I have an invisible mending opportunity

 ... or do I? Let's decide!

I bought this gorgeous felted wool sweater new, and massively discounted owing to some fabric flaws. Holes, to be specific. 

They're right down the front, starting from the neck. 

I knew this going in and thought the holes would be much worse, but I didn't care. I have the same sweater with no flaws in a brown-green-gold colour and absolutely love this fabric, flaws or not.

Check out that texture! yet, when you wear it, this wool is soft like silk. And quite thin, while maintaining structural integrity. Warm enough but very breathable. I wasn't going to turn down fabric like that over a few holes. Anyway, I'm so interested now in visible mending and looking for opportunities to try it. 

(Bet you're wondering, as I say that, whether I have taken advantage yet of my blue denim opportunities and the answer is No, because apparently I am always more excited about potential than actual work, and also, I still haven't decided whether to patch or weave that fabric, sigh. Decision-making: never my strong point.)

So I bought the sweater and the holes are quite small but there are a lot of them and they are weirdly positioned. Another view of the size:

And again, with light behind the biggest one, which is at the neck:

As soon as it arrived I started rubbing my hands together with glee because I couldn't help noticing that the scarf I'm STILL WEAVING (sorry, lil frustrated with myself there) is a very good match for this fabric...

... and I also have this thread that's pretty close.

 

Or I could make the holes bigger, then patch some fabric in behind them. The pink floral fabrics at the top of this post turn out not to be quite on the nose, so maybe high contrast patches, using raccoon faces, would be fun.

Too much?

Here's the thing though - give that this is felted wool, the holes aren't going to get bigger unless they snag on something. Which, given that the worst one is at my neck, would lead to bigger problems than torn fabric.

And the fabric is so very textured, casting shadows all over. I'm not sure the holes even show. Like, check out this other one I found on the back. Can you even see it?

Here's where it is. I could barely make it out, myself, until I knew to look for it. 

Plus, the really big hole at the front of the neck falls into this area that folds in naturally while in use (as I mentioned, I have another of these sweaters already and am cosily wearing it as I type this), such that it will be out of sight when I wear it.

The only hole I really need to worry about is the one that's sort of smack in the middle of the front.

It does show. But it's pretty small.

Maybe I should just wear this sweater and ignore the holes. If I mend them, I might just make them stand out more, right?

Ugh, now I don't know what to do, apart from wearing the sweater and enjoying the bright colour and knowing I can always mend it if the holes get worse. Or maybe, wearing the sweater to a sewing supply store so I can buy embroidery floss or similar that is a perfect match! 

Either way, I have had a very productive time hunting up my sewing scraps and thread collection so I could write today's Hug. I found some vintage tea towel fabric I'd been looking for, to fill out a curtain panel I've decided is just too skimpy. I am really piling up the sewing projects! Which makes it more urgent to finish my weaving, because I need the loom space for my sewing machine, aiiieee.

Hope you've got a lively or lazy but in all ways good weekend lined up, and thank you for dropping in again today after I took last week to nurse my sore arm. It is still sore, by the way, but less persistently so, and my doctor is certain it's not carpal tunnel, so I am just muddling along with loads of massage.

See you next Saturday! 

Process of elimination

Today I decided that even if I have only one set of sock needles free, I have GOT to cast on a new round of emergency knitting.  So I went to my Vesper Sock bin to see whether I had any more kits set up - a skein caked, then divided into two equal-sized cakes, all ready to cast on - and panicked!  I could only find one.  Then I realized there were more, underneath all the new skeins I haven't addressed yet.  Ahem.  Five in total, and how do I choose?

They're all beautiful.


This has been a very bumpy week.  And it started off so well, too.  By the end of Sunday I'd purchased all the lights for the house, a necessary and urgent job because the wiring is nearly done and my window of opportunity is fast closing for moments like

Oh! I want a sconce there, or

Yikes! I can't find a fixture that kicks out enough light and isn't hideous, so can we wire for two ceiling lights in a row here and I'll buy this nice dim one? 

