The Ankle Socks are finally finished!!!!!

These socks have been in progress for so long that I can't for the life of me remember what the yarn is. Shirani might remember... it's a very nice, muted stripey thing in various shades of red and green and my daughter loved the yarn so much that what was originally intended to be a pair of socks for me became, almost as soon as I had cast on, a pair of (blessedly) quick ankle socks for her. I hate those never ended ribbed legs! (I realize as I write this that the quickie ankle socks concept seems to be in direct contradiction to my opening sentence...however the actual knitting time was really quite brief!)

They would have been done yesterday, but I ended up having an epiphany that downloading this way-cool palm project management software would be a great way for me to better organize and stay on top of all my knitting projects. It of course took 2 hours to install on my Treo and another 4 hours to load all my knitting projects into it. And it did cross my mind that, compared to the 30 minutes of knitting I actually had left on the ankle socks, this way-cool have to do right away software tangent was maybe a bit ridiculous. But it is WAY-WAY-WAY-COOL how, with only the touch of a button, I can get a neat list of all my projects On The Needle, vs say another view of What I Must Get Down For My Classes ASAP. (I'm thinking I may have lost most of my readers' enthusiasm at this point, and maybe only fellow palm-lover Chris J is still with me here... so back to the sock....)

It's got a star toe. Thank you Nancy Bush for that great book on vintage socks!! And for those of you with teenage daughters, ankle socks seem to be the only knitted garb they'll wear these days...which makes only having to do an inch of ribbing all the nicer.

I can't however bask in the glow of a freshly completed knitting project because there's SO MUCH FREAKIN SOCK YARN IN MY STASH SCREAMING my name that I can't think straight. I have to cast on either the Lorna's Lace, the Jitterbug, or the Cherry Tree Hill...so I'm off to find my new Lantern Moon Sox Stix...

Happy Memorial Day,

ps (Did you know the original date of Memorial Day, May 30th, was chosen because it was the only spring day on which a civil war battle had not been fought?)

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Check out what's new at the Cultured Purl!!!!!!

It's Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn and Wow is it GORGEOUS!!!! Rich, vibrant colorways, beautifully soft merino wool with an interesting little twist that I think is going to knit up to one very pretty sock. It arrived at Cultured Purl 2 days ago and before it had even been tagged, 10 skeins had been sold!! So hurry on in and take a look.

And for all the lace knitters out there...check out the beautiful Addi Turbo Lace circular needles...

It's pretty common knowledge that I am a DIEHARD wooden needle lover...but I am working on a design for a new triangular lace shawl and decided to give these a try. Skacel has come up with a needle that is geared toward the needs of lace knitters: very sharp tips for getting into tricky stitches on fine yarns; soft, dark toned cord that makes tiny stitches really visible; hollow, coated brass tips which let the stitches fly along at a quick pace without being too slippery to control; and finally, and BEST OF ALL, the
smoothest, tapered join that you could ever hope to find which really cuts down on the drag and snag that so often happens when working lace on hundreds of stitches... Can you tell I love them??? So...I wouldn't say I'm a convert, because wood will always be my first love, but for lace knitting, ADDI LACE TURBOs ARE THE WAY TO GO.

And finally, Sue just got a delivery of Blocking Wires: sets of very thin, long, flexible, metal wires that are designed to make blocking lace, among other things, simpler. You slide the wires through the edge stitches and then pin the wires down with a couple of T-pins. For example, they would have come in REALLY HANDY when I was blocking my Lace Sampler Shawl with 102 T-Pins...Definitely worth a serious look.

Well I am heading back to the lace design board...hope to see you soon at the Cultured Purl.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Another Lace Project

Thanks for the kind comments about the Sampler Shawl. It will be at Cultured Purl for the next several weeks (while the class is going on) if you think you might like to tackle lace and want to take a peek at it. The thing with lace is that you never get a sense of how beautiful it's going to be until you block it and it turns into something entirely different!

I'm so pleased with how the sampler turned out that I've decided to jump right back into the deep end and design a triangular lace shawl for the fall! I've always been intrigued by the the construction of traditional English triangle shawls knit from the center top down. Shirani is getting in some exquisite Zephyr lace weight yarn that I think will be beautiful to work with. Can't wait!

