sticks and string

"Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crises."

- Elizabeth Zimmermann

The self-striping yarn above is "Bullfinch" from the British Birds series created by West Yorkshire Spinners. The socks were made BSD (before shoulder dislocation) for a special New Years gift, then not mailed til February 22nd because I got ridiculously derailed trying to find the card (a painting from Yosemite) specifically intended to accompany the socks. After I finally put them in the mail (with a different card, an ink drawing of one of my daylilies), they were bounced up and down the eastern seaboard for a week before arriving at their destination, 50 miles east of my house.

Here are the next British Birds cast on as soon as I could start knitting again PSD (post shoulder dislocation) in mid-January:

"Wood Pigeon." They've got some pretty birds in Britain, haven't they?

And here's the waffle-stitch leg of one of the socks I'm knitting now: "Owl." If you've never seen self-striping yarn, there's a peek at the skein beneath the zipper:

This yarn series has become a favorite since I discovered the "Mallard" and "Pheasant" colors a few years ago. There are still a few more British Birds I may knit with someday, including Kingfisher and Green(!) Woodpecker.

The sock pattern (using the word loosely) I've come up with for simple distraction knitting: a ribbed cuff in either the stripes or a contrasting solid, a cushy waffle-stitch leg, a slipstitch heel (striped or contrasting), and a smooth stockinette foot. The toe design varies: a star toe (as in both pairs above) if there's a chance I'll have to rip it back to resize the sock post-gifting and/or if I want to have stripes right to the end; a grafted/kitchener toe otherwise.

Here's a close view of one of my favorite things about knitting socks:

After making the 90-degree "turn" at the bottom of the heel, three directions of stitches blend the heel and the foot together in a continuous fabric. It's so functional and elegant.

I imagine there's a lot of "through all crises" knitting going on these days. Not exclusively in the US but we're doing our share. At least I hope we are. It's a productive  form of distraction. From pain, from sleeplessness, from worry.

Emphasis on "productive."

Onward.

~~~~~

and we're back

Della knitting a sock. Excellent form for a novice!

The laptop was delivered tonight. I was watching for the Fedex truck and skated out with a flashlight to meet the driver walking up the driveway before he could hit the icy spots. Don't want anyone dropping the laptop!

So far, I've only uploaded the 742 images on my camera (which shows considerable restraint, doesn't it?) and now I'm going to sleep. But I'll be catching up on blog-reading in the next few days, and will write and post some snaps soon.

I've missed you!

~~~~~

sunday snapshots

Sock in the works:

Sock in the works

on a tiny air mattress:

Sock in the works

on a tiny air mattress

in a huge stock tank.

With knitter.

With knitter

with hobbit feet!

A totally gorgeous day.

Since I could barely move this morning, I filled the stock tank with hot water while I tottered around doing the morning feeding. Then spent hours soaking, listening to Hugh Fraser narrate an Agatha Christie book, and knitting. Feeding Piper treats. Watching Moxie and Della pop up from the ferns than plunge back in with a suddenness that did not bode well for chipmunks or mice.

I'm still in pretty rough shape, but will probably be able to get to sleep tonight, thank goodness. And it certainly was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

Hope your weekend was wonderful :)

~~~~~

thankful thursday

candy roaster squash, yesterday

candy roaster squash, today

The weather broke today, thank goodness and all the gods.

The past week has been very hot and stultifyingly humid, both day and night.

A/C cranking. Three fans in the house instead of the usual two, so Piper could have her own fan at night. By the third day of higher than 90 percent humidity, I had turned on the industrial-strength fans in the barns.

After morning chores which left me dripping sweat no matter slowly I moved - and believe me, I can move slowly - I sought respite in my spa.

My spa is an inflatable tub that you might think looks like a toddler wading pool in the shape of a bathtub, but it's NOT. It's a SPA. It says so right on the box.

Piper doesn't like it.

Here is the look on Piper's face when I am in the spa:

If you look closely, you'll see that Piper's concern at my insanely dangerous behavior does not interfere with her enjoying a good roll in the leaves.

There is a sort of cover that zips up across the top (another indication that this is not just some flimsy toy paddling pool, oh no), which helps if a person or an adventurous little cat requires a surface.

Moxie could tell right away that it's a spa.
Let the self-care begin!

A couple of times, I painted the scenery:

Once, I worked on a sock:

But today, this gloriously clear and fresh and fabulous day, all the windows in the house were open again and working outdoors was a pleasure. And Ms. Piper could enjoy rolling in the leaves without the nagging concern in the back of her mind:

if a human melts away into water and never come out again,

who will open the cans of food?