And believe me, this is the sort of thing that comes up.  We needed:

Entry hall lighting (overhead and matching sconce)
Lots of hall lighting (very flush to the ceiling)
Stairwell sconces plus a large matching ceiling fan with no light in it
Something very special for the living room ceiling
Bedroom ceiling lights, plus my office ceiling light
Sconces for the master bedroom and the office
A hall ceiling light that works with the master bedroom ceiling and sconce lights
And complementary table lamps for the living room and master bedroom.

I don't know why I thought that was not worth budgeting for in advance.  Once I started pricing lights I realized that this list, plus the kitchen light I'd already found and the dining room lights we've already paid for, adds up to about $6000 Canadian if we're lucky, so you'd better believe I was hunting for steep discounts! 

I put in about 4 hours a day on weekdays, and 8 on weekends, for about a month just looking at online lighting stores, and magazines, and the websites of brick and mortar stores and trying to find lights we

a/ did not hate

b/ could afford

c/ would play nicely together, at least within sight of each other.

It was a VERY hard task.

I think I don't want to knit anything too bright right now - better to save those warm, summery colours for a dreary winter day.  Down to four?


Anyway I can't tell you what a lift I got when I clicked Place Order on the last of the lights!  We got great deals, and we loved everything we chose.  The hall lights especially were massively discounted, very close to the ceiling, and GORgeous, combining black and gold and white and leaving us free to add some gold touches with other lights.  Branching out to gold really expanded our shopping options.

But on Tuesday I got an email to say they had been DISCONTINUED.  And the manufacturer was entirely out of stock.

Which meant our matching gold lights didn't really make sense any more.  Especially the ones that were also discontinued!  My matching desk lamps were on that list, and the bedside lamps, and the super elegant, totally perfect living room lamps.

So I had to start over.  I nearly cried.  I bought a strudel, too.  I mean I mostly don't care about lights beyond, do I have enough of them to see my knitting?  But when you get to spending so much on a whole-home renovation like this, it's just sad to have to finish it off with very basic lights you bought last-minute at the hardware store like you didn't have any creative spark left in your whole body.  Just, ugh.

The orange one is perfect for Halloween, so I should cast that on no later than August, but we're still in May.  I think it can wait a bit.  We're in the car a lot in the summer, going to and from the cottage, I will knit socks faster than usual.


Back at my post looking for lighting, I noticed a few other things going wrong, too.  And they all seemed to take up a ton of time.  Did you notice I didn't get to post anything here on Wednesday?  I sure did.  I was so swamped all day that it wasn't till after 11pm I was finally free to choose between writing and sleep.  I picked sleep.

After a couple of days I decided we don't need to worry about table lamps right now.  All that really matters is the stuff Ray will be hard-wiring onto ceilings and walls for us.  So I decided we should splurge on the only other light fixture I liked for a hallway that wasn't $500, wincing when I realized how the numbers add up when you need 4 of a light, no matter how 'affordable' it might be.  And then I went on with other things, realizing with a slow erosion on my once-again cheery mood that an eye-catchingly odd black and white design may look sharp in most hallways, but will probably jar against the muted tones I was hoping to do in our bedroom.  We used to have an actual door between the bedroom and the hall that leads to the master bath which would have eliminated this problem, but with the framing and everything it was going to be super narrow and the door would have covered part of a window when left open.  It was just a bad idea.  So Ray and I decided it should go, and he cut out all that framing, and now it's all wide open with a clear sightline to that high contrast ceiling light. 

I'm still struggling with how to make this situation work better.  Change the bedroom lights?  Hang a curtain?  Do a different hall light there?  Wait and see how it all looks installed, and fix it if it really is a problem?  I have no clue.

That third yarn had SO much blue.  I think I want something more intriguing.  This red and purple stripe has chartreuse and brown in it, which will be very exciting to watch unfold, and the green one looks like a science experiment. 

I might have to do Eenie Meanie Minie Moe on this one.  I am all decisioned out.


Hope you guys have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday!

