August Update

August is a good time to clear out and make space in the chest freezer. For me, that means taking the remaining bags of whole pecans from the last harvest and cracking them so there will be lots of nuts ready for holiday baking. The nutmeats take less room than the whole nuts, and the chickens just love picking through the shells. Everybody wins. 

While I was busy shelling nuts, my single zucchini plant was sneakily producing baseball bat-sized squashes. No worries--these make wonderful zucchini spaghetti when run through the spiralizer. Even the very largest ones still taste great. 

In my last post I described my experiment with gradient dyeing of yarn. Here is what that yarn looked like out of the dyepot and when knit into a baby sweater. I'm hoping there is enough yarn from this dye batch to complete the sleeves. Gracie the cat looks pretty confident that all will work out.

The gradient-dyed yarn with the accidental white spots from being tied too tightly

The white spots showed up as random flecks, which Gracie and I actually like. 

In between experimental dye pots, I was working on this Easy Peazy Shawlette from a skein of Mineville Wool Project sock yarn in the Solar Flare colorway. I finished the piece in plenty of time for my sister's birthday. She liked it! and she put together the perfect outfit to go with it, including several of her handmade necklaces. 

August is chile harvesting time here in the Mesilla Valley, and the high school Future Farmers of America had a fundraiser/green chile roast. It was like a big party--country music, lots of kids in cowboy hats and boots slinging big bags of freshly roasted chiles around, and the wonderful smell of chiles roasting over an open flame. It was a great reminder of why we live here. 

BZ photo

When we got our twenty pounds of roasted chiles home, we cooled them in ice water, drained them, and packed them into quart ziplock bags. Now you know why I wanted more room in the freezer! Now we have bags and bags of chiles ready to use for green chile cheeseburgers, chiles rellenos, enchiladas, burritos, and all the other delicious New Mexican dishes we love.

BZ photo

I've been working on the last paint details for the living room. I scrubbed down all the old worn thresholds and painted them to match the rest of the room. Henry helped, as you can see from this photo taken between coats of paint.

My morning walk has to take place a little later now since the days are growing noticeably shorter and my old starting time is quite a bit before sunrise. The crops are growing well in all the fields we pass, but the ditches are now empty and the farmers are irrigating with groundwater from wells, instead of ditch water from the Rio Grande. 

The view is the same, but the ditch is empty now. 

In addition to the views, we also come across the occasional bit of wildlife!

Rabbit Vest

Rabbits at Dawn With Snow Falling

When you have a cat like Henry, all knitting projects are a challenge. When he was little, he wanted to climb into my knitting bag and play with partly knit sweaters, yarn, and needles. Now that he is more grown up, he wants attention and affection when I want to be knitting. He's so big now, he makes a lot of lap-cat to be knitting around.

And that is how the needles came to be pulled out of the row when I was knitting the rabbit faces on this vest. I waited until the next morning when I was calm and patiently reconstructed the rows, stitch by stitch, carefully getting the right colors in the right places (I thought). At the time, I was quite proud of the results. (Cue the foreboding music here). 

Ha! We all know that pride goes before a fall. It was many, many rows later when I realized that something wasn't quite right with some of the rabbits. There are two rabbit poses on this sweater, and only two. Well, according to the pattern that's what should have happened. However, in a world overflowing with Henry love, things just turned out differently. 

My rabbits all have individual faces and expressions. And names. Of course they have names. That one on the far left is called Mumpy because, well, what else would you call a bunny with such oversized cheeks?

Rabbits at Dawn With Snow Falling

A winter themed sweater is the perfect project for these chilly days. I found this motif on Pinterest and I see it comes from Shutterstock. I'm afraid I can't tell you more than that, except that it was called "Wayuu Mochila pattern."

I added part of this motif, also from unknown origins via Pinterest. 

Here is how it looked partway through. The sweater is off the needles now and in the finishing stage. When everything is done, I will share a photo here. 

In other news from the Zees, the former kitten Henry is getting huge. At 8 months, he weighs almost ten pounds now. His behavior is quite different from the way it was when he first arrived. I'll tell you more about him in the next post. 

