Sep 07 2010

Swimming Against the Tide

Category: Knitting,Life & Stuff,Spinning,Vending,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 7:24 am

Labor Day weekend was, at very least, a weekend of labor for me. Not only was I in full dyeing/vend prep mode, but I had to work a company event as well. We had the Clearwater Sloop come and do educational family tours on the Hudson for lucky employee families, I was there as company photographer and face painter of children. Fingers crossed, it’s supposed to be over time and we could really use the money. On the yarn front, I dyed 35 skeins of yarn, re-skeined 11, finished the shawl I’m wearing to mom and dad’s re-wedding, battled Tempest the entire weekend (she’s chattering, and yes I oiled/took apart/adjusted), and watched almost the entire first two seasons of Dexter.

Tempeste doesn't like me right now, but we're working through it.

It feels good to have so much new shop stock in the house, and a few of the skeins are dyed in a style I don’t do very often but will be more so in the future. Rich, complex, and still kettle dyed. The kind of yarns that make your fingers itch to cast on for a sock or shawl that’s full of sultry goodness. The thought that this should be the last big dye session I have to re-skein by hand leaves me breathless and my shoulder, neck, and arm whimper in gratitude.

Guilty Pleasures sock yarn in the new "Earth Golem" colorway.

Finishing one of the bridesmaid shawls also left me temporarily giddy. I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. I can’t say it’s truly ‘done’, it has to get over-dyed yet. Yes, mom and I decided that dyeing it plum would be best, and I can finally not force myself to love the copper/burnt orange color. I’ll do a test dye on a swatch before I throw the whole shawl in the pot. Gives me the willies just contemplating it, but it needs to be done. The shawl is HUGE. Huge. Already shawl size, unblocked, just like the one I made mom to wear herself. I’ll have to be very careful handling it when wet and blocking.

Shawl size, as you see, unblocked.

Tiny House has been under a bit of a pall lately, I’m sad (literally) to say. Work has gone from bad to worse, becoming a toxic stew. The kind of environment that is tailor made to trigger a major depressive episode, which I am struggling very hard against. I really don’t want to have to put on my mask again. It feels rather like swimming against the tide. Steve, friends, and family, have been something to hold on to while I figure out what direction I can realistically take next. For now, I’ve got a remix (and free download) by one of my favorite groups on repea

<a href="http://beatsantique.bandcamp.com/track/fratres-for-violin-and-piano-arvo-part-remix-beats-antique">Fratres for Violin and Piano &#8211; ( Arvo Part Remix &#8211; Beats Antique) by beats antique</a>

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Aug 22 2010

Into the Vortex

Category: Knitting,Life & Stuff,Spinning — Mistress Rows @ 9:09 pm

Where has the time gone? It’s gone into the vortex, that’s where. I looked up and the week was gone, I swear.

My position at work has changed, and I no longer have to worry that my position will be eliminated, though it has changed. I had to leave my home office of 11 years, and tomorrow I report to the corporate office a couple of towns over. It was a very hard to pack up my desk and leave behind and people that I care about very much. The drive is the same to the new office, but my duties will be very, very different. I’ll be receptionist, personal assistant, with assorted other duties. It’ll be a return to the position that I used to have, and miss very much. Some things will be new, but I’m happy to have a more secure position. Still, leaving work on Friday was so very, very hard.

Nuala helps make smiles happen.

This weekend has been a good one though, with lots of time spent with my parents and a lot of laughter. I did a little photo shoot for mom and dad’s re-wedding which I think came out very well. Other than that, and a visit to Albany for wedding craft shopping, it’s been a quiet weekend, something that’ll be in rare supply as September and October come along. The weddings, and evens leading up to them are making for a very busy late summer and fall.

35 years of getting up to no good. :)

Knitting is smoking along very well, and I’m THIS CLOSE to finishing the Copper (Flamenco) shawl. Only 4 working (front) rows left! Sure, that probably works out to around 3,600 stitches plus bind-off, but who’s counting? Sooo close. To break things up I’m also working on a sock. I need something that isn’t a mass noodly stitches to work on when I’m around others or out and about. It’s a pair of plain Jane socks in Knit Picks Felici Sport in the Seaside colorway.

