Dear Ann,
What is this big box I’m typing into? Why doesn’t it cut me off after 140 characters? Where is the RT button?
My dear Ann. We have experienced the powerful, dark psychology of Not Blogging. The upside of not blogging for 5 months, though, is looking at the pictures on my phone and marveling at everything I’ve knitted, sewn, and eaten (remember Annie’s Beer Garden?) in 5 months, all the places I’ve gone in a rush and all the milestones achieved by the various Young Persons in my life. All the chores. All the gin and tonics. (The one from Marks & Spencer, in a can, was a high point.) All the people-tending (them tending me and me tending them) and schedule-wrangling. It was a crazy, good, crazy summer.
I missed being here, but it took a shock to my system, a bracing jolt of WHAT THE HECK, to bring me back to the keyboard. Last week I learned this: NORO SILK GARDEN COMES IN SOLID COLORS NOW.
I am rendered almost senseless by this news. But not so senseless that I didn’t get over to Webs and order a modest pile of the deep blue Noro Silk Garden Solo. In my experiments combining Noro Silk Garden and Rowan Denim, I actually dreamed of there being a deep blue solid of Noro Silk Garden. I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but the idea of a monochrome blanket, in which texture plays the role of color, is tantalizing. Or maybe the blanket is a sweater. (I’ve got some work to do here.)
Mixing a yarn that is meant to shrink and fade with one that is a blend of wool, silk, and cashmere: what could possibly go wrong?
I can’t think of a thing.
Love,
Kay
Quelle richesse – adesert for months and two buses in as many days, to mix a metaphor or three. Welcome back !
When it rains it pours. Thank you!
You two resurfacing is almost making up for sending my two oldest sons off to college for the first time. Glad to see you again!
There has been far too much of these children going off to college this year.
I agree, although I suppose the alternative where they live in the cellar and play computer games is even less appealing – to me, not said kids!
So good to have both of you back on the blog! It’s always entertaining reading.
Hello!!! This post is very dreamlike! Did you say Noro silk garden comes in single shades now? can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Thank you, Claudia!
And you’re back! Now we are all set as long as Noro keeps releasing one or two new yarns a week, right?
I hope it doesn’t come to that.
Happy, happy, happy! to have youse guys writing again! When I read your tweet about the single color Silk Garden I did a happy dance.
I don’t care what you do with that Noro and the Denim as long as you blog about it. 😉
Glad to have you back!
ha ha ha….I just read your blog from start to finish….so thank you two for blogging again so serendipitously! What a great word!
It is also serendipitous that Rowan Denim is back so you can add to those ancient balls of Rowan Denim that you have there! It would be interesting to hear your comparison of the first version that you have there…and the new “Original Denim”. Word has it that they have gone back to the “original” supplier. Why oh why did they change in the first place.
Gosh, Denim and Noro Silk Garden Solo – what a concept 🙂 !
It’s like New Coke. I bought a little of the denim after they changed it (without telling anybody they’d changed it, so it was kind of a “is it just me or is this different?” thing), didn’t like it, and picked through my stash making sure I still had lots of the old, “Classic Coke” denim. I’m just glad to have it back.
VERY STRONG WORK. Anne, reading the whole blog. You now know stuff that Ann and I have surely forgotten.
Thank you…..I do have these flashes of premonition every once in a while…..and I am so glad I am up to speed for this next chapter of Modern Daily. It was scary there for a bit – I clicked on annshayne.XXX and ended up in XXX rated land – someone has hijacked that link or that web site! I told Ann, but I’m not sure she was listening….she was probably lying down after doing her first blog post after sooooo long…… 🙂
I just tried that web site again on “the big Mac” computer…and it’s fine….so I think somehow that link way back in the blog has been hijacked….maybe I was just dreaming?
Gin and tonic in a can… What is the world coming to?
I am looking forward to that blanket. (Who needs a sweater, really?)
