Mitts and Hat for the Strong Silent Type

September 27, 2015September 25, 2015 ~ Kristin Tolle ~ Leave a comment

My kayak instructor, a sage and serious young man, is a man of few words. When he speaks you want to listen, especially when you are on open sea. And since Nick and I have become weekenders on Orcas Island, he and his partner are folks we think of as friends.

One mitt done. The other a WIP. The small mitt (left) is the swatch.

The sage came to the island from the Northeast after his lovely partner decided she wanted to live here. And who wouldn’t! If I could figure out a way to afford to stay full time I would too. They make a go of it and I admit their tenacity. And with their joint help and that of the island shepherdesses, this might happen for me someday.

Along with partnership, comes shared laundry responsibilities. And like my Nick, his partner is sometimes less cautious with things that might need more care. Nick remembers to cold wash “technical” clothing, but doesn’t think about separating light from dark. So I’ve a load of once ivory, now gray, Lululemon tops. The sage now has smaller and denser woolens, like a Patagucci hat which now resembles a skull cap.

Upon hearing about the troubles (and seeing him try to force it on) I decided I should make him a set of mitts, to keep his hands warm while leaving his fingers free with a matching hat which would be wash and wear. In grandma’s stash was a worsted weight acrylic, called Softee. While the hand is not terribly nice, these yarns have their place. One is for a person in and out of saltwater all day.

I made with very few modifications—mainly making changes only when things were unclear in the patterns (like keeping the ribs vertical on the hat instead of a swirl pattern—see my Notes for details). They are Robbin Abernathy’s Simple Ribbed Fingerless Mitts and Tammy Burke’s Ribbed Hat.

Finished hat with mitts! — Finished hat!

What I’d do differently:

The thumb gusset on the mitts was a bit tighter than expected. This was acerbated by me adding more length to provide more thumb protection from the elements. I’d make the thumbhole bigger. I’d also figure out a way to have more of a K2P2 pattern. The one lone rib looks like it doesn’t quite fit with the rest and adding a second knit stitch might actually kill two birds with one stone.

The hat perfectly matches the mitts. The ribs worked okay, but not great—they are a bit wonky on the edges. Maybe that was my errata, but I suspect not. Could be a result of the yarn too. I’m tempted to start over as I have enough yarn to do so and treat this as a “sample”.

Island Hardware & Supply

September 23, 2015September 24, 2015 ~ Kristin Tolle ~ Leave a comment

Two ravens flying overhead while we slave below.

The house is coming along “stepwise” as Nick would say it. And though every owner of this house has been a frequent shopper at the ‘local’ hardware store, buying a plethora of tools, we’ve little to show for it. I’ve brought up what I can spare from the main residence, but we still seem to hunt for this and that. So it was off to the hardware store this morning to enable the days’ activities.

Island hardware in Crow Valley is a true Orcas Island institution and according to its affable owner, Neal, provides insurance and retirement to employees. The folks who work there are no nonsense with a dry humor which means no purchase happens without comment.

So today when we brought up a big plastic pail, a machete, a large pick, large contractor bags, red duct tape and a shovel, the question on everyone’s mind in line behind us was quickly verbalized by the checkout clerk,

“Y’all gonna kill somebody?”

The truth was far more benign though very dirty—inside and outside the house. We needed to bury our internet cable since the installers left it laying across our driveway. And indoors I needed to clean years of filth from under the gas insert.

The first was a straight forward dirty job. Nick dug. I buried. He sweated and I got muddy.

However, the indoor job was pretty gross. The prior owners had both dogs and cats and had not, in the three years they lived there, vacuumed under the living room gas insert. The problem is that they’d scooped rocks and shells from the beach. An interesting idea in theory, but not in practice. And would undoubtedly ruin your vacuum.

So I spent my afternoon (and first day of my vacation) sorting rocks in the living room by size, tossing out extraneous objects and pebbles small enough to be vacuum ingested. The remaining mid-size and bigger rocks got washed in the big plastic pail to remove the fur, dust bunnies and cobwebs. Three hours later, I went to put them back only to find it’s now time to go rock hounding. The pebbles may have been small, but there were lots of them.

Still, a job well done! I won’t run over the cable in the dark and it is now possible to vacuum under the insert. And there was time left to sit and watch the sunset.

