Just What the Doctor Ordered

Dear Stash Doctor:
I have a big bag of 1824 Cotton. The old 1824 cotton that I bought when it was being discontinued. I KNEW I had to have a sweater of this yarn, and I would never have the chance if I didn’t act now. So, two years and many swatches later, none of the swatches look good. The colors I chose for my cotton cardigan that would go with all my spring clothes appear to go with very little. I know, I know, I should not have bought the coral just because there was no red. Or the acid green. Those colors make me look like I am about to hurl. And mustard? Sheesh. I want to use this yarn, but I am at a loss. Do you have any prescriptions?

P.S. If it helps, a neighbor of mine of who knits is about to have a baby. I gave her 3 skeins of some of this along with my Quick and Easy Baby Sweater Pattern. They don’t know the gender of the baby.

Dear At a Loss:
When will you crazy people ever learn? There is always a new yarn coming. Another yarn that you must have, can’t live without, will die if you can’t bring it home. The yarns that leave us, leave us space on the shelves for new beautiful yarns. Often that yarn come back in another incarnation. Remember the Alice Starmore you bought in a panic? Same yarn, new label is hanging in the same spot in the yarn store. Look at Rowan (oh, sorry, bad example, I still have patients in Magpie withdrawal.) You must learn to let go, move along, look to the future. Oh, enough of the lecture. Back to that baby to be. Baby blanket. Takes up a moderate amount of yarn, you can mix colors, nice neutrals. Perhaps a spot of that coral. Nothing that screams boy or girl. None of that awful mint green and easter yellow, either. You can still keep the blue and black to make something for yourself. This time, if you really want a cardigan of many colors, go buy some that work.

Sincerely,
Dr. Stash

You know how some prescriptions work almost immediately? I decided to try a corner to corner swatch and just kept going.

I cannot tell you how many swatches I did with this yarn for my dream cotton cardigan and they were U G L Y. But this turned out to be just what the doctor ordered on the first attempt.

The colors look much better in person. Of course I sailed along knowing full well I did not have enough of the Ivory to do a blanket. Again, it didn’t matter. I found several skeins of the new 1824 cotton that matched almost perfectly, and the slight difference in the yarn is really imperceptible with the color changes. Now, I have to figure out what to do for a border. Mitered garter? Narrow log cabin strips? I am open to suggestions.

MLE

My Life in Brackets

At loose ends. Not where a knitter wants to be, I think. I have been feeling that way for a few weeks now. I thought maybe it was because I wasn’t reading a particular book. That always gives me direction. Not sure what to do next? Pick up the book, find the bookmark, start reading. So I started and finished “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.” Wonderful book, but short. Not a giant lose-yourself-for-a- week-or-two-book. I think I have to find one of those. Suggestions?

I’ve also been feeling that way about my knitting projects. I’ve got several going, but each one has led me to a spot where I have to stop and think, or calculate, or get more yarn. Which leaves me wandering again.

Since it is March Madness Time, I thought –perhaps bracketing my daily life could help. (We were laughing about this idea at work, I didn’t invent this on my own. Caffeine was involved.) In my case, the loser moves on — since the task wasn’t completed. I also couldn’t put knitting in every one. My life would be much easier if that were the case. A glimpse of my personal March Madness:

Dullsville, huh? At least here is one finished object – socks in Bearfoot for the big birthday of a friend who says I MAY NOT discuss it!

All the other kids get to show pretty spring flowers on their March blog entries. Not here in the Upper Midwest. Here’s my spring flower:

And although yesterday it was 80 degrees (F), here’s a picture I took two weeks ago. The spots and white background? A blizzard. The scarf I designed in a reversible cable pattern using Cascade EcoWool. This is nice yarn and that big skein made a very generous scarf.

And yes, since you asked, this is a very manly scarf. I am pondering my stash now, and in spite of the large quantity from which to choose, I am stumped. Stay tuned for the final four.

from Mary Lou

Gallery Opening

Kind people are sending pictures of tigers they have spotted in the wild. I’ve posted them in the gallery. If you notice the picture of Tiger Julie, she has tiger paw mittens. Julie’s mom Shelley has generously sent me the chart. I’ll be pulling together a mitten pattern to go with the hat one of these fine days.

This is what my knitting has been like lately…

You’ve got to see this music video from France (singer’s name is Camille). Me and my knitting have been at odds for the last week or so, and although I’m not as young, slim, or as naked (usually) as this singer, I empathize with her yarn problems.

Warning, please use viewer discretion. Knitting was harmed during the filming of this video.

Theresa

Manly, Yes – Design by Committee

OK, I can’t seem to get away from these gender issues. At Men’s Knit Night at ye old local yarn shop, there were voices raised in complaint that there is a dearth of manly shop models. Women, they said, knit things they think men want. Men do not want them. This is all hear say, mind you. However, I heard it say from people who were there. Men want neutrals. Men don’t like teal. Men don’t want vests. Men don’t want tweed. One man who was there told me he likes vests and teal and tweed, so don’t I don’t know that we need to take this all that seriously.

However, a result, I was asked to make a ‘manly’ shop model. I needed a new photo for a older sweater pattern of mine, so I agreed. It’s a basic top-down raglan in bulky weight yarn. I chose Cascade128 in olive green. Way manly. But I thought a few stripes around the chest couldn’t make it less manly, could it? I choose black and oatmeal for the stripes. All well and good. I was working on the sweater in a meeting and one of the men asked me about it. He agreed, yes, the olive was manly, indeed.

Fast forward to a recent Saturday night, listening to music at a local coffee shop. I had my knitting and heard from behind me “Wow, what a manly sweater.” Same guy from the work meeting, and his wife, who was in a sock class of mine many moons ago. I was on the striping, so I thought I’d solicit more input. A small gathering of folks discussed the striping. (During a break, of course.) What I was planning was dismissed by every male as “too Charlie Brown,” but by adding a much wider band of stripes it would become manly. OK, I can take constructive criticism. I doubled the width of the striped band. I left the finished sweater on the couch when I went to work. Later that day, I got an email from Mr. Guy saying nice sweater and who is that really nice sweater for? Not him, sadly. I made the smallest size so I could get it done. It is now hanging in the shop with a big tag on it that says “Manly Sweater.” Really.

So, what do you think? Manly enough?

Thanks to Theresa for taking up some of the posting slack here. I was traveling for work and visiting family and then catching up on work. I also have a bit of the blues. Not, I think, the biological blues, but the existential blues, brought on by visiting all the generations of my family in very short order. I may knit some of this into a future post, but I assume most people visit here for knitting blather, and not reflections on spending the day with my 88-year old aunt the nun who doesn’t knit.

Yesterday it was 65 F. Today it may snow. That’s March in Minnesota. Maybe the  uncertainty of the weather reminds me of the uncertainty of life and the existential blues comes along with it.

MLE

A good project gone bad

I’m in a frenzy to finish up a drift of unfinished projects, and making good progress, until I hit this project. A year ago (okay, maybe more), I started a shawl using lots of colors of Shetland-weight yarn and modular knitted squares. I had this grand idea of doing a shawl, something like this wonderful quilt.

Sometime over the last summer, I realized that it wouldn’t work as a shawl—too patchworky.

Perhaps a scarf? I had enough squares—but it was too scratchy.

So I decided to alernate in some solid squares and do an afghan. While I’ve been busy adding squares, the “Project” has decided it’s not going to be an afghan. Too big, too much work, and it’ll still look patchworky. So what to do with this pile of squares?

I’m being hounded by the narrowing possibilities of this project. But I have too much time already invested, so I refuse to rip it out. I just need to finish it—whatever it is—and get it out of the house.

What about a felted coaster—actually, lots of coasters? Potholders? Maybe I should add a few more squares and turn it into a felted bag… I’ll let you know what it turns into and how it turns out.

Theresa

Paper or plastic? It’s a trick question.

One of my co-workers has been bugging me (nicely) to design a farmers’ market bag. You know, the kind you can buy for $5 at the co-op. Well, about $10 worth of yarn later, I’ve finished the crochet version (I’m especially proud of the handles).

I’m now checking the pattern with an even more expensive yarn, Euroflax Linen at about $18 per skein. Euroflax is pricey, and perhaps overkill for a string bag, but it is beautiful. I’ll start on the knit version soon, I promise, Melinda.

The project on my knitting needles is yet another use-up-some-of-my-odds-and-ends projects, a fair isle hat of many colors of Lana Grossa’s Cool Wool Big. I finished up the medium version (shown on the right in the photo below) just before the big snow last week. It’s been winter tested during blizzards and shoveling—lots of shoveling.

My husband got a new snowblower after the last big snow storm (and before the most recent one), so he was snowblowing the entire block. While I was shoveling the steps—many, many times. Speaking of Cool Wool Big, a great soft merino yarn, I just heard that a lot of the colors are being discontinued. Rats, I love this yarn for two-color knitting. Now I’m reknitting the pattern with Naturespun Worsted, also a great basic yarn, but not as soft.

My son just turned 12. Last week he said that he wasn’t sure he was done with being 11 yet. Yeah, well kid, I’m not done with being 29 yet.
Theresa