Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Boy, was THAT a long weekend.  Thank goodness the kids are back in school.

We've been getting the house ready to be painted for the first time since it was built in 1988.  My husband gets to move the furniture and wash the walls.  I get to take care of piles that have been lying around for what seems like centuries, so that when it's time to move the furniture away from the walls, there'll be a place for it to go.  Since the entire house is being done, I can't just move the piles to a different spot, so I'm actually having to deal with them.

Look what else I've gotten done:

That's Eve's Hooded Scarf, Version 2.0.  Snugger around the face than the original.  The free pattern is almost ready for publication (I know -- you'll believe it when you see it).

And here's a baby blanket I duplicate stitched for a customer to match an existing pillow:

I still need to put "2005" in the lower left hand corner, and then this puppy (or lamby, technically) is finito, just in time for the baby shower.  If I can get it back after the baby is born, I'll add the name (if it's a short one) to the top right hand corner.

Anjuli's first sleeve is done (DONE!), unless you count all the ends that have to be woven in.  I think I'll take that to work on at the knit-in tonight, along with the beginnings of the second sleeve.  Can't take a photo yet because Anjuli is currently buried underneath two other projects (a gift and a custom knitting job).

I'm anxious to get that sweater put together, so I can unearth another candidate from the Closet of Unfinished Projects.  I'm still being a good girl about sticking to one personal knitting project at a time.

Ain't I a saint?

Sarah

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Go look at the photos from yesterday's entry, trust me when I say that that's what our yard still looked like at lunch time today, and then look at this photo from this evening:

What the . . . ?

Sing it with me, now:

It's beginning to look a lot like . . . Thanksgiving?

Sarah

P.S.  Michigan Knits!

Tuesday, November  23, 2004

I finished these:

And while the lighting was favorable, took an updated photo of Anjuli's first sleeve (and my feet):

I have the day to myself today (well, until 3:30), and then the kids are home the rest of the week.  And the husband too, apparently.

Carol T., if you're reading this -- I e-mailed you but it was returned to me as undeliverable.  I used 200 grams of a worsted or Aran weight yarn and a U.S. size 6 (4.0 mm) needle for the hooded scarf.  The pattern should be posted in a day or two.

If I don't "see" you before then, Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it, and to the rest of you -- you can find something to be thankful for on Thursday too, can't you?  I'm particularly thankful for the machine that washes my dishes and for the people who pick up my garbage.  Oh, and for my family and all that good stuff.

Gobble gobble! 

Sarah

Sunday, November 21, 2004

More clarifications:

My dog Keiko is a Shiba Inu.  She does look a little like a Chinook, LeAnne, except she's much smaller (16 pounds) and has a fluffy, curled tail and ears that stick up.  I'd never heard of a Chinook, so that was a fun thing to look up.  And then I spent about an hour looking at other breeds . . . and then I switched over to cat breeds.  My cat Mica is an Ocicat, if anyone cares.  An Ocicat with glaucoma (no, they're not prone to glaucoma -- it's a fluke, I'm told).

The red, white and green yarn collection pictured in Wednesday's entry is for ONE Christmas stocking, which I have plenty of time to knit.  There were two batches of yarn because I wasn't sure which colors matched the existing stocking that I've been hired to match.  One of those batches is going back to the craft store this week.

A big thank you to my sister who sent a mini-package of goodies including this little cutie:

This wee book is packed full of fun facts, historical snippets, knitting definitions, quicky designer bios, and lots more.  How fun -- thanks, Kathy!

Our Master Knitters group at ThreadBear early this afternoon was kind of sparsely attended, which I'm blaming on the Thanksgiving holiday.  For that reason, we unanimously decided (all three of us) to skip December's meeting, which falls in the middle of an equally busy holiday time, and to start up again in January.  I'll try to post another reminder in mid-December.

