Bleu de Maine

Thu - January 1, 2009

No, I Did Not Make My Annual New Year's Eve New Piece of Headgear This Year

I did have one all planned--the Pleated Cloche from the Alterknits Felt book that I received for Christmas (thanks, Vic!) but I didn't make it to the yarn store to get yarn for it (I really don't keep much of a stash and yesterday was one of the days that I regretted that). I was going to walk over to downtown, get some milk and stop for yarn but the wind kicked up a little too much and I stayed in. I will be going to Yarns in the Farms tomorrow, however, to find something for it.

I did finish the other front of the Winter Star Jacket and put all of the body pieces together. Normally I would do the neckbands next but I'm a little confused. This sweater has a hem and the finishing instructions don't say whether you turn up the hem before or after you pick up and knit the front/neckband (it's all one piece in this sweater). It looks to me as if the front band is hemmed also but the instructions for picking up the front band doesn't seem to have enough stitches before you start patterning to make that work. Unfortunately, no one else on Ravelry has done this sweater so no help there. I'm sure I can make sense of it if I think about it hard enough but my brain is off until Monday so I think I'll start a sleeve instead.

This is it with half of its front.

I'm also about two inches into the sock though it just had a little cat induced accident --all picked back up and happy again.

It was too cold to really do anything outside today so we went and used up our bookstore gift cards. I finally bought Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks--even if I never knit any of the patterns (and I will) the history and technique parts of her books are valuable enough to justify the purchase.

No new knitting pictures today so I'll leave you with

a polar bear at the Detroit Zoo.

Posted at 05:30 PM

Wed - December 31, 2008

Because I Just Really Wasn't Knitting That Much for Awhile There

Someone pointed out to me recently that my last blog entry had snow in it. Well, it seems we've come full circle now, haven't we!

I really did just stop knitting there for awhile. Since we moved out of the city I've been wanting to spend my time out in my garden, or out in my kayak, or at the beach (I did finish the other tiger sock as my beach knitting this summer) and not inside sitting around. (If I could knit and hike I'd be all set but really, I'm so clumsy that it takes everything I have to just walk without falling down). And then the election really sucked out all of my remaining available brain cells. Thank goodness that all went well in the end.

However, it's winter again (as evidenced by what's falling outside the window again), we've already missed two days of school and the knitting mojo appears to be creeping back. There's a pair of socks on the needles for the first time since Labor Day, two sweaters that are each more than half done on other needles, and a package just came from Peace Fleece with yarn for sweater number three. I know the rest of you are usually searching for the softest merino but some part of me feels like it's not really knitting if it's not scratchy and full of straw. That's probably why I live here on the rockbound coast (none of that sissy sand for me).

So what's on the needles?

I never expected intarsia to be the thing that got me knitting again but this is the project that I sped through. Winter Star Jacket by Di Gilpin from Interweave Knits Winter 2005. The yarn is Elspeth Lavold Silky Wool in blue, gold and gray. This has a back, a front and should have its other front by the end of today. This, and a Librivox download of Willke Collins's The Woman in White and suddenly I was knitting again.

Most of the fall was taken up with this:

That's Wedgette by Norah Gaughan which is a free pattern on Ravelry or the Berrocco website. The lacy skirt is knitted from side to side and then the bodice is picked up from there. (I like to use the word "bodice" when Eli's descriptions of Star Wars become too involved--my lesson that different people have different interests seems to be falling on deaf ears). The pattern is being released in pieces and the sleeve part hasn't been released yet which is fine as I seem to have stalled on the endless stockinette of the back of the bodice. The alpaca is lovely and all but I'm a bit bored with it. Oh sorry, Frog Tree DK Alpaca in grey. I've changed the cap sleeve shaping because after years of trying to stuff these shoulders into fitted sleeves (you'd think I would have learned this the first time around in the late seventies) I've realized it isn't going to happen. So I changed this to a modified dropped sleeve and I won't have to give it away (sorry, Daphne, this one is mine). I know it doesn't look like much tossed on the floor like that but the blocked ones I've seen on Ravelry are lovely. Please go look at someone else's and imagine mine looking just like it but in grey.

I've also started Caroline again with the same sleeve cap modification--that's about half done as well though I'm a little stalled because I haven't figured out how long to make the sleeves before they're felted (I know, swatch, measure swatch, felt swatch, do the math).

Socks? Harry Potter house socks from Charmed Knits in the Griffindor Colorway from Van Calcar Acres. No pictures yet and not enough light to take them today in the blizzard.

