Eulogy and an FO

It's been an odd little day. My alarm clock went off at seven this morning and the first thing I heard was one of those chirpy radio voices announcing that Luciano Pavarotti died today. Or yesterday, depending on the time zone. It is truly a sad day for the whole world when it loses a voice as majestic as this one.

I spent a good twenty minutes watching old Youtube videos of Pavarotti's performances and crying like a baby. I'm not sure why I'm so affected by this, but I think part of it has to do with the fact that I grew up listening to him. My mom is a huge classical music buff and I often woke up in the mornings to her CDs of arias and symphonies.

The last time Pavarotti performed "Nessun Dorma," the big, grandiose aria from Puccini's Turandot, he was in his home country and singing in front of millions of Olympic visitors:



Pay attention to his face at 1:40. I often feel that true passion (the constructive kind, not the destructive kind) gets overlooked when things like business and money and exposure get in the way. But despite the millions he made as a singer, that expression is priceless. That is passion for the art itself. It's not the most technically impressive of his televised performances, but I think he's at his most honest. A lot of experts say he knew his voice and body were giving out then. I like to think that his face shows how much it meant to him that he got to sing his signature piece one last time in his own country.

Now, on to happier things: Finished Charades!

Marlena & Rosie Charades
Pattern: Charade Socks
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Fingering in Pink Cloud
Needles: US 1.5 circulars

I named these after the circus performer and elephant in Water for Elephants. Seemed appropriate, given the grey of an elephant and the pink sequins that Marlena wears. The pattern is super easy and the results are quite pleasing.

When I first posted photos of the yarn here, I briefly mentioned some worry because of the discrepancies in cake size. I started the first one with the smaller cake and made it to the end with normal leftovers, which got me to wondering if the other one was really much bigger or if the yarn was just fluffier...

The leftovers. Ahem. I think that one of the skeins I purchased was a greedy monster skein that ate half of its brothers or something. I think it's almost enough to knit a whole third sock. What a bit o' weird! The photo reminds me of Shel Silverstein. Maybe The Missing Piece and the Big O.

Now, just to prove how much these socks actually look as though they've been printed with clouds, here's a slightly fuzzy/blurry photo I took:

And here's a beautiful photo of a pink, lavender, and grey sunset:

This photo was taken by Flickr user yorksgalSue and she generously allowed me to post it here to show off the similarity between sock and nature. You can check out more of her photos here.

Now I just need to figure out what new projects I can start!

FOs: Monkeying and melon-ing around...

Hey, hey, we're the monkeys...

Big Top Monkeys
Pattern: Monkey from Knitty.com
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Fingering in Circus Dancer
Needles: US 1 circ
Modifications: Knitted all stitches; picot cast-on; flap-heel instead of short-row

I am, indeed, a monkey. This Chinese astrology site says, "The spunky Monkey is the original party animal!" Ah, if only this were so. Sigh. I'm afraid I'd rather be watching a movie and knitting.

I love these socks. I love them. They are squishy. They are warm. They are pretty. They are fun. I think I am beginning to have a problem with Claudia. Every time I see the yarn, I can only describe my reaction as somewhat...predatory. I love it more than all other sock yarns. But I suppose since I've only managed to knit two complete pairs of socks, I should hold off on this judgment until I've tried some of the other sock yarns out there.

As I knitted these, I kept thinking of Seurat's The Circus:

I saw this at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris four years ago and I stood with my nose nearly pressed up against it, marveling at the dots he used to create blends of colors. For New Yorkers, his "Sideshow" is more easily accessible:

It's in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I'm going to have to duck in there pretty soon to refresh my memory. My monkeys like it quite a lot.

I really had so much fun knitting these and one of the best parts was the connection with Water for Elephants, which I finished and highly recommend. There's a bit of everything in there. Murder, mayhem, sex and romance. It makes me wish for the days when things like circuses were still charmingly bohemian and going to see them was such novel entertainment.

Next, we have the Melon Shawl. I can't think up a wittier name that does not also denigrate part of women's anatomy. I believe I shall refrain.

