Leaping Molly

I started it in 2012, finished it last night, and prepped it for final wearing today, this leap day.

After taking a class from JC Briar and appreciating her description of the construction of the sweater she wore, I purchased the kit at Stitches West in 2012 from Shelridge Yarns and started pretty quickly.

A month later there were some issues, and some separation was needed.  I might have picked up a bad habit along the way.

Progress a year later?  Two steps forward and nearly two steps backward.

Reconciliation occurred soon afterward. There was commitment to bring this beauty forward.

Finally, half of the piece was finished!  Wearing it was a dream.  Still more to do, though. It became the piece I dedicated myself to each February, commemorating Stitches West. And the sleeves took three (3) years to complete.

I would have been lost if I had not taken notes.

The notes saved me and reflected the amount of planning, work, and rework that I devoted to this piece over the years.

My struggles with the piece are a reflection of my desire to speed things up and not pay attention to the pattern in front of me.  I have no regrets from this experience, and I hope I am a better knitter.

JC Briar is a fantastic designer.  The pattern is beautifully designed and very well written.  You can find it here, and purchase it here.

Spring

Lyra

sampled aka interrupted

11.12.13

Feeling compelled to provide an entry to mark this date. How do I choose among events attended, events performed, people who have come forward and the notable absence of those who have not, tasks done, and things that are constantly being made? Maybe a few pictures will help narrate a subset.

An unexpected encounter with a small blended sample of cotton, silk tussah fiber and threads. A spinning challenge rewarded with hands learning how to handle short staple length, and eyes catching fibers glinting in the sun, which resulted in a few yards of very fine gauge 2-ply.

Pioneer Spring met Sally Fox, local grower of wool and cotton, at AVFKW's 3rd anniversary celebration.

"I haven't seen you for awhile, since your last news. So how are you, really?" was asked with the glance that cut through layers. "What happened makes no sense. But the word on the street is that you took the bullet. No adverse reflection on you, more on them. You can always have the informal discussions with _x_ so that we can try to help you."

Rocking to power guitar and great music from the Roger Steen Band and Miles Schon Band.

Picked the last harvest of the summer garden.

Will let dogs continue to lie. Let their caretakers handle them.

Successfully made dried persimmons / 곶감 / hoshigaki.

Bricks and mortar beat online hands-down for exploration. 매달 도서관에서 책들을 찾아요.

And I took a little time on the loom. I learn something new with each project: warping back to front, observing weave structure, tying on, adjusting to differences in tension and beating for wool and cotton.

Spent some time on the road as well. Travels will continue - by thousands of miles and by a few feet.

Pioneer Spring

Niiice. Bring it on.

Week 2

gardening - sprouts
salad days
conversations - changed circumstances open doors to info not revealed a month ago.
slow down - accelerated process
relationships anew - observations from a different perspective
look at something new - adornments where earth meets sea.

Something good

It started with a very bad April Fool's. My reactions included disbelief, dismay, betrayal, and disbelief (did I already mention disbelief?). So what do I do but stay with what's real. Hunker down and get things done. No point in wondering about what happened - I find that others are doing that for me. Maybe it will hit me later.

For now, though, I finished these. The yarn, "Soft Green Seas," has a little history. The socks were started in late March and had a deadline.  They missed the deadline (just a few days late) because when I picked them up in-progress I just started knitting and totally screwed up the heels - I guess I was discombobulated at the time.

I gave them a bath and they dried in a warm afternoon. They are softer than lamb's ears and more rugged than iron.

I make good things.

Molly

Venus de Molly awaits arms (sleeves), although this version is also acceptable. Feels like a good dream.

Planning ahead for the sleeves.

SW 2013

I'll start with a summary of the damage report:

fiber ... yarn and hardware.

There was reconciliation with Molly.

There were daily visits to A Verb for Keeping Warm's booth and Lisa Souza's booth. Because it's good to visit kind souls and beauty.

I took Andrea Wong's class on "Knitting in the Portuguese style", where the yarn is tensioned around the back of one's neck. I've seen pictures of South Americans knitting in this manner, and apparently this method is also used in areas of Asia and the Middle East, too. The tension created by looping the yarn around the neck actually assists in maneuvering the yarn at the needles. The left hand thumb flicks the working yarn over the right needle tip. When I use this technique I'll need to swatch to get gage. It's quite different from "English" and "Continental" methods that I currently use interchangebly.

I also took Galina Khmeleva's class on "Spinning for Lace Knitting." Great introduction to precious fine fibers and spinning with a traditional Russian supported spindle.

