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Independence Day

I have my straw hat, flipflops, my knitbloggersread Life of Pi, and half a seedless watermelon waiting in the icebox. Oh. And bug spray. So I'm going to do some sunny day knitting today and then watch some fireworks tonight. Here are tips for photographing fireworks, courtesy of The New York Institute of Photography.

I ran myself completely into the ground yesterday accomplishing everything except getting my Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan advanced to the shoulders. And then last night there was a mosquito in my bedroom pestering the doggies and me. When I finally was able to find and swat vindictively, my bedroom looked like a crime scene. All that rain this spring has made our mosquito population particularly vicious. I tell you this in hopes that you'll forget that I promised an update photo today ('cause I don't have one). Monday, fer sure!

Have a good holiday weekend. See you on Monday!

Special Project

Remember my guild project, The Special Afghan for a Special Person, that I told you about? (See the June 6 entry in my archives to see the handspun skeins.) Last night we visited our weaver's home to check its progress (bonus! she kindly served us homemade lemonade with homemade chocolate cake!).

Louise had warped her big loom with our skeins:

Then she began weaving

Louise has a computer hooked up to her loom, an innovation I was unaware of until last night. Pretty high-tech for the craft of weaving, right?

She sampled the warp with white, light gray, dark gray, and black handspun alpaca weft:

And then we had to choose which weft was the fairest of them all. Here's Louise and three beautiful spinners weighing color, value, and contrast.

It was a very tough call but I think we settled on the black weft. It's going to be pretty, isn't it?! And you should feel it; the wool warp plus the alpaca weft is simply luscious to the hand.

I'm off to a late start today, so I'll rush forward into my schedule and promise a photo of the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan progress tomorrow. Thanks, Lola, for carrying the ball in my comments!

Have a great Thursday; I'll see you tomorrow!

Short-Row Wednesday

Hiho! We had a winner early yesterday morning in the form of Swatchy! I love her attitude toward the question I posed. "Good Morning. Here's how I would do it. Knit including the last stitch that is not grey. It looks like the one with the + symbol. Wrap, turn, slip. Notice that on the next row up, you have another stitch in the + color but it is one stitch in. Start the next row there."

Isn't that totally authoritative? I love it, and am doing exactly as Swatchy would do. (By the way, go check out the beautiful Arum she is working on, okay?)

The important thing about this bit of short-row stuff is that to make the knitted-in border angle at the neck-shaping, you have to build up the side of the design that is closest to the border on each front.

Notice the border in this little cropped photo...it goes straight up the front, then turns the corner very sharply. That's from the short-rows.

The other important thing to keep in mind is that you don't want to mess up the motifs. So Swatchy's solution is perfect, and the one I'm going to use today to finish up the body of the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan.

Thank you, Swatchy! Please send me your mailing addy (and color preference) so that I can send you some gratitude in the form of Opal sock yarn! Lola, better print this out for your working copy!

Little Jack sends Swatchy a big kiss, too!

Happy Wednesday, everyone...see you tomorrow with an update GLMC photo!

Thoughtful

We're feeling thoughtful here today.

(We had a Look-Thoughtful Contest this morning...Jack won.)

We have arrived at the neck shaping on our Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan, wherein we work two sets of short rows to angle the beginning of the corner.

We KNOW how to work short rows, especially the wrap-kind, because we are sock-knittin' fools here, but we are unsure where to turn around in the GLMC. We could call Schoolhouse Press again, because they are always helpful, but we are afraid we are turning into the Peskiest.Customer.Ever.

Here's a photo of the chart, with the two gray rows representing No Stitches.

First knitter to tell me (so that I understand) where to correctly turn around to angle my V will win a 100 gram ball of Opal in a pattern of my choosing...any takers?

Slow News Day

Here's a recipe for something called Silk Road Salad, taken from the online version of the Moscow Times. Who knew?

Wishing you a wonderful Tuesday!

Armsteeks-R-Us

Yes! I'm up past the armholes, and about two inches from the neck shaping! Check it out, paying particular attention to my beautifully aligned underarm design:

I heard from Meg Swansen in one of my emails to the Schoolhouse that lifting your arm to show off the patterned underarm is known as The Camp Salute by her Knitting Campers. I think it's a great name, and I think someday I'd like to attend one of those camps, maybe just to give the Authentic Camp Salute.

Here's a picture of the whole thing, which contains my expectation that I'll be able to finish this in just a few knitting-days:

I love it! It's a fun design to knit, because a) the motifs are so rythmical, and b) it's just gosh-darn pretty. I love the colors because they are a cheerful change from the blacks and dark colors I usually knit. I'm eager to begin the arms, because they are picked up in pattern and knitted down, thus ensuring the mysterious and beautiful Uninterrupted Motif. Sweet!

Roots

No, not my hair. But where I came from years and years (and years and years) ago . . . Laura posted a photolog entry on Saturday of her most recent trip to Beeville, where our mom lives. Check out my mom's deer herd, digitally captured by my beautiful sister.

Wendy

Do you think she misses blogging like we miss her blog? When will she come home to us? Thank heavens I have my mug. Although I do tend to stare at it rather stoopidly around this time of Wendyblog-less day. (Stare.) Yup.

Della says Have A Fabulous Monday! Stay cool, wherever you are.