Joy of Yarn

This and That and Knitting, of Course

Ah what a week! It is always difficult to get back to school after a satisfying summer off. I dreaded the return, this year, as much as I do every other year. However, as soon as I walked down the hallway to sign in, it felt as though I had never left. It was good to see the people I work with, and I couldn't have said that about every job I've been at.

My class began with three students, one VERY low functioning boy, and to keep this in perspective, my kids are the lowest level students in the school to begin with. He began as very uncooperative but in one day he improved tremendously and although he can still be contrary, he will be fine. I'm excited because he is a non-reader and I have started him on the Wilson Reading method. Another young man is very young maturationally, and perhaps a bit paranoid that others are ___________ at him (looking, laughing at, staring, touching). He is sweet however, and eager to please. My third student was one I had last year, very explosive and dangerous. He has been programmed to another area for the summer, returned to my class for one day, didn't want to do any classwork and pushed the little paranoid kid down to the ground. So the explosive kid is back to the other area, for how long we shall see. So Thursday I get another student who seems to be pretty good. Well he seemed to be for about 2 hours. After that I realized that he is passive aggressive, got the paranoid kid's number right away and does anything to push his buttons. We will see how explosive he is when he continues to receive negative points, part of our behavioral system. So far, I've been soft on him but that stops Monday. It is just too exhausting to be soft. I've managed to put away school Friday when I walked out the door, that is until this post. Now it is put away again, a new school year goal.

So Friday I walked after school on the boardwalk. A storm is coming and you can tell that the sky would be changing soon. This morning my husband ran/walked in a race for 9/11 with the Marines and I ran the water stand. It was fun. We headed out east after because I wanted to stop at the Waterford outlet but alas, they are no longer there. So I ended up getting a bunch of goodies for my son's fiance's wedding shower. Ahhhhhh, check that off the list.

So finally, onto knitting. I've mentioned that I am working on the Swirl Shawl. I'm really enjoying it and even fleetingly thought about not stopping at a scarf and continuing to make it into a shawl. I'll see as I complete the scarf. Anyway, as I've developed some strategies as I previously mentioned, I posted on a forum asking for any strategies others have used. I thought that it would be helpful to have strategies in one place. The following are some hints used by Kaidy (Thanks!) (she used the Melody yarn too):

Place your marker after the first 10 stitches so you know where to start something new. All the action (the decreases) take place at the end of the pattern repeat. I found only one marker was necessary. You don't want to stop in the middle of the round anyway.

Each skein of yarn makes 17-18 hex's, the yarn did have knots and splices in it as it came off the skein. I ended up rewinding the balls--cutting where the knots appeared and keeping the little balls from each skein in order. That way when I knew that there wasn't enough yarn left to start and complete a new hex, I would just start the next ball in the sequence.

For subsequent hex's it's better to cast on, then pick up the stitches to join the hex so that you are working on the right side and in the right direction.

If you drop a stitch, especially once you start the yarnovers, it's better just to rip the whole thing out and start over --Trust me on this!!!

It is possible to go in and replace a hex in the middle of the previous row! There are ten live stitches from one of the ajoining hex's that you have to be careful to pick up, but it can be done! (More than once even when you get careless and don't pay attention to what's happening with the beginning of your cast on for the hex)

At the end, just cut the yarn and thread it through the final six stitches instead of knitting 6 together.

Always start the next hex and work the first two rounds on the 60 stitches. That was the hardest part for me and I liked to come back to the fun part, working the pattern and the decreases.

I used blocking wires for the first time ever and the shawl was easy to block. The hex's opened up very well and evenly by just pulling the wires through the outside points. There were a few points on the end hex's that had to be pinned individually, but otherwise it wasn't hard at all.

BE AWARE! The pattern is addicting and fun. Scrubbing the kitchen floor, cleaning bathrooms, making meals....not fun and addicting! Really a fun pattern that's challenging but not hard and yields spectacular results.

and she adds:

These are my thoughts on picking up and casting on after the first hex. I'm not sure that I can correctly paint a picture of what I did and what I would do differently the next time in words alone. First off, the way the actual pattern directions are written for picking up the joining stitches and then casting on felt backwards to me. This may be because I knit continental or combination most of the time or perhaps I wasn't understanding what the directions wanted me to do. Anyway, after the first row, the pattern says to start here >\_/ pick up ten stitches along each edge to form the bottom of the hex, then cast on 30 additional stitches for the top half of the hex. You would be moving in a counter clockwise direction. I started on the opposite side of the hex \_/< picked up stitches along the edge and then used the knitted cast on for the 30 stitches across the top. This kept the right or public side always on top and let me knit around the hex in a clockwise direction. The class instructor is going to have people pull out about 30 in. of yarn, cast on 30 sts using the long tail cast on which will form the top of the hex, then \_/< start here to pick up the joining stitches. I think that there are many ways to achieve the same results, so folks should go with whatever makes sense and looks correct for them.

