Retreat

As I continue to knit merrily away on the Seraphim (I LOVE this pattern!), I am beginning to prepare for Retreat. No, not a military maneuver, not a strategic backing off from the complexities of the Slow Bee (although I have yet to take it up again), but rather ten days of intensive philosophical Buddhist study. I am packing even as I speak (write). Of course Seraphim and the Swiss Cheese Scarf are the first in queue!


I have also, in my typical evil fashion, purchased a huge number of books under the guise of "plane reading". Let me say, I could travel around the world on this stack. As I think I mentioned earlier, I look on a trip as a chance to purchase books I would ordinarily wait for the paperback version thereof. So far, I have purchased the latest Scottoline and Crombie mysteries, two books by Russian mystery author Boris Akunin - yes, I am a mystery fanatic - as well as the Monster of Florence and Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence. We won't mention the three other hardcover mysteries I have devoured over the past three days, necessitating a replenishing of my travel reading. After all, when you're trapped in a plane if one - or two - books pall, you must have others with which to console yourself.

In the meantime, my two new pins from Romi arrived. I had planned to put up photos, but given the results ... let's just say the photos weren't up to the task.

Back to packing ....

Movin' On

After my recent flurry of indecision, I have actually begun DOING something - not much, I grant, since it is a very busy time at work, but something. I have four items on the needle currently.

The first is, of course, my bete noir, the Slow Bee shawl. I've ignored the poor baby completely. However, I don't feel that I'm failing as a slow bee currently. Quite apart from commiseration from other, equally slow, bees, I have quite deliberately set it aside, knowing that, in my current state of nervous tension, I do not have the brain space to deal with its complexities. I AM being incredibly slow, but since I DECIDED to slow down, I feel okay about it. I think there may be some pathology there that I should have looked into ...

Of course, my unwillingness to make untold errors to rip out on the "Bee" has left me with a knitting vacuum which I have filled, as planned, with two lovely shawls. I have re-cast-on Mim Knit's Seraphim in gorgeous mini-maiden in Victoria colorway. The yarn is rather slippery, but soft with a beautiful sheen. I used 4mm needles and in my zen-like acceptance of the inevitability of worrying about decisions, I am refusing to reconsider - or indeed notice at all - how the gauge is going. It will be what it is (I think, perhaps size 4.5 might be better .....). Here it is in all its splendour (although the colors are a little over-saturated - I'm NOT much of a photographer).



I also just cast on my planned Blue moon Laci Valkyrie version of Anne Hanson's Gale. I am NOT - again - thinking about gauge. When you have cast on 4 times in three different needle sizes, it is time to just move on. I do finally have a good photo of the yarn, though, much to my surprise. I think the gremlins living in my camera have decided that without the encouragement of one reasonably accurate shot, I might give up the ghost, and they would lose their entertainment.



And finally, the yarn for my Swiss cheese travel scarf arrived. The colors are amazing - and, in another fit of hysteria, the gremlins allowed me a good snap of it too. Perhaps I should thank the little monsters, they might be disarmed enough to trow me another pictoral bone. I am using Knitfreak's version as a model; you can see it here). I am just going to avoid all decisions by using the same pattern, needle size, etc. After all, I'll be on vacation - from waffling as well as everything else.




I think I'l go check on that Valkyrie gauge one more time ....

Enjoy it while it lasts ....

I took the plunge - finally - I frogged the lily pad seraphim. I still love the yarn - it's so soft and yummy. I still love the pattern. I was knitting doggedly away on it - I started and I was going to finish - and, of course, with every row I became more determined to complete what I had begun. Finally my beloved spouse asked AGAIN why I was knitting this piece. I pointed out the I loved the yarn, the pattern. He asked, rather reasonably and with that patient tone - you know the kind - if I would EVER wear a shawl in such a color. I was forced to respond "no" - after all, I don't want to look like Minnie Mouse any more than the next over six-year-old. I frogged it - my husband, and the friends with whom we were chatting, all cheered.

To fill the void thus created, I have cast on the Gale shawl in Blue Moon Laci. I will probably cast on yet again, since I selected 3.5mm needles and more agonized decision-making has convinced me that probably 4 mm was the way to go. However, the decision leaves me with a travel project void. What shall I take on my trip? Is the Gale sufficiently simple for such use? Not ANOTHER decision!

In a frenzied excess of decision-making, I have decided to cast on Seraphim with the Mini Maiden in my stash. I have two skeins of delicious Victoria in a burgundy and forest green melange. I carefully examined all the projects with Mini Maiden and found that 4 mm is the needle of choice for this yarn.

