KarenJoSeattle

Jumpstarted - Up and Running Again, I Hope

About 6 weeks ago, during the first week of January, I sat on a bus across from a young woman carrying a snowboard. She'd likely gotten it as a present and taken it out that day for its first runs. The colors and designs still looked clear and unmuddied, in contrast to the bottom foot or so of her insulated pants. She obviously enjoyed her turn as the point of interest on that bus run.

I envied her a bit. Usually I ride with my knitting for a good 20 minutes of progress each way and an opportunity to sit and knit over coffee after my appointment. But that day I had just a book with me. It was a knitting book, but still, books are common on the bus and I'd grown used to being among the less common.

We'd taken our usual multi-week trip out of state for the holidays, but this year I picked up the cold from hell on the way home. That day I was "well" enough to go out, but hadn't managed to start a new project and had nothing in a pick-up-and-knit state.

Two weeks later I sat on the same bus reading the same book, now overdue at the library, on my first day back out following another stint in bed struggling to breathe. I still hadn't cast on anything, or posted to this blog, or caught up on my e-mail, or all the other thousand things I needed to do to get back to normal life. It took another week of sleep to feel up to playing catch-up and I'm still nowhere near there yet.

But, a bit over a week ago I came to grips with my self-imposed impending deadline of at least one (I'd started with a plan of 3) new sweater for the Madrona Retreat and the fact, hard as it was, that I actually had to knit something for that to happen.

So, in fits and starts, I finally picked my November NaKniSweMo top-down sweater back up as my first NaKniSweMoDo project, re-watched Lucy's section on one of her DVDs about picot bind-off and cast off the friggin' body of the sweater. I did get the neckline edging picked up and done - twice - and started on one of the 3/4 length sleeves before I had a day of running around so I could be gone for 4 days at Madrona. The sweater actually got finished, other than blocking, Saturday night in the hotel bar. That is, finished if the slight wonkiness still in the neck edging blocks out. If it doesn't, I'll undo the bind-off and try going down yet another needles size - I went down 2 already - and decrease in a few more places to pull the edge in yet more - I did decrease 10% of the stitches after I picked up and I decreased a few around the edge when I bound off. Karen thinks it's the 'liveliness' of the Socks That Rock that makes it want to stand away from the body.

But, despite not finishing anything in time to wear it there, Madrona was as exhilarating and exhausting as I expect from it and I've already started the next sweater. Plus, I have a ton of blog fodder now that I can make myself sit down and get back to it. I think I'm up and running again.

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.

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.

Boy, am I out of the loop!

I just found out Stephanie will be at Third Place Books on Monday, October 6th. I do have 3598 posts on my Bloglines, despite a few random efforts to read/delete them over the last few months. Fifty-one of those are Stephanie's, so you know I've been seriously out of circulation for a while. Seriously.

I have a couple of local friends whose blogs I've kept up on and one on perfume I'd read when I needed an evening to completely escape. I'll chip away at it, but please don't be offended if I'm not back commenting on a bunch of blogs right away.

And thanks for the comments on my last post. It's nice to see people still showing up here. It's less nice to see that Typepad still hasn't fixed their issues with not getting e-mail notification on comments delivered. I'm sorry I can't take time today to dig up e-mail addresses to reply. I have to take my cats to get their teeth cleaned, pick out new doorknobs for the house in California, and go to my aesthetician/friend for a facial, manicure, and pedicure. It is nice to be home and fairly back to normal.

Oh, and I'd better fit in some serious stretching with my workout so I'm a bit less stiff in my Pilates lesson tomorrow. All the packing, lifting, and driving have left me feeling old and creaky. Sometimes it hurts if I sit and knit for too long.

Plus, Twyla Tharp has been in Seattle for several weeks setting two new works on the dancers at Pacific Northwest Ballet. (For those who aren't dance geeks, that means she's choreographing new dances by working directly with those who'll be dancing them.) We got to observe her working in the studio with the dancers before my last trip. In the last week we've gone to a studio rehearsal, seen her demo/lecture on the dances, gone to a signing of her book on creativity, and tonight went to the dress rehearsal. Watching her and listening to her daily routine makes me feel old and creaky. Not that I'd want to live the way she does - just to move the way she does. But I'll never get up at 5:30 every morning to do an hour of stretching and an hour of other exercise or eat a half a pound of roast beef for lunch every day, so I guess I never will. Then, again, I bet I'm better at knitting than she is. Maybe. (Photo from The Gap's publicity archives.)

Washcloth #1 - 1 Day, Washcloth #2 - 2+ Weeks, Blogging it - 3+ Months

Yes, I know it's more like 5 months, but I like the 1-2-3 symmetry. It also gives you an idea of how long I've been planning to get back to the blog.

Since the first of the year I have staged, listed, sold and moved three houses. That includes my mother's house, which took as much work as either of my own despite help from my four siblings and my mom. Her house and the one we had in California got combined into one house, requiring lots of downsizing, yard sales, a sale and auction of my father's collection of Arts and Crafts antiques in Berkeley, and installation of the remainder into an antique mall in Monterey, both a few hours drive from our new house and each other.

