Back to Doilies

What with Tall Ships and the Museum of Glass, I haven't written much about knitting recently. But I have been knitting. I finished a doily, still in size 30, on my path to smaller numbers.

• Pattern: Anna Burda 1086 19A
• Thread: Clark's Big Ball size 30, color 26B, maybe half of the ball
  
• Needles: 2.25mm
• Finished size: Approximately 13 inches in diameter
  

I am currently working in size 50 thread on my way to size 100; stay tuned.

More Glass

The Museum of Glass offers the opportunity to see artists who are the best at what they do. This week it was Czech artists Jiri Harcuba and Petr Novotny (pardon the lack of diacritical marks; I don't think Blogger knows how to do that).

Harcuba is a master etcher. This week, he was etching on pieces made by Novotny and by the museum Hot Shop crew. He starts by making a drawing on paper, often a napkin, then uses a Sharpie to make the drawing on the glass. Then he etches the design on the glass. (It sounds a lot simpler than it is.) He works on a dozen pieces at the same time, going back and forth between different pieces.

Hot Shop visitors who sit in the front row of the gallery often have a chance to speak with the artist and ask questions, which is great fun.

In addition to making pieces for Harcuba to etch, Novotny (red shirt) made some of his own pieces. He called this one a "cage," although to me it looked like a basket or like this Knotted Openwork Scarf stitch — in glass.

He then had the Hot Shop crew make a gold bubble that was blown inside the cage to create a lining.

Watching glass being made is so interesting that I can't even knit while I watch.

Tall Ships

The place to be in Tacoma this weekend was the Tall Ships festival. I won two tickets to board all of the ships from a Port of Tacoma drawing. We aimed first for the "premium" ships, which was a smart move. We had only a 45-minute wait. (Lines for the Coast Guard ship Eagle and the "general class" ships was upwards of two hours at some times.)

The premium ships included the Merrie Ellen, Kaisei and HMS Bounty.

I was impressed with all of the ropes.

The Bounty — built for the 1960 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" — was one of the more popular ships, especially the fully clothed figurehead.

Tacoma has a long history with shipping. On almost any day, you can see container ships, grain ships, power boats, tugboats, sailboats, kayaks and ferry boats. During Tall Ships, add traditionally rigged sailing ships.

Seeing red

I seem to be going a little doily crazy these days.

The details:

• Design #9 from Knitted Lace Designs in the "Modern" Mode by Kazuko Ichida
• Thread: Clark's Big Ball, size 30, color 126; thrift store find
• Finished weight: 24 grams, approximately 300 yards
  
• Needles: 2.25mm
• Finished size: 16 inches x 16 inches

This was a very easy pattern to follow; it didn't have any of the unfamiliar Japanese stitches.

And it looks very nice with my new George Burns rose.

Updates

Cables and lace
A few people asked where to buy Rene' Wells's All Seasons Stole cables and lace pattern. Linda's Knit 'n Stitch in Silverdale, Washington, carries the pattern. Follow the link for contact info.

Size 100 thread
I haven't decided what to do with this yet. Often I wait for the thread or yarn to tell me what it wants to be. Perhaps it will speak German and lead me to a Niebling or a Duchrow doily. In the meantime, I have some size 50 and some size 80 that I will work with so that when the 100 speaks, I'll be ready. I usually work in size 30, which makes the finer threads a challenge.

Vested Interests

My husband has a reputation among his students for his sweater vests, most of which I make for him. This is the latest.

It's a combination of the British School Slipover in Cheryl Oberle's Folk Vests, the vest template in Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns and the Office Vest from Lisa Knits.

• Yarn: Black Water Abbey 2-ply worsted in Bluestock; wonderful yarn to knit with, especially when cables are involved
• Needles: US5 for the body and US3 for the ribbings (yes, I'm a loose knitter)

World Wide Knit in Public Day

Our small group had a great time knitting in public at the Puyallup Farmers Market, in spite of chilly weather. We had a few visitors, and enjoyed our time at the market.

And fresh English peas were available, along with local asparagus and spring onions.

Knitting in Public

Tomorrow is World Wide Knit in Public Day. Members of the Puyallup Knitting Guild will hold an informal knit-in at the Puyallup Farmers Market in Pioneer Park, beginning mid-morning or thereabouts. Look for a group of talented knitters enjoying their craft. Stop by to knit or to talk about knitting. The market is a great place for plants, veggies, baked goods, arts and crafts.

Crazy

The Lacemakers of Puget Sound met at the University of Puget Sound last week. They had a market. The size 100 thread called my name. It said my name was Crazy.

I have never knit with thread this small. But it looks like I will.

Watching Glass

Watching someone knit can be kind of boring. (Don't misunderstand: I love knitting. But sometimes, just watching someone else knit can be a snooze.) But watching a master make glass — that's exciting.

For the past several months, Martin Blank (the guy in the red shirt, below) has been working at the Museum of Glass. He is creating a piece called Fluent Steps, an enormous piece made up of hundreds of glass pieces, for the museum's reflecting pool. Watching the team work is fascinating, especially because this artist appears to enjoy interacting with the people who are observing the work in progress.

