KarenJoSeattle

Pretty Autumn Pictures to Fill Time While I Finish My Socks

Here are some pretty pictures to entertain and divert you while I toil away on the cuff of my sock. Hopefully we'll have some knitting-related photos this weekend

I took these photos over the last couple of weekends while we went out on different activities where we could enjoy the beautiful weather. Seattlites believe that on average we tend to get worse weather on Saturday and Sunday than during the week and apparently the records back up that opinion. This weekend, though, we'll push against and maybe break some old records with sun and highs in the mid-60s after possibly a bit of wet tomorrow morning. That comes to three in a row for nice weekends.

During my inattention to the blog in the same time period, I passed a couple of landmarks of the type traditionally blogged by those who actually post and generally keep up with things in Blogdom.

October 16th marked 1 1/2 years since I began this blog (and my 54 1/2 birthday). On that day I also passed 25,000 page views, according to the TypePad stats. I'm sure some people would find that number low, but it sounds nicely large and round to me.

A couple of days before that I launched my 250th post. That number would certainly have been higher without my 4-month long blog sabbatical.

I've toyed with the idea of joining whatever acronym aims to knit a complete sweater in the month of November. Apparently there's also one for a daily-posting challenge. I probably won't join any official sites for these, but my knitting and blogging could use the boost from accepting the challenges.

Plus, I need to start now if I want some new sweaters for the Madrona Retreat. That's four days and a dinner's worth of knitting retreat, so A Madrona sweater won't cut it. That counts as another influence on the sale-yarn-for-simple-and wearable-sweaters order - which shipped today.

And Madrona posted their class schedule. They also posted the list of five classes where enrollment will be done by lottery. The deadline to sign up for a chance at a spot in any of these is November 5th. I found others I want to take more, so I'll pass on the lottery. But I'll be hitting refresh to enrol as one o'clock on the 13th ticks over.

Houston, We Have a Heel

I finished the gusset and heel turn on my sock today. And I rewound the washed yarn from the frogged sock so it's ready to reknit.

That's about all the knit-related work I accomplished. Unless you count the past-midnight yarn order I placed last night.

I got the bright idea that instead of ordering a few sweaters from Scotland like I have every year for a few years now, I should knit some nice basic v-necks and cardigans in solid-colored but yummy yarns to take their place. So I ordered the yummy yarns.

The fact that I probably missed the opportunity to place a sweater order this year through my usual shop likely had less to do with this purchase than did stumbling onto a good on-line sale of some yummy yarns. That and the fact that I've started to feel like I haven't knit a sweater for ages. And the fact that I actually haven't finished a sweater for ages.

The boxes of yarn I already own had no impact on this plan. In my favor, my stash of really nice yarns mostly contains finer-gauged things. I ordered all DK to heavy worsted weight so simple things should knit up relatively quickly.

 Oh, I did wind another skein today; one of the yarns I bought at the Madrona Winter Retreat last February. It's the first wound of the many I brought home from there. It's also the only heavyweight Bluemoon I bought. I'll make a simple scoop-neck with some picots.

Or maybe I'll finish my 3/4 done cardigan first.

I had a plan.

Habits - Easy Come, Easy Go

It surprises me how easily a habit can be lost, even one I've practiced for a year or more. Something comes up that requires me to step outside my usual routines for a while and when I've finished some things I've worked hard on - daily workouts, watching what I eat, posting to the blog - now slip my mind like they never made up part of my life.

My sister came to visit Friday through Monday. I didn't expect to post those days. The other six days just passed by before I knew where they went.

I have gotten things done the last week. My car's in for repair of something that came up while we were in California in late June. Last night I went to an adult ballet class for the first time in three years. I got more storage boxes for yarn.

And I've plugged away on my current socks; the first I've knit in more than a year. I'm ready to start the toe-up gusset on the third sock of the pair. With the help of my swift, Sock One has been ripped, tied well at both ends, washed and hung to dry with a bit of weight to take out the kinks.

I like this yarn - Regia 6-ply tweed. The tweedy flecks of varied blues and ambers contrast nicely against the gray. Because the twist is not tight, I do split it a bit, but it holds up well to correction. The unknit skein doesn't look much different than the never-knit yarn. 