Yours in knitting,

Claire

It's Done!!!

Well, I finished the Lace Sampler Shawl yesterday...and blocked it last night, and I have to say that the Silky Wool turned out to be a beautifully lacy fabric. Working a lace pattern with any kind of yarn, but certainly one not really intended for lace, takes a giant leap of faith. It works up looking like this:




pretty, but



not really



very lacy looking...


because




you haven't blocked it yet...



and it takes a


really strong constitution to take this thing that you've LABORED over, maybe even very likely seriously STRESSED about for a long LONG LOOOONNNGG time, and soak it in water.



and by soak I mean really truly drench it...

and then


it takes



every


T-

pin


you



can



put


your



hands


on




to stretch it out...(by the by, that's the (in)famous Teddy Bruschi make-a-wish t-shirt...a story for another time)



and then with the patience of Job, you wait and you wait and you wait for it to dry; and you try not to cry when you step on a T-Pin because you stupidly blocked it in your bedroom and it doesn't exactly glow in the dark...


and then the everything you put into it suddenly seems SO WORTH IT.....

because





it turns out like this:







and this....





and even this.....







And you think


MAYBE



I can do this in another color...



Yours in Silky Wool,

Claire

Teddy Massacre

Despite the limbs and severed heads this is not a teddy massacre....This is Laura's teddy bear class! Some really really cute bears were made that day. Trish even made one for Leo...Thanks Trish, we LOVE it...

The Lace Sampler Shawl

Well as Linda kindly reminded me, it has been a while since I blogged...besides feverishly working on this....



to keep ahead of the very talented lace knitters in my Wednesday Lace Sampler Shawl class,

I was busy last week running our elementary school's bookfair. 24 hours at school doesn't sound like alot until one considers that during those 24 hours (spread over 2 1/2 days) we sold $5,200 in paperback books to over 600 students and their families!! I did NOT get a lot of knitting done!!!

but I THOUGHT about knitting...and how I was going to set aside most of the weekend to finishing the shawl and maybe a sock or three (lonely singles waiting for partners but that's another story) but then I came to my senses and the reality of the laundry problem set in: My dear husband is away - renowned heart surgeon who's real claim to fame is his amazing ability to fix hearts all week and STILL get all the laundry sparkling clean and BEAUTIFULLY, METHODICALLY, PERFECTLY folded and (here's the clincher) - PUT AWAY!!!!! I had really felt kinda proud about getting it done through the busy week, but getting is done led to the larger problem of not being able to get into the laundry room to start another load because I couldn't move through the 6 loads of clean clothes that were piled in front of the door crying out to be folded. I tried to ignore the cries (plaintive ones, for any kind of folding, not even the crisp done-right kind), so that I could get a few more rows done on the shawl, but then I started to panic and hyperventilate a little and my count was off....

so the laundry is done...but the shawl is not...

still, I'm in good shape for the class today and it's a beautiful, crisp, May kind of day today, and I'm not going to let a little thing like a few unfinished pairs of socks bother me. But Linda, I'm glad to hear you finished the Lorna's Lace socks and that they turned out nice, and thanks for missing me!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Update on Welted Seams

I did hear back from Berroco regarding the term "welted seam". Another knitter who had the same question posted Berroco's reply in a comment to my original entry. (I imagine they get this question ALOT!)

Basically, it refers not to a type of seaming but to the look of the seam. You sew the pieces together using a method that results in the seam showing on the public side of the work. Any method...

You could do the mattress stitch with the wrong sides facing; or do an overcast or whip stitch while holding the wrong sides together.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Lorna Has Landed

That's the call I got from Sue today: Lorna's Lace sock yarn HAS ARRIVED at Cultured Purl. And because I already have enough sock yarn stashed to keep my family in knitted socks for the next decade, I naturally did the sensible thing and RAN RIGHT OVER AND BOUGHT A BUNCH OF THE STUFF!!!!

And there was a line ahead of me.

It is a beautiful, buttery, lusciously soft yarn, done in some of the loveliest colorways I've seen. 3 skeins should get you 2 pair of socks.