So that's about it for me right now. It is pouring outside right now, the tropical storm working its way up the coast. Tomorrow we plan to hang out and watch football, not that I am a big football fan but entering a $10 pool makes you do stuff like this. Football and Knitting, whatta combo!

Swirls and Ladies

Oh boy. I just lost this whole post with the touch of one button. Now what did I even type? I've been working on my second Lady Eleanor. My first Lady was made of Kureyon. She feels like a blanket to wear, although I think she looks prettier than she feels. The colors are clear in yellows, greens and oranges, but they don't blend together as well as I'd like them to. I think that I bought the yarn online, and of course expected the colors to look altogether different. So now I'm working on my second Lady and I'm loving her. This is the yarn that I made Butterfly out of. Butterfly has hung idle in my closet for a few years. She never fit me well, despite cinching in and steeking arms. She was just screaming out to be a Lady.  Now I thought that I was going to be true to this Lady, especially because she is just an enjoyable knit. But...

Yesterday my husband and I stopped at the Farmingdale yarn store. It is just so nice a store, as large as many we saw out in the Midwest. There are the normal workhorses, but also so many yarns that I don't see anywhere else. She has a great selection of sock yarn too, not that I need any more of that. Her yarn selection is varied, from fine cashmere to silk. I can't say enough nice things about it. The con: it is too far away from my home.

So I'm walking around the store, with my very patient husband. He's very good about my indulgences and even picks up some skeins to look at them. She had an unusual scarf on a table and I knew that I wanted this to be my next project. It is the Swirl Shawl, although mine is going to be a scarf.

Now a bit about the yarn. I had never seen this Jojoland Melody yarn. It comes in some beautiful colors and has the barber-pole look of handspun with many colors twirling round each other. It is splitty and fine. I have not encountered a lot of knots, as others have complained about. The colors look ordinary in incandescent light, but bring them towards natural light and they flash. The scarf only takes two skeins. I've worked up some hints as I've been working on it. First, I'm using two size 5 Addi circulars and working it as I do socks. It is a good thing that I've made socks this way because it is very awkward, especially to start. The join wants to twist and come apart so I am casting on one extra stitch and looping the last over the first to tighten the join. I'm also using the end of the cast on strand with the regular yarn (double) when knitting the first few stitches on the row. This has made the join much more secure. Additionally, I'm marking every 10th stitch when I cast on so that I can determine where to join the next swirl more accurately.  I've written the rows out on index cards, punched and joined with a ring. This way I can flip each card as I finish a row. This is not an easy knit, but I'm liking how it's coming out.

So we are off to a fair tonight to get our taste of fair food before I go back to Operation-Eating-Well. It should be a fun night.

Onions and Hiking and Tomatoes

 The days are passing way too fast. I'm partially tired, depressed perhaps, and partially trying to crowd all of summer's goodness into the other parts of the day. I've been busy knitting my Lady Eleanor out of Noro Silk Garden. It is coming out very nice and I'll post pics when I take them. I had forgotten what an enjoyable knit it is.

We have tons of tomatoes now, between the Organic Garden co-op that we joined, and those from our garden. Tonight we made a delicious Panzanella Salad. It was so very yummy and a great way to use our fresh tomatoes. We still have loads sitting on the windowsill.

SERVES 4

• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 8 ounces sourdough bread or ciabatta (toasted or day old)
• 4 medium tomatoes, ripe, chopped
• 4 ounces low fat mozzarella, cubed
• 12 kalamata olives, pitted and halved
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, shredded
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (optional)
• 1 garlic clove, minced (optional)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground

1. Put diced red onion in a small bowl and cover with water. (This removes some of the oniony taste.) The longer you soak it the milder it will become.
2. If bread is not day old, slice and place on cookie sheet in preheated 400 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly.
3. Meanwhile, prepare and place all ingredients other than the bread and onion in a large bowl and mix.
4. Tear bread into bite size pieces, drain onions and add to tomato mix. Combine well. Adjust the seasonings to taste and serve.

Tomorrow we are headed upstate to go hiking. The day is supposed to be cool like today, perfect hiking weather. Heading upstate always reminds me of the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. I thought I'd share some more fair images.

These are some prize winning onions. I fell in love with how the light hits them.

 

Time is Screeching Ahead

So the summer is all too rapidly screeching ahead and I realized that it has been eons since I've posted. Not that a lot hasn't happened, of course, but the days march along and posting has gotten neglected.

To recap a bit, my husband had an eagerly anticipated procedure done on his heart to correct palpitations that he's had since he was a wee one. Everyone told us that it was a simple procedure, in and out of the hospital in a day, with a short recovery time. Although I was nervous, I imagined him home the next day, tired but pleased that we had finally gotten this annoying benign ailment taken care of. Well this simple procedure turned out to be much more complicated than expected. The doctor pierced his heart with the wires that they insert up through his legs. Yes, it was a small minimal possibility, the doctor warned us at our consultation. So instead of coming home the same day, he was admitted with a drain in his heart and quite a bit of pain. I ran back and forth to the house, feeding and letting the dogs out. I kept telling myself, "This was supposed to be a simple procedure"! Well after many tests and hours of waiting for the results, he was released at 7 p.m. the following day. All he wanted to do was get back to running, as he ran 3 miles 3 to 5 days a week. The doctor told him to wait two weeks until he started again. But unfortunately, he's been plagued with a series of ailments, a hurt back and foot among them. It just hasn't gone easily for him. And we are not sure that the procedure corrected the problem totally as a combo of caffeine and hard exercise brought on another palpitation. So that's been very disappointing for us.

I had started a ruffled shawl in the hospital. With all the waiting for the procedure to be completed and then test results, I got lots of knitting completed. When I was halfway done on just the shawl however, I decided to rip it. The hospital doesn't bring back good memories, and I really didn't want a shawl attached to it.

So for some completed objects. There is Mr. Greenjeans I made this sweater out of HandpaintedYarn.com's merino worsted in the Naranja y limon color. It is buttery soft and a dream to wear next to the skin. I started the cabling just below my chest, unlike the pattern's directions which starts it lower, as I didn't like the bunching up below the chest that I saw in other pictures. I also made it longer than the pattern and stayed with the size 7 needle size throughout.

Another completed object is for a woman that I work with who is expecting her second baby. It is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Sweater with a matching bonnet. What a joy of a pattern! The yarn used is King Cole DK. The bonnet has an i-cord tie and the sweater is about a one year old size. I don't think that you can see them from the picture, but the buttons are the cutest little turquoise lady bugs.

 

 

 

 

We have had the wackiest weather this summer and our property is filled with many mosquitoes, which we are not sure why. So my dreams of laying in the hammock, knitting and reading, were not really realized this summer. I did get a lot of both done, but not in the hammock, sadly. This was also the first summer that our skies were too overcast to see any shooting stars in the Perseid's Meteor Shower, an annual event for us since I can't remember when. For a week or so, the afternoon skies opened up and we even had quarter-sized hail, a surprise indeed. The hail hitting the house made it sound as though we were living in a tin roofed home, very scary! Our tomatoes, unfortunately, got battered with deep bruises, but there are still plenty on the vines and we hope they recover.

 

 

 

Along with all the other activities we did, I'm thrilled that I continued to walk 3 miles a day for mostly six days a week. It has been tough at times. Once again, towards the beginning of August I decided that I wanted to start jogging. Once again, I injured my left calf. Maybe this year I will learn that walking is for me, not jogging. So I now walk with a bit of pain in my one leg, but if I could only slow down a bit and not push myself as much, it is much less noticeable. We also went hiking upstate in North Lake and the views were as beautiful as ever. Just to be with my husband is heavenly.

We were lucky to visit quite a few fairs this summer, something we love to do. Oh the cream puffs at the Dutchess County fare were so divine!

Otherwise, sadly, school starts a week from tomorrow. I've really enjoyed this summer. Yes, it certainly had its stressful parts, but nothing like the stress that my days with my students have. Luckily, the teacher that substituted for me over the summer was very organized, so my classroom should be in good shape when I return. I will have the same aged kids, fourth, fifth and sixth graders. Wheeeee...

Tomatoes!

I've continued to work on lovable Mr. Greenjeans. What a fun project. I'm already thinking of many variations to incorporate into another one.

