Busy

Busy with things other than knitting, my 7yo turned 8 this weekend, so there was the party .. 8 little cubs playing and singing and playing games, before a winter indoor picnic on the living room floor, and away off home by 6pm. That is the great thing about kids and their social lives, usually its all done and dusted by 7pm at the latest. The party prep was fine, but took time, including making of the fairy bread, I'm not sure how far the childrens party custom of fairy bread exists, but here it is a party staple. Some time between when I was a kid and now the sprinkles have undergone a stylish transformation.

The sprinkles of my memory were multi-coloured, pastel numbers - now one can buy colour themed jars, that sparkle and glitter like seed beads, and we opted for pink. Soooo pretty. All that prep and hosting and clean up robbed me of my knitting time this weekend, but I did manage to finish the Little Possum, and to start a new project.

I cast off the last sleeve cuff last night, and whilst it has stopped raining, I'm not game to block it just yet. I'd like a few days of clear weather first. The thought of a damp sweater taking several days to dry is not a pleasant one. I know blocking will make this yarn bloom and thicken and relax and fluff up - in the mean time it is worn by cub number 1 as is.

Which left me with only one project on the needles, Nightingale, which ties me to the chart. So I dithered and viewed other knitters finished objects on Ravelry and decided to cast on for Ishbel. Damson and Traveling woman were also in contention, but Ishbel won out, it needs 300m and I have 340m of dark green cashmere and silk handspun that is perfect for it. I've made a start ... so far 15 repeats of the 25 repeats needed to work the stocking stitch center ... but each repeat adds 6 stitches .. so each row gets longer and longer, and takes more time. On Ravlery mine is the 6754th Ishbel cast on .... that is a lot of Ishbels, and that is just the ones on Ravelry!

I've also finished the hand rail yarn graffiti ... and hope to get fine enough weather before Tuesday the 8th to install it. I'll keep you posted on that one.

na Stella

Rain rain go away ...

come again another day, except after two days of downpour I'm not sure I want you back another day. We have been hit with what our weather forecasters are calling a weather bomb, yes weather bomb. Here we rarely have all day rain, a few hours and then it stops. The entire country was predicted to have deluges of rain for days, wet, cold, heavy rain. Thankfully it is only rain .. no winds, no storms, no wild weather, no temperature plunges or humid days .. just wet, wetter, wettest rain. Bear took spare trousers and shoes to work today after getting soaked waiting 5 minutes at the bus stop in his water proof coat. Its not the coat that failed it was the rain running of the coat onto his trousers and shoes. And its dark, the heavy clouds that bring us our rain mean that we have very little light, this morning I drove the cubs to school in the gloom, at 8:20 in the morning, tonight Bear picked me up after collecting the cubs from art class at 5pm ... and it was dark, so dark and misty that we could hardly see 50m ahead. If it wasn't for the knitting - I think I might get depressed, all dark and wet makes for a sad bear, but if the bear can Knit - and has no reason to abandon knitting for chores like hanging out the laundry ... well there is a sunny side after all to the ongoing rain.

I've finished the cuff on Tobys little possum sweater, its long and generous on him but may have heard how children grow. If you have heard from a knitter, you might have heard they grow just after you finish a lovingly knit sweater .... so I've allowed in advance for his growth. The sleeves are long reaching down to his knuckles, the cuffs fit neatly .. but they will stretch out, always do. I've started the second sleeve, and have made good progress working away the gusset. I also took a wee bit of time to weave in all the ends. Scary thing is this sweater fits me, the sleeves are perfect, the body a little trimmer than I'd choose .. but it fits. Scary in that I can clearly remember Toby as a skinny newborn as if it was not to long ago, all whimper and wrinkled skin, barely able to focus looking at me with those wide calm peaceful eyes babies have, and now I am knitting him sweaters that fit me.

My work-rail project grows, I'm half way there. I am using a very accurate measurement system with this project. I stood outside and determined that the length of the rail was two full spans of my arms ... so far I've knit just over one span. I've held the boredom at bay by introducing more variety, a cable, one panel of intarsia block work, and slip stitch ridges. So far its feeling more of a sampler than anything else, but a sampler could be good. My plan is to knit with purpose this week, and install it next weekend, classes start the week of the 7th of June .. so that gives me a weeks more knit time if I need it.

