Chicken or Egg?

Every six months, in preparation for TNNA's Great Wall of Yarn the members of the Association of Knitwear Designers do swatches for the yarns submitted by the yarn companies. As someone who loves to swatch, this is a wonderful distraction for me, and despite the fact that I don't really have time, I usually sign up to do three yarns. I always request natural fibers, which are my preference, and I frequently get nice luxury fibers to work with.

I use this as an opportunity to let some yarn talk to me about what it wants to be. This means that I sit down with some stitch books and look for appropriate stitch patterns. To me this is one of the best parts about what I do. No matter how many times I have looked through those books--and my Barbara Walkers are so handled that I have had them rebound--everything looks different when you have a specific

yarn in mind. Sometimes a pattern that I've loved just all of a sudden has the right yarn for it, and sometimes something I've never really noticed, just leaps off the page.

I then gather up my stitch patterns and the yarn, find the right needles, and usually sit on the couch and begin to make tiny sweaters. I love to do this! It means that I get to blend the stitch pattern with a garment shape.

Sometimes it works on the first shot, and sometimes not. Some patterns have to be swatched before I can start and others I just do a guesstimate and take off. Rarely is it a completely forward process, but it is fun for me because there is also no expectation except to make a nice, tiny sweater. And I don't have to write the pattern!

These are pictures of the three sweaters I did for TNNA in June. Yarns are for Winter 09/10. If you look closely at the purple sweater you'll see that I didn't do the armhole bind offs evenly and the pattern doesn't sit quite right. I was drinking a martini. I loved the stitch pattern.

I had to adjust it to work in the round, and I wasn't wild about how the bobbles looked, but that wasn't important at that point--I just needed a nice sweater.

I loved how I carried out the details on the tiny sleeves and neckline, but couldn't imagine that the pattern would look so great circling a real person's hips. But I really liked it, so I have now tweaked the stitch pattern, and done a swatch in a yarn that I was looking for a project to match to.

This yarn was at a better gauge, and this hat gave me the opportunity to rework those bobbles and finishing off the top was just too fun! A swatch like this is also a good test of how the yarn behaves when it is ripped. I redid portions of this many times. If you look closely you can see that my small bobbles change from the first repeat to the second as I refined my process; I had gotten fed up with ripping by then, so I just left it.

This is on its way to becoming a Y2Knit pattern. Hopefully it will be complete for a January release. The hat pattern will be included!

Battle of Funkstown

Saturday, July 11, the town of Funkstown celebrated with a Day in the Park and a reenactment of the Battle of Funkstown, a civil war battle.

I think the best part of the day was the music by the 97th Regimental String Band. They came from Florida and played 18th century music. Since their "stage" was right across from the shop, we sat on the porch and enjoyed the music while we knitted. They played later in the park, too.

After the music came the reenactment. Weird to me, but they seemed to be having a good time. Best part was the women who looted the fallen soldiers, taking their boots and valuables. I called out that they should take their socks too--hand knit with love by someone!

Thanks to Dennis for some more great pictures: team 1, team 2 and women looting.

Finished Sock

Elizabeth (Lizzy) Lundsford took the sock class at Y2Knit and finished her first sock today. She's just 10 years old! She turns 11 on June 21 so we think she'll finish her second sock when she's 11. She used a yummy colorway, reminds me of strawberries, of Fixation.

Lizzy's knitting has really taken off in recent months. She's knit a blanket for her stuffed dinosaur and has nearly completed a sweater for her American Girl Doll, thanks to Bonnie's patient teaching during Mommy and Me sessions.

Her next project is a stuffed snake. The pattern is written for flat knitting in Stockinette stitch. Lizzy wants to knit in the round on double points so she doesn't have to purl!

Field Trip to Be Sweet

When we were at TNNA I had a quick conversation with Nadine Curtis of Be Sweet. We share an awesome rep, Tina Hilton, who had suggested that Nadine talk to me about pattern grading. Susan had been by their booth and was told she'd won a door prize from them, but didn't believe them. Pic shows the tee I picked out for her and the replacement of Bubble yarn to match!