About the time our California contractor started building a garage for the new house down there while we sorted our island house up here to put into storage what we wanted to keep for a future house to share with my husband's parents, I came to the realization I absolutely had to let some things go. Sorry the change was so abrupt. Anyone who's been through even one house sale and move should understand.

I have been doing some knitting; mostly simple stuff for my sanity. I do have some things to share in the near future. And I have some knitting events coming up.

Anyone who can get to Seattle on Wednesday, October 1st needs to know that Lucy Neatby will be speaking at a special meeting of the Seattle Knitters Guild that evening. She'll be in town for a series of workshops through Churchmouse. Yes, I'm signed up for ALL of them.

And, sorry again, I forgot to get a photo of the second washcloth before I sent it off. Here's one of the remains instead.

It's nice to be back.

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?)

. 

. 

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.

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.

F as in Fiber Frenzy

Every Year for the March meeting the Seattle Knitter's Guild (Ravelry group) hold a Fiber Frenzy. Members can bring anything knitting or fiber related to sell.

Last year the Frenzy was my first Guild meeting. This year I cleaned out my Clover bamboo needle, labeled them, and took them to sell. For the last couple of years I've used my Addi Naturas instead.

There were a lot of people selling this year. We had to set up more tables. The quality of the yarn available was pretty high and included hand-dyed, undyed, hand spun and dyed, lots of Koigu in multi-skein lots, and many luxury yarns.

I did buy two yarns: about 300 yards of a cream Border Leicester blended with 15% alpaca and 2000 yards of 7 spi Jaeger 100% Alpaca in a golden brown (with one ball partly swatched.) I passed up a lot of beautiful yarn, though most got bought quickly by others.

I didn't sell all of my needle, actually not even half as I had a lot of needles, but I came out ahead for the evening. And I had a nice time chatting with Joy who had the table space next to me but who I'd not

met before, only seen around guild events.

New Knit Nite

At Madrona I learned that a twice-a-month Knit Nite happens at the WAC, just 8 or 9 blocks from my place. Last night I attended my first one.

Since I arrived a good hour after the start, the conversation was already in full swing. Actually, the size of the group usually resulted in more than one conversation happening at once.

I know one member from the Guild, Sue in red on the left, and I met Jenn, in the black sweater on the right, at Madrona. Otherwise, this group consists of all new-to-me knitters. Still, I felt comfortable as soon as I sat down. I hope my California real estate deals don't keep me from attending at least one of next month's meetings.

One note - even if you only have an eight-block walk home, use the restroom before you leave the bar.

This morning when I got out my EPS sleeve I noticed a little souvenir of Knit Nite. I ignored it for a few more rounds, but then had to try the thing on to see how noticeable it would be. I'm torn as to whether I want to continue to ignore this, rip back and reknit, or rip and start over. I have a couple of other minor things I'd change if I did restart. Interestingly, based on placement I did this before my red wine even arrived.

Ultimately I did the logical thing - started the second sleeve. That should give me some time to come to grips with what needs to happen to Sleeve #1. And I can try the other changes.

Deborah (gray sweater on left), here's the link to the one source I know of for this discontinued yarn. For everyone else, the color is between that in the two photos; a rosy rust called Maple. The price is for a bags of ten balls.

Decompression

I'm so glad I scheduled a Pilates class the day after Madrona. I really needed the unkink.

I  think I knit about 12 or 15 hours a day - while eating, while chatting, while sitting in classes, and while sitting on the floor in the bar.

I learned a lot, especially a lot of the little details that make for good knitting - both in process and product. Much of it I actually learned in classes but I seemed to be learning all the time. No wonder I came home so exhausted - that and averaging less than four hours of sleep a night four nights running.

I met/spent time with other knitbloggers like Erika (no photo, sorry), Weebug (left), and Ryan (right). Ryan and I communicate regularly via comments but at many Guild meetings and other knitting events just managed to wave as we rushed past each other. We finally got to spend some real time chatting.

I found a group of knitters meet regularly about six blocks from where I live. And I got on the e-mail list for the meets.

Besides close encounters with great instructors in the hallways and Marketplace as well as in the fairly small classes, we got to both see and touch examples of their work on the opening night.

Lucy Neatby's table:

Ruth Sorensen's:

Myra Wood's:

At the Marketplace I almost got run down by Stephanie on a mission to get the black and gray Kauni yarn for the ribbed and lace skirt shown on Ruth's table above. Luckily, I'd just decided I wouldn't get it right then and asked the owner for a card for her shop. (Note re Stephanie and skirts - she wore one on Sunday, perhaps only to prove that she does wear them so knitting one is not futile, but then, she did pack one.)

Really part of the reason for the delayed decision, aside from all the yarn I'd already bought or special ordered, was difficulty choosing between color combinations.

The colors on the pairs of balls are the same. The difference comes from the direction the color repeat got wound. I was warned that if you just used two of the contrasting balls from the start for a stranded Kauni sweater that you'd likely come to a spot where the colors of the two balls were too close in tone. Instead you're supposed to get two of the same wind and start one a bit further along.

