awayuq

in a rush.

As usual I have a zillion and one pages to read before I sleep, but I wanted to post a picture of the finished baby sweater. Finally, a completed baby object! Well, except for buttons--I must not be too hasty. I have the buttons though, that's a start. At least I have something to offer the new arrival, even if it turns out to be a "he" and he never wears it. I think it is too big for a newborn.

Did I mention I have a hangup about baby things? Can't figure it out. On this one calculating the decrease spacing gave me no end of trouble. I'm supposed to be good with numbers! Every decrease row (between the body and yoke, for example) I had to rip at least three times. The underarm increases are also slightly odd--later I realized that I could have had a stripe of plain reverse stockinette going all the way up, I don't know why I didn't do it that way. The yoke itself was bothersome, first because the underarm cast off is so small that putting the whole thing on circs strained the edges of the pieces and it was tight and fiddly to work. More critically, I didn't have a picture of the sweater to hand when I got there and I started doing the yoke in stockinette until warning bells flashed when the directions said to decrease every four rows. Had to rip that back too. There's more ripping represented in this little jacket than in just about any other thing I've knit.

I'm trying not to get too metaphorical (or do I mean metaphysical?) about this. I can think of many subconscious reasons why I'd have trouble completing baby things, but maybe I simply had a rough couple of weeks and was preoccupied. Does anyone else out there have a certain category of item that's particularly hard to deal with? Not because of technique or difficulty, but just because, somehow... know what I mean?

what are the odds?

A huge piece of news that hasn't yet been announced here: I'm going to be an aunt! Very soon, in fact. Beginning of April. When I first heard the news back in the autumn, I was of course filled with visions of all the perfect baby sweaters, caps, booties, quilts and toys I would lavish on the youngster. (Sex still unknown). To date, baby projects completed: 0.

To be sure, other stuff has been going on. Sometimes I wonder how I have time to breathe much less eat. And I have a habit of not following through on good baby intentions. I can't tell you how many friends and acquaintances I have meant to make baby things for. In my life thus far, I have not completed a single baby anything. Even though I seem to be able to eventually complete adult-sized sweaters, shawls, and clothing, baby stuff throws me for a loop.

To give myself some credit, I have started plenty of things for this niece or nephew to be. I have begun Elizabeth Zimmerman's baby jacket from "A Knitter's Almanac" at least three times, with various yarns. I tried a free baby jacket pattern from Garnstudio with some blue alpaca I had lying around. I knit it during classes and when I finally got around to measuring it it was several inches too long and rather than rip out and pick up a zillion tiny stitches (it was knit on size 0 needles) I frogged the whole thing.

But now I am getting seriously down to the wire. Friends may forgive me--or not--for neglecting a handmade baby gift. They may consider my limited time and non-existent finances and shrug it off. But I only have one brother. So I'm trying again. I bought new yarn especially for baby endeavors. I chose another pattern from Garnstudio (number 13-2, isn't it cute?). I dug out some needles in an appropriate size and cast on. The jacket bottom is moving along nicely. Reading ahead to the sleeves, they are knit circularly up to the armholes and then the whole thing is joined together. Very sensible in my opinion. Obviously, I need a set of bamboo dpns in size 3, to match the circular bamboo #3 needle on which I'm knitting the jacket body. No problem. I go to my needle keeper bag and look in the little pocket which should have my set of #3 dpns. Not there. Ok, so they got stuck in some other pocket. With the help of a needle gauge, I check various sets of unlabelled dpns that look 3-ish. Nope. Plenty of size twos and ones, plenty of size 4s, no threes. They must have gotten stuck in some other forgotten project. I go back to the studio and start rummaging through drawers of yarn....

An hour later, no size three dpns have surfaced. ??? How long have I been knitting? Is it really possible that I don't own a set of size 3 dpns? How can this be? Where the **** are the number threes?

