Yesterday, the high temperature was 105 degrees. I think that this is the warmest that the weather has been since we moved to Texas two years ago. So, of course, I was running around town on my bicycle. I went to Hill Country Weavers to pick out some mitten yarn (because nothing makes you think “I need mittens” like 100+ degree weather!) and had a nice lunch at Whole Foods. Then I took the bus home.

Mittens are actually excellent hot weather knitting because there are no layers of fabric to sit in your lap and make you feel hot. Socks are also good for hot weather. I finished a sock a few days ago. This is out of the Holiday 07 issue of Interweave Knits (the one that is totally sold out and now out of print).  I’m using Lorna’s Laces sock yarn, on size 0 DPNs. I’ve worked with this yarn before, and really enjoy it. The solid colors have a nice depth to them, and the sock is quite comfy. I have found that wool socks are excellent for hiking, especially in hot weather, because they absorb sweat so well and do not give me blisters. Dry, pain-free feet!

Word from my mother is that she is now allowed to wear lace-up shoes on both feet! Therefore I have cast on her other sock, so she can have a matching pair.

My current shawl has assumed that amorphous blob-shape that all large shawls seem to assume at some point. I am making this shawl with a bamboo laceweight yarn from Habu. I love the drape and texture of this yarn. The blocked swatches feel like water in my hand - light, smooth and cool. Actually knitting with the yarn has been a bit of a pain. This is my third attempt at wringing a shawl out of it. The first shawl was not a good fit to the yarn - the stitches required a manipulation that the yarn did not want to deliver. The second shawl was going swimmingly, until I realized that I only had about half of the yardage required. The yarn is a bit expensive, so I declined to buy more of it and frogged the shawl. Shawl #3 is the Hidcote Garden Shawl, designed by Miriam Felton. I have made some of her other shawls before, and her patterns are very good.

Being such an avid shawl-knitter, and therefore also a shawl-wearer, I’ve been looking for a nice shawl pin for some time. Those who know me well know that I’m a bit picky about my jewelry and have a very definite style that I like to go for. Poking around on a knitting message board one day, I saw a reference to this site which has many lovely pins for a very reasonable price. After several  days of checking the mail for a package and finding only disappointment, today my pin arrived! It looks even nicer in person than it did on the website. Now I’m going to have to find somewhere air-conditioned to go hang out, so I can wear a shawl and use my new pin! Maybe a trip to another yarn store is in order…

On my way to go camping back in June, I stopped in at Rosewood Yarns in Boerne. I had been there once before, with some friends, but we were on a timeline, so I didn’t really get to see much of the shop.

This time, I had all day and could stay as long as I wished. I surveyed the yarn, fondled some fiber, gazed longingly at a Russian supported spindle, and glanced skeptically at a lace flyer that would fit my spinning wheel… maybe not. For $160, I can treadle faster. Where I got sucked in at was the books. Not the largest book selection I’ve seen, not by any means, but I was impressed by the variety - the shop has many books which I had not seen before. There were fewer beginning knitting books, and many more volumes about advanced lace and colorwork. There were books on tatting! And thread crochet! I hadn’t learned to tat yet (an omission which I have since remedied) but a Japanese book full of thread crochet doily patterns soon found itself going camping with me.

Now, I don’t read the first word of Japanese. However, I’ve always heard wonderful things about the virtues of Japanese charts. Crochet has a standardized international chart system. Believe it or not, this book, which is entirely in Japanese (I’m not even sure what the title is) is easier to work out of than most patterns which are written out longhand in English.

I finished up my first doily from the new book this week. The pattern I chose was really a centerpiece, but I got a little bored with it, so I picked a good stopping point, added a simple picot border, and called it a doily. It is about 14″ or 15″ across. Hunching up over the ironing board to pin out every single little picot wasn’t so fun (as my back likes to remind me, I’m not 18 anymore!) but it came out looking quite good. After it was all dry, I gave it a very light coat of starch, wrapped it gently in tissue paper, encased it in some strong cardboard, taped it up, and took it to the post office on the back of my bicycle. Now it’s on its way to Wisconsin, to live with someone who’s always been very nice to me!

