Four Things

It’s hard to believe we are three weeks into 2012 already. So much has been going on in my tiny little life that I haven’t had the mental space to blog, and now I’m in the enviable position of having Too Much To Blog About.

I’m just going to dive in and see where my fingers take me.

Four phrases come to mind:

1. Kitchener Waterloo Guild
2. New iPhone
3. All The Knitting That Isn’t Finished Yet
4. My ToDo List Hates Me

So let’s go with those, in no particular order…

New iPhone

Dudes, I have an iPhone now.

Yes, that is a cheap store-bought sweater. Gimme a break, will ya? A girl can’t knit every single thing in her wardrobe…yet.

Surprisingly, this is a Big Deal for us (Nicholas got one too, of course). Our previous phones were so old-timey that we couldn’t even text on them. My phone was failing to the point where it seemed like it was choosing which phone calls I ought to get and which should get consigned to the Outer Darkness. Some voicemail messages would be delivered a week late. Some would never show up at all.

The last trip I took, I was trying to call Nicholas and the phone kept doing weird stuff…and before I knew it, I had thrown it across the room in a fit of fury. (Whoa. I’m not really a Thing Thrower, so that showed me how frustrated I was with the darn thing.)

So, after much discussion, the iPhones came into our lives. We’re both trying really hard not to get addicted to them…but dudes. They are So. Much. Fun. And texting…I’m a writer. Texts are little bits of writing. I have to REALLY reign myself in with the texting thang.

We shall not discuss my Twitter addiction.

I love having a camera with me all the time. My regular camera is wonderful, but it’s heavy and bulky and I don’t carry it everywhere I go. The iPhone camera is going to be fun. (So watch out. Sandi now has a camera in her pocket. You’ve been warned.)

Kitchener Waterloo Knitting Guild

All the photos here are courtesy of AnnieBeeKnits.

If only this guild were not so far from my house…They would be my home guild in a hot second. They are such good people…and their knitting is AMAZING.

They invited me to come speak last Tuesday night at their meeting, and I was really touched, because this is actually the second time I’ve spoken for them. They actually asked me BACK. I decided to put together a new talk just for them, a talk called “Finishing Your Knitting: How Not To Hate It.”

I do so love to teach.

They hinted that if I didn’t wear my tiara, there would be riots.

I brought a friend along this time, because it’s always more fun to have travelling adventures with someone cool. Lara, who won her North Star tiara as a Stringtopia door prize last year, is one of my fave travelling pals ever.

That’s Johanna next to her, who played hostess to us and made sure we had a lovely place to stay that night so we wouldn’t have to do a long drive late at night.

It’s always hard to give a new talk the first few times, because you never know what balance to strike between basic information and advanced tips and tricks. I spoke about things like mattress stitch and sewing on buttons, and worried that those were too basic for this very active, very technique-focused Guild. Turns out that it never hurts to have a new perspective on things, and I had a couple little tricks for doing things that others hadn’t heard before.

The question/answer period is always my favourite, because that’s when I get to learn new things, by putting together answers on the fly, answers to things I know in my fingers and in my head, but answers I may not previously have put into words. And there’s always at least one advanced knitter who doesn’t ask a question, but adds her own nifty tips, or gives us the benefit of a lifetime of learning. This time, an older woman spoke up, a woman who is a professional knitter/seamstress at a level that I can only hope to achieve some day. (I cannot for the life of me remember her name, and I feel that is quite disrespectful of me, given how much her work impressed me.) (Woo! Update: Her name is Alfie Galda. Thank you, Annie!) During show and tell, she held up a hand-knitted, lined, full-length coat, a garment that made me gasp…the finishing was exquisite, and at a level that I can only call Expert Guru in terms of its difficulty. Being able to see such amazing things and learn from more experienced knitters is always a special treat at such gatherings.

Well, and there was a knitted fairy doll, and some lovely colourwork mittens, and an awesome shawl or two. I covet the fairy doll, but since the knitter, Mandy, is a wee bit busy at present (pregnant with twins), I think I may have to knit my own doll. (Someday. You know. When I’m bored and don’t have anything else to do.)

Anyway, thank you KW Guild, for The Awesome that you are. Thanks to Angela and Annie and Lara and Johanna and everyone else who helped make that day so much fun!

I love teaching and speaking to knitters. LOVE IT.

All the Knitting That Isn’t Finished Yet

One of the things about putting together a list of the FOs I have completed in the past year is noticing all the knitting I’ve done that didn’t get finished. There’s a lot of stitches in that category, and it seems somehow disrespectful to myself and my knitting not to acknowledge the full range of my work. (Just because I didn’t finish it doesn’t mean I didn’t put my heart and soul into it.)

I got halfway through a set of knee-high lace stockings before I had to steal the needles for another, more pressing, project. I started a Damson for a friend before the remainder of the yarn got made into a feline artwork of tangles by pretty Miss Zoe. And I got within ten rounds of finishing a hat made out of my handspun, from some of the first colour-blending I’d done on my drumcarder. (Yarn is my handspun; pattern is Rose Red.)

I ran out of the yarn, of course, and there wasn’t any more of the fibre I had blended to make more batts, and so…it’s still sitting on the needles. I can’t bear to rip it out, but I haven’t found another yarn to finish it with that won’t detract from what’s already there.

And, of course, I’ve been working my backside off trying to finish the pattern, the formulas, and the knitting for the WiseSweater Project. (Pattern: Wheatgrass Truffle; Yarn: DK in Bruised Ego from Holiday Yarns.)

That photo was taken a while back; I’ve now completed the formulas for the rest of the sweater, including the quite-difficult task of designing sleeve cap formulas that can be customized by anyone (with the help of Nicholas’ coding and web software, of course). Nicholas hasn’t finished the sleeve coding yet, but I am knitting furiously away on the sleeves. I am determined to finish this sweater by February, and have the entire project done by March…just in time for the Yarn Cupboard’s Winter Fibre Retreat, where I am teaching Making a Sweater That Fits as well as a new class on…Making Your Own Tiara. (They talked me into that one.) (Come if you can, it’s great fun and yes, there is a small-but-mighty market!)

