Swatching and luscious walnuts

I have been reading a lot about Claudia's Handpainted sock yarn, and finally gave in. The Woolly Workshop very kindly (and swiftly: fantastic service) sent me this:

2 Skeins of Black Walnut. Luscious. I am hoping there's enough to make a very stylish and manly scarf. Interestingly, there's not nearly as much pink in the yarn as any image on the internet indicated, but it's very lovely and I don't mind at all.

I've been doing a little random swatching: seed stitch and eastern crossed stocking stitch in Regia Crazy Color:

Plain knitting on the knitting machine in Knitpick's Memories in Redwood Forest:

I redid the bee stripe swatch and am much happier with this edge:


One of the problems with our London flat is the lack of sunlight. We inhabit a north-facing flat which gets a 20 cm wide strip of sunlight for approximately 20 minutes in the early evening for a couple of weeks in spring. I am attempting to make the most of it by photographing anything even vaguely knitting-related.

This is some Paris from Texere which I have plans for... must implement severe stash reduction before heading to Australia... so difficult.

One positive thing about returning to Australia is that I am unlikely to have too much trouble finding light to photograph by. Over there we also inhabit a north-facing flat, which, being in the other hemisphere, gets enough sunlight to bleach the spines of all our books, CDs and DVDs, despite the fact that we keep the blinds half-closed most of the time. Unfortunately I don't like the heat, but we may solve this by installing air-conditioning.

Knitting activities

I'm not sure where this originated, but the idea is that bold indicates you've done it, italics indicates you would like to do it, and normal means you haven't and have no intention of doing it.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with Bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/Doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental Knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with Alpaca
Fair Isle Knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else's handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured Knitting
Kitchener Bind Off
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and Purling Backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed Toys
Baby items
Knitting with Cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with Linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/Bolero/Poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Treasury covetousness

I've been following the Walker Treasury Project, and each new addition makes me more and more covetous. I did look at buying them last time I was in the US, but... I really can't justify it.
I've been knitting a Clapotis and plain stocking stitch scarf since January. I already have Mary Thomas's books and quite a few others, plus unlimited access to the internet. What need do I really have for a stitch library?
Normally this wouldn't be an issue. I have an enormous number of books, and I buy them purely because I like to have them and they give me joy. But my partner and I have been toying with the idea of moving back to Australia, and have finally decided on a date - early January 2008. Given that I'm involved in a monster project at work which will be eating my sanity points right up until the end of the year, I'm not realistically going to use them before we move back home. Pretty much anything I buy now which will come home with us must have the shipping cost back to Australia factored in.

Maybe... I could order them to be sent to Australia as my first present to myself when we move home...

Six weeks of nothing

I spent 3 of the last 6 weeks on the road, one week in Wales for holiday, then two weeks in Boston for work again. None of these weeks really gave me a lot of knitting time.
I did manage to go whale watching with the New England Aquarium and see lots of whales on the weekend in Boston (Minke, Fin-backed, Humpback and Northern Right (wow)), so that was a good non-knitting weekend. For once I decided not to spend a day staring at the walls of my hotel room and managed to get into Boston via hotel shuttle, commuter train and subway both weekend days. It's not easy to get anywhere from Waltham if you don't have a car...
I did manage to scuttle into Windsor Button at some point intent on buying a 3.5 mm Clover bamboo circular (which I did) and I also picked up some Lion Brand Micro Spun in Ebony and Mango. I've been looking for something to knit EZ's garter surprise baby jacket with, and this seems like a pretty good choice: soft and machine washable and dryable. The pattern originator might shudder, but I'm not sure about the combination of wool and babies, and machine washable at least is a must.

I'm not happy about the edges, particularly the side I'm changing the yarn on. I think I'll be ripping back this swatch and trying the method recommended on Nona Knits:
"On every row, knit into the back of the first stitch and then slip the last stitch purlwise with yarn in front. Tersely for your enjoyment. First stitch -> ktbl. Last stitch -> sl wyif."
Hopefully I can find some way to anchor the yarn I'm carrying as well. I hate messy edges.
While in the US I ordered a couple of books from Amazon: Fiona Cooper's Rotary Spokes, a novel I read years ago and have always wanted a copy of, and Debbie New's Unexpected Knitting, which I've had my eye on for some time, and would cost me approximately double the price to buy in Britain.
Unexpected Knitting, not surprisingly, contains a lot of unexpected knitting. It is also unexpectedly practical in tone, and also unexpectedly large: we're talking a quarto hardback (in public-librarian terms). I do want to knit EZ's baby surprise jacket, but now I also want to knit the baby tam jacket. Stocking stitch in the round! In a cardigan! With no steeks! The coolness is deep, yes?*

