GJabouri's Blog

New Year Fogginess .... and Sock Etymology

2010-02-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

Hello!

It's been quite a while. ... In January, my husband graduated from AnimationMentor - now he is looking to put his skills to use. It was quite a party, and it was nice to see the "buddies" I've only heard of until now!

During my company's traditional 2-week holiday shutdown over Christmas and New Year, I had fond dreams of finishing my Louis Shawl, which of course, did not happen. But I made some progress and am now knitting the border onto the third side. Here is a photo after I turned the second corner. The Lily-of-the-Valleys are now making an impact, and the shawl begins to actually look nice.

Louis Shawl

Once this is done, and after I'm finished with the Moguls Moebius scarf according to Cat Bordhi's book A Treasury of Magical Knitting, I want to knit another Orenburg shawl. And then ... then ... I think I will try my hand at some Shetland knitting, working up my courage to try The Queen Susan Shawl. This shawl is not only beautiful - it is a collaborative effort of the Heirloom Knitting group on Ravelry. It represents the best of just what is possible with the Internet. Several knitters from distant parts of the country (indeed different countries!) re-created (!) a lace shawl from a photograph (!), courtesy of the Shetland Museum! An astounding effort! The background, instructions and charts cover more than 70 pages. Not only is the volunteer work involved in this amazing, but in the spirit of advancing the craft the group is making this pattern available free to everyone. Read some of the background on Fleegle's blog (who put in countless hours on this project) and download the free pattern here. Keep in mind that this shawl has yet to be knitted in its entirety - at least in this day and age. Apparently, the pattern is too large to be made available on Ravelry (but they're working on it), so for now, use the location above. A HUGE thanks to everyone involved - it is a beautiful pattern brought back to life. I heartily agree with the motto stated on the first page of the pattern: Tradition means not to enshrine the ashes, but to pass on the fire (Thomas More) - something that many groups should have engraved on their foreheads! The Knitter magazine is apparently planning to print an article about this project, too!

On the lighter side: I'm subscribed to the A.Word.A.Day email list -very educational - and one word in January was ... Sock!

MEANING:noun: A light, low-heeled shoe worn by ancient Greek comic actors, and by extension a comedy.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin soccus (slipper). Compare with buskin. The term "sock and buskin" refers to the theatrical profession collectively.

The Sock and Buskin masks are probably known to almost everyone ... Interesting ... so a sock indicated something funny in old Greece. Someone wearing a sock was a comic. As opposed to someone wearing a buskin. Wearing heavy boots is tragic, wearing socks is fun. Still true today!

This is the time for foggy mornings in the Bay Area, and this morning (17 Feb) I wanted to photograph it. The flash produced an interesting effect:

Impressionist Morning

Of course the boss cat had to check out what I was doing:

Take care!

Spinning around

2009-12-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

Hello,

On Dec 12th I took the first of two "Spinning with a Drop Spindle" classes at A Verb for Keeping Warm in Berkeley with WonderMike (Ravelry name) as our instructor. It was a fun class. I took it, because I have a few yarns I would like to ply together - so I was mostly interested in plying. I bought one of their student spindles (an $18 Schacht top-whorl spindle), and we were supplied with 2 oz of combed Blue Face Leicester fiber - Wonderfully soft - and you can still smell the sheep! I was able to spin a yarn, mostly approximately fingering weight, but overall ranging from worsted weight to lace weight. It was fairly consistent in thickness when I pre-drafted, but when I tried over-the-fold the yarn became rather chunky.

Just takes practice. It's rather fun, one step closer to the source so to speak, but I don't think I'll be taking it up seriously as a hobby - I'd rather knit something. We got homework, too: we had to spin 1/2 oz and wind it off onto a cone, and another 1/2 oz and leave it on the spindle, so we are ready to ply during the next class.

In yesterday's class I was able to improve my over-the-fold drafting. Then we learned how to handy-ply (instructions here at Knitty) and from a cone (basically the same technique as for handy-plying, with the cone taking the place of your hand). Here is the result:

2 small skeins of Blue-Faced Leicester wool

Now the twist still needs to be set, then I can actually use them for something. It was a great class - Thank you, Mike!

Recently I also got Cat Bordhi's book A Treasury of Magical Knitting in which she teaches how to knit Möbius shawls and scarfs. It's a great book - I really like her style - and I've been practicing with my "dishcloth" cotton yarn as a break from my Louis shawl.

Test Möbius with applied I-cord

It's great mindless knitting - I can use up some of my alpaca for the Merging Stripes or Honey Lane Alpaca patterns in the book. I've also ordered some Moguls yarn for her Moguls Möbius scarf - I love the way it looks!

Till next time!

Black "Black Friday"

2009-11-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

Here in the US Black Friday is traditionally the most important shopping day of the year. As hoped and wished for by retailers, Thanksgiving Day is merely an opportunity for families to meet and discuss their Christmas gift lists, so they can be acted upon the following day. This year in particular, I’ve noticed advertising going straight from Halloween to Christmas, with hardly any mention of Thanksgiving Day at all – I guess corporate America will be working to make Thanksgiving a gift-giving day as well ... Anyway, some stores opened at the stroke of midnight, some more conservative ones at 4:00 or 5:00 Friday morning. And of course there are throngs of people waiting, clamoring for the chance to spend their money.

Black Friday was black for me for a different reason: one of my cats died. He had been struggling to breathe for a few days, and I hesitated to take him to the vet, because he turns into a demon cat from hell when there, leaving both the vet and me with bite and scratch marks. He literally had to be wrapped into a towel each time so the vet would be able to examine him. So I waited, because I did not want to unnecessarily stress him out on top of him feeling bad already, thinking that maybe he just had a cat cold, which would go away after a while.

Yesterday he started breathing through his mouth, and when I saw that I knew it was bad ... we took him to the vet immediately, who told us that a tumor was leaking fluid into his lungs - he was suffocating. Possible treatment would have been to drain his lungs (which would have to be repeated several times), have an oncologist take a look at him, and have him undergo chemotherapy – all of which, of course, would have stressed him at every single visit. He would most likely not last another day or two.

So we decided to have him euthanized, only he fought so hard when they tried to put a catheter in his arm he suffocated from the stress. I wish he would have died a bit easier.

He was a very unique cat: Ten years ago he showed up in the back yard, facing down my own and my roommate’s cats, refusing to leave. So he stayed. I often thought he must have grown up with dogs, because his tail was constantly swishing back and forth, even when he was lying down and when there was no other cat around. He also never moved when he was (deliberately, I think) sitting in the way – he just knew we would never step on him. He was a fierce protector of his territory and often had scratches on his face; his right ear was permanently nicked. He was a lot of fun to play with and - in total contrast to his behaviour at the vet's - the most social of our cats – always the first to greet any visitors and vocally demanding to be petted – and in general a real sweetheart at home. I’ll miss him.

As soon as we had buried him yesterday afternoon, it started to rain, and then (a rather rare event here in the SF East Bay) a thunderstorm passed through. Afterwards the porch was bathed in a rather eerie light. It matched our mood.

Fall and Honeybees

2009-11-15T11:09:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

Autumn now has truly arrived here in California:

Our porch is under a tree - this is about 3 days' worth of leaves. You can see the cat thinks it's a nice cushion for lounging around in the sunshine.

Monsieur L. enjoying the sun on his belly fur

Honeybees shawl: I finally gave up on changing the construction (I wanted to make 4 square center panels, with bees and a lily-of-the-valley in each) - when I had two panels done I seamed them together, but did not like the end result. So now I'm actually following the instructions as written, and have finished the bottom faggot border, plus a few rows of the center panel - then on to the central swarm of bees.

Faggot border plus the first few rows of the center stockinette section

I'm also creating my own Personal Footprint (for Insouciant Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi), because I have a lot of sock yarn stashed and want to make some more socks. Having a foot model will be a great help. I like Cat's Sock Knitting books - very creative.

New York - Day 4 and 5

2009-11-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

Sun, Nov 1: Feet are now starting to feel a bit better. After arriving at Times Square again, we walked around and took advantage of the Visitor’s Pass in the oldest and biggest Macy’s. (Show your driver license and get a pass good for 3 days entitling you to 10% off).

Entrance to Macy's

After that we wandered around some more, because we still had about 2 hours to kill before meeting two other friends of my husband’s (also into animation) for the Hair Revival show at the Hirschfeld theatre. Quite by accident, we passed by the Discovery Museum which hosted the Titanic: The Artifacts Exhibition. This was one of the best exhibits I’ve seen. It started with the construction process of the Titanic, had short biographies of some passengers and crews, showed the differences between First, Second, and Third Class accommodations, and also the statistics of how many people of each Class survived vs. perished. The experience is quite real, because even the floor moves slightly so you have the impression of actually being on a ship. You see a replica of the grand staircase, and of a hallway with doors to the different cabins, and menus for the three Classes, along with a lot of other recovered artifacts. The price for the First Class ticket was $2500 (= $40.000 in today’s dollars). But even the First Class passengers had to pay extra for the Turkish bath (!) and the squash court!

We were barely finished with the exhibit when it was time to meet our friends for the show. The Hair Revival Show was excellent – much more emotionally charged than I expected.

A great show!

Afterwards we all had dinner together and then we wandered the streets a bit more, because we were wired on caffeine, and by the time we got to Staten Island, we barely caught the last bus going towards the hotel – btw, you can use your subway Metro Card for the buses on Staten Island as well – we did not know that!

Mon Nov 2: Last day! Went to Brooklyn, but ended up in a rather questionable neighborhood (Prospect Heights) – so after a short walk we turned back and went back to Manhattan to see the Empire State Building. It costs $20 for the general ticket to the observation deck on the 86^th floor, another $15 to go up to the 102^nd floor (glass-enclosed only), $8 for a “commemorative” round, laminated map that shows the sights of NY in all 4 directions, and/or $8 for an audio tour. So that amounted to a total of 2x20+2x15+$8+$8 = $86 for 2! But the view is incredible, and the building itself is a gem. Most of the time, however, you spend waiting in lines:

First, of course, you have to wait in the line for the airline-type security check (just as for the trip to the Statue of Liberty). Then you wait in line again to actually buy your tickets. Then you wait in line for the “mandatory”, commemorative picture taken against a green screen. Then you wait in line to get to the elevator to the 80^th floor. Then you wait in line for the elevator to the 86^th floor where the open observation deck is.

View south - Financial District

Another view

View up to the mast, which was meant as a mooring mast for dirigibles

Then you wait in line for the elevator to floor 102 which was apparently meant as the waiting room for zeppelin passengers. Then you wait in line to get back down to floor 86. Then you wait in line for the elevator down to the 80^th floor. THEN you wait in line to pick up your commemorative photo. Then you wait in line to pay for it. Then you are automatically led through the gift shop (they have a lot of stuff that is actually of a little better quality than the usual junk you find in gift shops – I bought a replica of the poster advertising the original King Kong movie!) Then you wait in line to pay for everything. Then it’s back to the line for the elevator down to the first floor. That was a total of 13 queues! But I have to say that the lines moved fairly quickly, and everything is organized very well.

It’s worth it, definitely ... just to see the inside of this beautiful building … even the floors are beautiful (they look like sealed-over gold-leaf, copper-leaf, and other colors).

