Gromit Knits!

It's What I Do

I keep this blog pretty knitting focused, but right now, the weather sucks so photos are out of the question, ravelry makes it too easy to keep on top of knitting news and my cats are not being photogenic.  Therefore, it's time to talk about something else I do -- writing.  Yes, though sometimes it seems as if my life centers around knitting, my life centers around writing.  Rather, around procrastinating about writing and occasionally writing.  For the last year I've belonged to the Rittenhouse Writer's Group and that helps to keep me close to the tracks, if not always on the track!  This past year marked the 20th anniversary of the group and because of that it got a fair bit of local press.  The leader, and founder, of the group, James Rahn, sent me the following article so I thought I'd post it here in lieu of finished shots of yet another sweater.  It makes for some good reading -- James is quite an interesting character, and I hope he knows I mean that in the best possible sense.

If you're in the area and interested in writing, I honestly think James is one of the best readers out there and the folks in the group are thoughtful and talented. All-in-all, I'm glad my friend Leigh got me to start going.

Download Rahn

If the sun shines tomorrow I'll manage a knitting update.

Belated New Year

Oops, once again I've let the holidays and the new year come without marking the season by blogging my well wishes.  Take it on faith, I thought many good thoughts and I have many resolutions. More on that later.  This year end, more than any other recent period, been marked by nostalgia.  Last year was my 25th college reunion, and while that was pleasurable and easy (not to mention around the corner), I'm now coming up on my 30th high school reunion and it is far more enveloping, although the actual luncheon isn't until April!

You see, my school was tiny, intellectually adventurous while also filled with the hormonal haze that colors everyone's teen memories.  If I was just a bit older I would have looked forward to the day with mild anticipation and pleasure, filled with curiosity about what my classmates were doing, in the modern world I don't need to wonder.  For good or ill this is the internet age, and sparked by one rogue classmate, we've all suddenly found each other on Facebook and started to engage in collective reminiscence.  My memories, as fragmented as they turn out to be, are fresh and new and raw once more.

This is good as I live with two girls facing their own teenage angst living in the house.  It's suddenly a lot easier to remember the slights and tears and uncertainty that marked the six years of 7-12 grades and I'm a much more sympathetic listener.  But revisiting the mid-70s also opens up a lot of raw emotion that's been buried for decades.  I attribute my nightmare of last night (raising funds for some unknown deserving cause with the help of Tom Cruise) to this newly rediscovered emotional fragility.  Tom Cruise?  Things must be bad.

Yes and no. It's great to think about my classmates and teachers.  In a funny way that would take too long to explain, I miss them and  crave reconnecting with them.  I've always understood that the six years I spent at CGPS were more intellectually important than the the years at Bryn Mawr or the University of Michigan.  I've always admitted that, but because people have never heard of the school, I don't think it made much of an impression.  I became who I am while I was there -- it was a pretty intense place.  Jeff Toobin and John Podhoretz were in the class ahead of me, Ally Sheedy the year following.  Members of my class are journalists, novelists, therapists, teachers, business people, artists.  There were only 54 people in my graduating class and I know I haven't been as challenged by any group of people since.  It was, despite the adolescent trauma of it all, a truly amazing place.

Enough.  I need to come back to the present -- to the story I need to write before Friday at 5 pm, to the 12 sweaters I need to knit before the end of the year.  Yes, foolish and delusional as I am, I signed up for NaKniSweMoDo (at least I think that's the acronym).  I should be able to do it from WIPs (most of which are just at the "swatch" stage).  Last year I knit 10 adult sweaters, 2 baby sweaters, 8 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of handwarmers, 1 pair of mittens and 1 neck warmer.  I may have missed something in the count, but that's pretty close to all of it.

I thought taking on 12 sweaters in 2009 would be doable and a good way to get rid of stash.  Imagine my surprise to discover that knitting 12 sweaters won't even dent the stash proper (stash that is not yet cast on).  I can knit projects that are already in progress, meet the goal and not even open a single stash box.  This is bad.

This is very bad.

I may need to go buy some yarn to calm down.

