Becca's Blog

Stocked up.

You dug deep into your stashes, and I’m very, very grateful. Thanks to contributions from Nanda, Teresa, Síle, Kate, Kate, and Carolyn, I have a solid supply of needles and hooks, and enough quantity and variety of yarn to let my students go “shopping” for just about any kind of yarn their hearts could desire. With a selection ranging from solid-color worsted wool to tiger-print chenille, I think they’ll be excited to choose something that suits them exactly, and be excited to get started. You know the feeling... A heartfelt thank you to each of you for making that happen.

I want to say a special thanks to Kate G. for going out of her way to procure the perfect new-knitter needles, and for being my guide to the wonderful world of SCRAP.

My needlecraft students need supplies.

I've been teaching knitting (and a bit of crochet) at the Women's Daytime Drop-In Center for about five weeks now, and it has been incredibly gratifying. Every time I do it, I leave happier than when I arrived, because I've had a chance to share something I love with people, and watch them get enjoyment from it.

I haven't had many repeat customers yet, but I don't feel that's a negative at all--I feel that I'm offering some enrichment to whoever wants to partake, in any way they want to. Often that means that I get someone started on something small, and at the end of the session, they take it with them. As a result, the knitting and crochet needles that I've brought and the odds and ends the center had are rapidly dwindling. We've gone through a lot of yarn, as well.

I'm going to start scavenging for more needles this weekend, starting with a trip to The Legacy in Sebastopol. A North Bay knitter named Fina tipped me off to it last fall at the Nordic Knitting Conference, but I haven't been yet. So I'm going to combine a nice little weekend drive with some supplies hunting. If I'm lucky I'll run across a couple of good thrift stores in Sebastopol and Petaluma as well. Next I'll hit SCRAP in San Francisco and the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse.

And I'll happily accept any and all donations of supplies--or tips on good sources. If you have needles that you don't care for, I'll take them off your hands. Super-small needles aren't great for beginners, of course, but I'll accept pretty much anything else. I've got plenty of yarn to donate in my own stash, but I'd be happy to give yours a good home as well (and yes, acrylic is very fine for this purpose!). Leave me a comment if you've got stuff I can take off your hands.

Small successes.

Today I got two ladies through the knitted cast-on and their first two rows of garter stitch. And I had a helper, who taught another woman the long-tail cast-on.  I hope they come back next week.

What my students want...

is someone to teach them to crochet. I need to study up, because I can barely crochet with two hands, a map, *and* a flashlight.

Edited later to add: I must say that Lion Brand has some great, free knitting and crocheting instructions. Very helpful.

Without deadlines, I couldn't get anything done except breathe.

And eat. Of course.

There was a deadline to submit patterns for the winter Knitty and MagKnits issues, so I finished writing a pattern (and knitting it up and photographing it). It wasn't accepted, so I'll be publishing it here in a couple of weeks, after I knit up a kid-size sample and do a new photo shoot.

The past couple of Thursday evenings I took the lovely and talented PunkRawkPurl's Mitts with Moxie class at KnitOneOne, which was delightful fun. However, I did not meet the deadline to have a mitt knit up to the thumb gusset by class session #2--because I kept starting over and changing my mind about what I wanted to do.  I changed yarns twice and stitch pattern once--and I think I will start over yet again. I will get them done, though, because I need some mitts to wear on Hawk Hill. You need fingers free to adjust binocular focus but still stay warm.

I decided that I should knit a hat for our hawk watch day intern,  since she spent our first two days out with a muffler wrapped around her head (I feel a bit maternal). I didn't meet my self-imposed deadline of finishing the hat by our third day on the hill (blustery and damp)--but she had a big, furry hunting-style cap. That kinda blunted my motivation, but even though I wonked up the hat's edging, I did finish it. I'm not sure of this hat's ultimate fate.

I also finished my homework swatch for the Viking Cables class I'll be taking with Elsebeth Lavold this coming Friday and Sunday at the Nordic Knitting Conference.  I didn't go to the TKGA market in Oakland last weekend, and I'm not going to Rhinebeck, but this is plenty cool for me. And since I dragged my entire stash out to photograph it, my class supplies are very close at hand.

