Phoenix Rises Again...and Again

Like the mythical bird for which it's named, my shawl has undergone multiple deaths and resurrections since my last post. Unfortunately, this phoenix does not regenerate itself but instead requires a helping hand out of the ashes.

I should have seen it coming. My knitting was going way too smoothly and I was getting way too comfortable.

BAM!

The knitting fates struck first late Thursday night. As I worked my way across the 500+ stitches I realized that two of the pattern sections were off by one stitch. Never one to tink or frog if I can help it, I carefully laddered down two rows and reknit purls and repurled knits and YO'ed and SSK'ed and K2TOG'ed until everything was right. Then I carefully worked across the rest of the row and went to bed, like a good little knitter.

I woke up refreshed and resumed work on my shawl while I contentedly sipped my morning tea. It didn't take me long to get back into the rhythm and I purled my way across the next row without incident. The next row was a little trickier and involved periodically slipping three stitches onto a cable needle and wrapping them before returning them to the working needle. Eventually I reached the end and gratefully purled back across the next row, feeling great satisfaction in having completed the first of three 16-row border repeats.

BAM!

About a third of the way across the next row I realized that I had wrapped the wrong stitches in one section. I could not bear the thought of undoing almost 1100 stitches one by one, unwrapping the wraps as I went, but the prospect of laddering down two rows and rewrapping the correct stitches was equally daunting, since it also involved repositioning various other pattern stitches, including yarnovers and decreases. In the end I chose the latter option but it didn't go as smoothly as it had the previous night. Finally, though, after several hours of fumbling and cursing and gnashing of teeth I had the stitches reassembled in their correct places and I am hopeful that blocking will remove any obvious signs of surgery.

After all that stress on Friday I was ready for a night out. Trooper put on a free concert in Hope and I'm happy to report that after all these years they can still "Raise a Little Hell" and assure us that "We're Here for a Good Time".

The next evening we helped to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday and I finished my Wavy Scarf while we sat around the table after dinner and talked.

I had a perfect Mother's Day. I slept in, knit to my heart's content, and didn't have to cook supper! I received some lovely gifts from Cameron and the kids, including some roses from Colin in an interesting yellow-green colour I'd never seen before.

Aren't they pretty? And I was touched beyond words when one of Matt's friends dropped by with a red rose for "Mom".

With all that knitting time I was able to get a lot done on my shawl and have almost reached the midway point of the the third border repeat without further problems. (Although it is now apparent that I will indeed run out of yarn before I do the beaded edging but I'm not concerned because Make One is providing extra to those who need it.) All I can say is that Phoenix had better behave itself from now on or it may literally find itself reduced to ashes, never, ever, to rise again!

Needles on Fire

Despite the lack of photographic evidence (there is just no way to take a good picture of a lace shawl in progress) let me assure you that I am burning my way through "Phoenix Rising", the first installment in the Year of Lace club. I have now completed the main pattern and begun the border. Yesterday I finished the 14-row set up and must knit three more 16-row repeats before moving on to the beaded edging. Some knitters have run out of yarn so I thought it in my best interest to finish the shawl while more yarn is still available. Like some other YOL knitters I have experienced a couple of problems with the yarn, namely knots (I've had three so far) and crocking (colour transfer) but find these minor irritations. The dye washes off my hands easily (except for around the cuticle of my pointer finger, the one I use to throw with) and I am confident from what I have read that the colour loss will cease after the shawl is given a good soak. As for knots...well, maybe three (so far) is more than you should expect to find in an expensive skein of hand-dyed silk but I don't think it's worth getting too upset over. As much as I don't enjoy joining laceweight yarn, I figure if I was working with smaller skeins I'd have to join them anyway. From all accounts Amy and the team at Make One are doing their best to deal with these unexpected problems. I feel bad for them, especially since this is the inaugural project.

With the Rivendell socks out of the way I decided to join in the May Sockdown on Ravelry. This morning I put the finishing touches on the first of a pair of Violets Rising by Anne Hanson.

The yarn is some beautiful purple, green, and yellow Koigu I bought at the Frolic (the colours change depending on the light and in the photo look more golden). Other than wishing the legs were a bit longer I am happy with how the sock turned out. The pattern is not difficult but definitely requires concentration. Every row of the 24-row repeat has yarnovers and decreases and the centre and side patterns have different repeats. Unlike my experience with other lace patterns I found it hard to get a rhythm going or anticipate the next stitch sequence.

We've had a bit of sunny weather this past week but are still waiting for a full-fledged spring. Regardless of the lack of Mother Nature's cooperation I am going ahead with some spring cleaning and am attacking my office/sewing room first. My approach to this overwhelming task is to do a little at a time, in between knitting stints. It's amazing (and humbling) to see what has accumulated since the last time it was done but I look forward to having a more orderly place to hang out.

