Best Husband in the World

My husband, Mike, recently went to Cape Town, South Africa, to attend Cape Wine and to give a speech at the Nederburg Auction. I chose not go because he could only be gone for a week and the cost/benefit of going along did not compute for me this time. However, I did ask for yarn from South Africa, if possible. I specifically asked for yarn produced in South Africa, not yarn imported from somewhere else and sold in South Africa.

I have total faith in his yarn shopping abilities. He has been to enough yarn stores with me that he knows what I like.

He did good! He did great! He asked the concierge at his hotel, who directed him to Spin Knits, a short walk away. Then, he found someone in the shop to help him buy four skeins of yarn from Nurturing Fibres. One is sock yarn in Blissful, a combination of purples, pinks, and blues. The three lace yarns are Georgina (pink), Dappled Forest (green), and Truffle (brown). The hand-painted colors are rich and gorgeous. I cannot wait to knit with these yarns.

He also brought home some South African wines that promise to be just as beautiful as the yarn. And a cookbook with South African braai (barbecue and grill) recipes. The book is in English, although I will have a little translation to do: a tot, I think, is about a tablespoon?

Now, let us give a round of applause to a husband who will go yarn shopping for his wife when he is 10,000+ miles away from home and surrounded by beautiful scenery and excellent wines.

Love–Hate

Pattern: Heads are Round
from the Top Down by
Christy Cooper

I usually don’t say much about hats and similar items, and this post is not about hats. It is about the yarn. Which I love. And hate.

The yarn is Manos del Uruguay Rittenhouse merino 5-ply.

This is what I like:

• Manos is a non-profit organization that promotes economic and social opportunities for rural women through yarn. Each of the two skeins I bought included information on the village and the artisan.
• The colors are gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.
• The yarn is soft and lovely to knit with.

What I hate:

• Knots. Each skein had at least two knots. Grrrrrrrrrr.
• The yarn stretches a lot when washed and blocked. I ended up ripping out each hat and re-knitting it with fewer stitches. Yes, I could have swatched. But I have knit dozens and dozens of hats with all kinds of yarn and have never seen one that stretches this much. And I am a tight knitter; I knit these on US4 needles.

I wish the “loves” clearly outweighed the “hates,” but I am not sure.

Boyfriend Hat by
Stephanie Nicole

Fair Results

Happy times for me at this year’s Western Washington Fair in Puyallup.

Jessica’s shawl

Large doily

Scarf

Small doily

Summary: three blue ribbons (first place) and one red ribbon (second place).

No, we did not try deep-fried butter. It makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it. What next?

Another Scarf

I have said this before but I will say it again: I am fortunate that my husband likes to wear things that I knit for him. He has a whole wardrobe of scarves. This latest one is a “souvenir” from our trip to New York City last spring.

We visited a few tourist spots — the New York Public Library main branch is worth a visit, for example — but also some yarn shops, including School Products, which is the mother ship of Karabella yarns, plus all sorts of other interesting things piled in baskets around the shop.

This yarn, for example, was labeled as a merino/yak lace weight tweed. Not something you see every day.

The trick was to find a pattern that would show off the colors and the tweediness. After fooling around with it, I decided on a simple lace pattern that I liked and that he liked.

Some details: size 3.25mm needles; finished size of 9 inches x 68 inches; and weight of 100 grams.

In other news, our house was flamingoed last weekend as part of a Rotary club fundraiser for a scholarship fund for a local high school. As I understand it, someone can pay money to have a flock of 24 flamingos delivered and “planted” for about 48 hours. It was funny, fun, harmless, and done for a good cause. We were kind of sorry to see the flamingos fly away.

Brussels Sprouts

A Brussels sprouts doily? No, not really. But Herbert Niebling’s Ranunkel reminded me of the Brussels sprouts in my garden.

The details:

• Pattern: Ranunkel by Herbert Niebling, Kunststricken Schöne alte Blütenmuster, 40 rounds
• Changes: Instead of K7tog, I slipped 3 stitches one at a time, k4tog, passed the 3 slipped stitches over
• Thread: Cébélia DMC, size 30, color 799
• Needles: US0 (2mm)
• Finished size: approximately 9 inches diameter

Now, compare the Brussels sprouts to the petals on the ranunculus flower in the doily.

New Doily

While looking for the next doily project, I went through my Lacy Knitters Guild newsletters, always a treasure trove of ideas. When I came upon this project, I knew it was next in line for me.

The details:

• Pattern: Decorative Lace Cushion, Belgian Pattern, from the guild newsletter 2011-3, charted by Pieter Strydom, 77 rounds. The design also appears as the center of Herbert Niebling’s Christel doily, found in Kunststricken Grosse und kleine Decken.  
• Thread: Lizbeth, size 40, #40-168 Latte Foam, almost all of the 300-yard ball. I am liking Lizbeth thread more and more.
• Needles: 1.75mm (US00).
• Finished size: about 12 inches diameter.

This one was fun to knit. Perhaps I will knit the Christel version some day.