Pictures tomorrow, when I get out of the time warp that has Bruce Springsteen, Heart, Blondie, Elvis Costello, The Steve Miller Band, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago, Rick Wakeman, Renaissance, Pink Floyd, and countless others cycling through my head. 

Don't let me get started on the trashy novels that marked the decade's reading....

A Case of Mistaken Identity

Yes, I deluded myself into thinking I could pull off a "Marina".  Silly of me.  In promising to complete Rona by Thanksgiving I forgot several key facts:

1. I had a lot more to knit than I admitted to myself:  being done with the body is less than half the battle.  Sleeves are a big job and no matter how you slice it, knitting narrow tubes with color changes is fiddly.
   
2. I lost three or four days to Thanksgiving prep between cooking and shopping.  The food was quite tasty though. 
   
3. I wasted time finishing another sweater, but as a result I've been warmer while knitting Rona.
   
4. I don't knit on weekends, at least not much, the family feels neglected when I do.
   
5. I don't knit as fast as I like to imagine I do.  I knit fast compared to the run of the mill knitter, but next to many an experienced knitter I'm a piker. I would claim it is a result of daydreaming and admiring the fabric every few rows or so, but I think my raw speed just isn't that good.

Marina was good enough to give me several extensions and each time I swore up and down that I would make it.  I am an optimist at heart, so it wasn't hard to delude myself.  I swear each promise was honestly made.  But, here I am, facing the final deadline, 9 pm and I'm nowhere close.

The left sleeve is done:

The right sleeve is done:

The neckline is done, but where are the front bands?  Where are the buttons?
Alas, they are still to come.  Soon, over the next day or so I will finish this.  I want to wear it.  I want to get the monkey off my back.

I want to knit something else.

Marina, you've earned your stash enhancement and I've learned I can't be you.

Weekend Update

Yes, I know weekend updates are on Saturday (in true SNL fashion), but I figured it was about time I gave you a glimpse of where I am in the great quest for Rona.  Without further ado, here she is:

One sleeve underway.  Not very far.  Stop rubbing your hands Marina, remember, it's all downhill from here.  Turned out I had more to do on the body than I thought, so I'm a bit behind.  With just under two weeks to go I've got a sleeve and a half, plus a button band and collar to finish.  I see many coffee fueled late nights in my future, but I'm not giving up.

In the meantime, I admit I took a few minutes hours to seam up a project that inserted itself into my life without my permission, Gunnerside Ladies from the Rowan British Sheep Breeds Collection in their Blue Faced Leicester (who knows if I spelled that correctly).

Addictive yarn, truly addictive. Silky, sheepy, and a joy to work with.  I may have to have more in the future.

My only adjustment to the pattern was to knit on size 10 needles throughout, yielding a 40" sweater instead of a 44" one, at least pre-blocking.  We'll see where it ends up after I give it a bath, assuming I can ever be persuaded to take it off.  It's very, very warm.

I've never thought about knit pajamas before...

Inquiring Minds

It seems there were a number of questions that came up because of my fly-by post on Tuesday.  In the few minutes I've got before my friend Hope arrives to drive me down to Stitches East in Baltimore, I can settle the wild waters of curiosity:

1. How many projects did I cast on while waiting for the election results?  Just one.  I would have cast on more, but I dithered about which project of the many waiting I should tackle.  Then I spent a ridiculous amount of time deciding which stash yarn to use, a situation I found a bit scary.  The upshot? I'm knitter number 9,456,237 to make Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke.  Because the body is knit in one piece to the armhole, I didn't get beyond casting on and trying the set-up row on Tuesday.  Nerves and counting do not mix well and it was only later in the week that I progressed onto the first few rows of ribbing.  No picture yet, and there isn't much to see anyway.
   
2. Are you back to blogging?  Yes Mom, I'm going to try to blog regularly again.  It's about bloody time I gave myself permission to ramble on the internet in a less than perfect fashion.  See, two posts in a row without a picture!
   
3. What kinds of stuff will I blog about?  Okay, nobody asked that, but I thought I'd give the few of you that stop by some sort of preview.  There will be project updates, writing updates (what's a writer to do if she can't whine about writing and how ridiculously hard it is?), food and fitness, book reviews and commentary on culture wars.  Ah, who the hell knows, my mind wanders over some of the oddest things and isn't that what a blog is for?
   

