Tag Archives: classic elite yarns

deep inside

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in the dead of winter,

when i begin to feel that i might never get warm again,

i remember summers with my family near the ocean.

Pearl-5+

 

Pearl-3+i think about

walks on the beach,

the sun warming

the back of my neck.

these thoughts

bring to mind

that spring

is truly coming.

all the while,

i smile at the

memory of

the childhood hope

that every clam shell

in sight

held a pinkish pearl

patiently waiting

for me, and only me, to find it and set it free.

this scarf, ‘pearl’, was born of those memories

and how i long so for spring.

‘spring’ taken from 29:23 of job.

photos courtesy of classic elite yarns and meg myers.

‘pearl’ is a new pattern by me, available for free in issue #329 of the cey webletter.

the outer edges

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i like fringe on things.  i like it a lot.

not on everything mind you.  fringe has its place,

but i’m definitely a fan.

the thing is,

i’m also quite anal about it being straight and clean.

at least until it’s worn a bit and goes all boho on its own.

so, i’ve played around with ways to line it up

and found this way the best:IMG_3385shadesat

lay the piece to be fringed

flat on a table

or similar surface.

i like to use

the kitchen island

because

the light is good there.

tape a piece of

masking tape

under

IMG_3387brightthe edge to be fringed.

this will be your

guideline

your goal is to

keep the edge of

the knitting lined up

with the tape line.

next use a ruler/yardstick/etc

to measure out

however many inches long

you want the fringe to be.

stick a length of tape,IMG_3382shade

parallel to the first piece,

to mark this length

you’ll cut the fringe.

now, if you keep

the end of the knit piece

on the first tape line

and cut on the second,

your fringe will be even.

slick, no?

and the only clean-up to do

is ripping two pieces of tape off of the counter and whisking away a few bits of yarn.

a job well done.

‘fringe’ taken from 26:14 of job.

cey & i: nothing is safe

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i was only gone for a minute.

just long enough to blow my nose and

wash the sick germs off of my hands.  then i was back

to find my youngest’s train set ambulance

being driven by a cocky looking blond brio man.

he seemed to have been

considering a little off roading while eyeing the ‘field of lace’

that is currently pinned to the blocking board.

IMG_3468urbanit appears that after revving the engine and hitting the gas,

he got his tire hung up at the last moment

on a t-pin

(whew, that was close)

before he was able to leave even one

skid mark across all that work done up in the silky ‘magnolia’

which is so close to being the first finished piece

of ‘artistic differences’ at this point.

how thankful am i

for such a well placed

blocking pin?  so thankful!

‘first’ taken from 18:17 in proverbs.

cey & i: beautiful disaster

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sometimes

even failing can be really lovely.

cey’s montera is a versatile work horse yarn.

it’s been in their line-up for quite a while now

and i just love the feel of how it knits up.

it brings so much personality

to the table.

IMG_340dimmedbut, despite the things that it can do,

i can’t get the cables i have planned

to stand up and ‘pop’ enough in it.

so, it’s time for a little

rearranging of fibers and colors.

not that that’s a problem for me in any way.

getting to dream about what more yarns could be,

and picturing in my head what a different color will do to a design

are my version of daydreaming.

really for me

any excuse to try to listen to what a yarn wants to become

is an unexpected treat thrown into a normal day

like running out of homemade bread and having

ice cream for breakfast instead.

all good.

‘stand up’ taken from 78:13 in the psalms.

cey & i: down, but not out

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even with 2 pencils in play

there was so much tip breaking and wearing down points

that i eventually resorted to a trusty pen.

still, it went something like this:

*write, reconsider, scratch it out; rep from * until your very last nerve is frazzled.

then wait and

…hold on!

time for a time out.

i find a break almost always helps,

or at least it gives me the perspective to cut my losses and move on.

in this case, it gave me the ‘ah ha’ moment that i’d been missing.

