Finnish Twill Napkins

 I'm working on a long warp of 8/2 unmercerized cotton (still plowing through the 10 cones purchased last year from Webs during the cone sale). The pattern is Finnish Twill from Davison's Handweaver's Pattern Book. I like the idea of weaving linens with names from Scandanavian countries; the last pattern I used was a Swedish Twill.

These will be napkins. Possibly a wedding present, or perhaps saved for us. The sett is 24 ends per inch, 21" wide, and each napkin is woven for a length of 25", including a 1 1/2" edging of plain weave at beginning and end of the napkin, for hemming.

They go fast, but are a bit boring to weave. On the other hand, our guild study group presentation is in one month, and I have almost nothing to show that has much to do with working on the Handweavers Guild of America Certificate of Excellence, so it might make sense to whizz through these and get something on the loom that relates to the COE! (I haven't mentioned it in months because I, like my colleagues, have been slacking on the project). Looks like our theme for our presentation may be: What I Learned from the COE that I'm Applying to non-COE Weaving.

And the truth is that the process is informing my weaving and making me a better weaver. And I'm finding the things that call to me - like hand-dyed warps, twill blocks with color-and-weave effect, and the temptation of so much more variety possible when you have 8 harnesses to weave on. My hope is to someday acquire an 8-harness floor loom...maybe a Wolf Pup? ... as I love my thirty-year-old, 4-harness Schacht floor loom.

Catnip Mice Update

 Over the holidays, I knit up a bevy of catnip mice. And cats all over love them. 




The pattern is a modification of a free Felted Catnip Mouse on Ravelry (the link is in a post a bit ago).
These little guys have been a hit. We gave one to a friend's cat on New Year's Eve. She never deigns to even sniff at catnip, and for the entire night, she ignored it, until we had to move it off of her favorite blanket so that she had her bed back. But after all of the guests left, apparently she went wild and did some crazy playing with her mouse. Another friend wrote to tell me that her cat brings the mouse to her every morning, and presents it for approval that she is doing the expected work of a cat in defending the home against micies.

Madison and more

 First, some knitting: this is the third time I've knit up Kristin Nicholas' Sunny Fez Hat, and each time, I marvel at what a great fit and design it is. This one, not quite done - still needing the embroidered flowers around the pink circles - is for my teacher. She loved her hat, and then it ended up in the wash, felted, and about the size of a toddler hat. This one may be delivered with a small bottle of Eucalan and washing instructions.

Last week we went to Madison, Wisconsin for the day to visit my younger daughter and her boyfriend. After lunch at the Old-Fashioned (deep-fried cheese curds! homemade (deep-fried potato chips! deep-fried fish! and a tiny piece of lettuce on the plate to represent the Salad Course), we wandered around the downtown area and ended up at the Wisconsin Historical Museum. An old-fashioned museum: lots and lots of stuff, and no clear message, except that any stuff about Wisconsin might belong in this museum. Actually, it was interesting, particularly the exhibit about inventions that originated in Wisconsin.

H, I took the next two pictures for you. Hopefully, your rat charges are living a better life...

 And the Capitol. One of those amazingly beautiful, majestic old buildings. I love buildings that have depressions on the floor or stairs that reveal how many feet have passed over these surfaces. Here's the dome:

 And one of the mosaics on the wall:

But now that the holidays are over, I am ready to nest. If someone gave me the job of staying home, knitting, and watching old movies, I would be right there. Until that job comes along, I'm teaching, working at the knitting shop, and puttering. It's a good time of year for working a puzzle. You focus on something that has a start and end,  and doesn't require too much brain power. I started small with a large-piece 350 size puzzle. Now we;ve escalated to 750 pieces.
 Please bear in mind that there are seven million tiny people on this puzzle, and each is wearing a different outfit and a different expression. When it's not tiny people (a Where's Waldo kind of puzzle), there are tiny pets and lots of paving, and the occasional awning with letters to give me a bit of hope.