Since spring is the time of new beginnings it also seems fitting (pardon the pun) to get myself back into shape. I inevitably put on a few extra pounds over the winter and then have to consciously work on losing them over the spring and summer. Over the past few days I have been eating much more healthily and intend to continue this trend, in addition to working more exercise into my routine. In most aspects of my life I am an all-or-nothing girl and my health is no exception. Either I eat right and exercise or I don't. No middle ground. One of these days I'd like to find a balance but for now it's back to the grindstone. Which reminds me, I have an office to clean...

Frolicing in Toronto

Well, I worked my last shift at the shop on Tuesday, April 23 and with some mixed feelings closed that chapter of my life. The staff gave me a nice send off and I look forward to keeping in touch with them.

There was no time to feel like a lady of leisure, however. Wednesday was spent getting ready for my trip to Toronto and Thursday found me saying good-bye to Chilliwack's drizzly weather and hello to Toronto's spring sunshine.

My timing could not have been better. Not only was I there to help celebrate my sister's birthday,

I also had a chance to attend the Downtown Knit Collective 11th Annual Knitter's Frolic. I have never seen so much beautiful yarn in one place and of course I had to take some home with me.

For socks,

for scarves,

and for shawls.

The week flew by all too quickly but I did manage to get some knitting done. I began my own Mr. Greenjeans sweater from some beautiful teal-turquoise-purple Cascade 220 Paints I acquired in Victoria the weekend before last

and finished up the second Rivendell sock on the planeride home.


Unfortunately, the weather isn't much better at home a week later, although the plum tree is now in full bloom. I am feeling a bit jetlagged and was up way too early this morning--I guess my body is still on Toronto time, three hours ahead. Ever practical, I just look at it as three more hours of knitting time.

April Fool

It is the middle of April.

The magnolia is in full bloom

and the plum tree is about to blossom any day now.

It is snowing.

What a joke.

Enchanted

After finishing my Storm Water scarf I decided it was time to turn my attention to a genuine UFO, a wrap cardigan I had started last October. As with most projects I had begun it with great anticipation and knit up the back, two fronts, and most of one sleeve rather quickly. And then I stalled.

Looking it over I tried to figure out why it had become a UFO, despite my initial enthusiasm. As I measured the sleeve I realized that I had made it a 1/4" too long and needed to frog two rows before I could begin the armhole shaping. And I had eagerly sewn up the sides, neglecting to insert the all-important front ties, so the seams had to be unpicked and redone. Finally, I had been trying to come up with an alternate way of finishing the front and neck edges, hoping to avoid knitting miles and miles of seed stitch and stitching it in place as I went. I guess between them, those three issues were enough to make me abandon the project when something new and fresh came along.

Not surprisingly, the sweater didn't take long to complete, once I set my mind to it. Before 24 hours had passed I had already finished both sleeves. Next came the neckband and ties. In the end I decided the best way really was to knit miles and miles of seed stitch and sew it in place as I went; this took longer than I expected but went smoothly. All that remained was to attach the sleeves and sew the side and underarm seams. The sleeves went in easily (once again thanks to the Veronik Avery tutorial) but for some inexplicable reason I put off doing the rest of the seaming for a couple of days. At last, however, by Saturday night the sweater was seamed and blocked and blissfully done.

The yarn is Filati Cross in colour 119, the pattern an adaptation of the Wrapover Cardigan in Twilley's Freedom Spirit book #455.

So, with one project out of the way, what else is a girl to do but cast on another? I began a pair of Rivendell socks with some beautiful merino-tencel yarn (by West Coast Colour, hand-dyed by Lynne of Knitopia) and immediately fell under the spell of these Lord of the Rings-inspired socks. The autumn colours and silky sheen of the yarn set off the leafy and columned stitch pattern perfectly.

Armed with my new Knit Picks Harmony needles (which I love, love, love) I worked on the first sock almost all day yesterday and got as far as the foot. It was the perfect project to take along to Matt's road test this morning. As I listened to a Stash and Burn podcast on my iPod I nervously knit away on the sock, waiting for him and the tester to return. He passed!

Who knows? Maybe the sock brought him luck...

Worth Waiting For

We've all experienced it. We knit and knit and knit and seemingly make no progress on the article we are working on (Yarn Harlot refers to this as the Black Hole). Well, let's just say that I spent the last few days in outer space...

