Annie Knits

Busy, Busy, Busy

Home again.  Here are a few more pictures of vacation fun, though, just to keep me centered.

My lack of dolphin sightings was a theme on the vacation.  Everyone but gimpy ol' me had seen them by the 2nd week, either on a boat outing or riding bikes on the beach, which I couldn't do.  Too windy.  It's hard enough on the bike paths with just one leg, and that's all I could use to pedal.  To my credit, I got up to 4 miles round trip toward the end of our stay.  I had to go hear the snapping shrimp again and that marsh was a good ways away from the house.  Yay me.  But I digress.

The whining got to Dear Husband, apparently, so he took me on a dolphin cruise.  This pod was feeding at the inlet round back of the island.  They'd push schools of fish up onto the beach and launch themselves onto the sand to eat the stranded fish.  It's a feeding strategy that apparently started here on the Kiawah river, but is now common from Florida to North Carolina -- naturalists think that the Kiawah pods teach their young, the males of which go out into the ocean and disperse when they come of age.  The behavior's been featured on a National Geographic show.  Really cool, but hard to photograph. 

This photo is kind of fuzzy, but if you look closely, you can see the baby dolphin's dorsal fin just behind his mother's.  He was born in February.  So cute.  My vacation was complete.

There was, of course, shark fishing.  These boys.  No matter how much they are enjoying themselves, they do not smile broadly enough to show their braces...  

Smile, dear daughter...  She's a little more comfortable with the process this year.  ; )

Along with us the second week were Blogless Janet and her family.  Here, her Dear Son is getting pointers from our favorite Kiawah Island naturalist/dolphin spotter/shark fisherman John.  How many scrapbooks do you think that guy's in?  A lot, I bet.

But enough about relaxing.  I've got finished knitting to show off.

Ta Da!  (Many thanks to Photographer Deborah.)  Celery re-worked.  See how the collar lies flat now?  Yay me.  Needs blocking and while I've lost 23 lbs, when I see this picture, I realize I should lose 20 more.  I'll get on that.  Either that or I should crop more selectively...

That aside, did I tell you how much I love this sweater?  The fit is good, the yarn is light, but wool so it'll work through multiple seasons.  One downfall, I guess, is that the color is so distinctive that when I wear it all the freaking time, people will notice.  Let 'em I say.  I love this sweater.  

Too bad I finished it right when the weather is about to turn hot.  Oh, well... I'll have to go to the movies.  Or somewhere where the air conditioning is cold.  Definitely.

Stats: 

Pattern:  Celery, size large

Yarn: Dyeabolical Bling Sparkly Sock, Annie colorway, 3.2 skeins.

Needles:  Size 5 US

And the Cascade baby sweater is done.  It'll be cuter when I actually sew the buttons on.  So, technically not done, I guess.  

This baby's born too, so I'll need to get on the stick.  I should mail it before my surgery.  

Statistics

Pattern:  Cascade, size 1 year

Yarn:  Berroco Vintage, leafy green color, 1.2 skeins

Needles:  size 7

This cutie took just a little more than a skein of yarn and 3 days to knit.  So cute, so fast. 

And finally, a WIP.

Rachel of Dyeabolical is doing sock blanks now.  Except she calls them something else that I can't remember.  (For the uninitiated, a blank is knit fabric that you dye and then unravel to knit something else.  Really.  The joy is in seeing how the dye job knits up in the new article.  Geeky, but fun.)  

She tossed this blank at me last night for a test knit.  I suppose I committed to socks, I can't remember, but by the time I got home, I'd cast on for a long ruffled scarf.  I'm not sure how it happened.  

This blank is knit with two strands, so you knit socks two at a time or you do what I'm doing with a scarf which is alternate rows, 2 with each strand.  Works for me. 

I'm justifying my lack of sock-knitting to myself with the idea that lots of folks knit scarves with sock yarn and Rachel's customers would love to know how this stuff knits up in a long, thin, ruffled, kerchief-shaped scarf.  Who's with me?

FO Fest

Heirloom ...

get it?  

Particulars:  Citron, US size 6 needles, Hello Yarn handspun Wensleydale Heirloom colorway.  Love the idea of it, but it's probably too small and there was not way I was going to complete one more row of that last ruffle (like 800 stitches).  It's more of a kerchief.  It will look great tucked into a jacket I got last year.

