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Restingmotion

  • Here and there,with a little knitting

    The baby sweater progresses:

    Now, I am not one to get totally neurotic about matching stripes on hand-dyed or self-striping yarn.  If I wanted a sweater to match exactly, I would simply knit it with a bunch of different colored yarns, were I could exercise total control of the outcome.

    That said, some planning is still required:

    Katiababy2

    If I knitted the front of the sweater beginning with the same skein used for the back, I would have a white bottom band, as seen above.  I do not like the white front bottom band when the back of the sweater is dark at the bottom.  Out it went. Rip-it.  Rip-it.

    The second attempt, with another skein was much more promising:

    Katiababy3

    The front of the sweater, show here with only half of the neck opening knit up, obviously does not match the back, but the bottom bands are very similar in size and color.  This anchors the sweater and ties it together, at least.   I see that the stripes are quite regular and I probably could have lined this up perfectly.  Perhaps if I had bought another skein.  But then, as G often tells me, "perfect is the enemy of good" and I shall let it be.

    I am happy to have gotten this far although I know in my heart I could have been knitting more.  It is not a contest however, and the baby is months away.

    In the process of finally moving all my fiber stuff out of the living room and getting it cleaned up I discovered that several books had fallen off the "Trollope Trolley" a round bookcase on wheels which contains the complete works of Anthony Trollope.  Of course, as I put the books back into their respective locations I had to pick one or two up and peruse the pages. Perusal led to complete escapism.  Hence I have been spending more time rereading Trollope than knitting this week.  I have worked my way through some of the lesser known novels:  The Fixed Period,  Framley Parsonage, and Dr. Thorne.  They have provided quite a lovely distraction.

    Yesterday I pulled out Tesla for the first time and wore it up to the new yarn shop that opened in Rhinebeck:  Bead and Purl.  It is a lovely shop, bright, cheerful and welcoming.  I wanted to sit right down and stay as soon as I walked into its bright space and turquoise walls.  Reminded me of my own new sewing room with its green and turquoise walls.  They have a nice selection of Karabella and Rowan wools so far, although stock is still coming in; there is a lot of nice, smooth, knitable yarn, as opposed to the bulky and novelty yarns that seem to dominate some new shops I have been in of late.  I wish them great luck.

    Tesla was nice to wear, lacy and yet covered.  It was cool so I wore a turtle neck under it, and the stainless steel bits nicely caught the sun as it struggled back and forth between the clouds and rain.  G. tells me that it is quite seductive, the way the sweater slips partially down one shoulder with its interesting texture and combination of matte and shiny.   hmmm…

    I was surfing about on the web today and I found Grace’s blog, after she left me a comment on Tesla (her’s is quite lovely by the way) and I found this test:

    If I were a Springer-Verlag Graduate Text in Mathematics, I would be William S. Massey’s A Basic Course in Algebraic Topology.

    I am intended to serve as a textbook for a course in algebraic topology at the beginning graduate level. The main topics covered are the classification of compact 2-manifolds, the fundamental group, covering spaces, singular homology theory, and singular cohomology theory. These topics are developed systematically, avoiding all unecessary definitions, terminology, and technical machinery. Wherever possible, the geometric motivation behind the various concepts is emphasized.

    Which Springer GTM would you be?  The Springer GTM
    Test

    Sometimes I take these tests and sometimes I don’t, mostly they are silly, but what intrigues me about this one is that I love Topology.  I am not a mathematician, I was an English Major in college, although I later went on to work with computers and get an engineering degree.  However one of my college roomates was a math major and she had a lot of trouble with Topology.  One of the math tutors would come over to help her, we later became friends, and he always thought I should have become a mathmetician, and once when she was having trouble with something that he couldn’t get across I just explained it to her.  I would listen to these talks and it all seemed so obvious to me.  In retrospect I see that this was probably maddening to my roommate, that the English major could figure out Topology and she couldn’t, but I didn’t mean it that way.  Topology, like Organic Chemistry (which I did take) was just one of the subjects that clicked with me right away and changed the way I looked at the world.

