alisonknits

More Spots and Hank

Thanks for all the compliments on the sweaters. It's so gratifying to finish something! Sunspots particularly because I've been able to wear it (Long Beach, CA was surprisingly cool), and Hank8 because I started it so damn long ago!

A few notes on the finishing processes:

Sunspots was knit in Karabella Frost, a silk/cashmere/viscose blend that gets much softer when washed. So I washed it by hand with Ivory Snow, then added some fabric softener. I laid it out to dry on my SpaceBoard, stretching and smoothing it out, but not using any pins. It grew quite a bit during this process, which was a desired effect. I think the growth was due to both the blocking of the lace design, and also potentially because of the yarn blooming a bit.

For Hank, the finishing involved making sure all my ends were knotted - yup, knotted, not woven in - then trimming them to 1/4-1/2". I also didn't bother to cross stitch over the steeks; I just left them exposed. They've already started to felt, and I've learned that knitting doesn't want to unravel side-to-side, it really only wants to unravel vertically. Between not weaving in ends, and not finishing the steeks, the finishing was comparatively quick. And since I don't have a wooly board, I just steamed the sweater. I tell ya, steam is a magical thing.

During the conference I just returned from, I did lots of knitting, mostly on the Garden Shawl. I'll see if I can get a decent picture of it today, but as I've mentioned, it's difficult to see as it's all bunched on the circular needle. It kind of looks like a sack at the moment. But I'll see what I can do, because it really is a gorgeous design and I can't wait for you all to see it!

Tying Up Loose Ends (Literally!)

I'm off to California tomorrow morning, and I had the last couple days off. Yesterday I finally finished writing the "Sunspots" sweater pattern for Karabella (I had run into some technical difficulties, and was avoiding dealing with it for some time). It got me thinking - all I had left to do on finishing the sweater itself was to complete the garter edging, and finish sewing the side and sleeve seams. So I did, and washed it, and let it dry, and now I'm wearing it! See:

But wait, there's more!

HERE YE, HERE YE...

Let it be known that Henry VIII is now... (drumroll please)... *finished*.

Scott was kind enough to model it for me. I'll give it to Dad when I see him in a month. Woo hoo!

I also cleaned my kitchen (had to, in order to handwash the Sunspots sweater in the sink), and while I was at it, the bathroom as well. It's amazing what I can accomplish when I get on a roll. Oh, and I went to a movie and made a list of things to pack for my trip.

I attribute this productive day also to The Artist's Way. I'm on Week 4, and this is reading deprivation week. I'm not supposed to read anything. Really. I've cheated some (I'm still reading most of my e-mail), but I've steered clear of books, magazines and newspapers. And blogs. And because I feel that the spirit of this exercise is about getting away from the words we use to anesthetize ourselves, I've tried to make this a full-on media fast, turning off the TV as well. Which as many of you know, is a major source of time suckage for me.

So... of course it helped that I had a couple days off, but... hey, this stuff really works!

I'm off to the other coast - ciao!

"Careen-Stable"

The following is my horoscope this week from Rob Brezny, the only astrologer whose column I deign to read:

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Your theme this week is *careen-stable.* Here's Rebecca Rusche to tell you of the term's origin and how to recognize when it shows up in your life. "In high school, my mom used to let me use her VW Beetle to go to basketball practice. One night after practice, a friend and I were chatting and drinking Coke when we decided to see how fast we could get the Beetle going down a nearby dirt road. Soon we were careening at 65 mph, shouting 'careen!' every time we hit a bump and went flying into the air. When we arrived back at the gym and got out of the car half an hour later, we saw my Coke can sitting on the front bumper next to the license plate. I nudged it softly to see if it was lodged in there somehow, but it fell right off -- wasn't stuck at all. I thought, 'There must be a word for this magic,' and thus 'careen-stable' was born. It came to mean anything that maintains its poise in the midst of wild, fast movement."

That pretty well sums up how things have been going lately. Sorry I've neglected the blog, but I'm just coming up for air in the midst of a bunch of travelling (3 trips in 2 weeks!), teaching (new Intermediate Knitting class), and other events. Here are some of the things I've been up to....

TNNA

The show was an interesting experience for me. It felt satisfying being the resident knitting expert at Karabella's booth, and while I don't consider myself much of a salesperson, I truly love the collection, so I had no trouble extolling the virtues of the various yarns and patterns.

One of my own designs was displayed at our booth, a sweater in a lovely mohair/merino blend that will be featured in a Vogue Knitting "advertorial" this fall. (An advertorial is one of those Special Advertising Sections that's designed to look like the content of the magazine. Also unlike a regular ad, the pattern will be in the back of the magazine near the regular Vogue patterns.)

