PDXKnitterati

Knitting 9-1-1

Posted on May 30, 2008 | 5 comments

Okay, it’s not really an emergency; I’m just helping. I made a felted entrelac tote last year, and my knitting group took it up as a learning project. There’s one that’s not quite done. I feel slightly responsible because I introduced it, so I offered to help Sharon get past the last triangles so she can get on to the round bottom of the bag. She just doesn’t get enough time to knit. I love her colors; they are outside my usual palette. I finished the triangles last night, and now it’s on its way back to her.

Here’s another bit of 9-1-1: The emergency knitting bag. Turtlegirl posted about this on her blog, and it was impulse buy all the way for me. You can get yours here. It’s the perfect size to leave in the car with a sock or washcloth project tucked inside.

I cast on for the Josephine Top, after a bit of swatching. I swatched flat, but decided to knit this in the round, so who knows if I’m getting gauge? Too early to tell, but it’s pretty and this will be a very big gauge swatch.

Isn’t it pretty on the weeds in my back yard? The true color is somewhere in-between these two pinks.

5 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged entrelac, josephine

Master of my domain

Posted on May 28, 2008 | 7 comments

Right now, I’m pretty chuffed because I purchased my own domain name, so now you can go directly to http://pdxknitterati.com and that’s me, right here. You no longer have to include wordpress in the addy. If you’re subscribed to this blog, please change the address subscription to https://pdxknitterati.com/feed It’s a good idea to update it so you don’t get lost in the redirect world. (That last bit was something I read while figuring out this process, and I assume there’s a good reason for it.)

The last time I ran into the term “Master of Your Domain” was on the pianoworld.com forum. There’s the MOYD Club in the Adult Beginners Forum; members pledge to practice daily, or come groveling with excuses. I made it through the year in 2006, but my practicing collapsed in December of 2007 due to, um, Ravelry. I’m not in it this year, but I am playing/practicing again. Balance…

Thanks for visiting my blog. I love getting comments, so please comment!

7 Comments

Posted in piano, ravelry, Uncategorized

Tagged piano

Shetland Shawls, show and tell

Posted on May 27, 2008 | 5 comments

Show and tell!

Here are the two Shetland Shawls, side by side. Smaller needle version is on the left; larger needle version on the right:

Closeup of small version (Shetland I)

And Shetland II:

Which do you like better? I like the look of the smaller one, and the airy gossamer feel of the bigger one. I keep changing my mind, though. They both make me really happy, and I hope the gift recipient likes hers!

5 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Knit, shawl, shetland shawl

Brown is beautiful

Posted on May 25, 2008 | 2 comments

All of my yarn pictures are brown today! I’m sending this spiral rib cap to a friend, and I needed a picture of it to go with its pattern before I send it. The hat is the loveliest, softest cotton blend: Classic Elite Premier, 50% pima cotton, 50% tencel. I think it will make a great chemo cap because of its softness, or just a great knocking around cap.

It looks like it’s flared at the brim, but really it’s not. It’s a head-hugging cap. I hope she likes it.

My mailbox had a surprise in it yesterday: handspun yarn from Melissa at Days of Tea and Knitting. It’s beautiful! Thanks, Melissa. I’m waiting for the yarn to tell me what it wants to be, besides gorgeous out by the bamboo. The first picture is a little more true to the color.

I bound off Shetland Triangle 2 last night. I remembered to take measurements this time. Unblocked, it’s 39″ wide by 19″ tall. It’s on the blocking wires now, and it’s 70″ wide by 35″ tall. That’s a lot of stretch! Here are the details for this shawl:

Shetland Triangle by Evelyn A. Clark, from Interweave Knits’ Wrap Style.

Size 7 26″ circular Lantern Moon Ebony needle
One and a third? skeins of Silver, Silk, and Superwash Merino Sock Yarn from Painted Skeins (skein is 100 grams, 420 yards). Twelve repeats of the body section, versus 8 in the pattern. I left off the last two rows of the edging to make the edge less pointy (thanks again, BrooklynTweed) and I cast off knit-wise on the wrong side to counteract stockinette’s tendency to roll. I used a size 9 needle as the working needle to cast off.

Summary: Like my first shetland triangle, but one more repeat of the body section, and needles one size bigger. The first shawl is 54″ wide and 26″ tall. The extra repeat and the bigger needles made a big difference. I may reblock the first one to see if I can make it a little bigger and lacier, but I’ll have to wait until the blocking board is free.

