How time flies

It doesn't seem that long ago that my nephew was born. But it's been over 18 years, because he graduated from high school in June. I went up to northeast PA this weekend to attend his graduation party. Has it been that long since he looked like this?



Apparently so, for now he looks like this:


He'll be attending Shippensburg University this fall on a baseball scholarship, so I'm looking forward to following his college ball-playing career and sending him care packages.

I had a good visit with my family. My mom was very happy to see her grandkids, and even my father mustered up a bit of grandfatherly elan:



(That's as good as it gets, gentle readers. And I cropped out the unbuckled pants and the beer belly just for youse.)

My brother was in that I-just-spent-the-last-week-getting-ready-for-this-party-in-my-backyard-and-now-I'm-too-exhausted-to-enjoy-it mode, but rallied in order to tend bar:



My sister-in-law had built a minishrine in honor of my nephew (that is the graduate himself looking at it):



Little Miss, who always feels pretty, posed with one of my namesakes, my aunt Carol:


and Tom, who also always feels pretty, posed with my other namesake, my aunt Jean:



I consumed halushki and golombki (sp?) but, alas, no kielbasi. I had some lovely catching up with my brother's high school pals and although they may have been lying through their teeth, it was still nice to hear people tell me I don't look my age.

One thing that freaks me out about these parties is that I keenly feel the loss of some of my relatives who have passed away. When I was a kid, my family went to parties that were full of my extended family (mainly on my dad's side, but occasionally on my mom's, too) several times a year. There was always somebody getting married, or celebrating their First Communion or Confirmation, or graduating from high school, and if there wasn't any official occasion, sometimes someone would just throw a party for Memorial Day for the hell of it. There was always an old guard of Polacks sitting at a card table playing pinochle, grabbing kids as they walked by to give them an empty beer pitcher and to tell the "little bastards" to go fill it. My grandmother -- if she weren't reneging at cards -- would be predicting her imminent demise or making obscene hand gestures in order to discourage anyone from taking her photo. Stories would be swapped, photos examined, tons of food and beer would be consumed.

Alas, the old guard is now gone. My grandmother was one of the last to go; but before her, cousin Bertha, great-uncle Frank (Tom always says that if you can't remember one of my male relative's names, try "Frank" -- you at least have a 50-50 shot of getting it right), my cousin Francie (people used to comment on her voluminous chest, but that was only because God had to make enough room for her gigantic heart), and more recently, my great-aunt Josephine, a.k.a. Cioci Joe. In some ways, it just doesn't seem right to be at a family party with so many of the old guard gone.

Granted, there are new family members to smile at, like my adorable cousin (first cousin once removed, I think) Brock:


At least Hildy is still with us, and in fine form, she managed to honor the old guard in the manner which they would have found most meaningful:

Fall preview: Berroco

I've come full circle when it comes to Berroco. Way back about ten (or more??) years ago, they used to have single-breed, all-wool yarns that I really liked; one was called "Wensleydale Longwool" and the other was some kind of Leicester. Then it seemed they started shifting focus to novelty yarns, the bumpy and the shiny and the bling-y, and I lost interest. (We won't even talk about the Berroco Chick.) Then Berroco did the smartest thing they've ever done -- they hired Norah Gaughan. (Whatever they're paying you, Norah, it should be MORE...)

Now I'm in love with Berroco again and completely transfixed seeing what kind of wonderful pattern booklets and yarns -- especially the all-natural fiber yarns like Pure Merino and Palace -- they come out with.

At TNNA, the lovely Cirilia Rose (formerly of WEBS), who now works at Berroco, showed us some of the new yarns and patterns coming this fall. Berroco definitely has gotten the message that the economy stinks and is offering yarns that feature good price points relative to yardage, which should make thrifty knitters happy. At the top of the list was Vintage Wool, a worsted-ish-weight blend of wool/nylon/acrylic that truly, really doesn't feel like it has 55% synthetic in it. (And I'm sensitive to these things!) The colors were nice, the hand was good and it's machine wash -- and a super price point, about six bucks for over 200 yds. (Good for kids' knits, with that machine wash thing, and some good fun colors.) Another new yarn is called Blackstone Tweed, 4.5 sts per inch, with a unique (for tweed) blend of 65% wool/25% superfine mohair/10% angora. Lustra is a 50/50 blend of wool and tencel, with sheen and a soft, single-ply construction -- another great price point, at $9 for about 200 yds of aran-weight yarn. Finally, Sundae is a bulky (around 2.5 sts to the inch) blend of 50% wool/50% acrylic, with plies of various colors, most of them on the conservative side. Another relative bargain at $9 for 62 yds, which is pretty good for yarn this bulky. In their existing lines, the popular acrylic/nylon blend, Comfort, now comes in heathered shades, and the lovely Pure Merino now comes in a "chine" or marled look.

I always find myself especially keen to see the patterns that Norah and her talented design staff cook up. Yes, there will be Norah Gaughan No. 5 and it looks like it won't disappoint, but I was also pleased to see a separate collection by Norah just for men. There was a cute pattern booklet for little girls featuring Comfort, and a great collection by Cirilia for tweeners, that hard-to-fit age when girls don't want "babyish" stuff but their moms don't want them wearing Brittney Spears/cleavage-hanging-out stuff either. That book features Vintage Wool and I certainly intend to get a copy for Miss Thang. (If she won't wear any of the patterns, I can roll it up and use it as a stick to defend myself....) There are also 3 other booklets devoted to the new yarns, one each for Blackstone Tweed, Sundae and Lustra.

So... get ready for lots of new lovelies from your friends at Berroco. It looks like the Berroco website has already started to feature teasers of some of the new yarns and patterns.

Book report: end of May/June

You can see as the year wears on, my highfalutin' books give way to quick-reading mysteries and other such escapism. Here's the latest batch I've read:

The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine. Barbara Vine is the pen name of British mystery writer Ruth Rendell, who is one of the most prolific yet consistently good mystery/thriller writers out there. The novels she writes as Ruth Rendell are more traditional mysteries, usually featuring an English police inspector named Wexford. The books she writes Barbara Vine tend to be stand-alone, and I think are a bit creepier. What is remarkable to me is the way Vine/Rendell manages to write suspenseful and creepy thrillers without very much blood and guts. Instead she has a way of getting into the head of characters who seem very normal on the outside; she then peels away the outer, normal layers to show you the twisted psyche inside, or in some cases, shows how a character flaw or twist of fate turns a law-abiding citizen into a criminal. The Birthday Present concerns a handsome Member of Parliament who at the beginning of the book is guilty of only adultery. But by the end of the novel, his life is in ruins.

The Crazy School by Cornelia Read. I read Read's first Madeline Dare mystery last year, and liked it, so when I found the sequel at the library, I grabbed it. Dare is a recovering debutante who, in this book, finds herself teaching troubled high school students at a residential school led by a controversial, charismatic leader. When two students die after drinking poisoned punch at a school party, Dare jumps right in to find justice for them.

Faithful reader Kris suggested Mistress of the Art of Death by Arianna Franklin -- and I really enjoyed it. I had to skim some of the more squeamish scenes, but a very engrossing mystery set in 12th century Cambridge. I liked the historical tie-ins, the good characterization and the twist at the end.

What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris is the first in a series of novels set in Regency England. A nobleman is accused of murdering an actress and has to find the real killer to clear his name. Okay, not great.

A Matter of Justice by Charles Todd is the latest in a series of mysteries written by a mother-and-son writing team. Their protagonist, Ian Rutledge, is a veteran of World War I who carries lingering emotional scars from his experiences in the trenches. He struggles with his own ghosts, while trying to solve this convoluted mystery of a prominent investment adviser found murdered and strung up at his country home. This one wasn't as good as some of the previous ones, but still well done.

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. This is one of only a few non-mystery/thrillers I read. When the narrator tells you on the very first page that she's a big fat liar, you kind of expect there to be some plot twists, but I sure didn't expect the gigantic and convoluted twist that came at the end. The book isn't about lace knitting, but what sounds like a form of tatting from the colonial era, and the lace is really secondary to the characters and what happens to them. The book is set in modern-day Salem, Massachusetts, and the author's description of how the town has capitalized on its connection with witchcraft is interesting and amusing.

No Graves As Yet by Anne Perry was recommended by a GKIYH reader. I read this when I was recovering from some virus, and I can't tell if it was the fact that I wasn't feeling as clear-headed as usual or if it just wasn't my cup o' tea. It wasn't awful, but it seemed very slow, with way too much conversation and not a lot of action.

The Serpent's Tale by Arianna Franklin is the sequel to Mistress of the Art of Death and I very much enjoyed this one. I like the way the author blends history -- in this case, the death of King Henry II's mistress and the friction between Henry and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine -- with the fictional characters and the mystery they are trying to solve.

Finally, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, was one I started -- a non-mystery even -- and just couldn't get into, so I abandoned it. I don't know if you've ever heard people say that you should subtract your age from 100, and the number you get is the number of pages you should read in a book before giving up on it. I'm 44, so I'm supposed to give a book 56 pages before bailing, but I can tell you I didn't get that far in this one (more like 20 or 25). The book is set in post-WWII England, and is written in the form of a series of letters from an author to various people in her life. I found it just too cutesy-poo and self-conscious to get into it, so I gave it up.

To Laura -- I have read some of the Maisie Dobbs books and liked them, but there's probably a few more out there that are new since I last looked at the series -- thanks for reminding me!

As always, I love talking books so if you've got any recommendations, please leave 'em in the comments...

Blog Tour: Vintage Baby Knits, by Kristen Rengren

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the lovely book, Vintage Baby Knits: More Than 40 Heirloom Patterns from the 1920s to the 1950s, by Kristen Rengren, brought to you by the creative geniuses at Stewart Tabori & Chang. If you missed the book review, you can find it here). Today I'm pleased to be a stop on the Vintage Baby Knits blog tour. Kristen Rengren -- fresh off her gropefest interview with Dolores at The Panopticon, stops by to talk about yarn.



Welcome to Go Knit In Your Hat, Kristen! Let's get right down to the yarn talk, okay? First question: How did you decide what yarns to use? Were you trying to replicate the yarns the patterns were originally knit in?

Thanks, Carol! I didn’t take a total purist stance on yarns, but I did want to preserve as much of the original look of the patterns, so that played an element in yarn choices. There were a few decisions along those lines that turned out to be important:

Knitters did have a few choices in terms of material, but for the most part, they chose wool. Starting in the 1920s, cotton fell out of fashion for garments and was really only used to knit household items like slippers or doilies. During the late 1940s and 50s, some nylon and some early forms of acrylic started to appear, and in the late 50s cotton started to make a comeback for baby garments. Patterns were also occasionally published featuring silk and angora, despite the fact that these fibers were very expensive for the average knitter. But most knitters depended on the dizzying array of wool yarns on the market – hence the decision to make most of the projects in the book out of wool as well. (I did make a few exceptions – for instance the Jasper Diamond Hoodie is knitted out of a bamboo blend – but my logic was that if our predecessors could have gotten their mitts on something as lovely as bamboo, they surely would have.)

One of the most important factors was choosing yarns that could achieve the fine gauge that so many vintage patterns depended upon. Before the 1960s, most knitters were accustomed to knitting whole garments with sock yarn and size 2 or 3 needles, for babies and adults alike. Most yarns were manufactured in fingering or sport weight. While there were many projects out there that called for DK-weight yarn (which used to, confusingly, be called Knitting Worsted), they tended to be reserved for either outdoor sportswear or for beginner projects where the knitter’s attention span was assumed to be low. Anything using a size 5 or larger needle was usually called a Jiffy Knit or a Quick Knit project. While I was writing the book, I didn’t want to have a book of projects knit exclusively in fingering weight, so I tried to find patterns with which a diverse range of yarns could be used. But most of the projects did end up being made from fingering and sport weight yarns. I tell people that knitting a baby sweater is like knitting a pair and a half to two pairs of socks - relatively painless once you get over any fear of small needles.




What about color choices?

Handpainted yarn as we know it basically didn’t exist yet. Machine-dyed variegated yarns were out there, but they were rarely used in comparison to solid color, tweed, or heathered wool. Where patterns were published for machine-dyed or “space dyed” yarns, they tended to be extremely simple garments in stockinette stitch in order to show off the novelty of the yarn, which is why none of them made it into this book – such patterns just wouldn’t have held the interest of the modern knitter.

I get asked a lot of questions about the palette I used. Most of the projects, of course, were photographed in black and white in the original pattern books, and very little information was given about color choices in the patterns. I did do some research into the colors that might have been popular for babies in that era – but while there was some information available on color trends in women’s fashion, I found precious little data on the subject of baby clothes. And in some cases (such as the trend of pink for boys and blue for girls in the first part of the century) tastes had changed enough so that I didn’t think I could get away with some of the color choices originally chosen by the designer. So I based my color choices in part on that research , but mostly picked colors that pleased me and that went together reasonably well.

One thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that in the first half of the 20^th century, there were tremendous advances in the dyes that were available, and color palettes were far less limited than we might think. Another interesting note about color has to do with wartime knitting. During World War II, when yarn was rationed and chemical plants that made dyes were retooled to make munitions instead, knitters found themselves unable to get the dazzling array of colors that they had become accustomed to in the 1920s and 1930s. Knitters had to make do with brightly colored scraps of leftover yarn and even old yarn from unpicked old sweaters, combined with the more drab military colors typically available with ration cards. Turning necessity into opportunity, resourceful knitters embraced stripes, fair isle, and other colorwork. Unexpected color combinations became a bold fashion statement, and their popularity lasted right up through the end of wool rationing.

What else was different about yarns used in the originals vs. today’s yarns?

I’ve gotten to look at a lot of vintage yarn, and a few vintage projects – and while some of the yarns used from the 1920s to the 1950s were comparatively soft, knitters in the 1920s – 1950s just didn’t have the kind of soft, short-stapled fibers to which we have become so accustomed. While 19-micron-count merino is commonplace today, it would have been an inexplicable wonder to yesterday’s knitter. Also, I still can’t figure out how, but yarn seems to have been lighter. The average baby sweater pattern from, say, the 1940s called for half as much vintage wool as it generally took for me to knit the same pattern using modern wool. Given that most yarn is spun using the same antiquated milling equipment that was used in the 1930s and 40s, I am not really sure what the difference is. Actually if your readers have any speculation on this, I’d love to hear it.

What were your favorite yarns you knit with?

There isn’t really a yarn in the book that I didn’t enjoy working with. If you look through the book, you’ll see that many of the designs are knit with sock yarn. It’s soft, it’s springy, and it tends to have a smooth surface and a tight twist that was similar to that of many vintage yarns. And it has the advantage of being very hard-wearing. That said, some of the loftier, softer yarns were especially pleasurable to knit with. The tiny flecks of color and the beautiful muted palette are just perfect for vintage knits. Pear Tree Merino is one of my favorites. The Jackie Cabled Set and the Louise cardigan are made out of Pear Tree. I also really enjoyed working with Sheep Shop Sheep Three. While it wasn’t a traditional choice – it’s a silk/wool blend, and a sport/DK weight at that – it was really lovely to work with, and the finished Bunny Blanket has such a nice hand. I’m sure I’ll be doing projects in both those yarns again.




Okay, normally, this is the place where I'd abuse you for not using any Black Bunny Fibers yarns in your lovely book, but since you are such a sweetheart, I will skip over that part, as long as you promise to use some in your next book.

It's a deal.

Here's fun news: if you go here, you can enter a drawing to win a free copy of the book, courtesy of the lovely folks at Stewart Tabori & Chang. For a list of the upcoming blog tour stops, go here. (Wednesday's stop is Sheep in the City.) Last, but not least, you can visit Kristen at her blog here. Thanks, Kristen!

Happy 4th!

I believe America's best days are ahead of us because I believe that the future belongs to freedom, not to fear.
-- John Kerry

Happy Canada day

to mes amis canadiens. In your honor, I watched Bon Cop Bad Cop this past weekend.

Now please to look at the pretty pictures:

TNNA Report, part 2: Westminster Fibers

I am very relieved that my computer continues to work just fine and so I am able to continue my TNNA report with a sneak peek at what's coming this fall from Westminster Fibers.

Yes, yes, my adoration of Westminster Fibers is well-documented by now -- and has taken a leap into the stratosphere since I discovered their fabrics. (Check out these adorable bags from Amy Butler). But as TNNA does not include fabric or quilting, today I'll tell you about some of the things that my favorite yarn companies Rowan/RYC, and Nashua have coming up.

I first must borrow a schtick from Stephen Colbert and issue a Wag Of The Finger to Rowan. I am most displeased about the discontinuation of Rowan 4-ply Soft. Courtney said it well in this blog post: this is a wonderful, versatile, soft, machine-washable fingering weight yarn that is all wool! You can make socks out of it, you can make sweaters like this one:



you can make adorable baby items, you can make gloves and mittens and hats that will be wearable so many days of the year, so many pretty colors, why, oh why, why must you discontinue it?