More reasons to hope: I'm listening to Bram Stoker's Dracula (now on disc 13, and wondering if Mina will make it) on audiobook; reading Prince Caspian and hoping to work my way through the whole Narnia series (I'd never read any but The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) alongside Laura Miller's The Magician's Book: A Sceptic's Adventures In Narnia; and getting ready to watch the new season of Downton Abbey.

Black and White and Color

 Here's some of what I've been working on the last month. I guess I was mistaken in thinking that I wasn't getting anything done. (Mantra for 2012: the glass is half full...) First up, a modification of the clever Toast Wrap by Madeline Bourque (adapted from a cowl in the English catalog/shop Toast).

 Knit in Rowan Pure Wool DK on a size 4 needle. I cast on 126 stitches and worked 3 1/2 repeats of the pattern. And instead of grafting the two ends together, I worked a 2x2 rib on each end. One side is black, the other is white, so that I could use up the yarn that I had left.

Next, catnip mice. This is the best way to dry them after felting: on chopsticks stuck into the glass that usually holds the toothbrush and toothpaste. Festive, no? The one on the counter (in Jo Sharp DK Wool, color Owl) looks a bit too lifelike - I'm not sure whether I'll ever want to sew him up into the finished toy.

 The pattern is Felted Mouse by Jo Chandler. I knit these in Noro Kureyon on size 7 dpns, and could get 6 or 7 mice from one skein. Modifications: I worked 10 rows instead of 2 1/2 inches after completing the increases, so that I would get a nice, chubby mouse and one not so lifelike. Also, I decreased to 3 stitches for the tail and worked the I-cord until the tail was longer than the body. I made little packets of catnip on the sewing machine, stuffed them, and seamed up the opening. Oh, and I didn't bother to sew up the mice for felting, and things came out fine. Very cute.

 And Belle likes hers. I am keeping the catnip packets and finished mice in a ziplock plastic bag to deter extra partaking of the catnip.

And not a homemade, but my daughter thought to send a present to Parker for Hanukah, and he loves it. He has been sleeping with it tucked under his arm (leg?). Do you think he sees it as his baby?

 And one more: tiny socks knit out of Jamieson and Smith two-ply, then strung on a cord. The pattern is Sockology Roll-Top Sock Bookmark. (The title is longer than the sock.)

My fellow weavers in my guild study group, who saw me finishing these at our last meeting and starting what was going to be a tiny steeked Fair Isle vest, suggested that I do a different miniature piece of clothing for each night of Hanukah. I loved the idea, but instead have been knitting up mittens for a shop model. No picture; the pattern is Ann Norling's Mittens on 4 needles. I can turn out a mitten in about 3 hours - a world's record for me - and am lured instead to knit mittens. Knit, wear, appreciate the warmth and beauty. Isn't that what making things by hand should be about?

Some Holiday Cheer

A list, in no particular order, of some things that have made me happy:

• Shaun the Sheep. Best part: his strange sideways baaaa out of the corner of his mouth, his red underpants, and his dance segment at the end of each episode, especially all the sheep doing Riverdance.
• uncooked batter from cupcakes or cookies or cakes
• seeing The Muppets Movie on Thanksgiving, then Being Elmo the following Sunday. It was almost an all-Muppets Thanksgiving Weekend.
• knitting mittens
• wearing hand-knit mittens
• Netflix Streaming: Breaking Bad (yikes, about to start Season Three); SportsNight; some (ahem) reality television, old movies (though most of the best are not available by streaming).
• visiting with my sister, who came through Chicago for the day
• meeting with my weaving study group. None of us have been working on the Certificate of Excellence, but, on the other hand, we are all productively weaving, and in a better manner than we were two years ago, before starting our study of the COE. We had a great meeting, and decided that this year's theme for our presentation to the guild will be something like What I've Learned from the COE, even though I've been weaving for myself and not towards the requirements...aka It's All About Me. We are known for giving honest, informative, visually-interesting (one member does a Power Point with pictures of all the samples being discussed, so that people can see what we're talking about), and funny yearly sum-ups of our work. 
• Soup, any soup, from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Soups cookbook. The mushroom-barley...incredible. Yesterday, leek soup with potato gnocchi...pretty darn good, too. Tonight I need to cook up a batch of lentil soup. There are two of us working at the knitting shop, and we decided to bring lunch and enjoy the day.

