Etherknitter

Fighting the summer doldrums

How does summer vaporize so fast?  The daylily world categorizes cultivars as early, mid, late, and very late.  We are almost through mid, and cracking into late blooming cultivars.  Can the Red Sox really still be 7.5 games up at the end of July?  The Yankees have lapped the Toronto Blue Jays.  We of the Red Sox nation can uncomfortably feel them breathing on our necks.  But then, it wouldn't be summer in Boston any other way.

Slogging through a wool/mohair/hemp blend for the Straker vest has not been a sweaty task.  The back is done.  The color variation where the new ball was joined is not quite as obvious in real life.  Did it bother me?  Temporarily.  Would it bother the recipient muggle?  It is what it is.  (I've been saying that a great deal while knitting this vest in this yarn.)  I'm alternating skeins on the front, which is now four inches along.  This WIP is clearly stating that it needs to be done.  I thought because of the sleeveless nature of the garment, that it would be quick to knock off the queue.  Deluded much?  Not anymore.

This Ackers Acres Angora bunnyblend (wool/angora) came from SPA 2006.  I tried a ripply Barbara Walker pattern.  That was frogged last week after 8 or so inches, with a resulting remarkable lightening of psychic weight in the Etherknitter queue.  It is now restarted in the Arrowhead pattern that came with the yarn. 

Spinning has actually been sweatier than knitting.  I'm playing with a cashmere/silk sample (The Fold, 2006) that demands laceweight and dry palms.  Just holding the yarn is warm enough to screw up the predrafted feathers that result.  There is no talcum powder in the house.  (There was an observational study years ago that linked talcum powder with ovarian cancer. )  So the spinning report here relies on the last two yarns that leaped off the bobbins.

100% tussah silk, colorway 'Plenty' from Abby, and merino 70%/silk 30% Ashland Bay (blue) from The Fold, 2005.

Many spinners gradually turn away from Ashland Bay fiber when "Oooooh! Nice colorway!" is replaced by fascination with more exotic fiber choices.  I did too, until I pulled this from the stash for a less mindful spin.  My fiber snobbery was trumped by superb prep and beautiful color blending. Chibi for scale in both pictures. 

Abby's silk is simply wonderful.  I'm planning two ply for both these bobbins, and will do that soon.

My life with Mr. Etherknitter expands into a 12'x12' space in the summer months.  We live on the porch.  Dinner relaxes into later evening.  I put multiple hours into the deck plantings, all in containers, each year.  This year was all about yellows/reds/oranges/purples in flower and foliage.

Last year, we had our first hummingbirds.  They came for the salvias.  In typical Pavlovian fashion, this year I purchased six different salvias.  Can you anticipate which color the hummers like best?

Ha.  Blue.  Birds after my own heart.  We have two that behave differently.  One comes by, explores each flower systematically, and then scoots away.  The second perches for minutes on a bamboo stake.

As it is said in Philly, wit' and wit'out.

TKGA 2007

Must post.  Should have posted before everyone else said what was to be said.  Now it is said, and I have nothing to say that opens new vistas.  I DO like new vistas.  That's why I signed up for four classes at the TKGA conference last weekend.  The best part of the weekend was exactly what you expect me to point out next.  Hanging out with the knitbuds was just more than fine.

Class 1.  Seven tips to make better sweaters:  Among other tips, the instructor made raised increases suddenly simple.  I smiled.  Now I can attack Mr. Etherknitter's Elsebeth Lavold sweater anew.  Every increase had me squinting at the picture in the first Viking Knits book.  I knit at the pace of glacial epochs.  Now I can take it out of time-out.  Then buttonholes!  I did my first buttonholes!  Now cardigans are in the viewscreen. 

The instructor also debunked the myth of picking up three stitches for every four rows on buttonbands.  She, instead, substituted a formula of stitch gauge vs row gauge which works more consistently to prevent holes or puckering. 

Class 2.  Continental knitting with Galina Khmeleva:  She is funny.  Charming.  Smart.  I harbored deep in my English knitting soul, a fantasy of switching to Continental technique.  The knit stitch was possible, the purl stitch frustrating ("now ve doo poorl stitch" and I heard my Russian grandmother's voice, who sewed but never knit).  One of my knitting confreres was heard to mutter, "Now I understand why knitters would rather steek."   She taught Granny purl (Eastern uncrossed), and traditional purl (gymnastic at best).  I suspect I will practice lefty for two color knitting.  I'm not sure what will happen beyond that modest goal.

Class 3.  Russian grafting:  I think everyone's mouth gaped open when they grasped the simplicity and beauty of this technique.   Bring two swatches in st st, about 20 stitches x 10 rows and I'll show you how at Rhinebeck.  Slip the first stitch of each row purlwise wyif.

Class 4.  Four stitches - smocking, traveling twisted, brioche, elongated:  Fun to learn, some simple, some not so much.  Traveling twisted opens up the world of Japanese patterns. 