Hurry on over and take a look!!

Yours in knitting,

Claire

George's Miters

Miters are way cool to knit.

They're one of those fantastically cooperative projects: the pattern is easy to memorize and really quite interesting from an engineering point of view; it takes no time at all to whip out a square; each square requires such a minimal amount of yarn it's easy to haul around in a pocket or purse; mixing colors is a blast; and I could go on and on and ON about how great this is and how glad I am that Shirani suggested it for George, because what little boy with a name like that WOULDN'T want the coolest, funkiest, non-baby-like blanket ever knitted...

And so, I was making some real headway on this project - I meant it when I said these take no time at all... then it was suggested (by a really sensible knitter friend) that I might want to do a little seaming along the way rather than wait till the end. So,


I hung out at Cultured Purl yesterday and mattress stitched some miters!!!


and it looks REALLY REALLY COOL!!! and I thought, wow this is really gonna work, and I had that satisfying feeling of accomplishment when the miters actually met in the middle and it's straight seaming for the most part and so what if I skipped the blocking step and the edges are a little curly...


then....




I turned it over and was




just




about





struck down in a dead faint,




when I realized,,,





the back looks like:






This many (FREAKIN) ends times about a zillion to get the blanket to a respectable size.......OHMYGOD.........


Then Shirani, calmly, and with common sense beyond her years, came up with obvious solution of lining the thing with flannel...Thank God I stopped by the shop today!!

So, it's back to mitering for me....

Yours in lots and lots and lots of cool little squares,

Claire

still waiting on the welted seam thing...

but I got some really nice feedback on my grammar comment!!!!! What a breath of fresh air! Thanks, anonymous, for that link. I did sort of know the correctness of using Thomas's, but I think there's something especially unattractive about its appearance on the cover of this particular book. And you know what - maybe because it's all done in caps...

When I flipped through a few of my books this afternoon (I never did get any knitting done today!), I discovered that, as usual, authorities differ in their opinion. With regard to names ending with an "s" - following the pronunciations seems to be a popular strategy. So, if you pronounce it as "Thomases book", then Thomas's is correct. But for a name like Camus, where the S is silent, the proper form is Camus'.

Well this walk down Grammar Lane has been fun! While you're checking out the Stanley and Thomas books, also take a peek at The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques, by Nancie Wiseman. Her explanations of the finer points of finishing sweaters and other projects are very clear and well organized. It is a reference I refer to frequently.

Yours in yarn,
Claire

Update on the Welted Seam...albeit a little off topic

Okay. I found Mary Thomas' Knitting Book. First, I should tell you that it's called Mary Thomas's Knitting Book, by Mary Thomas. And frankly, as a total aside, I am somewhat bothered by the use of the extra "s" after the possessive apostrophe here...and I am going to spend some time (better spent knitting) looking this up later in my daughter's grammar book... (okay. in my grammar book. Actually ONE of my grammar books. I have a library shelf reserved just for them. Is that excessive? You might be wondering why, if I have so many grammar books, I do not already know the rule about possessive S names off the top of my head. My children would be rolling their eyes if they were reading this...)

But Mary's book, while WONDERFUL, had no reference to welted seams. I LOVE this book! It was originally published in England about 60 years ago and it is lovely: eccentric, written in 1930s vernacular, and contains a wealth of knitting tips. It's full of hints like this: "To prevent the edges of a fabric in Flat Knitting from curling when worked in Stocking Stitch, purl the second and penultimate stitches in the Knit row only." This will "obviate the roll." Kind of charming don't you think? and yes, I will admit that I had to look up the definition of penultimate (next to last or second from the end). But now I know how to make flat edges AND I own a new word!!

So Mary's book was hidden in with the secret books...and before I come out of the closet on that one, I'm going to tell you about the pile of books on my nightstand as I write this. Lust for Life, a biography of Vincent Van Gogh (for book group); Theo, the Other Van Gogh (it's my turn to present at Book Group and I needed some extra research material); Dear Theo, Van Gogh's letters (more research); A Gentle Madness - Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books (so I can read about other people who have a penchant for spending the national debt at Barnes & Noble); Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale, A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution (because it seemed like something I didn't know much about) [I am totally not making this list up] and I am telling you this so you think I actually am sort of smart, because when I tell you about the SECRET books you're gonna wonder...

