Needles & Hooks

Seems so long, I’m not sure I remember how to blog anymore.

My post-divorce, post-house life has been kind of crazy, and my internet access has been far less than it was. I spent most of September working in Los Angeles in a room without access to the outside world. And where I’m living right now doesn’t really have internet access either. I bring my work laptop home and use its wireless dial-up card to check a little e-mail in the evenings. And my commute is LONG! now. Not a lot of time left in life to do fun things, like blog. Or knit much. In fact, this post was written in some stolen moments while waiting for feedback on a big presentation I worked most of the weekend and 18 hours yesterday on (and really, I meant to write it yesterday). Oh, and when I’m not driving or working, I’m out doing training walks for my 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk. This past weekend, I walked 28 miles in total. Today, I have to find time to walk another 5. Oh, and 90% of my belongings are in storage. Makes me feel a little scattered at times.

I do remember how to knit. In fact, last week I went to a knit night at my LYS. I’m slowly making progress on the hoodie for my little niece. And despite all of that, my eyes are bigger than my hands right now, and I keep buying more yarn for more projects: 1.5 kiddie hoodies, a baby sweater and hat, 3 pairs of socks, a wrap, and a cat sweater. I need a stern talking to.

I did find some time to read, and I blazed my way through Crazy Aunt Purl’s book in 24 hours. I loved it. Maybe that’s just because she’s only like 2 steps ahead of me in life right now.

My October resolution is to get back on top of a few things, like blogging, my knitting projects (both in stash and online - hey Hanne fans!), my checkbook (work travel and no rent means this isn’t as dire as it could be), and sorting out my storage space. And my 3-Day Walk is coming up and I have been planning a fundraising raffle. If I get home before the sun goes today, you’ll get an announcement tomorrow. Otherwise, well, I have Columbus Day off!

And if I finish up my slides with some time to spare, I might make another post, this time with photos!

Tomorrow I’m back to Los Angeles for a couple more meetings (that big presentation). Maybe some more free time. Definitely knitting time on the plane if I don’t sleep the flight away. Which is very likely, especially since I scored a first class upgrade.

Okay, once upon a time, about a year ago, I went home to visit my family because my grandfather was in the hospital. One of the things I decided to do during the trip was design and knit a shawl for my grandmother. I played around with some designs involving cabling and dropped stitches. Reviews here were promising. And so I bought a pile of Koigu cast on a bazillion stitches and went home.

I knit and knit and knit. It seemed to go forever and consumed more Koigu than any project rightfully deserves. Seriously, I had to go buy more. And when that looked like it wouldn’t be sufficient, I bought even more. I honestly have no clue exactly how much Koigu I used. More than 10 skeins and maybe less than 20. Maybe.

But I was decreasing on all the right-side rows, and I was dropping stitches, and the end started to appear. And finally, I cast off the last stitch. And then life when into freak-out mode. I did a lot of work travel, and the divorce loomed, and then we had to put the house on the market, so the shawl got hidden away. Until mid-July.

After we accepted an offer on the house, I went back to my storage space to bring home the things I’d just stashed there for lack of a better plan to decide what to do with them for real. And some of them were languishing knitting projects. Including Grandma’s shawl. I also realized that I was heading home for my cousin’s wedding and that Grandma would be there, so I needed to finish the darned thing!

First, I blocked the biggest thing I’ve ever blocked.

I did a quickie job of it and didn’t use my blocking wires. I figured the points on the top would be hidden by a crochet border, and the points on the bottom edges would just be decorative. Then I had to find the remaining yarn I had to do the crochet and the fringe. But where the hell was my yarn?! I looked everywhere. In all the yarn bins I had at the house. In all the yarn bins I had in storage. I found a few scraps, but I knew I had at least one full skein left. Where the hell was it?! I finally found it in a bin I had at the house as I was loading it into storage and checking them all one last time. Of course, it was sitting right on top, sticking it’s tongue out and making fun of me.

At my parents house, I did the crochet border and started cutting up fringe. I worked on it during our long car trip north. I worked on it in the hotel room with my sister and her boyfriend looking on. And I finally finished it:

When I arrived home in Michigan, I took a run over to Target to get some tissue paper and a gift bag. So when we went over to my Aunt and Uncle’s house that day, I brought the gift and presented it to a very surprised Grandma. Who loved it and put it away so that it wouldn’t get dirty. But brought it out to show every person that stopped by the house.

Here she is modeling it:

And the back view to show you how huge it is:

So, once upon a time, I promised people that I would write up the pattern and distribute it. But Grandma’s wishes prevail. She’s tickled about having a unique and exclusive design. And so I won’t be writing it up. But I’ll give you some hints. It’s an adaption of Clapotis. I cast on all the stitches at the beginning. I did 4×4 cables that mirrored across the center. I decreased on each edge and at the center on right side rows, and I worked it out so that the center where the cables merged was interesting and smooth. And I used about 2 miles of Koigu. Seriously.

