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Katinkered out

I came home Wednesday night after class ready to finish the yoke of the lopapeysa Katinka, but realized that I was off that one blasted critical all-important stitch that wrecks a stranded knitting project faster than you can say lopapeysa. Because I'm knitting this on US 10 needles, though, the stitches are large (duh!), so I will run a long US 4 through all the well-behaved stitches and then rip back, back, back.

That means we don't have a lot of knitting content to discuss today. I'm okay with that, though, because when I read through my comments from Wednesday, I have a dozen reasons to smile. You are the best and funniest readers! Who knew so many of you sang to your pets? I think it's wonderful! I'd like to cook something delicious and Icelandic for each and every one of you. Well, I'd like to, but when I began consulting Icelandic recipes, I found things like this, and this and this. Maybe I'll just give you these links to exciting Icelandic websites, okay?

Beautiful. Scenes from Iceland, including Northern lights. It's a virtual vacation!

Diverting. Icelandic graffiti. Cross-cultural!

Disturbing. Traditional Icelandic recipes. Note to self: Pack Clif Bars when we go a-wandering to Iceland.

Enjoy!

Speaking of enjoyable, this arrived Wednesday afternoon from the spectacularly talented Banjo Girl, via Rachael, in response to the fiddle sweater from Wednesday's entry:

That's Harriet, Banjo Girl's dachshund-cocker cross, starring in the beautifully-knit sweater to end all sweaters. Am I right? Is that hilarious? Plus there's the genius-level artistic irony. Thank you, Lala! We link to your delightful blog with pleasure!
[Editorial Update 6:35 a.m—Not Harriet, but Miss Idaho, the chihuahua...our apologies to both Harriet and Miss Idaho! But we're stilll laughing and laughing!]

The pups and I laughed and laughed!

We hope you find an excuse to laugh and laugh today! Knit happy, and happy Thursday!

I love to go a-wandering

Like Dame Edna, I love to go a-wandering, especially when I don't have much time to knit. Tuesday night I have papers due, and so I rarely pick up the project in progress. As you recall, it's the lopapeysa Katinka, and so I've been a-wandering the internet for information on this centuries-old design. And I love to share! Val-deri, Val-dera:

A wonderful journal of contemporary Iceland!

A history of the lopapeysa!

An exciting mitten competition!

Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Iceland is awesome. I'd love to visit and meet some knitters and watch the icebergs.

On to Other Topics

Please. Don't .
Dear me. I feel a song coming on.

Pups

The Happy Wanderer is one of the pups favorite songs; I often sing it to them and they bark at the Val-deri! parts. Their other favorite song for barking is Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing (Bark, Bark Bark, Bark Bark). Go figure. Anyway, after a day at work and an evening writing papers and doing research, we all feel a bit tense and have a nice sing to relax. What? You do something different?

Happy wandering, happy knitting, and happy Wednesday, possums!

Katinka-ing

Katinka-ing sounds so much more musical than #1201-ing. I think I'll acquiesce to whoever renamed this Lopi pattern and call it Katinka myself. We simply knit round and round at this point:

I'm enjoying finishing this sweater; of course I can never ever wear it here, but I'll send it off to the north and let it make someone I love cozy in the coming winter. These sweaters are so much fun to knit that I'm considering an Icelandic cardigan, just for the knitting pleasure! I'm particularly fond of this one.

I had a little free time to check around some of my favorite blogs today, and found a link on Leigh's site that completely WOWed me. It's the most astonishing sweater...it commemorates the expiration of the ban on assault weapons. I thank Leigh for the link, and bow in Lisa Ann's direction. Can you bear it? Isn't it brilliant and moving? Darlings, she did this on a machine!!! Snaps! Woofs!

Back to Leigh...don't miss her beautiful, completed Lavoisier, modeled by her beautiful daughter. Fabulous, the pair! Aren't knitters wonderful? And knitting bloggers are wonderful too...there are a couple I read that break my heart with gladness on a frequent basis. To think that we can read and receive intimations of the resilience of the human spirit through that which some bloggers freely reveal in generous language...well, it simply astonishes me. Just when I think I'm bored sick with blogging and decide to build a farewell 404, I read an entry by someone who is being so gorgeously human that I think I've just gotta stay and see what this blog-stuff brings tomorrow!

