Foraging for acorns

When I was a kid, my sister and I were really into wild foods and foraging. We nibbled on dandelion greens, cattail tubers, staghorn sumac berries, wild wintergreen, etc. But we always had trouble with acorns. We'd collect tons of them, laboriously pry them out of their shells, and simmer them for hours upon hours to leach out the tannins. The problem was that we'd eventually forget about the pot on the stove, and all of our work would be charred.

This past weekend I was walking in the forest and realized that in the spring, the plump acorns on the ground were beginning to burst their shells (no squirrels in that part of the woods). I filled up my hat with acorns and easily shelled them on the remainder of our walk. Back at Mountain Man's home, I set to simmering them.

Here is the part that may interest you fiber fiends. The acorns simmered for probably twelve hours total, through nine changes of water. And every time the water came out a different shade, from milky, light brown to clear, steely grey. Seen below in order of boiling - first on the left, last on the right. What's going on here? Do different chemicals leach out at different times?



I was so terribly tempted to try dying some yarn in each cup, but possessed neither the time nor the ability (sometime I'll post about my last failed dying experiment, with foraged cochinealle bugs in Peru!).

Foodwise, the acorns were definitely less bitter, almost palatable even, after all that boiling. I plan on smashing them up and making pancakes with them.

Turned the heel

I turned the heel on my jaywalker sock this weekend. I'm really enjoying the pattern and the yarn, although I'm a bit concerned about its lack of elasticity. The fabric is pretty stiff, which makes it a bit hard to pull the sock on (over my heel, that is). Anyone else had that problem with the Jaywalker pattern or Trekking XXL yarn? Here's a snapshot - knitting in the car on the way down from Mountain Man's house this afternoon.


And what's that in the bottom of the photo? Let's zoom in...



It's Leila! Awww, what a cute little nose.

The allure of sock knitting

My happy side project is... a pair of jaywalkers!

In Trekking XXL color 109, for my sister. I've never been drawn to knitting socks before, but I'm starting to understand the appeal. They're relatively quick to knit, incredibly functional, rich with color, and super portable! Oh wait, scratch the last point. I know everyone raves about what a portable project they are, but just take a look at the ol' ball and chain.

The colors of this yarn are making me smile though. Simple pattern, but I'm always looking forward to what colors roll off the ball next.

Look how you've grown!

The print o' the wave shawl grew heartily this weekend. Here she is:


I think this will block out to about 20 inches, which makes it about a third finished. I'm tremendously pleased by the progress, and I like the shapes and textures more as the shawl grows. But I'll admit that I've started to reach saturation point. I need another project to break up the monotony.

I remember hearing that eating is most pleaurable if you alternate bites of the different foods on your plate. It keeps your taste buds sharp, brings out the contrasts in flavor and texture, helps you really appreciate the food. Knitting, for me, follows the same concept. Too much of one project dulls my appreciation and interest. So as happy as I am with this shawl, look for a new side project in the next few days!

Progress, and a new animal

I've decided to stay the course, for the moment. I'm making good progress on the lace shawl, and I've realized that, until I try the dress on again in July, any new shawl would be beleaguered by the same uncertainty. Here's the current state of the lace:

Note: the animal pictured above is Mountain Man's dog (husky-yellow lab mix, for scale). She was laying in the one remaining patch of morning sun and was kind enough to move out of the way a bit so that I could photograph my lace.

Help!

I had been blissfully progressing on my wedding shawl, until I received yesterday's mail. I opened an unassuming envelope and found a swatch of fabric for my wedding dress. I was actually excited that this was finally arriving. But to my horror, I lay the swatch against the shawl and realized it doesn't quite match. It's subtle. The problems are twofold:

First, the problems in the yarn: the color in the yarn is just a bit more of a "cream," as opposed to the cool "ivory" of the fabric. And the texture is waaaay off. I had to buy the yarn without getting a second look at the dress, since it was from a spring line that I could only see at a trunk show. I thought I had a pretty good memory, but I'd forgotten that the fabric is so silken and shiny. I had in my memory a more matte fabric, which would be better suited by the alpacan fuzziness.

Second, I had underestimated how deep the texture is on the grosgrain ribbon. I'm afraid I really did need a geometric, clean-lined lace pattern. Print o'the wave seems to have too much going on.

Any thoughts on what to do? I can't decide whether I should continue with this shawl or whether I ought to begin anew with a silkier yarn and more of a geometric pattern (maybe even a clapotis in a silk-wool laceweight?).... help!!

Secret, speedy hat

My friend Amy has a terrific green coat with purple embroidery, but she never wears it because she doesn't have the accessories to match. I went stash diving a few days ago to find the perfect purple and sage yarn (Lamb's Pride, 'chianti' and ??). I concocted a horseshoe lace pattern to reflect the undulating lines in the embroidery. Both Amy and her cat Cosmo seem to like it!

Blue skies...

You can all breathe freely now. Shedir is finished, in all her cabled glory. And the wedding stole is growing merrily (in no way was the above photo symbolic of it clouding my existence - to the contrary, I'm greatly enjoying the yarn and the pattern). Here's the cabled glory:

Here's a happy me, showing off my new spring cap, at Mountain Man's house.

