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Mix and Match

Heads-up! There's not a lot of knitting content here today!

Della and Dyna stayed too long at agility class and so our regularly scheduled knitting took a back seat to Good Canine Citizenship.

However, I did think about several knitting-related things.

First, I think I've decided on buttons for Flora. What's your take on this one?

I like the way the scrolly floral-bits echo the scrolly-Flora-bits. But it's so hard to decide on buttons. I might decide that I just want Flora-background-colored ones.

In other random thoughts, I was looking at this site about psanky and was thinking that those Ukranians really know a thing or two about design. This one

reminds me of Marianne Isager designs. Isn't it amazing the way geometrical designs travel through time and cultures?

And for additional mental diversions, many of you left comments about Baby Surprise Jackets Thursday that really set my knitting-mind in motion. Who around the blog-ring needs a baby jacket? I don't have any babies to knit for.

Finally, a question from Angela about what I used to make the Scribble Lace designed by Debbie New, to be found in Unexpected Knitting. The expensive Collinette Point 5 was paired with (blush) cheap crochet cotton from the craft store. Worked perfectly!

Pups

We're all delighted that it's the end of our work week. Mikey says Let the Yodeling Begin!

Enjoy your knitting!

Engage Imagination

I must immediately tell you about the most awesome photo in my new stack of Spun Outs. In Issue 22A, which contains an "Exposition of Fair Isle Jerseys," there is a photo on the flipside of Mary Walker Phillips, Elizabeth Zimmermann, and Barbara Walker all sitting in a row and knitting up a storm. Can you imagine what a day that was? Mind-boggling.

While on the subject of EZ, I read something very interesting on a yahoo list recently; someone had taken heavy mohair and size 15 needles and made a Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) for her 11-year-old daughter, with no significant changes to the pattern directions. That sounds rather like a knitting challenge, doesn't it! How big can a BSJ be made? I'm not sure I'll be able to resist trying to make a BSJ for myself, just to see what happens. If you are unfamiliar with the BSJ, it's the sweater that, in EZ's words "...looks like nothing on earth when you have finished knitting it." But when you sew up two seams, you realize you've created an adorable little jacket with no side or arm seams. You can see an illustration of it if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page.

Gigantic Baby Surprise Jackets. Too Cool.

Flora Update

Moving along slowly and carefully toward the shoulders. I've finished the arm decreases, and will be working my way through the final pattern repeat over the next few days. Here it is, just past the armholes.

The decreases at the arms aren't actually as steep as they look here, and the colors are not quite true. I'll definitely be looking forward to photographing it in natural light, so that you may see how lovely the colors are. And, I'll be glad to have that last pattern repeat finished.

Textile Silly Business

Did you see these odd yet appealing scary clothes? (via Metafilter)

Pups

The pups join me in thanking you for your kind comments yesterday; it was delightful to hear from all of you. Thanks for helping us celebrate our blogdogblog milestone.

Thursday! Mike and Jack say Get Ready!

Cheers, and happy knitting!

A Year of Knit-Blogging

Today's entry marks exactly one year of knit-blogging. What a lot of nice knitters and knit-bloggers I've met, too. This time last year I was working on Laura's Skull Vest, and it didn't occur to me then that I'd still be knit-blogging a year later.

Daily-weekday blogging has added another dimension to my life, I find. It's very different to knitting in public, but it's quite public knitting, isn't it! I know I stay more alert for news about knitting, and for photo-ops about knitting. I keep an eye out for new techniques and interesting designs. I'm always listening for approaching new books about knitting. Taking photos nearly every day has brought an appreciation of the way colors combine in nature, something I didn't think about too much when I worked in the urban Northeast and never wore anything but black. I've gained a lot of inspiration for wooly color combinations by examing the background of dachshund photos. I certainly knit more, because the impetus to show you progress is very strong. And, it's been good discipline for me as a writer to write every day, even if only about knitting and my pups.

I'd like to have written a solution to world hunger; a prayer for world peace; or poetry to rival Rumi's. Instead, I Knit On, as EZ directed, and knit-blog for a half-hour or so each day. With each entry I have felt tremendously supported through my connections to our online community. You've seen me through steeks and gloves and trips to the vet. Thanks for reading, and thanks for the ~1500 comments you've left here over the space of the blogdogblog year.

Flora

I found I was quite relieved when Wendy announced that, once her sleeve was completed, she was setting her Flora aside until 14 April. While this isn't a competition, it would still be unsettling (in a number of ways!) to watch Wendy start and finish a long-sleeved jacket in the same amount of time it took me to knit up to the arm steeks in my version! If knitting were a competitive sport? I think I'd have to have a handicap, as golfers do.