All teal and sandy goodness.

There’s been spinning too, some gorgeous beige over-dyed BFL from Spunky Eclectic, a birthday purchase courtesy of Jessalu. I adore how it’s spinning up, there isn’t enough over-dyed, non-white top in the world! You can see why I fell in love with it in the booth a Cummington, can’t you?

Sagittarius BFL from Spunky Eclectic.

Absolutely delish.

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Jul 15 2010

Shawl or Sushi?

Category: Knitting,Loot,Ramblings — Mistress Rows @ 5:30 pm

Pandora internet radio is a part of my daily life these days; through it I have rediscovered my love of 80’s emo ballads. God, no wonder I was such a dramatic little kid growing up. Have you listened to Heart’s “Alone” recently? How about Crowded House, “Don’t Dream It’s Over”? It was a great time to be an artistic soul in a little body. Oh god, “Thriller” just came on and now I’m chair dancing. Hey, I’ll take a good mood where I can find it.

On the topic of happy things, this week’s Knit Night was just the breath of fresh air I needed. Wendy, Jess, Becky, Michelle, my mom, and I had a rip roaring good time. It’s been a while. Our venue, The Parlor, is only recently air conditioned (last year) and by two underpowered window units. Our favorite barista, Jerry, does his best to ensure that it’s as cool as possible, but more often than not attendance is low during the summer months. Getting most of the gang in one place at the same time was just what I needed, for laughter really is the best medicine.

Parade of color!

On the way home I was in for one more brief burst of joy as my Knit Picks order had arrived. Social media marketing really does work, because when KP updated on Facebook that their Seasons Shawl kit in the Fall/Winter colorway was almost sold out I didn’t hesitate one more second. I had sushi money saved up, figured it was a fair tradeoff. I know I could have just waited for the pattern to go on sale separately, but this way I didn’t have to struggle to match the right stash shades of mismatched weights and fiber contents. I’ve never knitted a shawl like this before, normally I stick to one color and that’s that. I’m fascinated by the colors in the kit, and I know I’m going to have fun knitting it.

Shawl-in-progress photos aren't exactly exciting.

My current shawls are back to being worked on regularly, which means I may not make the second half of my TdF spinning goal. That’s all right with me though, if I have to weight making that second bobbin of three ply against finishing the wedding shawls on time, yeah. I choose the shawls. I’m struck by how simple the patterns really are – and yet I’m not bored. And, by the way, they’re going to be huge. HUGE. The copper one’s going to be huge just by dint of drape and being a heavy lace weight, and the wine one is going to be huge because I compensated for using lace instead of fingering weight yarn by adding a couple dozen extra body rows. Unblocked they’d reach from the nape of my neck to my waist, and I’ve still got around 20+ rows per shawl left to go. Good thing I’m such a large woman.

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Jun 29 2010

The Fine Art of Pain

Category: Gardening,Knitting,Life & Stuff — Mistress Rows @ 12:30 pm

I’ve been quiet lately for no particular reason than I’ve been tired and the Fibro has been capricious. One day I’ll be fine a low grade 3 or 4 (where I normally cruise on the pain scale) and then I’ll have a day like yesterday where I was spiking at a 6 during work hours. I hate it when that happens during a work day. If I’m going to hurt like that, where I feel like I have to immobilize the offending area, it would be nice if I had the ability to lay down and do so. Today I’m down to a 4 or 5. I’ll take it.

Fibromyalgia, at least the way I experience it, has two pain components. There is the pressure point pain, where I have to be lightly pressed or rubbed to feel gasp-worthy pain, and the always present ache portion of the equation. That part of it is always there, to varying degrees. This is the (usually) dull or throbbing ache in various parts of my body, so many different parts that I usually just call it whole body pain. It’s either apparent while I’m at rest (either laying or sitting) or noticeable when moving or stretching doing normal daily activities like reaching for something at my desk, or bending over. Your instinctual reaction is to restrict your movements since they either hurt right away, or will hurt soon afterwards, and this leads to a gradual inflexibility and a loss of range of motion. The blackly comedic note here is that exercise is the most common recommendation from your doctor to combat this. Fibro’s final gift is exhaustion.

Yellow Squash in the making.

