Normally, getting a packet of oh-so-pretty yarn would make me happy - but when that yarn arrives in an office that is over 90 degrees, even looking at the unopened package made me a little lightheaded. And, opening it up at home, I was still antsy about touching the wooly wool - you see, the airconditioning system is not working at my office - but the heat is working just fine. We're all sitting in the dark, and individual air conditioning units are in the hallways, blowing hot air around, since we can't open the windows. Yesterday someone passed out; the day before someone went home with heart palpatations. And, it's going to be this way until Tuesday.

So, while I know that deep down I'm really really excited about my next Starmore project - the above Roscalie Vest that I ordered from Virtual Yarns, and arrived at my swelting doorstep within a week and a half, I can barely touch the yarn - or any yarn for that matter. Knitting, due to unbearable weather conditions, is at a halt.
After a day at the office, all I want is Rita's Waterice, not Shetland, or Manos, or a mukluks, or any other project I have in the queue.

Weekend Progress Report

So . . . it's, um, an interesting interpretation of the original,yes? I mean, really, if you were going to repaint the Mona Lisa, wouldn't you spruce her up a bit? Maybe give her a red dress?
Mine is definitely more . . . pink. The purples are pinker, the lights are lighter, the overall tone is more jeweltoned, as opposed to classic Thoroughbred horsey colors.

The preparation for the knitting was definitely more difficult than the knitting itself. There's a five stitch motif that's repeated twenty-two times on each side of the star thing in the center. I spent alot of pre-knitting time with the chart -- changing the legend over and over as I changed which Spindrift's would substitute for which J&S's. So the chart, which at first seemed to be as incomprehensible with it's 17 different color symbols as a Greek menu, became as easy to read as a newspaper. You can see above I have a lot of markers in - this is completely unnecessary if you are capable of counting to five, but I like them - it makes the knitting even more machinelike, completely nonchart dependent. I think of the star in the middle as like a gymnastic tumbling pass - one long stretch of 47 stitches. Sometimes, as I'm going across that part of the chart, I even have a commentary running in my mind accompanying it - yes! she stuck that landing! Lot's of little things going on in my head that make this an entertaining knit.

And, anyone who thinks you can't do fair isle if you can't knit with yarn in both your hands, think again. Above is one repeat of the 32 row pattern, plus a little bit of the second repeat. I started it last Wednesday - I'd say I'm motoring along with my one-handed, pick and throw, work. I can actually carry the yarn in both hands, but, surprisingly, I just find this way works better for me - especially in the Kaffe, when you're managing three colors per row.

Below, I pondered whether my Kaffe was really still a Kaffe, and Lisa dubbed it "Kaffier than Kaffe." I'm not sure what I'm supposed to call this thing - now that I've switched up the colors, indeed, it's not really close to the original at all at this point. A Starmore, if you go by the designer's intent - is a marriage of pattern, color and yarn - and I've only got one of the three. Maybe it's now a Starmore*, with fine print reminding the blog reader that's it not quite an authentic Starmore - kind of a Starmore knockoff.

If anyone is interested in knitting a true, honest to goodness Starmore, Virtual Yarns is supposedly updating their website sometime this week, and many of the kits that were sold out should be restocked. If you aren't so much into authenticity, and are willing to pick your own colors, check out your local libraries. Philadelphia County unfortunately doesn't have any of the fair isle books - but there are four copies of The Art of Fair Isle in Bucks County - my dad checked one out for me over the weekend, so I should be able to peruse it over Passover. And, of course, there's ebay - this pattern is in Vogue, Fall 1989, and I think you can still get all of the original J&S colors, I just chose to work with what we had a Rosie's.

And those colors that I bought at Rosie's that didn't find a home here - I think they'll end up in that Eunny Jang vest, I forget what it's called. Although, I'm not sure if I'll ever find a home for that neon purple Aubrelita.

Starmore, Take 2!

