other child doesn't take the bus anyway so I guess our success ratio is not that impressive. But I digress... on to the good stuff:

Katrina Ballerina finally got her button last night and was promptly worn to the middle school this morning:

Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan
designed by Nicole Feller-Johnson.
Yarn: Malabrigo Twist in Ravelry Red

I followed the Katrina pattern as written, just adding the garter stitch option to keep the sleeve edges from curling. I also used some extra yarn at the end to reinforce the edges of the buttonhole and also the underarm seams. The lace pattern starts just a couple of rows after joining in the round below the armhole so I wanted there to be a little more structure there. I made the medium size and it fit very closely until blocked. I knew from my gauge swatch it would relax a tiny bit when washed and it now fits perfectly. I couldn't be happier with this one.

Here is my Ishbel shawlette. Please forgive the lack of centering. This time I did the modeling and M. took the photos (before she missed the bus):

Ishbel, designed by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Snarky Cushy MCN (now discontinued, but very lovely)

I love the Ishbel shawl and can see why it's so popular. It's my favorite shape -- a somewhat flatter triangle due to increasing on all both right and wrong side rows. I think it could be a little intimidating for a new lace knitter since it's not as obvious in the early rows if you're lining everything up correctly.

If Ishbel is your first lace triangle:

put a lifeline in at the end of the stockinette section
count your stitches before you start the lace to make sure you haven't missed any increases in getting that far
use stitch markers for each lace repeat, bearing in mind that some of them will be sliding around under the yarnovers, or have to be shifted over in order to do decreases

I can't wait to see what everyone else has finished up this week. Take a peek at the growing list of participants at Tami's Amis FO Friday festivities.

PS - I saw my first daffodils in bloom this morning. It's a good sign!

Work-In-Progress Wednesday #25

2011-02-23T15:13:00.000-08:00

In searching for a non-lace project this week, I came across this Mitered Square Quilt Tote pattern. I did not even have to go yarn shopping to start it since I have a sizable bag of Knit Picks Palette fingering weight yarn that I bought online late one night (for reasons I cannot explain, perhaps we had no chocolate or ice cream in the house and I went "comfort shopping" instead).

Be that as it may, I am now knitting something which contains absolutely no lace elements and cannot be worn as a scarf or a shawl. It's a nice change. I am also congratulating myself for using this bag of yarn that previously had no purpose except to make me feel guilty about my yarn expenditures.


Mitered Square Quilt Tote by Krystie DePue. Yarn is Palette fingering from Knit Picks.

The bag is done as modular squares, with each new square starting with stitches picked up from previous ones. The finished panel is folded in half and seamed, with more stitches picked up for the top and bottom of the bag. There are many yarn ends to weave in, however, so I'm doing this periodically so they don't depress me when the knitting is finished.

My other new project this week -- and yes, it's a lace shawl, how did you know? -- is the Little Leaves shawl by Susanna IC, designer of Annis and other popular crescent shawls.

Little Leaves designed by Susanna IC
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Jacinto

The lace pattern itself isn't intimidating, but what were the chances I could cast-on 331 stitches and get through the first row of beaded lace without messing up? Did I mention it's my first-time using laceweight yarn? And my eyes aren't as young as they used to be? I think the yarn industry calls it laceweight because "yarn so skinny you can't tell one stitch from the two or three next to it" is just too unwieldy.

My Ishbel shawlette is currently on the blocking table, so I'll post pictures of that on Friday. I might even get that long-awaited button finally sewn onto the Katrina Ballerina sweater by then.

A language of our own

2011-02-21T09:20:00.000-08:00

The problem with language, at least with the English language which is the only one in which I claim any expertise (I can hear a college French teacher laughing hysterically across the years as I write this) is that so many words have different meanings in different contexts.

For example, I was happily telling my mother about a fiber festival I attended last fall. In my head, when I said "fiber festival" I saw this...

but mentally she saw this...

and thus made a snarky comment along the lines of "Oat bran versus whole wheat? I hope you didn't have to drive too far for that one." (Sarcasm is clearly a hereditary trait, as you can see.)

