Last Litla Dimun Post!

I got the menfolk to go outside and take photos of me in the Litla Dimun shawl last night, so I can finally show what it looks like as a shawl. After hearing that it looked like a pair of underwear, and worse, a diaper from the blocking photos, I figured I better post this...post-haste!

I really think it looks nice. Sturdy, yet floaty! Here's the back.

And just for fun, here is a close-up of the pattern. You can see how the garter stitch looks quite delicate after blocking, yet it's still plenty warm. I wish I'd brought it to work today, as we have a little chill in the air.

It was a beautiful early evening yesterday, and perfect weather for spinning around in your new shawl! Farewell, Litla Dimun--Suna will stop obsessively posting about you now!

Some of our flowers look particularly lovely while we were in the garden with the camera, so I will leave you with our Creme Brulee petunia and the new yellow wildflower that just opened.

That was nice, wasn't it? What interesting colors they now have in annuals. This next one is a perennial we planted last year, but this is its first bloom.


A sock will show up tomorrow. And maybe more flowers. I have been taking a LOT of flower photos, and so has Lee!

Blocking Litla Dimun Shawl

Well, Litla Dimun is all finished, and I wore it to my knitting group yesterday, but I still don't have a photo of me wearing it. Dawn took some, but I am trying to be patient waiting to receive copies! To let you get an idea of how much nicer it looks blocked, here are a couple of blocking photos.

It has ended up very light and delicate, and looks much more like an actual shawl than it did while I was working on it.

I was touched when my friend Aggie said that the finished product was one of her favorite shawls...ever. It may not be spectacularly lacy or bead encrusted, but it is elegant and will be very warm.

I used some hair conditioner on it, and it does feel a bit softer, too. I promise to show you what it looks like ON someone soon.

Next I'll show you a finished sock. I finally finished one of the plain black-and-white socks I started for my sister in December. I'd take its needles off, which made it hard to work on for a while. Tomorrow or Thursday I'll show it to you. I had to work on it yesterday, because I'd left the Flaming Desire pattern at home when I went to Georgetown to knit. Sigh. I also tried to spin with my overly fancy drop spindle. I have some rather thick yarn. It is not worth showing off, for sure. I don't think spinning is going to be my thing.

Luckily I have some nice hand-spun yarn to play with soon, since Deana gave me some in a colorway she knows I liked better than she did. When I finish setting it, I will show you that, too. Wow, a lot of teasers. It's the best I can do after two long days of recording training materials. I am glad to work, but it does take away my way with words.

A Lumpy Finished Object

I took the Litla Dimun to a women's group meeting on Thursday and suddenly, I was finished with it! It really did go faster and faster toward the end there. Here's a picture of it in its unblocked, lumpen state:

Litla Dimun Shawl in Undyed American Shetland Wool.

After seeing how big it came out and looking at my picture, I decided that, even though I have enough yarn left over to do it, I am not going to add a border. I think the elegant simplicity of the borders and gusset lace is just enough. It is also going to be a great size to keep in the office to wear when the air conditioning has gone crazy on me.

I can't block this until tomorrow, since we may have overnight guests who will want to use the blocking surface...er...guest bed. That's OK, it will give me something else to blog about, right?

Tomorrow I will have some new yarn to show you. Blogger's photo uploader doesn't like me again, so I am not going to try to deal with the photos today!

I am happily back knitting on my Flaming Desire socks. I am enjoying how nice and big the chart is, and how quickly rows go. It's nice to get back to socks. I have so many socks I want to knit, especially one based on those Russian mitten patterns--I better get a move on! Plus, I am going to make a friend a special birthday shawl. OOOOOH, that will be fun.

Have a fun weekend, and enjoy your holiday if you are celebrating one of them this weekend!

A Review of Folk Shawls

I did get a lot of knitting done over the weekend, but didn't manage to finish the Litla Dimun shawl. Since it was cast on at its longest point and is getting shorter and shorter as I go on, it feels like I was moving really fast! It was especially nice when I hit the two rows that decreased 16 stitches each, rather than just 4. I get the impression I'll actually finish that project in my lifetime!