Empire State Building - Lobby

There was no food sold during the tour – no wonder! We saw a poor worker meticulously scraping off a sticker someone had stuck to the floor.

After that we found a sandwich shop and bought a few more souvenirs. On our way back to the hotel, in the 34^th Street subway station we came across a really good musician playing his electronic violin: Michael Shulman – we liked the music so much that we bought his CD.

Final thoughts on New York:

Unless you have business on Staten Island – do not stay there! It’s a rather run-down looking area, and you are too dependent on either the hotel shuttle (for which you have to wait, and whose driver really likes to hear himself talk, and often says things that are patently wrong (and whom you have to tip!). Or you have to take the bus to the ferry station, which is a longer ride but "free" if you have a MetroCard. The one-way trip from our hotel in Staten Island to Manhattan via the ferry took us over an hour (waiting for the shuttle, waiting for the ferry, and the actual rides).

New Yorkers are much friendlier than expected. Twice someone saw us fumbling with our map and they came over asking whether they could help us! On the other hand ... you better get out of their way on the street (if you can!), otherwise you’ll get run over – everybody is in a rush! But this is contagious ... after a few days I found myself getting impatient when the person in front of me was walking slower than me!

There is a definite difference in outfits betwen NY and California: The women often have big, long hair, wear large (really large!) earrings, and half an arm full of bangles. And now I know who buys those Ugg(ly) boots! And almost everybody is wearing black this season.

Everybody will recognize you as a tourist! You will get hustled by ticket sellers, street vendors, and taxi drivers (at the ferry station in Staten Island). But they are not persistent - just ignore them.

New York is a very energetic, lively city - what a contrast to mind-numbing life in the suburbs! There is always something to see or to do, and so much culture all around ... theatres, museums, parks, exhibits ... We enjoyed our time in NY very much, and will return again!

And here is the most ignored street sign in New York:

Yeah ... right!

As an aside: This was our first trip without checking any baggage – all we had was one carry-on bag each. I was actually surprised that I was able to cram everything I needed for a week into one small bag – we even had enough space left to pack souvenirs (T-Shirts and mugs mainly)! That’s the way to go – no waiting at the baggage carousel any more! And you are much more flexible to go where you need to go.

New York - Day 2 and 3

2009-11-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

Fri Oct 30: Our feet are SO sore from all the walking and stair-climbing! But, eventually, we crawled out of bed, took the ferry across to Manhattan, ate a hot dog at Nathan's ...

Nathan's Hot Dogs - supposedly the best - but nothing special imo

... and then started the first loop of a Grey Line city sightseeing tour. There are ticket hustler for these tours on every street corner around Times Square.

Ticket Hustlers - they spot a tourist half a mile away!

You can see a lot better from the top of the double-decker bus, but the wind really blows, and it blew cold today! The first part of the loop (going south) started at Times Square, through the Fashion District, around Madison Square Garden (Sting was performing that day) ...

Madison Square Garden

... by the old Post Office ...

Typical traffic around the old Post Office building - with mail carrier's motto inscribed above the columns ("Neither rain, nor snow ...")

... in that area you also have a good view of the ubiquitous water towers on top of many buildings ...

... then we passed by the Empire State Building ...

... the Flatiron building, then along Broadway through SoHo (= South of Houston street (pronounced "House-ton", not like the city in Texas! - there is also NoHo!), past the WTC site:

Ground Zero - 8 years after the fact ... the Empire State Building was built in only 13.5 months!

... and to Battery Park. There we foolishly took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Big mistake! You buy your ticket ($12), then you stand in line - security is just like in an airport – before boarding the ferry. The trip takes maybe 10 minutes, then you are hustled from the ferry ("Step it up, now!") - the waters were a bit rough, many people were apparently hesitating too long to step onto the moving ramp.

You can walk around the statue, which looks a bit more squat from close up:

Statue of Liberty, up close and personal

We did not climb the inside, and access to the crown was closed that day, anyway. The worst part, however, was waiting for the return ferry - it must have been 30 minutes of standing, crowded together like sardines, - standing and waiting, and waiting, because they apparently want to cram the return ferry as full as possible. People throw coins into the crossbeams of the pier waiting area, hoping to return, I guess. We won't be returning - it's too much like a Disneyland ride: You pay and then wait in interminable lines. Besides, the view from the Staten Island Ferry is quite good (see earlier photo) - just zoom in a bit if you want a closer-up. So my recommendation is that you skip the trip to the Statue of Liberty island, and simply take the (free!) Staten Island ferry back and forth and photograph it from there. Saves you not only money, but also a lot of time! And it's a LOT more comfortable.

After (finally!) returning to Battery Park, we completed the downtown sight-seeing loop by going back up north. This part of the trip was a lot more interesting, because of the East Village area, and it covered a lot more points of interest. The second part of it went along South Street, Chinatown and little Italy (nice views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge, across which we walked yesterday, then through East Village where you can see shops and restaurants catering to almost any ethnicity - then along towards the United Nations building, turning left towards the Rockefeller Center with its flags and the ice-skating rink.

Ice-skating rink at the Rockefeller Center

Then along Central Park (seeing some very posh hotels and buildings along the way), and back to Times Square. Even though it was a lot colder and windier than earlier in the day, I still enjoyed this leg of the sight-seeing tour more than the first one.

Back in Times Square we went to the Hershey's and M&M shops out of curiosity ... imagine! ... three-story shops dedicated solely to a particular type of candy (and candy-paraphernalia!).

Statue of Liberty - M&M style

Sat Oct 31: By coincidence, a colleague of mine and his wife were spending this weekend in NY as well, so we met them for breakfast. Then we took the subway and walked to The Highline, an abandoned elevated train track, which has been converted, rather nicely and stylishly into a garden. See here. You can easily walk the whole length of it. On leaving the park, we saw this parking lot:

Must be for long-term parking only ...

Afterwards we meandered a bit through Chelsea and the meatpacking district (now home to some swanky shops and restaurants) and caught a subway back to Times Square, which, even at this time, was beginning to look more and more like a zoo – the Halloween Parade was taking place that night, and you could see people in costumes everywhere. After saying Goodbye to my coworker, we finished our tour of the uptown area, which took us along Central Park into Harlem, and back along the East Side of Central Park. But this time the bus was stifling - there was no double-decker available at the time and apparently the air conditioning did not work in the bus, so we hopped off after two stops at Central Park and walked around it for a while (do not buy any pretzels there! Ours was so dried out, that we threw it away after one bite.)

We got off the bus close to the memorial for John Lennon:

RiP

Central Park is a wonderful contrast to the bustling street life:

In Central Park and throughout NY they were preparing for the NY marathon, taking place the next day, so there were a lot more people around than usual at this time of year (I think). Many runners were staying at our hotel, because the race starts in Staten Island and then winds its way through all five boroughs of New York.

We caught the bus tour again where we hopped off, and this time we were in luck – it was a double decker, and the tour guide was the most knowledgeable of all. Whew! Our feet were still terribly sore. At least we could sleep one hour longer tonight, because the time changed back to regular time!

Continued ...

New York – Arrival and Day 1

2009-11-08T07:54:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

It's been a while since I posted ... so here are 3 posts at once, covering our trip to New York! I had to attend the Translators Conference in New York, so we added a few days and explored the city a bit.

Wed, Oct 28: We took off with JetBlue (which is no longer as comfortable to fly as I remembered it), and after landing at JFK we were going to take the bus/subway to our hotel - we had it all planned out, but once we finally figured out where the buses are, and schlepped ourselves and our carry-ons there, we found out that the buses here apparently ONLY take change! We had the correct amount, but in bills and change and couldn't take the bus because of it. Grumble! So we schlepped ourselves and our carry-ons back to the airport exit area where we booked a taxi – luckily it was less expensive than we feared to go to Staten Island. Contrary to recent reports about NY taxi drivers having become friendlier, we had one who was not only grumpy, but who was also a bad driver.

Around 7:00 pm we arrived at The Staten Island Hotel - an oldish hotel with good service (but they really try to push their a la carte breakfast menu on you. The hotel advertises its free “continental” breakfast (coffee and a danish); but you have to ask for your danish (the puniest one I’ve ever seen, of a diameter of maybe 2.5 inches and somewhat dry) and you don’t get milk with your coffee, just the packaged dry stuff). Even though the room was quiet and clean, I would not stay there again (read on).

Thu Oct 29: In the morning we took the Staten Island Ferry (free!), which passes by the Statue of Liberty ...

... and Ellis Island, landing at the southern tip of Manhattan:

Staten Island Ferry approaching Manhattan

There we bought a weekly pass for the subway system ($27.00 – totally worth it!) and took a ride north into Manhattan where I showed my face at the Translators Conference. Later we went to Times Square (Las Vegas pales in comparison!) to meet a friend of my husband’s, who is also into animation. Based on seeing it many times in New Year's Eve shows, I expected it to be much larger – it looks more like a small clearing in a forest of skyscrapers.

Times Square, seen from the red steps

Even the NYPD has flashing neon signs!

Really, how can anyone take seriously a police station with a Las Vegas-style sign???

The friend showed us around the Financial District, Brooklyn, SoHo, Manhattan - in and out of subways, up and down countless subway station stairs, even walked us over the Manhattan Bridge ...

Rooftops seen from the Manhattan Bridge

Along the way we took a look inside the Museum of Comic and Cartoon art (MoCCa). In the evening we had the best pizza EVER at Grimaldi's in Brooklyn ...

Best Pizza, EVER!

... we only had to wait in line for about 10 minutes which, we were told, is an extremely short wait. On the same block, there is also a very good chocolate shop, Jacques Torres:

Jacques Torres Chocolates

Continued ...

Indiski done!!!

2009-09-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Just finished blocking and taking some blocking shots of the Indiski Shawl. Fortunately, it stretched out nicely and measures now about 59" x 78.5" (1.5 m x 2.0 m) - I was afraid it would be too small. What a difference blocking makes ... from a crumply, small bunch to a beautiful shawl!

It took about 250 g of fingering weight alpaca which I bought a long time ago in Peru, 2.75 mm needles, and about 3.5 months. Here are 2 blocking pictures:

From the side ...

... and from the tip

Of course now the post-finishing limbo is setting in. What to do next? Hmm. I should finish the Caffe Latte scarf, but I also want to start on another shawl that recently caught my eye: The Flight of the Honeybees scarf by Sharon Winsauer.

Smartie

2009-08-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Ever since the Smart made an appearance here, we've been green-eying them whenever we saw one on the road.

Now - FINALLY - thanks to Cash for Clunkers - we got one:

Awwww - isn't it cute?

It drives great and is surprisingly roomy inside - as witnessed by every co-worker and neighbor who sat inside! And it has HEATED SEATS!!! And it's a convertible ... I love it!!!

Antiques Roadshow - We're rich! We're rich!

2009-08-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

NOT !

I scored some AR tickets by entering their tickets raffle by email a few months ago. The tickets give you the exact time you are supposed to be there - in our case: 8:00 am. You can take up to 2 items per person to be appraised. So yesterday evening we packed up: 1 painting (surely worth at least $1K!), a set of 4 prints (maybe more?!?), 1 katana (I had that thing forever, must be at least another $1K!), and 1 mantle clock (must be at least $500!).

