A Bluestocking Knits

  • Thoughts on the Multidirectional Scarf

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    Yesterday, I finished a Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf, designed by Karen Baumer — I used the alternate, symmetrical end.  (A PDF version is here, with a photo.)  This is a breezily simple knit, and looks wonderful in the leftover lovely Noro Silk Garden #88 from my Clapotis.  The multidirectional triangles are a very effective use of Silk Garden’s long color shifts.

    Scarf_2 

    The dates are deceiving — it is a fast knit, taking probably about two hours per triangle at a fairly leisurely pace.  Mine would have been finished a lot sooner if a), I hadn’t forgotten about it completely about three-quarters of the way, and b) I hadn’t decided that it was a smidge too short, and "required" a trip to the yarn shop for another ball which c) is discontinued and in the end was donated expressly for the purpose of finishing this scarf by Siow Chin, and brought home for me by my very tolerant husband!

    Scarf_detail

  • , ,

    Friday

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    We had a nice holiday — I made pies on Wednesday, then we went to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday —

    Grandmas_table

    The girls went home with their other Grandma for a sleepover, so the house is strangely quiet and subdued.

    Word came down from Show and Tell Friday that today’s theme is "something special" — since my father-in-law is famous, nay, infamous for his puns, and the air was full of them yesterday, the first thing I thought of this morning was

    Something_special

    In knitting news, my needles are clacking away at Cinxia, and I’ve been accumulating wool for my first Kaffe Fassett project — in fact, this is my first Rowan purchase ever, believe it or not!  (The Calmer for my Ostrich Plume was a gift.)  I realized that the discontinued Rowanspun 4-Ply was in fact a very close match, weight- and gauge-wise, for Yorkshire Tweed 4-Ply (having had the brilliant idea to read the substitution FAQ on the Rowan website), and so as a local yarn shop still has rather a lot of the Rowanspun, I picked up a number of skeins.

    I have been finding the Rowan names very amusing, and was tempted to send out a pop quiz to some non-knitting friends to see what colors these names brought to mind, or even just to match names to colors.  Obviously, I would never be able to get a job at Rowan, worse luck (think of the employee discount!).

    Yorkshire_tweed

    Left and right, from the top: 283 Whiskers, 281 Knight, 266 Highlander, 269 Blessed, 276 Radiant, 265 Shrew, 280 Deep Aubergine, and 268 Enchant.

    Rowanspun

    From the top: 711 Sludge, 701 Swarm, 703 Rumtoft, 704 Slate, 709 Holly,  and 710 Burgundy.  (Curiously, I put these almost exactly in numerical order.)  These names are a little more sedate than the Yorkshire Tweed — Holly, Slate, and Burgundy I get, maybe even Sludge, so my score would be over 50%!  The Yorkshire Tweed Deep Aubergine has been discontinued — one of only two names that I could associate with any assurance, along with Shrew, so I’m suspecting that Rowan discontinues a color (or, good heavens, a whole line!) if they find that the names actually make sense….

    And just because I feel a little frivolous this morning, here’s a little quiz from Quizilla.  These things are like potato chips, you start nibbling and then half an hour later realize you’ve eaten far more than is good for you.  But "Persuasion" is one of my favorite movies ever, not just Jane Austen movies, so I was pleased with the answer.

    Which Jane Austen Character Are You?

    Anne Elliot

    You are Anne Elliott from Persuasion. You
    might also be Harriet Smith from Emma,
    or Fanny Price from Mansfield Park or
    possibly even Jane Fairfax from Emma.
    People underestimate you all the time. You are
    somewhat introverted, so it is assumed that
    other people can persuade you to do anything,
    or even think that they can roll right over
    you, even when they mean to be doing you a good
    deed. The good news is, you have it within
    yourself to stand up and take charge– you know
    what’s right, and you know what you want, after
    all! It’s just a matter of speaking up!

    Which Jane Austen Character Are You?
    brought to you by Quizilla

  • ,

    Booking Through Thursday (on Wednesday): Biographies

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    Booking Through Thursday was on vacation last week, and today’s questions are early in anticipation of the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow.

    This week’s questions are brought to you by Nicki.

