The Blanket Project

It was dangerously hot (100+ F or 37.7+ C) over the weekend, then an array of intense thunderstorms roared through the region last night. It was amazing how distinct the squall lines were – heavy rain would start, then stop, as abruptly as if on a switch. Roundabout Exit 151 we lost power for a while, which provided the perfect setting for finishing a small project.

Thoughtful Annie organized the Blanket Project in memory of John Glick. My contribution to the project is a square in one of my favorite patterns, Candle Tree from Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns 1, worked in Dale Baby Ull washable wool. Appropriately, it was pinned out by candlelight.



Baby Ull is very soft and, like many washable wool yarns, a bit odd. When I wet-blocked the square with a splash of Eucalan, it grew nearly 30%. Aiee. DH, on hearing disconsolate moaning, suggested throwing it in the washing machine and (gasp) the dryer. That shrank it back down, but left the edges curled. Then the power went and with it, the option to use steam. Undeterred, I pinned out the little beastie to eight inches square and gave it a spritz of water, which seems to have tamed the curl.

Flushed with that success and applying flawless logic, DH is now insisting that if I wet block all his sweaters that have, ahem, somehow gotten smaller, they will magically fit again. Having been trumped at my own game, I'm not making any progress explaining why this may not work.

Cocktail Monkeys, or More Cosmic Oddness

Beth said I should mention the cocktail monkeys. I'm ever one to oblige, so here they are, below and in the sidebar. Don't thank me, thank Beth.



Strictly speaking, this is not an Old Jersey – for one thing, it's not a jersey. Actually, no one is quite sure what it is, only what it's not. I finished it in May, so it's hardly old. But that was BB (before blog) and there was no opportunity to to share it with the virtual world. Plus in August no one cares to fuss over its dubious ontology.

A functional description of the objet would be something like failed pen holder turned cocktail monkey keeper. A topical description would be closer to Hobbies Gone Wrong with a slightly lower level of obsessiveness. It's that difference of degree that makes all the difference.

Cosmic oddness first became noticeable when Beth attended a staff retreat in March. Cocktail monkeys were involved. As a serious time management tool. Really. You could look it up – just search on the works of William Oncken, Jr., whose articles in Harvard Business Review are some of that august business journal's most-requested reprints. For the business solutions, not the drink recipes, of course. It's all about empowerment, taking responsibility, and not passing the monkey.

Mere days after the retreat came spring Knitty with Kristin Goedert's fabulous hemp Cocktail Monkey Bag. Between the appeal of her design, the growing cosmic oddness, and the fact I'd never worked with hemp before, the bag immediately moved to the top of my project queue.

Just as immediately, things started to go wrong. It took a while to locate the specified materials, in part because I was looking in the wrong places. My local hardware store doesn't carry hemp twine, but all the big chain crafts stores have it in the beading section. I couldn't get gauge and working with twine made my hands hurt. The sizing in the twine smells something awful, too. I never did find the specified fringe and ended up using two shades of green Fun Fur held together.

After struggling a bit, I gave up on the bag, but not on Kristen's concept. Out came the trusty crochet hook and the rectangular knitted bag morphed into a crocheted cylindrical approximation of a palm tree. I actually like the crochet fabric better than the knit. It was only after the objet was blocking (stretched over a can of black beans) that I realized it's too tall and insufficiently weighty to be a pen holder. At least soaking and blocking got rid of most of the sizing which, as Kristen notes, leaches out as a vile yellow liquid.

Always resourceful, Beth put the failed pen holder to use as a cocktail monkey keeper. It resides in her office, where it keeps the cocktail monkeys very well. Almost no one has noticed or maybe they're too afraid to comment. As almost no one traipsing in and out of her office reads HBR, almost no one would seem to have comprehended the significance of this approximation of a palm tree. Sigh.

And that's how a crocheted cocktail monkey keeper ends up on a knitting blog as an Old Jersey.

The Princeton Event 2005

Perhaps it should first be noted that The Princeton Event yesterday did not actually take place in Princeton, but was a tour through the surrounding prosperous farm country of central Jersey. Instead of glimpses of dreaming spires and historic homes, there were endless fields of beans. This is, after all, the Garden State.



DH had hoped to ride, but had to work. Our plan was to meet up with a friend who was another no-show. However, after the ride I did find Tom and his friends Ray and Jon, who ride recumbent biycles. Tom is holding the Sockapal-2-za sock.