Happy holidays and lots of light to all.

Fair Isle on my Mind

I've had Fair Isle on my mind lately. We've started carrying Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift at the store, and colorwork is luring my attention. And I'm not usually interested in working at such a fine gauge -- 24 to 26 stitches to 4 inches on a size 1 or 2 needle. But I keep thinking of the black-and-white pieces in the fall Debbie Bliss magazine, and in the Fall Vogue. And of how much black and grey I wear all winter.

So far, I'm working some of my cravings out in my weaving. I'm still weaving off the extremely long grey cotton warp on the loom, but experimenting with reds and blacks and greys and whites in the twill patterns. Faux Fair Isle?

Yesterday we went to Pilsen to see the Day of the Dead  (Dios de los Muertos) exhibit at the National Museum of Mexican Art. On the way from the car to the museum, I realized that I was hungry, and thought - churro! Not that I've ever eaten one, but a friend told me a story recently about eating at Rick Bayless' XOCO right after it opened, and being served the most amazing churros right from the kitchen with a cup of good, hot coffee. Then, what did we find, but a man selling churros outside the museum? We bought a bag, leaned up against the wall, and ate them - cinnamony, warm, sugary. The museum was good, too, especially an exhibit called Chioroscuro with paintings by Munoz. And the La Cantrina figures - tall, languid skeleton ladies with big, My Fair Lady Hats and long fingers holding cigarette holders.

Afterward, we strolled the neighborhood, found a bakery, asked the check-out person what was her favorite taqueria, and then went to Los Comales #3. Great grilled onions, avocado tostita, refried beans, horchata. You can eat in or do take-out. Then, strolling some more, and I found a black-and-white Fair Isle sweater at Knee Deep, a vintage store:

 I'm pretty sure that it's machine-made, but what the heck: it cost way less than what it would take to knit, and it's ready to wear. And machine-knit or not, the yarn looks like Jamieson's:

 A colleague told me that seams that are overcast are indications of machine-knitting:

And my knitting into and out of the city: the Toast Wrap from Ravelry, which is a copy of a pattern from the Fall 2011 Toast catalog (a UK store). Not bad, but I think that if you want to impact of Fair Isle, you need to use the tiny yarn and the tiny needles. (This is the Rowan Pure Wool DK on a size 4 needle).

Just waiting for the pie to come out of the oven and then we're taking our annual Thanksgiving Day hike. Happy holiday to all - and take some time to lie on the sofa and sleep today!

Where I've Been

Halloween. My pumpkin is the little guy on the left. I really like him: wicked yet bemused. And lit up: 

 My favorite trick-or-treater was a little guy in a clown costume with an emormous day-glo afro-style wig. When I admired his costume he looked me in the eye, placed one finger on his red clown nose, beeped it once, and went on his way. That kid has a future.

Shopping at my favorite store, the Goodwill. A Fair Isle sweater for my husband: $4.99.

 A Banana Republic turtleneck for me: $4.99. And a black wrap sweater with satin ribbon ties, not pictured: $4.99. The place was jam-packed: everyone is shopping at the Goodwill these days.

 Weaving. I put on my longest warp ever (200") and am weaving off handtowels in a Finnish Twill pattern from Davison's Handweaver's Pattern Book. 8/2 cotton from Webs, sett at 20 epi.

 Catnip mice out of Noro Kureyon. R=These are fast and easy and have great noses and ears; I almost have the pattern memorized, and they make great car knitting. Still need to be stuffed.

 Tiny sock for a bookmark. After-thought heel; honestly.

 Sock One and Sock Two. The first has an acutal gusset and short-row heel. It's been so long since I've knit socks that I thought the purple would be just the heel, instead of going across the instep. I love miniature things.

That's the update. Day (sort of) off until I teach this evening. Hoping to do a lot of weaving and finish reading The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.