Wander. Wonder.

When we were traveling in Australia, one of the things I noticed were the amazing bird songs. It was such a delight to go outside in the morning with my cup of tea and listen to—what to me anyway—were strange and unusual bird calls. Warbles. Trills. Deep chortles and bell tones. It was so, well, different and beautiful.

This morning, I decided that hearing all those beautiful calls has more to do with slowing down and listening than it has to do with place. I mean, here I was, sitting with Opal in my lap, looking east toward the sunrise, wishing it were a wee bit warmer outside, and then it hit me. Listen to those birds. Warbles. Trills. Deep chortles. Well, OK. No bell tones. I think the bell birds in Australia really are uncomparable. If you want to hear one, try this link:

http://home.iprimus.com.au/punkclown/punkclown/bellbird.htm

A little over a month or so ago, a flock of yellow-headed blackbirds moved into our yard. According to the resident non-knitter these are just disgusting birds who happen to be very full of poop. Au contraire.

I’ve been listening to them for a few minutes every day. It took this long though, for me to really sit down and LISTEN—like I listened to birds when I was in Australia. There, I was in hyper-sense mode. I wanted to take everything in. To feel it all, to experience anything and everything that was new and different. There’s something about traveling that really wakes me up. I didn’t have to travel too far this morning to capture that same sense of wonder.

No, these warbles were not so foreign to my ears. After all, I have been listening to them daily for a month now. But the beauty. This is what I heard. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that they are attractive and interesting birds to watch too.

Ah. So life is good this morning.

A few days ago I took these photos from inside the kitchen. Can you see him? Or is it her?

I was too excited to remember to push the camera lens up against the glass to help reduce the reflections and glare. I did not have the telephoto lens on. This was just the normal 55mm lens.

With a little photoshop magic, you can actually see this lovely animal:

There are a lot of them living in the area. This is why I gave the chickens away before we went to California. This particular animal has a bum back foot. So, unfortunately, life is not so good for this one.

I guess I should feel a bit more sad for the difficulties the bad foot will create for this fox. But, after having lost my rooster and two of my hens to foxes, well, there isn’t much sadness in my heart for the plight of this little beast. Not that I wish this animal ill. It’s just that, well, my rooster was a dandy and I still miss him.

Meronym

Is that a cool word or what? Meronym. I subscribe to couple of a word-of-the-day services and this one was the word-of-the-day from The Visual Thesaurus. This is how they explained what it means:

Words ending in -nym are all treasures for word lovers because they denote classes of words with particular qualities. Meronyms (from Greek meros, “part”) denote words that are a part of another thing: as “sleeve” and “cuff” are meronyms of “shirt.”

To my way of thinking—lately at least—knitting is all about meronyms.

Ah yes, knitting. Sleeves. Meronyms of sweater.

Progress is painfully slow. Magic loop two sleeves at once is just not my thing. I improved my speed a bit by learning how to move one sleeve along the cable using my mouth so I don’t have to set everything down every 20-something stitches. Very attractive I’m sure.

I was thinking that how I looked knitting wasn’t really all that important since the only one who REALLY keeps a close eye on me when I knit, Opal, could care less about such things. Then it occurred to me that I am setting a horrible example. She is no doubt contemplating the fact that she recently learned that mouths are not supposed to go on knitting, or working yarn, or any yarn. Ever. And yet the bringer of food is right there in front of her, breaking the golden rule.

I’ll have to mull this one over.

She does keep an eye on me.

I’ld like to send a big “Thanks” to the experts who gave me suggestions on the sweater seaming/construction! I’m still not sure how I’m going to tackle the addition of the arms to the sweater and how I’ll do, or not do, the shoulder seams. At least I will move forward with some intelligent thoughts swirling around in the old gray matter.

Meanwhile, I would like to send an encouragement for any and all to go check out the new RAK contest at the Loopy Ewe (link in my sidebar to store, link on right side of the Loopy Ewe’s storefront page to Sheri’s blog, link in one of her recent posts to the contest). You have to do three random acts of kindness and then post a comment describing them to her blog on April 30 to enter the contest. I’m pretty excited.

Here are my first two random acts of kindness:
1. A pickup hauling hay turned a corner and lost 8 bales when I was coming back from the vet last week. I tried to flag the truck’s driver down; but, couldn’t get his attention. The bales were smack dab in the middle of an intersection with a county road and the highway. This was a hazard! So, I parked the car and moved them to a neat stack on the side of the road so they wouldn’t cause an accident. The highway patrol stopped after I got six of them moved and helped me with the last two. Thank goodness! Those were some heavy, heavy bales.

