A Beginning

I was thinking about beginnings this morning as I cast on my new Mini Mochi Fair Isle hat (it's lovely, but not ideal because the yarn is a single ply. If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it).

I like casting on. It's a beginning, like meeting a new friend.

At the same time, I am beginning to design my home. I've done a lot of legwork already, and today I even spoke to a solar guy.

Bad news: I won't be able to put photovoltaic solar on or around my new house to generate electricity for me.

Good news: It's because I'm a very low consumer of electricity. The startup costs are too high and I would never realize a breakeven point on that investment. Even though I romanticize the idea of never being beholdin' to PG&E, I am definitely financially circumspect.

That's OK. I can heat water for showers using solar, and that is probably much more practical.

It's a start. I have two very workable floor plans I can commit to, have spoken with one architect, and hope to speak with another this weekend. I have a lender who is willing to finance the venture. All good stuff.

Hi, new home. I'm Lisa. Nice to meet you!

The Zen of Ripping

I have been working on a sweater for - um - years. Let's say it's been in WIP for a few years. It's a lovely wool and alpaca blend, and I still think the pattern is very pretty - it's called Northern Lights, and there is a beautiful variegated yarn that is used for contrast to represent the aurora borealis dancing across the chest. I had finished the front and back.

This morning, between 6 and 8am, I ripped it out.

I had planned to finish it. It would have fit. All of my sweaters have relatively thin torsos and especially long (shall we say Simian?) arms, just like moi. That's the beauty of handwork, it can all be customized. It has been on my "must finish it this year" since 2008, and it was next on my list. All I had left to do was sleeves, and then of course the little collar.

The knitting was perfect, or as close to it as I was willing to do. I had experimented with the variegated wool on the front piece, choking it on the wrong side whenever I ran into the heathery green that matched the main body color, but on the back had just let it run its course, and it was fine. The tension was good. Not a single glaring error.

Then I stood up and admitted something to myself last week: despite all it had going for it, I wouldn't have worn it. It was too long for me to wear with skirts, too similar in shape to 367 other sweaters I own, and I simply wouldn't have worn it.

I got to change my mind. I got to say, "I get to do something different. I tried this, I really did, and I did my best, but it's just not the right thing for me, and I don't want to spend any more time on it."

Somehow, I think I am maturing. Maybe it was just a matter of time.

Now I have two beautiful yarns all skeined up and a useful knack for designing new sweaters. I will create something original, something that will be both pretty and worn often. And I won't feel guilty about the Northern Lights sweater any more. It no longer exists. I have moved on.

May you be so empowered in your knitting. (And in your life.)

The Problem with Seeds and Skeins

As I planted 940 seeds (ask me how I know this) in flats on Saturday, it occurred to me that seeds are aligned in my brain with yarn in this way:

Seeds aren't little tiny dots, some so small I can scarcely see them even with reading glasses on, let alone count them out one by one (John Jeavons, I will haunt you when I am dead) and plant them in one inch grids.

They're plants. Better yet, seeds are beautiful red peppers, strikingly green chard with red ribs, bouquets of pastel sweetpeas, or HOME GROWN TOMATOES. They are rare and precious and bring color, flavor, aroma and a whole range of very happy emotions to mind.

And thus spake the knitter. Yarn is not twisted strands of (most likely in my collection) animal fiber or strands from the butt of a lepidoptera; it is sweaters against the rain and hats keeping a friend's body heat in and gloves wrapped around mugs of chocolate and it is lace and cables and thick and thin and the most sensuous thing I touch on most days.

Except for bread, the kneading of bread, bread which is clearly not a combination of flour and salt and yeast and water, but a scent radiating from a kitchen and a flake and a crust and a texture with melted butter. Bread, the ingredients I throw my hands into and come out with a velvety bowl of dough that takes the impression of my lifeline.

And my children, who aren't monkeys at all, but living, breathing human spirits with the future walking before them, driving of cars and passing of exams, sports and poetry, love lives and work lives and maybe even procreation.

So I understand addiction. Although I have never been one to think that drugs could take my mind somewhere beneficial and better than this world I see in front of me, I can see and feel and taste how one can become addicted: to this seed, this wool, this bread, these boys.

lgb 2/19/09

Fibonacci Pea Cap

This is David's Christmas present. Fortunately, I don't believe he knows I have a blog.

Yarn: 1 50-g skein worsted weight (19-20 sts/in) wool, approx. 100 yards; partial skein contrasting yarn, same weight, less than 50 yards.
The yarn I used is Austermann Inka alpaca/wool.
Needles size 6 and 7. You can do this with two circular needles, or a set of four dp needles, or start with a short (16") circular and move to dps. As you wish.
Tapestry needle for weaving in ends.

