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Restingmotion

A storage place for the knitting queue

I am still working on Granite slowly but surely. There is nothing really to show at this point, although I am almost finished with the back.

I have also spent some time cleaning out an old junk closet with the purpose of turning it into a yarn and fabric storage area.

I have been partially successful. I have managed to move some things into the closet and have been happily spending bits of time here and there organizing them.

One of the more successful endeavors has been getting a pile of yarn off my sewing room floor and organized so that now I have an actual queue with yarn and patterns organized and grouped together so that I can find them. That should avoid those "I have a house full of yarn and nothing to knit" panic attacks that tend to hit me occasionally.

The closet has not been completely reclaimed yet. There are still several shelves full of stuff to sell on Ebay or otherwise recycle, but I am making good progress.

Don't the colors just look so pretty? Just looking at them makes me smile.

August 28, 2008
Make mine a hot dog

We went to a marvelous barbecue at a neighbor's house this weekend. It was really nothing special: a bunch of people sitting outside at a wooden picnic table, drinking diet sodas and wine, with fresh tomatoes and hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. It was just casual and fun, and the kind of thing that I have not been to in a long long time. In fact, it was the very ordinariness that made it perfect.

This causal get-together of a rather motley group of people was the perfect antidote to the two previous weekends, with all the goings on among the "above the bridge" crowd — you know the one's I mean, the people who buy up big estates on theHhudson and glory in the management of their fiefs. Truthfully I much prefer this "poor middle class" life among those of us who are happy with our suburban home and tiny piece of land.

Odd though, even here is suburbia, the barbecue party competition has been mightily amped up. Usually an invitation to a backyard barbecue has involved rented tents, tables, catered goods, and young men hired to man the barbecue grills. So much pretension. I think I am happier with a simple hot dog or a hamburger and mustard and good company. Obviously I have spent too much time hanging out with the wrong sort of people.

August 25, 2008
8:30 and I’m already Tired

It is 8:30 AM and already I am exhausted. That could be because I have been up since 4:30. It could be because I was also up at midnight, 1:30 and 2:30, although I was able to go back to sleep on those occasions, although at least twice the sleep was only achieved through use of a sleep mask, ear plugs and a cold shoulder. Sometimes it tears me up to do it. But one of us has to be alert.

It is more likely because the last 4 hours have just been a struggle over such, to me anyway, basic things, like clocks, telling time, and how to set the alarm. G dismantled the alarm clocks, both the old one and the digital one. I heard him, then saw him, do it. Minutes later he told me he didn't take them apart, they just appeared that way all by themselves. We got the digital clock because he can no longer tell time the old-fashioned way on a dial. We tried to jolly him along about how hip he is as a fair number of our neighbor's students at the local community college also have trouble reading old-fashioned clocks with hour and minute hands.

So now he wakes up in the middle of the night and knows what time it is. That knowledge does not help convince him that he should go back to bed. He just gets angry and assumes the clock is wrong. After all, why would he wake up at 2:30 AM? So he tries to fix the clock, or he wakes me. Then he is angry at the world for not being awake when he is already to go. After all, who told the sun not to come up until after 6?

I am not (yet) so tired from the lack of sleep but just from the frustration of assembling and reassembling the clock and of setting and resetting the time and explaining how to do it over and over and over and ……..

Now G has gone to the gym. I am thankful that he still goes somewhere by himself even though I don't necessarily want to be in the car with him. I would take him and still have an hour to myself, or an hour at my own gym, but at the moment I have nearly 2 hours.

Should I sleep? No. I should go to the grocery store. I need to go to the grocery store and I can go, come home, and put everything away before he gets home. Maybe I can even get in a brief workout and go to the grocery store. I also need to go refill the propane tank for the grill (not offered at the local grocery store unfortunately) but I will save that trip for later. Once upon a time I took this kind of chore for granted. Not any more. Everything must be planned, weighed and measured. Everything involves a trade-off. Perhaps I will be able to get away a few minutes. Perhaps we will go together. Perhaps it will break up the day. It doesn't promise to be a good one.

August 22, 2008
"We can't do this any more." and "I don't want to go to any more of these things because you waste the day waiting for it to happen".

These are the pronouncements on going to a concert this evening: Bard Music once again. We did go. And G enjoyed the music immensely. How could he not they performed selections from Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil, one of his favorite pieces of music, and Stravinsky's Vespers.