This may be the moment. I always reach a point after trying to make too many decisions, remaking them, waffling, etc., when a moment of peaceful clarity arises. 3.5 or 4 mm? Mini Maiden or Blue Face Leicester? Will anyone care in a hundred years? Will I care next week? I then make a flurry of decisions in a zen-like daze. The world becomes peaceful. Enjoy it while it lasts ....

You say Guernsey, I say Gansey ....

Today my husband asked me to knit him a new sweater - he figured that June was the perfect time; I might actually finish for winter. I'm thinking about Alice Starmore's Inishmore since he has wanted an Aran sweater for a long time. I, on the other hand, when I actually knit a sweater, LOVE fishermen's ganseys (guernseys). I am utterly intrigued by the clever construction, and I admire the restrained beauty of their subtle purl-knit patterns. That said, the 7-8 stitch per inch gauge is a deterrent. My last gansey took over two years to complete. It was worth it though.

I especially like the knitted-in gussets. They were my first major knit repair. As I was finishing the section, I realized that the pattern was written to place them partway through a motif.
I ravelled down a stitch at a time to make them symmetrical as they flowed around the gusset. My husband thought I had lost my mind - after all, as he said, how many people will be getting THAT good a look at my underarm! I know it's there, though.


This pattern is from Alice Starmore's first (?) book with Anne Matheson, Knitting from the British Islands. I also have her Fishermen's Sweaters, so perhaps another gansey is in my future. After all, if I knit it, I expect my DH will wear it. Of course, the biggest problem with a gansey isn't the thousands of stitches that go into making it; it is the fact that they're made of incredibly dense knitted fabric designed to keep one warn in the middle of the North Sea. Canada is cold, but I still find few days that are cold enough - and if they are, I'm not thinking about modeling knitwear; I'm thinking about how to avoid going out at all!

Avoiding the Hubris Faeries

Now that 'I've finished Clue 2 - and spotted another error (did you see it there, on the right-hand side?) - I'm busily putting in a lifeline and getting ready for the next push.

In the meantime, my two "relaxing" knits are coming along nicely.

The most "relaxing" is the seraphim. I have reached a point of no return with this one. The die is cast, the gauge chosen, and no decisions need be made until I finish the main body and have to decide whether to add to the section or knit as originally written (If you haven't guessed, decisions and I are not the best of friends).





The Gale is still at the early decision stage. I'm happy with the swatch, but now I must decide whether to go with on gauge and looser than I like, to take the tighter version that makes for a better fabric, or to swatch with a still smaller needle and plan to add a pattern repeat or two width and length .... So much for relaxing! The yarn, though, is splendid; the photo in no way does it justice.




In the meantime, we've been watching the new versions of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park ....

Drumroll Please!

Drumroll Please .... I finished Clue 2 in the Slow Bee Mystery Shawl - sloths of the world, look out!



I will put in a lifeline at this point before going any further so that my temerity in announcing a landmark moment may not get the hubris faeries after me - or if they DO target me, they will (I hope) be foiled by a few yards of white cotton embroidery thread.

Clue 2 was quite a bit easier than the earlier clue - that would be Clue 1 - once I recovered from repair shell shock enough to actually try it. The repair itself looks pretty good. I'm also finding my rhythm on beading; this project is my first attempt at beading.

I am now looking for better stitch markers. I finally broke down and put them in, but I find that - although knitting is MUCH easier with them in - I leave a tiny run where they separate the stitches. I use the little flexible rubber ones. Now I am thinking that the wire markers with the dangles might be easier to knit around.

Now galloping ahead to Clue 3 .... Design 1 or 2 ... so many decisions ....

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a Decision?

I finally decided - when in doubt, don't choose!


I have cast on the Seraphim shawl with the Lily Pad Blue Face Leicester - my husband hates it. I think he suspects that I will be unable to resist wearing it once completed, and he doesn't want to be seen with someone who looks like a Disney character. I'm quite happy with it so far - the yarn is sooo soft and the pattern uses a limited number of brain cells. I should admit that this version is the Mock II - I cast on with a smaller needle and finally decided to rip it out and get something at least a LITTLE closer to gauge. (I finally got a sunny day in Toronto to photograph - a thing in short supply lately - and now all my pictures are not washed out, they're "greened". Could my camera be haunted?)

I have also knitted a gauge swatch for Gale in Blue Moon Valkyrie. I'm trying to decide whether to go with gauge or to use the slightly smaller needle because I think I like the fabric better when it's a bit denser.

I think I've also chosen a travel project for my trip to the West Coast at the end of the month.


Last time I travelled, I had just purchased the Book of Yarn and was knitting happily on its many projects. The Maine Morning Mitts and the Scaruffle were a perfect match. The Scaruffle was perfect for actual travel days - just knit, turn, and knit some more. The mitts, while not a good choice when your plane might be called any minute, are great for hotel evenings.

