March 05, 2007
Who Says Miracles Don't Happen?
Only one year and 7 days after the Olympic flame was extinguished, a miracle—the pieces for Olympic Squirrel are almost done:
Above, one finished sleeve, with the second lurking in my project bag, sans only the blue armhole border, a trifling 11 rows. (The fancily configured neckline has not disappeared; it’s just face down since the back makes a much better picture at this point.)
As you can see—with, for the record, the wholehearted encouragement of my knitting peeps, Janine in particular—I completely abandoned the the squirrel/tree/snowflake pattern on the sleeves. I swear, I can’t throw a frickin’ stick without hitting someone who thinks nothing of knitting small, stranded items on dpns, and yet that technique just leaves me completely in a dither. Try as I might, I can’t reconcile the fact that you have to knit tightly between the dpns to prevent laddering and yet strand loosely between the dpns to prevent puckering. I only have 10 fingers, people! So, no squirrels (or "skwedls," as TMK and I tend to say, thanks to our addiction to BBC in general and Red Dwarf in particular) on the sleeves, but I’m thinkin’ I like the plainer look. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Now, time to wash the pieces, block them, dry them, seal the whole thing in a plastic bag, put the plastic bag in a small, secure, fireproof safe, put the safe on the space shuttle, and send the whole shebang up to the International Space Station, and hope that none of the Feralites remember that steeking is/was supposed to happen at this point.
On to my next project. Tra-la-la.
While I was busy trying to figure out how to finagle my way onto the space shuttle, TMK was working on her latest opus, “Chocolate Sauce,” two plies of light brown llama with one ply of dark brown alpaca, her first 3-ply!
On my monitor at least, the close-up gives a good approximation of the colors, something akin to slightly melted, ooey-gooey chocolate ice cream dripping with hot fudge sauce. (Napkin, anyone?) When I did a swatch, the tweediness disappeared but it turned into a beautiful soft brown with a lot of depth and just the right amount of fuzz.
This is actually a planned “spin to knit” project that TMK and I are working on together. The Chocolate Sauce was spun as close as possible to the yarn specifications in the “Fiber Basics: Cheviot” article by Carol Huebscher Rhoades in the Winter 2006 Spin Off magazine. The plan is then for me to use it to knit a Guernsey hat pattern which was part of the article. That is, as soon as I can pry Chocolate Sauce away from TMK. It could be a while.
Speaking of earth-tone Gansey/Guernsey hats, on the Abbdar front, I’m either really tickled or really steamed, I’m not sure which. Looky here. Either this designer has (a) done me the great favor of designing the oh-so-perfect Egyptian cable pattern which I can simply adapt for the hat (yay!) or (b) made me feel like a designing doofus who couldn't come up with anything this perfect no matter how hard she tried (boo!). So....
New poll!
Dude, you know we're not going to let you get away that easily. Maybe you could go to one of those hieroglyphics generators and enter Abbdar, and convert to texture the resulting glyphs?
Posted by: Carrie on March 5, 2007 11:44 AMAfter saying I wasn't gonna take part in any of your polls again, I went and voted anyway. To adapt the pattern already written. A real no brainer. Geesh! The wheel and the pyramids have already been designed and implemented, sweetie. Time may be of the essence here. Refresh my memory, but tell me again, exactly how long did it take to get the squirrel sweater into a stage nearing completion? We would all love to see Abdar but I'm growing older by the minute and want to see it before I die. Besides, the Nefertiti scarf has colors in it -- does that constitute a fair isle compromise?
Hugs, MaryB
Posted by: MaryB on March 5, 2007 11:56 AMMaryB, I was just going to use the cable and seed-stitch part of the Nefertiti, none of the color. That's in keeping with the earth-tone mandate, methinks.
Carrie, yeah, yeah, I figured you wouldn't let me get away with using someone else's pattern. But, as we speak, 12 people have voted and it's 50/50!