My favorite beach log is now available again! — My favorite beach log is now available again until next summer’s tourist season

To Buy the Book or Download the Pattern, That is the Question

September 21, 2015September 19, 2015 ~ Kristin Tolle ~ 2 Comments

When one project ends another begins? Hmm. That’s not going so well for me right now. And why is that? Too many choices and this time yarn is less of an issue.

Ella Rae Heather--The Slipper (Yarn) Looking for It's Cinderella (Pattern) — Ella Rae Heather–The Slipper (Yarn) Looking for It’s Cinderella (Pattern)

If you think my stash is extensive, you should see my pattern collection. According to Ravelry I have 3566 patterns as of this writing and rising. Given I have Sequence Knitting by Cecelia Campochiaro in route and Free Spirit Knits by Anne Podlesak on pre-order, the number of patterns in my library will continue to rise. For now.

The reality is, whether for reading or crafting, I love the feel of a book or magazine in my hands. Still, with the same online patterns readily available and usually less than $10, and given I knit one or less patterns per book, why I’m buying a whole book? It seems much more cost effective to break this purchasing habit?

Decades of Knitters and Vogue Knitting Magazines

You have to admit a downloaded pattern lacks the aesthetic of a truly well-designed book. There’s something about crisply presented visuals like those in the Madder Anthologies (1 or 2) by Carrie Bostick Hoge or Hannah Fettig’s Home and Away that get the juices flowing.

After a Ravelry Search (of my own patterns) these were the top book contenders

Still, given I’ve successfully executed sweaters with online patterns wouldn’t it just make more sense to stop buying books? And might that reduce the time from planning to starting a project?

Have you made the conversion and what wisdom might you share?

Narrowing by style gave me just the open books

PS: thank goodness for Ravelry’s library. Since I’ve posted my patterns I’ve found beautiful ones in my own collection I never knew I owned.

The Final Contenders--Vogue Knitting Winter 2012 and Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel — The Final Contenders–Vogue Knitting Winter 2012 and Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel

What do you want to be when you grow up?

September 17, 2015September 19, 2015 ~ Kristin Tolle ~ 2 Comments

Ah the dream of a having a different lifestyle. I’m part way there since I purchased a second home on Orcas Island, though this creates some new challenges (like commuting and costs of second home ownership). It’s definitely quieter spending half weeks here and I suspect it will get even better when I trade the city house for a pied-à-terre.

November will mark my fifth anniversary with my lovely, brilliant husband. And for the first time in my life, it has been a joint endeavor putting clothes on back, food on table and a roof overhead. I have a great paying job—and have had for many years, but the older I get in high-tech the younger everyone else seems, the faster the pace moves, and the more I feel like I’m slipping behind. A book that has helped is French Women Don’t Get Facelifts by Mireille Guiliano. She found a second career in writing—something I love to do too—after being the CEO of Verve Clicquot USA.

Kayaking with husband in Lover's Cove, Orcas Island — Kayaking in Lover’s Cove, Orcas Island

These days I‘m often asked to speak to young researchers about careers and yet, deep inside, I feel a bit lost. So how can I, in good faith, tell them what they should be doing to be successful when I’m not sure about my own career? Of course we are at different career stages, so my advice works for them. It just doesn’t work for me. Not anymore.

There was one bit of advice that I got early in my career than might still be true though, ‘risk equals happiness.’ If you are willing to risk everything, you are much more likely to find a career that you are enthusiastic about.

Sign on once of my deer proof gardens — Sign on one of my deer proof gardens

So is it time to consider that now?

I look at people like Karen Templer and her small business Fringe Association she moved to Nashville, Tennessee and Ashley Yousling of Woolful who has recently moved to Idaho (a place I worked so hard to get out of) to start a sheep ranch. Both women in tech who followed their dreams. I’ll admit it, I’m green with envy. After all, I’ve been in tech since before they were out of diapers. The point being that younger people can set an example for older ones. You find sages at all ages, no?

Russian blackberries growing everywhere–too many to pick!

Gala Apples from the Garden--Yum! — Fresh Gala Apples from the Garden–Yum!

Baby kiwi's (much bigger now) — Baby kiwi’s (much bigger now)

People, and knitters especially, on the island are lovely. “Borrow my loom, please!” and “Stop by for my knitting circle”. The problem is my split life. I simply cannot be an islander and be a constant traveler, researcher and strategist.

