February 04, 2010
We had a bit of sun at the end of January, so Chris and I were quick to pull out the pins and blocking mats. 
Going clockwise from upper left:
• My Aestlight knit in Crazy Zauberball, the teal/brown colorway—this picture doesn’t do the color justice. We’ll have to do another photo shoot now that it’s unpinned to share it in its full glory.
• The Saroyan I knit in Outback Wool for my mom as a Christmas gift—which has become a Valentine gift since I’ve been sick all winter.
• A cozy little ruffled moss stitch shawl in a pattern I made up off the top of my head last January, while we were on our road trip delivering Penny to her new home. The yarn is from a small, independent dyer out of Fresno—Barking Dog.
• Chris’s Labyrinth—a magnificent piece of work and an exercise in faith, as she knit the whole thing from written instructions and couldn’t really see whether the pathway was correct until she finished. It was!
None of these count for 10 Shawls in 2010, but I did finish a piece that will count as shawl #2: an Autumn Lace Scarf in Malabrigo Sock.
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February 01, 2010
Ok, I’m jumping on this bandwagon late, but I’m jumping on it. I suspect that ten shawls won’t be all that much more than I usually go for—and if I don’t make the goal I’ll have had fun anyway. (Sorry if that kind of statement is disappointing for all the Type A knitters out there.)
This year, I’ve already knit Justify, a cozy mobius wrap, out of Noro Kochoran (a sort of aran-weight version of silk garden) that is doing me all sorts of good as I try to recover from this whatever-the-hell-it-is-mucus-and-cough-of-doom thing. I worked the main body of mine in garter stitch to make the seaming less noticeable. Going through the various versions of this piece posted on Ravelry is fun. My personal favorite has the main section worked in reversible cables, a la Palindrome.
Chris and I have started working on Spanish Armada as a private KAL. We’re hoping to work together on some projects that can be learning tools for us both. This shawl is designed by Mmario, who is one of the great, unsung (or not sufficiently sung) geniuses of shawl design. He publishes all his patterns free of charge via a Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MMarioKKnits/). We’ve both just made it past round 100, with another 50+ rounds to go.
Even Melissa has gotten the shawl bug, albeit a minor case. Last night as I looked through all the finished projects from the participants in this Ravelry group, she mentioned that, really, she might like a shawl herself, so long as it wasn’t too fussy. At the moment I’m thinking maybe Victorine.
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January 24, 2010
I want to apologize for not posting more regularly. I been quite sick with flu variants since early December and have been cutting a lot of activities in favor of more naps.
The other reason I haven’t been posting as much is that I’m at a transitional period with this blog. What I’d like to do more of is writing about my own designs as they’re in progress, but that requires two things—
1. Getting better at the photo end of blogging, so I don’t have to pester Melissa to do it for me.
2. Getting going on a real attempt to try selling some of my patterns via Ravelry or a similar source, so that I don’t need to worry about the hush-hush rules that most venues (on-line and magazines) have.
It may take a while for me to make this transition, but I think the blog will be interesting once I do. Whether or not readers have any interest in purchasing my designs, I’m hoping they’ll enjoy learning more about the design process—all the swatching, playing, fogging, and fine-tuning that it involves.
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December 27, 2009
Most of you will remember Bobitha Grace Stubbins—the latest stray to throw herself on our mercy. Melissa and I were utterly smitten by her, but knew deep in our hearts of hearts that we were pretty much at our limit, feline-wise. So, hard as it was to do, we began to look for a home for the sweet girl, hoping we could find one near enough that we could go for visits.
One of my coworkers fell for my wouldn’t-an-extra-cat-make-the-holiday-season-extra-bright? appeal. It also helped that Bobitha has her charming little stump of a tail, as their current cat is a shortie as well, which would allow them to develop a theme of sorts. They came over for a visit with Bobitha, and quickly agreed with us that she is an absolute charmer.
So off they went for their holiday, and off went Bobitha to the vet—because we wanted to make sure we would be giving them a healthy cat with all necessary vaccinations. It wouldn’t do if Bobitha brought in some nasty bug to infect the current resident.
That’s when the surprises started. To start with, Bobitha is not Bobitha—she’s plain old Bob. We really had looked, and the lack of anything noticeably bumpy or lumpy under her nether fur had led us to certain conclusions. The vet had a time of it herself, figuring out Bob’s status: she poked a bit (gently, mind you) and pulled her glasses down off of her forehead for a proper look, before announcing that Bob is definitely male.
