better late than under the weather

Today, I had the distinct pleasure of giving my Dad his first Serious Scarf.  It ended up being a little bit bigger than he had asked for, but he was pleased enough with it to offer to model it outright.  I didn't even have to ask.

The photos are going to be a little off because I was on uneven ground, as was he, and the background is misleading due to the interesting architeture of the backyard vs the house there.  Plus it was waaaay too cold for me to want him outside long, even with the wool to wrap in.

This photo is a fair idea of how the simple pattern repeat looks overall

A little more red than real life, but not too bad color wise.

This shows the length.  It was way too cold to have him out without a jacket... or cardigan maybe....

But I think that this photo pretty well sums it up

In his chair in front of the bookshelf, menaced by my youngest.

My Mom calls it a half an afghan, and it is actually not a bad description.  It's for those times when you don't want a whole cover up, but you want a bit of extra snuggly warmth.  He seemed really pleased, and I'm already contemplating his next one in peacoat blue.

This would be the other thing that made taking pictures difficult.

I'd be mad, but he's cute.  He gets away with a lot for that grin.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow!  Tonight is the last night to enter the giveaway.  I unfortunately found out that I am stuck in training all morning every morning this week so the winners will be posted after I get home (around 3PM Eastern).  I apologize for the lag, but I know there's no way I can possibly get the post done before I drive to work, attend the training, and then drive back.  I work out of a home office right now, and sometime later I'll get into what I had to do in order to get the ability to do that.  But at the moment, I'm just sadly contemplating the lost knitting time.

Until tomorrow!

It's Enormous

So, last night I finished the knitting on my Father's Serious Scarf.  This morning, I measured it before soaking it... and it was 72 inches unblocked.   Aha, hahaha.  Perhaps 7 skeins would have been enough.

Anyway, it's currently blocking across my oldest's bed.

It reminds me of chain link fence.

Here, you can see the edging.  Simple seed stitch, but I think it works with the scarf well.

simple, sturdy

Apparently, my husband is contemplating how to get one of his own.  I am reserving judgement until I see my Dad with it, but as far as the spousal unit is concerned this is a success. 

So, it started out 72 inches long... and it's so long it is about 2 feet longer than the king sized bed as it blocks.  No wonder this sucker was so heavy when I bound off the edge.  I hope to get a picture when I give it to Dad, but we'll see what he's willing to put up with.

I am not as good with worsted and heavier yarns.  I have chronic arthritis in my wrists and recurrant tendonitis from my teenage years, so when my knits get to be more than about a pound the knitting is actually painful.  It may be part of why I enjoy lace knitting so well.  I get a lot of mileage out of very little weight.

If you're looking for a fun read, check out this comment!  I giggle and nod every time I read it, and I suspect every knitter goes through something similar while designing. 

This weekend, I'll only be able to post on Sunday.  Saturday, I have a standing engagement (which is surprisingly not knit related).  So I'll catch everyone Sunday afternoon!  Speaking of Sunday, you have until Sunday night at midnight to comment on this post and be entered in the giveaway.  Winners will be announced Monday sometime after 7AM Eastern.

Have fun and knit on!

happy days!

Worsted Weight Serious Scarf, knitting DONE!!!

Status of hands:  sore but operable.

Blocking and end weaving begins tomorrow.

10 days, 2 lost to construction, 2 lost to child stuff.  So roughly 130x8= 1040 yards in 6 days.

Acceptable!

Rejoicing will begin after napping, and pictures will be taken tomorrow.

yarn review: Quince & Co

For me, this is a truly local yarn.  I can drive to the shop that carries their yarn in a couple of hours.  This isn't such a big deal, as there are more than a handful of yarn shops within easier travel.  What is such a big deal is that this yarn is milled here in New England, and it uses yarn that is sourced in our country.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good yarn no matter it's provenance.  But I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that this yarn has a smaller carbon footprint.  Plus, the yarn itself is gorgeous.  As a refresher, here's how they ship the yarn to you:

Little Bundles o Joy!