What do I look for in the perfect travel project? Well, it should fit into a large zip-lock bag for portability, it should have directions that can be written on a single 3x5 card, and it should be no problem to stop mid-row. This is a longish trip, so I need a bit of substance as well. I'll probably take either the Seraphim or Gale along for hotel knitting, but for the train and plane, I think I'll bring the Swiss Cheese Scarf by Winnie at Knitting Escapism. I saw a version on ravelry using variegated malabrigo, and I was hooked! You can see the pattern here. I just hope my yarn arrives in Canada in time!

The Choice

I now have a difficult choice ahead of me. You see, I usually have about 3-5 projects on the go at any one time. There is the "hard project", the "purse project", the "relaxing project", and, every-so-often, the "travel project". I have a purse project - a little Wisp-like shawl in Alchemy mohair and silk - and a hard project - the Slow Bee. However, for awhile now, I haven't had a relaxing project. That's probably because I can't relax as the Bees pull away, leaving me in the dust. Now the time has come.

I must select the "relaxing project". In this, my infamous queue is of limited service. It tells me what I plan to knit, but not what I need to and want to knit for this type of project. After much deliberation, however, I have come down to two yarns and two patterns. I now have to match them - each yarn to a pattern - and decide WHICH TO DO FIRST.

Here are the yarns:




On the left, you can see yarn #1 - the lovely Blue Moon Fiber Arts Laci in Valkyrie (in person it is darker and smokier),



while on the right, languishes Fleece Artist's Blue Face Leicester in Lily Pad. The former was acquired from Lettuce Knits in Toronto where its siren call captivated me - it is luscious, its coloring is rich and dark, it is just the kind of yarn I adore. The latter, I purchased on a whim from Little Knits. It is soft, squishy, vibrant - and entirely what I never choose. Why? Because I am, in the language of the colour-obsessed eighties, a "winter". I wear black, white and pretty much any jewel tone with aplomb (well, without actually disgracing myself anyway). When I wear pretty much any pastel, however, I turn immediately and embarassingly into a quite laughable Minnie Mouse. Despite this unpleasant, but oft-tested, reality, I still really LOVE this yarn.

Now the patterns. Here, no such dilemmas rear their ugly heads. I LOVE both these patterns. First we have Seraphim by Mim Knits. You can view it here. This gorgeous triangular beauty is primarily in stocking stitch until the end, but it is flowing, interesting, beautifully proportioned. Then, we have Gale by Anne Hanson. View it here. This enchanting rectangular stole is in easily scanned repeats, resulting in a flowing, harmonious fabric. Lovely!

Now, the CHOICE. Which yarn goes with which pattern? Which ought I to cast on first? I feel like the end of a seventies soap opera ....

The Process of Repair

So I thought I'd record the process I used to correct - THE ERROR. There is a great tutorial with pictures at Rosemary-Go-Round that was really helpful.

To begin, I inserted a dpn into the 21 stitches of the middle panel. I needed to do the whole thing since I missed a pair of rows. Also, that choice meant that I was repairing a section with knit stitches on either end. That makes it easy to tell which loop of yarn is the correct one for the next row, and it keeps the correction all in one pattern. I "read" the row below to see where I was beginning. You don't have to be an expert for this part; I simply counted stitches between yarn overs and easily determined that I was beginning with round 23. I added one because I was on the purl back row and knew my next row would be 25.

Then I took the plunge and began to unravel each line of knitting down to the dpn, leaving empty loops attached at either end to the main body of knitting. I then went back to my dpn at row 24. I took a second dpn and transferred the stitches to it, counting them, making sure they all were from the same row, that I had not dropped any, and that none were twisted. Now to start. I took the lowest loop and using the pair of dpns, I began to knit the pattern from row 25 across. My dpn was a smaller size than the original needles to give me room to throw the loop of yarn as I reached the end of the stitches. When I completed the row, I eased the extra yarn back by tightening each loop from left to right and distributing the yarn as evenly as possible over the stitches. I then took the other dpn and again transferred the stitches, checking yarn overs (they're easy to loose) and ensuring that no stitches were twisted. When all was well, I knitted straight across the next row with the now lowest loop of yarn. You can, of course, turn the work and purl back, but I prefer to continue from right to left through the whole process. Then transfer the stitches while checking for twists and errors and evening out the yarn distribution. Repeat to row 32, and viola!

I still have a leg up on the left side, but it is minor. I am pretty sure I can redistribute the yarn to cover it later on. In the end, this VERY careful repair took about 1 1/2 or 2 hours performed while watching a DVD - time to redo the whole shawl from row 24-32 .... well, a lot more, not to mention the possibility of making more errors!

