blocking
March 11, 2010
Posted by jodi on March 11, 2010 at 9.56pm
turned the heel
March 9, 2010
Time to set it aside and start the other foot.
Posted by jodi on March 9, 2010 at 9.08pm
don’t forget to bring a cowl
March 8, 2010
It’s a fact that as the light returns, winter coats get heavier and heavier until it’s a chore to put them on in the morning. It may seem too close to the end of winter to knit such a warm thing, but this cozy cowl will help to balance out a too-thin spring jacket on those cool mornings when the temperatures are still in the single-digit minuses but winter coats seem too drab under such bright skies.
The pattern is Ha’Penny Loop by Staceyjoy Elkin (again; she’s one of my favourite designers, can you tell?). Yarn is Berroco Cuzco, same stuff I used for the legwarmers.
Posted by jodi on March 8, 2010 at 10.41pm
thinking of spring
March 7, 2010
And handknit socks that let the warm breezes in.
So here's something new, started this morning with the handspun I got from Stacie recently. There’s no pattern, just a bog standard toe-up construction with a simple diagonal lace that will spiral up the leg. I’m using 2.75mm needles for these rather than the usual 2.25mm, and marveling at the difference half a millimetre makes to the speed of a project. What’s that other knit in the background, you ask? Why, that would be the warm and cozy and gigantic cowl I finished just in time for the temperatures to rise above freezing. Typical. I’m counting on the end of March to provide me with some opportunity to wear it. Pictures tomorrow. Posted by jodi on March 7, 2010 at 10.56pm March 2, 2010 Well, they might not be folded down over a pair of high top sneakers (untied laces loosened to accommodate as many friendship pins as possible) the way I used to wear them back when I was cool (or thought I was; circa 1983), but I tell you what, these are the nicest leg warmers I’ve ever owned. Pattern: Sydney, by Staceyjoy Elkin. Yarn: Berroco Cuzco, a wool/alpaca blend Now if only I hadn’t forgotten my new red boots, the ones I made these legwarmers to wear with, back home in Windsor. Posted by jodi on March 2, 2010 at 8.20pm February 21, 2010 The French word for “take-off” is “décollage”. I love this. Coming unglued, or unstuck, from the earth’s surface. Today was a good day for taking photos out an airplane window, but I only shot film today so gratification is not instant. This takes some getting used to. The icy Northern lakes, under a smooth white layer of snow criss-crossed with networks of tracks (snowmobiles? trucks?) were lovely from the air; not sure yet whether my sweet new lo-fi camera will be able to capture that detail. The only digital photo of the day was this one, taken during an arse-numbingly long layover at Pearson Airport: Legwarmer #2, almost finished. It’s half a repeat longer than #1, and the longer length is better. It seems there is always a certain amount of rip-and-redo. Posted by jodi on February 21, 2010 at 8.45pm February 13, 2010 A Tims cup amongst other garbage left behind by hockey fans at Memorial Gardens in North Bay last night. Nipissing Lakers won 7 to 2. Better than that one game I watched a bit of on the local cable t.v., in which the Lakers got scored on in such quick succession that two goals went into the net in the time it took me to raise my teacup to my lips. Peter and I have gotten so used to me living away in the States that we keep finding ourselves surprised at how easy our travel back and forth is now that I’m living away but still in the same province. At some point last week I was pondering where in North Bay I could go to change my money before coming home, and I’m embarrassed to admit how much time I spent worrying on that before remembering that I don’t have to change my Canadian money back to Canadian. Even this morning as we packed our last few things before hitting the road home, I felt that familiar apprehension in anticipation of crossing a border, and had to remind myself out loud that this time we have no border to cross, no questions to answer, and no worries about what’s in our car or how much money we spent while we were away. But the best part of traveling home to Windsor from North Bay? WE DIDN’T HAVE TO DRIVE ACROSS OHIO TO GET THERE. Peter’s happiest realization was that he could drive all the way up to get me and drive all the way back with me and never have to stop listening to CBC. You can’t believe how dismal the radio offerings are through Kentucky and Tennessee unless you’ve driven it yourself. My years living in Georgia left me with an abiding love for the red iron oxide dirt colour, and seeing that same colour cropping up here and there in the jutting towers of rock that rise over Northern Ontario roads gave me that warm sense of home. Funny that my home province feels more like home when it reminds me of someplace away. I think there must not be any teenagers living in South River, Ontario. Because there was an arrow sign there that read “BUCK YE HORSE FEED” and it had not been hacked. I mean, come ON. In Huntsville, a Tim Hortons employee chastised us for not approaching the counter quickly enough. Not that remarkable, perhaps, but it was kind of funny how irritated he was. Last night at the hockey game in North Bay, hanging back for a moment before approaching the ticket booth totally paid off because a man saw us, came over and gave us a pair of free tickets (good seats, too!). Nobody at Huntsville Tims offered us free coffees, though. You can’t win ‘em all. Next time I’ll call ahead to the Fluevog store before wasting a good three hours of our trip parking at Yorkdale Mall and taking the subway to downtown Toronto only to find that the boots on which I’ve now got my heart set MIGHT be available in my size again in August. Argh. dans des nouvelles de tricotage I finished up the last few cable repeats of this legwarmer at the hockey game last night; my crowning moment was crossing