But the day itself was an exercise in waiting, and patience.

G has had increasingly difficulty with the concept of passing time, and also with reading a clock. For a while I kept a calendar on the wall, and it did help, but only briefly. I quickly learned that posting what was ahead was a recipe for disaster. Better that the future remain unknown.

First of all, G has increasing trouble reading a calendar. He also has increasing difficulty reading a clock and telling time. If he knows something is coming up he frets and frets and worries about being late. Since he can't really tell time well, he is always on edge, ready to go, and has trouble understanding that he has to wait.

So was the story of today. G was always ready to go. He would pack and unpack. He would want to go to the car. He couldn't occupy himself with anything else because he was afraid of missing he concert. The countdown began in the morning. The concert was at 8 PM and G pretty much exhausted himself preparing to go over and over and over, and trying to rush me into going as well. I find the whole thing rather sad. But then, of course, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

August 15, 2008
Hidden in plain sight.

Yesterday I was stopped at a traffic light minding my own business, pretty much anyway. My attention was caught temporarily by a car that was approaching fairly quickly behind me and I looked up into the rear-view mirror for a moment, just to be sure it stopped. It did.

I noticed that one of the occupants, in the passenger seat, was a young woman who was talking rather animatedly and motioning with her hands. Just then she seemed to flinch and pull herself to the right into the wall of the door near the seat belt, and the young man who was driving made a series of very fast, boxing like moves toward her. He did not hit her — perhaps it was not meant to be serious, but still, she did flinch. After a moment she returned to a normal upright position (it is a long light on occasion) and resumed talking. Then he punched her in the back or top of the head, this time driving her into the door of the car. I was completely surprised and rather appalled. I think I was shocked.

At the moment the light changed and I turned right to head into the local shopping mall.

The couple followed me. I was aware of this because they turned at the same entrance to the parking lot I did and parked in the same row. I was aware of them because the driver followed very closely, and I was still somewhat disconcerted. I don't really think he was intentionally following me. I don't think he knew I even saw him hit the girl. People often think that they are invisible in their cars.

We took longer to get out of our car, DH is much slower than he used to be and needs his cane to get up and down, and the couple walked past us. They looked quite young to me. The girl had her arm around the young man's waist and he had his arm around her shoulders… affectionately? . . . protectively?. . . . . possessively?

At first I wondered if I should have gotten the license plate number. The car was really too close to me to read it, and frankly I don't even think I noticed the car specifically. Even if I had, what would I report? Is it really my business even if I think it should be? Are they young enough that the girl's parent's should know?

I am still thinking about it today.

August 15, 2008
I’m knitting as fast as I can

And it still isn't fast enough.

I continue to be overwhelmed with the number of sweater patterns showing up this fall that I want to knit. I honestly don't know if there are actually more patterns that I like than usual, or if I am just more receptive to wishful thinking and dreaming. I can't even index things fast enough. Of course part of that is a time problem as well. Still I am constantly revising my lists of what I want to knit this fall. What I really should do is stop dreaming about future projects and just knit.

The new online magazine Twist Collective debuted this month and was really lovely and interesting. There were quite a few patterns I found intersting given my general weakness for patterns. Just call me a pattern slut. Anyway, these are the ones that have most caught my eye (at the moment anyway):

Only the last two are a definite yes for me at the moment. Both of them use stash yarn (yeah!) and both of them have been added to the queue. Actually I was kind of wavering on that last, a-line sweater, until I turned around and noticed that I happened to have just enough Classic Elite Waterlily in the perfect deep maroon shade…..

Well, obviously it was meant to be.

Actually, I am torn between Jaali (the orange sweater) and Bonnie (the green one). You get better pictures of the detail of Jaali in the magazine, Bonnie also intrigues and would just be perfect for tramping around the woods and farms. At the moment I am leaning more toward the former than the latter, but no commitments have been made.

Actually in the interest of full disclosure, I should have just written about all the patterns I like in the Vogue Knitting because already I am changing my mind. I am falling in love with tons of long cardigans this season and it looks like the long cardigans I posted in my previous post will not be high on the list for this fall.

Although the cabled hoodie in chunky yarn remains near the top of my list, I am also reconsidering the beautiful cabled square wrap cardigan by Angela Hahn. Angela's blog is one of my favorites but I was a little behind on blog reading. When I looked at the photos of this sweater on her blog I knew I had to knit it, the photo in the magazine really does not begin to show the beauty of this sweater. Angela also answered some of my questions about fit/alterations by giving more information and some corrections to the pattern as written in Vogue.