I’m sure that everyone who knows my mother is aware that she broke her foot a while back. When I talked to her the other day, she seemed a little down and discouraged about it. She is tired of wearing one shoe everywhere and unhappy about missing prime golf weather. She also mentioned that on chilly days she has been wearing a cut-off sock toe on her broken foot, because she can’t put a whole sock on.

So, to cheer her up, I knit her one sock, plus a toe cover.

(Don’t you just love my “I bicycle everywhere in Birkenstocks” tan lines?)

This is the O’Socks pattern from The Sock Journal, which is published by HeartStrings Fiber Arts. Mom had pointed out that pattern and mentioned that she really liked it some time ago. Once I learned to cable without a cable needle, the pattern was a piece o’ cake. I subbed in a twisted rib cuff and eye of partridge heel, lengthened the heel flap slightly, adjusted the gusset pickups accordingly, and used my standard toe instead of the spiral toe suggested in the pattern.

I used some Louet Gems 100% merino sport weight sock yarn and size 2 needles for a 52-stitch sock that knit up a lightning speed - I cast on and had both the sock and toe cover finished in less than 24 hours.

This sock yarn is awesome. Mom was surprised to hear that the sock is made out of wool - it is that soft and comfy. The yarn is lofty and has fabulous stitch definition - the gusset decreases cut a truly sharp diagonal line, and the cables really “pop” out from the backround. 

I used just slightly over half of one skein of yarn for the sock. I bought two skeins - I’ll make up the other sock in the next few days and mail it to Mom when she gets done with her “boot” and can wear two regular socks and shoes again. I’m thinking that if I buy a third skein, I could make a whole ‘nother pair of socks. I’d like to extend the cable pattern all the way down the top of the foot. I’ll have to adjust some stitch counts and maybe do some more tinkering, but it should be fun.

Knitting is a fairly useful craft. Sweaters, socks, even lace shawls - they are all fairly functional. Crochet, not so much. I have a crocheted snood that I wear on a regular basis, and some crocheted socks that are quite comfy, but most crochet is relegated to decorative function only.

Tatting - now I haven’t quite figured out what is is useful for. At least it is easy! It is also quite cheap. High-quality mercerized cotton thread for tatting and crochet generally doesn’t run more than a few dollars a ball (this is what initially attracted me to thread crochet as well) and basic tools are fairly inexpensive as well, although antique and vintage tatting shuttles can go for quite a bit. Yep, you guessed it: I spent my weekend learning to tat.

Speaking of thread crochet - a few weeks ago I picked up a Japanese book full of thread crochet patterns, mostly doilies. The book have so little English that I’m not even sure what the title is, although I can tell that the designer’s name is Ondori. I can tell you that the international crochet chart symbols are everything they’re cracked up to be. The patterns are beautiful and the charts wonderfully easy to read! It is the kind of book that makes one want to sit around and make doilies all day.

I’m also on something of a spinning kick. I’ve spun quite a bit here and there, mostly sampling the different types of fibers available, but not generally enough of anything to do a project with. A few nights ago, however, I finished and skeined about 200 yards of heavy two-ply laceweight in a 50/50 merino-tussah silk blend that I bought from Lynn’s Texas Fibers while at Kid ‘N Ewe last fall. The fiber is lovely and silky, and as you can see from the photo I’ve spun and plied it quite loosely in order to preserve that lofty silkiness.

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Lest anyone think I’ve been slacking off in the knitting department, I also have to show Attempt #3 at making a shawl out of my Habu bamboo laceweight. My first and second pattern selections refused to play nicely with the yarn, so now I am seeing how it goes with the Hidcote Garden Shawl. So far, so good… which is what I said regarding the first two projects… I really do like the yarn. Knit up, it has a drape and flow that is like nothing so much as water, and should make a nice shawl for hot summer days.

I’m also on another pair of socks, of course, even though we are well out of sock-wearing season. This pattern is out of the Holiday 07 Interweave Knits. This is my second project out of that issue, which was quite good and sold out very fast. I guard my copy very carefully, and intend to make a few more things from it still.

