Fiber Raven Soiree

New Year's Confetti

I wasn't going to write an entry today, but who can resist talking about huge pancake-snowflakes falling on New Year's Eve? Snow is rare in the Pacific Northwest, and I've never seen snow this big and fluffy even when living in snowy areas.

Sherlock says "Hey! Where did all my grass go?!"

And what's this stuff on my back?

Happy New Year, everyone! Get those resolutions made, and knit the year away!

More Log Cabin

Nanette asked to see the back of a log cabin square, which I should have included yesterday. Here is the back of the darkest square:

And, just for easy comparison, here is the front of the same square:

Compare that with this, my first full square, front:

And the back:

The difference between the two squares is that in the blue/yellow one, the stitches were picked up in the usual manner from the ends of the strips and the center square where there was no temporary bindoff to take advantage of, whereas in the dark rust/blue square, only the top single strand of a ridge stitch was picked up.

When you look at garter stitch vertically, the ridges look somewhat like this:

When you start the single strand pickup, you have to be sure to get the same exact "blip" on each row. I've learned to look for the blip that is closest to the edge but that is fully visible on every ridge. All kinds of things happen while you knit-- your tension loosens or tightens, you stop to pull more yarn from the ball, etc., and so the ends of the ridges aren't always perfect. Sometimes I find this "blip" to be the right one (the white represents the needle):

And other times it will be what I call the "top" one:

Getting the half of a blip at the very edge is not good because you will have gaps that show. Grabbing a blip too far in is not good either, because then you will have a seam just as if you picked up in the regular way. So, find the blip that is whole and closest to the edge and is consistently available on every ridge.

Janine's suggestion of using a brighter blue in the medium square is excellent. After looking at the squares more, I see that I went down too fast in brightness and value.

Pattern is now available at Two Swans Yarns. Click on the "Tools" link or the link on the "What's New?" section to find it. Thanks for all the generous comments, you guys inspire me!

Incessant Garter Stitch

When you are content to sit in the Parlor all day long knitting nothing but garter stitch, you know there's something wrong. Papa G finally insisted I go to the doctor after I had to leave the Christmas festivities even before we had unwrapped gifts or eaten Christmas dinner. Of course, the pain pill I took to be able to go in the first place was probably the real culprit. Look, Ma! No headache! Woopsie daisy, did I really fall over that step. What? My knee? Why should it be hurting? After which I was plopped firmly down into a chair and told to stay there.

Ah, memories.

Ok, where was I--- oh yes, garter stitch. You may recall the Fair Riley, the recently knit and cute little bear who adorned my last entry lo so many days ago. He is composed solely of garter stitch and seaming. He does need a nice fair isle garment, but fair isle is not, of course, garter stitch.

As you know, garter stitch is knitting. All the time on every row, in the flat. The nice thing about garter is that it lays flat, never making you wrestle with curling (which, now that I think about it, is two different sports). It also has "rigs" and "furs", old-timey talk for ridges and furrows, or the peaks and valleys that emerge as you knit.

Another cool thing about garter stitch is that generally a swatch is square if it has twice as many rows as it does stitches or, in other words, as many ridges as it does stitches.

Bear with me now, really, this really is going somewhere!

I have long been fascinated with the traditional American Log Cabin quilting pattern, and long thought it could be well produced in knitting. Over the last few years every time I have seen it mimicked, I have been disappointed. Sometimes it is produced in intarsia. This right away ruins the design because all of the "fabrics" have the "grain", or knitted stitches, going in the same direction.

Sometimes it is produced by picking up and knitting along strips, which is headed in the right direction, but is ignoring the "rules" for log cabin quilts.

What are the rules? Carla Hassen, in her very wonderful books You Can Be a Super Quilter and You Can Be A Super Quilter II, lays them out very nicely. First, the center square is traditionally red. It represents the chimney or hearth of a home (log cabin). The center square is supposed to be exactly twice the width of the strips, or "logs" that surround it. Therefore, if my strips are 1" wide, my center square should be 2" square.

