Rhapsody in Blue

Published on Wednesday October 17th, 2007

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The way the knitting is going these days, I ought to consider changing the blog handle to Blue Ribbing. Where did all this blue wool come from, you might understandably wonder? I’ve been holding out on you, I’m afraid. So let me introduce you:

On the right, in the ice blue: a new sweater design for Shibui. I can’t give you all the details yet, but what you’re looking at here is the torso, worked in Merino Kid. The upper part and the sleeves are in Sock in the same color. Cross your fingers for me that it all comes together as neatly as it works in my head and sketchbook.

In the middle: most of the back of a pullover, also my own design, in Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed. It looks like a lot of work, but it’s been flying along beautifully. And I’ve just joined the third ball, so I’m getting much better mileage out of this stuff than I expected.

The blue blob on top: Ana hat kit from Fleece Artist and Perl Grey. It’s a sample for Knit/Purl, a sort of hat cum ‘do-rag. I’d like to draw your attention to the last line of the instructions — and I quote: “wear your bandana K or P side out / boho chic 4 ever”

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I couldn’t make this stuff up, people. But let’s talk about the yarn for a moment. Fleece Artist Woolie Silk 3-Ply. 65% wool, 35% silk, DK weight. Often I find that wool/silk blends, while beautiful and lustrous, feel a little dead on the needles. It’s the silk: no liveliness. But Woolie Silk seems to have gotten the blend just right; its 3-ply construction is tightly spun, and the hand is pleasantly wooly, but you still get a wink and glimmer from the silk. The stitches leap from needle to needle like so many chamois bounding over an Alp. The knitting is fast and smooth, and I found myself tearing through the stockinet rows as quickly as I’ve ever knit in my life. I also began to drool at the thought of a whole sweater in this stuff. I can’t wait to see what colors we’ll be carrying in the store.

And no attempt to catalog the works in progress would be complete without an appearance from You Know Who:

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Felis interruptus: Mingus being Mingus

That’s all for now, folks. Someone needs to pack her bags for an obscenely early flight to… Boston! For… another wedding! And I haven’t even shown you what I got at A Good Yarn the last time I was there…

Of strips and snoods

Published on Sunday April 27th, 2008

Ladies and gentlemen (okay, so -men is ambitious), I need your votes! Saturday was sunny and glorious, and I spent a happy hour in the back garden cutting fabric strips for the Bend-the-Rules Lap Quilt. That was the easy part. Now I have to decide on a pleasing arrangment, and for that I could use your practiced eyes.

Exhibit 1:

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Exhibit 2:

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Exhibit 3:

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Exhibit 4, which is just like 3 except I’ve removed the little pedestal of the sage green to the strip second from right:

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Exhibit 5:

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If you have a suggestion to improve the quilt beyond what I’ve proposed here, let me have it. The backing is the sage green (which has wee polka dots, as you can see better in the original picture below).

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The binding will be mostly the Amy Butler at left, since I still have so much of it, unless I decide I don’t like the edges being so dark.

I worked on my little sundress yesterday, too, which means I ripped off the skirt and cut about six inches off the side so there wouldn’t be as much fabric to gather. It was way too Baby Doll for my figure. Now it’s better, but it still needs a zipper and a hem and a cute button for the ribbon ties that aren’t long enough to tie.

But the knitting continues predictable and satisfying:

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I finished Ana a good two weeks ago, but I’ve been waiting for natural light and a photographer. The hat isn’t as yellow as the afternoon sun made it in these shots, but you get the idea. I don’t know about “boho chic 4 ever,” but I think it’s a good argument for bringing back the snood.

Ana and Edna anew

Published on Monday March 24th, 2008

Remember this hat from last October? I knit it as a store sample, and a lot of you liked it, so I thought I’d send out a public service announcement: I was in Knit/Purl this afternoon and saw that the kits are in at last! They aren’t up on the website yet, but I know that Jenni will be glad to send you one if you call them up.

How did I come to be at the yarn store on a Monday afternoon, you might like to know? It’s Spring Break, my friends. And I’ve got a few days of blissful relaxation up on the island planned. There’s all kinds of knitting on the lace stole to accomplish, but a girl can’t go cross-eyed over lace for too many hours a day. And I want to make serious progress on poor neglected Victoria, but if I can’t block the bias out of the top, I’ll need a Plan B. So I’ll be taking this:

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Yes, I had to snag a new Ana hat kit for myself! I adored the Fleece Artist Woolie Silk 3-Ply, and this is just my color green. Plus it was surprisingly cold today, and I even heard a rumor of snow on the horizon. It probably won’t fall down at sea level, but it’s always nice to have a stylish hat to pull on just in case!

The Woolie Silk is special stuff, and so I found it worthy of reclining on my new treasure:

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A shipment of things from my grandmother’s apartment in Connecticut arrived last week. We scored a fold-out couch for the library/guest room and an extra bureau, but the chief delight was a first edition of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Huntsman, What Quarry? It’s inscribed Rufus from Tad 1939 – a gift to my grandmother from my grandfather in the year they were married. (The endpapers, in a charming non sequitur, bear a genealogy of French kings from Louis XIII to Louis XVIII in my grandmother’s pencil.) My grandparents were always so removed from me in years and geography that I get a particular charge from discovering tastes I have in common with them. I knew they both liked poetry; I didn’t know they admired Millay. Of course she was a celebrity in New York during their youth – somehow Millay’s bohemian Village life never dovetailed in my mind with the G-rated family stories playing out in the East 30s and 40s. But these same grandparents also danced to Artie Shaw, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, and other titans of the jazz scene all through their courtship. How I wish I could have known them then.

Leafing through Huntsman, I see that Gram made historical notes after poems that spoke to current events like “Say That We Saw Spain Die” (“Spain’s Civil War between the Loyalists and the Rebels has come to an end – 1939”) and the third Sonnet in Tetrameter (“Japan is warring against China – 1939. The peace yet in sight.”) What made her do this? Did she have some sense that her unborn children and grandchildren might read this book of poems, and her schoolteacher’s habits dictated that she pass along her understanding of its original context? Or did she seize an opportunity to preserve a moment in history, hoping to look back at this little book from the other side of the gathering storm of war and remember the world on the brink? She was 97 last September; dusk is drawing down on her at last. I won’t be able to ask her what this book meant to her. But I’ll keep it always, and wonder.