thirty-six. i don't know why that sounds so good. i didn't have a problem with thirty-five in theory, but i have always had this looking-forward-to feeling about both 36 and 37. i'm not sure why; they just sound like fun years. i must have, at some point, read something that stuck in my mind about somebody who felt really good at those ages, because i've been looking forward to this for years. thirty-six, thirty-seven; they're like these wild, libertine, salad days.
the new moebius has shamanistic qualities, because i made it for my birthday and i have a feeling it's just going to be a good year -- a hot year. a busy and full year, with big new truths and big new work.
notice -- no grey hairs. i got one grey hair in 1994 and it's still the only one i've got.
the yarn for this moebius was given to me by a friend for christmas. she knows who she is. do you see the subtle striping in the fabric? i'm glad it came out like that.
in slightly non-birthday related (but astrology related!) news, after a lifetime of believing my chinese astrology sign was the dog, i found out this week that in 1970 the lunar new year occurred on feb 5 -- which means i was NOT included in the year of the dog, and i am, in fact, a rooster! it took me all these years to find this out! other aquarians who think they know their chinese astrology sign ought to check it out -- you might be wrong, too!
for more of my ultra birthday, join the fun over on that side.
this project -- which has been around a long, long time now -- is the only thing on my knitting needles.
at all. i mean, anywhere. not a swatch, not a maybe-thing, not a-thing-that-is-there-but-might-get-ripped-out-anyway-so-it-doesn't-count. nothing else. just this.
it's funny how long it can take your actions to catch up with your mind. i have fantasized about having one thing on my needles. since before the printing press came, i have been warning, out loud, to others and to myself: knitting's gonna slow down! not gonna be churning it out much longer! then along came blackwork. but finally -- i see evidence that i was actually serious.
i have talked at length with friends before about my 'completion' fantasies. these relate not only to knitting, but to writing. with knitting and writing, it seems, it is the same for me: "done" is not always done. and i have this perseverative fantasy of there coming a day -- a late afternoon, it is, in my fantasy -- where the last step of the last thing is finally completed, on the four or five or however many things that have been in progress. and i dust off my hands and say, "okay! i am finished with these things! no things are happening! the end... of an era!"
and then there is white-tablecloth dining. well, that is how i see it. all the things are finished. you go out to dinner. you have the "aaaaahhhh" moment, because all the things are done. and then, you finish dinner, and go home, and get ready for what the next day will bring -- the starting of the new stuff.
i keep thinking it is going to be this way, whenever i finally get organized enough or disciplined enough. with stories. or knitting. (with printing, it does not seem to be an issue, since the KT is just one giant project in and of itself). everything else is like herding cats, as they say. and it is probably never really going to happen, and i don't think it's important that it does. i guess i just like the idea of it. all wrapped up.
when we drive around sometimes, or are walking around town, and i see people going into restaurants, i wonder, "what did they finish all of?"
in a complementary scenario, when i see people "finishing" things -- like winning a sports event or getting an oscar -- i think, "are they going to go get the dinner now?"
with stories, it definitely does not work. there is almost never any "done". it's written, so that's kinda done. then you send it out, which doesn't really merit a snack much less a celebratory meal. then it's accepted for publication -- that's cool, but it's not "done". then it comes out in print and by then it's already old to me. i guess written, and written the way i want it, is the most "done", but there are always steps beyond that, and i get other things started before i get those old steps wrapped up.
and knitting -- well, again -- i never expected this. this is the only thing on knitting needles anywhere in the house.
not for long, probably.
i suppose the people at rowan yarns would not necessarily be happy. but if i had to think of anything else to do with that port-wine-cheddar colored "biggy print", i was the one who wasn't going to be happy.
so i unplied it, and separated it, and spooled it. with this part of it, i re-plied it on the wheel with this bright yellow superskinny crochet stuff...
and this half of it is plied with rowan's own kidsilk haze. which i think is very lovely but i have a very difficult time using on its own.
holy hannah, it's been almost a year since we looked at this. and i'm still only maybe a quarter of the way there. but what's the rush? i love this, love this love this.
unblocked and beautiful.
thank you to the special buddy who recently sent me such a big box of yarn to get this project going again! it really worked!
poor neglected little knitting blog! i actually did more knitting this past week than i did either writing or printing. i am starting to see a pattern where one or two of these emerges in a strong lead over the remaining, as a theme for the week. it keeps the roses in your cheeks, that kind of unpredictability.
i originally didn't consider this entirely bloggable, but now i see it in action and would be sad to have ignored it. it is a little scarf that i knitted from the same sock yarn as made the straithairn socks. it isn't as "deep" as a normal babushka, and sorta stands up on my head, but it's purpose is for wearing during printing; one gets warm, and i didn't want my head covered, i just wanted all my hair -- which these days, it takes a forklift to move -- held back. one hair can mess up a letterpress job in a big way. you want to keep 'em out of the press, for sure.
we did a lot of printing yesterday. we are doing small items lately, notecards and tags and such. we just did a "big" (for us) typesetting job -- a gift for my mom -- and will be working on some other projects involving more typesetting after this week, when our new 18 point baskerville arrives. yesterday, just playing around with little cuts and compositions, we worked with black paper and silver ink -- which was mezmerizing. not much to show yet because we haven't scanned much, but a webpage devoted to the press will be up by fall. and of course, by fall, i think the knitting tarot will be possibly the only thing we are working on with relation to the press.