Every batch of yarn comes discreetly wrapped in white paper, and closed with a Quince & co sticker.  They have, so far, put each colorway ordered into its own bundle to keep them together.  Opening the box is like a little shot of excitement.  The wrapping is simple, but it makes me feel like they value their product highly enough to give it special treatment;  which makes it feel more special when you do open them.

Opened, the bundles look something like this:

picture is dark, but color of yarn is spot on

Isn't it cute??  I will say this for them, every color I've tried has been luscious.  Even their brown shades, which I usually don't enjoy knitting as much, have been fabulous.  They have a number of colors, and all are dyed consistently.  I found no dye problems across any of the yarn lines I've knit.  The deeply saturated colors do bleed when you wet-block the item;  however I didn't run into any issues where my needles or hands are stained and I worked with a deep emerald green and royal purple.

A word of caution:  If you want to order from them, get a shade card.  My photos don't do the yarn justice as an amateur, but even a professional photographer can't capture the depth of some of the shades they offer.  The pictures on their site aren't bad, but they haven't been as accurate as some. 

The three lines I've tried so far are the Tern, the Chickadee, and the Lark.

Let's start with their Lark line:

This is the yarn I'm using for the Serious Scarves.  It is recommended that this be knit on a 6-8 US needle.  I'm knitting the chain-link scarf on a 6, and find it to be a comfortable size.  I tend to knit a little loosely, so it's possible that a tight knitter would find the larger side of the spectrum more comfortable to get the same results knit-wise.

If you recall, this is what the scarf looks like:

color, still off.

The color that I'm using is Frank's Plum.  I don't know who Frank is, but he has fabulous taste.  I also have their Lark in peacoat.  What I've noticed with the Lark is it feels more velvety than the other two lines.  It has a tiny bloom, even in the package.  Personally, I love it.  It's tightly twisted, and the yarn feels springy and lucious between my fingers while I knit.  I've lost a lot of time knitting this scarf due to fondling the finished fabric.  As this is the heaviest yarn that I've tested, I did find more vegetable matter in it.  I expect that in a heavier weight yarn, though, and in 6 skeins I've only found 3 pieces of VM.  This was the first batch of yarn that I found a knot in.  But I can say that in over 20 skeins one knot is really good quality control.  I will be knitting with this yarn a lot more (but not often for the blog, as it's a bit heavy for some of the patterns I'm writing).

This is a good spot to put up my comparison shot of Lark and Chickadee:

colors off, but shows the composition of the yarn well

Lark on the right, Chickadee on the left.  Which brings us to my review of their Chickadee line.

I unfortunately don't have much of a sample to show you for this line.  I knit a super sekrit present for fabulous lady Deb as a thank-you for being so encouraging and generally fabulous.  As it wasn't meant as a bump for the blog, it's not getting time here.  BUT it did give me experience with this yummy yarn.

Chickadee does not have the velvety finish that Lark does.  And it doesn't matter a whit.  I've knit roughly 15 skeins of Chickadee since the first package showed up, and it has a lovely springy feel to it.  It's soft without losing definition, strong without losing its silkiness, and all around fabulous to knit.  I loved every moment of knitting the projects I knit in it.  One of my next shawl patterns will be knit in the lovely peacock color shown in the open bundles, and I'm itching to knit it.  Any yarn that makes me wish I could knit more of it is a keeper.  This yarn is recommended for 3-5 US needles, and I knit the present shawl on size 4, which made for lovely openwork.  It comes in a 181 yard put-up, but as it's 100% wool, splicing for larger projects isn't an issue.

Boo, short little review.  I should have done a sample for photos, but oh well.  I can always link to the finished peacock shawl after it's done.

Finally, the Tern yarn line.
This is a departure from their first lines, something new they've been working on.  Tern is a 75% wool, 25% tussah silk yarn.  It has occasional slubs in it due to the nature of tussah.  They can easily be separated from the twist of the yarn if you don't like them, or left in for a more textured feel.

These beauties are Tern:

Again, dark picture but pretty spot on for the color.

This is their fingering/sock yarn, and they recommend it be knit on size 1-3 US needles.  I split the difference and knit the below on size 2 needles.

Not at ALL blocked, look at the stitch definition.

