FO Sighting

With all the chaos that seems to surround me at the moment, I still managed to finish up a project or two and as usual start another.

First up is another chemo cap for my son, Shedir:

Shedir is a very nice pattern and was a pleasure to knit in Rowan Calmer. The cotton content of Calmer is soft and absorbent. I would highly recommend this yarn for chemo caps over the synthetics which are often suggested, which I used for the first ones and of which I was not overly enamored. Used US 3s for the ribbing and US4s for the body.

Now tell me this photo isn't hilarious. That skinny skinny little glove that stretches out so much for my hand. OK, OK, so I knit really tightly on sock needles.

And then just in time for the last few days of cooler weather, I finished up my first pair of Serpentine Mitts by Miriam Felton. These were knit in Wollmeise on 2.25mms. The color is Kurbis. I mirrored the cabling and also mirrored the ribbing at the thumb by resituating my stitches to start with P2 for the back of the hand on the left glove. I added 1/2" of ribbing to the cuff and at least another 1/2" to the length of the hand. I definitely still find them too short. I decided to use the Large cast on even though my hand measured for the Small and I'm glad I did. Next time around, I will center the cables better over the back of the hand (should be a problem only for size Large) and lengthen the hand portion of the pattern. And I do like these so much that I foresee more in my future.

Now there are all sorts of UFOs around here that require concentration and calculations, so I decided I needed something completely mindless to knit, like ribs round and round in circles...i.e. socks, but simple socks, very simple socks. Never one to leave well enough alone, I ended up adding a cable and a twist here and there and voilà:

Ann Budd's Cable and Clocks Socks in Wollmeise, color Johannesbeere and Brennesel. See that lovely double spiraling the yarn is doing? Well, just about at that point, I went down a needle size and the whole thing derailed. Will save those photos for the next post. They do sail along as compared to all the cabled things I've been working on lately.

CairoKate is raffling off some gorgeous sock yarns to encourage donations to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society in her brother's name. I encourage you to wander over and support the cause. Since my family is going through the same thing as Kate's, I would suggest you check out the information on the Marrow Transplant website and consider being a marrow donor. It no longer requires actual marrow, but a blood draw, similar to giving platelets. You can save a life.

A Knitting Trip Down Memory Lane

In going through an old cedar chest of my mother's, I turned up some interesting finds. It got me started looking for other old bits of knitting from different times in my life, and I thought it might be interesting, if perhaps embarrassing at times, to share them.

When I was eight or nine, a friend's mother decided it was time her daughter took up knitting and they invited me over for that first lesson. Now the mother pretty much knitted all day long and had a penchant for knitting ugly suits on very small needles. Not very inspiring. But she gave me that one lesson in cast on, knit and purl. When she saw that I seemed to have grasped the concept, she told me to go to the LYS and pick out a pattern and some yarn. Our LYS at that time was anything but exciting, but they had some old stand-bys in Reynolds and Plymouth and such. I chose a pattern with a two color slip-stitch, long set-in sleeves and a turtleneck with some red and white yarn to work it in. I took that pattern, started knitting, and actually finished the sweater in record time without a single mistake (because I tinked back and reknit when I saw one). The only question I asked my teacher was how to knit the turtleneck. No one even questioned that I could or should do it, and therefore I just did. Unfortunately, no record exists of that sweater, but I remember every stitch I put into it.

Once finished, probably the following season when I was nine or ten, I set about knitting sweater number two, the one I found in the cedar chest. I made it for my mother.

Let's see, two color with cables, shaping, turned hems all around, and finished off with tassels. What a sweater! Mother wore it quite a bit and professed to love it. And saved it all those years.
At fourteen, I knit this mohair and wool worsted number, also as a gift for my mother. I saved up babysitting money to buy the yarns and knitted in secret to surprise her for Christmas. Again, I found it tucked away in my mother's cedar chest.
A few years passed and the boys arrived, and I was knitting coordinating sweaters for them. There were multicolor vests and little jumpsuits knit on small needles, and some lovely rugby style sweaters, and these Aran Isle numbers. All the sweaters have disappeared, but there is this one photo with Santa, wearing their little sweaters. Awwwww! That little redhead is now a surgeon and the moptop is the one awaiting a marrow transplant. How time flies.