Silk Garden is an evil temptress. You read her name and get drawn in, then you discover that she’s nearly half MOHAIR. Mohair, that shiny loveliness that makes you break out in itchy red hives if you touch it or breathe it. That stuff that makes one of your first really pretty shawls into total kryptonite, untouchable but beautiful.
But that’s just me. It could be worse. I have a knitting guild mate who is allergic to alpaca. That would break my heart. I can live without mohair.
I know, right? It’s like a great big Instagram thingie. Who knew?
That yarn really, really gets me going. Does it shift much in color, or is it really one shade? And this mixed media business: fahwscinating.
Love the swiftness of your Noro solo decision. i saw it a my beloved LYS and just stood there thinking”ooohhh…something cool can be done here…whattt is ittttt?” . Yes to using texture as color. Blanket or sweater. I’m pulling up my chair to watch, G&T in hand. Maybe not in a can. (really? that’s so…wine cooloer-ish)
Welcome back, it is just so good to see you both popping up again. Love the Noro, colour and texture!
And now that my other shoe has dropped, all is right with my world. Off to find canned gin and tonic….
I’m just thrilled that you are back! Thank you!!
And the veg. in the Noro will add a third dimension of texture. Can’t wait to see!
Glad to have you both back! I was beginning to wonder if you two had fallen off the face of the planet!
And, to answer your question: a.) clothes moths and b.) mildew. Those could really ruin that mix of fibers.
My heart is happy right now. The white box wine is really quite good. The leaves in Northern Wisconsin are turning. New posts on Modern Daily Knitting…the girls are just fine. No need to worry. All’s okay.
I thought you were NEVER coming back!!!!! So glad to see your posts!!!!
SOOOOO glad you are back!
Dear Kay,
Such a rich and lush beautiful blue color! Instagram did not capture the glory of it. Seeing it on MDK actually drove me over to Webs for a more in depth look-see.
Kay, I have been thinking about the issues that you brought up re: mixing the two types of yarn. It makes me now wonder if the following would work: you could knit up “shrink and fade” (large size needles–subway knitting) to make big swatches that you could actually shrink (and fade) prior to using them in your actual project. Just wondering.
I am also wondering, since Noro did so well on the big screen, will you also be bringing over some of those summer knitting projects (“Relaxing”, entrelac, and ball band dish cloth are three that come to mind.)
I can imagine the bitter sweet moments that occur when th’ yungins reach those milestones and perhaps fly a little way from the nest, and am sure there are painful moments. I imagine you to be a real trooper, in your way. But Kay, can you tell us about the real pain–don’t those Marks and Spencer cans cut into the corners of the mouth while drinking from them? My dear, how did you evaahh deal? Just wondering.
Knit on!
LoveDiane
Of course a freshly-mixed G & T is always the best course. But when you are in the Marks & Spencer food section picking up a picnic to eat when punting on the Cam River, and there are cans of G & T available, it’s the practical choice. I did not feel any pain whatsoever I assure you.
And I do plan to bring over some of my projects from the summer, for the big screen treatment.
Oohh! It was in flip top cans! Lol!! I was thinking that you were seated at table and they presented drinks in some type of cutesy/gimmicky/”pre-owned” type of can situation. Oh, gee. I think I’m long overdue for a G&T, myself.
Cheers!
Can’t wait for you to share the summer projects. And your ultimate plans for the Noro. So glad you’re back.
I missed you (both)!
Did you finish the Leaves of Grass in time?
That is a Tale.
An Epic.
A story that is not quite ready yet.
Ok, looking forward to it!
G&T in a can sounds fantastic. So portable! So handy! So easy to pour into a travel mug for soccer games! Yum. I did not learn to love Campari & Soda until I tried it pre-mixed in extremely cute little bottles in Italy. It could have been the genius packaging, but it worked since I have loved Campari in all packages and cocktails ever since.
It is taking all my self control not to book a flight to Italy. I did not know about these premixed Campari & sodas. Are they as good as Campari & tonic?
There is no good reason not to mix cocktails and can them. We have the iPhone6 for goodness sake.