I LOVE this yarn.  Love it!  It comes in a 221 yard put-up, which is enough for a sock for most people.  It would take 2 skeins to do a pair.  Personally, I would love to see this sold in a larger put-up, but I understand that it was created to be their sock line and the yardage reflects the purpose it was made for.  There are fewer colors of this yarn, but it is a new line.  I suspect they will be making more as they guage what knitters want.

What else can I say without sounding like a gushing fool?  I started knitting Quince & Co during the 10+ knot debacle, so my love of their consistency and quality might be slightly tempered by that.  But I will say this:  of the three lines I've tried so far, all of them are drool-worthy.  There wasn't a single stinker in any of the batches of yarn I bought from them, and the yarn itself is a joy to work with.  When you add in the very reasonable price, this yarn is a solid offering at a fantastic price point.  Try some, and see if you don't love it too!

Once again, life confounds

I'm sensing a trend where roughly every other post is a non-picture post.  I did take some pictures, and I've almost finished typing up my Quince & Co yarn review.  In the not as fortunate column, my husband has started classes on Tuesday nights, so I go direct from work to mama time. 

Ordinarily, that wouldn't bother me.  But I've discovered through recent experience that I mistype links or screw up sizing my pictures (meaning I am saavy enough to re-size them, but not saavy enough to keep from, say, saving them someplace I will never ever find again until I reformat.) if I have to put off posting until after shorty is asleep.

I've entered the 3/4ths done stage of the first Serious Scarf.  This is usually the point in knitting where I end up putting in my time and wondering why the end of the knitting never seems to get any closer.  I've knit up 6 skeins out of 8 and will wind the next two tomorrow morning.  Additionally, I need to find a spot in my house that is a good backdrop for finished object shots.  The perpetual rain we've been having is just not condusive.  I know re-blocking won't hurt the shawls but, really?  I don't think I desire needing to block them in the middle of taking pictures.

Tomorrow is going to stink.  My husband has an all day work class, and then he's off for Man Night (another rousing game of D&D).  So I'll be alone pretty early until really late.  I'm hoping to get the editing done and have a nice, shiny picture post for the morning.  Until then, I leave you with little man's artistic endeavors.

Mixed media by 4 year old

Not a bad use for a "battle-axe"/ propeller

Until then, ta muchly.

and on the seventh day, she (collapsed) rested

So, Saturday started with me running to the grocery store.  I was about to have a house full of men, who were there to perform deconstruction and then (hopefully) reconstruction.  Plus, they're my family... so making sure they are not run ragged was high on my list of considerations. 

We were scheduled to start at 9AM, and I hadn't gotten groceries Friday night because I was picking up oldest son.  It's a bit much to ask of the little guy to wait the entire drive there and back, plus getting groceries.  At 4, little guy just doesn't have it in him.  So, at 8AM, I gave up on flogging the smallest child into clothing and ran to the store on my own.  I got food for the week, and food for the push on the porch, and food for my husband's friends who visit on Saturday afternoons.

(Aside:  my husband works from home.  Sometimes, he can't interact with people, sometimes he can.  It depends on how busy the day is while he works.  It does mean that, although he was there, he would not be helping with the construction.)

I paid for the groceries and left.  As I was running out the door to my car, I called my husband and expressed that prying the oldest boy out of bed would be a large help.  Apparently, getting teenagers out of bed requires dynamite and an act of God on a good day.  I forget this fairly often, so I'm always a bit surprised to discover that the boy can go to bed before me and not get up until lunch-time. 

9:03, I arrive home.  Three minutes late, and fearing I'd be last.  No fears on that account!  9:15, everyone shows up and I shovel food into them.  9:45 and we leap onto the porch and prepare to do battle.

From there, it gets a little fuzzy.  I didn't manage to get pictures of the porch prior to the start of the deconstruction, and I only got a few pictures in the middle of all of this.  My porch, my labor;  I spent most of the day carrying, holding, and measuring with little time for anything else.

Anyway, this is the wall that gets frozen EVERY YEAR.

Ugly Bugger, isn't it?

The sad thing is, we've spent a ton of time and money on insulating this.  We used foam insulation in the wall after we knew that the pipes had all been replaced (in the most expensive and disruptive fashion, of course).