Mikey continues to amble down the path to complete health. What a difference a week or two makes. I think the dachshunds get sick like children do; very rapidly, very scarily, and then (usually) Presto-Chango! They're well again. Thank heavens.

Have an excellent Tuesday. We'll be wishing you peace, perfect health, and prosperity.

Katinka

Remember my sweater parts from last week's entry? I spent a big part of the weekend trying to remember what the pattern was and where it might be. I finally got a clue on the Lopi Kits page at Handworks Gallery. Katinka! No wonder I couldn't remember the name! My pattern called it #1201!

Remembering what it looked like helped me remember where it might be. Anyway, after finally finding the pattern, I thought I might as well figure out where I left off, and so joined the sleeves to the body so I could knit a few rounds. What fun Icelandic sweaters are...you knit a few parts, then join it all together on a couple of long big needles, then knit easy two-color patterning through the yoke and then decrease up to the neck. Once you've finished that, all that's left is to graft the underarms and weave in a few ends. Warm and wooly wonderfulness! Those clever Icelanders! Ljómandi hugmynd! A dásamlegur peysa! The Yahoo Group I love is doing an Icelandic-along; I'm pleased to be slightly ahead of the game by dint of being reunited with #1201, erm, Katinka.

Next up is a Festival of Finishing. I have mittens and socks and a vest to complete before I move on to some new projects. It was finding the heap of Sisik that made me think things had gotten a bit out of control, stash-wise, here. Some knitters can handle lots of projects and lots of extra wool, but too many UFOs (unfinished objects) tend to make me fret and feel anxious and wasteful. I must say that I have begun to find the second mitten almost as tedious as a second sock to knit. I don't remember feeling that way with gloves. "Mittens" doesn't have as many possibilities for goofy rhymes, for one thing. Mittens, kittens, schmittens....see? Not as fun as being on the Glove Train.

Pups

After working hard all week, the pups love to just hang out on the porch and relax over the weekend. They seldom chase the neighbor dogs or bark at the mailman on Saturday or tear up their toys over the weekend.

But now it's Monday, so everyone is back on the job.

Q. What's black and tan and wears a mask?
A. The dachsphantom of the opera.

Happy day, happy knitting to you!

How the Hell Are You

How has your week been? Mine has been very unusual...I'm almost never crabby, cranky, grouchy, testy, bored, surly, or grumpy, but this week I've more than made up for all the times that I wasn't any of those things. I was like Seven Mean Dwarves all in one! I even yelled at a kid at graduate school—dear me. He was sitting there quietly, waiting for the lecture to begin and working a crossword puzzle. He looks up, straight at me, and thoughtfully says "What's a five-letter word for a government organization formed in 1947?" and because I'm very sensitive about being one of the oldest schoolchildren ever, I shout "What the hell do I know about 1947? I wasn't there!! Why are you asking me?" Yes. Really. No. I'm not proud of myself.

It's kind of been like that all week. Until Thursday afternoon, anyway, when I had some lovely mail that made me smile and feel as I might make it to Friday after all. First there was a dear little note from Stephanie, and with it, a sheepy magnet. Cute!

Thanks, Stephanie! And! There was also a package from my SPIII partner! Have a look with Della at my new giant tote with retro cowgirls:

Jack shows off the handles:

Isn't it something? I'm speechless! There are even chewies for the doggies! A close-up? Why certainly!

Thanks, Secret Pal!! I felt so much better that I ordered the Hifa 2 shade cards I needed to get ready for Ginny's Poetry-Along!

Reorganize-along

The brilliant Bonne Marie wrote in her 23 September entry of missing some wool she knew she had, and thus doing a little reorganizing until she found the errant skeins to make "Cinnamon" from the Rowan Summer Tweed Collection. I have a bag of Summer Tweed, and I thought I'd knit along with the Boss of All Knitting. But I couldn't find my yarn, so I decided to reorganize-along with her instead. Whaddayaknow? I found all kinds of stuff that I had forgotten! Here is an enormous heap of Sisik, three bags full plus some extra skeins. What was I thinking?

