A Shout Out to AAA

I just have to say how glad I am that AAA is in service. I was deep into Boston at a baby's birthday party when I realized that my keys weren't in my purse. I remember locking the car but I couldn't remember checking for the keys like I always do. I dumped out the purse (what a mess! Not a good time to discover how badly it needs to be cleaned out!) I searched the kitchen where I'd been unloading things. With that sinking feeling, I went to the car and looked through the windows. On the third seat of our giant van (there are five rows of seats!) were the keys.

We have just one car and DH was several bus transfers and two train stops away from me on a Sunday when all the services are slow.

I was just about to launch into a full blown panic when I remembered that I didn't have to. It's almost like having a Fairy God Mother in your wallet - call them and all will be well. It was a long wait but just as the sun was going down and the cold was settling in, the white knight came riding up on his giant tow truck. We all agreed that we have never been so happy to get into the van!

The only downside to all of this is that the knitting was locked in the van with the keys!

Recycle This

Just as I am learning to let go of things and purge the clutter, the 7yo dd is learning to save the earth through recycling. I see garbage and she sees building blocks.


How could I squash such creativity? She has taken what I would have put into a landfill and turned it into a stuffed animal's delight. The first is a car wash for the animals. They go in "dirty" and come out "clean," she explained. The second is a hutch for a rabbit - the real rabbit she hopes I will buy her this summer! (Not sure where she got that idea - I have no plans for a live bunny)

So what if there are little pieces of cardboard all over the living room. So what if she unpacked a full recycling bin and scattered the contents from one end of the house to another. She is trying in her own little way to save the planet. Messes can be cleaned up but Earth can't be undestroyed, right?


I have to give props to DH! The man who has a to-do list longer than I am tall actually spent an hour - a full hour - untangling a snarled up pile of fingering weight yarn that had reached an epic state of tangliness. It was at least a quarter of the skein and much needed for my Flit and Float. At the end he handed me a tiny ball (it was fingering weight) and said simply, "Please don't do that again." I knew there was a reason I married him other than his good looks, charm and great sense of humor!


In the interest of not testing his love - is there a way of not doing this again? The yarn was wound with a regular ball winder and swift combo. I'm wondering if since I was pulling from the middle the yarn fell into the void and twisted around itself. I haven't had this happen before, but was it a fluke or does this sometimes happen? Should I put something in the middle to hold it open. If I do that, can I still use it as a center pull ball?

tempting friends

The transition from freezing cold weather to just plain chilly but with the promise of warm weather soon sparked a bit of knitting limbo for me. Not quite a knitting slump, but in that direction. For months I'd been driven by a strong desire to knit warm things - hats, scarves, mittens and more scarves. Then suddenly it was gone. I still have two beautiful halfs of a scarf that need to be kitchnered! I've been keeping busy with the Flit and Float, but I had no vision beyond that. Nothing to drive me toward the next project. Until now.

My dear friend Allison, who gets me into all sorts of knitterly trouble has done it again. "We HAVE to knit this..." was the subject of the email with a link to a shawl called Ulmus. That's just what I needed - a good challenge. Step one was to find the right yarn. Perhaps for some this is the easiest part of the project. For me, it is potentially the most difficult. I know that I am going to have to live with this yarn for a very long time. I have a hard time letting go of things, even things I end up not liking all that much. If I get sick of the yarn midway through the project, it will sit unfinished in my drawer for years making me feel guilty every time I see it. Then there is the need to commit to a color. Sometimes, I can't find one I love and then other times I love so many I can't pick!

This time was different. I had just ten minutes to spend in the yarn shop since the rest of the family was waiting in the car after a long drive on our way to a party. It took me less than eight.

I saw the light blue and lavendar and fell in love with the combination. Individually, the yarns are gorgeous. Together, they are spectacular. The hand painted yarn is called Smooshy from dreamincoloryarn.com. It happens to be a superwash, although I didn't pay attention to that until after the purchase.