Note that Stephanie got a pair of differently wrapped balls. Since she's knit a Kauni cardigan, I expect she didn't have this problem. But, wait, on the skirt you alternate rows of the same color from two balls to get wider stripes with graded color changes. Hmm.

I feel in danger of drifting off into babbling. I'd better go catch up on more sleep. Maybe I'll have another night of Madrona-based dreams.

Madrona First Day Photos

The 3 stitches/inch blend of cream alpaca and 'Lilac" Jacob wool I bought. I have 1389 yards in 3 skeins, though there are some slubs and loosely spun spots I may want to eliminate as I knit.

This looks like a cream yarn but with some depth and a light grayed tone. It should make a nice basic heavy cardigan with maybe some cables. I should have plenty of yardage for anything I want to do.

A cardigan of some interesting cream yarn has topped my want list for a couple of years, so this was an easy choice. I might even get more tomorrow to do a scarf and hat as I use my one off-white scarf more often than any other and it's not my most warm one.

The display of the new black colors at Blue Moon. I bought two sweater's worth of heavy weight and one t-shirt sweater's worth of light weight, but not in one of these colors. they're all blues, mostly with gray tones, and they don't want to photograph tonight.

The Kaunis at the Charity Night function. Ruth, the pattern designer here from Denmark, stands second from the left in the back row. Purlwise is at the back right, Stephanie center front.

And look what I got, Margene - size 7 and 8US Addi Lace Needles from Acorn Street Yarn.

Besides interesting classes, good teachers, and a 34 vendor market there are almost 600 avid fiberistas, mostly knitters enrolled and more dropping by to shop and chat.

More tomorrow. Like the glass buttons I'll likely buy.

The Sweater Won't Be Done, But I'm Prepared

In no way, no matter how optimistically I look at it, can I expect to finish my Biscuit cardigan for Madrona. I could finish the sleeve, but that leaves the button bands - and lots and lots of seams.

I do have other knitted items I can wear.

Later tonight I'll cast on my EZ EPS sweater for some simple Retreat knitting. As I have Fleece Artist sock yarn for this project, the cast on may take awhile, especially as I plan to use Cat Bordhi's version of Judy's Magic Cast-on, so I need to cast on twice my number of stitches.

Elizabeth Zimmerman often used a hemmed bottom edge on her sweaters, but she usually picked up stitches and knit the hem down. I'll test the use of the Magic Cast On provisionally by casting on the total number of stitches on each needle and then knitting on only one of them. That leaves the other set of stitches waiting on its needle to make a hem by knitting down.

I think I'll make cuffs using the same technique - if I can get one more skein of my yarn. Currently, the Loopy Ewe doesn't have more and my current stock may not stretch to cuffs and collars.

Tomorrow I'll spend my day driving. First I'll pick up Myra Woods, one of the instructors for Madrona, at the airport and take her to the hotel to check in. Then we head back to Seattle to have dinner with the Seattle Knitting Guild board of directors before Myra speaks at the Guild meeting. Then we return to the hotel for four days of sitting and knitting.

In preparation, today I had a Pilates lesson and then a nice relaxing facial. I still need to pack, write a generic post or two to queue up in case I don't get on line during the Retreat, and do my cast-on. Instead, I'm I'm watching Tivoed Jane Austin.

In my normal form, I'll start off my retreat with a short night of sleep. And I'll probably continue in that vein. And have a great time.

Make My Day

Back on the 30th while I was tied up with life beyond blogdom, Laura, who is probably my oldest blogging buddy from this first year of posting, tagged my for an award. This is definitely my first blog-related award. And it's a good one from someone who's opinion I value.

The rules of the You Make My Day Award are:

Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.

Since I've gotten so behind on my blog reading lately, right now I can really see who I make time for as often as I can.

Some of the blogs I read regularly are the big ones that top most lists. I've read The Yarn Harlot for as long as I've read blogs and comment regularly. Stephanie is one of those people so amazingly nice and real that, despite the volume of comments she gets, she reads her commenters' blogs and occasionally sends responses to comments. It really made my day when she knew who I was at her last appearance here. I also read Franklin's posts and Laurie's pretty much as soon as they post them (but even here I have gotten days behind recently). Though three very distinct personalities, they all have that ironic/sardonic/self aware kind of humor I like. Plus, they all can write well while very rarely tipping the the balance to too silly or cutsie or flip.

But these big-name blogs aren't really the point of an award like this. This is more about those people you develop a relationship with - a relationship akin to the neighbor where you really click  and get together for coffee and chatting on a regular basis. I've had neighbors I got along with and visited often, but in the world of blogs I have so many 'neighbors' I can find ones I really feel comfortable around and miss that daily contact when one or the other of us is busy.

In no special order at all:

I have to return the compliment to Laura at Fiber Dreams. We really don't have quite the same style of knitting, but our interests compliment and contrast. I'll visit her area this summer and may actually get to meet her.

Karen (akabini) is the instructor who made knitting really click for me this time around. Though I see her in real life fairly often, it's nice to easily keep up with those little details.

A View From Sierra County, home to Birdsong, comes from a place just a bit north of the small town in the California foothills where I grew up. She lives that country lifestyle so many of us think we want but so few can really pull off.

