Reading & Listening
A few weeks ago, I picked up The Dante ClubBilled as a literary DaVinci Code, it is set in Boston just after the Civil War. Longfellow has begun has translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, with help from some famous names (James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. to name a few), only to find their work acted out by an unknown “Lucifer” who is systematically killing members of Boston’s upper class.
The reviews I’ve read all agree that this is a fantastic first novel, I’d argue that this is a fantastic novel – the first being a bit irrelevent. The characters – men who I only know from their rather stuffy portraits at the MFA or in downtown office buildings, each come to life with personalities of their own. I’m a few pages shy of the ending, and am trying to stretch it out for all its worth. Add it to your nightstand, and soon you’ll be looking to read up on Longfellow’s poetry (I’ve already downloaded his complete translation of the Divine Comedy from Project Gutenburg).
While I was at that site, I clicked over to the audio section and took a trip down memory lane. Between 1988 & 1995 I saw over 100 Grateful Dead shows. Most of my tape collection has been lost, but thanks to the hundreds of dedicated traders out there, you can now search and download shows from the 1960s through the 1990s. Right now I’m listening to a tape I lost in 1990 –
Date: May 8th, 1977, Venue: Barton Hall, Cornell University Location: Ithaca, NY. I’ve also begun collecting some of my favorite concerts – Foxboro 1990, the last Boston Garden shows and trying to remember which of the three nights of that swing through Chicago was worth listening to again.
“no knitting while navigating”
So said DH as I misread a very poorly worded aside in a travel book and made us go a whole mile out of our way. We covered a neat little slice of new england last week. We started out at Storyland for two days worth of rides and nursery rhymes, followed by almost a week exploring the midcoast region of maine, primarily in the Damariscotta, Maine area. We went to a county fair and I made the following declartion to my husband:
“If you are going to judge sheep, and award blue ribbons in 15 different classes, you should not allow 100% acrylic yarn entries into your kntting competition.” DH aggreed, and when we run the world, this will be rule #101.
Finally, I promised a tale of the sock.
I am participating in the Sockapaloza 2 hosted by Alison over at the Blue Blog. I was so excited to get started, that I cast on, throwing caution to the wind. (and ignoring the fact that when I made these socks last year, in the same yarn and the same needle size, that they were too big and I needed to felt them). I was very excited, but realized they weren’t really the colors my secret pal requested. So I put them aside and will pick them back up later this fall, finish them, make a make and then felt them. They will look great on me.
Then I ordered some Twinkletoes sock yarn from ebay, cast on for the Retro Rib socks from Interweave, but I just couldn’t get into the pattern. Further color reflection revealed they were too dark for my pall. Back to the sock yarn drawer.
Finally, I realized that a beautiful hand painted Lorna’s Laces yarn doesn’t need lots of embellishments or a fancy pattern. I cast on for a basic sock with picot edges, and finally found my groove. I did a star toe, rather than a tapered toe, because I find they wear better for bigger feet, which both my pal and I have. I hope she likes them. I’ll be done by the end of tonight, hopefully and will use up the leftover yarn for a super secret surprise that may or may not be a lavender eye pillow.
The mac transfer is going … ok… I never knew how addicted I was to my keyboard and my right mouse button. I’m designing a new blog using Dreamweaver, PHP and MySQL, look for a test blog later this week.
joke
If you haven’t already, go on over to January 1st’s and tell her a joke. Plan on spending a few minutes catching up, they are great for a giggle.
After being a PC person since the late 1980s, I decided it was time to see how the other 1/3 live – I’m typing this from my brand spanking new G4 Powerbook. I’m going to be doing lots of site revisions and bone up on some new skills before school starts in a couple of weeks. Please bear with me during the construction phase and if you are a Mac user and have cool widgets, pointers or knowledge to share, please do.
Frenzy
That is what I am going to call this sweater, because I cast on and knit it up in a frenzy last week during the heat wave. I LOVE IT! The body fits perfectly, and I just need to knit up one more sleeve and then set it in. Ready for fall.
Thanks to Karin in New Jersey for sending off this fantastic present, a skein of lovely hand crafted yarn and stitch markers. I will put these to good use Karin!
