closeup of border

Sometimes, if we are very lucky, we create an object that is so perfect, so me that it can hardly be described with words, but must be felt to be understood.

One of the first objects that I can remember knitting as a child was a Fair Isle poncho. The main body of the poncho was knit from an acrylic faux mohair in a sort of tweedy golden brown. Around the border were white snowflakes. I was incredibly proud of it. I picked the pattern, even though the LYS owner said it would be too hard for me. And I knit the whole thing, even the snowflakes, even though I had to learn stranded knitting and I was still a thrower instead of a picker, even though it was hard and slow. I knit it. And I loved that poncho way beyond its actual worth as a knitted object. I wore that poncho constantly, even when ponchos were out of style. I wore it until it fell apart and had to be retired. When someone asks me what my favorite project ever is, I immediately think of that poncho.

It was waaaaaaaay better than the first sweater that I knit, which I wore once… because mama forced me to. Yeah. That was the sweater that first taught me that cheating at gauge is a lose-lose proposition.

But I’m not here to talk about ponchos and sweaters, beloved – or not – as they may be.

closeup of center in the sun

I’m here to tell you about a little project that started way before I became involved in it. It started over a year ago at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in 2008, when Duffy purchased some gorgeous silk/merino fiber from Dicentra Designs in a colorway called Eowyn.

Oh, yeah, that’s pretty, I said, in a sort of I-like-it-but-I’m-not-a-spinner-so-meh way. Pretty colors.

Eventually Duffy began spinning it.

Oh! That’s really pretty! I said, in a sort of I-like-it-and-it’s-turning-into-yarn way. Pretty colors.

And this past summer, during knit in public day, Duffy spun while sitting in the sunshine, and the colors glowed on her bobbin – greens and blues and purples. oooooo! Pretty! Really, really pretty! I said, in a definitely I-really-love-that way. Pretty! Ooooooo! So my colors!

And I bought some yarn and knit some socks, and was mostly content. But in the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to find some yarn that had just those colors in it. Because they are soooo my colors.

And one evening at Wednesday Night Knitting, Duffy handed me a gorgeous skein of two-ply yarn with a tag on it that said Magic Judy. And I thought how sweet it was that Duffy had named it after me, and how pretty – how very, very pretty – the yarn was. And I started to hand it back. But Duffy said, I made it for you. It’s yours. And perhaps because I refused to let go of it no matter how I argued with her, she was adamant that it was my yarn and I needed to knit something with it.

glittering in the sun at OFFF

And so I began searching for a pattern. I decided the yarn wanted to be a wrap or shawl or stole. The colors are bright and strong, with long runs. So I wanted a pattern that had a strongly geometric component that would complement the color rather than compete with it.

And beads. It had to have beads.

I found Stola Mit Arabesker Borte Und Mitte (Stole With Arabesque Edging and Middle), a free download on Ravelry. It didn’t have beads, but I thought I could add a few. The title was in German, and that gave me pause because I speak not a word of that language. But when I opened the pattern I was reassured. What few instructions there were – cast on, follow chart, bind off – are in English. It’s mostly just one big chart. I like charts!

Then began a period of Sock Summit madness. And when I resurfaced and recovered from that, I though how fun it would be to knit that shawl and reveal it at OFFF in September. Duffy would be there, and lots of PDXKB and Spinnerati would be there, and tons of other people. And it would be so fun to show Duffy what I’d made.

First I agonized over beads: sparkly teal with undertones of silver, or dark mysterious midnight with surprising flashes of sapphire. I polled on Twitter and Facebook, and I even knit a tiny swatch with both beads. Sparkly teal: hands-down winner.

Then I agonized over bead placement. I had a limited number of beads – fewer than 550, which is not a lot for a wrap of that size. I worked for an entire weekend deciding exactly where to put the beads. (OK. Sometimes I can be a little obsessive.)
4

obligatory blocking pic

I started knitting. And then I started agonizing over whether I had enough yarn or not. I almost ripped it out and started something not-so-picky-about-length, like a faroese or something. But it was so pretty! I contemplated shaving a bit off the width and length so it was smaller. But the pattern has no repeats, so that would not have been all that easy. A Ravelry PM or two with the pattern author, and I began to hope that I would have just enough.

I kept knitting and adding beads. I found that I could not take it anywhere – it was at-home knitting only. And I’d better not knit while I was feeling sleepy. It kicked my arse several times when I was sleepy and made stupid mistakes. Once I was sleepy and tried to fix a stupid mistake and ended up having to rip out 12 rows.

Every time I was home, and awake, I knit obsessively. I really, really wanted to have it done by OFFF. And I started planning: if I can get two charts done today, two tomorrow, and one on Tuesday, I’ll make it. And I stuck to my schedule – mostly – and knit obsessively and finished the scheduled charts, and began to hope that OFFF would see the big reveal. I tried to keep it mostly very secret and not let Duffy know what I was doing, because I wanted it to be a surprise.

And then I ran out of yarn. A foot from the end. Yarn. Gone. I wept.

I cried and whined like a junky needing a fix I took a deep breath and bombarded Duffy with Tweets and emails wrote an email to Duffy. I see your nefarious plot, I said. Lure them in with the free stuff and get them hooked… I offered my firstborn male child to buy fiber if I could have more yarn.

Duffy replied, Aww. Poor thing. Auntie Duffy will help. [pat pat pat quiet evil chortle under her breath]

artsy draped shot

I even brought the sadly unfinished stole, still on the needles with a foot of knitting to go and 6″ of fiber remaining, to Wednesday Night Knitting, so everyone could see why it had to be finished and Duffy could see how much more yarn I needed. And everyone agreed that it was beautiful and need to be completed. Duffy emailed Dicentra Designs to ask her to bring more Eowyn in the merino/silk blend to OFFF. And everything was set.

What will you do if she doesn’t have any more? Someone asked.

I wept again. And contemplated ripping the entire thing out and reknitting the same pattern with a different yarn for the border. And wept some more, then crossed my fingers and toes and knitting needles.

At OFFF, Duffy and I duly proceeded to the Dicentra booth, where we found one – ONE – thingy of merino/silk in Eowyn. I held it tight. Is it enough? I asked Duffy? It’s plenty. I was vastly relieved and bought the Eowyn and two other thingys of fiber for Duffy besides. And I started breathing again.

Back at the PDXKB/Spinnerati booth, I casually tossed the stole over one of the tables. Because it was pretty and I liked looking at it and petting it. And it was supposed to debut at OFFF anyway. I began to suspect that I was on to a good thing when people started coming from way across the fairgrounds. What is that? It’s so pretty! I saw the sparkles from way over there! I had a lot of fun talking about knitting with beads, and showing how I’d run out of yarn, but Duffy was, even as we spoke, spinning more so that I could finish it. I wish that the beads photographed better, but perhaps you can see them twinkling in a couple of the shots.

It took Duffy hardly any time to spin the yarn and ply it and do all that stuff that has to be done to yarn when you’ve just made it. And one Wednesday night shortly after OFFF, Duffy presented me with a new skein of yarn. And I decided that I must immediately wind it into a ball so that I could start knitting as soon as I got home. And I pulled out my trusty nostepinne, and, swiftless, proceeded to turn the lovely skein of yarn into a tangled mess.

There was a bit of friendly betting on Facebook as to whether I’d stay up until it was untangled or go to bed, and if I stayed up when exactly I would be finished. It was 3:30 AM, thank you very much. And yes I did go to work the next day.

spreading my wings

So I knit obsessively. And I finished it. And last Sunday I gave it a nice soak and then spread it out to block on #1 Son’s bed. It was so pretty!

Monday night it came off the blocking wires. I settled it across my shoulders with quiet joy and gazed at it’s loveliness in the mirror. The colors were so beautiful and so me. And the beads – just the right number of them – twinkled like little stars as I moved.

And I wore it Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Saturday. (Friday I took a break only because I didn’t leave the house that day.) On Tuesday a colleague (a straight, male, non-knitting colleague) said, I’m sorry, I’m having a hard time concentrating on what you are saying because I’m captivated by your shawl.