I remember knitting another sweater or two for me, one allover moss stitch in pink comes to mind. I got so bored with all that moss stitch and then when I put it on, I realized that baby pink just wasn't my color. The LYS in my little college town was woefully lacking in choice. Probably wore it two or three times and who knows to where it vanished. Oh dear, and there was the puce green mohair mutton sleeved ballet mini mini-dress! And I wore it, long skinny legs sticking out all over! Probably with my underpants on view. Thank goodness no pictures. Then in the Seventies in New Orleans, I got on a jag of knitting boat-neck tees. I could whip them out in garter stitch in a few days and wore them to death. There was this natural wool one, a black wool one, the yellow linen one below, and who knows how many more. During this period, there was also a chenille turtleneck design I liked, which I knitted in soft fuschia, mauve, and teal. Somewhere there are photos of them.
I was travelling around the world constantly for my work, knitting wasn't terribly portable, so I took up Bargello and carried my needlepoint with me. The owner of the needlepoint shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans near where I lived was fascinated with my knitting, asked me to teach her and began to order yarns. It is called the Quarter Stitch and is still there today, worth a visit. More yarn than needlepoint these days.

Then came the Eighties. Novelty yarns. Here's where the embarrassment starts. By then I had moved to Paris and was again constantly travelling, so needed airplane suitable work. When I would visit New Orleans every year or two, the Quarter Stitch had started stocking novelty yarns. The owner of the shop convinced me to start making little triangle neck scarves with short needles for the plane and I knit dozens. I would stock up with ten projects at a time to last until my next visit. I wore them and would end up giving them away off my neck, everyone wanted them. Can you imagine?These lovelies are only a few of the multitude I produced. Wonder if I could shave off all that eyelash since I still like the idea and the colors. I've got a couple of drawers of scarves that definitely look like something alien is alive and multiplying in them.And then there was this hairy beauty. The owner of the Quarter Stitch again convinced me it would be fantastic. Wonder what I was smoking that day???? After two fronts were knitted and the back started, I came to my senses and it became a UFO, which believe it or not, I still possess. Think it's time to send it to the Frog Pond. Perhaps I could recuperate the base yarn and use it in a Jane Thornley creation.
And then there were the huge shawls knitted with Wild Stuff. I'm seriously thinking about frogging those for more Jane Thornleys. Perhaps pull out the eyelash threads? I probably have ten more projects worth (eyelash, not Wild Stuff). This is good eyelash (if that's not an oxymoron), not hobby store quality. I need to find a worthy recipient and de-stash the lot of it. In the Nineties, there was the Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater, a glorious cabled affair in tweedy charcoal handspun. The poor guy loved it, but couldn't wear it more than five minutes in the frigid Russian winter without sweating. And it grew, and grew, and grew. And finally, the curse worked, thank goodness. One photo somewhere if only I can find it.

Interesting to note that all this knitting was done as a completely solitary pursuit; I didn't know anyone who knit nor have anyone to inspire me or assist me with questions. I didn't have any books. I didn't know you needed a pattern to make a sweater or a scarf for the most part. The Aran Isle sweaters for the boys were probably found in a woman's magazine sold at the supermarket. It is simply amazing all of the knitting inspiration that is available now.
Now that I have quite embarrassed myself and just so you know I'm still knitting, Shedir is in the decreases. I actually added an extra repeat as had been suggested, but when I tried it on my son, it was too long, so I removed a full repeat of all those cables and started the decreases over again. Should finish it soon.
Thanks to Micki and Bea and Grace for nominating Purls Before Frogs for a You Make My Day Award. I am honored. I have to name all of you on my list, not as a tag back, but because I truly enjoy checking in on our your blogs regularly.

Now to pass the award on, in no particular order:

Celtic Memory Yarns - for Jo's beautiful writing and Richard's glorious photos.

Clementine's Shoes - for a look at Australia through Di's eyes, her lovely design sense, and her really cute baby.