I can hardly wait to get started! In fact I can't believe I'm spending time posting this instead of casting on. But first, I am going to finish the flit and float. It's a fun pattern and I don't want it to turn into a UFO. Besides, this is probably my second favorite part of the project - that wonderful sense of anticipation when you have the yarn and the pattern but haven't hit the frustration of failing to read it properly. (My favorite part, of course, is when it's successfully done, being worn and winning compliments.)

When I was buying the yarn, I just thought I'd stumbled on a wonderful new combinaiton of colors. When I got, home, I discovered I'd encountered this combination before. It perfectly matches the material for my daughter's dinosaur dress. The too-cute, finally-finished one that she inexplicably won't wear! I added real button holes as she requested and trimmed it with satin, as she requested. It's a lovely addition to her closet, but you will note that this robs my of my favorite part of the project! (I'm not bitter! Much.)

sew frugal? Not sew much

There was a time when I sewed to save money. I was just out of college and had more time than I could even imagine now on my hands and very little scratch. I took my pennies and bought a cheap sewing machine. Then I haunted the fabric sales and put together a stunning wardrobe (at least that's how I remember it).

It seems since then however, the world has gone all topsy turvy and now the price of the fabric alone is higher than the price of a finished garment! Never mind the thread, buttons, ribbons and rick rack to make it extra special.

I suppose it's still cheaper than buying something from a high end designer, but it's way more than the sale rack at Marshalls.

And still, I forge ahead because sewing is no longer just about saving money, I suppose. It's the satisfaction of taking a flat piece of cloth and turning it into a (hopefully) flattering skirt, shirt or dress. It's also about being able to make what I want the way I want, although I'm still working on that aspect of it.

This post is sparked, not surprisingly, by a trip to the fabric store. I'll admit that I'm not a math whiz, and that is part of my problem, but the bill was 30 percent more than I expected!

So here's my commercial:

one yard purple tinker bell fabric: $9 (at 25 percent off)
thread: $2.50
one spool of Bright green ribbon: $3.99
Happy child in swirly new dress: priceless

Too much floating not enough flitting?

The Flit and Float in the latest issue of Knitty grabbed my attention. (So did Shipwreck, but I know better than to go there!) The Flit and Float: So pretty, so light and airy, so intriguing. So complicated. So many charts and new techniques. But with warmer weather coming, I've lost my desire to knit in heavy wool, so this seemed like a good mid-season alternative.

I managed the Open Cast On with remarkable ease on the first try. The ruffles were simple, yet delightful. The picot bind off was a treat. Next came the bottom of the lace pattern, which also proved to be quite simple and very enjoyable. It uses double yarn overs. On the wrong side, you knit into the front of the first one and into the back of the second one. I was 18 rows into before I noticed that something didn't seem quite right. I looked closely to discover that the right side of the lace was the wrong side of the ruffles. I checked my directions - I clearly had started on the right side. I reviewed the charts. I'd followed that correctly as well. I thought perhaps I'd created a short row some where and frogged back to the beginning. I started off again and realized two rows into it as it was turning out what I had done wrong. The pattern says to add a stitch and follow the first row of chart A. It does not say to add a stitch and knit across the first row and then start pattern A!

Take two: I reknit the 18 rows and prepared to start back at the start of the pattern to repeat the chart 6 times, as the pattern says. Except, that's not what the pattern says. After two, three starts and puzzling about why it felt wrong, I read it again. It's possible that the words were changed after I read it the first time. But when I looked this time, it said to repeat rows 1 through 8 six times and then rows 9 through 18 once. Huh. Maybe that's why there is a big black line after row 8? (Duh).

Despite all the false starts and lack of discernable progress, I don't mind too much because the pattern is so gosh darned fun to knit!

The best part is that this pattern is the perfect showcase for some wonderful yarn my friend Holly Jo sent from Alaska. It's sock weight, but it begged to be made into a lace something or other.

Sew long

I've gotten better in recent years about letting go of material that I don't think I'll ever use and yet there are still piles of it. Some of it is material I bought for a particular project that never happened. The rest is left overs - some large pieces some just bits and pieces. "You never know..." I think and leave it in the closet.