a four-over-four cable without a cable needle without once taking my eyes off the puck. That only happened once, mind you. But still, it only proves that I am AWESOME, right? The ribbing and bindoff were finished in the car and #2 is started; I should have been able to knit most of the second legwarmer during our seven hours or so in the car today, if only Northern Ontario weren’t so damned pretty. Posted by jodi on February 13, 2010 at 8.47pm February 6, 2010 I made a few enhancements to the sock yarn stash this week. In front is a lovely handspun Corriedale/nylon blend by Stacie Dolin, which I purchased from her spankin’ new Etsy shop. It’s sturdy and beautiful and the colours make me unbelievably happy, perhaps because of the way they relate to a lot of the photos I’ve been taking lately, of snow and trees and gray-and-yellowy winter light. I’m going to design something just a little bit lacy for it, toe-up to use every last bit. Then I can wear them in the warmer months to carry a bit of winter’s beauty with me through summer and fall. In behind that is a brilliant skein of Fleece Artist merino that I picked up last week at the local yarn store. I’ve been trying to limit myself to only buying sock yarns that are special, one of a kind yarns made by special people (like the skein above), because I have quite enough sock yarn considering how rarely I finish a pair of socks. But as soon as I saw that bright blue colour I swear my bank card got hot in my pocket and started emitting a low hum. Besides, I don’t think it’s possible to visit a new yarn store and not buy sock yarn. It’s like a rule or something, right? Anyway I’ll probably have some half finished blue Fleece Artist socks to show y’all in about 2017 or so. Go me. I also picked up a few skeins of Berroco Cuzco for some legwarmers that I’m planning to wear with an awesome pair of bright red ankle boots I picked up recently, since I can’t wear the boots outside in North Bay without getting a soaker: The pattern is Sydney by Staceyjoy Elkin, who is nothing short of a fucking genius, in my opinion. Check out that gorgeous twisted rib, fatter and more luscious than any twisted rib I’ve ever made before. These knit up pretty quickly, so I’m going to try and bang them out over the next two weeks while I’m hanging out with Peter (and spending less time jacking around in the internets). They would only take a few days if I really applied myself, but you know me. Distraction is my middle name. Posted by jodi on February 6, 2010 at 2.38pm January 26, 2010 Allow me to introduce, after having sat out a full season between bindoff and blocking, the Flurries shawl: I started it at the end of August in order to have something simple to knit on my flights from Windsor to North Bay and back when I had my interview for the teaching position at Nipissing. Upon returning home I knit away at it distractedly during repeated watchings of Dollhouse, then flung it, completed, back in the basket to ferment for a spell while I worked up the energy to weave in the ends. There were 6 (six!) of them, due to my switching out to a contrasting yarn for the edging and then back to the main yarn for the bindoff row. Six ends is, like, ten minutes of work, people. And yet the fact that I only left it for four months is a vast improvement over my usual pattern of behaviour. The pattern, of course, is the ever-popular Ishbel by Ysolda Teague. The main yarn is handspun from fibre I received from Mama E (Ceyeber Fiber), and the contrast yarn in the lace edging is a pale gray mohair blend that I reclaimed from an ugly thrift store find. It’s not too contrasty against the main body of the shawl, which I like, but it provides a distinct contrast against the (returning to the main yarn) bindoff row, which I love. Our gracious model is Miss Bones, an employee of the department of Fine and Performing Arts, Nipissing University. I had a conversation with one of my colleagues today about the importance of video documentation and how I tried (and failed) to get into the habit of making weekly little studio videos. After this photo shoot was over I wished I’d made a video of myself carrying my model around the snowy parking lot with her broken stand, or gently brushing the snow from the bottoms of her feet as we re-entered the building. I have a feeling it must have looked pretty funny. So. I mentioned yesterday that there were two cockups in the shawl: one fixable, one bearable. Well, on closer inspection after blocking I realized that what I’d thought was a “bearable cockup” in my knitting was actually just a part of the pattern, executed perfectly, that I’d just been examining wonkily in my haste to get the thing pinned out on my way out the door to work. The fixable mistake, a dropped stitch in the bindoff, was easy-peasy. You’ll never notice. I DEFY you to notice it. And just so y’all don’t think I’m tiring of snow pictures just yet, we had a fresh snowfall today: Just yesterday I photographed those same branches dripping with water as a warm rain fell, turning much of my hard-packed snowy walk to water and slush: Posted by jodi on January 26, 2010 at 7.53pm January 25, 2010 Finally remembered to get Ishbel blocking on the bed in the morning so I can still sleep there at night without having to lie in a wet spot. While pinning her out I noticed a couple of little cockups, one that can be fixed, one that can be lived with. Whatever. I realized once I had it all pinned out that, while I’ve made quite a bit of lace over the years, this is my first lace shawl. First finished, that is; I’m pretty sure I’ve started a few over the last 20 years that got forgotten or unraveled along the way. Never mind. Tonight I’ll fix the little problem (dropped stitch in the bindoff) and tomorrow I’ll have a lovely lace shawl to wear. Posted by jodi on January 25, 2010 at 10.04am
legwarmers, y’all
travel day
notes from a travel day
blue and green
flurries
blocking
