It might not be that new, but I didn’t know that Shirokiya had opened a craft department until someone at an Aloha Knitters meeting (Angela?) brought it up, and the next time I was at Ala Moana shopping center, I stopped by for a quick peek. I noticed fabric, ribbon, buttons, and yarn – small selections, but some very nice stuff. I’m planning to stop in again when I have more time.
Shirokiya
Ala Moana Shopping Center
1450 Ala Moana Blvd.
phone: (808) 973-9111
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
If I had princesses, oh, they would look like dragons (my eyeroll at the implication that the function of princesses is to helplessly witness aside).
The winter holidays, for the past several years, have been a time of year that is just not fun for me. The past couple of years have been brighter – recognizing that I have Holiday Dragons that can be effectively managed with things like booty-shaking music (say hello to a playlist heavy on Shakira, Zap Mama, Beyonce, Fergie, Black Eyed Peas, and Missy Elliot), plenty of sleep (just say no to Bejeweled Blitz), re-reading a favorite book (John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War has done this well for me at holiday time; I save Robin McKinley’s Sunshine for when I am sick in bed), lots of brisk walks, and focusing on the delight of spending time with loved ones, instead of swords and red wine. Some of you might quirk an eyebrow – wine? Yes, when the non-drinker has calculated out how much of the bottle will go into her at what pace to result in being able to finish cooking without disaster but having to take a nap before turning into a bitter old shouty-pants, that’s probably a good sign that other options really ought to be explored, even if a nice Pinot Noir can really take the wind out of my sails.
Some of what I’ve had to do is also just grow the #’@& up. Some of that has been coming to grips with what I’ve mentioned here before: I’m an introvert, and no matter how much I actually enjoy being around other people, it saps my energy, and I need personal downtime to recharge. That gets to be a challenge during the holidays, since I’m usually working more (say hello to jobs that don’t do holiday pay!), have friends visiting from out of state, big family meals that need planning/shopping/prep. One horribly memorable year included three funerals and a long struggle out of a dark stinking mire of depression. At the end of the day, though, I’ve been fortunate and privileged and I think I’m getting better at recognizing that. Heck, that I have three dental appointments in December (two down, one to go) is a gift, when I see that I have access to modern, competent dental care, that my primary job gives me dental insurance coverage, and that I can afford the co-pay easily (especially if I cut even further back on diet soda and sparkling water – yes, sparkling water, as it turns out, is just about as bad for teeth as diet soda).
Maybe I’ll even get this pair of socks done before Chinese New Year. I am still working on the foot of the first sock, and wondering what to do about the too-tight cast-on. I was really happy with it, and still like using the 2×2 tubular cast-on, but should have used Pam Allen’s technique of working the cast-on and part of the leg in needles a size larger than needed for gauge. Cutting off the top of the leg and knitting back up (or alternately, starting a new cuff and then grafting it on – but oh how I dislike grafting as an experience) is looking like the most likely scenario. Dorothy recommended a trip to the frog pond, but these socks are for someone with big, broad feet and muscular calves and I’m really really attached to getting this first sock finished (have gotten more than halfway down the foot since this picture was taken).
5 years ago, Amy Singer at the then-fledgling Knitty thought my submission was just too weird to not publish. At that time, I think I’d already submitted to and been accepted for Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation, but the Winter ‘04 issue of Knitty came out first and established me as a freak fiber artist. Hey, might as well be honest right from the start!
The version of Womb that I’ve been working on with different licensing permissions (this one will 1. hold things and 2. have permissions allowing the sale of finished items) has been going on for years now; I keep getting sidetracked by other things. Getting there, though.
Details in my previous post, as well as on Ravelry. Getting the colors true when photographed is turning out to be much tricker than I’d thought (I should probably ask Dorothy but whenever I see her at an Aloha Knitters meeting I forget to).