Felting virgin no more.

I made my first felted booties yesterday. I can't show them to you, because they're a gift, but I think they turned out OK.  I usually think that knitting something and then shrinking all those pretty, symmetrical stitches out of recognition is a shame and a waste. But snuggly booties were called for, and I had some stash yarn that worked delightfully.

Now I'm a bit obsessed by a cotton stole, and I want to return to my top-down turtleneck and finish seaming the first sleeve and start on the second.

We painted the bedroom on Saturday and Sunday and went to the beach yesterday. My big plan for the holiday today is to catch up on some proofreading work and catch up on housework. And maybe make an apple tart, and perhaps some focaccia.

Also still to do: Cull through and post more baby bird pictures and edit the video footage I shot of a friend's kids for my camcorder testing. I promised their mom I'd give her a disc of her junior skate kings working out at the local skate park, since they coureously consented to be my video subjects. I've also got portraits of the neighbor kids, taken for the same reason, that I need to print for their mother. And I have one more camcorder to test. I would have taken it to the beach yesterday, but I didn't have the forethought to charge it up. And once we got to the beach, Jane hit the waves and I fell asleep in a beach chair. I couldn't understand why I felt so tired and off-balance yesterday, until I woke up with a sore throat this morning. Grr.
Happy Fourth....

WIP roundup.

I took these photos two weekends ago. This morning I fixed them up. Now I'm posting them and trying to remember what I wanted to say about them.  Other than: "Yes, I do too still knit, see?"

  I know you can see the resemblance between Casper there and the elegant bit of knitting draped about the delicate model's throat.  I changed the gauge quite a bit, and the instructions in Knitscene don't seem to be correct, so I'm making it longer before I split it into carwash flaps. And I'm tempted to make three flaps, not two. But it's a very enjoyable, easy knit. This was intended to be a gift for my sister-in-law (whose idea of stylish is Disneyland sweatshirts), but I think I'm keeping it for myself.

I'm also working on the shell from this twin set, and I'd like to make the bolero as well, since I have some bulky wool in a complementary shade. I love the feel of Elann's Peruvian Collection Highland Silk--it's delightful to work with, but I'd like to see an expanded color selection.

That's a mock turtleneck, in bulky wool from handpaintedyarn.com.  I'm now about 9 inches down on the chest and shoulders; I should be able to split off the sleeves pretty soon. Makes perfect sense to knit a heavy turtleneck in late May, no? I've got one giant cable running down the front, and a bunch of jangly stitch markers chained together to count rows. All the clanking stuff made Jane think this was very complicated.

This is the last Dulaan item I'm going to be able to finish before I have to send the package off to F.I.R.E. later this month. I'm plugging away on the second sock, as you can see. Next time I make these I will decrease in four places simultaneously, not just on both sides, so the toes aren't so pointy. I really like the spiraling rib pattern.

My first Dulaan item of '06.

A cloud hat, more or less. It's adult-size, however. It fits me. I'm sure there are cold-headed teenagers in Ulan Bator, so I'm not too remorseful--but I probably could have finished a lot sooner if I'd paid attention to the gauge and cast on fewer stitches.  I spent most of our rainy Sunday on the couch in my pajamas, finishing this.

The yarn is the leftovers from the creamsicle sweater--Lion microfiber in mango, and Patons Diva. I actually had to find my swatch gauge and rip it to finish up; I thought surely I had enough mohair left for one hat. Again, attention to gauge might have helped. The whitish stripe is a bit of leftover Artfibers' Kyoto. I've got a bunch of bits of that from a big scarf I made, but I think I want to keep that for a scarf for myself--and I'm still trying to focus on the WIPs I've got now. (Although I really need a good project for a quick trip this weekend.)

And not that I'm looking for any new yarn, but in perusing elann.com, I see that they have Filatura di Crosa mohair (98 yards) for about $3 per ball. Perfect for cloud hats, I think. 

The second watermelon-pink silk-alpaca sock is also progressing nicely; the heel is done, so now I just have to knit about four inches of leg. And I confess that the stockinette is a wee bit boring at this point.

