scifiknitter

Blown glass is magical. I’m not a person who spends a lot of time with my memories, but I have fond ones of a visit to the Corning Glass Museum when I was a child. So when we went up to Montreal recently to visit our daughter, a visit to the Chihuly exhibit currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts was in order. I was very happy that I was allowed to take pictures. I only had my cellphone camera, however, so the quality of these photos is not the greatest. Some colors are hard to photograph in any circumstances (I’m talking to you, bright red), and if what you are trying to photograph is also shiny... there were many wonderful objects that I didn’t even try to capture. The magic starts at the front of the museum. The museum is showing a short stop-motion video of this piece being assembled. Wonderful! You walk, walk, walk from the entrance in the modern part of the museum complex, under the street, up the most unnerving stairs I know (very wide steps with a very shall...

Finally - a second project for the year is off the needles! I have a new pair of socks that are in a different color than the warm peachy and burgundy tones that dominate my pile of handknit socks. The pattern is Hickory, designed by Jane Cochran, and published in Clara Parkes’ The Knitter’s Book of Socks. This is a fine sock pattern, relatively quick to knit, and incorporating a subtle rib pattern that is an excellent choice for the kettle dyed yarn. The yarn is Araucania Ranco Solid, a toothy sockweight yarn that seems slightly less civilized than other brands I have knit. Contrast these to Lorna Miser’s Escher socks, which I knit a while ago: There is a similar effect, but let me tell you, the Hickories were a much easier, faster knit, and they are considerably more stretchy and comfortable. I might well make another pair of Hickories (they would be a good choice for gift socks), but I will never knit another pair of Eschers. Still on the needles: the emerald Lorelei ca...