Knitting

Today was pretty boring compared to yesterday. I mean, I didn’t get attacked by an owl or anything. That is my new benchmark: “Well, at least I didn’t get attacked by an owl today.” I have finished a lot of small skeins in the last week. Just noodling around, trying new techniques. Out of all the yarn I have made, I’m most pleased with this one. I call it “Black and White and Read All Over.” It is 8.5 yards, made with wool (CVM/Romeldale cross from nearby Schoonover Farm), black beads, newspaper, and nylon thread. This fiber drafted and spun up really nicely, and I love the feel of the yarn it makes. Which is good, because I have a full pound of it. Expect to see a lot of projects in this fiber in the upcoming weeks! Next up, my first experiment with a three-ply yarn. I love the structure and balance of a three-ply yarn, but it sure does eat up the yardage. This is 33 grams of Border Leicester from nearby Jonasson Farm. It came out to only 36 yards, which qualifies as “bulky.” This was my first experience working from a batt. The fiber drafted like a dream, and created a dense, firm yarn. Not what you would call next-to-the-skin soft, but I love the body. And finally, two skeins of beaded yarn that used up the last of my cormo. I’m much happier with the color choices of the beads against the yarn. Although in hindsight I wish I had added more beads to each skein.

@talithakuomi designed this week's web letter, a cute skinny lace scarf!

I am knitting Footlets with the Lakeshore Knitpicks Sockyarn. Yesterday: Pondered what to do with old single socks.Felt twinge of pain around my heart.Realized I am emotionally connected to each sock I knit no matter how long ago.Recalled how I wanted to turn a heel on my bucket list. Rationalized that single socks in drawer are no longer a pair. Contemplated keeping all single socks.Imagined those socks in my casket someday.Imagined family/friends shaking their heads and rolling their eyes instead of Kneeling prayerfully beside me. Felt icky thinking about death. Made decision to think only about sock death. Also realized they cover your feet up in that casket. Imagined socks in my hands instead of a rosary.Made second decision to get off the coffintopic! Made mental note that Huck's ashes are going in that casket someday, hopefully a long long day from now.Realized socks and Huck will be great companions along the journey to Heaven. Decided to toss the single socks ......Unable to do it. Cut little hearts out of the felted single socks...Planned to put them on packages for decor. Decided this post was a direct result of Allison sending me a picture of her patient's tattoo:a huge Hersewith the inscription:Don't ever laugh when a herse goes by.... Recalled her patient was thrilled that Al knew the song and Al gave me all the credit.Pondered: If the Long Island Medium ever comes to my family after my death, she will be really confused...."Socks, was there something about socks?I'm seeing beautiful socks..."

Today, Linda Wilgus tells us about her inspiration for Trigere, the lovely summer top from our newest issue. Trigere is Linda's first contribution to Twist Collective. You can find out more about her by visiting her website.       When the most recent issue of Twist Collective came out, a kind fellow knitter complemented me on my pattern in it, Trigere. A bit puzzled she wrote that she knew French but did not recognize the word Trigere. What does it mean?     I named my pattern after one of fashion history's most famous designers, the inimitable Pauline Trigère. I have been a fan of vintage fashion ever since as a teen I began to shop for pieces at thrift stores in my home town in the Netherlands. As a knitting designer I love to design patterns inspired by the shapes and colors of clothing from ages past. I enjoy taking a feature of a vintage piece or a characteristic of a fashion period and then working that idea or feature into a knitting design that is at the same time very contemporary.     When I began to sketch ideas for a summer top for Twist Collective I was influenced by the A-line shapes of the 1960s and particularly by those of A-line dresses designed by Pauline Trigère. I wanted to try to evoke the simple, clean lines of a mod design, while at the same time bringing this shape into a thoroughly modern design and adding something interesting for the knitter to knit. After fiddling around with yarn and needles for a while and trying different ways to create an A-line shape, I came up with the idea of decorative side panels, between which sit the increases that bring about the shape. A rolled collar and seed stitch edges complete the design.     The sample shown in the Spring/Summer issue is knit in a bright and warm jewel tone, which is great for the season. Since the issue was released I have had the pleasure of seeing photos of Trigere knit in many different colors by knitters on Ravelry. Other jewel tones such as a bright pink, green or red make the design stand out wonderfully, but more muted and natural colors such as a pretty light coffee or cream color also work great for the top.

