Practical Magic

It still needs a tassel on the hood (my mother's excellent suggestion) and a zipper in front, but for all intents and purposes the knitting of Abigail's Tomten Jacket to be found in (Knitting Without Tears, Knitting Workshop and The Opinionated Knitter) is complete.

As Houdini was wont to say, "Ta-daaaaa."



This was my first waltz with the pattern and it won't be the last. It's 100% pure Elizabeth Zimmermann: clever, useful, adaptable, addictive. As with most of her designs, variations are numberless and I humbly add mine, with all its flaws and fudges, to the pile.



Ages ago I promised a demonstration of the garter stitch jacquard technique and am now renewing that promise, although I won't get to it this week. I have so many deadlines to meet that I dare not contemplate them in aggregate or they'll drive me straight to the fainting couch with a bottle of sal volatile.

I can promise that blog posts will be thin on the ground this month, but don't forget me. I'll be back.

Knitting, We Got Knitting

Along with all the flying too high with some guy in the sky and eating roast pork with a fork like a dork I managed to slip in a great deal of work on Abigail's Tomten Jacket. The body and hood are complete, leaving only the arms and trim to finish.

The jacquard motifs (the demonstration is coming) have been fun to chart and work. Between the Japonaisérie kimono and this piece, which in places resembles a Persian carpet, I seem to be in the midst of an Orientalist phase. My Lebanese blood rising to the surface, no doubt.

Perhaps at Christmas I'll present Abigail with a Baby's First Hookah from the Beirut branch of FAO Schwarz.

1,000 Knitters Update

I'm pleased as punch to announce not one but two more 1,000 Knitters shoots. I simply can't get enough.

October 13: Yarn Con Chicago

I'm delighted to have been asked to participate in Yarn Con, a gathering in Pulaski Park for yarn and those who love it. There will be workshops, demonstrations, and of course a vendor's market. The vendor list is interesting; it seems that this will be a chance for a lot of smaller and/or local producers and retailers to get their stuff out there.

For more information about the event, you can visit the Yarn Con Web site.

October 26: My Sister's Knits, Chicago

And then I'll be spending a very cozy Friday evening on October 26 from 5–8 p.m. at My Sister's Knits on the South Side. I'm a north sider, so this will be a great adventure for me. (I consider Hyde Park to be downstate.)These aren't all the shoots in the works, just the two confirmed. I'm hoping take advantage of several offers to travel outside the borders of Illinois soon.

Friendly

I just realized that I had switched off the function on Ravelry that tells me when somebody marks me as a friend. So if you did so and were met with apparent stony silence, that's why. It's not because I'm an uppity, mean snob. There are heaps of things I ignore because I'm an uppity, mean snob, but Ravelers aren't among them.

Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo

I won't be at Rhinebeck, alas. But look who's been invited to be a spokesmodel for the second year in a row.

That darling Stitchy McYarnpants, who curates the Museum of Kitschy Stitches, has once again decided to host Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo. Complete, titillating details are here.

While I'm unspeakably bummed out that I won't be there, at least Dolores is getting legitimate work for a change. I asked her if there were any chance she might visit the shearing tent while she's out there and she said it depends on who's doing the shearing. Fine time for her to get fussy.

According to her whyewestillsingle.com profile, she's looking for:

• large, firm hands;
• medium-muscular to beefy builds;
• an appreciation for the pleasures of the grape and grain;
• a working knowledge of ancient Greek;
• the manual finesse of a sculptor;
• the stamina of a triathlete;
• cute toes;
  
• trust funds.
  

If you know of a shepherd with low morals who answers to this description I might get my #$%@^! roving at last.

She's Baaaack and I'm Gone

One thing I'll say for Dolores–the grass never grows under her feet. She's been fairly mum about exactly what happened on the tour, although she did confide over an evening cosmo that once the balance sheet was totted up she'd turned a profit of $147.46, not counting tips.

I admitted that I was impressed she'd ended in the black, given the costs of touring with a large troupe and the specialized appeal of her somewhat esoteric act.

"It's all in how you spin it, cupcake," she said. "When you've been in the industry as long as I have, you learn it's not what you got in the box, it's how you wrap it up. I may not be your typical pre-packaged Hollywood bimbo but I know how to bring the boys to the yard."

"Plus it helped that in Peoria they paid us $100 to get out of town," said Harry.

Whereupon there began a heated discussion, and I withdrew to my bedchamber.

More Baby Knitting

In my ongoing quest to earn for Abigail the title of World's Most Knitted-For Niece, I've started an Elizabeth Zimmermann Tomten Jacket. It's in three of her books: Knitting Workshop, Knitting Without Tears, and The Opinionated Knitter.

This is another of Elizabeth's patterns that, like the Baby Surprise Jacket, has become a classic and for good reason. The design is so ingenious that simply by changing your gauge you can size the thing to fit everybody from infant to adult. Sewing up is minimal. The possibilities for modifying to suit your taste or needs are myriad. The finished product scores in the highest percentile of the adorability scale. What's not to love?

Abigail's Tomten will definitely have a hood. And to jazz it up, I'm also throwing in color patterns. Now, like much of Zimmermann's work the piece is done entirely in garter stitch, which is often striped but seldom in my experience worked with frequent color changes within a single row.

But I knew there must be a way. And sure enough, dear Montse Stanley in the Reader's Digest Knitter's Handbook has it: Garter Stitch Jacquard.

I can't offer a detailed explanation this morning, as I'm off to visit my folks in Indiana in an hour or so. But here's a photograph to show you the stylized leaves around the lower edge of the jacket.



I enjoyed this so much, I'll work up a demonstration/description of how it's done over the next day or so.

But first, I have a date with a Megabus to Indianapolis. Over and out, friends, until I report from deep in the cornfields.