Rescuing a misguided knit

Ripping out a mostly knitted project is too discouraging for me to do most of the time - and forget a completely-knit project that didn't work for me, I pass those onto somebody else to enjoy - but if the yarn is amazing and out of production, well...

Remember the fingerless gloves I tried to design for my Vesper sock scraps?  The thumb I came up with would make an excellent spout cover for a tea cosy, wouldn't it.  And it felt okay on my actual thumb, too, but overall this pattern just didn't gel.

Still, I absolutely love these colours, and now that I have a functional fingerless glove pattern, I am as excited as ever about seeing these particular stripes on my hands when it's cold.

So...

Rip.

Wrap (too lazy to get out the swift).

Play.

Oh, come on - how can you not play with such crazy crinkly yarn?

And: tie!

And now it's just soak and hang to dry and re-cake and cast on and make a new pair of stripey gloves. Done and done.  Between stints of tax return prep, of course.  And knitting a few rounds of those England-bound socks.

Hope you have a great weekend and I'll see you Monday!

Strategic knitting

Yesterday while I was looking for something else, I came across a mystery bag with yarn in it.  Well, it's not really accurate to say 'mystery', since I'd tossed a scrap of paper into the Ziploc bag that protected the mystery bag, which read "Socks For Carolyn."

The mystery is why I would think Carolyn would enjoy super bright warm colours, and the explanation is: she won't, but she loves warm socks to sleep in, and this weight of sock seems to work well for her - and for me, since I know how many rounds to do to make a pair that fit her.  It's Duchess from Twisted Fiber Art (the Salsa colourway, I am pretty sure) and Duchess is discontinued now, so I wasn't going to fuss about colour when I put them into this kit.

And it is a kit, look!

I even remembered to slip my Carolyn pattern into the bag.

No needles though.  Just the wrapper, which proves how lazy I am since I am not getting up from my desk right now to double check the colour.


Now, the strategic aspect of this sock kit, set aside ages ago for a moment when I might be in a position to knit it up, is that Carolyn is coming home for a nice long visit.  She's arriving I think next week, and if I start these socks now I can finish them before she goes and send them back to England with her in her luggage. 

In fact, if I was really on the ball, I could send her husband's socks at the same time - remember, the ones I made him for Christmas and never got around to mailing??

(criminy, am I a bad cousin or what?)

(actually, at first it was laziness, and then it was more strategy, because I have to make the exact same size of socks for Wayson as I made for Andrew, and if I keep Andrew's socks here long enough to finish Wayson's they'll both be right.  plus it's April now.  neither of these guys are going to need wool socks for ages yet.)

See where I'm going with this?  If I knit these super quick socks for Carolyn I can send them home with her, and if I then finish knitting Wayson's socks, which as I recall are very nearly done, I can send Andrew's socks home with her too. 

GENIUS.

Except for the actual knitting part.  I'm basically knitting in molasses these days, so it's hard to imagine how I could get that many socks knit in a month, even if two of them are in DK weight and the other two are almost finished.

And don't forget the missing needles... I'd have to find needles.  Aiiiieee. 

I wonder where I've been keeping those without noticing?

Train knitting

Okay, I decided to bring hat stuff with me on the train...

and glove stuff, and sock stuff, but not Bob's hat stuff, because I couldn't find it before I noticed that my bag is WAY too full.  Bad Mary.

I knit my Hatcowl in sport weight yarn with a 3.5mm needle, but all I could find to knit another was DK weight yarn and a 3.75mm needle or a 4mm needle.  Time for some Knitter's Math so I can convert the pattern to this bigger yarn.  I can't wait to get back into the house and spread out all my knitting gear and get all my tools back where they belong! 

And even as I say that: still loving the condo.  It is going to be hard to leave here.  As busy as I've been this year with the renovation, not sleeping a lot, and diving to the depths of everything from lighting design to basement drainage, I have had soooo much less stress being able to walk to all my downtown destinations instead of driving to them.

