Life's a Stitch

Give me a Fiddlesticks pattern and some Classic Elite Miracle yarn and I’ll show you a perfect match. Some of it will have to be left to your imagination, though, since black doesn’t photograph well. The pattern: Fiddlesticks C’est La Vie wrap. I’ve said it before, but I can’t emphasize how well written Fiddlesticks patterns are. I’m hoping for more of them in my knitting future. They are on the pricey side, but it’s a case of you get what you pay for.

The yarn: Classic Elite Miracle, a blend of alpaca and tencel (made from wood fibre). Although the pattern called for aran weight and the Miracle is technically a light worsted, since I’m a loose knitter I got gauge with a bit more of a lacey look than in the pattern. Miracle has a pretty sheen and a soft hand, perfect for a dressier look. I’d especially recommend it for knitters who fear the dreaded dropped stitch as it marries slightly when knitted, and a dropped stitch doesn’t run wee, wee, wee all the way home. It’s what one of my knitting instructors calls "a stand at attention yarn, that waits for you to pick up the stitches."

Don’t you love it when a pattern and a yarn are perfect for each other?

I’m now at six weeks since my surgery. I’m graduating to one crutch while at home and to a new rehab brace. The weight of the post surgical brace has felt like lugging around a dead pig. Believe me, the next time someone suggests that a part of my body be harvested and grafted into another, there will be a heck of a lot more questions on this end. Not that it would have made any difference, I just feel so naive at times throughout this process.

It’s all about expectations. At six weeks I feel what I was expecting to feel at two weeks. I based that expectation on my experience with a previous knee surgery. Oh, did I mention that was 30 years ago? You mean there is a difference between being 21 and 51? Silly me. Six weeks down, twenty more before I can resume normal activity. It feels like I’ve passed a significant milestone.

So much of life is out of our control, but I think I’m a believer that in some cases, suffering is optional. To some extent misery can be a choice. As I look back over my almost year and a half of blogging I’ve found a recurring theme of the quest for comfort (comfort food, comfort yarn, comfort knitting…) which to me, is the opposite of suffering. So instead of dreading the coming work week on those blasted crutches, I spent the day cooking comfort food. Here we have it: meatballs, cabbage rolls and rice pudding. I could be a daily cabbage eater. Must be the Polish part of my Poli-Rican genes. I’m intending on trying out our new food saver thingy so cabbage rolls can become more a part of my life, as I am really the only one in the family who appreciates them.

Also got in some knitting time – presenting a baby-sized Marsan watch cap that I saw at Knittervention  (Dec 5th post):

What’s this?

Right before we left Bellingham I was at a yarn shop, not intending to buy a thing. The nice lady asked me if I had seen their ad. What ad? The one that says from 8:00-10:00 a.m. the next morning everything in the store would be 40% off. She said that a number of people had been in the store that day scoping out their planned purchases. Oh yes! That red poker chip was my ticket to a knitter’s dream. There were 40 of us lined up outside that store, each collecting the coveted red chip entitling us to our 40% discount. I felt like I had Willy Wonka’s golden ticket.

I hope my stash is now complete. Ha!, chuckles the husband. Really it’s more yarn than I could ever have dreamed of or that my budget could normally take.

What did I get?

1. Their last copy of Knitting On the Edge, one of my pre-planned purchases. I was disappointed to see multiple copies of Over the Edge on the shelves, and no On the Edge. A little while later I found one in their display. Score!

2. 10 Skeins of Noro Silk garden for the Lady Eleanor wrap from Scarf Style. Had to settle for a mix of two colourways, not a problem in this entrelac pattern.

3. 2 Skeins of Noro Kochoran, one of their softer yarns, for a ruffles scarf from Scarf Style.

4. 8 Skeins of Nashua Handknits Creative Focus single ply alpaca blend. I can whiff out alpaca from a mile away. This will be for a second Fiddlesticks C’est La Vie wrap in red with a black ruffle. Creative focus is beautiful yarn in lovely colours at a reasonable price to begin with – 220 yds for $7.95.

5. My one unplanned purchase, a yarn that I once regretted not buying at a 20% off sale, Artful Yarns Heavenly. Seven skeins of glittery gold for a fancy dress shawl.

6. Three skeins of Elizabeth Lavold Angora in a wine colour. Hope I bought enough for a decent sized scarf.

7. Two sweater patterns.

A special thank you to Daughter #2 for getting up at 7:30a.m. to drive me to the highlight of my recovery. Especially since she was in the last few hours with her BF before she leaves to Toronto for an eight month co-op placement. We weren’t playing Leaving on a Jetplane that day. I remember those days very well.

