A View from Sierra County

Saturday Sky - January Edition

A photo of today's bright blue sky simply wont' convey the true feeling of mid-January around here like this shot taken on my way home from work yesterday evening.  It is cold, windy and icy, not snowy.  Some of the lowest temperatures on record are predicted for the Sacramento Valley and Los Angeles areas... this is why I love wool!

Hey, There's a Hole In My House!

I left for work Tuesday morning after taking this photo:

The siding had been stripped off the wall and the small window at the far right installed on Monday by DH and his contractor buddy, Ed.

But when I came home Tuesday night, the window in the middle and all the wood above and below had been removed; once, over a 100 years ago, french doors had made an entrance into this portion of the house.  DH is intent on returning them, and even found that the original doors were stored in the carriage house (now a barn)!

However, overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning, we could be grateful that there is an outer-quality door between the kitchen (large window) and that end of the house.  The new doorway had no covering and was open to the winter air overnight (I left before it was light yesterday, and didn't get a photo).

Our cat was pretty confused, being able to go in and out of a portion of the house she had never seen before, and meeting up with me heading to the shower in the morning (this hall leads to our bathroom, and the whole wing was added when indoor plumbing became all the rage, about 50 years after the house was built, in 1852).

Luckily, when I came home late last night, the doors were in place and most of the new siding up, so I was able to take this photo in the morning:

Siding was finished today, and the door properly framed in; trim goes on tomorrow and a porch is coming in a few weeks, when our friend is free to come back.  Renovation in the winter cold is hard work:

Poor Glennie, looking very tired Tuesday night.

The weekend will be partly used up in cleaning up the mess caused by this project, and decluttering the hallway and re-purposing it; things have to be done differently with a door instead of a window, but we are pretty excited.  Luckily, Vicki let me in on the Decluttering Calendar, and I have sharpened my skills for the task.

While the guys were hard at work tearing stuff apart, hammering, sawing, etc., I was busy teaching.  I also managed to snap a shot of my Hidcote, with the only background I could find readily that showed off the stitching, the hood of my truck!  This yarn is one of those neutral but lovely colors that fades right away and resists photos .

I have grown used to knitting with it, though, and keep reminding myself how much I am going to enjoy wearing a shawl this color!  I even managed to get a longer-than-usual break between day classes and night class yesterday, and spent some time KIPing at a local coffee shop, adding several rows from chart three.  I love this pattern, am greatly enjoying the KAL, and put together a Laceuary Survival Kit as a prize to be offered to the group midway through (details over there).  However, I am taking the night off to work on a fun fur hat for Boston Childrens Hospital (I mentioned this charity project earlier in the week), and even hope to get in some spinning over the holiday weekend.

The Burro Awards

I loved JenLa's annual awards, truly I did, but then I was a bit bummed to realize that I hadn't even found most of those listed (although a few were my very favorite people, and you know who you are).  I just don't have the kind of life that leaves much room for blog reading, and my pool of fellow knitbloggers isn't all that big in the giant scheme of things.

One positive thing I did realize while reading through their list of awards is that, while I thought I wanted to blog for fame back when I started just over two years ago, and used to hope for lots of comments, I found something different and far more valuable to me and that was friendship.  I have met several of the people I read regularly, and a few have become amongst my dearest friends.  What more could I ask for, right?

So, I decided to create the Burro Awards, my own version of a "Best of 2006" List:

Best Photos - its a tie between Kristi and (Mary)Sheepshepherdess.  They both have the artistic eye needed for this award.  Take a look, and you will see what I mean!

Best Attitude - Margene, she just keeps on knitting and spinning, minimizes the obstacles and trips to the frog pond, etc.  So Zen of her.

Charity Knitter of the Year - I didn't go and take an object count or anything, but these two are always working on a charity knitting piece whenever I drop by: Marguerite and Norma.  I aspire to be them when I grow up.

Best Lace - Mim, of course.  With two of her designs on the needles right now, that one was pretty simple.  That said, Donna Druchunus, author of Artic Lace, is already a contender for next year, and I have Susan's interview with her to thank.