I'm off to watch the recorded Dr Who with the cubs, then House (yup cheap tv here - we live on the intellectual edge at times), and knit (acrylic), and look at my sunny yellow and lime and think of warm and clear sunny days.

na Stella

What is the difference between

Yarn bombing and knit-graffiti? I'm not sure .. but both are supposed to be a little subversive, a little surprising and authored by anonymous knitters (or crocheters). Yarn bombing seems to used by some to cheer up their drab streets with some knitted graffiti, which is the same goal as knit graffiti - Knitta has a mission to make street art "a little more warm and fuzzy. So here I am a fairly ordinary knitter, opps Knitter, working away on fairly ordinary pieces ... sweaters, cardigans, socks, hats ... and other domestic and wearable things, and happily knitting in public (Kip-ing) on a weekly basis, using good quality ingredients, wool and wool blends with other natural fibres. Last knit night, Thursday, I was knitting this, and there came the questions,

Another Knitter: What is that you are knitting,
Me: A cover for the ramp rail out side work,
Another Knitter: Why?
Me: The knitting elective I teach is starting in 3 weeks and I thought I'd cheer up the building with some knitting. Inspire them perhaps.
Another Knitter: What is that yarn, it looks like ....
Me: Yup - it is acrylic.
One of the other knitters: Where do you get acrylic from?

and so it went on for a little more as we discussed the bargain bin yarn shops where you would expect to find acrylic yarns. I think they were more surprised I'd actually buy and knit with acrylic than that I'd knit a cover for a hand rail. I was even asked how much it was - so unfamiliar with acrylic yarns are they. Appears I can knit a cover for a 3m hand rail for about half the price of knitting a pair of socks. I am knitting a cover for the 3m hand rail that edges the ramp up to the main entrance students use to our building, its in garter stitch acrylic .. and I'm doing my best to make it as designer'ey and attractive as possible - you know because deep down I am that kind of knitter who weaves in ends and matches left and right increases and decreases, and slips all the first stitches purl-wise .. and uses wool. And being me I got a little bored working back and forth in plain garter stitch, so I'm now working a kind of two strand garter stitch on circular needles. Yes I'm knitting lime green and bright yellow and still I got a little bored, because despite all that colour there was nothing interesting going on with the knitting, just knit knit knit. So to keep it in garter stitch but spice it up a little first you knit across the work with one colour, then without turning the work, slide all the stitches back to the other end of the circular needle and knit across the work in the same direction in the second colour, Turn the work and repeat ... it makes a neat little pattern of ridges, each edged with scallops of one of the colours. I'm maybe a third of the way along the hand rail, and I've got three weeks to knit it in before classes start, and students start picking electives next week. I'd have loved to have more done, things knitted for some of the table legs, or the pull cord on the projector screen or other bits and pieces .. but there is only so much a Knitter can knit, in wool or acrylic, and there is already too much in my queue.


Then there is the other knitting, the real project knitting, Tobys little brown possum sweater and another bump of fibre leaves the wheel, and there is some stashing. The first sleeve is nearly done, I'm decreasing in preparation for knitting the cuff. I use a different decrease pattern to what is usually recommended, I like to decrease at quarter points every 4th or 5th round, this funnels the sleeve evenly, rather than just removes fabric at the underside of the wrist. A few more decrease rounds and I'll be ready to work 4 rounds of garter and some 2x2 rib.

This is the latest spinning, Romney fibre, blue from Chilko fibres in Ashburton. Its a lovely mix of navy, dark grey, petrol, indigo, green, olive and blue-black, so I Navajo plied it to keep the colour changes intact. I am rather pleased with this yarn, its fairly consistent, with no real thin or over twisted plies - you know I might finally be finding my spinning rhythm. Its a little thicker than DK, so possibly best described as Aran, with 125m in 109g. I'm thinking a hat, for moi?
These little treasures came home from knit camp last week .. a grey sock yarn from Vintage Purls(she thought I'd like it so put a skein aside for me - I love having friends like that), and a cute pin cushion apple in Japanese indigo quilt fabrics. The other treasure that arrived this week is a book, In the Loop Knitting Now by Jessica Hemmings (BlackDog Publishing). This book is an edited compilation drawing together contributions from the first In the loop conference .. and I'm so excited to see it, seeing how I'm off the the second of the In the Loop conferences latter this year. I love this book, its exciting, from the article by Kirsty Robertson on teaching Textiles and Activism ... to the image by Margi Geerlinks of a woman knitting a child. In the book the reproduction of that photo is amazing, the toes are real childs toes and yet the waist is sheer and bunched is clearly knitting scrunched onto a circular needle. I had bought The Culture of Knitting by Joanne Turney late last year .. and was a little disappointed by it, I felt it presented ideas that I already knew, that it didn't develop new or exploratory ideas about knitting, In the Loop does that for me .. its shows me the new in an exciting way - perhaps I'm excited by the images as much as the text. And no ... I got the book after I started the knit the hand rail cover, so it didn't inspire me to start.