The return to work was far less overwhelming than anticipated. It’s a great place to work with wonderful people. Thanks for your good wishes. And thanks to Becca for a cute penguin e-card RAOK.

About 25 years ago we saw an amazing comedy act, but I can’t remember her name, only that she was a young black woman who was tremendously funny. She did a routine about the odd things that pop into our minds and she closed each thought with the phrase "someone’s got to think about these things." She talked about a study that showed that the first thing women noticed when they saw a man was their eyes. After a pause she noted "Not me, I’ve GOT eyes."

Someone’s got to think about these things.

Ok, so I was thinking about the person who has the job naming colours for different companies, Crayola for example. Or Mountain Colors yarn. They have Bitterroot Rainbow, Crazy Woman and Lost Trail as names for their colourways.There is an English paint company and their colours have names like "Dead salmon." Just who names these colours and how did they get the job?

Someone’s got to think about these things.

The thing I’m obsessing thinking about is my return to work scheduled for later this week. I really thought I’d be farther along in my recovery. Still on crutches, still can’t drive, but I’m finally getting over five hours of sleep in total per night. I know it will be fine, but I’m still obsessing.

Here’s some comfort, a completed angora feather and fan scarf in plain old black.

Thanks to all for your compliments on my Manos scarf. I hope to get the pattern written up within the next week or two.

Finally, a finished Manos del Uruguay scarf with my own made up pattern; a variation of a Herringbone Rib stitch. My thoughts:

1. Manos is generally a pleasure to work with although this skein had a fair amount of thin bits compared to its usual thick and thin style.

2. There are huge variations within the same colourway, making it difficult to order online. I ordered colourway #113 – wild flowers – and it was markedly darker than the #113 I’ve seen in others’ projects.

3. Manos can be a dirty yarn that benefits from a soak before blocking.

4. It grows and softens during blocking.

5. The Herringbone Rib stitch shows off the variegation nicely, and although different on each side, each side is nice looking. I would call it an acceptable reversible scarf stitch. I’ve had many requests for the pattern, so I’ll try and write it up in the New Year.

6. I found it an easier, faster knit than the Herringbone stitch of "My So-Called Scarf," often seen online (link on my sidebar).

Oh no, my stash is now Manos-less! Have to work on that one.

Some of us are going to attempt a New Year’s trip to B’Ham, our family tradition. As the kids have gotten older not everyone comes along, but I’m not ready to give it up as it’s usually a wonderful time celebrating with Seattle friends and fellow knitters. It does seem a bit overwhelming given my becrutched state. My motivation is a visit to Bellingham’s newest yarn shop, Marilyn’s. Too bad they don’t carry Manos.

Happy New Year!

The party’s over, at least until New Year’s and it’s back to reality time. Knitting-wise, blocking is my dreaded reality, but I’ve found a solution. Drop everything and head to your local welding supply to buy 1/16 inch stainless steel welding rods. If you are blocking lace, do it yesterday! What a gift these babies are; inexpensive bits of heaven. Cut your blocking wires into a variety of lengths, weave them in and out along the outside edge of your knitting, put in a few pins and voila – beautiful blocking technique with no annoying pin points. Just make sure they are the "unfluxed" variety or give them a good scrub with SOS pads ahead of time. It’s a little easier, but not necessary, if you file the ends to a sharp point.

The old way vs the new way:

Christmas update: Our low key holiday was a success. Look what we substituted for a tree; these lawn decorations made an acceptable substitute:

Christmas day started with 8:00 a.m. church. It was nothing short of a miracle to get everyone to agree to get up at that hour. Our simplified gift giving worked like a charm: I let the kids know in advance how much I can spend at Christmas, then it’s up to them. They can choose any combination of gifts or cash up to my limit. I liked Bryant’s choice: one gift for himself, no money and a gift for a family in need. We had our traditional duck dinner, cooking two extras for the Boxing Day Danish cold meal.

Boxing Day was a success with 19 for dinner, including Anne, a friend at the start of a similar knee journey to mine. Her son noticed how I was asking my daughter to take on a number of extra tasks since I’m still on crutches. Matt said "You sound just like my mom, who’s been asking me to do everything, only I drew the line at licking her envelopes!" You probably had to be there, but having been tempted to exercise parental license during this time of recovery, it cracked me up. And the winner of this year’s Akvavit induced behaviour award goes to daughter #1’s bf for playing catch the panting dog’s tongue with Gracee.

