When Good Lace Goes Bad -- An "After the Fact Lifeline" Tutorial

(Please forgive the awful photography. I don't have any little helpers today.)

Occasionally when knitting lace, something goes wrong. A lot of the time, we catch our mistakes pretty quickly and can tink back and fix it without too much bother. Other times, we realize we made a mistake several rows back, and the idea of tinking 700 stitches will drive us mad. (This is why a lot of people, um, smart people, use lifelines when knitting lace. Some of us are overconfident and a wee bit arrogant.) If you have discovered a mistake that is too far back to tink and you haven't used a lifeline, or if your lifeline is so far away that you feel like going all the way back would waste some good knitting, here's a technique to add to your arsenal.

It's Loren T's Patented After-the-Fact Lifeline. This works very well on lace with resting rows -- rows where all you do is purl back, or if you're knitting in the round, you just knit around. It can be done on pattern rows, but it requires a lot more concentrations.

You are going to pick up stitches you've already knit and place them on a holder or a needle. I like to use another circular needle to do this, because that way, when I'm done, I'm ready to knit. You can use an appropriately sized contrasting yarn as well.

First, identify a resting row below the row in which you made the mistake. You will simply pick up all the stitches in this row and place them on your holder/needle. If you want, you can baste a contrasting color thread through this row to ensure that the stitches you pick up are all on the same row. (Again, some of us who are impatient, overconfident, and arrogant skip this step.) Slowly and carefully, using the tip of your needle, pick up one leg of every stitch in the row. You can go from right to left or left to right, it doesn't matter. If you pick up the right leg of the stitch, the stitch will be oriented correctly on the needle when you're done. If you pick up the left leg, the stitch will sit twisted on the needle, and you'll have to knit it through the back loop on the next row to correctly orient it.


Keep picking up stitches, all the way around, being careful to stay in the same row, and being extra careful at the juncture between two needles, where it's sometimes hard to see if or where there is a stitch. Here's a picture once I've picked up a needle's worth of stitches:

Here, you can see that I've picked up the stitches all the way around the doily:

When you are sure that you have picked up all your stitches, pull out the old needles. (I feel like I should give instructions a la EZ, and require you to down a glass of wine first!)



Scary looking, isn't it? But since your new needles are holding all your stitches, there shouldn't be any problem. Next, rip out the stuff above the new needles. If you've done it correctly, all of your stitches are on the needles, and the yarn is at the beginning of the round, ready to go:




There you go!

Now I'm ready to keep going with my doily.

I also started the second STR sock club sock:

In other news, the cat is recovering nicely from her ordeal at the vet's.

I'm too sick of this presidential race to comment much beyond marveling at how the Democrats have managed to completely fuck up what should have been a gimme year, and that I'm thoroughly disgusted with Hilary Clinton.

Now I'm off to start the Mommy taxi service as we head off to multiple activities in multiple places.

Waiting

One of our cats is at the vet's right now, having a procedure done under general anesthesia. It's not surgery, and hopefully she'll be fine, but I'm waiting nervously until I hear from the vet.

As you can surmise, not a whole lot got done this weekend. Saturday was filled up with two baseball games, one birthday party, and an emergency trip to the vet's. Yesterday was a horribly rainy day, yet Mr. T and Sr. Jr. went off to the Twisted Tire mountain bike race. Mr. T won his race and Sr. Jr. came in second in his! They got thoroughly muddy, but broke no bones. Jr. Jr. and I stayed home and tried to keep the basement from flooding. Fun times, indeed.

I had hoped to show you a completed STR sock club sock, but life intervened. So here's a picture of it almost completed:

This is a thicker sock yarn than I generally prefer. It's knit over 60 stitches on a size 2 needle. Generally, when I use sock yarns appropriate for size 1 needles, I use 60 stitches as my general stockinette guide (adjusting a bit up or down depending on what number I might need for the stitch pattern, or to account for a pattern that tightens up a bit, for example). So this sock is a little looser on me than I prefer. It'll just have to be saved for the loosest of shoes that I own.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd signed up for Susan Reishus's new Mystery Lace KAL (closed to new participants now). She posted the first clue on Friday, and it's lovely:

This was a very short clue, so I'm chomping at the bit to get the next one, which debuts this Friday. In fact, I may just rip this out and redo it, because she suggested a different way for doing one of the decreases than was originally charted. It didn't take too long to do, so it won't be a big deal to redo it. I'd rather pick which decrease I prefer now, early on, than knit half a shawl and decided I'd prefer it the other way. Here's a close-up view:

Participants can add beads to the shawl (around 1500, I think). I think I'm going to do this beadless. Beads would make the shawl a bit more formal than anything I'd need, I suspect. If I wanted to make this a wedding shawl, I'd definitely use the beads. But I wear my shawls over jeans and don't attend too many dress-up events, so I prefer a more casual look. From the looks of this clue, the shawl will be pretty lacy and less casual already, so I might was well stick with that.

Since I won't get the next clue until Friday, I have the rest of the week to keep working on the doily!

Also, I'm going to start adding labels or tags to my posts. I've noticed a lot of people coming over hear from Ravelry, looking for info on particular projects, and this will help get all that info in one place. By the way, if you do stop by, please say hi. Sometimes I feel like I only have two readers, one of whom lives with me and hears this stuff anyway (and doesn't knit), which leads me to ponder why I continue...

