BACK TO CIVILIZATION. WHY?
Back from our annual sand-fest on Cape Cod, and sad that there’s another 51 weeks to go before we return. It was supremely relaxing. A room right on the bay-side beach up near Beach Point in North Truro, lots of books to read and things to knit. No phones and no computers. The day consisted of consulting the tide chart for a relative fix on the time, cooking or going out when we were hungry, walking the beach and taking the occasional hike and paddling the kayak from the strand right in front of our room.
The big highlight of our week was a hike across the stone breakwater at Woods End at the lower end of Provincetown, to explore the isolated beach beyond. Not my pix here (obvious because it’s a good shot). Here’s another one. The rock hopping stroll was about 1.5 miles each way. Being a klutz I rolled a 2 on agility and fell at the far end, but although I was banged up a bit, no major damage was registered, and we all returned back the way we came.
On the beach dining included our now traditional over-the-coals paella (identical to this one from years past).
plus (on other days) chicken rubbed with lemon and olive oil then roasted on the grill, beef kabobs, steamed lobsters, and the usual kid-friendly hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch.
Dining out included Terra Luna in North Truro (always excellent); The Mews (our no-kids Date Night – exquisite food, very highly recommended), and Nappi’s in Provincetown (a good place to take kids to make up for Date Night); Mac’s Shack in Wellfleet (best fried seafood on the Cape). And an indulgent brunch snack at Provincetown’s Portuguese Bakery (kale soup, malassadas, and sweet potato turnovers to die for).
I read several books: the sheep detective story Three Bags Full, River of Darkness – a suspense/mystery set in post WWI Britain, and my annual bit of beach self-indulgence, See Dephi and Die, yet another Lindsay Davis Falco novel. Of these three River of Darkness was by far the strongest, with a well plotted mystery, intriguing characters, and a strong sense of place/time. Three Bags Full was quite breezy and entertaining for a murder mystery. Seeing the sheep confront human behavior was very amusing. The Davis book however was one of the author’s weakest. The main character suffers extreme lack of opposition and foils in this one, amusing just because by now the setting and cast are so familiar.
And yes – I did knit. Lots. I brought three projects, the Kyoto, my Truro blanket and my green tablecloth. I am almost finished with the Kyoto’s sleeves. Blocking and assembly (and pix) will soon ensue. My tablecloth grew by about five rows. I didn’t do anything on the blanket, chiefly because I have mislaid the exact needles I was using. They’re an in-between size, an older set somewhat between 2.5 and 2.75mm I didn’t like the variant gauge I was getting with standard 2.75s and I didn’t have any 2.5s with me in my bag.
So there you have it. One well rested/well fed but slightly bruised knitter. With vacation laundry and that 51 week infinitude stretching out ahead…
GRADUATIONS AND THE BLOB
There’s been precious little knitting shown here of late, an egregious oversight for a knitting blog. As usual, I plead too much work and too little time, with the added complication of kid graduations/celebrations – Elder Daughter from high school, and younger daughter from elementary school.
Fun events to be sure, complete with family/friends, but time consuming none the less.
What little time I’ve had to knit I’ve used to work on my olive tablecloth, which at this point is better named “The Blob”
Right now unstretched it’s about 24 inches from needles to center, with something upwards of a thousand stitches on the needles and I’m not done yet. You can see how densely the stitches are packed onto my too small needle:
That’s a 2mm, by the way. At this point I don’t dare let it free from the stitch keeper unless I’m actually working on it. The thought of dropping those thread-fine stitches makes me hyperventilate.
The good news is that I’m only 40 or so rows from completion. At the rate of 1.5-2 rows per week, I’ll be working on this for quite a while yet.
I do have an interim knitting decision to make. This is NOT a good piece to take with me on our midsummer vacation. It’s best worked on in one spot (you can see I didn’t move it far from my favorite knitting chair for the photo, above). But what to bring?
Perhaps I’ll bring along the Kyoto I still haven’t finished for Elder Daughter. I’m mid sleeve, in boring stockinette, with just the last 8 inches of sleeve to go plus finishing. And I’m also considering bringing my Truro Counterpane. At this point it’s a traditional summer knit for me, and with only nine mega-motifs done I still have miles to go before I can deploy it as a blanket. Or I may decide to do something else entirely. I’ve got a few sweater-sized lots of cotton stashed, any one of which would be an excellent quick-knit summer top for me. Decisions, decisions…
SAND
I’m being eaten alive by work deadlines as usual, limiting my time for knitting and blogging, but I did take off this afternoon to work on the Resident Male’s Fathers Day present. Elder and Younger Daughter helped, of course.