I also feel pleased with the stitch I used on the cuff - Barbara Walker's seed-stitch rib from the Second Treasury of Knitting Stitches. I used a picot bind-off and the whole thing stretches nicely.

These will look great with jeans and one of my many gray sweaters.

Afghan Sewing Bee

I spent yesterday afternoon at Janine/Feral Knitter's place working with a nice group to sew up Ryan/Mossy Cottage's crazy-quilt afghan of donated squares.

Ryan (front and center sewing up squares here) went through a really bad patch after her long-time SO broke things off. This afghan is meant to remind her how many people care about her every time she wraps it around herself. And everytime she thinks of this afternoon when friends came together for her.

It also will help with the deficient heating in her house. Since it doesn't get below-freezing cold often during our winters, many houses here skimp on heat and insulation or just have faulty designs. Now she can be cozy without having to do all of the work herself.

The afternoon was a lovely exercise in comaraderie. Conversation roamed from mystery novels to the effects of WWI on Britain to the lack of a knitting community like this in Berkeley where Janine will move permanently to join her husband next month. Fortunately for us, Janine will be back to teach her Fair Isle Color workshops for one day at the Madrona Winter Retreat and the two-day version at Suzanne's in the Spring (scroll down to About MFA to sign up for info).

Janine (half visable sitting in a chair on the edge of this photo) will be missed in our community. Not only does she help out knitters in need when she can, but she's a mainstay in the local general and Fair Isle communities and in the Feral/Fair Isle Knitters meet-ups.

I do need to learn once and for all, though, that when I combine caffeine and sweets I lose concentration, sewing wrong ends together, and become a chatterbox who tends to talk right over others. Then I collapse when it wears off. Sorry if I was rude, ladies. 

And I should credit Rebecca and her February Lady Sweater since she's in every photo.

Fall Is Felling

Around here things both look and feel like Fall these last couple of days. Leaves have not just turned, they've started to rain down with each breeze and pile in gutters. Chestnuts litter the ground along a street I often walk. Today we had wind and beautifully clear blue skies. That means tonight will get cold and many places near the city will wake to their first frost of the season.

With Fall, my knitting plans always become more immediate. This morning I pulled out the Alpaca/Jacob blend bulky yarn I bought at Madrona last February, thinking it might make a good jump-start project for a more productive season than I've had for a while. As I finish up the socks I'm working on I'll ruminate on what I want from it - definitely some kind of cardigan with cables.

Fall also marks the start of Lucy Neatby's annual teaching schedule. The three days of classes I just took with her have me motivated to get going on a zillion new ideas. I want to try mixing Channel Island cast-on with the seed stitch borders of a sweater, maybe from that luscious Yak blend I keep thinking about, rather than the 1x1 ribbing of a sock. Though I'm sure it'll show up on a few socks here, too. I keep analyzing variegated yarn to decide if they would benefit from her Navajo Knitting technique.**

If you ever have an opportunity to take a class or workshop with Lucy, do not hesitate, do not pass Go, just sign up. She's one of those knitters/designers who see the process of knitting from new perspectives and come up with lots of useful tips, tweaks, and techniques.

On top of that, she's a very good teacher. Her classes contain just the right amount of information to feel worthwhile but not become overwhelming. I've seen her manage to get around a room that held more than 40 people to ensure everyone got the concept without leaving anyone feeling they were twiddling their thumbs waiting.

The clips from her DVDs that she uses to illustrate techniques work so much better than crowding around a demo. Now I can refer back to a DVD for a refresher after being lead through some of the things there. The DVDs make great tools on their own, but in class Lucy can expand on the hows and whys and make sure you've got it. Plus, she's always throwing in little bits of extra info.

She's also interesting, funny, nice, and very motivating. I even came away with a sock pattern well outside my usual choices, but that will make a good little project to practice some stranded knitting techniques as I promised myself I would in the near future. And I can always use more cozy house socks now that Fall has fell.

