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February 28, 2005
Not Worthy
Wendy recently did a post about worthy projects. Apparently she is getting guff for not knitting Wendy skill worthy stuff. I don't normally read her blog for various reasons but just happened to pop in when this post was up. It is timely because I got a new project for work~ woo hoo good reason to not knit on STTS. Beautiful yarn from K1C2:
The design is called 9 Scarf Vest and is geared towards beginning knitters. According to the blurb if you have only knit scarves and thought you couldn't knit a sweater think again~ knit 9 scarves, sew them together and voila a vest. Something like that. The pattern is upstairs.
I am disappointed. I consider Helene Rush one of the greatest, and highly underated, designers of our day. Her designs have, in the past, been extreemly classic and wearable. I have stated before she is a master of the set in sleeve. Thats a digression. The premier issue of IK had two of her older sweaters redone in modern yarns. I think they were from the 80's so we are talking classic as in staying power. One of the first sweaters I did after she purchased K1C2 was Mini Diamonds Cardigan:
See what I mean? You could wear that to the work, at home, or out. Classic. I just don't see that falling victem to fashion cycles. So yeah I am disappointed. I don't know if this is because she owns the company and does all the designs so has to put out stuff for any sort of experience level and taste or if its because knitting has become kinda dumb. Whoa there!
You know there is a problem with been around the block too many times knitters when we think the vast majority of patterns {and yarns} are dumb. Its not true. I have some of my old knitting books and magazines. Trust me they were knitting some gawd aweful yarns and patterns in the 80's. For every filled with dreck pattern mag/book and 'stupid' question we face today there was an equal number of filled with dreck mags/books back then and we were the ones asking the stupid questions. Trust me. And for all the gems which increased our vocabulary of techniques back then there is a modern day equivalent. Actually there are more. Lets think about it. EZ, Walker, PGR are all still in print. Those were the biggies back in the 80's. And sorry to say I think EZ patterns are not fashionable tho some can be cute. Thats the thing about formulas~plain and boring until you add your touch. Her daughter, Meg, presents formulas and techniques in much more stylish garments. Knitters has turned into dreck but we have IK now. AS and her Fair Isle is, in my humble opinion, overshadowed by Feitelson for color and Knitting from Camp for techniques. AS and her Aran Knitting[a relatively late book from 90's wasn't it?] has Szabo, Zimmerman{Kathy}, and Lavold. Her pattern books can be met by Ron S and Feitelson again. MacGregor has been reprinted~ except for the small and relatively unknown Traditional Knitting which was a 30pg or so overview of history. Nancy Bush presents doable projects chock full of techniques. Hiatt is over rated~ trust me I had the book, parted with it, and reacquired it and I still only use a few pages. Tessa Lorant is overshadowed by Sharon Miller. Why it is safe to say that almost all the books I treasure above all others are currently in print. Lets give the newbies a break OK? And the 'experts' one too. 20 years of knitting means that sometimes a person just wants to veg out instead of strain the brain. Well I don't know how long Wendy has been knitting but long enough where she should be allowed to knit whatever she wants whenever she wants. After all she has the skill :^>
Still disappointed in the 9 Scarf Vest.....
TTFN knitbuds. May you have a yarny day and knitterly evening.
