two knits of ivory

(Me and the swift and winder aren't on the best of terms.) Several variables of the Evenstar project have fallen effortlessly (cough, cough) into place. One of these is the yarn I have chosen to use, Madelinetosh's Pashmina . Pashmina is a fingering weight yarn in an intoxicating concoction of 75% superwash wool, 15% silk, and 10% cashmere. I am using the Filigree colorway. How I became the owner of six skeins of this yarn is a tale as old as Christmas. I purchased a crapload of Pashmina from Kaleidescope Yarns - the most excessive being three skeins of the Filigree - on September 5, 2010. On September 11 I began an Ishbel with a skein of the Filigree and became so intoxicated with the yarn and the colorway I was moved to buy the three remaining skeins they had in this colorway. Now was three all they had left? I think so, but my memory is shit. I just remember thinking that I had to have enough of this yarn and 1080 yards wasn't enough. Not enough. 2160...

So I'm finally doing some "real" knitting (pronounced like the real part of realpolitik ). And I think I'm going to do some "real" knit blogging about it. I'm challenging myself after a long, long period of comfort knitting. I have begun my Evenstar and it has returned my Christmas joy. In the past week I have a) chosen the pattern I hope to enter into the 2011 Topsfield Fair b) knit two (read it and weep lazy knittahs! not one but two!) swatches of the star pattern c) found the perfect yarn in my stash!!! (Ergo, I'm frugal AND I can start on the project while my excitement burns brightest!) d) analyzed my yarn for the optimal order in which to knit the skeins e) begun project; and finally f) continue to bask in the glow of my accomplishments to date! So first up in this "real" blogging event: the swatches. Swatch 1: The swatches are knit in spare Lana Grossa Meilenweit 50 Seta/Cashmere , leftovers from my first p...

Here's an oldie but goodie. 100% Superwash Merino fiber in the Day Tripper colorway. I purchased this from the Woolen Rabbit how many years ago? A smattering of a single has been wound dolefully, (because fiber can be doleful, it can), on the active bobbin of my neglected wheel for a long, long while. Monday and Tuesday I spun up the remainder of this braid. Lighting fast. A note stashed in the bag indicates I spun somewhere in the vicinity of 28 grams. Has my spinning mojo returned, or is this a fluke? Details at 11. Last Friday the Madelinetosh Pashmina purchases arrove (proper English - arrived). It is gorgeous, fantabulous, stuff. Norway Spruce Terrarium Filigree The Shetland Triangle I had begun in the Sundara ASM was tossed aside (and later, frogged) in favor of knitting up another Ishbel with the Filigree. The name of this project? Ishbel of the Sea. The colors of this yarn are so beautifully dyed, the yarn shimmers iridescent like the scales of a fi...

Madtosh DK in Logwood Okay, so yarn can't jingle or jangle. But these are the words that my muse calls forth. She speaks, I write. "So sue me," as we used to say back in the day. I've started my ninth Shetland Triangle...in Sundara ASM. Sundara ASM in Marina over Icicles Yum Yummity Yum Yum, Yum Yum Yum Yum. I didn't get any conventional shots of the last two shawls I finished, my Fjording Shetland and the Mint Chocolate Chip Ishbel. Here's a pic of the latter taken by muse: I bought this ridiculously expensive purse back in June or July and so I've spent the summer saving my pennies up again, with nary a skein stashed in e.o.n.s. After finishing up this merino/cashmere blend Ishbel I fell off the wagon and bought a six pack of Madelinetosh's Pashima , which is merino, silk, and cashmere. Ooh la la. I've got a motif design bonging around in my brain. It refuses to coalesce. That's why I started the Shetland. I need ...