Since I didn't finish the shawl over the weekend and since the bookstore didn't have Wendy Johnson's new book, like I'd hoped, I thought I could at least talk about the book I got the pattern from. I have had the Folk Shawls book, by Cheryl Oberle, quite a long time (it was published in 2000), but hadn't made anything from it until this project. That doesn't mean the book hasn't been used. I have read through it many times, dreaming about making one or more of the patterns, or thinking of ways to use ideas from them. The patterns are so clearly written that you can easily envision yourself working on them.

One reason I read it so many times is that there are examples of shawls from such a variety of traditions. Not only are there the expected British Isles, Ireland, Scandinavia, etc., represented, but there are Japanese, Spanish and even the Americas. I like some better than others, but the explanations of the traditions and techniques involved are all fascinating. The book makes a great introduction to techniques from around the world, and give you an idea of what you might like a lot, so you can head out and find more patterns in your favorite tradition.

That is one reason I chose a pattern from the Faroe Islands (which happens to be the first tradition focused on in Folk Shawls). I had read the patterns here and went out and made some Faroe style shawls in the past. I kept coming back to the Litla Dimun and Stora Dimun patterns, because they seemed more authentic (others I made are the modern versions that start on the small end and build, while these patterns are bottom up and have shoulder shaping).

If you don't have this book already, it's one I'd recommend adding to your library while it's still in print. Some of the shawls are huge masterpieces, but there are also some (which I give Ravelry links to so you can check them out), such as the Simple Garter Stitch Prairie Shawl and the Wool Peddler's Shawl (which many people I know have made), that are good introductions to knitting shawls or knitting lace. 

By the way, the mittens blocked nicely and came out very soft. I look forward to wearing them.

I didn't get to go knit with friends this evening, due to my son having a band event (sometimes you have to do the ole family stuff), but I got my knitting need met by looking through this treasured book once again!

4-Patch Mitered Square Blanket

I finished the borders on this project, and since a couple of people asked me how I did it, I'll write it down here. It's not a "pattern," but just some guidelines: not my finest example of technical writing but if you are experienced with mitered squares, I think you can follow these guidelines.

I am very happy with how this came out. Actually, I am surprised it looks as nice as it does.

I used 4 solid colors and 12 variegated colors to create the 4-patch units. Each took less than one skein of Red Heart or equivalent worsted weight acrylic (this is a charity blanket, so it needs to be machine washable and dryable by non-knitters).

To make one yourself, pick your 4 solids and 12 variegateds and pair them up compatibly (I put a yarn with some green next to green, one with some gold next to gold, etc. To be honest, I put some that were sort of similar too close together, so avoid this.) You can draw a little diagram to remind you of your plan, or just wing it, which is what I did.

Each square is fairly big. I cast on 51 for the first square, knit a row, then next row K24, K3tog, K24.
From there on, knit every other row, and knit the three center stitches together on the next row. You will end up with a square. End with K3tog. You can use any double decrease; just be consistent. I actually used slip 2 as if to knit, K1, pass slipped stitches over. That gave the distinct ridge.

From then on, attach squares to each other. On the first row, you'll cast on 26 then pick up 25 on the side of the previous square. Knit the first row (wrong side) and do a double decrease on the center 3 sts of the next row (your decreases occur on the right sides). Eventually, you'll only have to cast on for the first square in a row, the rest you pick up. I picked the middle stitch up on the middle between the two squares. Does this make no sense? Pick up a book on mitered squares and follow those instructions! Your squares can be bigger or smaller, too.

Hint: using the knitted cast on produces a very nice loop that makes it easy to do the picking up of border stitches.

When your blankie is as big as you wanted (for me, it was 48 squares or 12 4-patch units), use one of the solids pick up stitches on one long edge and knit a 4 garter-stitch ridge border. Do the same with the other long side. Then pick up along the edge of the borders and short edge and do the same. You can't avoid having a solid/border intersection that's the same color on the long side, but you can easily do so on the short side if you plan your colors carefully. Look at how I did it. Of course, you can make the border wider, but I wouldn't make it narrower. You should have enough of the solid color if you made yours the size of mine.

I think you could make a very sophisticated version of this afghan using more sedate solids and nicer yarn. I might even make one for our family room in shades of denim, gold and dark red.

