WolfWeave

And could it be that I’ve actually taken some photos?? Could be!

First of all, here is the hat I knitting from this pattern, which is taking longer than I thought it would (big surprise!) but my continental-style knitting is getting faster. I used ripped-out bits of Noro Silk Garden that were once destined to be a pillow cover:

Then here is what I’ve knit so far of my Noro Lucy sweater (from the Naturally Noro booklet by Jane Ellison). There was more of it but I didn’t like the way the I had decided to decrease from one size to another (with my decreases forming an angle at the sides), so I ripped it all back:

I love the way the Noro Kochoran yarn looks close up—you can see the hairs and fuzz from the angora sticking out. Then I just thought it was interesting the pattern that formed when I wound this one skein into a ball:

Now for some gratuitous stash enhancement (you’ll notice that “knit from your stash 2007″ button to the right…what a joke!). I really don’t know what I would do without Little Knits (probably save a lot of money) and their sales!! I couldn’t resist this luxurious Tilli Tomas silk chenille (check the Little Knits site for better photos):

because I just love silk chenille and have a small selection of it from Alchemy and some balls of really fine silk chenille I picked up at a silk weaving studio on Granville Island in Vancouver on one vacation years ago. I don’t know what I’ll make with this Tilli Tomas silk chenille (especially with only 5 skeins each of 3 colors) or if I could even bear to part with knit with it!

I also fell for another Tilli Tomas yarn, Silken Shimmer (spun silk that is plied with silk chenille and metallic thread) that I thought would make an elegant evening top but it is a might thicker than the chenille alone (duh!) so it may work out to be better for an evening shawl or cape:

I also bought 7 balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino (28% Kid Mohair, 28% Merino Wool, and 44% Micro Nylon with 240 yards per 25 gram skein) in this luscious color and I have no idea what they will turn into (but the purchase did offer me free shipping for my entire order!):

I also ordered a bag of Noro Silver Thaw to knit up something from Noro Unlimited by Jane Ellison:

I had ordered this book, along with several others from Royal Yarns and I was thinking about perhaps making this Shaftesbury sweater:

or one of the other lovely sweaters in the book. One of the nice things about the patterns in this book is that many of them can be made with any number of different Noro yarns, giving you lots of options.

And last, but not least, my Little Knits order included a few skeins of Artyarns Ultramerino 8 in a lovely Poppy colorway:

Iris Schreier gave her yahoogroup members a new pattern for a Reverse Chevron Stitch scarf for which I just may use this yarn.

I guess it’s the bleak month of January and being generally in the doldrums, plus suffering from a variety of health ailments, including having broken the 5th metatarsal in my right foot this time (it was the left foot 2 years ago)(notice the lovely black colorway around the toes), so out came the boot again and the podiatrist suggested purchasing a cane this time so I don’t slip on the snow or ice:

As my son says, I look just like House hobbling around; now all I need are the witty barbs to go along with it!

I also discovered that I have not just another regular large abdominal hernia that needs to be repaired; but a barium small bowel x-ray revealed a “SURPRISE!” hiatal hernia with my entire stomach pouch up in the chest cavity and an eroded esophageal flap. Gee, wonder why I’m having so much reflux and (pardon the expression) regurgitation?! Lovely.

Anyway, as I was saying, maybe it’s all the January depression, but I was also tempted by one of the weekly sales at Kaleidoscope Yarns in Vermont (a charming store which we visited on vacation one summer) and bought up enough Rowan Tapestry yarn to make…well…something out of the new Rowan Tapestry book.

I assumed I would make the Marsh sweater but now I’m thinking about the Foxtail sweater on the cover or one of the others in the booklet.

