Arrgghh, matey. Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

But that’s all of that you’ll get from me, I’m afraid. I will have to walk the plank.

I missed a question from the comments the other day. Kristie asked, regarding the yarn I added to my stash that’s earmarked for #1 Son’s blanket:

I also am impressed with his blanket color selection! What pattern are you using? (what am I saying? You talented enough to write your own pattern)

I do appreciate the compliment! But this is not my own pattern. It’s actually a pattern from Manos del Uruguay. You can find the pattern at this link. But I got the pattern from Tangle, where it seems to be the blanket of the year — i.e. everyone it seems is knitting one.

I suspect that Manos meant to have their yarn used with their pattern. 😉 But I’m using Karabella Aurora 8. It’s soooooo soft and cozy. And I want a bigger blanket, so mine will be 4 blocks x 5 blocks. And I don’t want any lace blocks with holes in the pattern, so I will substitute a different stitch pattern for those blocks. I can never leave a pattern well enough alone.

If #1 Son ever doesn’t want his blanket, I’ll be happy to take it off his hands.

Speaking of #1 Son, when I came home after work yesterday he was there — doing laundry and eating my food. Which I didn’t mind at all!

And a little secret was revealed — the reason for his trip to Tangle.

Propped up in the place where I always toss my purse was an envelope. When I opened it, I found a card and a Tangle gift certificate, just because.

Do I have a great kid or what!

I suspect that the environment inside a LYS was a little bit out of his comfort zone. But he said Alice was really nice and helpful.

Remember back at the beginning of June when I posted this picture?

It’s always such a long wait, it seems. And the grapes are such teases.

The summer isn’t very old when I can look out and see lovely green globes hanging down. They look sooooo good to eat.

Eat my grapes in July, and you will know the meaning of the word “sour.” Ditto for August.

Some time after school starts I test a few, and those in the know begin to ask are the grapes in yet? Maybe next week, I tell them. Or the week after.

Grapes are in now. 🙂

My grape harvest lasts for a month or so. These in the picture are very, very edible right now – nice and sweet. If I leave them on the vine a little longer, they will become a beautiful golden-green, taste like honey inside, and will almost be too sweet.

Here is my awful secret: What do I do to grow such prolific and wonderful grapes? uh… not a blasted thing. I have two vines that are about 10 years old now, but have been producing abundantly since their second year. Over my back patio is a 12′ x 16′ arbor. The vines cover the top of the arbor, and by the end of summer have spilled over the edges and reached the ground so I have to fight my way into the yard. After the leaves fall in autumn I whack them back up almost to the top of the arbor. And that’s it. I don’t water them. I don’t fertilize them. I don’t prune for production.

In the spring I admire their loveliness. In summer I appreciate their shade. In fall I and everyone I know eats grapes. In winter I whack.

That’s it.

Note: I do not recommend trying this at home!

Kristie opines:

I LOVE your Victoria Socks. I MUST have that pattern. (hint, hint)

It’s my standard toe-up pattern (think Tangled Up In Blue in plain stockinette). The stitch pattern is *K6, K2tog, YO* repeat. The pattern moves one stitch to the right every round so that the YOs spiral up the sock. The number of stitches that are knit before the K2tog, YO can be modified to fit into any number of total stitches depending on your gauge. I used K6 because my total stitches were evenly divisible by 8.

I did do the garter stitch edges on the heel, which is a new thing for me. But I can’t give away all of my secrets! 😉 What sets this sock apart is really the spiral YO stitch pattern, and that can be worked over just about any sock.

hpny knits comments:

my son is only 4………. reading about yours moving out, makes my heart skip a beat.

Hang on tight, Mom. Mine was only 4 just yesterday. It’s amazing how fast it goes. Give him as many hugs as you can while he’ll still let you!

Deb adds:

I was so worried about food when the son moved out (the nephew finally went to live with his own mom)I was constantly taking car loads of food over.

I’m not too worried about mine starving, given that he works in a bakery. But I’ve got to keep that boy warm! I’m sure he’s just not dressing warmly enough. He must have socks. And blankets.

And, speaking of #1 Son… today I received an odd call from him asking me how to get to Tangle from downtown Portland. When I asked him why he wanted to know, he replied because I want to go there. And no further information would he give.

So, of course I called Alice and told her I thought my son was on his way over there and I had no idea why. Alice, bless her, said you know that I can’t tell you why unless he says I can.