    I told you I was a total nerd, right?

    Everything else is on hold.  Construction was supposed to begin this week on the deck that ate my life, but I stopped it on Friday.  It seems the drawings from the engineer aren’t ready yet.  The digging was done from an earlier version of the plans and some trenches were dug out for walls that should no longer be there.  The electric pool cover has not been ordered and that will take at least 2 to 3 weeks so obviously the construction schedule I was originally given is wrong, as I was told they would be done in  2 to 3 weeks. 

    There was some discussion as to whether the walls could be poured without the plans, but I nixed that idea.  I really don’t understand this "don’t worry, it’ll work out" attitude of so many contractors.  Well, it doesn’t always work out, and there is a lot of coordination going on here.  Better to wait and pour the conrete right than risk botching the job.  I suppose the contractors grumble at having a pair of engineers for clients, by gosh and by golly doesn’t go very far in this household.

    Besides, as I look at all the rain we have had this weekend, and the pile of mud that was once my deck, I see that some drainage issues need to be addressed.  The water has tunnelled under one of the proposed walls (they did not dig down to bedrock) and had a wall been poured there it would have been eventually undermined, and this is in an area where proper drainage and planning is most critical.  There is apparently much more work to be done.

  • Back Tack 3

    Backtack

    I signed up for back-tack3 and I am Sooo excited! 

    I have never done anything like this, and although I primarily like sewing clothes I admit to sometimes doing other things.   I received match-ups and I will be making a softie for Justine  and babybug will be making one for me.  I think this is really really cool and it is neat to know who your partners are so you can check out their sites.

    I think the patterns for the softie, by WeeWonderfuls are just adorable and I am sure I will be making more.

    Perhaps I just have softies on the brain due to the thoughts of impending grandmotherhood.  I am dreaming of sewing things I never considered before.  This whole experience sounds like so much fun and is kickng off a whole new series of adventures for me.

    Meanwhile dreams of little creatures, both knitted and sewn, are dancing through my head.

  • Jamaica me baby

    As an impending first time grandmother (or step-grandmother) I have been thinking and dreaming of baby sweaters. 

    Finally I began one:

    Katiababy1

    There are a few in mind, but I needed a project in a hurry (what’s new there?) and I had just picked up this yarn on a whim.  The colors scream baby sweater to me, although perhaps not to everyone.

    I am using a pattern for a Moss Stitch sweater from Debbie Bliss’s Noro 2 collection.  The  sweater is the basic shape and stitch I envisioned for this yarn and the calculations for differences in guage are not major.   The smallest size she has is 9-12 months so the baby will probably need to grow into this, even though it will be ever so slightly smaller than the pattern sweater.  My general experience has been that most of these sweaters are on the roomy side so I am not worried.

  • Spring Firsts

    First Shad of the season!  Is it a little earlier than in times past?

    Firstshad

    Served with first spinach from my garden, might be nearly the last spinach as I only got one small planting in and haven’t gotten around to planting any more, and shiitakes from the Mushroom man up in Saugerties.  So, this is our first local (or mostly so — the olive oil is obviously not local) meal of the season.

  • Blue Lace

    Finally, a lace scarf on the blocking board:

    Bluescarf3

    and quickly off again. 

    Bluescarf4

    I fought knitting lace far too long.  I am smitten I tell you, smitten!  After the initial set-backs, and I am still such a scatterbrained ninny at times that I need some mindless projects floating around, I was entranced.  I eagerly looked forward to every little row of the simple, embarrassingly fool proof (what kind of fool am I to mess this up) pattern. 

    It didn’t look like much off the needles.  I knew, having read enough, that the magic of lace comes with the blocking.  But I didn’t believe until I saw it blocked, and felt the delicate scarf drying in my hands as I ran the blocking pins along the edges.

    Too bad there is a limited use for lace scarves and shawls in my life.  That probably won’t stop me…look at the sock yarn I have accumulated.  I enjoy knitting socks I just don’t wear socks much (except to the gym).  Why not knit lace?

