sgomitolando

Done with drab knitting....

2010-01-13T16:15:00.009-05:00

for now at least!

My December knitting palette ranged from gray to military green to brown, in stockinette and ribs patterns. Boring?? Ya thinkkk?!?!!

I felt like screaming most of the time. BUT I could not have more pleased with the final results, the recipients LOVED their items.

Giacomo got a peaked hat who never leaves his head (mm.., maybe it's time to wash the thing..)

He also got the most boring sweater in the whole world, but he wears it unprompted! Seriously!

And I can't sing enough praises for Guendalina! Just look at her!

Maddalena is the queen of hippos, and she wanted this knitted hippo so bad she learned to knit for her! Maddie did most of the knit stitches, I did the purl rows shaping etc.

This was not too bad to knit, the shaping and general adorableness helped the brown stockinette move along.

More project details on Ravelry.

For January I have spinning and color for you. To be saved for the next post. I'll try to be a bit more regular in my blogging activities, ok?

An adventure in spinning and knitting

2009-12-01T15:03:00.008-05:00

Well, more in spinning really, the knitting was not very adventurous.
But still, I knit a sweater for my husband with my own hand-spun! Whoo-hoo!

I guess that, in a way, I did it all wrong: did not decide on a pattern, or on a type of yarn, did not look for a specific fiber or used a dedicated spinning technique, did not compare samples, certainly did not take notes. Probably did not even make a swatch (gasp!).

What I did do was to let my eyes linger a little too long on some prepared top in beautiful shade of gray blue that I knew would complement my husband's eyes perfectly; I lingered long enough for the helpful owner of Brimstone Hollow Farm booth to help me out of my misery by selling me more than enough fiber for whole project.

I spun the fiber in my very little and very interspersed spare time. A bobbin here, a bobbin there, the only way I know how to spin, i.e. just as it comes. Every two bobbins, I plied the singles, for lack of extra bobbins. In September 2009, I had more time, and finally finished the spinning. By then I had read the book by Amy King, and my spinning technique had somewhat improved.

At that point, I took out a bunch of knitting books and magazine, sifted through them, offered my thoughts to my husband about various possibilities. His choice was either Field of Dreams from The Natural Knitter or Corduroy from A Fine Fleece. Even without making a swatch, I knew I would have to make some serious adjustments to the pattern to knit Corduroy, while Field of Dreams looked reasonable.

So off I went with the knitting, trying to mix and match skeins at random, to spread out the considerable unevenness of the yarn, without much success. Some parts are soft and bouncy, some are like rope. Some are denser, some are thinner.

But hey, when looked at in its entirety (and from a little distance...), the sweater is just fine, really. And the color is just perfect for my husband!

Just trust me on that.

I know, I know

2009-11-13T14:20:00.029-05:00

It's been over a year, and I have a long list of excuses, or better, good reasons for not blogging, but hey, I thought that I really should try again, I feel reconnecting to the knitting blogging world would only bring me fun and joy.

I won't even try to recap, there has been too much. The barest minimum of an update goes like this:

July 2008-May2009, clinics, clinics, clinics, nights, weekend, on call, dogs, cats, horses, alpacas, raptors, turtles, seals, guinea pigs, fish, sharks etc.

Graduated from Vet School in May 2009. Whoohoo!! That really was a looong haul.

Moved to NH in June 2009.

Very stressful summer in Italy dealing with a multitude of issues regarding my mother's house and estate. Some still unresolved business, some very good outcomes, some really awful outcomes. Difficult for me to talk about it and make sense of it all, as yet.

Currently trying to find my feet in NH, and also find a job.

Well, that is not me, and treating koala bears is not on the horizon right ow, but you never know, right?!

Ok, now, knitting-wise I have some real news. I just about can't believe it myself, but I did it, I finished China Clouds!! That was even a longer haul that Vet School, let me tell you. Can't even remember when I started it, before the blog, before vet school, eons ago.

What you say? You saw that already? Yeah, but look at this now!

Yes, I am actually wearing it, and I made it reversible, somewhat.

More details on Ravelry. China Clouds, by Kaffee Fassett, Rowan Magazine No. 28

Happy Birthday!

2008-07-07T12:37:00.005-04:00

Today is my birthday, one of my favorite days in the whole year.

And so far, I am having a good one: work in the Large Animal Surgery rotation is pretty slow, my horse patient is behaving and loves cuddles, the cafeteria had lobster rolls for lunch, many people paid me great compliments by not believing how old I turn today (which is the goodly number of 44) and I expect presents and a dinner out from children and husband tonight.

Oh, and the weather is beautiful! Perfect for the beach, which is what I love (I am firmly ignoring the lack of beach and beach-time for now).

I love celebrating birthdays, mine or other people's!

My parents always made a big deal and threw big parties for us, with lots of friends and lots of presents, and we were always made feel very special on our birthday.

So here is my wish: that you too will enjoy your birthday and feel special, no matter how old you might turn or whatever else might be going on in your life!

Happy Birthday!

Father and daughter

2008-02-15T09:16:00.003-05:00

You never know when you are going to be surprised: two days ago, on behalf of my daughter trying to complete her homework assignment, I asked my father what his first job was. He promptly answered: navy officer, which of course I knew. I also knew he had gone to the Naval Academy straight from high school, as it was his only shot at getting a university degree in Engineering, given his family circumstances.

But for some reason I felt probing a little bit deeper (despite being in the car, at a busy junction, with two rowdy kids in the back, on a squeaky transatlantic connection): Yeah, I know that, Papa, but did you ever worked/helped out in a store, or a farm or whatever before the navy?

Mmmm.., yes, oh yes, I helped fixing bicycles in the bicycle repair shop in the country village I was displaced to during the war, I was interested about bicycles, and the guy fixed my bicycle for free, and in exchange I taught him to read! [pause] Oh, the things you make me remember...

The emotion in his voice was palpable, a rare thing with my father, as rare and precious as a true gem.

La Befana vien di notte..

2008-01-06T22:19:00.000-05:00

La Befana vien di notte
con le scarpe tutte rotte...

Yet another excuse for an extra celebration, (Italians are very good at finding reasons to celebrate), Befana brought us today a whole pile of candies!
Apparently she got lost a long time ago, while following the three kings in search of baby Jesus, and she is still wandering about depositing sweets and gifts for every child.

An old Italian tradition that I am happy to keep alive, while so many things of my heritage are long gone.

Also, this is the 12th day of Christmas, and that means that the season is really over, all sparkling decorations and lights must come down and we'd better get back to business. I usually do not mind, but this year I have very mixed feelings. Some domestic issues marred the season for us, and being here on our own was strange. So in a way I am happy that is it over, but I also feel short-changed. I hope the candy will help.

School, of course, has already restarted at full throttle, this are the last 8 weeks in class, then we enter clinics. Very scary/exciting!

Knitting is proving still a very useful and productive activity, but taking photos of my knitting eludes me, not sure why*. My new camera has been languishing. Right now I am making "Gathered" from the last IK, for my sister. I love the way it looks so far on me, hopefully she'll like it too (or should I hope she does not like it, so I can have it all for myself?). Anyway, no photos of it as of yet. And I am making no promises, because I hate breaking a promise, even to myself.

But I never showed you what happened to the last sweater I blogged about, Notre Dame de Grace. Well, have a look

So, Zeno was disproved, the cone was depleted before the second sleeve was finished, and I had to frog part of the back to finish the sleeve, then make a top-down wide border using another yarn. Still, it is a great pattern, I wear Notre Dame a lot, and get compliments every time! A happy ending!

*Actually, part of the reason is that my knitting photos with the new camera are mostly awful, as you can see, but I have not had the time to figure out the new toy yet, so I kinda abandoned it.

black scarf

2007-10-08T12:52:00.001-04:00

black scarf, originally uploaded by sarnob.

A black scarf custom made for a soldier destined to Afghanistan, as per my friend Stephanie's kind request (scroll down a couple of posts).
3 balls of Valley Yarn Sugarloaf (merino/microfiber) from Webs, in a modified brioche stitch.

Stephanie will collect all scarves here:

Stephanie c/o
MCCS
P.O. Box 1770
Manomet, MA 02345

If you have some spare knitting time, please consider making one!
The soldiers will be grateful and warm. A war is a horrible enough endevour, which I personally do not condone at all, but with so many knitters clicking their busy needles, soldiers can at least be a bit warmer. Thank you!

Thank you, Emma!

2007-09-30T15:53:00.000-04:00

My virtual friend Emma deserves endless thanks from me, and it is about time I give her proper credit.

Without Emma, and her amazingly generous enabling, I probably would not:

a) own a spinning wheel
b) be able to play with it
c) own sock yarn
d) own rosewood dpns needles
e) knit socks

and possibly I would not even have a blog (Melanie also deserves a lot of credit for launching me in blogland).

While knitting and spinning paraphernalia are the tangible gifts Emma has given me, what I praise in Emma are her warmth, support, generosity, friendship and courage in life.

The socks above were knitted using some Opal yarn she sent me along with rosewood needles, a few years back. I thought a lot about Emma, while I was knitting them, and about some of the difficulties she faces everyday. She certainly deserves a big public THANK YOU, and a lot of support from her friends for all she does.

Zeno's paradox

2007-09-07T21:56:00.000-04:00

As I recall from my high school days, when I studied ancient Greek philosophers, one of Zeno's paradoxes was that if one plucks one hair off the tail of a horse, the tail is not decreased in size. And if one plucks another hair, the tail still looks the same. And so on and so forth. Thus, one can keep plucking away, but the tail will still be there.

Kind of knitting from a cone of yarn, is it not? One can knit a row, and the cone does not noticeably change in appearance. One keeps knitting, and at the end of the night, the cone still looks pretty much the same.

Zeno's paradox has been sustaining my knitting recently, as I attempt to knit Notre Dame De Grace (IK summer 2007) from a cone of alpaca yarn, purchased from an organic farm several years ago, which came with no information on yardage, only the weight (1 Lbs).

So far I got the back, the front and the collar. The cone does look quite a bit skinnier (apologies to Zeno for noticing this minor discrepancy), and the unanswerable question is: is there enough for two sleeves?

Zeno, I trust in you, pal, OK?

Knitters/crocheters wanted

2007-09-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

My friend Steph, whom I love very much, has sent me this. Anybody wants to help?

I am too busy to advertise this much, or organize raffle prizes etc., but I thought I'd throw it out there and see if anybody is interested. Depending on how things go, I am pretty sure there could be some prizes lurking in the stash....

Thanks!

Hi folks. I have a request for anyone who wants to knit. My friend's son who is in the Army is headed for Afghanistan this December. There has been a request for scarves for the troops to keep warm. Apparently there is no money in the Department of Defense to keep soldiers warm. Hum..enough sarcasm.

The request is that if you are a knitter (or crochet) and want to knit a couple of scarves, we need about 45 by December 1st. If folks just do one or two, and we get enough folks, we get enough scarves. Give them to me and I will get them to her. Thanks.

Here are the dimensions that the Army will allow:

KNITTING:

MUST BE BLACK YARN.......any kind except wool [too itchy]..........

7" wide by 42" long [length can be 37" minimum or 45" maximum]

e.g.: size 10 needles, cast-on 28 stitches = 7"

Can do 'straight' knit, or make it ribbed: Knit 2 - Purl-2....no fringe allowed..no fancy-pants stuff allowed.......... [all men in platoon....]

CROCHET:

Use a size G or H crochet hook........[.if you crochet loosely use a G, if tightly use an H]

Chain 23 loosely. Turn.

Row 1: Skipping first chain from hook, single crochet first 2 chain stitches, then single crochet in BACK LOOP ONLY of next 2 chain stitches,repeating from across the row. Chain 1, turn.
Row 2: Repeat row 1.
Continue pattern until 42" long [length can be 37" minimum or 45" maximum]. Finish off. Weave in yarn ends.

Thanks,

Steph

Last day...

2007-08-19T15:32:00.000-04:00

... of freedom. Tomorrow school begins again, this is my third year and I am terrified!
The schedule is going to be even heavier, but also clinics are looming and I can sense the expectation that things should come together and make sense, and that I should effortlessly become competent and confident and all that. I am so not ready for this...

However, my books, notebooks, pencils, recorder and bicycle are ready, so tomorrow off I will go, one way or the other.