Anything else? Not really. It was a mostly uneventful summer. We did go to Canada and Michigan for ten days. This time we drove (last time we took Amtrack as Eli is mad about trains and we knew we weren't all going to fit into one sleeper car much longer) and it was wonderful. Eli made a little backseat nest and read (he is in that little window of time when you are able to read in the car without getting seasick) and when he wasn't reading he listened to his ipod or we listened to Harry Potter on audiodisc. I had forgotten how beautiful upstate NY is--mostly like here but greener and fuller as there are no ocean winds to make life difficult and we saw the Erie Canal and Eli swam in an outdoor heated swimming pool on a chilly night in Seneca Falls and we spent another night in Niagara Falls and did all of the tourist things and then went on to Detroit and saw Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum again and stayed with family and really had a wonderful time. I should have told you about it at the time. Ah well.

Oh look, the snow is coming down diagonally now.

We are supposed to go to the New Year's Eve parade in two hours but I'm not sure that's going to happen.

Oh, I almost forgot the requisite picture of the cats!

And the requisite picture of the child!

This was actually two days ago--it wasn't really that warm but the children thought it was. We had just walked up from the beach, out of the wind so maybe in comparison.

Happy New Year to the two of you who are still reading! Perhaps we'll chat again soon.

Posted at 01:57 PM

Sat - April 5, 2008

This, is finally done

I was knitting frantically to finish this in December because I was visiting the twins but didn't quite make it. (I did wrap it up and give it to the twins mother but took it back again so I could finish.) Then it sat here for three months needing one sleeve sewn in and the buttons sewn on. I finally dug it out today and tomorrow it will finally go to the boys with its friend the Ladybug Sweater.

Fly away, bugs.

Posted at 07:50 PM

Tue - April 1, 2008

It Does Look Like Something

And not cat yak.

It looks good in the sun, n'est ce pas?

Detail:

Swallowtail Shawl
Malabrigo Laceweight, color: Water Green.

I didn't screw it up, it's finished and it may make me go back to Icarus.
It is a little small, even for a scarf, but it may just lie around the house or go to my friend Daphne, the person who gets all of my too small knitting.

Next?
Good question. I'm still working (slowly) on the chicken sweater. I have the yarn to start Caroline again and there's some sock yarn I want to use--I just have to get out the swift and ball winder for those projects. I'd like to start the thrummed mittens again. Did I tell you about the thrummed mitten? I bought pattern, yarn and roving for a pair of thrummed mittens back in January or February when it was wicked cold (snowed yesterday, by the way) and none of my handwear was cutting it. It was Farmhouse Yarns, lavender and yellow (not a usual color choice for me but just beautiful) with plum colored roving and I knit the first one, twisting a 24 inch circular into a magic loop (since I don't knit many socks on a size 9 I don't own a longer one). Also, something happened to this poor needle once (actually two things)--it got sat/stepped on so there's a slight bend in the needle part, and something got spilled on it that corroded the finish somehow (it's an Addi Turbo). So this needle was both bent and sticky and also, too short. Making this mitten was painful--but it was a mitten, with big yarn, on big needles, so honestly, it's just not that many stitches and I put up with it because I wanted the mitten and I didn't want to go back to the yarn store. So finished this mitten, loved this mitten, so warm, beautiful colors, and did I mention thrummed? So cool and I was wearing it everywhere because who really cares if your mittens match, you can always keep one hand in your pocket. I was having dinner with the aforementioned Daphne and I wanted to show it to her so I stuck it in my jacket pocket. Can you see where this is going? I don't know why I didn't wear it. Anyway I got to Daphne's house--no mitten. I went back to my car--no mitten. When I got home--no mitten. Driveway, yard, street, no mitten. So my motivation for knitting the other mitten has been minimal. And the worst thing? I NEVER TOOK A PICTURE OF IT! I bought another skein (some Sheep Shop) and more roving to make some for Eli too but I'm a little bitter about thrummed mittens in general right now. But I digress.

So, I've decided I'm between projects here. It's that time of year.

Posted at 08:17 PM

Sun - March 30, 2008

FCS 3

So I'm still in the "I think I'll surf the internet some more to see what I could buy" phase of the Favorite Color 3 Swap but I've already gotten my package. Thanks Joanna !

It was full of fun stuff--all blue and green and yellow. Hand made stitch markers, and gummy candy (including my favorite gummy peaches. Not that I got many of them since Eli appropriated them early on), handcream, note paper and pads, a book and a tabby cat magnet that didn't make it into the picture since I found it on the table after I took the picture (that's what happens when the eight year old opens the presents).

Here's the yarn:

This is Natrafibers Yummy in turquoise and white and I am carrying it around the house with me because it is so pretty.

There was also this:

Green, green, green Tofutsies. This is just the color I need these days as it snowed here yesterday.

