Crocus update

So nice to receive "thank you" photos of my knitted objects on their recipients! Clara's mom sent along this photo of 10-month-old Clara wearing the Crocus "cardigan" I knit her last year. (I always knit for bigger than newborn sizes. Takes me so long to knit the thing.. I'd like it worn longer than 2 weeks!)

Isn't she a cutie?? Now if I could only figure out why the collar is curling like that...

Steam treatment fixes all

So for about 4 weeks, I've been knitting Devan from knitty. About 3 weeks ago, Christiane at Knitting Meetup expressed concern that the sweater was not wide enough for the 1-2 yr old size I am knitting. I worried silently for a while, and checked my gauge compared to the gauge swatch. Guess what? Swatch was at 7.5 sts/inch. Fronts are at 8.5 sts/inch. And therefore too narrow.

I've been very conscious of gauge since this little wakeup call and the back is coming out the right width. But the max width of the fronts was about 6 inches, while the back is the proper 13.5 inches per the pattern.

So, last night I steamed the crap out of the fronts.

In this photo you can see the right side pinned out and all the other pieces resting after their ordeal. I pinned one side of each front and then used my iron on a wool setting with a lot of steam. I pulled towards the middle until the fronts were wide enough. Below, you can see that the steaming worked.. the fronts are now approximately wide enough, even without their cute little rolled edgies. (See the army green of the back peeking out between the fronts?)

But in the photo below, we can see that the fronts are also about an inch too tall, so I'll be taking an 6-8 rows out of the fronts before sewing up.

I'm over the moon pleased about the success of the steaming. Not to mention that I'm going great guns on the back - I've got 10.5 inches and I'm almost ready to insert the little patch detail. I'm totally in love with this project. The cuteness of the pattern, the striping in the sock yarn, and the success of the steam treatment are all working so well.

Oh no.. owl invasion!

The comments on my last post are making me nervous. I opened the door a tiny crack by admitting my love of macrame owls and suddenly I've got 2 offers to deliver more owls to my house. I'm looking out the window right now to see if there is a truck backing up to unload the world's entire population of unwanted macrame owls.

I'd just like to say this up front: Even though I, like other bloggers, think they are cute, I do not need any more macrame owls -- yet! Thank you, Mom and Emy for your kind offers, but please. Keep your owls.

Just because I have a gorgeous macrame owl, of which I am understandably proud... Just because I bought a "HUGE FANTASTIC lot of 18 MACRAME Books & Magazines OWLS" today on eBay... Just because I think I might need my own set of ceramic owl eyes in case I want to make one myself... This is not a license to pack up your unwanted owls and send them to me.

I mean.. keep them where you can find them, in case I change my mind... but I have not yet succumbed to my kitsch-collector urges, nor am I an internationally renowned kitsch artist! I have a reputation to protect here. I mean, would you let your spouse bring these home? I'd like to continue to sleep indoors. So please. No owls! For now.

A-tisket, a-tasket, a finished Flower Basket

I blocked the Flower Basket shawl for Granny on Saturday night. The finished measurements of the triangle are 53" wide and 25" tall - so I'm really glad I added one extra flower basket repeat. I've got before and after pictures for ya:

Before                               After
    

See the flower baskets? Aren't they cute?? Once I put it on, I got a little jealous of Granny's new "shawl" (shawlette? scarf? It's not very large, that's for sure!). I'm in love with the color. If I decide to make another, I would go a litle bigger. I think the ends would tie better at 60" than they do at 53, especially on a larger lady. Bird-like granny will have no trouble tying the ends.

