So much fiber, so little time

Nifty blanket

While I was at home this lunchtime to let the doggerels out, I leafed through the latest issue of Handwoven and instantly fell in love with a blanket. It has Crayola-looking crayons along all four borders, woven with supplementary warps and wefts using a rosepath threading. Now, I'm not planning to weave one, but it's just such a clever and cheerful design, and I can imagine it several years down the road as someone's very favorite, ratty blankie.

I only briefly glanced at the rest of the issue. They've either toned down the "Hot Tip!" colors & font, or there are fewer. (Fervently hoping for fewer ...) Oh, there was a cute child's cape from a Vogue pattern. I think I'll stop by Joann's to take a look at it - very simple sewing (my kind!) and lots of design possibilities. Maybe there's an adult version too.

Yes, weavers are warped

So, I've been watching Shogun, and what crosses my mind? The fabric. I keep staring at the Japanese army uniforms and think, my, that's a metric sh*tload of yardage to weave on very narrow looms.

The shawl now has over 500 stitches on the needle. Them's gonna be very long rows by the time it's long enough!

Knitting, interrupted

Well, I tried to knit more shawl last night, but the evil pixies had other plans. Poor Cookie-dog had not one, but two episodes of muscle spasms last night, known to us as "curly dog time" because of the way her body twists. Cookie has presumed primary hyperparathyroidism, based on the spasms and the blood work, but no parathyroid tumors show up on ultrasound. And I won't let anyone do surgery until we know where the little buggers are.

She has gone almost six months without any spasms that I've seen. Guess it's back to the vet to see if her parathormone levels have climbed enough to put her through another ultrasound. At least she's not showing signs of kidney trouble - PHP eventually destroys the kidneys - and she's not limping today, so she didn't pull any muscles badly last night.

Plugging away

I'm knitting away on the shawl, and it's almost 10 inches long now. Plus all four disks of Shogun are en route from Netflix, which adds up to some serious knitting time. My goal is to finish the shawl by mid-October, because the only large, flat, dog-free area I have for blocking is outside. It's a bit hard to guarantee dry days above freezing from November to March, and when one comes along on a weekday, it could mean an impromptu personal day. After all, one must keep one's priorities straight ...

Stuck at work

Well, I'm at work now, processing four hours of course video from yesterday. My alarm didn't go off at 4 am, so I got here at 6 instead of 4:30. That means I'll have to skip my 9 am riding lesson. Plan B was to process two of the classes, ride, and then return in the late morning/early afternoon to do the third, but Cornell is playing football at home, and central campus will therefore be unnavigable. (Anyone familiar with Tom Paxton's song One Million Lawyers? It's got a wonderful line: "there's Ivy League football to ruin the fall". Yup!)

But on the bright side, I've got the alpaca/merino/tussah shawl with me, and I'm making good progress. It looks lumpy and frumpy, but test-stretching shows that it should be spectacular blocked. I think I'll put an edge of i-cord along the k1,p1 front band, because the yarn is too fine for the ribbing's edge to look clean on 3mm needles. I-cord on 2mm needles will improve it. I'm also having minor fits with the pattern markers. I was too lazy to make another set of carpet warp markers, so I used some jewelry rings. Unfortunately, they're not completely closed rings, and the yarn is fine enough to slip through the gap. So I spend a small amount of time untangling them. Sigh.

Hatches battened!

Today, I met up with Caroline to give her some maple put aside after July's great tree massacre. She had a van load of dogs, including the alpaca-like Ziggy, and was bravely heading off to Wisconsin. Fortunately, she should be well to the west before the rain and wind get here.

I just finished putting away everything that could blow and will be home tomorrow on generator alert. Don't think we'll flood too badly in the immediate area; we missed the entrained rain that hit a line east of us a few days ago, so the ground isn't as soaked as it could be. And I'm ever so glad the white pine on the east side of the house is history. We'll see how the maples' haircuts work out.

I love mail order

Yesterday I got a mailing from Webs, and today the new Knitology catalog from Woodland Woolworks arrived. (Of course, I'd really rather have the Spinology catalog, but it's still extra reading material :)

Still knitting

I'm still working on the shawl and making good progress, but since it is frog hair, it's going more slowly than the last shawl. I have to be careful with the yarn overs on the purl row - it's really easy to purl them together with another stitch!