LYS to the rescue. And would you believe, I got the last set of bamboo dpns in this size. Not even my favorite brand at that. Oh well. Thank goodness I got there in time.

The good news is, I found an unabridged audio version of one of the books I have to read this week. Assigned book in audio form = many hours of listening time = many hours of knitting time. Multitasking rocks! And, if it's sunny in the morning, I might even have progress pictures to share.

miscellaneous in progress

As usual I have several things on needles right now. This is the Oregon Shawl, done in fine wool that I dyed last spring break. I have finished the center and am a little ways into the border, which is quite deep. I lived in Oregon for a while and while I wouldn't have chosen to knit this shawl if I didn't like the design anyway, it does encourage me to think about rocky coasts and deep forests.

Another thing I started in the autumn and have been working on slowly and steadily is a piece of needlepoint.

I can't imagine what came over me. Needlepoint? An anomaly. Oh well, there it is. I find it quite relaxing to do in the evenings, because I don't have to think about anything; the design is already painted on the canvas, and the most taxing calculations I have to make involve deciding on the direction of stitching that will make the most efficient use of thread. I must have picked it because it matches my walls. It is very soothing not to think once in a while.

pink thistle progress

I finished the fronts and back of the cardigan. What is the actual ratio of the amount of knitting in sleeves vs. body in a typical sweater? Now that the body is done, I have hope that this sweater may one day be completed, because the sleeve part always seems smaller to me. I wonder though if that is in fact true.

what I'm working on

This picture is already out of date. I took it this noontime and then spent three hours in lines waiting to get immunizations so that I can register for classes this week. Oh joy. At least, as several fellow waiters said to me, at least I had knitting. I got something done, while everyone else just stood around and got irritated. I'm following the pattern for the thistle lace cardigan in the Summer IW. The yarn is Katia Pisco, an Elann purchase. The color is a little too bubblegum for my taste in some lights, so I may try to overdye it when done just to tone it down a little. Or not, we'll see. It is cotton, linen and acrylic and I like the yarn very much. It's soft and the washed swatch I did firms up nicely. If you are freaky about splitting you might not like it, because it has 10 or 12 plies which you can at times separate from each other with the wrong needle move, but I'd work with it again for sure. After this afternoon I may be almost up to the armholes.

This is the shawl I started in Peru when I stalled on the lavender blue baby. The pattern is the Oregon Shawl, you can see an example here. I'm adding some extra row repeats to the center, because my gauge is more nearly square than what the pattern calls for. The yarn is some fine wool that I hand-dyed on my spree in the spring. There are slight variations in the color (note to self--dissovle better, make sure to stir) but not enough to detract from the pattern. The needles by the way are the new (to me) Addi Naturals--I like them.

And a note from last week--surely everyone by now has seen this picture of the knitblogosphere? I love this kind of stuff.

back from beyond

I am so glad to be home. Things aren't quite organized--camera batteries are dead, there is no food in the refrigerator, piles of books needing to be read and clothes needing to be washed are multiplying hour by hour--but I am glad that I am out of the airline system and have no trips planned for the near future.

If I had a gazillion dollars, I would devote myself to creating a different long-distance public transportation system in this country. Bring back the railway, I say. Bike trails to everywhere. Canals. Any alternative to planes.

Anyway, about the Projects. The blue lace shawl is one of those ill-fated items that insists on never being quite done. First, as you may remember, there was the issue with missing instructions in the middle of the Peruvian desert. Well, I got it home, and found the instructions, and took it on the next trip, and worked on it from time to time. I love attaching edging, but you know how it is--there's a point at which you knit and knit and knit and can't believe you still have so much edge left. It languished. Finally, the last two days of my visit to Mom's house, I decided that I really needed to finish it, and began to knit furiously, mostly after dinner while watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. (We watched it twice. I felt I had to see it again because I'm supposed to be becoming an archaeologist. It was very useful. Resolution for the next year: learn to use a whip.) I knit and knit and knit and about the time I got halfway through the third side, I began to get a nervous feeling about the size of the remaining ball of yarn. I turned the third corner and was on the home stretch and was about evenly divided as to whether I'd have enough yarn to finish or not. Finally, I ran out in the middle of the final side. *sigh*. This project just does not want to be finished. Possible to get more yarn? Unlikely. Probably I'll finish it with something in a plain color and it will be a reminder to me to avoid hubris in the matter of yarn estimation. No pictures of this sad shawl example yet, as I mailed it back from the midwest. (or my Mom did--thanks Mom).