Oh, it was so beyond pretty! It’s by far my favorite knitting project ever. I love it beyond reason – even more than the Fair Isle poncho. It’s the perfect object.

Duffy: thank you, my friend, for the gift of your fiber and your time to create amazing yarn that has become this wonderful, magical object. Thank you.

in-the-sun fence shot

I keep trying to take picture of it – some more successful than others. The darn beads just don’t show up like they do in real life. You will have to trust me that they are perfect. Today the weather relented and there was a bit of late-afternoon autumn sunshine on my fence. I was able to get one last glowing-in-the-sun shot. Ahhhhhh. It’s so pretty.

Duffy will be bringing it to SOAR (because how could I refuse her request?), so if you are going, too, track her down and ask for a peek.

• Yarn: Judy’s Magic spun by Duffy Stephens from silk/merino fiber dyed by Dicentra Designs in a colorway called Eowyn Ask Duffy if you want to know the spinning particulars.
• Needles: Addi Lace 40″ circular, US#8 (5 mm)
• Pattern: Stola Mit Arabesker Borte Und Mitte (Stole With Arabesque Edging and Middle), a free download on Ravelry
• Modifications: Added beads. Nothing else.

crazy Brian's week of socks

Why, yes, I’m a little late getting this post out, gentle reader. I can only plead life and this little book thing that is still a tremendous time-suck, and which seems to now be rushing along way faster than I’m ready for it to do, which in turn is just a little terrifying. But, hey… it keeps me young, or something.

So this is the long-lost SS09 post. Alas, I have only a few pictures because I didn’t have my camera with me. I only had my cell phone. It’s just not the same. So what I have are a few grainy photos and a lot of amazing, wonderful memories.

This is crazy Brian of Skacel, who is knitting a weeks worth of socks all at once. I love the way he has all of the yarn balls in the plastic shoe caddy pouches hung up on the wall. Awesome idea for keeping things untangled. I can’t wait until he has the heels turned! He’s crazy, I tell you, crazy. But in the best possible way.

OMG I'm in class with BGW!

On Friday I got to sit in on Barbara Walker’s mosaic knitting class (yes, THAT Barbara Walker).

I sat over to the side between Stephen Houghton of hizKNITS and Y Knit (who’s been blogging about as much as me), and Amy Singer of knitty.com. We were briefly introduced and applauded politely, and then the class got down to the real work of the morning, which was learning how to knit your own amazing mosaic patterns.

I wish I had a better picture of the sweater that Ms. Walker was wearing. It was really amazing! Search out on the interweb and find someone who was smart enough to bring a real camera and get a good picture. It was all sparkly and mosaic-y and very, very cool.

BGW's socks

And, yes, it’s true that Ms. Walker was selling some of her old socks. I bought some. They were $5. I mean… these are Barbara Walker socks! Interesting construction, too. It turns out she knit them flat and then seamed them up the top. I really wish I’d had a chance to find out more about them. But it’s really amazing that I even got to sit in on her class.

Contrary to rumors, I did not snatch the socks out of the hand of some poor, defenseless knitter. There was a pair still there on the table when I picked these up. Really. And I went back a bit later and bought Ms. Walker’s tarot deck and a little tiny bag that is hanging from the mirror of my car. It’s all orange and sparkly and makes me smile.

At one point Ms. Walker asked if anyone had scissors she could borrow. I may have beat Stephen with my knitting needles in an attempt to get there first. It’s all sort of a blur. But I know that BGW did use my funky little leopard print scissors. (Really, Stephen will be fine. Nowhere near as much damage as the poor gal who sat on her needles and stabbed herself through the leg.)

world record ticket

After the BGW class, I participated in the World Knitting Record Attempt! This is my ticket. And I still have the little swatch that I knit. I used some yarn from China that was a gift and my Lantern Moon straight needles (you can see them in my hand). We had to knit on straight needles for 15 minutes without stopping.