My thoughts come to me in song. Why is that? Lots of bibble babble (w)rankling around in my noggin'. The irony of Keanu Reeves in the Matrix trilogy, starting from the first moment of the first movie, is that his character, Neo, has a preternatural love connection to mankind. Yet Keanu, the actor, has a notoriously blank visage. I guess that allows the viewer to project their own selves onto the screen. Is that genius or accident? Watched The Runaways . Not sure if I like it yet - opinion still in the computational phase. I lurv when I knit a hole in my cake: I knit an Ishbel in eight days. Eight days. Booyah. Hubby offhandedly commented on the fact that I have a lot of shawls, as if to say "umm, do you need more shawls?" What I see that is different about me is that I like to do the same thing over and over again. Knit the same pattern, listen to the same soundtrack, rewatch a season of a TV show, reread/relisten to the Twilight series. My in...

We're still on old pictures here at Chez Yarn. This one is an oldie but goody from last winter. Three skeins of Sundara Sock. Yum. So what has me blogging the day after I blogged? Timer . Vicky Cristina Barcelona . Scarlett Johansson. Wikipedia has just informed me that Scarlett Johansson is Jewish. I knew my Jewdar was failing, but this is not the product of diaspora. I loved Scarlett in Manny & Lo when she was just a child, but I never would have guessed she was Jewish. (Technically she is only half Jewish, but it's the "important"* half, her mother's half.) And why should it matter? Because that is what I grew up doing, the age old conversation filler of "is she/he Jewish, or isn't she/he?" I rarely think on this, because I am so culturally removed from where I grew up (Long Island), I come in contact with so few Jews, and the climate of political correctness has changed. To tell you the truth, I am really uncomfortabl...

I finished my eighth(!) Shetland Triangle this weekend. No, that picture above is not the Shetland Triangle. I don't have any recent pictures. I'm not motivated to take pictures of anything lately, even the record number of yarn skeins I wound into cakes on Saturday. Instead of bemoaning my creative paucity, I've decided to fill in the blanks with an unblogged project from last year's deadspot. Last spring I knit a lovely Serenity baby blanket for my husband's best friend's first child, a baby girl. Did I mention this is a free pattern? It is a free pattern, and from the charts at least, an error free, free pattern. I really enjoyed knitting this project. And the reason's why are, what? What did I like about this project? Do I even know? Hmmm. 1) The lace was challenging but not fussy. 2) The occasional cabling was easy, and eye pleasing. 3) The yarn is Dream in Color's Classy, in the Chinatown Apple colorway. I took a big ...

Thoughts for the day... 1) I've only knit one gift this calender year, a ribbed hat for my niece Meaghan. 2) Be careful what you wish for. I wished for a day doing nothing on the couch yesterday and that's what I received. I couldn't get out of my own way; I was molasstic inertia. The list of what I didn't do with all those voluptuous hours of freedom is long and sad and whah whah whah all the way home. It really pisses me off when the precious hours and days of my life are squandered. What some people wouldn't give for the leisure and bounty of my small life and I don't take advantage of it. I am unable to take advantage of it. What causes this paralysis? What makes me inert? Is it guilt or trauma or stupidity? Maybe that's why I've always been unsympathetic to the travails of Hamlet. I don't like what I see, because I see it in me. No matter how bitter the above tone, I am not really miserable, just exasperated with myself...

So I'm back to comfort knitting. This is only the second skein of my Malabrigo sock stash that I have caked, but the first skein to be knit. It's a Shetland Triangle. My seventh. I've started an eighth. I was sick all weekend and I took it like a sport Monday morning. It's frustrating to have a body so heavily influenced by my brain. If it's possible to have one's hormones give one a fever, than that is what I think happened to me. And then Sunday I experienced some enervating bowel distress. Sweet baby jesus, that was fun. This morning I was thinking of Mary Baker Eddy . In simple terms, her development of the Church of Christ Scientist may be wholly attributable to her own experiences with somatoform disorder.

