Good Knitties, Bad Knitty

I'd be the Bad Knitty. Haven't posted pictures of packages. There will be catching up, some today, and some in a few weeks. (I'll be out of town for awhile.)

Somerset: The Tea arrived and is LOVELY. Oh my goodness. You were overly generous. Thank you kindly.


And all the way from CASP and the knitty formerly known as OLPP, a host of treasures: I did post the thank you, but never did the photo. Sadly, catching up isn't glamorous.

Doing the little things

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a friend is to sit. Or to listen. Or to chatter. Or to share a dessert.

It's been an important part of my summer to be able to do some of these little things with a friend who is tackling breast cancer. I've also knit up a hasty chemo cap from COLOR mercerized cotton.

Used Red Lipstick's pattern for Marsan Watchcap to do the lovely crown.

Breakfast of Twin Peaks Champions

Holiday ritual: I make a cherry pie and share the eating AND often the baking with my aunt. She's the family's pastry guru. This year my mother was around for the fun, too. The weather and the pate brisee were not on good speaking terms. My lattice was horrifically fake, but the pastry in the end? Buttery good.

Afterwards, we all cracked open the cookbooks to decide what pastry strategies I should work on next. Julia and Martha do share detailed baking information, after all. My mother reminded me (as she has before) that the way to really master pie crust is to do it regularly.


They insisted I take a piece home for the next day's breakfast.

Still, I don't think I need to be eating pie EVERY day. I'll just have to live with the skills of a sporadic pie baker.

Argosy Copycat

I was very taken by the Argosy Wrap, led to the pattern by Mason-Dixon reading and links to the pattern's creator. It captured my attention and was a nice bit of selfish knitting in between bursts of knitting the niece bags. (Those are still awaiting the girls' return from camp.)


The yarn is Noro Silk Garden, which was also for me a rare copycat indulgence. I didn't particularly enjoy the crunchy bits of "ooh, look, proof of natural fibre...." but I moved past them. Interestingly, I do believe it is another sign that I surely do not knit with loose tension. I purchased 8 as recommended, and I have one full and one partial skein left. However, I like it as is.

I'm happy. I'll wear it. I don't even have an interest in blocking it at the moment.

Hello, Skirt!

This is all the glamour I need from this skirt. I have a nice self-fabric casing and I took care to edgestitch. I have a lightweight, bring-on-the-heat casual summer skirt.

The skirt's only as frumpy as I let it be. I'll wear it.
The dress? It languished for a couple summers.

Say Goodbye to the Dress

I really liked this dress. Purchased the fabric at a quilt shop set up in a chicken coop. I bought the fabric for this very purpose, and I made it and wore it during the season in which I bought it. No stash story here!

I was even tickled by the way the very utilitarian and old brown buttons looked with it.

The neckline was very expansive, and with the length of the dress, very casual country summery 90's.

I was asked if I was expecting the last time I wore it. I cried a lot.
Having since come to terms with mid-age change (even though I hope to continue my healthy summer habits), I must redo. It looks good on the dress form, but she has no belly.

I talked about this last summer. I've now moved it to the more active to-do list. Next stop? Skirt.

Berry Picking

Purchased the cotton for this blouse for what, $1.00 a yard last spring.

The fabric reminded me of my grandmother's blouse, the one I wore often to go out berry picking in the summer. The buttons are very plain, somewhat old.

I'm happy. Much better than a t-shirt, for my tastes at the moment.

Next?

It's not The Monkey, it's Me

I started The Monkey a few times. I wasn't convinced about the fit of the cast on and over-thought my response to the Claudia yarn's tendency to pool in this the Chocolate Cherry version. I tried a second time on a needle a size up, but then I thought the lace was too loose. Third time, I had a plan. I would alternate yarn by row. That's what people do, or so I read. Perfect plan. And I doubled up on the yarn in the cast on, a strategy borrowed from the IK Rib and Cable sock. Liked the way the colors alternated in the ribbing.

Not surprisingly, the yarn continued to artfully elude my attempts to control it. I unleashed pooling in a broad swath. Really thought it was pretty, though. The tone on tone variations were really pretty as pooled.

Soldiered on alternating skeins by row and started to puzzle over how the other sock WOULD look. Would I get that synchronous pooling from the alternating skeins? I realized at the heel I would need to stop alternating, particularly as the spot for alternating was dead center back. No worries. Tackled the heel. Marched onto the foot and resumed alternating from the two skeins. Discovered that I was creating a more visible ridge in the foot than I'd noticed in the leg.

Tried it on. Sure enough, that visual ridge was also a nice firm one underfoot. Rats.

The fourth time will be the charm.