Next, the strips must be attached from the center out in a counterclockwise fashion. Although there is much room for interpretation in color and fabrics, traditionally two "sets" are used: one light and one dark, 4 of each color (two strips of each) or 8 of each (1 strip of each).

Each strip covers the width of the side of the block exactly. So, starting at the first strip, a light-colored strip equal to the width of the square is applied to the top of the center. Then the block is rotated to the right so that the next strip (another light-colored one) is applied to the width of the center square plus the first strip. Next, the block is rotated to the right again, and a dark-colored strip is applied. This goes on until you have four strips on all sides of the square.

There are variations of the log cabin design called "Courthouse Steps" and "Pineapple", but I didn't work on those. Instead, I worked at getting the perfect Log Cabin block using garter stitch. Here is the end result:

I am pleased with this, but it took a long time to get there.

First, I tried creating my central square by casting on in the usual way (long tail), knitting until square and then binding off. I had to guess at how many stitches I wanted because I didn't know what the picking-up would do to the shape. Then I picked up along the top, knitting the rows and binding off again.

This worked, but there were obvious distortions due to the cinching in of the caston and bindoff, no matter how careful I was. Back to the drawing board.

After perusing the Principles of Knitting, I decided I should use the temporary caston and bindoff. I have known for quite some time how to do a provisional caston using a crochet chain, but the chain method does cause distortion and in my mind is more complicated that the caston described in POK. After you cast on, what you have is a strand of yarn running freely through all the loops, just as you do in the temporary bindoff, where you take a darning needle and run the yarn through the loops on your knitting needle. It was a revelation! Now I could knit the whole square with one caston and no bindoffs!

My next problem was the back of the square. It looked a bit sloppy since I had to pick up stitches at the ends of strips, since these weren't kept on a needle by a bindoff. After trying several things, I worked out a method picking up only one strand on the top side and then knitting into the backs of the loops. A few more tweaks later, and I was pleased. Now the backs look almost exactly like the fronts, exept for the line of stitches where the colors are joined. These, serendipitously enough, look like quilting stitches!

During the course of this experimentation, I devised my idea of a log cabin afghan design. Here it is on "paper", using blue and yellow as the dark and light colors:

This is not a traditional design, but it is one that allowed me use a bit of fair isle shading theory to achieve a different result. Notice that the center four blocks are lighter and brighter than the others, the middle block are a bit duller/darker, and the outside blocks are darker still.

In my real knitting, I chose pink to rust as the lights and blues to purple as my darks, the idea being the deeping sunset or brightening sunrise.

So, during my experimentation, besides the throwaways, I knitted these other two blocks, not quite as well knit:

Not wanting to go to the trouble of knitting all the blocks and then not liking the outcome, I scanned the blocks, made them exactly square, and put them together to see how they would look. Here is the result:

I can see that the medium block is too bright/light on the outside strips, so I'll bring it down a bit. The lightest pink may be wrong as well. Otherwise, I'm fairly pleased with the overall effect. (Your comments and suggestions are welcome!)

I'll be posting the instructions for a basic log cabin block soon at the Two Swans site, for free, if anyone wants to play with it. The nice thing is that you can use any kind of yarn as long as all the yarn is the same gauge. I like the Shetland yarns because the color range is so vast and the heathers give a lot of depth. I tried using three yarns together, but it was just too lumpy. You can also make the blocks whatever size you want. These turned out to be about 9" square using a base square of 12 stitches on a 3.0 mm needle and Jamieson's Spindrift. You can either use different yarn or just vary the stitch and row counts.

Okay, that's my antibiotic adventure. I'm obviously not just sitting in the Parlor knitting today, so I must be getting better, yeehaw!

It's a Bear!

The Bear Necessities

Last week when Madame Glitchbane was quite a bit under the weather, Nanny Granny searched her extensive memory, went up to the crowded, dusty attic and came down with triumph in her voice: "The Bear Cure!" she practically shouted in her quivery voice.

It seems that a once famous remedy for almost any kind of illness called for the afflicted one to knit a bear. According to Granny, when the bear was complete, the sick one would be well.

