etc.

Happy Earth Day.

A lot of reading to-day, and not a lot of much else. Except a brief visit with my parents, where we did some file management on their new computer, followed by fun with Skype and Pandora. And I picked up my camera so Easter pictures are up on Flickr.

I don’t think I’ve ever clicked through to the Style section when I read the New York Times online, but this morning I did, and I’m glad of it because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have learned of these knitting needles. LED tips? You betcha! Campy, yes, but I’m a movie-theatre-knitter so I applaud the idea. And, in an odd self-referential twist, if you Google “knit lite”, as I did, you will see that the first result on the list is a post from this very blog, which has nothing at all to do with LED-tipped needles, to be sure.

Knitters will know what I’m talking about. Sometimes you read a pattern and it makes no sense at all and no matter how hard you try, your mind’s eye can’t see the stitches described transforming themselves into the knitted garment in the pattern’s picture. Lady Eleanor is my faith-based knitting project du jour. I’ve been admiring the stole all over knit-blogland (note: faith-based knitting is easier when others have gone before you and been successful), so I know it can be done. Last week, my copy of Scarf Style arrived and I cast on. On faith.

This is Silk Garden #86, which astute readers with better memories than mine, might recall was the yarn I used for Klaralund, lo those many months ago. Well, I’m not sure I ever did tell you, but Klaralund, once seamed, ended up too small for me by some bizarre error of gauge or pattern, I can’t remember which. Of course, once I’d done all that seaming, I didn’t have the heart to rip it all out, so I left her folded on a shelf and told myself that if I were to ever find another pattern for the yarn, I’d rip then. Which is what I did last week, during a rare mid-week day off. I’m not sure how many of you have ripped a Silk Garden garment from beginning to end, it’s not an easy yarn to frog, it breaks easily and sheds ridiculously, but press on I did, with eager anticipation urging me on.

So, yes, entrelac is faith-based knitting, but it’s easier than you can ever imagine, and plenty of fun to knit, especially with a lovely yarn like Silk Garden. And, oh, the texture! When I held it up to show the mister, he said, “cool. It’s 3D.”

Feast day of St. James of the Marches, patron saint of Naples. I would very much like to go to Naples. To-day, preferably.

Remember the catalogue of knits-in-progress and the fervent promises to complete certain items on the list? Completion was put on hold as I whipped together a pair of mitts to greet last week’s feverish cold (do you remember last year’s purple mitts, a most gracious gift from Ms. Melanie? I remember exactly when (April) and where (Jarvis Street) I lost them last year. I console myself with the thought that they were a happy find for some frosty-fingered person). But this week, 11°C above, some sun, a mild drizzle, and no need, whatsoever, for woollen mittens. So, there you have it.

This morning, I took some pictures of my cats, and this weekend, I read the current issue of ReadyMade, cover to cover. I commend them both to you.

Good morning. How about I put on some Dandy Warhols and tell you about the knits languishing about me? Okay? Okay!

• Socks: towards the end of the demon sock-knitting I was doing a couple of months ago, I cast on another basic pair in lovely, lovely Cherry Tree Hill. One sock is done, the second stalled about 1.5 inches in. Will complete these before the end of the month.
• Scarf: a basic mistake-rib scarf for my sister in Australian merino that is just a joy to knit with. Here’s the shameful part: I’ve had this yarn for a year and a half and have started two different scarf patterns with it, both frogged, before casting on this mistake-rib. I’m about 4″ from the end, will complete this before the end of the week. Later: done!
• French Market Bag: love the bag, hate the yarn. I started this months ago, in Briggs & Little (Regal, I think) and when I noticed that the yarn was giving me hangnails (so itchy! so unforgiving!) I promptly set it aside. This one will not make it, sadly.
• Kyoto: begun in April, abandoned June-ish. I’m doing it in Missions Hills cotton (snagged a few bag-fulls of the stuff when it was in close-out) and as much as I have tried to love this yarn, I can’t. I simply like it, and that is all. But I still love the pattern and will forge ahead at some point, just not right now (it’s wool season, for pete’s sake).
• Wristwarmers: these are only a week or so old. They’re for my grandma and I’m aiming for completion by week’s end.
• Cabin Fever top-down pullover: I love a no-seam pattern as much as the next seam-hating knitter, but is it just me or do top-downs just get too difficult to handle after a certain point? It’s been ages since I picked this up but I do remember being distinctly irritated by the considerable heft of it. It’s in Red Heart Cozy Wool, so I’m not shedding any tears over it, although I’m still not sure what will become of it (not minding the idea of a warm, snuggly, kick-around sweater right now).
• Swank, from Rowan 29: another cotton knit I failed to complete before my cotton fixation pettered out. Fate? See Kyoto, above.

Next up? Stash cataloguing! Anticipate!

Remember the DC sock? Meet her sister, the BC sock, named thusly on account of knitting the lion’s share in the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia. The mountains were brilliant, the hot tub was exhilirating, the Institute was transforming. I’ll stop now for fear of waxing lyrical but if you’d like to hear more about NEL, drop me a line.

As you know, this is Lorna’s Laces, a lovely, lovely yarn. I have a skein of Cherry Tree Hill on tap for the next pair of socks and, since I’m feeling somewhat adventurous, I’m planning on trying my hand at this pattern. Snazzy but suitably simple (I like a simple sock).

This weekend we celebrate Thanksgiving and plans include eating, knitting, reading, sewing, and visiting this exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. I have plenty of mountain pictures to upload and I hope to get around to that too. Anticipate!