Shedir's near death experience

I spent most of the weekend in an academic conference, and so it was with a great sigh of relief and happiness that I sat down to knit while watching a movie last night. I worked steadily, and soon found myself giddily approaching the last two stitches of the hat.

But somehow I knocked one of them off the needle. And away it slid, always just ahead of my ability to pick it up. I’m usually a champ at fixing mistakes like this. Maybe it was the yarn, or the awkward way that dp needles twist when there are only a few stitches left on each, or the fact that the top is mostly purled stitches that bent away from my needles. In any case, my near victory was turning into a nasty downwards spiral.

Mountain Man had to stop the movie, turn on the lights, and duck out of the room. And I’m telling you, it took every ounce of self-restraint not to rip out EVERY LAST STITCH of that hat!!

My sister would argue that I usually get upset when I make a mistake. But it’s not like this. Typically I will let a project with mistakes languish untouched for months before I can bring myself to unravel even a few inches. And when it’s something that I really want to finish, I can steadfastly bit the bullet (the night before, I’d tinked back an inch and a half of work on this very project – placidly).

I can’t explain what came over me. Shedir had a close brush with death by unraveling. But in the end, after Mountain Man brought me a glass of wine, I was able to let it pass. And I’ve been sitting in the sun trying to make sense of it this morning.

Here’s the photo from last week, when it was a little smaller but as yet untouched by this drama.

Back in the saddle again....

I fell off the lace horse, but I've swatched and I've sketched and I've cast on again, ever hopeful. Print o'the wave emerged victorious, based on a poll of my close friends. One of my fabulous bridesmaids, currently an architecture student, had this to say about the swatch: "the pattern shows very clearly, and I like the "slippage" as we call it in the architectural world-- the push and pull / altering branch pattern." Love this concept of "slippage."

I cast on last night and happily breezed through a few rows. With so little to show, however, I thought it needed the darkest and most dramatic background... so I tried to lay it against my tranquil, sleeping kitty cat.

Immediate danger! Within seconds she awoke to bite the needle, as pictured above. I should've known better. Here's the destruction she wrought the other day, when I was foolish enough to leave my lace swatch and yarn on the couch.

And in other news, Shedir is progressing steadily. But for some reason, I can't get the picture to post.

Adventures in Swatchland

I spent last evening swatching for my wedding shawl. Ran out of steam before getting to the trellis lace pattern (that's what I was trying before). I'd swatched that over the weekend and wasn't wildly impressed, so I tried to explore alternatives. Yarn is Misti Baby Alpaca laceweight. Needles size 3 Inox circs.

"Feather and Fan" --- Unbeareably granny-like in this yarn (no offense to the grannies out there, but it's not quite the image I want to project on my wedding day). I could barely get through a mini-swatch

"Horseshoe Lace" --- Much more appealingly defined. But maybe not quite open enough for my purpose.

"Vine Lace" --- Chaotic. I've loved this pattern in heavier yarns, but it gets lost in this laceweight.

"Print o'the Wave" --- Yum! Crisp. Botanical. Definitely my favorite of the swatch.

And here's a quick shot of all four in a row, just for size perspective.

A Necessary Distraction

Unsurprisingly, I started another hat this weekend. Couldn't bear the thought of diving back into lace (although I did swatch on a much better pair of needles).

Any guesses? It's another Shedir! The yarn is an unnamed wool-cashmere blend that I picked up on a lark from a yarn store sale bin a few years ago. It's scrumptious. Unbelievably soft, springy, and sky-colored.

In terms of what this reveals about me psychologically: I think that I always want to have a hat going on circular needles. When the going gets tough with other projects, it's wonderful to have a fallback project to lift ones spirits.

Round 1: Lace 1 Me 0

This is Strike 1. Look carefully. Late one evening, I knit the wrong row.



I only realized this after another forty minutes of knitting, dammit. It'd take so long to tink it back and fix that I decided to rip it out entirely. It wasn't doing it for me anyways - those long, heavy needles, boring stitch pattern, infuriatingly slow progress. Am currently evaluating my next step - slightly larger needles, circular this time? new pattern? I will be eagerly reading Eunny'slace series for tips...

Soon to become the bane of my existence

I desperately need to train myself to be a faster lace knitter.

In my precious free evening last night, I started the trellis lace wrap (still trying to decide on whether I'd prefer Eunny's beautiful shawl, but that's another story). The verdict? After two hours of knitting, this is all I had:

I don't know if I can bear to admit it, but it's only half an inch!! Admittedly that did include time for casting on and counting, counting, and recounting the number of stitches. But at this rate, it will take me 400 hours to finish this shawl. And it's not like a hat, that I toss into my bag and can mindlessly knit anywhere. This is 400 hours of seated, concentrated knitting.

I don't think I can finish by August. I'm afraid by the time I finish this, it'll be just in time to be my death shroud!!

Hats!

