Tinker Toy swift

Yes, gentle reader, I’ve finally decided to join the rest of the… what? 12th century or so?… by actually acquiring one of those newfangled gadgets: a swift.

I found the link to this on Ravelry. But here is a direct link to Crafting Jen, who, I’m sure you will agree, is also very crafty.

Yes, that’s right, it’s made from Tinker Toys. Who wouldn’t see such a lovely toy tool and instantly want one? And there’s a toy tool store just right down the street. Isn’t that convenient? Because for some unknown reason, #1 Son, although the proud possessor of blocks and Leggos and Lincoln Logs, apparently never had Tinker Toys. At least I can’t recall that he did. But the Classic Jumbo Set is readily available at the toy tool store and comes with more parts than you can shake a tinker toy stick at.

It only took about 10 minutes of playing with my toys serious building to come up with a working swift. Mine is constructed a bit differently from Jen’s. I wanted mine to sit a little higher so that it’s at the right angle to turn well when sitting on my footstool. It’s very stable and turns very well. The beauty of using Tinker Toys this particular construction method is that it’s really easy to rebuild in any configuration should I want it higher or lower, or the arms longer or shorter or extended to keep a puffy skein from falling off.

It’s small and light enough to go anywhere — like up on a high shelf where Moo Cow can’t get her paws (and teeth) on the yarn. And, when I’m finished with it, I can take it apart and put the pieces back in their can, and they’ll be there the next time I need to wind some yarn.

That, by the way, is Blue Moon Silk Thread in Thraven. It takes awhile to wind 1,250 yards of yarn, so portability is a real asset. Especially since I’m going to have to wind two skeins before I can start what I want to do with this yarn.

Speaking of Moo, she ate her breakfast this morning and it has not come back up. She also seems a lot more like her normal self. I have hope that this means either that she is able to somehow digest silk leaves from my fake tree, or she managed to get rid of all of them. She is very interested in the silk that is on the swift. We had words.

And speaking of #1 Son, he was too ill yesterday to go to work and had to have a special excuse from the doctor. But when I called to see how he was doing, he was in Eugene. So apparently he was not too sick to drive 100 miles with his friends. Parenting continues to be an interesting exercise in futility experience.

Lenore

See what I am working on? Those are socks! Those are Lenore socks!

Yes, I’m knitting them toe-up. So sue me.

Yes, I realize the cuff lace is directional. I have swatched it. No, I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get to the top of the legs. Yes, I will figure it out some time before I get there (I hear you, Pat).

But, the real reason that this picture of sock toes is such a big deal: I’m working on socks. You know what that means, gentle reader? (The Monday night knitsters got it right away.)

The Great Green Glob is off the needles!

It’s still very glob-like sans blocking. But the knitting is done. I’ve ordered some blocking wires from Knit Picks, but they haven’t come yet. If they’re not here by Saturday, I’ll probably just take it over to Tangle and see if I can persuade the lovely Alice to let me block it there. Tangle is closed Thursday, of course, for Thanksgiving Day, but also Wednesday and Friday because they are getting new yarn, be still my beating heart! So I might be going over over on Saturday for more than just a little blocking. Not that I need any more Stash Enhancing eXperiences right now.

I am working on Lenore, but other projects are calling my name, also, as you can see from the growing list of items in the queue over in the right-hand sidebar.

And, speaking of sidebars, I did a minor WP upgrade on PI last Sunday and took the opportunity to do a little rearranging and pruning. All of my blogroll, except the Yarn Collectors, is now on the Links page. It’s getting longer and longer, but I hate to take it out completely. I’ve left all of you fellow Yarn Collectors on the front page.

A post from Mims reminded me that there are ways we can give without even leaving the comfort of our own computers — and, actually, for free! Since I am guilty of not remembering to click on the GreaterGood click-to-give sites also, I have moved those links to the front page on the right just above the news. Please, click on those links every day and link to them yourself.

In other news, #1 Son is ailing, but hopefully will be recovered soon. And I came home last night to find that Moo Cow had stripped the leaves from the lower branches of the silk dogwood in my living room, and obviously eaten the leaves which she had then thrown up in several strategic locations. I mean… I knew she would eat my yarns. But a fake plant? She has shown no interest in her breakfast, and has been curled up on a chair. I am watching her closely to see if her tummy is just a little upset or if she is going to require a more extensive look-see from the vet. Thankfully there were no wires in those leaves.

And… sometime in the wee hours PI received its 100,000th unique visitor. Thank you to everyone who comes here. I hope you enjoy.

ravens have landed

I heard the Ravens cawing as they winged their way from Scappoose. I rescued them from the mailbox on my way home. Poor things — it’s damp and cold in there.