Thanks again, Joanna!

Posted at 07:59 AM

Wed - March 26, 2008

Apparently This Will Look Like Something When It's Blocked?

Other than cat yak I mean.

Speaking of cats . . .

I was wondering where he was.

Look what appeared:

Posted at 05:52 PM

Sun - March 9, 2008

Well, At Least We Got an Extra Hour to Stare at the Frozen Ground

I understand that if you live somewhere warmer it might be nice to stay outside a little longer in the evening but I just don't think daylight saving should start while I still have snow shovels on my porch.

There is hope, however.

Knitting?

A bit. I'm really enjoying the Swallowtail Shawl but it takes a really long time to do all that careful knitting. And about those nupps.

It's getting there. Of course, I left the pattern in Vermont last weekend so it's stalled right now.

I started the Happy Hen Sweater from Lucinda Guy's Handknits for Kids. I'm using Classic Elite Summer Set (cotton/alpaca blend) instead of the specified Rowan wool cotton because I couldn't quite bring myself to knit a $70 sweater for a 2 year old. It was hard finding the colors in another yarn but the Summer Set colors match really well and I like the yarn. The gauge is slightly larger so I cast on about 14 fewer stitches for the back. I also eliminated the side cables. The picture looked to me like there was only the one pink cable up the center and after I carried that mistaken image around for awhile when I saw how it was really supposed to be I decided I liked it better the wrong way.

I love the little cable and garter stitch edging. The back is nearly done.

I started moonflowers today, pruned the autumn clematis, make a peach pie with the last of last summer's peaches, made acorn squash soup with the last of last autumn's squash and made bread (not with the last of last summer's wheat). It was nice to see the sun after all of yesterday's rain and last week's clouds but it's still wicked brisk here.

Posted at 06:23 PM

Mon - February 25, 2008

TS Eliot Lies--It's February

They couldn't add an extra day to April or October?

Posted at 04:29 PM

Sat - February 2, 2008

Blogger's Silent Poetry Reading 3

The Lanyard

The other day I was ricocheting slowly off the blue walls of this room, moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano, from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor, when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist could send one into the past more suddenly— a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp by a deep Adirondack lake learning how to braid long thin plastic strips into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard or wear one, if that’s what you did with them, but that did not keep me from crossing strand over strand again and again until I had made a boxy red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts, and I gave her a lanyard. She nursed me in many a sick room, lifted spoons of medicine to my lips, laid cold face-cloths on my forehead, and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim, and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard. Here are thousands of meals, she said, and here is clothing and a good education. And here is your lanyard, I replied, which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart, strong legs, bones and teeth, and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered, and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp. And here, I wish to say to her now, is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother, but the rueful admission that when she took the two-tone lanyard from my hand, I was as sure as a boy could be that this useless, worthless thing I wove out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

- Billy Collins

Posted at 12:49 PM

Thu - January 3, 2008

And the Winner Is . .

Swallowtail Shawl in Malabrigo Lace, Water Green.

I do like this pattern and this yarn.

Posted at 08:02 PM

Tue - January 1, 2008

New Year, New Headgear

This year's New Year's Eve project was Calorimetry.

There is something obscene about this. What's the feminine version of "phallic"?

I have been knitting a lot, in spite of not writing about it. I've finished: the Ladybug Sweater,

the Car Sweater,

Wonder,

Caroline

and
Kai's Cable Sweater (again)

since last we spoke.

The car sweater just needs to have one sleeve sewn in and then it and the ladybug sweater off to the new twins, Bren and Emory who were born on the last day of November and who we finally met last weekend. It will be awhile until those sweaters fit (apparently Norwegian babies are larger) so no hurry and Jenn, their mom, saw them in their almost finished state. They're both Dale patterns; Ladybug is true to the pattern, Cars is heavily modified--different edging (hem instead of ribbing), different colors, different patterning on the sleeves.

Kai 2 (from Natural Knits) went to someone I work with who is due in about three weeks.

Caroline (from Louet's website) was great fun to knit, not so much to crochet the edging. Euroflax may be lovely but it's like crocheting with garden twine. The sweater was also a fun experiment in felting. I've ordered more yarn to make it again and the original has found a new happy home with my petite friend Daphne. Actually, the problem had more to do with the fact that I have shoulders, and no sweater (or shirt, for that matter) with cap sleeves ever really fits me. The rest of it was fine, but the shoulders were uncomfortable. I'm going to make it again, probably a size larger, and modify the sleeves. The Louet Riverstone is wonderful yarn and this knits up very quickly.