Okay, the last month since I posted has been crazy hectic. After I got back from my family reunion, I started packing up my house in earnest to move out. Then I was in Los Angeles for work for two weeks, sequestered in a freezing room with no internet or phone access. I would take “warmth breaks” out to my greenhouse-effect car in the parking lot to elevate my core temperature and reconnect with the world on my iPhone. But I was able to read Harry Potter in my hotel room. Then I got back and had one week to be out of the house. Panic ensued. But last Friday, at 10:30am, the house was cleared out. Then there was a shower, the closing, and a weekend of sloth. And now I’m divorced and homeless.

I’m living at a friend’s house for now (he lives with his fiancee, two doors away). It’s under reconstruction, so it’s not ideal, but it’s sort of familiar - my mom started remodeling the house I grew up in when I was five. That was 30 years ago, it’s still not done. My cat, Mough, is staying with another friend (because construction zones aren’t the safest place for a cat), until my Ex gets keys to his new apartment in another week. My longer term plans are up in the air. But I’m heading back to Los Angeles and Seclusion for another 3 weeks starting on Monday. So they can stay up in the air for a while longer.

But, now that some of the BIG THINGS are off my plate, I can get back to the fun things. For all the flying I’m doing in the near term, I’m working on some hoodies for my nieces. I don’t have photos yet, but they will be super cute. And miles of small-gauge stockinette is a perfect flying activity. I do have some photos of some recent FOs I’ve mentioned.

This is Sheldon from Knitty.

I made him for my niece, Grace, who just had her 3rd birthday. He was a favorite who achieved instant bedtime buddy status. I spoke to my SIL on the phone a few days after she received it and I mentioned that the shell was removable. So later, she said “Hey Grace, look!” and pulled Sheldon out of his shell. Grace shrieked “he’s naked!” and jumped up and grabbed a hat and stuck him in it. No, Sheldon was not anatomically correct, but Grace was very concerned for his modesty.

This is my sister, Lisa, modeling the Geisha Wrap I made for her:

The pattern came with a project kit of Colinette from ThreadBear when I visited last February. I assembled the wrong edges, but Lisa adores it, so that way it stays. This is the wrap my mother was hideously jealous of, causing me to have to return to ThreadBear (oh, the horrors), and buy another kit for her. But that one stays in hibernation until the hoodies are done.

Anyway, it’s good to be back.

Home for a few days. Family reunion was great. Grandma loved her shawl, sister loved her wrap, amy! went to ThreadBear, and jealous mom got a kit for me to make. Photos soon. I’m quickly going crazy. And because I haven’t managed to pick up a copy of Harry Potter yet, I can’t even read knitting blogs anymore!

Okay, so I’ve been in a funk and haven’t been posting or doing much. I’ve also not been reading my knitting e-mail, so I’m way behind on Hanne spreadsheet responses (I apologize). But life is kicking into high gear, so I’m trying to get back into things. So this post will be sort of kitchen sink-ish.

First up, an FO! I successfully finished the Princess Cover-up. My version is longer than the pattern and wider as well. Also, after pinning it together and trying it on my friend, Kim, we decided that the neckline should curve a little more than it does, so I ripped it out some and did some reshaping.

Here’s some high-speed blocking of it:

I say “high-speed” because I blocked the fronts and backs on top of each other. That way I could make sure that everything lined up well and also, my blocking board is only so big. I used blocking wires and pinned it out. And then I set it in the sun to dry - no need to worry about fading!

And here it is all finished. Currently, it’s on a beach in St. Martin.

Communication News
Another way life is high-speed is that I splurged and bought an iPhone when I was out shopping on Independence Day. I’ve always been an Apple fan, but I really had a lot of good reasons why I wasn’t planning on getting one right away. But when I was shopping for a wedding present, I decided to just look. And that was my undoing. And after wandering in and out of the Apple Store for about 2 hours asking questions, someone returned an 8GB model, so it was fate that I buy it.

This thing is more fantastic than I can possibly say. You have to wrap your head around something entirely new. It’s not merely an overpriced phone. It’s not merely an overpriced, low-storage, wide-screen iPod. It’s not merely a Palm Pilot wannabe. It takes all of those things and wraps them together in a new way and anticipates just about your every need in a beautiful package. And because it’s Apple, it just works and just makes sense. Nothing like driving out to run some errands and remember that you forgot to look something up before you left, and then realizing that you can look it up at the store on your phone. Or to have your realtor e-mail you a PDF of the offer on your house while you’re driving home, pull over to read it (seriously, read it), and then call your nearly ex-husband to discuss it.

Which brings us to…

Life News
We accepted an offer on our house on Friday night. It’s less than we wanted, less than we paid, but we’ll get out of it without owing anything, and it will be done. Inspection is Monday and then I can stop living in a museum. If all goes well, closing is Aug 17, which means I have a lot of stuff to figure out by then!

So one of my chores is to actually finish all the little things hanging around the house. You should see more posts. And another Breast Cancer Stash Sale soon. And if I can manage it, a Breast Cancer Donation Raffle too.