Distracted by Spring, with Baseball Report

Spring seems to have finally arrived here. It's been sunny and warming up; flowers and trees are blooming; and the goldfinches have returned to the feeder:

At this time of year, I spend an awful lot of time outdoors. I went for a long 4 1/2 mile walk this morning, and it felt very good. I haven't picked up the doily, but I did do some work on the STR sock club socks, guessing that the next installment would arrive before I finished these if I didn't get a move on:

This is STR mediumweight, on size 2 needles. I've never used this yarn before, since I typically prefer the thinner sock yarns. It's pretty cushy and soft (again, unlike my typical experience with STR). The picture of the sock on the pattern doesn't have as much color variation as mine does, however. I'd prefer it with less variation, but this is still a lot less eye-singeingly bright than last installment. The pattern is pretty easy to follow, and goes quickly on the size 2 needles.

Baseball Report -- Long

The other reason I spend so much time outdoors this time of year is Little League/Babe Ruth baseball. Here in Arlington, Babe Ruth and Little League are two separate entities. We started our kids out in Babe Ruth, because you could pick which kids and coach you wanted to play with. Mr. T coaches Jr. Jr.'s team with a friend from down the street. Sr. Jr. started out on one team with a very nice and very good coach, but after two years, we switched him to another team to be with boys from his school. He played with his new team for three years, I think. His new coach, while a very nice guy, just wasn't able to control his team very well. The kids were losing a lot and sniping at each other, and a couple of parents who were assisting him were taking over the team. All in all, it was getting pretty dysfunctional. We thought about switching him back to his original team, but we didn't want to risk hurting his new coach's feelings. Several other kids from the team also left. So this year we switched Sr. Jr. to Little League. In Little League, the teams are chosen by the coaches in a draft system, so the teams end up roughly comparable in terms of skill levels, and there's no favoritism shown by the coaches toward their own children. Sr. Jr.'s new coaches are just two young guys who want to coach. They've been very good so far.

Sr. Jr. pitches. Even though I'm his mother and therefore pretty biased, I can see that he's really good. Last night was the opening game. As fate would have it his old team (with the not so good coach) was playing his first team (with the good coach) one field over from where Sr. Jr. was playing his game. I got to say hello to friends and keep an eye on their game too.

Sr. Jr. was the starting pitcher. The game started even though the ump hadn't shown up yet. Up Sr. Jr. goes and fans the first two batters. The next batter made it onto base on a pop-up that should have been an easy out, but all the infielders called for the ball and at the last minute backed off, in a typical Little League play. It was okay, because Sr. Jr. fanned the next batter to end the inning. When the other team was about to start, the ump arrived. At this point, the opposing coach started complaining that Sr. Jr. hadn't been pitching from the right place on the mound, and it wasn't fair because he'd "blown it right by our players." So the ump made them redo the game. Sr. Jr. walks up to the right place on the mound and proceeds to fan the first three batters all over again. Ha!

This meant, however, that when he came up to pitch the "second" inning, he was really in his third inning of pitching, and was clearly tired. He started throwing balls and walking some kids, so the team switched pitchers. In the end, the score was 11-11, but the game was called because there was another game scheduled. Sr. Jr. had been about to come up, with the bases loaded. He was so upset! He was mad about having to pitch the first inning twice, because if he had pitched two scoreless innings instead of one, the team would have won.

I pointed him to the scoreboard of the game his old team had been playing. They had lost, 19-7. I reminded him that no matter what, his team was in the game and being competitive, and that he should be proud of his pitching.

At the end of their game, Sr. Jr.'s first coach -- the good one, whose team won that game -- came over to say hi and chat. I said, "Looks like your team had a good game!" "Nah," he said, "It wasn't competitive. We must have had 21 walks in the game."

(I promise I won't do long play-by-play baseball reports for all the games this season!)

Gotta run to the bus stop now, so I hope you're all enjoying your days, as well.

Water, Water, Everywhere But Here

On Friday, we were notified by a County employee that our sewers were going to be relined this week. Monday (yesterday), to be specific. In order to perform this feat, our water would have to be turned off for 8 to 12 hours. If we were to flush a toilet, sewage could back up into our house. Plus, even if we didn't run any water at all, the house would still smell of the relining stuff. Yay! Well, yesterday also happened to be one of those random "teacher work days," so the kids would be home all day. So I planned to have the kids out of the house all day. We went to the bagel store for breakfast, then we went off to the mall, where we did a little shopping, had lunch, and saw a movie. ("Nim's Island." It was ok. Jodie Foster has serious old lady hands.) When we returned home at around 4:30, the guys were still working, so I pulled up and asked how much longer they'd be. "Oh, until around 7," they said. Great. So we went home, where it really did reek like nail polish remover, planning to go out to dinner. Five minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was one of the workmen. "Your half of the street isn't being done until tomorrow, you know." What? The woman specifically told me Monday! So, we had water all day, but today we don't. Quick change of dinner plans in light of circumstances. At least today I'm home alone, and I can handle waterlessness. BUT, and this is a big BUT, the work didn't finish last night until TEN O'CLOCK. That's a big hassle. The boys can live without their bath, but what about getting ready for bed? I can't really bring them down to the library in their jammies to get ready for bed. Also as a result*, there's been very little knitting:

You can see that I haven't made too much more progress, doily-wise. Of course, there are almost 300 stitches per round at this point. So, to distract you from the lack of knitting content on this here "knitting" blog, I'm going to give you some pretty pictures:

The last happy place I showcased was Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the spectacular Grand Teton Range. Continuing our mountain theme, we have this past summer's vacation to Yosemite. Above we have the pair of Jr.'s at the point looking out over the Yosemite valley. The mountain in the foreground is Half-Dome, named because, clearly, it looks like a dome sheared in half. Below is a picture of a family of deer we encountered on our hike through the giant redwood grove. There looked to be two female adults and two babies. We were ever so quiet when we saw them and they trotted about in front of us as if they had no fear.