I will be proud to donate this afghan to Project Linus. Leftover variegated yarn is being turned into granny squares for another charity project. I'll put a solid border around them all and it should be cute.

Next, though, I look forward to using the nice Marble yarn to make a crocheted project. Before that, though, I am going to go back to my nice Shetland yarn and Litla Dimun!

References

Want to learn more about mitered squares? Look into publications on modular or domino knitting. Here are some titles:

Domino Knitting

by Vivian Høxbro

This is the first book on the topic I read. It has great practice potholders and such in it.
(whoa I pasted the info in from Ravelry and didn't know it would do the cover, too!) 

Modular Knits

by Iris Schreier

Dazzling Knits: Building Blocks to Creative Knitting

by Patricia Werner
I made this jacket from a pattern in this book--love it.

Module Magic

by Ginger Luters

Some Words

I haven't had much energy or interest in posting. Still feeling a bit down about knitting and the world in general.

It does make me feel better to be working on this thing. I am now halfway finished with this Linus blankie, which I guess will be called a 4-Square Linus Blankie. Since it will be a rudimentary quilt pattern, I am now doing it in honor of Jackie, who passed away at 87 a couple of weeks ago, and was a wonderful quilter. I enjoy thinking of her, even as I knit with Red Heart, so I keep going.



The other thing that has kept me going is that some of the women I used to knit with have found a way to get together, and seem very keen to keep our group together, so we can share what we are doing with each other. We may get to meet in a restaurant in the future, but for now a generous soul has volunteered her house. Let me know if you are a knitting friend of mine who'd like to join us. I do hope I still have some knitting friends, any way.

I also had a chance to go to the lovely Yarnorama store in Paige, TX, to get some yarn (hadn't been yarn shopping in MONTHS) and to watch friends spinning. I got an offer for some help with using my drop spindle, but now I can't find my fiber. All I found was a wad of dog hair, which was not what I wanted to spin. Even if it is nice, long fluffy dog hair.

I did get some nice yarn. I got Marble acrylic yarn in 6 colors to make another charity blankie. That yarn is nice and soft and in such lovely self-striping colors. I want to crochet an afghan with flower shapes. I haven't crocheted in a while.

Also got some lovely sock yarn--two colors of Jitterbug (including VERY bright pink) and two colorways of new Regia Hand Dye effect. That stuff is so pretty (below is the bright colorway, but I also got two skeins of tan/brown for a shawl).



The other item I got was a very soft blend called Socrates, which has some alpaca in it, and it a lovely tweedy thing. All the colors were really intriguing, but I chose this grayish purple one, the colorway of "Dress Blues". I think it will make lovely patterned socks. My hand is in the picture because I was holding it near the window to get better light. It's been rainy here.



I guess I should show you Litla Dimun, which is taking a break so I can knit with that lovely inexpensive acrylic (ha ha). The photo is a close-up of the center. It's too big and awkward for a photo of the whole thing to be interesting. I am, though, about halfway finished--at the end of the first skein of yarn. Once I stop thinking so much about Jackie, I will go back to the shawl. And then maybe start back on socks and knit more like my old self. I just don't feel like my old self.



I am thinking not many folks are reading this any more, but thanks to those of you who are. I am working on a better self-image, which will make for more interesting and frequent content, I hope.

Trying New Things

It's Sunday and I didn't write anything all week, so it must be time to say hello to whoever is out there reading. Not a great deal of knitting happened this week, thanks to having a lot of other stuff to do--and that is a good thing, of course! Much of my time has been spent doing things with my spiritual community, where we are looking for ways to connect outside of weekly services. So far, so good!

One of the things I have tried is a new group that meets at my church on Saturdays to create things for Project Linus. I haven't done any of that before, since I always have so many other projects to do, but since I am still feeling bad about offending people at the yarn shop and really missing the folks there, I can turn that energy into something positive. Seems to be a thing to do!

So, I went to the meeting and discovered that other than me, everyone else is a quilter. Oops. Yes, I certainly have made quilts (and have one unfinished waiting for me to find a place to put the sewing machine), but while I love choosing patterns and colors, I don't particularly love sewing. I stuck around, since I do like talking about quilts, and they invited me to stay. One woman said she'd bring knitting next time, since she envied the fact that I knitted during the meeting, and the others all said they'd like knitting workshops every so often. One or two even wanted to learn to knit. Hey, I like to teach knitting! So, maybe a new door is opening.

