KarenJoSeattle

Friday Photo and FO

Today started and ended cool and gray on the island where I started and ended it. In between while I ran around Seattle for errands and Pilates lessons it turned that not-quite-bright, not-quite-warm, a little breezy Spring weather we sometimes get.

And as is often true here in these transitional seasons, someone ten or twenty miles away probably had a different day.

While riding ferries and buses and then during taped episodes of Jane Austin and Numb3rs, I started and finished a washcloth. Except for blocking and despite ripping out the first third to go down three needle sizes from the manufacturer's suggestion rather than only one, I finished it in one day. No wonder people get hooked on these.

Though I was having second thoughts about the wonders of a one day project as the end of my skein got too close for comfort during my last few rows. I almost had to decide between ripping it all and reknitting with a few fewer stitches from somewhere or tomorrow buying another skein for a couple rows.

Or the next time I saw Ryan saying "Washcloth? You didn't get my washcloth?"

I think I'll do another one tomorrow. I did buy two skeins of yarn and mailing off one seems a bit of a waste.

Priorities

So, I'm sorting out stuff in our in-escrow island place to get put into storage or get moved to our place in Seattle or to the place we bought in California for my mom once this place closes.

Besides yarn, I have other things I own much more of than I need - exercise videos for example.

I started working out to videos in 1999, a couple of years before I started knitting again. That's another world that non-practitioners often don't get. Exercise videos get discussed and traded on specialty forums. Over 1,000 different titles can be bought new right now and many more out of print ones show up in the second-hand markets. Some are real quite good.

I don't own 1,000 videos - quite. I do have enough in this house that when I went to sort out the ones I wanted to hang on to, I made a large pile of ones I couldn't remember well enough to make the decision. The plan was to watch them while I knit so I could remember if they rated keeping.

As I sat there that evening with my knitting and a pretty good ballet tape running, I glanced at some baskets of things on the floor I still needed to sort. On the top of a stack of magazines sat the two Lucy Neatby DVDs I'd bought but not yet watched.

The ballet tape finished playing and I set it on the keep shelf. Then I went back through the pile of undecided videos, pulled out a half dozen I likely would want, and filled a grocery bag for the local library's sale with the rest.

I still have dozens of exercise videos I use and will keep. Right now my knitting time is limited as I sort through thirteen years of accumulation in between trips to California to finish settling my mother. Much as I like my workouts, if I have a choice, I'd rather spend that time with Lucy.

I have my priorities.

@!#*@ Guage

I haven't posted for a few days, but I have been knitting and happily making progress on my project. The body of my center-cable EZ EPS sweater was close to the needed length to join to the sleeves.

Note that 'was' is the operative word here.

I knit a decent-sized swatch - in the round, with the same needles, in a ball of yarn from the same dye lot. I'm a good swatcher, usually going overboard, if anything. I figured my stitches needed for the various dimensions. Then I started with the sleeves so I could double-check that everything was going OK on smaller pieces.

I actually ended up speeding up my increases on the forearm of the sleeves so they wouldn't feel tight around the elbow. The gauge came out spot on in the first sleeve. The second sleeve fit just the same. Everything looked good.

Yesterday, after a couple of days of some good knitting commute time, I'd reached a point on my sweater body where enough hung off my 32" needle to stop looking like a steroidal ruffle and start looking like the sweater it would be. Last night it occurred to me that it seemed a bit larger than I'd expect.

I measured my gauge. Can you see a difference in the stitches between the sleeve on the left and the body on the right? Neither can I.

But, rather than my original 21 stitches in four inches, I had knit the body at 19. Over the 212 stitches that became 4.3 inches. Added to that, I'd forgotten to do the few stitches of shaping I'd allowed for when figuring out how much ease I wanted - a hazard of doing a design-your-own project without specific written instruction, but who actually writes themselves instructions for one of these? I should have at least left myself a sticky-note reminder.

This is merino yarn, so cutting and steeking the sides is not really a good option. Plus I'd expected a visible difference in gauge, though I will admit I don't seem to have that issue. So, maaaaybe I could steek? But, then there's the ribbing that really needs to be a bit tighter in gauge.

Personally, I know I won't be happy unless I redo it. But I haven't actually ripped yet. I will, I will. Give me a a day or two to mourn first.