I’m knitting the heel flap on the first sock now, and it’s going slowly. Since I got done renewing my drivers license way faster than I’d thought (Fort St. Mall Satellite City Hall, in the door and back out with my new license in 10 minutes!), I was able to walk over to Isle Knit and pick up a pair of Hiya Hiya stainless steel 9″ circular needles. On one hand, I like that the metal needles are short. On the other hand, they are really short, and I have big hands. Not worrying about stabbing anyone (especially myself) and/or losing a dpn on the bus is a big plus, though. Sue did say that the Hiya Hiya needles aren’t good for long stretches of knitting time because you have to pinch your hands up to use them. My bus commute is 15 – 30 minutes in either direction, so I think that will work out. If I can squeeze even 20 minutes more per day into knitting these socks, who knows, maybe I’ll have them done by the end of the year!
…but I left my sock knitting project bag sitting on the table at home. Whoops. As I tweeted earlier today, I had been doing a little grumble in my head about knitting socks for an individual with wide feet and muscular calves, but the truth is that my sock-knitting attention span is shorter than any sock larger than one intended for the average human infant. I’ve been thinking that I could speed up this project by using circular needles (so I could take it on the city bus without worrying about dropping a dpn and having it roll away from me). So far: I don’t know the size of the dpns I’m using. I don’t have a needle gauge that goes down to that fine a gauge (have asked that someone who does bring it to tomorrow’s Aloha Knitters meetup; I’ll be at the Bubbies University Ave. location from 8 pm on). I don’t know what brand of needles I want to buy. I am an Addi Turbo girl, but my budget is not allowing for $30+ to be spent on a pair of circs (yes, I could cut that to $15 by using Magic Loop, but I don’t like it). Hiya Hiya sock circs have gotten good reviews, but I’ve never seen them in person (or I have, and have forgotten).
I’m using Elizabeth Bennett’s Perl Sock Program (and this makes me giggle like you would not believe, because there is a backstory involving the person I am knitting these for, and why I even know what Perl is), along with Ysolda Teague’s Tubular Cast On for 2×2 rib, which just may convert me to knitting socks from the top-down. I prefer toe-up, but this time around I’ve got plenty of yarn – am striping with two skeins of Malabrigo Sock, which is 440 yards per skein – so unless I plan on making thigh-highs, I am in no danger of running out of yarn. The cast-on is lovely, with a nice clean line and just enough stretch for my taste. The only trouble is that this means I’ll be Kitchenering a toe, and I do not enjoy doing that. Yes, I am aware I could do a circular closure, but I am hesitant to try that on socks I’m not going to be wearing. I’ll just suck it up and Kitchener away – or get Vron to do it for me :D
For now, I’ll just keep enjoying my mocha and salty chocolate cookies at Satura Cakes.
So while in SF, I visited Imagiknit and Urban Knitting Studio.
I walked through the door of Imagiknit and if there hadn’t been people coming in the door behind me, I would have just stopped and stared with my jaw hanging open.
…this is just part of the first room. There’s a whole other second room. And, in all that, they also had every weight of Malabrigo, including Sock and Lace, which I didn’t know about, and two skeins of Malabrigo Sock came home with me. Imagiknit has big front windows, so I walked them over into the daylight and that sold me, right there. The shop was buzzing with activity, but also had nice comfortable seats for those who wanted to sit and go through pattern books or just sit (it’s a lot of yarn to take in all at once).
Urban Knitting Studio has a wonderful light, airy feeling, with plenty of space to browse in and comfortable seats in the big glass windows. As you can see, I lucked into a clear-skied, sunny stretch while I was there. Lovely place, stylish, elegant, and friendly!
I’ve got a small set of trip photos up on Flickr (SF November 2009); once I figure out how to get my short video clips uploaded to Flickr I’ll add those in too.
I’m back home after a really lovely visit to San Francisco, a city I have long loved but had not been to in years. There was a lot of eating, a lot of walking, and some yarn acquisition, which I’ll be blogging about later this week.
For now, just this observation: I am quite smitten by the Asian pears grown in California.
I am having one of those days where I am looking at this hat in progress and I can’t tell if I’ve seen it before elsewhere or I just got it pictured so strongly in my head that it might as well already exist. I’ve been searching Ravelry and using my Google-fu and so far nothing. Doing a purled stripe is definitely not ground-breaking territory so there’s got to be at least one hat pattern with that out there, yes?