Top: Laci in Korppi
Bottom L-to-R: Silk Thread in Haida and Thraven; Socks That Rock Light in Rook-y and Ravenscroft; Silkie STR in Tlingit

This yarn is just extraordinarily hard to photograph. There’s no way to capture the richness of the colors or the way that the color appears and disappears on the Silk Thread as it is moved back and forth. And, of course, this is Oregon and it’s winter, so there’s no light to speak of — or at least I have not been home except in the dark since this yarn came. Today a weak sun peaked out for a brief moment and I started snapping pics.

The Laci is earmarked for Anne’s new faroese pattern. Go and look at her site to see this shawl. I’ll wait right here. It’s well worth looking at! There will be a stole version also that uses fingering weight yarn. I may knit that one later.

The Thraven… OK. Silk Thread is very… threadlike. I had planned on knitting The Wings Of A Dream version of Mystery Stole 3. But this yarn is too fine for that pattern. What would you do, gentle reader, if you had the perfect yarn for a pattern but it wasn’t the right gauge? Well… I ordered another skein of Thraven so I can double the strand. My order shows shipped, but it did not arrive today, probably because of the weekend. I expect it will be here on Monday.

Interestingly enough, the Haida has a typo on the ball band. It says Haidi.

Haidi ho, haidi hi
gonna get me a piece of the sky…

OK. That’s not the way the song really goes. But that’s what started going through my mind.

There are no particular plans for the STR or the Silkie. It will go into my stash for awhile until it lets me know what it wants to be. I really love the Ravenscroft and I can see that on my sock needles soon. When I can get back to sock knitting.

And, yes, I’m still slogging away at The Great Green Glob. I was nearly finished with the I-cord when I realized that it just was way too tight. So I ripped the I-cord out and started over. I’m much happier with the results this time. I’m about 1/2 way done with it, and should have it finished soon.

Today, although no yarn arrived, I did receive an order from Knit Picks of a few Options Harmony tips in the sizes I use the most — including the sizes needed for any of the lace projects I want to start.

Thank you for the sympathy on the loss of my rose. 😥 I loved the rose, but the arch had gotten more and more rickety over the years, and I spent most of the summer shoring the poor thing up and putting it back together. I still have other roses. This is Oregon, after all, as we have already established.

In other news, #1 Son is still trying to raise the money needed for his trip. He is a bit unhappy with me, as I have been firm in my resolve to keep Bank Of Mom closed for withdrawals and not accepting applications for new loans – unless, of course, one is attached to a business plan that might actually earn a living or has a proven ROI, which I have not seen so far. But he is close to his goal and may make it yet. I’m not sure whether to hope he does or hope he doesn’t. Either way, things will work out the way they are supposed to. They always do.

rose down

I do feel sorry for the weatherpeople in the Northwest. It’s hard to predict our weather. It comes down from Alaska and up from California and across from Hawaii and sometimes all of those at once. On the east coast they have plenty of time to watch the weather as it crosses the nation and have a good idea of what it will actually be when it gets there.

Sunday the weatherguy (station will remain nameless) said that we would have a storm on Monday, and it would be a little windy, but not really that bad. Maybe gusts of 20 MPH or so.

Yeah. Right.

I worked from home on Monday. As I typed away on my computer back in the back corner bedroom, I heard the wind pick up. Pretty soon it was howling around the house. Then I heard…

swish swish swwwwiiiisssshhhh creek creek CREEEK WHACK WHACK WHACK BANG

OMG, WTF! I said, and other expletives that will remain deleted on this usually family-friendly little space. I ran to the window.

For the last 10 years, a willow arch has framed the entrance to the back yard at the corner of the house. A Climbing Iceberg rose grew on it.

Note, gentle reader, that I am using past tense.

I tried to lift the arch back up, but it is old and came apart in my hands. I stood in the rain and wind and mourned my rose, that had snapped off at the base. It was lovely — but did sort of grab people going through the arch. It was… friendly.

I came back inside and called my yard guy.

Brett, you know that clean-up you are coming to do tomorrow? Yeah… I have a little extra clean-up that’s needed this year.

I have finished the shell edging on The Great Green Glob. You know how I was looking forward to the I-cord? Now that I’m there… not so much. This is going to be a slog. But I will persevere!

Confidential to Bobbie: If I knit your top-down raglan pattern from my coned yarn, I’d probably just end up giving it to someone like Chrispy. 😈

the outside of the barn

The weatherman warned of rain on Saturday, but it was not to be. Although a bit drizzly when I first got up, by the time I left the house the sun was breaking through the clouds. I picked Melissa up early (go visit Melissa and see the gorgeous yarn she spun), because the plan was to meet some of the other PDX Knit Bloggers for breakfast at the Hawaiian Cafe, conveniently located right next to the barn.

This is the outside of the barn. I want you to see this picture, gentle reader, because I want you to note the sheer size of this place.

