Knititude

Remember Eye Candy Fridays?

I haven't posted any Eye Candy Friday photos in a loooong time.  A couple of weeks ago I took my first seaplane ride over Lake Como and the surrounding area, on a gorgeous sunny day, and it was magical!  There was a slight haze which just made the entire scene seem a little dreamy.  I took these photos from the plane:  the first one, looking south toward Lake Lecco (the eastern "leg" of Lake Como) shows Menaggio in the foreground, and Bellagio on the peninsula that is projecting into the water.  The second photo shows the eastern end of Lake Lugano in the background, and a small pond, really a widening of a river that flows into the lake, in the foreground.

Un paio di settimana fa, ho preso un' hydrovolante sul lago di Como per la prima volta!  Che magico-- c'era il sole, con una caligine sognante.  Ho scatto qualche foto dall' aereo:  nella prima foto si vede Menaggio nel primo piano, e poi Bellagio sulla sua penisola, e finalmente Lago di Lecco-- la "gamba" orientale di Lago di Como. Nella seconda foto si vede Lago di Lugano in fondo, con un piccolo laghetto nel primo piano.

He took my needles away!

Ha tolto i miei ferri!

For the first time ever, I lost a pair of knitting needles while traveling-- a security guard in Milan's Malpensa airport decided that my 20" long US size 4 Addi circulars looked dangerous, and confiscated them.  Apparently wood doesn't show up on their xray machines very well, because he ignored my KnitPicks interchangeable circulars with the lovely wood tips.

Per la prima volta ho perso un paio di ferri mentre stavo viaggiando-- un guardiano di sicurezza ha deciso che i miei 50 cm 3.5 mm Addi ferri circulari apparissero pericolosi, e li ha confiscati.  Evidentemente il legno non si rivela bene nelle macchine radiografiche, perche' non si e' interessato ai miei circulari KnitPicks con i punti di legno.

I would have been more upset-- Addis aren't cheap-- but I had nothing on the needles at the time, so there wasn't the added insult of having to strip any work-in-progress off of them.  Plus, the husband and I had just endured the stupidity of the clerk at the check-in counter, who informed us that our carry-on bags, at 12 and 13 kilos, were too heavy, but if we wanted to go to the little store across the hall, we could buy a couple more bags and split the contents, bringing the weight of each bag under the 8 kilo limit (we were allowed two carry-on bags apiece).  Did it do any good to point out that the total weight would be the same (even slightly increased, because of the two new bags), but the total volume would be much greater, because half-empty framed suitcases take up the same amount of room as full ones?  No, it did not.  And by the time we got to the security line, the zipper on my cheap new bag had already broken. 

Mi sarebbe stata piu arrabbiata-- gli Addi sono cari-- ma allora non ho avuto niente sui ferri, e quindi non ho dovuto rimuovere niente da loro.  Anche abbiamo appena soffrito io e mio marito la stupidita' della impiegata al banco check-in, la quale ci ha detto che i nostri bagagli a mano erano troppo pesanti, pero' potremmo comprare due bagagli in piu, e dividere i contenuti, cosi' il peso di ognuno sarebbe sotto il limite di 8 chili.  Ed anche se abbiamo fatto notare che il peso totale sarebbe uguale, pero' il volume sarebbe molto di piu, perche' i bagagli rigidi hanno lo stesso volume, vuoti o pieni?  Non ha fatto una differenza.  E dal momento che abbiamo raggiunto la coda di sicurezza, la cerniera della mia valigia nuova era gia' rotta.

Finally finished!

But still nameless (suggestions welcome!).  After my latest unbloggable prject is finished, I'll get to work deciphering my notes from a year and a half ago, so I can write up the pattern.

Finalmente finito!  Ma ancora senza nome (suggerimenti benvenuti!).  Dopo il mio ultimo progetto segreto e' finito, cominciero' di decifrare i miei punti da un' anno e mezzo fa, cosi' posso scrivere il modello.

A day on the life of an expat in Italy

Un giorno nella vita di un' espatriata in Italia

This morning after I dropped my son off at middle school, I saw this poster on the wall outside the school.  Apparently the Lega Nord thinks that Italians, like the Native Americans, will all end up on reservations if immigration into Italy is allowed to continue ("They allowed immigration-- Now they live on a reservation!").  There are so many reasons that this is ridiculous that I won't even try to enumerate them.

