Maple Sugar

                                                                                                                                                                     














Heads up! Here's the finished tam (my first) which I  am calling "Maple Sugar." You can see a detail of the body here. I'm using Palette yarns from KnitPicks.

One of the things I like about the book I'm using (Knitted Tams, by Mary Rowe) is the freedom to mix-match patterns for structural elements (band, body, wheel) and colors. There's enough guidance in the book to keep you headed in the right direction, but you're forced to make your own choices. This can be frustrating (why doesn't she just TELL me what to do!) and freeing (hey, wow, this is really interesting!). In fact, I'd have to say that it's the interest factor that has really kept me going on this, wanting to see what it would look like if I did this, or that, or the other thing. I've already cast on the next one, in blue, using an intricate tubular cast-on that Rowe gives in her book, designed so that you can slip an elastic into it to keep the ribby band from stretching.

Book work. I still have a couple of chapters of Briar Bank to finish--the roundup chapters--and the back matter (recipes, glossary, sources, historical note). But with 80,000 words in the file (this is going to be another biggish book), it's time to go back through from the beginning, revising for style, tucking in a new subplot, and cleaning up a few problems. Bill read the book over the weekend and came up with a nifty idea for a dragon subplot that can easily be worked in and provides an interesting complication. Back in the "old" days, before word processing, adding in a subplot at this point would be a major complication. Now, it's duck soup. (But hey! typewriters really weren't that long ago, and Dickens wrote very complicated books in longhand.)

Authors with pseudonyms. Linda, at the Nashua County Public Library in Nashua NH, has posted some interesting comments on authors with pseudonyms. Take a look. Barbara Mertz and Nora Roberts, both prolific writers, are heroines of mine, so it feels good to be featured with them.

Reading note.
     "I rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times before I was satisfied," Ernest Hemingway once told an interviewer.
     "Was there a problem there?" the interviewer wanted to know. "What was it that stumped you?"
     "Getting the words right," said Hemingway.--Judith Applebaum

Comments

[Susan]

Susan, that tam is amazing. I really need to get brave and try some color work but I think maybe I'll start with something a bit simpler.

You've both been quite busy if not in the same space. Good luck on finding a good solution for the log house.

[Elizabeth]

beautiful pattern. :-)

[Leslie]

Susan,

The tam is breathtaking! You're an accomplished knitter (and writer, dyer, photog, etc. lol) to tackle something new and have it turn out so beautifully'

Leslie

[Lynn Palmer]

What a beautiful tam. I would like to learn to knit but right now am struggling with learning to quilt. I really think, Susan, that you are a Renaissance Woman. A person accomplished in so many areas not one dimensional but multidimensional. I hope, I can, like you continue to learn new things because I firmly believe when we quit learning, life is over.

[Phyllis Mullins]

That's a beautiful tam, is it for yourself? and if so there wouldn't be too many days when you'll wear it in this climate! Be great for N.M. tho come your winter visit. Since I too live in S.C. Tx. I've shied away from knitting hats and/or socks, perhaps I'll re-think them tho? I'm waiting for BRIAR BANK.........

[clarice]

Wow, that is beautiful. I am not sure I could knit that. Great job. Clarice