Dreaming

Recently I had a dream in which I flew under my own steam. Running, spreading my arms wide and arching my back launched me into the air to soar around the treetops. This dream was so vivid and real that upon waking, it felt true. That performing these simple motions would actually allow flight. A few seconds into waking, with Tikka's nose nudging my hand, reality overwhelmed this fantasy with a hard crash back to earth. This is a recurring dream, one that’s been around since childhood. It does not occur very often anymore, but I love when it does.

While he was visiting last month, my father reminded me of how much more intrepid I was when I was younger. Transportation was a motorcycle, which came out as soon as the roads were clear and was put away when it became dangerous to ride in the late fall. I’d go just about anywhere on a whim (preferably by myself), and I was more than happy to design a sweater on the fly. Dad never saw me use a pattern, and was surprised to see me use one for his gloves. A stitch dictionary was my closest friend. What happened to those days and that old confidence? I’d forgotten about that.

In the late 80’s I stopped knitting. At that time, Houston was home and there was only 1 yarn shop close to the Galleria. It was hugely expensive, with a selection of cottony yarns that were unappealing at the time. Some custom work was done for a friend met through a newspaper ad. She was looking for someone to knit summery tops for matching skirts. Together we came up with some frothy fantasies. 1-of-a-kind, puff-sleeved delights in lovely yarns made to measure for her clients. After she closed her shop, well, that stopped. It’s been a long, long time since. Almost 20 years.

During that time, a sweater was made for Marci, adorned with antique glass buttons from my friend’s shop. I remember measuring her, swatching and choosing a fabulous yarn for that cardi – a wool and silk singles in a tweedy lilac/blue combo. She found it the other day, and it almost fits. It’s probably my oldest surviving knit. In stockinette with a thin, crocheted button band, set in sleeves and the lot.

These days it never occurs to me to go without a pattern. Perhaps it’s time to be more free-spirited about the knitting.

Panic. Or Any Excuse Will Do.

Apparently having ONLY 14 things on the needles is too little and causes this knitterly heart to panic. Friday after work just didn’t seem to be the time for any of the WIPs. After fidgeting and fussing about for most of the evening, a new project was cast on. It’s been in the queue for a while, and the yarn has been patiently waiting for some time too. Over a year ago the attempt to make the Empire Waist V-neck from the Tilli Tomas catalog was a spectacular disaster. So much so that the pattern, yarn and knitted work were sent back to the store they came from for a refund. A replacement for Empire was in the cards, and Phildar had a very similar pattern, the Gilet #480-T7-268 (Ravelry link).

It’s been a pleasant, mindless knit so far, flying off of the needles with ease and little thought. Two sides and the back have used 3 skeins of yarn (Malabrigo Merino Worsted) so far, and one of the button bands has been sewn on. If more effort had been put into the project yesterday afternoon, one of the sleeves could have been taken care of as well, but hey, it was Sunday. No modifications have been made to the pattern other than to adjust the placement of the repeats on the sides for the sake of maintaining patterning symmetry around the sweater. A bit of length was added to the skirt, and 5 buttonholes were placed in the right button band. Since this is such easy knitting, next weekend should see the finish of this project and a return to the WIPs.

Toes to Order

Here are Peter’s Rick socks. An enjoyable knit overall, despite the brain fart last Sunday. The error present throughout Sunday’s knitting was located and corrected on Monday evening. The rest of the knitting on this sock was uneventful after that. Mods you ask? Yep. Stitch count increased by 12 requiring small pattern placement adjustments throughout the rest of the sock. The pattern called for some twisted knit stitches right at the yarn-overs, which didn’t look all that great, so all yarn-overs were knitted plain and put in pattern on the next round. Ankle socks were requested instead of the full leg deal, and the diagonal patterning was carried through the foot, since it had to be extended by a lot anyway. The toe was knitted in the k2tbk/p2 rib, and left and right toe shaping made for left and right socks to correspond with Peter’s long and shapely toes. Ta-dah!

Rick from Cookie A’s amazing book
Socks that Rock Lightweight in Downpour (this is a great colourway)
2.25 mm dpn’s

I'll try to get an action shot of those toes later on. Memory dependent task...

He loves them! It’s going to be the fall before his next knit gets started. Afterall, the socks did muscle in on the list. 14 more to go.

Toe shaping details: First, Peter’s toes were traced onto a piece of paper. Using that template, I guessed at the rate of decrease that would be necessary to more or less fit the toes. The big toe side of the sock was worked without decreasing. On the baby toe side, 2 stitches were decreased every round – leading to the same decrease rate as for the standard sort of toe shaping where 4 stitches are decreased every other round. These decreases were taken at the end of the needle. When it was about 4 cm (<1.75 in) into the shaping, I started to decrease 4 stitches every round (still on the baby toe side), until 16 stitches were left for the big toe (8 stitches top/8 stitches bottom), which were then grafted together. Poifect!

In other news, 45 cm (15 in) of hair was chopped off of my neck after work yesterday. It feel so good. I love the way it looks, but am a bit disappointed with the advice provided by the salon. Before getting this done, I had enquired whether my hair was suitable for charitable donation or not. Since it was not processed (no dye, no perm, no nothing), and strong and in great shape I was told that it was. Guess what? It ain’t. No one accepts grey hair. There’s a Pantene charity that does accept up to 5% grey in the donation, but my hair is well over 50% grey. Anyone want to spin some yarn for a hair shirt? It’s got a great staple length!

