On the Ocean

My birthday week has been spent on the ocean, the beautiful, wild, unpredictable Spring ocean...



I love it here, where every view draws you down to the waves... where walks on the beach through the sea grass last two hours or more. Walking along the shore where early sailors risked their lives the bring ships to the coast - this was the most dangerous shore with its hidden rocks - makes me feel like a character in Dickens; one of his blithe and fey children dancing barefoot on the sand while her family laughs cosily in their house made out of an upturned fishing boat... or perhaps I'm better suited as Anne Elliot of Persuasion, visiting Lyme Regis and the sea captains who housed their families along the shore...



I can see the ocean from my window...



The weather is warm, and I don't need a fire. I can smell the salt air and sleep so deeply with the sound of the waves shushing through my subconscious...

Days are spent walking, playing with dogs, talking, knitting, and exploring. I visited two yarn shops and made Baby Who. You can just make out the owl on the front...



Some lovely yarn jumped into my arms: Ella Rae's new Italian laceweight fine Merino. It's machine washable!



I plan to make a shawl with stunning golden sunrise-coloured one, and a pair of very long, vintage-y over-the-knee stockings with the mossy green. I so love fiber and colour! I wonder what makes it so incredibly compelling? Perhaps it's the...possibilities.

Obsidian

Remember these? My Once in a Blue Moon Cast On socks started on the second full moon of December 2009?



They are now these:



Whew! I can't believe it took me so long to finish these! They were at the bottom of my knitting bag, only brought out between other projects - not the way to get your socks done!



But yesterday was my birthday, and my boyfriend had given me such a wonderful day I was determined to finish these up and give him a present too! He loves them, and happily posed for pictures.

The stats:
yarn: 1 skein Socks That Rock mediumweight fingering (had a few yards left over)
size: men's 9
needles: started toes with size 0 DPNs and finished the remainder on size 3 DPNs
pattern: my own. These are toe-up, with Lucy Neetby's toe cast on and an adapted increase/decrease heel. The stitch pattern is an easy one - and may be my favorite rib pattern:
Row 1: K2, P2
Row 2: K all
This rib doesn't scrunch up but is nicely snug and looks good. The bf said that to him, it looked "Celtic".

The bad news - the heel!



Even though I measured and re-measured, the foot turned out too long on both feet, so the heel is sloppy. You can see the extra fabric bunched on the sides. The good news is that the bf says they aren't too big and are very comfortable (he's wearing them with shoes today and the report is positive). He pulls them up so the heels are tight:



It's not too bad, and I think (hope) that when they're washed they'll tightened up a little bit. Next time I'll make them tighter. Can you believe that these are the first socks I've made for him? I think there will definitely be more!

Mara

I finished the wonderful Mara this weekend and I love it. Mara is a small shawl by Madeline Tosh. Originally designed for her worsted, I substituted the Swan's Island Worsted that I'm currently in love with, in Teal. The above photo is the accurate depiction of this colour - for some reason, the weak sunlight here washed out the deep teal tone in the other photos. Swan's Island is so soft and pleasant to knit with. It's the same yarn I used for my Mr. Woodhouse's Scarf and I have two skeins of a cherry blossom magenta red for a narrower version, and a skein of a deep true red in for a hat, and the same red in the fingering weight for a lace scarf, and a skein of natural grey and one of a deep coral in the worsted that are un-determined as to pattern. I would buy the whole of Swan's Island line of yarns if I could!

Let me just go on about Swan's Island yarn for a moment. This is 100% organic merino, which is why it's so soft, and it's spun in Maine and dyed with natural dyes like Indigo, cochineal, madder, weld, and other plant dyes. Originally used for special woven blankets (that are available form the company) it's now available to the public for knitting and weaving. It's very evenly spun, has a consistent soft twist and results in a predictable gauge and fabric, unlike some softer worsteds that turn out a little 'thick-and-thin' in their spinning. The softness in this yarn comes from the base yarn itself, not from having a loose spin.



When my LYS first started carrying Swan's Island yarn, I picked up these two skeins of teal without knowing what I wanted to do with them. I had a vague idea that this might be a good yarn to use in my quest to learn colourwork. But then I came across the Mara shawl, and there you are - my imagination was captured! Each skein is 250 yards, so I knew I would be short and went ahead anyway as is my usual practice. Improvisation is my creative friend. I didn't know if I would do the fluted edge in a complementary colour, or if I would change the needle size for a lighter, larger shawl, but I wasn't concerned.