  • Sixty zippers

    Handwriting

    via six and a half stitches, a handwriting meme using a pangram.  No brown foxes for me.  Since the meme specifies the pangram to be used, mine probably doesn’t qualify even though it is a pangram.  Always had an ornery streak, I.

    Check out the photos at the fickr pool .

  • Surprisingly successful

    I love it when I just throw things together and something
    wonderful comes out of the effort.

    Saturday’s dinner was a kind of grab-bag like affair. We went shopping and saw a fish I knew
    nothing about and had never seen in our local fish market, Lake Victoria
    Perch. There was also fresh asparagus at Adams and very good looking white asparagus.

    We bought the fish but none of my cookbooks discussed it. It looked like a big fillet and I tend to think
    of perch as a small fish. Little did I
    know.  Lake Victoria perch is not perch and I knew nothing of its provenance until after dinner, when I
    finally looked it up. Well, at least it
    tasted good.

    I had planned to cook the fish and the white asparagus,
    perhaps with some roasted beets, but when we returned home G noticed that the
    plantains were beginning to get ripe and I had neglected to cook them since
    last week so he asked for them for dinner. I wasn’t convinced this would be a cohesive dinner, but what the hay, I
    was willing to give it a try.

    So our menu consisted of:

        Tostones
        Broiled Lake Victoria Perch
        White
    Asparagus with Aioili
        Signorello
    Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

    It was a surprisingly harmonious meal.

    The tostones were different than usual because the plantains
    were a little riper than usual for me. Because
    of the higher sugar content they turned black upon frying and had a pleasant
    burnt caramel flavor on initial tasting, blended with salt and a nice fried
    crunchiness. The inside was sweet and
    rich blending well with the bitter/crunchy initial taste sensation.

    The fish, and I had no idea what I was doing, was
    wonderful. I broiled it with Lime juice,
    some nice Greek olive oil for this past season’s harvest, thinly sliced
    shallots, salt, pepper, and a little fennel pollen. The fish was sweet and subtle and the olive
    oil and spices complimented it nicely without overwhelming the fish. It seemed to be a somewhat oily fish, oilier
    than I expect most white fish to be, but it was quite good and the lime juice
    added just the right amount of tartness.

    And the asparagus! Ahhhh what can I say. Generally I have found that white asparagus I
    have purchased in markets at home in the US have never lived up to the white asparagus I have had in France. The French version seems sweeter and more
    tender, whereas my attempts at preparing store-bought white asparagus have
    tended to yield tough and stringy results. This batch looked good in the market, and indeed, they were sweet and
    tender and quite good. The garlicky
    richness of the Aioli rounded out the slightly bitter sweetness of the
    asparagus.

    But the real marvel of the meal was how well the individual
    items went together. They were each good
    in their own right, but the mixture of sweet, bitter and tart seemed to tie all
    the dishes together as well. The menu was far more successful than I ever
    imagined. Who would have thought?

    And the wine was the perfect counterpoint. I had admittedly not been looking forward to
    this wine. It was a gift. I am not particularly fond of Signorello’s
    Cabernets, thinking there are definitely many far better wines to be had. But I had not gone down to the crawl space to
    refresh the wine cabinet and Signorello was all that remained. Happy thing that, as the wine went perfectly
    with the meal. I don’t at this point
    know if this particular Signorello vintage is better than past vintages, or it
    just happened to compliment this particular meal. But I am not going to
    complain. Serendipitous perfection is
    hard to come by.

  • I could have…

    The lacy mohair scarf is done.  Actually it has been done for several days but has been curled up into a ball behind my computer monitor where it is out of the way and safe.  It should have been blocking by now, but there has been no space to block.

    The new cutting table which I really do intend to keep clean except when I am working on it is covered with stuff.  Well technically I am working on it, I am still sorting out all the STUFF that I had and still want to have in my sewing room.  How did I acquire all these things?  What perverse creature takes over my brain when I walk near a yarn shop, a fiber shop, or a fabric shop.  What was I thinking?  But I love it all – it is a sickness, a disease, and definitely heritable.  When I look at my family I can see where it all comes from and where it all goes as well.  I never stood a chance….

