not quite all here

No knitting. Excuses follow the alternative content: color combinations inspiring me last week.

Browns, greys and pale blues of Bogota after the daily rain storm, at the Plaza de Bolivar in the oldest part of this very modern city.

Siding at a construction site near the apartment in Bogota, I couldn't stop staring at it . If you squint it could be a crazy sort of ribbed knit blanket. These aren't colors I'd think of putting together: purples, cobalt, blues, greys and gold. If Noro does a yarn like this, watch out.


Cartagena, the historic walled part of the city. Sigh. Love this place. Every street a visual spark, whether spiffed up or chipped and fading.

For those who prefer a more, um, earthy palette. Climbing out of El Volcan de Lodo El Totumo, the mud volcano .

As for excuses? I wanted to show the nice heavy pair of Thuja-like socks I finished for Dave, honoring my extremely loose knitting goal for the year. They're blue, they're really great and they're not to be found. They will resurface . Hopefully before summer.

On the plane home, I almost completed a lovely alpaca beret. Except, I fly under the influence. The same good chemicals that disconnect me from caring about turbulence at 38,000 feet also, it turns out, disconnect me from caring that I am off by a couple of stitches. The lovely folding swirling decreases do not swirl or look remotely lovely, seen the next day under the stone cold eye of a wintery New England morning. Gone for now.

no knitting at the bullfight

but first a disclaimer: read no further if you're offended by entertainment that includes killing large mammals. I'm in Colombia, I said I'd give the Corridas a try. I’ll do most legal things once. Unless they involve tiny airplanes or eating raw tomatoes.

At the last minute I decided not to bring knitting to the bullfight arena in Bogota last Sunday. Turns out once you sit down in your little tush space on the stone steps in a crowd of 50,000 at the Plaza de Toros , you do not have enough elbow room to knit. Not even socks! Plus, it was amazingly riveting. I wouldn't have made much progress, anyway.

The crowd was worth watching too. Most brought their own beverages in your basic handy wineskin.

Pom-poms. It seems they are soo in with the bullfighting elite.
I'm not sure who these folks are but I was told if I clapped when they clapped we couldn’t go wrong. Plus, they had the verrry good seats.



Bogota must be the World Capital for Shawl Wearing. And I mean stylish shawls. Many handknit. Yet, I'm told knitting is not very popular at all . Everyone seems to have one freiend who knits , but I've yet to meet her. Or him.

There was public playing of castanets, at the most dramatic point, when the orchestra struck up the final famous bullfight tunes. Ole!

go ahead, judge a book by its cover

yeah!
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

I'm heading off for a big family trip, we are all not quite believing that tomorrow we are going to the airport and heading south. Way south.

Hasta luego, chicas!
In this case a luego= 11 days.
Not sure how much time and speed I'll have in the way of internet connections, maybe I'll post if I can. Nothing is packed yet except passports, some dark chocolate, the strong anti-anxiety aromatherapy oil to inhale on the plane- if you sit near me on a plane, you know it - everyone's got their iPods revved, and.......the knitting. One must have one's priorities.

all's well that ends

Sent off Friday. The Great Mitered Collaboration, 2006 thu 2008.

You'd think being a professional photographer who has a serious knitting fiber book coming out I'd pull out the stops on this one, wouldn't you? Nah. It would have meant hanging on to the piece for another day or so. I felt it had to be mailed, STAT! So, a super fast backyard presentation, in between bouts of slushy drizzle. My sister would have fainted if she'd seen me place our just finished blanket out on the grubby fence in that weather . Someday she'll discover this blog and boy am I going to hear about it .
** Keep in mind it is destined to live out its life on a sofa , bathed in the golden yellow of the sun rising directly over the Atlantic in Delaware. Talk about out of its element here !
Pattern: Mitered Square Afghan, following the directions from the Mason Dixon Knitting book, inspired by interpretations seen over at Ann & Kay's blog and at Tikkupeitto. The three of them, they put the genius into blanket knitting, a category I previously equated with Not Interesting To Me. I had comments from all 3 of them along the way , swoon, visitations by the Fairy Godmothers of Miter.
Yarn: Knitpicks Shine Worsted, we lost track of skeinage years ago , literally. Love this yarn!
Needles: Mostly I knit US5 and my siser knit on US 7, getting us a happy middle ground that your average tensioned knitter might find on US6. Don't ask.
Was it Really That Much Work?: No, it truly wasn't. We dragged this out ridiculously, even the seaming was not that time consuming. We are world class whiners. Go ahead and cast on for one of these, alone or with a sibling. Really. I mean it.

yes we can

Watch this!

ps. If you are in one of the 24 US states holding a primary tomorrow, get out there and vote.

who says nothing goes on in February

Some celebrated Groundhogs Day, some say it's the date to honor Brigid.