Posted by Elka at 10:07 AM | Comments (3)
February 25, 2005
Organizing Stash
So I am trying to talk somebody out of their Classic Elite Maya yarn. Should you happen to have any stashed away, even a partial ball, consider my deap love of this yarn. Now I have been asked about laceweight yarn for swapping purposes. Thats the third swap in row where lace yarns have been specifically asked for. Fine and dandy~ I keep my lace yarns seperate from the rest of my stash and organized by whites vs colors. I also keep my shetland yarns seperate from other yarns and my Rowan DLT and Jo Sharp DK[original formulation]. Anyway in my desire to tempt poor Teresa out of her Maya I am taking pictures of my stash. Not the panaramic view you alls are used to but the inventory type of pictures such as Mare's or Teresa's Note I am nowhere near as arty with my photography tending to just put stuff on a white pillowcase. So here I am taking pictures like a madwoman and I have realized my yarn stash is very poorly organized. I need to buzz Mare and talk to her about this since she mixes different brands of yarns in nice colorful medleys... medlies? I just don't have the eye she does. I consider her a great art knitter and myself a nice technical knitter. Nevermind I am digressing. So OK I have my lace and shetland and such yarns in seperate bins and everything else in drawers per color. Ala Fassett. At least that is where I first read to do that way back in the 80's. And I am taking pictures and here is a lone hank of yarn X in blue drawer and another lone hank of yarn X in purple drawer and another lone hank of yarn X in orange drawer. No wonder I never think I have enough of a yarn to make anything! The three together would look smashing, to my untrained eye, but I never see them together so think lone hank of WW yarn for hmmmmmmm what already?
Anyway this long chit chatty post is my way of asking How do YOU organize your stash? I realize I am not miss comment garnerer but I would appreciate some thoughts on the subject. Keep in mind I don't usually purchase sweater lots of yarn or even yarns for a specific purchase. You will get to see the yarn stasharoonie soon enough since I asked Liz to hyperlink it. I am nowhere near having it all photographed yet which is a bad thing. I don't think I will ever be able to snarfle yarn out of anybody pleading poverty again. I mean I don't ever have much cash working sporadically the way I do and always try to swap before shelling out mulah so either people will be more likely to swap seeing the full stash or people will be disgusted by the excesses of fiber and figure they might as well find a buyer with a pocketbook instead of humoring my 'would you puh~lease consider a swap?' Oh well speak up on stash organization please.
Thanks, Elka
PS scroll down for yarn pictures taken for this mornings post if you havent' peeked in yet today. My camara is fixed woo hoo!
Posted by Elka at 09:06 PM | Comments (3)
What to do....
Ah so my camara is fixed~not that it was broken just that the program needed to be reinstalled after the computer crasheroonie. I decided I better just shut up about STTS cause I had completed the last lace round and chose to do another repeat. My fault I am antsy to be done already. There are, however, reasons for my making the choice. First the picture in the book shows the model standing holding shawl out in front of her. It's huge and I had it in my heart to have a shawl that extended beyond my wingspan. Even tho I achieved gauge I don't see how this is possible with only one repeat. I stretched from CO edge to last round of lace pattern and it didn't reach from fingertip to collarbone area and I couldn't see how the edging was going to add @5" Even more nail in the coffinish was my sense of aesthetics. Each ring is twice as deap as previous ring and we just didn't have that happening. Here is a picture of scrunched up lace on needles so you can maybe see the lack of depth in last lace ring. Keep in mind I have worked 6 of the 36 rounds for second repeat:
Being a sick puppy I said I was gonna go knit on something else and sat down to whip out 6 more rounds. Of course, keeping the canine analogy going, I have the self control of a flea infested dawg and Cast on for Clark's Jan/Feb Piecework Shawl. Shoal water or something like that. It calls for one hank/ball whatever of Misti alpaca and I had on hand 3 balls of lovely handpained Kid Mohair purchased at MS&W last year. I have swatched this yarn a few times and its torque-y. I felt that I either had to tighten up the pattern into a basketweave or slipped st pattern or use a lace that was firmly blocked to control this ickiness. Kid mohair in a tight pattern seemed a waste and I only have a bit over 600yds not enough for a mean little pattern. Lace it was. My shawl is ruffling already and I blame it on torquiness. I will probably knit a few more inches and then block and let it sit a week while I see how it behaves. Til then its good TV knitting[or hanging with hubby knitting] since no charts are involved at the moment. Tell me what you think
OK knitbuds, have a great one!
