Fiberrant

I’d taken down the pdf link to my Orenburg shawl pattern, because the pattern has typos and I haven’t gotten around to fixing them. Until today.

So, it’s back up. There are still many typos in the charts, I fear, because I’ve lost most of my knitting notes. And I’m NOT going to knit this up again, just to correct the pattern.

In fact, I just pulled out the shawl, since I was looking at the pattern. It still takes my breath away. I can see the inconsistency in my spinning very clearly, but that doesn’t make it any less dear to me.

Bloglines is toast, as far as I’m concerned. If they can’t update the feeds I want to read, then I’ll use a different aggregator. (SharpReader, if you care.) They have lost my eyeballs – and from what I’m reading, many more as well – more due to poor customer service than technical glitches.

Buried deep in their FAQ is a note that their “time between feed updates” is inversely proportional to the number of feed subscribers. This sucks, because I don’t tend to read the 6,000-subscriber me-too blogs which get instantly updated the moment the Publish button is pressed. They expect me to wait days until they get around to updating my favorites? I’m not sticking around, thank you.

The body of the red shawl is complete. I started knitting the edging from the Fir Cone shawl (Folk Shawls), but didn’t like how it looked with this shawl. Rip-rip-rip, back to the pattern edging. It’s only a few repeats in, but I can see that it “goes” much better with the shawl pattern, which is all diamonds.

(Imagine a picture here. I’m too lazy to faux-block the thing, so the picture would make any sense. Besides, it’s gray and rainy here – duh, September in Rochester – so it wouldn’t come out right anyway.)

Just got back Friday night from another great trip to Saratoga Springs. In which I failed to find the yarn store yet again, despite having a 10% off coupon. That’s when you know you take your job too seriously: given free time in the afternoon, you pound out a dozen emails instead of shopping for yarn.

The trip was glorious, though, mostly because I was driving my new car. Poor Liz had to put up with my new-car-enthusiasm, though. So much so, that she told people she could now sell the car better than most salesmen. The feature I love most (and didn’t even realize the car had it) is the way the seat slides back, and the wheel tilts out of the way, when I turn off the ignition. Then when I turn it on again, it glides back. It makes me smile every time, and will be like the lights in my dryer and freezer. I’m still grinning every time I open them, two years later.

Today’s agenda: Football! The Bills are hosting the Jets, to decide 2nd place in the AFC East. Go Bills!

Great idea about the fire, yesterday … except we have no wood. It’s amazing how autumn creeps up behind you, then Bam! We even considered turning on the furnace, but made baked beans instead. (No, that’s not why! Because the oven heats up the house.)

Apologies for this random post. The bug I had last week is still kicking my butt. I was fine on the trip, but started coughing Friday night; and this morning it’s in my sinuses, too. Yuck. Luckily, I’m still not-too-sick-to-knit – 22 rows on the shawl yesterday, 56 to go until the edging.

I’m going to substitute the edging from Cheryl Oberle’s Fir Cone Shawl, but I have to think about how to do the corners. I’d like to make the waves all point down, too. ( Here’s a good shot of the edging from Sara’s blog. The edging is only the scalloped pattern at the very bottom, knit sideways so there’s no binding off.) So, I’ll either knit down from both sides and graft at the point (shudder) or design the point, then re-work the pattern up the other side. Things to ponder.

Along with what to do at the tips, and whether to work the edging on the long edge, too. I just don’t know yet. No where near starting the second ball of yarn yet, though the pattern calls for exactly what I’ve got. This may be related to the 31% complete triangle-shawl-knitting thing … today I’m up to 42.9%, which means a) I knit a hella lot yesterday, or b) since this is a faroese shawl, the calculator is a bit off. Or c) all of the above. Because of the shaping, yesterday’s percentage should have been 35.6%. And I’m now at 45.9% complete, including the edging. (Take that, YSA! I’ll have plenty-plenty yarn. 128 g total, 87 g left.)

The best thing about the new year: Anything is possible.