Right now I've got my eye on the weather. The latest prediction for Isabel has tropical storm force winds hitting us Friday, which means I'll want to be at home on generator stand-by. Even though the local power company has done a lot of tree trimming this summer, stray trees could still come down on the lines. Unfortunately, I'm also supposed to stream video of the core classes on Friday because some of the precious darlings are supposed to play in a golf tournament. Somehow, I don't think they'll be playing, but I don't know if that means we're going to cancel the streaming too. As far as I'm concerned, I can process the tapes on Saturday, if necessary.

Frog hair, indeed

I guess the alpaca/merino/tussah really is frog hair, because I was working on the shawl at our guild meeting today and kept going through the "oh, what a fine singles"/"no, it's a two-ply" conversation. I did manage to give a packet of the crocking indigo to a new member who has been playing with woad.

Henrietta is working out even better than expected. I think I've figured out a way to put two dog crates in her without moving the seats. There must be a wormhole or something inside to create that much space!

Orange you glad I didn't say banana

Henrietta is home, in all her orangeness! I've moved all the essential tools in (compressor, emergency hammer/seat belt cutter, tire pressure gauge, squeegees, and fire extinguisher), and of course, tested the iPod, which plugs right into the stereo system. I still need to finish reading the owner's manual and fidget with the mirrors a little more.

And the fiber front moves along too. This is the alpaca/merino/tussah shawl about a repeat into the pattern. It will need careful blocking to show it off properly, particularly since the increases and decreases are not always together. I'm happy with the yarn, too - it's probably some of my best frog-hair spinning.

Ooh, ooh!

Henrietta the Honda is here! I'm going down to do the paperwork in the morning. Then I just need to contact my NPR station to donate the non-airconditioned, bucking, clanking, noisy piece-o-garbage currently in the driveway.

New shawl in progress

This chart is the one I did Saturday for the alpaca/merino/tussah shawl. I finished the neckband and a few rows of the pattern yesterday and got a bit further along during a Bloody Awful Meeting (TM Theresa). It should have enough pattern to photograph tomorrow, since I'm using the 3 mm needles now. The neckband, worked on 2 mm needles, was a tad slow to grow, although not slow enough for me to want to learn to knit and purl backwards.

skeins

Caroline has a skein in the Rare Breeds section of the Fall 2003 SpinOff. They got so many that they have put the overflow into a PDF on the Interweave website.

The "What's Hot" section made me want to vomit, though. Handwoven has been courting (mythical?) Hip Young Urban Weavers, and now apparently SpinOff is going after Hip Young Urban Spinners. HYUK, HYUW and HYUS are all sounds of nausea, as far as I'm concerned.

A pattern

So on this gloriously pretty day, I've been inside charting a shawl pattern for the alpaca/merino/tussah blend. It's a slightly elongated leaf lace stitch from Die schönsten Strickmuster. Fairly simple, but it fits well into the increases of an open-front circular shawl, and the areas of stockinette will show off the yarn's luster. I've printed off the chart and just need to check that the increases equal the decreases before winding skeins and picking a needle size. No swatch for this: since it's top down, it's just as easy to start the shawl and frog it if the gauge seems off.

Indigo hat

Here's the finished indigo hat. The colors are too close in value and the yarn a little too textured for the mosaic pattern to show up well. I'll use that pattern again one of these days, though. Poor Hedy - her baldy styrofoam bean has taken on a smurf-like cast from the crocking!

This weekend should be nice and cool. I've got a bunch of DVDs, and maybe I'll plow through more of the Clun Forest while I watch them. I do need to plan a new knitting project, though. It's down to one of two yarns on hand. First, I've got the textured alpaca/wool/silk leftovers blend that I see as a cardigan for me. And there's also the alpaca/merino/tussah laceweight I spun up last summer. That cries out to be a spectacular lace shawl. It's time to browse through the stitch pattern books for ideas.

And I watched The Two Towers yesterday. Hmm, I found it disconcerting that Gollum sounded like Donald Duck. I'll stick to the BBC Radio adaption, I guess.