Sunday, September 25, 2005

I'm looking for a couple of warm bodies with cold feet to take my Toe Up Socks class at the Little Red Schoolhouse Yarn Shop starting Wednesday morning.  Class and contact information is on the class page.  Any takers?

My Entrelac jacket made from Noro Silk Garden is on display there, as a sample for the Entrelac Design class that will be starting in late October.  If you want to take a look at it, now's your chance.  I'll be happy to see it taken off the display later in October, so I can start wearing it!! 

When I stopped by to talk to Linda at Little Red Schoolhouse this weekend, I found a gorgeous hank of America's Alpaca Suri Elegance laceweight alpaca on her sale table.  The color is Purple Mountain Majesty (mmm!).  Of course it came home with me! 

I strongly suspect that I'm entering a lace phase . . .

Sarah

Friday, September 23, 2005

Look what came in the mail yesterday:

I'm looking forward to sitting down and poring over these two treasures.  I won't have a chance until tomorrow, though.  I teach two classes in two different towns today, and then I come home to the Homecoming parade and football game.  Son Number One is marching with the band in the parade, and throughout the game, of course.  I just know I'll tear up when I see them -- I always do (I'm a weenie).

My parents are getting ready to move out of our family home, and my mom has been sending us boxes and bags of everything you can imagine.

Here are some hats she knit for me and my two older sisters ages ago:

I wonder if my boys will wear them this winter?

Notice that there are two of each style, for three daughters.  I always accuse my family of raising me on hand-me-downs.  I keep finding more proof.  Sister Number One tells me I need to get over it, but I'm having too much fun harrassing everyone about it!

Oops!  I have 13 minutes to eat breakfast, get dressed, and get out the door.

Sarah

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

I know you're still savoring my incredibly well-written description of Stitches Midwest, but I've got more events to tell you about while I'm in the mood, so you'll just have to snap out of it.

I already told you about my quickie trip to Allegan to the Michigan Fiber Festival with Uberimma (who has been wearing her new sweater in the cooler weather we've been enjoying -- hooray!), and I know I mentioned my purchases, but I failed to show them to you:

Cobalt blue laceweight from Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill (ain't it purdy?), and a Kromski niddy noddy from Susan's Fiber Shop.  Mica firmly believes that the niddy noddy is a fabulous device upon which to rub one's furry little face.  It doesn't have quite the same effect on me.

Last Friday I attended a very elegant yarn tasting at Woven Art in East Lansing:

We spent the evening sampling a variety of different yarns (and wines) (and appetizers) (and desserts) (Yum!) and viewing garments made from the selected fibers.

I came away from that experience with this:

Not one of the featured yarns, but it caught my eye regardless.  It's called Gemini -- 50% merino, 50% silk, hand painted by Nancy McRay at Woven Art.  VERY soft and luscious, and GORGEOUS colors.  I'm trying to make a simple rectangular stole for myself, but the stitch I chose is so stretchy that I'm having trouble making it wide enough so that it will be long enough -- know what I mean?  I may try going up to a larger needle, too.  I'm doing an allover pattern of yarnover, ssk (beginning and ending with a knit stitch), which seems to show off the yarn very nicely.  I think it's the first lace pattern in the first Barbara Walker treasury, and was also brought to my attention during a workshop with Margaret Radcliffe of Maggie's Rags.

I'm also thinking of adding some kind of a beaded fringe to the narrow ends when I'm done, but since I have no experience with that, those plans may change.  Time will tell!

Sarah

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Would you like to hear about the trip I took to Stitches Midwest in August?  You would?  Then you're in luck!  There's not a WHOLE lot to tell, but I'll try to drag it out as long as possible.

I only took a few photos, and they're all of buildings, so you'll have to imagine the rest of it based on my description.  You know what they say -- a thousand words are worth a picture.

