Taking Stock

One of the best parts of moving (only in retrospect can I deem this as a positive) is the inevitability of taking stock of all those nasty WIP knits that we so easily find ways of ignoring (hiding from ourselves). In organizing all the stuff that needed to move from one Brooklyn walk-up to another, I tried hard not to shudder as the pile of unfinished knits continued to grow exponentially. One room gets cleaned and 3 more stow-aways rear their ugly heads. Repeat for every room of the apartment.

Sure, despair and hopelessness are the first feelings to descend, but leave it to the great momentum you achieve while moving to blow past those feelings of defeat and move right on to the moving-on.

A frog-fest ensued and I have to say I feel absolutely liberated and excited again about good yarns that had gone long forgotten. The biggest mountain to scale was my old friend Demi.

taken july 2006. ugh.

On first consideration, it seemed like there were too many sinuous cables and twisted stitches to ever justify ripping something so beautiful, but in the spirit of being brutally honest with myself about what would and would not be worn... I knew what had to happen.

After trying on the body several times (there was only one sleeve left to complete the thing!), I knew what had to be done.

Too thick. Too warm. Too constricting. These are the things I repeated to myself as the wool carnage ensued. And, my friends, Demi is no more.

Don't be upset - because the best part of the story is yet to come! Almost immediately after the final stitch had been dissolved, I fell in love with the yarn all over again (it wasn't difficult). And it just so happens that I was in desperate need of a new sweater project. Do you see where this is going? Well lets just say that the Yorkshire Tweed and I are taking a second honeymoon, and I haven't looked back since.


Despite having the busiest schedule I can remember in years, I'm getting a surprising amount of knitting done. Evening knitting has been adopted as the most effective way of relaxing in a short period of time.

What am I trying to say today? I guess that a little frogging goes a long way - and there's no better time of year to do it. Liberate (yourself) some of that gorgeous yarn that has been too-long imprisoned in a doomed project (we all have them) and I promise you'll be justified. I still can't believe I've been sitting on 10 balls of this discontinued wonder-tweed for almost 2 years with no finished sweater to call my own. That's all about to change.

And as for Big Blue, we're rounding the home stretch.



As it turns out, sweaters are everywhere and that's what Fall should be about. Back to my wool-crazed euphoria. Happy Knitting.

Fir Cone Border Scarf

I'm knitting the scarf with fir cone border on page 96. I'm having trouble with Chart A, row 3. I end up with an extra stitch at the end of the row. I've ripped and restarted this border at least fours times with the same result. I've modified the pattern by making the first stitch a k2tog which evens out the stitch count but leaves a slight difference at this spot on the edge.

Did anyone else have trouble with this chart? If so, how did you resolve it?

Also, my chart legend shows the edge stitches with the shading reversed. RS stitches are shaded in the chart but not on the legend. WS stitches are not shaded in the chart but are on the legend. I've choosen to ignore the shading and to work the stitch as instructed.

I haven't seen any errata for this particular pattern. Has anyone else?

Yes, I'm still here.

OK, I've been a bad blogger. No posts for over two weeks! My bad.
I've come to the conclusion that I don't have to have photos with every post.
Until I get a new camera, or my teenage son is home for more than 10 minutes, I won't be able to take any photos. So there...

I HAVE been knitting however.

I finished the pant legs for the scarecrow that The Atlanta Knitting Guild is putting together for the "Scarecrows in the Garden" show at The Atlanta Botanical Garden. (now I just need to get them to the person in charge!)

I've also finished my French Market Bag that I knitted with Louet linen yarn, but I have not yet felted my entrelac bag.

I finished a BEAUTIFUL spiral scarf! (a shop sample for Knitch) It's made with Prism Indulgence. (68 % silk, 15 % wool, 12 % kid mohair, 5 % nylon - heavenly to knit with!) Swing by the shop and check it out. LOTS of short rows, all garter stitch, fun and easy to knit.

I have been working on my SAFF sweater, but need to step up production if I want it to be finished before the end of October. I sort of got sidetracked by one of Jared's patterns at b r o o k l y n t w e e d. (thanks Jared) The Noro Striped Scarf. Super fun to knit! I can hardly put it down. Can't wait to see the next color combo. I used two different colorways of Kureyon. I will try to post photos of this, and all my finished projects as soon as I am able.

I received a letter this week from the sweet little girl I adopted. Here is her photo.


Her name is Chloe, and she lives at the Schacht Fleece Farm in Indiana. Apparently she's had a rough summer. It's been hotter and dryer than usual. (can you imagine! with all that wool!) The flock was given supplemental minerals, which are supposed to be beneficial during stressful weather. Unfortunately, Chloe ingested too much of the minerals, and had to be treated for copper toxicity! This can sometimes be fatal, but thankfully, they caught it early, and she's made a full recovery. Her fleece is now about 5 inches long, and there is still a month or two before she will be shorn. I'm having her fleece spun into yarn, as I'm not much of a spinner myself. Hopefully there will be enought to do a nice cabled vest or sweater.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try and be a little better about keeping y'all posted with what's going on. Have fun tomorrow, for all of those going to see The Yarn Harlot!