Mail Call
A month or so ago, I got an e-mail about the new StringDirect Club from String in NYC. Somehow, I interpreted what I read to mean that it would be more than simply a pattern-a-month club, that I’d actually get a small sample of the featured yarn. I know that String mostly carries high-end yarns, so I wasn’t expecting a full skein, but a few yards to make a tiny swatch and see how the yarn felt was what I was expecting. And with this expectation, I signed up right away. And no samples are included. I can’t find my original e-mail about it, so I don’t know what I was smoking when I signed up, but now I’m annoyed. I’m thinking about cancelling even if I don’t get a refund, just because I don’t really want more patterns I’m never going to use. I did get an autographed copy of their Luxury Knitting book. But, as a Club idea, meh.

In happier mail, I also got a surprise card from ThreadBear with a gift certificate in it! I’m not sure what I did to deserve such a thing, but it did make me smile at a time when smiles are precious, so thank you very much Matt and Rob! And I just booked a plane ticket back to Michigan to spend it! Okay, no, I’m actually going to a cousin’s wedding. But I think I can make a side trip.

I caught a bug:

Yes, I started playing with chainmaille. My sister Lisa, a much more talented jewelry maker than myself (that’s fine, she can’t knit), made some pieces that fascinated me a few years ago. Since then, I have perused bead magazines and sent her ones that have neat chainmaille patterns in them. Last week, I stumbled upon Bead & Button’s Wirework issue. I picked it up for her, but showed it to a friend, Kim, who has a thing for maille. And Kim realized that she could make it herself. And in looking into it online for her and Lisa, I realized I could probably do it too.

After a couple of days surfing maille sites and not knitting sites, I’d ordered a kit, but decided that wasn’t quite quick enough for me. And I passed a bead store last night and bought a small pile of aluminum jump rings. I used to do a lot more with beading, but got bored with it because it was so much effort for so little product. But after an hour with a couple of pairs of pliers, I had that bracelet. Here’s a close-up:

It’s not perfect. They didn’t have the size jump rings I wanted in stock, so I had to go with some slightly bigger and my aspect ratio is a little large for the pattern I was going for. In knitting terms, my gauge was too large for my yarn and thus the fabric is too loose. But it’s still not bad for a first try and it’s very shiney. I could insert some beads into it too, and I might. It’s a toy project after all. Can’t wait for my kit to arrive. It appeals to me for the same reason that knitting does, there’s a mathematical aspect to it. But it’s also something of a puzzle, which is also very fun.

So, that wasn’t all I did last night. I also did this:

Those are a bunch of different brownies for a bake sale at work to benefit my Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk. I have another 6 recipes to try tonight. All my friends brought in pans for me to use so that I could just keep baking. My kitchen is perfect for mass baking like this, I’m going to miss it when it sells. Speaking of which, how do you hide 6 pans of brownies so that the house is ready to show at a moment’s notice?

Sssshhhh, don’t open that cupboard!

This is what became of the baby surplice jacket and hat:

His mom posted more photos of young Julian modeling his new duds. Sadly, the sock bind-off was too tight, after all my sock fussing. Fortunately, Alex can fix them. And the hat, an improvised design that I’ve made before, was a big hit. It was last time too. I guess I should write up some directions for it. It’s pretty easy, but I designed it so that there’s almost no sewing to finish it. It’s really good to use up the last bit of yarn you got for a baby sweater project. Or that one ball of hand-dyed that you just couldn’t put down.

The latest entry in the “places I’ve knit” series…

That’s the latest in the Princess Cover-up. Here’s a better view:

Oops, that’s obscured by guest kitties. They quickly determined that the knitting was neither threatening nor interesting. Let’s try again:

Anyway, that’s about 3 and a half pattern repeats. According to my gauge swatch, I need a full 6 before I start the armholes. I’m flying home from San Francisco tomorrow, so I should have plenty of time to do that on the plane.

My bosses brought around one of their new bosses to meet people in my group a little while ago. When in my office, the new guy noticed The Glove and asked if I’d made it. One of my bosses replied “she knits almost as fast as she types”. What kind of experiment can we do for that? Typed words per min vs stockinette sts per min?

Just wanted to clarify something about the baby socks I wrote about in the last post. 2 socks at a time from the same ball of yarn is fine. I usually knit my socks this way if I’m not trying for twins in a self-striper. You make a center-pull ball from the yarn and knit one sock from the center and one sock from the outside of the ball. Easy. Sometimes it gets a little twisted around itself, and you just untwist as necessary.

The trouble I had was trying to knit two socks at a time from 2 balls at a time. I was using both balls the same way - knitting one sock from the center of each, and one from the outside. And what with the fact that I was knitting one yarn every round and one yarn every other round and the twisting and the solid color ball was disintegrating, well, it was a scaring mess very quickly.

That’s two different balls (all though the solid burgundy has completely lost structural integrity (seriously, it’s burgundy, not brown)):

Now I’ve been thinking about the topology of the thing (and if two socks from one ball makes your head spin, don’t think about this), and I think it should be possible with a little care and a little more planning. But I was going for quick and dirty, and it just didn’t seem to be working. Of course, I spent about an hour with the separating and untangling and rewinding, so with my maybe 10 rounds that I’d knit, I’d have probably been ahead starting over. But they’re done now. And I’m putting it out of my head.