She Knits By The Seashore

Finished Kitchen & Almost Finished Shine Jacket

The sun finally made a brief appearance, so may I present our finished kitchen:

 

It is such a pleasure to be there now that the walls are all the same color and not scratched up. I'd still like to find window treatments, though I'm not sure yet what kind. Suggestions?

 

Here is the 180 degree view, below. Stove, etc, is to the left.

 

Rosie says, "Hello! You have to see the new bowls that we got when our person went on a birthday shopping trip -- aren't they cute?"

 

They are pink. They have cats on them. How could I not get them for my girls?! I only wish they had a blue or green version for Tim.
 
Two days ago, I blocked the Shine Jacket and the trim. I didn't use pins because I was afraid the yarn would snag. You can see the blue rubber gloves in the photo that I'm now using to handle this project -- that's how delicate (and annoying!) this yarn is. Now to attach the trim!

 

 Thank you to my sister L for the blocking squares!

This Sunday marks the beginning of the spring series of training races for local cyclists. That means spring is just as good as here! The weather is supposed to be warm and sunny and I'll be out snapping photos of Chris and our friends. I hope you have a lovely Sunday!

First Ornament, Pooling Question, and Why Can't I Find Something to Read?

I finished my first beaded ornament for this year. They only take a couple of hours, once you learn the technique, and I love shopping for beads. This is one of my favorite places!

Robin and I were talking about pooling yarns -- variegated yarns that make a splotch of color when they are supposed to stripe. My Mr. Greenjeans was fine for the first skein, but the second has left a few spots of pooling in the front by the edges. In one or two places, when I got to the end of the row, I started the yarn further down on the skein so that I could break up the color on purpose. 

 
You can see the dark patch on the lower left front, where I knotted the yarn and started a row further down the skein. There is also a light patch on the right.

I'd like her opinion and yours as to whether I should rip back to the beginning of the second skein, and alternate two skeins to break up the pooling, or if you think it's fine as is. I'm nearly to the end of this second skein, so it would be a lot of ripping, but I want it to look right.

 

Here is a closeup of the problem area, and you can see the cabled border a little better.
 

I'm having trouble finding a book to fit my mood. I started with Ann Perry's A Christmas Journey, since it was a Christmas story and presumably had some sort of mystery. After three pages, it wasn't capturing my attention, so I switched to Her Royal Spyness, the first book in a 1930s British mystery series by Rhys Bowen. I read one hundred twenty-five pages of that, and it is also not doing anything for me. A lot of people like this book and series (the third book is now out in hardcover), but I personally don't enjoy stories with aristocracy-down-on-their-luck, and this one seems to be full of those characters. It drives the point home that if you were a woman during that time who rejected the expected marriage-as-profession, no family member supported your choice, and it was difficult to make it on your own.

Our MC Georgie is cut off from her allowance and leaves her brother's home in Scotland to live in the unused, unheated London house, where she begins to find work as a housekeeper. She runs into an Irish lord, penniless, who looks up festive events like weddings in the social papers, and crashes the parties in order to get meals. He takes her to one of these, where she discovers that an old boarding school friend there is doing the same thing!  As if that weren't enough, Georgie finds out from her brother that their late father likely gambled away the ancestral home in Scotland, and a swarthy Frenchman has shown up on their doorstep to collect his winnings. I suppose here is where the mystery starts, but I don't know that I'm going to read any further. All this scrounging around off of other people is a little too tacky for me. I'm also not convinced that a woman in the 1930s would think and talk the way Georgie does. So, I went back to A Christmas Journey -- more aristocracy, more behaving badly, but in the most honorable way possible, if that makes sense.

I think what I really want to read is Reading Like A Writer by Francine Prose, but with the Christmas preparations and the ongoing cat issues, I'm afraid I won't be able to concentrate on it like I hope to. It's easier to pick up and put down the mystery mind candy without forgetting too much between times.