Back story: Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai movie is one of this household’s all time favorites. On more than one occasion we’ve pointed out that the Resident Male is vastly outumbered here, surrounded as he is by a sea of females. And on more than one occasion I’ve threatened to make him a “odd man out” banner inspired by the one raised to rally faltering spirits in our favorite move:
Today we did it. We made a beach flag inspired by the movie. The movie banner says “Farm,” but in our case “Sand” is more appropriate, because we intend on flying this on our annual Cape Cod vacation. Calligraphy for “sand” is courtesy of Ted Goodman and family, local Aikido instructor and all around good guy. (Thanks again, Ted!)
Younger Daughter helped with the sewing, learning to use a sewing machine in the process. Elder daughter helped create and ink the circles and triangles.
Resident Male was quite tickled by the gift, which we gave early – there being no effective place to hide a four foot tall banner in this house.
ANOTHER YEAR
An uneventful birthday weekend, squandered on laundry, work, housecleaning, and more work. Sigh. Still I am of the opinion that if one doesn’t celebrate, then the event didn’t happen and the incremental addition to one’s age need not be acknowledged.
I also have to report a misfortune occurring in our wider circle. Long time readers here will remember that my kids adore Roads End Farm – a paradise on earth for horse-mad girls, run by the Woodman family for more than 35 years.
Elder Daughter spent about nine summers there, Younger Daughter has been there for three. Apparently over Memorial Day weekend there was a fire at the farm. No horses, humans or other critters were harmed, but the camp lost its dorm block and a storage barn just two weeks before the start of the early summer session. Roads End does not go down easy though. They are planning on rebuilding and as far as I know will be opening for the season, albeit with some improvisation on living arrangements. If you’re a REF alumna who has landed here, please consider writing a note of support and appreciation to Tom, Alicia and the whole REF family (address at link, above). They’ve worked hard to keep the magic in the place, and now could use a wave of our collective wands to ensure that it stays.
In knitting news, I continue on the green tablecloth. It’s big and getting bigger. Unfortunately, it’s not photogenic. Yet another blurry picture of a huge olive green snood is not going to be an edifying experience. So I soldier on, visually undocumented.
One thing we are looking forward to here at String is Elder Daughter’s high school graduation this weekend. Soon she’ll be off to the wide, wide world of college. Another knitter released to the wild.
A bittersweet week to be sure.
OCULAR PROOF
As promised courtesy of Friend Merlyn (she of far better photo sense than I ever will have) is our day at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival. All the photos here are hers, reproduced here by permission.
To start, no sheep festival is complete without its eponymous totem. Here are a couple of girls, still in their fluffy finery, checking us out for illicit snacks.
By contrast, this guy is far more aloof. “Snacks? I disdain the possibility of snacks. Ooh, do I see hot sheep chix in the next stall?”
Which leads us to sheepy strippers.
That’s a lot of fuzz. Spinners and dyers were in a special heaven at this show because of all the raw and semi-processed fleece, dyed fleece and roving; spinning gear, and dyeing classes and supplies.
Here’s one tough spinner:
“Yo. You wanna talk grist? I’ll see your grist and raise you 5.”
Actually, there were quite a few men at the show sitting and spinning (or like this guy, wandering around with a drop spindle).
Which takes us on to my main target of opportunity. Yarn. A day of selective yarn acquisition. Selective because there’s a mismatch between my imagination – what I can see myself doing with the yarn – and available time/yarn budget dollars.
Here are the three of us, daughters large and small, and (in my first appearance on this website) a small shot of magenta-clad me, poking through the Bartlett booth, then buying some laceweight at a totally different venue, from a vendor whose name I neglected to note:
I’ve got an eye bending, giant lump of black Jaggerspun 20/2, elder daughter’s buying the same thing in screaming russet. (She’s thinking of doing a Paisley, but that thought is still quite larval.) Even younger daughter got into the spin of the day, making a felted snake at the American Textile History Museum‘s booth:
But back to the vendor displays. As I wrote earlier, I was especially taken with the creativity of the Tsock Tsarina patterns, on display at the Holiday Yarn booth. I’m not quite sure how I’d wear or care for these art object socks, but the exuberance and detail of these designs are fantastic. And I enjoyed the opera theme of the entire line:
The colors and abundance of the yarn on display for sale was spectacular. Who wouldn’t be inspired by all of this?
And the day had its non-yarn amusements as well. I’ve decided that alpacas are animals designed by anime artists: those long, snaky necks and staring oversize eyes; the fluffy hairdos, and overly earnest expressions; the stylish baggy-leg look. The only thing missing is gigantic, oversized feet and “!!!”s floating over their heads:
Since plenty of shoots and leaves were on the menu for the day, we got a kick of of this class announcement, too.