Around here, the first Saturday in February is always International Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. Shown: mint chocolate chip, with strawberries and whipped cream. Side bowl of whole grain yet sugary cereal not included.

In the Hebrew calendar we just celebrated the New Year for Trees, which I did nothing much for except (clumsy segue ahead) trying to keep the Tree of Warmth supplied for another couple of weeks. Gazillion hugs to all who knitted for this! It's been much appreciated in the community. When I stopped by the soup kitchen to add new knits this week, it was just about bare. I added one more hat from me.

pattern: improvised 2-1 rib over 64 stitches.
yarn: green dyed naturals from this dyeing bonanza, held double with a strand of unlabeled natural brownish grey (possible a Green Mountain Spinnery vintage skein), both are worsted weight
needles: size 9, but you 'd use 10, I knit loose
notes: Literally two hours to do this, woohoo big gauge. I started a scarf with this yarn and besides botching the pattern horribly, it was scratchy, so I ripped it out. Somehow in the ribbed hat and with the handling, it felt softer, I would happily wear it.


In other observances of the day, Cara reminded me (well, not me personally , I read her blog just like you all) Feb 2nd is also (Silent) Poetry Reading Day in blogdom. This year I'm leaving you with a poem. It is by Kinereth Gensler. She was a special person in my life, a second-or-third-or-whatever cousin by marriage, a kindred soul. Each year I get out one of her books to post a poem on this date. I end up not posting but reading the whole book, getting all weepy missing her. I do believe this year I'm sharing.

The Law of Signs -- Kinereth Gensler

When you need a sign,
one will be given.
Anything becomes a sign,
even a fortune cookie,
that sweet sawdust.
The law arrives in a cocked hat,
white slip of a tongue
in the crooked mouth,
its words to be digested.
It will last long enough-
foretaste, taste, aftertaste-
to become addictive.
You go through many fortunes
waiting for the perfect fit
between the sign you seek
and the written message.

weekend warriors

Sunday morning practice for the Knitting Olympics Synchronized Garter trials.

In case you're coming in on this mighty miter undertaking late, or have lost recall of our ridiculously drawn out project, my sister and I are in the final throes of our collaborative throw.

We finished sewing the squares into larger squares, then into strips of larger squares. We were just about to join two halves Sunday morning when Lulu figured we could knit edges simultaneously before joining them, and having to shuttle the whole project back & forth for the long sides, when only one person can knit on them at a time. Clever, eh?
We're cautiously optimistic that this will be a Valentines Day gift. Meanwhile, we're still considering tube dress potential.

brit lit

Let's open with some Shakepeare
...there lies more peril in thine eye ,Than twenty of their swords.
Romeo and Juliet. ACT II Scene 2.

For a week, mine eye was imperiling poor Juliet. I tried her on . She was all wrong. A total rip out required. With no heart at that moment , I put her back in her bag. The next day: Hark! Juliet was hanging just fine in the important places. By the following dawn, in utter ambivalence over fit , I decided I was definitely going to need more yarn to finish at a flattering length.

A few phone calls and another try-on: well, with some tugging during blocking, should be plenty of yarn left , ahem, as you can see. Since no more of this color is at the LYS. Juliet was politely invited to take a beauty nap for a few days.

I've scrutinized all of the Juliets over on Ravelry - and that's MANY- sussing out what is wrong, fit-wise, with the unflattering ones. I may have hit every one of those Don't-Dos. I didn't take into account the amount of vertical stretch that was going to happen once the "skirt" of the pattern was added , weight-wise, to the garter stitch top. When the top ends as an empire waist, just under the boobage to get technical, it looks stylish. When the garter stitch area extends to just above your waist, you've gone granny. With some coaching, I'm going to block unfinished and do garter surgery.