Last Saturday, I was invited to a tea by my friend C, who belongs to the CT chapter of JASNA. I felt like a bit of an impostor since I'm not actually a member, nor a rabid Austen fan, but I really enjoyed it. The speaker, Sarah MacLean, has just published The Season, and had a lot of cool things to say about Jane's contribution to novel writing techniques, and her ability to combine romance and humor. I've only read P&P once a long time ago, so I hope to get another copy soon, and read it before a trip to the Morgan Library's exhibit in January. It could be the beginning of a new obsession.

Knitting and Fashion

The back of the Shine Jacket is finished (sorry for the darkness):

I want to like this project, I really do. The yarn continues to worry me, though, catching on everything. It seems as if it's best for trim and accents and I would advise anyone reading this not to use it for a whole garment, or a purse. When you think about the beating a vinyl or leather purse takes, this fragile ribbon yarn would be toast unless you only used it for one or two special nights out a year.

Sarah and I continue our Louisa Harding obsession. She came to my town for a yarn crawl this time, and luckily, I escaped only with two balls of yarn for handwarmers. I'm not going to be able to sleep at night with all of the pretty things I want to knit!

I'm disappointed to discover that so many yarns are discontinued after the pattern books that use them are only two or three years old. I know you can substitute, but sometimes, I just want the yarn in the photograph! Louisa's yarn is a prime example; so too, the Sublime Kid Mohair. Sirdar has two pattern books that use their kid mohair, but the only yarn still available for it is in a toast color in one online shop. And the Noni purse patterns I love (the Petit Four bag and Sweetheart Roses flowers), which I can't find at any local yarn shop, ask for Tilli Tomas Flurries and Whistler. So far, I've only found a pink beaded skein at kpixie, and a white skein on ebay.

Have you seen the October issue of Lucky? There is a feature on knitted fashions that caught my eye. I photographed a few of the pages to show you:

I have questions. First, if you were to see any of these items as patterns, would you buy them and knit them and wear them? Secondly, given that most of these cost hundreds of dollars, and there are some very clever knitters out there, I'm wondering if anyone has interpreted the designs into patterns, a la Anthropologie capelet. That cabled tote looks ripe for interpreting. Are there knitters out there that regularly read fashion magazines and knit similar styles?

What I'm trying to say is, here are a bunch of designers not, to my knowledge, having any relationship to the knitting world. (Unlike Twinkle, for example). Their trendy designs, from what I can tell, are different than the design themes we see this season in Interweave, Rowan, Norah Gaughan, etc., other than maybe the popular red and purple shades. I would like to understand better how knitting fits into the grand scheme of fashion. Will we be seeing similar designs in our knitting patterns next fall? Do the Martin Storeys and Norah Gaughans and Connie Chinchios and Kate Gibsons of our world pay attention to the runways and fashion magazines, or do fashion designers and knitting designers work separately? I'm curious to know what you think.

New Project, Wrong Season

The first leaves are falling, the farm stand up the road is all chrysanthemums and bags of apples, and most nights are too chilly now to leave the windows open. Yet I've started the back of the Shine jacket by Louisa Harding, a short-sleeved sparkly white bolero perfect for a summer wedding or graduation.

The Glisten yarn is fun to knit. But as with many beautiful things, it is high-maintenance. I have to be super-careful not to catch a nail on it as I knit the rows, or it snags very easily. The gauge was impossible for me to discern because of the ribbon texture; after a few false starts, I went with the recommended needle size U.S. 10, but am knitting one size larger than I would normally, just in case. I hope that the border trim, which is knit separately and slip-stitched on, will not be a bear to attach.

Last weekend, I finished and submitted an essay for the Real Simple magazine contest, and I'm making final edits to a short story for the Good Housekeeping contest, due 9/15. I don't know if anything will come of these, but having the deadlines is good practice for finishing pieces, rather than letting them languish. I'm ever-so-slightly entertaining the idea of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year -- talk about deadlines! I've not been brave enough to attempt even the sweater version (NaKniSweMo), but as my father always told me growing up, you never know what you can do until you try.

