Knitterguy

Year End Review

I am gearing up for some last minute Christmas prep, as well as getting ready to go to NYC next week. My low back fell out of wack late last week. I’m still limping and having to inelegantly slide myself out of chairs; coworkers are concerned that I might not get to NYC, but I have assured them –and everyone else-- that I am going. If you see someone on crutches in the American Museum of Natural History, say hi: it might be me.

Chat around the coffee machine at work this morning turned to considering What a Year This Has Been. The economy was in terrible shape, with far reaching impact into so many people’s lives. There were the financial scandals in the USA and abroad. The news is full of stories about ongoing war. I cannot think of a year when so many people have lost jobs, houses, marriages, and deaths in their immediate family.

All of these things were going on last year and the year before, and they will happen next year as well. Perhaps there has been an increase in these events due to the economy so we naturally hear more news items and “human interest” stories in the media. Perhaps there is more media coverage because there is, somehow, more media. Perhaps I am also just more aware this year than in past years. Or all of those.

My year was pretty much a blur. My manager was talking about a piece of work we did in December 2008, and honestly, I couldn’t even remember it. When it faded back into memory, I wondered if it was, in fact, in December 2008. “Wait,” I said, “wasn’t that in 2007?” “Nope; 2008.”

It had me wondering what else I’d forgotten about. What positive things happened this year? I came up with a few things very quickly – my vacation in Vermont, for example – but finding more than that was a struggle.

Some years ago, a friend nursed his partner at home through his last year of life with AIDS. “It was tough, and lonely and horrible,” he said. “One of the things I did that really helped is that at the end of every day I made a list of at least 5 things that happened that day that were positive. It might have been something as simple as that John held down a meal that day, or that I actually took in the beauty of the sunset. You know, the small things can really count.”

So, here’s what I’m suggesting. Leave a comment, and in it write something that happened to you this year that was positive. Something big or something small, doesn’t matter. Let’s send out the year with a list of positives.

In Other News

Here’s a youtoob video of a piece by Francois Couperin, splendidly played on a nice pipe organ. (The microphone is so close to the pipe chest that it’s picking up the clicking noises made by the mechanical action of the organ. You wouldn’t hear them if you were sitting in the building.) Members of the Couperin family were recognized musicians throughout the French Baroque period; I think they’re practically considered a dynasty. Francois Couperin was nicknamed “Couperin le Grand” – I believe another member of the family named Francois is “Couperin le Petit” – and is best known for his suites of harpsichord music. They fully exploit the sonorities of the harpsichord typical of 18th century France; that’s the instrument Couperin would have heard and played daily and known intimately. The suites sound okay on harpsichords from other countries, but best on French instruments. IMO, they don’t “work” sonically when played on the piano and sound “oily”. (Pianos have a wildly different overtone structure than harpsichords.)

I hope you are all able to enjoy a celebration of the return of the light, and send my best wishes for peace, joy, health and prosperity for 2010. Talk to you next year.

“Ene’s Scarf” Take 2 – Finished

Way back in December of 2007 I posted about my first working of this design. Even after looking at lots of examples of delicate, cobwebby Estonian lace on Ravelry and in Nancy Bush's book on the subject as well as the book "Haapsalu Sal", I still see this design as a sturdy shawlette. The kind of thing you'd keep over the back of your favourite chair to pull over yourself when you get chilly while reading or watching TV.

(Incidentally, I don't keep the chair covered with a green cloth. The upholstery on the chair is a dark purply-burgundy colour, and I needed a lighter background so you could see that the shawl is even there.)

When I was down at Easton Mountain for the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat earlier this year, a couple of us stopped at Saratoga Needlearts in Saratoga Springs, NY. I didn't see any yarns that appealed until we were walking out the door, and then the shelves of Harrisville Designs "New England Shetland" caught my eye. "Ene's Scarf", it said.

This is a sturdy 2 ply woolen yarn that comes in about 80 colours. As I recall, most of the stocked colours in the shop were solid dyed colours: all completely appropriate for a Fair Isle sweater and the overwhelming majority not for a single colour lace piece. (IMO) I couldn't think of anyone who would wear the brilliant-as-new-Spring-grass emerald green or eye-achingly brilliant magenta colours. So I found this very nice russety-brown heather called "Sandalwood". The staff consulted ravelry to get the yardage requirements, and because I figured I'd add a couple of pattern repeats, I bought an extra skein.

