Author Archives: Bron

Weaving. Really. Well, almost.

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There hasn’t been much in the way of weaving around here for a long time. The last thing to actually come off the floor loom was my rainbow scarf, in February 2007. Since around October last year, I’ve had two warps draped on looms – a blue one on my baby table loom for some plain weave fabric for trimming a jacket I’m intending to make from some handwoven overshot I wove years ago, and a black one on the 4-shaft floor loom for both a scarf, and also some plain trimming for another planned jacket. Both warps got wound onto the back beams of the respective loom, and then progress… stopped.

Today, I decided to take advantage of the sun pouring into the sunroom (its winter here and chilly) and spend a couple of hours and get the loom threaded. After all, I only had to find my spare set of lease sticks, thread 224 ends, sley the reed, tie on and then I’d be weaving, right?

First step: find spare lease sticks (because my usual set are on the baby loom, where I’ve done over half the threading, but it’s a very awkward height to thread and if I wait until I’ve finished with them, I’ll never get the other warp done.)

Nope, spare lease sticks I was sure I had don’t seem to exist. But I have a pair of suitable sticks, so all I need to do is drill hole in the end, right?

Battery of cordless drill is dead. Found DH. Found his power drill. Talked DH into driling holes, because his drill is too heavy for my hand. Sticks are ready….

Nope, sticks need sanding. Rummaged in laundry cupboard for sanding paper, and finally found it. Sanded sticks in carport, while freezing my fingers off. Sticks now ready to put into warp cross…

Hmm… better dust the loom first. Fine black wool warp plus accumulated dust are not a good combination. Dust loom. Insert lease sticks. Set things up to start threading…

Where’s the pattern?? I was sure I had a suitable draft printed around here somewhere. Okay, I can quickly draw up a basic twill/advancing twill combo on the computer…

No I can’t, because I’ve changed from a PC to a Macintosh since I last did a weaving draft, and my weaving software doesn’t work for Macs, and I can’t find a suitable up-to-date basic software…

Finally found a previously printed out draft I could easily adapt without resorting to graph paper and pencil (phew!!). Sat down at loom, started threading…..

By this time, it was after 3pm, and the sun was getting low, and the room cold. I’ve threaded two inches of the eight, but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

However, at least I have made some progress! And here’s the evidence:
20080614loom

Medicinal knitting – and shopping

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I’ve been making good progress on the Berocca sock, but got to the point the other night where I needed to add in dark blue contrast yarn for the heel. Night not being the best time to start knitting with dark yarn (especially with one slightly blurry eye!), I picked up another set of needles and started knitting the Dream in Color Gaia yarn into a pair of lacy Veronik socks. So, even though I finished two pairs of socks just recently, I now have two more on the go!

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I’m really enjoying knitting both projects. I’m very happy with how the Berocca ‘fair-isle’ is coming out, I love the subtle shades in the Dream in Colour – it’s working very well in the lacy pattern.

You’d think, that with the recent generous gift from my friends, and my own purchases, I’d have enough yarn. And I do. I’m still enjoying fondling and dreaming what I’m going to do with it all. But at the weekend, I made the mistake of clicking on the Yarnomat website. And I managed to convince myself that with surgery to come, and time in hospitals and hotels, that a couple of skeins of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn counted as medicine. Or therapy. Or both. Before I could argue a dissenting case, two skeins had leapt into my shopping cart, wrangled my credit card from my purse, and committed themselves to coming to my place.

(At least I currently have the excuse that I’m not right in the head, right??)

Anyways, DH brought them home from the PO box last night. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Cherry Tree Hill yarns in real life. They’re beautiful. Now I’ve got even more yarn to fondle. I may even get some of it knitted up, sometime in the next few months!

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Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck – colourway Jewels

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Cherry Tree Hill Supersock merino – colourway Blueberry Hill

Exer-stash becomes Write-a-stash

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The Exer-stash was working reasonably well, motivating me to exercise more than I would have otherwise – until my medical drama started. For the past month, and for the next month or so until surgery is over, I am not to exert myself. So, the exer-stash has to go into hiatus for a while.

