Waltzing Knitilda

Hooker, The Happy... Ganchillo Contento

So at last I received my copy of Debbie Stoller's new SnB book -- The Happy Hooker. 

Hee.  Hee.  In my quick perusal, it looks good.  Good illustrations. Cheeky and funny. Quite a few projects I would make (if my to-do list weren't quite so long).

Including this one.

Oh wait.

I DID make it.

Heee. 

It's called Strut, and it's on pages 128-131.

It looks different on the model.

It's a really fast hat to make.  Then you felt it.  Noro Kureyon does all the colorwork for you.

I see no conflict between the knitting urge and the crochet urge.  They're completely different.  I could never get knitting to work like this for this sort of hat.  I like that I can make forms more easily with crochet.

Unless I want something drapey and fluid.  Then it's knitting.

Love having the choice.

The Healing Power of Koolaid

So why is it that a fruit smell, wet wool and gleeful kids are such a great combo? 

The magic of kool aid dyeing.  Today I volunteered to dye skeins of Knitpicks dye-your-own wool of the Andes.  With about 22 3d graders as the actual dyers.  The price is right, and the wool is actually pretty soft and has a great put-up (220 yds).

All for a good cause:  the PS 75 school auction. Next week. You too can bid on a slew of items here.  Vacations, massages, NYC restaurants, you name it.  Even knitting lessons.  I'm counting on there being a lot of knitters at the school, and that they will want this hand-dyed yarn at the auction.

What fun we had.  The kids worked in teams of 2, with their line partners.  I decided that it would be best to limit the palette, so we had plastic cups of ice blue, lemonade, and cherry or watermelon cherry.  Oh and one of grape too.  Two squirt bottles contained lemonade and blue for that dotted spotted look, and for color changing accents.  Each kid got to pick one primary color to start.  They either poured their color, or spotted it on from the squirt bottle.

To start.  Then creative madness took hold.  Stripes appeared, dots over stripes, and who knew that cherry with that blue and some yellow would look like an icee?

Finally, each skein was zapped in the microwave for 2 minutes, a bit more if they needed to exhaust the dye.  After cooling down, they went to drip dry -- and I do mean drip-- to the PTA office.  Which now smells like koolaid.

Some of the kids in the class had done this with me a few years ago, when they were in first grade.  This was better.  Much less nerve-wracking.

What happened to the yarn we had left over from a few years ago?  It went to make this.

For the first child of the kids' first grade teacher. Who remembered the many fun classes we had, and the many skeins of koolaid hanging from clotheslines strung across the room. Enticing the mice with that fruit smell.   She is not a knitter, but appreciates those who knit.  And dye. Especially her own kids.

It's that circle of life thing.  Very satisfying it is to give back a present whose roots reach back a few years.

This was also my first ever Baby Surprise Jacket.  As much of a fan that I have always been of Elizabeth Zimmerman I can't believe it took me this long to make this pattern.  It was fun.  I would make it again.  Especially in variegated yarn; I think in plain it would be a little boring, for me anyway.  But it really shows off color changes. The pattern is in EZ's Knitting Workshop and I think also in the new Opinionated Knitter.  (One of these days I will stop sighing over Opinionated Knitter and tell myself that yes it's ok to buy it for myself as a present.)

See the little goldfish bowl buttons?  Aren't they cute? They came from Knitty City, the new yarn store on the upper west side. The *other* yarn store.  Say hi to Pearl the owner if you go.

And here's the sweater from the back. You can see that it's gradated in color from bottom to top.  What I did was find the color that all the little balls of yarn had in common.  That was yellow.  Then I organized the color changes to go from the red end of the yellow spectrum to the blue end.

I so lucked out on those buttons though.

The wool was originally LB fisherman's wool, a worsted that takes up dye well.  I've also used it in felted koolaid dyed projects and been pleased with it. The KnitPicks though is just a wee bit softer.  We'll see how it handles when it dries.

So color, wet wool and kids are an excellent tonic for the soul.

Meantime, don't tell anyone but that auction always has some great deals in it.

Testing... testing...

Ahem.  Testing. Testing.  Phth phth.  krghh krghhh. Anyone out there still?  No I have not abandoned you dear readers.  Only crawled into a hole out of which I'm now ready to leave.

Since last we saw our intrepid heroine....

We had the biggest blizzard snow dump ever in NYC history. Twenty-nine inches in Central Park. 

At left, the view from the front parlor window.  Note the taxi's front wheel and how you can't see it.

Here you see the charming juxtaposition of snow on the outside of the air-conditioning unit.  A lovely reminder of better times to come, and the impermanence of all pesky things such as weather conditions. 

And to round out the admittedly narrow window tour of Harlem in a snowstorm, here is the back fire escape, from my studio window.

I love snow.  I really do.

But....

that's not all folks.

Lookie here.

Oh my.  What could it be.

Hmm.

Why, why yes. 

It's the most recent issue of Wild Fibers.

Hmmm.  Myrna Stahman's in it, and there are some great patterns, and a most fascinating article about bison and their delicious fiber.  But, wait.  Could it be?

Heeeee.

My article about the efforts to revive rare native breed Hebridean sheep on the Hebridean  organic farm of Ardalanish.

A truly magical place, run by enchanted people with the impossibly poetic names of Aeneas and Minty.  I had the privilege of visiting their farm last summer.  They also have one of the last weaving studios in the islands, where Bob Ryan makes the most gorgeous items.  They do sell Hebridean yarn, as well as shetland -- just email them.  And you can find their incredible blankets and couture wear made of their fabric at Thistle & Broom.  When I grow up I will get myself this gown. Yes indeedy.

It still gives me chills to think about Ardalanish.  I was there as part of the Mull adventure that included such fine folks as Jean and Liz and Freyalyn and Debbie New, and about 20 more most excellent knitters and spinners from the US, Canada, Australia, Tasmania, Ireland and England who do not have a web presence.  I've probably left off a country and for that I am sorry.  But I do not exaggerate when I say that week or so was one of the happiest weeks of my life, and the friends I made there are with me in some way every day.  And they always will be. Especially when I swirl just enough water into a single malt scotch. Or spin. Not at the same time though.

Anyway, there is magic in Ardalanish, and I hope I was able to give a peek of it here, as there is no way I could have fully done the Mackays and Mull justice.

The biggest thing though that's happened in the last few weeks is that we've been in intense negotiations with our employer for the artist program we've run in France for the last decade or so.

We are not going back.  You may remember the very public passing of the baton last summer from Doris to me.  Here.  Followed by the awarding of the French Legion of Honor in the fall to her.

It was the Americans, not the French, who, um, uh, ah.  Yeah, let's just leave it at that.

We love the French.

In times of trouble, I go back to channeling the high school musicals I was in.  Sometimes it's Anything Goes, sometimes it's West Side Story.  Pretty much never is it Bye Bye Birdie. With all that's been going on, it's been The Sound of Music.

Especially that scene where the Mother Abbess is telling Maria "when God closes a door He opens a window," and proceeds to belt out Climb Every Mountain.

So I'm looking for open windows these days.  Especially now that the blizzard's over.

Part II of "wtf happened to ..." next time.  With more goodies to show.