Size: medium (large) size adult head.
Gauge: roughly 19 or 20 sts/4" in stockinette stitch. Gauge is not critical, as it stretches.

Using main color (MC) and smaller needles, CO 96 (100) sts using long tail or half hitch method.
Place end of row marker and join, knit 2x2 twisted rib for 13 rows: *K2 through back loop, P2, repeat from *.
Knit 1 row around. This is your fold edge. The ribbing will fold here.
Knit next ten rows in twisted rib, but staggered from the first 13 rows: P2, K2tbl, repeat from *.
Change to larger needles.
Knit next 3 rows (stockinette).
Change to contrast color (CC). Knit 8 rows.
Follow this color sequence for the Fibonnaci pattern:
MC 5 rows, CC 3 rows, MC 2 rows, CC 1 row, MC 2 rows, CC 3 rows, MC 5 rows, CC 8 rows, MC to end.
AT THE SAME TIME, when work measures 5" from fold edge, place markers every 24 (25) sts, then begin decreases:
Row 1: Decrease row: *K2tog, K to within 2 sts of next marker, SSK, slip marker, rep from * to end.
Row 2: K 1 row around.
Repeat these two rows around until there are 32 sts (8 sts between each marker).
Now, decrease every row along the four lines of decrease until there are 8 sts left on needle(s).
Cut yarn, leaving a tail.
Weave in ends. Lightly steam the lines of decrease.

Jared Flood's Cobblestone sweater (my version)

This used up 15 skeins from my stash...it is being modeled by my 5-year-old because its intended recipient is, so far, too shy to model it. It is a men's size XL, which meant at one point I believe I had 330 stitches on my needle. I don't believe this son will ever get that large, but what do I know?

Sample Stitch Scarf

This is a sampler scarf for a group of wonderful women who wanted to go directly from learning the basics to knitting something fun and unusual. I chose only stitch patterns that look the same on both sides; however, with the yarn joins, it is fairly easy to tell which side is which.

I did not focus on having all of the yarns I used be of the same gauge, which is obvious from my sample. I believe it is important, even if the students are using yarn that will all knit up to the same gauge, to show them how their work could differ if they had chosen different yarn.

Yarn: choose whichever you would prefer to work with. My sampler is in cottons; my class all used worsted weight wool from KnitPicks. For best results, use all yarn of the same gauge (do as I say, not as I do).

The scarf is knitted in 12 blocks, each of a different stitch. Each block should be approximately square.

Cast on the appropriate number of stitches to make your scarf 6" wide (or 8" wide, if you prefer wider).
Block 1: garter stitch
Block 2: 2x2 rib (mult of 4 sts)
Block 3: seed stitch (even number of sts)
Block 4: garter stitch stripes, colors A and B
Block 5: moss stitch (even number of sts)
Block 6: reversible 4-stitch cables (mult of 8 sts)
Block 7: stockinette/reverse stockinette stripes, one color only
Block 8: vertical lace trellis (odd number of sts)
Block 9: reversible traveling (1x1 rib) cables (mult of 8 sts)
Block 10: chevron stitch (mult of 8 sts plus 1)
Block 11: 3x3 rib (mult of 6 sts)
Block 12: double seed stitch (mult of 4 sts)
Cast off. Weave in ends.

These stitch patterns can be found in Barbara Walker's First Treasury, except for the reversible cables.

Seedy OneSkein Hat

History:
I was gifted one skein of Rowan Big Wool in a knitting gift exchange, brown, and thought I could do something useful with it. Since I wear hats more than scarves, this is what I created.

Materials: 1 skein Rowan Big Wool, or similar yarn (87 yards, super bulky)
Gauge: approx. 8 sts to 4" in seed st on size 15 needles.
Needles: 1 set dp or 1 set dp and one 16" size 15 needles. Skein calls for size 17 needles, but I did not like that gauge for this hat. Please check your gauge.

Instructions:
CO 44 sts with circular or dp needles. Join and work around in seed stitch (K1P1, alternating rows with P1K1) until work is approximately 2.5".
Turn row: Knit 1 row. This creates a turning ridge for the brim.
Cont in seed st until work is 6.25" total.
Decreases:
Dec 2 sts at each of 4 points around the hat. This helps keep the pattern intact:
*(K1, P1) 3 times, K2tog, K1, P2tog,
(P1,K1) 3 times, P2tog, P1, K2tog,
rep from * to end. Total: 36 sts.
Work another row in seed st.
Work another dec row, along the same lines as earlier. Total: 28 sts. Move to dp needles here if you were using circulars.
Work another row in seed st.
Cont this decrease pattern (it may feel like the stitches are very funky and this will never look right, but persevere) until 12 sts remain. Try it on your head. If fit is good, break yarn off at about 8", pull through the remaining sts, and bring end to inside.

If fit isn't good, continue in seed st until it feels good. My hat is 10" long overall.