In years past, no matter what knitting events I've attended, I've gone with a carload (or planeload, or trainload) of knitting friends, but this year there were only two of us -- Sarah (that's me) and Sheila.  Or Sheila and Sarah, as at least one of our friends calls us -- we're interchangeable.

Driving to Chicago is not the most pleasant experience I've ever had.  Between my beloved (but faulty) Mapquest and the construction it was quite a challenge, but we persevered and arrived safe and sound on Friday afternoon. 

Stitches Midwest, hosted by XRX (the publishers of Knitter's Magazine), has been held for at least the last three years in St. Charles, Illinois, at Pheasant Run, which is a beautiful, sprawling golf resort.  I mention sprawling, because that meant we had to walk what seemed like miles between the parking lot, the front desk, our rooms, Stitches registration, the market, and the various classes.  Not that we complained much, because the grounds were gorgeous, with lots of places to sit outside and knit while listening to birds (and shouts of "Fore!") and looking at the beautiful landscaping (and the golfers).  Once you've been going to these conferences (conventions?) a number of years, you sort of get tired of the banquets and fashion shows and would rather save your money for the marketplace, so after the first year at Pheasant Run, we found less expensive lodgings about a mile down the road, and discovered some fabulous restaurants in downtown St. Charles. 

That was then.

Stitches Midwest is NOW being held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, very close to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.  On the plus side, the classes were all located in one distinct area, and the marketplace was in the same building, and the recommended hotel (the Hyatt Regency) was right across the street.  The convention center is enormous.  ENORMOUS.  That meant that even though everything was basically in one building, there were miles upon miles upon MILES of walkways between the parking garage, the hotel, the classrooms, and the market.  We could have gone the whole weekend without ever setting foot outside.  And we didn't really want to, because we were surrounded by concrete.  Here's the view from our balcony, looking across the street at the convention center.  Note the covered walkway in the center of the photo, which meets up with the walkway to the parking garage (to the left) and to the convention center (to the right):

We had to hang off of our balcony to get reception on our cell phones (you know, to call home to see if the husbands were surviving without us), and then we couldn't hear anything because planes were constantly zooming overhead.

Here's the view from just outside our hotel room door:

That's an elevator shaft up the center (you can see one of the elevators just coming into view at the top right), surrounded by endless concrete walkways dripping with real live plants (we checked for an irrigation system -- yup!).

We ate most meals in a very nice atrium cafe in the hotel, with the exception of one wonderful Italian meal we walked to (along city highways -- more concrete!) at Carlucci's in the Marriott.  We dined with Edie Eckman, Joan Shrouder, Beth Walker-O'Brien, and a friend of Beth's.  Beth was my roommate at Knitting Camp (which I haven't told you about yet).

Sheila and I are thinking that the next time we go to Stitches in Rosemont we'll travel by train and el (think of all the extra knitting time!) and stay down the block at one of the cheaper hotels.  And we were kind of lonely without our usual posse -- maybe it's time to go to the banquet again?

So enough about the view.  What did we DO?

We arrived on Friday afternoon in time to hunt down the registration area (not an easy task), Beth's classroom (to make plans for dinner), and the marketplace, where we split up and did some speed browsing.  Lo and behold, there was Mary, a knitting friend from home, who had decided on the spur of the moment to drive over and check out the marketplace.  And there was Marcia in the Philosopher's Wool booth (as usual), another friend from home.  Cool!

Sheila and I each had a class Saturday morning.  I took "The Perfect Sleeve" with Jean Frost, author of the amazing Jackets book.  You'll have to take the class for yourself, but I can tell you that it certainly simplified those pesky set-in sleeves that I dread sewing in.  I still dread sewing them in, because Jean likes to use crochet for her seams and I don't think I'll ever make that switch, but the designing process got a whole lot easier.  I usually work my set-in sleeves by picking up stitches around the armhole and short-rowing the sleeve cap from the top down.  Jean's sleeves are worked from the cuff up, but follow the same shaping principles as mine, so that was very reassuring.  Commercial patterns make things way too complicated, if you ask me.