I also worked on the Blue Hoodie (the one I have blogged about as having Nightmare Sleeve Caps); a second Damson; and a pair of colourwork mittens that haven’t quite made it into my Ravelry notebook yet. (Pattern: Re-charted-for-finer-gauge Perianth; Yarn is Shibui Knits Staccato.)

Update: Please note that I originally said in my Ravelry project notes that this pattern was written for worsted weight; it is NOT, Barbara wrote it for fingering weight in three sizes…just not a size that accommodated the silly-fine gauge I happen to be knitting at.)

Annnd…a couple of half-finished sock pairs, a second nearly-done Maia for a charity auction (thanks to Romi for giving permission for me to do that!), and a half-finished Spectra scarf for Nicholas. OH, and a handspun Solar Flare (wonderful shawl pattern, just wonderful), made from some custom-blended batts I did this winter.

Why, yes, I am quite behind in updating my Ravelry notebook. Thank you for asking.

Not to mention all the spinning projects, the batt-making, and, of course, the tiaras and jewelry. I think I made about two dozen tiaras in 2011 (some of them are here on flickr). Whoo!

I think that explains the lack of writing on this blog a bit. Maybe? Please?

Which brings me to this next topic…

My ToDo List Hates Me

I think we all get to a point at times where we look at our to-do list and just gape at it in despair. The holidays and a couple of deadlines have caused my own list to get out-of-hand, and I am now attempting to get it back under control. What are my priorities? What do I want to accomplish, and how much work can I reasonably get done every week, between regular appointments and other obligations?

That’s what I’m wrestling with right now. What I want to do versus what I can do, the usual human problems of desires versus time and energy.

If anyone has a TARDIS I can use to get some of these things done, please let me know.

Chispas

“The staplers have gone rogue and taken their first victim.” Just click, don’t ask.

A brilliant anti-rape campaign. I feel like applauding out loud.

A Really Important Post On A Topic We Don’t Like To Discuss. Bloggess, I give you a standing ovation. And a hug.

And finally, a little girl’s EPIC rant against “girl toys” versus “boy toys.” SHE’S FOUR, people. (My guess, anyway.) What a woman that girl will grow up to be…

Oh, OK, I’ll squeeze in a cute animal photo: Baby otters, snuggling.

All My Stitches, 2011 Edition

I’ve been thinking about this post all week long, and I think I’ve delayed writing it, because this time of year is very loaded. We tend to evaluate what we did in the past year, and resolve to do better in the year ahead. That evaluation can be done in a critical, harsh way, or it can be done in a positive, almost playful spirit.

Of course, I am wont to do the former, and wish to do the latter!

First, let’s try the traditional way:

Knitting Completed in 2011

In no particular order…

Well, hold on a minute. Let’s show you the Big One first.

Star Baby Blanket

Remember this from my blog on Knitting Daily? I got stuck halfway through the edging, because the mitered corners weren’t working out. I picked this up again about a month ago, ripped the edging back to the first round, and had a little do-over. And now it’s done!

A shot of the new corners:

The blanket was originally for my charming and smart and going-to-rule-the-world-someday niece Delaney (proud dad Matt is above), but Delaney is 2.5 yrs old now and is a Big Girl, she informed me. So the blanket is going to her tiny, smiling, always happy brother Will, age 6 months.

(I’d love to show pics, but I don’t put pics of children on the blog without parental permission and I haven’t asked Matt and Laura for permission yet. Trust me, the kids are ADORABLE. And Delaney is scary smart.)

Blanket main pattern: Star Light, Star Bright by Anna Dillenberg Rachap

Blanket edging: Adapted from edging patterns in Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush

Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull

It took me 2 years to finish, but I finished it and I feel very pleased with the result.

Onwards to other Finished Objects of 2011…

And even though I have sometimes given links to online sources for yarn, please share the love this year and always check at your local yarn shop first. 

My sparkly Tyrians:

Pattern: Tyrian by Jessamyn Leib

Yarn: Shameless Twist Precious (the yarn with sterling silver in it)

Nicholas’ Spring Pogona

Pattern: Pogona by Stephen West

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Mediumweight

Gorgeous Maia

Pattern: Maia Shoulderette by Rosemary Hill

Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Bugga

Woven Pick-Up Tote

 

I have to show off the lime green lining, recycled from an old blouse:

Pattern: Woven Pick-Up Tote by Sara Lamb from her FAB book, Woven Treasures

Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic for the bag; Valley Yarns by WEBS Weaving Yarn for straps

Pink Watershed

Clearly, I never got a picture of it actually finished, but it really is done, promise!

Pattern: Watershed by Amy Swenson

Yarn: Great Adirondack Yarn Co Superwash Merino

Baby Surprise with Matching Berry Hat

Pattern (jacket): Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth All Hail The Queen Zimmermann

Pattern (hat): Berry Baby Hat by Michele Sabatier

Yarns: Cascade 200, Bernat Berella, and Bernat Satin Solids
Buttons from Michael’s

Cheery Lined Mittens for Nicholas

Showing off the inner cashmere lining in progress; eventually it lined the thumb portion as well:

Pattern: Fletcher Mittens by Amy Swenson

Yarn, outer mitten: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted (solid blue, solid green) AND Lornas Laces Bullfrogs and Butterflies Multi

Yarn, lining: Baruffa Bollicina Cashmere

Warm Socks in DK Weight

Pattern: Warm Toes, Thick Socks by Sandi Wiseheart, free pattern on Ravelry (ahem, tiny plug, sorry)

Yarn: Indigodragonfly MCN Sport

Bitterroot Shawl in Handspun

Pattern: Bitterroot by Rosemary Hill

Yarn: Handspun 2-ply wool, spun (and probably dyed) by Abby Franquemont

And last, but never least….