Just to keep with the brown theme, I should let you know that this colorway is Brick on Brown. And it’s gorgeous. Picture will have to wait until it’s off the multi-colored beach towel. Don’t want to mess with the brown theme!

2 Comments

Posted in Knit, ravelry

Tagged blocking, chemo cap, Knit, knitalong, lace, shawl, shetland triangle, yarn

Flirting, not cheating

Posted on May 22, 2008 | 7 comments

It’s not really cheating, is it? I bought yarn yesterday at Close Knit for my next project, the Josephine top from last summer’s Interweave Knits. I bought the same yarn called for in the pattern, which I hardly ever do. It’s Karabella Vintage Cotton, a DK weight mercerized (shiny) cotton and it’s the color of raspberry sorbet. Yum. Today I bought some new Lantern Moon ebony circulars in smaller sizes for this project. But I haven’t cast on, so it’s not cheating. Yet.

In fact, I was very diligent last night, and did a lot of knitting on the second Shetland Triangle Shawl. So much knitting, that all I have left to do is bind off.

I’m still working on washcloth samples, too. So there. I want to give a couple away with nice soap as thank you gifts, but I think I’d better wait until I can photograph them all together first. The lighting will be the same for all the pictures; always a good thing. So on I knit. But these don’t have to be done before I cast on the Josephine. I try to have a mindless and a mindful project on the needles, and these will be my two. After I bind off the shawl. Really.

Now *this* is cheating! Yesterday I bought a baffle for my bird feeder pole, to keep the squirrel off. This morning I looked out the window and saw this.

I think he’s thumbing his nose at me. Kids say he’s a ninja. We’re all impressed. But this means WAR. I’m plotting alternative disincentives.

And in other fun news, I won a contest! Sock yarn from a blog drawing at Days of Tea and Knitting. Thanks, Melissa!

7 Comments

Posted in Knit, the squirrel

Tagged bird feeder, cast on, contest, Knit, squirrel, yarn

A perfect day

Posted on May 20, 2008 | 2 comments

Good friends, a beautiful day, food, wine…perfect!

Obligatory knit content: I knit in the car on the way out (no, I wasn’t driving). I’m trying to finish editing a washcloth sampler set that I wrote for a class a couple years ago, and I need pictures of the finished items to include in the pattern. I gave away all the samples as gifts, way back when. So I’m making new ones, but there are six of them, and I’ve only finished two…keep knitting! Still working on the second shetland shawl, too, just have to finish the border, and block it. I need to finish by next knit nite so I can return Helen’s blocking wires to her. A self-imposed deadline. I can’t wait to get these done and start something new. Why is it always faster to knit in our heads, than with our hands?

2 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, Uncategorized

Tagged friends, Knit, pattern writing

Back on the bench

Posted on May 14, 2008 | 1 comment

Today was the last day to post an entry to the Adult Beginners Forum online piano recital on pianoworld.com. I’ve posted an entry in the 8 of the 9 previous quarterly recitals, but didn’t think I was going to post in this one. I haven’t played much this year; too busy knitting and designing and blogging! But I just couldn’t stand the thought of missing another one. This morning I dredged up two very short pieces that I learned last year. They’re by Enrique Granados, from his Stories of Youth, Op. 1. The first one is Cuento Viejo, or Old Tale, and the second is unnamed, but is marked “lento con tenerezza.” I love the yearning quality of it. It was fun to bring these back, and get it in, just under the wire, one hour and 20 minutes before deadline.

Granados Medley

ETA: And I wasn’t the absolute last entry. There are at least two other entries after mine. 63 in all, I think. Nice!

1 Comment

Posted in music, piano

Tagged granados, piano, pianoworld.com

Vickie wrote:

Posted on May 13, 2008 | 1 comment

“i’m meeting mom at kahneeta to camp on friday/saturday, may 9/10. there’d be a bunk for you in keiko if you’d like. it’d be just sitting around in the sun (hopefully), playing scrabble, that kind of thing.”

Coming off a busy spring of organizing other people and projects, I jumped at the chance to do something that someone else had planned, especially since it meant that I could spend a weekend catching up with my best friend from college. Her mom is cool, too. The bit about sitting around in the sun sounded pretty good. Spring has been a long time coming around here. It’s still cold, and it’s been really damp. So I didn’t ask too many questions. None, in fact.