Thank you all for the amazing, supportive and kind comments on the last post.  It's such a hard time here in so many ways, and I admit that there are days where it gets the best of me. Somewhere in...

So, I kind of just got attacked by a barred owl. Yikes! Barred owls are not only kinda creepy, with their big black eyes, they also sometimes hunt during the day. Particularly this time of year, when they have fledglings to feed, and there’s so much daylight (it’s only dark from 10PM-4AM) that nocturnal creatures often have to resort to hunting during daylight hours. This morning I let the chickens out to forage. Then a few minutes ago, I: 1. Saw a big shadow pass by my window. 2. Heard the chickens sound the alarm. I raced outside and saw a barred owl in a nearby tree, and the chickens all huddled under my porch hooting their alarm calls. I decided that the best thing to do was to coax the chickens across the yard and into their nice safe run, while I kept an eye on the owl. As the chickens came out from under the porch, the owl locked eyes with me. Now the owl and I are in a staring match. Then the owl sort of bobbed its head around, like a cat wagging its butt before it pounces, and swooped out of the tree right towards my head. I yelled “HEY!!!” and waved my arms around in the air, because I don’t know, what do YOU do when an owl comes at you? The owl swooped over my head, close enough that I could feel the breeze, but realistically it missed me by at least a foot. I think it was more of an “Eff you for messing up my game” than a serious attack. Anyway, I was able to hustle the chickens back into their run and scampered back inside without suffering any further owl attacks. So that’s my Monday. How’s yours?

Monday Morning Mirth Today in Portland: Fedora Nation at the corner drugstore. States represented: madras, canvas, pleather, leopard, straw…

A funny think happened on the way to my second Mizzle.......I decided to knit socks instead. The pull of a pair of socks is strong especially with this Knitpicks sock yarn. My goodness it nearly bounces when you knit with it. It's Stroll Handpaint. I'm knitting a pattern from Al's Knitted SOCKS book. On the summer front:We are having success with our hummingbird feeder and we are ridiculously thrilled about it. 4 times since June 1 we have seen a female come to the feeder. Last night we saw her drink from it. Beatles absolutely adores his cat tunnel out in the yard. Fireman admitted, last night, that when he saw it first, he thought it was a complete waste of money. He says he is amazed at how Beatles loves to be out in it. (score one for me!)I've lost track of how many days its been without a Coke. We are close to the month mark. The hardest time I had was this weekend at graduation lunch at the SMOKEHOUSE in the city. I ordered a lemonade instead...I'll leave you with this thought today: As if the series NORTH AMERICA wasn't perfect enough, Tom Selleck narrates it. I love me some Tom.

the middle of the month signals just one thing around here—time to release the next pattern from the bare naked knitspot 2012 club. last june we had a wonderful chapter that featured brooklyn tweed loft, which was fairly new to the yarn market at the time. we shipped the yarn in a set of three colorways for a total of approximately 800 yards of yarn with which to knit a set of pieces that explored a range of colorwork techniques from simple stripes to the more involved color stranding. fascinated by this new tangent i’d gone off on, mister knitspot even made a little film about stranding technique to show members how it’s done. and although i am not in any way and expert in the matter, i agreed to act in the film. (the apples in clover tam will have its own release in due time) this was such a fun chapter in our club; at first, i think some members were a little flummoxed that they had to make some design decisions for themselves, but once they got over that initial nervousness and started seeing examples knit by clubbies who forged right ahead, everyone threw themselves into the fray and got busy knitting on their own creations. it was one of our most fun and productive months ever in the club, i believe! i was especially impressed by the number of clubbies who tackled the big sheltie square throw option (also coming soon; just room for one pattern at a time!) in 2012, we filmed each chapter in both color AND black and white. i loved the effect of using both formats in the chapters, though it did add a degree of difficulty to presenting some of the material (the beautiful variations of the animals’ colors don’t shine through as well in B&W). anyway, it turned out to be fascinating for me to see all the variations one could achieve with the same three neutral tones. the idea here was to recreate a modern version of the scottish hap shawl, which is a simple everyday garment knit from shetland fingering wool, often using leftover amounts of various colors to make striped effects. many of our knitters added bits and bobs of other yarns to the mix to enhance the music and movement of the hem striping. because the hap is traditionally worn as a workaday article while doing chores or moving about one’s errands, i named it for the scottish sheltie dogs who work at sheep herding. the striping of our hap reminded me very much of the dramatic coloring in their coats. when our own yarns were ready for sampling, one of the first things i asked vanessa to knit for us was the gorgeous sheltie triangle above in three of our breakfast blend fingering yarn colors. i am very much looking forward to the day when all our colors are back in stock and we can feature the shawl on its product pages (hopefully by the end of the summer; we’re getting close to deciding on a new mill). and shown below, the medium size triangle knit by karolyn in brooklyn tweed loft, a woolen spun fingering yarn which knits up light as a feather. here in colors fossil (lightest), woodsmoke (medium),  and soot(dark gray) i knit the petite size triangle below in the same three colors, but arranged them differently and used them rather haphazardly in my hem, in  contrast to karolyn’s more formal interpretation. see what i mean about making some design decisions? not tough at all and a lot of fun once you get going. to purchase pattern or view complete pattern information, please click here to visit the knitspot pattern shop. or purchase the pattern in our ravelry pattern shop. as mentioned earlier, the sheltie triangle is also included in the BNK 2012 eBook, collection—twelve terrific accessory patterns, each one multi-sized and suitable for gifting or keeping; many will have universal appeal for women, men, and children alike. purchase the eBook collection from the knitspot club website or in our ravelry pattern shop (it takes a few seconds to view). another fun thing to do—click here to view the sheltie triangle proj