Later this afternoon, I treated my friend Terri to a non-traditional henna tattoo:

Yes, she's pregnant (eight and a half months!), and yes, I have her permission to post this photo.  When my friend Diane told me about this cool idea, I said "Terri's gotta do that!"  Fortunately, Terri agreed, so I grabbed Diane and off we went to paint Terri's belly.  Tomorrow, Terri will wash off the goop that was applied (that you see in the photo), and HOPEFULLY a semi-permanent tattoo will remain for at least a week.  I can't wait to hear how it worked!  We incorporated an existing tattoo of intertwined fish, a Celtic knot from her wedding invitation, a Kanji symbol for life/birth, and Celtic-inspired fish and wavy shapes -- there was a Celtic/water/birth theme going on. 

I have one hour of work at the elementary school tomorrow (Monday) morning, and one private lesson tomorrow afternoon, and then I'm free for the rest of the week.  I hope I don't waste all that time off by lounging around, eating tons of turkey and stuffing, napping, daydreaming . . .

I'll let you know how it goes.

Sarah

Friday, November 19, 2004

Clarification #1 (of 2):

The beautiful orange/yellow/green cardigan in the photo from Monday's entry was knit with Noro Kureyon.  The stripes match up perfectly because the sweater was knit in the round (the class for which it was knit involves knitting a pullover). 

My student (Pam) decided that she really wanted a cardigan, so after the class was over, I went over different methods of preparing a steek, she chose the one she felt most comfortable with (crochet), and away she went.  Here's a photo showing her cut edge (which she covered with a blanket stitch) next to the seed stitch border:

For those of you who aren't "in the know", a steek is an area of your sweater that gets cut open with scissors (gasp!) to create an opening -- for a neck opening, armholes, or to turn a pullover into a cardigan, for example. 

The class for which this sweater was made is my Sweater Design class.  It used to be called the Seamless Sweater Design class, but I wanted to focus more on the design-it-yourself aspect than on the fact that it's done seamlessly. 

The class doesn't include a discussion about steeking (that's in my Introduction to Fair Isle class!), but maybe it should . . . ?  Anyway, Sweater Design is one of my most popular classes, and I'm thrilled to watch it's "graduates" going on to make more and more of their own sweaters, pattern-free. 

For those of you in faraway places who can't make it to my classes in person, Sweater Design is available as a Virtual Class.  (Hey, a little self-promotion can't hurt, can it?)

Clarification #2 (of 2):

I neglected to mention in Wednesday's entry where my new yarn was purchased (gotta keep my local yarn shops in business, you know?).

The Peace Fleece and Stacy Charles Ritratto was purchased from the Little Red Schoolhouse Yarn Shop in Lansing.

The khaki yarn is the beautiful Jo Sharp Luxury 8 Ply DK Pure Wool (which may win the award for the longest yarn name), purchased from ThreadBear Fiber Arts Studio, also in Lansing.

Thank you #1 (of 1):

Thanks to all of you who checked on the .pdf file situation for me.  As for the rest of you -- I hope you averted your eyes from those reward photos! 

I didn't hear from anyone who had any kind of problem opening any of the pages (yes, Annie, I know the blanket drawing is pretty bad -- it's from before I started documenting my knitting projects, and before I started photographing my finished items, so it's the best I could do until someone knits up that blanket and sends me a photo -- hint, hint!). 

Perhaps the problems that have been reported in the past have been due to old versions of Adobe Reader (or something like that) on the reader's end.  I'll have to try to check that out a little further.

Apology #1 (of 2):

Sorry for the lack of knitting progress.

Apology #2 (of 2):

Sorry for the less-than-regular posting lately.

Resolution #15,695 (of an ongoing series):

I resolve to stop apologizing for, well, all the stuff I seem to always be apologizing for, such as being too busy to (fill in the blank), being too lazy to (fill in the blank), not having enough to say, having more than my share of chins . . .

Remind me of this resolution from time to time, will you?

Have a great weekend!

Sarah

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Sorry for the lack of, well, anything, but I've been doing a lot of paperwork this week.  Wanna see a picture of the piles of papers on my desk and my dining room table?  No you don't.  The good news is that I've got my winter/spring class schedule figured out, and will post it as soon as I receive approval from the shop owners.