Armed with my color photos from Ravelry of finished Thoroughbreds, I reassessed my assault on the Shetland yarn at Rosie's. Out went Pistachio, Aubrelita, Shetland Black, Old Gold, Pine Forest, Scotch Broom and Sandalwood, in -
Dusk, Bramble, a Rowan Scottish 4 Ply in Magenta, Peat, Thistledown, Turf, Mint, Mooskit, Willow, Dog Rose, Sand, Lemon, Amber, a Drops Alpaca in a burnt orange, Sunrise and Scarlet.

And here is the newest incarnation of Thorougbreds. I'm much happier with the Magenta.

So, from the bottom to the top - On the bottom is Dusk - which in the original was Blueberry - but I only have 1 skein of Blueberry and the pattern calls for 2 of that color - so I'll have to live with Dusk. Next - Pistashio, a sage green, has turned into Willow, a pale, minty green. The blueberry/purple Aubrelita is now the Rowan 4 Ply Magenta, paired with DogRose, which in the 1st take was Thistledown. Next is a pairing of Peat and Lemon, which was Shetland Black and Scotch Broom. Now here's where I may have messed up again, but I think I'm going to live with it - I have a Rowan 4 Ply walnutty color and Amber - I forget what it was before - Amber and something. I think this Amber may be too dark - the next progression is Sunrise, is a rusty color - and at knitting circle we lined up all the colors, along with the colors that will be on the side, and everything seems to read well. So, here's where it's going to look significantly different than the original, but I'm going to go with it. Unlike that blueberry/purple color that was so wrong yesterday - I don't hate the amber, and I like the Sunrise - not pictured above. So I'm sure Alice would have a cow, but this is a Wendy production.

And for Marissa - thanks so much for the use of your pastry gadgets - here's the racetrack cake we made for Mr. Tall's Grandpop's birthday -



It's a chocolate cake, covered in traditional white icing. The "track" is crushed oreos, the grass, green sugar. The street markings are white Good n Plentys, and the white rim - that's the pastry tubing - yum!

And the cars - chocolate cars from Naked Chocolate, the most decadent place in all of Philadelphia - you really could get naked, and dive right into the personal chocolate fondues. Mr. Tall and I went to the Film Festival on Monday night, and beforehand, we went to Naked Chocolate for dessert. Four different sipping chocolates (classic, milk chocolate, Aztec and Spicy), a counterfull of chocolate pastries, and of course, the fondue, served with fruit, cookies, marshmellows, and rice crispie treats - YUMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!! Don't plan to go following a meal - it's way too rich - plan on making it THE meal, and don't skimp - if you're going to go there, forget about the calories, because that would just be silly - there's nothing appropriate for Weight Watchers in this sea of chocolate, peanut butter, carmel, nuts and honey.

Splat!

The wait is over - I cast on the Starmore.

All of the excitement - winding the yarn, casting on 320 stitches, getting it joined in the round, and then . . . splat! My bubble burst, my balloon popped, my heart sank. And the culprit behind my malaise - THIS SKEIN.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I've been substituting Jamieson and Smith colors for Jamieson Spindrift colors. Did I mention I was doing it without a color card? When I photographed my final picks, and compared them to Thoroughbred stashes on Ravelry, I kind of patted myself, and Courtney, on the back for what a good job we did. Can I tell you - that was a premature pat, that's for sure. Because here's what we did:

BLECH!!!!

That purpley blue thing is just hideous!!! The color called for in the pattern is "Aubergine." I substituted with a color called "Aubrelita." It really is much more purple in person - but the fact that the camera is picking up so much blue tells you what hue of purple it is - and it's awful. I guess one person's Eggplant is another person's Blueberry.

So, it's back to the old color palette - that particular color, when looking at finished Thoroughbred's on Ravelry, seems to be a purply magenta. There's other tweaking to be done as well. The orange needs to be more orange, rather than the pinky orange that's in there (Sandalwood). Coming up is something called "Wood Heather" that I substituted with Pine Forest. But, looking at finished T's - it's too dark; it needs to be a more of a blue green. Ah well - I'd rather tweek now on the ribbing than in the actual pattern. What about swatching, you ask - good, reasonable question, or course. I did swatch, shocking, but I only swatched in two colors, because I didn't want to break my yarn - I got the last skein of many of these colors, and I swatched in two colors that I know Rosie's has back stock.

Icky icky poo - drat drat drat!

Ok, enough of that rant - here are a few pics of those fantastic bottlecap buttons --

It is only knitting after all - good to end a rant on a high note - the buttons are great, and looking at them almost makes me forget the Starmore pain.

Martha Bottlecap

Can I cast on something new yet???? All of this finishing is killing me!

So, here's Martha, from Rowan Studio, in the new Manos Silk Blend. I call her Martha Bottlecap because the buttons remind me of bottlecaps - love them! If I hadn't used them on this little cardigan, I may have built a project around them.
This was an easy knit, and a not so easy finish - blocking was a bitch. Thanks for that schematic Rowan - not!

The schematic had all of two measurements - width and height. Last time I looked, that made a rectangle. Hmm - there's an armhole there people. So, I did the best I could. Sewing in the cap sleeve was no fun. Kind of like putting a square peg in a round hole. I messed up the buttonholes - thanks again Rowan for writing instructions like "begin front neck shaping 39 rows from the beginning of neck shaping of back." I guess my row gauge was off, because when I followed the instructions for the buttonholes - p54, make button hole - I ended up with a buttonhole on the lower half of the garment. Oopsy. So, I sewed that hole up, and went with 2 buttons on the top half, and since they're pretty big, showy buttons, it worked out ok.

And, I'm so glad I took this picture outside - what's up with my crazy two-toned hair!?! I immediately made an appointment for a color - friends - how did you let me walk around like this??? Can I just whine for a moment - something has happened to my hair. It's not growing. Well, it must be, since you can clearly see the color line in the above pictures. But, where is it going? I don't have a lot of breakage at the bottom. I thought that perhaps it was just curling up, and curling up, but when I blow it dry, it's not significantly longer (see pics with Tangled Yoke). I have the amazing disappearing hair. I guess what goes around comes around - I've spent a lifetime with thick, curly hair - and all I've ever wanted was straight hair. When I would clean out the drain in my shower after washing my hair, I would secretly, and evilly, chuckle at my bald male friends - if they only new how much hair I had to spare! And now . . . ok, I'm not going bald, but I've definitely reached one of those age milestones where you're body changes in a not so good way.

I'm ok with turning 40 (not this summer, next summer - we'll see how ok I am then). I'm ok with the lines appearing on my face. I'm ok with feeling tired and a little sore after playing tennis on Wii. I'm ok with my metabolism slowing down, and not being able to drop five pounds by simply upping my water intake, and chopping out alcohol and sweets. But my hair! Sigh. It's all downhill, I know it - I might as well go to the wigmaker now.

Kaffe?

So, here's the Kaffe, or is it? I mean, what makes this a Kaffe Fassett design at this point?
Have I followed any color theory whatsoever? I certainly didn't pick a motif in nature in order to emulate the colors. I didn't pick a work of a great master, and paint his/her canvas with my yarn. The Kaffe Little Circles has 11 colors, I have at least 17, I'm not sure. The original pattern had a chart with a progression of colors, but frankly, it was nearly impossible to follow the progression because when I started I hadn't picked all of my colors yet, and I didn't predetermine what color was going to be which designated letter to correspond to the progression chart. So, from the beginning, I tossed the pattern aside, and began the dizzying experience of trying to come up with three color combinations that worked together, and when that was too exhausting, I just started grabbing balls from the bag. I wouldn't say I employed any kind of theory, unless randomness qualifies as a theory of madness. This piece is definitely more Jackson Pollock than Kaffe Fassett.

The original Little Circles is knit flat, in two pieces. Obviously, I'm knitting in the round, and I've just put the steek in for the v-neck.

Little Circles does have a v-neck, but I'm starting my V much lower, so it'll be much deeper. Oh, the original was nice enough, it's not that I'm dying for a plunging neckline or anything, but I had the tube off the needles, and shimmied my way into it - and it is SMALL!!!! The snug, undulated little circles over my love handles are hardly attractive. I started out on gauge, when the project just had DK weight yarns. But, having fallen in love with the Rowan 4-ply Tweed, I kept throwing it in, along with a few other fingering weights, and I went from 6 stitches to the inch, at the bottom, where you can see Whiskey, Felted Tweed, and a doubled Misti Alpaca, to 8 to the inch, about a quarter of the way up, when I stopped doubling the alpaca, and was really using a Whiskey or a Felted Tweed, and 2 fingering weights per row. Oopsy. So, I'm hoping with the low v-neck, I'll have a bigger playground for my boobs to run around in, and perhaps with blocking, I'll get another inch or so, and it won't be horrendous. And, if it's horrendous on me, it'll be a great gift for my skinny sister-in-law. It's just way too late to rip and start over now. So, with Courtney's math help, I started the v-neck lower, and have abandoned the original shaping of Kaffe's Little Circles.

So what's left of Kaffe? The color palette - gone. Method of knitting - changed. Shaping - altered. All that's really left is the simple Little Circle stranded pattern. I guess that's enough - I mean it's not really mine, I didn't design anything. It's not really Courtney's - she just did the math for the v-neck. It's kind of a mishmash. Whatever it is, though, its Krazy.

And, here's that Krazy thingy hanging out of my new knitting bag. I love my new bag, it's big, it's roomie, and I've been coveting it for a long time. Everyday I walk little Dexter down Pine Street, and we pass this cute little store, Omoi, that sells kitschy Japanese stuff. The tote bags are on a rack in the window.
This past weekend, I had to teach at a CLE, that lasted from 3:00 p.m. Friday, through 3:00 p.m. Sunday, uch! Each day started at 8:00 a.m., and went on and on and on. I definitely needed a treat. Normally, a treat would be casting on - but, a ha! I circumvented that urge (even though I did get the Autumn Rose pattern finally, to go with the yarn I already have, and I do have that Starmore calling my name), but promising myself that knitting bag in the window.

Look how much room it has!


And this, another little bag! All of the girls at Knitting Circle are ga ga over Piddleloop's project bag. This isn't one of them - they're always sold out. So, I orderd one from ZigZag Stitches, who also makes bags from Japanese fabrics. I haven't done a comparative analysis of the two bags, but mine came with a little needle case as well, seems sturdy enough, and is an excellent addition to my new knitting bag.


And Madness Manos Blanket? 13 blocks to go. There's no way I'm not going to cast on the Starmore any second, but I will finish Martha first. I have the back, a front, a sleeve, and 3/4's of the second front done, and probably if I hadn't strayed to the Kaffe for the past couple of days, it would be done. Probably over the weekend. And, with Tangled Yoke in the can, Martha out of the way, and Kaffe making signficant progress, I think I've done enough penance to finally cast on - the Starmore!

Home Improved

As part of Operation Clean Up, not only have I been making my house cleaner, as in you can eat on the floor, I've been making it more functional - as in, you don't have to eat on the floor. Yes, I finally broke down and bought an expandable table for my living room. No more dining on the ottoman, I have a real table. And, voila - a place for the table runner I knit for Lisa Shobhana Mason's book, YarnPlay Home

When Lisa asked me to help her out with the book, I had the choice of knitting a table runner or a bathmat. Hmmmm . . . and the girl without the table picked the table runner. But, that was ok - it was an easy knit, although not a quick knit - it's very long, although narrow, and it was a bit hard on my hands, it's knit in hemp. But, as you can see, the finished project was worth the effort.
So, if you haven't checked out the book, and your house needs a bit of sprucing up, you should. Written in the same vein as YarnPlay, all of the projects have room for your own touch, and more than a dash of creativity. Not only can you throw some splashes of color and texture in your own home, the book has great gift ideas, like a wine cozy, a tea cozy, and an cd case cover, among other things.
So, while I generously got a gift, signed copy of the book from Lisa, I probably would have bought it anyway - a great companion to the original.

