Shhhh...It's a Secret

I can't post any photos because everything I've completed lately, or that I'm still knitting, or that I'm GOING to be knitting, is meant to be gifts at Christmas.

Suffice it to say that the fingers are flying.

First Snow, Kerhonkson

By Diane di Prima

(excerpted)

for Alan

This, then, is the gift the world has given me

(you have given me)

softly the snow

cupped in hollows

lying on the surface of the pond

matching my long white candles

which stand at the window

which will burn at dusk while the snow

fills up our valley

this hollow

Jane Eyre

Jane's Ubiquitous Shawl

I just finished knitting, blocking, and photographing this shawl. It took almost 1400 yards of sport weight alpaca yarn. I knitted it during a KAL (knit-along) organized by the WWMDFK? group on Ravelry. WWMDFK? stands for What Would Madame DeFarge Knit?, a book edited by Heather Ordover of the Craftlit podcast, and published by Cooperative Press, which features patterns inspired by a variety of characters from classic literature. This particular shawl, known as "Jane's Ubiquitous Shawl", was designed by Erica Hernandez as a tribute to that most upstanding heroine, Jane Eyre.

Whew. I think that's enough links, thank you! Now, on to Christmas knitting...

 "Next day, by noon, I was up and dressed, and sat wrapped in a shawl by the nursery hearth." - Jane Eyre, Chapter 3

"I folded my shawl double, and spread it over me for a coverlet; a low, mossy swell was my pillow." - Jane Eyre, Chapter 28

Wovember

Thicker than rain-drops on November thorn.
Fragment 8 By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Handspun 3-ply Blue-Faced Leicester

November? Nope. Wovember. Click the link and you'll see what I'm talking about.

As Wovember settles in - or I settle into Wovember - I am surrounding myself with wool. As of today, when I sit down to knit I am literally covered in the stuff: I'm working on Jane's Ubiquitous Shawl as part of a knit-along for Craftlit's reading of Jane Eyre. The reader, Elizabeth Klett, is doing a marvelous job of portraying the mood, landscape, and persona of heroine. The project uses 10 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light - almost 1500 yards of yarn. The KAL started in late October and ends in December, but for some reason I'm feeling driven (in a good way) to power through and finish before Thanksgiving...probably because of all the Christmas knitting I hope to accomplish. This shawl currently looks like a great lump of charcoal-gray fuzzy stuff. I anticipate the miracle of blocking, and hope that I will end up with a large square of lacy goodness when I am done.

The center section of Jane's Ubiquitous Shawl

Zig and I are making plans - BIG plans - an actual BUSINESS PLAN - for opening a yarn shop. We sat on the beach this past summer and brainstormed (well, MY brain was storming and Zig was recording the thunder and lightning) ideas for creating the be-all and end-all yarn and fiber paradise for knitters and spinners. It was fun to come up with a list of things, people, and events that would have to be in place.

Now we're (well, he) is slogging through the work of figuring out if this idea is even remotely feasible in a financial sense. What to call the enterprise? How much inventory to stock? Where to rent a storefront? When to open for business? Who to hire, if anyone? Why does our chosen location need a yarn shop?

Whether or not we actually see this through, and end up the proud owners of a fiber-related business, remains to be seen. But it's SO interesting to take the idea - the dream - and tease it apart into its separate elements (mission, location, financing, store layout, hours of operation, inventory, education, special events, licensing) to see how we could actually open for business.

Apologies for the long absence. In lieu of blogging, I have been knitting a LOT:

Jidai Raglan Pullover in Berroco Vintage DK

Wingspan shawlette knitted with Colinette Jitterbug Sock in "Mardi Gras"

Norah Gaughan's Ostrum Cowl in Berroco Boboli

Polka-Dot Ribbon Scarf

Penelope Shrug knit in Quince & Co Finch

Quick  broken rib scarf in Misti Alpaca Chunky

 and doing a bit of spinning, as well:

River's Edge Fiber Arts Mountain Mist 60/30/10  Merino Bamboo Nylon in "Riverstone" colorway

Time Folded

Green Pear Tree in September

By Freya Manfred

On a hill overlooking the Rock River

my father’s pear tree shimmers,

in perfect peace,

covered with hundreds of ripe pears

with pert tops, plump bottoms,  

and long curved leaves.

Until the green-haloed tree

rose up and sang hello,

I had forgotten. . .  

He planted it twelve years ago,

when he was seventy-three,

so that in September

he could stroll down  

with the sound of the crickets

rising and falling around him,

and stand, naked to the waist,

slightly bent, sucking juice

from a ripe pear.