We arrived with time to spare at the San Jose Convention Center, and schlepped our treasures to the hall entry. A HUGE hall! They had it divided by appointment times. So we stood in the 8:00 am line, and were surprised how fast it moved.

Line for the Generalists tables

Luckily, we had the first appointment time of the day and there weren't any people hanging around from previous times. At the end of this line (where you see the sponsor logos projected on the wall) you are directed to one of the "generalists" tables. There you get a ticket according to what category your item falls in: in our case, we got 4: 1 for Asian Arts, 1 for Clocks, 1 for Paintings, and 1 for Prints. We decided to split up, because we were still expecting long lines at the appraiser tables.

The appraiser tables (no photos allowed in this area) are arranged in the form of a circle, and the lines for each table are radiating outward (more or less). The bulk of the lines is kept behind the dividers arranged behind the appraiser tables, with only a few people at a time waiting in front of the tables. Again, the lines were moving surprisingly fast. I had fully prepared to stand in line for an hour or two. In the middle of the circle was the TV setup.

My first appraiser (katana) was a bit grumpy and impatient (maybe because she had to get up early, too?), but the second one actually showed a bit of curiosity about my clock. Alas, no treasures here. Sigh!

My better half found out that our valuable painting was done by a commercial artist, hmpf - again, no treasure! The 4 prints which I received as a gift from my brother many years ago, are worth a few hundred dollars, but again: no treasures! Well ... As I heard an appraiser say on TV one time: "Well, it might be a treasure in a few generations' time!"

Thanks to our early appointment time we were in and out in less than an hour. Here are our souvenirs:

The tickets and the appraiser category tickets, plus 2 handouts.

Maybe they will be worth something in a few hundred years!

When we got home, our cats were happy to be let out in the yard again:

The boss cat rolling around on the grass - in anticipation of a lazy day.

So we're not richer, but wiser - it was certainly interesting to see how these roadshows are organized. You know, when you watch the show on TV, thinking: "Why did these people bother to bring in this junk?" Yup. That's us!!! :-D

Till next time!

Lessons from the Indiski shawl

2009-08-05T13:09:00.000-07:00

The Indiski shawl proves to be a great learning experience (ahem)!

Lesson 1: It REALLY is best not to have any distractions when working on lace pieces (and this is a fairly easy one!)

Lesson 2: When picking up the stitches from the outside border to work the inside border pick up only one loop, not both, of the edge stitches, otherwise the shawl is no longer reversible! Since the decrease stitches in the borders are all worked as K2tog they all lean in the same direction. So by reversing one border when you graft them together, the shawl becomes totally symmetrical!

Lesson 3: Others who have worked this shawl thought that there is a mistake in the body pattern - the instructions say you have to pick up 165 stitches. But looking at the first charted row you realize that there must be 166 stitches to start with, because in the first row you have to knit 2 together at the end, resulting in 165 stitches.

This is actually more of a case of omission in the written instructions. They should have mentioned that when picking up the 165 border stitches for the body you ALSO "pick up" the first border stitch from the other border which gives you the missing stitch. I only knew about this, because I took Galina's class in Warm Shawl Construction, and - luckily - I had made a note of this.

Oh, and when you work the last-body-stitch + border-stitch DO keep the yarn in the back - or keep it in front after turning, so the join looks consistent.

I'm glad I'm finding all this out before working my first gossamer shawl!

Yesterday I received a package from Fleegle containing the fabulous Phoenix yarn (52/2 60% merino 20% silk 20% cashmere) she custom-ordered for a few knitters (and herself I assume) from China! It will be the thinnest yarn I've ever worked with - once I actually dare to use it!

Our washer has been fixed (for many $$$) - once something like this quits working you really appreciate household appliances, and that you don't live in the 19th century!

Haapsalu Sall book

2009-07-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

This morning I had to sign for a package from Estonia! In it was the long awaited Haapsalu Sall book everyone on the KBTH list has been drooling over. I ordered mine almost exactly 2 weeks ago - so the wait was not as long as I feared. (I ordered it from Hobipunkt.ee - Ms. Helen Idarand was very responsive with answers to email.)

For those of you still waiting for their copy, here are some pictures to tide you over:

Explanation of stitches

My pictures have a blue tint to them, but the book is very elegant looking in beige/off-white tones. Some patterns that caught my eye:

And a few borders: I know what I'll be doing for the next hour(s)!

Take care.

Indiski milestone reached!

2009-07-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I just finished both outside borders of the Indiski shawl. Those short rows DO become a bit boring after repeat number x. And I still had to pay attention, because several times I forgot to mark my row and knit pattern rows in the return rows, only to look at the knitted part later and realizing that it didn't look quite right. But it's all good now.

2 outer borders of the Indiski shawl

The inner border should go faster, because there are fewer, but longer rows. I so want this shawl done! My first Orenburg shawl!! WooHoo!!!

Washer trouble, Animation BBQ, Project Update

2009-07-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Our only a year-and-a-half old washer had been acting up for quite a while, and the weekend before last it decided to quit altogether. The earliest customer "service" appointment is two weeks away ... what to do? What to do? (I hate laundromats!) So I remembered that as part of my Y2K preparations (I know, I know!) I bought a cute little Super Wash Pressure Washing Machine ... see:

This is the deluxe model ... it has a drain pipe!!!

I had used it once after I bought it just to try it out, and remembered that it worked very well. So I dragged it out of its (almost) forgotten storage place in the shed and started washing a few loads. It still works fine! I might just keep it around for really small, quickie washs. It's certainly faster than handwashing, even though you still have to spend quite a bit of time rinsing.

My husband decided to do the more manly thing - he threw a bunch of clothes in the bathtub, jumped in and then hand ... er ... footwashed them.

Btw, one of the features advertised for the little Super Wash is that it is suitable for washing delicates and handknits - has anyone ever washed their handknits in one of these? How did it turn out?

Last Sunday (Jul 12th) we went to Crissy Field, because the animation school my husband attends hosted their annual BBQ there. The day started out like this:

A typical San Francisco summer morning

... but once the cloud cover burned off it became really nice and warm. (That by itself is a miracle for San Francisco.)

The audience was treated to live enactments of the "12 Principles of Animation". Here is one:

"Straight Ahead Action" and "Pose by Pose"

Projects:

Olga's Indiski Shawl: 5 repeats of the second outside border done. I really have to pay attention, because the rows are so short! Sometimes I forget to move my chart marker, sometimes I try to do a pattern row on the return row - luckily I'm a firm believer in lifelines!

Caffe Latte Scarf: It's coming along slowly - it's my morning knit while drinking my coffee, so I only knit a few rows (or none) per day - now about 2 feet long.

Since I just had an itch to finish *something* I did this little dishcloth Friday and Saturday evening:

Dishcloth 1 - Diagonals

Take care!

Filoli, Mystery Object, Indiski Shawl

2009-06-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Last weekend we visited the Filoli House and its gardens. I had never heard of it before - one of my husband's co-workers recommended it. It was built in 1915 for the mine owner Bourn, who also owned the Spring Valley Water Company. Then it was sold to the Roth family (owner of Matson Navigation Company - you've probably seen the big "Matson" shipping containers on the road). In 1975 the house and garden was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The place is worth seeing, but a little too dark and dank for my taste. The gardens reminded me more of a plant nursery, rather than a true garden. But it makes for a nice outing. Here are some pictures of the Filoli "back yard":

Rose Garden

One of the roses in bloom - love the color!

Yellow lilies

I believe these are called "Flaming Torch"

A view from the so-called "Wedding area"

Also in the "Wedding area" - almost black pansies (they are a very dark purple)

A bench where you can sit in the herb garden

In the kitchen we saw this object:

Mystery Object

I maintain it's a primitive toaster, my husband says no. Do you know what this is?

When we left the place, there was this halo around the sun. Until now I've only seen halos around the moon, never the sun:

Sun Halo

And lastly, I've made some slow progress on the Indiski Shawl:

Indiski Shawl - 6 repeats of the first outside border done

Because the rows are so short for this border, I really have to force myself to mark each one as done on my chart. So far I had to rip back two times, because I had knitted a row twice. This represents a little more than half of the first outside border.

Oh, and we saw a sneak preview of Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - I recommend seeing it, it's better than the second one.

Till next time.

2009-06-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I finally had enough of swatching for the Indiski Shawl. Using the 2/28 cashmere, I just couldn't get the pattern to look right - the stitches kept looking sloppy, despite trying out every needle size from 3.0 mm down to 1.5 mm. After a while I realized I need to use a thicker yarn - did a few swatches there, and finally decided on a lovely green light fingering weight alpaca yarn from my stash. This is what it looks like after the 1st outside border repeat, using 2.75 mm needles. I like it.

Indiski Shawl - 1st outside border repeat, 2.75 mm needles

Funnelneck Sweater done! Indiski started!

2009-05-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Thanks to the 3-day weekend I was able to finish the Funnelneck sweater. It was a fun project overall, even though I had to re-knit about 3/4 of it, in order to get the sizing right (despite gauge swatches, measuring and re-calculating a few times!).

Here it is:

Funnelneck Sweater - finished!

I DO love the stripes, and the construction, which is done in three parts for the front and back, prevents knitting boredom.

After weaving in all the ends and stashing it away for the next winter, I finally could start on the Indiski Shawl (= Olga's Indiski (= Indian) Shawl in the May/June 2009 issue of Piecework Magazine). I started swatching ... after making mistakes, I finally remembered that for lace knitting distractions (watching TV, cats on lap etc.) are BAD. Since I'm a beginner lace knitter, I still need to pay full attention.

Indiski Shawl - swatch

This swatch shows plain garter stitch sections at bottom - the first one knit with 2.5 mm needles, the second one with 2.75 mm needles. I switched to the larger needles, because my stitch gauge was about 3 to 4 stitches over the recommended gauge. The rest of the sample is also knitted with the larger needles. I do like the smaller needles better, though, even though it would make the shawl smaller - the stitches look neater. I will knit the pattern with the smaller needles, too and then decide.

We watched Terminator Salvation today - I was not too impressed - it's simply an action flick, and worse, it does not even answer the question of how the Terminator was able to travel back in time! For the whole of the movie I was waiting in vain to see "the machines" build a time machine! But Aahnold puts in a brief (computer animated) appearance! In the nude!

Till next time!

Light at the End of the Tunnel

2009-05-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Another quarter gone by and semi-good news from my company. No more 25% time (and pay) reduction, but 10% pay reduction across the board! Could be worse … could be worse. Whether this is temporary or permanent we don’t yet know – they will decide quarter-to-quarter. So we’re looking at it as a 15% pay increase compared to last quarter :-)

I haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie yet, but I’m reading the reviews which are mostly positive. One of the more entertaining ones is here: – this review covers an aspect that never occurred to me: Twinks and Bears. After reading it my husband declared that now he can never look at Star Trek the same way again! Ach – and don’t make an extra effort to watch Angels and Demons – it’s pretty mediocre. If I hadn’t read the book, I would have had trouble following the “plot” which has some major holes in it, anyway. The da Vinci Code was much better. But you do get to see some of Rome’s art treasures!

