Remember This?

Haul out the holly;
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again.
Fill up the stocking,
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.
For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute,
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute.
It hasn't snowed a single flurry,
But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry;
So climb down the chimney;
Put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen.
Slice up the fruitcake;
It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.
For I've grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older,
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder,
Need a little Christmas now.

- Jerry Herman

Note: this contest announcement originally ran last December, before 2010 got hijacked by the juggernaut that is Lord of the Rings. Today I am happy to announce that:

• it's on!
• the game is afoot
• go for it
• I'm sheepishly acknowledging my own procrastination (oops!)
• AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE PATTERN IS AVAILABLE FOR INDIVIDUAL PURCHASE OVER THERE>>>ON THE RIGHT>>> (also on Ravelry & thru Knitty Noddy, my partner for the Garden Variety Collection)
  

A couple changes worth noting:

1. deadline for entry is now December 25th (natch!)
2. Entry photos will be posted on the blog as they come in, with a separate page for all of them.
3. Winner will be decided by reader vote, instead of judging
4. Prize is a full set of Two Towers patterns, including the "In Dreams" mystery shawl KAL that will kick off the next leg of our journey in January.
5. You don't have to finish the scarf, just finish enough of one side that you can get a decent picture.

I think it will be lots of fun to see what everybody can do with this pattern. You can find the RAV KAL here.

How do YOU decorate for the holidays? Traditional? Avant Garde? (sp?) Red & Green bursting out everywhere? Tastefully understated?

Well, now's your chance to shine! One of my readers had a great idea!

I'm going to run a contest next December for the best "decorated" Spruce scarf.

I'm going to set up a KAL on Ravelry for the contest where we can all share ideas and links for beads & charms & such.

But you can't win if you don't play - Spruce is only available through December 25th


I love December - too much fun!

SPRUCE

Size:
16 in wide by 60 in long

Materials:
1300 yds. seasilk or other fingering weight yarn
1500 size 8 seed beads
110 star or other accent beads/charms
size 4 needles
crochet hook for beading

Gauge :
5 st = 1 inch (blocked)

Charted Design
Intermediate level

On your mark...Get set...GO!

what are you doing still here reading? I said GO! NOW! TIME'S A-WASTING...lol

OH YES! ONE OTHER THING : AM ALSO MAKING ENTIRE 2009 SERIES AVAILABLE FOR LAST TIME THRU END OF OCTOBER - STILL AVAILABLE INDIVIDUALLY AND ALSO UNTIL THE END OF THE MONTH - ALL 5 PATTERNS (PAMPAS, DELPHIMIUM, ROSE, CHRYSANTHEMUM & SPRUCE) FOR $30 - SPECIAL DEAL AVAILABLE HERE ON THE BLOG OR THRU KNITTY NODDY

Errata

"I'd rather be strongly wrong than weakly right."

-Tallulah Bankhead

DELPHINIUM, page 2:

Cast on 105, not 104 (using 104 beads) then work chart A as directed, repeating center FOUR stitches 24 times.

On first row of first repeat of chart A, decrease one in center of row by knitting 2 tog. (104 stitches)

Blues Power

"Bet you didn't think I knew how to rock 'n' roll.
Oh, I got the boogie-woogie right down in my very soul.
There ain't no need for me to be a wallflower,
'Cause now I'm living on blues power.

I knew all the time but now I'm gonna let you know:
I'm gonna keep on rocking, no matter if it's fast or slow.
Ain't gonna stop until the twenty-fifth hour,
'Cause now I'm living on blues power."

- Eric Clapton and Leon Russell

I got the blues...

But that ain't bad!

After many permutations, she is finally complete!

DELPHINIUM STOLE

the garden variety collection

$8

SIZE: 18 inches wide by 72 inches long

MATERIALS: 2 skeins (874 yds.) Handmaiden Sea Silk or Mini Maiden in color: Periwinkle

4500 size 8 Miyuke seed or delica beads

matte opalescent cobalt AB

Size 3 (US) needles

Cable Needle, Size 12 Crochet Hook, Large Eye Beading Needle

GAUGE: Delphinium lace panel = 3 inches wide (blocked)

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL PATTERN
CHARTED
Stole is knit in two pieces and grafted at the back.
Design features three delphinium panels of overlapping "blooms" separated by beaded columns of fagoting and a nifty little three stitch arrow motif.

