She Knits By The Seashore

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.

Le Tour est Fini

It's been a busy July, trying to keep up with the daily stage races of the Tour de France and the KAL blog. I don't know what I was thinking, trying to go for a green jersey (meaning that I would finish Breton Girl by the end of the Tour, Sunday July 27), but as you can see, that didn't happen!

It's been a fun time, though, especially now that Chris is back on his bike racing too. He came in 5th place in his latest race, despite the 100 degree heat and humidity, and a slight mechanical problem.

We're more than ready for our vacation, which is coming in early August. I'll try to get more of Breton Girl completed, and also the crochet trim on Caroline. But what I really want to do is read. It's going to be tough to pare down the pile of books I want to take with me: A Walk on the Beach,  Light From Heaven, mystery paperbacks, and a vintage novel. Then there's the Red Leather Diary.

We went to a book talk by the author this past week. Her story is fascinating: finding this diary in an abandoned trunk, destined for the dumpster. Reading the diary, a chronicle of five years of living as a socialite daughter in New York City in the 1920s and 30s. Having a detective locate the author of the diary, now 94 years old, and working with her to write her life story, complete with excerpts from the diary. We fully expect that the movie will be out in the next year or two! Has anyone else read it?

I finally finished "Soaring on High" by Mary Whelchel (see left column), an excellent book that compares the characteristics of an eagle's life with our spiritual lives. Highly recommended if you like books in this genre.

Two more SP12 questions to catch up on:

6. What is your favorite type of project to take along on holiday/vacation?

Whatever I'm working on is what I take, though I like scarves, stoles, or shawls best.

7. What is/are your favorite places to knit? What supplies (besides yarn and needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?

In my knitting dreams, I have a chaise longue/lounge with a vintage gilded floor lamp, and a small table nearby with a cup of tea and a vase of garden flowers for inspiration. In reality, I'm either knitting in the car, or on the sofa in the living room while watching a movie or bike race. In the season we don't mention, w-nt-r, there is usually a fire in our fireplace and a cat or two baking in front of it, which makes things cozy. Always tea.

Despite my blog's name, I don't actually knit at the seashore, for fear of sand ruining the yarn. "She Knits at the Pool" didn't have the same ring to it, though I hope to do a little of that on vacation!

Introducing Breton Girl

Breton Girl is my Tour de France KAL project (TdF). I chose her because my co-hostess Meg saw it listed in my Ravelry queue and said "You have to knit it for the Tour. It starts in Brittany this year!" Our KAL's first intermediate sprint challenge asks the knitters to explain their project's connection to the Tour, France, or cycling. It's a good thing I can't enter the challenge, since my story isn't nearly as creative as some of the ones other knitters have. But the sweater does look very much like a French sailor top, and with the current trend of flowy, empire-waist sweaters out there that look like a tent on me, I'm loving a pattern with a nipped-in waist.

There isn't much to show you yet, because the directions for the hem were tricky. On Ravelry, I found Lomester, who has also knitted this sweater some time ago. She, along with Robin and Kat Coyle herself (the designer) graciously clarified some of the directions for me. Needles crossed it's smooth sailing now, or should I say pedaling?

In Caroline news, I've got one sleeve in and the side seamed. I hope to seam in the other sleeve and side soon.

In book news, I've started the new Maggie Sefton knitting mystery, A Killer Stitch. Anyone else reading this?

In shelter news, Kewpie (scroll down post) our blind kitty has been adopted, to a family that will "spoil her rotten" (according to our volunteer notebook). YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Secret Pal 12

I'm a few weeks behind on the SP 12 questions, so without further ado:

2. As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?

I loved school, but I also loved having months of days without homework, to read, draw, and swim in our pool. To this day, I still love wearing the bright colored T-shirts, shorts, and sundresses that summer brings (we weren't allowed to wear shorts to [public]school), and staying up late at night to read (no school the next day!), with the warm breezes coming through the window. Family road trips were a lot of fun also -- I still like to play the license plate game and follow the maps.

3.What would you consider the perfect amount of stash?

Small. I'm not much of a stash knitter. I have a few skeins of special hand-dyed yarns and some get-them-before-they're-gone yarns like the Rowan Romance skeins, but mostly I buy yarn for a project when I'm ready to start it. 

4. A) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?
B) What yarn do you never want to be without?

A)I'd like to try some Fleece Artist or Handmaiden Yarn in the Seashore colorway. I'm curious about the sea silk yarns. I love Fiesta's Pink Champagne, Zinfandel, or pinky-coral colorways, but I'm not sure what fiber version I'd like. For sock-turned-scarf yarns, I'd love to add some Sundara or Sweet Georgia colorways. Lorna's Laces. I am loving some of the Louisa Harding and Rowan yarns too.