Meanwhile, I have continued to struggle along with Clapotis. I am now up to 15 repeats. Yes, I know you're only supposed to do 13, but I'm knitting on 4 mm needles, not 5 mm, and with a yarn which is, on average, finer than suggested. I may be able to block the hell out of it, but I don't want to be too vicious, as parts of this thick-and-thin yarn are (I think) laceweight cotton. At 15 repeats it is only just over 5 feet long, and I like my scarves/wraps at least 6 feet.
The first ball did the increase rows plus 5 repeats, so I think I will try for 4 repeats and the decrease rows on the last ball (so I don't get my knickers in a knot about running out of yarn - can't stand anxious knitting). I'm nearly finished the second ball now.

* If you are familiar with the game I-Ninja, this should be said in the same tone as "The blade is cold, yes?"

Tonsils and garter

I have tonsilitis. Again. Early last year I got it once, went back to work too soon and got it again. So this year I am determined to be sensible and stay home until I am well.
This bout is particularly unfair because I took Friday off as annual leave so that I would have 3 days off in a row, only to wake up feeling awful on Friday and have one of my worst nights on Friday night: a shivering, feverish, lungs hurting, can't sleep kind of night. Around 5 am I did think dying might be preferable, but I got over that eventually.

On Sunday I picked up knitting needles and made a swatch:
a) I have never knitted in cotton, and wanted to give it a go
b) I wanted to swatch to see if this yarn and needle combination would work for EZ's baby surprise jacket
c) I have always had what amounts to a phobia of picking up stitches, but if I want to make this jacket there is no escaping it
d) it seemed like a good idea to finally learn that long-tail cast-on that everyone else uses.

Yarn: Texere Yarn's Kilsney soft cotton in Leaf and Bottle
Needles: Susanne's ebony 4.5 mm
Result:
This cotton needs metal needles, the wooden ones don't feel safe.
I like the long-tail cast-on, but I need to work out how much of a tail to leave before I will feel happy using it on somethinig real.
I'm still wary of picking up stitches, but I don't feel the need to actually run screaming at the thought any more. I'm not 100% happy with the results I got, but they will do.
Can anyone tell me which is the 'right' side of a long-tail cast-on? The one that looks as if you don't have a cast on at all, or the one with the pretty diagonal stitches?
I learned that you have to be careful when changing colours in garter stitch (which I already knew, but had illustrated to me very clearly).
I now feel a little more confident about the anatomy of garter stitch.
Gauge ended up at approx 4 stitches per inch. I am going to need smaller needles and finer yarn if I want to knit the baby surprise jacket: it's supposed to be 6 stitches per inch, and knitting this any tighter, while giving me a great fabric for oven gloves, would not not be suitable for baby wear.

Instead, I moved on to 4 ply merino, little needles and some pattern variation to make a tiny version of Tychus from Knitty. How tiny? Small enough to fit a small child? A baby? A doll? No. An egg.
A couple of years ago, issue 14 of the Australian magazine Donna Hay featured little egg-cosies on the cover. I wasn't actually in a knitting phase at the time, but I looked at them a bit and realised how easy they would be to knit. If you don't mind the 'wrestling with a hedgehog' feeling of knitting objects of small diameter on dpns, they really are quick and easy.

Admittedly the egg cosies I knit actually spend most of their lives acting as hats or horn-covers for the resident population of dragons (function depends on dragon size), but they do occasionally fulfill their original function.

I liked the look of the pattern and thought it might also be a way to try grafting in garter stitch. Because I am a masochist with sore tonsils. That's why.
I did a test run from the base up (bad idea: conical objects get narrower at the top) in sewing thread with the provisional cast-on still attached and a thread running through the live stitches. I had started at the second row of the pattern in my burgundy yarn, with a very long tail at the top of the hat. I then used this to graft: the grafted row is both the first row (after cast-on) of the original patt and the last row.

I'm not sure that I'd really want to make this pattern full size. Maybe it was the yarn and scale I was using, but the turning without wrapping did seem to leave some sizeable holes.

There's not really one thing that is wrong with this grafting. Not one. But it annoys me immensely. It is so much neater than my actual knitting.

Alone in a hotel room with a plastic fork...