To distract myself from what will happen tomorrow, I will tell you what happened yesterday instead. Yesterday was without doubt one of the happiest days of this summer. Here is why:

I got to spend 12 hours with Maryse. Do you realize how much serious fun that is?
I was instructed in the arts of dyeing wool in a rainbow (or rather 24 rainbows) of colors by the excellent Linda of Pinestar Studio.
I was instructed in the arts of needle felting by the lovely Jill of Yarns in the Farms. And let me tell you: the repeated stabbing action required for this activity felt SO good. I see a lot of potential for productive/artistic stress relief, for me and my children, in the immediate future.
I met a whole bunch of my old knitting friends, including Melanie! That was such a lovely surprise. And Kellee and her baby. And that was just super!
I got to visit one of the most interesting old farms, up to the mysterious and alluring attics, where I felt like a child explorer.
In short, I went to the Fiber Revival Festival in Newbury, and had the best of times!

Sadly, I am still camera-less, so I have no photos to share.
Luckily, you seem to like the Africa wildlife photos, and, of those, there are quite a few more......

Service resumed

2007-08-08T11:59:00.000-04:00

Hello everybody,
I know you are well used to sporadic blogging here, so I will make no more apologies.

Just thought to resume contact and give you a brief update.

Since last post, in June, we had a wonderful family vacation in South Africa, touring their spectacular national parks, and establishing close contact with an wide variety of charismatic African animals. Unfortunately my camera was lost in transit, so I could not take any photos, but my husband has taken many hundreds, I just have posted some for your viewing pleasure.

South Africa is a land of extreme contrasts also on a socio-political landscape, of which I know nothing, but could not help notice, because of the continuous alternating between luxury (and then some) homes and cars, and bidonvilles without even the benefit of bicycles. Pretty disturbing to my untrained eyes.

After South Africa, the rest of July was spent packing, moving and unpacking. Not fun, but it had to be done. We sold our house in Plymouth and changed apartment in WestB., two streets away from the previous apartment. It was a lot of work, and a lot of time spent figuring out what to keep, what to toss, what to store and what to donate. I'll spare you the details, but all throughout the process, I caught myself thinking how come I have never seen publicly blogged the comment: "If you see me buy another ball of yarn or teacup or book, just shoot me"; because, you know, that was a pretty spontaneous refrain in my head. It's not like there has not been a number of dramatic moves in the last 3 months or so around Boston blogland, is it? Must be something wrong with me*.

And now we are trying to enjoy the last week before my school restarts. I am concentrating on China Cloud, I have one sleeve left. As much as I love it, and love see the pattern emerging, it is taking a serious effort not to pick up something easier. Since I am still camera-less, no photos sorry. And today I am washing one of my very dirty fleeces. I figure I can do this myself, (washing being one of the few chores I do not mind), before sending them for processing. That will alleviate the slight storage problem we are experiencing right now.. ahem.

And it is fun! especially when your landlady walks in and catches you elbow deep in murky brown water at the newly installed kitchen sink.......

*Believe or not, not one single ball of yarn was lost to the move. That was a power struggle and a half, let me tell you, maybe another time.

Girl with Shark: for Maryse

2007-06-14T12:05:00.000-04:00

No standing around at the corner, with an annoyed look on your face.
Chair, book and sometimes a cup of tea for my girl while waiting for her school bus.
Every morning I see this, it makes me laugh.
A good way to start of the day

The spring of discontent

2007-06-08T15:13:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends,
this has been a strange spring, and not in a pleasant way. Nothing dramatic happened, nor anything definite I can point my finger at. But I do not feel like my old self, and I do not like this discontented new me.

The new me is even discontented of knitting. While this may sound trivial, (and may actually be mistaken for a healthy sign by those who regard intense knitting like an obsession), it is a clear sign of a deep shift within me, for whom knitting has always been a rich resource.

I do not attach any deep or mystical meaning to knitting, but I am an ethologist by formation, and I know my behavioral patterns, coping strategies and rewards. And now something is amiss.

Of course, it may simply be the burn-out effect of my demanding and stressful life; in fact, it most likely is just that. Still, I do not like it.

Along with the knitting, have gone my already minimal blog-reading and spinning. I do feel a bit too empty right now. And, as I said, not happy about it.

In other news, the second year of Vet School is over, and that is good. I have just been to Italy to meet my new niece, baby Emma, and she is the sweetest little thing ever. And I have a wonderful trip to South Africa planned for this summer, with my family. And that is just super fantastic!

So if i can just get this spring over with, I should be all set.

Tears

2007-03-14T12:15:00.000-04:00

As in torn, ripped, zapped by zipper......

.....as in

NEW-hoodie-sweatshirt-made-to-measure-after-extensive-stash-search-for-totally- un-itchy-yarn, worn one and half time total!!!

I am not pleased.

It is probably fixable, but I may have to boil down a bit before attempting it.

PS: the rip is at the base of the neck, the darker blue part up top is the hood, knitted in a different yarn, as I was running out of the variegated one.

8 Marzo, Giornata della Donna

2007-03-08T08:47:00.000-05:00

This morning I woke up with this distinct recollection:

On a sunny, cool morning a fifteen year old got up about 10 minutes early to harvest the last of the mimosa flowers from the tree in her mother's garden, put one sprig in her buttonhole, jumped on the bicycle and rode all the way to school, with a big smile on her face and this bunch of bright yellow, feathery flowers precariously balanced in front of the handlebars.

Along the road and at the school gate, she gave away sprigs of mimosa to any girl who wanted one, encouraging them to participate in the street parade/protest/rally to celebrate Women's Day. Sure, one would have to skip school to do that, but it was for a cause, and all the real women of the city would be there! So exciting and liberating!

In Italy, March 8th was (and maybe still is, not sure) widely celebrated. For some people, it was/is a political event, for some just an excuse not to go to school/work (although it is not a holiday). But in any event, it was/is recognized. I miss that.

Personally, I'd trade International Women's Day for Valentine Day anytime.

When I am a 100 years old....

2007-03-07T09:23:00.000-05:00

maybe I will get back to blogging....

And this is what my Maddie is planning to do, when she turns 100

Good plan, I think!

Now, does she think I am 100 already, or that knitting is just for old ladies?

I did ask, you know, just in case! It turns out that she thought knitting just took a long time to master, but when I told I could teach her now, she was thrilled.

Only just not thrilled enough to sit still and try it, yet!

Christmas Day

2006-12-27T14:32:00.000-05:00

This is how sweet and lovely our Christmas Day was this year. It could not have been better.

My warmest wishes to you all for a peaceful holiday time and a New Year full of wonder!

And look at the prettiest cup of tea ever!Thanks Santa, this was such a treat!

WEEEE!!!

2006-12-03T11:26:00.000-05:00

No stomping and no growling today*.
Not only I have recovered, I am positively elated today, big grin stamped on my face and dancing feet. Yes, I did pass the exam, only just, but that's not why.

Question: Why is this blogger so happy today?

a) Because her living room strongly resembles a miniature version of a yarn warehouse sale.
b) Because she got to spend a morning in great company sorting through hundreds of bags of beautiful yarn and shelves of knitting books and magazines.
c) Because she has had the rest of the weekend by herself to fully enjoy her new purchases in peace, opening every bag and fondling every ball and looking at every photo in every book and magazine.
d) All of the above.

Answer key: d (of course)

While I wish my life was not ruled by multiple choice questions, if they were all like the above one, it would be ok with me.

Anyways, in the last few months there have been some yarn purchases here and there, nothing spectacular, as I had a firm desire to use up my stash (and no time or inclination for shopping). But eventually I got to the point that I could not just open the magic yarn trunk and pull out what I needed for the project I wanted there and then: while some yarns are still languishing in the trunk waiting for their call to action, many have gone.

I confess I did not even pretend to resist the siren call of Westminster Fibers warehouse sale. In fact, my children in a candy store behave much more decorously than me in a yarn warehouse sale! My only regret is the one bag that I left behind in a pang of totally unnecessary guilt at the last minute.

I have no booty pictures for you (yet) so I'll leave you with this, to show that I do actually knit up my shopping spree purchases (scroll down the post).

Maddie and Giacomo at the wedding of their cousin in Ireland, October 2006.

Please identify the yarn used to make Maddie's cardigan:
a) Jaeger Trinity
b) Manos Cotton
c) unidentified stash yarn
d) Rowan Magpie
e) none of the above

OK, OK, never mind, I'll go back to the books right now...

* Thank you so much for all your comforting comments, they helped a lot!

Grrrrr

2006-11-17T12:36:00.000-05:00

If today you approached the female restroom in vet school and heard growling, feet stomping and muffled screams, it was just me venting frustration during the microbiology exam!

Yes, it was that bad. Yes, all I could do to regroup was to throw a private mini tantrum!

Either that, or throwing the big heavy syllabus at the instructor. But I am committed to non-violent behavior.

How old am I?

Today I feel about 5, and not in a good way.

Quick, quick...

2006-10-07T15:30:00.000-04:00

..let me sneak a post in, before anybody notices that I am not studying or painting the house or feeding children or working in the anatomy lab etc.

I wanted to write a post about knitting in progress, but by now the knitting has progressed a to not very photogenic stage.

So I'll just show you this detail, the border on a smallish bolero type thing I am making for Maddie, to wear to her cousin's wedding this Saturday in Ireland.

As I did not have a suitable pattern for what I wanted, I just made it up, borrowing a pretty border from this lovely shawl.

Can you tell the little leaves going around? Pretty, no?

Well, it is not looking that pretty around the body of the cardi, because it is bunching it all up. Cant't figure it out. I must have ripped that border at least 5 times already, but time is running out. It'll have to do. I will show you a picture of the recipient wearing it soon, so you can cringe in sympathy.

I have also been workig on this, for a friend. She picked the yarn Wool Bam-boo and the pattern (Bi-color cables, By Annie Modesitt, IK winter 2005), and I am really enjoying it. I will also have a lot left over for me to play with, yippee!

Nearly identical twins

2006-09-15T17:50:00.000-04:00

From Knitty with love!

My first completed Christmas gift (never mind that it was meant for last Christmas). And my first lecture knitting project for this academic year.

I used the left overs from the Tumbling Blocks Cushion kit, 3 of the 6 colors, feeling very smug for stopping little balls of yarn from messing up my desk, and getting something nice out of it. Too smug to realize that I did not have enough yarn, and too stubborn to stop. So: orange ran out midway through the second mittens, red run out 3 rows and a thumb before the end, dark red 1 row and a thumb before the end.

And that's when having China Clouds laying pitifully in a basket around the house turned out to be useful: while it is a mistery to me why Rowan made Rowanspun DK and Rowanspun 4-ply in different shades of orange, red, green etc., the two were still close enough to be matched. Or at least, I did not let that stop me.

Nearly identical is good enough for me. And hopefully for the recipient too.

Colorful knitting

2006-09-10T21:20:00.000-04:00

With all that was going on this summer, an urge for some bright pretty colors pushed me to finally knit this cushion kit from Rowan, a membership gift from 3 years ago.

The colors are much brighter in real life. Not quite a cushion yet, I am still in the process of weaving in the ends. And while doing just that, in class, I received very enthusiastic comments from people that usually could not care less about knitting. Ah, the magic of pretty colors and Kaffee's immortal tumbling blocks!

For all you people afraid of intarsia, I have to say this: it is not that difficult, and it is extremely rewarding! Really!

I also made this other colorful item, for the "Home and Hearth" Rowan exchange.

While I can see a million imperfections, especially in the finishing, (boy, did that take forever!), both the yarn store lady who sold me the needles to fill it up, and the recipient, raved about it. So maybe it's not too bad, is it?

Thank you...and something else

2006-09-04T19:27:00.000-04:00

Thank you all very much for your love and support. It really means a lot to me.

Tomorrow it will be just one month since my mother's death; it feels like something far and unreal, and something close and intimate, all at the same time. A time far out of mind, to quote a line I was just reading yesterday.

Tomorrow we'll say a special prayer for her.

In the meantime, life goes on in its usual hectic fashion. Vet School has restarted, kids school has started, both rented and owned houses were neglected over the summer and now need to be sorted out somehow.

Finally, knitting goodies had gathered themselves on the doorstep; some were unexpected and very welcome presents, some were exchange gifts, also very welcome, most were magazines and books that had been ordered before leaving for Italy.

At first sight, my absolute favorite pattern from the new crop was the hexagon coat in Knitting Nature. So much so that I had even a dream of being trapped under a flood of yarn, while searching for the right shade for it. Anyway, on my way to retrieve my pet turtle Sam, I happened to pass a yarn store with a big SALE sign on the window. This store, to be specific (the one with no chairs). I wandered in, looking for the Lite Lopi for my coat, I saw no mark downs anywhere, so I stuck to my plan to have a look at the Lopi color cards, and possibly order some.

For the record, my yarn shopping in the last couple of years has been very limited, since my stash, accumulated over many years, feels already a bit overwhelming, and I would rather use it up little by little, then accumulate some more. My LYS on the South Shore sees me only when I need a pair of needles, usually. But I felt I could derange a bit for something that even haunted my dreams.