Then, the vet ran the microchip scanner over her… er, him. Beep! Bob was no orphan of the storms. Bob was AWOL. A call to the pet tracking company, a few more phone calls, and we’d connected with Bob’s—actually his name is Henry—mom, who came to pick him up the next morning. She used to live in our neighborhood and has had trouble with Bob going walkabout since they relocated to an apartment eight blocks away. Bob/Henry behaves like a perfect little gent until he wins her trust, then convinces her he’s responsible enough to go outside—and he’s off!
Case in point: two days after she’d picked up Bob/Henry, he was back in our yard, and we had to call her to fetch him all over again.
I have to admit that the whole process has left me feeling slightly less enamoured of Bobitha (we’ve decided to keep the original name and the female pronoun, after all, that’s the cat we knew). It’s as if I’ve been seduced under false pretenses. She won my heart, and played on my sympathies, when really she didn’t need me at all.
So that’s our latest feline adventure—sort of a Crying Game meets Prodigal Son thing. I expect we haven’t seen the last of Bobitha, but now we’ll know she’s feeding us a line when she claims to be a helpless waif.
Bobitha/Bob/Henry: one very cute kitty—and a bit of a flim-flam artist.
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December 04, 2009
From December fifth through the thirteenth, Amnesty International is holding a write-a-thon. They’re asking participants to write one letter a day for these nine days on behalf of prisoners of conscience. I’ll be participating, and I hope you can make the time to join me. You can learn more here.
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December 01, 2009
Or, at any rate, the little cat feet (with the rest of the cat attached) come in in winter. We’ve had our first few genuinely cold nights in the last two weeks and suddenly my generally indifferent cats are becoming marginally affectionate.
I know that Sparky and Bea love me, but their usual way of showing it is by sitting 10 or 15 feet away from me with their backs politely turned purring contentedly.
Now that winter’s here, Bea’s spending a bit more time on the bed and Sparky is actually cuddling. He radiates an unbelievable amount of heat, so I often wind up tossing upper covers aside in an attempt to achieve a happy average of too hot/too cold. Surprisingly enough, it works.
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November 30, 2009
Right now, it’s
• Saroyan (in some Outback Wool I picked up on sale I know not where). This is a fast, satisfying knit, particularly good for heavier-weight yarns.
• Miralda’s Shawl (in remaindered Cherry Tree Hill Alpaca that I bought a few years ago). I have heard many a horror story about knitting this up, but I am past the giant nupp section and—so far, so good.
• one Twilight-inspired top-secret gift
• a two-tone linen stitch scarf in the yummy new camel yarn from my LYS
I did go see New Moon yesterday, as Miss Sparkles is a devotee and I like being able to converse with her about those things she holds dear. After a great deal of consideration, I have decided that I am Team Edward (assuming I have to pick a team). I think Edward and Jacob are both hugely overprotective (and by “overprotective” I mean “controlling”), but since Edward’s been around for over a century now, I figure he’s more apt to have the flexibility to deal with the changes that will come when Bella Finally. Grows. Up. And. Gets. A. Life. I mean, if she’s immortal she’s going to have to get a hobby or something eventually.
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November 24, 2009
It’s that cruel season just before winter break when I’m in charge of the big writing placement test on campus. We’ve had 847 students write essay exams over the past few days. 22 of us do all the scoring. Each exam has to be read and scored twice. About 30-40% wind up needing a third read. And the minute that’s over, we’ll get 300 or so portfolios from students who don’t pass based on the exam. I have to do the math, since I’m in charge of doling everything out, but I’m doing my best to forget exactly how much we’re all having to plow though and am just trying to keep plunging on ahead until it’s all done.
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November 19, 2009
The new Twist Collective is up, and once again I’m impressed, both by the quality of the designs and the quality of the production.
My faves:
Tanit’s Jacket (Gudrun Johnston) is a marvel of simplicity and beauty. No fol-de-rol, no frippery, just a great stitch and plain, engaging lines.
Manderley (Rosemary Hill) shows what a good designer can do with variations on a single stitch. Take a look at how the pattern evolves from one long end of that shawl to the other.
And if I were to pick one piece from this issue that I would love to have for my own, it would be Kelmscott (Carol Sunday). I’m imagining mine in a sage-y green alpaca with just a hint of yellow undertone—something to remind me of spring in the middle of winter.
Also worth checking out:
The cool shaping on Dryad. The Breakfast-at-Tiffany’s elegance of Farinelli. Don’t miss the articles while you’re at it!
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November 17, 2009
Miss Timmy has definitely decided that she’s Chris’s cat. And to seal the deal she paid a visit one recent rainy evening.
There’s nothing like a soft bed to inspire a bit of grooming.
Be careful Miss Timmy—don’t fall off!
Then she had to have a look through the window that she meows outside of when she wants attention.
“Oh, so this is where the nice lady comes from!”
She’s stayed outside since then, but we’re glad to know that she knows she’s welcome.
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