Next up ...

A simple K2tog, Yarn over scarf.  Manos del Uruguay yarn acquired at a local, soon-to-be-closed LYS.  2 skeins, alternating rows.  US size 9 needles.  

I hate to see yarn shops fold.  Word is that this gal, who just had a baby, just wants to do family full time.  More power to her.

Do you see my McCoy pottery turtle/sink scrubby and drain plug holder?  I kind of love him.  

Finally, ...

The Sweetgum cowl out of 6 skeins of Noro Kabuto.  This thing is ginormous, but a quick knit on US size 13 needles.  It fits down around my shoulders and extends from my elbows to my chin.  Like I said, Ginormous.  And warm.  I think it's a good first lace, first knit in the round project.  I plan to recommend it at the shop.

Ok.  Neckware for this winter covered.  Sheesh.  

As an aside.  Getting colors to look right to me on my monitor is taking up a lot of my time.  Each picture in this trio has been treated differently.  The tomatoes took a lot of futzing in a photo program to read true to me.  The photo of the scarf using a flash looked right.  The photo of the cowl without a flash read right to me.  Neither of the last two photos got retouched at all.  It's likely about the color of the piece since all were taken in the same spot within minutes of each other.  Just a rumination.  

(Is that the same thing as cud chewing?  Aren't they both somehow related to ruminants... do ruminants ruminate whilst cud chewing?  Is that the genesis of the term?  Food for thought.)

edited to add:  I looked it up.  Ruminations can be both cud chewing and thinking something over.  I wonder why.

Finally Finished with Filey!

It fits perfectly, a fact  which I would show you if I didn't have hat head and no makeup...  

The particulars?

• Yarn:  Rowan Denim, purchased in Winchester during our great British Sojourn a few years ago.
• Pattern:  Filey from Alice Starmore's Fishermen's Sweaters.  
• Needles:  Sizes 2 and 3 US... Freakin' Starmore gauge...
• Time frame:  The actual knitting didn't take that long, like a month and a half.  The putting together?  Much longer.  I just wasn't in the mood.

This yarn is a little bit of a pain to knit with as it has zero stretch or memory, but the finished fabric is absolutely fabulous.  

 
 Here the sweater has been machine washed and dried on hot, a treatment btw that does wonders for its evenness.  While I knit the thing, I thought it would be too big for me, and too long.  I thought it might fit hubster instead, but it comes nowhere near fitting him after its hot bath. Unwashed, its dimensions matched those of hubster's sweaters.  After the wash it matches mine perfectly.  Alice said it would, but I harbored doubts...  I shouldn't have.  Gauge swatches don't lie and this stuff shrinks like crazy.  Just like jeans, I guess.  

Sandy's ordered more Denim for the shop and can get a discount on the amount of yarn needed for the sweater if I display mine.  Comped actually... Well, ok, display it for the summer while I'm not wearing it and I'll take the proceeds.  Such a deal.  And believe me, this sweater will sell yarn.  I love it.

Now on to weightier matters.  I had to miss the February Lady Sweater Party at the shop last night.  Darned kids had Latin and Science and French and Algebra quizzes to study for and darned husband was out of town.  Sheesh.  My family is impinging on my social life.  I got a phone call.  At least it sounded like fun...

And finally?  This morning was cold.  That's my excuse.  I drove daughter to school, ran to the dry cleaners, picked up a prescription, chose paint colors, and went to work out.  When I got home, I realized that I'd worn these pieces of knitting.  Together.  At the same time.  With no makeup and a forest green coat.

 

All that was missing was clumps of cat hair and I'd be the perfect image of that crazy knitting lady who lives alone with her cats and her fantasies about QVC hosts.  Yeesh.  

It's a Knitting Partay!

Today Rachel and (sadly blogless -- "sadly" because of the knitting talent and sheer wit that would be contained therein) Lenora came over for the day to shop and spin and knit. 

The shopping part was Rachel letting Lenora and I paw through her box of yarn samples.  You see, Rachel is a Professional.  She has samples.  She dyes yarn.  Professionally.  And I, ahem we, got to fondle.

And of all the things I got to fondle and spin today, this is the one thing I most assuredly will not buy.  I tried to spin this stuff and I think I still have some up my nose.  This is some seriously fly-away top. 

