Yarnerinas

I heard this phrase many, many times during my nephew’s recent visit.  For example, he loves sleeping under the slanted roofline up in our attic, so different from a Texas ranch house.

“But wouldn’t it be cool if you had a flat screen tv that came down on ropes from the slanted part so you could lay in bed and watch it.  No, no, even better, it would connect to your brain waves so when you went into dream sleep it would turn itself off.  No, no, I have an even better idea. It would have a touch screen that said ‘if you don’t press this, the tv will turn off in 2 minutes’ so when you are too tired to reach up, it just turns itself off. ” (He has no television in his house, so the tv itself is all part of the fantasy.)

I was reminded of this when several people asked me how I came up with the idea for Coquille.  It didn’t come to me in a dream, like the Dishcloth Dress.  As many of my patterns, it was born out of a failed project and many “No, no, I have a better idea!”  moments.

I wanted a replacement for my sadly lost Forest Canopy Shawl, to wear with a lighter jacket in fall and spring.  I thought Gaia would be perfect, all the cool kids were making it, so I bought some Kuryeon Sock and cast on.

Gaia required  actual concentration.  I do much of my knitting while doing something else – watching a movie, talking with friends, sitting in meetings.  So, I’m not really paying attention.  I need something to yell, “Pay attention right here!”–  like a marker, or the end of a row.  I kept missing the color changes that signal a stitch pattern change.   I ended up switching rather haphazardly, and frankly, it looked like total crap. (Why don’t I remember to take pictures of the total crap?  Does anyone want to see pictures of  total crap?)

I gave up, ripped it out, and cast on for another pattern.  I tried a variety of small mindless knitting  triangles. None were exactly right, but I kept having the “No, no, I have a better idea!” response.   I tested the small needle/large needle combo based on a Barbara Walker stitch pattern and made a triangle that started on a few stitches and increased.  Nice, but still not exactly what I wanted.  Neither was the yarn, really.  Fantastic Noro colors, but not soft enough.  That’s when I tested the Mini Mochi and began thinking about vertical stripes and more of an oval.  Several “No, no, I have a better idea!” trials later, I decided I had it.  It was so much fun, I made another, and then a large size in the beautiful Swans Island. Just then, I got an email regarding Knitty’s First Fall and figured what the heck, it seemed to fit the issue guidelines.

I was amazed and quite happy to have it accepted.  What has made me even happier is seeing all the “No, no, I have a better idea!” moments on Ravelry and across the blogosphere.  In order to accommodate yarn quantities and gauge variations, people were taking out gussets right and left (and center.)  SophieBegonia wanted to use up yarn, so  she added a few extra gussets in each set and an extra set of garter repeats at each segment.  (She isn’t sure about its usefulness as zombie protection, however.)

Stardiver skipped some large gussets and used the yarn she had left to make icord and tassels.   Plus, she taught me a new word, Aequipecten, the queen scallop.

Julia made her very first shawl by using up leftover sock yarn.

Janine left out a couple of gussets so she wouldn’t need a third ball of Mini Mochi.

And Deenags didn’t adjust anything, but finished with 3 inches left of her chosen yarn.  A real cliff hanger.

The most over the top, or under the sea, version is Yarnlots.

Do go to her blog and look at the other photos.  Not only is the shawl gorgeous, but the photo styling  is really something.  I mean, who has a giant clam shell just waiting for its moment of glory?  Heck, check out all her posts.  They make me want to get on the next plane to Belgium.

The comments have been so nice, especially the “easy and relaxing knit” type – music to my ears.  Thank you for making me look good.

MLE

This is my kind of Tea Party!

Now that Memorial Day/Queen’s Birthday /assorted Bank Holidays have announced that summer is officially here in their respective countries, I’m announcing the Dishcloth Dress. (Ingrid, you and your mates will just have to dream about summer.) Notice how effective it is in wiping up spills.

This pattern came to me in a dream.  Sort of.  A dream where a bunch of elderly women were standing around in elastic waist pants made in kitchen cotton in the Ballband pattern in all sorts of crazy colors. They were wearing jackets, and cardigans, and carrying those large pocketbooks that close with a resounding snap, like the one my Grandma used.  When I described this vision of loveliness to Maura and Martha, my Monday night crewe at the Yarnery, after the laughing died down the suggestion was made that it could be cute in kid pants.  Or a skirt, or….it took off from there.  So here are a couple of my favorite models rockin’ the ‘tea’, the dishcloths, the dresses, and the dandelions.  (At least you can rest assured we don’t use chemicals on our lawn.)

Water dripping is fascinating.

But drinking it is rather entertaining as well.

Please help us, we don’t have enough dandelions.

I used a variation on the classic ballband pattern stitch, and Cascade Cotton Rich DK instead of dishcloth cotton because it has great colors and enough acrylic to make it easier to knit with and less saggy than 100% cotton.  I machine washed and dried the dresses with no ill effects.

There are only two sizes, but because of the drawstring and the adjustable straps (just move the button) it should fit for a while.  The pink version is the small (24” chest) knit at a tighter gauge (I’m not complaining about the test knitter, really I’m not.) and the model is almost two.  The purple and green is a small and the model is about two and a half.

I am working on some shorts, too.  Soon, I hope.  Pattern available at the Yarnery, on Ravelry, and wholesale via Yarncraft Supplies.

This dress is also excellent hawk watching wear.

MLE

I have been knitting, but mostly  the cone- of- silence variety.  Here’s one project I finished that I can show, a shop model of a baby blanket pattern of mine, in Berroco Weekend.  It’s a great acrylic -cotton blend, soft and pleasant to work with.  It should be great for kid’s clothes.

I am a disciple of the fabulous She Shoots Sheep Shots school of photography, but perhaps not Gale’s most stellar student.  I was taking a shot of the blanket, and thought to myself, WWGD?  So you be the judge.

Dullsville

Galesville

I’ve never liked those tulips, but this might change my mind.  Just sticking the blanket in front of the tulips changed how the color showed up.  Mysterious but fun.  Seriously, if you get a chance to take one of Gale’s workshops on photographing your fiber, do it.  We are hoping to lure her out to Minnesota again soon.

While I was out with the camera, I shot some of my favorite spring things.  Blue flowers:

And daffodils:

Why is it so difficult to have blue flowers in the summer?  Other than bachelors buttons and delphiniums, all the flowers the catalogues call blue are really purple.  I am open to suggestions for annuals or Zone 4 perennials.  Hmmm…zone 4 might be the problem.

And if this attempt at photography makes you long for actual arty type stuff, check out this exhibit I found via Chris:  deep fried gansey anyone?

-MLE