Yarn Harlot, Eat My Dust!

Me, Mad Trend-setter, first thing in the morning before I am fully awake, and therefore before reason stays my hand. Note camera position cleverly hides 'thing' happening between my chin and neck.

Dear Blog-

There! I've said it!

To the untrained eye, you might think that no one would look at me and say, Now there goes a mad Trend-setter! Now, in my younger days, I like to think that I did start more than a few mad stampedes to the Next Big Thing - Annie Lennox's crew cut? I had it first! - and yet I have hung up my fashion-forward hat in later years and settled down to a quiet life (the demands of trend-setting are just huge, really, and constant, as well. Quite exhausting.) rather cleverly disguised as a middle-aged woman. (See above.)

But that old Trend-o-Meter still emits a sharp wail now and then, and I hit on the next best thing with a fervor that recalls my old days as the person to watch. It's like observing a well-trained bird dog hit the scent: their whole body goes all stiff and quivery, and their nose points unwaveringly directly at the item in question, with their tail straight out behind them - probably to keep them from tipping forward in their eagerness. And while these days it might be in regards to yarn and all things knitting rather than the latest clothing trends and hairstyles, let me tell you, I still have it!

After all, I knew felting was the next big thing (may I just interject here: Nicky Epstein Eat My Dust!), and got the LYSO at the Evil Yarn Shop to order in tons of Cascade 220, and it was our (their) best seller until they later closed out their yarn dept. (Actually, it was an evil LYSO, not an evil shop. I mean, it wasn't built on an ancient Indian burial ground or anything.) I knew socks were the next big thing. I knew lace was the next big thing, and that lace shawls were hot on its heels. Right now I can tell you that this winter, or next summer at the latest, Kauni Effektgarn and patterns for it will be the next big thing.

But last summer sometime I was trawling the internet and found several mentions of the Mystery Stole KAL, and found Melanie Gibbon's wonderful site, Pink Lemon Twist, where she blogs and sells her incredible lace stole designs. Unfortunately, I found out about the KAL too late to join in (ok, so I missed that one, shoot me!), but signed up for the special notice when the next one came out, and bought the patterns from MS2 and MS1 (and yet another, I think). I am within a few measly days of finishing her Scheherazade design, the MS2, and it is gorgeous.

So roll forward to this year, earlier last month, when I made my way blearily to the computer one morning. Morning routine: Wake at 7 without benefit of alarm, don apparel, check peak flow, stagger over to other end of the room, go into loo and pee if required, if not, unplug air filter and drag it down to the main end of the house. Plug it in and switch it on, stagger past computer and switch it on, go to cabinet in kitchen and take asthma meds. Stagger back to computer chair and collapse, read news and emails. This one lovely morning when I found the notice from Melanie that the MS3 KAL was starting and that one could sign up as of that day, you can bet that I tossed off my weariness like an old Madonna hair-rag and raced right over there and was number 12 to sign up. Or at least, there were 11 members already when I went to the site to join. Who knows, there may have been a Miss Speedy Fingers already there, signing up at #12 and leaving 13 for me. It's possible. My point is, I was there pretty darned fast. I may not have made the Top 10, but I was like this close, really. And have watched in amazement as the group has grown by leaps and bounds every day.

I'll admit, I did go on Special Notices only about a week or two into the group as there was just an overwhelming amount of email, and it seemed that everyone was too excited to trim their posts, to ask themselves the essential email question, Does the whole world really care deeply about what I'm about to say? and other things that you hopefully learn when you join in groups with thousands of other list members. So instead I read my normal-people emails each morning, and then check into the messages on the group website and skim for things I might want to read there. This wise move on my part has preserved my sanity, my reputation as a fairly nice person in the knitting world, and my computer from crashing under the weight of 361 'me, too!' emails each day.