Consummate commenter Karen at Yarn Is My Metier manages to design lovely knitwear that actually look wearable while nursing an uncooperative shoulder and seeming to appear everywhere in Blogland. I'm very happy she includes me on her rounds.

Vicki knitorious runs most of the few group blog events in which I participate.Her style of 'leadership' suits me well and her site really feels like a friend's livingroom.

Zeneedle suits Margene's site well as a title. Her projects and her shots of the Utah landscape where she lives rival each other's ability to inspire awe but both just feel like a part of the Zen that is Margene.

Despite her occasional insistence otherwise, Ann has an open, easy-going style in a space where she celebrates the ability to immerse herself in both her knitting and her pig-collecting passions with abandon at purlingswine.

Rabbich is just Rabbich - take it or leave it, it's no skin off her nose. At Laurie's book signing when Rabbich asked the person in line in front of me if they knew her, I promptly replied 'You're Rabbich.' Only several minutes later did I realized I'd never actually met her in the flesh before.

Erika lives in a smaller version of the residence in the country where I grew up. Though I'm now more 'mature' about sharing my space with mice and such - at least up to the point of actual contact - I recognize her wrong-place-at-the-right-time sort of bumbling through alien situations that I saw in my mother, especially, and to some extent myself, in my early youth. And she knit a sweater for a tree for her 15 minutes of fame plus the derivation of her blog name, Redshirt Knitting.

Feral Knitter Janine does some amazing colorwork and is patiently generous with her knowledge and expertise both on-line and in person.

ashpags wins Honorary mention for her regular commenting here, but she needs to blog more on her own site before I'd feel it contained enough to merit this particular award.

Notifications in comments will have to wait until morning. It's actually quarter to two and I just fell asleep sitting up for the second time. 

B is for Bordhi and little sock-heel Bowl

I'm wide awake, so you get a post before I head off to Arizona in the morning.

If you like to knit socks and can manage to get to a class with Cat Bordhi on her new sock architectures, do it. Go with an open mind for seeing the way socks fit a foot in new light.

One of the things Cat discovered is the the 'gussets' don't have to be in pairs or in a particular location on a sock. The 'gusset' on the mauve mini sock I knit in class spreads over the top of the instep and is created with yarn overs.

On this red mini-sock-in-progress the 'gusset' is expanding in the arch area on the bottom of the foot.

In the full size samples Cat brought you could immediately see that these new architectures give a traditionally shaped sock when finished. Despite all expectations and preconceptions to the contrary.

Cat now uses her version of Judy's Magic Cast On for almost all of her sock knitting, though she includes others in her book. She is currently encouraging Judy through the process of writing a book on the many ways to use this cast-on after convincing her to write it.

One thing that hadn't occurred to me - with this cast-on, if you just continue to knit flat on the first needle you end up with a provisional cast-on with a needle already threaded through it back at the start.

Cat insists she's not really that smart, just willing to suspend her beliefs and think about things in new ways. I think she'd need both the willingness and the smarts to come up with and work through the things she does.

Cat has also come up with a toe up technique for constructing a heel that looks like a traditional flap-style, but nothing ever flaps and you don't have to pick up stitches.

And she showed us a technique for picking up her short row wraps and putting them behind the stitch on the needle. This both hides the wrap and makes it much easier to knit it together with the stitch.

In class we made little baskets using the heel turn twice to learn the technique before starting our mini socks. This lovely little one was knit by Cat. Mine had a decided difference in gauge between the two halves of its bottom.

If you can't get to a class with her, get the book and then check out her YouTube videos of many of the new techniques in the book. The videos are very informal and a bit funny, like Cat, but very informative and clear, also like Cat.

Wow, I Think I Lucked Out

The registration for Madrona did not go smoothly this morning. A glitch in the system made classes incorrectly appear full. They shut the process down for repairs.

I happened to be on line when the e-mail went out to re-register or try to register again. The first time I had managed to actually get registered after several circuits through the process, but in only two classes when I wanted five. On second try I got my five classes, including a tips class with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee I hadn't counted on getting. In addition, I registered for two technique classes and two on yarns. Yee haw.

My Jaeger Biscuit sweater now has a back and two fronts. The yarn has lots of twist and I knit it slightly tighter than normal, so the pieces are a bit uptight.

Today I got them to relax enough to let me pick up and knit my bands with less of a fight to get to the stitches. I blocked the three pieces lightly while I headed out to spend the afternoon with a friend.

I think the light blocking made just enough difference. At some point this fabric will need a fairly severe blocking to get it to drape the way a semi-drop shoulder cardigan should. I'll probably block again before I sew it together and do a serious job then. After it's in one piece I'll try a lighter block, but may decide I need more.

Most of that will actually happen in another state. On Wednesday we leave for our annual trip to California to do a series of holiday celebrations with our families over the next few weeks.

I'm Ready

At 8AM tomorrow registration for the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat opens. The last three years I missed the sign-ups until all the classes had filled.

This year I finally figured out how to sign-up for the e-mail notifications and reminders.

And I printed out a spread sheet of my desired classes and second choices.

