The Skies Are Cloudy All Day

Yesterday the region roundabout Exit 151 was awash in heavy rain and flash flooding, with some locations receiving what is ordinarily a month's worth of rain in a few hours from a storm characterized as smaller-scale. Welcome to the Anthropocene, when formerly 100-year weather events become both more common and harder to forecast. I stayed home (because I can) and worked on my Bonfire Crescent Shawl by Annie Lupton for the Yarnia Knit Collage MAL. Apologies for the bad-light photo, the sky today remains overcast.



So far both the MC and the CC are thick-and-thin Spun Cloud which as its name suggests is light and soft. I'm not much liking knitting with it. I used the backwards-E cast on to reduce bulk and will carry the MC through the color changes without breaking it, also to reduce bulk. Theoretically it should be possible to spit-splice the MC and CCs together (except for Wildflower, of course), but I plan to splice the CC ends together instead to avoid weaving in. To be continued....

Trying It

In this strange time, both post-covid yet also still not over it, I've become convinced we've collectively lost our damn minds. For a personal example, I'm ignoring my Excavated Object. For another, I tried Y3000 Coke, purportedly co-created using artificial intelligence. It tastes sweet n' fruity and the label is strangely soft-focus fuzzy. I don't plan to drink any more of it. I'm not sure why I drank it at all. Well, except to give it a try.



Through the end of October Yarnia is sponsoring a Knit Collage make-along. Despite misgivings, I decided to give it a try. I bought a US size 13 (9 mm) circular needle, shown here with a pen for scale. It's really big. It's what's specified in the pattern, Bonfire Crescent Shawl



I bought the requisite yarn, main color Knit Collage Spun Cloud in colorway High Vibes. It's a fluffy bulky-weight thick-and-thin yarn plied with two strands of lurex.



And I bought the contrast colors (and textures) in the Knit Collage Yarn Sampler Mini Kit, colorway Bouquet, which is comprised of 17 yd (15.5 m) lengths of Spun Cloud, colorway French Vanilla; Dreamland, colorway Circle Game; Wildflower, colorway Beatnik; Daisy Chain, colorway Grand Prismatic; Cast Away, colorway Chasing Rainbows.



It must be admitted I am a lover of strange yarns. This bundle is passing strange. Some of the yarn is badly overspun. Dreamland and Daisy Chain are plied with random bits of lace flowers and whatnot. Wildflower is knotted strips of thin cotton fabric. I've hand-wound the yarns into balls. Y'know, for the sake of trying it. To be continued....

Excavated Object

For the SKA August challenge, finishing WIPs, I excavated a gray version of Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt that was cast on in November 2007. Needless to add, it's been a UFO for a long time. The most recent photo of it was taken in January 2008. Here's what the sock looked like then.



It's well-preserved, in the August 25 (2023) proof of sock photo it looks like it scarcely aged a day.



Er, or put another way, there hasn't been much progress on this work in progress in 16 years. Can I finish the pair before the end of the month? To be continued....

Friendship Bracelet Swap

One of this summer's many pleasures has been watching the excitement surrounding the two Taylor Swift Memorial Day weekend concerts at the Meadowlands. Somehow I'd never made friendship bracelets when I was a jeune fille, and I was particularly agog at the Swifties and their multitudinous bracelets and culture of gifting and swapping. So of course I signed up for the LSG Friendship Bracelet Swap.

Swifties seem to favor bracelets made of beads with in-group messages strung on elastic cord, but I went with old school knotting and embroidery floss, and later switched to tapestry cotton. It took watching several Masha Knots tutorials and a couple false starts, but I finally knotted a basic chevron bracelet out of DMC Soft Cotton aka Cotton Retors No. 4 and sent it on its way to my downstream secret pal. The Slytherin-ish colors and 100% cotton are per specs. Be it ever so humble, it's another FO.



My upstream secret pal, revealed to be Andy aka CheerfulOtter's spouse, sent this distillation of summer. I love it – the bright colors, the fancy knotting, the summery vibe – everything.



I'm going to wear it everywhere during the last, luscious weeks of summer.

Hawai'i Wildfires

I had intended to blog cheerily about my newest FO, but instead have been riveted by the devastating wildfires on the island of Maui and the island of Hawaii. After some research I've added the donate button to the right in support of a local fund addressing immediate needs on both islands through a network of churches, the Hawai'i 2023 Wildfires Relief Fund. Or you may prefer the Maui Strong Fund, also local, which funds other nonprofits and focuses on the island of Maui.

And here's the FO, a water bottle cozy. I'm quite pleased with this one. I use 'em to protect the finish on my water bottle when it's in my tote bag.



Although the irony of finishing a water bottle cozy while watching a conflagration just guts me.

Another!

