Just going around and around

I'm still here, and thank you to all who left comments or other messages to ask if every one was OK. As far as we know, our relatives and friends are safe and have all survived ... but that news comes amidst the sad news that many many are hurt and worse. At the supermarket checkout I'm often behind or in front of a trolley filled with water bottles, and crackers, I don't know if people are stocking up or shipping supplies north. The isle that is usually stocked from one end to the other with bread ... is bare. Every bread rack has a printed paper sign ... that the Christchurch quake has interrupted supplies. There are other little reminders, Bread flour is sold out, and almost every point of sale has a sign that you can add to the sale an amount for a donation to the Quake fund. Many many retailers are matching shoppers donations dollar for dollar, and outside every supermarket and bank there are collectors on street corners with red buckets collecting. It all happened so quickly that there are none of the usual fund raising merchandise, badges and stickers proclaiming you support the cause - but this time it isn't about showing off ones generosity, its about just helping. We are fine, we have enough, enough being that we want for nothing, we always kept a fairly well stocked larder, had a garden and have spares of most dry goods, and have fruit, bread, and other produce in the freezer, so I've been glad to give what I can where I can. The newish TV channels are still providing news updates every hour, all the structural engineers from Bears work have been loaned to the Christchurch office to help determine which buildings are safe, and what to do with those that are not. They apparently work in teams of three, a Structural engineer, a Social worker and a Earthquake commission agent. Bear specialty is civil, not structural .. so we get to have him around. The cubs school has openly offered to include any Christchurch 'refugee children' in its classes for however long they need, and my work has made a similar offer to the match for our school in Christchurch. Many parents have arranged for their children to stay with relatives in other centers while they clean up.


In the meanwhile I'm knitting and there is a finished project and progress. The finished project I really can't share, more than this .. its a surprise, and group project and the time is not right yet. Soon all can be revealed but for now all I can say is that the now finished work returned to my house for blocking. It is now blocked, and flat and very very nice, in fact so nice it would be nearly enough to temp me to ..... so I might get given one myself from this group.
The finished item will be off to the last person in the chain Monday .... and then it is just a question of waiting until the right time, before I can reveal more.

The only other project getting needle time right now is the lace band around the Shetland blanket. Because I have already knit (and frogged) this section I feel obliged to work on this until it is up to the point before I frogged, but obligated in a good way. There are several good things that happen when one re-knits a pattern, the little things that occur to include but for which it is often too late ... get to be incorporated the second time around. This time I'm knitting the lace as garter, not stocking stitch, the green rows help remind me to purl. And I took the time to chart out the corner increases. This gave me space to play and add in a few lace repeats. When I knit this the first time the corner ended up very solid .. adding in lace motifs to match that in the band will just lighten it a little.

Row 16 of 26, 10 more rounds to go, and there will be 174 stitches per side when I'm done ........ this may take a while. I suspect the colourwork Tam will call out to me before too much time has passed.

Take care ...
na Stella

Not much to show ...

I've been knitting round and round in grey, and working on a chart for my colour-work tam. I did finish spinning 100g of dyed Perendale. Our students arrived back this week, and today all the staff teaching in Fashion gave a mini Pecha Kucha, 10 slides each lecturer and 20 seconds to talk each about each slide. I made sure most of mine were about knitting. Then all our fashion students from all years of the programs are given a three day Project runway style team project. Three times I was asked if I 'happen to have any knitting needles' ? Score!

When I knit things using other peoples patterns - the process is straightforward. I select a pattern, and some yarn, think about colours and go for it. Oh - with me there are usually little changes where I make it differently, or big changes ... but the process is quick. When I knit things that I 'design' - the process is a whole lot different. First there is the research, the stage where I seem to spend a lot of time looking and recording ideas and options and possible directions, and think about all that I find. Then the process transitions to one of planning, and experimentation, and testing, and deciding .. and all that takes time. Since my last post I have been looking at motifs that could be used in my Tam, I've been looking at Tams, and hats and colour work, I've been looking at all sorts of colour combinations and what sorts of arrangements of colours look best to me - and I've been thinking about why they look best. The Lecturer in me asks the question : "What makes it work?". So there has been a lot of dealing with knitting, but really only a few rounds knit. But I'm ready to start, I think I have a design that will work with the colours I have and look good ... only time and knitting will tell. I felt like a student this time, as the knitters study group meets on Saturday ... for the second workshop on knitting a Tam, and I had only completed my ribbing.