I've heard through the grapevine the weather may be turning. I've been a prisoner of the heat and humidity for about a month. One month of freon filtered air can make a woman batty. So yeah, a few weeks of staying late in bed on Saturday and Sunday have been fun, but I am more than ready for the next phase of life: Fall. The name of this Malabrigo sock colorway is Primavera, which according to Merriam Websters derives from the Italian as "in the style of springtime." Me, I see the colors of Fall. (Even though I have named the project I'm knitting with it "Shetland Printemps," I think my subconscious has determined it is a bastardization of the word Printemps, which means Spring in French. What it's bastardizing I have no clue; the muse hasn't let me in on this secret.) The only plans I have for the weekend are building my KOC kingdom, knitting, sitting and breathing natural-ish air, and finally, but not leastly, becoming intimately ...

Decadence was, for me, yesterday, sleeping in a beach chair in the shade and privacy of my back yard. I have a memory as old as dirt. It was from my toddler years, when I lived, briefly, in rural NY. There is such a warm happy feeling associated with this vague memory. I am lain out in the sunny, grassy, back yard in a sandwich of cotton quilts. And there was an egg salad sandwich somewhere in there too, but the connection between the two is hazy. It is the sheer ability to relax and sleep during the day of which I am in awe. To exist. To be therefore you are. Not to be an object in motion, beholden to some chore or responsibility. That is what my mind thinks is bliss. With Mrs. Norris running the main game, it's no wonder this is what I dream of. I am pretty ignorant of what most folks dream of. Is it fancy clothes, fancy cars, trips to Europe, being famous? Me, I just want the luxury to relax and sleep in the warmth of the outdoor air - preferably in the shade.

The funneh is missing in action at chez yarn. At least we have yarn, though. I bought some new-to-me yarn from a couple of Ravelers last week: Bugga . The dusty coloring reminds me of Dream in Color's yarn. In fact, the top skein, Orchid Mantis, is near identical to a skein I have of Smooshy in the Butter Peeps colorway. The Bugga, being 20% cashmere, is deadly soft. It is going to make some fabulous scarves. So where the heck is the funneh? Well, a weekful of documentaries on American industry, and my continued ignorance of the BP situation, have been leaching all of my joy. I'm back to morose seriousness as I come to terms with some conflicting beliefs. The theme this month can be summed up in dialogue from Cold Mountain (the movie, I never read the book). Renee Zellweger's character, Ruby, is up to her eyeballs in the hellhole of a life of a woman in a rural mountain town during the Civil War: "They call this war a cloud over the land. But they...

I think my subconscious is telling me to pick up some old Judy Blume books. That's the second time this spring my muse called forth a title punned from "Are you there God, it's me Margaret." So I bought more yarn. Who'd a thunk? This most recent acquisition is filed under retail therapy. I was in need and it did the trick. Five months ago I darkened my hair considerably. When I was going more natural with the color, my clothes color range was as narrow as my palate: green to blue to beige to white. These colors have been my steady companion for at least 10 years. A couple of years ago I bought my first non-blue coat, and it's just been chaos at chez yarn. Absolute chaos. Now I'm wearing PINK. Me in pink. But you know, I think pink goes great with my hair. So, I'm trying not to let ms. inner kool kat laugh in that snide, condescending way she has, making me feel 12 and inadequate, and clutching for the fortification of an all black w...

In the flush of first love my husband told me he would bring me the jewels of the world. He's fabulously corny like that. He means it from the depths of his unironic, romantic soul. Of course, I'm a cynic. I smiled at him, most likely batting my eyes, and thought to myself, oh yeah, I'll hold my breath for that. Not. Other than requiring a big fat engagement ring to satisfy the poor girl chip on my shoulder, I have very little interest in jewels or jewelry. This weekend, though, I realized that my husband has been keeping his word. The skein of yarn above is Sundara sock in the Candle to the Sun colorway. (I'm not sure if it was a limited edition or one-off colorway). When I was sick a few weeks ago, my hunny offered to buy me yarn to help me feel better. This skein was one of three colorways I purchased under this directive. Almost all the yarn I've been stashing lately has been purchased by the hubster. Who knew when he promised me the jewels of ...

