Knit Sisters

I’ve been here in Vegas for a week now and the pyramid is starting to feel like home.

If you lived here, you’d be a dead pharaoh home by now!

The Luxor really is special. It really is. You might not know it, but at night they turn on these huge klieg lights at the top of the pyramid to create a massive shaft of light that rises up into the night sky, a column of white light that is a beacon to all those who have lost their way, who stumble in the darkness without a slot machine or a cocktail to call their own.

My friend Jen e-mailed me to call my attention to the fact that the Luxor light attracts a “solid column of very large, buzzing, flapping bugs, stretching towards the sky.”

I checked last night after dark and you know, she’s right! Oh, what a magical sight!

Next to a solid column of roiling and swarming mega-insects, these other casinos, with their phoney-baloney Statues of Liberty,

Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to bet their entire life savings at the blackjack table and take in a topless show!

their fake castles,

That is so not a real castle, dude.

and their cheesy knock-off Eiffel Towers,

Ceci n’est pas une Tour Eiffel.

just don’t measure up. Hey, when those places can show me the bugs, then we’ll talk. Until then, I’m hanging out with Cleopatra.

Cleo and I have been doing a little knitting:

This is actually the Fetal Icarus. The previous one was embryonic, but I didn’t realize that at the time.

I’ve discovered that if you take your knitting down to the poker tables, all the guys seriously underestimate you and you can really clean up. Something to keep in mind for your next trip to Vegas!

Of course, there’s more to Vegas than just gambling. There’s also the

Thunder from Down Under Show Atomic Testing Museum, conveniently located near where I am working and highly educational regarding chiselled pecs and abs an important chapter of this great nation’s history. (Hi Alex!)

I was able to pick up a couple of nice picture postcards from the Atomic Testing Museum shop, which features all sorts of strange and wonderful products having to do with nuclear weapons and the Nevada Test Site:

Irradiating the bejeezus out of Utah since 1951!

Look close. There’s a different mushroom cloud in every letter. Someone, at least, has stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb.

Well, I gotta tell you, today I got nothing.  Nothing, nothing, nothing.  Plus I’m feeling just a little cranked out over this whole “back to school” idea.  My free days are growing short and I’m beginning to feel a little frantic, running around madly trying to cram in as much relaxation and fun as possible into these last precious days of summer.  That can make a girl tense and prone to snap at her loved ones.

So, in lieu of true blog content, I offer these photos of the day.

                                                                                         Harvey, with his brand-new backpack laden with brand-new school supplies.  He’s ready.

                                     Hugo, who says, “I don’t really want you to go back to school.  I like it when you’re home all day.”  I do too, Mr. Puppy, I do too.

                                   My progress on the Nicola cardigan.  I’m coming along on that first sleeve.  I think I’ll make these 3/4 length.  Also, I decided to finish all the edges on this thing with applied I-cord.  I know that I will want to stick a pin in my eye regret this decision 5 minutes after I start the I-cord and discover that I’ve only knitted 1/4 inch of it and then do a quick mental calculation of how long it will take me to go around the whole durned edge at that rate.  Good times ahead.

                                      Brown wool and chocolate angora combed together.  I want to spin this up real, real bad.  But first I must finish spinning this:

                                            Lime green superwash wool that I’m spinning to a sockweight 2-ply.  I have a plan for this which involves planting little tufts of the combed waste fiber into the 2-ply as I ply it.  Won’t that be fun?  (Picture the tufted yarn as the sock cuffs with some plain 2-ply for the feet.)

And finally,

                                               Rob.  With an egg. 

‘Cause nothing’s sexier than a man holding a hard-boiled egg.

Just to prove to you that I still knit, that I don’t just go from desert town to desert town zipping around in red convertibles, drinking whiskey sours, and shooting craps doing serious research on Cold War history, I give you Exhibit A:

Fetal Icarus, made from luscious Alchemy Haiku, color 41a—Vermillion

And isn’t it fitting in a town like Las Vegas to be knitting a pattern called Icarus? Icarus, the boy whose hubris led him to fashion flimsy wings out of $100 bills and fly over to the high stakes gaming tables where he proceeded to lose everything and was subsequently forced to work as a male stripper in the “Bareback” show over at the MGM Grand. His personal humiliation became complete when he was asked to perform in backless feathered chaps.

