Horsing around. (Memories)

I could have uploaded the previous post earlier, once I decided I was done with it, but have been traveling again (family) and didn't.  So these come close together.

Facebook reminded me that seven years ago I finished this:

There was no pattern, just a photograph.  Somebody I knew (our paths no longer cross, due to pandemic cancellation of the activities when we would usually encounter each other, and not being Facebook friends and so on) commissioned it from me based only on a photograph.  So I had to figure out how to make it.

She reported at the time:

[The horse] had a peaceful night out of cat range and will go to Old Lyme to meet his new person in a couple of hours. Right now he is still on top of the jelly cabinet looking down at me. Baby boy (fill in a name) will love it when he starts exploring. I think the large animal and horse vet mom will like it also. She just has to put it away for awhile so it does not become a dog or cat bed.

I hope the horse has been well-loved in that time, whether by the now-named boy or others.

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Another memory came up earlier in the week:

Chemo caps for my cousin Pat in Chicago Bears and Chicago White Sox colours.
On top of a baby blanket my mother "commissioned" as a gift for someone with whom she works.

Sadly, Pat lost her fight with cancer a few years later.  I was told she was buried wearing one of my hats.

Choosing the yarn.

I meant to post this between the two weekends of Stitches@Home, and then got distracted by a number of other activities.  [About which, see earlier posts from this month.]

Unless you walk into a project knowing the yarn you will use, it can be problematic to choose a yarn, especially on the fly.  It can really be a problem if you've cherished a yarn for some years and aren't sure about whether to use it, especially for a class project that might not turn out quite right.

My first choice for the class was a bag of Classic Elite Avalon, but I decided that the solid red needed some stitch patterning and I wasn't ready to figure out two elements - the pattern/technique, and a stitch pattern.  I decided to do a plainer knit, which means to me a more decorative yarn.

My second choice was some yarn I'd dyed during a makerspace open house:

I don't have enough of yarn overall, so it would end up as a short-sleeved pullover, which is fine to me.  However, I didn't like the solid gold with the tonal and multi.  I wasn't sure I could dye more of the gold to coordinate with the others, because if I had notes of what was done in the dyepot, I cannot find them.

Dilemma!

So I did another stash-dive into a bin of Ancient and Honorable Cherry Tree Hill yarns.  The dyer retired a long time ago, so what I have is all I have.  And I found four skeins of a silk-merino blend that I thought would work well, and is the kind of bright colours I love to wear:

If you are attentive you have noticed that One Of These Is Not Like The Others.  Yes, the leftmost one is a different dyelot.  My original decision was to work every fourth row (should be easy, once this goes into the round - my current plan is to do a slightly dropped front neck) in dyelot #1101, and work the skeins of dyelot #1019 in sequence.  Hopefully it will blend enough to appear an intentional variation in the colourway.  If not, then it's definitely going to be a short-sleeved top.

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That's where the post ended, and I meant to finish and post it midweek, between the two weekends of classes, but struggled to get the sweater started.  There was doing the math for the top, and starting it, and not liking it, and restarting it.......  I managed to make progress in time for the third class, which happened on the following weekend:

It's hard to see,  but I did a small piece first, then began the yoke, so the back neck will be a bit higher.  This is about halfway where it needed to be before the final session.  The odd skein was used for swatching and sampling, and I may use it for trim.  I thought of integrating it by using the odd skein for every third or fourth row, but may be able to make a short-sleeved top with just the three matching skeins, so that is what I am trying first.  More reports as it grows.

These are some of the in-class samples of fancy increases.  I plan to use at least one of them in my next top-down knitted raglan top - which I promised myself I won't start until this one is finished:

And now photos to see if I have the yoke working correctly, and the underarms, with two rows done on the body after joining (sleeves are on strings):

Not great photos, but they tell me what I need to know.  The size is OK, the fit is acceptable.  I could probably continue at this point.  It's hard to see, but there are vertical darts in the front because my front is wider than my back.  However, they are closer to center than I wanted.  I may frog this and move them an inch closer to the sides, so they are more hidden.

After this point, I will do some short-rowing on the front, another adaptation to deal with the additional frontal acreage.  And no, this is not properly washed and blocked, which would give me a better idea of how it will fit.  Lily recommended trying it, but if I am going to frog anyway, I don't want to do it.

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I meant to post the above during the past week, but forgot to do so before traveling.  Off to see family for a bit.  Since the sweater is a bit fiddly, it stays home, and I have simpler knitting with me: the Falling Leaves shawl (on Leaf #9); a Knit Your Bit scarf using the Rick Mondragon's Odds/Evens plotting that he lectured about during the Stitches@Home; and another Knit Your Bit scarf that's just plain garter stitch of Red Heart Classic in the Americana colourway, wonderfully mindless stuff for knitting on aeroplanes.  Or at the dentist - I had my six-months cleaning (all well, for once!) and my dentist was fascinated at how the yarn automatically changes colours.  (Yes, I use knitting to calm me when I am there.)  He finally gave up trying to figure it out, saying "I understand teeth, not that!"

Happy Birthday, and thank you.

Julia Child was born on this day in 1912.  She died two days shy of her 82nd birthday.  I watched "The French Chef" on PBS as a child (in reruns - I'm not old enough to have watched the original releases) and from her I learned to make an omelet, and a soufflé, and to not fear cooking difficult things.

