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Archive for September 2nd, 2006

Detours and Chill

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

It is sweater weather still. It is like someone turned a switch and we were dealing with fall/autumn. I still can not find my gray cabled alpaca sweater, it’s somewhere in the piles and piles of off-season clothing. I’m drowning in clothes, I love them so much they are choking me out. I need to let go…

But for now I’m wearing long leggings/stretch pants, wool legwarmers, wool socks, tank top, turtleneck, thin sweater, and bulky long jacket/cardigan, with a heavy woven wool shawl and angora beret/hat. My knees are peeking out above the legwarmers and feel chilled yet. My hands were cold earlier but right now with the layers and a cup of Kukicha tea, they are OK at least while typing.

I am finding that I had planned a few things this week and I just need to give myself permission to change gears. I need to knit. I just need to make as many stitches as I can right now, I don’t know why. Yesterday I made a whole sock. Today I’m making Lucy Neatby’s Equilateral Hat. It totals 15 triangles and then a trim and lining. I’m more than halfway through the 9th triangle.

I wanted to spend today on the Knitting Machine, but that requires a learning curve and what I need now is steady repetition and speed. Since the KM is not work related, and the knitting I’m doing is for store samples, I have actually worked 2 days instead of the one I had intended.

Also, tonight Brian had me record bass and voice tracks for some songs we’re recording just because. We don’t really have another CD planned right now. Licensing fees for songs 1923 and later add up fast and we will want to sell more of our In the Garden CDs before we dive in again… never mind lack of space to store more boxes. But recording is one of those things you just have to be in the mood to do, sometimes. If Brian’s into the idea of recording, I’m into the idea of doing my part.

On stage, I play bass and Brian plays ukulele. When we have recorded in the past, Brian has for the most part played the bass parts himself. This time I really want to do my bass-playing bit even on the recordings. It was easier for Brian to just do it when we were on deadlines, but I’m starting to just want to be more involved. This time around we have the leisure for me to do it.

It actually felt like it went pretty well tonight. Brian can spend all the time he wants/needs to edit the music tracks with no CD-release deadline. Then when we decide to make another CD we will have a lot of the work done.

OK, back to my wonderful hat (in a Noro Kureyon colorway with turquoise and orange, primarily… very intriguing). I love Lucy Neatby, and this hat is no exception. It’s well planned, simple to execute, written as if she were sitting there chatting with you, and the product is bound to flatter.

Good night, and stay warm!

My Man

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

Just a post to interject that I have the best possible partner in life that I could have. I’m such a piece of work sometimes! He’s as steady as I am intense, and he shows me his real self in the Brian and Lynn at Niagara Fallsmost quiet ways. The ways that show true intent… when nobody else is near to notice.

Never mind that since he plays ukulele so wonderfully, I get to sing professionally. This was my childhood dream. But I’d love this man to pieces whether he was a musician or not.

Back to regular ColorJoy programming. Well, this post was certainly Joy, if not color…

Photo: Brian and I at Niagara Falls just over a year ago. He was holding the camera in his right hand, it was a silly moment but great fun as well. I think Brian doesn’t usually like the photos taken of him, so I picked a pic of us enjoying time together.

An Unexpected Friday

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

I had Friday planned out. I changed my plans. So what did I do on Friday?

1. I went for a walk with a 2-1/2 year old.

2. I made LynnH’s Sinful Coconut/Vanilla Tapioca Pudding.

3. I cast on for a sock.

4. I delivered patterns to Rae’s shop.

5. I had dinner with Brian at Altu’s Restaurant.

6. I took a nap.

7. I finshed the sock.

LynnH Sock knit from Socks that Rock YarnNow, this sock is in DK-weight yarn on size 3 needles, so it’s a fast knit as they go. For you folks who don’t knit socks, it’s rare to finish one in a day, especially with a full-height cuff. I made it bigger than my normal size 6 US/narrow size because it’s a store sample for Rae’s shop rather than something I plan to wear, but the yarn size helped me zoom ahead and the color also really helped me stay on task.

So what is the pattern? The foot was knit with my First-Time Toe-Up Sock (it will be a sample both for my class and some yarn Rae carries).

Detail of Slip Stitch PatternThe cuff is a slip stitch pattern… I like what slip stitches do to handpainted yarn. I had to go up two sizes to a 5US on the slip stitch and it really could have gone up another size or two… slip stitches are not as stretchy as plain stockinette. However, it goes on fine over the heel in this very stretchy yarn, so I’m satisfied.

The yarn is by Blue Moon/Socks that Rock (in a thicker weight than their standard sock yarn). I think they call it worsted weight, but it sure acts like DK (one step lighter than worsted) to me.

If you had some of my “Cushy ColorSport” yarn in your stash you could do the same thing with my yarn and get virtually the same feel, though my colors are applied differently and not typically as many colors on one skein as this neon rainbow you see pictured here. Yes, it’s at least as intensely colored as it looks on the screen.

And for those Socks that Rock fanatics, yes… Rae just got a shipment in and has really good stock levels right now, both the sockweight and the DK/Worsted weight I used here. No, I don’t make a penny if she sells it or if she does not, but you are bound to ask about availability, the yarn is sometimes hard to find.

I’ve really been missing socknitting as I was making all those bags and shawls for my last group of patterns. Today felt like “old home week” as I knit and knit and knit on my sock. I cast on about 4pm and bound off around 1am. I loved every stitch.

Sigh…. I’ll sleep well tonight.

(Late addition… in the morning after blocking, I still did not like the look of a standard bind-off at the top, seen above. I unpicked the edge and instead did a backstitch bind-off. This is a common procedure in machine knitting, not as much in handknitting, but it’s stretchy and lies flat. It looks better now.)

Photos: Sock, Detail of slip stitch pattern.