However, I was quibbling about the Lite Lopi, the shade was not entirely convincing, I said I'd recheck the book and call them. At that point the yarn store lady said very casually: "Sure! By the way, today all the summer yarns are 50% off" My eyes went big:"Even the Rowan yarns?" "Yes, all that has some cotton in it, basically these three walls of stuff".

And guess what? I did end up trapped under a flood of yarn! And some of it even came home with me...

Manos Cotton, Jaeger Trinity and Classic Elite Star, pinks, greens, blues. All lovely. (Yes, I know, no Rowan, it was a test for the sales lady more than anything else).

I am not proud, but I am happy-er.

Mamma

2006-08-28T22:30:00.000-04:00

Mililli Pachner 1936-2006

My mother was beautiful, strong, and very brave.
Up to the last moment she showed us the way, she embraced us in her love, she held us up with her dignity, and she gave us courage and serenity.

She has left a hole so huge in my heart it makes me sick. I feel as sad and as lonely as I ever felt in my life. I miss her immensely.

Ciao Mamma! Che tu riposi in pace e con amore.

Fleece chronicles

2006-06-19T08:30:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time there was a large fleece. It came from the working farm at the Vet School, where the sheep were raised for the students to practice on, and for their lamb (as in meat) production.

With no fancy coats to keep their fleeces clean, like in their tame sheep-for-fiber cousins, their locks were wild and daring, worn carelessly while prancing around to avoid the clumsy student and rolling in the green pastures.

The large fleece was a fine specimen, with a nice crimp, and an astounding quantity of extraneous vegetable matter firmly adhered in mats of lanolin and dirt.

Still, vet students are notorious fools, and the fleece was brought home, where its aromatic presence banned children from the attic and delighted the cat.

After some pondering, the Dawn-liquid-detergent-consuming task of washing the fleece began. At first in the washing machine, to the astonishment of the land-lady, with whom the machine is shared, but the fleece refused to open itself to the cold beauty of technology. Having already swiftly disposed of the garbage disposal device in the kitchen sink by strangling it in loose fibers, it was time to try the bathtub.

Fleece dregs, third wash

Fleece dregs, fourth wash

Oops, all out of Dawn: time for a rinse
>

Clean!

or as clean as it will ever be.

How the fleece will be deprived of all its vegetable accoutrements, and tamed into spinnable fiber is, at present, unknown. For now, it is still dubious that it will ever ever get all completely dry.

Flight pioneer exclusive interview

2006-06-02T22:19:00.000-04:00

Welcome Mr. Orville Wright, just stepped down from one of his planes during the first exciting days of motorized flying, circa 1903.

The Wright Brothers grew up in a very supportive family, and their mother was "exceedingly bright, excellent at cooking, cleaning and encouraging her children".

Mr. Wright neglected to mention that his mother also provided most of the knitwear for the family, as shown in this recent photograph.

1 done, 3 to go

2006-05-29T21:01:00.000-04:00

*

This was the card that made my day complete on last Thursday afternoon, after concluding the first year of vet school. That, and a luxurious caipirinha!

That this first year is over is such a tremendous relief, I can't even begin to describe the feeling. I still have a very busy summer ahead, but I am also planning a lot of fun and games for the next couple of months. Because, really, I need that.

Knitting, I do not know. I have a couple of things to seam/finish up. Then, I really want ot resume the long neglected China Clouds and get it DONE. I can't see it anymore, looking all forlorn in its basket.

But before that, I need to finish my MUD version of the Kiri shawl.

Which means, I really need to finish the spinning for it, because what I have spun so far barely gets me halfway.

For anybody who remembers this post, I am a full year behind schedule. So what makes me believe that I will accomplish in 2 months what I could not in twelve?

Why, school is over, and I feel invincible!

*translation from kindergarten phonetic English reads: I hope that you had fun at Vet School by Maddie, ther best daughter I could have ever hoped for.

Spinning idiot

2006-04-14T16:54:00.000-04:00

Yes, that would be me.

After months of neglect and sporadic spinning, I eventually got to the point of having two full bobbins, ready to ply. And so I did, and made a good size skein out of them. See?

Then I got hit by a tsunami of big and heavy exams, and never got to finish plying the singles left on the two bobbins. When I finally got round to it, exhausted after a 6 hours exam, I plonked myself down, stared into space for a while, then slowly focused on the wheel and decided to finish that plying.

After a while spent wondering why the yarn looked so weird, even for my standards, it hit me: S singles are plyed Z, and viceversa. Remember? Except I do not even know what way the singles are spun anymore.

Yes, I know, I am a spinning idiot.

Now, for all of you experienced and wise spinners out there a question: is there any way to rescue those singles from their tangliness, and ply them the right way round, whatever that might be?

PS: welcome home Melanie! so glad to have you back!

PPS: thank you Kay and Ann, for your wonderful book! I am enjoying every page of it, and am very proud to be mentioned in it! So cool!

Fair weather spinner

2006-03-12T13:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the sun was shining, the weather was warm and beautiful, a swarm of children were rampaging in the yard. So guess who came out to enjoy it all? First the beast, then the combs, and finally the drop spindle. We had a lot of fun together, although things were a bit rough for the spindle and she got some bruises, until we moved from the concrete to the grass.

And with the final push from a friendly niddy-noddy, a little beastlet was transformed into this little beauty.

Not-so-technical details: an even mixture of Jacob fleece and vegetable matter, spun in a single and immediately knitted into a square, with the only purpose of seeing if I was able to do it and how it would all come out. I LOVE IT!
It is unbelievably soft and airy.

A sweater from a drop spindle does not seem an insane propositon anymore...
Somebody please stop me now.

Opportunistic blogging

2006-03-09T10:27:00.000-05:00

First of all, thank you so much for your very kind comments! Feeling loved is just the best thing ever! If I have not answered you directly, it is only because I have misplaced your email address.

There is so much to say and so little time and space: I am blogging from one of the computer at my school, which luckily lets me load pictures, but it is not set up with all my links, archives etc. So opportunistic blogging it is.

All I have to show you today is my Olympic effort. Of course I knew I should have known better than signing up. And, honestly, I did not mean to. But, with being at the pre-opening party, where everybody was talking about it, and being Italian with strong family links to Torino (hey, I used to go sking in Sestriere when I was little!) and all that, when I read Wendy's post quoting some of my colorful language*, I knew resistance was futile.

My challenge was to knit a pair of socks in those 16 days. I know it does not sound like much, but for me socks usually take months to complete. Well, that may still be the case actually, but at least one was completed within the allotted time. And I am happy and gratified by the whole thing.

It is the 'Embossed leaves' pattern in the winter issue of IK. Do the yarn and color look at all familiar? Why, yes, they are the same of Ms Melanie's recent socks, from the very same batch. Like her, it was my first Koigu time, and I loved it. Definetely the best sock yarn yet, in my very limited experience.

One thing though: these socks are supposed to have a tubular cast on. The pattern refers to the glossary pages of the magazine for the 1x1 rib cast on. And I tried, and I tried and I tried... but no tubular anything came out of those instructions.

I could have done a regular tubular cast on, with waste yarn. However, I knew there was a way to do it without waste yarn. And I was determined to twist my fingers every which way I could to get it right, mostly from memory.

But no luck, eventually I had to give up and produced this.

I have no idea what it is, nor how to reproduce it for the second sock. It will do but it certainly is not tubular, and it could do with being just a little bit more elastic.

* BTW 'big rack' translates something like 'tettona'

Denial is....

2006-03-06T11:53:00.000-05:00

Denial is when you think you can keep a blog by writing a post every 3 months.

Denial is when you forget your camera for the one chance in 3 months you have to write that post.

Denial is signing up for the Knitting Olympics when you know you have 2 exams and a move to accomplish during the Olympics. (Still, I did 50% of my project, woohoo!)

Denial is thinking that, even if you only manage to read an average of 3 blog entries per week, plucked here and there, you are still part of the knitting blog community.

No, wait. The last one is wrong. While I happen to be a member at large, I know all my lovely blogging knitting friends are still there for me. And that’s why I can’t bring myself to erase this miserable little blog yet.

Watch out for the possibility of another entry this very week (it’s Spring break, no classes!)

Is that denial or what?

Snow Day

2006-01-03T16:21:00.000-05:00

One of the advantages of being a student is that a snow day is not a source of irritation, as when you are, say, a working parent, but cause for irrepressible joy!

Yes, a day off school makes me feel about 15 yrs old! How good is that?!

Plus, I get to blog, because I have been diligent and spent some of my free time studying already today.

Unfortunately for you readers, my knitting news are not exciting at all, as they revolve entirely on unraveling my mistakes. Just a word of warning: when you happen to notice something like this

where a side appears a couple of inches longer than the other, just listen to this friendly advice: do not glibly dismiss your observation, and proceed to sew the cardi together, pick up stitches for the collar, knit it then pick up and knit an attached I-cord all along the side. Because it will not work: the side will not somehow shrink to the same size as the other. And it will prove impossible to force a zipper to make them match. Really, it will not work at all.

And unraveling an attached I-cord is making me grinding my teeth, since it takes about 7 times longer than knitting it. If I had known this in advance, trust me, this lovely cardi would have long perished in the frog pond. But I am a student, and I welcome learning experiences, sometimes.....

I'll leave you with Maddalena learning to skate on the promenade at sunset, in my hometown Livorno in Italy, barely a week ago.

Happy New Year to all!

A semester worth of knitting

2005-12-13T12:03:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right, the first semester of vet school is over! yippeee!

It was exciting, stimulating, tough beyond my expectations, and deeply exhausting.

But I am here, as coherent and together as I have ever been (yeah, right!), and I can tell you two things: first, I could not have done this without the practical and emotional support of my family, especially my husband, who has beautifully risen to the challenge of taking charge of all childcare arrangements and most housekeeping, along with his full time job. And all without batting an eyelid, in typical British fashion. I LOVE YOU, CHRIS!

Also, my blogging friends have sent me supporting and encouraging messages all along, and that has made a big difference! Thank you all!

Second, I could not have done this without my knitting! There was no way I could have sat studying for all those hours, had my hands not been occupied, thus channelling my concentration to the books.

The circle up there is not actually complete: Maddalena's new scarf is at the sitter's house, the back of a vest for my father is being blocked by the cat, the mouse ears are momentarily misplaced, plus there is a secret item I can't display.

Of course, as you can see, only very simple projects, many of them still unfinished, because finishing requires undivided attention. No time for that.

Here is the legend, from the top, clockwise:

Corrugated Asymetrical V-Neck, Loop-d-Loop, details in this post.
Cardigan for Maddalena, my own design, with unknown yarn. Still needs a zipper or clasp. Plus two random hats for the children, but they do not wear them.
Capelet in Rowan Cork, from their last year membership kit. A present for the sitter, probably.
One-Skein-Wonder, see previous post. A present for a recipient to be decided yet.
Blissful Jacket, by Debbie Bliss, IK Fall 2005, in Rowan dk tweed, with yellow trim in some unknown yarn. To be finished, hopefully tonight.
Drop-Stitch Cardigan, by Amy King, IK Fall 2005, in Noro Cash Iroha. Still needs a zipper, although I am considering alternatives.
In the middle, a scarf for Giacomo, his own design and choice of colors. Plus there are a dark blue corrugated hat, also from Loop-d-Loop, matching the V-neck, and a pair of half mittens in Cork, from the latest Rowan Magazine, just to finish off left overs.

Oh, something else worth mentioning: all this was from stash! Very happy about that!

And now, excuse me, I have a lot of blog-reading to do!

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-31T07:38:00.000-05:00

PLease note that the little mouse on the right has knitted ears!!

Have a good Halloween, everyone!

Way to busy a life

2005-10-15T12:30:00.000-04:00

Hi people!

Just a quick post to let you all know that I am still alive. The first couple of months of Vet School have been pretty hard to adjust to, with a heavy load of homework, an exam every week, and a long commute. Still, I love going to school, and I feel that I am getting into a sort of a routine, which goes pretty much like this:

Get up way too early in the morning;
Drive 80 miles in heavy traffic;
Listen to several hours of intensive lectures;
Drive 80 miles in heavy traffic;
Make dinner and review kids’ homework;
Enjoy monosyllabic exchanges with my husband;
Put children to bed;
Study until can’t possibly keep eyes open anymore;
Sleep for what it feels a few seconds every night.

There has been no blog reading, no posting (well, you knew that already), no spinning. And of course no yarn acquisitions, or visit to yarn stores/knitting group/spinning guild, visit with other knitters, spinners bloggers (with one exception to see Ms. Melanie and Michelle).

But I am happy to report that there is still some knitting. As long as it is simple, I can knit and read/study at the same time. In fact, I find that if I had to sit still and study for long periods of time without something grounding me, I would not being able to do it. I’d get up, make some tea, do a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher, etc.