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Seen from my bike:

A hang gliding class! You can’t tell from the photo, but they are at the top of a nice hill. I’ve seen this class a few times now, either standing at the top of the hill, or hauling the glider back up from the bottom. One of these days maybe I’ll actually see someone in flight!

I’ve done this shawl before, in gray Jaggerspun Zephyr, on size 5 US needles. This time it’s in peacock, on US 4s. This one is about 8 inches smaller from tip to tip.

Supposedly, a shawl that “fits” is the same length tip-to-tip as the length between your outstretched fingers, or your “wingspan.” This shawl hits my wingspan almost exactly, but for some reason feels a bit small on me. I’ve liked much better the shawls which I’ve made that are larger - for example, the Peacock Feathers shawl, which was 88″ across, or those that were quite a bit smaller and fit more like a triangular scarf.

After I finished my last shawl, I decided that I would no longer promise to make anyone any more shawls. It is a big commitment, and quite easy to get in over my head; if I promise 3 friends that I will make them all shawls, I’ve just tied up my lace knitting for the  next 5 or 6 months! I haven’t kept a single piece of lace that I’ve made in over a year. Therefore, even though I’m not totally happy with the “fit” of this shawl, and I can think of at least 3 women whom I would love to give this shawl to, I’m going to keep it… at least until I finish the next one! It’s time to enjoy some of my own lace.

In other news, one of my caladiums has bloomed. I had no idea that caladiums could bloom! It must be happy.

No knitting today, sorry. I thought that I’d share some photos from my camping trip, instead! (I did knit a lot while I was camping…)

Some time ago, I found out that there is a 17 mile hike-and-bike trail linking the 4 Spanish missions in San Antonio. Since we were planning to camp relatively close to SA, I took my bike along and did the bike trail.

Now, I grew up in Ohio. I know a lot about Ohio history. Texas history, not so much. I knew about the battle of the Alamo, of course - that is well into mainstream American history. What I did not learn until much later was that the Alamo was one of 5 missions built in what is now San Antonio by Franciscans during the Spanish colonial period, in the 18th century. While the Alamo is now a shrine and tourist attraction (with an amazing garden!) the other 4 missions are active Catholic parishes. They are also part of the National Park System, which runs several visitor centers and provides historical interpretation.

The bike path linking the missions is very nice. I did not have to deal with any stoplights or traffic - a big change from my normal cycling here in Austin!

The first mission that I visited was the Mission San José. This mission has been extensively reconstructed, including the wall running around the grounds which enclose several acres of green space. Many of the converts who came to live at the mission lived in homes that were a part of the outside walls.

On the way to my second stop, I passed by the Espada Dam, which was constructed around the same time as the missions as part of the local aqueduct system. It was impressive to note that even though we are in a drought period and many of the water tables, lakes and streams are low, the aqueduct was full to the brim! I saw several cranes out fishing along parts of  the dam and aqueduct.

My second stop was at the Mission San Francisco de la Espada. This photograph is deceptive, because from the outside, it looks like the church is partially in ruin. It is in fact still an active church with a lovely interior. I saw an awesome container garden in back of the residence - there were hundreds of plants!

Stop three was the Mission San Juan Capistrano.

My last stop was at the mission Concepción. They also have a very nice prayer garden out front.

After riding 17 miles in the wind and the heat, I decided to skip going up to the Alamo (which I’ve already seen several times) and head for our campsite. Because of the drought, there is a ban on campfires, so I took along a little charcoal grill to cook with. After supper, I took everything containing food back to the car. I did not, however, take the bag of charcoal - I closed it up and left it under the picnic table. No animal was going to invade our camp for the charcoal, right?

Well, in the middle of the night, I started hearing thumping and crunching sounds. I stuck my flashlight out of the tent door to look around, and saw a raccoon sitting on the picnic table. He was munching on a lump of charcoal with one hand and rummaging around for more with his other! Raccoons eat charcoal. Who would have thunk it? 

This is the Roped Shell, by Angela Hahn, out of the Summer 2008 issue of Interweave Knits. (If it looks familiar, it’s because this is the pattern from the cover photo.) Some of her patterns are really cute - it might not be long before I do another!