Posted by: Ryan on March 5, 2007 12:36 PMEither way I'm betting it will be a good hat. After all, Abdar just sounds friendly.
Posted by: Elaine on March 5, 2007 12:41 PMI think it is perfectly fair to use some components of that pattern to help you with yours. At least you can see a completed work that WORKS...
I don't know what it is about fair isle that is making me want to knit with tiny needles. I just wanna. Which is very peculiar. Perhaps Janine is sending text messages to my brain??
Posted by: anj on March 5, 2007 12:44 PMI'm loving that alpaca, nice job TMK...looking forward to seeing it knit up...
Posted by: Lisa in Oregon on March 5, 2007 01:30 PMMmm, chocolate sauce...beautiful!
I vote for adapting the scarf pattern. But whichever road you choose, I am knitting that scarf - I love it! Thanks for the heads-up. :)
Posted by: Julie on March 5, 2007 01:40 PMu wl nit fer ile
u wl nit fer ile
u wl nit fer ile
I'm not voting. Abbdar is meant to be a colorful stranded pattern and everyone who voted otherwise is just plain wrong. I will not participate in this travesty.
Posted by: Janine on March 5, 2007 02:04 PMPoor skwedles. So close to being a real sweater.
TMK - great work on the Chocolate. (mmmm, chocolate)
Posted by: Rachel H on March 5, 2007 02:19 PMIt would have looked too busy with colorwork on the sleeves. Btw, I cannot fathom doing colorwork. Don't tell!
I love that yarn! TMK did a fab job with that.
Holy cow, that chocolate yarn has me in spasms. Nevah mind.
I voted go with the pattern. I saw the results and I think people are just MEAN. MEAN, I tell ya!
Posted by: Norma on March 5, 2007 03:06 PMOh hey, TMK? I signed me up for a woodworking course today. I'm getting better with my lathe but don't get to play with my other tools much coz they live at my Dad's. But when this class starts, Every Thursday for 9 weeks will be a play night. Yay.
Posted by: Rachel H on March 5, 2007 03:37 PMThat shot taken in the garden...is there something blooming there in background??
You can't believe how cold and frozen and snowy is is here in Toronto...even getting a peek of the lawn seems sooo far away and you are taking pictures in a gloriously green yard!
Posted by: Marie on March 5, 2007 07:13 PMi'm still rooting for doing an ankh as a cable type pattern! so the vote is more do it yourself, than to skeeze off someone elses pattern!
Posted by: minnie on March 5, 2007 08:28 PMMarie:
And that's why Seattle's called the "Emerald City." By the way, that's hellebore blooming in the background.
TMK
Posted by: The Mysterious K on March 5, 2007 10:32 PMHow can I think about a hat when that sweater has me tickled to distraction? May the steeking gods be with you.
Posted by: marylee on March 6, 2007 02:53 AMThat sweater is amazing. As is the 3 ply handspun yarn, GORGEOUS!
Posted by: marianne on March 6, 2007 05:37 AMThe sweater, far beyond my talent, and totally amazing, and more stranded work would have been TOO much. The yarn, oh, so lovely.
The hat, I like your Ankh idea better, or maybe Ankhs separated by cables.
Posted by: PICAdrienne on March 6, 2007 03:01 PMHi Ryan,
Just a quick note on Dulaan today. My blog has a challenge on it today for my Mom and I to do 20 items each for the Dulaan campaign. I posted about it to see if we can get anybody else interested in pushing themselves a wee bit this year.
I don't have a large readership but I'll let you know if any of my friends and relatives here in Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada take up the challenge.
Posted by: Michele on March 7, 2007 12:25 AMOkay, NOW I see the squirrels.
And for some reason I'm thinking that maybe TMK should start naming all of her yarns after food. The Exploding Brandy colourway alone would be a big hit, don't you think?
Posted by: Lee Ann on March 7, 2007 04:29 AM