I finished a sweater and am working on another one. Will post more soon.

As usual, the cat is sleeping on my forearms as I type, his head bobbing up and down.

And I’m taking my little bichon in this morning for a trim. He probably suspects something because I brushed him out yesterday, and that always precedes a trip to the groomer’s.

Right now my dog is dozing in his bed beside my computer. When my grown son clomped down the stairs this morning, the dog barked like it was an intruder, but he never budged from his bed. Some watch dog he is! My son said the barked message was, “Whatever you do to her, do it quietly; you’re disturbing my sleep.”

I have been knitting a side-to-side sweater. Unfortunately, my gauge tightened during the knitting, which bodes poorly for a cardigan that buttons together in front. One edge was much longer than the other until I blocked the daylights out of it and got them more even.

Sweater partially done, before blocking

Then I started on the sleeves, and the sleeve hem circumference was huge – at least 2” too large for my wrist. So I frogged it and am now knitting a smaller size sleeve.

Unfortunately, there were so few stitches on the cable that I had to readjust the knitting every four stitches. The knitting was going unbearably slow.

So I frogged it again and am now knitting the sleeves flat. I have a sewing background and don’t mind seams, so knitting the sleeves flat (because the knitting is faster in this case) makes sense to me.

I also finished a Just Enough Ruffles scarf for my daughter.

Just Enough Ruffles Scarf

And after the sweater is done, I’ll pick up this project again, Birthday Cowl. It should be finished in time for spring, when I won’t need to wear it anymore.

Well, the color is off, but you can see the nice pattern, at least.

I don’t have nearly as much hair as I had, but I think I have knitted myself enough hats now so have been concentrating on scarves unless a hat pattern really calls to me. My twelve rounds of chemo—I finished last week, hurray!!!!—caused my hair not to fall out in clumps, but to stop growing and to fall out in strands and become very thin. I don’t know how guys do it with short hair. I have to wear a *very becoming haha* hat at night to stay warm.

Anyway, let me show you some photos of some of my fo’s during the past couple of months. At the urging of my knitting group, I have begun a side-to-side cardigan, but that won’t be done—or even photographable—for many moons, so we’ll ignore it for the moment. I only have a few rows done right now.

Not in any particular order:

Will’s & Lindsay’s hats (nephew & niece):

Blue Shape It Scarf, using some lovely Interlacements yarn that a girlfriend gave me when I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. I added another denim-colored yarn to it to achieve gauge. This is my favorite scarf because of the color and because of the care of my friend Linda. It is like being wrapped in her love and kindness.

Lace scarf, in progress, but I am loving the result with the Dream in Color Yarn in color Some Summer Sky.

Magic Scarf, which I love, although I’m having trouble keeping it in place on my shoulder. I need to devise a small clip to attach it to my clothing underneath. 

Taos hat, which I also love because it doesn’t smash my hair.

It’s from the same Crystal Palace yarn as Taos scarf, which is nearing doneness but isn’t there yet. 

I have also knit a Just Enough Ruffles scarf  in Dream in Color, color Giant Peach for my daughter, but she is sick and won’t visit me until she is better, due to my not being allowed to be around sick people in my weakened and pathetic condition. I will post a photo of the scarf when she visits.

That’s enough for now. The neuropathy in my fingers has taken some joy out of knitting because I can’t feel the needles and yarn very well. But I plow ahead, hoping for a miracle when my fingers will once again recognize the tactile joy of soft, flowing yarn and the accompanying smoothness of bamboo moving at a rhythmic and satisfying clip.

In the meantime, I have managed to write this post while my adorable cat sleeps practically on the keyboard. When he moves a bit, he tends to delete much of what I’ve written, or perhaps a photo or two, so it has been an effort in persistence to get this written and posted in any legible form.

[fo: Shape It Scarf. Yarn is Dream in Color Classy; color is Ruby River. I love this scarf and am working on another one and have plans for a third.]

Yes, I could be knitting at the same time as I sit outdoors, but then I’m watching the needles and not the outdoors. (Okay, I’m not as proficient a knitter as many of you, especially when I’m knitting with two or three strands of yarn.)

[fo: Fountain Hat (pattern revised so it's not so droopy in back). Yarn is Araucania Nature Wool Multy; color is 407. I loved knitting with this yarn.]

Also, I felt pretty awful. At first I was recovering from surgery where almost half my right lung was removed to take out the colon cancer metastases there. After a recovery period, I went right into six months of chemo – 12 rounds, one every two weeks – and it has been grueling. At first I felt too sick to do anything.

[fo: Easy Roll Brim Hat. Two yarns held together, one a gift of cashmere, the other Dream in Color Classy; color is Some Summer Sky. This is my favorite hat for a walk on a cold day.]

Then my hair started wafting to the floor. It didn’t leave all at once like some cancer patients. I still have enough of my hair after nine rounds of colon cancer chemo so people don’t notice.

[fo: Easy Roll Brim Hat with a button I couldn't resist. Yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash; color 1909.]

But my head gets chilly with my much thinner hair, so I finally began to knit again — hats. A friend knitted two hats for me. I bought a soft cotton knit night hat I love from Soft Hats because my head gets cold at night too. After receiving and knitting a few hats, I now have enough and am starting on scarves.

