Knits Of Bomb Girls

The moment I got home from vacation I have kept my nose to the grindstone. Emails are left unanswered for what feels like an hour, but turns out to be days. To keep my spirits up during marathon knit sessions, I have turned to marathons on netflix. Today I finished watching Bomb Girls, which is an addicting program to say the least. It covers Canadian girls working in a bomb factory during WWII. And it has the same fast pacing as Downton Abbey. I only wish season two was available in the US.
As I've been watching, I've had the pleasure of spotting some really lovely knits. First off is Lorna's sweater.

Just look at the lovely edging to the shawl collar. It almost looks like a knit-on edging. I must try that one day.

And now Skip McCallum's raglan sweater. It's got cute inset pockets and sporty stripes.

This one has a garter stitch shawl collar, which I find quite charming. As for his hat, I quite like the way they chose to make the earflap ties. I usually make i-cord ones. The knitted strips look quite good.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. What kinds of fun did you have?

Poppies, Floating Rocks, and Smilodons

I just got back from a wonderful vacation. My parents and I went down to see my brother's guitar recital. On the way down we went to check out the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. This is the time of year when the hills are supposed to be covered in poppies. I was a bit skeptical as we drove up because the hills looked a little too brown. Turns out the rains didn't come, so they all died. Dad bought a postcard and we walked up to see where the poppies would have been. 

 There are more poppies in our backyard than in Antelope Valley this year.

The next day, after the recital, we visited the La Brea tar pits. We all thought that the constant bubbles coming up from the pits was some sort of Disney magic. Boy are we used to a manufactured world. The bubbling occurs because of built up methane gas under the pits.

Before we checked out the Page Museum, I noticed that we were next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. There is a piece out front called Levitating Mass, which consists of large granite rock displayed over a lowered walkway. The opinions on this piece are extremely polarized: you either think it is the best bit of art since Michelangelo's David or that it is a waste of money. I just think it is a very difficult piece to get a picture of it if you've left your wide angle lens in the car.

The Page Museum is pretty neat. There are a large number of skeletons, including these two Mastodons. It is a mum and her baby that got stuck at the same time.

I learned that Smilodons, or Saber-Toothed Cats are often incorrectly called Saber-Toothed Tigers. They aren't tigers, they are cats. 

My last day in LA, my brother and I went to Disneyland. There are no pictures because the only thing I brought with me was chapstick. We were there nearly the entire time the park was open. Highlights include getting seats closest to the edge of the water in my favorite restaurant, the Blue Bayou, beating Christopher at Astroblasters after he bragged about what a great shot he was (95,000 points to his 69,000), and the sad whimper Christopher made when his sunglasses disappeared on the last turn of the Matterhorn. I think the highlight of Christopher's day was when we went on Splash Mountain and the wave missed him, but entirely drenched me. 

I didn't knit or touch the computer the entire time I was in LA. It was a true vacation and I savored every moment. Now back to work.

Celestarium's Sister

It has begun. Celestarium's sister, Southern Skies is now being test knit. 

It won't be long now...

Horses Are Worse Than Bears

Wednesday was an adventure. I was able to cross off another photo shoot for The Book, but Mum, Alina, and I worked for it. I was able to get permission to take pictures in a field of horses. Last time I was in the field, it took five minutes to find the dozen and half horses. This time.... well, we found some other things before we found the horses, including a wood rat nest.

A half hour later Alina spotted them in the field we had passed previously. Apparently we all moved at about the same rate around the trees. It was a relief to find them. I thought they would continue grazing, but three of them decided to be a welcoming committee. Mum called them worse than bears because they had to taste EVERYTHING. I now have horse spit on my camera bag.

Photo courtesy of Mum

They didn't let up in their curiosity, so I parked the golf cart in front of all our stuff. Once we took the good stuff away, they decided to leave.

Photo courtesy of Mum

It took us over two hours of just picture taking, but I was able to get every picture that I had envisioned taking. All in all it was a great success.

Photo courtesy of Mum

I took some fun pictures too. 

I can't wait to have this book done so I can show you all the final photos. Only three more shoots to go!

Arbutus

I finished my Arbutus a few days ago and decided that even though I love the yarn, the colors don't look as good on me. So I have given it to Mum. She didn't want to model it. 

I don't like modeling either. But I wanted it modeled...

It was a relaxing knit. I did read that other people had trouble with holes by their short rows. I usually am fine, but encountered the same issue on half of my wrap and turns. I fixed it by picking up and twisting two extra stitches by the offending wrap and turn and then doing a k2tog twice. It worked perfectly.

Scooter was particularly energetic today. I moment I sat on the bench, he launched himself onto me. He got his usual two walks and an additional run. Running him involves two of us holding treats at opposite ends of the yard. We call him and he runs from person to person until there are no more treats. He usually tears around the yard a bit more before going inside for water and a nap. It worked like a charm.

Belated Beach Yarn

After an embarrassing number of months, I managed to finish spinning Melissa's birthday skein. It was so late that I wrote on the card "Happy Belated (almost your next) Birthday." I tried to make up for the lateness with yardage.

It is meant to be a beach theme; going from the sandy edge of the water, through the breakers, and out to deep water.

The skein was spun up from several Faerie Mountain Fibers Crazy Batts. I practiced my long draw while spinning this yarn. The long draw requires only one hand and I've been told that it is sometimes called the beer draw, which I find to be accurate. I did have a beer in my other hand while spinning. I thought (correctly) that Melissa would approve. In the end, the skein was very close to 400 yards of fingering/sport weight. I suggested a center-out triangular or semicircle shawl to best show off this yarn.

After getting the yarn and fondling it, Melissa immediately cast on a Shaelyn shawl. I think she knit it faster than I spun it. I'd never spun a gradated yarn and I am excited that it came out so well. Let us all gaze on how glorious the Shaelyn looks.

Photo courtesy of Melissa

 And now I think I need to spin myself an ocean-themed yarn.

Island Party

My Grace cardigan has been on time out for a month. I know it looks pretty good. I got the sleeves in. But as I put the first sleeve in, I saw that my gauge had changed a little. No matter, blocking would fix everything.

Blocking did not fix everything. I know that the gauge difference looks slight. But as a point of reference, I only blocked the sleeves.

I have to face the facts: these sleeves have negative ease. And while I don't have a problem with negative ease, I don't like that the sleeves push my shirt sleeves up. Realistically, I won't wear a cardigan I can only wear with a tank top, so these sleeves have to be ripped. I just haven't had it in me to do it because not only is the yarn fingering weight, but I also blended two skeins along each sleeve. That means I'll be untwisting 2 skeins from each other as I rip. The other problem was that I had given myself a deadline of finishing the cardi by February 15th, otherwise I'd have to put it aside to finish knitting for The Book. When I have some time, the new plan of attack is to go up two needle sizes AND add two extra stitches in the underarm. Am I overcompensating? Maybe. But I gotta get me some ease.

This left me with no "relaxing knitting". I had recently cleaned out my stash and found this skein of handspun that I had made a few years ago. It's one of my favorites and I finally found a project to match it with. It is becoming an Arbutus. 

Both patterns are from Jane Richmond's ISLAND book. So I'm having a bit of an ISLAND party.