So this morning, as I was skimming the posts since yesterday at about 7:30 Pacific time, I see that Yarn Harlot has joined the KAL, along with many other of her Harloteers. I say welcome to them! Welcome to you all, the more the merrier! But hey, a pack of Johnny-Come-Lately's, or what? Now I know, as goes Yarn Harlot, so goes the nation, but hey, I beat you on this one! :-P

In the meantime I have printed up Clue 2, and since our LYS is closed this week for the holidays, I have no place I have to be and a clean house. I'm gonna be knittin today.

In other news, last nite DH and I were invited to go along with our market friends to the local comedy club, where a fine time was had by all. Ok, the MC was so not funny that it was painful to watch, but the rest made up for it. When we came out it was still hot and dry - we had been so hopeful, the skies were dark and ominous as we drove across town to the club, with a nice wind kicking up - usually good signs of an imminent monsoon storm on the horizon. Then we noticed that the dust on the windshield had that uniquely spotty appearance. And the very occasional puddle at the side of the dry streets. Cops with a whole block closed off. Cops directing traffic at darkened stoplights. A whole tree at the corner of River and First tumbled over into the sidewalk and road. More puddles, more tree debris. The phone book that some fool left at the foot of our mailbox now resting in the driveway of the house two doors down the street. And the final bit of evidence that we had MISSED the first monsoon of the season? Yes, Mr. Nightmare clinging to our front screen door when we got home. Too big, too hairy, and with far too many legs, he looks as though he must have dragged a whole cow down into his little lair before he went to sleep last winter. Oh, dammit, he's back. Did I mention that he's big?

But the monsoons have started. And I got the jump on the Yarn Harlot. Could life be better?

Off to wash dishes, self, and commence knitting-
Lynda

The Sherman Heel

Dear Blog

Sing it with me!
I hate Tucson in the summer!
I hate Tucson in the fall,
I like Tucson in the winter, when it drizzles,
I hate Tucson in the summer, when it sizzles.

I hate Tucson, oh why, oh why, am I in Tucson?

Yes, Blog, summer has arrived with a vengeance these past few weeks. Yesterday was the 4th, and it was predicted to be so hot (113 degrees) that no one wanted to go anywhere or do anything. At 9 p.m., as we were standing in the backyard looking out over the city to watch the fireworks, a hot wind was blowing and it was nasty out there! I finally came back inside to our lovely air-conditioning and watched them through the window. I must have done something awful in my last life to have to live in hell like this. The bright spot on our horizon is that we should have the monsoon rains starting in the next few days, and that makes a big difference in our climate. The afternoon storms can be pretty violent, with tornados, micro-bursts, hail, lightening-caused wildfires, tarantulas, etc., but at the same time, they can drop the temps by about 25 degrees in half an hour. If I don't post here for a while it will be because I was arrested for dancing naked out in the backyard during the first rain that we have seen in months. Please donate to any efforts to raise bail for me. Although I cannot in all truth and honesty promise that I would never do it again. Much more of this hellish heat and I will not be held accountable or responsible for my actions. Just so you know.

So let's talk about knitting, because that will soothe us, won't it? Yes it will!

THE SHERMAN HEEL, SIMPLIFIED

We all like to talk about our favorite spot for knitting in the house. It may be your comfy couch, it may be a chair that is specially purchased and dubbed 'The Knitting Chair' and meant to be sat in by no other, surrounded on all sides by half-full baskets containing half-finished projects. You may even be lucky enough to have a Knitting Room, for God's sake! But let's face it, sooner or later, we all find ourselves having to knit in front of the computer. And that is what I found myself doing last week.

There has been a lot of chat on some of the knitting lists lately about the Sherman Heel. So I had to go investigate. I always keep my Sock-Project Bag on a peg by the door, ready and waiting for me whenever I know I have to go endure a period of pointless waiting in a setting over which I have no control. Like the Dr.'s office, for example. If I can be there on time, if I could run a career of appointments for twenty years pretty much ALWAYS on time, how is it that someone who has so much more education than I do that they feel they are entitled to condescend to me, cannot be competent enough to keep to a schedule? Can someone explain this to me? (Ok, Lynda, breathe deep, think thoughts of winter and yarn.) Phew! Ok, so I keep that little bag by the door to grab and take with me, and I always have a sock going that only gets worked on on those occasions. And I find that I can get quite a bit done without giving it much thought.