The left photo shows samples of singles on spindles as well as plied yarn in balls. The right photo shows my sequential single of cashmere, buffalo, pygora, and quiviut winding onto the plying spindle with white silk. Oo-la-la.

The yarn on the round card is from class; the yarn on the square card is my practice yarn after class. Plies need more twist, I see.


Here's a fitting toast to the entire experience. It was wonderful.

Order, chaos, order

I thought this was going so smoothly. Then I saw that I didn't increase for the hips. And then I saw something else that happened much MUCH earlier. So I had no other choice.

I resumed knitting but there's now a new issue I discovered in the area I resurrected. I cannot write about this now. It is sitting in the project bag in a corner of my room, and I look at it occasionally, wondering how to solve the problem.

==
Here's a new venture! Double weave that makes doubled cloth.

The advice is to warp the loom back to front, but I chose to warp front to back.

Data: sock yarn, 2/dent, 15d reed. It takes twice as long to warp because the number of ends is 2x - it being a double weave and all. (Obvious? but I need to tell myself these things.)

Observations: the yarn is very sticky, especially with the close spacing. Turning the back beam while warping puts alot of tension on the fiber, and is likely why warping back to front was advised. High tension is needed during weaving so that the yarns can pass by each other in the same dent.

Neruda's Tribute

Ode to My Socks

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder’s hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.

-Pablo Neruda (trans. Robert Bly)

Shot

A shot of Jamesons to steel oneself.

I needed to rip out an inch but soon saw that there were other issues that required redoing, so I planned to take it down to the pencil. The first rows were the most difficult to rip out. I slowly pulled the yarn and heard each stitch pop and saw the time I spent on this heap up in that tangled pile of undone knitting.

Once I reached the intended pencil-row, though, I saw more flaws. What the heck, I continued to rip out stitches, pulling the yarn with long easy sweeps.

It's easier to pick up dropped stitches when you're relaxed.

Ready to start again.

I celebrated with a shot of Bushmills.

SW 2012 album

Stitches West 2012, February, Santa Clara, CA.
I took two classes: "Slick set-in-sleeves" with JCBriar, and a "Fitting Knits" class with Lily Chin. Both were worthwhile.

I got a beautiful lightweight spindle by KCL Woods. It weighs less than an ounce and spins true. I got what I call a "more fun than a barrel full of monkeys" pack of colorful fiber. And some MadTosh yarn and sumptuous Souza fiber.

I met up with some friends at A Verb for Keeping Warm's booth, which was selected by the Stitches West instructors as "most beautiful"! Congrats!
In the right-hand photo I'm flanked by Kristine and Romi, sources of the dress pattern and fabric, as well as the scarf I'm wearing. The turtle fabric is whimsical and from AVFKW, and the scarf is "Caliz" and designed by Romi.

Here are a few other purchases. And in the lower left corner you can see a little souvenir from my visit with Ysolda.

Angostura

Angostura - modelled by AVFKW

Started in early January, completed February 19.
Made a few swatches before achieving proper gauge. Smaller needles were needed to get the proper vertical gauge - funny thing was that the horizontal gauge was not greatly affected.

Oh this is what Ysolda said in her book, Little Red in the City.

I learned a new thing.

Angostura - modelled by AVFKW

Took a few tries - first ripping occured with the back armholes because the edges (selvedges) didn't look right.

Second ripping occured at the neck because...the edges didn't look right.

Call me a slow learner.

Angostura - modelled by AVFKW

I became adept at 2-stitch cables without an extra needle. Yesss!

The yarn is "Slick", a tightly spun blend of wool and silk, in an energizing color called "Transnational Fury", by AVFKW.

The third re-do occured as I was learning how to sew up the side seams as instructed in Ysolda's book.   I'm re-framing this experience as "first attempts are good practice".

Angostura - modelled by AVFKW

Angostura - detail

The finished work fits like a glove. It was worth every minute I put into it. I love it.

Marin 2

Marin (front) - modelled by AVFKW

After a few weeks, this was completed on Feb 5.

Marin (front)- modelled by AVFKW

Ysolda was at AVFKW so I was able to show the FO to her. We talked about the features, and she noted that it was worked over at least a handful of times during the design process.

Wow! all that worked enabled me to reap the reward of a beautiful scarf.

Marin (back) - modelled by AVFKW

The yarn is indigo-dyed by AVFKW and is luscious and rich in color. Photos do not capture the depth of color.

Marin (back) - modelled by AVFKW

The pattern uses #5 needles. Because I tend to knit tightly I used #6's.
I would advise knitters to use #5's.

Completed Feb 5

I got nervous at the end.