Recently, The Husband reported hearing from a woman at his office that her spinning class was just fabulous. He was a little surprised to hear that she had lost a lot of weight since she started spinning, since he watches me spin all the time and there seems to be a lot of sitting involved.

He soon realized that she was talking about her stationary cycling class at the YMCA rather than making yarn.

But did I learn anything from his experience? Of course not...

Last week at my aerobics class while we were waiting for the instructor, the woman standing next to me commented that she has started taking a sculpting class and felt it was dramatically improving her life. I was thrilled to hear this because it proved a theory of mine, that when you engage with your own creativity freely, other creative people can somehow sense that and are drawn to you. Otherwise, why would she mention her art class to a complete stranger at an exercise class?

So I said, "I know what you mean! Creativity is transformational, isn't it?"

She looked at me very blankly, at which point I realized that she was talking about a body sculpting class rather than the clay sculpting I had imagined.

It was a good thing the music started right then, wasn't it?

Work-In-Progress Wednesday #25

2011-02-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

Last week I decided that I needed a break from lace knitting. How many lace shawls can one person make (or wear, or give away)? With the best of intentions, I sorted out yarn in my stash for a cabled sweater and a felted tote bag.

And yet, what project did I cast on next? Meet Ishbel, aka "The Next Lace Shawl." I think this may prove the addictive nature of my lace knitting. (I can stop anytime I want to... but apparently not quite yet.)


Ishbel, designed by Ysolda Teague Yarn (now discontinued): Snarky Design MCN in the colorway "It's Cool, We Can Still Be Friends"

On the bright side, the Ishbel pattern was a Mother's Day gift last year from Teen Daughter who has been inquiring as to why I haven't made it yet. (Maybe she'll give me another pattern for Mother's Day 2011 if I do a nice job on this one?) I bought the yarn while the two of us were at Stitches South last spring which just adds to the sentimental value of the project.

I finished two of last Wednesday's featured projects over the weekend. Scroll down to the next post (or just click here) to see the Bitterroot shawl and my handspun scarf.

Skipping over to another craft entirely, the center of my lap quilt is coming together...

It turns out that good quilt photography is just as challenging as knitwear photography.

Drop by Tami's Amis and see what everyone else is making this week.

If nothing else...

2011-02-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

If I accomplish nothing else this weekend, I can still bask in the satisfaction of completing the Bitterroot shawl...

I am very happy with how it looks after blocking. I made the small size, but since I used thicker yarn and bigger needles, it's more of a traditional shawl size. I hope my mother likes it -- it's her birthday gift. It's done three weeks ahead of schedule which is a frightening level of efficiency for me.

Last night while watching TV I finished my handspun scarf (yes, it's made from My Very Own Handspun Yarn, not that I am reminding EVERYONE of this exciting fact). I knit until I ran out of yarn and magically it came out to be the perfect length.

Ironically, now that I have a new wearable that is warm and snuggly, the temperature surged up today from the mid-20s to the mid-50s. Spring can't be that easy, so I will probably get another couple of chances to wear my scarf before the flowers are in bloom.

This photo session was the first one we've done outdoors since late fall. Teen Daughter did the modeling, along with providing commentary. I draped things, she moved them, we fussed about where the shadows were... I found a surprising picture when I loaded the photos onto the computer. I'm not sure how we took it. Isn't it odd?

Enjoy your weekend!

Work-In-Progress Wednesday #24

2011-02-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

Katrina Ballerina's still waiting for her button, but the Bitterroot shawl did get beads this week. I'm almost to the halfway point of the cast-off, but it is slow going because of the triple yarnovers that have to be bound off in pattern. Are the beads too subtle?


Bitterroot -- Designer: Rosemary (Romi) Hill Yarn: Patons Silk Bamboo

Meanwhile, I've been dividing the rest of my knitting time between Quenington and the First Handspun Scarf (aka The New Kid) so that no one feels left out:

Quenington -- Designer: Laura Patterson
Yarn: Sirri Sirotogu Colours

One Row Handspun Scarf -- Designer: Yarn Harlot
Yarn: My very own handspun and it makes me really, really happy!