  
[fo: Slouch hat; my favorite for wearing around the house. Yarn is Crystal Palace Yarns Cotton Chenille Solid; color is Persian Turquoise. It's a very soft hat and the yarn did not worm as I knit.]

My attention span is too short now to attend to the larger knitting projects I was working on. I have lots of small knitting projects in various stages, and I move from one to another. Then I go up to my daughter’s old room, which is now my art studio, and I work on my art projects there.

[fo: Easy Roll Brim Hat. Yarn is Cascade 220 Paints / Hand Dyed; color is 9867. I held two strands of this yarn together to make a warm hat. I love this combination of pink and gray. This is one of my favorite hats.]

Then I may meditate…or take the dog for a walk…or take a nap…or do some Internet research on colon cancer treatments…or read in front of the fireplace and warm my chilly feet. (Yes, sometimes they get cold even with my worsted knitted wool socks on; the joys of chemo.)

 

I have also started a new colon cancer website if you know anyone who could benefit from another perspective: http://centerofthecircle.com/.

The two 1cm nodules in my right lung have shrunk to almost normal, and there are no new spots or nodules.

The chemo is taking its cumulative toll on me, but it’s better than the alternative.

I am slowly knitting a chemo cap but don’t have the attention span I did pre-chemo, so I take the project up and put it down a lot.

Color draws me insistently, though, and I have returned to my poor attempts at acrylic painting. However, I’ve stopped obsessing about producing “good art.”  I’m creating, and I don’t care if it’s good or bad — no time to worry about that. It’s all self-expression, and I can toss the piece or paint over it if it’s bad. I love the colors, and that’s what is helping me right now.

And making peace with my entire process.

It’s almost midnight. Tomorrow morning I am going to the hospital to have a port inserted into my upper chest. Chemo will be dispensed into my body through the port rather than through veins in my arms.

I can’t sleep. I’m a little concerned about the procedure, of course, but it’s pretty routine. It’s one more step toward chemo, which will begin one week after the port is inserted.

But it’s still sobering to have this done. It’s to save my life. Everything is to save my life now.

I imagine the cancer cells within me that have been cut off at their source (the colon) and cut off at their chosen metastatic site (the lower right lobe of my lung). I picture them roaming around, confused, an illness without a home.

I am depending on chemo to blast them out of the water, to obliterate them to smithereens, to destroy every last vestige of them, and to clear them from my body . . . cleanly and thoroughly, never to return.

And in all of this drama, I will be working and praying for my survival and finding peace in that work and in that prayer. I am working to transform my thoughts from sadness to trust and faith.

But we women are strong. I will find my way with God, family, and friends.

I actually began knitting again yesterday. I am making a slouchy chemo cap out of Crystal Palace cotton chenille, and I’m quite sure it will be too small. So I will have to begin again, and I will use finer yarn this time so the stitches are smaller and less perceptible to sensitive skin. And I’ll use a different pattern.

I have a goal this week, the week before chemo.  I have been walking farther and farther lately, and this week I’d like to get on my bicycle and take a ride. There’s nothing like feeling the air on your face and the wheels rolling beneath you. I want to do that before chemo begins.

The weather has been hot, but late in the day the wind has been picking up and rustling all the leaves and playing with the brim of my hat, trying to blow it away. It is the best weather for being outside and playing and breathing and enjoying every moment.

I plan to live.

In the meantime, I eat healthy foods and take walks, even a little mild hiking. And for the first time in my adult life, I am trying to gain weight.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. Eating between meals might be enticing if you are yearning for a particular food. But when you have to eat between meals, and it has to be a high calorie food, well, that can make you not even want to look at food at all.

I lost eleven pounds after surgery and have managed to gain one pound back so far. Chemo starts in two or three weeks, and I’d like to have a more normal weight going into that. So we’ll see how it goes.

I haven’t picked up the knitting needles since my diagnosis on June 24th. The surgical scar is across my upper back, and to get to my lung, the surgeon pulled aside the same muscles I use for knitting. Since those muscles are still hurting some, I haven’t had the desire to knit.

Hopefully, that will change soon.

I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks because I’ve been undergoing some tests in connection with the stage 1 colon cancer I was first diagnosed with in October 2005. At that time I had surgery, and all tests showed I was clear.

But now I have three nodules in my right lung, and the surgeon and radiologists agree that they are metastases. On Monday morning, the surgeon will remove almost half of my right lung. I will be in the hospital for a week, recuperate for six weeks, and then begin chemo.

I have had to break this news to my family and friends and have had, oh, a few meltdowns along the way. Right now I’m trying to allow hope to come forth. Grief . . . hope . . . everything in its own time.

I am so busy trying to get all my errands done before I enter the hospital. And I will be officiating at a wedding this weekend, which I want to enjoy and celebrate! So I am preparing for that.

We are also in the middle of a family room remodel, so my house is torn apart, with family room furniture and stuff piled in the living room and in other rooms. I’m trying to figure out how to get carpeting down quickly and the house back to normal so I’ll have a place to lie down when I get home from the hospital.

Precious little knitting is getting done, that’s for sure. And this, unfortunately, is why.