Taking on a Complex Project: Inspiration and Interpretation

I found this photo of the Nepalese Haley Jacket on Ravelry. If you've never heard of it, Ravelry tells us it "is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, weavers and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, project and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration."  

I am fascinated by this garment and have spent a lot of time staring at the photo. The colors! The designs! The techniques! 

The person who created it, whose Ravelry username is "Rishi," didn't include a pattern but did mention elsewhere that she loves a jacket called Kestrels Alight Kimono, designed by Sarah Swett, and published in the book Knitting in America by Melanie Falick.

Our library didn't have the book, but I was lucky enough to find a used copy online for only five dollars. It's a beautiful book, originally sold for $35, but now somewhat out of date. Of course, "out of date" is very subjective, and most of the things in the book appeal to me. Most importantly, I now have some directions for shaping the garment. 

The technique for knitting this jacket is one I've always wanted to try. This is Fair Isle knitting that has two or more colors per row with strands carried across the back, and it is most efficiently done in the round, rather than as flat shaped pieces that are sewn together . That much I've done before, but here is the technique that is new to me: The sweater is made as a tube and then the front is cut open, as are the armholes. These cuts are called steeks. For my knitting friends, there is an excellent online tutorial by Kay Davies on steeking. See the first part here: https://katedaviesdesigns.com/2012/04/29/steeks-1-introduction/

Phew! Scary stuff, to take a pair of scissors to knitting you have worked on for such a long time! They tell me it works, and I'm going to find out. 

And from what I can tell by enlarging the photo, I think that the front band was knit separately as another tube, short and wide, then cut apart and connected to the jacket body. Another fun steek! Later note: I've found that this band is knitted by picking up stitches from the front, then knit as a tube, etc., instead of being knit separately then attached.

I've enjoyed looking through my knitting books for Fair Isle designs to use. The next section of my sweater will have a flower design that I found online. My printer is disappointing me these days, so I will be spending some time transferring and color coding the blurry online photo to graph paper this afternoon.

This is where interpretation of the original inspiration garment comes in. Nothing about my project will look like Rishi's beautiful jacket: My stitches will be much bigger, my colors and designs different, and the finished product will probably be a light sleeveless cardigan vest instead of a warm jacket with sleeves.

I've got about six inches knit so far. To get to this point, I needed to knit several swatches so I could determine my gauge and find out how many stitches to put on what size needles. Rishi knitted a dense fabric with tiny No. 2 knitting needles for her jacket; I wanted an airier, thinner fabric (winter in the desert is cold, but not that cold), so I am using much larger No. 8 needles. 

After figuring out the gauge I began the actual garment, found an error, tore it out. Began again, tore it out again. And again. I'm on my fourth try now and all is going well. Even though it has taken a couple of weeks, I've learned a lot along the way!

The jacket at the top of the page took Rishi "about a year to complete." This project is going to be all about the journey, not the destination. 

Doesn't look much like the inspiration jacket, does it? Funny how that happens.

Busy Needles

I've been making a blog for my knitting group over much of the past year. It's a good place for our group to keep a record of the projects we've done and the recipes and patterns we've shared. It's also a way to keep in touch with the knitters who travel. You can see it at Sit, Stitch, Share, Snack.

Because I've been busy documenting everything going on around me, I suddenly realized that I hadn't been getting a record of my own projects. Since I was taking photos for the knitting blog today anyway, I thought I'd share the results with you here.

Heritage Trellis Lace Cowl; Petey wouldn't get off!
The pattern is available online for free from Cascade Yarns.
I used Knit Picks wool yarn left over from the mittens below.

Terrible picture of my sweater, knit from Knit Picks Shine Sport Weight Yarn--a soft blend of cotton and modal (a beech wood fiber). I was in a rush to get the shot before Petey jumped in to model.

Mittens with deer; the pattern for these came with a big bag of yarn from Knit Picks, a gift from my husband. This is the second pair I've made; the first pair is shown here. I have enough mittens now and am using the rest of the yarn for projects like the lace cowl above. 

Back side of mittens. You can see I did something strange when reading the pattern--I didn't realize these were so different until looking at these photos. It was probably because there was quite a bit of time between the knitting of the first and second mittens!

