On My Needles (October)

This morning I was knitting in gray.

My morning knitting began with a few rows of my Boardwalk pullover by Heidi Kirrmaier in the "Sweatshirt" colorway of Brooklyn Tweed Loft.

I set that down, and I worked a couple rows of my latest Baa-ble Hat, designed by Donna Smith, in Berocco Ultra Alpaca. The hat ribbing is in the (now discontinued) "Gneiss" colorway.

I set that down, and considered how hard it is to knit only in gray in the middle of winter.

I will be knitting in full color by February. 
  

BRADAN: My Kelbourne Woolens Arranmore Color Story

In recent years some of my newest favorite yarns (here, here and here) have come from Kelbourne Woolens, who are headquartered in a part of Philadelphia that I am beginning to know very well. (It is exactly that part of Philadelphia where both of my young adult children now live.)

Kelbourne Woolens = Courtney Kelley + Kate Gagnon Osborn. They distribute The Fibre Co unique artisan yarns and Kelbourne Woolens patterns and notions worldwide.

The newest 'The Fibre Co' yarn is Arranmore...

"Inspired by the breathtaking scenery of Ireland's Northern Headlands, Arranmore is spun in a mill that traces its roots to the tweed industry of 19th century County Donegal. Blending cashmere and silk with fine merino wool created an authentic tweed yarn of the finest quality. With a color palette reminiscent of the wild Irish coastlands, this aran weight yarn was designed for makers appreciating the best of luxury and tradition."

Arranmore (80% wool, 10% cashmere, 10% silk) comes in 18 colors, each one "evoking the Irish landscape, language, and history." In this post (a beautiful color story) by Courtney, she asked the question:

"Is there a color that surprised you, or one that you're dying to knit with that isn't in your usual comfort zone? Get inspired to try something new. In the comments on the blog, let us know which of the colors speaks to you, and we'll choose one winner to receive a skein of their choice of color and a copy of our Lacroagh hat!"

I am now "a designer", and sometimes, I let that hold me back from entering contests. But this time (you know how I love color) I thought it OK (quoting Courtney a bit at the end) to say:

"Congratulations on so very many amazing colors with so very many interesting color names and color stories!!! My easy favorites are River Esque, Narin Beach and St Claire. They all sit front and center in my comfort zone. But, I love color, and I LOVE your question about what color surprised me and could be a new one that I would love to knit with...

That is BRADAN... "an Irish Gaelic word meaning 'salmon'"... the "'Salmon of Knowledge' creature" and "a wise man that was transformed into a salmon"... ♥♥♥" 

I won that contest. The yarn is here, and I do love the color Bradan!

♥♥♥  Now off I go to get my ball winder and start swatching...

   

Continuing "Sparks" & Swatches

I re-wrote my last post many times before I published it.

It was a little bit agonizing, because I was trying to be honest about what I am not so good at; yet, I also tried to write a post that was (at least a little bit) worth reading.

As I wrote that post, I was reminded that I DO like to write about my design "sparks" and my swatches. A few of those posts have actually been my most popular.

My friend, Ann, took this photo of me wearing my first design sample for my new summer top.

  
Not so bad. I was "pleased" with the way this turned out. I have named it Pinstripe Box-Top #1. The shaping and sizing came out as planned.

This,

Alchemy Yarns, Silken Straw [100% silk], 153c - Spider Orchid

  
my yarn and it's color, were my real design "sparks". I first shared this photo with discussion of the colorway, Spider Orchid, in my Early Spring post.

For me the colors drew a comparison to the blue spruce trees (which have lightened in color with the heat of summer) in my front yard.

Not long after I decided that I wanted stripes on my summer top, I walked into Gosh Yarn It and I saw a great little yarn for my blue spruce stripes. I quickly knit the swatches in the first photo.

ITO, Gima 8.5 [100% cotton], 408 - Aqua

I am considering my Pinstripe Box-Top a prototype, and I am planning to make another with some Shibui, Pebble in my stash. I have made a bit of progress this spring and summer getting to a point where I can finally release a garment pattern.

