Unsuitable Weather for Woolies

We've been enjoying gorgeous spring-like weather here in Detroit. It was 60 degrees and sunny here today. We've been so far down in the deep freeze, that I don't recall the last time we had a day this balmy. Maybe once all of those ice crystals attached to my neurons melt a bit, I'll be able to remember. All kinds of creatures are starting to stir. The squirrels have lost their minds and have entertained the neighborhood with their daring high wire, reproductive dances.

So far, I've killed one fly, one spider and think I hear something crawling around under the family room. I see a little tunnel adjacent to the house. I have no idea what's living down there with the hornet's nest, but it may want to move out before they wake up. Dumb landlords. If they'd allowed us to have a dog, they wouldn't be coming home to find anything living under their family room. Serves them right.

In the meantime, the bank told us they'll be ready to close in 10 days.

Can't. Wait.

Even though it's a little too warm to think about wearing my bulky Icelandic sweater, I'm persevering on the knitting front. In the photo above, there are only about 6, maybe seven rows until the body of the sweater is complete. The ridge line down the middle of the sweater is the steek line. The sweater gets side lined after tonight because once the body is done, I set it aside to work on the sleeves, but I'm not supposed start those until Saturday. When those are done, and they're knit in the round, too, they'll be joined to the body and I'll knit the yoke.

So what do you think? Too spotty, or spot on?

As a reminder, don't forget to leave your comment on Monday's post for your chance to win a one year subscription to Knitcircus!

It's a Circus! A Knitcircus!

Today is a rather exciting day for me. I have a my very first guest blogger. I'm so thrilled, I've got my yarns in a knot! My guest of honor today is, Jaala Spiro, Editor-in-Chief of Knitcircus Magazine.

Sit down, have a cup of tea or coffee and read all about Jaala, her friends and their adventures in publishing a knitting magazine. I'm always impressed by how small groups of determined women seem to be able to accomplish so much good. Be sure to leave a comment to win your opportunity at a year's subscription to this online magazine and 4 pattern collections. The luscious photos in today's post, courtesy of Knitcircus magazine, are just a taste of what awaits in the Knitcircus, Issue #9, Spring collection.

I won't keep you waiting any longer. Here is Jaala and the story of Knitcircus:

As a massage therapist specializing in chronic pain, a wife, mom to a three-and-four year old and ardent knitter and sewist, I had plenty to do when Knitcircus first started. A friend and I had been publishing an old-skool Zine for moms of young children for a couple of years and we sensed that it was time to move on.

One day I got a chance to read the Vanity Fair special Africa edition, and went outside to sit on our concrete step and think. So much need in the world (you see that every day, Rudeek!); what can one woman do? How could we send just a tiny bit of the affluence around us to help out other people?

Then it hit me—knitters! Knitters are a generous bunch and can always find a little bit extra for a ball of yarn or a magazine….Yes, that’s it, we’ll make a knitting magazine! I wanted to be able to help people out, but not bring other people down. A knitting magazine would provide something fun for knitters and with any proceeds, we could pass on the good cheer.

Of course, local charity means a lot, and we do as much of that as we can, but I knew that the amounts we raised wouldn’t be huge, so decided to target Heifer International and KIVA because each of them help people learn and improve their lives and each of them allow people to pass on the gift to others as they succeed.

Fast forward two years, and what started as something printed on my laser printer grew into a glossy magazine distributed to LYS’s, and now we’ve made the leap to cyberspace! Now with my kids in school, Knitcircus is my full-time job, and with the help of creative and dedicated women like MS. SABLE, Enid, Cindy, Miss T, Ada, Amy and Erica, we’re getting better and growing all the time. The online debut, Issue #9, Spring, is our biggest and best issue yet; it’s a free magazine including interviews with Terri Shea, Lily Chin and Liesl Gibson, a free sewing pattern, articles and reviews, plus pattern previews for 20 original patterns(three free downloads). To knit the patterns, people can purchase the Pattern Collection here for quite a reasonable price.

We’re very excited to move online, because now we have room for lots of full-page photos of our designers’ work, we can go all over the world without stamps and we can have as many pages as we want.

To celebrate our big move, we’d like to offer not only a Spring pattern Collection pdf download, but a year’s subscription (4 Pattern Collections) to one lucky reader of Nurse Rudee's blog. Please check it out; three rings of knitting, sewing and fun, now with less paper!

