In case you hadn't seen it . . .

The USOC has sent Ravelry a cease and desist letter, asking it to take down the Ravelympics. The Ravelry thread discussion starts here.

I'm speechless (actually, I have all sorts of thoughts running through my head - a lot of them reminding me that I try very hard to keep my work and knitting lives separate (and that I'm no expert in intellectual property law) - but nothing that I'm ready to share). Time to get back to work . . .

What do I do with this?

I've finished my latest spinning project a couple of weeks ago and gave it a bath last weekend. It's lovely, really lovely. The dye just glows on this particular fiber and I can tell that the future knitted fabric will have great stitch definition and drape.

So why the hesitation?

I have 340 yards of roughly dk-weight (yes, I know I really should start thinking of this in wpi) 2-ply Wensleydale. Sheen, drape, and stitch definition are all well-known qualities of Wensleydale fibers but did you notice what descriptor was missing? That's right - soft. This is not yarn for next-to-the-skin wear.

So it'll probably become some sort of accessory. Right now I'm thinking socks - the sort of nice, maybe cabled, boot socks worn over sock liners so I wouldn't have to worry about the scratchy bits. An iPad case has also come to mind but that doesn't seem quite right. Thoughts?

Regardless of what the finished product turns out to be, this was a really fun fiber to spin. 

Elizabeth gave me a gentle nudge about a year ago when she suggested that I really should try this fiber again. I'd spun up a braid of Fleece Artist Wenselydale/Teeswater (in green, of course) several years ago and had mixed feelings about the experience. The spinning itself was a breeze but I discovered that I couldn't fix any mistakes while I was going. My attempts to tease and stretch out thick slubs in the singles turned into a wadded mess - an unpleasant contrast to the smooth and sleek "untouched" singles.

When I started this project (a 5 ounce bump of Wensleydale top dyed by Chris of Briar Rose, who I just discovered has a new lace yarn in my favorite shade of green, but I digress), I was leery of trying to fix mistakes. It's actually kind of freeing to tell yourself that you'll take whatever yarn comes along and not worry too much about the little imperfections since they all even out in the end. But if you are a bit of a perfectionist like me, ignoring what should be fixable mistakes is tough to do. So I tried fixing a thick spot (pinching the singles above and below the problem section, untwisting the fibers, and gently tugging (re-drafting) the fibers to achieve the desired thickness) and it worked! It looks like my hang-up with Wensleydale was an issue with the fiber preparation of the first top I tried, not with the fiber itself. 

I'm absolutely thrilled to discover this since Wensleydale takes dye beautifully and its long staple length makes it a quick and easy fiber to spin. Now if only I could figure out what to do with it!

(Shoot, remember that green lace yarn I linked to above? I can't seem to get it out of my head. There's a particular Anne Hanson giant lace shawl that I've been mooning over for years that I think would look really lovely in this particular shade of green. The two skeins that Chris has in stock would be perfect for it . . . )

Random Thursday

This was going to be a Tadpole Tuesday post but then something came up at work and suddenly now it is Thursday evening. How did that happen?

Since I have had all sorts of random knitting/blog ideas percolating in my head over the last week, rather than try to organize them into something coherent (or probably the several somethings that it would take to do that), I thought I'd do today's post in random bullets. There will be (Tadpole!) pictures at the end, I promise.

• I really need to figure out balance. That's a whole blog post (or series of blog posts) by itself but I need to figure out some way to keep up blogging with my unpredictable schedule. When I'm really busy at work, I tend to get all sorts of great ideas popping into my head throughout the day but barely have time to jot them down, never mind actually implement them or write a blog post about it. And when things slow down, I'm recovering from the busy parts and just want to sit and knit and haven't figured out how to motivate myself to sit down and write (especially when I have weeks' worth of ideas backed up and don't know where to start).
• This includes responding to comments. My apologies to everyone who left comments on my last post. I truly enjoyed reading all of them and I hope to write individual replies soon.
• Blankets. I know I just finished two big blanket projects and I really want to make more. This is the one I saw today that made me want to head home early and start knitting. And, of course, there is this one by the same designer. I'm going to stop here or I'll never get around to knitting this evening.
• I'd really like to be working on a bigger project right now. I just have a couple of small things (mostly socks) on the needles and I'm itching for something more substantial.
• I don't really want to plan (or swatch) for something right now. I just want to knit it! (Yes, I know that's an unproductive approach to take.)
• So I've been knitting toddler things since they're small and don't really need swatching (as long as I overestimate how big the piece will be, it'll fit at some point).
• I've started and nearly finished two pieces but both have serious issues. 
• The vest that I worked up over the weekend (no picture yet - the sun had gone down too far by the time I thought of taking one this evening) has a neck opening that doesn't fit over Tadpole's head. I need to unpick the shoulder seams and re-do the fronts. And maybe add a placket in the back to be on the safe side.
• The little sweater that I started a couple of weeks ago, a modified Summer Days, has all sorts of issues:
• I ran out of yarn. I have enough to do the neck band but not the button bands. I don't think. I suppose I could just run an applied i-cord edging around the fronts and neck. Or I could frog some of the bottom ribbing to get more yarn.
• But the sleeves are just a bit too puffy for my taste. So I'm not sure how much effort I want to spend saving this one or if I should just frog the whole thing and make something new. that's where I'm leaning right now.

