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Dear Ellen,

I’m bushed!  We’ve managed to cram 3 days into 2 again.  I should sleep well tonight!

The pups took it a little easier.  Max lolled about on the porch.

Ruby found a nice cool spot in the shade of the wall.  All the while I was working in the garden which I am happy to say is all in except for some plants that are yet to be…the seeds are planted in a seed starter.  They should be ready for planting by June.

Dale was preparing the ground for receipt of his new gazebo.  Never let your husband go to a mud sale alone.  Yes, these two facts are related.  It will be delivered on this coming Saturday.  Once in place we’ll decide if we want to paint it or just stain it.  The plan is to surround it with rose bushes and put flowering vines at the base of each pillar.  Should be lovely come wedding time.

Another new home builder took residence next door.  This little black capped chickadee has a nest inside the birdhouse that Chris and Jim gave us for Christmas.

I also accomplished a few things in the knitting world.  The Aloha Onesie is finally done — though I still need to wrap it and get it on its way to Hawaii.

I think I found the perfect buttons for the blue and white cotton yarn.

And the snaps at the crotch worked well too.  I redid many parts of this, so it ended up taking far longer than I expected, but I’m glad I took the time.  Next time I do the pattern (which I do like a lot), I’ll be armed with the modifications I made…if I actually put them in my project page instead of just counting on remembering them.

I also knocked out a quick dishcloth.  (We really needed one!)  It’s a simple eyelet pattern broken up by garter ridges.  The ridges are in yellow and the pattern in a color called creamsicle.  I was amused that they gave 3 different languages for yellow on the ballband, only two for creamsicle.  The first in english and the second — who knows, it said creamsicle too, but was Italicized.  Do you think they think Italian might just be italics?  Take a look at the lower left corner.  I have noticed that using the Neatby bind off method tends to cause the bind off to lean forwards.  It makes sense given the method.  I’ve also noticed that when using it to bind off in purl it leans backwards.  So, I decide to try to alternate knit and purl bind offs to see what would happen.  The 3 stitches on the right were all bound off knitwise.  The 3 stitches on the left were bound off alternating knitwise and purlwise.  I like the way they line up right on the edge and now that I’ve tried this on a dishcloth will do it on other projects too!

Last, I’ve got 4 ounces of a wonderful suri alpaca/merino/silk blend waiting patiently on a bobbin.  It’s waiting for me to spin the other 8 ounces that I have.  Dale is working on making me a bobbin winder for use with weaving bobbins.  He also came home from the mud sale with 3 old sewing machines so he can use the motors and presser foot controllers.  Should be slick.

I’m going to sign off now — still too many things to do before bed!  No kidding!

Love, Jan

Dear Jan,

How could it be that I finished knitting up a cozy hat this weekend, when I had finished off the skein (Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran, a single skein, deep discount, no more available)  from which I knit it almost two months back while in the middle of decreasing for the crown?

Here is the hat at the end of the skein.

Here it is after weaving ends in today.

How, without procuring more of the same yarn? You’ve already guessed, I’m sure.

I snipped and ravelled a the yarn from one row just below the top of the cuff.  Splicing the now live end onto the live end at the crown of the hat, I continued from where I had been forced to stop when I ran out of yarn until the crown was neatly finished off.  Breaking the yarn, I then spliced some equally soft tweed Berocco Blackstone Tweed on to the new live end and knit to replace what I had raveled to knit the crown.

Some mad Kitchener skills, some end weaving, and ta da! a hat -  one that will be much warmer for not having a gaping hole in the crown.

The brassy stripe inside the cuff?  I’m calling that a design feature.

Love,

Ellen

Dear Jan,

One of the delights of really diving deep into our passion for knitting is how it brings opportunities to learn far beyond the realm of pointy sticks and string.  Thanks to knitting which led to blogging which is leading to designing, I had a yen for improving my photography.  A class with Gale Zucker of She Shoots Sheep Shots as well as Shear Spirit and soon, Craft Activism has moved me closer to that goal.

I won’t take you through all that Gale shared in a whirlwind 3.5 hours, but I did want to share a couple of wows.  As alway, click on individual photos to embiggen - it is worth it for some of these*.

First - reflected light.  Look at the difference in detail and liveliness when Gale bounced a little natural light back at the model using a simple disk reflector.  I have had trouble shooting dark colored yarn - this is going to help a lot!