Project updates will include news about Gunnerside*, from The British Sheep Breeds Collection by Rowan, Rona progress (yes Marina, there is some) and maybe even a recap of the stuff I finished in the long months since I last posted here.

There will be new challenges and goals.  The first is that I will absolutely, no doubt whatsoever, finish Rona to wear at Thanksgiving (American) 2008.  I've promised Marina yarn for a Starmore sweater if I don't make the deadline, so I imagine that will get my lazy, but greedy self into action.

Other stuff?  We'll see where the muse takes me.

* I'm sorry that I'm using Ravelry links here, it's my most up-to-date information, I'll get non-Rav links up over the weekend.

Antsy

I'm antsy.  I think it's a pretty common condition in the US today, and maybe even in other countries that hope the US finally does something sensible.  As we all know, it's election day.  Finally.  I've done my bit and voted (it's no secret, I voted for Obama).  I'm off to volunteer this afternoon, and a party this evening, but mostly it's come down to waiting.

When I wait I have a pretty standard routine.  I ferret around the house looking for something to eat that isn't too unhealthy, thankfully there's no chocolate.  Between snack hunts I surf the internet looking for yarn, patterns, and reassuring election stories (which is better than the last couple of weeks when I thought we were looking at the end of our economic system).  I might even do some housework.  But, as you might guess, my biggest distraction is casting on new projects.  Over the years I have discerned that the number of new projects is directly proportional to the importance of the matter at hand.

My only limit may be how many needles I've got (and I've got a lot).

Go vote and then join me in the stash room.

Re-Entry

Coming back from vacation is never easy.  There's too much laundry, food shopping, neglected mail and other sorts of drudgery that can handily swallow all your time for days and days.  For these mundane reasons, and because we had some 1400 photos (love ya digital camera), it's taken a while to get to posting photos.

Well since I meant to hit "Save as Draft" but instead published that opening paragraph, without further ado, here are some scenes of Iceland, where it is easy to believe in magic:

The Snaefellsjokull across the lava fields at Dritvik.  This is the glacier where Jules Verne set the initial descent in Journey to the Center of the Earth.

What can I say?  I loved this sign as we walked along the coastal cliffs at Dritvik.

A rocky and astounding shoreline.

There were lots, and lots of sheep everywhere.

Geysers at Geysir, the location that gave it's name to the phenomena.  This is Strokker, the Great Geysir doesn't spout, except with assistance these days!

Waterfalls, this one is Gulfoss, Golden falls.

Elephant Rock on Heimaey, the largest of the Westman Islands.

Puffin near the Westman Islands, click for big, or check it out on Flickr, for a better view.

Last photo.

A house buried under the ash and lava on Heimaey.  One of the friends we were staying with grew up on this small island off the southern coast.  He told us about delivering newspapers to houses that are now buried under lava, like this one.  I remember seeing news coverage of this eruption in 1973 both because they were able to evacuate all 5000 residents, but also because of the engineering effort that went into cooling lava to keep the harbor from being blocked.

I could offer up more of a standard travelogue, but it's all just blather.  If you get the chance, go see this country.  It's wild and delicate, harsh and unbearably beautiful.   I won't forget it anytime soon.

There's more on Flickr and more to come as I finish going through the massive number of pictures, but don't worry, I won't post all the photos from the trip!

Breaking News

Okay, the blog is the last to know.  I've raveled it, I flickr'd it, I even Plurked it, but now, after three years, I have finished the back of Inishmore.  See that thread at the top holding the neck stitches?  It's really done.  I'd better get cracking, at this rate the finished object will not be done until 2017.  I think as processed focused as I seem to be, I want a finished object a bit sooner!

Aaack, for the last several hours I've been trying to post a picture, but Typepad doesn't want to take it and I don't have the patience to figure out what is going on.

If you're on Ravelry you can check it out here.

Yes, Marina, the big update is coming, I have the photos, now I need to get my thoughts into some sort of order and that's even harder than taking pictures!  Especially when I'm trying to get us all ready to head off to Iceland on Wednesday.