Below is a shot of the granite steps going up the Mist Trail. I love mountains, and I love to hike, but I have a slight case of vertigo, and these steps were a killer. They go on and on and on and on, and in many places are extremely steep and narrow. I can't imagine climbing these when the falls are in full force and the mist makes the granite slippery.
Here's Sr. Jr. when we got up to the plateau for the first set of the falls:

Here we are on top of Sentinel Dome:

This is an actual mountain top. There's no more up from there. The views are spectacular. The aforementioned vertigo means that I get very nervous on top of things from which I can fall a long way. I didn't include a funny picture of me sitting down on a rock in the middle of the dome, clearly trying to stay away from any edges.

This picture was taken the first day we went up to see Half Dome. There were forest fires in different places in Yosemite, and the wind was blowing the smoke in our direction.

I have many, many more pictures, but we all now how boring those never-ending vacation stories can be.

This year we're breaking with tradition and renting a house in Hilton Head to do the beach thing. I'm not really a beach person, but I'll bring my knitting and some books to keep me occupied.

Hopefully by Thursday or Friday, I'll have some actual knitting progress to talk about.

* Also distracting me from my knitting is that time-sucking soap opera on Ravelry known as the "MCY thread." Who knew the knitting world could produce such shenanigans?

Drive-By Posting

Too little time here. Weekends at this time of year are for baseball and other such activities. We managed to get half a game in yesterday before getting poured on. Today was the "opening ceremony." It was grey, drizzly, and COLD, after several warm days. Here's Sr. Jr. at the opening day festivities. I said, "Smile!" and he said, "I am smiling."

Jr. Jr. tried tickling him. It didn't work.

In my last post, I showed you a picture of my Mystery Lace swatch, blocking. Here's what it looked like five minutes after I finished that post:

I imagine the the pins couldn't have been too comfortable.

I continue to work on the Annette doily. I'm almost at the midway point in the row count, but obviously, since the rows get bigger and bigger, there's a lot more than half the knitting left to be done. This is a lot of fun to knit. Kippi of the comments mentioned that she had gotten some of the recommended cotton yarn to knit hers, and wondered why cotton would be the appropriate choice. Now that I've come further along in the knitting, I can see that cotton would have more body that the silk and alpaca lace yarn that I'm using. My yarn is great for drapey shawls, but you want a doily to be a little stiffer. I think I might get some cotton yarn to do any future doilies. Here's a picture of where I am now:

Here's a close up:

Please note that this was just pinned out quickly for photographic purposes. It will look a lot bettern when it's blocked correctly.

Tomorrow, the County is relining the sewers on our street. This means that we will not be allowed to use our water for 8 to 12 hours, starting at 8:30 am. As luck would have it, tomorrow is also a Teacher Work Day, which means the kids are out of school. Having no water with the kids at home is bad enough, but we're also not allowed to flush the toilets! Doing so could cause sewage backup in the house. So, I need to vacate my house tomorrow, and figure out what to do with the kids for 8 to 12 hours. Nothing's open at 8:30 in the morning, either. Bleah. It's already shaping up to be a crappy week.

Is it Back?

My mojo stumbled back last night, bloodied, bruised, and very weary. It's clearly not back at full strength yet. I've put it to bed with a nice cup of tea, and hope that it will feel all better in the morning. In the meantime, I finished my "Will Spring Never Come?" socks:

These are made with Duet Skinny sock yarn, purchased from the always wonderful people at The Loopy Ewe. I used size 0 needles and whimsically added the ruffle at the top. When I had the top ribbing as long as I wanted it, I changed to the solid heel/toe yarn and knit one round. On the next round, I k1f&B into each stitch, then knit 3 rounds even, then bound off. I think they're cute :) I liked the yarn a lot, and was tempted during the last Loopy sneak peak to buy some more.

I also restarted the doily, this time using off-white Alpaca Fino with a Twist yarn (one of my favorites for lace) and size 1 needles (Knitpicks Harmony wooden needles, to be exact). Instead of casting on 6 stitches as the pattern directs, I cast on 12, which gives me the six petals seen in the book:

Looks much better, doesn't it? This pattern, more than anything else, is responsible for the slight return of my mojo. It's a lot of fun to knit. (At the end, you thread the tail from the cast-on through the center stitches to pull that hole closed.)

I also joined a Mystery Lace knitalong. I've never done one of these before, because I'm pretty picky about what I like and don't like in lace knitting (as in everything else). But it's free, the yarn was cheap, and if I don't like it, I don't have to keep going. You can find the KAL in Yahoogroups under "MysteryLace." There's also a Ravelry group going. I'm using Lane Borgosesia Cashwool in the Pearl color, which is a very light grey:

It's billed as a springy shawl, in a stole shape. The swatch motif is leafy. I'm not sure I love it, but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

Knitter's Magazine, Spring '08

My issue arrived yesterday. To be blunt, what a fat bag o'crap that was. What a long way down this magazine has fallen. When I reorganized our study not too long ago, I took the opportunity to look through some of the really old Knitter's that I have. They used to have such beautiful designs, even sweaters knit in the round and steeked! Now, it's all brightly colored yuck. (Not that I'm opposed to bright colors, but not like this.)

