Touch My Heart
Receiving this poem from Ella was the highlight of my Mother’s Day.
[The picture is of the inside of the movie theater when we saw The Chronicles of Narnia.]
Touch My Heart
by Ella
Movies together. Movies.
Tap, tap go her needles.
A gift to me.
Taught me to make the same noise of tap, tap.
A generous jewel.
A generous jewel.
Joyful together.
Her hair is as dark as dark chocolate.
Touch my heart.
Thanks Ella. I love you.
New Summer Project
I’ve already found one summer knitting project, the Licorice Bullet Skirt. I’ve been looking for a summer skirt to make Ella, and this one will be great since you can customize it to fit any size. I’ll be using the Valley Yarns Longmeadow. But I can’t start any new knitting project until I finish River.
Which brings me to the progress of the shawl. I’m getting faster now, finding a rhythm. But oh, I got stuck on row 70. Now there’s nothing special about this row. But for some reason I was one stitch short and I would knit a row, unknit it, back and forth way too many times. Finally today I sat down with the shawl again under good lighting and found the one little dropped stitch that hadn’t gone anywhere (thank goodness). Now I’m off again, on row 77. But here’s the thing. I measured the length so far and did the math. Apparently once I finish all of the repeats the shawl will be over 10 inches too short. I’m hoping that once blocked severely, the shawl will be about the correct length, true?
With the shawl being sent to the bad corner for a few days, I actually picked up Picovoli again. I finally committed to not doing the waist shaping in the pattern and came up with my own waist shaping. Really it feels like I’m just winging it. I’ll try it on once I get a few more inches knit and see how it looks at that point.
I’m finally up-to-date with my Stitches II swatches. Here they are above my desk whispering constantly, “Block me.”
And the other day I bought some nice clothes for the kids to wear to the commitment celebration. I meant them to be saved for the event. But I guess the kids couldn’t wait to try them. They came downstairs and this is what I saw.
Don’t you think Liam makes the most lovely girl and Ella is a fine little man? Apparently they’re about the same size around. Mouseover for the “fancy pose.” Where did Ella learn to jut out her hip like that?
Sleeping Bundle
I haven’t had a child fall asleep in a weird place for awhile. But it happened the other night with Liam.
Even though it was still well before bedtime, looks like he decided he just couldn’t stay awake for dinner and fell asleep in the middle of the dining room.
The Yarn Harlot is coming to WEBS on Saturday. And it sounds like it’s going to be a big event. Unfortunately, I’m missing her since I’ll be at the beach with my friend and two other women all weekend. But I do see one or two yarn stops on my drive down. And of course I’ll be getting a lot of knitting done. I’m hoping to make a lot of progress on River.
This, That and Everything in Between
It’s time to do some catch up blogging. Things have been super busy lately, and that’s not going to change any time soon. So let’s get started.
My friend Amy and I are both starting Grumperina’s Picovoli’s together. Her yarn is pink in the new Valley Yarns Longmeadow and mine will be the purple Joy in Rowan Calmer.
We both struggled with the provisional cast on and the row being twisted when joining in the round. After getting the provisional cast on done correctly, I got 22 rows into mine and realized that the picot edge was really going to flare out. After ripping it all out, I did the inside edge on the picot trim two needle sizes smaller, hopefully reducing the tendency to flare out. Here’s my latest try:
I knitted a set of potholders for my sister-in-law and brother, a very belated Christmas gift. I had a bit of a problem deciding what kind of edge to use. At first I did a crochet edge (top of pict) which seemed really stiff. I was concerned that after felting the edge wouldn’t be flat, but all ruffly. So the next two potholders I used a knit edge (bottom of pict). This edge seemed much more consistent with the rest of the fabric.
I felted them yesterday at Amy’s and they’re drying right now. The crochet edge did indeed felt in a unpleasant funky way. So that makes two potholders as gifts and one in the bin of NEVER DO THIS AGAIN. And yes once again I forgot to take pre-felting measurements so I could figure out the percentage of shrinkage.
My scarf arrived from my secret International Scarf Exchange pal.
Her name is Marion Frazer from Tennessee. Marion met a German designer, Monika Haas, at Stitches East and the pattern is Monika’s design. Monika also made the yarn which is created by individual threads added together starting with the light colors and gradually going to the darker colors. Thanks so much Marion; it’s all quite beautiful.
Last week Ella came home and declared that I needed to make her a wood sprite costume for her Girl Scout play that was happening in two days. This is what I whipped up in less than an hour since that’s all the time I was willing to put into a spur-of-the-moment request. I can’t believe how much sewing I’ve been doing.
I couldn’t resist this new Lexie Barnes knitting bag. But between the Pink Picot Hat and these pink flowers, am I turning into a girly girl? I didn’t even think I liked pink, at least not since I was 14 wearing a pink suit while my brothers sported the Miami Vice look. But when I showed the bag to Liam yesterday and asked him what he thought of it, he said, “It’s handsome. The flowers are handsome. (pauses and strokes the flowers.) I lub you Mom.” Well if it’s a handsome bag, it can’t be too girly girl, right?
And the real reason that I justified buying this bag now was because I have a new part-time job at Webs! You know that I’m excited about this. I start next Thursday and I’m going to try my hardest not to spend it all on yarn. But how could I resist one celebratory knitting bag?
You’ve been warned, no knitting news
OK, so I’m putting off doing auction work. But don’t you want to see my 5 favorite photos that I took last year? None of them are knitting related.
Ella getting ready for school
I love the muddy speckled Liam.
Ella loved, loved, loved the waves.