During the last few weeks I ran into Borders and/or Barnes and Noble every few days so I would not miss the next issue of The Knitter – it’s a UK knitting magazine NOT aimed at the beginner, unlike the majority of other knit mags – I love it. Instead of just showing you some glam photos, they actually have photos of details! Unfortunately, you cannot subscribe to it here in the US, the link only gets you to a page where you can sign up to receive updates about the magazine.

A short while ago I received a pattern update for the Rosebud Neckwarmer designed by Grace Mcewen ... you can also find it on Ravelry. Very nice. It now includes charts, which is a huge Plus in my book. I hate reading written row-by-row instructions, because I have to *read* them … a chart, on the other hand … I can just *look* at it and see where I am (or should be). That’s the same reason I like analog clocks better than digital ones – I look at an analog clock and can *see* what time it is … a digital clock I have to first read, then translate what I read to the actual time. Anyway …

My next larger project after the Funnelneck sweater will be from the latest PieceWork magazine (May/June 2009): Olga’s Indiski (Indian) Shawl to Knit by Galina Khmeleva. This shawl was originally designed by the late Olga Fedorova, Galina’s mentor, and expert Orenburg Shawl knitter, and modified a bit by Galina. I’m thinking of knitting the original pattern also shown in the magazine, to fill the large “empty” squares. I had a Russian colleague translate the writing in this picture, but it didn't contain any interesting info.

Regarding the Funnelneck Sweater: I’m working on the bottom band right know, about 2 inches done, which seems sufficient … the pattern calls for 3 inches, but I’ll try it on and see how it looks with 2. So I am finally seeing the light at the end of the knit-reknit tunnel for this sweater.

The feral rooster is gone now. Poor fellow – he was just being a rooster. But the neighbors became more and more annoyed with him, and since he and his girlfriend spent a lot of time in our yard, we had the best opportunity of catching him. There is a slim chance that he might find a new home on a farm somewhere, but it’s not likely. Sigh. It’s too bad that there are not enough no-kill shelters like Best Friends. After a few days of extreme caution towards humans, the chicken is her old self again and happily scratches around in the neighborhood yards – I’m really surprised she is still alive. She’s been around for several years now.

Take care!

Spring Time

2009-04-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Last weekend was just gorgeous weather here ... nice and warm (into the 90s! = 30+˚C!) and the temperatures are still as high - today is Tuesday. So, of course I had to take some backyard pix:

Gerbera, plus some blue flowers (forgot the name) -
this is the area where I put spent potted plants - sometimes they reincarnate.

So I did some yard work while my husband was doing homework for his Animation Mentor course. After I was done (!), he did some yard work, too:

Yard work, husband-style!

Since our little cherry tree is blooming right now, I could not resist photographing the Hanami stole one more time:

Hanami Stole on Cherry Tree

... which leads me to my next project: the Caffe Latte scarf. I started it as a work-on-it-while-drinking-my-coffee-in-the-morning-and-watching-the-news project. An easy to remember repeat which does not require full brain power, so I can work on it before the effect of the coffee kicks in. I am using a very soft Alpaca yarn from my stash, and 4 mm needles. The pattern is called Lace Ribbon Scarf and is available free from Knitty.com.

Caffe Latte scarf

Funnelneck Sweater update: I am re-working the front again, with fresh (un-unraveled) yarn. I put some proper edge stitches on the cable panels, and after picking up the stitches for the side panel, the “pick-up line” is now much less “holey”-looking. I like it a lot better than before. I’m also glad I bought the book Seven Things that Make or Break a Sweater book by Margaret Fisher. It contains tips that you usually hear only during workshops straight from an instructor. One of the things I will apply to this sweater is to match the cast-on edges for the shoulders, so the smooth side is towards the front side. I knew, of course, that the cast-on edge looks different on each side, but never paid attention to that detail. It is really interesting to learn what a TKGA knitting judge looks for when they examine a garment.

This sweater is taking much longer than I thought, due to the reworking. It’s hard to get the size just right, especially the hip shaping, without trying it on. Once I have the front and back done again, I will put on that "vest" again to see how it looks this time around. Yes, I do measure, but somehow it does not translate well.

One more cat picture:

The boss cat on his throne

Till next time!

Taxing Times

2009-03-31T13:14:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

This is a salt-and-pepper-shaker set I bought a few years ago, because it's just so adorably cute. I was reminded of it when Fleegle mentioned in her blog that she is planning to knit a frog prince.

So, after many hints from my DH, which during the last weeks became more and more pushy, and since I have a few days off work this week (mandatory time reduction at my company) I finally ran out of excuses for not doing our tax return. Today is paper gathering, and bank statement printing and sorting day. Ugh.

The only consolation is that the days are becoming really nice. Right now our little lilac bush is blooming:

And the jasmine as well:

Last weekend I did quite a bit of knitting and I must have hunched up my right shoulder worse than usual, because it is quite painful right now. But I did get the center back panel and one side of the back of my Funnelneck Sweater done:

I’m considering re-working the front, because I just don’t like the large holes resulting from the picked-up stitches:

Funnelneck Sweater - front - big the holes from

picking up the stitches for the side panels.

If I re-work it, I’ll use a better edge stitch. (Usually, I follow the pattern at first, then I end up changing it - after a lengthy internal debate about whether it's "worth" it). I really like the construction of this sweater, and since the front and back are knit in three pieces each, it seems to progress very fast (of course it would be a lot faster if I didn't change my mind). It doesn’t even bother me to re-do pieces I don't like, because it seems less work.

Some more swatches of the Rosebud Neckwarmer:

Alpaca with silk – I thought this would look better, so I’m not going to use this.

Plain alpaca again, but with 3 rosebuds across to give it more width.

This stretches the stitches at the bottom of the two rosebuds, so I might add a few extra stitches there to relieve some of the tension. It will have to wait a bit though, since I really want to finish the Funnelneck sweater first.

And finally a picture of just how scared the feral chickens in this neighborhood are of our cat(s):

They kept walking and clucking in the back of the cat, until he finally looked at them disgustedly and strolled off - in a very dignified manner, of course! Most likely, the rooster will not be around much longer, he is rather noisy. And since they hang around our yard a lot (no dogs!) we have the best chance of catching him. We'll see.

Till next time!

Thrift Store find!

2009-03-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

On a whim I decided to visit the thrift store that's more or less on my way home from work. I was looking at the bags of acrylic left-over yarns, when I spotted a bag full of what looked like a whole lot of finished crocheted stars, together with two balls of crochet cotton. Feeling sorry for whoever put in all this work, and thinking that maybe there might be a larger piece already sewn up, suitable for a doily or so, I bought the bag for $4.99. My total purchase of about $14 was discounted another $3.99, so I can argue that I got the bag full of crochet pieces for $1!

When I opened it at home, this was in it:

Thrift Store find - a hand-made crochet table cloth!

A large, fully sewn up crochet table cloth, definitely fit for a dinner table. About a third of the stars have tails hanging from them, but I'll gladly do the weaving in. No holes other than the ones that are supposed to be there. There are two or three areas with small yellowish stains, which are hard to see. Here is a close-up (the darker area is my shadow):

Close-Up

It will have to air out a bit, and then I'll wash it.

Woo-Hoo!

Hanami stole finished!

2009-03-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hello,

The Hanami stole is done! After almost 3 months, here it is:

I was a bit disappointed when I was done knitting, because it looked so insubstantial ...

... , but the blocking really brought out the beauty of the patterns:

Blocked measurements: If I count the ruffle, it’s 5 feet by 16 inches. A bit shorter and narrower than I like (despite my added rows), but alright. I modified it as follows:

added one Basketweave pattern repeat
fewer repeats of pattern G
added a few rows to almost all of patterns A to F to balance a) the added Basketweave, and b) the fewer repeats of pattern G
changed pattern G from straight rows of cherry-blossom petals to diagonal ones, because the straight rows don’t look as organic and because the diagonal rows better “close the circle” with the diagonal Basketweave pattern
instead of the recommended Alpaca Cloud yarn I used Grignasco MerinoSilk

If I had to do it over, I would use either the recommended yarn, or smaller needles with the MerinoSilk, in order to get better stitch definition. Also, despite the instructions to bind off purl-wise on the right side, the ruffle curls a lot, so I would bind it off on the wrong side instead.

Here it is one more time on one of our cherry trees, and with the supervising cat in the background:

And the Funnelneck sweater is progressing nicely, too. I'm almost done with the first side panel.

After working so long with fine yarn, it's amazing how much faster it knits up than the stole!

Till next time.

First Blossoms

2009-02-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Due to the impending rain, we had to do an emergency fix on our shed roof. Passing by our almond tree I noticed this:

First blossoms: 22 February 2009

And looking at an old hay bale next to the shed, I discovered these:

Hay Bale mushrooms

These mushrooms are only a few inches tall, but somehow look like they belong into an enchanted forest.

If you haven't seen the movie Coraline yet, you really should go - it is excellent! But don't bother watching it in 3D - it really does not add to the story, I found it rather distracts from it a bit.

In knitting news: I've started the Funnelneck Sweater from the Big Girl Knits book:

Whichway Funnelneck - start of Cable section (center front)

I was unable to get the gauge right - I could manage the 16 stitches per 4 inch, but the number of rows would be way off. Usually I can get gauge by moving up 1 mm from the recommended needle size, but not here ... I knitted about 6 different swatches, and finally decided to use 5 mm needles which would make the sweater a bit smaller than the L size which is too big for me anyway. I'll know more after knitting the whole front.

Finally, I came across an interesting link via a Ravelry friend. If you know a disabled or chronically ill person and sometimes wonder why they are tired all the time or cannot do even small, simple things, because they "don't look sick", read this Spoon Theory - it is an eye-opener.

Till next time.

More Time to Knit

2009-02-15T10:53:00.000-08:00

Well, the recession has finally hit my company, too. Across the board everyone has been ordered to take a week's vacation in February, March and April - hopefully no longer than that. As long as it is a 25% reduction for a few months it's ok - I will have more time to knit, and maybe do some gardening catch-up work.

I'm busy now working on the Hanami stole this long weekend, Pattern C is almost done. I can't wait to put into practice what I've learned in Galina's workshop.

Take care.

Lace-Making Retreat at Lacis Report

2009-02-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

Whew! It was a busy week!

Galina Khmeleva kept us occupied knitting samples day and night (homework!), and I learned a lot from her. I took all of her classes: Orenburg Shawl Fundamentals (knitting a gossamer web shawl), Knitting a Warm Shawl, and Dimensional Knitting (spiders and bobbles). Of course, there were the other classes on lace-making: Needle Lace, Bobbin Lace and Tatting. Since the Dimensional Knitting classes were repeated, I was able to take a sniffer class in Bobbin Lace which was interesting, but it's not my cup of tea at the moment. Here is the result of an hour's worth of effort:

Beginner's Bookworm - I did most of the top half, then the instructor
(a very patient Maria Provencher) finished the bottom half, because
I was running out of time.

There were 2 classes per day: one morning and one afternoon session (10:30 to 1:00 pm and 3:00 to 5:30 pm), which gave us a rather long lunch break, but enabled us to catch up on our sample-knitting. This was our workshop area (former software office):

And one dedicated lunch-break knitter:

You can see Galina's sampler hanging from the shelf.

