Double Helix

lose your head?

Happy Halloween!

asymptote

Inspired by an idea from Christene (blogless, I think), I am designing a smaller version of Callisto for her daughter and of course my daughter. Why might young girls need a shawl? Because they want one. One of the changes I made in the design was to give the shawl more flounce by making larger flares at the bottom edge.

You might be able to tell that this flare is growing out of just three stitches. From the point of view of knitting the thing, it really seems like the shawl is asymptotically approaching completion. The first twenty rows went very quickly, being knit from the neck down. The next sixty also moved along at a pretty good clip. But good goddess, the last twenty seem like a violation of space-time. OK, that's a little extreme, but really, each row seems like an epic. Here's what I'll do: at the end, I will plot rows completed versus number of stitches. We'll see if the curve matches my perception.

NYS&W one

Before heading out for Rhinebeck, I had three shopping goals:

1. buy more Mostly Merino for another shawl
2. buy perfect yarn for husband's next sweater
3. exercise restraint otherwise

Indeed, my first purchase was from Margaret Wilson. I had hoped for five skeins of a single color, but settled for four green and one teal. At the time, I completely supressed the observation that not all of the greens appeared to be the same. My husband commented on this immediately when I showed him the yarn. Check out the tags:

Sure enough, two different dyelots of Fir, making this project more of a design challenge than I thought it would be.

Speaking of design, here is Ganymede in progress, knitted of course with Mostly Merino. Note that once again my camera does not capture the richness of this yarn.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!

knit with me

On Sunday, November 12, I will be hosting a gathering of knitters at my house in Brighton from 2 pm until 6 pm. If you would like to come, consider yourself welcome. If I don't know you, please identify someone we both know who can vouch for you. Even if you already know where I live, please do let me know that you are planning to come.

I am planning to serve food, both sweet and savory. Originally I thought high tea would be nice, though the classic menu will have to be tweaked a bit so I do not exhaust myself with fiddly culinary techniques. I love tea sandwiches, for example, but it will be easier to serve a variety of fillings and toast points. Miniature quiche are adorable, but it's far easier to make a few large ones. Well, you get the idea. Cheese is not traditional per se, but I sampled fig jam and brie on water crackers at Whole Foods yesterday, and certainly will include some cheeses. As usual, the sky's the limit with sweets, though I've yet to find a satisfactory recipe for scones. Anyone?

N.B. I had originally planned to host this gathering on the afternoon of November 11, but there are at least two different fiber-related events that present a conflict with that date.

weekend

Sheep? Wool? Festival food? Yarn scores? Bloggers? Border collies? Hand knits on the hoof? Stultifying hordes of people? Inspiring creativity? Oh yes, there was all of that. But what meant the most to me was spending time with Circles people, both at the festival and at the Abode, and renewing a relationship with a part of myself that has been buried for years. Regrets include not making clear arrangements to meet certain bloggers. You probably know who you are!

decadence

You might ask yourself why there is a yarn score post just one day before Rhinebeck. Well, two of the three skeins were on sale at Circles, and I had earned some equity by knitting a sample for the store. Usually I avoid flash photography, but the sheen of this fiber is suited to it. Plus, twilight was all I could get. The crazy stuff with all of the colors is fantastic to work with; I made my sister a scarf with two skeins of an autumn colors colorway. My plan is to mix these fibers, plus some more purple that is lurking around the stash, and make a shaped shawl. Of course, this could all change in a few days.

Tonight, I will set out for the wilds of upstate New York, and the famous sheep and wool festival. Fifteen knitters are going in one van, on a trip hosted by Circles. I was discussing the logistics of packing said van and getting on the road, and my husband opined that each knitter would bring more projects than changes of underwear. Hmph. I will excercise restraint and limit myself to parity.

mods

A single colorway of Karaoke from Southwest Trading was used to begin a modular vest from Dazzling Knits. The modular projects in Patricia Werner's book are meant for a zoo of colors, but I thought I'd give a space-dyed yarn a whirl. The effect would probably be very different in Noro Kureyon. The blocks of color just seemed to come up this way, meaning that I did not go fishing for particular sections of yarn. The edging is just an experiment, though I'll probably go with something similar in the end. Because of the nature of the patterns, the sizes seem VERY adjustable in all dimensions.

ambrosia redux

More lovely yarn from Margaret Wilson and Mostly Merino. This in fact came in the same box as the yarn in the previous post. I want to try holding two strands of Mostly Merino sport weight together for a rag wool effect, but the day that I ordered the yarn, deciding among 30 colors (and 435 color combinations) was not part of my flight plan. Also, I love surprises. So I asked Margaret to choose for me, with the criteria that there should be two different colors that mix well with each other and also with the plum. And she obliged! How cool is that?

ambrosia

Margaret Wilson of Mostly Merino makes some of the most beautiful yarn ever. This is the sportweight in plum. It's mine, mine, mine, all mine! (Maybe that was a little unneccessary.) If you are going to Rhinebeck, I strongly encourage you to stop by Margaret's booth and check out her wonderful yarn and her gorgeous sweaters.

This batch is becoming a shawl named Ganymede, after one of the Jovian moons. Callisto was the first, and I do believe that Margaret will have the original Callisto, in raspberry, with her at Rhinebeck.

sartorial achievements

• One sock up, one sock down, with leggings inside socks. Duration: about 5 hours. Occured last winter.
• Shirt inside out. Duration: about 7 hours. Occured last week.
• Sweater on backwards. Duration: about 2 hours. Occured yesterday.

No one complimented me on any of these accomplishments! Note that all occured on a workday, and all might have been noticed by lab denizens. Did they notice and privately enjoy my cluelessness? Were they oblivious? Supporting evidence for the former possibility: last summer the boss had his Izod-type shirt on inside out, everyone noticed, and no one but me decided to mention it to him.

Note to self: do not get dressed in the dark.