playing hooky

Leave it to the unschoolers to play hooky on the first day of school. On this most gloriously perfect of days, we met up with some friends at our favorite swimming hole, armed with supplies for some water rocket experimentation that Jesse had planned, but mostly just soaking up the sunshine and playing in the sand and water. We had the place to ourselves for much of the time, which is exactly how we like it best.

I brought along the blocked Habitat hat that I finished on Sunday, as it was made as a gift for the dad in this family. He's going through chemotherapy now and nobody knows how much of his hair will be absent by the end of it all, but we're keenly aware of cold breezes on bald-ish heads around here ;-), so I figured a soft handknit hat was in order.

We've already discussed my problems with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn and my apparent inability to read a cable chart at times, but otherwise, this hat was a pleasure to knit. As was the case when I knit Jesse's Habitat hat, I made that 2-strand cable twist round and round, rather than one strand snaking over top of the other, simply because I like it better that way, but otherwise I made no mods to the pattern whatsoever. I think there are a couple of minor boo-boos on the chart in the version I have, but with a little common sense, those stitches were easily fudged.

After catching up on some of the work I should have been doing while I was playing hooky in the sunshine, I went out for a few quick errands and then I gave in to an urge that's been building up for a couple of months. I pulled out some crochet thread that I've had since I was a kid, chose a vintage hook from my stash, referred to Carol Ventura's amulet bag instructions, and tried my hand at tapestry crochet for the first time ever!

a different kind of playing hooky!
Back when I was a crochetaholic kid, I remember trying something similar to this, but I was crafting in a pre-Internet solitary bubble and never could get color changes to look right. However, my friends, with the help of the handy dandy Internet, I have since found the magic ticket, the solution to this longstanding mystery in my life!

Color changes should happen on the last yo of the stitch BEFORE the color change! I'm sure I discovered this little gem of a tip through Carol Ventura's site, but I'm linking now to a short video that I just found this morning, a quick demo of what I'm talking about.

I'm now one step closer to attempting a crocheted rug, inspired by Kite Weather and her beautiful work.

No doubt about it: a day of playing hooky feels mighty good, and most especially with the change of seasons. The geese have returned to the pond near us, so they go honking overhead a few times a day, and I pulled out my wool socks for the first time yesterday morning.

How goes the change of seasons in your corner of the world?

the next step

Hoo boy, look at how the kiln turned up the purple in those glass beads I showed you yesterday! The buttons along the back of the picture also went through the annealing process, but they're encased in clear class and remained more amber with a slight iridescent sheen. It's all good.

Filling time while settling on some bigger projects, I finished a Claudia hat.

I forgot to do the knits through the back loop, but Jesse doesn't seem to mind. He snatched this hat right up and claimed it as his own, stating he now prefers it over his Habitat hat because it's a little longer. Yes, he insists he can still see out from under there. 

Conveniently(?), Scott lost his own favorite handknit hat today (it was ratty and really needed to disappear, so I'm not sad) and says Habitat is perfect for him.

mmm...lava lamp swirly glass beads

habitat

Well, howdy ho! We've been having so much fun here, Living and Learning about how hard drives go click click when they die and the blue screen of death really does mean you should probably just rip up the week's calendar and pull all your hair out now; and how D3ll D@tasafe is an absolutely unreliable back-up service; and how just because the VW dealer's computer sez your car needs that nearly $1,000 repair, it doesn't actually mean that will fix the problem; and assorted other lovely lessons from the school of hard knocks. But hey, rather than locking myself in a rubber room for the past week, I managed to instead wrap string around sticks for long enough to warm my son's noggin this winter with a Habitat hat.

The pattern is awesome. I modified it a wee bit to make the cables more intertwined, rather than layered, but otherwise followed it exactly. I finally mastered cable charts on this project. This week especially, I'll celebrate the small victories, y'know?