so you see, this "cap" is more like the type seen on waitresses in tea houses in england. it would be an act of mortification to wear it in public. but now the sight of it on my head -- like the smell of naturewash and ink -- reminds me of good stuff. mmmmm, i like good stuff.
having recently made the statement that i'll be focusing my knitting energies on larger projects, you see i have posted twice consecutively about projects that could fit in your pocket. well. but what about what you don't know? what aren't you seeing? think about it...
i don't often post links to outside sites, but for heaven's sake. there's one named albertine. (i take this as a possibility that this guy has read proust, and i am always on the lookout for that.) and they are the way i will recycle my own handknit socks when the time comes to do so.
city blocks, blocks of dark and light, city of lights. as with all those kaffe things (this one is actually called "striped blocks" or something), you have to save a lot of applicable stash. i did that for some time, but then had to put out a call on artisan sex change. i'm off to a decent start!
of course with a project like this you want balance; textures, colors. not too much of any one thing too close to its own like. but for me, i also feel like it's "cheating" to put things that i got from the same source or at the same time -- no matter how different they are -- near each other. it's "cheating" to use all the yarn C. gave me, or to put two of the yarns that D. swapped me for right next to each other, or to use too many yarns that i bought in the same day in the same row. for me, the piece has to be balanced with my memories of time and source as well as color and texture and weight.
at this point, i HAVE a lot of yarn waiting to use, but i have used each of those colors at least once already. to go on to the next row of small blocks, i'd want to be introducing at least six yarns that i had not used yet. for these small blocks, i knit only between twenty and thirty stitches in any one color! and although i am keeping to the original color scheme -- medium to dark jewel tones and neutrals -- i've eased up considerably on weights. i try to keep it at about manos-weight, but there's plenty of places i've gone lighter.
anybody want to throw me a few scraps? just e mail me. i'll let you know where to send it. i haven't got much swappable stash in return, but i'll do your tarot cards or something.
i plan to line the back with black mohair, to cover up all the switches in colors. plus, the softness. i'm so looking forward to this, even knitting it makes me feel like a queen.
... when there is a totally accidental pile of stuff on a kitchen stool, and you realize that you've knit every stitch of it.
after a busy afternoon, my kerchief and my moebius (that moebius is done in noro's "iro", folks) looked kinda nice on the kitchen table, next to a simpsons comic book.
i get tired of wearing those cotton print babushkas sometimes. i had some leftover cotton sock yarn. a quickie project. i'm interested to see how it holds up with frequent knotting and washing. it's very comfy-- less itchy than the average kerchief.
not only did i refer to this in the post about my sister's scarf yesterday, but i spoke to ray yesterday, who remarked that while she loved it, the weight of the scarf tended to pull the hat right off her head. not the perfect balance between concept and function. i frequently find myself making such choices (and seem often to side with "concept". maybe i should try going the other way more often.) this photo was taken in manhattan in june of 2001, at the council of literary magazines and presses literary magazine fair, where i had to speak on a panel sharing a mike with george plimpton, who had a neat wristwatch. ray came all the way out from brooklyn, on rollerblades, to support me! that's why i make her impractical knitware.
i was going to make my sister a moebius, like I did for ben's sisters, and my mom, for xmas. but i started three or four different times, and it was never RIGHT for her, i felt. so -- a stash-eating scarf. i like the way it is "fringed" with eyelash yarn (no actual fringe, but since the final stripes on either end have the eyelash in them, it's sort of self-fringing.) i have only done one other scarf like this (which was a stockingcap/scarf for my friend ray), and that one, like this one (although you can't see it here) has a section of just skinny black and white striping in it amidst all the other color. stripes-within-stripes. i like to do that: a bit of a signature! another first in this scarf: my first sequining. there are some little opalescent disks, and some gold and silver star sequins, in various stripes.
and such an interesting way to send a picture, no?
aaaah, the joy of seeing friends in their holiday knitwear. here is marcy in her mohairy, eyelashy, winter queen moebius that i made her for hanukkah. yay marcy!
this idea had been floating around in my head since way back when i worked at metropolitan bakery (not a nice place to work. but it's where i met ben.) a scarf that looked like an epi loaf (an epi is that long bread that is make up of little rolls that you break off.) when my friend lisa opened her bread bakery in beaufort, south carolina (the twice baked bread company), i knew i would want to make this for her. she may even get it on time for christmas. at least it will be close. i'm averaging three to four little rolls a day. using various types of increases and decreases, rather inconsistently, gives it a less symmetrical, more natural, hearth-baked look, don't you think?
if you receive one of these as a gift, do not be alarmed by the twist. as you see here, illustrated by lisa tomer, this scarfy item is supposed to be this way.
...but this is one way. as illustrated
by lisa tomer. double your moebius twice around your neck. (alternately, for the jeanne d'arc or tess of the d'ubervilles look, take one of those loops from the front and stick your head through it, so it's sitting on top.)