Det er varmt.

According to Norwegian Lesson #5 - Phrases about the weather - this means "It is warm (hot)."

Well, det er varmt for sure still around here!

My just-started sock is coming along nicely, but in keeping with my can't-seem-to-stick-to-anything-very-long phase, I've returned for a bit to the Brea Bag. I was hoping that I was almost done with the Moss Stitch gusset, but you can see I've still got a bit to go.

I decided to start attaching it to one side in order to better judge how much more to do. I sure don't want to knit too much and have to frog back.

When it is this hot...

...pretend you are in Norway!

That's what I do.

Knitting seems to be in a mess around here just now. The green stole is further along, but parked for the time being. I did finish knitting the first hank. I do like it. Honest. I just don't particularly enjoying knitting on it. I'm afraid Dorothy Reade was WAY more fond of knitting through the back loop than I am.

The Brea Bag? The knitting is almost finished on that one. The fun front and back is all done, but I'm having a devil of a time keeping track on that Moss Stitch on the gusset. Should be simple, I know, but I can't tell you how many times I've flubbed up and had to tink back. Why hurry when being done with the knitting means I'll need to sew a lining and shop for a handle? Shop! I'm not a good shopper. Especially in this heat.

Sorry. Did I already mention it is HOT?

I decided what I needed was a sock. Small, portable, with enough of a pattern to keep me interested and motivated, but not so much that my poor, tired, HOT brain would explode.

So I pulled out some Norwegian yarn - Silja - that I've had for years. I actually bought this before I could knit socks but knew I wanted to knit them. Saturday, February 21, 2004 at 10:37 am. No my memory isn't that good, but I did keep the receipt. : )

I remember buying this yarn after repeatedly looking at and reading the pattern for a pair of anklets in "Homespun Handknit". Since that long ago Saturday, Interweave has released the "All New Homespun Handknit". Until writing this post, I thought the new book was just a re-release of the old one, but I see now that the new one has completely different patterns. Browsing through them on Ravelry, I think I like the old one better. But then I am a bit grumpy because it is so HOT.

Summer Mystery Shawlette

It is after 9 pm and over 80 degrees still. I hardly need a wool shawlette. When I took this grainy photo, the thermometer there behind me was reading about 94. Whew. Hopefully this fall and winter I'll get a chance to wear this. I love how it turned out.

I had such a FUN time with this project. Wendy's pattern - Summer Mystery Shawlette - besides being a JOY to knit, is a lovely design and reminds me of tulips. I expect I'll knit another sometime and I think I'll cast on the extra stitches next time and go for the larger size now that I know how lovely it is.

I used less than two skeins of Louet Gems Fingering in the discontinued color, Caribbean Blue and my size 6 KnitPicks Options needles.

Wendy, in the meantime, has already designed and finished a large circular Pi shawl. Goodness, she's fast! Her latest book, "Wendy Knits Lace" comes out in August and has 20 patterns.

Quick and Easy?

Hello. Is it HOT where you are? Sure is here. So ironic that my handwork of choice these days mostly involves working with wool.

I am caught up with knitting the clues of the Summer Mystery Shawlette and look forward to finishing it up when Wendy posts that final clue today. This has been a FUN and enjoyable project.

Tuesday I arrived home from work to see a little treat hanging on my doorknob. This signals that Kay has made a surprise visit. It seems in one of her rounds she ran upon some fabric that screamed my name.

When I first pulled it out, I only saw the skeleton. Since I don't generally sport skeleton themes, I was initially puzzled. But then I unfolded it, had a closer look, and burst into laughter. [Kay has a way of initiating this response. smile]

This is from a now-discontinued Michael Miller line. At this size, you can't read the title of the book dropped from the poor knitter's hand, but it is Quick and Easy Knitting Projects. I think we've all had a couple of those projects that make us wonder if we'll outlast them! There is also a dog chewing up knitting, a cat making free with a skein of yarn, and a sullen child dressed head to toe in handknits. Too, too funny.

Well of course I needed to make it into a bag and the sooner the better. I ended up using this free pattern which turned out to be super fast and requires only a tiny bit of handwork to sew up a few inches of the lining.

This pattern works best with non-directional prints and this was certainly not that so I cut and pieced my rectangle before beginning so that the designs would be correct on both sides. Because of this I also made mine just a tad smaller (15" x 38", I think) and it came out just fine. In fact, I'm not sure I'd like it much bigger.

As soon as I hit publish on this post, I'm plugging the fan in and pointing it right at the sewing machine and starting another.

Hope you have an engaging project you can do inside in the cool.

[oh, and if you do decide to make this yourself, you might watch the video demo which I found very helpful.]

The Idler

I've been a bit mentally consumed with that lovely swing seat from the previous post. Of course, with the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes, I'm sure life in a swing seat, at least in my backyard, would not be the blissful interlude that Alice Ashley enjoyed.

