Fiber Raven Soiree

End of Month Assessment

As my friend Karen says now that I can stay home: Every day can be a Soiree! And let me add to that: Every day can be a Friday! Nevertheless, there is still something special about Fridays... it's pizza night!

It is also nearly the end of the first month of the year. Let's review the New Year's Resolutions, shall we?

1. Become (and stay) more organized.

I organized Compurgatory. +1
I disorganized it... -1
...by organizing the Yarnitorium. +1
(Overspill from the Yarnitorium goes into the Attic, for which the access is in the Compurgatory.)

After the Yarnitorium was organized, it became disorganized when I pulled out the Octopus quilt and laid part of it out on the blocking table. Sherlock was also quite helpful in bringing his favorite stuffed toy in and destuffing it with wild abandon. -1

I organized the Parlor, neatening it up, arranging the needlepoint frame, laying out the needlepoint tools and making it the best needlework room ever. +1

It was disorganized when certain large dogs were let inside by a certain gray-haired gentleman, who allowed them to romp happily, tracking mud and remnants of dog toys all over the place. -1

I organized the kitchen, putting things where they make sense rather than in the bachelor-like fashion in which they have been for the last four years. I cleaned the refrigerator. I stand guard over this bit of organization, ready to bop someone over the head with an iron skillet if they dare destroy this handiwork. +1

So overall, I'd say I'm making a tiny bit of progress. Final Score: +1

2. To imbibe in alcoholic beverages only on weekends (wine/beer exception).
I've been pretty good, but admit to having broken the rules three times, to the tune of two martinis and one Irish Painkiller. What can I say? Do these get balanced out by the nights I had nothing alcoholic whatsoever? Do I allow for "circumstances beyond my control"?

Final Score: -3

3. The Usual.
Do we have to talk about this? Nah. And you don't want to know the score. Well, okay, -1 point for every workout day that went unattended (3 times per week): -13

Total Score: -15

Hmmmm.

In the knitting department so far this year I have:
1. An 80% complete Rose of England.
2. A 50% complete Chippendale design
3. A 50% complete multidirectional scarf
4. A 100% complete Log Cabin block design
5. A 50% complete Inky the Octopuss-in-Boots

In the stash enhancement category: Zero yarn acquired!!!

What do I hope to accomplish in the short month of February? It might provide a laugh or three come March to lay it out now:

1. Finish the Rose of England Tea Cloth
2. Finish the Chippendale design
3. Finish Saga Rose
4. Attend the Gig Harbor Retreat
5. Finish the multi-directional scarf
6. Forgive myself for not finished Inky and use the excuse that my whimsey was Fair Riley the bear.
7. Learn Flash programming so I can make the SwatchOMatic

Goals are good, right? RIGHT??

Pet Show & Blather

I was overwhelmed by all the generous comments on Chippendale, wow! Thank you all so much!

My philosophy on patterns and their success in knitted form is that you can't give too much information or too many hints. Thus the traditional method of condensing instructions into as little space as possible just doesn't sit right with me. I much prefer Sharon Miller's (of Heirloom Knitting) patterns, which are beautifully done and well documented.

My philosophy on free patterns is that a free pattern is like a gift. And I was always taught that you never give as a gift anything that you would not like to receive yourself, in terms of quality.

So, while I am flattered and happy that so many say they would gladly buy this pattern, it's my intention to develop my own style of pattern-formatting and present the first one free. Sure, it's a gift, but one that will likely give back in terms of feedback, suggestions, etc. I like pleasing people-- sometimes that is my downfall. I often fail. But in this case I hope that my knitting friends benefit from my flawed character.

But at this point, Chippendale needs a rest. Katie was dead right: The pinks are too bright, although I did find that I was using the wrong lightest pink. I intended to use Peony, but what I pulled from my box was Rouge. I may revert to fading into darker purples while maintaining the blue to green in the light range. After working on it so intensely, though, I need to take a break and may not think of it too much until the Feral Knitters meet up on Groundhog's Day.

Groundhog's Day has been, all of my life, a memorable occasion. Probably because my Grandaddy Joe always asked my older brother, "Are you my little groundhog?" That was because my big brother's birthday is on Groundhog's Day. I'm afraid that at the time my brother may have misunderstood and thought that Grandaddy Joe was implying that his teeth looked like a groundhog's-- bucked. Although that was not the case he, like many overly-sensitive children, may have been prone to believe it. This is just pure speculation, of course, but it is notable that he never smiled much around the end of January and early February.

