Show and tell

1. The trade. I definitely came out on the better end of this one! I traded the cardigan for this lovely shawl.

I love shawls. I have tons of shawl patterns and yarn for knitting them. I knit a shawl. Once. But for the last year or so, I just can’t seem to get off my sweater/sock kick to knit another.

This shawl is the perfect size for me. It fits around my shoulders and keeps the chill off my neck when we watch movies and yet it’s not so big as to be overwhelming. Absolutely perfect. It folds down into a very small little bundle which will make it excellent for traveling. The workmanship, Claire’s, is impeccable.

2. The slippers. They felted up OK. I still need to redo the elastic for the button strap on the left slipper. It shows too much from the outside. There’s a fine line between getting the elastic buried enough so that it doesn’t rub on the foot and getting it too close to the outside. I missed that line.

If you look back to a previous post, you can see that they felted down quite a bit. Same ruler. Felting is pretty weird.

3. Socks. We went to Santa Fe for the RNK’s birthday on Saturday. We ate at Cafe Pasqual’s and had a lovely dinner. On the way down, I got to knit in the car!

I took “More Sensational Knitted Socks” with me. In the end, I just winged a pattern, alternating a K6P2 ribbing a bit because I love this yarn and I didn’t want the pattern to detract. I can’t remember the name of the color, but it’s Socks that Rock lightweight. So far, I am pleased. The heel is a bit funky. I have only done one other short row heel with wraps. I hope the other sock turns out a bit nicer.

4. Opal. She’s such a bright spot in our lives. Always entertaining. Today, she had a chipmunk trapped under a flagstone walkway.

Chimpmunk lovers, don’t fret. No chipmunks were actually harmed in the making of this blog post.

Peaches and Herb

I was a fool to ever leave your side
Me minus you is such a lonely ride
The breakup we had has made me
Lonesome and sad
I realize I love you
‘Cause I want you bad, hey, hey

Reunited and it feels so good
Reunited ’cause we understood
There’s one perfect fit
And, sugar, this one is it
We both are so excited
‘Cause we’re reunited, hey, hey

Another trip to Denver and Jojoland Melody is singin’ away.

I don’t believe the little fellow suffered unduly; although, the gals at the dentist’s office are apparently into bondage. The sock was all wrapped up in a ziptop baggie with note on reuniting us stapled to the bag. Now, we’re ready to rock and roll again. With no distractions, I’ll finish these socks over the next couple of evenings and I can return to my knitting monogamy. This time on the sweater.

I started the sleeves on the Textured Raglan on the way up to Denver. Didn’t get too far because I had to restart one sleeve three times to get the cast on to match the other. I don’t know why — I did the same thing each time. A knitting mystery. Anyway, they match pretty well now.

I’m using a tubular cast on for this project and it looks pretty nice. It’s very stretchy. I think I may regret my decision to not use the cable cast on the pattern calls for when I get to the neck because I suspect the tubular will not match the edge on the neck. But, oh well. What’s done is done and the good news is that it does look like this sweater will get done!

I wonder if Sheri at the Loopy Ewe knows what she started with that Dream In Color Sweater KAL last spring! I have turned into a virtual sweater monster. I bought more yarn in Denver for a color sweater. I have yarn for three or four about nine sweaters all lined up with patterns for most, if not all. Will I ever need this many sweaters?

Actually, I don’t think knitting is about needs. Not for me. It’s really all about wants. Things I want to do for me, to please me. Which means, no Christmas knitting going on here. Oh well dear friends and readers. Do not expect a sock in your Christmas stocking from this knitting maniac. Chris, in Germany, tells me this is just fine and I’m going to believe her on this point.

On a slightly different subject, I wanted to mention that we don’t have just one dog. We have two. I know it’s weird (because he’s a dog); but, I totally relate to those moms who don’t want pictures of their children on the internet. I am very protective of Jakob. He’s not all there. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s a dim wit. However, I will tell you that his nickname is “Punkin’Head” if that gives you a clue.

He’s a standard wire-haired dachshund and I fear that he has become jealous of all the comments regarding dear little Opal. So, unveiling for the first time, an entire picture of Jakob (vs. just a shot of a tail or ear or whatever).