And to think about whether I need to wash all of the yarn if I rinse the kinks out of the frogged stuff, given that the swatch didn't change gauge when washed except over the cable pattern. And think about what to do about the gauge difference. The sleeves and the swatch are smaller tubes than the body and knit on two circulars rather than one. Do I try the body on two circulars? Go down a needle size? Just refigure based on the new gauge and go with it since I can't see a g*!!#-@&* difference between the two?

To console myself I bought some new yarn for a scarf I had decided I needed. I've worn my neutral ivory and beiges Silken scarf so much that the silk is starting to show wear along the edges. I need another in similar colors. Plus, I had a full Yarn Card so spent only $4 + tax for a new Silk Garden scarf I 'need' and for a good diversion.

I may utilize some stash for another diversionary scarf, too. I actually have a tendon in the base of my right thumb that would appreciate a few days or more break from cables. Tomorrow I'll try to get up a post on last weekend's workshops and the origin of the tendinitis - right after I rip 18,656 stitches.

This and That

I'm packing up my third house in as many months. The house is full of piles, boxes, and bags. Clutter induces anxiety in me. Wednesday I went to circle just to make myself sit down and knit the swatches for the workshops I'm taking today (plus to see the people there and arrange yesterday). Three of the seven of us there came to knit swatches for one of the workshops.

I bought new shoes. I chose a half a size large just so I can wear heavier hand-knit socks with them. They go with all those nice skeins of variegated browns and grays I have in my sock yarn drawer. Now I need to knit the socks.

Yesterday three friends from knitting circle and I drove up to Port Townsend to take our friend and knitting teacher, Karen Alfke, to lunch and shopping. We had a great time. I bought yarn at both of the small yarn stores. Both are silk and wool blends, both in grays and browns - all about the neutrals lately.

Today I have two workshops from Melissa Leapman and another tomorrow. That's another post.

And the Winners Are...

Regular commenter Robin H won first pick in my Blogiversary drawing. Second choice goes to apparently blogless April.

Thanks to everyone who commented. It was good to see so many people. And I will make an effort to spend more time with the groups I've joined on Ravelry - at least some of them.

In the meantime, I have gotten some of the body of my EPS sweater knit.

Look, it's a cable! And the color came out pretty accurate, too.

And, Ryan, I actually bought cotton for my ribbon washcloth. And I believe I have appropriate needles in the same place I am.

H as in Harlot

Maybe half an hour before the start of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Seattle appearance last night, a man enough older than me that I'd call him an older man stood in the aisle and called out "Sue, Sue." He moved up the aisle directly across from us, looked at a sheet of paper in his hand, then called again, "Sue? Sue!"

"Frustrated?" asked Cindy from the end seat.

"Yeah," he replied, "she said to meet her here. She'd be easy to find. She'd be the one with the knitting needles. Right."

About an hundred women, all holding knitting needles, laughed - a very Harlot moment before the Harlot even appeared.

Stephanie was in her usual good form. Her talk touched on many of her usual themes - mostly the lack of understanding of knitters by non-knitters and the mystifying and amusing results.

This time she also talked of research on repetitive motion and it's uses and benefits. One of the studies, dealing with the mitigation of traumatic stress inducers by performing simple repetitive tasks, actually mentioned knitting as a possible repetitive activity, but concluded that it was impractical to routinely carry emergency knitting. That got a laugh, too - from a roomful of knitters working on portable projects.

I think slightly fewer knitters showed up last night than did last September, maybe 300 rather than four, but still the signing line ran about 2 1/2 hours long.  Apparently, despite the smaller crowd, Third Place Books ran out of books and had to bring in more during the talk. I and my friends were glad I'd made the trip to buy books the day before.

And, once again, Stephanie amazed me with how much she knows and remembers about her blog readers/commenters. She even remembered the date of my birthday, totally amazing my friend Ann. Chatting like she didn't have close to an hour's worth of people in line behind us, she said Sock Camp was a lot of work, but fun and she didn't have to get on a plane every day during it. She did not seem road-weary, but then, she never does.

As we walked out I wondered what she thinks of this life she now has. I doubt she expected it when she first started to post on-line. Sure, it's her job, but it's become so much more, so all consuming. I hope she feels it's worth it for her, not just for us.