I’m fairly certain he’s not taking up knitting.

aarrrggghhhh it’s going to kill me!

You know that old saying about living in interesting times. Yeah…

My life always seems to oscillate wildly (and widely) between the same-old same-old and running full-steam-ahead like there’s no tomorrow. I’d really love to learn how to strike a happy medium, but I’m not really holding my breath that will ever happen.

First, there has been some knitting going on!

The Victoria Socks are finally finished! (I’ve only been home from Victoria for what… a month? sigh In what passes for normal circumstances, I can knit a pair of socks in a week or 10 days or so. At least a pair for me – my feet aren’t that big.

But I did stop to become obsessed by the Swallowtail Shawl. But still, these socks took longer than normal to finish.

I wanted to get a natural-light picture, but two things stood in my way:
1) I’ve rarely been home during daylight the last few weeks.
2) Autumn has returned to the Pacific Northwest, at least for now, killing any light I might have used had I been home.

These colors are pretty true, though — at least on my monitor (maybe a touch too blue). They will be were bright and cheerful to wear on dreary winter days during the current blast of autumnal chill. I can tell that these will be a favorite pair of socks.

To guard against any knitting slow-down, as soon as I finished the Victoria Socks I immediately cast on a pair for #1 Son. He likes his socks to be fraternal, so I am knitting these from both ends of the skein.

This is Trekking XXL in colorway 101. I’ve actually gotten a couple of inches beyond this. But we’ll start with this pic, so you will be duly impressed by my progresses when next I report. (or at least that’s my hope)

I think it’s rather fitting that the other night as I knit away, Moo Cow had unbeknown to me crept under my chair and one strand of Trekking had fallen within her grasp. My first clue was a slobbering, smacking, chomping sound. I hauled up the yarn and found it neatly – and wetly – sliced in two. So #1 Son’s socks have a join in the yarn, courtesy of his cat. Why this is fitting will be revealed below.

And why hasn’t she been blogging? the reader queries…

Well, first, I’ve been totally slammed at work. The hours have been crazy, and the weeks long. Concepts like weekend that I used to take for granted became meaningless. I came home late and tired, and zombied in front of the TV for an hour before falling into bed for a too-brief-nap, only to wake up the next morning and to it all again. I did try to read. But writing seemed beyond me.

The crunch ended, my body relaxed, and a cold hit me. Last night I went to bed with a sore throat, a hot toddy, a hot water bottle and a couple of warm kitties. Today I feel achy and blah. I think I need another vacation. Not that I’ll get one. But having one would be nice. A cruise to someplace warm, perhaps. Someplace where there’s sun.

The other thing that has happened that I haven’t blogged about is…

#1 Son moved out.

After he returned from his last tour and found a job (yum, those pastries!), he made a very reasoned case for taking the little grubstake I’d set aside for him and moving out on his own. He’s not going to school and is concentrating on his music. And he had a place to live that was close to work.

He is an adult now. And he is mature beyond his chronological years. So I agreed, with some normal mother-trepidation, that he could have his grubstake and strike out on his own.

When his living situation turned out not to be what he had hoped for, he handled the situation with poise and grace. I have every reason to believe that he’s going to be just fine. He has focus and drive, and is the kind of person who the universe blesses most of the time, and will land on his feet when it doesn’t.

I’m very proud of him.

But I haven’t blogged about it because… well… I’m not sure how I feel about this. I certainly didn’t expect to keep him at home forever, and he is ready to fly. But it is a little strange not to have him around – although I didn’t see him that much anyway. He’s good about touching bases with me every day or so and I know he’s doing well.

My heart still skips a beat every time I hear that there’s been a car accident, or 18 year old man shot by police, or bicycling teenager hit by SUV. I know that most likely he’s just fine. I mean, really… He’s a good kid and the cops have no reason to shoot him. He’s also a good driver and a careful cyclist. But I have to physically force myself not to pick up the phone and make sure he’s OK.

It’s a mom thing.

I miss him. That’s another mom thing.

And Moo Cow misses him very much. When he visits home, she bounces around him, squeaking like a little puppy, until he picks her up and gives her a good cuddle. That’s why it’s so fitting that his socks will include a little Moo-present in the form of a yarn join.

I need to get his socks finished, so his feet will be warm even if I’m not there to make sure they’re warm. It’s a mom thing, too.