"Robin Red Breast" Gotland 2-ply

August is gone and I don't really know where it went. That tends to happen in August. Now it's September and I'm back at school, beginning my 29th year as a children's librarian.

"Field of Dreams" shetland 3-ply

This summer I spun more yarn than I ever have in such a short period. Now that work intrudes, the wheel sits more than it spins, but that's okay - a significant dent was made in the fiber stash.

"Big Bang" BFL 2-ply

Very little knitting happening, since finishing the Elm socks a few weeks ago. I've started the 8th pair of socks for the year - just a vanilla pair but with most lovely Cherry Tree Hill sockweight merino. This knitting competes for attention with the Penelope Shrug I'm knitting from Quince and Company Finch in a deep charcoal gray. Usually I can find a few minutes during lunchtime at work, but the first few weeks of school are too busy to breathe, let alone knit.

"Northern Lights" Targhee - what I'm working on in early September

July Ends

At Popham Beach

By Thorpe Moeckel

Haze of wave spume towards Small Point,

       Seguin Island Light like a whale's spout—

maybe life washes itself here, cools off.

       It never comes clean. See all the sails up

and full in the windy parade of skin

       and sand and brine. Soon the rocks will pluck

each wave's feathers. Soon the beach

       like the moon, waning, will be 1/8th its size.

Somewhere else—maybe Ireland—the tide

       will bottom out then. For now the sun

blesses the bodies at home in theirs,

       and those less so, to ruin and ruin's aftermath—

whatever that is—and the waves rolling in,

       little snowplows, nimbus in miniature; how

the beach fishhooks east, one child—

       is that mine, or some spirit I was one more

usher of?—face up, arms and legs

       scraping a temporary angel in the sand.

Still in Maine, though it is our last week here. Sigh. Difficult to leave, but I do love my little house in the Hartland hemlocks.

Spunky Eclectic "Little Fishes" Merino Top 2-ply

Still getting lots of spinning done, with a bit of knitting, too. The "Little Fishes" merino top, pictured below, came in at 554 yards. That might be the finest (as in thinnest) I've spun. Planning to use it for the Holden Shawlette.

Spunky Eclectic "Robin Red Breast" Gotland fiber

Also just finished thwacking 194 yards of worsted weight (methinks - I forgot my WPI tool at home) Gotland sheepswool. It's very hairy - coarse, even - but the color is pretty-Spunky Eclectic's "Robin Red Breast" - the April 2012 shipment.  Photo of the finished yarn is forthcoming...

Just began spinning, for a fingering weight, the May 2012 Spunky shipment - "Big Bang". Man, this is lovely BFL top. The colors are to die for. So lustrous, too. I'm catching up to you, Spunky Club!!! "Only" May, June, and July shipments to do. But then comes the August 2012 shipment...and then school begins and spinning time disappears...if I've got to have a problem, that's a pretty good problem to have.

Spunky's "Big Bang" Blue-Faced Leicester Top fiber - yum!

I'm actually using some of my handspun this summer - knitting up a quick, bulky garter stitch scarf using Frabjous Fibers' "Stained Glass" merino - spun during the winter of 2010. Size 11 needles. Easy pattern. Graceful Shawl.

"Graceful" Shawl using bulky handspun

Sock knitting continues with the second of Cookie A's "Elm" pattern from The Knitter's Book of Socks by Clara Parkes. Decided to make these for Zig, as the leg is very slender and thus will fit him well.

Cookie A's "Elm" Sock #1 for Zig

I did some SERIOUS stash enhancement over the last two weeks, visiting two local yarn shops - Eagle's Nest Yarns in Waldoboro and Purl Diva in Brunswick, as well as scoring some locally produced yarn and fiber at the Pemaquid Farmers' Market just up the road from us. So much for stash reduction/control.

Now it's off to the beach for some sun, reading, and knitting. More later...

Wait...There's More

We are in love

 Snowy Woods Sweater, which doesn't look anything like a snowy woods, but rather more like a beach lined with wild roses, is done. It fits like a dream come true. Maybe we'll call it Wild Beach Rose Sweater?

And this is the loveliest Hollyhock flower I've ever seen.

Evidence

Maine

Spunky Eclectic "Birds 'n' Berries Targhee 2-ply

Spunky Eclectic "Abstract" Corriedale 3-ply

Snowy Woods Sweater detail

Spunky Eclectic "Little Fishes" Merino Top