The yarn is put up in 50 gram (1.75 ounce) skeins of "Approximately 217 yards". I bought 4 skeins, so in theory I had 200 grams and 868 yards. I used 3anabit skeins. I've weighed the shawl and the remaining yarn (including short lengths trimmed off after darning in the ends) and it all comes in at 187 grams. (The shawl alone is 165 grams.) Wool's weight goes up and down with environmental humidity, and this project demonstrates why yarn should be sold by yardage and not weight. Surely it's easier for a manufacturer to set skein-winding machines to make a skein of, say, 220 yards than to guess at how many revolutions of the skein winder takes 50 grams?

When I was planning a knitting project to take on my October vacation, I pulled the yarn and a different pattern. While away I worked on that design, and after several inches decided that the yarn and that pattern weren't a good match. I ripped it, and set it aside to work "Ene's Scarf".

I've always been surprised at how the instructions have the diamonds in the border pattern oddly truncated at the ends and in the centre, so I fiddled with the charts to make things more pleasing to my eye. I should have fiddled a bit more with the centre, but I had cast-on and ripped 3 times -- apparently I can't count to 14 -- and just wanted to get it going. Next time.

Oh yea: the other change I made. The original has a large border on the sides of that is 8 stitches wide, beginning each row with "k1, yo, k2tog" which forms a useful selvedge with holes for inserting blocking wires. I narrowed the border to 4 stitches and omitted the holes. Might put them back in if I do version 3; they are very useful for blocking.

Oh, and I added an extra repeat or 2 other border diamond pattern. But the time I got to the main small diamond pattern used for the bulk of the garment, I'd decreased away the extra stitches, so I could simply follow the charts as written.

It's really a lovely piece. Bottom 3 pictures best capture the colour of the yarn. (At least, on my computer.)

To Recap

Pattern: "Ene’s Scarf", from “Scarf Style” by Interweave. Design by Nancy Bush. A few fiddles by me.

Yarn: Harriswille Designs "New England Shetland" 2ply wool, colour "sandalwood"I had 4 skeins. If you follow the instructions as written you might only need 3. I think I'd still buy the 4th as insurance, though.

In Other News

We had a little bit of snow this past week; nothing compared to the area north and east of us that got something like 20 inches in 10 hours. (The mayor was on the radio asking people to just stay at home until the town was dug out.) Yesterday it was lovely and sunny.

See you later.

Post #206

Firstly, thank you to everyone who made suggestions about NYC from the last post. The trip was on; it was off; it was on; it was off; and now it is "maybe, but I think it's on".

So, thank you. All your ideas are under consideration.

Moving on...

We are now in December. It snowed this week.

November was very mild, but it will be interesting to see what kind of winter we have. We're deep into the dark season, and even though I spend a minimum of half-hour/day in front of my Day-Light, I still feel like I've been psychically bodyslammed.

Some people hate February: "the longest month of the year". In all honesty, I find that February is a bouquet of fresh-cut fragrant snapdragons, cosmos, roses, dianthus, larkspurs and asters in a gorgeous vase compared to December's bunch of Eryngium tied up with kitchen twine. (Not that Eryngium varietals don't have their own particular bleak charm and usefulness in the garden.)

Time in front of the Day-Light has allowed for some knitting. (A working of Nancy Bush's "Ene's Scarf".)

And there's been some spinning and plying. (Merino/Silk top from Ashford.)

 

In Other News

I told some of my email buddies about a program from CBC radio that I think is worth listening to, and I like the program so much that I will tell y'all about it as well. (Also, only 2 of the people I sent the email to acknowledged receiving it, so maybe spam filters picked it out and no-one else received  the note.)

If you don't listen to CBC radio, you wouldn't know about the program called "The Sunday Edition" which runs on Sunday morning from 9-noon EST.

Over the last 2 years, they've had a feature called "20 Pieces of Music That Changed the World". Robert Harris discusses the impact that each of these pieces has had on west-European culture. You don't need a degree in music, or have to be able to read music, or to sing along, to understand what he's talking about, although a vague knowledge of western history would be helpful. (I admit that I have a small background in music, so maybe it helps me fill in some details that non-musicians wouldn't know about.) The range of musical styles is quite broad.

I think this series is excellent listening, and strongly recommend it. It doesn't look like it is available in the CBC podcasts, and today they anounced that when the  series os over, they will release it all on a CD. They did # 19, so if you are at all interested, start listening.

See you all later.