Returning to the first subject--am I the only one who hates to fly? I abhor it. I do it, and I've learned to deal with it, but I hate it. I mean I hate the actual flying part, the being in the sky, as well as taking off and coming down, and I hate all the rigamarole around it like undressing and having to remember what can't be carried on and standing in line and weather delays and the media hype that doesn't improve anyone's peace of mind. The day I left was the day people were arrested in England with alleged plans to blow up flights over the Atlantic. (yep, that was a treat, traveling on that day.) I came back the day a flight crashed in Kentucky (I flew out of Ohio. A little too close to home.) Really, does it ever seem to you that flying is just tempting fate? The more often you fly, the more likely you are to be in one of those situations that nightmares are made of. And did I mention that both my bags got lost on the last flight? Things seem to get worse and worse. This year I truly feel that if I never had to fly again, I could be ok with that. In fact, I'm thinking with a world fuel crisis looming it might be time to learn how to keep horses. Yet another reason to learn how to wield that whip.

more dirty textiles

I spent the last couple of weeks looking at early colonial textiles from a site on the north coast of Peru.  In time I may be able to post pictures but you aren't missing a whole lot without the visuals, because the things I saw had just come out of the ground and were so encrusted with dirt that in many cases it took hours of cleaning to figure out what they were.  The textiles, mostly scraps of things, have been all mixed up in the ground due to centuries of looting, so it's not possible to date many of them with certainty from context alone.  However, IF we are able to get permission to take samples and IF dates from said samples indicate that the pieces are 16th-17th century, I may have studied some of the earliest knitting in South America.  At this point I am cautiously optimistic that two of the pieces found, striped stockinette tubes, represent early importation of the technique of knitting to the Americas.  They are both knit with multiple strands of singles cotton yarn such as was used for indigenous weaving.  One piece has half the stitches held on a yarn and the other half continue in a garterstitch band.  The whole thing looks to my mind very much like a sock top with a heel flap.  Because of the yarn and the incompleteness of the piece, it´s almost certain that the knitting was done here in Peru.  The second piece even has a simple fair isle pattern of blue and white squares!  They look like bedraggled sad little raveling objects, fully saturated with dessert dust and dirt, but they could be important evidence of the spread of knitting. 

And there was not only knitting, but lots of fascinating woven textiles, including  many pieces with twill damask stripes.  The twill is 2/1 and the damask makes an elaborate pattern of stepped diagonals and interlocking spirals.  At first glance, it looks like a floor-loom product, but these patterns appear on four-selvedge textiles.  I´m wondering if some special heddling was used, possibly some kind of dual lease system with pattern rods?  In order to fully understand it, I'll have to review a lot of structural information which is presently deep at the back of my brain.  There are examples of indigenous cloth with hemmed seams, and mixing of indigenous and imported fabrics, and even early buttons made of rolled wool fabric felted into little toggles.  Amazing stuff.

