Back from the windy city

Kitty likes knitting!

Wow it has been a long time! I can barely remember what I have been up to since the last post. I promised myself I would post more but things get away from me so fast. I did spend a week in Chicago for a library conference which was amazing. Chicago is a beautiful city, amazing buildings and great food. We spent a day sight seeing around downtown and at the Art Institute. I saw one of my favorite painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. His style is so delicate. You cannot see a single brushstroke on the surface of the painting but it has such a depth of color. I saw it across the room and it took my breath away.

The cables have strong definition

This post is supposed to highlight my Valkyrie Vest. I knit this for the Ravelympics as part of Team Redheart. Those crafters are great. They are funny, supportive and so loyal to RH. No yarn snobs in that group. I have to say that the RH group is my favorite Ravelry group. They make everyone feel welcome.

The vest is made from the staple RHSS. I used 2 skeins in Real Teal to knit up the 36 bust size. The pattern is from Interweave and I believe a free download. The vest in knit in two pieces. The cables start at the bottom and spread across the back and front splitting into a v neck. I love the way the cables move across the vest and it knits up so fast since you are always eager to do one row of cabling to see it move across. The pattern charts are easy to follow but this is not a beginner pattern at all. Fit wise I like it. It was written as a plus size pattern and has a nice rounded shaped that doesn’t make me feel like a sausage in it like other vests do. I plan on wearing it with short sleeves or a tank. I am pretty happy with the way this one turned out. It makes me want to tackle a cabled cardigan. I keep mulling it over but I want to do a cardigan for Nate before he heads off to school.

In progress shot.  I love the back center cable.

Right now I am working on the front bands of my top down raglan I had to stop carrying it around in my backpack it is just too big. I love the fit of it and want to finish it so it can become my at work summer sweater for the air conditioning. I am also zipping along with the Citron. The only bad thing about it is that it gets bigger after each section so progress slows as you work but I love the ruching and the yarn is very nice. I am finally using the Knitpicks Shadow in Redwood I bought when I finished my undergrad degree in 2006. It took me so long to figure out what to make out of it!

Quickly, quickly. I finished reading Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellows (very funny and sad), Kim by Rudyard Kipling and  A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.  This one was so good but the ending got pretty weird with the whole religious episode but it was well written not my favorite Forster but well worth the read.  I am working on the U.S.A. trilogy by John Dos Passo  and Nostromo by Joseph Conrad.

I just emptied the litter box get cleaning human.

 Luna is doing well we are still getting used to each other. She is a digger and will empty out her litter box if she gets mad. We are trying to figure out a solution to that since she refused to go inside anything so we can’t get her a box with a lid. Right now we have the tallest dishpan we can find that she still get into but she just sees it as a challenge! Cats are sooooo different than dogs! It is a good thing she is so cute!

Luna needs her beauty sleep.

Valkeryie Vest (rav link) It is a free pattern from Knitting Daily but you need to register

Citron from Knitty

Nate’s sweater? Smokin' by Jared Flood.

Nighthawks

Purple Aran you are done!

Ah how can I think about knit wear when it is October and 85 degrees in Philly? Alas behold the purple aran vest! Totally finished and I must say pretty snazzy. This vest was my complex project to date. I loved the all over cableing and did learn much about keeping multiple line cable patterns straight. I actually finished the vest months ago but was having some trouble figuring out how to pick up stitches around the arm holes. The key is having the correct sized circular. Lucky me I had the needlemaster! All hail the needlemaster.

I can't say it enough people. Get some stitch markers, get the closed ring kind, and make sure they are not too big. Use them and your stitch counter! I got some great button, not too Irishy and I think they look really good with purple. (Oh how I wish it was not acrylic but maybe when grad school is over) More about the progress can be found by selecting the purple aran vest links.

School is going well. I am taking two classes this quarter one on library automation and the other on internet information resource design. Loving the web design class. My first project a knitting website of course!

Zen and the Art of Knitting

I have been reading Zen and the Art of Knitting by Bernadette Murphy. I received a copy of the book from Nate for Christmas this year (nice son, nice boy) It is a nice book to read and thought provoking I really like the book. It has really made me think about how I really feel about knitting. One of the things she takes about how knitting is a process. I dig knitting because it appeals to my logical side. I like to count things and organize things (cataloger) and knitting lets me see the pattern in things. I also like the actual physical act of knitting and don't worry so much about the finished product. My phobia of wearing my handicrafts should be a post in and of itself. But the process of knitting now that is fun. Maybe that is why I like to make cables so much.

One other thing she talks about is the act of concentrating on the person you are knitting for when your working. I have been doing this along even when crocheting. When I make a blanket for someone I think about them, what they are like and why I care for them. I only make blankets for people that move me in some way and I like to think that they like the blanket or what I knit for them because they can sense that I worked the stitches with them on my mind.
I have been thinking about moving towards a more spiritiual centered life (not a religious life) and I see my love of knitting as a progression towards this goal.

As for the sweater vest 12 inches and counting. It has gotten to be a community project people on the bus check it out and people ask how is the vest? My friend at work's mother recently passed away. I have been thinking about her and my friend while knitting. He always wears the most elaborate and well knitted aran vests and sweater I have ever seen his mother was a fantastic knitter. I was envious of his vests and that became the basis for the vest.