One way for me to combat my pathetically sedentary lifestyle is through my garden. I don’t care how I feel when I get home from work. I pick up the hose, water the flower bed, and then walk down to the raised beds. I water the plants if they need it, and make sure I grab every single weed I can find. Though the beds are raised, I don’t have a stool or gardening bench so I’m bending over and reaching around the 4×4 beds. By the time I’ve inspected all the plants and eradicated the weeds, I’m usually sweating from the sun and hurting. The process takes me roughly 10-15 minutes total. I put up with the discomfort because I love seeing how my plants have grown since the day before. My garden is exciting, even if the maintenance is painful at times. It got off to a false and poor start in the early spring, so who knows what my harvest will be like, but I don’t care. Each year I’ll learn something new and will, I’m sure, be better than the last.

Juvenile heirloom tomatoes (from a mixed packet, it's a surprise). How I wish I hadn't killed the first batch.

My evenings have been spent knitting away and I’m making great progress with the shawls. Not being a particularly fast knitter, it’s the consistency that wins the day for me. Think of me as the tortoise. If you go by the chart, I’m more than 2/3 done with both, and further along on the copper Flamenco shawl. Last night I did the math and found that I have 18 rows to go. Of course, each working row (knit side) takes me well over 30 minutes. It bears keeping in mind that I’m reading a lace chart and watching TV at the same time, which does require split concentration. Painted Sun would be just as far along, chart wise, but I added 20 rows to lengthen it. I haven’t been pushing to go faster because it’s far to easy to give yourself a knitting injury at the best of times, and two shawls are particularly demanding for someone with my limitations. In related good news, I’m not sick of either shawl yet, for which I am profoundly grateful.

Shawl in photo is larger than it appears.

 That doesn’t mean I didn’t have to fight off the urge to grab a hook and start crocheting the Midsummer’s Night Shawl from the summer issue of Interweave Crochet. Click on the photo to see the project description on the Crochet Me website. That’s some strong juju there.

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Jun 14 2010

YO, Destiny!

Category: Knitting,WIP — Mistress Rows @ 6:44 am

 Nothing says “honey, can you pause the movie” like deciding to rip out 2.5 rows of lace knitting… without a lifeline. Sure, I could have tinked back, but that would have taken forever and as there was very little pattern, mostly just stockinette, I figured why not. I’m not above fudging, and do it all the time, but when you’re finally working actual lace, and you forget something critical two rows back, it’s the right thing to do. There’s no way I could have attempted this with the Alpaca Silk yarn, too slippery by far. Thankfully, all went well and I worked up to the point I’d had to rip, and then some.

It seems almost unnatural that things are going so well, so far. Not to say that there aren’t things I would change if I could, (still not sold on the dark copper color Flamenco, and wishing I’d used smaller needles), but all in all, both shawls are going very well. I’m not working on them strictly during their day and night time slots, but I am working on them at least alternating days. Sometimes it bugs me to lose my groove on the shawl I’m working on, but without fail, each one gets at least 7 hours of attention a week, usually more. The copper shawl (Flamenco) is up to row 103 out of 177, and the Sin shawl (Painted Sun) is up to row 99 out of 187, plus the additional 24 rows I added to make it larger. Whew. Steve was pretty impressed with how far I’ve come, but I remind him that each row only takes longer as you go, the shawl growing larger and larger by tiny bits.

Things are starting to get interesting. I'm about 12 rows farther now than this photo shows.

With that in mind, I wonder if I’m one of those people who were meant to knit lace. It’s my favorite type of stitch pattern to knit, and the crochet patterns I’m drawn to most are usually similarly lace like. I’m drawn to lace, it catches my eye and captivates me like no other technique to date. It’s so simple, when you break it down to technical skills involved, and yet it looks so damned impressive when you’re done. The more I tackle actual lace weight patterns, the less intimidated I am by the amount of time needed to finish. It’s just a process, and it’ll take as long as it needs to. I don’t worry so much anymore about my difficult in finishing things in other areas of my life. With knitting, at least, I know the process is its own joy.

Two of the six skeins of Alpaca Cloud I have tucked away for the plant themed Forest Path Stole. This colorway, Moss, is a gorgeous heathered green and also discontinued.

