postcards

added Thursday: hey, hello to anyone popping over from Mason Dixon, welcome! I'm a little low on the animal husbandry coverage today, and wow, not much yarn to see either (at a wool festival?! ) but do pop by again. Now that the cone of silence has been raised a crack, I am preparing my tell-all memoir "Last Summer with Ann & Kay".
Hint: It'll be like Girls Gone Wild. Except we kept our shirts on, and there was more knitting.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

There're plenty of blogs reviewing luscious MS&W yarn purchases. Me? One skein and a tank top. But that doesn't mean I don't have something to show from the weekend.

The main walkway mid day on Saturday. Oh Caaaaarole, where are you?

Maybe at lunch? What do you think the goat chili is also known as that I can't read? I stuck with the strawberry lemonade for nutrition, myself.

The reenactors of many periods doing fidgety-fussy fiber arts, with complete confidence.

I revisited whether a sheep with the right look could pass as a dog to my neighbors.

The most unusual Shear Spirit tattoo app of the day: meet Flo and her ta-ta!

Here's Nanney Kennedy and some of her Seacolors yarn. Want biceps like that? Go wrestle some sheep.

Signing books at three booths, meeting blog friends and people who've read the book, handing out tatts and blabbing away with knitters was so.much.fun. Even with laryngitis. (I promise I don't really sound like that)
I'm going to make a gallery of some of the other tattoos in action over at the bookblog, hop on over, maybe by late Tuesday .

hi ho, hi ho

It's off to Maryland I go!

Indigo dyed yarn in hand to knit on the train , tattoo'd and ready to rumble.

I'm handing out tattoos for all, and I'll shoot you wearing one for a gallery over at the Shear Spirit blog. You know you want one.

I've never been to Md Sheep & Wool. Heidi tells me I am not prepared. You'll recognize me by the dazed expression.
OR
come visit me signing books and yakking it up Saturday at the Seacolors booth with Nanney Kennedy, Maine fiber farmer extraordinaire from 10-12 , and then at the Autumn House Farm booth, with their stunning yarns and fiber from 2-3.

If you're Sunday fairgoer, I'll be with Jody MacKenzie at Botanical Shades, from 10-12, she' the most knowledgeable and consistent all-natural dyer I've ever seen and ooh, to sit amongst her yarn for a coupla hours. That's not work, is it?

ps. Here's a link to the booth #'s.

join me in the Reverse-A-Week machine

Back to Tuesday, last week at The Point.
Yay Patty & staff, whatt yarn store, my only regret is I didn't get to browse, and that someone else bought up all those great needle cases on the counter. If you scroll down on the link, the Ruby Splash fabric is the one that I was eyeing. I think they are getting more in, be poised to pounce.

To bring you up to speed, my co-author, the Cali based Joan Tapper, was in NY on the very date our book was published, so we feted. I highly recommend fete-ing, if this is any indication of what it's like. Thanks a zillion million to all who attended.


I was feeling kind of run down when I got to NYC that afternoon, so slugged back a double espresso just before the author talk time. I underestimated the energizing effect of entering a charming knitting store/cafe packed to the gills with people I love or really really like or would like to know better. The result : I am pretty sure I spent ! The whole night ! talking ! ! with exclamation points !!!

I can be an enthusiastic person when blabbing on say, a project I worked on obsessively for 18 months, but I may have pushed the limit. Lesson learned in the caffeine department. Joan was more centered, and I hope balanced us out.

Another lesson learned, in the signing department. I hadn't thought what one actually writes when you sign your books, it isn't quite like a yearbook Stay as Sweet as UR or the guest log of an art exhibit, so Nice work, so inspiring! didn't quite cut it . I plan to get this aspect of knit book event-ing under control before the next time at... drumroll..Maryland Sheep & Wool.* There, I plan to leave in a teensy bit of time for shopping. Lots of time to shmooze and take pictures of all I meet. And, maybe, I'll stick to coffee ice cream as stimulant.

One last lesson learned: you can't be talking, signing, enthusing and taking pictures, so my sister did the honors , grabbing my camera at the last minute. (thanks Lulu!) Thus, you don't see her nor sweet baby Meli , nor a bunch of other folks I'd like to have in pixels but she couldn't have known which way to point the big lens.

I can offer you this evidence that Cara has already been an excellent knitting influence on her little sprout of a daughter, aided by the obviously smitten knittin' Kay.

and proof that I should stick with photography because the hand modeling career ain't gonna happen. Woo, is it the espresso that causes hand vein pop?