I’ve been splitting my needle time between this and the alb. Today I almost completed the alb. I need to trim the inside seams and then hem it.

After it’s hemmed, I’ll wear it for a photo. A friend is going to mark the hem for me soon.

I also began a washcloth because I wanted to try a ball of cotton yarn I bought, Nashua Cilantro Colors. The yarn is 70% cotton and 30% polyester and is stretchy. At $9.25 for 136 yards, it’s a pricey washcloth! But 100% cotton is too hard on my forearms, so it’s either stretchy cotton or no cotton for me. I’m using size 6 needles, and the colorway is Blue Mix.

Also, I need a mindless knitting project for when I go crazy with lace knitting or sewing. I can just pick up this washcloth and knit a couple of rows and leave it. I used to knit socks for this purpose, but I’d get too involved in the socks and never finish the other projects.

I don’t actually use washcloths in the shower. I use them to wipe up the bathroom sink areas when they need it. At any rate, this washcloth is certainly giving me a nice big swatch of the Nashua yarn.

Boy, I’ve had a hard time getting any knitting done recently. I did finish the back of the Surplice Lace Top and am now working my way up the front.

Cliff and I took three days off to move our daughter into her new apartment and help her deep clean her old one. And I’ve been out shopping for cabinets for our family room, which is currently gutted.

Cabinet shopping definitely ranks near the bottom on my list of favorite things to do with my time. Even the cheapest junky cabinets are expensive, and I’m blown away by the prices of mid-level cabinets.

We can’t walk in our living room because everything from the family room has been moved there in addition to the living room furniture.

When I have spare time, I work on the alb, which is a sewing project and not nearly as satisfying to me as knitting. I finally got the side seams sewn up—a major step because the entire garment comes together then.

And I tried the garment on and discovered that the trim I had chosen for the sleeves looks nice enough close up:

but from farther away it looks like rickrack:

Squint and you’ll see it. Ack!

This will not do. Yesterday I carefully took the trim off, having to remove not only the stitching but also a row of basting for each stripe, plus part of the sleeve seam. Aargh.

So I had to shop for another kind of trim yesterday, and also two buttons to hide the Velcro that I’ll be using to keep the alb in place in front. I visited four stores with fabric trims and wasn’t terribly happy with what they had but finally settled on one:

I also had another PET/CT scan last week as part of my regular cancer check-up. I’ll have my bloodwork done next week and will learn all the results the week after that, when I see my oncologist.

And so I remind myself to stay in the moment.

So, after much looking, I found a jacket pattern that will work. I’m modifying it like crazy and extending it full-length.

The collar has been the most difficult. Who decided that clergy should wear mandarin collars anyway?

Here’s the upper front so far—no sleeves yet.

And a close-up of the fabric, which is an easy-care, opaque gabardine:

I’ll put white trim on the sleeves and possibly up at the neck as well and will wear the alb with a white cord belt.

Onward to knitting: here is the back of my Surplice Lace Top right now. I’m about to bind off the right shoulder.

As I write, a carpenter is doing demo work on our family room. The cat is confined to my daughter’s room upstairs so he doesn’t escape the house. Jesse the dog is in a long “stay” just outside of the family room, which he is happy with because he can intermittently doze and watch the workman.

He loves people, he loves activity, and he loves the family room. He does have a concerned expression, though, about the changes to his room. Wait until they start busting out the brickwork.

As for knitting, I’m absolutely over the moon. As I have been reknitting the Surplice Lace Top, my concern has grown as I realized that I will run out of yarn before I even get to the sleeves. The pattern says I should have enough, but I substituted a different lace pattern, and apparently the lace I substituted eats up more yarn.

So I began calling yarn sources and shops all over the US to try to find more yarn in the same dye lot. I bought the original Rowan Calmer at Commuknity in San Jose, California, back in August of 2007, so I was pretty sure it would be difficult to find more.

I also went on Ravelry and called stores which had sold that dye lot in the past, but they had sold out long ago and had different dye lots now. I called the big online yarn sellers and some of the small ones. Struck out every time.

(Before I began the project, I had found one kind person on Ravelry who was willing to sell me her ball of yarn, and I thought then that I would have enough yarn for this project.)

Anyhow, I finally gave up and began calling my local yarn shops here in the Denver area. I figured that even though they wouldn’t have my dye lot, I could see how close a match I could get by holding my yarn side by side with the store yarn and visually matching the color.

Alas, I couldn’t even find a store that carried Rowan Calmer. I’m sure there must be a Denver store that carries it, but it wasn’t one of the shops I called. I began to despair of finding a reasonable match.

Finally I called String, a nearby yarn shop. I had never seen Rowan Calmer there, but I was pretty much out of options and hoped they might at least have a suggestion or two for me (besides “buy more yarn next time,” which I’d already figured out).

The staffer checked inventory and said they had three balls listed in my color number in their storage and she would try to find them for me.

I drove over, and sitting on the counter were the three balls. I held them to my knitting. The lighting was odd—did they match well enough or didn’t they? I looked more closely. Lo and behold, they were the same dye lot number as my yarn! And yes, it was a perfect match.

I never bought yarn so fast and so joyfully. I went home and immediately ripped out part of my knitting again and added two more repeats of the lace pattern to lengthen the top.