B) Since I buy yarn "per project", the only way I can answer that is:  pink yarn, ocean-colored yarn, mohair. Thankfully, my little stash currently has an abundance of all three. :)

5. A) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday? Cape Cod budget-wise, but I'd like to make any warm-water island or coastline my new favorite place! 

B) Where is one place you’d like to go? Italy. The Caribbean. Australia.

Last but not least, I won a prize! Deb at Deb on the Web did the 5k walk for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, and random donors were treated to some pretty yarns. I received this lovely shawl kit in the mail, the Field of Flowers pattern from Evelyn Clark, and "Whisper" by Aurora Yarns. I'm going to have to get back to lace knitting soon. Thank you Deb for the lovely prize, and also supporting CCFA.

Hope you all have a peaceful and relaxing weekend ahead! Arrivederci!

Vive Le Tour!

On Friday, we celebrated our country's birth with a family picnic. But on Saturday, we quickly switched cultural gears to celebrate the Grand Depart of the Tour de France. Since France helped the USA in the American Revolution, it all ties in together!

As a co-hostess with Meg of the Tour de France KAL, and soigneur to Mr. Suitcase (back on the bike, but not ready to race again just yet), it was only fitting we start the month of the best bike racing in the world with a grand fete.

Kristen, Team Leader for Lampre, started a beautiful cable vest. Ann S, a member of Team Garmin-Chipotle, worked on her stripey socks. I started Breton Girl during the party, and promptly realized after everyone left that I began with the wrong color stripe! Thankfully there were only a couple of rows to rip out, so I caught back up with the peloton pretty quickly.

I had planned to knit this sweater in the round, but realizing that I'd have to convert the pattern for stripes, and have a million ends to weave in anyway (does it make the sweater lumpy, in a way that hiding ends in seams does not??) made me think that maybe this is not the best pattern to be the first where I convert from flat knitting to in the round. After all, I'm going for the green jersey, trying to finish it before the Tour ends at the end of July, not the polka dot jersey, the "new knitting challenge" jersey. As a compromise, since the front and back of the sweater are identical, I'm putting them both on the needles and knitting them at the same time, just like I do for sleeves. Photo to come, as soon as I get a few more rows on the needles.

On Sunday, Chris and I went to see Impressionist Giverny: American Painters in France, 1885-1915. The exhibit features paintings by American Impressionists who also studied in Giverny with Monet. The museum had a beautiful house and garden, with purple cone flower (echinops), rudebeckia, phlox, and roses in bloom throughout the grounds.

There were artists on the lawn capturing the scene, which included a beautiful river that Chris photographed, below.

We ended our weekend with a short bike ride by the ocean. I hope your weekend, and your knitting, was just as fun!

Les chats sont amusant*

Last night I wound the first of the two ribbon skeins into a ball for my Tour de France KAL project.

It is so cool that the needle color coordinates with the ribbon! I hope the ribbon doesn't slip off the plastic needles too easily.

The ball band specified putting the yarn on a swift, but winding it by hand. I don't have a swift, so I did put it on the back of the chair. I'm not exactly sure how it was skeined, as it tangled horribly. Thankfully, the slipperyness kept it from knotting up. With a lot of time and patience, I finished winding just before I went to sleep (midnight). I'll save the second skein for another time. :)

Packing continues. Charlie and Tim have been patient so far, considering their house is full of boxes.

But watching us wears Timmy completely out sometimes.

*The cats are very funny

ETA: I had the wrong verb in the title when I posted this earlier. Excusez-moi, s'il vous plait.

The Tour de France KAL

Bonjour! Comment allez-vous? Je suis fatigue from Le GYGIG ride, and post-ride clean-up, final house purchase negotiations, and the day job. But not too tired to tell you about a tres cool KAL pour l'ete!

Meg, the tricoteuse enchante from And So The Days Are Filled blog, has graciously invited me to co-host the 2007 Tour de France Knit Along with her, and now we want to invite you to join us. You don't have to be a Tour fan, or even ride a bike -- if you like French culture, have a summer knitting project in mind, and are looking for a fun sport to watch on the TV while staying inside with the AC or central heating, please join us! There are different categories for every type of knitter and project, and Meg has made great jersey blog buttons too!

Details can be found at The Tour de France Knit Along blog. Join us, s'il vous plait!!