* for the signing locations at Maryland Sheep & Wool , and other events, click over to the Shear Spirit book blog sidebar . Besides, it has a good post up this week, written by Joan.

a pass off

You know things are bad when I title with a sports metaphor.
Better reading today over on our bookblog, come back here in a day or two when I have something fit for knitterly digestion!

not entirely irrelevant to what follows. although unrelated in time

What I really want to show you is a fun report from the book signing party in NY last week.
I haven't had a moment to put it together, I've been mostly in traffic between Washington DC & CT for the Passover holiday weekend. It was an overly dramatic ride each way-- heavy traffic augmented by a backseat teenaged size overdose of hideous fast food *(almost as revolting on the way in as it was spewed out voluminously in the car) heading south on Friday , and a shootout on I-95 on the way back last night.

At least I had a decent amount of knitting time in the passenger seat.

Wow, that was TMI, wasn't it?

* until just a couple of years ago we were all in synch , a mostly vegetarian natural foods loving family unit, but adolescence has a funny way of separating the hatfields from the mccoys in terms of eating choices. Although I overheard a couple of hatfields swearing off the golden arches after this ride.

honk, blab, and vino too!

HONK: April 15th is the day Shear Spirit hits the shelves.

If you happen to be near New York New York on Tuesday evening,
join me and co-author Joan Tapper at our book party
6-7:30 pm at The Point Knitting Cafe , 37a Bedford Street

BLAB: It'll be a rare double sighting of us in the same space, we'll talk about the book, show some samples of projects from within , you'll knit, we'll sign books, we'll celebrate and hand out silly favors.
Buy the book and The Point will give you 10% off any yarn you buy.
Just because they're nice like that.

VINO: and we'll all drink wine. What could be bad? Hope to meet you there.

Space Is Limited! Please RSVP info@thepointnyc.com

and just one more honk:
there are some other Shear Spirit talks/signing/chances to blab coming up, check out the Shear Spirit blog sidebar.

sprung (annotated)

Out of my late winter knitting doldrums, some progress broke out:

The stripes line up in real life, this was a sloppy arrangement.
the Heartbreakingly Cute Kimono * NOW WITH MATCHING EDGES**.
The designer Cristina *** commented that the heart is not symmetrical and I should work that uneven overlap . The door creaaaked open in my brain.
Unfortunately I'd already ripped when I saw the light. Her statement reinforced a couple of thoughts: 1) Cristina is a crafting genius, 2) how limiting it is to see only the oh no! there's only one way and I have not followed it. In a blink I thought of how cute it would have been to embroider X's and O's along that longer bottom layer.

While procrastinating on the fix I knit this,

Love to accessorize them babies. No particular pattern.

Off this goes to 6 week old Beck who lives in a cabin in Maine , he'll have plenty of wool wearing season left in his first year.
pattern: from Mason Dixon Knitting
yarn: Cascade 220 superwash, 2 skeins needed for striping, tons leftover
needles: aaack! I've already forgotten. maybe US7's?
thoughts: Lovely little project, and an excuse to go diving in my button tin. I just love my button tin. I used the eyelet edge as button holes. The inner edge is tied with a small length of crocheted yarn sewn in.

The altitude/attitude troubled alpaca beret**** is flying right now, too.

Originally intended as a gift to someone in NYC, somehow a cozy warm alpaca beret in April seems more penalty than pleasure. So this might be part of my permanent collection. Come see me at a Shear Spirit event and you'll probably notice it flourished it around as part of our trunk show. (and when I say trunk what I really mean is.. modest size tote)

pattern: fr Shear Spirit, the Taos Beret*****. Sorry only a glimpse here but in 2 weeks I spills all. It has some really cute detailing on the brim. Really!
yarn: machine spun natural alpaca from Victory Ranch
needles: size 6
notes: Another button tin expedition. These are some handpainted ceramic beauties made by(I think) a local artist. ****** I love this pattern and getting to stick a button on is the proverbial cherry on top.