Thing 4 String - for Micki's gorgeous knitting and spinning. We have this symbiotic relationship of starting the same projects at the same time unbeknownst.

Bea-Blacksheep - for her knitting, writing and all those photos of Abby and Gus.

Immer Wieder Socken - just to drool over all her gorgeous socks.

Florence Knitingale - because she makes me hold my sides laughing.

Knitspot - to see what Anne's designing and cooking.

Habetrot - for her wonderful research and photos.

Bookgrump - Grace makes me smile with all her critters, and it is so much fun to tease her.

Techknitting and NonaKnits - a tie for informative and generous technical information.

All of you brighten my day and teach me so much. Thank you.

Friends invited me to dinner tonight. I stopped by their house for a drink first, and the husband took me on a tour of their home. In their beautiful bedroom, I saw several knitting projects by a chair. I couldn't believe we had known each other for so long and we didn't know we were both obsessed knitters. What a delightful surprise. She doesn't use the internet and thought knitting was dying out! That she was one of the last who knew how. We've gotta change that.

And finally, I want to say how sad I was to hear of Gigi Silva's death, way, way too early. I've knit three of her beautiful sock patterns, and they are among my favorites. Her e-mails were always sweet and helpful and she gave her work freely for everyone to enjoy. I was wearing my beloved Brigits when I read the news. Sympathy and best wishes for her young family.

A Trio of Chemo Hats

Circumstances have kept me from posting for a while. But that doesn't mean I wasn't knitting. I have been working on chemo caps for my son, an avowed hat hater. Well, that has changed by neccessity, so I'm knitting hats, a trio so far. He was also a disdainer of robes but has absconded with my favorite Japanese yukata, too. Don't think he's going to give it back any time soon, either. There is a Japanese nurse at the hospital who was quite amused to translate the symbols in the pattern for him.

First up was a beaded rib stocking cap in a dark khaki in Berroco's Comfort. The yarn, a very fine nylon/acrylic blend, has a soft hand, washes easily, was highly recommended for chemo caps, but it's many strands split like crazy and it was not a joy to knit with. Though it does give good stitch definition. I made it big and long, and when the fevers pass and the chills start, he pulls it down to his chin. I did wash it, not as carefully as I should have, and it's OK. But it would fare much better if you could wash it carefully in cool water.
So I progressed to Koolhaas, again in Comfort. Knitted to the pattern with the exception of an extra 1/2" of ribbing. It was too "tall". So I undid the decreases, frogged down a half motif, and am knitting the decrease section again. Wish me luck. The splitty yarn made this delightful pattern less pleasurable. It was impossible to do no cable needle cables as once you dropped the stitch from the needle, it was almost impossible to pick back up neatly.
The third of the current trio is Shedir from Knitty.com. This time I'm using Berroco Calmer, cotton and a dab of microfiber and the knitting is much more pleasant. I don't find it splitty at all and the hand is wonderful. This is a yarn I would use again. Though I think it will take two rather pricey balls to make this hat. My friend Taya of EclecticChick gave me an exotic toothpick to use for a cable needle, Japanese made that she found in Doha, and it is just the most convenient little tool for cables like this. I live in fear that I will drop the little bugger and lose it. If anyone knows where to get these toothpicks, very smooth and carved on one end, do let me know. I took a regular round toothpick and sanded the ends down, but the body of it is not very smooth and keeps snagging the stitches.
Then a friend sent me this unbelievably beautiful skein of Wollmeise Lace in the Versuchskaninchen 2 (Guinea Pig) color and there was real pleasure in opening that package. Much, much, much more beautiful than this photo. It hasn't declared it's design intentions yet. I am very fond of the weight, a thick fingering, and very generous yardage of Claudia's lace.And dear Jo of Celtic Memory thought I needed cheering up and sent this lovely and most unexpected treasure. SeaSilk in Berry. It does the soul good to dream of future projects. It tells me it wants to be a lace scarf. Must check the yardage on the beauteous Juno Regina that Mim designed for Knitty.

The little pile of my colorful new skeins brings joy to my heart every time I look at them. Thank you sweet friends. Knitters really know how to cheer up a knitter.