Lotus Leaf Mittens

Backs

Palms

Pattern: Lotus Leaf Mittens by Elli Stubenrauch

Yarn, purple: Fleece Artist Somoko

Yarn, white: Dream in Color Starry

There. Posting all that took me two hours. And I didn’t even list the tiaras, the earrings, the patterns I designed, the necklaces…

I think other sorts of blogging adventures will happen later. After lunch. (Food is good.)

Maybe this will be part one of a two-part New Year’s post…

Chispas

Lost Wedding Ring found on Carrot. Life is much weirder than fiction.

A recipe for my favourite sort of cookies, ever.

Health at Every Size…a different, more respectful (methinks) way to think about health, weight, and self-image.

A baby hedgehog snuggling. Just in case you are in need of an adorable small animal pic today.

And simply because I cannot resist: The weirdest Nativity scene ever. (Truly. If you have seen a weirder one, put a link in the comments.)

Long Live Harold the Angel!

I love Christmas. I love the trees, the lights, the ornaments, the decorations, the reading of the Real Christmas Story, the Charlie Brown special, the NORAD Santa tracking site, and Rudolf.

This year, however, my chronic illness has gotten in the way of me performing my usual multi-day ritual of unpacking all my decorations and strewing them methodically about the house. We have a tree, and it has lights on it. No ornaments, no star. We have a wreath on the door. I have a stuffed Santa on my desk.

That’s pretty much it.

I’ve been feeling kind of sad about this lack of decorations at my house, so I’ve been trying to get out and enjoy everyone else’s decorations a bit. While driving in Toronto, I found a Rudolf Car in a parking lot:

I went to the Distillery District with my most excellent friend Glenna, and we strolled around the yearly Christmas Market, admiring the goodies for sale, and stopping occasionally to speculate on the sculptures.

Glenna prevents Chaos from eating the Christmas trees

We played in the Maze-That-Wasn’t. (Dead ends, people, really? Last I checked, a proper maze has an IN and an OUT, unless Stephen King designed the darn thing.)

We managed to cajol some nice people to take our photo in front of the Gingerbread House.

And, of course, we got intoxicated just by walking into the chocolate shop. (Open door. Go inside. Close door. INHALE. Chocolate intoxication achieved.)

It is clearly undeniable that Christmas is coming. I have managed to avoid going to a mall so far (yay!). I have ordered presents online, but none have arrived yet (booo!). Nicholas and I are going south to his parents’ home in Mobile, Alabama, for the holiday, and right now, I ought to be packing or doing laundry or, of course, finishing my holiday knitting.

Can’t. Don’t Wanna.

My sister Liz stitched this for me years ago

I want to sit and read posts and emails from friends. I want to sift through the interwebz until I find a gift for my best friend Mike and for my family and for his family. I want to curl up with cats and read a book, or maybe knit on something-anything-I-want-to-not-what-I-have-to-knit.

Festive Buddy

Having to limit my Christmas decorating frenzy and my gift-shopping frenzy has forced me to slow down, and to think about this whole Christmas thing. As usual, Christmas is a war between its humble original message (the light is coming back, and that’s a promise; whether that light be the Sun or the Son is up to your personal beliefs) and current commercial greed that demands that half of all yearly corporate profits be brought in during the month of December. But it’s also a more personal struggle for many folks, perhaps for most folks.

We’re always searching for The Perfect Christmas. Usually, what we find is something that misses the mark somehow.

Last year's "Perfect Christmas Tree"

Maybe we’re trying to re-create some magical holiday from our childhood. I know that for several years, twenty or thirty members of my family would gather at my grandparent’s home in Carmel, and there would be games and prizes (“For the little girl with the prettiest green eyes and the brown shoes”) given away by my grinning grandpa. The large garage would be cleared and cleaned so that Grandma could put up a long, long table (or two) and serve all of us together in the same “room”. (My mom and I were stunned one year when we discovered the secret of Grandma’s traditional Christmas Eve beef stew: We found a score of Dinty Moore cans in the trash bin.)

It was around that time that I also found out that the name of my favourite Christmas carol was “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” and NOT “Hark, Hear Harold the Angel Singing.” I truly thought there was an angel named Harold who had something important to say to us. Crushed, I tell you, when I found out that wasn’t true. Crushed.

Last year's cookie baking

Those were perfect Christmases, or at least, they have been polished by time to perfection. My uncle Bill would disappear Christmas morning on some silly errand, and of course, Santa would show up to give out presents while he was gone. A while after Santa left, Bill would return and be sooooo disappointed that once again, he had missed the visit of Saint Nick. Aunt Diane and Uncle Gordon would plunk out a rather relaxed (now I know it was a rather tipsy) version of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Every second vibrated with peppermint striped glee and the sounds of bells jingling.

Last year: A gingerbread house!

Now, our holidays are quiet ones. No large family anymore; sometimes it is just Nicholas and myself. One year we were so lame that we didn’t even wrap some of our gifts to each other.

Linus, I do not get what Christmas is all about anymore.

So I’m going back to basics. Too bad if I don’t have all my gifts ordered on time and showing up in perfect glittering paper. Too bad if I don’t have my light-up earrings tucked into my earlobes. Too bad if I haven’t baked Christmas cookies, have no cards to send out, and a box of ornaments still unpacked in the basement.

Too gosh golly darned bad.

I believe. I believe that Santa, in whatever guise he appears, can bring change to hearts and minds. I believe that Kindness Rules. I believe it is good to stop in the middle of the Distillery District market and start singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing with a couple of complete strangers, me on melody and them on harmony. I believe it is important to get in touch with loved ones, and somehow, show that you care and that you want good things for them in the year ahead. I believe light is important, both in the dark of winter and in the shadowy lands of our own hearts.

I also believe it is OK to still count on some angel somewhere named Harold who will come tell me something nifty one day, but perhaps that’s just me.

And I believe that if enough of us believe in what is REALLY important, kindness and compassion and laughter and singing and family and love and light, then the light will come, and the darkness will flee.