Because I have to travel light for this trip - except for knitting, obviously - I decided to leave anything computer-related at home except for my phone.  I truly don't know how to write a blog post from the phone, so I think this is it for me till I get back Monday (or, let's be realistic, Tuesday.)  The trade off is that you will get LOTS of knitting posts next week because I will actually knit! and not just look at more online lighting shop websites.

Speaking of which, those sites are such a blessing.  I don't know when you last had to shop for lighting but I remember going into stores when we first bought our house and being totally overwhelmed by all the stuff hanging down from the ceiling.  If you shop on-screen, you get to filter by type and colour, see the side view, and note the actual dimensions of each light.  While wearing PJs and eating ice cream no less.

I ended up making a chart with all the rooms we have to put lighting into (all of them) and what kind of lights they need (several), and what our options might be (ugly and affordable or gorgeous and unattainable.)  Then I showed the chart to Pete, who was grateful enough to agree that it's worth putting real money into the most problematic of lighting applications, and that we should cheap out on rooms where it's obvious we need some kind of light while we save up for something really special down the road.

And speaking of roads: I better wrap this up so I can get my bags ready to go.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and I'll see you here again in a few days!

 

The best laid weekend knitting plans

It's Friday!  What are you knitting this weekend, or will you have time?  I sure hope I have time.  More time than twenty minutes in the car and/or some on a commuter train, that is.  After all, I do have this hat to knit for Bob:

It's a Best Friends Beanie, because he liked mine and also, he is one of my Best Friends, and most of all, he lives in Ottawa, which is crazy cold in winter.  I should knit more often for Bob because he really appreciates my knitting and he likes to wear handknits, a winning combination in my book.  I guess I'm just too lazy though because I've also had my eye on this yarn:

This black and white combo went into two pairs of socks a couple of years ago, but really, it would be perfect for a new hat to wear with my bright red parka.  I'm usually due for a new hat at about this point in the winter, when I start to get tired of the ones I've been wearing.  This year has been a little funny though because I've had the parka instead of my usual down coat solution with the mandatory hood unzipped and left behind in the closet.  The parka's hood won't detach and I've started actually using it, only to find that WOW, a hood does a really good job of keeping your head extra warm!  And it doesn't mess up your hair, and you won't lose it by accident, and hoods don't look weird when everybody else is using them too.

So, technically, I don't need another hat.  Bob needs another hat more than I do.  And another thing: remember all those double point and circular needles I tried to sort through not too long ago?  Well, I sorted them and put them neatly away and now I can't find them ANYwhere.  Seriously.  It's not like this condo is massive with grand entry halls and libraries and drawing rooms.  I just have no idea where they are and without them I can't cast on a second hat project, can I?  Nor do I have time to sneak out to a knitting store to buy more. Dang.

Worst of all: I don't actually want to knit either of those things anyway.  They are 'should' knits.  Really I just want to knit mindlessly around and around on a sock, and I know that's the smartest thing for me to do because last night I pushed everything away from the middle of my desk and fled to the television to watch whatever TCM was showing, and I knit two rounds of sock and then just stopped and stared, eyes glazed over, at the screen for another hour.

I mean, if I'm too tired to knit, I'm too tired for cables or pattern-making.  Socks are probably the best thing I can do for myself right now.

Speaking of socks:  check out the latest Vesper skeins that came in the mail on Wednesday!

Straight off when I unwrapped these I thought of what I wrote that morning about my colour preferences.  I know I said I'm totally happy with bright colours when it comes to yarn, but it turns out that's not entirely the case.  I am beyond besotted with this very restful colour combination:

If I could find the bag of double points, I would be caking this up and casting on another pair of socks today.  As it is, I have to finish some other socks first.

Maybe the best plans you can make for weekend knitting are just to knit, and not worry about what you knit?

Hope you have a great weekend however you spend it, and I'll see you Monday!

More designs for felted wool trivets

A couple of days before Christmas I wrote about the felted wool trivet I was making for a gift, but what I really wanted to do that day was find and photograph for you the other trivets I made a few years back, because seriously: this kind of basic embroidery is so, so therapeutic.  And of course, when I was putting the Christmas decorations away, I did find them!