This arrow motif is transformed into an allover beaded pattern on the ends of the stole, which wave gracefully in a scalloped hem. This section is repeated at the center back of the stole, where it helps camouflage the join.

I hope you enjoy this pattern; she was a little ornery at the outset - didn't want to show herself, but in the end, I'm very happy with how she turned out. I photographed her laid out on the front deck of the lake house. She looks cool and summery and light - just like her inspiration.

My grandmother, who built the lake cottage, used to garden where our yard now stands. I remember the tall spires of her beloved delphiniums so well. It is only fitting that I completed the design while here overlooking the spot where once her garden bloomed.

Have a lovely Labor Day weekend. I know I will.

Playing Catch Up

"Learn to pause... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you."
-Doug King

I don't know about you, but I often feel like the answers find me, rather than the other way around.

I can fret and fuss, knit and rip out, turn a problem over and over in my mind with no concrete results.

And then, one day, clear out of the blue, as I am engaged with something else, the solution pops into my head.

I usually know that a design isn't quite right, but I often can't tell you why or how to fix it.

Yet, I know when it is right...

And when it isn't...sigh...

That is what happened with Delphinium.

When we last left our heroine, she looked like this:

I liked the bottom. I like the sides. I thought I liked the twisted stitch center panel.

But the more I looked at it, the less I wanted to knit on it. That is always a bad sign.

After ten plus versions, I had reached the end of my imagination. So I left her in the dust knitting basket for a couple days, traveled north to the family lake, and put in a little time on another design I have been germinating.

The yarn is from a shop in Lansing, so I needed to decide if I wanted to stop on the way home and get more of this shade of Rowan Felted Tweed. Gotta match dyelots...


This is Lakeshore Tweed, because, well, it's tweed and I'm at the lakeshore - Duh!!!

The color reminds me of the sand beaches and the pattern reminds me of seagull tracks.


One rainy day later, I knew what was wrong with Delphinium. She was too literal. Instead of trying to replicate the entire plant structure, with it's branching upward flowers, I decided to make each panel represent the actual bloom.

I began looking for patterns that mimicked the graceful curves and layered aspect of the delphinium spires.


How'd I do?


I am a lot happier with the way the color interacts with the pattern in this version. Much more graceful...


I kept the connecting stitches intact as I had them on the last version, including the fagoting.


In the evenings, when my eyes are tired, I am finishing up the knitting on Chromatic Shift, since it is a much easier (to say nothing of larger) pattern.


Both patterns should be ready for write up next week.

From the north woods, signing off...

Perseverance

"Persevere and get it done."

- George Allen

Not done, exactly...

But finally out of design and into construction...

Whew!

Delphinium is all about the linear - took her design motif from the spires of blue flowers, only here it's done with beads.

No stash sale for the next 3 weekends - heading back up to the lake on Saturday for two more weeks of R & R.

Taking Delphinium and my blocking boards with me, so never fear, you'll get your pattern.

And we now have internet at the cottage - Whee!!!

Back to work...

Delph Dilemma

"Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."
-Émile Coué

"To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture."

-Pablo Picasso

Okay Pablo, I will take comfort in the fact that Delphinium still has a great deal of soul.

And yes Emile, it IS getting better.

You know, if I had had any idea I was going to change the pattern this much I would have started much earlier...

Say...

February???

I had this design in the bag, having already started it in Canopy last Spring, before deciding it would make a terrific Garden Variety pattern. After all the gauge was similar and the color just a paler shade of blue/violet.

Or so I thought.

In reality, changing from wool to seasilk changed the way the pattern looked. What seemed in perfect proportion now seemed too open and plain.

Adding beads further complicated things. They didn't show up well in the original placement.

So I edited.

And re-edited.

And re-edited again.

And since I am a visual thinker, I knitted.

And frogged.

And re-knitted.

And re-frogged.

And so on...

And so forth...

World without end.

Amen.

I am now on version 9 or 10. I lost count somewhere around 7 or 8.

I have knit the first couple inches enough times to have completed the scarf it began as...

Enough times to be halfway done with the stole it has wound up as...

And each time I was convinced this one was THE ONE AND ONLY.

Sort of like Liz Taylor and husbands.

Ah hubris...

No pictures yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

In the meantime, I take comfort from Stuart Smalley:

It's good enough, it's smart enough, and doggone it, people will like it!