It turns out the guys are well trained in husbandly encouragement of the fiber arts – Ray's DW knits, Jon's needlepoints, and Tom's weaves. Our paths have come close to crossing before now, including at MDS&W. If that weren't enough cosmic oddness, while we were getting acquainted during lunch a woman none of us know plopped herself down and started chatting amiably. She seemed very interested in Jon and Ray, less interested in Tom, not at all interested in me. On a bike tour a 'bent bicycle is a sure draw for gearheads, but who knew it's a chick magnet as well.

My pre-ride jitters may have been unfounded, but the ride was not without difficulties. About half a mile out, I discovered that my bicycle rack had come unbolted from its rails in such a way that the rack would flop backwards, causing the rack trunk to drag on the ground. There's nothing like a slow return to the car while happy riders are whizzing by in the other direction to sour one's mood! After much improvising, the rack could be jammed forward onto the rails, but it could not be stabilized enough to carry the trunk. The most essential things I usually carry in the rack trunk (sunscreen, cell phone, spare inner tube) had to be hurriedly crammed into my jersey pocket and everything else stowed in the car. In the flurry of repacking, I'm afraid the Crème de Marron was left behind. Sigh.

Back on the road, things improved immediately. The ride was well-organized and a lot of fun. Besides all the green beans, I saw a stand of black walnut trees with a fine crop coming along (make a note of that for later!), some mutant corn with ears where the tassels should be (eeeeuw – shoulda taken a picture, but didn't), and this charming mailbox.



I love the unexpected touch of violet. Across the road are yet more green beans. Why did the chicken cross the road?

There were some picturesque farmstand signs. That's non-mutant corn in the background.



The signs were advertising the most enticing small farmstands. This one is on the honor system, with the price list on the blackboard and moneybag in the white basket.



After the ride, the guys could not be convinced to go to Princeton with me and instead went to Economy Bike Shop in Hamilton Square. Perhaps it was the puzzling lack of vendor exhibits at The Princeton Event or maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that Glenmarle Woolworks and Pins and Needles are in Princeton. As DH would advise, "Run! Run far, run fast – don't look back!!"

My objective this time was to try the ice cream at the Bent Spoon, a relatively new place that received excellent reviews from the Munchmobile. Their ice cream is a luxurious cross between premium ice cream and gelato and it comes in made-fresh-daily artisanal flavors such as honey sage and cucumber mint. I had chocolate tangerine, which was heavenly. The legend is growing that the place is named for an episode in The Matrix, but their logo is a recumbent spoon – a 'bent spoon, there is no spoon with a bend. Alas, no pix here as the place was thronged and I didn't bring enough model releases.

Speaking of which, it would seem the sock is a bit of a diva. She categorically refused to pose with common green beans, but consented to be photographed with the cute mailbox, while jauntily perched on the bicycle seat. The bike has an orange cue sheet clipped to its handlebars. Also notice how the bike rack is tipped forward, sigh.



That about sums up the day.

[Added 8/8/05] Tom says Ms. Mystery turned up at Economy Bike Shop! At some point cosmic oddness segues into synchronicity - perhaps we'll be seeing more of Mystery in the future.

When Worlds Collide

I've been wondering if this weekend will be more like SP5 or more like When Worlds Collide.

More wonderful goodies have arrived from my Secret Pal in France and with them, a wonderful new-to-me word. Thank you, Secret Pal, for this especially meaningful package!



The new word is chiné, which my mini Larousse defines as mottled, flecked, or clouded. La pal secrète uses it to describe the fabric created by well-behaved variegated yarn. English-speaking knitters have lots of terms for the bad variegated yarn behavior (striping, pooling, spotting, shazaaming or shazaming, flashing, swirly pooling, puddling, argyling) and some have even convinced themselves it can be a desirable design element in a scarf (eyeroll), but we seem to lack a word for the good. Strange.

There's much of regional and personal interest in this SP5 package, which makes it extra-special. My pal visited her parents in the scenic Gorges du Verdon – in the photo that's a bundle of lavender flowers from their garden next to a plump lavender sachet, a map of Verdon Regional Nature Park, postcards, a pack of souvenir playing cards with photos of the steep gorges and rapids of the Verdon River (it's a French deck of cards, so the face cards do not say K, Q, J for king, queen, jack, but R, D, V for roi, dame, valet). Happily, the lavender flowers arrived intact, nicely cushioned by a handkerchief that's a memento from a cousin's wedding a year ago, carefully tied with bright red string (which I untied - I hope that's OK). Happy First Anniversary, Aïda and Mathieu!