This picture totally tells the story of getting ready for the first day of school.
How can you not love this weird Halloween picture?
Another Reason to Love Fall
I think Fall is my favorite season, for many reasons.
• wearing cozy sweaters and scarves again
• making (and eating) Concord grape pie
• looking at the colorful leaves that rustle when you walk through them
• smelling burning pumpkin and fireplaces
And now I can add The Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck to the list.
This was my first time there. And it was wonderful and overwhelming at the same time. I drove up the morning of the first day, picking up my friend Johanna on the way there. This was Johanna’s 11th year. She’s a spinner and knitter and lives just over the river from Rhinebeck. Day 1 was a wonderfully decadent day. I think it was the first time in over seven years since Johanna and I have spent the day together without children. We got to browse, talk, and even finish all of our sentences.
I resisted buying too much. I came home with a few knitting notions and only two kinds of yarn. The Baby Twist will be for a sweater for my husband. It is so soft. This yarn came from the booth of Johanna’s friend, David Stensland of Red Maple Sportswear Co. The merino/silk yarn from Maple Creek Farm will be for a Clapotis for me. And that’s all of the yarn! Are you impressed by my restraint?
A women was working on a pair of twined socks, and the technique was so cool I had her show me how. Basically you’re knitting from two strands, alternating every other stitch, and twisting the strands after every stitch. This technique makes a really thick fabric and I like the way it breaks up the colorway.
Day 2 was with kids and it was a much different experience. The weather had turned colder too. We started off the day watching the pumpkin chucking contest. Bill was inspired to use this as the subject of his quiz the next day.
Child’s Broom/Childs’ Broom? Liam liked the sheep. Sheepman scared a one-year old.
Here’s the big parenting mistake of the day. All day the kids asked to go on the big slide. We said we would do it on the way out. Here’s what we found when we got to it. Needless to say, they were devastated.
But we ended the day with some rolling down hills. The slide was forgotten, thankfully.
Windsor Button
I needed to pick up an order at The Container Store yesterday. So the kids and I decided to check out Windsor Button while we were near Boston.
I knew all of their yarn was 20% off on Columbus Day. And there was a lot more yarn than I thought there would be. But I resisted, knowing that the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival was this weekend. But I did get a couple of knitting notions. And the kids each got to pick out a special button.
The bear is all seamed. Now it just needs some features. He’s soft and cute. I’ll post pictures tomorrow.
Scary Wings
I took the kids to Magic Wings today, a lovely butterfly conservatory. Unfortunately, I have a bit of a bug phobia going back to childhood. (I’ll post some photos of my little Junebug book about the development of my phobia in the next week.)
I finally got myself psyched up to go into the conservatory. But there were some not so welcoming hissing cockroaches in the entry. This did not set the mood well for me.
Once inside, the panicky feeling continued. I guess I must of let a few yelps out since an employee approached me. She said that some patrons feel more comfortable holding a butterfly predator. She came back with this.
Do you think, a grown woman, would carry this around with her for the next hour, holding it up to her face every time a butterfly appeared to be swooping in? You betcha!
At some point the employee came over to the kids and said if they wanted butterflies to approach them, they should get away from me. Here’s a visitor that Ella named Cream.
The kids had an amazing time. And we learned a lot about butterflies and their eggs and how Ella could make a career of tending butterflies.
In knitting news, the stranded bag is coming along. I think I have at least 30 rows of the pattern knit now. I’ll show progress photos tomorrow.
Finished Project: Felted Bead Bracelet
Maybe it’s crazy of me to decide to make a birthday gift the day before a party, but Ella and I had fun.
Ella’s going to a birthday party tomorrow and needed a gift for a friend. Ever since my trip to Morehouse Farm yarn store, I can’t stop thinking about little felted balls. I mentioned the idea of trying to make a felted bead bracelet for her friend. She was excited about it so we picked up some colorful wool at A Child’s Garden after school. An hour later Ella, Liam and I were circled around a tub of hot soapy water felting away. After felting, I put the beads in the dryer and then strung them on some stretchy beading cord. That’s it. It was a simple and fun project to do with kids and I’m sure we’ll be making more of these. At Morehouse Farm I also saw some felt bead purse handles which were so cute. Hmm, maybe I could put those on my felted knitting bag I want to make.
Can’t Sleep
Is it the sweaty, footed-pajama boy next to me or the Misti Alpaca keeping me up?
I was up late out seeing Mike Doughty last night, so I know I’m tired. But Liam’s in the big bed, rolling around keeping me awake. And I can’t stop thinking about the super soft Misti Alpaca Chunky yarn and how it would feel against my skin. I was at Webs yesterday with the kids and brought Ella over to this wonderful yarn. “Feel it! It feels like a cloud.” She touched it with one hand and then dove head first into it. She understood too.
When I was at Webs I had the Vogue Knitting Fall 2005 Pattern #11 on my mind (thanks a lot Nona). I’ve been resisting buying any knitting magazines but I ended up walking out of the store with it. I guess I shouldn’t have been reading it when I fell asleep last night. Now I’m up thinking, could I substitute the Rowan Kid Silk Haze with the Cascade Indulgence I still have and swap the Rowan Big Wool with the Misty Alpaca? I know it would be super soft. But could I get the right gauge with this combination? Well there isn’t any Misty in my house right now, so I can’t start a swatch.
So I have two options:
1. I could go back to bed right now and get the rest I know I need.
2. It’s already 4:15 am. I might as well stay up and work on the Sockapaltwoza socks bind off.
Decisions, decisions.