Breton Girl

In my nearly annual Labor Day finishing celebration, and because MrsSDC is anxiously waiting, may I present Breton Girl:

Pattern: Breton Girl by Kat Coyle, Knitscene Fall 2007

Yarn: Elle Stretch DK, 6 blue and 3 white

Needles: 4 & 5 circulars

Mods: knit neckline in the round

Time: July 5, 2008 to Sept 9, 2009

Breton Girl was my project for the 2008 Tour de France KAL, but I only finished 2/3 of the front and back before taking a break last fall. I picked it up again this spring, determined to finish.

The yarn specified in the pattern is hard to find, but I wanted to use it because the sweater has such dramatic shaping. A less stretchy yarn would not have fit as well. Thankfully, one of my LYS was able to track it down for me. It's a little splitty but if you are careful it should be fine.

The neckline seemed a little droopy when I finished it, but once you put the sweater on, it lays perfectly on the collarbone. You can see the decreases there if you look closely, which I was worried would look like mistakes in the knitting, but since I didn't know of any alternate way, I followed the pattern instructions.

Seaming on the diagonal at the bottom of the sweater was tough for me, also because of the increases, but I'm OCD and wanted it to look exactly right. I love the hems on the sleeves and body. Someone wrote that you have to knit about five sweaters before you begin to like the ones you knit, and I think that's true. I'm really happy with Breton Girl, and am looking forward to my next sweater already.

Special thank yous to my ever-patient husband and blog photographer, who has to deal with my hair and squinty-eye issues. Sea breezes and reflections off the water wreck havoc with FO photography, but we try.

Goodbye, Summer 2009.

One Down, One to Go

So far, the white yarn has been holding out. I've finished sleeve one, and have sleeve two plus the white collar left to knit.

It has been a busy week at the seashore. On Friday, we went to visit friends, after SDC was in a nasty bike crash last Tuesday. They are in good spirits, and have not lost their sense of humor, which makes all the difference.

We spent the weekend with Sarah and her husband, who graciously invited us to stay so that Chris would be closer to his Sunday race in Massachusetts. Chris placed 12th out of 25 or 30 riders on a 94F degree day, which is pretty amazing. It was too hot to walk around and take the photos, much less race a bike!

 

Chris on left with white kit and red-tired bike

Sarah and I visited SP, though I didn't find any tweed for the Forever Tweed sweater I hope to knit later this year. We also watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, with Gwenyth Paltrow, a very different but intriguing 1930s science fiction film. The time went by way too fast.

Writing class last week was a little disappointing. We were supposed to discuss outlining, but much of the class was spent chitchatting about tangential things. There was one exercise. "You are listening to your phone messages, and the third message makes you freeze..." I'm sure most of us have unfortunately had one of those calls, so there was no shortage of examples to write and share. Our last class for this session is on Wed. I think we are discussing plot, if the group can stay on topic. :)

The generosity of bloggers always surprises me. Sara asked for my address, and look what came in the mail!

Thank you Sara for your encouragement! These will be very helpful!

Last but not least, a short book review:

A Rather Curious Engagement by C.A. Belmond

In this sequel to A Rather Lovely Inheritance, Penny and Jeremy take the summer off to plan their new lives. They are advised by their accountant to pick one splurge, before the remainder of their funds are safely invested. (Apparently, renovating the townhouse in London, the villa in France, and the antique car found in the villa's garage are considered "yearly maintenance costs." Big sigh.) They decide to bid on a vintage yacht being auctioned off in Nice, and that's where their second adventure begins.

Shortly after they win the boat, and begin to renovate it(!), the yacht is stolen and left drifting in the harbor of a nearby village, but nothing seems to have been taken. Penny's curiosity sends her off on a hunt to track down the previous owner, an elderly German count living near Lake Como, Italy. It appears that the thieves were looking for a rare piece of aquamanile the count purchased on his last journey. The Beethoven Lion has disappeared and no one is sure where it is, if it in fact exists at all. The count's son, Kurt, asks Penny and Jeremy to search for it, and even shifty cousin Rollo, an antiques dealer, comes on board to help.

