Missouri Star

Yarn Crawling

Every year there is a Yarn Crawl sponsored by 24 shops in Northwest Washington. I've never gone before, but decided to give it a try this year. I really only had an afternoon in which to accomplish this, but was able to make it to 8 shops - the minimum to be entered into the drawing. It was fun to see the different flavors of the shops. One specialized in funky, fun yarns, another in Shetland and other natural wools while several were all around great shops. Two of them stood out for me, and while I had no plans to purchase anything, temptation got the better of me, which did not surprise my husband at all!

The first shop is Knot Just Yarn. Wow! Lace knitting Mecca. They had a gorgeous selection of lace yarns and samples, along with many other beautiful yarns. Each shop featured a free pattern and offered yarn to go with it. This shop featured its own brand - Eweneek hand dyed yarn along with a pattern for a beaded shawlette. The yarn is a soft merino/nylon/bamboo blend. I chose the color Quicksilver with pewter beads:

The shop is pretty convenient in island terms. I do have to go to the mainland, but it's in the same area of town as JoAnn's, Michaels, the mall and Costco. I make a trip at least once a month there, so it would be easy to stop by and get tempted again!

The other shop that really appealed to me was Serial Knitters in Kirkland. I had heard a lot of buzz about this shop, and they did not disappoint! This is just a great all around shop. They are small, but packed with a wide selection of what I call workhorse yarns. Lots of Cascade 220 and tons of fingering weights to choose from. Their featured pattern was for a darling scarf and the recommended yarn was Periwinkle Sheep in the most gorgeous array of colors I have ever seen! Here's what jumped in my basket:

Something else kind of jumped in my basket too. There was a gentleman knitting there and he had a Yarn Buddy holding his yarn. This was just what I have been looking for to keep my yarn from rolling all over. I don't like pulling from the center because the yarn twists and with lace weight, the ball will collapse in on itself and make a royal mess. There was a wide selection in all kinds of beautiful woods and I chose this one out of Purple Heart. It spins on ball bearings and has made knitting off this slippery ball a breeze!

This particular yarn is Apple Tree Knits Stellar Lace Gradient. It has a high silk content and quite slippery, but beautiful to knit with. I was really worried about this ball exploding, but now it's securely contained by the Yarn Buddy. I'm using this to knit Rose Window, another project with lots of beads. I seem to obsessed with them lately!

The weekend was not all knitting. My main reason for going down to the Seattle area was to spend time with family. On Saturday we took Isobel to the Space Needle and the Pacific Science center.

The hissing cockroaches were a big hit! Then on Sunday my sister treated me and Abby to a wonderful bruch cruise around Lake Washington and Lake Union:

All in all a successful weekend!

 

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The Jury Is In

Over the past week or so I have placed a LOT of beads on Evenstar! So far about 1,850 and I'm a little over halfway around the border. I think the grand total will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,800. I think I'm getting pretty good at it and have decided on my preferred method. Drumroll, please.

 

The Fleegle Beader. As I mentioned there is definitely a learning curve involved, but all of a sudden, it just clicked and I find it the easiest, most convenient method. I found that about every 10-20 beads I would come across one that just didn't want to cooperate. I discovered that some beads have a hole that's just slightly too small. Once I decided to stop fighting those beads and just put them aside, things went much more smoothly. I'll keep those and if I run out of beads at the end, I can always place those using the floss method. Only 380 rows to go! I will also be ordering the larger size Beader to try out as well.

In the meantime, I needed something a little simple to rest my mind and hands, so I have started the Wilshire Shawl.

This is KnitPicks Shimmer in Blue Glass. I had started several other shawls with this, but it pooled unattractively. This, however, looks as of it is going to work just fine. This is what I consider "mindless" lace - no big surprises and lots of stockinette stitch when you just want to let your mind wander.