On my sewing table, I have a shirt that just needs a hem and a vest that just needs buttonholes so those should be finished this week. I also have the beginning of the lap quilt I'm making at my quilting class:

I may have gone a little too bold on the yellow. The entire family was semi-patiently waiting for me as I chose fabrics so I opted for a kind of high-speed, intuitive approach.

There's snow in the forecast for this afternoon and tonight so the kids are home from school early. I'm looking forward to a cozy afternoon trying not to listen to their complaints about all the "snow day" homework the teachers gave them.

Every week there are more lovely projects linked to the WIP Wednesday page at Tami's Amis. Take a look, but be warned... you'll want to make stuff. Or make more stuff. Or learn new crafts. It's a slippery slope.

The right tools for the job #2

2011-02-07T16:58:00.000-08:00

At last... I'm working the final chart on the Bitteroot shawl and adding in the beads. The challenge... seed beads (size 6/0) can be placed fairly easily on fingering or lace-weight yarn using a teeny-tiny crochet hook (yes, that is the technical term), but I'm using a slightly heavier yarn that is also prone to split.

Thus, the first teeny-tiny crochet hook was too small to grab the yarn to pull it through the bead, while my other teeny-tiny crochet hook was too big to fit in the bead.

These hooks came to me from my grandmother. As far as we know, she didn't crochet
so my mother and I are guessing that these belonged to my great-grandmother.
They are labeled on the back "10 cents."

The solution?

Cost of solution: $3.49.
The Husband was quite impressed by my frugality.

Thanks to designer Rosemary "Romi" Hill's Ravelry group (she designed Bitterroot), I discovered that you can use Oral B Super Floss to place beads on knit stitches. It's easy and it works -- as a bonus, the method keeps the yarn from splitting as you pull it through the bead.

To summarize the process: You thread a bunch of beads onto the floss, insert the floss threader end into the stitch to be beaded, wrap the threader down and push it through the first bead, slip the stitch off the knitting needle so that it hangs on the threader loop, slide the bead down onto the stitch, remove the floss, and put the stitch back on the needle.

Even better, Romi has a photo tutorial on her blog.

Unfortunately, as I was congratulating myself on how well this worked, I failed to notice that the chart changed so that the single center stitch could be increased into a set of multiple stitches. I tried to repair that without ripping back and could not manage it, so spent some time tinking back 3 or 4 (very long) rows and removing beads as atonement for my failure of attention. All is well now and I'm just five rows away from the finish line. Please don't ask how many seed beads have disappeared into the furniture.

Moral of the story: Don't let the pretty beads distract you
from the task at hand.

(Almost) Finished on Friday

2011-02-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

Katrina Ballerina is relaxing after her bath. This weekend we'll go in search of the one perfect button and then mark this one finished. All that's left is to clarify the consequences for Teen Daughter should I ever notice this tossed carelessly on the floor of her bedroom.

As I took the picture I found myself wishing I had nicer towels... not for daily use but for use when I take pictures of knitwear that I'm blocking. Crazy, huh? You won't judge me for the sad state of our towel inventory, I hope. This one is a beach towel from our (long-ago) college days. Why is it ugly towels last longer than pretty ones?

Enjoy your weekend, and don't forget to drop by Tami's Amis to check out what everyone else is putting on display today.

Work-In-Progress Wednesday #23

2011-02-02T09:50:00.000-08:00

On the Needles, a Play in One Act

Our cast of characters:

Katrina Ballerina -- a saucy young lady, wearer of bright colors, the kind of girl who pirouettes through life. She'll keep you on your toes!


Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan Designed by Nicole Feller-Johnson Yarn: Malabrigo Twist in Ravelry Red

Quenington -- a quiet young man of hidden depths. Still on the way to finding himself, his true colors are slow to be revealed. Sometimes he despairs at being the one who's always in the background.

Quenington
Designed by Laura Patterson
Yarn: Sirri Sirotugu Colours

Bitterroot -- a mature lady who sometimes thinks herself plain despite the subtle beauty of her patterning. She looks forward to getting her chance to sparkle.