Best Fashionista Designer - Amelia.  I love everything she makes, even when I don't have the right figure (or lifestyle, for that matter) to wear it.  Sometimes life with burros isn't all that glam, but it doesn't mean I don't know glam when I see it.

Best Tutorials - Eunny for knitting and Jenny for spinning.

Best Technical Consultant - This has to be Sylvia (Beadlizard).. if ever I can't figure something out or remember how to do something, she's the grrl.

Best Fiber Enabler - Carole, the grrl who is always up for something new, loves a party and wants us all to come along and try it with her.

Best All-Around Fiberholic - Sara, who not only knits, but spins, dyes, weaves and even finds the time to blog about it and share her vast knowledge with the rest of us.

Best Non-Knitting Blog - Bakerina, because she loves food more than I do and I can live vicariously thorugh her cooking adventures.  Ask her about eggs sometime...

Well, that's all the categories I have come up with for 2006, but I expect that this new tradition will expand by next year.   And, remember these are just the selections of a country grrl, living and knitting in a sleepy little backwater of the California Sierras.

Winter Skies Don't Last As Long

The biggest problem with a bright, sunny January sky is that you know it will be gone quickly.

Today was a lovely day, although much of the ice (and yes, there is a very tiny bit of snow here) didn't melt one bit.  I took my time getting going, so that it was warmer while I was doing my grocery shopping.

I got into the spirit of the new year, and cleaned up my blog buttons, adding a few new ones... Saturday Sky is staying, but I never have figured out how to add in the "ring" html since switching over to Typepad a few months back.  New ventures include fitness (100 Miles by April 1st), and photojournalism (oh wait, isn't that what I'm doing with this here blog?) in the form of Snap A Dozen Days , selecting a photo each month that best represents the month to me and posting about it.  This idea was put forth by Stephanie, who also helped to suck me into spinning... she has that kind of irrestible effect.  Next, I'll be sewing vintage housedresses...

I also signed on for a new charity knitting project yesterday, that I learned about from Margene.  I will be using some Fizz I found on sale at my LYS to make a bright red furry beanie for someone at Boston Children's Hospital and sending it along to Mini - please consider making one too. 

Apparently, this cancer treatment ward full of 10-16 year olds just loves wearing fun fur beanies around, and since I got a thank-you note and update from my 55-year old friend undergoing chemo and wearing out her cap from me, I decided to pitch in and make some for the kids.  I am not sure how this yarn will work on its own, though the patterns provided use it that way, instead of as a carry-along, however the resulting fabric would certainly be very soft against a head newly without hair. 

I hope to have something to photograph very soon, possibly my Calorimetry headband, which I started using Berocco Ultra Alpaca when I just couldn't make Crystal Palace Merino Frappe work... not springy enough for this project, but oh, what a luscious cardi it would make!  Inspiration abounds.

Failed Objects

Usually "FO" applies to finished objects, but in this post I want to focus on some of the failed ones... some were technical failures and others fashion faux-paus...

Fashion faux paus:  yarn and style too trendy... how much wear will I really ever get out of this?  Same goes for a shrug that I plan to frog and reclaim the lovely turquoise wool from... hey, I buy a few obvious "one-season-only" fashion items a year, just to kind of spice things up in my mostly solid-color wardrobe, don't you?  That said, I think I could better spend my knitting time on other items.  After all, when ponchos were all the rage a few years back, I bought one to wear rather than waste valuable knitting time.

Now, this one looks good, just freshly finished... three long, ribbed pieces in a very soft boucle yarn in one of my favorite pastels, kind of a rosy-lavender, sewn together on one end, braided and then sewn up on the other and fringe added. But with time and wear, these three strips started to "delaminate" from each other... getting tangly and twisted and generally a mess.  I wore this scarf the most of all my scarves last winter, but by spring was fed up.  When I unearthed the winter gear this year, I tried to smooth and untangle, and it almost worked.  Would I make it again?  Hell, no!