My mind has needed the opportunity to wander a bit lately. I find myself just a tad over committed. I had told myself that I would just say "no" to new commitments, but two came up that we're so very important that I felt led to agree. On the plus side, they are both pretty short term and should be over by mid-June. So I'm kind of in survival mode right now and my knitting is keeping me sane. Oddly enough, having a complicated project like Evenstar keeps me as sane as the simpler ones.

Adding into all the other activities, I have our Annual Spring Tea coming up this Saturday. I had promised Mei-Mei a new dress, and I finished it with time to spare:

Mei-Mei's pretty easy - as long as it's pink and sparkly she's good. And if the skirt twirls, it's even better. This dress accomplishes all of those! Here's a close up view of the beaded ribbon:

Isobel is a little tougher. Getting her into a dress is impossible, so probably the best I can hope for is clean jeans! So I made her a cute hooded tunic to go with whatever she decides:

I was not over impressed with this pattern. It was very poorly written and I will not be making it again. So I'll need to scour the pattern books to find other things to sew for Isobel. Or, I could just knit for Isobel and sew dresses for Mei-Mei. Mei-Mei doesn't seem to care much for sweaters I make, but loves the dresses. Isobel is just the opposite!

I got a chance to go on a photo adventure with my good friend Bethy last week. I've decided to hone my skills using only my iPhone camera. We got some beautiful pictures of a unique piece of driftwood that has always captured my imagination. Here are two of my favorites:

 

 

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Beading Bonanza

I love beaded shawls! Yes, they can be fiddly and even tedious to knit, but the finished fabric is so decadent and delicious. I just love running it through my fingers. And the sparkles - oh, the sparkles! In an effort to address the tedium of placing the beads, I've been experimenting with the different methods:

At top is a #14 crochet hook. It is by far the fastest and easiest method. The downsides are that you can only load about 5 beads at a time and the #14 won't accommodate anything smaller than a #6 bead. For lace weight yarn I usually use a #8.

In the middle is the super floss. This is the securest method, offering the least chance of having beads roll all over the floor. It also holds the most beads. It's a little slower and more fiddly than the crochet hook, and because it's floppy, it's hard to carry next to my knitting needle with my right hand. I end up dropping and picking it up a lot, which slows me down.

At the bottom is the new Fleegle Beader that I just got from the Gossamer Web. I was really excited about this as the perfect solution. I sat down to use it, and after about a hour was ready to chuck it across the room, to join all the beads that were already there after falling off! I tucked it away in its little tube and proceeded on with Evenstar's border using the floss method. This morning when I sat down to knit, I decided to give it another try, and doggone if it didn't work! There is definitely a learning curve and you have to get used to putting tension on the yarn and then pushing the bead up and over rather than pulling the yarn through, which is what you do with the other methods. So this just may work. I'll keep you posted. So far, 5 repeats of the border done - 51 to go!

With all this lovely beading going on, I had to force myself to work on Dark and Stormy, but I did and finished the knitting.

I'm not at all happy with it. As you can see on the right side of the picture, the shoulder area bunches up terribly! I've looked at other finished sweaters and I see that in some of them too. I wouldn't be adverse to ripping out the collar and trying again if I knew how to fix it. This one may have to simmer a bit before I figure out what to do.

In the continuing saga of Ben's sweater, he kept ripping out the elbow, so I finally relented and sewed on elbow patches.

I guess the upside of this is that he loves this sweater and wears it constantly. That makes it all worth it!

I can't believe that Isobel will turn 8 this week! Where has the time gone? She did her science fair project on the Australian Walking Stick. Hers is named Popcorn. Doesn't she look grown up?

 

 

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Change of Pace

Many years ago, just after I got married, I was into crochet in a big way. One year everyone got intricate doilies for Christmas. Strangely enough I didn't keep many for myself, so few remain. Recently I was reading my favorite blogs and came across a cute little baby blanket crocheted by Vera. She kindly responded to my inquiries about it, I did some stash diving, rustled up the correct size hook and went to town.