Now, this is a closeup of the pair of socks that I first made from a skein of Noro Silk Garden yarn--I loved the colors, but I hated the socks and never even put them on. So, I unraveled the socks...

...and used the yarn to make this shrug, which I like much better.

And what knitter can't use another pair of wool socks?

Shroud #3

This is the third shrug (also jokingly known as a shroud in our family) that I have knit for my sister. You can see the first one here and the second one here. This time, the pattern is a different one called  the Calypso Shrug/Shoulder Wrap, and it comes from the book, Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders, by Judith Durant.

The shrug is essentially one long rectangle that is fastened with two buttons at the elbows. The lace is called "seafoam," and it is simple to do. I am sure that lots of other lace patterns could be used in a shrug like this one. 

The yarn is Malabrigo Sock (100% merino wool) in the Primavera color way. It's an interesting color; in some light it looks rather khaki-ish, but close up you can see the color variations. 

I hope you can also see the bronze colored beads when you enlarge the photo above. This was my first project using beads in knitting, and it won't be my last. If you are interested in beaded knitting, check out this article which will tell you a great deal of what you need to know. 

There are different ways to get the beads on to the yarn. I just followed the directions in the book and used a crochet hook to place each bead as its stitch came up. The only bad moment was when I accidentally harpooned myself in the leg with the very tiny crochet hook, but that's a story for another day. 

The possibilities for beaded work are endless, I'm sure. I can't wait to try again. (Just as soon as my leg heals).

A Shroud for Auntie Bucksnort, Revisited

I first published this post a couple of days ago with some woefully unfocused photos. I took a new batch of photos this morning (thanks to a patient Bucksnort) and am trying once again. 

I suppose you might call our family irreverent. We laugh at everything, appropriately or inappropriately. When Uncle Buck mistakenly referred to the new shrug I knit for my sister as a shroud, we loved it, and that's what we'll be calling it from now on. For a shroud, it's got some mighty bright colors, and sequins, too.

This is the second in a series of three shrouds/shrugs that I am making for Auntie Bucksnort. You can see the first one here. I keep fooling around with the basic pattern (Dream Shrug) and used a chevron lace stitch for this version, which is made from the brilliantly-hued Yarn Bee Diva Sequin Yarn in the Denali color way. Look closely and,you can see the sequins that appear randomly. 

A shroud with sequins? We should all be so lucky.

Mitten Weather

We have just emerged from a rare week of really cold weather which reminded me that I never showed you these mittens that I made quite a while back. The yarn and pattern came from Knit Picks, a fine online company that supplies some very nice yarns in seemingly unlimited color ranges. These mittens are part of a kit* (a gift from that nice Beez) that provides enough yarn for SIX pairs of mittens, each representing a different cold weather month. Well, six months of cold weather somewhere - not here in the Chihuahuan Desert. 

The yarn supplied with the kit is Palette, which is 100% Peruvian wool. Take a look at all the colors it comes in by searching "Palette yarn" on the Knit Picks website.

I plan to (eventually) make the other five pairs of mittens in my kit. The design in the one pair I have completed ("November") is pretty abstract to me, but if I scrunch up my eyes and stand way back I can make out some falling leaves.

The back side is a nice design, too, although I messed up in a couple of places. The next pair I am working on has deer and mountains, and some lovely lavender and blue and white shades. Perhaps they'll be ready for mitten weather when it comes again next year.

*****

*As far as I can tell, this particular mitten kit is no longer offered.

Learning to Knit a Cable

I've always admired knitted cables, although because they look so complex I figured that they would be really hard to do. Since cables were first on my list of knitting skills to learn this year, I chose a pattern that looked pretty straightforward and didn't involve a lot of yarn.  It's called the Sulka Scarfette, and you can download the pdf file for free here from Babetta's Yarn Cafe, where it appeared on the last page of a 2009 newsletter. 

Once I got going, I was thrilled to see an actual cable emerging from my needles. So thrilled, in fact, that I didn't notice that little mistake (some purl stitches where some knit stitches were supposed to appear, up at the top of the first photo) until after I snapped the picture.