I met a lovely fellow knitter in that class.  I came in late enough that there weren't many seats left, and I chose one in the back row next to Paula, who was stuffing a muffin into her mouth.  I said "I'm sitting next to you because you've got food!"  We bonded quickly and constantly lost track of what we were supposed to be doing in class as we chit-chatted about knitting (she doesn't want to crochet her seams together, either).  Not to fear -- we caught up with the rest of the class by the end.  Paula owns a yarn shop in Valparaiso, Indiana, called "Sheep's Clothing Knitting Supply".  Check it out if you're in the area or just passing through!

I met up with Sheila after class and we trekked off to the marketplace.  This was our only real shopping time, so after a quick lunch at the snack bar, where we had our annual sighting of Chris with her knitting buddies (hooray!), we got down to business.  I had a very small shopping list and a very large rule -- NO NEW YARN!

Here's how I did:

On the shopping list was:

• A 12" pair of size 5 U.S. straight needles from Lantern Moon
• An upgrade for my Sweater Wizard software
• Lucy Neatby's tips on finishing, which I've heard wonderful things about
• A children's book from The Village Spinning and Weaving Shop, which is an annual souvenir.  I used to pretend I was getting them for my kids, but they're really for me.  (not pictured, because I forget which one I got this year)

Bonus items included:

• A collared cape pattern from Dzined (Diagonal Rib Cape)
• HeartStrings' Elegantly Simple Triangle Shawl pattern
• Knitting Heaven and Earth, by Susan Gordon Lydon, author of The Knitting Sutra

See?  No new yarn!  What a good girl!

Saturday night was our yummy Italian dinner -- I had black ravioli stuffed with crab, I think.  Mmmm.  Squid ink, in case you were wondering, but let's not dwell on that for too long.

Sunday allowed for a lazy morning.  After another nice breakfast at the atrium cafe, Sheila and I headed for the treat we had promised ourselves:

IKEA!!!!!

You'll have to forgive me.  I adore Ikea, and there isn't one near my house (yet).  The only time I had ever been in one was in Pittsburgh when I was pregnant with Son Number One.  So it had been a while.

The photo is blurry.  Deal with it.  I was so happy to be there that I almost got down on my knees and kissed the parking lot.  I may have, actually.  You'll have to ask Sheila.  I was giddy.

Six hours later, I couldn't wait to get out of there.  Don't get me wrong -- I still adore Ikea.  Let's just say that the employees didn't make my shopping experience all that it could have been, and leave it at that.  I found the perfect bookshelves, just like I've been looking for, but the box wouldn't fit in my car (I'm renting a van next time).  I found the perfect medicine cabinet, just like I've been looking for, but there were two dents in it which I didn't discover until I opened the box back in Michigan (yes, I learned a lesson from that).  The storage boxes I bought are fine, but one of the two flashlights I bought for the kids broke within an hour.

Sigh. 

On our way back to Lansing Sunday evening, who should we happen to pass on the highway but Marcia?  Thank goodness for cell phones ("Hi, Marcia?  It's Sarah!  I just passed you!").  We were all starving, so we took the next exit and had a nice meal together, which was perfect because we hadn't been able to see each other for more than a few minutes at Stitches.

That's all there is to tell.  Was it worth waiting for? 

Sarah

Sunday, September 18, 2005

A quickie post, to say:

Here's a MUCH better picture of the I Do Shrug:

And I put my "Knitting bloggers I've met" buttons back up, so certain people will quit bugging me.  They're in the right-hand sidebar, below the knitting.  I slapped some buttons together for people who didn't have them, but I don't know how to add borders yet, so some are sort of floating freely in space.  Anyone want to educate me?

That's all for now.  Husband Number One is out of town for the evening, so I've got a stack of videos and a bowl of popcorn at the ready.  Later!