As it turned out, I used the recommended needle - size US7 - and ended up with a two inch instead of a four inch flute on the outside edge. It's the perfect size for my shortness (5' 3"). The width is the same as described in pattern. I made other modifications, as you can see:



Instead of garter stitch, I used mostly stockinette with just a few decorative rows of garter near the neckline. I don't plan to block it (the pattern recommends light blocking) and am going to wear it today - a rainy, windy, icy day - for a little knitted comfort.

Spring colours

Here where I live, spring has an uneasy relationship with colour. While the small shoots make a halfhearted appearance, like a cat sleeping with one eye open, winter still lingers in tattered petticoats that edge the yard and roads. An odd greyish snow mingles with newly uncovered mud and the browned remnants of lawns. Winter is harsh here, and what was left when Autumn ended is seriously battered when winter's clothing recedes. Life always asserts itself in the end, and in the riotous mid-summer of greens and reds, and purples, and yellows and blues, we forget how hard-won that colour was with its long labour of dark and rainy spring.

My favourite yarn source, although all the way on the opposite coast of this country, seems to echo my thirst for Spring colours right about now. I had to pull some of that colour into my house - like a bouquet.



This is Mossley Manly, from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and it looks exactly like the world outside my window right now. I love how the rusts and greens seep into the dark browny-greys. Its hopeful.



I moved a little less cautiously forward into spring with a few more colours:



This is Valenscummy, the Mossley Manly again, Saffron Jungle, Nodding Violet, and Foofaraw. I love them all. Would you believe that they have made me determined to prep my gardens of old flowers this year so they can blossom with abandon? They make me want to go out and dance on the frozen lawn, defying Winter and inviting the excesses of Summer back to New England. That's the power of a few Spring colours.

Wrap me in dark vines...

As you can see from the Bobicus medal, below, I've crossed the finish line in the Short Track Shawl race of the 2010 Ravelympics.



I cast on in a hotel room on the ocean while watching the Opening ceremonies last weekend - away for Valentine's with my sweetie. He was very supportive of my Ravelympics obsession and understood my need to cast on at this exact moment! After I got a good number or rows down, we went down to the bar and watched the rest of the Olympic opening there, with good wine and chocolate covered strawberries...

My Ravelympics challenge was the beautiful Saroyan pattern by Liz Abinante, but in shawlette size...



I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts in their gorgeous Luscious Single Silk fiber - the Thraven colourway, and a size 10 (6 mm) circular Addi needle. It worked perfectly - just as I'd hoped. I thought I would need to add repeats on the increase section to make it wide enough for a shawl, but in fact, I knit it exactly as written. The soft bulky-ness of the yarn did the rest...



The season seems to be struggling to turn - winter is trudging towards the bus stop, her tattered skirts trailing in the dirt and remnants of snow... but spring hasn't arrived. We have dark days that smell like rain and I'm often melancholy and dark. You can see that my new shawl suits me perfectly right now. I'll wear it today!

Sensitive Man Socks

I just entered my pattern for the Sensitive Man Socks into my pattern store on Ravelry! Thanks to Lynne for encouraging me to finally write up my notes. :)

Emma's Father

I've been watching the new BBC production of Jane Austen's Emma on PBS, Sunday nights. I was prepared to hate it - how could the two former productions - Kate Beckinsale's and Gwyneth Paltrow's - be bettered? But I actually like it. I like the way that they've tried to make Emma herself more like a young girl with more imagination and energy than her limited country life allows her to expend. And, of course, I like the fashions.

Mr. Woodhouse's scarf-shawl caught my eye immediately:



So much so, that I went out the very next day after the first episode and bought the yarn from my LYS to begin a project to replicate it...



It looks as wide as a shawl - at least twice as wide as a regular scarf, maybe more.

This is my plan... I used 3 skeins (250 yds ea) of Swan’s Island worsted in Robin's Egg blue and a size 8 Hiya Hiya circular needle.

I started with a cast on of 69, using one st on each edge for the edging and making the pattern on the remaining 67. After some experimentation, I ended up with 20 rows moss st and 12 rows plain (garter st.) knitting. I have done this four times for the end of the scarf, and now will knit moss stitch for the central part of the scarf - the part that goes around the neck - then repeat the pattern for the other end, ending with moss st.



I do think I will put the fringe on the ends; I think it makes it look more old-fashioned.



When I'm finished and have all the unexpected problems worked out, I will post this on Ravelry and here as a free pattern all nicely written up and printable.