I must have been thinking of "Inverness" and "Aberlady" from Dalegarn Nr 115. Sweet! It will be fun to cast on either one of those. At the bottom of the Sisik bag, there was half of a purple Elizabeth Zimmermann Pi Shawl, still on the needles and ready to go. It will make nice knitting for waiting.

In the Life-Is-A-Mystery category, I found this:

It's a Lopi circular yoke sweater, worked entirely up to the yoke point, with the sleeves ready to go, and with all of my size 6 and 7 Addi Turbos being used as stitch holders. Unfortunately, there is no corresponding pattern to go along with the sweater parts. Isn't that strange? I cannot fathom why I would abandon this type of sweater after I had arrived at the fun part. Most curious. I seem to remember a willowy woman leaning against rocks and wearing this sweater with a matching hat. Hmmm. Anyone?

And yes! I did find the Summer Tweed!

Pups

Like me, all the furry ones are happy it's Friday with a weekend coming. The days go by fast, but they are long, and so jam-packed with urgent activity that I've felt very stressed this week. Whew! I'm glad we are on the downside of this hectic month.

Della has some tough love for you today.

We wish you a happy Friday and a lovely weekend!

How did I miss this?

Via the always wonderful and well-informed Cynthia, Sock Dogs.

Regular Dogs

Sister's Apple is too fast for my camera lens. In this photo you see Jack being buzzed by a bird? a plane? No! It's Apple, the happy chihauhau! More photos at Laura's blog.

cheers, and happy Wednesday!

La di dah--Short Rows

Now that I understand the knitting beast known as short-row toes, I feel surprised that it was so difficult for me to grasp the concept. Last night I looked at my knitting after racing through a short-rowed toe and heel and thought: Hunh. What was so hard about that?

I don't understand how something so simple could be so difficult to grasp--it was difficult for me, but now I wonder how I ever made socks otherwise :-)

Behold the socks in progress:

This is some of the Outback wool that Elann offered recently, knit on needles four sizes smaller than suggested. The cool thing is that on the straightaway part of the knitting, it's making pink and blue snakes. Snakes Snakes Snakes! If only varigated yarn would do something like this reliably! Think of the possibilities!

And here, for those new members of the knitting blog ring that may have missed it the first time, Le Barf-Glob:

Ewww. We've got a big one here.

What's next? Back to gloves and mittens? The unfinished vest? Nope. Susan of I'm Knitting as Fast as I Can left the link to another short-row-type sock recipe, and I'll have to try it, because I'm just that way.

Pups

The pups are looking forward to some cooler weather; it has been nearly unbearably steamy and hot here the past week. I wish they wouldn't say the "feels-like" temperature on the weather report...the actual numbers are bad enough.

Tuesday. Little Jack says What You Talking About Willis?

Cheers, and happy knitting!

Short Row Satisfaction

Even though Emma very kindly told me to stop, I just had to try a few more times for tidy toes on short-rowed toe-up socks. I bumped both my needle size and wool thickness up so I could easily see exactly what was happening, and now I am satisfied with short rows.

By practicing both Wendy's generic toe-up sock start and the PG-R technique from Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy (ISBN: 0966828941), I gained two new tools for working with short rows, and I feel quite clever in learning something so useful, so well! Toe-up socks seem to knit up faster, I suppose because of the lack of fiddly increases and decreases and gussets. Working toes and heels with short rows creates possibilities for bulls-eyes on heels and toes. I like it.

SockWatch!

Sock excitement! Can you stand it? You'll want to keep an eye on Nanette's wonderful blog over the next week or so. By my count, she's got pairs nine and ten on the needles. I think she is going to make her goal of 12 pairs of beautiful socks in one month!

No-Socks Watch!

Sister and I were wondering if we should ask Nanette to design some toeless socks—like fingerless gloves, but for feet. We found a new and relatively inexpensive nail salon in our neighborhood, and we got nearly matching pedicures as a girly-treat for the hard work we did last week.

