akabini

The blog has been much neglected in the events of the past week... Apparently, the taper is contagious: when my running slowed town, so did my posting!

Last long training run was last Saturday, a "little" 12-miler, which somehow felt exponentially better than the 15-miler the week before. (There was a lesson in there about overtraining, i.e. don't do 8 miles of speedwork the day before a long run. Legs o' lead at mile 10.)

Yesterday (Thursday) was travel day, the Day of Multiple Transportation Modalities:
• Walk 6 blocks to the bus stop in front of Aldrich's Grocery;
• Bus #7 to Poulsbo, transferring to the #90 Kitsap bus to Bainbridge;
• Ferry to Seattle;
• Walk to the Bus Tunnel;
• LIGHT RAIL almost to the airport, and a bus shuttle to the airport itself.

And then, sadly, the two environmentally unfriendly options: the plane to O'Hare and the shuttle van to this week's new digs.

So here we are, happily ensconced, looking forward to a day of picking up my bib number and packet at the giant expo, perhaps getting my bib signed by Deena Kastor, and then lazing about inhaling carbohydrates.

Oh, and in knitting news, here's what made it on the trip:
• One Unpattern Toe-Up Sock in Casdcade Heritage yarn;
• One Unpattern Top-Down Hat in Frog Tree Alpacas fingering-weight alpaca;
• and One Unpattern Sleeveless Pullover from the bottom up in Sublime Soya Cotton (which I am loving much more than I expected to.)

Just a wee bit nervous that that's not enough knitting for one week.
But I hear there are yarn stores. (Recommendations, anyone?)

After years of proseletizing about knitting sweaters from the top down, I'm finally practicing set-in sleeve shapes. I'm a huge fan of the flowing, organic way that a raglan-sleeve sweater grows from the top down, and have knit dozens, but I'm recognizing the functionality of a good set-in sleeve garment, and stepping up to write an Unpattern (rather, several Unpatterns) for same.

First up in the series? A top-down sleeveless shell. (Not out of any sense of priority; rather, because I had the yarn for it a few weeks ago, while waiting to get down to the Mouse to procure the other batches).

Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece
Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm Inox metal, 24" circular and 16" circular US 4 / 3.5 mm for edgings

The stitch pattern here is a kind of rib, with a column of K3 flanked by one stitch in garter stitch. When you're knitting this pattern flat, it goes: K3, P1 on the RS; then all P on the WS. When working in the round, you need to remember to alternate one plain round of all K with one round of K3, P1. Make sense?

The V neckline was created by increasing at the neckline edge of each front every fourth row. The neckline and armhole edgings were worked by picking up 3 sts for every 4 opportunities around the opening, then working one round K1, P1, then binding off wih a decrease bind-off (my new favorite).

I incorporated some Girlie Shaping in the waist by working double-decreases in the K3 panels to convert those K3 into K1s – made for a nice ribbed effect at the sides.

Bottom hem worked with the same detail as the neckline and armholes – and yes, I bound off first, then picked up and worked the edging after. Sounds redundant, but makes for a nice, firm edge that doesn't really want to curl or flop up.

The first stages of work in a set-in sleeve, top-down garment are a bit fiddly, with little pieces of kniting hanging out all over the place, but it's worth the fuss and bother in the end. I start with the back neck area, casting on a panel of sts for one shoulder, then working a curve by casting on gradually more and more sts at the neckline edge. Set that aside, then work another panel with the curve at the opposite edge to create a piece that is mirror-image opposite to the first. When these two pieces match and are 1-1/2" deep, you can finish off the bottom of the back neckline by casting on all the sts that you need to make the rough neckline opening the width you want:

The back can then be worked straight down until you are a few rows short of the desired depth to the armhole. You can finish up the armholes now (creating a curve just like you did at the sides of the back neck, essentially), or wait until you have the fronts done.

To start the fronts, you return to the cast-on edge of your shoulder panels, pick up stitches and immediately begin working the neckline increases (for a V-neck like this one). [If you're working a crew neck, simply work even to a point just above your desired rough neckline opening depth and then fill in the curve and bottom of the round neckline exactly as you did the back. Presto!]

(The wee orange markers in the photo sat between my new, increased, neckline sts and the original shoulder-panel sts – this made it easy to keep track of how many increases I had done, which in turn made it easy to tell when my neckline was finished. Since i was doing armhole shaping and finishing up the armholes before I finished the neckline, this saved me a lot of headaches.

Given the deep 'V' here, the normal order of operations got a bit topsy-turvy here: my armholes were completed before my neckline was done, so I only joined to work in the round after I had added in all my neckline sts.