Yesterday I was winding the clock, which sits on top of the armoire in the living room. I have to reach as high as I can above my head to wind the thing. Imagine my surprise when during this exercise I was startled by a little black head with green eyes peering at me from above the clock! I tried to get a picture, but didn't do so well. But I did get this shot.

Now I know what happens when Jojo disappears... he metamorphises into the Spanish Lady! Henceforth her name shall be JoJosefina!

Still in the pet department, this is how Sherlock and the Great Gray One relax after a hard day's work. Unfortunately the little grin doesn't show up very well.

We've been locked onto the Australian Open for the last couple of weeks. Those players are really good-- they ought to go pro or something! I have been rooting for the underdogs, as usual, but, as usual, my players keep losing. I've developed a fondness for the Russian Myskina-- she's a terror on the court, throws tantrums, glares at her coach and swears at her racket, but she is a sweetheart off the court. She even acquiesced to accept a Vegamite sandwich from the commentators on Australia Day, and professed to enjoy it very much. Anyone who can do that with a smile on their face gets my admiration. But, she lost to Clys... um... Clyjs... um, Leyton Hewitt's fiancee, the Belgian. You know who I mean.

I'm developing an itch to start playing tennis again. The last time this happened was right after the U.S. Open in which my tennis true love Pete Sampras got beat by Safin. After that tournament, I got onto the court truly believing I was Sampras (well, maybe not truly, but pretending, anyway. I have a lot less hair on my body than he does). I was magnificent. My serve was on, my swings were great, I executed beautiful drop shots and spins and lobs. I danced around the court as if I had wings and chased down impossible balls. The next day I couldn't move. Forget that! For the next month I couldn't move! Maybe I'll start a bit more gently this time.

Chippendale Swatch and Ad Nauseum Commentary

My swatch isn't as large as I'd like it (row-wise) thanks to my new addiction to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (gee thanks, Steve and Elka) but I've almost concluded one repeat.

I'd love to hear input and comments. This will become another free pattern eventually.

I wanted to experiment with the background coloring by "overlapping" the colors. That is, switch to the new color for one row and then knit one row of the former color before continuing with the new color. I was hoping to create a sort of Regency stripe effect. You can see this in the lower half of the swatch. I'm not certain that this is entirely flattering to the design, but at this point I'm too close to it to judge accurately.

The outer side motifs (set reflectively) were inspired by the side of a small curio shelf that I have in one of the bathrooms. I really like the way it appears in stitches.

The four narrowest motifs are peeries from Sheila McGregor's Traditional Knitting, set sideways, and reflectively around each Chippendale.

The 48-row pattern that is repeated twice is the originally inspired Chippendale motif. I started out with something quite similar to the carved backs of the Chippendale chairs, but of course had to tweak in order to get something that would look right in knitting. I am very pleased with the result.

The central panel has been the bane of the whole process.

I started out by drawing a fair approximation of the carving on the sides of the table. In theory and in my sample (the same two colors throughout) picture, this looked great.

In fact, I was reminded of the center of Henry VIII's doublet in one of the famous pictures, and wondered why Alice Starmore didn't use something like that in her design. But when I drew the design out in the colorway, it was obvious that this would be all wrong. The strong horizontal bars repeated every 4 rows looked awful when combined with the color variations that were needed by the large motifs. This was the biggest lesson I learned through this process. Not only is a strong diagonal good for stitch formation, but also for color progression.

Frustrated by that failure, I thought (in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be sleeping, of course) about a celtic knot pattern that I had drawn out last year. The next morning I went to work with it. It was a good size for the center, and looked great, but didn't exactly coordinate with Chippendale in style. I ended up altering it to produce the final design. You can see in the lower portion of the swatch, the long "S" shape is a little off. I sought to correct that in the upper portion.

When this becomes a sweater, I hope to have at least four colorways from which to choose. The bottom will probably be hemmed or double-knit rather than ribbed. I envision a small turned-back collar (think very low turtleneck) and turned-back cuffs.