Mary's book was mixed up in the Harlequin Romances that I keep hidden in a basket by (under) the bed. (I blame this hobby on that flame-red headed English grandmother I told you about who would fly over from England for summer visits with a suitcase full of Mills & Boons...) yes, I am a closet romance-novel-reader... Mary's book is about the same size and I am going to leave it at that...

Anyway, enough about me. Check out Mary's book. I think Shirani has it in stock. And just so I can feel like there was something useful to be gleaned from this loooooooong entry - check out my ALLTIMEFAVORITE knitting reference: Montse Stanley's The Knitter's Handbook (by Reader's Digest) and also something you can find at Cultured Purl.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Welted Seams

A customer was in the shop today asking for some help with a Berroco pattern that calls for a "welted seam". For a picture of the seam, click HERE. Well Sue and I were at a complete loss...

I came home and did a little Internet sleuthing, but there is not a byte of info to be had on "welted seams". If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say it's pretty darn close to an overcast stitch done on the right side. But not quite...if I could just put my hands on my copy of Mary Thomas' charming and fact filled knitting reference...but it's not, for some inexplicable reason (that only my messy house faeries know), with my other 10,000 knitting books...

so - I called the company. It turns out that Berroco has a pattern hotline!! The voice mail message promises someone will respond to my inquiry within 48 hours. I will let you know. In the meantime,if YOU have any thoughts, we'd love to know!!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Eye of Partridge

When I ran into Linda at the yarn shop yesterday, she showed me some of her recently knit socks done up in Socks that Rock Yarn. (Linda actually knits with the yarn she buys as opposed to those of us who just hoard it...)

anyway...she had THE coolest looking heel, the Eye of Partridge. She got it from the Harlot's Knitting Rules book, however I googled it and found about 100,000 hits. Essentially, it is just like the heel stitch (where you slip every other stitch on the knit side) except that every other knit row is offset one stitch. There is a very nice picture and chart here The end result is a sort of an all over basketweave look versus the vertical columns of the heel stitch.

What I really want to do is drop all my other projects and start on a pair of socks featuring this heel...but I am going to do the responsible thing and finish something already started (and maybe clean up the laundry room.)

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

On the needles...

I stopped by Cultured Purl today after a few days away - I always get that peaceful sense of coming home when I walk in and smell one of Shirani's candles burning and find a few knitting friends camped out in the sunroom.

Today was such a day: Linda was there seaming a baby sweater; Rita was making excellent progress on the gusset on her second pair of socks (I'm thrilled to say she's seen the sock light!!); Peggy was on her way out as I walked in, but it was nice to get a hug and hear about the new intarsia bag she's about to start; and of course Sue and Shirani were knitting and Leo was quite in the thick of things - the basket full of blanket swatches to be exact...

We got to talking about how many projects we have going - something I often find difficult to face because all that yarn on needles in various (read many many many) knitting bags around my house - well it can get a little overwhelming. I try to scatter the bags throughout all the different rooms of the house, thinking that if I don't see one great pile then it can't really be that bad. I do, however, have to admit the situation in our new laundry room is getting a little out of hand. I'm thinking if I tried to describe it, you just wouldn't believe me,


so,,,,,






I'm just going to show you....






a little scary...



and,




a little frightening because





my mother reads this blog...





and what makes it really really scary is that this is just what's in the laundry room (it's the new laundry room with lots and lots of space.) My husband, who does the laundry (god-love-him) has started giving me a lot of looks...

but in my defense, the stuff in here mostly has to do with works in progress for classes I am teaching!

But as to the rest of the house... want to hear? it might make you feel a little better about the couple of projects you've had hanging out on needles for a while...

okay.