What do you think? (And yes, she's modeling the sweater over her PJs.)

FO: Girasole

This has been a good week for me in terms of turning WIPs in my knitting basket into FOs. First, there was the hap blanket that I made for tadpole and finished a week ago. And this past weekend I finished up Girasole, which I had started while on vacation in Texas last December.

Five months is actually a pretty respectable WIP time for a piece like this. Sometime last week I realized that the end was in sight on this project. Between a day of watching training webinars for work and some extra time at home thanks to the NATO summit this past weekend, I was able to finish up the last repeat of the lace charts and work the border. For the record, that's a really long border.

Specs:
Pattern: Girasole by Jared Flood
Yarn: 1 skein of Briar Rose Legend (this was a 1400 yard skein - I'm pretty sure Legend is now available only in 700 yard skeins)
Needles: assorted size 6 circular needles
Mods: I didn't change the pattern at all (unusual for me, I know) but I did use magic loop for the center of the blanket as opposed to the DPNs suggested by the pattern.

In terms of knitting experience, this was a really fun knit. The different lace patterns were all interesting to work and never went on so long that I got tired of any particular design. Ok, the last rows are really, really long but the pattern repeats themselves were pretty short. And the border itself was enjoyable to knit (a very important attribute when I probably spent 6-8 hours on the knitted on border alone).

It's funny, I really expected that I would have more to say about this one. I spent five months working pretty steadily on this blanket (if you define "pretty steadily" as picking it up at least once a week, or thereabouts). It's a lovely finished product. The hand painted yarn was a great fit for this lace - the color changes don't overshadow the stitches at all. And tadpole likes it, too.

So what's my problem? I think my shoulders still carry the knots from blocking the blanket (I pinned each and every point on the edging). Plus, I didn't make the blanket into a perfect circle (yes, I know I'm being picky on this one). And I think secretly wished that blocking would turn the yarn into a woolen-spun heather. Like this.

But I love seeing the blanket thrown casually over the arm of the couch, waiting for someone to curl up underneath it. Or two someones. Perhaps even three.

Is it an example of the perfect blanket? No. But it is a blanket that will be used and loved for that. Function trumps form here. And the form is pretty good, too.

That's a lot of garter stitch

This project had been on the needles for a while but I finally finished it and gave it to Tadpole as a mother's day gift (hobbit style) last weekend. A quick check of my ravelry notes revealed that I cast on for this blanket in October of last year. I know I worked on this one for a while but I didn't realize quite how long!

It's a little tough to see in these photos (since I opted to unpin the blanket and get it off the island before breakfast and completely forgot to snap a blocking shot) but this is a square hap blanket.

Specs:
Yarn: 3 skeins of Knitting Notions Classic Merino Lace in ironstone and 1 skein of Knitting Notions Classic Merino Lace in thyme. I used just about every yard of the yarn. I was so close on the darker blue/green, in fact, that I had to frog the bind-off halfway through the second side when I realized that I didn't have enough yardage left to complete the edging. In other words, the light piping along the edge was not planned.
Needles: a 32" circular needle for the entire thing, including the i-cord bind-off.
Time to knit: seven months, off and on.
Pattern: . . . does "winging it" count?

Like many of you, I love looking through the BrooklynTweed patterns and I particularly liked the hap blanket design that Jared wrote up over a year ago. Gudrun and Ysolda have published similar patterns.  I found an outline of the basic design in one of my knitting books and decided that I'd try to whip up a working pattern myself (at the very least, the exercise would keep my from caving and buying some Shelter for the project).

Here's the bare bones version (assuming four skeins of yarn, two for the center square and two for the border): Cast on one stitch and, working in garter stitch, *k1f&b, knit to the end of the row, repeating from * until you run out of yarn in the first skein. Join the second skein and *k2tog, knit to the end of the row, repeating from * until you have one stitch left (and presumably are almost out of yarn). Bind off that last stitch. Then pick up and knit along the edges of the garter stitch square you just made, using a ratio of 3 stitches for every 2 garter ridges (in other words: k1f&b in the first garter ridge and k1 in the second, and repeat all the way around).

Now is the one tricky part: figure out what lace pattern you want to use for the border. I used Old Shale, but anything will work. Then calculate the number of stitches you will need for the lace pattern and corner stitches (per side, to make things easy). Subtract from that figure the number of stitches you have on any particular side to determine how many stitches you will need to increase in order to work the lace. Then work a few rows in garter stitch or some other filler pattern and work the necessary increases into those rows. And if you realize (like I did) that you didn't drink enough coffee to count or add correctly when you did that initial calculation, you can always fudge things at the corners on the first few lace rows and it all works out.

Work the lace pattern until you are nearly out of yarn (don't forget to save enough to cast off!) and then bind off using a 2-stitch i-cord.