But my hands busy knitting keep my bottom attached to the chair and my eyes glued to the papers, with the eternal mantra of ‘just one more row-just one more page’, until I collapse.

I have finished a few simple things, but not taken a picture of them all. Just this one, which I call Devo (as in Devolopmental Anatomy, because the bulk of it was knitted while studying for that exam).

It is, of course, the Corrugated Asymmetrical V-Neck, from Loop-d-Loop (scroll at the bottom of the page to see the image from the book), knitted with some Cleckheaton 12-ply yarn from stash. The gauge was not quite the same, and it turned out a bit too short. So I added a band at the bottom to make it just a bit longer, since bulky wool sweaters that leave your belly button uncovered do not make sense to me. Unfortunately, being dark blue, you can’t really see much. It was very enjoyable to knit and it is very nice to wear. Even sexy with a shoulder, with accompanying bra/camisole strap, peeking out all the time. Luckily for me, I have no problem with unruly straps.

My next post will likely be in December, when lessons will stop. Please know that I miss you all a lot. And keep your fingers crossed for me, especially on Monday mornings, when I invariably am struggling with a test of some sort.

PS: I do just about manage to read my email, so feel free to email me with any news or just a quick greeting, I’d love to hear from all of you, I really miss reading your blogs.

I can't believe.....

2005-08-24T19:48:00.000-04:00

.....I'm doing this, posting instead of reading/studying/memorizing the absurd number of pages I have been assigned for tomorrow.

Vet School is no joke, apparently, and they seem bent on drilling this concept very thoroughly.

L'hai voluta la bicicletta? Ora pedala!

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to all that have sent me good thoughts and emails, and apologize if I have not answered. My email address book is at work still, but I should have it tomorrow, so I hope to catch up.

And I also wanted to reassure you that I do still knit. In fact I have somehow managed to produce this One-Skein-Wonder since start of school, 3 days ago. With reading and listening to orientation seminars, it seems knitting time is still available. So far.

Kindly excuse the abismal photograph, my trusty photographer Maddie is away camping. Another reason for which I should use my time wisely and go back to my books!

Growing pains

2005-08-20T22:12:00.000-04:00

Today I bought a new car.

I feel that something is not quite right. How can it be that I am now in the position to do such a big, grown–up thing? And on top of that, it is a much bigger and newer car than what I thought I wanted/needed/was suitable to my needs.

This feeling is very similar to what I feel still when I walk up the street to my house: do I really own that lovely, large house? How come? (and I have only been living there for four years…)

Somehow, something tells me that my house and my car really should belong to somebody respectable and together, like my aunt. For my part, I just can’t get over it. I mean, I have not learned yet to do all the other stuff, wear make-up and work clothes, keep my hair in some shape, keep house etc. I have never outgrown my poor student mentality, a rusty bicycle and a cramped apartment, shared with a bunch of noisy room-mates. A new car? Really? For me?

The whole thing is very confusing. Time to go knitting and center myself again. Before school starts all over again.

Small things, big things

2005-08-17T22:22:00.000-04:00

Today the mail brought me many new toys, some for knitting and some for school. And they are not totally unrelated. Here is the story.

For knitting, I got the new Rowan book, No. 38. While I do not care much for most of the patterns in it, that fact that it was actually delivered to me first time around was a personal victory. I have been a Rowan International member for probably over 10 years, but, in the last 4 years, not one issue has been delivered to me without further solicitation, until today.

Two summers ago, the wait proved, for some reason, particularly excruciating: I’d come home hot, tired from work, having to attend alone to children and house (my husband must have been away somewhere), and would look hopeful inside the mail box for some respite: my new Rowan, about which everybody on the Rowan forum was raving.

And everyday, I’d find only bills etc. And everyday I’d get grumpier!

After two weeks of this, while opening once again an empty mailbox, I straightened my back and had a sudden realization: if my happiness depends so heavily on the arrival of a knitting magazine, something here is wrong.

The next thought was: that’s it, I am going to quit my job and go back to school. I want to become a homeopathic vet.

So today, aside from the new Rowan, I also got some school books, a cell phone and a digital voice recorder. Tomorrow I’ll go buy some notebooks and pencils.

Vet school starts Monday!

Pictures? What Pictures?

2005-08-09T18:34:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, before PowerPoint presentations and brainsticks, Ben went to a big scientific conference, made her selection of presentations she wanted to listen to, and stepped into a dark amphitheater room.
There, standing by a slide projector, stood a regular type scientist guy (you know, beard, round glasses, shabby clothes, sandals and socks). He waited patiently until everybody was seated before starting with the following opening:
‘In my trip to come here, I foolishly checked in my bag containing the slides and the bag was lost.’ The audience gasped and murmurs of commiseration were heard.
‘However, I have decided to proceed with my presentation anyway, and you will just have to imagine the slides’. Without any further ado, he went on to give one of the most spirited presentations Ben had ever seen, pointing to specific points on a blindingly white screen and saying with a totally straight face things like: ‘As you can see on this graph, the blue bars are consistently higher than the red ones’. And so on and so forth.
Ben was awed and forever wished she had the guts of pulling something like that off. The applause at the end could not have been more sincere!

Why am I relating this story? Because, although my long vacation in Italy and Ireland, spent on fabulous beaches and lovely country side, I have no pictures to show you. Not because I have lost my camera, no, just because I thought my mother’s computer (not the best behaved machine I have come across) was eating the photos off the camera, and so stopped taking them. Very lame, but totally true. Only when I got back I realized the first few photos I had taken were actually still there. DUH!

First Italian photo: fresh delicious ripe apricots for breakfast, picked early in the morning and delivered to my mother’s house just for our arrival.

Anyway, forget about all the unpictured amenities, what about the knitting?

Well, imagine the Half-Pie Shawl in Weekend Knitting. Imagine a fluffy mohair boucle’ blend, DK weight, in a vivid red with variegation of all possible colors thrown in. Imagine knitting this fluffy and very warm, fairly large item in the Italian July heat. Then imagine running out of yarn about 15 short rows from the end of the last slice of pie. Arrgh! Imagine jumping on a bicycle and pedal furiously to a yarn store, praying for a decent substitute. Of course, in Italy things tend to be seasonal, and yarn stores in July sell just about nothing but cotton. Imagine the sweaty knitter rummaging through a couple of pretty big sales bins. And finding at the bottom a ball of mohair boucle’. Only it was blue. And much thinner. But for 0.80 Euro, she decided to give it a chance, no matter how its decidedly small potential. Imagine a consultation with the knitter’s mother, a woman of great taste and ingenuity. Imagine a red/multicolor Half-Pie Shawl with an intriguing (isn’t that a great word for weird?) blue/red slice (the blue was too thin on its on, so it got paired with some red yarn, to produce at least a consistent weight and texture). Imagine a fancy Rickrack lace edging made with solid red plain wool. All the way around the shawl. Possibly over a hundred repeats (could not bring self to count them). It took weeks. And it would not have been finished without the aid of transatlantic flights. Imagine arriving back into the States, grafting the required 7 stitches together, blocking the thing and, the very next day, sending it off to its recipient, the lovely and very understanding Yvonne. Not even one picture was taken.

No, not really. Polly would not have forgiven me, if I had added such neglection to my huge delay in delivering my Rowan Edgy Exchange thingie.

Intermezzo

2005-07-02T21:36:00.000-04:00

Hello everybody,

just a quick post before disappearing for another month.

June has seen me running around in a frantic mode, from work to classes to homework to work to classes to homework again and again. Plus the end of school, soccer, baseball, t-ball, camping, organizing for summer, some family issues etc.

I had little time for eating and sleeping, never mind knitting, spinning or blogging.
But it was worth it, because now I have the rest of the summer off!*

So Tuesday the children and I are leaving for Italy, where we’ll stay for the rest of the month. While there is connectivity available from there, my previous experience tells me that I will be way to busy at the beach all day, and socializing with friends and family at night, to do any blogging. Usually I do not even knit much** (although I might do some yarn shopping!)

I will take my newly finished Side-to-Side top with me, to visit the homeland, so to speak.

*Well, not completely, I have still to finish some work, which I will have to take with me. Stupid deadlines!
** I know at least one famous blogger who knits at the beach all summer, and usually has blankets of mind-boggling beauty to show at the end of it, but my beach ethos largely rules out knitting.

Poppies for Polly

2005-06-07T14:51:00.000-04:00

Last week ATU Polly was admiring her spontaneous poppy and wondering how invasive they are.
Well, pretty invasive, I told her, but so pretty and very hardy. We planted a few wildflower seeds a couple of years ago, and now the poppies are taking over the front flower beds. I do not care, I find them so pretty I would not mind if they took over the house!

Look at them!

And they go well with the Poppy bolero from Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora book, vero?
The bolero is for the daughter of Maddalena’s godfather, in South Africa. I used some Italian silk yarn from stash, and followed directions without much anguish about gauge, because, in my thinking, as long as I keep the same proportions, it will fit the child at some point. Let’s hope it’s true.

And now, a public announcement: given the frantic pace of my life right now, I will not be able to post much in the next couple of months, if at all. So far, no big deal, I am sure you can all survive.

However, as of now, I do not even have the time to read other blogs and post comments on them, and generally keep up with the knitting/blogging world. No, no time at all. And this situation will last for another two months or so. Will I survive? Doubtful.

I can still do some simple knitting-while-reading (i.e. Poppy), let’s pray that is enough to keep me sane. See you sometime in the summer! Miss you already....

La Bella e la Bestia

2005-05-27T19:51:00.000-04:00

Beauty …

It is true knitting has been scarce lately, but I have some progress to show for the pretty silk ribbon yarn.

It is difficult to show sweater-in-progress when they are made in one piece, since they are all bunched up on the needles and holders. This one goes side to side, and I am a bit over 60% done.

Bello questo nastro, vero? Let’s call this ribbon Bella. Bella has an annoying habit: endless twisting and coiling on herself.

I need to keep the working ball in a small Ziploc type bag, with only a little section open, and tug it out little by little and every few stitches, let it dangle to uncoil. Not conducive to quick knitting.

and the Beast …

A very beastly beast, a raw Jacob fleece, landed on my doorstep yesterday. Warning for Melanie: hold your nose!

One piece of this is actually the cat, rolling on her back, ecstatic at the new sensory experience.
And here is a close-up, to see all the colors.

I have no idea how to deal with this beast.

The secret life of a half-baked spinner

2005-05-25T22:49:00.000-04:00

For months people have asked me: how is the spinning going? And I would not know how to respond, the progress was so slow, if any, the learning curve so steep, the terminology obscure, and at every step it looked like I was missing the right tool: carders, combs, diz, lazy Kates, what-have-you.

I mean, compared to knitting, the whole business seemed so much more complicated, time consuming, abstruse. Of course, it took me many years to reach my level of competence and confidence in knitting, but somehow, I was expecting to master spinning in a couple of weeks. And when that did not happen, well, I just turned back to knitting.

But of course, the wheel was there, and tales of spinning and photos of fabulous handspun yarns were all over. And I made more spinning friends who started sharing their wisdom and held my hand, lent me tools and arrived with bags of fiber for me to try.

Michelle, who never does things in half, arrived two weeks ago with a bag of raw Shetland fleece and a bag of unnamed washed fleece, with the intention of showing how to wash and comb fleece. But we got distracted by the posse of children roaming the house, so nothing got done.

The Shetland fleece, however, did not give up on me, and last week made me set aside everything else, wash it in the sink, dry it and to comb it. I wish I had documented this part, but was too excited. After a few false starts, combing was blissful; once i gave up on the idea of actually wanting to be done with it, so I could spin, it turned into one of the most relaxing activities ever: totally pure, seemingly endless process.

Eventually all the combing yielded these soft fluffy rovings (is this the right term?)

Which filled this bobbin

The single was wound onto my faithful swift

Then relaxed in hot water, and made into this little skein (fluffy waste fiber on left hand side).

Approx 250 yards of lace-weight Shetland yarn. I can’t explain how happy this makes me, and how proud I am of the whole thing. It’s not the first yarn I spun, but it’s the first from raw fleece. And I just love it. Every single little fiber of it. Here’s a close-up. I want to knit it into something very special.

A big shout to....

2005-05-24T21:23:00.000-04:00

The Bookish Girl for hosting a fabulous party at her home last weekend.
It was great to meet many new people and some old friends. Actually, they all felt like old friends, thanks to the knitting blogs’ phenomenon!

