Crawling back from the edge…

Hi, Gang, it’s me.  Remember me?  I barely remember  me.  When I last posted 5 weeks ago, I didn’t realize that I would become a statistic.

Yup, a good ol’ CDC statistic.  Apparently during the swine flu epidemic of this fall, there were thousands of cases of people getting a moderate case of swine flu and then, after getting weakened by that, coming down with a really really good case of bacterial pneumonia. 

You guessed it.   Moi.  And with my history of bronchitis and pneumonia hospitalizations, I got the (dun dun DAH…!)THE DOUBLE WHAMMY.  I never did get back to work, and spent most of the month of November in bed.  (THIS, dear friends, is what happens when we don’t have national health insurance.)  We had no health insurance in November, and I should have been in the hospital.  Luckily, I had massive doses of antibiotics and then cortisone to open up my chest.  Drank lots of fluids and didn’t eat much.  Did not go out at all, except for groceries, and T.A. went with me on those. 

I finally turned the corner about a week ago:  I can actually stay awake all day; I can breathe freely; I don’t feel like I have a gorilla sitting on my chest anymore, and the best thing is that I actually am starting to have an appetite again.  I still don’t have a lot of stamina — I can go out and do stuff for about 2 hours and then it’s time to come home, but it’s way better than it was.

Been taking advantage of the downtime at home to catalog new yarn acquisitions.  This has led to a silent vow, punishable by severe self-chastising, of NO NEW YARN IN 2010.  I have plenty of yarn, and I really need to start doing some destash of the odds and ends that I will never use.   Working fitfully on a new crocheted shawl pattern; stay tuned. 

Oh, and have I mentioned how very very much I completely hate Christmas music?  The fact is, that it goes up into the Muzak pipes of the world even before Thanksgiving now, and I AM BURNED OUT AND HATE/HATE/HATE IT.  In conversation with KnitBud Anne,  I found out that she, like myself, absolutely DESPISES Xmas music, and we both have a sharp, horrid and particular hatred for “The Little Drummer Boy”, that treacly tom-tom of a commercial Xmas carol.

Which brings me to another issue — Xmas music on public radio.  Now, Dear Reader, I must confess.  I do not support my local classical music station.  Why?  Because they advertise “Classical music, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”  THIS is not true on my section of their network.  SEVEN months of the year, I have classical music from 6 am to 7pm.  Then the local college takes over the network and I will not listen to college students stumbling over the local news, nor listen to the endless hours of death metal that comes after that.   My only months when I can listen to “Performance Today” or any other post-7pm programming are May, June, July, August, and December. 

And, YUP, you guessed it.  Not only do I have to suffer through XMAS music on PUBLIC CLASSICAL RADIO, I have to put up with the pledge drive as well, first thing in December, and usually the first thing in June as well.   Plus, they fired all their live hosts about 5 years ago and went to the canned presenter segments and the top 500 classical format.  (If they think that I and others don’t notice that programmers don’t check the playlist for each segment, screw up and play “Bolero” twice in 6 hours, they would be wrong. )  So that’s my beef.  They are, in their own way, no better that Clear Channel, and not worthy of my money.  I may be called a Grinch, or Scrooge, but I, like them, have my reasons.

“This will end in tears…”

Says Marvin, the deeply despondent robot in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. 

Well, he wasn’t too far off. 

Right after my last post, I shouldered my backpack and Went Back To Work. 

It was brutal.  It was a TWO hour commute each way, door to door.  After staggering through the first two weeks, I politely asked to be replaced — but they were so nice, they let me start leaving an hour early (which is one of the things I love about temping — if you don’t want money, you don’t have to work).  That adjustment worked well for the next two weeks, and then (dun dun DUH!) I got the flu.  And then after that, from being pulled down by the flu, I got pneumonia — granted, it’s the “walking” version (HAH! More like the “zombie shuffle” version), but I am still pretty bloody sick. 