Sarah

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

The shrug is done!  The shrug is done!

Here's a really horrible photo of it blocking on my floor in a cat-free zone:

I tried rotating the photo so it would take up less room, but then it looked really goofy because of the weird angle at which it was photographed, so you get the tall, skinny version.  Which still looks really goofy.

I hope to be mailing it off to the bride tomorrow (it's still a tiny bit damp).  Let's hope she sends me a photo of it in action, so I can replace this picture on the Finished Projects page (hint, hint!).  Or maybe I'll cheat and photograph it on a human when I'm at class tomorrow.

The shrug is done!

The next deadline I had to meet was getting the notes written up before the first session of my Introduction to Intarsia class, which was tonight.  Which I accomplished with minutes to spare, thank you very much.  This is the first time I've taught this class (hence the lack of any class notes), but I believe it's going to be a good one.  I'll see what my students think and get back to you on that.

Here's the yarn the five of us are using for our Intarsia vests, with no collaboration on anyone's part:

You may notice that three of us are using the exact same shade of green Cascade 220 Superwash.  You may also notice that two of us are using the exact same shade of blue Cascade 220 Superwash.  You may also notice that everyone has blue as at least one of their colors.

Isn't that freaky? 

The NEXT deadline is getting a sample knit up for my Introduction to Aran (Cable) Knitting class before October 19th.

I had something I wanted to blog about, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was, so I'll just throw in a few photos and factoids.

Rae's Yarn Boutique now has a website, and there's a link to Rae's new blog.  Go say hi!

I got the shoulders of Loll seamed and the neckband finished.  That leaves setting in the sleeves (ick), the side and sleeve seams (no problem), and the tails to weave in (ick again).  No photos -- it's still black.

Here's a low-battery shot of my Opal Mosaic socks, modeled by moi, photographed very competently by Son Number Two, who stood on the coffee table in order to get an aerial view.  You may be able to see in the center of the bottom sock where the mosaic effect actually kicked in for a few rows.  Or you may not.  Or you may go blind looking for it, so please be careful!

My buddy Sheila showed my this photo of her cat, and I just had to share it with you:

She said he gets very disgruntled if his pillow and blankie aren't arranged just so.  Isn't it a hoot?

Sarah

Saturday, September 10, 2005

I just spent about an hour fixing the font on almost every page of my website and my blog.  Things had been looking whacky on my laptop computer (but not my desktop computer) for some time, but I think I've got it all back to my beloved Arial.  I got bored and didn't fix any blog entries archived in 2004 or 2003 -- maybe I'll get to those later.

I'm almost done with the I Do Shrug from the summer Knitty, which I'm working on for an October wedding:

It looks pretty much like a scraggly brown lump right now -- I'm putting all my trust in the washing and blocking process.  I'm using Euroflax Geneva, which is a worsted weight linen, and it's quite stiff to knit with.  A few washings ought to soften things right up!

Deb brought some of her finished class projects to show me.  Here's her bag from my Introduction to Entrelac class:

Aren't those fabulous colors?  I think she actually followed the directions as written for that class -- a first for her, I think!  I first met Deb in my Continental Knitting class when she asked if it was all right if she made a tea cozy instead of a hat -- which she did, and it turned out great!

Here's her cool version of the pillow from my Introduction to Fair Isle class:

Now she's working on an Entrelac pillow based on the ones I've been making for my sons.  I can't wait to see how she tweaks that idea!