If you know, you know. That scene in the diner when Thor smashes his coffee mug and demands, "Another!" Also beverage-related, I've started another water bottle cozy. This is the base. There's no pattern, just crocheting around.



It seems an auspicious way to begin blogging again, again.

Pocky Day

It's Pocky Day, 11.11.22. If you know, you know.

Meanwhile, my old utili-sweater suffered a blowout. Make that multiple blowouts, but one example will suffice for illustrative purposes.

The blowouts are so many and so extensive as to preclude darning, patching, weaving, or other repairs. What to do? I wonder....

Doing the Dash

There's little Actual Knitting Content today. Instead, this August I'm Doing the Dash, a fundraising effort to support environmental projects mostly in the global south. The Dash includes an excellent Action Calendar (PDF). Today's action, without irony, is Take Some Time for Contemplation. It's about coherent breathing, plus there's a Neruda poem.

Be sure to breathe today.

Stop the Madness

Somehow I never did quite summon the necessary enthusiasm for Madness. I mean the fake Internet, do-it-for-the-lulz, March Sock Madness variety and not the real world warring madness types. The latter have a way of draining the joy from everything, rendering the former empty husks. I gathered yarn, printed the qualifying pattern, tried a few color combinations, but advanced no further. Ah well.

Instead of Madness I did a spot of baby knitting. There's nothing like babies and baby knitting to restore a sense of goodness and sanity to the world. This is Watermelon Baby Cardigan by Stitchylinda Designs worked in King Cole Cottonsoft DK. Beautiful pattern, beautiful yarn – I especially love how the yoke increases look like watermelon seeds.



That's better. On to Yarnia Sock Bingo, Summer of Socks, and the new-to-me Supersock World Championship, on Ravelry and on a companion website. Despite its grandiose name, SWC seems reasonable and mellow and I'm hoping to qualify. But, as always, the countdown timer waits for no knitter. Must knit faster.

And It's February

And just like that, it's February and three months since my last post. The last time I started a post with "And just like that..." it was August and I was knitting along for the 2020 2021 Summer Ravellenics. Now I'm knitting along for the 2022 Winter Ravellenics on Team BBMF and registered for Sock Madness 16, to commence next month. Some things don't change much. In the U.S. we're starting Year Three of the coronavirus pandemic. The official death toll is over 900,000 – it's estimated 100,000 of those deaths were added in the eight weeks since December 12 due to the Omicron variant of the virus. No surprise, Thanksgiving and Christmas were difficult. And January brought a 5-slice French toast alert. Well, so much for catching up, on to February.

In the bleak midwinter it may seem callous or bizarre to speak of Internet knitting and pandemic in the same paragraph. But... that is where I am: still here, still pondering ways to checkmate nihilism, still considering the same socks. This time I intend to finish Invitation to the Dance for WIPs Dancing. After so much upheaval, there are two verities: I know where the singleton and the yarn are and it's not a bad thing to dance.



This year I'm trying something new as well – Fiberuary Challenge 2022, which takes place on Instagram, curated by @CreativeCece. I still don't quite get Insta, maybe this will help. At the very least, it will be an impetus to take better photos and maybe it will inspire more frequent posts.



I'm already behindhand with posting, but I'm not going to worry about that. February is too short for worries!

Halloween 2021

While out for a stroll in Brookdale Park I came across two random jack-o-lanterns. Why were they there? Who put them there? I know not, but they are endearingly blog-worthy. Rated: Not scary.

While at the Montclair Film Festival I saw Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over. Then I saw director Dave Wooley and Dionne Warwick interviewed by Stephen Colbert. Rated: Not scary, in fact an excellent, uplifting movie. Plus in the live interview the diva charmingly commanded the stage.

I finished a pair of Simple Skype Socks, the same in the previous post. They were done in August, went on a hike, and are getting blogged now. Rated: Somewhat scary, but at least it's DONE.

For Halloween dinner we're having turkey feetloaf. Feetloaf looks nasty raw, as below, and even nastier cooked and glazed but it tastes just fine. Carving it does pose a challenge, at least for certain sensibilities: cut longitudinally the slices somewhat resemble male genitalia. Rated: Scary!

Feetloaf reminds me: I have been to museums and seen exquisite Khmer-era statues, perfect in every detail, except they lacked feet. That's pretty much certain proof they were looted, given the broken feet and pedestals remain in Cambodia and can be matched with precision. Decades of war and political turmoil enabled wholesale plunder, yet efforts at return also progress. Rated: Hopeful.

Howabout more jack-o-lanterns? (This is not my house.) Rated: Festive, not scary.

Happy Halloween!

Sesquipedalian

Inspired by Ravellenics WIPs Wrestling, I searched for (and retrieved from under the sofa) a UFO that is this close to being an FO. Half a foot is all that's lacking, literally. Put another way, between the two of them the socks have one-and-a-half feet or are, in literary terms, sesquipedalian.