And so here are the other patterns in the fall Vogue that I am still intrigued by. Obviously I am incapable of deciding which sweaters I am actually going to knit when I read the magazine, so I might as well just list them all.

August 15, 2008
In which we make it to the Bard Music Festival

It
is true that at times I can feel quite selfish. When faced with the
prospect of giving up many of the concerts and musical events, of not attending
the summer film festivals and plays, I was sad and somewhat petulant.
Although I always realized that I was quite lucky to have that life, I
had also come to accept it as a part of my definition my place in the
world. Accepting that this may no
longer be a part of my life therefore has been difficult.

Now
I always knew that it would not go on forever. But knowing something
intellectually and dealing with the reality is not necessarily the same thing.
Still, over the course of the summer I have come to realize how much the
change in routine upsets G and how much more confused he grows when faced with
new situations or too much information.

That
does not mean that I was not happy that we did indeed manage to make it to part
of the Bard Music Festival this past weekend. In fact, we actually did more
than I had anticipated. And G handled it pretty well. I believe that listening to the music had a calming effect
that almost overcame the confusion.

Friday
night G surprised me by asking to attend the opening night dinner. Now we have gone for years, but
previous experience has led me to believe that these events are a bit
overwhelming for G right now so I had planned a simple dinner at home. Indeed the crowd of patrons, closely
pressed together in a small area for cocktails due to the downpour outdoors was
a bit much for G, but he seemed fairly content to stand in a corner with a
drink watching the hullabaloo from a safe distance. Luckily he was stationed near the door to the kitchen so he
had access to all the tasty hors d’oeuvres that were making the rounds. He even managed to muster up a
conversation with his neighbor during dinner, fortunately for us a fellow
physician, as his professional knowledge seems to be the one store he can
reliably call up.

The
concert was very good, mostly chamber music, all by Prokofiev. G seemed to relax and enjoy the music,
although he had difficulty following the program. Because the Bard programs are always long (often over 3
hours) we got home late for G and he went right to bed and slept several hours
before beginning his nightly perambulations and agitations.

Saturday
afternoon we went to another concert, this time in a smaller hall, which is
easier for George to navigate.
I think he slept through various scattered bits, and generally our row
mates were pretty good about just trying to step around or over him as they
tried to get in and out of their seats. He enjoyed the music very much and occasionally even
commented on how he liked this or that.
Once again he would have trouble following the program, asking which
piece we had just listened to, or what was being currently performed. And he would forget who the musicians
were during the brief moments between when they would leave the stage following
a performance and return to take a bow.
He also had trouble identifying favorite musicians. For example he has long liked Jeremy
Denk, whom we heard several times Friday and Saturday. Each time he performed G would ask who
he was and say that he was wonderful and ask why he had never heard him play
before.

Many
of the pieces played on Saturday were by Prokofiev’s contemporaries and
teachers, and several of the pieces were interesting perhaps for appreciating
the atmosphere of the time. The
Prokofiev pieces, as well as the Stravinsky piano works and the Glazunov string
quintet were fabulous. I realize
that I was only vaguely aware of Prokofiev as a composer of chamber works, with
the exception of works for solo piano, a situation that needs to be corrected
as I was quite entranced by several works performed.

Sunday became a rather ambitious day for
us. We attended the afternoon
concert, to which we were almost late because of torrential downpours. We got into the concert hall, G made a
pit stop and then I was fretting as I was holding the door open while the usher
was trying to close it to start the concert and G would get distracted by
various bits or things that caught his eye as he crossed the lobby. I felt if I abandoned my grip on the
door we would be shut out, but I was having trouble keeping G’s attention long enough
for him to cross the room. We did
get to our seats just as the musicians took their seats.

That concert was interesting and lovely,
all woodwind and piano works with a few songs. I love woodwinds, am particularly fond of the oboe, but have
decided that three hours is a bit too much woodwinds for me.

George enjoyed it enough that he wanted to
go to the evening concert, which really looked fascinating to me. The title of
the program was “The Cult of the Child” and there were many lovely and favored
works to be performed including Satie’s Gymonopedies,
Ravel’s Ma Mere l’oye, and
Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf .

We did not make it through the entire
concert. In the first half we
heard the Gymonpedies, which were
absolutely lovely, and Poulenc’s L’histoire de Babar, le petit elephant. I adored “Babar”. The piano played by Lucille Chung was
just wonderful and Michael York did the narration. It was just charming and fun, bringing back memories of
reading Babar as a child, but was also full of wit and humor to listen to as an
adult.

I had admittedly wanted to attend this
program, partly because I love many of the pieces, and partly because I wanted
to hear Michael York on whom I had a tremendous crush as a teenager. I did meet him briefly at the dinner on
Friday night, and I knew he was narrating Peter and the Wolf on Sunday. I had not read the program thoroughly
so was unaware of Babar, much to my surprise and joy since we did not stay for Peter.

Even though we left at the intermission, I was happy to have heard Babar, and
happy to have at least heard part of a concert I would have been sad to
miss. The concert started at 5:30,
and it was 7 by the time we left at the end of intermission. The day was
already much to long for G. Had we
stayed I am sure we would not have been out before 8:30 and would not have
eaten until after 9. As it was G
was in bed by 9, exhausted, allowing me to catch up with the clutter around the
house and watch Mad Men undisturbed, itself a rare pleasure these days.

August 13, 2008
Lilac Serenade Finally Finished!

I absolutely love this sweater!

It took me a little longer to get it put together than planned. It seems there were a couple of errors in the pattern.

The first pattern error I caught right away, while knitting as it was rather obvious. The instructions had you cast on for the front and then work about half the stitches in K1, P1 rib, the middle section in stockinette and 5 or 6 stitches in garter stitch. The diagram and the illustration show the ribbing only going up 7 inches from the bottom before the sweater becomes all stockinette. But the instructions for the front just say "Work even until piece measures 11 (or more) inches", whereas it should say to discontinue the ribbing after 7 inches and continue in stockinette, except for the button band, until the pieces measures 11 (or whatever) inches. That correction was on the Tahki/Stacy Charles website.

But there was another error.

On the body of the sweater you do the initial decreases at the armhole, then work even for 2 to 3 inches, depending on size, then begin the garter stitch section at the top of the sweater.

On the sleeves, you do the initial decreases at the bottom of the sleeve cap, then immediately start the garter stitch. I obviously was not thinking because I blithely knit both sleeves exactly as the directions were written. Now I did notice that the sleeve caps looked oddly short, but I did not really think about it.

***Mistake***

The short, squat sleeve caps were far too short to fit in the armhole openings of the sweater. After they were missing 2 to 3 inches of stitches on either side.

In this photo you can see the sleeve cap as originally written on the right and the reknit sleeve cap on the left. I probably could have altered the shaping a little more elegantly, and I could have done short row shaping at the top rather than binding off. But for various reasons, I did not.

Big difference.

But it all worked out in the end and I think the sweater is just fabulous. I even think it would knit it again in another yarn someday. The ribbed shaping is elegant. It is easy enough for a beginner, but interesting enough not to be totally boring. the sections of ribbing or stockinette seem to end just as my attention is beginning to falter. Although the original was knit using two yarns held together the pattern works out to a gauge of 4 1/2 stitches to the inch in stockinette yielding many possibilities.

Details:

Filatura Di Crosa Spring/Summer 2007

Pattern # 10 Crew Cardigan

Yarn used: Artful Yarns Serenade

Color: 6003 Sunrise, Sunset.

I used about 7 1/2 skeins, or more or less 820 yards for a size 38 bust.

I lengthened the sweater 2 inches to 25" in length dividing that between the ribbed section and the stockinette. I also did not rib the lower sections of the sleeves as shown in the pattern, although I might do that if and when I make this sweater again. It is quite possible that I will make it again.

I think it worked out quite well. The sweater is still a little snug through the bust, but I am losing weight. It would not have fit a month ago, so I think the gamble at making a smaller size is going to work out. For some odd reason the bust, which was the last place I put on weight, is also the last place it is falling off. Even so, several of my sweaters from last year are a bit lose on me now, and if I weren't so frustrated at having newly knit sweaters no longer fit I wouldn't have taken the gamble at knitting a smaller size.

The bad news is that some of the UFO's are too big and therefore will not be finished. I also do not think I will rip them out and reknit them, but I could change my mind. It is also possible that some of the older UFO's now fit again.

August 12, 2008
Loopy Thing

I indulged in a little instant gratification knitting this past week.