I just love this: entering, with my usual 1 ½ hour delay, a room full of people of which I have met maybe a third in real life, and only three of them more than once, and being greeted like the prodigal son. Just LOVE it.
As for tasting yarn, I was too busy tasting the food and playing with the cat (before everyone else got to him!). And then I got myself entangled in the skein of lace yarn I brought, finally succeeding in making it into a ball it with the help of Futureman, and proceeded spending the rest of my precious little time knitting about 5 rows. After that, it was time for me to leave for another adventure in Greater Boston traffic.

I was so scattered that I forgot the camera, but even if I had it, I’d have certainly forgotten to use it. For photos and much better accounts of the ‘Taste of Yarn’ party, go see Wendy, Elisa, Melanie, Maryse, Colleen, Kellee and Kris.

Thanks Wendy! When is the next one?... just kidding!

Where did the knitting go?

2005-05-15T18:54:00.000-04:00

First, allow me to thank you all for the encouragement last weekend, when I was bogged down in papers. I am sorry for spoiling Julia’s party, but she, and you, were very gracious and really helped me along.

Now, I fully intended to use the current two-week break between spring and summer sessions by cramming in as much knitting time as possible. However, work is relentless. And weeks of neglected laundry, ironing and other housework had to be addressed, albeit minimally.

And then there is spinning. Inspired by the recent workshop I went to, and a guild meeting, and some new fiber to play with (thanks Michelle!), I found myself leaving my knitting projects aside in favor of spinning.

This is some slippery Merino I am spinning to make a shawl for my mother, who is recovering from surgery. The color is perfect for her: she is a true Leo-ness, with a birthday at the end of July. Hopefully that will give me enough time to spin and knit a Kiri.

BOOKS

2005-05-11T11:49:00.000-04:00

Thank you Melanie, for tagging me! Sorry it took me a few days to get going.

1. Total number of books in your house:
By a quick estimate, there are probably over a thousand books in our house. Most of it fiction, then children book, then knitting and photography, and various other bits and pieces. And there are probably a couple more boxes of books somewhere.We cull a few every once in a while, but I find it difficult to part with books. And my husband is worse than me. I also have a lot of books still at my mother’s house in Italy.

2. The last book you bought was:
My last shipment from Amazon was all reference books:
Folk Socks: The History & Techniques of Handknitted Footwear by Nancy Bush
Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs: Small Doses for Small Animals by Donald Hamilton,
Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too by Adele Faber, Elaine Mazlish

But the books I really read, i.e. fiction, are generally donated to me by my husband. The last two were a Mother’s Day gift: The Benefactor, by Susan Sontag and Reading Lolita in Teheran, by Azar Nafisi. I have not touched them yet. There is a big pile of new books on my bedside table right now…

3. What was the last book you read before reading this:
I am reading The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag, and I am on the last few pages.
Probably the last book I read completely before this was Regarding the pain of others also by Susan Sontag.

And now I feel an explanation is needed: I took and English Composition class this spring and unwisely chose to do my final research paper on On Photography by guess who? Yes, Susan Sontag. I complained at length to anybody who would listen about the book, and probably said at some point that it made me curious to see what her fiction was like. Which is why my husband got me a number of her books. As for “Regarding the pain of others”, that was still research.

4. Write down 5 books that you often read or that mean a lot to you:
This is an impossible question to answer.
I do not often reread, but the following 5 titles I loved unconditionally. And if you ask me next week, it will be different:

The Bone People by Keri Hulme
Life is elsewhere by Milan Kundera
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
The Time Traveler’s wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Eat me by Linda Jaivin
The good fairies of New York by Martin Millar
The 27th Kingdom by Alice Thomas Ellis

Hey, how did 7 titles sneak up there?

And now I am annoyed: we lent ‘The good fairies of New York’ to who knows who, and now, by checking the details on Amazon, I’ve discovered it’s like a rare and expensive book! I am very liberal about lending books, but I am beginning to realize that many people are very careless about returning them. I’ve lost a few in the last few years. And that bugs me!

I still want to be able lend books; I think it’s one of the great pleasures of reading to pass on a book that you have enjoyed. And I have always thought that people that were jealous of their books were just too stingy and uptight. Do I really have to rethink about this? Why can’t people just be a bit more considerate?

Time to go and track back my Rowan No. 8, that has been on loan for next to two years (to a nun though; you’d think you could trust them, right?)

5. Who do you tag? Maryse

End of Term frenzy

2005-05-07T18:22:00.000-04:00

This is what I am doing today, while some are celebrating birthdays, others are going to family reunions, and others still are lounging around. Not to mention of course, the scores of knitters in Maryland.

Not bitter, but certainly not exhilarated either.

My final paper for my English class was due last Thursday, but the grace period extends until this Tuesday. It’s a research paper on this book, and it’s driving me demented.

Anyway, I did work hard all day and I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Halleluja!

Knitting? Nope, not around here. Maybe next week.

Energized!

2005-05-04T19:01:00.000-04:00

That’s how I felt at the workshop I attended Saturday by Boston Area Spinners and Dyer, BASD.
The workshop was conducted by Kathryn Alexander, on how to use energized singles in your knitting. It was fantastic! I loved it!

I was probably the least experienced spinner in the group, and was really worried that the workshop would be way above my head. But she was so nice and encouraging; she explained everything and helped everybody. She even asked to try my wheel, because she had never seen one like it (an Emma exclusive, you know) and said lots of nice things about it.

Kathryn is as wild and entertaining as her knitting and spinning, very interesting and enthusiastic. I loved all the thought and research and experimentation she has put in her spinning and knitting, and how she shared it all. I loved the idea of making a ‘surface’ with knitting, by using the energy trapped in the unbalanced singles. And while the principles are simple, they need a thoughtful spinner/knitter to be used effectively. They also need a spinner that can spin much more evenly than me at the moment, but now I feel energized to practice more and achieve an acceptable degree of evenness.

So here are the samples we did:

On top is the sample she made us spin to see if we could spin evenly enough to make a balanced single (mine was not quite there yet, but a larger whorl helped a lot); then we had to spin one single S and one Z and combine them in various patterns, to make different surfaces. Here being a beginner spinner helped, because I had no trouble reversing direction of spinning, since I have no ingrained habits as to how I spin. And being a fairly experienced knitter also helped, because I could easily understand what direction to wrap the singles to use their energy in the right way.

Can you believe these surfaces are all just stocking stitch? And the grey/white one is a 4*4 rib?
I particularly like the herring-bone one; would it not make a great border for a hat or cuff for a mitten or sock?

So, I was sorry to have missed all the excitement at the Harlot and post-Harlot parties, but my Saturday was great!

Oh, and Kathryn has a wonderful sense of humor!

"You know, Margaret, a lot of people who can knit don't."

This was on the packages with the sample fiber and handbook.

Socks for clogs

2005-04-27T11:21:00.000-04:00

Look, Mizar sock No. 1 is finished!

And it even fits me! A nice surprise, it looked so small and tight when on the needles.
It still feels pretty tight fitting, but I have not washed it yet, and I believe that this Shetland wool will soften and bloom a bit in the wash. I love Mizar, but when I was working on it, I half promised it to a friend with smaller feet, so I might have to give it (and its other half, when completed) away.

Still, I am happy, because the pattern was challenging enough but not a headache, and it went relatively quickly on my long DPNs, size 3 (although I thought I was working on 4s all the time!). If I have to give this pair away, I’ll knit another pair on size 4 and maybe add a couple of stitches for better ease. Just for the record, I am not a sock knitter, this is only my 4th pair, but clog socks might convert me yet.

Here is a shot of the heel, to show the pattern going all the way down, as appropriate for clog wearing. I apologize for the photo, but it wasn’t easy to capture my own heel. At least I waxed my legs yesterday…..

Mizar pattern from ‘Socks for sandals and clogs’ by Anna Zilboorg.

Colorful ribbons

2005-04-20T21:22:00.000-04:00

A couple of entries ago, I mentioned I wanted to knit the Side to Side Ribbon Pullover , and I was considering buying the recommended yarn, Berroco Zen.

Well, the plan has changed, after precious advice from the ribbon expert Subway Knitter. I started chanting ribbon ribbon ribbon until a couple of neuron connected in my brain and I remembered the silk ribbon I had stashed, another amazing gift from my mother. It is Garza di Organzino, all the way from Florence.

Amazingly, I did a mini swatch (I do not have much to spare, if any), and the gauge was ok. So I got started and here is the beginning of a sleeve.

It is a very unusual yarn to work with, very dry, slippery and clingy at the same time, and I have to be careful not to poke my needle through it. It does not seem to drape much, which might be a concern for this pattern. And in case it does not work, I’m kind of stuck, because Garza does not unravel well (I unraveled part of the swatch and it looked all crinkly).

But the shimmering colors are so beautiful, and the ribbon is so light and smooth. I really do hope the top will turn out ok!

On other news, my Mizar sock has progressed past the heel and it looks very pretty, but way too small for me. That’s ok, I still enjoy knitting it and I will easily find a worthy recipient somewhere. It was such an impulse project, never stopped to consider any measurements, so I am not disappointed.

Actually, I am disappointed, but by something else entirely: I broke my yarn diet! And I did it in the most stupid way possible: after an exhausting day at the zoo, I stopped at an unknown-to-me yarn store with two overtired children and a fried brain, looked all around, saw nothing special, went to the sale bin and bought a whole lot of cotton that I have no need for, no special liking for and was not especially a good buy (well, it was a good buy, but nothing that could not be passed up). My only excuse is that the salesperson glared at me the whole time, so I thought I’d better buy something. I am planning to return it, but the store is way out of my way. Maybe at the weekend.

One last thing: like other have said, Blogger comments will not give an email address for whoever has left a comment, and if you do not have a Blogger account, I do not even know your name. So I can’t answer all your very nice comments as I’d like to. As they say, I apologize for any inconvenience, I wish it was easier to get back to all of you.

Not the Debbie Bliss Club

2005-04-19T21:35:00.000-04:00

You know, I was not going to blog tonight, not for lack of knitting content (granted, there is not that much worth blogging about), but for sheer tiredness.

But just before bedtime, Giacomo, my 7 year-old, came down and asked me what would happen if something like a book was by any chance left outside: would it be blown away?

I said that would certainly be possible. So he asked me to let him go and retrieve this ‘book’ from his newly built fort. Permission was granted, and he came back with this booklet and insisted on reading it to me.

please forgive a mother’s weakness, I just can’t help sharing it with you all:

Club Charectar!

chapter I: plans
all plans must have codes
* more complactad more better
* everybody knows piglatan
* codes like “code blue” are cool
* sybols

chapter II: plans
all plans must have revange
* get enemies in trouble
* get back when defited
* boss them around

Chapter III: Actois
Actions must have sneakeness.
* no noticing
* good hearing
* spying

chaper IIII: actions
Actions must have hard work.
* different people have different hard yobs
*

Original spelling and punctuation preserved. And since I know you want to know, the club’s name is TUFF, Totally Unidentified Flying Freaks.

Do you think is time to take the Calvin & Hobbes books away?

Ecco a voi…

2005-04-15T20:36:00.000-04:00

Humbug, pattern from Rowan Magazine 37, yarn Rowan Summer Tweed, color Salad.
In all its unblocked, unwashed beauty. It took longer to seam it than to knit it, just about, because seaming time (i.e. knitting time when I can actually concentrate on what I am doing) is scarce. So, as soon as I dealt with the last end, I put it on and asked my ever obliging daughter to take a picture. Cutting off my head was optional, but she managed anyway.

I like Humbug more than I expected, considering that I started it mainly to use up some stash with a pattern that I could knit when studying. Summer Tweed has a very dry feel, but it seems to get softer when handled. It also discards a surprising amount of vegetation. I am curious to see how it comes out of the wash, where it is sitting right now.

All in all, a pretty satisfactory project. And it fits me!*

For my next plain knitting project, I went back to a pattern from last Spring IK, the Side-to-Side Ribbon top. And I dug out the ribbon yarn that I have, Pavia, a cotton ribbon bias-cut yarn by Classic Elite (no link available) courtesy of the Great Stash Redistribution Box (thanks Amy and anonymous donor). I like the pattern and I like the yarn, but together they did not convince me. So I let things stew for a few days. And then things clicked: Berroco Zen (the yarn called for this project) is on sale at Webs, and Pavia would be perfect for a baby blanket, so it gets assigned to the Pinwheel blanket.

I am so glad when things do finally click, such a relief!

Of course, my yarn diet is in the way, but I am on my 10th project from stash, I think it might be time for a break

*Kiri update coming shortly.

Miscellaneous

2005-04-09T13:25:00.000-04:00

Overdue Thanks!
Last week I received many wonderful gifts, some of them completely unexpected. My lovely friend Polly read my enquiry on the Rowan forum, about knitting this design, Martha from the latest Rowan, in Botany (a wool 4-ply Rowan yarn, discontinued) instead than using the yarn the pattern calls for, Rowan Cotton 4-ply.