Wonder is from Rowan #40 knit out of Lopi. It was an impulse knit, started in August when I had been working only on Baby Dale sweaters and socks and I wanted to work with bulky wool. Yarns in the Farms had Lopi on sale and the rest is history. It was an awfully fast knit, too, (anything is after a Baby Dale) and I enjoyed it though I think it looks weird on me. I haven't decided whether I'm keeping it yet or not.

Calorimetry was lots of fun to make, I love the yarn (Noro Kochoran in color 10, blues, greys and greens, from last week's sale at Woolcott) and kept me wicked warm last night during the First Night parade.

As always, check JoBleudeMaine on Ravelry for progress pictures.

I'm in the odd position of having nothing on my needles. Socks? Swallowtail Shawl out of some Malabrigo Lace that I also got last week at Woolcott? Roscalie vest from In the Hebrides? I spent the day reading patterns looking at other people's versions of those patterns on Ravelry, and sorting out all the needles that needed to go away after all the finished projects. Back to work tomorrow (where someone will undoubtedly announce her pregnancy as I have finally finished everything on my list of impending babies to knit for and make the decision easy). No more Baby Dales in the near future--Kai's Cable Sweater for everyone from now on.

Posted at 05:08 PM

Sun - November 4, 2007

A Day Meant For Knitting

We had the dregs of Hurricane Noel blow through yesterday so what was there to do but knit? We made bread and chowder and pie and lit a fire and had a lovely, cozy day. It does not, by the way, help bread to cook for ten minutes, take a little twenty minute break while the power goes out, and then cook the rest of the way but it was still fine. I've been using the King Arthur Flour Baking Book for all my bread for the past couple of years and mostly make the Oatmeal Maple Bread (also the Monkey Bread). It's a great book both for recipes and technique. (I cannot spell the word recipes to save my life; it took four tries in that sentence back there).

Here's what I worked on:

It's Caroline in Louet Riverstone. Color: Aqua. It will be felted when it's done so now it's pretty loose. It's knits up quickly and the yarn is nice and soft. I started it Friday night and I'm about 16 rows from the armholes. I'm a little scared of the felting; I was waiting for some other guinea pig on Ravelry to begin but no one did so I jumped in. I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted at 04:42 PM

Wed - October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

I think I liked it better when he was a cute ladybug.

Happy Halloween!

Posted at 09:15 PM

Mon - October 15, 2007

Swamped

For the first time ever my excuse is that I've been consumed by work. Remember I started a new job in February? You know, right before we bought a house and moved. Well last spring was just finishing a lot of projects that someone else had started and basically getting through the rest of the year until June. Now, it's all about deciding what projects I want to do, and how to do them, and then doing them. It's not that I'm spending more time working, it's just that I'm thinking about work when I'm not there instead of thinking about knitting. This is new for me.

Also, I fell into the Ravelry hole. I'm JoBleudeMaine if you feel like friending me. It took me awhile to friend strangers and I still haven't friended any big name people because that just feels too junior high somehow but I finally realized that the point is just to have a quick link to the projects of people whose knitting you like and it wasn't actually just a way to court rejection. (Think I'm stuck in junior high? You're glad I restrained myself and didn't blog about the whole "if you don't get any comments I don't know why you bother to blog" thread of last spring. I honestly don't care about comments but that whole thing brought out the worst in me.)

Anyway, Ravelry is great--it's fun seeing what everyone is doing with the same yarn and patterns and what people are hiding in their stashes.

Knitting? Why yes, a bit.

Another Baby Dale. This is a heavily modified pattern--changed ribbing to a hem, changed colors (this is meant to be navy blue background with different colored cars and I'm doing stripes like in the ladybug sweater.) Somehow I twisted it when I first joined it and didn't really catch it until I had finished the facing so it went into a heap for awhile. However, the baby is imminent so I started it again about a week ago and have been doing pretty well. I'm trying to use up the leftovers from the Lady bug sweater so I would be using more yellow and orange but I'm not sure I have enough left. (It's not that I'm cheap--most of these colors have been discontinued.)

It finally warmed up in late August so I got the urge to knit with bulky wool. I found this pattern in a Rowan book and Yarns in the Farms had Lopi on sale so I started this completely on a whim. I got a lot done until I put it aside for the baby sweater.

I'm partway through a sleeve as well. It goes very quickly after all that Baby Ull.

Here's a closeup of the collar.

Ladybug sweater is done but I haven't put it together as I want to sew for the steeks of both of these sweaters at the same time.

I seem to have temporarily lost my sock mojo though I did start the second Traveller's Stocking.

I just ordered the yarn to knit Caroline from Louet.

I noticed I was thinking about yarn this morning on my way to school so I imagine the tide is turning.

Posted at 06:15 PM