Our one hummingbird has never returned...sigh. Nor have any others. 'Come-on little guys!'

Today was a blue-skied sunny day and I got the tomatoes planted. Yipee! This year I decided to order Heirloom seeds from the Victory Seed Company. I've written that I started the seeds in pots weeks ago. Well the seedlings were plentiful but leggy as they were grown under plant lights. Last week, I started to harden them off, placing them outside for a few hours each day, increasing as the days progressed. Yesterday was very rainy and the plants got quite battered.

So to start, because we use the Square Foot Gardening Method, I planted 16 plants in a 4 by 4 bed, drawing a schematic on paper, to keep, in case my tiny wood marking sticks somehow disappeared. When it came time to set up the heavy duty tomato cages I bought this year, they were too large to fit four across a row. So I undug the tomatoes, WHEW!, and replanted them three across. Thinking it would be good Photo Shop experience, after putting my schematic on paper, I re-did it. I'm hoping to have a phenomenal crop!

PhotoShop Fun

I've been playing a lot with Photoshop and wanted to share a photo of my son with one of his puppies.

My version (top)

And the original version (bottom) 

A visitor

Look who came to visit us today! A Ruby Throated Hummingbird!

I've had the feeder out since early April and each day I look to see if we have any visitors as last year was the first year that we had hummingbirds, that we noticed. I just changed the sugar water earlier this morning.

This morning, I was a bit disappointed because I didn't go to Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend. On top of that, I had to stay in all day to wait for the Optonline repair person for our internet service. What a wonderful surprise when I looked out the window.

Of course, I couldn't help but play with the pic in Photoshop a bit. Woo-Hoo!

Much Ado About a Lot of Things

Tomorrow I am back to work. It was a wonderful vacation, wonderful weather, wonderfully productive days. On the first day, I made a list of all that I hoped to get done during vacation, thinking that my list will help me to not allow the television to suck me in for hour upon hour. It worked. Each evening I also made a list of what I hoped to do the next day. That worked too. Now these weren't "chore" lists. Instead they were lists of fun things such as take pictures, knit shawl out of dyed yarn, read, buy photo paper, thin tomato seedlings . . . So although I am sad that it is over, and wary about what little "rugrats" have been admitted to the hospital in my absence, I'm thrilled with all that I got done and the fun that I had doing it all.

I knew that I wanted to knit a shawl out of my hand dyed BFL yarn. This shawl pattern has been one that I've wanted to work on for a long time. After trying to work on it, unsuccessfully, without markers and using the written directions from the pattern, I knew that my choices were either to give up - and I wasn't ready to do that! - or to devise a strategy. Being that I'm off from work, I had no access to the copy machine. So off I ran to the library. A nice young man helped me with enlarging the pattern, something I can easily do on the work copying machine but could no way figure out on the library's. I returned home and colored in each different symbol with my colored pencils. As I did this, I remembered spending hours on end coloring as a young girl. I also decided to place rubber markers every 10 stitches and mark the pattern, with a colored line, every 10 stitches as well. So working off of my color-coded chart, and using stitch markers, I've been able to make some headway. I can't say that it's flying, and especially because it is lace knitting and the stitches scrunch up together until blocked, but I am getting somewhere. I've needed to move stitch markers as they don't always stay in the same place, but they do allow me to count and make certain that I haven't missed one of those silly yarn overs. I THINK that this will be a very pretty shawl.

I know that I've mentioned this before, but one of the great parts of my job is that I work with OVERALL a nice group of people. Sure there are some scootches (?), but this field tends to draw a different type of person than many other jobs. One of the women that I work with has given up her prep period, one day a week, so that I can teach a crochet class to the older kids. I've been wanting to make her my favorite washcloth and I placed inside some French Pre de Provence honey soap. Mmmmm it smells just dreamy!

This is it closed on its bottom. You can see the twisted tie that I made also to hold the soap inside the washcloth.

Although the color on the monitor does not read true, and it is a bit late for me to start fooling around in Photoshop, it is a sage green cotton and I think that she'll just love it.

So that is just a pinch of what I've been working on. There were many nature pictures taken over the past week, much meditation done, many pages read and turned, tomatoes fed and thriving, and hour long walks by the Long Island Sound. The days have turned cooler, starting with today. It is time to return to work and pray that the next two months pass quickly and contentedly. Friday is our big Earth Day celebration, a day that I contributed a great deal to. So I am looking forward to the progress of this week. Until next time .  .  .