Hope you had a good one.

The gift knitting is done, Chuck has bought the food for our Boxing Day Danish frokust for 20, and given the circumstances, no one is giving me a hard time for not decorating, baking or shopping. It’s all very much under control. Here are some of the finished products:

May your nights have stars of wonder,

and your days be merry and bright,

may the real reason for Christmas

fill your life with joy and light.

Li

I’ve always threatened to do the Christmas hype biannually. Do shopping, lights, tree thing every other year and celebrate what Christmas really is in between. That’s happening this year, albeit not exactly intentionally. With further complications related to my knee reconstruction resulting in hopefully temporary, crummy chronic mostly night time pain (read little to no sleep), things are being scaled down considerably this year. Although it’s what I always wanted to do, I feel a twinge of sadness now and then. Right now it’s nice, though. Chuck is doing his Christmas baking listening to mellow, jazzy Christmas music and I’m blogging in bed.

This knee surgery recovery period has allowed me a lot of time vegging in front of the TV. We don’t have cable, don’t get any reception without cable, so I resorted to movie rentals. Here is my list in order of how I liked them:

#11 Respiro – a depressing Italian movie

#10 40 Year Old Virgin – stupid and stupider

# 9 I Heart Huckabees – maybe I was on too many pain pills at the time – really hard to follow

#8 Napoleon Dynamite – too slow, but the lack of filthy language, drugs and lewd activity were much appreciated. You don’t need that stuff to make a good story

#7 Rushmore – I could take it or leave it

#6 Meet the Fockers – a barrel of laughs when I needed it

#5 Rare Birds –  low budget Canadian film, starring William Hurt, slow moving at first, but an engaging story. Critics compared the style to waking Ned Devine.

#4 Snow Walker – a touching Farley Mowatt story, starring a gifted 19 yr old Inuit actress

#3 Six Feet Under, Second Season – after watching 11 of the episodes I was dreaming that the characters were part of my life

#2 Finding Neverland – a deluge of tears when I needed them

#1 Room to Rent – light hearted British film with a good story

On the knitting front here is a last minute gift for someone who may be reading my blog. It’s made from Granbia, a soft self striping Japanese yarn, nearly impossible to find in North America. It’s an adaptation of the child’s Rainbow Scarf from Last Minute gifts (how appropriate). Link to the patten is on my sidebar.

Oh my, I just realized how my scotties might appear to be, ahem, otherwise engaged. I assure you it was purely a photographic accident. There are seven other scotties hiding behind the chair and they were all crowded together and over lapping, hence the strange picture. Now if they only could have cast iron scottie puppies, that would be a different story.

Tagged by Chris, I’m passing this on to Maureen, Caro and Karen, only if you want to.

Unable to drive for six weeks, I had to find an alternate method of satisfying my yarn urges. I’m a modern woman, it’s OK to do this in the privacy of my bedroom, right? I’ve spent hours today at E-Bay shopping on my wireless laptop. Arriving home from school, Mr. 15 yr old with attitude says, "What a waste of time, do you realize you’ve spent hours shopping for pieces of string?"

As a matter of fact, yes, I do realize it. Always the queen of rationalization and a bargain hunter, the combination of e-bay, online yarn shops and not spending my $4.58 per day on McDonald’s brekkies for my month recovering at home, have added up to some major yarn purchases. String at a discount, that’s my goal these days. I’ll post photos as they arrive, but the spree includes:

1. Classic Elite Miracle – my favourite, most soft yarn I’ve ever felt made from alpaca and tencel for a Fiddlesticks wrap called C’est LaVie

2. Classic Elite Premier – tencel and cotton, for Ruffles from Scarfstyle

3. Marks and Kattens Iceand, AKA Online Iceland – that yarn I’ve used for a scarf, the one with the tiny little snowballs scattered on top. I paid $8.50 a skein for this once in a scarf splurge. Found it on e-bay for $2.99! Enough for a sweater.

4. A replacement for my Gingher craft scissors, which are hiding from me, somewhere in my house, probably suffering from exhaustion due to overuse.

5. Two skeins of Bouton D’Or Opale and another three skeins of Classic Elite Miracle to add to my existing stash so I can make a decent sized shawl and not worry about running out of yarn.

And you thought this was turning into a knee reconstruction blog.