Melon Shawl
Pattern: Melon Shawl from Victorian Lace Today
Yarn: Louet Sales Kidlin Pixie in Grasshopper
Needles: US7 for melon pattern; US6 for border

As I neared the end of this shawl, tragedy struck. I ran out of yarn with only eight border repeats left to go. I sadly plunked down more cash in order to complete Melon and ruefully wished I had ended the body pattern a few repeats earlier. Greedy, yarn-guzzling Melon is happy, however, and here she is, modeling herself on the sunny deck of my parents' house.

A close-up of the border:

A pool of crisp green:

Lounging in the sun:

I swear, if Melon were a cat, she would have been positively purring with pleasure. I can't wait to start showing her off around town, if only this nasty muggy spell would go away.

And since I finished up the Monkeys, I started another pair of socks also inspired by the elephant book. They're the Flutter-By socks by Librarygirl. The charcoal and pink yarn started me thinking of Rosie, the elephant in the book, and Marlena, the pink sequin-covered star of the circus.

I'm calling them my Marlena & Rosie socks. And the "Flutter-bys" make me think of elephant ears. Maybe I'm just elephant crazy.

Art & Yarn

These jaywalkers are my first complete pair o' socks:

Jaywalkers
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Gauguin, 1 skein
Needles: Addi lace circs, 2.5 mm

Now, the drama behind the socks. I started one top-down and when I started turning the heel, took a look at the yardage of the recommended yarn in the pattern. Gulp. I only had approximately 300 yards while the Opal yarn has 465. Double gulp. I had a major panic attack, posted like a crazy person on Ravelry's technique forums and then decided to do the second sock toe-up. This way, I would be able to see how much I fell short and then maybe fiddle around with cutting off the cuff of the first sock and using contrast yarn to finish them both. It turns out, I just barely made two. The second sock is about 1/4 inch shorter, but at that point I didn't care. They're done. The pattern faces opposite directions, which gives them a kind of haphazard appeal. I love the yarn. I love the colorway. They are thick. Come winter, my toes will be toasty. No more reason for me to complain about how my toes is froze. The colorway, by the way, does not entirely make sense to me. I loves it, but it's called "Gauguin." Now, I don't know about you, but I never really see Gauguin as a huge fan of burgundy and sky blue. Mostly I think of muted blues mixing with lots of tans and yellows. But in honor of this beautiful colorway, I present my favorite Gauguin painting:

This painting hangs in the MFA in Boston. I saw it for the first time as a young, impressionable college student. It's called Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? The words are painted into the top lefthand corner and the (very large) painting depicts the different stages of life. There's a babe in the bottom right corner, the strength of adulthood in the middle and an old woman in the left bottom corner. I can see echoes of the blue in this painting, but not so much the burgundy. Let's agree to call this an occasion of artistic license.

Opposing zigzags, up close and personal. Lots of people have complained about pooling with the Jitterbug, but aside from a small area in the second heel, I really didn't have any problems. I loved, loved, LOVED this yarn. I am sad that the yardage is so short, however. I have heard that the Socks that Rock yarn is similar in feel so I think I'll opt for that next time, just to prevent the coronary thrombosis.

I am a huge fan of the small blotches of cobalt blue and muddy brown/green that are scattered throughout this yarn. It was so fun watching them come up between the long stretches of burgundy and aqua.

Since I am now a sock knitter, I purchased some Artyarns Ultramerino 4 I've been coveting for a loooong time. This will be for my own personal pattern. I thought of something while I knitted the Jaywalkers and I think it's about time I try my hand at designing a (simple) pattern.

Ripples and Flourishes

After sixteen colors, the ripple blanket is starting to seem more like a blanket and less like a scarf. The dusky rose color on the right is the starting ripple. At about the dark green color halfway through, I realized the whole thing looked alarmingly drab and so I caved and bought some pastels to lighten it up. Overall, I'm really fascinated how a color that doesn't seem to match suddenly gives the whole blanket a different look.

Another view of the blanket, this time all squished up. I worry that the banana yellow and bright fuchsia on the working edge will be a bit too tutti-frutti, but I suppose it will balance out if I add some darker colors next.




Some ancient Chinese art I got to see on my Memorial Day weekend trip to Boston. The MFA was hosting both a Hopper exhibit and a Chinese calligraphy exhibit. The Hopper I'll save for a later date because it deserves its own lengthy discussion. But the calligraphy was gorgeous, as were the long painted scrolls.