Shawls, Socks, Scarves of Many Colors

This will be a quick post. Oh what fun these were to dye. I envision scarves and shawls and socks. Oh Boy!

The dyed yarns:

From left to right:

Kona Superwash Merino in Purples,

Supersock 3 Ply Merino in Marine,

Blue Faced Leicester 3 Ply Superwash in Marigold, 

Extrafine Merino 2 Ply in Geranium

Updates

So the time sure does fly by. I've thought about blogging, I really have. But the energy seems to go into different places lately. I realize that I've never posted pics of the other fiber that I've dyed but I can't seem to find the pictures that I took. I'll just have to take some more in the daylight tomorrow and post them.

I've been working on a Malabrigo ribbed scarf still. I had hoped that I'd have enough to make mittens to match, but I think I'd be cutting it awfully close. I also just finished a hat out of junky yarn, but it may work when I walk outside and don't need something warm and woolly. I've started to make matching mittens for it also. Lately, I've just craved making smaller items, socks, gloves, scarves, and the like. I haven't had a big sweater craving.

I did wear my Adagio Shawl this week to work. It's funny. It has finally become comfortable to wear my knitted garments to work. All Winter I've wanted to, but the hospital is kept very warm. We have these little slices of a window to open. So all Winter I've dressed lightly. Finally now, the heat is off and I open up my slice, of course to student protests of "I'm COLD!" Yes, they protest loudly. But I tell them that they need some fresh air. I must sound like my grandmother did.

Another view of the shawl from the front: I get a lot of use out of this shawl. The ruffle adds just a bit of panache without being too frou-frou. And it hugs my shoulders nicely so it doesn't fall off. This was designed by Candace Eisner Strick and uses her technique that she named Merging Colors, though I'm sure it's been used before Candace. The yarn comes in many fine stranded colors with a chart naming which strands to drop and which to add as you knit the pattern. This creates the subtle changes that you see in the picture. I see that she has added many other colors for Adagio on her site. She really is a very talented woman. I'd love to try some of her newer projects.  Here's some close-up detail:

I don't know if I've mentioned it but I've been teaching a crochet class to a group of  students. I have one boy now, an expert crocheter, and four girls. It is a challenge for the rest of them although one girl has finally mastered the chain stitch and is now onto learning to double crochet. It is also a challenge for me as they have little tolerance for waiting their turn. I play WBLS, a local radio station, and they seem happy to listen to some music. We are making blankets for dogs at one of the local animal shelters, well that is our goal. Right now, we are, as I've mentioned, not much past the chain stitch. We meet once a week and they are very sad when the class is over.

About my students, almost all my boys were discharged. Do you believe it? Now can you believe that I miss them too? I complain when they're there and I complain when they leave. Go figure. So my class consists of  my little ray of sunshine who tried to choke me. She's having a wonderful time with all this alone time and today she told me that I'm like her mother. Sadly, she never had a mom as her great-grandmother raised her, who's 79 years old now, after a horrid childhood filled with physical and emotional abuse. The days are long but she is very happy. Today my principal said to me, "No one can begrudge you because you only have one student." and I commented that I think, with the boys, I paid my dues. And she agreed. My other boy is in ICU with pneumonia at a children's hospital nearby. Hopefully, he will be back with us soon as I miss him.

Today I took Chloe for a walk in our preserve. The skunk cabbage is growing swiftly, the trees are in bud and the birds are plentiful. Chloe found lots of new areas with good smells. Boy she walks fast! We keep up a very rapid pace throughout the walk and we stop infrequently.

I also came home and meditated. One of my friends at work commented today that I've been in a much better frame of mind since a few weeks ago and she wondered what it was. She thought maybe it's because I've been wearing make-up to work - haha. After we discussed all my little monsters that have been discharged, we said that could of course be contributing to my increased energy, and eating well, taking vitamins, fewer students, walks, Springtime and meditation. A scientific experiment it ain't. But it feels good to not come home exhausted and to have some time for the fun parts of life. I also started reading this book. It is enchanting! As I read it, I yearn to digest each word, and not miss a one. It is a rare book, a beautiful characterization.

Well I'm off to get some stuff done. It's 9 pm and I still want to read and catch up on some of my favorite-vacuous-junkiest shows ever put on TV. That's right, Bachelor and American Idol. "How can you watch this junk?" my husband asks. I dunno...