To make a cable, I found out, you simply slip some stitches off the knitting needle and onto a cable needle. Then, in this case, the cable needle with those stitches is held in the front of your work while you knit some of the next stitches that are still on the needle. Then you knit the stitches you have been holding on the cable needle, and continue knitting the rest of the row. That's it! You put that little cable needle down where the cat can't get it, and you won't need it in this pattern for another seven rows. 

Now, I've only made this one kind of very simple cable, but I felt very successful about it. The completed scarfette makes a very cosy addition on a chilly day. You can wear it over a sweater or under a jacket for some extra warmth.

I used size 10 needles and some yarn given to me called Scheepjes Luzern Tweed, a wool/acrylic/viscose blend made in Holland. I'm not even sure that it is still being made, as a quick search showed that it mostly appears in "stuff from my mother's stash" type of ads on eBay. The project took less than a 50 gram/90 meter skein.

I've just ordered some lovely merino/alpaca/donegal tweed yarn called City Tweed Aran from Knit Picks so that I can make a couple more of these simple little scarfettes. I'll let you know how those turn out.

Polishing Off the Projects: The Log Cabin Blanket

Log Cabin Blanket
Knit with yarn left over from Knit for Kids sweaters

A couple of weeks ago I woke in the night to a feeling that I hadn't experienced since retiring: I was worried about getting through all the stuff that I needed to do. I had made promises to other people and to myself and was feeling pressured about getting things done. 


In the morning, I glanced at my horoscope and this is what I saw: 

"You have a lot to get done, but you will get it done. 

Simply focus on one project after another."

Well! I never look at horoscopes, let alone let them guide my days, but this one was just perfect. Never mind that it could apply to anyone, especially during the holidays when we all feel a little pressure of one sort or another. 

I got myself back in order after seeing those words. After all, I am retired, and my time is my own. I take on projects because I like to do them, and I have convinced my family that gifts that are received on dates other than Christmas or birthdays are not late gifts, but wonderful surprises. There is no need to get in a swither!

Since that lovely Horoscope Day, I have lined up the projects and finished them off, one by one. I have remembered to enjoy the journey and to stop fretting about the destination and, in doing so, have found that one project after another has been completed. The llama fiber is all spun and goes into the mail today; the log cabin blanket has been assembled and is keeping me warm; socks have been knitted; the dining room has been painted, curtains have been sewn, and so on.  What doesn't get done today will eventually get done. 

My horoscope promised me, and it must be so! 

Log Cabin, Big Sky (for Skywatch)

Oh, my. This photo could have been so much better but, just as I snapped it, my camera battery gave out and the recharged one was many miles away at home.

I wanted to commemorate our early morning moment of knitting together high above Las Cruces--my sister, our friend Helen, and me. In a perfect post, there would also have been photos of Helen's and Bucksnort's knitting projects held up against views of Las Cruces and the Mesilla Valley far below us. However, this week has been all about making do with reality, so you only see a curled-up piece of my log cabin knitting blanket held up against the beautiful Organ Mountains.

I just want you to know that the air was fresh and cold, the views down over the Mesilla Valley were terrific, and the quiet companionship without equal. We saw a proud and unafraid coyote ahead of us on the road, and we heard unidentifiable birds warbling their way through the cactus, chamisa, and mesquite. And the camera battery was dead, dead, dead. It was like our own little reality show--the best of our world intertwined with the small failures of everyday life.

For other views of the world and its skies, please visit Skywatch Friday.

But First...

The beginnings of the blanket

As I mentioned yesterday, now that I am mailing off the last batch of little kid acrylic sweaters knit for charity, I am more than ready to go back to using natural fibers. However, because I am a Yankee born and bred, I was brought up with these words ringing in my ears:

Use it up

Wear it out

Make it do

Or do without

That, of course, means that I have to put all the acrylic leftovers from those sweaters into something useful. Why not a log cabin blanket variation? It's fun to do and it's a small and portable project when made square by square. Best of all, it is a way of using up little balls of yarn and making some interesting color combinations along the way. The technique is explained here. 

So, I am making square after square and plan to join them together with a dark teal-colored yarn. I'll let you know how the project progresses. I've done 12 square so far, and think that I should make 25 in all. We'll see.