What I really desire to knit right now is the simplest ribbed socks in lovely yarns. As soon as I slide 5 WIPs off the needles, I may just do that. Perhaps I should try to perfect my toe-ups with Taya's idea of the Back to Basics Socks by Deb Barnhill from Knitty. Simple but far from boring.

More later! Thanks to everyone for their kind expressions of concern and support.

Of Prizes and Surprises, and Serpentines and Socks

First of all, I won a prize! Now I never win prizes, even when I buy twenty lottery tickets and should really have a good shot, so this was a delightful surprise. Bea of Baa Baa Blacksheep decided to have a contest and hand out some yarn, so she asked her readers to guess the weight of Gus the bulldog at 5 months. Well just how much can a baby bulldog weigh? More than you think. I was one of the clever folk who guessed 43 pounds. And the photo below shows Gus choosing the winners, just how fair can you be??? Well, Gus picked me! Smart dog. Cute dog. He likes to be told he's cute. He totally wiggles with joy when he hears how cute he is. I am smitten with Gus. Just look at those muscles. In the back and forth of how to handle receiving this prize, it turns out Bea is almost a neighbor. And Bea was bemoaning not having a knitting group nearby, so Bea came to join our group and brought my winnings. Now I was expecting a skein of yarn, and had high hopes it was reddish. This was the prize..... I was speechless it was so much more than I expected. A lovely little herringbone bag, just bursting with reddish yarn (yay!), handmade stitch markers, appropriate DPNs, Eucalan and yarn bras. The presentation was wonderful. Here's another shot of the inside of the bag. Coordinating fabrics and pockets and the construction is perfection. And best of all, Bea made it. As well as the lovely stitch markers. Check out her blog, I think she is selling some.
As for this week's project starts, we needs us some fingerless mitts. Our hands are freezing at the keyboard, thanks to the ceiling fan overhead which cannot be turned off. Don't ask. Faulty wire job. So grabbed some of my Wollmeise stash, Kurbis to be exact, and that nice little cabled pattern Serpentine by Miriam Felton and cast on these:
Now it is really quite unbelievable, but Micki happened to cast on a pair the same night, and we had never, ever discussed the pattern at all. Great minds and all that. Of course she is almost finished by now. I however left mine at a friend's house and didn't recuperate the project for a couple of days, so logically, rather than working on one of the other WIPs, grabbed another skein of Wollmeise out of the stash and cast on a second pair in Brombeere. Which would have been much further along if I hadn't somehow turned it around and knit backwards for 15 rows. It left only a tiny tweak in a rib, but I knew it would drive me bonkers, so a froggin' we did go.
Now speaking of surprised, Jo of Celtic Memory sent a little package, a stuffed little package, from Ireland with these treasures. A fab green sock yarn with a coppery ply in it which should make a tweedy sock. And two sample skeins of some frothy merino. Jo is thinking of making kimonos of the froth since they would be wonderfully lightweight. Will have to swatch those up and see what they want to be when they grow up. The green is really much nicer than the photo and the froths are cinnamon and coppery, no idea what was happening with the light in these photos. BTW, Jo just went to Lapland to visit Santa (and Lene) and I'm wondering what she asked Santa to bring her. Knowing Jo, she sat on his lap and read out her list. Bet yarn was on it for sure.

