Yes, the wondrous day that only comes round once a year:

SUSAN’S BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Birthday to my big sister!

It’s the big one we like. It’s true. Susan is my best friend, my mentor, my therapist, my expert on all things mathematical and technical. We talk FOR HOURS on the phone virtually every day. I don’t know what I would do without her.

For her amusement (although I know she has already seen one of these), I am sharing videos of two Star Trek themed birthday cards. Star Trek reruns were one of our guilty pleasures in college. The original series now streams for free on Netflix and I occasionally watch episodes as great knitting tv. Susan and I can still recite some of our favorite lines by heart. “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer.”

Please join me in wishing my sister a very Happy Birthday. (I won’t tell you how old she is because I am right behind her!)

I’ve been feeling pretty meh about my knitting lately. It seems the wrong season to knit much on my Milkweed sweater/coat, and nothing much has caught my imagination. I’ve been working steadily on an odd little garment that’s almost finished — a kit that I purchased at Yarnover. I can’t tell whether I love it or hate it, and it’s a race to see if I will run out of knitting before I run out of yarn. I’ll post about that once it’s finished and the love/hate verdict is in.

In the meantime, I’ve been wanting to knit something out of linen. I don’t always enjoy knitting with linen, but I love the results. The particular linen I’ve been fixating on is from Shibui Knits. Instead of the string-like fiber I’m used to, it is (in their words) “fine linen strands in a chain ply structure.” I’ve been intrigued for some time, but just wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. As we all know, however, the right project surfaces eventually. This time, what surfaced was The Whiteness of the Whale, designed by Ann Weaver.

I need a light, breezy cardigan and I love the back detail. My whale will be more Blue Whale than Moby Dick, though:

Here’s an attempt to show the chain-like structure (reminiscent of Rowan’s Lima yarn):

I will make a few changes (longer, slightly wider sleeves for example) but the main change will be in construction: I want to knit this as a top-down contiguous sweater. The pattern is already written as a top down in sections, so it should be relatively straightforward to convert.

As long as I’m blathering, I’ll point out my wooden “Yarn Marley” in the photograph of my yarn. Technically, it’s called a Yarn Buddy and is a wonderful lazy Susan for a yarn cake or pull skein. I love it.

But I lovingly — LOVINGLY — call it a Yarn Marley because I sometimes drag mine behind me from room to room. You remember Marley from A Christmas Carol, don’t you?

“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?”

My Marley is made of Canary Wood. I bought it at Yarnover from Sun Valley Fibers. Jeannette and George of Sun Valley Fibers are, hands down, two of the nicest persons I’ve ever met. My sister will concur. Their Yarn Buddies/Marleys were so beautiful that people were buying them before they could even be put out for display. I had a terrible time choosing which one to buy, and I may have George make me a custom Marley out of Purple Heart. If you’ve ever been tempted to buy one of these, stop resisting. The photos of George’s work don’t do justice to the beauty of the woods he uses. Their yarns are gorgeous, too. They are one of the most dangerous vendors for me to try to walk past at Yarnover.

Anyway, off to swatch with my linen chain. Wish me luck!

Add on from Susan — I, too, fell for the Great White Whale myself, but no yarn yet and two projects to finish first. I did happen to see the Shibui Linen tonight at my knitting group. Kathy had a skein of it in “Apple” and it is really, really lovely.

Wow. Talk about a blast from the past! I forgot I finished this a while back and did not post about it. Remember the steek cutting and color commentary from a month or two ago? I did go on to finish the project: Taiga Cowichan.

It fits and I like it and I have even worn it. I was pretty pleased with the whole thing until I went to DC in early May to visit Sally and saw HER Taiga. Her yarn is SO MUCH NICER!!!!! I felt sick. Mine looks like a POS in comparison. Her yarn is softer, smoother, prettier.

I knit mine out of the yarn that was used in the original: Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed. Sally used Blackstone Tweed Chunky. Just. So. Much. Nicer.

I did make some mods: the first of which I already wrote about – the steeking of the colorwork. The interesting thing is, the front band is bulkier where I picked up sts than where the steek is located.

I did a couple of inches of stockinette on the sleeves before starting the ribbing. I also wanted to make sure that the neckband fit like a mock turtleneck. It really wanted to slide down into crewneck territory. So I made a crochet chain and wove it into the inside of the collar. When I put it on, I pull up on each side and adjust it to fit. You can’t even see it from the outside, and the nubby yarn keeps it in place.

