twinset.us

(Sorry for many small pictures - click on photos to embiggen them.)

Dear Jan,

Imagine jogging up to a bench in Central Park, looking down, and spotting a Signature double point needle in size 0, just the size you yourself are knitting a pair of socks in.  Imagine the sigh the knitter who lost that needle let out when she realized that needle was gone.  True, she may have had the 5 needle set and could get by with the 4 remaining needles, but still…Signatures are special, and it was probably a heartfelt gift from someone dear to her.   It would take another knitter to recognize what this find was and to pick it up from the ground and keep it from being just a bit of metal swept up by the park staff.

Fortunately that knitter didn’t find it before we jogged back to the park bench where I’d lost my size 0 Signature dpn the day before.  And fortunately Wilson had spent many Easters looking at the ground in parks, usually for wildflowers, but this time for the needle I had lost when I took this photo of my sock in progress in Central Park.

We did see wildflowers in Central Park, along with many other NYC sites on our long weekend.  As soon as we checked in to our hotel we headed over to Bouchon Bakery, where Jenny served us a fabulous meal.  You can spot her if you embiggen the photo - she is right below the “U”, taking someone’s order.  The cafe is a Thomas Keller restaurant (Thomas Keller, who gives his staff the credit for his success.  In other words, who gives Jenny the credit for his success.  Heh.)

The hotel was on 7th Avenue, right next to the Carnegie Deli where we ate massive amounts of smoked fish.  We sat with Gene Siskel  - he signed his photo “I’d rather eat your corned beef than see most of the movies I do.”

We paid a quick visit to the Marshall Chess Club.  Someday Wilson will have to play a game there, as other great chess players have done.

And then we went to lunch where Karen joined us, along with Allen and Libby!  Technically we joined them, as our naivete to the NYC subway system made us late.  You are going to like Libby - and I assured her that you and Dale were far more competent than we were (this was even before the spilling of the Korean iced coffee).

That evening we took in Wicked. The show was really quite good, but we did not approve of the change to the end of the book.  Happier endings aren’t necessarily better endings, at least in theater. At least the New York cheesecake we had at the Carnegie Deli (we became regulars) was a happy ending for us.

I’m sure you’ve seen photos of the marquee for the David Letterman Show, but have you ever seen the mosaic underneath that marquee?  I prefer it by far.

But even better than a Broadway show and the sites of NYC was an afternoon and evening at Jenny’s, cooking up a vegan feast and feeding it to her friends - including Marie and Heidi!  They were in fine spirits.  The woman in the picture with Heidi and Jenny is Anna, another of Jenny’s buddies.

We couldn’t believe how quickly the weekend went and we were back on the airplane heading home.  It was as though I was painted onto the mattress this morning - all of this fun really exhausted me.

Would I do it again?

In a New York minute.

Love,

Ellen

Quite a few cards and letters came in asking what they could do for knitting on Earth Day.

There are lots of ideas coming from the earthy/knitting community. To list a few:
1. After you work in your gardens and before you start your daily knitting, be sure to clean under your fingernails and return the dirt to the garden.
2. Save all the dirt you glean from washing raw wool and return the dirt to the farmer.
3. Release any bugs you find in the wool, rather than squashing them.
4. Reread Pearl Buck’s “The Good Earth.” In case you have forgotten the story, it is about this missionary that never gets the hang of knitting and goes to China.
5. Always bury no longer needed knitted garments. “Dust to Dust” you know.
6. Recycle old needles instead of throwing them in landfills. For example, they can be used to make a game like pick-up-sticks or make little darts for children to play with.
7. And, of course, continue to cut up all the yarn odds and ends for birds to use in their nests. The yarn is much more comfy for the baby birds than wet earth. Although it doesn’t seem like much, just imagine how much dirt you will save by providing yarn for birds’ nests.

Dr. Yarn

Dear Jan,

I’ll spare everyone all the shots I took of Munich and Freising and surrounds, but hey, this is a knitting blog and I’m allowed to post gratuitous shots of knitting, right?

Just around the  corner from my hotel I found a shop selling yarn from Bavarian mountain sheep (blended with wool from Spain and New Zealand).  Local wool always excites me, and I bought enough to let me replicate one of the traditional jackets.  Horn buttons are a requirement, so I bought 9 of those, as well. Add in a skein of a chocolate brown and a skein of grey-brown sock yarn, and I’m set for some serious Bavarian stitching.

I lucked out in my walks through town to come upon shops selling traditional garments.  Nice embroidery detail around the edges of the jackets and also along the kneesocks worn with lederhosen.

And even better luck when in an evening of Bavarian entertainment at the conference I was attending in Freising, one of the musicians allowed me to photograph his sock.  He was very amused.  I kinneared the other socks, truth be told.