While I let myself wander in a haze of indecision over Juliet's fate, I knit this Noro striped hat.

Same as last time , yarn & repeats wise, except it's is a 2x2 rib, 88 stitches on size 7 needles. For Dave, who never gets anything new finished for him.

I declared this the year of making some things for Dave. I think that's vague enough to leave me room for success. Right?

split personality

Check it out! The Shear Spirit blog. I'm going to try not to cross-post much. Blogging duties shared with Joan, my co-author , who is an honest-to-goodness award winning writer , so expect a notch up in the verbage.
High on my accomplishment list for 2007 is bullying gently leading Joan back to knitting, so there'll be plenty of that. Not sure where else we're going yet with it but I have approximately gajillion photos that couldn't fit in the book that I'm dying to share, and we'll be posting bonus patterns once the book is out. Stop by and say hey.

ps.the option to change fonts has mysteriously disappeared from my Blogger compose window! yikes, serifs!

hoping robert frost* was right

The Tree of Warmth is in business at the local soup kitchen/commmunity services center.

Calling it the Fence of Warmth doesn't have that same, you know, fuzzy glow, does it? When it dawned on us we didn't have the right kind of tree, or any kind of tree for that matter, it was zippo degrees out. A hike to find one was not on the the to-do list, but a sprint around the yard yielded this scrawny branch and a section of fence. Apply duct tape liberally and- walla! Anyway, its inherent fenciness is eclipsed by the knits. Do you see some of the beautiful work sent to us?

Much oohing and aaahhing as we set up. If you look carefully you'll see a Cherry Garcia neck tube that I covet admire. It was knit by KT who is in the middle of moving across the country but somehow found time. wow. Some of the knits, especially kid size, were put aside by the director for Tuesday nights, when a specific group of families with children come for dinner and stories at the facility. So even if you're not glimpsing your contributions, don't think it isn't warming someone by now!
* ".....He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors." Read the whole poem here.

gifted

From my sister Marla

from the shop at one of our favorite places, the American Visonary Art Museum. That makes me love the yarnballs even more than for their twistedy colors with that hippie store smell. I may just keep them in a bowl on my desk and admire them for a while.

I gave myself the gift of not even attempting to do those things I said I would this week, like cleaning my office, whupping that bookkeeping once and for all, and catching up with IOU photos . What have I done with that time? Movies! Along with traveling back & forth to DC, and some social gatherings, I've seen Once, Walk Hard, Juno, Waitress, Into the Wild , and that's just the start of the rundown . I'm Not There is on later today unless the snow starts flying too heavily. Half of the viewings , the ones I didn't list, reveal I hang with teenage boys and their preoccupations. Which boil down to ONE thing .

Most films were on DVD but a few at theaters. Juno was here, a completely swoon-worthy setting for watching any movie. Maybe Superbad might have been Supergood if I'd seen it in that venue?

You'd think I'd have finished tons of knitting what with all the screen gazing. Not really.

And a very special gift,
passed on from my mom. It belonged to my grandmother . She received it in the 1940's for her commitment to charity knitting, when she organized the Bronx chapter of the Womens Voluntary Services to knit for the troops during WW2. I had no idea this was floating around the family, and as tiny and battered as it is, I treasure it. I haven't found too much about it yet online . I'll put the research on the to-do list. The pin? I'm wearing it.

progress report

3 pm Saturday I declared I was done for the day and planned to watch a movie and knit a hat for a bro-in-law. I used a don't mess with me tone.

I'd sort of wanted to make that Noro scarf (you've seen it before?) but ran out of time so went the hat route.
pattern: Improvised 2-1 rib, over 92 stitches in the round
needles: us 7
yarns: 1 skein Noro Kureyon, 1 skein handyed charcoal-black merino from Farmhouse Yarns.
Thanks to the not-so-solid color of the black/charcoal,much softer than a true evenly dyed black, the switching colors worked well. When I got to the decreases I made the Noro stripes wider, I realized I liked knitting them better than the black and the 2-2 stripes were too symmetrical. (Did I mention I was in a a bad mood?)

I think he'll like it.