I finished a third black golf club cover, and just have a putter cover left to knit.  Oh, and the knobby thingies for the top, which I bought the yarn for today.  Oh!  That's what I can show you!  Hold on . . .

While you're waiting, I have a job for you to do (pretty please?):

Every once in a while I get an e-mail telling me that there's a problem opening one or more of the .pdf files on my website -- either on the free pattern page, or one of my calendar pages, or . . . ?  Your assignment is to go see if you can open each of my free patterns from this page, and each of my calendar pages from this page.  Please comment or e-mail and let me know that it does or does not work.  If something DOESN'T work, please let me know what error you're getting.  Thank you VERY much!  When you're done, I'll have some photos for you to look at as a reward.

-----------------------------

Back so soon?  How did everything check out?  Hmm.  Really?  Okay.  Well, thanks!  Here are your reward photos:

Black golf club covers with khaki yarn for the knobbies:

Three Peace Fleece, two Ritratto (from Tahki Stacy Charles).  Both (all five) are for shop models for new classes you'll see on my teaching schedule very soon.  You'll just have to be patient in the mean time -- I'll show them off when they're finished!  (The phrase "in the mean time" always looks wrong when I see it written down.)

And finally, can you guess what I've been hired to make in time for Christmas?

Sarah

Monday, November 15, 2004

Hey, look!  I've got a knitting blog!  Maybe I should write something in it!

First, because I told you that I might, and then I did:

Anjuli has a neckband and front borders now!

And I got started on the pattern part of the first sleeve:

Here's a little hat I started on Saturday at the MMKG Charity Knit-in at Starbucks, hosted by the lovely and talented Wendy S.:

Remember the mystery bag of yarn I picked up from the guild a couple of months ago?  This is that yarn.  So far, it's got a hem and a few purl ridges strategically placed.  I'm alternating between variegated and solid blue, but you really can't tell them apart.  No matter!

And here's half of a set of golf club covers I'm knitting for a customer, using my free pattern (available here):

Two more to go, plus the knobby thingies that go on top.

And here's what one of my students wore to my Knitter's Choice class on Thursday morning:

It's the sweater she made in my Seamless Sweater class (now called Sweater Design), which she STEEKED after the class was done.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Oh!  I almost forgot!  I actually got one of my new free patterns written up this weekend -- the one for my father-in-law's knee warmer.  Can you believe it?  You can find it here.  Look at page 4 -- there's a chart!  Yeah, sure, the row numbers are illegible, but it's still a chart!

Next up:  the hooded scarf pattern -- probably next weekend.

Sarah

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Hmm.  Nothing to say, really.  Let's see what I can come up with.

Over the past week, I've completed all of my outstanding finishing jobs-for-hire (i.e., putting other people's sweaters together and adding bands, collars, embellishments, etc.).  Here's a photo of the duplicate stitch I did with ribbon on one of the garments I put together:

The sweater is called "Button", from Rowan Book 32.  The buttons still have to be applied, but the woman to whom the sweater belongs wanted to do that herself.  Click here (link removed, sorry!) for a view of the pattern from the book.  The Rowan Polarspun feels very creamy and yummy.

I bought a long (47") size 3.0 mm needle today because I had it on my list of things to buy, but I can't remember what I needed it for (Mystery #1).  I know it's for Anjuli, but I can't remember if it's for the front bands, or so I can do the sleeves using one long circular.  I also picked up another couple of balls of the dark purple color, because I don't seem to have enough to finish the bands and sleeves.  I was wondering why I was running out of yarn, but Tracy (pink "t", get it?  Pink Tea!) reminded me today that I had used some of the purple for Elizabeth's eggplant hat.  Mystery #2 solved!

There.  I found something to talk about.

Now back to work!  I've got some small commissioned pieces to do and those darned patterns to write.

Maybe I'll just go put the front bands on Anjuli first . . .

Sarah

Monday, November 8, 2004

Picture day!

