Catena Expressions

Nov/Dec on the nightstand

In addition to reading Mercedes Lackey (3 or 4 more in the Valdemar series on backorder + the ones B loaned us which are still being read) and the Marion Zimmer Bradley Darkover series (3 or 4 also on backorder), I read a number of Spenser books by Robert Parker then put them in order and reread all of them straight through (still missing a dozen or so but that's not high on my book order agenda).

In early November I went through, reorganized and cleaned out my 7 bookshelves (about 200 books per bookshelf) and M cleaned out his 4 or 5 bookshelves before we took over 100 books to Anthology Bookstore in Loveland to either donate or trade for credit. With that done, I bought and read (not to mention the Zimmer Bradley or the Lackey or the Parker) these:

John Sandford's Rough Country

Dick Francis' Silks and Under Orders

Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires  (she still slays me)

Jessamyn West's Hide and Seek (camping along the Colorado River in the early 70s). I loved West when I was a child and first discovered the Friendly Persuasion - then in my 20s her The Woman Said Yes amazed me. I found the mention of Hide and Seek in Sisters of the Earth anthology and made a point of looking for it. I loved it - but then, I will read and read most everything West writes. Some people might find H&S a bit dull but it gave me another glimpse into the life of one of my favorite writers.

Linda Hasslestorm's Windbreak I quarrel sometimes with Hasslestorm. I want her to be less cranky and more more more... something, I dunno. I want to like her more then I do. I want to see her life in a less gray-glassed detail. Hell, I dunno what I want from LH's books and essays. I know whereof she speaks and I guess she's like a neighbor I needed when I, too, raised cattle on the family place and dealt with bossy parents (in-law, in my case) and all that jazz. I know whereof she speaks and yet, I want her to be different. I am asking too much and I know it. I have a LOT of respect for her and I should admit that I reread her books and am looking forward to her new one.

as well as Susanna Lewis's Knitting Lace I bought this one to see what the knitted lace sampler looks like. I have pounds of hand spun Shetland in stash that I've been saving for just the right project (you've seen Leigh's Shetland sampler sweater and Cyndy is spinning the same fleece). In case you don't recall, I bought a lot of Shetland fleeces of a range of colors and types to experiment with and shared with a few friends. My samplers are 3 ply (a bit tooo heavy for the original concept of Fair Isle) and 2 ply and singles (better for something else) but I don't know what. Yet.

In December, because I had to order some Bradley and Lackey to finish off the series we are both reading, I went ahead and ordered (and haven't yet read, still finishing Lackey's Storm Breaking):

Sue Grafton's U is for Undertow

Paul Gruchow's Journal of a Prairie Year and Grass Roots

Carol Bly's Letters from the Country

I discovered Bly when I read Kathleen Norris's Dakota and am rather addicted to Bly's writings. I can't remember how long ago I bought Gruchow's the Necessity of Empty Places but it's an annual favorite to reread. It has to be about 20 yrs, or so it seems. I didn't think to look for more of his writings - so many writers I like seem to be one-book wonders - essays or short stories so I need to think about looking more thoroughly on-line.

brrrrrrrr etc etc

My streetwalker (letter carrier) friend in NV says it's -9.2 degrees this morning. Personally I think that .2 is a bit much - she shouldn't even make a note of that. She's an ultra marathon runner. You know 25 miles +. I don't remember her whining like this when she ran from Sacramento to Auburn or some such - in the summer time!! Or in the American River Canyons. Really!! She shouldn't even whimper the way she does when it's cold out. I ask you, are there no heroes? She's obviously not Luigi...* ++

But then, who is?

We are, or were -7 this morning. I woke up to all 5 cats and all 4 dogs piled on the bed in furry lumps. Even Guppy who sometimes will not admit to social skills. Oh yes, there's a 6th cat - Bunny - who has taken up residence in my workroom (with the doves) and refuses to come out. She has her own private cat food, water, litter box; but the prime pieces of real estate are the window and the pillow near the heat vent. Okay, fine. She's never been one for much patting even tho Guppy adores her and pleads at the screen door (my workroom solid door was replaced with a screen door years ago) to either come out or let him in. He wants to snuggle and she thinks he's contemplating taking over her pillow. He is a bed hog. I see her point.

Socks are progressing. 2 pair are almost to the heel, the other 2 pair have toes cast on. I thought if the toes were ready, I'd be able to jump into finishing a couple of gift socks. (LOOK!! A band of sunshine - the first in over a week!!!)*

There are things getting between me and the finish line:

Reading books B loaned us. I have 2 more on my bed stand.

and the wii - Mario is progressing - at over 100000000 points and 3rd level - mostly all by myself (okay, with a bit of help from Luigi's super guide)!! In the old days, I would rely on my son to get us through the fortresses etc. I'm so happy - I go back and redo the fortress just to prove I can. I love it.