I started a project for a toddler size blanket. I found a few errant skeins of Red Heart worsted (100% non-natural fiber!) that I hadn't given away yet and figured I could make a mitered square blanket. Here are the first three squares:


I figure I will make a square a day, then work on my other stuff, until this is done. The yarn does feel a bit plastic-like, but it is not as horrible as my exaggerated memories make it. I even went and got a few more colors, since I need to make it 6 x 8 squares to approximate the right size. I'll keep using this yarn until it runs out, but think I will switch to good ole Vanna's Choice or one of the Caron acrylics that are a bit more supple in the future. Ah well, this will certainly be a sturdy, washable blanket and make a child happy.

The Litla Dimun shawl has made progress and is a lot bigger--it's just slow going. I love how it is constructed, though. I will wait until next week to share another photo of it, though. I am oddly enjoying the feel of the rough yarn.

I hope you are enjoying your winter knitting. Feel free to share any of your favorite charity knitting patterns. I have enough simple things memorized that I can do quite a few (ripple, granny square, etc.) but ideas are welcome.

A Nice Border on Litla Dimun

It has been a bit of a roller coaster this week, with lots of good possibilities for future knitting fun, but not a lot of job action...who knows what is going on with potential employers who say they are sending email but aren't...or keep canceling phone calls. But, I am in no hurry, since I still like what I am doing and my fun and funky coworkers.

One thing that has kept me centered is that the Litla Dimun shawl has been going fine. I did make a couple of boo-boos, but this yarn is a little easier to un-knit than the previous stuff I was working with. The Shetland wool is really "sticky" and hard to unravel, which also means that the stitches that are off the needles don't go anywhere. I could just pull out the yarn and stick the parts that were still correct back on. They did not unravel further! So, here's to burly, rustic Shetland wool!

And here it is:



I am through the lace border around the shawl's bottom. From now on, there is lace just going up the back "gusset" area, with the rest of it garter stitch. There is some subtle decreasing going on that looks like it will nicely shape the shoulder area and make it stay on really well. What a nice, simple pattern.

I am happy that there are a lot fewer stitches on the needle now. The shawl should move along quite smartly from now on. And I will also get back to working on the two lovely pairs of socks I have going (speaking of socks, I was looking for something else and found a pair I only knitted one of, so old it isn't even in Ravelry--guess I better finish them!). It's just that, for some reason, that warm, "sheepy" yarn really comforts me.

Thanks to all who posted supportive comments, and I wish you all good knitting, friendship and fun!

Happy Dance on Someone Else's Account

I found out today that the project I test knitted for my friend out of the Knitivity sock yarn in the Koi colorway will be in Knitty! Of course I can't share any more details, but I could not be more happy for my friend. I had fun technical editing the pattern--always nice to work on something on a topic I actually LIKE. I think you will enjoy the pattern as much as I did, so keep an eye out for it, though I am sure I will be providing a link as soon as I can!

More good news, I got two calls about jobs today. None long lasting, but I'd at least know when they begin and end. I think I could probably also keep doing some stuff for the folks I now work for (whom I like very much)--hope so--that job is independent contracting, so it could happen.

I am through the first section of the lace border on the Litla Dimun shawl, and I hope I can get more done this evening--been having lots of meetings in the evenings this week, and it won't let up soon. Most are meetings where knitting can be done, which is great! Plus, I have the advantage of working on a project that has shorter and shorter rows rather than longer and longer ones. Ahh.

PS: My coworker and I were looking at very sad images of Haiti before and after the earthquake. The docks were especially difficult to look at--they were there one day, not there the next. That can't make delivering aid easier. I hope all of us around the world can put aside our differences and help the innocent families in whatever ways we can.

Free to Blog (little knitting content)

In a small amount of knitting news, I had a nice "knit and chat" with my friend Deana on Monday night, and got through all the plain knitting parts on my new, so-far intact Litla Dimun shawl. I have gotten through six rows of the lace border and it looks quite nice--a bit airy but should be warm and rustic looking. The yarn is so rough it actually CUT me, though, so I will be sure to wash it well!

