tangled up

Succumbing to Lara

First, here are the photos marking my progress on Perkins. The body is still almost done, with more loose ends than I can count:

I've now finished about half a dozen repeats, but this is the first repeat of the lace edging pattern:

So here goes, I've really succumbed to the Lara knitalong. The Alpaca Silk pattern book arrived last night and even though I got home from work after 2:00 a.m., I stayed up to decide on the yarn and do a swatch. This may be a mistake b/c I've never felt the Alpaca Silk, which everyone talks about as so lovely, but I love the Cash Iroha. I got enough of Dark Amythst #24 on sale to finish it. I've jumped the gun a little bit, although there are some in this knitalong who have already finished theirs. I have a good idea who this one is for and it's nice to think of her when I knjt on it. I'll wait until the Lara along starts on October 1 to post the photo. Too tired to put up the button tonight, that's a task I can do in the morniting.

Going to see if I can knit just a little before I go to sleep. Thinking the Presidential debate tomorrow will provide some uninterrupted knitting time unless I felt compelled to start hurling stuff at the TV.

Close....

I know that close doesn't really count, but I did get close to finishing the body of Perkins this weekend. Well, I finished the back, left front and have just the right front to go. (will post photo when I get home tonight, whenever that is) The farther I got, the more reckless I was with all those loose ends. It's likely to be a day-long project just to weave them all in.

I've got a love/hate relationship with Perkins right now. Love: The knitting is very simple -- stockinette stitch, easy to follow pattern, simple lace edging. Love/Hate: This is going to turn out to be the most complicated project I've ever done, not the knitting, but the finishing. The stripes in the sleeves are going to have to perfectly match the body. The button band is going to be challenging because the single row stripes prevented me from doing any kind of selvedge stitch on the ends. The lace edging is fun to knit but it's going to be a bitch to attach. The work is really going to begin only after the knitting is done. I'm hopeful, but not confident that it will come out fine, but also a little scared. It really matters to me that it look handmade, not homemade. I'm thinking that once the pieces are all finished and blocked, I'll take it up to Woolwinders and hang out there while I'm piecing it together. I'm going to need the advice of a master finisher. My next sample project will have to be a solid color.

The main pieces of Perkins have become much too unwieldy to be a mobile project, but I started the lace edging and it's extremely portable (again, photo to come). It requires a little bit of attention so I've already had to rip some rows out on several occasions when a conference call got too animated but once my hands "learn" the pattern better, I think it will go swimmingly. It will replace the Big Kureyon scarf that I've been messing with, at least for a while. That has been through so many changes -- if I had stuck with what I started with, it would be almost done by now. The scarf that started out as the Lucky Brand knock-off, was reinvented as a multi-directional triangle scarf and is now back to being a variation on the Lucky Brand. I started it again with size 11 needles instead of the 13's and that has made all the difference in the world.

Unfortunately, not a lot of knitting or blogging is going to get done this week -- just too much work and too much pressure at work. I'm so used to the rhythm of knitting as part of my day that it's really hard to give up -- it is my yoga/meditation substitute. Have to content myself with snatching the stray moment here or there.

Got an email from the Knitting Garden that the two Rebecca magazines I ordered are backordered. That's a bummer, though I won't be able to start anything from either of them for quite a while. I should be getting the Debbie Bliss Angora Silk book soon. I intended to play in the Lara knitalong that starts October 1, though I'll be among the last to finish since Perkins is my top priority. I'm thinking about substituting Cash Iroha, a cache of which I bought on sale (again at Woolwinders), but will have to check the gauge first. Not that I need any more yarn (my recent binge has gotten me years worth of projects) but I was delighted to see that Knit&Stitch=Bliss is going to have Sunday hours.

Still have work to do so I'll end here and hope to get home in time to post those photos and knit a few rows without falling asleep.

Perkins Flies Independence Air

I've finally gotten beyond the armholes on Perkins and she leaves at noon for Atlanta. Independence Air must fly really small planes because the flight is almost 2 hours instead of 1 1/2 on a full-sized jet. Need to take a separate subway-ready project for the MARTA ride up to Roswell. Better decide quick....

Political Post

Don't have much knitting to show, although that's not the reason for this non-knitting post. I am almost up to the armholes in Perkins. Last night I fell asleep with the needles in my hands and had to put a number of stitches back on the needle this morning. Every place in my life that used to say "read" (like reading before bed) now has been replaced by "knit." I'm determined to finish the body by the end of the weekend and with two more flights (to Atlanta and back), I'm pretty sure I can do it.