I'm ready. As long as I don't over sleep, I'm ready. As a night owl, I rarely get up by 8 AM . Tomorrow, I need to not only get up, but be coherent and coordinated on the keyboard.

Really, after three years of disappointment, I'd take just about any class they have available. They really haven't scheduled any I wouldn't find interesting - though some I wouldn't have the right experience for.

And, then, I'd get to spend four days in a hotel full of avid knitters.

Overbooked

So, I got off the ferry from my two knitting classes five  minutes after the time for Laurie/Crazy Aunt Purl to start reading from her new book. I trotted through the rain up the hill to Third Avenue with my umbrella, extra large purse stuffed with things like the skein of Casbah and a hat a friend couldn't finish due to mohair allergies, plus two sweater-sized project bags with all the sweater makings in them. No time to stop and drop stuff off at home.

As I hopped on a bus I realized that the free-ride hours had also expired about when Laurie purportedly started to read. I set down the two project bags and began to dig in my purse for my wallet. The drip from my umbrella ran into my left shoe.

The bus driver told me I had to move that stuff behind the line. I slung everything, including the purse, over the line and crouched down to pull the knitting out of my bag so I could find my wallet before we got to the next stop and someone wanted to get to the door to get off.

The light turned green and the bus moved. I sat down in the aisle - hard.  I thought what an appropriately Laurie moment I was having as I sat there and rummaged for my fare. I found the wallet and the bus money stash, slung everything back over my shoulder and lurched back up to drop my fare in the box.

Eight blocks later I dashed off the bus, saving about seven minutes over walking based on my frequent experience with these hills and stoplights. About twenty minutes after the designated time I rolled into Barnes and Noble.

The store had about half enough chairs from what I could see through the standees. I found a spot where I could see Laurie between heads and also stash my load out of the traffic pattern. She had already sat back down after reading and now answered questions. What questions I don't know since I couldn't hear them and could only understand about half of what Laurie said. That half was funny.

When she finished I went up to the front registers to claim my saved copy of her book and see if they had more copies so I could get a second one. The young guy at the register really did seem sorry that he didn't have extra copies there.

I cruised around looking for where they had put the books - not with the knitting books or on any of the tables I could get to. Quite a few people still milled around working their way to the back of the line.

I asked at the information desk at the edge of the crowd. The young woman there thought the books were on a table right in front of Laurie. She waded into the crowd, but returned to tell me none remained. I got back on line at the registers and paid for my held copy, very glad I'd preordered one and wishing I'd requested two. I wanted the second to stash for a future blog drawing.

Then I made my way to the end of the signing line - literally. I was last in line until just a minute before my turn when a couple more people added on.

As I got on line, the woman in front of me told the woman a couple of people ahead that she looked very familiar.

"You know me?" she asked.

I looked up and said, "You're Rabbitch."

"Yep," she replied.

Only after I'd waited for the hour it took to get to my turn and saw Rabbitch sitting to one side with her friends did it occur to me that I'd never actually met her in person before. I introduced myself and chatted for a minute.

The wait went well. I talked knitting and town of origin with the three women in line ahead of me. I almost got a second book.

One of the women in front of me had no book. The redhead who seemed to be running the signing tried to find her one and thought she had. Then they discovered it was already inscribed and just misplaced by its owner so she still had none.

The woman who had been helping me at the information booth earlier showed up with an actual unclaimed copy. The knitter in me won out over the blogger and I handed it to the woman with no book.

When it was her turn for photos and signatures, that same woman joked with Laurie about Photoshopping the picture. Laurie said she intended to Photoshop one of herself with a naked Al Gore.

The redheaded organizer  said that this was the best group she'd had in several years of signings and she do an event for knitters any time.

We just smiled and agreed. No one bothered to mention the need for more chairs, more books, or a microphone. She looked much too happy so we just left one more person with an improved view of who knitters actually are. Besides, we'd had a good time.

As I gathered my bags to leave Laurie told me she really liked a woman who traveled heavy.

The rain stopped as I walked home.

Selbuvotter

Last night Terri Shea spoke to the Seattle Knitting Guild on her book Selbuvotter and how it came about. Selbu is an place in Norway and votter means mitten in Norwegian.

The area has a more than 100 year history of knitting mittens and other goods in their distinctive two-color style for sale in Norway and for export. Selbu's two-color style can be traced back to one woman and a dare. The flight of some of the Selbu knitters to Scotland during the German occupation of Norway in WWII led to many of the motifs used in the Fair Isle style we are familiar with today.

Terri comes across as very relaxed and familiar with her topic. She also has a keen and somewhat self deprecating sense of humor. I had a good time listening to her.

Terri worked in the computer field until the dot com bust resulted in the company she worked for folding while she was on maternity leave. After finding herself unhappy spending all of her time at home, she enrolled in a museum studies certificate program through the University of Washington.

She ended up at the Nordic Heritage Museum for her practicum where she sorted and cataloged their collection of Scandinavian mittens. Her main job involved sorting out the computer archival system for them, but along the way it was decided that for her final project she would knit samples of the Selbuvotter-style of Norwegian two-color mittens for the museum.