And here's an alpaca silk beret hat that only needs a button decision.

All that's left is some wrapping, one sock and a long car ride. Good to go!

knitbloggier than usual

Rarely do I have so many knitbloggy items in my reporting notebook.
First, there's the gift knitting.

Here we have socks underway for a sister. It is another Artyarns Supermerino with Razor Shell cuff, and is, if you knew her, so very her. I ordered the main color , #239, thinking it was indigo-denimish, go ahead and look at the bottom of that link and see. I hoped to knit Dave much deserved socks but the skeins arrived with a truly purple bearing, so sis's it is. I've also completed a hat, I'll need to show it later this week. There are two other giftees I want to knit for definitely. Funny, as the number of days before the holiday decrease, the simplicity of the projects and the choice of yarn weight increase. Likely I'll be knitting two super chunky bulky somethings in the car as we drive down to DC next Monday.

I squandered serious amounts of knitting time finding and attempting to re-find a pattern for vertically striped mitts with checked thumbs to fulfill a funky mittens request from a nephew. You know how you get that set in your jaw, glint in your eye and you just can't move forward till you re-locate the pattern you have in mind? I was sure it was online. Or... maybe in a magazine. Nope, nope, nada. Just as I declared it too late to be thinking about any kind of handknit that required a pair, while calculating how many bars of chocolate would make an equally appreciated gift, I tripped over a little spiral bound book of patterns , Knitters I Know, from Blue Sky Alpacas not two feet from my desk, and there it was , the pattern . Can I have a D-U-H? (and can I have a W-T-F? Does that link really say that it is available for $65.50? Maybe I shouldn't keep it on the floor?)

Moving on. Did you see flying pigs? Hell freezing over? (well sort of around here but anyway) - stop the presses, sister Lulu and I are back on task with the mitered square blanket. Last seen in progress August 2006. We did some end weaving, steaming and seaming Sunday morning and soon had half of the squares secured into bigger squares. I snuck over for an hour attack this morning, assembling our first strip, before we lose our mojo again. It makes a lovely tube dress, yes? Do you think Kay has some kind of mutated DNA helix that enables her to put these together in apparent effortlessness? This is what I'm thinking as I'm seaming, even as I realize she is all " pfft those big squares tant pis!" sewing fifty gajillion much smaller mismatched squares for the Oliver Fund American blanket (which you must click over to and buy a raffle ticket now, btw).

FYI you can tell I'm working at Lulu's because she accessorizes beautifully. Just look at the pincushion she brought out for us to work with, it is mighty miterly.

Finally, I close with a moment only a knitblogger could love. NYC Saturday,for the first time ever I popped in at Purl. Filled with wonderful yarn and nice salespeople to be sure, but very crowded. I was retreating when I noticed a hat I'd downloaded from a blog only hours earlier. I mean not a version of the hat but I was certain it was the very same hat , a distinctive hat, on the head of the same daughter who wore it online., and here they were, yarn shopping, in 3D. I surprised all of us , blurting out " Hey, I saw that hat , you designed it. And you're the daughter, right ? I downloaded it ! It looks awesome !!". I used exclamation points in my voice, too. They looked startled or possibly stricken. It is kind of weird to have strangers know details about your clothing, and the designer, Kirsten, said she'd never had anyone out her before. Plus she'd only just posted the pattern to blog 24 hours before, and I'd never visited her blog before that. Most randomly, none of us live in NY. I sent an email saying I hoped I didn't freak them out . She assured me they'd both gotten a kick out of being recognized. fyi the hat? Even better in person.

eight plus 1

Here it is , one day past Chanukah and I haven't even mentioned gift knitting. Which is not to say it hasn't been going on.

When my guys were little, we made dozens of these strings - yarn with recycled holiday cards from the year before. It got to the point where we had so many you'd get tangled walking through the house during Chanukah. Now we just use a couple dozen a year hanging above the kitchen table and window by the menorah. Some of the Xmas cards with religious themes cut into dreidel shapes are deliciously subversive.

Sister Lulu received socks from me, on the first night, when we had our Iron Chef Latke event .

Pattern: Inspired by Miriam Feltons Razor Shell socks, these are instead knit over 48 worsted weight stitches. You can razor shell on any multiple of eight. I used the heel flap, toe and foot shape in stockinette I always use because , well, I just always do.