Lastly , moment of silence for poor Juliet.
It wasn't the surgery that got her. I spent a ridiculously long time cutting and 3 needle bind off-ing, and unraveling and then reinforcing the join so it hung just right. I washed and reskeined the cut out yardage and just as I was going to knit that last 3 inches of the bottom lace, I decided to have a good try-on . In a moment of honesty I saw this garment was all wrong on me. Never, never let me knit something with garter stitched cap sleeves again. To say unflattering is too kind. Since I already own a uniquely unflattering Klaralund that is my only-around -the-house-and-for-errands, yarn-that-I love -paired-with-poor-pattern -choice-for-me sweater, I didn't need this one. I now have aprox 600 yards of Araucania Chunky with no purpose, I need a vest or tank top project. Ideally one knit side to side, I decided the variation in this yarn makes for some broadening horizontal effect. Let me know if you have any suggestions,what I really want is to make it into an Imogen but I lack the yardage.

and now for the annotation, everything needed more explanation today than parantheses could bear:

* That's the Ravelry link to almost one thousand of these little bits of sweetness.

** I still need to steam down the new bottom edge, sorry about the flippiness.

*** I linked to an arbitrary page, just surf around hre site and you'll find something inspiring

**** The beret is discussed waaay at the bottom of this post

***** It is unblocked in this photo.

****** turns out they are buttons from South Africa, info here, but I bought them locally. Oh well. It is shown balanced on the unblocked hat with display thread, I'll use a less bright white to sew it on.

excellent

an excellent storm from vacation last summer,other than that, totally out of context here

I'm uncharacteristically participating in one of those pass-it blog things. How could I not? Sheila nominated me as lucky # 13 in her list of Ten Excellent Blogs. I know, 13 out of 10, wtf, but rules are made to be broken, nothing succeeds like excess , and all that.

Here are mine. I thought I'd try to list blogs that seem way under-subscribed to me but you know, there are very popular blogs that are just so dang excellent I must include them.
Drumroll, please, and not in any particular order.

1. Norma because Now Norma Posts Daily and gives you a piece of her mind. Lucky for us it's a fine mind. Only nominally a knitting blog but who cares? Someday Norma & I will be living out our dreams in our respective Airsteams, and I hope she's got wireless broadband in hers so she'll keep posting.

2. Ann & Kay at Mason Dixon I know, they have gajillion readers. And another book coming out (not. soon. enough.) but these two are both fabulous writers and prolific, creative knitters. And not afraid of crazy. Go wish Kay a happy bday this week.

3. Knitting Weather Brilliant knitter, clever writing and life in Alaska. If only she posted more often (heh talk about the pot calling the kettle black). Did you see the wolf on the lake?

4. Cosymakes A recent addiction for me and another book I can't wait for. Cosy has this wonderfully inspiring use of color, texture and decoration without being over the top. Her dyeing is to die for. She makes new things funky-vintage without looking too granola. (I cannot believe I just used granola as an adjective, but there it is). She makes me want to stick buttons on everything and dust off my embroidery chops.

5. Stitch marker More inspiration. And another blog with a book that I will be getting my hands on very soon. Am I getting repetitive?

6. Mary Lou Egan at Yarnerinas She's smart, she's a talented designer and knitter and I hear a heck of an MC, which she'll be doing for the Yarn Harlot appearance in the Twin Cities soon. (Ok she also saved our tushes by designing via reverse engineering a sweater jacket and hat for my book Shear Spirit and because of that she is stuck with my unending admiration and friendship for life, but I'd still recommend her blog )

7. Knittingfriends.com not really a blog but ever since I put this in my bloglines feed I get a little digest of blog postings to look at everyday, and I find new voices without falling into the deep vortex of endless surfing . I don't get how they choose who is included on any one day's list -I first found them when I was getting a bunch of hits from their site last month- and I don't think I've been on their list since. Whatever. Fun to scan.

8. Phila *craft Cristina's a natural talent at everything she does, and articulate, too. Attention to detail in a way that I can only dream of. No waste of words, no waste of materials , beautiful objects crafted lovingly and thoughtfully. She's got the touch.

9. Hello Yarn Adrian is a source of inspiration whether designing, dyeing or just sharing her projects. F'rinstance, I just lost 10 minutes following a link she had for a new Noro yarn and her idea to knit it vertically with a steeked boat neck. Think about that for a second. See what I mean?