There's a tale of sadness behind all this. Back in October 2019, a month after bellybuttonknits passed away and Before Covid, I finally started knitting a replacement with this yarn for my beady, tabi-toed Send in the Clowns socks that suffered a double blowout the year before. It felt right: there was a BBK memorial KAL and Clowns is a BBK pattern. But the yarn, lovely Three Irish Girls Adorn Luxe, colorway Big Bang, didn't want to be Clowns. Nor did it want to be Kilauea, another BBK pattern. Simple Skyp just worked better, so Simple Skyp it was.

Progress was rapid – then 2020 happened. That almost sounds like a punch line, or the equivalent of the ??? lacuna in the Profit meme. As in the meme I'm not completely sure how I got from 2019 to 2021 – eventful as 2020 was, some incidents stand out crisply, but the overall sweep of time is fuzzy. A lot of last year was like that. And at some point the UFO sock ended up under the sofa, not exactly lost, more like in need of finding.

The Ravellenics end tomorrow: while I doubt these socks will be finished in time, I don't doubt they will be finished soon thanks to the Ravellenic spirit. So maybe the socks will win no official glory, but seriously, they're socks and we're talking about fake Internet medals.

To be continued.

And It's August

And just like that, it's August. I'm knitting along for the Ravellenics 2020 2021 on Team BBMF and for Yarnia Sock Bingo, wrassling WIPs and frogging UFOs. As one does in August. To whit...

Mock Sadness by Helle Slente Design, worked in Schachenmeyer Regia Cotton Color, colorway 2426 Tutti Frutti II. The pair is pictured with chocolate stroopwafels because the pattern was the second warm-up for this year's Sock Madness. Technically the FO is a wrassled WIP because I started it in early July for Sock Bingo (with yarn purchased at Yarnia), before the Ravellenics had started. Whatever. It's done, and Ravellenics glory is mine.


The pattern is fun, with a bit o' everything – mirrored cables, faggoting, and a wide picot hem that I swapped out for 2x2 ribbing because the wide hem looks pretty, but in my view is too hot for summer socks. I also subbed a wedge toe for the star toe because my feet are not shaped like pencil points. The yarn reminded me why I usually prefer four-ply cotton fingering to cotton sock yarn for pretty much everything, including socks. At least the pattern repeat on the yarn is consistent.


A different Sock Madness warm-up pattern, How to Tame Your Dragon by Dots Dabbles, that has been languishing since February 2018, got frogged. It's not the pattern, it's not the yarn (Colinette Jitterbug, colorway Tapis) – yet somehow after more than three years I just wasn't feeling the love. I've reconditioned the yarn, of course.


In Ravellenics past, there was a medal for frogging; now there's "only" a laurel. Nonetheless, more Ravellenic glory is mine.

To be continued.

A Long Winter's Nap

It feels like it's been a long winter's nap – both the nap and the winter, and we're not out of it yet. There's either too much or not enough to say about dreamtime (or nightmaretime), so for now howabout a view of bare trees and winter moonlight?



Ah.

Just this morning I said to myself, "Self, March is right around the corner, isn't it about time to think about registering for Sock Madness? Maybe it's time to have a look at the Ravgroup." Only to find – of course – that registration for SM15 has been going on all month and concludes February 28. Well, I'm glad I didn't miss it; indeed, by SM standards, there's plenty of time to spare. As I still have too many distractions and I'm not feeling hyper-competitive, I plan to ease back into knitting and blogging by joining a mellow team or the cheerleading squad.



Before the madness starts, let me note the last foot of last year, above: a plain sock knit in White Birch Fiber Arts 80/20 merino self-striping, colorway Nothing says screw you like a rainbow. It's the most wonderful long-repeat stripe I've ever knit. When the yarn is this fabulous, it's best to just knit, maybe insert an afterthought heel to keep the stripe pattern lined up, and think of sunshine and rainbows to come.

Spoopy: The Jaws of Doom

There's been so much that's flat-out terrifying this year, and then there's spoopiness.

Behold, the insatiable maw of garden destruction! Woe and alas, it's the Jaws of Doom! They may be tiny, but they are relentless. That was the choicest tomato of the week, and it was completely consumed in a matter of minutes, as were many others. They always go for the big ones.



And that is why the mid-October harvest is goodly, but mostly cherry tomatoes this year. Ah well, they taste good.



For some reason that brush with doom made me re-visit my languishing Socks on a Plane – and frog it. Not for the first time. Maybe third time's the charm?



It's time for Plan B C.

Grateful After the Storm

Add Hurricane Isaias, which plowed through the I-95 corridor, to the 2020 list of calamities. For a named storm, it did relatively little damage roundabout Exit 151. The lights flickered but stayed on and my Zoom meetings went on uninterrupted. Thank you, PSE&G and Verizon!

