Life's a Stitch

Some of you might remember those lyrics. What were the words immediately preceding "Must be the season of the witch?" Give up?

"You’ve got to pick up every stitch."

Very appropriate for last night’s s-i-l knitting party. Since we live 1700 miles apart, nights like this are to be appreciated. From 5:00 to 1:00a.m. we stitched, bitched, drank a fair bit of wine, laughed and sang ourselves silly:

That would be Ellen, after purchasing a hundred and some dollars of yarn (I am a very bad influence) and needles, without ever having knit, holding up her first effort. And Karen getting in on the act attempting to rewind Colinette Mercury, appropriately named because no matter how you try to wind it, it melts into a pool of fabric. Don’t get taken in by its beauty, it is nearly impossible to knit anything other than basic garter stitch.

This weekend we also took advantage of a Dine Out Vancouver special, a three course meal at a nice restaurant for $25. The math on the bill worked out OK but I don’t want to do the math on the calories. Way too much good food. They always have this in January, just in time to bust those New Year’s resolutions. I should be using my yarn scale for its intended dietary purpose. More tomorrow.

What is with this Typepad wanting to underline and change my formatting this morning? Excuse the mess.

We’ve received the end of year statements from our variety of small retirement accounts. Each year we get closer we panic that there won’t be enough. I hear Chuck say "We could always bump off the kids." Shocked at this crass comment, I respond with disbelief. He repeats,"We can always bum off the kids." We’re not that close to retirement but our hearing is. I asked him if he tasted the pears I bought and he says "I didn’t know we had carrots." I’ve read that women lose the lower range of their hearing and men lose the higher making it difficult for the two to hear each other in their senior years. We’re doomed.

Progress on the mistaken rib Iceland scarf. I found a German website that had this yarn for half the price I paid for it. I’m looking forward to our trip there this summer. I also heard the Addi needles are $6 US! The angle of that picture makes me want to turn my head sideways:

I’m spending this weekend with two of my s-i-l’s who are here from Minnesota. What a great way to spend the last weekend in January, the weekend after my job’s yearly week from hell with multiple grant deadlines. One of them has asked me to teach her to knit; definitely a dream weekend.

I was discussing with my children the value of the parental advice they have been given over the years. I asked them what pearls of wisdom have stuck with them. My father always said "buy for quality rather than quantity," and these words have helped make certain important decisions easier. My daughter told me the most useful message passed on to her from her wise parents was "timing is everything." I initiated the conversation because I wanted to teach them one of my mother’s quotes: "Think before you speak." I was at a recent meeting where someone didn’t do that and suffered a fair bit of embarrassment.

I should have taken my mother’s advice today. A group of us were talking at work about things we have done in life that weren’t exactly ordinary. One of our agency volunteer told us when she was 19 she took flight training because she just knew she looked so good in her white leather flight jacket. Another said she took a knitting course which was out of character for her and beyond her abilities. I told the story how I took a stained glass course and married the teacher. We went on to talk about my daughter who would like us to pay for a glass blowing course as a graduation gift form college.  I said to them I told her unlike her mom who took the class and took the teacher she was allowed to blow the glass but not ______(there was a pause while I tried to fill in the words acceptably) marry, yes, marry the teacher."During my pause everyone else had filled in the blank on their own. You might have had to have been there. We were giggling like third grade girls imagining my mommy advice to her to blow the glass and not the teacher.

Onto knitting, I haven’t been working on my autumn silk cardigan, having been seduced by the new additions to my stash. I took a picture of my Manos scarf progress but when I placed it in my post it was out of focus. Now my batteries are low, so, here’s the start of my Iceland scarf. The yarn is soft, light, fluffy and warm. Back on Friday.

