Getting excited about spring!

Spring is coming, I know it! Of course, it's March 1st, and in this part of the world, that means spring will show up in about three months. But these tiny cherry blossoms are starting to come to life inside.

In January we had a snowstorm that took down our old cherry tree. It was always beautiful every year, but it's trunk was so damaged that it was only a matter of time. I clipped as many branches as I could, and put them in a bucket of water to force them. It's something I think of doing every year, but don't usually get around to. This time it was now or never.



It was rather slow at first. After several weeks, nothing had happened. But suddenly last week, green buds started coming out.



This week, tiny little flowers are beginning to show! I am so happy to see them! They are pretty miraculous, really.

I hope that spring comes quickly for all of you in the northern hemisphere! If you are in the Southern hemisphere, I hope your summer is starting to get a little cooler!

UFO Number 2 - Fleece Mittens

Finished mittens, yay! Fleece mittens, a.k.a thrummed mittens (Ravelry link), for husband are done. It feels good!


This was a kit by Nancy Erlandson. The yarn was called Ponemah yarn from Quinnehticut Woolen Co. and had a lot of lanolin in it. It really did make my hands feel soft when knitting it! I wish I could make another pair in this same yarn, but this mill has been closed.

Maybe some people would not have bothered to finish such an old project, but I am compulsive about hanging onto old stuff, so I couldn't let them go. Plus, my husband really likes them!

I am still working on the Glittertind sweater, but it's not exactly tv-knitting. I have completed the first step on my list from last post. It's slow going.

The ufo spreadsheet has been rearranged. Projects that have not yet been started will not be called ufo's. Hannah is getting frogged. So I am down to 8 ufo's and that makes me feel more sane. Next, Setesdal Hat II.

UFO Number 1 - Glittertind

The Beast:
Glittertind, not to be confused with Dale of Norway's Glittertind. That came later.


The Book:

Norsk Strikk: Fra Tradisjon Til Mote. Editor Kari Hestnes, 1992.
The cover model is called Lillehammer, also not to be confused with the Dale of Norway Lillehammer from 1994. All the sweaters in this book are either from, or inspired by, a place. Most are sort of traditional.


This is Glittertind:
Norway's second highest mountain. From this page which makes me all homesick.


Hard not to like a mountain with the word "glitter" in the name. Beats Galdhøpiggen, Norway's highest mountain.


Progress so far:
Well, ok, I have only done about four-five rounds, this sleeve was already underway.

Steps to finish:

1. Knit second sleeve.
   
2. Reknit first sleeve.
   
3. Cut the sleeve openings wider.
4. Reknit the ribbing. It's too tight because I liked the way the stiches looked when knit tightly. I knew better.
   
5. Knit the neckline.
6. After attaching the sleeves, check the fit and possibly lengthen the body.(!) Does this seem like a lost cause? If I could redo the body, I would. It's way oversized, like in the 90's when we were all getting the large and extra-large sweaters (it wasn't just the 80's.)
   
7. Graft on the ribbing.

Sigh.

The UFO List

Kind of a long list! Working on them (almost) in order of which can be finished first. It's the maximum impact in the shortest time principle.

I love making lists like this.
Makes me feel like I have actually done something.

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year! I just found out that one blog I had, the Poetry In Stitches along, has been deleted. I guess none of us had looked at it for a while. Sorry if anybody thought I deleted it. So, anyway, this is just a "touch" to make sure this blog stays up. I plan on blogging and knitting again. Soon. ;)

My resolution for this year might be a 12-in-12 project. I have at least 12 ufos so in 12 months they could all be done! Notice my use of "might" and "could"! It would be cool, though. Good discipline, too. I already made a spreadsheet checklist to post on my bulletin board. The organizing and making of the list is of course a big part of the fun!

I just have to stop getting so distracted by all the new projects available.

I am just sitting here on a sunny Sunday morning, looking at the birds at our feeder and getting ready to start a fire. I love it when there is snow and sun at the same time! Instead of knitting, I have been browsing Ravelry and found lots of new groups to join. I am now a member of 71 groups which is slightly ridiculous. I am just a dilletante! It's just so much fun to see what is out there! And I am completely addicted to information.

I hope all my friends are having a great new year!