Bitterroot
Designed by Rosemary "Romi" Hill
Yarn: Patons Bamboo Silk in Plum

The New Kid -- like a puppy brought into the home of more mature dogs, he's eager to make a place for himself and is unafraid to say "Me, me, me!" when it comes to getting attention.

One-Row Handspun Scarf
Designed by Stephanie Pearl McPhee
Yarn: Handspun! using fiber from Woolen Mill St Yarns

Scene 1

Katrina Ballerina: Ta-dah! I'm just about ready for my starring role. There are a few loose ends to take care of and then I'll be relaxing in a lovely bath.

Quenington: Cast off! I don't want to hear about it.

Katrina Ballerina: You are so coarse! No wonder The Knitter pays no attention to you anymore. You're just jealous.

Bitterroot: Oh hush, you two. Everyone will get their turn. And when I get my turn, I'll get ... (clasps hands in front of her and looks dreamy) beads!

Katrina Ballerina: Nobody cares about beads. Buttons are what count! And I'll get one single, spectacular button front and center. You just wait and see.

Quenington: (sighs loudly). Waiting. That's all I'm good at. Nobody appreciates me around here. I keep getting put aside in favor of (waggles fingers like quotation marks) "Something New."

Bitterroot: I have to admit that you're right, Quen darling. I was cruising along at the top of my form until HE came along. (glares at New Kid, who is now entering)

New Kid: Hi everyone! How are you? Look at me, just got here two days ago and I'll already this tall! Look at how my colors are striping! I'm so happy to be here. I feel like I could hug everyone (waves arms expansively). Even though I'm not as smooth as you, I think she likes me! I got to go places in her handbag yesterday. She invites people to pet me! She already knows my pattern without looking!

(Katrina, Quenington, and Bitteroot sigh in unison)

Katrina Ballerina: Okay, we really need to get back on track here. The real problem is that New Kid is distracting her. She's all gushy about making a project with her very own Handspun Yarn. It's kind of annoying really.

New Kid: Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?

Quenington: (grumbles) What?

New Kid: Tonight I get to go with her to Quilting Class! Just in case there is downtime.

(Katrina, Quenington, Bitteroot look horrified)

Quenington: It looks like we'll all be getting more downtime now! First she cheats on us with multiple knitting projects, now she's branching out to entirely new crafting areas.

Bitterroot: Face it, dear ones. There's always Something New waiting to be discovered.

-- The End -- (or is it? wait and see)

The director now comes out on stage to thank the audience and invite them to visit Tami's Amis after the show where all kinds of creative loveliness will be on view.

Mishaps of Marushka, Episode 397

2011-01-31T16:52:00.000-08:00

Dear Editors at Vogue Knitting,

Had I known that you have a direct line to the Karma Police, I would have followed any wise grandmother's advice: If you can't say something nice, say nothing at all.

But no. I dared to scoff at the scarf-that-becomes-a-halter-top pattern in the Holiday 2010 issue. It was obviously too fashion-forward for me to understand. In my defense, the oversized bobbles on that scarf were frightening in their proportions, but perhaps it was not my place to say so. (Though I do note that of the handful of these scarves completed and posted on Ravelry, one user happily calls hers the Meatball Cowl.)

Somehow you must have sensed my negativity, because my Winter 2010/2011 issue never arrived. When I contacted your customer service, they told me that the issue was "sold out" and that they would add an extra issue to the end of my subscription. Mm-hmm.

But it was easy enough to pick up a copy at the local craft store. I definitely wanted this issue -- I found multiple patterns that I want to make and wear (including a sweater with a ruffle, and I haven't worn anything with ruffles since 1983). Some styles weren't for me, but I could not find a single pattern in it I wanted to make fun of, that's how great an issue it is. I read it twice, I queued patterns, I flagged pages.

And then I lost it. The whole issue. Gone. Somewhere in my house (I think) but not anywhere I would reasonably have placed it. I even sorted my box of paper for recycling and started the latest round of organizing in my office/craft room in a so-far futile effort to locate it.

So please accept my apology. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Feel free to do whatever you like in the Spring issue -- faux fur diaper covers, hats that become slippers, flags of the United Nations in large intarsia sweaters, I'm giving you a pass. I won't make fun of bizarre poses or make-up that makes the models look like zombies who are embarrassed to be caught on film. You have immunity for the next challenge, as they say on reality TV.