So once I get my pattern figured out and have cast on, I take that little puppy along and work on it til the leg is finished. Then I'll make a point of working the heel at home where I can lay out the heel pattern before me, and after the heel is turned it goes back into the bag for working the foot when I next need it. I was at the heel-working point with my current sock, and so I thought I would give the Sherman Heel a go. Now, you can google for Sherman Heel, as I did, and find lots of references to complicated explanations of how to do a Sherman Heel. Or you can stay here with me, and I'll lay it out for you in a few easy-peasy steps. Your choice. Still here? Ok.

You might be asking yourself, who is the Sherman Heel when he is at home? And that is a good question, really. The vague but fairly accurate answer is that the Sherman Heel is a method of working a short-row heel that is named for the inventor's father, Sherman, because he apparently was a clever and practical guy. I think.

The beauty of the Sherman Heel is that it is a short-row heel worked with only two wrapped stitches, one on either side, and no holes! So grab your sock and let's dive in. What? You don't know how to do short rows? Oh, yes you do! You've been doing them for years. You know all those times you have put your knitting down in the middle of the row, and when you picked it up again, you discovered 6 inches later that you started off in the wrong direction mid-row? You did a short row, albeit unintentional. My sister used to be the Queen of Inadvertent Short Rows. Oh, hi, Sis!

Set-up:

1- At the bottom of your sock leg, work stockinette stitch rows that are equal in number to 1/10th of your cast-on sts. I have 64 sts on my needle, so I knit 6 Stockinette stitch rows.

2- Divide your total number of sts in half, must be an even number - for me this is 32. These are your heel sts. Plus a wrapped stitch on either side, that remain instep stitches, really. At the end of your last Ss row, knit 1/4 of your total sts (half your heel sts) past your beginning-of-round marker, then wrap your next st and turn. For me, I knit 16 sts past my marker, wrapped the next st, and turned.

3- Slip the first st on your needle, purl to 1/4 of your total cast-on sts past your marker again, wrap your next st, and turn. On my sock, it was Sl 1, P 15, slip my marker, p 16 (total of p 31), w&t.

4- Now, ignore those wrapped stitches as you work the heel, you won't need them again until the very end. Don't count them in the following directions, they magically go back to being instep sts now. Poof!

Heel, Part One:

1- Sl 1, Knit to one stitch before the slipped st that began the previous row, turn. For me this was- Sl 1, K 30, turn.

2- Sl 1, Purl to one stitch before the slipped st that began the previous row, turn. On my socks this was Sl 1, P 29, turn.

3- Repeat the two previous rows, working one less st on each row, until you arrive at your magic turning number, which is 1/5th of your original cast-on number, and again, it must be an even number. For me this is 12 - 6 sts on either side of my marker. End ready to begin a purl row. Your last (knit) row is sometimes called the pivot row.

Now you can do this whole process the way I did the first time - by moving those ignored sts at the end of each row over to a spare dpn. This helps for beginners to understand which sts you can still play with, and which are out of bounds for the moment. After you have worked the heel once, you can probably leave those sts on your working needles, understanding which are the ones to ignore til the next stage. So here I have 10 slipped sts held on the needle to the left, 6 sts remaining on my center needle, and 10 slipped sts held on the needle on the right.

