Tuesday Tube: What I Did Over Summer Vacation

A couple of weeks ago, we took a trip to Portland. I know there are tons of great yarn stores in Portland, but I knew the one I *had* to go to was Yarnia. Check out their cool video. This really is more or less how it happened, and the owner is sweet and helpful.



Here's a peak at one of the cones of yarn that I "made." The picture doesn't really do it justice because we must have brought the rain back home with us (thank goodness), and I wasn't been able to get good light for a proper photo.

A Knitter's Tour of Vancouver, Part 2

I find that as a knitter, I am reminded of my fiber fetish almost everywhere I go. Last time, I shared with you some of my finds from Richmond, just south of Vancouver. In Vancouver itself, one of our stops was at the Museum of Anthropology. The most striking displays are those of the large works in the gorgeous Great Hall.


But there are fabulous finds if you have time to spend in the Visible Storage room. There are all sorts of different artifacts from around the world. Some of them are stored in display drawers, and it's fun to open up the drawers and see what surprises lay inside. Other items are out in more traditional displays, like this spinning wheel.


Check out this spindle. I know you can't tell how big it is in the picture, but I snapped a shot of the display photograph so you can get an idea of scale.




Even at Stanley Park, I thought about fibers when I saw these guys.




Now at Granville Island, I did expect to find some fiber goodies, and I was not disappointed. A store called Maiwa Supply had materials for all sorts of decorative textile techniques--painting, stenciling, etching, and all manner of dyeing. The yarns available were very nice, but the only local yarns they had were bulky alpaca yarns, which are hard to me to use, so I didn't buy any. If I had not been traveling with 3 other adults and 4 kids, I would have lingered here longer. Maybe it was for the best that I couldn't, though, because as it was, I had almost talked myself into buying some dyes to try, and I really really do not need another hobby!


While still on Granville Island, my friend and I were pulled into the Alarte Silks store by an interesting shawl on display by the door. It turns out they were loosely woven silk scarves with nuno felted, leaf-like shapes. They were so striking! We didn't get anything at first, but at the end of the day, we returned to the store and each bought one in the colors that appealed to us most. Of course, we realized right away that the color we chose was the color we were already wearing. My friend was wearing a purple shirt and chose the "violet" colorway. I happened to have my Ingenue sweater on and chose this:

A Knitter's Tour of Vancouver, Part I

I recently returned from a trip to Vancouver. What a beautiful city! We traveled with friends, so I did not indulge my yarnie desires as much as I might have if I were on my own, but I did have some fiber-related finds to share with you.

We'll start in Richmond, which is a large, predominantly Asian district. In the Aberdeen Centre, there is a really fun Japanese $2 store called Daiso. I tell you, this place had everything, and it was so fun to browse the 2 stories of merchandise! No pictures were allowed, so you'll have to take my word for it. In the craft section was a selection of crochet booklets, yarns, needles and hooks, along with cute premade crochet appliques. I restrained myself and only got some bento supplies since I haven't seen them locally. This is the only Daiso in Canada, but there are others in California and in the Seattle area, as well as hundreds worldwide, if you want to check it out for yourself.

In that same Aberdeen Centre is a Chinese bookstore called Sup. There were a craft section with a fair number of crochet books and only a few knitting books.




Across the street from the Aberdeen Centre is the Yaohan Centre. This second mall is not nearly as nice, but it has more fiber-related options. There, I spent almost 2 hours checking out the selection of books at Iwase.


I came away with a book called Tiny Crochet, Tiny Motif Patterns (you can see it at the front of the photo, the one with the candles) and another called Motif/Edging, which is really fun and the ideas for using the motifs reminded me a lot of Crochet Adorned:




I noticed that there were 3 whole pattern books for finger knitting! Who knew it could be that useful and versatile?! There were also a couple of books for making these cute little string dolls. They have simple heads made by wrapping a yarn ball, kind of like the base of a temari ball. Then the bodies are made by wrapping yarn around a wire, and they're "dressed" in felt.

