Transitions

You would think that, now that the semester is over, I'd have more time for things like blogging and knitting, but somehow it hasn't worked out that way.  I have, in fact, still been knitting (although less than you'd think), but I've been spending so much time at the computer trying to get through several really big jobs that have been waiting for my summer "free" time, that whenever I am not working, I'm avoiding the computer like the plague.

I am done with two of those tasks (or at least, they're in someone else's hands for now), so I'm hoping the computer allergy will abate.

It also doesn't help that I tend to think of Sunday as my blogging day, but I've been travelling the last several weekends (lots and lots of driving up and down the state involved), so Sundays have involved cars, more than anything.  Basically, I'm in transition from a spring schedule to a summer one, and in the same way that, once one has taken everything out of the trunk on a road trip, it doesn't all seem to want to fit back in the same way, I am trying to get everything to fit.

The travelling not only included the language revitalization work that always makes me happy, but took me to parts of the state that I love.  The rolling hills north of the Bay Area just seem to tug at my heart.

No wonder the cows look so content (see them there?).

The grass was just starting to turn from a lovely spring green into what will become a tawny lion brown.

And the oaks...

I have a tendency to take a rather inordinately large number of pictures of oaks.

But I really do love their shapes.

All of the meeting time meant that I needed something that required very little concentration.  Luckily, I had just the thing.  A few weeks ago, I cast on for the Indigo Ripples Skirt, which I've been wanting to knit since I first saw it in IK ages ago.  You may remember that I bought some Rowan denim on sale when I was in Sacramento over the holidays, so as part of my plan to knit down some of the stash, I paired the two up, and off I went.

(Not the best picture, but I figure I'd better post while I'm willing to sit at the computer.)

I knitted this very much as the pattern said, except that I made the stockinette portion longer, and knitted fewer repeats of the lace at the bottom, to make this more into something that I might actually wear to work.  I'd been wondering how well the yarn would wash, and whether it would tighten up into something un-see-through enough for public wear; the swatch seemed to suggest that it would.  And I think it did. 

It's very comfortable.  It's a bit darker than it appears in these photos, but much lighter than the yarn was in the ball.  (In fact, the yarn released dye on my hands every time I knit, so that my fingers and palms were blue, and it was possible to see the way I wind the yarn around the fingers of my right hand by following the blue lines it left.  However, it hasn't left any dye on my skin since I washed it.)  When I was done, I threw it into the washer and the dryer, which seems to have taken care of the extra dye and faded it out some.  It also shrank by several inches lengthwise, which was exactly what the swatch predicted, so I'd planned for it.

All in all, this turned out well.  I knitted a skirt a few years back, which did not (it's so huge on me that I only wear it to the beach as a cover-up - it's knitted from Elsbeth Lavold Hempathy - and it didn't wash up as un-see-through as this one did), so I'd kind of worried.  It's not something that is necessarily fun to knit, either, although it was very easy.  I find cotton to be hard on the hands, although to be fair, the Rowan Denim isn't nearly as bad as some others I've worked with.  I would use it again, but I think it'll be good to give my hands a break.

Especially since the other big project that I'm currently working on (momentarily unbloggable) is knitted from a linen yarn that's a real bear to work with.  It's stiff, so it feels like it's constantly springing away from me.  It takes a lot of work, and my hands can't deal with it for too long. 

So in the meantime, I'm on the hunt for something that'll be a good antidote for that one.  I've been carrying around the pattern for the Color Affection Shawl for months; maybe the time has come to find some yarn for that one?

Vitamin D

Is done!  I finished the second sleeve on Friday night, in time to throw the sweater into a bowl of water, press it dry-ish, and lay it out to block.  It wasn't even close to dry when I woke up on Saturday, and I knew that I wanted to wear it Saturday evening to go out, so I set it out in the sun (some vitamin D for Vitamin D?), and it was dry in a jiffy.  We had to go to a midday party, but when we came home, I wove the ends in, stitched up the itsy-bitsy seams under the arms (I do love things that are knitted in the round), and it was good to go in time for us to go out to dinner before Cirque du Soleil on Saturday night.  I have worn it every day since then.  (Heh.)

On Mother's Day, I managed to get a few modelling shots.  Both of my girls (and my husband) took me to the beach for a walk at low tide.  I love the way the beach changes with the changing seasons.  At this time of the year, much of the sand that covers the beach by the fall has washed away, laying bare rocks that we don't normally get to see.

 Not to mention the anemones that live on those rocks.

In the spring, seaweeds and grasses begin to wash in from the beds just off-shore.

There is something wonderful about seeing the small, subtle, slow changes that a landscape undergoes from day to day, week to week, throughout the circle of the year.  It's the kind of thing that only comes with going to the same place time and again, season upon season, an intimate relationship with place that depends on time.