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Second - background color.  From black velvet (which seemed to make lots of project/yarns sing) to fat quarters (of which I have tons of from my quilting days - why didn’t I think of this?!), you can pick the background color that brings out the character you want to showcase in your work.  I personally like the velvet background best for this yarn (click to embiggen), and find that multi-color fine print background just makes it look like mud.  The brown background really brought up the blue, and the blue played up the green.

I learned a lot more, part of which is that I have a ton left to learn.  Someday I hope to take one of  Gale’s weekend workshops, she is an awesome teacher, balancing lecture with hands-on kinetic learning and leaving you feeling you got great value for class dollar.  I encourage you to take any class with her that  you can fit into your crazy life.

Of course, spinning is an area of immense learning potential for me still.  Look at these crazy plies - pigtails galore, the potential energy in these bobbins is almost scary.  But what a lovely well-behaved yarn it seems to want to ply into!  I have struggled with getting enough twist into my singles to allow a well twisted yarn… I think I might be making progress.

I’ll let you know after I get the skein washed, whacked and dried.  And after I dig out some of my old quilting fabric so I can find the best background for its photo shoot!

Love,

Ellen

*Gale shared a few tips that may help me size photos appropriately for the blog, but before I can experiment with them I need to go catch up on some work stuff that I neglected while taking Gale’s class.  Someday soon!

Dear Ellen,

Well, the Parade of Homes is wrapping up today.  Over the course of the week we had about 4,500+ visitors come through our home.  Reports are that there were many nice comments and our builders are very happy with the number of leads that the Parade has generated.  We’re all a bit glad that it’s coming to a close.  The builders will get some of their lives back — and next weekend we’ll actually get possession of our home!

I finished up my Global Connections socks.  I called these Global Connections because I knit them (mostly) on two 13 hour flights to and from the Middle East and the colorway is “Global”…perfect.  The original pattern inspiration is from the   Faceted Rib Socks in the Little Box of Socks by Charlene Schurch and beth Parrott.  I modified it to be knit toe up.  The stitch pattern yields a very cushy fabric, but it wants to be a tighter gauge than the stockinette of the sole.  Wet blocking resolved the difference, but in the future I think I’d knit the sole on a smaller needle.

These used my basic recipe for toe-up socks which normally involves a set of wrapped turns as part of the turning of the heel.  (K across to the turn point, Kfb, K1, w/t.)  I came up with an alternative with which I’m rather pleased.  Instead I knit right up to the turn point, make a lifted left leaning increase and then turn without wrapping.  I slip the first stitch (the lifted increase) and continue knitting to the next turn.  The effect is smooth uninterrupted stockinette stitch, accomplished without having to wrap or pick up wraps later.  Because the pivot point is that lifted increase stitch, which is not stitched on the return, it provides a nice smooth transition point.  And the stitch count is increased without the unsightly bump of a Kfb…a win on all counts!

  I also got moving on a simple little scarf which is a minor variation on Anne Hanson of Knitspot’s Campanula Scarf, so I’m just calling it my Campanula Scarf Variation. The yarn is 90% Suri Alpaca and 10% Merino.  It feels incredibly luxurious as it slides through my fingers.  I’m enjoying the knitting a lot.  When I got tired of following the lace pattern I grabbed some leftover yarn from my Einstein bathrobe and cast on Another Purple Hat.  I’ll figure out who needs this Warm Hats Not Hot Heads project later.  I also wound the yarn for a project that I hope will be at the standard for submission to Knitty.  I plan on bringing swatches, design notes, pattern and product to Sock Summit for my class on “Making the Next Monkey.”  I expect to get started tonight!

I’ve got to run…we have a neighborhood pot luck dinner tonight, so I’ve got to get moving.  (Remember pot lucks?  They’re a lot like hot dish suppers in case you forgot!)

Love, Jan

Oh, I guess I meant “Dear Ellen,” but I was so pleased by the fact that even with the construction noise and disturbances, the deer are still frequenting our backyard.  I do realize that I may not appreciate this when I am trying to keep them from eating my plantings one day.  For now, though, I’m very pleased that we’ll have visitors once we’ve moved in.