Special thanks again to photo documenter Merlyn for providing today’s run of eye candy. You can check out the rest of her sheepy shots here.
NH SHEEP AND WOOL AFTERMATH
The offspring, Friend Merlyn and I went to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool festival this Sunday past. We had a good time, with lots of sheepy things to look at, from fleece on the hoof to finished product. I do however note that Saturday rather than Sunday is probably a better day to go. It looked like some vendors and displays had already packed up and left, and some of the remaining sellers were displaying much depleted stock. There were still sheepdog trials going on when we got there, but the advertised horse show was among the events scratched for the day. Younger Daughter especially got a kick out of what looked to be a children’s llama agility course, in which youngsters led their equally young beasts around a set of gentle obstacles. It was hard to pick out who was cuter, the clearly concentrating little kids at one end of the lead ropes, or the gangly legged, long necked fuzzballs at the other.
I did manage to pick up some excellent buys. From left to right, 665 yard/8.3 oz hank of gray sport weight alpaca, from the Times Remembered booth – super soft and probably a bit more yardage than advertised on the label (labels were pre-printed with sport weight target yardage but hanks varied in weight, I picked a more weighty one); two skeins of sock yarn from Dorchester Farms; and an oversize lace weight yarn, one in black of 13.3 oz, probably around 4200 yards from a bargain bin in a booth whose name I neglected to note. At the same spot Elder daughter got some orange/russet lace weight of about 6.5 oz, probably around 2000 yards. Both pods of lace yarn were at a bargain basement prices. I also got some white cotton, close to 30 weight suitable for filet crochet at another stall that was offering mill ends. The two of us together spent less than $75 total on yarn, and garnered enough for winter’s worth of scarf, hat, sock and shawl knitting and crocheting for us both (lace is especially cost effective in terms of dollars spent on materials vs. hours of knitting enjoyment). Finally, in the center is the felted snake Younger Daughter made at the Textile Museum’s booth.
I almost bought a sock kit from Harmony Yarns/Tsock Tsarina – the sock kits there were the most original thing I saw on display, and I got a big kick out of the opera themes of the design. The Tsarina herself was working on a pair on a theme to match “Daughter of the Regiment.” I was tempted by the Firebird and Kitri socks, and admired the sculptural cleverness of the Vintage. The only drawback is that these are socks as art objects. They’d be difficult to add to the daily wear and wash rotation. Still, I took the card (they were out of kits in my mega-flipper size), with the intent to do up one or more of them in the near future. I meant to pick up some more Mostly Merino fingering weight, but although I pegged their display as being on the “zip back after full reconnoiter for purchase” I didn’t manage to loop around to them. Which was a shame because they had some beautiful yarn there in the highly saturated colors I prefer.
There were many other vendors of note although my yarn budget would not let me stretch to buy everything I liked. I especially enjoyed seeing all the micro producers in addition to the larger (yet still not big business) concerns like Bartlett Mills and Green Mountain Spinnery. Hand dyed/variegated yarns predominated, with natural off-the-animal colors a close second. Lots of bunny and mohair – sadly both fibers I avoid because they make my hands itch when I try to work with them. Most vendors on Sunday had short quantities of most products, although some of the larger booths did have full sweater lots left. I missed seeing one vendor I thought might be there: Nicks Meadow Farm, a New Hampshire sheep farm/yarn seller I’ve seen at local Gore Place Sheepshearing festivals. I like their scoured Maine style rustic wool and have used their heavy worsted/Aran weight to good effect in the past.
I did not take any wandering-around or day-out pix (as you can see from my feeble attempts at photography here, cameras are not my forte). However, Friend Merlyn did. I’m hoping to link to some of her shots when they’re posted.
EVENT – NEW HAMPSHIRE SHEEP & WOOL FESTIVAL
I don’t know if anyone reading here is within striking range but if you are, the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival is this weekend. I’ll be headed up there tomorrow. Not sure if I’ll be dressed in something recognizable, but it’s a good bet that the offspring (both small and large) and a friend of ours will be wandering the grounds and exhibit tents there for the better part of the day. I’ll try to take pix.
GRAPE ESCAPE
Life took a silly twist here at String this week. Younger daughter and her fifth grade class participated in an Egg Drop. That’s the now classic assignment of designing and building some sort of a container that will protect a raw egg when container and egg are tossed from the roof of the school. The kids worked on their designs over the school break week last week. Yesterday was launch day. Acclaim was given for mission accomplishment (the passenger egg remained unbroken after a three-story fall), and originality of design.
Younger daughter’s idea was to wrap her egg in a bit of bubble wrap for stability, then to embed the wrapped egg in a mass of balloons. When we went to the party store we found a bag of purple balloons on sale, a post-season discount along with other traditional Mardi Gras colors. She decided to make her balloon mass into a bunch of grapes. A very BIG bunch of grapes.