~~~~~

fiber notes

What with combing goats every day lately, it's no surprise I've got fiber on the brain. Also on all my clothes and sometimes in my eyes.

So this post will be about three recent knitterly projects.

~~~

A lovely woman in England - who I "met" on twitter because she raises pigs and we were trading a rueful laugh on the subject of barnyard bruises - very kindly sent me a tube of her favorite pain-relief gel called - wait for it - Movelat.

(I like it. In fact, I'm wearing some right now. Combing Tansy is a rodeo.)

Of course I wanted to respond with something equally useful, and after much pondering, settled on an earwarmer made from the 1898 Hat pattern. I wear my earwarmer about 20 times more often than my hat, which actually gets too hot when I'm moving around doing chores.

Do the crafty folk amongst you fret about handmade gifts? I sure do.

Is it nice enough for a gift?

Does she wear wool?

Does she wear green?

Will she like it?

Will she hate it?

So I am thrilled to report that the recipient likes it a lot. Huzzah!

It was a bonus surprise to see someone else's picture of my knitting on twitter.

Sweet!

~~~

Next: from the UFO ("Unfinished Object") Department

This is the project that made me admit - with muttering and frowning - that I must stop knitting with very dark yarns. This sock is being made with West Yorkshire Spinners self-striping Mallard. A contrasting heel seemed like a nifty idea until it came time to pick up stitches on the sides of the heel flap. That's when I realized I could not see little spaces where one pokes the needle in and picks up the stitches.

Not by daylight. Not by lamplight.

Not with my embiggening glasses.

Not with every trick in the Knitters' Book of Visibility Tricks.

(There isn't really a book, but there are a few tricks and I tried them all.)

When muttering did not make my vision improve, I decided to rip out the heel and knit it again in light yarn. But first, with nothing to lose, I tried just poking the needle in at intervals and literally picking up stitches I could not see.

Not my finest hour as a knitter, but there's some sort of heel, anyway.

And I'll try very hard to make another one that matches this one.

And then, I will Stop Trying to Knit Very Dark Yarn.

Knitting should be fun, not frustrating.

Oh, that reminds me: Mason Dixon Knitting has a great Daily Letter on their blog today, introducing their very own minimally-processed yarn, called Sheepy!

I recommend giving it a look.

I love the way they think.

~~~

Final knitting note of the day: remember when I made a pair of felted slippers? So cozy! Well, this winter I accidentally felted them a bit more. Oops. When I pulled them out of the washer, my former slippers had shrunk to half their previous size and moved on to a new destiny: raw material for making catnip mice.

I made one right away, using half a slipper stuffed with catnip, and a tail made of non-fraying elastic saved from a cut-up garment. I never use yarn or other string for cat toys, as it gets chewed and swallowed, and not digested. Dangerous for kitties.

Mouse #1 is pretty popular.

With both Della and Moxie.

Guess I'd better make another?

"Right now? Right now would be good!"

~

Hope you are having a lovely weekend!

~~~~~

actual knitting content

I haven't been able to knit for nearly three months.
The focus just wasn't there.
I've wanted to knit. I've tried to knit.
I've missed being able to knit.
It's a productive activity that settles me, calms me, encourages me.
Not being able to turn to this reliable source of comfort was...
well, I don't know what it was, but it felt like a curse.
Seriously.

At long last, it seems the curse is broken.
I believe I owe this to something I read on the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog, that compendium of fibery wit, practicality, and adventure. Kay Gardiner wrote:

"...sometimes you have to bring the calm to the knitting."

And...click.

The yarn is worsted weight, 50:50 wool and silk.
This is not a practical choice for socks.
The yarn is soft. The knitted fabric will blur. And fuzz. And felt.
It will wear out too quickly from the friction of a boot.

But this is the third pair of socks I've made with this yarn since 2009.

Because occasionally, looking neat and lasting long are not the most important features a sock can offer. Sometimes, it's all about the smoosh.

The socks were finished at sunset yesterday, with lots of help.

(Speaking of finishing, for anyone interested in fibery details, there is a stitch-by-stitch on this publicly-visible ravelry project page.)

And to celebrate their briefly pristine state, the socks were the subject of a very quick (it was cold and I was tired) post-chores shoot this morning:

Here's a behind-the-scenes shot with my location team.
What would I do without them?

