Snappy

I've just inherited a camera from my photographer husband.


My technological expertise goes about as far as a donkey in a wheelbarrow. Despite this, I am contentedly snapping away at anything and everything. I got a little over exited about some buttons, and ended up having to edit through some 30 or 40 button photos.




They are great buttons, but posterity can live without 40 photos of the same three buttons. Yesterday I managed to set aside a little time for quilting. In two hours I (almost) finished this.


I even hand sewed the little cabin, and the nesting doll in the doorway. These are some of my favorite fabrics. Notice the rabbits in the blue fabric pattern.


I'm considering a third panel at the bottom. It's a good size for a baby quilt, but if I add a panel, it could be a crib quilt. I'm going to do a lot of embroidery on this. There will be a corn crop, birds, pumpkins, and maybe a squirrel or two. I still haven't decided what to do about the border, but that's the nice thing about quilting. I don't have to decide in advance.

Woman vs. Shawlette

I mentioned earlier in another post that I was in a sort of Mexican standoff with "Ishbel". I thought that this fight would be won when I called in the cavalry on knit night. To be fair, this wasn't their fight, and they were as mystified as I was. A day or two later I rallied the troops for a frontal assault. I didn't think I would win. In fact I thought that there would be heavy casualties, mostly involving me swearing a lot, and then weeping in a corner. Within two minutes I had found the stray yarn over and was advancing towards victory with no doubts as to my superiority. After years and years of knitting, I am a battle hardened commander of yarn. I should have known that the shawlette was just feigning a retreat so that it could sneak around for a good swift kick at my rear.
Mid way through the lace, I realized with horror, that I did not have enough yarn left to finish her off. The shawlette had me surrounded and was cutting off supplies. The only way to win was to throw the original battle plan in the bin, and go all in. First, I dug out some a small ball of cashmere in a similar colorway. By some miracle of Jupiter, it was actually the same weight, and looked pretty next to the body of the shawlette, but it was far too small a ball. I knit forward, and ripped back. I tried to skip lace charts. I tried to rewrite lace charts. I was losing. I started to swear. I started to yell. In a completely unladylike display, I ripped out the needles, frogged back several inches and tossed the shawlette on the table. I was preparing to wave the white flag, when I noticed that the shawlette looked good, remarkably good for something that was missing it's border.
I made a snap decision. I would let my enemy lie there thinking she had won. The following morning I would retrieve my needles, and finish her off. After a sound nights sleep, I went in for the kill. By 10am the following day, I was casting off. Victory was mine. I tossed her in a hot soapy bath, and pinned her down.


I am not above humiliating a shawlette on a towel.


I was so pleased with this victory, that I cast on for a matching beret.


I'm not prepared to wear these two items at the same time. There's something a little creepy about a matching beret and shawlette. However, it's nice to work on another knit with the same lace pattern, while it's still fresh in my head.


The beret is also cashmere, and so far, it's been a real pleasure. I'm not going to let this one get even a step out of line. Remember the Alamo, or whatever.

Un-responsibility-ness

There's been a bit of a lull in the knitting. I don't know if it's because of the weed pulling opportunities that the recent rains have provided, or if it's because I'm baking like baking might add years to my life. Our village fete is this weekend, and I'm on the hook to make Irish soda bread for 240 people. Incidentally, I only signed up to make bread for 120 people, but somehow that number got changed. Thank goodness I don't trust authority figures. I started making bread weeks ago, on the hunch that the powers that be might have their numbers wrong. I've also drafted another sucker to help out. When I do get a moment or two, I've been plugging away on "Striven".


It's a very good end of the day, so tired I can't tell my dog from my baby, sort of project. I think I'm probably going to have to cast on for another sweater in a thicker yarn. Knitting a sweater on size 4 needles is pretty demoralizing, even for those of us who lack morals. I have some Eco-wool in the stash that's been begging for parole. I'm considering the "Placed Cable Aran" by Cathy Payson. It can be found in the Fall 07 issue of Interweave Knits. The only thing holding me back from a quick and dirty cast on, are all of the UFOs hanging out in my living room. I might have to get one of those "No Loitering" signs. Maybe I should just suck it up, and finish them. In my defense, I'm living in a house where this is considered breakfast.