Breakfast took a little longer than expected. And then I needed to move my car so restaurant patrons could park. And then the lot by the barn was full and I had to turn around and park between the barn and the road. And all this means it was about 10:15 before I actually stepped foot inside the barn.

the inside of the barn

And this was what it looked like inside at about 10:30. Already things were beginning to be a little picked over. And there was a scad of stuff and another scan of knitters there breathing in the yarn fumes.

There were tables down both of the long sides of the barn. To the left of the camera, the tables held cone yarn, books, and a few snacks lest we become faint from hunger (not much chance of that for me after a humongous breakfast at the Hawaiian Cafe). The tables on the right side held grab bags, sheep-to-shoe kits and roving. In the back are racks (it looked like the same racks used at OFFF) holding tons of sock yarn, laceweight, silk, bamboo, mohair, just tons of stuff. And twirly racks of sock yarn, too. People just sort of grabbed stuff willy-nilly and then went to the tables in the middle to sort out what they had.

I want you to pop up this picture and look at the pile in front of the woman on the right towards the middle. Go ahead. I’ll wait right here.

Yes, that was a typical haul.

That’s Tina sitting to the right of the pillar with her back to the camera, taking it all in.

blogless Pat from Longview

This is Pat from Longview (sadly blogless). Her selection is on the windowsill next to her.

You can see why she looks happy.

Yeah. Wouldn’t you?

By the time I finished chatting with Pat and got in line to pay, the lovely Blue Moon ladies had run out of the big plastic tote bags, but offered a couple of the small bags for my purchases. I think they later ran out of those as well.

When we left around 11:00, there wasn’t much left but there were a lot of happy knitters.

my haul

And this is my selection. I was very careful. I didn’t want to load up on sock yarn. I looked for cone yarn and unusual fibers in largish quantities. I also bought a sock-club t-shirt, mostly because the back says Notorious Sock Knitters. Who could pass that up?

The cones in the back are 100% cotton. The green on the left is called Quince and the sunny gold on the right is called… Golden Sun (go figure).

The cones in the front are a 100% viscose mini-boucle. On the right is Black Cherry and on the left is Moss. Pictures do not do justice to the way that red simply glows.

When full, each of these cones holds more than 2000 yds. I have no idea if I have full cones or not, but I do have enough to do something really nice with. I have not yet decided what. Stay tuned.

In the front are two lightweight STR that are marked as mill ends. I think they might be slightly off color Ravens. The one right in front is black with hints of blue and purple, and the other is black with hints of teal. When I picked this yarn off the rack, a knitter standing next to me said but it’s black! I replied No it’s not! and held it in the sun streaming through the windows. OH! she said, and started selecting a few skeins herself.

The yarn to the right of my cones belongs to the famous MonicaPDX who shared my sorting space. I will let her tell you about it. Go visit her, where I sure she will post a blow-by-blow.

fish and shell edging

I know Lenore is gorgeous. I have started the new socks. Yes, I am going toe-up (what did you expect, gentle reader?). Lenore will remain my carry to work knitting.

But, about 1-inch into Lenore, I really started itching to get The Great Green Glob (aka The Pacific Northwest Shawl) finished. You can go look at the picture of the finished product if you want. I’ll wait.

You know I’ve been trying to be lace-monogamous (socks don’t count). And I have at least a couple of lace projects that I’d really like to start on. And one is going to be really special for reasons that I can not yet divulge.

So I really want to get this choke chain around my neck project completed, blocked and wearable — in other words, DONE.

I fetched The Great Green Glob out of the little orange bag in which it has lived for all of its long, long life and realized that I was actually much further along than I thought. I was ready to start the fish pattern. It’s only 12 rows, of which only 1/2 are pattern and the rest are straight K. Then there was just the final bubble pattern (8 rows) to finish the main body of the shawl.

Realize that by the time the final bubbles are finished, the body of the shawl is 385 stitches. So a row takes awhile to knit. And I find that I cannot knit this lace quickly, even on the straight K rows. It might be the needles. I currently have it on an Addi Lace circ — which I love — but it might not be pointy enough. I think I will switch to a Knit Picks options and see if that bring back a little of the love.

But I digress.

I did marathon lace knitting yesterday, fortified by coffee, frozen pizza, beer (homemade by a friend, yummy), and multiple free movies courtesy of On Demand cable viewing. I knit all of the fish, all of the bubble, and two repeats of the shell edging. It all looks a little wonky right now, sans blocking. I’ve used Photoshop to brighten up the YOs in one of the fish, so you can see it better.

Now it’s just a run around the border. Which, I calculate, is approximately 650 rows of knitting. But these rows are only 14 stitches long. Then the final I-cord edging. And it will be done.

Think I can make it by Christmas? Stay tuned to this channel for updates.