A couple of weeks ago I fell in love with a single skein of a multi-yarn blendy yarn called Alp by Feza. The colors really spoke to me and I just had to indulge.

I was told by others who had knit this yarn that I would have to knit the scarf lengthwise if I wanted the nice stripes around my neck and that it would make a long but very skinny scarf — not exactly my thing.

So I knit a tube. I decided how long I wanted the thing to be by draping a circular knitting needle around my neck and then guessed at the gauge and cast on. I added a few extra stitches just in case. I also decided to knit in K2, P2 rib for no reason other than I felt like it. I think the end result is just perfect.

Yarn: Alp by Feza:

Color: ??? pretty maroons, rusts and grays

Using a size 12 needle, cast on 60. Work in K2 P2 until nearly out of yarn. Bind off.

This photo is closer to the final color.

I love the resulting whatever it is — loopy thing is my closest idea. With a coat it will cozy up closer to my neck and keep me warm, but it could be work like this with a sweater or jacket on cool fall days.

Oh now I can't wait for cool weather.

August 9, 2008
Fall Rowan and Vogue

Perhaps it is that I love clothes too much. Or perhaps it is that I suffer from a lack of discrimination (better that than a lack of taste). Either way, I know that I am finding tons of inspiration and interesting patterns in the new batch of pattern books and magazines. I believe I see more than I want to knit than I have in any one year for quite some time. I see so much that I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer abundance.

Take the fall Rowan, book #44.

This issue is filled with inspiration. I could knit from this book alone for years.

Most of the patterns here are things that I can easily see myself making and/or wearing at some point or another. Many can be adapted to work very well, many others are just perfect as inspiration sweaters even if I never make them.

This book is so chock-full of good things that I am having trouble making up my mind. Even though there are a few things that stand out, I am not yet decided. Perhaps it is because there is so much. Perhaps it is because I tend to dress in outfits and I am trying to pay more mind to matching my knitting to other garments in wardrobe (and at this point I have no idea what my fall wardrobe will contain). Luckily it is easier to sew something to go with a sweater than the other way around, although I have been known to do both. I feel I should keep this book by my sewing table as it is so perfectly suited to rounding out several different outfits. At any rate, I know that I can imagine myself making most of the sweaters in this book, or at least some variation on most of the sweaters. This is a 30th anniversary issue that I could probably use for the next 30 years.

Vogue knitting seems to blow hot and cold. The big anniversary issue (last year) left me completely cold. This issue however has quite a few things that have tickled my fancy. Most of them aren't really practical for me — and there are quite a few in which I like the idea more than the I like the problem of altering extensive cabling or color work for length issues.

I am thrilled that there are many long sweaters and especially thrilled that there are some long cardigans. Even though I will not get to all of these this winter, long cardigans remain my favorites and there are many seasons worth of new sweaters here.

These three cardigans in particular are nice, although I can't really decide which one, if any, I will make:

The first two, with the cables along the front bands, feature more prominently in my thoughts at the moment, but this could change. Any decision will probably depend on the choices of yarn and yarn color as well as whether the fall and winter wardrobe presents itself with specific gaps that need to be filled.

Then there are the sweaters that really fill my imagination at the moment:

I love this cabled sweater. The color work at the top which draws the eye upward, the lengthening cables, the A-line shape: These are all pluses in my book. This is a sweater that will make me look long and lean, or at least feel like I look long and lean.

No small part of the fascination is the A-line shape, which is good for me and which seems to be an obsession at the moment. I am collecting a-line and fitted and flared sweater patterns at a truly amazing rate.

The next sweater on my list also includes a little more color work. This one is not long, but I love the way the color work bodice is done, working from center back to cuffs. The shorter sleeves make the dolman look much less overwhelming and the broken rib lower body and wide front bands are an elegant touch.

Last but by no means least on my list is this long cabled pullover. Admittedly I am mostly fascinated by the cables. But the length is good for me and the style is one that I would wear frequently throughout the winter.

This sweater is the highest on the list of "must makes" from this issue. I am already thinking of yarns and colors, although nothing is quite decided as fall yarns are just starting to show up in the LYS. The only rush is to be sure that I get just what I want. There is no rush to begin knitting this. It is, after all, still mostly hot and humid here, and the thought of sitting with mounds of heavily cabled bulky wool is not enticing.

August 7, 2008