A while back, I commented on how the editor's of Knitter's have a place on their site where readers can vote on which sweater makes it onto the cover of the next issue. I noted that it often seemed to be the case that the sweater that got the most votes didn't make the cover. This continues to be true. This sweater:

did not get the most votes. Shocking! And what's more, the sweater that did get the most votes didn't even make it into this issue. Maybe they're holding it for the summer issue, but still. To make matters even worse, the cover sweater is actually in two pieces. That little asymetrical cape thing comes off to reveal that the sweater underneath is actually STRAPLESS! Because yes, strapless knits are what we all crave. Who the hell would wear such a thing? Other than its inherent fug, you'd spend all day holding the damn thing up! Most of the offerings in this issue were of this ilk.

I've held onto my subscription for sentimental reasons, mostly, and because there's occasionally a decent technical article and an interesting Perry Klass column. After this, I can honestly say that I will not be renewing.

Lost My Mojo

Sad to say, sorry to report, I can't find my mojo. Mr. T was out of town all last week, and didn't arrive home until yesterday evening, so I was single-momming it last week. I normally don't mind doing the single mom thing now that the boys are old enough that taking care of them isn't an overwhelming job. But dealing with K's death and funeral without having my normal sounding board around was rough. Plus, I didn't get very much knitting time at all, even on the weekend.

I always get in a little lull if I've finished a project and haven't gotten another one lined up and ready to go (meaning the swatch is done and I'm ready to cast on). This time it's particularly tough because I haven't even had time to think about my next project yet.

In addition, I gave up on the prior incarnation of my little doily. As Kippi correctly noted, the picture of the doily in the book had 6 little motifs running out from the center, while my doily, knit exactly as the directions specify, only had three. I continued along gamely for a while to see if it would make a difference. Last night I put the whole thing on some sewing thread to see if it would block out into a circle. Alas, no. I'm sure someone out there thinks a triangular doily is cool, but not me. I was really enjoying the knitting, however, so I think I'll go ahead and cast on a new one, using the correct number of stitches.

My emergency back-up knitting, the second Will Spring Never Come sock and the new STR sock club socks, will have to carry me through for now.

What should I knit next? This is an odd time of year for knitting, isn't it? If I start another spring sweater now, it'll be too warm to wear it by the time I'm done. (And I really don't wear too many Spring sweaters here in hot and humid Virginia. Once our lovely week of Spring ends -- if it ever gets here -- we move straight into the hot days of summer.) But it doesn't seem like a good time to start a heavy winter sweater. I could go back to the Bleeding Hearts stole, but truthfully, that's not very fun knitting right now. A vest? I keep threatening to make one for myself. Another piece of lace? I don't even have the energy to go diving through the stash to look for inspiration right now.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

So, as a last resort, I called up my other mojo, and baked some oatmeal raisin cookies for the boys:

A Finished Object, A Started Object, Fun and Sadness

The Flutter Sleeve cardigan is done!

Here's the back view (no comments about my ass, please!):

Here are the specs: Flutter Sleeve Cardigan, Spring '08. I used the called-for Classic Elite Classic Silk, in the moss colorway. I used the needles called for in the pattern, except for the ribbing section in the middle, where I used US 4s instead of US 3s. I started out knitting the small size for my hips and midsection, but added about an inch and a half for my bust. I didn't block it too carefully, because my gauge swatch (after washing) was spot-on. I just pat it into shape. Now that I've sewed on the buttons and tried it on, I may try to block a little bit more ease into it. That, or lose the 5 pounds I've put on in the last couple of weeks. I like the sweater. I usually spend my summers in shorts and tee shirts, but this will be nice to have for going out to dinner.

I also started the doily I've been threatening to knit. It's "Annette" from "Knitted Lace," by Sonja Esbensen and Anna Rasmussen. (I got these a while back from Lacis.) Here's what I've knit so far, not really blocked, obviously. Please note that I've followed the pattern exactly:

Here's the picture of the doily in the book:

Can anyone spot the apparent discrepancy in the pattern? I'm having fun knitting with it. It's hard to put it down because I want to see each new row and motif unfold. Life, unfortunately, does not allow for that. I am wondering whether I'll need to rip it out and redo it to fix the seeming discrepancy, or whether it will work out the way it is, and I'm just an idiot.

As I mentioned, Monday was the school field trip to go see "Horton Hears a Who." 120 first graders and 70 or so parents trooped off in the cold rain to the metro station. We got there at about 10:00, which is still the tail end of rush hour here in the DC area. As a result, when we all packed onto the train, it was so full of bleary-eyed commuters that there were no seats left. As we hustled the kids in and got them to hold onto the poles and the seat backs, I could see that a lot of the passengers were wondering if they were going to be in for a ride that was just too noisy for their pre-caffeinated states. As soon as the train started moving, all 120 kids, in unison, said, "Whoooaaaa!" The passengers all laughed and smiled. We only rode for one stop, but I like to think we brightened a yucky Monday morning for a bunch of people.

