A finished scarf for Amy

I meant to knit a scarf for my nephew's girlfriend for Christmas but ran out of time. I did get this finished and sent back in January - a bit late but finished! The colors on this picture aren't quite right. The colors are actually a deeper teal green rather then the blue tones here. I'm not sure why the camera picked up such blue tones. I hope it's a good on Amy.

Visiting Mary Pat

First, let me apologize for most of the pictures…well, not the actual pictures but that I took pretty much all of them at an angle. And I’m not sure why I did them that way. I thought it would be fun to have a few set at an angle but I guess I got carried away. That happens sometimes...sorry. When you come to one, just tilt your head a little, okay? A couple of weeks ago, we were on a farm about an hour south of Portland visiting a cousin on Randy’s side of the family. Mary Pat is a wonderful gardener, seamstress, chef and decorator. I love visiting with her, touring her garden, and seeing her latest sewing accomplishments. We were also treated to a wonderful pasta that included a vodka sauce and fresh shrimp…mmmm. Her garden is always a treat to see. I do wish we’d had some warmer weather before going down because more flowers would have been in bloom and the trees would have been leafed out. Still, we found plenty to see and talk about. Mary Pat is very generous with her plants; if you see something you like, she’ll hand you a shovel and tell you to dig out some of the plants to take with you. We came home with 5 new plants for our backyard this trip. All but the dwarf pussywillow tree are in their new homes. We’re still debating about there to “ground” him! The magnolias were trying so hard to bloom…

They really wanted to pop and show off their dazzling spring flowers.

If only it would warm up. The other thing I love about visiting Mary Pat’s backyard is that she adorns spaces with wonderful artwork. (This would be one of those photos where you need to tilt your head.)

These metal pieces are from a grass seed sorting machine - grass seed is a big crop in Mary Pat's part of the state. Notice the plate on the right has larger sorting holes than the plate in the middle, and the middle plate has larger holes than the plate on the right. This swing hasn’t seen any swinging action in quite some time but it’s perfect in her backyard. I love this little girl and her umbrella...although I think she belongs more in ND than in Oregon! And these ladies!

These windows are on a garden shed, partially hidden behind some trees and shrubs. I smile each time I look at them. She lightens dark corners of her garden by planting brightly colored chartreuse plants...isn't this great?

Or simply adds plants that have brightly colored blossoms, like these Oregon grape. She lives in a big old country farmhouse with a big old front porch. The porch is right out of a Martha Stewart magazine. There's this great bentwood rocker with its welcoming cushion... An iron rack filled with brightly colored ranunculus - how cheery are these? I love ranunculus but have never been able to keep them alive for more than a couple weeks. Then, there’s this tall clay pot filled with pussywillow branches. I love pussywillow. Needless-to-say, it takes me a few minutes to get from the front porch to the front door because everywhere I look, there’s something I simply must explore. If I were a bird, I'd live here. Inside, is another wonderland. I do love wandering just to see what's new since my last visit. And there's always something - Mary Pat does a great job of with floral arrangements. Just look at this beauty!

She also loves experimenting with decorating and painting techniques – unlike me, she’s not afraid to try something new. If she doesn’t like, she simply paints over it. Like this hall. Do you know how long it would take me to do this? Those are actual painted stripes.

In her family room, she had a large vase filled with quince branches.

She’d brought the branches in when the flowers were just budding. After a bit of time indoors…in the warm…they popped.

And wow, are they beautiful! We also both love to knit but she’s far more experienced than I am. Plus, she’s not afraid to try something new…not afraid to resize the pattern here or there, or think "outside the pattern," so to speak. She made this lovely shawl for one of her daughters. It’s absolutely beautiful. Just look at the detail. She insists it wasn’t that hard but I think I’ll be sticking with slippers, afghans and the occasional sweater! Walking into her guest bathroom is like stepping back in time. The hat rack just opposite the door is filled with hats from a gentler era. And this gem…the woman who wore this must have turned a lot of heads when she walked in the room.

It’s amazing…just like Mary Pat.

