Moth Heaven

Happy New Year

image by danske, via Darling Dexter.

It's been a year I could never have imagined from this date 365 days ago. I don't know what the next will bring, but here are some of my favorite moments from 2008, in no particular order.

1. The election of a president that sent people dancing in the streets. With such energy and anticipation, I have every hope that we will get through what is next with unity and make history proud.

2. My youngest entering 1st grade, my oldest a freshman NYU, and my middle child cleaning her room without being asked.

3. Spa. SOAR. Rhinebeck. Fiber Revival. TNNA. Fiber gatherings in general, including my regular gang at the library. Whenever people get together over the wool, you just know it's gonna be good.

4. Getting Twist Collective off the ground.

5. Every belt level of karate I passed this year; everything I learn in my martial arts training feels like a little victory.

6. Mastering my snack impulse and kicking sugar, which I did starting in May. I've lost about 20 pounds since then eating well and enjoying wine, and for the first time in about 15 years I can look in the mirror without thinking to myself "Man, I look fat." I don't know how much more weight I will lose, but I'm not stopping now.

7. Hearing that my sister is expecting a baby boy. She is due any day now, and we are looking forward to welcoming a cousin into the family. His name will be Rowan, and no, I did not influence her decision. In spite of the obvious yarn references, she apparently thinks it has something to do with a tree, of all things. Crazy, huh?

A very very happy new year to us all, and my sincere wishes for a brief winter, and a joyous return of the light.

Of Hats and Happiness

My sister in law was visiting during the knitting of my needed hat. She watched for the two days I spent knitting it in increasing wonder as the cables turned and twisted and from the needles emerged a beret such as she only ever seen but at a price unjustifiable to her wallet in shops near her London home. Barbara has always known I knit, but had never watched the whole process from yarn to FO before, and she treated it like some fantastic magic trick. That, along with the enthusiasm she showed for the colour, and that when it was all knit and done it looked terrific on her, meant my hat belonged instead to her. So off to London it went with her after Christmas.

I knit another one to keep. This time, out of the Green Mountain Spinnery Green left over from my Wisteria. I blocked this one out a little since it ended up a wee bit dense, but it suits me fine, perhaps even better than the flash red one.

The Mister meanwhile muttered something about his needing a hat too, since everyone was getting hats. This is a rare request from my husband, who you will recall shovels snow in shirt sleeves, and never wears such things as scarves or hats. He could have been a lobsterman that one. He requested something like a hat I had long ago that has disappeared, like many such things, and that he always pinched from the basket on especially chilly days. It was one of those tribal Afghani caps you can sometimes buy from street carts, and mine was charcoal gray and larger than the usual so it would sit at a becoming "rakish" angle. Those of you who know my husband might surmise why this would be of particluar appeal to the man.

Happily enough, I have such a pattern in the library, from Teva Durham in one of those little Vogue books. And I also have such a whack of Briggs and Little lying about the place because I seriously over-ordered the quantity for Sylvi. Lucky man gets a hat, I guess.

Digging Out, Thanks. You?

We spent the weekend in the kitchen, watching the snow build up around the windows, stoking the fire and baking. Flamiche (leek tarte) and molasses crisps and hand cut donuts.

I was mostly responsible for the clean up, so I got long stretches of time to do some knitting for the first time in months. I had to put aside the pursuit of long flowered coats for a need more immediate. I'd lost my beloved hat last week, leaving it behind in a shop, so another had to grow in its place.

It's Ysolda's Gretel, in Berrocco Ultra Alpaca. Both pattern and yarn have been sitting around for awhile, so it feels gratifying and good to get both of them on and off the needles. There aren't many cookies left after the second storm hit yesterday, but at least I have this to show for my weekend.

Shameless appeal to knitters, of ALL ages

AARP has a version of my old nemesis, Snood, but with yarn and a cat. How can a knit blogger possibly resist?

A girl can love two at once, can't she?

I am a torn knitter. And one without a lot of time for musings, but I know you mostly like just to look, so this will be brief.

Having managed to finish up with a few projects, I feel I am entitled to cast on for something new, in spite of my year's resolution to finish, or at least "be done with" all of the projects I set out in my Mission Possible list back in January. January. That was 11 months ago.

The question of the week: cast on for Sylvi or Broderie?
Answer: both.

Starting with the sleeve on Sylvi, in Briggs and Little Atlantic Dark Grey, on the recommended needle size because for once, I discover, there is someone out there who knits to my tension. (Hi Mari!)

And Broderie, in free thinking yarns. I wanted a party sweater out of this, and the sparkle in commercial yarns these days are less garish than in the days of fun furr and glitz. I found Nashua Handknits Grand Opera to have just the right amount of sing, and it goes so nicely with Classic Elite's Wool Bamboo, they had to meet under these circumstances. The pattern calls for a smaller gauge, so I did the math and came up with two sizes down as my knit solution for these DK weight yarns. The photo does show a lot of contrast between the two, and the sparkle doesn't translate, but in life, they are well married, the lace is well suited, and the whole thing just pleases my girly painted toes to no end.

Inspiration has to come from somewhere . . .

Totally stolen ideas for christmas gifts from around the internet.

Pretty Warm Headband that keeps your ears warm from Pipsqueak Chapeau

Fun beret I may have to knit from Urban Outfitters. It's all about those buttons. They make me weak.

Handknit Floor Poufs each from the fleece of a single sheep in Kyrgyzstan, by Dutch artist/knitweardesigner/genius Christien Meindertsma

Icelandic Beard Hat, from Scandanavian Grace

I know you are really hoping that last one is for the Mister, aren't you?

I am knitting stuff

Some of which -- you know the deal -- I can't show you. But this I will admit to: one is lace, one is cables, and another is both.

I finished a few things since last we met. The Maelstrom socks. PS 136 finally. I will model the cardigan when next the weather agrees, and after I sew the buttons on. That would probably be good. yeah. Forgive the lack of bally hoo for right now: I'll explain later. And no, it's not because it isn't beautiful or doesn't fit. It is and it does.

but here's the socks.

And in other news, I cast on for a few things. One of them is the sweater I rhapsodized about back in the spring, the Hebridean cardigan (rav link) from Mostly Merino(non-rav link). It looks like this so far:

I'm knitting it partly in the round, partly flat because I prefer purl to knit. I'm a wee bit proud of that. I'll tack down the threads on the colourwork section with a little run though the sewing machine before I steek, and the rest is just like a regular cardigan, with selvedge stitches to pick up button bands from. The called-for button band is crochet, so I may even go for it rather than try to figure out yet again how I can avoid the hook. I mean, I used to know how to do it. Maybe I still do. Kinda like the Moonlight Sonata, which I sat down to the other day at my neglected piano and found surprisingly intact after years of neglect. I still missed the natural G in bar 13, which is something I always did. This speaks volumes about muscle memory, and the potential for my happy reunion with double crochet. Perhaps.

And one other thing new to the needles which I'll be keeping tabs on over at the Twist blog is a party version of Broderie, in Nashua Handknits Grand Opera (for the lace bands) and Classic Elite Wool Bamboo (for everything else).

All I have in the camera for now is the yarn, but I've cast off the waistband and am making ready for the top half. This is a brave sweater to knit for me because it's more fitted than my usual weekend knock-about fare, but it's such a lovely thing, and looks so nice on the several bodies I have seen try it on, so I am confident it will be a good match for me. I just need to make sure I knit the right size. Ain't that always the truth?