Odd, I thought-- but who am I to argue with a 105-year-old woman who wears a nightcap, drinks a shot of Old Crone Whiskey every night, and swears that she knows what the birds are saying?

Well, I got to thinking. As an American, it is certainly true that I have a constitutional right to bear arms. So I made two.

I just don't understand what all the brouhaha is about in congress over these things.

It is true that as I completed each piece of the bear cure, I felt a little better. First I made a leg, then a head. An ear, a body, an arm. Then yesterday, the other leg, arm, ear and a nose. If I can finish sewing everything up and stuffing it today, I'm pretty sure the sinus headache will be a lot more... bearable.

I haven't asked Granny yet whether the bear has to be dressed to effect a total cure.

RO(s)E--

My experiments last week with different threads convinced me that I should use DMC Cebelia #30 for the Rose of England. I would prefer a lovely shade of pink, but time and money is short, and so I will stick with what I chose. There is, however, one problem: I don't have a round table.

I called upon the Happy Holler accountant, Elwood Beanfeller, for some advice. After taking a few hours to understand the complexity of the problem, he proposed a wonderful idea. For every stitch in the Rose of England, I shall pay myself one penny. I asked him not to tell me how much I would have when the Rose is finished, and I do not want to figure it out ahead of time-- it would be more fun to watch it grow. When the tablecloth is finished, I can take the money and buy a table, if it is enough (whether used or new). If it is not enough, I must make more tablecloths until I have enough.

I will keep a running total somewhere on the blog. Right now I am up to a whopping $14.80!!

The Caviar Competition

For the last couple of days, Madame Glitchbane has been sitting in her Parlor suffering through yet another assault of the sinuses. While Nanny Granny brings her bouillon and potato soup and Papa G brings her nasty-tasting concoctions that might make a dying man claim he was well, Madame has been knitting and knitting and knitting.

In January begins the Rose of England (ROE) Knit-Along with the lace knitting group. Granny decreed that while Madame was sitting still, she would arrange and produce a Pageant, the winner of which would be declared Miss Twist: The Thread Used For the ROE.

The judges, of course, were Nanny Granny, Tippie Jane Hundheusen, Ermadine Swett, Nadia Krinkelmeyer and The Head. Tippie Jane decided to call the competition the Roelympics; therefore the age-old method of scoring from 1 to 10 was used.

The first contestant was Manuela Variegata, a lovely delicate pastel with a very low sheen. Looping herself around size 0 needles, she became a small glass doily in the space of about three hours (unblocked, of course).

Nanny Granny: "too much makeup. looks like a cheap trick" - 4
Tippie Jane: "oooh! pretty! pretty!" - 10
Ermadine: "she's stiff and fake and way too yellowy." - 1
Ms. Krinkelmeyer: "I believe that this contestant suffers from Narcissism, triggered by multiple torrid affairs in too many steamy dyepots." - 3
The Head: "mmphmmmphmm" - 2

Final Score: 4

Contestant #2 was a fine linen thread, about 6250 yards per pound, wearing a classic ecru twist and moving with measured elegance around size 0 needles, shyly evading dull points and petulantly insisting on sharper needles.

Nanny Granny: "That girl needs some meat on her bones! Why, she'd have to run around in a shower to get wet!" - 6
Tippie Jane: "ooooh, she's beautiful!" - 10
Ermadine Swett: "What a vapid, airhead tramp. Where does she get off, thinking she's God's gift to needles?" - 1
Ms. Krinkelmeyer: "Oh, poor child, she seems to suffer from anorexia, probably as a result of being told by her two brothers that she was fat during her formative years. She needs massive psychotherapy and perhaps a lemon tart, but cannot withstand the pressure of an entire tablecloth assignment." - 5
The Head: "mmphmmphmmm" - 6

Total score: 5.4

Contestant #4 was an exotic beauty from the Orient, pure silk, loosely twisted 2-ply with a beautiful sheen. She silently, sensuously slithered around size 2 needles in the lazy, fluid swoon of the spoiled. She pouted and demanded a warmer operating environment.