2 socks - the second of Audrey's pair of ankle socks; my own in Jitterbug, ohmygod I almost forgot about the few rows I've started on that second yellow sock I began before Christmas - that's 3 then.

the lace shawl for class (About 2/3rds complete)

George's mitered baby blanket (as well as the one I started for myself in Noro...)

that really cool car coat from I think Interweave Knitting in about 40 balls of baby alpaca --the real problem here is that I've used some of the balls for another project. Rita, I am just NEVER GOING TO FINISH THIS!!!!

The red Lucy bag AND the blue Lucy bag...which is sad really because I have about 20 minutes of work left on the red one but I keep thinking I'll need it to demonstrate in class - so is it really fair to count this??

the rest of the works in progress really are for classes so I'm not going to include them here...

I just feel like I'm missing something big here...but that's what I have ON THE NEEDLES

As to the rest of it - well I'm feeling some pressure from the humongous bag of Debbie Bliss (hidden in the closet) earmarked for that ribbed sweater I want to make for myself. And there is this beautiful bag of Collinette that is at the back of my linen closet waiting for me to whip out an afghan - you knit-a-long ladies know what I'm talking about...I had to hide it behind the extra pillows because the guilt of it all was eating away at me, particularly over the last 2 years...

I have also about 10 skeins of sock yarn I keep looking at wanting to work on (this sock thing is like a disease...)

so there it is...I wish I could say writing about it has eased the stress of it all, but I'm feeling more than ever like I need to sit down and finish a miter before I fix dinner...

Yours in WAY TOO MUCH yarn,
Claire

Lucy Bag in ribbon

Happy Easter!

Shirani had the great idea to do the Lucy Bag up in ribbon. Hers is a beautiful combination of blues and greens: spring fresh and perfect for today. Mine, not surprisingly, morphed into my typical greens, reds, & golds. Not very springlike but I LOVE it!

No matter what color combination you choose, felted or not, the Lucy Bag is such a great design, it always turns out beautiful!

Yours in ribbon yarn,
Claire

Intarsia Bag

Here's Trish's completed bag and it is OHMYGOD so pretty!! I've never seen white felted before and it turned out great. Trish had the brilliant idea to dry in over the top of a phone book which gave a really nice structure to the bag.





We just wrapped this class up last week:



I know the ladies look a little stressed here, but we had just been talking about the Kitchener seaming and I think they had a little anticipatory tension thing going on...by the end of the night I had the sense that everyone had enjoyed themselves and they felt pretty accomplished!!!
I love to see the different colors - every bag is one of a kind beautiful!!!!






and then,


this has nothing in particular to do with knitting, but it was the other thing I did that same day, and the photo was in the same folder as the intarsia pictures: took the girls to their riding lesson, and the best thing about that day was it was the first time all winter we rode outside...hard to believe looking outside at the snow falling now, that it was 78 degrees Tuesday....

yours in knitting,
Claire

George and the Mitered Square Blanket

My cousin's wife had a baby boy last week and my mother asked me to knit him a blanket. I considered several typical baby patterns; lacy and delicate. But nothing seemed appropriate for baby George. Such a strong, rugged, manly name would seem to demand a blanket more in keeping with the dragon-slayer image of his namesake, the patron saint of England, my homeland, where my cousin lives. So when Shirani suggested the mitered blanket, which I'll be teaching in the spring, it seemed a perfect match - rugged, brazen, funky and a little daring, but still sweet when done in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK...



While one would wish for the baby to get a good strong dose of St George's courage and fortitude, I do like to think that the choice of name has more to do with his great grandparents: Phyllis and Edward George Turner. Aside from the obvious middle name link, there is another George in our family history: "The George", a small pub in Winslow England where Phyllis and Ted first met and our history begins.

Grandad Ted was, at the time, employed as chauffeur to King George's personal eye surgeon, Sir Richard. It seems the King was a little insecure about his eyesight and liked to keep Sir Richard close at hand, and so it was that Grandad accompanied Sir Richard pretty much all over the world at the King's whim and fancy. While passing through Winslow one day, Grandad stopped for a pint at "The George", owned and operated by Grannie Phyllis'parents. Family lore has it that Grandad took one look at the red-headed barmaid and was smitten. Years later during World War II, while Grandad was serving his country in North Africa, Grannie and my mother, then just a toddler, escaped war-torn London for the relative safety of the rooms above the pub...

