The finished brown sweater… isn’t
It took me a while, but I eventually came to the realization that the brown sweater that took me ages to knit, frog, and re-knit, piece by piece, that had eventually been sewn together and worn (sans buttons), had to be completely ripped out and started over. I realized that I’d never be happy with it. And I want to be. I still love the color and the design, but it just wasn’t working. In addition to all that it was too small. I want to be able to wear the thing. I knew I’d never be happy with it the way it was. 
Because of the nature of dark colors, and how notoriously difficult it is to see little woven-in yarn ends, I took the sweater out to the driveway, set myself up on a low chair in the sun, and proceeded to remove the collar and button bands, and to rip out all the seams I’d so carefully sewn. That done, I went back inside, made sure Coco was comfy (I needed her support for the next part), tucked a yarn end into the ball winder, and started turning the handle.
All that frogging happened in mid February. I’ve since re-knit the back almost to the shoulders, ripped it out again to the armholes, and am once again close to the shoulders, this time with math and dimensions that I truly believe will work much, much better. Keep your fingers crossed.
Stitches West
Had a simply marvelous time at Stitches West this year. Got lots of yarn. Took two classes. Got lots of time with friends.
Denise and Anita and I drove up on Wednesday. Well, Denise drove to my house, I drove Denise’s car to Anita’s house, then Anita drove the three of us up to Santa Clara. We left Anita’s house just after 5 am Yeah. Early. Neither Denise nor I even bothered going to bed the night before. We both knew we’d be up late packing, and if we did go to bed getting up in time to be ready would have been more of a challenge than either of us was up for. What was wonderful was that Dave stayed up, too, to keep me company, and to assure himself that I’d be ready when Denise got here at 4:15 am. Isn’t he a dear?
I have a bit of yarn pron to share with you from my exposure to the Market. Just a bit. Ready? Here it is.
I have the individual yarn pictures from that big picture broken out in my stash on Ravelry. The list goes something like this—in the order I pulled them out of the bag to list here:
- Artfibers Ming, 600 yards, color 17
- Dye Dreams Twinkle Toes, 1 hank, Lavender
- Wabi Sabi Tallulah Hand-Dyed Sock, 1 hank, Crimson
- Skaska Designs 50/50 merino/silk, lace weight, 1,060 yards, green
- Yarn Place Dolce, 1,093 yards, Berry Shake
- Madelinetosh Tosh, 1 hank, Baltic
- Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silkie Socks That Rock, 1 hank, Rook-y
- Socks That Rock, 1 hank, Vancouver Violet
- Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silk Thread II, 1 hank, Vancouver Violet (though the same colorway as the sock yarn, it’s truly amazing how different the resulting color is
- MacKintosh Yarns Brigit Lace, 1,000 yards, Lich
- MacKintosh Yarns Celtic Sock, 1 hank, Maude
- Brooks Farm Yarn Acero, 840 yards, a nice muted burgundy color
You’re probably wondering about the picture on the right. Got that at Stitches, too. Ten hanks of Malabrigo Twist in Olive all in the same dye lot. More than enough for just about anything I can figure out to do with it, cables, long cardi or pullover. I might even have enough left over to do a coordinating scarf.
I’ve been wanting—and needing!—a silver shawl pin to use when Nicole models my creations. Just draping things over her works most of the time, but sometimes gravity wins and pins are necessary. I’ve used straight pins, and done my best to hide them, but a lovely shawl pin would be ever so much nicer, don’t you think? I finally have one. This one is from SweaterKits up in Canada. It’s a handmade pin in silver-plated copper.

I also got some wonderful old buttons from The Button Lady. I can’t find a web site for her. If you go searching, she’s the one in San Mateo, California. Anyway, the buttons I got are fabulous. Nine antique black glass buttons from Czechoslovakia, still on their original card.
Then there are these buttons. I got the only three that I found. They’re a dark gray, charcoal-y color. She told me about these buttons. She found them in a warehouse, bought everything they had. These buttons were made here in the U.S. just before we joined World War II. Before they went into production, the factory was re-purposed to make military buttons, and they never got back to these. But they were kept, stored safely for decades before The Button Lady found them.
These three beautiful flower buttons are made of some kind of horn. I don’t know what they coated the horn with, what they made the gorgeous designs from, but here they are. They’re stunning. I have no idea what they’ll eventually end up on, but they’ll steal the show. Perhaps a plain stockinette or lightly textured cardigan, so that the buttons can be shown off in all their glory. They deserve it.
One of the very best things about Stitches this year was reconnecting with my friend Barbara. We recently found each other again on Facebook. This was the first time we’ve seen each other in more than 17 years. You know how sometimes when you don’t see someone for a long time you’ve both changed a lot, and things are awkward? Well, this wasn’t like that at all. It was the other way. In many ways it seemed like it had only been 17 days, not 17 years, since we’d last seen each other. Barbara managed to get away from work on Friday afternoon. We had lunch, then I sent her into the market while I went to class. We went and played in the market together after my class. We were joined for dinner by Mary Beth Temple. The three of us had a blast. We laughed and laughed. It was great fun.
Barbara and I had such a wonderful time together that she came back to Stitches on Saturday. After I got out of my class we spent the entire evening together, then proceeded to talk well into the night. OMG. It was fabulous seeing you again, my friend. Really, in spite of the otherwise fabulous time at Stitches, the highlight of the entire weekend.
A little more yarn pron
While I had the camera out yesterday, and was taking pictures of yarn anyway, I pulled out a few hanks that I’ve neglected for a bit. The first, bad, bad blogger, was a birthday gift from Denise: 2 hanks of Koigu KPPPM in a lovely olive green. Next up, the October 2009 sock of the month yarn from Woolgirl. I designed the sock she used that month, Birches, so she sent a copy of the kit to me. Wasn’t that wonderful? It’s an awesome kit, too. Finally there’s another hank of Silkie STR. This one is in a color that I love but would never have purchased, Muckity Muck. I traded for it with a woman on Ravelry. I sent her my hank of Mudslide, and she sent her Muckity Muck to me. Awesome. I’m looking forward to seeing what becomes of the orange yarn. It seems to want to be a scarf…