Restraint or Heat?

It is with a measure of respectable restraint that I find I am not making much knitting progress on projects already suffering on the needles. Similarly, I have managed to pretend to cast on for the Monkey socks, but it's a no-go. I really can't permit myself to do much except for stitching together the pieces of the messenger bags.

I've stiched up the length of each bag's strap, matching cast-off to bind-off in 200 precise little stitches, - 200 per strap, one strap per bag.

Stitching on the overlay takes a little less precision, though I'm a bit obsessed about getting the stitches along the edges of the overlay to run along a precise column of stitches. One is about half done, and the other awaits attention.

Maybe it's the heat. Who can think enough to start something afresh?
So I'll sew.

I may have cheated in other ways. It's true. I've also sewn most of a blouse.

I like sewing cotton in the summer. It takes me back to my teen years, sewing madly a wardrobe of blouses for 2.00 apiece or less. I don't even mind standing at the ironing board. Maybe I'll go home and cut out a skirt.

Just the same, only different

During March, when I endured the first week of the evil flu that really hammered some of the adults in my circles, I worked on pieces of a Boom Bag messenger bag for one of my nieces. Her sister requested a bag of the same pattern, only with stripes and a flap.
The navy is from a stash of Bartlett's I've had long enough to have moved across the country once and probably twice. It was meant to be a sweater.* When navy was requested, I decided the fates were telling me to move on from the sweater notion. I knit the underlying bag of navy and have saved the striped bit for the Boom Bag overlay, now with stripey flap. Okay, so you can't really tell it's navy in these pictures. Funny, seemed clear on the camera.

Similarly, the black is from all those bits of the UFO Maine Monster I frogged clear back in September 2006.** I purchased the offwhite. Imagine: I was out. Unfortunately, I didn't have my thinking cap tied on tightly enough. I purchased Cascade 220 - a fine yarn, but actually a little lighter a worsted weight than the navy or the black. The striping pattern utilized the ever famous random stripe generator. I generated the pattern at 4 row stripes and decided to play with the proportions by knitting all blue stripes for 6 rows, all ivory stripes 4 rows, and all black stripes 2 rows. Even kept the same number of rows: I counted to be sure I had the same number of blue and black, naturally.


And now this is off the needles. Only have to make the strap for this one. Then I must stitch together the pieces of both bags and we're off to the washer.

* eh, I was going to link text in here to the Stash post with the picture of the Bartletts. Not much of a picture, and that 1 April 2006 post is just too lengthy for loading. Didn't want to annoy anyone, so I've abandoned that.
** abandoned that link, too. I could find the post, but then I couldn't capture the permalink with out going back page by page. I think I need to find and to learn about installing more helpful navigating tools.

Counting, as of May 2007

Last May I posted a Summer to Summer tally of the knitting I'd done that year. It's surprisingly full of small projects. Must have been due to the increase in commuting via public transportation. (Good reminder. It's summer. Need to increase that habit again.)

I've been running the list in the sidebar, and it's time for a little housekeeping.

May 2007:
GARMENTS:
Steel Penny sweater
HBCute Kimono (okay, I have to finish a seam, but it's done, really.)

HEADWEAR:
hats, 7
calorimetry
black purl baby hat & matching booties

FOOTWEAR:
another pair of booties
Hedera socks
Fuzzy Feet, 4 pr
Aunt socks
Lorna socks, 2
Bearfoot Rib & Cable sock - first sock done but too small. Must redo.

VARIOUS:
gift scarves, 2
Kitty Pi, 2.5 (lost a half-finished one)
fingerless mitts, 2 pr
washcloths, 5

Simple Socks

Earlier this winter I was determined to knit a quick sock. I had some lovely Shepherd's Sock in Ravenswood. Having grown up taking the Ravenswood el line, I was much pleased that the colorway had nothing to do with Brown. I have never been a fan of the no-longer-new color-name scheme for renaming the not very complicated transit system in Chicago.

The colors were posted most effectively in this November post. I revisited them and finished in May. Since I hadn't gotten too far, I applied Wendy's gusset heel pattern, just on the heels of its appearance as a pattern she so generously shared. I decided the bulk of the sport weight yarn was worth giving straight-forward stockinette a fair shake.
I was pleased with the sock as a very quick, end of the term and easy on the brain project. Even managed to finish under the influence.

The martini's influence didn't harm the sock, but it did clearly impair the judgement of the photographer, who might well have waited until morning for better light.

Unplugged

I've not been very posty this spring. This year. I've been productive, though.

I've also been unplugged for stretches at a time. That's not bad, though.

