blogdogblog

Songs of the Stash

I have a large walk-in closet where my stash is carefully and colorfully organized; I like to walk in on it suddenly to see if any of it is singing about what it would like to be. Zephyr, Noro, Rowan, Jamieson, Opal. It's a regular Tower of stashBabel.

Except right now. Curiously, none of my stash is speaking to me. I don't know what that's about, since it was yakkety-yakking nonstop all through the time I was knitting the ASJ by Elizabeth Zimmermann.

So. We're going to sit quietly, drink S. Pellegrino straight out of the bottle, listen to Zombo-com, and wait for the stash to start singing again. It's a Blue Moon weekend, so surely we can expect something magical. For Friday enlightenment and entertainment, we highly recommend Art for Housewives, the website that keeps us busy and happy for hours! Virginia, I'll call you this weekend.

Cheers! Happy Friday!

Woofs! from ActionMikey and his favorite chewie.

P.S. There's a new-ish knitblog called Knitting, With Dogs! Isn't that nicer than Knitting with Dogs? I mean, who but me would keep trying to stick their little heads through all those little loops over and over again? Talk about doing it the hard way! No wonder the ASJ took so long! Happy knitblogging to Janice, Cammie, and Ivan!

Silly Business

Can you find the sheep dog?

Happy Thursday! Happy Knitting!

Anarchist Wannabe

Faced with a number of projects to cast on for and very limited time to do so, I opted out of choosing and instead read the new book that had arrived in the mail.

Anna Zilboorg's Knitting for Anarchists (ISBN:0966915372) was published in 2002, but somehow I didn't pick it up then. I meant to, as I'm an admirer of Zilboorg, but just didn't get around to it. Lately, though, I've been nagged by the thought that it is going to be one of those books that, once out of print, will be next to impossible to find. I ordered my copy from Marsha.

(Digression: Don't you love to get an order from Marsha? It comes wrapped like a present but in brown paper, with ribbons and Euclan samples and poetry bits and bookplates! The only thing missing is chocolate!)

Zilboorg was a solitary for a while, and it's obvious she thought about her knitting a lot between prayers. She doesn't care for gauge as a concept, preferring instead to knit with what feels right in her hands and produces the fabric she likes best. This book has exceptionally clear descriptions and illustrations of ways to knit. The first part is actually a treatise on knitting. It's very heady stuff! I imagine if you had this as the book on a desert island, you'd quickly become obsessed with figuring out a way to make string and sharpen sticks so that you could follow along, page by page. The second part is a fascinating exploration of how to make the "All-Purpose Strip-Knit Anarchist Sweater." Now this is some very cool stuff that tells you how to knit a sweater—pullover or cardigan—without following any directions. You can chart it out on paper in squares if you want to, but you don't have to. Impressive and liberating! Like our hero EZ, AZ wants to free knitters from being blind followers. Zilboorg's knitting is a mindful knitting, and she wants you to be mindful, too. The last bit of the book is "The Knitting Way," and it is a beautiful essay that I wish every knitter could read.

Knitting for Anarchists is very aptly named. It is a book about knitting, and does discuss technique, but mostly Zilboorg gently brings you along toward rejecting any authority or coercive control over your own knitting. The entire book is a lovely reminder that you should knit what you like, and in whatever materials you like. This is a great book to read and to knit by. We give it 10 out of 10 beaded stitch markers. It's brilliant.

A Project

SharonB of In a Minute Ago is embarking on a grand new art project that you can participate in. Read her tale about "Textale" here, and start thinking of how you'd like to be included.

Pups

Pretty warm here...you really can't imagine it if you live somewhere normal. The pups spend very limited bits of time out of doors. They do enjoy the brief cool part of the early morning, and they like the feel of the concrete once the sun has set. Jack is pretending that he is an African lion out on the savanna, I think.

We hope you have an opportunity to imagine yourself as an anarchist or an exotic sometime today. Happy Wednesday, and we'll see you tomorrow!

Luxury

Thanks, knitbloggers and knitblog-readers, for your kind emails and comments about the finished Adult Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann. For those of you who were unable to leave comments because I had accidentally turned them off, well, sorry :-) Comment spammers had hit recent entries between the time I posted Monday's entry at midnight and Monday morning when I turned on my PC. While I was closing the earlier entries to comments, I very efficiently turned off comments for the 26 July entry as well. Comment spammers! Now we know what roaches come back as in the next life when the dharmacharka turns.

