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…you knit a doll blanket with ridiculously cutesy yarn!

Just...one...more...stripe...tonight...

Today I went to the yarn shop — with my preschooler — thinking to indulge myself in a single beautiful skein of something to make something with. (I was deliberately keeping my options open.) And there she was, being such a good girl in such a grown up store, skipping down all the aisles, pointing out every single pink skein and squealing with delight over them all.

The conclusion was obvious and I am really enjoying this diversion knit. I thought I was busy last year, with a husband in grad school, both of us working, a kid at home, and a kid in school, but we have managed to take it up a notch this year. Oy.

I have been reduced to hiding in my bedroom on a Friday afternoon, knitting pink yarn, and watching Downton Abbey.

Of course when I write it down it doesn’t sound bad at all. Perhaps I do have a sense of self preservation.

The yarn is Plymouth Encore Colorspun in the poetically named color #7722. Now, if you don’t mind, the blue stripe is waiting…

Piedra Del Sol / Sunstone

In observance of Brigit, a poem (actually, part of a poem because this is a very long poem):

Piedra del sol (Sunstone) by Octavio Paz

I want to go on, to go further, and cannot:

as each moment was dropping into another

I dreamt the dreams of dreamless stones,

and there at the end of the years like stones

I heard my blood, singing in its prison,

and the sea sang with a murmur of light,

one by one the walls gave way,

all of the doors were broken down,

and the sun came bursting through my forehead,

it tore apart my closed lids,

cut loose my being from its wrappers,

and pulled me out of myself to wake me

from this animal sleep and its centuries of stone,

and the sun’s magic of mirrors revived

a crystal willow, a poplar of water,

a tall fountain the wind arches over,

a tree deep-rooted yet dancing still,

a course of a river that turns, moves on,

doubles back, and comes full circle,

forever arriving:

New sweater just in time for spring!

Leave A Comment, Written on February 2nd, 2012 , Poetry, Spring, Sweaters Tags: Brigit, Meg Swansen, Octavio Paz, Piedra del sol, Spiral Yoke Pullover, Sunstone

Mental Note: Remember this Forever

This morning my almost-three-year-old daughter climbed into our bed, vaulting herself into that much coveted nook between mom and dad. As she snuggled in deeper, she beamed at both of us and said: “You guys are my BEST FRIENDS … ever!”

Goooooood morning!

What a nice way to wake up in the morning!

If you’re here for the knitting, rest assured I have good news. Spiral Yoke is DONE, has been donned and found worthy, and took a trip to the spa. After a lavender-scented bubble bath, she is now resting (and drying) on the dining room table. Photos to follow.

Leave A Comment, Written on January 21st, 2012 , Fam, kids, Sweaters Tags: Spiral Yoke Pullover

Review: The Native Star

I like weird books. Not necessarily weird for weird sake but mainstream fiction about sad people having sad sex and going to fourteen funerals is kinda why I couldn’t stomach the thought of an English degree. The world is a crazy place! The glass is half full! And reading is for entertainment. The first thing the Sumerians wrote about was beer and folk tales so c’mon people! Let’s have fun with it.

The cover art does not suck, eh?

The Native Star is M.K. Hobson‘s debut novel, published by Ballantine Spectra in August 2010. I know Hobson’s name from my volunteer work with BroadUniverse, an organization that promotes women writers & editors within the field of science fiction, fantasy, and horror publishing. (Is that a disclosure? I do not know the author at all.) So when I saw this book on the shelf at my local indy bookshop, I read the blurb and said, “Heck yeah! This sounds like fun.”

Set in an alternate 1880s United States, Hobson’s novel follows a backwoods witch and an urbane warlock who must race across the country just ahead of government-funded, ultra-menacing blood sorcerers. The action is exciting, the magic has meaning, the romance is not sappy or heavy-handed, and Hobson’s language is precise. She also sets us up for a sequel (The Hidden Goddess, released eight months ago) that did not leave me feeling irritated and oversold. Instead, I was running to my computer to look up the deets.

My one beef — because no review is complete unless the reviewer complains about something, right? — is that the subplot about Dag was kind of left hanging. Maybe Hobson covers this in the second book, but that seems unlikely.