While focusing on the deadline for the wedding shrug, I've been neglecting all of my other "on the needles" projects.  Their status (statuses?  stati?) is (are) as follows:

• Christmas stockings for Judy:  Each of the two stockings is written for a different size and gauge, so I'm in the process of modifying the charts so both stockings will work out to the same size.
• Entrelac pillows for Son Number One:  I've got two in the works.  One of them is waiting for zipper installation and final assembly.  The other is waiting for zipper assembly, two circular end pieces to be designed and knit, and then final assembly.
• Loll:  Waiting to be sewn together and for the neckband to be picked up and knit.  I hope to make some progress on this at Woven Art's Second Sunday knit-in tomorrow (noon-4:00).
• Opal Mosaic socks:  waiting for four tails to be woven in.  I think I can handle this at the knit-in tomorrow, provided I remember to pack a darning needle.
• St. Brigid for Sister Number Two:  I'm somewhere in the middle of both of the sleeves.  I'm very dependent on the charts for this project.
• Sweater Repair for Judy:  This should be an afternoon's work, which I hope to finish up as soon as the shrug is off the needles.

See?  Nothing to really sit down and knit happily and mindlessly away on.  Ooh -- there's a poorly constructed sentence if I ever saw one.

I swatched for a stockinette stitch sweater to knit along with my Sweater Design class, which would qualify as fun, brainless knitting (yay!), but I can't justify starting it until I get the shrug finished, the repair done, and the Christmas stockings started.  I'll be using Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran Cotton (I accidentally typed "Dessert"!), which I found in the sale bin at The Fibre House in Grand Haven last weekend.  They only had ten balls, and there are only 60 yards on a ball, so I'm hoping to eke out a sleeveless v-neck sweater.

Nancy was kind enough to send me some virtual chocolate -- who knew there was such a thing?

I haven't forgotten about Stitches Midwest and Knitting Camp.  I'll get to them eventually -- I promise!  Son Number One is in marching band and on the golf team this year, and Son Number Two is in soccer and flag football, and is starting piano lessons next week.  Those activities, including practices and games, plus homework supervision and general household duties (they STILL expect me to cook for them!) keep me on the run.  Oh, and did I mention that I'm teaching again?  And that I'm knitting with deadlines?  Which I ought to be doing right now . . .

Sarah

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

I taught two Knitter's Choice sessions today, which were my first classes since late May or early June.  These aren't really "teaching" classes -- they're more like "helping" classes, so it was a nice way to easy into my teaching schedule.  I'd forgotten how enjoyable it is to sit and talk about knitting with grown ups (I mean, to sit with grownups and talk about knitting).  Kathy is thinking about starting a challenging new project (what a luxury!).  Brenda is getting ready to sew together a beautiful Adrienne Vittadini sweater (ooh!).  Deb wanted to get started on an easy project for her plane trip to Hawaii (no fair!).  Tracy is in the finishing stages of a beautiful Dale of Norway baby sweater (now we just need a baby to fit into it!). 

After my students had gone, and after my kids had remembered to brush their teeth and go to bed, and after my husband had gotten home from his day trip to Chicago, I realized that I would miss this week's knit-in at Sharon's, I realized that I'm not at a fun/easy/brainless point on any of my knitting projects, I realized that I'm not reading any interesting books right now, and I realized that there isn't any chocolate anywhere in my house (oh, the horror!). 

So what should I do?

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I popped a bag of popcorn.  I poured a glass of wine.  (I sure could use some chocolate).  I started this blog entry.

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So what should I do NOW?

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NOW I think I need to remind myself that my problems are fairly insignificant.  I need to be thankful for my kids and my husband (whether they listen to me or not), and for my job and my knitting friends (whether I see them regularly or not), and for my yarn and my books (which are currently dry), and for the popcorn and wine that I have (had) and for the chocolate that I could get at the grocery store if I wanted to (but I won't).

And NOW I'm off to bed, because I have to get up early tomorrow to see my kids off to school, and to see my husband off to work, and to work at my job, and to call my knitting friends, and to buy some more popcorn and some more wine (but not some more chocolate), and to work on my boring knitting project, and to read a few pages in my boring book, because I have a good life, and I know where my loved ones are, and I'm in my own house, and I'm warm and dry . . .

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Happy Anniversary, K and Z!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Sarah

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