I knit this with 2 skeins of Claudia’s Handpainted 100% linen, which is the green yarn, and 1 skein of Louet Sales Euroflax, which is the blue. I have a lot of linen in my summer wardrobe already, so I was happy to add another piece! Linen is so great for the climate here; I can wear it for at least 8 months out of the year.

The pattern was straightforward and easy enough. The colorwork uses a technique called “slip-stitch” or “mosaic” knitting. Basically, you do a round with one color, and then do the next round with the other color. If you want the color that you are working with to show, you knit that stitch. If you want the other color to show, you slip the stitch you are working. It makes for a really neat effect; it’s hard to see in the photo, but the pattern is charted and knit as a square, but the slipped stitched stress the fabric such that they turn into little hexagons!

I should have added some more waist shaping; the pattern shaping only draws the waist in an inch or so, while my actual waist goes in about 7 or 8 inches. Still, it looks nice. I did add a loop and snap to each shoulder, to help hide my bra strap. I might still add a second set of loops to keep them more secure.

The linen yarn is quite slippery, so I used bamboo needles for this project. I normally use metal needles for everything, but the bamboo is “stickier” and doesn’t let the yarn slide around quite so much, making a slippery yarn such as linen much more manageable. This is the second sweater I’ve knit using size 2 needles. For such a fine gauge, it went by quite quickly.

You can see in the bottom of this photo that I’ve started my garden up again. I have lots of deep shade, so I picked out 7 different kinds of caladiums, along with a few other things. I’ll post some garden photos soon. In the meantime, let’s hope that the caladiums work out!

We’re pretty much into what I would call summer here. The current temperature is 96, thankfully not too humid. I took a photo this morning while out on my bike ride of some wildflowers, at the top of the trail that cuts from Shoal Creek Boulevard to the Far West/MoPac bridge. From the photo you wouldn’t think this was a densely populated area at all!

The linen shell that I cast on last week is progressing well. I’ve always heard lots of complaints about how hard linen is on the hands, but I’m doing OK with it. This could be because my hands are already well accustomed to working with fine gauges, or because I tend to get bored and switch off between projects frequently, but I haven’t had any trouble with it. My swatch has been getting the usual swatch treatment: I like to throw my swatches into the bottom of my bag and let them rattle around for a few days to see how the finished garment will hold up. It felt a bit stiff at first, even after laundering, but no different than how my other linen garments feel after being line-dried. Now, after a week of being buffeted around, it has developed that classic, much-beloved drape and hand that linen is so famous for. Good stuff.

As you can see, I swatched with the pattern colors one way, and then switched their placements in the pattern. I had a hard time choosing which was to knit the garment; as you can see, I decided to stick with green for the main color and blue for the contrast. Maybe I should have done it the other way? I doubt I’ll ever know.

I’m still having fun riding all around town. Last week I went to Spec’s to get a bottle of wine for the potpie we made this weekend, and found yet another bike rack that was obviously constructed without thought to how a ladies’ bike frame should fit. You can see from the photo (which is a bit out of focus because I forgot that my cell phone camera doesn’t have macro capability) how the designer thought the bike should fit on the rack:

I’m not real sure why the rear wheel is supposed to be suspended like that. It would make it easier to do certain types of maintenance work, but I don’t really plan to oil my chain out in front of the liquor store or JoAnn’s anytime soon, y’know?

Fortunately, securing my bike to this type of rack isn’t so problematic as the swing-arm rack at Costco was.

(In answer to the question, “Whatever could you buy at Costco that you could take home on a bike?” my answer is: prescriptions! They have a good pharmacy. You don’t even need to be a member to use the pharmacy there, and it’s cheap.)

One last photo, just to laugh at the whole “pedestrian and bicycle friendly environment” the developers are supposed to be creating in the Gateway/Arbor Walk/Domain area:

Gotta love the wheelchair-accessible highway access road! Um, could I get a sidewalk to go with that?

While my husband meditates on his prospective sweater swatches and the meaning of the question, “Which do you prefer?” I’ve cast on the Roped Shell from the Summer 08 issue of Interweave Knits.

