Annie Knits

What a Difference a Day Makes...

Twenty-four little hours.

 Yesterday?  Snow, and no hole.

This morning?  No snow, but cold... and a giant hole.  More on this later.

Did I say cold?

Luckily, while we were away last week in Florida for Cardinal baseball spring training, I knit a scarf.

It's Brickless, by Martina Behm, in Madelinetosh Sock, Rhubarb colorway.  The scarf is bright and airy, but warm.  See that puffy coat?  Not in the closet yet.

Brickless was my baseball knitting last week -- we attended three games plus batting practice.  The pattern is interesting to knit, but I don't have to look at my hands much which qualifies the pattern to be baseball knitting.  I'll make more of these.

There was lots of sitting in the Florida sun and knitting.  That's my idea of a vacation.

We rented a beach house outside of Vero Beach, and there was literally no one else renting along our stretch of beach.  At least not anyone who actually came down to sit on the beach.  So I had the sharks (yes, I saw a largish -- at least 5 feet long -- black tipped shark amble past my beach chair) and the jellyfish ( lots of little clear lunch-baggie sized balloonish things with blue edges and tips which, it turns out, are the part of the Portuguese Man O'War jellyfish that floats on top of the water) all to myself.  Yikes.  Too cool to swim anyway -- mid 60's to low 70's.  Lovely, actually.

At the baseball games, there was knitting...

And eating, ... (that's a fish taco that was yummy!)

And ogling... Mike Matheny is a great manager, yes, and he really appreciates fans -- he chatted up this kid and signed a ball for him ...

But you've gotta admit, that is one fine... manager.  Hottest in baseball I think.  : )

But enough about that... What else is going on in my world?  The pool/patio referenced above.  Today, the pool guys are installing the rebar that will reinforce the pool's walls.  Good.  

Also today, I'm working toward the shaping on one of my spring/summer knit along sweaters, Hitofude.  

I'm using a laceweight hemp by Lucci yarns.  It's very drapey and soft.  The swatch on the right shows how this stuff blocks out... opens up beautifully.  I kind of love it.  

I'm knitting this sweater with needles that I do not love, however.  The Signature interchangeable needles that I got relatives to get me for Christmas?  Not happy at all.  First of all?  You have to buy cords by length and by needle size.  In case you can't wrap your brains around that, it means that you buy size 5 tips and size 5 16", 24", and 32" cords that can only be used with size 5 tips...  Now, I don't mind expensive tools and I love my fixed Signature needles.  The middy point is a perfect fit for my knitting style.  The interchangeables come unscrewed very easily though, as you hand tighten them, and this hemp is constantly catching in the ever widening join.  Boo.  

I sent the Signature folks an email about this exact issue and got back a lovely letter saying that discontinuing their fixed needles and offering only interchangeable needles is what their customer base has asked for.  Chopped liver over here... I politely responded that I won't buy them again until I can get the fixed version.  Boo again.

Reading today:  The Atlantis Gene by A.G. Riddle ( Michael Crichton meets Dan Brown scifi conspiracy thriller about how the increasing incidence of autism is the harbinger for an evolutionary leap for humans the likes of which we haven't seen for 50,000 years... so fun!)

Watching today:  Shameless season finale.

Finally, a gratuitous dog picture. While we dig the hole, Bacon and Monte have been relegated to the west side of the house.  Doggie sad face.

Pumpkin Ale and the Sporting Event That Must Not Be Named

Good morning.  Good, cold, February morning.  

It's good for me because Pumpkin Ale is in a good place.  I've finished the back and the fronts and now all I have to do is pick up sleeves and finish the pockets.  That's a good place.

As of last Thursday at this time, my knit along, which has the capacity for 30 people over two time slots was a little more than half full and slated to start on Saturday.  

Enter, again, the cold weather and by Saturday  morning, the Saturday session was full and the Wednesday session was more than half so.  