Here is the progress of my reknitting of the back so far, along with the wonderful balls of yarn I now have to complete the top:

 
Rowan Calmer, color 476 coral

How many times can you see this photo of the same stretch of knitting and not think I’m just recycling pictures? Rest assured that I have reknitted this section each time. Aargh.

Actually, I’m about 4″ further than the photo shows; I’m now decreasing for the armholes and knitting in relaxed mode again—in fact, I’m noticeably Calmer.   (sorry, couldn’t resist)

  photo property of Knitting Arts

Then I laid it out and measured it, and I had my daughter hold it up to my back (since I’m currently knitting the back half).

Two inches too narrow. Aargh.

It looked plenty wide to me as I knit it. And in a normal sweater I might have gone for the negative ease, although 4” of negative ease (back and front combined) is an awful lot. But this sweater front is a surplice design with already a somewhat low front. I didn’t want to make the top tight and uber-risqué as well.

I began to have doubts about the fit when my knitting of the back yoke seemed to be yielding many beautiful tidy little stitches. Those tidy little stitches were my warning, as I had based my calculations on a looser gauge.

Rowan Calmer is a tricky yarn. I had swatched it, but it’s very stretchy and hard to figure. As I knit the top, I became more comfortable with the yarn and found my groove. And behold, the groove reaped smaller stitches.

It was tempting, so tempting, to knit on. But I remembered the many warnings I had read about knitting entire garments with faulty gauge, expecting some magic to happen and the garment to ultimately fit. It doesn’t.

If I’d tried to block the finished garment wider, it would have shortened, and I didn’t want a cropped top. At 5’8”, I need all the length I can get. (I’m knitting from my stash, and unfortunately I don’t have enough yarn to add much length to this top.)

So with a gulp, I hauled out the swift and ball winder and got busy undoing my work.

Fortunately, both my kids were here working at the kitchen table. Since I feed the yarn through our ceiling kitchen lighting fixture and over to the counter, the sweater being frogged was in the midst of my son’s laptop and my daughter’s artwork. In fact, I anchored the knitting under my son’s computer so the stitches would unravel more smoothly.

And my kids helpfully began singing Weezer’s “Sweater Song” to me:

If you want to destroy my sweater
Pull this thread as I walk away
Watch me unravel I’ll soon be naked
Lying on the floor, lying on the floor
I’ve come undone

Then my son thoughtfully regarded the stitches disappearing before his eyes. And he mused aloud in the highly dramatic tone of a political speech:

“This unraveling sweater is like our dreams. We build these crazy patterns and complex designs . . . only to find that it’s All Too Small. And then we have to go back and unravel . . . and create a new dream . . . one that’s greater . . . one that fits us.”

By the time my kids were done with me, I was remarkably cheered up. And now I have begun again, building my new dream . . . one that fits me.

The free pattern is here. If anything can get me to pick up a crochet hook again, it will be this hat.

I think that many crocheted items are beautiful, especially when made from more contemporary patterns. It’s just that I crocheted for years (just basic things) and always wanted to knit but felt that knitting was beyond me. Even though my grandmother had taught me to knit when I was a child, knitting still seemed too hard and I didn’t pick it up again until recently.

Now that I knit, I think that crochet is hard and have sort of forgotten how to do much more than single crochet. But this hat is adorable, and the pattern even has three different sizes. And it would be so handy for the roasting Denver sun. Hmm.

Yarn: Rowan Calmer; color: 476. Garment pattern is Nashua’s Surplice Lace Top, but lace pattern is transplanted from IK’s Apres Surf Hoodie.

The marker is where I had intended to change needle sizes to bring the lace in a bit at the waist. But then I tried to change the needles back to the original size and discovered that I had never actually changed the needles in the first place. Good grief.

Fortunately, the lace dips in there anyway as you can see, so I’m glad I didn’t change the needles after all. Still, it was a little surreal because I had convinced myself that the smaller needles were causing the dipped in waist until I discovered my error.

I’m not starting socks now because I’d work on them and ignore the top. I knit worsted socks now—which I can wear clear through spring here in the Rockies—and I don’t pattern them, just use stockinette. So it’s easy to work on them as opposed to knitting lace or following a written pattern.

But I really want to finish this cotton top so I can wear it this summer, so I’m trying to stay focused.

I think I finally found a way to hold the yarn for continental knitting that works for me, with the kind and generous help of Stitchywitch. I am using a slightly revised version of how she holds the yarn, which I never thought would work for me, but surprisingly it does. Maybe that’s because I used to crochet.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be confident enough to use continental knitting in anything but a basic project, but still it’s a skill, and I always enjoy having new options when it comes to knitting.

When I finish the continental scarf I have OTN now, I’ll start another continental-knitting project, aiming to become fluent over time. I would like my continental gauge to become dependable enough that I could tackle a more demanding project. I’ve found that washing continental swatches really evens out the gauge, but I don’t want to depend on that for a major project.

I have had an extended migraine for the past seven days and am now dealing with the tail end of it, I hope. These headaches run in my family, although they don’t usually last this long with me—usually four days max. Fortunately, with some pharmaceutical help, I can knit my way through them.