In my personal textile creation efforts, I encountered a sad setback.  I got to the very end of the center of the Weeping Willow shawl (pictured in the last post, the blue thing) and found that I had forgotten the directions for attaching the border!  I have the graph, but no word directions and unfortunately, I can't remember how the pattern handles turning the corners, or even whether the border is in stockinette or garter stitch.  So I've tucked the almost-shawl into the back of my suitcase for the time being and I'll finish it when I get home.  In the meantime I started two others.  Hey, I have a couple long flights coming up.  You really wouldn't want me to run out of knitting over the Carribean ocean.  I'll be home soon, and I can't wait to revisit all my projects and start making things again! 

knitting conditions

Rare, but occasionally favorable. In Ica, Peru, the sun shines most days in the afternoon. I got an afternoon off (Sunday! after working until 3:00 or so) and spent it by the pool with my yarn. Yes, I did go in the water and I did go down the water slide which was the most non-yarn-related fun I have had since... I can't remember. In case this photo tempts you to think I am a lucky devil, could I politely remind you that last year I froze my behind and all other parts of my body for almost eight weeks, at 16,000 ft altitude? I so deserve this hour by the pool in the sun. The shawl is called "Weeping Willow" and if I had a faster and more reliable internet connection, I'd look up the designer for you, but no such luck this morning. It's an easy lace pattern and one I'd recommend for a beginner. It's coming along very fast, too; I started it just a week or two before I left and I've hardly had any time to work on it here. There's a central area of diamonds, then a border of zig zags, then two more rows of diamonds before a lace edging is attached. I'm currently about half way through the zigzags. The pattern is easy enough to be plane knitting or waiting room knitting. I tried something more complex

seen here in an embryonic state, alas, unlikely to come to fruition. I wanted to do an ambitious shetland-style lace shawl with a square center and wide knitted borders. What you see is the beginning of the central square, with a long provisional cast on edge. I was using a pattern from "A Gathering of Lace" but after I'd knit 40 rows or so, and compared the texture of my garter stitch fabric to what I remembered from the picture in the book, and the number of rows the pattern said to knit, I determined that there was no way it was going to end up square. I need a different size needle or a different yarn. So, I scratch that project again, back into the suitcase with it! I'll finish up the Weeping Willow and then see how I feel. Since I have the red yarn along, I might try designing something simple. Maybe a garter stitch center, knit diagonally, with an all-over rosebud design. Then large borders knit one at a time back and forth, with a pattern of... zig zags? Something that will look nice meeting at the corners. Of course I won't have time to get all this done while traveling, but knowing that there is more yarn there is very satisfying; it heps assuage some of the nervousness associated with moving around and facing unexpected things each day.

The museum where I am working has guard dogs. While I like dogs in general, and animals in general, I have to say that this dog is the ugliest dog I have ever seen. I tried to overcome my dislike for him, but his temper is no prettier than his form. Peruvian hairless dogs are supposed to be a very rare and valuable breed, but I'm sorry--I just can't get enthusiastic about this creature. What do you think?

peacocks done.

What would cause an ordinarily sober, disciplined knitter to stay up late, get up early, skip going to the gym and indulge in marmalade for breakfast?

Finishing a lace shawl. Finishing, weaving in, washing and blocking. It turned out fine.

The pattern is lovely but I don't know that I would knit it again. Double yarn-overs are not my favorite thing to work. I don't like the k1 p1 in the same loop business, and I don't like wiggling around the loops on the next right side row to make sure I'm knitting into the k1 p1 and not into the original yo. (Maybe there is a trick to this I don't know?) The pattern is well-written, though I can't help but wonder if there is a better way to handle the design at the edges. There are the standard 4 increases every other row for a triangular shawl, and at the outer edges and the center the pattern is pretty much whatever's left over from the feather shapes. It would be nice to have a smoother kind of break. Perhaps it's just not feasible in this pattern; I haven't tried to chart it out. On the other hand, I think the general peacock feather idea would make a great rectangular stole, started in the middle with the denser patterns and transitioning to the larger feathers on the ends. It would be nice too to attach irridescent beads in the center of the feather holes and on the crochet edging. That could get very much like a peacock.

Anyhow--I'm done! I'm done! Yippee!

peacock pant

I am so almost done with the peacock shawl I can hardly sit still. One more evening and a couple of old radio detective shows should do it. Four chart rows (making 8 knitted rows) and the crochet bind off. I can't stand it...