I'm finding the crochet a nice change of pace. I don't think I'll be jumping ship from knitting anytime soon, but may do more than one of these little blankets for our hospital project. They do go fast!

I've been working away on Dark and Stormy and am into the long slog of the shawl collar. I only have an inch and a half to go, but it's so heavy that it's not much fun to work with. I'm getting a little nervous about the fit. The sleeves are too long, but that's easily fixed since it's knitted top down. But the shoulder area seems a little "wonky". In looking at other finished projects some of them seem that way too, so I guess it remains to be seen if that will block out, and if not, can I live with it?

Can't seem to figure out how to rotate the picture in Blogsy - I'll work on that!

I'm planning a big lace project for my summer knitting. As soon as I saw Fire Dance I knew I had to do it. I preordered the kit in a gradience with beads. Yeah, call me crazy. First, though, I have to finish Evenstar. The body is finished and I have made three aborted attempts to start the border. I made the mistake of trying to work on it when I was tired. Late at night with size 11 seed beads is not a good combination! Perhaps it's just as well that I had to frog back because I've come to the conclusion that I don't have enough beads. I can't remember where I got these, so can't get more. So I ordered enough size 8’s, which is what the pattern calls for. I also ordered a beader from the Gossamer Web. Every time I turned around I was dropping beads off my crochet hook, so I think this will be less frustrating. I'll give a full report when It gets here.

In other news, I'm going to be reopening my Etsy shop. I see a market for iPad and Kindle cases and have found a design that is versatile and open to so many ideas for decoration. Here are a few of my prototypes.

They are fully lined with no raw edges and have an outside zippered pocket. They will fit an iPad mini (with Smart Cover), a Kindle Fire and of course, any of the smaller Kindles or other ereaders. They do not fit the larger iPads, but if these go over well and there is an interest, I may offer those as well. And they can certainly be used for other things as well. Stay tuned!

 

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13.1

Well, I did it! It wasn't pretty, but I did it. There were several things I was worried about. First was the weather - I was afraid it would rain. And it did! In fact, I heard that the marathoners, who started earlier and joined in with us about halfway, ran into hail. Thankfully we only hit rain, but it really didn't seem to affect me much, which surprised me. The second thing that worried me was my knee. It held up just fine. I ended up doing a combination of light running, walking, power walking and about everything in between. I was worried about finishing last and I didn't!! I was especially proud of Abby, who ran a 2:17 which put her about midway in the rankings. Not bad for a beginning runner. My time was "ahem" a little longer, but the fact is, I finished! A nice perk was that as I came across the finish line, they called my name over the loudspeaker and a city councilman, who just happened to be my brother-in-law, was there to present me with my medal.

I don't think we looked too worse for wear, but we were soaked! Will I do it again? Maybe, but it's kind of like childbirth. I have to forget this one first.

Today I took it really easy, dosed myself with Ibuprofen and have spent most of the day watching BBC mysteries and knitting. I'm engaging in a different kind of marathon and trying to get Dark and Stormy done. I am agreeing with Lorette that I'm not too keen anymore on seamless sweaters. As much as I dislike seaming, I think I'm disliking even more having this huge bulk of sweater in my lap to turn as I do the sleeves. But I am getting near the finish line! Maggie approves.

I've just been listening to the news and my heart breaks about the news from Boston. Yesterday some of the marathoners running alongside us were running to qualify for the Boston marathon next year. Such evil in the world!

 

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Sweet Obsession

I love making little baby things! However, at my age my friends are no longer having babies and I have all the grandchildren I'm going to get. Aside from the occasional great niece or nephew I really don't get a chance to knit for babies. So I was excited when our knitting group "adopted" the birthing center at our local hospital. The goal is for every baby to go home with a sweater, hat and small blanket. Here's my first offering:

This is a great little pattern from Leisure Arts. You can see the particulars on my project page. I made this little set in just two days. There was some car knitting involved, but still it was quick and easy. I did make some modifications to the hat. The notes are on the project page. One blanket is finished, but needs to be blocked before a photo and another is in the works.