However, since I now have to work solidly on writing book 2, and am having a struggle getting the concentration happening on it, I have decided that to motivate myself to write, I will turn the exer-stash program into the write-a-stash program, at least for the next month or so.

So, given my writing pace and style (I generally edit as I go, rather than write a rough draft quickly) I’m going to earn $5 for every 1000 words.

To encourage myself not to eat too much chocolate while I’m writing (and not treadmilling), I’m going to up my ‘earning’ for each kilo lost to $10. I did lose another kilo recently, but unfortunately it found me again, so I’m not claiming it – yet!

Today, the revised book wip stands at 20,425 words – not counting draft scenes from the previous version which may or may not end up in it. So, I’ve got some serious stash to earn!

And yes, there is a connection between writing and knitting – to keep my fingers from clicking on internet links, and to occupy the part of the brain that wants to be distracted, I often knit plain socks while I write. I’m not a fast writer, and do stare at the words on the screen a great deal, so, strange though it may sound, plain knitting I don’t have to think about can help to keep me focused on the story.

Now, I’m off to cast on with this:
20080527BeroccaSox

and to write at least 1000 words.

Finished – more Conwy socks, and 1940s cap

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I wanted to get a couple of current projects off the needles so I can start playing with my new yarn.

This is my second pair of Conwy socks, finished yesterday:

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Yarn: Heirloom Argyle 4ply
Pattern: adaptation of Conwy by Nancy Bush (Knitting on the Road)

I’m not sure yet whether these will be for me, or for my brother-in-law. It might depend upon whether I can knit him another pair before his birthday in early July. I made him a pair of plain socks a couple of years ago, which he wears every morning in winter, so it’s probably time I made him another pair!

I’ve also finished this cap, from a 1940s Sun-glo knitting book of patterns for men. The patterns are all service-style, with names such as ‘Pilot’, ‘Digger’, ‘Helmsman’, ‘Observer’ and ‘Major’. The yarn I’ve used is probably rather more ‘feminine’ than the original pattern-writer had in mind!

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Yarn: leftover Merino/Cashmere 4ply from The Knittery

The gift of friends

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I’ve been part of an online writing group for 5 years. They are a wonderful, warm, generous group of people, and over the years we’ve become very close. We’ve shared all the ups and downs of writing, and all the ups and downs of life. We’ve seen kids airlifted to hospital, struggled with our own illnesses and those of families and friends, grieved for those we’ve lost (including two of our own), celebrated the arrival of four babies, and partied when each member gets published. Through all of it, the support of the group for each other has been amazing and powerful. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t met some of these people face-to-face; I know them, and they are my dear friends.

Yesterday, my DH brought home from the post office a large box. When I opened it, I found:

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My eyes got very leaky as I unpacked it:

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Rather than sending a bouquet of flowers, my friends sent a bouquet of yarn. Joanna, one of my friends, lives not far from La Knitterie Parisienne, in Studio City, LA (where all the Hollywood knitters pop in to buy their yarn), and so she took the collected contributions from the group and went yarn shopping. (You can read her account of it here.) With the enthusiastic guidance from Edith and Merrill at the shop, she put together the most wonderful gift of beautiful, luxury yarns:

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But wait! There’s more:

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The book is part of my friends’ gift; the bag was generously given by Edith and Merrill to add to the gift.

A huge thank you to all my friends; also to Edith and Merrill at La Knitterie Parisienne; and especially to Joanna, for all the time and thought and love in organising, packaging (with notes about each yarn, and Edith’s suggestions for it) and sending it.

I’ve been fondling yarn last night and this morning, and I dreamed of yarn 🙂 I’m hoping to start a project today, so that I’ll have my friends’ yarn beside me – and the knowledge of their love and support – all the time until I go to hospital, and while I recover.

For those who want to see each yarn, there’s more below the fold:

Continue reading →

Yarn therapy

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As some of my Ravelry friends know already, my plans for May were somewhat disrupted. Instead of travelling in the outback, I had to go to Sydney, following the discovery of a brain aneurism. Yep, not exactly what one wants to hear after having a CAT scan, but – looking on the bright side – I’m lucky they discovered it now, rather than on an autopsy, as they can be fatal if they burst.