Yes! It *is* blue nail polish. The designs on our toenails were each hand-painted in about 30 seconds by a very nice woman who didn't seem bothered at all by the impermanence of her art work. To design and paint something that will be removed in a week or two with nail polish remover is perhaps akin to Tibetan Buddhist sand paintings, or chalk drawings on a sidewalk, or blogging without archives, or creating fine art on an etch-a-sketch. In our context, imagine knitting a pair of lace socks or gloves, to be worn once, and then unravelled. Beauty designed/destined to be discarded——what a concept! I suppose if you trusted without doubt there would always be more supplies, and always more personal creativity, and always more engaging designs, then you wouldn't mind, not even for a moment, that your art was going to disappear under a soaked cotton swab. I like the idea of having the degree of faith necessary to re-create, and I think I'll cultivate it. Frog that project! You know you can knit one equally fine, and that you have plenty of time and creativity to do so. :-)

Pups

Fine and frisky! Everyone furry had a happy weekend chasing squirrels and barking at the dog across the street.

Monday Monday Monday! Chase those metaphorical squirrels! (Please do some warm-up stretches first.)

Cheers, and happy knitting!

Knit-Blogger Bliss

Meeting knit-bloggers in person is so extraordinary; it's so curious to know and enjoy someone without having ever met them. I think when you have an opportunity to meet a knit-blogger, conversation leaps past the shy bits that happen when you meet a new *ordinary* person. With knit-bloggers, you just dive right into the good stuff.

Thursday night, my local yarn shop was the meeting place for four knit-bloggers I know that I hadn't met. Wot larks, Pip! You can meet them too! Here are the charming traveling Chelsea and the multi-talented knitting-crocheting-programming-chorale singing-Cyndilou.

Here you see Chelsea and Cyndilou and two of the most brilliant, beautiful, and genuine bloggers in Austin, both with the dachshund seal of approval: Susan and her sister Karen.

Am I lucky or what? We even had my favorite macrobiotic dinner! (If you select this link, you can make your own walnut sauce.)

Nourishing food shared with nourishing friends—what a lovely combination, and what a lovely evening. Next time, please join us. A national knit-blogger meet-up would be an amazing event, wouldn't it?

Oh! I almost forgot! I don't go out a lot lately because I have work to do in every waking hour. Meeting knit-blogger pals in public gave me the opportunity to wear my stylin' new hand-tied amber-fly earring. Isn't it fabulous? I love it! I imagine you quite nearly mad with envy!

By the way, amber has her new house photos up! Go look!

Obsessive-Compulsive Short Rows Disorder

I am obsessed with the idea of creating invisibly short-rowed toes in socks. I've ripped and ripped and ripped, and then I ripped some more. So far, this is the best yet, and I still think it looks pretty sloppy. Are the wraps going to show no matter how much I keep knitting and wrapping and ripping?

I get the idea, I like the concept, I tighten up my work on the ends to the point of no fun at all, yet it looks pretty cross-hatched by the wraps. Still, we relentlessly wrap on toward perfection. (If it doesn't really get much better looking than this, someone please tell me so I can stop.) By the way, thank you all for comments and emails on toe-up socks! If you don't mind, I think I'll compile them and provide a link here.

Pups

All pups are better and better!

Little Jack reminds you that Time Flies like an Arrow; Fruit Flies like a Banana.
Carpe contextum! Happy Friday! Wag your Tail! and Have a lovely weekend.

How Very Kind . . .

You all are! Thank you for the virtual pets and pats and ear-scratches and hugs for Mike, and thank you for sharing your own stories. He is definitely on the mend, and stronger every day. Yesterday he even felt like standing around in the yard with Jack, Della, Apple, and Dyna:

But mostly he still likes being comfy on his blanket.

Mike is better and better and we are very grateful.

News Flash!

The new Wool Gathering is out! My issue arrived in Monday afternoon's mail, and I think it is fabulous! It's a pullover that Meg Swansen has dubbed "Stylized Scribble." It's a knitted Rorschach! You can see a color photo on the front page of the Schoolhouse Press website, and read details. WooHOO!