Last weekend, I was stranded in a hotel room with

• a knitting machine
• a skein of KnitPicks Memories yarn in the Redwood Forest colourway
• a set of plastic containers with lids
• some hand soap
• a source of hot and cold water
• a plastic fork

I did what any sensible fluffy geek would do in these circumstances: tried out the knitting machine by knitting a swatch and felting it. With a plastic fork. I'd like to point out that it's a very sturdy plastic camping fork with many excellent qualities. I had washed it thoroughly after using it to eat my dinner. The yarn felts beautifully. I just wish I could be more enthused about the colour range.

A fortnight in Boston

Well, I didn't get two rows of the SSSS done. It's sitting forlornly in my suitcase as I write, halfway through one of those unspeakably long rows. Never mind. Hopefully by next winter... because we're rapidly getting to the stage where scarves are irrelevant. (Although it looks like Tuesday and Wendesday here will be quite cold enough, I'm not even going to pretend to myself that I have any chance of fininshing it before then.)
This is how the striping is working out. A little more subtle than I'd hoped, but I don't mind it all all.

(Photo taken in hotel bathroom: nowhere else is light enough.)
Clapotis, too, has been neglected. I just pulled her out this morning to manage a couple of rows.
So what have I been doing? I was home in London for two weeks between arriving from Denmark and leaving for the US (Boston). I am allergic to London. I have long suspected this, but it seems that if I leave for more than two weeks I get ill when I return. Sinus infections and/or migraines. The joy. So I didn't get a lot of knitting done. And work was busy, so I was tired.
I've been in Boston a week: my partner came along with me and left on Wednesday, so not much knitting was done, but we had a car, shopped for most of our summer wardrobe in Lane Bryant, explored Cambridge (which I approve of heartily) and generally enjoyed the snow and ice. (That is not sarcasm. We really, really like the cold.) I did fall over on the ice, which terrified my partner, produced small bruise about the size of a thumbprint, and probably contributed to my back giving me hell on Thursday and Friday. I spent most of Thursday kneeling backwards on an office chair, leaning over the back to get to my keyboard. It was the only position I could stay in for any length of time.
I managed to get to Cambridge again this weekend, and dropped into Woolcott & Co. which I had seen the previous week, but didn't really want to drag my other half into for an extended period of time. We have Malabrigo: two skeins of a lovely dark purple, and another skein of bluish green. Plans may be afoot. I also have a skein of Cascade 220 in a beautiful emerald green. I am contemplating making a Elizabeth Zimmerman's baby surprise jacket out of it, as I think I have enough wool. If not, I'm sure it will find another home.
Yes, I also succumbed to a book: EZ's Knitting Workshop. Woolcott and Co. didn't have the individual pattern left... and I have long heard about EZ but done nothing about her. They had a completed baby surprise jacket on the table... how could I resist?
I then walked to the Wholefoods on River Street, bought a whole lot of food (I have a food sensitivity to wheat, corn and soy: living on hotel food in the USA for two weeks is not an option I can face with equanamity) and, after a mix-up with the taxi, got home at nine. And watched two hours of Law and Order: SVU. I very rarely see this show, but it seems to satisfy my need to watch something mindless every now and then. Most comedy makes me cringe, and I've read murder mystery books as a method of relaxing since I was ten, so I suppose it makes sense.
While I was here, I have been receiving packages, one of which was an ultimate sweater machine. Due to BA's skimpy luggage allowances, I may have an interesting time getting it home, but I will see what I can do. At least for the US I'm allowed two checked in bags and two carry-on pieces of luggage.
Which brings me to a small but important rant. I'm a stately girl. Stately in the way that Queen Victoria was: what I lack in height I make up for in width. If you divided women over a US size 14 into three groups of Queens, Empresses and Goddesses, I'd probably be an Empress. Lane Bryant has clothing that's too large for me, but not much. Every now and then people have a go about fat people in my hearing and sometimes to my face. They're not talking about me, they honestly seem oblivious to the fact that I'm one of the people they're talking about. I find this strange and wrong.
Anyway, one of the common areas of complaint is that they (non-fat people) should receive an enhanced luggage allowance because of the extra weight a fat person carries on board a plane. Surely they should be able to make up this difference in body weight with luggage? This is wrong in so many ways that it makes me want to scream.
The main reason, though, is simple arithmetic. If I take the same number and type of pieces of clothing as you do... my suitcase is going to be heavier. My clothing consumes more cloth. It's really quite simple. The same would be true if I were tall... but being tall is obviously involuntary and is socially acceptable.
Let's not even go into the whole debate over whether being overweight is voluntary or not.
Enough ranting. I need to do some work. It's mostly quite interesting work... but it's work. On a weekend.