Those of you who know her, isn't this a great picture of Rachel?  Except that it sucks -- blurry I mean.  My new phone takes crappy pictures.  But we were laughing about the soy top up our noses and this is the picture that will appear when Rachel calls me from now on.

Lenora was on a quest for the perfect gansy yarn for Rachel to dye... I think she found it, but we'll see.  Again, my new phone camera stinks.  The shoes are in focus, but not the face.  Hmm.  Perhaps it's a user error.

Isn't it great when friends and yarn fill up your living room?  That's the 2nd box of the Sisterhood which has wended it's way home.  Bridget?  Need yarn?

And we tried on Filey.  She's got a neck and half a sleeve which is as of yet unattached.  I want to wash it, but Carrie (did I spell that right?) at Knit Night wondered if I shouldn't wash all of her pieces together for the first time.  Well, darnit, she'd probably right, but man, do I want to see what this is gonna do in a hot water wash and a tumble dry!  (Shrink up, hopefully!  Right?)

Psst.  I think that there is a Filey in Rachel's future.

Another psst.  I think there is some hand-dyed organic cotton bamboo and some (you will not believe how this stuff spins up!) cashmere/merino roving (or is it top?  I can't remember) in my future.  I win.

Ho Hum

That is what you say on your blog when you're too busy to have any interesting thoughts about which to blog.

Ah me.  The house is cleanish.  The Halloween decorations are on the steps ready to go up and replace the Christmas stuff in the closet.  Laundry's mostly put away.  Dinner's in the crock pot.  Hum drum, I tell you. 

I can't find my camera charging cord, so no pictures.  The Hemlock Ring blanket is nearly 600 stitches around and 6 rows from what I am going to call  finished.  Turns out it's recipient has been checking the blog to see how I'm doing, so I shouldn't post pics of it anyway.  Maybe on Ravelry.  I'll link you to it when I get around to it. 

What's in the crockpot, you ask?  The standard pulled pork.  3 pork tenderloins, 1 bottle of Newman's Own Balsamic Dressing.  10 hours on low.   Yum.

I think I'll throw out some controversial statements, in no particular order, and see if I can get you to bite.  Howzat?

• Moon Sand, while a wonderful time filler for sick kids, ought to be put on some recall list.  It's just too messy.  Or it should come with a warning. 
• I hate mice.   In general and specifically the one that has found a place to live under my corner kitchen counter.  I think I will hate even more though a dead mouse on a trap.  Which by the way is a very effective dog catcher -- the sticky thing has caught Monte twice.  He is not the sharpest crayon in the box.  Cutest, but not sharpest. 
• Dressing up like the Jamaican Bobsledders or Tiger Woods or even Al Sharpton for Halloween is not "donning blackface" as my local paper called it no fewer than 9 times in a recent article.  Painting your face black with a white O for lips and singing like a black minstrel is "donning blackface".  The first bit is inflammatory and misleading and simply historically incorrect -- using the term under those circumstances smudges it's sharply and deeply offensive nature.  Which I think might be just the exact opposite effect from the one the esteemed editorial department was expecting.
• Helping people learn to knit is super rewarding.  It's my absolute favorite thing to do.  Except that I do it so much that I've been missing the Wednesday Night Knittsters at Knitorious pretty consistently.  Which is a bummer.  I miss my peeps. 
• Meeting random people who then tell me that they read my blog is disconcerting.  Which is counterintuitive.  I publish this thing so that people will read it right?  Then why do I get a pit in my stomach when unexpected people do?  It actually has had a dampening effect on my writing.  No, silly, not soggy writing, less writing.  And no, I'm not talking about you.
• Spinning is a fascinating, compulsive, time sucking black hole of a hobby.  I've got about 800 yards of fall colored 2-ply yarn and about a 3rd of the roving yet to spin.  What do you think, Deborah, can I get a ribwarmer out of that?  (You should see Deborah's Ribwarmer... simply smashing.)  And some singles of Dyeabolical superwash. Rachel will know the colorway.  To ply or not to ply.
• I'm raw feeding my dogs -- at least partially.  And Big Dog's allergies are disappearing.  Even with no hard freezes yet.  But raw feeding is yucky.  You need one of these and lots of soapy water to mop the floor around the food bowls after each meal.  At least I no longer have a toddler around the house. 
• A funny thing to do is to take the Thanksgiving turkey carcasses and make a stock out of them (I feel so virtuous -- I always say I'm going to do this and never quite get around to it) and store some of it in what is usually the lemonade pitcher.  I didn't quite have the heart to let Dear Son actually pour a glass and take a swig of it, but nearly.   'Cause that would have been hilarious.  I have a dark side.
• I got a sinking feeling in my stomach when the Irish Composer said, during a recent practice, "Next year, when you do this, blah blah blah..."  Next year?  God, don't talk to me again about Irish Gaelic anything until July, 'k?  I didn't even hear what she said after "next year".   Love, love, love this challenging thing I'm doing, but I'm bonkers tired of it right now.  I wake up with "Taw esagawn ina lee, es kuhloo sa wanshayre twee" running around in my head.  Oh, pipe down, that's the phonetic pronunciation.  I don't even have the keys on my keyboard to write what it really looks like...
• 5th grade math is way over my head.  Or at least it's way too fiddly for me -- and I really don't have the patience for it between 4 and 6 in the evening.  All those factors and long division.  Yeeeuuuccckkk!