Stamattina, subito dopo ho accompagnato mio figlio alla scuola, ho visto questo posto sul muro esterno della scuola.  Sembra che la Lega Nord pensi che gli italiani, come gli indiani d'America, finiranno tutti sulla riserva se l'immigrazione sara' permesso di continuare.  Ci sono cosi' tante ragioni perche' questo e' ridicolo che non provi di elencarle.

On a more amusing note, I stopped at a gas station around 1 p.m., so of course (like most stores in Italy) it was closed for lunch-- but one could still buy gas at an automated pump by inserting an ATM card or cash into a machine.  I tried over and over again to feed a crisp new 20 euro note into the machine, and it kept rejecting it; finally a motorcyclist who was waiting to fill his own tank told me (in Italian) "It's too new-- look, try this."  He crumpled up the bill he was holding, straightened it out again, and inserted it into the machine-- which immediately swallowed it.  Only in Italy!

Un' argomento piu divertente:  Mi sono fermata ad una stazione di servizio circo l'una, quindi era chiusa per pranzo (come la maggiorparte dei negozi in Italia)-- pero' introdendo una carta del bancomat oppure una banconota, si potrebbe comprare la benzina alla macchina automatica.  Ho provato ripetutamente di inserire un contante nuovo di 20 euro nella macchina, e l'ha ripetutamente respinto.  Finalmente mi ha detto un motociclista "E' troppo nuovo-- guardi, io lo faccio cosi'"-- ha spiegazzato il contante nella sua mano, l'ha rilisciato, l'ha inserito nella macchina-- e l'ha subito inghiottito.  Solamente in Italia!

(By the way, if you are filling your tank at a gas station here, don't put "gasolio" into your gasoline-powered car-- in spite of the name, it's actually diesel!).

I know exactly where I went wrong...

 

So bene dove ho sbagliato....

So I got the body of this sweater re-knitted; it's now longer (in the year-and-a-half since I started it, I've gotten to like the elongated silhouette that now seems to be in fashion), and has a wider edging at the bottom (above photo).  I took out the twisted stitches that were supposed to shape the waist but in fact did nothing, and I planned to make the sleeves a bit elongated too.

I knew making everything longer would mean using every bit of yarn I had, so I reclaimed most of my swatches and ended up with a gaggle of tiny gomitoli (below)-- an ugly sight for someone who hates to work in ends, but hopefully I'll have enough yarn to finish.

I finished one sleeve and started on the second, but when I got to the bottom edging, I realized it was angling in the opposite direction compared to the first sleeve.  I didn't see how this could be possible:  since this pullover is worked in the round from the neck down, the stitch pattern begins at the exact same point for both sleeves, and thus should end at the same point.  It took me several go-overs to find the mistake, and of course, once I did, I couldn't believe I had missed it:  when I unraveled the bottom edge of the first sleeve and started knitting again, I repeated the same 8 pattern rows twice-- you can tell because the eyelets inside the cable don't switch from left to right. 

Then I noticed another error-- I had added an extra row of eyelets, or two extra rows, to each cable section.  Oops!  And I suddenly realized why I did this.  For the edging, I just kept knitting until it looked wide enough, and it turned out to be 16 rows long, which I noted was the same as one repeat of the main stitch pattern, which includes two cable crosses.  Then when I started to lengthen the sleeves, I was thinking "8 rows between cable crossings, or 4 eyelet rows," and I forgot that the cable cross itself takes two of the stitch pattern rows, meaning that each cable section should have only 3 rows of eyelets.  RRRIPPP!!

Snow on Palm Trees

(La neve sulle palme)

This is the entrance to one of the public middle schools in Como; the small building in the back that looks a bit like a temple is actually all that remains of a medieval museum which was located on this site, centuries ago.

Quest' e' l'ingresso di una delle scuole medie comasche; il piccolo edificio in fondo che sembra come un tempio e' tutto che rimane dal museo medievale che era qui sul questo sito, qualche secoli fa.