There was also a store called Alpha Crafts. I had already spent about an hour at the Iwase bookstore and came out so dazed that I walked right past and didn't notice the shop at all until my husband pointed out the cute crocheted things in the window


By then, though, we needed to leave to meet up with some friends, so I returned another day to look at Iwase some more and to check out this shop. At first, I was awed because I saw several bins of Japanese books underneath a shelf, but it turns out those were the owner's and not for sale. There were some interesting imported yarns, but everything was kept in bags, which was of course not conducive to any kind of tactile browsing. Even though the shop was really small, the owner still made space for a table in the back, where some regulars congregated to crochet (I didn't see anyone knitting), and I thought that was nice. Although the books were in Japanese, I'm pretty sure everyone was speaking Chinese, which goes to show you how useful the charting system is. Anyway, I ended up getting this completely adorable book, along with a small selection of noses and eyes to hopefully make something



I'll have more to share from Vancouver in a future post.

Meet Me in St. Louis

I was in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago and had a great time! I had hoped to meet Yo-El, but it turns out we temporarily switched states. She was in Texas while I was there, but she was kind enough to provided some LYS recommendations. The only one I actually made it to was the Kirkwood Knittery. It was a nice store and had a good selection. I came away with 3 skeins of



Habu A-60 Sosenshi Paper. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with it. I'm intrigued by Waverly, Gretel, and the Chinese Style Pullover. And look, someone crocheted a Queen Anne's Lace scarf with it! We'll see. (These are all Rav links)

Now, I usually try to plan ahead so that I'll have a good project to take with me, but I was so busy in the weeks before the trip that I got caught flat-footed. I ran out of time and had to scramble that morning to quickly pack something. Even though it would probably be okay, I don't like risking bringing metal (which meant no lace needles and no crochet hooks). It needed to be a project that was not difficult and that would not require calculations, making a swatch, or having to wind yarn. Naturally, I had nothing on hand that met those requirements, so I started this scarf from my queue. It's the double-sided scarf by Erica Schleuter in the Spring/Summer '09 issue of Knit.1. The scarf is double-knit with KSH. I can't say that moving 2 strands of mohair back and forth between the needles wasn't a bit fiddly, but it was very relaxing to do.



Double knitting is so neat!

Passing Time

I'm about to go on a weekend trip, and I am trying to decide what to bring with me. If I get a chance to stop at my LYS before heading out of town, I might get some yarn for making a scarf like Orata's Latitude and Longitude. It's well past scarf season where I live, but it's the type of project that'd be perfect for travel knitting. The other thing I have been actively working on is Peltigera, but I'm going to be making mods to it, and I'll need to keep trying it on, which I can't do (legally) in public. I'm also still working on my Seascape Stole, but those are on metal lace needles. Even though I always print out a recent copy of the TSA's policy on knitting needles to keep with me, I know that ultimately, it's up to the individual TSA agent to decide, and I don't want to risk having my needles taken away or my work messed up. I might have to dive into my Rav fav list and my stash to come up with something.

I have 2 FO's to show you, but they haven't been properly photographed. In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy this WSJ article about some men who *really* do a lot of traveling. These are truckers who have taken up knitting and quilting to pass time.

If I Could Turn Back Time

So, how are you enjoying the time change? I know a handful of people with very young kids who are glad for the change because now their toddlers are not getting up so early. But if you're like me, it's not been fun to lose that extra hour. It's particularly painful when you're not a morning person (I am not a morning person).

As long as I'm fantasizing about getting to turn that clock back, I might as well go waaaayyyy back and catch up on some blogging I missed. Last October, when I was visiting Indianapolis, it rained on a day when we were going to visit a dairy farm, so we nixed that idea. After lunch, my husband suggested that I see if there were any yarn stores around, and the Yarnphone site on my iPhone helped me find Knit Stop. What a great store that was! My original intent was to find a local yarn to bring back as a souvenir, but the only thing local they had was a bulky alpaca, which I'd never get to wear here in Texas. So I just browsed and petted for awhile until I came across some GGH Bel Air in the sale bin. I could hardly believe my eyes! I had been looking for this yarn forever! Well, not forever--but ever since Rebecca #32 came out and I fell in love with the Lacy Coat knit in Bel Air. Naturally, it required 11 balls. Naturally, no yarn store ever had more than 10 balls of a given color to sell. Naturally, I had not been able to find a suitable substitute. So for a couple of years, I had carried around the idea that I wanted to find 11 balls of Bel Air, and suddenly, there they were, and at 50% off to boot! They even had an extra ball, and I got that too.