Isn’t he adorable? People ask what kind of mutt he is all the time. With a very straight face, the resident non-knitter tells them he’s a cross between a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig and a schnauzer. The responses are hilarious — to me anyway. Most people simply accept this answer. Which makes me understand how, in this great country of ours, so many people liked Palin.

When Jakob isn’t on hand to show his beautiful little self in person, and people ask what a standard wire-haired dachshund looks like, the resident non-knitter uses various descriptions to explain the breed. “A pig in a gorilla suit”
and “an extra-large dachshund covered in pubic hair” are his two favorites.

Do you see why I am so protective?

I have drifted

away from knitting with these last few posts. Oh yes, there was a purl word wedged in here and there. But, for the most part, I was all-consumed with selling houses and dogs stealing the comfortable chair and that dog-gone election.

This seems an appropriate time to mention that yes, I am still knitting. I feel obligated to share with you the real top 3 reasons why I haven’t been posting about knitting.

1. I lost my sock.
I was merrily knitting away on the Jojoland Melody socks. In fact, I was being even more monogamous than normal, not even allowing myself to think about another project when along came a trip to the dentist. We drive 4 hours each way to go to the dentist. My first choice would have been driving up to see my favorite dentist; but, he’s in Coeur d’Alene and that’s a little bit further. Like another 12 to14 hours driving each way further. So. I settle.

Anyway, there’s a very large yarn store, Showers of Flowers, just a few blocks from the dentist so I don’t get much knitting time while I wait for the resident non-knitter to finish with his appointment. Knowing I would only have a five or ten minute wait until my turn to step into the torture chamber hygenist’s chair, I broke the monogamy by bringing yarn to swatch for a sweater.

I wasn’t starting a project mind you, just a little swatch. It turns out that both of the women that work in reception at the dentist’s office are knitters and we got to talking and I took my swatch over to the counter, and then I dug the sock I was working on out of the bag and I showed them it snugged up safely in it’s Knitzi and then we swapped some pattern ideas and yada yada yada.

Meanwhile, the other sock, the one that was done, crawled out of my knitting bag and slithered under the sofa I had been sitting on and curled up to take a nap. Who knew?

It wasn’t till I got a call two days after we got home that the wayward sock’s whereabouts surfaced. Fortunately, the women at the dentist’s office recognized the little fellow and have it safely tucked aside for when we go back up.

Meanwhile, it’s unfinished counterpart languishes because the toe on the Sixth Sense Sock pattern didn’t quite work out as written. I need to see the finished sock to make the two match.

2. Meanwhile, I’m having an affair.
You would think that loosing a sock might push me further into knitting monogamy. The way I see it, this wayward sock was punishing me for picking up the needles and casting on the sweater swatch. “Just you see what I think about you abandoning us for some tart-swatch,” it taunted me as it slinked it’s way under that sofa.

Not one to put up with this sort of behavior, I pushed both the little Jojoland hussy and the offending seductive swatch with it’s sexy blend of merino, cashmere and silk out of my mind. Instead, I picked up the Shibui Knits textured raglan in this color.

3. Bored to tears.
While it looks like it will be a lovely sweater when done, it’s not the most exciting knit. On the other hand, it is a quick knit. Ten days into it, I’ve already got over nine inches on the body done and am thinking about starting sleeves. Is it photogenic? You tell me:

Whoops. My bad. That’s the hideous 60s carpet that is in my office. The RNK tells me the color of the sweater is remarkably similar. Could this have something to do with the boredom?

Here’s the real deal:

Meanwhile, a few accessories. A new bag and a new pair of “reader” sunglasses with a magnetic clip right at the center of the nose for car knitting and map reading on sunny days.

All the signs are coming down

Yesterday, on my way back from town, I saw someone in a van picking up all the political signs along the highway. It gave me a weird feeling.

The campaigning for this election has been going on forever — the longest of any I campaign I ever remember. They are saying in the news that it was the longest campaign in U.S. history. I think many of us feel a void now. This morning, I got an email from the friend of a friend about the electoral college. People can’t quite stop those political juices. It’s hard to let go of all the emotion and effort and hoopla that surrounded this election.