Working all weekend, I didn't have too much time to wander around the show. But I got to see my friends Annie and Rose, who happened to rooming together (the knitting world is indeed small - I didn't even know they knew each other), and enjoyed meeting Kristine and Elizabeth from Knit Happens. I also connected with a fellow Vassar alumna who is helping set up a new yarn shop in Riverdale, NY. We had been chatting for at least a half hour before we discovered that we had been on the same small campus in the mid-nineties. We bonded over such diverse topics as the hotness of Ethan Zohn (Survivor Africa winner, fellow Vassar alum and native of my hometown of Lexington, MA) and the bitchiness of most NYC yarn shops.

Knitting Update

Have done lots since I wrote last. I'm well into the Garden Shawl, having completed the inner leafy section. The pattern is one of the best-written I've worked with, and I would definitely recommend Dorothy Siemen's designs to anyone who wants to knit a lace shawl. The pattern is very detailed and clear. Unfortunately for my readers, on the needles the shawl is tough to photograph, so I may wait until it's finished to post a picture.

I've abandoned the Lace blouson top. I wasn't enjoying working with the linen I had chosen for it, nor was I in love with how it was coming out. I saw the original sample at the Interweave booth at the show, and thought it was much prettier than mine. I decided that I need some mindless knitting, though, so I've chosen Stripes Go Round, also from the current IK. I'm knitting it with Karabella's Vintage Cotton, one of my favorite cotton yarns, which has a bunch of gorgeous new colors. Next week I'll be at a (non-knitting) conference, and the lace may be too distracting for me during meetings, lectures and workshops. But horizontal stripes I can definitely handle.

That's me for now. I'll try to get in one more blog entry this week, before I go to Long Beach, CA this Thursday.

Impatient girl that I am...

I decided to start something new while I'm waiting for my Garden Shawl kit to arrive. A month ago I swatched for the cover sweater in the summer Interweave Knits with a linen from School Products. So I started that project. I'm altering the pattern slightly, so that it's more fitted, instead of the "blouson" effect. I figure I'm justified in starting something new, since I finished the leaf shawl that was a UFO all winter.

Of course, I have two projects that are *this close* to being finished - I should really just lay those to rest. So maybe I'll try to finally finish Hank8 tonight, and I'm planning on bringing the sunspots sweater to my knitting group tomorrow. I still have to buy a button for that. Anyone know any good button stores on the upper west side?

In Good Company

My prayers have been answered (and I don't even pray), and a new lace-along has been started by fellow Knitter's Way-ers Kate and Julia FC. Check it out at either of their blogs.

I'm trying to be patient while I wait for my yarn & pattern for The Garden Shawl. But I'm hoping that it will get here by this weekend so that I can work on it on the flight to the TNNA show. I'm trying not to count on it, since it's coming all the way from Canada.

More Lace, plus the Psychic Friends Network

I went ahead and ordered The Garden Shawl. Although I'm sure the yarn it's written for is lovely, I had my heart set on making another shawl out of Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk, so I ordered the yarn and pattern separately, instead of the kit. I'm doing it in sage green. I had done my Forest Path Stole in this yarn in lilac, and I completely fell in love with the it. It has a gorgeous sheen and is very soft.

While I'm waiting, I figured I'd resurrect yet another lace UFO, so I pulled out the Feather and Fan shawl from A Gathering of Lace. Someone pointed out in my comments the insanity of these circular shawls, how they start with just a few stitches, and soon you have hundreds per round. I keep telling myself not to start anymore of these projects, because I inevitably hit a wall when each round takes me 15 minutes or more to complete. But I can't help myself. The good news is, when I returned to the Feather and Fan shawl (which if my arithmetic is correct now has about 1000 stitches per round), it actually didn't seem so bad. I must be nuts.

The bad news is, I ran out of yarn. I knew this was imminent, and was planning to either make the shawl smaller or finish it off with another color. As I was knitting away with the remaining yarn, inspiration struck: my friend Cristina bought the same yarn, in the same color, when she was visiting me from Maine a couple years ago, around the same time I bought my yarn, at the same store where I got mine. I figured I'd call her later that day and ask her if she had any left over that she might like to send me. Lo and behold, 10 minutes later, she called me! The really uncanny thing is, this happens to us frequently: we usually go months without speaking, but as soon as I start thinking about calling her, she calls me. Not always so quickly, but nearly always the same week. I love stuff like that.

She told me that she stopped working on the shawl she was making out of hers, might never return to it, and would love to see the yarn go to good use. Yay!

Meanwhile, I have no lace to knit. But that's probably for the best - I'm working on a finishing project for pay, which is due this week. Mark my words: I'm not taking any more finishing jobs. It's just no fun to finish other people's knitting! And I've decided the money's not worth it.