Jesse's eyes lit up and he responded with "Wow!" when he saw this hat pattern. When I offered to knit it for him, he headed straight for the yarn stash and chose Alice Starmore's Scottish heather something or other, snagged in a yarn swap. He doesn't ask for much, so I was happy to oblige and he was thrilled with the results.

unDurrow

In May, I started a sweater for Jesse, based on the Durrow design. I used mystery wool, 4 cones obtained for a grand total of $8 at a weaving group's yarn tag sale in the spring. (They're the four brown cones to the left of the red skeins in the first pic of this post.) I knitted 2 strands at a time because the yarn is fairly thin, but thank heavens I washed and blocked my swatch, as it bloomed tremendously with a good washing -- softened, fluffed up, changed from rough to wonderful. The yarn might appear to be a solid brown in these pictures, but there are tweedy flecks of red and green mixed in there too. Jesse wasn't too fond of the cable in the original Durrow, so we switched to the Genesis Hall cable pattern chosen from Vogue's cable Stitchionary and I knit all in the round.

Made the sleeves and body longer than called for in the pattern, to accommodate Jesse's height, and added some short rows so the back wouldn't ride up. I had never done a saddle shoulder before and the instructions as written didn't work out for his build. After tearing back to underarms, I added even more inches to the body and sleeves, then subbed in Elizabeth Zimmermann's saddle shoulder guidelines, which worked beautifully. I just love how the cables carry up the arms and across the shoulders. Believe it or not, I didn't tap into the 3rd and 4th cones of yarn until well into the yoke/saddle shoulder -- AMAZING how much yarn is wound onto those cones.

After a couple of good soaks in hot water and detergent, a spin-out of the excess water in the washing machine, and a few good thwacks to fluff up that yarn, we had a finished sweater met with greath enthusiasm on all sides. Jesse was perfectly cozy in it, combined with his beloved Habitat hat, for our Christmas tree hunt yesterday.

In the end, the only bit of the original Durrow pattern that remained is the 4x2 ribbing that makes up the body and non-cabled portion of the sleeves. :-) So a dash of Durrow mixed with a hefty scoop of personal tweaks and a heaping helping of Eliz. Zimmermann's guidance, simmered for a few months with lots of other projects mixed in, resulted in one very pleased young man and a mom who was happy to oblige.

going mobile. or not.

We've been on three interstate road trips in the past two weeks, but the world just keeps offering up irresistable funstuff, so off Leah and I went on Thursday for another one. This time, it was to Northampton, MA, home of Webs, where Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed was presenting an evening talk about some of his inspiration and design processes for his new pattern booklet, Made in Brooklyn. I've been a fan of his designs for quite a while, having knit quite a few already, and am even knitting one of his patterns right now.

It's a second Habitat hat, the first one having been for Jesse. I'm knitting it in a deep red luscious yarn. The evening was hot and humid, but Webs, as always, was a great host, with bottles of cold water for all, big fans providing a breeze in the event tent they set up outside (since there were more than 100 people pre-registered for the event, too many to fit in their classrooms inside), and giveaways. After Jared's charming talk, we were all invited to cool off in the air conditioned store with a table full of complimentary sandwiches and snacks, a book signing and, of course, plenty of yarn and inspiration. We met up with friends for the evening and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Meanwhile, Scott's beads have been going mobile too. Since Twist Collective came out last Sunday, we have enjoyed a great response to his little sheep and other beady offerings, shipping orders to Belgium, Australia, Norway, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Finland, and all across the United States.

After so much out and about, today is all about the balance. I'm happily staying put. I am at home, alone(!), and I am not working!! This type of day is rare and wonderful, so I'm savoring it. I hope you all are off to a great start of your weekend too.

this one's for Christine

The Thinking Mother mentioned our house in her blog post of today. For the most part, she's spot on about how things are 'round here, but there's always a flip side, right? May I present...

Creative kid in her
bedroom studio lair natural habitat,
sewing another shirt for her
historic reenactment volunteer outfit.

Believe it or not, there's a method to her madness. She insists that everything you see here IS where it belongs. The condition of this room has been the subject of blog posts here and here too.

:::sigh::: Mostly, we just keep the door closed. :-)

I have to admit that sometimes my own office doesn't look much better than this. In that case, though, it's usually only a temporary situation, as the results of ongoing decluttering sessions usually accumulate in my office as they're being sorted for trash/recycling/put-and-take/Goodwill/friends/other donation destinations.

Also, Christine? Thought you might like to know that, just yesterday, my guys worked for hours to finish the current rocket-in-progress and Get It Off The Buffet In the Dining Room! It's hanging on the porch to allow the paint to dry now and blast-off is scheduled for this weekend. Somebody should hurry up and dust the dining room before the next project takes up residence there. I believe it's a curse blessing of living an enthusiastic life.

tending the flock

I know it hasn't been obvious from the blog, but there's been a flurry of activity 'round here to tend our growing flock of glass bead sheep stitch markers. This morning I found a few of the little rascals grazing on the Alice Starmore Scottish Heather Shetland wool, Wood Nymph color, that I'm using for a Brooklyn Tweed Habitat hat for Jesse.