I made this blanket so that tadpole would have something light to use at night now that spring is here and the nights are getting warmer. That's all well and good in theory, but how did it work out in practice?

Let's compare the new blanket with her current favorite: the Bear Claw:

Getting all dreamy-eyed - she loves this blanket.

Seriously, she really loves this blanket.

What? What's this new thing?

No, really, give me back my Bear Claw!

Here, you take it.

It only took one day and now the new blanket is a big hit. So much so that we can't leave it out during play time since all she wants to do is snuggle with it. Score one for mom on the knitting front.

Back in the saddle

I have had good intentions - very good intentions, even - of writing a blog post for the past month. My internal monologue would go something like this: "I'd really like to write a blog post tonight . . . [a couple/few/several hours of post-baby-bedtime work later] Wow - it's really late! I just want to knit a bit/ crawl into bed." On the plus side, I've actually gotten a fair amount of knitting done when I eschew blogging for knitting in front of netflix or hulu (and I'm definitely meeting my hours requirement at work).

I've also been spinning! And that's the sneak peak that I wanted to show you tonight.

Back in January, Jacey and I did a really fun swap (more on that later when I'm less tired and can actually find the pictures). We each threw in a little extra gift for the other and my surprise from her was a lovely little 2oz braid of Polwarth top. We all enjoyed it!

Look mom- fiber!

Slowly, in stolen moments here and there (and with plenty of "help" from R, who LOVES to play on - and I do mean on - the wheel), it became this:

Actually, the singles are now plied and the skein is sitting on my desk waiting for a bath. Hopefully I can make that happen sometime this week!

Switching gears for a moment here (and then I've really got to get to bed): I've been thinking about what to do with the blog. I love blogging - writing the posts, engaging in follow-up conversations through the comments, and following all of your blogs in return. But with the schedule I've been working for the past  nearly two months, that's not very easy to do (as you can see from my lack of posts). So I'm starting to explore quicker, shorter formats.

I've recently signed up for Instagram and I'm starting to post some knitting pics - and random ones, too - under the username tinksandfrogs. I'm trying to remember to share the knitting ones via twitter. And, when I have a bit more time, I'll set it up to post to the blog, too.

Oh, and I found a fabulous new app for the iPad that makes my scribbles and design ideas look really quite nifty (the sketches, that is).

I still have lots to share, less time to do it in, and some creative work-arounds that are still in the planning stages. Thanks for hanging on this long - stay tuned for more!

A lot

I was having lunch with a friend the other day when she paused for a minute and said: "wow, you have a lot on your plate right now." I could feel a look of panic - that deer in the headlights expression we all know - come across my face as I smiled and replied, "yes, I know." Work has been especially busy this month - in a good way, but overwhelming nonetheless. And it helped me take my mind off some overwhelming things on the personal front, too.

My father died three and a half weeks ago. He had been ill with dementia for a long time, and the man I knew as my father ceased to exist years ago. But my father died, and that hit me harder than I had expected.

I have spent the last three and a half weeks debating how I wanted to talk about this on the blog, if at all. 

On the day he died, before the reality of his death fully hit me, I thought about writing up one of the FO posts that are long overdue. But pretending that nothing had happened felt inappropriate. Because something fundamental had shifted in my world, even though life continued like normal for everyone else.

I've thought about trying to write about what I've been feeling. How I've felt numb, how I haven't wanted to read testimonials that other people have written about my father because the emotions that they brought up have been too raw. How I felt like an interloper at the celebration of his life because much of the focus there was on a part of his life that happened before I was even born. But this is incredibly personal and not something I necessarily want to broadcast for everyone to see.

I've thought about not blogging at all. Just stopping and not writing any more because I don't know quite what to say. My world shifted. Yours didn't. How do I address and acknowledge that?

I'll try this:

My father died. 

There's so much more to it than those three little words but they'll do for now. 

Let me show you one of my favorite projects: a stranded colorwork sweater that I designed and knit up as a gift for my father when I was still in college.

I still have all of the leftover yarn from this project (Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering - there's quite a bit of it) and I'm going to design and knit some sort of jumper or dress for tadpole. There's no way I'd be able to have it finished in time for her birthday in two weeks so she'll get her inauguration into the grand Tinks and Frogs tradition of receiving the promise of a handknit as her gift. Somehow I don't think this will work too well once she's old enough to understand the concepts of birthdays and presents so I'd better take advantage while I still can.

Where do we go from here?

I have four FOs to show you - Catkin, Stripe Study, Millwater (a lovely infinity scarf), and another pair of my favorite Gentlemen's Shooting Stockings with Fluted Pattern. Mr. Tinks and Frogs has a promised sweater design that I haven't talked about yet. I've made progress on Girasole. I'm organizing the stash and there will be some yarn giveaways.

So expect some random posts as I try to catch up and move forward. I haven't felt up to commenting on blogs for the past month but I'm getting there. I wasn't even reading them for a while (it felt like cheating to read where I normally comment when I knew I wasn't in a place where I could write anything in return) but I've taken that up again in the past week and I'm almost caught up.

It's a process, right?