What a difference a day makes

Wow, I love this concept of "whole day off with no plans". We should have holidays more often! Aside from some long-overdue work in the yard, I spent most of my Memorial day holiday going from this:

to this:

Guess who is working on a deadline? That's right. I'm a Bad Aunt.
The yarn (Tahki Cotton Classic) and the pattern (Plymouth P392) came from my stash, thus avoiding a trip to the yarnshop this weekend, phew!

As you can see in the first photo, I eliminated the only seam in the pattern by knitting the sleeves in the round. Other than that, I followed the pattern pretty closely.

This project is just whipping along, thanks to the size seven needles and small size of the finishd sweater. I've got about 2 more ridges to knit on the body and some rework on the sleeves, so I think I'll get this one in time for the baptism in 12 days.

Mmm.. socks

I had to come up with a nice portable project to distract me while my Summer-along pals catch up, and here they are: gorgeous red and purple Double Trouble toe-up socks:

These socks are for my friend Mary whose birthday (um, in January.. ) is 3 days away from my own. For her birthday, I asked her pick out yarn for socks and she chose this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in a color called Valentine. Then I got distracted for a couple months. Now my new Sloggers have inspired me to get back to socks.

I'm knitting these on size 0 needles, which is a first for me. I'm loving the density of 9 sts/inch. The colors seem to be lining in regular 3 row clusers of pink and purple, which looks pretty good. No dreaded pooling in the first 3.5 inches, so far.

I have had a bit of cognitive distortion trying to get back into the rhythm of the 2 socks on 2 circulars. I've probably had 3 "sides" on the same needle 8 or 10 times since starting this project on Tuesday. Today I figured out that if I always arrange the working yarn so it faces me as I finish the row, then the yarn gives me a clue which needle to pick up as I turn to start the new row. If anyone has any other great tips for two socks, two circs.. I'd love to hear them!

Summer-along, week 5

Our little knitting @ work group skipped knitting today to go on a field trip to commuKNITy, the month-old yarn shop on the Alameda in San Jose. I really did get a sense of community from our visit today - I ran into Nathania and Nancy - 2 knitters I know from online and Nathania's Knit In in January - and it turned out that another member of our group also knew Nancy from a completely different context. So already we are linked.

The shop is just 10 minutes away from my work location, which is good to know, you know, for emergencies. Their yarn selection had some very familiar favorite names, like Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Cascade, Manos.. small selection of Noro.. but some names that were new to me, like Elizabeth Arden yarn company and their Elsbeth Lavold designer's choice line. I am in love with the Cotton Patiné and the Sentimental Journey collection #2. I am yearning to knit either Garnet or Agatha in this lustrous cotton yarn.

Progress reports on the summer along: Mine you already saw: back is done. I'm taking a detour into a pair of Double Trouble socks for my friend Mary in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Valentine color. [I'm sorry to see that the pattern is temporarily unavailable. Glad I kept my printed copy!]

Progress from the others: T has about 3 inches completed, but managed to knit her flat piece into a circle during a meeting and had to do a bit of backing up. Believe me, T, it happens all the time! J is into the opaque section after completing 6 inches of sheer section. Her sheer section seems narrower than expected, but the opaque section is spot on. H. bought some Cascade 220 at commuKNITy to work on Tempting from knitty. She hasn't cast on since her first scarf, so we'll be kicking off her knitting next week with a review of caston and a gauge swatch.

For me, the best part was that our knitting @ work group really felt like a knitting group today. Everyone has projects, we went for a field trip, progress is happening. Community in action! It was sweet.

Theater: Psychic Life of Savages

Believe it or not, I have these other interests outside of knitting. For instance, I see at least a dozen plays a year. I decided this week to try to write about these plays. So here's my first shot at it.

On May 20, spouse-o and I went to the opening of Psychic Life of Savages at the Pear Avenue Theatre, in Mountain View. The show was directed by my sister-in-law, Rebecca. The Pear is a very small theater which produces very penetrating, intimate theater. The actors have to stay connected to each other and the scene even though the audience is only 6 feet away. I think this closeness and the very high quality of acting at the Pear makes for some wonderful, moving theater experiences

Psychic Life of Savages uses the first names of famous poets Sylvia, Ted, Anne and Robert without tying itself to complete biographical realism. Playwright Amy Freed wrote all the poetry, using themes, styles & language found in the original poetry, but amplified, modified, so you can see simultanously the truth, beauty and pain of the poetry and its ridiculous side as well. Nearly every time I laughed at this quite funny show, I had a feeling of nervousness.. "wait.. that's not funny, is it? you can't laugh at that, can you?"