Squeaking By

Isn't it a bit sad how dependent we are on the internet? I never really notice it until the precious life-blood of blogging is ripped away from me. I won't have any regular access to internet in the new BT headquarters until *next* Saturday, which I'm trying to pretend isn't seriously effecting my daily life.

I've been doing my best to keep up with everything, but I'll warn you now if you send e-mails or comments my way, there may be delays (even longer than usual!). I didn't want to go, however, with yet another week of silence here induced by the absence of any connection to the outside world - so I'm taking another quick opportunity to update you on what's goin' down.

That week-long cold snap at the end of August was such a treat. And such a tease. It was all I needed to get my Fall gears turning. Of course September so far has been relentlessly hot and humid and I'm feeling a bit of remorse for letting myself indulge in that early Autumnal preview. Either way, I started the first of hopefully several Fall Sweaters and I'm not ashamed of that.


It's a seamless cardigan in one of my favorite tweeds (the same I used for this - it's definitely good enough for multiple sweater projects) that I'm designing as I go. It's a beautiful yarn, isn't it?


I've also been collecting sufficient stock for the spinning machine to keep a-whirrin' through the season. The most recent acquisition looks a bit like frosting to me, but maybe that's the sleep deprivation talking.


I don't think I've mentioned it earlier, but I am officially a full-time student again. I started a 2 year MFA program this past week. To say I'm overwhelmed is a bit of an understatement, but it's all very good. And I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed that I'll be able to keep knitting as much as my sanity requires. Which is a lot.

The BSJ is done and just needs buttons. More to come on that in the near future.

Knit on!

Home, home again....

In the immortal words of Dorothy, "There's no place like home!". (although, I've been to Kansas. Oz didn't look so bad.... I'm just sayin') Just glad to be back home, and outta the car! Ten hours of actual driving time today, (eleven on the road), is way too much. Even though there were not nearly as many tractor trailers on the road today as the day we left, traffic was extremely heavy with Labor Day travellers.

So, did I let anyone else drive?
NO.

Am I complaining?
NO.

Did I knit?
YES!

In front of Dad?
NO. (although it probably would have been okay)

Every morning when I woke up, and every night before I turned in, I knitted a little bit. (enough to keep my sanity) I started a scarf before I left, using a black tweedy yarn, and learned the brioche stitch! What a FUN stitch! If you don't know it, learn it. I think it's in Barbara Walker's first treasury, and EZ's Knitting Without Tears. I found the later a bit more helpful, as there were pictures to guide me through the weird yarn wrap. She uses it to knit a hat, (knitted flat, and stitched up later), but I cast on less stitches and did a scarf. It makes a very thick, soft, cushy, deeply ribbed fabric. Unfortunately, this stitch really uses up the yarn, and I may need to buy more if I want my scarf to be more than three feet long. (which I do)

So anyway, I ate way too much potato salad, watched football, (WVU won!), grilled steaks, (new grill!), did lots of visiting, and in general, had a pretty good time. Got to see the whole family. My grand niece is adorable! My niece found out that the next baby is going to be a boy! YAY! I was getting kind of sick of pink. Now I get to knit some baby boy stuff. (pattern suggestions? anyone?) Daddy wants to know if I can knit a blankie with a large WV in the customary school colors.

Not sure how I'm gonna knit that, but what can I say? Mountaineer fans through and through.

I've got a busy week ahead of me, (yarn shop staff meeting, guild meeting, co-workers on vacation this week, etc...), so I hope to see y'all sometime this week.

Now I'm off to sleep in my OWN bed!

A Quick Pop-In

Hey everybody! I'm just peeking my head around from a huge pile of boxes for a quick update. We've spent the last week moving from one Brooklyn walk-up to another, in the late August heat. Oy, what a week. I'm happy to report, though, that everything (including every last bit of wool) has made the journey safely - now there's just the matter of unpacking, which is actually the fun part.

Knitting has been almost non-existent for obvious reasons, but I did grab a skein of my handspun to cast on for a small project to keep around for sanity's sake.


This is 4 oz of pure merino from Amy over at Spunky Eclectic that I spun up to be a worsted weight 2-ply. I prepared the fibers so that it would be self-striping. I love how the colors go together.


I've really had BSJ on the brain and when the finished yarn came off the wheel I knew these two were destined for each other. I'm hoping I can squeeze one full baby surprise out of this skein. We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I'm enjoying every stitch. Limited couch space and all.


In other BT-related news, a knit-a-long has been started up for the Hemlock Ring Blanket. I've been absolutely overwhelmed at the response to this project, I'm glad to see so many wool flowers blooming all over the world already. If you'd like to join the KAL, visit the start page here and sign up. If you've been thinking about starting one of your own, I'm sure this will give you just inspiration (temptation) you need.

Sorry to drop by for such a short time - I hope to be back to regularly scheduled programming very soon. Enjoy the long weekend!