It’s been kind of busy around here, as the weather is moving towards springtime and the needs of the nursery start increasing. Spent most of the day yesterday on the road visiting a nursery east of Eugene and picking up new inventory. I took the Moebius along on the off chance that I’d have a few spare moments to work on it. No such luck and only got about three rows done yesterday and another couple this morning, between feeding animals and getting breakfast in me.
The scarf is into the 5th pattern repeat out of about 50 total and coming along nicely – when I get the time. The attached picture doesn’t really show the beauty and lightness of the fiber.
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What is it about knitters and cats?
I’ve been wandering around (through?) the Knitting Bloggers Ring and am amazed by the number of knitters with cats. Actually, maybe it’s not so amazing as cats seem to have surpassed dogs as the leading pet in the U.S. (52.9 million dogs and 59.1 million cats as of 1996). And then *we’ve* got enough to make up for at least 19 or 20 knitters that don’t have cats…
Maybe it’s something to do with the love of fiber and the love of a soft companion sitting beside you as you knit (or sometimes deciding that the yarn or needles were theirs). Cat’s are amazing. How can something that can be such an utter pain in the a** one minute turn into such a loving and cute little thing the next (little? Can you really call 17 lbs little?) is beyond me.
OKC: As usual with me, I’ve forsaken everything else (for the next week at least) for the Qiviut Mobius (Moebius). I tried taking some pictures yesterday, but I’m really not far enough along to really show what it looks like. It’s lovely, fuzzy and extremely light. I’m not sure I’m every going to be able to capture on film (well, actually on bytes) what it really looks like, but hopefully in a few more days, I’ll have enough knitted to post something.
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You know… Sometimes I get very jealous of the women of the world.
I love knitting. I love knitting lace. I’m in the process of knitting a Lace Mobius (Moebius — I can never figure out the correct spelling) with a very beautiful and luxurious skein of Qiviut.
It’s never going to look good on me. Gay or straight, the stuff I *love* to knit is never going to look as nice on a man as it will on a women.
I do have a lace seaman’s scarf in a black shetland. Very conservative. But the truly beautiful stuff is destined for the ladies in my life. Lucky ladies….
Doesn’t mean I’ll stop knitting lace or giving it away. Still it would be nice if I could knit and wear a nice lace shawl in public without folks thinking I’m *really* strange. Most think I’m strange enough just because I knit in public. Ah well….
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The lace mobius is on needles.
While googling the web for lace patterns, I came across this page of Mary Saunders with a very pretty pattern for a lace mobius in Douceur et Soie. I tried out a couple repeats of the pattern, decided it looked nice and being the lazy old fart that I am, decided I didn’t really want to design my own scarf anyway. The pattern is an amazingly simple pattern of seven rows across an even number of stitches. By the second repeat I had the pattern memorized and I’m on my way.
I’ll post a picture when I’ve got enough repeats down that something useful shows.
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I’ve mentioned before that I had a skein of Qiviut in my stash, mellowing and waiting for the perfect project for the past couple of years. The skein is only a bit over two oz. but is a laceweight (~24 wpi) and probably between 300 and 400 yards. I pulled out my umbrella swift and ball winder and unwound the skein. The yarn is beautiful and light and as fuzzy as angora or kid mohair. I hadn’t planned on buying anymore for a while (this skein was marked at $40.60) and up until this morning, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. As I’m making up the ball, the phrase ‘Lace Mobius” comes into my mind. Just the perfect amount for a luxurious scarf.
Now I’m on a hunt for lace patterns that look nice from either side. I’ve *actually* knitted up a couple of swatches to test out needle sizes against the yarn. Just a garter stitch triangle, but US #5 makes a nice open fabric and still shows off the fuzziness of the yarn. I’ll try a couple simple lace stitches and see how that looks also. Already ‘googling’ for garter lace patterns.
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Ok, another *mostly* non-knitting entry
I spent the day cleaning up the yard. My Peony patch badly needed cleaning. Old stems and leaves needed to be removed. Also cleaned up about four Clematis and a Golden Hop we’ve got climbing up the side of the greenhouse. Also cleaned up a group of Tree Peonies that are in the Nursery inventory. Now Tree Peonies are very early bloomers, but one of the group of the earliest bloomers of the Tree Peonies already have little red leaves starting to show. The Golden Hop has a large number of new buds above the ground and we’ve got a number of bulb plants starting to show leaves.
I realize that most of the US has had a very crappy winter, but the Northwest has been extraordinarily warm and dry this winter. February is usually our worst month of the winter and I’m hoping that we don’t get hit hard. If we do, we will be losing a lot of plants.
OKC — Just to prove I’ve been doing some knitting this past week, here’s a shot of a wash cloth I finished this morning. Mom loves these things and actually puts them to use. I could just do simple garter stitch cloths, but I enjoy adding a bit of lace and it gives me a chance to try out different patterns. This pattern is called “Wreaths Ground” and is from “The Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffmann”.
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Beautiful day today. Highs in the mid-50’s and it felt warmer working in the sunshine.
We’ve got a fiber show coming up in March and decided to shear a few sheep so that we could take along raw fleeces along with the processed fiber we have left from last year. We weren’t able to get anything sent off for processing this year due to the work we’ve been doing getting the Nursery up and running.
Eileen’s the shearer and I’m the catcher, dragger and holder. We managed to find 5 sheep that had fleeces long enough and nice enough to sell raw and two hours later, covered with lanolin, mud and sheep poop, we had some pretty nice ones. Everything from a dark brown/nearly black to greys and very beautiful long white. Still need a bit of skirting and cleaning up of a few second cuts, but I’ll get it done later this next week. Hope we don’t get any *real* cold weather, but everybody has access to barns so none to the sheared ones should get too cold.
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Now that the shawl is done, I’m feeling a bit directionless. I’m working on a couple small projects. Finishing a sock, a bit of knitting on the Lace Sampler and more washcloths –of all the stuff I do, Mom loves hand knit washcloths. I didn’t have any cached up when I went to visit, so I promised I knit up a few for a later visit.
I just received a copy of “A Gathering of Lace”. It’s a second printing copy and it appears all the previous errors have been corrected. What a beautiful book. This book has at least got a bit of inspiration juices flowing. I especially like the two Gene Beugler designs. I met Gene a few years ago at a stitch and bitch in Portland. Joan Schrouder had driven up from Eugene to join us and had brought Gene and some of his lace along. The man does amazing stuff. I’ve knitted another of his designs – Dayflower Daydream from Best of Shawls and Scarves. The problem is that the two designs are both Circulars and I’m not sure I’m ready to face the tiny start and the ever expanding circle.
We’ll see. I don’t really have any yarn nice enough in my stash and I’m trying to avoid any purchases right now, but I may be tempted.
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The Lace Garland Shawl came off the blocking board this morning and I’m very satisfied with the results. The picture just doesn’t do it justice. It will be rewrapped and given to my Mother, but I’m going to ask to borrow it back later in the year for a couple competitions I’d like to put it in. Click on small picture for full size shot.
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Since the thing to do is put up a soul searching list about one self, I’ve also put together a list of 100 things. Link is on the right column. Actually it was a kind of interesting process.
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