ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

I started out with such hopes. Recharted the tunic pattern for Starmore’s Katherine of Aragone out of Tudor Roses.

You see, I could not stand the idea of a tunic with fringes nor one that was 30+ cm around larger than I needed. I had also convinced myself that having a pullover to balance all my cardigans was a good idea. While I was at it, I balanced all the patterns with the directions reversing out from the middle. Not doing that just seemed sloppy.

At almost 40 rows up the body, I have a serious dilemma. I am spot on gauge and the hand is perfect. If I keep going it will be exactly the size I had planned.

This is the inside of a sweater that is evenly balanced between the two colors.-

inside

Now, a couple of shots of the outside.

back

a bit closer

and closer

You see the issue? The values of the tan and blue are just too close. Without the contrast which is at the beginning with the cream or higher up with the rose, the patterning just disappears. I like the blues, the cream, the pink. Tan has never been my favorite color anyway. If I take it out of the sequence completely I am not sure I will have enough yarn.

I could use the tan for the ribbing and edgings. I could frog back to the ribbing and
1) start the contrast in a different place so that the tan comes opposite the darkest of the blues
2) chose a different contrast yarn. I have pinks/purples, purples/blues, greys/black, red/burgundy and purples/greys .
3) frog the whole thing and knit a cardigan with different colors
4) keep the ribbing and knit a different pattern on the body…..

what would you do?

As you can tell, or perhaps you can’t if you are using one of the readers, I have been vainly trying to stabilize the design of this blog since I switched off Mandigo.

I liked it, but it took forever to load. With every theme since then, I have had issues with either the design or the sidebar. Frustration is mounting. I am not really interested in designing something from scratch so it looks like I need to head back to the style.css and change things one at a time till I get what I want.

Clear and easy to read are important to me. proper borders that outline the pix are better than the current blue line. I might need to go to two sidebars to make the design look more balanced and I really like fluid themes more than fixed width.

Breadcrumbs, can’t forget the breadcrumbs for easy navigation.

All of these should be so simple. Why am I having such problems?

Thank you all for the thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and sympathy. Friends now stretch across the globe and your comments and those off my f&f email list have helped ease the pain of her loss. Elana was a good dog, well loved by the family. She enjoyed her walks, barks, and bones.

My bone, what a treat!

The rest of us mortals are just muddling along.

Faery Ring

Making progress again. The right front is finished. The back is finished and the first shoulder bound off. The second front is now with in a few cm of completion.

Faery Ring Cardigan

Other Knitting

I frogged the EZ Baby Surprise, not liking how the striping was turning out. Since I only had straight needles with me (wait, these are not ordinary straight needles – they are wonderful Signature Needle Arts with stiletto points) it seemed time to knit verticle tops with some texture which I can graft closed before reversing directions for the instep, heel and foot.

sock top

Audio

And then there is With the Lightnings – David Drake. It is the first of the LT Leary space opera novels that were on sale at iTunes last week along with Starship: Pirates by Mike Resnick (already heard the first one – Starship: Mutiny). They are great knitting as well as travel listening.

There is a certain quiet of a house when the dog has gone. Toys sitting where they have been forgotten, dog bed empty and the food dish just waiting to be filled. There is dog hair on the carpet of several rooms waiting to be vacuumed. Completing all these tasks will make things a bit more final than I think my daughter is ready to have happen.

Friday night we had dinner in Guildford with a friend which eased things a bit and yesterday was a quiet day with Internet only an option at work. Today it was more of the same. BT down and me thinking about how I can force them to give me two days credit for service not delivered.

I am not talented in jewelry making. Ms Soprano messed around a bit and came up with both button cuff links and a good dozen lovely stitch markers for me.

stitch markers and cufflinks

The black wool that I received in the Ongoing Swap (Ravelry UK Spinnners) is now spun -

singles

The Dreamsicle merino/silk is now plyed

two ply with remaining fiber

I also finishing spinning and plying all of the grey shetland that I had coned. Not being smart enough to take a picture prior to dropping it in the sink, at least I managed to weigh it (445 gm) prior to the start of the soak.  There seemed to still be a bit too much lanolin left so I expect to lose as much as 50 gm in the washing.