Alpaca Lace Scarf

Clearly I like the crumpled look, because even after blocking it still looks that way. White lace looks so frothy and fluffy, and the little zig-zagging edge makes it even better.

Pattern: Rectangle in Leaf and Trellis Pattern, Victorian Lace Today (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace in natural, less than 2 skeins
Needles: 3 mm

It only took a year to finish, but finally it got done. Maybe will be a Christmas present for somebody. Being such a slacker, it usually works better for me if I don't decide something is a present until it is done.

Modification: making the Large Rectangle in Leaf and Trellis Pattern with only one repeat made it a scarf instead of a shawl.

The chart had two extra stitches on the one side of the chart, which made the lace leaves wider on that one side (left side of the chart). Attempting to be helpful, I tried to write a comment about that on the pattern page in Ravelry, but at that time there was no function for reporting problems. So now it looks kind of wrong where it is, like I am saying something negative. I feel bad about that, and maybe I can get them to remove it. I was not intending to say anything negative, because I love this pattern! And this gorgeous book!

Pippi displaying her combover

She makes the couch look good.

Selbu glove

Dear Friends,

I sure have missed all of you.  The last year just flew by!  I have been working very hard and not been able to fit in much time for knitting, blogging or other fun stuff.  Reading bloglines again is exciting, but I almost forgot all my usernames and passwords for everything!  

There has been a very, very small amount of knitting going on.  Though there has been some buying of yarn...  ahem!  I fooled myself into thinking that buying the yarn makes a project halfway finished...  It almost gave me a sense of accomplishment.

One Selbu glove (unblocked, unpressed) from the booklet Selbustrikk which I got from Nordic Fiber Arts.   This is Damevante No. 16.  There are three different charts for the back of the hand in this pattern. 

The yarn is Rauma Gammelserie (this means Old Series, so it's an oldfashioned, tightly twisted yarn).  I am knitting with 2mm double-pointed needles (us 0), which were quite hard to find!  The only manufacturer of 2mm dpn's I found was Addi.

Well, I hope you are all doing well.  I look forward to seeing what you all have been up to!

xoxx

h

What we can learn from spiders

I have knitting posts coming, I promise!  In the meantime:

Blocking, who needs it?

Soft, white, and fluffy like a cloud.


This is how I like my lace to look.

The Large Rectangle in Leaf and Trellis pattern, from Victorian Lace Today, in a scarf version. I am working on the edging at the moment. This project is renewing my love for Misti Baby Alpaca Lace yarn! It's so wonderful!

And it does come in 22 gorgeous colors...

Maybe I will have to flatten the project a tiny, tiny, little bit at the finishing stage. But not too much!

Meanwhile, though I love the white alpaca, I am hankering after colors... Who knows what will come out of this?

Local yarn and fabric store closing

I am so bummed. For those who live in South-Eastern Mass, the Randolph location of Fabric Place is closing. Everything is on sale. They have yarn as well as fabrics, and in fact they were the biggest MA yarn shop south of Boston. I just discovered them last spring, and was really happy to find such a great big store reasonably close to my area. It was too good to last, of course.

Their selection includes Classic Elite, Berrocco, Brown Sheep, Malabrigo, Fleece Artist, Karabella, and lots of other goodies. And their fabrics are awesome. They also have their Pfaff sewing machines on sale... This always happens when I am on a budget.

This is the second time this has happened in a year here... I plan to take good care of the remaining smaller shops.

Their Warwick, RI, location is also closing.

Well, I just thought I would pass on the word about the sale, if anybody lives in the area, and is in need of yarn. :)

A Pine Tree Sock

Pattern: Pine Tree Socks by Katherine Misegades, free pattern here

Yarn: Dale Heilo, 3 skeins of 50g

Needles: 3 mm

The Katherine Misegades sock is made with a special heel, which is very cool. There are no short rows, and no picking up stitches. There are no special heel stitches and this allows the patterning to flow all the way down the back.


They are super comfortable. I love that they are nice and long. Also, the way the sock is angled gives it a shape that fits my foot very nicely. Now I am almost looking forward to the cold so that I can wear my Pine Tree Socks. As soon as I finish the other one, of course.
Thank you, Katherine!