And the knitting is pure pleasure.

Yarn is Cascade 220 Paints; color 9848 (blues).

In fact, I’m enjoying the socks so much that I bought another skein yesterday at Shuttle, Spindles, & Skeins in Boulder. I drove there for my son’s graduation from CU Boulder—a red letter day.

Yarn is Cascade 220 Paints; color 9930 (greens).

On to the Surplice Lace Top. Boy, did I have difficulty getting gauge!  I ended up with size 2.5 and size 4 needles and knitting very tightly with them to achieve gauge. I was not excited about knitting a sweater with small needles.

Surplice Lace Top from Nashua Handknits Collection No. 4.

Then I began knitting the lace pattern and didn’t like it. What can I say? It just wasn’t fun, and knitting must be fun (most of the time anyway).

So I looked through Barbara Walker’s pattern books for other lace patterns and began one. But I didn’t like actually knitting that lace pattern too well, and the needle size (6) seemed too large for the lace pattern and the yarn.

 (the frogging begins)

As I kept thumbing through the current IK, I eyed that lace pattern in the Apres Surf Hoodie (p. 49) and decided to try it.

Yarn is Rowan Calmer; color 476.

Oh yeah, that did the trick. I went down to size 5 needles and am thoroughly enjoying knitting this lace pattern and the way it looks. I had to do some recalculating because I’m using size 5 needles and lace with shorter repeats than the Surplice Lace Top pattern calls for.

But no worries. After the Tuscany shawl, I’m happy to be knitting something with rows that are a reasonable length again. And the watermelon color of the Rowan Calmer is cheerful.

  Wallis Cardigan

But some of the patterns have grown on me. I would have to rewrite them because I would eliminate all the colorwork. But I often chart in Excel those patterns that only provide written directions; I could rewrite a pattern as well.

I think that seeing the Knitting Daily staff modeling the garments has helped me. I didn’t necessarily like the patterns any better as written, but I was able to determine what I didn’t like about the pattern and if I could fix it and knit a garment I would enjoy and wear.

I’m very grateful that Knitting Daily gets those garments off the professional models and puts them on normal-looking people. It is such a help. Here are Knitting Daily’s Gallery One, Gallery Two, and the Eunny Jang Gallery.

In particular, I’ve been eyeing:

  Drawstring Raglan

Without the colors, you have a simple feather-and-fan pattern on the bottom. I’m not sure how I feel about the “sleeves,” but I could either revise them or decide I’m okay with them after all.

I think this is first on my to-do list, because the lines are flattering and the garment could be worn year round. I might use a variegated yarn for it. If the yarn were gently variegated, I don’t think it would hide the lace pattern too much.

I probably won’t make the Apres Surf Hoodie, but I’m using its lace pattern for another top I’m working on right now.

  Apres Surf Hoodie

I like this scarf pattern:

  Gossamer Stars Scarf

It’s simple and might make a relaxing knit. I’d use more yarn and knit a stole.

I like the lines of this vest . . .

  Elinor Tunic

. . . but without the big wide stripe of color smack on the abdomen. The colorwork is pretty, but I wouldn’t want it on the waist or bust either.

I also like the lines of this top:

  Roped Shell

Imagine it in a soft green silk with blue cable trim in a similar color value. Or blue with white cable trim. This top is very graceful. It could be worn summer or winter (a big consideration in the Rockies, with our very short summer season). I think it’s calling to me.

So, for an issue that I initially viewed as particularly uninspiring, it has grown on me and inspired me after all. I do wish they hadn’t used fall colors for so many of the garments, but we’re the knitters and we can fix that.

But I’m back now, ready to kitchener those Cascade socks.

I only make these socks for myself, though, because they are too thick for a person’s regular-sized shoes. When I wear these socks, which are great for our chilly Rocky Mountain weather, I wear Keds that are ½ size larger than my normal size.

Okay, if I really wanted to keep my feet toasty, Keds might not be the best choice.

Anyhow, I have three new yarns in the stash, all for socks:

Cascade 220 Paints/Hand-dyed; color is 9848. I’ve never used Cascade 220 before because I thought it wasn’t soft enough. But I’m seeing that there is a balance between softness and wearability.

Mountain Colors Weaver’s Wool; color is Thunder Head. (The Mountain Colors yarn I used previously was 4/8s Wool.)

Araucania Nature Wool Multi; color is 407. This is also a new yarn for me, but the LYSs are stocking it like crazy, so I have to try it out.

Oh, and I picked up one more yarn during my brief trip last week to Tucson:

Ella Rae Classic Print; color is 203. I bought this on sale at Kiwi Knitting Company in Tucson, which is a very friendly and welcoming store to visit. I try to drop in every time I’m in that city.

The above are all handwash-only wool yarns. I’ve been noticing that my Lorna’s Laces socks stretch out of shape easily, although they bounce back when washed. But if I’m wearing them around the house without shoes, the LL socks have a lot of give to them, which is annoying to me and could be a slip hazard for an elderly person.

I’m also not particularly happy with the way the LL socks are taking repeated washings. They are getting fuzzy and not looking so good.