This has been a real learning experience and very rewarding. But I couldn't have done it (not that it's finished!) without the inspiration and comments via knitting groups and soirees and ASOF, especially from Janine Bajus, Katie Swanson, Felina Schwarz, and Sandy Blue. No matter how much you know or think you know, there's always something else out there that provides an essential key. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The Chippendale Adventure

There has been a terrible disaster in the Parlor. The inviting warmth of the gas fireplace has been choked off by some fireplace-disabling demon. This has disrupted the life of Happy Holler to a great extent. Everyone knows that Madame knits in the parlor, that the Theatre is in the same vicinity and that the Yarnitorium is just down the hall. All of these are virtually impossible to inhabit with our recent cold weather and no heat.

Faced with this bleak situation and unable to contact Festus Confestus, the handyman, Madame has been stuck in Compurgatory designing a fair isle sweater. Well, it's not very traditional, but she thinks it will work.

When she becomes inspired, Madame is extremely intent on her objective. She turns off all programs on her computer, including mail and internet browsers, so that Fireworks, Stitch Painter and other contributing programs might have all the memory available. She shuts herself off from the world while Jojo and Ginger take turns attempting to commandeer her lap and Sherlock jumps like a pogo stick in an attempt to get her out of her special chair.

She gets up only for bio breaks and more coffee or water and stays up past her bedtime in an effort to get just a little more done.

In the current instance, inspiration arrived in wood. Papa and Madame Glitchbane went in search of a round table on Sunday. We have a favorite consignment store, Far-Fetched Consignments, that often has great furniture at decent prices. We wandered through, feeling sorry for the cast-off sofas inviting us to sit in their laps, grimacing at the shiny enamel bedroom sets, and smiling at those 1950's style lamp tables that our grandmothers had in their living rooms. But no decent dining room tables were to be found.

We decided to stop at the new Bassett store on our way home, and there we found it-- not a round table, but one so pretty we could not resist. A Chippendale reproduction dining set. The carved backs of the chairs could inspire a leech. The gently curving sides of the table were graceful, and the outwardly curving legs pure joy to one stuck with the arts and crafts straightness of a mission-style table.

While we conducted business with the perfect furniture salesman-- a handsome gay designer-- I pulled out a piece of paper and drew the carving. I could hardly wait to get home and start interpreting it in stitches.

And that, my dear friends, is what I have been doing for the last two days. I began a large swatch yesterday, and when I have finished it it shall be revealed. I must say, I am like a five-year-old at Christmas and can't wait to see it in real life.

In the meantime, please visit The Terrible Knitter of Kent and a long-awaited blog from a very talented writer, the Yarn Harlot.

Habit Forming?

The problem with sticking to one project at a time is that there are fewer pictures on the blog. Pictureless blogs often get passed by. What a quandary! But to tell the truth, pinning out the Rose takes a lot of time, and so I don't want to take gratuitous pictures without a fair amount of progress.

Not that I'm not progressing, mind you. I actually resorted to bribing myself with chocolate-- something I've been avoiding-- to complete one of the rounds that I just didn't like doing. I knew there was something going on there. Turned out, it was evolving the stitch count from 880 to 1120 in one round. My little virtual piggy now holds over $500, though, and I am to round 128. I simply must finish this by the end of January to meet my personal goal. To put this in more perspective, I have knit the equivalent of an entire sweater with DK yarn.

How does one bribe oneself with chocolate to continue a round? Well, there are 40 repeats. You have four miniature chocolate bars, the kind you give out at Halloween. You break these into two pieces each, and every five repeats you are allowed to have one. Of course, you do have to convince a small poodle that they are not good for him, even if he does seem to offer to help with the knitting.

Appropos of Nothing...
When I first get up in the morning, I often amuse myself with whatever comes to my groggy mind. Today it was the word "habit-forming". What's wrong with taking habit-forming drugs? Couldn't you just give the result to the nuns at the local Catholic church?

(Yes, Chris, the lasagne was delicious... and will be for the next week!)

The Guild Meets Again

Well, here I am, freshly back from the Seattle Knitter's Guild meeting which this month featured a few mini-courses. Courses offered included knitting a mobius scarf, knitting with beads, felting, lace knitting, fair isle knitting, octopus knitting, hand and wrist care for knitters, and the magic loop technique. One of these is not true.

I took the lace knitting class, taught by Evelyn Clark, whom many of you will recognize as a designer, especially of socks. The class was very basic and focused on three very simple Shetland traditional patterns that self-scallop: razor, horseshoe, and Old Shale (feather and fan). I was sitting on a bench against the wall, probably just in her dominant peripheral view, knitting away on the Rose, so the Rose became a star when Evelyn showed it to everyone. I was honored.

