MK Carroll

Save the date! June 10 is Worldwide Knit in Public Day (WWKIP). The Aloha Knitters are currently planning to meet at Kapiolani Park in the afternoon, with a light potluck (snacks, non-alcoholic drinks). Specific times and a location in the park will be announced as soon as we can get consensus. Bring sunscreen, something to sit on, something to knit/crochet/spin etc. Non-knitters/crocheters/spinsters are welcome, although we may have to draw the line at pets. T-shirts, tank tops, and tote bags are available at The Panopticon Cafe Press Shop. Get them quick unless you want to pay steep shipping fees – the lowest shipping rate takes an estimated 7 – 10 days (and since we’re in Hawai’i, tack on 3 more days).

Leah will be relocating to Chicago with her kids on June 11th, so if she can make it, it will be her last Aloha Knitters meeting until 2007.

I pay attention to the searches that bring people to this blog, and searches for free patterns using Peaches & Creme yarn are piling up.  I mentioned it in my post about Craft Shops with Yarn: Honolulu, and that seems to be what brings it up in searches.

The manufacturer (Elmore Pisgah) offers free patterns on their website and spells it "Peaches & Creme" with an accent mark over the first e in Creme, which may or may not help you in additional searches for free patterns.  Elmore Pisgah also sells 4-packs, 6-packs, and cones by telephone [(828)286-3665], as well as color cards and a product catalog.  The online store for Tangle, a yarn shop in Colorado, also carries a selection of Peaches & Creme in several colors. 

A review of cotton yarns in the Aug/Sept 2005 issue of Crochet Me includes Peaches & Creme, if you are interested in learning more about the qualities of the yarn and how it compares to other cotton yarns (Lion Brand Lion Cotton, Lily Sugar ‘n Cream, Bernat Cottontots, and Classic Elite Sand).  The most popular use for Peaches & Creme seems to be dishcloths, and there is a Mason-Dixon KAL for the Mason-Dixon Knitting Book, and at least one KALer has posted a free dishcloth pattern of her own.  More free dishcloth patterns (knit and crochet) can be found at the Dishcloth Boutique.   Bonnie-Marie Burns of Chic Knits recently posted on her blog about using Peaches & Creme for a sweater pattern that called for Rowan Handknit DK Cotton, quite illustrative of how you need not limit yourself to patterns which call specifically for Peaches & Creme yarn.  Websites like Craftown, Crochet Pattern Central, Crochet Memories, and Knitting on the Net all offer loads of free patterns, many of which use worsted weight cotton yarn.  My own Crochet Bacon & Eggs handbag (adapted from a knitting pattern originally published in a 1979 issue of Jackie magazine) and knit nigiri sushi baby wipe cozy patterns can be made with any worsted weight yarn as well.  Check out the list of free amigurumi patterns for more great ideas on what to do with all that yarn!

Last night I know I ordered decaf, but I don’t think I got decaf, which is why I was up late again last night. Has nothing to do with realizing 3/4 of the way through the Aloha Knitters meeting that I’d fouled up the provisional cast-on for the short row toe on the second sock and had to frog it and start over (Trekking, wool, not going to my mother because Trekking makes a thin fabric and she wants, basically, a smallish sheep wrapped around each foot). I love short rows and I love making a perfectly cupped toe on two needles, but I could have held off until my work commute later today. At any rate, I read through the sweater section of Knitting Rules! and, on page 197, “I Could Never Knit a Sweater”: Ten Reasons Knitters Give and What I Wish I Could Say to Them, I got to number 9. “I live in Hawaii. Well, okay, fine, but don’t you have an aunt in Wisconsin?”

I know. She’s just sayin’ (and she’s right, having friends and relatives who live in colder climates is a contributing factor to wool stash). However, if Ms Pearl-McPhee happens to find herself, on her book tour, in a warm climate like Hawai’i or California, Louisiana, Texas, etc., it’s not likely that she will have to give us a reason to knit a sweater.

