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Look Book Hook Checkbook

I forgot to tell you yesterday about another upcoming book; it's mentioned in the back of the latest Wool Gathering (#70), from which I'm knitting the Knitted-Stitch Pullover (which will be a cardigan). Here's yesterday's progress, with another big stitch beginning to emerge:

I've add one 14 round repeat since we last looked at this cool pattern. And I repeat another round of praise for this charted design; it's just fun to knit. The designer writes in the pattern directions that she tried to chart a dropped-stitch and a knit-two-together to work into the body, "but that the scale was so large that the joke would have had to be explained." Even without dropped-stitches or K2TOG, it's still a good joke and a clever design. I wish I could get a nice daylight shot of the wool; it's very pretty and not at all dowdy, as it seems to me in the photos I've taken so far. The Rye color is lively with pale yellow and green flecks, and the Marram Green is a vivid complement.

So! About the new book coming. The title seems to tell it all: The Newsletters of Elizabeth Zimmermann, Designs from 1958 to 1968. Dozens of patterns, including EZ's Pillbox, the Baby Surprise Jacket, Footed Baby Longies and Baby Boodies, and the Four-Part Sheepsdown Afgan. No mention of when it will be available other than "Upcoming" but I'm sure it will make nice reading and knitting when it arrives.

Wendy's Ingeborgalong is coming up soon; I'm still so tempted to join! But I think I must save my Dale $$ for the Daletta for NYGÅRD. Choices, choices. We hate multiple choices almost as much as we dislike consequences. But we love Dalegarn Daletta designs. I don't think I've ever seen one I didn't like.

Pups

Della was the most irascible yet at Good Canine Citizen class; is it possible that my little sweet pup doesn't want to be a c-a-n-i-n-e? She planted herself in the tunnel during agility time again, preventing the other dogs from getting to have a turn, and at recall time, she made a beeline for the car. At all other times she was the Dachshund Anvil, and would not be moved. Dyna was simply adorable. Della's favorite part was when we left.

Friday! Della says There's No Place Like Home. We wish you a wonderful day and a merry weekend, whether at home or away. Keep those needles clicking!

Stitch-Enrich

I bought the new issue of Cast On last week when I was picking up my 40-in circular needle; I had time to look at it tonight and there are a couple of very interesting patterns and articles. The best and most interesting is a lacy surplice top by knit-blogger Annie Modesitt. I'm eager to read her book; I always enjoy her patterns. And, in the mail on Wednesday was my new Dalegarn booklet Nr 132 from Bea Ellis, it, too, has some interesting designs, and a veritable bunch of very cute hats. It's a Svale-heavy booklet, but the tanks and hats are very summery-chic. And! Rowan Yarns has a buy-4-back-issues-for- £10.00 happening right now. Oh! And (God Bless) Dover is reissuing Sheila McGregor's Traditional Scandinavian Knitting! It's a great time to be a knitter.

Aren't there a lot of books! I'm completely mad for books, especially books about techniques, or stitch patterns, or charted motifs. My knitting library is just about to outgrow the bookcase in which it resides, in haphazard alpha-ordered splendor. The books that make me curious (but as yet, not curious enough to spend the money on) are the ones about knitting as a spiritual practice. I wish I got that; I'd like more spiritual exercises in my life. But I think of knitting as an engaging hobby; as a relaxing type of mental work that measures out my free time in inches knit. Like working the The Times crossword puzzles, only the result is something wooly and wonderful you get to wear, rather than inky fingertips. I never think of working The Times crossword as a sutra or mantra. Is that horribly Prufrockian of me? When I observe my progress on the Knitted-Stitch cardigan (from Wool Gathering 70), I feel satisfaction, but I don't think I feel a Zen moment. I do feel rather regretful about being, evidently, a knitting philistine. But I'm quite glad that there are so many new books, and new yarns, and new ideas. And knitting blogs, of course.

No photos today for the Meg Swansen or Elizabeth Zimmermann designs, I've worked on both, but forgot to recharge the camera batteries. Not very meditative on my part, right?

Pups

It's the pups' eagerly anticipated Thursday, when Geoffrey comes over for belly-rubs galore, and then Della and Dyna and Sister and I go to Good Canine Citizen class.

Little Jack is looking forward to not being a Good Canine Citizen. We all say Happy Thursday! Thank you very much for stopping by!

Surprise

I had time to wait on Tuesday and so there was time to knit. I'm traveling with the Adult Surprise Jacket by E. Zimmermann, and it's striping nicely. But there sure are a lot of stitches to get back and forth on at this stage. I understand that the Baby Surprise Jacket is so perfectly proportioned that it can be knit on large needles to create the Big Baby Surprise, and would like to try that sometime; I've seen photos and I like it. I also wonder about taking Debbie New's Scribble Lace idea and knitting it on big needles into a Big Baby Surprise. It might be make a very fantastic (and surprising) lacy jacket.

Today's few rows equal more stripes and a bit of progress:

I also worked on my Knitted-Stitch cardigan, but it looks much the same as Monday's photo, so we'll skip that today.

