Knitting

Celebrating the Epiphany

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Today is the Three Kings Day (or the twelfth day of Christmas) and while I didn’t eat cake, I still received a gift. I am wearing my own sock! Due to a minor complication, my cute little candy cane cast was sawn off today and replaced with one that I can take off briefly ( I’ll be good, I’ll be good). This means I took a shower and put my own hand knit sock on my foot to cheer me up.

I had a lot of down time and managed to design a sweet little baby aran sweater. It’s coming along fine except the pointy circular needle I am using has poked a hole in my finger, which I manage to find time and time again. I found the cable patterns in Alice Starmore’s book of Aran knitting.

I like caregiving and caretaking better than care receiving

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Why is that when you take care of people you are a giver but when you take care of islands and lighthouses you are a taker?  Maybe the answer lies in the question itself?  Anyway, I am tired of being a carereceiver.  I’ve been in a cast for a week and crutches are more limiting than I imagined.  First of all, I should have done upper body exercises in the months preceding the surgery to strengthen my arms for the real work of crutching.  And practice lots of deep knee bends on only one leg.  Surprisingly, my bad leg’s hamstrings hurt the first couple of days from raising my knee and carrying my foot around like a dead weight.

I get around on one level adequately but the real trick is eating!  Well not exactly eating but getting the food to where you would like to eat it.  We received casseroles from friends and neighbors but the real challenge is getting the food to the table.  I’ve managed to make tea in a thermos with a handle and get that to my perch but a plate of food is too tricky. So I either have to eat standing up in the kitchen or ask Tim to cater to me.  And unfortunately, I’m still like a two year old–I want to do it myself.

But I am being very productive.  I shipped off my mittens and a hat yesterday, finished a pair of clogs that I plan on letting the recipient felt and am now well into another hat, a pair of legwarmers and mittens and ordered wool for an Aran sweater for my son.  Can you say, “bouncing off the walls”?

Storing my acorns

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It’s all about priorities.  Mine are clearly food and fiber.  I am having minor orthopedic surgery and will be out of commission hopefully for no more than a week.  I’m getting my affairs in order.  I’ve loaded the freezer with easy meals and soup so we won’t be eating “Hungry Man”.  In a pinch we have eggs.  More importantly, I have had to think about what projects I want to work on.  There are easy projects for the pain reliever induced hazy days, mildly challenging projects to combat boredom and ones in the design process, which will come together when my mobility improves.

Today there’s chile and beef stew bubbling in the kitchen.  I’ve warped my rigid heddle loom for a simple scarf with beautiful boucle yarn from New Zealand, which will remind me of my travels while I am housebound.  I have a second lining to knit for the pair of fiddlehead mittens, which will be fairly mindless because I can copy the first one.  There are two slip stitch slouch hats I want to make and I have to finish Tim’s doubleknit mittens.  Then I am thinking about starting an overshot project on the floor loom.  Oh yes, I have to quilt my bedspread, and Christmas shop and bake cookies and….yikes!

 

We are not alone here

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Well of course not. We have the cats with us. But even during the storm last night, a boat was tucked in behind the lee of the island. They must have been waiting for the tide to change because the weather didn’t really get better until later today and they were gone by early morning. We had several hours of sun today, which was very nice and brightened our moods. Even the cats were a little stir crazy. We were all happy to be out for a while today. Lobsterman were back out and a tanker went by about 3 miles south of the island this afternoon. There’s a hawk, which circles the east and south sides of the island and a few seagulls about. There’s an assortment of migrating birds passing by and attracted to the light.

Enterprise

I accomplished a lot of knitting yesterday and now find I like to have several projects going at once. I used to be almost exclusively a serial, monogamous knitter but there are so many projects. Some I have to focus on and others are more mindless. I’m knitting a “one stitch lace scarf” for patients who receive chemotherapy at the hospital, in a teal, machine washable blend. It’s simple garter stitch, with a dropped stitch lace pattern, and great to knit while we catch up on old episodes of Dexter.

Knitting trio

The gray and pink lace scarf was a mistake but now I’m so far along, there’s no stopping me. The stripes, combined with the lace, are too busy but I’m six feet into it so there you are. The pattern is Traveling roses, a pretty pattern but 43 stitches by 43 stitches for one repeat and this old mind just hasn’t been able to memorize it. I have it on my Kindle and insert a note to remind of the last row knit.

Monkey socks

The third project is a pair of socks for me with knitpicks stroll in a heather. Very pretty yarn and I have made myself a pair of socks each time we have been here (I’m wearing my pair from 2008 now). So I want to keep up the tradition. It’s a nice reminder all year of the wonderful time we have on Seguin.

One stitch lace scarf

Traveling roses scarf

Seguin 2011

Tomorrow, tomorrow

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The wind blew all night and day, then the rains came and went. Now all is calm. The birds are happy and singing (actually they were happy and singing during the downpours) and we got word that the boat leaves shortly before 0500 tomorrow. After a month on the road, we are heading out!!! Yeah. If our internet works, you will hear from me, if not, have a Merry Christmas, and wonderful New Year. The best news is I met a spinner/knitter through Ravelry here and she found some fleece and combs for me to bring out to the island and work on in my spare time.  It’s really a very small world.