Needs Some Changes

Some patterns just need to be changed, at least for my taste. The Icelandic Lace Shawl is one. The pattern appears in three places: Three-Cornered & Long Shawls by Sigrídur Halldorsdóttir, with a translation into English by Marilyn van Keppel; PieceWork magazine, July/August 1996; and online at Knitting Daily.

I used Knit Picks laceweight yarn: Bare Merino (white) and Shadow Lost Lake (green), Jewels (blue), and Vineyard (dark red). Knit on US6 (4mm) needles.

This is one of those patterns that I needed to read thoroughly and completely before starting, making margin notes along the way. Based on that reading, I made changes from the get-go:

• Fewer colors.
• Provisional cast-on instead of a “regular” cast-on to pick up stitches later.
• Stockinette instead of reverse stockinette, with 1 stitch garter edge.
• Centered double decrease in Chart B.
• Directional double decreases elsewhere instead of k3tog.
• Picked up for the border from the provisional cast on, knit 4 rows, purl 1 row to create ridge.
• Finished with 6 rows garter and Icelandic bind-off instead of crochet bind-off.

The shawl is about 25 inches long. If I make it again, I can see more changes I might make. Someday.

Wingspan

Apparently I am still on a color binge. I was not intending to make this but I saw a sample in a yarn store and had to have it.

Details:

• Pattern: Wingspan, a free pattern on Ravelry.
• Yarn: Schoppel Zauberball; 75 percent wool, 25 percent nylon; 100 grams; 420 meters. I used 88 grams for eight wedges. Color: frische Fische.
• Needles: US4

This was fun to knit. Not sure I would knit it again (it did get quite boring) but it was fun once. And I love the colors.

Color Burst

Maybe it was sunny California. A friend was knitting a scarf like this and I immediately added it to my must-do list. Then I saw the yarn on sale. And it made a great travel project during a recent trip to New York City, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia. Another bonus: It goes with practically everything.

The details:

• Pattern: Wisp from Knitty, without the buttons.
• Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn; color S184; 100 grams; 420 meters; 70 percent wool, 30% nylon
• Needles: US6 (4.25mm)
• Finished size: 9 inches x 80 inches

Knit-One-Below Scarf

Earlier this year, my knitting guild, the Puyallup Knitting Guild, held a class on knit-one-below, with a scarf as a class project.

Once I got the hang of it, the knitting was very easy. My scarf is very long because the recipient likes long scarves that he can wear in a slip-knot kind of style.

The details:

• Yarn: One skein each of Cascade 220 in gray (8400) and gray-brown-white tweed (9539).
• Needles: US7 (4.5mm)
• Finished size: 7 inches by 83 inches

I like the way the two yarns make a nice tweed.

A Message?

We recently traveled to New York City and Washington, D.C. This was on the wall in our room in our hotel in New York, the Hilton Fashion District. I do not know if this saying is in every room (I hope not) but I am glad it was in ours.

In case you cannot read it, it says: “Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again.” — Dorothy Day.

Good advice.

We spent a lot of time walking around New York, and I had the sore feet to prove it. Visited two yarn stores that were worth the sore feet: School Products and Purl Soho. Very different stores, but each a pleasure in its own way.

Then on to Washington, D.C., and Looped Yarn Works, only a few blocks from our hotel. How fortunate is that? I only wish I had more time to sit and knit a while.

But I am glad to be back home.

Frustrating

Knitting the doily was easy; taking its picture to good effect has been much harder. The thread colors are very subtle but my photo attempts have resulted in too much contrast or turned them into mud. I opted here for one of the muddier ones but I think the colors come through. I hope so anyway.

The details:

• Pattern: Helen from Old World Treasures from Gloria Penning, 73 rounds.
• Thread: Lizbeth size 40, color 167 Jungle Greens (lots of greens, some yellow, a little teal).
• Needles: 1.75mm (US size 00).
• Finished size: 10 inches diameter.

The only change I made was to make the double decreases in the petals as centered double decreases.

Based on only a few projects, I very much like the Lizbeth thread. I purchased the threads from Debbie at DS9Designs, who carries most, if not all of the colors, in several sizes (no affiliation, just a happy customer). Some of the variegated colors have too much contrast for my taste, but some, like Jungle Greens, are far more subtle and more appealing to me.

The photography issue still bugs me. I try to take pictures outside in natural, overcast light (we have a lot of overcast here in the Pacific Northwest), on different backgrounds, with and without fill flash. Suggestions?

Vintage Knits for Cold Weather

It is snowing here in Western Washington. Maybe not a lot of snow compared to the Yukon, perhaps, but a lot of snow for us. I can enjoy it because I do not have to go anywhere.

I was looking in my box of cold-weather gear just in case I decided to go outside, and found these vintage hats and mittens. My mother knit and crocheted these for me, probably in the 1970s. I remember wearing all of these at one time or another.

If there is a lesson here — and I am not sure there is — it is that, with a little care, some knit and crocheted items can last for many years. The color palette may be a little out-of-date, but they are still warm and cozy. But I probably will not go outside today.

Boilermaker Mittens

It has been cold here, cold enough for mittens, which Mike did not have. Into the stash for some leftover Cascade 220 black and gold tweed yarn, Purdue University's colors. Mike has his master's and doctoral degrees from Purdue, so he is pleased to wear the colors.

