30 July 2007

Woe Is Me

It's true! Needful Kikki has been discontinued. Woe indeed.
I have seven skeins of the bluish colourway in my stash for, what now must be, an extra special project. Also, I think I will be one skein short of the green. So, I must hunt. Either that, or turn my top into a sleeveless vest.

28 July 2007

No Knitting

So, in the spirit of semi-regular posting, here is a lovely picture of a cat. His name is Nemo. He belongs to our neighbour at the last apartment. He used to regularly slip in our door and spend the day with us.

No knitting. No much of anything really this week. How is it possible for so many hours to pass with nothing to show for it?

22 July 2007

Sunday Knitting

I cast on a new project this afternoon. It's one of the corset inspired tops from the lingerie book. I'm using some green Kikki from my stash and it looks quite pretty. I worry that I'm a tad short on yardage - probably one skein short.
Another concern: when I went looking for the yarn specs on the Needful site, Kikki wasn't listed. I hope it's not been discontinued.
Don't you dig the beautiful patio table? Upside milk cartons never really go out of style, do they?

Re, the poem in the last post. I came across the volume in a book store in Victoria. The fellow at the counter told me the poet is a local. Her use of language knocks me on my ass. I keep coming back to Excess. It's taken me a week to be able to read it without weeping. It's just so effing perfect.

18 July 2007

Excess

Excess

You wake each day feeling the alphabet has grown
overnight, your mouth too full of words

Even silence is a long vowel that will not end,
a five-mile tunnel of ricochet and echo.

You offer simple semaphores to pare things down;
your head in your hands instead of grief's explanation.

When you need help ordering the day's steps,
you cut memory down to a stone you can swallow.

Clear away the tables and chairs, clutter of dishes
and books, the ringing telephone and the clock's tick

until all that's left is one small room
the size of a grown man's skull.

With a key carved from bone, you unlock the door
and bend low to enter; strike a match to find

a place you call relief: that green and simple valley,
the sky unhinging its white ramp of clouds.

Carla Funk
The Sewing Room
Turnstone Press 2006

Current Project

Mitred Squares

17 July 2007

I'm Back...

...but I don't wanna be.

10 July 2007

Off Again

This is where I'll be tomorrow night. I've never seen the ocean. So, I received an invitation from a friend and bought a plane ticket.
I'm so excited. I feel like a kid.
I'm so in debt now.
I so don't care

07 July 2007

85 Degrees? Wool Socks!


Hedera is finally done! Look closely and you'll see a few mistakes...well don't look that close. These were some seriously small stitches but it is a pretty result, isn't it? All that knitting through the back loop paid off. I love that straight, strong ridge. It's a nice change to see a sock where the design emphasis is not in variegated yarn, but in the stitch work.

Now, here's a cool thing. Remember my little tree in a barrel from last season? Well, the snapdragons re-seeded themselves into the drainage hole and are growing out the side. Gorgeous! I surely could not have planned such loveliness. Nature is brilliant.



02 July 2007

Holiday Monday

Wasn't it a beautiful day today? Such perfect weather for a summer holiday. We spent the morning building a bean pole at the bottom of the garden.

Then I sat beneath the grape arbour......and worked on the lace stole.

I believe this pattern will take me the rest of my life, or at least the rest of the summer. Tis a very slow knit indeed. It's quite intricate and thus far, I've not been able to memorize the pattern. Still, I love it - so light and delicate. I only pick it up when I need concentration style knitting and the deck with CBC playing softly in the background is the perfect venue. Next week I'm visiting a friend in BC and this is the project I'll be bringing for the long flight.