The fibermart was fun.  Three booths swept me in, as they swept in the rest of our band of knitskateers.  Habu, Just our Yarn, Tess seduced with unique colors and fibers.  (Tess [Melinda Bickford] is opening a store in Portland, Maine next week.)  I heeded the call of the stainless steel yarn at Habu.  Steel and silk for a scarf for the MIL, in steel (of course) grey.  And steel and wool in Terra Cotta (terra cotta?  Me?) for sampling a wall hanging for the master bedroom.  Big needles, teensy yarn, interesting possibilities.

Just our Yarn sock yarn, in a unique colorway.  I suspect this may be LIFO in the always lengthening queue.

Re-entry was hard.

Summer interlude: Terrible tenants, biting bugs, and floral frippery

It's 90+ degrees Out There.  I've stopped counting.  The humidity matches the numbers.  My last foray into garden tending got me bit by something that now has antibiotic ointment covering it.  Once again, I'm cowering in the house. 

Yes, I've spent the requisite amount of Ravelry time.  And I've been taking pictures in the garden.  I'll sample from some shots in Z00mBr0wser.  It will be short, sweet, fiber and garden amusement.

Mr. Cardinal was caught in the act at the feeder.  This satisfies the Cute Critter Quotient for the post today. 

I have, against my will, become an Evil Landlord.  Several weeks ago, indignant chirps made it clear that a chipmunk had set up housekeeping in the garage.  I caught him once in the Hav-a-heart trap.  Ever the optimist, I let him out on the lawn, hoping he would find less traumatic lodgings.  He was back within a day.  Two weeks later, I managed to chase him out.  He is very stupid.  I stood quietly for seconds.  He reappeared.  I herded his terrified self out, closed the door, dusted off my hands, and thought, "Problem solved.  Clever human."  A week later, I was standing behind the car with Rolf the Tree Guy.  The chipmunk made a strafing run on the driveway past the garage door opening.  You could see the momentary hesitation at the midpoint.  "AB0RT MISSION!  Predator at 9 o'clock! "  Minutes later, he scurried in the opposite direction, same battle plan.  You could see his mini-chipmunk mind running its few program modules.  He had not forgotten that lovely home, complete with a lifetime supply of sunflower seeds.  (Yes, he chewed into the bag twice, despite the tape and the plastic covering his previous successes.)

I did miss his chirrupy presence.  Mr. Etherknitter came home yesterday.  "Good news and bad news," he teased me.  "He's back.  But now there are two."  Oh.  I am very stupid.  I will leave them for now.  The sunflower seed bag has been transferred to the mudroom.  I'm sure they have enough stored for weeks.

I have joined the Unholy Coven of Woolcombers.  Chris lent me her combs, Marcy made sure I didn't injure myself.  Alpaca on the left, Leicester Longwool on the right.  The residual fiber left on the combs bothers me.  Marcy adamantly rejects the term "waste".  That has not decreased the peculiar satisfaction of learning a new, arcane skill.

Four flowers currently in bloom:   Cerise:  Hemerocallis 'Rhinestone Kid' (daylily), pale yellow flower, name lost to foliage-covering tags, Adenophora confusa (Ladybells), and Hemerocallis 'Double Old Ivory'.   

The red the white and the blue

Usually, knitting news comes first.  Then spinning is followed by the garden.  I probably should reverse the order of the latter two, since I am aware that not all knitters spin, and want OUT when the content gets out of focus for them.  Today's test-drive is brought to you courtesy of the Fourth of July.  Happy birthday, wonderful country!  I so appreciate you.

FO!  Socks!  Fleece Artist 100% merino, #1 CP bamboo needles, 12 rows of ribbing, st st body, slip stitch heel flap, kitchener toe.  The fabric is dense, purposefully.  I want these babies to survive.  I really liked working with sproingy FA yarn.  It didn't pool.  This is red.

Drought has slowed the garden's progression, so you get an historical shot from June 13th.  The clematis reached over thirty feet high into the Kousa dogwood this year.  I can see blossoms from the second story bathroom.  I could pick them if I opened the window.  This is white.

Blue comes last.  This is some of my nicest handspun.  Corriedale pencil roving, colorway Ol' Blue Eyes from our inimitable Teyani.  Navajo plyed, the color runs were too short to preserve.  I wet-finished it with whacking, not plunging.  I suppose now that Judith MM has talked of plungers and yarn, all spinners will have a toilet yarn plunger as standard equipment.

Yesterday was a GREAT day in the garden.  I am so behind in weeding.  Putting in the back beds two years ago doubled my garden space, AND the maintenance.  The weed seeds from the last two years of neglect ALL sprouted.  So I hired cheapsummerhelp.com.  Two young men came for four hours and did more to improved my life than the equivalent amount of money spent on yarn and roving.   

Have a safe and joyous holiday!