twinset.us

Hey, Jan,

I wish you could have been with me today to enjoy my knitting surprise as knitted at in yesterday’s post.  Here she is - Susette, aka unionpearl of Knitting Letters A to Z.  If anyone wants a heady dose of colorwork artistry and scholarly research on a wide variety of topics, with an emphasis on knitting and typography, this site is a must read.  Her posts on Bohus knitting are especially good.  Yes, that is her Gray Mist.  Hauntingly beautiful.  The Alice Starmore Rona hiding behind it wasn’t bad, either.

We had a hoot.  I picked her up at the airport and we drove straightaway to the Yarn Garage, haunt of the charming and exuberant Stephen Berg, the Glitter Knitter.  This guy is so cool.  He knows his stuff, stocks an incredible range of interesting yarn, including several from charitable yarn companies. After a tour of his store, with lots of stories and laughs (the sweater he is holding up is knit from old cassette tapes, Rolling Stones, in case you were wondering), I found it in my heart to donate enhance my stash generously with this lovely bamboo from Be Sweet who helps disadvantaged South African women get high school training through their business.

We had walleye for lunch.  You can’t come to Minnesota without having walleye, you know.  We visited the Yarnery next, a very different store but every bit as enjoyable.  Think classic knitting, shetlands and Fair Isles.

And then on to the real classics, the Bohus sweaters at the ASI.  You know, you could still see the exhibit if you come this week - they extended the exhibit until 4/5.  Just sayin’.  Susette was such a wonderful companion, enjoying what I knew and with a huge store of knowledge that she could share with me.

Here are the Magically Loopy socks.  I think they do look better on and in decent light, but I think I’m pretty convinced that the two socks on one circ just isn’t my bag.

And a note to those who want to try knitting from sock flats, like Flat Feet from Conjoined Creations, beware that the kinkiness of the yarn as you unravel and immediately knit it makes loose knitting even looser.  Go down a needle size and maybe you won’t have to add extra decreases on the foot when you realize it is really pretty loose in the heel (don’t ask how I know).  The result is an odd shape which I fear may slip down into my shoes.  I suppose had I only one sock knit to the gusset, I might have frogged, but with two over half done and kinky yarn to unravel to boot, I just couldn’t face it so will live with the result.  The colors are cheerful, at any rate.

Despite these sock travails, I am seriously considering Sock Summit.  It’s just so much fun to hang with passionate knitters, as Susette’s visit certainly proved.

Love,

E

Dear Ellen,

It’s easier to bear knitting disasters when in paradise…or at least with a  “Blue Hawaii” in your hand.  I suffered grim loss on our trip to Hawaii…having left the project bag with my German Stockings on the airplane when we de-planed.  (You should always take it seriously when they say look around for any personal items…I didn’t.)  I never even took a picture of it, poor stocking.  It’s not a tremendous loss of quantity of knitting…only about 6 inches on one leg…and the needles were Hiya circulars (inexpensive ones to try the socks on circs method).  But, I did lose the Wollmeise out of which I was knitting them and, as you can guess, am not having great luck replacing it.  I did leave the second skein at home…maybe a pair of regular socks will now be it’s future.

Though the alcohol definitely helped, the fact that Dale helped me find a little yarn shop to buy replacement yarn was probably more effective.  And I do still have the pattern, so when I’m over my mourning I can recommence.  I wonder what other folks do when they lose a project.  Do they try to recreate the lost project?  Do they simply mourn and move on to other projects?  These questions may be akin to that of, “When your dog dies, do you run out and get a new puppy?”  (Readers, I’d be interested in hearing about your lost projects and what you did about them…if you are as absent-minded as me, that is.)  To help the recovery, Dale has also agreed to let me get a kitten…a thought that makes me feel much better.  Maybe the real lesson about comfort is to seek out small animals.

I did bring a second project with me — the Clapotis that I’m making out of Handmaiden Sea Silk.  It’s coming along very well and I loved knitting it in the sunshine.  I thought it looked pretty cool spread out on my leg.  (That’s the wrong side showing.)  I have 1-2 repeats left and then the decrease section so it should be done soon.  I plan on wearing it at one of the wedding functions…not sure it goes with the dress I have planned for the wedding itself, but we’ll see.

Overall, the Hawaii trip was fabulous.  We only had 4 days to ourselves, but we took full advantage of them.  I did a lot of resting and we didn’t feel compelled to go anywhere or do any tourist objectives since we had been in Hawaii just 2 years ago and checked all the boxes then.  We did walk about Waikiki window shopping all the high end stores and what-not.  And I got my picture taken with a movie star.   One day we drove around the island and managed to score a table at sunset at Jameson’s, the best sunset viewing restaurant on the island…very romantic.  Normally you have to have reservations days ahead of time.  Our kharma must have been doing well for us to just walk up and score an outside table with a perfect view.

I don’t think I had time to say before, but we really had a good time with Jenny.  She truly impressed Uncle Dale when she ordered Guiness at the Irish Pub at which we had dinner.  As you can see, we did have fun.  I was thoroughly impressed with the dress she is knitting…just stunning with great yarn choices and Jenny’s amazing craftsmanship.  I hope she’ll come back for a longer visit so we can connect more.  It was nice to have her exclusively to ourselves and to have full focus on her.  I love her personality and outlook…she’s the kind of spirit that influences people to be better people.

If I’m going to have any time to work on that Clapotis, I’d better go — many, many chores on which to catch up before bedtime tonight!

Love, Jan

Post-post-edit to let you know:  Yes, I did register with the airlines lost and found…in both Denver and Honolulu.  The nice lady in Denver tried to pretend that sometimes these things do show up.

Hi, Jan,

The return of extreme cold is somewhat disappointing (60 days and counting to a garden wedding), but it did give us the gift of both sun AND moon dogs.  I missed the lunar ones, but caught this picture of the sundogs on my cell phone.  The moon dog picture is from our local news site.

I’m making slow progress on the wedding cardigan, but did finish the second row of daisy chain.  One more of those to go (but I’m not sure the cuffs don’t have any - I’ll face that later).

Thanks for giving Jenny a fun time.  My ladies like having a double mom sometimes.

Love,

Ellen

Hi, Jan,

I’ve conquered the counting of lace motifs. The birch leaves are charming, to me at least.  It’s too bad they are on the opposite side of the work from the faces of the daisies in the daisy chain.

Sigh.

Love from your distracted sister,

Ellen

P.S.  I’ve already planned the solve - it is NOT to frog back the leaves.  I am going to wait until I’ve finished the piece, then will simply clip the wrap thread and pull it out, simultaneously adding a new one with needle and yarn.  It’s actually a fairly simple construction so I’m confident this will work.  It will also make sewing the seams seem less tedious in comparison.

Dear Jan,

Some of the comments we get are quite flattering.  Just this morning there was one that started…

“Your writing style is quite a god guide for me…”

 Lest we get swell-headed, I should point out the blogger’s name was Commercial Auto Insurance.  I guess it beats the comments we get from our good friend who posts so often, Free Viagra On-line.

 For those of you who might be wondering, no, we aren’t counting the spam comments on our way to 1000 (and 1001!).  And we won’t comment on each other’s posts until we hit those lucky numbers.  But we encourage you to post a comment - number 1000 wins the new Mason-Dixon book, Knitting Outside the Lines, and 1001 will win a copy of Wendy J. Johnson and Susanna Hansson’s Bohus Stickning - Radiant Knits: An Enchanting Obsession.

It won’t be long now!

Ellen