Back to slippy socks. Is the slip-sliding action a LL phenomenon or a side effect of superwash yarns? My non-superwash Mountain Colors socks don’t stretch out, but my superwash Mission Falls socks don’t seem to stretch out either. Hmm.

Anyway, I bought the above non-superwash yarns to see how they wear.

I am knitting up the Cascade 220 Paints yarn now, and it’s looking good. I was concerned the yarn wouldn’t be soft enough, but one sock is almost done, and it feels great on my foot.

I’m doing calculations to begin knitting a summer top also. More on this later.

Pattern: Tuscany from No Sheep for You, by Amy Singer
Yarn: Blue Heron Rayon Metallic – Sport Weight
Color: Sandstone

I only had one large skein of 550 yards, which means I had to stop knitting the shawl early, but I’m glad that was the case. This is the right size for this kind of yarn.

All in all, it was a good experience and a happy product. I’m already forgetting how eager I was to complete this shawl and leave those long rows behind.

I’m freaking out a little bit, because the yarn is rayon, and I just soaked the daylights out of it. But it has blocking wires, so hopefully they will control any shrinkage. If not, I will have learned a very dear lesson. Aargh.

I think I would rather knit sweaters. Sweaters have pieces. You finish one piece and go on to the next.

Shawls go on and on and on. And then on some more. By the time I bound off, I had 298 stitches on the needle. And if I’d had as much yarn as the pattern called for, I’d have ended up with 372. I was never so glad to run out of yarn.

Here is Tuscany blocking:

This is all the yarn I had left, a total of two feet.

Yeah, I cut that a little too close and was nervously watching that end draw nearer and nearer to my needles as I bound off. Whew.

To get the maximum number of rows out of the yarn I had, I knit until the ball was getting pretty small. Then I measured my remaining yarn by measuring one wrap around my swift, winding the remaining yarn on the swift, then counting the wraps. Then I figured out about how many feet of yarn I was using per knitted row (keeping in mind that each row is two stitches longer than the one before). Finally, I calculated how many more rows I could get out of the yarn I had left.

But it’s hard to estimate how much yarn a bind-off will use, especially a bind-off I haven’t done before. So I had to wing that.

But this bind-off didn’t take more yarn than a regular row, which makes sense because I believe that each stitch is just knit (the equivalent of) one time in the bind-off. But I wasn’t sure about that until I had bound off the last stitch and really did have enough yarn.

Amy Singer, the designer, has us do a Russian bind-off for this shawl. I began binding off loosely, and the edge was almost ruffled, very unruly. I had read that the bind-off for this shawl needs to be tighter, so I ripped back and started binding off again tightly. That worked well and I recommend it. And it was sort of a fun bind-off, if you don’t count my worries about running out of yarn in the middle of the bind-off.

Hopefully the shawl will be dry by Monday evening. I leave town on Tuesday and would like to see it freed from its blocking wire restraints before I go.

I shouldn’t have tackled this shawl so soon after the Clapotis. And I have the Shetland Triangle on my to-do list, but I’ll have to wait awhile before I begin that. Must have time for the memory of mind-numbing repeats to fade.

But the yarn I’ll be using for Shetland Triangle is lovely Handmaiden Casbah—merino & cashmere—and I will be very grateful indeed to return to soft fibers.

Actually, doing some knitting herself might have calmed this traveler down. I am a former nervous flier myself (who will be flying again this week), and knitting helps keep a person in the moment instead of freaking out about what could happen. In her defense, the traveler perhaps was not aware that knitting needles are allowed on US flights and was wondering what else the security agents had missed in people’s bags.

Knitters can have their moments. We might get frustrated with our project or trapped with a seatmate who is a compulsive talker and divulging all his life stories, although OMG it went on for three hours I’m sure none of us have had that experience. 

But somehow I can’t imagine knitters attacking people. Knitters are generally a placid, congenial bunch. Even more, we would not want to cause any damage to our needles. Without needles, we can’t knit.

On to actual knitting.

I began this continental-knitting scarf in Barbara Walker’s moss stitch border diamond pattern but then decided I wanted a scarf with more dimension—not so flat—so I ripped it out. Instead, I’m using the imitation lattice pattern from Leisure Arts Sampler Afghans booklet (that’s the Spanish version; I can’t find the English version on the Leisure Arts website). I think this is the same pattern, but I’m not sure.

Anyhow, I needed a simple knit-and-purl pattern so I could improve my proficiency in continental knitting. This is how it’s knitting up.

  front

  back

Yarn: Dream in Color Classy; color: Cool Fire. The color is true in the first photo.

Here is the chart I made in Excel from the written pattern. I often do this, being more visually oriented.

The border is seed stitch. After I started the scarf, I almost frogged it because I wasn’t sure I liked the back. But the three-dimensional aspect of this pattern is pleasant, and I do like the back after all. So it stays.

How to hold the yarn for continental knitting continues to be a mystery to me. I am trying different ways and having quite a lot of trouble finding a method that keeps the yarn flowing smoothly. The yarn keeps getting hung up on itself between my ring and baby finger, working its way to the outside of my hand, and getting into a loose knot that stops the yarn. I would really like to figure this out.