Thank you for visiting today, Jaala. The spring issue is a work of art!

Make sure you check out Knitcircus and don't forget to leave a comment to win this subscription. I'll be closing comments on Friday, March 12th at 11:59 PM, EST and the winner will be selected by the random number generator and announced on Saturday, March 13th. Good luck!

Even though there is no baby around here, I HAVE to knit that adorable little green dress. HAVE.TO. I'll find a baby to wear it, somewhere.

Skool Daze

Something is amiss...

I started Icelandic Sweater Knitting school yesterday. There were five of us there for class and three of us were nurses, and one was an ER tech. I'm always surprised by how many health care professionals knit. It is great therapy.

There were several pattern pamphlets and one book to select from when choosing a pattern. My goal was to knit a cardigan because I want to learn to steek, but the one pattern that spoke to me, out of dozens I looked at, was a pullover sweater. I was taken in by the shades--all gray, black and white. Although I wanted the solid silvery ash shade of gray to knit the body, it wasn't in stock. I selected a gray that has slubs of black here and there throughout the yarn.

The public side of the swatch.

I knit a large swatch to see if it would work. The last think I want to do is look like a Dalmation or spotted English Setter when I'm done. I don't think it looks too bad. The slubs tend to migrate to the private side of the work on the swatch and to me, they don't appear (too) prominent on the public side.

The slubby private side of the swatch.

Obviously, this pattern required a bit of adaptation to make it into a cardigan. It starts at the bottom rib section and in the original pattern, is completely knit in the round. For a cardi, the waist is a rib that's knit back and forth, includes 16 extra stitches for a button band and once completed, the button band stitches go on a holder and the piece is joined to finish the body in the round. I'm using a completely different pattern in the book to accomplish this.

The pattern and my yarn choices.

Are you following me? Because to my mind, these adaptations and the use of 2 completely different patterns look like a recipe for disaster.

The pattern I have to follow.

I finished the waist in class and sat down yesterday afternoon to start the first chart. At that point, I immediately saw I forgot to make a button hole 8 rows back.

Rippit. Rippit. Rippit.

A very clever technique for steeking: The side by side purl stitches will be the guides for the 2 seams. The sewn stitches will travel down the middle of the purl bumps and then the sweater will be cut between the seams. Is this some fuzzy yarn or what?

By 7 PM, I had completed the waist for the second time, put the button bands on hold, cast on two purl stitches that are center front markers for steeking and completed chart #1.

Today will be for some mindless knitting in the round. Big needles, big yarn. No problems, right? What could go wrong?

Be sure to check in here tomorrow. I'll be hosting a special guest blogger and there will be a pretty fabulous give away.

While She Was Sleeping

On my way out the door to meet Sara on Thursday, I was stopped by the site of a rather large parcel sticking out of my mailbox. It was addressed to me and had traveled quite a long way to find me--more than 11,000 miles (or 18,000 kilometers). While the sender of this package likely slept on the other side of the International Date Line, I opened her gift. I knew she was sending me something--after all, she had asked for my address. But what I thought she was sending and what she actually sent...well let's just say I never imagined opening up a package the likes of this.

Inside, was the most beautiful and unexpected treasure. Though it looks like a quilt, let me tell you, it feels like a hug. As I write this, I'm sitting here with a cup of tea in my hand and a work of art covering my lap. While there is still some winter chill here in Detroit, there's none in my heart, which is full to overflowing.

Ruth, who doesn't blog, is a fellow nurse in Perth, Australia, and has been reading and commenting here for a long time. We first became acquainted on a nurse's group on Ravelry and through emails. She belongs to another group on Ravelry of knitters who also quilt. She made this gift as part of a quilt-a-long with the intent to give it to someone whose life was indicating they needed something to cheer them. Several of the pieces of fabric she used have great meaning to her from previous quilts she's made for loved ones.


Included in the package were some Australian souvenirs including an apron, an oven mitt in the shape of my state of Michigan (like all oven mitts seem to be, but this one has famous places in Australia printed on it!), a koala key chain, cell phone charms and a package of chocolate biscuits called Tim Tams. I'm going to be breaking into that package of treats a little later.

Ruth, if your intent was to give comfort, you've succeeded. I'm so very thankful for your thoughtfulness and warm spirit.

Today, I feel particularly blessed to have such a friend as you.