That’s nothing new. But sometimes it takes failing Christmas 101 for me to remember what the real answer to the final exam ought to be.

If you don’t have time to bake cookies, give extra hugs instead.

If you don’t have energy to decorate with garlands, decorate your house with friends instead.

If you don’t have friends or family to share celebrations with, be gentle, oh so very gentle, with yourself; maybe fix a special meal for yourself, or curl up with a favourite pastime. Treat yourself kindly, remember that you are important and the world needs one more voice of reason in this crazy Christmas season.

Merry Christmas. May the light come into whatever dark and shadowy corners lurk about you, bringing with it warmth and promise and hope and laughter. May that light come into ALL the darknesses in our silly, topsy-turvy, confused, jinglebell-crazed world.

Chispas

Finger monkeys, to make you smile. Plus, baby goats. And, as a holiday bonus, an orphaned baby bat. Don’t say I never gave you links to cute animals, OK?

Christmas tree made out of yarn swatches. Guess that solves the needles-in-carpet problem.

George Takei’s Christmas cookies, with, as he said, the “inevitable outcome.”

HTML Status Cats. Puts a furry face on all those annoying computer alerts.

A seal pup gives new meaning to “home for the holidays.” Go seal pup!

Last-minute gift (for yourself, maybe!!): Knitted Baby Gargoyle.

Yo-Yo Ma, a bathroom, and a wombat. For Serious Reals. Word is that the bathroom was the wombat’s dressing room, and Yo-Yo wanted to meet Sir Wombat. (I just report the news, folks, I don’t make this stuff up.)

And last but never least, a Twitter denizen sums up the entire season so beautifully I wish I had thought of it myself. GO HERE.

Let there be peace in our world; let us reach out with compassion to those around us. That’s what “Peace on earth, good will towards man” really means, isn’t it?

back to the blue

When last we left our intrepid Hoodie Heroine…

She had banished the Blue Hoodie to the Naughty Corner for a little self-examination.

If you recall, I knit the body, hood, and one sleeve of a worsted-weight hoodie, only to discover that the sleeves, as designed, would not fit an actual human arm (or at least, not my actual human arm). The sleeve cap is very tall, and very narrow.

A few days ago, I got out the hoodie again, and sat down to start figuring out how to re-work the sleeve cap into something that would fit me.

(N.B. The next bit is going to be very knitterly, so those of you who don’t knit might want to just skim until you get past the numbers. I promise I’ll have some fun stuff at the end, as usual.)

The first thing I did was to pull out my Farmer’s Market Cardi, because it fits me perfectly, not only in the sleeve and shoulders, but all over (and yes, I did a bunch of modifications to make sure it fit, but still).

One of the things I teach in my sweater classes is how to use items you have in your closet, the clothes you love to wear because they fit perfectly, as aids to making a new sweater that you’ll also love to wear. In this case, I wanted to compare the sleeves, armholes, and sleeve caps to see what the heck was going on.

I laid the FMC out on a table, and then laid the blue hoodie on top, matching the tops of the shoulders at the seams on both. I checked the distance from that point (shoulder at armhole) to neck opening on both sweaters, and they more or less matched, given the different styling of the two sweaters (shawl collar vs. hoodie).

But take a look:

In the photo above, I have matched the shoulder seams at the tops of the armholes. In addition, I have matched the bottom of each armhole where it meets the side seam, so that I could check the depth and curve of the armholes. The measurements of the two armscyes matched up surprisingly well, which was a big help in what came next.

What came next, of course, was seeing the big difference in the actual sleeves. Look again at the photo above. The bottom seams of the sleeves are lined up, so the red you see above the blue hoodie is “what’s missing” from the shaping of the blue sleeve (given that the red sleeve fits me quite well). It’s really clear from this photo that the sleeve cap is indeed way too narrow and steep.

Not only that, but the sleeves themselves are very narrow all the way down, which explains why I felt they were pretty darn tight on me.

Aaannnd, as if that weren’t enough…

The sleeves are about an acre too long. (Yes, I know an acre is a measure of how-much-land, not a measure of length. Work with me here.)

Very, very informative. Just from laying out these two sweaters, one on top of the other, I got a ton (or as we say in Canada, “a metric Eff-tonne”) of information in a very short amount of time.

The next step was to take some actual measurements that I could then use to generate a revised pattern for a sleeve-that-fits for the hoodie.

We will now pause for station identification, because the next step in writing this post is to locate the notebook with the measurements I have already taken. Hold on…there it is! (Have I mentioned that I am a notebook junkie? Have I mentioned that I have a notebook in every single room, and sometimes more than one? Finding which notebook I made the note in is often a rather exciting adventure in my house.)

OK, I’m back. Here are the relevant measurements. (By the way, I am sure there is some cool way to make a table in this cool blog software, but I don’t have the time right now to spend an hour figuring it out, so pardon the plainjane formatting.)

Measurements

Length of sleeve, cuff to first armhole BO – Red: 14.5″; Blue: 20″. 
See? I was right. It IS an acre too long!

Length, first armhole BO to top of sleeve cap – Red: 7″; Blue: 8″. 
This means that the sleeve cap on Blue is taller than on Red.

Armhole depth – Red: 8″; Blue: 8″.
Good. This gives a stable place from which to work other calculations, always helpful!

Width at top of sleeve cap – Red: 3″; Blue: 2″.
The top of the sleeve cap on Blue is extremely narrow, so that when I put on the sweater, the top of the cap pokes up like a little pyramid. It’s not wide enough to round out over the curve of my shoulder, in other words.

Width, widest part before armhole BO – Red: 16″; Blue: 12.25″. 
OOPS. Houston, we have located a problem. Blue’s widest part of the sleeve is nearly 4″ too narrow to fit my arm.

Widest part just after armhole BO – Red: 13″; Blue: 10″. 
Yup, there it is again. As the sleeve cap narrows, it is still 3″ too small.