I also think I should have chosen a non-superwash wool because this Dream in Color yarn is very stretchy, and it’s difficult to feel when I’ve got a decent gauge. Still, I’m happy with my progress so far.

Progress on the Tuscany shawl continues. I’m at 250 stitches per row now, increasing two stitches with every row.  >gasp<

Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool; color: 29 – Raspberry. Someone told me once that two skeins would yield a pair of house socks, so I foolishly didn’t even think about yardage. Only 85 yards per skein—oops!

Fortunately, I had plenty of coordinating Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted in Tuscany left over from previous socks and was able to finish the toes.

In spite of the mishap and the aran weight of this yarn, these socks fit really well and are supremely comfortable.

I did a Russian join for the toe yarn this time. It was fun, and I recommend trying it!

I’m about out of heavier yarn for house socks now. I’ll probably try another brand that’s not superwash. I still have some thin sock yarn in the stash that needs knitting up, but I want to start a sweater soon, so the socks may not get cast on right away.

You start out innocently enough with the tip of the shawl—cast on a couple of stitches maybe. And then you work your way up the triangle, adding 2 stitches per row in the case of Tuscany. And the rows start to seem interminable.

When you say, “Just let me finish this row,” you’re no longer talking about a couple of minutes delay. It’s a good chunk of time.

Here’s my progress on Tuscany:

Yarn is Blue Heron Rayon Metallic - Sport Weight; color is Sandstone. Here you can see the gold accents in this yarn:

In the future, I think I’ll stay with stoles or bias-knit stoles. On those, the length of the rows doesn’t increase (at least after a certain point, in the case of bias knits).

All the same, I’m enjoying Tuscany. It’s an easy pattern. And it got much more enjoyable when my size 7 Knitpicks Harmony needles arrived. I had been using some old bamboo needles for the shawl, and knitting with them felt like moving the yarn over sandpaper.

Harmony has been my choice for wooden needles since Knitpicks introduced them; they have just the right balance of grip and slickness. I don’t know what happened to my size 7s, but I have them now.

I am finding, though, that I have to pay too much attention to lace knitting. I’m already casting about for a non-lace project . . . although the projects I think I’ll begin soon (Surplice Lace Top or Eyelet Cardigan) both incorporate lace in the designs. Right now I’m trying to figure out how to add shaping to these two designs. I am working up to this Shaped Pullover, which already has shaping in the design, but I will need to lengthen the sweater.

More stashbusting house socks:

Yarn is Mission Falls 1824 Wool; color is Raspberry. Odd thing about these socks, though—I bought two skeins of this stuff in the same lot number. But there is a slight difference in thickness in the two yarns. It’s not obvious on the skeins, but it sure is in the socks.

When I squeeze the partially knitted socks in my hands, one sock is noticeably less dense than the other one. (I’m past the heel on both socks now, so there’s enough squeezable fabric.) I guess I won’t use Mission Falls again for worsted socks.

I realize now that I never posted a photo of the finished Tuscany socks. You can see the famous Lorna’s Laces pooling. Pooling in socks doesn’t bother me, although I think it would in a sweater.

Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted; color: Tuscany

I have found that my LL Shepherd Worsted socks stretch and get quite loose when they’re on my feet, so this time I cast on four fewer stitches so the socks would be snug. When they stretch out now, they’re just right.

However, I’d like to go back to handwashed socks after I work through my stash sock yarns because non-superwash yarns don’t seem to stretch out much—at least that has been true of my Mountain Colors socks.

 And I don’t mind handwashing knitted socks.

I don’t go to my LYSs often because everything is too tempting, and I’m really trying to reduce my stash. I still haven’t knit up the last yarn I bought from Colorful Yarns but have ordered the pattern for that yarn.

Along with my ongoing projects, I’ve been working on a continental knitting swatch. I dabble in continental, thinking my fingers will get it, but so far not much luck. This is my current continental swatch:

Yarn is Knitpicks Merino Style, color is Hollyberry.

But I’m starting to get a little bit of continental rhythm, so I’ve decided I’m ready to make a continental scarf. Since my worsted stash yarn is already dedicated to certain future projects, I was forced to visit Colorful Yarns again.

Yes, it was tough, wandering through that delightful shop, surrounded by the most beautiful yarns and colors you’d ever want to see. I looked for a skein of soft but sturdy worsted that would be gentle and forgiving enough to propel me through the throes of continental. I settled on this:

Yarn is Dream In Color Classy; color is Cool Fire.

The scarf pattern is one I adapted from Barbara Walker’s Moss Stitch Border Diamonds. Her diamonds were larger than I wanted on a scarf, so I pared them down a bit and created an Excel chart to knit by.

While I was at Colorful Yarns today, I passed a certain skein of yarn, and passed it again, and again. I touched it, then stroked it, then carried it around, then put it back. It’s the falling-in-love process that most yarn shop owners understand and are patient with.

Yeah, I bought it. And I’m glad.

Yarn is Handmaiden Casbah; color is Blackberry. It’s sock yarn, but I’m not using this yarn for socks. It’s too beautiful to be hidden in a shoe.

Until I find the right pattern I’m going to just walk around the house with the hank draped around my neck. It’s very soft (80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon), and the colors are luscious.