    I could’ve put the blocking board on the floor but then I would have to walk on it to sort through all the stuff and the pins would probably be painful on my usually bare feet, not to mention requiring a trip to the emergency room…

    I could have put it on the guest bed but I have all the unread books there, the ones that were piled up in my sewing/fiber room, that I decided don’t belong there.  They belong in the library but that means building new bookshelves and I have no idea when I will get around to that…

    I could have put it in the guest bathroom, but I have handwash hanging there and I don’t want it to drip on the scarf.  I am behind on handwash too – had one of those weeks where I spilled everything all over myself.  I was practically a walking waste site.

    I could of put it on my bed, but Tabasco would object, or decide she really needed to sleep on my scarf.  If it hadn’t dried in time I am not sure G would have enjoyed sleeping under a blocking scarf either and the pins might have been uncomfortable.

    I could have put it on the kitchen island….really bad idea.  There is one of those laws, I’m sure,  you know, the one that goes “if a mohair scarf is in the kitchen the spaghetti sauce will be dumped all over it”…

  • Egg or Oval?

    Oops, I said I would be gone, but I had to check in.  Today’s activities were rained out and have been postponed until next week.  This said, we have had time to putter about the house, working (not too strenuously) and relaxing.

    One blog I check regularly, is Kathleen Fasanella’s blog Fashion Incubator .  If I ever get around to putting up a list of links this one will have primary placement as it is so often filled with fascinating and useful information.

    Today I read a really interesting post on Kathleen’s blog called A Question of Thoracic Shaping.  The article is really about the way a bra is constructed and why they don’t always fit.  There is an interesting discussion of torso shape, whether one is a "standard" oval or more egg shaped, and how these anatomical differences affect the fit of bras, which are made for the oval shape. The article is filled with all kinds of fascinating illustrations as well.  I found it very interesting and the article and its implications have been flitting in and out of my thoughts all day.

    I immediately picked up on the fact that many of the fit issues she discusses describe my experience in the bra fitting room to a T, and upon reflection realize that I am most definitely an egg.  I have noticed this in other ways as I am narrow side to side but thick front to back, no matter what size I am but I have never really thought about variation in torso shapes or even if there was a "standard" shape that clothes were designed to fit.  I see it is not me. 

    Head on over the Kathleen’s site and take a look and leave a comment.  She is asking readers to comment if they have the thoracic shape she is discussing.  I think this could be interesting.  Although I know I have fit issues that aren’t necessarily standard I also can think of at least three friends who are definitely egg shaped, and although we don’t all discuss bra-fitting (perfect luncheon conversation don’t you think?) I do know that at least one of my friends has these same bra-fitting issues.  It would be really interesting if someone did a study to see how prevalent one shape is over the other.

    As I think about ovals and eggs, I am realizing that this issue really affects a lot of my upper body garment shaping problems, namely the problems with bust points being too far apart, that there is always tons of extra fabric at the side seams and not enough in the front and back.  My measurements might match the pattern but the distribution sure doesn’t.  I see that if I explore with this idea further I can probably improve my fitting skills considerably.

  • Life in all its craziness has intervened the past few days so there has been litle progress on sewing or sewing room but some progress has been made.

    The sewing machines are finally hooked up but I am still sorting through an accumulation of books and patterns and stuff.  There are many distractions now as it has been sunny warm and I itch to be in the yard as well.

    The hyacinths outside the kitchen window keep calling…
    Hyacinths

    but I am also eager to start sewing.  Spring is here and my wardrobe needs a few updates.  I have sorted fabric and put together a few collections of things I want to work on.

    There are other, non-garment temptations as well, including several projects from this darling little book:

    Kokoronote

    Unfortunately, after meeting with the contractors tomorrow (today already?) we are gallivanting about hither and  yon for the two impending religious holidays.   Regularly scheduled sewing time and blogging will return next week.