 The girls (all of them) were willing to get in on some of the Vitamin D modelling shots with me.

 But since, beautiful as the girls are, they blocked the sweater, Rick also took a few with more of a focus on the knitting.

Although Younger Daughter (and Tilly) still got in on the action (see all that seaweed there?  Tilly thought it smelled just marvelous).

I am not kidding when I say I've worn the sweater every day since finishing it.  This one is going to be a staple in my wardrobe, no doubt in my mind.  It's the perfect weight, it fits beautifully, it hangs nicely, and I like the bracelet-length sleeves (making a virtue of necessity, as I was afraid I'd run out of yarn - but the fact is that if the sleeves were longer, I'd just spend all my time pushing them up).  Even better, this was knitted out of yarn that I had in stash.  Hooray!

Some details:  The pattern is Vitamin D, I used the recommended needle size (which I think was a six, but I can't remember right now).  I knitted it out of Mirasol Nuna, which is 40% Merino, 40% silk, and 20% bamboo (shade 1002).  It's a fabulous combination, both in terms of drape and weight for San Diego. 

A walk on the beach is my idea of a perfect way to spend Mother's Day, especially since all of my very favorite people were there.

(Younger Daughter wants you to know that she took that picture.)

And to make things even better, the afternoon was devoted (aside from doing laundry, which doesn't stop, even for Mother's Day) to knitting.  So next time, I can share one new project OTN (using yarn from stash), and one renewed WIP.

Done, and almost done

Well, the knitting part of the shawl is done, and it has been blocked.  Tonight I weave the ends in, and then it can go to my friend in time to take it up to Berkeley for her daughter's graduation this weekend.  Whew!

I really love the fact that, when laid out, this shawl makes a circle.

Isn't it fun?  And not only is it in ocean colors, but there are waves.

They're almost the same shape as the edges of the water as we walked along the beach (during that lovely low tide during the super moon) last weekend.

 The Pediboo yarn drapes beautifully, and gives this shawl a weight that, along with the shape, helps it to stay in place.  This is the second time I've knitted this one, and I'm not tired of it yet, which is saying something (since I rarely knit the same pattern multiple times).  I guess that means I'd recommend it.

I have also finished the first sleeve on Vitamin D (no pictures, because sleeve pictures aren't particularly inspiring), and will pick up the stitches for the second sleeve tonight.  That went fast, so with luck, I'll be blocking that sweater this weekend.  Maybe (just maybe), I'll even be able to finish and block it on Friday, so I can wear it on Saturday (which is when we're doing most of our Mother's Day stuff - read: going to Cirque du Soleil, because they're in town and the timing was too good to pass up).

Last night was my last night class of the semester (once every two years I teach an evening class), and tomorrow I'll teach my last sections of my other class.  And then it's on to grading.  My evening class is the field methods class that I've talked about in the past, where a patient guinea pig speaker of a language that none of us knows comes to class every week so that we can ask her to say things in that language.  Then it's the job of the students to analyse that data to discover the grammatical rules of the language.  This semester, it was Tigrina, a Semitic language spoken by millions of people in Eritrea and Ethiopia.  The speaker was fabulously patient with us, and the students did an amazing job.  It's hard when this class ends, because it's such an intense experience; I miss seeing everybody each week.  (As an aside, I spent nearly two years trying to convince our budget committee that when I said I needed money to pay a language speaker in order to teach this class, I was not talking about needing a guest speaker in my class - "But we'd all like to have guest speakers" was the chorus - until I finally turned to the faculty member from Psych and said, "You get lab rats.  I need a lab rat.  Except language lives in the brains of humans, so I need a human brain.  With a mouth attached."  That did it.)

And tomorrow night I teach the second half of my spindling class, where we talk about plying, the whys and wherefores.  So after tomorrow night, things really will have wound down.  At least, all of these things will have wound down - the To Do list that I've been putting off for quite some time now still lurks, menacingly, in the background.  So one set of things is done, or almost done (hence the post title), but then more will start.

A little leeway

I'm plugging away on the shawl for my friend's daughter.  I had in my head that her graduation was this weekend, and I was thinking that there was no way it would be done in time for my friend to take with her to Berkeley, but was consoling myself that at least it would be here when they came back.  So I checked in with my friend today, and it turns out that the graduation is a week from this weekend.  Hooray!  It suddenly seems like I have all the time in the world.

The colors aren't quite right in these photos; they're taken with my phone in my office.  As it's a gray day here, the light is very diffuse and (as always with gray days) surprisingly bright, in a dim sort of way.  The lighter color is much closer to a sea-foam green than anything, and I think between that and the pale gray (not to mention the wave at the edge, once it's cast off), it meets the specified liking for ocean colors.