Cat Bordhi handed out Japanese food skewers to all of the teachers, just in case we didn’t have straight needles. If I’d had some fingering weight yarn handy, I would have knit with those. But, alas, I did not. I still have the skewers, though. It was pretty fun to see Cat knitting on straight needles – really not her thing.

world record setters

Finally, here’s a picture of a few of the world record setting knitters. I have not heard if it is official yet or not. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I know that a group in Australia were re-setting their own record at the same time. But I think we beat them.

Those are all of the picture I have, I’m afraid. But it was truly an amazing experience.

I’d really like to thank each and every one of my students. They were amazing, every one of them, and I enjoyed having them in my classes. It was the most fun I’ve had in a coon’s age!

The marketplace… yeah, it was pretty amazing. I had very little time to shop – just the few hours during the book signing – and really the only thing I bought was… (drum roll please)… a swift. Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning my tinker toy swift. But this was about as close as I could get to tinker toys. You can see it here. It comes in a great little bag, and you can take it all apart when you’re done with it, and I love it. If I were winding with a ball winder, it would be perfect. Since I wind by hand, though, it has more drag than I like. I control the tension while I wind, and having drag on the swift is tiring.

Suggestions for ball bearings or something that I could use to reduce the drag?

Luminary panel… amazing. Just to be in the same room with all those luminaries was amazing. And on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s birthday! Who knew that they would all be so warm and witty? Oh, wait… they’re knitters, so why should I be surprised?

SS09 was really wonderful and amazing. Thank you to everyone who was involved in bringing it together!

Now back to my mundane life. I will be teaching my four week Socks Without Rules at All About Yarn in Tigard starting next Monday. I think the first session is full, but I may be teaching a second session if there is interest.

Someone at Sock Summit ‘09 said to me I read your blog a lot. Which made me realize a couple of things. (1) Oh, yeah. I do have one of those blog thingies. Right. (2) Anyone who reads my blog a lot has been reading the same thing for a long time now. (3) (ok… three things. that still qualifies as a couple, more or less) I did sort of say I’d be back after Sock Summit. And — new realization here — sadly, Sock Summit is pretty much over.

Ahem. Let’s begin at the beginning, shall we, gentle reader?

sock hop socks

Part of my prep for Sock Summit included knitting socks to wear to the Sock Hop. Even though, sadly enough, I didn’t actually make it to the Sock Hop, I did wear my socks at SS09. These were tons of fun to knit and embellish. They feature mind-hurting techniques like intarsia-in-the-round and other stuff that I made up as I went along (so you know I was enjoying myself!). The stripped foot was inspired by a picture of a 1950’s candy-striped refrigerated door. The rock ‘n’ roll lettering recalls retro color-block advertising and is bordered by a diner tile pattern. The sheep and musical notes are my version of a poodle skirt. And, yes, they are fraternal. The yarn is Blue Moon Sock Candy — a wonderful cotton yarn with just a bit of bounce added that saved me from having to wear wool socks in the summer. (The colors are Granny Apple, Chocolate, Butter Cream, Borage, Dusty Blue, Sunlight, Poppy.) The beads, silk ribbon, tiny buttons, and glitzy package wrapping string that I used for the embellishments came from my craft stash.

The week before Sock Summit it was over 100 F in Portland for days on end (that’s more than 38 C). I note this in passing only because I decided that I needed something new to wear to SS09, I didn’t have much time to knit it, and knitting wool at that temp seemed like crazy making stuff. But I had some linen in my stash — Louet Euroflax, to be exact. Although the end result is lovely, and gets softer and more drapey with every wash, it’s mostly like knitting with twine. Lovely twine, to be sure, but twine nonetheless. Here was one place that the heat actually served me well. Damp hands helped to soften the yarn. I know… ewwww… but I washed the finished Clapotis a couple of times. I put tassels on all four corners, just because I could, and scattered just a few beads in the tassel strands. I didn’t get a good picture of it, but Rachel and Angela — who insisted on being all fan girl — did. You can see I had bad hair that day. Yes. It’s true. I got to meet Barbara Walker. When I had Very. Bad. Hair.

voodoo to you too

I apologize in advance for the quality of the following pictures. For some reason I just could not remember to bring my camera with me anywhere I went. All of these were taken with my iPhone. It’s not the best camera in the world, but hopefully you will get the idea. As always, click on the pics to biggie-size and pop up the little slide show thingy.