No Flora photo; I'm just past another row of leaves, and knitting slowly up toward the final third of the vest. Credit-where-credit-is-due-Reminder: My version of Flora is from the book A Scottish Garland and was designed by Alice Starmore. The wool is a mixture of vintage Campion and new Jamiesons' shetland.

Pups

Della says Happy blogdogblog Day to all, and to all a good Wednesday.

Treats

An excellent mail day here. But first! A question from Nathania, who is wondering which image of Flora in yesterday's post most accurately represents the real-life colors. The answer: I'm not sure. I think it's actually somewhere in between. Not as purple-y plummy as the pic on the deck chair, and not as bright as the image on the concrete. Both photos were taken within about 10 min of each other toward the end of daylight, so neither is completely true. And of course your monitor is another variable to consider. But I'm working towards the top of the vest now, so I'll try to get a nice shot in daylight soon.

Now. About the excellent mail. First were the Sandnes accessories booklets that Nanette so easily convinced me I must have. And she was right! Worth the money; get your copy(s) here.

The bonus mail was a package I was waiting eagerly for from Schoolhouse Press. It's a complete set of every issue of Spun-Out, the instructions from sold-out issues of Wool Gathering.

I love everything about Wool Gathering; the format, the designs you won't find anywhere else, the tips, the tricks, and the news of upcoming books. To have all the issues all the way back to Issue 1B, The Baby Surprise Jacket, is a complete treat. The Pelerine! The Badger Afghan and Sweater! The Horde of Hats! Huzzah! They're all here! Now I have this stack of photocopies, and as with Knitter's Almanac, the reading is such a pleasure that I don't actually have to knit anything until I am good and ready. Get this, from Wool Gathering 17 in 1977:

"Dear Knitter, Although I sit writing this under the grateful shade of the white pines of a very hot July 5th, my thoughts lean toward winter and our cooler houses . . ."

Isn't that lovely? "The grateful shade of the white pines"? I love it. And I have a complete stack of EZ writing for Wool Gathering now. I'll stop by Office Max or Staples tomorrow for a secure binder, and then be set for months and months with bedtime reading.

Once, during a very stressful period in my life, I kept Knitter's Almanac on my night table, and never went to sleep without reading soothing pithy directions and digressions for the Snail Hat or the Pi Shawl or mittens or jackets by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I still keep a copy within reach, just in case of emotional emergencies :-) I rate it very high in medicinal and restorative value.

I've noticed the Knitter's Geek Code popping up around the knitting blog circuit; one of the things that tickles me most about this clever bit of code is the "EZ worship quotient." My worship quotient is very high! I love the artistic engineering and innovation that went into EZ designs; what an inventive and exploring mind. The Bog Jacket, for example. Who else would have thought of that and recreated it in garter stitch? I would love to have met her.

Pups

It's Tuesday! Little Jack says Stay As Cute as You Are. The rest of us hasten to add that we are wishing you peace, prosperity, perfect health, and knot-free skeins of wool.

Still Life with Flora

We had some leisurely knitting time this weekend; the weather was fine and the pups and I got some sun.

Doesn't the 1993 Flora Vest look plummy and moody on the arm of our deck chair? We've set the new steeks for the arms, and the neck is decreasing into a polite V. I need to start looking for buttons! Favorite pointers, please.

The part I like most now about stranded knitting is the part I used to fear the most; the dreaded Keeping Continuity in Pattern. Wendy showed blog-knitters her method of keeping on track, though, and with magnets at hand and a photo of the Wendy-way, I've never looked back (really! I never have to look back/count back in the pattern, because it's easy to know where I'm supposed to be). Nowadays I find I like Keeping Pattern Continuity, partly because it's a bit of a mental break from knitting the same motif around and around, and partly because it pleases me that I can do it so easily. Thanks as ever, Wendy!

Pups

The pups spent some quality time outdoors, but we also had to spend some time indoors because of dastardly comment spammers. Sheesh! As of Saturday evening, all comments are closed except on the current entry. Sorry; it's just too much to keep deleting spam comments and rebuilding files. I know this was a big spammer weekend all around the rings. The unusual thing was getting hit hard on last week's entries. Usually comment spammers stick to entries more than 30 days old.

You know what day it is. Mike and Jack say Put your Monday in Motion. Woofs-out, happy knitting!