Not a fan of fantasy? I promise you, if you can manage the Lord of the Rings trilogy or Harry Potter heptalogy (the books, NOT the movies!) then this will not be too weird. And it would make a good film.

Leave A Comment, Written on January 5th, 2012 , Read It! Tags: alternate history, BroadUniverse, MK Hobson, Native Star, sf/f/h, The Hidden Goddess

Vegetal Dreams

To the uninitiated, this would seem an odd time to talk about the garden, but for those with the itch, this is our hidden season. The one full of seed catalogs and vegetal dreams and grandiose plans.

First of all: this balmy “winter” made it possible for me to finish bagging my 58th through 65th bags of leaves in mid-December, long after the yard waste truck stopped trundling through on trash day. (I dumped them on the sleeping vegetable garden. The worms will thank me later.) The unseasonably warm weather makes me think I should get a jump on the spring cleaning. For example, herding the pots of probably-dead plants tucked throughout the garden, terminally waiting to be planted. Or picking toys out of the sandbox. The ones that haven’t filled with water, frozen, and burst, that is. Those can stay and provide some color to our brown winter.

Second of all: I received my first SERIOUS garden tool as a gift from my husband this year: Felco hand pruners. This is the kind of tool you wipe clean after every use and even oil and sharpen occasionally. I got a cool leather sheath for it and even a tiny tool that is supposed to help take it apart (it’s rather wee; I am in doubt). Monster thistle, you watch out! Now I’m cooking with gas!

Speaking of gas, my husband got a flame-thrower thingy from a friend who understands his manly need to torch offending vegetation. Why bend over and pull a weed when one can simply push a button…? No I am not sneering. My inner villan is rubbing her hands together with glee!

Thirdly: I renewed my Mother Earth News subscription today. I freakin’ love that magazine. When I discovered it several years ago, I was floored. Here it was, the magazine of my people! I didn’t realize so many other people thought like me — all DIY and loving the planet and homesteading and more liberal than the liberals — and I live in a college town.

Just goes to show… we aren’t alone. Ever. We aren’t even all that unique (having kids made this really clear). If you have a thought, someone somewhere is thinking the same thing. And we haven’t even touched on the multiverse.

It is amazing to realize how many friends are out there that you haven’t met yet.

2 Comments, Written on January 4th, 2012 , Garden, Winter Tags: Felco, global warming, Mother Earth News, multiverse, spring cleaning

Swirly

I am now into the yoke of the Spiral Yoke Sweater.

my stitches are a travelin'

another crappy, "oops, where went my daylight?" photo

I could be done (this is a theme, no?) if I weren’t distracted with some quickie knits here and there.

For example, I made warmish socks for my skinny boy:

worsted weight on little feet makes quick work

These are knit in leftover bits of Lion Brand Wool-Ease for washability and warmth. They may be only 20% wool but that’s 20% more than all of his other socks. The couple of handknit pair he has are in intense rotation so I decided to help a boy out. These made a good traveling project for the month of December now that I am done knitting sleeves (ahem) for my sweater. I think I could make a pair in 2-3 evenings of knitting if I weren’t busy with a sweater. And I don’t sit still much while I knit.

I have been abstaining from resolutions and major project declarations so far this new year. Not because I think it’s a useless exercise. I am seeking clarity. December was too busy for inward reflection. I am a gal who appreciates a little naval-gazing, so I am at least glad to have finished December and begun January.

Now, back to my sweater and my Harry Potter movie marathon. (I’m halfway through. The movies, that is.)

Leave A Comment, Written on January 2nd, 2012 , Socks, Sweaters Tags: Harry Potter, Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, Lion Brand Wool-Ease, resolutions, Spiral Yoke Pullover

Happy New Year!

I spent the last hour of 2011 trying to spend money on my business. How about you?

For the self-employed, I cannot recommend this method of supply management.

I really hope I don’t regret my new business card design in the morning.

Now that it is after midnight and I am buzzed on caffeine (another bottle of new year’s champagne rests warm and unopened atop my fridge), I figure I have some time to burn before I will be able to sleep … and you know what I want to do?