Now can you please let me find the missing issue?

With all due remorse,
Marushka

-------
POSTSCRIPT: This apology worked even better than I hoped... Karma has been appeased! The missing Vogue Knitting resurfaced within the hour as I sorted through the biggest stack of paper on my desk. I won't tell Teen Daughter that she was right that I would find it there, it would just go to her head.

Work-In-Progress Wednesday #22

2011-01-26T11:51:00.000-08:00

Design by Nicole Feller Johnson @ No Two Snowflakes.
Yarn is Malabrigo Twist in Ravelry Red.

The Katrina Ballerina Lace Cardigan I'm making for my daughter is beyond the halfway point. It's my first top-down sweater and I am now a big fan of being able to try the garment on as you make it. I expect, if the test swatch didn't lie, that this will grow a bit when washed to give it a little more ease in how it fits.

The only change I made to the pattern was to do one button instead of three, per Teen Daughter's request. Looking over my shoulder as I write this, she points out that it is an advantage that she is short and so the sweater will be done sooner. (Watch her get the long-awaited growth spurt right after I finish the sweater!)

Also on the needles and progressing, though without dramatic photographic evidence, are my Bitterroot shawl (now done with Chart B) and the Quenington scarf, last mentioned here two weeks ago. They'll get their turn in the spotlight again next Wednesday.

I hope by then to have a little bit of knitting done on my first knitting project using my own handspun yarn, too. (Imagine happy squeal here.)

The blog itself is a Work-in-Progress this week. I went for a simpler template and will be working on a new banner.

Thank you to everyone who posts progress photos on WIP Wednesday and to those who visit here for mine. There's encouragement, information, commiseration, great ideas, and tons of inspiration freely shared in this group. Special thanks to Tami for being the ever-gracious hostess of our WIP Wednesday Blog Roster!

Ply, ply again

2011-01-24T15:16:00.000-08:00

Today's post is my version of hanging my artwork on the refrigerator.

I continue to get better acquainted with my spinning wheel. As my results began to look more and more like "real" yarn, I purchased some hand-dyed Corriedale wool top from Christina Marie Potter's shop on Etsy, Woolen Mill St Yarns (great prices, pretty colors, quick shipping).

After dividing the braid in half and spinning it onto two bobbins, I plied the strands together. As you can see, it was about halfway through that I finally got a grip (literally) on tensioning the yarn to get a decent twist:

I was a little disappointed because I wanted this to be the first of my handspun to become a knitted project (and of course, I wanted it to be fabulous yarn and a lovely finished object). On the one hand, it would still be like knitting with two strands in the not-very-plied part of the skein. On the other hand, the scarf would look different on end than on the other -- and even if it didn't, I would know.

I decided to fix it but to do it in the easiest way that I could manage. I cut the yarn into a plied hank and a not-very-plied hank, then with the latter looped around a swift, re-spun it onto a new bobbin. This worked beautifully (oh, happy surprise!), so now I have two skeins of usable, plied yarn...

The Family appropriately gave "ooh!" and "ahh!" sounds when I finished it up. Now all that's left is to whack the yarn and wash it to set the twist. How many crafts offer the chance to whack the work-in-progress as a good and necessary step in the process? I knew I would like spinning.

Postscript -- For brevity, this episode of Marushka Spins Again was edited to remove all traces of the subplot involving the ups-and-downs of purchasing a jumbo flyer and how the spinning wheel had to be manipulated in order to accommodate the new accessory. The episode did have a happy ending, though the studio audience did not necessarily laugh in the appropriate places.

Finished Photos on Friday

2011-01-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

Here is my finished Troubador scarf...

Design by Tanis Gray. Yarn is South West Trading Company's Therapi.

and here is my Victorine shawl...

Design by Cindy Guggemos. Yarn is Punta Merisock Handpainted.