I leave you with an image of the neckline and armhole details.

 

I hope your knitting of late has also been rewarding, enjoyable and successful! ♥♥♥

(Early) Spring: Knitting Color & Knitting Progress

My newest knitting yarn is this.

Three skeins of Silken Straw by Alchemy Yarns of Transformation.  It is a 100% silk ribbon yarn in a colorway called Spider Orchid.  (I cannot really explain why -- but, to me, the variegated color is all about early spring -- like the pine trees through the window in the photo, or the shadows under the trees where there will soon be flowers -- )

I want to make a spring/summer top with it.  I am going to work hard to make it a design of my own.  Maybe you cannot tell from the photo, but it is a special yarn... (not at all inexpensive), unique in color, and well, it is a "yarn of transformation".

From the Alchemy website:
"The first touch. The initial glimpse of Alchemy Yarns of Transformation tells you we are passionate about everything we do. Pleasing the senses. Soothing the soul -- we strive for nothing less than the transformative moment in art and life." 

I hope that I can do justice to all of that.

In the meantime, I have been knitting away on my Hart (designed by Julie Hoover) and I am almost finished with the first I have a good start on the second sleeve.  (Does it really take me longer to finish editing a blog post than it does to knit a sleeve?)

The back of my Hart blocked out to an appropriate width but is a bit longer than I expected (I knit it an inch and a half shorter than the pattern). The Shibui Knits Pebble (silk, merino and cashmere) is lovely and light, so I am hoping I will like it in what will be a rather long cardigan for me.

The fronts are ready to come off the blocking board.  I used a technique I call "piggyback blocking", described in a previous blog post:  Helene Update: Piggyback Blocking.

The right front of Hart was laid over the left front.  This saves time in measuring the second front.  You only have to check measurements on the first piece.  After it dries, spread the second (symmetrical) piece on top to match the shape of the piece below and re-pin all of the edges.  I expect to block the two sleeves in a similar fashion.

This paragraph is for critical knitters only!  Please feel free to skip it if you are not a (critical) knitter.
I'll be the first to admit that my side seam edges are not very straight, but I know that they will be fine once I seam them.  The front edges have a narrow icord in which I wove a blocking wire for each piece.  I chose not use wires on the side seam edges.  (With the waist shaping, it would take three of my not very flexible wires per piece.)  I also chose not to work the selvedge stitch as in the pattern.  I did try it for the first couple inches of the back.  The slip stitch selvedge was straighter, but it also caused a looseness in the nearby stitches that would not be at all helpful when working the actual seams.   This, my friends, is truly a matter of the personal preference of the knitter.

I hope that you are enjoying your own early spring (with or without knitting)!  

Colorwork Meditation #14

“The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.”  ~ Lao Tzu


“I don’t know about black or white magic I just know one type and that is your magic.”  ~ M.F. Moonzajer

“All Heaven and Earth
Flowered white obliterate...
Snow...unceasing snow”
  ~ Hashin, Japanese Haiku

 

"Snow" Geese Photo Credit:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnanes/14649250626
Snow Covered Alaska Photo Credit:  NASA Goddard Space Flight Centers photostream https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/gsfc/22387064306/ 

Previous Colorwork Meditation: #13 (Black)
Related Post: Midweek Meditation -- Churchill Style
 

NEW Knitting & Unicorn Tails

Over the summer, I spent a good deal of time designing (fun) (yet, challenging) and just knitting (always relaxing).

One day last week, I finished binding off the second of Mr K's 2015 socks, and I finally blocked that little shawl that I named Atmosphere, as well as my latest Paper Lanterns.  And then I realized that I really did need something NEW to knit!

Within 24 hours, I cast on two new projects (using other designer's patterns) (I still do that) (I learn from everything that I knit) (and, sometimes I like to just relax and knit with less of that "thinking" thing having to happen).