This is moving along fairly quickly.  It helps that I love the yarn (Frog Tree Pediboo), and that most of the rows are stockinette, so I can read while I'm knitting (which I did this last weekend; Nook finally has my favorite Bujold books available, so I got a couple, along with Reich's latest ebook release, which I highly recommend, if anyone is looking for something that will make them think, and perhaps foam at the mouth, in a good sort of way).  It's not a difficult or mind-consuming knit, but a fun one.  I'm done with the striping, so now it's only the gray border to go.  And I have a two-hour Senate meeting this afternoon, which should translate to some progress.

In fact, here you can see the meeting prep corner of my office.

Usually, it's just the spindle (for quiet moments in my office - rare, but nice), and the bag on the left (with an endless stockinette scarf); the Whippoorwill is in the bag to the right, which I'm pleased I remembered today.  (I actually took a few more office pictures today; perhaps a virtual office tour may be forthcoming at some point...)

And speaking of spindling, tomorrow night and next Thursday, I get to teach another spindling class at my LYS!  I always look forward to these classes - I just wish that there was some always-good time to offer them.  Whether I do the two-part series on Thursday nights or Saturday mornings, there's someone who was hoping to take it who can't make it at that time (scheduling college classes is the same way, alas).  But if there's anyone local who is interested and available, there are still spots left.  Not only is it a fun class, but I happen to know that we still have some fiber from DesigKnit, and I'll be bringing the yarn I spun from a combination of her BFL and Polwarth, for petting and inspiration.

Happenings

The semester is rolling on, and all of the things that seemed so far away in January are now here.  In some ways this is good - some of those things are exciting and good things - but in some ways it's not so good - some of the things that need to be done aren't done at all.  I think this must be pretty normal (at least, I tell myself that it's pretty normal - I can't be the only one?).

I am still finding time to knit and spin, though.  I have now completed the body of Vitamin D and will be on to the sleeves soon enough.  However, as I cast the body off, it suddenly occurred to me that I have had plans to knit a shawl for a young woman of my acquaintance, a young woman who (just yesterday, it seems) used to babysit the girls (in fact, it just hit me that when she started babysitting the girls, she was about the same age that Older Daughter is now) - and now she's graduating from UC Berkeley.  How cool is that?  I asked her mother, a friend of mine, when graduation is, and she said it's in early May.  Eek!  So I have cast on for Whipporwill, in very much the same colors as the one I knitted for myself, and I will dedicate myself to that for the foreseeable future.  It may not be done in time for her mother to bring it to graduation, but it will be done by the time she moves back down here.

I have also begun sampling more fiber.  This is the Brown Merino from my fiber sample box.

I split the ounce of fiber in half.  The goal is to spin one half into a worsted two-ply and three-ply, and the other half into a woolen two-ply and three-ply.  Above is the worsted, three-ply on the left, two-ply on the right. I think you can see just how much rounder the three-ply is.  This is some gorgeous fiber, although with more in the way of coarser, darker hair scattered throughout than I'd expected.  Some of it shook out, some of it was incorporated into the yarn.  I will be interested to see, once these are made into skeinlets and washed, whether it is possible to feel those coarser hairs, and whether they change the range of garments for which I might consider this particular merino.

I have hopes of spinning up the other half tonight (since I'll be spinning woolen, it will go faster), but I have something else to do.  Tomorrow morning, bright (actually dark) and early, the girls will be leaving for New York City for this year's Montessori Model UN meeting.  Younger Daughter did this last year, but it is Older Daughter's first year, and they are both so excited that I know absolutely that they will not be sleeping tonight.  Last Wednesday, we went to hear them practice giving their speeches, which was very exciting for us as parents.  The issues that students in their group (they are delegates from Romania) have to address are varied, ranging from child soldiers to the conflict between Palestine and Israel over heritage sites.  The fact that they have the opportunity to think about these things, and then to discuss possible solutions to these issues with their peers, is amazing enough.  The fact that they then have an opportunity to hear the final resolutions of all of the working groups read out loud on the floor of the General Assembly of the United Nations - well.  That just gives me chills.  Those resolutions which pass are then (I kid you not) forwarded to Ban Ki-moon. 

There is no greater gift to give a child, I think, than to give her a sense of herself as a member of a broader citizenry, and of herself as able to participate in change for the better.  I hope this is something that both girls carry with them.

On a smaller, but, I think, equally exciting note (to Younger Daughter, at least), each school that participates must forward a design for this year's conference T-shirt.  The design for the T-shirt is then chosen by the organizers from among the hundreds that are submitted.  This year, their program sent forward a design that Younger Daughter and a classmate from the program designed together.

And the organizers chose it.