During this project she could find no English sources on the Norwegian mittens and she doesn't speak Norwegian. So she wrote one. Unfortunately, though many liked the book, no publisher could fit it into their publication schedule. Fortunately, Terri published it herself and has done very well with it.

Terri will teach a class at the full Nordic Knitting Conference in Seattle next month.

Edited for clarity of the Fair Isle comment. Also the Selbu knitters still have a guild (husflid) with a web site. http://www.selbuhusflid.no/default.asp

The Harlot Effect

At 5:37 PM Pacific time yesterday The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, posted her blog entry in which she linked to my blog.

TypePad tracks blog statistics on Greenwich Mean Time. Since 5PM Pacific time corresponds to midnight in GMT, my stats had just reset for a new day. I got the first hit from her blog at 5:38. Odds are good I had fewer than a half a dozen hits in the previous 38 minutes of the stats day.

At 4:39 PM today, 23 hours later, my Stats page looked like this.

Note the day's total (1337) versus the last seven days (1610) and the Lifetime totals (5367). I've only blogged for five months as of yesterday and I have worked on some ways to increase my blog traffic, though I've only done one KAL. The last couple of weeks I've averaged around 40 to 45 page hits per day.

TypePad timed an issue with my e-mail notification for comments to coincide with this week. If you leave a comment I'll try to find an e-mail address to send you a thank you. I really do appreciate those who stay and chat.

Next month for my six month anniversary I'll do a give-away of the second copy of Casts Off I got Stephanie to sign. Come back a few days before that to check on details.

Of course, you all are very welcome to hang around here between now and then if you like. I hope some of you do.

Gone a'Harloting

So, tonight Stephanie made her first appearance on this round of tours for her new book. Karen (of the Wedding Shower), Anne (Shower Guest winner of book and signing ticket), and I met downtown at my place and piled into my car at quarter to five. We arrived just over an hour ahead of the talk and got center aisle seats in row six. Yahoo!

This photo shows the crowd about 15 minutes before Stephanie appeared. A few chairs hadn't been claimed yet, but the book store's signing area sits in the middle of a Food Court and many knitters still foraged there for dinner. Some of the adjacent dining tables also held knitters.

The requisite photo of the sock photo. Photographing someone all in brown against a black backdrop while sitting in a bright room presents some challenges for on-the-fly photography. The all-brown outfit, she said, led to a revelation that she no longer dressed, she put on backdrops for shawls.

Stephanie looked relaxed and cheerful when she came out. I felt lucky to see here on her first stop of a tour, but I think she'd always look cheerful. OK, maybe not during the Detroit airport thing, but I bet she beamed that 100 watt smile at the room once she saw how many knitters stayed and waited.

Compared to an on-again, off-again relationship with Mr. Washie and wrangling three daughters through adolescence in a major city, a roomful of knitters waiting to laugh and talk knitting must be a treat despite the occasional bad flight, way too little sleep, no edible food, tubless hotel rooms, spiders in the night, O'Hare, and frantic logistics. Well, at least while you're there in the room it must seem like a treat.

I hope. She's much too nice a person for me to feel OK that I put her through all that if she didn't get something out of it, too -- besides just the author-required-to-tour-and-sell-books stuff.

Stephanie spoke of CHOKE, Cultural Humiliation of Knitters Everywhere, and some of the more memorable instances when she came up against it. Most of the examples she shared involved total and satisfying vindication on her behalf. We all enjoyed the vicarious  triumphs.

Then Karen, Ann, and I filed back to the bookstore signing area to line up near the front of the crowd (400 to 500 knitters) with our precious Group A signing tickets. As usual, Stephanie took the time to chat with each person, admiring or giving advice on projects they brought and thanking them for coming.

We came bearing gifts. In lieu of wedding shower gifts, Karen had asked for donations to Doctors Without Borders, plus included proceeds from the silent auction of a Philosopher's Yarn sweater kit. During her talk Stephanie spoke about her Knitters Without Borders drive and how much it has raised - over $370,000 and counting - so we felt especially jazzed as we presented her with our symbolic check for the $1350 we collected. She rewarded us with an obviously deep felt thank you.

For reference, I'm the tall one of this group at 5'7".

Still, she might have been even more enthusiastic about our other gift. I completely understand the trials of airport food as I don't eat meat and am allergic to milk. Most airports offer nothing beyond the traditional American junk food diet. Sometimes I can't even find my personal fast food meal of a soy milk latte. As Stephanie said, "Could you occasionally do something without bacon on it, guys?"

I brought her a gallon zip lock bag of airport food, including some 'organic snack food' from a Seattle company. In the realm of healthy food, it won't rank high up the scale, but beats almost anything found even in Sea-Tac with its sparkling new food court.

   

   

I also included a couple packets of baby carrots. Have to keep our Harlot healthy for the next group. They deserve as good a night as we had.

And a Good Time Was Had

Today I held a wedding shower for my friend Karen (akabini), shown here with her mother, Lisa, just before the guests arrived.

The weather turned out beautiful. The group turned out the right size and a nice mix of women.