Now, all I need is a set of wringers. You know, the kind of wringers that used to top every old fashion washing machine. If you crank yarn through them, you can powder remaining veg matter….

As of 0820 this morning, BT Broadband went toes up.

could it have been yesterday’s downpour with water flooding across the yard and lawn?

yesterday afternoon

hardly able to see across the garden

As if I didn’t have enough else going on in our lives. Esp to cut the daughter off from her Internet support community seemed especially cruel.

In any case, non of the usual attempts to reboot or reconfigure worked. Of course, I was directed to their internet page for the rest of the ideas.  Can you give me the logic? If I could get to the web, I wouldn’t need their help pages on the web. ARGH!!!!!

Spinning

Needing cheering up and sanity, I started on a merino silk mix that Ms Soprano and I agreed looks like a Dreamsicle.

ball of roving

and spins up like this

fine singles

with neither the orange or yellow appearing quite so garrish. I have two 100 gm balls and look to spin up the first tonight.

Other than that, it is audio books and figuring out what to have for supper.

Golden retrievers are a happy breed of dog. They live in the present, busy with the here and now. They don’t hold grudges, are always delighted to see their people, and will eat almost anything that is not hot, heavy, or nailed down.

yeats ago, in the snow

What they can’t do is have a decent life if their hindquarters are paralyzed.

We spent time with her this morning. I can’t say enough good things about the Gordon House Vet people. Elena wasn’t in pain, but it was obvious that she was not a happy camper only being able to move the upper half of her body. She got cuddles, treats

1130, 24 July 2009

and was put to sleep right before noon.

She will be missed.

Thought I would give you that information up front. Ms Soprano talked to the vets office several times today and we will be over there late morning tomorrow. No improvement at all is not good.

Knitting

Needing something pretty midless, I started this yesterday out of a self striping Regia Sock yarn. Garter Stitch with the usual suspects of two markers and paired double decreases every ridge for a while; on 2.75mm needles it is

A baby surprise

Version II of Link O’the Waves is complete. Knit of two balls Rowan’s Tapestry in shades of grey I put an edging on one end only.

One repeat scarf

Only one repeat wide (instead of four), I liked the texture and the finished width will easily block to ove 20 cm.

detail

Katherine of Aragon

Much more subdued than my normal color choices, I am seriously considering turning this into an elegant vest.

40+ rows up the patterning

I have to decide in the next few inches since it makes a difference in the arm scythes.

Audio & Video

Daemons are Forever (long book – 18 hours – 2/3rds of the way through) by Simon Green
Castle (Season I) for knitting.

I haven’t figured out how to watch movies on the treadmill or stairstepper yet. More likely I would fall down.

Cheerful pup

She went dashing after a deer in the yard this morning, sailing along a golden flash. Elena was starting to move better, the arthritis in her hip finally responding to medication.

Something happened. Ms Soprano who was standing there watching said the dog seemed to flip, land on her back and started screaming. Screaming from a dog can not be described; from upstairs, I thought that one of the neighborhood children was seriously injured.

With much struggling, she was loaded in the car and taken to the vet. Since then, Elena has been medicated, x-rayed and dosed with steriods. No fractures, but the spondylosis is pretty obvious and explains the paralysis of her back legs and tail. It isn’t complete, so we are hoping that she will regain neurological function.

Odds are about even and the next 24-48 hours will tell.

Friends

Not enough shocks for me today? I started out 4th of July weekend figuring on unofficially participating in Tour de Fleece. Not having a TV, I am not exactly following the race in real time. Today I noted that one of the teams  was spinning in the memory of Ruth Schooley. Huh? I had known Ruth over Knitlist, swaps and emails since 1995. I thought that we just lost track of each other. She died suddenly July of last year, only a couple days after her last blog post.

I still have a skein of yarn she spun and gifted me years ago that is so fine and beautiful I have never been able to bear using it. Now that seems silly. I will figure out some small lace scarf and enjoy the wearing and the memory.

Taken From Jews in Green
For families of the deceased: Ha’makom yenahem etkhem betokh she’ar avelei Tziyon vi’Yerushalayim.

Agami, Daniel – Specialist, Army, Florida
Allen, Howard Paul – Sergeant, Army National Guard, Arizona
Ben Yahudah, Benyahmin – Specialist, Army, Georgia
Bernstein, David – 1st Lieutenant, Army, Pennsylvania
Bitton, Albert – Corporal, Army, Chicago
Blum, Aron C. – Sergeant, Marines, Arizona
Bruckenthal, Nathan – Petty Officer, Coast Guard, New York
Budeysky, Steven M. – Sergeant, Army, Chicago
Cohen, Michael R. – Corporal, Marines, Pennsylvania
Dvorin, Seth – 2nd Lieutenant, Army, New Jersey
Engel, Mark E. – Lance Corporal, Marines, Colorado
Evnin, Mark A. – Corporal, Marines, Vermont
Fairbairn, Aaron – Private First Class, Army, Washington
Farkas, Daniel – 1st Lieutenant,Army National Guard, New York
Fletcher, Jacob S. – Private First Class, Army, New York
Freeman, Daniel J. – Specialist, Army, Cincinatti, OH
Harrington, Foster – Sergeant, Marines, Texas
Jacobson, Elizabeth N. – Airman First Class, Air Force, Florida
Krissoff, Nathan M. – 1st Lieutenant, Marines, Nevada
Mervis, Paul – Lieutenant, British Army, London
Pine, Shawn – Lieutenant Colonel, Army Reserve, Texas
Pontell, Darin – Lieutenant JG, Navy, Pentagon, died on 9/11
Rosenberg, Mark – Major, Army, Florida
Schrage, Dustin – Corporal, Marines, Florida
Schulte, Roslyn – 1st Lieutenant, Air Force, St. Louis, MO
Secher, Robert Michael – Captain, Marines, Tennessee
Seiden, Marc S. – Specialist, Army, New Jersey
Shackelford, Michael – Sergeant, Army, Denver, CO
Sherman, Alan D. – Sergeant, Marines, New Jersey
Stern, Andrew K. – 1st Lieutenant, Marines, Tennessee
Tarlavsky, Michael – Captain, Army, 5th Special Forces Group
Weiner, Robert M. – Sergeant, Army National Guard, Illinois
Wershow, Jeffery – Specialist, Army National Guard, Florida
Wolfe, Colin J. – Private First Class, Marines, Virginia
Wolfer, Stuart A. – Major, Army, Florida
Wong, Elijah – Sergeant, Army National Guard, Arizona
Yelner, Jonathan – Senior Airman, Air Force, California

I am old. Well, not really, but older than a lot of those at the surrounding tables at this conference.

there are a lot of people here, mostly developers and professionals, but with a good smattering of community and serious hobbyists.

WordCamp is about the use of WordPress: as a blogging platform, as a CMS, as the basis underlying e-Commerce. While one is at it, you could also layer on BuddyPress for social networking or bbPress for forums…. or ….

Anyway, none of that explains the love affairs with Twitter that seems to be taking over so many people.

Now, I date from USENET and FIDONET. I know and understand about random noise and chatter. I avoided IRC and all of its channels in favor of listserve and being able to look at things when I wanted, rather than on someone else’s schedule.

I don’t get Twitter. Primarily it seems to be 140 character comments on whatever # mark channel without any common sense or finger governers. It really is not anything different than a running instant messanger with more than one delivery route. I am not arrogant enough to believe that anyone really cares what I am doing at any particular time. If I need to contact my family, there is email and text messaging.

End Rant.

Knitting

All of Print O’ the Wave

completed

is completed out of two balls of Regia Cotton knit on 5.0 mm needles and badly needs blocking.
I started a second out of some Rowan Tapestry, only one repeat wide

After using up a previous ball of Rowan on an angle scarf

angles

detail

Video, Audio, other

iTunes US makes a certain amount of material available free every week. For the last several months, I have been collecting it up. Not wanting another late night at a pub with a long cold hike back I decided to reclaim some hard drive space by going through it.

No clue why any one would want to watch a reality TV show about a family with multiples. The fact that there is more than one out there is totally beyond me. Same goes for various fashion, fighting, school related, and vehicle demo productions. Ice Truckers? Really.