Knitting at the computer

My Sherman Heel at the End of Part One

Heel, Part Two:

Now you are ready to turn the corner and work back in the other direction, picking up the slipped sts that you have saved, one at a time. This process uses a technique I have not seen before for short-rows (ok, maybe for Japanese short rows) called the encroachment. Don't be frightened by the word, this is easy to do. To work a knit encroachment (ke): With the tip of your right needle, pick up the purl bump below the next st on your left needle. Lift this purl bump up onto the needle next to its stitch. Knit the two together through the back of the loop (tbl). To work a purl encroachment (pe): With the tip of your right needle, pick up the purl bump below the next st on your left needle. Lift this purl bump onto your left needle, right next to its stitch. Purl the two together.

1- Sl 1, purl to last stitch before the slipped stitch that began the previous row. Slip this last st, and work a pe on the next stitch. Turn. For me this was: Sl 1, p10, sl 1, pe.

2- Sl 1, knit to last stitch before the slipped stitch that was worked at the beginning of the previous row. Slip this last st, and work a ke on the next stitch. Turn. On my sock this was: Sl 1, k 11, sl 1, ke.

Continue in this manner - slipping the first stitch of every row, working across to just before the first st slipped in the previous row, slipping that stitch, and working an encroachment in the next stitch - until you have worked in all of your previously slipped sts from Part One ending after a knit row. Turn.

3- Sl 1, purl across to wrapped st from set up, lift the wrap up onto your needle, and purl it together with its stitch, much like working a pe, but with the wrap rather than with the purl bump. Turn.

4- Knit across to your second wrapped stitch, and lift the wrap up onto your left needle, knit it and the stitch tbl.

You are done! Continue by working across your instep sts and go on your merry way, working the foot of your sock. You can look for extra info at the two sites that I parsed out to condense into the above - here, and here.

My Completed Sherman Heel


Mystery Stole 3

I'm sure by now that you can't help remembering that we got the first clue in the MS3 a week ago tomorrow, so in 24 hours, and along with about 4500 other people from all over the world I'll be working on Clue 2. Of course you remember, this has been haunting your dreams, and has been the first thing you think of when you awakened for the last month or so.

Obviously the entire point of this, aside from the whole 'making a gorgeous lace stole' thing, is that it is a MYSTERY! We have absolutely no idea what it will look like when finished, although considering Melanie's previous patterns, we know it will be gorgeous. We don't know what the theme is. And it is driving everyone on the list crazy. They are guessing right and left. It is like watching one of those scenes in a Three Stooges movie, where they are all running in circles like maniacs, babbling, bumping into each other and just generally not knowing where they are going. Only multiplied by 1500. Don't get me wrong, they all seem like perfectly nice people, but I don't think half of them have read what few and tiny crumbs of hints that Melanie has so far tossed out regarding the theme.

Alright, I have made two guesses myself, Odile and Odette from Swan Lake, and Persephone. But I'm preserving my dignity and stopping there, I swear it!

Below are photos of my finished Clue 1 blocking, after blocking, and a detail with beads.

Finished Clue 1 blocking

Finished Clue 1 after blocking

Finished Clue 1 detail with beads

No, I have no earthly idea what the darned thing will be. Mystery.

And finally, the other project I worked on last week, a pair of felted baby booties. Ok, they were supposed to be a pair of felted baby booties. The pattern is from the Interweave Knits website, and I admit I am too lazy to look for the link right now. It is written to be worked with Paton's Classic Merino on size US 2 needles. Yes, folks, that is correct. Knitting for felting on a size 2 needle. But unlike you, I had to actually knit the danged things just to prove that knitting done on size 2 needles at a gauge of something like 5.5 sts/in just doesn't felt. Take a look...

pre-felt

post felt

Not a lot of difference, except for maybe a bit more fuzziness. Ah, well.

I had better close this now. One doesn't wake up in the morning saying, You know, today I think I will spend my entire day, off and on, posting about the Sherman Heel. Cause if you did say that, you would immediately recognize the pure insanity of planning such a day, and roll over and go back to sleep.

Which means it must be time for a nap.

Lynda

P.S. I have set up my own etsy shop. Now I need to put something in it!