This will mark me as a giant yarn nerd if nothing has so far.

I want to make a big pile of sock yarn on my dining room table. I want to look at it all at once and dream about the things I will make in 2012.

Who’s with me?

I am thinking, for the first time ever, that maybe all my sock yarn won’t become socks. Hmmm… hmmmm!

2 Comments, Written on January 1st, 2012 , Sock Club Tags: self-employment, sock yarn

Sleeve-Sweater Coupling Achieved!

At Knit Night last night I finally joined the sleeves (#2 and #4 for those who are counting) to my sweater body for the Spiral Yoke pullover. Squeeeee! I’d be knitting the yoke right now if I weren’t writing this.

The big question is: Will it be ready for Hanukkah/Solstice/Christmas? Stay tuned for further developments.

My drawstring, lined bag sewing continues. A few nights ago I cut up some old button-down shirts to use as fabric (saving the buttons, of course). It’s an experiment. Pros: cheap to free and I get bonus buttons! (I have a thing for buttons.) Cons: Butchering a blouse is more work than a roaster for dinner.

I should use my rotary cutter.

Where did I put that thing?

On a completely unrelated note, I am still searching for the perfect productivity app for my phone. I suspect that “perfect” does not exist. I am currently enjoying Remember the Milk but am irritated by some of the limitations that are only available to pro members. While I don’t mind paying for something useful, RTM’s terms are steeper than what other apps charge: $25 per year as opposed to a one-time fee of a few dollars that most apps that cost anything charge.

Nevertheless.

I may be sadly widget-less, but RTM is my favorite so far.

Back to knitting!

Leave A Comment, Written on December 8th, 2011 , Recycling, Sewing, Sweaters, Tech

I read it on the Internet: Robin McKinley knits

I recently started a Twitter account for Entangled – come find me under EntangledDesigns if it please you! – and did what any red-blooded tweeter would do and “followed” a ton of other knitters, as well as some family and a few famous people whom I thought might be interesting or amusing.

One such famous person was Robin McKinley, beloved author of fine books like The Blue Sword and Deerskin and Door in the Hedge and The Outlaws of Sherwood. I’ve been reading her books since I was a young adult and, like most authors, she was mostly a name on a cover. A name I was always happy to see and an assurance that good things lay within. Of course, I have small children (plus husband) and at least two jobs additionally so I am not at all current with her oeuvre. Or anyone’s oeuvre.

Quite unexpectedly, amidst all the knitting tweets, came a tweet from McKinley… about knitting.

Just like in her books, she is so funny! So real! Read it here:

Frelling Knitting

You know what this means, don’t you?

Coolest. Author. Ever.

2 Comments, Written on December 1st, 2011 , Read It!

And then there were two

There is some kind of Murphy’s Law at play here.

After years of window shopping and sighing over rigid heddle looms of any size — anything bigger than an inkle loom — a week after I learn how to string my new TIA, my mom (whom I speak to by phone every day and is intimately acquainted with my every craft, triumph, and travail) says, “Oh, would you be interested in another loom? I’ve had this one at my house for a few years. I didn’t know you’d be interested in it or I would have told you about it sooner.”

Um, YES! But why didn’t we make this connection before?!

Meet loom #2, a 20″ Beca, solid cherry, made probably in the late 1970s:

Beca has a nasty old warp on her.

So in the space of three weeks, I have two modest-sized rigid heddle looms and plans to warp one of these ladies for some houndstooth.

I’ve also been sewing:

Abstract fabric art

The sewing has been a compulsion that I cannot explain. Costumes, drawstring project bags, fabric dolls, doll clothes. I think it is my internal frustrated quilter crying out for time and space to work.

A few of my pretty bags

Or maybe I just like to sew now. (I can hear some of my friends gasping with surprise.)

4 Comments, Written on November 29th, 2011 , Gifts, Sewing, Weaving Tags: Beca loom, project bags

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Piedra del sol (Sunstone) by Octavio Paz

The big question is: Will it be ready for Hanukkah/Solstice/Christmas? Stay tuned for further developments.

Back to knitting!

Frelling Knitting

"Oh what a tangled web we weave…" –Sir Walter Scott