And promptly decided to send me in the mail this instead:

The perfect yarn in the perfect (discontinued) shade! I was speechless for a few minutes when I opened the package and read the card, which says more or less: Martha is a summery knit, I have just the right yarn and now it’s yours!
Polly rocks!

My next rock star is my mother: her package for S. Benedetto arrived late, but was well worth the wait: in amidst scrumptious humongous chocolate eggs, toys for the children, Moon Boots for me for next winter (in case it snows again, you know), and many other things, there were these:

Six, I mean six, needlepoint cushion covers, designed, I believe, by Kaffe Fassett. I bought all the kits, when I was in Scotland and had a fling with needlework, but then returned full time to knitting, so my mother inherited them and made them all…..for me! My mind boggles at the thought of how many hours of work are in these cushions. I love them beyond words.
I will need to go and buy a new couch just for them. And I love my mother, not just because of her wonderful gifts, but because SHE is wonderful! GRAZIE, MAMMA!

What would Ben do?
I felt extremely flattered that Wendy, Elisa and Maryse thought I was of some help in their knitting quandaries. However, today Ben would just bang her head against the wall repeatedly:
maybe you remember Kiri, the blue sweater with the pretty neck ruffle. Maybe I have told you what size I was making it, but just in case I did not, I was following the directions for a medium size, bust of 91 cm. Which usually works for me without any adjustment. What I neglected to do was to check on the schematics what the finished size of the garment was supposed to be. So I went along happily, blocked it, join the shoulders, knit the neck ruffles, all the way thinking: this looks too big, but ignoring myself. Then I joined a sleeve cap, finally draped on me and, believe me ('cause I do not have the heart of taking a picture) Kiri is HUGE! It would easily fit a much bigger woman than me.

Of course, I blamed myself and my lazy attitude: why did I not check gauge and row gauge and measured as I went along and all that stuff. But you know what: even if I had bothered, it would not have changed a thing, because my finished pieces, I discovered, are EXACTLY the measurements of the final garment in the pattern. What I want to know is this:
Why for a bust measurement of 91 cm, front and back are designed to measure 60 cm each? eh? Why?

Ben does not not what to do with Kiri, she is still too mad.

Revolting against Stocking Stitch
Last Tuesday, I suddenly found myselg grabbing a sock book I have not looked at for 2 years, grab some yarn from a basket, some DPNS from another basket, and casting on for this:

Mizar, in Shetland wool, two strands together.
Admittedly, one of the most difficult patterns in the book (according to Zilboorg herself), one that I have to pay attention to, and I do not even like knitting socks that much. But you know, one can take only so many weeks of plain stocking stitch in one’s life. Since January, stocking stitch has dominated my knitting, because it’s the only thing I can knit while reading/studying. Tuesday my knitting boredom threshold snapped.

Now I feel refreshed (although not enough to face reknitting Kiri).

A grand day out

2005-04-05T15:59:00.000-04:00

Well, afternoon, evening, night, whatever! Yes, you have already read about it, it’s all over the web, along with Wendy’s signature belly, and yes it’s all true! We had so much fun! It was really hard to leave early and I regret missing the funnest* part, involving dexterous use of Sharpies and who knows what else. While the extra batteries came with me, my camera stayed at home, so no pictures here. Except to show off the fantastic yarn I got in the swap.

And just as well I got it and nobody attempted to swap with me, or it would have turned ugly; because this is just the perfect yarn for me, my color and my yarn philosophy all in one (check it out at Sweet Grass Wool). In fact, I remember growling at Melanie for even looking mildly interested in it.

Anyway, thank you Debbie for hosting us, and Melanie, for getting us organized, and Maryse, Elisa and Wendy for such a great evening. I never imagined that being a knitter would evolve in such a social and fun thing.

This brings me to my next point, something I have been ruminating for a while. I have been knitting for over 20 yrs, and have always enjoyed it. However, it is only in the last couple of years that knitting has changed from just a past-time, an activity to keep my hands busy and productive (I have to have an item at the end of it, the process itself is not enough for me), to an active interest. And that is all because of the knitting community on the web, which has opened up my eyes not only to different techniques and patterns and yarns, but to the people involved with knitting. Now, I can’t figure why it happens that the knitters I meet online and in person are invariably amazing, fun, interesting people, compared to the people I may meet in other settings. I know it is not just for their knitting. I mean, the knitting is cool, but the web knitters/bloggers are the stars, by a long way.

So when I was reading Colleen’s post a few days ago, talking about the motivation behind the ‘new’ knitters and wondering if they’ll keep knitting when its novelty and popularity wears off, I found myself thinking ‘never mind the knitting, it’s the blogging community that I hope will still be there in 10 years time’. I know there will always be knitters, somewhere. But what if blogging goes out of fashion and we’ll all get out of touch? That is what worries me, knitting in a vacuum, again….with not even a Sharpie in sight!!

*my spellchecker tells me this is not a real world, but my children use it all the time, so I have now officially adopted it. I mean, my spellchecker does not even recognize blog as a real word, so how reliable can it be?

Finally some green...

2005-03-30T09:51:00.000-05:00

Snow has melted and grass is tentatively greening, with some interspersed crocuses. Daffodils are about to burst out in color. Every year spring seems to start so very slowly; yes, the sun is out more and the days are longer, but almost everything is still brown and gray. Until some pre-ordained, but undisclosed day sometime in late April, when I wake up and spring has literally sprung overnight, and everything is green, exhuberant, lovely and bright new!
I did not know the meaning of seasons until I moved to New England, trite but true. In Italy, there were seasons, but much less extreme. In Scotland, there were no seasonal landmarks, apart from the great variation in day lenghth; it was constantly windy and wet, and always green ( I apologize to my Scottish friends, and fully realize that my perception is/was heavily distorted by having being brought up on the Mediterranean shores, but still!)
Now that I have learned to appreciate the seasonal changes, and somewhat to resign to the inevitability of it all, my ideal world would feature a Fall lasting about 4 weeks, Winter 2 weeks (snow optional), Spring and Summer for the rest of the year.

Anyway, in my current quest for easy (read stocking stitch) knitting to accompany me in my study/reading enforced binges, when I saw the new Rowan Magazine, my eye landed on Humbug. Easy, fun, and I already had some Summer Tweed in stash.

And yes, it's green! New grass green, Salad green in fact! That can't hurt in the current climate, now, can it?

PS: the Salad color of Summer Tweed has been discontinued, in case you wondered.
PPS: I have not put Kiri together yet, hopefully this weekend I'll make a chunk of time for it, and then there will be photos.

BUONA PASQUA

2005-03-26T10:01:00.000-05:00

Sing with me

2005-03-24T08:59:00.000-05:00

Stitch by stitch
row by row
I am going to make this jacket grow
All it takes is a pair of needles and some yarn
and a bit of available time..

to the tune of "The Garden Song".

Just to let you know that I have not given up on China Clouds.

Go check Sam's blog for some real progress on intarsia projects, her knitting is fantastic!

The Deceitful Ruffle

2005-03-22T11:30:00.000-05:00

Would you believe that this ruffle along the V-neck of Kiri took me 2 1/2 hours to knit?
I innocently started around 10 pm, thinking I'd be in bed by 11, a late but reasonable week-day bedtime.
I mean, it was only 4 rows, after picking up the stitches.

By 11 pm, I was only done with the first half of the first row of increases! But I could not put it down then, right?

I tell you, casting off 435 stitches of blue yarn at midnight makes for a very sleepy knitter today!

BTW, this is a much truer color for this yarn. Now onwards to lightly block and seam.

San Benedetto, la rondine sotto il tetto!

2005-03-21T19:03:00.000-05:00

St. Benedict, swallows under the eaves!

Oggi e’ il mio onomastico! Tanti Auguri a me!

Today I celebrate my name day (for lack of a better denomination for this day): it is the day that the saint I am named after is celebrated in the calendar. Since this tradition does not seem to exist anywhere else, I always have a hard time explaining this to non-Italians. While I was not named Benedetta because my parents were particularly religious or fond of San Benedetto, only because they loved the name, I do like this scholarly saint, whose motto was “Ora et Labora”. And he is a pretty cool saint, the patron of all of Europe, no less!

This day also happens to coincide with the first day of Primavera, aka spring (I know, Italian spring is one day later than US spring), hence the saying about the arrival of the swallows building their nests under the eaves of the roof.

I love celebrating my name day, it’s like an extra birthday, with lots of wishes, presents, a special meal, and when I was a kid, a big party. And because of the saying that goes with it, most people knew to wish me “Buon Onomastico” on March 21, even mere acquaintances and teachers.

Since I got married, I have instructed my husband in the tradition of name days, so we all enjoy one extra day of celebration each.

I received some lovely presents, but none knitting related, as my family does not believe in encouraging any form of addiction. While I disagree on regarding my knitting any more an addiction than, say, my reading (and it just happens that I can borrow books from the library, so my reading does not affect my budget, while that can’t be said for knitting), I respect their thoughts on this and have stopped asking. Just like my mother stopped asking me to buy her duty-free cigarettes….

Anyway, I am nearly finished on my Kiri, I just need to seam it and make the frilly edge on the V-neck edges.

The sweater is very plain, all blue stocking stitch, with shaping. This is just the detail at the cuff, a double edge of frills. Pretty, no?

The color here is very “wrong”; in reality the blue is much darker. Hopefully I’ll be able to take a truer picture once is completed.

Buona Primavera a tutti!

Eliza and her new bear

2005-03-17T19:39:00.000-05:00

A little while ago, when Eliza lived across the street and we visited daily, she asked me to knit her a teddy bear. I love Eliza, she is beautiful, not afraid to stand for herself, with definite likes and dislikes, and treats me like one of her friends. She also loves beautiful things, has an eye for handmade stuff and loves crafts.

So when she asked for a teddy bear, I said yes. I remember that day, all the children in the neighborhood were in the house and each one of them asked for a teddy bear, rioting among the odd balls of yarn and picking their favorite colors. But Eliza is the only one that has held me up to my promise, reminding every few months.

Since teddy bears are not my favorite kind of knitting, I postponed for a long time. But today I am proud to introduce you to Eliza and her brand new bear Kessie.

Kessie, knitted in pink Crystal Palace cotton chenille, took me just a few hours here and there, including the poncho (kitchen cotton) and a pair of blue overall that were not ready yet at the time of the photo shoot, but went home with them by pick up time. Eliza loved it and I am glad to be teddy- bear-commitment free, at least for now.

Knitting in the 17th Century

2005-03-11T20:51:00.000-05:00

If you ever visit Plimoth Plantation, in Plymouth, MA, you will notice all the Pilgrim impersonators wearing beautiful, entirely handmade costumes, with all the age-appropriate details. Few of the garments are hand-knit, most noticeably the long, heavy stockings. I was lucky enough to participate in a workshop at the Plantation a few months ago, where a very knowledgeable lady, in charge of the Pilgrims wardrobe, told us all about knitting in the 17th century, and taught us how to turn the heel on those long stockings in a couple of different ways.

While the knitting itself was very simple, the history lesson was fascinating. And it made me think, not for the first time, how knitting used to be a daily necessity, probably a burden to some, just like, say, vacuuming is to me. Still, many people embellished even the most humble items, like undershirts, in order to transform something ordinary into something special and beautiful. I find that humbling and inspirational.

So the first time I visited the Plantation, I bought a copy of a booklet 17th Century Knitting Patterns as adapted for Plimoth Plantation, published by the Weavers Guild of Boston, 1990, which makes the textiles for the Plantation.

The knitting patterns comprise several caps, gloves, mittens, stockings, an undershirt and two purses. Since I do not walk around dressed like a Pilgrim, I never attempted to knit any of these, until a member of my spinning guild, the HHHC, issued a challenge: to spin all the necessary to knit the Oval Purse from the booklet, so that at some of the guilds event, when the members dress in costume for spinning demonstrations, we could all have an appropriate little bag.

Let me introduce you to my interpretations of the Oval Purse.

I apologize for the awful photographs*, when I manage to get a decent one I’ll put it in the sidebar. Although my handspun yarn is very uneven and all that, the purse is still pretty, isn’t it?
I felt very Polly-ish while knitting, the purse seems the kind of thing she loves to knit, even though she would have never put up with inferior quality yarn.

To distract you from the bad knitting photos*, look at this:
fresh snow falling in a New England forest.

I do not like winter and cold weather, but this sure beats the grayness that I usually see on my way to and from work.

* Update: I managed to get a better phot, that shows the purse nicely and uploaded it in the text instead that the sidebar.