This sock, for instance. Started on the 2nd, finished on the 8th – I’m on track for 26 pair in 2006. It’s one of the lace socks from the back of A Gathering of Lace, the “13-st Feathered” pattern, in hand-dyed variegated cranberry merino superwash sock yarn from Knit Picks. I altered the pattern a bit, I think – knit an extra repeat or 2 in the leg, so it’s nearly a knee sock. (The coin, for size reference, is a Susan B. dollar.)

My first lace sock, believe it or not. This is a very convenient way to knit socks: there are 8 pattern repeats, plus the ribbing, heel and toe. Weeknights, 1 repeat or the heel; weekends, 2 repeats plus the toe. And it’s absolutely scrumptious to wear.

Finally!

Bad blogger – I pinned this out Monday, my last act of vacation, but didn’t have time (or light) to take a picture until last night.

Here’s a closeup of the cabled lace pattern:

This project has been in process for 21 months, so far … I think I bought the taupe merino/cashmere in October 2003. And my spinning was not very even. I’m considering frogging most of the front, and spinning new yarn for it, because it’s rather overspun. (Another reason this has been marinating on the blocking board all week.) You may notice that there are blocking wires only on the front; it turned out so much smaller than the back (or sleeves) that I had to coax it to size.

The hand of the fabric is different, too – the back is lusciously soft, while the front is, well, wiry. Still soft, but definitely different from the rest of the pieces. You’d think I would have noticed this while I was knitting – but the damn thing took so long! The back was finished like, a year ago. My sensory memory doesn’t last that long, apparently.

Can I live with it? I still don’t know. I think I may have to take it off the board, drape it around my neck for a bit. I had such high hopes for this sweater, and now I’m feeling a bit let down. The agony of perfectionism.

I finally, at long last, after much ado, finished knitting The Shawl.

It’s about 50″ square, unblocked. Today I’ll be at the lumberyard, buying wood to make a 72″ frame. I’ve been bugging Paul about it for (literally) years, but now it’s Time. I can’t wait to get this puppy blocked.

I’m on the home stretch with The Shawl. The pattern is finished, and 14 teeth (out of 40) are done on the final border. It could be finished any day now … unless I run out of yarn again. And it looks like I just might. But it’s looking like another beautiful spring day, so [once Month-end is finished] I’ll be on the porch knitting, and probably spinning, all day.

Yes, spring has arrived! The gardens are looking great. We spent a couple hours out back yesterday, pulling grass out of the gardens (Why does it grow so well in the garden, and so poorly in the lawn?) and giving the sage bush a serious haircut. It had grown to about 4′ in diameter, with a lot of dead wood underneath. So I trimmed the dead wood, found a root division, and dug 7/8 of it out. Planted marsh mallow in its place, because we’ve got about a dozen good-sized volunteers around. Anybody want a clump of marsh mallow? It grows big, and has pretty lavender blossoms.

The roses had a hard winter. We’ve never pruned them very hard in the fall, and this year they’ve died way back. One bush looks like it’s a total goner, but we’ll give it another few weeks. Maybe it’s just a late bloomer.

The cherry tree is blooming, though not as heavily as last year. It too has some dead branches. The leopard’s bane is just blooming – Paul nearly mistook it for a huge dandelion. Tulips are everywhere – we’ve never planted any, but they keep on multiplying. I can’t believe some people plant them as annuals! And my favorite daffodils are out, the white with pale pink trumpets. What else? Creeping phlox (white, pink, lavender); magenta and yellow primroses; grape hyacinths; rock cress (I think it’s the rock cress, though maybe that died and this is something else).

The candytuft and basket-of-gold alyssum are just about to explode with flowers. The donkey-tail sedum we got from Paul’s dad has bright green flowers, and is very showy. And more grape hyacinths. Today Staffan and I will pick these, so maybe someday there’ll be only a hundred thousand of them in the garden. (Their leaves stay all year, and look like very sad, wilted grass. I’ve tried digging out the bulbs after they’ve bloomed, but it only seems to invigorate them.)

I printed out the last chart for The Shawl yesterday. And, seeing just how little is left, I knit all day and late into the evening. Just 52 rows to go – I knit 32 yesterday! And with my desk clean, laundry done, dishes washed, the decks are clear for another Lace Orgy today. March, 2004 might just be the month I finish this …