10.Norah Gaughan's blog because it is fun to know what is on her mind, or her needles. I love her designs, they pepper my ravelry queue. Someday I'll knit them! Until then, I'll just lurk.

spring thing

In a back corner of my brain there's been this itchy little idea that I wasn't through with Razor Shell stitch yet. I loved working it on the the three (five if you recognize the socks singly, yes, I AM a nerd) gift projects in December. I felt one more Razor Shell project in me. Which is to say, FOR me.

seen earlier today

I was in Woolcott & Company, on a dark and stormy evening 2 Saturdays ago. I won't go into the scenario (bad oversleeping teenagers!) but there I was, killing an hour caffeinating before driving home, 2 plus hours in torrential rains.
Lots of nice yarn there, some I'd never seen before, including newly arrived Manos Silk Blend. That yarn screamed,"indulge yourself with a new spring scarf fer godsake, you are driving home, alone, in the dark cold rain, and I will look damn good in a Razor Shell stitch".
It is clearly very clever yarn , because it was right
Anyhoo, enough of the chit chat.The deets:
yarn: Manos Silk Blend semi-solid . The woman at the shop (btw, really nice people, one had just finished knitting the coolest felted squirrel. I hope she didn't shave it down, it looked like it had just crawled out of the woods, in a good way. Not as cutesy as in that link.) called this color Juniper, I almost chose the loveliest slate/gray/blue. Excellent hues. It is DK weight, this scarf is 2 skeins worth down to the last yard. My scarf all blocked out is at least 72" long and 7" + wide .
needles: size 5US, I knit loose. Use a US6 if you don't.
the stitch: Razor Shell.

some words about the stitch: Last week with the flu , feeling too sick to knit , I whiled away an hour moaning on the sofa , surfing Razor Shell scarves.

I found this and this, inspiring my button embellishments.

I used the 8 stitch repeat Razor Shell stitch I'm so fond of, I found variations : over 10 stitches (there are 3 stitches on each side of the sl1K2tog,psso )which makes the non-eyelet columns wider, and over 12 stitches, (there are 2 stitches in the center of the eyelet columns), making it less lacey overall. On Ravelry I found garter stitch Razor Shells, the zig zagginess emphasized in the ridges. There are unlimited ways to render this stitch. Maybe it was my fevered state but I found this interesting enough to consider swatching some variations. Which, for me , is saying something. I had one of those moments where you realize the "knitting pattern" and the "knitting designer" are modern conceits of this age-old craft, wherein a Razor Shell Scarf just meant you hunkered down and knit a stretch of a stitch you liked and there, you had a scarf.

final thoughts: This is lace. It was a joy, and quick , too. It is easy and lovable lace, I need to stop saying I am lace-challenged. I've been knitting lace projects all fall/winter. And now it is spring. Maybe only 30 degrees out, but, hey ! who cares! I have a new scarf.

things are turning up

The socks I finished for Dave last month decided to make their whereabouts known.

the details:
A hybrid pattern. I loved the broken rib stitch texture of Thuja but prefer my standard 48 stitch worsted weight sock template from the Yankee Knitter Classic Socks pattern.
The yarns are Lambs Pride Superwash 100% wool, worsted weight for the main part, and some Artyarns Supermerino for the toes and heels. That Lambs Pride Superwash makes an excellent sock yarn but I'm not sure I would have been able to squeeze a pair out of one skein of the Lambs Pride if I hadn't switched out for the toes/heels.

My personal theory on why these socks reappeared after being unfindable since I completed them in Colombia? I believe they took pity on me. I have so many unfinished, almost completed , troubled projects scattered around this joint that I am beside myself. A little clutter is good for creativity but I've crossed over, project-wise, into distraction.

By contrast, I visited my 22 year old nephew's apartment in NY this week. Remember when life was simpler?

someone please hit the forward button!

My Knitting Life seems to be on pause, if not reverse, like some kind of knitting Twilight Zone episode. Go ahead and make those doo-doo-doo-doo theme sounds for yourself. I mean really, check it out. I'll skip showing you the 2 berets that are put aside until I can deal with them but consider them part of the show.
My Juliet is still being a surgically improved. I've blocked, put long circular needles through the two lines I want to join, taking out about 4" of garter stitch that now exists between them, using a 3 needle bindoff to do the join.
Then I'll delicately cut the extra , unravel it and use the yarn to get a better length on the bottom section. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it, even if it feels like this simple project will never end.

This is how it looks hanging around the sofa.

In the course of trying to go forward with the 3 needle bind off, I snapped one the few remaining Bakelite needles I have from Dave's Grandma Frieda.
I was lucky enough to know her pretty well. I love having the needles , they make me think of her when I work with them. I might frame the last one.

I thought I had breakthrough: I knit this stripey kimono for a freelance asst's new baby, and I was just sooo proud of myself for whipping it out quickly and cutely as can be until I pinned it out wet to block and discovered....
yup, I bound off two stripes too soon.
See what I mean? I bet it's not what they had in mind when they named the pattern Heartbreaking. (fyi? that's the ravelry link to 890 of these with the edges neatly matching).

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!