Needles: Size US 5 needles , or possibly US4. Just do a gauge swatch if you knit'em, OK?.

Yarn: Artyarns Supermerino , worsted weight, in # 114, an olive/moss/ eggplant/grape colorway that screamed her name. Toes, heels and cuff edge in another Artyarns Supermerino almost solid color, I think its 236. I've already sworn allegiance to knitting worsted weight socks this winter so I won't go there again. I love these, they are the shining achievement of my short sock knitting career.


On the third night she called to say she loved her socks so much she was tempted to wear them around her neck. The funny thing is, all along I had an extra skein of the yarn and planned to make a little scarfette with buttons for Lulu , along with the socks. It was a bit of a joke, we'd had a debate whether buttoned neck scarfs were fresh and cool (her opinion) or uptight and fussy (mine, although I may be wrong. There. I said it.)

On the fifth night, Lulu got the hastily finished other part of her handknits, this neck scarf.
I improvised with the same yarns, and the Razor Shell stitch again. Its a one-skeiner, if you're not counting the small amount of contrasting yarn on the ends.

Lulu Calls it a Dickey Razor Shell Scarf

Yarn: 1 skein MC plus small amount CC of Artyarns Supermerino
Needles: size us8 needles
Other: 2 good buttons
SK2togP = slip one, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over. Also sometimes called DD (double decrease)

Pattern:
In CC, cast on 22 stitches on size 8 needles.

row 1, RS:
Sl1, K1, *K1,YO, K2, SK2togP, K2, YO* repeat 2 more time, K2
row 2, WS:
Sl1, Purl to end.

Continue these two rows.
On row 4 switch to MC, continue these two rows until the scarf is 22" long, switch to CC, continue in pattern for 3 rows, bind off loosely.
Block to accentuate the scalloped ends . Sew on antique buttons that you want to show off since they're featured by the style, try it on to find placement. No buttonholes needed since the lace accomodates the fastening.

Let me know if you try following these instructions, and show me the results!

leftovers

Before I dive into some big visuals, a huge ferklempt thank you to everyone sending knits for The Tree of Warmth . Especially the New Haven SnB Homegirls like her, and her, and , if you're on Ravelry, her, who are coming through powerfully. Not to mention wow, with serious knitting talent. Must do a Tree of Warmth Show & Tell post before we set up the donation at the soup kitchen.

My co-conspirator in the Tree of Warmth project, Julie (she alas has neither blog nor website these days) offloaded a big honking bag of sturdy Newfoundland yarns to me a while back. She'd had them around for something like 20 years. They are woolly and strong and handsomely natural and as you can see, not so colorful. 18 months later, we scoured the local supermarkets for kool aid . My advice, don't expect a fabulous assortment of flavors in New England in winter.

The wet view: We mixed and added in some cake decorating coloring. Don't look to me for kool aid dyeing science. You should go to the new Knitty for that. (Impressive)

Dry view. We love them. Scarf underway and planning major mitten action

Love the overdyed orangey and grape solid (former) darker gray on the far right.

Speaking of leftovers? Here's what the munching horde resorted to Thanksgiving weekend.

.

Next year I'm giving everyone tiny flags with their names, so they can claim their food leftovers like teeny explorers on new mashed potato and gravy continents.

KNITTERS NEEDED: Tree of Warmth

phone ringing sound

Me: Hey Pat, I have a question for you.

(Pat is the director of the Community Dining Room , the local soup kitchen serving meals 7 days a week to adults, children & families, as well as offering other services, to a string of towns in our area.)

Pat: Hi Gale. How'd that work out last month when you cooked for us here? You locked yourself out the back door and left me that frantic message?

Me: (trying to gloss over embarrassing incident gracefully) ummm, yeah.... I have a question. I saw a flyer somewhere for a Mitten Tree you have? A friend & I have this group of knitters we organized and we'd like to support a local project, and since some of us already cook for you at the .....

Pat: A tree? With knitted things? That sounds wonderful! We've never had one, I am so thrilled you want to set this up.

Me: No, Pat, I meant, um, I saw this flyer asking for handknits and...