Chicks on Hormones, no, not the name of my monthly S&B group, although we would qualify for that description. We’re Chicks With Sticks. Chicks on hormones came up in conversation with whom else other than the resident 14 year old boy. He had seen a recipe for quail and thought they were neat, dubbing them personal chickens. I told him about Rock Cornish Game Hens, he was interested, and that’s what I’m cooking tonight. He wondered if they were oversized chicks treated with hormones or full grown mini-hens. The correct answer: hens.

The last time I had game hen produces a vivid memory of my first job out of graduate school – in a methadone and public health clinic (believe me, I have plenty of stories from that six year stint; the very young Catholic white chick gets a job in the only methadone clinic between Kansas City and Canada, and Denver and DesMoines). One year for our Christmas party we collected ten crock pots and cooked 20 game hens for dinner. What a sight that was – ten crock pots distributed through out the boss’s house. It smelled heavenly. Looking back, though, that job was a positive experience – many life lessons learned early, a close knit staff, and stories to last a lifetime. I knit my first sweater while working there. It was a long sweater jacket made from burgundy coloured variegated Wintuck. It lasted forever and I wish I still had it. If it’s in a landfill somewhere I’m sure it hasn’t yet begun to biodegrade. And that is the total knitting content of this post.

The multidirectional scarf is finished. It blocked beautifully, all traces of bumps at the joins disappeared. Due to its silk content, it drapes nicely. The variegated yarn looks nice but I think the multidirectional effect might look better with self striping yarn. Besides Noro and Sirdar Magic does anyone have any self striping non-sock yarn to recommend?

Hooked on this pattern I decided to start another one using the Manos in my stash.  Most of my scarves are narrow because they are worn indoors. This one will be a little wider for my daughter who will be using is an "outside" scarf in Edmonton, where the snow flies often. She saw the Manos in my stash and declared it her own. The colours are perfect for her darker colouring. It’s also a good excuse to shop for some replacement Manos.

Speaking of Edmonton, I just found out that I’ll be attending a course in Banff in March and will be able to tack on a weekend visit to my daughter. What a great birthday present that will be for me! Also a chance to check out Edmonton’s four knit shops and one nearby where the inventory is piled to the ceiling and it’s like getting to search though a treasure chest of yarn.

I need to get out of this climate for a break. There’s been so much rain I think I’m growing gills. However, I’m not offering to trade places with any of you who have to shovel your precipitation! Shovelling, hopefully, is a thing of my past.

Remember my post from the beginning of November when I was trying to locate some yarn I remembered seeing at a particular shop? It had teeny snow balls attached to the yarn. I called the shop and they had no idea what I was talking about. I told them I remembered something made of it hanging on the wall in the shop and they were still clueless. I had the opportunity to visit that shop while in WA; it was Jennings in LaConner. Sure enough, hanging on the wall was the poncho I remembered knit out of yarn with tiny snowballs. It’s Online Linie Iceland and looks like sleet or little hail pebbles attached to the yarn. It was a bit pricey for a sweater and I don’t need another poncho, so I bought two skeins to make a scarf; maybe in mistaken rib.

I’m hoping it stops raining here this weekend. We are having a monsoon and it’s rained over 220mms over the past I don’t know how many days. Apparently our town has been declared a disaster area because of mud slides. Although we are pretty high up the mountain we are on level ground with no steep inclines nearby. Others have not been as lucky. It has been a strange year weatherwise.

Wishing you a safe and dry weekend.

I went for my not quite on time yearly physical the other day, complete with humiliating routine exams of multiple orifices. A couple of hours later I had a message on my cell phone:

"Hello Li, this is Rita from Dr. J’s office. It appears you have left the office without completely dressing."

A pregnant pause.

My mind races through the list, hands checking off my thoughts:

Panties? Check.

Bra, Check.

Whew.

My earrings, wedding ring and watch that I removed to weigh in lighter? Check. Check. Check.

Jeans? Check.

Turtleneck? Check.

La Boheme Drop Stitch Scarf? Check.

My mind works fast under pressure.

"You have left your belt in the exam room."

How do you spell relief?