Orenburg Fundamentals Class: Galina took us through the making of a sample gossamer shawl, as described in her books, but with more information and tips.

Orenburg Gossamer Shawl sample

She started out by making us knit samples of the basic Orenburg patterns (Strawberries, Honeycomb, Peas, etc.) in yarn she provided - I found out that I had been knitting with needles too large (2.5 mm) and she made me switch to 1.5 mm (US 000) needles, because the holes should not quite be big enough for your pinkie to slip through. Using the smaller needles indeed made my stitches more defined and neater (see bottom, green portion of the sampler - unfortunately, the picture is not that great - the difference is actually visible):

Orenburg stitch sampler, and grafting sample

To the left of it you see two squares grafted together on two sides using the Russian grafting method.

Warm Shawl Class: In contrast to a gossamer shawl, a warm shawl is knitted in pieces: You knit 2 (for a triangular shawl) or 4 (for a square shawl) trapezoid border pieces; you pick up stitches on the short side and knit a "bridge" on each piece; then you graft 2 (for a triangular shawl) or 3 (for a square shawl) pieces together and start knitting the center (picking up border stitches as you work), then you attach the top trapezoid border (for the square version) or a border (for a triangular shawl). The bridge (not in the sample pictured) gives a warm shawl more stability, so it keeps its shape better than a gossamer shawl, which would have to be blocked more frequently with wear.

Three trapezoids for an Orenburg Warm Shawl.

To make a triangular shawl the pink and yellow pieces one have been grafted together; then the stitches on the short pink one were picked up, and the center (turquoise) was knitted up from the pink, decreasing stitches on its left side to produce a straight line for the triangular shawl's long (diagonal) side. If you wanted to knit a square shawl, you would graft the taupe trapezoid to the yellow one, pick up the yellow top stitches and knit straight up, picking up stitches from both the pink and taupe pieces as you knit up. Then attach another trapezoid piece on top to finish the shawl. Galina will have a pattern for a triangular warm shawl in the next issue of Piecework magazine (May/June 2009).

We also received plenty of good information on yarn characteristics. For instance: Alpaca wool (I had considered it for my first real O-shawl) is not a good choice for shawls and tablecloths etc., because it has almost no memory. Also, a very fuzzy yarn like 100% Qiviuk or cashmere is not good for gossamers, because the fuzziness will cover up the holes which you want visible ("Don't cover up your hard work!"). It should be knitted together with some silk, so it keeps its shape and stitch definition better. 100% cashmere and quiviuk are better for warm shawls, because warm shawls have a less lacy (= fewer holes) design, in order to ... keep you warm.

Galina also showed us howe to properly block an Orenburg shawl (it was a method new to me), and entertained us with lots of stories from Russia (even what to do, Russian-style, with an unfaithful husband!). To top it off, she had boxes and boxes of beautiful yarns, and cloud-soft shawls on display for us (no photos of these, but we were allowed to take notes of the patterns). The most spectacular one was knitted by her mentor Olga Fedorova, who passed away last year.

Galina's class was very good and enjoyable - if you have a chance, take a class from her! Next, she will be at Stitches West in Santa Clara, California and then at the Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon, where she will teach Orenburg-style spinning.

The only negative thing I have to report is that the Lacis Museum was hospitable only in so far as providing a venue was concerned. On the first day, when I signed up for all of Galina's classes (which were the only reason I signed up for this retreat), Mr. Kliot gave me a somewhat disapproving look, because apparently his vision was that everyone should be taking classes in all types of lace-making. Well, I do not have any interest in the other forms of lace-making at this time, because I am just starting to explore lace knitting. It would also have been nice if the museum had provided a little welcome package - maybe with a map to the locations mentioned on their website, since many participants were not local ... or ... dare I say it? ... a coupon good for xx% off something in the store?

In the morning of the first day there was a "Round Table" - which I expected was where the instructors would be introduced and maybe give us a little overview of their particular craft. Instead Mr. Kliot, who did not even bother to introduce himself, only gave a little talk about how we should try out all the different methods of lace-making. Anyway, the round table turned out to be tables set up by the instructors:

"Round Table" - Left foreground: Galina's table with some of her scrumptious shawls, left background: bobbin lace, center: needle lace, right: tatting.

So I felt that a good part of the first day (the first actual class did not start until the afternoon) was wasted - additionally, no spaces were assigned to the different instructors, so you had no place to put your bag(s). Oh well ... But, all in all, the classes and instructors were great, and that was the reason I went.

And this is what you see on entering the workshop area:

Inspiration

Take care!

Lace Making Retreat - Quick Note

2009-02-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

I haven't had time to post as planned, because Galina is keeping us busy knitting samples and giving us homework - I already learned a lot ... will post on Wednesday.

Hanami Progress and looking forward to Lacis Workshop!

2009-02-01T17:05:00.000-08:00

Things have been a bit stressful at work lately ... since I am taking off part of next week and the following week for the Lace Making Retreat at the Lacis Museum in Berkeley, I had to work a bit longer during the week and even come to work the last 2 Saturdays! But no, they are not exploiting me - I will be able to take off 2 days later, when the project is done. That's the curse when you are the only one in the company with the necessary language skills. It always works out that way, though ... I could be throwing a dart, blindfolded, at a calendar and say that is the week I want to take a vacation - it doesn't matter when - it will somehow work out to be the week when something urgent having to do with a German project will be surfacing. Sheeesh!

In the meantime, I'm making progress on the Hanami stole:

Hanami Stole - 8 Basketweave repeats plus 1 Chart A, with 4 additional rows inserted

Here is a closeup of the Basketweave pattern:

Basketweave pattern

And here is the transition to the cherry-blossom part of the stole:

Transition from Basketweaves to Cherry-Blossom part

Since I knitted one extra repeat of the Basketweave chart, I inserted 8 additional rows into Chart A where you see the 2 lifelines close together. I will knit 4 more 8-row insertions in the following patterns, because I will also shorten the very last pattern by 8 rows. The other lifelines show the pattern repeats - I left them in, because they will help me stretch the stole evenly later once it's done.

Within the last few days I (finally!) received 2 books I was waiting for:

Burda Praxis Strickspitze

and

Estonian Lace Knitting

The Burda Praxis Strickspitze book is a nice basic course of the technique of knitted lace or lace-knitting (depending on whether every row or every other row is patterned). There are several smaller projects in there - some look like Niebling designs to me, but the designer is not named - mostly doilies, plus lampshades, curtains, and borders. This book, which I ordered from Germany, is a lot thinner than I expected, but contains solid information.

Estonian Lace Knitting is fairly broad in scope, with a brief history of the Haapsalu lace knitting tradition, plus some nice scarf and stole patterns. In contrast to it is this book I bought a while ago:

= Lily of the Valley - Variations of a traditional knitting pattern

Maiglöckchen concentrates on one particular pattern which the author received from a Ms. Edith Haller, who was born in Russia. It is a basic Haapsalu Lily of the Valley pattern and is explored in many different projects: sweaters, moebius scarf, hats, bags, socks, curtains and a pillow. Both books together would make one great book.

During the Lace Making workshop I will try to post as often as possible to share what I've learned. I'm planning to take all of Galina Khmeleva's classes on Knitted Lace, so I can expand my knowledge of how to create a nice Orenburg Shawl.

Take care!

A Beautiful Morning!

2009-01-11T11:10:00.000-08:00

Hello,

In the morning the doves were picking at left-over birdseed around a tree in our yard. The sun comes in at a sharp angle to create the stark light-and-dark contrast - almost too much for the camera to handle.

A winter morning in California!

The Hanami stole is progressing ... I am now working on the 7th repeat of the basketweave pattern. I will add an 8th repeat and also a few extra rows in most of the following patterns to balance the second half of the stole. And since I want to have more of the cherry-blossom "cloud", rather than the ordered blossoms at the end, I'm going to shorten the last pattern ("G") by 25%. That will result in enough rows of straight-laced cherry-blossoms at the end - to create the connection to the ordered basket-weave pattern.

Here is the current status:

Hanami Stole, 6+ Basketweave pattern repeats

My ironing board is now too small to fully show the pinned-out work in progress, and I was too lazy to bring out my blocking board, so I only pinned it partially.

Only 24 days to the Lace Making workshop at Lacis!!!

Take care!

S.F., Hanami Progress

2009-01-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

As a belated birthday outing we drove to San Francisco last Monday. Here is is the Christmas tree in Union Square:

We went to the Rotunda restaurant in the Neiman Marcus building for lunch – it’s a beautiful place; you can see the tip of the NM Christmas tree and in the distance the Union Square tree.

Of course the main reason we wanted to eat there are their fabulous popovers! They serve these in place of bread before your main course!

Then we wanted to see the Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul exhibit in the Asian Art Museum. Among other ancient artifacts this showcases pieces from the so-called Bactrian Hoard. They were hidden by a group of people during the years of war to save them. It’s nice to know that there are still heroes among us. Unfortunately, the museum was closed. Maybe we can still make it. The exhibit runs to Jan 25^th.

I’m still working on the Hanami stole, now on the 5^th Basketweave pattern repeat. This picture shows it unpinned. It looks much better stretched (see my Ravelry page).

I also did a quickie knit (1 day) of a handbag, which will most likely be a gift.

This was the second time I made this purse, and even tough I forgot about it after I threw it in the washer to felt it, it came out beautifully. I was lucky!

Here is the new (red) purse, and my old (yellow) one which I now realize was not felted properly.

So I re-felted the yellow one ... it is now smaller than before, of course, but looks much better.

Best wishes to all of you for the New Year!

Mended Spider Webs and Hanami Progress

2008-12-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

Bad Cat has another little contest: Send in "the most amazing, fiber-related pictures" you find on the web.

I sent a link to this picture:

This artist did a whole series of mended spiderwebs!!! Isn't this amazing?

Progress on the Hanami stole is slow, I'm a little over half-way through the first basketweave repeat, and can now see the pattern emerging:

I am knitting rather slowly, because my needles are very slick and the yarn is sooo thin! Knitting with it has made me realize that I need to take better care of my hands - the tiniest loose piece of dry skin will snag on the yarn!

Oh, and if you are looking for a good movie to watch: I can highly recommend "The Tale of Despereaux" - it's a beautiful movie!

Take care!

Swiftness

2008-12-20T15:02:00.001-08:00

So ... looking over my Ravelry queue and my hardcopy projects-to-be (yeah, it’s a 3-inch binder with printed out patterns), I was zeroing in more and more on the Hanami stole by Melanie Gibbons (you can also find it on Ravelry). About 3 weeks ago I ordered some beads and teeny-tiny crochet hooks from the Beadwrangler – they arrived very quickly; and some Grignasco MerinoSilk from Woolworks, which also arrived promptly in the form of two gigantic hanks. No problem, I thought, I made do without a swift and only a yarn winder for years, so I hung it over the yarn winder to wind it by hand (I didn't have any suitable chair backs, and my husband is not patient enough!). Let me say here also that this is my first lace-weight yarn ever! Winding was slow, but I made reasonable progress – sort of (well, a ball of about 2 inches diameter after winding carefully (!) for over an hour), only the hank started to look more and more like a bird's nest:

With razor-sharp logic I concluded that I had to stop right now, before I made things irreparably un-entanglable, and get a yarn swift. Checking ebay, I found a guy who makes swifts himself; so I ordered one and it arrived from the east coast (I’m in California) in 3 days! In the description of his swifts he says they have the seal of approval from his wife. I heartily concur.

