A Bluestocking Knits

Knitting Rugs

Look what I got for Christmas! --

The Knitted Rug by Donna Druchunas, a fascinating and inspiring collected of rugs in a wide variety of styles and shapes.  Round, rectangular, stripes, spirals, blocks, Log Cabin, even some unexpected Fair Isle and Aran-ish rugs.  I love the one on the cover.  The book got my head so buzzing with ideas that I picked up some Lion Suede at Michael's to work up a sample --

The colors, I think, don't look as pleasant knitted up together as they do side by side, but that's what samples are for, eh?  I don't usually like acrylics, but the knitted sample in the store showed a lot less wear than the others, Lion's wool/acrylic blends and such -- less pilling, most obviously -- a plus in a rug, so I thought I'd try it.  It feels really nice worked up, too, soft and squishy, and three strands together in garter stitch (on US10 needles, very tight) are almost half an inch thick, also good in a rug.  The color palette is a bit limited, but I might try the greens together, or the browns, something with less contrast....

Thoughts on the "Backyard Leaves" Scarf

Here is Backyard Leaves, all finished and sewn up, ready to send off to its recipient and only a few days after Christmas!

This scarf is not exactly hard, but it certainly is complex.  It took me almost two hours to do the first repeat, and I thought I'd really gotten myself into a project that would take forever, but as so often happens with lacy patterns, once I could see what was happening, it all started to make sense.  I never did memorize it, and had the pattern next to me all of the time, but often that was just to reassure myself that it was going well. 

My gauge was quite different than it would have been with the merino of the original, and I did extra repeats in an attempt to compensate for the finer gauge -- the scarf ended up being about 4 1/2 inches wide and a rather gasp-inducing 100 inches long, but it is so fine and soft that wrapping it three or four times around my neck was in fact a pleasure, and it's warm without being stifling.  I'm not entirely pleased with the join in the middle, and I can't help thinking that it wasn't the best way of going about it, design-wise, but merely the least complicated -- luckily, with all of the wrapping that will be necessary to wear it, one little seam will never be noticed!

The Cashmere/Seta is perhaps a touch too fine to show off the leaf pattern to its best advantage, but it is certainly wonderfully soft.  I like the fact that the modified I-cord edging smooths out the edges, too, as so often garter stitch and the wrong side of stockinette make a yarn feel a bit rougher than it did in the ball.  This yarn is so soft that the leaves don't stand out as much as with the original merino, but ... did I mention how soft it is?!

Merry Christmas, Helen!

January, Ho!

And here is my January-project-to-be, the Aran cardy from Knitter's Almanac -- nine skeins of Sheepswool from Schoolhouse Press, in pale gray --

with naturally-shed deerhorn buttons.  The color is actually a rather sandy gray, tending more towards the brown than the gray, I mean, which gives me pause, but as I seem to naturally gravitate towards darker grays, I chose the lighter shade, and this will be something different in my wardrobe.  The yarn is actually from Bartlettyarns, though I don't see the exact thing at their website, so perhaps it is unique to Schoolhouse.  It is thick and rather rough, but according to reviews at WiseNeedle it softens up nicely after washing -- it does have a strangely interesting and not at all unpleasant smell, that reminds me vaguely of the auto mechanic -- it must be the lanolin, as I could actually feel it on my hands after I spent a few minutes fondling and pondering its texture.

I think I will start this a bit earlier than January proper, as I am very familiar with my own dawdling tendencies, and am not convinced that a full-sized Aran cardigan will take a mere four weeks! and so after the last few repeats left to finish the Backyard Leaves scarf, I will wind up the Sheepswool and get started!

Merry Christmas

Only For You, Blackbird...

Am feeling fairly miserable with a cold, but Blackbird calls upon us to show and tell our coats, and so I've dragged myself off of the couch and actually changed my clothes into something photographable. 

For someone who lives in a place where it rarely gets really cold, I discover that I have quite a lot of coats.  These pictures are a bit gloomy, which may fit either my mood or the late afternoon lack of sunlight, but here are my favorites --

A lovely forest-green wool coat, reversible to a dark sand khaki from J. Peterman.  Love this coat, the way the lapels turn into a hood and wrap around my shoulders, set off by the asymmetrical opening.  Oddly enough, I've never worn it with the khaki side out.  I rarely could afford to buy much from J. Peterman (and have assiduously avoided the web catalog) but the things I did get have been wonderful, beautifully made and a joy to wear.  I wore this coat only last week when we bought our Christmas tree, and in the pocket I found a packet of tissues and a tiny candy cane, and a Hong Kong ten-dollar coin.

