I finally finished this last Wednesday - in fact I put in 12 hours on it Wednesday to get it completed and over to dad on Thursday.  Of course I forgot to bring my camera too :)  Anyway, it’s done - thank goodness.  Eventually (but not right this second - I’m not up to another afghan just at the moment!) - this ancient article…

...will also be replaced :)  I made that more than 25 years ago.  No, I don’t know what I was thinking either but it is a testament to the durability of Red Heart acrylic which is all I could afford at the time.

Now I’m trying to plan another project and, until yesterday, had been kind of flailing around.  I haven’t really been sparked much by the various attempts at lace entrelac so my mind turned to another shawl idea that had been simmering for almost a year.  It’s related to classical music and to one composer in particular.  Since the Faun’s Eyes pattern wasn’t working in entrelac for me, I wondered how it would work circularly.

Now here’s the problem.  Well, the problem is with me because I had myself convinced that I couldn’t do a circular cast-on.  I’ve tried them all, but never got anywhere.  But yesterday I spent about 8 hours working it out and then working on a…well, I suppose you’d call it a “prep” piece.  Not really a swatch because I’d be using different yarn (which I don’t even have yet) and different needles for the real deal.  But just a sort of preliminary to see if the idea was feasible.  In the process of that, I quite accidentally found the solution to the problem with the musical shawl that had been stumping me for quite a while :)

Hey Ev - it worked!  Because this lace is worked on both sides of the fabric, I fretted about “translating” the wrong-side rows to knit stitches.  I pretty much fret about everything - think of it as a form of exercise :) - but it turned out to be easy-peasy and made the lace incredibly simple to work.

Now I know the center looks like the dog’s breakfast, but I also know what went wrong and how to avoid the issue next time.  And yes, there are two colors here but it’s what I had at the time that I was willing to sacrifice for the sake of experimentation.  This is basically the Pi shawl formula (explained in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac).

I have never made a circular shawl so it seemed like a good idea to try one.  I do have one last reservation about it.  When I fold it in half to wear, won’t the lacework be obscured?  Is there a way to minimize or avoid that?  Regardless, I intend to go forward - in fact I ordered two different types of yarn this morning so I’ll have a choice.  Of course that could be a mistake :)

Looking at this, I recognize the possibility of beading too.  Of course it’s only a possibility :)  At this point, everything about it is only a possibility - but I’m champing at the bit to get started and will be checking my mailbox, oh…2 or 3 times a day, until my yarn and needles (wooden ones!) get here.

We finally got to see the sun - for about 10 minutes this afternoon - before things clouded over again.  We’ve had tons of rain this last week and things aren’t due to really clear up until Thursday.

This is what the sky looked like at about 2:00 PM EST and at the very bottom of the photo, you can see the trees starting to get some color.

Dad and I went out to lunch today…

...and will be doing so again on Thursday.  My Uncle Howie is coming up from Florida for a short stay and dad and I are taking him up to Lord’s Harborside in Maine for a late lunch.  I’m looking forward to my Uncle’s visit; I always enjoy him.  I particularly enjoy observing his interaction with my father - they both turn into 13-year-olds.  And watching this pair of octogenarians instantly revert to mid-pubescent teenagers in each other’s presence can be a lot of fun. 

I worked up a swatch yesterday with smaller motifs - only one repeat of the Faun’s Eyes pattern with a couple of stitches padding or only one little evergreen per entrelac block.  The initial effort with the mohair was turning out blocks that seemed massive to my eye.  Granted when I started fooling around with this idea, I thought I wanted bigger blocks…

Eh, maybe not…

The problem with the smaller motifs wasn’t really their fault, but mine.  I worked them in worsted weight yarn on size 8 (5.00 mm) needles and, as you could easily predict, they look muddled and rumpled rather than lacey.

It doesn’t help that in addition to the yarn vs needle ratio, I went through three different small balls of yarn - same yarn, different dye jobs - which further muddles the appearance.  No one to blame but myself and I’m going to have to try it again with the mohair and the size 6s (4.25 mm).

As the weather turns colder, I’m thinking of socks again.  Fortunately I have plenty of yarn suitable for socks, some of it very light-hearted and some of it rather sober :)  It’s simply a matter of deciding what I want - or rather, what I want to start with!