So Nadine said to go to the booth and get yarn so Susan and I went over on Monday, we were tired, and Kristine (Christine?) was tired and so I grabbed a couple of balls and said I'd get in touch with Nadine when she got back from vacation. Of course I swatched--who can resist pretty pink yarn?--and I had an idea to use their fabulous novelties and their bamboo yarn. Nadine and I emailed and I set up a field trip for Jennifer (my lovely assistant) and I to go to the Be Sweet studio in Sausalito. I also invited my mother, Jane, just because she loves to go almost anyplace.

I promised Mom ice cream so we took care of that before we went to Be Sweet. Then we headed upstairs to the Studio and an hour of fun ensued. Yarn was examined, we talked about design ideas and pattern collaborations. And Nadine showed us her new accessory products and things she'd purchased as inspirations. So we have some fun with all this great yarn and each of us came away with lots of sample yarns!

Prior to the visit, since returning from TNNA, Susan had executed, and Sandy (our very special test knitter) had tested a pattern to use the Be Sweet Bubble yarn. So a sample was sent out here to show to Be Sweet (of course I didn't bring a camera!) but it looked so fabulous on Kristine, who was wearing a fushia tee--and is young and pretty anyway. A pattern will be available soon! Tentatively named Bubble Whirl.

I have the makings of a Truffle top (raspberry Bamboo and chocolate Ribbon Ball).

Creating a Habitat

This has nothing to do with knitting. However, it does explain why I sometimes feel overwhelmed even though I strive to live a simple lifestyle.

As part of the simple lifestyle, I have only one pet. Abigail the cat is easy to care for though fairly demanding when it comes to attention. She has one weakness...bunnies. She loves to find them and chase them and bring them to me. They are usually alive and timid, so I catch them and put them back outside, far from my vegetable garden.

The other night she brought in one that must have gotten away from her before she brought him to me. So I was surprised to be sitting at my desk on Sunday and catch some movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked to see this little bunny hopping about. I went after him and he took off so fast I couldn't track where he went. After searching under everything in the shop, where he was last seen, I gave up.

The next afternoon, same thing. Little bunny hopping through the office. Before I can even focus on him, he's off and behind something (turns out it was the washing machine). Again, I search diligently, but no bunny. I don't want him to die, so I put some grass and clover on a paper and put it in the side entryway before going to bed. In the morning, much of this is gone. I also realize that there's been a mess where Abigail eats the last couple mornings, so apparently he ate some cat food too.

Bunny appears more often on Tuesday, apparently hungry. I decide to put out the Have-a-heart trap I borrowed from the D'Onofrios. I put it in the kitchen, baiting it with clover and grass. I leave for a couple of hours in the evening and when I come back he's in the trap eating. He's too light to set off the trap, which would close the door. So he's out of there like lightening as I enter the house, dashing under the stove.

Abigail comes in and I think she might be able to help me flush him out. . . wrong. When I get the flashlight out, all she wants to do is play with the light. When I remove the drawer beneath the stove, all she wants to do is play with the cat balls that have gone under there. She doesn't even seem to realize that bunny is under there in a narrow space between the stove and cupboard. I can see him, but can't reach him.

I move the trap so it blocks the kitchen doorway to the rest of the house so he is confined to one room. Abigail seems fine hopping over the trap to get to and fro, so I go off to bed.

I am awakened in a few hours by Abigail howling. I get up to see what her problem is and she's sitting on the kitchen counter, looking from me to the trap and back. I can hear noise coming from the trap, so I go downstairs to find bunny in there, too afraid to exit because of Abigail. She's afraid to go near the trap. . . apparently the bunny out of context is a bit scary for her. I close the trap, take it outside and release the bunny, who has presumable hopped away to freedom somewhere other than my garden.

Until the next time.