Here is a slightly better shot of the interesting green goodness.
And I haven't forgotten my November Sockdown pair, Eleanor by Gigi Silva in Teyani's Sock Hop color, Big Yellow Taxi. This is my second pair done in Sock Hop and I have had plenty of yarn each time to knit a generous sock. And they have washed and worn well, so I'm a declared fan. And this particular pair will be visible for miles!
Now for the other surprises. The Sisters of the Wool held their first annual Holiday Sock Yarn Exchange "free for all" at Rebecca's house. Yummy food was on hand (amazing microwave peanut brittle for one), with extras brought by many. And then we had a "Chinese" present swap, where you can choose to open a present or steal one from someone else, which keeps going in a round robin, until everyone has used up all their turns. After three steals, the object "locks" with the last thief and is no longer available. This was my first experience with the game. At first everyone just demurely opened another present on their turn, and some lovely sock yarn made appearance. Then someone started stealing and all H*** broke loose. I did manage to shamelessly steal a lovely skein of Fearless Fibers, complete with an Acorn Sock pattern by Knitspot that Angele had brought.
And then I did another swap with Micki for this beautiful skein of the tweeded Madeleine Tosh. Both skeins have great yardage for my big feet.
There was a terrific purplish tweedy skein by Bea Binney, the YarnPig, but someone (no names here, but definitely not kosher) hid it when I was making my final steal and I forgot to swipe it. It was gorgeous. Oh wow, I just checked out her Etsy shop to link this and she has the bags and yarns and stitch markers over there. She has skull patterned bags, and tweed bags and tweedy sock yarns. Fantastic. The girl's got talent.

My posting will be sporadic in the near future as my son is very ill. I will catch up whenever I can as it is good therapy to knit and talk about knitting. Thank everyone who has sent such kind words and thoughts our way.

Three Cheers!!!

Found myself suddenly quite annoyed by all the almost finished socks in my basket, so dropped the ones I was working on and added the final touches to the following:My favorite and most successful socks to date
Brigit by Gigi Silva
Wollmeise in RakuRegenbogen
2,50mm & 2,25mm

Also very nice socks. Haven't worn them yet so can't be sure of the "droop" problem, but for now, they fit great and the yarn is lovely and cushy and they are fun.

Bellatrix by Gigi Silva

Monarch Fly Dye in Hott

2,50mm & 2,25mm And still another pair, this time toe up and they came out too long in the foot. I still haven't made toe up work for me. I am aware that many of you would knit your socks no other way, but the vote is still out for me. Although I do plan to work on it, perhaps with Firestarter or the Boyfriend Socks. If I knew mid sole how tall I needed to make the heel of that particular pattern for my arch, it might be possible to accurately calculate the increases.

Baudelaire by CookieA

STR midweight in a Rare Gems colorway with the cuffs knitted in Mustang Sally lightweight since I ran out of yarn.

2,25mm & 2,50mm

Now for a pictorial explanation of why I need more yardage in my sock yarns. The blue sock is Rebecca's, knit for herself, and yes, she is a grown woman. Red sock is my size 10 Bellatrix. Duh! Now I know I knit tight and I don't like to use larger needles and I have to deepen the heel and gusset to accommodate a freakishly high arch, but still, my foot is reasonably normal. This was just amazing to me to see the literal difference in volumne. Thanks to Bea for the photo.

And since I'm always whinging to Jo about running out of sock yarn and needing more yardage, she pointed me to Knitivity, where Ray's yardage is more generous, and he even sells cones of some of the stuff. Well worth a visit. I liked Etouffé and Jambalaya, but there are lots and lots of blues for those of you blue lovers. Jo of course picked those. Ray started dyeing yarns professionally when he was chased out of New Orleans by Katrina and started a new life in Houston.

Submitted my October Sockdown, the Brigits, and am knitting away on my Novembers, using Gigi Silva (again) for a homegrown designer with Eleanor done in Sock Hop's Big Yellow Taxi. Increased from 60 to 66 stitches by adding a stitch to each motif. But knitted on 2.25s in the handspun, they are quite snug. Will show them off next time, hopefully finished.

I'm beginning to burn out a bit on all the socks. Well, I say that, but although the passion may be waning, the obsession isn't. It seems if there is a choice to pick up a large project or a sock, the sock always wins. If you count stitches, I could probably knit a sweater in the same time as a pair of socks. Does this make sense? And those of you with high arches will understand the difficulty of shoving a handknit sock clad foot into any pair of shoes on the market. Sort of like Cinderella's stepsisters must have felt with that glass slipper. My only choice is sandals with an adjustable strap, let out to the max. So why am I churning out those exquisite little socklets in a veritable assembly line? Beats me, but I can't stop.