Here are my grandparents, with their beloved terrier Rufus. You can't see Grannie's flame red hair in this black & white photo, but I can tell you that she lived well into her 80s with not one day of grey...

I'd like to think that Grandad, a right jolly old chap, would be tickled to see this photo of the two of them, out there for all time on the World Wide Web. Grannie, as far as I know, never knit a stitch in her life, but she'd have certainly been happy to sit down with a gin and tonic for a summer afternoon's chat about the merits of miters!!!

Whether he's named for a dragon slayer, a family landmark, or a charming English gent, baby George has big shoes to fill! I hope his blanket gives him warmth, security, and the courage to recognize, without aid of the eyes, the gifts that life holds for the wise.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Cultured Purl's Tea Party

Last week saw the start of the Colinette Afghan Knit-a-long and the Purl Girls kicked it off in grand style with an English Tea Party! Shirani set out an assortment of teas, some wonderful scones from the Brick House and best of all...real Devonshire Clotted Cream! Here are Sally and Rita enjoying themselves. There was a nice crowd and I think everyone enjoyed the treats AND got a good bit of their afghans done!Leo was right in the mix of things and I heard a rumor that he loved the little niblies Grandma was sneaking him!!

The group will continue meeting on Wednesdays, albeit minus the decadent desserts..., for the next few weeks. Stop in and check out their progress!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

A nicely elastic cast-on for SOCKS...

If you've stopped by Cultured Purl lately (any given day in the mornings) then you've likely seen me fiendishly working on socks because, well, that's what I do now: fiendishly knit socks....I wonder sometimes when I pause to tend to the blister on my index finger, constantly rubbed raw in my effort to obtain the correct tension on my size 0 needles [I can't find any 00 in the wood I like, hence the near death grip I need to use to get 28 sts/4] or when I need to forage for more Ibuprofen to relieve the sort of tennis-elbow-like pain I've developed from rushing through the 30,000 sts it takes to make a pair of man's socks. OhmyGod where was I going with this sentence... Oh yes, I've been wondering when something moves from a hobby to an addiction and then finally on to an obsession. I am going to say instead that I have been "exploring a new interest" in hand knitted socks...

Rather than admit to an obsession, I will say that, as a knitting instructor, it's important that I completely understand every aspect of the craft so that knitters do, in fact, learn something when they take one of my classes.(Yes, a rather lofty goal, given the centuries of knitting knowledge out there, but it's good to aim high!!) Anyway, that line of thinking is what makes me feel less guilty when asked (by seemingly every member of my family of late) WHY I am carrying my knitting bag with me EVERYWHERE. There are times, such as driving in the dark to wait outside in the dark for 2 minutes or less for my daughter's dance class to let out, for example, when I know there is no conceivable way I will get so much as a row done, but it's somehow soothing just to have the sock-in-progress nearby....(alright, I'll admit this is sounding a bit obsessive-like...) That line of thinking also helps when those other nagging responsibilities, like laundry, dinner, laundry, errands, and laundry, cross my mind. Pursuing expertise in turning a perfect heel somehow seems more important. That line of thinking (finally she gets to the point at hand...) is what has led me to discover what sock-knitters of old have praised for eons before me: the German Twisted Cast-On.

Similar to the popular Long Tail Cast-On, and also apparently known as the Old Norwegian Cast-On, the German Twisted Cast-On is quick, extremely elastic, and very attractive as the beginning to a ribbed cuff-down sock.

If you know the Long-Tail method, you're more than half way there as the techniques are very similar. The difference is that, instead of beginning the stitch by bringing the needle through the loop on the thumb, from front to back, the needle is brought down under and behind BOTH strands of the thumb loop and then forward through the loop from BACK TO FRONT. For an excellent tutorial, CLICK HERE This cast-on method creates a prettier, more elastic edge than the regular long-tail, making it a very good option for socks. Check out the tutorial, and give it a try!

Yours in knitting
Claire

Happy Valentine's Day

Sending warmest valentine wishes to all our friends at Cultured Purl. And to Shirani and Sue (and Leo!), what a sweet Valentine's surprise!!! Much love to you,
Claire