End result is that I have 15Gig more free on my laptop and found only one show that I might want to watch.

It doesn’t take any more time to walk from my house to the Blackwater Station than it does to hike into Camberley. In fact it might just be a few minutes shorter. Allowing for plenty of time, I cut through the Meadows and arrived on the Platform 17 minutes later.

If I was smart, I would skip the time I spent at Reading. Something about trains being canceled, someone trying to take off with my suitcase (the clothes don’t matter, the laptop does) and me almost getting on a train without it. Or, maybe I just forgot where I was sitting?

In anycase, my luggage and I finally managed to get on the 1141 to Cardiff.

Did I mention it was raining? That it didn’t seem worth wandering around the city in such weather so I bopped through to Cardiff Bay and the Future Inn.

duh, conference room

with its conference facilities, excellent restaurant, and modern rooms. As a conference location, it might be off the end of the earth but it was more than price worthy and lovely.

Conference?

WordCamp2009

Knitting Update

Managed to almost complete the current scarf on the needles (Eunny Jang’s Print O’ the Wave ) in Regia Sock Cotton.

detail of scarf

Audio

Blackhills – Nora Roberts
Demons are Forever – Simon R Green

Both of which are long, long books.

not.

The staff ride has been planned for months and I signed up for it weeks ago. I hadn’t done much study, but on the fiction side – this is the area in which Anne Perry sets her five book WWI Mystery series covering 1914-1918 about the Reavely siblings.

I was up early and we were all on the bus before 0500 heading to Folkstone.  One member had to drop out as he had forgotten his passport. It is just 0700 when we roll into the parking lot. I decide that I need a coffee. At the last minute, I had pulled out one knitting project and tossed another in my bag.

Getting my backpack down from the upper rack – I pull out my notebook, snacks and keep on digging.

Have you guessed the punch line yet?

Wallet. Apparently not returned to the backpack or left on the car seat. Not only was I without passports, I was also without ID card, money, bank cards of various kinds and rail card. At the terminal.

To say that I felt like an idiot was a complete understatement. One of the guy kindly hit a cash point so that I had enough money to get home by train. Even nicer was one of the terminal employees who gave me a ride into central Folkstone so that I could catch a train. He worked first on the construction and now at the English end of the line. 16 + years all told.

I spent a bit of time looking around while I waited for the “after rush hour train fares”

as close as I got to Belgium

looking at the memorials

WW II Memorial

had my cup of coffee, then wandered through town

and be on my way, heels dragging, toward London Waterloo.

South East Trains arrive at the East Waterloo Terminal. I have often seen the signs for the

Imperial War Museum

and made the detour today in an effort to at least learn a bit more about Britain in WWI. The main floor and atrium contained a variety of

WW I plane

transport

while special exhibits were on the upper floors. That of military intelligence and MI5&6 was quite interesting. The Holocaust one, well, it is interesting how the Brits unwillingness to accept refugees in either the UK or Palestine was glossed over in favor of touting the Kindertransport.

Obviously, I arrived safely home. Feeling exhausted and stupid, I will meet the bus when it rolls in late tonight so that I can pay back the good, kind MAJ.

My only salvage out of the day was being able to spend an hour in the gym exercising as well as my train knitting…..

Tomorrow I am off to Ypres on a staff ride. Our departure is early, before 0500, and I have to be at the meet up location even earlier than that with a return scheduled in the wee hours of Friday.

I can’t even bear to think about my Friday morning train to Cardiff. Or perhaps I should admit that I am already packed so that I can have a few more minutes of sleep.

Meanwhile, I am taking a couple days break from Faery Ring. Are you familiar with the Starmores’ Tudor Roses? It contains several sweaters, both stranded and not, which I adore. The first which I decided to tackle is Katherine of Aragon. I don’t need another cardigan and a tunic with fringe is beyond me. Something about “if you wore it that style when it went by the first time you have more sense than to do it again.” There is also the slight matter of not wanting something big enough for two of me.

Having a charting program is rather nice. I took a number of the separate patterns and recombined them till I had a look that I liked. Since I also like symmetrical, I took the time to mirror all the elements on either side of the center panel.

rechartng

The yarn is Kauni – I have a cone in shades of blue and a large skein in cream/tan/rose. Are you surprised that I am knitting something that does not contain red, black, or grey?