So, on to the sadness. What do you say when a young woman in her early forties dies, leaving behind 3 children under 13? K. had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer since September, and seemed to be doing really well. I just saw her several weeks ago, and we had a lovely conversation about middle school, about life, about finding the inner strength in one's family. Even with the treatments, which can be really physically grueling, she still showed up for almost every PTA meeting and every meeting we had on school boundary changes. Apparently, she went into the hospital with shortness of breath, and eventually they diagnosed a blood clot in her lungs. Blood clots are, unfortunately, a potential side effect of chemo and radiation, as my father-in-law's doctors warned him. Her daughter is in Sr. Jr.'s grade, and they were in class together several years ago. Her youngest son is a year older than Jr. Jr., but was on the first t-ball team that Mr. T coached. When Jr. Jr. came home with the news, his eyes were wide, and I could see he was fighting off tears. I could see that he was really thinking about the fact that bad things happen, not just to mythical people "out there," but to people we know and love. It seemed to really hit him that the people he loves aren't immune from harm.

I think we take it for granted these days that breast cancer is treatable, especially if caught early. What we fail to remember is that the treatment itself is dangerous.

Harbingers of Spring

Blossoms on our plum tree:


Close up:

Cat, warming her tummy in the sun:

I would have added a picture of boys playing baseball, but I forgot my camera yesterday.

And yet, it's still cold!

It's been busy here, and there's been relatively little (OK, no) knitting. Between birthday parties, baseball games, errands, and post-game dinners, complete with junior mosh pits, we've been out of the house a lot. I tend not to bring my knitting to baseball games, because I help out, talk to the other parents, and chase after the non-playing kid. But it's all great fun.

Tomorrow, I'm going with Jr. Jr.'s class on a field trip to see "Horton Hears a Who." Somehow, they're going to get 120 kids and 80 or so parents coordinated enough to walk down to the Metro station, get their farecards and get on the Metro, get off at the right stop, and take over the movie theater, and then attempt to get everyone back to school. Should be quite the experience. I'll remember to bring along the Advil.

Fun Reading Material

The most recent Interweave Knits (I think, I don't have it in front of me) did a feature on Japanese knitting pattern books. Some of the featured stitches looked beautiful and unfamiliar to me, so I set off to find these books. Amazon came up empty, and I took one look at the Japanese Amazon site and realized that I wasn't going to be able to figure it out. Then a couple of other bloggers mentioned YesAsia.com. Cool! I ended up purchases four or five books, two of which arrived yesterday:



I haven't finished going through both books yet, but there are definitely some beautiful and new-to-me stitch patterns. Given that I already have almost every stitch dictionary printed in English, this is quite a feat. It's not hard to figure out how to knit these patterns, either. They're all charted, and there are very helpful diagrams along the bottom of the pages showing you how to perform the stitches. So when I come to a symbol I'm not familiar with, I simply look at the diagrams.

The books contain some neat ways of charting things, too, that I'll have to try to replicate in my Knit Visualizer software. When I was charting out the motif for my Deco socks, I followed the charting system used in the German stitch dictionary from which the motif was adapted. This required hand writing some stuff on the charts. This worked wonderfully for me, since I thought the notation was intuitive, and since there aren't any Euro/American symbols for some of the stitch manipulations used. It wasn't so great, however, in the event I wanted to pull the pattern together for future sale, since I can't easily replicate it on the computer. These books have a symbol for exactly what I was doing. Now I can play around with adding that symbol to the Knit Visualizer library and re-charting the pattern. (Yeah. Right. Since only three people seem to read my blog, it's not like there's a large outcry for this pattern.)

I'm ready to sew up the Flutter Sleeve cardi. I went to my LYS on Friday and got some buttons, but I don't love them. There wasn't a huge selection of the right size buttons. I guess I'll have to bop over to G Street Fabrics at some point this week to see if I can find anything better.

After that, I get to ponder what to do next. Start a doily? Probably. Design a sweater using some of those neat new stitch patterns? Possibly. We'll just have to wait and see :)

AFO -- Almost Finished Object

Look what's blocking --

The Flutter Sleeve Cardigan, almost done. I have some shopping to do tomorrow that will take my near my LYS (Uniquities, Vienna, VA, wonderful place), so I'll stop off and get some buttons. After it's dried, I'll just sew it up, do the seed stitch border on the sleeves and the little tabs (if I decide to do them), and I'll be done. Looking at that picture, I see I need to go upstairs and do a little adjusting. Because my gauge was spot on, and because I was worried about this growing when wet, I didn't have to do too obsessive a job about blocking it. (Plus, I usually re-block it after all the seams have been sewn and all the trim added.) Overall it was a fun, fast knit, and I hope it looks good on me.

I did cast on the new Socks That Rock sock kit socks, even though I haven't finished my Spring Willow socks yet. The Spring Willow socks (aka Will Spring Never Come?) are knit on size 0s, while the STR socks are knit on 2s, so when I want to feel like I'm making quick progress, I work on the STR socks.

I was hoping to use the yarn that I'm in the progress of spinning to knit a doily, but I may not have the patience to wait until the yarn is done to cast on for that project, either, so keep your eye on this here bloggy thing for some pictures of that.

Spring is finally arriving, however, and that means two things here Chez T -- yardwork and baseball. It was 70 degrees yesterday, so I raked all the leaves out of the front garden and dug up a Mountain Laurel and a rhododendron (sob) that didn't make it through the drought-ridden past two years, even with my diligent watering. I have some ideas about what I want to replace them with, so it's off to the nursery for me soon.