Currently recovering at home, but still, I’ve only been able to get into work for 2 days out of the last two weeks.  And I only have one week (next) left on this gig.  T.A. has had the flu (albeit a milder case, why?!) and has been in and out of his office as well.  But he was well enough to ferry me to the doctor on Wed, when I finally got some ginormous antibiotics and have been able to get on the mend — which means now coughing up wads of white stuff as opposed to green and yellow stuff. (yeah, TMI, but that’s what you get for reading my blog, foolish human.)

How sick am I?  Can’t concentrate on anything for more than 5 minutes at a time, and I HAVE NO APPETITE.  Not even for bacon.  That’s pretty much at’s death door for me, and I will not scare you any more.  Maybe time for some more soup — yes, I’m forcing myself to eat.  I’m really sick.  T.A. wants me to bag the last week of my gig, and get back to the life here. I’m getting to agree with him…stay tuned.

Copper Mesh Wrap Shawl Published!

Well, after a couple of months of hemming and hawing, I’ve finally published my first pattern FOR SALE on Ravelry!

It’s this lovely shawl that I sort of noodled out last month…

Copper Mesh Wrap Shawl

I’m very pleased with it; it’s simple to crochet, and you, LUCKY YOU, can buy it from Ravelry by clicking here.

Whaaaa?

It’s September, and the weather turned the corner right after Labor Day weekend — CLICK.  Just like that, it’s fall. 

Well, we did have our federally-mandated two weeks of summer during August; but the summer was literally a complete wash.  I am glad to see the back of that wet drizzling nasty bastard, and look forward to some nice fall weather.  The Pages and I are off to the Fingerlakes Fiber  Festival this next weekend, and I hope to find some lovely, inexpensive yarn (yeah, right!) while I’m there.

Lots of big and little crochet and knit projects going; I think that I might actually be hitting the halfway mark on my unbelievably neato Sasha Kagan crocheted (yes, dear ones, crochet from Sasha “Queen of Intarsia Knitting” Kagan) shawly-scarf this week, and am just finishing up the third of a series of crocheted, worsted-weight color change shawls, one of which I will put up on the Etsy shop when I get it up and running.   Some Xmas presents are ready; some are still under construction, and I would love to know what I did with that damn ball of Malabrigo lace that I got to make Mom a scarf for her birthday…it definitely went walkabout in the livingroom, that’s for sure….

T.A. is suffering bravely through the absolutely WORST case of poison oak/ivy that I have ever seen, textbook or otherwise.  We have been to immediate care twice in the last week; and he’s on his second round of more powerful steroids plus prescription cortizone cream to help take down the oozing welts on his body.  It’s just NASTY.   And to top it all off, he’s back to work officially (YAY!!!!!) on Wednesday.  We have a lot to do before then…

My Danish Granny — A Pattern Of Sorts

I’ve really wanted to have a Traditional Danish Tie Shawl since I saw it in Spin-Off back in 2008.  It had the swooping wings to tie around me and a long triangle in the back.  Sooooo pretty…..

So I knitted one last winter from some worsted alpaca.  Not So Good.  I ran out of the yarn, and it was too short for my 5’10” broad shouldered, long-waisted body.  What I needed was a really big, deep, wide, drapey shawl.. and I didn’t want to take the weeks of knitting with a fingering to sport weight yarn on smallish needles to make one.  Rats.  So I set the idea aside.

Summer 09 – The dog days of August.  We have swum through this summer; unrelenting days of rain and overcast, and when the sun comes out?  Oy, the humidity!  I do NOT want to knit with a pile of wool on my lap. 

But I could crochet.  For some reason, I fell back into crochet – I haven’t crocheted a garment in 30+ years, and now I’m thinking about this?  Strange.  But I could do something simple.  Maybe some granny squares to…nah.  I like shawls…some granny squares to make a shawl?   Nah.  Then I remember…

 The half granny!  Iconic triangular shawl of the late 60’s and into the 70’s; usually multi-colored; made from the finest Sayelle or Wintuk or Orlon.  Y’know, for an era that was start of the ecological movement, there sure were a lot of un-natural fibers being used…

 I hit the intertube for a refresher on the half granny and found the best one right here:  

http://crochet-mania.blogspot.com/2008/06/blog-post_13.html

Teresa has easy directions, symbol crochet and a video – Thanks, Teresa!  I was back up to speed and ready to roll…

 My 70’s shawl will be multi-colored, but not in worsted weight.  I decide, after a quick visit to AC Moore, that I’ll use sock yarn and an expanded gauge to crochet this mother.  Bow chicka bow-bow, 70’s, here I come!