Fortunately, the Art Director works for peanuts.

~~~~~

tuesday tidbits

It's hard to write about what's going on here without mentioning the terribly hot and humid weather. I'm not complaining about the weather; it's just that it is playing an inescapable and major role in my daily life.

In the past month we went from unseasonably cold weather - pots of soup and turning the heat on for an hour every day to take the chill off the house - to "how crazy would it be to turn on air conditioning in May?" with absolutely zero transition in between. For weeks it was too cold to plant, then literally overnight it was unpleasant to work in the garden even before the sun was up. I've managed to get a few seeds planted, and the first sprouts are just beginning to appear.

yellow filet beans

I'm trying to do a little bit in the gardens in the early mornings; weeding or planting. I don't know if I'm hopelessly behind in my gardening this year, or if it just feels that way because the weather says it's August.

asian cucumbers

~~~

Last week when Peter (I finally remembered to ask if I could use his first name on the blog instead of calling him "my hired helper") was here, we created a small, Slightly Raised Bed. Worth the effort, but after hours spent on the task - and Peter always comes at 11AM, so the hottest part of the day - I was pretty much useless for two days following. Whew.

Small but carefully crafted. 

First, raking out all the leaf litter, twigs and debris: that's the pile in the left foreground. Then, digging out several inches of soil and rocks: that the pile in the right foreground. Next, using the cart to move a pile of rotting wood to be laid as the base of the bed: that's what you're seeing in the center. After this picture was taken, I spread small branches and that pile of twiggy leaf litter on top of the wood, added a couple of buckets of mucky shavings I've been saving from the Poultry Palace, and topped it all off with the pile of soil and some wood ash. I watered it to help settle the whole bed a little, and watered it again the next morning after planting a hill of summer squash and an edging of chard and chives. The first two squash sprouted this morning. Fingers crossed!

~~~

Today was hot but there was often a lovely little breeze, and it was also somewhat less humid. After chores and weeding, Piper and I went for a walk in the woods.

Piper still turns away the moment she sees the camera.
She was a dot in the distance when I took this sneaky picture.

Since this heatwave began, Piper has been spending most of her time flattened out on the floor or in one of her several cushier sleeping spots. Invitations to come outside with me - even invitations that include jingling car keys - have been treated with a lack of enthusiasm that, frankly, borders on disdain. (A bit rude, Piper. Really.)

But today, Piper played "Race You To The Car!" This consists of Piper bounding ahead then turning and running straight back at me several times in the hundred feet between back door and car. The likelihood of having a 50-pound juggernaut slam into my knees adds to the excitement of this game. Piper can stop on a dime, but whether or not she will is sometimes in doubt.

~~~

I have been knitting the Leighton Socks at night, while watching Netflix. I'm finally enjoying The West Wing - the whole series, in chronological order - for the first time.

The socks were finished last night, during season 6.

This yarn was a pure joy to knit.

I began with a lace stitch pattern as planned, but after knitting a couple of inches, decided to rip it out and begin again. This plain stockinette stitch is perfect for the subtle tone shifts of the yarn.

I'm happy with the result.

~~~

How are things in your neck of the woods?

~~~~~

remembering to knit

Ann and Kay over at Mason Dixon Knitting are hosting a sock KAL right now, lasting through the end of May. If you can use a little cheering on to finish a neglected sock WIP...or if you've been thinking of casting on for a new pair of socks...well, this is a great time to join in. There are quite a few people knitting their very first socks for this KAL!

Knitting had fallen by the wayside for me since the weather changed. I've been alternating between two states: first, shoulder to the wheel, tackling one necessary chore after another, and second, feeling so exhausted I don't want to move. It's not a good system, and it's not even effective in terms of getting things done, so this week I'm trying to be aware and to pace myself a bit more.

And knit.

I've missed he transition of knitting for a few minutes here and there during the day, or at bedtime; it's very mind-quieting and centering. So Monday night, I pulled out the WIP bag and finished these socks which had been languishing, toeless, for several weeks:

Simple Gems

And today, thinking of making a nice pair of summer socks for the KAL, I decided to kettle-dye a hank of 50/50 merino/tencel. I started the dye process on the stove but then let it go on for hours in a 180F oven while I got on with other things.

 When Piper and I returned from errands and an hour-long (huzzah!) walk in the woods, the yarn was ready for a soak in a sudsy basin to remove any unattached dye. That's where it is now. I'll rinse it after evening chores and if it dries overnight, maybe I'll cast on a sock tomorrow.

Here's a funny thing: I want to recreate a pair of socks I made in 2009, but didn't make any notes. I can see what to do for every part except the lace stitch on the leg:

SeaSocks

Maybe I pulled it from a Barbara Walker stitch dictionary; she published several thick volumes, and I've occasionally borrowed one from the library.