Fluent Steps will be finished and installed in late October (I'll post pictures here). I'll enjoy the piece even more knowing that I watched some of it being made.

Cables and Lace

This project combined a pattern from a California designer with yarn from Prague, Czech Republic, in a color that is matches celadon that I purchased in Thailand.

The particulars:

• Pattern: All Seasons Stole by the talented Rene' E. Wells
  
• Yarn: Bambus, 100 percent bamboo from here (I don't speak Czech so I have no idea what this means), 100 grams, 320 meters; yarn consists of 5 loosely plied strands, each of the 5 consists of two tightly plied strands
  
• Needles: US5
  
• Finished size: 7 inches wide x 52 inches long

Just Like Grandma Used To Do

I am still working with some knitted lace edgings that belong to my friend Nancy. She figures they were made by her great-grandmother. The laces, which probably have been packed away for decades, are discolored.

I am cleaning them with a combination of Biz and the sun. The laces spend a few hours soaking in a Biz-water solution, followed by a good rinse. Then I place them on the grass in the sun for whitening. The laces dry beautifully and most of the discoloration is gone.

Laces aren't the only thing that enjoy the sun. Look at my poppies!

Where's Robin?

On December 1, 2007, I signed on for Paying It Forward. This was the deal:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Robin signed up, and I can't locate Robin. So if you are the Robin who signed up and you still want to participate, please leave a message and let me know how to contact you. Or contact me on Ravelry; look for SueV.

Alix Revisited

Last year I made a big, comfy Alix shawl (see my November 15, 2007, post). I love this shawl. I wear it all of the time. It's great with jeans and on those increasingly rare occasions when I wear dressy clothes. When I found some lovely Black Bunny Fibers laceweight left over from an earlier project it seemed that Alix was a good choice.

• Yarn: Black Bunny Fibers laceweight, approximately 60 grams (525 yards)
• Needles: US6/4mm
• Finished size: 28 inches center back

My red lace leaf maple is a good background, I think.

What the — ?

I usually do not have many negative public comments about patterns. Even if I don't like something, I can often see how someone else would like it. And many patterns that I would never wear look fabulous on other people.

But this sweater from Rowan 43 just seems — well, awful. Knitters work for years to avoid holes and the runner-looking things.

Obviously, I am not the target audience for this sort of thing, but I wonder who is. Why would you knit it on purpose? Why not just take an old sweater and cut holes in it?

Score (Again)!

$15. I hope I'm not using up all of my luck.

Score!

I love thrift stores, even though 99 times out of 100, I find nothing of interest. It's the 100th time that keeps me coming back. This week I hit the 100, finding this lovely stash of Knit Picks Palette. I count 16, maybe 17, full balls plus some extra bits. For $10.

Now the question is, what shall I knit?

Disappointment

I recently purchased a knitting book that I returned within 48 hours. Why? Because the punctuation, capitalization and typography choices in the book annoyed me to the point where I found the book unreadable and unusable. Perhaps my 35+ years as an editor and writer make me very picky about certain things, but if I am going to spend money on a book, I want to be able to read it. In editing, as in knitting, details matter.

So what's wrong with the book?

Punctuation: Commas and quotation marks are not supposed to be sprinkled on text like jimmies on ice cream. Punctuation helps the reader navigate and understand the message. Commas in the wrong places and quotation marks around words that do not need them create visual and mental speed bumps for the reader.

Capitalization: Initial capital letters are for proper nouns. You do not make a word more important by capitalizing the first letter of it. Unnecessary caps create more speed bumps. Further, capitalizing a whole word for emphasis is a typewriter convention. Today's text programs give you bold and italic for that purpose. Heck, even Blogger gives you bold and italic.

Typography: As noted, this book uses a lot of quotation marks — and they are all typewriter (straight) quotation marks instead of typographer's (smart, curly or book) quotation marks, creating more speed bumps for me. Bulleted lists are not lined up and the designer chose tiny, weak bullets that are more like floating periods that bullets.

I am not talking about typos or writing style. I'm talking about what appear to be deliberate design choices that, for me, do not enhance readability and actually detract from readability. On the positive side, the book offered some interesting history, some techniques I wanted to learn and some patterns. But, on balance, the negative aspects outweighed the positive, so the book went back to the vendor.

I am not naming the book, the author or the publisher. Other people will love this book, and I wish them all happiness with it.

Landscaping

No, not garden landscaping, but Evelyn Clark's Landscape scarf. I love this pattern; I've made it a dozen times with all kinds of yarn and all sorts of variations. This time it's Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock lightweight in a color called Gypsum, US6 needles. My variation on the pattern is to use only garter and stockinette for the sections.

Egeblad

Egeblad is a beautiful doily and great fun to knit, even if I don't have any blue flowers currently blooming to photograph it with. I changed the direction of some of the decreases, in particular, making centered double decreases in the center flower part.

The details:

• Thread: Cebelia, size 30, less than half of a 50-gram ball
  
• Needles: 2.25mm
• Finished size: 15 inches in diameter