My Sock Summit week started a little bit early. Lorilee Beltman from City Knitting was just one of the amazing array of teachers that Stephanie and Tina gathered together for SS09. Lorilee arrived in Portland a few days early and I offered to… show here a good time.

We started out at Voodoo Doughnuts. Lorilee tried the eponymous Voodoo Doughnut, and I indulged in my favorite bacon maple bar.

lots of cheese

Fortified by Voodoo, we headed for Tillamook. Our first stop was the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where they are celebrating their 100th birthday. From one side of the observation floor, you can see big vats where the milk is cooked and curdled and the cheese is actually made. On the other side, we watched big blocks of aged cheese whirling around conveyor belts and such while people cut them into smaller blocks and weighed them and packaged them for sale.

There’s an ice cream counter on the observation floor. We may have stood in line and indulged in a cone. It was their 100th birthday, after all.

Lorilee and friend

Our next stop was the Tillamook Air Museum, where Lorilee found a friend!

The museum is housed inside a blimp hanger that is the largest free-standing wooden structure in the world. It covers more than 7 acres and is more than 15 stories tall – all with no internal supports. The thing is freaking huge! Seriously. I have to admit I’m not all that into military aircraft. It was interesting seeing all of the old planes and really early helicopters that looked like death traps. But the real draw for me, personally, is the sheer size and scope of the building and the interesting story behind its construction. Well worth a visit if you are ever in the area!

munson creek falls

From there, we made our way down a narrow, one-lane gravel road (with, fortunately, plenty of turnouts for passing) to Munson Creek State Park. Munson Creek Falls is the second highest falls in Oregon — only Multnomah Falls is higher — and the highest in the Coast Range. Munson Creek itself is an important spawning area for salmon. The park is situated in a canyon with tall stands of cedar and Sitka spruce all around and, of course, the usual temperate rain forest understory of ferns and moss and berry bushes. There’s a trail that leads, after about 1/4 mile, to the closest point one is allowed to the falls. The picture was taken from the end of the trail. At the trail head right next to the creek there is a cute little picnic area with a couple of tables. (No water or restrooms.)

Munson Creek is another well worth a visit but out of the way place. I had no trouble negotiating the road in my Prius. But there is not a lot of space at the end of the road turn-around. RVs and trailers would not fair well.

blue moon cafe (not related)

Leaving Munson Creek, we realized that it was getting on towards the middle of the afternoon. I had been a bad hostess and dragged Lorilee all over Tillamook without even offering to feed her. And we were both starving.

We drove back into Tillamook to find (a) a likely place to eat and (b) someplace that had decent coffee. And the first thing we saw was the Blue Moon Cafe. I’m sure there is no relation to that other blue moon, but it seemed auspicious. We ordered sandwiches that turned out to be hearty, fresh, and tasty. Thus fortified, we walked a block away to a coffee house. I sadly did not get the name of the place, but the coffee was great.

From Tillamook we drove up to Astoria, because it’s pretty and picturesque and everyone should drive across the Astoria-Megler Bridge (The. Tallest. Scariest. Bridge. Ever.) at least once. And then we followed the Columbia River back to Portland, crossing at the St. John’s Bridge and back to The Kennedy School, the start of our adventures.

Lorilee meets Terminator

Over dinner, Lorilee claimed to be a wine drinker and not to like that beer stuff (or words to that effect). I plied her with introduced her to Terminator Stout. She admitted that maybe this beer stuff was OK. She drank the entire glass.

And that is the tale of my pre-Sock Summit adventure. Next time – and it will be soon – I will tell you all about Sock Summit, where an amazing time was had by all.

happy 21

It’s a minor upgrade this year, but oh such an important one!

Adam, this has been an interesting year that has seen its ups and downs. Congratulations to you on not only living through it (mostly with a fine measure of grace), but coming out the other end wiser and so mature and so all-grown-up. It takes my breath away to remember that 21 years ago you were still a part of me. And now you are so many things: musician and business man and artist.