PS: Barb asked for a picture of Sally’s — this is from a former post! Hers is not yet done.

When I first saw this book, I thought, “What a nice assortment of classic designs.” Upon closer review, I realized that there is more here than meets the eye.

Wearwithall is the collective effort of The Yarnery’s talented staff. The book provides some basic patterns as the starting point for your creative touches. They give you ideas and direction, but of course you control the results. Very nicely done!

This beautiful cardigan is knit in Kidsilk Haze, so c’mon!! What’s not to like!! I saw it in person at Yarnover — simple and quite fetching!!

There are socks, hats, kids’ designs, items for the home…all the essentials that we love to knit and gift.

Optimism (n.)
1. the tendency to expect the best and see the best in all things
2. hopefulness; confidence

Do knitters possess a higher degree of optimism than other people? I think we have to…or else we would never start a project!

One of the several things on my needles right now was born not only of my tendency to view a project’s potential through rose-colored glasses, but also of my frugality. I bought yarn from Webs on sale — it cannot be returned. You may remember this yarn as the orange bulky that did not work for my Taiga Vest. The same designer also must have had a surplus of this yarn because she designed another vest out of the same color as she used in HER Taiga and called it Vintage Mood.

I thought it was cute, and I had the exact yarn called for in a generous quantity. The design itself is unusual and here is where my optimism comes in: will this crazy, twisted around, origami of a vest work?? I think it will (?). Here is what I have so far:

You start across the back with a provisional cast on. Then you work up the back and over the shoulders, with the garter sts edges forming the armholes. You convert to ribbing for the shawl collar. At that point, you fold the thing in half and pick up sts and work the lower body from the top down in ribbing (some people substituted stockinette, which I kind of wish I had done).

I tried it on and it fits and is pretty darn cute…BUT, there is a huge “hump” at the back neck, like there should have been some shaping somewhere along the line (after I started this, I noticed that others on Ravelry have mentioned this problem). This will require some machine sewing and surgery to correct. Again, I am pretty optimistic that I can fix it 🙂 . I will wait until it is blocked before I do anything — I don’t want to “over correct.”

Would someone please hand over my rose-colored glasses?

Like lemmings plunging off a cliff, we both joined the latest Ravelry craze: Color Affection.

Susan’s Color Affection
I understand the appeal of the shawl, but not the magnitude of the appeal. In any case, I still purchased yarn for the project at Yarnover. I got caught up in the beauty of the Grinning Gargoyle’s wares and the joy of pairing three colors together (can you pair three things?). I used Grinning Gargoyle’s Seda Sock in light gray, darker gray, and a soft, “cedar” green.

The knitting is simple garter, with some short rows thrown in. I opted for the “k1, YO, k1” option that most knitters have used to mitigate the very tight edge that occurs.

I decided to do a 2-stitch i-cord bind off (after seeing a project on Ravelry) and it turned out quite nice. The blocking helped get rid of the shawl’s inevitable hump…hope it’s gone for good!

Sally’s Color Affection

My son attends Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and when I’m in Portland I always stop at Knit Purl, a lovely shop with an interesting selection of yarns. (They are the home of Shibui.) Unfortunately for my wallet, I am on their email list and periodically receive offers I just can’t refuse. They emailed that they had a new shipment of Madelinetosh Pashmina, and that’s when I took the plunge off the Color Affection cliff. I used Silver Fox, Logwood, and Charcoal. My colors look somewhat similar to Susan’s, but the difference is the lavender that glides into purple. The color reminded me of two of my favorite flowers: lilacs (which I can’t get to grow in DC) and wisteria (which I have in abundance right now).

PS from Susan — Pat asked how we blocked our shawls. I can’t speak for Sally, but I did not use any wires or guide thread to block mine — just a pin on each end to make the points pointy! My shawl was quite damp and I just shaped it to the desired shape. It was kind of difficult because the garter ridges were very moveable (like an accordian). I just made sure the stripes ran parallel to each other. Plus, I made sure the hump (at the cast on area) was flattened out. This additional blocking photo may show it better.

PS2: Pat asked if my Color Affection was blocked on a piece of styrofoam — indeed it is! I show the process in this post…but glossed over my ridiculous trip to the car when the styrofoam had me nearly airborne!!

As you are well aware, I just got back from a couple of knitting excursions. Credit cards were used. Yarn was purchased.