So, there's one old project that finally found its place - on to what's new - or going to be new - because, keeping to my No New Projects until the Manos Madness blanket is complete (14 blocks to go!!), I have not cast on anything new since the Mukluks. Right now, I'm working on Martha from Rowan Studio in the Manos Silk blend - yum. Can't even tell you how much I love knitting with this yarn. But, you shall see - the back, and one front are done -- it should be done sometime next week.

And then the Kaffe - really, the Kaffe.

And then, I have on word for you - STARMORE!


Just call me crazy, that's really all I can say about this project at this point!
I found this pattern on ebay - in Vogue Knitting Fall 1989. Individual copies of the magazines sell for up to $30 on ebay, but I found this one in a lot of four 80's Vogue's - I almost felt like I was stealing when I clicked the Buy Now for $12.50 button, but that's the world of ebay commerce! The pattern is knit in Jamieson and Smith's shetland, and Courtney and I did our best to substitute all TWENTY colors with Jamieson's Spindrift. I have no idea when I'm going to get started on this - I'm sure in a moment of madness - hmmm, just like when I stared the Manos blanket!

Yoke Untangled

Give a girl a Duncan Hines cake mix, and all kinds of craziness can happen - even a nice Jewish girl can make an Easter bunny cake. I'm having a heart attack just looking at it, but there it is -

And, that's not the only thing I finished over the Easter break - tangled yoke is a tangle no more!
I don't even remember when I started this - whenever the magazine came out, I think, because I know I grabbed this color, Avocado, out of our first fall shipment of Rowan yarns, and I think I cast on before I cast on Cobblestone (which, by the way, is such a tragedy - because Mr. Tall insisted on washing it, and hanging it on the back of a chair to dry - all of that ripping out I did because I had overestimated how tall he really is is now completely for naught - as it has stretched back out to its oversized, ridiculous original state. Ah well, back to the blocking board!). I knit the body, and the sleeves pretty quickly, and then - the yoke -
You can hardly see the cable, or the decoration as my niece called it, on the yoke in this picture, but it's there - and it scared me. I saw that one to five increase - the stitches increasing at the speed of light. I imagined the stitches on my needle, falling off my needle, becoming unwieldy and unmanageable. And, I tossed it aside, and tried to put it out of my mind.

Then, Marian was at knitting circle one night, and picked out her yarn, Whiskey, to get started. By the next week, she had finished the body, joined the yoke, and had her markers in to start the cable. I admired hers, and began to covet. I coveted my neighbor's sweater. So, Laura and I were working at the shop on Saturday, and I mentioned my fear of the cable, and my potential inadequacies as a knitter, and Laura was like, "huh, I should knit the yoke for you - it looks like the only fun part of the sweater." I let that sink in a bit, and it sank -

Until it was like a Call to Duty (not that Call to Duty is imbedded in my brain or anything from Mr. Tall and his son playing it for four hours yesterday while I read the Times) - I must knit this because I CAN. I CAN DO IT.
So, I joined the yoke, color coded my cable chart, and three days later - the yoke was done. And, I was mighty proud of myself.
Then, my second fear rose to the surface.

I wasn't sure it was going to fit.

My weight fluctuates - up five, down five, up seven, down 10 - we all know how it is. My bust is like an inflatable balloon - 36C, 36D, 36C and once, after a totally obsessive round of weight watchers - a 34C!) - When I picked which size to knit, the 38, I was coming off the summer, was in pretty good shape, and had not yet gone back on the pill. A good six months later, and 2 mos. of birth control in my system, preceded by Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now, a very chocolately Easter - well, a C is a stretch, and the D is pretty much where I'm at now. I became very nervous that the buttons wouldn't close, or if they did, it would be a tight squeeze. I consoled myself with the thought that the cardigan would still look pretty open, with a crisp white shirt underneath.