First, I cast on a project that I named Shirttail Pullover.  This will be a mostly mindless knit for me.

 

 Pattern: Tongshan Sweater by Kiyomi Burgin

Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns MountainTop Crestone

Then, I cast on a "Silkie Selkie" (a Selkie Sock made with Silkie Socks That Rock) but I was not happy with it.

In the photo above the cuff of the top-down Silkie Selkie sock is OK, but there is not enough contrast between the 'obsidian' and that 'dusk' blue, in Knitpicks Fingering Stroll.  Every sock that I made in the last few years has been a toe-up sock from my own Fingering Weight TATU Sock Pattern.  In this instance, I did eventually decide that I did not want to use this cuff-down pattern by another designer.  (I would have had to modify it by reducing the stitch count.  I found it a bit wide even on size 0 needles, and I refuse to knit with anything smaller than size 0.)  I am going to design a toe-up sock with a gansey type all-knits-and-purls stitch pattern and a band of Fair Isle at the top.

I will use my first skein of Unicorn Tails in 'antique lace' for the Fair Isle.

My purchase of a bundle of Unicorn Tails at Gosh Yarn It! was a bit of a splurge, but I know I will be using them here and there on many projects with great joy!  Hope all of your knitting is happy!  I'll be back soon.
  

Midweek Meditation -- Churchill Style

Churchill Painting at the Easel, Simon Brushfield

"At one side of the palette there is white, at the other black; and neither is ever used neat."  ~ Winston Churchill

My last "Colorwork Meditation" (#13) focused on black.  I planned (and I still do plan) that my next "Colorwork Meditation" (#14) will focus on white.  

Funny thing is...  I have started that "colorwork"-post-to-be twice, and it still is not happening...  Truthfully, now that I have spent all that time searching for quotes on "white", I have found that a lot of them are actually quotes on "white and black" or "black and white".  And, many are not so much about art as about racial relations (which is understandable) but I do not remember this (at all) when searching for "black" quotes. 

(Maybe it's me and my searching?)

At this point, I would suggest that it does make a difference if you search for "white quotes" or "quotes on the color white" or even "artist's quotes on the color white". 

Funny thing is... when I last went searching... I came upon the above quote by Winston Churchill.  I never knew that Churchill painted.

That finding lead to this:  "Although he is best known for his service as prime minister of Great Britain during World War II, Churchill was also a painter and produced many works of art over his lifetime."

A Room at Breccles, Winston Churchill

Daybreak at Cassis, Winston Churchill

And then, I saw this: 

When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favor of the war effort, he simply replied,

"Then what are we fighting for?"

(Top) Image credit:  http://simonbrushfield.com/paintings-by-adolf-hitler-and-winston-churchill-the-art-of-war/churchill-painting-at-the-easel/ 

Churchill's paintings:  https://www.google.com/?trackid=sp-006#q=winston+churchill+artwork

Reentry

reentry,  noun

1. an act of reentering.

2. the return from outer space into the earth's atmosphere of an earth-orbiting satellite, spacecraft, rocket, or the like.

Also, re-entry, reentrance, re-entrance
From dictionary.com. See http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/reentry

Two Dye Lots

 

Let us look at this and begin again.

Can you see the line?  It starts near the "y" in the caption and runs at a slight angle up and to the right in the photo.  The color to the right of the line is a bit darker and richer -- the color to the left it is a bit pinker.  These color differences came about because the yarn I used was from two different dye lots.

You know about dye lots, right?  Yarn manufacturers dye their yarns in batches and give each batch a lot number, so that knitters can be sure that the color will be the same (or as close as possible to the same) when they knit anything requiring more than one skein of the same color.  They just need to remember to check the dye lot numbers.

I have know about dye lots since I was a little knitter.

(But this project was different, or so I thought.)

I began this vest more than one year ago.  I wrote a blog post nearly two years ago where I talked about my plan to use this yarn for the vest.

Two Reds (or was it Four?)