Remember to comment by midnight tomorrow, Wednesday, for a chance in the drawing for the Schaefer yarn or a signed copy of Stephanie's book.

It's Harlot Time

Think the weather here wants to make Stephanie feel at home? Saturday we had 20 minute intervals of mixed pouring snow and rain followed with 20 minutes of sun, all accompanied by a frigid wind.

Yesterday the sky from my windows looked like this.

(Ack, I wish this software would leave photos where I put them. Anyone have any good tips on how to do this?)

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Today while at an extra Pilates lesson (have to prep for those signing line drills - back straight, needles up!) we got 20 minutes of heavy mixed snow and hail. When I left 20 minutes later the sky looked like this.

Anyway, I leave in an hour. I need to finish recasting-on my sweater after I found the error on the bus to Pilates this morning.

I hope there's no singing. (Scroll down for videos.) Or at least none in which they expect me to participate.

I've packed my chains in my car. Wish me luck. A good time's a given.

Arts and Crafts

Today it did not snow in Seattle, though it may have done so somewhere close by. Yesterday the rain contained about a third snow and the wind chilled me to the bone during the time I needed to be in the weather. The sun shone through big breaks in the clouds not ten minutes before I headed out. Just a week ago on the previous Saturday we reached 79F, tying and setting records. We set records again yesterday but at the other extreme.

So in the chilly sunshine today I headed first to Village Yarn and Tea, where I picked up the Hand Maiden Camelspin and Fleece Artist Sea Wool I special ordered at Madrona.While there I had a pot of tea and finished the knitting on my Casbah scarf. It still needs blocking, obviously, and a button and loop. Those didn't happen this evening as I opted for art - as in an evening of ballet- instead of craft.

After the LYS I headed to Third Place Books where I picked up several copies of Stephanie's book for tomorrows talk and signing. I'm still concerned that due to not needing a signing line ticket many knitters won't buy the book ahead of time but will form a vast line to try to get theirs right before the talk. I bought a copy for me, some for friends who both will and may not make the event, and one to get signed for my Blogiversary contest - leave a comment by midnight Pacific time Wednesday to enter the drawing.

On my way into the bookstore, the man sitting on the bench out front watched intently as I walked past. I had the feeling he looked at the hand knit sweater I wore. When I came back out he was gone but in his place lay a hand-knit chenille watchcap, complete with a mistake/ turning row. I do hope he came back for it. The cold day really justified a warm hat, too.

The new book is a cute little hardback - a good size to carry in a project bag or purse. I think this is Stephanie's first hardback. As the title implies, it covers lots of Things that fall in the category of Good Things to Know - starting with the 1st thing 'Beginning is easy. Continuing is hard,' through the 25th thing 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again,' and on to the 45th thing 'I am very lucky,' with a few sidebars of lists of more Things scattered around. It's a wee thing but there's very little blank space or filler pictures and the font, though legible, looks proportionate to the size of the page and not overly large. It looks like there's a lot of reading in this.

Rather than blocking and finishing my scarf tonight, I went to the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Spring Festival Laugh Out Loud. The dances on the programs this year all amuse in some way, mostly by using unexpected variations on traditional moves. One piece by Tony-award-winner Susan Stroman ran to music by Dave Brubeck. Though light, these pieces contained lots of challenging dance. If you're in this area and have a chance to see this company, take it.

Tomorrow I'll probably madly attempt to get my sweater start sorted so I have something to knit at Stephanie's talk. Then I expect I'll give up and start something simple.

Someone Who Gets You...Priceless

I had a very nice knitterly birthday.

On the way home from the extra (and very needed) Pilates lesson I scheduled, I stopped at one of my favorite places to KIP. I can't eat donuts often due to my milk allergy, but I really like the wall of windows at Top Pot with a street view that includes trees and the monorail. And they're a local place with their kitchen in the back of this spot so the goodies are very fresh.

Note the change in the trees since my last photo from here. Spring is coming on rapidly here in Seattle.

That same evening the Seattle Knitters' Guild meeting featured my friend Karen Alfke, whose talk I'd arranged. Karen was her usual funny and informative self, even if she said she was nervous. She does move too fast to get a decent photo when she's in action.