So. I was thinking how absolutely luxurious it is to be able to leisurely decide on what to knit next. My knitting felt rather driven as I was knitting the miles and miles of the XL ASJ, and so it's quite lovely to ponder potential projects. Nanette posted a photo of her finished "Pearls of Wisdom" socks, the ones with the Pablo Neruda poetry knitted in, and they are fabuloso! I love these socks, and decided to read the directions as a warm-up to knitting. Nanette's socks are from the 1999 XRX book Socks Socks Socks (ISBN:0964639157], and what a great book it is. I remember the hubbub when this book came out; I was still a contributing member of the Socknitters list, and I must say it was very exciting to be a socknitter back in the dark days before self-patterning sock yarn. Socks3 has over 70 sock patterns in it, many by knitters that we know and love. Some, like our talented Katherine and the brilliant Debbie New, have two prize-winning pairs each! I was reminded while leafing through the patterns of how knitting wheels are constantly being reinvented— Debbie New designed a pair of socks knit from strings of licorice for this book. Knitty wasn't even a twinkle in anyone's eye yet, but five years later, licorice socks have morphed into licorice undies.

What a nice book! I'm so glad that Nanette knit those poetry socks, because it gave me the opportunity to look through this book and enjoy it as much as I did the first time. Katherine's "Tipsy Knitter" (p. 41) and "Ribble Socks" (p. 75) are on my list again, as are New's "Freeform Socks" (p 53), and Lucy Neatby's "Traveling Socks" (p 52). And perhaps now, five years after buying and loving this book, I'll be able to knit the magnificent "Tiger Eyes" lace socks (p. 42) by Margaret Radcliffe! Yes! I dream on, and I dream of lacy socks! Do you have this book? If you don't, I think you should add it to your library while it's still available.

Dude!!

Must have!!! "Rosner's mp3blue jacket has a built-in, 128-megabyte player controlled through cloth buttons on the left sleeve, the company announced Monday. Headphones are built into the collar." See it here.

Pups

The pups got to visit with their cousins Dyna and Apple Monday evening, and I got to visit with my sister and my nephew. What a nice thing it is to live near your sister—nicer, even, than a piggy-rollup! (For some mysterious reason, the pups are not interested in being vegan.)

We wish you a happy Tuesday, and hope you allow yourself the knitting-luxury of knitting whatever you darn well please whenever you darn well want to. We're going to luxuriate in the feeling of knitting-abandon a bit longer here before casting on!

92. Nope! 93.

But as you know, it's not the heat, it's the humidity. Or maybe it's not the humidity, it's the heat. How hot did it feel?

What we won't do for you and for Anima Caliente! It was a relatively balmy day in Austin and so Sister and I waited to be certain it wasn't getting any cooler before taking photos of the completed Adult Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann.

The whole enchilada:

Yes. It is a bit large. But that's my fault, and it's actually a good thing :-)

The back:

The beautiful sleeve:

The very exciting and lizard-y neckline:

Pretty sweet! You'll recall how it looked before being grafted together along the shoulders and sleeve tops. Oh-what-the-heck, I'll show you here:

Pretty magical, isn't it? And you know, even though I had made the Baby Surprise Jacket and knew how this one was supposed to work, I still kept forgetting how it folded into a jacket. So I'm glad it's sewn together for more than one reason. I decided against EZ's Afterthought Pocket only because I didn't want to break into the third bag of Kureyon. As it is, this jacket took all of two bags of Kureyon with about a meter of wool left over. However! Remember my version is a size XL. Your mileage will definitely vary.

In reading about the clever Afterthought Pocket, I was reminded of how much fun it is to read EZ, so while it was so hot last week and there were no television or internet distractions (say, is that a human rights violation?), I read all through my library of EZ books. What a lot of splendid ideas are in those little books, not to mention how entertaining. Reading Knitting Around made me think that it must have been like visiting with Herself in person. I would like very much to have met her, although I'm sure I would have acted like a complete chowderhead from unworthiness! What a legacy that would be, though, to still be so topical and soothing to knitters after so many years. I was reminded that I want to knit a Bog Jacket, and a new Pi Shawl, and a Pi-are-Square Shawl, and of course The Mittful of Mittens. A Pelerine. And the Very Warm Hat.

I anticipated summer all through spring because I thought it would be easier to knit with the a/c turned low, in fact, as low as it could go. But somehow, even with the chill in the indoor air, I am very slow to pick up my knitting needles. I think that, before returning to the "Knitted Stitch Cardigan" by M. Swansen, or the perennially unfinished "Morning Glory" by A. Starmore, I will do some small and useful projects. The Godzilla Lace socks, some gloves for Christmas presents, a hat or two, and perhaps Geane's Xtreme Hedonism goody. Plus, I'm deeply envious of Nanette's Pablo Neruda "Poetry Socks." And of course everything on Françoise's knitblog makes me hyperventilate!

Last week I discovered I didn't miss blogging very much; I'm not sure I want to update on a daily basis for a while. On the other hand, I wonder if I don't stick to the daily blog-discipline, will I blog at all? It's a puzzlement.

Pups

Too hot! And the weekend is too short!

Della would like some coffee but I told her it would stunt her growth. Ho! Monday. Coffee-up!