The colors are Crimson Red (left) and Garnet Red (right).  Two skeins are Reynolds Lite Lopi (which has been discontinued), and the other two are Ístex Létt-Lopi.  The Lite Lopi (one of each red) was leftover from a sweater that I had made for my daughter.  I purchased the Létt-Lopi (one of each red) because I liked the two reds together and wanted to make myself a vest with them.  I planned to use the Garnet Red on the lower part of the vest and the Crimson red on the top.

From that blog post more than one year ago:

"They are all different dye lots, and in the case of the crimson, they are even two different color numbers.

I don't think that will matter."

(Well, I was wrong.  It did matter.)

Some of my original plan was edited.  At some point, I decided to use a few rows of colorwork at the actual change of color from the Garnet to the Crimson.  They were completed and are on the left in the first photo. 

The dye lot line is a problem for me.  I can see it.  I do not like it.  And something different must replace it.

(I need to decide what to do with this project because I do not have enough "knitting on the needles" right now.  I am as lost as I could be if I were in outer space for a while.*)

(I need to decide how much of this to rip out and what to do next.)

      

(If you have any ideas, please let me know.)

* True disclosure:  I have NOT been in outer space.  But I have had been lost at times because my day job recently became more demanding.  More than anything else, I need to knit.

And Some Days, Not So Much...

  ... not so much matchy matchy of my knitting color and my color wearing.


Last week I bought this

Hibiscus and Zinnia

and a lot of this.

Cactus Flower

I was wearing blue from head to toe.

It Works Both Ways

Just a quick post to let you know that I am still here.

(Recently,) I resumed work on my Rosebud Hat project right after I finished some knit samples that will one day appear in a book.

This day began as most days do... knitting with my first cup of coffee for as long as I was able.  I knitted the hem in the hat this morning.

After showering, I put on my workday jeans and a long-sleeved steely blue colored tee shirt.  I then carried my selected sweater for the day, my comfy gray (not hand knitted) cashmere cardigan, out to the living room and placed it down next to my knitting while I put on my shoes.

With these items nearby, I had a most pleasant thought... one that is all about my memory and my history and is probably a Colorwork Meditation in itself...

I have long remembered... and I have been know to speak of this memory...  from one day during my very first art course at college...

The professor asked us to select one pastel of any color from our box of pastels.  He then asked everyone to raise their hand who selected a pastel matching the color that they were wearing.  We were all surprised that at least two thirds of the class had raised their hands.  (Including me in green.)

Today I decided it works both ways, when after knitting for an hour in blue and gray, I selected those colors to wear.  (And even though it is a fact that I wear a lot of blue and gray, I had considered a brown sweater before I carried the gray one out to my living room.)

And anyway, you do know that it made me happy to think about it working both ways, right?  Color can make me happy.

Colorwork Meditation #13

"I fell in love with black, it contained all color. It wasn’t a negation of color. It was an acceptance. Because black encompasses all colors. Black is the most aristocratic color of all.... You can be quiet and it contains the whole thing."        ~ Louise Nevelson

 

Sky Cathedral/Southern Mountain, Louise Nevelson, 1958

 

"Women think of all colors except the absence of color.  I have said that black has it all.  White, too.  Their beauty is absolute.  It is perfect harmony."        ~  Coco Channel

 

 

“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."   ~  Henry Ford

 

“I’ve been 40 years discovering that the queen of all colors was black.” — Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Read more at: http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-black-4382#.VLcaIcnLpQI | Sensational Color

“I’ve been 40 years discovering that the queen of all colors was black.” — Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Read more at: http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-black-4382#.VLcaIcnLpQI | Sensational Color

 

"I've been 40 years discovering that the queen of all colors was black."  ~ Pierre-Aguste Renoir

 

Two Girls in Black, Pierre-Aguste Renoir, 1881

 

"Black is not a color."   ~  Edouard Manet

 

"There is something about black.  You feel hidden away in it."   ~  Georgia O'Keeffe

 

"Black is a real sensation, even if it is produced by the entire absence of light. The sensation of black is distinctly different from the lack of sensations."   

