Lady Kina is Finished

Lady Kina Before Blocking

Toupie catnapping

Lady Kina is finished, soaked, blocked, and currently drying. Just need to add a button once it's dry.

In celebration, I set out to consolidate stash to select yarns for the Knit One, Knit All KAL in the Knit Picks group on Ravelry and to start the first of at least two summer tops. In all honesty, I can't do a woe is me how did I end up with so much yarn because I know the answer.

So I've set myself the task of a minimum of one hour knitting each day.

Toupie did have a bit of meow jag this week. Unusual for him, we had quite a convo going for a bit until his insistence told me something was amiss. Yep, you guessed it: empty food bowl.
I have to relate what happened Monday morning of this week: I didn't go out last weekend, because there was nothing I needed, except cat treats. Toupie had eaten all his treats by Friday night. His displeasure was expressed by dashing out the door as I was leaving for work, sitting down in the hallway with his back turned to me. It lasted almost five minutes. Fortunately, I was 15 minutes early and was able to give him space (not that I didn't know he was unhappy about having to eat just food all weekend).

I am always amazed how every tidy ends up revealing more cat toys.

This week’s Silver Linings:

Wandering Wool: Okay, I confess; I had a hard time deciding on which colourway to order first. I finally decided on Alligator Alley. Mark your calendars: Wandering Wool Trunk Show at Looped Yarn Works 21 April from 3:000-5:00.

Travelknitter and Nimuyarns  for lots of hand dyed/painted yummy yarn goodness.

On the needles:

Swatching for the Purless Pullover by Karen Hipsky.

For the KAL, I'm going to try to finish the following by June 30 from Knit One, Knit All:

Diamond-back Bonnet
Kathmandhu Hat
Knitted Clogs
Add a Booties

Start of Another Week

Local Happenings:

Metro Yarn Crawl is April 14-22. Click for details.

Silver Linings:

The Yarn Yard luscious colourways

Yarnmaker a British magazine for hand spinners

Maple Tree Yarns quality natural fibres

And for you Kindle-owning mystery readers

Death in Spriggs Wood by Linda Gruchy

Lady Kina

I’m down to my last few rows of the Lady Kina. And if the weather remains as cool all week, I shall get to wear it at least once.

I'm this close to getting my 15% off at Looped Yarn Works: they are now carrying Quince & Co. Yarns.

March is Marching By

Where did the month go. It's been horridly warm here. So warm in fact it was still 70F at 11pm last night. All the trees are in bud and I saw a butterfly yesterday morning. I've had to run the fan because of course it's a bit muggy with the warmth.

The old saying about clouds and silver linings still holds true. Despite the continuing revelations and convolutions of the KAL/ACM magazines, their sock and lace clubs, a Ravelry group has formed to support and inform designers and writers who've been unpaid. The silver lining is that the call for indie designers, spinners and dyers has been answered and there are spectacular items on offer.

To lift them up, I've decided to weekly feature a Silver Lining list:

Literally Yarn is available from The Yarn Cafe
Swifts, Noseprinnes, Spindles, and Niddy-Noddys are available from Sunflower Swifts and Sublime Spindles
Colorimetry sells hand dyed yarn and fibre goodies both wool based and cotton/vegetable. We have sourced some unusual base yarns including a wool/linen sock blend. This Esty shop is updated on Thursday's.

Lady Kina is still on the needles, but I expect to finish by the March 31 deadline. Wearing the Lady Kina upon completion will require a return of Old Man Winter. So I shall finish, block, and store until next Fall.

Next on the needles will be the Bristol Shirt in Berocco Remix in the Strawberry colourway.

March Madness

I'm getting veg again. The organic Swiss Chard was lovely as was the celery for dipping in hummus or just chomping on.

I'm knitting the Hoover Blanket from Knitty using Berroco Remix. I've finally mastered double knitting.

There's Toupie having a Saturday afternoon kip on an unmade bed dusted with catnip.

We've been visited by the temps of late spring this last week, leaving me scrambling for what to wear and Toupie shedding great clumps. He gratefully agreed to be brushed this morning.

Meanwhile, I shall have to devote time this weekend to switching garments and dusting off the spray starch and iron.

I have two more inches to knit on my Lady Kina but it's kind of hard to knit alpaca and wool when it's 81F at 7pm.

The Freer Sackler has two exhibitions that I want to see. I will have to time my vist between the Cherry Blossom madness and the yearly spring school trip onslaught.

Erica Wilson

Erica Wilson

I just learned of the death of Erica Wilson in December last year. Erica’s books and television series changed my life by introducing me to crewel embroidery at age 15. What my teenage years—and all the years since—would have been like I had not discovered this wonderful art that has brought me so many hours of joy, I’ll never know. I only know that because of her they’ve been filled with the satisfaction of mastering stitches used in the creation of wonderful works.

Just two weeks ago, I put a gold and blackwork piece featuring a snail, that my mother always had hanging on her bedroom wall after I finished it at age 19, aside to take to a framer in Georgetown to get it properly mounted and framed. It’s been in the horrid frame that came with the kit all these years.

In addition to crewel, Erica Wilson created stunning needlepoint. I’ve tried several times to master needlepoint in the hopes of one day doing one of her projects, but if years of stitching with fabric and fibre has taught me anything, it’s we all have limitations and to accept that there may be some skills we just can’t master.

I was reminded of that lesson yesterday when I tried, again, a knitting project featuring double yarn overs. I frogged it; frustrated; found another pattern, and cast on.

Some of Erica Wilson’s pieces are in museums and she leaves behind a shop and a needlework empire, but I think her greatest achievement is the joy, satisfaction and accomplishment she gave to by expanding the world of stitchers like me.

FYI

In my very first blog post, I highly recommended Yarn Forward Magazine, which has now become Knit Magazine, to readers of this blog.

In light of events, I feel I must ask my readers to read all or any one of the following:

Joyarna
Dull Roar
Subway Knitter
Absolute Write

One of the joys of being a knitter in the era of the Internet, is belonging to an internationally rich and generous community consisting of, to name a few, Ravelry, Esty, E-bay, bloggers, local yarn stores, online and brick and mortar yarn and pattern companies. I can order yarn or tools from someone across the hall or 20,000 miles away. I can buy a pattern written in Greek and use Google Translate, with varying degrees of success, to translate it into English. Stuck on a technique, there's bound to be a video on You Tube or some other knitting site that will help.

It is painful whenever I learn that people or websites are violating a designer's copyright and I am pained, dissappointed, and downright angry about the alleged practices of these people and their business.

Fortunately, they are the exception and not the rule.