Finally, looking ahead to summer, I took advantage of a sale at Colorful Stitches to order enough of one of my favorite yarns, Ananas, in a bright colorway, to knit a summer shell:

And last, but not least, here’s a little something you all can purchase from Cafepress, and get a beautiful 2007 calendar while contributing to a worthy cause: The Global Fund for Women. All the photos on the calendar are of incredible freeform knit and crochet creations from members of the International Freeform Crochet Group. Claudia Dunitz was kind enough to donate her time to put the entire calendar together, selecting photographs and getting them into calender-worthy shape. Everyone who contributed did a fabulous job; the photos are stunning and you can see a preview at Cafepress. Buy one–it’ll make you feel good!

One Thursday (I think it was 2 weeks ago), we journeyed up to Jenny’s cabin in the woods for a special Bead Group outing. Her “cabin” turns out to be a lovely house on a lake which she is busily decorating in the most charming fashion. Dianne and I brought food and flowers and spent the night while Kathy and Susie drove up the next day with the dogs (don’t ask!). That night, just being away from home, away from computers and television and telephones and newspapers, was the most relaxing time. After touring the cabin and unpacking in our adorable guest bedrooms, we put music on the stereo, drank killer martinis, ate some of our dinner goodies, laughed and laughed, and played Scrabble and Rummikub (with a little Sudoku and crossword puzzles on the side) before collapsing into our bedrooms. Here are Jenny and Dianne at the Scrabble board and a photo of Jenny’s welcoming fireplace:

The next morning we just relaxed, watched the geese on the ice covering the lake, and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. Jenny’s contractor showed up to unload some materials for building her deck, but aside from that we were undisturbed. I just sat in the comfy chair by the fireplace and knit. I felt all the tension draining away and wished I could stay up there for a week or so! When Kathy and Susie showed up and the dogs calmed down and the tour had been given again, and we’d eaten lunch, we sat down to our individual projects and accomplished not very much before it started to grow dark. All too soon, it was time to pack up and go home…but I can’t thank Jenny enough for allowing us that brief vacation when it was really needed!

And here’s a photo Jenny took of the 4 of us in front of her fireplace:

Bringing ourselves up to date, timewise, tonight we all (including Sue, who didn’t make it up to the cabin today) took Michelle (missing from the photos, because she has a regular job and can’t often make it to Bead Group) out to dinner for her birthday. We had a lovely evening at Jacky’s Bistro in Evanston but no one remembered to bring a camera! Too bad, or I could show you some photos of the Crispy Chocolate Palet which was Michelle’s Happy Birthday dessert, complete with candle! Wendy called from Florida (where she is enjoying her new house and all that warm weather) to give Michelle her best wishes. We were all so glad that we could share Michelle’s birthday with her. I think it is still important to us to spend as much time (and as many special occasions) as possible together, as we are all still grieving for Janice.

TELL me nearly a month has gone by since I’ve posted!! Okay, blame it on issues with health, children, winter, whatever. The time seems to spin by and, of course, nothing gets accomplished. Well, almost nothing. My Noro vest is finished and seamed and all I have to do is tuck in the ends, attach the buttons, and block it (photos soon, I promise). It turned out quite nice I think.

I’ve been making some silver wire Viking Knit bracelets and necklaces but none of them are quite finished and they all need to be aged in liver of sulfur, polished and then embellished with pearls and crystals. Photos soon! I also need to do a quick practice of seed bead peyote stitch, as I have a North Suburban Needlearts Guild workshop with Diane Fitzgerald coming up in 10 days on her Peyote Polygons and it’s been literally years since I’ve done any beading! Yikes!! MUST practice!!

I was challeneged by Carol Hurt to a mini-knit-along of the Noro Lucy sweater (out of the Jane Ellison’s Naturally Noro book) which I purchased from Royal Yarns) since we both had the Kochoran yarn in our stashes (I bought mine from Little Knits), so I’ve started on that. It’s a beautiful yarn, with silk and angora in it, though it sheds all over. I decided that my knitting was way too slow, so I’m using Lucy as a platform to practice Continental Knitting (it’s all garter stitch or else I’d be practicing Combination Knitting, especially as I have a 2-day workshop with Annie Modesitt coming up next weekend with the Windy City Knitting Guild). So it’s been slow going but seems to be getting faster. It’s really a brain problem, as when I’m holding the yarn in my left hand, my brain immediately thinks “CROCHET.” That’s just how it’s wired and it’s difficult re-training one’s brain, especially since I crocheted for many more years before I learned to knit.