Some of the flock can be found at Glastonbury Glassworks' Etsy store, where I added more stitch markers and buttons yesterday. I also did some clean-up work at Glastonbury Glassworks and added that neat little widget to the sidebar (over there --->) to show some of our Etsy offerings. There have also been messages flying back and forth about four(!) upcoming fiber festivals where we will/might be vendors -- exciting!

I do know for sure that we'll be at Coventry Farmers' Market's Fiber Twist on Sunday, September 21, selling Scott's glass buttons, beads, and stitch markers. We're looking forward to spending the day among other vendors we know, including The Painted Sheep and Divine Bird, and seeing lots of fiber fanatics on what we're sure will be a fun day. Fingers crossed for sunshine!

the braiding bug

Leah's been playing with kumihimo, a braiding technique. There are lots of fancy and expensive supplies available for kumihimo, but, as usual, we decided to dive right in by making the most of what we had. This video, some scrap cardboard, and colors from our massive embroidery floss collection (much of which was received as a prize when Scott's cross stitch won Best of Show at the Eastern States Exposition) got Leah off to a good start.

She has since finished that braid, which will be a necklace with one of Scott's beads on it, I think, and chosen a new group of colors to try a different braid. It's easy, fun, portable, and its techniques and potential uses leave lots of room for exploration, so kumihimo gets an enthusiastic two thumbs up around here.

She's also sewing doll clothes lately, with the help of Two-Hour Dolls' Clothes, borrowed from the library.

Stitched entirely by hand and embellished with ribbon and beads, her designs are taking much longer than two hours, but that's by choice. Her idea is that as she gets better with making doll clothes, she'll be better at making her own clothes. I think she's already doing a pretty good job on sewing her own clothes, but it still sounds like good practice and she's enjoying it.

I knit barely a stitch last week, but between hanging with assorted knitters at the farmers' market yesterday and then watching a movie last night, I was able to finish the Habitat hat. Pics to come when it's done blocking, but one thing I wanted to mention is how unimpressed I am with the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn that I used for it. This merino, microfiber, cashmere blend is a beautiful deep, rich red. Unfortunately, there are wisps of undyed fiber spun into the yarn throughout the skeins. The instance above is the biggest I noticed - most weren't such a thick wisp, nor did they continue for 5 twists - but there were many throughout these skeins. They were easily picked out, but at $8/90 meters, I should not have to deconstruct the yarn as I'm knitting it in order to get the glaring white bits out of a deep red hat! The yarn is wonderfully soft, to be sure, but I'll steer clear of Debbie Bliss products in the future.

Hmm...I just checked the Debbie Bliss website because I was going to send a comment about this problem, but there is no Contact link. So then I figured I could at least let other knitters know by leaving a warning comment at this yarn's entry on Ravelry. Sheesh, if I had only read the comments there first! There are MANY others with similar problems with this yarn. This is clearly not a fluke and I will definitely not buy any more Debbie Bliss yarn.

a win-win weekend

This entire weekend was one rollicking moment of supreme awesomeness after another. I loved every second of it and I'm so glad it's over so I can get back to work and get some rest. ;-) There's sooo much more to it all, but highlights from the blog's yarny perspective follow:

We arrived home from celebrating Scott's b'day with another stellar Fire and Ice Day at Old Sturbridge Village to discover that the mailman had delivered our copy of the latest magazine they put out for members. Flipping through, on the last page, hey! There's Scott (holding coffee cup and wearing a handknit hat) and his mom (purple coat), getting warm by the fire when we were there for Christmas By Candlelight. And you see that handknit hat peeking in at the top right edge? That's Jesse wearing Habitat. Sunshine, fresh air, a day spent among living history in action -- win.