Posted by Elka at 08:44 AM | Comments (1)
February 23, 2005
Blog Theory
Altogether now
Still working on Shetland Tea Time
Ugh I am so tired of working on this shawl. I want to knit on something, anything, else soooooooooooooooooo bad. I actually have a theory.... wanna know my theory?... yah ok. So I have noticed over the past year that whenever I say I am going to do something on my blog I don't. How many of us do that? Go on a yarn diet, plan on finishing X # of projects, or learn to do such and such then give it up. It cannot possibly be just me. I am not a trend setter. Maybe cause nobody else wants to be a public failure but hey! I say its cause its in full effect everywhere and I just don't notice others failings. Anyway the reason for sharing the theory is simple enough. I vowed to myself, in an effort to avoid public humiliation again, to not knit anything until I was at edging portion of the shawl. Unless it was work cause we gotta pay for our fiber somehow don't we. And now that I have stated that I am not gonna work on anything else, excepting stuff people are paying me to knit, I am open to redicule. Does anybody want to pay me to knit something for them? No........... Oh well the theory saves the day~ off to knit something, anything, else
Posted by Elka at 01:32 PM | Comments (3)
February 22, 2005
News Flash
Just now, as I near the end of Madeira Diamonds, I decide to go ahead and repeat it a second time. Look for another week at least of knitting on this shawl's body.
Posted by Elka at 12:14 PM
February 21, 2005
Really BAD errata
The whole plugging away on Shetland Tea Time shawl post is getting boring so I will speak my mind on something I have been thinking for a while. Knitters aka XRX and their sux ass stuff. No thats not it. Errata and errata that needs errata. Hows that? I got a copy of the errata for GOL from Schoolhouse Press since I am printerless and they are the people from whom I ordered the book. Lets copy the written errata for the shawl shall we?:
"The Diamond Madeira chart should begin with row 9 and end with row 8. In order to keep the pattern aligned in this chart, on rnds 1, 3, 5, 7, 18, 31 &35, work the very last dec of rnd[ssk or k2tog] as k1[on rnd 33, work to the last st of the rnd] and move marker 1 st to the right." This is followed by a new chart which marks the previous rnd 9 as rnd 1. Fine and dandy. You will note when looking at the chart that the move marker 1 st to the right occurs on rnds 11, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, and 36. This kinda makes the whole to keep patt aligned bit wrong since we now are talking about entirely differently numbered rounds. And while we are on the to keep pattern aligned bit~ I haven't worked a k1 instead of a decrease on any given round so far. Well I did it on one round and ended up with an extra stitch at end of next round so I guess my pattern is askew. Doesn't look askew to me but what do I know in my newbie lace knitter status. 20 years of lace knitting is newbie trust me. Especially when you are dealing with XRX style patterns, errata and should be errata-ed errata.
TTFN knitbuds. Have a great yarny day and knitterly evening.
Posted by Elka at 01:40 PM
February 19, 2005
ickers
Ah so my computer crashed and all my links are lost. Plus I left people worried about me cause I got phone calls from all over. We are doing hunky dory and plugging away on shetland tea shawl. Anyway I am back kinda and will hopefully find my photo program to take pictures.
Posted by Elka at 07:30 PM
February 16, 2005
I am still plugging away on Shetland Tea shawl. Very slow going. Also trying hard to catch up on housework[less laundry and floors duh] over here after last week. And battling overwhelming sadness over stuff not worth whining about. Tired of crying
Posted by Elka at 08:08 AM | Comments (2)
February 14, 2005
More yarn porn and why I don't get involved with schoolwork
Riddle me this:
It costs 75cents to go to the pool. You would like to take some friends to the pool. You have saved $9.75. How many friends can you take to the pool? While you think about the answer gratuitis yarn porn{gotta thwart those smutsters}:
Ah Tagliatti. From my Tagliatti dreams last year. No not last years yarn but my giftie to myself to fufill my Tagliatti Dreams. I asked for it last year and it finally arrived~ asked as in ordered. Just the thing to pick me up after the wretched last week.