Afterward I went out for a bite and a glass of wine with a small group that included Karen and Sussana Hansson (she of Bohus fame - one day I'll tackle one). Sussana and I have passed each other at meetings and events before but this way the first time we'd really met. It was a fun group and a nice time.

Usually my husband and I just get each other cards and go out to dinner for our birthdays. The Guild meeting interrupted that pattern and other engagements this week made it seem pointless to schedule dinner for another evening.

When I got home I found this waiting for me - a knitter's birthday card (photo and pattern here) and a gift card to the LYS that's in walking distance (he walks most days). Between the encouragement of my passions and the coping with messes skills, I can't see ever getting rid of this guy. Especially not after almost 26 years.

Happy Birthday/Blogiversary to Me

OK, I'm post-dating this post as I got home too late from too much fun last night to do it. A Blogiversary contest really should post on the blogiversary, don't you think?

On April 16th, 2007 I both turned 53 and started my blog. To celebrate this event I had the previously mentioned fun am holding a little contest. Everyone who leaves a comment between now and midnight Pacific time on April 23rd will be entered. One entry per commenter, not per comment. I still don't get most of my comment notifications, so either drop me a line at karen at karenjoseattle dot com when you leave your comment or be prepared for me to beg for your e-mail address on the blog so I can notify you. Thanks for that.

At my 6 month Blogiversary Stephanie came to Seattle on her last book tour. That time we were near the end of the tour and I think most of my readers already had her book. This time she's cramming the tour into one big go, so she'll be here next Monday, the 21st. I'll get a signed copy of her latest book to give away for this contest.

I also have this skein of Schaefer's Lola, wound by unknitted. It's a one-of-a-kind springy mix of soft to almost bright yellows, pinks and peaches called A New Day. I bought it for a project and then decided on something else so it's languished unused. I didn't swatch because I've used the yarn before. The skein has 200 yards of 100% superwash wool with a gauge of 5spi. Sorry for the fuzzy photo. This one had the best color.

Thanks to eveyone for being here over the last year. I have fun here, too, and feel surprisingly giddy when I see the nice bumps in my stats chart anytime I actually get up a post. I resolve to get back to more regular blogging right away, just as soon as the rest of my life decides to take a rest.

aren vetches about nitting

My 'K' key is going bad, which is particularly annoying given what I frequently type.

I had a very nice day. I checked out some Pottery Barn furniture I'd seen on line to fill in spots in the new place in California and it looked surprisingly good. I found most of my short list of odds and ends we need for down there and don't already have in another place.

I even knit a few rows on my scarf. It felt amazingly satisfying, given that it's basically just 14 stitches of seed stitch, 7 per edge, and 41 of stockinette per row.

I keep thinking of setting up some default topics for the blog to make it easier to keep up by stockpiling posts for when I need them. (Just had to go back and add the k to make.) Does anyone else do this, aside from Saturday Sky? Tuesday would be for Technique Tips - too cute? I haven't gotten any put together yet. But I did add a couple to the comments when Birdsong asked for tips for the beginning lace knitters in the class she's teaching. Will that do for this week?

Okay, here're a couple more.

Dropping down to fix a mistake doesn't work on edge stitches. You end up with a big loop of yarn that previously turned the corner between rows and now doesn't want to spread out evenly over the new stitches, assuming you can actually figure out how to get the stitches into it in the right orientation, which I can't.

Do not try to compact an entire unused but expired tub of margarine in a trash compactor even if it's trans-fat-free. Luckily I have the kind of husband who cleans things up first, then tells me about them.

(I better get some blog photos tomorrow, huh?)

Time Flies But I Wouldn't Say I'm Having Fun

Suddenly this morning I realized that day after tomorrow is my birthday, which means it is also my one-year blog anniversary. Then I realized I couldn't remember how many days it was since I'd last posted. That felt odd, which made me feel a bit better as I like to think of myself as a regular blogger.

I also like to think of myself as a regular knitter. My husband and relatives think of me that way, too. But today, when I had only a few things I needed to get done and they all happened at home, I still got no knitting done. So here I am with no knitting to post and not even any non-knitting filler photos ready to go.

Part of this lack of knitting happened because my sweater is at a difficult point where I need to figure out what I'm doing and if I have my front braided cable centered properly or if I need to re-cast-on two-hundred-and-something stitches. I don't even remember how many stitches and I'm the one who figured out how many since it's an Elizabeth Zimmerman EPS sweater.