While the guys then headed out for ice fishing with a friend, Leah and I met up with other friends at a nearby yarn store for their second annual Stash Swap. We traded in some unused yarn from our stash (most of which was given to us and just wasn't in colors/fibers we'd use, but still perfectly fine stuff) and came away with yarns we are more likely to use, including that gorgeous 3-lb cone of navy blue tweed rescued from being unloved in our friend Jen's stash -- woot! -- sock yarn, superwash wools, handspun, handpaints, some good solid wooly worsteds, and yes, there's some ladder/ribbon/railroad "yarn" there. I have a plan for that stuff too. Just you wait and see. ;-) Traded in freebies/hand-me-downs we won't use for a big pile of yarn that we will use, and hung out with friends in a cozy place -- win.

Sunday morning, while the guys had friends over for a good time, Leah and I headed north w/ my mom and our friend Elizabeth, meeting up with lots of other friends and acquaintances there for the Webs Super Bowl Escape. This is the third year we've gone to this event, which is an excellent party. Leah is in her element from the moment we walk through the door. Just such a festive atmosphere. I have been itching to do another pair of stranded mittens, had actually just Favorited the Signe mittens pattern on Ravelry earlier in the morning, so I was delighted to win a door prize of the yarn, pattern, and needles for Floral Brocade Mittens. Win.

Back home in time to say a quick hello and goodbye to the friends who were visiting Scott and Jesse (the mom asked me to teach her to knit the next time we hook up!), scoop the guys, and head out for a Super Bowl party. This was a house full of folks I've know since we were about the age our kids are now. My kids wore their Steeler shirts. The house was decked out in its usual Steelers paraphernalia, and maybe a wee bit more. The guests mostly showed up in yellow and black, a few wearing some of my dad's vast collection of Steelers shirts (man, if I had a dollar for every time he was mentioned last night...), and I dug out my Steelers pins that have been around since we lived in the 'burgh.

Notice the little crocheted Steelers hat with its hand-drawn logo? Dozens of these were made by kid crocheter Debbie (that's me!), circa 1976, I'd guess. I didn't have any here, but my mom had 2 stashed. Moms are good like that. :-) One of the guests asked me to teach her to knit! We ate Steelers cookies sent by Gram, spun our Terrible Towels like lunatics, munched classic football food and yellow M&Ms printed with Go Steelers, rec'd a steady stream of phone calls from friends/fans also enjoying the game where they were, and basically whooped and hollered until we were hoarse. And happy.

Win!

twist!

Y'all thought we were going to the Coventry Farmers' Market's Fiber Twist as Glastonbury Glassworks, right? But did you know there's a young entrepreneur who also made an appearance there?

Oh yes, this was also the debut of Cotton Hollow Handcrafts. Leah's been a busy bee over the past few weeks, cranking out lots of neckwarmers in Malabrigo, Manos, handspun (hers and mine), and alpaca. She tried a different stitch/cable on each of them, varying the length and style. Each then had vintage buttons chosen from the button stash we inherited from Leah's Great Grandma or glass buttons made by her dad. A few of her things sold and she was psyched. Buttons and beads went well too, so Scott also had fun and was asked to return with his bakery products for the remaining farmers' markets of the season. Mmmm...pumpkin muffins, crisp autumn air, maple corn muffins, historic site, molasses cookies, local produce, garlic butter rolls...nice combo.

It was a glorious, bright day, although a bit warm in the sunshine. Still, you couldn't go wrong with a day of fresh air, surrounded by fiber folks and colors/textures like this...

Jesse was a big help with setting things up and manning Leah's mini-booth when she was wandering among the booths. He otherwise was quite content to munch veggie samosas and lounge in the shade of a big tree, listening to old-time radio shows and chatting with friends who passed by.

The day wound down with a knitting date with friends, back in our own town, at the center green. So pretty.

Coming soon: Better pics of those neckwarmers, except my favorite one, which sold yesterday, before I got a good pic of it -- d'oh! Also my progress on cable-rific Habitat hat for Jesse and my very first spinning efforts with the legendary blue-faced leicester. Given how many spinners swoon about this fiber, I can't wait to give it a try. I only have 4 oz., but I know a young knitting enthusiast who will most certainly have ideas for the finished yarn.

BTW, if you ever get a chance to see a silent movie with live music accompaniment, I'd encourage you to do it. After meeting with friends at a state park/pond for the morning on Saturday, we saw he 1924 silent version of Peter Pan with a live band providing music. This is the third such event we've done so far this year (another one on the calendar for December) and they are awesome. Can't quite put my finger on why they're so delightful (maybe not so much because of what they are, but what they're not that makes them so appealing), but all four of us enjoy them immensely.