More Measurements

The next step was to take a bunch of very fidgety and detailed measurements that would allow me to discover the rate of increase from cuff to armhole, and the rate of decrease from armhole to shoulder.

INCREASE RATE: Cuff to Armhole
These measurements are WIDTHS, taken at the stated intervals straight down from the row in which the underarm BOs began.

1″ down from underarm BO – Red: 15″ wide; Blue: 12.75″ wide.
2″ down – Red: 15″; Blue: 12.25″.
3″ down – Red: 14″; Blue: 12″.
Width of cuff – Red: 10.5″; Blue: 9.5″.
Length from cuff to first increase – Red: 2″; Blue: 3″.

DECREASE RATE: Shoulder to base of Armhole
These measurements are also widths, taken straight down from the top of the sleeve cap at the given intervals.

1″ down – Red: 4″ wide; Blue: 2.75″.
2″ down – Red: 5″; Blue: 4″.
See how steep that decrease is in Blue compared to Red?

3″ down – Red: 7″; Blue: 4.75″.
4″ down – Red: 8.75″; Blue: 5.5″.
5″ down – Red: 10″; Blue: 6.25″.
6″ down – Red: 12″; Blue: 6.75″.
7″ down – Red: 14″; Blue: 8.5″.
8″ down = base of armhole – Red: 16″; Blue: 10.25″.

As a friend of mine would say: Wrongity-wrong-wrong-RONG.

The next step, which I haven’t done yet, is to take those numbers and make a decent sleeve pattern out of them.

And sure, I could just use the sleeve pattern I used for the Farmer’s Market Cardi, but that would be cheating.

Also, then I wouldn’t have a blog post with VICTORY I DID IT YAY ME pasted all over it.

One must have one’s values straight.

In Which I Feel Like a Bit of a Dufus

Despite all the marketing training I received when I worked for Interweave, I seem to be a FAIL when it comes to self-marketing. It has been pointed out to me that I have not talked about something nice that happened just recently.

A very lovely woman sent me a book for review. Now, a lot of people send me books, but this one is special.

It’s called The Knitter’s Life List, and it’s written by Gwen Steege, the woman who sent me a copy. (Oh, and I’m not being paid to write about the book, and I don’t work for Storey, and all that disclaimer stuff.)

In bird-watching circles, a Life List is a carefully compiled list of every species of bird that one has spotted with one’s own eyes. Serious birders will travel serious mileage to fill out their Life Lists; the two hallmarks of a Serious Birder are either (a) a very long Life List, or (b) a Life List full of exotic/rare/shy species. Or both. (My life list is about 130 at this point, but I don’t bird seriously anymore.)

So a Knitter’s Life List is kind of a master checklist of The Best of the Knitting World: things to try, yarns to touch, and people to meet.

If you flip through the book, sooner or later you will come to this page:

Copyright Storey Publishing, all rights reserved.

That’s ME. (And Bertha, too, of course.) That’s a whole page about me and the stuff I do in the knitting community. (The real page has Actual Words on it, not the smudges you see here. I smudged the page because I didn’t want to spoil the surprise of discovering What They Wrote About Sandi.)

See on the cover of the book where it says “64 personalities to meet”? I’m one of those 64 folks.

I think the reason I haven’t really told many folks is that I’m rather stunned. I mean, Barbara Walker is in there. Meg Swansen. Clara Parkes. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Cat Bordhi. Kaffe Fassett.

And me.

When I saw this, I realized something: I have no clue as to the impact I have on those around me. I don’t think of myself as someone who might be included on the same list as Steph or Meg or Cat. I haven’t written a book (yet?). I haven’t published a ton of designs. I teach, but not all over the world. I write, but I don’t have anything near Steph’s readership.

And yet, there’s that page in that book. A book by a senior editor at Storey Publishing, no less (they publish Steph’s books). A book listing 63 other folks with Really Big Names.

It’s a very pretty book, and it’s full of all kinds of Good Stuff. I’m almost too shy to read the thing, though, because every time I open it, there’s that page, staring out at me, telling me that there’s someone out there named Sandi Wiseheart whom I really need to get to know better. I thought I knew her, but apparently, I don’t see her the way other folks do.

I’ll try to get over it. But…a BOOK. I’m in A BOOK, people. With covers and an ISBN number and everything.

Chispas

Jabba the Cupcake. I just report ‘em as I see ‘em, folks, I have no clue who spends their time coming up with this stuff.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have the Uterus Belt Buckle. I am speechless.

Bag of puppies, anyone? I found this wonderful Twitter account called @EmergencyPuppy. It sends out cute animal photos a couple of times a day, you know, just in case you have an emergency and need to see a bag of puppies or a kitten asleep on a windowsill.

Interesting mixed media art portraying the act of knitting in 3D.

Nicholas baked a cake the other night. From scratch.

It’s lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon buttercream frosting.

And if THAT isn’t inspirational, I don’t know what else is.

the llama’s Thanksgiving

Remember this lovely skein of merino/cashmere silk yarn from Spirit Trail?

The Giveaway Llama worked her magic this morning, and we have a winner!

Congratulations, Rachel-AKA-ladygem154!! The yarn is yours, and I’ll be sending you an email shortly to work out the details of how to get it to you.

I don’t know why I had to make Rachel’s name hot pink. We’ll just move on, shall  we?

As always, these little giveaways are my way of saying “Thank you for reading my blog,” for being part of our little community here in WiseheartLand, and for leaving comments that never fail to make me laugh or warm my heart.

Aaannndd…I always feel a bit sad when I read all the lovely comments on giveaway days and in the end, can send out only ONE prezzie each time. All of you deserve lovely yarn. ALL OF YOU.

Mittens

I finished the mittens!

The white mitten has not been blocked, as you can probably tell, but I couldn’t wait to show you the pictures.