I've just needed some down time to recover mentally and physically from the household moving we just did before I need to start packing up another house. We have an island place here, which we put up for sale while the selling was still good in this area. During the time we were in California consolidating my mom's house and our place there into a new place, the island place sold.

We have exactly 7 weeks from today before the sale closes. I have about a week of catch-up appointments and chores here in the city before we plan to stay at the island place for long stretches while we sort out a dozen years of pixies stashing things in the closets and us using it to store the things we only need occasionally. I'll want knitting projects to keep me from pushing myself to do too much at one time and make me sit for a while and unwind.

Sometime during this week I'll get the sweater start figured out and have a nice stretch of stockinette in the round with a single 17 stitch/16 row braided cable on which to work. I'll also get the little Casbah scarf done, except maybe for deciding on a button and how I'm going to position a loop for it. (Have I explained that plan?) Then I'll need a new dead-simple project for those my-brain-no-longer-works nights I expect to have many of. I have a drawer or two full of nice yarns in scarf/small shawl amounts from which to choose.

Any good suggestions? Maybe I should do another of my Pinnate Shoulder Shawls now that the pattern's been linked on Ravelry and I've gotten a question or two on it which I couldn't remember the answers to right off. I mean, I only knit about six of them so far. Except one of those involved beads and hasn't been finished. I don't think beads would be a good plan for this month.

And I guess I'd better figure out a Bloggiversary plan in the next day or two, also.

The Harlot is Coming - Some Info

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, The Yarn Harlot, comes to the Seattle area on her current super-sized, everywhere-in-one book tour on April 21st - assuming she survives that long.

In the past Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, where she traditionally appears here, has issued tickets for the signing line in order of books purchased. (Note that they also have an author appearance on April 14th for the new book Knitalong by Larissa Golden Brown.) This year no mention of tickets and pre-purchasing books appears on their event listing for Stephanie, so I e-mailed to ask for details of the logistics.

Their event coordinator replied that they did not plan to use tickets this time. She described the line as usually pretty mellow and said people were fine with waiting.

I'd agree with that historically, but if you have a C group ticket you probably won't barge ahead when they line up the knitters with babies and the Group A people. If it's unreserved queuing and you want/need to get home early, you may. We'll see how it goes. I expect it to still be more orderly than most of author events - not that author events usually provoke riots or fisticuffs.

I'll plan on a late night with much knitting in line. And I'll buy my book ahead. A lot of people may leave that until the night of the event. Last year between three and four hundred knitters showed up. And it was a great line.

Early Signs of Crafty Tendencies

I didn't think of myself as a crafty/arty type for most of my life. I identified myself more by my A-student-and-president-of-Science-Club side.

Now as I look back I realize when I add up the pebble-mosaic-by-number kit, pastels requested one Christmas and good watercolors as a surprise another, extra art projects and more art classes than usual for a college-prep track, years spent as an avid gardener, repeated bouts of embroidery flirtation and sewing frustration, a flair for 'merchandise presentation' in a past career and home decoration currently, a fascination with color theory and a penchant for HB pencils and ring-bound sketch pads, my obsession with knitting over the last nine years shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone, much less to me.

Recently I've spent a lot of time sorting through the many things my 80-year-old mother has kept from my and my four siblings' childhoods as we move her out of her current house. Yesterday she unearthed this. I made this doll and her two wee companions as a gift for no particular reason to one of my sisters.

I remember just having a desire to make something and rummaging for bits and pieces of cloth in the household rag bag. I cut up the remains of an ancient baby blanket and old t-shirts. I also used up some too-small bits of old lace and ribbon from the Trimmings Box - corollary of the Button Jar in our house. I loved old cotton lace.

I think I was in about fourth grade, maybe fifth and felt very pleased both then and now with how it turned out. Since the dolls didn't actually work to play with much, my very young sister tired of them quickly and gave them back. I'm not sure the larger doll's been out of her shoe box bed since I put her there over forty years ago.

The memory made a nice connection between my child and adult selves, but I gave her up once more - after I took a few photos. This process with my mother has been more about letting go and simplifying with the reconnection as a by-product.

No, that does not mean I'm down-sizing my yarn stash.