Well.  That's enough of that.  The paper should be here by now and I'm off to get jerked around by their editorial staff once again.  It'll be fun.  Promise.

I Have a Secret

I don't like Ravelry very much right now.  Yes, the pattern search option is great -- I just used it to to decide how to go  about kitting up a sweater.  And the meet-ups at Rhinebeck were fun.  Conceptually, it is a great idea:  gather knitters to help each other and to network.  But in practice the forum it gives to single voices is a little bothersome.  People with a lot of time on their hands and an agenda are bringing me down.  The fact that I can't make a thread in a forum disappear and die a quick and painless death is bothersome.  I'm quite sick of it and have sworn off of checking it for a week or so.

Notes to Self:

•    Edited to add:  I must remember that for many people, every yarn purchase is special.  It represents something to which the buyer will devote a great deal of time and talent.  It's easy to get jaded when faced with all of the yarn possibilities every day.  And when you have a discount.

• Some knitters do not realize that we do not work in or own a lys to make a gob of money or to piss them off.  We do not get up in the morning with the express purpose of ripping them off or ignoring them.  We are not automatons.  In fact, we are people with faces, and lives, and mostly good intentions.  We read the postings on the internet, and we have families, and activities, and feelings.
• When you post in a public, local forum that the service sucks in a lys, you are talking about a person.  In a small community, everyone in that community knows of whom you are speaking.  It is personal.
• While I am not saying that service in lys's doesn't periodically suck, (hey everyone can have a bad day) if you come in during a big-once-a-year-sale please don't expect to be fawned over.  Ditto crowded Knit Night shopping.  If someone comes in ahead of you, she or he will be waited on first.  Oh you can expect to be greeted, that's fair, but first come first served.  He or she is receiving the service and attention you will receive in a minute -- be patient.  And that even goes for older ladies buying baby yarn.  Really.
• And that employee sitting at the front table, chatting and laughing with other knitters?  She is not ignoring you.  She is teaching a class.  She is being paid to work with them exclusively for a little while.  Really.  And if she got up and waited on you or chatted with you?  That would be a bad thing.  Everything is not as it appears.  And everything is not about you.
• When you ask people in an internet forum to remain civil and to remember above, they will chafe at that bit.  They will cry that the Internet is all about free speech.  Even when that speech is irresponsible and flatly untrue.  They will fight to the death to post whatever and whenever they please, the rest of us be damned.  (Get a blog, for goodness sake!) They will whine that seeing a civility reminder is "depressing".  They will make forums uninteresting and unpalatable for the rest of the community.
• Some people crave attention, good or bad.  They will say anything to receive that attention, even tell lies (easily verifiable ones?!) to make themselves look better to a group that they value.
• People who crave Internet attention do not want to be recognized in person.  In fact, when you invite them to a local coffee shop to discuss face to face and off of the forum what you could do to help them feel better about and improve the service you offer, they will not even dignify your invitation with an answer, yes or no.

Yes.  That's my secret.  I've been on Ravelry nearly since it's inception, and I don't like it very much right now.  A better name might be Rablery...