Janine taught the fair isle class, and had some beautiful examples of both her own work and Shetland-bought work to show.

One of the most fun parts of a guild meeting is show and tell. Since the membership of this guild is so large (at least 120 people were there), show and tell is restricted to finished objects only, unless the item will be going somewhere before the next meeting (as in a gift to someone not belonging to the guild). Tonight we saw two of the Elsebeth Lavold vests from the Fall Knitters, both beautiful, both knit in Debbie Bliss Merino DK, one blue and one red.

An interesting item was a pair of mittens, the backs of which were knit in vertical stripes, but a technique was used whereby the tension on certain rows was changed so that patterns appear rather than stripes. This requires investigation.

We seemed to have a mini-soiree on hand, what with Ryan, Felina, Karen, Janine, Marti all present. Blend these with elements of the Feral Knitters group-- Andrea, Eva, Suzanne, and I guess it might have been the Feral Soiree Guildlet. At any rate, I am hoping to have at least two show-and-tell items at the next meeting, which features Vivian Hoxbro, a real treat. And by the way I was most honored when my log cabin quilt square design was featured in the Seattle Knitter's Guild newsletter this month! Yes, little things make me happy. Just look at Sherlock!

Speaking of octopi (O Wise Ones, is this correct?), I took out the pieces for the quilt I was making four years ago before I moved here. I could not for the life of me remember what it was I was making, or which book it was in, or how it went together. After searching through all my books, I finally found it: The Octopus Something-Or-Other. I was stunned, stunned, I tell you! Does this mean that things are going to be happening in eights from now on?

I will leave to your imagination what an Octopus quilt looks like, but of one thing I can assure you: it looks nothing like an octopus! You may or may not see my progress on the quilt. I thought I was going to progress on needlepoint, but figured out that my neck can't take it, at least not until I redevelop some muscles in this pathetic excuse for a body! What? It's almost February already? Well, Melvin Teaprattle hasn't come a'knockin' yet, and that's my excuse.

Wish me luck as I venture out into the great public tomorrow to do something I haven't done in months: shop for groceries. Papa Glitchbane has been extremely busy, which is good, but he is looking a bit peaked, and I must start picking up more of the duties around here. I think a nice lasagne is in order for tomorrow, with a good Chianti and really garlicky bread.

Ermadine Swett fried another keyboard for me Monday evening. I don't know what got into her. I had told her it was bedtime and she had to get off the computer. She gave me her most evil look, took the large glass of drinking water and carefully poured it into every crack in the keyboard, which obediently stopped working immediately.

I would put Ermadine in the doghouse, but the dogs don't like her either. I just don't know what to do with her sometimes. But this explains my lack of an entry yesterday.

I spent the entire day yesterday replacing the keyboard-- got the handy dandy Microsoft Natural Multimedia keyboard. Now instead of clicking one icon to open my browser, guess what? I can press one button on my keyboard. Oh, wait, that's not any faster... ummm, I can open Outlook with one press of a key. Nope, no faster. I can work the controls of the media player from my keyboard! But, I don't listen to music generally while I compute. Huh. Well, it does look pretty cool and besides, it's the only natural keyboard Staples had.

I'm up to row 125 on the Rose of England, just 17 more rounds to go for the tea cloth! I'm trying reallllly hard not to switch to a different project, but it's getting tougher. Even little Inky stares at me with his legless head and pouts as well as any eyeless, legless octopus can pout.

While out running my various errands, I stopped by Pacific Fabrics, the best fabric chain store in the area, to browse and pick up some pins and buttons. I saw this quilting thread and thought it might make an interesting doily. I love the combination of rose and cream, and this is 100% mercerized cotton, made for machine quilting but maybe perfect for knitting, too.

Unfortunately, I forgot to buy some gingham with which to cover my padded table for easier blocking. What can I say, surrounded by beautiful fabrics everywhere, my mind exploded with possibilities and I was lucky to get out of there with only 3 quilting books and my pins and buttons! Here is one set of buttons I couldn't resist. They will go to a special someone.