I became acquainted with some other animal friends while we visited our cabinetry guy, Levi.  He’s an Amish craftsman who works on his farm.  Our timing is perfect as the farming workload is down in the winter and there’s more time to work on furniture and cabinetry.  It’s also the end of the Amish wedding season, so our order will be started right away.  We spent about 3 hours with Levi going over plans, picking finishes and hardware and watching him work — as you might expect, he drafts the old-fashioned way, with paper and pencil and the shop was illuminated with a really big “Coleman lantern”.  The quality of his work is great and he made some really nice suggestions.  The kitchen is going to have farm-style cabinetry — a pale straw (barely yellow) color with black hardware.  It’ll look great with our soapstone countertops and island surface.  Our appliances are all Kitchenaid — a professional line stainless steel stove and the remainder are their quality line in black.  It will be about 10 weeks before the kitchen comes together, but we’re getting a good feel for it now.

The house itself really is moving along quickly…when we showed up to do the walk through with the electrician on Saturday, there was a crew of roofers putting shingles on.  You can see the stacks of shingles at the roof peaks and the strips of wood that are tacked onto the roof so they can walk around up there as they work.  By the end of the day they had done about half of the job…amazing.  The rooftop that no longer has the wood strips is the part that is finished.  The photo doesn’t show it well, but the shingles have a lovely cinnamon grit along with charcoal gray and black. They will complement the copper roof that is going to go on the porch and the pineapple weathervane that will go on top of the turret.

We were pleased to see the front door in place — it will be stained…a dark, dark burgundy/mahogany red.  The house itself will be coastal blue — Dale’s holding up a sample piece of the cement-fiber composite siding that we’re using.  It will go up soon and I think will look fantastic with the crisp white trim and antique white soffits.

In the back you can see where the screened in porch will be framed out just to the left of the pop out dining area at the back of the kitchen.  The wrap around porch in front will give the screened porch some good competition for sitting and knitting.  The area at the end that is closest in this photo has enough room for a table and chairs or just for plenty of rocking chairs.  I keep imagining the small fiber retreats that could be held out there!

Inside there is some more progress too…the rough installation of the the gas fireplace and the staircase being the most obvious.  The staircase will be adjusted before it’s made permanent, but it is safe to use now which makes going up to see the great second floor views far easier.   The view looking up from the great room to the 2nd floor landing is now framed an archway that is echoed in the front window seat — still visible on the 2nd floor until the dry wall goes up.  Other archways throughout the house soften all the angles seen in the window selection.  The one framing the view out of the dining area from the kitchen is one of my favorites.  The area can accommodate a 12 foot table, but we’ve decided to go for a 10 and a 1/2 footer instead.  We picked out some bowback chairs that can benefit from the extra room.  We’re having another Amish guy build the table and chairs.  They’ll look much like the ones shown, but the table top will be much thicker to give better proportion to a table that long.

I get to do a good bit of knitting on our trips up and back to visit the property and do the work of making decisions to support the building process.  I’m now down to a single WIP from 2010. A Sweater from Down Under.  I think I’ll finish it fairly soon — am really enjoying knitting it, so will have one more sweater for my repertoire this winter.  Here I am in Woodland Vines.  I got some great buttons on etsy and quickly stitched them on.  I do think I need to go ahead and find some matching grosgrain and redo them as my “eyeball” technique makes their spacing a tiny bit wonky.  I’ll wear it in the meantime…very comfortable and I’ve gotten lots of compliments on it while wearing it out and about.

On travel for work this week I finished A Simple Lace Scarf, another 2010 project completed!  I tried a new blocking approach by feeding the scarf onto blocking wires while dry and then soaking them with the wires in them. Wow! It was so much easier to slip the wires into place and though I had to fill the sink to a higher level so the scarf would be fully submerged, there was no problem doing so. After its soak, it was easy enough to wrap with a fluffy towel and squeeze to damp. And then, a double miracle…the emergence of the lace pattern at lightning speed — it only took about 5 minutes to pin out! I will definitely do this again for smaller pieces that can be managed. I don’t think larger sweater pieces that won’t scrunch up into a small ball at the end of the wires would work very well, but scarves and shawls — absolutely!  I wasn’t able to hold out on not casting anything else on until I finished the 2010 projects as I had decided that hauling the sweater on travel with me would be too much.  (It’s a tunic length medium weight pullover and is at least 60% done.)  As I knew the scarf was within a few hours of completion (and therefore would be done before I ran out of travel time) I brought along a skein of Socrates from Alpaca with a Twist.  I now have another pair of socks on the needle.  More on them later.

I hope you are feeling better and that you enjoy your three-day weekend!

Love, Jan