In other news, there has been a change of plans regarding the half marathon. Several weeks ago during my 10 mile run, my left knee seized up on me at mile 7.5. I thought I would just walk the last few miles, but by 8.5 miles, I was really hurting. Hubby picked that opportune moment to call me and I had him come pick me up. Since then I've been icing, stretching, foam rolling and strengthening. It has gotten a lot better, but it still hurts to run. The good news is that I can walk - and I can walk fast. I've done one 8 mile walk that came very, very close to the time it took me to run it. So instead of running the half, I will be walking it. After all, 13.1 miles is 13.1 miles, right? The other good thing is that this will be sustainable and I think I've even talked hubby into joining me - not on the half, but on future, shorter walks.

In sewing news, I've had a little doorstop in our bedroom made for me almost 20 years ago by one of my Sunday School students. Over the years it's suffered the slings and arrows of fate, including having the face chewed off by Maggie when she was a puppy. It finally bit the dust last week, so I made a new one:

Not much else to report, so I'll leave you with pictures of the girls. I can't believe Isobel will be 8 in a few weeks. And don't you just love Mei-Mei's gap toothed smile?

 

 

 

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Testing, Testing

I just installed a new app on my iPad that I hope will help me blog more regularly. Spurred on by Marguerite's success (not sure yet how to link to her blog) I'm giving it a try. I have become so attached to my iPad and only get out my laptop for my digital Scrapbooking projects.

Latest in my completed projects is Pretty Thing, a cowl by The Yarn Harlot.

This was made using the pink mink I got at Madrona with Sally and Lorette. It's a fun, quick pattern that takes very little yarn and feels oh-so-soft around my neck. Sally has come up with a pattern for wristers to use up the rest of the yarn. Stay tuned.

No time to dilly dally around. I'm actually just sitting here wasting time waiting for it to warm up a little before I go for my 10 mile run. Yikes! I can't believe I'm saying that. Only two more long runs before the half marathon. I'll get up to 12 miles before the big day. Most of the plans I've seen recommend at least 10 miles, so after today I'll feel pretty confident that I can finish. My time won't be spectacular and there will be some walking, but I will run the majority of it and I will finish!

 

 

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Knitting Content Ahead

For those of you who come here for knitting content, stick around.  For those of you who don't, move along; there's nothing to see here. Lots of knitterly fun and games going on this week. At the last minute I decided to drive down to the Madrona Fiber Fest in Tacoma.  It turned out that Sally, the developer of Knit Companion, was going to be there!  How could I pass up the opportunity to meet her?  I quickly contacted Lorette, reserved my room and headed down there.

We all had a wonderful time!  As usual, John and Lorette treated me to high class accomodations and food, including wine and champagne.  On Friday morning we headed to Madrona.  We had a good laugh when Lorette asked me how we would recognize Sally.  I said, "She'll be the one knitting."  Well, that did differentiate her from the ones spinning!  We managed to locate her and headed off to the market, where lots of fun, laughter, and - let's face it, yarn enabling ensued.

First of all, let me say that Sally is just a genius.  She shared with us some of her thoughts on developing Knit Companion and some of the upcoming developments.  I've shared my enthusiasm for this program, but it just keeps getting better and better.  What a treat to spend the day with her and get an "inside" look!

It's really unrealistic to expect one to stick to a yarn diet at Madrona.  I think I did show incredible restraint, however, and came home with only two skeins.  The first is a lovely merino/bamboo blend:

I've been wanting to try some bamboo since seeing it profiled on Knitting Daily.  This is destined to become an Alexandra Shawl.  I'll probably have enough for another project too, because the yardage is incredible - 1120 yards!

And as soon as I saw this I had to have it!