The ribbing was knit on a 3.00 mm needle (or maybe it was 2.75?) several months ago before being set aside in favor of other projects. I went up to a 3.75-4.00 for the body since I wanted a light weight sweater with a gauge of 24/10 cm. I like the look and drape of the fabric. I am alright with the first set of colors, but will have to see how they develop. I am at the lightest part of the blue while the tan is getting steadily darker prior to becoming rose

23 rows of pattern

There are 36 rows in the repeat for the center panel, 18 for the small divider panels, 36 for one of the side panels and 54 for another. I just figured out that I need to expand my chart or the second 36 rows are going to be interesting….

I was going to take a simple scarf for bus knitting tomorrow but have revised my thoughts and will drag along Pyramide. It would be so nice to get at least the first sleeve finished.

As you probably guessed, I have been in a bit of a funk. I have been listening to audio books, accomplishing some knitting and spinning, and grinding through things at work.

Not a bit of thrill in the whole mess.

Ms Soprano is home and I am delighting in spending time with just her. We are hanging out (probably spending too much time on computers), going to the gym regularly and actually eating planned meals.

Half written blog posts have been stacking up. Weeks worth of photos needing to be downloaded, resized and otherwise integrated into what I am doing.

So, some spinning…..

two bobbins

while listening to audio books from iTunes (they had a good deal on some SciFi series).

Not knitting but thought that all of you might appreciate the following news story:

Background: The most famous of the military retirement homes in the UK is the Chelsea Hospital. Built under the direction of Charles II with a design by Sir Christopher Wren, it opened in 1692. The name “hospital” is a bit of a misnomer, it is rather a live in club with activities and a uniform.

On 10 July 2009, the first two women, ages 85 and 82, were admitted to the facility. One served in the second WW as Field Artilery in the defence of London, the other as a nurse from 1948 onwards.

Links are here and here.

It only took 317 years. Gives me some hope that it will not take quite as long in the US…..

So where, you might be thinking, is the rest of the stash?  It is tucked in here.

organiized. Finally.

Seriously, this closet contains the total and complete UK stash not including WIPs and the sock yarn. I have a sweater envelope with the handspun, two bins of lace yarns, the large box is Kauni, a bag of Smart, Drops and Dale, and the rest of various yarns. I could knit at top speed between now and when I leave the UK and not use it all up. There is definitely some which will find a new home rather than be transported back.

Last evening saw (heard?) the first annual RAMC (V) Band Concert. The members are all in the Territorial Army which makes them Volunteers who more than likely put in much more time than they ever will recover in either drill credit or pay. From Marches through Overtures, Regimental Songs and a Fairy Tale, it was a great program. I only regret a few more people didn’t get themselves out for the program. Did I mention that it was free? Or that I was not organized enough to bring along my camera?

The gym is closed on Sunday, so I substituted some spinning wheel treadling -

singles

two ply

but have no clue as to what it will eventually become.

I don’ think that I mentioned cleaning, organizing and moving the furniture in my bedroom. Or maybe I did, with apologies for my lousy memory. As part of the straightening, Ms Soprano and I moved all of the fiber related stuff (from there and the living room and the back office) up to the top floor.

After a couple of days of getting my strength back (plus putting the DH on a plane this morning back to Germany) it seemed time to tackle the disorder with detours out to get running shoes for the daughter and an exercise hour at the gym.

George had purchased this wonderful huge basket for me several years ago at a German craft fair. It is lined which makes it safe for yarn. Rather than dribs and drabs of this and that – I decided to load in all the sock yarn.

just a few skeins and balls

Did I mention that he is 61 today and we took him out for dinner last night? That I still need to find him a present? There are always the usual fall backs: books, music, luggage…. Knitted things are rarely an option: he either tucks them away or runs them through the washer and dryer which does not do much good to a handspun, hand knit vest.