10 Reasons to Knit a Sweater in Hawai’i
(in addition to Ms Pearl-McPhee’s reason)
(…which would give us a list that goes all the way to eleven!*)

1. Microclimates. I’ve mentioned these before. If you’ve been to Manoa, up on Tantalus, to Kula, Volcano, etc., you know it can get quite cool, especially at night and in the upper elevations. When I lived in Manoa Valley, my walk to the UH campus would take me from misty and cool to dry and hot in 20 minutes. I learned to layer. Up on Haleakala, you can tell which visitors are staying at the same hotel you are, because they have the same style blanket wrapped around them.

2. A 20-degree drop in temperature is a 20-degree drop in temperature. When it goes from 80F to 60F, you will notice. It can get cold here, really. Houses often lack a certain amount of weatherproofing. My parents house, for example, has glass louver windows that have frozen into position, mostly open or partly open. This is usually not a problem, but at some times of the year, it can drop down into the 50′s and 60′s at night. In this weather, the concern for children and the elderly is wanting to keep them warm but also making sure they can still move under all those blankets.

3. Aggressive air-conditioning. The Aloha Knitters Honolulu meetings take place in an enclosed shopping center where management believes that what customers want is proof of civilization in the form of powerful air cooling. We aren’t wearing sweaters (and shrugs and shawls) to the meetings just to show off. I’ve worked in a hermetically sealed, centrally controlled office building where my typing speed would begin to slow as my fingers grew numb from the cold. I looked calm and professional above the desk. Below the desk, I was wrapped in an afghan. A nice cardigan suitable for business would have been perfect, but I knew that by the time I finished knitting one, the job would be over (I was temping). Movie theaters and grocery stores are also known for keeping the AC on full blast, as well as May’s boyfriend, who enjoys creating his own microclimate in his car.

4. Lace. How about an exquisite, dainty, fine-gauge lace sweater, tossed over a camisole? Knitty’s Spring Fling, perhaps, or Arisaig. Look at that photo of Arisaig – the model is running around on a beach in it! [I know the water temperature is probably a little different there. shh.] Teva Durham’s vintage-inspired Cashmere Lace Blouse is another example – I can’t find a photo online, so if you haven’t seen it, trust me. I have a fantasy involving knitting it up in something non-cashmere and just tossing it on with a pair of jeans and looking fabulous.

5. Plant fibers. Bamboo, linen, hemp, cotton, and soy, for example. Bamboo and soy are especially nice in warm climates, feeling very comfortable against the skin in warm weather.

6. Silk. I know you are thinking about the cost. Think about how silk is appropriate for so many temperatures and seasons, how you could wear it all year-round, and then think cost per use (it helps if you plan to wear it every day). It can be casual, it can be elegant, it can be purchased in a blend that is a bit easier on the finances. Some of those blends are even machine-washable. If I ever manage to find a good source for Regia Silk, I may just have to save up my pennies and then knit that Cashmere Lace Blouse, adding on small and dainty vintage buttons and crocheted button loops so that the front does not keep gaping open while I am leaning over the dairy case at the grocery store, looking for the organic 1% milk.

7: Ice Palace. (Keohinani)
Hey, nobody thought we’d have snow in Hawaii either, but we do have snow on the Big Island occasionally. Since the mountain ranges don’t quite reach that high on Oahu, we have to settle for an ice skating rink, i.e. Ice Palace. If ever one wanted to simulate cold weather in the dead heat of summer or any other time of year in Hawaii, that’d be the place to go. I have an aunt whose sons play hockey there. I’m sure she would love for me to teach her how to knit a sweater so she can both entertain herself and keep warm at hockey practice.

8: Because You’d Make More Use of A Sweater than a Knitted Bikini. (Keohinani)
Let’s face it: there are only so many people who can wear a knitted bikini. And of those people, most of them would rather not worry about droopy sagginess that was their knitting that would result from a romp in the water. If you don’t go into the water at all, a knitted bikini is fine and dandy. But for those who would rather avoid the harmful UVA/UVB rays and self-consciousness altogether, a sweater would be more practical anyway.