My new favorite gadget - a yarn swift

I was able to save the entangled partial hank.Here are the swift and yarn winder in action (unfortunately, the camera flash blurred the white part of the yarn winder and the white yarn together, but it's there!

Yarn swift and ball winder in action

And this is what I ended up with:

Hank of Grignasco MerinoSilk and the equivalent balls of yarn

The round ball is my own work (approximately 25% of one hank), the smaller, neato ball is the second 25% of the hank, and the large ball represents the other half of the hank. Winding 75% of the yarn using the swift and ball winder together took maybe 15 minutes – versus over an hour for my hand-wound yarn ball! I love my swift already! By the way that yarn is kitten-soft - you touch it and it feels like petting the softest cat you ever had!

So, after finally having the yarn in usable condition, I immediately cast on for the Hanami stole. Boy, the cast-on row must have taken me a good 30 minutes or more – you have to slip a bead onto every other stitch with a tiny crochet hook. After about 20 beads I had the technique down, but I still had to proceed very carefully.

This is the first time I am actually using lace-weight yarn, and I was constantly afraid to either tear it (I’m a tight knitter by nature), or that it would slip off my needles (slick Addis). Those first few rows were downright nerve-wrecking!

Can you see the beads in the cast-on row?

These are the cast-on row and the first 6 garter-stitch rows, with a lifeline after row 5. (The lifeline is the yellow cotton thread just underneath the cable and is thicker than the yarn itself. Ready for the basket-weave pattern.

And some good news: the lace-making retreat organized by the Lacis Museum will take place! You can now sign up for individual days, instead of for the whole retreat.

Take care!

New Acquisitions

2008-12-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

Friday's mail brought 2 great books: Oma’s Strickgeheimnisse (Grandma's Knitting Secrets) by Eichenseer, Grill and Krön, and Poems of Color by Wendy Keele.

My two new books

Poems of Color describes the history of the beautiful, colorful Bohus sweaters, the techniques, and includes some patterns, with colored charts. A great resource and interesting reading.

Oma’s Strickgeheimnisse is a German book of patterns, most of which date back to the years 1815 to 1870. Each pattern is charted only (with German chart symbols, of course – clearly explained in the front of the book), and – this is very helpful – provides separate charts for knitting it in the round and back-and-forth.

This pattern is called Perlmutter-Fächer (Mother-of-Pearl Fan)

The photos are clear, and in some cases variations are shown:

This pattern is called Floras Gaben (= Flora’s Bounty)

The top version was knitted in the round, the bottom version was knit back-and-forth.

The patterns are grouped into Strips, Ladders, Flowers and Leaves, Bugs and Beetles and so on, obviously named after things encountered in everyday life on the farms and in the villages, where most of the patterns evolved.

So far I’ve knitted 4 Orenburg Sample shawls, here is the latest:

This is the Fish Eyes pattern, plus Border 1 from the book

The Gossamer Webs Design Collection by Galina Khmeleva

I also finished my Something Teal cardigan:

Something Dark Teal cardigan

The sleeves are 3/4 sleeves. I might re-do the border again, because it looks rather stretched, but for now I'm declaring it done. The pattern is Something Red by Wendy Barnard. More details are on my Ravelry page (gjabouri).

The bad news is that the Lacis Museum’s “A Week of Lacemaking” Urban Retreat might not take place. Apparently they are still short a few people (some who signed up canceled due to the bad economy) – so if you were thinking about joining (and can still afford it), please sign up.

Take care.

Orenburg Shawl Samples - the beginning

2008-10-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I started knitting my first Orenburg “Sample Shawl”, and finished it today. (The sample shawl pattern is in both the Gossamer Webs Design Collection and in Gossamer Webs - Orenburg Lace Shawls both by Galina Khmeleva). I made some errors, but I got the basics down. I did not bother to correct them since for this first sample I was mainly interested in the border technique.

Orenburg Sample Shawl 1 - plain center

If you look at the picture you can see that up to the yellow line, I kept slipping the first stitch of the inner border. Sometimes I knit 3 stitches from the outside border when I was supposed to only knit 2 and vice versa. If you look at the 2 holes traversed by the yellow line on the left side you will see that in that area the sequence of holes is incorrect. Every now and then I was in a knitting trance and forgot the last YO of the center stitches ... which is why I lost one stitch in the top center row, so I had to fudge the top border.

The grafting technique was new to me: Slip one stitch to the left needle, slip the second stitch on the left needle through the slipped stitch and slip to right needle, then do v.v. for the second stitch on the right needle, and so on, until you only have one stitch left, which you then tie off with a knot. I’m not fond of knots, so will have to ask Galina at the upcoming workshop whether there is an alternative.

On to the next sample - I want to try out as many of the traditional patterns in the book as possible before the workshop.

Till next time.

Summer Sampler Stole finished !!

2008-10-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I finished the Summer Stole Stole by Bad Cat Designs, soaked it for a few hours and then blocked it (took me about one hour), crawling around it on the floor and sticking needles into a blocking board and a towel, and yet another towel. It turned out a bit bigger than I expected, even though I knew it would be larger than a "normal" lace stole, because I used fingering-weight wool and 5 mm needles. It weighs 14 7/8 oz and measures about 27.5" by 8'. Thank you, BadCat, for a lovely design and a great knit-along!

Here it is blocking ...

and here it is afterwards:

I am glad this project is done - now I can start knitting samples in the Orenburg lace style in preparation for the lace-making retreat at the Lacis Museum in February.

On another note: I have started to make my own kefir - it is delicious! I received the kefir-grains from someone living near-by through a kefir-grains-sharing website. I was really surprised how fast the milk turned into kefir - it only takes about 24 hours.

Till next time.

Visitors

2008-10-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

I mentioned before that we have a feral chicken in the neighborhood, who frequently visits our back yard (probably because of the abundance of our organically grown bugs) ... Well, after returning from our road trip, we saw her once, then she disappeared. We already resigned ourselves to the sad fact that she finally must have become dinner for a hawk that had been eying her for a while, when she showed up again last Thursday. And she brought company:

Nice-looking rooster, eh?

As you can see he’s quite handsome: nice, shiny colors, and, of course, a healthy “cock-a-doodle-doo”. He’s much more scared of us than Henrietta, but like her, ignores the cats. Where this rooster came from, we have no idea – we live in suburbia. I'm wondering whether Henrietta visits a coop in the neighborhood, and breaks out other chickens. We don't know yet what to do with him, because we certainly do not want to breed chickens in our backyard. (Does anyone know any good rooster-catching techniques?) But they do make a good-looking pair:

Henrietta and Henry

Our deck is almost done: the sides still need to be enclosed, but we are already using it. It is much bigger than the old deck, and much sturdier:

New deck

Oh, and our old water heater broke – it started leaking, so we replaced it with a boiler – which is much more efficient. I hadn’t realized how corroded the old one was – now it takes me only a third of the time to fill my bathtub.

And on the knitting front: I hope to finish my Summer Sampler Study Stole today!! During the last two weeks I forced myself to just keep knitting the border and not stop every time I become bored with it (which would happen very quickly). It's fairly big, because I used Alpaca fingering-weight yarn, not lace yarn, so I will have to block it on the carpet. Then I’ll move on to work on Orenburg-style shawl samples to prepare for the workshop at the Lacis Museum in February.

And we just found out that my father-in-law will be visiting us in 10 days ... off to do some cleaning ;-)

Till next time.

Roadtrip! Part 2 - the way home - wow!

2008-09-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

So on Tuesday morning we headed back towards home, but decided to take a more northern and, according to the map, more scenic route, following Hwy 160 West towards Durango. Now the scenery changed from interesting to gorgeous! The first part from Fort Garland to about Monte Vista was still flat country (don't know why this is marked as a scenic route on the map), but the part from Monte Vista to Pagosa Springs is beautiful! That’s the Colorado I remembered from long ago when I lived there! The view from Wolf Creek Pass is fantastic!

View from Wolf Creek Pass

From Cortez we took Hwy 491, because we figured Blanding would be our overnight stop. It was only about 3:30 when we arrived there, so we decided to squeeze in a visit to the Bridges National Monument nearby. This alone would have made the trip worthwhile! Seeing those natural bridges, carved out of the rock by the water is awe-inspiring.

Sipapu Bridge in Bridges National Park

We walked a little bit on the trail to the Kachina bridge and found a quiet spot to just sit and listen to the silence. You could hear nothing except the buzzing of an occasional fly and the swish of some swallows’ wings as they sliced through the air. I could have stayed there for a very long time, just enjoying nature. There was no sound to be heard!

We also happened upon these mysterious rock carvings ...

... actually these are shoeprints in the sand on one of the steps of the Kachina Bridge trail – rotate the image 90 degrees counter-clockwise to see how it actually looks.

Then we drove back to Blanding to find a room for the night. We stayed at a new Super 8 motel, which was very nice, room-wise, but there were dogs barking almost all night (one was in a yard next to the motel). So far we hadn't had much luck with hotels! The next day (Wednesday) we drove towards Kayenta, which of course passes through Monument Valley.

First view of Monument Valley as you approach it

Ever since I saw these rock formations in old Westerns as a kid, I wanted to see them. They are far more impressive in natura! Absolutely fantastic! We drove the 17-mile loop inside Monument Valley, which gets you close to these formations – the best view being Artists’ Point:

Monument Valley - "The Mittens"

Monument Valley

Monument Valley - Artist's View

The "Artist's View" absolutely deserves its name. You will also see a lot of these:

“Open” ... but what are they selling?

We continued on our northern route towards Page (we deliberately avoided the Grand Canyon, because we want to cover it on a separate trip), passing Lake Powel – a beautiful contrast of the deep blue lake vs. the pale red and whitish cliffs), the Grand Staircase and the Vermilion Cliffs, heading for St. George. In order to get to St. George, however, and staying on Hwy 89 (and then Hwy 9) you have to pass through Zion National Park. We did not even want to go there, but since it would have meant backtracking for quite a bit, we grudgingly paid the hefty $25 entrance fee. It turned out to be the best $25 we spent! Zion National Park is gorgeous. Not only are there fantastic rock/mountain formations, but also lots of trees, so you have wonderful red-green contrasts. This park is absolutely worth a trip for its own sake! I had never heard of Zion National Park before – it is a gem! No pictures, because we were too busy being awed by the beauty of it!

It’s too bad we only had a week for our whole trip. So many areas would have justified staying longer and really exploring them further Since it was still daylight when we arrived at St. George, we decided to push on to Las Vegas, where we arrived at about 8:00 pm. We originally wanted to stay at the Luxor, but unbelievably, it was booked solid. So we went next door to the Excalibur, where we got a nice room with a view of the Strip. Here we had the best sleep of the entire trip! The room was quiet, and the constant hum of the traffic on the strip lulls you to sleep easily (we were on the 24th floor). We're not gamblers, but like everybody else, we love the buffets – so after sleeping in a bit, we had a hearty breakfast, and then drove the rest of the way home, via Hwy 15 to Barstow, then changing to Hwy 58. After passing Tehachapi and Bakersfield again, we continued on Hwy 58 west to Hwy 101, because we wanted to try a different route.

