When Knitting Was a Manly Art

Finished up the DNA scarf this morning. Still needs the ends woven in and washed and blocked, but it’s off the needles. Now on to Son of Aran…

Sock needles – This past weekend I picked up a set of Bryspun needles for sock knitting. Up to this poiint I’ve used nothing but bamboo needles (mostly Crystal Palace) and the flexibility of these guys are something I’m going to have to get used to. I seem to be kind of a tight knitter when working with sock yarn and #2 needles and the stiffness of the bamboo needles seemed to be a good match and I’m not sure how these will work out.

I’ve changed over to them and will complete the self-patterning sock. I do like the points, though. They seem a bit dull compared to the bamboos, but they’re actually very nice to knit with.

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Actually not a lot of progress. I’ve been focused on finishing the DNA scarf before I dive full time into the SOA, but I have been able to sneak in a few minutes a day and have finally finished the 6 inches required for the first saddle. Once again, the color is kind of washed out, but the cables really stand out.

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DNA scarf is slowly coming to an end. Finished about 1/3 of the final cable repeat this morning, which means I *should* have it completed by Tuesday. We’ll see…..

And my self-patterning socks are coming along nicely, though I haven’t spent a lot of time on them. They’re one of those projects I seem to do when I’ve only got 10 minutes or so waiting for something else to happen.

And finally back to Canby later today. Eileen has a friend who’d like to go down, but she doesn’t get off work until noon, so sometime after that. All I really need to do is get down before 7PM to pick up my stuff, but I’d like to get down a bit earlier to do a small amount of shopping. Need a couple different sized needles for the Aran and I’d like to get another set of sock needles.

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Just back from OFFF (well, ok… after dinner and after feeding animals). It’s nice to talk to friends, new and old and feel some of the excitement of a show again.

Met up with a couple of folks who read this blog (Hi Sarah and Stonering) and lots of folks from years past. Also missed a few folks. Kate Painter from Paradise Fibers was supposed to be there, but I was never able to find her booth and Sue from High Desert Wool growers because.. well because I got sidetracked by too many other things and never did a complete pass through the barns. I expect to be back down tomorrow to pick up my stuff and will try to get down a little early.

First thing that I did though, was to check the results of knitting competition and was pleasantly surprised. The circular lace shawl placed first in it’s class and ….. the Gansey placed second. As this is first rate competition, I’m very pleased with the results.

Didn’t purchase much today. A couple of skeins of Stahl ‘Limbo Mexiko’ self-patterning sock yarn for a pair for Eileen and the ‘Great American Aran Afghan’ pattern book.

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No knitting this morning. Busy getting ready to head for Canby and the OFFF, but a couple of other pictures and links for your reading pleasure.

We planted a couple Toad Lily this past spring and the plants have grown and grown until the stems had reached about 3 1/2 feet in height, but no flowers. About 2 weeks ago I noticed flower buds starting to form and yesterday the first opened. Very pretty little flowers and about 12 more to go. Larger picture linked to the thumbnail.

And an interesting link for the morning. Remember the Wearing Wool calendar? Well a group of male Grange members have done one of their own, to raise money for local Junction City, Oregon schools. Men of the Long Tom Grange Calendar

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A smaller version of the Black Sheep Gathering is coming to Canby Oregon this weekend.

The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival has been going on for 7 years and is one of my favorites. Small, but with a good variety of animals and a super vendor area. If you’re in Northern Oregon-Southern Washington, it’ll be well worth your time come on down to Clackamas County Fairgrounds over the weekend.

I’ll be going down this afternoon to place the White Gansey and the Lace Garland Shawl in competition. I’m not convinced I’ll do all that well, but I’m going to give both a chance.

I’ll be around the show for most of the day Saturday and if you think you’ll be able to attend, let me know and we’ll see if we can meet up somewhere.

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Here’s a shot that I took tonight lit by my Ott light. Very close to the right color, though the cable definition is not too great.

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I know… I said I wasn’t going to start the Aran until the DNA scarf was done, but that pretty green yarn just kept calling to me — “Knit Me, Knit Me” — so I started knitting the saddle this morning after some work in the scarf.

The color in the photo is kind of washed out. If I took the picture indoors under artificial light, I got a good match of color, but the cabling didn’t show up well and outdoors, I get a good cable definition and washed out color. If you look at an earlier post showing the 8 skeins, you can get a good idea of the real color.

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After my swatching adventures yesterday morning, I got back to finishing the DNA Scarf. About 1/2 way through the next to last cable pattern repeat.

There was a recent thread on the Men Who Knit group about cabling. A few of the guys felt that all that moving stitches around somehow broke the flow of their knitting and they didn’t enjoy cable knitting. While it’s true that moving stitches back and forth is much slower than straight knitting, for me cable knitting is full of interesting textures and patterns and I look forward to the cabling rows. I’m really looking forward to starting the Aran.

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Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s easy to shear lambs.

We spent two hours this morning shearing four lambs. It started with me trying to trap our only ram lamb in the barn. He decided he was going to go over me, but was a bit low. Never head butt a ram, even a ram lamb. They have very hard heads and I have a knot above my left eye to prove it.

The three little ewe lambs were another story. I’m not sure how 75lb animals can be more work than their momma and daddies, but they are. They’ve never felt the vibrations of a shearing machine and managed to wear both of us out completely for less than 10lbs of fleece. Now, it’s a nice bunch of fleeces for which we will make top dollar, but it probably works out to a lot less that the effort put out.

OKC: I did manage to swatch for the SOA today. Actually, I did three swatches. As the Gansey required a larger needle than recommended, I started out one needle larger for the Aran. Well, my 4 inch swatch ended up at 5 inches. Another swatch at recommended size and it was still 4 1/2 inches. Ok, one down from recommended and I’m finally within one stitch of the expected size and I’ll probably stay with that.

How is it that I knit tight with sport weight yarn, but knit loose with worsted weight? Another of the mysteries of knitting.

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