And… congratulations on finally being able to legally enter the bars that you and your band have been playing in for the last 5 years.

Love you, sweetie! Happy birthday.

Helena sweater

Babies must be warmly clothed, I’m sure you will agree with that, gentle reader. And when a baby is expected by a knitter who has knitterly friends, one can be assured that said baby will be warmly clothed, indeed!

Rachel (aka trtlgrl) has been sporting a baby-bump for quite some time now, and I was afraid that trtlbby would arrive in the world before I could knit something for the poor wee tyke, because, as we’ve already established, babies must be warmly clothed. So a couple of weeks ago I spent all of my free, non-sleeping minutes frantically knitting.

I started with this little sweater: the Helena sweater
by Alison Green Will from knitty.com. I changed it just a little bit. I liked the picot edging so much that I made it go all the way around the sweater, instead of just at the bottom. And I have only one tie – an I-cord tie that looks like an extension of the purl ridges at the top of the skirt.

little booties

When I managed to finish the sweater with time to spare, I also whipped up these little booties. In flipping through the book 50 Baby Bootees To Knit by Zoe Mellor, I saw that these had the same picot trim as the sweater. It almost seemed like they were made to go together.

The booties were a fun, fast knit – hardly any time to knock them out. I used the same yarn to edge the booties as edged the sweater. I made just a few changes — see the particulars below.

Contrary to appearance, the booties are both the same size. Perspective is a funny thing.

trtlgrl and trtlbby-bump

Rachel seemed happy with the sweater and booties. Can’t tell if the trtlbby-bump is happy or not, but we’ll assume she is. (Just outside the picture to the right is a pile of hand knit trtlbby swag that guarantees she will be neither cold nor naked.)

And I just made it, as trtlbby will be here sometime in the next week, guaranteed.

The Particulars:

Sweater:

• Yarn: the sadly discontinued Ella Rae Silkience (41% cotton, 39% Modal, 12% Silk, 8% Rayon), 119 yds/108 m per 500 g skein, in colorways 16 – Grass Green and 20 – Berry
• Needles: a pair of Addi Turbo 24″ circulars, US#3 (3.25 mm) and a pair of Addi Lace 24″ circulars, US#2 (3.00 mm)
• Pattern: Helena sweater by Alison Green Will
• Modifications: Instead of having a garter border around the neck and front, I made the picot edging go all the way around. I made a single I-cord tie rather than two garter-stitch ties.

Booties:

• Yarn: Dale Of Norway Baby Ull (100% Merino wool), 180 yds/165 m per 1.75 oz/50 g skein, in colorway 0020 – Cream — I used maybe 1/2 of the total. The trim is leftover Berry Silkience from the sweater.
  
  
• Needles: US#6 (4 mm) Addi Turbo and Addi Lace circulars
• Pattern: From the book 50 Baby Bootees To Knit by Zoe Mellor
• Modifications: I used different needles so that the size is more like 6-month. I used Judy’s Magic Cast-On to start so that the bottom of the foot could be grafted together. The booties were to have little bunny ears and bunny face, but I decided they were too cute as-is and left those off. (Besides, these were supposed to be newborn size. The thought of a 6-month-old trtlbby possibly jamming an ear into her little mouth and maybe choking gave me the heeby-jeebies.)

double-knit moebius

I just found out that there are two World Wide Knit In Public days this year! Find out why at this link.

Also, if your access to the interwebs suddenly slows to a crawl at 10:00 AM PDT on Tuesday, 05/26/09… registration for Sock Summit opens then. (Are you coming?)

And, finally, Deb Accuardi of Mount Hood Fibers and the wonderful podcast At The Kitchen Table is starting a Community Sock Club. Participants need to be close to Portland, Oregon, because every other month there will be a meeting at Gino’s Restaurant for lunch, sock knitting, and a chance to meet the dyers, designers, and knitters. I was thrilled when Deb asked me if I would like to design a little sock for the club. Can’t wait, because it sounds like so much fun!

The picture is a second double-knit Moebius Klein bottle that I finished last month and gifted to a special friend. It felt too weird to have a blog post with no picture. So there you are!