theraineysisters

As Susan mentioned the other day, I just took my baby to college.  (Fortunately, he doesn’t read our blog so I can call him my baby without his knowing.)  We are now officially a bi-coastal family:  Sterling is ensconced at Reed College in Portland, Oregon and we, of course, are in Washington, DC.  It was much harder to leave him than I had expected.  I know that we’ll adjust and if he is happy, we will be, too.  Perhaps what is hard is the feeling that there may never be a coming home to DC to stay.  Nora loves Colorado and I suspect that Sterling will feel very much at home on the west coast.  We’ll see.

Here are a couple of pictures of his first encounter with the Pacific (at Cannon Beach).

Finally, a last shot just before I left town (then back to knitting, I swear):

Le sigh.

I’m also “letting go” of my most recent knitting project, which is a shawl I knit specifically for charity. The charity is The National Inclusion Project. The shawl is Luiza, designed by Jane Araujo. Mine will be auctioned in October as part of the Project’s Champions Gala.

I had trouble getting good photographs of this shawl — not just the color but the beauty of the lace work. But here are a few. (The last shot is probably the most true to color.)

Pre-blocking:

After blocking:

I knit this shawl using Merino Silk Lace fromSweet Georgia Yarns in the Blackberry colorway. I loved the yarn and I loved knitting this shawl. Once I figured out the method to the charts and translated a few idiosyncratic uses of terminology, it was a simple and quick knit. The pattern, including the border, was easy to memorize and just flowed very naturally. I plan to knit another for myself.

It’s a somewhat smaller shawl than I usually knit (the finished dimensions of mine are 30″ deep and 60″ across). It’s easy to enlarge, but alas I had only one skein of yarn. The original was designed for fingering weight; I used lace weight. I added additional pattern repeats (16 flowers total on each side), but would have added more if I’d had a second skein.

I hope Luiza finds a good home, and I hope that Sterling will be happy in his new one.

I’m in Asheville, North Carolina this weekend for sightseeing and a concert.  The mountains are beautiful here, the Biltmore estate is like visiting Versailles, and Asheville itself is a great town.  I’ve had some GREAT meals (I highly recommend Early Girl for breakfast and Cucina 24 if you’re in the mood for Italian), and didn’t even have to look hard to find two wonderful yarn stores.

First, though, I have always had a thing for oversize novelty objects.  I also love to iron — I was in heaven the other day as I ironed my Eiffel Tower sheets while watching the Tour de France coverage.  So you can imagine the thrill when I rounded a corner in Asheville and discovered:

Isn’t it beautiful?  Okay.  On to the yarn stores.  The first store I found was in the Grove Arcade, which is a wonderful old building decorated with stone carvings.   [Side note:  The Grove Arcade was built by E.W. Grove, who made his fortune selling patent medicines.  An ad for one of them promised that it "Makes children and adults as fat as pigs."  Is that supposed to be a good thing?  But I digress.]  North Carolina Home Crafts features handspun yarns from local farms, along with handmade fiber art — felted hats, dolls, quilts, scarves, etc.  It was a really fun store to browse around in and they have some lovely yarns.

Next on my list — and conveniently next to Early Girl and the giant iron — was Purl’s.  Purl’s is a more traditional yarn store.  They had a great selection of luscious yarns.

But best of all they had this:

His name is Merino and he is adorable.  The wouldn’t let me take him home, though — imagine that!

My sister sent me an unexpected gift that combined my love of reading and my love of fiber.  Isn’t it just gorgeous?

I don’t know how Susan was able to get the color changes to work out so perfectly. It’s mesmerizing. I don’t know how she was able to part with it. I think it may just be too pretty to hide in a book, but I hate to not use it. So we’ll see.

Does anyone besides me remember the Irving Berlin song about sisters? I’ve updated the lyrics.

Woe to the knitter
Who comes between me and my sister
But lord help the sister
Who comes between me and my yarn.

Somehow, I don’t think it is going to zoom to the top of the charts.

THANK YOU SUSAN!  I LOVE IT!!!

PS from Susan: Asked by Sara about the pattern.  The bookmark pattern is here.  It takes #8 perle coton (which I have a ton of!) and a 1.25 mm hook. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN!!!

Yes, my big sister celebrates her birthday today!  Susan has always been my guardian angel and protector, my confidante, my best friend, and my favorite knitter.

Please join me in wishing her the happiest of birthdays. I wish we were off on some fabulous knitting jaunt together today, but we aren’t, Blanche.

As for knitting, I have had very little time to knit lately, and the time I have had has been devoted to my stealth knitting. I have managed to pick up my Counterpane Blouse here and there. This is a simple, quick knit. I should have finished it by now, but I haven’t. I like what I’ve got so far, and once it’s washed and blocked so that the yarn softens and the stitches even out, I think I’ll be happy with it. Here are some not-so-great progress shots.

PS From Susan — Thanks for the lovely birthday wishes (and on the right day!!).  I received this card from Dad:

Inside:

Uh, thanks?!?

The Counterpane is looking great.  I’ll update people on my Alexandria fiasco soon.

First, thank you again for all of your kind comments. We truly appreciated hearing from all of you. And now, what you’ve all been waiting for — Nora, the envelope, please.

Well, actually, we didn’t use an envelope. Or even a hat. We used this:

In order to maintain a semblance of impartiality, the lovely Nora drew numbers (corresponding to post numbers with any duplicates removed).

The winner of Dancing Leaf Farm’s Bling Bling is post 145 aka Katie.

The winner of the Nora Cash Iroha is post 56 aka PA.

And, last but not least, the winner of the Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair is post 243 aka Carol.