Work has sucked up a huge amount of my time this week and will for the next several weeks. Work for one client in particular -- a documentary by George Butler called Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. Butler has known Kerry for over 30 years and the film documents the period in Kerry's life from college through his anti-war days. He has painted an incredibly moving portrait of the man. After seeing it for the first time, I felt like I finally grasped what John Kerry is made of -- which I couldn't say before, although I've closely followed this campaign and crossed paths with him since his '84 Senate race. I felt better about the race than I have in a long time (I was one of those early pre-GOP convention pessimists). And this past week, the John Kerry on the stump is again the youthful Kerry in the film.

The trailer gives a good sense of what the film is about. The film opens October 1 in 200 theaters. I really hope people go to see it. The Entertainment Weekly article below says it all:

Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman

KERRY ON Arm yourselves, future voters, with insight into a candidate

If the big brains behind the Democratic presidential campaign are still in search of a strategy, they might want to consider getting every undecided voter in America to see Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. This potent and eye-opening documentary, assembled by director George Butler (Pumping Iron) from a vast array of archival footage, shows us what the media has presented only in fragmentary glimpses: a compelling, blow-by-blow account of John Kerry's service in Vietnam -- and, more than that, the full revealing chronicle of how he ultimately came together with hundreds of his comrades to form Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Did Kerry face enemy fire when he pulled Jim Rassmann out of the water? Going Upriver addresses the controversy over that fateful moment by underscoring, as Butler documents, that Kerry and his crew faced the shredding of enemy gunfire every single day. That was the entire suicide-squad nature of the Swift boat mission: They were deployed as targets, the men on board as human bait, all meant to lure the Vietcong out from the safety of their jungles. (What a cushy assignment!) In the film's powerful second half, the veterans of Vietnam -- honorable, stricken, yet unbroken men -- gather tentatively in 1971, almost as a kind of postwar recovery group, and find themselves politicized, day by day.

As they arrive in Washington, setting up camp on the Mall, the shaggy-haired, soft-spoken Kerry emerges only gradually as their leader. The point of view of the veterans is expressed in the sentiment ''Bring our brothers home,'' and part of what makes Going Upriver so moving is the tremulous sight of how close these protesters felt to all the soldiers still at war. Their ritual tossing away of ribbons and medals becomes a moment of overwhelming American tragedy and pride. As for Kerry's congressional testimony, seen in far more sizable excerpts than we've been privy to, it reveals a conviction that is memorable in its plainspoken eloquence. Anyone who sees Going Upriver will find it hard to argue that what happened close to 35 years ago no longer matters in America today.

eye of the camera

Making progress on Perkins -- should be at the armholes to separate back from sides by the end of this evening, which might make completion of the body a real possibility this weekend. The stripes continue to be a bit troubling. Actually, I thought they were going pretty well until I took these pictures this morning. The pictures themselves document my efforts to deal with all the ends caused by the stripes, particularly the single row stripes. I've been pretty diligent about weaving them in as I go along to avoid spending hours on end weaving them in later when all the knitting is finished (although the sleeves are still going to be a total bitch). I figured out that with the navy stripe, I can pull enough yarn out of the skein to knit one row and then start knitting, so that when I get back to the second navy stripe that starts on the same side of the work, enough yarn is there to complete the row, avoiding 2 loose ends. The picture hopefully shows it a little better than I'm telling it.

But the pictures also show something else, much more vividly than my naked eye. When I leave a loose end and sew it in later, there's no change on the right side of the garment. But using the Rowan Yorkshire Tweed, there appear to be distortions of the stripes when I've woven the ends in while knitting. Full disclosure: I cropped the worst offending spots out of these photos. Will this straighten itself out in the blocking? Will it just look like an intentional defect? Will it ruin the look of the sweater? Only time will tell. The thing I do know is that I am not going to frog this thing and start over. Generally, the yarn is pleasant to knit with and the longer I've used it, the better it seems in my hand (initially it felt what I could only describe as a little dry or hollow). I studied it and the picture in the pattern last night wondering whether I should use the blue as trim the way the pattern calls for or whether it might look better in the pink. Still studying -- might have to ask Jacqui what she thinks since it is a sample for the store.

getting a head

Several of the bloggers whom I read regularly have these very cool mannequins that they use to model their completed sweaters. i'm always envious when i see them. this morning when I was taking photos of a cancer cap that I sent today to a friend who's going through chemo for breast cancer, i realized that i too had a mannequin, well, not really, just a styrofoam head model, but it did the trick. I got it originally to use in braiding a Halloween wig for 10 year old Nathan's Legolas costume a couple of years ago and it was languishing in the Halloween box, the wig itself lost long ago.