This is kind of what the deconstruction looked like:

Dad, my oldest, and my youngest.. deconstructing!

My brother, deconstructing!

The deconstruction.. what a show...

Unfortunately, by 1PM it was just me & Dad doing the work.  My brother had other commitments (and fair enough), and the youngest son was pestering my  husband while he was on concalls so we lost oldest son to watch him.  We'd only slapped in the very outside boxes in both openings, and none of the window had been roughed in.  It looked discouraging.

I'm not going to get into the details, but by the end of the day my Dad and I had gotten this finished:

Poor guy, doesn't he look tired?

This is now THE MOST STABLE part of my entire house.

We upgraded from 2x4 construction to 2x6, we framed in spots for the (air stopping) windows that would go in.  Some of the construction isn't visible from this spot, as we've put in more support up top as well.  The top beam is actually a 2x8, but we added even to that.  With two of us gripping the center beam of the window support, we cannot shake it.  Truly the most stable part of this house...

Sunday, my Dad was stacking a cord of wood with my Mom.  So, I took myself, shorty, and the oldest son and we went and helped out.  Mind you, little man decided to stay up until 10 PM the night before.  My husband's shift ends at 8PM, but he was visiting so I was the one putting short stuff to bed.  Again... and again....  It's amazing.  You can't get your teenager OUT of bed, and you can't get your pre-schooler IN bed. 

So, by the time all of that work was finished I just put my tail between my legs and drifted back home.  To do light chores.  But comparitively speaking, that's resting, right?

sturm und drang

So, I had (what I think is) an awesome post planned for tonight.  I also have a creative, intelligent, sensitive and overtired 4 year old.  He misinterpreted an off hand comment and needed a whole bunch of reassurance before he could go to bed.  I may get into the wherefores and whys later, but for now just know that I will be putting up a yarn related and a construction related post this weekend.  One of each, even.

But I put all of my evening energy into reassuring the little man that all was not as he thought it was, and the world wasn't ending.  I'm emotionally beat, but the kiddo is worth the time.  Just means the blog gets a bit of short shrift today.

My apologies.  Ima going to bed.

two posts, two days wheee

Since I know my Dad doesn't read my blog, I'm posting some progress shots of how knitting goes on the serious scarf project.  I know it looks fuscia.  It's a deep royal purple.  Curse you lack of camera skills and lack of editer skills.  Meh, here's the pattern as it knits out anyway:

apparently, you get the closeup first.  You can see how my job has been interrupting my knitting and altering my tension.

luckily, a light blocking will straighten this out and nobody will be the wiser, but you

So, this sucker is about 28 inches wide not blocked, and will pick up a scant couple of inches when blocked so you can see the "openwork" that defines it.  I rather thought chain link fence was a good choice, but we'll see what my Dad thinks of it. 

Man Lace (otherwise known as Serious Scarves) continues apace.  I am about 1/2 way through the yarn we chose for it.  Dad wanted a worsted weight yarn, as he didn't want anything too light, and it had to take a beating.  I'm paraphrasing.

I'm hoping to have it ready for this Saturday, when he comes over to help me, my oldest son, and my brother frame in windows to my covered porch.  It's currently a 3 season porch that allows gale-force winds to freeze my kitchen pipes every winter.  Soon it will be a 3 season porch that BLOCKS gale-force winds in the winter, in the interests of not-frozen pipes. 

I purchased the materials around the time that the mother-in-law incursion/debacle happened in the interests of giving them more space.  We won't be heating it with nobody actively living in it, so it will remain the same use it is now.  I just won't be shoveling snow off of it this year with a little luck.

So this weekend, I will also be taking pictures of our progress so you can see what has taken away from knitting time.  Remember:  document your knitting infidelity well. 

So next up, I have a progress picture on my Mary Mary Quite Contrary shawl.  At least, that's what I'm calling it at the moment.  Luckily, you can read your progress in lace so no matter how many times I put it down I always end up figuring out where I left off.  Just takes a while sometimes.

Very representative of the color of the yarn.  Surprisingly enough.

This is Misti Alpaca Laceweight yarn.  Unsurprisingly, it contains.... Alpaca!  Sorry, I think I've hit goofy hour.  This is the silver blue sister to the yarn I'm giving away in this post.  It's not too late to enter, you have until Nov 14, at which point the winners will be announced. 