We may have some self control issues going on here. Just in case you don't recognize the container in the back ground, that's chocolate macadamia nut ice cream on a French country loaf. I know, it's genius. I wish I could claim this creation as my own, but my husband deserves all of the credit for this masterpiece of irresponsible cuisine.
On a completely unrelated note, I've got a quilting itch, and it needs scratching. Here's a rough draft of a baby quilt I'm about to start cutting pieces for.


I'm only going to use a couple of fabrics for this. The little cabin in the woods theme should be pretty gender neutral. Gender neutral is key, when you don't can't remember who's pregnant with what.


I think I'll probably end up doing some embroidery on this before I start quilting. I want this quilt to be a little bit dark, like the music from "Peter and the Wolf". Children have lovely dark sides, which should be cultivated with traditional fairy tales and scary quilts.

Striven

This butterfly landed on my swimsuit while I was laying out by the pool.


I love summer, I really do. I look forward to it, as if I'm still in the second grade. Tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, sun tea, swimming, BBQ, what's not to like? Before knitting, I was not a fan of fall. Fall was like one big endless Monday. The thrill of going back to school wore off right around the time I received my first homework assignment. I went to Catholic school, so they gave homework out on the first day. Now, I love fall. I love it so much, that even on a perfect summer day, I think about fall knitting. This is what I'm knitting for fall.



The pattern is "Striven", and is published in Rowan Magazine 42. I believe this to be one of the all time greatest Rowan Magazines ever. It has tundra, and heather, and a purse shaped like a pineapple. There are at least 15 things I'd love to knit from this magazine. When it came in the mail I did something I almost never do. I went online, and I ordered the exact yarn that this pattern called for; wool cotton and felted tweed. When the yarn arrived I pulled a ball out of the bag, grabbed the magazine, and started to read through the pattern. It seemed really daunting. There was some weird Swedish stitch I didn't know. I put the yarn down and picked up another project. Since that day, this sweater has been haunting my stash. Two years later, I'm not afraid of the weird Swedish stitch. I'm ready to knit the sweater, and sit on a rock wearing a kilt with a "come hither if you dare" look, on my face. That model really sold me on this sweater. Such confidence for someone with a cave bat complexion.


I've finished the ribbing on the back, and am about two inches into the slipped stitch stripy pattern. It looks like weaving. I suppose that's the idea. There's something odd about the weight of the fabric. It feels too light. I tried swatching with a smaller set of needles, but came up with an equally airy fabric. I guess it's the stitch pattern that's causing that.


I think I like the felted tweed. It's the kind of yarn I could grow to love. I'm going to take extra care with this project. I want this to be a sweater that I wear with pride. I still don't have a hand knit sweater that I'll wear in public. I'm more than a little ashamed of that. Everything seems to get given away, or shrunk, or never finished. This time, I'm going to stick it out. It helps that the color work is fun, but not challenging. It also helps that the sweater is named "Striven". Striven sounds like driven + strive. One can't very well chuck a sweater named "Striven" into a bag. It just seems wrong.
This next photo is of my new friend Amy.


Amy as in, an A+ version of me. She's got the same size bust, but with an impossibly small waist. She was found at a small shop that was going out of business. Actually, truth be told, I saw a young woman walking toward the parking garage with a dress form under her arm. I cornered her and demanded that she tell me where she bought her dress form. She breathlessly informed me that there were only a couple left, and that they were being sold for 15 euros a piece, and before she could finish her sentence, I was off like a shot, dragging my husband and son behind me. Because it's a store form, and not a sewing form, I'm going to have to make a couple of adjustments. For one, Amy is going to need to put on some weight. No one in this house is allowed to have a 38 inch bust with a 26 inch waist. Them's the rules.