Two days ago I wore shorts and a tank top. This morning I woke up to this:

You can see the snow balanced on the new leaf buds of the tree branches:

And the early morning light cast a gentle blue glow over all.

While Cliff was gone, I began stripping the old wallpaper from the kitchen and adjoining bath. It was a grueling job, affecting my arms, shoulders, and neck (from looking up at the ceiling join). Consequently, my knitting slowed down because it uses the same muscles.

Still, I finished a pair of house socks:

Yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted; color is Aslan.

I began another pair:

Yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted; color is Tuscany. I think this was my last single skein of LL Shepherd Worsted in the stash. I’ve been trying to use these lone skeins up. Love the socks, although they stretch out of shape quickly.

The socks knit up quickly because the yarn is a heavy worsted weight—much easier on the arms. I wear them with shoes 1/2 size larger than normal.

And since I always need at least two projects on the needles, and staying with the Tuscany theme, I began the Tuscany shawl:

Yarn is Blue Heron Rayon Metallic Sportweight; color is Sandstone. You can’t see it above, but the yarn has glints of gold throughout.

The Tuscany pattern is quite easy, but I make sure to insert lifelines at regular intervals. Normally I would knit a lace shawl in a solid color, but I want to use up the yarn.

I won’t be able to knit the full shawl, as I only have one hank (550 yds), but I’ll be happy with what I get. I like that Tuscany is a wide, elongated triangle. I’d rather have the shawl go around my arms or neck (as a scarf) than down my back.

I bought the yarn at Purlescence Yarns on a jaunt to California last August and have been trying to figure out a good project for it. I didn’t have Knitpicks Harmony needles in the right size (I wanted size 7 for this project), so I found an old set of bamboo needles that I’m using until my Knitpicks order arrives.

It is barely snowing outside—very beautiful. And now, in these few seconds, it has stopped and the sun is out. We are teetering on the edge of spring here in the Rockies, but Mother Nature isn’t letting go of winter quite yet.

This should have been a cinch, except my gauge kept changing due to arm pain, requiring various ripouts. Then I got weary of knitting row after row of stockinette in the round and began making careless mistakes, not counting stitches when I should have, etc.

But I still had warm feelings for the yarn, which is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted. The color is Douglas Fir.

Two days ago I wondered if I should frog the sweater, collar and all. It was hard to think that a sweater that so many have knit successfully has been such misery to me. But I was also a little concerned that I would get too hot in this wool pullover, rip it off, and heap it in a corner somewhere.

When I considered frogging it, I felt a big rush of relief and happiness. (I know, I have no life.) This was a sign. I slept on it (the idea, not the sweater), and yesterday I gazed fondly at the collar one last time, removed the needles, and ripped away.

This yarn and I needed a fresh start. I wanted to return it to its tranquil lying-around-in-a-hank state.

So after the yarn was in two balls, I used my new swift to wind the yarn back into two large hanks. Because the swift is freestanding, I secured the bottom slat to the table with masking tape. One of the extra posts (six were provided) worked great as a handle to rewind the yarn.

The yarn soaked in the bathtub for about half an hour.

Honestly, wool yarn absorbs so much water that I don’t know how sheep manage to stay upright when it’s raining.

I rolled the yarn in a towel, squeezed moisture out . . .

. . . and hung it to dry. Yes, the hanks are giganto because my large swift allows me to make them (requiring fewer revolutions and thus, more efficient arm motion).

Voila, the dried yarn—in all its fluffy softness—is like new again.

And I have big plans for it, namely the DROPS 101-24 cardigan. But first it will get a little R & R in the stash while I distract myself by knitting socks and the Tuscany Shawl.

By the way, Sandi Wiseheart outlined this yarn-rejuvenation process in a Knitting Daily post, and I will be doing this soak & dry process again with some of my early knitting projects that were total wrecks valuable learning experiences. Sometimes it’s just so nice to start afresh.

Nice price too! The total was $24.95 plus $10 for priority shipping. If I had ordered a smaller size (I see now that I certainly don’t need the large), I would have saved even more money.

I gave up on Yarn Bazaar concerning the swift I bought from them that broke, having heard nothing for weeks now.

I used my new swift yesterday for the first time, and we had a delightful first experience together — no wobbling at all, just quiet, smooth dispensing of the yarn to my ball winder. And I don’t have to clamp it onto the counter. It just sits there silently and does its job.

I am in love with this swift. Romi likes it too.

Thanks again, Elizabeth!!

I have been stripping wallpaper all this week. All stripper jokes aside, this job is NO fun and is a good reminder to head for the paint section instead of the wallpaper department from now on.

Yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted; color is Apple Hill; size 5 needles.

I also tried a rounded toe this time.  Rather than decreasing the toe on both sides, I used a staggered decrease pattern. (I had to work it out on paper because there were only eleven rows in which to do the toe decreases due to the thickness of the yarn.) This is a very comfy toe, and I will use it again.

I love the result. These socks are so comfortable; the warmth of worsted socks is welcome, especially here in the Rockies where the air can be chilly at times even late into spring. And I have a pair of Keds half a size larger so I can wear them with shoes when I want to.

And there just happens to be another skein (or two) of Lorna’s Laces in my stash, ready to go for another pair!