Of course, after I got the yarn home, the inevitable happened: I fell out of love with the pattern. I realized, after looking at the schematic, that even the smallest size would be too big on me, and it was not an easy pattern to modify. I realized that unless I planned to constantly twirl around, it would likely just hang in a limp and unflattering way. And so now I had a massive amount of this yarn and no clear plans for it.

To my surprise, my daughter asked if I would knit up something for her with the Bel Air. She thought it was really soft, even against her very sensitive skin. I agreed and knit her her own Vine Lace Cardigan since she had admired mine.


I still had a bunch left over after that, so I took the yarn with me on a quick, relaxing trip to Florida


and worked on Cocoon.


With the remaining yarn, I made a chemo cap for a high school friend who needed one


And I still have one ball left. I really have no idea what to do with this last ball, but the I've already gotten a lot of mileage out of my purchase. I'm sure something will come to me...in time.

Shhhhhh!

About 1-1/2 weeks ago, I went to L.A. by myself to attend a seminar. I got to hang out for a day with a dear friend of mine who drove there to see me, but the rest of the time, I didn't do much. I would attend the seminar all day, and in the evening, I'd retreat to my hotel room. My very quiet, very peaceful hotel room. Close your eyes a minute and picture it. I tell you, it was lovely! With nothing but the Olympics to distract me, I got a LOT of knitting done! Here's how far along I am on Wisteria:


As long as we're being quiet, I will share with you a deep, dark secret: I hardly ever knit a swatch anymore. That's right. I confess the main reasons have to do with laziness and with impatience to start a project if I'm really excited about it. But it's also the case that the swatches I have made are not necessarily representative. I find that once I start a project in earnest, my knitting relaxes and my gauge gets a bit bigger, especially if I'm knitting in the round.

I get around the swatching issue by using a combination of blocking and a fair bit of math. To start, I carefully study the pattern schematics and decide how I want the garment to fit, adjusting any measurements that might be needed. Then, I look at the recommended needle size for the yarn and look at what gauge you are supposed to be able to get with that needle size. I calculate out how many stitches I need to cast on and get started! If in doubt, I err a bit on the side of making it larger because if I'm making a sweater (which I usually am), I want to make sure that the neck opening in a top-down sweater or the hips on a bottom-up sweater are wide enough. I knit on for awhile, until I get to some critical juncture in the shaping, and then I wet block the whole thing...right on the needle cords. I lay it out to dry and pat it down to smooth it out, but I do not stretch, scrunch, or manipulate it in any way. The yarn is allowed to do whatever it wants to. This gives much better information than a 4x4" swatch does. Once everything is nicely blocked, I measure the resultant gauge. After that, I recalculate the increases/decreases and adjust the stitch count in the pattern to match the measurements I want. Basically, this is a way to make the pattern conform to my gauge, rather than trying to make the gauge conform to the pattern. It's working so far, and I haven't had any really unpleasant surprises. (In case you're wondering, Wisteria was made without a swatch.)

Indy Spirit

We recently took a trip to Indianapolis and I thought I'd share a few pictures with you. One of the places we went was Conner Prarie, an interactive history museums depicting life in the 1800's. There, we watched people doing fun things like woodworking


and frying up puffball mushrooms.



And what 1800's experience would be complete without farm animals?


It was quite a neat place. Of course, since this is a knitting blog, I'll also mention that there was a basket of knitting casually left out in the sitting room of one of the houses.


If you think that's interesting, then you'd definitely want to see the "Loom Room." The room has a large loom, a spinning wheel and hanks of yarn dyed using various natural ingredients.



Not only did we see a life-sized loom room, but we saw a miniature one as well. These pictures come from a dollhouse display at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.



Since travel time is just about synonymous with knitting time for us knitters, I did bring along a project, and I'll show you a sneak peek. Anyone recognize it? (no fair peeking at my Rav page)

Where Everybody Knows Your Game, Part II

During Madrona, there were some great speakers. I missed hearing Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, but I did see Cat Bordhi, who was hugely entertaining and sooo creative. The fabulously elegant Elsebeth Lavold was there to speak about her Viking Knits Project, in conjunction with an exhibit she currently has at the Nordic Heritage Museum.

One of my favorite events was the Teacher's Gallery. Basically, each of the teachers got a table to show off her beautiful knitting, and you could wander around and ooh and aah to your heart's content. I kept vacillating between feeling joyously inspired by the beautiful knitting and feeling a bit despondent about my own mediocrity :-)

Oh, and I managed to get a few shots of the knitting glitterati! This is Vivian Hoxbro. I love her glasses and wish I could pull off that look! Check out her bag design in the current IK.


Cat Bordhi wore a trademark moebius and showed off her really cool sock designs.

And Sally Melville wore a sweater from her new book coming out later this month. This book is a collaboration with her daughter and has some very promising designs.



Now, by the time I found out about this conference, many classes had already been filled. But no matter! I still got some great ones. I took 2 classes from Joan Schrouder. She has more knitting knowledge in her pinkie than I do in my body! The first class was a finishing class. Joan showed us many examples of her knitting to illustrate her points, and she also had an original sweater from EZ herself. I knew some of the techniques taught, such as the Kitchener, but she showed us how to do them better. There were also several methods of joining that were new to me.

These 2 are alternatives to the 3-needle bind-off, and they produce a nice decorative ridge on the public side.


In this next photo, the swatch section on the right shows a decorative ridge that looks like a crochet chain, and the one on the left has the crochet chain look on on either side.


My second class from Joan was an entrelac class. I had never done this technique before, and it was quite addictive. Here's my little swatch from class. I have seen several Noro entrelac scarves using 1 ball of yarn at a time, and they look great. But I really wanted the added contrast from using 2 balls of Noro at a time, and so after she taught us the basics, I played around with it until I could do it without having to keep cutting the ends. So there will hardly be anything to weave in. Hurray!


My final class was a double-knitting class with Lucy Neatby. She is a really excellent instructor! I had not been familiar with her DVD series before, but after having met her, I'm very tempted to buy the whole lot! Check out this neat little trick:

You might wonder what's so interesting about this?


It's a vertical pocket created using double knitting (the stripe is just something we did in class to help us visualize the process better). Ingenious! I'm going to have to look for a good excuse to use this, because it is just too cool!



A final little bonus for me was that I was a doorprize winner. So fun! There were 2 large bins of prizes, and you got to dig through and pick whatever you wanted. There were lots of tempting things, but ultimately, I settled on getting a 1-yr extension of my Interweave Knits subscription. Yay!

Where Everybody Knows Your Game, Part I

I got back from the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival earlier this week. It was so much fun, and I highly recommend it! I had never even taken a knitting class before, let alone attended a convention, so I had no idea what to expect. Well, was I pleasantly surprised! I wish I had brought along something other than an old, worn out camera, though (our regular camera is just not that portable). Where to start?

Well, there were knitters everywhere.


And spinners and weavers, too.


This was undoubtedly the only time I'd ever seen a spinning wheel set up in a hotel bar! It was really neat to just be immersed in all that fiber goodness. I met many great people and like-minded souls. I even met a woman who went to my same high school--small world!

It was also interesting to see what the non-knitters thought of us. There were lots of bewildered looks, to be sure, but many people showed a lot of interest. One European tourist took pictures of us because she was surprised to see so many American women knitting. The best story, though, was of a back-up singer for Gladys Knight who was there to perform in a concert. She saw a felted handbag that she liked so much that she gave the person 2 concert tickets for the bag! And then she sat down for an impromptu knitting lesson from some fellow knitters!

There was a marketplace, of course, with all kinds of goodies. I managed to walk away, though, without actually buying anything. I am pretty well stocked-up for everything on my queue currently, so I was a good girl.

I thought the Hotel Murano, where we stayed, was wonderful. It's gorgeous and showcased some beautiful glass art.


And check out these rooms.



The bed and chaise are just perfect for knitting, IMO.

The hotel is well-situated. From the restaurant, you can get a great view of Mount Ranier.


There are lots of fun shops (including a cupcake store!) and museums within walking distance. These last images are from the nearby Chihuly Bridge of Glass.



Next up: actual knitting content from the convention!