Who knows, if I can keep up the pace I’m going at now, relaxed but focused, it might not be so crazy that I could at least start the Forest Path Stole this summer. If so, I doubt I could finish it in time for competition at Rhinebeck, but what if I could? What if I could enter THREE full size lace shawls at Rhinebeck? Wouldn’t that be awesome? It’s a heady thought, but I’ll not get ahead of myself. For now I’ll enjoy leap frogging from my two very different shawls, night and day.

PS: On an entirely different note, I’d be interested in your thoughts about what makes or breaks a LYS for you. You can read more in my recent Confessional post, “LYS: The Good, The Bad, & The Just Plain Odd”.

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Jun 11 2010

Eye Candy Friday: Storm Skies

Category: Knitting,Tiny House — Mistress Rows @ 7:25 am

Changing storm skies #1.

Tiny House may be tiny, but it is located in some beautiful country. As we work our way through our first year here, I am in love with how lovely our view across the way is. The only thing that would make enjoying the outside even easier would be a heavy duty hammock that can handle a woman of my size. Or maybe one of these reclining lawn chairs.

Changing storm skies #2.

I’ve been trucking along on the shawls, and am past the halfway mark on both. Actually I’m WAY past the halfway mark on the Painted Sun due to the fact that I’ve elongated the “plain” section to compensate for the fact that I’m using yarn that’s thinner than called for. As the lace motif is centered in each panel of the shawl, this changes little that matters in the end result. Instead of touching at the bottom of each panel as the motif gets wider (tear drop shape), there will be plain knitting separating the edges of each. I can add eyelets there if I like, or leave as is.

Enlargement Procedures initiated, three extra repeats. Aka: 24 extra rows.

When I get home I’ll have books from the library waiting for me, including one on canning. Now that we’ve got our own home, and consequently, our own gardens, I’m looking to get into canning. Our garden beds are small, and we most likely won’t have more than we can eat, but I’m perfectly willing to can purchased produce as well. Mom and I are going garage saling at the town-wide sale in Catskill tomorrow, if I can score some of the needed items that would be great. Otherwise I’ll be buying this kit, which includes the “canning bible”, otherwise knows as the Blue Book. I have images of pickles that are swimming in garlic, relish for Steve that’s not made with HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup), berry jams, and salsa. It’ll be messy work, and I’m sure I’ll make mistakes, but with friends that are veteran canners, I have no doubt I’ll succeed.

Newly acquired from my local library. Sure to be inspiring!

Speaking of hearth and home, Steve’s been on vacation all week, and I think I’ve done a good job of keeping my resentment to a minimum. Still, it’ll be nice to be able to switch things off as well and relax for the weekend. Speaking of the husbeast, he’s left early to hang out with his gaming friends and that means it’s Tina’s Night to Herself. Though actually, tonight I was supposed to have company, but plans fell through, so I’ve put out the call to see if anyone wants to come by and hangout for the evening. Last minute as it is, I don’t have any real expectations of a taker, so I’m also fully prepared to relax for the evening with my knitting and streamable British murder mysteries. Boring, yes, but an engaging way to spend the evening regardless.

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Jun 04 2010

ECF: Snapdragon Tree

Category: Knitting,Life & Stuff,Tiny House — Mistress Rows @ 7:10 am

Strange tree, strange blooms.

As you pull into my driveway, the first thing you notice right now is an enormous tree covered in clusters of large, white flowers. The first few days of blooming my attention went no further than that.

Popcorn pods.

Two days ago I stopped to really look at the flowers as I walked back from the mailbox. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I realized that these weren’t the wispy blossoms like apple trees get. No, these are big, bold blooms that look like a cross between a Snapdragon and another flower whose name is on the tip of my tongue. May be Alstromeria? Day Lilies?

Kinda like Snapdragons, but kinda like something... else.

These flowers are so bold and distinct, you’d never believe they came from a tree and not a bulb or other traditional ground flower. I’ve never seen anything like it, and the house is surrounded by them on the North side. Our neighbor has a matching tree at the end of his driveway as well. We moved into the house in December, so all we’d ever seen this tree produce is enormous vanilla bean like pods, causing me to call it the Bean Tree in my head. These pods are very annoying when they fall in burst strips to the lawn, but I’ll never complain again seeing how gorgeous it is in the spring.