I love these books. The settings are captivating, the stuff of feature articles in travel magazines, and occasionally have me running to the atlas to locate them. The art history fascinates me, sending me to the online dictionaries to look up aquamanilia and the like. The vicarious thrill of being independently wealthy and spending summer on the Riviera goes without saying. But there is also some careful characterization here that makes the novel more than a throwaway read. Jeremy's fragile and glamourous ex-wife Lydia, newly aware of his inheritance, re-enters his life to challenge Penny for his affections and wealth. Jeremy is woefully dense when it comes to Lydia's schemes, and Penny (with help from Aunt Sheila), learns to cope with her feelings of inadequacy and rise above the pettiness. British Jeremy must fight the urge to go back to his old crowd, all that is known and familiar, and forge a new path and business with Penny, who is looked down upon for being an American. And Cousin Rollo, encouraged by Penny, begins to see himself in a new light.

I'm very much looking forward to A Rather Charming Invitation, due in February, and in the meantime, am working on Glory in Death by J.D. Robb.

How was your weekend? What are you reading or knitting?

New Yarn & Creative Writing No. 7

Thank you for your input on a color for our front door! Red and blue seem to be the top two suggestions, and at the moment, I'm leaning toward a cranberry/raspberry that would look good with the hall when the door is open. I promise to get some paint swatches soon to share with you.

The early knitter gets the yarn.

On Saturday, I got up early and drove the distance to Creative Fibers for their summer sale.  The night before, I did my homework, gathering up some patterns to take with me to match with yarn. Right inside the door was Louisa Harding's Impression yarn, in a lovely shade of blue-green, enough to make Sophie, or Beatrix. Swoon! I also bought two skeins of her ribbon yarn because they were pretty, and an extra skein of the Nashua June for the Lace Ribbon Scarf I hope to do. Mrs. SDC met me at the sale and we had fun doing something just for us -- usually we are at the bike races together in support of our misters.

 

Sophie. I love that these are fall sweaters, but don't look like fall sweaters!

 

Beatrix needs Glisten yarn for the trim, which no one seems to sell anymore.

The third session of my writing class started last Wednesday. As a writing prompt, we had to make a list of five interesting settings, as general or specific as we liked. Try it! List five places you enjoy reading about, or visiting, that you think would be interesting settings for stories. I'll share two of mine: an all-night diner, and a small village in France.

We talked about the process from idea to outlining; the latter will be covered next week. Brainstorming and listmaking is a great first step, then gathering, where you sort out the ideas you think will actually work. Finally, you can use post-its, one idea per post-it, and sort them out on a table or wallboard to start to organize your story. Class ended with a fairy-tale; taking a story and writing a list of alternate endings. Our homework is to pick one of those endings and brainstorm it. This is helping to remove a lot of the mystery from the process of idea to page (or screen).

As to knitting, I've had to work on one sleeve at a time for Breton Girl, because I only have one ball of the white yarn left. I'm not sure it's enough, but a very sweet Raveler in the UK has offered to send me some of her yarn if I need it. I am going to finish this sweater by Labor Day or else!!

Breton Girl -- Body Finished

I finished the front and back of Breton Girl!

 

I used the red Knit Klips to hold them together, to give you an idea of what the body shape looks like. I have something I want to fix at the neckline before seaming, but for now, I've started working on the sleeves. I'm knitting those two at a time too. This project has taken too long as it is, and knitting the pieces two at a time gives me the illusion that it's going faster.

Normally I like to have two projects to alternate with, an easy one and a hard one, for variety. But I want to finish this so much that it's all Breton Girl, all the time. Then I hope to get back to my beaded seashore scarf, and maybe even try Paloma again.

How are your summer projects going?

Knitting in the Dark

Paloma has been one of the hardest projects I've started, because unlike the others, I can't "read" the stitches. There's no discernable pattern -- it doesn't yet look like anything in the photographs, so I can't tell if my stitches are correct. In fact, I can't even tell for sure what the right side out is.