The pattern for this cap was fast and simple. It's Beach Beanies from the Spring 2004 Knitters Magazine. I used Brown Sheep cotton that I've had in my stash for years. I modified the pattern to add an inch to the body of the cap so that it would pull down a little farther. This one is the second one I've made, actually. The first I made and gave to a friend earlier this summer, before blogging was a gleam in the corner of my eye. Marnie, a designer whose blog I read, has done a similar design that she calls a nautilus cap and I'm thinking I'll use that pattern the next time.

I ordered several pattern books today: the Debbie Bliss Angora Silk because I've decided to join the Lara knitalong (although I'm thinking to use a different yarn), Rebecca #27, because I want to make the Apricot Jacket, and Rebecca #28, because several patterns looked interesting.

I also continued my intermittent research to find a place to purchase labels from. I've been giving so many pieces away, having personalized labels seems like a idea whose time has come. But I don't want to have my name added to the stock labels that you see in most catalogs, I'm not even sure that I want to use my name, just something that the wearer might identify with me if their eye falls on the label. Google turned up a place I hadn't found before but I didn't have time to complete the form and now I can't find the site again. Hopefully, it's still up on the screen of my computer at home. Someone plugged into the knitting blog world would do really well if they offered cool labels in smallish quantities.

Making slow progress, but progress nevertheless, on Perkins. In an ideal world, I might be able to finish the body by the end of the weekend. Have to aim high, right?

knitting magazine giveaway

I love knitting magazines. I love to page through old ones and find things I want to knit that I never noticed before. And I learned through experience that if a pattern interests me, I should just buy the magazine because it can be impossible to find what you're looking for when you change your mind three or six months later. Recently I subscribed to my favorites. Previously, I bought them at yarn stores or news stands. Over the years, I've acquired a number of duplicates because I'll forget when I see something I like that I already have the magazine at home, or once, Vogue pulled a fast one and changed their cover from one month to the next for the same edition. Recently, I started going through my stash of magazines to organize them better and I've come across a number of duplicates. What better way to help them find new homes than to offer them up here? If you're interested in one of the magazines below, email me at [email protected] or leave a comment below with your name and address; be sure to let me know which magazine you'd prefer.

Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 1986 (yes, I've been knitting that long and long before that)

Vogue Knitting Winter 2003/2004 (the trick double cover issue)

Vogue Knitting Spring Summer 2004 (couldn't wait for my subscription to arrive)

There are interesting patterns in all of them. The Summer 1986 edition has one of my favorite very easy summer tanks. When only I had already gotten a scanner, I would be able to show pictures. I'll post magazines from time to time as I come across them.

Slow Progress

But progress, nonetheless. If I were willing to knit standing up, I would have gotten a lot more done while waiting in line at airport security at Raleigh. I ended up with a little time on the flight out, a little time on Saturday night after the campaign work day was over and a little time on the return flight. Better some than none.

My goal had been to get up to the armholes on Perkins, about four repetitions of the striping pattern. I got a tiny bit more than halfway there. The various ways I tried to cut down on loose ends didn't really work, but I have been weaving some of them in as I go along. I had another revelation about the sleeves and when I get back to them, I think it will be faster to finish them individually, rather than together. No need to do them together to get the length exactly right because the striping pattern provides a roadmap.

Since I'm putting Sheerly There on hold to make Perkins, I decided to finish the main back piece that I had on my needles. The color muddies a lot in the photo and the texture doesn't come through either, but trust me, it's beautiful. I look forward to getting back to it when Perkins is done. Based on the amount of yarn it took to finish the back, I'm confident that I'll have more than enough Koigu to finish it.