So I start.  And suddenly, I see it.  OMG.  A Danish Tie Shawl is triangular but with the neck and front edges shaped by extra increases to extend them.  This is what makes the shawl wrap around the body.  Can I do this with a Half Granny?  I rip out the several rows that I’ve done and walk in circles, talking to myself.  My husband and the cats are amused, yet slightly alarmed.

 Feverishly, I think.  (Just a reminder here: I’m very lazy.  No math.  No crazy changes.  Even my fevers tend to be mild.)  I’m now calling it the Danish Granny Shawl in my head, or DGS for short, and I am thinking how to make this happen.

Increases on the ends?  Mmmmm – no.  I cheat.  I fudge the gauge and the edges by doing two simple things, and that, dear reader, is what you are going to do as well.  Here’s the cheating part.  Ya READY?!

 First:  Work the first 2, possibly 3 rows (but no more than that) of the DGS with a hook that’s 2-3 sizes smaller than the main body hook.  I used an H for this (then switched to a K for the body).  DON’T be at all squinchy or tight with your first rows — there should be a slight, but visible difference (“snugger”, if you will) to these rows.  Then, switch out to the larger K hook for the body.

 Second:  Turning chains.  Remember when you were learning how to crochet and those darn turning chains were too tight and your edges got all bendy and crappy?  Do that again.  No, seriously.  Since you are working clusters of DC for the shawl, the CH3 that you make to turn is considered part of the first DC cluster.

 Make that CH3 pretty snug with your K hook (after you work your first 2-3 rows).   OK, if you are morally opposed to snug chaining, make it a CH2.  Whatevah. 

 The point is to deliberately curve the edge of the DGS.  Your CH3 or CH2 on the edge should be gently pulling the head of your next DC over it.   This, over time, curves the edge of the shawl.  You do not have to use the smaller hook.  Just let GO of the notion of a straight edge and Make It So.

 Work in this manner until you are sick of it, or run out of yarn or both.  I used 6 skeins of Paton’s Kroy FX sock yarn in Cascade Colors (teal! squee!) (yds/sk =166) and 1 skein of Kroy solid in Gentry Grey for the edging.  I wanted a big-ass shawl and I got it;  the rest of the world could probably get by with 5 skeins and 1 for contrast and the truly tiny (y’know, you ELFIN girls!) could do with 4 and 1.  Buy extra, match your dyelots, and keep your receipts.  Here’s the finished product!

Out Flat on the Floor -- The Danish Granny Shawl

lovely colors in that sock yarn....

Oh, and here’s the edging!  Sedate and sober, to contain that gypsy soul.. 

With the solid color and the K hook:  Start by working across the neck edge.  3 SC in every CH3/2 space (whatever worked for you); 3 SC in every end DC space.

Keep going and… for the outer edges: SC in every DC, 1 SC in the CH1 space between the DC clusters, and work 3 SC in the CH2 space on the point.  When you get back to the neck edge, sl st to join, then change to an “I” hook (yes, change hooks – trust me!)

 CH 2 and TURN.  You’re going back along the outer edges.  With the I hook, work 1 row of HDC in every SC around those outer edges; work 3 HDC in the “corner/point” to make it lay flat; work to neck edge, and then SC across in every SC across neck edge; sl st at end to join. 

HDC edging on Danish Granny

Single Crochet Neck Edging

  One more thing and then I’ll let you get going:  Traditional Danish Tie Shawls have, um, ties — one on each end of the extended fronts.  I’ve made that optional by doing the following:  Join your yarn back onto the end of one of the front points.   Tightly chain 6-8 ch st; sl st back onto point, creating a loop.  Repeat for other point.  You now have very small loops to put a tie (Tie: With K hook, chain approx 18”, turn and slip st through all ch, fasten off) through.  No permanent dangly ties, but you can now tie the ends of the shawl behind you whenever you want to with this modification.