Now, when my dear husband, whom I love more than anything in this world, sees the UPS man bringing in boxes of 4-ply Soft that I shall have to begin stockpiling, he will begin saying things like "Honey, beautiful woman that I treasure, do you not already have bins and bins full of yarn? Dearest, do you really need WEBS to send you more boxes of yarn?" and I shall have to explain to him that this is an emergency, that they will not be making this wonderful yarn anymore and I must Take Steps or it will be Unavailable Forever Except At Exorbitant Prices On Ebay.

Mr. Coats and Mr. Clark, if I ever run into you, I'm going to administer a spanking to each of you (and not in a good/sexytime way). Also, a word of warning: don't you dare to even consider discontinuing Rowan Wool-Cotton. I mean it. You Don't Want To Go There. Trust me on this one.

To start off the preview, it's worth mentioning that I think -- but I am not positive so if someone knows for sure, please correct me on this -- Rowan Classic or "RYC" will be folded into regular Rowan, with everything being called "Rowan" in the future. (The RYC website hasn't been up lately, which supports this theory.) I suppose it makes sense to get rid of any duplicative yarn lines and just call the whole darn thing by one name.

Anyhow, Rowan has some lovelies to introduce to us this fall, including Lima, which is not made from beans, but rather a lush blend of 84% baby alpaca, 8% merino, 8% nylon in a chainette construction (similar to Cork's?). Rich colors, supersoft hand, and the combination of the fiber blend and chainette construction will, I suspect, give it more elasticity than alpaca usually has, meaning less of a tendency to stretch or sag. (Linda, do you need my address to send me some to swatch with? Because, oddly, you forgot to give me one -- or one of each color -- when I saw you at TNNA.) At 109 yds/50g, looks like a worsted weight. Yum, yum.

Felted Tweed will now be coming in aran and chunky weights. (Is it me, or does Rowan seem to spend a lot of time swapping out tweeds for each other? Because the Scottish Tweed is going bye-bye, to join DK Tweed, Magpie Tweed, Chunky Tweed, Rowanspun, Yorkshire Tweed and Soft Tweed to that big tweedy knitting basket in the sky.) The single-breed Purelife British Sheep Breeds line -- introduced last year -- will now come in a second, lighter weight (DK -- yay!). Some of the shades will be undyed single colors, with a few marls in which two undyed colors are blended together.

More colors in Kaffe Fassett Colourscape (nom, nom); an 80% wool/20% silk blend called Silky Tweed in a heavy worsted weight (a nice blend for places like Philly, where the addition of the silk makes the wool more wearable); a 100% cashmere DK; and Alpaca Cotton, a 72% alpaca/18% cotton blend which at 148 yds per 50g ball sounds like about a DK weight or so -- but I seem to have no good notes on this, so don't quote me on that one.

There will, of course, be a new Magazine (lots of cabling, fair isle and colorwork), along with a booklet of Lima designs, a book of DK patterns shown in the new cashmere yarn, a new PureLife book with patterns for the original chunky weight and the new DK weight, and another book devoted to the Kaffe Fassett Colourscape yarn.

From Nashua, I was most excited about Best Foot Forward, a self-patterning sock yarn with colorways designed by Kristin Nicholas:



Very nice indeed:



(Plus Kristin has a book coming out this fall, so we have even more colorful goodness to look forward to...)

Nashua will also be giving us

• Champlain, a 100% wool knitting at 3.5 to 4 sts per inch in some subtle multicolors -- some are truly multicolors, with 3 or more distinct hues, while some look more marl-ish, with several shades of the same color varying in lightness or darkness;
  
• Paradise, a blend of 48% wool/48% baby alpaca/4% nylon, around 4 sts per inch with a slightly thick-and-thin texture; and
  
• Shenandoah, another 4 to 4.5 st per inch yarn but with subtle, long color changes (think Tapestry kind of color changes rather than Noro).
  

In addition to a new edition of the magazine, Nashua will release a book of kids' sweaters knit in Creative Focus Superwash, and a booklet devoted to cardigan patterns.

So there you have it, folks: some of the great things you should be seeing in your favorite LYS around mid-July or so.

Next week: a sneak peek at Berroco, and (I hope) a new No-Bull Book Review...

Get your lace on

Just updated the Black Bunny Fibers website with some laceweight... including a new base "Flutter," 80% superfine merino/20% silk, 1300-yd skeins of lace delight,







and five skeins of 90% alpaca/10% shetland wool, also 1300-yd skeins but with a looser twist (this is a base I cannot get on a regular basis, so once they're gone, they're gone!):

(this one is a lovely mix of olive greens, but it's not quite photographing right -- looks less gold-y than that),