Came home to find the new Patternworks catalog in my mailbox. I only looked through it quickly, but noticed that it had a new Koigu scarf pattern that looked pretty and easy to work. Another alternative to Charlotte's Web?

as plain as the nose on your face

Sometimes things are so obvious you can't see them. When I started on sleeves of the Perkins cardigan, I was almost in agony. There are four colors in pretty much every inch and with the narrow width of the sleeves, the number of loose ends piled up so quickly, I was thinking that the finishing would take longer than the knitting. And using six balls of yarn at once, I thought I'd never be able to take this project anywhere.

What a difference a day makes. I slipped the sleeves to stitchholders and cast on for the back and both fronts as one piece. Two long conference calls later, I'm 3 inches into the body of the sweater. There are half the number of loose ends and it's MUCH more enjoyable. I actually believe I can get this done in the next few weeks. I'm not going to take pictures yet -- right now, it looks very similar to the sleeves except a lot wider. Even if the only knitting I get to do over the weekend is during the flights to and from North Carolina and the bedtime knitting that has become a substitute for reading, I'm sure to accomplish something. I've been checking the size a lot. My gauge was way off and after several swatches on different sized needles, I decided to stick with the US6 needles that the pattern called for, and knit a smaller size. I also took 2 stitches off the back and 1 off each of the sides to account for the lack of seams. It seems to be working so far (no pun intended).

Not sure what the weekend will hold in terms of time for posting, but I want to find time to write about Bilboa if I can. I'm going to drop it off to Sonia tonight since I won't be around over the weekend. Here's the photo of the pattern -- it was the first Colinette pattern that I worked -- very easy to follow and it had no mistakes. I got the photo off the Colinette web site, so it's not the best. My birthday present from my family is a scanner/copier/printer -- all I have to do is find the time to go and get it. That will make posting that kind of stuff a lot simpler -- from looking at other blogs, I assume that's how other people do it.

I've been writing this post at work so that I have no excuse to sit down at the computer when I get home and end up staying up half the night (again), but now I have to go or risk defeating the purpose.

I'm sorry that I'm going to miss the Washington Knit Out on Sunday for the second straight year. I had such a blast at Maryland Sheep and Wool and I know that this will be nothing like it, but it would be fun to see so many knitters assembled. And I'm not even going to look up where the yarn stores in Raleigh because I know I won't have the time (which is just as well for my wallet, anyway).

best laid plans...

Summer ended fast. September has gotten off to a roaring start and shows few signs of slowing down. The challenge is going to be how to keep knitting and blogging in the midst of work that's piling on and the height of the political season. I did politics full time for years and it left little time for knitting, no, it left little time for any hobby or outside interest. Other people manage it differently, but I poured my whole heart and soul into it and there wasn't much left for anything else. Which was a big reason why I started doing something different. And the fact that I have the time to knit enough to actually blog about it is an indication of how far I've come. But it's a really important election year and there's just a little more than 6 weeks left, so I need to crawl out of this cozy knitting coccoon that i've created.

Okay, what brought all this soul searching on? Nothing big, just a call to help Kerry/Edwards out in North Carolina for a few days. The few days has turned into just a weekend because I can't break off from work right now, but there is a knitting silver lining -- two hour-long flights that are suited for nothing but knitting. So then the question is, what project to take along? The one that I feel the most need to finish quickly is the Woolwinders Yorkshire Tweed DK sample sweater, Perkins by Sarah Dalllas. Here's a picture of the sweater, but I'm not going to do the vertical stripes, so look at the sleeves to get an idea of what it will look like. Problem is, starting at the sleeves as i did and with the striping that requires frequent yarn changes, it's hard to carry along. Tonight on my way back to the office from the airport, I realized how to solve the dilemma. Well, maybe it won't solve it, but it will move it from an at-home-only project to one that I can travel with. The answer: put the sleeves on hold, combine the back and sides into one piece and go from there. That will increase the amount of knitting between yarn changes and have the additional benefit of cutting down the number of loose ends that I'm going to have to weave in at the end. So, I'm going to try that, and I want to get started right now. If I'm going to do that, while I can still keep my eyes open (didn't get much sleep in Toronto), I want to do the transfer.

Just one more thing about the last two days. I had high hopes for the Lucky scarf but the Big Kureyon just didn't want to go down that road. The scarf I saw in the store had a soft quality that seemed attributable to something like an alpaca mix and the BK has a very "dry" hand. So it was frogged (yet again) and now is nicely working up as a multidirectional triangle scarf. Photos of that later, right now I'm losing the battle with my eyelids.