When I went to Rosie's to buy my last stash of the Felted Tweed that I had on hold, I chatted with Jen, who also has a Tangled Yoke in the mix. I mentioned that I hadn't seen many Tangled Yokes parading through the store. She had, and I don't remember her exact wording, but she had seen a few sloppy button bands - loose, and pulling away from the sweater. My anxiety level increased. But, I was really determined to finish it. Laura's offer to do my knitting for me had definitely sparked a competitive chord in me -- it was a matter of pride, and if worst came to worst, it would be a great gift for a skinny person.

In an effort to avoid the gaping button band, and the dreaded stretchy button across the boob, I did two things. First, I ignored the number of stitches that Eunny instructed us to pick up, and just picked up my button band like I would pick up a sock gusset - leaving no stitch unknit - and I ended up picking up a good 20 more stitches than the pattern called for. On the next row, I decreased to the correct number of stitches, and I think my button band is pretty darn spiffy.

The next thing I did was I added buttons. The pattern calls for 9 buttons, I went with 11 spaced 2 inches apart. I figured the more hardware, the more restraint, and the more likely my boobies would stay put, in the sweater as opposed to popping through the buttons.


So, I crossed my fingers, and hoped my prophylactic measures worked - because I knew that aggressive blocking would foil the cable.

And, voila - it fits. And, not only does it fit, I think it's one of the best fitting sweaters I've ever made.


And what happened to the mukluks - is March Mukluk Madness over? Have no fear. One mukluk is in the can, and the second is at the cuff (which since you start at the toe makes it about 3/4's done!). And, the Muchos Manos Blanket of Madness is moving along - only 15 more blocks to go! I definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. And, since the mukluks, I have not cast on anything new. While we were at the Kaffe class a few weeks ago, someone asked me how many projects I had going at one time. I couldn't give her a number, I mentioned a few, and while the group was quietly knitting, I did some real soul searching about how many WIP's I actually have - and it's scary. Just as Laura's offer to do my knitting for me struck a nerve (not that it wasn't a generous offer, just that I knew I had it in my to knit the cable), I found myself growing hot under the collar, I'm sure my face turned a greenish shade of red - I don't even know if I can confess how many projects are actually hanging around. My fingers are hovering over the keyboard about to type the list, and I can't do it - hello, my name is Wendy, and I'm an addict . . .

So, I do feel better having finished Tangled Yoke. After the Mukluks, and of course, the ongoing blanket, I'm going to finish Martha, and then assess what's next. I do know that Autumn Rose is in my near future, but I'm going to try try try to hold off casting on until I do some more colonics of the stash. And,

Krazy Little Circles

From this perspective, it doesn't look so bad . . . with it sitting in my lap, or peering down at it, my eyes all squinty, and my lips pursed in concentration, it looks like poo.

And I feel like poo when I knit it - it's exhausting! Adding that extra color to the row just throws things into a tizzy - a big, twisted muckety muck. I sort of have a sytem of throwing my yarn, and I say sort of, because I have to really think about it - it doesn't come naturally at all, and I can't seen to find a production machine-like rhythm that I usually have when I knit.

But, I will perservere! Our next class is April 24th, and I hope to get to the armholes so that Lisa can show me how to put the steek in.

Whiskey on the High Seas

So you knew the mukluk couldn't be far behind the tam, right? Or, ahem, the Caspian Sea Socks, my substitute mukluks. I shouldn't really call them mukluks, because they're not - they just kind of look like the mukluks I have in my memory. But since this is all about the ethnic sock experience a la Priscilla Gibson-Roberts I feel like I shouldn't slap a generic (wrong) label on them - it's kind of like when my clients say "I wasn't out there selling drugs, I was just going to the Chinese store (meaning the convenience store on the corner run by someone of either Asian, Indian or Middle Eastern origin).

So, for my folkie socks, I'm using Whiskey, in blue, olive, plum and orange.
The pattern uses Tiur, which from my understanding is a very mohairy, dk weight yarn. I went with Whiskey, which without the mohair is coming in at gauge on a 4, as opposed to the 2 used in the pattern. And, of course, I know that because I cast on on 2's, and had to rip it out after completing the toe because all I had was a tiny nipple cover.


And speaking of nipples, sort of - I'm not a big fan of how the toe nipples - and I knew from reading the pattern, is was going to, because there are four straight rows before you start increasing for the toe shaping. I wish I had gone free form, but since I'm not really a toe up kind of girl, I decided to follow the pattern. And now, sigh, I have a nipple toe.

So I did my Middle Eastern cast-on -- three times. For anyone who has never tried this technique there's a very good video on Youtube. I would link to it, but I'm at work, and I can't open download sites here. Anyway, first, I cast on, and I just could not figure out the chart, in combination with the written instructions. The pattern is charted, and the instructions are also written out line by line. When I tried to put the two together, I was befuddled, literally scratching my head. I was at knitting circle, and I can't remember who it was, was like, "oh my G-d, I've never seen you like this - never!" And I really was stymied - increase where? Two times? In what color? - the large size and the small size are charted together, and the small size is outlined by a heavy black line. The written instructions say something like, "knit four in pattern, increase 2 repeat." I just could not figure out which were the four, and where the increases were, looking at the line by line itemization. So I screwed it up, ripped it out. Cast on again. I tossed aside the written instructions, and just followed the chart, and everything worked out just fine.

Except that they were too small. Ah well, so I made a nipple toe swatch.

And, the fact that I couldn't actually read the perfectly good, standard English instructions, gave me hope that I will actually be able to knit something out of Ethnic Socks and Stockings, which has almost no written instructions, but rather a formula - toe up, follow the foot chart, waist yarn heel, follow the cuff chart.

Hope is a good thing - a little luck won't hurt either!

Knitting a Tam Family Style

Some projects are as easy as just thinking of them. I wanted a tam, I have a tam! The knitting was almost an afterthought it went so quickly.
Using Mary Rowe's recipe for a basic 10" tam, I plugged in the palm pattern from Eunny Jang's Anemoi Mittens, and then for the wheel, I used the first wheel pattern in her appendix in the back of the book.

The book reads much like a Chinese restaurant menu - 1 from column A, 1 from column B, and finish your meal with the Chef's Special wheel. There's a chapter on knitting a basic tam (there is also a very math heavy chapter on changing the size of your tam, but I just thumbed passed any page with a square root sign on it), with different numbers for different weight yarn. To add color fair isle patterns, she refers you to her 2 appendices - one with traditional xo patterns, and the second section, for the pattern that will border the wheel - pick one from Group A, one from Group B. In her book, both of these patterns form the "body," and her wedge shaped charts form the "wheel."



















Even though there's a very detailed section on the different wheel patterns - scallops, petals, leaves, etc., I had a hard time visualizing how the wedges were going to come together - huh? That makes a flower, really? And, because the "body" in the book is also referred to as the "border," this kind of confused me. The body is 3.5 to 4 inches long, and the wheel is 26 rows. So, when looking at pictures, with the tams already blocked, I wasn't sure how far up the body traveled(was the Group "B" pattern the pattern that appeared above the blocking line/fold and what she was referring to as the border or is the whole body the border, I thought to myself), and what was the beginning of the wheel. So, while I toyed with the idea of throwing in another pattern in the body, I was gunshy because I didn't know exactly how much would be on the underbelly, and how much would border the wheel on the top. Nor, did I get exactly where the wheel started, I mean, I could see the decreases, but the few rows before, that had like "squiggly" patterns,little bits of color, sort of - was that B or the first row of the wheel? - so the planning process was also kind of like a Chinese dinner - pork, chicken and shrimp in the soup, pork, chicken and shrimp in the eggroll, and pork, chicken and shrimp in the entree - kind of hard to draw the digestion line.









































Knitting the tam put it all in perspective.


The tam starts with a corrugated rib, and goes straight into what Mary describes as the body. On my tam, the body goes all the way to the "border" 3 rows of one row blue, one row main color, one row blue, and then the wheel pattern begins. So, if you put 2 of her traditional patterns in (an XO pattern, and a larger pattern), the XO will be on the underside post blocking, and the "border" pattern will be the top half of the body.
























So, now in this 50+ degree weather, I finally have my perfect winter ensemble! Yes, Mindy, it is a little matchy matchy for me, but I think throwing Maude, and a little Koigu in the mix completes the picture just fine.

On Friday, I was hit with mukluk fever. I was surfing around, and stumbled across these mukluks. Once, I bought a pair of mukluks at a street vendor for a pollyanna at work. To me, I really thought they were kind of a joke present - I mean, really, they were silly, crazy colored things, but they turned out to be the hot gift - the gift that everyone wanted, the gift that everyone stole instead of gambling with the grab bag. I couldn't steal them back, and my mukluks went home with someone else. I passed the vendor again, and it was always, "eh, I'll pick up a pair next week," until one day, they were gone, and I forgot about them.

Until I saw them on the Kristin Knit a Long and I had to have them. More than that, I had to knit them - NOW! So, I went on Ravelry, and tried to find the pattern. Nothing. I tried to find a pattern for another mukluk, but only bootlike mukluks came up, not slipper-like mukluks. Argh! I googled. Zip. No one had ever knit them? Couldn't be. At one time, they were kitted up by Classic Elite - no one knit them? Huh.

On Saturday, at Rosie's, I flipped through every loose pattern we had - I looked on the shelves, in the back, in the office, under the seat covers - everywhere - and, success! I found them! I had visions of dancing around my living room in my mukluks, burrying my feet under my bedcovers in my mukluks, cooking dinner with my new wok in my mukluks.

And then I read the pattern.

Completely and totally incomprehensible.

Between my Friday internet search frenzy, and my Saturday discovery, I had settled on a compromise pattern - , the Caspian Sea Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. I Raveled it, and other Gibson-Roberts patterns came up. I tried to find the book, Ethnic Socks and Stockings online, and chuckled when I saw the book listed for $200 on Amazon. I didn't need vendor mukluks for $100 per sock. But wouldn't you know it - Rosie's had a copy on the shelf - not so burried treasure! So I bought a copy, and read it.

And read it.

Not incomprehensible, not at all. The history lesson didn't tickle my fancy quite like mitten courtship rituals, and the detailed explanations of the gazillion different castons, heels, arches, legs, cuffs - really hurt my brain, but I'm definitely going to tackle something in the book - some day. Right now, I think I'll stick to the Caspian Sea Socks, where the instructions are written out line by line, and I can practice many of the techniques needed for a good go at one of the many socks in Ethnic Socks and Stockings, which seem to require a good grasp of Eastern sock construction, because while the charts look doable, the written instructions are more like a recipe than an actual pattern - throw in a Iranian cast-on, use a waste yarn heel - sort of.

Anyway, so I cast on the Caspian Sea Socks right?

Nope, I cast on a tam.

Huh? In my quest for the perfect ethnic slipper/sock at Rosie's on Saturday, Bridget came into the shop, and mentioned her finished Fair Isle Tam. I asked her if she could recommend a good Tam book, and she told me this one. Rosie's had one copy, and I got completely sucked in by the pretty pictures. Huh, wouldn't it be nice to have a tam that matches my mittens? Yes it would!







So, I cast on a tam, here's a blurry picture:

















I used the same corrugated rib that's on the mitten, and the body is the pattern that is on the palm. I'm not sure about the wheel yet - I think I'm just going to do something from the book - I'm not sure if the swirlies from the mitten will do well in a decreasing pie wedge, but I may chart it out, and consider it.

And mukluk fever? It's calmed down. Although I did check the vendor outside Anthropology at the corner of 18th and Walnut to see if perhaps she had imported mukluks among her ethnic knitted goodies, but no soap. I'll just have to knit them . . . maybe next.