So, this cold is good for something, and that something is this:  people want to stay inside and knit.  Yay me.

As much as I've fought with this sweater, and I have fought with it, it's turning out nicely.

Problem the first, the directions for sizing are a little confounding, but something I learned in New York last month made me pretty confident in choosing a size and I've nailed it.  Anne Hanson talked about fit in her sweater class and she contends that the between the shoulder measurement is key to fitting an unstructured sweater such as this one, not necessarily the bust measurement.  I tend to agree. Sizing of this piece can be adjusted across the bust if necessary, but the across-the-shoulder measurement is something that's fixed.  

That said, the pattern does not provide that measurement, only the slightly vague instruction that the sweater fits specific bust numbers with an inch or so of overlap and that the model is worn with one inch of ease.  Yuck.

The good news is that the first 32 rows of the back are only slightly (like 8 stitches) smaller than the piece will be at the top.  So, knit the first 32 rows, steam it, hold it up between your shoulder blades, and voila... Well.  That worked for me.

And it's why I knit these pieces ahead of time ... so that I can start participants on the right road fit wise from the start.  No one likes to spin her knitting wheels, so to speak, and I think that's why folks take these classes.  I spin my wheels ahead of time so you don't have to.  Worth the $40 I think...

Back to the sweater.  I love Ysolda Teague's patterns and design sense.  This piece is nicely tailored and fitted across the back, where I actually have a waist, and not too fitted across the front.  Perfect.

The table top does not possess my curves, so you can see the amount of shaping knit into the garment.  Hangs pretty nicely unblocked.  Blocked, it will be perfect.

My Saturday students have had some trouble with the charts.  Many want to write the charts out word for word, row for row, which is fine for now.  My goal is, over the next several weeks, to get them to see that the charts help them keep the cables on track visually.  I think that some of the techniques alone overwhelm relatively new knitters, so add to that the new skill of translating a chart into stitches, and they balk.  Also, I think some folks are more comfortable with words than images.  Myself, I get lost in that alphabet soup, so I chart everything.  I think it's my job to teach them both ways and then let them choose a preference from the position of experience.  But some come kicking and screaming... ; )

With this sweater at a stopping point for now, I think I'll pick up some Olympic knitting.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I'm supposed to call it 'Ravellenic'.  Well I'm not.  Come get me, IOC.  

I'm not really playing by the rules as I did not wait until tonight to cast on... Sue me.  I had a snow day at home yesterday and I used it to knit the first two charts of the center motif on the Dahlia Cardigan from Interweave.  This is some old hand spun wool and silk.  I think I spun it after my hip replacement but I can't remember.  Those of you who saw me after my hip replacement know why I can't remember.  

It's some combination of Hello Yarn and Spunky Eclectic club fibers, but that's as far as I know.  And it's 16 ounces of fingering to light sport weight yarn.  A lot.  I must have been spinning like crazy.  It shades through hot and cool greens, tans, navy and sky blues.  Perfect for spring.  Which I'm sure will be cold with the winter we are having.

Anyhoo, I think that Dahlia will be the spring/summer knit along.  And being a step ahead of that game might mean that I can offer two sweater knit alongs at the same time -- one easier and one harder.  It's a plan, anyway.  

Connect the dots

First, let me say that in this post, I will connect the following disparate things in one series of events:

• arterial stenosis;
• the Olympic Opening Ceremonies;
• rotator cuff injury;
• yarn from Russian wool;
• the WWE.

First, as this is foremost a knitting blog, let me say that my Olympic Knitting was ready and in the chute, so to speak.  Hubster chose the Portland sweater from A Fine Fleece and some Peace Fleece yarn from my stash in a kind of oatmeal color with slubs of orange and green (weird I know, but nice).  I figured that I'd been on a kind of a roll with sweaters and that I'd push it and try to do a 54 inch wide heavily cabled long sleeved man's sweater in 16 days.  Really.  I was swatched and ready to cast on on Friday night.  Spirits were high.  And that's where the trouble begins.