The white mitten was much more challenging than the purple one. There was the gauge issue; even after needle size wrangling, it is still a wee bit smaller and shorter than the purple one. And then, there was the problem of the purple yarn showing behind the white, especially in the places where I did my usual trick of breaking up long floats by weaving the not-floating yarn around the back of the stitch. Every time I did that, it showed a tiny bit of purple, and that annoys me. So in the top half of the mitten, I tried just leaving the long floats. Predictably, they caught on my fingers when I put the mittens on…boooo.

So I spend quite a bit of time carefully weaving yarn in and out of the floats on the inside of the mittens to tack them down. It worked, but now the inside of the white mitten is significantly less tidy than the inside of the purple one…and I am very picky about how the inside of my knitting looks. I want my woven-in ends to be practically invisible; I want my seams neat; I want floats to be tensioned properly and so on and on.

After thinking about it a bit, I decided that I simply need more practice doing colourwork. So I went online and ordered a few skeins of yarn to practice with. Yes, I’ll probably practice on more mittens, as I found knitting the Lotus Leaf Mittens to be a very rich, very engaging treat, like a particularly good piece of dark chocolate. Doing the complex colourwork, following the charts, trying to keep my tension even, and knitting on weeeeee tiny needles (Size 0/2.0mm) was wonderful brain food.

And of course, the yarns were wonderful to work with.

In the name of practicing…

I’d bought some really amazing fiber at Rhinebeck from Dan at Gnomespun Fibers: a deep blue braid of Dorset (the Lobelia colourway), a breed I had not spun before. I spent a happy few evenings spinning it up into a bouncy, soft 2-ply:

Oh, look. A cat tail in the photo. Again.  ::headdesk::

I decided that it would be lovely yarn for another pair of colourwork mittens…so clearly I needed a second colour. And clearly it needed to be another colour of handspun.

I decided on creamy white, just to be a bit traditional about things. I found some beautiful wool, medium staple with a nice crimp, very bouncy, amazing feel in the hand:

I really, really wish I knew what this wool was, because I love it so much. It’s well-aged in my stash, and the label had gone walkabout, so I have no clue.

I did, however, have a clue about some lovely alpaca:

And I had a bit of white angelina (sparkly!) left over from a class:

Two passes through my drumcarder, and I had nine wonderfully fluffy clouds:

Closeup:

The wool will give the mittens amazing warmth and memory; the alpaca will add shine and warmth; the angelina will add sparkle! I haven’t had a chance to sit down and spin any of this blend yet, but I think it will look gorgeous with the blue Dorset yarn.

Of course, that’s a LOT of creamy white sparkly fiber. I think I will have enough for two pairs of mittens. Good thing I have a second braid from Gnome Dan! This one is also Dorset, but it is a deep purple.

Yes, I know I just knit a pair of purple and white colourwork mittens. Maybe they’ll be for a friend. Or maybe they won’t. Who cares? It’s going to be Pretty Mitten Season here this winter.

Kitties

Dusty wishes to thank you most kindly for all the lovely things you said about him in the comments. He does indeed have the most amazing jewel-like blue eyes, set in a face worthy of a white tiger. He and Zoe are littermates, as I’ve mentioned before, and they spend a lot of time snuggling in the sunshine.

There seems to be a lot of that snuggling-in-the-sunshine going on around here, as we all savour the last few days of mild weather before winter comes a-knocking.

And finally…

It’s American Thanksgiving tomorrow, a holiday I love with all my heart. Thanksgiving in Canada is celebrated in early October, and I happened to be traveling at the time, so in a way, I won’t actually have a Thanksgiving at all this year. Tomorrow’s an ordinary work day for Nicholas; he leaves early and gets home late. I have errands to do in the city, which means long hours of driving for me in city traffic.

Thanksgiving isn’t really about turkey, though, is it? It’s about connecting with family, friends, and one’s family traditions; it’s about gratitude and humility and joy in the gifts we have been given. I am keenly aware that my life is rich with many gifts: my work, my fiber talents, my writing, my beloved animals, my adored husband, a warm home and plenty of food.

Although my family is far away, I feel very strongly that I spend a certain amount of time each day with my other family, my online family, a group of people as warm and caring and generous and funny and talented as anyone could ever hope to know. So tomorrow, while I’m driving around Toronto, I’ll be saying prayers of gratitude for all of you, for the joy, friendship, and meaning you bring to my life each and every day. Thank you; your presence in my life–yes, even you lurkers who never comment!–is truly a gift for which I am thankful.

Here’s a few of my favourite things…just a few, mind you. There’s so much to be grateful for, it would all fill a book.

Friends represented by Melanie, Rachel, and Jennifer

Cute and curious alpaca

Meeting new people (Sam!) and learning things at workshops and fiber fests

Silliness, yarn, and laughter: Jesh and Patrick

And, of course, a wonderful man named Nicholas.

llamas and mittens and bunny fur (oh my)

It’s been a tough week here are Chez Wiseheart. Doctor appts, driving into the city three days in a row, dogs and cats living together…Oh wait. Sorry. That’s Ghostbusters, not Wisehearts.

But never mind about that. There’s been plenty of yarn and fiber in there, too, so let’s get right to the important stuff, shall we?

LLAMA TIME!

That’s right, it’s time for the Giveaway Llama to make an appearance once again. I’ve been so busy after coming back from my trip that the bag of goodies I got for giveaways has been sitting there, quietly moping on my desk. Let’s make that bag a little lighter, shall we?

This is DA BOMB, people. It is 350 yards of merino/cashmere/silk yarn from Spirit Trail. I had the honour of assisting Jennifer from Spirit Trail and her crew of amazing helpers during booth set-up at Rhinebeck, and I couldn’t resist bringing home a skein of one of her lovelies to share with you all.

The standard rules apply: Leave a comment on THIS ENTRY to enter the drawing for the yarn. The comments will close on Tuesday, November 22, at midnight; on Wednesday AM, I will use random.org to choose one of the comments and thus the winner of the yarn! I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday.

I have at least two more goodies from my trip to giveaway in future posts, so no worries if you don’t win this time. (Maybe by the time I’m 100 years old, every single commenter will have won at least once. It’s important to have goals.)

Works in Progress

Time for a little update on the old WIP queue…

Knitting

I know, I really shouldn’t be starting anything new at this point…but I need mittens. Really I do. It’s Canada, and the first snow flurries arrived today, and I don’t like cold fingers. Last year, I knit Nicholas a really awesome pair of lined mittens, so this year it’s my turn.

The pattern is Lotus Leaf Mittens, and it’s brilliant. Just plain brilliant. I’ve done a very limited amount of stranded colourwork prior to this project, so I was a bit wary of trying this. But it’s me, so I jumped in with all five dpns.

The white yarn is Dream in Color Starry, the one with sterling silver bits in it. The purplish yarn is Fleece Artist Sock, and it has just a tiny bit of variegation, just enough to make the final effect a bit on the stunning side.

The second mitten is already well into the chart…and I’m doing it in the mirror-image colourway.

And, of course, the gauge is different. SAME YARNS, people, just switching roles from foreground to back ground and vice versa. Both yarns have similar WPI and similar grist-in-the-hand, but their behaviour as knitted stitches is quite different.

The white yarn, already firmly spun, compacts down even more when used as a background yarn. The purple yarn, more loosely spun, blooms when used as a background yarn. I didn’t figure this out until I had finished the cuff for the white mitten, and held it next to the purple mitten’s cuff to compare lengths. Ooops. It’s a bit narrower, and shorter, which means both the row and stitch gauges are different, just from switching the roles of the yarns.

I’m experimenting with needle sizes to get the white mitten to fit properly.

Honestly, the things you learn as a knitter. Something new every damn project!

There’s the Obligatory Doctor’s Waiting Room sock:

Yarn: I Had The Label Here A Minute Ago, Sorry. Some sort of merino/cashmere/silk.

Pattern: In Sandi’s Head. It’s kind of a variant on heart of the oaks lace, cast on and go.

And then there is the Blue Hoodie, the one which has been soaking in the Meditation Pond for the last week or so. It’s still meditating. (I can hear it chanting from here.)

Spinning

I finished spinning up the special Bunny Blend I came up with at Sock Summit in Sheila January‘s class. (Random bio from one of the classes she is teaching.)

Yes, in fact, one must have a cat tail in every yarn photo.

The focus of Sheila’s class was to help us design a custom blend of fibers that would make the sort of sock each individual wanted to make. I have Reynaud’s Syndrome, which causes a lack of circulation in my feet, so I need super-warm socks. I’m finding that the usual sock blends, even the cashmere ones, just don’t cut it for me; I am allergic to mohair, so I can’t use that at all.

The answer: Angora bunny fluff. Dude, I love this stuff. Warm, soft, fluffy! So I combined angora with Shetland lambswool, silk, BFL, dyed merino (that’s where the rose colour comes from), and a touch of angelina for sparkle.

Clockwise beginning with dark pink: dyed merino, Shetland lambswool, angora bunny, BFL/silk blend, angelina, dyed tussah silk. The bit off to the left is a wee sample batt.

Here’s what one of the batts looked like.

And close-up:

Spun into a singles:

And the three plies, ready to be plied.

Total yardage is about 386 yds, which I say is Just Fine for a pair of Sandi Socks.

Chispas

Fozzie the Bear at Mordor. Quite a literary moment, methinks.

Day of the Dead wedding. “Do you, Sugar, take Skull to be your lawful spouse?”

Best Halloween Costume, Category: I don’t know WTF this is. But gotta give it to her/him: She/he has STYLE.

Possibly the most unusual knitted object I’ve seen in quite a while. And I see a LOT of weird stuff, folks.

Take one last look. These are a rare species of black rhinos (I think). Or rather: They WERE a rare rhino species. They are now extinct. All gone. GONE. Humbles me to think of how many species we have banished in just the past hundred years or so.

Do we need a kitten picture after that? Sure we do.

And Dusty wants you to know he’s purring for all of you.

sweater doctor, heal thyself

My Farmer's Market Cardigan

One of the classes that I teach is called Sweater Triage. The folks in the class bring in sweaters they’ve knit (along with the pattern and schematic), sweaters that don’t turn out to fit they way they expect, or sweaters that look Just Plain Wrong somehow. I have them try on the sweater up in front of the class, and then I walk everyone through What Went Wrong and How To Fix It. Sometimes there are ways to fix a problem without re-knitting, sometimes a bit has to be ripped out and re-done, and sometimes, well, sometimes I just say, “Here’s what you’ll do next time you knit this pattern.”

It’s a fun class (no, really), and we all learn a lot from addressing specific Sweater Problems.

I think this one turned out nicely!

This week, I had to send Dr. Sandi herself right back to class.

I’ve been working on a Particular Hoodie on and off for a while now. (For reasons which will become clear, I won’t name the pattern nor the designer here; suffice to say, it is not my design and thus I don’t have the right to be too critical.)

I love the yarn, which is Cascade 220.

That’s not a Cascade colourway, obviously; when I was given the yarn several years ago, the colour was, shall we say, an unfortunate choice for my skin tone. Given that I had three sweater lots of the stuff (yes, someone gave me three sweater lots of Cascade 220, all in The Same Unfortunate Colour–odd, they simply left the box for me without a note…), I decided that professional help was required. I asked Kim of Indigodragonfly if I could pay her to Make It Pretty, and when she sent it back, it wasn’t pretty, it was GORGEOUS: one lot was the sapphire blue you see here, one was amethyst purples, and one was leafy greens. (Kim rocks.)

So the yarn is awesome, and I love hoodies, and my gauge was spot on, and I even added a bit of shaping at the waist, bust, and hips to fit my womanly curves.

(Yes, I’ve deliberately obscured identifying details so that you can’t tell which pattern it is. I want to illustrate how to solve a problem without pointing fingers at any one particular pattern or designer.)