More and more I feel the pull of my creative side and I’ve even been talking to a couple of friends on island on how I might promote this site and potentially start selling things—here and at the local gift shops. Even my husband has gotten into it by telling me I should set up a shop called Fruit and Fiber where we could sell my chutneys and the many fruits of our garden alongside wool from the island wool makers and mitts and bags I make from it.

I've got these prune plums coming out my ears! — I’ve got these prune plums coming out my ears!

The trouble is I’d need the time to *make* these items. I also wonder how it will change my desire to knit when it won’t be for myself or gifts for my friends and family. What happens when it becomes my job. Will I still love it so much? I think so.

I’ve got designs and patterns that my friends say will sell and the San Juans, especially Orcas Island, are a vacation mecca where people come to buy little reminders of their trips (or they get cold and buy it out of necessity). They think that even if I didn’t go “online” I’d still have a market for my goods.

A seed Stitch Bag--partially my own design — A seed Stitch Bag–partially my own design

Well that’s my quandary for today. It makes me want to miss the late ferry back to the mainland Monday night. Perhaps not today, but someday. Hopefully soon.

My Yarn in my Stash Must Be Breeding… Like Rabbits!

September 11, 2015February 25, 2017 ~ Kristin Tolle ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting this year—more than in many years—trying to whittle down the Too Much Yarn—So Little Time stash. I’ve been on a trade/donation kick too. Ravelry shows my trades/gifts for the last 12 months at 28 (!). Two people approached me about hats and scarves for the homeless and got more than they bargained for (massive piles of yarn). Mostly vintage mohair and “virgin” wool.

Some yarns are so old, I’ve had a tough time finding the yardage and proper weights. This week I forensically discovered the weight of a Scheepjes Diamond 2/4 because even though the yarn wasn’t on Ravelry, a pattern for it was.

My most recent sale/donation was a gentleman from Chico, CA who is knitting wool socks for donation to a shelter. He didn’t tell me he was a charity knitter until after we agreed on a price so in addition to the skeins he requested, I stuffed a big box full before I sent it off which meant his funds only covered the shipping. And I friended him on Ravelry so that I can send more as I dig through the vast wasteland of my grandmother’s lifetime of knitting leftovers—mostly odd balls of worsted weight, superwash in 300-600 yard lengths. Enough that if I went into Etsy business of knitting hats, mitts and scarves (as I threaten to do), I wouldn’t need to buy yarn for years.

Natural (Undyed) Handspun Alpaca from Warm Valley Orchard

One of the Orcas Island shepherdesses, Maria Nutt of Warm Valley Orchard, suggested I start weaving. This after I told her I’d recently came across 1200 yards of beautiful (undocumented) natural color alpaca I bought from her more than 10 years ago. She even offered to bring by her loom to get me started.

I Found 11 Skeins of This Bucilla Yarn in an Unopened Box

And just when I think I’ve seen all of my collection and I’m sure I’ve posted it on all Ravelry, suddenly more appears. Two weeks ago I found in box that hasn’t been opened for three house moves which contained Eleven 100 gram skeins of pale yellow—2500 yards of it. How the heck did I miss it when I spent weeks photographing and cataloguing “everything” I owned last Fall?

So I’ve come to this conclusion—they must be breeding away—making new little skeins; growing them like nodes on the side of an epiphyte.

Partly this is because people also give me yarn. One friend I made a mock turtleneck for (nearly identical to this one by Karen Templer) gave me a small box of yarn from her grandmother. “She’ll know what to do with it”, her grandmother said. But I didn’t. I left it in that little white box for four house moves—never opening it after that afternoon tea with my friend–until now.

Last week, after years *blush* of it sitting as a box in a box, did I take a look at the magic inside. 17 colors—most shades of pink and purple—of worsted weight angora. They are mostly dribs and drabs—some as small as 30 inches the longest is a 99 yards of fuchsia, but I think they might provide “fuzzy” interest paired with a masculine color like burgundy or navy in a Sally Melville’s stashbusting Topher’s Pullover.

Another box I dredged out this weekend was a kit I’d tried to give it away without opening it. After my discovery of the angora, I got curious and opened it up. Wow! Another huge surprise. Inside a cheesy looking square dance sweater kit (my gramps and gram used to cut a rug to the caller at least once a week) was the most beautiful ivory colored Scheepjes wool with matching 7 matching colors for the little people dancing around the hem. And let’s not forget the cowhead buttons! Yee Haw!