After the pieces are joined to work in the round, it's smooth sailing … unless you're creating some contouring to follow the shape of your body.

This photo was taken at the point where I transferred some sts to long cables (from my beloved Denise set, the pink cables from their breast cancer-fundraiser set) in order to try it on and check the placement of my girlie shaping.

[Note: when you're checking your garment depth, it's handy to have already finished off the neckline edging and the armhole edgings, since the act of finishing off those edges does tend to hike the whole garment up by a bit.]

Bind off at the bottom, finish any edgings you hadn't done already, weave in your ends and wear it out to dinner! (Or, in this case, pop it on one of the Rockettes, the fleet of mannequins I ordered to adorn the TNNA booth.) (Boy was so lucky: on his wedding anniversary, 8 new women showed up in his life! Of course, they don't say much, but I know plenty of guys who like those quiet types.)

Next up: Who could resist a yarn called "Cocoon"?

That's the sound of Fall. Falling.

Three days ago, we had temperatures in the '80s
(that's the high twenties for you Celsius types).
This morning's Dog Walk Forecast:
T-shirt, Cardigan, Rain coat with fleece lining,
Socks and Boots, Scarf, Mittens, and Hat!
Handknit count: 2.

Dang.

Good thing I'm knitting sweaters.
Pix tomorrow, peeps - I have one done already, with the second one up to the sleeves!

Running news: Taper. Need I say more? Gotta love the taper.

Knitting news: Just sold my first pattern in Malta! Gotta love Patternfish.

It's finally officially here: my favorite season, for so many reasons.

Set your clocks, peeps: 5:18 pm today is the Equinox!
(Beloved by the Libra in this house for obvious reasons.)

Guess where we'll be at that time tonight? At our favorite local haunt, lifting a glass to more years of wedded bliss.

[But first, I have to go ride the exerbikle for 20 miles, to burn off the champagne ahead of time.] [I never said life was boring around here!]

We celebrated our local farms today - the local State University Extension put together a tour of a dozen or so local farms, featuring everything from grass-fed beef and dairy to blueberries and... YARN!

Himself agreed to chauffeur, so we hit the fiber farms first: all four of 'em!

[Warning: adorable sheep shots ahead.]

Yarn on the hoof, and close-up, too!

We got to see a BIG BIG carding machine at work - who knew that there was a fleece processor just fifteen miles down the road? Now I know who to send people to who need fleeces processed (washed and carded into roving - beautifully). Outside the carding shed, his wife had some lovely dyed rovings for sale. I exercised modest restraint and held myself to just three ounces of merino, in two shades of russet.

Outside the roving barn, a gal and her husband were demonstrating the most wickedly-cool electric/electronic spinning wheels I've ever seen. Compact and lightweight (4 lbs.!), they run on 12-volt batteries, for those who want to spin on board a boat or in a vehicle. Way cool - and now I lust after one (for plying, you understand).

Then we visited the Jacob's sheep, who have two, three, four, or six horns, depending. And they come spotted and speckled, with those wacky curly horns all over the place. Adorable buggers, all.

All this sheep and roving fondling gives a boy and a girl an appetite.
So how about some carrot-ginger soup, local artisan bread, and a caprese salad on a skewer?
(That's cherry tomatoes, a basil leaf, and local cheese curds drizzled with balsamic and olive oil. To. Die. For.)

Rounded out with a blackberry cobbler, coffee, and a view of chickens and Shetland sheep.

Next up? Romneys!

[Witness the cuteness.]

I fell down slightly at Spring Hill, because the ravishing fibers of Marcia Adams of RainShadow Farm were on display. And really, what's a girl to do when faced with silk and wool?

...or cashmere, silk, and wool?

I have designs for both of these in simple lace patterns for scarves. Yeah, right... when I have time to knit scarves again!

And to round out the local loveliness, our first visit to the blueberry farm founded five years ago by our friends Keith and Crystie. Their oldest, now entering first grade, lived for a while in his momma's belly right here at our house (I rented the downstairs house to them for a few months while C. was pregnant). It was great to soak up the festivities out at the farm, watch the kiddies running around (their youngest, whom I would swear was just born, is walking and eating solid food!), and pick some blueberries! 'Some' is a relative term, of course: in the eyes of many, eleven pounds of blueberries is an avalanche. But this way I can have my antioxidants on my morning oatmeal well into the winter, and think of a lovely late-summer afternoon with friends on the farm.

Wherever you are, do yourself a favor and look around at the food resources all around you. There are good folks working a bit of land just about everywhere, and they are grand people to know.

Happy Fall, everyone!