Tiny House is surrounded by strange trees.

In knitting news, the shawls are coming along well. Flamenco is loose and airy, while Painted Sun is denser and more compact. That’s a problem since I didn’t realize It was written for sock yarn until it was too late. I chalk up the difference to the slipperiness of Alpaca and silk, vs. grippy mostly wool plus silk. I have a plan to enlarge Painted Sun that should work very well, but then I get to obsess over having enough yarn, yay. Anxiety is the spice of knitting, right?

Painted Sun in progress.

Tomorrow is my birthday party, which is sort of a combined open house as well. We have friends, family, and coworkers coming to hang out on the lawn while we grill, but that doesn’t mean the house doesn’t still need to be clean. Especially for the coworkers and extended family who haven’t seen it yet. Cue panic, now. I’m not even going to think about the 50% chance of thunderstorms and the fact that our guest list is larger than Tiny House can hold.

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May 27 2010

“Test Your Might!”

Category: Knitting,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 6:29 am

“It HAS begun!” (Cue Mortal Kombat themsesong.)

The Great Lace Race is on, and as with all shawls that start with only a handful of stitches, I’m feeling good. I’ve never knit shawls quite like these before, but I have high hopes for both the pleasure of the knitting and their finished beauty. Fingers crossed that my hands hold out. My current library rampage could actually help me in the quest to balance the need to knit as much as possible and not hurt myself in the process. A good book is both a powerful draw and a way to rest my hands that doesn’t feel like inaction.

I’ve never attempted anything quite like this before, working two lace projects at the same time, both having immutable deadlines. I had hoped that this would be the year I finally made the Garden Path Stole, especially after scoring the needed extra yardage of the discontinued Moss colorway, but I doubt that’s going to happen. Still, I’ll have these two gorgeous shawls to show for my time, and I can’t complain about that. I think that it’s fitting to work on the bright shawl during the day on my work breaks and the dark shawl when I’m home at night. Fingers crossed, tick tock.

Flamenco, just starting to get interesting.

Flamenco is coming along nicely, as you can see. This pattern has less stockinette than Painted Sun, and I’m already past the first diamond motif. It feels good to be starting the actual lace work, seeing how the picture paints itself in yarn overs is what makes knitting lace fun after all. Mom’s not hot on the color, but since it’s my shawl, and not hers (which she loves), that’s all right. The color is devilishly difficult to capture, sometimes it looks like an old penny (low light) and other times it’s brighter. Copper isn’t a color I normally like to wear or work with anyway, but it’s the only one of her two wedding colors that works against a black dress, so we’ll manage.

"Sin", from Bittersweet Woolery, in Sweet Nothings Silken.

Now that the yarn Jess commissioned has passed inspection I am beside myself with squee. I adore how it came out, you can see and read more about the process over at the Confessional, and while you’re there why not check out some of the more recent posts? Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Gadzooks, how I love this yarn! The wool/silk blend is very nice in the hands, and it takes the dye like you wouldn’t believe. The colorway is called “Sin” (as in “living in…”) in honor of Jess and her honey’s prolonged cohabitation. I’ll be skeining it all up and labeling so that it can be parceled out to the other bridesmaids on Saturday… which, by the way, is Cummington. Yay!

The infant stages of Painted Sun.

I’m only a few rows in, but now it’s ON.

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May 24 2010

Flamenco: Bridesmaid Shawl #1

Category: Knitting,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 6:08 pm

Well, I wanted copper and boy did I ever get copper. Perhaps the yarn is too copper? To be fair, this picture is brighter than the more chocolately orange I ended up with.

Lucky Penny

What you’re looking at here is the Cognac (beige) Alpaca Silk lace yarn I showed last week. Mom’s wedding colors are copper and maroon. Since my dress is black, copper is the smart choice as to which color to dye the shawl yarn. I mixed myself up some “Bright Orange” dye, of which they are NOT exaggerating, and poured just a portion of it into the pot. Seriously, the water was still clear, I didn’t use a ton, not that you can tell by how bright the yarn came out. Would you believe I gave it a second dye bath with “Reddish Brown” to tone it down? I figure if I hate it when I’m done with the shawl I’ll overdye it again to dull it down even further.