Hats are truly my favorite thing to knit. They're a great platform for experimenting with yarn, textures, stitches, shapes. Low risk, rapid results. Over the last weekend, I finished up two. I made up the patterns on the fly, which means that neither turned out precisely as I would've dreamed. But I'm rather pleased with the results all the same.


**Red Cashmere Cabled Cap**
yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, a touch over one ball (55 g)
needles: size 5
pattern: my own

This yarn is yummy! Shows cables deliciously well, and it's a pleasure to feel running through my fingers.



**Bulky, Burgundy Ribbed Cap**
yarn: Handpaintedyarn.com's bulky handspun wool, "Burgundy", less than one skein
needles: size 7
pattern: my own

I experimented with a top-down pattern in this one, partly because I wasn't sure how long the yarn would last. Knit in stockinette at the top, then switched to ribbing (I prefer the look of a variegated yarn in ribbing, for some strange reason). When I made this again (which I will, because I love the yarn and really like how this hat feels on my head), I'll knit from the bottom and rib the entire hat. And I'm terrifically happy with this spunky star-flower!

Odessa

My first finished object of the blog! I went to Chicago over the weekend, and I needed a sleek black cap to wear in the evening. I grabbed some yarn from the stash and knit up Odessa, sans beads. What a great pattern! Here's a photo from the back (might take me a while to get comfortable with showing photos of my face - is that silly?)

Pattern: Odessa by Grumperina
Yarn: Knitpicks Elegance, "coal", just over one ball
Modifications: no beading, started decreasing a bit early to compensate for the yarn's drape

The silk in the yarn makes for a slick and shiny fabric. But I think that for this pattern I might have preferred a yarn with more body and bounce.

Wedding Shawl

I’m getting married in August, on a hilltop in Vermont. Naturally, I want to knit a shawl (probably to keep my shoulders warm in the cool evening, but perhaps to wear during the afternoon ceremony in case of a breeze).

I thought that I'd figured it all out. I was going to wear this dress:


And in keeping with its aesthetic, I wanted a shawl that would float around my shoulders like a cloud. Something ethereal but with a slight edge. I started “River” in kid silk haze night, which has a thread of silver running through it.


The problem? I decided to go with a different dress! One that's more mountaintop appropriate. Not only does the color not match (this new one is more ivory than white), but the fabric is heavier, the shape has strong, clean angles (not soft and swishy), and the texture is like grosgrain ribbon.


I started looking at triangular shawls to accent the triangles at the bust, but my sister informed me that non-knitters might think it dowdy. So I've decided to do a rectangular stole with a obvious lengthwise pattern, which would pick up the horizontal lines of the dress fabric. I think I've narrowed it down to these three:
1. Eunny's Print O' The Wave Stole
2. Trellis Lace Stole, from Vogue Knitting Int'l Holiday 2003
3. Feather and Fan Stole (this photo is from patternworks, but I'd just make it up)



Does anyone have any thoughts/experience with these patterns? I'm leaning towards Eunny's gorgeous and intruiging stole (maybe without the center grafts, since the guests will be looking at my back during the ceremony). But other friends have urged me to try the trellis lace stole, with its cleaner geometry.

And for yarn? My favorite fiber is alpaca, so I was thinking of Misti Alpaca Laceweight. But am also considering something with a bit of silk to add shine, perhaps Zephyr wool-silk. (Given my history of abandoning lace projects, I initially wanted to try something in a fingering weight. But I swatched up the print o' the wave pattern in some baby cashmerino and baby ull, and found it terribly inelegant.) Does anyone have experience with these yarns? Or can you suggest another alpaca laceweight?

A Gathering of (Unfinished) Lace

One of my goals for this year, despite what I implied in my previous post, is to reduce the number of WIPs cluttering up my shelves. Most bothersome: stalled lace projects. I've had a habit of getting discouraged when I make a mistake, putting down the knitting, then never again picking it up. Currently I'm facing four such projects:

(clockwise from left)
1. Feather and fan scarf, Nandia cashmere laceweight in a rich wine color (I started this four years ago...)
2. Flared Lace Smokering, in handpaintedyarn.com's wool laceweight, "pagoda"
3. River, in Kidsilk Night, "starlight"
4. Harlot's Snowdrop Shawl, in knitpick's merino laceweight, "sunset." (Think I'll just frog this terrible one)

I need to figure out how to work through the discouragement. Especially since I have in mind a new, big, and important lace project: a wedding stole.

At least Leila's having fun with this!

Prerequisites

I think I'm ready to join the tribe of knitting bloggers. I've got down all the prerequisites:

1. A spunky kitty cat, who follows my knitting with great interest.

2. No qualms about starting new projects despite having many, many unfinished objects.

3. Bandwagon projects from Knitty - clapotis, honeymoon cami, shedir


4. Burgeoning yarn stashes that produce a mixture of guilt and exhilaration. They're separated - at my apartment, my fiance's house, and my parents' house - to hide the truth from others.


5. Pseudonym for my fiance. Meet "Mountain Man."

6. And a passion for knitting that is woefully misunderstood by my non-knitting friends...