In all the pix and the postcards, I'm amazed by how pale and yellow the soil is. I don't think I've ever seen soil quite like that in the U.S. (not that I've been everywhere in the country). Roundabout Exit 151, the soil is mostly "Jersey clay," which is dark red, rich in iron, acid, heavy, and poor-draining. That's very good for plants that like moist bog conditions, such as the State Fruit, blueberry, but it's no wonder lavender plants sulk around here!

The only gorge near Exit 151 is on the Passaic River in Paterson. For most of its length the Passaic River is either swampy or marshy, but in "Silk City" it has dangerous rapids (which once powered the silk mills), then makes a sharp Z-bend and plunges through a narrow chasm of dark rock over the Great Falls of the Passaic. In the Eastern U.S., these 80-foot (24 m) waterfalls are second (albeit a distant second) only to mighty Niagara Falls. It's impressive to us, but tiny compared with the 2,300-foot (700 m) deep Grand Canyon of the Verdon. The Great Falls look their best in this photo by Andy Szymczak; in times of drought, the falls are reduced to a mere dribble.

Back to indoor scenery! The beauteous Anny Blatt Rustique in the SP5 package is 100% wool roving, very soft. I'll have to hide it from the local felting goddess, who always wants to felt things (a mania I don't share). This yarn is much too nice for such a terrible fate! Perhaps it wants to be Teva Durham's brilliant Braided Neckpiece in Loop-d-Loop. The pooling on the braided part of the neckpiece would be different than the pooling on the main part, which could be really interesting.

The last items in this incredible variety pack are lemon verbena soap (so good for refreshing tired summer skin), a clever boxwood jam spoon with a peg on the handle to keep it from falling into the jam, three packs of a jasmine-mint gum that tastes like an equal blend of mild mint (quite unlike overpowering Altoids) and flowers and says, "Relax" on the wrapper, and a tube of very tasty Crème de Marron or chestnut spread. This last is decorated with a smiling man made of chestnuts and, inspired by the postcard with a bicycle on it, I know exactly what to do with it.

Tomorrow is THE PRINCETON EVENT, an annual bicycle tour of the Princeton area. I'm riding with Tom and some of his friends, who call themselves Team Spare Tyre. Many cyclists like to slurp energy gels as a snack during a tour, which is acceptable if that's all one has, the poor things. Thanks to la pal secrète I will carry something much nicer in my jersey pocket. In keeping with the Knitting Blogs tradition, I will also take my Sockapal-2-za sock (and digicam, of course). This intrusion of the knitting blogoverse into the bicycle world may take some explaining to the Spare Tyres. Well, if words fail, there's always the expedient of bribing mollifying them with Crème de Marron. No doubt that will be immediately comprehensible – after all, the chestnut man's head looks a little like a bicycle helmet. If that doesn't work, I'm moving to Planet Zyra.

Saturday also is the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; Tuesday of Nagasaki. So I'll carry a string of peace cranes and the hope and prayer for a future more like SP5 and less like When Worlds Collide.

SP5 Prezzie Now a WIP!

[IT advisory 08/04/2005: we are experiencing technical difficulties uploading photos. Do not adjust your computer. Please stand by.]

The Phildar Lambswool from my Secret Pal is now a work in progress! Here's the beginning of Cindy Walker's lovely Leaf Socks in Socks, Socks, Socks.



The pattern looks involved, but actually is a lot of fun to work. The lace ladders swing, the bobbles add a great pop of texture, and I love 'most anything with leaves.

Most of the sock is Field of Wheat lace with large bobbles on the leg and small bobbles on the foot to avoid pinching inside shoes. There's an ingenious panel of leaves – with stems! – running down the leg. The original has a leaf border at the cuff; I've altered the pattern, adding a k1 p1 rib and omitting the leaf border.

Other alterations I'm pondering include running the lace and bobbles down the heel (I usually wear handmade socks with clogs), making the bobbles on the foot even smaller than in the pattern, and substituting a wedge toe for the star toe. I'm also going to chart a mirror image of the leaf pattern to produce a true right and left sock.

The plan is to wear these socks to Rhinebeck in October. It will be nice to have a small reminder of la pal secrète along with me.