And the reason why it’s a DC sock is because I finished knitting it & photographed it in our hotel room in DC. It’s a lovely sock, if I do say so, very comfortable and a pleasurable knit indeed (yarn: Lorna’s Laces in seaside).

I’ve been in DC for the past 4 days for Blog University, more info on which, including the talks I gave, is here, in case you’re interested. And if you’re not, here are some pictures to look at. More from home, to-morrow. Cheerio!

later: can’t sleep. redesigned blog. going for simplicity. more tweaking to come!

Yes, more socks. In response to my plea for sock yarn recommendations, Carolyn mentioned Mountain Colors Weavers Wool, which gave me pause. Mountain Colors? That sounds awfully familiar! I’m sure I have some Mountain Colours in my stash. And I did! One skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Pheasant which, upon discovery, I immediately wound up and knit. And I’m pleased to report that this yarn knits up a soft, warm, substantial sock & is an absolute delight to work with.

Right. On to your sock yarn recommendations. Thank you! Did I forget to say that? I think I did, how terrible of me. Many of you came out in favour of Lorna’s Laces, and a few mentioned Cherry Tree Hill, so, off I trundled to eBay and happily did I stumble upon one seller who had both on offer (amongt many others, to tempt and woo), and here’s what awaited me on my doorstep last evening:

Sorry for the terrible pictures. I broke my rule of no pictures in artificial light because I needed to get this yarn wound and cast on and I knew there would be no waiting till morning (and the keyboard circa 1911 in this pic, juxtaposed with the keyboard circa 2005 in the first, was entirely unplanned). That’s one skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Old Rose and two skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shephard Sock in Seaside. I cast on the Lorna’s Laces last night, and can I just say divine? I think I can.

I am smitten with socks all over again. Once I finished my sister’s second sock (I finished it, I really did! I forgot to take a picture of it though!) I just had to keep knitting them, so I whipped through this pair, made with luscious Fleece Artist merino. I like this colourway just fine but I’m not so sure I like the way the colours pooled in some spots and stripped in others. But, whatever, they’re the most comfortable socks I own and were a dream to knit.

I’m ready for more socks, but I’m fresh out of sock yarn, so I’m on the hunt. Tell me, dear knitting readers, do you have a favourite sock yarn? Something that makes you swoon as it feeds off your needles? Something ridiculously luxurious? Something silken and buttery? I need to know about it!

Can you crave knitting? If you can, I would have to say that sock knitting is the dill pickle of my knitting world. Every once in a while, a sudden jonesing creeps up upon me and I am only ever sated once I have five little bamboo needles in my hands, and some self-patterning yarn of some variety feeding off those needles.

Anyway, all this is to say that last night, I got a bad case of sock craving right before I fell asleep, so I bounded out of bed, up to the studio, into the Bag of Languishing Knits (to borrow a much-loved phrase from the much-loved brainylady) and pulled out the single sock and companion ball of yarn you see pictured above. And, in case you were under any sort of delusions about me being a good gifter, I should tell you that the above sock (and companion ball of yarn) was wrapped in tissue, placed in a gift bag, and presented to my sister last Christmas. Oh yes, that’s right. Not only did I give my sister a knit-in-progress for Christmas, but I have waited until 8 months have passed to do anything about rectifying that shameful display of careless knit-gift-giving.

So, before any Knitting Higher Authority knocks upon my door and rips the needles out of my unworthy hands (how have I gotten away with it for this long?), I have set upon the task of completing the pair, thus feeding the sock craving and righting the wrongs. Next week, I’m counting on you to ask me about these socks.

Good day. To-day is the birthday of George Bernard Shaw, Aldous Huxley, and Stanley Kubrick. I’m not much of a fan of Shaw’s theatre, I admit that I have never read Brave New World, and Kubrick has been on my mind lately on account of just having watched The Dark Side of the Moon, which was bizarre, and good, and makes you appreciate the subtle and challenging (and devious) work of film editors.

This is not, at all, where I was going with all this, but what the hell, here are some other films I’ve watched lately, starred out of five:

• War of the Worlds **** (we went to the theatre!)
• Runaway Jury ****
• Blade: Trinity *
• Meet the Fockers ***
• The Island *** (we went to the theatre again!)

And, on a note entirely unrelated to the one already struck, I have been knitting. I’ve just finished “Earth” from Rowan 29 (scroll down a bit), which was light and breezy knitting. The pattern calls for Linen Drape, of which I have an ample amount in my stash drawer, I am just a little terrified by this yarn for its unforgiving weight and lack of, well, give (no give, zero give), so I substituted it for some Jo Sharp Soho Summer in a pale blue called “cloudless” (which it has been, both the knitting & the weather). The substitution was less than perfect on account of the fact that I was so thrilled to get the correct stitch gauge on my first try (huzzah! I don’t have to knit this with Linen Drape after all!), that I completely overlooked row gauge, which matters with Rowan patterns, doesn’t it? It’s that nasty habit they have of accounting for the number of rows instead of simply telling me how long it should be at regular intervals. Still, no matter. I am a fan of over-sized knitwear, O yes I am.

Soon after completing Earth, I started in on Swank (scroll down some more, and then imagine it without that belt and, therefore, with less bathrobe potential and more cool-summer-night potential) with a couple of bags of All Seasons Cotton that have awaited a project of just such substantial proportions. The yarn is the bluest blue I have ever knit with (and will ever have worn), a discountinued colour I got on sale last summer, that I almost immediately regretted buying on account of its incompatibility with the rest of my wardrobe. However, the colour now reminds me of the pool I’ve been swimming in daily for the past few weeks, and happy colour-associations make for happy knitting and, hopefully, equally happy wearing.

Soon, pictures! Happy, happy!