Lastly - thank you to Anonymous who corrected my spelling in the last post, from dying to dyeing - appears when speaking of a weekend involving 15 knitters the first spelling is tragedy and the second is not. Readers will be well aware that spelling and grammar are not my strengths ... in fact once at primary school a school report stated quite truthfully that 'Stella is the only child I know who can use a work 3 times in a paragraph and spell it a different way each time', that teacher was good, she let me know I wasn't there yet, but not in a way that killed my enthusiasm for learning. It also explains why I failed at French and German and Maori - for if I can't remember the rules in my home language - how on earth can I learn another set to use in another language? I try, there is definitely a slight dyslexia going on when I use letters, more so with numbers - you should see what I can do with a phone number as I write it down. At one stage I had a volunteer editor who offered to email me with 'suggestions' and 'corrections' but I think she grew tired of tidying up my ramblings, and honestly - I was very very thankful but always pleased and surprised she took the time, I never expected people to spend that sort of time providing detailed help. I know there are people out there who can spot a misplaced apostrophe across the room and can't make sense of the words or meaning until the spelling and punctuation is correct ... I'm not one of them, and so I do apologize to all those I offend, and understand when you go and read the musings of knitters who can spell and order words in the right way instead of reading me. I also give a huge thank you to all those who let me write and ramble and post and don't make the spelling or grammar an issue, unless I fail to make sense, and talk about a weekend of 15 knitters dying not dyeing, and then please do help me out - because as pointed out to me, fifteen knitters dying in one weekend is indeed a tragedy.

Thank you.
na Stella

Frog and repeat

Yup - todays post contains both the word Frog and the word repeat, because I'm that kind of knitter. I'm a knitter that makes mistakes, or perhaps more accurately a knitter who takes risks. Some of those risks could be considered to be avoidable ... like picking up too many stitches around an armhole .. and knitting 30cm or more (that is 12 inches), but as I've been explaining I get a lot of knitting mileage from my yarn at times. This is one of those times. The last weekend was our local KSG(knitters study group) retreat, months earlier than usual and not as cold. Fifteen of us headed out of town and enjoyed a weekend of knitting and dying, Dartmore dyeing, and yes I have photo, thanks to Morag who remembered her camera whilst I did not. Then today there was the nicest surprise in the form of a spinning fibre swap parcel.


So away we went, 15 mostly local knitters to our annual retreat, and we knitted. There wasn't a specific class or project this year, rather instructions to bring our UFO's and deal to them, and a hands on demonstration of Dartmore dyeing. I'm not entirely sure how to explain Dartmore dyeing, KathyR organised the demonstration and perhaps explains it best. We had a mixture of handspun yarns and fleece ... enough to supply all the campers, and ended up with 48 related shades. The method of moving fleece and skeins from dyepot to dyepot, and repeat dying and over dying allows the colour of the fibre and of the dyepots to shift as the process progresses. I love the range of colours, pure magic ... and the last batch of skeins was particularly beautiful, the colour mix just seemed to shift entirely for that batch.....and yet they still work alongside the other skeins and fleeces.

Packing for camp I realized I don't really have a UFO, the fish blanket is ongoing rather than UFO'd, and Nightingale is a sock I love but not one I'm going to risk knitting when chatting. So I packed some fish, and Toby's new little possum sweater. I worked the last shoulder on the Friday night, and the neckband on the Saturday while the dyeing was demonstrated, and quickly moved on to picking up the stitches for the sleeve. Sleeves start wide and then narrow, so I picked up the 3 in 4 as recommended in several gansey books and decreased away the gusset, then decreased away until the sleeve stitch count was 40% of the body stitches. It still looked wide .. it had not narrowed fast enough but I knit on, knitting up not one but one and nearly two 50 gram balls of yarn into the sleeve.

Back home I fitted the sweater on Toby, and found the sleeve was far to wide. Toby loved it, the 3/4 length wide sleeve in soft brown seemed to him like a something a 'Jedi knight would wear'. I the ever practical 'mum' worried about two problems, first it wouldn't fit inside his coat, and second - I might run out of yarn.Sunday night I frogged the sleeve and started again, picking up 2 in 3 this time and decreasing again until I had 40% of the body stitch count. Because I had fewer stitches - this time the decreases worked out quickly and narrowed the sleeve to a better fit. Sucess and more knitting from those two balls of yarn than I expected!



Then this morning, 10 minutes before I left for work, and to drop the cubs at school on the way - a courier pulled up with a parcel. The fun of this is its a swap parcel of spinning fibre and this is beautiful .... look! Merino and silk, gotland lamb locks, real coffee beans, dutch licorice, ginger candy ... a huge thanks to CraftyKiwi from Ravelry. Amazingly he says there is more to come ... I am a very lucky spinner.

Take care
knit on - na Stella