So instead I've taken to imagining myself there with the help of this relaxing video from the manufacturer of The Idler:



When I said the knitting was easy in that last post, I was using the adverb easy - without undue speed or excitement; without worry or care - just the way summer knitting should be, even if it cannot be done in an Idler.

and the knitting is easy

I started to title this post "Summertime and the knitting is easy" and then I remembered that it isn't quite summer yet. Kind of hard to think of it as spring when it is already in the 90s. Whew.

I am really enjoying the Summer Mystery Shawlette so far. The tipping point for me in joining this knitalong was that this design is knit from the long bottom edge up to the top with each row getting a bit shorter than the one before.

Wish I could sit outside in a nice garden with a cool lemonade like Alice here. Don't you love this painting?

It is "Alice Ashley on a Green Seat" 1937 - oil by Donald Chisholm Towner and is the cover of the current Persephone Biannually.

Wherever you are, hope your knitting is easy and enjoyable.

The Quintessential Lady of Her Era

The May/June issue of "Piecework" magazine is out. It has been for weeks and I'm just now mentioning it. It is (naturally) a fabulous issue with a focus on LACE.

There is an article on a bobbin-lace coverlet purchased and owned by Marian Anderson and now in the collection of The Lace Museum in Sunnyvale, CA. 86" x 72". Wow! That is a lot of bobbin lace.

There is a lovely Queen's Lace Doily by Ava T. Coleman. Sheri finished knitting it before I even got around to reading about it.

Donna Druchunas has an article entitled "Who Was Dorothy Reade?" which is adapted from her recent book "Successful Lace Knitting".

Santa brought me that book for Christmas. He must have noticed there was a shawl designed by Evelyn A. Clark? [if you scroll through the images at that Amazon link, it is the lovely black triangle] Smart Santa.

In January I had to frog a lace shawl. Pattern was fine, but it just wasn't meant to be. In trying to select a new project, I chose one from this book. NOT the EAC, sadly.

I have worked on this off and on since then. Mostly OFF. That little tag has my note of the needle size. It gets hidden away that much! It is a chore. I think the finished item will be just fine. In fact, thinking that - and the fact that I have over a third done and have already ripped out a 75% done shawl!! - is all that is keeping me returning.

I'm using the same needle tips for the Mystery Shawlette. I hope to alternate working on it and this project and dedicatedly returning to this one in between clues. Eventually it has to be done. Right?

The one thing I've learned about Dorothy Reade is that she LOVED k1tbl. Knitting through the back loop must have been her favorite stitch. ALL yarnovers are ktbl on the next row. ALL. Actually her favorite was k2tbl. She was quite adamant that this was the only correct opposite of k2tog.

Donna describes her as the quintessential lady of her era saying "she wore gloves and silk stockings, always carried a hankie and a roll of butter rum Life Savers in her purse, and ran an orderly home."

So far all we have in common is a fondness for butter rum Life Savers.

Magical Mystery Tour

Way back in the Dark Ages - dark ages being defined here as "before Ravelry" - I wanted to try knitting a lace shawl.

I am fairly certain that what prompted this was the "Flower Basket Shawl" by (who else?) Evelyn A. Clark that was in the Fall 2004 issue of Interweave Knits. [issue out of print, but available electronically - or single pattern from Fiber Trends at link above]

A triangular shawl where the stitch count changed all the time did not seem like a good first lace project. Also it was charted. Maybe there were line instructions, too. I can't remember. I was pretty stunned by the chart which made absolutely no sense to me.

I ended up going with the Kimono Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's "Folk Shawls" book. In retrospect a good choice. A rectangle with a constant stitch count and only one, repeated motif. What really motivated me was a knitalong. Wendy of Wendy Knits announced the Summer of Lace and started a Yahoo Group.

That is how I met Mary. Mary and I were the only two people in the group who chose the Kimono Shawl for our project and Mary, who has always been ahead of me technically, sent me a personal e-mail hello. I think the Summer of Lace was golden.

Well a lot has happened since that summer in 2005. Wendy has gone on to publish 5 books (or more) and many individual patterns and still finds time to blog regularly and churn out an amazing amount of knitting.

When I noticed she was hosting (is that the right term?) a Summer Mystery Shawlette, I wanted to join in, too. I wanted to relive the fun of the Summer of Lace. I've seen several mystery shawl knitalongs and truthfully haven't ever wanted to do one. I couldn't imagine putting the time and yarn involved into a project without knowing what it was going to look like when finished. What if I didn't like it?

But I generally like Wendy's things and I feel confident that I'll enjoy whatever she designs.