Finished a pair of socks. Tackled some sewing repair. Did some cleaning at home. Worked on archiving some old sewing patterns. (Archiving gets them into a system where I can access them and use them.) Have been working on knitting a messenger bag for a niece - the second of a set. Tackled The Monkey Sock, and realized I'd sent myself down an unfortunate road. Took it apart - took pictures, and will share the adventure. I'll be redoing - a really enjoyable knit, my 4th start notwithstanding. (I'll explain, I will.)


Had a spare moment at a computer, so I thought I'd step up, post, leave a picture conveniently uploaded to photobucket on a previous occasion, and be a better blog ring member.

Excuse me, though. Won't be gone as long as before, but it is time to unplug again!

Signs of Life

Feeling a little frayed?
Have been days when you've had very little left to give?

Overwhelmed by that whole heap of the mundane that lies at your feet?

Me too. What a spring.
Still, there are signs of life. I've even started to tackle this poor thing. It, too, seems on the exhausted edge. More on that in another post.

Meanwhile, there has been a little bit of knitting. I started these in the fall, and they were decidedly back-burnered.
I did a bit of this knitting in the half dark, half tired. I don't half care that there are some misplaced purls in the how-simple-can-it-be 3-to-1 rib. I laddered down to the ones I found when they were within range. This is TOO far down. I officially stopped caring. They're just for wearing when it's cold.

And lookee! Lorna's is decidedly fraternal!

Blogging Against Disablism

It so happens that I was working my way through shelves of plays and stacks of play collections today. I have to take home a mighty pile of reading today. One of the volumes going home with me is the newly released Beyond Victims and Villains: Contemporary Plays by Disabled Playwrights.

And it just so happens that there was a very thoughtful essay by Charles Mee in that very volume. Oh my. Didn't remember that there was a Charles Mee play in the book. I saw one of his plays this year, Hotel Casseopeia. Stunning. I had some students read some Mee plays more than once. But still.

I'll take Things I Didn't Know about Charles Mee for $100, Alex.

I read the essay aloud to the friend who was with me in the going through the shelves of plays project.

And think of it. He's published this same essay online. I'll share the link so you might read it, too.

While I was out ...

I did some non-confrontational knitting during my spring break / virus break.


One down, one to go. The next has stripes and a flap.

Then comes the fulling party.

Cold enough for Calorimetry

It's not my fault, really. A few weeks ago when I was home and sick, I did get a bit of knitting done. Of course, it wasn't cold enough to plan on wearing it much this season.
Turns out I was wrong. Brrr. Colder than it was in December.

"A Fool in April" or "Not Stash"

I can't stop long enough to flash stash.
Howe'er, I take a moment to retrieve pics from last year's flash to declare some NON STASH:
Behold a glove for the Knit-a-blog, two pair of fuzzy feet and....

Steel Penny, a Bad Penny meets Picovili garment;

A pair of socks, currently in the dirty clothes hamper;

And with the end of the Ombre, two kitti pi cat beds, currently the alternate retreats of one declining senior kitty.



I'd finesse this post with links to the garments and to last year's flash, if I could. I can't now, so I won't. Sorry. Must flee.

Nothing but Knitting

Have been home, sick. Ventured out today.

For several days, nothing has been on the actualized agenda but soup and tea and toast and sleep and knitting. Outings have been spare: vet appts, quick runs to stores. Really an average of an errand per day since Friday.

Oh, and great bags of tissue to toss out.

But I've been knitting. Sewed the button on calorimetry and wore it today. Over half done with the first of two messenger bags for nieces. Started an Argosy Wrap.

Camera's been with the computer, so no pictures. About time to head home.
I think I'll watch some films I need to view for work. Matzoh balls in the soup tonight, I think.

Nothing else but knitting.

Good Hat, Bad Hat

Good hat:
Pattern by Black Purl, yarn was sale and now I don't remember what it was. Sirdar Snuggly, I think. This was from one of the two skeins, and there's only a racquetball sized yarn-cake left of it. This was a cute, fun knit. The hat was meant to be done flat and then seamed, but I did it in the round. Must get this to the mom-to-be, due shortly.

Bad Hat:


Beautiful yarn - Colinette Cadenza or something like. Thought I could eke out a hat, so I tried the pointy version of the "Live Dangerously, Don't Swatch Hat." I've done the squared crown for niece and nephew and fared much better. This was not meant for me. And clearly this is NOT the way to a rolled brim. The hat will be frogged. I'm thinking Knitty's Calorimetry for the Colinette, maybe, even if it isn't the right gauge? There seems to be plenty of creativity in approaches to the Calorimetry.

Bad hat. If it looks like a triangle, it will fit like a triangle.