Also, my user name on Ravelry is mohairkid. Or The Mo-hair Kid as we like to say it 'round these parts.

Lace Knitting

We liken lace knitting to making a souffle: To the uninitiated, it exudes an aura of mystery and difficulty; but when the work is done, you realize it is mostly air and no trick at all.

Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen, Vogue Knitting, Winter 92-93.

Mostly air

I love this quote. Elizabeth Zimmermann had the gift of expressing things succinctly!

In between working on the Pine Tree Sock, my little wall quilt, and my Brocade Leaves sweater, I cast on for another lace project. Resistance was futile.

The pattern is again from Victorian Lace Today, the Large Rectangle in Leaf and Trellis Pattern (p 52). Though I am only doing one repeat across, instead of two, so that I will have a scarf instead of a shawl. See gorgeous full size versions of it here and here.

For the yarn, I am again using Misti Baby Alpaca Lace, in natural. I love this yarn. Very nice and extremely generous with the yardage. So generous that I have tons left of the red from my last scarf.

The pattern is bothering me slightly, though. If you look at the picture, you can see that the stockinette section is larger on the left side than the right side. It has two extra stockinette stitches, so the pattern is not completely centered. It's a tiny error in the chart. I have already done six repeats, so I don't have the heart to frog it. It will be one of those imperfections that shows it was handmade. Handmade with love :)

On a Lace related topic, I have good news for North American lovers of Japanese knitting books. They are now available here, at the Needle Arts Book Shop. The lace sweater at the top of the page is spectacular. I can see this becoming a new obsession for me... Lace knitting, finally in Japanese!
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Pine Tree Socks

Thanks to Anni, I have discovered some wonderful socks. They are the Pine Tree Socks from Katherine Misegades. Her name may be familiar to you from her beautiful collection The Tongue River Farm Sock Collection.

The Pine Tree Socks feature knit and purl trees along the front and back and a small cable decorating the sides. Aren't they sleek and pretty? Don't they look warm? I think they will be perfect for living at Pine Cone Lodge this winter. And not just because of the name, though that's a bonus. Pine Cone Lodge can be pretty chilly!

Like Katherine, we also have tall spruces around our house, and I can see why she would not want to take hers down. They add so much character and atmosphere.

Katherine Misegades' blog features many beautiful designs for both socks, sweaters, hats, and scarves, along with thoughtful, inspiring quotes. This awesome sweater reminds me of a traditional Norwegian pullover called a "vams". She also has several free sock patterns.

My last pair of socks had some lace, and maybe it's not so practical to have wool socks with holes in them... doesn't that defeat the purpose of staying warm? I think it might be a good time for me to start on some socks again. :)

Photo from Katherine's blog.

Lipstick red lace

This was so much fun!

Pattern: Scarf with No. 20 border, Victorian Lace Today
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace, in color Lipstick, 2 skeins
Needles: 3 mm Addi turbo

Width: 29 cm
Length: 142 cm
Pattern repeats: 22

I did twenty-two repeats of the lace pattern, which is exactly the same as the much larger stole in the book. I thought I would have to knit more than that because my yarn is thinner than what they used in the book, but that's just how it worked out. Check out the picture at the end. If I had made a narrower scarf I could have easily gotten by with just one skein of this yarn. Good to know!

I tried modeling on the pretty one:

Is this my color?

She ran away into her safe corner, but I followed. Just as well, the wood makes a nicer background. See how her right ear leans in? It does that when she in insecure. Poor thing, the tortures she has to suffer through.

Outside was better. As a bonus we got a better representation of the color as well.

This is taking forever...

I am not sure it was worth modeling it on her. I spent half an hour trying to pose her, which was impossible. Every time I tried to move so I could get her from the side, she followed and wanted to face me. And then I spent half an hour afterwards picking out white dog hairs with tweezers. They worked themselves in really well!

I love the way the second border is knitted on. And look how far I got with the first skein of yarn! Ten cm short of the end! So about 97 percent of this scarf from one skein...


I really learned a lot from this project. The knitted on border was definitely cool, and I found that a crochet bind off works better for lace. For me at least. The book recommends suspended bind off, but it worked out tight for me. I tried a few different ones, but none of the others worked. Lace is addictive, I think it's the most fun knitting there is. I had to force myself to put it down.