Entrelac

My sister-in-law Mary asked me last October if I’d ever made a scarf using the “entrelac” pattern. I had no idea what she was talking about. I’ve been a knitter since I was about 6 but I pretty much stick to the standard knit and purl stuff, although I have done a fair number of fishermen-knit sweaters and more complicated afghans. I really enjoyed those but I don’t, as a rule, stray too far off the “normal” path of traditional knitting – stockinette stitch, seed stitch, and maybe a cable thrown in here and there. And I do like to make felted things but again, that’s plain old stockinette stitch. I've included a picture showing two variations of scarves knitted in the entrelac pattern. Pretty cute, right? To me, it looks like a patchwork quilt…a skinny patchwork quilt, mind you, but a patchwork quilt none-the-less. Before I continue, I’ll include what it says about entrelac from my Knitter’s Bible. “In entrelac, squares are knitted diagnonally in rows; one row of squares being completed and the next row worked on in the opposite direction on top. “The knitted piece is started at the bottom from a cast-on edge and finished at the top. The squares can be worked in stockinette stitch, as well as lace, cable or textured stitches. If two colors are used, one for each alternate row, a woven effect is achieved.” (Here’s what a two-color pattern would look like.) The Knitter’s Bible, by the way, is great encyclopedic resource for knitters. If you knit – or are just starting to knit – you might want to take a look at it. Here’s what the cover of mine looks like.

I like to knit when I watch TV but since it’s pretty dark in the theater room, it’s usually against my better judgment to try knitting anything that has complicated instructions - I just end up ripping it all out later.

So, Mary sent me a copy of her pattern. I looked at it, read a few of the rows, shook my head and rolled my eyes, and set it aside as something I’d tackle when I felt more adventuresome. I just wasn’t ready for that much concentration! Then I got the bright idea to take it to Spokane over Thanksgiving and have Randy’s Aunt Jean work on it with me. She’s an expert knitter and I knew would whip right through it…really, that's what I thought...and hoped for. The problem was that we were busy while in Spokane…and not just busy eating, mind you; we really were busy doing things. So, it wasn’t until almost our last day there that we even took out the yarn, needles and pattern. Jean made it through the first row but then something else came up and that was all she finished before we headed back to Vancouver. So, now it was up to me. Since then, I’ve carried it with me to Tangled Threads on Tuesday nights and have managed to put on a few rows.I’ve pulled this picture into Photoshop and added the pink squiggly lines to show the side where you pick up the stitches for the purl rows and the pink arrows to show the direction you purl (of course, you do the purling on the other side but I'm sure you knew that). The lime green squiggles and arrows show the side where the knit stitches are picked up and the direction you knit – it seems more confusing than it is. Really. I wouldn't lie...not about knitting.

It’s a neat pattern and would go fast, I think, if I actually worked on it for more than 2 hours a week. But it’s too complicated to work on in the darkness of the theater room. Which means it will be finished somewhere in the year 2012…if I don’t make it too long…or end up having to rip out a section because I messed up...I just hate that. The unfortunate part is now that I’m getting the hang of the pattern and have decided I’d really like to finish it, I’m wishing I’d made it narrower. It’s 9-inches wide; in my mind, that’s a bit too wide for me to wear with a coat or as an accessory with a sweater.

The pattern Mary sent calls for 10 stitches for each square. The pattern in my Knitter’s Bible shows 8 stitches per square. I’m almost thinking of starting a new scarf (using a second ball of yarn) that has 6 stitches per square just to see how wide it would be. Both patterns show three squares so using fewer stitches is the only way I can think of to reduce the width. I also think reducing the number of stitches would even out the variegation a bit more so each square is a unique (or fairly unique) color using this yarn. Which, by the way, is simply a supersized skein of Red Heart. Of course, that means I need to push my finish date out to somewhere in 2014. And now that I’ve gotten all the way through this post, there’s something else that I’m wondering.

Mary was the one who got me started on this project and yet, I don’t know if she’s working on one herself…hmmm. I’m going to have to find out. I’ll keep you posted.