I’m hoping that they measured on the generous side, because this is coming off the donate pile and going onto the looking for a good worsted weight pattern—maybe I’ll even mix them it into the Topher pullover and use the ivory for another sweater—possibly something from Madder 2 which I’ve been angling to dig into now that my Home and Away, George Hancock Cardigan, is done.

Sometimes my stash makes me feel tired just looking at it. Have any of you inherited or been given yarn, supplies, cloth and/or other items and wondered what to do with it?

Ivory Wool--the Main Color — Ivory Wool–the Main Color

My First Knit-a-Long

September 7, 2015September 6, 2015 ~ Kristin Tolle ~ 6 Comments

It’s been awhile since I posted. What have I been up to? Knitting! Well that and lots of travel. Too much in fact!

Two books from Quince & Co. Home and Away and Madder 2

I’ve just finished my very first knit-a-long (KAL). I’ve always been tempted, but nothing has ever bit. I’m particularly uneasy about “Mystery KALs” because I worry I won’t like the end product. Money, time and opportunity costs are problematic when they are in limited supply.

So what’s different this time? Plenty!

The Woolful KAL for July had no time limit and no pattern choice—just a book choice. And what a lovely book it is: Home and Away: Knits for Everyday Adventures by Hannah Fettig. I love the clean lines and simplicity of the patterns—it matches my aesthetic to a tee. And I knew just from glancing through the patterns on Ravelry, I’d be learning new skills along the way.

Being me, I couldn’t choose one pattern—I had to put my stamp on it, so I merged the Georgetown which had the shaping and sizing I loved with the Hancock which had the fabric I loved. The garter edging just stood out and it also reminded me of another of one of Carrie Bostick Hoge’s patterns in my queue, Maeve.

Kathryn Taylor Chocolates--made here in Orcas Island — Yummy Kathryn Taylor Chocolates–made here in Orcas Island. One of the things that helped me finish!

At first I made very rapid progress, so much faster than on Nick’s sweater, which seemed to take a huge amount of time. Of course bigger needles and DK instead of sport weight also had something to do with it, but the complexity of the pattern (the KAL is much easier) also had an impact. But there was trouble in paradise.

It turned out well shaped for my body — Shaped to fit me

In a knit.fm podcast (the 8^th?) Pam Allen said something like “It’s much harder to create a simple pattern.” I agree. To add to that, knitting classic, simple looking patterns can be challenging to get right. This is because they show everything. So while the knitting went quickly, I felt like I was constantly tearing it out and starting over. This is not the pattern’s fault—these were errors you’d think I would have grown out of my now!

Obvious color change when I changed skeins discovered on a flight to Atlanta

The Challenges:

Even though I’d remembered to alternate balls on Nick’s hand-dyed sweater which used hand dyed yarn, I failed to do so on the WoolfulKAL. And as a regular reader of The Fringe Association blog, I’d also seen Karen Templar have a similar experience. Yet there I was starting over 2/3 of the way up the back.

The cap shaping fit with the body like a glove–only after I counted every row!

Then there was the back and front panels being off by two inches. I was doing this sweater mostly on airplanes and I’m a “carry-on” fanatic. So I didn’t have the back piece with me when I knit the fronts (the advantage of knitting in pieces). In the end, I was counting every row front, back and sleeves to make sure they all matched identically. Yet another reason for me to try out top down, seamless knitting and Hannah suggests.

The last issue is another one we all know—that your gauge changes if you knit at different times. And though you can often block these things out, sometimes you just can’t. On my longest flight to and from Seattle-Frankfurt. I got loads of knitting done on the seemingly endless collar only to find that jetlagged knitting isn’t good knitting—dropped stitches, split stitches—things I haven’t done in years. So the entire collar had to removed and redone.

It’s all finished now and the first thing I did was curl up in it and fall asleep. I guess you can teach an old knitter new tricks!

Orcas Island Knitting

Living, Loving and Creating in the Pacific Northwest

Month: September 2015

Mitts and Hat for the Strong Silent Type

Island Hardware & Supply

To Buy the Book or Download the Pattern, That is the Question

What do you want to be when you grow up?

My Yarn in my Stash Must Be Breeding… Like Rabbits!

My First Knit-a-Long

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