Rewind

"Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older.... when did they?"

Colby's 4th grade class sang selections from Fiddler on the Roof as part of a Broadway-themed (no complaints from me) Mother's Day tea a few weeks ago. If those lyrics hadn't struck a chord with me at the tea, they certainly did yesterday.

That's because we attended Upper School orientation for incoming freshman last night, the school's first official event for the Class of 2013. Our oldest is starting high school next year--- and I'm suddenly hearing myself say all the things people my age with children this age say... Where did all the time go? It really went by too quickly. In just three short years, she'll be choosing a college to attend. And in four... Gulp.

But seriously, I don't remember getting older...!


I've spent this past week of my old age fiddlin' around with a test pattern, written by an extremely talented Rav cohort, Samantha Roshak. I had admired her completed prototype at our knit group recently, and was delighted when she asked if I'd be interested in testing the pattern. She knitted hers in Sundara Aran Silky Merino:

This cute little sweater is designed to be close-fitting, with a nice drape at the hem. In knitting the fabric, the open lace pattern is not fully realized until after the garment has been soaked and blocked. On my first attempt, I used a Plymouth Merino Silk but decided that the color was just, meh. Imagine that, the neutral just didn't do it for me.



So I got brave and decided to visit the frenzy called the Ravelry Sundara DISO (Desperately In Search Of) Destash Page to see if I could find two skeins of this notoriously elusive yarn! Got lucky and found two, had them shipped from a nice Raveler in NYC who was destashing.
Ahhh... much better:



I referred to my Vogue Knitting Quick Reference for cast-on techniques when I came to the armholes, but other than that, I hardly worried about making any fatal errors. A couple of the girls in knit group did give me a bit of a ribbing when they saw the test knitter having to check a knitting guide to execute pattern instructions. But hey, I've been told that bonehead pattern testers can be equally as useful as the really good testers!--- for different reasons, of course.

Well, guess what Ms. Bonehead Pattern Tester didn't do. I didn't knit and block a gauge swatch before starting. I figured that since I'd be using the same famed yarn on the same needles called for, I couldn't go that wrong with a pattern that would need to be stretched afterwards anyway. So I knitted happily along for two days and finished the sweater. But when I brought the not-yet-blocked sweater to show Samantha--- it was met with a look of concern. "I think this is going to be too small," she said. "How did your swatch look? Did it match the gauge I gave?"

"Uhhh..... not exactly."

She then advised me not to rip out but to try aggressively blocking instead. Even after soaking and rigorous blocking, I wasn't able for the life of me to stretch it enough to fit around me, much less achieve the beautiful eyelet effect of the original design. I had knitted the pattern stitch too tightly, and that's all she wrote. Maybe I should ask Sam to include this as a pattern note: "Blockheads, remember to block a swatch!" Well, she'd only need to include that on my copy.



Oddly enough, the thought of having to start over again didn't completely freak me out. I unwound the sweater, soaked the yarn in Eucalan to refresh it, and hung the hanks to dry for rewinding. It was a pretty fast knit the first time and an enjoyable one at that. So, I'll begin again tomorrow.


As far as I'm concerned, a little rewind now and then isn't all bad.

Fixation

It's called a fix. No, it's not a fix like being in a jam... or coming up against a problem. Not exactly. This fix is a good thing. For a knitter, it's the nourishment gained from being in contact with yarn. Okay... you say. Still, countless other knitters will only tell you exactly the same thing--- that there really is something profound that can happen when woolly string is worked in the hands. After all, a yarn knitted has the power to take on significance well beyond its elemental properties. And a knitter denied her yarn fix can be quite a serious thing indeed.

Just look what happened to poor Tracey Ullman when she discovered her precious yarn speeding away in a hired limousine, as she still held the knitted end hopelessly unraveling in her hands:



Her rather vocal distress activated a concerned bystander, who immediately joined her in chasing after the car for several London city blocks. When the do-gooder finally caught up to the vehicle and discovered the driver to be harboring not an abducted child but a measly ball of yarn instead...
"Bloody actresses..." was what Tracey recalled hearing several onlookers mutter.
Hilarious--- and a true story, too. So it's fitting that her book (co-authored by her friend and owner of the Los Angeles knit shop, Wild Fiber) is where I should find a pattern to knit the output of my recent handspinning *ahem* mania.



Even though the sweater on the cover looks a bit crazy, there are actually some seriously pretty patterns and worthwhile projects compiled here. And of course the commentary is pure Tracey. She expounds on subjects that range from 'masculine knitting practices in the Middle Ages' to 'why she prefers knitted dreadlocks to hair extensions.'

This is the Luxe Neckwarmer I picked to knit mainly because I saw that the pattern only required 130 yards of yarn. Lately, I've been able to spin about 150 yards from 4 oz. of roving.




Here's the thing I'm finding about spinning: there's definitely an element of surprise involved when starting a portion of roving. I could end up with a thicker yarn or a thinner one, depending on how wobbly my revolutions are on any given day. And the exact saturation of color generated from variegated roving can certainly be a challenge to predict as it will vary depending on the wheel's uptake. Lastly, there's the ply factor. If a single strand happens to have a varied sequence of color, it may randomly oppose or compliment the yarn it's twisted together with; once again changing the overall appearance for better or (I won't say worse, just) different results than may be expected. Below, the roving as I saw it pictured on Etsy at Rainy Days and Woolly Dogs:




After much suspense and anticipation... spun and plied to about worsted weight, 150 yards:



First handspun project, knitted and blocked with a good deal of yardage to spare:



And thinking about the next fix:


To be continued...

Chocolate chip

We had dinner at a friend's house last night and it was a terrific time. In typical fashion, the kids (nine of them) quickly finished the business of consuming their pepperoni pizza and spent the rest of the evening running around in a happy frenzy between indoors and outdoors, upstairs and downstairs, wielding light sabers, swords, and Nerf guns... you get the picture. Morgan was a good sport about being the only teenager in attendance. She maintained a fine balance between politely chatting with the adults and alternately promoting mayhem with her brothers and the other younger kids.

The grown-up food and wine faire included an herb-stuffed pork tenderloin roast with truffle sauce, asparagus risotto, a tossed fields green salad and a goodly cheese platter paired with a couple of bottles of syrah and pinot noir. The children certainly enjoyed running around like maniacs while the adults maintained a more stationary venue at the dining room table--- but we still rivaled the kids in the amount of fun we had with such good company and food to enjoy.

Earlier, I broke out the ol'rolling pin & mixer and made an apple pie and some chocolate chip cookies to bring for dessert. Of course with something as basic as a chocolate chip cookie, everyone has their own personal preferences for taste and texture. For instance, Green Girl in Wisconsin has made mention that she likes her chocolate chip cookies to be crisp on the outside and gooey inside. I happen to like eating the cookie dough as much the cookies themselves. So I'd say my favorite would be a very dense cookie that's baked only just long enough to cancel any rawness of egg--- with chocolate kept from becoming overly melted, and cookie kept from becoming overly brown (Air Bake cookie sheets are great for this.) Mike's mom gave me this recipe when I was still a newlywed and I've been making these lil' suckers for the past 16 years now:

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Bake 325 degrees for about 12-14 minutes
(Cookies will not appear completely set until they've cooled)
Makes about 2 1/2 to 3 dozen

Ingredients in order:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
(Cream butter and sugar then add:)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 packet instant oatmeal (1.5 oz.)
(Mix these ingredients then add:)
3 1/4 cups flour
1 Package milk chocolate chips or M&M's (11.5 oz.)

P.S. My fave chocolate baking chips: Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate



Bon appetit, fellow dough-lovers! What's your favorite cookie?