Snookered by Short Rows

When I posted my last entry, I referenced Elizabeth Zimmermann's remark about knitting on through all crises, and typing it seemed to return me to my knitting sensibilities. I Decided I Needed Some Mindless Knitting. Coincidentally, I also need some socks. And as if I needed further encouragement, I've been having a grand time watching Nanette churn out gorgeous socks at an amazing rate. So I decided Monday to conquer the short-row toe-up sock.

:-(

So far I've knit and ripped five toes. Here's a photo of the best one (with apologies to dial-up users):

There are holes!!! And the wraps look like Knitted Death on a Cracker!!! I started with Wendy's excellent Generic Pattern. Great pattern, and her socks turn out beautifully. My sock toe couldn't get past the double-wrap without looking like it had eyelets knitted in. So I turned to Priscilla Gibson-Robert's books, and tried her method of wrapping. Fewer eyelets, but the wraps seem to be very obvious. Flor doesn't knit up the wraps, so I tried that too, with sad results.

Okay! Give. What's the secret to tidy toes in a toe-up sock? Knit the wraps? Don't knit the wraps? Conservative wraps as per PG-R? I like the concept of toe-up socks very much. Is it simply a matter of practice? Looking at my toe above, I wouldn't even give it to myself for a present...it's that sloppy. (But isn't the wool pretty? Lorna's Laces "Black Purl"--yum!) If you are a toe-up knitter, will you please send tips/tricks/the secret handshake? I'll be very appreciative.

All-righty! Time for work! Oh! I think I'm going to get to meet this knit-blogger in person on Thursday! Cool! Cyndilou? Susan? Yentala? Care to join us?

Cheers, y'all, and Happy Tuesday. Thanks again for your many kind and very helpful words.

Mikey Comes Home

We had a puppy-scare last week; Mike was in and out of the doggy-hospital for the better part of the week (although it felt like the worst part of the week here at home). He had a severe internal inflammation that affected his liver and pancreas and stomach. I won't plague sensitive readers with all the details, but will say there was lots of pain and blood involved. He finally turned the corner Saturday morning, and by late Saturday afternoon, I was able to bring him home. Jack and Della were as overjoyed to see him as I was, and my heavens! he was glad to be home. Here's one of the booboos he wants to show you:

Here he is telling Della about his ordeal:

and here is Della after hearing the gory details:

Poor Mikey! I guess everyone likes to talk about their hospital visit, even pets. We are very very glad he is home and will willingly listen to the dramatic tale of dachshund trauma from him over and over again! I never thought I would get to be my age and turn into one of those silly women who treat their dogs/cats/hamsters like children, but I tell ya! You get very attached to them when they are your constant companions.

Unlike Elizabeth Zimmermann, who could "Knit On, with Confidence and Hope, through all Crises," I found that I could barely knit at all. It took me most of the week to add several inches of gauntlet to the Allsorts Mitts by A. Zilboorg.

I'm at the point where I am knitting a fringe around the cuff. I think it's the most difficult and tedious manuever I've ever attempted, knit-wise. Very slow going, as you wrap the yarn around your index finger three times to form the loops, then knit through that wrap-around all around, then on the next round, through the back loops.

The gauntlet is being knitted particularly in honor of Paula, Adriana, Nanette, Geane, and Dot, all of whom hipped me to the purpose and utility of gauntlets. By the way, Dot has finished her Adult Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann, all in homespun yarn. You should take a look! Fabulous!

A quick note regarding the butterfly chart from last Tuesday's entry. I don't know if this book can be obtained in the US. It's from 1947, all in Finnish, and there is no ISBN. Minna would be able to supply more information than I would, simply because she tracked my copy down for me. It's a great book! If you are really stuck on the butterflies, you could chart them from my photos. Intrepid book-seekers can find the information Minna gave me on the book in my blog entry of 2 September.

Ho! Isn't it swell to have your loved ones all together, and your wool wound and ready to go, and your needles all sorted and organized by size? We wish you a week filled with happiness and gratitude and good knitting!