Think there might be some yarn there?

Disingenuous

What a big word just to confess that I mislead you.  As I am sure is clear by now, I didn't finish the hoodie in time for E's birthday last month.  In fact, I knew I wouldn't finish it in time when I wrote that post.  She received a front, a back and part of a sleeve on the day itself.  Unbelievably, she was grateful I was making her something and she pronounced it cool (or whatever word is now used instead of cool).

But while I was disingenuous about the original deadline, I didn't think I was that far off.  I estimated I'd needed another week at most.  Hardly. I sewed the last seam yesterday -- June 2nd -- two weeks late.  Never having actually made a hoodie before, I didn't count on the size of that damn hood.  It's huge, look at it:

Texas has nothing on that hood.  You could fit the moon in that hood.  Then the edging.  She's lucky I'm done in the same year as her birthday. 

I did the best I could to make knitting the vast acreage of stockinette more interesting.  I played with creating matching increases and decreases to make the shaping a bit more interesting.  To match increases on the side seams I knit into the front and back of the same stitch. I wanted the little bars to show instead of opting for a less visible M1, my standard.  To keep the bars placed the same distance from the seam, on the right hand side the increases were placed after K1.  On the left side I made my increases in the third stitch before the end of the row.  I know, the excitement is overwhelming, but I felt momentarily clever.  Don't worry, I won't bore you with the fudge I came up with to make my right leaning decreases look more like SSKs.

To top it off, this pattern called for more seams than a Project Runway challenge.  The hood was to be knit in two halves and seamed up the back.  In addition, the hood was to be knit while attached to only the back of the sweater.  As written, the front edges were cast on and then sewn onto the neck edge along the front, after the hood and its ribbing were completed and the shoulder seams joined.  Hood edging and neck edging were to be knit separately and then seamed together. 

No, there may be some advantages to this construction -- less bulk in your lap when knitting, firmer seams -- but no, not happening here.  I knit that sucker in one piece and there were no seams on the hood or the edging.

Despite these nagging details, the finished product is softer than you can believe and will look great on the teenage recipient who is too busy celebrating the end of the school year to be bothered with anything as mundane as a sweater.  Once she's available, she's wearing it, even if it's 80+ degrees out.

I'll post the gory details on Ravelry once I'm finished with this post.

BTW, Chris accused me of imitating the Harlot in my last post, and I have to admit it's true.  I had just finished Things I Learned from Knitting in preparation for seeing her later that weekend in Philadelphia.  Just think of that post as a form of homage.

I saw her.  I even saw the sock.

And Marina, I'll get you that report about my April (and May) knitting tomorrow!

Il(De)lusions

Despite overwhelming evidence it's hard to give up on the idea that my daughters are little girls.  The younger one is turning 13 in the next few days and has already launched into teenage life at warp speed -- clothes, makeup, boys, gossip -- all the signs point to an adolescent on the loose. She's even grown taller than me, not a lot, but still, I have to concede, she's taller.

Being intellectually alert, you would think I could analogize the length of time it takes to knit for her to knitting for myself.  I might save a smidgen of time and yarn because, while she is definitely (though only marginally) taller, she is quite a bit slimmer.  Of course not.  This is my child, my little one, and she should have a new sweater for her birthday.  I hadn't considered the idea until about ten days before the event when I came upon some lovely organic cotton at my LYS.  As the germ of the desire to knit for her big day took root, I managed to convince myself that I could knit her a tunic length, long sleeved hoodie in DK weight cotton in exactly ten days.

The internal rationalization went something like this:  "I'm not a fast knitter, but I knit a lot and I won't work on any of the other projects I've got going, all 20 of them.  I'll manage around work deadlines, the construction on the house, and end-of-year events at school.  It's not really that busy. It'll be tough, but I can do it."

I consulted with the other knitters at hand and they confirmed that it could be done.  Okay, so one of them was the LYS owner, but I think she's honest.  She's a knitter, she knows that the impossible is possible when an obsessed knitter is on the case.  She's done it herself, quite recently.

The back is done and there are only about 30 rows until I begin the neck shaping on the front.

I've got two and a half days.

It won't be a problem.