On another topic.. In the "After" photo, I am standing in my guest bedroom, a.k.a. the Loombrary, a.k.a. the knitting room. I've got a denim sofa-bed in here and a full bathroom for guests. Usually the loom lives in here, but it's on walkabout just now in my bedroom. Stash also lives in the Loombrary, "mostly" in the closet. But the reason I bring it up today is... the Macrame Owl. I don't know how this topic came up at knitting meetup at the beginning of August, but I promised Christiane a picture of the owl

From my childhood, I have a great fondness for macrame owls. I remember a 9" tall black and gold owl in my mom's kitchen in about 1976. Perched between twigs, the owl was so cute! But the 70's passed, and the owls all disappeared. I didn't really know how much I missed them until I was helping my friend Nancy move about 4 years ago. There, on her Goodwill pile: a GIANT 3 foot tall Big Daddy macrame owl. I pounced! Now the owl observes everything that goes on in the Loombrary

Nancy didn't put up much of a fight when I nabbed the owl. I might be the only macrame owl fan left. Jeni noticed on Saturday that the owl's beak is a totally specialized part - beak shaped, with a hole drilled so it can be threaded into the macrame. It must have been some sort of kit, way back when. I've never tried macrame myself, but I have a feeling that some day, I will have to make my owl a mate! I guess I'd better be on the lookout for eyes-and-beak kits!

Vacation: all I ever wanted

I'm back after two lovely trips - to Wisconsin to visit relatives and to Ashland, Ore. for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I'm having a pretty rough adjustment to the world of 7 am meetings and household responsibilities. Wish I could find some way to weasel out of work.

Knitting accomplishments
In Wisconsin, I finished the second front for Devan, using some Socka Fortissima in denim colors and a lovely khaki green for the trim. In Oregon, I started the sleeves and bought potential buttons. I got carsick on the way home, so I didn't make much progress on the sleeves. The sweater deadline is August 31, giving me two weeks to finish 5 inches of sleeves, an entire back and seams. Eeeeeee.

    

Granny's birthday Flower Basket shawl in dark blue DK-weight alpaca was a fun -- if dangerous -- travelling project. The blue Sajama alpaca drops dye like crazy - worse than the Rowan Denim! With the Denim, the blue areas of my hands were sharply contained by where the yarn had been. With this Sajama alpaca, the whole surface of my hands would turn blue. The yarn stinks, also. Literally. Very barnyard, very reefer.

The first 8 lace repeats went by quickly, but in repeat #9 I goofed up the same area repeatedly and probably spend as much time tinking 6 rows of that one repeat as I spent knitting the entire shawl. I think I went back about 4 times before I finally wised up and put in a life line. After that, I only had one big mess, which I solved by dropping about 25 stitches down from the end of the lace repeat to the lifeline and knittng those 25 stitches back up. I felt like an eeeevil geeeenius when I finally got it right. I finished the last repeat on my way to vacation #2, but no photos yet.

Travel news
Granny's 89th birthday party was a smashing success. 35 relatives in the community room of her elders apartment building mingled, looked at photos, and talked about family history. I got to spend a bunch of time with my cousin Aaron, whose wife & kids are pretty much all new to me. I loved discovering that we had so much in common across a divide of time and distance. All in all, I loved our large-group gathering and I hope we can do it again next year

And I got to see my mom's SECOND pair of socks! She's really got the bug. She knit the army colored ones in March, then the pair below in fun stripey yarn and now she's working on a pair for her sister. Go, Mom!

Vacation #2
After the trip to Wisconsin, Bill and I were at home for 2 days and left 52 hours later on our annual pilgrimage to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. 4 days of no responsibilities with good friends, surrounded by fabulous restaurants, tempting shops & theater. What's not to like?

Highlights were: Best. Iced coffee. Ever. and books at Bloomsbury. A trip to the Websters for more Perfect Buttons. Dinner at Cucina Biazzi. And of course plays. My favorites were Richard III, Gibraltar, and, suprprsingly, Love's Labors Lost. The director infused LLL with warmth and vivacity I didn't expect, including a great Russian dance scene in Act V. Move over Branaugh! Still plenty of season left.. if you are looking for a relaxing, entertaining, edifying vacation, consider Ashland!

That's all the news of the past 2 weeks! Tonight is Knitting Meetup and I hope whereever you are, you are knitting with others tonight.