 

Close-up:

Unfortunately, after this photo was taken, I had to rip a row. And lost a stitch to the yarnovers. And lost another. You know where this is going...I had to rip back to the beginning. For the forth time. This project may sit in time out for a bit; it's been behaving so badly. When I start it again, I'm putting in a lifeline.

Writing class started again last week (though we were off this week), focusing on "show, don't tell." We had to write about a time we were miserable (stomach flu last February!!). At first we had to tell the story, and then we had to go back and choose a part of the story, and describe it without telling it. For example, instead of saying, "I felt miserable," you could say, "my stomach churned like the spin cycle on a washing machine."

Our next exercise was to pick a feeling, and then use words and phrases to describe the feeling. For example, peaceful: relaxed in the chair; leaned back on the beach blanket, etc. Our last one was to take this idea, and write a short story with it: "There's a man walking barefoot in a tuxedo on the side of the road." It sounded very F. Scott Fitzgeraldesque to me, all 1920s summer house parties, so I went with that.

For homework, we have this challenge: two friends meet in a store. Each one is shopping for an item that reveals something about their present situation. You can tell what the item is, but try not to tell the reader their situation. I'm still working on this one, trying to avoid the obvious things. You know the first thing that came to my mind was a grocery cart full of cat food and litter! We also have to begin to develop a character, but I can do that no problem.

I'm writing about my classes in the posts mostly to keep a record for myself, but if any of these exercises tempt you, feel free to play along!

One challenging thing about the class is that it is held in a room where knitting books are shelved. When one of the more, shall we say, talkative class members contributes, my eyes tend to wander. After class last week, I came home with this:

 

It's been on my wish list for a long time, and it was on sale. This is one of my favorite patterns, though I don't know that I'll knit it any time soon. It's French Girl's Avril:

 

It might make a cute vest over a turtleneck, but I refuse to think about cold-weather clothes now!

For one of my non-class exercises, I'd been writing about my great-grandmother's needlework talents. When I shared the essay with my mother, she gave me her grandmother's blue crochet patterns book, from the 1940s. I love all vintage books, but this one is very special to me, as I have my great-grandmother's doilies and embroidered pillowcases and fancy handkerchiefs. Some of the patterns may have come out of this book.

 

Here is an interior shot:

 

It is hard for me to figure out how to display these doilies in a modern house without looking too dated, but they're too beautiful to keep hidden in a drawer. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know. There is a knack to decorating with vintage items and I would very much like to develop that.

I hope you have a great weekend and happy knitting and reading!

Breton Girl Update, and a Fun Weekend

Still knitting away on the front and back of the Breton Girl sweater! It is taking a long time to knit it this way, but once I'm done, I'll only have the sleeves left! I'm still working on Paloma too, but I'm in the knit one row, rip out two stage.

 

The yarn falls off the ball unless I keep it in a plastic bag. I'm carrying the colors up the sides so I can avoid weaving in a million ends!

Despite the neverending gray skies and rain, Chris and I had a great weekend. On Saturday, he raced in Rhode Island, and Sarah and Jeff joined me in watching and photographing the race. The first photo is one I took of Chris rounding a corner (he's second from left), and the second is a photo of me that Sarah took, while I was taking pictures of Chris.

 

I'd really love to upgrade our camera. I don't take a lot of photos, but jumped into the deep end of the photography pool when Chris started racing. Nothing like capturing one person out of the pack of racers, all of whom are going by at an avg. of 25 mph! I'm beginning to think an SLR might be in my future.

After the race, we had lunch and visited a bookstore. Other than two magazines, I did not for once buy any books. Not that I am running out of reading material!

 

Indiscretions were committed over the last few weeks as follows: the top four came from Book Mooch, the next four came from Book Barn, where friends enabled me, the next three came from the bookstore where I have been taking the writing classes. Second to last, Becoming a Woman of Freedom, was given out at my church as the summer study book, and the book at the bottom of the pile, Face the Music, was written by Chris' colleague. She autographed my copy. What can I say?

 

Rosie says, "I think you had better start reading them!"