I love these photos! They came out a little more artsy than our setting would have suggested. I played a hunch that we could take advantage of the one beam of semi-sunshine coming in the living room window. A's the model and I had her standing tucked in between two easy chairs, with me photographing from behind the floor lamp. Positioning to just catch the sliver of light was key -- the weather is sort of a bright gray outside and the living room doesn't receive much natural light on the best of days. The camera focused on the white in her shirt and shaded out everything behind her.

Postscript: If you read my WIP Wednesday entry about procrastinating on learning the Russian join, there is good news. I finally gave it a try (you were right, Denise, it wasn't difficult) and successfully joined on the next skein of bamboo/silk yarn in the shawl. If only everything I procrastinate on could be so easily solved!

--- Drop by Tami's Amis to see what everyone else finished up this week. --

Marushka goes to the dark side

2011-01-20T16:28:00.000-08:00

Last night I escaped from the family long enough to attend a "Quilting 101" class at the Jo-Ann store. As with my initial spinning lesson, I was balancing curiosity about the craft with a little bit of hope that I wouldn't like it enough to want to acquire new skills, new tools, and new stash. Wrong again.

With two classmates who were just as new to it as I was, and a patient and knowledgeable instructor, I pieced together my first quilt (almost) square. It needs a few more small blocks around the edges to be Finished. It was fun making it all come together so I signed up for the next set of classes and bought the necessary fabric.

In quilting you get to play with color, pattern, texture, and there is encouragement to mix your prints -- really, what's not to love?

Because I think too much (it's well documented), I sometimes wonder whether I should be concentrating on getting very good at one or two things rather than jumping around from one creative pursuit to another. I can argue both sides of that rather effectively. For now I've decided to stop thinking and get back to Making Things. Thinking is surely over-rated.

Work-In-Progress Wednesday #21

2011-01-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

A is for Avoidance

In order to more effectively procrastinate on learning to do a Russian join so I can add the next skein of silk/bamboo yarn on my Bitterroot shawl, I managed to start the long-awaited Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan for Teen Daughter. I finished the bodice last night and now it's just straight knitting with a little lace until I get to the desired length or the yarn runs out. And may I say (okay, I've said it before) that Malabrigo Twist is just delicious to knit with? A. picked out the Ravelry Red shade and it's the perfect antidote to the "everything is gray" weather we're having.

B is for Brevity
B should have been for Bitterroot, but I haven't worked on it since last week. I found an appropriate needle and plenty of instructions for learning the join, but between sick days, snow days, a kid with dental surgery, etc., I opted for comfort knitting instead of Learning Something New which might require (egad!) practice, patience, or tolerance for mishaps.

But Brevity is good too -- now that the WIP Wednesday roster is growing, I am trying to reduce my verbiage since we have so many places to visit.

C is for Comments
Check out the full gamut of WIP Wednesday loveliness over at Tami's Amis blog and leave a few comments along the way. Comments always make things brighter.

Flu on Friday

2011-01-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

When I took my sadly congested little M. to the doctor today, I was surprised to find out she has the flu -- surprised because she had the Flu Mist vaccine back in the fall. Fortunately, she has a mild case, probably due to the vaccine's presence. I can tell she's feeling a little better this afternoon -- apparently the Happy Meal she wanted for lunch had restorative powers -- because she ventured off her sick bed to do this:

It's a "make your own pom-pom scarf" kit that arrived as a Christmas gift. Four pom-poms down, sixteen more to go.

For my "Finished on Friday report," I'm happy to say that I cast off the Troubador scarf last night and it's blocking today.

Also on the blocking towels is the Victorine shawlette that I finished in the midst of the Christmas craziness. The Victorine pattern was a surprise gift -- thanks, Susan! I loved making it and look forward to wearing it:

Now I'm going to practice using the Russian join on yarn scraps before I get back to the Bitterroot shawl... in between providing consultation on the pom-pom scarf project.

Have a warm and cozy weekend. Even better, make time to do something nice for yourself...

Marushka

Work-In-Progress Wednesday #20

2011-01-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Last week I decided that the answers to all my major life questions would be found in Making More Things. I'm hoping that creativity is not only oxygen for me, but also sunshine since it feels like years since our last sunny day here. (Coincidence? By the time I finished writing this post, the sun peeked out from heavy clouds to beam through the window by my desk. Hmmm.)