Things get very busy with the baseball schedule. Sr. Jr. has practice three times a week, and Jr. Jr. has two practices. Add in all the other after-school activities, and it's a rare day when we're not rushing off somewhere. Games start next weekend. Some of Sr. Jr.'s games don't start until 7 pm, meaning we won't be home those (school) nights until around 9. In addition, he's on the "M1 call-up list." He plays in the M2 league for the 9,10, and 11 year olds. M1 is for the 12 and 13 year olds, but occasionally, due to illness or other conflicts, those teams are short a player, so they have this list of kids from the M1 league who are good players that they can call to fill in. I'm thrilled that Sr. Jr.'s coaches think he's good enough to be on this list, but it means there will be weeks with even MORE baseball than normal.

I'm still waiting for Vogue Knitting and Knitter's to show up, but Spin-Off arrived yesterday. I love Spin-Off. I usually read it slowly, savoring every last article and picture. I marvel at the beautiful skeins of handspun yarn that readers send in for the galleries. The Fall issue, however, was the only issue of Spin-Off I've ever been disappointed in. I actually skipped several articles! I know! Shocking! This issue looks great, though, so I'm going to savor it.

Finally, election politics. As I predicted, the extra long primary season has resulted in me being utterly sick of the whole thing. I thought Obama's speech on race was beautiful and brilliant. Like Jon Stewart said, "Wow. Someone's talking to the American people about race... as if they were adults!" Unfortunately, I don't think that the 24 hour news babblers are capable of acting like adults. In fact, I think it's in their contracts that they must scream and yell about everything and avoid any and all complexity or nuance. And it's not the point of opposition campaigning to act in an adult manner, either is it? Who will challenge McCain for accepting the endorsement of the religious right -- the same group that said America brought 9/11 on itself because of "the feminists, the abortionists, the gays, the lesbians, and the ACLU"? The very same people he once called the "agents of intolerance" are now his good buddies. This is just a slightly more sophisticated -- but no less cynical -- version of Willie Horton.

Back to the Grind -- With a Smile

The boys had a great time in Florida visiting their grandmother. MIL lives in Bradenton, but Mr. T grew up on Anna Maria Island, where practically everything was in walking distance of the beach. (Can you imagine a more idyllic place to be a kid?) One of the greatest things about Anna Maria is that it's on the west coast of Florida, which means that you get to sit on the beach and watch some spectacular sunsets. There's a great restaurant called The Sandbar, where you just sit out on the deck, eating dinner, watching the sunset, while the dolphins frolic in the water.

So while I had my Mommy Vacation, the kids had a genuine fun vacation. I was really rejuvenated by my time off, so I was in a very good mood when they got home. We had a nice dinner out, too. And this morning, when it came time to start the laundry and do the grocery shopping, I was still in a good mood. I made one of our family's favorite recipes for tonight's dinner, too, Chicken Gyros with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce. One of the nice things about the recipe is that everything gets made in advance. The yogurt sauce is in the fridge, getting flavorful, and the chicken is marinating. When dinnertime rolls around, I just put up the rice, quickly saute the chicken and nuke some peas, and dinner is done.

At the bus stop this morning, I ran into J, with her kids M (in kindergarten), and K, who's in preschool. K is an adorable little boy, but this morning he was still in his pajamas in his stroller, wearing a very cross expression. "It's been one of those mornings, huh?" I asked J. "Yeah," she said, "you had The Best Vacation EVER!"

Not much knitting to talk about, since I've been reuniting with the kids and doing household stuff. I did finish the main knitting on the Flutter Sleeve cardi, so I get to work on the buttonbands now. I'd like to power through them, but I suspect that a couple of feet of seed stitch will get tedious.

So, what next? I still need to work on the Bleeding Hearts Stole, which has gotten lost in the shuffle; the Will Spring Never Come? socks, (not even to the heel on the second sock); and the current spinning. When the socks are done, I'll start the next Sock Club installment, but I'll probably change it around a little bit, to carry the patterning all the way around the sock, rather than just on the front.

I've been hearing rumors around Ravelry that the Spring Vogue Knitting has started arriving in the mail, but I haven't gotten mine yet. Hmmm. I don't love each and every knitting magazine out there, but I do like to read them, and in the case of Knitter's, laugh at them.

So, any nice vacation/holiday stories anyone would like to share?

Ahhhh, A Mommy Vacation

Wednesday evening, I dropped Mr. T and the boys off at the airport for a trip to Florida to visit with my MIL. Since then, I have been blessedly alone. No arguing, no whining, no repeated requests to play video games. No making meals for anyone but myself. No one to wake me up in the morning. No baseball practices, no carpools, nothing. This is the first time I've been alone for this long since Sr. Jr. was born, 10 and 1/2 years ago.

I've been relishing this little vacation from mommy-hood. (Mothers everywhere will admit that family vacations, while wonderful, aren't true vacations for moms, who still worry about sunscreen and snacks and still have to hear all the whining.) It's not that I don't love my children, obviously, but it's been quite rejuvenating to be able to focus only on myself for the first time in a long time.

I got a lot done on the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan:




This is the back, left front, and some of the right front. I knit quite a bit more on it this afternoon, but due to user stupidity, didn't really get too far. Blithe complacency led me to fail to read the directions closely, so I had to rip out a bunch and remember to read ahead, to the part that says, "And at the same time..."

I also did a little spinning:




I still haven't finished the first 2 ounces of the 4 to be spun for this project. I'd like to finish it so I can get moving on some of my newer fibers.

I snapped some stupid cat pictures, like this one of the cat sunning herself while wedged in between the rockers on the rocking horse:



The other cat got all commando and decided to quell the insurrection that her tail was mounting, but I didn't get any good pictures of that.

I watched movies both girly ("Pride and Prejudice") and punk ("Repo Man").