C-h-e-a-p  l-e-a-t-h-e-r  b-e-l-t. Thank goodness it wasn’t the scarf!

Speaking of scarves, this is the progress on my Multidirectional Scarf.

Due to too many meetings, I won’t be posting tomorrow. See you Friday.

AARRGHH! I tried on my blocked Fleece Artist sweater and the fabric loosened up so much that even though it blocked to what I thought was a perfect size, when I put it on, it stretched hugely. It was downright baggy.

What to do? A hem? A controlled shrink? I know someone who was so disappointed in the large size of her Fair Isle that she actually felted it. It looked great but I wasn’t sure if I was brave enough to try that. But, this sweater was so soft and floppy it could do with some stiffening up somehow.

I fretted for an hour or two and decided I was really unhappy with the size and decided to take the hot water plunge. I knit a swatch and felted it for seven minutes. It looked close to its original knitted state, a little less flopsy with a bit more body. What the heck, I thought. Back to the washer I went with a large sweater bag and some towels. Plopped it in and carefully timed seven minutes. At the end I stopped the washer, opened the top, steamed up my glasses and couldn’t locate the sweater bag. All I could find were the towels. The water was scalding hot and I couldn’t manage to reach in far enough to find the sweater bag. I grabbed an old long handled paint brush and rescued my sweater, having been in the bath for two minutes longer than the swatch. The adrenaline was pumping through my veins as I opened up the bag to find a somewhat harder smaller looking sweater. With a bit of wrestling it blocked out to the proper size. It has a different look, more like a light weight boiled wool jacket. Go figure. I’m definitely happier with it, the texture is so nice! My hands however, are crying for lotion. If there was a medal for knitting bravery I would submit my name. Here is the finished product:

I have finished my Fleece Artist Garter Stitch Cardigan. I was getting a little nervous toward the end hoping there would be enough yarn for the sleeves. Remember, I decided to knit the jacket longer than the pattern instructions; risky with a kit. A quick yarn weigh in on my kitchen scale reassured me. After it was all put together the sleeves were a tad short, I guess I was too anxious to get them done because there was enough yarn to knit them longer still. I hoped the blocking would solve the problem and it looks like it will:

The house reeks of wet goat. Funny how wool smells when it’s wet. I’m not worried, it was fine while I was knitting with it and I used Eucalan which helps as well. The boy stated that he loves the wet goat smell, bringing back memories of the petting zoo at summer camp.

This kit is reasonably priced for hand dyed yarn. There were two yarns included – a loopy mohair and a plain mohair. The label indicated that both hanks were of the same weight. The plain mohair has more length so there’s some left.

The final step will be sewing on the two pewter clasps I picked up in WA. This was a very quick enjoyable knit.

Over the years I’ve been slowly building my collection of Addi turbo needles. The one pair I have used the most is the US size 8 – AKA 5mm. I bought them from Philosopher’s Wool about a year and a half ago in anticipation making my first Fair Isle sweater. If you are familiar with Philosopher’s Wool Fair Isles you know they are pretty heavy sweaters as you knit them in the round and carry the colours along. I once broke one of my Denise interchangeable needles on a Philosopher’s sweater. I like my Denise’s, but not for everything. I thought the Addis, on the other hand, were the workhorse of knitting needles. Not so. While working on my multidirectional scarf I discovered that the needle is coming apart from the cable on one side. I’m hoping that this is a defective needle and that the weight of the fair isles haven’t done them in. I’ll keep you posted when I receive a reply from Philosopher’s.

Lynne asked about photos of my WA trip stash enhancement. I’ve been slow to get photos up, but this is one of them. Three skeins of Classic Elite Bravo silk mohair. I’m thinking of a lengthwise scarf with thicker stripes of the pink and thinner ones of the green. I left the yarn in the bowl and the next day discovered Bryant had added a prop – a fork and spoon looked ready to serve a yarn salad. Enjoy your weekend.