Grannyfest 2005

We're off this weekend to visit my Granny in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. I love visiting there. We get to see the much-beloved relatives, re-visit lots of familiar places, and see a few "eastern" birds.

Yes but why is Grannyfest held on the first weekend in August? Well, Saturday is Granny's birthday. Doh! I have no present! I was so busy prepping to leave that I forgot the purpose. Bad grand-daughter. Clearly this is a job for a Last Minute Knitted Gift.

I had a brain flash last night around midnight & decided to try the Flower Basket Shawl from Interweave Knits Fall 2004 (about halfway down the page). I'm using some of the alpaca I have stored up from my generous bro-in-law, the South American archaeologist. (You would not believe how much alpaca I have from this source!)

So before going to bed, I pulled out 4 dark blue skeins of DK weight Alpaca and started knitting. I've got 3 lace repeats done out of 9 (for a quite short "shawl".. more of a pretty triangular scarf) and the blocking instructions sound perfect for a hotel room!

Looking around the 'net today for ideas on whether DK-weight alpaca would make a nice-looking Flower Basket, I found a suggested pattern modification at I'm Knitting As Fast As I Can, under September 17. This knitter used a balanced double decrease instead of a left-slanting one. I see why she likes it - the centered double decrease makes a nice, regular lace pattern, and it does eliminate the problem of asymmetry, but I like the original better. I like the woven, basket-y feeling of the slanty decreases. I can imagine the bent twigs used to weave my baskets.

So I'll be weaving baskets across the country tomorrow and soaking up midwestern culture the next few days. Don't be surprised if I come back sounding like the sheriff from Fargo!

"Okay, bye now!"

Alone in a crowd

I am so bummed that despite all my knitting community connections, I was completely oblivious to the appearance of the Yarn Harlot in Berkeley earlier this week. Monday night I said to my hubby, oh, hey, Yarn Harlot is coming in August.. I'd better check the calendar to see when she'll be here. Tuesday at 4:30, I checked in at the book tour schedule and discovered that I was screwed. Talk started at 5, I was an hour's drive away and had a support group dinner at 6:30.

How did I miss it? It's true, I only read Stephanie's blog on special occasions (my main rule is to primarily read the blogs of people I know personally) and so I am not hooked in with HER, but how is that so many knitters I know were going up to see her & no one said anything? WAAAAAH!

I wish I'd looked one day earlier. I could have rearranged things. Boogers.

Blue Stripey - FO 2005-12

So, looking back through the blog & my photos, I realized that there's been a serious slowdown in production this summmer. After a big "lump in the snake" in April, when I washed 5 FO's at once, my only other output was the baby cardigan & hat for my niece. Pa-the-tique!

Blue Stripey has been lingering near finished for a couple months now. Last week I finished the pocket seams and washing, two topics I had been fussing over. I don't totally love the join of the seedstitch pocket borders to the garment.. but dang, it, they are done. The final wash eliminated my worries about getting the proper shrinkage out of the Rowan Denim yarn. Now for some buttons... and I certainly hope you will click this little image so you can see the lovely buttons...

I found Just The Right Buttons at Uncommon Threads yesterday, and voila: FO 2005-12, Blue Stripey, nee Cotton Candy. I'm in love! And check out my favorite part - the seams:

I love seaming! I love making tidy joins between pieces. When I can't make tidy seams, I get very cranky. Note in the photo above that the seed stitch area has less-than-gorgeous seams. Bah. But the stockinette stripes are *perfect*, ahhhhh. Now *this* is a garment I am proud to put my name on.

Project notes

Yarn: Rowan Denim, colors Memphis and Ecru
Needles: US 3 and 6 Addis
Pattern: Cotton Candy from Rowan Babies, by Kim Hargreaves
Started: April 14, 2005
Finished: August 1, 2005
Related posts:

• What? Another New Project?
• Very Nearly FO's
• Candy-ing along, nervously
• Summer-along, week 3
• Summer knitting progress photos