Nanny Granny: "Hmph. That thread comes from high society, fer shure. Got a nice sheen to her, but I don't think she'd hold up to the pressure of such a demanding role. 'Sides that, the cats' claws would tear into her like an axe through jello." - 6
Tippie Jane: "Oooooooo, she's bee-yoo-tee-full!!!!" - 10
Ermadine: " There's one of those fools that think their snips don't stink. I don't like the looks of her and I'll bet she murdered thousands of worms for that dress" - 3
Ms. Krinkelmeyer: "Lovely, just lovely. Apparently the work of a fine plastic surgeon--maybe even the one who made me the fine face I have today?" - 9
The Head: "mmmphmmmphmm!" - 7

Total Score: 7

Contestant #4 was Cebelia, a lovely cotton DMC #30 from France, shy despite her adorable lustre, and as white as the driven snow. Obediently and expertly, she wandered around the size 0 needles like a pro, easily jumping from one to the next with a graceful grand jeté whenever necessary.

Nanny Granny: "Now that's what I call a Lady!" - 10
Tippie Jane: "OOOOOooooooooooooooooo! Beeee-yooo-tiii-fulllll!!!!!" - 10
Ermadine: "Hmph. She's nuttin' to write home about, but better than the others, I suppose." - 8
Ms. Krinkelmeyer: "Yes.... adorable, nicely adjusted... her twist is on straight." - 10
The Head: "grrrrrrrwwwwwllllll!" - 10

Total Score: 9.7

And the winner is... Miss Cebelia!!! Congratulations, Miss Twist!

Poor Head, he's mumbling "I ain't got nobody" now, poor dear. We shall have to do something about that.

This and That

Addressing some of the questions/comments in the last couple of entries:

Vanessa (happy birthday!), the Jensen Tina II is now on my short-list too! It's absolutely beautiful in cherry, double-treadled with those gorgeous turned spokes. I didn't have a chance to drive it, but Denise loves it, and obviously turns out great yarn.

Judy asked if I was going to design a sweater from my swatch and the answer would be "I'd like to". I need to work out the rest of the motifs and then hope to do something real, inspired so much lately by both Janine and Katie. Janine, by the way, has a design in Sweaters From Camp, the Dragonfly vest; and Katie has a design in the first Jamieson's book, the Kestral cardigan and tam.

And yes, that was real food and lots of it, and I didn't really think about it until Carolyn mentioned it, but Sherlock is a good boy, isn't he?!

Last night I met my friend Steve for a glass of wine. I used to work with Steve, before he moved to Melbourne, Australia where he has lived for the past five years. It's always good to see old friends, especially around the holidays. Amazingly enough, he doesn't know one sheep farmer!

I hit the halfway mark on the centre of the Unst Stole yesterday, cause for celebration at Happy Holler. Nanny Granny opened up one of her Special Delite Old-Timey Co-Colas for a toast to the other half, and Tippie Jane turned cartwheels in the Parlor, accidentally getting herself caught up in the new winder coverings and frightening Sherlock with the thought that drapes can come alive at certain times.

Madame shall now retire to the Parlor and attempt to convince her sinuses that they should return to normal and give the little gnome with the pickaxe a break.

Soiree Satisfaction

It was the perfect Saturday for the Seventh Soiree. From the state's capitol 70 miles south of Happy Holler came Denise with her beautiful Jensen Tina II wheel and her charming self. From Marysville (named after my great great Aunt?) 70 miles to the north came Tami with her sparkling eyes and funny tales of her own Nanny Granny.

And in between those two bounding points were the points of origin for the rest of the gang. Ryan always puts a spark of fun into every gathering she attends, and this one was no different. This time she was working on a design for a lacey sock for her lucky sister in San Diego. She was also working on the Perfect Sweater, which soon showed its true colors as the Perfect Dog Rug.

The ingenious Felina Schwartz, claiming to have only recently started two-color stranded knitting, worked up a design of her own, a hat featuring (of course) black cats. It is a well-known fact that Felina only knits black cats. But before this week, she never knit in more than one color, so it was difficult to see the black cats on a black background. This is truly a turning point in history.