Meglio tardi che mai…

2005-03-09T15:24:00.000-05:00

Better late than never

Apologies for being so late about posting on the fabulous Boston Afghanalong Sew-Up Bee.
Yes, Maddalena and I were there, as has been amply documented, and yes, we had a wonderful time!
It was so nice to meet all these talented knitters and bloggers, I regret only that I did not manage to chat with all of them. It was very special to meet in person so many blogland celebrities.
Julia had organized everything spendidly, Kristin and Roseann, hosted us in their beautiful place, Kay kept us all very busy with endless lovely squares, Maddalena and Joseph decided eventually they could maybe be silly together. However, when Maddalena discovered that Wendy the bookish girl, was Melanie’s friend, Wendy was adopted as her preferred playmate, and that was it (much as Joseph adopted Amy and Tunket).
I am forever indebted to Wendy for being so agreeable and playful with the little one!
I even come away with some lovely door-prize goodies: two colorful skeins of Classic Elite Flash mercerized cotton, from Ann, I believe; and a bunch of luxurious knitting accessories, donated by our lovely hostesses: bamboo needles, a sheep measuring tape and needle case, both by Lantern Moon, and a very cool handmade row counter! I feel very privileged!

The blanket under my goodies is the child-size Afghan that Maddalena art-directed. When I saw the initial spread of squares, I quickly identified some bright in-your-face kind of squares (yes, Thomas, yours, to be precise), and, with Kay’s approval, Maddalena and I decided to produce a blanket with all the square that would not fit anywhere else. With Wendy’s help, it turned out beautiful, and very bright!
I took it home to finish the seaming and now it’s ready to be shipped! But not today, the girl needs to snuggle with it one more day!

I also finished the infamous red scarf! Pearl the cat supervised the photo shoot, in an uncharacteristic cooperative mode.

Only 17 more projects to do to complete the Yarn Diet for Charity challenge.

Aaarrgghhhh!

Commitments

2005-03-04T11:02:00.000-05:00

I am a spectacularly untidy person, useless at long-term planning (or any other planning for that matter), utterly disorganized, generally forgetful, usually late and mostly disheveled in appearance.

But when I make a commitment, I will honor it. This sounds like a good thing, right?
Especially when I am married, with children, a job and trying to get into graduate school.

But it can get a bit annoying when applied indiscriminately across the board, even to small things:

when I cook something, I’ll eat it even if it’s unpalatable;
when I start a book, I will finish it even if I hate it;
when I go to a movie, I’ll watch it to the end;
when I start a knitting project, I will finish it, even if I do not enjoy working on it!

Knitting wise, this happens every once in a while. This time the culprit is the Red Scarf. I still like the pattern (Midwest Moolight in Scarf Style), and the color. The yarn feels a bit dry, but I am happy to have found a good use for it, in light of my earlier commitment to knit 20 projects from stash before buying new yarn. Yesterday I picked it up again, after neglecting it for a week or so, chanting “2 repeats a day will keep the doctor away” to myself, and working on it while playing with children and reading blogs. I swear I did at least 2 repeats, it felt more like 4 actually, so can anybody tell me why this stubborn thing persists in showing only just 11 repeats total? Just like 2 weeks ago?

What, no pictures?

2005-03-02T12:58:00.000-05:00

No, no pictures, I left my camera at home and I am writing for work.

Also, I just realized that besides a pretty picture of a FO every once in a while, or a progress report, other knitters might also be interested in the actual knitting process (now, there is a surprise!).

Last night, during my never-ending reading for my American Literature class, I was also finishing up the right side of the V-neck shaping for Kiri, following the notorious instructions that tell you to reverse all shaping you did for the right side (yes, it is a Rowan pattern, after all). Now, that was ok, but once I finished the neck and shoulder shaping, I paired the front to the back, only to find that the front, from armhole to shoulder, is 10 rows higher that the back in the same section.

I do not know why that happened, I am guessing I just was not paying attention to row gauge, as Wendy would tell you. Not that I ever did in any of my past projects, especially when following a pattern and using the yarn said pattern specifies. Never mind, I’ll know better next time.

Now, as for fixing it: I could not change the front without messing up all the decreases for the armhole and the V-neck shaping, so no, I was not touching that. But I could add 10 rows to the back. Simple, right?

So ripped off the shoulder shaping that I’d done in short rows, (so that I could then pick up live stitches to do a 3 needle bind-off and attach the neck) without even stopping to think. And started knitting the 10 extra rows. So far, so good.

However, when I arrived at the point of shaping the shoulder and back neck again I drew a complete blank: you know when the pattern instructs you to shape the shoulders sloping up and the back neck sloping down, at the same time? Well, I just could not possibly figure out a way to do this, in short rows, which made sense. I used up several sheets of paper trying to draw a diagram and attempted to knit it at least 4 times, before it finally came out the way it was supposed to (at least, I think so, but I’m having second thoughts). And if I wanted to explain it to you, I would not know where to start (here is where photographs would be helpful, but I get too engrossed in my knitting to stop and reach for the camera sitting about 20 cm away from my hand; need to change that).

What really bugs me is: why something that I did easily the first time around turned out so ridiculously difficult the next time, just a few days later? Can somebody please give me back my brain?

Next post, there will be pictures!

So, what did I do all last week?

2005-02-28T13:13:00.000-05:00

Well, I do not really want to go into details, it would be boring. But the picture is an accurate representation of how incoherent and scattered I felt most of the time, trying to attend a million tasks simultaneously.

Unfortunately, the yarn brain* is not representative of the amount of knitting I did, just the sorry (but colorful) state of my mind.

This week should be a bit better, since one major source of stress last week was a one-time type of event, and it’s gone.

Knitting did occur, but results are unexciting, the Red Scarf is past midpoint (just), the back and half the front of Kiri are done, few paltry rows of China Cloud managed to creep on the needles

Spinning, however, worked best for when I was feeling overwhelmed, and I have managed to produce the off-white ball of yarn you see on the left, so that I can rise to the challenge for the HHHC, my spinning guild, and knit the historically accurate little Pilgrim purse all out of my handspun yarn. The dark yarn is actually a reddish purple that I spun a few months ago.

Please do not ask technical questions, all I know is that probably all fiber was Merino, and I made it into 2-ply yarn. I will knit the purse tightly, partly because the pattern requires it, partly to hide some of the yarn many imperfections. Maggie has already finished hers, following a different, more historically accurate pattern, and it’s so pretty!

I am going to leave you with this:

Our Family Totem

Can you spot all the fiber projects on it?

* "yarn brain" is a copyright of Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably: according to what Brandon told us at a workshop, they leave all the ends from their various project in a big basket, and then pull out strands for inspirations for other projects. I am trying to learn from my betters, but can’t say it works for me yet!

Score!

2005-02-19T10:09:00.000-05:00

Look at these! 14 inches long DPNs, a nearly complete set!

Since I knit with one needle under my arm, I find using circular needles very awkward and even short DPNs slow me down a lot. But there are so many nice patterns knitted in the round out there that I want to try, I desperately wanted to put my hands on something like this. Two S&B ago, when I saw Michelle innocently wielding some knitting around on one of these beauties, I pounced on her. I tell you, she positively looked alarmed! Next time I saw her, she had pulled her 'Asian connection' strings and her friend Lin appeared with all of the above needles at the Harlow House Heritage Crafters Guild monthly meeting and was ready to part with them for a very, very reasonable price!

And I also scored some lovely handmade soap.

Both Maggie (top) and Michelle (bottom) make their own soap and brought some for me to try. It's great, all natural and with just the most lovely scents! Go see them if you'd like to try some!

As for knitting, not much to report, my knitting time has been severely curtailed and this coming week will be very intensive on many fronts, so I do not expect to be able to do much. I am less than half-way on the Red Scarf Project (I had to frog and restart it, making the scarf 1/3 narrower, because I was running out of yarn) and about half-way up the back of Kiri. Also, I will be unlikely to post for the next week or so, due to all my other current commitments.

Last but not least, thank you all so much for all the compliments about Maddalena and her jackets. She was very proud of turning 5 and appearing on the blog. As many of you pointed out, the fur jacket is made with 'vintage' fur, that has lasted 4 generations, so it is a bit more tolerable. I am at peace with it (just!).

Maddalena and her new jackets

2005-02-15T17:12:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is Maddalena, on the day of her fifth birthday, modeling Mia with flower of her choice for you. I am glad to report that she wore it happily for most of the morning and seems to like it.

But the real winner was the jacket that Nonna sent her, all the way from Italy!

This was made from some leftovers from a fur coat my grandmother had, and insisted on donating to me when I was in my early twenties. I was (and still am) strongly opposed to the killing of animals for the sake of fashion/status statements, so I never accepted the gift. My mother (a.k.a. Nonna) turned it into a lining for one of her coats and kept all the little bits. At Christmas time she showed them to Maddalena and the girl just could not resist. A fur jacket with knitted sleeves, collar and button-band was very swiftly and skillfully concocted by Nonna and sent over just in time for her birthday.

I wish you could have heard the squeals of delight when Maddalena opened the package and ran her hands over the furry bits. Even my animal-loving soul could not help but smile.

And finally, a rainbow jacket, as asked for. I did not have the time or the inclination to knit one, so I bought this one in the sales. But I have a question: can anybody tell me how this jacket was knitted? I can’t figure out how the wrong side is stripy and the right side is a sort of Fair-Isle. I know is machine knitted, so I am wondering if this effect can only be achieved by machine knitting. The fabric feels thick and heavy, but I do not think this is double knitting. What is it?

Prendere due piccioni con una fava

2005-02-11T12:27:00.000-05:00

Apparently in Italy you do not kill two birds with a stone, you gently capture two pigeons with a fava bean.

That’s how I do it: first I sign up for a class that requires considerable amount of reading through fairly boring early American literature (and I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the diaries of the Pilgrims are not that riveting, even if you happen to live in Plymouth, MA); then I realize that the only time I have for the reading coincides with prime knitting time, after all else is done, between 9 and 11pm.

Luckily I can read and knit simultaneously, but only stocking stitch. Fava bean No.1: Kiri, from Rowan Mag. 28 (sorry, not the much more exciting Kiri shawl designed by Polly). I even have the yarn in stash, Rowan Kid Classic, color Galaxy.

This is as far as I got while reading Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine.

I bought this yarn on sale probably a year ago and never even opened the bag. But now that I am knitting it, I discovered how wonderful it feels, so soft and drapey. If I had any spare time, it would be difficult to restrict Kiri it to study time.

And then, my other fava bean is the Red Scarf Project, which has me knitting from stash for one of my 20 Yarn Diet for Charity projects and is itself a charity project (thank you Scottish Lamb, Abby, Kay and Polly for highlighting it for me). This is my portable project to work on when attending children attending gym lessons and similar activities.

The yarn is unknown, from a thrift store, the pattern is Midwest Moonlight from Scarf Style, although you could not know it from this picture. This is the view from the garden at work (remember this, Lis?)
The seals were cavorting underneath, but they were too far for my little camera to make any sense of them.

Flowers

2005-02-08T21:10:00.000-05:00

Look at my new flowers in the sidebar!

Given that they are all resting on the same sweater in the same spot, isn't the difference in colors between pictures amazing?

No.1 was taken in natural light yesterday morning, the other two were taken this morning using the flash.

No.2 shows the truest colors.

Technology consistently baffles me.

Empty handed

2005-02-07T15:23:00.000-05:00

That's how I feel today. Empty handed. I have no project following me around, no project to knit mindlessly when I am reading blogs, no project waiting at home for me. Well, that is not entirely true, China Cloud is still there, but I do not want to talk about that (she can't follow me, she's not mindless and she's well used to be denied any attention).

But I do have something for show and tell:

Clapotis is done! As shown, resting gracefully on the couch.

Here is another picture, because I think it's the type of item that shows much better on an actual person (me!).

I love the way it turned out, and I hope to use it a lot. Because it's made of Baby Alpaca, it's also very soft and warm. And I especially like that I can wrap it around my head as shown, and still the back of my neck is covered and no chilly wind can find its way down my backside. However, Clapotis' pastel palette does not coordinate with any of my other winter garments, all in much stronger colors. I guess that means I am entitled to go shopping to accessorize this delicate beauty.....

Mia is also done but I will not post a picture until I can give her to Maddalena for her birthday and she can model it for you. The yarn flower on my side bar will be attached to a pin and used for Mia's closure. I will also make some other flowers in different colors and shapes, so Maddalena can choose a flower according to her complex 5 year-old universe.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed making the flower. Maddalena wanted a rainbow flower, so I started by looking at various patterns here and there, then I messed about trying to make my own one (a la' Heather, only she did not mess about, her flower is lovely) and eventually landed on this one. I did not have in stash bright rainbow colors, so it is a bit subdued. Actually the real colors are nicer than in the photo: the gray is a lovely purple and the teal background is turquoise.