This was Karen's 'Knitting Shower.' We drank champagne, ate lots of food, especially sweet food, and knit hats for Afghan refugees.

I think I would have done just fine if I drank champagne and knit, or if I played hostess and knit.

But the combination of champagne, hostess, and knitting didn't work so well.

Before I joined into the round I tried to knit two rounds (to make twisting less likely) but at one point ended up knitting back backwards. I've been doing that on my cardigan and apparently it's now ingrained in my knitting memory banks.

Then I kept knitting off the second needle onto one. I quit when I ended up with this. I'm not sure what I did. I'm on one needle, but in two loops with the two needles nowhere close to each other.

I think an autopsy may be in order.

Fortunately, everyone else did fine and we will have a dozen or more nice hats to ship off. Notice two hats completed in an hour and a half and most over half done.

I'll post more photos tomorrow. We had a great time.

Ready or Not

Actually, I'm very close to ready.

Tomorrow I give a shower for my friend Karen. We will try combining 18 women, a case of champagne, and knitting.

We're not dumb, though. We'll be knitting on US 10 needles.

I just need to cut up fruit and cheese and post the signs and balloons to guide the guests. Oh, and sneak in a trip to the LYS anniversary sale before guests arrive.

I even got a bit of knitting in today. Mainly, I fixed where I'd dropped a K3tog yesterday. Silk done in a loose gauge ravels down pretty quickly. I even had a problem with my coilless safety pins slipping through the loops rather than holding the stitches.

But, I'm back to where I was plus a few rows. The same amount of knitting again should finish this piece, but I may not get it done tomorrow.

   

Depends on how much of the champagne I drink.

Phooey!

The yarn dyeing workshop I'd signed up to take this weekend won't happen. Too few people enrolled and they canceled. Apparently everyone would rather go sailing, or hiking, or drive over to the coast on an August weekend than to spend 6 hours a day for two days bent over steamy fumes in a room above a yarn store. 

I, on the other hand, so looked forward to this. I love to play with color and color combinations. The idea of knitting with yarn in colors I created myself excited me. No, I'm actually not easily excited. Usually.

Can anyone recommend good books on hand-dyeing yarn? I need something to appease me until the self-striping sock yarn dyeing workshop I take in mid-September. That has enough registrants already.

I guess I now have a bunch of time to knit this weekend. Or to actually get organized for the wedding shower I give in two weeks.

It is a knitting-themed shower, so I can throw in a stop or two to look for mark-down chunky wool appropriate for hats for Afghan refugees in between buying balloons and paper plates. Oh, and I can look for dyeing books while I'm there.

We'll knit the hats at the party -- about an hour after we start drinking champagne. Should be fun. Do you think the one case of champagne I bought today will be enough for about 25 or 30 knitters?  We'll switch to tea after a couple of hours. That'll give everyone an hour or so to metabolize before they head home.

Oh, I also need to remember to write to the Nordic Knitting Conference and point out that I sent them an e-mail ten days ago explaining my October family event I'd put on my calendar for two weeks after their conference is actually the same weekend -- in another state. I found nothing on the web-site or registration materials telling me how to cancel.

The only response my e-mail got was a form basically letting me know I actually got into the Elsebeth Lavold class I'd been wait-listed for. Rats. I assume the timing was coincidental rather than actually a response. The form did also note I have to cancel by September first; a week from tomorrow.

I'd better write the letter first, then go do the yarn and book shopping shower-related errands.

I really hope no more of my knitting events get canceled this fall. Since I just have the sock yarn class and the wedding shower left, I think others would wish me better luck, too. Karen, no problems have cropped up that could result in my returning this case of champagne, have they?

My Lucky Day

I had another nice day yesterday, but little knitting content of any kind happened. A non-knitting friend and I took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island and spent the day eating and shopping. We did go into Churchmouse, but I actually didn't buy anything.

I did finish the heel of the sock and a few rounds around the ankle. I think I'll knit a few more rounds before I start the pattern on the back of the leg. I want the thicker patterning to begin above the top edge of my shoes.

Today while I ran errands, I drove up to Third Place Books where Stephanie speaks on September 14th. According to their web-site, tickets for the signing line become available with book purchases starting tomorrow.

I need to be back on Bainbridge working in the garden (in the rain) all day tomorrow.

So I planned to ask them if I could buy the three copies of the book I needed today and somehow reserve the signing line tickets to pick up later, or have them mailed, or something -- pretty please.

Between the time I walked in the door and when I asked my questions at information, while I found some books on color work I hadn't seen before and the new James Tiptree, Jr. biography that Spousal-Unit wanted, they set up the display of Casts Off near the registers and stocked the signing line tickets behind the counter. An hour before the store closed on the day before they were due to become available, I walked out with three books and three Group A signing tickets; the first issued as far as I could tell. It seemed like this was pretty routine so I'll keep it in mind for any other big signings I want to attend there.

I also got more storage boxes for organizing yarn. Then I came home and knit on the Mountain Colors cardigan to the point of the front neck increases. Had another nice day. I don't think my luck will hold through tomorrow.

A Very Nice Week

I had a pretty nice week, knitting and knitting community wise.