One amazing thing about the book, is that the author, Jane Sowerby, knitted every single shawl herself. There are forty items, most of them quite large!

Thank you, Jacqueline and Stephanie, for the fun knit-along!

I love rock'n roll

Put another dime in the jukebox, baby! Rockin' girl Agnes kindly nominated me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger, so now I am pretending to be Joan Jett.


I know I am silly, but I can't help myself. It seems Joan Jett immediately springs to mind for a lot of people my age when you say Rockin' Girl. Though Joan probably wouldn't be showing you pictures of quilts and lace.

Now I am supposed to nominate five others. I nominate Meg - for all the fascinating topics she writes about, Blossom - for her beautiful sewing and style, Liz - for her beautiful art works and photos, Mel - for her beautiful spinning, Marina - for her gorgeous fair isles, and Marianne - for her caring and thoughtfulness. Of course all in addition to beautiful knitting. Okay, maybe that was six. I must do two more: Katy and Brooke, who both share their lives with lots of beautiful greyhounds and have so much fun with it. Pippi and I get our daily must-read greyhound news from them.

I would really like to nominate all the bloggers I read. I want to say something like "You all rock!" but honestly, I am too old. I can't use an expression like that with a straight face. So let me just say that all of your blogs are an endless source of inspiration to me, and I get a lot of joy from reading them.

I am picking up some UFO's:

The first is this wall hanging. It represents the four seasons, and there are some autumn leaves still to applique. I won't tell you how old this ufo is. Well, ok, ten years. Blossom came to visit me a few years ago. I was showing her my projects, and I couldn't find the book for this. I have since turned the house upside down several times, and it has never appeared!

Every time I thought about starting this again, I would feel compelled to search for the book, thus keeping myself from actually working on it. I can hardly believe that I would have owned a book and forgotten its' name. It was a Japanese quilting book, and I think I bought it in Copenhagen at Quilter's Paradise. I have the pattern sheet, but I wish I had the picture so I could see how they did their quilting and surface embellishments. I now have decided to face the fact that I will never find it, and I will have to improvise. How scary.

Putting something on your blog causes it to get finished, right?

November, 2007, edited to add: A very kind reader sent me a sweet email and the name of the book! I was able to find it here. I really enjoyed seeing it again. I know I would never have been able to think of such a nice frame for the picture, so I am really happy. Thank you very much, M.C.!


The second thing I have picked up again is the "Scarf with No. 20 Edging" from Victorian Lace Today. This has hibernated for about six months. The funny thing about this is that many people have done the same scarf as part of the KAL, and all except one have done it in red! And no, the picture in the book is not of a red scarf, it's yellow! This is a scarf that just wants to be red.

Plus, there is still the Brocade Leaves sweater, Poetry In Stitches p124.
Nordic Fiber Arts has a "one per customer" notice for this book and for Norsk Strikkedesign on their page now.

One of our rhododendrons which is blooming at the moment. I think it may be a 'Rosebay' rhododendron, and it blooms well after the other rhodies. The weather has been misty for a few days and I feel like I am in Oregon or Seattle. It's so nice! After the drought, this is better for the plants. Tourists are not happy, though.

Poetry in Stitches Camisole

The Poetry camisole is finished, and I really like it! After spending more time on the finishing than the knitting (typical), it's ready. This pattern is a copy of an actual vintage under garment. Maybe it was worn over a corset? I love learning about what people wore underneath their Victorian and Edwardian finery.

The shaping makes the top very comfortable, and I believe it would be flattering on most body types. The only adjustment that I made was to knit it size small on the length, but size medium on the width.

The instructions for the button holes were written for the medium size only, so I had to do that calculation for the size small. But I think it was good for my brain to be forced to do a tiny bit of math. It is getting old and creaky.

I found some flower shaped buttons to bring out the summery feel.

Details
Pattern: Poetry In Stitches p126
Yarn: Hifa Luxor cotton in pale blue 315. (Click on the button that says "Fargekart" to see the colors) Kit was special ordered from Nordic Fiber Arts.
Needles: Addi Bamboo circulars, 3 mm, 60 cm (24 in) long (An awkward Addi size, stick with 80 from now on!)
Crochet hook: 3 mm
Started: May 21, 2006, Finished June 28, 2006. A record!