2. I used a random number generator to pick an animal awareness organization out of a google search. Then I used the random number generator to determine the amount to contribute to this organization. I’m mailing a check for $41 to the Fall River Coalition for Animal Awareness today.

I had the third one lined out. There was an enchilada dinner benefit that was supposed to happen April 26 for a local family who lost their home in a fire. But, I called the place where I saw the sign to find out more and it has been canceled. Not the fire. The dinner. I presume. So, I’ll be keeping my eyes out this weekend for a way to spread random kindness in the world. I hope you will too.

The ever-questioning mind

As promised, pictures of the sweater:

Isn’t that the cutest little tote from The Loopy Ewe?

As you can see, the color of the sweater changes considerably in different lights:

And the Kid Seta really makes a difference in the overall effect:

I’ll start the sleeves tonight. I think I’ll use magic loop and knit both sleeves at the same time.

Here’s a question for all you expert knitters out there. I’ve read that you should never Kitchner shoulder seams because shoulders require greater strength. However, it seems to me that the Kitchner stitch is actually a duplicate of knitting—just “knitting” using a different technique.

So why would this row of stitches be any less strong than any other row of knitting? Why would you need greater strength in that particular row as opposed to any other row of knitting near the shoulders? If there is a problem with strength, and you create this really strong seam, wouldn’t you just shift any “weakness” problems to the rows adjacent to the shoulder seam?

This has really been puzzling me. I think having as few seams as possible in the sweater is a good thing because:
1. I think that poorly-done seams can make even a well-knit sweater look homemade (vs. handmade). In my opinion, seams that are anything less than professional take the whole garment down a notch or two.
2. There will be less bulk and bumps and potential “rubby” spots on the inside that might otherwise bother the person who wears the sweater (ie. me).
3. I hate sewing seams.

Shoulders seams are about the most visible seams on a sweater. Really now, how many people walk around with their arms in the air so you can see the side and under-arm seams? Given the visibility of shoulder seams, these seem to be prime candidates for Kitchner to me.

Anyway, I would appreciate the thoughts of all you out there who actually read this blog and who have more sweater knitting experience than me. And that’s not hard. This is my second sweater, the first being started in something like 1982 and is still awaiting some hemming before being worn.

By the way, I Kitchnered the shoulders seams on that one.

Have you seen the socks I’m knitting?

Me either. I just can’t seem to get the Knitzi bag open to even look at them, much less work on them. I know that there are many knitters in the world—dare I say “most”—who have several projects going at once.

Not me. I get so wrapped up on the current work in progress that I can’t tear myself away to knit on anything else. And right now, the current work in progress is the Dream In Color Classy KAL ala Loopy Ewe.

I was on the fence with the color. But now that I’ve got both fronts, and all but a few inches of the back done, I think I like it. I’ll post a picture later this week when the entire back is finished.

So no knitting pictures today. I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures to help alleviate the boredom that would arise from a picture-less post.

One of my orchids and a Spiny Devil from Australia when we were near Uluru:

The learning curve

Ten days, cast on to kitchner. This is a very cool thing.

Let me digress for a moment. I started knitting socks last year. My first pair has not been documented in photos because they are un photogenic. And in my normal, fitting two pounds of shit into a one-pound bag way (as the resident non-knitter tells me I am prone to do), in addition to learning sock construction, I also taught myself magic loop and knitting socks on two cable needles. If that wasn’t enough to throw at my first pair of socks, I tried two different heel styles, ripping out the first, a Dutch heel, and settling on the second, a German heel. Plus, to top it off, I started teaching myself how to knit continental style.

Whew. No wonder they aren’t photogenic. Pairs two through five were all still on the steep learning curve. Modify pattern for size? You bet. Toe up, top down? No worries. Tiny cables, lace patterns, traveling stitches. Continental-style, American-style. I threw the book at my sock making and in spite of it, all four pairs turned out OK. However, every one of them took ages to complete because of the extreme amount of frogging required to get through the patterns.

Pair six, I started to wise up. Buy a good pattern and more important, follow it as written. Duhh! This pair took far less time to knit and turned out even better than the others.

Pair seven was the pivotal pair even though no one would ever be able to tell it by looking at them. I posted this pair as my first quarter Loopy Ewe challenge knit because this was my first pair of socks knitted without a pattern and now that they are done, I realize this pair has made a bigger difference in my understanding of knitting than any of the other projects I have worked on. Sheri is probably thinking I missed the point of the challenge entirely! (Really Sheri, I didn’t. It’s just hard to show the “challenge” behind this pair in a picture.)