While gawking at all the tempting quilting patterns, I gasped when I saw the patterns from this company, not at the patterns, but at the name. Too funny! (don't get it? Karen and I have this company!) Their patterns are very nice, if you are into applique. I've always been a piecing type of gal.

By the way, be sure to check out Karen's new blog, The Terrible Knitter of Kent, and see Caroline's fabulous new FO on Pink Tea.

Jojo has been listening to educational channels. Sadly, he misunderstood and thought he heard "Fireside Cats". He's been practicing for the role, limbering up his tongue for a lengthy speech to the American Public.

Mourning Redux

Knitting? Well, maybe three or four rows on the Rose (pictures to come). Mostly I've spent 12 hours a day or more on the Simple Swatcher, which is coming along quite nicely. I will definitely take you beta-tester-volunteers up on your offer with many thanks! But it will be a while before I am at that point.

Sadly, I now know who my mourning shawl will go to when finished, and it has a more immediate priority on my list. Yesterday my son called to let me know that a very important person in our lives, his grandfather and my ex-father-in-law, ended his own life. He had always said that he would never go into a nursing home, and he was scheduled to do just that on Tuesday. The shawl will be for his widow, a woman who was as much a mother to me as anyone, and certainly a second mother to my children.

It's interesting how life is circular. When I was a young mother living in Mississippi while my husband was in extended military training, my in-laws lived in the brick house that sat atop the hill. The little white church with its little cemetery sat just before you got to their house. Mamaw, my mother-in-law's widowed mother, lived down the road just a bit and often dropped by for a visit.

Now, my ex-sister-in-law and her family live in the brick house atop the hill. My ex-mother-in-law, now a widow, lives down the road a bit, and my ex-father-in-law will soon be lying near Mamaw in the cemetery by the little white church.

And so it goes.

Stitchless Swatching

At the Feral Knitters meeting on Monday night, I was talking to Janine about her latest design (very cool!) which she had composed in Cochenille's Stitch Painter. We bemoaned the fact that it is quite difficult to come up with any colors that actually represent yarn.

Further, even when graphing fair isle or other color designs on a grid, one is never presented with what the knitting will actually look like. Stitches are not square. Stitches impose upon the stitches below them and are imposed upon by the stitches above them. They squeeze together. They seperate sometimes.

Not only is the shape of the stitch problematic, but even if you could get accurate color, the depth of the yarn is not represented at all, nor the nuances of shading in heathers and tweeds.

Although she may not have been aware of it, Janine challenged me to come up with something much better. And that, my dear friends, is what I did all day yesterday to the exclusion of anything else except for eating and sleeping. Oh, and getting more drugs for the never-ending upper respiratory infections.

Here is a small part of Saga Rose, two traditional patterns (both can be found in Sheila McGregor's Traditional Fair Isle Knitting) in a colorway of blues and reds with a greeny gold accent:

I think that, without actually knitting a swatch, this might be representative enough that a knitter would feel confident about knitting a swatch. In other words, sometimes the colors that I put together end up being all wrong together. But if I had used the techniques I used to produce the swatch above, I might have been saved the time and disappointment of finding that out only by knitting (not to mention the expense of actually buying the yarn to swatch with).

The other purpose of this stitchless swatching is to easily come up with alternate colorways, something many of us struggle with.

I've just got this little system started, it will be a while before it becomes something that is easy and quick to use. I'm toying with the idea of producing it as software for the masses but struggle with all the little details that go along with that. Maybe shareware.

I am up to row 111 of the Rose of England, and I believe I just broke $400 in my virtual piggy bank!

Smile at a stranger today-- you may improve their whole day!

Painstinking Progress

ROE row 103: The Test
After having survived the near catastrophic dropping of stitches, this intrepid knitter plodded on through 6 rows of plain stockinette on 800-stitch rounds only to find herself at the brink of the Patience Row, one row which took literally hours.

Why?

Because the whole row consists of what I call "Super Scrunch" followed by two yarnovers. Super Scrunch is a quadruple decrease: Slip two, knit three together, pass the two slipped stitches over. You savvy knitters out there are raising your eyebrows (well, except for Nanny Granny) and thinking, that doesn't sound so bad. Oh no, my friends, it doesn't sound bad at all. But we're using size 20 cotton on slick size 0 Addi Turbos.

Knitting three together generally causes one of three things to happen: 1) the first stitch slips off the left needle as you attempt to get the right needle under the third stitch; 2) the first and second stitches slip off the needle as you attempt to get the needle under the third stitch; or 3) All three stitches slip off the needle.