Even if you don't crave that kind of calming comfort: if you have access to felted wool from old sweaters, you can have inexpensive, personalized gifts-to-go in just a few hours.

Who isn't going to love receiving a cup-sized version, paired with a vintage teacup and saucer from the thrift store, with some wrapped candies from the bulk food store thrown in? (never mind all the people who wouldn't love that.  you probably know SOMEbody who would love that.)

When I did most of these I was experimenting with machine sewn applique:

The sweater I used for this design had been heavy on the diamonds, hence the inspiration for this 60s-style trivet.

And I love the matchy blanket stitch border, don't you?

I think this yarn was the remnants of a really gorgeous Noro Winter Garden yarn - wool and raw silk on wool.  Yum.

I did this one entirely by hand, using some leftover red sock yarn.  I loved the cheery combination of red and turquoise...

and had just seen running stitch used in this incredibly simple but peaceful way, so I couldn't wait to try it.

To be honest, it's very hard to make this sort of running stitch design look good, but sometimes being forced to be artfully inconsistent as opposed to just sloppy is exactly what you need to set your emotions in order.

At the time that I made these, Pete and I were grieving as we grappled with a chronic condition for one dear family member and obvious end of life stages for two others, so I really needed the support of this kind of work.  If you are ever so unlucky yourself, I can highly, highly recommend a trivet project for exactly this purpose!

I made a lot of mistakes with the trivets, of course.  Like this cute teacup design, complete with needle felted steam.

Terrible, terrible blanket stitch on this thing, because the top was too bumpy and the bottom too loose a knit, even after felting.

Machine stitching the border first didn't help either, though it was sadly necessary for the bumpy fabric, which kept shedding and tearing at the edges - even when paired with a better fabric.

I bet I could rip out the stitching on the gold/black one and reapply that floral side to another fabric.

But this one with the loose weave?  UGH.  You just can't salvage that. I think it was mohair - but not nice mohair.  It's very scratchy.

And plentiful, apparently.

So yes: a lot of mistakes.  But you know what was the biggest one?  Not choosing kitchen colours!! Seriously, what was I thinking?  No wonder I still have even those two good ones.  (apart from being naturally greedy, I mean.)

What do you think - are you going to head off to Goodwill this weekend for some lonely wool sweaters to felt down and turn into trivets, maybe getting a start on next Christmas?


Either way, I hope you have a wonderful couple of days and I'll see you again on Monday!

The luxury of weekend knit planning

After a long, tough week, things are finally falling into place here.

Not so much that I have the energy to get excited about much-needed vacuuming - it's amazing how much dust you get with a forced air heating/air conditioning system - but enough that the current Man Socks are finally close to being finished.  It would be SO great if I could wrap them up this weekend (literally) and into the mail in time for Christmas.

And of course, if they're off the needles, I can use said needles for the mohair-blend socks I want to knit for Julia.  I finally took all my stash out of the freezer after that moth scare, but decided it's all a lighter weight and I want Julia to have a really heavy, seriously warm pair, so I was happy to find I still had this kit set up and ready to go:

I hope I don't experience physical pain parting with them when they're done though.  I really love the colours in the darker cakes!  Hope that means she will too.

While I was looking for that yarn, I thought I might browse through my options for Wayson's socks.  He wants something non-itchy, and it seems I don't have any more sport weight Playful from Twisted Fiber Art in colours that suit.  However I do have this combination, in regular sock weight, from Viola...

I first met Emily when she helped me buy the red yarn for the scarf that brought Wayson and I into friendship, so using her yarn for his socks is pretty perfect.  Thank goodness she's dyeing yarn again though because otherwise it would definitely cause me pain to gift this stuff.

Also, that yarn was in a bag with the leftovers I forgot I had from my 'orchard' colourway.  I am pretty sure it's enough for fingerless gloves. 

It's too weird and selfless for me to do three big gift knits like socks in a row and not make anything for me, don't you think?

All that will have to wait though.  Gotta get my cousin's husband's socks done first.

Wish me luck, and have a great weekend.  Hopefully with some nice knitting in it!

