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Hi Ellen!

Lo this many a year I have resisted wet blocking. Too much hassle when you can just steam block, right? How can I afford the time to let it dry? Surely it doesn’t make that much difference, does it? Okay, I am so very wrong.

I realized I had no choice but to wet block Marie’s shawl…it had to be done that way. And it wasn’t so terribly traumatic. I also was a little surprised (naively so, I suppose) at how much it stretched out. With this in mind I considered that short entrelac scarf that I finished last week. It needed to be longer. So, it sat on the edge of the bathtub till yesterday just waiting for me to see if the stretch factor only applied to lace, or if it would also work on stockinette — and yesterday, it took a soak and then a stretch. Now it is of completely satisfactory length and I am quite pleased. The entrelac blocks are a bit more diamond-like, but with a nice aesthetic.

When I saw how much the wet blocking did for the length of the scarf, I pulled out the “Sally’s Favorite Sweater” that I knit over the summer that had somehow ended up wider than it was long. (As it was supposed to be a tunic, this was not good.) I broke the side stitching to allow the pieces to stretch and gave it a soak too. Amazing…it is now longer than wide and may possibly be wearable! The sleeves look kind of skinny, but I don’t like wide sleeves, so I think I’m good with them.  Once it’s dry, I’ll try it on again and let you know.

I’ve started a new scarf based on the Lily of the Valley stitch pattern. Frankly, it’s kicking my butt a bit. I need to chart the lace pattern as the pattern book I have has it written out and I keep losing my place. Also, I’m using a Donegal yarn that is surprisingly unpleasant to knit. Little give and lots of scratch. I had planned this for the Red Scarf Project in the first place. I won’t miss it when I give it away.

Love, Jan

Surprise! Wilson got the last Christmas present of the 2007 season today. Karen has been busy knitting her favorite daddy a warm scarf, and it arrived just in time for the -35F windchills predicted for tonight. Here he is wearing it. Do not confuse him with a little Asian girl (they always make the peace sign when they pose for pictures). And here is some detail from the scarf. I’m betting you can eventually find some more info on this scarf at White Coat Knitter.

I’m still making progress on the front of Kalbi - only about 4 more inches to knit on the front straps and I can move on from ribbing, ribbing, ribbing to wonderfully mindless garter stitch for the sleeves. Knitting a simple pattern with Kid Silk Haze is like having a sleeping kitten in your lap - doesn’t require much thought from you, and you get the fun of petting it all you want.

Love,

Ellen

Hi, Jan,

The weekend has been so satisfying. Well, except that it hasn’t. If it were truly satisfying, I’d be ready to go back to work, and I surely am not. I’ve accomplished a lot, which feels good, but I guess is only on the way to satisfying.

I spent yesterday accumulating a store of smug-osity by cleaning up my office - all of those piles of magazines, catalogs, junk mail, non-junk mail, even the crate of crud we moved out of the minivan when we donated it - all of them, gone (or at least neatly relegated to baskets, files, periphery of the office instead of covering the carpet in a continuous mulch). I am not sharing a picture of this wonder, as I don’t care to put my definition of “clean office” to be put up for public scrutiny. Still, you can walk around and access the bookshelves.

I then got up and went to church this morning. There are many good reasons to be Unitarian Universalist, but the one that hit me today was that knitting is not just allowed, it is almost expected during the sermon. Perhaps this isn’t true at other UU churches, but at least ours has established this as a rule. The woman in front of me was working on a super Aran sweater, there was yarn coming out of a purse a few pews further up (it is not yet considered acceptable to rove about the sanctuary during service to admire works in progress so I’m not sure what was going on there), and I worked on my Fair Isle mitts. I got another cuff done.

I came home and went into a fit of vegetable chopping - aromatics with which to cook some beans, more aromatics and cauliflower for cauliflower brie soup, and bunches more of everything for Greek salad makings . The soup was a fabulous lunch, the beans and salad will be dinner, and we’ll eat off the leftovers for the week.

At this point, my self smug-o-meter was red-lining.

I took myself down a peg by demonstrating total lack of will power. I was going to The Yarnery, a yarn store over in St. Paul, to pick up tickets to the Yarn Harlot event (April 10). That’s all I was doing, picking up tickets. And maybe buying a new sweater defuzzer (depiller?), which wasn’t in stock anyway. So how did I come out with this?

At least they complimented a sweater I’d knit several years ago, from Meg Swanson Knitting. The pattern is called Faroese Sweater Variations because Meg has you use 3 different motifs - one for the front, one for the back, and one for the sleeves. I like the way you can see all three in the first photo. The second photo is me smiling at a star in my hand, apparently. The yarn, (from Coldwater Collaborative) is great to knit - Harrisville Designs Soft Spun, 80% wool and 20% flax. It is barely spun and you almost felt like you were knitting roving.

The sweater compliment alone would have restored my smugness, but then I missed my exit on the way home, an exit I’ve taken dozens, probably hundreds of times. I’m still a weenie, I guess.

But a weenie with a lot of nice yarn.

Have a great week.

Ellen

P.S. I hope you caught that I get to see the Yarn Harlot in about 2 months. Maybe if you are nice to me I’ll let you touch my sleeve.

P.P.S. And in March I get to see Alton Brown speak and maybe even take him to dinner. I may have to rescind the sleeve offer.

P.P.P.S.  This just in - I left the computer to check the beans to find they had started to burn.  I hope Wilson likes beans and weenie, as that is what he is getting for dinner.

Hi, again,

So, despite Jenny being in Korea for 6 months, we really didn’t know much about her job or her life. Being in Korea with her really helped us understand. She isn’t wildly enthusiastic about living in Korea, but she is okay with it, and I know she wil eventually discover how much she is gaining from the experience.

Being there we saw how hard it is for a vegetarian/piscevore to have fun exploring the cuisine. The Korean restaurants specialize, so if one of her friends wants to eat meat, they go to a restaurant that has virtually no vegetarian options beyond kimchi and steamed rice. She doesn’t actually enjoy fish - she is just eating it to have a little more variety available. Her hours are unusual - working from afternoon through the evening, so most of her socializing is with her American friends who are teaching, too, which also limits exploring the culture.

Her apartment is tiny, but has all she needs. It is a bit bigger than your average dorm room. It’s in a great location - just blocks from the happening part of town yet right next to a green space and on a quiet street. She is just a couple of blocks from work at the International Leaders Club, a private English language school. It’s an easy walk.

Korea may not truly excite Jenny, but some of her kids really do, and from what we got to see when the kids came to class, some of them really love Teacher.

I can’t blame them.

Love,

Ellen

Hi Ellen!

The hiatus from site maintenance that is…was traveling all last week and brought home a virus that threw me to the deck and stomped on me.  I’m just about back at it…and can report completion of the shawl and the socks!  I have to block both of them yet, but the knitting and weaving in is all done.

I can’t wait to see your pictures and to get pictures of these FOs taken and posted!

Love, Jan