                                                             ~  Hermann von Helmholtz

Black is not a color.” — Edouard Manet

Read more at: http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-black-4382#.VLcaIcnLpQI | Sensational Color

 Reprise:

"Black is the most aristocratic color of all.... You can be quiet and it contains the whole thing."       ~ Louise Nevelson

 

Previous Colorwork Meditation: #12 (Red Sky)

The Color of Flowers

“I must have flowers, always, and always.”  ~ Claude Monet

I do love color.  My latest project has me wondering why I do not knit with this kind of color more often.

Just holding this knitting in my hands, makes me feel happy.  This is something I must remember once winter returns.

Project Name: The Color of Flowers

Pattern: Vine Street Tee by Amy Herzog

Yarn: The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering
Color Name: "Guava"

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers." 
~ Claude Monet

  

Birthday Color

It was a good one.

Colorwork Meditation #12

"Sky in Fire" watercolor by Nadia Minic, 2007

“Artists can colour the sky red because they know it’s blue. Those of us who aren’t artists must colour things the way they really are or people might think we’re stupid.”      ~ Jules Feiffer, American cartoonist, born 1929

Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/35475855@N05/3332303965/


Previous Colorwork Meditation: #11 (Peaches)
 

More Peaches

Peaches in Paintings

 
Paul Cézanne is one of my favorite painters.  He painted a lot of paintings with fruit in them.  This one is named Still Life with Peaches and Pears.  From the Wikipedia entry on Paul Cezanne:  "Cézanne's often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of colour and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. The paintings convey Cézanne's intense study of his subjects."

Cézanne's work came to mind when I began my last post, but I felt that the peach photograph would be more evocative in a discussion on looking at the colors in a real life peach.  There is no doubt that Cézanne saw "all gray, and red, and purples in a peach".


The Color "Peach"

I was thinking about "peach" Crayola crayons (Oh, how many hours I colored and drew with them as a child!)  I found a web page that shows Crayola peach crayons through the years.  Here is a photo from that website of the 1962-197? peach that I used.  (Much as I remember it.)

Here is the current, since 2006, peach Crayola.

Does either one look anything like a peach?  I think not.  "Peach" as a color is a third (see 3) definition for peach (from www.freedictionary.com):

peach (pēch), n.

1. the round, pink-to-yellow, fuzzy-skinned fruit of a tree, Prunuspersica, of the rose family.
2. the tree itself, cultivated in temperate climates.
3. a light pinkish yellow color.
4. Informal. a person or thing that is especially attractive, liked, or enjoyed.

A Peach in a Poem

And one more peach came to me as I wrote my last post.  I was remembering a poem with a peach in it, from a class I once took on modern poetry.  I found myself searching until I found what I vaugely remembered...  The poem is by T.S. Eliot and its title:  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.  I was surprised to find that the word "peach" is used only one time in that entire poem.  But the words "Do I dare to eat a peach?" were the words that I remembered most.

Enough said on that.  It would be completely out of my realm to begin to discuss literature, but I do like to read a good poem every now and then.

Colorwork Meditation #11

Photo Credit:  http://jaimejofisher.com/favoritethings/inspired-by/1588/

"The man who can see all gray, and red, and purples in a peach, will paint the peach rightly round, and rightly altogether. But the man who has only studied its roundness may not see its purples and grays, and if he does not will never get it to look like a peach; so that great power over color is always a sign of large general art-intellect."      
              ~ John Ruskin, 19th century English romantic writer and painter

I also quoted John Ruskin in my Colorwork Meditation #6.  I will admit that he sounds a bit pompous in the quote above... but I do remember when I first really noticed the redness of tree branches in April, and I do remember when I really could see that all grays are really lavender-grays or green-grays or whatever-grays... I believe that it is a gift to all who love color that we can see "all gray, and red, and purples in a peach".

Do you know what I mean?  Do you agree?

Previous Colorwork Meditation: #10 (Water)