I love the idea of a monochromatic, textured blanket with those materials. I’ve just spent the better part of an hour searching the Internet for a story I read who knows when about a textile artist who created white-only or black-only textured woven wall hangings. If I find it, I’ll pass it along.
Shibori Solstace by Alchemy Yarns (Gina Wilde with Sandi Rosner) is a shawl that combines felting and non-felting yarns, which might be similar to your shrinking and non-shrinking combination. The narrow vertical bands on the shawl are knit with feltable yarn and the larger horizontal bands are non-felting. If you wash the Denim in hot water will it shrink without agitation?
I saw this shawl in person (the last of the photos on the ravelry page) years ago and bought the book just for this shawl, but then found out the yarn would cost about $400 so it remains on my wish list….
Dear Kay and Ann,
So happy you’re back although I totally respect the desire to live in the moment and engage life as it comes as Ann related in her post. I love the blue Noro, I love the stitchery in Alabama Chanin style, I love the fact that y’all turned me on to Roseanne Cash’s, “The River and The Thread” which I finally got hold of. Now if I could just figure out a way to eat and pay rent without that pesky day job thing so I could immerse myself in beauty 🙂
Ah when I got my Webs catalogue last week I was so excited to see the Noro Silk Garden Solos that I snapped a picture with my phone and sent it to my my (only knitting) friend.
I am intrigued by the monochrome blanket/sweater of different textures. I feel like it just opened a window in my life and I can’t stop thinking about it. I was looking at the DROPS Denim actually – but the colors are not nearly as rich.
Well, put me down as just plain relieved. Because of the way Mother raised me, I was sure that someone was sick, or in jail, or at the very least in a major funk. This is despite the tweets, which I could see at the bottom of the page. Tweets don’t seem real to me, my feeling is anybody could be typing them. Anyhow, I’m glad you’re back, and I don’t care if it’s Noro or 100% acrylic, as long as I can still have the benefit of your collective wit and ingenuity.
Welcome back. And like Beth in Maryland, I’m fine with your knitting anything–rugs from plastic bags! satchels from climbing rope!–as long as you keep blogging about it. Thanks.
Welcome back!! We’ve missed you all.
I’m SOOOOOO glad you’re back! Although I love you both on Twitter, too.
Missed you!
Glad that you’re back…………
Mercy me! Now that strange but refreshing feeling of reality having shifted into “cruise” that has had me in its grip for the past 4-5 days makes perfect sense: You’ve returned! And just in time to ready the stash for winter knitting. Your great tidings of solid Noro has me dreaming of challenging new design frontiers and textural adventures. You’ve been very much missed and I’m most thankful you’re back. All is now right in my world. Now where is my G&T?
Oh, I missed you guys so much! I checked for new entries over and over again and finally gave up earlier this month. Modern Daily Knitting lives!
I think you should use your blogging powers to get Noro to make more of the blah multicolors, the creams and especially the grays and the browns and the taupes. I remember an early blog entry about this and the importance of the off white color changes for one of your blankets. Lets get some Taiyo lace in the dun colors and right now!
Any plans for the revival of Rowan denim?
I wasn’t Really worried – I totally understand needing to take a hiatus when you’ve got so much going on in real life. Our summers are always crazy – moving kids to various locations, shifting furniture to new apartments and squeezing in a vacation. So glad you’re back now and with lots of new experiences to share! I just checked in yesterday and saw both new entries at once. What a treat. Ann, your stitching and beading and thoughtful story — so beautiful. Kay, textures, cool — boggles my mind — can’t wait to see what you come up with for that beautiful yarn.
So much to be happy about! What seems like a great 5 months, gin & tonics and Noro solids!! Welcome back . . .
I don’t know how I survove without you! So glad you’re back!!
I am so glad y’all are back, because I’m new to your blog and am SO EXCITED to be here. I love your books and am getting ready to start a new project (the Chevron hand towel). I am a haven’t-branched-out-very-much-from-scarves knitter and am determined to improve my skills. Hope I can do it…