There is a stretch of about 40 miles on Hwy 58 after McKittrick that is the most desolate country I’ve ever seen. You see occasional pumps, but the whole area looks almost sinister. It changes again for the better the closer you get to Hwy 101. We even saw a Golden Eagle sitting on a tree right next to the road! Once we reached Hwy 101 it was just a matter of rolling off the miles back to the Bay Area.

Overall, this was a very nice trip. We didn’t plan much ahead - our objective was to look at the property. Bridges National Park, Monument Valley, and Zion National Park are each worth a lot more time than we had. There were countless roads leading to other parks, national monuments, Indian ruins, and other sites, which we simply had to pass by.

Till next time!

Roadtrip! Part 1 - the road to Colorado

2008-09-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

My husband’s parents have a piece of land in Colorado, and asked us to check it out. So we decided to drive there during the break between my husband’s Animation Mentor semesters. It’s a two-day drive from the San Francisco Bay Area, and we left (very) early on Saturday, Sep 20. The drive south on I5 was rather boring (desert). In the Bakersfield area we switched over to Hwy 58, which became even more boring (either farmland “desert" or real desert) – just flatland driving. The only interesting sight were the windmills around Tehachapi (it is very windy there!). We continued on Hwy 58 to Barstow, where we switched to Hwy 40. We wanted to have a late lunch in Needles, but when we got there (around 1:00 pm), we were wondering whether this was a ghost town – not a soul on the streets, no cars, almost all shops/restaurants closed, and the whole town looked rather delapidated. I think we saw one person outside. It was downright eerie, as if you are in the Twilight Zone. With some difficulty we located an open restaurant and had a rather mediocre lunch.

Onwards on Hwy 40 and into Arizona to Kingman. Almost as soon as we crossed into AZ, the scenery changed for the better - some nice mountain ranges to look at. We arrived in Flagstaff at around 5:30 pm and thought that this would make a good overnight stopping point. Big mistake! Flagstaff is a railroad town. There are trains going through every few minutes, blowing their horns. And all the hotels (at least the ones with a room available, and we did not want to stray too far from Hwy 40) are on Route 66 which is right next to the train tracks! According to the clerk at the reception desk, there is really no point in Flagstaff where you would not hear the trains. We were tired, but this was the worst night of the entire trip (and the most expensive, roomrate-wise!). Every time I dozed off another train would rattle by, blowing its horn. Whatever you do, DO NOT STAY IN FLAGSTAFF, EVER!!!

The next morning we were rather groggy from basically not sleeping, and – blowing a big fat raspberry to Flagstaff – we were off, continuing on Hwy 40 towards New Mexico. Again the drive became very boring, flat desert, brush desert, a few rock formations, and lots of Indian trading posts, selling rugs, jewelry, Kachina dolls, and other assorted trinkets. We passed on the Petrified Forest National Park, planning to visit it on our way back. As soon as we entered NM the scenery changed dramatically for the better. Suddenly there were mesas to look at again. We stopped at the first rest stop in NM, and I have to say that was a superb rest area – they had music playing, the restrooms were modern and clean, they had free brochures – very nice. We immediately liked NM. Curiously, though, we had not seen any accidents so far, but in NM we saw three! What’s up with that? Also, the road sign language is interesting: In NM you have the polite, delicately put “Gusty Winds May Exist”, whereas in CO you see the more gruff “Gusty Winds Likely”.

On to Albuquerque, where we had lunch at a Taco Cabana (very good), and then north to Espanola. On seeing a Yogi Bhajan Memorial road, I remembered that the 3HO – Kundalini Yoga people have a center here. I did Kundalini Yoga for a while, before I realized that it is a little too cult-like for me ... too much Yogi Bhajan adoration. Anyway, Espanola is a nice little town, with a few new-agey touches. We bought a braid of red chilies here (my husband likes them) and hung them from a coat hook in the car. So from now on every time we got into the car, we had a red chili smell greeting us. The scenery also became more and more mountainous as we were driving north towards Colorado on Hwy 68, then 522, through Taos (very new-agey – that’s where they had a Wool and Fiber Festival a few weeks ago), then continuing on Hwy 159 in CO, to Fort Garland, where my parents-in-law’s property is located.

By then it was getting dark, meaning it was too late to locate the land, so we decided to look for a place to stay, by driving towards Walsenburg on Hwy 160, and ended up at the Rio Cucharas Inn. It was cheap, not too bad, but I’ve been in better places. The rooms had an odd smell to them (as if they had recently been disinfected), and had no windows, just a shuttered glass door. It was rather stuffy inside, but at least it was very quiet there. We had to eat dinner at the only place that seemed open in Walsenburg – a Subway sandwich place. We stayed two nights, because we also wanted to check out a restaurant recommended by a colleague of my husband in Pueblo.

So on Monday morning, we used our plat map, and found the property – all the markers had rotted away, but since it was at the end of a road, it was fairly easy to locate. It's a sagebrush-covered piece of land, with lots of anthills (with rather big (1/2 inch long) ants).

The Property

The Neighbors

It also was on a bluff, overlooking railroad tracks (which would not be a problem, since they were far enough downhill). There was a fairly small flat area on which one could build a log cabin to use as quarters when going hunting. The area is apparently favored by hunters (you see “Welcome Hunters” signs everywhere). And it was very windy! So it is not a very suitable area to stay in, as far as we are concerned. A few hardy people live there on scattered ranches, with their propane gas tanks and generators, and what seems the required junk cars in their yards. It’s all rather rustic, let’s say.

Monday afternoon we drove to Pueblo to check out the recommended restaurant there, which of course, was closed on Mondays! Oh well. Back to our inn in Walsenburg. By the way, it’s a myth that Starbucks has penetrated every last corner of America! There are not enough Starbucks! Out in the country you still get the coffeecup-rinsewater coffee, with packets of creamer, and the only choice of cheese you have is American or Swiss. I'm not complaining, really, a "town" of maybe 500 people couldn’t possibly support a Starbucks. It’s just funny that out in the country, where you could reasonably expect fresh milk for example, not to mention organic, all you get is artificial creamer. It truly is a different world from a metropolitan area. But at least I’ve seen several pro-Obama signs in front yards, especially in NM (“ObamaNos!” = Obama Us).

Things improved on the way home! The next post will have more (and nicer) pictures and less talk.

I LOVE YOUR BLOG Award

2008-09-03T16:34:00.000-07:00

03 September 2008: Wow! Somebody actually reads my blog!!! And gave me this award:

Thank you, Halfmaennchen! Since the *rules* state that you have to ...

1. post this award on your blog;
2. add a link to the person who sent you the award;
3. nominate at least 4 other bloggers, and add their links as well;
4. leave a comment at the new recipients' blogs, so they know they got an award ...

My number 1 nominee is Fleegle, one of my knitting heroes. Shortly after joining Ravelry, I stumbled upon some of her project pictures, and they are jaw-dropping! Her blog is very educational ... anything a knitter might want to know is here: from her no-hassle sock pattern, to a one-piece sideways cardigan to tiger-washing instructions. Oh, and what to do if lost aliens land in your backyard.

Taking Fleegle's blog as a starting point I began to explore lace-knitting websites, so far via pictures only, and soon came across BadCatDesigns. At that time her Summer Sampler Stole study was just starting, and on a whim I decided to participate. This KAL has taught me that lifelines are my friend! I'm a control freak and hate having to do something over, so after every pattern repeat in goes a lifeline. BadCat just finished her stole - it will take me a few more weeks to finish the edging (only 143 10-row repeats to go!). Current status of my stole:

For a while before that I was drooling over Galina Khmeleva's book Gossamer Webs - Orenburg Lace Shawls, so the Summer Sampler Stole KAL was a good test of whether I could actually DO something similar. Once it is finished I plan to knit several small samples according to Galina's instructions in her book, then take her classes at the Lacis Museum Urban Retreat next February, and then to design my own. I already have a few patterns in mind, but still need to figure out the border/edging.

Nominees #3 and 4 are: KnitYoga and Melusine (check out her adorable cat in her post from Sep 2!).

There are many other blogs I like ... sigh. If it weren't for the fact that I need to earn some money for cat food, I would be on the computer, or knitting, or gardening (that's actually a euphemism - it's more a matter of trying to keep down the weeds) and obliging my cats ("Open the door! ... No, wait. ... OK, open the door now ... ummm, I forgot something ... now, open the door! ... Eh, no, I changed my mind ... wait! what is he doing out there? ... LET ME OUT! I MUST KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON OUT THERE!!")

Thank you again, Halfmaennchen, for the award. You've given me quite a few ideas. You are very talented!

Till next time.

Quickie Headband Project

2008-08-23T15:40:00.001-07:00

23 Aug 2008: So I'm working along (for months now) on my Teal Cardigan and Summer Sampler stole projects, and I suddenly realize that I'm craving the "Yeah! - I finished it!!!" feeling. Looking for a quick fix, I received inspiration from Halfmännchen's blog. A cabled headband with shaped cables - a technique I've never done. (I used Dawn Brocco's book Curvaceous Cables Collection.) So I grabbed the nearest half-used ball of yarn and began practicing the pattern a bit last evening. Note: Cables are much easier to work when you use wooden needles - the stitches don't slide off the needles while you work the cable needle! I started the headband this morning and was finished after about 4 hours. A nice quick project!

Here's the headband by itself:

... and on my favorite model:

Till next time!

Curse broken!

2008-08-19T14:44:00.001-07:00

18 Aug 2008: I think I got my groove back - I was able to finish patterns 10 and 11 of the Summer Sampler stole in quick succession. Presently, the stole is about 2 m long (about 2.2 yards) which is rather long, but exactly what I want, because I plan to take it to work to wrap around my shoulders and neck. My cubicle is directly underneath an air register and I always have some kind of cool or cold draft blowing at me. This will be perfect. Can't wait for the last pattern and then the border.

Pattern 11

Pattern 10

And this is the pattern that took over 2 weeks' time, because I kept making stupid mistakes:

Pattern 9

Time flies when you are having fun - not so much when you have to tink back ... has anyone read The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann? It's a most excellent book. One of its main leitmotifs is a variation of the old legend of the magic mountain. You enter it and spend what seems like a short time inside. But once you leave (if you find the way out that is!) you realize that a long time has passed. The perception of time is very elastic. If your days seem short, because they are taken up with a lot of activities (if you are very conscious of what you are doing, iow), and you look back at that general time frame, it will appear long (because so much has happened). Conversely, if your days seem long, because you either do the same things over and over again or have nothing to do (iow if you are bored or don't pay attention), then looking back at that time period, it will seem like a very short time overall. You would be able to sum it up in a few words. It's a fascinating subject.

Cursed Knitting, The Mummy III

2008-08-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

Knitting News:

Have you ever had days when nothing worked? I’ve had over a week of those now. I finished the first repeat of Pattern 9 of the Summer Sampler stole without problems and ever since things go haywire whenever I touch it. I would knit a row - be off one stitch – fix it, knit another row – ok - knit the next row – be off two stitches – tink back to where the mistake was – fix it – knit the row again – be off one stitch again – fix that – finish the row – knit 2 more rows and discover that somehow I shifted the pattern 1 stitch to the left – etc. etc. Weirdly enough I make the mistakes not on the main pattern rows, but on the easy in-betweener rows.