Dear Son and I were rough housing WWE style -- don't ask ... he's a fan and I'm hoping my interest in it will be the kiss of death for his --  during a commercial before the ceremonies even began (I enjoyed the telecast, but the speechifying at the end was too long).  I pushed at him with my right arm and something popped and tore alarmingly in my shoulder.  It was alarming, but not particularly painful.  Unless I tried to move my shoulder in any fashion.  Then, there was pain ... and I couldn't move it.

So much for casting on.  Hubster took me to an urgent care facility the following morning and, after looking me over pretty good, the doctors there gave me a sling, a probable rotator cuff injury diagnosis, and an appointment with a sports medicine guy at SLU.  What they also did was take my blood pressure.  Which was sky high.  Like crazy high.  I'd been getting slight dizzy spells and thought it was related to female stuff (why, I don't know as nothing's ever made me dizzy before).  

As it turns out, the Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) I've been taking to absolutely no effect btw for the pain in my hip has caused an inflammation in the blood vessels in my body.  

As these kinds of drugs are wont to do in some people don't you know.  

This is where the arterial stenosis comes in -- it's an ultrasound procedure which examines the blood vessels which connect your heart to your kidneys.  It's non invasive as these things go, but it requires an hour and a half on a table in the dark and you can't sleep because the gal doing the  procedure keeps asking you to stop breathing and then start up again.  And you have to lay on the side where your shoulder hurts for half an hour of that... That was yesterday.  The MRI for my shoulder and hip is next week.  God, almighty, I swear, my warranty is up.

Obviously, the most pressing question you might have for me is, "But can you knit?!"  

Why, yes, indeed, I can.

  

(As usual, first for color, second for detail.)  I have perfectly fine mobility from the elbow down, which is all I need.

Can I knit according to my pre-shoulder injury Olympic potential?  I don't think so.  

Do I have a little more time to knit what with all of the medical waiting rooms?  Yes.  

Will it be enough to medal?  I'm doubtful.  I'm nine inches in -- on the back of the sweater.  According to my pre injury knitting schedule, by now I should be finishing the back of the thing and ready to cast on today for the front.  

Was it a pie in the sky Olympic goal?  Likely.  

Will I persevere?  Do male figure skaters wear sequins?

Watch Out Knitting....

I forgot how much I love to paint.

 

White letters plus torn strips of blue tape plus three colors of paint plus stippling brushes equals too stinkin' cute for words!

 

Godson's room is decorated with giraffes and these will grace the room in time for his first birthday. 

Do you think anyone would buy Dr. Scholl's sandals painted like this? (It's an inside joke.  Ask me.)

The gray sweater is growing.  One repeat down, 9 to go.  I think, though, that I will do only about half of the repeats.  Ribbed cables eat yarn and I'm not buying another skein.

I'm sitting here watching the Super Bowl.  Bullet thoughts:

• The commercials are about three things: phones, cars, and movies.  They're not that funny.  Ok, the Google ad was a clever one...
• The Who are old.  Husband called the views we kept getting of Pete Townsend's belly a "wardrobe malfunction."
• The game is ... well ... a game.  I don't really have a horse in the race so I guess I don't have that much to say about this football game.

Oh, and is anyone else a total Weeds junkie?  Sheesh.  Streaming Netflix strikes again.  I'm enchanted. It's probably a generational thing.  I mean if you're a 40 something who attended high school during the 70's or 80's, it's enchanting.  Not because it's about smoking and/or dealing pot, but because it's about grownups dealing with their kids and pot and tangentially the legality thing.  And because I just really like Mary-Louise Parker.

I gave up on the Tudors about halfway through the second season... the characters, while visually very appealing, were just such horrible people doing such horrible things that I couldn't have them in my life.  

Go figure... that I'll take pot-heads and serial killers over British monarchs says something about my deepest self, but I'm goll-danged if I can figure out what ...