The Plunge!

I took the plunge! The other evening I inserted a small double-pointed needle just below my error in the Slow Bee shawl. The next evening I looked at it - and trembled each time in superstitious dread. Finally, this evening, I was forced to act. I was unable to continue until SOMETHING was done. I'm pretty happy with the result. There is a ladder on the left margin of my repair, but I think I can work it out by spreading the extra yarn over several nearby stitches with a crochet hook. On the other hand, Clue 5 comes out this weekend and I am sprinting forward from row 5 of Clue 2. I'm afraid the sloths have overtaken me. I am now a stone (unfortunately NOT rolling) hoping gravity will step in as moss begins to accumulate upon my surface. Oh dear!

In the meantime, I have just now finished Jane Johnson's The Tenth Gift. If I was a trifle concerned initially with my purchase of The Cathedral of the Sea, this new book seemed an even riskier choice. The supposed diary of a talented needleworker kidnapped by Barbary pirates seems an unlikely vehicle for a satisfying historical novel, after all. However, the book was full of interesting information about a largely unknown aspect of early modern history - the trade in European slaves in Northern Africa incited, at least in part, by the expulsion of the Moors from Spain under less-than-salubrious conditions. Although many aspects of the novel were unlikely at best, the far-fetched items were not especially prurient - nor, thank goodness, did our heroine fall in love with her defiler (although he was her captor). I'll stop now before giving away too much, but this novel was certainly an excellent read for the history - and the textile - enthusiast!

Now, in an effort to spend a bit MORE time catching up to sloth speed in the Slow Bee KAL, I have begun a little mystery, A Killer Stitch by Maggie Sefton. I have read her other knitting cozies over the years, and this should be a perfect quick, light read. Although my favourite "textile novelist" is probably Jennifer Chiaverini, I have a weakness for the textile novel in general. I certainly enjoyed the Friday Night Knitting Club, which I read a few months ago.

Now the challenge is selecting plane reading for my upcoming trip to the West Coast. I often splurge on recent, still-in-hardcover murder mysteries from favourite series as plane fodder. I am thinking the latest by Nevada Barr, a great favourite of mine, and, perhaps, Linda Fairstein's latest as well. I'm not quite sure why the purchase of a very expensive plane ticket should authorize the consumption of books in pricey hardcover versions when I usually wait for the paperback edition, but it does. If enough tempting mysteries are published together, I begin to think of trips I MUST undertake. There must be some fancy psychological syndrome that explains this behaviour ....

THAT Discussion

I seem to have ended up in THAT discussion again. You know the kind ... the one that crops up about once a month, EVERY month. I seem to just put the whole issue to bed without any supper, and then up it pops, demanding attention yet again.

My particular endless discussion revolves around Star Wars. Surprised? Of course, for folks of a certain age - certainly for folks of my age - this film (or rather the first three films) is a landmark. We categorized ourselves by our preference for Han or Luke. We bashed or justified the use of Ewoks, the relationship of Luke and Leia, Luke's unusual parenthood.

My discussion, however, surrounds the, for me, less interesting second trilogy. Younger folks, whom I try not to view as "lost", often PREFER the second trilogy to my (perhaps our) beloved original. I grant that folks my age see it differently - for us it was like nothing we'd ever seen before, while for younger folks it is, well, old and rather dated. Yet, as I tell them (hence the "discussion"), the second trilogy is fundamentally flawed as a narrative because the fall of Anakin is a (failed) classic tragedy.

Tragedy requires a window, however brief, on the extraordinary potential of our hero/villain. In this case, however, the audience is never allowed to really see Anakin's potential for great good, only for great power; the films far too carefully foreshadow his fall to allow a real sense of potential virtue. Because we cannot regret his fall or feel it a loss of a force for good in the world, his story cannot develop the depth that a truly great tragedy must achieve. With such flawed clay presented so early - and to develop the seeds of his fall so long! - at the end we experience no sense of loss, and our only sense of wonder is our amazement that everyone within the film could not see what the audience had perceived two films ago - the inevitability of Anakin's fall.

I should add that the reason this argument emerges so frequently isn't actually because I accost young persons in order to re-educate them on tragedy via the Star Wars vehicle. In fact, my husband and I "discuss" this topic frequently - at the top of our lungs. It is not, I hasten to add, that my spouse LIKES the new Star Wars, but rather that he attributes its rather spectacular failure to the advent to Jar Jar Binks and other extensions of the Ewok mentality. He may have a point ...

I apologize to all who love the newer films as I do the old and invite (gentle - I bruise) disagreement. I would love to enjoy them as I do my elderly classics; another three films to adore, dissect, and rewatch yearly would be a joy.