And today, the new Socks the Rock sock club package arrived! I quite like it, both the color and the pattern. Very appropriate. I'll say no more lest I violate my sacred Sock Club oath.

When Monday rolls around again and I face the mound of laundry, the long grocery list, and the dirty bathrooms, I will smile, and enjoy what I am doing because of this nice little break.

Isn't Mr. T wonderful for doing this? More importantly, isn't my MIL wonderful for immediately understanding what was going on and wishing that I have fun?

Five Fruitless Years

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. Part of me feels like going on a very long-winded rant about what a waste this war has been on so many levels -- lives lost, trillions of dollars wasted, goodwill squandered, progress against al Qaeda stalled or reversed. Part of me is so very tired and feels like I've been beating my head against many brick walls over the years. I actually did oppose this war from the start. I loathed the way the Bush administration seemed to be careening headlong into the war, cynically manipulating the country into supporting war against a straw man. I also loathed the way the press fell down on its job of investigating and speaking truth to power. (But, man, give them a good sex scandal...) I was very grateful for the few voices out there who dared to speak out against the administration and the war. Seymour Hersh and Hendrik Hertzberg, in particular, wrote some amazing pieces in the New Yorker that I wish had been more widely noted.

I still loathe the way "patriotism" has been narrowly defined to consist of wearing a flag pin on one's lapel, ignoring that patriotism means not just standing up for your country, but actively working to make sure your country does the *right* thing. Free speech is patriotic. Having a yellow ribbon magnet on your car doesn't make you patriotic if you're supporting the erosion of our civil rights at the same time.

McCain wants to stay in Iraq, for one hundred years, if necessary. Clinton and Obama want to withdraw our troops. OK, but what then? We broke Iraq, but how do we fix it?

Other than those very depressing thoughts, I'm actually having a very nice Spring Break. It's quiet here, so I've gotten a lot of knitting and relaxing done. If only the weather were nicer, I could go out and get some exercise, too. I finished the back of the Flutter Sleeve cardigan, and started on the front. I'll be much further along by the time I go to bed tonight, but you get to see where I am now. Mr. T has the better digi camera, so the following photo was taken with the old Kodak:

The top looks big, right? It has the sleeves already knitted in, so I'm reserving judgment. This is a fast and easy knit, so maybe I'll actually have it to wear this Spring, when the weather calls for it.

Tomorrow, I think I'll get some more spinning done, as well.

Happy Spring!

Online, Again

Rumours of our internet connection's demise were premature. It was touchy for a day or two, but appears to be back of its own accord. I'm not sure if I should cancel the appointment with the cable guys or not. If I cancel it, the connection will fail again, I'm sure, but if I don't cancel it, they'll get here and wonder what's wrong. Hmm...

I finished the first of the "Will Spring Never Come?" socks. Just for fun, I added a ruffle at the top. If I wanted to push the Spring metaphor, I could say that the ruffle reminded me of the unfurling of plant leaves at the beginning of the season. But I've never been known to beat a metaphor to death, right? I didn't make the ruffle too big, because I wasn't sure how much of the extra little coordinating skein I had.

These are turning out to be quite cute, and are satisfying my need for something green.

I've also started working on the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan. I'm using the yarn called for in the pattern, Classic Elite Silk. I'm rejiggering the pattern a little. I've decided that I like the sweater best with 1 1/2 inches of positive ease (see my last post), but for me, that's a little bit more than the smallest size of the pattern. The medium would definitely be too big. However, while adding an inch and a half to the bust measurement works, adding that inch and a half to the bottom of the sweater, i.e., the hip, would make that part too big. So I cast on using the numbers for the small size, but I don't want the waist part to come in as much as the small size does (my hip/waist ratio isn't that big), so I'm not decreasing as much for the waist. So, small size for hips, small 1/2 (as Sr. Jr. calls it) for the waist and bust. I hope this works, or I'll have the mutant Frankensweater from Hell. So far, it looks innocent just lurking there, doesn't it?

Oh, Eliot

One of the favorite shows here Chez T is the British show "Coupling." We own the DVD set, and watch it whenever it shows up on BBC America. It's one of those shows that we can watch over and over again, and it still cracks us up. (BBC shows are getting me through the writer's strike, but that's another post.) One of the running jokes in the show is how one character's mother always says "Oh, Jeffrey," in this exasperated, disappointed tone of voice whenever she catches him doing something vaguely perverted (or even just sexual). So the first thing I thought when I heard about Eliot Spitzer's recent, um, troubles was "Oh, Eliot!"

I Aten't Dead

We're having some trouble with internet access and I may not have good access again until Tuesday.

Have a good weekend!

Alas, (Almost) No Pictures

Today I'm working upstairs on the laptop, because the main computer appears to be fighting with them there intertubes. Unfortunately, the laptop doesn't have any recent photos, so I can't show you my finished "Will Spring Never Come?" sock, made with that springy green duet yarn I showed you in a prior post. I did a straight stockinette toe-up sock, but added a ruffle at the top using the coordinating skein of green yarn, just to symbolize the flowering plants that I want to see, and soon. It came out very nicely, but you'll just have to take my word for it, right?

I also haven't gotten back to the spinning wheel since last week. Every time I think life will slow down, it speeds up. I think I will designate Friday as spinning day this week, because my calendar appears to be empty that day.

Baseball practices started yesterday, with both boys needing to be in different places at the same time, of course. Practices are 2-3 times a week, depending on which child you are. This makes dinner planning very awkward, too, but we all have fun, especially once it starts to warm up.