(I also learned that from my mother, who cooking things like moussaka and dolmades, and chicken cacciatore, and other dishes that were probably considered rather exotic when she first tried them.  I didn't realize until much, much later (college? grad school?) that most middle-class USA people didn't eat such things at home, unless they came from that ethnicity, which we very much didn't.  One of the first things I remember cooking when my brother and I were left home to fend for ourselves was miniature hamburgers and cheeseburgers on biscuit buns we made ourselves; another meal was a stir-fry of beef and cucumbers.  We never thought that we couldn't figure out a recipe.)

Since those childhood, faintly-remembered viewings of "The French Chef" I've obtained and read through the cookbook from the show, and "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", although I haven't done as some have (especially during the pandemic lockdowns) and worked my way through them.  But I do plan to continue trying to learn from Julia Child (and her friend Jacques Pépin) and have taken this as a mantra:

That's very much how I cook today, especially during CSA season, such as now.

In other news, today is Granny Square Day.  I've done a few in my time:

Not a traditional granny square,

but for obvious reasons I'm proud of it.

This was my contribution to a scarf for a KnitTalk member
who was fighting cancer.  We were sending a tangible
reminder that we were with her, and I heard she wore it often.

A baby gift, using a more traditional granny square.

Genesis 1:3

I am slightly chuffed about this morning's accomplishment, imperfect though it is.

Yesterday morning, when I went for a glass of tea, the refrigerator was dark.  Cold, but dark.  A quick check of the freezer showed everything was still frozen, and I noticed a hum, so the machine was overall working.  Thus, the light in the refrigerator had burned out.

My parents made sure I could do basic repairs, including changing light bulbs.  Of course, appliances use a certain size and I didn't have one in stock.  And on Saturday I do a yoga class, then Torah Study, and I had a Stitches@Home class, so it would be afternoon before I had time to go to the store.  I decided that unless I had a reason, I could get a new lightbulb first thing on Sunday.

Plus, on Sunday there is free parking in the center, where the local hardware store resides.  Then I realized that the grocery store probably also carries the lights, and I could pick up a couple other items.  An online check, I made a shopping list, and this morning headed over at the time it would be first open to get the items I wanted.

I didn't find the package I'd identified online, so a bit of study of the options (LOTS of options, for all kinds of lights) I selected a package that I decided would work, remembering that I probably should have removed and brought with me one of the bulbs.  One had always been dark; it was the second that died on Saturday.

At home, I got to work.  Quickly I realized I needed a work light, and luckily have those handy.  A bit of study, and it turns out the light cover is held by four plastic-headed screws, one of which is a bit stripped.  I could not move them by hand, so pulled out my power screwdriver, which required removing the top shelf for it to fit.  So I washed the shelf.

Three screws removed, I could remove the light cover, and after a bit of trial one of the bulbs loosened.  This may be why only one has worked for as long as I have been here.  I replaced it with one of the new ones - and light!

It's not as bright as the old one, but I didn't think I needed a high-intensity light.  Maybe someday I'll get the other light replaced, but there's enough light for now.  Cover back on, top shelf replaced, most of the items returned (some were questionable and have been relegated to the compost bucket), and all is well again.  As I said, not perfect because only one bulb was replaced, but I see the refrigerator contents again, it's good enough for now.

Two other things I did this week.  On Wednesday, I participated in an online play, and I had a somewhat large role, of friend-of a couple of the leads.  I needed costume changes, background changes, props, and watching entrances and exits.  So of course I rehearsed, and panicked, and all the usual.  But it went off as well as could be, and was fun when I got to watch the other performers.

On Tuesday I voted.  My primary had only two items on the ballot, which still seems odd to me after years of voting a lengthy booklet in Chicago, but I wouldn't miss the opportunity.

And yes, like a good Chicagoan, I went early.

This is some of what I picked up in my CSA share on Thursday:

Not shown are cherry and regular tomatoes (I also picked up a few 'seconds' to use in sauce), eggplant, and okra.  It's a delicious summer so far.

From the top

I like the idea of a top-down sweater because you get to decide about length, and so on, and if the yarn isn't cooperative you have room to make adjustments on sleeves or otherwise.  But getting a decent fit to my shape is a challenge.  I did OK with a round-yoke design in Fiberlady yarn, although I ended up with a full skein extra, but I like the look of decorative raglans and have wanted to make one.

Trying on the top to see how it fits.
Yes, I have used this photo before.

So I am taking a class from Lily Chin in the current Stitches@Home series, one session yesterday, one today, and one next weekend.  I got the homework done in time:

 

The brownish one is the first sample, a miniature top-down.  I used an ancient Patons yarn from my stash.  The purple is the second sample, showing how to do a shaped front neckline in a top-down sweater.  It's shorter because I ran out of yarn.  No sleeves yet on either one.

We're supposed to start on our own sweater and have the yoke done by next weekend.  Math is involved!  And I've switched my planned yarn to something I dyed during a makerspace open weekend, plus the remaining undyed skeins, which I am debating about dyeing before I need them.  I have a week in which to decide.  I could also change my mind yet again - stash-diving may occur tomorrow.

Resolutions Update

I read two books in July, bringing my total so far this year to nine, which is one more than I committed to in January.  For Goodreads I said twelve, and I'm on target for that goal also.

I have made plenty of cheese soufflés, but no further progress on the remaining two UFOs.

The Falling Leaves Shawl has eight leaves now: