Blankie Status: 3

Blanket: Unfinished

Katie: Still pregnant. Barely.  I’m pretty damned sure I’m going to be robbed of some expected knitting time. I’m pretty sure this thrills Kate. I am trying to be supportive.

Number of stitches on the needle: Approximately 500. I’m honestly afraid to count. I don’t know if I can take a really accurate countdown right now.

blankieedging 2015-06-29

Number of skeins so far: 7 and about a third. (So much for whatever wild dream I had about this blanket being smaller than the others. I’m not sure how it happened either – I really did try to make this one smaller. I swear it.)

Number of skeins remaining:  A not quite as comforting 2 2/3.  I feel a little sweaty, though my math tells me it should be just fine. That said, I’m trying to not to think about what my math skills are like in general, and when it comes to blankets in specific.  It gives me a horrible cramp.

Number of foul words I’m using right about now: I am running out.

Number of repeats of the edging I’ve knit: 24.5 of about 60.  I knit the first 10 in two days, then bashed out the second 10 yesterday in a massive sprint, and I’ve somehow managed 4.5 today. I’m trying hard not to give into the urge to cancelling commitments like meetings, work, training rides (although I did do a rather spectacularly hard 130km one on Friday, which is totally what’s best for the ride, and cost me a whole day of knitting time) and sleeping and eating.  This weekend I have to do my “back to backs” which is two rides, both over 100km, done on consecutive days.  I keep hoping there will be a small flood or tornado so I can knit instead, but realistically – I think I need this done by then. The whole thing is giving me the willies.

What I muttered to Joe yesterday when (while I was taking a short break) he said “Hey, get back at it, that blanket’s not going to knit itself.”: I won’t repeat it here. He’s adopted a more supportive posture.

Attitude of knitter: Slightly desperate.

Status of Bike Rally Prep: Rough. I’m not yet at my fundraising goal (public, or private) but I’m still working on it, and thank you, thank you, thank you for all your help so far. I’d be beyond sunk without you. You’re amazing, and I’m so grateful it makes me a little bit weepy.  The donations are still trickling in, and on Friday when I did that 130km ride, and there was wind and it was hot, and I was trying to ride with fast people (I remain about as fast as you’d expect a slightly dumpy 47 year old knitter to be) at one of the little breaks we took, instead of weeping in the bathroom,  I took some advice Pato gave me. He’s got his phone set up so that when he gets a donation from one of you, his phone dings. I’ve done the same now, and I’m here to tell you, that little “ding” as you’re trying to climb a hill and your legs are burning – that ding makes it all okay. It’s easy to forget what’s really happening, and that little sound puts the focus right back where it should be. I heard it, and remembered exactly what I was doing it for.   I’m so grateful.

Let’s do presents before I go knit again, okay?

Lauren Sarah has a very pretty pattern to give away, one copy each of her lovely Sea Dragons and Cockle Shells (a very nice one-skein project) that she’ll be sending off to Jane M, and Louise D.

dragonsandcockleshells 2015-06-29

Sarah House is a potter (and a knitter) and she’s donating the mug of Anne K’s choice to the greater good.  She does beautiful work.

Sarahmug 2015-06-29

Big thanks to Cedar Hill Farm Company, who’d releasing 2 hanks of of  Calliope, one in Pink Seahorse and one in French Lilac in to the wild.  Well, not really the wild, I hope Amanda L makes good use of it. (It’s silk noil.  Lovely stuff.)

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Mindy Wilkes would like five helpers to have the pattern of their choice from her shop.  She has so many pretty things to choose from I know that Liz R, Janice M, Susan M, Amanda B and Nora H  will all find something they love.

mwdesigns 2015-06-29

Ruth is a lovely, lovely spinner and she’s parting with this beautiful skein of her very own handspun BFL.  It’s about 490 yards, she says (and over 5oz) and so  Laura G will be able to make something really great. Thanks Ruth!

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Melissa, from the Prairie Dye Studio, makes gorgeous snag-free stitch markers, and she’s written to say that four lucky knitters will choose their favourites from her shop.  The lucky helpers are Julie S, Emily W, Michelle C and Amy M.

priairemarkers 2015-06-29

Almost at the end (the blanket beckons) how about two little gifts for the spinners? Akerworks makes some very nifty things for spinners, including a bobbin for your wheel that packs flat – which now that I think of it, is darned handy.  I hope that  Kelly Y   agrees, because the bobbin of her choice will be on it’s way to her.

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They also make a drop spindle that’s pretty nifty.  It comes together in parts, and you can add more whorls to make it heavier, which is handy, to say the least, but also – the whorl can be removed – even while you’ve got yarn on there, which, as a travelling spinner, I have to say is also pretty wild.  I hope that  Lisa K chooses a beautiful one.

spindleflat 2015-06-29

Whew! That’s it for today – though I think I’m going to have to pick up the pace on these to get all the way through them before the Rally. (That’s just less than four weeks away. Not that I’m counting every minute.)  Thanks so much for everything. I’ve got to knit an edging now. That baby is in a hurry.

Status 2: Blankie

Status: Unfinished

Katie: Still Pregnant, and hopefully fixing to stay that way.

Number of stitches on the needle: Approximately 850. I’m not counting those wee bastards again.

Number of skeins so far: 5 and 3/4

Number of skeins remaining: A rather comforting 4 and a quarter.

Number of rounds to knit before I start the edging: Zero! I actually should have started the edging last night, but suffered a crisis of faith in the edging I chose, and had to pick another. The one I really liked was worked close, that means that there’s lace patterning every row, and I started it, realized that it took all of my focus to do it, and was really, really slow, and imagined my future, and got promptly off the one way trip to crazyville.  I chose another, but it was charted in the wrong direction, so I spend some time figuring out how to photograph the chart, flip it in my photo software, convert it into a pdf, and get it into my ipad where I can use it.

Number of foul words used while figuring that out: Approximately 346.

Number of repeats I have to work to edge the blanket: About sixty – plus whatever fancypants manoeuvre I’ll figure out to get round the corners. (I’ll have it figured by the time I get there, I think.)

Attitude of knitter: Less excellent, but I think I can fake it. (Would someone please go to the beer store?)

Surprise, No Surprise

No Surprise: Thanks so much for the tremendous amount of experience, advice and support for the trouble with my foot.  I appreciate the advice to: listen to the doctor, ignore the doctor, see a PT, see a chiropractor, put ice on it, screw ice and put heat on it, stretch it, keep it still, rest, exercise, take supplements, take arnica, take anti-inflammitories, avoid anti-inflammitories like the plague, and get or don’t get a brace. I read them all, I’m grateful for them all, and it should surprise you not one little bit that I’m going to go with the advice of the doctor who has actually examined the foot in question. Partly because the foot was in his presence (and that has to be a help in diagnosis) and partly because it feels right, sounds right, and appears to be helping.  I’ve got a huge advantage over you guys in that it’s my foot, and that makes it easier to tell what to do.

Surprise: While walking continues to be absolutely craptastic for my poor foot (and I am avoiding it, following the “don’t do it if it hurts” rule) I was shocked to discover that riding my road bike is almost fine. A more experienced rider said that he thought it was because the cycling shoes are tight enough to add support, and maybe he’s right, because my foot feels so good in the shoes that when I put them on, I thought about wearing them all day.

Surprise: I rode 116km on Saturday (that’s almost 73 miles, for my American friends who are as good at Kilometres as I am at miles) and it wasn’t awful.  I was tired afterwards, and I made liberal use of my E-Tomic balm that evening, I won’t pretend I didn’t, but I was surprisingly not too sore or stiff the next day, which bodes pretty well for the Rally, except for the part where I have to be fine with that for six days in a row. I’m trying not to think about that part, and really, it’s not my foot, but my arse that’s worried.

No Surprise:  On Friday night, rushing to make some real progress on the baby blanket, I re-proved a law I’ve been spouting for years, which is that more experienced knitters don’t make fewer mistakes. We make larger ones faster – which is exactly what happened when I decided to convert trinity stitch into the round without giving it enough thought.  I pulled the stitch pattern up out of my brain, thought about how it alternated active rows with purl rows, decided quickly that the purl rows were the wrong side rows, when you work it flat, and replaced them with knit rounds to work it in the round. Easy. I might even have chortled a little.   This chortling was replaced with despair about FIVE six-hundred plus rows later, when I realized that this simple “fix” had indeed broken the stitch pattern.

backwardstrinity 2015-06-22

Yup. My quick and easy solution was so quick and easy that I didn’t realize it would face the little trinity bobbles the wrong way.  The whole stitch pattern was reversed, because (dammit) those purl rows I replaced were actually right side rows. Not wrong side rows. It took me more than an hour to fix it, and at the end of the night I was further behind than I’d been at the beginning of the evening.

forwardswardstrinity 2015-06-22

I’ve fixed it up now, realizing what has to happen (those purl rounds need to stay, it’s the active rows that need to be altered) and I’ve got the whole thing working again.  I’m almost ready to move to the next pattern – or maybe the edging. I’m going to see where the spirit of the blanket moves me at the end of this section. There’s one more thing I’d like to add in, and I don’t think we’re approaching bedspread size yet.

No Surprise: There was no time over the weekend to get the Karmic Balancing gifts up, unless I took a pass on Father’s Day, which seemed like a super bad idea. Let’s do it now, shall we? Everybody remember the rules of the game? You help with the rally, any way you can.  You can donate to anyone on Team Knit:

Me

Jen

Ken

Pato

Or if donating isn’t in the cards for you, you can tweet, link, tell a friend, send an email… anything you can do to help is amazing. After you help, you send me an email to stephanieATyarnharlotDOTca (not the .ca NOT .com) with the subject line “I helped” and  your name, address and whether or not you spin, then every so often, I re-allocate great knitter and spinner stuff, drawing from amongst those emails.  The four of us appreciate this help more than we can tell you. (For more info on what we’re doing and why, if you’re a little late to the party, read this.)

First up, great gifts from Denise at Neese’s Pieces.  She’s got a whole group of beautiful little quilted bags that she made with her own two little hands – and inside each one is a co-ordinating set of stitch markers – also made by her, right down to the lampwork beads.

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Aren’t they lovely? I hope that Sherry M, Dawn H, Lisa B, Debra T, Margaret C and Christina D all love them.  Thanks Denise!

Riki has two presents, both lovely.  First is two 200gm cones of pure Thai silk (Riki lives in Thailand)  either lace or fingering weight, in the colour of  Carolyn Sue J’s choice.

Thaisilk 2015-06-22

Then there’s this bit of amazing, 500 gms of local (to her)  mercerized cotton, about DK weight …

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and Brooke M  will choose the colour for that too!

 

Next up, a different sort of gift, but perfect for this. Who can appreciate something hand made better than a knitter?

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Lauren writes: “I used to own a yoga studio, and we had these quilted hangings decorating the studio walls. When we closed I sold some and gave some away, but they have soaked up their share of good karma over the years. They are made from recycled cotton saris, different on each side, made by Indian woman employed by the fair-trade folks at Asha Imports.”  I hope that Lisa D loves it completely.

Lauren also has this beautiful laceweight to pass along. (She’s feeling generous today, I can tell. Isn’t she nice?)

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2 skeins Claudia Handpainted Laceweight, 100% Silk about 1100 yards/appx. 100 grams, Pink colorway: Lipstick, Blue colorway: Antique Jeans. They’re both headed to live with Jeanette W.

Next, Tanja Lüscher went nuts.  She’s got 10 copies of her Stories of Inspiration Ebooks. The ebook contains 7 beautiful shawl patterns. She’ll be sending those to: Mikayla M, Shellie S, Amanda H, Kat K, Leslie C, Martha M, Cindy C, Laura C, Erin D and Lori B.
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She’s also got 2 free patterns for anything in her Ravelry Shop (except for Daddy’s Prayer Shawl) for ten other knitters, and those are: Kate G, Mary Kay C, Kimi W, Anne W. Laura R, Christine L, Athena D, Cathy W, Rosane M and Elaine T.

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Finally, last but not at all least, Katie Weston is here to make some spinner very happy.  She’s offering a 6 month subscription to her Time Travellers Fibre Club – the 100g option!
timetravellerclub 2015-06-22

This picture is “Tudor Dress” and it’s from a previous month.  Isn’t it lovely?  I sure hope that Jennifer K thinks so.

Whew! That’s 31 gifts, and I’ve emailed all the lucky knitters. This one is going to go put her foot up and knit the heck out of a blankie.

The Game is A Foot

Ah, knitters. Here I sit, with an ice pack on my foot, thinking about how I’ve always said that I thought I would sort of enjoy a minor injury that necessitated sitting around, resting and knitting.  It turns out that while I was sort of right, and I do like being admonished to sit and knit, I should have been a little more specific about the timing.  My foot started to hurt last week after a ride, and then over the course of the retreat became really sore.  I was successfully ignoring it (despite the rather embarrassing limp) so lovely was the company and the work, that I only realized how much it was bothering me on the flight home, when there was no vegetarian meals left on the flight, I’d seen all the movies, and the light over my seat wouldn’t work … and I burst into tears – right there on the plane.  Neither of those things are exactly worth a breakdown, and I’m really, really not the crying in public type, and it was then that I I realized that the foot was really wearing me down.   I saw a Doctor yesterday, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that it’s a simple case of tendinitis, probably caused by some overuse, and it will get better.  The bad news is that the treatment is ice, elevation, some anti-inflammatories, and rest. Rest isn’t exactly easy to come by – five weeks out from the rally like we are, and I’m not really the “rest” type anyway.   As crazy as it’s making me, I’ve honoured my foot’s rather ill timed request for a rest yesterday and today – but tomorrow I have a 114km ride that I just can’t miss.  We’ll see how it goes.  I can bail if it’s really hurting, and live to fight another day.  I’m hoping that really, really taking it easy in between rides will mean that the riding isn’t too much of an insult – but in any case, it’s not a life (or rally) threatening thing – just really, really freakin’ annoying.

On the other hand, the good news about being asked to sit and knit a little is that it gives me a running shot at beating the little person inside my Sister-in-law Katie to the finish line.

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I think it’s pretty clear that I don’t have much time left.  Only that kid knows how much time I have for sure, but right now, every time I look at her, something in me screams KNIT. KNIT NOW.  So I am.

intheround 2015-06-19

I’ve got all the stitches picked up around their blanket, and I’m about six (really long) rows into the border.  Tonight is for knitting with my little ice pack, and we’ll see how much progress can be made.  (KNIT. KNIT NOW.)

If I can’t make good headway on the riding part of the Rally, I can at least do my part with the Karmic Balancing gifts – so stand by to see those up on the blog over the weekend. Right this minute, I’m going to KNIT NOW.

A woman on the edge

Today I’m travelling, all the way from one side of the continent to the other.  I left Port Ludlow at 8:50 this morning, and I’ll arrive home tonight at about 2am – and the only good thing about how long it takes to get from one side of this continent to the other is the knitting time. I’ve been working on the blanket off and on while I’ve been here, and while it’s slow going when I’m working long days, I’m still within a row or two of being finished the centre section.  This morning, after I had coffee and organized my life into a suitcase, I actually realized this, and managed to get myself really well sorted for the day ahead.