2 days ago, after about 2 hours of this I decided that somehow this pattern as it is now on my needles must be cursed, so I ripped all the way back to my spacer lifeline, so I would have a clean, fresh start for the whole pattern. Wish me luck! I am actually scared to touch it right now!!

Well, at least I still seem to be capable of knitting ribs - my Something Teal cardigan is progressing again - only a few million rows of ribbing to go.

Fleegle is undergoing some serious medical treatment – I hope everything will turn out the way it is hoped.

Movies seen:

The Mummy III – It could have been a lot better, but the story is weak. The Chinese actors were much more convincing than the rest. This time the "lesser Indiana Jones" is trying to prevent the sort-of resurrected Dragon Emperor Han from getting his greedy little fingers on the waters of life in Shangri-La which would make him immortal - and, of course, he then would want to rule the world. I loved Michelle Yeoh in the role of the witch. She is really good! I wish the story were better!

Summer Sampler Stole, Pattern 8, Lacis Retreat

2008-07-20T18:10:00.001-07:00

21 Jul 2008:

Summer Sampler, Pattern 8

So I started eagerly with row 1 of this new pattern, and by the time I get to the end of it, I realize that I am one stitch short. What? I usually double-count after knitting the spacer between patterns, just to be sure that I have the correct number of required stitches for the next pattern. Well ... ok ... guess I miscounted. Hmpf. So I tinked row 1 back, recounted ... now I'm 2 stitches short! What is going on? I take a closer look at my lifeline and see that somehow I must have dropped a stitch while knitting and then another one while tinking back. Whew! Thank God for lifelines! After taking a calming chocolate break, I finished this pattern in one sitting.

WooHoo! -- I sent in my registration for the Urban Retreat at Lacis today - can't wait! I'm really looking forward to meeting Galina Khmeleva and learning more about Orenburg shawls from her. Besides Lace Knitting, this week-long Lace Making retreat will cover Bobbin Lace, Needle Lace/Lace ID, and Tatting.

Summer Sampler Stole, Pattern 7

2008-07-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

17 Jul 2008: Pattern 7 of the Summer Sampler Stole is done:

Pattern 7 of the Summer Sampler Stole

I couldn't finish it last weekend, because we were busy with yard work, I had some strange pain in my right arm, and - to top it off - I woke up with the worst stiff neck ever!

Anyway, I finished it today ... as you can see I modified the pattern slightly. I thought it wasn't fair for the SSKs to get all the glory, so in pattern repeats 2 and 4 I did K2tog , simply for reasons of symmetry:

Detail of Pattern 7

I had to unravel the button-band and ribbing of my Something Teal Cardigan ... even though I tried it on while knitting, and everything looked to be where it should be, but once I was finished, I thought it would better if the ribbing started a little higher, and I should have placed the button-hole also a bit higher. But even as it is, was, I liked it. So, a few more weeks of boring ribbing to go.

Thanks to halfmaennchen's blog I found this website: Knitting beyond the Hebrides. This is full of very useful information. Go to the Lace Symposium link, then click on Schedule, and then click on the various items in the schedule. Particularly noteworthy is the fabulous pdf you get when you click on the Shetland Lace link. It is a comparison between different lace knitting traditions by Elizabeth Lovick (Shetland, Icelandic, Faeroese, Estonian, Ukrainian, and Orenburg laces), complete with examples, and sample charts. Great info! This will be come in very handy, once I design my own shawl.

Hey, we found another nest of our feral chicken (her name is Henrietta, btw) - this one contained 5 eggs! It was hidden in our mint patch (the eggs did not taste minty, though). It's always such a surprise! More often we find broken eggshells here and there, but every few weeks we discover some intact eggs.

Hellboy II is a good, fun movie - I had never read the comic and did not see the first movie, but wanted to see this one, because the director was the same one who did Pan's Labyrinth. It was visually stunning, just the opening credits alone are worth seeing. The story itself is a little thin, and felt a little like a mix of Pan's Labyrinth, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Star Wars, but the visuals make up for it. Plus Hellboy likes cats ... which immediately puts him into my "Good Guy" category.

And here is a fun quote I heard a few days ago:

The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse who gets the cheese!

Till next time ...

Summer Sampler Stole, Pattern 6

2008-07-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

Pattern 6 of the Summer Sampler Stole is done:

Pattern 6 of the Summer Sampler Stole

The gracefully arching fronds of this pattern remind me of the Maiglöckchen (= Lily of the Valley) pattern I saw in a book I recently purchased ("Maiglöckchen - Variationen eines traditionellen Strickmusters", ISBN 3-8334-1337-9). Except it does not have the nupps of the traditional Estonian pattern. This old pattern seems to enjoy a renewed popularity at this time - it is also featured in the latest issue (Jul/Aug 2008) of Piecework magazine. The book shows how to apply the pattern to different garments and shawls. Here is a picture from the book (used with permission) showing the pattern:

Maiglöckchen pattern

You can see the contents of the book and more photos here. English instructions for a Möbius scarf are also available here (scroll to STR08).

I just love this pattern - it is very graceful and feminine.

A little bit of personal History

2008-07-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

I learned knitting in grade school … back then, in the sixties in Germany, girls had to take needlework (Handarbeiten) classes which consisted of knitting and crochet instruction, while the boys had shop classes. I would have much rather taken shop than needlework – I was a tomboy. I didn’t do too well either, so I was happy when I changed over to high school where these classes were no longer part of the curriculum. A few years later, probably when I was about 15 or 16 years old, and I no longer remember why, I knitted myself a blouson-type sweater with a wide collar and in 3 colors! It turned out quite nicely, and I actually wore it several times (which was huge for me, because I was very insecure about wearing something I made myself).

I didn’t knit anything else for many years after that (marriage, moving to the US, divorce, 2^nd marriage, etc.), until several years ago, I again started to make something out of the blue. This time I knit a dog sweater (I had a Doberman back then, and I felt sorry for her not having thick fur to keep her warm at night), and shortly after that – since I had yarn left over … a pair of crocheted socks, without a pattern, just by trying them on (the socks, not the dog sweater) and adjusting and ripping back and re-doing it. It was hideous acrylic yarn! The first sock turned out ok, wearable, but too loose, but since I didn’t try on the second sock (after all, I would remember how I did the first one, right?), I managed to put the heel on the side of the sock instead of where it should be! I still have these socks!!!

Then, again a hiatus of about 2 years. Then I started a crochet blanket, also acrylic, and finished it in a few months – it was a rather boring all-over pattern, and I did mess up attaching the border to it, but that’s only obvious if you actually count the border pattern repeats on each side. It’s dark red, and now protects a chair from cat-hair:

Of course, sometimes I forget to put it there:

I was quite proud of that blanket, actually. At that time I liked crochet more than knitting, so I crocheted a few doilies as gifts. I still have the sample doily:

And I crocheted a sweater for myself (background to doily above).

This sweater is very heavy, somewhat stiff and w-a-r-m. I still wear it sometimes when it gets really cold. It’s an all-over pattern that mimics knitted cables (but only at a distance of about 10 yards!)

That’s when I decided to turn to knitting, because it’s just … more elegant, and less stiff. Of course, I should have used bigger needles or thinner yarn, but at that time I just used what I had. Don't get me wrong, I think crochet can be beautiful in the form of lace, or decorations, but for garments, I prefer knitting. So I did a few easy knitting projects (scarves, placemat, a few hats, and stuff like that) to warm up. At that time (probably about 2002) I also started to read knitting books, and became more interested in different techniques. I decided to make my husband a sweater with an all-over cable pattern which took me a few months, but turned out quite well. I even seamed it together perfectly (the sweater itself is not perfect, and now I would use a different yarn, a different pattern and a different color! -- OK, a whole different sweater!).

After I asked him why he wasn't wearing it, he finally admitted that he did not like the collar and rolled hems, so I re-did these parts – which was easy, because by then I had read Elizabeth Zimmermann’s books. I love EZ! She taught me so much!

Since then I have been knitting (and buying knitting books) continuously, and have always one to three projects going (usually one sock project, one bigger/more complicated project, and one that’s in a boring phase). That’s pretty much my limit. I can’t understand how people have 20 or 30 WIPs going at the same time. Whenever I pick up a project after working on another one for a while, I have to read the instructions again, double-check where I left off, and just “get into it” again. It’s a mystery to me how someone can just switch between so many projects.

So that’s my knitting history … currently I am expanding my horizon by lace-knitting. After practicing a bit, I plan to design my own shawl. Just following a pattern all the time gets boring real quickly – I love to experiment and do my own thing – it’s the same with cooking … I only follow the recipe once, then I adjust it. (Never mind that this sometimes led to disaster …)

Other things I like: Cats ... and dogs (all animals, actually), reading, gardening, yoga, the TV series “Reaper”, and traveling (I’ve been to Tunisia, Italy, South Africa, France, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Canada).

Till next time.

Progress with Summer Sampler Stole ...

2008-06-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

Pattern 5 in the KAL of BadCat's Summer Sampler Stole caused me some head-scratching. I habitually mark all pattern repeats with a stitch marker, just so I can see at a glance exactly where I am. Well, in the case of this pattern, even though the pattern repeat in the chart looks perfectly lined up for each row, you will have to move the pattern markers 1 stitch to the left whenever the next row has a yarn-over in the left pattern edge. So, for a few rows the pattern shifts 1 stitch to the left. This pattern is really nice, see ...

BadCat calls it the Grand Spider ... I cannot see the spiders :-) ... others say it looks more like people. Either way, it's a beautiful pattern.

In other news ... Germany did not win the European Soccer Championship (sob), let's see how they do in the World Cup in two years.

We saw WALL*E this weekend - a very good movie, with a message and a love story! Pixar always does a short before the main feature film - this one was really funny. It was called Presto (I believe) and is about a hungry magician's rabbit (you know: the ones that get pulled out of a hat) who refuses to play along until he's fed.

Germany is in the Finals!

2008-06-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Yeah!!

Summer Sampler stole

2008-06-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

Currently, my main project is the Summer Sampler stole by Bad Cat Designs (see blog list). I just finished pattern 4:

This is a nice practice for someone like me who knows how to do the basics, but hasn't yet tried lace knitting. Eventually I hope to graduate and try one of the Niebling patterns. But before then I want to design my own Shetland/Orenburg style lace shawl.

Tomorrow are the semi-finals of the European Soccer Championship. Go Germany!!!

Introduction

2008-06-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hello there.

This blog is intended to mainly chronicle my current knitting hobby. You will also find occasional entries of what else is going on in my life.

I am (in 2008) 48 year old female, married, living in the San Francisco East Bay. I was born and raised in Germany and came to this area in 1989. I am a professional translator, working as a freelancer until 2006, and am now employed in a SW company as a QA Engineer.

Besides knitting, I like to garden, practice yoga (I have to admit to my shame that I'm an on/off exerciser), and reading (especially murder mysteries).

Favorite quote (can't remember where I first read it):

There are no boundaries except those
perceived by the senses, and arranged
into reality by the mind.