I’ve also purchased yarn for the blanket I plan to make for a house-warming gift for him. At the rate I’ve been knitting, it might be awhile before it gets knit. So it might not warm the first place he lives. But… it’s the thought that counts, right?

The yarn is Karabella Aurora 8 in colorways 39 (not pink), 50 (turquoise), 258 (mocha) and 1145 (dark teal); and Aurora 8 Space-Dyed in colorways 16 (the turquoise/green/brown) and 18 (pink, teal, brown). There will be several 12″ (or so) squares of each color in different stitch patterns.

Please remember when looking at these colors that many words may describe #1 Son, but conservative is not among them. Alice and I, along with the resident Tangle teenager, tried about a bazillion colors before coming up with this combo. The teenager pronounced it perfect. And, yes, #1 Son is “OK with pink,” just in case you wondered (several other knitsters did). He used to have pink hair. A partially pink blanket should be OK.

But, most importantly, his mom will know he’s warm, no matter where he’s living.

[ed. 09/17/06 5:34 pm] Anyone who has a burning desire to hear #1 Son’s band… They played live on KPSU radio this afternoon on the show Sound Judgement. You can download an MP3 of the show here for at least the next couple of weeks. They start playing about 1/2 way through the hour. That’s #1 Son doing the song intros. That’s not #1 Son swearing at the end. It’s punk. You’ve been warned. 😉

Labor day… I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

I worked. All weekend. Stuff for my day job. And this week my life has pretty much been work-sleep-work-sleep-say hi to #1 son-sleep-work. Not fun. But I have to keep reminding myself that it does pay the bills. But I haven’t been knitting.

There. I said it with my out loud voice.

The problem is, I’m typing virtually all day right now. By the time I get home, my hands just won’t take any more use. So I sit in front of the TV like a zombie for an hour, and then I go to bed.

I did get a tiny bit of knitting accomplished before the boom lowered. I had so much fun on the Swallowtail Shawl that I decided to go back to the Pacific Northwest Shawl for a bit. You’ll remember that I was having a lace jones just before I went to Victoria, and I planned to take this project with me but I couldn’t find the blasted pattern, which I had successfully put in a “safe” place hidden even from myself. With the pattern now in hand, I managed to work about 4 rows of the pine tree lace.

Here’s a blob-on-a-stick pic.

You may notice it’s on one of the Knit Picks needles. I finally caved and bought the set. I really like the cables and the points, and I like the joins on the classic needles. I checked the joins on all of the needles and cables in the set, and everything appears to be hunky-dory. I seem to have escaped the problems with quality that some people have found.

The needles don’t seem to me to be as fast to knit with as Addis – probably because they are nickle-plated rather than chrome-plated. But that’s OK with me. I don’t always want a really fast needle. And the points are so much better!

Anyway… School is starting, fall is here, and I’ve made a few autumnal knitting resolutions:

• I will finish the Victoria Socks. I’m half-way up the ankles, I need to get them done.
• I will make a pair of long-promised socks for #1 Son before the weather gets too cold.
• I will make the two pairs of socks I need for Christmas presents, and they will be done on time for giving.
• I will finish Clapotis #2 by the end of the year.
• I will finish the Pacific Northwest Shawl by the end of the year.

Those last two projects were UFOs at the end of last year, and I don’t want them to suffer the same fate at the end of this year.

Are there projects in your bag that have languished for ages? Let’s make an “off the sticks in 2006” pact together and cheer each other on!

Mailbag

First, thank you to everyone for the nice compliments on the Swallowtail Shawl! I really appreciate all comments here!

Kristie asks about the Swallowtail Shawl:

How in the world did you find time to knit this in a week?

Kristie, I truly did nothing else that week but knit obsessively on that shawl. Work was not so crazy, and I had some evening knitting time. And I knit until the wee hours of the morning because I was having so much fun. And then the sleep deprivation caught up with me…

Monika writes:

Did you really only use one skein of Sea Silk? I’ve purchased two and am still thinking of what to do with it. I also read on another blog, that the swallowtail pattern is not the best to knit. Was is easy for you. Would you recommend it to a lace knitting newbie, like myself?

I really used just one skein of Sea Silk, and I had some left over. But this pattern, while called a “shawl” is really more of a large kerchief in size. I had enough yarn left over that if I knit this pattern again, and chances are good I will, I would probably go up a needle size. But I knit fairly tightly. I read on a blog (don’t remember which one, sorry) that the knitter went down a needle size on the edging because she was running out of yarn. Like everything, your mileage may vary.