This cold rainy week-end inspired me to clean out one of my closets, well, at least the summer shoes. The ones that have been breeding in the dark recesses of my closet for years, since my foot was a size smaller. I threw out as many as I kept and still the closet is crowded. Memo to self...no more shoes for ten years. Although most of these are at least five years old. Since I am not hard on my shoes, they never die a natural death, which leaves me to make the decision to euthanise them at some point and until then, they are shoved to the back of the stacks. Where they reproduce. Ran out of steam before I got to the winter shoes.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We certainly did. And I had a long list of things to be thankful for. I've decided to start every day by thinking of one of them and saying a quiet word of appreciation to the powers that be.

Kid n Ewe and Llamas, Too

Finally, a report from the fiber festival in Boerne (pronounced Berney) last week-end. Susan and I took off in her VW bug late Thursday down the back roads to the Hill Country. A pleasant several hours drive. We were the first ones there when they opened on Friday so we got to see the offerings before they were decimated. Knitting Fairy was there, and we met M2Dragons from Ravelry, as well as agengr2004 at Lone Star Arts, who made us Ravelry badges to wear. Hockett Would Works was there, and he gave me a commemorative spindle to add the the others of his I've collected. It is slightly heavier, so is a welcome addition. But he didn't have any knitty noddies or darning eggs that were on my "need" list.

Our mission was a cash only budget, to limit our collecting, and to try to find treasures we couldn't buy just anywhere. Well, one of our big finds was this lovely selection from Plain and Fancy. Organically home grown merino, spun in the region, dyed by the lady of the farm who has a marvelous sense of color. It has a homespun look, too. The decisions were hard because there were at least 20 colors each that we had to choose between. I ended up with a strange grey for a Wool Peddler's Shawl.

And then there was Brooks Farm. This is only perhaps a tenth of what they were showing. It was amazing. And quickly swamped with buyers grabbing. Sherry and Dena were delightful as always. And Randall was there too. Needless to say, I couldn't resist a few skeins of Mas Acero for a sweater in a goldish brown.

These friendly and well behaved alpacas were making the rounds of the halls.

Lorelei of Heritage Arts was there, wondering how long she could survive eating beans so she could afford this fantastic wheel crafted by Bill Wyatt. The Legacy, made from timbers which had lain at the bottom of the Great Lakes for 200 years. Note, she is barefoot as usual.

And there was a large display of JoJoLand's yarns. With lovely Lijua, the young woman from Northern China who is behind it all. She imports, sells, designs lots and lots of lacy things, and knits all the samples. OK, I'm impressed.

And here is Susan, checking out the cashmere.

Bill Wyatt demonstrated the Great Wheel for me. Utterly fascinating. It's the one they call the walking wheel. There were bunnies, really cute bunnies.

And goats...
After all this excitement, roughly six hours on our feet, we headed out for dinner at the Dodging Duck Brewhouse down the river road. A perfect recommendation. Then back down the road home to our lodgings, where we found a secret hot tub in the dark, immediately stuck our very sore feet in, and both managed to slip and get totally soaked fully clothed. Me much worse than Susan, who was laughing like a hyena while I shivered as I realized that nothing I was wearing would be dried out by the following morning.

We stayed in the most delightful B&B in Comfort, owned by Sandy whose gourmet breakfasts were amazing. She loves to cook. The place had plenty of wildlife...
This charming little object is to hold bits of yarn for the birds to grab for their nests.

And a porch cat who guarded our door.

We looked at typical houses and shops in Comfort and Fredericksburg.

Check out the sculptured birds on the roof. Way cool.
I've always loved the courthouse in Llano.
And this, gentle readers, is a yarn glutton, overcome with yarn fumes at Brooks Farm, on her bottom on the very dusty floor, balancing the merits of different colorways.
Lorelei said that if we were returning home by the back roads, we had to stop in Hico for chocolate, better than Godiva. Now that seemed strange... a chocolate factory in tiny little Hico. But since Lorelei is German, I had to think she might know what she was talking about. Well, she did. Wiseman House Fine Handmade Chocolates, the most elegant old house, all very fancy and full of wonderful chocolates. It would hold its own next to any European chocolate emporium. Texas never ceases to surprise me.

Thanks to Susan for some of her photos!