Could it be?
After months of marinating, I finally finished Liesl!
Maybe.
Let me be a smug cheeseball for just a moment more…
…and I’m spent.
I’m going to stress that the issues I have with the finished sweater are all due to choices I made. I like the pattern layout and the way it is written and many, many knitters have successfully knit a Liesl.
In my case, the choices I made included using a vintage wool (Pingouin Fleur de Laine, not sure how old but I’d guess at least 30+ years). It’s nice enough yarn, but it pre-dates the lovely merino breeds available today. It’s not terribly scratchy, but it is scratchy enough so I won’t wear it over bare arms again. I am also seemingly unable to count to four, a necessary skill for this lace pattern. This has become a running joke for the Aloha Knitters. “Nice enough girl, such a pity she can’t count past 3.” There is at least 2.5 sweaters worth of knitting in this as a result. Did you notice I still have the lifelines in the photos? Then I hit the first sleeve (right) and raging frustration ensued. I finally got it done and then shoved it in a bag and out of my sight until recently. The left sleeve had to be ripped back a few times, but I got it going smoothly last week and got it done in a final burst. I think there’s something about the way I picked up stitches that threw things off; what worked for me was starting the round with *k2tog* twice, *yo, k1* twice, following the instructions in the * * and then ending with *k2tog* twice, *yo, k1* twice. Notes I’d scribbled on my pattern indicated that the swatch grew, so I had knit the body and the sleeves shorter than I wanted the finished results to be (and didn’t weave in the ends, as you can see in the photos). After washing, the sweater grew to just the right length, but it’s also looser than I’d like (which may have something to do with my losing about 30 lbs. between casting on the neck and binding off the second sleeve).
Then while trying it on again and admiring my work, I realized that the first sleeve had at least one mistake in it. On closer inspection, more than one. I am not posting photos, not yet, anyway. I plan to wear it a couple of times, and then if it makes me too crazy I’ll rip back and re-knit that sleeve. I had also planned to dye this sweater, either dark blue or dark red, and I am leaning towards blue…and not chancing a dye debacle until I figure out if I am okay with this sleeve (right now I am not okay with it).
Pattern: Liesl, by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Pingouin Fleur de Laine, 4.5 skeins
Size: 46″ (if I did this now, I’d go down to at least 38″)
(a little swatching and playing with sock yarn I dyed with food coloring)
Honey: I am going on a for-real vacation! Not a short, rushed trip to a wedding or to move kidlet into a dorm, an actual for-real go spend time with friends and get reacquainted with a city I love but have not been to for years and years!
Sting: I will have about 20 hours of work to do while I’m on vacation. I am glad I have a job, especially a job I like, even if it is a job with a company that, like many other companies right now, is trying to do more with less.
Honey: I plan to do a lot of sitting on my behind and knitting or crocheting while on vacation.
Sting: A new Raveler sent me a message that slammed one of my patterns. I suspect the Raveler’s aim was to leave a comment on the pattern page, not send me a direct message, but I got it. I tend to take a deep breath before checking my Ravelry messages anyway; I never know if someone is going to send me something sweet or a text-based slap in the face. It stung, yes, but I can see that it came out of frustration with a pattern that *is* problematic, in more ways than one. I’ve published errata for it, but it’s still confusing, and I sold all rights to it (because I didn’t know any better back then) so I can’t re-publish it. Yet it’s still out there, with my name on it. For a while, I’ve been thinking about how I could revisit the pattern and do something based off of it, charted out the way I’ve started charting out my more recent crochet patterns, without violating the copyright that I don’t own. Renegotiation might be possible but I have not had much luck getting in touch with that particular book editor, and I’m not surprised, really. I let her down by sending her work that wasn’t up to standard.
Honey: got my hands on Blue Sky Alpacas’ Spud & Chloe ‘Outer’ in 7200 Soapstone and it’s lovely stuff. Soft, soft, soft! I am crocheting up a pattern sample with it (another lace scarf pattern I’ve been noodling around with for a while) and it’s going beautifully.
Sting: a minor one – it’s been so hot that holding yarn has just not been fun. I’ll get over it.