Emails have been sent to the winners. Based on your enthusiastic response, we’re already dreaming up ideas for next year’s prizes.

Keep reading!

This isn’t the really official post from our trip (my camera is still in transit and I have a few pics to share).  Just thought I would stop by and say hello to all of you.

I’m feeling pretty happy right now.  I just loaded some new stuff onto my computer. Our new computer came with Windows 7…my old printer was not compatible with Windows 7.  So, I bought a new printer when I bought the computer.  It looks beautiful.  Far more beautiful than my old one.  But, it does not scan worth a $%^^%$#&&. 

I used my old scanner a LOT for the blog.  I got great close ups and really true color.  The new one sucks!  They are both HPs (which is why I thought the new one would work!), but the old one was far nicer.  I was very disappointed, but found out from HP that I could get a disk to upgrade the old printer to Windows 7 — yay!!  So, today I set up the new printer to be wireless and set up the old printer to work with Windows 7. 

Here is the difference between the scanned images:

Left: old scanner                                    Right: new scanner

This is about the best picture I’ve gotten from the new one and it just doesn’t meet the high standards of our readers!!

The other thing I did today was set up my new camera.  I haven’t really gotten to the point of posting pictures, but I’m on the verge!  My old camera had 5 megapixels and the new has 12.  It, too, is a Canon Powershot.  I knew it would be easier to use since I’m used to it.

I’m quite the techie…at least for one day!

Hi, everyone!!  This is a very quick note from Surly’s house!  We have had a fun and very tiring trip…both in the car and in the air.  We will definitely post a few more details in a day or so and may provide some pictures: if I get my camera back!  I took some pictures at a very nice knitting store and LEFT IT THERE!  I hope they find it and send it back.  I can’t call them until tomorrow, so I’ll have to wait to see.  I had just ordered a new camera anyway, and it arrived at home while I was gone, so I do have a camera in any case.

Clay Aiken put on an awesome show — he has a spectacular voice and I am looking forward to seeing the program on PBS.

Tectonic plates are shifting. The jet stream is moving.

Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast. (W.H. Auden)

Yes, it’s that time again: a Rainey Sisters road trip. In a few hours, Susan will be winging her way to Washington, DC. From there, we travel to Raleigh for a weekend of talking, knitting, watching movies, and attending the taping of a PBS special starring Sally’s guilty pleasure. (Clay Aiken.)

If we can, we’ll post from the road.

I know you’ve all been dying to know whether my half of the Rainey sisters survived the weekend storm that hit Washington, D.C. (And yes, for those who have asked — I live in the city itself.) The answer is yes, but it was quite a storm. On Saturday, when it was snowing its hardest, I remembered this stanza from Wallace Stevens’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird:

It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbirds sat in the cedar-limbs.

Here are some photos I took of our yard, car, etc. That’s my husband shoveling — he was supposed to be bicycling in Tucson this week but his flight has been repeatedly cancelled and pushed back. He’s hoping to leave tomorrow.

1. Care to dine al fresco?

2. Believe it or not, that’s bamboo in the center of the picture. It’s so weighted down by the snow that you can’t tell.

3. This used to be our car.

4. Shoveling.

5. Shoveled.

6. Thor the Wonder Puppy

7. The snow covered our walkway lights. The lighting reminds me of a Maxfield Parrish painting.

Le sigh. We’re supposed to be hit with another 5 inches or more tomorrow evening. Fortunately, I’ve got the essentials: food, wine, and enough yarn.

Some patterns become extremely popular among knitters. The contrary knitter in me (there’s a reason my Ravelry nickname is surly) sometimes skips over those patterns for no other reason than their popularity. “Does the world really need another X Project?” I ask myself. Other times, there’s no denying the appeal of a project no matter how hard I might initially resist. Thus, I come to Evelyn Clark’s Swallowtail Shawl.

This is a very popular shawl pattern; on Ravelry alone, there are 6166 Swallowtail projects as of the writing of this post. It’s easy to see why. It’s beautiful. It’s simple. It’s free. And it’s fast. On a Friday, I bought yarn (more about that later). On a Saturday afternoon, I cast on. By Wednesday, I had a beautiful Swallowtail shawl — and it was even blocked. Who could ask for more?

I love it. And it goes beautifully with my Baby Cables sweater.

As for the yarn, I love it, too. It’s Neighborhood Fiber Company’s Studio Sock yarn in the colorway Cooper Circle. I saw it, and I had to own it.

I tried to knit my Swallowtail in just one skein, but when I got to the bind off row I saw this:

Yep — I only had three grams so I had to dip into the second skein. The remainder of it is going to my sister in the hopes that she can whip up something nice out of it. Otherwise, I’ll have matching socks for my shawl.

Where did I purchase this lovely yarn? At my new favorite yarn shop in the DC area: Fibre Space in Alexandria, Virginia. It’s a wonderful shop. Danielle, the owner, is friendly and helpful. Veronica, her lovely chief enabler, already recognizes my voice on the phone. (Is that a bad thing? Please say no.) They carry wonderful yarns from many smaller suppliers and a few larger ones. They’ll even call you when a yarn you’ve been lusting after arrives in the shop. (Don’t ask how I know this. Please.) They have a great frequent buyer program (gulp), big windows, Italian greyhounds, and — get this — a “Ravelry computer” for shoppers. Yes — it’s true. You can log onto Ravelry from the shop and browse for patterns, check how much yarn something takes, show off a project. It’s a great idea.

I definitely recommend stopping in at Fibre Space if you are in the area. Odds are surprisingly high that I might be there. What?