Perhaps having heard of Felina's prolific cat-knitting, the very talented Katie Swanson appeared wearing a vest of her own design featuring, of all things, black cats! Katie won the GOA award (Gasps Of Admiration) for this soiree. I had asked her to bring some show and tell, and she brought two other designs of her own, one a vest and another pullover, both stunning and beautifully knit. She had also knit the once-ubiquitous donkey-brown-taupe Fleet into the Sheilavig vest. Here she is taking Denise's Tina for a spin.

Denise and I had a shootout with our cameras. I suffered only mild redeye, but look at the damage done to Denise's lovely face!

When the door was closed on the last guest, the Parlor was still ringing with their laughter, infused with their inspiration and buzzing with their positive love for knitting.

I picked up my Unst stole yesterday after a couple of months of neglect and knit another half of the center repeat. My next "completion point" on this is the finished center. With all this inspiration, I think it will go quickly!

Chaos in the Parlor

The Seventh Soiree is to be held in the Parlor tomorrow!! Some new folks are due to appear, as well as the dear ones who are "regulars", I hope-- please come if you are in the area!

Yesterday Papa Glitchbane's goal was to put up the Christmas tree. In order to do that, he had to:

1. clean out the closet under the stairs, strewing all kinds of things around the Parlor, which led to
2. taking all the canned stuff we'll never use (brought here by dd long ago) to the food bank and
3. taking other stuff to Goodwill and
4. leaving all kinds of stuff still strewn around the Parlor

After the closet was cleaned he had to
4. drag all the Christmas boxes out from storage and
5. array them in chaotic fashion around and on the piano and organ upstairs, after which he
6. found some ugly moving blanket and put it in front of the sliding glass doors in the Parlor. ugh.

Then Madame suggested they go again and look for drapes, and so they did and brought them home, where Papa G

7. put up curtain rod number 1 across the patio door and
8. hung the drapes and
9. realized we need a different rod for the other windows and two more panels so
10. went out and got them, coming back home to
11. put up the rods and curtains, after which he did the ONE thing Madame asked that he do this week, which was
12. Hang the pictures in the Parlor, and while he was at it
13. Hung the speakers on the walls, after which he
14. Decided the Christmas tree could wait until Sunday.

Does this sound like your husband? :-)

I must admit, I did my part towards chaos, rearranging books, putting things into storage bins and all. I could swear I saw Melvin Teaprattle furtively glancing around doors and into windows with smug satisfaction. I've got my work cut out for me today to get everying looking Practically Perfect in Every Way by tomorrow, as my dear great great aunt Mary used to say.

After we fell into our accustomed positions for watching the big screen, I continued working on my swatch. It still needs tweaking. I have ripped out the pink section at least three times, but not in frustration-- more in experimentation.

The pink motif is working on being the second one down from the right hand page in the photo. Still needs work!

I'll see some of you tomorrow, and to the rest I say "Have a great weekend!"

No Tea for Ginger

Under the mesmieizing hypnosis of the great Wallospindrift I was unable to resist an afternoon of colorplay. I'm not sure what this is supposed to be, but after endless swapping, comparing, squinting and glaring, these are the colors that finally decided to play well together.

But I'll only be committed (if only!) if I wind them into balls...

I have only 25 rows to finish on the first sleeve of Saga, which is living up to its name. Then the cuff. Then the other endless sleeve. And the other cuff. I think the roughest part of the sleeve is the one where you have to use two circulars-- your circulars are too big to use just one, and there are still too many stitches for dpns.

I noticed Monday night that Janine always uses the old spit splice for adding new yarns end, and never has any ends to deal with. It occurred to me that the friction used while rubbing the wet yarns to felt them could also be produced by beating them, thereby proving the wise saying "If you can't join them, beat them."

And I was especially proud when Sherlock brought me my slipper this morning before I asked. But this is what the Gray One found when he got up this morning. The Lady Ginger is obviously upset that her tea has not arrived yet.

Too much talking...

Last night I attended a fair isle knitting group and met the lovely Janine Bajus. Janine is one of the most knowledgeable fair isle knitters I've ever met, and was working on a design of her own based on a Turkish coat in lovely shades of rose and rust (?) and a beautiful coordinating border of just the right shades of green.

