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Resident tourist

If the souvenirs you bring home from places you travel to consist of things like locally made soap or a package of grits or the weekly newspaper - you're a resident tourist.

If you  seek out the cafe where the inhabitants gather and find out about grits and where to buy them and how to cook them and the necessity of having them alongside biscuits and gravy - you're a resident tourist.

If you send a Christmas card to the family who runs the Bed and Breakfast - where you plan to return next year - and their card to you passes in the mail - you're a resident tourist.

If you now know how to make chapattis and a lady in India now knows how to make potato pancakes - you're a resident tourist.

If you learned twelve words of Spanish from some kids and those kids can now speak twelve words of English - you're a resident tourist.

If you are a Canadian and the local residents corrected anyone who didn't know you were not American - you're a resident tourist.

If you visited Victoria and now know - and have visited - all the yarn shops (Knotty by Nature,  Boutique de laine,  Beehive)  you must have come across some of us KIP'ing (Knitting in Public) and you are definitely a resident tourist.

Visitor

I was sitting at the computer when I felt something tickling my ear;  thinking it was a loose hair blowing in the breeze from the open window I reached up and gripped it.  It was not a hair.  It was this small green caterpillar.  When I set it down on the mouse pad I realized I had squished it - there was stuff oozing out  - and I thought I had killed it.

So I left it, thinking to bury it out in the garden later, thinking a wake of necessity in front of a computer screen browsing fibre sites was somehow fitting.

I forgot to take it into the garden.  The next morning,  when I sat in front of the computer again, I saw that it was very much alive and had climbed onto the wrist rest (try saying that quickly!) on the mouse pad.

It read my emails with me and then got re-housed in the garden.

Knitting in the garden : playing, actually

Bottles upended on bamboo sticks sway in the wind and give a delicate chime amidst the bird song.

Using some nice weight tawny wool,  casting on six stitches,  knitting four rows with needles ranging from the (almost)  smallest  to the  (almost) largest  ....

...  and then using arms as knitting needles (75 mm perhaps?) -

results in a length of knitting that shows the interaction of wool and needles,  that gives the chance to watch and feel the process,  that stretches the moment.

Shadows dance.

Giraffe (t-shirt) chair cover

There are some fascinating t-shirts  and  I came across this  giraffe face one at a garage sale.

The chair in my office went from dull to dazzling when I cut the shirt and stretched the two pieces thusly across the back and the seat and secured with a few stitches.   

Another string bag ; sculpting in fibre

A rectangle 12 inches by 32 inches was turned into a string bag using the gathering technique outlined yesterday and will be taken for a test stroll on errands later today.

This is made from a strand of Italian mohair/wool/polyester blend and a strand of an English Hayfield acrylic and nylon blend held together in the Purse stitch on # 17 needles. The exuberance of the former and the organic grassy look of the latter makes a nice combination and both have strength due to the synthetic content which is what is needed in a string bag on hefty duty.

The fibre offered a wonderful opportunity for sculpting in the knitting and crocheting process, both of which occur in this bag.  It can happen with smooth fibre but the camouflage aspects of these yarns  encourage and invite it. 

As in working with clay where pure expression happens when the mind releases and lets the fingers and hands take over the bringing about of the intent, so too is possible with fibre.  It's feeling for the next stitch more than looking how to place it;  it's trusting in the touch;  it's being willing to let go of the urge to stop and compare sides or count stitches or hold up the item and see how it looks in the midst with the idea that maybe something needs correcting.  It's giving in to that expanding  bubble of the creative process.  It's becoming aware that allowing for that path is so very right and satisfying.  

String bag ; evolution .........

In an ongoing quest to find a 'perfect' carryall bag to replace plastic I came across this at a church sale ;  they seemed to be popular several years ago ; at least I have not seen them since. 

Cloth and canvas bags are fine and serve me well, but I wanted something for a change, something that spoke 'market' with the 'produce' visible;  the 'produce' could be library books or knitting or articles of clothing un-layered as the day warms.

This bag was a 'perfect' design  - it expands wonderfully and yet scrunches down to pocket or purse size.

Careful scrutiny of the bag had me thinking it was a square or a rectangle with gathers at both ends with handles attached and gathers at both sides to give it the shape.

In my SWIP basket (Stalled Work In Progress) was what was intended to be a hat crocheted from linen.  Having decided it was never going to be a suitable hat it got gathered on two sides and handles crocheted onto those gathers and gathered on the two remaining sides for shape.

A small 'perfect' string bag was the result.

Another SWIP was this really tough but pretty yarn intended to be a string bag - this before I came across the white one mentioned above.  I knit the bottom in a loose garter stitch and then joined all around the edges on big circulars and knit maybe 12 or so inches in purse stitch (yrn fwd K2 tog) - but then it Stalled until the gathers on the white string bag led to an "aha" moment.

Gathers on both sides with handles;  gathers on other two sides for shape.

I liked the result so much that I recorded it in photos as it expanded to carry the day.

Here it is in early morning with knitting inside and a cinnamon raisin bagel.

On the patio at the Polish Deli with the addition of a bar of 90 % Polish chocolate.

A stroll to the playground which is flanked by a lilac hedge.

Daily stop at the library.

Last minute groceries.  Snuggle in nicely with all the rest of the stuff in the trunk of the car.
Home. 

Some purple rug yarn was the next choice to actually make a string bag from a square.

I cast on thirty-six stitches with #13 needles and knit one row.  Then  the Purse stitch (K1  * yrn fwd K2 tog  across row from * until last st - K1.  Caution -do NOT yrn fwd after the last K2tog before the last st - it really screws up the pattern and  may take a dickens of a time to figure out what went wrong: experience speaking here!) .  Knit until square - about 24 inches.   Knit last row plain.  Cast off.
Do not cut yarn.  Use it, and a crochet hook, to work across the cast off edge as follows -  sc in first st,  sc in 2nd st,  sc in 3rd st - yarn over hook and draw through all three sts on hook;  sc in next st, sc in next st, yarn over hook and draw through all three sts. on hook.  You'll end up with half (give or take one or two sts) the number of sts. once you get to the other side so now 18 (17 or 19 are fine - the purse stitch is very loose and a bit meandery).  Now turn and work back the same way and you will have halved the number of stitches again to 9 (or 7 or 10 - ad lib if need be!) 

Do not cut yarn.  Crochet a chain for the handle - I did 44 sts - and then work back on that chain in  hdc to give width to the handle.  Bind off and cut yarn and secure that end of handle to bag.  Secure dangling end of handle to other end of bag.

Attach yarn to other end and work as for the first edge,  dec. from 36 to 18 to 9, make handle etc.

On each remaining side attach yarn 1/3 of way in from handle side and work 1/3 way across using the dec technique as on handle edge - across approx 24 sts - so you come down to 12 and then six - this will give the gather for shape.  Repeat on the remaining side.

This is what the finished bag looks like.

I want to make a series of these bags experimenting  with different 'tough' fibres and different needle sizes  -  possibly changing them 1/3 -  1/3  -  1/3 on the body of the bag with the smalles at the bottom. 

It invites "what if...." 's

The needlepoint piece of linen worked......

The piece of linen that was meant to be needle pointed upon and used as a table cloth did agree to my intention to turn it into a garment as I had mentioned in a post a few days ago.

A Dragonfly vest or coatlet. 

The bottom right corner got turned up to become a pocket.  Enough material was cut from the width to form the 'folded wing' sleeves.  There is sufficient sizing left to let it drape in shape but I expect that will change with further washings so that it then flows more freely.

An interesting little safety pin with a small fringe made from threads pulled from the hand-size piece of remaining material forms the closure and can be adjusted up or down the front edges which is why I love safety pins.

Since this was meant to be needle pointed upon I may pull more threads from the rest of the material and do a teeny bit of needle point somewhere on it. 

I'm not sure what kind of needle point  - crewel?  counted cross stitch?  petit point?  I've not done any of those.  Hmmmm.......

This week's garage sale finds

The theme of garage sales this weekend (meaning at least three of the same item was spotted at three different sales) was car vacuums that you plug into the cigarette lighter place.  It likely has to do with spring cleaning and perhaps others finding, as I have with car vacs, that I could likely inhale with more power than they provide.  The thought occurred to ask for a demo ....... one way of getting the car floor cleaned ..... but I lacked the courage .........

This looks like it has to do with spinning - but I have no idea what.  ????   It is old and lovely and has fibre wrapped around it and it twirls - so I bought it.  I imagine I will learn what it is used for and find I need it.

The people selling this thought it had to do with rug hooking and looked a bit doubtful but nodded hopefully when I asked if a strand of - wool?  - cotton?  - jute?  - could be pulled out without disturbing the rest.  (It can - I tried it when I got it home.)

Once again I was intrigued by how many things are at garage sales that the sellers seem to have no idea about.  I don't mean the ones that I am told they are selling for someone else or the ones they got at a garage sale or the ones that were in the house when they bought it............ no, I am talking about picking up something and asking what it is and the people looking as if they have never seen the item before - but who put on a brave front and give me a price (usually low because how the heck do you put a cost on something sort of anonymous).  I know it is harder and harder getting rid of 'stuff' so maybe the practice is now in effect where people slip their unwanted stuff, unnoticed, at other people's garage sales.  Hmmmmm.   I have hung the wreath of colour in a doorway for the moment.  Some extreme embroidery or clothes (rug) hooking comes to mind.

This was a needlework kit for a tablecloth with some of the floss missing but no work on the linen (I think) cloth and it was this cloth that was the attraction.  It was stiff and a good wash in hot water removed enough of the sizing (or whatever) so now I can proceed to  turning it into a garment.  I will see how the material responds to my intent ;  perhaps it will change direction.

Some Japanese yarn (I have to find someone to translate the ball band for the fibre content - it's 44, 44 and 12 and I am guessing wool and acrylic but am interested to see what the 12 is)  and a lemon balm plant and some 30 lb test fishing line (for further experiments in architectural knitting) were the other items. 

And, as always, it is not just about aquisitions but the entire experience - chatting with old friends and new strangers;  browsing busily;  travelling to parts of Victoria I know and coming across entirely unknown areas;  getting out and about in the early morning;  watching people;  learning.

Street combing ; daytime treasures

Usually the treasures of street combing, like beach combing, are what are washed up, overnight, by the tide of humanity.  Sometimes the gift is immediate.  Yesterday, it was both.

We have had wind and rain and chilly weather.  Yesterday morning the sun was bright and the air warming.  I was walking home from the Deli and a young girl, coming toward me along the street, suddenly stopped and said,  "There's a puddle shaped just like a heart." And she pointed behind her.

It did look like a heart.  I thanked her for telling me.  We smiled at each other and continued on with our day.

This is what the puddle looked like. 

And because I was admiring it I also happened to see.....

....buttons.  Small white buttons.  Many of them.  Not in a group but more in a scatter over the area.

I wonder what that was all about.

They made me smile as well.

Rest of potatoes planted columnarly

A stainless steel garbage pail with black plastic liner in almost perfect condition - the mechanism that made the lid raise was broken - was in a free pile at a garage sale;  it made two more containers for planting seed potatoes so they grow up  

A plastic bucket  completed the quartet.

There's a fingerling in one,  a meaty baker in another and a German gold in the newest planted.  All organic.

The garlic looks on....