Do you doubt the emotion? I did, until I realized, as I was knitting and listening to the results coming in as the polls closed on Tuesday, that I had wrapped the stitches on the heel turn not once, not twice, but about eight times. I was just knitting back and forth on the same row over and over and over and . . .

I was so wrapped in the count that I lost count. And then, they announced they didn’t want to call it; but, they were going to call it; and yes, Obama won! The Resident non-knitter and I looked at each other, stunned, amazed, shocked, pleased, jubilant, overwhelmed, relieved, scared . . . what a crazy mix of emotions. At that point, I looked down, realized that I had been knitting for some time with absolutely no progression on the heel and I saw what I had done.

By the time I had tinked back and gotten to the first wrap there was no doubt. McCain had completed his very gracious and moving concession speech. This was the McCain that captured the hearts of many Americans in 2004.

So, onward we go. Into a brave new future.

And once again, because posts without pictures are, well, pictureless, a few more Tassie shots for your enjoyment:

Van Diemen Tulip growers on the north coast:

Want to buy a house?

Check it out: http://www.pencraftco.com/forsale.htm Send us a buyer and I will reward you with yarn. Seriously.

We have finally settled on a listing price after much deliberation. To come up with a fair price, we looked at other houses for sale in the Valley. We calculated some typical price-per-square-foot values for a wide range of property types and specifically for properties that are located out of town.

Even though a portion of our house is near new, we selected a value toward the lower end of the range because some of this home is older. Using this we came up with a home value. Then we added in what we thought might be a fair value for the portions of the property that could be considered “income” producing: the Quonset hut and the 3 acres in alfalfa.

I hope we’ve figured correctly. Coming up with a good list price seems like the hardest part in an owner-sell situation. Comments, thoughts? More important, buyers?

Meanwhile, knitting continues. I am finished with one of the Jojoland Melody socks and am working the heel on the second sock. I’ll post a picture when I get them finished.

Looking for some inspiration: check out some lovely laceknitting by Sue. Stunning isn’t it?

I was almost tempted to run look for my laceknitting books to see what beauty I could dream about for my next project. But no. I made a decision this weekend to enjoy what I’m knitting on now without longing for the next project. I’m going to focus on what’s on the needles and wait till it’s done before I start dreaming of my next project.

Easier said than done. But, why not? I picked the Jojoland and the Sixth Sense sock pattern because I thought they would look good together, I liked the idea of trying a different heel and toe design and I was otherwise intrigued by the entire project. So, why not enjoy every single minute of it without wondering what will find it’s way on to my needles next?

I think this is a good metaphor for life. Be here now. Enjoy the present. Don’t worry what tomorrow will bring because you aren’t going to change it. Unless of course, you are a die-hard procrastinator and by not doing today you create issues for tomorrow. That’s another scenario. As long as you are present and acting to your highest level, I think tomorrow will take care of itself.

This may be a particularly apropo philosophy given that tomorrow is election day.

And because picture-less posts are boring, here are some shots from our recent trip to Tasmania.

Way back in May

I set a goal of knitting 10 pairs of socks between then and the end of September. Meanwhile, I promptly abandoned all sock knitting and went on to sweater knitting. I think this is an incredibly graphic reminder to myself that I like to set goals and promptly sabotage them. All by myself. Weird.

Once again, it just underscores how knitting teaches you more than how to make things from skinny little wound up fibers and a couple of sticks. Or not. I’m already thinking of ways to redefine that goal to make sure I “meet” it. For example, is there an equivalency relationship between a sweater and pairs of socks. Could I count the sweater as 3 pairs? Maybe 4 or even 5?

But really now. Isn’t this all moot? I set a goal. As soon as I set it, I abandoned it and went on to something new. I didn’t seem to learn anything from this process except that I’m weird and perhaps, (note to self here) that I shouldn’t set goals for my hobbies. Food for thought.

Meanwhile, contest update: Vicki has agreed that the person who wins the prize she donated in the contest (scroll down a few posts to read “It’s a Contest Now” and to enter) can choose either two cat toy patterns or a lace pattern. She’s on Ravelry as SimpleKnits. Great patterns by the way!