    1. Biographies and autobiographies—do you read them? Absolutely — biography is one of my favorite genres.  Some of the memorable ones include (casting a mental eye over our bookcase full of them), Janet Morgan’s biography of Agatha Christie and of course Dame Agatha’s own autobiography — Ben Yagoda’s biography of Will Rogers — anything by Antonia Fraser — Claire Tomalin and Park Honan on Jane Austen — Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography of Virginia Woolf — many, many others.  I might also include collected letters and diaries — Gwen Harwood’s Blessed City is an old favorite, and Barbara Pym’s A Very Private Eye (tho’ I’ve not actually read any of her novels, yet), as well as the complete diaries and letters of Virginia Woolf.  Shirley Nicholson’s A Victorian Household might also fit into this category.  Let’s toss a knitting book in here as well — Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Around contains some delightful autobiographical "digressions."
    2. If so, whose life story has inspired you most and why? I don’t think that I could possibly narrow it down to one, but I do remember being hugely impressed as a child by biographies (which I still remember vividly) of Helen Keller and Florence Nightingale!
    3. If not, why not? How could I not be inspired by Helen Keller and Florence Nightingale?!

  • Show and Tell Something Red

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    "Show and Tell Friday" says to show something red….  Oh, yes —

    Red1

    Halloween candy —

    Red3

    an exceptionally pretty coral bracelet, which I found at the Temple Street Night Market in Hong Kong this summer —

    Red5

    and Araucania Nature Wool.

  • , ,

    A Slippery Path

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    I am making pretty good progress on my Christmas present project — I have to say, though, that it is handsome but dull.  (Unlike its recipient, who is handsome and interesting.)  So, in order to relieve the monotony, I swatched another Christmas present, which I can in fact show, since I already asked that recipient if the color was all right.  This is the Falling Leaves scarf from Scarf Style.  It is quite a complicated little thing — the chart looks like a Rorschach blot, bits sticking out all over everywhere.  Still, it comes out like this,

    Falling_leaves_2reps

    which is quite nice.  The yarn is Filatura di Amigo Cashmere/Seta, a lovely squishy merino/silk/cashmere blend, that I got from Joy, who was de-stashing.

    So, two new projects, on top of my Ostrich Plume blanket and Beginner’s Triangle, and a Multi-Directional Scarf that was supposed to be using up the last bits of my Silk Garden #88 but stalled when I realized that it wasn’t long enough and I haven’t found any more of this now-discontinued color yet.  And still, my mind kept wandering …

    Shetland_aran

    This is Jaeger Shetland Aran in Charcoal Tweed, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  I told myself that I’d just feel it.  Then I told myself I’d just hold it for a little while.

    Swatch

    Then I just swatched it, to see how it worked up. 

    And last night, I couldn’t sleep for some reason.  I watched the first part of "The Virgin Queen" on Masterpiece Theatre, went to bed, tossed and turned, then at about two o’clock found myself casting on for Cinxia.

    Lesson: Sleep deprivation is hazardous to the WIP pile.  Still, I’m really liking those little colored nubs in amongst the gray tweed….

  • Late Bloomer

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    Huntingtons_hero

    "Huntington’s Hero," a lovely little thing with a strong myrrh scent.  I need to move the bush to a sunnier spot so that I can get more of these beauties!

  • Armistice Day

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    These are some of the photographs at The American Memory Collection with a keyword search of "knitting".  I wonder if the ladies were part of a war effort project, so the photos seemed a fitting part of a Veterans’ Day remembrance, from the home front perspective.

    Americanmemory_n068503_womenknitting

    [Women knitting, as they are sitting outdoors on chairs set in a row]. Chicago, 1917.  DN-0068503, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

    Americanmemory_n068504_3womenknitting

    [Women knitting, as they are sitting outdoors on wooden chairs]. Chicago, 1917.  DN-0068504, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

    Americanmemory_n068362_sarahfarwell

    [Miss Sarah Farewell sitting in a chair outdoors, knitting].  Chicago, 1917  DN-0068362, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

    Americanmemory_n068395_ethelforgan

    [Ethel Forgan sitting in a director’s chair on a brick patio, knitting with Miss Sarah Farewell, partially obscured].DN-0068395, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

  • Mug

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    Show and Tell Friday requests our favorite cup or mug —

    Mug

  • , ,

    Booking Through Thursday: Movies From Books

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    This week’s Booking Through Thursday has a slight twist on last week’s theme:

    1. What book (or books) would you like to see made into a movie? Why? Just picking something out of the air, so to speak — because I noticed it on the shelf yesterday — A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson, one of my favorite novelists and not as widely-known as she should be.  Wit, interesting characters, romance, complicated plotlines that nevertheless come across as completely believable — good stuff.  With its ballet theme and Victorian setting, a movie of the story would be lovely.  Also fun might be Georgette Heyer’s Friday’s Child or Hilary McKay’s The Exiles….
    2. What book (or books) would you definitely not want made into a movie? Well, I still have strong reservations about the upcoming Narnia movie, but will reserve judgement until I see it.  I can’t really think of something that I would really kick at, as of course it completely depends on the screenplay, director, etc. etc.  All three of the books I mentioned above are not terribly "serious" books, which probably makes a difference, as — "dying is easy, comedy is hard" notwithstanding — I think it’s easier to translate a lighter story to the screen, as weight and seriousness all too often get merely ponderous and boring.  Those with a lot of internal dialogue or stream-of-consciousness tend to lose a lot, as well.  (I am perfectly willing to be proven wrong, of course!)

  • Halfway

    Published by

    Bluestocking

    on

    Every time that David goes on one of these business trips, I feel an increasing respect for single parents.  It is not something that I would like to attempt on a regular basis.  We are now halfway through this trip, and it’s been hectic, to say the least.  A sampling —

    — Potty training.  Still.  Enough said.

    — When the milkman brought our delivery at the beginning of the week, three of the six cartons had a bottom corner bashed in.  I didn’t have enough large containers to decant it, so our milk is in various Tupperware boxes in the fridge.  I kept getting distracted from hosing off the porch ("Mommy!!"), so I’m afraid the puddle is still there, bar a watering-can rinse when I actually did remember to water the houseplants yesterday.

    — The phone has been ringing off the hook with special-election recordings, including one from The Big Guy himself.  Thank heavens it’s over now.

    — I spent probably the most panicked fifteen minutes of my life at Laura’s school the other day, when I turned around in the crush outside the kindergarten classrooms after school and Julia was gone.  I looked in the most obvious places, then the not-so-obvious ones, then the mom I’d been talking with (about sex offenders, unfortunately) started looking with me, in ever-larger circles around the spot I’d last seen Julia, and fifteen minutes later had at least three other moms, two teachers, and a veritable army of kids looking.  By that time, of course, the worst possible things were going through my mind.  I don’t usually panic easily, but this was awfully close — so many people were milling about, anyone could have snatched her and been a mile away already.  The utter relief I felt when I saw Laura’s teacher coming up the sidewalk with Julia howling in her arms was indescribable.  (She’d just wandered off on her own, apparently, all of the way to the corner.  Didn’t want to tell me what she’d done, so I think she knew she’d worried us.)

    — Laura then came down with some kind of bug, up half the night coughing, then throwing up the next day, possibly from coughing so hard.  She lay on the couch literally all day, grey shadows under her eyes, watching "Barney" and "Sesame Street" listlessly.

    — The house is a mess.  It seems like the more housework I do, the more there is to do, which goes against all the laws of physics I’ve ever heard of.

    But knitting, that’s what I was supposed to be talking about.  The only good thing about Laura being sick is that since she wants me to sit with her most of the time, I’m getting an unexpected amount of knitting done.  I am working on a Christmas project, so won’t reveal details, except that I am learning something new with it, Meg Swansen’s "jogless jog" solution to the problem of that little hiccup at color changes in the round (here’s a step-by-step description from Judy Gibson).  This is a handy little trick, almost like magic.  The first few times I tried it looked more than a little obvious, but it is settling in nicely.  It seems to be inspired by the slip-stitch effect, which raises and stretches a single stitch to cover two rows, but here in the jogless jog does essentially the same thing without appearing to do so.  The new color becomes the old color, and the old stitch disguises the new one.  Ta-da!

Knitting, reading, other stuff.

Let’s connect

Recent posts