I had planned for some hurricane knitting with a favorite yarn, Malabrigo Lace, colorway Violetas. The storm moved so fast I never got the chance. Things could have been worse, so file this under All's well that ends well.

The yarn is for August Camp Loopy. My order turned out to be from different dyelots that, indeed, are different. Before it shipped, Sheri thoughtfully sent a photo of the skeins and asked if I still wanted them. As I intend to knit Timeline of a Distraction by Mary-Ann Mace, I figured the different dyelots would give an attractive ombré effect, so I did. And I appreciate the thoughtful and alert customer service. Another bit of good after the storm.

Bandwidth Exceeded

The light is dim today, but I want to document a timely FO for July Camp Loopy. Behold Water by Sylvia McFadden, knit in Leading Men Fiber Arts Show Stopper, colorway Koi Pond. I'll do a beauty shot later, suffice to say now that I love the fish-scale short row lenses. Six of them! Such fun to knit and ogle.

I've mostly missed the uproar over the new Ravelry design that led to this post from Jessica. That's not a request for breadcrumbs, nor a declaration of uncaring. It's simply an acknowledgement that I can't be everywhere at once, so am not informed.

Then there's the straightforward, sad announcement (and followup) from Cat Bordhi that she's dying of cancer, would welcome supportive email, asks that project photos be tagged #4catbordhi, and offers a free unpublished pattern, Rio Calina Cowl, as a lesson in letting go and a generous parting gift to knitting friends. The pattern link keeps displaying Bandwidth Exceeded, which so aptly describes how I feel right now.

Briefly on Water

Briefly, it's on to the interminable edging stage of Water. The edging is simple and doesn't look like much now, hopefully it will be more distinct when blocked out. The end of the month deadline for Camp Loopy looms, I hope I finish on time.



The experts say last summer was a mast year for acorns followed by a mild winter, with the inevitable consequence there are a lot of chipmunks roundabout Exit 151 this summer. They've discovered my vegetable patch, which is very bad news. They're also fast, so I have yet to catch them on camera. Let's hope deterrence works. To be continued....

Fireworks and Water

And just like that, it's July.

Many of the usual Fourth of July festivities roundabout Exit 151 were canceled due to covid19, so a neighbor took it upon himself to put on a show with big aerial fireworks that barely cleared the trees. I like fireworks well enough, but it was loud, bright, and perfectly terrifying to experience them so close up.



Happily no one got hurt, nothing was set on fire, and the next day in the blessèd peace and quiet I cast on Water by Sylvia McFadden, worked in Leading Men Fiber Arts Show Stopper, colorway Koi Pond. I'm liking both pattern and yarn very much.



The project is for July Camp Loopy, Zoology section (koi pond, water). I decided to press on despite ::cough:: not finishing my June project. As one does. Onward.

Juneteenth 2020

Sometimes the words come fast, sometimes they come slow, sometimes they don't come when wanted, and sometimes they maybe aren't needed. The past three weeks have felt like all of that – and suddenly it's the Juneteenth.



Three weeks ago I had no clue this period would prove to be one of the most consequential for the current presidency and, indeed, for the nation. On a personal level, I had no idea this satellite photo of Black Lives Matter Plaza adjacent to Lafayette Square in Washington, DC would precipitate a haughty social media spat, of the structural gaslighting variety. Oh well, humor is a difficult concept, and so is performative virtue-signalling. (Screenshot image below of 16th Street NW, between H and K Streets, Washington, DC from Apple Maps and The Verge.)



BC, I had plans to attend a gathering of the clans in Washington. The in-person event was cancelled, of course, but the online event that replaced it was inspirational, comforting, and restorative. It was good in this time of pandemic, economic turmoil, and civil unrest to speak frankly about the realities and ongoing consequences of Native American genocide and black enslavement. It was good to recognize that the desire for justice and peace springs not only from empathy and shared experience, but also from the deep truth that my own freedom is inextricably intertwined with the freedom of others. And it was very good to honor prior commitments and to push back against later claims and the usual FOMO, because there is more than one way to seek the good.

For me, seeking the good includes crafty action: sewing face masks for asylum seekers in Matamoros and knitting prayer shawls, among other things. For others, knitting is no outlet. Some change their names or statues or brands or clothes or rallies. And in the midst of tumultuous times, some apparently need to offer clueless allyship and some apparently need to post ugly nonsequiturs, and to be gently or not-so-gently or even sarcastically smacked down.

For Loopy Ewe June Science Camp I cast on Mittens from Colonial New England by Marcia Lewandowski. It's a type of poetry mitten, but the pattern is so neglected there's no photo on Ravelry (gasp). My version varies from the original, as I changed the font and the verse.



In the time of coronavirus, of tear gas and gaslighting, I'm liking it a lot.