although we opted not to put in our usual vegetable garden this year during the house renovation, we do still have a garden with lots happening—every day something new comes to light, like the mophead hydrangeas beginning their blooming cycle this week. they are at that lovely stage where the buds and leaves are thick and unearthly green; the new petals are delicate and fresh, brushed with pale pink, blue, and purple washes of color. it might be my favorite blooming thing in the whole season. from the number of buds weighting down the bushes, we are in for a treat this year in blooms, not to mention how much everything is filling out. our perennials are having a field day with all the rain we’re getting and continuing cool temps are keeping everything happy and lush. what a change from last year, yay. what am i saying—not just a nice change from last year, but a spectacular change from what we are looking at inside the house, haha. you wanted that wallpaper gone? well, it’s outta here. the demo is going pretty well so far, though we had quite a shock on friday. it started out in the normal demo way, lots of noise and banging underfoot. my study and temporary office is just above the area where the work is happening; everyone else has moved to the downstairs office space. our kitchen has moved to the enclosed porch at the far end of the lower floor. they have been making excellent progress ripping out cabinets, walls, flooring, etc. and because of my new perch, i get to hear a lot of what’s going on in the work zone, for good or for bad, haha. i must not have been paying attention friday though, because all of a sudden, someone started up a gasoline powered tool of some kind and began sawing through the wall of the dining room where it joins to the old office space, to cut the new opening between the two rooms. now in most homes, this would be a mere matter of knocking out a bunch of plaster and/or wallboard, but in our home it means cutting through two courses of foundation blocks because it used to be an exterior wall. our old office used to be an outdoor porch that was converted to indoor space many decades back to make a doctor or dentist office. sawing through all that is a mighty chore for even the most robust of sawzall-type tools. i’m still not exactly sure what that mofo beast looked like but when it started doing its thang, the house instantly filled with billowing clouds of exhaust and brick dust. oy vey it’s not that we didn’t know it was going to happen, we just didn’t know it was going to happen friday morning. and naturally, we were not prepared, haha. nothing was dust sheeted (not that that would have helped), nothing was protected (except the yarn; we keep the yarn in covered boxes at all times, as far away from the fray as we can get it). haha, i leaped from my desk when i saw what was happening and ran to wake david up (yes, he was actually sleeping through the racket, which is either a testimonial to how thick our walls are or proof that he utterly exhausted himself getting the house ready while i was gone last week). well by that time of course, there was nothing to be done; within moments every single thing in my upstairs study was covered with a fine veil of brick dust and i was choking from the fumes. i couldn’t leave though, because i had to finish my june chapter! time to put on blinders and get the job done (oh wait, blinders might not be needed after all). sometimes i’m just gobsmacked by extent to which i live in a parallel universe. and now, i’ve got the portal to prove it, haha. anyway, at first, it sounded smart for me to move up here where i could work alone and in my familiar space. however, there is a lot of fallout from the reno work that i didn’t visualize beforehand—the noise is one thing, but the air quality is quite compromised, too; i may be forced to move, not sure yet. i’ve been lobbying for a while to find