Cumulus - a design by Brouhaha

I vant to be alone!!!



Er... not really (wish I could pull off a Greta Garbo imitation of that, but no chance with my short peasant heritage). But what I do vant is for you to admire my latest project, hot off the needles: the Cumulus scarf!

I'm quite pleased with this one, especially because I designed it myself (sort of). I took the main stitch pattern out of the Barbara Walker Second Treasury and had to do a bunch of math to make it fit into a triangle.


Then I knitted a picot edging...

... with some mauve beads!

I couldn't think of a proper name for this at first. I had gone with "April Showers" but (a) it's not April yet (and I'm nothing if not a stickler for accuracy); and (b) the name didn't quite fit.

I then looked up "cloud" on Wikipedia. A "cumulus cloud", apparently, usually has a puffy cotton-like appearance, with noticeable vertical development and clearly defined edges.

Well, that seemed to fit. Also, "cumulus" in Latin means "heap or pile", and that certainly fit when I first finished knitting this:

I was actually quite despairing last night at the state of this. I couldn't see how it would turn into anything remotely decent looking, and had resigned myself into making into a fancy oversized pincushion or something along those lines. However, luckily for me, it blocked quite well!

Notes:

Pattern: by me, adapted from the Porcupine stitch pattern (Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Stitch Patterns)

Finished size: 43" x 12"

Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Night - 1 skein - 227 yards. This took virtually the whole skein. The "Night" range has little tiny sparkles throughout - you should be able to see them if you click on this picture:

Beads: mauve seed beads from Arton shop here in Toronto - 22 in total (one on each picot point)

Needles: 3.75mm Addi lace

Start Date: 22 March 2008

Finish Date: 25 March 2008

Notes:
- I think possibly I used needles one size too large and the stitch pattern is not as defined as I would like. I would go with 3.25mm or 3.5mm next time. I used the larger needles as I only had the one skein of the Night and wanted to make sure this was a decent size.

- I've made this as a wedding present for a co-worker of mine... and I'm not even invited to the wedding!!! How cool am I?! Too cool for school, obviously.

- The shape of the triangle turned out a bit odd for me as well - the stitch pattern was a nine row repetition over 12 stitches, and I think the math to actually make this all work out was a bit too complicated for my dummy brain. But I think overall it looks quite nice, mostly due to the fluffiness of the yarn.

- I enjoyed working with the mohair a lot more than I would have thought. Which is probably a good thing, given that approximately 1600 metres of it is winging its way to me from Vancouver, courtesy of a yarn auction held by Sivia Harding last week:




Discontinued Handmaiden Angel Hair in the Bronze and Burgundy colourways. You knew I couldn't resist rare Handmaiden, eh? Sigh.

All in all, a success - especially because it only took three days to knit - maybe about 15 hours.

Now I must fly away...

I've got parties to attend this weekend as the Leftie Lawyer convention is coming to town. Skipping the convention, but not the parties. This makes me feel very grown-up and ...

...happy!

Not to mention the latest Italian silk loveliness progressing apace...

A lovely Friday to you all.

evil spirits in Angus, Ontario?!

Are you wondering if this is the shameless daily fearmongering component I'm reporting on from yesterday's TV news?

No. More about that later, fear not....

I've decided that Wannietta, as charming and benign as she comes across in person, is Knitting Evil Incarnate. Seriously.

I mean, I've met the woman once... I had a coffee with her and I now believe she must have slipped something into it intended to make me hemmorhage money at the yarn store.

First of all, that very day she induced me to buy some Handmaiden Silken. She literally twisted my arm. Really. I have witnesses ... although I imagine she's gotten to them already and they will never tell you the truth about the situation now.

And since then, I've now been twice to the LYS. I don't know if I can blame her for the trip to Knitomatic the other day, to be fair... but she is directly responsible for my buying all of this stuff at Romni yesterday:

Yet another skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk:

(A lovely spooky grey colour with hints of blue!)
Some Fleece Artist Suri Blue in what I am calling the "Easter colourway".

(Hey! I don't even like pastels! More proof of Wannietta's "intervention"?!?....)

and some Kidsilk Night:

Now, this speaks to a yarn mania bordering on the ridiculous. Not only did I pick up Kidsilk Haze last week on sale... three balls!... but I hate working with mohair. Really. Here's the proof:

Brouhaha on 6 January 2007: To be honest, this is slowgoing work for me - the first time I have worked using mohair only, and probably the last.

Brouhaha on 7 January 2007:

I managed to sketch out a pattern for the Tilting at Windmills blanket which I will start whenever I have finished wrestling with the mohair (I have promised myself this much although am sorely tempted to abandon it)... and here is the cursed mohair. Might as well be trying to knit with cotton candy! [emphasis added]

Um... well... this wouldn't be the first time I was guilty of Short Memory Syndrome when it comes to knitting, I suppose. Or, to be honest, in general...

And, besides, it looks like a cloud. And, it's sparkly.



But I still blame Wannietta. She mentioned mohair during our conversation when we met. I'm sure this was intended to create a subliminal message in my brain.

And... the only reason I was in Romni yesterday afternoon was because Wannietta had urged me to buy blocking wires for my lace work. Really. But once there, I went into a trance so deep that I looked at mohair which wasn't on sale!!!

Oh, speaking of trances, while I'm at it I think that I'll shift some of the blame for the latest expenditures to Holly. She wrote about a yarn-store induced trance in her blog yesterday. I read this post just before going to Romni. Coincidence? I think not.

And, while we're on the topic of abdicating responsibility for one's actions, here is last night's instalment on How to Dupe The Canadian Public Dumb and Dumber the evening news.

Specifically, it was reported that the Canadian Forces are recruiting 450 mental health personnel to help soldiers returning from Afghanistan deal with post traumatic stress disorder. Now, I'm certainly not suggesting that the soldier don't need the help. I'm sure they do. But... again I ask, to what end is this all happening?

On the CTV web entry on this item today, it says:

Psychological problems have become an increasingly important issue for the military in recent years as it has expanded its traditional peacekeeping status into a greater combat role [emphasis added].

Wow. I think this might be the first time I have seen "combat" and "Afghanistan" in the same sentence written by any major news outlet as it relates to what is usually (cynically?) called "the Canadian role".

But that's not what was actually spoken on the news item last night. Instead, our soldiers' work in Afghanistan was referred to as ... wait for it...

"defacto wartime activity".

Hello?!?? "Defacto wartime activity?!?" This is probably the truest example of political (as in politician) correctness that I've ever seen. How about... war. Why use three meaningless words when you can use one stark one?

Oh, I forgot:
(I saw this T-shirt on line yesterday. I'm trying to decide between the colour above and this colour:

Sheesh. It makes me want to catch the next train to Ottawa and start crushing some heads.



I crush your head!! Crush crush crush...

(Please don't sue me, Mr. Harper. I'm a decent lawyer, but no match for the great wits of your vaunted legal team, Bonhomme and Partners LLP... oh, and nice scarf!!!)

Man, I miss Kids in the Hall!!

I crush your head. All your heads, in fact, o mighty Parliament of Canada and pandering media outlets...!

Phew. I feel better now. You should try some head crushing sometime. Really.

Happy Friday! Off to work now, and then to crush some heads sink a few pints at the pub with the Tenant Advocates. It's been a very, very long week.