She made the streamers from tissue paper, three sheets each cut in a spiral for maximum length without the extra weight of additional tape.
Getting the thing to school on a windy morning was a challenge. It filled the back of the van. But as I hear the effort was worth it. “The Grape Escape” had a successful launch, and fell from the third floor rooftop with majestic slowness, bouncing a couple of times on landing but remaining intact. The egg passenger was unharmed. If the school posts a video of the trial I’ll share the link. Younger daughter is quite pleased both with her project’s success and with its amusement value.
In knitting news, I continue on the entrelac sock and am now about halfway up the ankle. Minor disappointment in the Berroco Sock yarn I used, though. I’ve found six knots so far in the skein of color 1487 (browns/tans) that I’m using – one or two are a statistical aberration I can live with, but that many knots is a clear indication of quality control problems. By contrast the skein of #1425 (mixed turquoise black, red, orange, purple) was clean.
THE BEST OF ORC MANUFACTURE
We had an entertaining weekend here at String, spending most of it cleaning up the debris of a New England winter and waking up the garden for spring. Now I’m not a very good gardener. In fact I stick to plants that in more hospitable geographic areas are rated as borderline invasive, because they are about the only plants I can’t kill. I trust in my own lack of skill and the odd deep freeze winter to keep them in check.
This weekend’s chores included moving a trillium and a peony to make more room for an aggressive hosta‘s growing hegemony; shuffling some day lilies out of the way; rescuing some tulips and daffs so courteously relocated mid-lawn by squirrels; planting three ultra hardy five petal rugosa roses in some newly freed up spots; and pulling dead leaves out of the giant grass stubble (aka elephant grass, or maiden grass).
How giant is our giant grass? It gets tall enough for its early September plumes to overtop the roof of our front porch. We cut it down before the seed sets and ripens in order to keep it from colonizing the entire neighborhood. But what to do with canes ranging from 8 to 13 feet? The first year we bagged them with the rest of the yard trimmings, for the town to haul off for composting. This fall though I had an idea.
I also attempt to grow what started out as an antique variety of big scarlet speckled runner beans. While I don’t harvest enough of a crop to eat, the kids get a big kick out of our sequential years of Mendelian genetics. We plant our Magic Beans for three springs now – some are still true to their parent’s form, some now look more like French flagolets/ Then we watch to see what color flowers appear (originally all red, now a mix of 25% white/75% red), and what color/form of beans result. They grow very fast, and require strings or a trellis to climb. Last year all we could find at the garden shop were puny 4 foot tall bamboo stakes. Not near long enough. So I decided to dry my giant grass stalks and store them through the winter to furnish the scaffolding for this year’s bean trellis.
It’s not warm enough for bean planting yet (final frost date is the second week of May here), but we did build the trellis and set it up against the sunny southern face of the garage:
On the whole, given the random length, lack of flexibility and fragility of the stalks, I’m amazed we were able to come up with anything at all. Yes, those are cable ties fastening the thing together. We’re nerds and proud! The structure is sort of pitiful, as if it were built by drunken orcs in World of Warcraft. I’m pretty sure that if they produced something this sad their players would be dunned a dozen experience points for failing so miserably in the attempt. But I like it. Covered in green with little flowers it will look grand. Provided it survives. Which is why we built it early. Better for it to collapse before beans attack it rather than having to disentangle them after the fact.
On the knitting front, I’m just about done with the entrelac socks. They turned out better than I expected.
Still a bit motley, but the four colors of leftover self stripers ended up complementing each other, mostly because all of them had green and brown in their mix. In person what looks like bright tomato red in the on-needle sock is more muted. Also, I divided the lot of leftovers into two groups – one that was mostly speckled with few or no solid stripes, and one that had firm solid stripes and spotty bits. The finished sock clearly shows the solids in the entrelac bits worked from left to right, and the speckled yarn in the entrelac bits worked right to left. All in all quite a satisfying project for something starting with such an unpromising quantity of leftovers.
KNITTED SCULPTURE
I stumbled across this on Boing-Boing Gadgets and was fascinated. It’s a piece of circular knitting fashioned from thin, clear plastic capillary tubing. The flow of colored water through the thing is mesmerizing. Although it looks a bit like nalbinding, it’s a twisted loop variant of frame knitting (the frame is upside down on the bottom, forming a pedestal for the sculpture).
Fluid Sculpture from Charlie Bucket on Vimeo.
Fascinating. Hats off to Mr. Bucket and the folk at Casual Profanity for the joy of this piece!
String-Or-Nothing 