The navy blue yarn is Louet Euroflax in sport weight. The green yarn is Claudia’s Handpainted 100% linen. These are produced from the same base yarn, which is spun by Louet (this means that Claudia’s buys the yarn from them, and they dyes it to their colors, which are superb).

I haven’t worked with linen before. It almost feels waxy - like a giant strand of dental floss, with about at much stretch. Right now I’m switching back and forth between this and another project using Jaggerspun Zephyr, which is a 50/50 silk and wool blend. The Zephyr feels spongy by contrast! The linen yarn is 4 ply. I took a waste bit, separated out the plies, and tried unsuccessfully to break a single ply with my hands. Strong stuff. My swatch, however, washed up great. It looks fabulous and handles like all of the rest of the linen in my closet… which is not a small amount of linen. Good stuff, linen.

I’m totally happy with the Louet skein. The skein from Claudia’s, however, has some problems. It was skeined and tied very poorly, which meant that I had a difficult time winding it into a ball. Then, less than 10 yards into the skein, I found 3 knots! I can understand 1 knot… sometimes… but not in a premium yarn. Given what I paid for this yarn, I think that it is totally reasonable to take issue with this many knots. The markup on the yarn is almost 2x what the Louet-brand is selling for, but the quality is not as high. I really like the color, and I’m far enough into the project that I’ll just deal with it, but it might be a while before I buy anything from Claudia’s again.

(Yes, I did email the company. No, I haven’t heard anything back. I don’t really want a replacement, but an apology and/or a partial refund would be nice.)

I’m still having fun bicycling all over Austin. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many bike racks there are in town, especially at places like Costco. However, the racks at Costco leave a little something to be desired - namely, the ability to lock my bike to them! This type of lock has an arm that swings away from the rack. The arm has three spikes that are meant to go through the front wheel, the frame, and the back wheel, thus securing the most easily-stolen components in one fell swoop. You then use your own padlock to lock the swing arm in place. Nice idea. I can tell you, however, that a man thought this up.

How do I know that it was a man and not a woman who designed this thing? Because it won’t hold a woman’s bike! The swing arm won’t go through my frame at any angle. As you can see, I had to lock up with a cable lock - I can’t use my good U-bolt lock on this one when the swing arm isn’t fully engaged. Since my bike was still there when I got back, I suppose it’s the though that counts (and I am appreciative that they put in racks at all!). If anyone has any tips for securing a ladies’ bicycle to this style rack, I’d love to hear them.

Enough complaining for today. I’m going to take a nap.

I have an odd fondness for swatching. It’s so much fun, when I am nearing the end of one project, to pull out the yarn for my next project and get just a little taste of what knitting with it will be like. It’s always a great time to try new stitches, try using my needles and tools in different ways, and continue my constant experimentation with directional decreases.

Most of my knitting friends seem to dislike knitting swatches. I can’t count how many times someone has asked either myself or a group of knitters at large for advice on a garment, but when asked, “How did your swatch come out,” she confessed to not knitting one. Although I can understand, in an academic sense, how they are excited and impatient to cast on the actual project, I don’t really “get” it.

(It’s like stashing - something else that I neither enjoy nor really comprehend. Having extra yarn at home feels to me like having homework left undone: it hangs over my head and makes me feel guilty and lazy. Yet many of my fellow knitters cheerfully discuss and constantly add to their stashes, using phrases like, “She who dies with the most yarn, wins!” One of them is even gleefully using a random number generator to select new projects from her stash. Whereas I attempt - and sometimes fail - to have yarn on hand for my next round of projects. Maybe I’m in the wrong hobby.)

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I knit up a swatch for my next Fair Isle project, a pullover for my husband. We picked out the colors while on a trip to Wisconsin, where they actually stock yarns suitable for Fair Isle, and had the yarn shipped to our house.

As is usual with Fair Isle, the colors didn’t quite do what I expected, so I put the yarn back into its box and thought about it for a while. Yesterday I pulled it all back out and played around some more.

I always think that it is neat to see how mixing up the colors can totally change what I see in a pattern. These are two of the better swatches. I suspect that I’ll be knitting the sweater with the colors from the bottom swatch. I like how the top swatch showcases the motif, but I can’t see putting that much yellow on Jim!