Maybe it's an unreasonable fear of not having something I'll need. Maybe I feel richer in being surrounded by stuff. Maybe it's a weak hope that having stuff will spark creativity. I think, however, it's doing just the opposite. I think I'm so bound by what I have that I'm not open to what I could have. If I haven't made the skirt in five (six?) years am I really ever going to? And isn't it out of style now already? I have two of those. Then there's the dress and top in a gorgeous burgundy - again, 5, 6 years? Maybe. But the small fleece squares I cut up for a quilt? In looking at them today I realized I'm still uninspired by them. Even worse, I feel slightly inadequate because I can't visualize turning them into an awe inspiring creation! Maybe it's time to let go.

Still it's hard, these things, these potential crafts are like my security blanket. I feel comforted thinking I can just reach into my closet and get what I need. But really, they aren't what I need and haven't been for awhile.

This tug-of-war that goes on over stuff is interesting to me. I know in my head that I can be happier with less. I've successfully decluttered before. There have been a few things I wish I'd kept, but I can't think of one right now, so how important could it have been?

On a side note - this may look like a picture of nothing special - but it is really a picture of hours and hours of puzzling and trying and retrying to thread the !@#$%^&*()__*&^^%$ serger! DH bought it for me 5 years ago after years of my lusting for one. Then 2 years ago, the now 3 yo mucked up the threads. What does it say about my life that it took me this long to getting around to fixing it! It's sort of done. At least I've got it to wrap threads around the edge of a cloth. Something's not quite right since it's not a smooth, even stitch. Maybe you can see in the middle of the picture. Regardless, I'm overjoyed to be this far along.

How many readers

Does anyone know how to track readership in Blogger? I'm not totatlly technically inept, but I just can't figure this one out!

Sharing the love

You see these happy faces? They are filled with the joy of being a freshly minted sewer! Being surrounded by children so often, I realized I had a choice - neglect them and pursue my craft or drag them into it. Actually, there wasn't much dragging to be done - they came happily, hopping, skipping and swirling the sewing chair the whole way. We started with a very simple project - a drawstring purse made from a pattern created by folding a plain sheet of paper in half. All straight lines. We all had fun, but I've discovered that I do not want to be a home ec teacher! I just don't have the patience.

shhhhh ...... sew good

Pssst.... Don't tell my yarn stash - my fabric stash has been wooing me. Long before I was a knitter, I was a sewer - a passionate seamstress who mastered welt pockets and hand tailoring for jackets. I even made own my wedding dress (still hanging in my closet even though it will likely never fit my daughters since I am only 5 feet and they are all going to be much taller). Then I learned how to knit and I had a couple of babies while my big kids grew into teenagers. Knitting is portable. Knitting can be done in the car or while watching television or standing in line at the post office (although I've never done that). I became passionate about knitting. I mastered lace (sort of) and cables without a cable needle (mostly). I became versed in wool, cotton, alpaca and tencel in the string form. My sewing machine and serger gathered dust in the studio pressed into service only now and then to fix a hem or two. I destashed the cloth (good move) and sent my library to new homes (great move) so that those things could be enjoyed by others. I kept just a few remnants, just in case....

Then the other day I was depressed and in need of a pick-me-up. I just happened to be next to a fabric store. I swear the fabric reached out of the store, draped itself around me and yanked me inside. The colors, the textures, the patterns, the possibilities, it was intoxicating. It was a kid in a candy store sort of delight. A pattern for a darling children's dress leaped off the rack and into my hands. It tickled at my brain...remember, remember, remember...oh yeah, I have fabric that the girls picked out at home bought two years at a store that has since gone out of business (a moment of silence for the wonderful Fabric Place, which sold both fabric and great yarn).

It was like a visit from an old friend. I forgot how much fun we have together. It's not really like I'm cheating on knitting...it's not like we have an exclusive relationship, right? Yes I have yarns calling my name and patterns dancing in my head but I can't seem to settle on one right now. I have the SOS on the needles and I seem to be able to do no more than one row a day (very complicated pattern) I'm at the grafting point for a scarf that I won't need until next October.

I'm taking it slow with sewing - just a little bit every day. One day cut out the pattern - the next cut out the fabric - next we'll sew just the sides maybe. Conveniently, the seven-year-old is dying to learn how to sew so the timing could hardly be better.

I know I could buy the dresses for less at the store, but there is something so fundamentally satisfying about turning a flat piece of fabric into a three-dimensional garment. The secrets the short cuts - they're all coming back to me - iron at every stage, store the pattern and accessories in a plastic bag on a hanger with the fabric, mark the fabric right after you cut it.

I still like knitting for its portability but sewing goes so much faster. It's just easier when you're not actually making the fabric!

I know my two friends can coexist peacefully. What I learn from one, I bring to the other. They complement each other. Once I'm done with the sewing the dresses, I can knit the girls shawls to go with them :)

You can see from the fabric that my girls have a bold sense of styles - bugs and dinosaurs? What could be better. Thankfully their taste hasn't changed in two years!

I'm still here

I'm still here - if anyone is looking for me - don't dispair. I've been swamped with work and coping with teenagers but I'm still smiling (most of the time).

I've not been knitting nearly as much as I'd like although I still think about it quite a bit. I did manage before the snow melted to finish the mittens 3yo dd requested. She picked out the color and explained to me what they should look like. They match a hat made earlier in the season. It's a great way to use up left over yarns. The mittens are started on scrap yarn and then felted. the cuff is made by cutting out the scrap yarn and picking up yarn through the holes left behind. She was very pleased and hasn't even lost one.

I also made the hand towel from the new Mason Dixon book. This is a great project - you cast on something like 90 stitches and then decrease by two every other row so it goes faster and faster as you get toward the end. I really like that it has a button. I've attached it to the stove and it doesn't go walking away like every other dish towel in the kitchen!

In the midst of all the craziness, we had a birthday. Despite my best efforts, my six year old wen ahead and turned seven!. Seven!? I must have been in denial because the whole cake decorating thing slipped my mind. Thank goodness her birthday comes right after Easter - Jelly Beans work quite nicely in a pinch.

As promised I took her to the trapeze to celebrate. She had such a worried look on her face when we arrived and such a huge smile by the end of her lesson! She's ready to go agin as soon as possible. Her dad was worried that she would be too scared - silly daddy, she's the daughter of two daredevil parents - not a chance in the world.

Suddenly today, summer struck in Boston. It's as if the sun suddenly remembered we're here and took pity on us. I'm thrilled - not a complaint in the world except that I'm not quite done with the angora scarf that I started way back when it seemed that winter was never going to be over. I have just the grafting left but no incentive to do it. I could just tuck it away for next year. That's not a good idea, is it? No, I think I just need to bite the needle (so to speak) and dive right in. Is it purl on knit off or Knit off purl on?

Happy happy spring!

blocking schmocking

My technique on blocking the scarf may not have been great, but I'm sure it was at least pretty close to what I'm supposed to do - but alas, it still didn't work. The scarf still rolls more than I'd like it too. Oh well, on to the next project....

Block heatd

It's funny that my good friend Holly Jo mentioned blocking wires in her comment to my last post since as I was unpinning my scarf I thought more experienced knitters would be looking at my feeble attempts at blocking and think that I need blocking wires!.

Instead I have points sticking out all along what are supposed to be straight edges! Blocking made it lay flatter, but it took out the sproing. That's something for me to keep in mind for future projects.

I also discovered a needed improvement to my design (some might call it a flaw) the scarf was made with a series of different patterns. I have this great distinctive heart design on one end but on the other is more subtle knit and purl design. There is another lace panel, but it falls where the scarf is wrapped around my neck, so it isn't really visible. I'm not terribly bothered by this - it's just a lesson-learned sort of thing. Interestingly, I found a dropped stitch during the blocking process - it hasn't run away, just slipped down a few rows.

On a side note - I broke down and bought a big box of swiffer covers. I love the idea of a knitted alternative, but in reality I'm not convinced it worked as well. You can see that it doesn't look quite so pretty after a few washes. I'm not convinced that we weren't mostly just pushing the dirt around. Maybe it would work if you had several and could change them midway through the job. Maybe it would work if you don't have children who don't bother to change covers whether they're disposable or not! I think I'll stick to knitting wearables for now.

Extra Credit?

Do I get bonus points for reblocking a knitted item? I made this great "sampler" scarf last year out of a gorgeous alpaca. The length and width are perfect but it rolls into a thin piece of fabric hiding the delightful patterns. I tried this time giving it a good soak and then pinning it out on a spare mattress. I'm not 100 percent certain I'm doing this right, but I don't think I'm doing any harm.

Hopefully, it won't be needed much longer anyway, although the weatherman says to leave winter wear out a bit longer. We're supposed to be in the 40s this week. Today it rained so hard they had to postpone the Red Sox home opener - One more day for Red Sox nation to get excited!

What should I have done?

There's a great web site where you can send a message to yourself in the future - futureme.org. You write all about the fun you are having or not having, your hopes and dreams for yourself and fun little messages like -stay as cool as you are right now and if John X knocks on your door DO NOT answer it, or whatever you feel like you should remind yourself. It's a real kick to hear from who you were a year or more ago.

But, wouldn't it be even more wonderful if you could send a message to you in the past?
Mine would be something like this:

Don't buy that shaggy pink yarn - it will sit in a bowl on your desk for years and you will have no idea what to make with it but will horribly guilty for not making something.

Buy 7 skeins of Cascade 220 in pink, 7 in purple and 7 in (????) while they are sale at Webs Anniversary sale because you will need them in the fall.

Don't even bother casting on for another Knitted Babe because as cute as everyone else's are, yours have scary eyes and the hair takes forever so it will sit unfinished in your drawer for years - again making you feel guilty every time you see it.

Go ahead and cast on for the Secret of the Stole but don't even bother trying to make the deadlines for it. That will drive yourself crazy. You will learn a ton from doing it and you will finish it eventually.

When aren't sure about how things are going with your boyfriend Al, relax - you're going to be happily married to him for many, many years to come.

yeah for Socks!

I have to admit that I am becoming totally addicted to hand made socks. For one things, the teenagers wouldn't dream of "borrowing" them so they come back to me when I put them through the wash. They're comfortable They actually draw complements from people - I think it's funny that people would notice socks, but they do. Most importantly, perhaps, they're just plain fun to knit. Except for the heels - I'm still grooving on the heels. I'm don't break out into hives when it's time to do them anymore, but I still feel a little shakey. I was worried about the bind off, but I found a new method that was a piece o' cake:

Knit 2, put the stitches on the left hand needle and knit them together. Knit one, put the two stitches onto the left hand needle and knit them together. That was the instruction. What I did a little differently is to purl the purls of my k1p1 rib. It seemed to look just a little smoother, although I'm not sure it would matter.

These were knit two at a time on a long circular - this is my absolute favorite way to make them. It looks really impressive while you're working on them even though it's not very hard and you have both done at once. Here's a little secret - I haven't actually woven in the top ends yet. I wasn't sure if I've made them tall enough so I'm trying them out.

It looks like Spring with the flowers blooming on schedule, but it sure as heck hasn't felt much like it! We're still in our woolies. Which is good since it took me a bit longer than expected to finish the hat my dd requested.

I'm naming it the Crazy Cap. It looks kind of crazy with a healthy mix of novelty and traditional yarns. But what's really crazy is the construction.

My friend Allison described to me a hat that had a band made of different yarns. In our back and forth, I got it in my head that the stripes were knit up and down. It was only after I'd invested several hours in to the hat that she sent a picture and I realized my folly. (On the hat she described, the stripes go around the head) A sane person might have quit then realizing the enormity of the endeavor I had launched. But it was pretty and I'd already gone so far and when it comes to knitting, I don't always have such a clear head. The problem is mutli-fold: first there are a whole bunch of ends to knit in. Then, half of them are novelty yarns that either unravel or don't like to stay tucked in and there's the potential for a whole lot of bulk on the side where the ends are being knit in! One might try knitting four or six rows with a color to reduce the trouble. This one is strictly two rows per color. The band took two weeks. The top was completed in a single night (albeit a long one). I can't say that I'd climb this mountain again, but I am happy to have reached the top. The hat FITS!

a little knitting, a big trip to the Zoo

Spring is coming! I'm absolutely certain of it. We've had two - count them - two warm weekends in a row! Last one entailed a trip to the zoo for a little photo Safari - these were taken by the 6 yo (except for the one she is in - that's the goat) Knitting is happening - I've managed one heel of a a pair of socks without too much trouble (yeah). Now I have to get psyched for the other.

I'm also contemplating seriously designing my own sweater. It's a big leap maybe - I've made one for myself and a few others for little people. But here's the thing - I really like the idea of avoiding seaming (I'm really not good at it!) The patterns I've seen that I like involve seaming. Therefore, it seems I have no choice but to design my own. For guidance I will have a book called Custom Knits (deserves the 5 stars it has on Amazon). Plus, I saw a Knitty Gritty episode in which the designer showed how to design a sweater. Any suggestions? Any cautions?

I just saw an add for yarnmarket.com featuring a 217 yard ball of yarn for the bargain price of $299 - that's something like $14 a yard (if my calculations are right and they might not be).

Talk about pressure to pick the right pattern!

I'm not questioning the value of the yarn - it's Muskox Vicuna from Windy Valley. From what 've read, this is a very difficult thing to obtain so it might very well be a real deal at $14 a yard.
After all, these animals live only high up in the Andes and produce just 4 oz of harvestable fiber in a year.

But still...

What hat could be good enough? What scarf elegant enough? What mittens worthy enough? What if (gasp) the item were too big or (horrors) too small! At that price, it would have to be absolutely, stunningly perfect, right? Just think of the agony an error would bring. To say nothing of how devastating it would be should the knitted item wander off. If you leave a hat in a movie theater (for instance) you're not happy about it, but replacing it isn't such a big deal. But a $300 hat? One that not only cost that much but took hours to make? Could the joys of knitting with such an exotic fiber really be worth the potential downside?

At least there is free shipping...

Baby hats

This is my new niece. Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wearing a darling hat? Did I make that hat? No, I did not. Some other very talented knitter made that hat and a gorgeous matching dress, which she is also wearing in this picture, underneat the "I love my big brother" bib. If you are thinking of knitting a dress for a baby - go ahead, babies looking darling in knitted dresses, especially if there is a matching hat.

This is the hat that I made for her. It might fit her in a year or two!

Happy Kitchen, Clean kitchen

DH's departure for the Congo left me with extra jobs like grocery shopping, which is a bad thing for many reasons. I am not as good of a bargain hunter as he is and I'm too suseptible to packaging. What can I say, I like to try new things?

The other problem is that I'm just not that good at following the list and sure enough, I found I was missing bunches of items when we got home - chief among them was covers for the Swiffer. Somehow I remembered to get the spray stuff - but that's really of no use without something to push it around on the floor with!

But I'm a knitter - we knitters knit things - things like Swiffer covers. :)

I have a well respected knitting friend who questions why would someone go to the trouble of making something to replace something that is disposable. I totally respect and appreciate this perspective, and really all things being equal, I prefer to toss than to create more laundry. I'm also not convinced - given how dirty our floors are - that by the end of the job the knitted cover isn't just pushing around the dirt (we usually go through 2 or 3 disposable covers -I know, ewwww, but I've got 5 kids, a dog and a muddy back yard).

Anyway, I have lots of cotton and the covers are a quick knit. And the colorful cover makes the kitchen feel happier somehow. Still, mine may end up being just for display - DH is back now and back in charge of the shopping.