Attention span of peach fuzz…

When you can’t knit for a month, the moment you are able to it’s pretty hard to resist the urge to knit EVERYTHING in sight immediately.  So while I’m still in love with this project:

Cardigan using Tanis Fiber Arts DK, colourway: Olive...it's had a few false starts, but I think we finally agree on what it should be

…I’ve also had this yarn waiting not so patiently in the wings…

my handdye - DK weight Kona superwash merino

…to become this…

Patience...it's just the beginning...

It will have no seams.  It will be on the bias, to play with the subtle shading of the colours.  

Looks solid from a distance, but to the wearer, the differences are there. I love the intimacy of that.

It may swing.  There may be lace…but not exactly lace.  And, as with just about every THING I’ve ever designed, there will be an improvisational aspect to it.  I’m trying to figure out how that would work in a pattern…but then again, that’s where my musical background comes in handy.  I’ve “written” improv before.

Page 1 of the sketchbook

In April, I lost my job.  A job that had not been fun for a very long time.  It’s a good thing, but scary at the same time to be 1) unemployed in this economy, 2) to be unemployed in the arts at this time of year…the time when summer students are being hired to fill in the gaps, and 3) to have a huge wealth of knowledge and skills that seem to get swept aside as soon as employers see my experience is with arts organizations.  Which would normally lead me on a very long and detailed rant about the fact that artists are among the most educated, the most skilled and the least valued workers in this country, but I know I’m preaching to the converted here.

So what better than the Knitter’s Frolic to make it all better?  I went with Emily, who very skillfully enabled me into a sweater’s worth of very lovely Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Label DK in Olive.

Emily is very very good at this enabling thing...she should really go pro...

This is one of those magical colours.  It’s definitely green in the skein, but in the ball and when swatched, it’s very complex greys with a soft greenish tone (like the green soapstone sculptures we were allowed to touch at the McMichael on school trips).  We quickly decided that this yarn should be for my “Emancipation Sweater”, whatever sweater that happened to be.  I had some ideas, but in the end I’ve decided that it should be one that I design.  

And I’ve had plenty of time to design!  In my head.  Because of a shoulder injury I haven’t been able to knit…or draw…or write.  I wish I could tell you an exciting story about a 3-story fall or the rare patch of mid-May black ice outside my apartment building…but the truth is I just slept funny one night.  Resulting in over a month of pain and lack of function in the right side of my body.  It’s slowly coming back…one row last weekend…4 rows on Wednesday…and then today…I attempted swatching.  

Just like soapstone...

And played with stitches, cast ons and edgings…

See that built-in icord edging? After hours of trial and error: no seams, no twisting, no weird overlapping. It's perfect. This whole idea might just work!

This colourway was made for texture.  I’m most attracted to the stitch patterns that mimic carved stone…tool marks…the mark of the hand.  

This is the pre-beginning.

Because the Girl Guides taught me to BE PREPARED…

Dear Tracey and Leslie,

Just in case you two think you can successfully perform cross-border, international cardigan kidnapping…I am knitting a back-up Elsewhere.  You will not leave me cardigan-less…I swear it!

Also, Otis says:

Love,
Me

PS – Jaya, you can borrow this one too.

Elsewhere

 

This is the sweater “formerly-known-as-Norah-now-known-as-Elsewhere” (Rav link) by Amy Swenson.  After deciding to change the name of the pattern, Amy had a contest on her blog.  Amazing entries!  Just read through the comments.  And, um…Amy chose mine. 

I love language.  I love playing with language…context…mixing words around…  Joss Whedon is the master of this.  And the play on language in Buffy and in Firefly is something I love.  “Don’t you have an elsewhere to be?” is one of my favourite quotes from Buffy.  And believe me, there are days when I really want an “elsewhere” to be!

I know I’m going to wear this alllllllllll the time.  It’s comfortable, it’s easy to wear.  Works for work.  Works for play.  Is it bad that it’s just off the needles and I’m already planning the next one? 

The yarn is Sundara’s Fingering Silky Merino in Ruby Port…held double for 2 reasons:  to get gauge and to layer up the colour differences in each skein.  The skeins were very well matched, but I’ve found that when I double up handdyed yarn, the colours knit up as complex and layered, rather than pooling. 

The Silky Merino is a beautiful silk/merino blend.  My Sundara love is legendary, and there’s a reason for that.  Even her simplest colours have complex layers to them that sometimes aren’t revealed until you’ve knit them.  This is one of those colours.  Multiple layers of red and deep rose and plum combined to give great depth to the overall colour.  Even the little white bits contribute to giving this colour it’s depth.  And I swear it’s changing colour in every light.  Quite magical!

Apartment light at night – much more of a deep, complex rose:

Sunny day at the office – deep, ruby red:

Yep!  Definitely my favourite sweater!  Thanks Amy and Sundara

Full of Grace

A small piece of advice: picking up your last paycheque at a job you just lost and trying to exit gracefully…should not include falling down a full flight of stairs and breaking your toe. Really.

Dear Mel and Denny…

I know what I said. I know. Weaving is my mother’s craft, therefore I must rebel. I will get bored with it very quickly. I prefer things that I can take on the go.  I have a million reasons NOT to weave…just ask me…I can make them up on the spot.

However…

Dr. Steph is luring me to the dark side.  I am weak.

That is all.

Finally photos!