Here is a sampling:

The well informed among you will recognize two skeins of Madelinetosh Light in the upper left of the photo: the blue is called Worn Denim, the green is called Grove. I love Tosh Light, what else can I say? I wanted to get 4 of the Worn Denim, but Stephen Be only had 3, so I got the green for (perhaps?) a two-color shawl.

The gold laceweight in the upper right is from MS&W, Spirit Trails: Yarn is Decima in color “Vintage.” 550 yards of merino and silk per skein. Lovely. No idea what to do with this…another shawl, but how many can I stack up? My house is already lousy with shawls!!

The ball that is wound is a boucle that I also purchased at MS&W, from Tintagel Farms: Yarn is a mohair, silk and wool blend in color Bayberry; 250 yards per 5 oz. It called my name. Very loudly. And I don’t really know why! It has already been tapped to make another Easy Missoni Mobius Cowl. I can’t get enough of them, plus I was teaching the Cat Bordhi cast on today, so I needed a sample. That’s my story, anyway!! The color is knitting up absolutely beautifully and is reminiscent of something deep in my reptilian brain. Someday that memory may pop to the surface.

Last and not least is an ethereal color called “Sugar Plum” in an 80/20 bamboo and nylon mix that positively glistens. It is from Sun Valley Fibers (purchased at Yarnover). I have a shawl in mind for this (hangs head in shameful resignation). The picture captured the color pretty well, which is amazing.

Sally and I also are making the same projects (in different yarns) which will be revealed shortly. And I will be again hanging my head in embarrassment over the type of project it is. 😉

I am back to the Cities and back to work! Nice to return to the loving arms of my family, but all of the hub-bub has left me exhausted.

Sally and I had a great time at Maryland Sheep and Wool — the weather was fine and the yarn plentiful. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures. We ran into Astrid, a long-time reader and friend with her husband. Astrid is a wonderful knitter — we share a lot of projects in common.

ETA: Astrid sent me this picture!

We also ran into another reader at an inopportune moment. Both Sally and I were covered in food: I was dusted head to toe in apple strudel crumbs, with gobs of apple filling all over my hands and face…Sally was dipped in chocolate ice cream. What a delectable sight!

No Sheep and Wool pics, but here is a photo from Yarnover. Sally and I are posing with the real Lila and Claudine (we’re the ones in the back 😉 !)

We are sitting here quietly in anticipation of Saturday, wallets ready. 😉

Last weekend was a total blur. Sally arrived on Friday afternoon and we were immediately catapulted into the maelstrom that is Yarnover preparation. We then attended the Friday night teachers’ dinner — great fun.

Up and out early on Saturday to get to the venue early to set up. The 40 vendors were there rushing to set up…most made it on time! The day went really well. It felt more organized this year — we are learning.

We also dined with the teachers on Saturday night — sitting with Nancy Bush, Beth Brown Reinsel and Romi Hill. Yes, we are shameless namedroppers. Sally wore her Crown Prince Shawl from Nancy Bush’s book on Estonian knitting and Susan wore her Fiori di Sole designed by Romi Hill. Yes, we are shameless suck ups!!

We didn’t buy much ::cough, cough:: (Susan was throwing money at vendors as they were unpacking!!). Yarn purchases will be revealed. Let’s be honest: it was a feeding frenzy worthy of “Jaws!”

The last couple of days in DC have been spent relaxing and knitting and eating. Today we have been getting organized for tomorrow at MD Sheep and Wool. Plotting our strategy and options. Just like marathon runners, we must leave nothing to chance! 😉

Sorry about no pictures, but at least you know we are still alive!

Today is the first day of a ‘one week and a little more’ vacation. And it will be packed with yarn-blasting, knitting-related activities!

Today I am at home preparing for the imminent arrival of the better half of The Rainey Sisters – yes, Sally arrives tomorrow! She is flying in to ride shotgun with me during the 26th Annual Yarnover. I am on the committee. If you haven’t heard of Yarnover, it is a one-day assembly of knitting workshops and impressive Vendor Market sponsored by the Minnesota Knitters’ Guild. So much yarn, so little money!!

Next Tuesday we will be heading to Washington, DC to hang out, knit and eat. Our goal: head for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!! Woo Hoo! We will stay in touch as we scour the halls of Yarnover and the stalls of MS&W!! We will buy all the yarn they have before the hoarders get it…