All the actors in this show could (and some do) appear on larger stages. I was particularly drawn to Jennifer Erdmann as Sylvia and Kevin J. Kelley as Ted. Jennifer would go from detached observation to passionate connection and back -- it was eerie to watch, but felt very authentic. Kevin embodied the larger-than-life and very daring beliefs of Ted, who, though he is lecherous and self-obsessed, is also genuinely interested in other people and the only sane one of the poets.

Funny, touching, stimulating show. Go see it now until June 5th at the Pear.

Check out the shiny clogs!

Very fast delivery from Knitter's Dream brought me a very exciting box on my front porch this afternoon - CLOGS!

I wanted this photo to show that the bottoms are made in a tan plastic, which is what gives the clogs their yellow-ish tinge when photographed without feet in 'em. The tops of the clogs are actually clear, no weird yellow.

I think they fit pretty well and I love the look. Can't wait to find out if they are comfy to wear for a whole day. Ain't they cute?!

Shiny, by the way, is something I picked up again from Firefly, the 2003 Joss Whedon space/western TV series I've been watching on DVD. Spouse-o and I have tickets to the May 26th Serenity preview in far away Roseville. We've been watching the series this weekend in preparation for Thursday's showing.

I just love the world Joss has created for this show, with the swearing in Chinese and the fun space lingo, like 'verse and "see you in the world" and "shiny" to mean cool, good, extra nice. I'm just giddy about going to the preview.

My friend Walter was the one who turned me on to Firefly originally and who tipped me off to the preview. I'm so glad he did! As they say.. Joss Whedon is my master now. Somehow I have the feeling I will need to wear my shiny new clogs to the film on Thursday.

Mom's first socks!

Big congratulations to my mom, Jo, back in central Illinois. On Friday, Mom sent me this photo of her very first socks!

The yarn and pattern came from the Red Cross WWII comemorative knit kit. The kit ships with size 5 double pointed needls, which is some form of insanity, since the yarn is real sock-weight yarn. Mom knit these on size 2 circulars - one at a time. She knit the first one while she was visiting here in March and then took a little detour into gift knitting for a a month or so.

She was a little nervous about starting sock number two, but we only had two tech support phone calls (one for turning the heel and one for how often to decrease before the toes) and here she is wearing her finished socks! Mom, I'm so proud of you!

Wanna know the best part?? She cast on for her second pair right away. 40 years of knitting and she never tried socks before, and now she's hooked! Isn't that cool? Here's pair number 2 getting started:

Summer-along, week 4

There was acutally knitting on Sally's Favorite Summer Sweater last week at Thursday's knitting-at-work group. T & I knit for a half hour or so. She is making good progress on her hot pink sweater, about 2 inches so far. J has done about 3 inches of the open work part. Since I finished my cast on 2 weeks ago, I'm out ahead of the other two on this. I finished the back in the car last night, with the shortrows around the neck. I've been fussing about the size.. to narrow? too long? Who can tell. Progress photo:

At the same session H. learned to purl and is considering Tempting as her first non-scarf project. Anyone got any advice on yarn for Tempting?

Had to do it

I think approximately 2 minutes elapsed between the moment Janice sent me this link to Clear Clogs on Knitter's Dream and the moment I clicked "Print" on my order confirmation page. I hope they come soon! Wooo!

They have a bit of a yellowish cast to them in the photo. I hope they look good in person. I hope they fit!

Summer-along, week 3

Big bummer of a week 3 for the Sally's Favorite Summer Sweater knitalong at work. We didn't manage to meet on Wednesday, but I did get to see everyone's progress. J. has cast on and knit the first 2 rows, ready to start the sheer section. T. finished her cast on and is ready to knit. I finished the sheer section Tuesday night and ironed it - I'm now working on the opaque part. Isn't the blue lovely?

Also Tuesday night I shrank Cotton Candy. Here's a pre-shrinkage picture:

I washed it on warm, not hot, for the first wash, and dried it on hot. It looks about the same after shrinkage, almost no change in the shade of the blue yarn. Even better, the blue didn't run into the ecru at all.