Or have I got that wrong? I always did get kind of mixed up on my mythology.

Anyway, I’ve been getting accustomed to my surroundings here in Little Egypt:

The Sphinx, looking vaguely perplexed, watches planes land at McCarran Airport.

The Luxor wedding chapel was hopping over the weekend. It is conveniently located right across the way from the food court, which means that you and your wedding party can enjoy a round of Big Macs right before the big event.

No, I don’t want any fries with that, but can I get the Honorable Estate of Holy Matrimony?

The Luxor chapel pledges to organize your dream wedding, to make it a day that you will never forget.

No matter how hard you try.

But seriously, I don’t think a Vegas-style quickie union is necessarily less likely to work out than any other marriage. My great Aunt Mary Frances and my great Uncle Boone were married in Reno at one of these kinds of chapels and they were together for decades. Until he died at an advanced age just a few years ago, in fact.

In the spirit of full disclosure, it must be noted that sometime fairly early in their marriage she threw a massive lead crystal ashtray at his head in an attempt to kill him, but he nimbly ducked and all was forgiven in the long run. And they do say that successful couples need to learn how to fight.

But the best part of being at Luxor over the weekend was watching these two energetic musicians perform at the Nefertiti Lounge. One plays keyboards and the other plays saxophone. They do mostly covers, but they do them with such verve and energy that their performances often outshine the originals. I can’t stop photographing the saxophonist because he’s so mesmerizing.

Here he transmutes into pure energy.

I was out early on Sunday morning for a run on The Strip, which turned out to be a nice way to get some time to myself. Note the general scarcity of people in this photo:

I reckon everyone was at church.

Unfortunately, cell phone reception is not that great in my hotel room. But what do you expect? I’m smack dab behind the Sphinx and one of the great pyramids. There have to be some trade-offs.

So I’ve taken to calling Alex from the outdoor pool area, which has given me the chance to say something that I’ve wanted to say all my life:
“Hey, baby. I’m calling from the pool.”

Living the dream, living the dream.

More news and, with any luck, more Icarus, on Thursday…

Last Tuesday evening, seized by a wild and restless longing, I started a new project.

 

This is the Nicola pullover from Simply Shetland, and I hadn’t even really been contemplating making it.  So, I found some likely yarn in the stash (that I had already swatched in stockinette) and cast on.  Of course, being constitutionally unable to leave well enough alone, I turned it into a cardigan and made a few other changes to the pattern:  set in the sleeves a bit more, included short row shoulder shaping, changed the neckline shaping, and naturally I plan on knitting the sleeves from the top down.  Other than that, it’s just like the picture.  (Except for the color and the yarn.)

Here’s my progress as of last night.

 

I started the first sleeve last night while watching The 4400.

Here’s a detail of the stitch pattern.  Simple, yet effective.

The yarn is Neveda “Alpaca,” 70% wool, 20% acrylic, 10% alpaca, which I bought several years ago from Elann.  Some while back, I tried to coerce this yarn into becoming an Alice Starmore Aran sweater, with somewhat limited success.  Alice Starmore, knitting genius notwithstanding, knits everything to a stunningly tight gauge, and this yarn, while making beautiful cables, had approximately the hand of cast iron at her gauge.  Plus, my hands cramped so bad from knitting to that gauge I could scarcely hold a pencil.  I ripped it out.  Now it is becoming the Nicola cardigan with very good grace.

And, because I spent a good portion of my weekend outside in 1 million degree heat watching Rob play tennis in a local tournament, (and he kicked some booty, I might add!) and one cannot reasonably knit a woolly sweater in 1 million degree heat, I also started a new pair of socks.

 

Isn’t this just the prettiest, girliest sock cuff imaginable?  Even Rob, secure in his masculinity as he is, has not been tempted to say “Are those for me?” 

I’ve been in Vegas for a day and a half now and have been astonished to find that most people are not here for the knitting. Yes, I know. It is shocking.

Instead, they seem to have come for this:

I decided not to spoil the fun by reminding them that, in the end, the casino always wins.

But just to catch you up on my road adventures, I enjoyed my last day in Tucson with an early morning drive out to the desert in The Car:

Car like that won’t let you down.

The Car and I saw these wonderful scenes:

Hello, Saguaro!

Yes, I suppose there is a certain sameness about these shots of the Sonora Desert, but I’m still feeling the love.