The weather is not cooperating. Sometimes it's too sunny for pictures! I hope to be replacing this picture shortly.

I love the Hifa cotton yarn. It's smooth and makes a pretty fabric. I would love to make something in plain stockinette using this yarn to really bring out the sheen.
The only problem was that the plies tended to separate some when crocheting, but I don't mind, because this is what makes the yarn so smooth and silky. Crocheting was much harder on my carpal tunnel than knitting, though. I think I need one of those ergonomic hooks!

I had a problem with my cast-on being looser than the bind-off (the cast-on side is the button hole side), and when I tried it on, I realized that it would not look good. One side was a little longer than the other. So I picked out the row before the double seed stitch area, picked up the stitches, and reknit the 14 rows in the opposite direction. Now it's great. There is not any gapping between the buttons at all, even though the top is quite form fitting.

The garter stitch was quite stretchy, but the crochet edging firmed things up nicely.

I really liked knitting sideways like this, and I am thinking of making this Solveig Hisdal jacket from Norsk Strikkedesign later! I also love this Hanne Falkenberg jacket, the Mermaid. Isn't it the coolest, most awesome design ever?

Pippi the burrowing greyhound

A little princess.

The Pipster is the worlds most pampered and decadent little greyhound. And the most affectionate.

At night, when she runs upstairs to go to bed, she refuses to lie down on her super cushy L.L.Bean bed. She stands there looking at us until we bring out the blankets from the closet. Her bed must have her blankies. Only then will she lie down.

She has heard the story "The Princess and the Pea". And since she believes she is a princess (she misunderstood the title, in her mind she changed it to "The Princess is The P"), well, she wants to be treated like one and sleep on many, many mattresses and blankets.

She likes to be tucked in. Even if it's 80 (27) degrees outside. Now she is happy. She'll stay under her blankies all night.

In the morning, this is Pippi:

Come on, Pippi, we got to wakey, wakey!

Where did she go? You probably didn't know that greyhounds are burrowing animals. Notice that she got up, turned around, and lay back down again. Some mornings we see no part of her at all. Other times she just hides her head. Time to play the game Where is The P? No energetic jumping out of bed for the Pipster, she likes to be woken up with morning spoiling*. Morning spoiling is the best**.

Greyhound owners are a little nuts.

* The word spoiled is a very positive word in our house. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that other people may misunderstand when we say that a dog is spoiled. In our house it just means somebody who likes their spoiling. We love for all dogs to be spoiled.

** Morning spoiling is especially good for shy greyhounds, the ones who pretend that they don't care about being petted. In the morning, when they are relaxed, they forget to keep up this pretense.

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The camisole is getting there

I felt compelled to post, even though the weather is very dark and dreary and I can't get a great picture. I have the crochet edging and the buttons left to do. I still have to actually buy the buttons. But this is a pretty fast knit, and I had lots of plane and airport time to knit when I went to Mexico. I was inspired by Sandra (I love her colors), who did hers so fast, and knitted whenever I had a minute. I love the little wedges which give such a good shape, and they also break up the project, knit twelve rows, knit a wedge, knit fifteen rows, knit a wedge. Somehow that was very motivating.

I almost don't want to post, I kind of want the Mexico pictures to be at the top of my blog forever and ever. I thought about putting one in my header, but pictures of palm trees don't exactly scream "pine cone lodge". :)

Travel, food, and textiles

My husband travels to meetings in cool places. I tagged along to Acapulco.

We were lucky enough to go to a party here and see this beautiful view.

Seafood on the beach every night, watching the sunset from this deck. Food in Mexico, what a wonderful experience. The breakfast tortillas, the papaya juice, the soups, the seafood... I was taking notes.

It was funny to see all the cabs.

Shopping for embroidered dresses in the market, I was able to get a blouse

and a dress. I could look at this forever:

I would have loved to buy more, but aggressive bargaining was so much work.

Some knitting happened as well. I am almost done with the camisole now, but I loved this floor so much, I had to show this picture.

I didn't have internet available except for about an hour and no cell phone service either. It was relaxing. But now I am slightly behind on my emails. Hope you all forgive me.