Design failure? What happened here... this tie pattern was in this winter's issue of Cast-Off, appearing right as I was thinking that a knitted tie would make an awesome gift.  I loved the modular knitting.  I loved the heathery shades of Mountain Colors' Weavers Wool Quarters.  I knitted.  I felted.  I followed the directions, honest.  The damn thing was so thick that tieing it properly looked as stiff as wearing a noose.  My giftee got a very nice gourment food basket, put together by moi the day before the gift exchange.  I shoulda seen it coming.... I have felted a LOT of stuff by now, and know that the physics of felting mean that loose becomes dense and thin becomes thick.  Now what about those magazine designers and editors?!  What's their excuse?

And then there's CeCe... I loved my CeCe and eagerly anticipated working on her.  I wanted to wear her to Great Basin Fiber Fest (actually, I wanted to wear her to Estes Park, but didn't get started on time for that).  Yes, I faithfully did my gauge swatch.  Yes, I make BIG gauge swatches, usually at least six inches square, and I count fractions of an inch, etc.  I even teach fractions and algebra to adult learners, so I do know from math.

But, something went awry.  Maybe it was the large number of stitches on the needles at once.  Maybe it is that I have such loose tension when I knit continental.  Maybe it is as Margene suggested, when she watched me knitting "That's never going to fit you, you are much smaller than that".  I have made myself try on more clothes at the store, and pushed myself to stop shying away from measuring myself (did you know I have a small body-image problem?), as I have often thought of myself as "bigger" than I really am.  Some of it comes from being shorter than average, and some of it comes from having weighed 20 pounds more than I have in the past five years... I am not always the best guess of my true size and what will fit.  I learned from this terrible, tearful mistake.  I shoulda made the next-smaller size!  I faithfully measured myself for the next garment I cast on, and promise that I will continue to do so each and every time.  I haven't been able to bring myself to frog CeCe yet; the Rowan Calmer yarn will probably turn into a garment for me next spring, but I will just wait and see.

Now, this project looks so cute when finished... why would I put it with failed objects?  It takes way too much time and creates way too many cut ends... although someone else who made one suggested just carrying the two yarns along one edge.  However, it is a parallelogram, so that there are long floats... I might re-try it, since it is a novelty hat to make for variety when knitting up items for Dulaan, Caps for Kids (where the pattern came from) or CIC.

OK, I was brave enough to share some of my worst failures from the past few years.  Now, its your turn... let's hear it!

2006 Production Line

I have really enjoyed reading other peoples' posts about their 2006 knitting, and decided it would be helpful to look back and sorta "take stock" of how things are going around the old camp... I have always been one to set almost-too-high standards for myself (overachiever? it started back in grade school, trying to always get "A"s).  Carole has me beat when it comes to being an overachiever, and has set even loftier goals for herself for 2007, while Kristi hasn't fully appreciated the breadth of her accomplishments (although she did give herself more credit in the sewing department, and has great photo collages of her FOs).  I think I fall somewhere in between, because after making this list, I was pretty impressed and also learned a little bit about myself:

I started the year with a teddy bear, and went on to make a Nautie and six other small, stuffed animals
2 1/2 pair of socks (that cotton Regia one, it's not getting finished - I prefer wool!)
5 or 6 "warshrags" (I make these at meetings, to give away or sell at the crafts co-op and don't count)
Mrs. Beetons and three other pair of mitts
The fabulous Folk Shawls Ruana
One felted bag and another almost-finished purse
4 scarves, Bejeweled being the most recent
3 hats
2 squares for Warming Grace
1 felted tie
3 shawls (including my favorite, Lily of the Valley) plus 4 shawlettes (size being the determinant here, and not complexity)

There are three four items on the needles, carrying over into 2007: Seraphim, Bianca, DH's felted vest, and my Anna socks, sorely neglected for the past month as holiday knitting takes place.  Also waiting patiently is my Green Apple Bohus cardi kit, which was supposed to be my 2005 Christmas gift but didn't arrive here until the end of March, when spring knitting was already underway.  It is very near the top of the list for 2007.  I have been working on a post about Failed Objects that will address a few MIAs...