What can be better than filling my empty hands with more pretty yarn flowers?

S&B: how much fun did we have?

2005-02-02T22:28:00.000-05:00

The lovely Melanie wrestling with 2 circular needles while knitting a sleeve.

The beauty of bulky yarn knitting

2005-02-02T13:32:00.000-05:00

As you can see, Mia is close to completion. I followed my readers’ recommendations and went with the Two.Two, reducing number of stitches required by a third. Since Mia is all knitted in one piece, with an attached collar, it was really easy and fast. I only had one hiccup, when I convinced myself that I would not have enough yarn to follow the pattern’s given measurements, made the first sleeve way too narrow and had to rip the whole sleeve off. But now it looks good, I only have half a ball left to finish the collar, I’ll stop when the yarn stops. Then I will make a yarn flower of some sort in different colors to attach to the pin that will keep it closed. Hopefully Maddalena will like it for her upcoming birthday.

I rarely knit with bulky yarns, but I enjoyed this quick knit very much, and it was really useful for lifting me out of my previous unmotivated funk. I was also lucky that my new classes require a fair amount of reading, and I can read and knit stocking stitch at the same time. Otherwise, I tend to suffer from the same syndrome as Phyillis does, and knit only at night, when everything else is done.

What next? Not Sure. Today I rescued Clapotis from work, so there is that to finish. And the ever present China Clouds. Other contenders are: a little buttonhole bag, or a teddy bear (from this book) in pink chenille for one of my little friends, or maybe a pair of socks (not my favorite type of knitting, but I can be persuaded). Or maybe a sweater with large amount of stocking stitch, to go with my reading.

I’ll keep you posted.

A week worth of ….NOTHING

2005-01-28T19:07:00.000-05:00

This past week we have all been home all week, schools closed due to inclement weather and work closed to power outage and subsequent bursting of all pipes.

While my husband has won the award of most conscientious shoveler (sp?) of the year, and the children have been building snow fort upon snow fort, fought glorious battle fuelled entirely by snowballs of all shapes and sizes, alternating with TV binges of epic proportions, what have I to report?

Next to nothing! I can’t tell you how frustrating this is for me. A whole week off from work sucked into nothingness, with no possible explanation.

My notable accomplishments of the week can be summarized thus: a) Monday, took a long and luxurious bath, with home-made exfoliating treatment; b) Wednesday, baked a delicious chocolate cake that my children actually eat and like even without tons of frosting on top; c) Thursday, managed to sign up and attend a couple of classes at the local college. This is it, people, just pitiful.
I normally am pretty active. But now I am just restless.

Knitting wise, it’s not much better: I finished my gloves this morning. This actually feels great, not only the gloves are lovely, they are the first result from the Yarn Diet for Charity endevour.

And finished the back of China Clouds a couple of nights ago.

Today I am pondering Mia, from Junior Knits by Debbie Bliss.

As you can see, there are 2 yarn possibilities here, none of which is really right.
The turquoise Two.Two was the yarn I had in mind for this project all along, but it turns out that I would have to adjust the pattern from the required gauge of 4 ½ st/inch to 3 st/inch. That is a pretty big adjustment. However, the pattern has virtually no shaping, so it should not be too difficult to rework. But will Mia then turn out ok? Not sure.

The other yarn from stash, Rowan DK Tweed (discontinued), is closer in gauge (5 st/inch) but I do not know if I want the tweedy look (and feel) for Mia. I might have to dig deeper in the stash and explore other possibilities. In the meantime, I’d appreciate any advice, knitterly and otherwise.

In the midst of the storm….

2005-01-23T13:33:00.000-05:00

….what else there is to do but knitting and spinning?

Well, actually, I have not a lot to report. However, Friday I had some news that totally blew away any amount of concentration I can normally muster, so I went to work, accompanied my current traveling project, Clapotis, accomplished next to nothing all day and came home. In my still blank state of mind, wondering whether I should attempt something on China Cloud or keep going on the mindless Clapotis, I started spinning my little rolags. To my surprise, I found that I could not stop, it was just the perfect place to be for me.

This is the result, far from good, but still very rewarding.

I have no idea how long it took to spin the rolags, but eventually they were all gone, so I headed towards the couch to do a couple of rows of Clapotis before bed. And discovered that Clapotis had stayed at work. Now, this would not be a big deal, except that China Clouds and Clapotis share the same 3 needles. Yes, that’s right I only have a pair and a half of No. 7 bamboo needles, so while two are in active use, one holds the project I am not working on. So I was stuck

What could I do but start something else? Amy’s handspun has been waiting very patiently for a couple of months, my hands have been screaming at me that they are cold and demanding new mittens, the storm was about to start. A day and a half later, here we are.

I love this colorway in all its subtle variations and the yarn is very soft and smells delicious. Thank you Amy! As a pattern I used the guidelines from ‘The knitter’s handy book of patterns’, with a longer straight cuff to warm up my wrist and not let snow in. I am also knitting at a tight gauge, dpns no. 5, hoping that it will make for warmer mittens.

Because, believe me, the storm out there is howling!

Giacomo ventured out, could barely stay on his feet (65mph wind), asked for his mask to protect his face from the horizontal snow, but could not endure more than a few minutes.

I wish I had his sense of adventure, when a big snow storm is exciting and fun, an awesome event to be enjoyed to the full!

PS: Yesterdaty I bought myself another pair of no. 7 needles, so as not to abandon China Clouds. We are connected by a very thin thread, the temptation to leave her aside for easier, quicker project is always there.

The wrong side

2005-01-19T10:33:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for all the compliments on my China Cloud.

Just to answer a few questions:
the pattern is by Kaffe Fasset, and was published in the Rowan magzine, No. 28.
There is a thumbnail of the magazine picture if you scroll down to one of the previous entries.
The yarn required was Rowan DK Tweed, now discontinued. I had 3 of the original DK tweed colors in my stash, for the rest I subsituted Rowanspun DK, as suggested by the Rowan website. The Rowanspun palette is much more vivid, and I really like the vibrancy on my version. I do not particularly like the feel and hand of Rowanspun, but now it is too late. On the positive side, the garment will be lighter than the original, which will be fine for an open jacket.

For me it is very rewarding to work on something like this, and I love watching the slow emerging of a new completed cloud, while at the same time dreading the fiddling required to start a new one.
It is impossible to get any rhytm going, no two rows are the same, and one needs to pay attention. As for techniques, I am an inconsistent knitter and I may choose a variety of ways of joining a new color, or I may carry some at the back in some spots .

So, since the last post, I managed to do 12 more rows on China Clouds, not worth taking a picture for posting. My Clapotis also does not deserve new pictures, although to be fair she is doing her best to grow. But it just seems the kind of project that does not show well in progress.

However, I do have a picture for you all.

Warning: it has caused knitters to gasp and cover their eyes, just like I would do watching a scary movie...

The wrong side of China Clouds.

Of cables and dropped stitches and clouds

2005-01-14T22:15:00.000-05:00

Remember the “Here and There Scarf” with all those lovely cables all over the place?
Wasn’t it too busy? Yeah, I thought so too.
So I played around a bit and finally decided to go for this:

I know, this looks a bit boring, but I trust that it will turn into a beautiful Clapotis soon. I have just reached the dropped-stitches stage and it is beginning to look more interesting.

The finished ones that I see all over the web are all gorgeous, so I hope mine will be too. Plus, the yarn (details in previous post) is soft and luxurious beyond description: the few lucky ones who have touched it instantly assumed a glazed look and I had to please ask them to give it back to me.
It will be a dream to wear, I can’t wait to wrap myself in it!

As for clouds, I thought I’d show you how far along I am with China Cloud.

Just 2/3 up the back, when I abandoned it last spring. Tonight I took it out to photograph and was struck by how much I still like it. So I will start working on it again, as of NOW

And to keep my motivation high, I have put a close up image on the sidebar!

Of dog brushes and carders

2005-01-11T21:09:00.000-05:00

Although I have had a spinning wheel for over a year, and learnt to spin about six months ago, my wheel has sat unused for a long timed, due to my inability to prepare fiber in a suitable way. My practice fiber was fine as landscape to a nativity scene, but not for spinning, at least not without some intervention. My books on spinning explained at length the use of carders, then mentioned that they are expensive and that one could start by using a dog brush instead. This coincided with what Emma, the fiber donor suggested. So I went and bought this:

I know, how stupid can I be?

As you can easily imagine, my attempts to card the fiber with this resulted in disaster and I promptly abandoned the whole thing.

Last night finally I overcame my shyness and my feelings of deep inaptitude and showed up at a spinning meeting with my big bag or fiber and asked for help, in particular if somebody could show me how to use carders and where to buy them. Guess what all the nice ladies said to me: My dear, you do not need carders, just use a dog brush!
Only then I was suddenly enlightened: there must be a dog brush that is similar to a carder! Just like these, in fact!

And after last night demo (done on proper carders) from the spinning ladies, and my purchase of the above items today, I can now proudly show you my very first rolags!

Evviva! Evviva!

Yarn Diet for Charity

2005-01-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

What a great idea! Thank you Abby!

That was just the incentive I needed to go trough my stash and not buy anymore yarn. If I am smart/hard working enough, I’ll begin to see a dent in the amount of wool that litters my living room.

I have the first 5 projects lined up already:

1) Pick-Up Diamonds Helmet, from the latest Knitters Magazine (I do not have the magazine, but I browsed through it and had a good look the pattern, hopefully I’ll be able to fudge it).

2) Mittens, using Amy’s fabulous handspun, which I won during her fun election contest last November.

3) The cover sweater on this book, in Classic Elite Two.Two, color turquoise, for my goddaughter.

4) China Cloud, by K. Fassett, Rowan Mag 28. I started it about a year ago, but neglected it for a long time, it is time to pick it up again and finish it.

5) My longest WIP, Mayqueen by Jean Moss, which I started over 2 years ago (different colorway). I did the back, then realized that it was way too big for my daughter and put it aside. If I could finish it, it would fit her now.

The last two will take a while to be completed, this diet might well last a good long time!

Why does the sentence

the Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions

come to mind?

All the way from....

2005-01-05T22:26:00.000-05:00

Uganda! Yes, this beautiful large basket comes all the way from Uganda, via Italy. My sister Elena always surprises me with wonderful presents. She was recently in Africa on a work/vacation and this is one of the many things she brought back. Miraculously, the basket survived two transcontinental trips and arrived intact to Massachusetts.

And guess what I am using for? No, not yarn! Possibly something even better: yarn to be!

This is the fiber I have at my disposition to practice my very rudimentary spinning skills.
Do not ask me any specifics, as I would not know. But I can tell you someone who probably does: Emma, who wrapped her gently used spinning wheel in practice fiber before sending it to me (another of these transcontinental transactions!).

Want to see another use for practice fiber?
How about this Nativity Scene landscaping?

Well, it looks much better with the candles all lit up, believe me, but it has been deemed an extreme fire hazard, and I am forbidden to light them up even just for the time it takes to take a picture.

Anyway, see the first of the three Wise Men to the far left? They are supposed to arrive tomorrow to bring their precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Baby Jesus. In Italy the Epiphany is celebrated also as the arrival of Befana. Will she come tonight? Will she leave sweets or coal?

2005-01-02T19:05:00.000-05:00

Maddalena and her knitting board

2005-01-02T19:02:00.000-05:00

Here and There Scarf

First blog entry....very nervous

2005-01-02T17:10:00.000-05:00

Ciao a tutti!
Hello everybody!

I am so excited to enter the community of knitting bloggers which has provided me so much fun, information, inspiration and many friends in the last couple of years. I can only hope to be able to contribute something back, one way or another.

I also plan to use this platform to air out the conversations I currently have with myself regarding my knitting endeavors, just so that I can feel a little less weird.

As for actual knitting, today I’d like to introduce one of my current WIP, the ‘Here and there cables’ scarf from Scarf Style, done in 100% superfine Alpaca and handpainted by Cherry Tree Hill, color Birch.

Normally, I hate knitting scarves, the repetitiveness is just too boring. In this case though, I have several good reasons:
a) my husband gave me this fabulous yarn on condition I made something for myself;
b) there is not enough of it for a bigger garment;
c) I lost my very favorite scarf a week before the arrival of the new yarn;
d) I saw Melanie’s scarf in real life and it was just irresistible;
e) I love doing cables but I have not done any for a long time.

However, I am currently wondering whether I like it as much as I thought I would: the cables and the handpainted yarn make it a bit busier than necessary. I am pondering what to do.

Today we also tried the Kids Knitting Board, for the very first time, and Maddalena kindly agree to post for the very first picture taken with my brand new digital camera (another solicited present from my husband). A lot of firsts today, as due at the beginning of the New Year!

Buon Anno! Happy New Year!