Buttering Fly

Errm...fluttering by. I couldn't wait to see how the butterfly mittens from the book Minna found for me, Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia, would work out. So I grabbed the nearest wool, in this case Lorna's Laces "Vera" and some generic black Norwegian wool and cast off, well, on. You know what I mean. The thing about a charted pattern like this one is that it is difficult to put down; after all, each completed round brings you closer to a butterfly! And any knitting that is difficult to put down generally goes very quickly.

Behold the butterflies!

A stripey back with a nearly invisible thumb:

And a Kihnu vits-braid from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush:

This design has tons of possibilities. Minna mentioned doing a pair in lilac and cream. I wanted to think about black butterflies here, but with another pair, I think I'd use handpaint for the butterflies. We like it.

Now. Back to the gauntlets on my Allsorts Mittens from last week. I was very interested in the comments about gauntlets from those of you who live where winter matters. A gauntlet sounds like a very useful thing to have in Novia Scotia, for instance. And here all along I was thinking they were simply some kind of wacky fashion statement! Thanks for the enlightenment!

And, while I'm saying thanks to those who wear gauntlets, let me thank the rest of you dears who left comments regarding my blogging schedule. You are all so kind—thank you for your thoughts! I'm going to go with the majority and blog whenever I can. Thanks for checking on me and the pups! An aggregator like Bloglines or such will keep you in the know and up-to-date. Again, thank you for your very generous comments.

Oh! I have a Secret Pal! This page is for her. You know, I don't think of myself as a secretive or mysterious personality, but I found it difficult to commit myself to hypertext...perhaps I should work up one of those 100 Things about Me, just for the exercise in disclosure.

Pups

Our air conditioning quit over the holiday weekend (does it quit any other time?) so the pups and I were pretty grumpy until it was repaired by the emergency repair-guy. Once we had chilled for a while, though, it was time to play again. Mikey entertained his cousins, Dyna and Apple.

What good dogs!

For many of us, it's a return-to-work day. Before I flutter by, I'd like to send positive vibrations to our knitting pals in Japan. Be well, be careful. Let us know what you need.

Cheers! Happy Tuesday!

Hiho, Thursday

Hello darlings, I am finding it more and more difficult to maintain the blog while doing a Yentala (working fulltime and going to school fulltime). This semester is much more demanding than last. I don't think I'm ready to abandon blogging, but I do think I'm going to have to establish a particular couple of days to blog. Is there a preference for when you like to read? What about Mondays and Thursdays? Sundays and Fridays? May we have an informal poll? Thank you! And in the meantime, if you install an aggregator, you'll be notified when this blog is updated.

Knitting

I can't decide if my mitten is or is not almost finished.

I could stop right here and add a nice double round of EZ's applied I-cord. But. The original, in Magnificent Mittens by Anna Zilboorg, has a pretty gauntlet cuff with round motifs. I'm not quite getting the concept of gauntlets. As with all knitted things, I may go ahead and knit it as per the original design just to see if I like wearing gauntlet mittens. I am afraid of falcons deciding to perch on me. Is that a reasonable neurosis?

Reading

By way of the Marvelous Minna and her blog, A Little Knitting Blog, a trade took place a couple of weeks ago and my share arrived earlier this week. Minna found an old second-hand Finnish mitten book that has 100 Finnish mitten charts, and now, thanks to the Post Office and Minna's generosity, I have a copy too! The book is softcover, and has about 20 pages of forewords in Finnish, then all kinds of grand mitten charts that have color indications noted at the bottom of each page. Minna very kindly made a little glossary for me of Finnish color names and basic knitting terms and included it with my package. It's a wonderful little book! If you want to seek one out for yourself, the author is Eeva Haavisto, and the title is Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia, published by WSOY in 1947. Good luck! This chart will be my first mitt, I think:

Isn't it sweet? Butterflies! Yay!

Pups

Pups are rolling right along toward the weekend, of which we will have three days. After their hectic happy weekend with the kids, they are ready for a weekend at my speed, which in this case will mean lounging about and looking at wool and generally regrouping. The days after a visit from the children always feel as if we have forgotten something.

O Happy Thursday! We wish you a most pleasant one!