Other, new to fair isle, knitters were interpreting the Lichen waistcoat from Folk Vests in their own colorway. It was a fun and inspiring meeting, and I look forward to the next one. I got a whole.... 5 rows done on my Saga Rose sleeve. Too much talking, not enough knitting?

Before we went to the gathering, Karen brought over a newly arrived huge box of Spindrift and we fed the hungry Wall O Spindrift. It still has some empty spaces, but far fewer than it did! It is dangerous to stand before the Wallospindrift for too long-- your head starts to spin with possibilities!

Little Sherlock has learned what "Slippers" means now. When mommy calls for her slippers, he runs to find one and brings it back, but then it is a battle between the foot and the poodle. Unfortunately, when she calls for the second slipper, he attempts to take the first one off her foot. I'm so proud :-)

Bach to Another Week

Monday again-- my how fast the time goes! I am looking forward to a couple of knitting events today. My first visit with the Eastside Knitters Guild will be today, and this evening I am looking forward to meeting Janine Bajus and others at a Fair Isle knitting group in north Seattle.

Meanwhile, I have finished the back of Charlotte (a terrible picture, the color doesn't really show),

and to rest my hands from the larger needles, progressed another few inches on the beaded scarf.

I have decided to look upon each part of a garment as a complete object in itself, and therefore derive more satisfaction from having completed the back, for example.

The lace knitters list is starting a Rose of England knitalong in January, and I'm looking forward to joining in. The knitting life will be busy, for sure!

My latest thought-- knitted shutters and French doors. As you may know, Madame's Parlor has been without window coverings, forever. At one time I was considering putting in wooden shutters. I have made more than my share of curtains in my day, and was not looking forward to making more, and the lengths are not standard, so I would be forced to either make my own or alter special-order curtains.

As I sat sipping my Sunday morning coffee, stoked by inspiration from Debbie New, I pondered the possibility of knitted shutters. Why not? They could hang from cup hooks in the top frame of the window by small I-cord tabs. The slats could be firmly knit in a non-curling pattern with buttonholes in the middle through which an I-cord could be strung, and knotted on either side of the slat. The slats could be attached to the frame (knitted, of course) by a short length of I-cord. To open the shutters, one would pull up on the I-cord and button it onto a button located at the top of the frame. To close them, you would unbutton the top, pull the slats shut, and button at the bottom.

This led to more musings-- what about the sliding glass door? Shutters would not be appropriate, but curtains would be too boring after knitted shutters on the other windows. Then I had it-- knitted French doors!! These could hang underneath a cornice, and sheers could be hung between them and the window for the final touch. They could be weighted at the bottom. I'll have to confer with Felina Schwartz, the engineering whiz, or Roi.

Well, just to show that I do sometimes put action behind thought, I graphed out half of Bach's Invention #13 in Stitch Painter just to see what it would look like.

The spots above and below at regular intervals represent measures and beats. The shortest note in the piece is a sixteenth note, and when notes are held for more than a sixteenth the line representing the note is longer. It's quite pretty, I think (the pattern, not the colors). I'm still pondering its use in knitting. Fair Isle would look sparse, and maybe Bach isn't the best candidate. Chopin or Rachmaninoff or Liszt would provide charts that are much more dense. But the simplicity and counterpoint of Bach is quite nice. Maybe it would look better in a purl texture on a gansey?

Inspired Again

I had a chance yesterday to peruse a friend's copy of Unexpected Knitting, by Debbie New. I had been curious about the book ever since BlogDogBlog's Lisa raved about it. Debbie New is amazing! Her imaginative interpretations and forays into experimentation have produced works of art and practicality alike. My favorite thing, and one I may try to do some day, is the knitted portrait of her grandmother. She took a black and white picture, blew it up, superimposed a square graph on it, and then chose varying shades of yarn, matching up the darks with the dark spots in the photo, etc. The finished quilt is absolutely huge, and at first I didn't realize it was a quilt (or afghan). I thought it was a poster of a blown up picture. The most amazing thing is that some elements that weren't even rendered in the knitting, such as the rims of her wire-rimmed eyeglasses, showed up perfectly.