We had rather a super hero weekend here.  We watched Ironman, The Incredible Hulk (the new one) and The Dark Knight.  They were all surprising to me. 

The Dark Knight has had the most publicity and certainly the longest run, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out why.  It seemed chaotic and pointless to me and the best I can come up with is that this Batman is for generations beyond me.  This is not my Batman.  To the extent that every generation incorporates what is important to it in its myths and legends, perhaps it is fitting that I didn’t quite grasp the message of this film.  As I had expected to like this movie, I was disappointed.

The Incredible Hulk was almost equally as confusing though it was more coherent.  The treatment of how Banner became the Hulk as background to the opening credits (before the movie even actually starts) was interesting, but ultimately a failure.  This sequence of events is how we get to know Banner in the first place and relegating it to a rushed series of images doesn’t convey anything about the man - why should we care about what happens to him?  However, since the movie’s story reveals little about him either, I suppose at least it’s consistent.  Norton wasn’t bad but remains, in my mind, a puzzling choice.  If character development had been better, well…  And does Liv Tyler ever do anything in the movies but drip tears?

Ironman was the real boot in the butt.  And it really was a boot in the butt.  The story was excellent, the look perfect.  Robert Downey Jr. was just amazing and Jeff Bridges was gratifyingly slimy.  The tone was right, the feel was spot on and the transitions - usually the nemesis of good story telling - were smooth and agile with none of the annoying “See Ma, this is how it happed!” nonsense that often crops up.  Certainly it had none of the bloat many superhero movies suffer from.  Of the three, it’s the only one I can recommend.

And I’ll just add that the new seasons of Supernatural and Heroes got off to sensational starts :)

Me = happy camper :)

Tha lace knitting is coming along - slowly but surely.  I should have more to talk about next week so I’ll just tell you that I’m enjoying this and the part that I thought was going to be difficult?  Isn’t :)

See the “Knitting Chatter” button on the side bar for more information.

Chatters is on for tomorrow evening.  Bring your knitting or other hand work - but mostly bring yourselves; company and conversation provided at no expense :)  See you then!

There are plants in the kitchen.  In fact, sometimes I think they’re taking over the kitchen.  Well, that’s a lie - I like the look of the somewhat unruly foliage (I prefer to think of it as enthusiastic!) in the window and on the…

...well, there’s a jungle on my fridge.  This is no thanks at all to me; it’s Myria who takes care of them, keeps them fed and watered and generally in good shape.  The plants in the above photo were sent to me years ago and Myria has kept them in good and sturdy shape all this time.  But she does all the work - I just enjoy them :)

I sometimes think of this as the Hanging Gardens.  Nothing like as lush as the original, I’m sure, but entertaining and pleasant all the same.  It’s really nice to have green growing things around :)

I went ahead with the dyeing of the wool/angora yarn and I am frankly puzzled about the results.  I soaked the yarn for four hours before it was completely wet and then it was the heaviest yarn I ever tried to lift out of the sink!  Before it went into the water, the skein ran to about 210 grams.  When it came out it weighed at least a ton :)  I knew then that there might be problems with the crock pot not having enough room but I so desperately wanted to avoid separate dye lots that I tried it anyway.

What I got was a predominantly pinkish/tan yarn with a few brighter spots.  I used about 30% more dye than I would normally have for that weight of yarn and yet it doesn’t seem like it was nearly enough.  The mottled results are my own fault entirely - the yarn filled the crock and had no room to spread out.  I have dyed as much as 300 grams at one time in the past and I never had this problem before.  Is it possible, do you think, that this yarn (being fairly old) is denser, more solid than a comparable item might be today?

The good thing is that the yarn is in fine shape - clean and completely unfelted.  So it’s a good candidate for another dyeing attempt.  This one will be on the stove so I can use a bigger vessel to hold it.  And, of course, a lot more dye :)

While dad’s couch cover is coming along, Sunday I reached a block.  I have nothing against crochet - love it, in fact.  But I missed my knitting!  So, for that one day, I declared a moratorium on the dratted blanket and picked up my (hopefully) lacework for a change.

Oh it was so nice to have needles in my hands again.  And I even made a little progress :)  I’m not working on this for great gobs of time each day, but I am making sure that I do at least a couple of pattern repeats.  I can apply more time to it in a week or so when I get the circus tent blanket done.