Remember the Cestari Yarn in search of a project? Well I was playing with a swatch, just trying to see what stitches my fingers felt comfortable with, which stitches the yarn liked, and letting the yarn tell me what it wanted to be. I cast off, and suddenly the swatch was talking to me. I want to be a gansey it whispered in my ear. Hum, I loved knitting Cate/Alex’s Gansey ~ I knit it for Cate, but by the time I finished it, it fit Alex much better ~ and remember thinking I’d love one to wear myself. So, off to my library’s internet site, where I was able to put in a request for Knitting In The Old Way by by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson. I picked it up today and will bring it with me on vacation on Wednesday.
We have crazy vacation plans, first it is off to Storyland where I hope to get some serious sock knitting done while waiting for kids to enjoy the many playgrounds and rides. Then it is off to Round Pond, Maine for a visit with DH’s mother, hopefully with lots of time sitting on the edge of a rocky beach, maybe even getting some sock knitting on a lobster boat!
Have a great week everyone I’ll post lots of sock photos when I return.
Are there Deserted Islands in Alaska?
my men
If I had to be stuck on a desert island with an unlimited supply of only one brand of yarn, it would have to be Schaefer. I know I’ve sung their praises a lot here, so the declaration is hardly headline news, but I’ve been playing with lots of Esperanza and Elaine lately, finishing up
Clapotis and casting on for a pattern to be named later [APTBNL].
My version of the clap is bears little resemblence to Kate Gilbert’s masterpiece. While her model sips a cafe latte on the left bank, mine play hide and seek.
I am thrilled with the final product, though and can’t wait to wrap myself up in this, as I’m longing for the return of winter. When the heat wave here gets too unbearable, I remember certain passages from T.C. Boyle’s Drop City (or as I refer it to my publisher friend Matt – the novel I should have written.) Suddenly, I’m freezing my t*ts off in a leaky cabin, the wind howling outside, with just minutes of sunlight a day, at the end of the last road in alaska. To warm myself up, I’ve been working on APTBNL.
Last summer I got to dive into Elaine (Schaefer’s local rep) car stash, skeins upon skeins of Shaefer, many without proper labels. I was attempting to match up to skeins I received as a gift from Elizabeth in VA. In the end, I put together the yarn for the Clap and the yarn I’m using for this project.
I struggled with ideas for all this amazing yarn, I needed a pattern that could showcase the colors, but that wouldn’t be too boxy or too traditional. I’m not quite sure why I didn’t think of a long sleeve shapely tee immediately, but when I finally hit upon it, and did all the math required to resize it both to fit my gauge and my measurements, I couldn’t wait to get started.
I spent Sunday & Monday in complete denial about our heatwave, caught up in the fantasy of a winter holiday to my Alaskan Sleeve Island.
And couldn’t wait to cast on for the body. I used the Elaine from the sleeves for a moss border last night, rushing through so I could get my hands back on the Esperanza.
I’m made it through short rows in the round, now I’m off to pair my decreases, send food and candles, I’ll be out when the snow starts to melt in my dreams or the heatwave starts to pass in my reality.
Over the moon
I’m so happy to see someone make one of my patterns! Go tell Colleen how lovely her “On The Moon” bag is!
Eris
I think I found the one. Patience, check, Beauty, check, in my size, check.
Anyone else knitting Eris?
edit …
Doh! I can not get gauge – the yarn is crying for a much larger needle … I’ve bought the pattern though and will be holding onto it tightly till I do find the right yarn at some point in the future, but I’m not going shopping for it now. Off to look for something on a size 7-9, 4 stitches to the inch.
Patience
My handspun yarn, worked into a Pi Shawl – an ongoing project
One of the lessons I’ve been trying to learn this past year is patience with myself and my own expectations. Too often, I’m more interested in crossing something off my list than taking the time to make sure it is done well. If there is one major stumbling block in my knitting, it is taking the time to make sure the project is done well, not just done.
I condensed my stash to two tubs (one big, one small) in preparation for our open house, tucked them away and thought I’d bring them back after a move & when things settled. But we decided to take the house off the market and stay here. We’ve been on an emotional and financial rollar coaster for the past six months and now, with all our decisions made, I’ve got about a month of NOTHING – no job hunting, no work, no packing, no unpacking. I need a project, and I think a project that encourages me to pay attention and be in the moment is in order.
I have yarn in my stash for two sweaters – one yarn is Schaefer ~ I have 2 skeins of Elaine and 3 Esperanza in a blue themed color way, for a total of about 1440 yards. And I have 9 skeins of Cestari Yarn in a muted pink color. I have a few ideas but am keeping my eyes open. If you have any ideas for an XL sized, patience teaching sweater, please let me know 