Shrinking the List

All in contention for knitting attention: 4 Luv (blanket), Phoenix Rising (shawl), Kaleidoscope Scarf, Gytha (hooded pullover), Hexed (blanket), Raglan pully, Ribby cardi, Lismore (pullover), Berry Blue-tiful Summer Stole, Rick (socks), La Digitessa (socks), Stockinette No Sew Squares Blanket, Babette (blanket), Victoria (cardigan), Garden (socks).

This is the shortest the WIP list has been for quite some time - 15 items. It feels good, but it is getting more difficult to stick to the plan, even though it has been very gratifying to do just that. Having fewer than 20 projects on the go has generated a burning desire for shiny new knits, which is staunchly being resisted. For now. Real estate on the office table is slowly becoming available. Getting half of the remaining projects out of the way will mean that it could actually be used for its original purpose: telecommuting once or twice a week.

This week might see the end of Rick, Peter’s socks. After starting the gusset, that project just should have been put down yesterday. No amount of knitting/tinking/frogging seemed to get it right – a consistent out by 1 error. And it’s not a difficult pattern at all. Thankfully, Berry only came out of the knitting bag for a photo shoot. Otherwise there surely would have been blood. Lots and lots of blood.

Socks and a Stole. And Whining.

I was absolutely savage upon my return home on Friday evening. Spending two hours down in the basement cleaning up a mess left by a stray cat didn’t help with that one little bit either. It happened to break into the house through a broken screen (cat burglar anyone?). There's no need to describe what happened - you can all guess. In any event, I was so savage that exposing my friend and innocent wait staff to my toxic self didn’t seem to be such a great idea, and I begged off. Which of course, also added to the overall mood. It’s better now, thanks.

It’s been a busy yet strangely unproductive couple of days. Berry was put down for the weekend. While the project is a beautiful one, it continues to be slow going. Almost 3.5 repeats. Love those leaf panels.

After finishing that succession of tiny projects so quickly, the need for speed, if you can call it that, is high. Since forgetting the details for making Peter a matching pair of socks was starting to become an issue, they are the weekend’s focus and progress is certainly more evident than on Berry. The first sock is done to the toe, and the second has been started. Since they are short cuffed, the leg and heel turn are now finished and the gusset is going well. The first toe had been done, but my sock-beggar wanted a bit more length, so it was ripped back to accommodate that desire. I’ve since decided to make left and right footed toes, so will do them together once the second sock catches up to the first.

Yes. Before you ask, Peter's feet are enormous. Size 13. That's a lot of foot. According to the scale, there's enough yarn to finish. It's a good thing they're ankle socks.

A bit of time was spent yesterday afternoon with the dye pot. This yarn was purchased for a different purpose, but was really not suited to the intended project. And the colour? Well, while it looks aqua-ish here, it really was a minty hospital green that was not so great.

Gunmetal was the colour put in the pot, and out came this mostly navy yarn. It might get another dip in the pot with some black – there’s too much of this sort of colour already in the closet. Kowloon is in mind for this yarn. It's moodier than in this picture - darker and more grey.

Script for a Bad Start

2:10 am: A young couple walks down the street conducting a very loud argument, waking the whole household up. It seems like violence is eminent. Peter gets up to look out the window.
2:35 am: Argument returns to the front of the house. This has been the pattern, more or less on a weekly basis, for the past 2 months, mostly around this time, sometimes later. Basically, the young woman tells the young man saying he cannot possibly understand what she’s going through. On return, the young man is generally begging her to understand that he is trying to understand and wants it to work out. I can hear every word, just like we are all in the same room. He seems very sincere, she seems to genuinely have a problem. Me? I am totally pissed off, and only care at this point about my problem: work in the morning. A return to sleep is a distant hope. I ask them from the window to please take their fight elsewhere. Surprised by the request, they leave quietly.

2:40 am: Try to sleep.
2:55 am: Get up, let dog out.
3:00 am: Watch old BBC sitcom. Snuggle with the dog.
3:30 am: Watch some more the old BBC sitcom.
4:00 am: Sleep possible. Become horizontal.
5:30 am: Alarm rings. Time to get up. Reset alarm for 6:00.
6:00 am: Reset alarm for 6:30.
6:30 am: Drag self out of bed. Quick shower, catch bus. Snag top on something, tearing it enough to ruin it.
7:10 am: Coffee shop closed for annual summer holiday – this is expected, so route to work altered to stop at the Tim’s closest to the office for a bagel and coffee. Closed due to an electrical fire. No breakfast, no coffee. Really? Yeah. Really.
7:30 am: Client request from most demanding customer. Liquid lunch looking likely.

Conversation Piece

This past weekend was for using up leftover yarn. Last week while putting things away in the office to ready the room for my father, I stumbled across another ball of Malabrigo Merino Worsted, which was immediately fished out and put with the remaining ball of yarn. After finishing Dad’s gloves, and needing something to knit while maintaining eye contact during conversation, Just Enough Ruffles (ravelry link) seemed to be perfect. And it was. Started and mostly finished while chatting with Dad yesterday, it required little attention during it’s stay on the needles. It needs a good steam blocking to keep the garter band from rolling on the neck side of the piece, but other than that, it’s good to go.

Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Greenella ~1.5 skeins.
5.5 mm needles, straignts and circulars
Modifications: ruffle stitches reduced by 1/3 to produce a less bulky, more undulating edge. Garter stitch ruffle instead of stockinette.

It's beginning to look like a big stash organisation is required, since I can't keep track of what's there.