After about, oh, one repeat of that, I realized I would have to find some better way to deal with those K3Tog or finish my short trip to insanity.

Remembering again the recent post on the lace knitting list about older circulars sometimes having the left point smaller than the right one in order to facilitate the manipulation of stitches, I did what I could to achieve the same ease of working. I took a size 000 steel double-point needle and used it to slide under the three stitches on the left needle and knit them together still using the thin dpn. As the loop was pulled through, I brought it up and over the righthand needle and voilà, it was done.

I was on my slow but successful trip around the round. 32 Super Scrunches were done. I looked at the chart and saw it: the double-L. LL That stands for Uh. Oh. I had missed it before I started the round. It means to not work the last two stitches of the previous round, but consider them to be the first two stitches of the current round. Meaning? I had to tink back to the beginning. This is what I call painstinking repair. And then I was on my way again.

Doing this approximately 160 times took literally hours, but it is done and now-- now, my good, kind, sympathetic friend-- now I get to increase it all back up to where it was!! This all in the name of beauty and art.

I hope to have enough done for another picture tomorrow. In the meantime, Ginger has reported for her day of secretarial duty. Today she is writing the letters and Jojo is doing the filing.

The Feral Knitters

The infamous Feral Knitter's Group met last night, and of course Madame was present, along with the Lady Bluestocking, Felina Schwarz, and our fearless feral leader, the inimitable Janine, who allows us to attend only if we promise not to start evangelizing the entire population of the 3rd Place Commons by singing knitting songs and asking for testimonies from knitters about how they were saved from a boring life by discovering knitting.

This was a tough condition, because Docia Lee Farraday just loves to testify. She starts out with her little blonde head lowered modestly, and in a whispery sort of voice begins to tell how she married young to a military man and sat in the house and cried all day because she had nothing to do. Her voice becomes just a little bit stronger as she talks about the day that the ladies from the Reformed Congregation of Knitters knocked on her door and offered her Hope in the form of a small knitting book with a small title in very small letters: How to Knit, by Florabelle MacKenzie Strainmartin-Dukowski.

As Docia Lee narrates, her cheeks become flushed and her eyes begin to sparkle. She describes how her first caston touched her heart, how the feel of the yarn running through her fingers brought her alive, and how knitting set her free. By the time she finishes, she is shouting at the top of her lungs, on tiptoes, waving her needles around. There is rarely a dry eye in the place, and when she offers an Invitation to Knitting, floods of people young and old, man, woman and child, respond.

But Janine knows better than to let the ferals become, well, feral.

So we worked on our various fair isle projects. I took Rona from her quiet place after two years. Ironically, Andrea was wearing her Rona vest! Karen continued her fair isle sock, Felina worked away on a money bag (if you knit It, It will be Filled....) and a good time was had by all.

In my dreams last night I knitted a fair isle glove by knitting a mitten with finger steeks and then cutting them and sewing the fingersides up. Is this doable? Research is Required.

Rose of England shall progress today. Marti (and all who are curious), the ROE pattern is in Kinzel's First Book of Modern Lace Knitting, which is available from a lot of places for about $10.

Happy Tuesday to all!

Well, it happened. While I was not looking, the ROE-bots struck. Saturday morning I was on round 96 or so when it was time to increase from 480 stitches to 800. Having done that, I decided to go up a needle length. While switching needles, I dropped a stitch, and it laddered back four to five rows.

But these were no normal four to five rows. We're talking double yo's into which were worked a knit purl knit purl, preceded by double decreases and... well, you get the image. I repaired it, but not perfectly, and so I could not even look at it yesterday, waiting until I can assume a cold clinical approach and do it right.

The mistake is between the yellow and black pins. Maybe it's not too bad....

I have decided that this rendition of the Rose will stop at tea cloth size. It will look good on one of the glass tables in the Parlor. For the dining room I would want something in a finer thread.

Papa G celebrated his 49th birthday on Saturday, and his parents celebrated their 50th anniversary. We had a great time with them, prompting them to remember the highlights of their marriage. They both agreed that the biggest highlight was when my mother-in-law helped my father-in-law prepare for the Customs Broker exam. She typed out questions repeatedly on an old timey typewriter, and grilled him and drilled him.