Which leaves only the spinning, this once was a hand dyed roving of perindale ... now it is a 100g of singles ready to ply. The next stage is to wind this into a center pull ball, after it has sat for a few days to relax. My plan is to ply from both ends of the centre pull ball so I get a 2ply yarn, and after that I'm not so sure .....I really should be knitting what I spin, as I do enjoy knitting with handspun.

Oh and if you are looking for a good read, check out Vanda Symons latest book, Bound, it has only been out just over a week and is already at the top of the New Zealand Adult Fiction bestseller list! I can't tell you how it ends .. 'cause I've not finished it yet.

so .. perhaps I will have more to report next post?
Until then, happy knitting
na Stella

Knit, frog, knit, tink, knit, frog, knit, frog some more ...

That, my online friends is an accurate report of the weeks knitting. True to the blogs name there has indeed been far more frogging than knitting this week, and yet oddly I felt confident to start a new lace project ... and there was a new Vintage Purls Sock yarn club kit. The important part of that sentence is yarn, as in the club kits are no longer all about sock patterns but have extended excitingly into patterns that can be knit with sock yarn but are not socks. I understand there will be at least one sock pattern .. for the die hard sock knitters in her fan base.

So, today, the frog report, remember when a frog report was a fairly frequent part of every post, and the knit report, the new project introduction, and the planning of the Fair Isle Tam.

Frogging, and sometimes Tinking, was the major knit activity this week. Following last weeks post I did completely frog the blue lace band of the Sheltland yarn blanket, that was the easy task. I frogged straight onto a nostepinne, seemed a sensible move as I planned to knit it straight back up again.

Post frogging, the stitches sat waiting for me to slide them back onto the needle. I do like this shetland yarn, slightly sticky so it behaves it self, no stitches disappearing into themselves and running away.

But it was not so simple, I some how snagged one of the corners and could not drop down a few stitches and repair the damage. This was the garter stitch section where I had knit with two yarns to avoid purling, and the corner was where the two yarns were twisted together. Dropping down and picking up and understanding how the yarns worked up the corner, interlaced with each other and then worked away from the corner, well, that was apparently beyond me.

The ten or twelve rows I tried to drop stitches down and knit back up got increasingly more muddily and less like the other corners, the more times I tried, the more of a mess I made, so I frogged back a few more rows, until the corner was neat and started to finish the grey section again. Some times there is nothing else that will work but work it properly.

All that happened before Thursday, so when Thursday night came around, knit night I was at a loss about what to take to knit. I had no made much progress on a chart for my Fair Isle Tam, and I didn't want to risk mucking up the blanket any more. So I did what any sane knitter would do, 15 minutes before being due at knit night ... I opened Ravelry and hunted down a pattern. I wanted to knit a quick lace cover that smallest bear could use to tidy up her ballet bun. I found a Lace Luncheon Mat and printed it and grabbed pink linen and needles as I ran out the door. Appart from the fact it is going to be twice the size I need ... it is a good choice. Now I just need to frog it and knit it on much smaller needles ......

The tam is a knitters study project, and the second and last class is next weekend. That sort of put a little bit of urgency into sorting a chart. Inspired by Kate Davies and Spilly Jane, I am working towards a cute tam, not really fair isle but pretty and pictorial. I've assembled an assortment of knitting motifs from my knit books, and made a start. For now all I'm sure of is that there will be a couple holding hands .. and possibly a cat, or dog, or fox, or hearts .. or something equally twee. And no, they won't be knit in golden yellow, that is just the colour pencil that came to hand. Once I've planned to layout I will play with colours.

And the recent highlight of the stash was the addition of the first of 3 sock yarn kits from Vintage Purls. As usual a lovely colour and an amazing pattern, I might just use that lace to edge the Shetland yarn shawl. And of course there was chocolate, two kinds, dark my favorite and milk which is a favorite for sharing. Yarn, new pattern and lace, it really doesn't take much to brighten my week.

so .. I hope your week past and ahead has significantly less frogging and tinking than mine, and that some one does something nice for you on Valentines ..... there is already a nice pen here for me (more about that next post), and I've been making heart shaped pita breads for the cubs lunch boxes.

na Stella