First, I really cleverly took the circular needle I’ll need for the border out of my suitcase and put it in my carry on.  (Rather proud of that moment, since the blankie has been on straight needles until now, and that rather important realization could have easily come somewhere far, far up in the air, when I clued in that I had hours of knitting time and no needles. Two points for me.)  Then I remembered that I should really block at at least a corner of the blanket – so that I have a decent shot at figuring out how many stitches to pick up on the sides of this.  I put down a towel, laid a corner of the blanket down on it, and placed a wet washcloth over that.

notblockedyet 2015-06-17

I touched a hot iron to that washcloth, holding it in place to generate steam that would get driven down through the wool.  I was careful not to apply pressure.  I want the steam, not to press the fabric beneath.  (Squashed knitting is usually not pretty.) I lifted the iron and cloth, spread the fabric a little more, then hit it again with the steam.

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It’s not a perfect system, but not a bad way to get a quick and dirty idea of what I’ll have when I properly block the knitting.

blocked 2015-06-17

Now, all I need to do is knit the stitches on the straight needle onto the circular, then do a quick bit of math to figure out how many stitches to pick up along the sides.  I’ve never been happy with the standard advice as a regular rule. I’ve long been told that I should pick up 3 stitches for every 4 rows on straight edges (or 4/5, or 2/3, depending on who’s telling me) but the truth is that when we’re told that, it’s a generalization to avoid you coming up with a “custom” number when you’re knitting a pattern – one that won’t work with the numbers the designer had,  or because it would take to long to explain the rule that’s based on your individual gauge.  I know the rule though, and it isn’t even hard – so that’s what I’ll use.

Stitch gauge over Row gauge,  then reduced = the ratio you use for picking up.

blockedmeasure 2015-06-17

In this case my blocked stitch gauge is about 7 stitches per inch, and my row gauge is 9 stitches per inch.   I can’t reduce that, so I’ll just use it.  7/9 means that for every 9 rows, I’ll pick up 7 stitches.  (That’s pick up one in each of three rows, skip a row, pick up four, skip one.)

I’ll do that along the side, then unpick my provisional cast on at the bottom (that’s the blue yarn) and then pick up and knit stitches along the other side. Then I’ll be in the round, and ready to start the border. I’ll also probably also be home.

I’m pretty excited about both.

Postcard from over the edge

The last knitters have gone, and Debbi and I are tidying up, paying the bills, having meetings – going to debriefings, and essentially weaving in the ends on our retreat. I’ll have a little more time tomorrow, as I make my way home, all the way from one side of the continent to another, but for today, a few snapshots. It was a lovely, lovely time.

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Like it’s your birthday

I have a little policy.  I don’t work on my birthday.  I’ve had this deeply personal policy since I was about 14 – much to my Mother’s chagrin, because it meant that I skipped school that day.  Just didn’t go. I did whatever I wanted to instead of science or history.   I’ve explained this at job interviews, I’ve blown off tests – I don’t work on my birthday, and I felt strongly enough that I’ve prearranged that, and I haven’t. If it was optional on my birthday, I haven’t done it unless I wanted to.

portludlow 2015-06-14

This policy has brought me a lot of happiness. It’s not that I think that birthdays are all that, and I’ve never particularly wanted a screamingly huge party, or a thousand presents, or anything like that – but I do like the idea of a day where everyone (including you) are just happy you’re here, and everything goes your way, if it can.  Your favourite breakfast, your favourite things to do, your favourite people around you.  It’s my idea of lovely, and I’ve always arranged to have just that on my own Birthday – until today.

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This year is the first time in all my 47 birthdays, that I am working on this day. I admit to trying to have a bit of a pout about it when it was first arranged, but it was me arranging it, so I couldn’t really get too bent.  There was no other weekend that it was possible to have this retreat, and so I put on my grown-up pants (what the hell, I’m turning 47) and I did it.  It’s just one day, I said. It doesn’t matter. (I was lying a little bit.)