When he finally took the exam, he scored the highest score ever in the state of Washington. So high, in fact, that "They" were convinced he had cheated. So, he was brought in to the official place and asked to re-take the exam, by himself and under close supervision. He scored even higher than he had the previous time, and went on to have a very successful career.

What I thought was extremely wonderful was when he said "I'm sure that your mother could have passed that exam with flying colors if she had taken the test." (speaking to Brad and his sisters).

------

I nixed the whimsy rose idea because it would take too long. But I have come up with an alternate whimsey.

I am using some of my own homespun, from the roving I got at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival last May. It is perfect for Inky, the Octopus, who will have a surprise ending. It is so fun just to make something up as I go along, and extremely gratifying when it turns out well (so far, anyway!).

After I finish the Rose of England, I will focus on my Heirloom Knitting project. I was going to knit the Princess shawl, but as I am certainly no specialist in lace knitting and in all likelihood my meager capabilities couldn't handle that masterpiece, I think I will go with the Unst Bridal Shawl, in some color other than white or natural-- maybe pink or black. Or lavender.... blue? green? Oh, so many choices!

And lastly, I finally found a place to set up my needlepoint frame so that I can work on Herself, a Sophia canvas of a beautiful Japanese lady in a kimono. Vanessa, wanna come help?

Gotta go.... somebody wants to play!

The Find

The Rose of England grows, currently at the rate of about 8 rounds per day, which isn't phenomenal but gratifies my sense of progress. I'll wait to show another picture when it is noticeably different.

Last entry I promised to show you my new find for yarn organization.

Here we have a nice heavy pressboard tray, reinforced with metal on the corners and divided into compartments perfect for balls of yarn, n'est-ce-pas?

By itself it is cute, portable and holds 28 individual yarns as if it were a tray of delectable desserts waiting for someone to choose its needlewarming charms for themselves.

But wait! There's more! Not one, but three trays, combining for 84 balls of yarn. Is this not wonderful? Is this not a must-have for fair-isle knitters?

But wait! That's not all! These trays fit neatly inside this beautiful durable tagboard box complete with beautiful rope handles and custom-fit lid!!

But wait! There's more! In the bottom of the box are modular dividers just waiting for your oddly-sized knitting yarns and accessories!!!!

Your friends and neighbors will admire the way you can now carry around more than 100 balls of yarn simultaneously! Just think of the Fair Isle Jam parties you and your knitting acquaintances can have, all made possible by the glorious..... ornament box?!?

Yes, ornament box. These things are wasted on ornaments, I tell you!

Not only does the box come in this wonderful 100-ball configuration, but you can also get it in a smaller version which holds 44 ornaments...er, yarn balls, with one tray and additional bottom dividers.

Act now before the post-holiday season is over and go to your local Storables! store to find these. They're not the cheapest things in the world (no, not 9.99!) but they also come in a special acid-free edition with red moire covering the box and lid.

Whew! Those television ad announcers must get exhausted after saying stuff like that all the time. I think I need to go knit now!

Roses and Poses

What a nice relaxing day it was yesterday while the snow came down for hours, disguising our little woodland and delighting the neighborhood children. I think I am just now relaxing from exiting the rat race, and am starting to feel less rat-like and more human. This is good.

The Rose of England progressed a bit. How done am I? 6.8%! This is what 6.8% looks like:

What intrigues me about this pattern is the huge fluctuation in stitch number per round. Right now I am going up and down between 440 and 320 stitches. I assume this is because the yarnovers and such result in much larger spreads than the knit stitches, and the variations offset each other for a steady increase in diameter.

I am very pleased that I am at 6.8% done, because I am almost through one 200 meter ball of thread. I bought 15 balls, and 1/15th of 100% is.... ta-da!...6.6% Whew!

Larry of KnitDad's blog, has finally tempted me to start one of Karen's multi-directional scarfs. Kudos to Karen for an easy but fun and pretty pattern that is very well written! I am using Mountain Color's Mountain Goat in a vivid handpaint of gorgeous reds, blues and some green. Sherlock and Jojo felt the need to inspect this work a little more closely.

I'm still on the thinking stage for the knitted Rose, but I did take out the threads yesterday to ponder upon. Thanks, Peter, for the name of the rose parts!

I am happy to report that the Yarnitorium has undergone a transformation and shall soon be photoworthy. Tomorrow I shall reveal my latest Great Find for yarn organization-- you know how I love the tools!