Pink mink!  Who knew?  Sally and Lorette and I are going to host a KAL over on the Knit Companion Ravelry site.  We thought a Pretty Thing cowl and matching mitts would be just the thing.  Did I mention they both bought mink yarn too?  Although not pink mink.

My other purchase was some Chiaogoo needles.  I've been eyeing them online and once I saw them in person, I was definitely onboard.  Here they are on my current pair of socks, Hedera, in Knit Picks Stroll.  

Oh. My. Goodness!  I love, love, love these needles.  The tips are nice and pointy:

The finish is just slightly brushed so the stitches slide along easily, but do not slip. The cables are firm and have no memory and no kinks.  And the joins!  Oh, the joins.  They are the smoothest I have ever encountered.  And the price???  Only $8.00 for a 24 inch.  Bargain! Recently I caved and bought a couple of Signature needles.  Now, they are really, really nice and a pleasure to knit with.  And until I ran across the Chiaogoos I was going to give them a glowing report.  But I honestly can say that they aren't any nicer than the Chiaogoos and much more expensive.  As luck would have it, I happened to mention this at the Knit Companion class I taught yesterday and one of the ladies offered to buy my Signatures.  Deal done, and with the money for that plus my fee for the class, I had enough to buy a set of the Chiaogoo interchangeables.  Can't wait until they get here.  I'll give you a full report.

On the needles now - Evenstar.

It's at the amorphous blob stage right now.  The body to Dark and Stormy is done and sleeves have commenced:

I'm still not sure how the fit is going to work out on this.  This is my first top down adult sweater and I'm hoping the armhole is deep enough.

That's it for now.  Tonight I have to get at least one row done on Evenstar to free up the Signatures so I can mail them to their new owner tomorrow.  But I'm really itching to get back to my socks on the Chiaogoos!

Where to Begin?

Life has been pretty exciting lately, so grab a cup of coffee and sit a spell while I catch up.  Two weekends ago we took the granddaughters to our church's snow camp.  This is held up in the Cascade Mountains in a beautiful valley set in among the mountains.  We were blessed with lots and lots of snow, which is the whole point of a snow camp.  Fortunately, the roads were pretty decent.  It's always a balancing act to have lots of snow with clear roads.  It was a lot of work for the grandparents (we're not as young as we used to be!), but both girls seemed to really enjoy themselves.  Mei-Mei was a bit of a pill as she was determined NOT to wear her snow suit.  Once she realized she was not going out in the snow without it, she would relent, but she made us work at it!  Most of the time, however, she was utterly charming and everyone fell in love with her.

The big highlight of the weekend was that she lost a tooth.  She was delighted to find out that the Tooth Fairy could find her way through all that snow!

Isobel proved herself an outstanding athlete!  She took to cross country skiing and snowboarding like a champ.  Someone asked her how many times she fell down.  She replied, "About a million times."  How many times did you get up?  "A little over a million times."

During the church services hubby played the banjo with his bluegrass group, but found it a little hard to concentrate with someone hanging on his leg.

All in all, a great trip and one we will repeat next year.  Mei-Mei has promised to wear her snow suit without fuss.

This morning I came to a little epiphany about both my knitting and running life.  They both concern doing things for others' expectations and not my own.  First off - knitting.  I think I was a little rash jumping on board the Dragon KAL.  I am hating knitting this!  Usually I love lace, even the difficult lace. This one is just plain no fun.  I've dragged along, hating to let everyone down on the KAL, but considering this would probably take at least 6 months to a year to complete, that's a long time to spend on something you hate.  So it is being frogged.  Right now I'm concentrating working on Evenstar and am looking for another lace project to utilize the yarn from the Dragon.  