Simple, self-patterning yarn. No fancy stitches. Easy top-down construction. I used what I learned in all the prior pairs to shape the heel and toe. Having no pattern to follow was the only aspect of making this pair that held my interest. In the main, these socks were flat-out boring to knit–stockinette, simple top-down construction, basic heel. uhhg. But, after washing, the yarn softened, they fit very well, and they look nice. What a concept.

A light bulb went on. Simple can be better! Elegant knitting can be also be easy knitting. Good knitting isn’t a skill display; no fancy stitches required. Good knitting involves making something that fits well, serves its purpose and looks nice. The skill comes in knowing what to do, when to do it, executing what you do well, and making it look simple in the process. Design should enhance knitting, not hide it. I get it. Wow.

So, with that, back to pair eight. 10 days. The entire process, from start to finish was enjoyable, easy and fun. And if I do say so myself, well done.

And pair nine, which I actually started before pair eight, is going really well too. I just set them aside because of the metal needles and the airplane thing. That little bitty cable needle wasn’t really much fun and I didn’t want to risk having my metal DPN’s confiscated by the airport security crew.

So, without any further ado, I present pair eight. What do you think?

I am pleased with the way the stripes line up, making these only slightly fraternal socks, and the differences only showing up at the very toe, where for some reason, the yarn no longer matched up. You can barely see the tiny cable pattern that runs down each side, splits around the gusset and then resumes on the foot.

I loved the way the yarn looked more in the skein than it does knitted up. But, really, that’s my only complaint on this pair. I did some heel reinforcement which looks a bit ugly on the inside. I’ll work on that for the next pair. That’s what I love about knitting. There is always something else to learn.

Back at work; but not working

As much as I love traveling, there are a few things I hate. You know–dealing with all the stuff you have to do before you go. For me that involves:

Horses. (Where can they safely stay without needing food or water delivered daily? Thankfully the neighbor offered pasture which helped their brains after a long winter in the coral and also took care of their bodies!)

Chickens. (I gave the last four to the Amish boy who watched them for me last year–he likes chickens as much as I do–sad to have them gone forever but good that they are in a nice home. I just didn’t have time to rebuild the side of their pen that the snow took out this winter and I KNOW the fox would have eaten them if the girls strayed from their electric-fence protected enclosure.)

Cat. (She had to live alone in her room with a giant-sized litter box and self watering and feeding containers. After seven days, Godzilla-aka Ida Rose-the cat was ready to go outside for a while! I couldn’t believe how HUGE she was.)

Dogs. (They went to the Dog Days Inn in Alamosa, which turned out to be great!)

Work. (I had to deal with last minute projects and make sure clients knew I would be gone.)

Packing. (What to take. How many shoes. How much room to leave for wine-which ended up being totally unnecessary since we just had most of it shipped so we didn’t have to deal with it. Only bad part is that it still hasn’t arrived yet.)

and

yada yada yada. You know. All the details.

Then you go. And it’s great. You see wonderful things.

And you drink some good wine:

http://www.maplecreekwine.com/

http://www.papapietro-perry.com/

And you find some pretty sock yarn at the yarn stores along the way:

This picture doesn’t do the Trekking justice. It is a wool/bamboo blend in denim shades. Yummy. And of course the Colinette Jitterbug is incredibly gorgeous.

And you use the cutest little HiyaHiya circular needles imaginable to get around TSA’s restrictions on metal knitting needles.

Hmmm. Too small to see clearly in that picture. Let me try again:

Can you believe I was actually able to knit through the heel turn with these 9-inch circular needles? From needle tip to cable join is only 1.85 inches long. The actual bamboo needle segment is only 1.5 inches long. The entire circular actually measures 9.25 inches.

It was a challenge and I couldn’t wait to get this pair back on my 8-inch double points. But, it was kind of fun to knit with needles this small. Great airplane solution and I enjoyed stretching my ability some.

I even got a pair of socks started on the way home with the Zitron Lifestyles yarn I bought while we were in California:

After the not-so-scratchy socks, I have completely gotten over my fear of sock knitting sans pattern. I bravely embarked upon this pair with a nod from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s “Knitter’s Almanac.” I used a cable pattern she mentioned in that book to embellish the sides of this pair of socks. I think it is quite successful so far. They have some interest without too much competition to the lovely self-patterning/striping yarn. I got another quick nod from The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook on the heel and I have invented my own way (ie not so elegant yet–but I’m working on it) of adding in reinforcement to the bottom of the heel where I always wear my socks out first.

So many good things about vacations.

However, the problem with vacations for me happens when I get home. Getting back to work. I loose my mojo.

I am at work. I am at my desk. I have everything open to where it should be and I have all the notes I need in front of me. But for the life of me, I can’t get anything done.

Vacation hangover perhaps?