a simple yarn

Indulging in a bit of retrospectivity…

One of my favorite pictures from our first days in Ireland.

Had stumbled upon a hidden inlet, rocks relentlessly battered by waves until rounded and smooth. What a treat as we, too, felt relentlessly battered by new cultural experiences in those early days.
How small the Kiddies seem!

Appropriate, then, to come full circle for another visit to the inlet during our last days on the island.

A few other pictorial indulgences thrown in for good measure…

Off the coast of Wicklow

Glendalough, Co. Wicklow

I suppose I ought to be kicked out of the world-wide knitting sorority.

This past weekend was Isobel’s birthday picnic, blending knitters and non-knitters. After lunch and before being rained out (as is common at any outdoor Irish event), Sara pulled out her knitting.

‘What did you bring to knit?’

Ah, the inevitable question.
Without pause, Sharon said she had done her knitting on the lengthy car trip to the picnic.
Birthday-girl Isobel had a traveling sock along.
And me?
Um.
Ehm.
Knitting?

Had to confess that I didn’t have any along with me. Oh. But more telling to this sad tale is that I didn’t even think about bringing any. Oh my. And sadder yet is that Sara sympathetically offered a small on-the-go-mobile-phone-sock for me to work away at, but…I just didn’t feel like it. Oh my goodness.

I must be slipping.

So, while I wallow in the dregs of knittingdom, let me share a little story in this ‘Knit on Monday’ post that has absolutely nothing to do with knitting…thankfully, it has a happy ending.

Attention: Non-Knitting Happy Customer Service Tale Ahead
One of the things I think Europeans do well is…wellies. You know, Wellington boots….rain gear for your feet. And having lived in a perpetually damp culture for the past six years, I knew one souvenir I wanted to take away, since the decision to move to the US had been made, was a nifty pair of wellies.

After lots of faffing about, I finally found a pair, which for me, is the quintessential pair of cool wellies, designed by Ilse Jacobsen. But, ack, none in my size in the local shops! Fair enough, off to the internet…

Apologies, Non-Knitting Post With Happy Tale Is Getting Rather Lengthy…Time For Highlights

1. Go to www.wellieart.co.uk.
2. Measure feet as instructed.
3. Order wellies.
4. Arrive in a few days.
5. Too big. $@£!!!$%&£@
6. Moving soon and starting to panic.
7. Send pathetic email, can I get them in time…will they ship to the US if not?
8. Send back too-large-wellies on Friday.
9. Receive nice email response, also on Friday.
10. Only one pair in stock. Order second pair in correct size, duh, on Friday.
11. Still panicked about remaining time in Ireland (21 days) and delivery time as website says something about 21 days delivery for orders outside UK.
12. Receive nice email from Lorraine on Sunday saying that while they usually don’t work on weekends, they went to warehouse, got my wellies, made a special trip to the post office and they were quite envious of my move to the US.
13. Get new wellies on Monday.
14. They fit. I’m totally chuffed.

Now, who says customer service is dead?

Okay, be honest… does anyone really enjoy swatching?

I find knitting little samples to assure myself of the right gauge to be rather boring and avoid it whenever I can. Yes, I know it saves time in the long run. But what then do I do with this 4×4-inch bit of worked-up yarn? I suppose if I were really creative, I’d keep every single one and eventually make a patchwork quilt. Sigh, I’m just not that ingenious…

Given such feelings, how ironic then that the time I’ve spent on the stair tread project has resulted in one oversized swatch. What began as a tangle of pre-felted I-cord knit to a random length of 315 inches (because I couldn’t be bothered to knit any more and didn’t want to cut off any unused length)…

…ended up as a tangle of post-felted I-cord duly shrunk to a length of 212 inches. That’s a fairly normal result of about 67% of the original length.

After winding it around and pinning into place, I come out with a mat that’s 4.5 x 21 inches. Hmm…what size should a stair tread ought to be? Oops, probably should’ve googled that one before starting.

Erm, regular retail braided rug stair treads measure 8 x 28 inches. Rats, not nearly there. But I have an impression (based on nothing at all really) that our cottage steps are not quite full size. Need Husband-Will to do a quick measure of ‘em before he comes to Dublin. After doing a bit of who-knows-if-its-relevant mathematical computations, I estimate that I need to knit at least another 315 inches of pre-felted I-cord to get a mat that’s nearly the size of the retail ones.

So, what to do with my swatch…um, a nifty trivet perhaps?

