Cold Weather

A few days of this gets pretty tedious:

but it does motivate you to make these:

I did make two mittens but one is covering the hand taking this picture. This is a basic mitten pattern using some Briggs & Little wool and some Patons wool from my stash.

The thing about cold weather is that it is inconvenient. And even though you may be inconvenienced by things that are related to the cold, this does not mean that inconveniences unrelated to the cold will stop plaguing you. For instance, even though you may have to spend time with a hair dryer in a crawl space thawing frozen water pipes while wondering whether the weight of the house will fall on you, this does not mean your washing machine will not also break. Or the slip joint in the pipe under your kitchen sink will not slip out of place and cause a minor flood. I know for a fact these things can happen at the same time.

 

Winter Knitting

Here is the sun setting on the shortest day of the year:

Instead of doing something symbolic like lighting candles, I spent the better part of the day watching the Up Series which I found at the library. I had already seen the three most recent programs but was very happy to be able to watch the whole series from start to finish. While watching the series I finished up some knitting:

This is the Rippling Waters Scarf by Fiddlesticks using Fiddlesticks Knitting Zephyr Laceweight yarn which is a silk/wool blend. This pattern is the standard by which knitting patterns should be judged. The instructions are clear and concise, the charts are a nice size and easy to read at a glance. The wool was also great to work with. Being a laceweight it is very fine but it proved to be strong. It didn’t break while I was working with it nor were there any knots in the skein. When I finished the Rippling Waters scarf, I went on to finish this one:

This more rustic and practical scarf was knit in moss stitch using some Bluefaced Leicester wool that I spun a long time ago. In case you too are wondering what a blue faced sheep looks like you can take a look here. Perhaps they meant ‘blue’ as in melancholy. Even the ‘white hairs on black skin’ explanation sounds more likely to produce a Grayfaced Leicester to me.

 

It’s Not Snow, It’s Frost

“It’s not snow, it’s frost.” This is what I was told by a certain hatless, gloveless young adult recently. Decide for yourself:

Based on my accumulated experience and strong intuition, I believe this is snow. I believe this so strongly that I was compelled to knit a hat:

The model just blew in from nowhere. She’s a bit of an airhead but always in good humour, doesn’t move unless you make her and, I swear, she never blinks.

 

Happy Halloween

Some people like to carve pumpkins.

Some people prefer to knit.

 

Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably

I have been a fan of Kaffe Fassett for a long time so when I heard a rumour that he had his partner Brandon Mably were coming to Perth to give a workshop and lecture I had to call the local yarn store to find out if the rumour was true. It was. Knowing that an opportunity like this would never happen again I booked myself a spot. Last Thursday the workshop was held at the Perth Manor. This is a building that I have long admired but never had a reason, or excuse , to enter. It is lovely. Kaffe Fassett is known in the knitting world as a master of colour work. Although colour work is not my favourite knitting technique I do admire it when it is done well. The problem is that doing it well is difficult and intimidating. However, Kaffe Fassett’s enthusiasm for colour and contempt for the colour wheel is infectious. His point is that if you ignore colour theory and use your instincts you will come up with a pretty exciting result. The workshop was led by Brandon Mably who began by telling everyone to dive into the pile of yarn that was on the floor and tie strands of colours of light value together and roll them into a ball. Then tie strands of a darker value together. Then knit those strands together following a simple chart and see what happens. The trick is to ignore the actual colours but focus on the value.

The workshop was about six hours long which included lunch (I know you’re wondering – grilled chicken, couscous salad and an apple and pear tart for dessert). After those six hours I had this:

This swatch measures 11×17 cms and contains approximately 990 stitches and 33 colours. It is quite possibly the slowest knitting I have ever done but I am quite confident that I mastered the technique for weaving in the many yarn ends that accumulate as you knit with so many colours.

When you look closely you can see the odd pairings of colours which I think was the point of the exercise. I still don’t think I am a convert to colour work but I did learn a lot.

Since I am a true knitter and have my priorities in order, I did not take a picture of Brandon Mably but I did get a pretty good shot of his vest:

 

Socks and Flowers

We had a few days of very welcome and very warm temperatures. Despite the temperatures going slightly above 30 celsius I did some knitting on a pair of socks that I started last month. They are now finished:

These are made using Jawoll Color and their Sockology pattern. This yarn comes with a coordinating reinforcing thread to use when knitting the heels and toes. Since I didn’t bother to line up the bold stripes of the sock it seemed silly to line up the reinforcing thread. The result is a tweedy look on the heels and toes that I don’t really mind at all. I don’t know what the protocol is when knitting with self-striping yarns. Do you try to line up the stripes so the socks are identical or do you let the stripes fall where they may? I generally follow the second method since half the fun is watching the stripes develop. Furthermore, having socks that match but don’t quite match is kind of fun and ever so slightly rebellious.

Meanwhile, in the woods, things are moving along at quite a pace. For instance, these delicate little flowers can be found in every open , sunny place.

They are called Bladder Campion (Silene vulgaris) which I think is a somewhat unfortunate name. I have a soft spot for them because I remember being fascinated by them when I was quite small. I thought the tiny, little pouch-like flowers looked like lady’s purses.

In wetter areas these flowers can be found:

These are Northern Blue Flag (Iris versicolor) and are obviously a close relative of the Iris found in my garden. I found these last year when we were having trees cleared from under our hydro lines. They were just coming to the end of their season then but I knew when and where to look for them this year. They are just starting now and I wonder how many there will be. They like to have their feet wet since they are thriving in a pretty boggy area. I hope the removal of the trees doesn’t have a negative effect on them, that is always the risk.

 

Simple Math

I recently began to knit this scarf:

This is the Trellis Scarf designed by Evelyn Clark and is in the spring 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. I am making it in Shi Bui sock. Lace knitting is not my favourite genre however I periodically knit a lace project. Usually something small like a scarf. But how small is a small scarf? I couldn’t help but do a bit of math. There are 59 stitches on the needle. The main pattern has 16 rows. This makes 944 stitches in each pattern repeat. There are twenty-three pattern repeats making 21,712 stitches. There is also a beginning border of 1,062 stitches and an ending border of 767 stitches. That makes a grand total of 23,541 stitches if the scarf is made exactly as written. I have completed the beginning border, three pattern repeats and seven rows of a fourth repeat so, according to my calculations, I have knit 4,307 stitches and have 19,234 stitches to go. For some reason this isn’t sounding so small anymore.