sweetgeorgia

Not slacking off

Yes, I’ve had my TKGA Master Knitter 1 instructions for about five or six months now… I’ve knit several sets of swatches, but in all different yarns and with all different needles. Last week, I decided enough dithering, enough horsing around — May will be the month I submit my stuff — just get it out of here! So starting last Thursday night, I restarted all 16 swatches. And here we are: two swatches to go.

I have swatch #15 and #16 left to do. Swatch 15 is a cable of your choice and I think my choice will be a “staghorn” cable. Swatch 16 is a two-colour swatch that demonstrates how brilliantly you can join colours — at the side and mid-row. Ooh…exciting.

Originally, I wanted to submit the perfect package so that there wouldn’t be any re-submits to do. But now I figure, I’ll just get it out and see what happens. If I have to re-knit some swatches, whatever…it’s a learning process.

Swatches and questions should be done tonight! I still have the write up the blocking report too…maybe by the end of this week.

Saltspring Island and Rebecca

Since I won’t be at Maryland this weekend (boo hoo), this is as close as I will get to seeing sheep…

A group of us spent this past weekend at my friend’s parents’ custom-built house in Saltspring Island, relaxing, hot-tubbing, watching movies and knitting… Ahhhh. How would you like to wake up seeing this every morning? Well, for about a million dollars, you can! Their dream house is actually up for sale (boo hoo too).

Of course, we did a little yarn shopping in between meals of Saltspring Island cheese, lemon bars and blackberry port:

Sunday morning, while some of the guys were off playing golf, we walked up their beachfront, tormented little crabs and tried to save already dead jellyfish.

Finally, I did finish the Rebecca Cardi after the lovely people at Weaving Works shipped me another ball of mohair:

Rebecca 29 Wrap Cardi

• Pattern: from Rebecca 29 Magazine
• Yarn Substituted: Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Mohair x 6 balls
• Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm Addi Turbo’s
• Changes: left off the edge finishing, picked up the ties from the front edges.
• Ok, I like the cardi — I like the yarn and the finished fabric…very soft. I don’t like that it makes me look like a football player. A good cardi for those with sloping shoulders and stick-thin arms.

Oh, and all the rest of the Saltspring Island photos are here…

Dyeing Polworth

Acid for acid exhaust dyes! Who would have thought… In a previous attempt at dyeing, I forgot to add vinegar and the result was murky, slightly felted roving. Ugh. So this time, I soaked the Polworth roving in cold water plus a big glug of vinegar. The result? Juicy colours. Yummy.

I used a slightly different process this time too. Just before the trip, I bought an 18 qt. Turkey Roaster for cheap at Walmart. I didn’t like how the dyes would sink to the bottom of the Crockpot and make a big muddy mess of the roving, so I used the cold-pour/saran wrap method as shown in the Twisted Sisters book. This gives so much more control over where colours go (and stay!).

I broke off 7 lengths of roving, each 30g, and “painted” stripes using the 0.5% dye stocks I had already made up. Wrapped them in saran wrap lengthwise and then coiled them up. Placed them all in the roaster and steamed them for about an hour — I know 20 minutes is enough, but I put them in a cold roaster and heated the whole thing up so that I wouldn’t have to transport potentially leaking coils from the dining table to the kitchen counter…

In the Twisted Sisters book they have a photo where the roving packets are “all puffed up” so that you know they are done. In my case, the crappy saran wrap I used melted onto the rovings. Woo hoo. But it was no problem. Plastic and wool don’t mix so I just ripped the melted saran wrap off and the roving was still safe and intact. Just in case, I bought some thicker, heavier-duty saran wrap for next time!

Here are the lovely colours I got:

After a day of drying, I pre-drafted the whole lot. Just gently attenuating the rovings until fluffy. See pre-pre-drafted and pre-drafted shots here:

And here’s the whole 210-220g lot of dyed Polworth roving! Happily, none of it’s felted and it’s still soft. So pretty just like that, I’ll have to decide how to spin it up!

Next time, I think I should pull back a little and try some more “subtle” colourways! These colours are gorgeous…but blinding, non?

Y.A.S.P.

Yet Another Sock Project.

A couple of my friends are starting socks for the first time and are, like I was, apprehensive about the heel turning section. So we’re all starting with the top down sock and going to have a “heel-turning afternoon” soon. Here’s the start of my sock:

It’s in that “ONLine Supersocke 100 Sierra-Effekt” that I picked up a few months ago. I thought it would be predominantly pink but so far, it’s mostly black and white! I’m going to extend the leg of the sock more this time so that I can use up more yarn (previous socks only took 30g of the 50g available). The pattern hasn’t even started to repeat yet. Hmm…

Japanese People, Machines and Bathtubs

In lieu of the dyeing photos that I forgot at home today, I have more photos from Japan. So much is visually and graphically expressed in Japan that the oft-mentioned contradictions and contrasts are made even more apparent. In Kyoto, we bumped into a Maiko getting her photos taken by an American pro photographer…and then at Harajuku station in Tokyo, we found pockets of people all dressed up for the weekend in their costumes:

And here some of the girls that were sitting outside the GAP in Ometosando. Too shy to take a photo with these girls, I took a photo of other tourists getting their photo taken.

We spent quite a bit of time at the Robot Station at the Expo too…watching little Japanese kids play with the “child care robot”. This robot, called PaPeRo, actually responds to pats on the head and verbal instructions — it blushes and “plays” with the kids!

The yellow robot is Mitsubishi’s Wakamaru robot — a hospitality robot that speaks and understands four different languages. It can recognize faces and, in the shot below, was actually looking at me — creepy but very cool. Many of the robots on display at the Expo were actually in use onsite!

And finally, we spent on night at an onsen in Osaka called “Fushioukaku”. So relaxing. It was a perfect way to spend a day between train rides and luggage hauling. I mean, you take as many baths as you like in their hot springs…next to a waterfall…under cherry blossoms! The only thing you have to think about is when you’re going to have your next bath!

See the lovely stone bathtub on the hotel balcony outside our suite? I want one. We’re renovating our bathroom this summer and it’s starting too look like a real challenge. Our house is old old old to start with and the bathroom is tiny. I’ve measured the old bathtub and it’s 57″ x 27″. WHAT?!? All “standard” bathtubs are 60″ x 30″ (or 32″) nowadays! How will we find a new tub to fit our silly little bathroom? I was thinking of installing a tiny Japanese-style soaker tub instead!