I passed 100 posts and the four-month mark in my blogging.

I blocked one finished Pinnate Shawl and finished and blocked another.

I finally started my Mountain Colors cardigan.

I got a couple of boxes of yarn in the mail, mostly containing discounted (and discontinued)Jaeger Extra Fine Merino.

I had a post selected for Yarnival. Since january one hosted this month's edition, I've had two or three hundred people click on my post since Wednesday.

Wednesday evening I went to the Ice Cream Social at the Seattle Knitters Guild August meeting. I just joined the Guild and started going to meetings a few months ago. This one was all about socializing so I talked to several people I've kind of met at meetings or on the bus trip to the Lavender Festival last month. I also finally met Ryan of Mossy Cottage and got to visit with some of her recent projects in person.

I won the Weekly Link Contest at the Summer of Socks 2007 KAL with a link to hand and wrist stretches. More people stopped by the blog from that post. Thanks, Margene for being my source for the link in the first place.

Today Ryan, who's a sweetie herself, posted about Wednesday's Guild meeting and said some extremely nice things about me, as well as linking to my blog which brought yet more people over. One of those was Kim, from Knits with a Silent K, who apparently had made futile efforts (due to lack of information from Blogger) to find my blog after I commented on hers.

Then Jo Anne from Ottawa, apparently blogless but a repeat commenter on my blog, said in a reply to my thank-you e-mail that I'm on her daily blog list "right up there with the Harlot, Rabbich, and Franklin." Which both made me speechless and made a superlative end to a mighty fine week.

No Sheep for Us

Tuesday night I took the ferry over to Churchmouse Yarns to see Amy Singer talk on non-wool yarns. Froggin' Knitter and I met on the boat but, bad blogger that I am, I got not photos of Karen. (I really need to make a sidebar list of sites belonging to knitters named Karen.)

   

   

   

Amy talked casually with many quips and jokes, and she included us in the conversation. We made comments, asked questions, laughed at the jokes, and managed to stay fairly controlled and polite.

   

   

Amy gave lots of examples to convince us of the unpredictability of non-wool yarns. Two yarns with the same fiber content may make completely different fabrics. Looking at a non-wool yarn won't tell you how it will knit up. Even swatching won't tell you how it will act with washing or wearing.

You need to swatch, but not so much for gauge as for feel and personality. You need to swatch large to get a good idea of what the yarn will really do -- how it will drape, or pull, or split. You need to wash your swatch the way you'll actually want to wash your piece, not the way you think you should wash it. And you need to pin the swatch to a bulletin board for a day or two or hang it somehow so you can see what it will do in the wearing.

Then you need to be prepared for the yarn to have lied to you, or at least to fibbed a bit. Because non-wool fibers are less predicable.

   

Kit had a nice selection of non-wool yarns on hand, including a new shipment of Handmaiden Silken and Sea Silk. She passed around some sample garments, including a sweater from Rowan's Coast book that came close to stowing away in Amy's luggage.

Kit and Laura do a great job of organizing interesting and useful classes.

   

The Churchmouse staff got everyone cheerfully and efficiently helped and checked out on a break and after class. And Kit's husband John graciously poured tea and sherry for all. I always have a good time at a Churchmouse class and I learn something useful.                                                                                                                                             

I learned I have a serious thing for silk. And that I will occasionally fall for something way out of my normal color and texture range.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and...Lavender

Today I went to the Lavender Festival in Sequim (pronounced like swim with a q - it's a mangling of an American Indian name).

There were fields of lavender...

And baby alpacas...

And hand-dyed yarn...

And 41 other knitters. I signed up for the Seattle Knitters Guild bus trip.

On the way to the Festival we stopped at The Artful Ewe, where the owner dyes all the yarns and fibers. I got the merino/mohair/nylon boucle, the blue llama/merino Peruvian Highland wool, and the very soft alpaca/tencel blend. The spinners all came out with bags of beautiful mixed fibers in interesting color combinations.

From there we rode on to three lavender farms where we lined up to eat food marinated in lavender, waited in line to buy lavender oils, lotions, and soaps, got on line for the restrooms, and stood waist-deep in the middle of fields of lavender and inhaled.

At times the ride was eerily quiet for a bus full of women. Most took advantage of decent stretches of knitting time.

On the way home we stopped at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. I picked up the Koigu I'd called to put on hold after I watched Kit unpack it and then left without any. Fortunately the 10% discount cards Kit gave tour participants followed her usual rule of expiring in a year. We got only twenty-five minutes there. Forty-two women can't check out in twenty-five minutes, much less do justice to that store.

From Churchmouse, rather than riding the bus across town I walked off the ferry and then the three blocks home through downtown Seattle. The Smile Guy teetered next to his sign. The German family from the ferry opened plaid umbrellas that matched their outfits. A girl wearing a beauty-pagent style sash labeled BRIDESMAID over her cropped black hoodie passed me at a trot.

I enjoyed the trip with a busload of like-minded people, but was happy to be home.

Oh, there was a typo for the number of cast-on stitches in my Pinnate Sholder Shawl. Cast on 60, not 61. Sorry about that.