I did fall off the "no new yarn, no new projects" wagon last week about this time, when I decided that I had to make a hat and socks for the almost-1-year-old who came for dinner on Saturday. So after a visit to Skein Lane I found myself with this:
Machine washable cotton/acrylic, fingering weight. Nice and smooth, but still not much give. I started a hat with it and ripped, because again, I ended up with something that was going to be huge, and the brim wasn't rolling. I think I'll have to cast on with size 5s or something to get the edge to be loose enough. Gosh, maybe a gauge swatch and a trip through the washing machine is in order. I ain't swatchin' for the socks, though. I'm using this pattern. I've also got a pair of these going for Dulaan in some stash yarn. I foresee that quite a bit of the stash could be used up this way.

Did you know that almost-1-year-olds aren't quite old enough to drink cow's milk? Or eat cupcakes or chicken hot dogs? Now I know...

Happy Santy.

That's me.  My outlook took a turn for the better along about last Friday, and I had a pretty good weekend.  If Typepad hadn't been experiencing some kind of intestinal distress, I would have posted about the foolishness of trying to learn a new knitting technique, with the resultant productivity loss, while gift-knitting on a deadline. And that the phrase "Continental purl" scans exactly like "horizontal bop." I'm pretty sure that's trochaic meter, and why the latter phrase floated into my consciousness, I have no idea.

We got the tree decorated late last week, and though it's small and leans a bit, it's perfect for us this year.

On Saturday I had coffee with a friend and her nine-month-old son, on Clement Street in San Francisco. The boy was calm, happy, and delightful. Any day that I get to kiss a baby goes down as a good day in my book. We met at Green Apple Books, and I found a book in the bargain bin that I really wanted to read, at a seriously bargain price. Score. We also went into Kamei, a big Chinese housewares/restaurant supply store that has what seems like everything. My friend and I both bought some useful stuff for cheap. Score again (yes, ignoring my own scruples about Chinese imports--it seemed kind of churlish on Clement St., and besides, I really needed an umbrella). I refrained from bringing my knitting, figuring I wouldn't have any time to work on it--but I stopped on my way out of town to give blood, and I forgot about the waiting time at the blood bank. That'll teach me to ever leave the house without a knitting project.

On Sunday I made these for a dinner party with some friends. They're cheese straws, which are basically butter and cheddar cheese held together with a bit of flour. Sort of like homemade Cheez-Its. So far this is the only holiday baking that I've managed, but I still turned the kitchen into chaos while doing it.

On Monday I got two gift scarves blocked, and Laurie is right: Steam blocking is the way to go. I was going to say "steam blocking is the shit," but in honor of the holidays decided to dial back the vulgarity. On Tuesday I got these wrapped, packed, and shipped off to their recipients along with the rest of the distance gifts, which was less of an ordeal than most people probably had to endure, but still bad.

On Wednesday I finished the last of my Christmas shopping, and yesterday I got it all wrapped and finished Jane's brioche-stitch hat, in time for her to take it on the Alaska trip (pictures and postmortem another day). And that is why I'm a happy Santy. Happy holidays to all of you.

Thinking warm...

hats, that is.  All the Dulaan knitting reminded me of an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern for a reversible, double-thickness hat.  Essentially, you make your basic hat, then pick up stitches on the bottom and make a mirror-image model.  I have the instructions in Vogue Knitting from Winter 1989-90,

but I believe it's also in the book Knitting Around.

I've been thinking that you could do a provisional cast-on, and then not have to pick up stitches from the hem. I've also been thinking that it would be a good excuse to teach myself the provisional cast-on. I made one of these for my mother years ago--but at the time I wouldn't have dared to deviate from the instructions.

I don't know that I have anything suitable in my stash for such a hat--it might call for some stash augmentation.

I got the summer Interweave Knits earlier this week, and I was underwhelmed. It seemed a little repetitive: I mean, how many abbreviated little sweaterlets can one person wear? And when is the shrug thing going to be played out? Several of the other patterns are reminiscent of others from recent issues as well. I think the lace neckwarmer and wristlets might be a great use for some Cascade alpaca silk, though.