Decoration:
Take remaining yarn and create a 3-stitch i-cord until you run out of yarn or it is the length you desire. Pull the end through the last 3 sts. Wrap this i-cord into a decorative doodad for the top of your hat (mine is like two lazy 8's) and attach it using the end inside the hat and the end of the i-cord. Weave in ends.

Wear it in good health. Don't lay it down and forget it in an arboretum like I did. But trust that if you do, some kind soul will realize that this is a precious handknit, and will return it to the front desk. :-)

I will post better photos of this, I swear. The sun is not out right now and I wanted to have a photo available.

Designs so far

I have four designs to submit to Knitty next month, and if they are not accepted I will show them here. They are: a peacock shawl (100% alpaca, lots of colors, quite pretty really), alpaca gauntlets with angora trim, a fulled alpaca Fibonacci stripe bag, and yoga socks. Most of these designs arose from my desire to eliminate some partial skeins of alpaca from my stash. It's gone!

A week to myself

What would you do with a week all to yourself?

That is what I have once per year, when my husband takes the kids to his annual family reunion in Pend Oreille, Idaho. I think I attended this for about 7 years, but honestly I'd rather be working at Meadowood in August if I have one free week.

I drove them to the airport yesterday afternoon. I have until the 12th at 1:30pm.

So I spent a short time at Home Depot yesterday, where a very helpful woman loaded me up with the appropriate solvent and gloves to take about 30 years of adhesives off the beautiful tongue-in-groove oak in the foyer in the Sunnyvale house (I removed the 30+ year old tiles in December; the rest of the job has awaited me). I then spent 3-1/2 hours applying solvent, waiting, scraping, mopping, and ultimately using a 1/2" chisel to take off the layers of goo. My right hand was practically shaking when I was done (I tried switching hands, but alas I am surely right dominant, and tended to divot the oak when using my left), but the floor is ready for The Sander (which I will have to borrow from my neighbor in Aptos).

Last night I met a friend at a restaurant, which is the only way I can stop myself from becoming a perfectionist and removing every visible scrap of glue and trashing my wrist for the next week. She will come over and talk to Atticus, our beautiful, social white cat, while I'm gone.

This morning I did my breathing and a little yoga to help unstick my shoulders after last night's scraping orgy, made a huge batch of chai, watered the front yard and baby plants (I'm accumulating plants awaiting a place to live until I get my soil test results back from Timberleaf labs - which should be in another week or so - as I know I need amendments, but don't know which ones, both in Sunnyvale and at Meadowood). I now have a THREE-POUND LOAF of bread on the rise - one of those spiteful recipes that shows a beautiful, round, artisan loaf, and midway through the recipe has the statement, "resist the urge to add more flour". This means that it is a STICKY, GOOEY MESS all over my hands, implements and board, and I once would be near tears when faced with this. But since yoga and since knowing and baking bread with Peter Beckman, I now simply ask, "What would Peter do?" Which drove me to dumping the whole sticky mess into the KitchenAid mixer and adding as much flour as needed to get it to start showing signs of stringy bonds. I will not be undone by a lump of bread dough.

I have promised to read fairy stories to three little neighbor girls while I'm there, so must pack all my fairy gear. I will include a photo of my fairyness when I get the chance to download.

Now I need to figure out how to get my black lab (Sadie), clothes for a week, food for a week, knitting projects, books on homeschooling, fairy wings (four feet long), and fairy dress into my little blue Mazda Protege hatchback (it's small - my cars get 25mpg or I don't buy them). Something will have to stay. Since I can't leave Sadie here (she would be so sad and so hot) and she takes up the entire hatchback, it will be an exercise in stuffing. I suspect it will be the food (they DO sell food in Aptos, after all). Of course, I'll bring my chai and bread :-).

Oh, my plans, yes, I nearly forgot: tree work. A friend who is a professional tree man will be walking the property with me on Monday to show me which trees I'll need to thin; I'll be hiring a handyman for three days to help me buck up fallen trees on the property (I think there were seven at last count); one day a friend and I will be installing gates for the citrus garden, stone fruit garden, and vineyard; I will fertilize all of my baby citrus trees; and clear fairy circles. If I get half the chance, I'll finish the new roof on the outdoor shower (I just need to cut all the roof braces and nail up the currogated, transparent sheeting). I will do yoga every day to help my shoulders out. I will begin a beautiful new shawl design, which I now have the beads for. I might start on a man's sweater. I'll read fairy stories to little girls. I'll load up the bookshelves with paper and homeschool books. I will borrow showers from friends, and sleep every night on the dance floor.

And I promise to SIP my wine :-).

My main desire here is to capture knitting designs and ideas that go running rampantly through my head. Feel free to comment... and vote... on which ones may end up in books.