What's new in the Knitting World right now? I'm waiting on Viv Høxbro's book on Shadow Knitting, and also on 1000 Great Knitting Motifs. I'm looking forward to both of these books, because I'm a Høxbro fan, and also because I simply can't get enough of charted motifs. And meanwhile, here in Austin, my workshop on Two-End Knitting with Carol Rhodes, the translator of Two-End Knitting, is happening this coming weekend, and I'm very excited about that. Such a proliferation of knitting books! Hamilton Books has over 50 remaindered titles right now, and while very few of them are up-to-the-minute-current, none of them are very old. Amazing when you think about it—I guess all those cliché-loving journalists are correct: it's not just for grandma anymore! (hee!)

Pups

Della, not to be outdone by racing dachshunds, has been practicing her Elvis impersonation.

Wednesday! Sometimes it's good to be a nothin' but a Hound Dog. Rock and roll, you knitters.

Tuesday Knitting

I've progressed past the beginning of the chart for the Knitted-Stitch Pullover, and the knit-stitches are beginning to appear. This is fun-knitting! I'm at the part of the chart now where I will cruise along on a 14-round vertical repeat up to my desired neck shaping.

The directions say to start the Purl-When-You-Can parts on a one-size-smaller needle, but I was in such a hurry to start seeing the stitches take shape that I completely forgot. I think the bottom "loops" would be rounder had I followed the directive for a smaller needle. However, I'm still delighted with it, and that's what knitting's about, right?

Peg asked if I was knitting this as a pullover or a cardigan—a cardigan is my choice, since I run a little hot these days, and I'm living in a hot spot. I divided the 26-st horizontal repeat in half, added 8 steek stitches, and took off from there (after doing a bit of math for a larger size).

Meg Swansen's designs are unique in that they are so open to interpretation; of course, her mother, Elizabeth Zimmermann, sought to liberate all knitters from patterns and minute directions and from being Blind Followers. I find that's the case with this playful new design, and similar in that respect to the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan (GLMC). You can knit an MS or EZ design in any color, any size; you can vary the neck, the sleeves, the cuffs—what have you—and it will still turn out to be a well-engineered sweater that becomes uniquely your own.

Donna asked about a difficulty-rating for the GLMC, with one at the completely easy end of the scale and five being extremely challenging. The GLMC was my first big colorwork knitting project, and only my third colorwork project. So I give it a 1.5 for me, but experienced color knitters would sail through it at barely a 1, I think. Chery was working on it for a while, but set it aside somewhere around the short-rows on the shoulders, which I cleverly omitted, because I couldn't figure out how to do them gracefully. So, the shoulder bits might be challenging, if you do them as Meg Swansen did them. If you do them as I did them, by ignoring them, the design is as simple as pie :-)

As you can see, I'm doing my Knitted-Stitch sweater in two colors, but Nathania's comment re: yesterday's photo (that the charted stitches resembled spirals at that point) made me think how awesome this sweater could be if done in a colorway like the Donegal sweater by Alice Starmore (this one knit by one of our Japanese knitting friends). And, as I mentioned yesterday, somehow a Meg Swansen design doesn't feel like knitting-work, as some designs do, at least to me. Flora, for example, is a beautiful, painterly design, and it's a vest I will enjoy very much. But the actual knitting of the thing started to feel like work after the first pattern-repeat was finished—I couldn't seem to get into a comfortable rhthym with the knitting for that, but of course that may have been just my state of mind at the time. This project, the Knitted-Stitch sweater, already has me hooked with its repeating, mirrored, cheerful, clever chart. The Mimbres Vest was like that too, in that the motifs felt familiar to my fingers, and thus it felt easy to knit.

Pups

How swell that so many of you saw the clip on weinerdog races and thought of us! Thanks! That made me smile. Buda is a small town just south of Austin, and unbeknownst to us, they've been holding dachshund races for seven years. Even though we've missed this year's races, I'm still sorely tempted to buy one of these Weinerstock tees.

Dachshunds are funny when they get excited and run fast-fast-fast. We refer to it as Turbo-Dachshund-Mode around here. Little Jack demonstrates; you'll have to imagine the crazy-figure-eights he runs:

Tuesday! We hope your knitting is at the soothing stage. Have a great day.

We Get By

Our yarn shortage goof was easily resolved by way of Kate's comment Friday on the charm of the Adult Surprise Jacket. It is a charming design, and that is the whole point of it! I have 20 skeins of Noro Kureyon no. 71, and 14 skeins of no. 57. Both colors are discontinued, and since they share some colors, I'm going to combine them in the Jacket. That was easy! Thanks, Kate!

I also cast on for the Knitted-Stitch Pullover by Meg Swansen from the latest issue of Wool Gathering. I'm using some stashed Campion that I have a lot of for some reason, as I didn't have enough of the Rowan 4 ply Yorkshire Tweed, as it turned out.

The colors I'm using are Rye (the light one) and Marram Green (the dark one). I'm liking the combination so far. The image below is very close to the true colors (on my monitor).

As with the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan, I notice there is something very lyrical about designs by Meg Swansen; I find it easy to get into a knitting groove when I'm knitting one of her sweaters. Color-knitting has a definite rhythm; some designs are easier to sing along with than others.

Pups

We had mixed weather over the weekend, ranging from the completely soggy to the very beautiful, so the pups were okay with being in when it was raining and being out when it was sunny. They hate it when it's the other way around. We also discovered that there are Dachshund Races in Buda, TX. We're intrigued, and plan to be ready next year. You can see photos from 2001 here (pop-ups warning). The pups have begun training on their personal Stairmaster:

Mike, Jack, and Della say Back To Work. We hope you are able to make the most of your Monday. Cheers!