On the other hand, if creativity is not The Answer, at least it has led me to some satisfying distractions over the past week. Enough so that I'm still sane despite being cooped up at home since Sunday night due to slippery roads and sneezing/coughing/feverish children.

Here's the progress report:

Troubador Scarf
Troubador (on right in the picture below) is making the most progress for the simple reason that I want the Size 7 circular needles back for another project. I'm using an interesting yarn that I bought from a destash sale -- it's Therapi by South West Trading Company, composed of 50% wool, 20% silk, and 30% bowlder (which is made from jade, don't ask me how). The yarn feels like a silky wool blend with a little bit more sheen. There's an occasional lighter-colored fleck but nothing that detracts from the overall prettiness. I would definitely use this yarn again.

Quenington Scarf
I am now a big fan of Laura Patterson's Quenington -- a reversible lace scarf, patterned on both sides so it never gets boring. It's the wider scarf on the left in the above picture. This one gets a little less attention because the yarn I'm using -- Sirri Sirotogu from the Faroe Islands -- is coarse. The color transitions are lovely though and the yarn was a gift from The Husband so it is a special project.

Bitterroot Shawl
I've had Rosemary (Romi) Hill's Bitterroot shawl in my Ravelry queue since it came out in Knitty. I'm making the smaller size shawl using Patons Silk Bamboo, which is working up nicely (despite having one knotted join in every skein).

I came to the end of the first skein yesterday and want to try adding in the next one using the Russian join since the yarn is a bit slippery. I have been told that a sharp needle with a large eye is helpful for this, but my needles fall into two mutually exclusive categories: sharp points or large eyes. My trip to the craft store for the perfect needle is pending the roads being less icy so this may sit quietly in the knitting bag for another day or so.

On Other Fronts:

As part of my manic (or maniacal? imagine evil laughter here) plan for Making More Things, I have been spinning every day and the practice is helping. I bought some inexpensive hand-dyed Corriedale wool top to play with and watching how the colors spin up makes the process even more fun.

I've also spent time with my neglected-but-not-abandoned sewing machine and completed a vest that I cut out over a year ago. All it needs is buttons and I'm reasonably convinced it's wearable in public. This has inspired my daughters -- A. wants to learn how to sew, so she picked out a pattern for purse and located material in my fabric stash to give it a try. Meanwhile, M. fell in love with the lavender fleece fabric that I've been using as a photo backdrop and sweetly requested that I make her something from it. She will probably get it, her big brown Puppy Eyes are hard to resist.

Wander on over to the WIP Wednesday blog list at Tami's Amis to see what everybody else is making this week.

"The Perfect Snow"

2011-01-10T10:48:00.000-08:00

We woke up to about 3" of snow this morning. Just the thought of it last night was enough to close schools throughout the region ... and there's more to come tonight, so dire predictions are being made about schools being closed ALL WEEK.

We're far enough south that more than the occasional dusting of snow counts as an Apocalyptic Winter Storm, requiring panicked trips to the grocery store and gas station. If it snows again tonight, I guarantee people will be talking about how Al Gore got it all wrong with his crazy notion about global warming.

I continue to be amused by how many people tell me, "I don't mind driving on snow or ice. It's all the other people that I'm nervous about." Uh-huh, because driving on snow two or three times annually has made you a model winter driver. As for me, I'm a coward and have nothing to prove, so I prefer to stay home as much as possible until the roads improve.

My daughters gleefully reported after spending the morning outside that for once we have "the perfect snow" -- the kind that sticks together for making a snow man (forgive the lack of gender neutrality, "snow person" just doesn't have that ring to it), and enough snow to cover the ground nicely for sledding.

I will note that I did not think it was the perfect snow when we were shoveling the driveway for an hour early this morning so that The Husband could get out to work. I much prefer the light, fluffy snow that looks like powdered sugar and does not require to be moved out of the way.

We'll be home today with our craft projects and hot chocolate. If we get another snow day tomorrow I'll probably put the girls to work, but for today we're going to be lazy. Here's the irony -- it takes a winter storm to make it possible for me to be a stay-at-home mother who actually stays at home.