One of the Optional Back Tie Loops

 

 To recap: 

My gauge with a K hook:  DC clusters are ¾” high, and I had 3 DC clusters and 3 CH-1 spaces in 4 inches.

 Start making a Half-Granny square, using sock yarn and a size H hook.  This will make the back of the neck start to curve and fit nicely around the back of your neck!  Work the first 2-3 rows as usual, then switch to a K hook and work the main part of the shawl until large enough, remembering to either tighten up or shorten your turning chains on the neck edge.

 Finish off with a nice border of single and half-double crochet in the same or contrasting color. 

 This would be a great sock yarn stash buster; or you can go out and mix and match solids, self-patterning or any other mash-up you’d like.   The trick is to keep the  crochet gauge very loose so that it drapes and flows. 

 Even with ripping and re-working, this is a fast crochet – less than a week for me and I am slow like the turtle when it comes to crochet.  My gift to you.  Enjoy!

Nice and Long! Just what I wanted!

Close-Up of Front Overlap

Here it is from the Front....

And of course, the obligatory BT-esque shot...

Oh, Yeah and then there’s this….

Garterstitch in Schaefer's Nancy Hand-dyed.

It’s always good to have your knitting close to hand, so you can make stuff.  Which is what I did, and here’s the latest Finished Objects….

NOT a mushroom, even after all the rain…

And of course, THIS!  My first really lacey shawl in a really amazing shade of bluey green.  It’s the Kiri pattern from Ravelry.  If you’re looking at this, and you’re  not on Ravelry, then your life sucks and I’m sad for you.

Kiri Shawl in Woodsmoke Shetland from Harrisville.

And a closeup…

 

Closeup of Kiri Shawl

This listing does not include the sack of scarves that I crocheted; nor does it include Works In Progress.  More things, as always, are under construction….

Life’s Little Victories…

Going out to the “tomato patch” (OK, it’s only 3 plants) and finding a new ripe tomato for supper…

Remembering to take everything to the PO at the same time:  Sharpie pen, address, box, and contents of box to ship.

Talking with your mom whilst taking the obligatory one mile walk — multi-tasking!

Finding a new book about pirates that actually uses historical sources as its main text instead of bodice-ripping claptrap.  

Finding a new knitting book that actually has garments in it that are bigger than a size 36″ chest!

Whew.  Just a few of the little things that I can hang onto these dog days of summer.  But, yes, I have been actually doing stuff besides my summer reading gorge…

I’ve been experimenting with dyeing wool with food-grade dyes.  Yes.  This does actually work, and really quite well.  Here’s some pictures and text for you to see just what silliness I’ve been up to….

The VICTIM....

 

 

This is a gigantic Ecuadorian sweater that I got at the Goodwill a couple of year ago for the express purpose of dismembering it and then unraveling it.  

  

 

 

 

I did that awful deed and this below is what I got from our victim laying on the floor up there….

A moment of silence for the woolly remains....

So — I took the white yarn, which was VERY white, and soaked it in the sink for about a 1/2 hour until it was fully wet.  I then mixed up the contents of THIS BOTTLE with boiling water, and dumped it into my cheapy enamel canner full of water…

Green, Moss Green...

Which led to some sort of variation on “Green Eggs and Ham with a side of Green Spaghetti” — but I couldn’t get the rhyme scheme going…

I honestly thought, when I dumped the yarn rather unceremoniously in the turbid, opaque green water and started heating it up to 180 degrees, that This Was Never Going To Work. 

Seriously.  I’ve taken dye workshops before — natural and artifical.  HOW could something so dead dumb simple (mix icing coloring with boiling water, then add to water in a pot, and then the yarn — cook for 1/2 hour till exhausted (the dyepot, not you) actually WORK?  There’s no weighing, no mordanting, no funky funky chemicals to mix….

 

HOLY FREAKING CRAP ON A ROCK IN THE HOT HOT SUN IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!

Green Soup at the Start...

Green Yarn at the Finish!

 

And the finished product, rinsed and dry, nicely nicely piled in a basket while the rest of the other color sits below, sulking because it was too dark to overdye and get pretty like the green stuff….