Cold beaches

The weather just can't seem to settle down here.  Last weekend, I spent every minute I could on the back patio, spinning and knitting.  But then, much of the week was gray and stormy - lots of wind and very wet rain (I don't care what anyone says, some rain is just wetter than other rain).  And yesterday, when I went to La Jolla after dropping Older Daughter off at a workshop, it was blustery and cold and the ocean was very big (I don't care what anyone says about that, either - sometimes the ocean is bigger than usual).

See what I mean?  And look at those colors!  Seafoam green, a lovely deep blue-green, froth; all looking ice-cold and whitecaps everywhere.

Those are the colors I'd wear all the time, and surround myself with, if I could.  Cold beaches.  Yup.

It was so cold, even the pelicans weren't doing much in the way of flying.

Look at them all.

So ungainly and dignified at the same time.

So I walked along the shore, watching everyone else, all bundled up, walking along at the same time.  I particularly enjoyed all the parents out with young children, following them along in their boundless energy, heedless of the cold.  I remember exactly what that was like, walking with Older Daughter along the Marina in San Francisco, with Rick's grandmother - as if it were yesterday.  And it struck me suddenly: it does feel like yesterday, but there I was, having just dropped my daughter off at a workshop on seismic engineering at UCSD.  And as inarticulate and dorky as it sounds, all I could think was:

Dude.

When did that happen?  I remember so clearly what it was like when she was barely walking.  Heck, let's be fair - I remember what it was like to be 14, and nervous and scared and doing something new with people I didn't know.  Isn't it odd to carry all of these people inside - each of them an iteration of "me"?

I guess cold ocean air messes with my brain.

Meanwhile, don't those colors look familiar?

The colors in that yarn are actually more saturated than they look in that picture - and are rather like the beach pictures above (the light and dark browns even look like the pelicans).  I think I should call it "cold beach", in fact.  I still don't know what I'm going to make with it, but in the meantime, I did want to show some finished pictures which illustrate that, once dry, it turns out that this yarn did what I'd hoped: the woolen-spun singles puffed out around the worsted-spun singles in quite a nice way.

(The woolen-spun Polwarth singles are the brown-y colors, and the worsted-spun BFL singles are the blue-y ones.)  I'm so pleased that this did what I thought it would do, and did it nicely, to boot.  Overall, the skeins of yarn handle like woolen-spun yarn - very light, and with a lot of bounce and much less drape.  It will be interesting to see how they knit up.

I've been doing some sampling today on my wheel, but I will write more about that next time.  I've also been knitting away on Vitamin D:

I am nearly done with the body.  I just need to cast off, then pick up stitches around the fronts and neck to knit a few garter stitch ridges.  Then it's on to the sleeves.  I'd hoped to knit this as a long-sleeved cardi (it's designed to be 3/4 sleeves), but I'm shorter on yarn than I'd thought.  So now I'm thinking I might do elbow-length sleeves, which could make this a nice transitional piece.  We shall see how it goes.  Once I'm done with the body, I'll weigh the yarn and then see how far that goes on the first sleeve.  I'm not always fond of 3/4 sleeves, so if it looks like I won't make it to my wrists, I'll probably go elbow-length instead.  Ah, the joys of managing yarn supply.

I rather like the radial increases on the yoke; they also are used to make the front panels swingy.  I'm tempted, should I make this an elbow-length sleeve, to do something similar towards the end of the sleeve, to make them a little bell-like.  Again, time will tell.

Meanwhile, dark and stormy seas aside,  I came home to find that Rick had bought these at the farmer's market.  It's clearly spring somewhere!

At last!

I have finished the spinning that has been languishing on my wheel - hooray!  It took a seriously concerted effort (man, those worsted singles were taking forEVer to get through), but it was such a lovely day today that I installed myself on the back patio, audiobook in ear, and got through the rest of the BFL singles, and then plied everything together.

I ended up with two very full bobbins.

Just as a reminder, this is four ounces of Polwarth and four ounces of BFL (the Polwarth is the browny-grey fiber, the BFL is the bluey-greeny fiber), dyed by the inestimable Erica at DesigKnits.  I spun the Polwarth woolen and the BFL worsted, and plied them together.

I like the way these colors came together even more than I'd thought I would.  I knew they'd come over barber-poled, and wasn't sure what I'd think of that, but I think I like it.  I am a bit worried that I may have underplied it, but we'll see how it comes out after its wash.

That's a little bleached out, but it looks like the colors on a cold beach to me, all seafoam green and dark cobbles and bleached wood.

I washed it in hot water, and treated it pretty vigorously: I kneaded it around, squeezed it out, and snapped it with great energy.  Now it just needs to dry.

I ended up with over 600 yards of what I think will turn out to be a heavy fingering weight yarn.  I just need to find exactly the right project for it.  Meanwhile, I will wait with patience for it to dry.