IMG_0400

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

whew.

that one was a little too close for comfort

but, all’s well now.  on to the re-swatching and the actual casting on.

‘comfort’ taken from 16:5 in job.

(this post is part of an ongoing series

chronicling my collaboration with classic elite yarns on

an indie collection.  all posts tagged with ‘artistic differences‘ and titled ‘cey & i‘.)

somewhat overactive

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my imagination leaves little to be desired

except a mute button every now and again.

when anticipating an event,

i can make something so big, so wonderful,

that reality has no hope of living up to my internal hype.

so, i do my best not to think too far ahead,

not to fill in the details of things that have not yet happened.

knowing that i was going to soon see

the new classic elite yarn headquarters,

i did my best not to dwell on the idea of it in advance at all.

so i loaded the car with cds, and a map

(no gps…old school…i know, but i like maps).

and here’s the thing. even i could not

have imagined it any nicer.

i knew a few names from e-mails

and each person i met was what i expected,

(turning my mind off completely is so not an option) only better.

the food was fabulous, the conversations engaging,

and i had a thrill walking, for the very first time,

up and down the aisles of a warehouse of yarn

as my imagination swooned with the possibilities.

(note that i do have a penchant for lower case letters. perhaps you’ve noticed…)

now, picture me

reluctantly leaving for the night.

there’s a wicker basket of ‘party favors’ by the door.

i’m touching each one of the felted key fobs trying to pick

only one color combo as they are all lovely

each saying  ‘CEY’ in felted letters

with a real little ball of

yarn sewn on.

except

there is one with ‘cey’ drawn across the front in a curvy lower case script.

ever so loudly

this one calls out, ‘take me home’ and i do

all the while feeling like they they’d known i was coming

and they’d baked a cake

just for me.

‘dwell’ taken from 2:22 of daniel.

addendum: remedy for the 4 o’clock slump

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note: i intended this post for friday, but it was delayed (in all honesty)

by friday’s 4 o’clock slump.  “so”, you ask, “what is your excuse for yesterday?”

ah, yesterday was saturday.  packed, as always, to the gills…

4pm almost always

finds me well into weary,

lugging my bedraggled to do list limply behind me.

i’m often mentally calculating the hours left

until the kids drift to sleep and the intensity of the physical motion

required of me every few seconds decreases significantly.

tried plain old knitting as a pick me up

and shortly thereafter nodded off

with upright needles still in hand.

i was at a bit of a loss

as it is only those mid-day hours that trip me up.

once it is deeply dark outside the glass

my ‘night owl’ genes kick in and i am good to go for hours.

then poking through a fav lys,

i spotted this.

the only question

was how many colors

it would take

to properly

recharge me

the next time 4pm

came stomping the mud

from its boots into the workings of my mind.

the answer?  four.  four colors and a tall glass of ice water.

and here it is, 4:05 pm yet again.  so i’m off to knit in these rich machine wash tones.

more later. much later. say around midnight.

‘weary’ taken from 25:25 of proverbs.

 

the opposite of being undecided

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today knitcircus released their winter 2011 issue.

sold as part of that collection is my ‘duplicity’.

inspired by the stark branches of winter as

they set against the cool midday sky,

i wanted it to be a clutch

but it balked

and became a reversible buttoned cowl instead.

it’s double knit so that there are no strands to be carried across

the long stretches of color.

this also allows the mc and cc

 to swap places on opposite sides.

i was thrilled for the opportunity

to try classic elite yarn’s

eco-friendly yarn

‘woodland’.

it’s softness

was a surprise

since it’s partly made

of nettles, but soft and fairly silky it is.

the wool takes dye differently

than the nettle fibers do,

so the yarn has a way of looking solid & heathery at the very same time

…already my mind is racing to work out the details

of the next project i will knit in this fiber

whose nettles belie it’s smoothness.

now, there’s some duplicity for you.

‘duplicity’ taken from 11:3 in proverbs.