9. The Joy of Knitting. (Barb, who just finished knitting the BPT sweater from Knitty)
What other reason do you need?

10. Travel. Going to visit family and friends in, say, Toronto, early April? How about that trip to New York in November? Sure, you can go shopping when you get there, but what are you going to go shopping in? A blanket from the hotel? Plus that plane ride can get chilly.

Why stop at 10? Add ‘em if you’ve got ‘em!

*I watched This Is Spinal Tap a few times when I was a kid. Just humor me on this, okay?

Recently on the Aloha Knitters board*, Keohinani wondered how we could get the Yarn Harlot to Hawai’i on her booktour and Monday night I very nearly tripped over Keohinani trying to get to a shiny new copy of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s latest book, Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot’s Bag of Knitting Tricks. Monday night I also left out the decaf part of my drink order, and was up until 1 am reading the book. It’s a book that is both informative and funny, and I’m putting it on my bookshelf next to Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Without Tears and Annie Modesitt’s Confessions of a Knitting Heretic. If you’d like a DIY, get in control, punk as Henry Rollins** book on knitting, this is one of those books.

However. Page 49. “I understand that my affection for wool probably seems silly to Hawaiian knitters.” Without going into the semantics of Hawaiian knitters vs. knitters in Hawai’i,*** or that it takes more than one knitter to prove this point, or that she’s just sayin’, y’know, and there very well may be knitters in Hawai’i who think wool is ridiculous, may I direct your attention to Exhibit A:

These are Araucania Nature Wool worsted weight 100% wool socks with holes in them. The holes came from constant wear. Oh, did I include sunny blue sky and flowers behind them? Kind of hard not to.

Exhibit B:

These are Peace Fleece wool/mohair worsted weight slipper socks with fleece-lined soles. Note the way the right slipper sock appears to be warped. That is because the sole is splitting. I would repair it, but the wearer would have to take them off. She says I need to just make her a new pair already (already? I gave her that pair at the end of December!). She is wearing a pair of cotton socks under the slipper socks. It is 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Hawai’i is known for its microclimates, and it can get quite cool in some areas and *(^%#@!! freezing in others (ask me about the time I was up on Haleakala for sunrise and realized I’d left my shoes in my car parked at an airport on another island). Even though my mother is standing on a linoleum floor in an area known for being hot and dry, her feet are encased in wool all day long.

Exhibit C, to show that you can love wool even if your mother does not have a severe, chronic case of cold feet:

My take on the Interweave Crochet Textured Tweed Clutch by Mari Lynn Patrick. My version uses two skeins of Peace Fleece worsted weight (color: grassroots), minus the bobbles, and with a buckle from a thrift shop belt. I made a few alterations to the buckle strap to accomodate the belt buckle.

Zeke agrees that it is a fine handbag, large enough to carry the necessities, including a sock in progress.

I have a real thing for Peace Fleece. My stash is organized into storage bins, sorted out as:
synthetic fibers
plant fibers
Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton
wool
Peace Fleece

Yep. I have a storage bin full of assorted wool yarn, and a storage bin dedicated to Peace Fleece wool yarn. My stash, admittedly, is on the small side, and you’ll be needing a larger sample to understand the love of wool shared by many knitters in Hawai’i. I’m counting on other members of the Aloha Knitters to flash a little stash around (especially someone who has sock yarn exceeding life expectancy, *cough*keohinani*cough*) and talk about wool lovin’.

La Harlot gets much love for knowing that there are knitters in Hawai’i. Well, we are everywhere, we are legion, after all. Kelli-the-wonder-publicist, care to give us a chance to prove it in person? We’re just getting started. We haven’t even mentioned the island which has cacao farms, coffee farms, and vineyards (all on one island!), and a yarn shop too!

*in an attempt to raise our visibility, we also have a MySpace Group (groups.myspace.com/alohaknitters) and a MySpace profile page (www.myspace.com/alohaknitters).

***Hawaiian is an ethnic designation, confusing as, for example, if you are from California you can be called a Californian, but Hawai’i has the dubious honor of having been a sovereign nation prior to being annexed by the US. One can be a Hawaiian knitter or a knitter in Hawai’i , but only one of them gets preference when applying to Kamehameha Schools for admission.