One helpful thing I learned by this reflective process was that I had the bad tendency, two years in a row, to start a huge, wooly project right at the edge of the end of cool weather.  Ya think maybe I need to learn something here?  Like take on spring/summer knitting a little earlier?  Or maybe get busy finishing up those wooly items RIGHT NOW, while they can warm me sitting in my lap, and save a lace item or two for later in the year?  We'll see.  You have probably heard about how hard it is to teach an old dog new tricks.

I also observed that spinning and the great outdoors dominated the warm months between about May and September around here, and maybe that it ok... I am an outdoor person, have my animals and my garden to tend to, as well as my love of hiking and swimming, and at least there's sock knitting to take along on summer excursions, as we all learned thanks to Trek Along With Me.

I already knew that I love accessories (remember, one of the weird things about me is that I feel naked if I leave the house without earrings on), so it came as no surprise that much of the things I knit for myself last year fall into this category.  It would also appear that, while somewhat resistant to the trends that sweep rapidly through Blogland, a few caught me in 2006.  Such fun to see the variations that other people come up with while you are all working the same pattern!

A New Year, A New Shawl

Happy New Year, everyone!  Hope that you are enjoying the post-celebration and the promise of a fresh year.

I have a small raft of unfinished projects, and was away most of the week but did make progress on several.  That said, I still had to cast on something new last night, in honor of the new year.  My first new project of 2007 is Miriam Felton's fabulous Hidcote Garden Shawl.  Some of you already have heard that Sallee Knitnana and I set up a Hidcote KAL for this shawl, and we do hope you will join us!  I am using Knitpicks Shadow laceweight in the lovely Iris colorway, and haven't made much progress yet (been busy cleaning, doing laundry, and making sure that 29 participants in the KAL to date can gain access to the site, whew!).  While I was away, Margene spread the word for us and Sallee and Miriam handled a drawing for the first people signing up... head on over and see who won and what other great prizes are coming up.

On Christmas night, since I was quietly sitting at home and the festivities were over, I concentrated on getting the first parts of my felted bear done... the two arms are on the stitch holder above and the legs below.  Not too promising yet, but only about an hour's work!

Then, because I knew I would be starting a new shawl this week, I spent some time with Seraphim, and she finally grew into her charts!  It is really impossible to photograph lace once it has grown beyond its infancy, but the lovely charcoal wool has been a pleasurable companion and accompanied me on our trip... however, I don't knit in the car so this shawl will be in suspension once again while I try to keep up with the Hidcote KALers.  I love this shawl and one of her attributes that I have appreciated most while I plod through making her is her patience, content to wait when I have to take up gift or charity knitting and welcoming when I return to spend time with her again.  She is destined to be a "daily wear" shawl, as well as used when wearing historical costumes, so will be with me a long while.

  While I was driving up and down the Mother Lode, I did manage to make this beanie for my son... yes, gasp, it is CROCHETED.... bet some of you didn't know I knew how.  There were two factors motivating this heretical use of Kathmandu Aran... the first was the gift of a beautiful, hand-turned, stained green wooden crochet hook from a non-fibery friend for Christmas, and the second was that dear eldest son got me involved in coaching a co-worker through her first crocheted hat over the telephone last week, and both insisted that crocheted beanies are totally the rage amongst the snowboarding youth.  I slipped, and promised DES that I would make him one.  Note the thread coming off the back.  This beanie fits me nicely, but I have to check and make sure it will fit him as well.  The photo on the right also shows the pretty hook, which probably won't get much use around Slate Range Camp.

This scarf, destined to be put up for sale in the crafts co-op, has been sitting in my basket or traveling with me the past few weeks, and is a great respite from the effects of tiny needles on my fingers... it is almost done and is made from Lana Grossa Luna, a nice mix of fibers with a springy yet soft feel.

Why do I always have so many projects going, you ask?  Some travel better than others, and each affects my hands in a different way.  I need to avoid using small needles for hours on end, and also need to have a mindless project or two going that can follow along with me to meetings, socializing with friends, etc., and not require much concentration.  I will probably be alternating making a Project Linus blanket as well as some small items for the co-op shop in between finishing up my two shawls... and then there's still that Sela vest I want to make and a few others to keep me knitting my way through 2007.  How about you?