This shawl pattern is fairly busy once it gets going, so I wanted to dye the yarn as close to solid as possible. Between the two dyebaths, it definitely came out as close to solid as I’ve ever dyed. The yarn is silky and absolutely luxurious to the touch, but… it’s a poorly put up, two-strand lace yarn. What we’re working with here is two, two-ply strands that are barely twisted together. What a pain in the ass to work with! Well, to be fair, it’s only really annoying when I have to k2tog, otherwise it’s ok. Technically I could just dye up the KP Gloss Lace I bought myself last month, but I’m going to soldier on.

Humble beginnings.

I cast on last night before the Lost finale and fought the entire finale to knit the same 11 rows over and over again. I knew I was missing something, and it was driving me NUTS. Who knew that stockinette and M1s could be so infuriating! Cue this morning: STILL missing something, still starting over repeatedly. I gave in and asked for help on a Ravelry board and by 10 a.m., voila! I had my answer. It was both my own fault, and a clarification that the designer could have put on the same page as the damned charts. *breathe* Everything’s fine now. I can do this.

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May 18 2010

Meh Unto You!

Category: Knitting,Life & Stuff — Mistress Rows @ 7:06 am

I find it unfair that allergies are the gift that keep on giving. Yesterday my allergy pill did nothing for me, but I can’t take more than one or I’ll fall asleep at my desk. I sneezed on and off all day, usually in bursts of two or three consecutively. Today I feel much better and haven’t been sneezing as much, but my whole torso, especially my ribs, aches… on top of my normal aches and pains. Every time I sneeze I wince. Oh Fibro, you are so talented! How clever are the news ways in which you torment me! Meh. Meh, unto you. Recently I’ve started tracking my pain levels in “My Pain Diary”, an app for the iPhone, and I’m really glad to have it, totally worth the $4. It’s sad that I get all excited about showing a pain-tracking application to my friends and family, but there you have it. Now, if only my cracker-jack GP didn’t reply “wow, that seems obssessive” when I showed it to him.

My Pain Diary app, available in the Apple App Store. May you never have need of it.

On a much more pleasant note, I am starting to weird out the ladies who man the desk at the library, they see me take out giant stacks of books and then I bring them back in seven to ten days, which is apparently quicker than they expect. It’s been remarked upon. Half of them are craft books, which I look through relatively quickly, so they don’t count. But yes, I really did read those five novels I took back yesterday. I think it’s because I haven’t used the library in so long, I feel like I have to burn through it all at once. I don’t HAVE to gulp books down, they’re not going anywhere! I’m slowing down now that I’ve gotten to the next to latest Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novel by Laurell K. Hamilton. It’s thick, 486 pages of ass-kicking sex, violence, and moral quandries, and I plan on savoring it. Anita is my hero, and I understand and relate to her much better than I do more conventional female main characters. That should tell you something about me.

Anita Blake speaks my language.

Tonight I’ll get the yarn I’m dyeing for one of the wedding shawls and I’m excited. It’s the same yarn I used for mom’s shawl, and I loved working with it beyond all reason. I’ll be dyeing quite a few skeins, enough for myself, Risa, and the bride. The plan is to dye it crimson first, then overdye it black in stages. The hope is to have a complex, gothic shade that will look great with the red dresses.

Until then, I work on the vanilla-footed sock, which is now finally back to where it was before the great rippage.

The yarn for my other shawl, the one I’ll wear to mom’s wedding, was mailed yesterday. I should have it by the end of the week, it’s coming from Texas. I know it’s insanity to be working two lace shawls at once, but I don’t really have a choice. Well, I could have started one of them months ago, but I didn’t. So my plan is to work it just like I did when I was making mom’s. Then I worked on mom’s shawl during the day and a second project at night. In this case I’ll work one shawl in each time slot. A little bit every day and hopefully I’ll be done before October. I think I can do it. Mom’s Aeolian shawl took me three months, and it was not only HUGE but had thousands of beads on it, each one hand placed. Four months, slow and steady, for two shawls. Mmmhmmm.

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