Twist Collective

Have you seen the new Twist Collective?  It is absolutely stunning:  one amazing pattern after another!  Check out Broderie by Connie Chang Chinchio; Stormsvale by Robin Melanson; Heroine by Jennifer Lippman-Bruno; Vivian by Ysolda Teague; Sylvi by Mari Muinonen; and on and on, I can't list them all!  (The above doesn't even include any of the lovely mitten, sock, or accessory patterns!)  I am really looking forward to being in such exciting designing company in the Spring and Summer 2009 issues! 

Avete visto la nuova "Twist Collective"?   E' proprio stordente:  un modello incredibile dopo l'altro!  Guardate Broderie da Connie Chang Chinchio; Stormsvale da Robin Melanson; Heroine da Jennifer Lippman-Bruno; Vivian da Ysolda Teague; Sylvi da Mari Muinonen; e cosi' via, non li posso elencare tutti!  (Oltre a quanto sopra detto ci sono tanti belli modelli di guantoni, calzini, sciarpe, cappelli...!)  Non vedo l'ora di essere in compagnia cosi' scelta nelle edizioni Primavera ed Estate 2009!

In addition, there's a really interesting article about the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm, which I never did get to visit last summer, but which will definitely be on the schedule for next summer.

Anche c'e un' articolo molto interessante dell' azienda di fibra di Martha's Vineyard, la quale che non riuscivo di andare a trovare l' estate scorsa, ma sara' certamente sull' orario dell' estate prossima.

Hat craze

I've never been a sock knitter; my small projects of preference are hats and baby knits.  And fall, of course, is a fine time to think about hat knitting (and thus for designers, a fine time to think about creating some hat patterns).  I had noted the stitch pattern at left (from the Japanese book Knitting Patterns Book 250) back in the spring, and it struck me as something that could be adapted into an interesting hat.  I went so far as to work on adapting the leaf motif to fit within the limited number of rows possible on a hat (deciding on a sport weight yarn to get a few more rows in) and charting the crown decreases, and then shelved that project over the summer to work on other things.

 Non sono stata mai una maglierista dei calzini; i miei progetti piccoli preferiti sono i cappelli e le maglie dei bambini.   Certo che l'autunno e un bel periodo per pensare di lavorare a maglia dei cappelli!  Ho visto quello disegno (dal libro giapponese Knitting Patterns Book 250) nella primavera, e pensavo di usarlo per un cappello.

I went back to that hat project last week, but after a bit of swatching, I wasn't happy with the result, and returned to my Japanese stitch pattern books for more inspiration.  I found the second stitch pattern in the same book as the first, and the final one in the book Knitting Patterns Book 300.  I imagined using the second one in a top-down design, so I then started figuring out a series of crown increases that would segue nicely into the main stitch pattern. 

Sono ritornata la settimana scorsa a quello progetto del cappello; pero', dopo un po' di swatching, non ero contenta, e sono tornata ai miei libri di modelli giapponesi per l'inspirazione.   Ho trovato il  disegno secondo nello stesso libro come il primo, e l'ultimo nel libro Knitting Patterns Book 300.  Ho immaginato di usare il secondo in un modello top-down, quindi ho cominciato di calcolare gli aumenti,  i quali progredirebbero nel disegno proprio. 

This turned out to be a several-days-long process!  More on that later.
Diventava un processo di parecchi giorni!  Piu a piu tardi.

Raiding Junior's Closet

 Razziando l'armadio dei figli!

With two sons*, I always thought I would miss out on the joys of having daughters "borrow" items from my closet-- and perhaps returning the favor.

Con due figli maschi*, pensavo sempre di perdere le gioie di avere figlie, coloro che potrebbero prendere a prestito le cose dal mio armadio-- ed anche di perdere la possibilita' di prendere a prestito le loro cose.

 But maybe I was too quick to call Florin a "child's" vest; I was looking at it the other day, and thought, "I wonder if that would fit me."  And the result?  Not bad; not bad at all!

Pero', forse ero troppo affrettata quando chiamavo il Florin un gile' dei bambini; lo stavo guardando l'altro giorno, e pensavo, "Mi chiedo se quello mi starebbe bene."  Niente male; niente male affatto!

*I do have two grown stepdaughters, but somehow I doubt that raiding their closets would do anything to endear me to them (hi Carmen!).