Less traditional, but as amusing or more, was this knit chair cover in a Freising LYS.  Fortunately for my budget and my suitcase zipper, they saved me from myself by being closed on the day I had free for roaming the city.

The towers, the statuary, the shop windows of the city dressed for Easter - all were enchanting.  But the yarn stores were what made me open my wallet (and struggle to close my suitcase!).  It would be fun to go back there with you and increase the US trade deficit a bit more.

Tschuss!

Ellen

Dear Jan,

Though I did not show any restraint at all in buying yarn (how much would you pay? But wait, there’s more!), I did hold myself to one knitting project on this trip, my second sock in the Kai-Mei pattern.  With barely an inch done on the cuff ribbing when I started the trip, here is what I landed with in Dusseldorf.

By the time Chris and I had finished business the next day in Copenhagen and sat down for a beer at the airport, I had made further progress.

And with judicious sipping of that beer, by the time we made it to another (smaller, this time), I was even into the heel flap.

We might as well have made that second beer a larger one, because we never got off the ground that night.  A baggage handlers’ strike  meant we scrambled for a hotel room for all of about 5 hours sleep.  But we eventually made it to Munich, and my sock made it into the foot motifs.

You know from the last post that I knit on the sock while at Rohrspatz & Wollmeise, even finding the Kai Mei pattern in the sock yarn wall hanging.

And by the time I was on an airplane bound for Amsterdam, the knitting was finished.

Coming home to this almost finished me, but instead, I grafted my toes and finished the socks.  The left sock seems a titch more snug than the right one, perhaps from having pulled the right one off and on several times to fit it, perhaps because jet-lagged knitting has a different gauge.  I’ll get them blocked and see what I think then, but in the meantime am hoping I don’t have to find the ends that I wove in ever so nicely.

Summary:  Pattern - Kai Mei by Cookie A.  Yarn - Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy sock yarn, colorway 1631.  Size 0 needles.  I cast on 72 stitches instead of the 66 suggested in the pattern, and at my gauge 78 stitches would have been as good or better.  The diagonal pattern across the foot causes the sock to skew when not worn - not a problem, but do carefully note the sides of the sock before you start decreasing for the toe.

Now what shall I knit?  It seems there is still time for warm sweaters…

Love,

Ellen

Dear Ellen,

I know you think I’ve abandoned you, but in actuality I’ve just been practicing good emissions control (EMCON).  Work has been a little busy of late…Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Japanese disasters, government shutdown preparations (almost a shame we don’t get to put that work to use — NOT!)…and I’ve been detailed to the Secretary of Defense’s staff to try to help figure out how to transform the DoD CIO organization.  I figure I should get double credit for the last few weeks.  Maybe they’ll up my bonus this year.

Despite my long hours, we have made room each weekend to drive up to Fair Winds.  I’m pleased to announce the completion of the interior painting!!  (First go — second go will be when they come back to touch up all the dings and marks caused by the other contractors between now and completion).  We’ve been bold with color and the energy inside is amazing.  They’ve also started the stone work on the exposed portions of the foundation.  We intend to head up again tomorrow and will hopefully find the exterior trim completed as well — and this pile of hardwood nicely spread out on the floors.  It’s gorgeous random width hickory — the staining will bring out the awesome grain and give it a warm medium honeyed brown color.

The pineapple is a sign of welcome and as I’ve said, we hope people really do feel welcome here.  We have some evidence that the deer are feeling welcome.  I may need advice on how to keep them from eating all of my flowers and vegetables.  I’m told this very scarred trunk is the result of bucks rubbing their antlers…I’m thinking there’s at least one pretty good sized buck out there.  I’ll watch for shed antlers when I walk in the woods!  Ruby likes the new place.  She was pretty good about staying out of the red mud.  In the next week or two we should have top soil spread and some sod down…I’ll worry less about bringing the dogs with us once that happens.

The driving back and forth has given some time to finish several knitting projects.  Here are my completed Cushy Cables Socks.  I’m writing up the pattern as the “Twisted Pair”.  It’s a good name for socks designed by a telecommunications geek.  Also finished is my Golden Shawlette which I made as part of the Stash and Burn Holden Shawlette KAL.  Finally, I got Primula blocked out and I really like it.  I’ll work on that pattern too…some modifications are needed to properly balance the edges, but otherwise I really like the changes I made to the pattern that inspired it, an antique full-circle coffee cloth.

Another pair of socks is on the needles, as is another shawlette…and I’m thinking about a shrug to wear to Craig’s wedding and a baby gift for a friend who finally got pregnant after about 6 years of trying.  I hope you’re having yarn-ey fun in Germany!

Love, Jan