Moth Heaven

Dinosaur Hood Revised (Finally)

I am happy and relieved to share the news that I finally sat down with the original pattern for the Dinosaur Hood and tackled the wee beastie. I am amazed given how many errors I found in it that anyone managed to make one before. But it was one of the first things I had ever written out to share, so I can be gentle with the glib knitter I was back then.

It seems to have developed some kind of mystique, given its unavailability. Lately the emails come daily (it's cold out I guess), asking for a notification when it surfaced again, and even for the original no matter how impaired by bad math it was. There was one woman who sent me several emails begging for it in any condition, telling me an affecting story of how it was the only thing in the world that would do for her son. So of course, when I sent it to her, there was not even a glimmer of thanks from her end of the intertubes. I have to laugh a little.

I have in the year since I originally removed it to fix the problems, developed a sense of humor about how people can be a little absent minded about the manners over the internet, because a lot of people do expect things (especially kid's patterns) to be free, and many of the requests I had were hardly polite. I hoped the worst of them were because of the bluntness of Google translate. Ultimately, I decided that since it was something I had given away before, and that I would love to be free of the frequent emails, here it is finally, still for free. You're welcome. ❤

Download Dinosaur Hood

In the MIddle of the Night

Many of you share my problem: that thing that seems to happen to women once they approach their middle years. Yes, that's right, the insomnia thing. Personally, I've always been a poor sleeper. I fall asleep easily enough, but staying asleep is impossible, and once I'm awake, I'm awake for hours. Mostly two, sometimes three.

The benefit to reliable wakefulness is that one can get a lot done in the middle of the night when the normal distractions are tucked away upstairs and all the things that might wake them up are switched off. I have -- through years of experience -- developed the acceptance that once I am awake, no manner of concentration or hope will change that for at leat the next hour or so. So I get up and do something with the time I have been given. In a way, it is a gift to be awake, because it is one of the few chances I have to be alone in this house.

These nights I am spinning away for my longed-for Kirigami. Spinning is perfect for middle of the night fiber activity since it is a quiet thing, and once the yarn is determined, essentially mindless. I am entertained enough by the shifting of the colors on the bobbin, in much the same way that as a child I would take a gobstopper out of my mouth every minute or so.

 

Pardon the shifting lighting conditions, but you get the idea. I'm only one more bobbin away from having the yarn I need to cast on, and while I dread waking up in the middle of the night, at least for now, I have something to look forward to when that happens.

What's in the Box?

Happy New Year!

A few years ago, my husband learned an unattractive truth about me: that in spite of the show I put on about Christmas being about the kids and spending time together, that I am still expecting to have there be something for me under the tree on Christmas. I remain slightly ashamed of this, but after all, I put on a pretty good Christmas, and even Santa gets cookies and milk as a thank you. Right?

Ever since the year of nothing for me, (and the quiet unhappiness that followed him around in the shape of me for a week) The Mister has never failed to find me not only a lovely present likely associated with my passion for one of several things I am passionate about, but also a present that unfailingly makes me laugh.

This year's present was this:

Yes, Brio. The train people. But befoer you start imagining me warping up a full sized poncho, look at how big it is.

It's all of ten inches wide and twenty inches long, and slides out of the box looking like this:

At first I thought V*A*VSTOL might be one of those IKEA like words that mean practically nothing, but Vavstol -- it turns out -- actually means "loom" in Swedish. The things you learn.

The vavstol pops up in one fluid motion and locks in place with side braces.

There's a built in beater, and other little touches that make it way too fun to ever  use, like the fact that it came new in the box already warped and with about three inches worth of weaving already done, to get the prospective weaver started.

It has the most adorable red string heddles

and two racheted tensioning dowels in front and back.

Could it be any cuter?

I think the Mister is covered for another year. No pouting around here, I promise.

Happy Boxing Day

I am happy to announce that the opening of the hand knit hat was a knitter's dream. The Hipster took it out of the box with a huge smile on his face, held it up, asked me if I had read his mind, and put it on, played with it in the mirror, and only took it off to fold it in different ways on his head for the rest of the morning.

Happy step-mom, me.

And it turns out the Hipster's spied his idea of the perfect Nordic/aztec sweater on the cover of a book sitting on the kitchen counter: Knitting Without Tears. So the sweater in question will be a genuine Elizabeth Zimmermann Ski Sweater in Color Patterns, with a unicorn addenda. We've aready picked out the perfect purple from the Cascade 220 Heathers line, and determined that the white should be proper white. Not cream or off-white, butan eye-searing clean and clear white.

Estimated Time of Cast On: who knows? I've got a few things on the go (including a sweater for his sister) and deadlines going on right now, so I'm aiming for completion in time for the cool evenings of August.

On the wheel at the moment is this yarn:

It's Spunky Eclectic BFL in Leaf Peep for a sweater I've had in the queue for a long time: a handspun Kirigami

 

 

The swatch with Berocco Ultra Alpaca is very promising, and since this is only half a sweater's worth of yarn to make, it will be a quick spin with any luck. But time has a funny way of getting away from me. I always think I will have more of it than I ever turn out to have in reality. Know what I mean?

 

Way Too Cool

A hat for my eldest who has a very big head and a Brooklyn sensibility (code for "cooler than you"):

This is his current facebook photo, so you can see what I mean about the Brooklyn thing:

He seems quite restrained these days, an altogether less rambunctious sense of fun than when he requested this hat (he was 14, so this photo would certainly mortify him now, at 22):

Or perhaps not. Perhaps beneath that flannel shirt still beats an ironic heart. His sister informs me that his favorite t-shirt is a silly one featuring Starwberry Shortcake (the children's character, not the dessert). And last week, he emailed me to ask if I would make him a sweater.

"I was thinking about how I could use a really great sweater recently. I had a sort of weird design in mind -- I was thinking something with a nordic/aztec pattern in purple and white with big purple diamond front and center with a unicorn inside the diamond. That's kind of vague but I was thinking we could figure out the specifics when I'm home over break?"

I can't wait.