Speaking of entering the giveaway, I recently found some quilt-stash fabric that reminds me of the cats in the banner picture at the top of the blog of one of the posters.  Hmm, is that sentence convoluted enough?  Maybe I need more coffee.  I think I still bleed actual blood instead of caffeine, which may be affecting my ability to communicate...  y'know, effectively.

Here's the fabric for reference

I heart this fabric.  I must do, I have 5 yards!

So, I'm thinking I may have to do up something sweet in way of a project bag in this.  It's too cute to ignore.

Finally, in case anyone was curious about how I write my patterns the first time through, I give you the graph paper swatch o doom.  You can even see some of my really bad math if you look closely.  Don't worry, I used the right numbers instead of the crazy ones and that's how Dad's Serious Scarf got started.  The design process is a whole 'nother set of posts, but I figured a little window into the start of the process would be kind of neat.

these are the 'test-drive' of the patterns for THREE different projects.  

Yep, those little sketches are in the midst of transforming into a SUPER ROBOT.... oh wait, wrong show.  Into a stole or three.  Yeah, three sounds about right given what I see there. 

In our next episode, there may or may not be a well deserved (and not at all opinionated ;-) review of Quince and Co yarn. 

not dead yet

Work and around the house chores kind of swallowed me for a while, but I'm ekeing my way back to the top and will have time for regular posting shortly.

To make up for some of it, here's some teaser shots of who's on first:

I heart this yarn.

details, details

no joke, this sucker had to be blocked diagonally on a king sized bed... it's big

And this guy, who let me know the limits of what 3 skeins of tern can do.  Not blocked, but I WILL be ordering more tern from Quince and Co.

edged with chickadee, not blocked

Anyhoo, I have planned some finished item photo shoots, 2 shawls to block, I'm in the middle of a true laceweight shawl using the pattern shown directly above, and I plan on doing a review of Quince and Co yarn, as I've finally knit more than 20 skeins of it, and have tried 3 different yarn lines.  Hopefully, things will stay quiet today and I'll get some posts up before "man night" starts.

Meanwhile, there is still time to enter our first yarn giveaway.  Please check out this post here for details.  Thank you to the lovely folks who have already entered!  Your comments and thoughts are very encouraging and are helping me to focus better.

GIVEAWAY now with 100% fewer echnical difficulties!

Ok folks, here's the deal.  I need to find the "safe place" the camera battery charger is hidden in.  I do have photos both of work done and of the yarn for the giveaway but can't get them off the camera.  Yet.

I will update this post with the photos sometime today, but here's the scoop.

ETA:  Camera has been recharged!  Adding yarn porn now!

I'm debating how many brand new shawl patterns I need to write myself in order to do this project.  I think 200 is a truly lofty goal, but I'd like to shoot for something like 30-50 new patterns with a chance to knit each a couple of times to find the rhythm in it.

What do you think?  Do you have any suggestions?

Additionally, I want to know whether you think I should publish my patterns.

Each commenter to this post will be entered to win one of the following (with pictures to follow below them).

460 yards of dk weight cashmere mink yarn, Carribean Blue (from Great Northern Yarns, naturally)

knitting below color off, color of yarn, surprisingly accurate.  Yarn is sooooft and consistent a pleasure to knit

546 yards of ~ fingering weight brushed mohair & wool yarn from Fleece Artist in buttercream

I loooove this, it's softer than many mohair yarns and the color of sunshine and butter

874 yards of laceweight baby alpaca in tea-rose red by Misti Alpaca

the color on this is pretty darn close, which is hard with reds.  It's alpaca & laceweight.  Yummy stuff.

To enter, just comment on this post.  Winners will be chosen via a random number generator, so do make sure your email is attached to the comment so I can let you know you've won and contact you to get you your new yarn!

The comments will count until November 14, at which point winners will be announced!  Publicly even!

I did say I'd have the post up for Friday, not anticipating technical difficulties.  Give me a couple of hours to get photos so you can see how sexy the yarn is.  And thank you.

ETA:  Yarn pictures now posted.