You might ask, “What’s Keiko?” I didn’t, but I was pleasantly surprised.

We stopped at Timberline Lodge (elevation 5,960 ft) on Mount Hood on the way over. It was a gorgeous day. The last time I was there, I stood on this deck to take a picture. Not this time!

Mount Hood is 11,239 feet tall, the tallest mountain in Oregon, and according to Wikipedia, the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt. This wasn’t the day.

Crossing over the Cascade Mountains takes you to another Oregon. I live on the wet side. It’s sunnier on the other side, and less populated. We did have to stop for some traffic. (By the time I could get the camera out, the traffic jam was over and she was safely across the road.)

In Simnasho, on the way to Warm Springs, is this picturesque ruin:

The weekend did include the aforementioned sitting around in the sun at the hot springs-fed pool, scrabble, and lots of scenery.

And a baby (well, three weeks old):

Vickie came up with an impromptu martini shaker, courtesy of REI. Ingenious!

It was a lovely weekend, great to get out my usual routine. I always feel like I have new eyes when I go someplace and really “see” things. Thanks, Vic!

I knitted on Shetland Triangle II over the weekend. It’s getting close to the end, which means that each row takes longer than you’d think. I haven’t decided if it’s going to be the same size as the first one, or bigger. I’ll have to decide soon. I also brought lots of cotton washcloth yarn to knit samples, but that didn’t happen. I wrote some teaching patterns a few years ago for a beginning knitters’ group, and I’d like to publish them as a set, but I gave the samples away as gifts, so I have to make them again to photograph them. All in good time. Knit on!

1 Comment

Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged knitting, mt hood, scenic

Slap myself upside the head

Posted on May 7, 2008 | 3 comments

So I’ve been hanging back, not posting anything, because I haven’t finished anything since the Shetland Triangle last week. Second one is going great, but it’s not done yet. What other knitterly exploits could I possibly have to blog about?

Doh! I went to the Lantern Moon warehouse sale last Saturday. I love this company. They’re locally owned, have beautiful things, and provide jobs to women in villages in Vietnam. They’re good people. And they make my favorite needles, the ebony circulars. On Saturday, they were also giving back to the community; a portion of the day’s sales went to the Grant High School Foundation.

I didn’t buy much: a handbag for me, a basket for a knitting friend, and several mini-balls of Gelato, Leigh Radford’s silk taffeta ribbon, for another crafty friend. I already have a lot of their stuff. My restraint was countered by Anna’s shopping spree; she made out like a bandit! Yes, she did buy everything you see here, and some things that you can’t see, too. Caught by the camera phone; I don’t usually take my camera shopping.

Lots of gifts, and some things for her, too. All in all, a good knitterly day, even without knitting.

3 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged knitting, lantern moon

Shetland Triangle Love

Posted on April 30, 2008 | 10 comments

The Shetland Triangle is done; it’s drying on blocking wires this very minute. I love how this turned out.

See the subtle sparkle in the yarn? Love that silver!

Blocking wires really help pull this into shape and show off the pattern of the lace. Here’s the shawl before blocking:

Cats don’t really help much with blocking; the wires are pretty tempting. But Mookie thinks she’s helping, and that’s what counts.

I’ll post a picture of the shawl in action after it gets off the wires.

Details:
Shetland Triangle by Evelyn A. Clark, from Interweave Knits’ Wrap Style.
Size 6 26″ Lantern Moon circular Ebony needle (love these!)
A bit more than one skein of Silver, Silk, and Superwash Merino Sock Yarn from Painted Skeins (skein is 100 grams, 420 yards). I added three extra repeats of the body section; if I had added only two (10 total), I could have done this with one skein of yarn.

I left off the last two rows of the edging to make the edge less pointy (thanks, BrooklynTweed) and I cast off knit-wise on the wrong side to counteract stockinette’s tendency to roll. I used a size 8 needle as the working needle to cast off.

I must really love it; I’m going to make another one starting tomorrow. This shawl is going to be a birthday present. I want one for me, too. There’s a Shetland Triangle KAL (knitalong) group on Ravelry, and the cast on date is May 1. I’m ready! I might use a size 7 needle and make it a little bit lacier.

And I’ve found a piano piece that’s pulling me back to the bench: It’s Beethoven’s Sonata in G Minor, Op. 49 No. 1. Just the first movement for now. Yummy.