Hoops

When I was just a wee girl, I used to love the hula hoop. Who didn't? When I grew up, I learned to appreciate other types of hoops--like pretty hoop earrings. Nothing gaudy or gigantic, just delicate wisps of metal that dangle from the ears.

Lately, I've been getting used to other hoops, like the types one needs to jump through to get mortgage approval these days. The mortgage broker says, "jump," and I ask, "how high?" It's particularly frustrating to provide the mountains of documents we need to secure this loan and then get a call (late in the day when every place is closing or I'm on my way to work) asking to send along what we've already sent.

Apparently, the fellow processing our loan needs an assistant to point to the document he wants and already has right in front of him, or, he is in need of new glasses. I can't decide which.

For instance, he wants the telephone number of the buyer's (that's us) real estate agent. I know he has it, because I faxed it to him. It's listed on the face sheet. In addition, it appears the the upper right edge of one (out of several) of my paycheck stubs didn't come through clearly--could I fax it again? Hello? My husband faxed it and then sent a clear hard copy, so I know he has both. He told us that he got the overnighted package with the hard copies just last week. Yesterday, he asked for written proof that one of my loans was in good standing. Didn't he do a credit check? One would think that he could find all the proof he needs right there. But no. I had to call that bank, stay on hold for exactly 17 minutes waiting to talk to their loan department so I could get faxed proof from them. When I told the loan associate what I needed, she offered me a mortgage. It's so tempting.

While our current mortgage processor picks apart our application and supporting documents, time is a ticking. We have 13 days to close on this house, and 21 days total to vacate these premises.

The dude is driving me nuts, and I don't think he realizes what a short trip that is.

Glutton for Punishment

I used to love the scariest rides at amusement parks. I still love them, but with herniated discs in my lumbar spine, I don't think it's too wise to ride them. The memories of pain shooting into my toes and dragging my leg when I walk, or not being able to sit without pain is all it takes to keep me grounded. It took a long time to heal from that injury. These days, I have channeled my thrill seeking into other endeavors--like periodic extreme knitting.

While stalking driving around my new neighborhood last week, I stopped into the knitting store that's close to my new house. I was looking for the perfect mustard colored button for the hat I knit for the Olympic challenge, when, through no fault of my own, I was led astray by their class schedule and the gigantic shipment of Lopi they had just received.

The words, "sign me up" escaped my lips with no effort at all. It came as naturally to me as breathing. Class begins Saturday and will interfere with spinning for the next four Saturdays, but I'll be getting the opportunities to knit a traditional Icelandic style sweater in the round and steek it when done while the instructor holds my hand. Although I love pull over sweaters, the idea was to challenge my inner knitter, and so, I'll be making a cardigan.

I think steeking a garment I've paid a fortune to create qualifies as a challenge. The only time I've ever taken scissors to something I've knit, is when I'm trimming ends and I've never entertained the idea of deliberately cutting something right up the middle and then wearing it.

Of course, the bigger part of the challenge is to be prepared every Saturday for the class. Exactly how I'll manage this while I simultaneously shop for appliances, pack, move and squeeze in time for a full time job, remains to be seen.

Have you steeked? Can you give me an idea of how many analgesics should be on hand before my garment meets my scissors?

Photo: Google Images

Full Moons

Sunday may have been the date for the full moon, but last night's moon was extraordinary. When it first arose above the bleak Detroit winter landscape, it was hanging low in the sky--a bright yellow globe that looked surreal. I ignored what it meant for the hospice night call and went about my evening.

The next time I saw the moon was nearly midnight. It was higher in the sky, no longer looking full, but just as pretty even if it was no longer yellow. It was white. I was driving home from a very odd visit, speaking with my east side counterpart on my cell phone (hands free, of course), and I just kept driving. Before I hung up the phone, I realized I hadn't driven home at all. I'd driven 13 miles further east to Rachel's house.

I'm sure it wasn't the distraction of the call or the autopilot imprint of driving to Rachel's home for 15 years in a row, but the allure of the moon that dragged me so far. I'm glad I snapped out of the trance before I drove another 13 miles east and landed in Lake St. Clair.

Oh. I almost forgot. I met a person last night who has been knitting for about 85 years. She kept saying, "now what was I making here? I forget." I was charmed. Don't think she won't get a skein of my handspun.

Photo Wiki Commons: Top of Gaisberg and rising moon