*Ho due figliastre grandi, ma dubito che di razziare i loro armadi mi renderebbe caro a loro.

Niente male...?

(Not bad...?) 

(Oggi ho fatto un esercizio:  ho fatto la traduzione senza dei dizionari.  Chiedo scusa per tutti i sbagli!)

While waiting in the Milano Centrale train station to make a connection to Venice, I spotted several Italian knitting and crochet magazines in a newsstand.  I chose one based only on the cover; these stands display their less-popular magazines behind locked glass doors, so you can't flip though them, and it takes a braver person than me to riffle through all the pages while the newsstand proprietor is standing there waiting, key in hand, glaring at you as his other customers shuffle their feet impatiently.

 Mentre stavo aspettando un treno nella stazione Milano Centrale, ho visto alcune riviste lavorare a maglia ed uncinetto italiane in edicola.  Ne ho scelto una usando solamente il coperto; queste edicole hanno tante riviste dentro vetrine chiuse, quindi non si puo vedere le pagine, e ci vuole qualcono piu coraggioso di me di vederle con calmo mentre il commesso (e gli altri in coda) stanno aspettando.

 So I had no idea of what I would find inside this magazine, and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and creativity of styles.  Altogether there are 38 patterns, and pictured are my favorites.

Ecco, non sapevo per niente che cosa trovarei dentro questa rivista, e non aspettavo cosi tanti modelli diversi.   Sono 38 modelli, e queste foto sono di miei preferiti.

When would I ever find the time to knit these?  No idea, to be honest.  But I took a look at the directions anyway, and very quickly I noticed a few things:

1)  All yarns called for are Lana Grossa.  Yes, this magazine is in fact published by Lana Grossa.
2)  It was published in Germany (and translated into Italian), thus cannot really be called an Italian knitting magazine.
3)  For most of the styles, directions are given for only one size; for 13 of them, directions are given for 2 sizes.

Quando avrei il tempo per fare questi?  Non lo so.  Pero', li guardavo attentamente, e subito ho scoperto alcune cose:

1)  Tutti i filati sono Lana Grossa.  E' vero, questa rivista e pubblicata da Lana Grossa.
2)  Era pubblicata in tedesco (e tradotto in italiano), quindi non si puo chiamarla veramente una rivista italiana.
3)  Per la maggiorparta dei modelli, le istruzioni sono per soltanto una taglia; per ne 13 di loro, le istruzioni ne sono per due.

 I had read that most Japanese patterns are written for only one size, and it is up to knitters to resize if they are unlucky enough to fall in love with a pattern that doesn't happen to be written in their size.  I'm bemused by this:  on the one hand, the Japanese patterns I've seen tend to be quite complex and would probably be difficult to write in a range of sizes; on the other hand, that complexity would make it hard for the average knitter to resize a pattern for her (or him) self.   On the other hand, every pattern doesn't have to be written for lots of sizes; a complex stitch or color pattern might work with only a certain number of stitches (some of Alice Starmore's work comes to mind), and could probably be resized somewhat by changing gauge.

But I digress.  The patterns in this booklet are not that complex.  So out of curiosity, I got out my calculator to see how many of these 37 patterns (1 of 38 was for a cap, in one size) a knitter of a certain size could make.  I've changed European sizes of 38 to 50 to CYCA standard sizes; note that XS-S, S-M and M-L are in-between sizes, NOT inclusive of both.

Causa di curiosita', volevo capire quanti modelli qualcuno di qualche taglia (CYCA taglie) potrebbe fare.  Ed eccoci qua:

XS-S:  0
S:  10
S-M:  21
M:  12
M-L:  8
L and up:  0

Now, I know that this is not because all women in Germany are between a size S (bust circumference 33 to 34 1/2 inches) and a size "M-L", (bust circ. of 38 to 39 1/2 inches)!  I've been told that Italian knitting patterns tend to be written in only one size; is this typical of European patterns in general?

Allora, ben so che questo non e' perche' tutte le donne in Germania sono fra taglie "S" (84-88 cm) e "M-L" per una taglia; e' anche generalmente normale per modelli europei? (96-100 cm)!  Ho sentito che le modelli maglie italiane sono solitamente scritti