Fabric Lessons Learned from the Grand Canyon

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grand-canyon8

We just returned from a wonderful week backcountry camping in the Grand Canyon and I am happy to report that I was able to haul my butt out of the Canyon at the end of our trip.  Unfortunately my camera died on day 2 and I have a grand total of 8 pictures from the trip.  Here are our happy faces at the beginning of day 1 hiking into the canyon.  I was much less happy at the end of the day and found solace in starting a lace pi shawl while recovering. DH actually had to carry my pack for about 1.5 miles at the end of the day. He is my hero!! My legs wouldn’t hold up any longer with the weight, I felt like I was in a scene from a movie when the person comes stumbling into town and then collapses.

grand-canyon3

So first lesson was that lace knitting is the lightest project to work on.  I think i increased my pi shawl to 290 stitches while still in the canyon.

The real revelation was that the best blister protection is the Dr. Scholl’s lambs wool (can you say roving) and it works by felting with your wool sock.  I swear by it.  No irritation from tape and it created great protection when I felt any hot spots.  At the end of the day, just remove the felted pad from the sock. I thought it was a big improvement over moleskin, which tends to slip around and bandaids.  At the end of 6 days: no blisters!!!

We did some remote camping and for 3 nights we were the only one at our campsites and we saw very few people in the canyon.  I felt so cozy with my handknit hat, cowl, socks in the tent but lost a hat at Granite Rapids.  Early spring is the time to go.  Not too crowded, flowers beginning to bloom and cool weather (OK so it snowed one night and there were 60 mph winds  but the tent held up).

grand-canyon5 I’ve developed a new spa program too. I only use a spork (combo spoon and fork) and mug to eat with and my portions are limited to the size of my mug. So I’m thinking of marketing a book and including the mug with recipes, that and 5-7 miles of hiking daily is a good fitness program. DH thought we might be slowly starving, but I never felt hungry.

Spring Projects

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I completed the Duxbury sweater from Simply Shetland and sent it off to Chelsea, after I tried it on.  I wanted to wear it for a day or two but the weather wasn’t going to allow her to wear it for too much longer this season.Duxbury complete

I love the way it came out.  I enjoyed the Celtic knot in the front and back and had fun attaching the shoulder straps.  Perhaps the armholes are a bit big but…

Duxbury front Now I am on a felted clog binge.  I had wanted to make these for a long time and the local Michael’s had a sale on Paton’s Classic Merino.  First I made a pair for myself and then DH and my son wanted a pair.   I will surprise Chelsea with another knitted item.  The Paton’s Classic Merino felted easily – I have to finish all the felting projects quickly because we move onto the boat May 1 and will no longer have access to a top loader washer.  I erred in the cuff of my pair and decreased much more than suggested but I have a narrow foot and they fit great. I felted DH’s and am finishing my son’s.

felted clogs finished clog

Too bad I am finishing these super warm clogs just as the weather begins to improve.  Hopefully the moths won’t get to them before I need them again.

Now I have just selected my knitting project for our backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon – of course I am not finished packing yet but have decided on a laceweight Pi shawl  Light to carry, compact and should take forever.  I am going to use a pattern from A Gathering of Lace, called the Shetland Tea Shawl.  It’s basically a variation of EZ’s Pi shawl but all the math has been done.

I have plied my Kood aid fingering weight and am happy with the results.  I think it will become a scarf or shawl.  I am experimenting with black overdyeing to get a deeper tone (?) for some of my other Kool Aid yarn.

Kool aid skein

I will be sad to leave Fire Island in a month.  The winter flew by and I even made some knitting friends here, through Ravelry and the Spinning Study Group of Long Island.  At least the internet will keep us in touch and I’ll be sailing through this way again.  The SSGLI meets monthly and also runs a fiber study group, where I have learned a lot about breeds of sheep and spinning techniques.  Last weekend there was a workshop and I had a spinning immersion.  I’ve concluded that my Kromski spinning wheel will join me and the cats on the boat at least for the first leg of our journey.

Holiday Knitting

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The holidays are fast approaching.  Kids are returning from school and places afar.  I know I’ve had all year but I’m knitting like crazy this month.  I am happy to be puttering at home and Ravelry allows me to stay connected with others even if I don’t leave the house.

It’s snowing, the fireplace is lit and I have hanks of yarn hung around the house with care.

Knitting Free for All

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I just spent some wonderful time with family over the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Since most saw me last, I’ve expended my fiber foray, from knitting commercial yarns from established patterns to improvising patterns and now to spinning and knitting my own handspun yarn.  Even that has evolved first from pencil roving to batts and now to fleece that I hand card.  Much of my interest has been spurred by the podcasts I listened to during my commute and now while I run or knit.

My family was incredulous that I could find so much to listen to about knitting.  I don’t.  I listen to people interested in fibers from around the world.  The first one I listened to was Knitty Nora from the UK.  Then I found the Webs and Knitpicks podcasts.  I thoroughly enjoyed Knitters Uncensored from Munich and I think that’s what really got me interested in spinning.  Some of these podcasts have fizzled out since most are unsponsored and produced in the free time of an already hectic life filled with family, work, knitting and spinning.  Now I enjoy Stash and Burn and Sticks and String from Australia.  I realize that I enjoy listening to people from around the world because I get a glimpse of different cultures from a knitter’s perspective and also to different fiber techniques.  I have ventured into Fair Isle (OK I haven’t steeked anything yet), thought about designing or modifying patterns and also learned about the politics of other countries. I also get lots of ideas for research, from knitting cultures, designers and techniques that I use at my local library.  And all of this is free!