Serendipity with books

September was my birthday month and this year I put in serious requests. I had recently perused Meg Swansen's School House Press website and come under the spell of a number of books I knew I wanted to own - and happily I had beloved friends and family who were willing to get them for me. My September runneth over in good books and I am thoroughly pleased with all of them. So who would have thought that it was the book I bought sight unseen, for the library, even, and on a mere hunch, that would turn out to be my favorite book?

Kristina McGowan's Modern Top Down Knitting has bowled me over. I always feel that if a book has three good patterns in it - three  patterns I want to knit - it's a good buy. If it's under $30 it's a great buy. This book hit both targets, coming in at $27.50 and having 3 hats, 3 dresses, 2 skirts and and a sweater that I would make and wear! The library owns the book now but I am afraid a second copy will have to come live at my house soon and once I'm finished with the big UFO's in my stash I am going to hunt down some yarn to make red Soho Smocked Dress. Yum!

I'm not a big top down knitter. Probably because I learned in the more traditional bottom up mode, top down is just ever so slightly out of my ring of habits. I know you can do it, I'd just need a reason to. Also, I almost exclusively wear set-in sleeves and to do that in top-down kitting you have to knit back and forth on the shoulder area. That's fine if there is no colorwork in the knitting, but there you have it - I am also a sucker for colorwork. But in a solid color, the flat knitting at the top is not a bar to my knitting pleasure. And these designs are all set-in sleeve styles - pure temptation to someone like me. They're elegant, classic shapes that would be attractive on almost any body type AND for almost any age group. The skirts are slim without being tight. The dresses are all a-line shapes with added touches that make them interesting but not tedious to knit. There are some cute accessories: some long fingerless gloves and a belt and slippers, that don't tempt but the hats are wonderful. Two, with fuller crowns, look like they would leave your hair in tact and the Subway Hat is flat out darling and looks like it would knit up in a flash.

I really like how the Abrams website displays this book and how they let you see the projects inside, so if you're curious, go have a look here. But if you want to know what the Bird Family thinks about it...

Happy Hump Day.

I-cord fingers and back to werkwerkwerk for me

It's been a delicious 3 day weekend here at TheCastle, with Monday feeling especially like an extra Sunday. I spent the past month incorporating time management habits into my work life so I don't dread the task of stuffing 5 days of tasks into 4 this coming week, but I will still be quite busy.

Mitigating the dooty stuff is going to my Tuesday Knitting group today. About a year ago we began meeting at lunchtime at the library, which means I only get to visit with everyone for an hour, but, because there's no night driving, more people come - so the trade-off is worth it. Besides, I'm teaching at a new store across the river so I get extra knit-with-friends time during the week.

As for those lace gloves ... I'm at the finger adding point of the second glove and am giving serious consideration to making the fingers using Meg Swansen's i-cord technique. It would certainly cut down on the needles I'm managing. At the moment I have the hand portion of the glove on a long circular needle and the little finger on 4 double points. That's a lot of needles. Ordinarily I would do my utmost to eliminate the excess but I am tempted to leave all the needles in just to tease my knitting buddies. Nothing intimidates like a lot of clicking flapping needles. What's necessary, though, is to decide  how I'm going to divy up the stitches for the fingers.

There are 24 stitches on the lace side of these gloves and 27 stitches on the palm side. Guess I'll go have a look and do the math. Or I could knit that last inch of the Shawl Collared Vest .. ahh so many choices, so little time.

I don't have a knitting picture to share today so I am giving you one of the 61 pictures I took of ThePrince, fulfilling his sailboat fantasies. This is his Gloucester 16 with a ghosting sail that will move his boat even when there is no wind. (note the glassy water surface) Taken from the canoe with my dog helpers looking on. I am a treasure of a wife, to spend a hot holiday afternoon photographing somebody else's hobby.

Cashmere and Lace

Since I've finally made this blog public it behooves me to post something right away so people won't think know what a slacker I am - just yet, anyway. Besides, there is knitting in TheCastle - actually rather a lot of typical Queenly knitting - that is - lots of almost finished projects. I gave myself permission, this fall, to explore knitterly ideas without the onus of having to complete anything and though that may seem rather like a carte blanche for ufos it is actually an opportunity to let the mind travel freely and creatively.

And I am sticking with that story.

One special project I'm working on is a pair of gloves I'm making from some delicious red cashmere yarn - a gift from a very special friend that I have stroked, now, for 2 years. It's time it was turned into something wonderful and gloves popped into my mind - then lace - and if cashmere lace doesn't sound wonderful I

don't know what does. The yarn label says Black Pearl                        

  and a quick Internet search shows it's available from One Planet Yarn & Fiber 

In typical Queenly fashion, I don't have a pattern - in fact, I've never knit gloves and though I could probably find a pattern  easily enough, I'd rather be knitting than searching Ravelry's database. Besides - it's gloves for heavens sake! the only real issue is ... will 200 yards be enough to make all those fingers? Well - nothing for it but to cast on - and right away I began thinking that I'd like ruffly edges around the cuffs. It's a DK yarn and I began using a #4 needle, casting on 80 stitches and knitting a few rows ... maybe 5.  I k2tog all the way across and got the number down to 40 - a nice number for doing a k2p2 rib.

I found a pretty little 8 stitch diamond lace pattern in Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks  so after an inch or so of ribbing I increased up to 48 stitches began working the lace on the glove back and, eventually putting in a thumb gusset. Once I got to where I'd need to start knitting the little finger I broke off the yarn and cast on for the second glove.

Cashmere, though, is extraordinarily soft and has almost no elasticity. The ribbing in glove #1 stretched out rather wide - not so wide they'll fall off my hands but wider than I like, so with the second glove I used a #3 needle and also knit into the back of every stitch - knits and purls. You can see in the photo how much smaller and tighter the second cuff looks.

Also - on this second glove I've only increased to 44 stitches because the thumb gusset will add an additional 8 stitches to the palm. I hope this bit of knitting math will make the glove fit a bit more snugly.

And so - here I am with a sweet Monday off and red cashmere lace to knit on. I'll get to the finger portion today and begin on them. I hope there's enough yarn to make 10 complete fingers but if there isn't I will make half-finger lengths, ribbed on the underside of the fingers to keep them from curling. If I am fully satisfied with the end result I'll write the pattern up - and make another pair from my stash of natural colored cashmere. Something about cashmere lace gloves seems more than ordinarily luxurious. And so - my Monday Thoughts will be of cashmere and lace. May yours be as soft and cozy.

Time for a cool change

In 2003 I created LikeTheQueen, and for the first 5 years I made almost daily posts to it. In those days I had no digital camera and only a flatbed scanner so I tried to paint word pictures for people to see what was happening in the Life-0-Bess at TheCastle. You have read with me through my AdventuresInSpinning, A Trip to England, the early years of the Knitters Review Retreat, Maryland Sheep and Wool, and a host of other fiberish travels. You've know how I met BD, you've seen pictures of LD, you've been with me through weddings and funerals and you all know about the Wheat Dolphins.

By the time Blogger moved to the New Blogger, LikeTheQueen was so big it wouldn't transfer to the new format. And this newer, supposedly easier to use format turned out to be NotSoEasy for me. I've fiddled with it on and off for the past year and haven't yet figured out if I like it or not. But lately some faithful readers have complained that the old blog triggers a virus warning when they log on. The e-mail account I used to start that blog was compromised many times and I finally abandoned it for a @gmail address. I believe it is time, now, to lay LikeTheQueen mach 1 aside for  LikeTheQueen 2. I believe, my friends, that it is time for a cool change.