Apologies, syrupy Hallmark moment ahead…

Ya wanna know the great thing about spring?
The anticipation of lovely garden promises soon to be fulfilled.
(Right, Hallmark prose done)

Had a nice albeit whirlwind holiday in the US acquainting ourselves with new environs. The cottage is very cute, small by American standards, but suits us well.

What got my heart pumping was…(okay, I should probably complete this sentence with ‘… being reunited with my husband after many weeks.’)

But what really got my heart pumping was…the garden.

A veritable Eden filled with blooms and blooms-to-be. Immediately, I found myself anticipating what the remaining months of spring would bring, knowing that some flowers would come and go before I’d return to see them. Sigh. Still, it was satisfying to witness their infancy. Will definitely need to reacquaint myself with local flora. And will also need a bit of study on a new topic…

…grapes.

The last time I visited Washington, DC, I was 12 years old.

Original Smithsonian Institution building

Washington Monument

Gotta confess that Americans do museums and monuments well…

Depends on your cultural frame of reference, I guess.

Here’s a photo.

To my Irish friends, it’s a familiar name in the weaving world with interesting clothing, home furnishings and a great café to meet up with friends.

To my American friends, it reflects a well-known sight around Annapolis, Maryland, the ubiquitous Navy midshipman.

Yep, a blend of Irish and American culture—Avoca on US soil. Sadly, though, the shop lacks the hip and trendy merchandise of the Irish-based shops. With cheesy Irish folk music in the background, it seems more a caricature, a la ‘The Quiet Man’ or Carroll’s Irish Gifts, than true innovative Irish design.

But still, it’s nice to see a friendly Irish ‘face’ all the same.

Lots of shrinkable, new wool in the yarn stash.

What I Need: Something to cover the wooden stairs in the new US house.

I love wood floors, don’t get me wrong. They look rather lovely in the little vintage cottage we’ve purchased in Alexandria (Virginia, that is, not Egypt). But having lived with wooden stairs before, they are loud under my Exuberant-Eight-Year-Old-Boy’s feet and, when the occasional tumble happens, can be quite painful. Carpeting? Huh-uh. Stair treads? You bet!

So, with that thought lurking in the back of my brain, I am now seeing all those accumulated leftover bits of wool as newly recycled raw material for just such a project, and feeling quite ‘earth friendly’ to boot!

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due Diversion
Now, Leigh Radford has a similar idea in her ‘One Skein’ book, called the Labyrinth Circle Rug. But other than the general idea, it’s at this point that I digress from her pattern. Rather than knitting it flat and having to seam it up the back, I just knit i-cord.

After knitting what seem to be miles and miles of endless i-cord (changing the colours at random to keep from falling asleep), take the i-cord snake; pop it into the washer and felt. After drying, wind into a circle…or oval…whatever shape you fancy. Pin into place and hand stitch with sturdy thread. Presto, instant felt mat, kinda like this one from a few years back…

…but this time, it’s stair treads that I want. And the felting will make ‘em durable, which is also something that I want. The trick will be to figure out how long to make the ‘snake’ to get a final mat the size of each step. I’m in for a bit of trial and error it seems. So, I’m taking my scraps of wool and 2 extremely short and very innocent looking wooden dpns for some mind-numbingly-boring airplane knitting*. But honestly, the thought of those brightly coloured mats keeps my needles going!

…sans photos, I’m afraid.

So, where are we at the moment?  In the US, at least for the next week.  Kiddies and I need to return to Dublin to pack up, finish school, say our farewells, which is the crappity part of this whole transition.  Final departure from Ireland happens mid-June.

Right then, during the next month or so, posts might be here, there or anywhere, as time and energy allow.

Because of dodgy internet connections, I can’t respond individually to the very lovely comments that have been left.  But thanks so much for a warm and hearty welcome back to the US.  Have to confess that culture shock (of the reverse kind) is creeping in.  But, all will be well as soon as I get into a knitting group and crank up the needles again.  Ahhh!

Okay, just one picture to remind me of the Dublin mountains before we left for our quick US trip…local free range sheep in the back garden.

Today is the day we do all the final signing of papers for the new house in the US. But it was yesterday when I found my ‘new home.’

It took no more than 14 hours after the Kiddies and I landed on US soil before the family walked by this shop in Old Town Alexandria.

Knit Happens

As you can imagine, the gravitational pull was overwhelming, and shamelessly leaving the others to find their own amusement, I dashed in. Okay, I say ‘dash,’ but it was more like a leisurely stroll, for who could zip in and out of this fine establishment without taking time to appreciate its ambiance, right?

