WolfWeave

January’s been a difficult month, so I bought myself my anniversary present a bit early: I succumbed to the lure of a full set of the Signature Needlearts straight needles, made from polished and anodized aluminum in gloriously bright colors. Aside from the difficulty of the month, I blame this purchase on three things:

1. Annie Modesitt kept showing photographs of them in her blog.

2. The incredibly slow progression of the Chevron Scarf, which I am currently knitting on my (heretofore favorite) Bryson straight plastic needles.

3. The company is offering a special in January which basically lets you order at 2007 prices, staving off the 2008 price increase.

SO…I ordered a full set of 10″ needles with stiletto points (SO sharp!) and teardrop endcaps which arrived in a beautiful red brocade needlecase (lined in black with slots for the other length needles as well) that ties together with black ribbon.

I knitted up some swatches and was amazed at how slick the needles are—I used the Rowan Tapestry yarn that I have been knitting my sweater from on my Knitpicks Options circulars with the Harmony wood needle points—and my stitches fairly flew along. I was definitely knitting much faster than I ever have before. I love the feel of them and the endcaps were not (as I had feared) too heavy…though, in the larger sizes such as 9 and 10, I think they are larger/heavier than they need to be, as they tried to make them proportional.

However, I tried to knit the number of stitches for the back of a sweater and they definitely crowded the length of a 10″ needle and, since I was so pleased with the needles, I called back today and ordered a few of my most-used sizes in the 14″ length also!! Pig heaven!!

But I do have to point out—anniversary gift and all—these ARE the ONLY knitting needles I have that my husband has ever even NOTICED, let alone admired! He was very impressed with the workmanship, the hand-milling that went into them, etc. and spent about as much time as I did looking them over. So…I think I chose the right gift!

AS IF I didn’t have enough to do (!), I signed up to take an online course from Susan Sorrel. She had just started a course on Tuesday called “Doodle Designs Workshop” that sounded like a lot of fun and just what I needed to break through this creative block that has stymied me for the past…well, way too many months. I just downloaded Lesson 1 and need to carve out some time to just play with pen and ink and other art supplies again to tap into that unconscious flow, let go of some of the stress and see what comes forth that could possibly be used as creative art! Finding time…that will be the difficult part of the whole equation!

I also decided it’s been too long since I’ve done any beading (was that Diane Fitzgerald workshop REALLY last February???) so I signed up to take the last workshop that NanC Meinhardt was teaching at her studio (as she will be closing her store this March) and had a thoroughly enjoyable day learning to make Rapunzel, a unique twirly necklace. I am making mine in beads ranging from blues through purples to greens. I borrowed this photo from the front page of NanC’s site, as it may not be available when she closes her store. Photo copyright NanCMeinhardt:

If I ever finish my necklace, I’ll put on a photo of mine. So far I have a few inches done. But it does, as always, feel good to be beading again and to be playing with the bead colors. Though, of course, despite my best intentions to use up my bead stash, I had to buy lots of new beads, as I just did not have a wide enough range of the right colors in size 11 and 15 seed beads! Just wait until I get to the embellishment part! Swarovski crystals and pearls, here I come!

UPDATE:

Here is a photo of my swatch from the class:

And here is how far my Rapunzel has come so far (as of 1/2008):

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair already (it’s getting late girl)!!

Okay, it might be time to get back to some knitting content…ya think?

1. Ravelry (see sidebar) is terrific–I am “beadmomsw” over there (as in most correspondence). It has turned out to be a fantastic reference–it’s the first place I turn to when I want to see how a pattern really looks when knitted by different people or when I want to know if it has problems I should watch out for. It is a community of people who have already offered help and words of encouragement. It has groups I have joined for fun and learning. It has sellers of the most gorgeous hand-painted yarns (in which I over-indulged). Lots and lots of fun so get on the list and join up!!

2. I spent most of the past few months knitting two projects: Debbie Bliss’ Kilcar sweater and the Chevron Scarf. Be forewarned: Debbie Bliss patterns are minimally written and Kilcar is not for beginners (nor intermediate knitters). I have all my pieces started but have stalled at the points where increasing or decreasing (armholes, shoulder caps, sleeve shaping) became necessary because the lace pattern, which is a 10-row repeat, and WHICH IS NOT EXPLAINED IN ANY DETAIL DURING INCREASE/DECREASE SECTIONS has decidedly gone off in totally wonky directions, despite the best intentioned help from a Ravelry pal. Kilcar is in a timeout underneath my bed.

1. The Chevron Scarf (from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson, while fabulous, is knit from Koigu yarn on size 5 needles with 2 balls of yarn (switching every 2 rows); consequently, it is taking FOREVER. I’m almost half done (guess I’m not a fast knitter–yeah, I’m just coming to that realization!) so it’s beginning to look like this will be NEXT winter’s scarf!

1. So, to keep my sanity, and in some vain attempt to actually complete a winter sweater THIS winter, I started to make a simple cowlneck from Louisa Harding’s book Modern Classics. Her “Basic Sweater.” I’m using Rowan Tapestry yarn for it because I decided I didn’t like whatever it was in the Rowan Tapestry book that I had originally bought the yarn for. The yarn, a blend of gorgeous silver-blues, is made of merino and soy silk which would work fine if it weren’t single ply. The single ply is difficult to knit with (despite using my new Knitpicks Harmony circular needles–fine, slick and sharp), as it separates, has slubs, and halos. Plus, using size 6 needles, it isn’t exactly a quick knit either. However, to save time, I decided to knit the body in the round up to the armholes and, knitting continental style, that is going a lot faster. When I get to work on it. Which is NOT when I am on the computer…on Ravelry. Hmmmm.

1. But Ravelry is so cool. You can totally organize yourself–you can list all your needles, nearly all your books (not quite all of them are available yet) and they show up as photos of the book sitting on a bookshelf, and you can photograph and list your stash. I haven’t had time to do that yet, which is just as well. The largest stash I’ve seen so far on Ravelry had 1250 yarns and I’m afraid I might beat that one, which would be decidedly embarrassing but I do have all these single balls from when I was doing so much freeform crochet. (great excuse).

Well, after another long absence lost in cyberspace, my blog has returned (thanks to my son’s hard work and his ability to retrieve the blog from a crashed server and move it to a new server). Let’s hope it stays up for a while now. Not that I’ve had much to say these past months, as I am still grieving. But I have been doing some knitting and will elaborate on that soon (with photos?!). For today, it’s enough to celebrate the blog’s return.