Here's the body of Anjuli, minus the shoulder shaping, which shortened up the armhole a little bit.  I didn't re-do the neck, so I'm hoping it won't be too shallow.  I decided not to work the sleeves from the top down (I think I already told you that).  I think sewing the sleeves in will be relatively painless -- I'm encouraged by the fact that the number of rows in which I would have picked up stitches to work down is almost identical to the number of stitches the pattern calls for at the top of the sleeve for the size I'm making.

Here are the two sleeve cuffs.  They're very long, but will be turned back -- you know, like cuffs -- so will only be half this height in the long run:

Some of these photos were taken last night with the flash, and others were taken this morning with natural light.  Can you tell which is which?  Hint:  my carpet is gray.

Here's a close up of the first cuff I made (the one on the left in the previous photo). 

See how the bottom is wider, with sloppier stitches?  I worked on that section in bits and pieces here and there, and obviously didn't maintain a very even tension.  The top half was worked while watching the "Joy Luck Club" at ThreadBear on Saturday night -- it looks much more even when I can work on it all in one sitting.  I started the second cuff while discussing Women of the Silk at Woven Art on Sunday afternoon, and finished it while watching "Out of Time" on Sunday night.  Apparently I should rent some more videos and/or join some more book clubs in order to improve my knitting tension.

Here's my almost-three-year-old cat, Mica.  See how her right pupil (on our left) looks bigger than her left one?  You should have seen it two weeks ago, when it looked quite a bit bigger, and cloudy.  The poor little thing has been diagnosed with primary glaucoma.  We caught it early enough that she seems to be fine vision-wise, but we have to give her two drops in each eye three times a day for the rest of her life.  She's been a real trooper about that (we give her treats after each set of drops, which seems to help). 

And here's what I found last night after I returned from a potty break during the movie:

Excuse me!  I believe that was MY seat!

Sarah

Friday, November 5, 2004

I just submitted two more proposals for teaching opportunities.  I'm now completely caught up in that department.  I should probably save these as Word documents so I don't have to write them from scratch again.

And I'm down to eleven e-mail messages to answer (less than a page!), and then I'll be caught up with THOSE.

This feels good.

That leaves custom knitting and finishing, which I'm working on (slowly), and pattern writing, which is currently at a complete (and hopefully temporary) standstill. 

Have you noticed that photos are currently non-existent here?  It's all part of my effort to spend less time blogging until I get caught up with the rest of my life.  Which does seem to be happening (the catching up part), despite my best efforts to procrastinate. 

To update yesterday's discussion of left-hand knitting:

There was a posting to the masterknit-usa list from Debby Johnston at Offinger Management regarding the growing brouhaha about left handed knitting.  She said:

Sarah

Thursday, November 4, 2004

My husband and I went to see the show "Chicago" at the Wharton Center in East Lansing last night.  Fun!  Tom Wopat starred as the lawyer Billy Flynn -- I'm sorry, but I just can't see past the old "Dukes of Hazzard" thing.  I prefer Richard Gere, who played that role in the movie.  Tom flubbed the word "knitting", if you can believe it -- we had a good chuckle over that.

There has been some discussion on the masterknit-usa list about left-handed knitters, and how they should be required to work their swatches for the TKGA Master Handknitter program. 

There's often confusion when it comes to people who hold the yarn in their left hand (which is Continental knitting, but NOT left-handed knitting) while moving the stitches from the left-hand needle to the right-hand needle, vs. true left-handed knitters, who move stitches from the right-hand needle to the left-hand needle as they work.

The way commercial patterns are written, they expect you to work from the left-hand needle to the right-hand needle, regardless of which hand holds the yarn.  It would be nice if they said "left leaning decrease" or "right leaning decrease", but they don't -- they say "ssk" and "k2tog".

I have one truly left-handed knitting friend, who constantly knits beautiful lacy sweaters of her own design.  She called me in a panic one day because she was trying to work from a pattern for once, but couldn't get the shaping to work out correctly.  I told her to do k2tog when it said SSK, and vice versa, and that did the trick for her.  I knew what to tell her because . . . 