Hasten the day…

I had to stop and pick up a prescription on my way home yesterday afternoon.  This enormous bird was circling over the plaza.  I’m not sure who he was.  We do have hawks around here, more all the time but they are small-to-medium sized.  I also know of some turkey vultures a few towns over - frankly the size makes me suspect vuture.

But there have, once in a very great while, been eagles sighted, usually down by the river.

A girl can hope :)

The trip to Maine a week ago was great fun.  Myria and I haven’t done anything like that for a long time and we had a wonderful day.  She got her hair trimmed, I dished with the hairdresser, we shopped, we had dinner and just enjoyed ourselves enormously.  What we didn’t get, were ocean pictures.  The town was absolutely jammed with day trippers - something we had not expected - and the parking lots were still charging exorbitant fees and were crammed full in any case.

Sigh…

But we’ll be going up again around the end of October (if not sooner!) and I don’t expect the ocean will be going anywhere in the meantime…

I did purchase some undyed wool to play with in the dye pot, Paton’s Classic Merino which I have used before and really is a nice, basic wool.

I promptly skeined two balls of this (200 grams - about 440 yards) and used the same color combination on it as I had on the unacceptable pink wool last week.  The only difference was that this time I used a base of strong tea rather than just plain water.  Where the previous dyeing project had given me a lovely copper/auburn (see this post), this time, with no other color underneath, I got a lovely, slightly orangey gold.

The two colors will coordinate nicely and I have one more yarn I’d like to throw into this mix.  You’ve seen it before (though not for a while).  I found it in a thrift shop nearly a year ago but never found a project for it.

This is Pingouin Angelique - fingering weight, 50% wool, 40% angora and 10% nylon.  It’s as soft as a baby bunny - not surprisingly :)  I want to dye this but having never handled angora in a dye pot before, I consulted an expert - Chris over at Woolybuns (do go see her rovings and her bunnies!) who knows all there is to know about dyeing angora.  Armed with her generous and enthusiastic advise and encouragement, I’m going to go for it :)  I had hoped to have this done by now, but you know how the world loves to insert itself when you’re making plans.  So I’ll probably soak it overnight and do the dyeing tomorrow.  I’m aiming for a darkish red with a very slight orange component.  Wish me luck!

I’m in the ending stage of the current blanket project, finishing the final rounds and sewing them together as there are enough for each row.

This is the first combination of colors - grey center, blue “petals”, grey border and blue edging.  The second combination will have blue centers, grey “petals” and blue borders and edging.  This should, hopefully, be done in another week or so.

I had toyed with using yellow for the centers and even made up a square that way.  I quite liked it as the strictly blue/grey combination seems cold to me.  However, I knew dad probably wouldn’t care for it, dad not being big on yellows.  To my surprise, Myria didn’t think the yellow worked either so, after thinking it over, I chucked the idea and stuck to the blue and grey.

However, I found a legitimate way to use the yellow after all.  Dad’s new sofa is not his only new piece of furniture.  There is also a new recliner.  Its labeled color is sisal and right now he’s got it covered with a red and cream afghan that has sun-bleached stripes of orange where it lay in the back seat of his car for years.  It has to go :)  So I started this…

...which dad doesn’t know about yet.  I’m using the same basic pattern as the Little Boy Blue blanket except sized for a recliner.

The yarns for both blankets are Red Heart Supersaver in Country Blue and Light Grey for the sofa cover and Linen and Cornmeal for the Recliner.  No, it’s not the most elegant yarn in the world, but it’s perfect for someone who absolutely has to have easy care items, comes in just about every color you could want and is sturdy beyond belief.  Just the thing for my father :)

Autumn is beginning to show up around here - not obviously, not yet.  But things are beginning to show the merest hints of color and leaves are beginning to fall.  I love autumn - it’s my favorite season.  Temperatures go down, trees start showing glorious colors, the air is crisp and dry and freighted with the scent of the world beginning to wind down for its winter’s rest.  Okay, a poet, I’m not :)  But I love this transitional period - watching things change.  I love spring almost as much, also transitional, also colorful.  Just the palette is different :)

See the “Knitting Chatter” button on the side bar for more information.

Chatters is on for Saturday evening - come one come all :)