I used Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd for the template. This is a great book that I use frequently.

Mitteldeckchen III

If you are a lace knitter or want to be of if you just like looking at beautiful lace knitting (or knitted lace; I never can remember the distinction) you need to join the Lacy Knitters Guild. The guild newsletter features members and their knitting, and contains terrific patterns for doilies and edgings, some new, some old. This one, Mitteldeckchen III, called my name.

And it should call my name. It is designed by lace knitting master Eugen Beugler. I immediately grabbed my needles and cast on. The details:

• Pattern: Mitteldeckchen III by Eugen Beugler in Lacy Knitters Guild 2011-2. According to the pattern notes, the doily combines the center of one doily with the border of a different doily. It has 75 rounds.
• Thread: Lizbeth, size 40, color 642. Debbie from DS9 Designs carries the Lizbeth in every color and size. This was my first project with Lizbeth, and I was cautious because it is made in China. Based on this first sample, I found it to be a nice thread for knitting, with a crisp finish.
• Needles: 1.75mm (US00)
• Finished size: About 12 inches diameter.

I am now going back through my Lacy Knitters newsletters to see what else calls my name.

Boise Retreat 2011

The Boise lace knitting retreat has always provided an enormous opportunity to learn new skills, to admire fabulous knitting, and to stand in awe of amazing creativity. For example:

Easter eggs

Doilies

Mounting doilies in a ring

We also explored different fibers for lace knitting, with a lot of attention to Shetland sheep and Shetland wool. A conundrum: What is Shetland yarn? Is it yarn produced in Shetland from Shetland sheep? Yarn produced in Shetland from any type of sheep from any location? Yarn produced from Shetland sheep regardless of location? All of the above? Other variations?

Shetland fiber and yarn

Shetland fleece

We also talked extensively about Icelandic yarn with Linda DeMoss from DeMoss Mountain Meadow Ranch, and had the opportunity to fondle and purchase her beautiful fleeces and fibers.

This is only a small slice of all of the good things that happened at the 2011 Boise lace retreat.

A Big White Felt Whale

During my periodic trips to Richmond, Virginia, I usually try to visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I always find something unexpected and delightful, often something fiber-related. This time it was a big white felt whale.

The exhibit is Mocha Dick by Tristan Lowe. According to the staff at the exhibit, the whale is supported with an inflatable infrastructure. Cleverly concealed zipper seams hold Mocha Dick together and add texture to the sculpture. Felt barnacles also add to the texture.

Was Mocha Dick the model for Herman Melville's Moby Dick? Possibly. Even though I like this sculpture, I am not going to re-read Melville's epic. Did not like it in high school, do not like it now.

New Skills

I picked up this pattern because it contained two techniques I have never done before, and because I had some yarn in stash that would be suitable.

The first technique is a Shetland construction of the center triangle. Maybe I have done this before, but not recently. The other technique is working with different sizes of needles to create the stripe effect. I like the Shetland construction but I am not as crazy about the two-needle-sizes technique but I think it works here and I am glad I tried it. I really like a picot bind-off, which I have done before.

The details:

• Pattern: Simmer Dim by Gudrun Johnson at The Shetland Trader.
• Yarn: Louet Gems, 100% merino wool, 185 yards/50 grams, 2 skeins, Pink Panther
• Needles: US5 and US10
• Finished size: 15 inches center back

2-3-1-1

Seven ribbons at the Western Washington Fair this year: two blue, three red, one white, one green. I won first-place blue ribbons for an edging and a shawl (the photos are a little wonky because they are shot through glass in not-great lighting).

Observant readers here will note that the shawl is displayed wrong-side out. Sheesh.

The three second-place red ribbons are for doilies and for a scarf that did not photograph at all because the case where it was displayed had no lights:

The gold doily was designed as a round doily but it did not want to be blocked round. It wanted to be square-ish. I think it is knit a little to tightly to be round. Maybe I'll try it again on a larger needle.

The third-place white ribbon was for a Quincy hat and the green honorable mention ribbon was for Mike's vest.

This year’s fair grand champion in knitting was stunning. I do not know this knitter but she has my great admiration.

One disappointment (aside from displaying the shawl backwards) was that the number of knitting entries seems smaller every year. The number of entries seemed particularly low to me. If we knitters do not step up and start entering things, the whole home arts program could disappear, which would be sad.

Argentina Memory

One of the must-do attractions when visiting Buenos Aires is the outdoor San Telmo Sunday antiques market. No doubt you will find legitimate antiques; you also will find all of the tourist crapola you can imagine, and then some. With so much going on, you might miss the central market, with fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese, household items, and other “treasures.” And tucked in the central market is this shop, the only one I saw selling yarn.

Had to purchase, of course. The skein I bought weighed 136 grams; it is probably worsted weight. The young woman in the shop assured me it is “sheep wool.” The yarn decided it needed to be a multidirectional scarf, specifically this version.

I used US8 needles and ended up with a scarf 5 inches wide and 86 inches long. It is a warm scarf. Every time I wear it I will think of the very hot day in Buenos Aires when I bought the yarn.