This…

…has been finished for a few weeks now.  And today has been the first day I’ve been home during daylight to take photos!  It’s Anne Hanson’s Obstacles Shawl (rav link) in Briar Rose Fibers’ Legend…quite possibly the squooshiest yarn ever…acquired during the Great Rhinebeck Adventure  I love the way Chris’s colours play themselves out.  No pooling…just short jags of colours that randomly bounce through the knitting.  Not at all what I would have expected from looking at the skein.  

And Legend really holds the texture with amazing depth.  Like you could just dive right into it and be lost for days.   No blocking for this shawl!  I swear it makes it feel so much warmer.  

And Martha (rav link)…

I’ve loved Skif sweaters for years.  The asymmetrical shapes, the many different ways they can be worn…love them…but the prices are out of my league. So when I found out they were producing knitting patterns — well, it’s obvious where this is going, right?  Hence Martha.  I made a ton of adjustments to this to make it right for me.  I widened every piece by about 15%.  If you follow the original pattern, the top balloons slightly over the lower waistband and I didn’t like that look.  Instead, I knit a longer strip so that the transition from the top to the waistband is more relaxed, and love the result.  The yarn:  Sundara sock yarn in Deadly Nightshade.  The skeins came from many different sources and were very different, ranging from very light with random flecks of dark, to almost completely dark purple.  Knitting double-stranded completely eliminated that problem.  

Here’s the back…

And remember this? Yep, had to do it again with this one, but through the body.  (Don’t worry…no documentary photos this time)  Not that I’m knocking myself out looking for opportunities to practice the cut, knit and graft back together thing…

Knitting!

I’ve started a ridiculous number of projects this week, most of which are not at a stage interesting enough to look at.  I’m completely smitten by Veronik Avery’s Linden though (Ravelry link).  In fact, the entire Twist Collective Fall issue is fantastic.  Beautiful patterns, most of which I’m dying to knit.  The weeklong search for the right yarn ended with some Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in the most perfect blue-violet colour…exactly my favourite colour.  It’s a smaller gauge than required, but I’ve had great luck in downsizing the needle and upsizing the pattern, so it was worth a shot. I knit 2 (yep! two chances at being lied to!) swatches:  1 with the pattern suggested 5mm needles, and one with 4.5mm needles.  I also knit a cable swatch…Clara Parkes’ article … it’s brilliance.  After washing and blocking, I actually got gauge with the 5mm needles AND liked the fabric better than the 4.5mm fabric, so for a while it was looking like I wouldn’t have to make any changes.  So I knit the back…washed it and blocked it.  The fabric isn’t dense enough for my taste.  I could continue, but the sweater would be much more lightweight than I’d like.  So I’ve moved on…

left front, 4.5mm needles

This is the left front.  I’ve knit one size larger than I need on 4.5mm needles.  The fabric is great and the dimensions are dead on the size I want.  I’ve omitted the 2 stitches of garter stitch that would happen along the cable at the opening of the sweater.  The organic edge of the cable is wonderful and curls in just enough to create its own finish.  

There are 2 patterns to keep track of:  the cable pattern and the decreases in the body of the sweater.  To help me keep track of which row I’m on in the cables, I’ve come up with this system:

 

there are 3 knit rows between cable repeats in this pattern, so I've got 3 markers ready to go

 

move one marker each time you finish one knit row...when all 3 markers are at the top, you know it's time to cable

My first meme

Tagged by Tracey…ok, here we go…

1) What was I doing ten years ago?

I was a full-time practicing textile artist and arts educator…which meant I also had about 5 other jobs!   At exactly this time of year (Memorial Day weekend), I was getting ready to move back to the US on a 6 month visa to take a course at Haystack Mountain School of Craft (which completely changed my life), to teach at an art school and to be step-mother (common-law) to 3 amazing kids. 

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

Celebrate Glenna’s freedom! ….while knitting…working out a design issue…convincing the boy that it’s his turn to vaccuum…and puppy kisses.
3) Snacks I enjoy:

Chocolate chip cookies, wasabi peas, gummy bears, homemade guacamole…usually not all at once

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
billionaire?  Dude, that’s a lot of money- and I’m just the girl to spend it:

Convince my cottage landlords that they DO indeed want to sell the cottage.  Build a shower in said cottage (believe it or not, my priority over insulation…go figure).  Open an open textile studio with all the necessary facilities and equipment, open to the public.  Start a foundation with grants for contemporary fine craft.    

5) Places I have lived:

Toronto, Haliburton county, Victoria BC, Newmarket NH, Eliot ME, Northampton MA

6) Jobs I have had:

bilingual exchange staff
music instructor at a day camp
staff at a camp for multihandicapped kids
tour guide (which involves explaining to tourists that yes, the CN tower IS taller than the Empire State building.  No, the Empire State building is not the tallest structure in the world…it’s not even the tallest structure in New York City!)
musician
singer
professional basketweaver
textile artist
arts educator
designer
manager at a “paint your own ceramics” bar
general manager of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale (also known as the Debt Chorale…)
manager of an inner city music school
manager with the Arts Network for Children and Youth
communications coordinator
Executive Director of Visual Arts Ontario

7) Peeps I want to know more about: 

I have no idea who reads this thing!  If it’s you, you’re TAGGED!  Yes!  You! 

 

I’m not the only one!

Just saying!