Easy jewelry thing

I decided to try a bit of knitted jewelry

This was fun and easy,  Laura Nelkin's Butin Collar.  

In other news, I have a cherry tomato plant growing out of my compost.  Bonus!

Pine Tree Shetland Shawl done

It's done and so is the preliminary pattern.  More stories about the development of my first shawl design here.

Two extremely nice friends are test knitting the pattern. Let me know if you roo would like to test knit, before I set it free on Ravelry!

Shaker Grandmothers and a dishcloth

My five great-Grandmother lived with the Shakers.  Her name was Molly.   She lived in the Shaker community in Canterbury, New Hampshire, then later moved to the  Shaker community in Enfield, New Hampshire. Her daughters Eunice and Bella also lived in the community in Enfield. I have been lucky to visit both communities, as well as the one in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, all of which are now museums.

In my limited efforts to search for personal knitting history (of which there is little) I located a Shaker washcloth pattern.

  This design is from a description of a Shaker washcloth in the book  Shaker Textile Arts

by Beverly Gordon, c. 1980, University Press of New England. As of April 2012, this book is still in print. On p. 203, Gordon states “the standard design…for washcloths [was] a checkerboard-type combination of knit and purl stitch.” On p. 93 she states “washcloths, at least in the later days of the nineteenth century, were knitted or crocheted of cotton or linen, and typically had a simple checked or striped pattern. They were both sold as fancy goods in Shaker stores and used by the Believers.”It’s difficult to know if by “washcloth” Gordon means something that one might wash oneself with, or something more like a dishcloth. Either way, this simple pattern would serve, and frankly it looks more like a dishcloth to me. This pattern is free as there’s nothing particularly original about it. See my free patterns at right to access this.

Baby Hoodie and some thoughts

 Completed a baby gift

The pattern is here, done in Cotton Comfort from Green Mountain Spinnery, knit from stash, oh yeah!  I ran out of the natural and did the button bands in green, saving some natural for the last row.  I like it. This yarn is not springy and due to the cotton it's stiff to work with.  I did put it in the washer and dryer, both for short periods, and it softened up nicely. It still needs buttons..in a plain natural mother of pearl, I think.

This last week marks the passing of Levon Helm.  Levon was the drummer for The Band, who kept on sharing his music through his life.

Here he is with friends at the Ryman (that's in Nashville, y'all) three years ago, smiling and singing well  following radiation to his vocal cords for cancer (never let cancer co-opt your smile or your attitude...).

A fan of The Band since college, I listened to their albums relentlessly.  I am a fan of live albums, The Last Waltz (1976) on disc or DVD is not to be missed.  For me, their music exudes American roots and gives me a sense of nostalgia and, somehow, patriotism. 

My hands down favorite album of theirs, also a live one, is Rock of Ages, recorded in 1971.  It got a full listen this last weekend. 

An interesting note:   if you saw Elizabeth Zimmerman's obituary in the New York Times, December 12, 1999, then you will recall (well, I might be the only one to recall this...) that Levon's band member Rick Danko's obituary appeared on the same page.  His was above EZ's.

Other people whose passing this week one might ponder:

Dick Clark (never let a stroke co-opt your smile or your attitude, or your business sense, either...)

Jonathan Frid (on Friday the 13th, you KNOW he did that on purpose; despite my ambivalence to Tim Burton's extreme gory visuals, I'll look forward to seeing the new Dark Shadows movie to see Jonathan Frid's cameo, if nothing else...)

Time

A good friend of mine once said "I either don't have enough time or enough money...".  I think of her quote weekly.

There are multiple UFO's right now, including...

the edge of the lace shawl that I designed.   I have trouble finding enough time to do this or any knitting...so I am doing one point every morning before work.  One point per day, I can handle it...

Working on spinning some singles lace in my favorite green that I started almost 2 years ago

I tightened and oiled my wheel 2 weeks ago so it was time to get back to it...

More spring

The garden and yard have a lot of my attention this week

I love my iris

In other news, my friend Linda gave me a bag of cleaned soft underbelly fur from her pup, Isabelle.   It smells like doggie shampoo. Sammie investigates

The fibers are very short, about an inch.  The fiber will need to be carded and rolled on to puni's before spinning, both of which I need more practice at.  I have done this with cat fur before but not dog fur.

I had a nice weekend with lots of road knitting time as my son and I motored  to upstate SC and back. The baby sweater didn't go as planned, I changed patterns, here we are so far

It will be a little hoodie with buttons up the front.  I modified the pattern to do it in the round, my strategy.  A description of the pattern is here;  it's free although one must sign in to Bernat to get it.

Another personal vintage item

With the wild popularity of Downton Abbey (no, I certainly was not immune) I was sure that lace blouses would make a comeback this year.  I think I was right...check out some spring catalogs of women's wear.  (In case you've living in a cave, you can still watch  this year's episodes of Downton Abbey at pbs.org, click on "watch video" and search for Masterpiece Theater).

So, I was lucky that my sister returned this sweater to me.  I guess at one point I  must have given it to her.  I knit it in the early 90's and darned if it doesn't still fit.

The pattern is from a wonderful book entitled Classic British Knits: 40 Traditional patterns from England, Scotland and Ireland,  by Madeline Weston, published in 1986.  (There is another edition that has the same patterns entitled The Traditional Sweater Book).  (I am not up on my politics but do the Irish not dislike being called "British"?)

This is a very nice book with lovely examples of the different types of knitting found through the British Isles...ganseys, fair isles, some lace, and my beloved hap shawl, with patterns for all.

Once upon a time, I knit lots and lots of sweaters on really tiny needles, and this is one of them.  This has fountain lace in between a simple cable.  I am not sure what the yarn is, but I'm pretty sure that it's a mercerized cotton in sport weight, it might be Joseph Galler, I'm not sure.  I still have a sample of the yarn.  It's tough but soft.  

The sweater still fits, I am wearing it these days with a cami underneath.