I think I will start swatching for the Flutter Sleeve cardigan this evening. It's cute, but I'm not sure how the sizing will work. The folks at Interweave Knits have an email thing going, called Knitting Daily. One of the neat things about Knitting Daily is that they do "sweater galleries" for the sweaters in the Knits issues. They put the featured sweaters on a bunch of different women who work there, and tell you what their measurements are compared to the sweaters, so you can see how they fit different women. This has been very educational for me! I've always worn my sweaters a little big, partly because I'm never sure exactly what size I am, and partly to avoid getting the girls too much attention, YKWIM? Looking at the gallery for Flutter Sleeve, I decided I liked the fit best when it had one and a half inches of positive ease, meaning that the sweater was one and a half inches wider around than the body it was covering. At my widest point(s), I measure 36 inches around, so a 37.5 inch sweater would be ideal. However, the sweater is sized for 36 inches or 40 inches. I'm going to look at the pattern more closely to see whether I can just add a few stitches to the 36 inch size, or whether a more complicated fix is required. I'll lay it all out for you when I figure it out.

In the meantime, here's a great picture of Mr. T. Isn't he a hottie?

(photo by Kevin Dillard, http://www.demoncats.com/)

Now That We've Arrived in Hell, Can I Get Out of This Handbasket?

Every time I think the current administration has reached its nadir, George W. Bush proves me wrong. I won't repeat the litany of stubborn stupidity that has characterized the administration from 2000 until now, because that's well documented almost everywhere. Yet even now, in the twilight of his term, the man can't help but continue to foul things up. It was bad enough that he refused until only very recently to concede that the economy is in tatters. It's even worse that he somehow believes that a quickie cash payout will make any bit of difference to an economy in which people are losing jobs and homes at a pace unseen in a loooooonnnnnggg time. But the worst -- the icing on the shit-filled cupcake of this adminstration -- is his veto of the bill that would have banned waterboarding and a host of other torture techniques. His rationale? "Why should we give up on a technique that has gained us so much in the war on terror?" Never mind that military intelligence experts have repeatedly said that torture doesn't produce any reliable information. Never mind that our standing in the world just clunked down at the bottom of the sewer. And most certainly never mind that we won't have a leg to stand on should other countries or terrorist groups torture our soldiers and citizens.

How can John McCain -- himself a survivor of torture -- look that man in the eye, shake his hand, and accept his endorsement? I'm not a huge John McCain fan, nor do I have extremely strong feelings against him. I don't support his candidacy for President, and I have many reasons for doing so. But the hypocrisy embodied in just that single act of accepting an endorsement from a man who supports the use of torture would be enough, on its own, to keep me from ever voting for him.

As for the economy, it's anyone's guess as to when things will get better or how. I went to get my haircut last week, and while I was there, the woman who had the appointment before mine called to say that the gasoline had been stolen out of her car while she was there. In broad daylight.

Deco Socks -- Better Pictures

The stars aligned. The sun is out and Mr. T is home. Alas, the pictures: not so good. I'll include the two that came out the best, just to give you a clearer picture of the motifs:

I may (may) write the pattern up for sale.

Current knitting has been scarce. Spinning has been nonexistent. Mr. T is about to take the boys out to do some errands, so I think I'll grab the Bleeding Hearts stole and get to work!

SLWY -- Now With Even More Woolly Goodness!

I mentioned in my last post that I had gotten some nice Springy fiber and that my spinning wheel had been calling out to me. Well, dear readers, I answered that call. I didn't start in on the pretty new fiber. It's been a while since I sat down to spin, so I got out some plain-Jane merino top to get back into the swing of things:



I got this some years back at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. (I'm SO going this year. I haven't been since 2002, I think. I can't wait!). I'm aiming for a heavy laceweight/fingering weight yarn after plying:


My wheel is a Jensen Tina II, with a Woolee-winder. I love both of them. As someone who is somewhat tall, I like upright wheels so I don't feel like I'm hunching over to spin. The Woolee winder allows me to spin without having to stop and move the yarn from hook to hook, which makes the spinning go a lot smoother. Plus, it's just plain much more fun when I can just keep going and going until I run out of fiber.

The thing I find challenging about spinning is judging how thick or thin to make my singles in order to get the finished yarn the right size. Think about a laceweight yarn, for example. You have a general idea of how thick a laceweight yarn is, but in order to spin a laceweight yarn, you have to remember that the separate plies are even thinner. After knitting for a while without spinning, my sense memory focuses more on the final yarn size than the ply size, so I have to consciously make the singles thinner.

So far, it's going very well. I'm about a quarter of the way through this batch of fiber. I can't wait to see what the final product looks like, and to knit something with it.

I haven't neglected the knitting, of course. The Bleeding Hearts Stole is going, but slowly. I don't think progress pictures would be very interesting, because it doesn't look that much different.

Now that I finished the Deco Socks (FO pictures coming soon, I promise), I needed a mindless sock project to work on in between the stole and bouts of spinning, so I cast on using the spring green Duet sock yarn from my last post:

While this isn't a color I generally wear, it's making me insanely happy right now. After a long, dreary winter, I need to see shades of green. I love the yarn, too. It's very soft. The main yarn comes with a smaller skein of coordinating yarn for the heels and toes which blends in very nicely(as you can see in the picture). I'm knitting these on size 0 needles, so they won't go as fast as my last couple of pairs of socks.