I look forward to some good knitting times with my friends soon, and will tell you about it all when it comes. I hope to start going to the Saturday spinning days at Yarnorama, too, if they will let "just a knitter" participate! I have plans! A life!

And hey, thank you to those of you who wrote such kind comments on my last post, including the Facebook readers. The kind to unkind comment ratio was heartwarming, and I appreciate all the acceptance and understanding--I want to extend that to all of you AND to anyone else as well. We all have bad days and over-react sometimes, not just me! Like one of my friends said on Facebook, having gone through some rough patches with friends can make friendships stronger!

See, here I am looking happy in something I knitted. Thanks.


About Blogging

I was reading an old friend's knitting blog this morning, and it really hit home. Here's the post, if you'd like to check it out. She talks about blogging with boldness. In her blog, she quotes another blogger thus:

Instead of being hung up excessively on what others are going to think of me when I blog this, say that, do whatever, I can finally stand firm, not giving a rip if my well intentioned words are still twisted by someone with nothing better to do.

(Note that this blogger's perspective is much different from mine in many ways, but she makes a good point here.)

Even though this is my knitting blog, and not my political, religious or advocacy blog, I have still been very timid about saying what I think about things sometimes. I just want everyone to like me and everyone to get along, I guess. After all, peace IS one of my favorite non-knitting topics.

Still, I think I am doing my own self a disservice by not mentioning things like being hurt by unkind comments from people, or upset with bad service in a shop, or disappointed in a pattern...whatever. I am going to try from now on to be a little more forthcoming (no, not going out on the attack--just not omitting anything potentially controversial--after all, people still love the Yarn Harlot and she says things I think but would never say!)

What Made Me So Wimpy in Blogging in the First Place?

(No, I will not go into what made me so wimpy as an individual--lack of time and space there!) When I had been blogging a couple of years, in the personal blog that preceded this one and still exists for those who ask its address, I got a reader who had an agenda and began reading all kinds of hidden meanings, innuendos and messages in posts that I had never intended, or even thought possible. I went back in and addressed all these things, and today I don't think I'd do it. I think you can misinterpret almost anything if you try!

There are always people who are irritated with you in some way and looking for ways to interpret things you say negatively. You can't stop being yourself, saying what you think, or sharing your stories just because one or two people might not like it. Sure, you don't slander people or blatantly lie. But, you can share your perspective and do your best to treat others as you would like to be treated--and apologize if you screw up. Perhaps I go overboard apologizing (as in my last post), but I am not going to stop sharing with readers, either. That's my perspective.

Crushed Blossoms

(Skip this blog post if you don't want to read about someone sad about how things have turned out and beating herself up for her flaws. I won't mind if you do.)

Yesterday may well go down as one of the worst days of my knitting life. For so many reasons, but primarily for this. I was at the LYS, and after chatting, having some banana bread and such, I reached into my knitting bag to pick up the Rosebud Shawl. I was pretty happy to have finished the center panel of rosebuds and got a start on the borders, with correctly placed markers to get the corners right. Then, I saw what you see below.

I don't know what did this. I have a couple of guesses--one marker was not a smooth, wonderful Entrelac marker, but was one with a dangle on it. The yarn had gotten caught in that, but when I removed the one strand in there, it seemed to be fine. This hole has at least three strands of broken yarn in it, more like something cut it. No clue what could have done it. One idea put forward was moths, but if that were the case, I would have seen it sooner--there was no hole the day before.

I was surprised and dismayed at how sad it made me to see that irreparable hole in the shawl. It flashed through my mind how many mistakes I had fixed in it, how hard it had been to unravel those rows and get the lace back on the needles, how carefully I'd had to re-attach the two dropped stitches that I had found. Through all those trials, I still was able to use my skills to keep the project going. But, there is nothing I can do to fix the hole, which was in the FIRST repeat of the lace pattern.

Worse is that I reacted really poorly when it was suggested that it was just knitting, nothing really important. My gut reaction was that, yes, it WAS something important to me. I now realize that I was so upset because knitting was pretty much the ONLY part of my life where I felt like I had a bit of a handle on things--that I was competent enough to control and have some mastery over.