I also decided that I needed to knit myself a winter hat, as I look like a don’t-know-how-to-knit jerk just grabbing one of my sons’ supply of $2 winter caps from Target every time I leave the house…so I printed out the pattern The Yarn Harlot recommended a few days back using Noro Silk Garden. I just spent the morning unraveling old strips of modular knitting in black tones of Silk Garden (can’t remember what they were for…a pillow cover?) so that my hat will at least not clash with my black Ritratto ruffle scarf, which seems to be my winter scarf of choice this year. At first I was going to use the leftover Silk Garden I had from knitting my Clapotis, but that is yellows and pinks and, well…you know…fashion disaster. However, the pattern (21″ around) calls for using size 6 dpns and you know already that I have none (since I’ve rejected my Crystal Palace splintering ones and have yet to order Inox ones) so I’m starting with a circular needle, but all I have that’s close is an Addi 20″ in size 5. I knit a few rows as written but it looks awfully small so I think I’ll start again and add an additional 12 stitches to make up for the needle size difference. Guess I’d better order those Inox needles (or some Knitpicks dpns) before the cap narrows toward the top! My head is 22″ around but you want the ribbing to be tight and Silk Garden stretches out so anyway—major rationalization! (Note: I just pulled the yellow/pink off the needles and tried it on—I had about 4 rows of ribbing knit—and it seems to fit perfectly because Silk Garden is so stretchy; consequently, I don’t think I’ll add any stitches to the pattern!)

On the home front, my dear son Aaron is no longer working for reddit/Wired Digital/Condé Nast, as evidenced by this hilarious photo on his blog:

(shirt courtesy of Danny O’Brien)

And I say he’s lucky to be out of it. Obviously he is not/was not suited to their corporate culture. This was obvious from the first day. It became glaringly evident to me this past weekend when we were having some difficulties (Aaron had been suffering a flare-up of his health problems for a while and was in extreme pain in Boston waiting for his steroids to take effect). He needed rest and care and no stress. Meanwhile, I had to endure several phone conversations with Aaron’s immediate boss, Kourosh Karimkhany (your typical crawled-out-from-under-a-rock, lying-to-cover-his-ass middle manager), who expressed to me his great concern for Aaron’s welfare and then turned around within minutes and fired him! A day or two later he spoke with me again, assured me he understood the problem and wouldn’t discuss his employment situation with Aaron until the weekend was over and Aaron had returned to San Francisco; he expressed his concern for Aaron’s health once more; and then he turned around, phoned Aaron and fired him again!! S–t! Anyway, I say good riddance to bad corporate rubbish. It’s just too sad that this corporate garbage has thrown a wedge between Aaron and his partners/friends at reddit who are now not “allowed” to talk to him anymore, according to a corporate edict. Though they may have their own reasons for being finished with him: I see that the 4 reddit avatars have disappeared from the top of the reddit blog page, so we won’t be seeing Aaron’s avatar anymore, except here:

I wonder if there was any jealousy involved; after all, it did seem as though Aaron, being the young prodigy, was getting a lot of the press.

In any case, WE know that Aaron can go on to accomplish even more great things—years from now he will look back and this episode will be a tiny blip on his resume. Barely 20, he has other projects he wants to begin, books he wants to write, classes he wants to take. We wish him only the best and send him all our love.

Bead Group met at Dianne’s house today and I had my new camera so we were able to sneak in some snapshots! Here we are (except for Wendy who is enjoying the sunshine at her new house in Florida for a few months and Susie who is off in Telluride for a while and Michelle and Margo who have full-time jobs):

Dianne

Sue

Kathy

Jenny

Susan (me)