Weekend tea and knitting

Oh how I dream of weekend tea and knitting.  And while we're on the subject, check out the new old-style teapot I bought to use while we live in a (now) old-style condo:

I have always heard the descriptor 'Brown Betty' for teapots but there are some variations in style, even in terms of the shade of brown.  Check this 'images' link for pure teapot overload!

This particular version is by Adderley Ceramics and is the result of a good deal of research to produce a pot as close to the original as possible, right down to the source of the clay. The marketing says that this shape of pot produces the best tasting tea and I must admit: after 20+ years of using a Denby coffee-shaped pot, the tea really does taste yummier from the Brown Betty.  I'm using the same tea in both, and since the condo isn't nearly as cosy as home it can't be warping the overall experience, so it must be true.

The other thing about this pot is that it's very very shiny and smooth in your hand.  soooo pleasant.

Also it needs a sweater.

I have just enough of the yarn I used for Richard's cowl and handwarmers for such an item.  I had been thinking of making handwarmers for myself with it, and I may still do that... but it looks like the right weight for the Churchmouse cosy pattern I'd like to knit and it's definitely a good colour for the pot.  See?

Now, given that I've had the yarn, pattern, and pot in hand for the last three weeks you'd think I would have had the cosy knit and in use long since, but No.  In addition to my wonderful week of writing, I have been sorting out details like what size mirror can fit in this space without being hit by that door, and can I manage to pull off this party during the same week I am bringing in movers, and do we really want PEX over copper in an area where mice abound and copper thieves do not? 

(If you have to ask what PEX is, please enjoy your weekend beverage of choice with that much more relaxed happiness - and if you don't have to ask about copper thieves, please accept my deepest condolences.  Please also note that I am not including links and pat me on the head for same... I have nothing against PEX except for the mouse thing, but you can't knit with it.  On the upside it does come in some very nice colours.)

Now, the funny thing about needing to address all these renovation details is that they can really crowd out other items like

OMIGOSH I have to get us moved out of this house in FOUR WEEKS!  or maybe five, but not six, because then I'm competing with everybody else doing first of month moves and needing both elevators and moving trucks.

GAH!!

And that is not a good thing, because I could blink and it would be two weeks. 

My friend Holly couldn't find temporary accommodations till very close to her renovation date last fall, and had to find movers and pack up her entire house in two weeks.  She survived, but strongly encouraged me not to do the same.

So: I am going to put my head down and get some serious moving related work done in the coming week, and take another little break from Hugs for the purpose.  I feel terrible that renovating my house is creating upheaval here even here in my peaceful online nest, but it is temporary and, I am assured, worth it.  Also I may be able to sneak back in for ten minutes to show you something pretty.  Who knows?  A textile person can only go so long without yarn and sticks.

Meanwhile, let's concentrate on Emily's wonderful yarn...

And dream of happy days of tea and knitting.

See you as soon as I can - have a wonderful time till I'm back!

Another episide of rediscovered yarn

In another edition of Yarn I Almost Forgot, I finally got some very special sock yarn out of the stash.

This incredibly beautiful stuff is a bison blend which I bought a long time ago... I don't know, five or six years back, maybe?  when I either didn't knit socks at all, or hadn't knit them for long, and didn't feel confident about them.

(actually, I still don't feel super confident about them.  when I knit a pair of socks for somebody else in the fall I tried them on and realized I've been making mine about half an inch too short.)

Well, with a move imminent and new yarn purchases at close to a standstill, I decided I am ready to knit with the very expensive bison/merino blend and I went digging for them.

And wouldn't you know, they aren't quite what I remembered?

They're laceweight.  And not just 'laceweight' that is really 'fingering or close enough', but actual laceweight.  I tested.

I don't knit with laceweight.  I just can't go that small, so I am going to have to do something else with this yarn, which will have to involve it being held double, which I think rules out socks because there won't be enough yardage.

What do you think?  Weaving?  Cowl?  Another hat?

Or maybe another year or two in the stash, on the off chance I get around to trying a Haapsalu Shawl?