On the running front, I had joined a running club and was so happy to know that I was not in training for the half marathon alone and was looking forward to running with others.  It has not worked out that way.  I am the slowest runner in the club and despite their promises that "no runner will be left behind", on our runs they drop me like a bad habit.  One of the other slower runners and I decided to beat them at their own game and start out early to get a head start.  This morning it occurred to me that this is insane!  Why am I trying to keep up with people who clearly don't care enough about me to include me?  In trying to keep up I am running harder and faster than is good for me and am risking injury.  And I am becoming discouraged.  So as of today, I will resume training on my own.   One of the things that running is teaching me is that I am only in competition with myself.  I will always be one of the slowest runners, but that doesn't matter if I'm doing it because I love it. 

This raises the whole philosophical question about why we do many of the things we do.  I know that there are things in our lives that are less than pleasant but that are really necessary and we must have the discipline to do them.  But how many things are we doing because of pressure or expectations from other people?  I hope this year I will have to courage to either not start them in the first place or to stop when I realize that I am doing them for the wrong reasons!

Next week I hope to have more knitting news for those of you whom come here for that.  On Thursday I'm driving down to Lorette's and we're going to Madrona together.  We'll not be taking any classes, but are excited about meeting up with the developer of Knit Companion!  Should be lots of knitterly eye candy for you next week.

 

 

Monogamy

While marital mongamy has always been a slam dunk for me, project monogamy has been less so.  I'm not sure what the record is for the most projects in progress, but it seems as if 8 or 9 was probably the norm at one time.  Lately, I've been a little more faithful to my projects and it certainly pays off in FO's! Our knitting group started a project last January in which we all picked a pattern for a gansey.  I don't think any of us were doing the same one.  I thought for sure I would be the last one done because I picked Cape Cod by Alice Starmore.  At her hellatious gauge, I had to use fingering weight yarn and size 0 needles.  It just goes to show what a little project monogamy can accomplish because I am one of the first to finish her gansey.  Behold Cape Cod in all her glory!

I love everything about this sweater!  The yarn, Knit Picks Gloss is a luscious blend of silk and wool.  I like that it's fairly lightweight so I don't get overheated.  I like the intricacy of the knit and all the classy little touches that Starmore is famous for.  And I love the fit.  A little loose and comfortable, but not baggy.  This will definitely get a lot of wear.  And I have to add that this would have never been finished (or at least not so soon) without Knit Companion.  Recently they released a new version featuring smart counters which helped me with the multiple chart repeats and shaping on the sleeves.  

I also managed to finish a pair of fingerless gloves for my sister:

The pattern is October Leaves, yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in Chinatown Apple.  Wonderful pattern with lovely detail in the thumb area.  And I have enough left from the skein to make another pair.  Brown's not really my color, but I think I'll make them anyway and put them aside for a gift giving occasion.

That leaves me with only two wip's (and one in hibernation that may be frogged).  Neither Evenstar or Dark and Stormy are real portable projects, so I cast on for a pair of Cookie A socks - Hedera.  I keep saying I'm going to knit my way through her book, Knit Sock Love and they are the first in the book, so it's a start.  No promises as to how far I'll get.

I did have a little moment of insanity and jumped on board a KAL.  The project is Dragon of Happiness.  Go take a look and come back laughing.  Insane, no?  Of course, I did have to break my yarn fast (hey, I lasted all of 3 weeks!) to order the yarn.  And I think I just may have, in a moment of weakness, ordered some Signature needles to go along with it.  This project is not going to go fast and will need frequent breaks, but I might as well be deliriously happy while knitting it!  Of course, I know that I'll want to go throw all my Knit Picks needles in the trash.  Or win the lottery. 

My training for the half marathon is coming along, but not without a few bumps in the road.  Today our club did a spin class.  Let me go on record as saying that I hated it with a passion that is just a little scary.  The endurance part was hard, but I could probably get over that.  But without getting too technical, just let me say that the bike seat was painful!  Even with an extra cushion they provided I was miserable the whole time.  Next time they schedule a spin class I'll just go for a little run.