Does it look familiar to any of my knitting readers?

It looks like a repeating series of partial discs, at a diagonal.

If you click the caption, it should take you to the ravelry project page and the original image which is much sharper.

~~~

One more piece of fibery news from the MDK blog, which has been one of my favorites for many years. This week Ann and Kay are having a giveaway for a substantial amount of Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere yarn.

'Nuff said?

Good luck!

~~~~~

sock interruptus

The latest pair of socks is taking quite a while.

Mostly because there have been entire weeks when I haven't picked up the needles. But now that the cashmere harvest is gradually beginning to wind down, other fiber-based endeavors can get some attention.

The past two days were warm enough that I could sit in the sun for a couple of hours (!) and savor every moment. A little knitting, a little reading, and enjoying the many birds calling and singing and tapping and hammering. They were so busy! Imagine if birds could knit. I'll bet their socks wouldn't sit, unfinished, for weeks. Not very likely.

Toward the end of Winter, when I came up with a possible way to deter squirrels from taking all the birdseed, I added a second birdfeeder outside the porch. It's the one in the picture below. The squirrel deterrent plan has been 90% successful, so this week I added a third feeder; just a little net bag full of thistle seed. With more types of feeder and seed available, there are more birds - and also more kinds of birds - visiting this Spring than I've ever had here before. It is wonderfully exciting!

Yesterday in one hour I saw chickadees, goldfinches, tufted titmice, nuthatches, purple finches, mourning doves, downy woodpeckers, phoebes, and a robin!

This is, I think, a pair of Purple Finches.

Why they are called "purple finches" is a mystery to me.

They are finches. But when the sun hits the male, he seems to light up with the dazzling color of pomegranate seeds.

Beautiful! But purple? They ain't.

Let's think of a more suitable name, shall we?

While you are thinking about it, here's a chickadee:

And here's sunlight making a momentary rainbow on a chickadee's wing:

And here's the heel of the second sock, well underway.

I decided to experiment in picking up the stitches for the gusset.

Sometimes it's tricky (for me) to be sure I'm picking up all the stitches in exactly the same way, because the edges of the heel flap curl in a bit.

So this time I ran a strand of purple yarn (THIS is purple!) through each stitch I would be picking up, before actually picking them up. Like a guideline. A path to follow. I will recommend this little experiment to any sock-knitters who feel uncertain about how to pick up their stitches for the gusset.

It's kind of fun to take a step back from something I've been doing for years, and figure out exactly how I am doing it. And maybe do it more consistently in the future as a result.

Or not! We'll see. These socks already have so many little weirdnesses, I will be forced to keep them for myself.

Heh.

~~~

I hope you are having a perfectly lovely Saturday, and the birds are singing wherever you are!

~~~~~

in like a lion

March did indeed come in like a lion this year.

It began with a roaring, middle-of-the-night windstorm that brought down a great many branches - but would likely have taken down entire trees had they already leafed out, so we were lucky. No injuries, no damage to buildings, no power lines down.

There was this small, localized bit of misfortune:

It's the top of a maple, that snapped and fell across the roundtop. I was able to pull it off with that line, but...

Possibly later I can buy replacement sections for the very bent frame pieces, but there's no point in moving all the hay now; it will be fed and gone soon enough. Meanwhile, I've got a tarp tied down over the many holes poked in the cover. It'll do.

~~~

We had snow for three days in the first week of March, but the sort of dusting that one can thoroughly enjoy; an end-of-season novelty, soon to be just a sparkly memory.

Of course the reality is, we've had massive snowstorms in April, and I recall once being stuck in my own driveway in May. But despite this...when the season is shifting and days are growing longer and are sometimes pleasantly warm, it is easier to perceive snow as a transient and beautifying gift. Which is why I don't think this titmouse was worried at the moment when freezing rain turned to snow yesterday:

"Snow? Let's see...a variety of seeds,
a perch all to myself,
under an overhang...
and it was 60F yesterday.
I'm good."

~~~

Scattered between all this rain and snow and wind, there have been some blue-sky-and-shirtsleeves days. Some outdoor carpentry project days.

 Some let's-muck-out-the-barn days.

And even a couple of "drag the chaise out to the Upper West Side paddock and knit for an hour after chores" days.

Yes, actual knitting.

With agreeable company.

And valuable opinions when requested.

~~~

So, here we are quite suddenly halfway into March, and it's been characteristically changeable so far.

I wonder what will happen next?

~~~~~