Stripey Sweater, Anyone?

Um.  Right.  So then I went just a little crazy.  I had a buttload of LB Fisherman’s Wool that I had been hoarding saving for just the right dye project.  It was the perfect match:  Cheap natural colored 100% wool and cheap un-natural dyes.  I tested one skein (8 oz, 400+ yards) with a recipe from the intartube that I tweaked up for 2X wool.  

oooooo, pretty.  So then, I did a double double batch in two big pots at the same time.  Lotza cooking, but here ya go.

Violet -- Ultra Violet

Here’s the color I used for the LBFW.  This stuff glows darkly in the light, an un-natural color of deepest darkest indigo violet.

The Kraken Wakes!! Oh, no, it's just yarn....

And here it the yarn in one of the dyepots, just after going in.  The water was an amazing purple color, and I was going like,

“ABSORB!  ABSORB!  ABSORB!”

 

 ( I had just been to see HP6, and I was deeply influenced by Prof. Slugwort’s class in potions……)

So an hour or so later, I had some steamy hot fresh dyed yarn with a multitude of shades ranging from a dark turquoise to flat out purple .

Purple Passion!

Since the purple/violet dye is made up of red and blue dyes, there was quite a variation on the uptake of the two different dyes into the wool.  I have some mostly magenta streaks, and some blue streaks, but overall, it looks pretty interesting and fun.  I have a project picked out for it already, and I’ll be trying out some more dyeing with icing dyes pretty soon — just as soon as the temperature goes down a bit…

 

 

I got the nicest PM on Ravelry today from one of my customers — her comments just opened up my head and I wrote the following in about three minutes….Thanks, Debbie — you were my Muse today!

Well, gee. I just write what’s happening, and I’m very honored to know that people find it moving — thank you so much for your kind words!!

I’m really just starting to fully feel the awesomeness of the relief — I’ve had to drive and fly back to New York State since Sunday, and traveling always tends to consume my attention, as so many things can go wrong. I submerge my feelings in order to deal with the here and now; this makes me  great in an emergency.

THEN after it’s all over, I’ll turn things over in my head and heart and deal with them. . . Things are moving back into their normal routines, but I think we have all been reminded of how fragile and precarious our lives are in the big messy universe. One day at a time is all we get — and even that has no guarantees. Here and now. Enjoy the day. Knit as if there is no tomorrow!

Yet Another Bullet Dodged…

Hey, it’s Friday!

I think it was my older younger brother who said it first, as he ruefully eyed his arm, pins sticking out of his cast, after he fell off a ladder and broke his arm in four places. 

“Bean, I don’t think I’m bullet-proof and invisible anymore….” 

Of course, none of us are bullet-proof etc –  and if you are, get off my damn blog right now.   But we can dodge the occasional bullet by sheer dumb luck.   My son got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon with 31 stainless steel staples holding his innards in and a more or less clean bill of health.

No, I don’t have a picture of this artifact.  Trust me, it’s really kinda cool, yet queasy to look at him, with a line of large staples neatly outlining the ginormous slice those doctors opened up on my baby.  Yeesh.   The final results are clear cell renal cancer, completely confined to the tumor that was removed on Monday morning, and a 99% cure rate by tumor removal.  I am limp with relief.  NO chemo, NO radiation, NO invasion, NO spread.  Did I mention the limp with relief part?!

Anyway, he’s home, snoozing and resting.  His mother is doing the same, only with Culver’s frozen custard and lots of sack time — oh, and a bit of knitting…  It’s been stressful, folks, but we’ll be returning to our regularly scheduled programming soon.

Five Centimeters, Part Three

After 1700 miles by plane and 340 miles by car, an upgraded motel room and an uncomfortable meeting with my ex-husband, I am happy HAPPY HAPPY to report that my baby boy (ok, he’s 33 — still my baby) had his partial nephrectomy and tumor removal this morning, and came through with flying colors. The tumor looks to be benign, and he still has 1 and 2/3 kidneys to work with. For further information and the hilarious story of how we found our Timmy the Tumor, head over to his blog and read “Five Centimeters, Part One and Deux“.