I visited Lynn at Kiwi Knitting Company, a wonderful shop not far from the University of Arizona. Since I was mere hours away from flying out of Tucson, Lynn and I got to discussing the new restrictions on carry-on items and wondered whether or not I would now be allowed on the airplane with my Addis.

Me: Well, it’s not like I personally am inclined to violence, but you could garotte someone with those things. You know, if you had ninja training!

Lynn: To me, it would just be easier to take one with a longer cable, say a 60″, and strangle your victim.

See what knitters talk about when no one else is around? When I related this conversation to my dear sister, she thoughtfully added, “Hmm. If you were going to go the strangulation route, you could probably just use a length of cabled yarn. It has a lot of tensile strength.”

If knitters ever go over to the dark side, God alone can help us.

Since Lynn went a long way towards making me feel right at home in Tucson, I couldn’t in good conscience leave her shop without a little something to remember her by:

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock makes such a nice souvenir, shown here in colourway “Tahoe.”

The air travel story had a happy ending, though. The TSA confiscated my toothpaste and sunscreen since those are items universally carried by “evildoers,” but they let me on with my garotte Addis.

Sock progress was therefore made.

Ever notice how “the evildoers” never seem to get sunburned? Yeah, well. Now we know why.

Now I’m here in Las Vegas where everything is 100% authentic:

Even in his wildest dreams, Ramses the Great never foresaw this.

Life inside the pyramid—everything, all the time!

Did anyone ever mention to the Luxor bigwigs that pyramids were burial structures? Doesn’t send the most positive message, guys. I’m just saying, is all.

The pharoahs prided themselves on their vast chlorinated swimming pools with poolside bars:

Now I hate to be a party-pooper, but I probably just better confess—however reluctantly—that I do not love being in Vegas. John Ruskin once pompously said, “When I am at Paddington, I feel I am in hell.” But for all Ruskin’s pomposity, if you substitute “the Strip” for “Paddington,” that sentence would pretty much describe my feelings about Las Vegas.

Of course, Oscar Wilde took the wind out of Ruskin’s sails when he responded, “Ah well, when you are in hell, you’ll think you are only at Paddington.”

Touché, Oscar. When I go to hell, perhaps I’ll think I’m just in Vegas.

Ellen and I, after much deliberation and soul-searching, are pleased to announce the Fall 2006 Knit Sisters Challenge and Contest!

In honor of the upcoming change of seasons (and believe me, that change cannot come soon enough for me) we would like to invite all our blog readers to design a knitted item with a leaf motif.

 

(This is the glory that is the maple tree in my front yard–last year.)

Here’s the scoop:

1.  The challenge starts now and will end October 15, 2006.

2.  Any knitted item that incorporates a leaf motif is fair game.  This includes anything from the largest sweater to the smallest cravat or wristlets.

3.  Any technique may be used:  lace, intarsia, stranded, cables, brocade, etc., as long as the end motif is recognizable as a leaf.

4.  Send us a photo of your item by Sunday, October 15, 2006, and we will post all the photos in a gallery on the blog.

5.  On October 16, 2006, we will open the floor to voting for your favorite knitted leaf item.  Send us an email or post a comment with your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place choices.  We’ll leave the voting open for 2 weeks, or until October 29, 2006.

6.  There will be prizes (!!!) for at least the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers.  I will be giving handspun yarn to the winners; there may be other prizes as well.  (We’re leaving that door open for now.)

I will be working on my new design Blue Bamboo

 

during this time, although it will not be included in the voting, for obvious reasons.  Ellen promises me that she will come up with something….

Need ideas for sources for leaf patterns and motifs?  Here are a few of my favorites:

1.  Any of the Barbara Walker Treasuries

2.  Nicky Epstein’s Knitting on the Edge, Knitting Over the Edge, and the brand-new Knitting Beyond the Edge

3.  1000 Great Knitting Motifs by Luise Roberts

4.  Latvian Dreams by Joyce Williams

There are many, many more, of course.  Harmony Guides, Fair Isle books, lace knitting books, etc., etc. 

If you have questions, feel free to email me or leave a comment and I will get back to you.  Have fun!  May your flying needles create a cool breeze in these hot times!

Don’t you just love air travel? I know I do.