The classic tan Burberry.  A souvenir of my first trip to London, in my salad days.  I felt the satin lining slide over my arms and I was hooked.  I've stuffed this under many a theatre seat since, in London and Stratford, so it holds some wonderful memories.  In the pocket, a Ricola and a green peppermint.

A Fifties-era tweedy-black wool swing coat, knee length, two huge black plastic buttons.  Beautifully gored with topstitched seams, and a purply-black satin lining.  I got this from a thrift store for about ten dollars, an utter bargain.  In the pocket, another Ricola.

A black cashmere coat, also probably from the fifties, this one with a rather un-PC but oh-so-luxurious mink collar, which can be worn either flat, as in the photo, or hooked together to make one of those lovely fifties round picture collars.  Another thrift store treasure.  In the pocket, a ticket stub for a Cecilia Bartoli recital some years ago.

Oh, Blackbird, I actually feel better now!  Amazing, how cashmere and, ahem, a touch of mink can lift the spirits!

Birthday Party

We had Laura's birthday party last week.  Laura picked out a star-shaped piñata, and I went a little crazy at Cost Plus World Market, and got a ton of wrapped sweets like Toblerone, Lindt truffles, and pretty little Japanese things called "Flower's Kiss" -- as well as little wooden tops, funky bumpy rubber balls, mini-Slinkies (the good kind, metal not plastic!) -- and we also put in half-sized gel pens, some Hot Wheels cars I got for a dollar for five, and jumbo packs of stamps from Michael's.

The kids had a good time.  I set up a craft table so that the kids could decorate their treat bags with stickers and markers, then we went outside for the piñata, which was a great success.

 

I made a butter cake with one of my favorite recipes from Susan Purdy's The Perfect Cake, with chocolate buttercream -- I had wanted a dark chocolate frosting, to contrast a bit better with the M&M decorations, but things didn't quite work the way I'd planned!  It tasted good anyway.

And Laura's grandma knitted her a shrug for ballet class --

 

This is Pam Allen's Ribbed Shrug from Interweave Knits, modified a bit to fit a six-year-old.  The sleeves usually ruffle a bit more than would appear from this photograph, for some reason.  It's a pretty pale lilac, and just the thing to keep her shoulders warm during lessons.

Christmas Cactus

The Christmas cactus is blooming -- mine, I think, is especially pretty with the pink-throated white flowers agains the dark green leaves.  It's a fairly low-maintenance plant, too, which is nice!

Swinging Along

If anyone is interested in doing a Pearl Buck Swing Jacket knitalong, let me know!  I won't be able to start until after New Year's, most likely, but I'm looking forward to it.

Mary asked about the front of the jacket -- it's very simple and elegant, as one might expect from the back.  It has no buttons, but a zigzag line runs up the bands at the edges, to match the graduated diamonds on the pleat in the back, and a simple rounded neck.

So SoCal Winter

Show and Tell Friday

Show and Tell this week requests a picture of our favorite ornament.

Every year, we make little ornaments for the four teachers at the girls' preschool -- this is Julia's first year.  I've been so impressed with the richness of her watercolors that I wanted to do something to show that off.  I had her paint on a sheet of watercolor paper, both sides over the course of a few days, and I cut the paper into squares, then cut a slit into each square and slid two together to make these.  (One sheet of watercolor paper made six 2 1/2-inch ornaments.)  I had to add a dab of white glue to keep the shape -- I'd hoped that I would be able to flatten them for storage, but the paper was so thick that I had to widen the slit a little, and then they wouldn't quite stay together.

I think all of our ornaments are my favorites -- but possibly this one is this year's favorite!  Laura usually leaves a lot of white space on her watercolors, but Julia uses every inch, so for me these are instantly recognizable as being her work.

We found out quite by accident that Laura's kindergarten teacher is a new knitter, so we made a "custom" pair of needles for her, by painting the little knob at the end with her favorite color.  It was a bit fiddly, but Laura did the painting all by herself.  (Sorry that the photo is a little blurry -- we were running out the door to get to early-day on time!)