Here is Sherlock saying "Please, kind lady, do you have some scraps of bacon or steak or chicken you might spare for a poor starving old woman?"

Monday, 2004

The News from Happy Holler

The inhabitants of Happy Holler are warm and content by the fireside while outside ice covers the ground and the trees shiver with cold. We stand ready to shut off the water should a pipe freeze and break and are very very grateful that we do not have to get out in this weather.

Papa G is busy drumming up business for himself, having decided to start his own accounting practice again. Having earned his MBA with emphasis in tax law, he is very good at what he does and hopefully will soon have enough clients to support all of us here. Ermadine eats a lot, but has suddenly stopped eating beef. She claims it's not because of the mad cow that was found in this neck of the woods, but everyone raises an eyebrow at that (except for Nanny Granny, who lost her eyebrows years ago while testing Fax Mactor's new eyebrow wax).

Sherlock has advanced one step in his slipper training. He now consistently brings a slipper to Madame before he wakes her up. The routine is 1) get one (and only one) slipper, 2)jump up on Mommy's bed with slipper, 3) dig the covers off of Mommy until she gets up and 4) follow Mommy all around the house as she looks for the slipper that is already on her bed. He has recently read the canine bestseller Goose Chases: What They Are and How To Lead One and is practicing the techniques therein.

Yesterday Jojo attempted to stow away in one of the Two Swans packages. I think he thought it might be going to Angela.

The Trilogy of the Rose

Recent events have conspired to produce an interesting situation-- I now find myself with a rose theme in knitting. Saga Rose, still unfinished. The Rose of England tablecloth for the Laceknitters knitalong. And the rose whimsy I intend to design and knit for the ASOF Whimsicalong.

The ROE is very fun to knit. Having something different on each round keeps me from getting bored, and watching the cloth grow is very rewarding. I am now on round 63, and my fund is growing, now at $137.50! However, the HowDoneAmI genii says I am only 4.9% complete, so it won't be finished anytime soon.

The Whimsicalong is a project where you just knit something fun and non-practical. I knit the Fair Riley as a test whimsey, but the rose is what I really want to do, possibly with a vase. I plan to use red Manuela mercerized cotton to knit strips of triangles (three or 5) which have short-row shaping to gently curve the bottom. Then I think I can knit a cone shape out of green to act as the... uh... whatever that green thing is that connects the stem to the flower. An I-cord stem, possibly reinforced with floral wire, some knitted leaves and voila! We'll see how it really turns out.

As far as Fair Riley's clothing goes--well. His particular body construction will make it difficult to create a well-fitting sweater of any kind. Indulge me, if you will, in some mind-meandering for a moment.

Superheroes wear capes, right? Superman, Wonderwoman, Spiderman, The Tick. You hear about superheroes and really evil antiheroes, but you never hear about Averageheros or Goodheroes or OKheroes or Fairheroes.

So, since the new bear is named Fair Riley, I believe he should have a Fairhero cape. This will allow the use of steeks and shaping, and will cover his interesting figure quite nicely.

Resolutions

Now is the time when many people naturally begin to take stock of the past year and attempt to visualize the possibilities for the new year. The age-old tradition of making New Year's Resolutions is a good one, I think.

In the year 2004, I resolve the following:

1. To become (and stay) more organized.
2. To imbibe in alcoholic beverages only on weekends (wine/beer exception).
3. The Usual*

The Usual has changed just a tiny bit from year to year. Back in, oh, 1998 it was "get in shape and lose 5 pounds". Each year the amount has crept upwards and it seems so hard just to get started. Those five pounds must be having a great time, as they have gone forth and multiplied upon my girth.

The Rose of England tablecloth has progressed, and I am now on row 49, giving me, for the 48 preceding rows, $79.50 towards the round table.

You can see that Miss Cebelia went by the wayside. It was discovered that she had posed nude for Playboy some time before the Pageant, and her crown was removed. Actually, she was too soft, and I have found the Manuela corded cotton easier to work with.

Here is a closeup of one pattern repeat.

Christmas brought some lovely gifts, including a bag of beautifully soft cashmere fiber from Emma and these very meaningful earrings from my business partner and friend, Karen.

I hope your resolutions are successful this year. What am I doing today? Organizing the Yarnitorium, of course!