May 17

Today is May 17, Norway's Constitution Day, an official national holiday there. There will be many parades, including one in Oslo where King Harald and Queen Sonja will exchange waves and greetings.
[Do go check out the lace on HM Queen Sonja's dress here.]

One of my favorite blogs is Britt Arnhild's and her post today shows her daughters and other family members in their bunads. Close-up photos of some lovely embroidery.

So Happy Constitution Day, Norway! I'm with you in spirit.

Summer Bag - Take Two

Remember that quick summer satchel I recently made with the Eco-Cotton? I used it once and decided I didn't like it.

The pattern was nice and the yarn was fine for the pattern, but I didn't like using the bag.

It was long and everything I put inside wound up in a heap at the very bottom. Every time I needed my wallet or keys, I had to paw and churn through it all. Oh, and my keys and ink pens did tend to poke through the nice lace detail. Oops.

Finally last weekend I undid the bind off and rewound the yarn. I'm trying a different pattern, the free Brea Bag on Berroco's website. It is a much more shallow crescent shape. I'm enjoying the very clever Norah Gaughan pattern - so far. I still have to knit the other side and a long moss stitch gusset and then SEAM them together.

I'm about as fond of seaming as I am of blocking wires.

Tuesday Afternoon Stole

Pattern: Lattice Lace Stole by Debbie O'Neill

19" x 66"

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Select Lace
100% superwash merino
996 yds/100 gr. - not quite the full hank
color 29 Moody Blues

Needles: Size 3 KnitPicks Options circular (3.0 mm)

A FO at last. This one was a long time coming. Actually it was all finished by April 5, but my blocking wires were out on loan. They have been home for awhile, but I just couldn't get very motivated to block it. Too warm already to need it and, truthfully, I'm still seeing stripes.

The stripes aren't too bad and certainly not a deal-breaker. This will make me more cautious in the future when choosing yarn for a lace pattern. The pattern and the yarn were both pleasant to work and I think the very definite geometric nature of this lace patterning works with this colorway.

To repeat, I did not work two halves and graft at center as the pattern instructed. I knit following an idea from "Victorian Lace Today". The narrow lace at the ends is knit sideways. I bound off all but the last stitch and, leaving it on the needle, picked up across the top and began the wider border, worked all the way to the other end and then knit the narrow lace sideways attaching to live stitches as I inched across.

The K2tog I used to connect it created just a slight raised effect that is not at the other end, but to me that is less noticeable than a graft down the center. [It's the end of the right in this picture.] You can see the graft in the photo on Debbie's blog. To each his own, I suppose.

I stopped off this morning to make these photos and didn't manage to really capture the vividness of the deep blue. A Moody Blue. Perfect for Moody Me.

Bunad Bonanza!

Talk about colorful! Oh, my. A lovely book by Laila Duran.

Amazing photos of folk costumes, and individual components, taken in such beautiful settings; some indoors and many with breathtaking outdoor scenes.

On the Folklore Fashion Blog you can see the sights and meet the people that made this book happen. All information is in English.

Peace in the Park

Weather is cool today, but warm enough Monday to make knitting in the park on a lunch break still enjoyable.

I've made it through the middle and on the last end on the Deep Peace scarf; a very pleasant, peaceful knit.

I made a new bag to hold it. Another box bag, but this time using the directions here for the corner ends.

Not paying attention, I picked up fusible interfacing this time and I am not happy with the crinkle look I got as a result. I've since purchased some regular and won't be using this fusible again for this purpose.

In the interim, my inspiration, Norma (on Ravelry) has already finished her third!

Ah, that's better

Purpose-wise and color-wise, I'm much happier with how the Manos Serena is working out now.

I'm trying a simple lace pattern over 30 stitches and hoping for a narrow scarf.

Will it work out to be long enough? Wide enough? Not sure. But it is basically a one-row pattern with knit on wrong side so I'm putting it in the car for my travel project.

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Took a little trip up to the mountains with Mother this past weekend. Although many, particularly in Alabama, were still suffering from the storms and tornadoes earlier in the week, the weather for our little jaunt was perfect; clear and not too warm.

Since we went through Franklin, NC, I managed to stop and buy a little skein of yarn at Silver Threads & Golden Needles. A lovely shop with many nice yarns.

I came away with one skein of Manos Serena. I was simply bewitched by the lovely colorway (#9796) Mermaid. This is 60% baby alpaca/40% pima cotton and is ever so soft. Too bad it is absolutely not suitable for the little hat pattern I had in mind. I should have stopped and thought. [I sometimes find that hard to do when surrounded by lovely yarns. Do you??]

There is no stretch with the yarn and not enough body for the pattern. Sigh. I was also quite bothered by the laddering I was getting. It is a wonderful yarn and, with the right pattern, would be simply divine.

Now I'm bewildered. Whatever will I find to do with just 170 yards?

"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" Lorenz Hart ... his birthday today.