OK have you thought hard on the riddle? The teacher says the answer is 13. Elka insists the answer is 12. Of course 9.75/75=13 but your not gonna pay for your friends to get in and have pool fun and watch from outside the gates are you? And the question said how many friends not how many people total including yourself. I live by the supposition that the reason a math problem is presented in word form is to be trickity instead of strait forward[9.75/13=? is straitforward] This is why my kid's teachers either hate me or think I am a moron and its a miracle my kids know anything. I don't know which sentiment it is but I am sure its one of those two.
Posted by Elka at 11:36 AM | Comments (7)
February 13, 2005
Oh For the Love of Pete
Bought Scarf Style *finally* and....
Must.
Resist.
Temptation.
Looked at referers via sitemeter and got the usual google for elka knits multiple times over which beats plain ol elka cause that could be suspension. I always feel sorry for the suspension folks when I think about their disappointment. But tonight egads 'elka' +'porn' ~ I don't think they were looking for stranded side of fair isles. My pity level doesn't extend far enough to cover smutsters.
Knitwise I worked a bit on tea time. Broke my addi natura on a lace round. Oh wait lace as in YO's every round pattern not lace as in knit plain eor. The damned thingie laddered down 5 rows right along the column of YO's. Had to pick up strands on the 14 st pattern repeat{thank you sweet Mary mother of God it wasn't a huge pattern repeat or didn't cover multiple repeats} count the knit stitches in each column to make sure I had same number of rounds for every stitch of pattern then drop all 14 sts down 5 rows and reknit them upward. My skills don't cover picking up that diagonally traveling column of YO's. I am no longer in love with Addi Naturas. Thats the 2nd needle that broke on the worst possible type of pattern to correct. Lifetime guarantee should include the option of money back instead of we will replace our flimsy needle with another equally flimsy needle. *sigh*
Tomorrow is the girlies Valentines Day celebration at school. The stomach flue seems to have passed tho Zoe did just upchuck all over the front hallway and dining room. 2 steps into the house. Why couldn't she backtrack to upchuck? Still first mess I have had to clean up from her in 24 hrs. She really did get ill Friday night. I am feeling better as well. Tho all the cleaning up after 3 kidlet's messes is keeping my tummy rumbly. Friday and Saturday I was a mess so I am glad I actually have the energy to do all this mopping and laundry. And knitting. Hurray!
Posted by Elka at 08:40 PM | Comments (1)
February 11, 2005
Why yes some cheese would be nice....
OK gonna continue the whining:
Ashley was sick and I kept her home on tues and weds. Decided that if she was on death's door I wouldn't keep her at home another day because she chased poor little Nece round the house both days pretending to be a monster.
Ashley saw her birthday present in progress cause she crept downstairs at midnight~ the only time I had to knit since she was home all freaking day
Nece got sick and started yesterday by vomiting. I mopped. I washed her clothing. I washed the futon cover and blankets. *She vomited again. I washed her clothes again. I mopped again. I washed the blankets and sheet protecting futon. Repeat from * 4 additional times
Zoe has decided she is sick. Tough. Its friday she can make it one more day.
I am sick.
Nece started the day by vomiting. Try the * onward sequence again.
Posted by Elka at 12:06 PM | Comments (4)
February 10, 2005
Process vs Product
Every once in a while you will see an article in the knit mags about process vs product. Sometimes this is mentioned under tackling the UFO's articles. You know how do you approach your knitting projects if your process oriented vs how to approach if your product oriented. Both orientations have their pros and cons. For the process oriented your most likely to acquire tons of yarns and patterns and give em a whirl but never actually end up with a FO. Of course eventually you have tried almost everything under the sun and there is no zesty knitting to try. Then your stuck having to be a product orientated knitter. The product orientated knitter will plod through something even if the techniques and yarn and color and size are all wrong and end up with UFO's that don't quite cut it for one of the above reasons. Starting as a process knitter and ending as a product knitter is, of course ideal, cause you obliterate the cons of product knitting. Unless you paralize yourself overthinking processes while producing the product....
I have been thinking about this for a few days since I find myself acting like a process knitter without any of the zestiness factor. Plus I am a product knitter by necessity. Do I need a deadline to actually finish anything? Will I ever enjoy the process again? Of course I enjoy knitting but border on the paralized with non-work stuff. Am I the only one walking around uninspired? Or is it overwhelmed with options? So many nice patterns but nothing particularly challenging on the plate.... In a quandry here.
You all knew piddle meant dabble right? I wasn't sending out a plea for depends and you knew that right?
Posted by Elka at 09:53 AM | Comments (2)
February 09, 2005
Pssssssssssssssst
Wanna know a secret?
I don't knit......... I piddle
Posted by Elka at 07:33 AM | Comments (3)
February 07, 2005
Even more startitis...
Ah so last week I Cast On for Donegal designed by Alice Starmore using the Rowan Donegal Tweed as called for in Celtic Collection. I have had the yarn stashed away for this sweater for many, many years and admired the garment since I first saw it when the book came out. Yes I am known for my procrastination. I finished the ribbing and started the stranded color pattern this weekend. Now Sheila-mamam had inquired about how to fix a problem a few years ago while knitting so I immediately incorporated my suggested solution. I am not sure I am happy but its hard to tell after one piddly round. Here is a shot of the ribbing inside and out.... gotta get the yarn porn in sometimes:
Believe it or not I actually belong to a knit-along for this baby and am now officially several years behind.
Inquisitive readers may be interested in discovering what yarn I purchased last week. 10 hanks of Tahki Donegal Tweed in shade #845. It's a lovely deap purple most often called aubergine by me. I have been wanting to acquire 10 hanks of this yarn for quite a while to knit up Rogue. I even discussed knitting it last fall with a friend to wear to MS&W since it seems to be a blog thingie to have a festival sweater knit under the wire. Alas my printer is out of ink and every time I suggest my going out to purchase a new cartridge my husband says he has one already and will put it in poste haste. Poste Haste has lasted 2 years. So I swatched my yarn for several garments including Denmark Gefjon on pg 60+ of Knitters issue #53. This issue is particularly lovely if you are wondering which back issues are worth having btw. Here is a picture of the yarn and pattern for those who do not have the magazine:
Now there are a few problems with this pattern IMO. It comes in 2 sizes~38 and 49" and is long. 33" for the size 49" Now I am not particularly short. 5'4" is supposed to be avg but I have worn dresses shorter than that. I resigned myself to figuring out how many sts to cast on to achieve a normal length{the sweater is kinda A-line with regular decreases until yoke pattern is reached} and also closely eyed that deap V and wide collar treatment, which I am not sure I totally approve of. My swatch was beautiful. Hey I swatched!
And good thing too. I decided that Donegal Tweed was nowhere near as drapey as Lopi Lite[never have knitted it] and the whole A-line thing wasn't gonna work. Scratch Gefjon back to Rogue. Husband be damned I am sitting at the computer glued to the instructions and skipping from one page to another to another. I want my printer fixed. Oh and here is the sleeve so far:
I am starting to wonder if the yarn is too dark and flecky for the pattern. Not that I would ever do it in a pastel but I may be being impatient. Anybody feel up to saying Elka you can't begin to see the cabling?
Ok enough of my aimless knitting expose. Have a great yarny day and knitterly evening you alls!
Posted by Elka at 11:42 AM | Comments (6)
February 06, 2005
TAG~ your it!
Ah so Saturday was my 1 year blog anniversary. I realized this late Friday evening and planned on posting. Unfortunately my knitting life has been rather disorganized and I had nothing to discuss in that arena which left politics. I even had two topics to discuss. The first is courtesy of Jennifer who linked to this action alert on the 2nd. Apparently our wonderful president has decided that all reports about the imminent demise of our planet are false and passed a "dirty air act" The second was rather quip-y. As we all know our president has decided that SS needs to be revamped. Why doom and gloom over a system which is successful instead of the state of our world is beyond me but there is a serious flaw to his doomsaying. Bush et al are quite proud of helping to foster/create a 'society of life.' The way I see it is the current decreased availability in obtaining abortions, trend towards denying birth control, and laughable excuse of sex education can only lead to one thing. A baby boom. Really if women become baby machines we can only expect an increase in birth rates. All of these extra people~ that is people who will be born beyond the current birth rate~ will be working by '48 which is when the president assumes the number of workers will be so much lower than the number of retirees. If Mel Gibson and Ray Charles can each father more children than live in my neighborhood[keep in mind I have 3 of my own]each than just imagine the workforce if everybody is having children the way those two do/did. Of course the other option is that women will only have sex once in life and men will kill each other to provide an outlet for their sexual frustration. I am not a nymphet but I am fairly certain once in the expected 90 years of life expectancy is rather not enough.
You have been spared the political theorizing courtesy of the fabulously creative Mare who tagged me with the musical MEME that has been floating around knitblog land these past few weeks. Can anybody please tell me what a MEME is? My nerd/geek score was 17, about 16 more than I could have possibley hoped for, and I have no clue. Anyway the MEME goes like this:
1. Total amount of music files on your computer?
2. The CD you last bought is:
3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.
5. Who are you going to pass this to? (3 persons) and why?
I have no clue how many music files are on my computer. I suspect it is zero, zip, nada, nil. I think one needs an MP3 player to download and listen to music but I could be illustrating the full extent of my nerdiness. I do listen to Winamp, My Radio, and Real Player. Am I downloading stuff to listen to online radio? I don't think so. I also do not purchase CD's. I tend to listen to the radio in car, occassionally online, and SIRIUS on tv and am not picky about what I am listening to. I like almost all music tho I do have certain favorites. I remember, as a teen, setting my alarm radio to country music sure that the horridness of it all would get me to haul ass outta bed to turn it off. I learned to like country music. Sleep is sleep after all. And Patsy Cline wasn't amongst the horrid ever but the general genre... When I was in college I suffered from an amazing sense of insecurity and remember the horror of having my roomate[the fabled Loretta] invite a very kewl and hunkalicious guy over who looked through my many, many, many albums and making snide comments. Yes I had a ton of albums even tho I now live in a musical void. Everything but the Girl for some reason stands out[and the band she was in before] Sinaid O'Conner[prob mispelling it] and various mainly female artists plus Prince [including his first and second albums which nobody knew about] and other 80's dance stuff. Some punk. My musical tastes were formed by the numerous guys I hung out with most of whom were in bands. This total uncoolness was tempered, in my opinion, by an enduring love of jazz and soul.
For the what five songs well that is easy. There are some musical bits I have owned for decades. In record form when I had a turntable, in tape form when I was a nomad with a tape deck, in CD form when I had a CD player. These must haves are probably more telling than anything else. Aretha -I used to replay RESPECT over and over and over ignoring all other tracks, Otis Redding who I listened to entire tape/record/disk over and over and over,and Alligator Record's Genuine Houserocking Music 2 specifically for Gloria Hardiman's Meet me with your Black Drawers On. I have at no time been without these songs. I also greatly enjoy Squeeze, Elvis Costello and hello! that Sinatra song These Boots were made for Walking and Salt n Peppa's Lets talk about Sex and Allanah Myles Black Velvet. I do enjoy rap~ not the gansta rap but rather hip hop rap. The song that means the most to me is Route 66 and I forget the band that covered it in the 80's early 90's but I drove from Rhode Island to Columbia MO with my friend Loretta with that and Dylan blaring. Oh and Imagine cause really who is more important than Lennon in his later years~ his outlook and politics appeal to the hippy dippy me. Anyway have fun gathering whatever clues into my phyche you can from this and I am passing it on to Liz, Sheila, and Prudence cause I have met them and they can tell me to blow off without hurting my feelings. I *don't* think they have done it yet....
Posted by Elka at 02:49 PM