Since he is on his way back to Germany, I rewarded myself with a trip to the gym and a bit of spinning – with fiber from LimeGreenJelly

BFL

Shetland is so much fun. I like the length of the locks, I like the color (might it be because I am getting more than a bit grey myself?) and I really prefer combing to carding as fiber preparation especially since my spinning preference is semi-worsted. Admittedly, it does mean a lot of waste. OTOH, I have few lumps, bumps or short fibers and trash sticking up here and there.

a bit wavy....

Now, if I only had a pair of heavy rollers to smash all remaining veggie matter I would be a completely happy camper. It is probably not worth finding the wringer portion of an old washer, but it is definitely a thought…..

On other fronts, we hauled the dog into the vet on Wednesday. She started limping and it had become progressively worse over the last several days. Turns out to be most likely significant arthritis in that hip and she is now on an anti-inflammatory. Being a retriever, she has little taste in what she wolfs down so putting liquid on top of her dog food is not an issue. It is inhaled so rapidly that I don’t think she even noticed.

Meanwhile, it means that neither the daughter or the dog get to take long walks. End result is that Ms Soprano and I hauled ourselves to the gym yesterday at lunch for the induction. To a total cost of 5 Pounds Sterling for the year (insurance) we are now allowed to use the post gym. Open Mon-Sat, we have made the commitment to go everyday it is open. I badly need to get back in shape and exercise is always good for increasing one’s lung capacity…..

I spent a bit more time pying and now have almost a full bobbin on the dutch wheel of the grey shetland. It takes forever to ply on this wheel since it seems to have perhaps the lowest ratios in existence. OTOH, there is a lot to be said for a bobbin that holds over 250 gm of 2 ply with room to spare.

If I wasn’t taking advantage of my new USB tape player to create MP3 files from audio cassettes, I would go totally bonkers.

2 ply grey

On a roll, I finished spinning and started plying this white wool that has been hanging around forever. Someone gave it to me last year. To say that it was not high quality is being kind with the wastage on combing more that 50% due to second cuts and fractured locks.

white singles

So I will see what it looks like when plyed. I can always use a bit of white for something.

The grey shetland? There is this sweater in the Meg Swanson book called Faero…..

finally managed to get these babies in the mail. The UK Spinners (on Ravelry) have an ongoing, rolling swap. I had claimed a lovely braid of hand dyed in soft russets and browns (fall project in mind) and it was my turn to figure out what I had that was swap worthy (and could exit the stash without too much pain). Looking through, there was about 22 oz of hand dyed Cotswold locks in my stash. Just go and look at those wonderful faces and all those long locks. No wonder a lot of their fleece goes for crafts, dolls hair and the like. These are long locks.

anyway, I finally got to Royal Mail today and sent the package off to a wonderful fiber person Swansea.

Now I just have to keep my greediness to myself and not go after anything else…….

and, in the mail yesterday, I found this wonderful kit.

the kit

Admittedly, it is not a color I would normally pick out. But it fills me with fall sunshine and a pattern that is worth knitting.

the yarn

I vary on whether or not I like SOM clubs. Sometimes yes, other times not. I no longer feel obligated to knit anything that does not appeal. Kits do make such wonderful presents for other knitters that I might well keep signed up for a couple considering.

And sometimes a ray of brightness just plain cheers me up.

Now, isn’t this better? Taking pictures in the daylight is an improvement and shows off the cable work a bit better.

bodice started

admittedly, it is taking longer to knit a row that I thought, even with the huge – for me – needles since there is cabling in every right sided rown and purling back is just not my favorite in the whole world.

Looking at other member’s progress on Ravelry, I don’t think I will be either the first or the last to finish up this project.

Today is the official start of the Faery Ring KAL.  I started it middle of last month. After all, there was the issue of a gauge swatch.

Why not start with a cable? And then pick up stitches along the one side to knit toward the bodice meanwhile seeing if my gauge matched that on the yarn label. Since it did, it seemed more than reasonable to continue on, adjusting down a bit the number of stitches all around to go down a bit in size.

This first pix shows a bit of the cable, but most importantly shows the denim color pretty closely.

lower border

Progress – just into the cable patterning on the bodice (or cable with lower stockineette = about 15″)

upside down...but

now I just have to convince the printer that I need just one more page out of this cartridge or continue to knit in front of the computer screen……