Guest Post

I’ve had no time to post. Still having computer issues. Meanwhile, I have a guest post for you from my friend Chris in Germany:

I was driving back from the Botanical Garden in which I sat to knit in peace for a while. I love this place. It was sort of a bittersweet drive, because all the flowers and the atmosphere of the garden is so soothing – but it makes me miss an old friend.

Anyhow. I drove back and sat at a stop light – knitting of course. A couple on a scooter stood next to me and they nearly fell off their bike laughing. I held up my knitting (it was warm, so the window was open) and told them how much time we waste at red traffic lights and that all of it had been knit during that time.

The guy told me that we had 18 stop lights to go until they would be back home and he urgently needed green socks. So at the next stop light I showed them my first finished sock from handgefaerbt with a lot of lime green in it. They could not believe their eyes.

My, this was so funny. I love that, sharing a laugh with strangers. We laugh ever so rarely in Germany. And this is so healthy for body and soul.

Hope you enjoyed Chris’s story as much as I did!

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:

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?

Some things are easier than others

I don’t know why that last pair of socks were so hard. No worries now though. They’ve been frogged and the yarn is resting. Meanwhile, I wait, and wait, and wait for the KnitPicks needles to arrive. I need them for The Loopy Ewe Dream In Color Sweater KAL.

I presume that most every one who is participating in this KAL has their yarn and has started now-except me. I ordered the needles on 27 February. I have been checking the package’s progress. It went from Ohio to Colorado to Ohio to Colorado and then it hit the wall. Somewhere in Denver.

The needles were supposed to be delivered on Saturday and I made a special trip in to town to the post office to pick them up. But, they weren’t there. I called yesterday to see what is going on and KnitPicks told me they can’t do anything about the delay until Thursday. On Thursday, if I still haven’t gotten them, they will reship the order. Great. And how many days will that take?

While the sweater languishes, I decided to “play” with some other yarn I wound up last August or so in preparation for the resident non-knitter’s socks. Back then, when I started to cast this yarn on, he told me there was no way he could possibly wear socks made from anything this rough and scratchy. Hmmm. This is Austermann Step infused with jojoba and aloe vera. It’s a delight to work with and is very soft. I could see the challenge facing me with his socks. Oh well, they’ll have to be my socks. bummer. yeah. real upset.

Anyway, the wound balls sat into rest mode until this past weekend. On Friday, bored with the complete and total lack of sweater progress, I cast on 68 stitches and started a 1-stitch ribbing. Why 68? I don’t really know. I had looked at some pattern that used 2 mm needles and that’s what it called for. I did an inch of K1P1 ribbing. Looked OK. Switched to cable needle and tried them on. Fit over heel.

Good.

Now that I had started, I decided to look for a pattern. I discovered that the Milanese Lace pattern used here calls for a 6-stitch repeat plus 2. Well, that would work. Next thing I know, I’ve got 6 inches of the leg on one sock knitted and the other is moving along nicely. I love the texture of this pattern.

While I’m at it, I should show off my Knitzi.

Not only do I have a slotted Knitzi and a custom Knitzi bag, I have an unslotted Knitzi for my crochet hook, extra needles, etc. It’s great! No more bent needles and everything fits very nicely together for transport. I haven’t lost a tapestry needle since I got it.

I recommend this product to anyone who travels with their sock knitting. As you can see, it packs up very nicely with both the slotted and unslotted Knitzi’s, my glasses, a tape measure and a small bag of stitch markers, which are, by the way, not really needed. Somehow, they just ended up in the bag and they haven’t found their way back to the knitting storage yet. It’s a little more compact to just put the stitch markers I need inside the unslotted Knitzi. Even if you don’t travel with your sock knitting, check out the Knitzi site for the nice sock pattern they offer.

Lest you think that the little caps did me in and we got rid of the devil dog, here’s proof we still have her.

She adds a certain element of fun mixed with utter and total hysteria to our household. The resident non-knitter gave me a break this morning and took her with him. It’s so quiet here today. How can one, very small, 5-pound creature completely turn a normal house into a mad house/freak show/carnival/MESS?