Was it easy? I thought it was a fairly straightforward lace pattern. Most of the shawl is the same pattern repeated over and over, so it’s easy to memorize, and the edging is the same pattern repeated twice. The only tricky part is a P5tog. I was knitting with blunt Lantern Moon needles — lovely needles, but way too blunt for lace. I just could not get the needle through 5 stitches. So I slipped two, purled 3, and passed the two slipped stitches over. The result is visually the same. But I was glad to be through that part of the chart.

The pattern stitches include a YO, a K2tog, a SSK, and this thingy I forget the abbreviation they used where you slip 2, K1, pass the two slipped stitches over. If you can do all of those stitches and like a challenge, I would say go for it! (I’m an adventurous knitter.) If it turns out that you’re not having fun with it, then you can always rip it out and start something else. No harm, no foul.

Run a lifeline periodically.

Another pattern you might consider, since you have two skeins — Wendy has made available her Fir Cone Wrap pattern that is made with two skeins of Seasilk. I haven’t knit this pattern, but the lace looks very straight forward and the results are really nice.

You will remember that during my trip to Victoria I purchased a skein of Handmaiden Seasilk in a lovely, one-of-a-kind colorway. I had only 400m of yarn – enough to do only a small project. Interweave Knits serendipitously published the Swallowtail Shawl pattern at about the same time.

I was afraid that the colors would get lost in the lace, but that didn’t happen. Instead the negative space around the solid portions served to enhance the color changes.

And here we have the finished product, displayed against my grape arbor. Its insubstantiality is shown by the fact that it is being held up by grape leaves twisted together because I forgot to take a few pins out with me and didn’t want to go back in to get some.

The yarn was a joy to knit.

In fact, I knit obsessively on this project until it was finished, which took about 1 week. The whole time I was knitting it, I showed it to everyone who would stand still long enough to look (even non-knitters, bless them) and insisted that they feel the fiber and exclaim about the colors. Be forewarned, the yarn is addicting.

I would have continued to knit obsessively on it had I not come to both the end of the pattern and almost the end of the yarn. I have only a small handful of yarn left.

I love the pattern that the lace shadow makes against the leaves in the second picture.

Swallowtail was made as a birthday present for the lovely LT. She was happier than she looks in this picture. Really.

You can check out the blob-on-a-needle and blocking pictures over at the Swallowtail Project Page.

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Handmaiden Seasilk – most of one skein; 70% silk, 30% Seacell; colorway: unnamed, one of a kind
• Needles: Lantern Moon ebony, US#4 (3.50mm) – note: not recommended for lace knitting. The points are too blunt.
• Pattern: Interweave Knits, Fall 2006, Swallowtail Shawl

Here are the Victoria Socks, posing amongst my fuchsia.

The flowers are there to distract you from noticing that very little has been accomplished on them. What’s that you say, gentle reader? You noticed? yeah…

Well… I did stop to complete the Secret Project. It’s all finished and will be delivered to the intended recipient soon, after which I can display it for the world to see. I’m quite taken with it, actually.

The Secret Project was completed on Sunday. Since then I’ve been completely slammed at work. In fact, I haven’t been able to even get a decent picture of the Secret Project because I’m not home often when it’s light. The whole work thing is putting a serious dent in my knitting time. I keep reminding myself that it does pay for my yarn habit.

The Vic Socks are are actually a lot greener than this picture shows. My camera tends to make picture overly blue (I believe this is so that snapshots have those vivid blue skies that people adore). On cloudy days when I forget to tell the camera that it’s really cloudy, then some objects become extra blue, perhaps to go with the depressing drizzle. That’s what happened to the socks. But trust me, the yarn is a lovely, lovely green. Really.

Thank you to everyone for the B-Day wishes. I really try hard to ignore birthdays. I think I’m too old to have them any more. Maybe I should have scheduled un-birthdays, and P can bring her amazing cheese cake. Yeah… that’s the ticket.

Shelly — Dancing at Jeeps… 😆 Seriously, though, what a small world it is! Who’da thunk it! I bet we’ve driven many of the same back roads. I hope you’re feeling better soon!

Everyone, visit Shelly. She has the cutest new little bunnies! Tell her to get better while your over there.