I also have one truly left-handed knitting student (out of almost 500 students I've taught over the years -- that's not a very high percentage, is it?  .002%).  She and I had a bit of a struggle in the beginning, but eventually figured out that she just had to do the opposite of what I say most of the time.  That worked great for everything except Kitchener stitch, which she ended up figuring out on her own after watching me for a while.  I demonstrate things for her by sitting across from her, rather than next to her as I try to do for my other students. 

My left-handed student is working on the Master Knitter program, so I'd be interested in getting a definitive answer on what the TKGA committee expects.

a) Should the truly left-handed knitters be required to work their swatches in the "traditional" sense (from the left-hand needle to the right-hand needle) while following the directions as written, which is contrary to how they normally knit?

b) Should the truly left-handed knitters be allowed to use their left-handed method of knitting (from the right-hand needle to the left-hand needle) while following the directions as written, which wouldn't produce the intended result (shaping wouldn't look the way it was supposed to, for example)? 

c) Should the truly left-handed knitters be allowed to use their left-handed method of knitting (from the right-hand needle to the left-hand needle) while tweaking the directions, in order to produce the intended result?  The shaping would look as expected, but the decreases (for example) called for in the directions wouldn't have been used. 

Is there another option that should be considered?  Should the knitters be required to provide a written description of how they achieved the desired effect, if it was contrary to how they normally knit or to what the committee expects?

Any opinions?

Sarah

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

I finished the body of Anjuli last night -- oh wait -- it was early this morning, technically.  I was glued to the boob tube (most of the people ON the tube ARE boobs).  Garter stitch and the three needle bind off were semi-mindless enough to keep my hands busy while my brain was occupied elsewhere.  The armhole has been shortened, and the neckline remains curved.  I even got the cuff of the first sleeve started.  I decided to work the sleeves in the round and sew them into place -- I would have preferred to pick the stitches up and work the sleeve from the shoulder down, but I couldn't figure out where to begin the color sequence.  It probably doesn't matter, in the long run, but it seemed important last night.

So, positive progress was made on the knitting front.

Until . . . 

I just spit-spliced my new ball of yarn to the tail from my cast on row.

How many years do I have to knit before I quit making stupid mistakes like that?  Don't answer that -- I already know I'll never stop making mistakes, and I keep telling my students that.  I just wish I didn't have quite so many recent examples to use as "teaching moments".

Time for breakfast, and then I'm off to spread the joy of Entrelac . . . 

Sarah

Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Okay, I'm not complaining here, but the only problem with answering my backlog of e-mail is that those people turn around and e-mail me BACK, which means I have MORE e-mail to answer.  It reminds me of when I was younger and learning about thank-you notes, and I wondered how far it would go if you had to write a thank-you note for a thank-you note you had received -- and then that person wrote you a thank-you for your thank-you for their thank-you . . . you know what I mean? 

Sometimes I feel that an e-mail deserves a long, researched, well-articulated answer, which means I put it off until I have more time to respond, which means it goes unanswered.  I'd like for that to not happen any more.  We'll see.  My new policy of not letting any e-mail go unanswered for more than 24 hours should keep me from falling behind again -- except I haven't instituted it yet.  'Cause I'm not caught up on the old stuff yet.

Sigh.

I'm making some progress with the pile of finishing I've taken on.  THAT'S something.

I'm trying to concentrate on one (and only one -- do you know how hard this is for me?) personal knitting project (Anjuli), which was moving along nicely, but is currently undergoing an armhole review (after further review, there is indisputable evidence that you could drive a fire truck through the armhole of Anjuli.  Second down try!).  There's also some discussion as to whether this might work better as a v-neck sweater.  When the voices in my head make up their (my) minds, I'll let you know what the consensus is, and maybe someday you'll get to see what it looks like!

June P. let me know that her TKGA Level 1 submission was accepted without any revisions -- way to go, June!

Big day today -- get out there and VOTE!

Sarah

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