Pat: Our clients need hats and mittens and scarves and it is SO WONDERFUL you're offering to organize this.

Me: Um, really,I thought I saw this flyer.... maybe at the library?

Pat: Oh, Gale, we so appreciate this, we'll talk later this week, I have to run, and thanks SO MUCH FOR STARTING THIS FOR US, I can't wait to set it up at the end of December after the holidays.

Me: (voice trailing off , as Pat hangs up) no, but, wait, Pat? I thought there already was a mitten tree.....

It seems I've started the Tree of Warmth Project. Knitters wanted!!!!

Please, if you can spare a pair of mitts or a hat or a scarf, the Tree of Warmth Project will provide much needed protection from the chill , starting at the end of December. About 30% of the need is for children, all sizes, the rest is adults of both genders and all ages.

If you're in the general New Haven / shoreline area I can pick up your knits, otherwise send me an email (or if you comment, please be sure you leave an address for reaching you!!) and I'll give you my mailing address. I know every single thing will be appreciated.

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

small undertakings

Usually a few snappy remarks on a topic keep me happy without needing to do anything further. Like I can browse online for weird mixed breed rescue dogs for an hour but not actually bring a new bowser home. This time, after wisecracking to Norma, and joking with Mary Lou, I went ahead and started this

Since it's tongue in cheek, I invited a few friends who have clear records of NOT being underachievers but who seemed to share my sense that Ravelry is a brilliant piece of interactive web design but we weren't finding the time and the clicks to get all that we could out of it. Somehow instead of invites they became administrators , and without agreeing to it, there were then six of us. I was glad, if I was alone in the group it'd really hurt my ego.

Anyway we are now close to 200 members. How fun is that? It's a fine group and I've already learned some good Ravelry tricks from them. Stop by ! I mean, if you're not busy reaching all your life goals and stuff like that.

In other communal small efforts, I joined Olivers American Blanket. I don't know why but I've never knit a diagonal garter stitch square and it looked so satisfying.

It is. I apologize in advance to Kay for these very unKaylike (and un Kaffe like too) colors, I have faith she'll find a way to work playdoh-meets-egg-yolk in with more tasteful colorways. That second little bit on the needle was a log cabin style square underway, because the rules didn't say it had to be 4" of diagonal. I've since ripped it out and went back to the cool modern efficiency of the diagonal square, my log cabin just looked too dadburn down home. Yet sort of pleasingly Gees Bendy, if that can be an adjective. It's a small thing. Maybe some other time.

in which we take on gauge. again.

Maybe I should taken account of the stitches per inch sometime in the 2 years this was on needles. Denial is such a powerful set of blinders.

Cutaway in Rowanspun DK.

This isn't my first go-round with gauge. We go waaay back . It was the Twelve Corners Middle School 5th Grade Spelling Bee., final round. A voracious reader, I had an excellent vocabulary. There was a whole cosmos of words I knew but never heard pronounced. Hors D'oeuvres for instance. In books, people were always eating HORZ DA VORZ . Likewise, my engineer dad would talk about measuring things, and deputize us to monitor dials on the dashboard when he fixed his weird old car but the spoken word gauge never connected in my brain with that word in books, GAWJ.
So there we were on the auditorium stage. First, Richard Lee, goes down on roccoco, I am glad it wasn't my word because I wasn't clear on the CC's there.(and in truth just had to spell check it now, heh). The next two kids stayed in. And me, my word? GAYJ, to measure. Umm,so familiar, yet... G-A-G-E? Ding! Out!

Love the yarn, love the style, love the pattern, not loving the fit. If only I had arms 5 inches longer, another 6" of bust and was taller with broad shoulders. I am no waif, this is just a larger-than-me cardigan.
I am not ripping it to re-do. Just no heart for it, the yarn itself is kind of tender. I'll probably just wear it around the house, sob.

postscript: 24 hours later , leaving to spend the day with an old friend, I threw it in my bag. She has always been 5 " taller and proportioned for her height. It was a perfect fit. What might have seemed like gauge kicking my tush again was actually divine intervention.
(I'm not 100% behind selling myself on the divine intervention bit, but it takes the sting out of the whole situation, you know?).

Ok, gauge, we'll talk again. soon.