Last night though, I was sitting with Judith and Debbi, and we were having a glass of wine after a beautiful day – I mean, a really beautiful day.  I don’t know what’s going on with the retreat this time, but everyone here is so lovely, and the weather is perfect, and the vibe is fantastic, and I realized that if I thought about it right, this is almost exactly where I want to be.

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Sure – would I rather be with my family, yes.  I love them, and let me tell you, I’ve been waiting months to hear Luis sing me “Feliz Compleanos.” Joe would make (or arrange, to be more realistic) my favourite foods, I’d sit in the garden and knit – it would be a pretty spectacular day. This though – being here, and doing this work instead? It’s suddenly filled me with a pretty overwhelming and slightly mushy sense of gratitude.

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Yeah, I’m going to work a 12 hour day on my birthday – but oh man.  I’m so lucky that this is my work. I’ll be surrounded by people who have set aside a whole weekend to learn to make things, and celebrate being someone who makes things, and the whole day we’ll talk about knitting, and how it works and every person here, every one of them, thinks that’s not stupid. They’ll spin and weave and paint and stitch and knit and ….

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It’s not what I would have chosen, and last night, I realized that was too bad.  I’m glad I didn’t get to pick, because this IS a day I’ll spend doing so many of my favourite things after all, and I think it’s going to be an awesome day.

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Make way for the makers, and Happy Birthday to me.

(PS. Thank you all for the good wishes. All I really want for my birthday is to spread the love around.  If you’re so compelled, I’d love to make my goal for the bike rally. A donation would be a great gift. )

Up in the air

Dear Person who saw me this morning with my knitting in the airport, and said that thing.

flighttime 2015-06-11

I’d like to take a moment to apologize to you for the way I looked at you when you said what you did, like you were stunned as a bat.  I know it was probably a moment of weaker reasoning on your part, but really, I’d like you to think through what the H-E-double hockey sticks came out of your mouth.  You looked right at my knitting, waved an incredulous hand at it,  and then you said “Did they let you through security with that?”

I know, I know. That’s the moment that I stared at you that way, and it really wasn’t super polite, but I was busy shoving down what I wanted to say to you, and it was really taking quite a lot of concentration to do it. Now that we’re not face to face though? Let’s unpack it.

Did they let me through security with that? Did they? Let’s think about that.  You’ve asked a polar question. One with only two answers. Yes, and no,  and since I am sitting there, with knitting needles, after security, we can presume, can we not, that the answer was affirmative? That yes, the ladies and gentlemen with the full body scanner, the X-rays, the trace detectors, the bomb dogs… the same people who made me take off my shoes and little cardigan, and then had me lift up my feet so they could check the soles of my feet and patted over the bodies of about a million people so far today, let’s assume that those people did not overlook my knitting. They made the guy in front of me take of his fitbit and then take another run through the body scanner, and they ripped up the bag of another lady in line because she had a tiny bottle of hand lotion in it that she’d forgotten, so yeah. Let’s assume these super vigilant people who are responsible for the safety of a whole lot of people didn’t just take a look at my knitting on the X-ray and think “What the hell. I just don’t care.” Let’s actually assume that they have a policy, which they do, and that they are careful, which they are, and that they allow knitting, which CLEARLY, since I re-iterate, I am past security and still have my knitting (which cannot be said of the hand lotion)  they do, and it’s YES. I was allowed through security with THAT.

Furthermore, let’s discuss the other choice, shall we? The other possibility – the one that you seem to be leaning towards, with your arching eyebrow and judgmental tone, is that I have somehow run a very fancy scam on Airline security, and NO – I was not allowed past security with my knitting, but I have somehow managed to do it anyway.