I enjoyed the pattern and it went quickly. I did have a twinge or two when I was knitting the sleeve caps, as they looked odd to me. I’m a bit obsessed with sleeve cap shaping at the moment, as I just finished the calculations for sleeve cap shaping on the WiseSweater Project (after a very long period of delay and number crunching, my WiseSweater peeps have been extremely patient with me!), I was interested to see what this particular designer had done with her sleeve shaping.

But I ignored the twinges, and brushed away the misgivings about the tall narrow sleeve cap, and in general Turned My Brain Off during the sleeve knitting, the blocking, and the seaming up.

Turning one’s brain off: NEVER A GOOD IDEA, folks.

That’s me, trying on the sweater this morning after stitching up one sleeve and sewing it into the armhole. Notice anything?

Yeah. The top of the cap is a hot mess, very pointy and squared-off; it won’t lay flat on my shoulder. The bottom of the armhole hits me about two-thirds of the way up my bicep, pulling the armhole and the body of the sweater away from my body. And even though the armhole seems tight, as you can see, there is extra fabric at the top of the cap.

I went back and checked the measurements of the other sleeve (not yet sewn up) against the schematic and the pattern. All fine there. I checked the armhole measurements, ditto, and all fine there as well.

I tried the sweater on again. This time, I looked at how the armhole itself fit, without the sleeve.

Well, looky thar. That’s a nice armhole. It’s roomy, and fits, and lays flat, and all those good things.

So the armhole is not the problem. The body is not the problem.

The problem is in the sleeve, and specifically in the sleeve cap shaping. Take a look.

No wonder I was having Twinges and Misgivings while I was knitting it. Yes, it matches the schematic and pattern measurements, but gollygeewhiz, that sleeve cap is one tall narrow drink of indigo knitting. The curve of the cap really isn’t a curve at all; it’s a triangle.

I knew something was really wrong as I was seaming the cap into the top of the armhole. It just didn’t fit, and I had to practically do magic tricks to get the seams to look nice.

Put all this information together, and it becomes obvious what the issue is: The sleeve cap is too narrow, so that it covers only the top half of my upper arm, pulling the armhole up and away from my body. If it were wider, it would cover my arm properly (with a bit of room for movement), and the armhole would lay flat against my body, like it is supposed to.

The other problem is that the top of the cap is so pointy and narrow that I literally can’t fit the top of my shoulder into it. Looking at the place where the armhole hits me under my arm, it looks as though the armhole is too tight; however, when you look up at the top of the cap, there’s an extra inch or more there in the pointy corner bit.

The Cure

I’m going to have to take the sleeve out of the armhole (sniff, all the lovely seaming). Then, I have to rip the sleeve caps back down to somewhere around my elbow, and re-do them. The caps have to be wider overall, starting a few inches above my elbow; the caps have to have a bit more curve to them from base to top; and the top itself has to be wider.

When I tried the sweater on, I did some measuring and pinning, so I have an idea of the adjustments I need to make. But methinks I am going to use the new formulas I just did for the WiseSweater sleeve cap to calculate these caps, as a trial run after Nicholas programs them into the software.

Sleeve caps are a bitch to design from scratch. A BITCH. It’s not uncommon for a designer to have a few tried-and-trusted sleeve cap formulas that she uses for all her set-in sleeve sweaters, with tweaks here and there for style. As you can see, however, an unfortunate sleeve cap can make the difference between a sweater that fits and looks great, and a sweater that looks awful and ends up in the back of your closet (or worse, frogged).

THAT’s why I’ve spent so much time on the WiseSweater sleeve cap formulas. It’s bad enough when you are trying to get a sleeve cap that works for the eight sizes you put in a published pattern. I had the audacity to think I could come up with something that would produce something reasonable for all sorts of individual measurements and body types.

I think I’ve done it. Now all I have to do is explain what I did to Nicholas so that he can tell the software how to spit out a readable pattern. That’s our challenge for the immediate future.

But I’m not going to put myself through ripping out all my lovely seaming and knitting before we do the coding; the coding comes first. I think the Blue Hoodie and I need some time apart, to think about our communication issues.

The Blue Hoodie has thus been sent to the Naughty Corner, where Tim keeps a watchful eye on it to make sure it doesn’t get into further mischief.

In Other News

I haven’t forgotten that you folks wanted me to share What I Learned At SOAR with you. Also, some crazy llama has been banging on my window, insisting that she has yarn to give away…silly camelid.

On top of all that, Zoe says I haven’t posted a photo of her loveliness for a while. (She believes that humans need to spend a certain amount of time staring at beautiful cats to stay mentally healthy.)

There. You have all had your Zoe Dose for this week. (You’re welcome.)

It’s been a rough few weeks here at Chez Wiseheart, what with deadlines and grant writing and meetings and a certain chronic illness which appears to think it should be the boss of me. (NOT. NOT THE BOSS OF ME.) I’ve sifted through my travel experiences and the goodies I brought back, and I have some of that put together for you, but it’s not quite baked yet. Soooooon, my pretties. Soon.

Chispas
little sparks of inspiration and fun

Yet another wacky TARDIS, this one done in balloons. I applaud the originality and tenacity of this person. (I am also convinced they have neither cats nor children.)

Recipe time! From the wonder that is my Twitter feed, two recipes for homemade pop tarts: Here, and here. I really want to do a bake-off…

While we’re in the kitchen: Nutella Cookies. (My Twitter peeps, they rock. Plus, they have the best food that I can’t eat because it’s too far away.)

Last but not least: I got a really, really lovely email from Maureen, who said all sorts of nice things and made me blush and smile at the same time. Maureen also sent a link to an article about an amazing knitted art object by the esteemed Canadian author Margaret Atwood. How cool is that? Thank you, Maureen, for your wonderful note and for sharing this link with all of us!

And this concludes today’s fun! Thanks for dropping by, and next time will come sooner than it did this time. (If that makes sense. Sure it does.)

OH. And your brain? Don’t turn it off. It’s there for a reason. Listen to your instincts and that little voice inside yourself, and you won’t end up with bad sleeve caps or other (worse) follies.