Does fiber have a sound? No, but I swear it vibrates. Hmmm...now that I ponder on this, it's me that vibrates, not the yarn. The yarn just sits there all stuck up and aloof and perfect and je ne sais quoi. I turn to mush and worship at its feet. I went to the NH Sheep & Wool fest on Saturday and I bought only three skeins of yarn and three buttons. I was good. Very good. And not in a deprivation kinda way at all. In fact, I have become such a narrowly oriented yarn stasher, there were very few things there that sang to me. (Oh yes, I went to Volterra this weekend, why do you ask?) For yarn only one vendor stopped my breath, Mocha's Fiber Connection . She had a lovely two plied fingering silky merino, as well as some worsted or aran singles, in the same vein as Sundara's FSM and ASM. The pic above is the one purchase I made of the FSM in a colorway called Ashes of Roses. The yarn base on the tag says Kizzie's Toes/sock. This base of theirs isn't ...

There are changes afoot at Two Knits. Usually change is very difficult for me. In fact learning how to make the upcoming changes has been difficult, but when the change happens, it should be easy as pie for me to acclimate. You see I've been trying to teach myself a little html in order to redesign my blog. Every few weeks or months I get wholly absorbed in the project, pore all of my time, and 110% of my mental energy, into learning this trade and then before I know it I become super saturated and loath everything I just learned. Time passes. Rinse. Repeat. But I haven't given up. So maybe it'll be this weekend, or maybe this summer or fall. Who knows, but the cyber home of chez Yarn is getting a facelift.

I think the serenity prayer is one of handiest affirmations out there. God, grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; The courage to change the things that I can; And the wisdom to know the difference. I am a woman of many compulsions. By the grace of fate, or god, whichever your inclination, substance abuse is not one of these many. True to my promise I did not buy yarn last weekend. Wednesday, though? I didn't fall off the wagon, I fell off a cliff. Sideways. With leaden boots. The first of my two transgressions are four different colorways of my newest love, Madtosh DK. (I haven't received the bounty of my second transgression, yet.) The colorway above is Burnished and is a reflection of my fascination with blue paired with myriad brown hues. My favorite in this family is the following, Terrarium: Funny story. Yesterday afternoon I was out on my bridge taking photos when one of the skeins fell in the crick. I nearly lost ...

April? Just a smidge betta than March? Okay, that's laying it on thickly even for my drama llama tendencies. I'm doin' pretty darn good, all things considered. And there are considerable things iterating. I haven't been knitting much. Once I birthed the two ideas, my knitting became fun again, with the demanding task master hibernating. All I've knit upon is my latest lace paneled raglan in the darker Cove colorway of the Tosh DK. I am in no rush to finish this sweater. This is a new feeling for me. Usually I'm so sick of the sweater at this point I'm doing marathon runs to get it off the needles. What's different this time? Well, it's my latest love, this Tosh DK, and this colorway. Depending on the light the color gives off a sun bleached hue, like so: In other light (and with the vagaries of my photo editing skills) it looks to be emanating a mossy glow: No matter what color it actually is, I don't want to stop knitting with ...

My mind is all over the place these days. One minute there's some funneh , the next there's national socialism . These are the daemons I can't control. And I have to remind myself I am not responsible for them or the repercussions of their crazeh. But then there are the daemons I can control: Sundara Sport in LE color Time Travels Sundara Sport in Glacier Two different intensities of Madtosh Sport in Cove Madtosh Sport in Violin There are as many opinions about stash as there are people. I have, in fact, two paradoxical opinions. The first opinion is that "one should only have the yarn one needs to knit now." The second opinion is "Pretty! Wowza! Pretty! I wanna, I wanna, here's my money give give give it to me now! NOW!" The latter opinion has been the dominant one at chez yarn for over almost two years. I now have no more room for yarn. Or should I say, I don't want to make anymore room for yarn. The amoun...