Doing a poor job of controlling saliva glands, I tried to look like the Well-Traveled-Just-Arrived-From-Europe-and-Other-World-Destinations knitter, but I think they saw through that façade. In mere moments, though, I learned of their knitting night, community outreaches, drop-in-and-knit opportunities and (gasp) the Maryland Sheep and Wool Show going on this weekend with the Ravelry gang in attendance! Hey, don’t I live near Maryland now?

Well, it probably won’t happen for me this weekend (sigh), but there’s always next year…plenty of time for my Irish friends to plan a fibre field trip, eh?

Lace project is still waiting, but before I put away the cotton yarn, it’s time for one more go on an impromptu baby hat.

Been knitting for a few years now.
Have indulged in intarsia.
Have copped onto cables.
Have dabbled in design.
Am fearful of Fair Isle.
That is, until now.

The thought of Fair Isle has scared me, to be honest. All those strands of yarn thwoinging themselves into a shameless tangle, maintaining order only by my feeble attempts at manual dexterity. Ack! Had the same feeling when subduing the intarsia beast.

But something small was an ideal way to overcome my irrational fear. Right, so taking a simple design from a Debbie Bliss bootie pattern and adapting it to another pattern-free cotton baby hat, the result is, well, a fairly passable imitation of Fair Isle. Kinda wishing I’d put a couple of rows of ‘checker boarding’ above and below the main design, though. Looks a little plain, I think. But, something to consider for next time. And I have to say that I’m liking the ‘SKP’ rather than ‘K2TOG’ decreases on the top of this hat, creating a cute swirl on the crown, although the photo makes the hat look a little wonky…needs a cute little baby head in it!

And now that I have a few babies among my acquaintance, the opportunities for experimenting with various designs will be plentiful, I’d say.

Well I thought that by this time I would be busy.
Really busy.
Extremely busy.
But we’ve decided to let the professionals come in and pack up all our worldly goods.
It will take them about 2 days to pack up and load the container.
Self packing would entail about 4 weeks of chaotic upheaval.
So let them do it.
Nice and easy.
Costly, but easy.

So, what do I do with all this time not spent packing boxes?
Deciding what will fit into the limited space, sorting, organizing, giving away, throwing away…

…and the odd bit of furniture-restoration-style-crafting. See that china cupboard?

A lovely old primitive piece, filled with wood worm and destined for the burn pile. Can’t envision that, but thanks to the generosity of Lucy-Of-The-Lodge, I can now envision it holding cones and skeins of yarn in my new fibre workroom (studio would be too lofty a term, I think).

So, time to roll up the sleeves and de-bug it before the movers come. A few coats of bug-killer and oil should do the trick before it’s loaded into the container. And here’s hoping that the bug’s life in this case is a very short one.

Yep, a nice little souvenir from Ireland.

In the midst of moving our family to the US after six years in Ireland, I ought to be up to my eyeballs in boxes, right?

Need to pack up the house.
Need to switch the utilities and forward the post.
So what shall I do today?
Pick up my needles and knit.

Need to finish the lace bolero.
Need that jacket for upcoming summer weddings.
So what shall I do today?
Knit a baby hat.

Spoiler Warning for Sharon, Cathal and Baby Rohan:
Not a lot of knitting going on these days and am desperate for a fibre post, so if you continue reading, please be forewarned that the package coming to you welcoming Baby Rohan into the world won’t be a surprise.

Where was I? Oh right, baby knitting.

Now I realise that in recent months, I’ve been suffering from a disease…well, more of a knitting disability. I can’t seem to knit a pattern as it’s written. A tweak here. An adjustment there. I seem incapable of knitting something without an alteration—and the simple baby hat also falls victim to my malady.

What I love about baby knitting is that it uses small quantities of yarn—bits and bobs of cotton—to become lovely little wearables. But what shall I knit?

Love this hat, but have done it a few times before. Yawn.

Candy Cane Hats by Penney Kolb, from this book compiled by Melanie Falick…

Love this hat, but not sized for babies. Sigh.

Jesse’s Topknot Hat, from this book by Andrea and Gayle Shackleton…

So, taking the baby measurements, rolled edge and knotted top of the first hat and marrying it to the two-row stripe and basic shape of the second hat, fiddling around and making adjustments as I go and presto, a new one-of-a-kind baby hat.

Well, he’ll have to grow a bit, as I certainly didn’t do any gauge swatches after all the diversions, but hopefully he won’t mind. Matched with a pair of baby mittens and there ya go…welcome to the world, Rohan.