I’ve seen the neurosurgeon in Sydney twice, had a cerebral angiogram and an MRI, and now I’m back home for a short while, waiting to hear when I’ll be going to hospital. The good news is, I’ll be having the less intrusive procedure – inserting a stent and coils through the artery from the groin. The bad news is, that’s because they can’t do the full clipping surgery (which is cure rather than treatment) because the aneurism is the wrong size and shape, making that surgery too dangerous. So, the procedure I’m having will take about 5 hours, under general anaesthetic, but all going well I’ll only be in hospital for a couple of days, and can then fly home and resume normal life – with some daily blood-thinning medication.

My strategy for dealing with all of this – and keeping my blood pressure down! – has, naturally, involved yarn 🙂

I called into Tapestry Craft in Sydney, and added a little to my stash:

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Kid Seta yarn

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Grignasco Bambi yarn – probably destined to become some more lacy fingerless mitts.

I also knitted to while away some of the time:
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The first Conwy sock for me is finished, and the second on the way. The yarn is Heirloom Argyle 4ply, and although it doesn’t show well in my quick photo, its a lovely heathered green.

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And I’ve done about 6 pattern repeats of the Swallowtail shawl, using The Knittery’s luscious silk/merino lace yarn.

April achievements, May goals

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How did I go with my April goals??
1. Finish the Jo Sharp Fisherman’s gansey (only a few more inches on the front to go, then knit the collar and sew it all up) (Is there an echo in here?) – Well, almost! I’ve finished knitting the front. I’ve started knitting the collar. I’m a bit stuck on how the heck to increase 2sts at each end of every row, though. Any suggestions??

2. Finish the baby jacket (only have to do the button bands – but I hate picking up button bands, so this project has stalled too long!) – Ahem. Um. Maybe we should just proceed to the next item.

3. Finish Dad’s socks and post them to him. – Yes!!  Done, posted, received, and they fit him and he likes them.

4. Finish Kerry’s fingerless mittens. – Yes!! Done, given to Kerry, they fit her and she likes them and wore them home.

5. Start something new – a new jacket, or a lace shawl… or maybe both. I’ve got a gazillion patterns to choose from in my Ravelry queue. – Kind of. I’ve bought the Jo Sharp yarn. I’ve started a swatch.

6. Exer-stash fund: earn a bonus $10 for two kilos lost, plus walk at least 60 kilometres. Ahem. <Bron looks embarrassed>. In between gammy leg playing up, and feeling unwell, I’ve only done 17.4 kilometres this month. I haven’t weighed myself this past week, but I’ve possibly gone down another kilo.

May goals:

I’m going to be away travelling for a chunk of May, so setting many goals probably isn’t realistic. But I will set a couple:

1. Relax and enjoy the trip!

2. Select suitable knitting for travelling, and achieve something during the 5,500km we’re driving!

Winter warmers

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I finished the fingerless mittens for my friend Kerry today, and gave them to her. She loved them, and wore them home, so I’m very pleased with them.

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Yarn: The Knittery 4ply merino/cashmere
Pattern: my own
The true colour is a little darker red than this – more like that in the previous post.

Progress and anticipation

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The first of my friend Kerry’s mittens is finished, and work underway on mitt 2. Next time I make mittens or gloves, I really should knit the left one first, because it would be so much easier to photograph – holding the camera in my left hand while taking a photo of my right is a touch challenging!

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Kerry’s hand is a little longer than mine, so her fingers won’t be hidden!

Since Dad’s socks are finished, and Kerry’s mittens are almost finished, and my fisherman’s gansey will be finished soon, I’m now planning my next project/s. I desperately need respectable cardigans/jackets for winter; I feel the cold, but sometimes jumpers (pullovers) don’t work as well as cardigans for respectable dressing. Daniele at our LYS ordered in some Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran, and when i was in there yesterday I used the gift voucher I have and bought 10 balls of the quartz shade, and put another 10 balls aside to pick up later.

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Now I just have to decide what pattern to use – I still haven’t found the perfect one, although I’m seriously contemplating the Bianca’s Jacket, with adaptations – longer, and straight fronts. I’ll knit up a sample in the lace pattern and see what I think.