As you may know, I have had to deal with a series of employment situations where no matter how good I worked, I had to leave and find something else. I'd really not expected the most recent one--no matter how well I have been doing or how much my coworkers like me, circumstances beyond my control reach out and bop me on the head. This has now happened 4 times since 2006. It's been the same with relationships--I'd trusted that my ex would take care of our family so that I could take the risk of being an at-home parent, and tried so hard to be a good wife and mother, even taking up my husband's hobbies and losing a bunch of weight. But still, I could not be someone else, and I was left to try to figure out another future. I had tried really hard to set up a safe environment in the job I had for over a decade, but again, I could not control things and protect myself and others, leaving me to try to figure out a new career in mid life.

These are the kind of thoughts that have been going on in my mind the past few months. That I am sort of adrift with no plan and no security and nothing I can do to help it. I am so glad I at least have my husband, who has employment and still does care about me--but I worry something could happen to him. Great. None of this has a thing to do with knitting, but when I lost control of that, all the sadness about all the other things welled up inside me. I really got upset, handled the huge rush of sadness very poorly, and now I figure I'll never be welcome at the yarn shop again.

I hadn't cried in months other than a bit when my son went off to college. I'd been trying very hard to remain optimistic and up-beat when I could, and neutral otherwise. Some folks can be sarcastic, snarky and pick at people for their flaws and others just chalk it up to "that's the way she/he is." I know that has never worked with me--any time I have let negative stuff slip out of me, I have paid for it and paid for it hard. This is no exception. I got all my pent-up stuff out of me yesterday!

I need to surround myself with people who can listen and understand that once in a great while I might get upset, who can accept apologies that are sincere, and who can try to understand when something really is important to me. So, I'll be moving on. I really AM sorry I over-reacted and upset people. No one wants to publicly embarrass themselves and upset others, or to lose any chance of friendship with people they like a lot. For me, it just confirms my already not-so-hot self image, to top it all off. But, it's not about me, really. I just don't want to make other people feel bad, so I am not happy with myself at all.

The reason I am sharing this stuff is that I want to once again apologize for not living up to my own standards, and to ask any local folks who read this and want to stay in touch to please be my Facebook or Ravelry friend and remain in contact. I'd love to do stuff with any of you who want to remain my friend!

And now, back to knitting, which helps keep me centered, and will always be my friend, even though unforeseen circumstances can cause knitting heartache!

Move on Breathe, and Regroup

Because of not being able to work on the project I'd thought I'd spend the weekend on, I did manage to finish one repeat of the Flaming Desire socks. This is a GREAT pattern, as far as I am concerned. It is hard enough to keep my interest, but easy enough to not need a huge amount of concentration. I think it will look more like flames once I have completed the second repeat. I still like the Pagewood Farm Chugiak yarn and will enjoy knitting up the other skeins I have. I am not a fanatic about it, but I like the stitch definition and the variety of semi-solid colorways.


After that rather overwhelmingly unpleasant experience with trying to re-start a hibernating project, I decided that I would not get back to work on the Maelstrom shawl, but instead start something comforting and more easy. You may remember that a few months ago I bought some naturally gray two-ply laceweight yarn from American Shetland sheep. I had thought of making a Faroese-style shawl from it, so I looked through my resources and picked the Litla Dimun (Ravelry link) shawl from the Folk Shawls book by Cheryl Oberle. This shawl starts out from the long edge and grows smaller. Thus, what you see is a bit of the long edge. So far, it is just garter stitch and some decreases. After 12 ridges, a lovely lace border begins. It feels good to work with the yarn, which is called Natural Shetland Rustic Lace. It is indeed rustic, crunchy, even. This is, of course, what you expect from Shetland yarn.


Depending on how big this shawl turns out to be, I might just add a border to the edge. It is a bit small when made to gauge, which I think is what I am doing. With size 4 needles I am getting about 4 stitches per inch.

I may not post much for a while--I am feeling pretty vulnerable, sad, and like maybe I am not really a part of the knitting community. I will continue to read other people's blogs and such. I enjoy hearing how others are doing too much to not read! Thankfully, my work does start again tomorrow, so that huge amount of stress and worry will lift.

Happy knitting and remember the Golden Rule.