Bright Socks for Happy Feet

I'm still knitting socks, although I won't show you any more for a while because I'm starting on some stocking gifts for Christmas. 

This pair is for me, though, and they are nice and bright!

The yarn is Knit One Crochet Too Ty Dy Sock Yarn in the Tropicale colorway, and I bought it online through Jimmy Beans Wool, my favorite.

Socks: Violets Rainbow

More Mini Mochi yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool, this time in the colorway Violets Rainbow. 

I'm getting better at this sock knitting business. I believe I knit each of these socks only once. No do-overs at all!

They are very soft and will feel great in cold weather. I know, that's pretty hard to imagine in this steamy summer of broken heat records. I'm making plans for some Christmas gift sock knitting now.

The nice thing about ordering from Jimmy Beans is that I can dream up a project on a Friday night, order online, and have the yarn in my mailbox Monday afternoon. Can't beat that!

Socks: Bodega Bay

A few weeks ago, I showed you this yarn, the Bodega Bay colorway of Mini Mochi, which I got from Jimmy Beans Wool. I cannot say enough good things about Jimmy Beans--the orders come promptly and in perfect condition--and, they give free shipping coupons, too. 

Here are the socks I knit, my second pair now. I tried out a little lace pattern, but I must have lost my place a few times, as the lace wanders a bit.

In my knitting group, we discuss whether socks should match exactly when multicolored, or if they should be spontaneous and random. I guess you can see which side I am on!

Socks!

I've been teaching myself to knit socks. This first one, shown here, was completely knit and re-knit maybe three times until I got it right. There was shrieking; there was hair-pulling. The dogs quickly learned that when the sock came out, they left the room.

However, the second sock (since finished) turned out to be an absolute breeze. All my hard-learned lessons--manipulating all those little poky needles, making heel flaps, turning the heel, working the gusset, and decreasing for the toe--just came together smoothly and the second sock was done practically painlessly. After all, I made all the possible mistakes on the first one!

The design looks a lot more complicated than it actually is, because it is made with self-striping yarn that gives it almost a Fair Isle look, when all along it is just straight knitting, right from the ball of yarn.

Yarn: Heart and Sole by Red Heart. 70% wool superwash, 30% nylon. It has aloe vera added! The pattern called for 2 balls, but there was a lot left over from the second one.

Pattern: LW 1619 Self-Striping Knit Socks (downloadable for free).

A Couple More Things About Bodega Bay

I showed you some photos last week from our recent trip to Bodega Bay. I wanted to share one more with you.

If you ever watched Alfred Hitchcock's thriller movie, The Birds (1963), this sign might make you smile. The movie that left us all so frightened whenever two or more birds gathered together was filmed right in the little town of Bodega Bay.

Apparently, the town has never forgotten. You can read all about the filming and locations on the website for the Inn of the Tides. And Tippi Hedren, star of the movie, still comes back to visit.

One more Bodega Bay note: I've been learning some new knitting techniques (more later on that subject) and have discovered the perfect yarn. I fell in love with Mini Mochi from Crystal Palace and--guess what? There is a beautiful color called Bodega Bay that perfectly captures all the shades of the hills, the skies, and the water there. I've got some on order, and will show you the project as soon as the yarn arrives by mail.

Peruvian Motifs

Weaving brought back from a trip

At my knitting group the other day, I was enjoying listening to the various conversations around the room, but my knitting project was almost putting me to sleep. As I have been knitting children's sweaters for Knit for Kids for--gosh, could it really be?--the last five years, I probably could continue knitting them in my sleep. 

And then, it happened--Carol strode into the room, arriving late* as she usually does--and literally pulled this wonderful weaving out of her bag. Don't you find it a lively and inspiring piece? So much life is packed into such a relatively small space!

Looking up at the various sprightly figures, then down again at my (yawn) bazillionth little kid sweater, I found that all kinds of ideas were suddenly percolating around in my head. I am certainly surrounded by talented knitters and crocheters in that group, and they are always coming up with wonderful projects. Perhaps it's time for me to try something new!

*****

*Not that the term "late" has any real significance here in the Land of Mañana...