But there is trouble. It didn't shrink as much as adverised. Here are the post shrinking measurements:

• Sleeve length: 38 cm to 35.5 cm - 7% (or 9% on another sleeve measurement)


• Front button band: 31 cm to 29.5 - 5%


• Back: 38 cm to 33 cm - 14%

The shrinkage didn't reach 15% on any of these pieces, which doesn't matter so much on this child-size project, but what are we going to do if the 85 cm tall OXO gansey doesn't shrink?? It'll be a gansey for Kareem Abdul Jabbar if it doesn't shrink. (And on the OXO front, I logged 12 cm this weekend, now just 4 cm short of my target of 43 cm before beginning the cables & bits. Spouse-o was very discreet and tried not to notice the progress, so as not to scare me off. Very sensible. He must know me, or something.)

Summer-along, week 2

Our knitting group at work is knitting "Sally's Favorite Summer Sweater" from The Knit Stitch as a knitalong for the three of us. Last Wednesday was swatching. J finished her swatch and washed it by hand and machine to check for shrinkage, so she is ready to go. Sadly, she has to give her paws a rest for this week after quarter close last week. T returned her wrong-size needles and has knit most of her second swatch on new, right-size needles. She was working on that today. I finished my swatch but didn't wash it (bad bad knitting instructor!) and cast on today anyway. Tonight at knitting meetup I knit about 3 inches of the sheer section. I'm loving the Mirto! Rayon/cotton blends are not my usual thing so I'm pleased to find this is pleasant knitting.

The coolest news in our Summer-along is that T's mom, who lives near Paducah, Kentucky is going to join us. T sent her off to get yarn and the book this week. I'm totally excited to have a long distance member! Maybe we'll have to phone conference her in for our Wednesday meetings.

In other news, today I am carrying a newly-pocketed purse from Joanna Boyer, Bags by Design. I bought this purse about 6 weeks ago when Kristi brought some lovely samples by the Campbell stitch-n-bitch group. I love the shape & size of the bag and especially the polka dots all over fabric, but I had trouble locating cellphone and keys in the original pocketless version. I contacted the designer and she offered to retrofit the bag with pockets for me and make a matching makeup bag. Here's the new bag:

See the cosy cell phone pocket? See the roomy keys pocket? See how the coordinating makeup bag keeps everything tidy? See how there's enough space to carry a small knitting project along with ordinary purse stuff? Many thanks to Jo for my new, fun, springy purse. For anyone who is interested, Jo would love to show her bags at an event or gathering of interested parties.

Candy-ing along... nervously

I sure wish I knew someone who had worked with this Rowan Cotton yarn successfully. I'm almost ready for wash day for the Cotton Candy cardigan and I'm nervous. The instructions say to wash all the pieces before assembly, so that the shrinkage takes place before you sew the seams. Sounds familiar from sewing, right? But it appears that the instructions want me to sew the button band to the front *before* washing. ??? Won't that seam shrink, too? Why is it OK to sew that one but not the side seams? That's one bit of nerves.

The second bit of nerves has to do with a pattern mod, which is pure hubris, I'm sure. I am attempting to do the collar using a "pick up & knit" method rather than a "knit and attach later" method. Why? Because after my Sally Melville class on buttonholes and picked up edges in January, I've done two picked up collar edges which are just gorgeous, and I want that result for this garment, shrinking be damned.

So I'm sewing up the top 2 inches of each shoulder seam to accommodate my picked up collar. If they shrink funny, I'll only have 2 inches to pick out. I still have 2 more shorty seams to sew and I have to knit the right buttonhole band and the collar. Here's my progress as of last night:

Oh, and look what I've been reading ths weekend, a suprise copy of "At Knit's End", sent by my Mom in my spouse-o's birthday box from Amazon. It arrived on Thursday and I gobbled it up over the weekend. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a fabulous writer with such a personal tone and a lovely sense of humor. I was particularly pleased to find quotes from my favorite cartoon The Tick and mathematician Paul Erdos along with some of the more usual suspects (Confuscious, Elizabeth Zimmerman, Erma Bombeck, Dave Barry). If anyone else wants to read the book, I'd be happy to lend it out.

Lastly, I have a late addition to the Bias Betty story: a photo of the debut appearance of Betty as part of a work outfit last Thursday: