I’ve seen the future, and it is…
… Glade, from Rowan 40. I’ve read posts raving about this pattern, but I wasn’t convinced until I saw it at the local needlearts fair last weekend. And it is beautiful: all subtly coloured stripy scallops that remind me of Florentine paper. Never mind that I’m already drowning in yarn. Never mind that it would cost an arm and a leg — although I was planning to substitute Madil Kid Seta for the specified and mystifyingly expensive Rowan KidSilk Haze, which would cut the cost somewhat.
Checking out Miriam Felton’s online shop recently, I happened upon a couple of her sock patterns I hadn’t seen before: Eleanora and Blessing. I love historical textiles, and anything reproducing them or inspired by them. I also love the book that Miriam quotes as her source for the images of the originals, Richard Rutt’s History of Handknitting. (I love it for itself and its subject, of course, but also because its author is/was (a) a man who was out as a knitter, and (b) in his non-knitting time, an Anglican bishop, which is interesting.)
As chance would have it, I used part of the same textile that inspired the Blessing sock as the design for some needlepoint (currently languishing in a drawer, awaiting both an alternate source for the yarn I began it with, and the patience to complete it. Mea culpa.) So I’m going to have to make the Blessing socks — and the Eleanora socks too, because I’m a big enough history nerd to think having socks styled after those worn postmortem by a woman who died of the plague in the sixteenth century is very cool. It’s Hallowe’en, people: creepy-r-us.
Actual knitting progress over the last day or so: Rosedale needing only collar, zip facing, a little grafting under the arms and a zip. Have begun another Lizard Ridge square in Kureyon 40. Languishing in bed with a cold is not without its benefits.
Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens
My LSP, who is clearly the doyenne of spoiling (spoilenne?), wants a few more non-fibrous hints as to my tastes (along the lines of “kitties, walking in the rain, basil pesto”, s/he says — and in fact, LSP, yes, yes, and yes to all three of those). So here goes with a stream-of-consciousness list of things I love (Freudian analysts, please refrain from comment):
Green flowers. Peonies. Parrot tulips. Irises. Poppies. Cats, but not dogs. Rich deep colour. William Morris. Raoul Dufy. Van Gogh. Anything old: the older, the better. Stained glass. Ikons. Northern Renaissance art. Japanese woodblock prints (Hiroshige and the like). The sea. Boats. Sailing. Rowing. Sea shells. Nineteenth century novels, the more detailed and meandering the better. Mark Rothko. Hiking in the woods in fall. Trees. The countryside. Old churches. Old churchyards. Deserts. Desserts. Islands. Turkey (the place, not the bird). Russia. The smell and taste of vanilla, oranges, and almonds. Silk fabric. Japanese fabric. Historic textiles. Museums. Mozart. Dusk and dawn. The colour of the sky at night. Snow. Heavy frost. Walking at night with my husband. Snowshoeing. Pearls. Lace. Filigree. Anything delicate and intricate, really. Train trips. Thai food. Turkish food. Any cuisine that’s new to me. My elderly Italian neighbour’s homemade cake and zucchini flower fritters. Homegrown grapes. Picking apples. Making jam. Yoga. Sitting on the porch and watching the snow fall, in silence. The silence after a heavy snowfall. My sheepskin slippers. Playing cards with my in-laws . Drinking tea with anyone who’s willing. Listening to my son laugh. Watching him sleep.
Gratuitous yarn shot
Originally uploaded by The Ravelled Sleeve.
A glimpse of my recent experiments with swift and ball winder. That’s the Alpaca with a Twist Fino in Ruby Slippers (doesn’t that sound like the name of a pedigree animal?) at top left, which I’m planning to use for Seraphim. Clockwise from there: some yummy recycled sari silk, two skeins of Koigu PPM, and the green and plum Hand Maiden sea silk. Plus some teeny squash for seasonally appropriate colour — well, it is Hallowe’en.
The swift and ball winder work very well, I’m happy to say — but it’s a serious business winding a couple of kilometres of lace yarn, even with mechanical help. Phew. I think I may have ballwinder’s elbow.
This post brought to you by the words “woo” and “hoo”
Because of our proximity to the north, Father Christmas (a.k.a. Santa or Père Noel, as you prefer) calls early here.
He arrived today with my swift and ball winder, which were considerately left for me at a booth at the local needle arts fair. I told B. I was off out to buy his Christmas and birthday presents for me, and abandoned him with our three year old, who is in the throes of a full-blown Freudian moment and will only be content with mummymummymummy, for several hours. Most men (heck, most people) would be delighted to have their spouse’s presents for the year solved at a single stroke, and would regard a couple of hours of being treated as less than pocket fluff by a disgruntled small person as a trivial price to pay. But B. is a little unusual: he loves present shopping, and since he’s already (quite justifiably) hurt at being given the cold shoulder by our son, I think he was a bit disappointed. He did cheer up, though, when I arrived home, visibly excited, with my lovely wooden umbrella swift and ball winder.
The craft show also enabled me to out together the last bits and pieces for my Secret pal spoilee. For obvious reasons, I won’t say what they are, but I was very pleased with them, and I hope she will be too.
Of course I didn’t make it out without a little something (or two little somethings, in this case) of my own: two luscious skeins of Hand Maiden Sea Silk, in variegated shades of plum and green, with enough yardage to make a scarf from each skein. One of them (the plum) is going to be a Christmas gift, provided I can talk myself into parting with it. I’d love to take a picture of them, but it’s so gloomy today there’s no hope of capturing the colours accurately.
And finally, on the woohoo! front, Jess left me a comment, which has reassured me that I am not generating all of the hits on this blog myself. Now, it is plain to me from her blog that Jess is lovely: she makes veils and quilts for her girlfriends when they get married, and a quilt for a fundraiser for a little boy in her neighbourhood… and she likes kelly green! (If she has a stash of green Emu superwash the size of Mars, we are clearly sisters under the skin.) In fact, she is so lovely that her boyfriend proposed to her in public, in front of the local media, which most men would rather drink battery acid than do. And she put me on her blog roll! Woo hoo!
Yarn-u-like
My LSP (Lovely Secret Pal, who may well be the only person reading this blog — feel free to contradict me in the comments) has quite reasonably asked me to get more specific on my likes and dislikes, yarnwise. I’ve been reluctant, since I was afraid it would sound like a wish-list — but, as a current Secret Pal to someone else with a newish blog, I’m beginning to understand how difficult it can be to get the measure of their tastes with little to go on. So, LSP,in no order whatsoever, here are a few of my favourite things, as a general guide to the kind of things I like, and knit:
Trekking XXL 105, 106, 107 and 110 (but all the 100-110 range are pretty nice).
Knit Picks Gloss, especially in Woodland Sage. This would make a beautiful shawl…
…such as Miriam Felton’s Seraphim. If I didn’t have several miles of ruby alpaca-silk waiting to make this, that is.
Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Iris, or Smoke, or Stream, or Tide Pool, or any of them, really.
Rowan Tapestry, although admittedly I’ve only seen this on the web…
… and while we’re talking about soy silk, there’s SWTC Karaoke in Bloom. Sometimes you just want some pink in your life. Oh, and some purple. I’ve been considering this for the Sunrise Circle Jacket — once I’m no longer drowning in superwash.
I’m a fool for self-patterning sock yarn like this or this. I particularly like the Meilenweit, Trekking and Online Supersocke ranges.
The archaeologist in me is desperate to knit something from Elsebeth Lavold’s Viking Knits collections. This, maybe, from the new book? Or this? They’re both in Silky Wool (which I want to like, but can’t), so I could use my recently acquired indigo superwash sport, which knits up to the same gauge. Perfect!
Koigu PPM. OK, it violates my bias against handpaints with short colour spacing (I’m a perfectionist, and I get driven crazy by colour pooling). But it’s so soft and stretchy, and so beautifully painted…
Lang Silk Dream. I have no idea what I would do with this, but yum. Same goes for any of the Knit Picks luxury yarns: Ambrosia, Elegance, Decadence. (Whoever worked up the Ambrosia colour card is my kind of gal.)
While we’re back at Knitpicks, I quite like this pattern and this one too (either of which requires a DK-ish weight yarn. Hey! I think I have some of that …)
Things I don’t like?
Bright yellow, mustard, orange, light brown, dark brown (unless it’s the colour it came off the sheep), khaki.
Anything with a camouflage print effect, in any colour.
Boucle, although there is some in my stash I’ve yet to find a home/project for.
Eyelash yarn.
Really big needles.
Does that help at all, LSP?
Rosedale progress
Here’s Rosedale, looking much more finished than she feels! I’m delighted with the colours, which will make it the perfect Saturday jeans sweater.
More Lizard Ridge…
… this time in a colourway (#134) of Kureyon with shorter sections of each colour, which makes for a more interesting effect.
I’ve been baaaad
My LYS has a monthly warehouse sale, and this month, I went. You can predict the remaining content of this post, can’t you?
Really, I should know by now that I cannot resist balls of DK superwash that are being wantonly, shamelessly sold off at $1.99 a ball. After all, at that price, they are just asking to be bought. Can I be blamed for giving in? I ask you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what would you have done?
The problem is that I now have several sweaters’ worth of DK superwash, most of it either blue or green, and no idea what to make with it. Some of it I can use to make sweaters for the (not so) small one, who is rapidly outgrowing everything I knitted in a size 4. I probably have enough of a certain green Emu superwash to make matching sweaters for the three of us. But that still leaves me with quite a lot of yarn looking for projects. Everything I’ve contemplated (such as the girl from auntie’s Rogue, for example) seems to call for worsted.
And then (she says, warming to her theme) there’s the indigo sportweight I just couldn’t let go by. So I now have rather a lot of it: 15 balls, in fact.
Suggestions gratefully received.
On the plus side, I’ve made good progress on Rosedale: I’ve just begun the yoke! I love the way it looks, and it feels lovely, but working on it at the moment is like octopus wrestling.
There and back again
So we’ve been away — just for the weekend – to Quebec City. Beautiful time to go, with the fall colour not quite gone, the apples still on the trees, and crisp, blue-skied days to savour it all. My father has been visiting us (hence no blogging!) , and he was delighted with his first real taste of French Canada. The elan of the weekend even stayed with him when, on the way back and stuck in gridlock in Montreal, his three year old grandson threw up all over him…
It was even a good knitting weekend: I managed to start and finish a Lizard Ridge square, get halfway through another, and buy no yarn. Photos to follow when I have a free moment, and there’s enough light to take a good picture.
And while I was gone, my lovely Secret Pal sent me an e-card! Thanks!
Secret Pal 9
Hurray! Someone left me a comment! And it was my lovely (well, I haven’t met her/him, but I know s/he’s lovely) Secret Pal. How exciting!
I wanted to write back to say hi, but Yahoo keeps bouncing my messages. Secret Pal, if you’re out there, can you confirm your email address? Thanks!