Would I knit anything in this book? Well, maybe the teacups, and the afghan. But mostly, this is a source of inspiration and an example of what you might do if you dared. Debbie New is a thinking woman who obviously puts her knowledge of science to work in knitting. Excellent, excellent, excellent. She may be the one person who pushes me over the edge of relating knitting to music. Even if it never works out, the exercise will surely expand the mind!

In between trying to convince Harvey that he *is* a dog and he *does* want to go outside and various other distractions, I managed to finish most of the front of Charlotte. I am uncharacteristically tickled by the yoke. It is so simple, but so fetching and shapely.

The Park authorities were out early yesterday, chopping up the trees that had fallen and clearing the paths. We are fortunate to have a great city commitment to our parks and nature areas. I just wonder who gets the firewood!!

the Lady Prudence Fiddletwist has an amazing picture of her Poetry in Stitches cover sweater on Pink Tea, and Judy Alexander shows a picture of her Sanquhar gloves, practically perfect in every way. Check them out!

The Calm After the Storm

The mighty wind has finally died down after storming emotionally through our forests, snapping trees and power lines in a tantrum. It tired out sometime during the night and on this gray morning all is peaceful, though chaos is echoed in its footprints and some trees will be scarred forever.

Looking out into my back yard, I see a huge tree fallen, luckily in the opposite direction of our fence. To the right of that, another large tree trunk lies across the nature path. Thank goodness we didn't take the dogs for a walk on that path yesterday!

Charlotte kept my attention last night as I, satisfied that I had finally overcome my programming challenge, settled down to a nice stockinette knitting session. My handsome assistant points to the shaping decreases, which are done on the 21st stitch in from each side.

I don't think I will ever tire of this color; it is mesmerizing. It somewhat reminds me of the "Royal" and "Treasure" roving that some of us have bought from Dyeing for Fiber, although this is a tweed. I should be able to get the front finished today while I take turns knitting and playing Hausfrau.

Today is Friday-- enjoy!

And the time is....

I got up at an unusual time for me this morning-- 88:88. I was so happy to think that Someone had finally added 65 and and a half hours to a day. Just imagine how much more we can do now! Then I heard the whistling and growling and dramatic moans of the winter wind and in a moment of pure genius, understood. Power outages are rare here, so we take note. Hercules, the huuuuuuuge old maple tree in our back yard is swaying menacingly.

Nanny Granny recalls the winter of 1908, when the wind was so fierce in Happy Holler that it picked up Moriah Malpervides and blew him away. This moment was made even more dramatic by the fact that just before he was blown away, he was engaged in a most intense disagreement with his wife, Eugenia. His last words were "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!". The little neighbor girl, Margaret, who was over playing with the Malpervides children at the time, was deeply influenced by this scene.

Did Madame knit on what she said she would be knitting yesterday? Of course not. Tippie Jane, uncharacteristically quiet, was standing in the Parlor when Madame retired there for the evening. Tippie was holding out one beautiful ball of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran, in Maze. Maze is breathtakingly beautiful, jewel blue with flecks of peacock and fuchsia and aqua. From the moment I saw it I knew I must knit something with it.

In A Yorkshire Fable there is a design by Kim Hargreaves, one of my favorite designers, called Charlotte* that is easily overlooked. The structure appeals to me-- the seed stitch western yoke, echoed on the tops of the sleeves, the subtle shaping, and even the belt (although I don't know if I'll "do" the belt).

This goes quickly, knitting at 4 stitches per inch, and I am enthused because I do have the yarn to finish it and when I want more challenging work I can turn to Saga Rose or the Unst Shawl or the Sanquhar gloves. I need this variety of levels to choose from depending on my mood.

*Charlotte is named for one of the Bronte sisters. Karen the walking wealth of literary knowledge tells me that the Brontes lived in Yorkshire.