You know what my favorite part is? Well, it’s when the pilot comes on the intercom with his aw-shucks-folks drawl he copied from Chuck Yeager (I am freely borrowing from Tom Wolfe here, but frankly I just cannot improve upon his description) and says, “Way-ell folks, it looks like we’re gonna to be headin’ into a little light chop up here fer a bit, so if you’ll just make sure those seat belts are fastened low and tight, we’ll get you on through to some smoother air jest as soon as we can.”

I know that most of these dudes used to be fighter pilots for the military and therefore are used to all kinds of airborne shenanigans—up to and including taking enemy fire. So when I hear one of them start drawling on about “a little light chop,” I prepare to lose my lunch.

My tolerance for turbulence has fallen off in recent years.

So while I was working on these bamboo socks,

we get the usual announcement about a little light chop. I’m not happy about it, but I go on knitting the sock. That is, until the flight attendant comes on and says, “We are asking at this time that all passengers return to their seats and remain there with their seat belts fastened.”

Fine.

Then he adds, “In the event of an emergency evacuation (emphasis mine), passengers are advised to leave all cabin luggage behind.”

Under my breath, I utter what I suspect will be my last words on this earth, deeply profound words that will resonate down through the ages:
“Oh shit.”

Then I start to think, is this his idea of a joke? And besides, do they really have to say that anyway? If the plane is in the process of crashing, do they really think that I’m gonna stand there at the evacuation slide screaming, “Not without my backpack! I will not leave this plane without my yarn and my travel snacks!”

Course not. I could easily leave behind those travel snacks.

Since I’m writing this now, you already know that we didn’t all die in a fiery crash. And in fact, after I kicked that flight attendant in the shins said a fond farewell to our flight crew, I trundled on over to the Tucson Budget Rental Car counter where they proceeded to upgrade me to this:

Feast yer eyes upon her: a red Mustang convertible. Gimme those keys!

There are those who say that the four most beautiful words in the English language are, “I love you, darling.”

Personally, I’d vote for “unlimited mileage, limited liability!”

Had I known that they were going to give me this car, I would have planned to stay in Tucson longer. Like say, five or six years.

But even though I’ll be rambling on by the end of the week, here’s where I’ll be working for the next couple of days:

Otherwise known as the home of the:

Tucson has been experiencing some dramatic desert thunderstorms that seem to come out of nowhere and roil up into clouds like these:

They are rawther impressive. I would not have been entirely surprised had God himself had emerged from behind this cloud and delivered a series of commandments.

Self-portraits with beads and bland hotel room:

I am really quite easily entertained.

Next stop: Fabulous Las Vegas. And yes, I will be doing dissertation research there. Research for my dissertation on blackjack and free cocktails risk and the nuclear establishment. More soon…

I actually finished a couple of small projects yesterday.  The striped scarf for Rob:

 

(The artwork to the right of the scarf is a piece of Rob’s that hangs in our living room.  It’s one of my favorites–so spare yet so evocative, somehow.)

And the orange cabled socks for me:

 

Obviously, I decided that the scarf was going to go to Rob, although I began this year with the stated and firm intention that this was “The Year of Knitting for Me.”  You see, I keep a running record throughout the year of all the projects I have finished, both big and small.  Last year’s count was a total of 28 projects; only five (5!!) of those were for me.  I decided that this was a pitiful and paltry amount and that this year I would knit only for myself.

I began the year by finishing up all the projects that were hanging over my head for other people.  A sweater vest for my dad, a cardigan for Rob, a cat bed for Alex’s cat, a pair of socks for Rob.  Since then, I have made three sweaters and two pairs of socks for myself, two baby blankets (for other people), and a scarf for Rob (see above).  It seems I have a problem sticking to my resolution.  I would like to think that this is because I am a naturally generous and giving person, and not simply because I am weak-willed.

In my defense, however, I have done lots and lots of spinning this year.  Somehow, giving myself permission to be selfish with my knitting opened the door to spending my time spinning.  And I have loved spending that time at my wheel.  I’ve completed nine spinning projects, large and small, this year.  Plus lots of washing, combing, and otherwise playing around with fiber.

So perhaps a better title for the year would be:  The Year of Spinning and Knitting for Me.  And the year’s not over yet, is it?  The fall has terrific possibilities.