**I'll post on both of these techniques in the next few days.

Fun with Socks...and Stephanie

I think Stephanie may have been a bit tired by the time she got to the end of the signing line.

Then, again, it's quite possible this is a perfectly normal reaction when she encounters a sock for a foot notably larger than hers.

I wear a 9 1/2 (39 or 40) shoe. Stephanie does not.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has a short book tour with minimal notice this time around. Her latest book contains essays and her essay books come from a different publisher. Fortunately for us, Third Place Books just north of Seattle always makes the tour list these days.

She told us some amusing Stephanie-isms about the process of producing this book and getting ready for this tour, she read from the book (imagine - reading the book at a reading), and during Q and A gave us lots of tips on ways that don't work to get a skunk out from under your porch. I don't remember what that last had to do with the question. I think not much.

Obviously, I need to follow her lead on writting blog posts early-ish in the day on days when you're also writing other things. This post comes two days after the fact because I've been writing articles for my Knitters Guild newsletter and was so done with writing at my normal late-night blog-time.

The sock Stephanie held/mugged with had already been designated a prototype. It was a bit large, though only a half-inch too long, and I had to play with the seed-stitch ribbing to figure out how to fit in full repeats. I'll also start the ribbing a bit sooner on the second sock.

But, I have to boast. I started the second sock from the toe up durng Stephanie's talk. I'd just done the loops for the Magic Cast-on when Stephanie came on. By the time she was done talking, I was done toe-shaping - without losing track. Now I'm through the gusset and ready to turn the heel though I did NO knitting today - just writing. That's another thing I need to work on.

Lucy With Sock

I won't get to any posts about my workshops with Lucy Neatby today. I will say tht I got a lot from the classes and would take anything Lucy teaches, even the same classes over again.

In less than 30 minutes I need to leave to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee talk, read from, and sign her new book. It started raining hard and is due to get very windy so the trip may take a longer than the usual 30 minutes. I hope the weather doesn't foul up Stephanie's schedule.

To tie these two topics together I have a photo of Lucy holding my sock-in-progress. This would not be confused for Lucy holding one of her own socks, since gray tweed is very far from Lucy's thing. It would clash with her outfit.

Lucy did seem a bit taken aback by the photo op. I guess knitting celebrities other than Stephanie don't often get this request.

Unfortunately, I don't think Lucy qualifies in Stephanie's current Doctors Without Borders fund raising campaign.

Lucy's New Tattoo

Lucy Neatby now has one of her happy stitches with her all the time.

Her middle college-aged daughter, as Lucy said, "went ballistic and all parental" when she heard of her mother's tattoo.

One more day of classes and then I'll post some tips and reviews.

Well Stocked

This will be brief. I have to be up in less than four hours to head off to an all-day sock workshop with Lucy Neatby.

I expect I'll return home with a fried brain and more information than I can absorb. I'll love it. And then I'll do it again the next day. And the next.

Lucy spoke last night (Wednesday) to a special meeting of the Seattle Knitters Guild. As a member of the board (newsletter reporter) I went to dinner with Lucy and a bunch of other board members beforehand. Both the food and the company were good.

My favorite yarn store, Churchmouse, sold Lucy's sock book, many of her patterns, and, most importantly, all of her DVDs at the meeting. I owned three DVDs. Now I have a complete set. At least I have a complete set until she puts out five more next year.

A few of those new ones I may skip. She'll do a beginning knitting and a first sock video. Also, one will go with a doll kit produced by a charitable organization called the Dolly Mamas. Not that I don't think a pink-haired Lucy doll is a good idea. I just never get around to kits.

But the possible ones on more double knitting and Intermediate/Advanced techniques I'll definitely need.

We'll see if I can manage a post tomorrow or not. This workshop assumes you have knit socks at least once. It covers various ways to take those socks to another level. Or, given that it's Lucy, a different dimension.

My decidedly Earth-bound sock-in-progress has a heel after three attempts. I watched most of Lucy's first Sock DVD while I knit this afternoon. These DVDs contain so much useful stuff, I need to just run them all a few times each while I work on simpler knitting. My brain doesn't have room to knit anything complex at the same time. A sock heel was pushing it.