I bid you adieu for today,
Arabella Victoria Glitchbane, Knitter

p.s.
Here's a call for help-- if you are an HTML expert and work with Coldfusion, HELP!! I'm having the 3 steps forward, 2 steps back syndrome, and I know the answer to my problem is utterly simple, yet out of my reach.

Happy Holler Holiday

As I wrote yesterday's blog entry, I recalled one of the funniest (to me) things that have happened in real life in the South. The Sheriff in Simpson County, Mississippi back in the 1980's was a large, wonderful man named Lloyd Jones. There is basically one way of pronouncing "Lloyd" in the south, and sure enough, one day I saw it on TV in the subtitles of the evening news. A murder had occurred in Simpson County, and the Sheriff was being interviewed by a reporter. As the camera closed in on the Sheriff, the subtitle read "Sheriff Lord Jones".

Yesterday was a Happy Holler Holiday, decreed by Nanny Granny because folks around here have been working too hard. So I ignored the Compurgatory and the Yarnitorium, and spent time elsewhere. The piano, long neglected, got its first workout in ages, and complained only slightly when both Bach and Chopin were maligned with rusty fingers.

It was Canine Holiday, too, and I let the big guys in to play for a while. I don't have any photos of knitting today, but here are some of Twin Dogs From Different Litters:

See more here:
Aren't you ever going to grow?
Dog Talk
Tell Mom you want to go for a walk!

We took walks, played hide and seek, and generally had fun.

I would tell you what I'm knitting, but it isn't cohesive yet. I'm working on a scarf design, simple fair isle but haven't got the colors working yet. I hope to show you a swatch tomorrow.

I was in such a good mood yesterday that I determined to have the house clean and dinner waiting on the table for The Gray One when he arrived home. Humming a merry tune, I prepared Good Food, timing things just right. Papa G called around 6:00, and I expected he was on his way home. It was just as I answered the telephone that I recalled the last words he said to me before leaving the house: "Don't forget-- I've got a board meeting tonight and won't be home until around 10:00." Argh.

Hoping your day is wonderful, I remain
Yours sincerely,
Arabella Victoria Glitchbane

Coming soon: The Seventh Soiree

To think that I could possibly finish Saga Rose in one weekend was utterly egotistic. I did progress quite a lot on the first sleeve, but this is an example of "Chester's Law", which states the the more you wish to complete something, the longer it takes to complete it. This Law was first put forth in theory by Aunt Chester (be sure that you pronounce "Aunt" the proper way, which is "ain't") many years ago.

Aunt Chester was famous for knitting shawls for the Easter Revival meeting down in Goosebump Prairie (so named because it was alway a right bit chillier there than anywhere else). She'd have two or three shawls going, and none of 'em finished on Good Friday, so she'd stay up for the next two nights with the help of one of those big old cheap cigars, two or three pots of strong Turkish coffee and a room full of 300-watt lamps. For years she told folks that the shawls actually got longer to finish as she knit, but they just laughed her off.

Long about Nineteen and Sixty, Aunt Chester got a mite bent out of shape at the laughter, and she rang up old Doc Maskowitz, a retired mathematics professor from the University of Clewus and Lark Islands(UCLI). Explaining her theory to the Doc, Aunt Chester begged him to help her prove it. Doc slung his beard over his shoulder, put on spectacles that made his eyes look bigger than his head, took out a slide rule and said "Well, Chester, let's get to work."

Now I don't pretend to know how the theory was actually proved, but if Doc Maskowitz says it's so, and has all the figgerin' to prove it, then I believe it. And nobody in Happy Holler or elsewhere has ever laughed at Aunt Chester again. She still knits the shawls, but now takes pride in the fact that Chester's Law exists. She is even billed as a "Local Attraction" on bus tours of Clewus & Lark.

So here is the progress of the sleeve, wishing it could dissolve into the background of Victoria, B.C. (that's British Columbia, not Before Christ)

The Seventh Soiree will be held at Madame Glitchbanes Parlor on December 13, 2003 and I hope that all who are in the local area at the time will share themselves and their knitting and/or spinning with us! It's hard to believe we've been having soirees for over a year now. How time flies when you're having fun.