Like this one:

I’m playing around with another idea here, a kind of wrapped and belted jacket with a quilted pattern and double knit edging/neckline treatment.  The yarn is a wool tweed (the solid green) and a hand-painted brushed mohair that I bought long ago at New York Sheep and Wool.

Here’s a detail of the quilting pattern:

 

Lest you wonder about Blue Bamboo, I have a master plan for that pattern which I will be announcing later in the week.  Stay tuned!

It’s great to be back and have a chance to get caught up on the development of the Blue Bamboo and the fine points of copyleft vs. copyright. Thanks to Sarah and Alex for keeping the blog fires burning in my absence!

The Outer Banks of North Carolina was a magical place, replete with beautiful beaches,

wildlife refuges that doubled as refuges for derelict buildings,

delightful beach houses,

Our house, “No Regrets,” shown here with my young friends who, for national security purposes, shall be known only by their code names: Red and The Cardinal.

vicious mosquitos and biting flies,

The Cardinal slaps demonically persistent mosquitos who are thwarting his attempts to photograph the scenery.

state parks that looked remarkably like the Sahara Desert,

The Cardinal and Red at Jockey Ridge State Park. Although the heat index that day was 117 degrees, they appear cheerful and sprightly. Because that’s just the kind of really swell people they are.

handy clotheslines,

Because occasionally some of us had run-ins with ocean waves and ended up just the tiniest bit drenched and encrusted with sand and small stones. But we learned a valuable lesson: if you fight the sea, you will be schooled by the sea.

and picturesque paths to the beach.

Wait! Come back! I can explain everything!

Red took her first surfing lesson,

Laird Hamilton’s got nothing on her.

while The Cardinal, his mother, and I took photos and loafed on the beach.

During the week, we discovered a unique retail outlet for beer and various libations called The Brew Thru. I have not yet gotten over my amazement at the existence of not just one, but multiple Brew Thrus in the Outer Banks. Because what this is—and if you haven’t seen it you might be tempted to think I’m exaggerating (which heaven knows I would never do here on the blog)—is a drive-though beer store. I am not kidding.

There’s something more than a little Darwinian about allowing people to buy a case of Coors from the driver’s side window of their Ford Explorer.

Speaking of Coors (aka “Colorado Kool-Aid”), should you find that your favorite Outer Banks beach shop is fresh out of Confederate flag bikinis, there are still other tasteful and dignified options for beach wear:

Truly, there are no words.

But now, although the shame is very great, I must confess that I did not knit much at all while I was in North Carolina. I offer in my defense these two obstacles: (a) the heat index was always between 115 and 120 degrees and that’s the kind of meteorological figure that says “Brew Thru” rather than “wool” to me; and (b) I was experiencing some overuse, carpal-tunnel-style pain in my left wrist. I am pleased to report that the latter seems fine now after a week of rest.

Which is a darn good thing, too, because I’m about to go on the road for some dissertation research and after those long days in the archives, I’ll need knitting. I’ll need it badly. I’ll take those same projects—Icarus, the bamboo socks, and Rogue—and hope for better progress this time.

First stop, Tucson. I’ll be reporting from there on Wednesday…

I’m a little worn out today, and consequently have had a lazy kind of day.  I’ve gotten a few things done, but not much.  I did go ahead and put a facing on the leaf edging for Blue Bamboo. 

 

I just used the same yarn, having had no luck finding anything silk or rayon in the stash that would work for the facing.  I like that idea, though, and I’m definitely going to keep it mind for a future project.  (By the way, the yarn I’m using for this is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in the color “Blue Paradise.”  It has stood up remarkably well to all my experimenting and ripping out.  Good show, Brown Sheep!)  I did go down a needle size for the facing, though, and then attached it with a half-graft.

Diane asked in the comments if you could finish each leaf point separately, like a sawtooth border.  I don’t know how exactly you could do that one this type of edging, which is picked up from the vertical edge and worked outward.  However, there are leaf edgings which achieve that kind of look that are worked in a strip and then applied, or can be worked perpendicular to the edge and joined to the body every other row, like you would on a shawl border.

Here’s a detail of the leaf motif that will go on the upper back; I didn’t think it showed up too well in yesterday’s photo.

I also finished another skein of the cabled yarn.

When I went outside to take my photos late this afternoon, Tortellini came over and talked to me for a while.

She loves to be outside in the summer, and walks through the grass as though she were a big cat stalking her prey on the plains of Africa.