What would that look like? Instead of coming through security just like everyone else in this airport, I had to come up with an extremely complicated plan. This morning, before I left home, I positioned the needles on my person and then when I passed through the x-ray machine I told them it was a steel plate I have from the war. When they looked suspicious and snapped their latex gloves, I ran. I bolted past the desk, deliberately abandoning my things in the search machine (having strategically removed all identifying materials ahead of time), and streaked through the airport, hiding briefly in a Starbucks to elude them. When I saw them pass, I used the door codes I’d stolen from a pilot I shagged last week to open the gates, and slunk through the back corridors of the airport, stepping in every puddle I could find to avoid leaving a scent for the tracking dogs. I backtracked, made only left turns, and briefly rappelled until I made it all the way back to my original gate where I used a counterfeit German passport to sneak through the locked door. Now, I’m sitting here, knitting, and celebrating the fact that, even though I have certainly secured myself at least fifteen years in federal prison, if not a violent shooting death any freakin’ minute – I have at long last met my goal of sneaking needles past security so that I can at long last knit in an airport and NO. THEY DID NOT LET ME PAST SECURITY WITH THAT.

Seriously. Now that you’re thinking, do you see my point?

Cheers, and sorry for the staring

Stephanie

 

Randomly on a Tuesday

1. My computer is fixed.  Turned out to be something that was covered by an extended warranty, so even though my computer is geriatric (in a modern electronic sense, which is to say that these things apparently have a lifespan just slightly shorter than that of a of a healthy gerbil) it was free.

2. Our home internet pretty much stopped working reliably the day after that. Luckily, we’ve called the company and they’ve assured us that it actually is working, we just can’t tell.

3. The baby blanket is still boring, but I estimate I’m a good 5cm past the halfway part of the centre section. I didn’t take a picture.  It looks pretty much the same.

4. I decided to block some stuff, because I’ve recently finished tons of things (well – three) and didn’t blog them at all – so I set up blocking stuff in the dining room, and went to power though it all.

5. First up was this Phi for You. I finished it – I don’t know when – early April I think.  Ever since then it’s been sitting on my dresser upstairs for weeks waiting for me to have the chance to block it. It’s a fun little pattern (I’m not a member of Laura’s M Club, but since I made the introductions to CaterpillarGreen yarns for her – she was good enough to send me a kit. I think that was very nice) but I wanted to block it with flexible wires to make the edge really swoopy, so I knew it would be fiddly and I kept waiting.

6. The other morning I took the time to soak it, and then squeezed the water out, and then stood there for about 40 minutes threading wire through every, single, stitch, on the edge of the shawl. With that done, I could put one pin into every element of the edge, and have it be wavy rather than pointy.  (Because someone will ask, my flexible blocking wires are from Inspinknity, and are this set.)

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7. I pinned out the wire around the neck first, then with that secured, I spread the shawl gently with my hands, and started pinning. One at the centre, one at each end.

wirededge 2015-06-09

One at the 1/4 way mark, 1 at 3/4, then back and forth, pinning them on each side until suddenly, as I hooked the wire with a pin and pulled towards me, the knitting burst.

That’s the only way I can describe it – I was pulling, and there was resistance, and then something gave, and a giant hole appeared, and my heart skipped four beats, and I looked down, and saw what can only be described as a blowout.

grabbedstitches 2015-06-09

boomgoesthestitch 2015-06-09

8. I stabbed some pins in to hold the two stitches that were bounding away. (Since the piece is under tension, they really wanted to keep going.) It looks to me like at some point I dropped a stitch, while missing knitting a yarnover. I don’t really understand what happened since there’s no broken thread- but later today I’ll do a little repair job, and I bet it will be clear then. (I’ll take pictures.) The whole thing is going to be lovely when I get it fixed.

wholethingwait 2015-06-09

9. I really wish I still had some of that yarn.

10. I’m sure there is another answer.

11. Karmic Balancing gifts? Let’s do some. A few notes to the generous souls who’ve sent me emails about gifts – there are a lot of you.  I’m working my way from the bottom to the top in roughly chronological order.  I’ll email you the day I’m going to give your gift away (or sometimes the day before) and let you know it’s the time.  If you haven’t heard from me, it just means that I’m not at your spot in the list yet.  Don’t panic early, I’m working on it!

12. A thousand thanks to those of you who have helped with this years mission.  If you missed it, you can read this post to see what’s happening, but the basic  upshot is this: Jen, Ken, Pato and I are riding our bikes from Toronto to Montreal (that’s about 660km – or 410 miles if that’s how you measure) in the Friends for Life Bike Rally, which is the sustaining fundraiser for the the People With Aids Foundation.  There’s lots of ways to help, and we really, really appreciate it. You can make a donation to one of us here:

Ken

Pato

Jen

Me

We’re “Team Knit”. Or that’s what we call ourselves in the text message group we have set up to keep ourselves organized.

convo 2015-06-09

We’re all knitters, and we understand that many small things can add up to a magnificent thing, so don’t worry about the size of your gift – it’s making it that counts.  If you don’t happen to have money but you would still like to help – there’s other things you can do to make a difference.  You can tell your family and friends who do have money, and send them the links. You can post the link that explains all this on social media, and help spread the word… there’s many things. Any thing you can do makes us grateful, and no matter how you help, make sure and send an email to me at stephanieATyarnharlotDOTca (replacing the words with the obvious things) with the subject line “I helped”. (That makes it go in the right folder.) That way, when I choose names for the gifts, you’ll be in there. One good deed deserves another.  Time for gifts!

Jane has two beautiful gifts. First, two very pretty skeins  of Fleece Artist Woolie Silk 3-ply in Walnut will be going to live with Rosalyn F.

fleeceartistjane 2015-06-09

Then Alicia R will have two skeins of Natural Dye Studio Scheherezade 4-ply in Exford, (65% silk/35% camel, fingering weight, 437 yards per skein) arrive straight to her door.

naturalstudiodyejane 2015-06-09

Nicole has decided she can part with not just one, but two sweater quantities of yarn. (Isn’t she lovely?) This tremendously awesome set of 8 skeins of Berroco Flicker will be on it’s merry way to Sharon L

berroccoflicker 2015-06-09

And these seventeen (that’s right) skeins of Dale of Norway Heilo sport weight are on their way to Terri P.

daleblue 2015-06-09

Wendy did a little tidying, and she has two gifts off to greener pastures. These two skeins of Lambs pride in Onyx are for Azar M

lambspride 2015-06-09

and these two 3-oz. skeins of Lion Brand Nature’s Choice Organic Cotton; one skein Strawberry, one skein Almond are off to Wendy P.

naturechoicecotton 2015-06-09

Psuke has generously obtained Indigodragonfly’s permission to donate her April 2015 SAK Club skein to the cause. Not only that, but Indigodragonfly will also donate the associated patterns to the winner who is the very lovely Rachel M.

indigoclubyarn 2015-06-09

Rosemary, all the way across the pond from me, has a skein of Handarbeitskram sock yarn for Lacey R.  (I have no idea how to pronounce the name of that yarn, but it’s very pretty!)

Handarbeitskram 2015-06-09

Jill has a very beautiful skein of Yarntini yarn (complete with a very cute cocoa mug stitch marker, and she’ll pop that straight in the mail to Stephanie W.

yarntini 2015-06-09

Last, but certainly not least: Longtime friend of the show, and all round good egg, Melanie, over at Black Trillium Fibres has three great presents.

liltgradient 2015-06-09

She’s decided that it’s possible for three knitters to receive a Lilt Sock Gradient, in the colourway of the lucky knitter’s choice.  Elizabeth A, Megan T and Sherry B will all feel great today.

That’s it! I have pizza dough to make because tonight me and the smaller of my nephews are going to take a stab at “firetruck pizza.”  In the past we’ve done tractor shaped pizza, but the winds of change are upon us, and it’s all firetrucks, all the time.  How hard can it be? (Said his auntie, hopefully.)