Feral Knitter

Busted

... for knitting without thinking. Again.

Insanity is defined as the seeming inability to learn from experience.

I was happily knitting away on the button band of the Celtic Knot Cardigan when I stopped to weave the 15 underam stitches. Wait a minute. 15? That's not very many held for the underarm, not when you are knitting at 7 stitches per inch. In the Elizabeth Zimmermann percentage system, you generally set aside 8-10% of the stitches at each underam. This is a large sweater on small needles--I've got some 400 stitches going here. And for well-fitting yoke sweaters in larger sizes, 10% is the best measurement. I should have set aside at least 40 stitches, not 15!!! This mistake impacts how the entire top of the sweater fits as well as the size of the neck opening. I'm setting this aside for a bit while I decide whether to detach the yoke and reattach it, or whether I should just reknit it, tweaking the colors in the pattern a bit (I wasn't totally happy with part of it). Gah.

And, you know, I was aware that something was amiss, but I just kept on going....

So, my knitting license has been suspended. The judge said I won't be fined if I promise to follow a pattern for once in my life. And no stranding knitting til you're done, little lady.

That's not so hard when I have these two projects waiting in the wings:

Yarn for a wonderful, muted Habu sweater--paper linen, silk, and mohair, all three strands held together. And a size 10.5 needle--I'm not sure I've got one....

And a pure white shawl--the Near Solstice Shawl (aka the Birddancing Shawl) by Bridget Rorem, Cashwool lace yarn by Baruffa. At knitting camp, I was gobsmacked when Bridget gave me a copy of the pattern to test knit! This triangular shawl is so lovely that I will even brave the Jemima Puddleduck look that women of my build are prone to.

Bridget plans to include this in her upcoming lace book (publication has been delayed a bit, but fans of Bridget's work need not despair).

So, wish me luck as I attempt to do what I'm told for a change...

The Devil Wears Zimmermann

Every year at Knitting Camp we have a contest. The theme is chosen the year before--this year it was The Devil Wears Zimmermann (Elizabeth Zimmermann, of course!).

KnitAddict Linda Pahdoco won the contest, hand's down, with her brilliant entry:

A singing, dancing Dubya wearing a perfect little Zimmermann Aran sweater, impeccably knit at about 10 stitches per inch.

He'll be travelling the country, so perhaps you'll be seeing him in person one of these days. I had wanted to take an iconic Seattle photo--Linda's husband suggested that I ask the fishmongers at the Pike Place Market to give him a toss, but we decided that the smell and slime would be too much (as it is, visitors to my home flinch when they first see the doll....). Let's get him on the road.

If this hit your funny bone, then you absolutely MUST check out this YouTube clip. Be sure you are in a place where you can laugh out loud! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-yRI_HJoM

Next year's theme: Mythological Creatures. Hmmm, the mind boggles.......

Post-Knitting Camp Fog

I keep shaking my head, as if that will bring me back into an effective relationship to current reality. Knitting camp was, as always, filled with creative and funny people. I didn't take many pictures, instead relying upon photographer/camper Al to provide shots of the garments that were paraded at Show N Tell. But I have a few:

Meg Swansen showing a sweater that will be in her upcoming Armenian Knitting book.

Long-time buddies Greg and Anne, enjoying a Wisconsin Friday-night fish fry at Sceeter & Otis' in Hewitt. The waitress remembered us....

Regular blog commentator, Nancy J--I finally got to meet her!

Greg modeling M'Lou Baber's splendid double-knit alpaca coat with Salish designs--a true tour-de-force! M'Lou's new book on double knitting should be out before Christmas (published by Schoolhouse Press).

The Kitchen Table restaurant in Marshfield. We love the food and the waitresses here (the Kitchen Table Cookbook has some great recipies, by the way).

Greg, Poppy and I are the proud owners of fleece from a llama named Moon--each of us has the clip from a different year that we keep planning to spin as a camp challenge. Don't bet on it.....

I knit a camp bonnet for Greg. Enough said.

Camp paparazzi

We celebrated a number of things at camp: Meg's new Lace Knitting DVD, Anne's birthday, and the wonderful addition of a boy to Amy's family. 

I left Camp with a million ideas competing for attention in my head and the yarn for a 3-and-1 Cardigan, as seen in The Opinionated Knitter:

More later.....

Celtic Knot Cardigan Progress

An Upsurge of Energy

In one week, I'll be at Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp in Marshfield, Wisconsin! I've just spent a few days emptying drawers and closets, searching for my *%#!@  nametag. I just KNEW it was here SOMEWHERE. Whew. Found.

I've been dyeing roving in my crockpot, following Sara Lamb's directions in a past issue of Spin Off magazine.

In the course of searching for my nametag, I rummaged through my giant Ziploc bag of rovings and I got the urge to spin up the odds and ends I found there, dye up more in complementary colorways, and ply them all together a la Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook to make the Sakiori Vest from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Vests. (By the way, I think Cheryl's books, Folk Vests and Folk Shawls, are marvelous. If you don't have them in your library, you might want to check them out.) No stress exploration--nothing can go wrong because it will all work somehow. Not like balancing the checkbook. At all.

I've also been knitting--the Celtic Knot Cardigan is moving along now.

Shadow spent the last few days under my desk, waiting for the country's birthday celebrations to end.

I, however, had a better time, and I hope you did, too!  

Raise a Glass for Canada!

When I moved from Seattle to Berkeley, several times people asked me whether I was Canadian, citing my "clipped and clear" speech patterns. Well, I'm born-and-raised Merican, but the Bajus family has a long and happy connection to our northern neighbor:

Although Johan Peter Bajus had been a very poor German laborer, by 1824 he had managed a certain level of newsworthiness as a long-distance runner, with papers in Germany and throughout Europe carrying accounts of his most famous race.

der "Schnellfüßler"

This publicity landed him a job as running footman to Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse (Germany). One of his sons inherited the position, but young Jacob Bajus left for Kingston, Ontario, in 1838, where he began working for his uncle at the family brewery.

The brewery was renamed the Bajus Brewery in 1843, and the complex remains today, sporting large beer barrels and the name Bajus Brewery carved into the imposing stone facade. It's been converted into high-end condominiums, none apparently for sale at the moment. An advertising ditty remains: "Drink the best--Bajus!--the beer that made Milwaukee jealous."

At any rate, Jacob lived in Kingston for the rest of his life--his father his brothers eventually joined him there. Jacob's obituaries offer testimony that he rose quite a ways from his very humble beginnings: "Deceased was very charitable and during his life relieved the sufferings of many poor people in Kingston. Honesty was a trait of his character and by thrift and hard work he amassed a large fortune."

Jacob's son who was running the brewery died at a relatively young age, his wife and children were teetotallers, and the other children had scattered to homestead in Manitoba and to work as a steamboat captain and customs agent in British Columbia (my branch of the family). My grandfather was born in Vancouver, but moved to Seattle after WWI because he could find work here. My father was a dual citizen until he enlisted in the Army Air Force in WWII.

So Canada was the home of the Bajus family for a hundred years, offering us chances unavailable in Europe. May the Maple Leaf continue to wave!

(For the curious: I did not change my name when I married. My father had one brother, who had two girls. I have a sister and no brothers, so my Bajus branch will be disappearing one of these days. I like my uncommon name, which apparently has Hungarian roots. It makes internet searches very easy.)