I refuse to turn it on to document my achievements - it will only lead to abandoning this post and going all out again. I now have to set a timer to challenge myself to put down the controllers. I'm a grown woman, I should have more self-discipline.

OTOH, it's only 0 now and who the hell cares if I make a pot of coffee ((I've gone from 4 cups a day to 10... what the heck??) and contemplate my next world to conquer.

*(Gee, I hope it doesn't hit the TV screen, that could mess me up).

++ Also, my friend is over 50 - so I guess she deserves to whine a little bit.

bbrrrrrrrr....wwwwhheeeee....wii

I've worn my winter sweater practically everywhere since it dried - and came to the conclusion it don't need no buttons. I have plenty of cardigans that button - why not leave this one alone?

That settled (didn't take much effort), I went through my hand spun stash to see what was in there. M and I took the dogs for a walk 10 days ago on a windy day and my neck about froze. Time for a heavier moebius  scarf. I plied a couple pounds of yarn on the Symphony (Kromski Saxony with the Kromski Sonata bulky bobbin).

One pound went back into stash - it's now 4-ply (or cable) of silk, alpaca and rambo (darker shiny ball). This is fingering weight - perfect for a lacey something or other for February project when my fingers want something bright to play with.

 

The 2nd pound of Bliss merino, rambo (I had lots of purple rambo), silk and alpaca became a bulkier yarn for the new scarf.

Details? Size 6 47" circulars. Cast on around 170 stitches. Knit 3 patterns of the lacey porcupine pattern from one of Barbara Walker's Treasuries. The scarf is big enough to pull over the top of my head while still doing a good job of protecting the back of my neck. I like it.

I finished and washed the scarf a couple days before Thanksgiving and tossed it over my desk chair to dry. Of course, it turned cold and of course B and I both wished we had scarves on one evening when we went out for dinner. Live, freeze and learn!

I took sock yarn along with me to B's and worked on diagonal lace pattern from Wendy Johnson's toe-up sock book. I've made several pairs of socks from her book and there's a few more patterns I intend to make. Meanwhile, I'll be looking over Anne's shoulder as she knits socks from Joy of Sox - since that's next on my sock agenda.

I personally feel 3 degrees is much too cold to walk any of the dogs - tho the almost full coat sheltie could disagree if he wasn't curled on M's recliner in an afghan. Such a tough life. You can catch of glimpse of Riley in the dark portion of the photo of the scarf above.

M asked me what I wanted for Christmas - always a tough question.  I feel I have everything! But, upon thought, I asked for a nintendo to play Mario. And that's what we got last Monday. It's been a blast. I've had to limit my hours of playing (so like when my son was young!) in order to get other things done.

Winter Sweater finished

Front

Back

From bottom to top the lace patterns are:

Hunters stitch from Mon Tricot Knitting Dictionary, page 6. I haven't seen this stitch anywhere else but granted I didn't look a long time.

Lace Chevron Continental Style from Barbara Walker's 1st Treasury of Knitting Patterns page 202

Ears Of Grass from Barbara Walker's 2nd Treasury of Knitting Patterns page 254

Elkhorn from Barbara Walker's 3rd Treasury of Knitting Patterns page 164

Pine Trees from Barbara Walker's 1st Treasury page 164

Falling Leaf from Barbara Walker's 3rd Treasury of Knitting Patterns page 158. Actually, I liked the one in Mon Tricot but decided that BW's short version worked as well with shorter repeats.

Began (cast on) November 11 and finished November 21st. Used size 6 circular needles with 3 skeins (400 yds each) of Grayce Aggen's Plain and Fancy sportweight yarn in natural (undyed). Grayce's yarn is CVM from her sheep - spun by Taos Mill.

To hold the fronts closed so I could photograph the sweater, I used one of my hammered copper shawl pins. I like the copper against the sweater but don't want to deal with a shawl pin all the time.

Button, button who has the button?

M and I discussed the antlers and agreed we didn't like the color of the antler against the yarn. I brought out my entire button stash to see if something in there would work. I know I need at least 6 and preferably 8 since the sweater is long.

The set of buttons we both liked best are the shell round ones from my grandmother's button collection (top left). I haven't sewed them on the sweater yet since I think more shopping around is required.

Any ideas? All are welcome.

knitting progress

from Hunter ribbing to Lace Chevron to Ears of Grass (BW 2nd p 254) with a touch of Elkhorn (BW 3 p 164). I couldn't resist the Elkhorn but didn't want too much of it.

 

Last night I stayed up to attach the sleeves to the body.

 

Pine Trees version 2 from Barbara Walker's First Treasury of Knitting Patterns - page 164 is next on the sweater. I wrestled with this yesterday - mostly because I wanted to incorporate falling leaves pattern along with the pine trees but the one I chose biased (which I figured I could work out). Finally, I decided to just go with the pine trees straight across which frankly made joining the sleeves to the body easier at 10 pm.

M liked another leaf stitch pattern (more geometric which fits the already used stitches) so I'm thinking how to use it.

My visualization is standing under a tree, looking across a meadow, seeing a bull elk watching me with a pine forest behind him. But I wanted the sense of wind and falling leaves and drifted snow gives that to me. So if I'm standing under a tree - why not one with falling leaves...and the leaves still on the tree will be above me, which means the pine forest across the way would be below the leaves. Does that make sense?

Well, that's where I am right now.

I have chosen buttons - we bought some slick antlers a while back at a Ft Collins flea market (on S College Ave) and I have finally decide to have M cut the tips off for toggle type buttons. We'll see when we get there. The antlers are deer and smaller by far then elk but I don't have elk antlers handy (LOL).

If you are new to this bottom up raglan construction, I recommend French Girls Knits by Kristeen Griffin Grimes.  I like her descriptions and the way she thinks tho I probably won't knit any of the designs. No, wait, I may knit the cover vest - Sophia - for my DIL.

snow and grass

I debated whether or not to put these 2 patterns together in one post but what the heck. We got 6" of snow overnight and I finished the lace chevron section and started the grass section - it seems appropriate. What would be even more appropriate is to hike along the river where the grass would poke up through the snow but I'd rather be knitting and enjoy the view through my foggy (vaporizer on full blast) windows. Besides, it's a wet snow and I just got over another bout of some bug. What's up with that, I wonder? The universe's way to keep me knitting up the Grayce Plain and Fancy stash or what?

 

Anyway, I finished the snowdrift portion - which is Lace Chevron from Barbara Walker's 1st collection - on page 202. Then I tried to take a photo (in my yard) which was not successful to show the layers of wind blown drifts.

 Then I moved on the the grass section. I considered a faggot stitch since it's got that linear look of grass but this is grass flattened by snow after all which is disarrayed. I like the Ears of Grass stitch pattern in Barbara Walker's 2nd collection on page 254. I'm row 18 so I'll have to get finished to decide if I want another repeat or not. 

Winter Sweater

When I bought this natural (undyed) yarn from Grayce (Plain and Fancy Wool in Texas), I was thinking about knitting a lace sweater. Before I started on this sweater, I wanted to play with some lace patterns to see what they are like, how I liked them and how well they flowed together. You've seen the results of these recently - from the "purple mountain sweater"  "Purple Mountain vest", to the "Old Shale" vest to the "Turquoise" sweater as well as the "Road Not Taken" sweater from last March . I made some modifications and considered what I liked the best.

Then I got out all my lace pattern books and flipped through those and did more thinking.

It seemed the first thing I needed to think about is what "winter" means to me. Yeah, cold, snow, wind etc but when I was younger the beginning of winter meant something much more different. It was hunting season - late fall/early winter. My ex always got a deer and generally an elk for our freezer. We loved eating elk - but hunting them meant the high country and the high country that time of year meant snow. It meant camping in the snow. It meant cold fingers trying to light the lantern and the stove to make before-dawn-coffee. It meant listening to every sound. And one of my favorite memories is camping in the Routt National Forest (way above our home in Steamboat Springs) and sitting next to a campfire when I heard some crunching on the newly fallen snow. Since it was mid morning, I figured it was some of the hunters coming back to warm up. No. It was a herd of elk. Where better to stay out of trouble then around the hunt camp? None of them got shot, too close to camp. I have always laughed about the intelligence of elk. How smart can you get?

So, we have hunting. And snow. Which means looking and stepping as quietly as possible. I think of walking on a snow drifted game trail and looking off into the woods. There would be tall dried grass. There would be trees still with leaves, and if the wind blew, there would be falling leaves. There would be pines.

With those images in mind, I went through the books til I decided on a few lace patterns. First, I needed a rib and voila, in Mon Tricot Knitting (and Crochet) Stitch Dictionary there is a rib pattern called "the hunter". It's a very simple rib and very different then I imagined using.

I finished knitting the sleeve cuffs and the sweater body ribbing Wednesday night.

Old shale vest finished

I must be on a roll - I finished this vest pretty quickly. It's pretty much the same body pattern at the "Twilight scarf" vest except I didn't decrease at the neck for the V-shape. I went straight up for a bit of a collar. Again, I knit with size 6 circulars (cast on 195) of "Coral" colorway of Grayce's Plain and Fancy yarn.

I like the way the old shale/feather & fan pattern resembles flames in this colorway. I also liked what a nice mindless knit it was.

I am thinking about putting a couple wood toggle buttons from Cyndy on this so I can button the neck if I'm out in a breeze.  I, obviously, haven't gotten far enough to do that but I think they will look splendid.

I'm working on the next sweater - lace patterns of Grayce yarn. Details on Saturday.

Turquoise Sweater finished

NAVAJO HORSE SONG (Blessing Way)
How joyous his neigh!
Lo, the Turquoise Horse of Johano-ai,
How joyous his neigh,
There on precious hides outspread, standeth he;
How joyous his neigh,
There of mingled waters holy, drinketh he;
How joyous his neigh,
There in mist of sacred pollen hidden, all hidden he;
How joyous his neigh,
These his offspring may grow and thrive forevermore;
How joyous his neigh!

When I bought this maroon shirt a year or so ago, I knew I'd have to make a sweater or vest for it. When I was at Grayce's booth at the 2009 Estes Park Wool Market, I knew herPlain and Fancy sportweight yarn in "turquoise" colorway was the solution. There were only 3 skeins of the colorway left so I knew I'd have to knit the sweater. I've been fooling around with lace patterns in her dyed yarns (I have some of her undyed yarn in stash for the next project) and this is another one of those. I knit this on size 6 circulars from the bottom up starting with hoofprints lace then fir cones lace pattern then fern diamonds to the armpits where I had a dilemma. I wanted to knit the sleeves last but I also wanted a bottom up raglan coz I like the fit. What to do, what to do. I cast on what I hoped were enough for the sleeves (measuring, trying on and calculating other raglan sweaters of Gryace's Plain and Fancy yarn) and came up with what I hoped was a solution. I continued knitting up and went on to arrowheads lace and finished with butterfly lace (because it's mostly stockinette) to plain stockintette.

I then picked up stitches along what would be the sleeves at the armhole and started down in arrowhead pattern - and reversed the other lace patterns (fern diamond, fir cone and hoofprints). I had enough yarn leftover to knit a band of hoofprints around the fronts and neck of the sweater.

Now for buttons.

Anne gifted me a spindle a few months ago which I really love. I wondered if I could find buttons similar to the whorl and voila - I did.

What I really like about the buttons is they only flash in the direct light. They are more subtle then I expected and they work well with the colors of the sweater.

Anne and I share horse lives and stories and these poems are also for her.

FROM THE NAVAJO WAR GOD'S HORSE SONG
I am the Turquoise Woman's son.
On top of Belted Mountain,
Beautiful horse--slim like a weasel.
My horse has a hoof like striped agate;
His fetlock is like a fine eagle plume;
His legs are like quick lightning.
My horse's body is like an eagle-plumed arrow;
My horse has a tail like a trailing black cloud.
I put flexible goods on my horse's back;
The Little Holy Wind blows through his hair.
His mane is made of short rainbows.
My horse's ears are made of round corn.
My horse's eyes are made of big stars.
My horse's head is made of mixed waters--
From the holy waters--he never knows thirst.
My horse's teeth are made of white shell.
The long rainbow is in his mouth for a bridle,
and with it I guide him.
When my horse neighs, different-colored horses follow.
When my horse neighs, different-colored sheep follow.
I am wealthy, because of him.
Before me peaceful,
Behind me peaceful,
Under me peaceful,
Over me peaceful,
All around me peaceful--
Peaceful voice when he neighs.
I am Everlasting and Peaceful.
I stand for my horse.

 

Thursday 11/5

It's been a long week around here. Mostly year end doctor-of-all-kinds appointments. Finding out the kind of news you don't really want to hear but have to suck it up anyway. (Nothing major, just a lot minor annoyances that come with life).

Weeks like this require some bribery. I bought 3 new sock books.

There are several socks I could happily knit from the Joy of Socks - first up is the Big Tease. I bought Cat Bordhi's book to see what else I can learn - and the first sock from there will be Sliding Bars. The first sock I intend to knit from the East and West book is Karatsu although it's hard to choose just one. I've eyed Japanese stitch dictionaries for years but hesitated. I think the East to West knitted sock patterns will help me make the plunge. 

I finished the 2nd lace project of Grayce's Plain and Fancy yarn (turquoise colorway). It's drying - not a great photo but the close up at least will show the colors. I have buttons picked out but am not settled on them yet. We'll see when the sweater is dry and modeled. Of course, after I see the way I laid out the sweater, I fixed it. I finished it yesterday in the audiologist office.

Hopefully M will have time to photograph the items so you can see them more clearly. We all know I am not a photographer! ;-)

I'll be here most of today, in case you're wondering.

Tomorrow, since the temperature is supposed to be in the 70s and the ground ought to be perfect for digging, I'll be out putting in the remainder of the bulbs.

Have a good weekend!