While going through my trunk looking for UFO's I came across the Storm Water Scarf that I started after Christmas. I had knit a little here and knit a little there but hadn't made much progress. Even though it was too recent a project to be officially considered a UFO I thought it would make a great spring scarf so I decided to finish it up, thinking it would only take me a day or two. I mean, it's a scarf, right? How long could it take?

As it turned out, it took me a lo-o-o-ng time--hours and hours. It was only one skein but it went on forever. I finally finished it last night just before dinner and blocked it before going to bed.

Worth the wait, don't ya think?

Endings, Beginnings, and Unfinished Business

(Warning: Year of Lace Spoiler Alert)

When one door closes, another one opens.

Like most cliches the above saying accurately sums up one of life's little facts in just a few words. Sometimes we open and close those doors by choice, other times opportunity knocks incessantly until we invite it in, and occasionally life slams the door behind us, advising us not to let it hit us on the ass on the way out.

Lately our household has experienced a number of closing and opening doors. In January my daughter, Jessica, made the tough decision to leave an unhappy marriage and move back to Canada and the family home. Shutting the door of her old life firmly behind her, she has entered a new phase of her life, one of promise and a myriad of possibilities. A month later my eldest son lost his job at a manufacturing plant. Being shown the door came almost as a relief to Matt since he had been growing increasingly dissatisfied with his position anyway but was reluctant to leave the security of a steady, well-paying job. Fortunately, with money in the bank he can use this time of unemployment to explore potential career opportunities and start taking the first steps towards establishing a more fulfilling professional life and gaining access to a greater number of doors.

Given Jessica's and Matt's recent experiences, perhaps it is not surprising that I started taking a good, hard look at my own life. I realized that while my personal life brought me great happiness and satisfaction, the same could no longer be said of my job at the yarn shop. As much as I've enjoyed my work in the retail craft industry over the years, I came to the conclusion that it was time to move on to something else and decided to give notice to my employer last Wednesday. I'll finish out my shifts until April 22nd then spend a week visiting my sister in Toronto, as planned. And after that, who knows? Although I know it's time to close the door on this part of my past, I don't have a clue as to which door leads to my future. Thanfully, like Matt, I too can afford to spend some time thinking about what direction I want my professional life to take and don't have to rush my decision.

Endings and beginnings have been the theme of my knitting lately too. I officially finished Twist Thursday morning when I sewed on the buttons, just in time to wear it to work.

This is one of the few knits I am 100% satisfied with. The yarn, the pattern, the finishing, the fit--everything came together.

I could not have timed it better. My first Year of Lace shipment was waiting for me when I arrived home Thursday evening. The yarn is a striking paprika-coloured silk laceweight, the pattern a triangular shawl called Phoenix Rising by Sivia Harding.

I immediately wound the yarn and cast on for the shawl right after dinner; over the next few days I completed two 32-row pattern repeats but set it aside for a while to work on a much less exciting shawl for my mother. She needs it next month for a costume and I decided that the sooner I got it out of the way, the better I'd feel. Finishing it up took me longer than expected (what else is new?) but I did complete it yesterday and tried out my new blocking wires on it.

Considering it's knit from a department store "big ball" of yarn, it actually turned out pretty nicely. Which just goes to show that just about anything looks good in lace. The pattern is Shoalwater Shawl by Fiber Trends.

And what's this about unfinished business? Well, it turns out I have a lot of it. With March Sweater Madness out of the way, Michelle is hosting a UFO KAL for April so I started going through my trunk to see which project (or projects) to work on this month. As I pulled bag after bag out of the trunk and spread them out on the living room floor I was mortified to see just how many sweaters I have in various stages of completion. Or, more accurately, incompletion.

With so much left undone, how to choose? I skipped over projects I know I am never going to complete, for one reason or another. One day when I am feeling destructive I will turn those back into stash. I also passed on those projects that I've only just begun--a few inches of ribbing here, half a back there. Even if I haven't worked on them for a while, I still consider them WIP's, as opposed to UFO's. What remained were those sweaters that were more than halfway done, in some cases much more than halfway. From this group I have narrowed it down to three items: a cabled tank, lacking about 1/3 of a front and requiring some recrossing of cables; a sleeveless Fleece Artist garter stitch jacket; and a long-sleeved wrap cardigan missing 1 1/4 sleeves and the front bands and ties. My goal for April is to complete at least one of these projects, in addition to working on my Year of Lace shawl, a mystery sweater (one day all will be revealed), and the ever-present socks-on-the-go.

As we begin a new month (where did March go?) and a new season (at last!) I anticipate the endings and beginnings to come in the days ahead, in both my life and in my knitting. Meanwhile, I will try to accept that there will always be at least some unfinished business along the way and won't let it stand in the way of stopping to smell the flowers.

Here's to Spring!